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Faith Action Survey
The survey is now complete. These pages have been retained because people are still asking about the survey, about what happened and why.
There is going to be a Faith Action Survey in Bristol, taking place in February 2015.
It is one of more than 60 surveys being organised by the Cinnamon Network across the UK. It aims to capture details about the activities being done by the faith communities to benefit the people around them.
Previous surveys of this kind have usually been called an 'audit' for some reason, and the Cinnamon Network are following this tradition. But please don't worry: you are not being audited.
The survey seeks to achieve a number of things.
At the local level:
It will measure the quantity and provide evidence of the quality of the social action activities being undertaken by the faith groups.
It will will provide evidence for the impact and value of this activity.
It will strengthen the confidence of the faith communities and help them recognise the significance of the work they are doing.
It will help the local authorities, police and other agencies understand why they need to work more closely together with the faith communities.
At the national level, the Cinnamon Network plan to use the results of the survey to engage with the incoming Government to ensure the work of faith communities is taken into account from the outset.
It will provide a national picture of what the faith groups are doing.
It will enable us to compare the strengths and weaknesses of the work being done in different places, and to learn from one another.
It will provide a springboard for engagement with the new Government, so that they can plan to work in partnership with the faith groups to make the whole country a better place.
The Cinnamon Network is doing this because it is passionate about the transforming difference that local churches and faith-based organisations make in their communities.
They have already undertaken several surveys in Chester and other places, and have seen the impact of these audits. Most importantly, the surveys have proved to be a vital tool for building effective relationships with the local statutory bodies.
Past surveys have identified the rich diversity of projects and the number of people involved, encouraged the faith communities by the amount and quality of the work being undertaken, and established the need of the local authority, Police and other statutory bodies to engage with the faith communities more effectively.
The survey is scheduled for January and February 2015, with the results being published in May shortly after the next General Election.
The survey will take place online, with a unique link to the survey being sent out to every participant at the beginning of February.
The Cinnamon Network will provide the survey tool and various other forms of support. After the audit is complete, they will analyse the data, provide us with 500 copies of the survey results and help us to arrange a launch event to publicise the survey in Bristol.
However, we in Bristol have to do the local leg work. We must identify who needs to participate in the audit, and encourage them to complete it. In a city the size and diversity of Bristol, these are both major challenges.
We need the support of faith community leaders, and also the help of volunteers from across the city.
Paul Hazelden (as the local ‘champion’, and acting as part of a working group which acts as the 'sponsor') is responsible for coordinating the audit in Bristol; but this can only be a success if the churches and faith communities support it, and if a good number of volunteers help to locate and network with the people and groups who need to take part.
The initial challenge is to communicate - to tell everyone about the audit and help them understand why it is important. The audit is a tool to record social action: it's a place to log all the good work that you do, and provide evidence of the the significant contribution that your faith group / charity / organisation makes.
This audit has the potential to transform the relationship between the faith communities and the city, but we need your support if it is to be credible and effective.
The Bristol Faith Action Survey is being supported by the following.
Bishop Renford Brown: Chair, Bristol Black Churches Council
Rev Nigel Coles: Senior Regional Minister, West of England Baptist Association
Majors Ian and Jean Harris: Divisional Commander, South Western Division, Salvation Army
Rev Dr David Hart: Superintendent Minister, Bristol and South Gloucestershire, Methodist Circuit
The Rt Revd Mike Hill: Bishop of Bristol, Diocese of Bristol
Rev Tracey Lewis: Chair, Bristol Multi-Faith Forum
Major Ian Mountford: Chair, Churches Together in Greater Bristol
Rob Scott-Cook: Celebration Network of churches and Woodlands Group of churches
Rev Ruth Whitehead: Moderator, South Western Synod, URC
If you would like your name and organisation to be added to this list, please contact Paul.
An introduction to the Cinnamon Faith Action Audits can be found at:
www.cinnamonnetwork.co.uk/cinnamon-faith-action-audits/
To supply your details and sign up to do the survey, please complete the Sign Up Form.
To find out more please contact Paul.
Copyright © 2015 Paul Hazelden
index.php was last updated 14 April 2015
You are welcome to print this page for your personal use or create a link to it, but if you would like to use any part of this page in any other way, please contact me.
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I welcome your comments and feedback.
Page counter at 22:26 on 18 July 2019
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Selfies May Lead Many To Seek Plastic Surgery…
Published in Life
Selfies, Plastic Surgery, Social Media,
Does my smartphone make my nose look big? It might, according to researchers at Rutgers New Jersey Medical School.
People take billions of selfies every day without realizing the distortive effects of the camera’s close proximity, prompting many to possibly develop a skewed self-image.
Boris Paskhover, an assistant professor at Rutgers New Jersey Medical School’s Department of Otolaryngology who specializes in facial plastic and reconstructive surgery, frequently was shown selfies as examples of why patients were requesting surgery to make their noses smaller.
“Young adults are constantly taking selfies to post to social media and think those images are representative of how they really look, which can have an impact on their emotional state,” he said. “I want them to realize that when they take a selfie they are in essence looking into a portable funhouse mirror.”
Paskhover sought a better way to explain to patients why they cannot use selfies to evaluate their nose size so they can improve their self-perception and make more informed decisions about their health. He worked with Ohad Fried, a research fellow at Stanford University’s Department of Computer Science, to develop a mathematical model that shows nasal distortion created by photos taken at close range.
The Rutgers-Stanford model, published in JAMA Facial Plastic Surgery, shows that an average selfie, taken about 12 inches from the face, makes the nasal base appear approximately 30 percent wider and the nasal tip 7 percent wider than if the photograph had been taken at 5 feet, a standard portrait distance that provides a more proportional representation of facial features.
The mathematical model is based on the average head and facial feature measurements obtained from a selection of racially and ethnically diverse participants. The model determined the magnitude of the distortive effect by presenting the face as a collection of parallel planes perpendicular to the main camera axis. It calculated the changes to the ratio between the nose’s breadth and the width between the two cheekbones at various camera distances.
How selfies drive people’s self-image is a public health issue, Paskhover said. The American Academy of Facial Plastic and Reconstructive Surgeons, reports that 55 percent of surgeons say people come to them seeking cosmetic procedures for improved selfies.
Your privacy is at risk on social media, even if you haven’t an account
Excessive social media use is comparable to drug addiction
Home ministry asks Social Media Networks to ensure the misuse preventions
Tips For Men Considering Plastic Surgery…
Social Media Addiction Cases Are Growing…
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Climate change and sea level rise put Everglades freshwater at risk
July 22, 2015 Phillip Bootsma
Sandeep Varry, a writer for The Beacon at Florida International University, went to the Everglades to be inspired by its natural beauty. However, while he was there for a class project, he noticed that the Everglades weren’t as beautiful as they used to be.
“After going to the Everglades I realized how climate change could affect the plants and animals,” Varry said. “Humans weren’t the only ones facing the consequences of climate change.”
Varry, like many South Floridians, is realizing how climate change’s effect on sea levels is threatening the Everglades’ unique ecosystem and the fresh water supplied to Miami-Dade County residents.
One of the biggest effects of sea level rise on the Florida Everglades is saltwater intrusion, said Donald McNeill, a senior scientist in the department of geological sciences at the University of Miami. Intrusion occurs when sea levels rise to a point where they begin to encroach on freshwater aquifers as well as the Everglades.
Florida Everglades face threats from climate change from Trevor Green on Vimeo.
Saltwater intrusion is critical because most of Miami-Dade pumps water from the ground and as salt water intrudes, water must come from more inland sources, McNeill said.
“As we pump more freshwater out it allows the saltwater to start to fill that space,” he said. “The salts are intruding in and mixing with the freshwater; it is a process that we help along by pumping out the freshwater.”
A huge concern for many ecologists studying the Everglades is whether the Everglades can stay resilient, said Gina Maranto, the director of ecosystem science and policy at the UM. In ecology, resilience is the ability of an ecosystem to adapt or respond to a disturbance by resisting damage and recovering quickly.
If a particular disturbance is too prolonged or it occurs at too fast a rate for the ecosystem to handle, the ecosystem will crash and never recover.
“Ecosystems can cycle through, they’re resilient,” Maranto said. “[Ecosystems] can take certain shots, they can take fires and they can take droughts. They can tolerate it for so long and then they crash. The question is can they reorganize and come back again.”
Because most of South Florida either depends on natural aquifers or the Everglades for its primary source of freshwater, restoring correct water flow in the Everglades is of vital importance.
Several projects are under way to change how water is managed in South Florida, said Cara Capp, the Everglades Restoration Program manager at the National Parks Conservation Association. The Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Plan provides a framework for these projects and aims to restore, preserve and protect the water resources of Florida.
One such project is the Tamiami Trail Restoration Project, which entails raising the Tamiami Trail and creating a bridge, Capp said. The Tamiami Trail is a highway that connects Tampa and Miami and cuts through the Everglades.
“The Everglades should historically flow from Lake Okeechobee … into Everglades National Park, but that roadway really cuts off what the historic flow should be,” Capp said. “So the plan for years has been to raise the road, to bridge portions of the Tamiami Trail so that water can flow underneath and we can bring back that more historic water flow pattern.”
The water from the Everglades puts pressure on the Floridan aquifers, forcing water up into the wells and pumps, said Gary Matthews, an airboat pilot who already is seeing the effects of lowered water levels.
“Right now there is no water. My airboats have been sitting in a compound for six months,” Matthews said.
“I’m out of business. I’m literally out of business because of what they have done to the Everglades.”
All of South Florida is dependent on the Everglades. Whether they depend on the freshwater from the Everglades or as their primary source of income, losing the Everglades would have serious effects not only the Florida economy but also Florida as a whole.
“People should act before it’s too late and they lose something so unique,” Varry said.
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Heroes Reborn: Dark Matters
So many television series are returning from the dead, "Twin Peaks" and "The X-Files" are probably the most high profile of them, but there are others out there, like the inexplicable "Coach," and one that should have been given a better chance, one that was mishandled and ruined by the powers-that-be... I'm talking about "Heroes."
I loved "Heroes," and so did everyone else, for the first season at least, and then it lost its way. Personally I blame Jeph Loeb, who similarly ruined the Marvel Animated Universe. I made some too-little-too-late suggestions hoping to save "Heroes," but the writing was on the wall, the show was doomed. Now it's getting a second chance. Perhaps the bad taste of the second and third seasons have been washed away, and that old magic is possible again.
"Heroes Reborn" begins five years after the start of the original series, with a special series of webisodes called "Dark Matters." This is really only fitting as the show was one of the first to be actively interactive with other media, why not ease us back into the "Heroes" universe in this way, right?
If you haven't watched yet, be warned, spoilers ahead.
Reconnecting the audience with elements that did work from the first season we meet Phoebe Frady (Canadian actress Aislinn Paul), who can 'steal light' and manipulate shadows. Like the Cheerleader, she documents her power discovery on YouTube. Unfortunately we are now in a world well aware of powers. Super-powered individuals, or EVOs, are watched carefully and discriminated against.
If you're feeling the heavy Civil War and X-Men vibe, you are not alone and it's probably on purpose to cash in. Substitute mutant or superhero for EVO, and you've got Days of Future Past and/or the Superhuman Registration Act all over again. It's pretty blatant, and as cool and engaging as Phoebe's story is, the shadow of the unoriginality of her world covers it up.
Phoebe is spurred on to show her powers by the HeroTruther, whose YouTube rants not only update the viewers on the new world status quo, but encourage those EVOs who have gone underground to show themselves. As we follow Phoebe's journey of discovery and she learns to use her powers, we learn that EVOs are being put in camps and sterilized in Russia and China, and that here in the States, some companies only hire 'humans.'
Phoebe's disappearance and reappearance in Odessa TX, at a EVO terrorist attack that destroys the city, kicks her brother into action investigating her apparent death. As it turns out, the attack was blamed on Mohinder Suresh, and the PrimaTech Paper Company now called Renautas is behind it all. HeroTruther is similarly revealed as an old friend. The story continues in "Heroes Reborn."
"Dark Matters" is available on YouTube and OnDemand, and "Heroes Reborn" premieres on NBC September 24, 2015. I'm giving it a second chance, are you?
Posted by Unknown at Friday, August 28, 2015
Labels: aislinn paul, civil war, heroes, jeph loeb, marvel comics, nbc, return, television, x-men, youtube
Wes Craven and Fear the Walking Dead
The Unauthorized Full House Story
Blunt Talk and Tunes
Star Trek Morning Coffee
RIP Yvonne Craig
Doctor Who Series 9 Trailer
Fantastic Four 2015
In Like Our Man Flint
The Last Daily Show with Jon Stewart
Miracles for Sale
RIP Roddy Piper
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Author: Ilene Skeen, Editor
“I Just Acted”: The Facts Gun Control Advocates Seek to Evade
by Dr. Michael Hurd
November 6, 2017 (republished by permission)
Johnnie Langendorff (l), Stephen Willeford
On Sunday afternoon, Devin Patrick Kelley, 26, walked out of the First Baptist Church in Sutherland Springs, Texas, where he had just opened fire on parishioners during mass. Dressed in all black tactical wear and body armor, he strode across the parking lot.
That’s when he met Stephen Willeford, 55, a local plumber. Willeford lives near the church, and when he heard shooting, he grabbed his rifle and rushed over.
While Kelley was armed with a powerful AR-15 and was formerly a military member, Willeford engaged Kelley, getting into a shootout. One witness said that when he came face to face with Kelley, Willeford “didn’t hesitate; he shot in between Kelley’s body armor, hitting him in his side,” the Daily Mail reported.
Wounded, Kelley dropped his Ruger assault rifle and jumped into an SUV to flee.
But another local resident, Johnnie Langendorff, who works at a nearby auto parts store, had just pulled up the intersection nearest the church and saw the gunfight. After Kelley sped away, “The other gentleman [Willeford] said we needed to pursue [the shooter] because he shot up the church,” Langendorff told the San Antonio Express. “So that’s what I did. I just acted.”
When you take away the ability of a good person to act against a violent and evil one when it counts, you’re assaulting the right to life in the most basic way possible.”
Life is about achieving and maintaining values. Values refer to all kinds of things — your career, your children, your romantic partner, your house, your hobbies, your ideas and beliefs. But the most fundamental value is life. Without life, there are no values. So when confronted with a life-or-death situation, you act. Otherwise, your values all disappear.
It’s horrible that some people value life so little that they sadistically seek to end it, not only for themselves but for innocent others. The execution of children that went on in this church is more unspeakable than anything we have yet seen, and that is saying something.
But the bright spot in all this, if there is a bright spot, is that there are people able and willing to fight for life when it really counts. That’s what these men did, and that’s what others like them do, as well. And although it’s politically incorrect to praise the police these days, it’s also what law enforcement people have done, in virtually every single one of these instances where the killer does not make it out alive.
Guns are horrible instruments of execution. But they are also beautiful things — when in the right hands. There is good, and there is evil. Guns remind us of this fact. Some of us don’t want there to be a good and evil, but there is, just the same.
People blathering on about “we’ve got to have gun control” don’t even know what they’re talking about. Yet the issue is deeper than that. When you take away the ability of a good person to act against a violent and evil one when it counts, you’re assaulting the right to life in the most basic way possible. So long as there are evil people with weapons, we need to have good people with even better weapons. Nothing else will do.
This post is reprinted with the permission of Dr. Michael J. Hurd.
Michael J. Hurd is an American psychotherapist, podcast host, author, public speaker, and commentator. He considers himself an Objectivist. This post is reprinted from his website, drhurd.com.
The Moral Case Against Gun Control
Dr. Hurd’s statement makes the moral case against gun control because gun control is a direct threat against our inalienable right to life. The right to life is the bedrock of our Constitution and of all real-world morality:
The people of the United States, or any country, do not cede their right of self-defense to their government, although many people mistakenly believe they do. Inalienable rights cannot be ceded and the government cannot acquire inalienable rights. The government is required to protect our inalienable rights, not to take them over.
Gun rights are an important issue. Government data bases are and should be data bases of the guilty: people who have been proven guilty and by their own actions, incapable and unworthy of responsible gun ownership.
Anti-gun forces urge our government to take away all gun rights of private citizens, and repeal the people’s right to defend themselves against evil. They would turn every good person into a helpless potential victim. They would skew justice in favor of those who have no intention of obeying gun laws or any other laws. Is that what we really want?
When a government, in the name of protecting the innocent, seeks to prevent every innocent person from having the means to fight those who would murder them, their families, friends and neighbors, that government is wrong.
Do we want a government that does exactly the opposite of what government is supposed to do? Are we, the people of the United States, content with a future as helpless, potential victims?
How many more innocents will be randomly or brutally murdered? How many will die because the elites do not trust the average person to be adult enough or honest enough to handle guns? How much longer will the trusting anti-gun millions keep their heads in the sand, pretending that if good people don’t have guns, bad people won’t get guns?
When will the average, law-abiding, gun-fearing citizen realize that it is time for him (or her) to take up the study of arms? In some parts of the country, many people like Stephen Willeford and Johnnie Langendorff have the skill and experience to act with confidence against horrific evil. It is time for all good people to explore and acquire the means, methods and skills of responsible gun ownership.
Although they pretend otherwise, the anti-gun faction wants a repeal of the right to bear arms. Their goal is complete confiscation of guns from ordinary Americans. Are all Americans really ready to accept the dictates of the power elites and live their lives as disarmed, potential victims? I, for one, hope not.
As Dr. Hurd stated, ” So long as there are evil people with weapons, we need to have good people with even better weapons.”
The United States was the first (and still the only) country in human history founded on the ideas of individual sovereignty, inalienable rights, equality under the law and the freedom to pursue and achieve your future.
In conclusion, I suggest that widespread, responsible gun ownership may be necessary for your own survival, the survival of those you love, and the freedom you care about so deeply.
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Aloha from the Waipuna
WW II Homefront
More Letters From Paradise
WWII Home Front
This recent Mother"s Day brought to mind what it was like so many years ago. Although only an elementary school kid, I remember it all so very well.
Much has been written about how women took over jobs once held by men, who were gone off to war. Women building aircraft,ships,and other war material. But there were others like my mother who worked very hard to keep the home fires burning.
When my father went off to war he left a wife and two small children. What all she managed to do, continues to amaze me. We were living in a four room bungalow with an outhouse and empty one car garage. A gravel road ran past our house up to the corner where mother would catch the bus taking her to the school where she taught.
Not only did she teach school, but she also had to clean house, shop, cook meals, do the laundry, and keep the coal fired furnace well fed. About all I did to help her was to chop up wood crates for the furnace, and carry up pails of dirty wash water up the basement steps, and dump the contents on our victory garden. During the winter I would carry my sister on my sled down the road to the house where she was cared for during the day. One other task I really enjoyed was stamping empty tin cans flat, contributing to the war effort.
I can see it now, my mother and I down in the basement with our coats on, so cold you could see your breath, feeding the empty furnace.
Mother had a map of Europe on one wall of the living room with a pin where she thought my father was located. After the war he said that often she was correct, in spite of censored letters from him.
I wish now that I had spent some time talking with my mother about those dark war years. This is but a poor tribute to my mother who worked so very hard.
Posted by Grant at 5:16 PM No comments:
Thefts in Paradise
The night before Easter, Tonto had made a pineapple casserole. I took it down to the empty condo down the hall, which we look after, while its owner is away living in Guam. I opened the door to the refrigerator, and saw that someone had stolen the ham, were planning on having for Easter dinner! We often use this refrigerator for Christmas turkey and other large items.
So we went shopping for a ham Easter morning. We could not figure out who the thief was, until the apartment owner in Guam asked his cleaning lady about the missing ham. She said that she thought that it was left by the people who had last used the apartment. So she took it and gave it away to some people she thought could use it. I should note that she knew that we often talk to her, and Tonto had even washed some towels for her. She could have asked, but all is well. We will in the future write our name all over whatever item we leave. I am glad we discovered the theft before Easter day.
And speaking the theft. Tonto and I were recently in Walmart, and I wanted a can of corned beef from Argentina. You know, the kind of can with the sloping sides, and a key you have to wind around the can to open it. Much to my surprise I found the can of corned beef inside of a clear plastic box. I thought that it was odd, but that I could probably use the box for something else. I tried to slide the latch to open the box and it didn't budge. When checking out the cashier had to use a special tool to open the box. I can only assume that Walmart had had a number of cans stolen. I wonder too what are they going to do about the great stacks of Spam. I bet Spam is also under threat of theft. We will just have to wait and see what is done.
Two Great Inventions
"Caller ID" I am sure we all agree, is a wonderful thing. We can now decide to answer the caller, or not. If the message is important enough, they will leave a message.
It must be difficult for people today to understand, when I tell them that our Lutheran Church was able to start two other churches by using telephone evangelism.
As I now remember, it worked this way. Church members who were interested in participating, were given a script to read. Telephone numbers following the alphabet, were chosen. Calls were made in the early evening. Persons answering the phone were asked a series of questions such as "Do you belong to a church?" If not, the caller would invite them to a social gathering for discussion and refreshments. After some 200 positive calls, a nucleus say some 50 people would decide to form a new church. Two new churches were born this way. This would clearly be impossible today due to "Caller ID."
The second great invention is the 16 inch high toilet. Much easier to get on and off. After many years of the standard toilet this size is a great relief. (joke intended) I imagine the old standard size toilet was made to help toilet train children.
Here in Hawaii, the Japanese seem to favor a model called a "Toto" toilet. This model remains standard size but with additions such as a heated seat, and features spray, both behind and front. Fairly expensive, but people using the "Toto" toilet seem to really enjoy using it.
U. S. Grant
My given name is Grant, it was my father's middle name, and he was born in Grant's Pass Oregon. The pass in Oregon was named for the famous Civil War general and president of the United States. That is what I want to write about.
I have just finished reading the newly-published biography of U.S. Grant, written by Ron Chernow. I believe it is one of the best biographies I have ever read. Historians have not been kind with the story of his life. They dwell on the facts of his failed leather business and above all, the fact that he drank, They fail to tell how difficult it was for him to fight off his urge to drink. He often refused to have alcohol served at the White House . He struggled, and most of the time he won the battle.
Grant graduated from West Point, and fought in the Mexican War. He loved Mexico and its people, but disliked having to fight in what he felt was an unjust war.
While still in uniform, he met and fell in love with Julia Dent, of Missouri whose father kept thirty slaves, four of whom belonged to her. She had one cross-eye, but it did not matter to Grant. He father refused permission for a marriage, and the couple remained engaged for four long years.
Grant later resigned his commission, and went to work in his father's leather business. He was a failure in business. One of Grant's failures throughout his life, was that he was always too honest and trusting, and people often took advantage of it.
His early years of struggling came to an abrupt end, with the coming Civil War. Grant and his wife Julia were living in Iiiinois. He reenlisted, and raised a regiment of men.
Space here does not permit, nor do I have the desire to relate all of his victories in the western area of the war, including Vicksburg, Mississippi. The eastern theater of the war was not going well after the Battle of Gettysburg. President Lincoln was having a difficult time finding generals who could win. Grant was summoned and became supreme commander of the Union Army. He sent General Sherman on a path of destruction south, through Georgia to the sea. Likewise, he sent General Sheridan to lay waste the Shenandoah Valley, depriving the rebels of food and rail transport. General Robert E. Lee was forced to surrender. Grant made use of the telegraph to know what was happening in all the theaters of the war. The four year long Civil was was over, at a cost of 750 thousand dead, and thousands more wounded and maimed.
Grant's popularity was such that he was elected president. He championed civil rights for blacks, with the 14th and 15th amendments to the Constitution. Southerners were upset with the idea that blacks were now citizens with the right to vote. Black citizens were murdered,lynched, and burned alive. Black schools and churches were also burned. The KKK and the Knights of the White Camilia and other groups terrorized blacks throughout the entire south. Grant sent Union troops to restore order.
The period of Grant's administration is called the "Gilded Age,"due to the great riches achieved by men, who were often no better than thieves. The discovery of gold,the westward settlement, and the building of railroads all helped to make this possible. Grant lost most all of his money by trusting a business partner.
The was a moment to draft Grant for a third term, but he declined. His health was failing. His throat was so sore that it hurt him to even swallow water. He had a large growth on the side of his neck. He knew that he was dying, but he wanted to see his memoirs printed and sold, to provide money for his wife. Mark Twain, a friend of Grant published the memoirs. Some few historians claim that some of the writing was written by Mark Twain, but Twain denied that charges and paid tribute Grant's writing style.
Unable to eat, Grant weighed only ninety pounds when he died. There is the old joke asking who is buried in Grant's tomb. Located in New York city, it is the largest tomb in America.
This is such a great biography, if you are not afraid of a big book. Well worth your time. I was left with the feeling that in spite of the loss of life and property, things in the south remained largely unchanged. The only difference was the end of slavery.
Site Six
During WWII, the U.S. Army Air Force built three small airstrips along side of the Colorado River. These airstrips were known simply as Sites five, six, and seven. They were built to train pilots to fly in strong cross-winds, and have places to land in emergencies.
Site Six is no longer an airstrip. Houses have been built over the runway. Site Six has become a popular fishing spot. Located not far from Lake Havasu City, Arizona. All that remains of its former history is a small concrete building with rooms for long ago WWII pilots.
Desert Bar
More Letters From Paradise Desert Bar
Imagine finding a real bar serving beer and wine, in the middle of the Arizona desert! Seven miles off the main highway, and away from the small town of Parker, there is a real bar! The owner built the structure only ten feet square. It has since expanded. Water for the bar was carried from Parker in an old fire truck. The owner of the bar is a man of many talents. A welder by trade, he also built what is called the "Holy Church," a steel facade with windows cut out with torch. The building facade is 30 x60 ft. and rests on a concrete slab.
The bar has greatly expanded over the years. Ice chests have been replaced by refrigerators. There are also clean restrooms, and hamburgers are served at the bar. The owner has built a house for himself too on the desert property. Weekends are always busy with people at the bar, weddings at the "Holy Church" for those wanting to try it for the third or fourth time. And everyone dances on the concrete slab of the "Holy Church."
If you drive to the town of Parker,
Arizona, you might get directions to the desert bar, located seven miles out in the desert.
The Strongest Librarian in the World
The Strongest Liberian in the World
On the third floor of the Salt Lake City Library you will find a six foot seven inch man named Josh Hanagadne. He has a Master's Degree in Library Science, and he bends railroad spikes and rolls up frying pans during his breaks. He is also cursed with Tourettes syndrome.
Tourettes takes many forms. It caused him to beat against his face, shout out suddenly and shake his head. His parents tried everything to help him, including having Botox injected in to is vocal chords, causing him to be unable to talk for two years.
His tics grew worse. But there was hope. He met a retired Air Force Sgt. who was into weight lifting. Josh soon found that he could suppress the tics whole lifting weights. He is not cured, but he can lead a normal life. He is married and has one son.
His story was published in 2013 by Gotham Books.
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McCormick Executive Search, Inc.
A boutique full-cycle HR services firm built on trust-based relationships
About Farzana
Farzana McCormick, Owner and Principal
Farzana has significant years of experience in providing human resources consulting and recruiting services to Fortune 500 companies. Before starting her own company, Farzana was part of a progressive Human Resources corporate team of Allstate Insurance Company, a major insurance services company. Her experience with Allstate included college relations, staffing and recruitment.
Farzana was also part of the management team for a national executive search firm, Romac and Associates. Her role as a Manager of the Wilmington, DE Temporary services division included providing recruitment and staffing services to Fortune 500 financial services companies.
Within her first year of joining the company, Farzana was honored with a national award for Office of the Year. That same year, she was named Person of the Year, a title she would maintain for two years running. Other awards she earned included the President’s Club Management Award, Outstanding Sales Achievement Award and numerous Quarterly Production Achievement awards.
With McCormick Executive Search Inc., Farzana is focusing on providing executive-level boutique talent acquisition services. Her company also provides senior executive search services for companies who seek to diversify their executive talent resources.
McCormick Executive Search, Inc. is a boutique Executive Search firm providing full-lifecycle talent acquisition services.
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NEW NBC “SUNDAY NIGHT FOOTBALL” OPEN FEATURING CARRIE UNDERWOOD’S “OH, SUNDAY NIGHT” – PREVIEW NOW ON NBCSPORTS.COM
New Sunday Night Football Show Open Starring Carrie Underwood & 10 NFL Players Premieres on Sun., Sept. 10 Giants-Cowboys SNF Opener
Special Camera Technology – The Bolt and The Phantom – Utilized to Accentuate Player Athleticism
2016 Rookie of Year Dak Prescott, 2016 Defensive Player of the Year Khalil Mack & Super Bowl 50 MVP Von Miller Take Part alongside Antonio Brown, Derek Carr, Dont’a Hightower, Travis Kelce, Julio Jones, Patrick Peterson & Jason Pierre-Paul
STAMFORD, Conn. – August 30, 2017 – In 11 days on Sunday, Sept. 10, seven-time Grammy Award-winner and multi-platinum recording artist Carrie Underwood and 10 NFL players star in the debut of the 2017 show open for primetime television’s No. 1 program, NBC’s Sunday Night Football. A sneak preview is now available on NBCSports.com (here).
The open makes its television debut on Sunday, Sept. 10 as the New York Giants visit the Dallas Cowboys on NBC’s Sunday Night Football. Tripp Dixon is creative director of the SNF show open.
Special camera technology was used this year to accentuate the athleticism of the players. The Bolt, an ultra-high-speed camera arm, was paired with The Phantom, a camera known for its slow-motion capabilities. These two technologies were combined to allow the camera to accelerate from a standstill to top speed in a fraction of second and capture the players’ mid-air movements at 300 frames per second.
Underwood is joined in the show open by 10 NFL players, who have accounted for 30 Pro Bowl selections, four Super Bowl rings, and six first-round draft picks. Following is the complete list of the players:
Pittsburgh Steelers WR Antonio Brown
Oakland Raiders QB Derek Carr
New England Patriots LB Dont’a Hightower
Kansas City Chiefs TE Travis Kelce
Atlanta Falcons WR Julio Jones
Oakland Raiders LB Khalil Mack
Denver Broncos LB Von Miller
Arizona Cardinals CB Patrick Peterson
New York Giants DE Jason Pierre-Paul
Dallas Cowboys QB Dak Prescott
“Oh, Sunday Night” is set to the music of “Somethin’ Bad,” a chart-topping duet from Underwood and Miranda Lambert which was released in 2014 and earned a Grammy nomination for Best Country Duo/Group Performance. Underwood worked with the songwriters of “Somethin’ Bad”– Chris DeStefano, Brett James, and Priscilla Renea – to rewrite the lyrics for Sunday Night Football. The result, “Oh, Sunday Night,” was produced by Mark Bright and Chris DeStefano.
SNF IS TV’S NO. 1 PRIMETIME PROGRAM FOR RECORD 6 CONSECUTIVE YEARS: NBC’s Sunday Night Football finished as primetime’s #1 TV show in all key metrics for a record sixth consecutive year – tying American Idol for the most consecutive years atop the charts (since 1950), based on live plus same day data provided by The Nielsen Company. Sunday Night Football also ranked as the No. 1 show in the advertiser-coveted 18-49 demographic for the seventh consecutive TV season.
About Carrie Underwood:
Carrie Underwood emerged from the promise of her 2005 American Idol win to become a true multi-format, multi-media superstar, spanning achievements in music, television, and film. A seven-time GRAMMY® Award winner, she has amassed over 100 major honors, sold 64 million records worldwide, and recorded 26 #1 singles, 13 of which she co-wrote, with a catalog of songs that have been streamed more than 2.6 billion times worldwide. The first female artist to be twice named the Academy of Country Music’s Entertainer of the Year, Underwood was recognized by Pollstar as the top female country touring artist for each of her headlining tours in 2008, 2010, 2012, and for 2016’s “The Storyteller Tour – Stories in the Round.” Carrie also topped Billboard’s Top 25 Tours of 2016 as the leading female country artist and was the leading female artist on Country Aircheck’s top country radio performers list for her success in both 2015 and 2016. All five studio albums, Some Hearts, Carnival Ride, Play On, Blown Away, and Storyteller – are certified Platinum or multi-Platinum, and each an American Music Awards winner as Favorite Country Album – and tallied an incredible 40 weeks at #1 on Billboard’s Top Country Albums chart. The RIAA’s highest certified country album artist to debut this century, Underwood also holds the distinction of the highest album certification of any country artist to emerge since 2000 with the 8x Multi-Platinum success of her 2005 debut, Some Hearts. She is the all-time Top Country Artist (male or female) on RIAA’s Digital Single Ranking, also placing her among the Top 5 females in the history of RIAA’s Digital Single Program across all genres. In December of 2014, she released her Platinum-certified Greatest Hits: Decade #1, which produced two new #1 hits co-written by Underwood, including the RIAA-Platinum, GRAMMY-winning “Something in the Water.” The Grand Ole Opry member demonstrated her creative diversity in 2013 starring as Maria von Trapp in NBC’s three-hour holiday blockbuster, the Emmy®-winning The Sound of Music Live!, whose airings attracted 44 million viewers. The reigning CMA Female Vocalist of the Year, Underwood claimed her fourth win in the category amid the ongoing success of her chart-topping platinum fifth studio album, Storyteller, which produced four #1 hits. This November, Underwood will co-host the CMA Awards for a tenth consecutive year.
2017 NBC SUNDAY NIGHT FOOTBALL SCHEDULE
Thurs. Sept. 7 NFL Kickoff Kansas City Chiefs at New England Patriots
Sun. Sept. 10 Week 1 New York Giants at Dallas Cowboys (SNF open debut)
Sun. Sept. 17 Week 2 Green Bay Packers at Atlanta Falcons
Sun. Sept. 24 Week 3 Oakland Raiders at Washington Redskins
Sun. Oct. 1 Week 4 Indianapolis Colts at Seattle Seahawks
*Sun. Oct. 8 Week 5 Kansas City Chiefs at Houston Texans
*Sun. Oct. 15 Week 6 New York Giants at Denver Broncos
*Sun. Oct. 22 Week 7 Atlanta Falcons at New England Patriots
*Sun. Oct. 29 Week 8 Pittsburgh Steelers at Detroit Lions
*Sun. Nov. 5 Week 9 Oakland Raiders at Miami Dolphins
*Sun. Nov. 12 Week 10 New England Patriots at Denver Broncos
*Sun. Nov. 19 Week 11 Philadelphia Eagles at Dallas Cowboys
**Thurs. Nov. 23 Week 12 New York Giants at Washington Redskins
*Sun. Nov. 26 Week 12 Green Bay Packers at Pittsburgh Steelers
*Sun. Dec. 3 Week 13 Philadelphia Eagles at Seattle Seahawks
*Sun. Dec. 10 Week 14 Baltimore Ravens at Pittsburgh Steelers
*Sun. Dec. 17 Week 15 Dallas Cowboys at Oakland Raiders
Sat. Dec. 23 Week 16 Minnesota Vikings at Green Bay Packers
*Sun. Dec. 31 Week 17 TBD
*Flex Week
** Thanksgiving Night Game
A year ago we were talking about Tiger playing too much golf. It's been a completely different story in 2019.… https://t.co/fiV4S6freh
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July 16, 2018 July 23, 2018 Editor
Church leaders and supporters pray with United Methodist missionary Miracle Osman (center, wearing white shirt) upon her arrival in Lilongwe, Malawi, after she was allowed to leave the Philippines. ~photo courtesy of United Methodist Board of Global Ministries
Global Mission Fellow, Miracle Osman, returns to Malawi after being detained in the Philippines.
LINDA BLOOM
United Methodist News Service
The last of three United Methodist missionaries seeking to leave the Philippines after being placed on a government watch list arrived July 13 in her home country of Malawi.
Miracle Osman, 24, of Blantyre, Malawi, has reunited with her family there, the United Methodist Board of Global Ministries and church representatives in Malawi announced.
United Methodist missionary Miracle Osman prepares to depart Ninoy Aquino International Airport in Manila, Philippines. Osman has returned to her home in Malawi. ~photo by Marie Villalon
Her departure, along with her colleagues — Tawanda Chandiwana, 28, of Mutare, Zimbabwe, and Adam Shaw, 29, of Brunswick, Ohio — came after the mission agency mounted a public campaign calling for Chandiwana’s release from a detention center and asking the government to allow the missionaries to leave the Philippines.
Shaw, who arrived back in U.S. on July 4, is a full-time global missionary and Chandiwana and Osman are part of the Global Mission Fellows program. Chandiwana was met July 6 at the Robert Mugabe International Airport in Harare, Zimbabwe, by family, friends and church representatives.
The mission agency declared the three “had been subjected to false accusations and actions by the Republic of the Philippines” after participating in a fact-finding mission last February as part of their work.
The United Methodist Council of Bishops issued a press release praising God that all three missionaries have been reunited with their families.
The campaign by Global Ministries included a Change.org petition that accumulated more than 18,500 signatures from 110 countries and a statement from the Council of Bishops. During a well-attended Manila press conference on July 2, Thomas Kemper, top executive of Global Ministries; United Methodist Bishop Ciriaco Q. Francisco of the Manila Episcopal Area; and Shaw himself spoke on behalf of the missionaries.
After six weeks of unsuccessful negotiations with the Filipino government, the media attention and support generated by the campaign had an almost immediate impact, Kemper told United Methodist News Service as Osman was en route to Malawi.
“I strongly believe it made a difference — the prayers and the solidarity in the Philippines and around the world,” he said.
The three missionaries were assigned to InPeace (the full name is Initiatives for Peace), a grassroots, interfaith movement that describes itself as supporting sustained peace negotiations among those involved in armed conflict, with the view of achieving meaningful reforms from these talks to benefit the peoples of Mindanao.
For Shaw, the assignment to InPeace as a lay missionary was a natural fit, given his language skills and prior experience with the group in 2011 as a mission intern.
He believes the increased scrutiny of the missionaries started after the International Criminal Court announced that Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte and his administration were under investigation for crimes against humanity. “For me, that’s when they (the government) became supersensitive to foreigners roaming around outside the cities,” he explained.
Shaw said he was in contact with Osman and Chandiwana, who was near the end of his mission assignment, frequently and offered as much support as he could during this difficult period. For their own personal safety, neither he nor Osman could visit Chandiwana when he was being held in detention.
Osman, he said, had connected with the community in Mindanao, was starting to speak the language “and making a huge effort to work with these people.”
Kemper also spent time with all three missionaries while in the Philippines at the beginning of July. He visited Chandiwana at the detention center in Manila, a dismal place where “there were people who had been there for years, with no way out.”
Tawanda Chandiwana exhibits a broad smile as he arrives back home in Zimbabwe following a 56-day detention in the Philippines. ~umns/Taurai Emmanuel Maforo
He noted that Chandiwana was wearing the anchor cross given by Global Ministries to all its missionaries “as a kind of protection” while in detention. When someone asked Chandiwana whether he was a sailor, his reply was that he was “anchored in Christ,” Kemper said.
Having to involuntarily leave a mission assignment is not easy under any circumstances. For Shaw, who is staying with his family in Ohio until a new mission placement is found, the reality of not being able to return to the Philippines in the foreseeable future has not really set in, he said.
“The Philippines has been part of my life and the people there part of my work for the past seven years, ever since I’ve been involved in missionary work,” he added.
Shaw grew up in a missionary family and his father, the Rev. Thomas Shaw, pastor of the Brunswick (Ohio) United Methodist Church, had followed the unfolding events in the Philippines with concern, particularly after Chandiwana was detained.
Thomas Shaw —whose missionary service with his wife, Susan, included an assignment in Tunisia from 1994-97 — pointed out that the increased hostility toward foreign missionaries and foreigners in general was unusual in a predominantly Christian country. “Usually, when we send missionaries, the political landscape doesn’t change so drastically,” he said.
He said he believed the awareness campaign by Global Ministries was necessary “so that they could let the Philippine government know that eyes were on them.”
Kemper met with the denomination’s bishops, church leaders and mission partners in Mindanao and Davao while in the Philippines. The longtime partners were “quite shocked and astonished” by the government’s treatment of the missionaries, he said, and United Methodists there defended the trio and their ministry.
Each of the three missionaries was accompanied by Francisco and a group of church members in “great solidarity” as they traveled to the Manila airport for departure, he said.
In fact, Kemper added, concern over the government’s treatment of the three young adults has only strengthened the relationship between Global Ministries and Filipino United Methodists.
“We definitely want to continue sending missionaries and working with them in the Philippines,” he declared.
Tags: General Board of Global MinistriesGlobal Mission FellowsMiracle OsmanPhilippines
Editor in News, World
July 16, 2018 July 23, 2018 Comments Off on Malawi welcomes Miracle
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Barth’s Study Finds Mental Connections between Space and Time
by Lauren Rubenstein • July 31, 2012
Hilary Barth, associate professor of psychology, associate professor of neuroscience and behavior.
“We’ve moved the meeting/truck forward.”
“That was a long wait/ hotdog.”
“We’re rapidly approaching the deadline/guardrail.”
English speakers use a shared vocabulary to talk about space and time. And though it’s not something we’re necessarily conscious of, psychologists have found that the identical words we use to describe our wait in line at the Department of Motor Vehicles and the length of an especially impressive hotdog are not a fluke, but rather are telling of the cognitive processes involved in thinking about time. Past studies have shown that priming people with spatial information actually influences their perceptions of time. For example, people primed to imagine themselves moving through space will make different judgments about the temporal order of events than people primed to imagine objects moving through space toward themselves.
Hilary Barth, associate professor of psychology, associate professor of neuroscience and behavior, is working to better understand the mental connections between space and time. She recently published an illuminating new study in the June 2012 issue of The Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology. According to Barth, it seems we use the more concrete world of space to think about the more abstract world of time.
Barth and co-author Jessica Sullivan ’08—formerly one of Barth’s student in the Cognitive Development Labs, now a graduate student at the University of California-San Diego—noticed that though past studies in this area attribute the effects on participants’ temporal judgments to the spatial qualities of the prime used, most of the primes involved both space and movement. For example, previous studies have used primes that involve a stick figure walking toward a plant or pulling on a wagon—scenes that use motor words like “run” and show actors engaging in self-powered motion. Barth and Sullivan wondered whether this self-powered motion was a key component of the spatial primes, or rather was incidental. Their suspicion that the motor component played an important role was bolstered by the knowledge, from other past research, that hearing motor language activates the same areas of the brain as actual movement. That is, a person who imagines himself kicking will experience the same type of brain activation as if he kicked.
Example of a priming story.
To try to separate out the effects of the spatial and the active motion components in the primes, Barth and Sullivan designed a study involving 198 participants drawn from the Wesleyan community. The participants—primarily students—were each assigned to one of six different test conditions. Participants were first given a very short “priming” story accompanied by a stick-figure drawing, and asked to imagine that they were the person in the story. (A separate group of people rated all of the stories to make sure that they were equally vivid and interesting.) Then they answered an ambiguous test question relating to time: “Next Wednesday’s meeting has been moved forward two days. What day is the meeting on now that it has been moved?”
In a control group, who did not get a priming story first, 77 percent of participants answered, “Friday.” When participants were first primed with a story about actively pulling a wagon towards themselves, they were significantly more likely to respond that the meeting had been moved to Monday. In contrast, participants who were primed with a story about a wagon rolling towards them on its own responded “Friday,” just like the control group. The results suggest that active spatial primes (which involve imagining a physical effort), influence our thinking about time more than passive spatial primes (which involve imagining motion without effort).
“We believe that these kinds of studies can help us understand just how it is that we think about abstract things we can’t see, feel, or touch, like time,” says Barth.
Lauren Rubenstein
Associate Manager of Media & Public Relations at Wesleyan University View all posts by Lauren Rubenstein →
Tags:Barth faculty achievements Hilary Barth Psychology Department
← 5 Questions With . . . Richard Grossman on the Libor Scandal
Fellows Explore Black History in School Curricula, Deglaciation, Schooling in Nicaragua, More →
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Bodansky: Letter from the Barcelona Climate Change Talks
04 Nov Bodansky: Letter from the Barcelona Climate Change Talks
[Daniel Bodansky, University of Georgia School of Law and OJ guest blogger, sends this dispatch on the state of the Climate Change talks leading up to the Copenhagen Conference. Professor Bodansky will also be blogging from Copenhagen here at Opinio Juris in December.]
Barcelona, 4 November 2009
The UN climate change negotiations resumed on Monday in Barcelona, after only a three week hiatus since the last round in Bangkok. Between the official negotiations, the parallel political meetings of the major economies forum (MEF), the Commonwealth, and APEC, the numerous bilaterals (including the upcoming Obama visit to China), and the off-line dialogues convened by Denmark, the negotiating process will essentially be non-stop between now and when the Copenhagen Conference begins on December 7.
But progress remains elusive at best. The disconnect between the political urgency surrounding the climate change issue among political leaders and the insular world of the UNFCCC negotiations is growing ever more striking.
On the one hand, most of the key countries or groups – the EU, Japan, China, Brazil, India, South Africa, Indonesia and Australia – have either adopted or appear near to adopting domestic climate change policies. And although enactment of climate change legislation by the United States remains in doubt, a major bill has already passed the House of Representatives and the Senate is now beginning its consideration of similar legislation. So, from the perspective of national climate change policies, prospects have never been brighter.
But capturing and reinforcing these national policies in an international agreement remains enormously difficult. Western countries have grown increasingly reluctant to sign onto a new agreement unless developing countries are willing to “internationalize” their national policies in some fashion. Developing countries, in return, are deeply suspicious of taking on anything that smells of an international commitment, particularly given the evident desire of Western countries to abandon the Kyoto Protocol, which enshrined a system of differentiation that developing countries love (since it unequivocally excluded them from any emissions targets). And everyone is waiting for Godot (i.e., the United States), which has perhaps over-learnt the lesson of Kyoto, and has been unwilling thus far to put forward any position on emissions targets or finance until Congress has first enacted legislation.
The Copenhagen negotiating process has two tracks: one to negotiate amendments to the Kyoto Protocol, including a second round of emissions targets for developed (“Annex B”) countries, addressing the period after 2012, when the Kyoto Protocol’s first commitment period ends (a negotiating track that doesn’t include the United States, since it is not a party to Kyoto); the other to reach a comprehensive outcome under the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), including mitigation commitments by developed countries and actions by developing countries, new financial arrangements, measures to address adaptation and technology transfer, and a system for measurement, reporting and review (MRV).
Describing the Copenhagen process thus far as a “negotiation” is a bit of a misnomer, because countries generally simply restate their positions rather than enter into an actual process of give-and-take. The negotiating text consists of a series of “non-papers” that compile all of the various national submissions, but are so long and unwieldy that it is difficult to see how they could provide a basis for actual negotiations.
Two significant developments occurred during the first days of the Barcelona meeting. First, the African group announced in the Kyoto Protocol track that it was unwilling to continue further negotiations on the Kyoto Protocol rules (for example, addressing credits for land-use activities), until the completion of work on new emissions targets for developed countries for post-2012. Since developed countries are unwilling to do so except as part of a final political deal in Copenhagen, the African group demand brought the Kyoto Protocol negotiations to a standstill. Why the African group would want to do so is difficult to understand, since African countries are highly vulnerable to climate change and are perhaps the group with the most to gain from a successful outcome in Copenhagen. Apparently, they hoped that by holding up the negotiations, they could focus attention on what they regard as the inadequate levels of emissions reductions offered by the EU and other developed countries. And, late Tuesday, the work stoppage was resolved by a decision to allocate more of the remaining time in the Kyoto Protocol negotiations to the Annex B emissions targets. But since many industrialized countries would just as soon see the Kyoto Protocol die (and be folded into a new comprehensive agreement), work slowdowns in the Kyoto negotiating track are, in my view, a poor means of exerting pressure on them to come forward with more stringent emissions targets.
Meanwhile, in the Framework Convention negotiating track, countries have moved directly into so-called “informals” – that is, closed meetings – rather than continue to meet in public “contact groups.” While this means that the many NGO and business observes here in Barcelona have nothing to observe, it paves the way for the beginning of actual negotiations, which are more likely in closed rather than open sessions. Whether the breakdown of the Kyoto Protocol process will be resolved, or will infect the Framework Convention track of the negotiations remains to be seen.
Under the best of circumstances, even the most optimistic observers think there’s little prospect for a legal agreement being completed in Copenhagen. At best, Copenhagen will produce a political agreement (or a set of COP decisions) on emission targets and finance, which would set the stage for the negotiation of a legal agreement. Even this will be a challenge, however, particularly if the United States remains unwilling to take specific positions prior to the enactment of domestic climate change legislation by Congress.
Featured, Organizations, Trade & Economic Law
Dan – welcome and this is very, very cool. The OJ web of correspondents circles the globe!
Three Degrees – The University of Washington School of Law Climate Change and Human Rights Conference » Blog Archive » Are Human Rights Coming Up at All in Climate Talks?
[…] the climate crisis and correct the dominant power-imbalance obstructing any meaningful solutions? Dan Bodansky, an internationally recognized expert on international law and global climate change, predicts that […]
Daniel Bodansky
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“The only game in college sports history whose the final outcome was decided after the game”
Sep 21st, 2016
If you follow sports, you have probably heard about this:
In one of the more improbable finishes to a football game, Central Michigan wide receiver Corey Willis grabbed a lateral from fellow receiver Jesse Kroll at the 12-yard line after a Hail Mary and raced into the end zone with no time remaining to stun No. 22 Oklahoma State 30-27 on Saturday.
It never should have happened.
Mid-American Conference referee Tim O’Dey — as well as the MAC and the Big-12 conferences — acknowledged after the game that Central Michigan was wrongly awarded an untimed down, which resulted in the miraculous Hail-and-lateral finish.
“I’m going to leave that alone. We had a play, we executed, end of story,” Central Michigan coach John Bonamego told ESPN. “I’ll leave it for everybody else to discuss.”
With four seconds remaining, Oklahoma State quarterback Mason Rudolph threw an incomplete pass to the left sideline to run the final seconds off the clock for what seemed to be a 27-24 victory for the Cowboys (1-1). However, no receivers ran a route, thus resulting in an intentional grounding penalty on fourth down.
Since intentional grounding is a foul that includes loss of down, that meant Oklahoma State turned the ball over on downs.
“There’s a rule that says that the game cannot end on an accepted live ball foul. That’s the rule. There’s an exception to the rule that says if enforcement of the foul involves a loss of down, then that brings the game to an end,” O’Dey told a pool reporter.
“So in that situation, we’ve had the opportunity to run it back through our hierarchy, which includes the national rules editor, and he confirmed that should have been a loss of down and the end of the game at that point, so that extension should not have happened.”
The rule in question is Rule 3, Section 2, Article 3.1 in the NCAA football rule book: “A period shall be extended for an untimed down if … a penalty is accepted for a live-ball foul(s). (Exception: Rule 10-2-5-a). The period is not extended if the foul is by the team in possession and the statement of the penalty includes loss of down.”
The Mid-American Conference issued a statement that the officiating crew was in the wrong, but the result of the game would stand.
“The Mid-American Conference officiating crew … made an error on the final play of regulation,” Bill Carollo, the coordinator of football officials for the Collegiate Officiating Consortium, said in a statement. “The crew made a misapplication of the rule and should not have extended the contest with one final play. Despite the error, this will not change the outcome of the contest.”
MAC officials weren’t the only ones in the wrong. According to the Big 12, Coordinator of Football Officials Walt Anderson said “the Big 12 replay crew missed an opportunity to stop the game to inform the MAC officiating crew of the misapplication of the intentional grounding penalty as time expired.”
According to the Big 12, NCAA rules permit instant replay to “correct egregious errors, including those involving the game clock.”
None of those explanations mattered to Oklahoma State athletic director Mike Holder, who issued a statement saying it’s “incomprehensible” that the outcome can’t be reversed.
“We were told there is nothing that could be done,” Hoder said. “… The final score shows that Oklahoma State lost the game but that doesn’t mean that I have to agree with it.”
All of the officials involved have been suspended as a result of the screwup, which seems reasonable. I question that assertion that there is nothing that can be done about the outcome of the game. College football historians will note that there is a precedent for this, from way back in 1940. Here’s a WBUR story from last year, the 75th anniversary of the infamous “Fifth Down Game”, between Dartmouth and unbeaten and #2-ranked Cornell:
According to the informal historian of Dartmouth sports, Jack DeGange, Dartmouth’s opponent on Nov. 16, 1940, had a lot to lose.
“Cornell was on an 18-game unbeaten streak,” he said. “They were nationally ranked. They were clearly the dominant team in the Ivy League. And at that point, Dartmouth, by contrast, was 3-4 coming into the game. But there was a lot on the line, especially for Cornell.”
It was a low scoring affair, and Dartmouth took a 3-0 lead into the closing seconds of the game. The tension must have been terrific, and maybe it was that tension that effected one of the officials, Red Friesell.
Anyway, Cornell had the ball deep in Dartmouth’s territory. After a couple of unsuccessful running plays inside the Dartmouth 10 yard line, it looked as if Cornell might need all four tries to score.
And then they did score a touchdown on a pass play. But it was only after Red Friesell had inadvertently given them…a fifth down.
“And he says, ‘I think I may have made a terrible mistake,'” DeGange recalled.
“This is the official, who admits this in the car on his way to the train!” I said.
“Well, yeah,” DeGange said, “but they hadn’t looked at the film on both teams, which, over the next 24 hours is what happened. They looked at the film and concluded that, in fact, Cornell got the fifth down.”
Once everyone agreed this is what had happened, Cornell made the unprecedented and since-unrepeated offer to concede the game to Dartmouth, which was accepted. The game went into the books as a 3-0 win for Dartmouth. I read about this as a kid in the book Strange But True Football Stories, which is a bargain at many times the price listed at that Amazon link. What I didn’t know and only learned as I googled around for this post, is that Cornell didn’t actually expect Dartmouth to accept their offer:
It would go down as perhaps the greatest act of sportsmanship in college football history, but Lou Conti and his Cornell teammates wanted no part of it.
Cornell President Edmund Ezra Day, declaring the outcome to be “tarnished,” sent a telegram to Dartmouth, offering to forfeit the victory to the Indians.
“I remember he was a Dartmouth man,” Conti says of Day, a Dartmouth graduate, “and his classic remark was, ‘You can offer them the game, but they won’t accept it.’
“We didn’t believe that. I didn’t believe that. Nobody believed that they would not accept the game.”
And they were right.
Dartmouth accepted.
“Our coach and athletic director told us, ‘As the years go by, this will resonate as a fine example of sportsmanship’ — and they were 100% right,” Conti, 91, says during an interview at his home outside Chicago. “But if I had been a grown person with some authority, I never would have offered to give the game away.”
In that case, of course, it would have been long forgotten.
“Winning evaporates in time,” Conti’s 92-year-old former teammate, Bud Finneran, says from his home in Bensenville, Ill. “But something like this goes on forever.”
Indeed, Cornell’s selfless act was celebrated far and wide, its implications reverberating through the decades.
Sportsmanship, wrote the New York Herald Tribune in the immediate aftermath, “remains in its true form so seldom these days that when it can be truly applied, as it can to Cornell University … there seems again to be hope in the world.”
Wrote the New York Times, in a similar editorial praising the Big Red’s offer: “If we were Cornell, we wouldn’t trade that telegram for all the team’s victories in the past two years.”
Years later, commentator and longtime college football observer Beano Cook would rank Cornell’s magnanimous gesture as the No. 2 moment in the sport’s long and storied history — behind only Knute Rockne’s “Win One for the Gipper” speech.
“I’ll be darned,” Conti says.
That was from 2010 and the 70th anniversary of the game. I’m delighted there were still a couple of players from the game around to talk about it. Some of you may recall that there was another Fifth Down game in the much more recent year of 1990, in which Colorado was the beneficiary and Missouri the victim. Colorado and its coach, Bill McCartney, who went on to be a founder of the Christian conservative group Promise Keepers, declined to consider the possibility of mimicking Cornell. I never cared for Bill McCartney, who did eventually regret his decision, and this did nothing to change that.
Anyway. It sucks to be Oklahoma State right now, and this loss is going to sting even if the playoff committee takes the circumstances of the loss into account. But don’t say there’s nothing that can be done. There is, and there’s precedent for it, even if it only ever happened once.
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Scott Sanford
There’s more than SB6 to watch out for
Keep an eye out for other anti-LGBT bills, because any of them might pass even if SB6 goes down.
With the media seemingly preoccupied by Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick’s bathroom bill, three Republican state senators have quietly introduced a sweeping anti-LGBT “religious freedom” measure.
Senate Bill 651, filed last week, would bar state agencies that are responsible for regulating more than 65 licensed occupations from taking action against those who choose not to comply with professional standards due to religious objections.
Eunice Hyon Min Rho, advocacy and policy counsel for the ACLU, said SB 651 would open the door to rampant discrimination against LGBT people, women seeking reproductive health care and others. Rho said the bill could lead to doctors with religious objections refusing to perform medical procedures, teachers not reporting child abuse if they support corporal punishment, or a fundamentalist Mormon police officer declining to arrest a polygamist for taking underage brides.
“This is incredibly broadly written,” said Rho, who monitors religious freedom legislation across the country. “It’s just really alarming. There are no limitations to this bill.”
Rho said only one state, Arizona, has passed a similar law, but unlike SB 651 it includes exceptions related to health care and law enforcement. She also warned that anti-LGBT state lawmakers may be trying to use the bathroom bill as a distraction.
“I think because some of the bills are receiving more attention than others, it’s a way for them to sneak some stuff through with a little bit less fanfare,” Rho said. “This is a tactic we’ve seen in countless states.”
As of Thursday, nine anti-LGBT bills had been filed in the 2017 session, according to Equality Texas, compared to at 23 in 2015. But there were indications that additional anti-LGBT “religious freedom” proposals are coming before the March 10 filing deadline.
Take a look at that Equality Texas list, and if you’ve gotten yourself into the habit of calling your legislators, add the bad bills there to your recitations. There’s nothing subtle about any of this, but with SB6 taking up all the oxygen, there’s cover for those bills. They would allow discrimination of the Woolworth’s lunch counter kind, and they cannot be allowed to pass.
There’s still time for bad bills to be passed
Bad bill #1:
After four hours of debate and more than a dozen failed amendments offered by Democrats, the Senate on Monday gave preliminary approval to far-reaching restrictions on minors seeking abortions in Texas without parental consent.
On a 21-10 vote, the upper chamber signed off on House Bill 3994 by Republican state Rep. Geanie Morrison of Victoria to tighten the requirements on “judicial bypass,” the legal process that allows minors to get court approval for an abortion if seeking permission from their parents could endanger them.
The vote was along party lines with one Democrat, Sen. Eddie Lucio Jr. of Brownsville, joining Republicans to pass the measure.
After it reached the Senate, [Sen. Charles] Perry did some rewriting on HB 3994 to address two of the bill’s most controversial provisions on which both Democrats and some conservatives had raised concerns.
As expected, he gutted a provision that would have required all doctors to presume a pregnant woman seeking an abortion was a minor unless she could present a “valid government record of identification” to prove she was 18 or older.
The ID requirement — dubbed “abortion ID” by opponents — raised red flags because it would apply to all women in the state even though the bill focused on minors.
Under Perry’s new language, a physician must use “due diligence” to determine a woman’s identity and age, but could still perform the abortion if a woman could not provide an ID. Doctors would also have to report to the state how many abortions were performed annually without “proof of identity and age.”
Perry said the revised language “gives physician more latitude” to determine a woman’s age.
But Democratic state Sen. Kirk Watson of Austin, who spoke in opposition to the bill and questioned Perry for almost an hour, questioned the ID requirement altogether.
“I can’t think of another instance where we presume women are children,” Watson said. “I certainly can’t think of any situation where we presume a man is a child.”
Perry also changed course on a provision that would have reversed current law such that if a judge does not rule on the bypass request within five days, the request is considered denied. Under current law, the bypass is presumed approved if a judge does not rule.
Perry cut that denial provision from the bill, saying it is now “silent” on the issue. But that did little to appease opponents who pointed out a judge’s failure to rule effectively denies the minor an abortion.
“In essence, the judge can bypass the judicial bypass by simply not ruling,” Watson said, adding that the appeals process is derailed without a denial by a judge.
HB 3994 also extends the time in which judges can rule on a judicial bypass case from two business days to five. Perry said this was meant to give judges more time and “clarity” to consider these cases.
But Democratic state Sen. Sylvia Garcia of Houston, who also offered several unsuccessful amendments, questioned whether Perry’s intentions were rooted in a distrust of women and judges.
“I’m not really sure who it is you don’t trust — the girls, the judges or the entire judicial system?” Garcia asked.
See here for the background. The Senate version is not quite as bad as the original House version that passed, but as Nonsequiteuse notes, it’s still a farce that does nothing but infantilize women. It’s a cliched analogy, but can anyone imagine a similar set of hoops for a man to jump through to get a vasectomy or a prescription for Viagra? The only people who will benefit from this bill are the lawyers that will be involved in the litigation over it. Oh, and Eddie Lucio sucks. Good Lord, he needs to be retired. TrailBlazers, the Observer, and Newsdesk have more.
In a dramatic turn of events, the House Calendars Committee on Sunday night reversed course and sent a controversial bill prohibiting health insurance plans sold on the Affordable Care Act’s marketplace from covering abortions to the full chamber for a vote.
Earlier in the night, the committee voted not to place Senate Bill 575 by Republican Sen. Larry Taylor on the lower chamber’s calendar for Tuesday — the last day a Senate bill can be passed by the House. After fireworks on the House floor instigated by a lawmaker who believed he had entered into an agreement to get the bill to the full chamber, the committee reconvened and reconsidered its vote.
Under SB 575, women seeking coverage for what Taylor has called “elective” abortions would have been required to purchase supplemental health insurance plans.
On Saturday, state Rep. Jonathan Stickland, R-Bedford, had threatened to force a House vote to prohibit abortions on the basis of fetal abnormalities by filing an amendment to an innocuous agency review bill. But Stickland later withdrew the amendment, telling the Austin American-Statesman that he had agreed to pull it down in exchange of a vow from House leadership that they would move SB 575 forward.
The bill did make it out of the House State Affairs Committee, chaired by state Rep. Byron Cook, R-Corsicana. But when it got to Calendars, that committee voted it down, leading Stickland to go after Cook on the House floor. Stickland had to be separated from Cook, and House sergeants immediately ran over to prevent a lengthier tussle.
Again, infantilizing women. And speaking of infants, what more can be said about Jonathan Stickland? I know there’s a minimum age requirement to run for office. Maybe there needs to be a minimum maturity requirement as well. Hey, if we can force doctors to assume that women seeking abortions are children, we can assume that any first-time filer for office is a callow jerk. We sure wouldn’t have been wrong in this case.
Senate Republicans on Monday voted to move the state’s Public Integrity Unit out of the Travis County District Attorney’s Office. The action was spurred in part by last year’s indictment of former Gov. Rick Perry.
The legislation by Sen. Joan Huffman, R-Houston, would move key decisions about investigating public officials to the Texas Rangers and away from the Democratic-controlled Travis County District Attorney.
The bill was approved in a 20-11 vote, with Democrats casting all the no votes.
Under the proposed law, any district attorney looking at suspicious activity by a state official would refer the matter to new Public Integrity Unit within the Texas Rangers. That office would then use a Texas Ranger to further investigate the allegation, with expenses handled by the Texas Department of Public Safety.
If confirmed, the recommendation for further action would be sent to the district attorney in the home county of the public official. That district attorney could pursue or drop the investigation.
See here for the background. As I said before, I don’t think this is the worst bill ever, but I do think it’s a guarantee that some future scandal will result from this. And as others have pointed out, it sets up legislators to be treated differently than every other Texan in this sort of situation. That’s never a good precedent to set.
And finally, bad bill #4:
Gays and same-sex couples could be turned away from adopting children or serving as foster parents under an amendment filed by a social conservative House member and expected to be heard Tuesday.
The measure also would allow child welfare providers to deny teenagers in foster care access to contraception or an abortion under a wide umbrella of religious protections for the state contractor.
Rep. Scott Sanford, R-McKinney, has filed the measure that gives state contractors for child welfare services the right to sue the state if they are punished for making decisions based on their religious beliefs.
The state could not force contractors to follow policies providing for contraception or allowing same-sex couples to adopt, for instance. If the state tried to terminate a contract or suspend licensing for the state contractors’ failure to abide by such polices, the contractor could sue, win compensatory damages, relief from the policy and attorneys fees against the state, according to the proposal.
Sanford tried to pass as separate bill earlier in the session, but it failed. The proposal now has resurfaced as an amendment to the sunset bill that would reconstitute the Department of Family and Protective Services.
I’m just going to hand this one off to Equality Texas:
TUESDAY, MAY 26TH, Rep. Scott Sanford will try again to pass an amendment allowing child welfare agencies to discriminate against LGBT families
Tell your State Representative to oppose the Sanford amendment permitting discrimination in Texas’ child welfare system.
Rep. Scott Sanford has pre-filed an amendment that he will seek to add to SB 206 on Tuesday, May 26th. This cynical “religious refusal” amendment would authorize all child welfare organizations to refuse to place a child with a qualified family just because that family doesn’t meet the organization’s religious or moral criteria.
If enacted into law, the Sanford Amendment would allow child welfare providers to discriminate against not just gay and transgender families, but also against people of other faiths, interfaith couples and anyone else to whom a provider objects for religious reasons.
The only consideration of a child welfare agency should be the best interest of the child – not proselytizing for a single, narrow religious interpretation.
SB 206 is not objectionable. However, adding the Sanford Amendment to SB 206 must be prevented.
Urge your State Representative to OPPOSE the Sanford Amendment to SB 206.
Amen to that.
Pointless “pastor protection” bill passes House
The House tentatively approved Thursday a bill saying that Texas pastors, churches and religious institutions can’t be sued by private parties or penalized by government for spurning gay weddings.
Many clergy, especially Southern Baptist ministers opposed to gay marriage, have testified they very much need the legal shield.
“Maybe pastors won’t be sued. But we need some protection in case they are,” said Rep. Patricia Harless, R-Spring, bill supporter.
The bill’s critics, though, have expressed skepticism that same-sex couples would try to coerce a reluctant religious leader to officiate at their unions. Even if some did, the U.S. Constitution and the Texas Religious Freedom Restoration Act of 1999 already protect pastors, opponents have said.
Rep. Celia Israel, an Austin Democrat and out lesbian, said she hopes the U.S. Supreme Court soon will declare a constitutional right to marry.
If it does, though, Israel said she and her partner of 20 years would never ask to be married by a pastor who interprets the Bible as against loving, same-sex unions.
“Rest assured [we] will not be going to them to bless our union,” she said. “We will be going to someone who loves us and respects us for who we are and how we take care of one another.”
Estes’ bill would confer legal immunity on clergy and religious institutions if they refused to open facilities, provide services and sell goods to same-sex couples because it would violate “a sincerely held religious belief” to do so.
Rep. Scott Sanford, a McKinney Republican who is a Baptist pastor, filed a companion bill that died in last week’s bill-killing maelstrom before a key House deadline. Sanford also sponsored the Senate-passed version.
Following Sanford’s example, Estes agreed to one change. He deleted a phrase saying clergy and religious institutions could refuse to treat a same-sex marriage “as valid for any purpose.” Bill opponents warned those words could shield, say, a religious hospital from challenge if it barred a spouse legally married to someone of the same sex in another state from making medical decisions for a partner.
See here for the background. The vote was 141-2 in favor. If you’re wondering why it was so lopsided, the Trib has the answer.
“I truly believe that there is space for LGBT justice and religious freedom and this, I feel, is the space for that,” said state Rep. Mary Gonzalez, D-Clint, who has called herself the only openly pan-sexual elected official in the nation.
State Rep. Celia Israel, D-Austin, said in a speech supporting the bill that she will one day marry her longtime lesbian partner in Texas. Pastors that don’t support their union shouldn’t worry about her trying to get them to conduct the ceremony, she said. SB 2065, Israel argued, would ensure that a clergy member that wants to support the ceremony can.
“This Roman Catholic urges you to vote yes,” Israel said.
Ahead of Thursday’s vote, Equality Texas withdrew its opposition to the measure and encouraged House Democrats to vote for it.
So there you have it. I don’t know that I’d agree that this bill was worth supporting, but I do agree that it’s likely to not have much effect, something even its most ardent supporters concede. Gotta say, though, when the phrase “sincerely held religious belief” is invoked, the possibility exists for all kinds of unintended consequences to arise. Be careful what you ask for, pastors. Hair Balls has more.
I repeat, no one will be forced to perform a same sex wedding
This really is a huge waste of time.
For some gay rights advocates, a bill in the Texas Legislature that would allow clergy to refuse to marry same-sex couples would be acceptable if it just included four more words.
As the Senate State Affairs Committee heard testimony Monday morning on Senate Bill 2065 by Sen. Craig Estes, R-Wichita Falls, Chuck Smith, the executive director of Equality Texas, asked for the legislation to include language making it clear that the bill only applies to marriage ceremonies. Smith wanted to ensure that the legislation would not prohibit the issuing of same-sex marriage licenses by officials in a secular context.
But Estes told committee that he did not intend to accept that amendment after pastors testified against the bill for several hours.
Smith requested that language in the bill saying that “a clergy or minister may not be required to solemnize any marriage or provide services” be changed to “a clergy or minister acting in that capacity may not be required to solemnize any marriage or provide services.”
“We are fully supportive of religious liberties,” Smith told the committee in the morning.
Sen. Joan Huffman, R-Houston, the committee’s chairwoman, said she hoped a consensus would be reached.
The legislation faced heat from Democrats at Monday’s committee hearing.
Sen. Judith Zaffirini, D-Laredo, criticized the bill because it did not define “solemnize” or “religious organization.” Sen. Rodney Ellis, D-Houston, asked if clergy could use the legislation to refuse to marry interracial couples.
“If it’s a discriminatory act, then I don’t think they should be able to hide behind the First Amendment or hide behind their faith,” Ellis said.
See here for the background. Honestly, given some of the things the Senate could be debating, I don’t mind them wasting a few hours on this, but I just don’t see what this bill will accomplish that the First Amendment doesn’t already provide. There was some testimony in favor of the bill from the crowd that thinks same sex marriage is a monstrously conceived and dangerous communist plot to sap and impurify all of their precious bodily fluids, but despite the support of the Estes bill by liberal groups if the language gets tweaked and of the companion House bill that has already been modified, there was some opposition from both sides as well.
But socially conservative lawyers for the Plano-based Liberty Institute and Austin-based Texas Values Action opposed Huffman’s push to include the bill opponents’ language. They and an aide to Attorney General Ken Paxton spoke of the issue raised by Scalia, about how ministers officiating at a wedding act in dual capacities. They represent a church but also use state power to seal a marriage. That could lead to legal complexities, they warned.
Even if Estes accepted the change, which appeared unlikely, at least one ecumenical group said it would remain opposed to his bill.
Texas Impact, a progressive coalition of Christian churches and Jewish entities, said it could inspire lawsuits by ministers and employees in certain Protestant denominations with a hierarchical structure over their disagreements with the denomination’s church laws.
“We do not want ministers sued, we do not want churches sued,” said Joshua Houston, Texas Impact’s general counsel. “But we also do not want ministers able to sue denominations when their sincerely held religious beliefs are in conflict. Attorneys representing the Episcopal, Lutheran and Methodist churches tell us that the way the bill is written will increase those lawsuits.”
Clearly, the simplest thing to do is to leave well enough alone. In the end the bill was voted out of committee without the modification that Equality texas and the ACLU were asking for, because we always have to do things the hard way. Unfair Park has more.
Two anti-gay bills advance
Look out.
Gay rights advocates began sounding the alarm Wednesday after two anti-LGBT bills cleared House committees and another received a favorable hearing.
Kathy Miller, president of the Texas Freedom Network, said if LGBT groups and their corporate allies don’t work quickly to generate the type of backlash seen over a religious freedom bill in Indiana last month, it could soon be too late.
Miller made the statement on a day when separate House panels advanced bills that would bar county clerks from issuing same-sex marriage licenses and allow state-funded adoption agencies to turn away gay couples based on religious beliefs. The two bills, which breached a dam that had kept a record number of anti-LGBT measures at bay for the first 100 days of the session, now head to the Calendars Committee.
“My fear is that if the Indiana-style outrage doesn’t happen now, before these bills make it to the floor of the House, it will be too late, because the membership of the House will pass these bills, and then the Senate will fly them through, and Gov. [Greg] Abbott will have no choice but to sign them in his mind,” Miller said.
Miller and others said with the U.S. Supreme Court set to hear oral arguments on same-sex marriage Tuesday, moderate Republicans in the Legislature are feeling the heat from social conservatives.
“I feel like the Republican base is desperately afraid of the Supreme Court’s ruling on marriage this summer,” Miller said. “I think there’s a tremendous amount of pressure on the leadership in the House to pass anti-LGBT legislation. I think some of Speaker [Joe] Straus’ lieutenants are more likely to cave in to that pressure than others.”
The House Committee on State Affairs voted 7-3 along party lines to advance House Bill 4105, which would prohibit state or local funds from being used to license or recognize same-sex marriages.
Among those voting in favor of the bill was Rep. Byron Cook (R-Corsicana), a moderate who chairs the committee and has come out in support of one pro-LGBT bill.
“For me, I believe in the sanctity of marriage between one man and one woman, so that’s why I voted for it,” Cook said.
All due respect, and I do respect Rep. Cook for his support of the birth certificate bill, but he’s not a moderate. As I noted before, he received an F on the 2013 Equality Texas report card. His support of Rep. Anchia’s bill is great and appreciated, but it doesn’t change who he is.
The Texas Association of Business, the state’s powerful chamber of commerce, has come out against two proposed religious freedom amendments that critics say would enshrine a “license to discriminate” against LGBT people in the Texas Constitution. But the TAB has remained silent on the bills that cleared committee Wednesday.
“We have not taken a position and doubtful (with timing of the session) that we will be able to,” TAB President Chris Wallace said in an email. “We will continue to monitor the business-related implications.”
Late Wednesday, the House Committee on Juvenile Justice and Family Affairs voted 6-1 to advance House Bill 3864, by Rep. Scott Sanford (R-McKinney), which would allow state-funded child welfare providers to discriminate based on sincerely held religious beliefs.
Meanwhile, dozens of pastors gave hours of testimony in support of House Bill 3567, also by Sanford, which he said is designed to prevent clergy from being forced to perform same-sex marriages. Critics of HB 3567 say it’s so broadly written that it could allow any religiously affiliated organization—from hospitals to universities and homeless shelters—to discriminate against LGBT people.
None of this is good, so now would be an excellent time to call your State Rep and ask him or her to vote against these bills. It would also be nice if the TAB and its other corporate allies would remember that not only are these bills bad for business, they will inevitably lead to expensive litigation (that the state will lose) because they’re clearly unconstitutional. The cheaper and safer route is to keep them bottled up in the House.
It’s hard to overstate just how out of step with public opinion all of this is. I can only conclude that the GOP is more in thrall to its zealot wing than it is to the business lobby. Maybe this will finally help cause a bit of a schism. As far as those “Christians” that were there to lobby for these bills, they don’t represent all people of faith. Not by a longshot. And finally, if Indiana and Arkansas weren’t object lessons enough for Republicans, just keep an eye on Louisiana, where Bobby Jindal has decided that the best strategy is to double down. Imitating Arkansas is bad enough – do we have to do what Louisiana does, too? The Trib has more.
Still no action on fixing birth certificates
It’s shameful that this doesn’t have the votes to get out of committee.
Prior to a hearing on a bill that would permit faith-based adoption agencies to discriminate against LGBT people, Rep. Rafael Anchia (D-Dallas) delivered an impassioned speech on the House floor in support of a proposal to allow the adopted children of same-sex couples to have accurate birth certificates.
Anchia’s House Bill 537 was heard by the State Affairs Committee last month but remains stalled there due to a lack of support among members. On Wednesday, Anchia used a rare point of privilege, which he said was his first in six terms in the Legislature, to address the bill on the floor.
Anchia said the bill, which he’s carried four times, is always well-received in committee, and the author of the law the measure seeks to overturn, former state Rep. Will Hartnett (R-Dallas), has acknowledged it should be changed.
“Yet year after year these bills languish because of outside pressure from groups that lie to you and tell you the bill does something it doesn’t do,” Anchia said, referring to opposition to HB 537 from the anti-LGBT group Texas Values. “Regardless of how you feel about a kid’s parents, you’re always good to the kid. They didn’t pick their parents, but those are the parents they have, and you know, those are the parents they love, and they deserve accurate birth certificates. We can do better than this. Texas is better than this.”
Rep. Byron Cook (R-Corsicana) then requested that Anchia’s remarks be recorded in the House Journal.
Cook, who chairs State Affairs, made headlines when he smacked down a witness from Texas Values during a hearing on the bill.
“I just want everybody to know that I support what we’re trying to do here for these kids,” Cook said on the floor Wednesday.
See here for the background. Here are the members of the House State Affairs Committee. If your State Rep is on there, please consider giving him or her a call and asking for their support of HB537. Trail Blazers has more.
Meanwhile, in other adoption-related legislation.I say
Rep. Scott Sanford (R-McKinney) says he wants to make sure faith-based adoption agencies that receive state funding aren’t forced to close their doors if they refuse to place children with same-sex couples.
But opponents of Sanford’s House Bill 3864 say it could have unintended consequences, such as allowing foster homes to force gay youth to undergo conversion therapy or require Christian youth to attend Muslim schools.
On Wednesday, Sanford told a House committee that in some states where same-sex marriage is legal, organizations such as Catholic Charities have shut down rather than comply with laws barring discrimination against gay couples.
“Faith-based organizations have played a vital role in serving our nation’s orphan and needy children since America’s founding, and this legislation protects their operations,” Sanford said. “States without these protective measures have had organizations cease to operate, placing more demand on government.”
HB 3864, which Sanford is calling the “Hope for Orphans and Minors Expansion Act,” or HOME, would prohibit the state from taking “adverse action” against child welfare providers that receive taxpayer dollars and act based on “sincerely held religious beliefs.” It would also protect the rights of state-funded agencies to provide religious education to children and to deny them access to abortions or birth control.
During the hearing on Wednesday, opponents said Sanford’s bill would allow the religious convictions of providers to trump the best interests of children. They also said the rights of faith-based providers are already protected under the state’s 1999 Religious Freedom Restoration Act.
I say if faith-based groups want to receive secular government-based funds then they can obey the secular government laws that come with them. If they can’t do that, then I’m fine with increasing the supply of government to pick up the slack from them when they refuse to get involved. Either way is fine by me. I recognize that’s not what this Legislature will want, I just wanted to be clear about it.
Texas Lottery Commission dies and is reborn
And we have our first curveball of the legislative session.
Is this the end?
The House voted Tuesday to defeat a must-pass bill reauthorizing the Texas Lottery Commission, a stunning move that casts doubt on the lottery as a whole and may potentially cost the state billions in revenue.
House Bill 2197 began as a seemingly routine proposal to continue the operations of the commission that oversees the lottery until September 2025. But opposition mounted after one lawmaker called it a tax on the poor, and the House eventually voted 82-64 to defeat the measure.
A short time after the vote, the House called an abrupt lunch recess and could reconsider the measure if any lawmaker who voted against it offers such a motion. Unless lawmakers reconsider, the commission would begin a one-year wind down, and cease to exist by Sept. 1, 2014.
“There are more members than I thought who are against the lottery and just have a psychological aversion of it,” said Rep. Rafael Anchia, D-Dallas, who sponsored the failed bill.
The state Senate has yet to consider the matter, but it can’t because the so-called “sunset bill” on the Lottery Commission initiated in the House.
For now, there’s no one to operate the lottery, which means a potential loss of $1.04 billion in annual revenue for the Permanent School Fund and $27.3 million to cities and counties from charitable bingo.
The state budget already under consideration in the Legislature has factored in the $1.04 billion — and losing the lottery proceeds would create a deficit lawmakers would need to fill.
Here’s HB2197. I think it’s fair to say no one saw this coming. Here’s more from the Trib:
During a spirited debate on the bill, state Rep. Scott Sanford, R-McKinney, got a round of applause in the House as he spoke against the bill, calling the lottery a “predatory tax” and “a tax on poor people.”
As soon as the vote was over, House leaders were already discussing possible workarounds to keep the programs going. Anchia said the House may reconsider the vote.
Texans spent $3.8 billion on lottery tickets in the 2011 fiscal year, according to the Legislative Budget Board. The majority of that was paid out to players and retailers, with $963 million transferred to the Foundation School Account. Another $8.1 million was transferred to the Texas Veterans Commission.
Anchia warned that charity groups around the state would be outraged at learning they could no longer host bingo games.
“VFW Bingo’s dead now,” Anchia said. “They’re going to have to go back to their constituents and explain why bingo is illegal.”
I don’t disagree with what Rep. Sanford says, though I wonder if he will feel the same way when the payday lending bill comes to the House floor. In the end, however, everyone sobered up after taking a lunch break.
In a 91-53 vote Tuesday afternoon, the Texas House passed House Bill 2197, continuing the the Texas Lottery Commission. An earlier vote Tuesday had failed to continue the commission.
Bill supporters spent the hour after the first vote impressing on those who voted against it the impact of cutting $2.2 billion from schools. The House Republican Caucus hastily assembled to discuss the situation.
“I think when people took a sober look at the budget dilemma that would ensue, they voted different,” said state Rep. Rafael Anchia, D-Dallas, the bill’s author.
Several lottery critics in the House saw the day’s drama as a victory, setting the stage for a more thorough debate on the lottery in the future. Public Education Chairman Jimmie Don Aycock, R-Killeen, said he originally voted “no” largely to make clear his opposition to gambling. Once that statement was made, it made more sense to back the Lottery Commission for now.
“I don’t like gambling, but I do like school funding,” Aycock said. ‘It was, for me, at least, a signal vote. I sort of anticipated I would switch that vote when I made it.”
State Rep. Lon Burnam, D-Fort Worth, said school funding was also the primary motivator for his switch.
“When you weigh principle vs a billion dollars in public ed, I set aside my principle for a billion dollars in public ed,” Burnam said. “I still hate the lottery.”
I had always wondered why they vote on bills three times in the Lege. Now I understand. Having had their fun and having made their statements of principle, if the Lege is serious about wanting to eliminate the Lottery, let’s go about it in the next session by filing a bill and letting it go through the usual committee process, mmkay? Thanks. BOR, who notes that failure to pass this bill could have led to a special session, and Texpatriate have more.
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Parent Conference Interview with the Promotion 6 Students
Posted on: October 3, 2018 Posted by: Soury Phonn Comments: 0
Last month, PEPY Scholarship Promotion 6 students organized the Parent Conference in Kralanh District. English Teacher Soury recently had the chance to interview some “Dragon” students about the conference.
Before the conference started, all students gathered together to decide who would be their presenter and what they would share about their experience at PEPY. They prepared their agendas, rehearsed songs, set up their presentation slides and prepared flowers for their parents. The students said that they learned a lot from the preparation, such as creating agendas, team building and how to communicate better with one another. However, the students also had some challenges. Student (Dung) Ousa said, “Sometimes, we didn’t listen to each other. Sometimes, we did not work together, but it was okay because we solved our problems. We had different ideas. We also had problems agreeing with the meeting dates because of our different exam dates.”
During their presentations, all students talked about what they’ve done at PEPY. They shared what they learned at the PEPY Learning Center, the community organizations that they were involved in, and the activities that they participated in.
“When PEPY started providing scholarships, they only just mentioned it. They helped two students at first. The students didn’t know English, they didn’t have computer skills and their soft-skills were still poor. When they went to their university, they had problems.” Student (Heang) Sotheareak says. “PEPY staff then provided scholarships to the students for English class, ICT/Computer class, Library class, YE class, and how to learn soft-skills (to solve problems, help with studies and get good grades). PEPY wanted to make it easier for the students to study at the university and the students also studied very hard.” He adds, “PEPY wants to train students to be quality employers, not just employees.”
Student (Dung) Ousa talked about Integration Day. “The first day at PEPY, we went to the Women’s house and the Men’s house. We got to describe ourselves. We didn’t know where everyone was originally from.” Ousa said that Integration Day was a very important day for all students, for everyone to get to know each other and build strong friendships.
They think universities are important. Student, Roeum Sren, says that studying at the university makes it easier for the students to build careers and find jobs. “When I told my mother about my university and the activities that I learned, my mother was really happy. I told my parents about the strategic subjects that I’ve learned and other subjects that I will learn at the university.” He adds, “When we study at university, we know more. If we look for all kinds of opportunities, we will find it.”
To Student, Chhea Lida, the university is very important because it is the way to get successful in life. He said, “When (Nat) Tongtin and his other friend made a presentation about the university, I told my father that it was my university, too, and he was impressed and surprised for me. I was excited that he was surprised. Before, my father didn’t know about the [benefits of] university. I told my father that the university is the place where I gain a lot of good knowledge and meet new professors that can help me envision my future. I told my father that I learn about soft-skills and computers. I learn to make friendships with the students and the teachers, and I have a lot of good friends at the university. [He now understands that] I have learned from new people, I have improved my attitude and knowledge.” He told his parents that after he studies at his university for five years, he will continue to study abroad and then he will return home. Lida wants gain and improve his knowledge. He says that when he goes back to the countryside, he will show his village people and his relatives that he is strong. He adds, “This is my dream and I will follow it.”
A few students explained how their parents felt after the conference. Student (Yoeurm) Yinhyung says, “I saw that they were proud of me, with the activities I learned, how I’ve changed, what I’ve acknowledged and my change in attitude.” He adds, “Like Student (Chhon) Sinav, her parents can see the difference and how she has changed when she spends time with them and when she studies at the university.” Student (Rin) Makara says that when she saw her parents, she felt excited. “I saw them cry, and I cried, too. It was my first time speaking in front of them and it was the first time they heard me speak.”
“After listening to the interview, we felt truly inspired. It takes a lot of time and effort from the students to succeed in school and move forward into their jobs, careers, and their lives in general. Pamela said that she has only known the students for a month but she can imagine the transitions that they’ve been through. “I have a lot of respect for them (and the staff, as well, for providing these scholarships). I believe that they will continue to do amazing things in this world. I have infinite hope for all of them.”
PEPY News
Irish Teacher Exchange in Cambodia Encourages New Ways of Thinking
PEPY Students Discuss Changes After Studying at the Learning Center
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Heart failure (HF) is caused by the heart’s inability to pump enough blood to meet the body’s needs. In response, the body activates compensatory mechanisms, such as the sympathetic nervous system which leads to tachycardia, sodium and water retention, vasoconstriction, and over time, ventricular hypertrophy, all geared towards increasing cardiac output. Leading causes of HF are coronary artery disease and hypertension.
Neurohormonal signaling by angiotensin II, norepinephrine, aldosterone, and others drive cardiac remodeling. These hormones promote disease progression, making them ideal targets for pharmacologic therapy. On the other hand, some other medications may exacerbate HF through negative inotropic effects, direct cardiotoxicity, or increased sodium and water retention.
Heart failure with reduced ejection fraction (HFrEF) (Systolic heart failure) is characterized by a reduced (≤40%) left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF). It is caused by the heart’s impaired ability to contract. Myocardial infarction, dilated cardiomyopathies, and ventricular hypertrophy can lead to HFrEF. Heart failure with reduced ejection fraction is amenable to the medical therapies described below.
Heart failure with preserved ejection fraction (HFpEF) (Diastolic heart failure) is characterized by impaired ventricular relaxation and increased diastolic stiffness. In HFpEF, the LVEF is preserved (≥50%). Ventricular stiffness, ventricular hypertrophy, myocardial ischemia and myocardial infarction, mitral or tricuspid valve stenosis, and pericardial disease can lead to HFpEF. There is no standard treatment regimen for patients with HFpEF. Management consists of optimal treatment of the underlying diseases, such as hypertension, diabetes, and obesity.
The following classes of drugs have been shown to reduce mortality in patients with HFrEF:
1) Angiotensin Converting Enzyme Inhibitors (ACEIs) decrease angiotensin II and aldosterone, reducing ventricular remodeling, vasoconstriction, and sodium and water retention. These drugs inhibited the conversion of angiotensin I to angiotensin II by inhibiting ACE. All patients with HFrEF should receive an ACEI unless contraindicated. Patients who do not yet have HF symptoms but already have structural heart disease should receive an ACEI to prevent HF development. Drugs in this class include captopril, lisinopril, enalapril and others. ACEIs also inhibit the inactivation of bradykinin which contributes to dry cough in patients taking an ACEI.
2) Angiotensin Receptor Blockers (ARBs) such as valsartan are similar to ACEIs in their blockade of the harmful effects of angiotensin II. Drugs in this class are highly selective, competitive receptor antagonists at the AT1 receptor, which mediates the effects of angiotensin II. They are recommended for patients unable to tolerate ACEIs, usually due to dry cough. ARBs should not be initiated in patients with a history of angioedema, hypotension, hyperkalemia, or renal insufficiency with ACEIs.
Doses of ACEIs/ARBs should start low and be titrated to the target dose every 2 weeks as tolerated. Monitor renal function and potassium at baseline and 1 to 2 weeks after initiation.
3) Angiotensin Receptor/Neprilysin Inhibitors (ARNI) include the combination valsartan and sacubitril. Natriuretic peptides may produce beneficial effects in patients with heart failure including promotion of diuresis and natriuresis, vasodilation, and inhibition of sympathetic nervous system by reduced catecholamine secretion and inhibition of renin-angiotensin-aldosterone system. Natriuretic peptides are catabolized and inactivated by the enzyme neprilysin. Sacubitril inhibits neprilysin thereby maintaining levels of natriuretic peptides. Neprilysin also breaks down angiotensin II, necessitating the combination of the sacubitril with valsartan.
Patients with HFrEF that remain symptomatic while taking an ACEI or ARB can be transitioned to an ARNI. Patients taking an ARB can switch immediately; however, patients taking an ACEI require a 36-hour washout period due to the risk of angioedema.
4) Aldosterone Receptor Antagonists (ARAs) such as spironolactone block the aldosterone (mineralocorticoid) receptor, thereby inhibiting oxidative stress, sodium reabsorption, potassium excretion, and cardiac remodeling.
ARAs are recommended for patients with a LVEF <35%. HF patients with mild symptoms should only be considered for ARAs if they have a history of prior cardiovascular hospitalization or elevated BNP levels. ARAs are also recommended in patients who develop symptoms of HF or with a history of diabetes mellitus following an acute-MI and a LVEF <40%. ARAs are contraindicated in patients with an eGFR <30 mL/min/1.73 m2 or a potassium level >5 mEq/L.
5) Beta-blockers reduce heart rate, cardiac oxygen consumption, remodeling due to cardiac hypertrophy, and stimulation of the renin-angiotensin-aldosterone system by antagonizing the sympathetic nervous system.
Only bisoprolol, carvedilol, and metoprolol succinate have shown mortality benefits and are recommended for all patients with HFrEF. Doses should start low and be titrated to the target dose every two weeks as tolerated. Beta-blockers can be initiated while optimizing the dose of ACEI/ARBs but should not be started in patients with volume overload.
The following classes of drugs decrease symptoms associated with HFrEF and improve quality of life. However, they have not been shown to reduce mortality.
6) Diuretics, in addition to dietary sodium restriction, are recommended for patients with clinical signs of volume overload. Loop diuretics such as furosemide are typically required. However, patients with mild fluid retention may benefit from a less potent thiazide class diuretic like hydrochlorothiazide.
7) Nitrates and hydralazine: The combination of hydralazine and nitrates (isosorbide dinitrate) decreases cardiac remodeling by promoting vasodilation. The combination is recommended to reduce morbidity and mortality in symptomatic patients self-described as African American already receiving ACEI/ARB, an ARA, and evidence-based beta blockers. They are also recommended in patients who cannot tolerate an ACEI or an ARB.
8) Ivabradine inhibits the “funny” current in the SA node, decreasing heart rate. The funny current is responsible for a steady increase in resting membrane potential through sodium and potassium ionic currents. Inhibition of this current prolongs diastolic depolarization, slowing firing in the SA node, and ultimately reducing heart rate. Ivabradine reduces hospitalizations in HF patients on a target dose of ACEI/ARB and beta-blocker. Patients must be in sinus rhythm and have a heart rate over 70 bpm.
9) Digoxin inhibits the Na/K ATPase pump, resulting in increased intracellular sodium. This promotes an influx of calcium via the Na/Ca exchange pump which increases contractility of the heart. Because the heart can pump with greater contractility, sympathetic tone is reduced and vagal tone predominates, suppressing AV node conduction and slowing the heart rate. It is recommended in patients experiencing symptoms despite taking the target doses of ACEI/ARBs and beta-blockers.
Abigail Elmes, Kelly Karpa
Congestive heart failure (CHF) – systolic, diastolic, left side, right side, & symptoms, created by Osmosis
This 15-minute narrated, animated video describes the principal types of heart failure, including systolic and diastolic. The associated changes in hemodynamics, pathophysiology, and symptomatology are discussed along with treatments for each. Suitable for beginners.
Heart failure treatment – early stages, created by Khan Academy
This 5-minute narrated, animated video describes the treatment of heart failure in the early stages, including dietary changes, ACEIs, ARBs, hydralazine and nitrates, and beta blockers. Suitable for beginners.
Elevated blood pressure (BP) is the product of increased cardiac output (CO) and peripheral vascular resistance (PVR). Increased CO may result from increased fluid volume from excess sodium intake or renal sodium retention, stimulation of the renin-angiotensin-aldosterone system (RAAS), or activation of the sympathetic nervous system (SNS). Functional constriction or structural hypertrophy of the vasculature increases PVR. Both result from excess stimulation of the RAAS, SNS overactivity, genetic alterations of cell membranes, or endothelial-derived factors.
Recommendations for treating hypertension are based on the 2017 American College of Cardiology /American Heart Association (ACC/AHA) Hypertension Guidelines. Hypertension is diagnosed from the average of two or more BP measurements. Normal BP is less than 120/80 mmHg. Elevated BP is 120-129/<80 mmHg. Stage 1 hypertension is classified as 130-139/80-89 mmHg. Stage 2 hypertension is considered at pressures greater than 140/90 mmHg. The BP goal for most patients with hypertension is less than 130/80 mmHg.
Patients with elevated and Stage 1 hypertension with an atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease (ASCVD) 10-year risk less than 10% should be managed through nonpharmacologic regulation of BP which includes weight loss with a heart-healthy diet, dietary sodium restriction and potassium supplementation, increased physical activity, and limited alcohol consumption. If these patients have an ASCVD 10-year risk greater than 10% or clinical CVD, antihypertensive drug therapy should also be initiated. Patients with Stage 2 hypertension will most likely require two or more medications to reach the target BP.
Angiotensin converting enzyme inhibitors (ACEIs), angiotensin receptor blockers (ARBs), calcium channel blockers (CCBs), and thiazides reduce mortality in patients with hypertension and are considered first-line therapies. As a group, African American patients show a smaller response in BP reduction to ACEIs or ARBs than Caucasian patients. Therefore, patients that self-identify as Black or African American should be preferentially placed on a CCB or thiazide. If microalbuminuria is present (urine albumin:creatinine ≥300 mg/g), an ACEI or ARB should be considered.
1. ACEIs (lisinopril, enalapril, captopril, etc.) decrease angiotensin II formation and subsequent aldosterone synthesis, thereby reducing vasoconstriction and sodium and water retention. ARBs (losartan, valsartan, telmisartan, etc.) are similar to ACEIs. While ACEI’s block formation of angiotensin II, ARBs block the effects of angiotensin II by antagonizing AT1 receptors. ARBs are recommended for patients that are unable to tolerate ACEIs, usually due to dry cough or rare incidences of angioedema. ARBs should not be initiated in patients with a history of angioedema, hypotension, hyperkalemia, or renal insufficiency with ACEIs
2. CCBs reduce calcium ion influx during depolarization of cardiac and/or vascular smooth muscle leading to muscle relaxation. Non-dihydropyridine CCBs (diltiazem, verapamil) are more cardioselective, have negative inotropic effects, and decrease CO. On the other hand, the dihydropyridine CCBs (amlodipine, nicardipine, nifedipine, etc.) act mostly on vascular smooth muscle to decrease PVR.
3. Thiazides (hydrochlorothiazide, chlorthalidone, etc.) inhibit sodium reabsorption in the renal distal tubules causing increased excretion of sodium, water, potassium and hydrogen ions. While their diuretic effect is not as potent as loop diuretics, thiazides exhibit significant antihypertensive activity and have a longer duration of action. Loop diuretics, however, should replace thiazides in patients with impaired kidney function and a reduced estimated glomerular filtration rate.
Comorbidities drive therapeutic decision-making. Beta-blockers are not recommended as monotherapy for the treatment of hypertension and should only be considered if heart failure or other comorbidities are also present. Dihydropyridine CCBs should be avoided in patients with heart failure. Alpha-blockers are not recommended due to orthostasis risk unless the patient has benign prostatic hyperplasia.
1. Resistant hypertension
This occurs when BP is not at goal while taking a 3-drug complementary regimen which typically includes a longer-acting thiazide like chlorthalidone, ACEI or ARB, and a CCB. Mineralocorticoid (aldosterone) receptor antagonists like spironolactone are advantageous additions in this setting and have shown evidence of greater BP reduction than beta or alpha blockers. Vasodilators like hydralazine or minoxidil have also shown significant reductions in BP in these patients. Direct renin inhibitors like aliskiren show similar reductions in BP to ACEIs or ARBs but should not be used in combination with them due to increased likelihood of angioedema and hyperkalemia. Central alpha-2 agonists like clonidine are generally reserved as last line therapy due to adverse effects in the central nervous system, particularly in elderly populations.
Women with hypertension who become pregnant or are planning to become pregnant, should be transitioned to methyldopa, nifedipine, and/or labetalol during pregnancy. Hydralazine is a reasonable addition to these medications if BP remains above goal, however, it should not be used as monotherapy. ACEIs, ARBs, and direct renin inhibitors are contraindicated in pregnancy.
General overview of the RAAS system: Cells and hormones
This 15-minute animated, narrated video describes the components and pathways involved with the renin-angiotensin-aldosterone system. The role of the RAAS and its regulation of blood pressure is also discussed. Suitable for beginners.
Author: Rishi Desai, Khan Academy
This 7-minute animated, narrated video describes the factors affecting blood pressure such as cardiac output, blood volume, and vascular resistance. Methods of blood pressure measurement, long term consequences of elevated blood pressure, and treatments of hypertension are also briefly discussed. Suitable for beginners.
Author: Covenant Health
Pharmacology- Hypertension & antihypertensives (made easy)
This 15-minute animated, narrated video describes the pharmacology of major classes of antihypertensive medications. The role of other medications such as bosentan, fenoldopam, hydralazine, and minoxidil is also discussed. Suitable for beginners.
Author: Speed Pharmacology
Oxygen demand of the heart dynamically changes, and the coronary artery can adjust its blood flow to fulfill the myocardial oxygen demand (coronary blood flow reserve). Normally, the oxygen supply and the oxygen demand are well balanced in healthy subjects. When the oxygen supply to the heart becomes inadequate for the needs of the heart, myocardial ischemia occurs. That is, ischemic heart disease (IHD) is caused by an imbalance between the oxygen supply (coronary blood flow) and the oxygen demand of the heart. Depending on myocardial damage caused by ischemia, IHD is categorized into two groups: angina pectoris and myocardial infarction. However, from the therapeutic point of view, IHD is divided into chronic coronary artery disease (CAD) and acute coronary syndrome (ACS).
Chronic CAD is characterized by atherosclerosis that results in reduction of blood supply to the heart. Stable atherosclerotic plaques cause narrowing of coronary arteries in most chronic CAD (stable angina), while functional spasm narrows coronary arteries in some cases (variant angina). When mechanical coronary stenosis is present, the downstream coronary artery maximally dilates by metabolic responses. Therefore, drugs that dilate coronary arteries aiming at increasing blood supply are not effective for stable angina. In that case, oxygen demand should be decreased. In contrast, if coronary artery spasm is the underlying cause of CAD, coronary vasodilators are effective.
ACS is characterized by unstable atherosclerotic plaques that are prone to rupture. Atherosclerotic plaque rupture is followed by dysregulated platelet aggregation and thrombus formation, which causes coronary artery narrowing and occlusion. There are three subtypes of ACS: unstable angina, non-ST elevated myocardial infarction, and ST elevated myocardial infarction. Drugs that affect arterial thrombosis are used to treat ACS.
1. Chronic CAD
Chronic CAD is treated with nitrates, β-adrenergic blockers and calcium channel blockers depending on the pathologies: anti-ischemic therapy.
(1) Nitrates
Organic nitrates are metabolized in the body to release nitric oxide (NO). NO activates soluble guanylyl cyclase to produce cyclic guanosine 3', 5'-monophosphate (cGMP) that relaxes vascular smooth muscle. Nitrates decrease preload to the heart by dilating capacitance veins, which is their primary therapeutic effect. Decrease of the preload reduces myocardial oxygen demand. Nitrates also decrease afterload of the heart by dilating resistance arterioles, which also reduces myocardial oxygen demand. In addition, nitrates increase myocardial blood flow by dilating large coronary arteries. Adverse effects include headache, postural hypotension, and tachycardia. Nitrates cannot be used in combination with phosphodiesterase 5 (PDE5) inhibitors such as sildenafil, because it may cause severe hypotension. Tolerance to nitrates can easily develop, which should be considered in clinical settings.
(2) β-blockers
β-blockers reduce myocardial oxygen demand by decreasing myocardial contractility and heart rate via acting on cardiac β1-adrenoceptors. It is their primary therapeutic effect for CAD. β-adrenergic blockers are used to treat stable angina. Blocking of vascular β2-adrenoceptor inhibits vascular relaxation, which may worsen myocardial ischemia. Therefore, β-blockers cannot be used to treat CAD when coronary artery spasm is the underlying mechanism.
(3) Calcium channel blockers (CCBs)
CCBs block Ca2+ entry into cells via L-type Ca2+ channels that play an important role in cardiac muscle and vascular smooth muscle. Each CCB has a different profile in terms of tissue selectivity: dihydropyridines (DHPs) such as nifedipine have a high selectivity to vascular L-type Ca2+ channels, whereas verapamil and diltiazem have a relatively high selectivity to cardiac L-type Ca2+ channels. CCBs can increase oxygen supply by dilating coronary arteries. CCBs can also reduce myocardial oxygen demand by dilating resistance arterioles to decrease afterload. In addition, CCBs that act on the heart at therapeutic concentrations, such as verapamil and diltiazem, reduce myocardial oxygen demand by decreasing cardiac contractility and heart rate. Although increase of oxygen supply and decrease of oxygen demand are therapeutic effects of CCBs, each CCB has differential effect on the supply and demand. For example, nifedipine (a short acting DHP) strongly dilates arterioles to cause hypotension that leads to reflex tachycardia. Therefore, nifedipine rather increases myocardial oxygen demand, which may worsen CAD. Adverse effects include flushing, dizziness, pedal edema, constipation, and gingival hyperplasia. Unlike β-blockers, CCBs are the first-line drug for vasospastic angina.
2. ACS
In addition to anti-ischemic therapy, antithrombotic therapy is indicated for the treatment of ACS, since ACS is caused by dysregulated platelet aggregation and thrombus formation.
(1) Antiplatelet drugs
As antiplatelet drugs, aspirin, a nonsteroidal-antiinflammatory drug (NSAID), is most frequently prescribed to treat ACS. Aspirin inhibits cyclooxygenase (COX), reducing the synthesis of thromboxane A2 (TXA2) that potently stimulates platelet aggregation. Since aspirin irreversibly inhibits COX and de novo protein synthesis does not occur in platelets, antiplatelet effects of aspirin continue until new platelets are produced. Other antiplatelets used include ADP receptor inhibitors, such as clopidogrel and ticlopidine, and inhibitors of phosphodiesterase 3 (PDE3), such as cilostazol and dipyridamole.
(2) Anticoagulants
Heparin is indicated in most ACS patients. Heparin acts on the endogenous anticoagulant antithrombin III (AT III) that inhibits coagulation factor proteases including thrombin and factor X. Heparin shows its anticoagulation activity via accelerating binding of AT III to the coagulation factors by 1,000-fold. Besides heparin, direct and indirect inhibitors of Factor Xa are used. Fondaparinux, an indirect inhibitor of factor Xa, also binds to AT III and selectively inhibits factor Xa.
(3) Thrombolytics
Cross-linked fibrin that is digested by plasmin is a major component of a thrombus. Therefore, tissue plasminogen activator (t-PA) and pro-urokinase that activates plasminogen, the plasmin precursor, are used to lyse thrombus. They are administered intravenously or intra-coronary.
Kuniaki Ishii
Overview of Coronary Artery Disease
A 3-minute video summarizing the pathophysiology of coronary artery disease (CAD). This video briefly describes causes (atherosclerotic plaque formation, plaque rupture and clot formation), types (stable angina and acute coronary syndrome) and therapy (thrombolysis, angioplasty and thrombectomy) of CAD.
Learner level: Beginner
Heart attack (acute myocardial infarction)
This 12-minute narrated animated video summarizes the pathophysiology and treatment of acute myocardial infarction. The causes (endothelial dysfunction, atherosclerosis, clot formation and others), types (subendocardial and transmural infarction), symptoms (direct and indirect), diagnosis (ECG changes and time course of changes in biomarkers), and complications (changes over the time course) of acute myocardial infarction are described. Additionally, the therapy (medications and others) of acute myocardial infarction is summarized.
Angina pectoris (stable, unstable, prinzmetal, vasospastic)
This 6-minute narrated animated video describes the principal types of angina pectoris including stable, unstable and vasospastic angina. The associated symptoms, ECG changes and pathophysiology (atherosclerosis, thrombosis and others) of each are discussed together with treatments (indication of nitroglycerin and calcium channel blockers) of angina pectoris.
Organic nitrates and the treatment of angina pectoris
This 11-slide slide set created with PowerPoint describes the pharmacology of organic nitrates: mechanisms of action; routes of administration; common unwanted effects; mechanisms of tolerance and the interaction between organic nitrates and phosphodiesterase 5 inhibitors. This is an introduction to the topic of organic nitrates which would be appropriate for beginners. Contributed by Christopher Fowler, Umeå University, Sweden.
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Download PNG image: Labrador Retriever PNG
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The Labrador Retriever, or just Labrador, is a large type of retriever-gun dog. The Labrador is one of the most popular breeds of dog in Canada, the United Kingdom and the United States.
A favourite disability assistance breed in many countries, Labradors are frequently trained to aid the blind, those who have autism, to act as a therapy dog, or to perform screening and detection work for law enforcement and other official agencies. Additionally, they are prized as sporting and hunting dogs.
A few kennels breeding their ancestors, the St. John's water dog, were in England. At the same time, a combination of the sheep protection policy in Newfoundland and the rabies quarantine in the United Kingdom led to the gradual demise of the St. John's water dog in Canada.
In the 1830s, the 10th Earl of Home and his nephews the 5th Duke of Buccleuch and Lord John Scott, had imported progenitors of the breed from Newfoundland to Europe for use as gundogs. Another early advocate of these Newfoundland dogs, or Labrador Retrievers as they later became known, was the 2nd Earl of Malmesbury who bred them for their expertise in waterfowling.
During the 1880s, the 3rd Earl of Malmesbury, the 6th Duke of Buccleuch and the 12th Earl of Home collaborated to develop and establish the modern Labrador breed. The dogs Buccleuch Avon and Buccleuch Ned, given by Malmesbury to Buccleuch, were mated with female dogs carrying blood from those originally imported by the 5th Duke and the 10th Earl of Home. The offspring are considered to be the ancestors of modern Labradors.
The modern Labrador's ancestors originated on the island of Newfoundland, now part of the province of Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada. The founding breed of the Labrador was the St. John's water dog, a breed that emerged through ad-hoc breedings by early settlers of the island in the 16th century. The forebears of the St. John's Dog are not known, but were likely a random-bred mix of English, Irish, and Portuguese working breeds. The Newfoundland (known then as the Greater Newfoundland) is likely a result of the St. John's Dog breeding with mastiffs brought to the island by the generations of Portuguese fishermen who had been fishing offshore since the 16th century. The smaller short-coated St. John's Dog (also known then as the Lesser Newfoundland) was used for retrieval and pulling in nets from the water. These smaller dogs were the forebears of the Labrador Retriever. The white chest, feet, chin, and muzzle – known as tuxedo markings – characteristic of the St. John's Dog often appear in modern Lab mixes, and will occasionally manifest in Labradors as a small white spot on the chest (known as a medallion) or stray white hairs on the feet or muzzle.
In the early years of the breed through to the mid-20th century, Labradors of a shade we would now call "yellow" were in fact a dark, almost butterscotch, colour (visible in early yellow Labrador photographs). The shade was known as "Golden" until required to be changed by the UK Kennel Club, on the grounds that "Gold" was not actually a colour. Over the 20th century a preference for far lighter shades of yellow through to cream prevailed; until today most yellow Labradors are of this shade. Also fawn has been a common colour in the yellow lab variety. The paler shades of yellow are undesirable in working gundog lines as they are more easily seen by quarry than black and darker yellow dogs.
Interest in the darker shades of gold and fox red were re-established by English breeders in the 1980s, and three dogs were instrumental in this change: Balrion King Frost (black, born c. 1976) who consistently sired "very dark yellow" offspring and is credited as having "the biggest influence in the re-development of the fox red shade", and his great-grandson, the likewise famous Wynfaul Tabasco (b. 1986), described as "the father of the modern fox red Labrador", and the only modern fox red Show Champion in the UK. Other dogs, such as Red Alert and Scrimshaw Placido Flamingo, are also credited with passing on the genes into more than one renowned bloodline.
Jack Vanderwyk traces the origins of all Brown/Liver/Chocolate Labradors listed on the LabradorNet database (some 34,000 Labrador dogs of all shades) to eight original bloodlines. However, the shade was not seen as a distinct colour until the 20th century; before then, according to Vanderwyk, such dogs can be traced but were not registered. A degree of crossbreeding with Flatcoat or Chesapeake Bay retrievers was also documented in the early 20th century, prior to recognition. Chocolate Labradors were also well established in the early 20th century at the kennels of the Earl of Feversham, and Lady Ward of Chiltonfoliat.
The bloodlines as traced by Vanderwyk each lead back to three black Labradors in the 1880s—Buccleuch Avon (m), and his sire and dam, Malmesbury Tramp (m), and Malmesbury June (f). Morningtown Tobla is also named as an important intermediary, and according to the studbook of Buccleuch Kennels, the chocolates in this kennel came through FTW Peter of Faskally (1908).
The AKC describes the Labrador's temperament as a kind, pleasant, outgoing and tractable nature. Labradors' sense of smell allows them to home in on almost any scent and follow the path of its origin. They generally stay on the scent until they find it. Navies, military forces and police forces use them as detection dogs to track down smugglers, thieves, terrorists and black marketers. They are known to have a very soft feel to the mouth, as a result of being bred to retrieve game such as waterfowl. They are prone to chewing objects (though they can be trained to abandon this behaviour).
Labradors have a reputation as a very even-tempered breed and an excellent family dog. This includes a good reputation with children of all ages and other animals. Some lines, particularly those that have continued to be bred specifically for their skills at working in the field (rather than for their appearance), are particularly fast and athletic. Their fun-loving boisterousness and lack of fear may require training and firm handling at times to ensure it does not get out of hand—an uncontrolled adult can be quite problematic. Females may be slightly more independent than males. Labradors mature at around three years of age; before this time they can have a significant degree of puppy-like energy, often mislabelled as being hyperactive. Because of their enthusiasm, leash-training early on is suggested to prevent pulling when full-grown. Labradors often enjoy retrieving a ball endlessly (often obsessively) and other forms of activity (such as agility, frisbee, or flyball).
Although they will sometimes bark at noise, especially noise from an unseen source ("alarm barking"), Labradors are usually not noisy or territorial. They are often very easygoing and trusting with strangers and therefore are not usually suitable as guard dogs.
Labradors as a breed are curious and exploratory and love company, following both people and interesting scents for food, attention, and novelty value. In this way, they can often "vanish" or otherwise become separated from their owners with little fanfare. As a breed they are highly intelligent and capable of intense single-mindedness and focus if motivated or their interest is caught. Therefore, with the right conditions and stimuli, a bored Labrador could "turn into an escape artist par excellence". Many dogs are also stolen. Because of their curious nature and ability to "vanish," along with the risk of being stolen, a number of dog clubs and rescue organisations (including the UK's Kennel Club) consider it good practice that Labradors be microchipped, with the owner's name and address also on their collar and tags.
The steady temperament of Labradors and their ability to learn make them an ideal breed for search and rescue, detection, and therapy work. They are a very intelligent breed. They are ranked No. 7 in Stanley Coren's The Intelligence of Dogs. The AKC describes the breed as an ideal family and sporting dog. Their primary working role in the field continues to be that of a hunting retriever.
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Image category: Labrador Retriever
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Transience - Primordial - 2003
The world of progressive music is very strange. As artists such as Steve Wilson or Radiohead are praised by english media and “cult” european music circles, other bands with Floydian legacy almost have to ask for a favour if they want to be considered outside progressive scene. If we talk about Landsend the thing is worse... they come from America!... even worse!... they come from the USA!. Well, USA hasn´t a gothic period and they didn´t receive the Roman Empire´s cultural legacy or Greek philosophy, but... is there any law forbidding high quality US bands?. People accept progressive bands coming from exotic countries such as Indonesia, but when a high skilled band comes from USA it seems like they are green dogs. And we must have in mind that the best progressive band nowadays comes from USA (Djam Karet).
Well, forgive me for all this “rap”... I only wanted to introduce you the new reincarnation of Landsend under the name Transience. Because of personal circumstances, the band decided to have a break and only the keyboardist Fred Hunter wanted to continue the musical endeavor, joining his old mates. Technology supplies those harmed by the distance, so the album has been recorded by musicians who lives very far among them.
The album consists of nine tracks that explores crystalline, very fragile and delicate ambient's, with a slight Pink Floyd´s aroma. In some webzines where Radiohead is considered a progressive band, Marillion is considered as an influence in the music of Transience, but I don´t see that influence. I only see, from time to time, an approach to light Canterbury sounds and some melodies with BJH influences. There´s no room for regressive rock in “Primordial”... but also there´s no room for long experimentations. Anyway listen to the atmospheres, Mark Lavalle´s imaginative percussions, Steve Ades exquisite sax, or the hypnotic atmospheres inside “Riding the iron rooster” (9:35) and tell me if this is good prog or not.
And that´s not the only track. The different keyboards shades in the seemingly simple “A stones throw from nowhere” (9:04), with a long and Floydian guitar solo played by Francisco Neto; the cold feeling plenty of industrial beauty inside “Blurring the margins” (4:27); or the experimental “Blurred beyond recognition” (9:09), make this album a worthy continuation of Landsend´s career and a very interesting album itself.
The only weak point is the production.. the instruments sound very well but sometimes the voice sounds in background. Having into account that the album has been recorded from different places, being Fred the compilator (hey, this is not an U2 or Pink Floyd album), the result is very good.
If I didn´t convince you yet, the album also has.. six unreleased tracks in MP3!. More than an hour of music (the track “Aquadream” lasts around thirty minutes) maybe more ambient– note that Transience is a keyboardist´s project- but also very interesting. In short, more than two hours of music.
I don´t know if Fred read my review of the first album at old progVisions when I wrote that an extremely relaxing second album could be boring. But I consider this album a Landsend´s album more than a Fred´s solo album. It´s not as good as albums such as “Terra Serrarum” but it deserves a good rate. And yes, it´s made in USA.
Alfonso Algora - September 2003
- Cyclops
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Sky R. Mote, 27
Marines, Staff Sergeant
Based: Camp Pendleton
1st Marine Special Operations Battalion
Supporting: Operation Enduring Freedom
Died: August 10, 2012
Helmand province, Afghanistan
Hometown: El Dorado
High School: Union Mine High (El Dorado)
Burial: Green Valley Mortuary & Cemetery, Rescue, Calif.
“ He was just a humble person doing his job, and his job was to protect his team. He was not like a gung-ho military person. You wouldn't know he was in the special forces. ” — Russell Mote, father
Mote was killed Aug 10 while supporting combat operations in Helmand province, Afghanistan. Staff Captain Matthew P. Manoukian, 29, of Los Altos Hills, Calif., and Gunnery Sergeant Ryan Jeschke, 31, of Herndon, Va., were also killed.
Times obituary
Suresh N.A. Krause, 08/16/2012
Matthew P. Manoukian, 08/10/2012
Share a memory of Sky
Email addresses are not republished or used for marketing purposes.
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The Harper Conservatives and the gutting of Canadian sciences
Ryan Mailloux
The word science is derived from the Latin word "scientia," meaning knowledge. The acquisition of knowledge is one of the main driving forces of our society. Through basic research or "pure" science, we can acquire the knowledge necessary to understand the fundamental principles that govern our universe. Basic research then forms the foundation of applied research, since understanding the fundamentals accrued by "pure" science are used at the industrial level to generate products. The development of product and sale to the public for consumption, for example The Blackberry, requires a work force. The process where basic research drives job creation is referred to as a knowledge-based economy, which constitutes an important determinant for job creation and the development of a healthy and sustainable economy.
In the 2011 election campaign, the Conservatives built their electoral platform on the concept of job creation and rebuilding a stable economy. That being said, over the past five years it has become abundantly clear that Stephen Harper and the federal Conservatives do not appreciate the importance of developing a knowledge-based economy. This is illustrated by five years of massive cuts in research funding, the muzzling of scientists working for the government, and the diversion of critical research funds to support industry (e.g. oil sands). Arguably, this could very well be due to a simple lack of understanding and appreciation for science (which could very well be the case). However, the diversion of research funds towards industry (e.g. oil sands and automotive sector) and the muzzling of government scientists that generate data that clashes with Conservative ideology indicates that the prime minister is more preoccupied with short-term return on investment and not with enacting a concerted effort to ensure the vitality of a knowledge-based economy that is geared toward ensuring a sustainable future.
Since taking office in 2006, Harper has used anti-academic policies to control information and direction of research funding. Between 2006 and 2008, Harper made significant cuts to various academic programs including funding for arts and basic science. During this time, approximately $45 million dollars was removed from the arts and culture. The justification Harper used was that "ordinary people do not care about the arts" (thestar.com, Sept 2008). This shortsighted decision prompted an outcry from the literary community. Yann Martel, author of Life of Pi, began sending various famous literary works to Harper's home on Sussex Drive to illustrate the rich bounty creative writing has to offer. Margaret Atwood also condemned the decision by writing several articles to various news sources and she continues to speak out about the neglect of the arts by the Conservatives. Now, in 2011, the arts still have not recovered from these massive cuts.
Research scientists in Canadian agencies also felt the sting of going against the Conservative agenda. Following the generation of data that indicated the oil sands are contributing significantly to climate change, the Conservatives decided to muzzle these scientists preventing them from sharing this critical information with the public (Montreal Gazette, March 2010). How is the public going to generate an informed opinion about something as critical as climate change if they are not presented with all the facts by the government they trust?
The announcement of the 2009 budget was marked by the Conservatives boasting $2-billion for fixing the aging buildings of university and college campuses, $87.5 million for new graduate scholarships, and $740 million for the Canada Foundation of Innovation. However, buried deep within the budget was a massive cut in funding to the Research Tri-Council of Canada, amounting to a total of $137 million dollars in cuts. This money was placed conveniently, and not entirely surprisingly, in the hands of the automotive sector, oil sands, and corporations.
What was even more perplexing was that Genome Canada, a major employer of research scientists in Canada and international leader in cutting edge genome research, was left out of the budget completely for the first time in history.
The consequences of these initiatives were catastrophic. Well established academic research laboratories (in the areas of the humanities, and in the natural, social and health sciences) soon became grossly underfunded and unable to make ends meet. Mentors and supervisors became apprehensive since they would not be able to support the salaries of technical staff, graduate students, and in some cases post-doctoral fellows (all three are the life blood of any research laboratory). Massive hiring freezes ensued and various faculties and departments had to cut spending massively. Consequently, this put massive strain on the education programs in universities. A mass exodus of scientists and academics from Canada ensued, with Canada losing a number of high-profile researchers including scientists involved in AIDS research.
Light at the end of the tunnel was apparent with the announcement of the 2010 budget. However, the positive aspects to the budget veiled fiscal decisions that negatively influenced both junior and senior academics. First, despite the introduction of new funding initiatives for postdoctoral fellows (or junior academics; for more information visit the CAPS postdoctoral scholar website), the Harper government announced it would reintroduce the taxation of postdoctoral fellowships (which is similar to a scholarship). Postdoctoral scholars are junior academics who have doctoral degrees and represent future academic professors/scientists. They are paid a low wage during their postdoctoral fellowship ($40,000 per year) and have no benefits or union representation. The taxation of these scholarships, which removes 1/5 of a post doc's annual salary, ultimately pushed these academics to the poverty line. Harper did set up a Banting Postdoctoral Award valued at $70,000 per year. Unfortunately, in 2010, only 20 awards were dolled out leaving a number of post docs, some of whom have families, without a paycheque. Indeed, it is a troubling time to be a junior academic since there are no funds circulating through the Research Tri-Council to provide postdoctoral awards. Why were post docs made to be punished at this magnitude?
At the same time, Harper recruited 19 research scientists from other countries with the Canadian Excellence Research Chair (CERC), a research fund valued at millions of dollars. It is interesting to note that even after the cuts to research funding in 2009, Canadian academics were not privileged enough to be eligible for these funds. In fact, it is disturbing to know that the Federal Conservatives do not care about cultivating the minds and careers of both established and budding academics in Canada. Narrowmindedly, the CERC was only awarded to people working in Natural Sciences with only a handful provided to Health Research. Awards were mostly reserved for engineers and scientists interested in industry and oil sands technology. In fact, one CERC was titled oil sands technology. No CERC awards were provided to women, the humanities, or the arts.
Following the 2010 grant competition, CIHR also recorded an abysmal 17 per cent success rate for operating funds for health research, which was most likely attributed to poor federal support. In addition, post-doctoral and graduate student funding continued to be at an all time low. Indeed, after the cuts in 2009, Harper never replenished the federal research funds, a decision which has now brought the academic system to its knees.
Fast forward to 2011, with a new majority Conservative government forming a new Parliament -- the academic community waited with bated breath for what this government would have in store for science and the arts. With the election behind us, the new budget was announced in early June. As promised by the Conservatives, minor "tweaks" were made here and there to the budget that would have been presented in March (if the Conservative minority government did not fall, because of two counts of contempt of Parliament). The March budget did not offer much for the basic science or arts communities and, in the new budget, nothing has really changed. The Research Tri-Council of Canada will remain in the poor house ($15M CIHR, $15M NSERC, $7M SSHRC per year), post docs will still be taxed heavily with a dearth of funding available, and the arts will remain grossly underfunded. What is really interesting is that post docs, such as myself, are getting taxed heavily and he is using this money to go see the Canucks game in Boston with his "entourage" (Editor's note: According to media reports Harper paid for the hockey tickets, but paid only commercial airline rates to fly himself and his daughter in a Defense Department Challenger jet, which costs approximately $11,000 an hour).
That is an insult! With an already abysmal success rate for research grants, funding for the Tri-Council at an all time low, and postdoctoral positions looking very unattractive, a purging of academics from our country appears inevitable. Harper is able to find sufficient funds to support research and development at the industrial level, but this comes at the cost of deep cuts in basis research and higher education. Basic research is required to enhance our understanding of the principles that govern these R&D innovations. Carnot did not invent the first car engine without understanding the basic principles of combustion, engineering, and physics or, more recently, the trapping of anti-matter by international scientists to aid in understanding the birth of our universe. At a time when emerging economies around the world are increasing their financial support of basic science, Canada is working hard to reduce theirs.
Instead of being a leader in science innovation, Canada is now a laggard (Cell, vol. 144, January 21, 2011). The Conservatives have nonetheless decided to set up 10 new CERCs valued at $54 million, which will continue to restrict the scope of research performed in this country. Why are academics and persons involved in basic science and arts being scorned by Conservatives? If Conservatives are so concerned about the status of the economy and job creation, why are they trying to drive academics, both junior and senior, out of this country? It is very tempting to speculate that their track record of anti-academic policies may be due to a shear lack of understanding of what value basic science truly holds for a sustainable long-term vision of Canada.
Ryan Mailloux is a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Ottawa's Faculty of Medicine.
Conservative Party of Canada
harper conservatives
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Danny Thompson, 69, sets land speed record in dad’s 50-year-old car By Gary Gastelu | Fox News (@thompsonlsr)
by Press Release / / Posted in: DRAG RACING, NEWS, OFF ROAD
It was a moment his family had been chasing for a half-century.
Racer Danny Thompson set a land speed record for piston-powered, wheel-driven cars at the Bonneville Salt Flats on Sunday in a vehicle that his father Mickey first brought to Utah in 1968.
The elder Thompson didn’t get a chance to drive the streamliner, named Challenger 2, that year due to bad weather, and he never got around to trying again before he and his wife were murdered in 1988 by gunmen hired by a former business associate. At the time, he was restoring the car for Danny to drive.
Instead, it was put way until a few years ago when Danny pulled it out, updated it and began racing it again. Equipped with twin nitro-burning Hemi V8s with total of 5,000 hp, the all-wheel-drive car is more than twice as powerful as it was when Mickey first built it.
On Saturday, Danny was competing in the Southern California Timing Association Speed Week event when he made a pass at 446.605 mph. He followed up on Sunday morning by going in the opposite direction at 450.909 mph, for an average of 448.757 mph.
That easily broke the record of 439.562 set in 2012, but it wasn’t easy. Danny had to steer out of a dangerous slide that occurred at 430 mph.
It was a clutch move on what will be Challenger 2’s last run. After the event, Danny told Fox News the car’s work is finally done.
“It’s the car’s 50th anniversary, and the whole crew pulled together to get the record, so I feel like I’ve finally put the streamliner’s unfinished business to rest.”
New land speed racing documentary airs tonight
American land speed racing team tops New Zealand racing icon Burt Munro’s speed but leaves record intact at 68th running of SCTA Speed Week BY: Louise Ann Noeth
“RR-AZ Alum”…JOHN FORCE SETS TRACK SPEED RECORD ON FRIDAY AT THE STRIP
MAN TO ATTEMPT TO BREAK LAND-SPEED RECORD WITH 1,000 MPH CAR
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Alexander Areshchenko
Get Alexander Areshchenko essential facts below. View Videos or join the Alexander Areshchenko discussion. Add Alexander Areshchenko to your PopFlock.com topic list for future reference or share this resource on social media.
Areshchenko at the Ukrainian championship 2014
(1986-06-15) June 15, 1986 (age 33)
Luhansk, Ukrainian SSR, Soviet Union
Grandmaster (2002)
2675 (July 2019)
Peak rating
2720 (November 2013)
This article uses algebraic notation to describe chess moves.
Alexander Areshchenko (Ukrainian: , Oleksandr Areshenko; born June 15, 1986) is a Ukrainian chess grandmaster and Ukrainian champion in 2005.[1] He has competed in the FIDE World Cup in 2005, 2009, 2013 and 2015.
In 2000, Areshchenko won the U-14 division of the World Youth Chess Championships that took place in Oropesa del Mar, Spain, ahead of future Super Grandmaster Wang Yue. In 2007 he tied for 2nd-4th with Hikaru Nakamura and Emil Sutovsky in the 5th GibTelecom Chess Festival.[2]
In 2009 he tied for 1st-4th with Humpy Koneru, Evgenij Miroshnichenko and Magesh Panchanathan in the Mumbai Mayor Cup, which he won on a tiebreak.[3] In the same year, he tied for first with Boris Avrukh in the Zurich Jubilee Open tournament and again won the event on a tiebreak.[4]
In 2011, Areshchenko tied for 1st-5th with Yuriy Kuzubov, Parimarjan Negi, Markus Ragger and Ni Hua in the 9th Parsvnath Open Tournament.[5] The following year, he won the Chigorin Memorial[6] and the Botvinnik Memorial tournaments,[7] both held in Saint Petersburg, Russia. In 2015, he tied for 1st-5th places with Nils Grandelius, Martyn Kravtsiv, Baadur Jobava and Richárd Rapport in the Masters tournament of the 22nd Abu Dhabi International Chess Festival.[8][9] In 2016, he won the 20th Open International Bavarian Championship in Bad Wiessee, Germany.[10]
Playing for team Ukraine Areshchenko has won the team bronze medal at the World Team Chess Championship in 2011 and 2013, and an individual silver medal in the European Team Chess Championship in 2007.
Sample game
White: Sergei Rublevsky
Black: Alexander Areshchenko
1.e4 c5 2.Ne2 d6 3.g3 Nf6 4.Bg2 e5 5.c3 Be7 6.d4 cxd4 7.cxd4 O-O 8.Nbc3 a6 9.O-O b5 10.a3 Bb7 11.Be3 Nbd7 12.h3 Re8 13.g4 Nb6 14.b3 Rc8 15.Rc1 Nfd7 16.Qd2 d5 17.Nxd5 Nxd5 18.Rxc8 Qxc8 19.exd5 e4 20.Nc3 Bxa3 21.Nxe4 Qa8 22.Nc5 Bxd5 23.Bxd5 Qxd5 24.Nxd7 Qxd7 25.b4 a5 26.bxa5 Qd5 27.Qd3 b4 28.a6 h5 29.Bf4 hxg4 30.hxg4 Ra8 31.Re1 Bb2 32.Re4 b3 33.Qf3 Bxd4 34.Bc1 Qc6 35.Ba3 b2 36.Bxb2 Bxb2 37.Qe2 Bf6 38.a7 g5 39.Qe3 Kg7 40.Rb4 Qd7 0-1
^ Boytsun, Olena (2005-09-05). "Areshchenko wins the Ukraine Championship". ChessBase. Retrieved 2010.
^ "Akopian wins GibTel Masters in Gibraltar". ChessBase. 2007-02-04. Retrieved 2010.
^ Zaveri, Praful (2009-05-15). "Areshchenko triumphs in Mayor's Cup - Jai Ho Mumbai!!". ChessBase. Retrieved 2010.
^ "Areshchenko wins Zurich Jubilee on tiebreak". ChessVibes. 2009-08-16. Archived from the original on 20 August 2009. Retrieved 2010.
^ "9th Parsvnath International Open Chess Tournament". Chessdom. Retrieved 2011.
^ Doggers, Peter (2012-11-05). "Areshchenko wins strong Chigorin Memorial on tie-break". ChessVibes. Retrieved .
^ "Alexander Areshchenko wins Botvinnik Memorial 2012". Chessdom. 2012-09-02. Retrieved . [permanent dead link]
^ "Nils Grandelius wins Abu Dhabi Masters Chess Championship (Video)". Chessdom. Retrieved .
^ Shah, Sagar (2015-09-03). "Grandelius wins Abu Dhabi Masters 2015". Chess News. ChessBase. Retrieved .
^ Fischer, Johannes (2016-11-08). "Alexander Areshchenko wins strong open in Bad Wiessee". Chess News. ChessBase. Retrieved .
Alexander Areshchenko chess games at 365chess.com
Alexander Areshchenko player profile and games at Chessgames.com
Alexander Areschenko team chess record at Olimpbase.org
Alexander_Areshchenko
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Harry Rountree - part 1
Harry Rountree (1878 – 1950) was a prolific illustrator, mainly for children. The son of a banker, Rountree was born in Auckland, New Zealand. He was educated at the city’s Queen’s College, and began work as a lithographer in a commercial studio, designing labels for jam jars and other products.
In 1901, aged 23, he migrated to London and studied under Percival Gaskell at the Regent Street Polytechnic. The style he evolved there developed fin-de-siècle elements for comic ends, and his use of blocks of flat colour surrounded by thick jagged lines was found suitable for both small-scale illustrations and for large posters.
He began to contribute to such periodicals as the Humorist, Playtime, and Punch. From 1903 he collaborated with the editor of Little Folks on a very successful series of books. Specialising in animals, he illustrated several classics of children’s literature, including Uncle Remus and Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. During the First World War Rountree served as a Captain in the Royal Engineers. His late work included contributions to the Radio Times during the 1930s. A member of the Savage Club, a leading Bohemian Gentleman’s Club, and one-time President of the London Sketch Club, Rountree was late largely forgotten and died in relative poverty in St Ives, Cornwall in 1950.
This series of posts on Harry Rountree supercedes and replaces an earlier short post about him. This is part 1 of a 6 - part series on Harry Rountree.
The first set of works shown here, from "The Art of the Illustrator" by Percy V. Bradshaw demonstrates Rountree's working method. "Tween Devil & Deep Sea":
Tween Devil and Deep Blue Sea 1
1903 The Animal Game Book
1904c Tiger and Snake 25.4 x 19.7 cm
1905 Archibald's Amazing Adventure
hardback cover, published by Cassell & Company
1905c "The Little Robinson Crusoes" published by Nelson, London
1905c The Little Robinson Crusoes
"Nearing the island"
"Our first night ashore"
"The storm"
"Gathering fruit"
"A morning gallop"
"No sign of a ship"
"Our house in the tree"
1906 Uncle Remus published by Nelson
("Rountree" is misspelled)
1906 Uncle Remus
1907 Little Folks hard cover
1907c Billy Bunce or the Wanderings of a White Rabbit
1908 Alice's Adventures in Wonderland published by Nelson
hardback cover
1908 Alice's Adventures in Wonderland
(This hardback cover from a 1932 French edition)
"A curious game of croquet"
"The Mouse gave a sudden leap"
1908 Children's Book illustration
1908 Children's Book illustration "The Broken Doll"
Cristian González 25 February 2018 at 19:13
Thanks for this post. I just discovered this artist today and I'm really fascinated for his work.
We have an original of a polar bear painting from the artist which sadly is in disrepair
Peter de Sève 3 June 2018 at 15:40
Hello Unknown,
As an ardent fan of Rountree's work, I'd love to see your polar bear piece. Any chance you can share it?
Railway Posters – part 4
Edwin Landseer – part 6
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“Human rights start with children’s rights”
Submitted by Kerry on Mon, 2011-05-30 20:31.
Duchess of York may face police quiz over undercover TV documentary highlighting 'plight' of Turkish orphans
Bitter legacy of separation
Nepal 'should suspend' adoptions
Australian state apologises for child abuse
The mounting tally: Another avenue for adoption closes
New regulations make international adoption harder than ever for Americans
I-Team investigates international adoption facilitator
Charity urges caution over Elton John 'adoption plan'
Bindoon Boys Town: The sad truth behind Britain's lost children
The United States, international adoption, The Hague Convention, and child abuse
The head of the UNICEF mission in Ukraine speaks about the priorities of the state, the Soviet heritage and destroying stereotypes
By Oksana Mykoliuk
May 30, 2011 / The Day
Unfortunately, there are particularly entrenched problems linked to children’s rights protection and child abuse in Ukraine. The state has to change the whole system, bring down stereotypes and cultivate humanity in people so that the younger generation doesn’t suffer. Ukraine has only made its first steps toward eradicating child abuse, a problem that was hushed up for years. On May 24-25 an international conference focusing on children’s rights violations was held in Kyiv. It was organized by UNICEF and the Council of Europe, together with the assistance of the Ukrainian government, and attended by nearly 200 foreign experts. Its title was “Child Abuse Counteraction: From Separate Actions to Complex Strategies.” The Day before its opening The Day interviewed the head of the UNICEF mission in Ukraine Yukie MOKUO.
Judging from the name of the conference, it will be focused on creating new approaches in governmental strategies, aimed at tracking cases of child abuse and preventing them?
“The conference will address questions related to child abuse counteraction. When we talk about child abuse we have to know that it concerns not only physical punishment. Of course, physical abuse also matters, but there are also issues connected to the child’s social and emotional development. Especially for children brought up in orphanages and unable to grow in a family environment. It’s a burning issue in terms of social protection, not only in Ukraine but in other countries, too. It’s all about services provided to children and caring for them. We believe that the more children stay in orphanages, the more they are abused. We shouldn’t, however, forget about the existence of child abuse at home, both physical and psychological. Our society is also contaminated with such forms of child abuse as sexual exploitation, trafficking of children and child prostitution. So, when talking about the conference we say that we try to embrace the issues related to child protection with a complex approach. This event is of extreme importance for the Ukrainian government since Ukraine will preside over the Committee of Ministers in the Council of Europe from May to November this year. It’s the first conference held within the framework of the Ukrainian presidency in the Council of Europe.
“UNICEF is glad that the Ukrainian government has prioritized the question of children’s rights protection. The conference will be attended by nearly 200 experts from 23 countries of Western and Eastern Europe. They account for half of the attendance; the other half is made up of government representatives. We’ll have the UN mission (the representative of the Secretary General for Violence Against Children) and the CoE mission (the Deputy Secretary General).
“The UNICEF regional director, supervising the 23 countries of this region, will be also present. I’d like to emphasize that Ukraine promised to make children’s rights protection a priority during its CoE presidency. We want to draw attention to these questions and we want the Ukrainian government to be ready to ratify international conventions. There’s the European Convention No. 201 protecting children from sexual exploitation. There’s also the Hague Convention on international adoption, which was not ratified by Ukraine. Both of them are being worked on by the corresponding parliamentary committees and I hope that the government will ratify them. Then we will be able to say that the Ukrainian government is ready to make certain steps.”
Why do you think is it that we can’t eradicate domestic and social abuse for so many years and how does the situation in Ukraine compared to Europe?
“Unfortunately, child abuse exists all over the world. We might have an impression that abuse escalates as the media talk about it more and more. However, we understand that the situation is quite the opposite. Traditionally, family abuse has been hidden. UNICEF concentrates on social awareness improvement not only in the family but also among teachers, doctors and social workers. The more they know about the problem the better this problem will be dealt with. It’s essential that society has its eyes open to identify cases of abuse and inform the corresponding services about them. The role of teachers, doctors, nurses and social workers that come into contact with children is crucial as they are able to see a child’s problems and understand that a child is abused. In my opinion, Ukraine has made progress in this sphere. We have improved the report system and raised awareness. However, it’s not enough and I think that governmental institutions and society have to make efforts to resolve this complex of problems. The problem of child abuse is insufficiently covered in Ukrainian society compared to other European countries. Thus, Ukraine needs better mechanisms of reporting cases of child abuse.”
What kind of mechanisms?
“The awareness of people working in governmental institutions, not only in the social sector, but in law enforcement agencies as well. As for the legislative basis, there are certain problems there. At present we’re working on several amendments in the cooperation with the Verkhovna Rada. The sexual exploitation of children and child prostitution are examples of this. We’re talking about the children aged 16 to 18 that are at risk of child prostitution. Currently, they have to pay a fine but their clients are not answerable. The UN Convention includes an optional article on abuse, prostitution and sexual exploitation. It provides that any adult engaging in a sexual act with a minor is fully answerable for this. This norm doesn’t exist in Ukraine. It’s only an example. The law itself doesn’t work. We have to enforce the role of social assistance. For example, if a child is in an environment where they have to provide sexual services, we have to find a reason for this in their education and family. This way we have to protect children not only through legislation but also through social assistance that will prevent them from doing such things. Here we address the question of the social security of Ukrainian families since a lot of them live in poverty, suffer form unemployment, and have members addicted to drugs and alcohol. Of course, these problems affect their children.”
Child abuse is common in Ukraine’s orphanages. Are you going to cover this issue at the conference and what’s the UNICEF’s position?
“As for this system, we strongly protect children’s rights to grow in families. The problem of children raised outside of families is topical for many countries of the region. We can see that there are a lot of cases of child abuse in such institutions but we don’t have exact numbers. We don’t have exact statistics about how many children have been abused, in this way or another. Examples abound but we don’t have the exact statistics. Once I was invited to Shuster’s talk-show to discuss the topic of children living in orphanages. There were people there who grew up in such institutions but were successful in life. So those people could have said something good about orphanages. I was shocked that those people spoke about the abuse they experienced. Even successful people pay attention to the abuse they suffered from in orphanages. So, we are aware of such cases, but we don’t have any statistics. It can be easily explained. Let’s look at foster families. How do they build relations between parents and children? They have to care about their children, love and protect them, but they also have to provide an environment where children will grow and develop social skills. An important role is attributed to social services, that have to help. If we look at orphanages where children differ from our children a lot, they lose lots of opportunities for their development: not only in terms of social skills, but also in what regards cognitive and emotional ones. We need a powerful independent monitoring mechanism to be able to understand the level of abuse and violence in orphanages. The former powerful Soviet social security system proved to be tenuous from the point of self-repayment, profitability and efficiency in the new Ukrainian reality. The social security system has to be reformed to be able to address modern challenges. The institutions where children are [currently] kept are the heritage of the Soviet system, which has to be reformed.”
Will the questions related to children’s rights protection be resolved faster after the position of a children’s ombudsman is introduced in Ukraine?
“We rightly praise Nina Karpachova, who deals with questions related to human rights protection efficiently. Of course, in her office there are people dealing with questions of children’s rights protection, too. We see the possibilities and potential to bolster the Ukrainian ombudsman’s position to be able to better react to children’s rights violations and to protect [the children]. It’s not about just dealing with individual questions. I believe that the Ukrainian ombudsman can more actively participate in resolving problems with us, so as to be able to solve the systemic questions concerning child abuse, to reform the orphanage system and to replace it with alternative forms of family education. We think that we’re able to activate cooperation with the Ukrainian ombudsman. Ideally, UNICEF is supporting the idea to delegate the children’s rights protection issues to a children’s ombudsman. However, it’s closely related to the context of the country. Ukraine has to make its own decisions. The issue is to introduce a powerful mechanism of children’s rights protection monitoring in the South of Ukraine.”
What do you think about the transformation of the Ministry of Youth, Family and Sports into a Department at the Ministry of Education and Science?
“I’ve already expressed my opinion on behalf of UNICEF to the Ukrainian president and government. I also spoke about it during a session of the Verkhovna Rada last December. Certainly, UNICEF respects the decision of the Ukrainian government as it represents a sovereign state. UNICEF fully accepts this decision, aimed at transferring the functions of that ministry to the Ministry of Education. However, we strongly recommend that during this reform the main functions concerning children’s rights protection be preserved. We know about the presidential decree issued a month ago, ordering to transfer to the Ministry of Social Policy the functions related to the protection of children, women and families. The government is still working on determining these functions’ structure. Our organization will gladly cooperate with the Ukrainian government to perform those functions during the process of reform. We have the Department for Adoption and Protection of Children and the Department for Family and Gender Policy. Merging those two departments with the Ministry of Social Policy might be a good idea since one institution will perform all the functions. It might be an advantage.
“The next question is of a great importance. If a family experiences a difficult situation, it’s unemployed, poor or a mother raises three children on her own, such a family needs to have social protection (consultancies, legal assistance, etc.), and financial support as well. Such families in crisis should receive the whole ‘assistance package.’ If such families aren’t sufficiently protected they risk becoming asocial, which can lead to child abuse.”
Don’t you think that in half a year, when Ukraine’s presidency in the EC finishes, the Ukrainian government will lose interest in children’s rights?
“I hope that the Ukrainian government will assume specific obligations in front of the international community as you have the best opportunity to demonstrate the changes in the sphere of human and children’s rights protection. I’ve been working here for two years now and I see that you have good resources and an educated society. I don’t think that the Ukrainian government will do a foolish thing and miss this opportunity. It’s a real chance for Ukraine to show its strong points. However, work has to be done not only at a governmental level. It has to develop into specific government obligations to pursue this or that policy. This will cause certain budget expenditures directed at the protection of children. UNICEF is ready to provide its technical help any time. I hope that we’ll cooperate in future as well.”
abuse in residential care
The Convention on the Rights of the Child
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Home Testimonies Conversions How Science Led A World Leading Astronomer, Allan Sandage, To God
How Science Led A World Leading Astronomer, Allan Sandage, To God
James Bishop
By James Bishop| Allan Sandage (1926-2010) was a prominent astronomer who worked at Carnegie Observatories. He is remembered by the scientific community because he determined the first reasonably accurate values for the Hubble constant, the age of the universe, and he also discovered the first quasar (1).
He is fondly remembered by the spiritual community because of his insightful contributions to science and theology after he had converted to Christianity in 1983 (2). Sandage had received numerous awards for his phenomenal scientific work including the Crafoord Prize (1991) and the Eddington Medal of the Royal Astronomical Society (1963).
Sandage had become fascinated with astronomy when he was just a teenager. His father bought him a telescope and during that time he spent four years recording all the sunspots he observed. At age 15 he visited Edwin Hubble at the Mount Wilson Observatory; Hubble being the famous and prolific astronomer who discovered the expansion of the universe. Hubble inspired Sandage who then began his career in the late 1940s as observing assistant to him and would find himself taking on Hubble’s project once he died.
At Miami University, Sandage studied physics and philosophy and graduated in physics in 1948. Before that he had served some time in the navy towards the end of WW2. But as his career as an astronomer progressed, Sandage made important contributions to dating the ages of stars, classifying galaxies, and understanding the processes of galaxy formation. He was also the first to recognize the existence of quasars – the brightest and most distant objects in the universe.
His discovery of Christ
Significantly, Sandage announced that he had become a born-again Christian explaining that his decision resulted in “a peace of mind” that he had experienced when he made the decision. Sandage’s transition to faith and his scientific expertise while professing to be a Christian has had a formidable impact on some others.
For example, astrophysicist Hugh Ross, a former atheist turned Christian, remembers having a dialogue with Sandage when he was still alive, “I met Sandage when I was a research fellow at Caltech,” reminisces Ross, “A few years later, while serving as Sierra Madre Congregational Church’s minister of evangelism I noted Sandage’s name on one of the church’s registration cards. I paid him a visit. He told me he had just given his life to Christ after studying the Bible for 35 years” (3).
During their meeting Sandage would ask Ross two questions that he considered hugely important. First, he asked Ross if he believed the Bible to be the error-free word of God, cover to cover, in all respects, including science and history? The second question concerned how old Ross believed the universe was, and “After he heard my answers,” Ross says, “Sandage told me ours was the only church out of sixty-six he had checked out that gave answers he felt he could endorse. Sandage not only got involved in our church…”
For the rest of his life Sandage felt at comfortable marrying his scientific work with his religious faith, and did not see them as being contradictory or mutually exclusive. He seemed to see the relationship between science and religion in a similar way to how Stephen Jay Gould saw them, namely that of non-overlapping magisteria (NOMA).
Sandage believed that science and religion each represented different areas of inquiry because “things of the spirit are not things of science.” He was also sharply critical of a reductionist science and the methods employed by atheists,
“If there is no God, nothing makes sense. The atheist’s case is based on a deception they wish to play upon themselves that follows already from their initial premise. And if there is a God, he must be true both to science and religion.”
Drawing on inspiration from fellow scientists, Sandage found that “it was possible to do science and have a faith [in Christ]” (4).
Nonetheless, Sandage felt that science pointed towards a creator and seemed to support such a belief rather than argue against it. He was incredulous that chance alone could have resulted in the universe’s complexity,
“the world is too complicated in all its parts and interconnections to be due to chance alone” (5).
The complexity of biological organisms was also particularly spectacular to him, “I am convinced that the existence of life with all its order in each of its organisms is simply too well put together. Each part of a living thing depends on all its other parts to function.” For Sandage, there is no doubt that the more one learns and examines biochemistry the more there is some type of “organizing principle – an architect” that is apparent.
Thus, Sandage was specifically impressed by the argument from design. It is because the more science has progressed and the more we have learned about the universe that “many scientists are now driven to faith by their very work.”
In astronomy, Sandage found that astronomers had identified the creation event which put astronomical cosmology close to the type of medieval natural theology that attempted to find God by identifying the first cause. As promising that that observation tends to be for believers in God, Sandage emphasized that we still needed more than just the creation event to understand it theologically,
“But knowledge of the creation is not knowledge of the creator, nor do any astronomical findings tell us why the event occurred. It is truly supernatural (i.e. outside our understanding of the natural order of things), and by this definition a miracle. But the nature of God is not to be found within any part of these findings of science. For that, one must turn to the scriptures, if indeed an answer is to be had within our finite human understanding.”
1.Wallace, P. 1991. Physics: Imagination and Reality. p. 237.
2. Richardson, W. 2002. Science and the Spiritual Quest: New Essays by Leading Scientists. p. 52.
3. Ross, H. 2013. Sandage Test Affirms Biblical Creation Model and Constant Laws of Physics. Available.
4. Preaching Today. 2013. Famous Astronomer Who Accepted Christ. Available.
5. A Scientist Reflects on Religious Belief: Dr. Allan Sandage. Available.
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https://jamesbishopblog.wordpress.com/
James is a graduate from Vega School of Brand Leadership specialising in Multimedia Design and Brand Communications. He is currently enrolled at Cornerstone Institute studying Theology and majoring in Psychology. His theological interests encompass comparative religion and the links between science and religion.
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Family Terrorists
In the dazzling novella that gives this collection its title, a fractured family gathers for an odd reunion. Six years after their divorce and forty years after their first wedding, the parents of the four grown Link children are remarrying. Lynnie Link, the youngest sibling, travels with her wastrel brother to Montana for the event, and in the family's gathering their essential fragility becomes all too apparent. "Family terrorism" is the tactic that undermines them - those small acts of emotional blackmail that keep old antagonisms alive. Its consequences are sometimes poignant, often hilarious, always devastating. With its vibrant prose and deft insight, the novella displays the full range of Antonya Nelson's remarkable talent. It caps a collection that also includes seven superb short stories, each a variation on the theme of family terrorism. Three of the stories have appeared in The New Yorker; one of these, "Naked Ladies, " was included in The Best American Short Stories 1993, and another, "Dirty Words, " appeared in Prize Stories: The O. Henry Awards the same year. All of them offer vivid evidence of Antonya Nelson's generous, rapidly maturing gift.
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John E. Ferneley (18 May 1782 Thrussington, Leicestershire - 1860 Melton Mowbray, Leicestershire), was an English painter who specialised in portraying sporting horses and hunting scenes. Although his rendition of horses was stylised, he is regarded as one of the great British equine artists, second perhaps only to George Stubbs.
At first apprenticed until 1801 to his father, who was a master wheelwright, he was encouraged to take up painting by John Manners, 5th Duke of Rutland. Accordingly he moved to London and studied under the sporting artist Benjamin Marshall. While training with Marshall he joined the Royal Academy School. His work was exhibited between 1806 and 1853 at the Royal Academy. He traveled extensively in Ireland from 1806 to 1809, but returned to England to marry, and started working from Melton Mowbray. Here he built his studio and later a house, Elgin Lodge, on the Sleaford Rd. Melton Mowbray was fast becoming a watering hole for the sporting fraternity and the place where modern fox-hunting developed in the late eighteenth century. Hugo Meynell, a wealthy local, bred his hounds to keep up with the horses and riders in their pursuit over hedges and ditches. At this time riders began wearing the scarlet jackets which were to become traditional.
Ferneley's paintings depicted hunting when it was extremely fashionable. (Enlarge this picture to get the funny details!
Good horses sold quite readily for 200 guineas and most riders had at least ten in their stables. His work became much sought after, his patrons including many Royals and personalities such as Beau Brummel and the Count d'Orsay. Ferneley routinely was commissioned to paint the famous Quorn, Belvoir, and Cottesmore hunts. The members all contributed to the painter's fee and then drew lots to determine the winner.
Ferneley specialised in painting "scurries", panoramic paintings showing a sequence of events. He befriended Sir Francis Grant and helped him with the painting of horses while Grant in return helped with figure painting. In this way they collaborated on a number of paintings. Ferneley's signature was done very delicately with a pin head in the wet paint and often hidden on a fence, stable door or in an unexpected corner of the painting. His signature is easily differentiated from that of his son, John Junior, who normally signed heavily in black.
Between 1810 and 1812 he visited Ireland twice more, carrying out a great number of commissioned paintings for wealthy Irish patrons. He produced six children with his first wife (who died in 1836) - three of his children later became painters.
Labels: Artist in Review
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SF Gate – May 27, 2011
Q&A with Brad Pitt, on ‘Tree of Life’
By Walter Addiego
There will be few halfhearted reactions to Terrence Malick’s grandly ambitious new film, “The Tree of Life,” which last week was awarded the Palme d’Or, the Cannes Film Festival’s highest prize.
Partisans of the director, one of American film’s few genuine visionaries (“Days of Heaven,” “The New World”), will see it as a deeply moving, poetic meditation that addresses classic spiritual and philosophical questions with sublime images and minimal dialogue. Viewers of a different temperament will find it self-important and arty in the worst way.
The main story, set in the 1950s, is about a small-town Texas family that suffers a tragedy, and the aftershocks of the event on one of the sons, now grown. This domestic tale is set in a context of ravishing visual sequences suggestive of nothing less than the origins of the universe and of life, segments that are being compared to the cosmic “stargate” section of “2001: A Space Odyssey.” (Douglas Trumbull, who created those effects for Stanley Kubrick’s film, served as a consultant here.)
The cast includes Brad Pitt as the authoritarian father, Bay Area native Jessica Chastain as his wife and Sean Penn as the grown-up son. Chronicle Movie Critic Mick LaSalle calls Pitt’s performance one of the actor’s finest.
Pitt spoke by phone from Los Angeles.
Q: How would you describe a Terrence Malick film to someone who has never seen one?
A: I would say that there’s an experiential component to the films he crafts. This one certainly is designed for personal reflection, to trigger – maybe I’m speaking of my own experience – moments in your own life, and to put those on the film.
Q: Roger Ebert wrote in his blog: “Terrence Malick’s new film is a form of prayer.” The movie opens with a quotation from the Book of Job. Can you speak to the film’s religious sensibility?
A: I’ve been calling it a symphony. It’s more musical to me. Maybe that’s just my aversion to theology. Listen, I grew up in this kind of environment, as far as the landscape, the sense of play and Christian iconography. I was quite comfortable with that. What’s most interesting about Terry, and his films, is that he sees science in God and God in science, and these two notions are generally diametrically opposed. He has a wider grasp of things, that comes from his study of philosophy and his travels.
For me, the film speaks to the impermanence of things, also that there’s something greater out there, which is evident in the shots of the cosmos. There’s a bigger power and there’s much we don’t understand. Again, this is my interpretation, though we try to explain that which is unknown and scary in terms of story, to comfort ourselves in forms of religion, that maybe it’s in acceptance of that very unknown that peace can be found.
Q: One of the film’s narrators talks about there being two paths in life, “the way of grace and the way of nature.” Do you recognize those paths?
A: I actually don’t see one without the other. I see more of a balance. Terry had given us a poem – actually he gave it to Jessica (Chastain), and I usurped it a couple of weeks later – but it was detailing this very thing. In the time of adolescence, you’re trying on different things, you’re trying to figure out who you are. You try your first lie, you may steal something, you may break something. And there are acts of kindness along the way as well. It’s these moments, and the reaction to these moments, that define the kind of adult you’ll become.
In our story, for the oldest son, the mother does represent grace and love and all that is good, and the father (represents) nature, but a nature that is defined by survival, a nature that will choke out another for its own existence. And (the son) is being honed as he is pinballed between the two. And these moments that seem so inconsequential – especially when put up against the birth of the cosmos and the formation of life – are monumental in a child’s world.
Q: It would be easy to diminish your character as a harsh, disciplinarian father, kind of a bad guy, but he’s more complex.
A: I saw a great sadness in him. I saw a man who probably believed in this idea of the American dream but was not able to get ahead, for whatever reason. The poison he drank – what defined his character was bitterness toward others who were doing better than him. He was feeling great oppression from his surroundings and his job. Naturally what happens when someone is oppressed is that they need to find someone to pass that oppression to, to feel better about themselves.
And in this case the sadness of the story is that it’s his kids. And of course he feels remorse and tries to make up for it, and it’s this terrible cycle he’s caught up in and doesn’t know how to get past. These are the formative years for his sons, and they can leave a scar.
Q: The soundtrack is pretty incredible. One critic said the music plays a more important role than the words.
A: There’s not music without images, it’s the combination of the two for me. I don’t place a lot of importance on the words, either.
Q: Malick is seen as a perfectionist, extremely painstaking, often compared to Kubrick. What’s it like to be directed by him?
A: I call him an imperfectionist. He finds perfection in imperfection. That’s what he’s looking for. He’s like a documentarian that’s just waiting for the moment to happen, and he’ll follow it when it’s of interest, and piece it together later. But his set is unlike any experience I’ve ever had. You have to understand that a movie set is a lot of noise, a lot of a trucks, a lot of chaos, over a hundred people, everyone’s got their little compartment and task. And here we had none of that. He doesn’t want to be encumbered by it, he doesn’t want the kids (who portrayed the boys) to be encumbered by it. The kids don’t read the script. They go in their closet and pick out what they want to wear that day. And that’s what they wear all day.
Continuity is not the focus, makeup, none of that. No lights. So there are no trucks and generators and noise. There’s just one guy with a camera on his shoulder. And Terry. We would only do a couple of takes of something. He never wanted to, what he called, “hammer and tong” a scene as written. He wanted to just use that as a springboard. His process is that he gets up (every morning) and writes for an hour or so, kind of a stream-of-consciousness manner, and we would get these pages, sometimes three or four pages, single-spaced, of ideas and thoughts for the day’s scenes. It was a really interesting, arduous, but successful experiment for me, and I see other directors heading in that
direction now.
Q: A number of critics have said the film will polarize audiences. Do you think that’s true?
A: Yeah, I think that’s true. This is one you’ve got to want to look at, and fair enough if you don’t, at this place and time in your life. It asks some big questions. But fair enough. Fair enough. It doesn’t follow any conventional narrative. It’s a big leap.
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Waking up late; Slow start, same result for Knights
by eharris • November 1, 2012 • 0 Comments
By John Goralski
In the opening minutes of the game, it looked like the Southington football team was still resting after their battle with Glastonbury. A penalty and fumble pinned their backs against their own endzone.
On fourth down, the football bounced off the turf in the endzone and Nate Bonenfant was barely able to regain possession and kick it over the fingertips of Hall’s defenders.
A few plays later, Hall was celebrating a 7-0 lead.
On Saturday, Oct. 27, the Knights fumbled on each of their first two possessions, and it looked like they’d soon be celebrating a two touchdown advantage.
Coach Mike Drury signaled for his defense in desperation.
“We got pinned down in our own zone. The ball was slipping out of our hands, and it’s the little things that we have to do in a game if we want to come out as the winner. I just think we weren’t as focused as we wanted to be, but the kids responded and tightened the ship up. They knew what they had to do.”
The defense led the way. On a fourth down just outside Hall’s red zone, David DiNeno intercepted a pass and returned it 80 yards to tie the score, 7-7. It was just what the Knights needed to get started.
“It felt great,” DiNeno said. “They were in our red zone and it felt great to stick it to them and show them that we were there to win. They scored first, and we had to really show them that we couldn’t let that happen again.”
On Hall’s next possession, the defense forced another turnover. At the start of the second quarter, Corbin Garry secured Southington’s second interception of the day. Justin Rose had a fumble recovery and an interception. Mike Lange and Stephen Barmore secured interceptions. Southington forced seven turnovers in total, and ran away with a 48-10 victory.
“They play with intensity, and they play together with the scheme that we’ve developed,” said Drury. “They really buy into it, and they’re flying around. They’re just playing with intensity. If you do all those little things, and do your job on top of it, you can have a solid defense.”
For the first time this season, Southington runners struggled with a pair of early turnovers and just 58 yards of rushing for the day, so the Knights turned to their passing game. Hall never knew what hit them. Barmore completed 16 of his 25 passes (.640) for 342 yards and four touchdowns. He connected with Garry six times for 183 yards, and three catches resulted in Southington scores. Anthony Bonenfant (90 yards) scored a 51 yard touchdown reception, and Connor John (69 yards) averaged 13.8 yards per reception.
“It feels great to air it out. Obviously, the running game was a little slow to develop. When you can’t run, you throw. I’m just glad that I was able to perform and help my team,” said Barmore. “Over the course of seven weeks, eventually something’s got to click. I think everyone was on the same page today. We were really communicating well, and it obviously showed.”
Garry was the main threat for the Knights, averaging 30.5 yards per catch. His 39-yard score in the second quarter gave Southington the lead for good. An 18-yard strike capped Southington’s scoring in the fourth quarter, but it was a broken play in the third quarter that put the game out of reach for Hall.
Garry positioned himelf under a tipped ball, shrugged off two tackles, and scampered 80 yards for a score.
“I wasn’t the intended receiver. It was Alex Jamele who was the intended receiver,” Garry said. “I just was shocked that it came to me. I said, ‘Alright. Let’s make a play.’ I ran down the field and flipped a few tackles and that was about it.”
With the victory, Southington improved to 7-0 with three games remaining. They’ll try to keep the momentum going this week at Simsbury (5-2). The Trojans are coming off of a 21-12 victory over Newington.
“Simsbury is the type of team that runs that option really well,” said Drury. “They’ve been doing it for a long time. We’ve just got to play really disciplined football defensively. They’re big up front, and they’re strong. We’ve just got to win that battle up front.”
Kickoff is scheduled for Friday, Nov. 2 at 7 p.m.
To comment on this story or to contact sports writer John Goralski, email him at jgoralski@ southingtonobserver.com.
By Vinnie Rossitto
Anthony Bonenfant fights for extra yardage after a catch against Hall.
Tags: Blue Knights Blue Knights Football football
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To evaluate the fulfillment of Zelensky’s promises should be six months after he received parliamentary support - Sergey Cherednichenko
It will be possible to talk about the degree of fulfillment of the main election promises of president Volodymyr Zelensky six months after he received support in the Verkhovna Rada. The head of the Socialist Party of Ukraine, Sergey Cherednichenko said about this on the TV channel «112».
«Society always expects more from politicians. We have been promised a lot, but it takes time and a majority in parliament to bring these promises to life. Therefore, we can talk about the activities of the president in six months. Talking and watching whether 60% of high-priority promises will be fulfilled is a cease-fire in the Donbas and economic improvements», he said.
At the same time, Sergey Cherednichenko stressed, that the countdown of this term should be conducted after the parliamentary elections, «when his party «Servant of the People» appears in the Verkhovna Rada, a coalition will be formed and ministers will be nominated».
Speaking about the renaming of the presidential administration to the president’s office and moving it from Bankova Street to the European Square, the politician noted: «Over the past 10 years we have seen the creation of the presidential secretariat, the presidential administration, and the president’s office. I think that, first of all, the president needs to talk about tariffs, a cease-fire, and those issues, that are important to people».
«And the way this authority (administration or office of the president - Ed.) will be called is not important for people. The main thing is to reduce tariffs, to begin the reform of medicine, to think about social security. When everything will be very good with us, the gas will be at $ 50, then you can call this body any european names», said Sergey Cherednichenko.
SPU Servant of the people Serhiy Cherednichenko authorities Verkhovna Rada
Our children must have a happy future. Our parents must be respected and have a decent life! Ukraine needs the strong orderliness!
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Lack of evidence of the existence of a coalition in the Rada may be associated with fraud - Ilya Kyva
Kiev veteran received a wheelchair from the Ilya Kiva Foundation «Liberation»
«The Socialist Party of Ukraine has been purified, strengthened and refreshed. We are ready to participate in the political race of the country and change Ukraine for the better!» Illia Kyva said. Socialists of Ukraine is a political force, which must remind that the real power in the country is society - people, citizens of Ukraine. And it is ordinary citizens who will raise Ukraine to a new level, not officials or oligarchs embezzling money! We need the strong order and discipline in order to eliminate internal problems of the country and solve foreign policy issues!
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Kuçedra
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Not a Country For Dreams
Hidden Faith
Dubrovnik for Culture Trip
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Mrizi i Zanave for Libération
Ireland for Trip Advisor
Albanian Bunkers for Nieuwe Revu
Waiting on Death
by Nick St.Oegger
“I wish I was dead,” says 30-year-old Danyar Asefi, speaking through a translator, “living like this in constant pain is worse than death, I have nothing to live for.”
The pain that Danyar is referring to comes from the gunshot wound he sustained to his head last year in Syria. His face is disfigured, he has lost all sight in his right eye, and doctors have told him he may lose feeling in his entire right side altogether. Danyar feels constant itching in his head, he has trouble getting around alone due to his lack of depth perception, and he has lost control of his emotions, often snapping at people around him. “I need help, I need medical help!”
Danyar is one of the million plus refugees who have surged into Germany through the Balkans since last summer. Arriving in November, he has been living in a growing camp in Wittstock, about an hour and a half north of Berlin. Like many in this crowded, cold camp, he is awaiting a decision on his application for asylum. However, his story is a little different from the countless Syrians and Iraqis who have fled their hometowns as fighting rages on in the region. Danyar is a member of the Kurdish minority in Iran, where a brush with the regime during university, put him on a course to be swept up by the recent crises affecting the Middle East and Europe. The stakes in his asylum application are high, for a rejection would not simply mean a ticket back home to Iran, but could very well spell a death sentence.
While Germany initially carried out an open door policy regarding refugees arriving there, the government has since introduced legislation to speed up applications and subsequent deportations, as well as expanding the list of “safe” countries. Priority for asylum is being given to refugees fleeing the wars in Syria and Iraq while others, even from Afghanistan, are having their applications denied. Iran does not top the list of war torn countries, though with its high rate of execution (Amnesty International reported 694 between January and July 2015 alone) it is definitely not a safe country for ethnic, political and religious minorities living there. The fact that a potential asylum seeker could face persecution, even death, upon being sent back to Iran does not seem to be a guarantee of asylum in Germany. In a September 2015 article, NPR mentioned one man who faced the death sentence for converting to Christianity, whose application was subsequently denied even though the judge knew the facts of his situation. Danyar could soon be in a similar position.
Danyar couldn’t have imagined how much his life would change in one decade. In 2004, he was a tanned, well-dressed engineering student at the University of Sanandaj in Kurdistan. Only a few months away from graduating, he was set to have a normal life going to work in his field. However, being Kurdish also meant Danyar was as passionate about equality for his people as he was for engineering. “I have always believed in justice and equality so I was very involved as a student activist.”
Like many human rights activists in Iran, his affiliation would cost him dearly. One night on his way home from university he was picked up by plainclothes police. They took him to the central prison in Sanandaj, where he was held in solitary confinement for almost a year, before being transferred into the general prison for an additional five months. During this time he attempted suicide on three occasions. Danyar’s family had to spend their entire savings and use their house as collateral to get him released on bail. Eight months later he appeared before a court, charged with crimes against the Islamic Republic, and was sentenced to 12-years in jail, exile to another city and deprivation of certain civil rights. While serving his first year, his mother and other family members worked tirelessly until they were able to get his sentence reduced to parole.
The problems didn’t let up when Danyar returned home though, “The security forces did not stop coming to my house… I had to report to intelligence ministry office every day, and I had to show up and sign their daily booking every day to show I was in the city,” he said. After months of harassment, the pressure became too great and Danyar decided to take action, “I decided to leave the country; they left me with no other choice.”
Danyar left Iran illegally, traveling throughout Turkish and Iraqi Kurdistan for some time. When the Islamic State began taking major parts of Syria and slaughtering the Yezidi, he felt compelled to help his people. He made his way from Turkey to Iraq and then Syria, ending up in the besieged city of Kobani. Danyar hoped there might be an opportunity to use his background in engineering to eventually rebuild the city, but soon the reality of the situation set in, “little by little it became clear to me that there was no opportunity to work on the ground as an engineer so inevitably I joined the fight against ISIS.”
Kurdish forces like the YPG and PKK have been instrumental in fending off or recapturing ground taken by Islamic State militants. The brutal fight for Kobani resulted in a strategic victory for the Kurds, but Danyar was not around to witness it. One evening another soldier had asked him to help two young female fighters who had become frightened and were pinned down in a shallow ditch near the front lines. Danyar helped one of them out, put her in a secure position and then went back for the second. He was almost to safety when he stopped, feeling a sudden warmth in his face, “I did not think I was injured, because right then I felt no pain,” he said, “I touched my face and my hand was completely bloody.”
His next recollection is waking up in a hospital in Turkey, to a surprised doctor who had come to pull the plug on his life support. Danyar had been in a coma for several months, during which time doctors had performed multiple surgeries, however he required more complex operations. Left wondering how to continue with his life, Danyar again considered suicide, before deciding to join some friends to head to Germany where he hoped he could receive better medical treatment and start a new future. They paid a smuggler $1600 each to get them to Greece, where they crossed the border to Macedonia and made their way up the Balkans avoiding border patrols or passing as Syrian Kurdish when necessary. By this point it was October 2015, and the cold weather combined with constant travel was taking its toll on Danyar, who was without any medication for his injuries.
His arrival in Germany has not exactly provided the relief he had been hoping for. Arriving in late fall, the camp has been getting crowded as fast as the temperatures have been dropping in the unheated tents. He said last month alone the numbers nearly doubled from 400 to over 700 people. In addition, the medical services he was expecting have been slow coming, due to his current ambiguous asylum status. While he was allowed several doctors visits and even had a surgery scheduled, it was suddenly canceled by social services. In the meantime, his friends have set up a crowd funding website in the hopes of raising enough to pay for his surgeries. So far donations stand at $0.
More worryingly, Danyar described an atmosphere of “de facto racial discrimination” in the camp. He says everything is clearly geared towards Arabs, from the food being cooked, to the language being spoken by staff and healthcare providers. “Everyone who doesn’t speak Arabic is screwed,” he said. Fights have broken out along religious lines, a phenomenon which has been reported by German media as happening in camps throughout the country. Danyar says many ethnic Sunni Arabs will not interact with him, thinking that all Iranians practice Shi’a Islam, when in fact Danyar comes from a Sunni region. Even 3000 miles from Iran, the discrimination has not ceased for Danyar. For now, all he can do is wait for the status of his asylum to be decided. He would like to remain in Germany and even hopes to return to school for medicine. After his experiences fighting and seeing others injured in his journey, he hopes to one day be able to help others.
The choice, unfortunately, is not his to make. Thousands of refugees are arriving on European shores every day, with the German government reporting it could face a population of 3.6 million refugees by 2020. After widely reported sexual assaults by alleged migrants in Cologne over New Years, fighting in camps, and a rise in right wing nationalist groups, public opinion is starting to wane. The German parliament will soon vote on an even stricter set of regulations for asylum seekers, ever honing in on their preference for those from Syria. The odds are increasingly stacking up against Danyar, and he knows what a rejection means, “If I am deported to Iran they will
put me in front of the firing squad in less than a month.”
Depending on the decision of a German judge, he may get his original wish.
You can contribute to a crowdfunding campaign to help Danyar pay for some of his medical costs in Germany here: https://fundrazr.com/campaigns/c15oZf
Photos provided by Danyar Asefi
Tags: Asylum, Crisis, Germany, Injury, Iran, Iraq, Journalism, Refugee, Refugee Camp, Syria, Turkey, war
© 2019 Nick St.Oegger
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Thomas Mayne Reid (April 4, 1818 – October 22, 1883), was a Scots-Irish American novelist. "Captain" Reid wrote many adventure novels akin to those written by Frederick Marryat and Robert Louis Stevenson. He was a great admirer of Lord Byron. These novels contain action that takes place primarily in untamed settings: the American West, Mexico, South Africa, the Himalayas, and Jamaica. Reid was born in Ballyroney, a small hamlet near Katesbridge, County Down, in the north of Ireland, the son of Rev. Thomas Mayne Reid Sr., who was a senior clerk of the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in Ireland. His father wanted him to become a Presbyterian minister, so in September 1834 he enrolled at the Royal Belfast Academical Institution. However, although he stayed for four years, he could not motivate himself enough to complete his studies and receive a degree. He headed back home to Ballyroney to teach school. In December 1839 he boarded the Dumfriesshire bound for New Orleans, Louisiana, arriving in January 1840. Shortly afterward he found a job as a clerk for corn factor, or trader in the corn market. He stayed in New Orleans for six months. It is said that he left his position for refusing to whip slaves. (Reid later used Louisiana as the setting of one of his best-selling books, an anti-slavery novel entitled The Quadroon.) From New Orleans, Reid traveled to Tennessee. On a plantation near Nashville, he tutored the children of Dr. Peyton Robertson, who some Reid biographers have confused with the Doctor's father, General James Randolph Robertson. (Some twenty years later, Reid would make mid-Tennessee the setting for his novel The Wild Huntress.) Following Dr. Robertson's death, Reid founded a short-lived private school in Nashville. In 1841 he found work as a clerk for a provision dealer in either Natchez, Mississippi or Natchitoches, Louisiana (the latter place seems more likely). Although Reid later claimed to have made several trips to the West during this period of his life (on which he purportedly based some of his novels), the evidence for such journeys is sketchy and confusing at best.
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Can’t Fight This Feeling
in Wheels Are Turnin’
Having a feeling and fighting it for so long until you finally have to surrender, like falling in love with a girl who’s been your friend for a long time. Kevin Cronin explained the story behind this song: “Well, the song title for ‘Can’t Fight This Feeling’ strangely enough.. the song wasn’t always called ‘Can’t Fight This Feeling’, when I wrote the verses for that song I felt like I really captured some lightening in a bottle. It was just a very emotional night for me when I wrote’ em, but I never wrote a chorus. The song was called ‘My Guiding Light’ for a few years! You know… a little too soap opera. So one day I was set to co-write the chorus with ‘Eric Carmen’ from ‘The Raspberries’ I woke up that morning and I was deathly sick, I called Eric and I was like “Dude I can’t do it today, I’m really sick”. But I was laying there in bed and I was thinking ‘I don’t really wanna co-write this song, this song is so special for me I gotta figure this out’. I sat there with fever, sweating, and I’m like ‘what is the essence of this song? What am I missing here?’ so I went back to the lyrics and I looked at the lyric and I was like… the opening line of the song is ‘I can’t fight this feeling any longer’… That’s what the song is about! It’s about having a feeling and fighting it for so long until you finally have to surrender… just go, I gotta throw this out there, I might get shot down, I might not… but that was what the song’s about’. I’m like… Alright I guess the title of the song is ‘I can’t fight this feeling’ and I’m like… that’s a terrible song title, I can’t believe that I’m gonna call this song that I’m so proud of with this ‘shitty’ song title. But I was like… I got to… That’s the title of the song.”
Released on December 31, 1984 in the US, and January 23, 1985 in the UK.
US – 1
UK – 16
GERMANY – 34
The song was certified Gold in Canada and the US for sales over half a million copies. It reached number 1 in Canada, number 5 on the Irish Singles Chart, number 8 on the South African Singles Chart and Peaked at number 1 on the US Billboard Hot 100. In the UK it peaked at number 16.
‘Can’t Fight This Feeling’ featured on TV series and movie soundtracks such as Not Another Teen Movie, Waiting…, Kickin’ it Old Skool, Sex Drive, Rock of Ages, Miss Teacher Bangs a Boy, the Fringe episode ‘Power Hungry, The Goldbergs, Queer as Folk, King of the Hill episode “My Own Private Rodeo” and Glee.
R.E.O Speedwagon band was active for 17 years. Kevin Cronin was 33 years of age.
Cory Monteith for Glee – Russel Brand & Alec Baldwin
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☎ (+64) 03-329-6662
Legal support for Creatives, Artists, and Innovators.
Graham Bennett's sculptures address relationships between people, place and identity. Recognised as one of New Zealand's foremost contemporary sculptors, Bennett has completed numerous large scale public and private commissions.
alison erickson
New Zealand sculptor Alison Erickson's studio is a picturesque old flour mill in Waikari, North Canterbury. She produces small and large scale figurative bronze works.
hannah kidd
Hannah Kidd is a New Zealand sculptor based in Methven. She exhibits throughout New Zealand and in Australia in galleries and outdoor sculpture parks. Kidd graduated from Otago Polytechnic School of Art in 2001.
Llew Summers
Llew Summers is a sculptor based in Christchurch, New Zealand, known for his distinctive sculptures of the human form.
Robyn Webster
Robyn Webster works with industrialised harakeke fibre (flax) and participates in group and solo shows in New Zealand. Webster has exhibited at CoCA, Christchurch, Ashburton Art Gallery and Dunedin Public Art Gallery.
Mandy Cherry-Joass
Mandy Cherry Joass graduated from the University of Canterbury School of Fine Arts in 2015 with of a Bachelor of Fine Arts, majoring in sculpture. While studying she won a number of prizes and scholarships.
Kaikoura-based Ben Foster graduated from Nelson Marlborough Institute of Technology in 2006 with a Bachelor of Visual Arts and immediately found acceptance within the New Zealand art world.
annabel menzies-joyce
Annabel Menzies-Joyce grew up on a farm at Menzies Bay on Banks Peninsula. She gained a Diploma of Fine Arts from the University of Canterbury (1978) and a post-graduate Diploma of Landscape Architecture from Lincoln University (1980). She has been exhibiting since 1992.
Terry Stringer
Terry Stringer is a leading New Zealand sculptor with an international following. He trained at New Zealand's premier art school, Elam School of Fine Arts at the University of Auckland, graduating with Honors in 1967. In the following years he received a number of significant scholarships and awards.
Marté Szirmay
Marté Szirmay was born in Budapest and immigrated to New Zealand in 1957, aged 11. She graduated DFA (Hons) from the University of Auckland School of Fine Arts in 1968 and attained a Diploma in Teaching in 1970 from Auckland Secondary Teachers College.
Bing dawe
Bing Dawe engages with pressing environmental issues through his artistic practice. His sculptures point to the impact of urban development and humankind's advancement on native animals and natural habitats. Fish and birds are particularly favoured motifs.
Virginia king
Virginia King attended Wellington Polytechnic School of Design, Elam School of Fine Arts, Auckland and Chelsea Art School, Hammersmith, London. She now lives and works in Auckland.
Doug neil
American-born sculpture Doug Neil immigrated to Christchurch with his wife and son in 1990. His sculptures, both domestic and megalithic in scale, reflect what he calls "an old fashioned truth to materials approach."
Rebecca Rose's recent work investigates the cyclic nature of life and humanity's interconnectedness. Her explorations primarily find their form in abstract metals sculptures.
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There’s still a way to go from editing single-cell embryos to a full-term ‘designer baby.’ ZEISS Microscopy, CC BY-SA
Editing human embryos with CRISPR is moving ahead – now’s the time to work out the ethics
July 28, 2017 11.40am EDT
Jessica Berg, Case Western Reserve University
Jessica Berg
Law Dean; Professor of Law; and Professor of Bioethics & Public Health, Case Western Reserve University
Jessica Berg does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.
Case Western Reserve University provides funding as a founding partner of The Conversation US.
The announcement by researchers in Portland, Oregon that they’ve successfully modified the genetic material of a human embryo took some people by surprise.
With headlines referring to “groundbreaking” research and “designer babies,” you might wonder what the scientists actually accomplished. This was a big step forward, but hardly unexpected. As this kind of work proceeds, it continues to raise questions about ethical issues and how we should we react.
What did researchers actually do?
For a number of years now we have had the ability to alter genetic material in a cell, using a technique called CRISPR.
The DNA that makes up our genome comprises long sequences of base pairs, each base indicated by one of four letters. These letters form a genetic alphabet, and the “words” or “sentences” created from a particular order of letters are the genes that determine our characteristics.
Sometimes words can be “misspelled” or sentences slightly garbled, resulting in a disease or disorder. Genetic engineering is designed to correct those mistakes. CRISPR is a tool that enables scientists to target a specific area of a gene, working like the search-and-replace function in Microsoft Word, to remove a section and insert the “correct” sequence.
In the last decade, CRISPR has been the primary tool for those seeking to modify genes – human and otherwise. Among other things, it has been used in experiments to make mosquitoes resistant to malaria, genetically modify plants to be resistant to disease, explore the possibility of engineered pets and livestock, and potentially treat some human diseases (including HIV, hemophilia and leukemia).
Up until recently, the focus in humans has been on changing the cells of a single individual, and not changing eggs, sperm and early embryos – what are called the “germline” cells that pass traits along to offspring. The theory is that focusing on non-germline cells would limit any unexpected long-term impact of genetic changes on descendants. At the same time, this limitation means that we would have to use the technique in every generation, which affects its potential therapeutic benefit.
Earlier this year, an international committee convened by the National Academy of Sciences issued a report that, while highlighting the concerns with human germline genetic engineering, laid out a series of safeguards and recommended oversight. The report was widely regarded as opening the door to embryo-editing research.
That is exactly what happened in Oregon. Although this is the first study reported in the United States, similar research has been conducted in China. This new study, however, apparently avoided previous errors we’ve seen with CRISPR – such as changes in other, untargeted parts of the genome, or the desired change not occurring in all cells. Both of these problems had made scientists wary of using CRISPR to make changes in embryos that might eventually be used in a human pregnancy. Evidence of more successful (and thus safer) CRISPR use may lead to additional studies involving human embryos.
We have a ways to go before ordering up desired traits in a future baby. Researchers at Oregon Health and Science University say they worked with single-cell embryos, inserting CRISPR chemicals at the time of fertilization. lunar caustic, CC BY
What didn’t happen in Oregon?
First, this study did not entail the creation of “designer babies,” despite some news headlines. The research involved only early stage embryos, outside the womb, none of which was allowed to develop beyond a few days.
In fact, there are a number of existing limits – both policy-based and scientific – that will create barriers to implanting an edited embryo to achieve the birth of a child. There is a federal ban on funding gene editing research in embryos; in some states, there are also total bans on embryo research, regardless of how funded. In addition, the implantation of an edited human embryos would be regulated under the federal human research regulations, the Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act and potentially the federal rules regarding clinical laboratory testing.
Beyond the regulatory barriers, we are a long way from having the scientific knowledge necessary to design our children. While the Oregon experiment focused on a single gene correction to inherited diseases, there are few human traits that are controlled by one gene. Anything that involves multiple genes or a gene/environment interaction will be less amenable to this type of engineering. Most characteristics we might be interested in designing – such as intelligence, personality, athletic or artistic or musical ability – are much more complex.
Second, while this is a significant step forward in the science regarding the use of the CRISPR technique, it is only one step. There is a long way to go between this and a cure for various disease and disorders. This is not to say that there aren’t concerns. But we have some time to consider the issues before the use of the technique becomes a mainstream medical practice.
So what should we be concerned about?
Taking into account the cautions above, we do need to decide when and how we should use this technique.
Should there be limits on the types of things you can edit in an embryo? If so, what should they entail? These questions also involve deciding who gets to set the limits and control access to the technology.
We may also be concerned about who gets to control the subsequent research using this technology. Should there be state or federal oversight? Keep in mind that we cannot control what happens in other countries. Even in this country it can be difficult to craft guidelines that restrict only the research someone finds objectionable, while allowing other important research to continue. Additionally, the use of assisted reproductive technologies (IVF, for example) is largely unregulated in the U.S., and the decision to put in place restrictions will certainly raise objections from both potential parents and IVF providers.
Who should be able to use this technology? And who should decide? Johnathan D. Anderson, CC BY-ND
Moreover, there are important questions about cost and access. Right now most assisted reproductive technologies are available only to higher-income individuals. A handful of states mandate infertility treatment coverage, but it is very limited. How should we regulate access to embryo editing for serious diseases? We are in the midst of a widespread debate about health care, access and cost. If it becomes established and safe, should this technique be part of a basic package of health care services when used to help create a child who does not suffer from a specific genetic problem? What about editing for nonhealth issues or less serious problems – are there fairness concerns if only people with sufficient wealth can access?
So far the promise of genetic engineering for disease eradication has not lived up to its hype. Nor have many other milestones, like the 1996 cloning of Dolly the sheep, resulted in the feared apocalypse. The announcement of the Oregon study is only the next step in a long line of research. Nonetheless, it is sure to bring many of the issues about embryos, stem cell research, genetic engineering and reproductive technologies back into the spotlight. Now is the time to figure out how we want to see this gene-editing path unfold.
Designer babies
CRISPR/Cas9
Germline editing
human embryos
assisted reproductive treatment
Could millennia of gendered environments prevent the development of genetic mechanisms for gender differences? wavebreakmedia/Shutterstock
How we inherit masculine and feminine behaviours: a new idea about environment and genes
Image of babies via www.shutterstock.com.
Forget about designer babies – gene editing won’t work on complex traits like intelligence
A snip here, but not a snip there? DNA image via www.shutterstock.com
Why treat gene editing differently in two types of human cells?
With all these ‘test-tube babies’ grown up, how have our reactions to the technology evolved? AP Photo/Alastair Grant
Scared of CRISPR? 40 years on, IVF shows how fears of new medical technology can fade
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The Ellensburg WA sky for the week of 11/25/17
Saturday: “Hey baby! What’s your sign?”
“Ophiuchus, of course”
The Sun is in the same part of the sky as the stars of Ophiuchus from about November 29 to December 17. This is what astrologers mean when they say the Sun is “in” a constellation. Thus, if you were born between these dates, you should be an Ophiuchus. The fact that the horoscopes never list Ophiuchus is a major flaw of astrology. Astrology says that some of our characteristics are based on the location of the Sun at our birth. How can astrologers leave out three weeks from their system? That is like a scientist saying she can explain the results of her experiment every month of the year except early December. Ophiuchus was a mythical healer who was a forerunner to Hippocrates. According to myth, he could raise people from the dead. Maybe that is why he is ignored by astrology. Raising people from the dead is much less impressive than giving spot-on advice such as “Today is a good day to watch your finances.”
The bright stars of Ophiuchus rise just before the Sun. Rasalhague (pronounced Ras’-al-hay’-gwee), the brightest star, is about a half a fist held upright and at arm’s length above the east-northeast horizon at 6:30 a.m.
Sunday: Tonight’s first quarter Moon is in the constellation Aquarius the Water Bearer, in the southern sky at 5 p.m. Before the Moon distracts you, look a half a fist above the southwest horizon. This will be the last week you can observe Saturn in the evening sky before it gets obscured by the glare of the setting Sun. Even more challenging is the planet Mercury, between Saturn and the horizon.
Monday: Have you been shopping all weekend? Do you need an evening sky break? You deserve a big reward so make it a double. A Double Cluster, that is. The Double Cluster, also known as h and Chi Persei, consists of two young open star clusters in the constellation Perseus. Of course, young is a relative term as these clusters are about 13 million years old. Each cluster is spread out over an area about the same size as the full moon. To the naked eye, the Double Cluster shines with a steady, fuzzy glow. Binoculars resolve dozens of individual stars in the clusters. The Double Cluster is five and a half fists above the northeast horizon at 6 p.m., about a fist below the sideways “W” of Cassiopeia and three fists above the bright star Capella.
Tuesday: Have you even seen a Black Hole? Neither have scientists. But they have seen the effects of a Black Hole. Black holes have a strong gravitational influence on anything that passes close to them, including light. Cygnus X-1, the first Black Hole candidate ever discovered, is six fists above the west horizon at 7 p.m., in the middle of the neck of Cygnus the swan. NASA launched the Chandra X-ray observatory in 1999 to study black hole candidates and other high-energy events.
Wednesday: Mars and Spica are less than a half a fist apart, two and a half fists above the southeast horizon at 6:45 a.m. Mars has a red tint and Spica looks bluish-white. Now that you are up, you might as well find something else. How about Jupiter, the king of the plants, one and a half fists above the southeast? Not satisfied? Follow the line from Mars through Jupiter down to the horizon. Venus is just above the horizon, almost obscured by the rising Sun.
Thursday: Is your favorite astronomy-loving relative asking for a telescope this Christmas? Before reaching for your credit card, read this guide to choosing your first telescope, available at http://goo.gl/5oXmGj. If cost is an issue, look no further than this article about low cost telescopes https://goo.gl/8yyddy. These are not cheap telescopes. They are simple, low-cost, easy to use telescopes that your future astronomer will still use for quick observing sessions long after she has purchased a much larger instrument for richer viewing. If you want to give a gag astronomy gift to someone who really bugs you, give them a copy this column. After such a dud “gift”, you’ll never hear from them again. And that may be the best gift of all.
Friday: I am guessing that some of you don’t like the line of reasoning from Tuesday: that seeing the effects of a Black Hole is good enough to claim there are Black Holes. You have never seen the wind. But, you have seen the effects of the wind. And no Ellensburg resident doubts the existence of the wind.
The positional information in this column about stars and planets is typically accurate for the entire week. For up to date information about the night sky, go to https://nightsky.jpl.nasa.gov/planner.cfm.
Saturday: Do you want to learn more about what goes on at night in the natural world? You can at a free event called Nature of Night on the CWU campus, today from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Go to the two largest science buildings on campus, J-9 and H-10 on the map found at http://www.cwu.edu/facility/campus-map. There will be planetarium shows, fun nighttime projects, telescopes, animals, cookies and much more. The College of the Sciences gets help from various community organizations to put on this event.
Sunday: Are you disappointed because you are not going anywhere for Thanksgiving? Why not take a (virtual) trip to outer space using Google’s new visualization tool called 100,000 Stars. It shows the stars in our neighborhood in a very good 3-D simulation. The Sun is initially at the center. If you zoom in, you can click on neighboring stars and learn more about them. Go to http://stars.chromeexperiments.com/ for the simulation. It works best on a Chrome browser.
Monday: Saturn is about two finger widths to the lower left of the crescent Moon at 5 p.m. Both are low in the southwestern sky. Mercury is below the pair, just above due southwest.
Tuesday: So, you are not into virtual vacations like the Google Simulation, hmmm? How about a vacation to the most recently discovered Earth-sized temperate planet in our stellar neighborhood? The European Southern Observatory discovered that Ross 128, a red dwarf star only 11 light-years away (the 12th nearest star system to Earth) has a rocky planet in its habitable zone. Convenient for those not willing to make a commitment yet, Ross 128 and its planet are moving towards Earth. In only 79, 000 years, it will be the star and exoplanet closest to Earth. This extremely dim star is three and a half fists above due southeast at 6 a.m. For more information about the discover, and to possibly book a trip, go to http://www.eso.org/public/news/eso1736/.
Wednesday: Are you thankful that you live in a solar system with multiple planets? You should be. A giant planet like Jupiter cleans up planetary debris that could have collided with Earth and hindered the formation of complex life. Any inhabitants of the planets orbiting Upsilon Andromedae are thankful for this, as well. Upsilon Andromedae, a star in the constellation Andromeda, was the first Sun-like star discovered to have multiple planets orbiting it. So far, all of its planets are giant planets like Jupiter. But, the system is likely to also contain smaller planets. The dim star, but certainly not its planets, is barely visible straight overhead at 9 p.m. Jupiter is much easier to see, but you have to wait until tomorrow morning to see it. It is nearly one and a half fists above the southeast horizon at 7 a.m. Venus is below it, just above the horizon.
Thursday: Some of us have a lot to be thankful for on Thanksgiving. But, probably not as much as Andromeda had to be thankful for. According to Greek mythology, the beautiful princess Andromeda was chained to a rock next to the ocean. Cetus the sea monster was about to devour her in order to punish her family. Her mother Queen Cassiopeia and her father King Cepheus didn’t know what to do. It seemed that all was lost. But, along came Andromeda’s boyfriend, the great warrior Perseus. Even though Perseus’ standing as the son of King Zeus and the slayer of Medusa was probably enough to win Andromeda under normal circumstances, Andromeda’s impending death-by-sea-monster was not a normal circumstance. So, Perseus drove his sword into the sea monster’s neck and killed it. This was the first time in recorded history that a set of parents actually welcomed an uninvited Thanksgiving visit from the boyfriend. Perseus is about five fists above the east-northeast horizon and Andromeda is about seven fists above the east horizon at 7 p.m.
Friday: The brightest star in the nighttime sky is making its way into the evening sky. Sirius is a little more than a half a fist above the southeast horizon at 11 p.m.
Saturday: This morning, you have a great opportunity to see a star, other than the Sun, during the daytime. And, not only will you see the star, you will see it be occulted by the Sun. Disappears at 8:40 am, reappears from the unlit side of the Moon at 9:20 a.m.
We wish you a Merry Martinmas. We wish you a Merry Martinmas. We wish you a Merry Martinmas. And a happy Friday. Martinmas is a holiday in many parts of the world commemorating Saint Martin of Tours. He was buried on November 11, 397. What does this have to astronomy? Not much except that the celebration on November 11 often doubles as a cross-quarter day celebration, a day that is halfway between an equinox and a solstice. Also, according to an agricultural calendar, November 11 marks the practical beginning of winter.
Sunday: Saturn is less that a fist held upright and at arm’s length above the southwest horizon at 5:30 p.m. Say good-bye because in less than two weeks, Saturn will be obscured by the light of the Sun, beginning a two and a half month period in which there will be no naked eye planets visible in the evening sky.
Monday: Jupiter and Venus are less than the width of the full moon apart from each other in the early morning sky. They are a half a fist above the east-southeast horizon at 6:30 a.m.
When you think of space, the first image that comes to mind is a few large, massive bodies surrounded by a lot of empty space. After all, it is called “outer space”, not “outer stuff”. But that so-called empty space is filled with powerful radiation and high-speed sub-microscopic particles. Much of this is dangerous to life. However, many planets, including Earth, have a shield against radiation and particles called a magnetic field. Jupiter’s magnetic field is the strongest of all the planets.
Tuesday: Imagine Opie and Andy Taylor walking down the dirt path at night to that fishing hole in the sky. They’d probably be looking to catch Pisces, the two fish already conveniently tied together with two ropes. The ropes are connected at the star Alrescha, Arabic for “the cord”. Alrescha is about a half a fist to the lower right of the Moon at 10:30 p.m. The fish are attached to lines of stars that branch out at one o’clock and three o’clock from Alrescha. By the way, “The Fishing Hole”, The Andy Griffith Show’s theme song, was rated the 20th best TV theme song of all time by ign.com. That’s too low of a ranking in my opinion.
Wednesday: The Big Dipper is a circumpolar asterism for the northern part of the United States, meaning it is a group of stars that never goes below the horizon. Alkaid, the outermost star in the Big Dipper handle, gets the closest to the due north horizon at 10:10 p.m., making it to within about a half a fist from the horizon.
Thursday: Lieutenant Worf, the Klingon Starfleet officer on Star Trek: The Next Generation, might say “Today is a good day to die.” But Deneb, the bright supergiant star in Cygnus the Swan would say “two million years from now is a good day to die.” This may seem like a long time. But, compared to most stars, two million years from now is as close as today. For example, the Sun will last about five billion years. Small stars known as red dwarfs may last trillions of years. Prepare your astronomically short good byes to Deneb tonight at 7 o’clock when it is seven fists above the west horizon.
Friday: The Leonid meteor shower peaks early this morning and tomorrow morning. These meteors appear to come from a point in the constellation Leo the lion. This point is about one fist held upright and at arm’s length above the east-northeast horizon at midnight tonight. You can follow this point throughout the night and into the morning, as it will remain about one fist above the bright star Regulus. The Moon will be below the horizon nearly the whole night so you should see a pretty good show. The Leonid meteors are particles from the tail of Comet Tempel-Tuttle, a comet discovered by Ernst Tempel and Horace Parnell Tuttle in 1866. These are exceptionally fast moving meteors – over 150,000 miles per hour! Go to http://goo.gl/GkLiw7 to read everything you need to know about the Leonid meteor shower. As your Mother might say, dress warm and sit in a comfortable chair for maximum enjoyment.
The Nature of Night event takes place tomorrow from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. in Science Phase I and Science Phase II on the CWU campus (at J-9 and H-10 on the campus map found at http://www.cwu.edu/facility/campus-map). There will be planetarium shows, fun nighttime projects, telescopes, animals, cookies and much more.
The Ellensburg WA sky for the week of 11/4/17
Saturday: Before you fall back on to your bed tonight, set your clock back one hour to the real time. Daylight savings ends early Sunday morning at 2 a.m. This means one more hour of sky watching at night because the Sun will set one hour earlier. Ben Franklin proposed the idea of “saving daylight” by adjusting our clocks way back in 1784. Daylight savings time was first utilized during World War I as a way to save electricity. After the war, it was abandoned. It was reintroduced during World War II on a year-round basis. From 1945 to 1966, some areas implemented daylight savings and some did not. Also, it was not implemented with any uniformity as to when it should start and stop. The Uniform Time Act of 1966 codified the daylight savings rules.
Sunday: The bright star Aldebaran is about a finger-width to the upper right of the Moon at 7 p.m. Observers on the east coast of the United States will see the Moon occult Aldebaran, meaning the Moon will pass between Aldebaran and the Earth, blocking it from our view for about 30 minutes.
Monday: Saturn is less that one fist above due southwest at 6 p.m.
Tuesday: Did you look up Ruby Payne-Scott and Grote Reber based on last week’s Halloween costume suggestion? Ruby Payne-Scott was an Australian pioneer of science and the first female radio astronomer. She discovered many different types of stellar radio phenomena. She also discovered sexism in the workplace because married women were not allowed to hold permanent public service jobs. So she married in secret. Grote Reber created the first parabolic reflecting antenna to be used as a radio telescope. This is a standard design today.
Wednesday: Mars is two fists above the east-southeast horizon at 6 a.m. Venus is just barely above the east-southeast horizon at this time.
Thursday: While Stonehenge is an ancient burial ground visited by religious people for thousands of years, MIThenge is an 825-foot long hallway on the campus of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology visited by the Sun’s rays twice a year. Every year in November and January, the setting Sun lines up with a narrow window at the end of the long hall and the light shines down to the opposite end. This season’s alignment is from November 10-12. For more information, visit http://goo.gl/0hwFQf or visit MIT. In addition, challenge yourself to find a similar alignment.
Friday: The Northern Taurid meteor shower peaks tonight and tomorrow night. These are slow moving meteors that result in the occasional fireball. The Taurid meteor showers produce a few bright meteors every hour. The waning crescent Moon rises well after midnight so it won’t be much of a problem. These meteors appear to come from a point in Taurus the bull, near the open star cluster called the Pleiades. This point is about three fists above the east horizon at 8 p.m. You can follow this point throughout the night, as it will remain one fist above the V-shaped Hyades Cluster with its bright star Aldebaran (pronounced Al-deb’-a-ran). Meteors are tiny rocks that burn up in the atmosphere when the Earth runs into them. These rocks are broken off parts of Comet 2P/Encke.
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The Rostow Report by Ann Rostow
The Fight / September 4, 2018
58-year-old Kevin Bickerstaff, who reportedly encouraged classmates to beat up a 12-year-old trans girl so she would leave the school, has been suspended from his job as a pilot for Frontier Airlines pending an investigation into his conduct.
RUSTY ARTIFACTS OF ANOTHER AGE
Good morning FIGHT readers. I write from the open road, the Great Plains. No interstates for us; we drive along the two-lane blacktops, the asphalt ahead seeming to melt in the hot sun. In Kansas, we pass the small creeks, the fields of maize and pasture where the cottonwoods fight the wind, the stunted sunflowers crowd the shoulders of the highway and grain elevators beckon on the horizon.
In Oklahoma, the land turns red and the oil derricks pop up like rusty artifacts of another age. Then comes Texas, the windmills marching like giants in a bad movie. Here and there a longhorn feeds along the fence line. In the car, the temperature hits three digits and it’s time for another drink. Deadline? What deadline? Who cares about LGBT news when the heartland of America is calling its name? Hays, Vernon, White City, Electra, Mineral Wells.
ACHILLE, OKLAHOMA, POPULATION 492
We were going to take a small detour and drive through Achille, Oklahoma, population 492, where a 12-year-old trans girl named Maddie just entered middle school. Faced with new surroundings, Maddie used the girl’s room rather than the staff bathroom she had used at her previous school. At once, Facebook came alive, with parents calling her a “maggot” a “thing,” suggesting a beating and threatening to take action against her “with a sharp knife.” Authorities closed the school for two days to investigate the cyber outburst, while Maddie’s family now says they will move, for the second time in a few years, in search of a safe community.
Achille wasn’t on our route. But I think we may have driven through a few Achille-like towns all the same. You can’t tell and I shouldn’t generalize. One of the people attacking Maddie online was 58-year-old Kevin Bickerstaff, who reportedly encouraged Maddie’s classmates to beat her up so she would leave the school. Bickerstaff has been suspended from his job as a pilot for Frontier Airlines pending an investigation into his conduct.
HARSHER, DARKER: ROCKY MOUNTAIN LOW
It’s always been dicey being gay or lesbian, and it’s been even dicier being trans. But it seems to be getting harder out there, don’t you think? Harsher. Darker. I just saw a story about a nine-year-old Denver boy who summoned up his courage to come out to his mother. Because, yes he’s young. But you often know if you’re gay by that age. His mother was so accepting that the boy drew courage from that and came out to his classmates on the first day of school. The reaction was so vicious, that after four days the boy killed himself. According to his mother, he told his sister that some of the other boys told him to commit suicide.
Google Jamel Myles if you have the stomach for it. Nine years old. That means his classmates were presumably the same age. Little kids can be cruel, but since when are they that cruel? I guess it began about the same time that the grandparents of those little kids started telling children to beat up little girls.
Mel and I have a bumper sticker that quotes Michelle Obama’s famous line: “when they go low, we go high.” I still think it’s a nice idea, but it’s not going on the car. First, I don’t like bumper stickers. We have a round H and another thing, but I don’t want the car looking like a college student owns it. Second, it’s a little self-righteous. Not coming from Michelle in the campaign context, but on the car it’s as if we’re lecturing our fellow drivers.
But I also want to say that “going low” was not a common thing for many years. I’m not talking about racism, or even homophobia. I’m talking about general discourse. People used to hide their ugly side from public view. Today, not so much.
TWO MINUTES WITH STORMY
Mel is telling me that Stormy Daniels was interviewed the other day, and that she said Trump was not great in bed. She called him “Speedy Gonzales.” Mel just quoted from the Vogue article: “How many details can you really give after about two minutes,” Stormy asked her interviewer? Daniels said it takes longer to microwave a breakfast burrito than to have sex with Trump. (Drumroll/cymbal clash.)
The reason we drove from Austin to Topeka a couple of weeks ago was to attend two family weddings. After my stepson got married in wedding number one, he and his new wife went to Jamaica for their honeymoon, where—wait for it!—Stormy Daniels was also on vacation at the same resort! According to Nathan, she was on the phone most of the time and seemed busy. He also snuck a photograph of her in the pool…from the rear. Really? Are you sure we’re related? You have a chance to take a shot of Stormy, and you get the back of her head?
And while we’re on the subject of beautiful beach escapes, I’ll have you know that a court date has been set for an appeal of the Bermuda high court decision to reinstate marriage equality on the island territory. We’ve gone back and forth on this subject so I don’t blame you for being sick of it. Just know that some visiting judges
will arrive to tackle the appeal on November 7-9, and once they rule, I assume that marriage will remain legal and everyone will live happily ever after.
THE GREAT BOARD GAME OF CIVIL RIGHTS LAW
I have a lot of legal updates. Cases being petitioned to the soon-to-be-hostile Supreme Court. A transgender woman has won her discrimination case against the Florida prison system in lower court. An elderly lesbian, who won a fair housing case against her assisted living facility, has now won a unanimous appellate victory in the Seventh Circuit. A transgender man has settled his discrimination claim against Oswego County, New York. And yet, we have to ask: Whither these victories? Will everything come to a dead stop before the nine justices, who will then turn us around smartly and march us back to square one, or maybe two, on the great board game of civil rights law?
I’ve been reading about Brett Kavanaugh, as have all of us, I suppose. And it’s not clear what he thinks about gay rights or Title VII or fair housing or the Price Waterhouse precedent or marriage equality. I know he’s a religious freedom advocate, which these days seems ominous. But on the whole, he looks to me like he might be better than a number of jurists on the Heritage Foundation shortlist.
I’ve said this before, referencing Sam Alito, and Neil Gorsuch. I was dead wrong on both those men, who now appear to be in competition both for most antigay justice and for worst justice in modern era. Harriet Miers would surely have been preferable to the former, and yet, I bitched when her name was in circulation. Readers, I just don’t know anymore. Where’s that bartender? n
arostow@aol.com
September 4, 2018 in 09.2018, Departments, ENTERTAINMENT, NEWS, POLITICS.
The Crown Jewel
Bitch Please
Everybody Hurts
← The Share
The Music →
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Schlagwort-Archive: Olmec
Heart Of Mexiko
Mexiko is all about liberty and freedom; great people, food, landscapes, Strände, and culture! With a fascinating history of amazing ancient people and architectural accomplishments contrasted now by a thriving modern population with cutting-edge technology and a longstanding tradition of producing unique products Mexiko is an emerging frontrunner onto the world market.
Officially, die “United Mexican States” is a federal republic comprising thirty-one states and a Federal District which is its capital and largest city.
In 2010 Mexico was the tenth most visited country in the world with 22.5 million international arrivals per year.
Mexico ranks first in the Americas and sixth worldwide having 32 UNESCO World Heritage Sites.
Mexico almost two million square kilometres (zu Ende 760,000 sq mi) with an estimated population of over 113 million, Situated in North America Mexico is bordered on land by the United States, Guatemala and Belize- North and south respectively, and by sea with the the Gulf of Mexico, Caribbean Sea and Pacific Ocean East to West.
Before the arrival of Columbus native cultures matured into advanced civilizations such as the Olmec, the Toltec, the Teotihuacan, the Zapotec, the Maya and the Aztec
In 1521, the Spanish Empire conquered and colonized the territory from its base in Mexico-Tenochtitlan. This territory would eventually become Mexico following recognition of the colony’s independence in 1821.
With independence came economic instability and several armed conflicts, including the Mexican-American War that led to the territorial cession to the United States, the Pastry War, the Franco-Mexican War, a civil war, two empires and a domestic dictatorship. The latter led to the Mexican Revolution in 1910, which inspired the 1917 Constitution and the country’s current political system.
In March 1938, through the Mexican oil expropriation private U.S. and Anglo-Dutch oil companies were nationalized to create the state-owned Pemex oil company. Mexico was the first Latin American member of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development OECD (since 1994), and considered an upper-middle income country by the World Bank. Mexico currently has membership in prominent institutions such as the UN, the WTO, the G20 and the Uniting for Consensus.
Mexico is now one of the world’s largest economies, which is strongly linked to those of its North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) partners, especially the United States. Mexico is the tenth largest oil producer, and the largest silver producer in the world. Mexico is generally considered a newly industrialized country a regional power and an emerging world power.
According to Goldman Sachs, von 2050 Mexico is expected to become the world’s fifth largest economy. PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) estimated in January 2013 that by 2050 Mexico could be the world’s seventh largest economy.
I highly recommend your next journey destination is Mexico!
Freundlichen Grüßen,
Beach at Celestun, Mexiko
Cuzama Celestun is a town located in the northwest corner of Yucatan State, Mexiko, on the Gulf of Mexiko Küste. The town is part of Celestun Biosphere Reserve which is a wetland reserve that is the migratory home for flocks of flamingos, herons and more than 200 other bird species that pass through or reside permanently there. It is also refuge for endangered sea turtle hatchlings. Celestun is popular for its beaches and abundant wildlife.
Spanisch Nahezu
Reisen in einem spanischsprachigen Land? Üben Sie Ihr Spanisch mit einer nativen Spanisch sprechende Berufs via Video-Chat! • Live-1-on-1 55 Minuten Unterricht über ... Mehr →
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For Investors Only: Yet Another Article Extolling the Virtues of Denbury - The Bakken, North Dakota, USA
SeekingAlpha.com link here.
Four reasons Denbury is a buy at under $17:
The mean analysts’ price target on Denbury is $25 and JP Morgan is all the way up at $29 on DNR.
Denbury has a five year projected PEG of just .55 which is an over 70% discount to its five year average.
It has significantly beat earnings estimates the past two quarters and is priced at just 6 times trailing operating cash flow.
The company is selling near the bottom of its five year valuation range based on P/B, P/E, P/S and P/CF.
This is not an investment site; see disclaimer at the top of the sidebar at the right.
The Governor Thinking Big: $1.2 Billion For Western Dakota Roads and Housing -- The Bakken, North Dakota, USA
State link here.
North Dakota has committed $1.2 billion to address the impacts of oil and gas development in the western part of the state and help is on the way, Gov. Jack Dalrymple said Tuesday.
Dalrymple and other state officials offered an update on the state aid available to the 17 oil- and gas-producing counties during a news conference at the Capitol.
From July 1 to Oct. 31, $312 million was allocated to help with infrastructure, water and housing needs, leaving $885 million of spending to come in the next 20 months, Dalrymple said.
This is quite extraordinary.
Additional data points:
Future plans are for Highway 85 to become an undivided four-lane highway between Watford City and Williston, a news release said. Remaining federal aid will be used for projects that include Highway 2 north of Williston and North Dakota highways 5, 22, 23, 40, 50 and 1804.
The Legislature also set aside $228.6 million for state highways affected by increased oil traffic. Projects include Highway 22 from Dickinson north to Highway 23, Highway 23 east and west of New Town, and Highway 8 north and south of Stanley.
Labels: HighwayProjects
$2 Billion/Month Being Poured into Western North Dakota -- The Bakken, North Dakota, USA
The Dickinson Press link here.
The changes and growth in the Williston Basin landscape since last year are simply phenomenal if not mind numbing,” states Bruce Gjovig, Director of the Center of Innovation in Grand Forks, ND, one of at least 25 people who made the trek to Williston. “Western North Dakota has the most dynamic market economy in the United States, and growth through construction, expansion, and oil activity is abundant every place you look. Everywhere there is a ‘now hiring’ sign at the same time housing is booming but not keeping up with job creation. This economy is a wild west mix of great opportunity, constant chaos, and severe challenges.”
A lot of data points in that article. This is the most incredible data point:
Oil and gas industry is pouring $2 billion/month into the Bakken
Other data points from the article:
It is reported that there are 200 rigs drilling around 2,000 wells per year in the Bakken, as North Dakota has moved from ninth to the fourth largest oil producing states with predictions that it will become the second largest oil producing state in the next year
There are more than 6,000 producing wells in western North Dakota according to the experts, and it is predicted that 25,000 or more wells will be developed in the next 14 years that will create more than 30,000 long-term jobs
Another Natural Gas Plant in the Bakken -- Whiting, Belfield -- The Bakken, North Dakota, USA
The Belfield Whiting Gas Plant, owned by Whiting Oil and Gas Corp. is located two miles south of Belfield, ND, just off of Highway 85. It is expected to produce between 30 and 35 million cubic feet of gas per day. There will also be at least 10 employees on the site once it is up and running.
This will add a bit to Whiting's bottom line, but more importantly, it will result in less flaring.
Biggest News Story of the Week Out of the Bakken -- The Bakken, North Dakota, USA
The Dickinson Press link here .
Enbridge Energy Partners LP will make an additional $145 million investment in North Dakota to expand crude oil capacity and add a rail car loading facility to accommodate the additional volume, the company said Tuesday.
The Houston-based petroleum company, which operates oil pipelines, said that it will increase the holding capacity at the Berthold terminal by 80,000 barrels per day and add a double-loop unit-train facility, oil tanks and other terminal facilities next to its existing facilities.
This story speaks volumes.
Enbridge is a pipeline company. Wrong. Enbridge has smartly realized that it is an oil shipment company. That alone is a huge story. I've opined before that successful companies remain successful by recognizing what business they are in. The railroads moved to a new level when they realized they were in the transportation business and not the railroad business. That insight resulted in development of container cars and intermodal technology.
Enbridge recognizes it is an oil shipping company, not a pipeline company. More on this later.
By moving to pipeline, this tells me that Enbridge sees some advantages in crude-by-rail shipments: first, railroad shipping adds flexibility, not only in giving Enbridge an additional way to ship oil, but also flexibility in destination.
But this is what's really interesting: this tells me that takeaway capacity is still an issue in the Bakken. No company is going to be adding capacity if it's not needed. A corollary to this is that that this suggests to me there is more recoverable oil in the Bakken than officials are publicly admitting.
Another thing this tells me is that Enbridge is listening to the public. The public believes that pipelines are inherently dangerous but accept railroads as being inherently less risky. Of course that is not correct, but that's what the public believes, and if the public is moving toward crude-by-rail, Enbridge will do the same. After all, Enbridge is in the oil shipment business, not the pipeline business.
This may be the top story of the month for what it says about the Bakken; it certainly is the top story of the week.
Look at the amount of money Enbridge is putting into this project: $145 million. That is incredible. Just one more example that the Bakken is for real. That represents the CAPEX for some of the drillers in the Bakken: at $9 million apiece, $145 could buy you 16 wells. Most companies share the risk in wells, so that CAPEX actually represents much more than just 16 wells. Pretty incredible.
One can read more of this story and what Enbridge is doing at Berthold at this link.
When Did They Know It and Was It Suppressed -- Volts' Exploding Batteries
AutoGuide.com link here.
Apparently, way back in June, General Motors heard about a Volt fire that happened three weeks after said vehicle was crash tested, yet it wasn’t until November that the company, or NHTSA disclosed there was a potential problem, urging both dealers and customers to drain the battery pack immediately following an accident.
As a result the public relations nightmare surrounding Chevy’s halo vehicle appears to be deepening, though a good deal of the blame in this case also rests with NHTSA.
Joan Claybrook, a former adminstrator at NHTSA believes part of the reason for the delay was the “fragility of Volt sales.” Yet she also believes that “NHTSA could have put out a consumer alert, not to tell them [customers] for six months makes no sense to me.”
I guess when the government manufactures a defective product, the government is not required to report defects.
If I read the article correctly, Government Motors did not report the problem, and then an agency of the government, NHTSA, did not report the problem due to the "fragility of Volt sales."
So Much for GM Buying Back Those Exploding Batteries
Ottawa Citizen link here.
"On the question of the buyback, I think Mr. Akerson was taken a bit out of context," she said. "He was talking about customer satisfaction, which is really what the whole program is about and we're serious about keeping our customers happy."
The quote was quite clear; it was not taken out of context. Obviously, they were shocked by the potential number of folks who might want to sell back their Volts. I doubt a used Volt is going to sell for very much.
Carbo Ceramics -- Nice Analysis -- The Bakken, North Dakota, USA
I don't have time (or 24/7 reliable wi-fi connection) to check every well file, but it's been my impression, most of the recent fracks have been all sand.
My hunch: operators are doing all they can to bring fracking costs down. My understanding is that short term, sand and ceramics are about the same with regard to initial output. Ceramics are better than sand in the long run.
That's what I've been told. My hunch is the jury is still out regarding sand vs ceramics. Remember: they can always go back in and re-frac.
Labels: Ceramics, Proppants
Off To The Races -- E&P -- Previous Estimates Too Conservative
Rigzone link here.
Barclays Capital estimates that global exploration and production (E&P) spending in 2012 will reach $598 billion, up 10 percent from the previous record of $544 billion in 2011.
Increased E&P spending during 2012 will largely be led by international markets with $438.8 billion, an 11 percent increase, while North America E&P spending in 2012 will rise 8 percent to estimated $159.7 billion.
Forecast spending increases are down from international spending growth of 20 percent and 31 percent in North America in 2011, but Barclays sees "considerable upside" to its current spending forecasts.
The numbers are staggering. Let's just hope they keep fracking in the Bakken.
Wind Power Projects Die Without Tax Payer Support -- Nothing To Do With The Bakken
Bloomberg link here.
Construction of a $40 million plant in Cheyenne that would produce towers for wind turbines has been pushed back to next year.
Local and state economic development officials say there's no indication the project is dead but Worthington has not communicated any set date for starting construction.
They suspect uncertainty over extension of federal wind production tax credits may be a factor.
Well, duh.
Labels: Wind
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November|December 2018
[quote align=”center” color=”#999999″] “I’m sending in news about my authorship of the official lacrosse emoji, coming to phones this fall. It recently won the World Emoji Awards’ Most Anticipated Emoji of 2018 and was featured in US Lacrosse Magazine.”[/quote]
—Nicole Cinnamon Bohorad C’97
[tab]
[tab_item title=”1940s”]
Julian Hyman W’42, who turned 98 on August 4, began an effort this summer to sell over a million copies of his book, U Can Save Our World, now in its fourth edition. Julian writes, “We have to start talking to one another about the problems we are facing as a world community. My book has lots of ideas for solutions to the problems facing human civilization. Life has been good to me, and I’ve done a lot of interesting things, but I want to leave something behind for everyone’s children and future generations.”
[/tab_item]
Carol Helitzer Sheldin CW’51 performs her 20th solo cabaret act on November 19 and 26 at Don’t Tell Mama in New York City. Carol won the 2018 Hanson Award from the Manhattan Association of Cabarets in March. She writes, “Researching, archiving, and spreading the American Songbook heritage are my fortes.”
Celebrate Your Reunion: May 17–19, 2019
Maurice Sonnheim C’54 SW’56 has published a new book for parents and children, If You Could Change the Ending: New Endings for Old Fairy Tales. Maurice, who is 85 years old, writes, “I had a jolly time writing this book and will soon publish another book, The Jewish Bride and Other Stories and Poems.”
Dr. Leslie Becker D’57 writes, “The tradition continues. My granddaughter, Haley Stein, is a member of the Class of 2022, entering this fall. She is the daughter ofSuzanne Becker Stein C’89 W’89 andGary Stein W’89. She is also a granddaughter ofJoan Gelber Stein Ed’59 and the late Alex Stein W’58.”
Deborah Spungen CW’58 writes, “I recently published Table for One: Essays from a Widow’s Journey. The story recounts my journey through widowhood following the death of my husband, Frank Spungen W’57. This book marks my return to writing after a nearly 30-year hiatus. Table for One explores my difficult transition from being a partner in a loving relationship that lasted 54 years, to being a widow, alone and searching for a new sense of self. The book has been described by one reviewer as a having ‘a dollop of humor and some sage advice.’ I chronicled my struggle with grief and heartbreak and imparted my unique perspective as I dealt with everyday events as a newly single person. This book was written after my 35-plus years of working as an advocate for homicide victims. In 1980, I founded Philadelphia’s Families of Murder Victims following the death of my daughter Nancy. In 1983, I wrote And I Don’t Want to Live this Life, followed by a textbook in 1998, Homicide: The Hidden Victims. In 1995 I received the Presidential Award for Outstanding Service to Victims of Crime, presented by President Clinton and Attorney General Reno.”
David Marion W’60 L’63 , senior counsel at White and Williams LLP, was recently named an “Influencer of Law” by the Philadelphia Inquirer in the area of litigation and dispute.
Ramon Fouse WG’61 has published his first children’s book, The Crooked Little Christmas Tree, based on a story he told more than 50 years ago when his daughter was a baby. He lives in Austin, Texas, with his wife, Carolyn, and their two dogs. Ramon writes, “Not bad for an octogenarian!”
David Van Nuys C’62 received an American Psychological Association Presidential Award for his work as a psychology podcaster. His podcasts can be found at www.shrinkrapradio.com.
David T. Jones C’63 G’64 , a retired US diplomat, has released the first in a three-volume trilogy with David Kilgour, a retired member of the Parliament of Canada. Titled David vs. David: We Agree to Disagree, the first volume is devoted to domestic issues, such as elections, healthcare, racism, and economics.
Lew Knickerbocker WG’64 has written Crocodiles Galore: A Memoir—Almost, which is his fifth work of fiction. He has also written two nonfiction books and three plays that were staged.
Nancy Rabkin Deutsch CW’66 writes, “It’s been a few years now since I embarked on a new path—home and business organizing—which has become my passion after a life in marketing and communications. Showing my clients, especially seniors, how to let go of stuff has provided a new opportunity for me to have great satisfaction. Small or large assignments, we get results that earn a ‘thank you’ and wide smiles each time. How fortunate am I to be the Empathic Organizer!” Nancy’s website is www.empathicorganizer.com.
Robert K. Goldman C’67 , a professor of law at American University Washington College of Law, has been elected as president of the International Commission of Jurists, after serving as acting president since January 2017.
Dr. Stephen R. Permut C’67 has received the 2018 Tilton Award from the Tilton Mansion Preservation Society in Wilmington, Delaware. The award is named after Dr. James Tilton C1768 M1771, founder of the Medical Society of Delaware and the nation’s first US Army Surgeon General.
Robert Schoenberg SW’68 GrS’89 writes, “I am writing with some good news. The Pennsylvania Chapter of the National Association of Social Workers has chosen me for its Lifetime Achievement Award. I will receive it at the organization’s annual convention on September 13 at the Kalahari Resort which, by good fortune, is only about 20 minutes from my place in the Poconos.”
William L. Mentlik ChE’69 writes, “Based on a nomination by one of my law partners, Roy H. Wepner L’74, I was honored by NJBIZ magazine as a recipient of its 2018 ICON Honors Award, which recognizes New Jersey business leaders over the age of 60 for their strong leadership and success. I look forward to celebrating my 50th reunion in May, along with my wife Susan B. Pondfield CW’71 G’75, my TEP brothers, and countless other of my classmates and friends.”
Dr. Jeff Hoffman M’70 writes, “I am living in the Sarasota, Florida, area with my wife, Fern, and work part-time as a psychiatrist. After graduating from Penn, I trained in psychiatry at the Institute of the Pennsylvania Hospital. Following a stint as an Air Force psychiatrist, I moved with my wife to the Boston area, where I practiced for 30+ years and where we raised our children, Dan and Jessica. We have enjoyed many wonderful vacations with Penn Alumni Travel, and I have been active in leadership in medical alumni activities. This summer I published a memoir, Gently Down the Stream a Psychiatrist’s Life, recounting what I hope readers will find to be interesting and humorous anecdotes from my professional and personal life, including my years at PennMed and Pennsylvania Hospital.”
Lorraine Howard CW’71 WG’73 has been chosen president of the Women and Mathematics Education organization, partner affiliate of the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics. She writes, “All students (focusing on girls) need to have inquiry-based, project-based mathematics learning experiences, which research confirms sustains their mathematics learning and enjoyment that comes from actually ‘doing the mathematics’—applying the concepts to an authentic, relevant, real-world context.”
Antelo Devereux Jr. GAr’73 has published two new books of photos,The Jersey Shore: A Keepsake and Brandywine Valley: A Keepsake. Each book features more than 80 images of scenes along the Jersey shore and Brandywine Creek in Pennsylvania, respectively.
Rev. Lawrence D. Golin PT’73 writes, “It was my privilege to be honored by the American Physical Therapy Association with their Humanitarian Physical Therapy Award on June 28 in their NEXT Yearly Conference in Orlando, Florida. I was given a certificate in physical therapy at Penn on September 29, 1973, from secretary William G. Owen, chair of physical therapy department Eleanor Carlin, and chairman of the now defunct School of Allied Medical Professions Sidney Rodenburger. I was given a license to practice physical therapy in the state of Michigan shortly afterward. I had the privilege of being instructed by Dr. Laura Hack and Professor Eugene Michaels. I was given the award for establishing a small rehabilitation center at Memorial Christian Hospital in Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh, and serving 11 times in various countries as part of a mission medical team. The rehabilitation clinic (PT, orthotics, and prosthetics) is still operating, run by Bangladesh nationals.”
John A. Quelch WG’74 has cowritten Choice Matters: How Healthcare Consumers Make Decisions with Gordon Moore and Emily Boudreau. John is vice provost and dean of the Miami Business School at the University of Miami.
Dr. Gene Salkind G’74 GM’85 has been appointed to the Strategic Advisory Board of BioSymetrics Incorporated. Gene is chairman of neurosurgery at Holy Redeemer Hospital in Pennsylvania and a director at DermTech International.
Rabbi Stephen Wylen C’74 is now the rabbi at Congregation Knesseth Israel in Bound Brook, New Jersey. He writes, “I proudly welcomed into the world this past summer my tenth grandchild, Shalev, born in Olga, Israel.”
Dr. Edward C. Halperin W’75 has published the seventh edition of the textbook Perez and Brady’s Principles and Practice of Radiation Oncology, which he coedits with three colleagues. He is currently the chancellor and CEO of New York Medical College in Valhalla, New York.
Gilbert F. Casellas L’77 , an emeritus University trustee, has been named one of the 100 most influential corporate directors by the National Association of Corporate Directors. Gilbert is chair of the Corporate Governance and Business Ethics Committee of Prudential Financial’s board of directors.
Andrew Chirls C’77 has been named the inaugural chairman of the Human Relations Commission of the Borough of Narberth, Pennsylvania. Andrew is a member of the Commercial Litigation/Business Dispute and Real Estate practice areas of the Philadelphia-based law firm Fineman, Krekstein & Harris.
Dr. Cynthia Jones Eiseman G’78 Gr’79 writes, “A small group of longtime Society Hill (Philadelphia) residents and I interviewed nearly 90 of our neighbors to collect experiences of people who lived in the neighborhood during its redevelopment that began in the late 1950s. Society Hill is one of the best known examples of the federally funded urban renewal program and one of the few that emphasized preservation and restoration over demolition. Collaborating with Francesca Russello Ammon, assistant professor of city and regional planning at PennDesign, we combined our oral histories with her research on the neighborhood based on land-use maps, historic photographs, planning and preservation reports, and other city records to create an interactive website, Preserving Society Hill, which was launched in August. Penn’s Price Lab for Digital Humanities and the Penn Libraries Digital Scholarship Group provided the technical support for creating the site. The URL is https://pennds.org/societyhill .”
Elizabeth “Bepe” Boatright Kafka GFA’79 writes, “I am an artist. I went to Penn to study under Neil Welliver, the great landscape painter. I had been living in Utah for 15 years (for the scenery, of course!). I knew that as soon as I could retire, I wanted to move back east to help my sister take care of Dad, as it was getting tougher for her by the year. We settled in an adorable town in the middle of Appalachia, and I was able to help care for him in his last years, near the place of his roots. When he passed, I wanted to do something wonderful with the money he left me, so I opened Art on 16 Contemporary Gallery in Marion, Virginia. It is a stone’s throw from Exit 45 of the well-traveled Interstate 81, a beautiful little ‘white cube’ gallery showing contemporary art. I have a studio in the back, and I get to do my work and be around artists and beautiful art every day—a dream come true. Anyone traveling in or through the Blue Ridge Mountains in Southwestern Virginia should stop by!”
Hon. Michael Nutter W’79 , former mayor of Philadelphia, is a visiting fellow at the Harvard Institute of Politics for the fall semester.
Dr. Jack Sariego C’79 writes, “I have been named vice president for perioperative services for Pennsylvania Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania Health System. I was also awarded the CPE (Certified Physician Executive) designation by the American Association For Physician Leadership.”
Steven Silverberg W’79 has joined Sterling National Bank as managing director and vice president of its Westchester market.
Keith Stock WG’79 , chairman and CEO of Worldwide Reinsurance, was awarded the Foreign Policy Association Medal. Previous recipients include Franklin D. Roosevelt, Alan Greenspan, Colin Powell, and Paul Volcker.
David Leibnitz ChE’80 writes, “I have taken early retirement from HDR Engineering, where I have worked since 1988. As a senior project manager, I worked at many locations throughout the United States. A recent major accomplishment was in the construction of the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York. Being an initial investor into this great company’s employee stock ownership program has enabled me to undertake new adventures with (hopefully) plenty of youthful life left in me. I am right now trying to reconnect with my old friends from Penn. If you are reading this and know me, please send an email to davidleibnitz@yahoo.com and say hi.”
Dr. Deborah Sackner Goldring C’81 has earned tenure and promotion to associate professor at Stetson University School of Business Administration in DeLand, Florida.
Richard A. Jaffe C’81 has been selected for inclusion in The Best Lawyers in America 2019. This is his fifth year in a row on the Best Lawyers list. Richard is a workers’ compensation attorney in private practice in Philadelphia.
Douglas C. Friedman C’83 writes, “I was recently elected chair of the business management department at East Stroudsburg University, where I am a tenured associate professor of marketing.”
Julie Rae Dobrow ASC’84 Gr’87 has published After Emily: Two Remarkable Women and the Legacy of America’s Greatest Poet , which tells the story of Mabel Loomis Todd and her daughter Millicent Todd Bingham, who together edited and publicized Emily Dickinson’s poetry after the poet’s death. Julie is a professor with appointments in the Department of Child Study and Human Development and the Tisch College of Civic Life at Tufts University.
Rob Friedman W’84 WG’88 writes, “After more than 25 years in banking, insurance, and management consulting at AIG, Deloitte, JPMorgan Chase, and Oliver Wyman, in 2015 I became a fee-only financial planner. I became a Certified Financial Planner and a Certified Divorce Financial Analyst and founded my own firm, Central Park Financial Planning ( www.cpfinplan.com). I am enjoying the change to providing comprehensive financial planning for individuals and couples, along with a specialized service in divorce financial planning. In addition, in 2017, after many, many years together, my longtime partner, Robin, and I happily got married and we continue to live in Manhattan. I welcome contact at rfriedman@cpfinplan.com.”
Mark Cronin EAS’86 see Alex Weber C’09.
Barbara Vega C’86 writes, “I am now serving on the board of directors for Alfalit Incorporated, in Miami, and am also an advisory board member for the International Children’s Heart Foundation, headquartered in Cordova, Tennessee.”
Rabbi Lisa S. Greene W’87 , rabbi of North Shore Congregation Israel in Glencoe, Illinois, was selected to participate in ELI Talks’ six-month speaker fellowship, culminating in a presentation filmed in front of a live audience in Detroit. The title of Lisa’s talk was “Getting Ritual: Making Meaningful Jewish Moments.”
David L. Richter EAS ’87 W’87 L’92 writes, “I have embarked on two new roles: entrepreneur and student. I am the chairman, CEO, and founder of Richter Capital, a multi-strategy asset management firm based in Princeton, New Jersey. I’ve also returned to the academic world, pursuing an MPA from the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University.”
Catherine Love Ruffing C’87 , of Centerville High School in Fairfax County, Virginia, has been named Teacher of the Year by the American Lawyers Alliance, an affiliate of the American Bar Association.
Dr. Alexander H. Werner V’87 writes, “I have been a member of the advisory council at Clinician’s Brief Journal for several years, and this year, the third edition of Blackwell’s Five-Minute Veterinary Consult Clinical Companion: Small Animal Dermatology textbook, which I coauthored, has been published. The previous edition had been earlier translated into Simplified Chinese and Portuguese.”
John Kanaras C’88 , who retired from Merck last year, has founded a start-up called AXIA Time, which sells University-branded watches. The company launched with two designs and four university partners, including Penn, Princeton, Yale, and Dartmouth.
William “Toby” Usnik GEd’88 writes, “My new book, The Caring Economy: How to Win with Corporate Social Responsibility , is now No. 1 on Amazon for its Green Business category.”
Daniel E. Will C’89 has been confirmed as New Hampshire’s first solicitor general.
Mike Cuccaro C’90 , formerly of Georgia,writes, “After 20-plus years holding down the fort in the Empire State of the South, working as an attorney, a court administrator, and even a nightclub promoter, I’ve made a big life change and accepted an intriguing position with the courts in El Paso County, Texas. Will miss all my East Coast Quaker friends but hope to someday return to the Homecomings and Alumni Weekends that I enjoy so much. Cheers, all!”
Sumru Belger Krody G’91 , senior curator at the George Washington University Museum and the Textile Museum, has published A Nomad’s Art: Kilims of Anatolia in conjunction with her exhibition of the same name at the Textile Museum.
Tonia Lee C’91 WG’96 was nominated for a Capital Emmy, given annually by the National Capital Chesapeake Bay Chapter of the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences. Tonia was nominated for Who We Are, a CharmTV original program that she executive produced. Tonia is CharmTV’s general manager.
Jim Garver C’93 has been selected for inclusion in The Best Lawyers in America 2019. This is his seventh year in a row on the Best Lawyers list. Jim is a workers’ compensation attorney at Edgar Snyder & Associates in Pittsburgh.
Josefina Jimenez Augusto C’94 and Samori Augusto EAS’94 write, “We would like to announce the birth of our son, Elias, and our daughter, Salomé, (17 years ago). Our family has also appropriated an English family’s crest and updated the motto, so that where it once said ‘Integrity’ we have substituted ‘Si vos non vident, non solliciti.’”
Gina Bloom C’94 , a professor of English at the University of California, Davis, has written Gaming the Stage: Playable Media and the Rise of English Commercial Theater , an exploration of the intertwined history of gaming and theater in the early modern period.
Andrew Kluter EAS’95 married Yu-Jung Chen on September 1. His best man, David Mays EAS’95, writes, “Warmed by a California sun and embraced by a gentle Pacific breeze, grinning Andrew married the beautiful and accomplished Yu-Jung at Oakland’s picturesque Sequoyah Country Club. Guests included Ming Ming Liu Ma C’94; and Dr. Steven Pestka C’95 M’00 and I were groomsmen. Each of us met the groom during our shared residence in Ware College House in the early 1990s. After a honeymoon in the Far East, the newlyweds will return to their new home in Alameda, California, and their careers in San Francisco. The wedding party is delighted to wish Andrew and Yu-Jung many years of health and happiness together!”
Jessica M. Fishman ASC’96 Gr’01 ’s book, Death Makes the News: How the Media Censor and Display the Dead, recently received two awards. She writes, “The book has itself been the subject of news reporting, and in a recent book review, the International Journal of Communication described it as a ‘breakout study and milestone contribution to the literature.’” Jessica holds joint appointments in the Perelman School of Medicine and the Annenberg School for Communication.
Didem Un Ates EE’97 W’97 , senior director for AI customer and partner engagement at Cloud & AI at Microsoft, writes, “I have been working on launching new enterprise AI solutions with early customers and partners. I have also been focusing on AI for good, diversity, and inclusion, as well as AI and ethics. My recent initiatives included a STEM AI boot camp for 160 high school girls from 16 Central Eastern European countries.”
Nicole Cinnamon Bohorad C’97 , who served as Penn men’s lacrosse team manager from 1994 to 1997, writes, “I’m sending in news about my authorship of the official lacrosse emoji, coming to phones this fall. It recently won the World Emoji Awards’ Most Anticipated Emoji of 2018 and was featured in US Lacrosse Magazine .”
Dan Malasky C’97, formerly general counsel and managing director of business affairs for the national campus of the US Tennis Association in Orlando, Florida, and most recently chairman of the board of the Central Florida Sports Commission, has been appointed chief legal officer of the NFL’s Tampa Bay Buccaneers. When Dan was at Penn, he was a kicker on the lightweight football team under Coach Wagner.
Lily Saint C’97 , assistant professor of English and chair of African studies at Wesleyan University, has written Black Cultural Life in South Africa: Reception, Apartheid, and Ethics , published by Michigan University Press.
John “Griz” Dwight GAr’99 is principal and owner of GrizForm Design Architects, which he opened in 2003. Since then, his studio has designed over 150 restaurants, including the celebrated Estadio and Farmers Fishers Bakers restaurants in Washington, DC. In 2015, Griz was selected as one of the “Wave of the Future” designers by Hospitality Design Magazine.
Dr. John Mamoun C’99 writes, “Recently, I published a book about a board game called plakoto, which is a variation of the board game backgammon. Plakoto is played by millions of people in Mediterranean countries such as Greece, Egypt, and Turkey. Plakoto Board Game Strategy explains the expert strategy used for playing this complex game and is apparently the first book exclusively dedicated to doing so (although a comprehensive chapter on this game was published in 1977 in the book Backgammon Games and Strategies, by Nicolaos and Basil Tzannes).”
Atara Margolies C’01 GAr’04 GFA’04 has been promoted to architect at Quinn Evans Architects in Washington, DC. Atara has worked on many complex renovation projects in the DC region, including the modernization of the historic Stratford Middle School in Arlington, Virginia.
Erika “Rikki” Tanenbaum C’01 has been appointed as chief marketing officer at San Manuel Casino in southern California. Previously, she worked across a range of casino and hospitality brands, including MGM Resorts International, Caesars Entertainment, and Landry’s Golden Nugget Casinos.
Ceres Canal Aruoba C’03 EAS’03 WG’14 has been promoted to principal at Cornerstone Research, an economic and financial consulting firm. Ceren consults on matters involving pharmaceuticals, healthcare, intellectual property, marketing, and antitrust issues.
Eric Brach C’03 writes, “I have recently completed Double Lives: True Tales of the Criminals Next Door. My third book of nonfiction, Double Lives is a true-crime saga chronicling the most dastardly secret criminals of recent memory: the ones who terrorized their own hometowns.”
Samuel J. Fetchero W’03 writes, “My wife, Allison, and I are proud to announce the birth of our daughter, Eva Danielle Fetchero, on April 15. She is our third child, along with Noelle (5) and Caleb (3). I am a product marketing director for Apptio, and Allison is a physical therapist at Peak Sports and Spine Physical Therapy. We live in Bellevue, Washington.”
Ben Lerer C’03 see Simon Kirk C’06.
Robert Gorman G’04, founder of the technology transfer and intellectual property firm Gorman Associates of New York City, writes, “I have been selected by the Judge Advocate General of the United States Air Force to assume a Reserve assignment with Special Operations Command Africa (SOCAFRICA), a theater special operations command within the US Department of Defense.” Robert is a Judge Advocate General (JAG) Corps officer in the US Air Force Reserve and also a regional chairman for the Penn Alumni Interview Program. He adds, “I look forward to keeping in touch with fellow alumni from the past and present and may be reached at robert.s.gorman2.mil@mail.mil .”
Matt Ritter L’05 see Alex Weber C’09.
Daniel Schmierer C’05 W’05 has been promoted to principal at Cornerstone Research, an economic and financial consulting firm. Daniel specializes in antitrust and competition matters.
Elena Poleganova Jacque C’06 has joined law firm Blank Rome’s New York office as an associate in the Corporate, M&A, and Securities Group.
Simon Kirk C’06 writes, “I started a nonprofit with Matt Amalfitano C’11 called RaisedBy.Us. Matt is our full-time CEO. Our most well-known board member is Ben Lerer C’03, founder of Group Nine Media and Lerer Hippeau. We’ve just crossed $2 million in donations to charity and things are taking off.” RaisedBy.Us is a plug-and-play social good program for employers that allows employees to donate time and money.
Andrew J. Rosenthal C’06 writes, “My wife, Jennifer, and I welcomed our daughter, Eden Rivka Rosenthal, on May 7, 2018. Friends Brad Dalinka C’06 and Rachel Moskowtiz C’06 were quick to send red and blue baby gear. Eden, a native San Franciscan, plans on visiting campus for the first time over Homecoming 2018 for the Alumni Award of Merit Gala, when I will present Austin Lavin C’06 with the Young Alumni Award of Merit. We hope to see many friends and classmates in attendance that Friday evening.”
Daniel J. Glass C’07 writes, “I am happy to announce the upcoming launch of PsychTable.org, a mass-collaborative, open-science digital research tool and taxonomy of the human mind.”
Marc Garfinkle W’08 see Amanda J. Garfinkle C’09.
Mariana Carlos-Ondrusek C’09 writes, “Derek Ondrusek EAS’10 W’10 and I are overjoyed to announce the birth of our first child, Sofia Alexandra, on May 25 in Logan, Utah.”
Amanda J. Garfinkle C’09 writes, “My husband, Marc Garfinkle W’08, and I welcomed our second son, Liam Rahm Garfinkle, into the world on June 17. Not sure how we’ll ever top that Father’s Day gift again. We could not be more thrilled and cannot wait to bring him to Penn for his first visit!”
Sarah Kaminetsky Jonas C’09 writes, “Isaac Jonas and I are delighted to announce the birth of our second daughter, Margot Grace, on August 19. Margot joins big sister Claire Eliana in Manhattan, where I am an attorney with Morrison Cohen LLP and Isaac is an investment analyst with Loews Corporation. Our new family of four can’t wait to see everyone at my 10th reunion in May!”
Patrick F. Leahy GrEd’09 has been appointed by Pennsylvania Governor Tom Wolf to serve on Pennsylvania’s Tuition Account Program Advisory Board. The board advises on the work of the Pennsylvania 529 College Savings Program, which provides families with a tax-advantaged way to help save for their children’s higher education. Patrick is the president of Wilkes University in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania.
Barrie Kahn Nussbaum C’09 SPP’11 and Dr. Daniel Levine got married on Martha’s Vineyard on September 8. Barrie writes, “Dan went to Vanderbilt for undergrad, got a law degree at Villanova, then did his post-bacc at UPenn before going to medical school at Jefferson—he is now a radiology resident. Currently, I work as a director of development at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia Foundation, and Dan is a resident physician. It is his second career, after spending a decade using his law degree in television production in Los Angeles. We live in Rittenhouse Square, Philadelphia. Penn grads in attendance included: Scott Fudemberg C’99 (brother-in-law of bride), Reagan Jeffrey Naples WG’13, Amy Levine GEd’10, Amy Yuehong Lei Nu’09 GNu’11, Madeleine Grant C’09 LPS’16 SPP’17, Stephanie Searles Vogel C’09, Louis Vogel C’09, Annie Friedman C’09, Drew Feith Tye Ruby-Howe C’09, Lex Ruby-Howe C’07, Alissa Kur Lepisto C’09, Margaretha Ehret C’09, Lauren Berg Joseph C’08, Laura Minskoff C’10 WG’16, Michael Braver W’84, and Doug Kenney W’09. Also in attendance was adjunct professor Eileen Heisman and former advisory dean to Penn Medical School and retired professor Dr. Marc Levine, father of the groom. Father of the bride, Dr. Sam Nussbaum, serves on the board of the University of Pennsylvania’s Leonard Davis Institute of Health Economics.”
Dr. Kevin Rakszawski EAS’09 is chief fellow in hematology/oncology at Penn State Health Milton S. Hershey Medical Center in Hershey, Pennsylvania.
David M. Russo G’09 Gr’11 has been promoted to principal at Cornerstone Research, an economic and financial consulting firm. David specializes in antitrust and competition cases.
Alex Weber C’09 and Matt Ritter L’05 have launched a new podcast, Fired Up!, interviewing people about a time they were fired. Alex writes, “From industry leaders to Navy Seals to SNL comedians, Fired Up! shares stories of successful people who hit rock bottom and bounced back to do incredible things. We recently had producer Mark Cronin EAS’86 on the show.”
Paula Davis-Laack LPS’10 published an article titled “Five Mindsets that Undercut Your Ability to Think Like a Leader” in the American Bar Association’s August 2018 Law Practice Today, which was the Attorney Well-Being issue.
Sonie Kama Guseh C‘10 , a content strategy and partnerships professional at Comcast NBCUniversal, married Kevin Osayi Osagie EE’10 EAS’10, a technology and analytics professional at Pandora Media, on August 4. Sonie writes, “My parents are Dr. James and Thelma Guseh of Durham, North Carolina, and Kevin is the son of Patience Osagie of Ewing, New Jersey, and the late Dr. Emmanuel Osagie. My cousin, Rev. Dr. Wilfred M. Manyango, pastor of Covenant Community Church in Garland, Texas, officiated the ceremony at the Pen Ryn Mansion in Bensalem, Pennsylvania. The matron of honor wasCamilla Williams Seawright C’10, the maid of honor wasJanday Wilson C’10, and bridesmaids were Stephanie Guseh, Daniella Jones C’10, Jessica Magness C’10 , Shadlyn Minor, and Kimberly Osagie. The best man was Naveed Baksh, and groomsmen were Vignesh Chandramouli EE’10 EAS’10 W’10,Andrew Godwin C’10, Nahnsan Guseh, Sawalla Guseh, Jason Rodriguez W’10, and Jonathan Thompson. Kevin and I have much in common. We met as college freshman (my degree is in English; his is in electrical engineering) and both earned our MBAs from Columbia Business School. Both sets of parents consist of educators—professors and teachers—and are originally from West Africa—the Gusehs from Liberia, and the Osagies from Nigeria. Kevin and I reside in Oakland, California.”
Derek Ondrusek EAS’10 W’10 see Mariana Carlos-Ondrusek C’09.
Yu-Hua Yang GEE’10 writes, “My wife, Sally, and I would like to announce the birth of our son, Kailer Yang, on June 20, in Berkeley, California. He weighed 8 pounds 15 ounces and measured 21.5 inches long. Big brother Dexson took a class about babies and was eager to put his knowledge into use by helping with feedings and diaper changes. Our newly family of four currently resides in Alameda, California.”
Matt Amalfitano C’11 see Simon Kirk C’06.
Jinelle Craig G’11 L’11 has joined the law firm Womble Bond Dickinson as an attorney in its Charlotte, North Carolina, office.
Amber Efé Hopkins-Jenkins ASC’11 and Jarrid Tingle W’13 were married on August 18 at the Biltmore in Atlanta. Amber writes, “We met during a Makuu student retreat in 2009. Many Penn graduates attended the celebration, including Akinola Aliu C’13, Paul Ampofo W’14, Jacqueline Baron C’13, Michael Carajohn C’13, Robert Dixon III W’13, Triston Francis W’12, Dionicio Herrera W’13, Tyler Hyman C’13, Caitlin King W’11, Ellery Lassiter C’18, Enitan Marcelle C’13, Shane McWilliams C’12, Danielle Noel C’08, Daina Richie Troy W’98, Christopher Russell C’13, Alexandria Savage EAS’13, and Sharree Walls C’13.”
Jarrid Tingle W’13 see Amber Efé Hopkins-Jenkins ASC’11.
Michael Happ C’15 and Grace Liu W’15 were married on October 5 in the Lower Hudson Valley in New York, with many fellow alumni in attendance.
Rebecca Rosen GEd’15 and Jacob Shamsian were married on August 5 at Crest Hollow Country Club on Long Island in New York. Rebecca is a teacher in Manhattan and Jacob is a journalist. Also in attendance were Patrick Finn GEd’15 and Jodi Miller C’14 GEd’15, who was a bridesmaid.
Matthew Mongiello Gr’16 has been promoted from visiting professor to assistant professor of political science at McDaniel College in Westminster, Maryland. Matthew also serves as the pre-law advisor.
Dwayne Allen Thomas LPS’16 published an article titled “When You Feel Like You Don’t Belong” in the American Bar Association’s August 2018 Law Practice Today, which was the Attorney Well-Being issue.
Griffin Amdur W’18 , Andrew Witherspoon W’18, and James McPhail C’18 W’18 have opened the Chicago Furniture Bank, which collects and distributes furniture to Chicago residents in need at virtually no cost to the client. While they were students, the trio received a $100,000 President’s Engagement Prize from Penn to help launch the project.
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Harvard Law Bulletin - Spring 2016
The Price of Life
There is now a cure for Hepatitis C. But in some states, Medicaid won’t pay for it until patients become seriously and irrevocably ill. Harvard Law’s Center for Health Law and Policy Innovation is trying to change that—through research, advocacy and litigation. Continue Reading
Pulling Back the Curtain
It is the rare law review article that directly leads the Supreme Court to change how it does business. But that’s exactly what happened after the Harvard Law Review published an article in 2014 by Richard Lazarus, revealing how Supreme Court opinions get changed after issuance, with little public notice. Continue Reading
The New Age of Surveillance
The Internet of Things may be about to change our lives as radically as the Internet itself did 20 years ago. The implications for privacy, national security, human rights, cyberespionage and the economy are staggering. Continue Reading
Solutions from Cincinnati
Now in its 14th year, a compact on policing in Cincinnati, Ohio, focused on building strong police-community relationships is a lauded model nationwide. John Cranley ’99, now the city’s mayor, was there from the start of the landmark agreement known as the Collaborative. Continue Reading
He Was Not a Crook
By Lewis Rice, May 10, 2016
Former staffer in the Nixon administration continues to defend his boss
Credit: The National Archives 1970: Geoff Shepard ’69 shaking hands with President Nixon in the Oval Office
When he was a student at HLS, a friend made Geoff Shepard ’69 a campaign button that said “Nixon Shepard,” representing Shepard’s enthusiasm for the presidential candidacy of Richard Nixon and his hope that he would join Nixon in the White House. Shepard still has the button today—and almost 50 years later is still advocating for the president he served and defended.
Earlier this year, he came back to the law school to present his findings from his recent book, “The Real Watergate Scandal: Collusion, Conspiracy, and the Plot That Brought Nixon Down.” Based on documents he uncovered from the Watergate proceedings housed in the National Archives, the book contends that charges of a cover-up that ultimately forced Nixon to resign from office proved unfounded. Even the “smoking gun” tape that appeared to show the president seeking to limit the FBI’s Watergate investigation was misunderstood, Shepard contends: It was in fact an attempt to keep the names of Democratic donors to the Nixon campaign from becoming public. Yet the cover-up charges were buttressed by biased prosecutors and judges who colluded to ensure the downfall of the president, he believes.
“Judges and prosecutors aren’t supposed to get together in advance and make decisions, and that’s what it turns out they were doing,” he said. “It’s just startling, what was going on.”
Shepard’s presentation at HLS was one of many he has made at law schools around the country, where he has found students interested in his examples of a flawed system of due process. For them, it’s history (Shepard jokes that the students buy the book for their parents). For him, it’s his life.
Like Nixon, Shepard went to Whittier College in California, where he grew up. In fact, to his surprise, he sat next to Nixon during a luncheon at the college which the former vice president at the time attended to present a scholarship to Shepard. He later was thrilled to find out that Nixon had doubled his scholarship amount—to $500.
Credit: The National Archives Shepard, then associate director of the Domestic Council, running a meeting in the Cabinet Room on Feb. 5, 1974. Facing President Nixon on the other side of the table were two future presidents: Gerald Ford and George H.W. Bush.
When he was a law student, Shepard applied to be a White House fellow hoping to help the Nixon administration. It wasn’t, he said, because of a deep political conviction. He didn’t really even think about Nixon’s—or anyone else’s—politics at the time. Nixon gave him scholarship money and they went to the same college. And they had something else in common: “He wasn’t a highfalutin Easterner,” as Shepard put it, nor was either one among the “sons of prominent men” like those who were introduced by one of his professors during a first-year class at Harvard Law.
The “backward kid from Irvine Ranch,” as Shepard described himself, won the fellowship and the next year was hired for the staff of the White House Domestic Council under John Ehrlichman. Shepard would work with many of the major Watergate figures and, after the scandal broke, on the president’s defense team.
To some extent, I think I’m a lone ranger, the sole survivor of a legal pogrom who cares about what happened, who is going to, by Jove, find some justice.
It ended badly and he felt a share of responsibility, Shepard said. He stayed on with the Ford administration and then left government, never to return, working in the insurance industry for 35 years until his retirement. He has maintained connections from his White House experience through reunions he’s arranged with the policy planning staff and also helped produce “Nixon Legacy Forums,” documentaries on policy initiatives undertaken by the administration. Although for many people Nixon’s legacy can be summed up in one word, Shepard says the president he served should be celebrated for his foreign policy acumen and domestic achievements, such as efforts to combat drug abuse.
“The people who have loathed Richard Nixon—just this visceral hatred of this guy from nowhere, without culture, without family, without a Harvard education, who kept winning elections,” he said, “they want to give him no credit for anything.”
Shepard says his friends from that time have moved on from Watergate, but he won’t—even if many people think the case is settled history.
“To some extent, I think I’m a lone ranger, the sole survivor of a legal pogrom who cares about what happened, who is going to, by Jove, find some justice,” said Shepard. “The alternative view is Don Quixote tilting at historic windmills of no consequence whatsoever.”
He may yet discover which view is more accurate. He cites the possibility of a lawsuit, a coram nobis, to challenge the long-ago Watergate rulings and, perhaps, to use another literary metaphor, to finally catch his white whale.
Topics: Legal History
Tags: Richard Nixon
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Dubai concludes 4-city roadshow in North India
Dubai Tourism Corporation and Marketing (DTCM) India recently conducted a four-city roadshow in North India. Represented by Nijhawan Group in India, DTCM held roadshows in Lucknow on November 12, in Jaipur on November 13, in Chandigarh on November 15, and finally concluding it in New Delhi on November 16. Khalid Al Awar, Manager–India & Pakistan, International Operations, led the delegation which consisted of partners including airlines, hotels and popular attractions in Dubai. Addressing the attendees at the Delhi roadshow, Al Awar thanked the travel agents and their support in making India the number one source market for tourism in Dubai.
Tourism likely to contribute 3.5 per cent to India’s GDP by 2027
The direct contribution of travel and tourism sector — which reflects the net value of output generated by hotels, airlines, travel agents, other passenger transportation services (excluding commuter services), and restaurants and leisure industries directly supported by tourists — was expected to rise 6.9 per cent YoY in 2017, suggests a FICCI-KPMG report. This accounts for 3.3 per cent of the country’s GDP, and is expected to form 3.5 per cent of it by 2027. In accordance with its GDP contribution, the sector contributes significantly to job creation. The sector directly accounts for 5.8 per cent of the total employment in India. Further, the Indian travel and tourism sector is expected to have attracted capital investment of Rs 2,387.7 billion (USD35.2 billion) in 2017 — accounting for 5.7 per cent of the total national investment.
Thailand offers free visa-on-arrival from today
The Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT) has announced granting a visa-on-arrival fee waiver for tourists from 20 countries, including India. From November 15, 2018 to January 13, 2019, citizens of Andora, Bulgaria, Bhutan, China (including Taiwan), Cyprus, Ethiopia, Fiji, India, Kazakhstan, Latvia, Lithuania, Maldives, Malta, Mauritius, Papua New Guinea, Romania, San Marino, Saudi Arabia, Ukraine and Uzbekistan will be exempted from the 2,000 Baht visa-on-arrival fee for the purpose of touring in Thailand for not more than 15 days. Yuthasak Supasorn, Governor, TAT, said, “This is good news for Thailand’s tourism industry as we’re preparing a range of year-end activities and promotions, including the launch of Amazing Thailand Grand Sale ‘Passport Privilege’ during the same period.” Tourism promotions and events in the pipeline between now and January next year also include the New Year Electronic Music Festival in Pattaya from December 30-31, and TAT will hold the countdown celebration in five destinations in the five regions of Thailand: Chiang Rai in the north, Nakhon Phanom in the northeast, Ratchaburi in the central region, Satun with its world-renowned geopark in the south and Sa Kaeo in the east.
Switzerland witnesses 23% increase in overnights from India
Switzerland witnessed a 23.4 per cent increase in the overnights spent by Indians in Switzerland in 2017. Indian tourists are increasingly looking at Switzerland as a travel destination because of the plethora of options it offers to each traveller. In order to showcase these diverse options, Switzerland Tourism has taken its multiple offerings across Mumbai, Pune, Kolkata and Delhi through its recently-concluded annual roadshow. Switzerland’s increasing number of Indian overnights can be attributed to Bollywood actor Ranveer Singh coming on board as the brand ambassador. “This year has also been a very exciting one for Switzerland Tourism with Ranveer Singh continuing as our brand ambassador. He has showcased Switzerland in a very attractive and diverse light, be it adventure, sports, culture, food, new destinations or experiences. Each year, we see a growing interest among Indian travellers but 2017, thanks to Ranveer, the overnights have been extremely high. Our numbers this year are also encouraging – we are up 10 per cent in hotel overnights in the period January to August 2018 as compared to the same period last year. Besides this campaign, we also continue our travel trade campaigns – with regular webinars, training sessions in tier two and tier three cities as well our new e-learning modules on the Switzerland Travel Academy,” said Claudio Zemp, Director–India, Switzerland Tourism. The roadshows in all the four cities had a B2B session where Indian travel agents met and discussed business prospects and ideas with the Swiss delegation.
Slovakia to operate 38 new VACs in 10 countries including India
VFS Global has signed a contract with the Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs of the Slovak Republic for providing visa services in 10 countries including India. The other countries to get visa application centres for Slovakia via VFS Global are China, Kazakhstan, Palestine, Belarus, Russia, Kuwait, United Arab Emirates, Turkey and Egypt. The rollout of 38 visa application centres is expected to be completed by December 2018. Under the new contract, VFS Global will accept both short and long-term visa applications on behalf of the Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs of the Slovak Republic. Chris Dix, Head – Business Development, VFS Global, said, “We are excited about our new partnership with the Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs of the Slovak Republic. The countries where we will be operating are markets where VFS Global has worked for several years and whose travellers are familiar with our services and expertise. We are also pleased to have the opportunity to serve our new clients in new locations, and bring applicants in these locations the same benefits and high-quality service that we have been offering our customers worldwide for the last 17 years.”
Doha offers visa-free arrival for Indians
Citizens of India can now be granted a visa waiver for a period of 30 days on their arrival in Qatar, upon certain conditions. The passenger’s passport must be valid for at least six months and must have a confirmed return ticket. He/she must have a valid credit card. (For a family travelling together, the card must be in the name of the passenger or one per family). Passengers should also provide a confirmed hotel reservation.
India generates Rs 1,777 billion via international tourist arrivals
Visitor exports are a key component of the direct contribution of travel and tourism. In 2017, India generated Rs 1,777.1 billion in visitor exports. In 2018, this is expected to grow by 8.8 per cent, and the country is expected to attract 18,655,000 international tourist arrivals. By 2028, international tourist arrivals are forecast to total 30,469,000, generating expenditure of Rs 3,316.4 billion, an increase of 5.5 per cent per annum.
India witnesses 7.9% growth in FTAs from January to June 2018 YOY
India has witnessed a total of 51,63,343 Foreign Tourist Arrivals (FTAs) in 2018, a growth of 7.9% compared to 2017, reveals a latest report ‘India Tourism Statistics at a glance 2018’ by the Ministry of Tourism (MoT). Last year, from January to June, the country saw 47,84,847 FTAs. However, in 2016, there were 41,68,864 FTAs during the same months. When compared, an increase of 14.8% was found in FTAs from 2016 to 2017. The report also mentions that in FY2016-17, the months of April and June saw 21.3% increase in the number of FTAs – the maximum in the year. In April 2016, there were 5,92,004 FTAs in the country, whereas 7,17,899 in 2017. The report also highlights that in the current year, March 2018 records the highest percentage (18%), with 10,25,830 FTAs in India.
Sweden witnesses 23% increase in tourists from India
According to the Swedish Agency for Economic and Regional Growth, the number of bednights by Indians in Sweden in 2016 was 175088 nights which went up to 216058 nights in 2017, a 23 per cent increase from the previous year. Michael Persson Gripkow, Chief Brand & Communications Officer, VisitSweden says, “We have noticed a rise in ‘bleisure’ travel trend. In addition, according to Statistics Sweden, 17,000 Indian passport holders resides in Sweden today. This along with other factors has led to an increase in tourism from India.” Today more than 170 Swedish companies are registered in India among the likes of Ericsson, Volvo, H&M, Scania, DeLaval, Tetrapak and the latest entrant being global home furnishings giant IKEA. This growing bridge between India and Sweden has impacted tourism positively. Ruth Dolla, Project Manager – India, VisitSweden adds, “We look forward to further growth this year. Air India’s direct flight from Delhi to Stockholm completed one year since its first flight in August 2017 and continues to bring incoming traffic from India to Sweden.” In addition more and more airlines are launching new routes to Sweden. Qatar Airways is slated to launch a direct flight in December 2018 from Doha to Sweden’s second largest city – Gothenburg that will provide better connections to passengers from India.
Travel Tours launches fifth retail store in Bengaluru
Travel Tours, the flagship leisure travel brand of FCM Travel Solutions – Indian subsidiary of Flight Centre Travel Group Australia, recently inaugurated its fifth store in Bengaluru. The store was inaugurated by Rakshit Desai, Managing Director, India at Flight Centre Travel Group. With the launch of this store, FCM Travel Solutions now has 30 operational Travel Tours stores across India. The new store in Bengaluru aims to fulfill the diverse needs of travellers in the city by offering both personalised vacations and group tours. The store will cater to the needs of high-end urban consumers such as families, business travellers, honeymoon couples and large groups of travellers. Expressing his thoughts on the launch, Desai said, “The launch is a further development of our expansion and strategic intent at Travel Tours across the Southern India. Bengaluru contributes to 22 per cent of leisure travel at Travel Tours overall and 35 per cent in South India. This year has been exciting for us and as we expand rapidly into the year, we plan to open 50+ stores by 2020.” Travel Tours current footprint extends to a total of 30 stores across Mumbai, Delhi, Chandigarh, Jalandhar, Ahmedabad, Vadodara, Pune, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Kochi, Anand and Nagpur via a combination of owned branches and newly opened franchise outlets.
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Milky Way viewed from White Cliffs NSW
Stargazing with the experts. The Milky Way is a barred spiral galaxy 100,000–120,000 light-years in diameter containing 200–400 billion stars. It may contain at least as many planets. The Solar System is located within the disk, around two thirds of the way out from the Galactic Center, on the inner edge of a spiral-shaped concentration of gas and dust called the Orion–Cygnus Arm. The stars in the inner ≈10,000 light-years are organized in a bulge and one or more bars. The very center is marked by an intense radio source named Sagittarius A* which is likely to be a supermassive black hole.
The Galaxy rotates differentially, faster towards the center and slower towards the outer edge. The rotational period is about 200 million years at the position of the Sun. The Galaxy as a whole is moving at a velocity of 552 to 630 km per second, depending on the relative frame of reference. It is estimated to be about 13.2 billion years old, nearly as old as the Universe. Surrounded by several smaller satellite galaxies, the Milky Way is part of the Local Group of galaxies, which forms a subcomponent of the Virgo Supercluster.
Ref: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milky_Way
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Public academic and research events
Academic cooperation
Mutual activity
Experimental establishments of the Institute
Experimental work
Implementation of research results
Specialised academic councils
In 2013, the work on the monitoring of the implementation of the research results that were gained in the report and two previous years was performed.
In accordance with 7 fundamental and 8 applied researches (15 researches in general), 97 manuscripts were prepared; 58 of them are published and used by the target audience that are 60% of the prepared production. They include 13 academic works (9 of them were published including 1 manuscript that was provided on the site of the Institute and was planned to be published in 2014), 25 scientific and productive materials (12 of them were published), 59 educational materials (37 of them were published).
In correspondence to 7 fundamental researches, in 2012, 16 manuscripts were prepared; 13 of them were published and used by the target audience (81% of them), other manuscripts were included in the prospects plan for publishing in 2014. They include 8 academic works (all of them were published including 1 manuscript that was posted on the site of the Institute), 3 scientific and productive materials (2 of them were published), 5 educational materials (3 of them were published).
In accordance with the fundamental and applied researches that were completed in 2013, 4 manuscripts were prepared; 1 of them was published and used by the target audience; it is 25% of them; the rest of the manuscripts were included in the prospects plan for publishing in 2014.
In common, 117 manuscripts were prepared in accordance with the fundamental and the applied researches in 2011-2013; 72 of them were published and used by the target audience (62%).
144 manuscripts are planned to be prepared in accordance with the results of the transitional researches; 6 of them have already been published. The rest were included in the prospects plan for publishing in 20145-2016.
The published works are used at the all-Ukrainian level. The objects of their implementation are the bodies of the state and the local governments (the regional and the district departments of the education management, methodological centers, curriculum offices), higher educational establishments where the pedagogical staff studies, the institutes of the post-graduate pedagogical education, comprehensive educational institutions, the institutions of the NAES of Ukraine, scientific libraries.
In the process of the preparation of the academic works, the results of the researches are approbated and proclaimed; the main ideas and principles that were used in their development are provided in the academic articles; the hypotheses and the suppositions are experimentally checked in the ordinary conditions of the pedagogical process; the possible social effect of their implementation is forecasted and checked, etc. The results gained in the research process are approbated during the discussions of them in the academic meetings, namely, the international and the all-Ukrainian scientific and practical conferences, symposiums, round-table discussions, and other events.
In 2013, the work on the informational representation of the academic results on the site of the Institute of Pedagogy as well as the publication of the digests with the representation of the products that are prepared to be published and used started. The access for the information is free on the site of the Institute of Pedagogy and is sent to all institutes of the post-graduate pedagogical education, the regional scientific libraries, higher pedagogical educational establishments as well as the experimental comprehensive educational institutions.
The target audience of the academic results of the Institute of pedagogy comprises the pedagogical staff of the comprehensive educational institutions, university teachers, and students (auditors) of the higher educational establishments (the institutions of the post-graduate pedagogical education,), the staff (management staff, headmasters, and methodologists), the representatives of the centers of the monitoring researches, young scientists (post-graduate students and Doctorate students), colleagues –scientists (including foreign researchers), everyone who is interested in comprehensive education and pedagogy.
The results of the researches conducted in 2011-2013 were used by the Laboratories (the Laboratory of primary Education, Literary Education, Social Studies Education, Mathematical and Physical Education, Chemical and Biological Education, Geographical and Economical Education, Education Quality Assessment, Ukrainian Language Teaching, Foreign Languages Teaching) during the development of the scientific and methodological basis for compiling the tests for the monitoring of the academic achievements of the pupils of the 5th and 10thgrades as well as the creation of the tests collections for the all-Ukrainian monitoring (mutually with the Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine), the creation of the tests collections for the State Final .Attestation (mutually with the Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine). During 2012-2013, the approximate requirements for pupils’ educational achievements in basic disciplines in the system of the comprehensive education (the Order of the Ministry of Education and Science № 1222 of 21.08.2013), the academic programs for the in-depth studying of academic subjects in the 8th-9th grades of the comprehensive educational institutions where the didactic and methodological lay-outs of the conducted researches were implemented.
The scientific results of the Laboratories (the Laboratory of Literary Education, Social Studies Education, Mathematical and Physical Education, Profile Studies and Vocational Consultation, Ukrainian Language Teaching, Foreign Languages Teaching, Informatics teaching, Labour Training and Polytechnic Work, Rural School, Comparative pedagogy) that were gained in the research process of 2011-2013 were aimed at the solution of the didactic problems of the implementation of the profession-oriented teaching in the high school. These researches were used during the development of the concept of the profession-oriented teaching at high school, the materials for the parliamentary hearings “Availability and Quality of the Comprehensive Secondary education: State, prospects” (23 October, 2013), the preparation of the materials for the issue “The Implementation of the profession orientation of the high school” for the purpose of the preparation of the draft for the annual compellation of the president of Ukraine to the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine in 2014.
Materials that were developed in the research process were not only used in the printed products but also are the basis for the development and the approbation of the electronic educational media that promote its wider distribution in the educational practice. In the framework of the partnership of the Institute of Pedagogy with “Rozumnyky” company, the researchers of the Institute created “The Optional Geography Course, the 7th Grade”. Version 1.0.; “Design Fundamentals, the 11th Grade” (for the profession-oriented studying). Version 1.0., “chemistry, the 10th grade” (academic level). Version 1.0.; “Labour training, the 5th Grade”. Version 1.0.; “Algorithmization and Software Engineering, 5-7th Grades”. Version 1.0.
The monitoring of the implementation of thee research results is performed by means of the annual collecting, analysis, generalization, and preservation of the data on the publication, distribution, and usage of the products that were prepared in accordance with the research that was completed in the reported and in two previous years. In this branch, in the Institute, the work on the requests (including questionnaires, tests, etc.) aimed at the users of the academic production for the purpose of the monitoring of the implementation effectiveness and social significance. The documents which confirm the implementation effectiveness are certificates, extracts from the protocols of the meetings of the pedagogical and academic councils, agreements with the educational institutions on the implementation labels. From 20 of 32 textbooks that were prepared i8n 2011-2013 are labeled as “Recommended by the ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine”; they are widely approbated in the Ukrainian educational institutions. Monitoring researches of these textbooks are conducted mutually with the Institute of innovative technologies and content of education of the Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine as well as the institutes of the post-graduate pedagogical education. The monitoring results in the researches on the quality of textbooks created by the scientists of the Institute of Pedagogy are posted on the web-site of the Institute of Innovational Technologies and Content of education of the Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine.
The scientific products of the Institute of pedagogy is constantly represented at the exhibitions, in particularly, in 2013 there were the IV International Exhibition “Modern Educational Establishments – 2013”, “Innovations in Modern Education”. The institute of Pedagogy became the laureate of the national competition “Outstanding Scientific Achievements” in the nomination “A Textbook or the Academic Series for the Pupils, Students” for the academic series in Physics and Astronomy for the high profession-oriented school of the authors under the direction of L. V. Neporozhnya. In accordance with the Statement of the of the Presidium of the NAES of Ukraine № 1-7/5-104 of the 14th of March in 2013, the researchers of the Institute of Pedagoy of the NAES of Ukraine are the winners of the contests of the NAES of Ukraine for the best academic work. In the nomination “For the Best Monograph”, the collective monograph Didactic and Methodological Provision of the Control and the Assessment of the Junior Schoolchildren’s Achievements on the Basis of the Competence-Oriented Approaach” created by the scientists of the Laboratory of Primary Education (the authors were O.Ya. Savchenko, N.M. Bibik, O.V. Onopriyenko, K.I. Ponomar'ova, O.V. Vashulenko) was awarded the first degree diploma; the monograph Methodology of the Formation of the Technological Culture of a Headmaster of a Comprehensive Educational Institution (the author was N. M. Ostroverkhova, a chief researcher of the Laboratory of the Educational Establishments Managements) was awarded the III degree diploma. In nomination “For the Best (Educational, Educational and Methodological, Practical) Handbook for the Usage of the Academic and Other Kinds of Social Practice”, the handbook Modern Ukrainian Literature (the End of the XX – the Beginning of the XXI Century) was awarded the II degree diploma; the authors were K. L. Biychuk, A. M. Fasolya, the researchers of the Laboratory of Literary Education.
The academic achievements of the scientists become the lay-outs of the scientific community and the international recognition under the conditions of the publication of the results in the scientometrical database of the Internet. Fro this purpose, the work on E-library as well as the monitoring of the reference indexes started.
The results of the monitoring of the implementation are reported at the meeting of the academic council of the Institute, the meeting of the Bureau of the Department of the Comprehensive Secondary Education and the Department of General Pedagogy and Philosophy of Education of the NAES of Ukraine, the report conference of the Institute of Pedagogy.
Products which were implemented in educational practice in 2009-2012
Products which were implemented in educational practice in 2013
Address: 04053, Kiev, Artema str., 52-D
phone/fax: 481-37-10 phone: 481-37-71
Site developed and maintained by the publisher "Rozumniki" 2013
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Harnessing New Technologies to Enhance Quality Education
On 15 March, UNESCO Director-General, Irina Bokova, and Mr John Galvin, Vice President of Intel, co-chaired the newly launched Broadband Commission Working Group meeting on Education, which aims at harnessing the power of new technologies to enhance quality education and widen access – with a focus on identifying the digital skills and competences necessary for today and tomorrow.
The Working Group was held in Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of China, with the participation of the President of the Republic of Rwanda, H.E. Mr Paul Kagame, President of the Carlos Slim Foundation, Mr Carlos Slim Helú, represented by Mr Carlos Jarque, and the Secretary-General of the International Telecommunication Union, Mr Houlin Zhao.
“The digital revolution must be a development revolution for all,” declared the Director-General. “This means widening access to ICTs and broadband – it means also ensuring every girl and boy, every woman and man, has the skills to make the most of new technologies”.
The Director-General highlighted that “our goals is to build inclusive knowledge societies, where all participate, all voices are heard.”
John Galvin noted the importance of leadership in driving the digital revolution forward in education — in policies, in schools, in and outside classrooms, with and for students.
“I believe our starting point is clear — education is a human right that is essential for dignity and empowerment and a transformational force for societies and economies,” continued Irina Bokova.
She underscored that new technologies can be essential motors to advance the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development – specifically Sustainable Development Goal 4, to ensure inclusive and quality education for all and promote lifelong learning by 2030.
Referring to the next steps to take this forward, the Director-General highlighted the focus of the Working Group on identifying the digital skills relevant for societies today and tomorrow and on clarifying how public policies can best advance this agenda – through new education strategies, new approaches across the education sector and new partnerships.
“In this spirit, I believe the Compendium Document we are preparing will open new doors not just for education but for societies as a whole,” said the Director-General.
The Broadband Commission for Sustainable Development was established in 2010 and comprises of more than 50 leaders from across a range of government and industry sectors. They are committed to actively supporting countries, UN experts and NGOs to fully leverage the potential of ICT to drive national Sustainable Development Goal strategies in key areas such as education, healthcare, gender equality and environmental management.
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A Surprising Safe Haven
Biotech stocks thrive even as the market tanks. These four still hold plenty of promise.
By Jennifer Schonberger
Sean Murphy, a 36-year-old marketer who lives in Washington, D.C., thought he was staring at a death sentence when he was diagnosed with lymphoma almost two years ago. Today, with the help of two Amgen drugs that boosted his immune system while he was undergoing chemotherapy, Murphy is cancer-free.
Although stories of miraculous cures have long been at the heart of the biotech sector's allure, great science hasn't always translated into great returns. But during the past year, it was biotech stocks that produced a small miracle. In 2008 through November 7, the Dow Jones U.S. Biotechnology Index gained 2%, while Standard & Poor's 500-stock index tumbled 37%.
Market dynamics, as much as laboratory innovations, explain the sector's relatively strong performance. For starters, biotechs can be safe havens in turbulent times. "Biotech companies have relatively stable earnings that are not dependent on broader economic factors," says Rajiv Kaul, manager of Fidelity Select Biotechnology fund. Just as important, the companies are as far removed from the turmoil of Wall Street as figure skating is from football.
A flurry of deal activity is also fueling interest in the group. In October, U.S. drug giant Eli Lilly offered $6.5 billion for ImClone. Last July, Switzerland's Roche bid $44 billion for the 44% of Genentech that it didn't already own.
Over the long term, it's all about new products. Investors look for biotech companies to invent cures for a wide variety of ailments, ranging from diabetes to various types of cancers. Biotechs are also expected to produce replacements for the large number of traditionally produced drugs that will lose patent protection over the next few years.
Investing in biotech can be risky. Many companies fail long before they ever bring a product to market. In looking for winners, focus on companies that are working on drugs with large market potential. The four firms below have strong pipelines of new products that could generate big future sales.
Huge winner. One of the industry's great success stories, Celgene develops drugs to treat various types of cancer. Analysts expected that sales, which were less than $4 million in 1998, would approach $2.2 billion for 2008 and that the company, which turned profitable in 2003, would earn about $705 million, or $1.55 per share, for the year. At $60, the stock (symbol CELG) is up 200-fold from its 1998 low (all prices are as of the November 7 close).
Celgene's best-known drug is Revlimid, which is used to combat multiple myeloma, a cancer of the blood-plasma cell. The drug is now being tested as a possible treatment for lymphocytic leukemia and non-Hodgkin lymphoma. Moreover, Celgene is making a strong push to sell Revlimid in new European markets (the company already sells the drug in nearly 75% of developed European markets) and has plans to launch in Canada and Australia as well. Sales of Revlimid surged 72% in the third quarter of 2008, to $342.6 million, and Value Line Investment Survey predicts that the figure could exceed $3 billion within three to five years.
Celgene's other big seller is Thalomid. (As thalidomide, the drug was associated with severe birth defects in the late 1950s.) Like Revlimid, it is a treatment for myeloma. Celgene also has big hopes for expanded sales of Vidaza -- which entered Celgene's portfolio with the company's $2.9-billion acquisition of Pharmion last March -- a drug to treat bone-marrow cancer.
The stock isn't cheap. It sells for 26 times the average analyst estimate for 2009 of $2.30 per share. But if Celgene can deliver the 38% annual earnings growth that analysts are projecting over the next few years, today's share price will look like a bargain.
Amgen is a turnaround story. Its reputation was tarnished by findings that its blockbuster anemia drugs, Aranesp and Epogen, did more harm than good in chemical studies on cancer patients who were being treated for low red-blood-cell levels. But Amgen is on the verge of reinvigorating its earnings growth with several potentially lucrative new drugs.
The company has high hopes for Denosumab, a treatment for osteoporosis in women who are past menopause. In recent late-stage testing, the drug was found to reduce spinal fractures by 68% among such women. Value Line estimates that the market for the drug could exceed $500 million per year.
Another drug with big potential is Nplate, which is designed to boost platelets in patients with a rare blood disorder. Morningstar believes sales of Nplate, which won approval from the Food and Drug Administration in August, could approach $1 billion a year. Amgen's other major products are Enbrel, a treatment for rheumatoid arthritis and psoriasis, and Sensipar, for patients with renal disease.
Boring performance. Although Amgen's stock (AMGN), at $59, advanced 27% in 2008, it has been as dull as aspirin for most of this decade. The company, which raised its earnings outlook in both July and October, says it expected to earn $4.45 to $4.55 per share in 2008, up about 5% from 2007. Analysts see the company earning $4.69 per share in 2009 and, on average, expect long-term earnings growth of 9% per year (although Yaron Werber, a Citigroup analyst, thinks the new products could boost the growth rate).
Genzyme, which specializes in developing drugs to combat rare genetic diseases, faces little competition. About half of its revenues, expected to have reached $4.6 billion in 2008, come from four drugs that target such disorders as Gaucher disease, a genetic enzyme deficiency. Sales from this segment have grown 18% annually since 2000.
The company has a number of promising new drugs in the pipeline. Genzyme anticipates approval of six new products or updates to existing products over the next 12 months, as well as authorization of additional production capacity for Myozyme (a treatment for Pompe disease, which interferes with muscle development) in the U.S. and in Belgium next year. Genzyme believes the increased production capacity for Myozyme could catapult its sales, which totaled $201 million in 2007, beyond the $1-billion mark by mid 2009.
Genzyme expected FDA approval in late 2008 for Mozobil, which helps patients with lymphoma or multiple myeloma receive successful stem-cell transplants. In addition, the New England Journal of Medicine recently reported that Campath, a drug already approved for the treatment of leukemia, shows potential for reversing multiple sclerosis.
The company is on a financial roll. It has met or exceeded analysts' earnings estimates in ten of the past 12 quarters. Analysts expected Genzyme to earn $3.98 per share in 2008, an increase of 128% from 2007, and the company itself predicts profits of $4.70 a share in 2009 and $7 by 2011, for a 20% annual growth rate. The company has no debt and holds $1.5 billion in cash. At $70, the stock (GENZ) trades at 15 times '09 earnings forecasts.
Thanks to the work of companies such as Gilead Sciences, people with HIV can live normal lives for years. Gilead derived 81% of its estimated 2008 revenues of $5.3 billion from drugs used to treat HIV, says analyst Jason Zhang, of BMO Capital Markets. When it comes to usefulness and safety, he says, Gilead's HIV line is the best on the market.
Reaching out. But Gilead is trying to diversify beyond HIV products. The company has won approval in the U.S., Canada and the European Union to market Viread, its biggest-selling HIV drug, as a treatment for chronic hepatitis B. In May, Gilead acquired cicletanine, a compound with the potential to treat high blood pressure in the pulmonary artery, from Navitas. The FDA recently deemed cicletanine to be an "orphan drug," one that treats relatively few people. That gives Gilead exclusive rights to produce the drug for seven years. Also in trials is darusentan, a product for high blood pressure that generally doesn't respond to other medicines. Darusentan could win FDA approval in 2009.
Gilead, which turned profitable in 2002, was expected to earn $5.2 billion, or $2.04 per share, in 2008. Analysts expect earnings of $2.37 per share in 2009 on revenues of $6.3 billion and see profits climbing at an annual pace of 17% over the next three to five years. At $45, the stock (GILD), which sells for 19 times 2009 earnings forecasts, was off 2% in 2008.
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Cook & Bynum Fund: An Overlooked Gem
Two managers, no analysts, and just seven stocks. This isn't your ordinary stock fund.
If you just gave Cook & Bynum Fund (symbol COBYX) a quick once-over, you probably wouldn’t even consider investing in it. Since its inception in mid 2009 through July 8, the fund returned an annualized 14.6%. Standard & Poor’s 500-stock index returned an annualized 17.9% over the same period.
See Also: High-Quality Stocks Beat the Market
Morningstar says the fund charges an annual expense ratio of 1.88%. At first blush, it’s easy to see why the fund has attracted only $116.5 million.End of story? Not if you love to dig into funds. First, that expense ratio. It’s out of date. Expenses are still high at 1.49%, but that’s par for the course in such a small fund.Now look at the three-year Sharpe ratio, a measure of risk-adjusted return. It’s 2.0, which is extremely high for a stock fund. A big reason for that high Sharpe ratio is that the fund has been only about half as volatile as the S&P 500 over the past three years.
Shall we dig a little deeper? Turns out that managers Richard Cook and J. Dowe Bynum, who are based in Birmingham, Ala., have invested money for private clients since 2001. Since then through March 31, their annualized return (after fees) was 9.4% — more than double the S&P’s 4.3%. Not only that, but the returns were achieved with average cash levels of about 25% of assets. The mutual fund currently has 40% of its assets in cash.
All this sounded so intriguing that I decided I needed to learn more. So I called up Cook. He and Bynum, both 35, have been close friends since they were children and have been fascinated with the stock market since Cook’s father gave his son five shares each of five stocks at age 8. Their fifth-grade teacher enrolled the boys in the high school Stock Market Game, which teaches students about economics and finance in part by giving them hypothetical cash to invest. The precocious Cook and Bynum won the game’s annual national investing contest.
The pair have been investing for a living since college. They manage a total of $275 million, including what’s in the fund. “Picking stocks is what we’re passionate about,” Cook says. The firm has no analysts. A third partner handles everything but the stock picking.This is not your ordinary stock fund. The fund owns just seven stocks — one of the most concentrated portfolios I’ve ever seen. And two-thirds of the stock money is in consumer stocks.
Again, that’s off-putting at first glance. But when you look at the holdings, they’re just what you’d want in a focused fund. The managers have 15% of assets in Microsoft (MSFT), 13% in Wal-Mart Stores (WMT), 11% in Coca-Cola (KO), 7% in Arca Continental and 5% in Berkshire Hathaway’s Class B shares (BRK.B). (Arca is the second-largest Coke bottler in Mexico.) British food retailer Tesco (TSCO) and Procter & Gamble (PG) round out the list of stock holdings, with 5% and 4% of assets, respectively.
/p>All these companies seem solid enough to survive virtually any economic catastrophe and, in my view, sell at relatively modest valuations. They have great brands, boast pristine balance sheets and seem to have sustainable competitive advantages over their rivals.
Cook says he and Bynum prefer high-quality businesses. Before they buy a stock, they project how they think the company will perform over the next 12 to 15 years. “We know our accuracy won’t be very good,” Cook says. “But when you pay 15 times earnings for a stock, you’re implicitly saying you know where a company will be in 15 years.” On average, they own a stock for about four years.
Cook and Bynum haven’t always focused on quality stocks. When they launched their business, they liked small U.S. companies. Until two years ago, when valuations got too rich for them, they owned a lot of emerging-markets stocks, mainly in Mexico.The pair loves to kick the tires. “With Microsoft, that means reading bleeding-edge tech blogs and trying out beta products. With Coke, that means driving across Argentina, looking at how Coke products — and competitors — are displayed in gas stations,” Cook says. Nothing wrong with that.
Cook knows that stock picking can be a humbling business. “It’s important to rub your noses in your mistakes,” he says. “That’s how you learn.”
The 40% cash level, he says, isn’t a product of big-picture forecasting. When he and Bynum look at a company, they buy only if they think they can make 10% annually on it. If a stock doesn’t exceed that hurdle, they don’t buy. They’re not finding much to buy in today’s market.
This fund, in my view, shouldn’t be the main course for anyone’s investments. Sturdy as the holdings are, there are still only seven of them. And there’s only so much cash that I want to pay 1.49% a year to own. Cash was a great asset during many of the firm’s early years, but it has been a huge drag on returns since the stock market bottomed in March 2009. As a low-risk side dish, however, Cook & Bynum Fund has real appeal.
Steven T. Goldberg is an investment adviser in the Washington, D.C. area.
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HomeImmigration LawFamily Visas and Green CardsVisas for Dependent and Family MembersJ-2 Dependent Visa
J-1 Exchange Student/Training Visa
Employers may employ foreign professionals as J-1 trainees to participate in cross-cultural exchange programs. The U.S. employer benefits by obtaining expansion into the international marketplace through interactions with professionals from foreign countries to whom they offer training. The J-1 visa permits foreign professionals to enter into the U.S. on a temporary basis for training with a qualifying U.S. company.
J-1 visas are available to aliens who wish to participate in on the job training programs in the United States. J-1 visas are also used by foreign medical graduates who enter the U.S. to complete their residency and/or fellowship programs. J-1 Visa holders are issued an IAP-66 that reflects each program and duration of such. Those J-1 visa holders that are granted “Duration of Status” or “D/S” on their visas or I-94s lose their visa status upon the expiration of their most current IAP-66. Aliens who obtain a J-1 visa may bring their spouses and dependents. Dependents are issued the J-2 visa status for the duration of the principal’s J-1 status. Interested U.S. companies may obtain sponsorship through the AILF Exchange Visitor Program.
Certain J-1 visa holders are subject to the 2-year foreign residency requirement along with their dependents. Non-physicians may apply for a waiver of this 2-year foreign residency requirement. Foreign medical graduates (FMGs) may also seek a waiver of such through various interested governmental agencies.
The J-2 is a non-immigrant classification for dependents of J-1 visa holders. Spouses and minor children of J-1 visa holders qualify for this classification for the length of time that the principal is approved for. Dependents who are in the U.S. in a different classification may apply for a change of status while they remain in the U.S. Those outside the U.S. may apply at the appropriate consulate and present proof of the principal’s status. J-2 dependents whose principals are subject to the two-year foreign residence requirement are also subject to the requirement. Where the principal obtains a waiver of that condition, the J-2 dependents are also afforded a waiver so long as they are not independently subject to the requirement through another J-1 visa status.
J-2 visa holders, unlike some other dependent visa holders, may apply for work authorization EAD while in the U.S.
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About Acamar
From 2004-2011, the Acamar Journal covered the excesses building up within the global financial system. It warned of a US recession in the November 2006 issue, well ahead of the crisis that began in July 2007. And it predicted both the crash of 2008 and the historic bull market in gold.
The Acamar Journal provides credible and insightful information that is not generally found in the mainstream media. It is of value to those who want to know more about the global economy and how it affects them.
Written in a visual, user-friendly format, the Acamar Journal is distributed free of charge about twice a month while the website provides a regular stream of market news, charts and other useful information.
Acamar's publisher lived in Dubai for six years, working as a Director of Investments for a large investment and operating group. He obtained a B.Sc. (Hons.) in Economics at the London School of Economics and is a Canadian Chartered Professional Accountant (CPA). He has previously worked as a Chief Financial Officer of a publicly listed company in the insurance industry in Canada, and has also been a CEO of a company with a 1.9 million ounce gold deposit.
He therefore brings a unique international perspective to his readers.
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Home » » Robots and YOUR Job
Robots and YOUR Job
The Acamar Journal February 01, 2017 1 comment
In November 2015, the Chief Economist of the Bank of England gave a speech where he said that, within 20 years, 80 million jobs in the US and up to half the jobs in the UK would be lost to robots and algorithmic software (collectively referred to as ‘robots’).
A 2013 Oxford University study backs him up. It predicts that, of the 700 jobs types it evaluated, half of them would eventually be done by robots.
We see robots in factories on TV, working impossibly fast. But the future affects not only blue collar jobs, but numerous white collar ones, like lawyers and accountants.
The idea that this is possible is a fringe one for now, but this is becoming reality very rapidly. The CEO of one of the UK’s largest construction companies just gave a speech where she said that skyscrapers in London would soon be built by robots rather than people. Alison Carnwath, Chairman of Land Securities, a FTSE 100 company, said ““Five years ago I’d have smiled wryly if somebody had said to me that robots would be able to put up buildings in the City of London – I tell you we’re not that far off, and that has huge implications.”
The rate of progress in processing power is astonishing. Computers have now beaten the world champions at chess (1996), Jeopardy (2004) and the highly complex game, Go (2016). Experts at the time all predicted that it would take a decade or longer for computers to beat humans at these games, if at all.
THE THREAT FROM ROBOTS: Since the early days of industrialisation, skilled workers have feared machines as a threat to their jobs, either by replacing them or allowing semi-skilled, lower wage workers using technology to replace them. But the reality has been different. As technology has advanced it has helped grow overall employment and aided productivity. And technology has helped raise the wages of unskilled workers. But this trend is now changing.
This time it is different and the impact on society will be dramatic. There is a paradigm shift happening where machines don’t aid in improving productivity, they are becoming the employee, blue collar and white collar.
A few actual examples:
· In the 1980s, the textile industry in the US was decimated, as three-quarters of textile jobs went offshore. Now, a textile factory in Parkdale Mills, South Carolina has been almost completely automated, and it produces the same output as in 1980, but using only 140 people rather than 2,000. Today, this new automation technology is so efficient that it is competitive with even the lowest-wage offshore workers.
· Wall Street used to employ 150,000 financial workers in 2000. That number is down to 100,000 as automated trading programs using high frequency trading strategies now account for the bulk of the volume on the stock exchanges. These programs use self learning algorithms to adapt their strategies and have moved beyond the control and even the comprehension of their programmers.
· Top media outlets such as Forbes magazine now use unacknowledged analytical and writing software engines to create news reports using multiple data sources. The CEO of Narrative Sciences, which markets the Quill software, predicts that within fifteen years, 90% of all news articles will be written algorithmically. What happens to journalists, corporate researchers, etc.?
· Self driving cars are on the verge of becoming an everyday reality on the roads. As the sharing economy grows and home and car ownership becomes less important to the millennial generation, the demand for cars will decline in the West. Automation and fewer cars means jobs losses for taxi and truck drivers, car plants, parking lots, gas stations, and the service sector dedicated to automobile repair and maintenance.
· Amazon now uses over 30,000 Kiva robots (which can pick up weights of up to 700 pounds) for packing and shipping. And that is in just the first 13 of its 50 warehouses. Amazon intends to scale up the use of robots dramatically.
Study after study shows that algorithmic approaches now routinely outperform human experts in many fields. And robots continue to improve exponentially, humans do not.
Robots don’t get tired, they don’t have attitude, they don’t slack off and they don’t want higher wages and benefits. They don’t strike or call in sick. They will work continuously and holidays, weekends and vacations are irrelevant. They don’t play politics. Robotic systems present a combination of speed, precision and brute strength, which translate into much higher productivity.
Businesses prefer robots over people. As the CFO of Nike put it, the long-term solution to rising wages in developing countries is going to be “engineering the labour out of the product.” He’s talking about ultimately no workers being used at all to make Nike products.
BIG DATA AND AI: Big data, combined with machine learning and cloud computing, is promising to provide analysis and insights that were previously impossible and which will have a revolutionary impact on business, medicine, politics and the sciences.
A big potential impact will be on knowledge based occupations. Think about what many office workers do. They look at data and, after analysing what they find and drawing on their training and experience, they reach conclusions and make decisions or recommendations. They may produce reports that support their analysis. Machines can do that now.
Bill Gates, Steven Hawking and Elon Musk have expressed grave concerns about the growth of artificial intelligence (AI) systems as a potential existential threat to mankind. Musk has invested in Google’s Deep Mind AI unit just to keep an eye on how it develops! As Hawking warns “humans, limited by slow biological evolution, couldn’t compete and would be superseded by AI.” He believes that “success in creating AI would be the biggest event in human history.”
CURRENT TRENDS: The Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that in 1998, workers in the US business sector worked a total of 194 billion hours. In 2013, they produced goods and services worth $ 3.5 trillion, about 42% higher after adjusting for inflation. Total hours worked: 194 billion.
Higher output with the same hours worked means productivity went up, thanks to advances in automation and technology. But the wealth created is not being shared evenly and this is causing rising income inequality. In addition, the population grew by 40 million in this period, so it is clear that there is dramatic unemployment and underemployment.
The headline 4.9% unemployment rate in the US is deceptive as it excludes people who are willing to work but can’t find a job after a year (‘discouraged workers’) and it counts part-time workers as employed even though they may be looking for full-time jobs. The labour participation rate peaked in 2000 and is now at the level it was in 1977.
Real wages have been stagnant over the last fourty years. Virtually all this wealth creation has gone to the top 1%, which is why there has been such a revolt against the establishment in the current US election cycle. Brexit expressed the same rebellion against the system.
But what happens when tens of millions of additional workers and more lose their jobs in the West? And robots will also take away hundreds of millions of jobs in developing countries. What will be the impact on society as vast numbers of people can’t find work and slide into poverty in the developed countries? For the jobs that still remain, the amount of surplus workers will ensure that wages will decline.
Citigroup wrote a series of confidential memos to their wealthiest clients. They argued that the US is becoming a ‘plutonomy’ – a top-heavy economic system where growth is being driven by a tiny, prosperous elite who consume an ever larger proportion of what the economy produces. They advised investors to avoid buying shares of companies that catered to a rapidly dissolving middle class.
The irony of all this is that in 1949, Norbert Weiner, an MIT mathematician who established the field of cybernetics, warned about the threat of “an industrial revolution of unmitigated cruelty” where eventually machines would “reduce the economic value of a routine factory worker to a point where he is not worth hiring at any price.”
Automation within the military can be seen in the drone program. The Shah of Iran faced a popular rebellion in the streets in 1979 and ordered his troops to shoot to kill. But the soldiers refused to fire upon their fellow countrymen. Robot soldiers are already being tested. If they are ever deployed by dictators and other authoritarian leaders, robots will have no hesitation in shooting whomever they are ordered to kill.
As this robot revolution grows, the owners of the companies employing these robots will see their labour costs drop dramatically and their output increase substantially, leading to a massive rise in corporate profits and wealth. The rich will get much richer while the average standard of living falls for the rest.
And as technology creates new industries, it will also create new robots to service those industries. So innovation is unlikely to lead to new mass employment opportunities.
Robots will be of help to people where the work is dangerous, such as mining, explosives handling, deep sea and space exploration. So they will also have a legitimate public interest role.
PUSHBACK: A recent OECD report, conducted by research firm Forrester, challenges the potential for serious job losses. They peg the potential job loss at 9%, as they assert that many jobs require cooperation, which robots cannot do.
Yet even this optimistic report predicts that 12% of the 89 million white collar jobs will be lost by 2024, mostly office and administrative positions, and business salespersons. That is almost 11 million jobs!! It then expects that, by 2021 (just five years from now), cognitive systems to have reached a level of sophistication that allows meaningful participation in decision making, affecting management and finance positions.
Whether it is 9% or 50% of jobs lost to robots, the net job losses will be in the tens of millions in the US (and much more worldwide), with a huge impact on society in terms of unemployment numbers, reduced tax base and demands for increased government benefit payouts. This will translate into higher crime rates and the potential for social unrest.
SOLUTIONS: It is difficult to envisage meaningful solutions. Governments usually advocate education and training as remedies for those who lose their jobs. But as machines take over more and more knowledge jobs, this strategy is unlikely to be effective and certainly not for tens of millions of newly unemployed workers.
There is a possibility of a basic income to be provided to all citizens, to ensure basic subsistence. Nobel Prize winning economist Friedrich Hayek, held in high esteem by conservatives, proposed this. He believed that a guaranteed income was a legitimate government policy to provide insurance against adversity, where many individuals could no longer rely on traditional support systems as society transitioned. But, as the rich get richer, they are likely to wield greater political power and will resist attempts to redistribute wealth. And they do use friendly offshore jurisdictions to shield their wealth.
One factor that may be a mitigating factor is that workers are also consumers. If people do not have jobs, they cannot buy the greater output that will be created by robots. If corporations cannot sell their goods in sufficient quantities, then corporate profits may actually fall. This may lead to a compromise in how robots are used versus human labour, but it is not clear how this will resolve itself.
The rise of the robots will raise questions going forward. What is the role of wealth in society and how should it be shared? Given the taxes paid by all citizens to create the infrastructure and research that corporations benefit from, are they entitled to the wealth created by corporations? Will the middle classes allow the gains they have made in the last 70 years to be taken away or will a new medieval era come to pass where there is a small elite class and virtually everyone else is poor? What choice do people really have as these changes seem inevitable?
Oxford University Study on the Future of Employment1
Top Twenty Affected (from 700 Job Types)
Least Computerisable
Most Computerisable
Recreation Therapist
New Account Clerks
Supervisors of Mechanics, Installers, Repairers
Photographic Process Workers
Emergency Management Directors
Mental Health and Substance Abuse Social Workers
Cargo and Freight Agents
Watch Repairers
Insurance Underwriters
Orthotists and Prosthetists
Mathematical Technicians
Healthcare Social Workers
Hand Sewers (Clothing)
Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeons
Title Examiners, Abstractors and Searchers
Supervisors of Fire Fighting and Preventions Workers
Library Technicians
Lodging Managers
Data Entry Keyers
Timing Device Assemblers
Sales Engineers
Insurance Claims and Policy Processing Clerks
Physicians and Surgeons
Brokerage Clerks
Instructional Coordinators
Order Clerks
Supervisors, Police and Detectives
Insurance Appraisers, Auto Damage
Umpires and Referees
1http://www.oxfordmartin.ox.ac.uk/downloads/academic/The_Future_of_Employment.pdf
Ajay Raj 8 April 2017 at 22:29
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Management Company and Asset Manager
Our purpose is to create value by providing ad hoc services which allow us to offer investment solutions suitable for each of our customers.
Management key persons
AISM is an independent company created in 2011, authorized to Collective and discretionary portfolio management as well as investment advisory. We are specialized in providing tailor-made solutions suitable for our clients.
We are dedicated to institutions, companies and private investors, proposing an active and diversified asset management model, based on a dynamic investment policy and a careful selection of financial instruments.
The management team is constantly looking for the maximization of the return/risk ratio, starting from the assumption that the volatility is constantly monitored, especially in periods of particular uncertainty of financial markets.
AISM main activities:
Investment Manager of a proprietary Fund and third-party SICAV compartments. Management of individual portfolios on client’s accounts or through private insurance policies. Investment Advisor for institutional and private clients, asset allocation, structuring of complex portfolios.
AISM offers a direct and effective access to every available markets in the independence regime. In the last years, AISM and its senior executives established solid relations with institutional investors, Banks, family Office and investment funds thus constituting a solid international network of customers, counterparties and partners.
AISM executes his activity respecting strict criteria of deontology, regulatory compliance and risk control in the exclusive interest of its customers.
Our goal is to create value added, providing ad hoc services, which allow us to offer investment solutions suitable for each of our customers.
Our distinguishing features are:
AISM is completely independent from institutional subjects so investment choices are made exclusively in the interest of the client. Furthermore, AISM shareholders are also the company managers, guaranteeing professionalism and business continuity.
Every client, physical or institutional, has its own exigencies and wishes. Our task is to help them to be satisfied.
Equity stability, together with financial autonomy, allow AISM to have a solid foundation to last over time and adapt to market changes.
We establish and maintain a solid relationship of transparency with our customers, providing detailed reports and informations on all services. In particular we keep a personal relationship with customers as an indispensable element to accurately identify their needs and ensure a high quality of service.
The inspiring principle of AISM for the working environment is represented by the orientation to the person and it is based on the principle of the irreducible value of people and on the awareness of the importance that the labor has for them.
Carlo Pecchinotti
CEO — Joined AISM Team in 2016 as responsible for discretionary mandate management.
Graduated in « Economia e Commercio » at LUISS in Rome in 1997 110/110, he started his career the same year at IMI BANK, Luxembourg, in the Funds Accounting department. He joined Fideuram Gestions S.A. in 1999 as junior asset manager and, after having his Financial Analyst diploma (CEFA) in 2000, he worked from 2001 to 2006 as independent asset manager and financial consultant. From 2006 to 2009 he worked as senior asset manager in an Italian SIM and continued his activity as founding partner of Sofia SGR. Starting June 2016 he joins AISM as Senior portfolio manager responsible for the development of single mandates activity.
With 20 years of experience he is now AISM Chairman and Partner.
Pietro Invernizzi
Partner and Manager — Joined AISM l team in 2012 in charge for the development of the italian market.
Graduated in 2007 Pietro was awarded with an MBA from Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, Milano, with a final dissertation on: “Certificates and Structured products: comparison among different pricing models”. He started his career in 2007 at Société Générale, Milan, in the Listed products team, involved in listing certificates and ETFs on “Borsa Italiana”. In 2008 moved to Paris to join the Financial Engineer division and one year later is promoted Italy Country Manager for Inora Life, Insco of SG Group. In 2011 returned to Milan as Sales officer within the Cross-Asset-Solution team of SG CIB. He joined AISM in 2012 to develop the Italian market.
Pietro joined AISM to develop and expand business activities with an institutional and private client base, now is partner and board member.
Vincent Decalf
Manager, Board Member — He is Manager and Board member of several commercial and financial companies.
A graduate from ESSEC, Vincent Decalf started working at KPMG, then Banque Paribas before joining Société Générale (Capital markets division) in 1989. After five years as COO of SocGen in Spain, he served as Deputy CEO then CEO of SocGen Luxembourg before joining Groupe Foyer, Luxembourg’s leading insurance company, where he was Member of the Executive Committee until 2012. For 20 years, Vincent Decalf has held the qualification of Authorized Administrator of banks and asset management companies. He seats or had seated on the boards of various commercial and financial companies as well as associations and non profit organisations among which, the Luxembourg Stock Exchange, The Luxembourg Administrators Institute, the France/Luxembourg Chamber of Commerce and the Ecole française de Luxembourg.
Romain Bonnaventure
Partner — Research and development Director — Joined AISM team in 2012 responsible for the development of international markets.
In 2004 Romain was awarded MBA Diploma from AUDENCIA Nantes, School of Management. He started his career in the Trading Room of Société Générale Bank, Paris office, as Financial Engineer in the Equity Derivatives Structuring Team. In 2005 he was promoted to Country Manager for both Belgium and Italy of the Inora Life Team, taking responsibility for distribution of Insurance Solutions and Equity Derivatives Structured Products. In July 2006 he joined the Socgen Trading Room in Milan, where he remained in charge of sales of Cross Asset Solutions for six years, heading the Adequity Italia Team from 2010. During 2009 Romain attended the Investment Banking Program - Executive Program at INSEAD in Fontainebleau. He joins AISM in 2012 and is promoted Head of Development in 2017.
Marc Henri Martin
Board Member — Has a deep experience in financing activities, asset management and alternative strategies.
An HEC Paris Alumni (1973), Marc Henri has built a strong experience in asset management and financing. He started with Société Centrale de Banque, a Société Générale affiliate (trade and export finance). He then worked 10 years with Banque de la Société Financière Européenne (international finance and capital markets). End 1989, he joined Financière Atlas, specialized in asset management, where he became an Executive Director in 1996.
Since the end of 2010 he works as independent advisor and director
Charles Hamer
Board Member — Has a great experience and knowledge of the Luxembourg Financial Center.
PhD in Law and graduated from lnstitut d’Etudes Politiques de Paris as well as Institut de Droit Comparé de Paris, Charles Hamer begins his career with Paribas Group where he worked for 28 years. In 1998, he was appointed Executive General Manager of Paribas Luxembourg. He joined Crédit Agricole Indosuez (Luxembourg) SA in 2000 and become, two years later, Executive Director of CAIL then of Credit Agricole Luxembourg. Charles seated on various committees of the CSSF (Commission de Surveillance du Secteur Financier) and fulfilled several functions within the ABBL (Association des Banques et Banquiers de Luxembourg): Chairman of the Promotion Commission of the Luxembourg Financial Centre, of the Private banking Group, member of the Board. He also seated on the High Committee of the Financial Centre. He retired at the end of 2010.
As a Director of AISM Luxembourg, Charles brings us the benefit of his professional experience and deep knowledge of the Luxembourg Financial Centre.
Giorgio Abraini
Senior Asset Manager — Joined AISM in August 2018.
Graduated in Economics at University of Pavia, Italy, he's a CFA charterholder since 2006. Working in finance since 2001, during his career he developed quantitative models for asset allocation and managed funds and funds of funds at Pioneer Investments, Ireland and HNWI clients at Orion Wealth, UK covering major asset classes in a multi-asset framework. He also gained regulatory experience being approved as CF30 (customer facing) and CF11 (money laundering reporting officer) by the Financial Conduct Authority.
In August, Giorgio joined AISM, as Senior Asset Manager.
Victor Massué
Asset Manager — Joined AISM in 2013, he is director since 2016.
Graduated from TEMA School, Reims Management School Group, in 2012, Victor started his professional life as trainee within Credit Suisse (Paris) in Middle Office, then Front Office. Following this first experience, Victor strengthened his training through a Master degree specialized in Technology & Management at Ecole Centrale Paris. He thus acquired a specific expertise in financial markets as well as new technologies, improving at the same time its capacity to anticipate and react efficiently in uncertain environments.
He joined AISM fund management team in 2013. Early 2016, he becomes conducting officer and head of fund management.
Esther-Stéphanie Nemouthe
Responsible for the Middle & Back Office — Joined AISM in March 2018.
Graduated in Economics, Esther-Stéphanie has acquired a solid experience of more than 10 years in the banking and institutional environment. As Senior Consultant, her areas of expertise include different aspects of financial transactions processing from Back / Middle office to Front Office operations.
She has developed expertise in Corporate and Investment Banking (Foreign exchange, NDF, Loans and deposits), the Securities Database, Corporate Actions, Income, Regulations and Pricing, process purchase, Securities and Loan deposit, corporate actions and lending (all that concerns the custody business).In order to perfect her experience, she completed the professional qualifications prince2 and lean 6sigma. She also has experience in the legal field of intellectual and industrial property and taxation and the AML / KYC, FATCA, AEOI, EMIR, UCITS surveillance and compliance regulations.
In 2018, Esther-Stephanie joins AISM Luxembourg becoming Responsible for the Middle & Back Office team.
Isabelle Drescher
Administrative and Finance Director — Joined AISM in May 2018.
After a Master in Business & Administration at Paris IX-Dauphine, Isabelle started her career in PWC New-York, Paris and Luxembourg.In 1992, Isabelle has been appointed on a special mission in Mozambique to audit the railways and ports in Maputo and Beira. In Luxembourg, she mostly audited Investments Funds, and European institutions. In 1997, Isabelle joined Barilla Holding S.p.A where she was in charge of finance and administration.
In Milan and Monaco, Isabelle managed several projects in Education, Digital and Scientific Research, launched by the Monaco Business Women's Association. She has been treasurer and co-founder of Cordons de Vie, an Association dedicated to Fundraising for scientific projects related to cord stem cell research.
Back in Luxembourg, Isabelle worked as an Ambassador of the Fondamental foundation highlighting local opportunities, developing partnerships and fundraising. This foundation based in Paris and Geneva promotes personalized treatment of mental disorders and particularly Autism.
In May 2018 she joined AISM as Administrative and Finance Director.
The website accessible at www.aism.lu is for information purpose only. Nothing contained herein constitutes or shall be deemed to constitute a financial, legal, tax or other advice of any kind and no information on the Website shall constitute or deem to constitute a solicitation or an offer to purchase or invest in, any financial products which are referred to on the Website.
If, in spite of the above, you were to take or consider taking an investment decision based on the information contained on the Website, then you expressly acknowledge and/or agree: that you must be, as the case may be, an investor who is legally or otherwise duly authorised to seek information about the funds referred to or described on the Website; that no investment decision shall be made solely on the basis of the information provided on the Website; that investment in any of the funds referred to on the Website can only be made after careful review, as the case may be with the assistance of its financial advisor, of the corresponding funds' or sub-funds' relevant documentation; that careful attention should, in particular, be given to, as the case may be, the articles of incorporation or management regulations, detailed prospectus or key investor information document, latest available annual and semi-annual reports, as applicable, and of the specific risks exposed in such documents; and that all investments involve risks and that it is your responsibility to collect relevant information about the risks inherent to any investment; that the value of investments and the income from them may go down as well as up and that you may not get back the amount originally invested, and that past performance is not a guide to future performance, hence that any past performance figures shown are not indicative of future performance.
Through this Site, Alpha Investor Services Management will not collect any personal data about you (e.g. your name, address, telephone number or email address) unless you voluntary choose to provide us with this information (e.g. by registration, survey or some other means), provide your consent, or unless otherwise permitted by applicable laws and regulations for the protection of your personal data. The investment funds mentioned in the Website are not available to US persons unless otherwise indicated in their constitutional documents. Reasonable care has been taken to ensure that the information contained on this Website is accurate at the date of publication. However, no representation or warranty, express or implied, is made to its accuracy or completeness.
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Jeremy Corbyn protests against his own decision
Alan Collins Rosell in Blog | Monday 26 September 2016
Alan Collins Rosell in Blog | Monday 26 September 2016
I don’t very often write posts attacking the Labour leadership – not because I don’t believe the many ludicrous policies of Corbyn & Co need to be opposed, but because the Parliamentary Labour Party (and many grassroots activists) seem to be doing a competent enough job of opposing the opposition themselves.
In this instance, though, given my ongoing campaign for equal status for mental health services, I will make an exception. Mr Corbyn was once also a vocal advocate of improvements to the way mental health problems are addressed. In February 2015, he told Parliament:
All of us can go through depression; all of us can go through those experiences. Every single one of us in this Chamber knows people who have gone through it, and has visited people who have been in institutions and have fully recovered and gone back to work and continued their normal life. I dream of the day when this country becomes as accepting of these problems as some Scandinavian countries are, where one Prime Minister was given six months off in order to recover from depression, rather than being hounded out of office as would have happened on so many other occasions.
We need greater and more effective assessment of the needs of mental health services across London, because there is still a stigma in some areas. Some communities and families are more able to come forward than others. We need to create an atmosphere in which people understand that we can all experience stress and that we all need help at some time in our lives, and the NHS must and should be there to provide that help when it is needed.
It was, therefore, pleasing to see Mr Corbyn appoint a Shadow Cabinet Minister for Mental Health in his first cabinet last September. However, the role was short-lived, with the portfolio being scrapped following the swathes of resignations in July.
That didn’t stop the newly (re-)elected leader from protesting against the decision to ditch the post at the Labour Party conference today.
Posing with campaigners for mental health, Mr Corbyn held a sign calling for the reintroduction of the Shadow Cabinet Minister for Mental Health.
The post he created himself and then abolished himself!
I’ll just leave that brazen act of hypocrisy to sink in…
Source: Jason Groves
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News Forums > Google TV Forum > Google TV General Discussion >
Google Spends $1.9 Billion To Expand
Discussion in 'Google TV General Discussion' started by Rickaren, Dec 26, 2010.
Rickaren New Member Staff Member
Indiana, Logitech Revue
Google Spends $1.9 Billion To Expand New York Operations
Who says real estate isn't booming? It is if you're Taconic Investment Partners, Jamestown Properties and the New York State Common Retirement Fund. Google has just announced that they've purchased the former Port Authority Building at 111 Eighth Avenue, at a cost of $1.9 billion. That's a huge, huge amount of money, and it's clear that "Investing in New York" is exactly what Google is doing. Of course, Google has grown tremendously since it was founded. They're so much more than a search engine today. They have Chrome, Chrome OS, Android, Google TV, and tons more.
The building has a helicopter landing pad on top, and of course, the Internet service there is likely the best in all of NYC. Google's clearly ramping up efforts in the NY area, with already 2000 employees in the area and more to come on soon. The New York office will be home to Googlers from more than 35 countries who speak more than 40 languages, and only time will tell what Google intends to do with the new space. Something tells us it'll be impressive, regardless.
Investing in New York
Google New York started in a Starbucks on 86th Street with one person in 2000-a scrappy, highly-caffeinated sales "team." After moving to a larger office in Times Square, in 2006 we relocated to our current home in Chelsea, at 111 Eighth Avenue-a former Port Authority building. In June of 2008, we took additional space in the Chelsea Market building at 75 Ninth Avenue. Now we have more than 2,000 Googlers working on a variety of projects in both sales and engineering-and we're hiring across the board.
Today, we're pleased to announce that we've closed a deal with the partnership of Taconic Investment Partners, Jamestown Properties and the New York State Common Retirement Fund to purchase 111 Eighth Avenue (also known as 76 Ninth Avenue). As part of the deal, we've retained Taconic Management Company to continue the leasing oversight services and management of the building on our behalf, providing the same level of customer service the building's tenants have come to expect. We believe that this is a great real estate investment in a thriving neighborhood and a fantastic city.
Like the city, our New York office is a melting pot of cultures and ideas-it's home to Googlers from more than 35 countries who speak more than 40 languages. They live in the five boroughs and spread across the tri-state area. We're excited to continue to build our presence there.
LINK: Google Spends $1.9 Billion To Expand New York Operations - HotHardware
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Travis Scott Was 2018’s Biggest Music Attraction
Should we start with how Travis Scott looks? He’s tallish and ropey, nowadays usually draped in the expensive versions of the things people wear to cybergoth dance parties. His hair on a recent Rolling Stone coversimultaneously defies explanation and really completes his look. If you consider that concert photo from last year, the one where he’s holding the mic stand above his head, and then consider the way he herks and jerks and leaps around on stage, he’s like a character in his own claymation Tim Burton movie: Cactus Jack Skellington in The Rager Before Christmas.
Speaking of ragers before Christmas, last week, I watched Travis Scott part a red sea.
Not the Red Sea—this was at the Forum, in Inglewood, where the seawater inlet of the Indian Ocean is not. The outstretched hands of concert goers shouting themselves hoarse and dizzy in excitement, bathed in the glow of red LEDs, just sort of looked like a sea. He opened up the mosh pit, but he didn’t jump in. It was the second of back-to-back sold-out shows for Scott’s Wish You Were Here Tour at the 17,505-capacity venue, propping up his third and most accomplished album to date, Astroworld. Later in the show, Scott asked his longtime DJ OG Chase B to scratch off the music, and the crowd to extend their middle fingers in vindication. “We celebrating three Grammy nominations.” Those are: best rap album, best rap performance (“Sicko Mode”), and best rap song (also “Sicko Mode”). If you take the almost-accolades for his August release, and add his first no. 1 single, the birth of his daughter, and the city of Houston’s recent proclamation that every November 18 henceforth shall be known as “Astroworld Day,” 2018 was, inarguably, the biggest year of Travis Scott’s career.
Let’s just say the brain-conquering delirium of “Sicko Mode” was a culmination. Of Travis Scott’s rap-as-Instagram-Explore-page ethos, but also of a strange and disjointed year for pop music in general. In May, Billboard locked in some tweaks to its chart metrics as part of “a global push to measure [digital] streams in a revenue-reflective and access-based manner.” This means, in English, that radio play isn’t as important as it once was, and, functionally, that hits will continue to bubble up from strange places, for reasons that won’t be easy to pin down. “Sicko Mode” is decidedly un-hit-like: its runtime exceeds five minutes, there’s no hook, and it features three discrete ideas loosely stitched together. It does however, feature Drake. And just as the Drake-featuring intro picks up into a full gallop and the wonky fun-house trill ticks over, the song lurches forward into even weirder territory, and morphs two more times after that. In some ways “Sicko Mode” is the full realization of a concept that took root on “Drive,” from Scott’s 2013 mixtape Owl Pharaoh—a jumpy scan through the local rap stations while doing 30 mph over the speed limit on surface streets. In other ways—the aforementioned Drake verse, the death-drop transitions, Tay Keith fucking these niggas up—it’s one of the most exciting rap songs of the decade, even if it felt a lot like cheating. LeBron James, who skipped onto the stage alongside Travis and Drake at the Staples Center in October, didn’t seem to mind.
What you think of as pop music—pure pop music—is now a subgenre. “Today’s rising generation of pop stars,” critic Jon Caramanica wrote in a recent New York Times essay, “has never known a time in which Kanye West—or really, Drake—wasn’t the most progressive, creative, and meaningful performer working in the mainstream.” Hip-hop is what pure pop was, and the old guard is beginning to phase out. This year, a Jay-Z and Beyoncé surprise drop was upstaged by a 5 Seconds of Summer album, Nicki Minaj’s Queen came in at no. 2 behind Astroworld, which was spending its second week at no. 1. Kanye West … I’m a little tired of talking about. So who are the new superstars? Music is as divided as ever by variant understanding of what music is supposed to be like, and maybe only Drake really transcends that variance on a consistent basis. There’s a tier of stars beneath that, the ones that rule our attention for weeks or months at a time, for whom eventual superstardom is up for debate.
People love Travis Scott and, if you’re looking at it sideways, it’s easy to discount just how much. The critical line on Scott has been, at least since 2014’s Days Before Rodeo, that it’s strange that his influences are also his peers, and that he is, at best, decent at the things Quavo or Young Thug or Swae Lee are great at. There’s also the matter of his politics, which are well, not good. 2014 is also when Scott claimed to know “the problem with black people” and said that Mike Brown—an unarmed teenager who was shot and killed by Darren Wilson that August—deserved to “pay for consequences that he probably inflicted.” (Kendrick Lamar would say similarly dumb things in a marginally less dumb way a year later.) Before Astroworld was released, transgender icon Amanda Lepore was removed from the cover, which reportedly resulted in Frank Ocean filing a cease-and-desist to have his vocals taken off of “Carousel,” although Ocean then wrote on his Tumblr that the two resolved their differences weeks before the report went out. Reverend Al Sharpton castigated Scott last week for agreeing to perform at halftime of February’s Super Bowl while the NFL continues to shun Colin Kaepernick and Eric Reid is still being “randomly” drug-tested on a consistent basis. But it’s tough to know what anyone expects—Scott did stump for Beto O’Rourke in the 2018 midterm elections, but did so because “Beto … [was] on some shit.” We don’t need him to be a thought leader, we’d just like for him to not fuck up royally.
He is a shithead, but he’s so good at being one that it’s almost disarming. There’s something Scott has been doing in recent late-night talk show spots, where he recounts putting on a production of Kiss Me, Kate in grade school. He trails off into “Too Darn Hot,” and stands up from his seat, snapping, singing, and smiling. It gets big applause. He is a performer, first and foremost, and history will likely remember him for that.
Everyone knows what a performer he is, but this year, more than in years past, it was tough to deny Travis Scott’s powers as a curator, and likewise the value in making music that feels good, regardless of whether it’s trying to communicate, with words, anything important. Music critic Lawrence Burney called Scott “one of the genre’s best conductors,” and I think it fits. He managed to make Kevin Parker, the Weeknd, and himself make sense on one song, and on another, James Blake, Philip Bailey, and Stevie Wonder’s harmonica. This curatorial skill extends to his live show: he creates strange alternate realities for his guests to be amazed or confused by, to wander around in. For 2017’s Birds Eye View Tour, he rode in on a fucking animatronic eagle, and this year, in tribute to the defunct Six Flags AstroWorld theme park, his mode of transport was an inverted ferris wheel. Also, a roller coaster suspended from the rafters overhead. The few stray fans who could wriggle over the barricade and past event security were allowed to strap themselves in and rap along as Scott performed.
“Stop Trying to Be God,” Astroworld’s fifth track, didn’t happen until over an hour in, after the set change. Kanye West was there at the Forum—I know because he arrived to huge chants and camera flashes. It was tough not to think of the stripped-down performance of the song (just Travis’s Auto-Tune and Mike Dean’s synth organ) as sort of personal. Especially since you can interpret the lyrics as being about how world peace is not, strictly speaking, Kanye’s business. One week hence, Kanye tweeted for a full business day about apologies owed and feeling threatened by Drake’s second verse on “Sicko Mode.” This was doubly awkward and hurtful, since Travis ad-libbed all over that verse, and he and Kanye are apparently soon-to-be brothers-in-law.
By the time “Sicko Mode” came around, for the encore, Kanye had reportedly left to beat the traffic. Scott was of course sweaty and shirtless, looking less like Cactus Jack Skellington than his own action figure, which appeared on the cover of his debut album, and was of course sold separately. (It’s going for $1,000 on eBay right now, if you’re interested.) I was struck by the sense that the third time really is the charm, as Scott was lowered from his roller coaster to the stage. The fireworks went off. “Thank you for coming to Astroworld!” he yelled. “Good night!”
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Music Lovers Flock to These Outdoor Venues when the Sun Comes out in Seattle
Article Lisa Schreiner
Summer in Seattle—there is no better place to be and no place more aesthetically pleasing than the beautiful Pacific Northwest when the summer months hit. Add in some incredible outdoor music venues, and life doesn’t seem like it could get any better.
Whether you are a PNW native or have lived here for just a few years, if you enjoy music, there are plenty of opportunities to experience some incredible outdoor concerts and festivals during our sacred summer months.
From venues set on the Columbia River, to the most beautiful of wineries, we give you a glimpse into what the music scene is like in the summertime in the Seattle area.
The Venues
Chateau Ste. Michelle Winery
Location: Woodinville, Wa.
Seats: 4,300
Washington state’s oldest winery, Chateau Ste. Michelle, is celebrating its 35th Summer Concert Series. By summer’s end, the picturesque outdoor amphitheater will have hosted 25 concerts ranging from pop and jazz to rock and classical music. Although there are reserve seats available, the general admission seating on the lawn makes for a perfect date night or night out for a group. The winery allows you to bring in blankets, low-back chairs and picnic baskets with non-alcoholic drinks. Food and wine can be purchased on-site.
The Gorge Amphitheatre
Location: George, Wa.
Seats: 27,500
Considered one of the most scenic concert locations in the world, the Gorge sits near the Columbia River and offers sweeping views of the river and the Columbia Gorge canyon to concert-goers. The Gorge also offers a campground that is a wildly popular option for festival-attendees. There is reserved seating near the front of the stage; however, most of the 27,500 seats are located in the sprawling lawns at the Gorge. Adjacent to the venue is Cave B Estate Winery that was founded by the original owners of the Gorge.
Marymoor Park
Location: Redmond, Wa.
Marymoor Park is located in King County, county-owned and the largest, oldest and most popular park. The summer concert series, Concerts at Marymoor, provides an intimate outdoor concert experience. Outside beverages are not allowed in, but concert-goers are able to bring their own food, blankets and low-back chairs. Reserved seating is available, and there is general seating on the lawn. Parking is available on-site for $5 and is free for seasonal parking pass holders. Marymoor Parks spans more than 640 acres and is located next to the Clise Mansion.
White River Amphitheater
Location: Auburn, Wa.
White River Amphitheater is located on the Muckleshoot Indian Reservation and owned by Mucklesoot Tribal Enterprises. It opened in June 2003 with our hometown band Heart performing. Covered seating is available for most of the 16,000 seats. Jimmy Buffet’s album Live in Auburn is from his September 2003 concert at White River Amphitheater. Sting also performed at the venue in 2010 with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. The amphitheater was built by the Muckleshoot Indian Tribe as a gift to live music lovers.
The Bands
Location: Marymoor Park – Redmond, Wa.
Date: Aug. 16
Style of Music: Jazz
Herbie Hancock will be performing with Kamasi Washington, a jazz saxophonist, this summer at Marymoor Park. Herbie is considered to be one of the most innovative jazz musicians of our time. Herbie Hancock’s creative path has moved fluidly between almost every development in acoustic and electronic jazz and R&B since 1960. The musical talent combined with the gorgeous backdrop of Marymoor Park makes for a cannot-miss experience. The concert is open to all ages.
Location: Chateau Ste. Michelle Winery – Woodinville, Wa.
Date: July 19-20
Style of Music: Rock
Chicago returns to the winery for two nights of concerts in 2019. This year marks the 35th anniversary of the classic American rock band’s best-selling album Chicago 17. The album includes hits like “Hard Habit to Break” and “You’re the Inspiration.” Chicago is one of the longest-running and most successful rock bands of all time and has sold more than 100 million records. The concert is open to all ages.
Location: The Gorge Amphitheatre – George, Wa.
Date: Aug. 2-4
Style of Music: Country
The Watershed Festival is an annual country music experience with multiple stages of live music that showcase local country musicians along with big names. This year’s lineup includes Miranda Lambert, Zac Brown Band, Jason Aldean, Kane Brown, Chris Young and many more acts. Dust off the cowboy boots and make sure to purchase festival tickets before they sell out. Watershed is open to all ages, and camping is available at the Gorge as well.
Date: Aug. 30-Sept. 1
Dave Matthews Band will return to the Gorge Amphitheatre for its annual Labor Day weekend three-night concert run. This year’s concerts will mark more than 60 performances at the Gorge. A Seattle local, Dave Matthews is a true musical legend. The band formed in 1991, and their albums continue to top the charts today. Tickets can be purchased for the entire three days or for individual days. The concerts are open to all ages, and camping is available.
Grammy award-winning artist Norah Jones will be performing at the winery this month, as part of her North American tour.
Tickets: $59.50 GA
Ste-Michelle.com
Rock icon Lynyrd Skynyrd will perform at White River Amphitheater this month as part of his career-concluding Last of the Street Survivors Farewell Tour.
Tickets: $29.50 Lawn
WhiteRiverAmphitheater.org/Tickets
Gipsy Kings returns to the stage at Chateau Ste. Michelle with Nicolas Reyes and Tonino Baliardo in August.
Tickets: $45 GA
Mumford & Sons and Portugal the Man
British folk-rock group Mumford & Sons will be performing at the Gorge as part of its Delta tour. Special guest Portugal the Man will be performing with them.
LiveNation.com
Lionel Richie will be stopping at Marymoor Park as part of his Hello Summer tour through North America.
MarymoorConcerts.com/Events
Josh Groban will perform at Chateau Ste. Michelle as part of his Summer 2019 BRIDGES tour, celebrating his new album.
Death Cab for Cutie, an alt-rock band, will be performing at Marymoor at the tail end of this summer with special guest Car Seat Headrest.
Tickets: $45 Lawn
Singer-songwriter and pianist Diana Krall returns to Chateau Ste. Michelle this summer to showcase her blues, pop and jazz standards to a sold-out audience.
The classic soul, funk and disco band, Earth, Wind & Fire, will return to Chateau Ste. Michelle this summer.
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Revised June 2013
Article I: NAME AND PURPOSE
Section 1. The name of this council of the American Society for Engineering Education (ASEE) shall be Professional Interest Council III.
Section 2. The primary objectives of the Council shall be:
To provide a formal organizational structure to promote, encourage, and facilitate ASEE activities pertaining to professional and technical education.
To provide a forum for the discussion of problems and exchange of information pertaining to professional and technical education related to education and technology.
To provide programs at meetings.
To establish and maintain liaison with other organizations concerned with professional and technical education.
Article II: MEMBERSHIP
Section 1. The Council shall consist of the members of the following Divisions:
Computing and Information Technology Division
Energy Conversion and Conservation
Engineering and Public Policy
Liberal Education / Engineering and Society
Engineering Physics and Physics
Technological Literacy
TwoYear College
Section 2. The Board of Directors of ASEE, by majority vote, may change the Divisions and Constituent Committees comprising the Council in any manner. The Council Board, by majority vote, may recommend changes to the ASEE Board of Directors, except that a two-thirds majority vote of the Council Board is required to recommend disestablishment of any existing Division or Constituent Committee.
Article III: OFFICERS AND DUTIES
Section 1. The Council shall have the following officers whose terms of office shall be as indicated:
Chair: 3 years
Assistant Chair: 1 year renewable
Section 2. The duties of each officer of the Council shall be those usually associated with the respective office including the following:
The Chair shall have the administrative responsibility for the Council and shall be responsible for all meetings. He/She shall serve as Chair of the Council Board and shall serve as a member of the Board of Directors of ASEE. She/he shall, with the advice of the Council Board, appoint such committees as are necessary for the adequate administration and operation of the Council. The Chair of the Council shall serve as an ex-officio member of all committees.
He/She shall supply to the officers of the Council up-to-date copies of these bylaws with all amendments, within sixty (60) days following the annual business meeting of the Council, provided that changes were made.
The Chair/Secretary shall provide an annual report of council activities to the ASEE Board of Directors.
Assistant Chair
The PIC III Chair may appoint an Assistant Chair from among the members in good standing of any division within PIC III who have completed at least one year as a division officer within PIC III.
The duties of the Assistant Chair are as follows:
Assist as directed by the PIC III Chair in the administration of PIC III,
Attend division meetings within PIC III as the PIC III Chair’s representative upon request of the PIC III Chair,
Chair the selection process for PIC-level awards, including but not limited to the PIC III Best Paper Award,
Serve as a member of the PIC III Council Board, and
Other duties as authorized by the Constitution and Bylaws of ASEE.
No person having served as Assistant Chair is eligible to become the immediate successor of any incumbent PIC III Chair who appointed him/her.
The Assistant Chair may be dismissed from office by the PIC III Chair or by a two-thirds majority vote of the PIC III Council Board in any meeting authorized by Article VI of these bylaws. If a petition to dismiss the Assistant Chair is presented to the PIC III Chair from at least five of the division chairs, the PIC III Chair must call a special meeting per Section 3, Article VI, to consider such dismissal.
Article IV: ELECTIONS AND SUCCESSION OF OFFICERS
The Chair of the Council is a National office and will be elected by procedures established by the Board of Directors and Membership of ASEE.
Assumption of office by the Chair shall be concurrent with that of officers of ASEE (typically at the close of the ASEE Annual Conference in the year elected).
In the event that the Chair is unable to complete his/her term of office, succession will be as established by the Constitution and Bylaws of ASEE.
The Assistant Chair may be appointed by the PIC III Chair per Art.III, Sec. 2b.
Article V: COUNCIL BOARD
Section 1. Duties
The Council shall have a Council Board whose duty shall be to promote and coordinate the activities of the Divisions and Constituent Committees.
The Council Board shall serve as a channel of communication for its members and shall make recommendations on matters of concern to the Board of Directors of ASEE.
The Chair shall schedule and arrange for Council Board meetings. It shall administer such other activities as may be desirable for the objectives of the Council.
Section 2. Members
The Council Board shall be the council officers, the Chairs of the standing committees, and one representative from each Division and Constituent Committee listed as Article II, Section 1, of these bylaws. The Division and Constituent Committee representative shall normally be the Chair or the Chair-elect of each Division or Constituent Committee.
Section 3. Proxies
If a representative of a Division or Constituent Committee listed in Article II, Section 1, is unable to serve on the Council Board or attend a Council Board Meeting, the appropriate Division or Constituent Committee shall designate a replacement from among the Officers of the Division or Constituent Committee.
Article VI MEETINGS
Section 1. The Council Board shall hold its annual business meeting at the time and place of the Annual Conference of ASEE. The time and place of the annual business meeting shall be announced to the members of the Council Board not less than thirty (30) days before the date of the meeting.
Section 2. A semiannual meeting may be held at a place and on a date to be selected at the annual business meeting of the Council Board.
Section 3. Special meetings of the Council Board may be called by the Chair upon fifteen (15) days notices to its members.
Section 4. Business of the Council Board may also be conducted by U.S. Mail, fax, or email.
Article VII: PARLIAMENTARY AUTHORITY
Section 1. The rules contained in Robert's Rules of Order (latest edition) shall govern the Council in all cases which are applicable, and in which they are consistent with the Constitution and Bylaws of ASEE or the Bylaws of the Council; in other cases the Constitution and Bylaws of ASEE shall govern.
Article VIII: AMENDMENTS TO BYLAWS
Section 1. These Bylaws, except for Article VII, may be amended by a two-thirds vote of the members of the Council Board attending and voting at a meeting of the Board.
Section 2. These Bylaws may also be amended by a letter, Fax, or email ballot of the members of the Council Board, sent by the Chair/Secretary, the amendment being approved if two-thirds or more of the ballots returned within thirty (30) days after they are sent are favorable.
Section 3. Amendments may be proposed by the Council Board or may be submitted by petitions signed by not less than fifty (50) individual members of ASEE to the Council Chair/Secretary through the Executive Director of ASEE.
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[PHOTOS] Theta Chapter initiation at Pratt on May 11
New initiates Kat Fanning (second from left) and Heather Hill (fourth from left) joined Beta Phi Mu on May 11, 2018. [photo by Pratt Institute School of Information].
Beta Phi Mu Theta member and Pratt SI Alum Rossy Mendez delivers the annual initiation lecture.
BPMT Membership Coordinator Michelle Lee (Pratt SI '14) reads introductory remarks at initiations.
Vinette Thomas (L), Pratt SI staff and BPMT member, provides the introduction to initiation as BPMT Vice President Alexandra Nader looks on.
Posted by Beta Phi Mu Theta at 7:59 AM No comments:
Beta Phi Mu Theta Cosponsored Event at Center for Book Arts, May 22!
Please note: this event has been moved to a new location. Please RSVP and join us at:
The Center for Book Arts
28 West 27th St, 3rd Flr
WOMEN IN A GOLDEN AGE OF ARTISTS’ BOOKS
Roundtable Discussion featuring Cynthia Marsh, Rebecca Michaels, Patty Smith, and Tony White
Tuesday, May 22, 2018 – 6:30 – 7:45 pm
Cosponsored event with Center for Book Arts, Rare Book School, APHA-NY, Small Editions Artist’s Books; and Theta Chapter, Beta Phi Mu Honor Society, Pratt Institute School of Information
Join us for “Women in a Golden Age of Artists’ Books,” a roundtable discussion featuring:
Cynthia Marsh, Professor of Art, Founder of the Goldsmith Press & Rare Type Collection at Austin Peay State University in Clarksville, Tennessee
Rebecca Michaels, Associate Professor of Photography at Tyler School of Art in Philadelphia
Patty Smith, artist, printmaker, book artist, and professor of Fine Arts, Printmaking at The University of the Arts, Philadelphia
Tony White, Florence and Herbert Irving Associate Chief Librarian, Thomas J. Watson Library, The Metropolitan Museum of Art
Cynthia Marsh, Rebecca Michaels, and Patty Smith forged their own, significant paths in the male-dominated field of high-speed rotary offset lithographic printing, and were sometimes eclipsed in the history of artists’ books by their male contemporaries—until recently.
It has been said that the “golden age of offset printed artists’ books” was the 1970s and 1980s. During that time, Smith revived a defunct print shop and ran the press at the SUNY Purchase Center for Editions, and cofounded the Borowsky Center (Philadelphia) with Chuck Gershwin, specifically for the production of prints and artists’ books using a high-speed rotary offset lithographic printing press. Marsh was a founding member of the Women’s Graphic Center at the Woman’s Building in Los Angeles, where she taught offset printing and helped establish a community publication studio for women artists; and Michaels collaborated with Miles DeCoster in Chicago before moving to Philadelphia to run the 5,700-pound Heidelberg offset press in the shop at the Tyler School of Art, in addition to making her own artist’s books.
In a roundtable discussion facilitated by Tony White, the printers will elaborate on their work, artists’ books and publications, and the changing roles of women in the timeline of offset printing history.
Co-presented with Rare Book School in conjunction with the course, The History of Artists’ Books since 1950, at the Thomas J. Watson Library of The Metropolitan Museum of Art; the New York City Chapter of The American Printing History Association; Small Editions Artist’s Books; and Theta Chapter, Beta Phi Mu Honor Society, Pratt Institute School of Information.
The event will be recorded. Audio will be posted on Rare Book School’s SoundCloud channel.
Please note: rsvp to this event directly at rsvp@centerforbookarts.org. View the Facebook invitation.
If you previously registered for this event at its former location, The New York Public Library, you must RSVP. Please contact us with any questions.
[PHOTOS] Theta Chapter initiation at Pratt on May ...
Beta Phi Mu Theta Cosponsored Event at Center for ...
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The Canberra Alpine Club was formed on 31 July 1934 at the Alpine Hotel, Kiandra and was incorporated on 29 June 1955.
The original motion to form the Club was proposed by Tim Ingram and Tom Campbell at a meeting chaired by H.J. Lamble, the Director of the NSW Government Tourist Bureau. The inaugural general meeting was subsequently held at the Hotel Canberra on 11 October 1934 to elect office bearers and a committee and ratify the provisional operating arrangements.
The objects of the Club include promoting snowsports and bushwalking, fostering the conservation of the alpine environment and the interest of members in matters of historical or heritage significance to skiing or bushwalking including the preservation of buildings, sites and objects.
The Club is a corporate member of Snowsports ACT. The Club is also a member of SLOPES (Ski Lodges of Perisher, Guthega and Smiggins Inc), and of the Kosciuszko Huts Association.
The Mount Franklin chalet was constructed for the Club in 1938 with bunk accommodation for 32 on leased land. The chalet reverted to the Government when Namadgi National Park was created in 1984 and was destroyed by bushfires in January 2003, with a new shelter being erected by the ACT Government in 2007. The Mount Franklin precinct is the subject of memoranda of understanding made in 1989 and 1998 between the Club and the ACT Parks and Conservation Service.
The A-frame Perisher lodge was constructed by Club labour in 1961 on land leased from the State of New South Wales. A new lease executed late in 2008 runs until December 2028 with three ten year options exercisable after that. This lodge is licensed to accommodate 46 people and was substantially upgraded in 1983. The bedroom wing was added in 1999, together with wheelchair accessible facilities.
The original Jindabyne lodge was constructed adjacent to Lake Jindabyne in 1968 on leased land in Banjo Paterson Crescent, adjacent to Lake Jindabyne. In 1992, the Club acquired freehold title to the site. The original Jindabyne Lodge was demolished and a new lodge constructed, opening in 2014.
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CIMA+ is tattooed on my heart, and continuing to give back to the company as a Director gives me a tremendous sense of pride.
Michel LaPalme
, B.A.Sc.
Michel LaPalme began his career in consulting engineering at LNLLR, which became CIMA+ in 1990.
He was a member of the Board of Directors from 1993 to 2000, and Director of the Sherbrooke office from 1994 to 1998. Since 2000, he has been responsible for occasional assignments related to the development and design of major international projects. Throughout his career, Michel has been very active with the Ordre des ingénieurs du Québec, carrying out a variety of responsibilities.
His appreciation for his role on the Board of Directors
Sitting on the Board of Directors provides an overview of the firm with respect to its strategic plan, its finances and its directions. Michel finds it very stimulating to interact with independent administrators Réal Plourde and Gérard Geoffrion, who have a wealth of experience to share, but who also have the straightforwardness and warmth that characterize the CIMA+ culture.
His love of international projects
The learning continues: From 2000 to 2014, Michel was involved in a number of projects in Africa. He takes pleasure in discovering different lifestyles, while continuing to learn as an engineer, thanks to the specific challenges posed by projects carried out on that continent.
Bachelor’s degree in Electrical Engineering,
Other members of the Board of directors
Réal Plourde
François Plourde
President and CEO of CIMA+
Gérard Geoffrion
Réjean Massé
Josée Morin
Independent Director
Richard Régimbald
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Aisin Seiki
Vehicle Parts Manufacturer
Topic Navigation
Wikipedia: Aisin Seiki
Headquarters: Kariya, Aichi, Japan
A Japanese auto parts manufacturer founded in 1949 as Tokai Aircraft Company.
The following section is an excerpt from Wikipedia's Aisin Seiki page on 3 October 2017, text available via the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.
Aisin Seiki Co., Ltd. (アイシン精機株式会社 Aishin Seiki Kabushiki Kaisha), also known as Aisin, is a Japanese corporation which develops and produces components and systems for the automotive industry. Aisin is a Fortune Global 500 company, ranked 442 on the 2015 rankings.
Aisin Seiki was founded in 1949 and currently supplies engine, drivetrain, body and chassis, aftermarket, and other main automotive parts for various major OEMs. In addition to partaking in the automotive markets, Aisin also offers life and amenity products (e.g. furniture and sewing machines), energy systems, welfare products, and other products/services.
Aisin is 30% owned by the Toyota Group of companies.
Aisin AW
Aisin AW is a major automotive technology manufacturer. Established in 1969, it developed the Prius transmission and the world's first speaking navigation system.
Additionally, the two-axis Aisin AW hybrid design has been adapted to the 2016– Prius (excepting the Prius c), and has also been employed on "Gen 1" (2005-2007) and "Gen 2" (2008-2012) Ford Escape Hybrids (Aisin T-030 and T-031 eCVTs, respectively), both FWD and AWD models, with Ford providing the Atkinson Cycle engine, hybrid battery, and all software control systems, and with Ford developing the AWD functionality; and on 2017– Chrysler Pacifica Hybrid minivans (Aisin T-032 eCVT). The two-axis design eliminates the second planetary gearset ("motor speed reduction device") found in the 2010–2015 Prius and the Prius c, and which reduces the width and weight of the eCVT and improves its overall efficiency.
It is based in Anjō, near Nagoya, Japan. Another major division is located in Okazaki.
Other global locations: Headquarters for Europe : AW Europe & AW Technical Center Europe which is located in Braine l'Alleud (Belgium) for Research and Development and in Baudour (Belgium) for the re-manufacturing of automatic transmissions/transaxles and production of electronic products.
Aisin AI
Aisin AI is an independent company under Aisin Seiki. It was spun off in July 1991, moving its headquarters to Nishio City. Aisin AI supplied only Toyota through 1996, when DaimlerChrysler and Isuzu began using their products. The company later added Mazda, Nissan, Mitsubishi Motors, General Motors, Daihatsu, Hino Motors, Fiat Automobiles, Volvo, Jeep, Porsche, and Luxgen.
Aisin USA
Aisin constructed a factory in the United States of America in 1986, with production beginning in 1989. This factory, in Seymour, Indiana has since been expanded and supplies components for Honda, General Motors, Mitsubishi Motors, Nissan and Toyota. The company also operates in Marion, Illinois.
On October 5, 2005, Aisin USA opened an 878-acre (3.55 km2) testing facility near Fowlerville, Michigan. Officially named FT Techno of America (FTTA), but known as Aisin’s Fowlerville Proving Ground, the new venture is a member of the Aisin Group, a Tier One worldwide automotive components supplier with global sales of more than US$15 billion in 2004. In Michigan, Aisin Group companies employ 554 associates, with annual payroll of US$40 million and total investments of US$102.7 million. FTTA is Aisin’s fifth group company in Michigan.
The new proving ground, Aisin’s first in North America, and third worldwide, is research and development based supporting test surfaces of various lengths and lane widths used to develop and evaluate a variety of Aisin products and applications, such as transmissions, brakes, drivetrains, and chassis and body systems and components.
Document Name & Details
3 July 2012 Hybrid Vehicle, Method of Controlling Hybrid Vehicle, Program for Causing Computer to Execute the Method of Controlling Hybrid Vehicle, and Computer Readable Storage Medium Having the Program Stored Therein
United States Patent US 8,210,293 B2
Wanleng Ang and Toshiaki Niwa for Toyota Jidosha Kabushiki Kaisha and Aisin AW Co., Ltd.
PDF - 1.7MB - 20 pages
3 July 2012 Valve Opening/Closing Timing Control Apparatus
Shigemitsu Suzuki, Naoto Toma, Yoji Kanada, and Hiroki Mukaide for Aisin Seiki Kabushiki Kaisha
6 August 2013 Adhesive Composition
United States Patent US 8,501,836
Hiroshi Tamura and Takaaki Nagano for Aisin Kako Kabushiki Kaisha
PDF - 699KB - 8 pages
Author/Source
18 November 2004 Research and Markets - Future Prospects for leading Automotive Manufacturing Group Aisin Seiki Analysed Research and Markets
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Casey Black's blog about singer songwritering.
Ryan Morgan's Annual Torturefest
January 9, 2013 Christy Mansell
Ryan Morgan laments his aging, and pop music’s failure to age with him:
“Just finished my annual tradition of making myself listen to the Billboard Top 20 Songs of the year just ended. Summary: nobody writes verses any more, and I’m getting old, and pop music hasn’t changed much at all since 2004, both in terms of the way the songs sound and the actual people who are performing them.”
I try (kind of) hard to like pop music. My wife sings and dances to it in the car, and I wish I could do that. You’d have to be stupid not to recognize some of the great infectious little (actually, big) melodies in pop music. Why, some are beautiful like diamonds in the sky. But I agree with Ryan, verses are kaput.
I wrote a song called Radio Hit when I was a confused, religious, moral 20 year-old asshole. It was a genius piece of horribleness–a screed against “audio porn”–the “hit” in the title being the violent kind (get it??). It had a lyric that raged against “midriffs and their melodies,” which is hilarious now, as it’s cringe-worthy writing, and I quite like midriffs now that I don’t hate my own desires. Anyhow, there was one line in there that might be salvageable, in the bridge:
Thank you for teaching me a brand new meaning of pop/Pop, you’re gone
Which is to say, pop songs these days don’t feel like they’ll last. They ain’t timeless. Maybe ageless, but not timeless.
Brief Interviews: Don Paris Schlotman
One, Two, Three to the Gut - Track 3
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Group Website Cofanet Coface Collect
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Population 144 million
GDP per capita 10,956 US$
Country risk assessment
Czechia (Czech Republic)
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Sector risk
Payment & Debt Collection
Locate the country Print
major macro economic indicators
2018 (e)
2019 (f)
GDP growth (%) -0.2 1.5 1.6 1.6
Inflation (yearly average, %) 7.1 3.7 2.8 4.0
Budget balance (% GDP) -3.4 -3.6 2.5 1.8
Current account balance (% GDP) 1.9 2.2 6.0 5.0
Public debt (% GDP) 16.0 15.0 15.0 15.0
(e): Estimate. (f): Forecast.
Abundant natural resources (oil, gas and metals)
Floating of the ruble since November 2014
Market size and skilled labour force (but shrinking population)
Sound public and external accounts
Efforts to clean up the banking sector
Dependent on hydrocarbon prices
No trade agreements beyond immediate neighbours
Dependent on foreign technology
Poor infrastructure and lack of investment
Heavy social security contributions favouring informal economy
US and European sanctions hindering offshore field development and innovation
Institutional and governance weaknesses (insolvency treatment, property rights, corruption)
Timid growth
Russia has consolidated its recovery from the 2015/16 recession, yet growth seems timid when compared against the rise in hydrocarbon prices. However, the expansion reflects the country’s economic capacity and the authorities' desire to separate growth from oil and gas wealth. Household consumption (50% of GDP) will remain the key growth driver. Its rate of increase will be slow, echoing that of the economy. Households face a hike in the VAT rate from 18% to 20% on January 1, 2019. However, unless food and energy prices, or the ruble, go off track, inflation should remain under the control of the central bank, which had the key rate at 7.5% in early November 2018. With wage growth outpacing productivity growth, and in view of the inflationary expectations (4%), the central bank will proceed with caution. At the same time, pay rises in the public sector (28% of jobs) will be reined in, pensions will also get a smaller increase, while employment should increase slightly now that the retirement age has been pushed back by six months. Private investment, particularly foreign investment, will not be vibrant given the backdrop of sanctions and geopolitical tension. Given the size of the public sector (33% of GDP, 38% of reported value added with 32,500 companies), its investment is very important. In his May 2018 decree, President Vladimir Putin pledged to increase spending on infrastructure, health and education to 1.1% of GDP each year by 2021. Companies, both public and private, are strongly encouraged to participate. Non-oil exports – especially minerals, timber, grains and oilseeds, basic and intermediate industrial products and transport equipment – are expected to grow less than imports, maintaining a slightly negative trade contribution to growth. Crops are expected to be below average, while hydrocarbon sales could stagnate.
Surpluses on the back of hydrocarbon prices
The fiscal policy is set to remain restrictive. First, the 2017/19 three-year budget forecasts a one percentage point reduction in the non-oil deficit each year (9% of GDP in 2017). Dividends paid by state-owned companies will reach half of their profits, and excise duties on tobacco and alcohol will go up, as will the taxation of extractive activities at the expense of export taxation. Expenditure control will be complex because public pensions and salaries are indexed to inflation. Second, a fiscal rule, based on primary equilibrium (i.e. excluding debt interest) for a price of USD 40 per barrel of oil, applies from 2019 onwards. Given the dissatisfaction with the pension reform, this rule could be slightly relaxed by temporarily setting a higher reference price. This would allow the authorities to use part of the additional hydrocarbon-related revenue spent on foreign exchange to replenish the sovereign wealth fund (SWF, 7% of GDP at the end of 2018) and ease expenditure pressure. Public debt and its servicing are low, as the SWF was used during the recession. Its external share represents about 5% of GDP and tended to decline in the second half of 2018 with US threats on Russian public debt holdings.
The current account surplus is expected to remain significant in 2019. It is based on the large trade surplus (10% of GDP in 2018) linked to hydrocarbon exports (60% of total exports), which more than compensates for the services and income deficit (oil and gas engineering expenditure, Russian stays abroad, dividends from foreign companies, transfers from foreign workers). Excluding hydrocarbons, the trade and current account balances are negative at 5% and more than 9% of GDP respectively. Despite efforts made since the sanctions were imposed, the substitution of domestic products for imports has had little success, except in the agri-food sector. The financial account is negative at 2% of GDP, as the Russian private sector makes financial and real estate investments abroad and is deleveraging, while new foreign investment in Russia is low. However, funds are returning to Russia in the form of loans contracted abroad, often by those who have invested money there. For this reason, private external debt (27% of GDP) should be put into perspective, especially since growing foreign exchange reserves already represent 17 months of imports and more than five times short-term debt.
Political stability but an uneven business environment
Vladimir Putin, who has been in power for 17 years, began a new six-year presidential term in May 2018. Popular in the past for his annexation of Crimea, counter-sanctions, and strong international activism, he saw his popularity plummet following the adoption of the pension reform. Despite a satisfactory rating in the Doing Business and Global Competitiveness reports (scores of 77/100 and 66/100, respectively), institutional, regulatory, commercial and judicial performances (government interventionism, random contract enforcement, patronage) need to be improved.
Last update: February 2019
Bank transfers in Russia are among the most popular instruments used for non-cash payments, for both international and domestic transactions. This is because they are fast, secure, and supported by a developed banking network. Despite this, cash is still one of the most widespread payment instruments used by individuals.
Amicable phase
The amicable phase begins with the creditor contacting the debtor, either via written correspondence or phone calls. If an agreement is reached, a payment plan can be offered to the debtor. Charging interest is legally allowed but hard to enforce unless an agreement to pay said interest currently exists between the debtor and the creditor. Any such agreement must be additional to any standing agreement between the parties.
The Russian judicial system is comprised of three branches: the regular court system, the arbitration court system (headed by the Supreme Court), and the Constitutional Court (a single body with no courts under it; in Russian constitutional law this function is known as “constitutional control” or “constitutional supervision”, and deals with a certain number of disputes where it has original jurisdiction).
The regular courts have a four-tier hierarchy and are responsible for civil and criminal cases: the Supreme Court of Russia, regional courts, district courts, and magistrate courts.
Arbitration courts review cases dealing with a wide matter of contractual issues, such as rights of ownership, contract changes, performance of obligations, loans, bank accounts and bankruptcy.
The highest court of appeal is the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation.
Fast-track proceedings
Russian law provides for simplified proceedings for certain types of cases, in which the creditor seeks to recover no more than RUB 500,000 from a legal entity or RUB 250,000 from an individual entrepreneur. Under Russian law, judges are to consider cases through simplified proceedings within a maximum of two months form the day when the Arbitrazh (arbitrage) court receives the statement of claim or application. Once the deadline for submissions of evidence has passed, cases are reviewed on their merits by judges, without the parties being called to appear.
Ordinary proceedings
Proceedings are initiated when a creditor files a statement of claim with the competent Arbitrazh court. The court must decide within five working days whether to accept the statement, and subsequently schedule a preliminary hearing. Debtors are usually notified of claims when they are served with a copy of the statement of claim, which includes the data of the initial hearing. There is no specific time frame during which defendants must submit their defense, but it must generally be done before the hearing on the merits). The court can set a deadline for submitting a statement of defense – if this is not submitted, the court will consider the case on the basis of the available materials. The preliminary preparation period ensures that the case can be resolved on its own merits during one court hearing. Cases must generally be resolved on their merits within three months after the respective statement of claim is received by the court. More complex commercial disputes can take considerably longer. The courts will normally award remedies in the form of compensatory damages or injunctions but punitive damages are not available.
Enforcement of a Legal Decision
A judgment is enforceable for three years provided that is has become final. If the debtor fails to satisfy the judgment, the creditor can request compulsory enforcement of the judgment from the court’s bailiff services. Foreign judgments must be recognized as a domestic decision by the Arbitrazh Court through the Russian exequatur procedure. Although Russia has signed a small number of reciprocal recognition and enforcement agreements with foreign countries, domestic courts are reluctant to recognize foreign jurisdiction clauses.
Commercial Courts initiate the supervision process to evaluate the debtor’s financial situation and to secure the debtor’s property. After examining a filed insolvency claim, the court initiates the supervision process. The debtor can autonomously request a court to initiate supervision if settling some creditors’ claims would make it impossible for the debtor to fulfil other obligations, if execution on the debtor’s property means the debtor’s business has to cease, or if the debtor’s business is insolvent. A receiver is appointed, known as a temporary manager, who must approve certain transactions during the supervision, such buying or selling more than five percent of the accounting value of the debtor’s property.
Financial rehabilitation
The aim is to carry out any necessary measures to restore debtors’ solvency and settle their debts. The court and the creditors control the process. The application must include a rehabilitation plan that ensures the debtor’s obligations will be met. The court appoints a receiver to be the administrative manager, who supervises and controls the debtor’s affairs during the period of the financial rehabilitation. The administrative manager examines the debt repayment schedule and monitors any financial restructuring plans.
At least one month before the period of financial rehabilitation expires, the debtor must provide the administrative manager with a report on the results of the financial rehabilitation. Once the report has been examined, the manager must prepare an opinion on the extent to which debts have been paid and the financial restructuring plan has been achieved. The opinion is submitted to the court, which examines the results and either ends the proceedings, orders external administrator to manage the company, or declares the debtor bankrupt.
External administration
The objective is to restore the debtor’s solvency by applying special measures under an external administration plan, and to replace the debtor’s chief executive officer (CEO) with an independent external manager. Once the procedure begins, the court appoints a receiver known as the external manager, who must draft an external administration plan setting out the measures necessary to restore the debtor’s solvency within the period of the external administration procedure. At the end of the period, the manager prepares and submits a report to the creditor’s meeting, together with a proposal of one of the following four options:
end judicial proceedings, if all creditors have been settled;
extend the period;
end external administrator, as the debtor is now solvent;
enter administration and file for bankruptcy.
Amicable arrangement
Debtors and creditors may make an amicable arrangement to adjust debtors’ liabilities on negotiated terms during any rescue procedures. Generally, an amicable arrangement ends the powers of court-appointed receivers. If a debtor fails to comply with terms of an amicable arrangement, creditors are entitled to ask for a bailiff to execute the agreement.
The purpose of insolvency is to sell the debtor’s property and use the proceeds to pay creditors’ claim in proportionate amounts. The court may initiate the process during supervision, financial rehabilitation, or external administration. It appoints a receiver (insolvency manager) to replace the debtor’s CEO. The court and the creditors control the activity of the insolvency manager, who must provide progress reports. At the end of the proceedings, the court reviews the list of satisfied and unsatisfied claims. If they are fully satisfied, the court rules the proceedings complete and the debtor is liquidated. If they are not satisfied, proceedings are terminated, the debtor company is dissolved, and unsatisfied creditor’s claims are to be written off.
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Search transcripts: Advanced Search
Select one Bennett Cerf Kenneth Clark Mamie Clark Moe Foner Andrew Heiskell Edward I. Koch Mary Lasker John B. Oakes Frances Perkins Frank Stanton
Session: 123456789101112131415161718192021 Page 710711712713714715716717718719720721722723724725726727728729730731732733734735736737738739740741742743744745746747748749750751752753754755756757758759760761762763764765 of 1029
Cerf:
The Government got it, but it was fun and great for my ego!
You were saying “What's My Line?" I think that fits in because you started that October 20, 1950, according to my source of information.
Well, the question that is most often asked me is, “How did you get into television?" Like everything else in my life, it was luck. First of all, I had become somewhat known, as I've told you, on radio as a result of the war and “Books are Bullets,” so that my name became one of those that would come up in discussions of being able to talk on radio.
And you were doing some lecturing.
I was doing some lecturing. Also, I love parlor games--some of them, not all of them. There were pictures of a game in Life once at Neysa McMein's house where we played The Game, it's called. There were a lot of celebrities at Neysa's like Bing Crosby and Cole Porter. Life made a feature of it and that helped me become somewhat known as a game player. I had also done one or two experimental T.V. programs when CBS had its first experimental T.V. station on the third floor of Grand Central Station. Dick Rodgers and Gypsy Rose Lee and I did some kind of crazy game there once. So at least I had gotten my toes into T.V.
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You are here: Home / Latest News / Productivity / Microsoft releases Windows 10 S
Microsoft releases Windows 10 S
May 9, 2017 /in Productivity /by Gareth Jones
Microsoft has released a new version of its operating system called Windows 10 S, which is primarily aimed at teachers and students.
Windows 10 S is a fully functioning version of Windows, but only runs apps available in the Windows Store featuring thousands of available applications including free, paid and trial versions of software. This will soon include the full Microsoft Office suite and Spotify, while Slack, Evernote, Netflix, Facebook, Adobe Photoshop Elements and many others are already available.
The operating system uses Microsoft Edge as its default browser, which Microsoft claims is more secure than Chrome and Firefox. It also includes features such as the new Tab Preview Bar, designed to make it easier for students to organise research and manage school projects. With full support for Windows Ink in Microsoft Edge, students can make notes directly on a web page and share them with classmates.
Device partners including Acer, ASUS, Dell, Fujitsu, HP, Samsung and Toshiba are expected to bring out a range of Windows 10 S devices in the coming months. Microsoft will soon release the new Surface Laptop too, which will run the new operating system by default.
How does it compare to Google’s Chromebooks?
Windows 10 S is Microsoft’s answer to the success of Google’s Chromebooks in the education sector. Chromebooks are affordable laptops that run Google’s Chrome OS, which is an operating system built around the search company’s Chrome browser and is limited to web apps and some Android apps.
Windows 10 S, while aimed at the same market, is a fully-fledged version of Windows that is limited to apps from the Windows Store, but can accept and use any peripherals or other devices that any other Windows computer can. That will make Windows 10 S much more capable than Chrome OS.
If you would like more information in relation to Windows 10 S or how Microsoft Store for Business and Microsoft Store for Education gives IT decision makers and administrators in businesses or schools a flexible way to find, acquire, manage, and distribute free and paid apps in select markets to Windows 10 devices in volume, then please contact us.
Tags: Education, Windows
https://i0.wp.com/www.coreazure.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/Windows-10S.jpg?fit=1600%2C900 900 1600 Gareth Jones http://coreazure.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/caFullLogo-1-300x138.png Gareth Jones2017-05-09 11:22:402017-05-10 09:40:35Microsoft releases Windows 10 S
One-click disaster recovery of applications using Azure Site Recovery Highly Available Cross-Premises and VNet-to-VNet Connectivity
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어린 왕자, 어린왕자, Eorin Wangja
Regret is the driving emotion behind “The Little Prince,” director Choi Jong-hyeon’s debut feature, loosely inspired by Antoine de Saint-Exupery’s most famous novella known for the wise-cracking fox who says, “It is the time you have spent with your rose that makes your rose so important.” The Korean movie puts a reverse spin on the line: a sound-e… more Regret is the driving emotion behind “The Little Prince,” director Choi Jong-hyeon’s debut feature, loosely inspired by Antoine de Saint-Exupery’s most famous novella known for the wise-cracking fox who says, “It is the time you have spent with your rose that makes your rose so important.” The Korean movie puts a reverse spin on the line: a sound-effects technician Jong-cheol does NOT spend time with his family — a fatal mistake that he deeply and constantly regrets. The healing process begins when he comes across a pure-hearted child, modeled after the world-renowned French story. But it is a bit of a stretch to compare Jong-cheol’s encounter with the boy with the one in the original “The Little Prince.” After all, the Korean movie does not feature the rose the Little Prince really truly loved or the fox he famously tamed. Jong-cheol is no pilot, either. But the overall plot — an adult learning something from an innocent kid — is roughly in the same category of a fable rich in symbolism. In the movie to be released on Thursday, an urban fable begins with Jong-cheol’s self-contradicting life. He makes a living producing various sound effects for movies; he juggles different gadgets and props to create sound that is more realistic than, well, natural sound. (source: Avistaz) less
Category: Korean Movie
Genres: Drama, Family
Park Won Sang
Kang Soo Han
Choi Joo Bong
Tak Jae Hoon
Little Prince English Subtitle:
Little Prince (2007) Oct 11, 2011
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MRA Group
If this is a temporary site (which thay ALL are, aren't they!?) then we're not gonna hold our breath waiting for the full-blown site... Why? Because we can see right through this tongue and cheek attempt to be funny, styling, edgy, and full of attitude. Yep. We're calling you guys on it... 'cause we know there's no plans to make a new site at all! And that's funny part of this branding and advertising firm... they're actually trying to make their site appear incomplete. Kudos for that.... More
Wieden + Kennedy
In what represents an enourmous design and IA effort, the new Wieden + Kennedy site attempts to catalog all of their projects in a sort of "Lost in Space" timeline and data structure. In the end, the site is rather hard to navigate, but the "yo-factor" of this site is quite impressive... at least it will be for a couple more months. What's really impressive is simply the fact that they've done so much work, they need to create an overarching data-mining scheme just to cover it all. Certainly much more of a marketing and promotional site than anything else, it achieves that goal by stating rather plainly, "Hey, we are bigger than planet Earthour portfolio reaches into space!".... More
FutureBrand
FutureBrand doesn�t ask whether it�s possible or not, but rather how to make the product and how to make it BETTER. And their projects run the entire range from the branding of colossal city projects, to banks, consumer goods and beauty products. With this worldwide, think-tank of a company that caters to clients such as Nissan, Exxon, Dove and DuPont, as well as the Dubai Waterfront project and the Mexican Tourism Board, that super cool thing that we all thought would never come into existence just might!... More
FutureBrand Worldwide
Duffy and Partners
Brand building, packaging and identity work; Minneapolis style. That's what you'll get from Duffy and Partners, a well established and awarded branding firm whose recent work has included rebranding the Islands of Bahamas, as well as identities for Toyota Trucks, and new packaging for Fresca. Clients know what to expect when coming here, but in out opinion, some the styles and designs in the portfolio have a slighty dated feellike an ad agency that was huge in the 90's but still hasn't fully lost its tendency towards using quirky character illustrations of the era.... More
Colle+McVoy
Colle+McVoy, located in the capital of the advertising state (Minneapolis, MN, of course!), is a prime example that you don't have to be a small firm to maintain a quirky, fun, and personable approach to design. In fact, they've made a rather large business out of staying true to "small-studio" style designs, using guerrila and non-traditional marketing as one of their many creative outlets. Great, youthful approach to a site for an ad agency that employs 170 creatives (2007), and was founded in 1935.... More
Colle McVoy
Mark Yeo
Like a young Samson in his prime, apparently this young art directors true strength comes directly from his finely coiffed hair. And his clients can relate, because most of his advertising and editorial designs are made for the fashion and high-end luxury fields. His art and layouts of advertising pages have been in the pages of numerous magazines, such as Esquire, Zest, Good Housekeeping and while in Singapore, he conceptualized, designed and art directed covers for Elle Magazine, Cleo and Woman's Weekly. So don't mess with Mark's "do", lest you spoil the perfect balance of art and design.... More
Also posted under usa based portfolios, Singapore.
When it boils down to the science of branding, design systems and business strategy, there are few that hold a torch up to bright light that is MetaDesign. Stationed in San Francisco, Meta eats, sleeps and breathes clean, pure and practical design systems. From the ground up, or laterally and vertically, MetaDesign helps moves business into the future through top notch branding. Excellent company site (since last time that we looked), with a very minimal, and close-to-the-vest portfolio.... More
Kanter International
Using the tagline "Building Brands from the Business Up" as a kick-off point, Kanter demonstrates a solid grasp of business needs in their brand building and business projects. Their specialties in consulting, strategy and marketing help big firms find hidden strengths and maximize potential, while avoiding hidden (or obvious) pitfalls. Quite a nice site, with a crystal clear message.... More
Studio Output
An excellent design portfolio of a print, graphics and identity design firm. Although they do not specialize in web design, they had their friends (AllofUs.org) put together a truly magnificent minimal Flash portfolio that really puts the ideas and work first. Yes, the graphic design campaigns inside are excellent, yet its even easier to appreciate because the site makes you read (and think) a little first, instead of just quick-clicking through everything. Very nice indeed.... More
Also posted under graphic design, United Kingdom.
Addis Creson
Addis Creson is a unique branding agencyin a category where such firms always strive for a unique characterwho select with clients with a genuine desire to disrupt their category with breakthrough, original thinking. And they have created such "positive changes" for a number of large clients, just as they also graciously make efforts to do pro-bono work with companies making positive social contributions. Truly, and literally, a nice branding agency.... More
Tank Design
Is there anything this small studio-style firm cannot do? Tank is an interdisciplinary design group that integrates strategy, design and technology to create memorable and meaningful branding and communications programs. From annual reports to print ads, packaging and web sites, Tank bristles with accomplishments in a wide swath of projects for a number of respected clients.... More
Guerrini Design Island
Guerrini Design Island is a studio specialised in the design of institutional and corporate brand identity. That means they work on projects such as visual identity of the State of Argentina, but also on socially conscious ecological posters for non-governmental organisms such as United Nations, UNICEF, UNIFEM, UNESCO, OPS, Amnesty International, and CLACSO. Additionally, Guerrini has completed branding for companies in over a dozen countries. We love their clean and simple design style.... More
Also posted under international firms, Argentina, Spain.
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Quality Advantage
Full Circle Visuals is the brainchild of Ryan Jackson, a pioneer of 360 degree video and the most awarded multimedia photojournalist in Canada.
After innovating 360 degree video for more than five years, Jackson founded Full Circle Visuals Inc. in 2016 to pursue visual storytelling in new formats including VR and dome projection. He soon hired co-founder Sam Brooks who brings a mechanical engineering background to the team as well as several years of working with media organizations and a focus on blending technology and storytelling.
We love a challenge! Contact us.
Founder, President, Creative Director
There are few individuals in Canada with experience in 360 degree video comparable to Ryan Jackson. In 2011, at world record breaking dodgeball game, Jackson developed his own 360 camera rig to create an immersive visual experience that captured the event like no one else could. After completing this project, he posted the first beginning-to-end online tutorial on creating 360 video on his blog, cementing his reputation as a global leader in the medium. Since then, he has been committed to staying at the leading edge of 360 video technology and focusing on merging this innovative video medium with exceptional storytelling.
Jackson has worked at various publications across Canada including the Edmonton Journal, where he was senior multimedia photojournalist for nine years. His reportage from the field has brought to life stories from remote Arctic communities such as Tuktoyaktuk and Cambridge Bay, and vivid portrayals of military training while embedded with the Canadian Forces in Yellowknife.
Always keen to share his knowledge, Jackson has spoken at more than a dozen conferences and taught multimedia to the next generation of aspiring journalists at MacEwan University.
A jack of all trades, Jackson has MacGyvered several award-winning multimedia projects over the years, including numerous 360-degree videos, interactive games for tablets and a virtual reality conversation with candidates during an election campaign.
He has been honoured with 28 national and international awards over the past decade for his photojournalism and interactive multimedia projects.
Sam Brooks
Co-founder, Production Engineer
Sam Brooks is a mechanical engineer turned journalist turned business owner with extensive experience in both the nonprofit and local business environments. He can build anything.
Prior to Full Circle Visuals, Brooks worked for Postmedia on community focused projects in four cities across the country where he used journalism as a means to connect people that were passionate about local business, great food, fashion and a variety of other topics. Before that, he was president of Canadian University Press, a national organization of Campus media.
Brooks’ passion for visual media spawned while studying engineering at the University of Alberta. He quickly discovered that he’d rather spend his extra time working for The Gateway, the U of A campus newspaper, than working out frustrating differential equations and was routinely one of the most dedicated photographers during his tenure.
When he’s not working, you can usually find him camping, skiing or cheering on the Edmonton Eskimos.
WHO WE LOVE WORKING WITH
Adam Kidd
Director & Editor
Adam Kidd is a Gemini award winning editor with 14 years experience in broadcast, documentary and film editing. He is now tuning his video editing and technical resources to turnaround polished 8K 360-video on demand with high quality binaural audio.
Kidd’s mind can boil hundreds of hours of footage down to essential moments of storytelling. He is obsessed with using sound to engage the audience. More info at limboediting.com
Full Circle Visuals is a Google Trusted agency.
Copyright © 2016 – 2019 Full Circle Visuals Inc.
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Early SF
The Farmer with the Golden Plow: John Meirs Horner (1821-1912)
by Mae Silver, from the chapbook Rancho San Miguel
John Meirs Horner, early Mormon farmer of the Rancho San Miguel
In 1852, John Meirs Horner purchased land from Rancho San Miguel and began farming in the region. Hailing from New Jersey, Horner was inspired by his Mormon faith, which he joined during his teenage years. Horner started his farm in California by sowing wheat. Despite a penniless first year, he eventually succeeded due to quality crops and hard work. With his earnings, he purchased the steamer Union to carry produce to market. However, two financially crippling events—Horner’s lockjaw, and the Panic of 1857—caused the family to sell their farms and move to a sugar farm in Hawaii. There, he prospered, leaving a legacy as one of San Francisco’s founding farmers.
The first American owners of Rancho San Miguel were from Hornerstown, New Jersey, They were John Meirs Horner, his brother William Yeats, and their families. By any measure the Horners were worthy of the glorious land they bought from Jose de Jesus Noe in 1852.
John Horner, a Mormon, was a man of astonishing energy and talent. According to his memoirs, Horner and his bride of six months were two of "235 Saints—men, women and children—and two other passengers educated gentlemen—the captain, mates, sailors, stewards and cooks, altogether 252 souls ... " on board the Brooklyn as "... a strong trade wind struck us and wafted us speedily and safely through the 'Golden Gate,' without a pilot or halting, with all sails set, until we dropped anchor in front of Yerba Buena—now San Francisco—in the bay of San Francisco. We were all well, thankful and happy." It was an exciting trip with severe storms and cliffhanging accidents that nearly destroyed the ship. What an exhilarating experience for a young couple, on their honeymoon, fresh from the farm, not accustomed to the ocean and its adventures!
In John Horner's words, "It was fine weather when we doubled Cape Horn. The women were making bread, pies, cakes, frying doughnuts, etc., and the children were playing and romping about the deck.
"We were too far south to see the cape when we passed around it, in fact, we saw no land after leaving New York until we sighted the island of Juan Fernandez, where we stopped a few days replenishing our wood and water, catching, eating and salting fish. While coming up the coast of South America, a hint was given that the captain did not know where he was. The captain, hearing of this, immediately pointed his ship toward the mainland and stated: 'If I am right, I will show you the highest points of the Andes, if this wind keeps up.' Sure enough, we soon saw a small, black cloud arising out of the eastern horizon, which rapidly increased in height and length, and which, to us landsmen, looked like a thunder cloud. By gazing through strong glasses, we saw the captain was right. He then pointed his ship for the Hawaiian Islands." A month later, the Brooklyn anchored in Yerba Buena in July 1846, and deposited the first of several waves of Mormons coming west to colonize.
The Horners had come from Monmouth County, New Jersey, an area well known for its orchards, fields, and mills. From 1830 to 1850 it was also a place of concentrated activity by the Mormons, as they recruited converts to colonize the Frontier. Hornerstown, New Egypt, Toms River, and Forked River were particular favorites of Joseph Smith, Brigham Young, Benjamin Winchester, and Sam Brannan. In 1844 Brannan preached in Toms River looking for passengers for the ship Brooklyn he was chartering. The story goes that the Prophet Joseph Smith held people in New Egypt spellbound with his oratory under the Buttonwood tree on the Crosswick Creek in 1840. That tree still stands at 40 Main Street in downtown New Egypt.
It was during his late teenage years, John Horner explained, that he joined the faith. "I had been wrought up over the subject of religion. The Methodists were the most persistent in my neighborhood, and my preference was for them. In these days came ministers of a new sect, calling themselves Latter-day Saints, with a new revelation preaching the gospel of the New Testament, with its gifts and blessings. It attracted much attention; people listened, and some obeyed, thereby enjoying the promised blessings. Members of the Methodist, Baptist, and Presbyterian faith, as well as non-professors, began to join them. Among the latter class were my father, mother and sisters. I was the first of the family to obey, being baptized by Erastus Snow, in the Layawa Creek, on the second day of August, 1840. In the spring of 1843 I went up to Nauvoo. Here I was introduced to and shook hands with the Prophet Joseph Smith."
"My Star of Hope Arose Early"
Horner's enthusiasm for life was his guiding light. He wrote, "My star of hope arose early, promising me many things, as well as time to acquire them. I was without money, and had only small business experience. I had good health, however, and was industrious and ambitious. These qualifications impelled me to strive to be the best work-man on the farm, to run faster, and jump further, than anyone else; to be the best ball player, and to always strive to be at the head of any classes at school. I did not always succeed, but was awarded a premium by my teacher, for 'trying harder to learn than any other scholar in school.'
"In the summer of 1845, I was boarding with my father, and teaching a district school. In his corn field were sharp corners and crooks in his fence, leaving a few square feet of land, here and there, which he could not cultivate with his teams. He consented that myself and brother might dig it up and plant potatoes in it for ourselves, which work we did mornings and evenings, so as not to interfere with our daily duties. We did not anticipate much of an income from what we were then doing; but it was exercise, and a good lesson for us ... we raised some potatoes ... and buried them to protect them from the winter's frost.... They were yet under the frozen ground in January 1846, when I was ready to start for California. I sold my share for five dollars. When I got to New York, I added two dollars to the five and bought a Colts six-shooter pistol. I was told, 'You are going to a country occupied by savage beasts, and still more savage men, so you must go armed to protect yourself.'
"When I arrived in California, it was in the throes of a revolution. A war was raging between the United States and Mexico. I carried my rifle and pistol wherever I went prospecting, but seeing no one whom I wanted to shoot and no one who wished to shoot me, I concluded my pistol was useless and traded it to a Spaniard for a yoke of oxen, the first animals I ever owned; with them I plowed for my first crop of vegetables in California.
"So, after about thirty days, Brother James Light and I, with our families, left to fill a contract made with Dr. John Marsh, to put in a field of wheat on shares, on his farm, which was situated on the lower San Joaquin. We put in forty acres. It grew well; the land was good, while the rains were early and abundant that year.
"After the wheat was sown and there being nothing more to be done at the doctor's, in March 1847, I moved over to the Mission de San Jose, where I found farming prospects more favorable. At the Mission, in March, I plowed and sowed wheat, barley, peas, and potatoes, and made a garden, planted with different kinds of truck. All of this sowing and planting were of no avail, as the plants were destroyed by grasshoppers ...
"The wheat at the doctor's was harvested and stored in his granary, but when our share was called for, the doctor gravely informed us: 'You have no wheat here, your share was destroyed by elk, antelope, and other wild animals; my share alone was harvested.' So we got nothing for our labor. Thus ended my first year's farming in California."
This exchange between Horner and Marsh was the sort that did not endear Dr. Marsh to many people. He was, at best, predictably unpredictable as far as hospitality and kindness were concerned.
Horner summed up his first years farming in California. "The first remuneration from my first three years of farming venture in California, was two dollars, paid me for watermelons, in September of this year. Fortunately, October and November brought to California a large number of gold hunters, coming both by sea and land; the appetites of these people seemed to crave nothing so much as vegetables, since some of them had, and others were rapidly contracting, the scurvy. They ate raw onions, or potatoes, with apparently as great relish as if these were nicely flavored apples. As I was the only farmer in the territory for sale, I was much sought after by customers from all sides; two wagons came several times from the mines, two hundred miles distant, and bought loads of vegetables at fair prices.
"This crop was worth about eight thousand dollars; but unfortunately an early rain sent a flood of water over my field from a brook near by, and continued so long that one-half of my potatoes were destroyed, before I could secure them, help being so scarce. However, what I did gather was a partial compensation for my long struggle; besides, my success was gratifying, and I put that also down in my ledger as a further credit. Thus ended my farming venture of 1849.
"In the beginning of January, 1850, my brother William came to me by the way of Panama, consuming six months time on the journey. … He escaped the cholera on the Isthmus; his shipmates died by the dozens. He escaped starvation and perhaps a violent death. …
"My brother had also been bred on the farm, was young, (about twenty-one) ambitious and very industrious. I received filter as a partner in my business. We worked and flourished together during the next four years, perhaps as no other farmers ever flourished before in the United States, in so short a time. …
Fortune Knocks on Our Door
"We looked upon this time and opportunity as [fortune] … knocking at our door; she found us home. We opened the door and bade her welcome, thankfully accepting her offer.
"Our gross sales this year approximated one hundred and fifty thousand dollars. … We established a commission house in San Francisco, under the firm name of J. M. Horner and Co., to sell our own and others' produce. Thus ended our farming venture of 1850. This year we purchased one hundred acres of land at the landing, on the Alameda River, and laid out the town of Union City upon it. We made extensive preparations for increasing our business in 1851. We bought some excellent farming land near Union City, fenced, built upon, and farmed it, in addition to improved our home farm, which was ten miles away. …
"We secured by purchase the steamer Union to carry our produce to market. This year our gross sales amount to two hundred and seventy thousand dollars."
Horner bought the steamer Union in New Jersey, had it crated in pieces and shipped around the Horn. Some say Union City, California, was named for the Union. The Horners were the initial founders of Union City, California. Clearly, there was a New Jersey connection to Union City, California. Not only was Horner's farming lucrative but it was quality stuff. When San Francisco held its first agricultural fair in 1852, Horner received the highest praise for his produce and won a silver goblet, the largest premium offered to anyone entering the fair.
"I sent my brother back to New Jersey on business, and he brought back with him my father and mother and all their children and grandchildren, two of my wife's sisters, and a brother, and some other young people, some twenty-two souls. He arrived home safely in the fall, and in time to take the place he had left in the firm of J. M. Horner and Co., to sell our large crop now ready for market. We continued our energetic and prosperous career, buying more lands, and farming them ourselves, or letting them to—our potato crop reached the enormous quantity of twenty-two million pounds in 1853. We had also in that year fifteen hundred acres of wheat and barley, besides cabbages, tomatoes and onions in quantities. California had not only supplied herself with vegetables this (1853) year, for the first time, but she produced a large surplus which could not be sold, and was never sent to market.
"Flour mills not being sufficient in California at this time, we built one at Union City … at a cost of eighty-five thousand dollars, and ground our grain and that of others.
"We equipped and ran a stage line in connection with our steamer, as far up the valley as San Jose, twenty-five miles. Thus completing a through passenger line from San Francisco to San Jose. We opened sixteen miles of public roads, mostly through our own land, and fenced part on both sides."
In 1851-52 the Horners bought Rancho San Miguel and paid for it two hundred thousand dollars.
"We spent considerable money on this land in surveys, fencing and improvements. Some six hundred acres adjoining the city, as it then existed, we laid out in lots, blocks and streets, and made them conform to those already laid out by the city.
"We named the streets, which names are still retained, and the property is assessed as situated in 'Horners Addition.'" In 1853 John Horner ordered 300 grafted fruit trees from New Jersey, had them packed in moss and charcoal, carried on mule back across the Isthmus of Panama, then shipped to San Francisco. Where he planted them is a question. One can do a little speculation. Since, by this time, he had bought Rancho San Miguel, it is conceivable the trees came from around the New Egypt and Hornerstown areas well known for their lush orchards and fields. Probably the fruit trees planted in Horner's Addition, the geographical heart of San Francisco, came from land in Monmouth County, the geographical heart of New Jersey.
By this time, John Horner was on shaky legs, financially. The Panic of 1857, which some described hitting San Francisco slightly, leveled John Horner. He said, "The first wave of money panic struck California, and swept over America with such disastrous results from 1853 to 1859. It is said that during two months in 1857 in New York, discounts at the bank fell off $4,000,000, deposits $40,000,000, interest went up to 36 per cent per annum, and six thousand failures, involving an indebtedness of $300,000,000. Yet how small is this large sum, when compared to the direct and indirect loss endured by the whole people during these years of panic. The breaking up of business, the depreciation of property, the enforced idleness of labor and machinery and the check to enterprise, all combined to make up a loss impossible to compute; besides the above, the heartache and mental anguish arising from the loss of business and property. Men of families, wealth and enterprise driven from their homes and reduced to poverty, and in consequence on the Pacific Coast, self destruction was resorted too, to end their misery; some poisoned themselves, some shot themselves, some went crazy, etc."
With the Panic of 1857, the Horners lost everything, including Rancho San Miguel. Horner recalled, "I was an active participant, I may say an acute sufferer in those scenes.
"We for the first time commenced mortgaging our property and at this time money was not to be borrowed in San Francisco on our San Francisco real estate. We did however succeed in mortgaging it to C. K. Garrison for $50,000, interest 4% per month, compounded monthly and payable in advance. He drew on New York, we received the money there.
"This $50,000 was about one-sixth of the amount we had paid for the property (Rancho San Miguel) and the improvements, but it was enough, as it swept away the entire property. Thus slipped from us $250,000. Our $18,000 steamer went for $7,000 to pay an endorsement creditor. In parting with our $85,000 flouring mill we did a little better, but the panic continued so long and was so heavy upon property the purchaser sold it for $5,000, this property had been depreciated $80,000 by the panic. The San Jose Mission lands that had cost us $70,000 including improvements went from us for an endorsement debt of $10,000. However the squatters had done as much to render this property of little value as the panic."
It was not surprising that John Horner came down with a case of lockjaw that nearly killed him. At the same time, the Horners' only daughter died. There were times, languishing with fever in bed, John Horner thought he would not ever recover. However, his "star was still shining." He regained his strength. Once he was up and well, he was the same enthusiastic John Horner. He built a bridge over the Alameda River and made three hundred dollars from that. He farmed various pieces of land offered to him and made a profit. Using the Alameda River mill, the Horners rented the use of the water, planted potatoes and realized seven thousand dollars from that crop. Horner's oldest son, cultivating sugar on the Island of Hawaii, knew Claus Spreckels was about to open a large sugar plantation. He advised his father to inquire about contracting to do the planting for him. On reflection, Horner probably saw little reason to stay in California. He had been financially stung, and still smarted from the pain. Horner contracted the sugar farm for Claus Spreckels in Hawaii.
That was the final turning point for the Horner family. "We sold our farms, chartered a schooner, and placed therein our families—eighteen souls—our household effects, horses and farming tools, and started for the islands."
The rest of John Horner's story: Again, Horner became a very wealthy planter, only this time there was less adversity to dim his fortune. As in the early days when he served as an Alameda County Supervisor, Horner became a Noble serving for a six-year term with the legislature of Hawaii. The Honorable John Meirs Horner, a farm boy from Monmouth County, New Jersey, and finally of Hamakua, Hawaii, was 91 years old when he died.
Continue Food Tour
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Boy with autism and uncle reported missing
FaceApp terms of agreement give access to photos for any reason
Police believe one of man's two sons stabbed him to death
Dr. Jim Siebert | FOX 26 Chief Meteorologist
Posted Aug 25 2015 04:19PM CDT
Updated Jun 27 2019 11:21AM CDT
Dr. Jim Siebert is the chief meteorologist and can be seen on FOX 26 News at 5 p.m. and 9 p.m.
Dr. Jim holds degrees in meteorology/earth science from Baylor University in Waco, communications from Brigham Young University and science education from the University of New Mexico. He teaches both meteorology and geography at the university level.
Jim also has published research and presented the findings of his work at national conferences. One area of focus for Jim's research has been in the implementation of new graphics technologies for broadcast meteorology.
Jim began his broadcasting career in Texas working for television stations in Corpus Christi and Waco. Jim also worked at stations in New Mexico and Nevada where he won awards for being the best weathercaster by the Associated Press and Electronic Media Awards.
More recently he was the director of meteorological operations for a weather consulting company in Houston. Jim is currently producing a series of children's books that teach meteorological concepts through stories and put children as the main characters in the plot.
Dr. Jim holds the AMS Certified Broadcast Meteorologist (CBM) seal and his HAM radio license, which he uses when storm chasing. Jim and his wife, Debra, have four children. Jim's hobbies include most outdoor activities, going on dates with his wife, and playing with his children who have boundless energy!
E-mail Dr. Jim
Follow Dr. Jim on Twitter
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More Personalities Stories
Denise Middleton | Anchor
Updated Apr 22 2019 06:08PM CDT
Denise Middleton is a hometown girl, born and raised in southwest Houston. She is excited to join the FOX 26 News team as the weekend morning anchor and reporter.
Denise is a member of the National Association of Black Journalists. In her spare time, she enjoys volunteering, mentoring, watching movies, cheering on the UH Cougars at all of their sporting events and spending time with her husband and children. She’s thrilled to be back home and looks forward to spending time in the local communities and sharing the stories that matter most. If you have a story idea to share, she’d love to hear from you. Send her an email at denise.middleton@foxtv.com !
Stephen Morgan | Meteorologist
Updated Mar 19 2019 01:05PM CDT
Stephen Morgan joined the FOX 26 News team in July 2017 as a reporter and was promoted to weekend morning weather anchor in March 2019. He will continue to report on various station newscasts.
“Stephen’s demonstrated passion for weather was evident from the moment he hit the streets here in Houston as a lead reporter on our coverage of Hurricane Harvey," said FOX 26 Vice President & News Director Susan Schiller. "His formal education as a meteorologist combined with his storytelling skills will keep Houstonians in the know on the day’s weather forecast but, also, on the environmental and climate issues that impact our viewers.”
Morgan has served as a general assignment reporter and fill-in meteorologist for FOX 26. He began his career in broadcast journalism in 2013 as an anchor and reporter at KRBK in Springfield, Missouri, where he also filled in as a meteorologist.
Jonathan Martin | FOX 26 News Anchor
Jonathan Martin is the co-anchor of FOX 26 News at 5 p.m. and 9 p.m. with Kaitlin Monte.
Since joining the FOX 26 News team in May 2016, Jonathan has covered some of Houston's biggest events. He anchored more than twenty hours of coverage as Hurricane Harvey ravaged the Texas coast.
He also helped lead the station's coverage of the Astros World Series win and the funeral for former President George H.W. Bush.
Houston restaurant 'OMG Seafood' let's kids under 12 dine free on Thursdays
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Fellows in Action
Humanity in Action the Netherlands
Thursday, June 26 – Sunday, June 29
Introducing the Speakers
The Speakers
Scattered chairs and order out of chaos
June 21, 2017 Blog 2016HIA
Daniel McElroy
It always amazes me that theatre can so consistently draw people into its arms, embrace them, and then be changed based on the encounter. And it’s not picky—theatre is always ready to be just a little bit better because of the people who make it so, regardless of their experience level.
This week, six of us have be working together to create a play of sorts, to be performed next Tuesday in front of HIA Fellows, staff, and invited guests at CREA, a beautiful performing arts center that’s part of the University of Amsterdam. The experience has been particularly special for me as I’ve seen my group members, who all have varying levels of previous engagement with theatre, create something poignant and collaborative. As someone who makes theatre whenever and wherever I can, I’m used to this sort of creative space and the modes of thinking that get us there, but the magical qualities of the theatre have been revealed to me anew this week as I see them through the eyes of my fellow players: suddenly, I’m reminded not to take for granted that this art form is so democratic. More often than in maybe any other medium, people who make theatre call the end result “our play.” It’s something we made together, and something that couldn’t have existed without all of us.
So what does happen when you put a group of people with vastly different levels of theatre experience in a room and ask them to make a play in one week? Absolute magic.
After a couple crucial workshops with David Limaverde, a Theatre of the Oppressed practitioner based in Amsterdam, our group felt ready to take on the world. We came out of David’s exercises with a newfound faith in one another, and we were prepared to listen and to build upon one another’s ideas to create one cohesive vision. In fact, I’d say my own knowledge about “what we do in theatre” has been challenged in the best way by my group-mates, who have at moments trusted me and at others questioned my assumptions, which is all for the better because their own input at these moments has been spot on.
I’m struck by the juxtaposition of all that has happened during our program this week—high tensions and an explosion of honesty—and the vulnerability that the six of us working on this play have shared. It seems that the broader environment this week, which has seen fellows organizing and attempting to put their own ideas about the program itself into action, has carried into our creative space in a really special way. From my perspective it seems that we, too, have felt the urgency of making this entire HIA experience “worth it,” but working so intimately on a project that is deeply personal for each of us and simultaneously “ours” seems to have had this effect on a smaller scale.
As we’ve tried to bring order from the chaos of the world and of this HIA cohort, perhaps our work has unconsciously been influenced by those surroundings. When you enter the theatre next week, you can expect to find chairs scattered about the room—this is not going to be the theatre experience you may have been expecting. Think of this as the chaos you’ve felt over the past few weeks. But also, let this chaos settle as you focus on the stories of five women who all have something vital to share, and then work with us as we try to climb out of the chaos together. If you give yourself over to that creative process as much as we have this past week, I hope you will find that there is more than one way to make sense of it all and to feel like you’ve obtained something from this whole experience.
Let the theatre embrace you; it and you will be better for it.
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Theatre as a place of learning
Humanity in Action 2017 Fellowship Program is coming to an end and the whole group is becoming aware of it. We are at end of our journey, currently working on our ideas that we will translate into real projects. I chose to be part of the theater group and I am so happy to have the opportunity to cooperate with such fantastic people.
“The stage is a magic circle where only the most real things happen, a neutral territory outside the jurisdiction of Fate where stars may be crossed with impunity. A truer and more real place does not exist in all the universe.” P.S. Baber, Cassie Draws the Universe
It was so interesting to see all the group members that enjoy so much in their work, while preparing for the final presentation that will take place in a couple of days.
Darija Sesar
Complicating Revolution
Today, HIA-Netherlands 2017 fellows started a revolution.
It was not a surprise revolution; in fact, tension had been building for days among fellows about the structure of the HIA program. Today, that tension snapped. At a moment’s notice, we gathered the program leaders in a room and voiced our discontents loudly and without reservation. It was a moment of honesty, and at the same time, a moment of hurt. It was a moment whose intentions I supported, but whose methods I questioned.
In this post, I want to discuss the different methods that we use to achieve change. I hope to raise the question: when is there space for revolutions? And when are other methods – less violent, but equally radical in form – more effective?
As shown by history, there are numerous upsides to revolution. It startles our opponents. Often, they realize the gravity and immediacy of the issue at hand. And, if successful, they are shocked into quick and bold change.
At the same time, revolution is divisive. In order for a revolution to be successful, it requires an “us” and “them.” Often, “they” are inaccurately grouped in order to mark a clean divide between the revolutionaries and the opponents. As a result, many who might have been on “our” side are alienated.
Given the high risk/high reward nature of revolutions, we need to choose carefully when we choose to revolt, and when we choose a different route of achieving change.
In my mind, three conditions deem a revolution inappropriate. If 1) people are working toward a common goal, 2) people have positive intentions (this does not mean they won’t make mistakes) and 3) people are willing to listen to minority voices and respond with change, then a revolution is not only impractical – it is counterproductive.
On the other hand, if any one of these conditions is not met, revolution is both appropriate and necessary.
Today, HIA fellows revolted against people who were working toward the same goal of human rights, people who made mistakes but had positive intentions, and people who had articulated that they were willing to listen to feedback. Our revolution was loud and memorable – yet it hurt and alienated people who were on our side in the fight for human rights.
Today, while we revolted against a human rights curriculum we didn’t like, three mass shootings happened in my country. Today, while we vocalized our discontents with the setup of an elite program, more undocumented people were shoved to the margins of society. Today, while we ranted, injustice festered.
So let’s get smart about whom we choose to fight. Let’s build coalitions across differences to fight the good fight, instead of getting caught up in disagreements that are, quite frankly, privileged compared to the challenges of the real world. When we butt heads with those who share a common goal, instead of revolting, let’s be patient, honest, and bold with our words. Patience and boldness – if used correctly – can be just as radical as revolution.
And if we do decide to revolt against a curriculum, that’s fine. Let’s not kid ourselves, though – that’s not activism, it’s privileged scholarly debate.
But if we did, in fact, come here to act – well, there’s a lot of work to be done.
So let’s start a revolution against structural racism, and the institutions that sustain it. Let’s start a revolution against pinkwashing. Let’s start a revolution against transphobia and anti-Semitism and ableism and all the hateful ideas that pervade society. Let’s start a revolution for what matters.
Put your lessons into action!
“Resistance does not start with big words but with small deeds”
(Remco Campert, Dutch writer)
In the past weeks, we have had the privilege to submerge ourselves in the latest academic debates on minority rights and social activism in the Netherlands. We read together, debated together, and grew together – individually, and as a group. Through the concept of intersectionality, we learned how to approach social issues in more productive ways by approaching humans as intersections between various identities. Through Amok(!), we learned to seize opportunities. And through microrevolutions, we learned to see the potential of cheeky everyday resistance against those in power.
But what good is learning if you do not put your lessons into action? Today marked a new stage in our fellowship. We met with four inspirational persons who all, in one way or another, translate complex social issues to an empathic language that speaks to people. Anouk Eigenraam taught us to write journalistic articles that leave enough room for readers to respectfully disagree with the contents while still understanding the logic behind the article. David Limaverde showed us how theatre techniques can be used to give a voice to those in society who usually do not speak out. Through his Theatre of the Oppressed, David promotes social change by offering his audience new imaginaries to engage with. Kim van Haaster showed us how documentaries can serve as a source of pride and inspiration for social groups that exist at the margins of society. Sometimes you need a lens to find the particularities of everyday life. And finally, Ilana Cukier provided us with ten key lessons about strategic campaigning for social change: the most important one being that we should embrace the power of the movements that we are building. Although different in medium and style, these four activists all stress the importance of promoting a vision of future possibilities that people can relate to. In a way, these persons all find ways to bring humanity in action.
It is now up to us to translate our recent insights, combined with our existing social engagement, into a series of actions: articles, plays, documentaries, and campaigns! In the upcoming days, we will focus our attention on finding new and creative ways to connect to people and strengthen the position of minority rights in everyday life. We have had all the big words that we need, and now it is time to shift our attention to small deeds. Because that is how resistance starts.
P.S. There were birthdays, we had cake, it was the best.
On Friday, June 9th, we had the honor of welcoming Narku Lorenz Laing, a HIA Senior Fellow (Berlin, 2014), member of the board of Directors of HIA Germany and freelance trainer. He gave us a workshop on ‘strategies to counter everyday racism and discrimination.’
He started by introducing himself with the help of identity markers, that we ourselves would later also use. With dual bachelor and dual master degrees and a PhD in the near foresight, one of Narku’s identity markers was obviously that he is a scholar. He expressed that his ethnicity, political engagement, HIA involvement and citizenships also formed large parts of his identity. After this short introduction, he asked three volunteers to be in charge of big sheets on which we would write our expectations for the day, the topics we would like to discuss and the potential conflicts we would be facing.
The first exercise was an awareness exercise. We were shown a video of two basketball teams and were asked to count the number of passes the white team made. While the majority of us was right in answering 13 passes, not one of us had seen the moonwalking bear that appeared in the middle of the video. As we were too focused on the question or the thing we were supposed to be looking for, we failed to see or notice anything else.
Most interestingly, Narku told us that this exercise almost always fails with 7/8th graders, as they don’t yet listen to authority and not always follow the given instructions of what to look for.
Subsequently, we did an identity exercise in which each of us had to write down 3-5 identity markers that made us “us,” such as racial ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, hobbies, familial or friend roles, etc. After each of us had written them down, we formed a circle and each put our identity markers down in the middle, either shortly describing/explaining the card or just reading them out loud and putting them down. After each of us had done so, Narku explained certain patterns he sees in every workshop he gives, such as that people with a racial minority often write down their religion and that Caucasian people are less likely to use one of their 5 markers to write down their ethnicity. With all the identity markers in the middle, Narku asked us to pick one, turn to the person next to us and tell them a positive story we’ve had with this part of our identity. It was nice to do so in smaller groups, as people felt more open to share their personal stories one-on-one. After sharing these positive stories, Narku asked us to recall a negative story with the same identity marker, concluding that every identity marker is double sided.
Then we got back into a circle and step forward with a feeling we had. All people that resonated with what the person stepping forward had said, would also take a step toward the middle. Things like “I’m tired of being the positive example,” “I wish I had a better relationship with my father,” “I always take more care of people around me than of myself,” “I have difficulties opening up,” and “I feel like I have to overcompensate because of the color of my skin” came up.
After lunch we did an anti-bias exercise: the “Ice Berg of Diversity” exercise. Narku drew an iceberg on the board in which the visibility of identity markers was underlined. This exercise functioned to show us which identity markers (such as race, gender, class, etc.) are visible “above water,” which ones float right below surface, and which ones are deep below water level.
Narku discussed theory with us, explaining the differences between diversity, group-focused enmity, and inclusion, and social justice, empowerment and representation & democratization. After this quick theory class, we put it in practice by forming two circles, an inner circle and an outer circle, in which we practiced reacting to discriminatory situations with the person standing opposite you. By way of illustration, situations included a woman with a headscarf being singled out by the police, a woman being interrupted continuously by a man at the dinner table, and a person within the family making racist remarks.
Between the different exercises, Narku showed us several videos. One of them was “Where Are You From?” The video displays a white middle aged male and an American-born woman of Korean descent in a park. The white male asks the woman where she is from. The woman answers “San Diego.” “No, but where are you really from?”, the man asks. “San Diego.” After a short interaction, she tells him her grandparents were from Korea, to which he reacts: “O my god, I love Korean food” and most inappropriately imitates a number of culturally Korean-won phenomena. As a micro-revolution she reacts by asking him: “Where are YOU from?” “Oh I’m just from the United States. San Francisco.” “No,” she asks, where are you REALLY from? “United States, born and raised.” Finally, he tells her that his grandparents were originally from England, to which she responds the exact same way he did, imitating all these inherent British things, in a slightly overdramatic way. He doesn’t get it and just says “you’re weird” and runs away.
The last exercise before reflecting was a conversational, discussion exercise. All chairs were placed in a circle with three chairs in the middle. If you wanted to participate in the conversation and say something, you had to sit in one of the chairs standing in the middle. First we discussed safe space. Then the questions “Can we ever have an honest discussion about race?” and “How limited is empathy?” were asked. We closed off by discussing anti-discrimination and identity politics.
After a in-depth reflection, we moved outside for Louis’ great fellow talk that was about belief and religion. He told us how he regained his belief in G*d after fearing to have lost it for a bit. Obviously a difficult subject to tackle/crack in 30 minutes, we had a lot to discuss even after the talk had ended. Aletta’s talk on criminalizing dissent addressed one of the largest challenges posed to parliamentary democracy, the treatment of subaltern voices and the limits of free political expression. She stressed the fact that our process of criminalization was not neutral but rather a product of intersecting social, political and legal context which results in the once demonized queer population of Greenwich village in the late 1960’s now being hailed as the modern day champions of the LGBTQIA+ community all across the world.
Entry by Tamar Guttmann.
The beginning of a beautiful friendship
By Sophia Blijden
Thursday, 8th of June 2017
I’ve been asking myself why I’m still here. The last couple of days have been a rollercoaster of emotions. There are moments when I feel so inspired by the speakers; like today when Niels Schuddeboom gave us a glimpse into his live. It makes me want to do good things and change the world. Other days I am in a downwards spiral. What’s the meaning of what we’re doing? Can we really change the world or are we just fooling ourselves? All these intense emotions are constantly lingering, waiting for a way to pop out either as teardrops or laughter.
I do know why I am still here though. Because as inspiring talks from Niels Schuddeboom about ableism and Halleh Ghorashi about integration, power dynamics and exclusion have been, the topics that stick with me the most are fellow talks and the conversations ‘outside’ of the program.
Today we had four fellow talks. First Kyra made us think very critical about the line between perpetrator and victim in war crimes. What makes us do certain deeds? Our academic thoughts were put into action by Nikki, who showed us a ‘media bubble’ workshop she does with high school kids. It was nice to feel eighteen again for a short period of time. Ilia shared her story about minorities in Greece and made us rethink the concept of democracy. Finally Jalyn wrapped up the fellow talks by raising awareness for the power of language; how we should be aware of the meaning behind words we say all the time and how they can effect minorities.
I am surrounded by so many intelligent, beautiful people. I can’t wait to begin working on our own projects together, for I want to learn even more from the experiences and thoughts of my peers. But most of all, I am so curious to see where all of us are a year from now. Will we have achieved some of our goals? Will we have made the world a better place? And more importantly: will we still remember the wonderful, personal stories we shared with each other this month?
Whatever happens, I already know that in the end, these incredible speakers aren’t the most valuable to me. My fellow fellows are. That’s why I am still here: because I honestly think – to quote Casablanca – this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship (with all of you).
Humanity in Action in Rotterdam!
June 9, 2017 Blog 2016HIA
By Tahmina M. Ashraf
Wednesday, June 7th was reserved to visit another amazing Dutch city, Rotterdam.
Even though the weather and the train transportation were a bit disappointing, the fellows agreed that this day was one of the more interesting days up until now. I personally felt very content to hear this, because I was involved in organizing this day.
As an active citizen of Rotterdam, I got the chance to show the fellows what we do in Rotterdam in the field of human rights and women empowerment. Our first speaker was Jamila Talla, the initiator of the foundation Voice of Afghan Women (Hereinafter: VoAW). Jamila has fled the war in Afghanistan and lives in the Netherlands since 1999. Her own struggle and the struggle of many other refugee women triggered her to initiate VoAW. Jamila felt namely that these women need an address, a voice.
VoAW worked since 2010 in the field of women’s rights and delegated this responsibility in 2016 to the youth, because they are the future and they need to take their responsibility of tackling social issues. Voices foundation is therefore established in 2016, with the aim to delegate the responsibility of tackling social issues to the younger generation.
During the workshop, the ladies of VoAW and Voices had an interesting dialogue about integration in societies. The ladies from Rotterdam mentioned their interpretation of the concept of integration and they explained what the challenges are in Rotterdam. It was also interesting to hear that the fellows from USA recognized the integration issues as being almost parallel to the issues in the USA.
Then, after this workshop, we went to meet another social initiative. We met the director of the café “Heilige Boontjes” or holy beans. It was just amazing to see how young delinquents were trained to become great baristas. This café is set up to re-integrate mainly “ex-criminals” into the society by means of economic empowerment. The participants get a job, different soft and hard skill trainings, and personal coaching.
To conclude, I personally think that this day was a very refreshing day, because we showed the fellows what “humanity in action” can look like in practice. I hope that they got inspired. At least, I did!
A Day In Photos
Deniece brought to the floor in her fellow talk the topic of “colorism”. People of color tend to mimic white people who set such standards to get their acceptance.
Damir captured our attention when he gave a lecture on The sustainable Development Goals (SDG) in regards to human rights. Lets not forget that the goals are closely aligned with human rights standards most targets explicitly reflects to the contents of corresponding to human needs like accessibility, quality education, and healthcare to mention but a few.
Sinan Cankaya introduced us to “micro revolution” and how to respond to small aggressions or racism.
We headed to the East of Amsterdam at vereninging Ons Suriname where we met a Senior Fellow Mitchell Esajas who runs the Black Archives. Surprisingly we saw a book that was signed by Langston Huges.
It couldn’t have been any better when we closed the summed up the day by watching the filming of “I am not your Negro”
What’s your identity? : A question that has no single answer
Ilia Chalimourda
Tuesday, 6th June 2017
“What intellectually challenging discussions are going to be engendered this day?” I thought, after waking up in the morning. It was raining heavily and I felt as if the rain had a meaning, an essence of its own. I was wondering if it was a foreshadowing for the wave of thoughts, feelings and emotions that were about to overwhelm us this day. While walking towards my destination I was contemplating about the various issues that we were going to address: Bosnia Herzegovina, LGBTQIA and Homonationalism.
The program started at 9.00 with Cihan Tekeli’s workshop about a methodology based on the roots of Deep Democracy. Cihan managed to introduce us to a way to cope with disagreement, identifying the undercurrents of each conversation and taking into account how the whole group is influenced in terms of the conscious and the subconscious. His theory of dealing with disagreement consists of three initial stages: active listening, summarizing and questioning.
The most challenging part was when we had to put this theory into practice. Cihan asked us to write down a personal narrative, a personal moment of injustice, that had an emotional impact on us, regardless of whether we had managed to respond to the interlocutor or not. We later did a role play based on our personal stories. For me this was emotionally harsh because I had to relive an incident that had traumatized me but it was also a personal moment of resolution and reconciliation with the past, instead of denial and avoidance. I realized the significance of merely asking “why” when somebody tells something really unfair or offensive to you. Feelings were later involved in the exercise as well but the first three stages for me was the most crucial part so as to be able to form an understanding of the other person’s perspective.
It was almost 11. It was time to close the curtains, turn off the lights and surrender ourselves to the screening of “My Own Private War,” a documentary directed by Lidija Zelovic. It was about the war in Bosnia Herzegovina and to me it looked like the director’s effort to disentangle the thread of the past and bring people’s buried memories into the surface. The traumatic incidents that took place in the past are not restricted to an individual memory but are shared among the members of her family. It is through the process of unburying the memories that the wound can be healed, without this meaning to be forgotten.
In her documentary I sensed that Lidija really made an effort to utter the unutterable, to express the impossible. Some emotionally strong images and a few moments of silence reverberated the unspeakable reality of the war, what cannot be restricted within the boundaries of human language, what cannot be adequately imagined and perceived by anyone, for the real witnesses of the totality of the tragedies are the ones who have actually experienced the horror of the war and most importantly, those who did not manage to survive, those whose stories will never be narrated.
Her documentary was also a motivation for me to start thinking about the conceptualization of identity. “Where are you from?” “Where are you going to?” How can a country be part of your identity and define you as a human being? These are all open ended questions that we still need to reflect upon.
The sun appeared and we were all ready for the next speaker, Mounir Samuel, who was going to talk about the issue of gender as a social construct. Making critical questions to us about the traditional notions of femininity and masculinity, he managed to alert us on the fluidity of societal structures. In order to illustrate his points about the inherent instability of societal categories and demonstrate the different positions of sexuality he drew the Kinsey Scale for us.
The archetypes, that have conquered the collective unconscious, serve to reproduce all the negative stereotypes that seek to enclose women and men into specific roles that eventually reduce their heterogeneity and complexity as humans. What for me is really vital to do is to follow Adrienne Rich’s method and “dive into the wreck,” meaning that we need to descend into the ocean of reality and dive among the ruins of these myths, which have violated humans’ very uniqueness and subjectivity. Only by resisting to remain in a constant state of stasis and finally, by diving into the “ocean,” as can be seen in Rich’s poem, can people become genuine citizens within a democratic society.
First having read the book of myths,
and loaded the camera,
and checked the edge of the knife-blade,
I put on
the body-armor of black rubber
the absurd flippers
the grave and awkward mask.
I am having to do this
not like Cousteau with his
assiduous team
aboard the sun-flooded schooner
but here alone.
There is a ladder.
The ladder is always there
hanging innocently
close to the side of the schooner.
Extract from “Diving into the Wreck”
The talk about gender was an appropriate transition to our final speaker, Tugba Öztemir, who talked about the issue of homonationalism and how we construct identities. I really appreciate the fact that she shared her personal story with us and the various “micro aggressions” which she had to deal with. Tugba also described two ways of looking at cultures: the restorative and the constructive one. In the former case culture is considered to be something fixed whereas in the latter case culture is socially constructed. Our identities though are always under the process of formation and hence we should avoid dealing with identities in an essentialist manner.
With this final talk, the long day had come to an end and we all had to go. And it was raining again. But what kind of rain was it this time? Was it the rain of catharsis? I am still wondering…
Humanity in ‘Action’
On Monday, June 5th our topics of the day were ‘Refugees’ and ‘Greece’. I could give you an elaborate overview of our program that day and tell you for example that we kicked off the day by watching the documentary ‘We Are Here’ followed by a talk of human rights lawyer Jelle Klaas, who works with the Public Interest Litigation Project (PILP). However, I am not going to do this. Don’t get me wrong, it was a day full of informing and eye-opening talks (e.g. the story of Keyya Baloch from Balochistan who told us his horrific story about the ongoing war in Balochistan) with which I could easily fill this blog.
Instead, I want to focus on what I consider a critical lesson of this day. After the talk by Sanne Mylonas, ex-entrepreneur in Greece, we were invited to the Wereldhuis (“Worldhouse”), a center of information, counseling, education, and culture for undocumented migrants. We were given the chance to experience, listen, and talk to the people that Jelle Klaas introduced us to earlier that day. At the Wereldhuis, Izzy Abu Hassan Bangura shared his story about the work they are doing:
“Approximately 15.000 undocumented people live in Amsterdam; all of them have their own story. Some of them are refugees or rejected asylum seekers. The Wereldhuis is the place where they are not dependent on others for a while. They can come here for advice and counseling. Most of the activities in the Wereldhuis are developed by undocumented migrants themselves.”
After Izzy’s introduction, he showed us a video about diversity. Now, what happened afterwards is critical. Our group took over the debate and continued our heated academic discussion without taking the people who welcomed us into account, at all.
This brings us to a crucial issue that has been occurring repeatedly over the past week. We are a group of intelligent, well-educated, international (ex-) students with a strong commitment to human rights. We have been brought together by Humanity in Action because we all feel a responsibility to put our academic knowledge into practice. However, at times, this results in reproducing our privilege as scholars. The day after our meeting at the Wereldhuis Judith Goldstein, founder of HiA reminded us of what went wrong that day: we forgot about our goals as activists, we forgot about the people who inspire us. I hope, together with the rest of the group, that during this month the program will help us to find ways to put our words into action.
Nikki Niland
P.s. tomorrow, on June 8th, a social media campaign on Twitter will be launched using the hashtag #BalochMissingPersonsDay. It brings awareness to what is happening in Balochistan, check it out.
Justice: Refusing to be a Bystander of Racism & Colonialism
By Jalyn Radziminski
On Thursday, June 1st Dr. Wayne Modest, welcomed us to the Troopeen Museum with these thought provoking questions: What is Freedom? What is Empathy? What is Justice? Is it portraying history in an accurate way? Is it the rehabilitation of the oppressed populations and/or the retribution of the oppressors? In the ever changing face of neo-colonialism and racism, this is not an ‘us vs. them’ problem. It is everyone’s duty to recognize their privilege, past, and social responsibility to support those who are oppressed. After Dr. Modest’s talk, fellows explored the museum with the lens that had us question what was left said, unsaid, seen, and unseen.
The Troopeen museum focuses on the Netherlands history of colonialization. What stood out to me the most was the way the information was presented. Materialistically, items and cultural artifacts that the Dutch brought back from the colonized countries were displayed throughout the museum. There were also descriptions of how specific tools were used to measure skulls of the people who lived in colonized areas as well ways in which missionaries traveled and occupied space to learn about ‘the warlike’ peoples. The lack of the oppressed people’s voice and the dominance of the colonizer’s perspective was unsettling. The normalization of these atrocities and the unbalanced descriptions in this case definitely instilled the necessity of a concrete, wholistic approach in the ways histories of oppression are taught and presented. We cannot choose bits and pieces of our histories and current realities. There is no justice if racism and oppression remain unseen. I carried this lens with me outside of the museum’s doors. The way we remember impacts our empathy; how do we get people with privilege to see? If understood the full story of colonization and slave trade, would this time period still be called, “The Golden Age” by so many citizens of Netherland?
Later that day, Humanity in Action fellows viewed the documentary, “The Colour White”, and engaged with the director Sunny Bergman and Elvin, a Black participant in the documentary. Sunny Bergman, a white woman, wanted to create a documentary that explored whiteness, what it meant to acknowledge privilege, and colorblindness all through a lens that could be relatable to white people. Throughout the documentary, it was clear that many White Dutch citizens, similar to many White citizens in the United States, do not see White as a color, but as a standard state. Histories of racism and slave trade are often distorted in both mainstream and educational platforms, and the necessity of addressing modern issues through Black Lives Matter and speaking out against systematic to micro levels of oppression is often misunderstood. Sunny Bergman of course acknowledges the controversy behind using film as an approach of empathy and relatability to white audiences. She also acknowledges the fact that, “You can’t make money off of racism”. I do think this film highlights something critical: Whiteness needs to be seen as an identity, not as the absence of color. Whiteness is an experience that effects an individual’s abilities and opportunities as they navigate the world, and the privilege associated with that identity is at the expense of people of color. No one is “just” white, and it’s about time we stop looking at whiteness as the ‘standard’. It’s time people participate in dialogue and allyship (not earn the title of ‘ally’ but actually ENGAGE in allyship) without shutting down from the fear of being called ‘racist’. It’s time to allow oppressed individuals share their narratives and speak up for their rights to equality as humans without being labeled ‘radical’.
This dialogue was followed by our final speaker that day, Anousha Nzume, a Black artist and writer of the book, “Hello White People”. Her book unapologetically demands that “White Dutch people grow thicker skin”, and discussed the disregard of the racism behind ‘Black-Pete’ as well as the fact that many White Dutch citizens that do not see how privilege operates in present reality. She highlights how inequality can be seen in segregated universities, special ed classrooms, and the workplace as well as the way Black Dutch activists were brutally arrested for speaking out against the blackface tradition of Black Pete in the Netherlands. Nzume and Bergmen, women of different races and backgrounds, both had to face criticism by the general public when trying to address issues of colorblindness and racism in White communities through their work.
The following evening, Humanity in Action fellows met Senior Fellow, Mitchell Esajas, who for his Humanity in Action follow-on project created the Netherland’s first Black Archive at the Association of Suriname. He is also an active member of the New Urban Collective. Esajas gave us a tour of the Black Archives. Then, we joined the public screening of ‘I Am Not Your Negro’. This was followed by a panel discussion featuring three Black community leaders in the Netherlands. I was shocked by the fact that the creation of the Black archives was so recent, and how despite the differences in history, peoples of the Black diaspora in the Netherlands and the Americas share so much in common. It made me ponder, what types of coalitions can we form as an international Black community, and if it could ever be an organized possibility. Sylvana Simons, founder of the Artikel 1, responded to my question by affirming that we need to look at Black oppression through a human rights lens and become more organized.
I was also pleasantly surprised by the diversity in the crowd. In my experience leading similar dialogues and programs at my university as a woman of color, it is typically only people of color who show up. In contrast, Mitchell Esajas’ program had a large turnout of White, Dutch citizens of Amsterdam as well as Black. It made me think of the potential power of both the oppressed and the privileged refusing to be a bystanders and to constantly strive to learn and to take action against racism. How can we get more white peoples to engage in conversations of responsibility? After this program, I went out with Humanity in Action senior fellows who also attended the program in support of Esajas. After thoughtful conversations we could only conclude that White people should not allow the burden to fall on just Black peoples. It is essential that we address these issues in a joint effort.
Racism in the Netherlands
As soon as I stepped off the plane in Schiphol airport, I knew my many intersecting-visible and invisible-identities would have to be reframed in to a European context. Although Europe and the U.S. are more alike than different when it comes to “Western” values, our histories and connections to other countries are not. While in the U.S. African slaves were brought to the country to build the nation economically, the Netherlands’ colonization occurred out of the country in colonies such as Cape Town, Indonesia, and Suriname. These colonies too economically built the nation, but its distant geographic position made it easier for the Dutch to ignore the horrific violence of its exploitation. This difference, I believe, has put the two countries on different trajectories when discussing the racism that is prevalent in both nations.
Yesterday, we visited the Tropenmusuem and talked with Wayne Modest, a Professor of Material Culture and Critical Heritage Studies at Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam. Wayne discussed how the dehumanization of slavery was a two way street, a view point often not voiced when discussing the impacts of colonization. To dehumanize entire groups of people is in itself a dehumanizing act upon one’s self. To Wayne, this view point makes it imperative for folks to understand that we are all implicated in moving toward a future of justice. Afterwards, we visited the exhibits in the museum, one of which featured the Netherlands’ colonization of Indonesia. I’ve attached various photos of the items featured in the exhibit.
I have learned a lot from the Dutch fellows in my cohort about how race is traditionally viewed in the Netherlands. Such as the fact that non-white Dutch folks are automatically assumed to be foreigners, even if they were born and raised in the Netherlands. Additionally, I have learned that the Dutch prides themselves as having a progressive and tolerant country that is above racism. From my perspective, tolerance is a far cry from acceptance, and I have learned that this ‘tolerance’ and progressive thinking is not often present when discussing issues such as immigration to the Netherlands, refugees, Black Pete, and discrimination from the police. Being African-American in the Netherlands reminds me how significant context is when it comes to identities or socially presumed identities. Additionally, it reinforces my belief tackling racism in any country must be done intersectionally.
Intersectionality and Agency
May 31, 2017 Blog 2016HIA
On Tuesday, May 30 my peers and I had the immense pleasure of being invited into a discussion about Intersectionality by Dr. Adeola Enigbokan. Being a race scholar and a Black feminist, I am familiar with the theory and practice of intersectionality and how it affects people’s identities and political and social practices. However, Dr. Enigbokan presented to us a novel way of looking at and interacting with Intersectionality by presenting it to us through the lense of a successful slave mutiny that took place on a Dutch East India Company Ship in 1782.
Intersectionality as a theory implies that all aspects of a person’s identity be equally considered and acknowledged in the interpretation of their definition of self. For example: a Black, queer, cisgender woman would need to have all aspects of her identity named, acknowledged and validated. She is not only woman, she is black. She is not only a Black woman, she is a queer Black woman. The identities are all equal and cannot be separated from each other. Each piece contributes to her identity as a whole. I have only previously heard of and studied intersectionality in terms of identity, however through the story of the slave mutiny, Dr. Enigbokan challenged us to think of intersectionality as a way of a group bringing together all aspects of their identity and agency, and ripping through white or “blank” spaces. She moved intersectionality from the individual to the collective.
The men whose identities were taken and replaced with “slave” came from different geographical locations, spiritual locations, ethnic identities and racial identities. However, during the mutiny they created an intersectional collective identity that allowed for them to resist and eventually, even if momentarily, overcome their oppressors. The mutiny was successful because of the intersect of the sense of individual agency, identity, and then group action. Each slave had to create room for the other, and each individual had to agree to be a part of a collective. Dr. Enigbokan made it clear to us that without the collective acting as one, the disruption of the white or blank space is not possible.
I loved her presentation for us as activists and scholars taking part in Humanity in Action because it reminded me that we all come from different nations, racial backgrounds, sexualities, religions, gender identities, social classes and educational backgrounds. We all are coming together hoping to create change in a world that desperately needs for someone to break through white or blank spaces. Dr. Enigbokan reminded us that without a willingness to bring all of our identities together, accept each other, and learn how to use our collective, intersectional agency, revolution will only be an idea, and never a reality.
Courtney Luke
“How to Talk to Racists”
Aaron Scherf
“Wars do not start with bullets, they start with words.” This phrase is how Maja Nenadovic began her workshop on communication with our fellows cohort. A survivor and witness of the breakup of the former Republic of Yugoslavia, Maja paid testimony to how critical it is for people of different identities and groups to maintain their capacity for civil discourse. The failure to communicate, she emphasized, is at the heart of all conflicts, and the most effective method of preventing violence is the preservation of meaningful conversations. While her lessons for us centered around the idea of “How to Talk to Racists”, their insights were applicable to any form of discussion between two opposing groups. The objective for the day’s programming was to arm our fellows with some practical techniques for debate and dialogue; what resulted, however, was a far more intensive conversation on the applicability of discourse in the face of systemic injustice.
The second day of the 2017 Humanity in Action Netherlands program began with a brief lesson in logical fallacies to illustrate the traps many people fall into when arguing for a position. Two of the fellows with backgrounds in law studies, Arne Muis and Louis Lainé, assisted Maja and her partner in explaining why fallacies are “logical shortcuts” that are frequently used in place of real explanations. Concepts such as “hasty generalizations” and “scapegoating” were introduced to explore how people project their own assumptions and opinions onto larger groups, while “appeals to authority” and “appeals to tradition” analyzed the ways some arguments assume authenticity simply because they are derived from a respected source. The applications of logical fallacies in social campaigns and advocacy were explored as well, through hands-on roleplay exercises in which fellows attempted to persuade someone with opposing views to support a human rights organization. Our cohort was split into two groups, with one side taking the position of an equal-rights advocate while the other was split into roles such as “homophobe” or “xenophobe”. Many fellows, myself included, had a difficult time acting out their role as someone diametrically opposed to their views, often falling back on stereotypes or fallacies during their dialogue to represent their argument. The activity illustrated how difficult it could be, even for self proclaimed empathetic activists, to really understand the motivations and reasoning behind those with differing opinions. It also showed us why public discussions on social causes such as immigration and LGBTQIA rights so often devolve into emotional shouting matches; when neither side can clearly illustrate their position with logic, it is almost impossible for them to understand each other.
After lunch our fellows took a small break from the study of rhetoric for a boat tour around the lake in Gouda. Our guide explained the history of the region, beginning with its origins as a peat and clay mining community to its current status as a protected environmental reserve and recreation area. The interaction of the local environment and human activities offered an interesting lesson in sustainability, particularly as we learned about the various efforts to preserve the lake ecosystem in the face of increasing human habitation. Our time out on the water also gave us a much needed chance to relax and enjoy the wonderful weather after the intensity of the morning’s dialogue, and allowed us time to reflect before diving back into communication training upon our return.
The afternoon was by far the most divisive discussion of the day, and for that very reason the most rewarding. The focus of the lesson was the culmination of Maja’s program on “How to Talk to Racists”, in which she explained her six step model to approaching conversations with people who hold radically opposing views. Her methodology was summarized in a simple acronym, PLEASE: Pause, Listen, Empathize, Analyze, Speak, and Evaluate Expectations. Her fundamental point was that in dealing with disagreement we all too often allow emotion to cloud our judgment, and by doing so we remove any chance of holding rational discussions on the relative merits of our positions. She explained that, by using her system, we could be better equipped to control our own emotions and instead take the time to listen and understand our counterparts. The point of our conversations are not to reach an agreement or compromise, but at least we could leave with a better understanding of “the other”, and display our own humanity to someone who may have previously vilified us. Maja emphasized that the PLEASE method could not and should not be applied universally; there are times when it is better to make an immediate stand for your beliefs rather than methodologically deconstruct the ideas of your “opponent”. The pacifistic approach of PLEASE was best used in personal interactions, she elaborated, not group settings or public forums, and its objective was to create trust and understanding, not argue for the merits of one position or another. Still, the idea of applying rational and empathetic patience to situations that are often very visceral, such as encounters with racist slurs, did not sit well with many of our fellows. This disagreement over when to use patient understanding and when to take a stand sparked the heated discussion that formed the conclusion of our day.
The conflict that our group grappled with is not a new one in the field of activism. The questions that divided our conversations would be familiar to many movements: When are strong emotions and displays justified in advocating for social change? Is passive resistance sufficient to affect the power structures in society, or are more forceful measures necessary? Why should oppressed groups be held to the double standard of submissiveness, being judged by the “angry black person” or “bitchy woman” stereotypes just for using the same assertiveness that leads people to think of white males as “strong leaders”? It is a difficult dilemma, all the more relevant in our modern struggles to bridge partisan political divides while also advancing inclusive values. Should we compromise on our strongly held beliefs to accomplish more tangible goals? Or do we risk becoming idealists without real progress? Or is the situation really one of the fallacies we explored earlier in the day, a false dichotomy in which we truly have a spectrum of different options? My personal belief falls into the final option; sometimes it is necessary to set aside differences and restrain emotions in the interest of larger goals, while in other circumstances it is vital we stand by our convictions to the last. There are no easy answers to the world’s myriad problems, as I am certain our next few weeks with Humanity in Action will show, but the practice of considering every available option, and its potential consequences, is a good habit to employ for anyone advocating for social changes. The methodology for “Talking to Racists” Maja explained to us may not be the solution to every encounter with people who hold opposing viewpoints, but it offered a valuable perspective into the importance of realizing that everyone believes what they do for a reason and in their mind it is always justified. It may be difficult to respond to offensive language with pausing and listening, and indeed sometimes it may not even be warranted, but it does give us a tool by which to explore the arguments and ideas of opposing viewpoints. If we all practice such empathy, at the very least we will gain a better picture of the issue at hand, and in the process arrive at a deeper appreciation for humanity as the complex fabric of different identities, ideas, and interactions that it is.
The Importance of Dialogue
By Aletta de Savornin Lohman
After arriving in Reeuwijk, we kicked off a weekend that aimed to convey to us the importance of dialogue. In the struggle for justice we are often confronted with people whose opinion differs from ours and who hold bigoted beliefs, which triggers a strong emotional response that–and I admit myself to being guilty of this at times–leads us to ignore their reasoning. We are prompted into a rant that is not aimed at holding a constructive conversation but rather at defending ourselves from an attack on our humanity, our value and our identity. Both Lenka Adema, a self-employed senior mediation expert from the Hague, and Maja Nenadovic, a dedicated debate coach, provided us with tools to speak to and possibly educate the next person sitting opposite to me in a bar explaining to me why women’s biology makes them unfit for leadership or why we deserve sexual assault based on our wardrobe.
On Saturday, Lenka helped us identify this outrage as our ‘limbic mode’ and taught us how to channel our emotions into constructive dialogue. She provided us with useful ground rules on conversation and highlighted the importance of body language. We were introduced to Maja Nenadovic the next day whose method of ‘radical’ empathy designed to address conflict, particularly amongst vulnerable and marginalized groups in society, confronted us with the consequences of our speech: ‘I come from a country which no longer exists because people stopped talking’. I believe this sentence encapsulates the very core message of our gathering. We also addressed the implications of her method, making sure that the emphasizing of dialogue does not burden the oppressed in a way that suggests they should initiate it, but merely provides a tool in situations where they are forced to.
Scattered chairs and order out of chaos June 21, 2017
Theatre as a place of learning June 15, 2017
Complicating Revolution June 15, 2017
Put your lessons into action! June 13, 2017
The beginning of a beautiful friendship June 10, 2017
Humanity in Action in Rotterdam! June 9, 2017
A Day In Photos June 9, 2017
What’s your identity? : A question that has no single answer June 7, 2017
Archive Select Month June 2017 May 2017 June 2016 May 2016 June 2015 May 2015 June 2014 May 2014 June 2013 May 2013
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Waiting song meaning
"It's about putting your best foot forward, even if you don't have any idea what's in store for the future, about trying to make a difference in your own life, about having high goals even though you're not fully sure of what you want or where you're going to end up. You just keep moving forward and don't give up." - Armstrong.
Waiting is a very emotional song filled with optimism and positivity. The narrator is describing his feelings about his future and opportunities. This moment that he's been waiting for is not something material, but simply the time when he feels he can start a new life, do something he wouldn't have dared to do before. He is now open to something new and willing to take risks, even though he has no idea what exactly he's going to do and what's waiting for him in the future. It's the "dawning of a new era", the narrator wants to make some major change in his life, try to do something big, something that will make a difference. He doesn't know whether he will succeed or fail, but this moment he's been waiting for is now here, "ready or not at all".
Waiting lyrics
Buy this song
F.O.D. (Fuck Off and Die)
Stuck with Me
Geek Stink Breath
Brain Stew
Walking Contradiction
Nice Guys Finish Last
Last Ride in
King for a Day
Blood, Sex and Booze
Deadbeat Holiday
Macy's Day Parade
Poprocks and Coke
J.A.R. (Jason Andrew Relva)
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Family caregivers of dependent elderly: same needs, different contexts – a focus group analysis
Cuidadores familiares de idosos dependentes: mesmas necessidades, diferentes contextos – uma análise de grupo focal
Carla Sílvia Fernandesa; Ângelo Margarethb; Maria Manuela Martinsc
OBJECTIVE: The present study aimed to identify the needs of the family caregiver of dependent elderly in a different cultural dimension, integrating the social, political and economic reality of each community.
METHODOLOGY: This phenomenological study was carried out with two groups of caregivers of dependent family members from Portugal and Brazil, using focus group as a data collection instrument.
RESULTS: From the analysis of the narratives of the 12 caregivers who participated in the study a set of categories emerge: the need to learn alone, the need for time to maintain the roles, the need for a support network, resilience in imbalances family, and the resources to care for them.
CONCLUSION: In this work it was possible to highlight similarities in the needs of the caregivers of the two countries.
Keywords: family caregivers; elderly; needs assessment; nursing.
OBJETIVO: O presente estudo pretendeu identificar as necessidades do cuidador familiar do idoso dependente numa diferente dimensão cultural, integrando as realidades social, política e económica de cada comunidade.
METODOLOGIA: Este estudo fenomenológico foi realizado com dois grupos de cuidadores de familiares dependentes, tanto de Portugal quanto do Brasil, utilizando o grupo focal como instrumento de colheita de dados.
RESULTADOS: Da análise das narrativas dos 12 cuidadores participantes no trabalho emerge um conjunto de categorias, que são: a necessidade de aprender sozinho, as necessidades de tempo para a manutenção dos papéis, a necessidade de uma rede de suporte, a resiliência nos desequilíbrios familiares, e os recursos para o cuidar.
CONCLUSÃO: Neste trabalho foi possível evidenciar as semelhanças nas necessidades dos cuidadores dos dois países.
Palavras-chave: cuidadores familiares; idoso; determinação de necessidades de cuidados de saúde; enfermagem.
Population aging will lead to an increasing prevalence of persons with chronic illness or disability who need care, and, in the vast majority of cases, the responsibility for care will rest with a family member.1 Although relatives have always borne the primary responsibility for providing care to older members of the family, adult caregiving was not a generalized phenomenon until few generations ago, because few people needed care at the end of life.2 The lengthening life course and associated morbidity have given rise to a greater need for care. Due to a lack of support structures, it often falls on family caregivers to meet this need.
Family caregivers struggle daily not only with their tasks, but also with key life issues, such as their own mortality and the status of the relationships with loved ones who may be suffering and dying. Caring for a parent is a major challenge for adult children, who must renegotiate roles, relationships, and support until the death of those who have given them life and livelihood.3 Positive and negative aspects may arise from caregiving, to which caregivers may respond actively or passively. Caregivers seem to fluctuate between different states of mind, influenced by variables such as resilience, burden, reward, and needs,4,5 in addition to exhibiting a particular set of needs, which should be a privileged focus of nurses’ attention and intervention.4 Caregivers take on multiple responsibilities that can overburden them, particularly when their own needs are inadequately met.6
Greater recognition of the complexity and variety of family caregiver needs is essential throughout the transition to the caregiver role.3 As family caregiving is greatly influenced by the cultural, political, and economic contexts of society, understanding it requires analysis of this complex scenario, which involves the family context and the meaning of care.7
The onset of a disease in the family and the dependence that follows create a need for replacement of some self-care activities, a role that is usually taken on by the caregiver. This new role is experienced through a multiplicity of feelings and needs, which are often contradictory and antagonistic due to the tension, competence, and conflict involved. Experience with illness in the family includes how the affected people, their relatives, and members of their social network perceive, live with, and overcome the physical and psychosocial challenges posed by painful symptoms, disability, and treatments.8
Nurses play a preponderant role in this context, as they are responsible for training the caregiver to provide care to his or her charge, namely, by being available to offer information, training, support, and respite care, while meeting their actual needs. The absence of such action may culminate in an unhealthy transition and thus result in harm to the health of both the family caregiver and, consequently, the dependent individual.4
Countless studies have been conducted on this topic, with caregivers of dependents with different diseases1,5,6,9,10 many reported similar results.11.12
Needs have been described in several areas: knowledge and learning for self-care, emotional, formal support, as well as social, financial, and structural support for care, information, and communication are all necessary.4,12 Although some social initiatives to help in this setting do exist, they are still highly focal and are not enough to meet the needs of family caregivers. There is a pressing need for studies to investigate the profile, needs, and implications of family caregiving in the sense of developing policies to construct a support network that can contribute to the quality of life of such caregivers.9 Assessing caregiver needs is a key step, as it is at the heart of the issue of caregiver support. At the population and regional levels, such research allows the design and implementation of tailored support schemes and, thus, rationalizes the supply of services. At the individual level, a detailed understanding of each caregiver’s needs and of the dynamic nature of the caregiving role is an integral part of providing support, and is a prerequisite for directing caregivers to the most appropriate support venues.11
The present study stands out in relation to those already carried out insofar as it seeks to address the needs of family caregivers in different social, political, and economic contexts, in a search for similarities or discrepancies.
This was a qualitative, phenomenological, and cross-cultural study. We sought to establish what the phenomenon of interest means, in an attempt to understand and explain the meaning of experience, without focusing on quantification of results.13 The cross-cultural nature of the analysis allowed us to glean knowledge about the meaning participants ascribed to the life event studied herein. In this particular case, this allowed us to compare and integrate the values, beliefs, and practices inherent to the studied cultures themselves as they pertain to the needs of caregivers. The data collection instrument used was the focus group, a strategy that allows researchers to gather rich data, because participants are more likely to share their experiences authentically.14 Family caregivers were identified by nurses who were aware of their experiences. The focus group consisted of 12 caregivers (eight Portuguese and four Brazilian). Participants were recruited intentionally according to their availability and willingness to participate, as long as they met the following inclusion criteria: being caregivers of family patients; being older than 18 years; and having cognitive and communication skills. During data collection, for analysis and interpretation, we sought to suspend the phenomenon of interest - the “needs of the family caregiver” -, its meaning, and the trajectory of each participant.
Two focus groups were held, one in Portugal and the other in Brazil. Each meeting lasted 90 minutes, was moderated by one of the investigators, and was recorded (audio only). The focus group scripts were designed to collect elements that could identify each caregiver’s needs. The data obtained were transcribed from the group discussions and annotated with remarks and reflections made by the observer. Then, the discourses of each sample were compared by looking for evidence from individual and group discussions to establish points of convergence and divergence.
Throughout the study, all ethical research principles were safeguarded. Data collection was approved by the relevant ethics committees. The study was approved by the ethics committees of the health care facilities in which it was conducted, with opinion nos. 1,553,398/2016 and 12542014.
The focus groups consisted of 12 caregivers, all of whom were female, aged between 30 and 67 years. The duration of caregiving ranged from 1 to 21 years. In most cases, the dependent was the caregiver’s father or mother. Regarding marital status, most were married (n=4) or single (n=3). As for occupational activities, most were homemakers (n=4) or unemployed (n=3).
A systematic analysis focusing on the topic of interest of the study was carried out, in which similar, interconnected, overarching themes of needs emerged from the focus-group discussion transcripts, yielding the following categories (Figure 1): the need to learn alone; the need for time to maintain one’s roles; the need for a support network; resilience when facing family imbalances; and resources for caregiving. Over the course of the next paragraphs, we will present these different categories, attempting to highlight the phenomenon as it is experienced: a complex, multifaceted reality, which can only be appropriated through the wealth of information provided by the participants.
Figure 1 Categorization of caregiver needs, 2017.
The need to learn alone
The transition to the role of family caregiver is a complex process, which comprises different stages. The need to be self-aware and to develop certain know-how skills was highlighted by caregivers in both contexts, as was a sense of being alone in this process.
So, I feel there really is a great need for people, for caregivers, to have training... There’s no training (C1-Portugal).
I learned at my own expense (C2-Portugal).
They just fall into our arms and we’re left not knowing what to do (C3-Portugal).
I didn’t have any training, I learned along the way (C5-Portugal).
I’d make the bed with her still in it... There you go! That’s something you must learn to do (C1-Portugal). For many years, I cared... by myself (C5-Portugal). At first, it was very hard, we didn’t know a thing (C9-Brazil).
I got home and I was lost (C10-Brazil).
I thought: How am I going to take care of my mother at home? (C11-Brazil).
I didn’t know how to change my mother. I was used to changing babies, but doing it on my mother was very difficult at first (C12-Brazil).
The need for time to maintain one’s roles
Th e role of caregiver adds to, and compromises, a multitude of preexisting roles. Th is change in the caregiver’s life when the duty of care imposes itself triggers tension and confl ict, due to the lack of time to maintain other, previously existing roles. Th is aspect was endorsed by participants mainly with relation to the spousal subsystem and the maintenance of social relationships.
There’s no vacation, there’s nothing. It’s a prison (C2-Portugal).
At first, I was taking care of her. But towards the end, as soon I left her side, I was already tired (C3-Portugal).
Then, it’s like this, the way they see it... You have to do everything right away, and there’s no time left for anything... (C6-Portugal).
Because to take care of an old man, you die with him. I say I died without dying... I lost many years of my life given to that old man, didn’t I? (Cl-Portugal).
I didn’t have the time to go out anymore (C8-Brazil).
It’s like, my life is really hectic, it’s all on me (C9-Brazil).
I’m there nearly 24 hours a day. If I don’t at least set aside part of the morning to have a cup of coffee with my husband, I can’t even talk to my husband (C9-Brazil).
The need for a support network
The need for a support network was mentioned by caregivers, who highlighted the lack of formal (especially social) help for caregivers, such as financial and material requirements, support for instrumental care, and a support network for caregivers, among others.
In this category, caregivers also stressed the importance of informal support, namely from families and neighbors, which was considered a facilitating condition throughout the process. This need involves the caregiver’s expectation of receiving help from family members for some activities of daily living, including some associated with caregiving tasks.
No one ever came over to see how my mother-in-law was doing, to find out what I needed (C1-Portugal).
The services provided may not be very expensive, but in proportion to the state pension, it’s a lot of money! (C2-Portugal).
I had to take my mother, in the state she’s in... I had to drive her in my car or call an ambulance to take her in for an appointment when she caught a cold (C3-Portugal).
I think if the support services worked better, it would be safer (C5-Portugal).
This isn’t right, you can’t ask someone who has a job to stop working and come take care of her mother, we have to find other support structures... (C7-Portugal). Caregivers should get psychological counseling themselves (C8-Portugal).
There was the possibility of [someone from the] center coming in to give a bath. But they were asking 130, and that money goes a long way... It’s the usual story! (C8-Portugal).
There are lots of people in need, I tried to get support, but there were no openings. So I took over care without any help (C10-Brazil).
I had an angel come down from the sky... my neighbor (C11-Brazil).
Need for intervention on family imbalances
Caring for a family member involves changes in family relationships, which generates tension and conflict within the household; these extend over time, further isolating the caregiver. Family members distance themselves, leading to experiences hurtful to the caregiver, as highlighted below.
I urge families... because it’s not even about money. All the money in the world can’t pay for that, and families have to be aware of that. And that, families don’t take that into account. “There you go, she’s the one, let her work it out” (C1-Portugal).
People would ask, “but you have your sisters!” But they were all far away. What was I supposed to do? Make them? If I had to wait for them, it would be noon before anyone gave my mother a bath... (C3-Portugal).
Being there alone, without anyone even saying hello, people are there, but no one comes around... (C7-Portugal).
We’re all friends, we’re all sisters and we’re very close friends, but sometimes only one of us is the daughter. I think I’ve said it all... This is what upsets me... it upsets me, if you need something, tell me, tell me if you need anything. I don’t need anything, do I...? The others do it if I ask them, but when I ask they make excuses... as if to say, you’re the one who’s supposed to be here. The others are earning money, while I’m not making a dime... As though it were a job... No, it’s an obligation (C12-Portugal).
When I called the family and said, this is unbearable, let’s all take responsibility, because it’s getting to be unbearable to me. “Oh, ask the center for help”, and you pay them, ask and pay... Nobody was willing then... This is very complicated... There you go, sometimes some outside help was important to bring the family together... (C2-Portugal).
I called the family and said I needed them to come by every other week, on Sunday, so I could go out. That led to a huge feud. They said I was taking money from my mother. We got into a really big fight. N o one ever came back (C11-Brazil).
Countless resources are needed for caregiving, some of which are unknown to the caregiver. On the other hand, access to these resources, including information, equipment, and support, is described by caregivers in their narratives as difficult. Difficulty in accessing information and in overcoming obstacles to accessing these resources - namely, bureaucratic processes that wear out the caregiver - are reported as factors that complicate the transition to the caregiver role, often leading to abandonment, given its complexity.
The house isn’t prepared for someone who can’t move. You need help, materials... how can I arrange the room so that I can stand up, move to the chair, from the chair to the bed, then to the bathroom (C2-Portugal).
But there was no adjustable bed, just a massage mattress... While she was bedridden, she went through six or seven mattresses... Before you knew it they were full of holes... A hundred euros... The last one I bought lasted a month (C4-Portugal).
I fought a hard battle to get everything I needed (C9-Brazil).
I kept trying to get someone to help me pay for the diapers, but every time I went there... Say they asked for 10 documents, I had a really hard time getting those 10 documents. I’d bring them these 10 documents, and when I got there, they asked for five more, and so on. One day, I just couldn’t take it anymore and gave up (C10-Brazil).
I got all the supplies I needed through major sacrifices (C11-Brazil).
The role of caregiver for dependent family members is traditionally assigned to women, as shown in the present study. Historically and as a result of the logic of family socialization, care is delegated to the female figure. Within any family, the role of caring for a dependent member could be shared by more than one person; however, most caregiving tasks are carried out by only one person, who is usually a woman.9 It is common in families for a single member to take on most of the responsibility for care. Division of care-related tasks would be important to keep caregivers from feeling overwhelmed.15
As reflected in this study, facing up to a new role requires new knowledge and skills on the part of caregivers.10 The period of transition into this new role is viewed as a time of particular importance in acquiring new skills appropriate to the level of care needed.16 Caregivers highlighted the need to learn this new role by themselves. The knowledge domain represents one of the most important needs of family caregivers, as meeting knowledge needs allows them to better understand the whole situation and, consequently, their new role and relevance. 4
You learn on your own. We don’t have any training on anything, not hygiene, not anything. There’s no training (C6-Portugal).
In a prior study of family caregivers, the authors stressed that initial training needs are many5 and can change over time.12 The importance of providing support to caregivers themselves, thus preventing them from becoming overburdened with tasks, cannot be overstated.17
In addition to acquisition of new skills, the transition to the role of caregiver requires a redefinition of existing tasks and incorporation of new ones. The need for time, brought about by the difficulty in maintaining preexisting tasks, was prominently featured in the discourse of caregivers who report being completely absorbed by their new role as such. Caring for a dependent family member requires time, family organization, and personal organization, which, coupled with the other demands faced by caregivers in their different social roles, creates an overload that can affect the caregiver negatively.18
We forget about us because I... As I didn’t have any children, my husband and I would go out for every holiday, we’d go the beach. But then my life stopped in its tracks. I didn’t go anywhere anymore. I only focused on my mother (C12-Brazil).
According to a study carried out with caregivers, an average of 10.9 hours are devoted to caring for the dependent subject, which makes it impossible to continue other roles.5
The need for a support network, including formal and informal support, is considered essential by caregivers. Support plays a key role in adapting to and discharging the functions of this new role, in a period of great vulnerability.4,9,16 The family is reported as a major source of support, as are some close friends. Caregivers reported feeling alone and abandoned when these informal support sources disappear completely, and hoping that it would be offered without their having to ask.9
I had to put my foot down and say: “I need help, I need somebody down there” (C9-Brazil).
Participants also highlighted the need for intervention on family imbalances. One of the most common issues of coping and resilience in illness and family caregiving is conflict and separation among family members. The challenges of caregiving can be overwhelming, but can also become an opportunity for family members to mend tense relationships.8
We had a feud in the family, my brother wouldn’t speak to me anymore, my niece, my brother-in-law, everyone, no one would speak to me, no one did for several years (C12-Brazil).
Family support, assistance, and sharing of responsibilities for caregiving have been shown to promote family resilience.15 Family intervention is especially necessary when the disease is found to have generated conflicts and tensions among relatives that have not been adequately resolved; these are a substantial burden on the family as a whole, but especially for the caregiver.19
The narratives also highlighted the need for resources for caregiving, especially to procure supplies needed for this new role. Many caregivers have limited access to information and little knowledge about support mechanisms available in their communities.18
We need to know what’s out there, because often this equipment is easy to get a hold of and we don’t know about it, because we’re not in the health field (C5-Portugal).
Furthermore, even if these resources are available, obtaining access to them is so complex that many caregivers give up on their use.
Nurses should continually assess caregiver needs, providing information as the need arises and guiding caregivers to the appropriate resources.20 Caregivers’ reports of the need for self-learning highlights the essential importance of nurses providing caregivers with knowledge and skills to take better care not only of their family members, but also of themselves. Caregiver education and support lead to a reduction in overload and promote quality of life for family caregivers.21 By understanding caregiver needs and identifying sources of stress, as well as by mobilizing the necessary sources of support and information, nurses can provide the help caregivers need to stay healthy.20
In a review of nursing interventions for patients and family caregivers, the authors stressed that family caregivers should also be targeted for care, which should extend to the wider family context. It bears stressing that support and teaching interventions should be reviewed at various time points, over several weeks, involving a combination of in-person visits and telephone contact. Interventions should be based on the involvement and active learning of participants, because they must create their own individual strategies for action. On the other hand, interventions should not be designed to achieve economic goals, such as reducing the use of health services.22
Family caregivers lack interventions in training, information, support, and continuity of care, which should help care recipients remain healthy, but also ensure that caregivers receive care.20-22
This study has some limitations regarding the comparability and discussion of its findings. The fact that all subjects were female, in particular, precludes generalization of the results. On the other hand, the fact that the duration of caregiving varied so widely means that different needs can arise over time. It also bears stressing that the samples differed between the two countries.
Giving caregivers a voice, through a focus-group design, allowed us to identify the needs of caregivers of dependent patients. From these discussions, many needs emerged that should be a focus of nursing intervention. This study shows that, despite different social and political contexts, the needs of caregivers are similar and converge on the same problems and challenges.
The use of focus groups is a very useful qualitative research method, especially when designed to facilitate the collection of data that is enhanced by participant interaction and which would be more difficult to obtain through one-on-one interviews. Throughout these narratives, it became clear that talking about caregiving means delving into the history of the family, because everything is intermingled; and that, although family life goes on, often at too high a price, the impact of this process on all family members must be taken into account. Health facilities should rethink new strategies to support caregivers, as well as consider the need to evaluate the effectiveness and efficiency of training programs offered by different institutions.
1. Eifert E, Adams R, Dudley W, Perko M. Family Caregiver Identity: a Literature Review. Am J Health Education. 2015;46(6):357-67. DOI: 10.1080/19325037.2015.1099482
2. Hill TJ. Family Caregiving in aging populations. Estados Unidos: Palgrave Macmillan; 2015. 132p. DOI: 10.1057/9781137511560
3. Ziemba R, Lynch-Sauer J. Preparedness for taking care of elderly parents: “first, you get ready to cry’. J Women Aging. 2005;17 (1-2):99-113. DOI: 10.1300/J074v17n01_08
4. Melo R, Rua M, Santos C. Necessidades do cuidador familiar no cuidado à pessoa dependente: uma revisão integrativa da literatura. Rev Enferm Referência. 2014;(2):143-51. DOI: 10.12707/RIV14003
5. Weisser FB, Bristowe K, Jackson D. Experiences of burden, needs, rewards and resilience in family caregivers of people living with Motor Neurone Disease/Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis: A secondary thematic analysis of qualitative interviews. Palliat Med. 2015;29(8):737-45. DOI: 10.1177/0269216315575851
6. Tsai PC, Yip PK, Tai JJ, Lou MF. Needs of family caregivers of stroke patients: A longitudinal study of caregivers' perspectives. Patient Prefer Adherence. 2015;9:449-57. DOI: 10.2147/PPA.S77713
7. Ângelo M. Cultura e cuidado da família. In: Nakamura E, Martin D, Santos JFQ, eds. Antropologia para enfermagem. Barueri: Manole; 2009. p.82-99.
8. Walsh F. Applying a Family Resilience Framework in Training, Practice, and Research: Mastering the Art of the Possible. Family Process. 2016;55(4):616-32. DOI: 10.1111/famp.12260
9. Hedler HC, Faleiros VP, Santos MS, Almeida MA. Representação social do cuidado e do cuidador familiar do idoso. Rev Katálysis. 2016;19(1):143-53. DOI: 10.1590/1414-49802016.00100015
10. Cameron JI, Naglie G, Silver FL, Gignac MM. Stroke family caregivers’ support needs change across the care continuum: a qualitative study using the timing it right framework. Disabil Rehabil. 2013;35(4):315-24. DOI: 10.3109/09638288.2012.691937
11. Lefranc A, Pérol D, Plantier M, Chatelain P, Rohan-Chabot H, Schell M. Assessment of informal caregiver's needs by self-administered instruments: a literature review. Eur J Public Health. 2017;27(5):796-801. DOI: 10.1093/eurpub/ckx103
12. Fernandes C, Ângelo M. Family caregivers: what do they need? An integrative review. Rev Esc Enferm USP. 2016;50(4):675-82. DOI: 10.1590/S0080-623420160000500019
13. Salmon J. The use of phenomenology in nursing research. Nurse Res. 2012;19(3):4-5.
14. Rodriguez K, Schwartz J, Lahman M, Geist M. Culturally Responsive Focus Groups: Reframing the Research Experience to Focus on participants. Int J Qualitat Methods. 2011;10(4):400-17. DOI: 10.1177/160940691101000407
15. Manzini C, Brigola A, Pavarini L, Vale F. Fatores associados à resiliência de cuidador familiar de pessoa com demência: revisão sistemática. Rev Bras Geriatr Gerontol. 2016;19(4):703-14. DOI: 10.1590/180998232016019.150117
16. Plank A, Mazzoni V, Cavada L. Becoming a caregiver: new family carers’ experience during the transition from hospital to home. J Clin Nurs. 2012;21(13-14):2072-82. DOI: 10.1111/j.1365-2702.2011.04025.x
17. Dillahunt-Aspillaga C, Jorgensen-Smith T, Ehlke S, Sosinski M, Monroe D, Thor J. Traumatic brain injury: unmet support needs of caregivers and families in Florida. PLoS One. 2013;8(12):e82896. DOI: 10.1371o2Fjournal.pone.0082896
18. Guedea D, Damacena M, Arruda F, Carbajal MMM, Marcobich P, Hernández GA, et al. Necessidades de apoio social em cuidadores de familiares idosos mexicanos. Psicol Soc. 2009;21(2):242-9. DOI: 10.1590/S0102-71822009000200011
19. Ferré-Grau C, Sevilla Casado M, Cid-Buera D, LLeixá-Fortuño M, Monteso-Curto P, Berenguer-Poblet M. Caring for family caregivers: an analysis of a family-centered intervention. Rev Esc Enferm USP. 2014;48(2):4887-94. DOI: 10.1590/S0080-623420140000600013
20. Skinner K. Nursing interventions to assist in decreasing stress in caregivers of Alzheimer's patients. ABNF J. 2009;20(1):22-4.
21. Bahrami M, Farzi S. The effect of a supportive educational program based on COPE model on caring burden and quality of life in family caregivers of women with breast cancer. Iran J Nurs Midwifery Res. 2014;19(2):119-26.
23. Mattila E, Leino K, Paavilainen E, Ãstedt-Kurki P. Nursing intervention studies on patients and family members: a systematic literature review. Scand J Caring Sci. 2009;23(3):611-22. DOI: 10.1111/j.1471-6712.2008.00652.x
23. Bélanger L, Bourbonnais A, Bernier R, Benoit M. Communication between nurses and family caregivers of hospitalised older persons: a literature review. J Clin Nurs. 2017;26(5-6):609-19. DOI: 10.1111/ jocn.13516
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DADDY’S ALWAYS HAPPY
PREPARING FOR A BRIGHT FUTURE PART II
By Gordon Hayward|2018-12-20T13:42:01-06:00April 28th, 2015|15 Comments
I’m really proud of what I accomplished this season. I put a great deal of hard work into my game last offseason, and to see that pay off and play the way I did this year, it was really rewarding.
But the part that might be even more rewarding is the fact that I feel as if I still have a lot of improvement to do, and a long way to go before I reach my ceiling. To put in a bunch of work, and get results, but at the same time feel like I can do better than this, makes me want to work even harder in this next offseason, and it gives me a bunch of confidence.
There were a lot of different things I worked on, but one thing I put a real emphasis on was finishing plays around the basket. I picked up a floater this year, which is something that was pretty much non-existent in my game the previous year. I had that in mind going into the offseason, and I worked on that a bunch from the start of my training all the way into the season, and throughout year with the coaches and the player development staff.
Being able to finish more plays around the rim allowed me to finish games a lot better than I had in previous years as well. I made big strides in the way I closed games, and the beautiful part about it is, there’s still a long way to go in both of those areas. I want to become a closer at the end of games.
Improving on things like that — working on a floater, finishing at the rim and finishing games — is not the easiest thing to practice individually, but you just have to remain focused and imagine it. You have to envision being in a game and try to go at game speed in the offseason. You can’t attack your offseason training lackadaisically or at half-speed, because you won’t get anything out of it. You have to put everything you would put into a game into those workouts.
For me, it helped because I’d watch a bunch of film and break down exactly what I needed to do. If you watch film, you see where you can improve. I noticed where and how I could shoot floaters better—whether I was shooting it with no arc, or too much arc, or off I could put it off the glass, things like that. Once you see those things in action, then you can envision it in your mind when you’re going through a drill. It’s good when you can work on something, and watch it on film to actually see the results. Then when you go in the game, you really see the game slow down and it allows you to actually do the things that you practiced.
As I’ve mentioned in previous entries, Coach Snyder is a big proponent of film. I can say pretty confidently that we watched more film than any team in the league, and it helped us out to a great extent. Individually, we were all better at the end of the season. Collectively, we were better as well. Film can’t lie. It holds people accountable. People can’t make excuses when you’re watching film. It’s right there in front of you.
One of the big things we picked up on by watching film as a team was just learning the importance of trust in one another. When we saw film of teammates coming from the help side, the ball movement, making the extra pass, and what those things do for the success of your team, it showed us what can happen when you learn to trust your teammates more.
BALANCING THE LONG AND SHORT TERM
I take a lot of pride in putting as much as I have to give into the game of basketball and being out there with my teammates every night. So when I had to miss a few games at the end of the season with various parts of my body acting up, it was extremely tough for me.
What made it so hard was that I knew if I had to play and it was a playoff game or a playoff spot was on the line, I could have played. And because I knew I could have played, I wanted to play. I don’t want to miss any games. But it’s one of those things where you have to take a look at the big picture. We knew we weren’t in the playoffs and so the front office and the coaching staff wanted me to take it easy.
They pulled me aside with a few games left in the season, and talked to me about going into the offseason as healthy as possible. They wanted me to avoid an injury that required rehab. The goal was for me to be able to go straight from the season into recovery mode for a little bit and then jump right into training. The way they handled it, coming to me and explaining their thinking, was really great. It was important to me because the last thing I wanted was for the front office, the coaches, the staff, my teammates or the fans to think I was sitting out because I didn’t want to play, or I didn’t want to work. The way it was handled, I think everyone knew that wasn’t the case with me.
So while it was definitely difficult to sit and watch, by the end, it was something that I understood, and I was happy that they were taking the smart approach with my health.
But one thing the way my body felt at the end of the season taught me is that I still have some work to do in terms taking care of myself physically. That’s something that you learn to do as you get older, and gain more experience. You learn how your body works, what you can and can’t do and what you need to do during the season to keep your body active and healthy.
That’s actually one of the things we talked about in the exit meetings. We evaluated how I did with that, and what I can do better. They told me that I was up there among the players with most miles traveled in the NBA this season. I thought it was kind of cool that they can actually track that.
The Jazz expect a lot of me as a player, and it’s up to me to make sure that I can continue to perform at the highest level. That means making sure that my body is in tip-top shape.
PLENTY TO BUILD ON
Even in those games I was out, it was very encouraging to see the guys go out and perform the way that they did. It was fun to see them play well. It makes me that much more excited for next year.
Rodney Hood was one of those guys that stepped up late in the season. In the beginning of the year, he had some unfortunate injuries and was banged up, but he showed what he’s capable of down the stretch. Rodney has a great feel for the game and a natural ability to not only score, but to be in the right place at the right time. He stays on balance and his body is built to play the game. He’s also great with the ball in his hands and can be a playmaker not only for himself but for his teammates. He played extremely well for us at the end of the year, and he can be a guy that can handle the ball and take the pressure off of me. He’s going to be a great player in this league.
One guy who was kind of unsung this year was Trevor Booker. He played really, really well for us. From my view, he was one of the most important guys we had — not just for the great things he did on the court, but the things he did off the court as well. He was the glue guy for us. He kept the team together. The other thing that struck me was his improved shooting. He had one career three-pointer made before this season, but he became a threat from the three-point line. That’s a testament not only to his work ethic and his constant self-improvement, but to the coaching staff as well.
I can’t say enough about the coaches on this team, and what they meant to our success. Coach Snyder is a tremendous coach. You could argue that he should have been in the running for the Coach of the Year with the turnaround that we had as a franchise, and the improvement that all of our individual players made.
We have a really good relationship, one of mutual respect, but also trust. I think that started last summer when he sat down with my wife and I in Chicago. I was training there with Team USA and he came to visit with me at practice, then had dinner with us and just built that trust right from the get-go. That’s huge to be able to trust your coach and for him to trust me as a player. I think that’s a big deal.
How far we came in one season is a credit to him and his staff. They put us through a lot of film, a lot of workouts, and he brought a little bit of a change to Utah with the new things that he did. He’s a genius defensively. I think that shows with the numbers for us. He’s very detailed, very inspiring and passionate. I love that about him. I’m looking forward to playing for him for a long time.
I’m very happy with where we stand as a franchise and the guys we have on our team. We have a bunch of players who are hungry to get better and to win. That’s something that you can’t teach.
SEVEN MONTHS AND COUNTING…
I’ll certainly be putting in a lot of work this offseason to continue to get better in all areas as a basketball player. But there’s something else that will occupying my time as well.
It’s starting to get down to crunch time here, with the baby due in less than two months. It’s really exciting.
Robyn is doing well, and for the most part the pregnancy has been good. She’s starting to show a little bit more, and you can really feel the baby in her belly, especially when it kicks. It’s a pretty strange feeling to experience for the first time. It made me immediately think of the movie “Alien,” because I’m a nerd. Unfortunately, Robyn’s at the stage where she’s uncomfortable, and can’t really sleep because the baby is a lot bigger. She just can’t find a spot that she likes to sleep in.
Because of my schedule and travel, it has been pretty difficult to be with her and do all the things that go along with getting ready for a baby. I’ve had to miss some doctor appointments, and I haven’t been around as she picked out everything. She definitely has asked me my opinion on things, so I’ve told her what I was thinking, and then she’s pretty much disregarded me completely, like most wives probably do. But her mom has been in town a lot to help out, and they’ve had a good time going to baby stores and getting the highchair, the rocking chair, that kind of thing.
But I am definitely looking forward to having some time off, and really getting a chance to spend some time with her. She’s going to start having doctor appointments every two weeks, and I’m going to be right there with her every step of the way the next two months. We’re excited and getting ready to begin this next chapter of our lives.
Up until this last week or so, I really haven’t thought about what’s about to happen. I’ve been so busy and involved in basketball that I haven’t had a chance to sit down and think about how our lives are about to change. But I think now that I have more time, it will probably become more real — especially at the end of this month when we head back to Indiana. That’s where we’re going to set up, and where she’s going to have baby with both our families there. That’s probably when it will hit me that this is actually about to happen, and I’m about to be a father.
I have talked to some people about it, and I have to admit, I’ve received some wide-ranging messages. Most people have mentioned that I need to get as much sleep as I can now, because when the baby comes, I won’t be getting any. I’ve also had some people tell me after I tell them that the baby is due in June, “Oh, well that’s the end of your life, after June.”
But most everyone has said that it’s the best thing that’ll ever happen to you, and that when you hold the baby in your arms for the first time, there’s just a feeling that’s hard to describe with words. I’m really looking forward to that feeling.
Nathan Grissom April 28, 2015 at 7:24 pm - Reply
Congratulations on a baby on the way. here’s hoping that you and your wife and baby do super things in the future.
Jeff April 28, 2015 at 7:36 pm - Reply
Thanks for sharing your thoughts and a little bit more about you and your family! It was a fun season to watch as a Jazz fan and we can’t wait to see whats ahead for you and the Jazz! Congrats to you and the Mrs. on the new addition. As a father of two young boys (4 and 1), I can honestly say it is the best thing that will ever happen to you. It is a TON of work raising a family but as long as you have a great family and a wonderful partner, you can get through anything and it is so worth it! Good luck to you both and GO JAZZ!
Aaron April 28, 2015 at 7:42 pm - Reply
Great insight for fans. Jazz future is so bright with you at the helm. Thanks, Gordo!
Brent E April 28, 2015 at 7:43 pm - Reply
Congrats and thanks for writing these thoughts down from time to time. My wife and I have a ten week old, so here’s what little knowledge I have to pass on: keeping the baby alive and happy is fun for the most part, and not as scary after you get a few weeks in. The toughest part is finding time to do everything else in life (chores and hobbies in particular). Look at research on leading causes of SIDS and avoid doing that stuff. Best of luck to you and the family.
Casey @barrus30 April 28, 2015 at 8:26 pm - Reply
G Time, My favorite comment in your post is that you want to play for Snyder for a long time. We want to see you in a Jazz uniform for a long time! About the baby, congrats! My take is that fatherhood is the BEGINNING of real life, not the ending; it truly is an incredible experience. Enjoy that experience with your wife! All the best to you!
ASA April 28, 2015 at 11:55 pm - Reply
You have great grammar and punctuation. You very well may be the best grammarian in the NBA.
William April 29, 2015 at 12:51 am - Reply
Congratulations. I am really happy for you both. I always cheer for the Jazz, except for when you play my home team the Pacers. Wishing you the best. And give Robyn a hello for me. I know her through volleyball in Indy.
Colten April 29, 2015 at 1:07 am - Reply
When are we gonna see you and Lebron throw down in league? xD It’s nice to see that you feel as optimistic about the Jazz’ situation and future as us fans do. I love coach Q. The man knows what he’s doing, and doesn’t f*** around. Good luck with the kid. I’m 26 years old and still terrified at the thought of having kids. Looking forward to next year.
Zilong Hua April 29, 2015 at 1:43 am - Reply
Hey I am working on translating your these couples of blogs to the Utah Jazz Chinese fans forum… you won’t believe how many Chinese fans there are crazy for you! Keep going Gordon! You will bring the glory back to us! We have the faith on you!
Brandon B. April 29, 2015 at 3:17 am - Reply
That “Alien” reference almost killed me man hahaha. Gordon, just keep doing you bro. This season you proved yourself to be an elite player in this league. To be honest, I think we all know that with your combination of size, skill, and athleticism you’re capable of so much more. Don’t ever doubt your talent or the work you’ve put in bro, best of luck with your baby and your workouts this summer.
Jamison Lunnen April 29, 2015 at 3:36 am - Reply
What a great way to wrap up the year. You mentioned how the excitement of the fans constantly rubs off on the team and feel like I can speak for the majority of us when I say that the enthusiasm and attitude of this team is just incredibly contagious. The future is exciting! And things like this blog will only build on that excitement. Knowing how truly dedicated you are to this team is uplifting to a truly dedicated and hardworking fan base. Lastly, I don’t know if you actually read any of these, but if you do, while I’m personally amped up about your preparation for the upcoming season, I would just encourage you to take all the time you can for you and your growing family! Having children is truly one of the greatest gifts. I spent the entire first year and a half of my son’s life in Iraq and I honestly didn’t really understand what I had missed until my wife and I had my daughter. My point here is that time flies faster than you think and while I have taken full advantage to baby my little girl, not a day goes by that I don’t wish that I had gotten the same opportunity with my son. Don’t get me wrong, I’ll never regret serving, but there are some things that you just can’t have back. So from one father to a future one, just remember to take every opportunity to be there for your child from day one. If you use the same drive you have shown us all on the court, I have no doubts that you’ll be a wonderful dad. Good Luck! Go Jazz!
Davie Yang April 29, 2015 at 4:56 am - Reply
Absolutely love how you continue to find time to update this blog. There are not many athletes if any who have stayed so devoted to this! Good luck with your new stage of life with the baby. Likewise, I’m crazy excited to see how this Jazz team does next season (though probably not even as close as you are xD).
Julie Thompson April 29, 2015 at 6:07 am - Reply
We’re really happy for you and Robyn and your families!
Best wishes for a safe delivery for mommy and baby girl!
Love, your avid fans from North Ogden 🙂
Blake D April 29, 2015 at 3:07 pm - Reply
Thanks for a great season Gordon! I can’t wait for next year. I hope everything goes great with Robyn and the baby!
Luke April 29, 2015 at 6:37 pm - Reply
Best advice I can give you and your wife for having kids, is read the book Becoming Baby Wise. It’s genius. Thanks for being such a great example, this already proves how great of a father you will be.
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Mayor's Office of Special Events
> Mayor's Office of Special Events > Mayor's Hispanic Heritage Awards > 2014 Honorees
2014 Hispanic Heritage Award Recipients Announced
The City of Houston Reveals 2014 Mayor's Hispanic Heritage Award Recipients
September 15, 2014 -- The 2014 Mayor’s Hispanic Heritage Awards is a distinction which reflects the outstanding contributions each honoree has made toward enhancing the quality of life of our Hispanic community.
“Each award recipient has displayed leadership and dedication to advancing our Hispanic community,” said Mayor Parker. “Houston is enriched by their volunteerism, activism and public service. The Mayor’s Hispanic Heritage Awards recognizes their contributions and celebrates our city’s diversity.”
Richard Tapia
Demetrius Navarro
Michael Olivas
Maria Castillo Valle
Jose Antonio Diaz
This year’s Mayor’s Hispanic Heritage Award recipients are:
Lifetime Achievement Award: Professor Richard Tapia
Richard Tapia is a professor at Rice University in the Computational and Applied Mathematics Department and a national leader in the field of science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) education and research. His commitment to higher education, college readiness and promoting greater participation of underrepresented students in the sciences is evident through his interactions and lasting impressions with his students. Professor Tapia’s efforts have been recognized through numerous awards and recognitions, including the National Medal of Science by President Obama, and most recently, the National Science Board’s Vannevar Bush Award, among several others.
Community Activist: Demetrius Navarro
Demetrius Navarros is a native Houstonian who enjoys giving back to his community by supporting his children’s schools and various professional and civic organizations, including Tejano Center for Community Concerns, the Association for the Advancement of Mexican Americans, the Houston Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo and Spring Branch Community Health Center, among several others. His efforts have instilled leadership skills in our youth and have raised funds that have enriched the success and awareness of several organizations.
Education in the Community: Professor Michael Olivas
Dr. Michael Olivas is the Director of the Institute for Higher Education Law and Governance and the William B. Bates Distinguished Chair in Law at the University of Houston. Professor Olivas has captured and preserved the rich history of our nation and city’s Hispanic community through engaged lectures which highlight landmark cases in the areas of civil rights and liberties. His passion for equality has reached leaders in business, government and academia, and his work has received numerous recognitions, including the coveted Esther Farfel Award, the highest honor accorded to a University of Houston faculty member.
Youth Activist: Maria Castillo Valle
Maria Castillo Valle was born in Guatemala and came to the U.S. with the hopes of a bright future. Her interest in politics and educating others regarding the political process stemmed from her desire to make changes not only in her life but in others. Maria has led efforts to mobilize fellow students at St. Thomas University to register to vote by establishing an organization on campus that teaches youth the importance of civic engagement. She will be fulfilling her dream of attending law school this fall at South Texas College of law and will also have the opportunity to intern in Harris County’s 174th District Court.
Art in the Community: Jose Antonio Diaz
Jose Antonio Diaz is a renowned music educator and the founder of Diaz Music Institute, an after-school enrichment program that presents, develops and teaches children Latin jazz and salsa music. He is a tremendous force in the development of Latin music in our communities and presents cultural events which transcend cultural lines and generations of listeners. Diaz Music Institute’s annual presentation of Noché Caliente at Miller Outdoor Theatre has been recognized as one of the most premier Afro-Latin youth ensembles in the country. His success as a music educator has garnered him national recognition and has been the subject of featured cover stories in SBO Magazine and Band Director’s Guide Magazine.
Click photos below for full-sized versions
Photos by © Kim Coffman
Dr. Richard Tapia, from left, Jose Antonio Diaz, Mayor Annise Parker, Michael Olivas, Maria Teresa Castillo-Valle and Demetrius Navarro.
Kristin Garcia Blomquist, from left, with Roland and Karen Garcia.
Nellie Fraga, from left, Bob Stein, Linda Toyota and Felix Fraga.
John Hernandez, from left, Terry Morales, David Ruiz and David Chaumette.
Lenora Sorola Pohlman, from left, Daniel Morales, Lauren Soliz and Chris Canonico.
Gordon Quan, left, and Manson Johnson
Sofia Adrogue, from left, Sandra Guerra Thompson, Michael Olivas and Jim Thompson
Helen Cavazos, from left, Mayor Annise Parker and Yolanda Black Navarro
Gilbert and DeeDee Garcia
Eric Andell, from left, Chris Daniel and Vince Ryan
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Home » Articles » Library’s special collections offer more than a human skin-bound book
Library’s special collections offer more than a human skin-bound book
By jfalcon on May 2, 2019
Ok_Hay-Library3_Victoria-Yin-650x520.jpg
by Katherine Ok, courtesy of The Brown Daily Herald
Home to a manifold of rare books, unique statues and special artifacts, the John Hay Library (RI) is the second oldest library on the University’s campus and a popular studying site for students. From cast models of Lincoln’s fists to rows upon rows of tiny British soldier figures, the Hay houses an abundance of remarkable objects.
The Hay came to be the establishment for these collections through Andrew Carnegie, famous American industrialist and business magnate, who donated half of the funds required under the condition that the University would name the building after John Hay, Secretary of State to Presidents William McKinley and Theodore Roosevelt.
Lincoln Collection
When entering the Hay’s Lincoln Collection rooms, students are greeted with numerous Lincoln portraits peering over 30,000 objects of various mediums.
Originally owned by Charles Woodbury McLellan, the collection was donated to the University by John D. Rockefeller Jr. 1897 in 1923. With original letters, photographs and needlepoint embroidery, the giant collection is a testament to the former U.S. president’s legacy as an almost mythical figure celebrated by the masses for preserving the union.
In the early 20th century, establishing collections of Lincoln memorabilia and artifacts became popular for large universities and institutions. Holly Snyder, curator of the Lincoln and the Hay Collection, elaborated on how the University came to possess the expansive collection.
“The University wanted one of sufficient size and scope, so they went shopping for one, and it took them until 1923,” Snyder said. “At that point, there were about five really great Lincoln collections … but the fifth one came up for sale, … and the University got John D. Rockefeller Jr. to buy it and give it to the University as a gift.”
The guestbook in the center of the room is one of the Lincoln Collection’s prized possessions; visitors from 1929 to today have signed their names in its pages. The book tends to be open to the 1961 section, where civil rights leader and activist Martin Luther King Jr. signed his name as a guest. Another popular researcher who frequented the Hay’s Lincoln Collection rooms was American poet Carl Sandburg. Sandburg, who wrote a Pulitzer Prize-winning Lincoln biography, also signed the guestbook in 1931.
The Hay’s Lincoln Collection is also known for its permanent display of two of Lincoln’s life masks, as well as cast models of his fists. One of the common myths about the Hay’s Lincoln Collection is that it contains a death mask, which is obtained through a plaster impression of the individual’s face at the time of their death. “There was such a huge outpouring of grief that it would have been completely improper to do that,” Snyder said. Snyder then detailed the backgrounds of both life masks that the collection houses.
“About the time Lincoln became (a) candidate, … (sculptor) Leonard Volk said to himself, ‘I would like to make a statue of this man,’ … and he prevailed on Lincoln to let him put plaster on his face,” Snyder said. She then went on to describe the arduous process behind the production of the life masks. “This is not comfortable, to do the life mask,” she said. “You had to have straws stuck up your nose so you can breathe during the twenty minutes it takes for the plaster to set.”
One of the most striking features behind Volk’s Lincoln life mask at the Hay is that Lincoln’s eyes are absent; instead, there are two shallow holes. “Lincoln did not like the way that the eyes came out, so Volk says that (Lincoln) put his thumbs in and gouged out the eyes,” Snyder said. Both masks were used as references for a multitude of other sculptures and paintings of Lincoln.
Napoleon Collection
Located on the top floor of the Hay, the Napoleon Collection room houses a multitude of manuscripts, art objects, rare books, miniatures and portraits of French military figure and former emperor Napoleon Bonaparte. Donated by the widow of William Henry Hoffman 1884 in 1924, the origins of Hoffman’s deep fascination with collecting Napoleon-alia are difficult to trace.
“This is how we get a lot of special collections at Brown,” Snyder said. “Alumni go off and do quirky and interesting things and give us the results.”
The majority of the Napoleon Collection relates to the iconography of the famed figure. However, one of the artifacts in the collection actually belonged to Napoleon — a chocolate set made of porcelain and designed to serve liquid chocolate. The inscribed ‘N’s on the set indicate Napoleon’s ownership.
“I personally like the chocolate set,”Snyder said . “Drinking chocolate, it’s not the kind of thing you imagine Napoleon as doing. It seems a little too aristocratic, but maybe he had an aristocratic bent.”
The Napoleon Collection also contains two of Napoleon’s death masks. Located near a number of portraits, viewers can compare Napoleon’s actual facial impression with artistic interpretations.
“You can see his teeth are a little bit crossed,” Snyder said. “Which doesn’t appear in most images, and Napoleon (usually) doesn’t have an open-mouth smile, so maybe he was a little self-conscious about the way his teeth looked.”
The creation of Napoleon’s death masks is shrouded in mystery. Despite his aversion to having a death mask completed, artists and sculptors raced to impress his face in plaster after his death, which was met with significantly less public grief than Lincoln’s. The historical record remains murky, however, as it is unclear who arrived first to take the first death mask. Another striking feature of Napoleon’s death masks are the seeming gauntness of the figure’s face compared to usual youthful portrayals in portraits. The University’s masks are possibly copies, but the realistic impression of the leader’s face is still astonishing.
“I always found (the death mask) remarkable because it humanizes Napoleon,” Snyder said. “He has certain facial characteristics that don’t come through in painted portraits, (especially) since we don’t have any photographs.”
Other objects in the Napoleon Collection include miniature figures and giant needlepoint scenes of his family on fabric. Within the walls of the Napoleon Collection room, adorned with a French fabric depicting embroidered bees — a symbol of empires — visitors are able to view coins, medals, porcelains and much more relating to the famed figure.
Other Special Objects
The Hay is also home to a number of other rare artifacts and unique objects in the library’s Special Collections. Managed by the Special Collections staff, about 300 different collections are bought and preserved for exhibits and student use, according to the Hay’s website. Open to everyone, the Hay encourages students and other University community members to access their special objects in the Reading Room.
Heather Cole, a curator for the library’s literary, theatrical and musical collections, manages and directs the Hay’s acquisition and preservation of special objects. She elaborated on the myriad of artifacts that the Hay houses, especially the human skin-bound books, which are famed among students.
“There are books in our collections that are bound in human skin; that’s a practice called anthropodermic-bibliopegy,” Cole said. For example, “there was a practice where criminals would give their confessions before their executions, and their confessions were bound in their own skin.”
But the politics surrounding the human skin-bound books can be thorny. “There are issues of consent,” Cole said. “Whose skin is it that gets used? … If it’s a female patient in the nineteenth century without a lot of agency or autonomy, then it becomes a little problematic.”
One particular human skin-bound book is very fragile and is not available for public viewing. “(The book) has become sort of this larger-than-life, grotesque thing for students,” Cole said. “But I think that it is important to remember that it is a person, and you (need to) think of all the circumstances that brought that book into being.”
Besides the human skin-bound book, the Hay Library houses numerous other equally, if not even more riveting, artifacts. The collections include rare, first-edition books and one of the largest comic book collections in the country, which includes a first-edition printing of “Captain Marvel” and “Black Panther.”
In addition, the Hay owns a comprehensive collection of American poetry and plays that was established in the nineteenth century. These literary texts, such as plays from early Chinese theater in San Francisco, include works by marginalized artists of color.
“We have materials by more unknown people too,” Cole added, emphasizing the enormous historical weight of the Hay’s lesser-known objects. “We have a really strong LGBTQ collection that I curate,” she said. “That’s something not a lot of people know about yet. There are papers from trans activists like Kate Bornstein or writers like Caitlin Kiernan. … We have a really large gay pulp collection.”
The Hay acquires its materials either through purchase or gifts. Specific endowments by donors can inform the Hay’s Special Collections staff’s acquisition of certain materials lacking in their collections or that students are particularly interested in. “For example, I decide whose voices are not represented in the collection, so I’ll try to find those to add,” Cole said. Through this process, the Hay tries to create a comprehensive collection of items that represent those who have been also historically marginalized or forgotten, which is one of the library’s objectives.
Students can access information about the Hay’s Special Collections through an online guide. Titled “Fields of Hay,” this student-created website allows other students to learn how to access certain information or materials or discover items that may be of interest to them based on their concentration.
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Home » Entities » National Taxpayers Union
Profile: National Taxpayers Union (NTU)
National Taxpayers Union (NTU) was a participant or observer in the following events:
December 2004: Flawed Study Purports to Prove Media’s ‘Liberal Bias’
Political scientist Timothy Groseclose of UCLA and economist Jeffrey Milyo of the University of Missouri-Columbia release a study entitled “A Measure of Media Bias” that purports to document the “liberal bias” of the mainstream media. Unfortunately for Groseclose and Milyo’s conclusions, their measure of “bias” is found severely wanting, and they fail to mention the substantial body of scholarly work that challenges their theories. The study contains observations of 20 mainstream news outlets, including national newspapers, news magazines, and network and cable television news channels. [Groseclose and Milyo, 12/2004; MSNBC, 12/19/2005; Media Matters, 12/21/2005]
Previous Positions at Conservative Institutions - Groseclose and Milyo have previously received significant funding for their research from three prominent conservative think tanks: the American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research (AEI), the Heritage Foundation, and the Hoover Institution on War, Revolution, and Peace. Groseclose has served as a fellow of the Hoover Institution, while Milyo received a $40,500 grant from AEI. Both were named as fellows by the Heritage Foundation. The two authored an article for the conservative American Spectator in 1996.
Flawed Study - Groseclose and Milyo, according to their study, “measure media bias by estimating ideological scores for several major media outlets” based on the frequency with which various think tanks and advocacy organizations were cited approvingly by the media and by members of Congress over a 10-year period. In order to assess media “bias,” the authors assembled the ideological scores given to members of Congress by the liberal group Americans for Democratic Action; examined the floor speeches of selected members to catalog which think tanks and policy organizations were cited by those members; used those citations as the basis for an ideological score assigned to each think tank (organizations cited by liberal members were scored as more liberal, whereas organizations cited by conservative members were scored as more conservative); then performed a content analysis of newspapers and TV programs to catalog which think tanks and policy organizations were quoted. If a news organization quoted a think tank mentioned by conservative members of Congress, then it was said to have a conservative “bias.” The authors write: “As a simplified example, imagine that there were only two think tanks, and suppose that the New York Times cited the first think tank twice as often as the second. Our method asks: What is the estimated ADA score of a member of Congress who exhibits the same frequency (2:1) in his or her speeches? This is the score that our method would assign the New York Times.” The progressive media watchdog organization Media Matters will call the methodology “bizarre,” and will write: “If a member of Congress cites a think tank approvingly, and if that think tank is also cited by a news organization, then the news organization has a ‘bias’ making it an ideological mirror of the member of Congress who cited the think tank. This, as Groseclose and Milyo define it, is what constitutes ‘media bias.’” [Groseclose and Milyo, 12/2004; Media Matters, 12/21/2005] In December 2005, the parent company of the Wall Street Journal, Dow Jones and Co., will question the study’s validity, noting: “[I]ts measure of media bias consists entirely of counting the number of mentions of, or quotes from, various think tanks that the researchers determine to be ‘liberal’ or ‘conservative.‘… And if a think tank is explicitly labeled ‘liberal” or “conservative’ within a story to provide context to readers, that example doesn’t count at all. The researchers simply threw out such mentions.” [Poynter Online, 12/21/2005]
Classifying Organizations - Groseclose and Milyo assign “scores” to a variety of partisan and nonpartisan advocacy groups and think tanks. Some of these scores are problematic:
The National Rifle Association (NRA), widely characterized as a strongly conservative organization, scores a 49.5 on a 100-point scale, classifying it as barely conservative;
The RAND Corporation, a nonprofit research organization closely affiliated with the Defense Department, scores a 60.4, classifying it as strongly liberal;
The Council on Foreign Relations, a nonpartisan political organization featuring both Republicans and Democrats on its board and headed by a former Bush administration official, scores a 60.2, classifying it as solidly liberal;
The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), an organization consistently reviled by conservative pundits, scores a 49.8, classifying it as slightly conservative;
The Center for Responsive Politics, a nonpartisan group that tracks political contributions, scores a 66.9, classifying it as highly liberal;
The Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments, a defense policy think tank chaired by former Democratic House member Dave McCurdy, scores a 33.9, classifying it as more conservative than AEI and the hard-right National Taxpayers Union.
Lack of 'Balance' Indicates Bias in Study - According to Media Matters, Groseclose and Milyo classify news stories as exhibiting a partisan bias if they fail to balance a “liberal” group’s quote with a “conservative” group’s quote, regardless of the nature of the reporting. For example, the authors cite the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), which they classify as staunchly liberal, as one of the organizations most often quoted without “balancing” quotes from conservative groups. Media Matters will write, “[B]ecause there are no pro-racism groups of any legitimacy (or on Groseclose and Milyo’s list), such stories will be coded as having a ‘liberal bias.’” In contrast, stories featured in the study that quote a spokesperson from the NRA are often “balanced” by quotes from a “liberal” organization, Handgun Control, Inc., though, as Media Matters will note, that organization renamed itself the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence in 2001, and Groseclose and Milyo do not include that name in their statistics, “therefore, it is impossible to determine from reading the study if Groseclose and Milyo’s score reflects post-2001 citations by legislators and the media of the group under its new name.” Moreover, because the study only assigns partisan weight to quotes from advocacy groups or think tanks, if a story cites a member of Congress as taking a position and contrasts that position with a quote from a think tank, that story, according to the authors, is “biased” in favor of the think tank’s position. Media Matters calls this practice “miscategorization.”
Assuming Reporter, News Outlet Bias - One of the most questionable practices in the study is the assumption that if a reporter quotes a source, that reporter—or his or her news outlet—must believe the opinions expressed by that source. Media Matters will write that “most, if not all, reporters across the ideological spectrum would find [that assumption] utterly ridiculous.” [Groseclose and Milyo, 12/2004; Media Matters, 12/21/2005] The Dow Jones statement will find, “By this logic, a mention of al-Qaeda in a story suggests the newspaper endorses its views, which is obviously not the case.” [Poynter Online, 12/21/2005] The authors say that only two mainstream news outlets, Fox News and the Washington Times, slant rightward. The study finds that Fox News’s coverage is quite moderate; in a 2005 interview on MSNBC, Milyo will say that Fox’s news coverage can be equated with the moderate Republicanism of Senator Olympia Snowe (R-ME), considered the most “liberal”-leaning Republican in Congress. [MSNBC, 12/19/2005]
Bias Findings at Odds with History - The study makes some odd conclusions about liberal bias: for example, the Wall Street Journal, whose op-ed page has long avowed itself as a champion of conservative thought, is characterized by the study as having more “liberal bias” than any news outlet surveyed. The authors claim that they studied only news reporting and not editorial writings, but as Media Matters will note, “the Journal is respected on both the right and the left, and it would be shocking to hear even the most rabid right-winger assert that the Journal is America’s most liberal news outlet.” [Groseclose and Milyo, 12/2004; Media Matters, 12/21/2005]
Methodology Flawed - In December 2005, a spokesman for Dow Jones will call the study “logically suspect and simply baffling.” The statement will note that Groseclose and Milyo only studied four months of Journal reporting, from 2002, while they studied 12 years of CBS News reporting, 11 years of National Public Radio reporting, eight years of reporting from US News and World Report, and two years of reporting from Time Magazine. The Washington Post and Washington Times were also only studied for brief periods. “Yet the researchers provide those findings the same weight as all the others, without bothering to explain that in any meaningful way to the study’s readers,” the statement will note. It will conclude, “Suffice it to say that ‘research’ of this variety would be unlikely to warrant a mention at all in any Wall Street Journal story” (see December 21, 2005).
Failure to Mention Other Studies - The authors fail to mention a large number of previous studies of “media bias.” They do, however, cite three studies that, according to Media Matters, are as “questionable” as this particular study. One assumed that since conservatives say in surveys that the media is biased, then that bias unquestionably exists. The second assumed that news magazines that sold more subscriptions in geographic areas weighted towards Democratic voters were biased in favor of Democrats. The third is an AEI study whose statistics and methodologies were found to be deeply flawed. Groseclose and Milyo ignore one of the most rigorous and exhaustive studies in recent years, a 2000 analysis by the International Communication Association, which found that newspapers and news magazines exhibited little measurable bias, and television network news broadcasts exhibited measurable but relatively insubstantial bias. That study included 59 other studies, all of which go unmentioned in the Groseclose-Milyo study.
Conservative Bibliography - Media Matters will write that the authors seem almost unaware that other studies of media bias exist. The study’s bibliography is heavily freighted with citations from conservative media critics such as Brent Bozell (founder of the Media Research Center) and Reed Irvine (the late founder of Accuracy in Media). The bibliography also cites an article from the hard-right Internet publication WorldNetDaily. It does not cite any entries from dozens of well-known scholarly journals of communication and media studies, most of which have examined the topic of media bias in their pages. [Groseclose and Milyo, 12/2004; Media Matters, 12/21/2005]
Entity Tags: Olympia Snowe, National Public Radio, National Rifle Association, National Taxpayers Union, RAND Corporation, Timothy Groseclose, Time magazine, Washington Times, Reed Irvine, Washington Post, US News and World Report, Wall Street Journal, National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, International Communication Association, Jeffrey Milyo, Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence, Brent Bozell, Americans for Democratic Action, American Civil Liberties Union, American Enterprise Institute, CBS News, Center for Responsive Politics, Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments, Hoover Institution on War, Revolution and Peace, Heritage Foundation, Fox News, Dow Jones and Co., Council on Foreign Relations, Media Matters, WorldNetDaily
August 14, 2009: Oil Industry Group Sends ‘Sensitive’ Memo Detailing Plan for ‘Astroturf’ Rallies to Oppose Global Warming Legislation
The press releases a confidential, “sensitive” memo from the American Petroleum Institute (API) detailing a plan to create “Astroturf” rallies at which industry employees posing as ordinary citizens will urge Congress to fight climate change legislation. The memo was obtained by the environmental group Greenpeace and sent to several reporters. It urges oil companies to recruit their employees for events that will “put a human face on the impacts of unsound energy policy,” and will urge senators to “avoid the mistakes embodied in the House climate bill.” The campaign is funded by a coalition of corporate and conservative groups called the “Energy Citizens” alliance, which includes the anti-health care reform group 60 Plus, the industry “grassroots” organization FreedomWorks (see April 14, 2009), Grover Norquist’s Americans For Tax Reform, the American Conservative Union, and the National Taxpayers Union. API president Jack Gerard, who signed the memo, asks recipients to give API “the name of one central coordinator for your company’s involvement in the rallies.” And it warns, “Please treat this information as sensitive… we don’t want critics to know our game plan.” At least two major oil corporations, BP and Shell, are members of API and also belong to the US Climate Action Partnership, which supports the House legislation sponsored by Henry Waxman (D-CA) and Edward Markey (D-MA). API has spent over $3 million lobbying against that bill this year. API spokesman Bill Bush says his organization is not trying to deceive anyone. “I don’t think anyone’s hiding the ball about this,” he says. “I don’t think anyone’s trying to suggest that this doesn’t have anything to do with the oil and gas industry.” Greenpeace has asked API to reveal the member companies funding the Astroturf efforts. Shell Oil Company later informs reporters that it will not take part in the rallies. In a statement, the corporation says, “Shell’s position is not aligned with the consensus opinion of the API on Waxman-Markey, therefore Shell will not participate in the rallies.” [Gerard, 8/2009; TPM Muckraker, 8/14/2009]
Entity Tags: British Petroleum, American Conservative Union, 60 Plus Association, American Petroleum Institute, Bill Bush, Greenpeace, National Taxpayers Union, Energy Citizens, FreedomWorks, Royal Dutch/Shell, Americans for Tax Reform, Jack N. Gerard
Timeline Tags: Global Warming, Domestic Propaganda
September 12, 2009: ’Tea Party’ Rally Draws 60-70,000, but Claims up to 2 Million
One of many signs held by protesters at the 9/12 rally in Washington. [Source: Daily Kos]An organization called the “9/12 Project” (see March 13, 2009 and After), sponsored by Fox News talk show host Glenn Beck, holds a protest rally on the Capitol Mall in Washington. Other sponsors include lobbying firm FreedomWorks (see February 16-17, 2009, February 19, 2009 and After, February 27, 2009, March 2, 2009, March 13, 2009 and After, April 14, 2009, and April 15, 2009), ResistNet (see August 10, 2009) and Tea Party Patriots (see July 17, 2009 and Late July, 2009). Many protesters credit Beck for inspiring them to come to the protest, though Beck himself does not attend. [Talking Points Memo, 9/12/2009; Washington Post, 9/12/2009] Many of the signs praise Beck and Fox News, while others celebrate former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin (R-AK), Representative Ron Paul (R-TX), and other conservative figures. Still others further the claim that health care reform will “kill Grandma” (see August 12, 2009) and “kill babies.” One sign, referring to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), reads, “I need my health care… Pelosi makes me sick!” Many signs depict President Obama as a Communist or socialist; one claims, “I work hard so Obama voters don’t have to!” and another refers to “Comrade Obama.” One sign, declaring “Yes! We are a Christian nation!” is signed by one of the rally speakers, Senator Jim DeMint (R-SC). [John Lewandowski, 9/12/2009]
Inflating the Numbers - Reports by local police and fire officials estimate the crowd at between 60,000 and 70,000, which columnist Josh Marshall calls “smallish by big DC protest/event standards but definitely respectable.” The Washington Post reports, “Tens of thousands protest Obama initiatives and government spending.” However, estimates by conservative radio hosts, bloggers, and media commentators put the numbers far higher, at up to two million. (TPMDC’s Brian Beutler notes that expectations were inflated the day before by a Democratic House staffer, who sent out an e-mail predicting a turnout “ranging from hundreds of thousands to two million people.” Beutler writes: “For reference, two million is just a hair under four times the total population of Washington, DC, and approximately the number of people who showed up to the history-making inauguration of President Barack Obama. Sound like a bit of an exaggeration? It probably is.” He also notes, “A source at a major liberal organization in Washington says, ‘one of the things we decided to do was try to raise expectations for turnout.’” When the initial figures are published in the media, protest organizers and various participants begin claiming that the actual turnout was somewhere between one and two million, but the numbers are being suppressed by pro-Obama media outlets. [TPMDC, 9/11/2009; Talking Points Memo, 9/12/2009] One conservative blogger writes: “‘Media’ estimates range from 60,000 to 500,000 to around two million (yes, 2,000,000). Those estimates, the language employed, and the visuals chosen for use in reporting the rally and representing the people gathered, vary greatly based solely on bias.” [St. Petersburg Times, 9/14/2009] Conservative blogger Michelle Malkin initially reports third-hand claims that ABC News is reporting turnouts between 1.2 and two million, then updates her report to note ABC denies making any such claim. She quotes another conservative blogger who writes, “However big it was, it was bigger than expected.” By day’s end, Malkin notes an ABC report that the wildly inflated crowd estimate came from FreedomWorks: “Matt Kibbe, president of FreedomWorks, the group that organized the event, said on stage at the rally Saturday that ABC News was reporting that one million to 1.5 million people were in attendance. At no time did ABC News, or its affiliates, report a number anywhere near as large. ABCNews.com reported an approximate figure of 60,000 to 70,000 protesters, attributed to the Washington, DC, fire department. In its reports, ABC News Radio described the crowd as ‘tens of thousands.’ Brendan Steinhauser, spokesman for FreedomWorks, said he did not know why Kibbe cited ABC News as a source.” Malkin then writes, “The Left, of course, has seized on the error to discredit the undeniably massive turnout today.” [Michelle Malkin, 9/12/2009; ABC News, 9/13/2009] The next day, unidentified people circulate a photo from 1997 to ‘prove’ that the rally actually attracted over a million protesters (see September 13-14, 2009). Two days after the event, London’s Daily Mail reports “up to two million” at the rally. [London Daily Mail, 9/14/2009]
Fears of Socialism - The Post reports that many protesters wave signs and tell reporters about their fears of a “socialist America” under Obama, and warn that the Democrats’ attempts to reform US health care are undermining the Constitution. One protester bellows into a bullhorn: “You want socialism? Go to Russia!” “Hell hath no fury like a taxpayer ignored,” Andrew Moylan, head of government affairs for the National Taxpayers Union, tells the crowd, which responds with lusty cheers. One speaker, Representative Tom Price (R-GA), tells the crowd: “You will not spend the money of our children and our grandchildren to feed an overstuffed government. Our history is decorated by those who endured the burden of defending freedom. Now a new generation of patriots has emerged. You are those patriots.” Many of the signs support Representative Joe Wilson (R-SC), who days before accused Obama of lying during the president’s appearance before Congress (see September 9, 2009). [Washington Post, 9/12/2009]
Exhortations to Violence? - Some of the signs and slogans chanted by the protesters strike observers as perhaps calling for violence against elected officials or citizens who disagree with the protesters’ views, or are racist and/or personally slanderous. One sign depicts an assault rifle and the words, “We came unarmed from Montana and Utah… this time!” Another reads, “The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time… Pennsylvanians are armed and ready!” Another, referencing proposed “triggers” that would launch a government program to provide health insurance, depicts a rifle with the caption, “I got your ‘trigger’ right here… it’s called the Second Amendment!” A number of protesters hold professionally printed signs referencing the recent death of Senator Edward Kennedy (D-MA), reading, “Bury ObamaCare with Kennedy.” Another, referencing the Cleveland Zoo and the discredited “birther” theory, asks: “What’s the difference between Cleveland and the White House? One has an African lion and another a lyin’ African!” A related sign calls Obama the “president of Kenya.” Another, purporting to speak in “ghetto slang,” asks, “Where my white privilege males at?” A protester waves a sign reading, “Fascist are [sic] now in control they [sic] are like a cancer slowly killing America WAKE UP.” The now-familiar signs of Obama with a Hitler mustache, and of “socialist” Obama made up like the Joker from Batman comics and movies, are also in evidence. One speaker calls Obama the “parasite-in-chief.” [Washington Post, 9/12/2009; London Daily Mail, 9/14/2009]
Reaction from Democrats - The reaction from Congressional Democrats is tepid. Doug Thornell, an adviser to Representative Chris Van Hollen (D-MD), tells reporters, “There is a lot of intensity on the far right to defeat the president’s agenda, but I am not sure that holding up signs that say we have to bury health reform with Senator Kennedy will go over well with moderates and independent voters.” [Washington Post, 9/12/2009]
Entity Tags: Michelle Malkin, Matt Kibbe, Nancy Pelosi, Joshua Micah Marshall, Tom Price, Sarah Palin, Ron Paul, Washington Post, Tea Party Patriots, Joe Wilson, National Taxpayers Union, Jim DeMint, ResistNet, FreedomWorks, 9/12 Project, ABC News, Barack Obama, Andrew Moylan, Brian Beutler, Brendan Steinhauser, Fox News, Glenn Beck, Doug Thornell
Timeline Tags: US Health Care, Domestic Propaganda
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More Women Asking for Prenuptial Agreements
Just a few years ago, the term “prenuptial agreement” evoked images of a wealthy, possibly older man, and a young, possibly trophy wife, signing a contract that effectively blocked the wife from too much access to the man's wealth in the case of a divorce. Flash forward to 2013, and the situation is dramatically changed. According to a new survey of divorce lawyers, there has been a significant increase in the number of women who are requesting prenuptial agreements.
The survey was conducted by the American Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers. 60% of divorce lawyers in the survey admitted to seeing an increase in prenuptial agreements over the past three years, and 46% saw an increase in prenups requested by women. This is a significant finding, and it is possibly rooted in the fact that the real estate and financial markets are continuing to improve. That means that women are less likely to want to share these assets in a divorce.
This trend is also the opposite of just a few years ago when the housing market had crashed. In those days, divorce lawyers came across numerous cases involving spouses fighting over who would take the house with a substantially depreciated value. A house like this was considered to be a liability, and not an asset.
However, although women are now asking more often for prenuptial agreements, some things have still not changed. The average prenuptial agreement signed in California continues to include provisions for the separation of the marital property, as well as arrangements for alimony to be paid in the event of a divorce, and matters related to the division of the property in the event of a divorce.
Facebook Misbehavior Can Complicate Your Divorce, Child Custody Case
Facebook is frequently being cited as a factor in divorce and child custody cases, and not surprisingly, your San Jose divorce lawyer will advise you to deactivate all your social networking accounts while your case is still pending. That's because human emotions very often take over, causing people to make potentially dangerous mistakes on Facebook that could ultimately cost them their case.
A recent example is a case out of Alabama, when a man who threatened the mother of his child on Facebook over a child custody dispute, finds himself behind bars. The 31-year-old man allegedly made terrorist threats against his ex-girlfriend on Facebook. He posted statuses using vile language, and alleged that if he didn't “get his hands” on the baby, he would get his hands on his ex-girlfriend in the courtroom, and “shoot her.” The post was laced with expletives. He also posted pictures of himself using a rifle.
Police soon received anonymous tip after he posted these statuses on Facebook, and forwarded the information to the local Sheriff's office. An investigation was launched, and the man was arrested. Investigations found that the man had made several such posts on Facebook, threatening his ex-girlfriend with violent acts.
The man could have maintained a cool head, and waited for his hearing before a Family Court judge. In fact, he and his ex-girlfriend were due to appear before a judge to argue about custody. However, his chances now look very bad after his arrest. He has admitted to making the threatening posts, and it has been confirmed that he was not in possession of any weapons.
Such foolhardy behavior on Facebook will not go unnoticed, and you can be quite sure that lawyers for your ex-spouse will be monitoring your behavior on Facebook, Twitter or other social networking sites to gather ammunition for their case.
Having Divorced Friends Can Increase Your Own Divorce Risk
Having friends who are divorced can actually increase your own risk of going through a breakup. In fact, according to research conducted by a team consisting of researchers from the University Of California San Diego, Harvard University and Brown University, having a divorced friend can actually amplify your own divorce rate by as much as 75%.
In fact, according to the research, you don't even have to be close friends with a divorcee to amplify your own breakup date. Just having a casual acquaintance who is a divorcee can increase your own breakup risk by as much as 33%.
In other words, divorce is possibly quite contagious.
Individuals who are divorced influence not only their friends, but also their friends’ friends. According to the researchers, understanding why divorces affect friends could actually help facilitate better understanding of the adverse effects of divorce. It could also help in the development of strategies to help reduce the negative impact of divorce, and also develop better coping skills for people who have been through a breakup.
According to the researchers, the study's findings could also provide more clues about why approximately 43% of marriages in the United States end in divorce, and whether this is an individual or social problem.
The good news is that the reverse may also be true. In other words, having friends who have strong and healthy marriages, possibly spells better prospects for your own relationship. Having a social circle that is full of strong relationships, increases stability in your own marriage, and might help to enhance the durability of your own marriage.
Divorce Takes Heavy Mental Toll on Males
Divorced males are likely to suffer a much heavier mental toll after the event, compared to females. The results of a new study seem to contradict the widely- held belief that females are somehow much more vulnerable to the heavy emotional and mental toll after a traumatic life event, like a divorce.
The results of the study were published recently in the Journal of Men's Health. The researchers found that divorced men had much higher rates of depression, alcohol and drug addiction, and mortality compared to females.
Although women are traditionally believed to suffer from the greatest emotional aftereffects of a divorce, there has been research to indicate that men are not necessarily immune from such consequences as well. For instance in both the genders, divorce is linked to a variety of psychological and mental health problems. Earlier research has found that a healthy marriage is essential to a male’s life expectancy.
According to the researchers, the heavier emotional toll of divorce on a male could be the result of societal pressure. Society judges males to be self-reliant and resilient creatures, who do not feel any negative emotional fallout from a divorce. This kind of attitude does place immense pressure on males to put up a strong front after a divorce, even when they're feeling traumatized within. In fact, the results of the study seem to confirm that males also feel the traumatic effects of a traumatic life event, like a divorce, or bereavement.
In fact, the researchers believe that these mental health consequences are so severe that they're calling for the development of more strategies to help diagnose and identify divorce -related health problems in males.
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Kevin Gale Media
City Point Church
I have for a long time overseen the media department of City Point Church. Over the last year it has truly transformed with the installation of a new TV system to display lyrics, an entirely new sound system, and a new lighting system (shown below). CPC continues to grow and I look forward to being a leader in their media department. It has driven me to be innovative, creative, and collaborative.
An earlier version of the stage with spandex shapes and LED lighting
Church Beyond the Box
At church beyond the box I helped to plan, organize, and install all of the technical systems. Including lighting, video, sound, security camera's, gaming, and media systems. Today the church uses the technical assets to go global with their message.
Site designed by Kevin Gale Media 2010 (C)
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Why We Need Statesmen, Not Politicians
“I don’t get involved in politics.”
I hear that a lot from women around the country, especially women of faith. And what mother would want to engage in politics? We spend our whole day teaching our children not to do all the things politics promotes—arguing, name calling, back-biting, lying and so on.
Words have meaning and for a lot of women in America, politics has become a repugnant word that denotes unacceptable behavior. But we are confusing our civic responsibility with politics and they are not the same thing.
Defending liberty and virtue, respecting and honoring the Constitution—these things are not politics. They are our civic duty. Politics is simply a word people hide behind when they don’t have any principles or lack the courage to stand up for what’s right. We can’t talk about life because “it is political.” We can’t talk about God because “it is political.” We can’t talk about right and wrong and the 10 Commandments because, you guessed it, “it’s political.”
Just look at all the things that have been politicized today--life, religion, babies, healthcare, income, work,freedom—even America itself has become a political issue. It’s absurd.
We need to rise above the scum line of politics and realize being proud to be an American and willing to defend freedom is not political—it is our civic duty.
So how do we know the difference? The many years I spent dealing with politics and politicians led me to create some definitions to help us differentiate between the two.
Politics, as we see it today, is a product of pride, worldliness, and a lust for power. That is why so many of us cringe when we hear the word “politician” and look down our noses on the profession as beneath us.
Civic responsibility, on the other hand, is that duty which every American has as a citizen of this country, to respect the law, preserve the U.S. Constitution, be involved in our communities, safeguard the Republic, watch over our government, and seek out and elect good leaders to represent us.
Politics is the result of what happens when not enough of us fulfill that duty.
That leads me to the perpetrators of politics—the politicians!
A Politician is a person who lusts for power, is obsessed with self-importance, and motivated by greed. Politicians have been groomed in politics. They learn the artful craftiness of deceit; the clever tactics of scheming to get gain and win votes and the cunning methods of distraction, distortion, denial and blame shifting. Politicians will say and do whatever it takes to keep and add to their power. They are motivated by self-preservation and personal gain, and put their own interests above the people they serve.
Politicians will vote for anything they feel benefits them regardless of how their constituents feel or whether or not it is in the best interest of the country. Politicians are self-serving individuals who hold little regard for God or country and feel no loyalty or affection for the people they serve.
A Statesman, however, is a person of integrity and high moral character, who possesses a strong desire to serve others, recognizes his/her imperfections and strives to overcome them to be the best person he/she can be. Statesmen have been trained in humanity. They learn the moral code of right and wrong, the positive attributes of honesty, humility, patriotism, accepting responsibility, and the selfless standards of love thy neighbor, the golden rule, and country before self.
Statesmen are people of faith who believe in a supreme being and a future state of rewards and punishments. They research issues carefully and do their best to vote in the best interest of the Republic and the people they represent--even if it means losing votes. Statesmen cherish freedom and liberty, have a deep affection and concern for those they serve and feel a profound sense of duty and loyalty to their country. They live their faith, reverence God, and respect the faith of others. In short, they had good mamas!
Perhaps you feel I am oversimplifying in my definitions. Maybe you think I’m too harsh on politicians. That’s possible.
I am sure there are politicians who possess some of the characteristics of a statesman and I know there are statesmen who fall prey to politics but we must ask ourselves, are we willing to settle with mediocre? Is 80 percent statesman good enough? How would you feel about your husband or wife being 80 percent faithful? It is extremely unlikely we will ever get a 100 percent statesman because none of us are perfect but lowering our standard isn’t the answer. We need to set the bar high because one thing is for sure, we will never rise above the bar we set.
If we don’t separate civic duty from politics and politicians from statesmen our vision becomes blurry and we allow things like killing babies and gay marriage to turn into “freedom of choice” and “equality.” We allow politicians to seize power they haven’t been given and write laws they have no authority to pass.
A statesman thinks he belongs to the State, but a politician thinks the State belongs to him.
Do we want politicians serving in Congress? What about city councils and school boards, the media, or the teachers who teach our children? And most of all, what do we want to be ourselves?
Corruption doesn’t begin in Washington and it doesn’t end there either. We need statesmen in our schools teaching our children, in the media presenting the news and in elected offices serving the people. We need to be statesmen ourselves and it is imperative we teach our children how to be statesmen.
“The difference between a politician and statesman, said James Freeman Clarke, “is that a politician thinks about the next election while the statesman thinks about the next generation.”
As election season nears we have the opportunity to decide the kind of leaders we will have. We might get lucky and find a statesman on the ballot but the most powerful influence we have will be found in the kind of leaders we raise in our own home and the kind of person we determine to be ourselves.
I AM A HOMEMAKER!
I am a mom of 8 , homeschooler, military wife, and proud American homemaker! My husband and I were married in 2005, our first child arrived 9 months and two weeks later and it has been a wild ride ever since. We have had a fantastic journey full of surprises, joys, trials, heartaches and miracles. I wouldn't trade any of it and I'm excited for what the future has yet in store us.
My life has taken many interesting turns but the event that had the most profound impact on me was September 11, 2001. My husband was stationed at the Pentagon and by a series of miracles came home safe that day. That was the day I truly realized what freedom meant and the cost of preserving it. As I sat on the couch surrounded by my family that night, I determined that I would do everything in my power to ensure that my children remain free. This determination led me to an intense study of American history and the principles of liberty and virtue our nation was founded on; which brewed a deep sense of patriotism in my heart and a desire to become actively involved in my community and nation.
In 2004 I founded a national organization to share and promote what I learned with the women of America. I had no idea how to run or even start a national organization but the impression that I needed to do so kept weighing on my heart until I realized it was from the Lord and I knew I must answer the call for "such a time as this."
As I pondered what I needed to do to start an organization I knew I needed a name but I had no idea what to call it. I knew it needed to be something about mothers and freedom but no name I came up with seemed right. In the middle of struggling with the name my mom came to visit and I shared my thoughts with her.
"Why don't you call it what you know?" she said.
"What do I know?" I responded, "I'm just a mom and a homemaker."
"Then why don't you call it Homemakers for America?"
I about fell off my chair laughing. "I can't call it that. No one will take me seriously."
"Maybe," my mom said, "that is the problem."
I considered heavily what she said but still continued to come up with every name I could think of. No matter how many names I came up with "HomeMakers for America" kept coming to the forefront. For weeks I fought against the name until one day I realized who I was fighting against. The Lord was calling me to form this organization so shouldn't should be called the name He wanted? It was clear that HomeMakers for America was the name He wanted and so, HomeMakers for America it became.
Since then, I have come to realize the wisdom of God's choice. He knew the power of the name even if I didn't because He knows the powerful influence of His daughters. He knows how much He needs them to preserve this last bastion of hope for the world. Women are the center of the home and home is the center of society. Nations have risen and fallen at the hands of women. What better name is there to speak to the hearts of Americans than that which represents those who who are molding the future.
I have seen this name garner respect in senate halls. I have seen it command attention in committee hearings and legislative offices. Over the last decade I have witnessed over and over the powerful influence of homemaker. I have come to realize the majesty of the name, the influence it holds and the divine nature it represents. And now I can say that I truly understand just how important women are in the preservation of liberty, virtue and all we hold dear--not just in our nation--but in the world.
After founding HomeMakers for America, I began speaking at various events, writing articles and doing media interviews to share what I'd learned. I've met the most amazing people along the way. In 2011, at the urging of many friends and "fans" I published my first book WOMEN: America's Last Best Hope. I am a contributing writer with The Blaze. My articles have also been published on as Townhall.com, American Thinker and Worldnetdaily.
I have been labeled by the media as “an unabashed America-loving homemaker,” and I'm proud of the title! I had no idea where this journey would take me when I began it, but I am honored to be able to be the "cheerleader for women" humbled by all the stories of the amazing women I meet and grateful to have been pulled out of my comfort zone so I could meet them. It is your inspiring stories and gracious emails that keep me going. I have made it my personal mission to encourage the women, mothers, and homemakers of America to realize your immeasurable worth and powerful influence on societies and nations simply by being who you are.
This blog is a place where I can share what I've learned as a mother, a homeschooler, military wife, a woman of faith and a VERY proud American HomeMaker! So come on in and stay awhile. All that you hear and see, well, its all just me!
Ohioans know all about voter fraud
www.theblaze.com/contributions/ohioans-know-all-about-voter-fraud/
Since Donald Trump first mentioned the idea of a “rigged election,” President Barak Obama has not missed an opportunity to dismiss claims of voter fraud as laughable.
He has repeatedly referred to Trump’s claims as a “conspiracy theory” and the media are playing right along. While the media and establishment from both parties feign horror over Trump’s claims of voter fraud, Ohioans know it isn’t a conspiracy theory, it’s a fact.
The Project Veritas videos and investigations in Colorado and Indiana prove that voter fraud is happening as we speak. But those who think dead people voting and forged signatures are the only issue would be shocked to find out just how broad and how deep the fraud is.
I’ve been engaged in grass-roots campaigns, elections and activism for over 16 years. Seven of those years were on the ground in Ohio where I volunteered with several local and three presidential campaigns. I served as the operations manager for the John McCain/Sarah Palin Victory Center in Dayton.
Ohio is a huge target for voter fraud, but even Trump would be shocked to find out just how organized, deliberate and blatant it is.
My first experience was in the 2004 election in Trotwood, Ohio — a middle-class black community just north of Dayton. Our family was assigned to pass out voter guides at the polling station at Mount Olivet Church.
I noticed a woman in a bright yellow rain jacket right by the front door. The back of her jacket read “Voting Rights Team.” She told me she was from Maryland and that she had come in on a bus with several other volunteers and staff to make sure African American voters knew how to mark their ballot to ensure their vote counted. On the other side of the doorway were three to five people waving Democrat slate cards and shouting, “Here’s your candidates” as voters walked in to vote.
Ohio state law forbids any kind of campaigning within 100 feet of the entrance to the polling station. They were right outside the door. They told me they were paid by the Democrat Party to be there.
Inside the church a crowd of voters filled the hallway: some checking in on the left and others voting on the right. Everyone was bumping into each other and talking back and forth asking who they were supposed to vote for. That’s when I noticed the a lady in a suit lean in pointing to one of the voter’s ballots.
“Those are the ones you want,” she said. “The ones with the ‘D’ beside their name.”
Since then I have been flabbergasted at the absolute blatancy of the fraud.
Ohio’s Golden week was also a real gem.
Pushed by the Democrats in 2005 Golden Week allowed individuals to register to vote and vote on the same day. Supporters claimed this law created an ideal opportunity for those who couldn’t afford to take time out of their work schedules. The Ohio legislature ended Golden Week in 2015 but the ACLU worked hard to try and oet it back.
This year Ohioans face a new fraud game.
Nursing homes and assisted living centers have been a target for voter fraud for years. Secretary of State Jon Husted, amidst mounting pressure by Democrats, sent an absentee ballot application to every registered voter in Ohio.
“It is easy for caretakers in nursing homes and assisted living facilities to ‘help’ our relatives to fill out the request form. Then when the absentee ballot application comes back, they ‘help’ these seniors fill out the ballot and mail in their vote – or perhaps even fill out the ballot without their knowledge. Unfortunately too many of these votes are based on the caretakers’ political preferences and not the senior citizens,” said Tom Zawitowski, president of We the People Foundation in Ohio.
In spite of all of this and all the other voter fraud tactics used by Democrat operatives, it is still not enough to turn the election.
That is where the media come in. Propaganda and talking points from the Hillary Clinton campaign has been generously picked up and disseminated to the masses.
The powerful secret to destroying voter fraud—Don’t Stay Home!
In the 2012 election 2,353,957 registered voters in Ohio did not vote. Mitt Romney lost by 166,272 votes.
“A mere 7 percent increase in rural counties would amount to 195,980 votes and victory,” said Zawitowski.
Don’t fall prey to the media’s ultimate voter fraud. This election is NOT over. No matter how much voter fraud we face this election; we can win if we vote. The look on the faces of CNN anchors on November 9 will make it all worth it.
‘Hillary’s Village’: Good for families, businesses and the American economy?
http://www.theblaze.com/contributions/hillarys-village-good-for-families-businesses-and-the-american-economy/
If being able to sell a bill of goods with a smile, lie with finesse and deceive with confidence is the gauge used to win a presidential debates then Hillary Clinton won hands down.
If, however, it is about substantive issues, sound economic policies and common sense we may want to take another look.
Let’s be honest, Donald Trump didn’t come off as “presidential.”
Trump is Trump as they say. He is not a polished politician like Hillary, but that is the very reason he is so popular with voters. Americans are fed up with self-serving, power hungry, polished politicians who promise the moon and delivery nothing but misery.
People flock to Trump either out of affirmation or desperation. Many people are looking to Trump as the answer to relieve them of the stranglehold government policies and regulations have put on their businesses, their lives and their families. His policies and positions make sense even if he sometimes doesn’t. Many see his straightforward outspokenness as a sign of strength that he can take on the mammoth government machine and win. On the other hand, Hillary’s polished composure, carefully packaged soundbites and sugar-coated promises just look like business as usual.
But what about Hillary’s policies? They’re all about creating jobs, supporting small businesses and helping families right? Hillary’s village does sound good, it even looks good on paper, but what does it look like in practice? Hillary listed seven of her pet projects right out of the gate in Monday night’s debate. It’s the standard list: minimum wage, equal pay for women, paid family leave, profit-sharing, affordable childcare, make the economy “fairer” and the ever-popular debt-free college. Let’s take a look at what all this really means.
1. A Fair Economy
Hillary says she wants to “make the economy fairer.” Notice the word “make” in that statement. If there was one word to describe government it would be force. Hillary’s plan is to use the government to force you into a fair economy. That is a very important concept to understand. Because of the 16th amendment (ratified in 1913) which instituted federal income tax, the president of the United States now has the power to bribe, blackmail and steal as a means to force Americans into submission. Our own money is being used as a weapon against us and if we refuse to give it to them, they put us in prison for not paying our taxes. This brings us to the other six items on the list, which Hillary proudly proclaimed would be paid for by the “wealthy” (aka, everyone who earns a paycheck and pays taxes).
Hillary wants to force us to pay more money to the government to pay for healthcare, childcare, preschool, college debt and whatever else she comes up with. Of course this is all while dealing our economy a crushing blow with the institution of forced minimum wage and a litany of other programs—all under the guise of helping families. But do they really help families? Let’s explore these policies further.
2. Minimum Wage
There is a great video out on Prager University where a young girl talks about how she learned more working at McDonald’s than she learned at college. Nobody works at McDonald’s to get rich, but those who work at these jobs receive valuable experience and can grow to be rich. Minimum wage jobs were never meant to sustain a family. They are a means to achieving goals, a pathway to something better. When the government sets a minimum wage it sets a maximum standard. Everyone gets paid the same no matter how well they do the job. Businesses want to reward hard work with more pay but if businesses continue to be forced to raise the minimum amount they pay their employees they won’t be able to reward hard work with higher wages. It is a simple principle of sound business. If the business costs more to operate you have to make up the difference somewhere such as laying-off workers or raising prices—all of which negatively impact families.
3. Forced Regulations on Businesses
Several of Hillary’s benevolent policies fit in this category—paid family leave, earned sick days, profit-sharing, etc. While all these things sound great, and I enthusiastically support companies who can and do implement them, it is NOT the role of government to force businesses to do it, nor to force us to pay for it. That is why our Founding Families created the Constitution—to limit government—so we could prosper.
4. Affordable Childcare and Debt-free College
If your neighbor came to you and told you to write a check to their child’s daycare center because they can’t afford to pay it how would you feel about that? How about if your mother decides to take a chunk of your paycheck every month to cover your brother’s college tuition? Nothing is free. Someone has to pay for it. That means you! Enough said.
5. Equal Pay for Women
This one is absolutely exasperating because, one, it belittles women, and two, it is a manufactured lie. Let’s say a man and a woman start out at the same job. After a couple years the woman leaves to raise her children. 15 years later she returns to the same job. Should she be paid the same amount as the man who never left? If the roles were reversed would you have a problem with it? Principles are principles no matter what race, gender or color you are. Hillary doesn’t want equal pay, she wants special privileges. If she doesn’t get elected it’s not because she is a woman, it is because she has bad ideas and people don’t like them.
So there you have it. In Hillary’s village she decides who gets paid what, how much you work, where you work, how long you work, and whether you work at all. She hands out government-funded college, daycare, health insurance, etc.—and you get the bill. If you don’t pay it, you go to jail. More businesses move to other countries because they can’t afford to cover the cost of the village—at the prices struggling families are willing to pay anyway, and the economy tanks.
In her opening statement at the debate Hillary said, “The central question in this election is really what kind of country we want to be and what kind of future we’ll build together.”
Black Lives Matter Agenda Coming to Classrooms in Omaha
http://www.theblaze.com/contributions/black-lives-matter-agenda-coming-to-classrooms-in-omaha/
Omaha Public schools (in corn-country Nebraska) is in full melt-down mode after local radio host, Chris Baker, exposed a curriculum seminar for school teachers promoting the insertion of Black Lives Matter agenda into the curriculum.
Baker was made aware of the meeting by several teachers who were very uncomfortable with the content of the meeting and disagreed with the entire premise but feared losing their jobs if they said anything. The seminar, put on by Omaha Public Schools featured a local “media consultant” and Black Lives Matter propagandist named Morgann Freeman (no, not the actor). According to Baker’s source, Ms. Freeman was there to show teachers how to inject BLM indoctrination and other social justice propaganda into the curriculum in Omaha Public Schools.
Barry Thomas, Supervisor of Secondary Social Studies for the district, was the one who invited Ms. Freeman to speak.
During the meeting Ms. Freeman expressed her views on the Black Lives Matter agenda stating, “Meritocracy is a myth. The idea that people can ‘pull themselves by their bootstraps’ is a lie. It only works for those with privileges.”
Attendees of the curriculum meeting told Baker Ms. Freeman portrayed black Americans as victims of white oppression claiming that blacks are systematically targeted for destruction. She also claimed America was never great and was founded by flawed racists who set up a system that would perpetuate their power.
After reading the Nebraska State Standards for Social Studies it is perplexing to see how any of this supports, let alone promotes, the standards. The stated purpose of which is to “teach our children to become young patriots who have an intellectual understanding of the genius of our country’s founding principles and who feel an emotional connection to our nation.”
The information presented and views espoused by Ms. Freeman promote the exact opposite. From her own Facebook page Ms. Freeman admits she was there to “incorporate Black Lives Matter and other social justice movements into [Omaha Public Schools] curriculum to address trends their students are exposed to on a day to day basis.”
“Why would [Omaha Public Schools] want to insert this hatred into their curriculum?” asked Baker. “Why would they want to teach children to hate; to teach children of color to hate white people and teach white students to hate themselves?”
All very good questions we’ll probably never get answers for since the district is in full lock-down mode on the subject.
Baker tried repeatedly to speak with someone. He finally received a call from Monique Farmer, director of communications who provided a statement and declined Baker’s invitation for the superintendent to come on his show due to his busy schedule—even though Baker offered open dates for the next three months. The statement from the district was full of flowery speech making the whole thing sound like a non-issue. But they know it is a big issue and this is a big story.
The most recent riots in Milwaukee are just another example of the end result of the kind of “teaching.”
If you are told your entire life you will never amount to anything because you’re black and that white people oppress you, then you’re going to start to believe white people are the cause of all your problems. It worked very well for Adolf Hitler when pitting the working class against the Jews—propagating the largest and most heinous redistribution of wealth in modern history.
Is this really what parents want their children learning in school? Do we want the future of our nation to learn that rioting and violence is okay if you’re angry; stealing is okay if someone has more than you; that your color determines whether you will succeed; and if you’re white you are always the “bad guy?” This is not how you promote unity in a united nation under God. But for the architects of BLM, that is the objective. After all, the best way to conquer a people is to first divide them.
According to teachers and staff they are being bombarded with Black Lives Matter propaganda points; bringing in speakers that proudly proclaim “we’re going to challenge your beliefs.” That seems to fit with Ms. Freeman’s cover photo on her Facebook page that states, “My goal is for us all to get uncomfortable.” Many teachers are very uncomfortable.
The school district sent an email to Baker stating, “You continue to reference updates to the curriculum to incorporate ‘Black Lives Matter propaganda’… OPS social studies curriculum has not been adjusted to include the information you have referenced.”
The agenda doesn’t have to be physically added to the curriculum to be propelled in the classroom. According to the class description provided by Omaha Public Schools, that is exactly what the intent of the presentation was and many teachers are feeling pressured to do it.
“These teachers are terrified,” said Baker. “They’re terrified they will lose their jobs if they don’t comply.”
Considered fly -over country, Nebraska is a red state filled with cattle farms and corn fields. The Nebraska state social studies standards reflect the very essence of the hard-working families who call Nebraska home. It is a place where American values are cherished and family means everything. Those are the things we should be teaching our children. Milwaukee Sheriff David Clarke expressed this with incredible incite, truth and boldness when he was asked about the riots in his town.
Nebraska isn’t the only state facing this propaganda push. Teachers from other states have contacted Baker expressing the same concerns. Barry Thomas, the man who invited Ms. Freeman to promote the BLM agenda in the curriculum meeting, was recently appointed to serve on the board of directors for the National Social Studies Supervisors Association. It makes one wonder what will be showing up in our children’s textbooks in the next printing cycle.
How Do You Vote for a Buffoon?
http://www.theblaze.com/contributions/trump-needs-the-mother-vote-heres-how-he-can-get-it/
Donald Trump seems to be the topic of every conversation.
Everyone is wondering what he’ll say next—especially those in his campaign who have to run damage control every time he says what he’s thinking before he thinks about what he’s saying. GOP officials and advisors like Ben Carson and Newt Gingrich are urging Trump to stay on message.
“Hopefully,” said Carson in an interview with The Hill. “Donald Trump will soon recognize that if you take the bait every time, you’ll never have a chance to discuss the real issues.”
And that’s what has a lot of Americans frustrated. It is the topic of conversation everywhere I go—in the store, at the gym, my neighbor across the street, even my physical therapist brought it up.
“How do you vote for this guy?”None of these people have any intention of voting for Hillary Clinton but every time they think they might be able to support Trump he opens his mouth again.
It’s like a bipolar epidemic sweeping the country. One day you’re so excited you want to put a Trump sign in your yard and support the “movement” and the next day your determined it’s not even worth going to the polls to vote.
Most of the people I work and associate with are women—specifically mothers. Everyone knows Donald Trump needs the women’s vote, but let’s be realistic; he is not going to get the liberal, feminist vote.
And he shouldn’t want it.
They want what Hillary is offering—or at least they think they do. So there’s no sense wasting time pandering to the “It’s my body” or “equal pay” crowd.
Donald Trump doesn’t need the women’s vote; he needs the mothers’ vote.
If he keeps repeating the things he said in his convention speech, he’ll win them over. But if he keeps trash-talking, taking everything so personally and flailing personal attacks at others, he will ostracize us; and he will lose.
As my neighbor said, “Hillary’s policies and ideals are so bad, if he’d just say nothing at all until November he’d beat her.”
Unfortunately, he just can’t seem to shut up.
Let’s face it, Trump is a buffoon. He is insensitive, crude, rude and often ridiculous. Even his staunchest supporters recognize it. That’s either what they love about him or what they choose to ignore about him. But there’s no sense denying it. It is who he is.
The Republican Party elites are fit to be tied claiming Trump is ruining the party. Newsflash—the party was already ruined. That’s why so many people voted for Trump. They are fed up with the corruption and cronyism from both parties and love the fact that Trump is shaking up the status quo. Unfortunately, he has taken shaking to the extreme and doesn’t seem to know when enough is enough, or how to take the high road on anything. It’s not very becoming for a U.S. president who will represent us to the world.
So how do we vote for him? That’s the big question.
People are hungering, even begging for Trump to give them a reason to vote for him. Just when we think we have one, yep, he opens his mouth again. Trump is his own worst enemy and his own best friend. It certainly doesn’t help that every time he says something offensive the media pounces on it. No matter how much Hillary lies or how offensive she is, the media will always sweep it under the rug. But Trump scratches his nose wrong and its front page news for a week. Like it or not, that is the way it is. Hillary will always come out smelling like a rose and Trump will always come out smelling like manure. So why does he keep saying things the media can jump on and make people want to stay home in November?
My physical therapist—a young single girl under 30—felt sure some independent candidate was going to emerge and take the nation by storm. While that sounds nice it is, unfortunately, not possible. The rigged political party system adopted by the states over a century ago has seen to that. The parties have done their due diligence to keep their power and block any real competition to their two-party system.
So what about the other parties? Most people don’t even know there are any. Many who do are looking in that direction. But the Libertarian Party candidates seem to be just two more establishment cronies under a different name. Then there’s the Constitution Party. Many are considering that route. Darrell Castle seems like a respectable enough man and their platform certainly supports their Party’s name. In our current state of politics he can’t win, but it at least gives us a more favorable option. I have never been one to buy into the “wasted vote” rhetoric. Your vote is never wasted if you vote your conscience. And I’m convinced the whole “wasted vote” mantra is just another way to keep the parties in power by convincing people the two parties are their only real choice. Still, our vote comes with consequences and we should know what they are before we cast our vote.
This election, like no other, is vital to the preservation of freedom. It has come down to one thing—keeping Hillary Clinton out of the White House. Anyone who seriously and honestly cares about this country knows what a Hillary presidency will mean. I’m not talking about the GOP game players. To them it’s simply about power and job security. I’m talking about people who know what freedom means, who care about the future of this country, want to provide for their families, and know that America is the last bastion of hope for the entire world. Those are the people who are truly troubled, because they know a vote for anyone but Trump will only help Hillary. And that’s the rub. For as offensive as Donald Trump is, the thought of Hillary in the White House scares them to death.
If I had my way we would have a four-way race in November with Bernie Sanders, Donald Trump, Hillary Clinton and Ted Cruz. Then everyone would have an opportunity to vote their conscience and values. That is of course, just a pipe dream. So we are back to the same question. What do we do?
My advice is to vote your conscience, whatever it is, accepting the consequences, whatever they may be; and buy stock in clothes pins because I envision a big run on them in November.
What Happens When No Lives Matter
http://www.theblaze.com/contributions/what-happens-when-no-lives-matter/
The day after five Dallas police officers were killed Chelsie Dort, a popular blogger, felt compelled to head to her blog and share her thoughts. What resulted was a powerfully moving article titled “When Suddenly No Lives Matter.”
If you haven’t read it, I urge you to please click the link and take the time. It’s well worth it. What makes the piece so powerful is the perspective from which it is written. Chelsie is white. Her husband is black. They have two children, one from Chelsie’s previous marriage (he is white), and one they had together. Anyone hoping for Martin Luther King’s dream of a color-blind society should be celebrating this beautiful blended family.
But in this world of divisions, violence, hate and anger, it is a very challenging world for a family like Chelsie’s.
It has been heart-wrenching for me to watch the events of the last few weeks unfold. Like Chelsie, I have felt the agony of both sides, and I ache that there are sides to take at all. I wish you could see from my vantage point what this is doing to us as a people and as a country. We are self-segregating ourselves, falling into the divisions others are creating for us. But in reality, we agree much more than we don’t. We all want the same things. We all want our families to be safe, healthy and prosperous; and we all want our husbands to come home at night.
We are all so angry, so sure that our cause is right and that those who don’t agree are our enemy, that we’re not taking the time to listen to each other or really see what’s going on. Yes, there are police officers who make bad decisions. There are even some bad police officers, but most are just people like the rest of us, with families they want to get home to.
Yes, there are people who are using Black Lives Matter to take advantage of the suffering of others in an effort to promote an agenda and deepen the already broadening divisions in our country. But most of the people involved in the movement are just families like us who feel like they finally have a voice.
At the end of the day, they all just want the same thing—to make it home safe.
For just a minute, let’s consider what it’s like to be in each other’s shoes; because we are kidding ourselves if we think the families of Black Lives Matter don’t have a case.
I remember the first time I noticed it. My husband had a good friend, Ron, who served in the military with him. He was black. My husband is white. We were discussing this very issue one day when Ron said, “You just don’t understand.”
“What don’t we understand?” my husband asked. Just then we pulled into a convenience store. Ron looked at my husband and I as we walked in the door.
“Just watch,” he said.
We all walked into the store at the same time but the moment we walked in the clerk’s eyes were on our friend. He paid no attention to us but he was obviously watching, even following behind our friend at one point, until he left the store. It was eye-opening.
Chelsie had her eyes opened in a much more painful way when her husband was slammed to the ground by several police officers, handcuffed and taken to jail for an expired license plate. They impounded their car and it cost Chelsie and her husband $1,400 to get it out.
What would have probably gone as a warning for Chelsie turned into tragic lesson in understanding the life her husband lives, and what her children would most probably face. How does a mother deal with that?
“Doesn’t it bother you,” Chelsie asked her husband.
“I used to be so mad about it,” he answered. “Until I looked into the police officer’s eyes one day and realized he was afraid of me.”
I have a friend who is a police officer who said the same thing. He said law enforcement often uses minor traffic violations to pull people over if they suspect possible criminal activity. For a police officer no traffic stop is ever routine. Everything is life or death. If the driver is a black man the police officer instantly stiffens, wondering if I will make it home that night—not because he’s racist but because he’s scared. Remember, he is in adrenalin-pumping situations with black criminals on an-ongoing basis, so this is definitely going to affect his judgement.
It’s not fair either way. A police officer should not walk up to a car and be afraid; and the person in the car should not have to be afraid. But these are the tragic circumstances in which we find ourselves.
The more we push these divisions the more afraid both parties will be and that will only lead to more unnecessary tension and violence on both sides until no lives matter anymore.
Chelsie’s husband says when he is stopped by the police for any reason he immediately puts his hands up, makes no sudden moves and follows all orders–no matter how unfair they seem.
“Is it humiliating? Degrading? Yes,” he says. “But I am a large black man. He is scared of me. I am scared of him; and I just want us both to make it home safe to our families.”
Being hateful and angry at each other won’t solve anything. If we are serious about wanting things to change then we need to really listen to each other and stop allowing those who would divide us win. We each need to give a little more, trust a little more, and love a little more.
Chelsie’s oldest son is often asked why his brother is black when he is white.
“Because he’s my brother,” he says.
If only we could all have that same pure heart, that same childlike innocence and realize we are all brothers.
What happens when no lives matter? We forget who we are, why we are, and the simple fact that we all just want to make it home safe.
Seeking the American Dream: An Interview with Thomas Peterffy
http://www.theblaze.com/contributions/why-do-americans-hate-america/
As we prepare to celebrate America's Independence I wanted to take a moment and highlight just what it is that makes America so great and why it is worth celebrating. There is no better place to start than with the stories of those whose greatest dream was to come America and sacrificed everything to make that dream a reality. They were seeking the American Dream.
The term "American Dream" was first used in 1931 by James Truslow Adams, in his book "The Epic of America." He defined the America Dream as "that dream of a land in which life should be better and richer and fuller for everyone, with opportunity for each according to ability or achievement. It is a difficult dream for the European upper classes to interpret adequately, and too many of us ourselves have grown weary and mistrustful of it. It is not a dream of motor cars and high wages merely, but a dream of social order in which each man and each woman shall be able to attain to the fullest stature of which they are innately capable, and be recognized by others for what they are, regardless of the fortuitous circumstances of birth or position." (p.214-215)
That was the dream so many people from around the world came to America for and why so many still seek to. Thomas Peterffy is just one the many who made their dream a reality.
Thomas Peterffy grew up in socialist Hungary and grew up dreaming of coming to America and make a better life for himself. In 1965, through many challenges and sacrifices, he finally attached his dream. Five years later, at the age of 26, Thomas Peterffy raised his hand and became a full citizen of the United States. He said he felt an enormous sense of pride, a strong sense of belonging, and the start of a new life.
When Thomas arrived in the United States he spoke no English and had no job. But he learned the language, worked hard, put himself through school and used his talents, skills and knowledge to seek achieve his dream. He began his career as an architect working on highway projects for an engineering firm. In the 1970's he bought a seat on the New York Stock Exchange. Soon after joining the exchange, he began integrating his knowledge of computers with trading and completely changed the market, playing a key role in developing the electronic trading of securities. In 1993 Thomas started his own company, Interactive Brokers, growing it to become the largest U.S. electronic brokerage firm in daily average revenue trades, employing thousands. He has been called the "father of digital trading" and his hard work and dedication has made him one of the wealthiest people in America--a long way from a little boy with dream in socialist Hungary.
And that is why people come to America. That is what is so great about her. It is the dream of being who you want to be and the freedom to pursue it, the freedom to succeed, the freedom to fail, and the freedom to keep the fruits of your labors--the dream of a better life for you and your family.
In 2012, out of concern for the direction our nation is heading, Thomas Peterffy released a video sharing his story. I was incredibly inspired by his video and especially his courage to share it and even spend his own money to get it in the media so Americans all over the country could see it.
Inspired by his story, I reached out to Mr. Peterffy and had the opportunity to interview him. The full interview is below. This first part was an introductory message Thomas included. The definitions and explanation were so well articulated I decided to include those comments as well. My questions are in bold. Mr. Peteffy's responses are in blue.
Interview with Mr. Thomas Peterffy-- June 2016
Before I get into these questions I need to explain to your readers what Socialism is.
Capitalism is well understood as a free market economy where people are free to acquire, own, transact and accumulate property including land and operate businesses.
In Communism only the Government owns property and runs businesses. For individuals it is strictly forbidden to own any property other than personal property the nature of which is very limited and clearly defined.
Socialism is any state between the two. It was originally defined as the way to transfer society from
Capitalism to Communism in a controlled and gradual fashion.
Initially Socialism is soft, aside of some regulations and some limits on businesses people are mostly free. Then it slowly hardens, there are more and more regulations, tighter limits on the size of businesses, higher taxes, large firms and farms are nationalized.
As it hardens further, the sizes of houses and apartments any family may occupy is strictly limited in square feet, income tax rises to close to 100% above certain income levels, no private business may have more than x employees, all larger businesses and lands are owned by the government. This progression can be observed over the past 15 years in Venezuela.
Relatively small differences in living standards suddenly loom very large. Can you afford a car?
Buy new shoes? Can you afford to eat meat twice a week or only once a month?
Society separates into two classes, the enforcers and their spies and the people. The enforcers who work for the government, police or state defense forces get the cars, shoes and the meat.
What was it that led to your decision to come to America and why were you so committed and passionate about that decision?
I grew up in hard Socialist Hungary.
People lacked incentive to do productive or creative work because it was illegal to reap a reward.
Society vegetated on a substandard level, travel to the West was illegal, and people were prisoners of the State. I would read whatever I could about the West and America. The insanity of our self-imposed suffering for so called social justice did not make any sense to me.
What did you feel America could offer you? Do you feel America still offers those same things today for others coming to the United States and/or those born in the United States?
The freedom to create a better life, to get a job and excel by thinking smart and working hard, to learn a trade, to learn how to run a business and to become part of it or to start my own.
Yes, it is still possible for a new immigrant to become successful in America but it is harder and takes longer. With the possible exception of the software business there are many more regulations a new entrepreneur must comply with and potential success is less rewarding because it is socially frowned upon by many onlookers.
When did you become an American citizen and how did you feel when you received citizenship?
Five years after I came I became a citizen and felt an enormous sense of pride, a strong sense of belonging, the start of a new life at 26.
What are your concerns for the direction America is heading today?
I refer you back to my discussion on Socialism.
67% of Americans under 40 think positively about Socialism. Academia, Hollywood, the media and many politicians teach and reinforce that belief.
With many new laws and regulations we have started on the road of Socialist transformation and the path of least resistance is to continue.
It is difficult to get young people to think about this rationally.
They do not seem to realize that in a free economy people can spend their money on whatever they choose and the people who satisfy their needs end up with the money. As long as everybody strives to create goods and services we are a rich and happy nation.
Introduce regulation and free stuff and people will stop striving, less and less will be produced to distribute. Welcome to hardening Socialism.
What influence did your mother and father have on your life?
In school I was taught all about equality and social justice and at home they pointed out the inevitable disastrous consequences. This daily experience after many years formed a strong conviction in me and I hope to be able to convince others to fight to avoid it.
What do you feel is the American Dream and do you feel it can still be attained today?
Young people dream about the kind of life they would like to lead but their potential to achieve that is usually limited in most countries by laws and regulations or social or religious barriers.
These barriers, still today, exist only to a much lesser extent in America. There is comparatively a great deal of individual and economic freedom to achieve those dreams by those who are really determined.
As an immigrant from a socialist country, what counsel or advice would you give Americans today?
Elect politicians who will appoint federal judges who’ll uphold the Constitution and defend individual and economic freedom.
What do you think makes the United States unique from other countries around the world?
The Constitution of the United States with the Amendments and the Bill of Rights.
What is your greatest concern for the future of our country?
Meddling with the above.
What do you think is the most important thing Americans should know and understand today?
That while technology and scientific knowledge advance all the time, human nature has evolved over tens of thousands of years and for all practical purposes remains stable over many life times.
Let’s look back into the past and repeat what has worked and keep away from what hasn’t.
The Presidential Election Doesn’t Matter as Much as We Think
Blaze Article http://www.theblaze.com/contributions/the-presidential-election-doesnt-matter-as-much-as-we-think/
A few months ago, when people still felt like they had real choices for who would be the Republican nominee; I received an email from a friend in Hawaii. She was lamenting that “a handful of voters in Ohio” would determine the election and felt her vote just didn’t matter. The day after the Indiana Primary when Donald Trump was declared the presumptive nominee, a lot of people were feeling that way. I know there are still millions of Americans who think Trump will fix everything and just as many who think he will be our ruin. And while all the talk in the media (in between horrible tragedies and cataclysmic events) is the presidential election, the fact is, it really doesn’t matter as much as we think.
Every time I turn on the radio or get on the internet I am flooded with “support Trump,” “Never Trump” and multiple opinions on what we need to do to beat Hillary Clinton – as if who wins the presidency is either our salvation or our doom.
Our Founding Fathers never intended for one person or one office to have this much power or influence in our lives. And the fact is, no matter how much power President Obama or those that follow him assume; they are not as powerful as we think. And they know it. That’s why they continue to dismiss, discredit, and disregard the Constitution – when they’re not able to alter it that is. The power of the Constitution is that it limits the power of the government.
As Thomas Jefferson said, “In questions of powers, then, let no more be heard of confidence in man, but bind him down from mischief by the chains of the Constitution.”
If we spent as much time focused on our state and local elections as we do the presidential election, our country would be in a much different place.
No matter how Ohio or any other state votes in November, we still have a voice and it is much more powerful and much more influential than our vote for president. It is our vote for our governor, our state legislatures, city and county officials and the most powerful elected office in the country – the school board!
Yes, I said the school board. Your school and your town have more influence in your life than anyone in Washington. Your property taxes are decided by your city and/or county and the schools in your town receive a huge portion of those property taxes. How much money is collected, how it is spent, when your trash is picked up, the condition of your roads, what they teach in your schools, that is all decided right in your own county.
There was never supposed to be a Department of Education, Agriculture, Land Management or the myriad of other “departments” we now have. The federal government was never supposed to interfere with our schools, dictate what we plant and when, or how we use our land. Those are all local issue and we need to decide them locally. When we look to the federal government to solve our problems, we are asking for bigger government. The more we look to Washington the bigger Washington gets. If we really want to tackle an out of control federal government, we need face it head on where we are. If the governors and state legislators of our nation rose up and said, “enough” we would start to see some real change. The problem is most of our governors and state legislatures have neither the knowledge of Constitution to wield it, nor the courage to stand up and do it. And when someone who does possess that knowledge and courage decides to run for office, we are too busy focused on the presidential election to notice. But they are out there, right now, in our own states, counties and cities.
I had the opportunity to meet one last January. His name is Johnathan Johnson and he’s running for governor of Utah. Johnathan is the chairman of a very successful and lucrative national company. He doesn’t need a job, he’s not looking for popularity and he doesn’t need money. He and his family have been very happy living a quiet life. So why would he run? According to his incumbent opponent, Johnathan is just a guy who wants power. But doesn’t that make Governor Herbert the guy who just wants to keep the power? I’m sure the governor is a nice man, like a lot of nice men and women but we don’t just need nice. We need courage. We need knowledge of and respect for the Constitution.
When I asked Johnathan why he decided to run he said, “I think there are things in Utah that we need to address like federal lands, common core and federal overreach. Anyone more concerned about reelection, who wants to remain popular and stay on office won’t tackle these kinds of issues I think we need to.”
Johnathan and his wife, Courtney, and their five young sons are crisscrossing the state because they are tired of the status quo. His campaign has become a family affair and they know the importance of family. Common core is a family issue just as much as federal lands and federal overreach are. We need more men and women elected to office who realize that and have the courage to stand up, speak out and do something about it.
I urge you to find out who the Johnathan Johnsons are in your state and communities. You do have a voice, a powerful one, and your voice does count! No matter who is running for president, vote in your primary and don’t stay home in November. Go out and vote for your local offices. That is the vote that has the greatest impact on your family and influence on our nation. After all, your governor, mayor, or state legislator may be running for president someday and your vote could stop someone like Obama in their tracks. How’s that for power?
A President Can’t Save America, but Mothers Can
This is an interesting day for America. Citizens across the country are coming to grips with the outcome of the Republican primary. For some it is a day of rejoicing in the belief that the silent majority finally won. For others it is a day of mourning in the belief that our country has been dealt a fatal blow. I completely appreciate, empathize and even identify with both feelings. Today, however, I want to share a nugget of truth and message of hope with all Americans regardless of how you may feel today. The truth: A president can’t save us (no matter who he or she is). The hope: Mothers can!
We spend so much time looking to the federal government to solve our problems that we have completely overlooked where our real power lies – with us. America wasn’t founded by a government. It was founded by families – like yours and mine – uniting together in communities, who then formed a government, organized into states and united those states into a union. But it all started with families. Families founded America and it is families that will save her.
If we want to know what America will look like in twenty years, look at the homes of America today. Are you concerned? You should be.
I have a friend who teaches at Schofield Army Barracks in Hawaii. The school, like many around the country, no longer requires the students to pledge the flag. But my friend, being the patriotic soul she is, had her fifth grade class come in every morning and recite the Pledge of Allegiance. She said the students grumbled wanting to know why they had to pledge the flag when none of the other kids had to. All I could think when she told me this was that the parents of those children put their lives on the line every day for that flag and everything it stands for. If those children don’t have love and appreciation for the flag what hope do we have in America? It is only a matter of time before we lose freedom altogether.
Liberty begins at home and if we don’t start there, nothing else we do will matter. No election, no law, no president can save us.
Mothers, we have to teach our children to love liberty because no one else will. The proof is in the fact that thousands of millennials are enthusiastically supporting a self-proclaimed socialist for president – the recognized leader of the free world. How is this possible? It is because our schools are not teaching liberty. Society, schools, the media, even churches that once taught these things are no longer doing so and in many cases, teaching the exact opposite. The result is that we now have a nation of children and young parents who wonder why America is so special and what there is to love it.
Home is the center of society and at the center of the home is a mother. That mother is more powerful than any president for she is literally shaping the future. Winston Churchill said, “There is no doubt that it is around the family and the home that all the greatest virtues, the most dominating virtues of human society, are created, strengthened and maintained.”
If our schools aren’t teaching our children about America’s history and heritage, then we need to be doing it. If the media is not going to present truth and facts, then we need to. If liberty is to prevail, if America is to prosper, then we need to foster a love of liberty in our home.
In his book, The Silent Majority Survival Handbook, Peter Wolf says parents must become the first line of defense. “Parents,” he said, “need to devote time and effort to teach their children that America is a good country and to teach them about American heroes and history. They can front-load liberty loving values through strong association and participation in the 4th of July and Memorial Day activities. Parents need to teach their children how liberty and personal responsibility are linked and how tyranny can evolve without them.”
What the future will look like for our children and grandchildren is all being decided right now in homes and families across the country. If freedom is what we want to see, then we need to nurture and foster the principles and ideals of freedom in our homes. HomeMakers for America has many resources to support you from our Patriot’s Reading List to the Hearthstone Education Plan. Libraries of Hope has a beautiful collection of stories to promote a love of liberty in the hearts of our children. In the Constitution has outstanding resources that teach children the Constitution in a very engaging way – even hosting a Constitution Bee with cash prizes.
If you want short term results that wax and wane in four year cycles then put all your hope in the presidential election. But if you want real solutions with lasting results, then we need to look to the homes of America because that is where the real for America lies.
Mothers, we are determining the future right now in our homes today. No president can do that. And no president can save America. But we can!
http://www.theblaze.com/contributions/a-president-cant-save-america-but-mothers-can/
I'm a military wife, mom of 8 and an unabashed proud American loving Homemaker!
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Exclusive: First pictures takes you inside the reissues 'The Collection 1989-2003'
25 years ago on this very day, 16th October 1989 saw the release of Lisa's phenomenal single, 'All Around The World' in the UK. To date this song still remains as Lisa's biggest selling hit record across the globe. Arguably a perfect song from start to finish, deservedly became Lisa's 1st number one record in the UK. Undeniably, this song has been cherished by millions of fans around the world and in many ways it formed the soundtrack of our formative years.
In celebration of this milestone year Lisa's first five studio albums (under the Arista record label) are getting a complete make-over with a luxurious re-issue package to be released next month. The initial project was masterminded by Tom Parker in collaboration with Edsel Records and the Demon Music Group. Without any doubt no fan will be disappointed, these reissues have all been individually assembled and produced with such meticulous attention to detail, making the overall package an extremely tempting buy for any die-hard fan. It really is a 'must-have' item for the collection.
Inside 'The Collection 1989-2003' each 2CD+DVD package includes the re-mastered album plus rare tracks, 12"mixes plus videos, live footage, specially recorded interview with Lisa and accompanying 28-pages of photos, memorabilia, lyrics and brand new sleeve notes.
With the compliments of Demon Music Group and Edsel records, we can now exclusively share the very first peek inside these amazing re-issues offering just a small taster and sample of what to expect when you open up your forthcoming copy next month.
Lisa's1989 debut album Affection marked the arrival of a defining voice in British soul, meeting with major critical acclaim and over five million sales worldwide. The unforgettable #1 All Around The World features alongside the club classics This Is The Right Time and What Did I Do To You?, the uplifting Live Together and the US hit You Can't Deny It.
In 1991, Real Love found Lisa fulfilling the promise of her debut with an equally compelling, still more diverse set of songs. An instant contemporary classic, the poignant All Woman features alongside the seductive Time To Make You Mine and the irresistibly uplifting hits Set Your Loving Free and Change.
Perhaps Lisa's most personal work to date, 1993's So Natural included such hits as In All The Right Places (a classic collaboration with the legendary John Barry), the dance floor favourite Little Bit Of Heaven and the intimate title track. Additionally this re-mastered deluxe edition is expanded to feature the Top Ten hit Someday (I’m Coming Back) from The Bodyguard soundtrack,
In 1997, Lisa returned to the top of the charts with her self-titled fourth album. Lisa Stansfield produced such irresistible cuts as The Real Thing and a consummate cover of the Barry White classic Never, Never Gonna Give You Up, while infectious bootleg update of People Hold On hit the Top Five and became the first of four consecutive US club #1s.
Lisa's final album for Arista, 2001's Face Up was both forward-thinking and as timeless as ever, exploring contemporary beats with the garage hit Let's Just Call It Love and mining more classic grooves such as the latter-day Northern Soul favourite 8-3-1. This re-mastered deluxe edition also includes previously unavailable 2003 remixes of the #1 hit All Around The World.
People Hold On...The Remix Anthology
The unmistakable voice of Lisa Stansfield has been a constant presence on the dance floor ever since the breakthrough success of People Hold On with Coldcut in 1989. Over the years since, her classic tracks have been remixed by the cream of clubland from Frankie Knuckles, Masters At Work and David Morales to Ashley Beedle, Massive Attack and The Orb. This re-mastered three-disc anthology Lisa Stansfield - People Hold On…
The Remix Anthology brings together over thirty sought-after and previously unheard full-length mixes, with a 28-page booklet featuring photos, memorabilia, lyrics and brand new sleeve notes.
And in case you have not yet pre-ordered a copy of the boxset, you can follow these links:
The fan bundle (with limited edition 12" SIGNED by Lisa) can only be pre-ordered if you are based in the UK or Ireland via: myplaydirect.com
Otherwise pre-order the albums individually or as the complete box set here via: Amazon UK. They will ship to most countries outside of the UK.
What the Collection really looks like out of the box
Lisa signing 400 limited edition 12" 'Classic Lisa' which celebrates the legacy of the late, great Frankie Knuckles with superb remixes Change together with the previously unreleased Classic Club Mix of Never, Never Gonna Give You Up.
Andrew Jensen
Well this is all very exciting, the preview pictures look brilliant!! It looks like every attention to detail has been thought of with these re-issues and Lisa's back catalogue is getting the TLC it so richly deserves. Can't wait to receive this box set, thanks for posting these pics Bev! x
Bev - lisastansfield.net
Indeed, there will be many happy fans out there once they've received the complete set!
This is D + liked, Bev as always with news, like all :)
We aim to please... .)
Paulus Aarts
The box set collection is really something to look forward to. It looks stunning. I wish for a rainy day on the day of delivery, I'll put on a pair of baggy trousers, snuggle up on my couch, a nice snack to go along with it. Let the party begin!
Emely & Claus link
Thank you Lisa for your wonderful songs <3
STEPHANE MORIN
Hello Im from Montréal, Québec (Canada)
Where Can I Get a copy of the boxset? Will the DVDS play in any dvd player or just the UK?
Rennie link
FANTASTIC!! ^_~
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#TBT - Today we Pay homage to the undisputed soul crooner, Mr Barry White
During the peak of his career, Barry White earned gold and platinum discs for his worldwide record sales in excess of 100 million, Lisa often publicly supported his work and in 1992 whilst on a promotional tour of the U.S, Lisa and Barry re-recorded a version of her biggest hit, "All Around The World" for a small documentary piece for the UK TV show Rapido. This version was included on her single, "Time to Make You Mine" in March 1992. All royalties from this recording were donated to the charity Trading Places. Later that same year in November it was also included on Barry's album, 'Just for You'.
Barry White (here with Lisa) was born September 12th 1944 and died July 4th 2003
In 1999 Lisa teamed up with Barry once again to record "The Longer We Make Love". This track featured on his album, Staying Power and was later released as a single in selected European countries on July 19th 1999. It was also issued as a promotional single in the U.S, however the song failed to make any impact on the charts.
In May 2003, Barry suffered a stroke while waiting for a kidney transplant, which he needed due to complications from years of chronic high blood pressure. Sadly he passed away on 4th July 2003 in Los Angeles.
Below is our featured clip of Lisa and Barry's initial meeting in L.A back in 1992 and their memorable duet together performing 'All Around The World'.
Two of my favorite singers, really lovely to watch two people having fun like this.
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Home > World > Russian mall fire: Five killed, 25 feared dead
Russian mall fire: Five killed, 25 feared dead
AFP13 March 2015 12:40 AM GMT
A massive fire destroyed a shopping mall in the capital of the Russian republic of Tatarstan, killing five people, local officials said today, adding that the toll could be far higher.
The three-storey building in Kazan, 800 km (500 miles) east of Moscow, was destroyed in the blaze that broke out on Wednesday, sending towering plumes of black smoke into the air, television images showed.
The state-owned TASS news agency quoted a police source as saying five people had died and 55 were were injured. A total of 650 shoppers were rescued from the fire that razed a surface of 4,000 square metres (43,000 square feet).
The emergencies ministry said the blaze had been extinguished but added that up to 25 more corpses could be under the rubble.
There were likely panicked shopowners who rushed past police into the burning centre in a bid to save their merchandise.
Some 500 police officers and riot police had been deployed to seal off the building on Wednesday. Those who are missing "are employees who have not contacted their relatives yet," Igor Panshin, director of the emergency situations ministry in the Volga region, told TASS.
"A roof collapsed, there are people under the rubble, there are no survivors," he said.
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Two Countries at War
Thanks to Dr Russ Harris who wrote the best seller ‘The Happiness Trap’ and also trained me as an ACT Therapist. (Acceptance & Commitment Therapy) This is an excellent metaphor for Acceptance.
Imagine you live in a small country that shares a border with a hostile neighbour. There is long-standing tension between the two countries. The neighbouring country has a different religion and a different political system, and your country sees it as a major threat. There are three possible scenarios for how your country can relate to its neighbour.
The worst-case scenario is war. Your country attacks, and the other one retaliates (or vice-versa). As both countries get pulled into a major war, the people of both nations suffer. (Think of any major war, and the huge costs involved, in terms of life, money and wellbeing.)
Another scenario, better than the first but still far from satisfactory, is a temporary truce. Both countries agree to a cease-fire, but there is no reconciliation. Resentment seethes beneath the surface, and there is the constant underlying threat that war will break out again. (Think of India and Pakistan, with the constant background threat of nuclear war, and the intense hostility between Hindus and Muslims.)
The third possibility is genuine peace. You acknowledge your differences, and allow them just to be. This doesn’t get rid of the other country, nor does it mean that you necessarily like it or even want it there. Nor does it mean that you approve of its politics or religion. But because you’re no longer at war, you can now use your money and resources to build up the infrastructure of your own country, instead of squandering them on the battlefield.
The first scenario, war, is like the struggle to get rid of unwanted thoughts and feelings. It’s a battle that can never be won, and it consumes a huge amount of time and energy.
The second scenario, a truce, is definitely better, but it’s still a long way from true acceptance. It’s more like a grudging tolerance; there’s no sense of moving forward to a new future. Although there is no active warfare, the hostility remains, and you are resigned to the ongoing tension. A grudging tolerance of thoughts and feelings is better than an outright struggle, but it leaves you feeling stuck and somewhat helpless. It’s a sense more of resignation than of acceptance, of entrapment rather than freedom, of being stuck rather than moving forward.
The third scenario, peace, represents true acceptance. Notice that in this scenario your country doesn’t have to like the other country, approve of its being there, convert to its religion, or learn to speak its language. You simply make peace with them. You acknowledge your differences, you give up trying to change their politics or religion, and you focus your efforts on making your own country a better place to live. It’s the same when you truly accept your uncomfortable thoughts and feelings. You don’t have to like them, want them, or approve of them. You simply make peace with them and let them be. This leaves you free to focus your energy on taking action—action that moves your life forward in a direction you value.
Be Mindful! – The key is to look at your thoughts for what they really are… just thoughts. No need to dwell on them, act on them, fight with them or try to avoid them. Take notice and let them go, like cars passing your house! Love & Laughter Always! – John
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LuGus Studios
Serious about games
Games can be more. At LuGus Studios, we create games and experiences that are clever, beautiful, innovative and fun. Our games incorporate art, education, culture, medicine, history, science, and all things that go beyond mere entertainment.
With our team of talented professionals, we use innovative technology to a great extent and can efficiently develop games for a variety of platforms such as PC, Mac, mobile devices and the web.
LuGus Studios foresees a bright future for the burgeoning Belgian game industry and would love to help put it on the world map. Our team members share a passion for gaming, creative processes and a commitment to our industry.
We provide quality research and pre-production work, including detailed design documents, visual concepts and prototypes.
We master the complete production process from concept to full 2D or 3D product, including level design, animations, rendering and gameplay implementation.
We continue to support our products after delivery or release. This includes ports to new platforms, development of new content and adjustments to existing content.
Being a leader in innovation requires top notch research. With its strong research partnerships, LuGus Studios is always pushing game technology in new directions.
Games for clients
Liftoff Academy
Creature Of Habit
Battle for Donetsk
Pinball Planet
Runes of Brennos
Zeppe & Zikki Search Game
Super Gerrit
Kika & Bob season 2 games
We have years of experience providing top notch game development services to companies around the world. Here are some of our clients and partners
Kevin Haelterman
Tom Lissens
Kasper Adriaensen
Tom Schaessens
Jan Discart
Chiel Cauberghs
LuGus Studios has a team of talented core members and freelancers. Our team consists of people who are not just good at what they do, but who also have motivation, passion and a professional attitude.
If you want to be part of this awesome team, you can send in your curriculum along with a sample of your work. All enquiries will be treated in the strictest confidence.
Connect Now:
Co-Founder & Business Developer
About Kevin Haelterman
Kevin Haelterman has been active in the games industry for many years, first as a gamer and hobbyist, later through his degree in Graphic Design: Game & Digital Design and finally on a professional level as co-founder of LuGus Studios.
During his studies, Kevin takes his first steps in the industry with a stimulating internship at Vertigo Games. Two months after graduating, his desire to build a game studio of his own comes to life with the founding of LuGus Studios, where his team and him have created successes such as Battle for Donetsk and Liftoff. He has made it his personal mission to contribute to the creation of a Belgian games industry. In this light, he has been teaching Future Plan at the Game App Designer course at Syntra and has been a board member of the Flemish Games Association (FLEGA) since 2016.
Co-founder & Artist
About Tom Lissens
A creative jack of all trades who took his first steps in the fine arts, until he enrolled in an architectural and interior design class and ended up in the games industry through his academic degree in Graphic Design: Game & Digital Design, after which he became co-founder of LuGus Studios.
During his college years, Tom was able to combine his passion for art, design and 3D development, which opened the doors for an insightful internship at Vertigo Games. After graduating Tom founded LuGus Studios, where his team and he have created successes in B2B and B2C, with games such as Battle for Donetsk and Liftoff, and have become well known within the Belgian scene.
Programmer & Technical Artist
About Kasper Adriaensen
Kasper is a game development generalist who entered the game industry in a roundabout way. After his studies, where he obtained a Master in Linguistics, he started focusing full-time on his hobby. He is largely self-taught, having started out with a profound interest in game narrative, later dabbling in various artistic disciplines, and finally learning the ropes of the more technical aspects of building a game. After working on a number of personal projects, he is now proud to call himself a member of the LuGus team.
About Tom Schaessens
Tom has a Master’s degree in Computer Science: Multimedia. He’s a programmer with an healthy interest in the mathematical side of game mechanics and an unhealthy interest in JRPGs. He completed his Master’s thesis and internship at LuGus Studios, making tools for painterly animations in games. His paper received the “AMDO 2014 Most Suitable for Commercial Application” award. A year after his successful internship he got the opportunity to be part of the LuGus team.
About Jan Discart
Jan’s interest in game development began during the years of his Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science when built a custom editor for creating 2D RPG games. While doing his Master thesis at LuGus, he researched the viability of the web browser as a potential platform for multiplayer games. Afterwards, he took up a degree in game development at HoWest, where he further honed his programming and gained new skills such as 3D modeling and texturing. Maintaining contact with LuGus ultimately led to the opportunity to become a part of this great team.
About Chiel Cauberghs
Inspired by games, Chiel got his Bachelor’s degree in Communication & multimedia design with a focus on Game Design. During this course he found his passion in art in which he improved his skills in concept art, 3D modelling and texturing. Chiel can easily adapt to certain workflows and knows his way in multiple software packages like: Photoshop, Maya, Zbrush, Substance Designer & Painter, Unity… After his internship and several freelance jobs at LuGus Studios he pretty much forced 😉 his way in and became a part of the team.
Feel free to give us a call or drop us a line by e-mail. We are happy to give you a hands-on demo of our projects.
Koningin Astridlaan 35
3500 Hasselt, Belgium
info@lugus-studios.be
LuGus Studios BVBA
VAT: BE0839.288.243
Send the message
Copyright © 2019 LuGus Studios. Powered by WordPress and Agile
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Donaghey Orthodontics
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For many teens, braces are a rite of passage: They're one more example of the changes adolescents go through at this time — along with growth in stature, edgier tastes in clothes and music, and an increasing degree of self-awareness. But is there any particular reason why orthodontic appliances and teenagers seem to go together? In a word: Yes.
There are several good reasons why adolescence is the optimal time for orthodontic treatment, though occasionally even earlier intervention is called for. One has to do with the development of the teeth: There's no set timetable for every kid, but generally by the age of 11-13 the deciduous (baby) teeth have all been lost, and the permanent ones have largely come in. This is the time when we can go to work correcting the problems that cause a bad bite (malocclusion), improper tooth spacing or poor alignment.
Orthodontic problems don't improve with age — they simply become harder to treat. It's easier to treat many orthodontic problems during adolescence because the body is still growing rapidly at this time. Whether we use standard braces, or appliances like palatal expanders, we can create an improved appearance and function in a short period of time. In later years, when the bones of the face and jaw are fully developed, many conditions become more difficult (and costly) to treat.
There's even a social element to getting orthodontic treatment in adolescence. If you need braces, you're not alone! Chances are you'll see some of your classmates in our office, and you may even make new friends as you go through the process together. When it's done, you'll have a smile that you can really be proud of, and benefits that will last your whole life.
The Orthodontic Treatment Process
What can you expect when you come in to our office for treatment? It all depends on what kind of treatment you need. The first time you come in, we will take pictures and radiographic (X-ray) images of your mouth, and possibly make a model of your bite. Then, we'll develop a treatment plan. It may involve regular braces, with or without elastics (rubber bands). We might also recommend that you use a specialized appliance for a period of time. Here are some of the most commonly used orthodontic appliances:
Metal Braces need no introduction. But you might be surprised to find they're smaller and lighter than ever. They may even offer some customized options, like colored elastic ties on the brackets.
Clear Braces feature brackets made of ceramic or composite materials which blend in with your teeth, making them harder to notice. They're suitable in many situations, but they cost a little more.
Clear Aligners for teens is a series of removable, clear plastic trays that gradually straighten teeth as they're worn (for 22 hours per day). Formerly recommended only for adult patients, they now come with special features — like compliance indicators to tell how often you've been wearing them — that make them appropriate for teens in some situations. The advantage: they're practically invisible!
Other orthodontic appliances may be recommended in some cases, where major tooth or jaw movement is needed. They can range from small devices that fit inside the mouth to external headgear. But don't worry: You'll get used to them, and they're temporary — but they provide a long-term benefit in a short time.
How Long Will I Wear Them?
There's no one answer that fits everyone: It all depends on what we need to do in your individual situation. Generally, however, the active stage of orthodontic treatment lasts 6-30 months. Afterwards, you will wear a retainer for another period of months. When your orthodontic treatment is complete, the new smile we've worked together to create will be yours for a lifetime.
Moving Teeth with Orthodontics Moving teeth orthodontically is a fascinating process by which the bone that surrounds and supports teeth is gently forced to remodel itself. Orthodontics moves teeth with a careful manipulation of force that guide the teeth into a new, improved position and better equilibrium. Light, constant forces applied to the teeth allow them to move in a predictable manner and direction... Read Article
Main Office - 4626 Bit and Spur Rd., Mobile, AL 36608 Phone: 251-342-3188
Satellite Office - 17530 Jordan St., Chatom, AL 36518 Phone: 251-342-3188
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CLINICAL ADVISORY BOARD
INFLUENZA - OVX836
Dr. Bernard FRITZELL,
Member of the clinical Advisory Board
Dr Bernard Fritzell is an independent consultant with 35 years' experience in the clinical development of vaccines
Major Contributions to the understanding of polysaccharide conjugate vaccines including Haemophilus influenza type B, meningococcal group A & C and Streptococcus pneumoniae and associated vaccination strategies
Contributions to the clinical development of Hepatitis B, rabies and live attenuated Influenza vaccines,
Established relationship between antibiotic resistance and SP serotypes
Prior experience:
President of BFL councils, Bordeaux France (2012-present)
Vice president international scientific and clinical affairs, Wyeth/Pfizer Vaccines, Paris, France (1999-2012)
Former Chairman of the clinical working group of the European Vaccines Manufacturers (EVM) (1996-2010)
Vice President, Clinical Research and Medical Affairs, Chiron Vaccines, Siena, Italy (1996-1999)
Head of clinical research in the medical department of Pasteur-Merieux-Connaught, Paris, France (1993-1996)
Director Clinical Research, Connaught Laboratories Inc., Swiftwater PA, USA (1991-1993)
Director Clinical Research, Pasteur-Mérieux Sérums et Vaccins, Marne-la-Coquette, France (1989-1991)
International Medical Director, Institut Pasteur Production/Pasteur Vaccins, Marne-la-Coquette France (1983- 1989),
Governmental position at the ministry of health in Somalia (1981-1983)
Medical Attaché to the French Embassy in Beijing, China (1978-1979)
Education:
Degree in Statistics applied to Epidemiology and Clinical Research, University Pierre et Marie Curie, Paris VI, France
Degree in Health and development, University of Bordeaux, France
Degree in Tropical diseases, University of Bordeaux, France
Medical Degree, University of Bordeaux, France
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Tag Archives: keith urban
Keith Urban Announces New Leg of “Graffiti U World Tour”
After circumnavigating the globe with more than 70 concerts in seven countries, Keith Urban is extending his Graffiti U World Tour with additional dates this summer and fall. Keith will bring his revamped show—new music, new lighting, new production—to 13 festivals and fairs, including stops in Chicago, Cheyenne, Louisville and more. “I’m always looking for…… MORE
12 of Our Favorite Photos From CMA Fest’s Nissan Stadium Shows, Including Carrie, Maren, Keith, Miranda & More
Another CMA Fest is in the books . . . thanks goodness we had cameras everywhere. Check out 12 of our favorite photos from CMA Fest’s Nissan Stadium Shows, including Dierks Bentley, Carrie Underwood, Chris Janson, Dan + Shay, Tim McGraw, Eric Church, Keith Urban, Luke Bryan, Luke Combs, Miranda Lambert, Thomas Rhett and Maren…… MORE
Photo Gallery: CMA Fest’s Nissan Stadium Night 4 With Maren Morris, Keith Urban, Luke Bryan, Chris Janson & More
Thousands of fans packed Nissan Stadium during Night 4 of CMA Fest on June 9 to see scheduled performances by David Lee Murphy, Chris Janson, Old Dominion, Maren Morris, Keith Urban and Luke Bryan, with a surprise appearances by Trisha Yearwood. Check out some of our favorite photos from Night 4, courtesy of photographer Tammie…… MORE
Vote Now: CMT Reveals 5 Finalists for Video of the Year at CMT Awards
CMT revealed its five finalists for Video of the Year at the CMT Awards on June 5: Carrie Underwood – “Cry Pretty” Kane Brown – “Good as You” Keith Urban feat. Julia Michaels – “Coming Home” Kelsea Ballerini – “Miss Me More” Luke Combs – “She Got the Best of Me” Fan voting via Twitter…… MORE
CMT Awards Add Performers Luke Combs, Keith Urban, Zac Brown Band, Sheryl Crow, Brett Young & More
CMT announced an additional round of artists scheduled to perform at the CMT Awards on June 5: Boyz II Men, Brandi Carlile, Brett Young, Keith Urban, Little Big Town, Luke Combs, Sheryl Crow, Tanya Tucker, Trombone Shorty and Zac Brown Band. Previously announced performers include Carrie Underwood, Dan + Shay, Kane Brown, Kelsea Ballerini, Luke…… MORE
Listen to Keith Urban Reminisce About Lost Love in New Single, “We Were”
Keith Urban has returned to country radio airwaves with the release of his new single, “We Were.” Penned by Eric Church, Jeff Hyde and Ryan Tyndell, the new tune reminisces about lost teenage love with lyrics like “We were a couple of line steppers who just couldn’t wait to step over the line / Never…… MORE
Watch Keith Urban Team With Irish Singer/Songwriter Foy Vance for Acoustic Performance of “Burden”
It’s safe to say Keith Urban is on the Foy Vance bandwagon. Keith surprised viewers during the 2019 ACM Awards in April when he performed a live cover of little-known song, “Burden,” which was penned by Irish singer/songwriter Foy Vance. The tune, which originally appeared on Foy’s 2016 album, The Wild Swan, had a profound…… MORE
Nominations Revealed for 2019 CMT Music Awards, Including Carrie, Miranda, Luke, Jason, Kacey, Kelsea & More
The nomination for the 2019 CMT Music Awards have been revealed for its star-studded show on June 5. Brothers Osborne, Maren Morris, Miranda Lambert and Zac Brown Band lead the pack with three nominations apiece across the eight categories. Artists with two nominations include Brandi Carlile, Carrie Underwood, Cole Swindell, Dan + Shay, Dierks Bentley,…… MORE
Keith Urban, Lady Antebellum, Kane Brown & More to Headline “Good Morning America” Summer Concert Series
Lady Antebellum, Keith Urban and Kane Brown will head to the Big Apple in the coming months to headline Good Morning America’s Summer Concert Series. Taking place at NYC’s Central Park, the free Summer Concert Series has become a staple of the ABC broadcast. All concerts are free to the public and will take place…… MORE
Keith Urban Shares the Story Behind Recording “Burden” & Working With Producer Dave Cobb for the First Time
In a new video, Keith Urban shared the intimate story behind recording “Burden,” the tune he performed at the ACM Awards on April 7. Penned by Irish singer/songwriter Foy Vance, “Burden” had a profound impact on Keith when he heard it for the first time in March. “We played at the 02 in London and…… MORE
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Tag Archives: Cassadee Pope
Blake Shelton’s Ole Red Nashville to Host 50+ Free Performances During CMA Fest, Including Scotty McCreery, Chris Young, Midland & More
Blake Shelton’s Ole Red Nashville is once again teaming with Spotify to host more than 50 artists during CMA Fest on June 6–9. Ole Red’s “Spotify House” will include an A-list group of performers throughout the week, including Midland, Old Dominion, Lauren Alaina, Hunter Hayes, Lil Nas X, Brantley Gilbert, Maddie & Tae, Scotty McCreery,…… MORE
Reba McEntire, Little Big Town, Loretta Lynn, Dolly Parton, Lauren Alaina & More Donate Auction Items for Girls Rock Camps
Reverb is hosting an online auction that features items donated by Loretta Lynn, Kacey Musgraves, Dolly Parton, Lauren Alaina, Little Big Town, Reba McEntire, Wynonna, Faith Hill, Cassadee Pope, Margo Price, Lindsay Ell and more. Proceeds will benefit 10 Girls Rock camps in the U.S. and Europe, with the goal of fostering music education for…… MORE
Photo Gallery: “ACM TopGolf Tee-Off” Event with Scotty McCreery, Cassadee Pope, Chris Lane, Runaway June & More
More than 20 stars walked the red green carpet before the ACM Lifting Lives Topgolf Tee-Off event on April 6 at Topgolf Las Vegas. Hosted by Scotty McCreery, the event featured performances from Ingrid Andress, Adam Craig, Morgan Evans and Chris Lane. In addition to the aforementioned names, a number of stars were in attendance,…… MORE
Watch Miranda Lambert, Cassadee Pope, Brandi Carlile & Natalie Hemby Join Maren Morris to Sing “My Church” at the Ryman
During Maren Morris’ sold-out show at Nashville’s Ryman Auditorium on March 13, Miranda Lambert, Cassadee Pope, Brandi Carlile and Natalie Hemby surprised Maren by joining her onstage to sing “My Church.” “This moment was not planned but it made my 🖤 explode,” said Maren, in part, via Twitter. Earlier in the evening, Brandi teamed with…… MORE
Charles Esten, Cassadee Pope, Trace Adkins & More to Headline Benefit Concert for Victims of Mass Shooting
ACM Lifting Live has teamed with Borderline Bar & Grill, the site of a mass shooting on Nov. 7, 2018, that left 12 patrons dead, for a benefit concert on Feb. 11 at the Thousand Oaks Civic Center in Thousand Oaks, Calif. Hosted by Charles Esten, the one-night-only concert will feature Trace Adkins, Jimmie Allen,…… MORE
Maren Morris to Headline “Girl The World Tour” With Cassadee Pope & RaeLynn
:Maren Morris announced she will hit the road in March for her headlining Girl The World Tour, which takes its name from Maren’s new single, “Girl.” Kicking off on March 9 in Chicago, the 40-plus-date tour will make additional stops in Nashville, Denver, L.A., Atlanta and more. The tour also makes multiple stops in Europe…… MORE
Cassadee Pope to Drop Sophomore Album, “Stages,” on Feb. 1
Cassadee Pope will drop her sophomore album, Stages, on Feb. 1. The 11-song collection, which was produced by Corey Crowder, features Cassadee’s two most recent singles, “Take You Home” and “One More Red Light.” The new album follows Cassadee’s 2013 debut album, Frame By Frame. “For the first time in my life, I’m confident in…… MORE
Cassadee Pope to Host “Dinner With Your Dog” Event to Benefit Nashville Humane Society
Cassadee Pope—and her dog Cuppy—will host the ninth annual Unleashed: Dinner With Your Dog event at Nashville’s Loews Vanderbilt Hotel on Feb. 2. In addition to a full-course dinner, dessert and cocktails, the event will feature a silent and live auction, doggie catwalk and adoption opportunities. Guests are encouraged to bring their dogs. Funds raised…… MORE
Dates & Cities Revealed for CMT Next Women of Country Tour With Cassadee Pope, Clare Dunn & Hannah Ellis
CMT revealed the dates, cities and venues for its 2019 CMT Next Women of Country Tour that features Cassadee Pope, Clare Dunn and Hannah Ellis. The 11-city tour will kick off on April 11 in Tampa, Fla., making additional stops in Atlanta, Boston, New York and more. On sale dates for tickets will vary by…… MORE
CMT Announces 2019 “Next Women of Country” Class & Tour Lineup
CMT revealed its 2019 Next Women of Country class during its sixth annual showcase at Nashville’s City Winery on Nov. 13. Little Big Town’s Karen Fairchild introduced the 2019 class, which included Anna Vaus, Emily Hackett, Ingrid Andress, Lainey Wilson, Lauren Duski, Leah Turner, Rachel Wammack (pictured), Stephanie Quayle and Tenille Townes. CMT also announced…… MORE
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Education nonprofit sues governor for not paying $20 million to Alaska public schools
May 1, 2019 | ADN | Tegan Hanlon
An education funding fight has boiled over into Alaska’s court system.
An Alaska education group on Wednesday sued the governor and the state education commissioner for not paying the $20 million to public K-12 schools that lawmakers agreed to last year. The lawsuit was filed in Anchorage Superior Court.
The group, Coalition for Education Equity, argues in the lawsuit that the executive branch has violated the Alaska Constitution by withholding the one-time payout of $20 million that the Alaska Legislature appropriated to public schools last year, months before Republican Mike Dunleavy was elected governor.
The $20 million is on top of the $1.2 billion in state money allocated to the schools under the state funding formula for the fiscal year that ends June 30, 2019.
Gov. Dunleavy proposed a supplemental budget bill in January that included canceling the $20 million payout in the middle of the school year. The funds had not yet been distributed to schools, but district officials said they had budgeted for the money. For the Anchorage School District, it means the potential loss of nearly $5.8 million.
If the Legislature chooses not to act on the proposed legislation, the $20 million will be distributed according to law, said a statement from Matt Shuckerow, a spokesman for Dunleavy. Shuckerow said the governor’s office doesn’t comment on pending litigation.
The governor has until June 30 to distribute the money, said David Teal, director of the nonpartisan Legislative Finance Division. That’s later than the money traditionally goes out. The Alaska Department of Education and Early Development usually distributes one-time funding in late January or early February, according to department spokeswoman Erin Hardin.
The Coalition for Education Equity is asking the court to order Dunleavy and Education Commissioner Michael Johnson to release the $20 million to schools immediately. It also wants the court to declare that the executive branch has violated the Alaska Constitution by “impounding” money that the Legislature appropriated last year, the lawsuit says.
That $20 million stems from a budget compromise struck in May 2018. The Legislature passedSenate Bill 142, which included a one-time, $20 million increase to school funding for the current fiscal year. Then-Gov. Bill Walker, an independent, signed the bill into law.
The lawsuit argues that the governor has a constitutional obligation to execute state laws.
“I don’t know what to think of a governor who inherits a budget that was properly passed and refuses to write the checks,” said Rep. Harriet Drummond, an Anchorage Democrat who co-chairs the House Education Committee.
Drummond said it doesn’t appear there’s an appetite among members of the House to reverse last year’s funding decision.
The Alaska Senate on Friday voted 16-4 in favor of an amendment from Sen. Donny Olson, D-Golovin, that asks the state to immediately pay the $20 million to school districts. The amendment wouldn’t go into effect until Dunleavy signs the budget.
Read the full article on ADN.com here >>
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OECD Home MadagascarAfrican Economic Outlook 2010
African Economic Outlook 2010
ISBN Number:
The 2010 African Economic Outlook finds the continent reeling from the effects of the world’s deepest and most widespread recession in half a century. Many countries are at risk of falling far off track to achieving the Millennium Development Goal of halving extreme poverty and hunger by 2015. Just how hard was the region hit? What are the prospects for recovery? Insights and answers in this edition including an in-depth study of Taxation and Aid in Africa.
It was presented in Abidjan, Côte d'Ivoire at the 45th African Development Bank Annual Meetings, on May 24.
Now in its ninth year, the AEO is the only report on Africa which applies a common analytical framework to every country, every year. This allows for a comparison of economic prospects at the regional, sub-regional and country levels.
Produced by the OECD Development Centre, the African Development Bank and the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa, the AEO is the essential reference on Africa. It benefits from the support of the European Commission.
Browse our new website:
www.africaneconomicoutlook.org
HOW USEFUL IS THE AFRICAN ECONOMIC OUTLOOK FOR MAURITIUS?
MAJOR FINDINGS OF THE REPORT
AEO in 60 secondsAfrica in 2008: Breaking Down the Growth
Policy Brief: Measuring the pulse of Africa in times of crisis
80% of the African countries covered in the AEO registered positive growth in 2009 as compared to only 10% of OECD countries..
Africa in 2008: Breaking Down the Growth
Low Income Countries in Africa still collect less than 15% of GDP in taxes while Upper Middle Income countries collect 35%, almost on par with OECD countries.
Africa is one of the most undiversified regions in the world: approximately 80% of its exports are based in oil, minerals and agricultural goods..
Resource-related taxes have increased from 5 to 15% of GDP over the last 15 years. In Equatorial Guinea alone,over 95% of taxes collected come from natural resources.
HOW TO OBTAIN THE PAPER VERSION OF THIS PUBLICATION?
Readers can access the full version of African Economic Outlook 2010 choosing from the following options:
Subscribers and readers at subscribing institutions can access the online edition via SourceOECD, our online library.
Order from your local distributor
Government officials can go to OLISnet's Publication Locator.
Access by password for accredited journalists
Development Centre
United Nations Economic Commission for Africa
African Economic Outlook 2011 released
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Can we sue our government over 'climate change'?
By Don Aitkin - posted Tuesday, 15 September 2015 Sign Up for free e-mail updates!
On 24 June, a week after the Pope's encyclical on 'climate change', the district court in the Hague, in the Netherlands, ordered the Dutch Government to do more in the fight against 'climate change'. It instructed that Government to revise its current policies to ensure that greenhouse gas emissions were reduced by at least 25 per cent by 2020, not the 17 per cent that is the present goal.
The case against the Dutch Government was brought by the Urgenda Foundation (Urgenda = URGent agENDA), an environmentalist lobby, on its own behalf and in the interests of several hundred persons. The Foundation seems to have come to the view that in the global warming domain the legislature cannot act properly, because there are too many conflicting interests, so the court have to do the politicians' work for them. And so far, Urgenda has had a striking success.
The court decided that the IPCC's AR5 was, as it were, the scientific Bible, and based its resort to science on what it found there. Essentially, the ruling is based on the finding that global warming creates a great danger to the world, and it follows that nations must act to avert the danger. EU environmental law puts the responsibility for maintaining a high level of environmental protection on governments. And the court argues that it doesn't really matter that nothing the Netherlands does will really affect the outcome; what is important is that it does its bit and is seen to do so.
So the uncertainty of the science and the cost of closing down fossil-fuel generation of electricity, for example, are not important in this context. In effect the Dutch court has legislated aspects of the IPCC's report, and by extension international commitments that nation-states make. The Dutch court published its ruling not only in Dutch but also in English (and at the same time), which is unusual to say the least, and implies that it thought the ruling had international implications.
It does, of course, because at the moment the ruling opens up a wide field for 'climate change' litigation, and not just for Dutch companies. In principle, Dutch citizens could call on the courts to deal with international companies, or even nations themselves, if it can been argued that they are contributing to global warming. Perhaps for this reason, the Dutch Government has announced that it will appeal the ruling, and it has until later this month to actually do so.
It will probably argue that the court has usurped the proper powers of Parliament and government, even in the Netherlands, which has a civil law jurisdiction, not the common law tradition on which our system is based. It may also argue that that the notion of 'danger creation' used in the ruling relates to people who negligently create a risk of injury or danger - like leaving a cellar hatch open, as in a celebrated Dutch case - and that widening it in this new fashion is unjustifiable.
There is no real defendant in this climate case, and the court accepted that warming was global, not confined to the Netherlands. In addition, the Dutch Government has so far been following EU law in fixing on its 17 per cent reduction target, so the Dutch court is apparently suggesting that the EU law is wrong. Such a statement would be outside its competence, for EU law is superior.
Much then depends on what the Dutch government decides to do, and on how it argues its case. At stake is not simply greenhouse gas emissions targets, but a broader principle - that it is the legislature, not the courts, which makes law. If the ruling stands it will not be long before other concerned citizen groups take to the courts to have them deal with what some citizens see as unacceptable risks in other areas, like immigration, or genetically modified foods, or sporting injuries. Where does it stop?
Could there be an Urgenda case in Australia? The Urgenda Foundation is apparently assisting citizen groups in other European countries to mount their own cases; it seems that there will be similar cases in Belgium and Norway. There are doubtless environmentalist groups here that will have been encouraged by the Urgenda success in the Netherlands. My understanding is that while it is not impossible (lawyers are clever people), there are real obstacle to a public-interest case of this kind.
Australia's common law tradition means that the law is there to protect the rights of individuals, and can't easily be invoked in the interests of the 'environment' or of some kind of 'public interest'. As is likely to be argued in the Netherlands, the rule in our country is that Parliament is the place where issues about the public interest are argued out. It is hard to see Urgenda or a comparable body mounting a case in Australia comparable to the Dutch one: the plaintiff body would not have 'standing' - that is, it would not be able to show a real connection between itself and the harm alleged to be occurring or to have occurred.
It is possible that a few hundred concerned citizens could try for some kind of 'class action' but again, it is hard to see how they could establish that they had been injured, or might be, by the actions, or lack of action, on the part of the Commonwealth. In Canada a few years ago concerned citizens tried to get the courts to tell the Canadian Government to follow the Kyoto Protocol. The Supreme Court said that the matter of the Kyoto Protocol was 'a non-justiciable political question'. My guess is (no fee sought) that our High Court would say much the same thing, if the matter ever got to it.
I don't rule out some sort of action. It would need to be based on a claim about negligence on the part of the Government, argued to have something like a duty of care to the plaintiffs. Then the plaintiffs would need to show, I think, that the harm of global warming was known, and that the Government should have acted to do something about it, and that what it had done was not enough. Someone who thinks along these lines suggests that the word 'Commonwealth' itself carries the implication that what is done in Australia must be done for the good of all. If that is accepted, then the court in question could look at the 'duty of care' argument.
All this was easier in the Netherlands, where a mixture of civil law and EU law gave the plaintiffs a foothold or two. I don't think those footholds are available in Australia to anything like the same degree. But I wouldn't be at all surprised to see some kind of legal test sought in the next little while. It makes you think, too, that if such a case were successful, why couldn't the sceptical in our community try for a counter ruling, using much the same arguments but using other science to support their case? The answer, again, is that this is the job of Parliament.s!
This article was first published on Don Aitkin.
Don Aitkin has been an academic and vice-chancellor. His latest book, Moving On, was published in 2016.
» On sympathy, empathy and action - July 8, 2019
» How the message gets embedded - June 28, 2019
» Thinking about things - June 26, 2019
» On poverty - June 13, 2019
» An important essay by Richard Lindzen - October 26, 2018
All articles by Don Aitkin
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The morals of making money
By Tanveer Ahmed - posted Tuesday, 4 November 2008 Sign Up for free e-mail updates!
Naïvely, I pursued a career in medicine partly because of money and then spent the past decade plugging away in impoverished public hospitals. Watching my peers in financial circles make squillions has been painful. I pretended not to care, that I was fulfilled in a job with a greater innate value.
But the warm, fuzzy feeling meant to come from helping the poor and the elderly did not dent my mortgage. I felt like a charity worker, receiving pats on the back for sacrifice but little in the way of social status.
Friends who performed moderately in school were earning several multiples of my salary and jetting around the world like kings, cutting deals and winning massive bonuses. The business deity Jack Welch, former chief executive of General Electric, said Wall Street "was the biggest group of mediocre people making the most money".
I yearned to be one of them.
My financial friends - the ones who used to scull beer and headbutt one another playing rugby - have truly inherited the earth. Their world has become our world. Where was my career counsellor when I needed him? Nobody pointed me to the burgeoning boom in global capital and its offshoots. I don't remember hearing the term investment banker until I was 25. Only months ago, I thought subprime was a cut of dodgy meat, and I was on the losing end of the spoils of globalisation, trapped in the dwindling public sector in an age of Milton Friedman-inspired Reaganomics.
And now this. Despite the understandable schadenfreude in seeing them and their rich clients lose millions of their stupendous wealth, the financial chaos underlines how the modern language of money and markets dominates our consciousness.
Money is unique in human affairs. It serves no biological purpose but permeates almost every aspect of modern existence. In its simplest form it is merely a tool. But in its modern form it has become a symbol of secular salvation, of freedom and status, and is even embodied with a moral worth.
Ayn Rand, the libertarian philosopher, said "money demands of you the highest virtues". She defended the moral worth of making money because she admired the productive, rational, independent person. By making money, economic agents spread trade, values and prosperity.
Her views are central because Alan Greenspan, the former governor of the US Federal Reserve, was Rand's most famous ideological protégé. His suspicion of any government intervention in financial markets is believed by many to be the central contributor to the current crisis. Greenspan admitted as much last week. In turn, he showed a resolute faith that those participating in financial markets would act responsibly, imbuing them with a kind of nobility.
While his ideas and the notion of the trickle-down effect failed to spread wealth equitably, the underpinning philosophy was redistributed more successfully. The age of the super rich has devalued many activities whose aims were not solely to make money. Doctors, academics, architects and teachers found themselves in regular states of inadequacy as the new financial class outbid them for houses, schools, space and possessions.
This insecurity occurred while the new masters were proclaiming us all to be much wealthier, perhaps the industry's greatest confidence trick.
Meanwhile, the brightest in science and mathematics soon realised using their skills to engineer derivatives was far more profitable than the actual profession of engineering. Attempting to cure cancer was a painful chore compared with fashioning credit default swaps.
The result is outlined in Warren Buffet's 2005 annual sermon, where his deputy, Charles Munger, said that never before "have so many in the intelligentsia been engaged in buying and selling pieces of paper".
It remains to be seen whether recent events will change these trends. At a careers night I attended earlier this year, almost two-thirds of the year 12 students wanted to work in the financial markets. The combination of technology and deregulation has favoured the industry disproportionately. Unlike previous booms, the financial services boom may leave us with little infrastructure of value. Perhaps its demise is linked to the ludicrous system of rewarding those activities of dubious value, at the expense of things which actually are useful.
Money will remain at the centre of human affairs, weaving its way into matters of love, death and social connectedness. But the return of a sense of scepticism about the innate moral worth of money may be the most valuable outcome of recent events.
First published in the Sydney Morning Herald on October 28, 2008.
8 posts so far.
Dr Tanveer Ahmed is a psychiatrist, author and local councillor. His first book is a migration memoir called The Exotic Rissole. He is a former SBS journalist, Fairfax columnist and writes for a wide range of local and international publications.
He was elected to Canada Bay Council in 2012. He practises in western Sydney and rural NSW.
» Mind games - June 22, 2015
» Muslims must engage with Islamic ideas that give rise to terrorism - October 9, 2014
» Muslim communities must face up to bad apples - August 15, 2014
» Feminism, SUVs and road rage - July 1, 2014
» Psychological harm, anti-vaccination and the Racial Discrimination Act - April 9, 2014
All articles by Tanveer Ahmed
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Home > Services > Social Media
In the past few years, social media has revolutionised the way businesses interact with customers, making it easier to market new products and maintain a brand’s image. By now it’s clear that platforms such as Facebook, Twitter and Google+ should be an essential part of customer service.
This wasn’t always obvious and many companies were very cautious and slow to start using social media, putting in place all sorts of guidelines for their employees about what could be said and how to use these channels. These channels are an amazing tool for reaching customers and the public. Social media accounts can give you a real-time view of how you could improve. Through customers’ comments, you can learn about issues more quickly than ever before.
Social media is fast becoming one of the most effective ways to communicate with your audience, so where do you begin? Which channels do you start with? Facebook, Twitter, Google+, LinkedIn, You Tube. Each channel has its own merits, and it depends on who you are speaking to, so let's take a look at some of the options...
With over 700 million users on Facebook daily, just think about the audience potential for your business. OOSOOM can help brand your page and suggest the types of posts for you to engage with your existing clients and potential new business.
Facebook may be the most widely-used social network, but Google is still the number one visited website attracting over 1 billion visitors per month. So a social network directly tied to the most-widely used search engine on the planet is definitely something worth paying attention to. Since the launch of Google+, the social network has grown to over 90 million users and is the fastest-growing social network to date.
YouTube has become more than an entertainment destination; it has become a platform for businesses and users to show who they personally are and what they can offer to anyone. YouTube has become the world’s largest and most popular online video communities, as it’s became a place for people to connect with each other. Users think of YouTube when they need to search something, becoming the second largest search engine after Google. It’s been so effective that YouTube is replacing TV viewing for many users!
Create a Twitter profile and use Twitter to attract and educate potential customers. Every element of your profile; your photo, header image, bio, and pinned tweet should reflect your business identity and show the world who you are. We can help build a content strategy for your business. Write tweets that spark conversations and keep your audience engaged.
With more than 225 million users worldwide, LinkedIn has become a tremendously popular site for those looking to make professional connections. Business owners are realising the value of the networking site, too. And it seems to be paying off. According to research, 77 percent of LinkedIn members do product or service-related research on the site, and 60 percent of users have clicked on ads on LinkedIn.
OOSOOM can help your business set up these social media channels, providing a digital media strategy that you can take forward and help grow your online audience.
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The Evolution of Cormoran Without Flight
The animals of the Galapagos Islands are famous for some of the most unique in the world. With a high number of endemic species, wildlife vacations in the Galapagos offer nature lovers a glimpse of true evolutionary microcosms. Many species have adapted to this unique and remote environment by developing characteristics that enable them to survive in harsh and diverse conditions. Of all the species, though, few adapt to unusual ways like non-flying birds. The Evolution of Cormoran Without Flight
Flight cormoran
On his exploration of the archipelago, the naturalist Charles Darwin was fascinated by the discovery of a cormorant with wings so that it was not proportional to its size so it could not fly. At that time, Darwin was formulating his amazing theory of evolution and natural selection, and he believed that environmental change could result in the loss of birds’ ability to fly. In modern studies of bird DNA, scientists have discovered that, more than two million years ago, it also underwent genetic changes, resulting in a small wing that made it impossible to fly. The Evolution of Cormoran Without Flight
Story Two Halves
While Darwin observes that many evolutionary changes occur in the archipelago that can contribute to the process of natural selection of the species, scientists have gone a long way to deciphering changes in birds at the molecular level. The Evolution of Cormoran Without Flight
Characterized by its short, thin wings, this is the largest of all world cormorants, and the only one of 40 species that can not fly. However, this is a very strong swimmer, and capable of diving for fish. From his observation of this characteristic, Darwin hypothesized that, with the loss of flight, the bird had developed another skill that enabled it to survive – a process now known as positive selection.
Another possibility is that birds lose their ability to fly just because they have no predators to escape, and they do not need to migrate to breed. It is also possible that the change occurred as a result of a combination of these two reasons.
Through a project in which relationships are found between genetic changes in bird DNA and changes in the structure of certain proteins in the body, scientists identify the existence of a gene called CUX1. The gene structure in the cormoran from the archipelago is different from other species capable of flying, so scientists can conclude that its existence alters the function of certain proteins, which affect the size of the wings. They also found that bird DNA showed high mutations affecting the cilia, which play an important role in the development of skeletal and bone growth. The Evolution of Cormoran Without Flight
Research into whether genetic mutations of the non-operable cormorants shared by other non-flying birds is under way, but the same type of genetic change has been found to cause problems in the development of the human skeleton. Findings from the work of researchers with birds have the potential to lead to new treatments for serious bone disorders in humans.
Discover the unique Cormorent Flightless Cormorant on Holidays in the Galapagos
For those visiting the wildlife resort of Galapagos, more than 1,000 pairs of birds can be seen on the islands of Isabela and Fernandina. They can be observed diving for food around the ocean, using their muscular feet to push them down into the water. A growing (and increasing) population is a reminder that, as always, the Universe is full of surprises.
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3 Main Themes for Learning English Tour to London
When experienced in the right way, the capital of England is one of the vast and profound classrooms. A British study visit to London is the most exciting way for teachers to bring a vast art, history, and cultural pottery to life for students, and the opportunity to stimulate young hearts and minds outside the classroom is fun and privilege. 3 Main Themes for Learning English Tour to London
Learn English Travel to London
However, by its nature, planning an educational visit to London can be a challenge in itself, with the temptation to see as much as possible in a limited time potentially overshadowing the quality of the experience. Signing up a special tour operator to create a travel plan based on the chosen theme is the best way to ensure a focused schedule.
Here are three suggested themes for those planning a visit to the capital on a UK study tour.
Investigating Politics & History at the Parliament Building
The journey to the seat of the state government has the capacity to actualize British political history and intrigues in a brilliant context. Exploring the Houses of Parliament can inspire students in various aspects of the governance process, from the passionate debate, to the thorough responsibility of British citizenship.
Students can explore buildings, meet local lawmakers, visit observation galleries to see Lords or lawmakers in debates, and participate in workshops related to law-making, campaigning, rapid debate and voting. In addition, the area around the House of Parliament is home to a number of other important historical sites, including Westminster Abbey, Jewel Tower and Parliament Square.
Explore the Science & Nature at the Natural History Museum
The Museum of Natural History can be somewhat less prominent than the cultural giants of the British Museum and the National Gallery. Its simpler size does not at all diminish its educational value and provide multi-faceted goals for students of all ages. 3 Main Themes for Learning English Tour to London
The building where the Natural History Museum is located is one of the best neo-gothic architecture examples in the city, and its majestic entrance façade is the realization of Alfred Waterhouse’s vision of creating a ‘cathedral to nature’. An impressive exhibition in the form of an expansive collection relating to nature, provides much inspiration for discussions with and among students.
The nearby South Kensington museum area is also home to some great educational sites, including the Science Museum, the Royal Albert Hall and the Albert Memorial.
Soak in Literature & Drama at the Shakespeare Globe Theater
There is no better way to bring dusty works from Bard into a sharp contemporary context for younger groups rather than through visits to the iconic Globe Theater. A visit to the theater gives young people a deeper appreciation of the timeless text of Shakespeare and lets them see Elizabeth’s theater experience in a new light. Through workshops on site, students can explore aspects of the playmaker’s theme, and learn what goes on behind the scenes to start a theater performance. 3 Main Themes for Learning English Tour to London
The surrounding area also provides an opportunity to visit the original Globe sites and archaeological sites unearthed from the city’s first Tudor theater, the Rose Playhouse.
Basing a UK school tour on a themed trip can provide an excellent foundation in many subjects for young people in an easily digestible, educated and entertaining way.
John Gardiner is Managing Director of The School Travel Company, a tour operator specializing in English study tours for school and youth groups, as well as travel to destinations in Europe and beyond. As a father and avid traveler, John is keen to provide students with a valuable and exciting learning experience outside the classroom. By sharing expert advice with teachers, he allows them to inspire their students and continue their studies into life. 3 Main Themes for Learning English Tour to London
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It's a strange twist of history that the tightest group in the Bay Area scene around the explosive era of 1966-7 became the most forgotten, because they didn't stay around that long: Moby Grape. Most agree that the promotion of the group was way over the top and ineffective (releasing five singles at once) considering the countercultural timbre of the time, and that strongest debut in the psychedelic era by far was tragically bobbled. They unfortunately didn't cut another disc that lived up to the first, and broke up a few years down the road.
Guitarist Jerry Miller did not come out of the folk tradition, unlike key members of the Jefferson Airplane, The Grateful Dead, and Quicksilver Messenger Service. He did, though, have strong Country roots and influences, like out-of-towners The Byrds and Buffalo Springfield. In fact, somebody said (I thought it was Jerry, but he didn't confirm that) that Moby Grape was "The Byrds with The Blues."
Skip Spence (often lumped in somewhat with Syd Barrett and Peter Greene because of his mental anomalies and difficulties) did come out of the folk movement. He'd drifted to the bay area after the military. He played drums on the Jefferson Airplane debut (Jefferson Airplane Takes Off) and then in the Grape he stepped out as a front man and rhythm guitarist, and the author of "Omaha" ("Listen My Friends") their biggest song ever. As Jerry points out in our interview, Skip also co-wrote the great single released on the Airplane's classic Surrealistic Pillow album, "You're My Best Friend." Spence got hospitalized for six months after taking a fire axe to Peter Lewis' door on a speed run; upon his release, he got a small advance from Columbia, bought a motorcycle and went right into a Nashville studio to cut his 1969 solo record, Oar, a commercial flop but a cult classic. It was recut as a tribute record with Robert Plant, Beck, Tom Waits and many other luminaries in 1999 called More Oar. Spence died before its release, in the same year.
All the members of Moby Grape were great songwriters and singers. Peter Lewis played second guitar (he is the son of actress Loretta Young), Bob Mosely the bass, and Don Stevenson was on drums. There have been a number of reunions over the years, with various lineups. Current attempts feature all surviving members, which makes the new Columbia/Legacy compilation, Listen My Friends!, all the more poignant. This is truly rock and roll history: a key group and a benchmark release from the San Francisco Sound that changed music and the country, nay, the world, forever.
Check out the clips on the Listen page, and enjoy this conversation with one of the great West Coast guitar players, Jerry Miller. He's still playing in his native WA state, and he's still got it. continue to interview
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Who am I? Why I am your voice, your right to be heard! Long ago, when there wasn’t much to be said, the cows said moo and the cats said meow, along came our mascot, the goose, and said quack, and someone said quack! And everyone said quack! And along came ‘Quack!’. Textile Institute of Pakistan’s independent student newspaper.
The TIP student newsletter, initiated by Mansoor Qureshi (1999), has been around since before the first batch graduated in 1998. “Weekender”, as it was then called, was indeed popular amongst the relatively small TIP community. However, in the passage of time people seemingly lost interest and the voice faded away. In 2001, it was once again brought to the notice boards by Rabya Shah (2002) as Quack! and has been around since.
Quack! Online was setup in 2003 by Abid Omar to encompass a wider audience and receive feedback from the expanding community of TIPians. Quack! thus became accessible to all. Anyone could write. Anyone could post comments. And yes everyone, and I do mean everyone, was heard!
In just the past eight years, the Quack! website has generated over 8000 articles, 5800 comments where people from students to the president of TIP, have voiced their concerns on issues ranging from Ragging to Snowfall in TIP and their opinions have had a lasting impact on many.
Quack! offers the students, alumni, faculty as well as the management a voice. It is a medium for you to express your opinions. If you wish to be heard, sign up. There’s enough room for everyone.
Contact editors
Quack! Online is brought to you by the people who C.A.R.E.
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Bangai-O Spirits
by Greg Leahy - September 8, 2008, 9:54 pm PDT
Fortune favours the mecha with omni-directional missiles.
Bangai-O Spirits is the latest frenzied offering from Treasure, developers of such action classics as Gunstar Heroes and Ikaruga. Just as was the case for its 1999 progenitor on Nintendo 64 and Dreamcast, Spirits puts players in control of the Bangai-O, a mecha that finds itself constantly under fire from all directions. However, on this occasion Treasure has decided to eschew a traditional progression structure, offering instead a myriad of levels to play from the get-go, with a robust and intuitive level editor opening up the potential to create and play countless more. The result is an intense, eclectic, and wildly creative experience that blends chaotic action with measured strategy to superb effect—a unique package that is only diminished by a certain lack of polish, and the all-too-obvious sense of the DS cracking under the strain of the sheer madness of it all.
Upon booting up the game for the first time, it quickly becomes clear that Bangai-O Spirits was created with no aspirations beyond gameplay. The gloriously explosive world of Bangai-O is never explained or rationalised in any way; in fact, the fourth wall-breaking dialogue during the game's tutorial achieves quite the opposite. Wry self-awareness aside, this section uses a number of simple levels to introduce players to the controls, weapons, and gameplay mechanics that comprise the game's design.
Controlling your (ostensibly gigantic, but very small on screen) mecha is fairly complicated, as it is equipped with a full range of movement through the air and various pieces of omni-directional weaponry. This extensive functionality proves to be a lot for the D-pad and buttons of the DS to handle. As a result, the scheme may take some getting used to before players feel in complete command of the highly manoeuvrable mecha, but the controls are ultimately very effective thanks in particular to a well-implemented auto-aim function.
Bangai-O's weapon types span two categories from which players choose two of each: standard and EX, with some types appearing in both categories. Standard weapons include machine gun-like missile launchers and melee weapons, such as an energy sword and an enormous baseball bat. EX weapons perform charged attacks by consuming a power meter, either releasing an omni-directional barrage of missiles, or performing special functions such as reflecting enemy fire or freezing enemies in place for a short time. Matched up against a wide range of enemy and level designs, this array of weaponry becomes a suite of strategic options for players to employ.
As a product of the gaming minds at Treasure, it will comes as no surprise that deft use of strategy is not the only key to survival in Bangai-O Spirits; twitch reflexes also prove invaluable amid the perpetual maelstrom of ricocheting projectiles, and players are actively encouraged to embrace danger. Close proximity to enemy fire can magnify the firepower of EX missile attacks up to four times the standard full charge, meaning that breaking into the middle of the fray is often the most efficient way to blow away the enemy. Furthermore, damage taken actually replenishes your EX meter, while enemies destroyed by bigger explosions drop higher value pickups (varieties of fruit, naturally) that rack up the score and also fill the EX meter, helping to perpetuate a cycle of destruction.
Once the tutorial levels are out of the way, the game simply leaves you to sample the other 150+ levels on the game card in any order you choose. The levels are grouped into three categories: "Treasure's Best", "Puzzle Stages", and "Other Stages", with the vast majority falling into the latter. Though it is recommended that the levels be attempted in order within each category, this implies the presence of an underlying difficulty curve that is not discernible in reality. Naturally, there are fluctuations in difficulty across the large number of levels, but in general they are all similarly (very) difficult. Moreover, a number of levels are designed to destroy the beleaguered Bangai-O within a matter of seconds if the correct strategy is not executed, so trial and error is unquestionably the order of the day. This is where Bangai-O Spirits' open, bite-sized structure can be a blessing, as there is no need for players to remain stuck on a particularly frustrating level, and the process of learning a level's pitfalls is rarely a prolonged one.
Bangai-O Spirits' refusal to adhere to a structure also brings with it some significant drawbacks. Without unlockable content or some other incentive structure, some may not be sufficiently motivated to explore the depth of the game's content. The game's score system could have provided scope for the creation of tiers of achievement for each level and rewards associated with them (such as the medals found in the Mario vs. Donkey Kong games), but no such structure is implemented. This lack of encouragement is compounded by the absence of a progression of levels, which means players may not become drawn into the game in the same fashion as would be the case if there were the promise of a line of new worlds with different enemies and weapons to encounter in each. Perhaps most surprisingly for a Treasure game, there are no unique set piece boss fights in the game, only a few larger enemies that can be found interspersed throughout the game on numerous occasions.
In lieu of some greater visual, narrative, or other context for the proceedings, Bangai-O Spirits is heavily dependent on the ingenuity of its levels to capitalise on its gameplay potential. Though there are a few designs that seem like throwaway inclusions, the multitude of stages deliver a wealth of diverse creativity. The abstract nature of the game imposes very few constraints on the level designs, leading to stages based inside everything from giant faces to classic arcade games. Some are focused on testing reflexes and endurance, but Bangai-O Spirits is at its best when a level's layout challenges you to devise your own personal solution to a conundrum, one composed of enemy and weapon types rather than moving blocks (though the game has a few of those too). To this end, the various enemies have been designed to force players to grasp the merits of all the different attack types. For example, a wall of missiles will not always destroy everything in its path as some foes can block or deflect them back in your direction; but with a whack of the baseball bat, these enemies can be stunned and left helpless in the face of another volley of explosives.
This union of over-the-top action with strategic combat inside of cleverly-designed levels gives Bangai-O Spirits its unique feel—a game with traditional arcade-style qualities, but with none of those old constraints attached. The chief detraction from the effectiveness of this design is the fact that it is apparently too much of a technical burden for the DS to bear smoothly. The visual style on show may be very simple, with basic backgrounds and uncomplicated enemy sprites of limited animation, but the sheer number of rebounding projectiles that flood the lower screen of the DS frequently has the game juddering along at a reduced pace. The largest EX attacks can literally bring the game to a stop for a second or so before the oversized missile sprites begin to slowly fan out across the screen.
The staccato pace that results is visually unpleasant, but its impact on gameplay is not as significant. The occurrence of slowdown is so systematic as to be reliable; thus, when entering an area about to be filled with missiles, you can prepare for the inevitable change of pace that ensues. Indeed, this phenomenon makes positioning the Bangai-O between lines of enemy fire to deliver the biggest possible EX attack considerably easier, which given the overall difficulty of the game will doubtlessly come as a relief to many. More jarring is the sudden sensation of increased speed felt when the smoke clears after a massive explosion obliterates an entire area. The net result definitely blunts the game's intensity, but Treasure has done a reasonable job of trading off between the amount of on-screen chaos and the playability of the game to find a middle ground that still works well.
Otherwise, respectable use has been made of the capabilities of the DS for Bangai-O Spirits. The soundtrack is unremarkable, but the sound effects help accentuate the action very well, with crunching explosions that lend some much-needed weight to all those sprites knocking into each other. Also, up to four player co-op is possible through multi-card wireless play, but this could not be tested for the purposes of this review. The top screen is left to display the layout of the entire level, which can sometimes prove useful, but the dual screens are really put to use in the game's level editor. The touch screen interface makes editing any of the existing levels or creating entirely new ones a breeze, and with the comprehensive range of tools available, it really is possible to create levels every bit as full-featured as the levels pre-existing on the game card.
In terms of sharing your creations with the rest of the world, Treasure decided to bypass the framework of the Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection by implementing the "Sound Load" function. This involves levels being encoded into a stream of modem-like audio data, allowing the level to exist as an audio file on a PC which can then be distributed online without restrictions. To play a level in this form, the audio must be played into the DS microphone via headphones. This process proves to be inconsistently effective, and thus will likely cause annoyance, but the trade-off for unfettered availability of levels is probably worthwhile; the more gamers are able to play levels created by their contemporaries, the more their own creativity will be spurred.
The level editor proves to be the true heart and soul of Bangai-O Spirits, as it reveals Treasure's rationale behind structuring the game the way they did. Their goal was clearly to create an extensive playbook for gamers to draw upon when devising their own levels. This is not to say that the content on the game card is of scant significance, because the 170 levels are infused with tremendous creativity, provide a lot of entertaining content, and stand up very well as a game in their own right. However, the potential of the level editor means that the Bangai-O Spirits experience is intended to be much more than simply a play-through of a series of levels.
Combined with the unorthodox structure and uncompromising difficulty of the game, this emphasis on user-generated content may limit its appeal to a relatively small audience. But for those who are intrigued by what Bangai-O Spirits has to offer, there is a deep and rich well of truly unique gaming enjoyment to be tapped here. It may not exude high production values, and it lacks the satisfaction associated with the kind of skilfully crafted linear experiences that Treasure is most famous for; but if gameplay is king, then Bangai-O Spirits is a monarchist.
Lastability
The visuals have been kept fairly simple to accommodate astonishing levels of on-screen action, but this only limits the slowdown to manageable levels. All the levels have a generic look owing to the fact that they could have been created from the templates in the game's level editor, but the anime-inspired sprite aesthetic retains a certain charm.
With a soundtrack of forgettable compositions and instrumentation familiar to anyone who has played through Treasure's GBA titles, Bangai-O's music is passable but far from impressive. The sound effects are much more satisfying as they supply the near-apocalyptic events with real punch.
Applying the full range of Bangai-O's functions to the D-pad and buttons of the DS makes for a control scheme that is not immediately accessible, but is ultimately very functional. The effectiveness of the auto-aim function will assuage concerns over the need for analogue control in a game that constantly surrounds you with enemies from all angles.
Bangai-O Spirits' core gameplay is based around creating as much danger as possible, and then encouraging the player to rush headlong into that peril. This proves to be a constant source of amusement in itself, but the set of weapon and enemy designs open up a range of strategic possibilities within this framework which the level layouts then exploit to excellent effect. The result is a diverse range of challenges that require thought, quick reflexes, and persistence to overcome.
170 levels may overstate the lasting appeal to be found in the content present on the game card because many of them are very brief, and the absence of a defined progression or a reward scheme may leave gamers uncompelled to methodically play through them all. However, the challenge on offer can keep committed players occupied for a considerable amount of time, and the excellent level editor and freedom of level sharing promise a world of possibilities to make Bangai-O Spirits worth coming back to.
Bangai-O Spirits is a truly unique package of old-school gameplay sensibilities and a completely untraditional structure. The experience is raw and rough around the edges as the game strains the technical capabilities of the DS, but the superb (and taxing) gameplay design triumphs over the game's shortcomings, and the level editor should entice players to dive into the world of user-generated content in order to further explore its considerable potential.
170 levels provide many and varied challenges
All the tools needed to freely edit, create, and trade levels are available
Excellent core gameplay combines all-out action with strategic combat
Lack of structure and incentives may render the experience less absorbing for some
Systematic visual slowdown
Review Page 2: Conclusion
Jonnyboy117Jonathan Metts, Associate EditorSeptember 08, 2008
Wow, excellent review! The last paragraph is wonderfully written. I think I'm too dependent upon modern tools of motivation in gaming, however artificial they might be (medals?). Still, if there weren't so many other DS game coming out imminently, I would be tempted to get this anyway just to experience the wackiness.
Flames_of_chaosLukasz Balicki, Staff AlumnusSeptember 08, 2008
I echo's Jonny's thoughts about the review.
Even though there can be quite a bit of slowdown however with so much stuff going on in the gameplay you would expect it to chug, the game is really quite an achievement for the DS considering that the specs on the DS aren't that really great to begin with and in a way it's a port of the Dreamcast version in a way.
The only con I can really say about this game is that it is not newbie friendly at all, if you are a person that ignores tutorials or refuse to learn the nuances of the game then Bangai-o will eat you alive in a few seconds.
KDR_11kSeptember 09, 2008
Which deflecting enemies can be hit with the bat? The only one I can think of is the baseball guys, the ninjas seem immune to direct hits with the bat, at very least it doesn't knock them around and going melee with a melee enemy is a bad idea (though sometimes they'll take damage from bullets...).
If you want REALLY annoying slowdown try a bomb battle vs Longai-Os, they cause the same bomb slowdown as you do and with 400 bombs from each of them that's a LOT.
Overall I found the difficulty a bit overstated, I'm a below average player but I can blast through most levels just fine (the Longai-Os still give me trouble though I've figured out you have to give them a facefull of Direct EX when they dash, just need to figure out what makes them dash...). Mind you I can barely get to the second level of Contra 4 and then usually get killed by the aliens, never got through the fourth level of Ikaruga (only get asfar as I do because there's so many lives and continues to go through) and haven't even beaten Metroid Prime's final boss or Ridley in SM.
I think Bangai-O Spirits looks harder than it really is, it gives a sense of accomplishment by feeling like a really hard game but often the right weapon makes a level really easy and a few tries are all it takes to beat a level (with zero penalty to retries). The controls are way overkill though, I can't even consistently toggle the weapon combining (not that I've really found situations where that's needed).
YoshidiousGreg Leahy, Staff AlumnusSeptember 09, 2008
Quote from: KDR_11k
I've been able to stun the ninjabots with the baseball bat on a pretty consistent basis, though for whatever reason it isn't quite a sure thing. If you keep them at bay with fire from a standard weapon like Break, then you can get just the right distance away from them to (somewhat) safely strike them with the bat, which sends them tumbling away, at which point obviously they become easy to finish off however you'd like.
Regarding the difficulty of the game, I don't think the hardest levels in Bangai-O Spirits are extraordinarily difficult compared to the toughest sections in other Treasure games, in fact they may be a little easier. However, in most games you build up to those final stages gradually, whereas here anything past the tutorial can be about as tough as the game has to offer (sadistic user-created levels aside). So as an overall experience I would say that Bangai-O Spirits is a pretty difficult, but the main reason why I refer to the difficulty as "uncompromising" is that the game makes no attempt to ease you into things outside of the very basic tutorial section.
UltimatePartyBearSeptember 09, 2008
The ninjabots don't seem to get stunned by the bat while they're either swording or dashing. You can deal with them easily enough by circling them, anyway. It's only in tight spaces that they're truly threatening. Mostly, they're a problem because they dash to the front of the fray and block all your shots, defending everything behind them, and if you forcefully stop shooting at them, they charge in and cut you to pieces. It seems to me that you have to shoot at them so they deflect, get close to them, then stop shooting and back away. If you got close enough, they'll dash at you. Then you have to nail them with the bat the moment they stop dashing to attack you. There's just a few frames between the end of the dash and the moment the sword comes out. I haven't had much luck doing the reverse, i.e. catching them after they put away the sword and before they dash.
Quote from: Yoshidious
(sadistic user-created levels aside).
Does that mean you finally got mine to work?
Quote from: UltimatePartyBear
Haha, actually that was not in direct reference to your creations as I still haven't had any luck with those yet. I honestly don't know why I can't get things to load in certain cases; for instance, I managed to load up almost all of the designs from the IGN developers contest with very little trouble, but most other stuff has been very difficult to get to work. I will keep trying though, and maybe if I can find a more suitable pair of headphones that would help too. Also, I'll probably get around to designing some of my own now that I've pretty much completed all the levels on the game card and the ones from the IGN contest.
I had some concerns about the compression and low bitrate messing things up, but since they work for me I thought that wasn't an issue after all. They may be harder to get to work than raw wav files, but even higher bitrate mp3s would be way too big to upload here, let alone uncompressed files.
Tuxedo.BondSeptember 25, 2008
Is this like a good version of a Mobile Suit Gundam game minus the story?
It has nothing to do with Gundam, in fact you'll hardly even notice that it involves giant mechs. Geometry Wars is probably closer to it. You're one shooty thing in a maze (or open space) full of enemies, most of which shoot mass amounts of bullets and you blast them with liberal amounts of bullets.
Genre Shooter
Developer Treasure
Release Aug 12, 2008
Publisher D3Publisher
Release Mar 19, 2008
Rating 7+
Bangai-O Spirits [DS]
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The annual conference of Eurodoc ''Excellence in Research – the Young Researcher's Perspective '', 2-4 April 2008, Fribourg, Switzerland...
The annual conference of Eurodoc ''Excellence in Research – the Young Researcher's Perspective '', 2-4 April 2008, Fribourg, Switzerland
The annual conference of Eurodoc (www.eurodoc.net) took place 2nd-4th of April 2008, in Fribourg, Switzerland.
This major European gathering of young researchers and policy makers was co-organised by CSWM, the scientific collaborators of Fribourg University, and Actionuni, the Swiss Researchers’ Association. Eurodoc is the voice Ph.D. candidates and young researchers in Europe; it is a permanent partner of the European Union and of many European nations.
A large number of experts and organizations from the fields of politics, science and educational administration, higher education, and private companies contributed to the conference.
Mauro Dell’Ambrogio, Staatssekretär for Education and Research of Switzerland gave an opening address. Further speakers included Nationalrat Jaques Neirynck, member of the Swiss National Parliament, Daniel Höchli, Director of the Swiss National Science Foundation SNSF, Detlef Niese, Novartis, and Katrin Maes from the League of European Research Universities LERU.
In two workshops, delegates and participants discussed policy recommendations on “Massification of Higher Education and Research Excellence in Europe” and “The European Charter for Researchers and The Code of Conduct for the Recruitment of Researchers and Research Excellence”. The conference finished with a round table on the question „Which working conditions do young researchers need?"
At the General Assembly that took place directly after the Eurodoc conference, a new board has been elected. The new President of Eurodoc is Karoline Holländer, doctoral candidate at Flensburg University, Germany. Karoline, mother of a four year old son, was managing director at “euro-pan Services GmbH & Co. KG” (2003-2004). Now she is focussing on her PhD thesis on “Paying professors by performance”. As newly elected president, Karoline will do her best to further strengthen the position of Eurodoc as the voice of Europe’s doctoral candidates and young researchers and as a well-recognised stakeholder in European Research Area and European Higher Education Area in the coming year.
The composition of the newly elected Board is the following:
President: Karoline Holländer (Germany)
Vice-president: Paulo Silva (Portugal)
Secretary: Brigita Serafinaviciute (Lithuania)
Treasurer: Jan Holecek (Czech Republic)
Member: Stephan Kurz (Austria)
Member: Aurelien Lamy (France)
Member: Dmitri Teperik (Estonia)
The General Meeting admitted four new members (Cyprus, Finland, Georgia, FYROM) in the federation, bringing the membership to a total of 32 countries represented in Eurodoc. Possible venues for the 2009 edition, to be selected shortly, include Czech Republic and Slovakia.
The relevance of Eurodoc and of the community it represents is witnessed by the increasing recognition of young researchers as core stakeholders and partners in policy debates and actions at the national and European level during the last period, and is expected to rise significantly over the next years.
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About Chanukah: a Blog by Party Judaica LLC Celebrate with Meaning
The meaning of Chanukah has been written about by many authors. If you are new to this holiday and are looking for some stories about the meaning of the Holiday of Lights, Party Judaica LLC is offering a few new ways to look at the history and celebration traditions of this beautiful holiday. Follow us! Chag Sameach (which means: "Happy Celebrating!" in Hebrew) If you would like to write about your Chanukah celebration experience, we'd love to hear from you! Let's make this world a reacher place together!
The story of Chanukah, also known as the Festival of Lights, begins over 2,000 years ago, when the Jews were…
Hanukkah, also said to be Chanukah and Hannukah, is the Festival of Lights, celebrated by the Jewish people in the month of December. It is celebrated as a holiday in the memory of a miracle that occurred as only one day’s worth of oil for lighting the Menorah lasted for eight full nights, when the Maccabees liberated the Holy Temple in Jerusalem.
Why and How we celebrate Hanukkah and where to find supplies?...see more
Hanukkah, also said to be Chanukah and Hannukah, is the Festival of Lights, celebrated by the Jewish people in the…
By definition, mosaics are the art of creating images by putting together different materials of different colors. Historically, materials that were used include colored pebbles, stone, colored glass, and ivory. We suggest that using chocolate coins for this art form is a lot of fun and makes for a great Chanukah activity. This article is about the history of mosaic art....see more
About the origin of mosaic and mosaic art Mosaic art is characterized by small, mostly flat pieces of colored stone or…
Traditional colors of Hanukkah and its associated products are blue and silver. It involves different blue shades the most evident clarification for Hanukkah blue and silver or white colors is the Israeli flag. The blue stripes on the flag represent those imprinted on Tallitot, a Jewish traditional shawl that is being used to wear in weddings, synagogue, and bat mitzvahs....see more
Traditional colors of Hanukkah and its associated products are blue and silver. It involves different blue shades the most evident…
Make #GeltArt part of your Chanukah celebration tradition! See why and how! There are many things that are considered a form of art and that contribute to the making of art. Art has always been an important element of society and a way of expressing oneself. Art enriches the culture and civilization as a whole. There’s no doubt that art helped shape the entire human history and civilization....see more
Art has always been an important element of society and a way of expressing oneself. …
Upon reclaiming the Temple, the Maccabees had to re-purify it, beginning with re-lighting the “eternal light” with oil. This special light was meant to never go out, but throughout the area, only one small jar of kosher oil could be found. They used the oil, even knowing it would only last for one day. According to legend, however, the oil continued burning for eight days: the same amount of time it would take for someone to travel and bring back more oil. Continue reading about Chanukah candles...see more
Upon reclaiming the Temple, the Maccabees had to re-purify it, beginning with re-lighting the “eternal light” with oil. This special…
How to Play and Where to Find Dreidels?...see more
Dreidel is a traditional Jewish game played during the eight-day holiday Hanukkah. Also known as sevivon in Modern Hebrew, dreidel…
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PBSC STUDENT WINS NATIONAL PSYCHOLOGY RESEARCH AWARD
When more than 10,000 psychologists and students convene at the 126thannual American Psychological Association convention in San Francisco on August 9, Jose Martinez will represent Palm Beach State College with distinction.
The Dr. Floyd F. Koch Honors Collegestudent will attend as the first-place winner of the 2018 Anastasi Research Paper and Conference Travel Scholarship Competition, sponsored by Psi Beta, the community college national honor society in psychology. In addition to the all-expenses-paid trip to the APA convention, Martinez will receive a $600 scholarship award. He is the first PBSC student to enter the competition, let alone win it.
This is just the latest academic accomplishment for Martinez. This past spring, his research was accepted by the Georgia Undergraduate Research in Psychology Conference at Kennesaw State University. Solely representing Palm Beach State at the GURP conference, Martinez presented his research at a poster session, alongside undergraduate and graduate students from southeastern colleges and universities.
The research paper looks at the relationship between dispositional narcissism and adult attachment styles. According to Ted Cascio, Ph.D., PBSC psychology professor and Psi Beta chapter advisor, it’s well-established that narcissists often don’t fare well in long-term romantic relationships, but researchers had yet to thoroughly investigate whether narcissists have different types of attachment patterns with their partners. As defined by the APA, attachment patterns are established in childhood, between a child and its caregivers, and set the general tone for future relationship patterns and interactions.
“All of Jose’s research has involved human subjects, and that’s advanced for a sophomore,” said Cascio, who advised Martinez on the project. “Not only was his research sophisticated in terms of its methodology, he’s also been doing advanced statistics, correlation and multiple regression analyses involving moderators. Jose is very far ahead in terms of his research experience and the skill set that he has now.”
Martinez will also present his research at the Psi Beta Student Research Poster Session at the APA convention and will receive an award certificate at a reception sponsored by Psi Beta and CABE, the APA’s Committee on Associate and Baccalaureate Education.
Dr. Ted Cascio and Jose Martinez celebrate at PBSC’s 2018 spring commencement ceremony. Martinez, who finishes his A.A. degree this summer, will attend FSU this fall.
“This is a national competition, so I had high hopes, but realistic hopes,” Martinez said. “Being able to place anywhere in the top five would be an amazing accomplishment, and then I got the email saying that I won first place! This is a huge opportunity for me. I feel really proud to represent Palm Beach State College and proud of what I was able to do as a student here.”
Martinez graduates this summer with an Associate in Arts degree and heads immediately to Florida State University as a junior psychology major. During his time at PBSC, he held offices in the Phi Theta Kappa Honor Society and the Honors Student Advisory Council, was co-president of PBSC’s Psi Beta chapter, and was one of six PBSC students named to the 2018 All-Florida Academic Team. He also received two PBSC awards this year, one for his service to the Psi Beta chapter and the Psychology Award for his research.
A graduate of William T. Dwyer High School in Palm Beach Gardens, Martinez, 20, was drawn to psychology when as a new PBSC student, he was struggling to decide on a career path.
“I realized I had a social science prerequisite that I needed to fulfill, and I thought, ‘why not take psychology’—it has to do with the mind and cognitive processes, so I figured I’d try it out,” Martinez said. “Taking Professor Cascio’s class, just his manner of teaching is what really ultimately captured my interest and told me inside, ‘you know what, this is what I want to do.’ Whether it’s as a researcher or a professor down the road, I want to be in the field of psychology. I cannot say enough good things about [Cascio]. He’s not only been an amazing mentor, but I feel like he’s a good friend, too. He goes out of his way to help me. I’m thankful to have encountered Dr. Ted.”
Martinez also recognizes the generous support of Professor Gisela Diaz, Ph.D., who oversaw another research project he completed, titled “Examining the Effects of Sleep Disorders on the Academic Life of Students in a Community College Setting: A Qualitative Study.”
Diaz, who started PBSC’s Psi Beta chapter on the Palm Beach Gardens campus in 1998, notes that research is not generally done at the community college level, so having a student motivated to tackle both quantitative and qualitative approaches is unusual. “Identifying a problem, collecting data, analyzing the data and writing a report in a 16-week term is very difficult, but Jose had the initiative and drive. He is one of our academic stars.”
Cascio agrees. “Jose has shown more initiative than I’ve ever seen in an undergraduate student. His work ethic is almost supernatural. He epitomizes the American dream—somebody who works hard and can be successful and make things happen as a result of that hard work.
“To me, the big story here is that Jose has deftly and cleverly leveraged the resources of the College to improve his situation, which has forced me to try to keep up with him and his aspirations. His story highlights that excellent opportunities exist for meaningful research collaborations between students and faculty, which can help students achieve extraordinary things.”
The encouragement of his professors has no doubt contributed to Martinez’s achievements and positive outlook.
“Now when I encounter a struggle, whether it’s in class or just in life in general, I don’t like thinking that I can’t overcome it. There is a saying I tell myself: If it can be attempted, it can be done. Another thing that I tell myself is ‘why not me.’ I’ve received scholarships that I didn’t think I would get. I applied to the Honors College when I didn’t think I would get it in, and I submitted my research to different conferences. I might not get in, but at the end of the day I tell myself, ‘why not me’ and go for it.”
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