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The Province of Munster
Munster is derived from ‘Mumhan’ means The Land of Mumha’s men’, Mumha being a Celtic goddess. It was anglicised with the Norman suffix “-ster” being a Nordic word for ‘state or land’. So you end up with Munster.
These are some of the most significant landmarks, buildings and monuments in the province of Munster
One of the most picturesque churches in Ireland Gougane Barra is a wild and wonderful glaciated valley located in the Shehy Mountains in West Cork. The name translates to mean 'Finbarr's Rock' and [...]
Gougane Barra, Ballingeary. County Cork 6th-19th centuriesemmet2019-06-25T18:10:43+00:00
An island paradise, World famous gardens & Friendly seals Garinish Island, also known as 'Ilnacullin' or 'Island of holly’ in Irish, is located in the sheltered harbor of Glengarriff in west Cork. The [...]
Garinish Island, Glengarriff. County Corkemmet2019-06-25T18:21:26+00:00
Probably Ireland's most beautiful tea room Deenagh Lodge was built in 1834 and is located at the entrance of Killarney National Park beside the river Deenagh. It was built using the local river [...]
Deenagh Lodge, Killarney National Park. County Kerry 1834emmet2019-06-25T19:07:35+00:00
Ireland's best preserved medieval banqueting hall - Party time! This area of Ireland preserves many of Ireland's surviving finest medieval halls that were used for banqueting and entertainment. Desmond Hall is regarded as [...]
Desmond Hall, Newcastle West. County Limerick 13th-15th centuriesemmet2019-06-25T18:46:52+00:00
One of the largest stone circles in south west Ireland located in a town This stone circle is located 5 minutes walk from the centre of Kenmare town. It is locally known as [...]
Kenmare Stone Circle, Kenmare. County Kerry c.1000-2500BCemmet2019-06-25T18:49:19+00:00
The original and possibly the most spectacular tourist trail in Ireland The Gap of Dunloe has been one of the most popular tourist destinations in Ireland for 250 years. This stunning mountain pass [...]
The Gap of Dunloe. County Kerry est 1760emmet2019-06-25T19:02:19+00:00
Staigue Fort, Sneem. County Kerry c.300-400AD
Gaze at World class stars within one of our greatest prehistoric forts Staigue Fort in Irish translates to 'the fort of the steps' or possibly 'the windy fort'. It is located in a [...]
Staigue Fort, Sneem. County Kerry c.300-400ADemmet2019-06-25T19:05:10+00:00
Attacked, burnt and destroyed with everyone killed (except one!) This National Monument is Roscrea Castle. This was originally the site of a motte and bailey fortification known as King John's Castle. It was [...]
Roscrea Castle, Roscrea. County Tipperary 1281emmet2019-06-25T19:57:25+00:00
One of Ireland’s finest portal tombs with 2 capstones still intact
Knockeen Portal Tomb, Knockeen, County Waterford The Knockeen Dolmen is one of Ireland’s finest portal tombs. It stands 13-feet high in the middle of a hedgerow bordering two fields and dates from c.4000 BC. It differs [...]
One of Ireland’s finest portal tombs with 2 capstones still intactemmet2019-06-21T10:25:53+00:00
Gaulstown Dolmen, Gaulstown. County Waterford 3000-4000BC
A 6000 year old stunner & The Hill of the Hag This national monument is the Gaulstown Dolmen. It is located in the south of County Waterford and dates to c.3000-4000 BC. It [...]
Gaulstown Dolmen, Gaulstown. County Waterford 3000-4000BCemmet2019-06-25T20:48:35+00:00
Cahir Castle, Cahir. County Tipperary 1142
One of Ireland's largest and most impressive castles, Excalibur & Cromwell Cahir Castle was originally a Gaelic stronghold that belonged to Conor O'Brien, Prince of Thomond who built a fortification here on an [...]
Cahir Castle, Cahir. County Tipperary 1142emmet2019-06-25T21:14:46+00:00
Ross Castle, Killarney. County Kerry c.1460
Killarney's finest & most romantic castle Ross Castle was built sometime in the late 15th century by the O'Donoghue Ross chieftains and was surrounded by a fortified bawn, curtain walls and circular flanking [...]
Ross Castle, Killarney. County Kerry c.1460emmet2019-06-25T20:56:00+00:00
Swiss Cottage, Cahir. County Tipperary 1812
One of the finest examples of a 'cottage ornee' in Europe Fantasy houses such as Swiss Cottage were popular with the gentry in the 19th century where they could play at being peasants [...]
Swiss Cottage, Cahir. County Tipperary 1812emmet2019-06-25T21:02:03+00:00
Clare Abbey, Ennis. County Clare 1195
The 1st, largest and one of the most important Augustinian houses in Ireland Clare Abbey was founded in 1195 and is situated on an elevated site beside the Fergus River. This was the [...]
Clare Abbey, Ennis. County Clare 1195emmet2019-06-25T21:18:59+00:00
Old Head of Kinsale Lighthouse, Kinsale. County Cork 1853
This stunning lighthouse has a dark side The Old Head of Kinsale Lighthouse was built in 1853 and is located in one of Ireland’s most spectacular coastal areas. This large promontory juts out into [...]
Old Head of Kinsale Lighthouse, Kinsale. County Cork 1853emmet2019-06-25T21:22:14+00:00
Charles Fort, Kinsale. County Cork 1682
One of the largest and finest British military installations in Ireland Charles Fort is a classic example of a late 17th century star-shaped fort and is was one of the largest British military [...]
Charles Fort, Kinsale. County Cork 1682emmet2019-06-25T21:30:54+00:00
A UNESCO World Heritage Site, Extreme monasticism & Star Wars Skellig Michael or ‘Michael’s Rock in the Sea’ is an incredible UNESCO World Heritage Site. It is located 13 km off the Kerry [...]
Skellig Michael. County Kerry b.6th -13th centuriesemmet2019-06-25T21:35:22+00:00
The Clock Tower, Waterford City 1863
One of Waterford's most famous landmarks with great timing The Waterford Clock Tower was built in 1863 when Waterford was Ireland's busiest industrial port. It had the largest ship building yards in the [...]
The Clock Tower, Waterford City 1863emmet2019-06-26T06:00:54+00:00
The Medieval Museum Waterford, Waterford City 2013
Ireland’s only purpose-built medieval museum This stunning new museum was built in 2013. It is Ireland’s only purpose-built medieval museum and is also the only building on the island to incorporate two medieval [...]
The Medieval Museum Waterford, Waterford City 2013emmet2019-06-26T06:02:35+00:00
The Port of Waterford Company Building, Waterford City 1785
Inside it has one of Ireland's most exquisite Georgian staircases The Port of Waterford Company Building was built in 1785 for the Morris family of Rossduff to the designs of Waterford's famous Georgian [...]
The Port of Waterford Company Building, Waterford City 1785emmet2019-06-26T06:30:06+00:00
The Bishop’s Palace. Waterford City 1741
One of the finest early Georgian houses in Ireland containing the oldest piece of Waterford Glass The Bishop’s Palace in Waterford City was built in 1741 to the designs of the famous architect [...]
The Bishop’s Palace. Waterford City 1741emmet2019-06-26T09:57:03+00:00
The Cashel Palace Hotel, Cashel. County Tipperary 1732
A palatial home, Secret paths & The original hops used for Guinness The Cashel Palace Hotel was built in 1732 by Archbishop Theophilus Bolton and was designed by the famous architect Sir Edward [...]
The Cashel Palace Hotel, Cashel. County Tipperary 1732emmet2019-06-26T10:57:57+00:00
Waterford’s oldest pub and one of Ireland’s most famous music bars
T & H Doolan's Pub is located in George's Street in Waterford City. It was established in 1710 and is Waterford’s Oldest Tavern. The wall in the lounge is actually much older being part of [...]
Waterford’s oldest pub and one of Ireland’s most famous music barsemmet2019-06-21T10:26:05+00:00
Dromoland Castle, Dromoland. County Clare 15th century foundations
The O'Briens, The rich & famous and The Hill of Litigation Dromoland Castle is one of the most beautiful and desirable 5* hotels in Ireland. It is believed that this location was the [...]
Dromoland Castle, Dromoland. County Clare 15th century foundationsemmet2019-06-26T15:02:15+00:00
The Rock of Cashel, Cashel. County Tipperary 10th-14th centuries
Europe's largest collection of medieval & Celtic architecture in a single site The Rock of Cashel is one of the most striking monuments in Ireland and has some of the finest collections of [...]
The Rock of Cashel, Cashel. County Tipperary 10th-14th centuriesemmet2019-06-26T17:13:38+00:00
Gallarus Oratory, Dingle Peninsula. County Kerry b.6th-12th century
One of Ireland's most iconic and beautiful buildings The Gallarus Oratory is one of Ireland's most iconic buildings due to it's simple and stunning shape that has been compared to that of an [...]
Gallarus Oratory, Dingle Peninsula. County Kerry b.6th-12th centuryemmet2019-06-26T21:20:00+00:00
The River Shannon (224miles from Cavan to Limerick)
The longest river in Ireland & Great Britain has an ancient monster in it! The River Shannon is 360 km (224 miles) and is by far the longest river in Ireland and is [...]
The River Shannon (224miles from Cavan to Limerick)emmet2019-06-26T21:47:40+00:00
Carrantuohill Mountain, County Kerry
Ireland's highest mountain Carrantuohill in co. Kerry is Ireland's highest mountain standing at 1,038 m or 3,406 ft. It is the central peak of the Macgillycuddy's Reeks range and is topped by a large [...]
Carrantuohill Mountain, County Kerryemmet2019-06-26T22:07:33+00:00
Hore Abbey, Cashel. County Tipperary 1266
Paranoid dreams of killer monks, Benedictines and Yew trees Hore Abbey is located in a beautiful setting underneath in a field under the watchful eye of the Rock of Cashel in co. Tipperary. [...]
Hore Abbey, Cashel. County Tipperary 1266emmet2019-06-27T06:23:48+00:00
The Poulnabrone Dolmen, Caherconnell. County Clare 3600BC
Ireland's most iconic dolmen & The Hole of Sorrows The Poulnabrone Dolmen is a national monument and dates from c.3600 BC. Its timeless simplicity has made it one of the most photographed landmarks [...]
The Poulnabrone Dolmen, Caherconnell. County Clare 3600BCemmet2019-06-27T06:31:49+00:00
The Treaty Stone, Thomond Bridge. Limerick City 1865
A battle, A siege, A truce & The Flight of the Wild Geese After the Battle of the Boyne in 1690 the remainder of James II's defeated army retired to Limerick under the [...]
The Treaty Stone, Thomond Bridge. Limerick City 1865emmet2019-06-27T11:57:23+00:00
Quin Abbey, Quin. County Clare 1433
A former Norman castle, The Mac Namara's, Cromwell and interesting architectural features Quin Abbey is located in the village of Quin in co.Clare. It dates from 1433 and was built on the site [...]
Quin Abbey, Quin. County Clare 1433emmet2019-06-27T12:02:43+00:00
Nenagh Castle, Nenagh. County Tipperary c.1216
One of Ireland's finest keeps with a turbulent history Nenagh Castle is located in Nenagh in co.Tipperary. It was built c.1216 and was the main castle of the Butler family for 200 years [...]
Nenagh Castle, Nenagh. County Tipperary c.1216emmet2019-06-27T12:20:40+00:00
Ennis Courthouse, Ennis. County Clare 1850
Eamon de Valera & A Russian cannon This listed building is Ennis Courthouse. It was built in 1850 in a neoclassical style to the designs of Joseph B Keane and Henry Whitestone. The [...]
Ennis Courthouse, Ennis. County Clare 1850emmet2019-06-27T12:22:28+00:00
Askeaton Franciscan Friary, Askeaton. County Limerick 1398
One of the most beautiful complete ruins in Ireland & Kissing St Francis Askeaton Franciscan Friary is located in the village of Askeaton beside the River Deel in co.Limerick. This National Monument is [...]
Askeaton Franciscan Friary, Askeaton. County Limerick 1398emmet2019-06-27T12:30:23+00:00
St Mary’s Cathedral, Bridge Street. Limerick City 1168
The oldest and most beautiful building in Limerick City St Mary's Cathedral dates back to 1168 making it the oldest building in Limerick City predating King John's Castle. This was previously the site [...]
St Mary’s Cathedral, Bridge Street. Limerick City 1168emmet2019-06-27T12:51:03+00:00
Bunratty Castle, Bunratty. County Clare 1467
The Vikings, The O'Briens, Dungeons & a No.1 tourist attraction Bunratty Castle is located in the village of Bunratty in County Clare. This is one of the most impressive castles and one of [...]
Bunratty Castle, Bunratty. County Clare 1467emmet2019-06-27T12:53:19+00:00
Adare Manor, Adare. County Limerick 1864
One of the most beautiful and finest hotels in Ireland Adare Manor is located in the beautiful village of Adare in co.Limerick. These lands were once owned by the powerful Norman Fitzgerald family [...]
Adare Manor, Adare. County Limerick 1864emmet2019-06-27T12:57:27+00:00
Adare Augustinian Friary, Adare. County Limerick 1316
One of the best preserved medieval churches in Ireland Adare Augustinian Friary is located in the historic village of Adare in co.Limerick. It was founded in 1316 and was formerly known as 'The [...]
Adare Augustinian Friary, Adare. County Limerick 1316emmet2019-06-27T12:58:59+00:00
King John’s Castle, Limerick City 1200
Once regarded as the most beautiful city in Ireland, King John & A city under siege This strategic location on the banks of the Shannon has been a stronghold for thousands of years. [...]
King John’s Castle, Limerick City 1200emmet2019-06-27T13:03:46+00:00
Reginald’s Tower, Waterford City, County Waterford 1171
Ireland's oldest civic building & The location of the most infamous marriage in Irish history Waterford is Ireland's oldest city and for many years it's second city after Dublin. Reginald's Tower is its [...]
Reginald’s Tower, Waterford City, County Waterford 1171emmet2019-06-27T16:17:32+00:00
Knappogue Castle, Quin. County Clare 1467
One of the finest examples of a medieval tower house in Ireland Knappogue Castle is located near the village of Quin in co.Clare. It was was built in 1467 by Sean MacNamara and [...]
Knappogue Castle, Quin. County Clare 1467emmet2019-06-28T17:16:51+00:00
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A UNESCO World Heritage Site, Extreme monasticism & Star Wars
Skellig Michael or ‘Michael’s Rock in the Sea’ is an incredible UNESCO World Heritage Site. It is located 13 km off the Kerry coastline at an altitude of 600-feet and is one of the most dramatic examples of ‘extreme Christian monasticism’ in Europe. Tradition attributes the foundation of the monastery to St Finan between the 6th and 8th centuries AD. These early monks would have prayed, studied and tended their terraced gardens. They lived in beehive shaped huts that still remain water tight and every morning the monks would have descended 670 steps to fish for their dinner! The monks were not as ‘cut off’ from the outside world as one would imagine as it is believed that it would have only taken three days of sailing to get to Dublin and six days to get to the coast of France or Spain. It is believed that monks lived here right up until the 13th century when it became a place of pilgrimage after surviving numerous Viking raids. There is a fantastic wealth of bird life around the Skelligs including puffins and 23,000 pairs of gannets who nest on every available ledge of rock on Little Skellig making it the second largest colony in the world. There are also faint rumours from a galaxy far, far away that Jedi training may have taken place here!
Sligo Abbey, Sligo Town. County Sligo 1252
Glenveagh Castle, Glenveagh National Park. County Donegal 1867
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E.P.K.
Dan Brodie
New Album: Funerária do Vale
Funerária do Vale
Dan Brodie's new Album, "Funerária do Vale" is a haunting meditation on the past and present, featuring Danielle Golding (Shifting Sands, Jackie Winter), Chris Brodie (Dallas Crane) and produced by Mic Hubbard at Shrimp Shack Studios, Pascoe Vale South, Melbourne, Australia.
Un Deux Trois Saucisson! 3:07
I’ve been here before 4:31
Drugs have gone 5:19
On the outer 3:47
We'll never drink again 4:56
When we turn to dust 5:08
You had me at hello 4:14
Getting fucked up (again) featuring Molly Jean Morrison 4:08
Post Millennial Blues 3:21
My fallen star 4:56
New Video: Un deux trois saucisson!
The Brodies are architects of a daunting sound: Dan's words are sharp and laconic; Chris's arrangements thrive on hectares of space and give latitude to the lyrical angst and insecurity. - Terry Reilly, The Age
Dan Brodie is a renowned Australian singer-songwriter.
Since 1999, Brodie has captured audiences around the world, releasing a succession of albums (eight in total) which have been nominated for numerous awards.
Born in Melbourne, Australia, Brodie was raised in a musical family, his father, a professional guitarist and singer taught Brodie the basic chords of guitar and piano and along with his brother Chris, they began making music together, playing as fast and loud as they could to whoever would listen, not letting their lack of experience get in the way of having a good time, honing their skills of playing live to an audience, usually in a garage, with the “audience” consisting of a handful of curious local neighbourhood kids.
In 2001, Brodie, with his band the Broken Arrows, signed to EMI Australia and Last Call Records in France and have performed with a diverse range of artists including The Strokes, Steve Earle, Paul Kelly, You am I, Tony Joe White, The White Stripes and Gillian Welsh.
His musical talents have taken him to the U.S., U.K., France, Spain, Scandinavia, Switzerland and New Zealand playing such iconic venues as CBGB in New York, The Continental in Austin, The Exit/In in Nashville and The Olympia in Paris.
Brodie's talents are recognised in his native Australia with two ARIA (Australian Recording Industry Association) Awards for “Empty Arms, Broken Hearts” as well as an unfaltering reputation as an incredible live performer with acclaimed appearances at festivals such as the Big Day Out, Byron Bay Bluesfest, Splendour in the Grass and the Binic Folks Blues festival in France, signing to French label Beast Records in 2012 and completing numerous tours of Europe both as a solo artist and with assorted rock n roll combos.
"Un deux trois saucisson!" is the first single lifted off Brodie's forthcoming album, "Funerária do Vale".
A video for the single was made in late January and filmed on location at Elwood Beach, Melbourne. Shot and Directed by Ryan Kendall and written and produced by Joe Villanti, it follows protagonist CJ Fortuna as he battles to move forward in life, suffering the slings and arrows hurled at him from the characters he meets on his journey.
"Funerária do Vale" is a 10 track meditation on the ghosts of the past and present taking in all of Brodie's influences to date, featuring Danielle Golding (Shifting Sands, Jackie Winter), Chris Brodie (Dallas Crane, Broken Arrows) and produced by bassist/guitarist Mic Hubbard (Spencer P jones) at The Shrimp Shack, Pascoe Vale South in Melbourne, Australia.
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Disagreed on judgment 4/19 21.1%
TEXAS DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION AND CITY OF EDINBURG v. A.P.I. PIPE AND SUPPLY, L.L.C. AND PAISANO SERVICE COMPANY, INC., No. 10-1020
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CARLA STRICKLAND v. KATHRYN AND JEREMY MEDLEN, No. 12-0047
THE CITY OF HOUSTON, TEXAS v. ROGER BATES, MICHAEL L. SPRATT AND DOUGLAS SPRINGER, No. 11-0778
LENNAR CORPORATION, LENNAR HOMES OF TEXAS SALES & MARKETING LTD. AND LENNAR HOMES OF TEXAS LAND & CONSTRUCTION, LTD. v. MARKEL AMERICAN INSURANCE COMPANY, No. 11-0394
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PSYCHIATRIC SOLUTIONS, INC. AND MISSION VISTA BEHAVIORAL HEALTH SERVICES, INC. D/B/A MISSION VISTA BEHAVIORAL HEALTH CENTER v. KENNETH PALIT, No. 12-0388
KEVIN T. MORTON v. HUNG NGUYEN AND CAROL S. NGUYEN, No. 12-0539
ROBERT MASTERSON, MARK BROWN, GEORGE BUTLER, CHARLES WESTBROOK, RICHEY OLIVER, CRAIG PORTER, SHARON WEBER, JUNE SMITH, RITA BAKER, STEPHANIE PEDDY, BILLIE RUTH HODGES, DALLAS CHRISTIAN, AND THE EPISCOPAL CHURCH OF THE GOOD SHEPHERD v. THE DIOCESE OF NORTHWEST TEXAS, THE REV. CELIA ELLERY, DON GRIFFIS, AND MICHAEL RYAN, No. 11-0332
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Debunking Misuse of Statistics Miscellaneous
PZ Myers is not an Oblate Spheroid (p < 0.05)
August 14, 2012 March 26, 2016 Emil Karlsson cohen, p-values, publication bias, PZ Myers, statistical significance
The title, of course, is a reference to the landmark paper by Cohen (1994) in American Psychologist called The Earth is Round (p < 0.05). Technically speaking, the earth is an oblate spheroid because it is shaped like an ellipse rotated around one of its axis and flattened at the poles. Anyways, the arguments laid out in that review were not particularly new. In fact, they had existed for many decades. Still, they had, and continue to have, great intellectual merit. It outlines the major flaws and problems with traditional null hypothesis significance testing (NHST) using p-values.
Despite this, p-values continue to be used by scientists, although the use of effect sizes and confidence intervals are on the increase.
Cohen’s review is really an article that should be read by any aspiring researcher (linked in the reference section) and it highlights the following errors that are commonly performed when doing p-values:
The p-value is the probability of obtaining the results, or more extreme results, given that the null hypothesis is true. It does not provide us with the probability of the null hypothesis being true, given the obtain evidenced. Confusing these two conditionals probabilities is known as the fallacy of transposed conditionals or the inverse probability error.
NHST, by contorting deductive modus tollens into a probabilistic argument, is formally invalid.
The p-value is not the probability of replication. In fact, the distribution of p-values over successive replications is surprisingly large.
The rejection of the null hypothesis does not prove the alternative hypothesis. The classical example, although not discussed by Cohen in this particular sense, is that a correct guess of, say, 20 playing cards in a row, may be highly unlikely, but the alternative hypothesis of clairvoyance is even more unlikely.
p-value is a function of sample size, and given a large enough sample size, almost everything will appear statistically significant.
NHST leads to publication bias. Results that are deemed to be statistically significant are much more likely to be published than results that are not statistically significant.
Reaching the level of statistical significance does not mean that the result is of any practical (e. g. biological or psychological) significance. The data may be improbable given that the null hypothesis is true, but the difference between two groups tested may be negligible for all practical intents and purposes. In other words, NHST undervalue effect sizes.
In Live by statistics, die by statistics, the associate professor of biology PZ Myers discusses a new and highly fascinating study in experimental psychology. The general gist of the paper (Masicampo and Lalande, 2012) is that the actual distribution of p-values deviates quite a bit from the theoretical distribution near just above 0.05. This appears to suggest that some experimental psychologists fudge their data a bit as to transform results that fall just below 0.05 to end up just above 0.05. This is of course intellectually dishonest and statistically inappropriate. One explanation is that too much focus is placed on achieving statistical significance, even though it does not tell you anything informative. In other words, these experimental psychologists have misunderstood NHST and p-values on a fundamental level. Another explanation is that some journals may require statistical significant result for publishing or that some reviewers complain. With that said, some journals now require confidence intervals and effect sizes in order to secure publication.
Myers have written a good, short discussion about how p-values are misunderstood. It is quite ironic that Myers himself, in the process of pointing out the flaws in using and interpreting p-values, incorrectly interprets the definition of p-value in his blog post. Myers writes that:
There is a magic and arbitrary line in ordinary statistical testing: the p level of 0.05. What that basically means is that if the p level of a comparison between two distributions is less than 0.05, there is a less than 5% chance that your results can be accounted for by accident. We’ll often say that having p<0.05 means your result is statistically significant. Note that there’s nothing really special about 0.05; it’s just a commonly chosen dividing line.
The p-value is the probability of obtaining the results, or more extreme results, given that the null hypothesis is true. It is not the probability that the results can be accounted for by chance or accident. This is because the act of determining the p-value is based on the notion that the finding is the result of random chance. Remember, we want to find out how likely it is to obtain these results (or more extreme results), given that the null hypothesis is true. Clearly, this can then not lead to an evaluation of the likelihood that the results are due to random chance (since the very act of doing p-values assumes that it is 100%).
Now, this is perhaps nitpicking and I doubt that developmental biologists even use p-values that much in their research to begin with, so the error is understandable. The fact that Myers wrote a misleading explanation of p-values shows that NHST and p-values are routinely misunderstood by many researches, including knowledgeable scientists with a prominent academic position like Myers (who already know about many of the problems with p-values).
Cohen, J. (1994). The earth is round (P < .05). American Psychologist, 49, 997–1003.
Sterne, J. A. C., Cox, D. R., & Smith, G. D. (2001). Sifting the evidence—what’s wrong with significance tests?. BMJ, 322(7280), 226-231.
Schervish M.J. (1996). P Values: What They Are and What They Are Not. The American Statistician 50 (3): 203–206.
Masicampo E.J., and Lalande D.R. (2012). A peculiar prevalence of p values just below .05. Quarterly journal of experimental psychology. 1-9.
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5 thoughts on “PZ Myers is not an Oblate Spheroid (p < 0.05)”
I don’t get the graphic at all. And I have to bust you in my role as the internet irony police: “It is quite ironic that Myers himself incorrectly interpret[s] the definition of p-value in his blog post.” As you say later (I’m almost certain that you meant misunderstood), “NHST and p-values are routinely [mis]understood by many researches, including knowledgeable scientists with a prominent academic position like Myers”. So it is actually likely that he would get something wrong in a post about p-values, not ironic. Don’t feel bad (as if you might), 9 out of 10 uses of irony on the internet are wrong. I’m a busy guy.
The graphic is suppose to resemble the letter “p”, which would appear to be relevant since this post is about p-values, which are usually designated with that letter. Hey, it was either that or a thin, black p (using public domain clip art).
The ironic event that I was trying to point out was that Myers simultaneously points out a common flaw with p-values (i.e. data selection or manipulation to attain p < 0.05) and committed another common flaw (that p values are the probability the results are a fluke) himself. Obviously, as you point out, it cannot be ironic that Myers misunderstood p values if it is the case that many scientists misunderstand p values at the baseline.
I will also fix the interpret to interprets and understood to misunderstood. Thanks.
I added a few words to (attempt to) clarify the irony.
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WATCH:Former Mesquite Police Officer Derick Wiley, Who Shot Innocent Man, Testifying In Retrial
Medicaid Rate Cuts To Therapists On Hold: Parents Of Children With Disabilities Still Worry
By Robbie Owens October 1, 2015 at 6:54 pm
Filed Under:Autism, Law, medical, News, political
Follow CBSDFW.COM: Facebook | Twitter
FORT WORTH (CBSDFW.COM) – The tough task of caring for children with disabilities is not getting any easier in Texas.
On the orders of lawmakers, planned rate cuts to therapists who provide a wide range of services to the severely disabled were scheduled to kick in today. A state district judge has stepped in to put the cuts on hold—but, now, many parents and providers are left to wonder for how long.
“Texans are such big hearted people,” says Lisa Martin, while accompanying her autistic daughter to a therapy session at the Autism Treatment Center in Fort Worth. “And I can’t imagine that people would be comfortable balancing the budget or whatever they need to do, essentially on the backs of the most vulnerable in the state.”
Like Martin, tens of thousands of Texas parents already struggle to meet the special and yes, expensive needs of children born with challenges. “She’s non-verbal. She’s 19 years old. And I dress her every morning.” Martin’s daughter, Paige, was diagnosed as a child. Her parents were told that even the most basic of accomplishments would be out of reach—like potty training and eating with a fork. But, her mother says consistent therapy over the years has made a major difference.
“She eats with a fork and she does many other things that people thought would never have been possible…so, it’s been invaluable,” says Martin, “it’s been life changing.” Nevertheless, parents now have a new worry.
Citing what they call a ‘dramatic’ increase in payments for acute care therapy services, Republican lawmakers are defending the $350 million dollars in Medicaid rate cuts to providers as a way to fight fraud. But, consider this: experts say more children now need care.
In 2012, the Centers for Disease Control made headlines by estimating that 1 in 88 children suffered with an autism spectrum disorder. Just two years later, that figure jumped roughly 30 percent to 1 in 68. Paul Ely, Autism Treatment Center, calls the increase a “wake up call” for Texas. He’s also concerned about the uncertainty facing the center and other providers as lawmakers wrangle over reimbursements—with care for children with severe disabilities hangs in the balance.
“A lot of our therapists have over 10 years’ experience with autism, that’s expensive, “ says Ely, “that’s an expensive service to provide.” He also cautions that cuts to services for these children would be short-sighted. As the cost for these lifelong disabilities must be born somewhere.
“As the children are needing more behavioral services in the public schools, as the children are needing more therapies in the public schools, it will only require more dollars for all of us to contribute.”
“Surely there’s got to be a way to do what you need to do fiscally without taking away money from children and adults who cannot speak, who don’t effectively have a voice,” says Martin, “they need help.”
Robbie Owens
More from Robbie Owens
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1 item$4.49
Long Form Biography (short form below)
Don Ross began playing guitar virtually by accident.
There was always a lot of music around the house. Don’s dad is an operatically-trained singer. So, the Ross kids heard plenty of voice exercises around their Montreal home as well as classical music on the record player growing up (not to mention the occasional blast of the bagpipes when Don’s dad felt like waking up the neighbours with another musical skill he acquired growing up in Scotland!).
Don Ross was a very musical child, teaching himself some basic piano skills in his early years. But at the age of eight, when Don’s sister came home from boarding school with an old Stella acoustic guitar, he knew he had met his new best friend. Immediately recognizing the portability and “cool factor” of the guitar, Don and his older brother began teaching themselves tunes by the Beatles, Cream, Led Zeppelin and Black Sabbath.
By the age of ten, Don Ross was playing less with a pick and more with his fingers. He was fascinated by the possibility of playing several lines at once: melody, middle voices, bass line. To achieve some of the musical ideas he had in mind, he started retuning the guitar to suit them, inventing new tunings that made things easier at first. But he also realized that he could expand the range of the instrument to make the low strings lower and the high strings higher. The possibilities seemed almost endless.
The Start of Professional Life
He began playing publicly (and for money) in his hometown of Montreal at the age of 15. Fortunately he looked old enough to drink by then and even played occasionally at some of the downtown pubs that featured live acoustic music! Around the same time he discovered the music of legendary Canadian singer/guitarist Bruce Cockburn. Don Ross was amazed that such an insightful lyricist could also be a tremendous guitarist. The musical future seemed very bright indeed. He was inspired to write his first strong instrumental tunes for solo guitar around this time.
Don eventually studied Music at Toronto’s York University. Strangely enough, he didn’t focus on guitar but rather on composition, electronic music, and sound recording. Upon graduating, he had visions of being a composer of orchestral and electronic music or film scores..certainly not any delusions of playing solo guitar for a living. What changed his mind was seeing the success of musicians like Michael Hedges, Steve Reich and Keith Jarrett, player/composers who followed their musical intuitions wherever they led and who fell more into the category of “artist” rather than “guitarist” or “pianist.”
After graduation, Don Ross decided that the best forum for what he did as a composer would be to perform his guitar music himself. In 1988, he won the U.S. National Fingerstyle Guitar Competition. This earned him a fair amount of media attention back home in Canada, and within days he was scouted to record for Toronto-based independent record label Duke Street Records. He recorded his debut for the label, Bearing Straight, which was released in 1989. Two more recordings for the label followed, 1990’s Don Ross and 1993’s Three Hands. Don then signed with Columbia/Sony and recorded three more CDs for that label: This Dragon Won’t Sleep in 1995, Wintertide in 1996 and Loaded. Leather. Moonroof in 1997. In the meantime, Don won the Fingerstyle competition in the USA for a second time in 1996. To this day, he is still the only player to have won the competition twice!
Signing with Narada Records in 1999, Don Ross released his first completely solo-guitar CD, Passion Session. Recorded in a series of overnight sessions in Berlin’s Passionskirche (The Church of the Passion), the CD has gone on to top many of the “all time best acoustic guitar recordings” lists in publications like Acoustic Guitar Magazine. Some of the compositions on Passion Session, such as “Michael, Michael, Michael,” “Klimbim,” and “Tight Trite Night” have become standards in world guitar repertoire. Huron Street (2001) and Robot Monster (2003) followed, showcasing the depth of Don’s compositional history as well as his ongoing interest in electronic music, through collaborations with Berlin composer Christoph Bendel.
A New Digital Era
With the collapse of the conventional recording industry in the early 21st century, Don entered into a new venture with Milwaukee-based CandyRat Records and its founder, Rob Poland. The move to a completely internet-based model of releasing recordings resulted in the first ever CandyRat CD, 2005’s Music for Vacuuming. CandyRat has gone on to release recordings by dozens of international artists, primarily guitarists and songwriters. YouTube exposure has helped all of the CandyRat artists, and made an international star of Don’s good friend Andy McKee. Other recent projects Don has released in collaboration with CandyRat are Live in Your Head (2006), the thing that came from somewhere (2008, with Andy McKee), his all-vocal CD Any Colour (2009), the solo guitar albums Breakfast for Dogs! (2010), Upright and Locked Position (2012), and PS15 as well as two performance DVDs: Don Ross Live and Live in Toronto (with Michael Manring and Andy McKee).
In the spring of 2017, Don and CandyRat will release his new album, A Million Brazilian Civilians, on CD and see-through orange vinyl.
Don has toured regularly since 1989, across Canada, the USA, a dozen European countries, Japan, Taiwan, China, Australia, Russia and India. He has played with symphony orchestras in Canada and Germany, and collaborated live and on recording with Andy McKee, Canadian singer/guitarist Brooke Miller, Canadian guitarist Calum Graham, & Toronto bassist Jordan O’Connor. He also composes scores for television, radio and film, and does production and recording engineering for a variety of other musicians. In addition to acoustic guitar, Don also plays electric guitar, slide dobro and lapsteel guitar, harp guitar, voice, piano, keyboards, bass guitar and drums. He has just started learning to play the Kelstone, a 9-string guitar developed by Belgian musician/inventor Jan Van Kelst. At this point, Don admits that learning a new instrument from scratch at this point in his career is “humbling. I’m a rank amateur Kelstone player, and I still completely suck at it!”
Don Ross grew up in Montreal, has lived at various times in Ontario, Nova Scotia, the USA, China and Quebec, and now resides in Halifax.
Short Form Biography
In 1988, Don became the first Canadian to win the U.S. National Fingerpick Guitar Championship. He won again in 1996, still the only two-time winner of the competition. He signed a recording deal with Toronto-based Duke Street Records and released three CDs for them between 1989 and 1993. He then recorded three CDs for Sony/Columbia between 1994 and 1997, and then three more for Milwaukee-based Narada Records between 1999 and 2003.
With the collapse of the conventional recording industry in the early 21st century, Don entered into a new venture with Milwaukee-based CandyRat Records and its founder, Rob Poland. The move to a completely internet-based model of releasing recordings resulted in the first ever CandyRat CD, 2005’s Music for Vacuuming. Don has released numerous CDs and DVDs for the new label, including his new album, A Million Brazilian Civilians, on CD and see-through orange vinyl.
Don has toured regularly since 1989, across Canada, the USA, a dozen European countries, Japan, Taiwan, China, Australia, Russia and India. He has played with symphony orchestras in Canada and Germany, and collaborated live and on recording with U.S. guitarist Andy McKee, Canadian singer/guitarist Brooke Miller, Canadian guitarist Calum Graham, & Toronto bassist Jordan O’Connor. He also composes scores for television, radio and film, and does production and recording engineering for a variety of other musicians. In addition to acoustic guitar, Don also plays electric guitar, slide dobro and lapsteel guitar, harp guitar, voice, piano, keyboards, bass guitar and drums. He has just started learning to play the Kelstone, a 9-string guitar developed by Belgian musician/inventor Jan Van Kelst. At this point, Don admits that learning a new instrument from scratch at this point in his career is “humbling. I’m a rank amateur Kelstone player, and I still completely suck at it!”
Don Ross Store
THIN AIR Tab
WAVE FROM YOUR WINDOW Tab
Wave From Your Window – Don Ross & Dan Crary – CD
the thing that came from somewhere Tab
Silversmith Tab*
Live In Your Head – CD
No Goodbyes Tab (Passion Session version)
Any Colour But Blue
A Million Brazilian Civilians on Vinyl
Another Island of Women
HOW TO EAT AN AVALANCHE Tab
Tight Trite Night Tab (Passion Session version)
Fader Jones
Christmastime is Here
Annie and Martin (PS 15 VERSION)
First Ride (PS 15 version) TAB
The Answer Book
SLOW BURN Tab
A Million Brazilian Civilians
Stop Driving, Start Playing
PS15 on Vinyl
AFRAID TO DANCE Tab
THE UPRIGHT AND LOCKED POSITION tab
Catherine Tab (Bearing Straight version)
WITH YOU IN MIND Tab (Passion Session version)
Blue Bear (Passion Session version)
IS-OUGHT CONTROVERSY Tab
Song-By-Song Series Volume 1: Michael Michael, Michael
Never Got To Pernambuco
So Little Time TAB (PS 15 version)
ROBOT MONSTER Tab
WITH YOU IN MIND (PS15 VERSION) TAB
The “Box Set” Flash Drive USB Pen
This Dragon Wont Sleep Tab
ROCKBARRA Tab
HOOVER THE MUSICAL DOG Tab
Elevation Music Tab
LOADED.LEATHER.MOONROOF. Tab
New Aaron
Blue Bear (PS15 version) TAB
JESSE HELMS’ NIGHT IN HAVANA Tab
IT’S FUN BEING LUCKY Tab (Robot Monster version)
KEHEWIN Tab
Klimbim Tab (Passion Session version)
Catherine (2019) tab
Berkley Springs Tab (Passion Session version)
MY PREVIOUS LIFE Tab
Seven Seven Four
CUP OF POP Tab
Men of Steel: Four Way Mirror – CD
Crazy TAB
Berkley Springs TAB (PS 15 VERSION)
YOYOMAMA Tab
LIVE: Men of Steel – CD
THREE HANDS Tab
Leger de Main Tab
FROM FRANCE TO INDIA Tab
Catherine (2019) tab $4.49
Any Colour But Blue $4.49
New Aaron $4.49
Stop Driving, Start Playing $4.49
Seven Seven Four $4.49
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What makes Israeli apartheid “special”?
Rod Such The Electronic Intifada 26 October 2016
Israel and South Africa: The Many Faces of Apartheid, edited by Ilan Pappe, Zed Books (2015)
Israel and South Africa: The Many Faces of Apartheid, a collection of essays edited by historian Ilan Pappe, takes for granted the validity of the assertion that Israel is an apartheid state.
Instead, what this book explores are the similarities and dissimilarities between Israel today and South Africa during its apartheid era.
Pappe claims that understanding the historical roots of these commonalities and differences is essential to realizing why Israeli apartheid is of “a special type” and has been more difficult to overcome.
While the book opens with essays that provide overwhelming evidence of the apartheid nature of the Israeli state, it concludes with several essays suggesting why new perspectives are needed to defeat this special type of apartheid.
The overlap and differences between Israeli and South African apartheid became apparent in a single year, 1948. That year the white minority South African government proclaimed apartheid (Afrikaans for “apart” or “separate”) to be official state policy, establishing laws that rigidly separated whites from the Black majority while claiming 87 percent of the land for whites.
The same year a minority settler-colonial population officially proclaimed the establishment of a Jewish state. Israel’s foundation involved the expulsion of 750,000 Palestinians, with the explicit aim of establishing an overwhelming Jewish majority – on more than three-quarters of the land – while rigidly separating itself from the newly created Palestinian Arab minority.
South African apartheid lasted until 1994 when Black majority rule was achieved following an international boycott that included sanctions imposed by US Congress. Yet Israel’s form of apartheid persists to this day and Israel is even accorded the status of a “special relationship” with the US government.
Why? The essays in this book suggest that it’s precisely the differences in the two types of apartheid that help account for this persistence.
The commonalities have by now become obvious. The book presents overwhelming evidence that both Israel and South Africa violated the International Convention on the Suppression and Punishment of Apartheid. Approved by the United Nations in 1973, it established a universal definition for this crime against humanity.
Both countries were established as settler-colonial states. Both were ethnocentric states, and both created Bantustans or zones of limited autonomy for the oppressed indigenous population.
Less examined are the differences.
As Ronnie Kasrils, a leading member of the African National Congress during the apartheid era, points out in his essay, South African settler-colonialism sought to exploit the labor of the indigenous African majority while Zionist settler-colonialism sought to exclude and expel the native Palestinians.
Apartheid South Africa’s attempt to keep Blacks in Bantustans failed because its economy was dependent on Black labor. Israel, on the other hand, “sought to rid itself of the Palestinian workforce on its doorstep.”
Having established an overwhelming Jewish majority through the expulsion of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians, Israel allowed its Palestinian minority the right to vote. This attempt at “visible equality,” journalist Jonathan Cook’s phrase in his chapter, helped disguise Israel’s special type of apartheid.
Although Palestinian citizens of Israel were able to vote, Cook notes, their vote was meaningless because any Palestinian political party had to accept the framework of a Jewish state and no Palestinian political party was ever invited into a governing coalition.
Likewise, some of Israel’s high court decisions have attempted to promote a veneer of “visible equality,” but Cook offers devastating evidence of the apartheid nature of Israel even inside the 1949 armistice line separating it from the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
Ironically, yet another reason for the persistence of Israeli apartheid lies in the fact that the Bantustan approach, unlike in South Africa, succeeded in Israel, argues Leila Farsakh, a professor of political science at the University of Massachusetts. Through the Oslo accords signed by Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization in the mid-1990s, Farsakh maintains, Israel succeeded in “legitimizing” the whole notion of “separateness,” or apartheid, by attempting to frame it in “nationalist rather than racial terms.”
Shifting the struggle
Farsakh details four main ways in which Israel manipulated the accords to impose a Bantustan solution and confine Palestinians “in territorially fragmented areas that are unviable economically and politically.”
Farsakh’s insights set the stage for the concluding essays in this volume which attempt to suggest new perspectives and strategies of resistance that will finally bring an end to Israel’s apartheid system.
Steven Friedman, a South African academic, finds the greatest similarity lies in challenging the very notion of ethnocentric states.
The Afrikaner elites, he argues, eventually concluded that South Africa could no longer continue as an ethnocentric state. This came about due to the internal contradictions of the South African system and the external pressure of boycott, divestment and sanctions.
The ethnocentric State of Israel now faces the same dilemma, Friedman writes, and a two-state solution cannot rescue it. If two such states existed on truly equal terms, Friedman notes, their interdependence would soon become apparent and the perceived need for two states would quickly dissolve.
Virginia Tilley, a US-based political scientist, suggests a similar approach in highlighting how international law has both enabled and undermined Israeli settler-colonialism.
She calls attention to the UN partition plan of November 1947, showing how the plan aimed to create two states based on ethnic population majorities but also insisted on equal rights in both states.
Subsequent UN decisions, notably General Assembly resolution 194, recognized the right of Palestinian refugees to return, effectively negating the notion of an ethnocentric state like the one Zionism created in Israel.
Tilley notes that shifting the Palestinian struggle to a framework of equal rights for all aligns it with the approach taken by the African National Congress in South Africa, although she worries that it also sacrifices the Palestinians’ right to national self-determination.
The essay by Ran Greenstein – a sociologist working in South Africa – closes the book by examining what the future may hold. Israel’s special type of apartheid, he concludes, is becoming increasingly “unstable” due to its internal contradictions and external pressure.
He points to the growing Palestinian minority within Israel, the ability of its political representatives to unite around a joint list of election candidates, and its democratic vision of a “state of all its citizens.” Israel’s de facto annexation of the West Bank contradicts its goal of a Jewish demographic majority and further erodes its international support.
Greenstein embraces a bi-national solution that he says is likely to come in stages rather than all at once.
There is a rich accumulation of material and ideas presented in the 10 essays that make up this book. Yet, as valuable as the book is, it points to the pressing need for additional historical and analytical accounts of why Israeli apartheid continues to elude accountability.
Rod Such is a former editor for World Book and Encarta encyclopedias. He lives in Portland, Oregon, and is active with the Occupation-Free Portland campaign.
Israel and South Africa: The Many Faces of Apartheid
apartheid South Africa
Ronnie Kasrils
Leila Farsakh
Oslo accords
Virginia Tilley
Ran Greenstein
Israel and South Africa: Ilan Pappe
Permalink John Webster replied on Thu, 10/27/2016 - 21:00
Why is there no link for this book showing where it can be bought etc?
We Moral Jews, who are
Permalink Lilly Dashe Muenster replied on Thu, 10/27/2016 - 21:01
We Moral Jews, who are Ethical Non-Zionists, will live safer in the entire world, with more respect and dignity when Zionism, as with ALL forms of racist Fascism, is vanquished. Israel has a right to exist, but NOT on stolen land. Palestinians are Freedom Fighters, just as we Polish Jews fought and destroyed the German Nazis of WWII. It is the same racism, same theocratic bigotries, and incredibly evil genocide against the peoples who were conquered......Zionism is a greedy, inhumane, pernicious Evil. The vast majority of World Jewry are NOT, NOT Zionists.
Very refreshing to hear this
Permalink Sam Barbary replied on Thu, 10/27/2016 - 23:51
Very refreshing to hear this response. You are absolutely right.
Solidarity with you, Lilly
Permalink Duniya replied on Fri, 10/28/2016 - 16:49
The vast majority of Muslims are not Taliban/al-Qaeda/ISIS and the vast majority of Hindus are not Hindutva nationalist fascists. I am a Hindu who opposes Hindu fascism and stand in solidarity with you and the millions of Jews of conscience around the world who are resisting this hijacking of their religion by fascists. Nothing is more anti-Semitic than Zionism!
"Israel has a right to exist"?
Permalink Ted replied on Tue, 11/01/2016 - 12:52
To write that "Israel has a right to exist" and then to say that "zionism is a greedy, inhumane pernicious Evil" is a major contradiction and failure to understand the true nature of the zionist entity.
There you go! Driving
Permalink Mark replied on Fri, 11/04/2016 - 12:16
There you go! Driving supporters away from you and wondering why the situation persists. Don't be fooled by the thought that people all over the world cannot see through sophistry.
Bravo for daring to speak out
Permalink Ben Barka replied on Thu, 11/03/2016 - 20:11
Bravo for daring to speak out and expose the lies. Kudos to you
How US foreign policy spawned terror and Trump
Rod Such 20 May 2019
Racism on the rails
Rod Such 26 February 2019
How Black Power spread support for Palestine
Rod Such 15 January 2019
Book review: "BDS provides a way to break our collective chains"
Rod Such 14 July 2012
Roads to ending Israeli apartheid envisioned in new book
A century of challenges to Zionism
Rod Such 8 April 2015
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How Spy Gear Works
by John Fuller
Once thought to be fantasy items only seen on the big screen, spy gadgets are becoming popular for home use. See night vision pictures to learn more.
© Tetra Images/Getty Images
Ever since the paranoid, secrecy-obsessed years of the Cold War between the United States and the former Soviet Union, the public's fascination with the shadowy, dangerous lives of spies has remained strong, even though that era technically ended in the late 1980s and early 1990s.
Ian Fleming published his famous James Bond novels in the middle of the 20th century, and Sean Connery first starred as 007 in 1962 in "Dr. No," officially sparking the spy craze. But moviegoers continue to flock to Bond films well into the 21st century, and other espionage-related films, including the Jason Bourne series, perform well at the box office.
Of course, there's a lot to appeal to movie audiences -- the international intrigue, the suspense, the action. But one of the main draws to these films, especially the Bond flicks, is the assortment of high-tech spy equipment the main character uses to thwart his enemies. Whether simple and realistic or ridiculous and over the top, these gadgets excite audiences and create desire for many to own the same gear for themselves. Spy gadgets seem to feed into our desire to know what's going on behind the scenes, and for many years they weren't much more than props in the movies.
Now, however, as technology improves and the curiosity for these gadgets continues to grow, spy gear meant for home security and surveillance has become a reality. Some companies are taking spy gear once associated with top secret government projects and law enforcement and adapting it for the public. People concerned about break-ins, suspicious activities or other citizens spying on them can search online for any number of security cameras, listening devices, tracking devices and countersurveillance equipment.
Backscatter X-ray Systems
How RFID Works
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FDA grants accelerated approval to selinexor for multiple myeloma
On July 3, 2019, the Food and Drug Administration granted accelerated approval to selinexor in combination with dexamethasone for adult patients with relapsed or refractory multiple myeloma (RRMM) who have received at least four prior therapies and whose disease is refractory to at least two proteasome inhibitors, at least two immunomodulatory agents, and an anti-CD38 monoclonal antibody.
Efficacy was evaluated in 122 patients enrolled in Part 2 of STORM (KCP-330-012; NCT02336815), a multicentre, single-arm, open-label study of patients with RRMM who had previously received three or more anti-myeloma treatment regimens including an alkylating agent, glucocorticoids, bortezomib, carfilzomib, lenalidomide, pomalidomide, and an anti-CD38 monoclonal antibody.
In addition, the disease was refractory to glucocorticoids, a proteasome inhibitor, an immunomodulatory agent, an anti-CD38 monoclonal antibody, and to the last line of therapy.
These patients were treated with selinexor (80 mg) in combination with dexamethasone (20 mg) on days 1 and 3 of every week.
The approval was based on efficacy and safety in a prespecified subgroup analysis of 83 patients whose disease was refractory to bortezomib, carfilzomib, lenalidomide, pomalidomide, and daratumumab.
The overall response rate was 25.3% (95% CI: 16.4, 36), with 1 stringent complete responses (CR), no CR, 4 very good partial responses and 16 partial responses.
The median time to first response was 4 weeks (range: 1 to 10 weeks).
The median response duration was 3.8 months (95% CI: 2.3, not estimable).
The efficacy evaluation was supported by additional information from an ongoing, randomised trial in patients with multiple myeloma.
Common adverse reactions reported in at least 20% of patients include thrombocytopenia, fatigue, nausea, anaemia, decreased appetite, decreased weight, diarrhoea, vomiting, hyponatremia, neutropenia, leukopenia, constipation, dyspnea, and upper respiratory tract infection.
The recommended selinexor dose is 80 mg in combination with dexamethasone taken orally on days 1 and 3 of each week.
Source: FDA
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Hold Fast: Climate leadership in troubled times
by Jonathan Arnold Leave a comment
Climate and Energy Carbon Pricing Carbon tax Climate Change Wonk Wednesday
With climate leadership from the U.S. in doubt, some are suggesting Canada should pull back from its climate strategy. If Canada acts alone, the argument goes, we will impose significant costs to the economy, and do little to cut global emissions. But is it true? Do we really need to wait for the U.S. for Canadian policy to make economic sense?
In fact, the arguments for leadership out-weigh the reasons to delay. While transitioning to a low-carbon economy will indeed impose economic costs in the short-term, doing nothing will be far costlier and far riskier in the future. The world needs bold climate leadership, and there’s a strong business case for Canada to be front and centre.
The stock of climate leadership is in short supply
These are tumultuous times for climate policy. The new U.S. Administration has signalled (though somewhat ambiguously) that the federal government will no longer prioritize climate change mitigation. This may involve the unravelling (formally or informally) of the policies and commitments that have been built up over the past decades.
The influence of U.S. climate policy extends far beyond its borders. The U.S. is the second largest emitter of GHGs and is the world’s biggest economy. It’s actions (or inactions) on climate policy matter more than any other country. With its leadership in question, there is a risk of a global backpedaling on climate policy. Other countries—like Canada—look to the U.S. as a baseline for its own policies. Weakened leadership risks starting a domino effect if other countries start believing climate policies are a fool’s errand.
Opposition voices are loud in Canada, and have grown sharper over the past few months (see here and here). Canada represents less than two percent of the world’s total emissions, so many believe we should pull back on the federal and provincial climate agreements and policies.
But the case for pricing carbon in Canada still stands, even as the U.S. presses pause. Furthermore, the case for leadership doesn’t rest on morals. It rests on economics.
The case for smart and timely climate leadership
First, the transition to a low-carbon economy is already happening. The cost of renewables has fallen markedly in the past decade, reaching a point where coal—once the primary source of cheap fuel—is no longer a sure bet for investors. Businesses are starting to plan accordingly: either adapt to changing markets or risk being left behind.
Delay is also costly. If world markets are already shifting and beginning to adjust to a low-carbon future, starting the transition earlier in Canada means it will be less painful and costly in the long run. Some of the largest contributors to climate change—such as infrastructure and vehicles—can take decades before they’re replaced with greener alternatives. Acting early may also help diversify Canada’s economy away from fossil fuels, carving out a competitive advantage other countries may lack.
The economic case for leadership is strongest when policy is most cost-effective. Of all the ways to reduce GHG emissions, carbon pricing is the least costly way to accelerate the transition and reach our climate commitments. Putting a price on carbon sends a direct signal to households and businesses to seek out a lower carbon footprint. People who put a relatively low value on their carbon-intense activities will find other, less carbon-intensive activities. Those who put a high value on carbon-intensive activities will carry on as normal, but will pay more to do so.
It is important to recognize that climate policies do have economic costs—the challenge is how best to minimize these costs, while, at the same time, achieve Canada’s climate commitments. Acting now means that the economic costs are more immediate and tangible, but it dramatically lessens the magnitude of costs and risks in the future. Given the choice, making a careful, gradual, and more predictable transition with carbon pricing is a far better option than shocking the economy with a sudden spike in stringent policy later.
From the Canadian laboratory to the world stage
In addition to domestic emissions reductions from Canadian policy, climate leadership can also have spillover benefits in reducing global emissions. British Columbia’s carbon tax, for example, is often cited as a best-practice by the U.N., World Bank, and the OECD. Other countries can see that carbon pricing is not only possible, but can be designed to reduce GHG emissions without adversely affecting the economy. (There’s room to disagree on how best to design carbon pricing; however, this isn’t a reason to oppose carbon pricing as an instrument.) Being a leader on climate also gives Canada a seat at the table in pressuring other countries to stay on track.
First things first: let’s all just take a deep breath
Canada has made immense progress on its climate policy over the past decade. It would be economically disadvantageous if we were to allow the unfolding events in the U.S. to undercut the work already accomplished. Dealing with climate change is a long-term problem and shouldn’t be taken off the rails because of small blips in political cycles.
The transition to a low-carbon economy will have costs, there’s no way around it. But the costs will be far greater, and the risks far higher, if Canada backs down from its progress. Further, Canada’s charted path sends a positive message to the rest of the world: climate leadership need not come from the world’s biggest emitters.
The worst kind of climate policy is an uncertain one
So, about that “trillion trees” study…
Climate change puts health at risk and economists have the right prescription
Summary of Ontario Court Decision on the Federal Carbon Pricing Law
Carbon pricing works in the UK
Air Pollution Alberta Biofuels British Columbia Cap-and-trade Carbon Coordination Carbon Pricing Carbon tax Catastrophic Risk China Clean-tech Climate Change Climate Risk Competitiveness Complementary Policies Congestion Pricing Drought Ecofiscal Advisors Ecofiscal Commissioners Economics for the Rest of Us Essay Fairness Green Growth Inaugural Report Oil & Gas Sector Ontario Opinion Polluter Pay Provincial Policy Quebec Renewable energy Revenue Recycling Saskatchewan Speeches Subsidies Sustainability TLDR Report Facts and Summaries Traffic Transit User Fees Videos Waste Water Pricing WCI Wonk Wednesday
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NFL applies for historic Eskimos trademark
This Aug. 9, 2014 file photo shows an NFL logo on a goal post padding before a preseason NFL football game between the Detroit Lions and the Cleveland Browns at Ford Field in Detroit. Rick Osentoski / AP
EDMONTON — The National Football League may be bringing back a historic team name that will have a familiar — and occasionally controversial — ring to Canadian gridiron fans.
Records from the United States Patent Office show that the NFL filed a trademark application last week for the Duluth Eskimos, a historic franchise from Minnesota that dates back to the mid-1920s.
“The filings were made on an intent-to-use basis,” said Josh Gerben, a trademark lawyer in Washington, D.C., who ran across the application.
Gerben said U.S. law requires the league to submit a sworn statement that it has a bona fide intent to use the trademark for goods and services described in the application.
That application refers to pro football games, broadcasts, webcasts, fan clubs, a clothing line, “live musical and dance performances provided during intervals at sports events” — even a mascot.
“That is trademark-speak for: ‘This is the name of a football team,”‘ Gerben said. “It suggests they’re going to use the name for a football team.”
The Duluth team played under several different names. In 1926, it dubbed itself the Eskimos and barnstormed across the United States, playing only one home game in the 1926 and 1927 seasons.
Its history is said to have inspired the 2008 George Clooney movie “Leatherheads.”
The NFL is about to commence its 100th season. Published reports in the U.S. have suggested the Minnesota Vikings were lobbying to wear a throwback Eskimos jersey featuring its igloo logo for one game.
League spokesman Brian McCarthy tackled that one in the backfield. “There are no plans to wear this jersey,” he said.
The name and logo will be restricted to “promotional and content opportunities,” he added.
Vikings spokesman Jeff Anderson said that while the Duluth Eskimos are a popular part of the team’s past, they are not part of its future.
“The Eskimos exhibit is one of the most popular attractions in the Vikings Museum and we want to bring increased awareness to that history throughout the 2019 season,” he said in an email.
“These plans do not include a team name change or a new team uniform but are instead centered around content, event activations and merchandise.”
Gerben said the U.S. patent office usually takes a few months to rule on an application.
One complication could be that the name “Eskimos” is already trademarked in both the U.S. and Canada by the Edmonton Eskimos of the Canadian Football League.
However, the NFL was previously allowed to trademark the name in advance of its 75th season. That trademark was subsequently cancelled in 2001.
The Canadian football club was not immediately available for comment.
It has experienced other troubles with the name, which has been called outdated and disrespectful for turning Inuit people into mascots.
— Follow Bob Weber on Twitter at @row1960
'Some things don’t make sense': Dorian Boose lived his football dream... 'Some things don’t make sense': Dorian Boose lived his football dream...
More Football Stories
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Photographs (9) Apply Photographs filter
Washington University in St. Louis served as the backdrop for many scientific discoveries, including that of nerve growth factor (NGF). Many of the accomplishments in embryology at Washington University can be attributed to the influence of Viktor Hamburger. He served as chair of the zoology department for twenty-five years. One of the few Nobel Prizes given for embryological research was awarded to faculty members Hamburger hired; Rita Levi-Montalcini and Stanley Cohen won for their role in the discovery of nerve growth factor.
United States v. University Hospital (1984)
The US 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals' 1984 decision United States v. University Hospital, State University Hospital of New York at Stony Brook set a significant precedent for affirming parental privilege to make medical decisions for handicapped newborns, while limiting the ability of the federal government to intervene. The ruling stemmed from the 1983 case involving an infant born with severe physical and mental congenital defects; the infant was only identified as Baby Jane Doe.
Ameisen: Die heimliche Weltmacht (Ants: Nature’s Secret Power) (2004)
Ameisen: Die heimliche Weltmacht (Ants: Nature’s Secret Power) is a nature documentary about ants. Wolfgang Thaler wrote, filmed, and directed the film, which focuses on the work of ant researcher Bert
Subject: Outreach
Stephen Jay Gould (1941-2002)
Stephen Jay Gould studied snail fossils and worked at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts during the latter half of the twentieth century. He contributed to philosophical, historical, and scientific ideas in paleontology, evolutionary theory, and developmental biology. Gould, with Niles Eldredge, proposed the theory of punctuated equilibrium, a view of evolution by which species undergo long periods of stasis followed by rapid changes over relatively short periods instead of continually accumulating slow changes over millions of years.
Slime Mold Video
This video is composed of a sequence of films created by John Tyler Bonner in the 1940s to show the life cycle of the cellular slime mold Dictyostelium discoideum. As only the second person to study slime molds, Bonner frequently encountered audiences who had never heard of, let alone seen, the unusual organism.
Gregory Goodwin Pincus (1903-1967)
Gregory Goodwin Pincus, one of the original researchers responsible for the development of the first oral contraceptive pill, was born in Woodbine, New Jersey, on 19 April 1903 to Russian Jewish parents. In 1924 Pincus received his BS degree from Cornell University, and in 1927 he received his MS and PhD from Harvard University, having studied under William Ernest Castle and William John Crozier.
Ann Trow (Madame Restell) (1812–1878)
Self-proclaimed female physician Ann Trow was a women’s reproductive health specialist as well as an abortion provider in New York City, New York during the mid 1800s. Though she had no formal medical training or background, Trow provided women with healthcare and abortions under the alias Madame Restell. Restell gained attention across the United States for her career as a professional abortionist during a time when abortions were highly regulated and punishable with imprisonment. Restell was tried numerous times for carrying out abortions.
Slime mold development video by John Tyler Bonner
This video is composed of a sequence of time lapse films created by John Tyler Bonner in the 1940s to show the life cycle of the cellular slime mold, Dictyostelium discoideum. As only the second person to study slime molds, Bonner frequently encountered audiences who had never heard of, let alone seen, the unusual organism. He therefore decided to create a film to present at seminars in order to introduce his object of study. Bonner created the video for his senior thesis at Harvard University with the help of photographer Frank Smith.
Subject: Organisms
Matthew Stanley Meselson (1930– )
Elizabeth Blackburn, Carol Greider and Jack Szostak's Telomere and Telomerase Experiments (1982-1989)
Experiments conducted by Elizabeth Blackburn, Carol Greider, and Jack Szostak from 1982 to 1989 provided theories of how the ends of chromosomes, called telomeres, and the enzyme that repairs telomeres, called telomerase, worked. The experiments took place at the Sidney Farber Cancer Institute and at Harvard Medical School in Boston, Massachusetts, and at the University of California in Berkeley, California. For their research on telomeres and telomerase, Blackburn, Greider, and Szostak received the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 2009.
Bernadine Healy (1944–2011)
During the twentieth century in the United States, Bernadine Patricia Healy was a cardiologist who served as the first female director of the National Institutes of Health or NIH and the president of both the American Heart Association and the American Red Cross. Healy conducted research on the different manifestations of heart attacks in women compared to men. At the time, many physicians underdiagnosed and mistreated coronary heart disease in women. Healy's research illustrated how coronary heart disease affected women.
E.B. Wilson at Columbia University
John Charles Rock (1890-1984)
Born on 24 March 1890 in Marlborough, Massachusetts, to Ann and Frank Rock, John Charles Rock was both a devout Catholic and one of the leading investigators involved in the development of the first oral contraceptive pill. In 1925 he married Anna Thorndike, with whom he later had five children. He spent over thirty years of his career as a clinical professor of obstetrics at Harvard Medical School, and in 1964 the Center for Population Studies of the Harvard School of Public Health established the John Rock Professorship.
George McDonald Church (1954- )
George McDonald Church studied DNA from living and from extinct species in the US during the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. Church helped to develop and refine techniques with which to describe the complete sequence of all the DNA nucleotides in an organism's genome, techniques such as multiplex sequencing, polony sequencing, and nanopore sequencing. Church also contributed to the Human Genome Project, and in 2005 he helped start a company, the Personal Genome Project. Church proposed to use DNA from extinct species to clone and breed new organisms from those species.
Paternal Sperm Telomere Elongation and Its Impact on Offspring Fitness
Telomeres are structures at the ends of DNA strands that get longer in the DNA of sperm cells as males age. That phenomenon is different for most other types of cells, for which telomeres get shorter as organisms age. In 1992, scientists showed that telomere length (TL) in sperm increases with age in contrast to most cell of most other types. Telomeres are the protective caps at the end of DNA strands that preserve chromosomal integrity and contribute to DNA length and stability.
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Emergence – Archived
What is emergent complexity?
Emergence or emergent complexity describes how relatively simple interactions among parts at one level of scale can generate a qualitatively more complex whole at a greater level of scale. Common examples involve how the interactions of subatomic particles give rise to atoms, how the interactions of atoms give rise to molecules, and how the interactions of molecules give rise to various forms of matter. Emergence gives us language for addressing the surprising and wondrous times in which we find order where we should expect to find chaos.
We are focusing on three main themes related to emergence: patterns of part-whole interactions, levels of scale, and perspective.
Patterns of part-whole interactions
We have to be careful with how we think about wholes, parts, and their relationships. There are entire taxonomies for describing these meronymic or part-whole relationships, and any single whole can have different types of parts. For a whole pie, a part could be an individual slice, the crust, or even an ingredient. In each of these cases, we can take away the part and the remainder will still exist in some form. However, from an emergent systems perspective, we are referring to parts whose interactions cause the whole to come into being. For example, we can say that molecules are part of a pie. However, it is not possible to separate these types of parts from the whole and still have a whole. That is, a pie cannot exist in the absence of its molecules.
There is the idea that “the whole is greater than the sum of its parts”, but emergence literally takes this idea to another level. What we’re getting at here is the difference between affect and effect. Because an emergent whole is an effect of its parts, it exists at an inherently greater magnitude or level of scale. These levels represent distinct situational contexts which subsequently afford and constrain distinct behaviors or patterns of interaction. This is reflected in the differences between the physical properties of objects we interact with everyday and the properties of objects at smaller (cells, molecules, atoms, etc) or greater (planets, stars, galaxies, etc) levels of scale, even though all are subjected to the same fundamental forces.
Emergence is a means of making simplicity complex and complexity simple. What is relatively complex at one level of interacting parts is also relatively simple at another level in which the parts manifest as a whole. Every phenomenon we can observe in the world is both a part and whole, and all are constantly involved in endless interactions which are invisible to us because they are either too small or big for us to physically see, or too utterly beyond our ability to mentally comprehend. Whether or not something is described as an emergent process depends upon a person’s subjective perspective, rather than the objective nature of the thing itself.
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Baroque music (US: /bəˈroʊk/ or UK: /bəˈrɒk/) is a period or style of Western art music composed from approximately 1600 to 1750.[1] This era followed the Renaissance music era, and was followed in turn by the Classical era. Baroque music forms a major portion of the "classical music" canon, and is now widely studied, performed, and listened to. Key composers of the Baroque era include Johann Sebastian Bach, Antonio Vivaldi, George Frideric Handel, Claudio Monteverdi, Domenico Scarlatti, Alessandro Scarlatti, Henry Purcell, Georg Philipp Telemann, Jean-Baptiste Lully, Jean-Philippe Rameau, Marc-Antoine Charpentier, Arcangelo Corelli, Tomaso Albinoni, François Couperin, Giuseppe Tartini, Heinrich Schütz, Giovanni Battista Pergolesi, Dieterich Buxtehude, and Johann Pachelbel.
Double-manual harpsichord by Vital Julian Frey, after Jean-Claude Goujon (1749)
Cultural origins
16th–17th century, Europe
Typical instruments
Baroque instruments
The Baroque period saw the creation of common-practice tonality, an approach to writing music in which a song or piece is written in a particular key; this kind of arrangement has continued to be used in almost all Western popular music. During the Baroque era, professional musicians were expected to be accomplished improvisers of both solo melodic lines and accompaniment parts. Baroque concerts were typically accompanied by a basso continuo group (comprising chord-playing instrumentalists such as harpsichordists and lute players improvising chords from a figured bass part) while a group of bass instruments—viol, cello, double bass—played the bassline. A characteristic Baroque form was the dance suite. While the pieces in a dance suite were inspired by actual dance music, dance suites were designed purely for listening, not for accompanying dancers.
During the period, composers and performers used more elaborate[clarification needed] musical ornamentation (typically improvised by performers), made changes in musical notation (the development of figured bass as a quick way to notate the chord progression of a song or piece), and developed new instrumental playing techniques. Baroque music expanded the size, range, and complexity of instrumental performance, and also established the mixed vocal/instrumental forms of opera, cantata and oratorio and the instrumental forms of the solo concerto and sonata as musical genres. Many musical terms and concepts from this era, such as toccata, fugue and concerto grosso are still in use in the 2010s[update]. Dense, complex polyphonic music, in which multiple independent melody lines were performed simultaneously (a popular example of this is the fugue), was an important part of many Baroque choral and instrumental works.
The term "baroque" comes from the Portuguese word barroco, meaning "misshapen pearl".[2] Negative connotations of the term first occurred in 1734, in a criticism of an opera by Jean-Philippe Rameau, and later (1750) in a description by Charles de Brosses of the ornate and heavily ornamented architecture of the Pamphili Palace in Rome; and from Jean Jacques Rousseau in 1768 in the Encyclopédie in his criticism of music that was overly complex and unnatural. Although the term continued to be applied to architecture and art criticism through the 19th century, it was not until the 20th century that the term "baroque" was adopted from Heinrich Wölfflin's art-history vocabulary to designate a historical period in music.[1]
EtymologyEdit
Johann Sebastian Bach, 1748
The term "baroque" is generally used by music historians to describe a broad range of styles from a wide geographic region, mostly in Europe, composed over a period of approximately 150 years.[1] Although it was long thought that the word as a critical term was first applied to architecture, in fact it appears earlier in reference to music, in an anonymous, satirical review of the première in October 1733 of Rameau's Hippolyte et Aricie, printed in the Mercure de France in May 1734. The critic implied that the novelty in this opera was "du barocque", complaining that the music lacked coherent melody, was filled with unremitting dissonances, constantly changed key and meter, and speedily ran through every compositional device.[3]
Jean-Jacques Rousseau, who was a musician and composer as well as philosopher, wrote in 1768 in the Encyclopédie: "Baroque music is that in which the harmony is confused, and loaded with modulations and dissonances. The singing is harsh and unnatural, the intonation difficult, and the movement limited. It appears that term comes from the word 'baroco' used by logicians."[4] Rousseau was referring to the philosophical term baroco, in use since the 13th century to describe a type of elaborate and, for some, unnecessarily complicated academic argument.[5][6]
The systematic application by historians of the term "baroque" to music of this period is a relatively recent development. In 1919, Curt Sachs became the first to apply the five characteristics of Heinrich Wölfflin's theory of the Baroque systematically to music.[7] Critics were quick to question the attempt to transpose Wölfflin's categories to music, however, and in the second quarter of the 20th century independent attempts were made by Manfred Bukofzer (in Germany and, after his immigration, in America) and by Suzanne Clercx-Lejeune (in Belgium) to use autonomous, technical analysis rather than comparative abstractions, in order to avoid the adaptation of theories based on the plastic arts and literature to music. All of these efforts resulted in appreciable disagreement about time boundaries of the period, especially concerning when it began. In English the term acquired currency only in the 1940s, in the writings of Bukofzer and Paul Henry Lang.[1]
As late as 1960, there was still considerable dispute in academic circles, particularly in France and Britain, whether it was meaningful to lump together music as diverse as that of Jacopo Peri, Domenico Scarlatti, and Johann Sebastian Bach under a single rubric. Nevertheless, the term has become widely used and accepted for this broad range of music.[1] It may be helpful to distinguish the Baroque from both the preceding (Renaissance) and following (Classical) periods of musical history.
The Baroque period is divided into three major phases: early, middle, and late. Although they overlap in time, they are conventionally dated from 1580 to 1630, from 1630 to 1680, and from 1680 to 1730.[8]
Early baroque music (1580–1630)Edit
Further information: Transition from Renaissance to Baroque in instrumental music
Claudio Monteverdi in 1640
The Florentine Camerata was a group of humanists, musicians, poets and intellectuals in late Renaissance Florence who gathered under the patronage of Count Giovanni de' Bardi to discuss and guide trends in the arts, especially music and drama. In reference to music, they based their ideals on a perception of Classical (especially ancient Greek) musical drama that valued discourse and oration.[9] As such, they rejected their contemporaries' use of polyphony (multiple, independent melodic lines) and instrumental music, and discussed such ancient Greek music devices as monody, which consisted of a solo singing accompanied by a kithara (an ancient strummed string instrument).[10] The early realizations of these ideas, including Jacopo Peri's Dafne and L'Euridice, marked the beginning of opera,[11] which were a catalyst for Baroque music.[12]
Concerning music theory, the more widespread use of figured bass (also known as thorough bass) represents the developing importance of harmony as the linear underpinnings of polyphony.[13] Harmony is the end result of counterpoint, and figured bass is a visual representation of those harmonies commonly employed in musical performance. With figured bass, numbers, accidentals or symbols were placed above the bassline that was read by keyboard instrument players such as harpsichord players or pipe organists (or lutenists). The numbers, accidentals or symbols indicated to the keyboard player what intervals are to be played above each bass note. The keyboard player would improvise a chord voicing for each bass note.[14] Composers began concerning themselves with harmonic progressions,[15] and also employed the tritone, perceived as an unstable interval,[16] to create dissonance (it was used in the dominant seventh chord and the diminished chord. An interest in harmony had also existed among certain composers in the Renaissance, notably Carlo Gesualdo;[17] However, the use of harmony directed towards tonality (a focus on a musical key that becomes the "home note" of a piece), rather than modality, marks the shift from the Renaissance into the Baroque period.[18] This led to the idea that certain sequences of chords, rather than just notes, could provide a sense of closure at the end of a piece—one of the fundamental ideas that became known as tonality.[citation needed]
By incorporating these new aspects of composition, Claudio Monteverdi furthered the transition from the Renaissance style of music to that of the Baroque period. He developed two individual styles of composition—the heritage of Renaissance polyphony (prima pratica) and the new basso continuo technique of the Baroque (seconda pratica). With basso continuo, a small group of musicians would play the bassline and the chords which formed the accompaniment for a melody. The basso continuo group would typically use one or more keyboard players and a lute player who would play the bassline and improvise the chords and several bass instruments (e.g., bass viol, cello, double bass) which would play the bassline. With the writing of the operas L'Orfeo and L'incoronazione di Poppea among others, Monteverdi brought considerable attention to this new genre.[19]
Middle baroque music (1630–1680)Edit
The rise of the centralized court is one of the economic and political features of what is often labelled the Age of Absolutism, personified by Louis XIV of France. The style of palace, and the court system of manners and arts he fostered became the model for the rest of Europe. The realities of rising church and state patronage created the demand for organized public music, as the increasing availability of instruments created the demand for chamber music, which is music for a small ensemble of instrumentalists.[20]
Jean-Baptiste Lully by Paul Mignard
The middle Baroque period in Italy is defined by the emergence of the vocal styles of cantata, oratorio, and opera during the 1630s, and a new concept of melody and harmony that elevated the status of the music to one of equality with the words, which formerly had been regarded as pre-eminent. The florid, coloratura monody of the early Baroque gave way to a simpler, more polished melodic style. These melodies were built from short, cadentially delimited ideas often based on stylized dance patterns drawn from the sarabande or the courante. The harmonies, too, might be simpler[clarification needed] than in the early Baroque monody, and the accompanying bass lines were more integrated with the melody, producing a contrapuntal equivalence of the parts that later led to the device of an initial bass anticipation of the aria melody. This harmonic simplification also led to a new formal device of the differentiation of recitative (a more spoken part of opera) and aria (a part of opera that used sung melodies). The most important innovators of this style were the Romans Luigi Rossi and Giacomo Carissimi, who were primarily composers of cantatas and oratorios, respectively, and the Venetian Francesco Cavalli, who was principally an opera composer. Later important practitioners of this style include Antonio Cesti, Giovanni Legrenzi, and Alessandro Stradella.[21]
The middle Baroque had absolutely no bearing on the theoretical work of Johann Fux, who systematized the strict counterpoint characteristic of earlier ages in his Gradus ad Parnassum (1725).[22][clarification needed]
One pre-eminent example of a court style composer is Jean-Baptiste Lully. He purchased patents from the monarchy to be the sole composer of operas for the French king and to prevent others from having operas staged. He completed 15 lyric tragedies and left unfinished Achille et Polyxène.[23] Lully was an early example of a conductor; he would beat the time with a large staff to keep his ensembles together.
Musically, he did not establish the string-dominated norm for orchestras, which was inherited from the Italian opera, and the characteristically French five-part disposition (violins, violas—in hautes-contre, tailles and quintes sizes—and bass violins) had been used in the ballet from the time of Louis XIII. He did, however, introduce this ensemble to the lyric theatre, with the upper parts often doubled by recorders, flutes, and oboes, and the bass by bassoons. Trumpets and kettledrums were frequently added for heroic scenes.[23]
Arcangelo Corelli is remembered as influential for his achievements on the other side of musical technique—as a violinist who organized violin technique and pedagogy—and in purely instrumental music, particularly his advocacy and development of the concerto grosso.[24] Whereas Lully was ensconced at court, Corelli was one of the first composers to publish widely and have his music performed all over Europe. As with Lully's stylization and organization of the opera, the concerto grosso is built on strong contrasts—sections alternate between those played by the full orchestra, and those played by a smaller group. Dynamics were "terraced", that is with a sharp transition from loud to soft and back again. Fast sections and slow sections were juxtaposed against each other. Numbered among his students is Antonio Vivaldi, who later composed hundreds of works based on the principles in Corelli's trio sonatas and concerti.[24]
In contrast to these composers, Dieterich Buxtehude was not a creature of court but instead was church musician, holding the posts of organist and Werkmeister at the Marienkirche at Lübeck. His duties as Werkmeister involved acting as the secretary, treasurer, and business manager of the church, while his position as organist included playing for all the main services, sometimes in collaboration with other instrumentalists or vocalists, who were also paid by the church. Entirely outside of his official church duties, he organised and directed a concert series known as the Abendmusiken, which included performances of sacred dramatic works regarded by his contemporaries as the equivalent of operas.[25]
Late baroque music (1680–1730)Edit
This section needs expansion. You can help by adding to it. (July 2014)
The work of George Frideric Handel, Johann Sebastian Bach and their contemporaries, including Domenico Scarlatti, Antonio Vivaldi, Jean-Philippe Rameau, Georg Philipp Telemann, and others advanced the Baroque era to its climax.[26] Through the work of Johann Fux, the Renaissance style of polyphony was made the basis for the study of composition for future musical eras. The composers of the late baroque had established their feats of composition long before the works of Johann Fux.[22]
A continuous worker, Handel borrowed from other composers and often "recycled" his own material. He was also known for reworking pieces such as the famous Messiah, which premiered in 1742, for available singers and musicians.[27]
Timeline of composersEdit
See also: List of Baroque composers
InstrumentsEdit
See also: List of period instruments and Baroque instruments
StringsEdit
Baroque instruments, including a hurdy-gurdy, harpsichord, bass viol, lute, violin, and guitar.
Viola pomposa
Tenor violin
Bass violin
Theorbo
Bandora
Cittern
Hurdy-gurdy
WoodwindsEdit
Baroque flute
Cortol (also known as Cortholt, Curtall, Oboe family)
Dulcian
Musette de cour
Baroque oboe
Rackett
BrassEdit
Baroque trumpet
Tromba da tirarsi (also called tromba spezzata)
Flatt trumpet
Sackbut (16th- and early 17th-century English name for FR: saquebute, saqueboute; ES: sacabuche; IT: trombone; MHG: busaun, busîne, busune / DE (since the early 17th century) Posaune)
Trombone (English name for the same instrument, from the early 18th century)
KeyboardsEdit
Tangent piano
Fortepiano – an early version of the piano invented ca. 1700, but did not become popular during Baroque era
PercussionEdit
Styles and formsEdit
Dance suiteEdit
See also: Suite (music) § Dance suite
A large instrumental ensemble's performance in the lavish Teatro Argentina, as depicted by Panini (1747)
A characteristic of the Baroque form was the dance suite. Some dance suites by Bach are called partitas, although this term is also used for other collections of pieces. While the pieces in a dance suite were inspired by actual dance music, dance suites were designed for listening, not for accompanying dancers. Composers used a variety of different dance movements in their dance suites. A dance suite often consists of the following movements:
Overture – The Baroque suite often began with a French overture ("Ouverture" in French), a slow movement which was followed by a succession of dances of different types, principally the following four:
Allemande – Often the first dance of an instrumental suite, the allemande was a very popular dance that had its origins in the German Renaissance era. The allemande was played at a moderate tempo and could start on any beat of the bar.[28][29]
Courante – The second dance is the courante, a lively, French dance in triple meter. The Italian version is called the corrente.[28][29]
Sarabande – The sarabande, a Spanish dance, is the third of the four basic dances, and is one of the slowest of the baroque dances. It is also in triple meter and can start on any beat of the bar, although there is an emphasis on the second beat, creating the characteristic 'halting', or iambic rhythm of the sarabande.[28][29]
Gigue – The gigue is an upbeat and lively baroque dance in compound meter, typically the concluding movement of an instrumental suite, and the fourth of its basic dance types. The gigue can start on any beat of the bar and is easily recognized by its rhythmic feel. The gigue originated in the British Isles. Its counterpart in folk music is the jig.[28][29]
These four dance types (allemande, courante, sarabande, and gigue) make up the majority of 17th-century suites; later suites interpolate one or more additional dances between the sarabande and gigue:
Gavotte – The gavotte can be identified by a variety of features; it is in 4
4 time and always starts on the third beat of the bar, although this may sound like the first beat in some cases, as the first and third beats are the strong beats in quadruple time. The gavotte is played at a moderate tempo, although in some cases it may be played faster.[28]
Bourrée – The bourrée is similar to the gavotte as it is in 2
2 time, although it starts on the second half of the last beat of the bar, creating a different feel to the dance. The bourrée is commonly played at a moderate tempo, although for some composers, such as Handel, it can be taken at a much faster tempo.[28][2]
Minuet – The minuet is perhaps the best-known of the baroque dances in triple meter. It can start on any beat of the bar. In some suites there may be a Minuet I and II, played in succession, with the Minuet I repeated.[28]
Passepied – The passepied is a fast dance in binary form and triple meter that originated as a court dance in Brittany.[30] Examples can be found in later suites such as those of Bach and Handel.[28]
Rigaudon – The rigaudon is a lively French dance in duple meter, similar to the bourrée, but rhythmically simpler. It originated as a family of closely related southern-French folk dances, traditionally associated with the provinces of Vavarais, Languedoc, Dauphiné, and Provence.[28][31]
Additionally, there are numerous other dance forms as well as other pieces that could be included in a suite, such as Polonaise, Loure, Scherzo, Air, etc.
Other featuresEdit
Prelude – a suite might be started by a prelude, a slow piece written in an improvisatory style. Some Baroque preludes were not fully written out; instead, a sequence of chords were indicated, with the expectation that the instrumentalist would be able to improvise a melodic part using the indicated harmonic framework. The prelude was not based on a type of dance.
Entrée – Sometimes an entrée is composed as part of a suite; but there it is purely instrumental music and no dance is performed. It is an introduction, a march-like piece played during the entrance of a dancing group, or played before a ballet. Usually in 4
4 time. It is related to the Italian 'intrada'.
Basso continuo – a kind of continuous accompaniment notated with a new music notation system, figured bass, usually for one or more sustaining bass instruments (e.g., cello) and one or more chord-playing instruments (e.g., keyboard instruments such as harpsichord, pipe organ or lute)
The concerto (a solo piece with orchestral accompaniment) and concerto grosso
Monody – an outgrowth of song[32]
Homophony – music with one melodic voice and rhythmically similar (and subordinate) chordal accompaniment (this and monody are contrasted with the typical Renaissance texture, polyphony)[33]
Dramatic musical forms like opera, dramma per musica[32][34]
Combined instrumental-vocal forms, such as the oratorio and cantata,[34] both of which used singers and orchestra
New instrumental techniques, like tremolo and pizzicato[34]
The da capo aria "enjoyed sureness".[32]
The ritornello aria – repeated short instrumental interruptions of vocal passages.[35]
The concertato style – contrast in sound between groups of instruments.[36]
Extensive ornamentation,[37] which was typically improvised by singers and instrumentalists (e.g., trills, mordents, etc.)
GenresEdit
VocalEdit
Opera seria
Opera-ballet
Passion (music)
Mass (music)
Monody
InstrumentalEdit
Chorale composition
Concerto grosso
Allemande
Courante
Sarabande
Sonata da camera
Sonata da chiesa
Trio sonata
Ricercar
Chorale prelude
Stylus fantasticus
^ a b c d e Palisca 2001.
^ a b Mackay and Romanec 2007.
^ Palisca 1989, pp. 7–8.
^ Encyclopedie; Lettre sur la Musique Francaise under the direction of Denis Diderot
^ Antoine Arnauld, Pierre Nicole, La logique ou l'art de penser, Part Three, chapter VI (1662) (in French)
^ "BAROQUE : Etymologie de BAROQUE". www.cnrtl.fr. Retrieved 4 January 2019.
^ Sachs 1919, pp. 7–15.
^ Bukofzer 1947, pp. 17.
^ Nuti 2007, p. 14.
^ Wallechinsky 2007, p. 445.
^ Chua 2001, p. 26.
^ Wainwright and Holman 2005, p. 4.
^ Clarke 1898, pp. 147–48.
^ Haagmans 1916, p. vi.
^ York 1909, p. 109.
^ Donington 1974, p. 156.
^ Watkins 1991, p. 103.
^ Norton 1984, p. 24.
^ Carter and Chew 2013.
^ Sadie 2013.
^ Bukofzer 1947, pp. 118–21.
^ a b White and Hochradner 2013.
^ a b La Gorce 2001.
^ a b Talbot 2001a.
^ Snyder 2001.
^ Burrows 1991, p. 22.
^ a b c d e f g h i Kenyon 1997.
^ a b c d Estrella 2012.
^ Little 2001a.
^ Little 2001b.
^ a b c Dorak 2008.
^ Hyer 2013.
^ a b c Shotwell 2002.
^ Talbot 2001b.
^ Carver 2013.
^ Roseman 1975.
Bukofzer, Manfred F. (1947). Music in the Baroque Era: From Monteverdi to Bach. New York: E. W. Norton & Company, Inc. ISBN 0-393-09745-5.
Burrows, Donald (1991). Handel: Messiah. Cambridge, New York, and Melbourne: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-37620-3.
Carter, Tim; Geoffrey Chew (2013). "Monteverdi, Claudio". Grove Music Online. Oxford University Press. Missing or empty |url= (help)
Carver, Anthony F. (2013). "Concertato". Grove Music Online. Oxford University Press. (subscription required)
Clarke, Hugh Archibald (1898). A System of Harmony. Philadelphia: T. Presser. ISBN 978-1-248-37946-2.
Chua, Daniel K. L. (2001). "Vincenzo Galilei, Modernity, and the Division of Nature". In Clark, Suzannah (ed.). Music Theory and Natural Order from the Renaissance to the Early Twentieth Century. ISBN 9780521771917.
Donington, Robert (1974). A Performer's Guide to Baroque Music. New York: C. Scribner's Sons. ISBN 978-0-571-09797-5.
Dorak, Mehmet Tevfik (2008). "Baroque Music". Dorak.info. [self-published source?]
Estrella, Espie (2012). "The Suite: Baroque Dance Suite". About.com.
Grout, Donald J.; Claude V. Palisca (1996). A History of Western Music. New York: W. W. Norton.
Haagmans, Dirk (1916). Scales, Intervals, Harmony. University of Michigan: J. Fischer & Bro. ISBN 978-1-4370-6202-1.
Hyer, Brian (2013). "Homophony". Grove Music Online. Oxford University Press. (subscription required)
Kenyon, Stephen (1997). "The Baroque Suite". Jacaranda Music. [self-published source?]
La Gorce, Jérôme de (2001). "Jean-Baptiste Lully". Grove Music Online. Oxford University Press. (subscription required)
Little, Meredith Ellis (2001a). Passepied. The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians. London: Macmillan Publishers. ISBN 978-1-56159-239-5.
Little, Meredith Ellis (2001b). Rigaudon. The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians. London: Macmillan Publishers. ISBN 978-1-56159-239-5.
Mackay, Alison; Craig Romanec (2007). "Baroque Guide" (PDF). Tafelmusik.
Norton, Richard (1984). Tonality in Western Culture: A Critical and Historical Perspective. University Park: Pennsylvania State University Press. ISBN 978-0-271-00359-7.
Nuti, Giulia (2007). The Performance of Italian Basso Continuo: Style in Keyboard Accompaniment in the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries. Aldershot, England: Ashgate Publishing. ISBN 978-0-7546-0567-6.
Palisca, Claude V. (1989). "'Baroque' as a Music-Critical Term". In Georgia Cowart (ed.). French Musical Thought, 1600–1800. Ann Arbor: UMI Research Press. pp. 7–22. ISBN 9780835718820.
Palisca, Claude V. (2001). Baroque. The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians. London: Macmillan Publishers. ISBN 978-1-56159-239-5.
Price, Curtis (2013). "Purcell, Henry". Grove Music Online. Oxford University Press. (subscription required)
Roseman, Ronald (1975). "Baroque Ornamentation". Journal of The International Double Reed Society 3. Archived from the original on 20 April 2008. Reprinted in Muse Baroque: La magazine de la musique baroque, n.d.
Sachs, Curt (1919). "Barockmusik". Jahrbuch der Musikbibliothek Peters. 26. pp. [, page , needed], .
Sadie, Stanley (2002). "Baroque Era, the". The Oxford Companion to Music. Oxford University Press. (subscription required)
Sadie, Julie Anne (2013). "Louis XIV, King of France". Grove Music Online. Oxford University Press. (subscription required)
Shotwell, Clay (2002). "MUSI 4350/4360: Music of the Baroque Era: General Characteristics of the Baroque". Augusta, GA: Augusta State University. Archived from the original on 30 April 2012. Retrieved 25 August 2012.
Snyder, Kerala J. (2001). "Buxtehude, Dieterich". Grove Music Online. Oxford University Press. (subscription required)
Talbot, Michael (2001a). "Corelli, Arcangelo". Grove Music Online. Oxford University Press. (subscription required)
Talbot, Michael (2001b). "Ritornello". Grove Music Online. Oxford University Press. (subscription required)
Wainwright, Jonathan; Peter Holman (2005). From Renaissance to Baroque: Change in Instruments and Instrumental Music in the Seventeenth Century. Aldershot, England: Ashgate Publishing. ISBN 978-0-7546-0403-7.
Wallechinsky, David (2007). The Knowledge Book: Everything You Need to Know to Get by in the 21st century. Washington, DC: National Geographic Books. ISBN 978-1-4262-0124-0.
Watkins, Glenn (1991). Gesualdo: The Man and His Music. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-816197-4.
White, Harry; Thomas Hochradner (2013). "Fux, Johann Joseph". Grove Music Online. Oxford University Press.
York, Francis L. (1909). Harmony Simplified: A Practical Introduction to Composition. Boston: Oliver Ditson and Company. ISBN 978-1-176-33956-9.
Christensen, Thomas Street, and Peter Dejans. Towards Tonality Aspects of Baroque Music Theory. Leuven: Leuven University Press, 2007. ISBN 978-90-5867-587-3
Cyr, Mary. Essays on the Performance of Baroque Music Opera and Chamber Music in France and England. Variorum collected studies series, 899. Aldershot, Hants, England: Ashgate, 2008. ISBN 978-0-7546-5926-6
Foreman, Edward. A Bel Canto Method, or, How to Sing Italian Baroque Music Correctly Based on the Primary Sources. Twentieth century masterworks on singing, v. 12. Minneapolis, Minn: Pro Musica Press, 2006. ISBN 978-1-887117-18-0
Hebson, Audrey (2012). "Dance and Its Importance in Bach's Suites for Solo Cello", Musical Offerings: Vol. 1: No. 2, Article 2. Available at http://digitalcommons.cedarville.edu/musicalofferings/vol1/iss2/2.
Hoffer, Brandi (2012). "Sacred German Music in the Thirty Years' War", Musical Offerings: Vol. 3: No. 1, Article 1. Available at http://digitalcommons.cedarville.edu/musicalofferings/vol3/iss1/1.
Schubert, Peter, and Christoph Neidhöfer. Baroque Counterpoint. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Prentice Hall, 2006. ISBN 978-0-13-183442-2
Schulenberg, David. Music of the Baroque. New York: Oxford UP, 2001. ISBN 978-0-19-512232-9
Stauffer, George B. The World of Baroque Music New Perspectives. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2006. ISBN 978-0-253-34798-5
Strunk, Oliver. Source Readings in Music History. From Classical Antiquity to the Romantic Era. London: Faber & Faber, 1952.
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Baroque music.
Barock Music (webradio)
Pandora Radio: Baroque Period (not available outside the U.S.)
Handel's Harpsichord Room – free recordings of harpsichord music of the Baroque era
Renaissance & Baroque Music Chronology: Composers
Orpheon Foundation in Vienna, Austria
Free scores by various baroque composers at the International Music Score Library Project (IMSLP)
Music, Affect and Fire: Thesis on Affect Theory with Fire as the special topic
Répertoire International des Sources Musicales (RISM), a free, searchable database of worldwide locations for music manuscripts up to c. 1800
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Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada
The Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine (Ukrainian: Голова Верховної Ради України, Holova Verkhovnoyi Rady Ukrayiny) is the presiding officer of the Verkhovna Rada, Ukraine's unicameral parliament. The chairman presides over the parliament and its procedures. Chairmen are elected by open voting from the parliament's deputy ranks.[2]
Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine
Голова Верховної Ради України
Andriy Parubiy
Appointer
Parliament by secret ballot
Resignation, dismissal or new convocation of parliament.
Constituting instrument
Constitution of Ukraine (Article 88) and Rules of the Procedures of the Verkhovna Rada
Precursor
Chairman of Central Executive Committee (1917-1937)
Chairman of the Presidium of the Verkhovna Rada of the UkrSSR (1937-1996)
Inaugural holder
Mykhailo Burmystenko,
Constitution of the Ukrainian SSR of July 25, 1938
First Deputy Chairman
₴ 21,144 per month[1]
chairman.rada.gov.ua
Andriy Parubiy is the current chairman since being confirmed on 14 April 2016.[3]
The office of Chairman has existed since the ratification of the Constitution of the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic on January 30, 1937. Mykhailo Burmystenko, who was appointed on January 30, 1937, was the inaugural holder of the office. The post replaced the existing position of a chairman of Central Executive Committee (1917-37). Along with the chairman, from 1937 to 1990 Verkhovna Rada was also governed by the Presidium of the Verkhovna Rada that consisted of about 20 members.
There have been 18 Chairmen of the Verkhovna Rada since 1927. Until Ukraine's independence in 1991, it was titled as Chairman of the Supreme Soviet of the Ukrainian SSR.
Mission and authorityEdit
According to Article 88 of the Ukrainian Constitution, the Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada is allowed to:[4]
preside over meetings of parliament;
organize work of the Verkhovna Rada and coordinate its activities;
sign and promulgate acts adopted by the Verkhovna Rada;
represent the parliament in relation with other bodies of state power of Ukraine and with the bodies of power of other states;
organize the work of the staff of the parliament.
The chairman is also allowed to call special sessions of parliament,[5] enact bills vetoed by the president only when the Verkhovna Rada votes to overcome the veto by a two-thirds majority, and participate in meetings of the National Security and Defence Council.[6]
The chairman and his two assistants (deputy chairmen) cannot head factions of deputies.[7]
Head of stateEdit
The Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada is designated as the first in the order of succession to the presidency, with limited authority (1992-1996, 2004-2010, and 2014-Present) while new presidential elections are conducted.[8] While the chairman serves as acting president, he is barred from taking the following actions:[8]
disbanding the parliament;
appointing or submitting candidates for parliamentary approval of government posts;
granting military ranks or state orders;
exercising the right of pardon.
SuccessionEdit
No provisions for presidential succession are explicitly proscribed in case both the president's and chairman's positions are vacant. However, in case of vacancy of the post of Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada, it is filled by deputies of the chairman.
During the Soviet era, there was one more post known as the chairman of Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the Ukrainian SSR's who was de jure head of state; the de facto head of state was the General Secretary of the Communist Party of Ukraine.
See also: Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic
List of chairmenEdit
Main article: List of Chairmen of the Verkhovna Rada
Special state privilegesEdit
All former chairmen of the Verkhovna Rada receive special state privileges. After the completion of their tenure, former chairmen are provided with cabinets in the parliament's building, an official government car and an adviser and an aide at state expense.[9]
The respective decree #296 was signed by Volodymyr Lytvyn as early as on June 7, 2006 – a month before he was dismissed from the post of Parliament's Speaker. After three years since its adoption, Verkhovna Rada officials kept silent about the law, after which it was made public by an article in the DELO newspaper in mid-May 2009.[9]
^ Price of parliamentarism: how effective and transparent Verkhovna Rada spends money (Цена парламентаризма: насколько эффективно и прозрачно Верховная Рада тратит деньги). Agumentua. 14 May 2018
^ Yanukovych signs law on open voting to elect parliamentary chairman, Kyiv Post (19 November 2012)
^ Rada appoints Andriy Parubiy its speaker, Interfax-Ukraine (14 April 2016)
^ "Article 88". Wikisource. Retrieved 2007-10-11.
^ "Article 107". Wikisource. Retrieved 2007-10-11.
^ Rada amends regulations of its activities, Kyiv Post (October 8, 2010)
^ a b "Article 112". Wikisource. Retrieved 2007-10-11.
^ a b Lytvyn makes himself well-provided till end of life, UNIAN (May 15, 2009)
"Official website of the Chairman". Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine.
Высшие органы государственной власти Украинской ССР (Supreme authorities of state power of the Ukrainian SSR)
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The Secret of NIMH is a 1982 American animated dark fantasy adventure film directed by Don Bluth in his directorial debut. It is an adaptation of Robert C. O'Brien's 1971 children's novel Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH. The film was produced by Aurora Productions and released by MGM/UA Entertainment Company for United Artists and features the voices of Elizabeth Hartman, Dom DeLuise, Arthur Malet, Derek Jacobi, Hermione Baddeley, John Carradine, Peter Strauss and Paul Shenar. The "Mrs. Frisby" name in the novel had to be changed to "Mrs. Brisby" during production due to trademark concerns with Frisbee discs. It was followed in 1998 by a direct-to-video sequel called The Secret of NIMH 2: Timmy to the Rescue, which was made without Bluth's involvement or input. In 2015, a CGI/live action remake was reported to be in the works.[2]
Theatrical release poster by Tim Hildebrandt
Gary Goldman
John Pomeroy
Screenplay by
Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH
by Robert C. O'Brien
Arthur Malet
Paul Shenar
Jeffrey C. Patch
Aurora Productions
Don Bluth Productions
MGM/UA Entertainment Company
July 2, 1982 (1982-07-02)
82 minutes[1]
PlotEdit
Mrs. Brisby, a timid widowed field mouse, lives in a cinder block with her children in a field on the Fitzgibbons' farm. She prepares to move her family out of the field as plowing time approaches, but her son Timothy has fallen ill. She visits Mr. Ages, another mouse and friend of her late husband, Jonathan, who diagnoses Timothy with pneumonia and provides her with medicine. Mr. Ages warns her that Timothy must stay inside for at least three weeks or he will die. On her way home, she encounters Jeremy, a clumsy but friendly crow. They both narrowly escape from the Fitzgibbons' cat, Dragon.
The next day, Mrs. Brisby discovers that Farmer Fitzgibbons has started plowing early. Although her neighbor Auntie Shrew helps her disable his tractor, Mrs. Brisby knows she must devise another plan. Jeremy takes her to meet the Great Owl, who tells her to visit a group of rats that live beneath a rose bush on the farm and ask for Nicodemus, their wise and mystical leader.
Mrs. Brisby enters the rose bush and encounters an aggressive guard rat named Brutus, who chases her away. She is led back in by Mr. Ages, and is amazed to see the rats' use of electricity and other technology. She meets Justin, the friendly Captain of the Guard, and Jenner, a ruthless, power-hungry rat opposed to Nicodemus, and finally Nicodemus himself. From Nicodemus, she learns that many years ago her husband, along with the rats and Mr. Ages, were part of a series of experiments at a place known as NIMH, the National Institute of Mental Health. The experiments boosted their intelligence, enabling them to escape, as well as extending their lifespans and slowing their aging process. However, they are unable to live only as rats, needing human technology to survive, which they have only accomplished by stealing. The rats have concocted "The Plan", which is to leave the farm and live independently. Nicodemus gives Mrs. Brisby an amulet called "The Stone", which gives magical power when its wearer is courageous.
Because of her husband's relationship with the rats, they agree to help Mrs. Brisby move her home. First, they need to drug Dragon to sleep so that they can complete the move safely. Only Mrs. Brisby can do this, as only mice are small enough to fit through the hole leading into the house; Jonathan was killed by Dragon in a previous attempt, while Mr. Ages broke his leg in another. That night, she puts the drug into the cat's food dish, but the Fitzgibbons' son Billy catches her. While trapped in a birdcage, she overhears a telephone conversation between Farmer Fitzgibbons and NIMH and learns that the Institute intends to exterminate the rats the next day. She escapes from the cage and runs off to warn the rats.
The rats are moving the Brisby home, with the children inside, using a rope and pulley system during a thunderstorm. Jenner, who wishes for the rats to remain in the rose bush, sabotages the ropes with his reluctant accomplice Sullivan, causing the assembly to fly apart and kill Nicodemus. Mrs. Brisby arrives and tries to convince the rats that NIMH is coming and they must leave, but Jenner attacks her and attempts to steal the amulet. Sullivan alerts Justin, who rushes to Mrs. Brisby's aid. Jenner mortally wounds Sullivan and engages Justin in a sword fight, which ends with Sullivan killing Jenner before dying himself.
The Brisby house begins to sink into the mud, but Justin and the rats are unable to raise it. Mrs. Brisby's will to save her children gives power to the amulet, which she uses to lift the house and move it to safety. The next morning, the rats have departed for Thorn Valley with Justin as their new leader, and Timothy begins to recover. Jeremy eventually meets "Miss Right", another crow who is just as clumsy as he is, and the two fly away together.
Voice castEdit
Elizabeth Hartman as Mrs. Brisby, the main character of the film and the widowed mother of Teresa, Martin, Cynthia and Timmy. Her husband, Jonathan, was killed and eaten alive by Farmer Fitzgibbons' pet cat Dragon and she struggles to take care of her children by herself. Her main plot in the film is to find a society of intelligent lab rats to help her move her home in order to avoid destruction by Fitzgibbons' plow.
Derek Jacobi as Nicodemus
Hermione Baddeley as Auntie Shrew
John Carradine as the Great Owl
Dom DeLuise as Jeremy the Crow
Arthur Malet as Mr. Ages
Peter Strauss as Justin
Paul Shenar as Jenner
Aldo Ray as Sullivan
Shannen Doherty as Teresa Brisby, Mrs. Brisby's firstborn daughter. She is always willing to help her mother take care of her siblings.
Wil Wheaton as Martin Brisby, Mrs. Brisby's firstborn son and second child. He always wants to prove that he is big enough to fight everything and believes that he is not scared of anything.
Ian Fried as Timothy "Timmy" Brisby, Mrs. Brisby's second born son and third child. He falls sick with pneumonia and Mrs. Brisby goes on a journey to help find a cure for him. He later becomes the main protagonist in The Secret of NIMH 2: Timmy to the Rescue.
Jodi Hicks as Cynthia Brisby, Mrs. Brisby's second born daughter and youngest child. She is the curious one out of the four mouse kids.
Edie McClurg as Miss Right, a female crow who becomes Jeremy's girlfriend by the end of the film.
Tom Hatten as Farmer Fitzgibbons
Lucille Bliss as Mrs. Beth Fitzgibbons
Joshua Lawrence as Billy Fitzgibbons
Charles Champlin, Dick Kleiner, and Norbert Auerbach as the Council rats
ProductionEdit
The rights to the book Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH had reportedly been offered to Disney in 1972 but were turned down.[3]
The Secret of NIMH was the first feature film to be directed by Don Bluth. In September 1979 he, fellow animators Gary Goldman and John Pomeroy and eight other animation staff left the animation department at Walt Disney Productions to set up their own independent studio, Don Bluth Productions. The studio worked, at first, out of Bluth's house and garage, but moved to a two-story, 5,500-square-foot (510 m2) facility in Studio City, California, several months later.[4] While they were still working at Disney, they produced the 27-minute short film Banjo the Woodpile Cat as a side project to gain other production skills that the company and their animation program were not addressing. Bluth asked Ron W. Miller, Walt Disney's son-in-law and the president and CEO of the company at the time, to view Banjo, but Miller declined. As Goldman recalled, "that pulled the enthusiasm rug out from under us. We had hoped that the studio might like what we were doing and agree to buy the film and allow us to finish the short film in the studio, which would allow us to recoup what we had spent in terms of money and the many hours that we and the other members of the team had invested in the film."[5]
Before they started making Banjo, artist and story writer Ken Anderson had been getting into Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH, which he called "a wonderful story". He gave the book to Bluth for him to read and make a film out of after Bluth finished the animation direction of Pete's Dragon. Bluth later showed NIMH to Disney animation director Wolfgang Reitherman, who turned down Bluth's offers to make a movie based on the book, stating, "We've already got a mouse [named Mickey Mouse,] and we've done a mouse movie [called The Rescuers]." However, Bluth also presented the novel to the other staff that would work for Don Bluth Productions later on and they all loved it. Two months later, former Disney executive James L. Stewart, who now had started Aurora Productions, called Goldman and told him about Anderson's idea of making a film based on NIMH.[5] At Bluth, Goldman and Pomeroy's request, Aurora Productions acquired the film rights and offered Don Bluth Productions a budget of US$5.7 million and 30 months to complete the film, tighter in both budget and schedule than most Disney animated features at the time.[6]
CastingEdit
Goldman described the casting process as "exciting, fun, and sometimes strange".[5] He stated that focusing on the characteristics of each character, the voices and acting abilities were crucial, saying that using voices that added to a movie's texture was part of the team's philosophy in the development of a film. Goldman found the strangest casting decision to be Dom DeLuise for Jeremy the Crow, which Goldman, Bluth, and Pomeroy had considered after they watched the 1978 film The End.[5] Elizabeth Hartman was cast as Mrs. Brisby, with Goldman calling her performance in A Patch of Blue "so believable and sincere that we all felt that she was right for the part." Pomeroy suggested Derek Jacobi, who starred in the 1976 miniseries I, Claudius, to play the part of Nicodemus.[5] Peter Strauss, whom the team previously saw in another miniseries from 1976, Rich Man, Poor Man, was cast as Justin.[5] Paul Shenar was assigned to play Jenner; the staff liked his "dark, powerful voice".[5] Shakespearean actor John Carradine was "perfect for the dark, ominous Great Owl", while Aldo Ray was assigned to voice Sullivan, whom Goldman said "also had a great distinctive voice".[5]
AnimationEdit
Mrs. Brisby meets Nicodemus. Backlighting techniques are used in this scene to give Nicodemus's eyes a bright glow. According to the 2007 DVD release, Bluth wanted Nicodemus and the Great Owl to be seen as aspects of the same character, accounting for some similarities in their designs.
The production of The Secret of NIMH lasted from January 1980 to early June 1982.[7] The studio set out with the explicit goal in mind of returning feature animation to its "golden era", concentrating on strong characters and story and experimenting with unusual and often more labor-intensive animation techniques.[6] Bluth believed older techniques were being abandoned in favor of lower production costs and the only way that animation could survive was to continue traditional production methods. Among the techniques experimented with on The Secret of NIMH were rotoscoping, multiple passes on the camera to achieve transparent shadows, backlit animation (where animated mattes are shot with light shining through color gels to produce glowing areas for artificial light and fire effects) and multiple color palettes for characters to fit in different lighting situations, from daylight, to night, to warm environments, to underwater. Mrs. Brisby had 46 different lighting situations; therefore there were 46 different color palettes, or lists of color, for her. Two modern, computerized versions of the multiplane camera were also manufactured for this production.[8]
To achieve the film's detailed full animation while keeping to the tight budget, the studio strove to keep any waste of time and resources to a minimum. The crew often worked long hours with no immediate financial reward (though they were offered a cut of the film's profits, a practice common for producers, directors and stars of live action films, but never before offered to artists on an animated feature); producer Gary Goldman recalled working 110-hour weeks during the final six months of production.[3] Around 100 in-house staff worked on the film, with the labor-intensive cel painting farmed out to 45 people working from home.[9] Many minor roles, including incidental and crowd voice work, were filled in by the in-house staff. The final cost of the film was $6.385 million. The producers, Bluth, Goldman and Pomeroy and the executive producers at Aurora mortgaged their homes collectively for $700,000 to complete the film, with the understanding that their investment would be the first to be repaid. The film was the sixth animated feature to be presented in the Dolby Stereo sound system.
WritingEdit
"The amulet was a device, or symbol, to represent the internal power of Mrs. Brisby. ... In many ways, it was an extension of Mrs. Brisby ... a visual extension of an internal (and harder to show in a film) power."
– Don Bluth, explaining the amulet's inclusion in the film[3]
One of the earliest drafts of the film was written by Steven Barnes, who received a creative consultant credit in the final product and was closer to the original novel.[3] The story would have focused more on the rats and their time at NIMH as it did in the book, which was reduced to a short flashback in later revisions to bring Mrs. Brisby and her plight into the forefront. It also included a female rat named Isabella (described as "a young, cute, somewhat motor-mouthed rat with a crush on Justin"), who was ultimately left out and much of her dialogue given to Nicodemus. A revised synopsis dated July 2, 1980 by an unattributed author would take the movie closer to its completed form, which ended with the mysterious disappearance of the rats, leading the characters and audience to wonder if they ever really existed, or were just an elaborate illusion.[3]
Bluth himself would later make several changes to the story, most notably with the addition of mystical elements not present in the original novel.[3] He explained "Regarding magic, we really believe that animation calls for some magic, to give it a special 'fantastic' quality."[10] This was most apparent in the magic amulet given to Mrs. Brisby, which was meant to be a visual representation of her character's internal power; something harder to show on film. The object was also meant to introduce a spiritual aspect to the plot, with the director remarking, "The stone or amulet is just a method of letting the audience know that Mrs. Brisby has found 'Courage of the Heart'. Magic? Maybe. Spiritual? Yes."[10] In the same vein, Nicodemus was made into a wizard to "create more mystery" about himself and the rats' colony. The antagonist Jenner was given much more prominence in the movie, being only mentioned as a traitor who leaves in the book, to "add drama" to the narrative by giving it a more visible enemy. Justin also now succeeds Nicodemus as the leader of the rats to give his character more of an arc and allow him an opportunity to "grow and change."[3] Unlike the original work, Justin does not rescue Mrs. Brisby from the cage at the Fitzgibbons' house and she now helps her children without the rats' assistance by using the amulet; once again giving focus to her personal story. As Bluth put it, "The Secret of NIMH is really a story about Mrs. Brisby and her need to save her children. If the rats save her children, then she hasn't grown in the film."[3]
During the film's production, Aurora contacted Wham-O, the manufacturers of Frisbee flying discs, with concerns about possible trademark infringements if the "Mrs. Frisby" name in O'Brien's original book was used in the movie. Wham-O rejected Aurora's request for waiver to use the same-sounding name to their "Frisbee", in the movie. Aurora informed Bluth & company that Mrs. Frisby's name would have to be altered. By then, the voice work had already been recorded for the film, so the name change to "Mrs. Brisby" necessitated a combination of re-recording some lines and, because John Carradine was unavailable for further recordings, careful sound editing had to be performed, taking the "B" sound of another word from Carradine's recorded lines, and replace the "F" sound with the "B" sound, altering the name from "Frisby" to "Brisby".[3]
SoundtrackEdit
The Secret of NIMH Original Motion Picture Soundtrack
Soundtrack album by
48:17 (original release), 63:09 (2015 expansion)
Varèse Sarabande (1982/1995)
Intrada Records (2015)
Don Bluth Music of Films chronology
(1982) An American Tail
The Secret of NIMH Original Motion Picture Soundtrack contains songs from the film written by Jerry Goldsmith and performed by the National Philharmonic Orchestra, with vocal selections by Paul Williams and Sally Stevens.[11] It was Goldsmith's first composition for an animated feature, which he admitted was such a departure from his normal work that in the end he approached the project like a live action score, employing the same kind of extended themes and structural development.[3][11] What made the scoring process hard for Goldsmith was that he had to score scenes that were unfinished: "I was on the phone constantly with them. My dupe [copy of the film] was in black and white, and they'd bring their color copy over so I could see it. They were constantly adding footage, and it was constantly, 'What's going on here?' and 'What's happening here?'"[3] David Horten spent a year on the sound design for the film, which was supervised by Goldman. Goldman found the sound work by Horten his second favorite part of the production process, recalling that some of his "most beautiful efforts" had to make way for the recordings of Goldsmith's music: "I remember hearing David’s orchestration of ambient sounds and specific sound effects for the 8 minute tractor sequence without Jerry’s music cue. It was amazing. But then, so was Jerry’s 8 minute music cue, it remains extremely powerful. We were able to combine a lot of David’s sounds, treating them like part of the orchestra. It came out great, but I couldn’t help but feel empathy for David."[5]
The album was released on July 2, 1982, on vinyl and re-released on March 3, 1995, on CD with a rearranged track listing.[12] Intrada Records issued a remastered limited edition album on CD on August 17, 2015, with one previously unreleased cue ("At Your Service," running 3:39) and three demos of "Flying Dreams" (as performed by Sally Stevens, Paul Williams and as a piano duet) totaling 10:09.[13]
Filmtracks
"Main Title" (3:13)
"Allergic Reaction/Athletic Type" (2:40)
"Flying Dreams Lullaby" (3:45) - performed by Sally Stevens, arranged by Ian Fraser
"The Tractor" (2:58)
"The Sentry Reel/The Story of NIMH" (6:03)
"Escape from NIMH/In Disguise" (4:58)
"Flying Dreams" (3:21) - lyrics, written performed by Paul Williams, composed by Jerry Goldsmith
"Step Inside My House" (4:40)
"No Thanks" (2:01)
"Moving Day" (7:57)
"The House Rising" (4:33)
"Flying High/End Title" (2:38)
PersonnelEdit
Sally Stevens – vocals (track 3)
Paul Williams – vocals, keyboards (track 7)
Home mediaEdit
The Secret of NIMH debuted on Super 8 film and several home video formats in 1983, including VHS,[3] Betamax, CED Videodisc, Video8[14] and LaserDisc,[15] which were distributed by MGM/UA Home Video in North America and Warner Home Video in Europe, Australia and Japan.[16][17] A Video 2000 version was also released exclusively in Europe.[16] With a $79 purchase price in the US, the VHS version sold approximately 25,000 copies within the first few months.[3]
On September 6, 1990, the film was re-released on both VHS and LaserDisc in a new advertising campaign with lower retail prices. It was this new wide availability on video, as well as broadcasts on cable, that helped NIMH garner a cult following long after its theatrical debut.[3] This was followed by another VHS release under the MGM/UA Family Entertainment label in 1994, along with a Philips CD-i video disc version that same year, which was available exclusively through Warner Home Video worldwide.[14]
The film was released on DVD for the first time on November 17, 1998, which was reprinted numerous times in the ensuing years, both as a stand-alone release or bundled with other animated movies from MGM or 20th Century Fox.[18] Don Bluth and Gary Goldman later oversaw a high-definition restoration of the film, which was released on June 19, 2007 in a 2-disc DVD set called the "Family Fun Edition". Improvements in the transfer over the 1998 DVD include color correction and dirt and dust removal and included special features such as audio commentary from both individuals and an interview featurette.[18] A Blu-ray version was released on March 29, 2011, which retained the special features of the Family Fun Edition.[19]
Box officeEdit
The film's distributor, MGM/UA Entertainment Company, barely did any promotion for the film, leading Aurora to finance the advertising campaign themselves. The financiers had expected the film to open in wide release in 1,000 venues, but MGM opted for a limited opening weekend in 100 theaters, with its widest release in only 700. Although in competition with the blockbuster E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial directed by future Bluth partner Steven Spielberg,[20] it performed better in those theaters alone in its opening week than Poltergeist, Rocky III, Firefox and Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan. However, as a result of its release and competition with other summer fare, NIMH became only a moderate success, grossing $14,665,733 in North America, though it was more successful on home video, cable and foreign release, ultimately turning a profit.[3]
Critical responseEdit
The Secret of NIMH received widespread critical acclaim upon its release. It received a 96% "Fresh" approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes, based on 25 reviews, with an average rating of 7.11/10. The consensus states, "The Secret of NIMH is a dark, well-told tale that respects its young audience enough to not tone down its subject matter."[21] Critics Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert gave the movie two positive "yes" votes on a July 15, 1982, episode of their television program Sneak Previews with Ebert stating "Walt Disney would've liked The Secret of NIMH."[22][23] Ebert would give Secret of NIMH three out of four stars in his review for the Chicago Sun-Times, calling it "an artistic success", praising the quality of its animation and that it "contains that absolute rarity among feature-length animated cartoons, an interesting premise".[24] However, Ebert found that NIMH may not resonate as well on an emotional level with younger viewers, since "it has so many characters and involves them in so many different problems that there's nobody for the kids in the audience to strongly identify with."[24] Siskel, writing for the Chicago Tribune, found the movie "charming", but stated that the narrative was "littered with too many unimportant characters" and that Dom DeLuise "insert[ed] too much of himself" into the character of Jeremy.[25] Despite this, Siskel found the film, particularly the second half, to be a "genuine pleasure" and felt that even adults will be drawn into the story by the end, giving it three stars out of four.[25] In his review for the 1990 VHS re-release, Jeff Unger of Entertainment Weekly gave The Secret of NIMH a grade of "A", calling it "a wonderful adaptation" of the original book, adding that "Bluth and his animators, bless them, chose to revive an endangered art form – classically detailed animation. They drew their characters exquisitely and gave them individual personalities. The entire ensemble – artists, actors, animals, and musicians – created something unique: the world's first enjoyable rat race."[26] Similarly, Richard Corliss of Time magazine called the movie "something gorgeous to look at".[27]
AccoladesEdit
The Secret of NIMH won Best Animated Film of 1982 at the 10th annual Saturn Awards, where it also received a nomination for Best Fantasy Film, losing to The Dark Crystal.[28] In his acceptance speech, Bluth remarked, "Thanks. We didn't think anyone had noticed."[3] The film was also nominated for Best Family Feature for Animation, Musical or Fantasy at the 4th annual Youth in Film Awards, being beaten by E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial,[29] while the home video release received an Award of Excellence from the Film Advisory Board.[30] In 2008, the American Film Institute nominated this film for its Top 10 Animation Films list.[31]
Saturn Award Best Animated Film The Secret of NIMH Won
Best Fantasy Film The Secret of NIMH Nominated
Youth in Film Award Best Family Feature: Animated, Musical or Fantasy The Secret of NIMH Nominated
SequelEdit
Main article: The Secret of NIMH 2: Timmy to the Rescue
A direct-to-video sequel directed by Dick Sebast and produced by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Animation titled The Secret of NIMH 2: Timmy to the Rescue was released on December 22, 1998.[32] Set several years after the events of the first film, the plot focuses on Mrs. Brisby's son Timothy as he struggles to live up to his father's prestigious reputation. The movie was made without Don Bluth's input or involvement and was panned by critics and fans upon release.[32][33]
RemakeEdit
On March 4, 2015, Deadline Hollywood reported that MGM had re-acquired the rights to produce a new film based on the original novel Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH. The film will be produced by the team of Daniel Bobker and Ehren Kruger, with screenplay by Ice Age series writer Michael Berg.[34] It will be James Madigan's directorial debut.[35] It is planned as a CGI/live action hybrid "à la The Smurfs and Alvin and the Chipmunks", and will be "an origin story in which an imperiled mouse protagonist befriends a comical crew of lab rats as they turn hyper-intelligent. They escape a secret laboratory and become the great minds of vermin civilization, forced to outwit the humans hot on their tails."[2] The studio plans to turn the novel into a family franchise.[34] The Russo Brothers will also serve as executive producers for the remake.[36]
^ "THE SECRET OF NIMH". British Board of Film Classification. Retrieved October 28, 2015.
^ a b Nicholson, Max (March 4, 2015). "Live-Action/CG Rats of NIMH Movie in the Works". IGN. Retrieved October 19, 2015.
^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p Cawley, John (October 1991). "The Secret of N.I.M.H.". The Animated Films of Don Bluth. Image Pub of New York. ISBN 0-685-50334-8.
^ Beck, Jerry (October 2005). The Animated Movie Guide. Chicago Review Press. pp. 243–4. ISBN 1-55652-591-5.
^ a b c d e f g h i Carpenter, Les (July 2, 2012). "30th Anniversary of Secret of NIMH – Gary Goldman Exclusive!". Traditional Animation. Retrieved January 1, 2016.
^ a b Counts, Kyle (February 1982). "Coming: The Secret of NIMH". Cinefantastique. Retrieved October 28, 2015.
^ The Secret of NIMH: Press Information". June 3, 1982. Retrieved January 1, 2016.
^ Mandell, Paul (June 1982). "Interview with Dorse Lanpher". Fantastic Films. Retrieved October 28, 2015.
^ McDaniel, Adam. "Reflections on the Film". Remembering NIMH: An Interview with Don Bluth. Retrieved October 28, 2015.
^ a b McDaniel, Adam. "About the Script". Remembering NIMH: An Interview with Don Bluth. Retrieved October 31, 2015.
^ a b "Secret of N.I.M.H. - National Philharmonic Orchestra". AllMusic. Retrieved October 19, 2015.
^ a b "Filmtracks: The Secret of N.I.M.H. (Jerry Goldsmith)". Filmtracks. June 4, 2003. Retrieved December 23, 2014.
^ "SECRET OF NIMH, THE". Intrada Records. Retrieved August 18, 2015.
^ a b "Theatrical/VHS/DVD". Nimhster's Secret of NIMH Fandom Website. Retrieved December 30, 2014.
^ "LaserDisc Database - Secret of NIMH, The [ML100211]". LaserDisc Database. Retrieved December 30, 2014.
^ a b "Pre-Cert Video: The Secret of NIMH (1982) on Warner Home Video". Pre-Cert Video. Retrieved December 30, 2014.
^ "Pre-Cert Video: The Secret of NIMH (1982) on Warner Home Video". Pre-Cert Video. Retrieved December 30, 2014.
^ a b Gutierrez, Albert. "The Secret of NIMH: Family Fun Edition DVD Review". UltimateDisney.com. Retrieved October 28, 2015.
^ "More MGM Catalog Titles Heading to Blu-ray". Blu-ray.com. Retrieved 2011-02-21.
^ Beck, Jerry (June 1, 1996). "Don Bluth Goes Independent". Animation World. Retrieved October 20, 2015.
^ "The Secret of NIMH Movie Reviews, Pictures". Rotten Tomatoes. Retrieved October 27, 2015.
^ "Tron, The Secret of NIMH, The Devils Playground (1982)". Siskel & Ebert.org. Retrieved October 16, 2015.
^ "Sneak Previews (TV Series 1975–1996) – Episodes". IMDB. Retrieved October 19, 2015.
^ a b Ebert, Roger. "The Secret of NIMH Movie Review (1982)". RogerEbert.com. Retrieved December 20, 2014.
^ a b Siskel, Gene (July 19, 1982). "Tempo: 'NIMH' charmer could have used more Disney". The Chicago Tribune Archives. p. 29. Retrieved December 20, 2014.
^ Unger, Jeff (September 21, 1990). "The Secret of NIMH Review". Entertainment Weekly. Retrieved December 23, 2014.
^ Corliss, Richard (July 26, 1982). "Cinema: Bright Rats, Bright Lights". Time Magazine. Retrieved December 23, 2014.
^ "The 10th Saturn Awards 1983". MTime.com. Retrieved December 20, 2014.
^ "4th Annual Awards". Young Artist Awards. Retrieved December 23, 2014.
^ "Film Advisory Board, Inc". Film Advisory Board. Retrieved December 30, 2014.
^ "AFI's 10 Top 10 Nominees" (PDF). Archived from the original on 2011-07-16. Retrieved 2016-08-19. CS1 maint: BOT: original-url status unknown (link)
^ a b Bernardin, Mark (December 18, 1998). "The Secret of NIMH 2: Timmy to the Rescue". Entertainment Weekly. Retrieved October 19, 2015.
^ Ellin, Harlene (December 24, 1998). "The Mystery of 'NIMH II': Why Did They Even Bother?". Chicago Tribune. Tribune Company. p. 7.B. Retrieved October 28, 2015.
^ a b Fleming Jr., Michael (March 4, 2015). "MGM Options 'Mrs. Frisby & The Rats Of Nimh', Sets 'Ice Age's Michael Berg To Hatch Family Franchise". Retrieved October 19, 2015.
^ Cecchini, Mike (January 31, 2017). "The Secret of NIMH Remake Gets Director". Den of Geek!. Retrieved 9 March 2019.
^ http://collider.com/russo-brothers-producing-remakes-mgm-movies/
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Paul Aumento relies on employees and customers to keep Creative Textile Solutions a responsive manufacturer
March 1st, 2019 / By: Sigrid Tornquist / Feature
Nova Scotia is a small market and Halifax is a smaller city compared to some others, so we’ve had to diversify to continue a successful year-round employment,” says Paul Aumento, co-owner and president of Creative Textile Solutions Ltd., Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada. “So we expanded our markets right away to include whatever can be manufactured related to textiles—and we’ve been successful doing that.”
While studying geology at the University of Toronto in 1984, Aumento took a summer job at a local firm that manufactured and retailed marine canvas products. After a few years working there he returned to Halifax to join another marine canvas company that also manufactured awnings, canopies, tarpaulins and structures. Twelve years later, in 2001, he and his wife Elizabeth launched Creative Textile Solutions. Elizabeth is responsible for accounting and administration as administration and office manager. Paul heads up production, sales, design and logistics. “I grew up around yacht clubs and my father’s friends who built boats and sailed extensively,” he says. “I was a boater then and now, and it just worked out that my hobby turned into a profession. The companies I originally worked for taught me a lot.”
To everything there is a season…
The company’s core business includes awnings, commercial and residential canopies, banners, product repairs, and tarpaulins and covers. Seasonally, Creative Textile Solutions produces marine canvas products and environmental control products such as filter bags and turbidity booms. “We’re a value-added textile manufacturer, which includes the design, manufacture and service after the fact,” Aumento says. “We try to be as reactive as we can. If our clientele requires something that’s odd or different, a one-time or multiple production item, or if they need it in a rush—we try to accommodate them.”
Paul Aumento and wife Elizabeth, co-owner, who handles accounting and administrative tasks at Creative Textile Solutions Ltd.
Although seasonal, the environmental control products are a significant portion of Aumento’s business in the summer. “In the late 1980s and early 1990s the provincial government, in conjunction with the federal government, became much more active in providing information and laws that prohibit damage to the environment,” he says. “The company I worked for at the time was one of the first to establish and develop products locally to fulfill that requirement for contractors.”
Now, as Creative Textile Solutions, Aumento’s team provides filter bags, turbidity booms, curtains and to some extent, oil and soil remediation textile-related products to meet those needs. The company’s location allows it to service the market quickly, and with a turnkey approach. “We are located in such a way that we can service the market quicker rather than freighting very large containment booms from places further away, such as Toronto or Montreal,” he says. “We developed an approach to this that is very turnkey for our contractors. They can pick up the product, whether it’s 100 feet long or 1,000 feet long, and it’s ready to be deployed in their waterways, as opposed to some of our competitors that don’t have that option.”
Aumento is always looking for new markets and is actively trying to increase the company’s product lines by looking for what might be a good fit with the standardized equipment he already has. “The environmental products utilize the same equipment as our heavy tarpaulin production—we use long-arm heavy-duty Consew and Juki sewing equipment—so the fit for this production was quite good,” he says.
One of the more unusual tarping projects Aumento and his team took on was for a local organics composting facility that needed the building’s roof and walls covered in polyethylene fabric tarping. The crew designed, manufactured and installed the tarping for the 20,000-square-foot facility to protect the steel from rotting because of the compost’s humidity and off-gassing. “It’s a positive-pressure building so everything is retained inside. Heat was an issue and the smell was horrendous,” he says. “The installation crew wore masks and full protective Tyvek® suits. It was one of our more unpleasant projects.”
It’s about people
To accommodate clients’ different requirements quickly and accurately, Aumento cross-trains employees, with a focus on quality end products and service at a fair rate. “With the lack of available industrial sewers and craftsmen it’s not always possible to have extra staff that are waiting for particular products to manufacture,” he says. “So we approach training in such a way that benefits our products as well as employees’ professional development. Everybody can do a certain percentage or total percentage of any given product, whether it be awning manufacturing and installation, tarpaulins, etc. It gives us some flexibility as well as providing employees added skills.”
The degree of cross-training each employee undertakes varies. All are trained in the “basics,” which include skills such as grommeting, managing the cutting table and installing awnings. “As the skills become more specialized, the more senior employees will take over,” Aumento says. “It also depends on the employee’s capabilities and level of interest. Some are not able or willing to do some of the heavier or dirtier work, so to some extent cross-training is individually driven.”
Aumento also values employees’ input on products and processes. “New ideas are very important. In order to have the employees fulfill themselves, as well as provide input to the company, we have to be open-minded to their ideas,” he says. “Experienced employees—and inexperienced employees—might have a totally different view of how to best approach production and efficiency. I find that most employees, when given the opportunity, will provide you with information that is beneficial.”
Whether interacting with employees or clients, Aumento stresses listening and resisting the urge to make assumptions. And when a project doesn’t meet the client’s expectations, he does his best to do what’s necessary to repair the situation. “Years ago we had a boat cover project that didn’t proceed very well,” he says. “So we replaced it at no charge to the customer. I never thought I’d see that customer again, but he came back a year or so later and said: ‘I’m back not because of what you made. I’m here because of how you fixed it.’
“That has stuck with me for many years,” Aumento adds. “We’re in a smaller municipality and a lot of our advertising is word-of-mouth. And no matter how big the city, you’re still a part of a small community. You never know who you’re talking to.”
Sigrid Tornquist is a writer and editor based in Minneapolis, Minn., and a regular contributor to Specialty Fabrics Review.
Comments are moderated and will show up after being approved.
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Nepal: the Foundation is supporting the relief efforts of Solidarités International and Médecins du Monde
72 hours after the earthquake in Nepal, the Veolia Foundation is providing volunteers and emergency equipment for two NGOs bound for Kathmandu, for the supply of water to mobile health centers.
In support of the rescue operation mounted jointly by the NGO Solidarités International and Médecins du Monde in Nepal, the Veolia Foundation is providing water treatment (500 Aquaforce station: Mobile water treatment unit used during emergencies in difficult-to-access places. It supplies 15L of drinking water per person per day for a population of between 500 and 2000 people) and storage equipment that will leave for Kathmandu in a plane chartered by the emergency unit of the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs. This equipment will supply water to mobile health centers in the district of Sinhulpalchok and in the north-west of Kathmandu at the earthquake's epicenter. Further Veoliaforce equipment and volunteers will be sent after the initial assessments have been made on the spot.
"Water is the first priority, even before food," explains Christopher Chamagne, the logistics specialist in the Solidarités International team, who has experience of earthquakes and was mobilized during the terrible earthquake in Haiti.
VEOLIAFORCE : Emergency missions
Solidarités International: The humanitarian aid organization Solidarités International has been on the ground during conflicts and natural disasters for the last 35 years. Particularly involved in fighting diseases related to unsafe water, which is the leading cause of death worldwide, the NGO has developed great expertise, in particular in relation to access to drinking water and sanitation.
Médecins du Monde (MdM): For 35 years, Médecins du Monde (MdM) has been caring for the most vulnerable populations, victims of armed conflicts, natural disasters, and the people that the world gradually forgets. An international NGO, MdM's work is made possible by the commitment of its volunteers, logisticians, doctors, nurses, midwives, etc.
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Argo (2012)
March 1, 2013 Jim McLennan reviews, thriller
Rating: B
Dir: Ben Affleck
Star: Ben Affleck, Bryan Cranston, Alan Arkin, Victor Garber
This one’s closest cousin is probably the heist flick. For, while there have been “rescue the hostages” movies before, this one relies almost entirely on sleight of hand and subterfuge, rather than going in with guns blazing. It’s a small side-light of the Iranian hostage crisis from 1980, largely forgotten, though there was an 1981 TV movie also inspired by the scheme, Escape from Iran: The Canadian Caper, which few bother to mention. As well as those captured in the embassy, a group of six managed to escape detection, and hid out with Canadian diplomats. The Iranians were looking for any Americans leaving the country, so to get the six out, exfiltration expert Antonio Mendez (Affleck) comes up with the idea of faking a movie-location scout, and pulling them out as part of the crew. It’s insane, but given the lack of alternatives, it just…might…work. But to do so, they have to own a convincing cover story, which is where Argo (based on a book by Roger Zelazny) comes in. It’s a space-opera script with a Middle Eastern vibe, and so the CIA sets up an office and begins pre-production, before Mendez heads into the lion’s den.
Of course, like all movies based on real events, it’s not entirely truthful. The fugitives didn’t sleep at the Canadian embassy, but in private residences, and according to Wikipedia they “easily” made it through the airport. Not quite the escalating series of tense encounters portrayed here, with tickets being with-held pending presidential approval, harsh interrogation from the Revolutionary Guards and the last-minute discover of the hostage’s real identities – though the Iranian reassembly of shredded documents is legit. But it’s entirely forgiveable, since the results are impeccably tense, and consistently entertaining: I didn’t look at the time on my phone once, which is certainly more than can be said for other Oscar-winners clocking in at over two hours. It could have benefited from better characterization of those outside Mendez, though Arkin deserved his supporting nod for his performance as a veteran producer, All told, if it might not have been the “best” film of 2012, it certainly wasn’t a choice which will embarrass the Academy in future years.
American Mary (2012)
Battledogs (2013)
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« Game 6 | Main | Game 11 »
Game 10: Madison Square Garden
Knicks 85, Sixers 79
NEW YORK — In 12 years of serious sports writing, I had never been to Madison Square Garden for work. Oh sure, I’d been there plenty of times if you count the basement of the building where Penn Station is located. But as far as working as an accredited member of the sporting press, I had never been to The Garden.
That’s weird because it’s called, “the world’s most famous arena.” It’s quite an ironic title, too, that actually might be a bit of an understatement. See, New Yorkers really like the things they have and often go so far as to tell folks in other cities how much better their stuff is than everyone else’s. Sometimes that idea is correct, but like anything else, consider the source.
Still, I like to rate an stadium or a building on how excited the performers get when they go there. For instance, with baseball players the reviews are mixed on old shrines like Wrigley Field and Fenway Park. Though they are fun places to play a game, the amenities are substandard and ancient by anyone’s standards. The underbelly of Wrigley Field makes even the rattiest high school gym look like the Taj Mahal.
But Madison Square Garden is universally viewed as the place to go. No, I’m not going to list all the famous events that went down at The Garden, but just know that most athletes and performers feel as if they have made it when they get to play MSG.
In my first working role at The Garden—or newest new Garden since it is being torn apart and remodeled—I took home no souvenirs. Sure, I lingered on the hardwood and tried to soak up the views, the shimmering lights and the theatrical darkness that shrouds the seating area, while searching out celebrities and for me that was enough.
After all, I already had a souvenir from Madison Square Garden in the form of a scar on my right knee.
In 1991, my friend John and his pals from college decided to drive to NYC from Vermont to see a Grateful Dead show at The Garden. Though not the biggest of Dead fans out there, I usually was up for any type of adventure so when John asked if I wanted to meet him at The Garden, he didn’t have to ask twice.
Truth be told, it was a pretty good show. Branford Marsalis played a few numbers with the band and Bruce Hornsby played the piano for the entire gig that opened with the well-known, “Touch of Grey.” It was pretty cool even though I watched from the right side of the stage with blood streaming down my leg.
What happened was I walked into a utility pole on 34th Street. Actually, it wasn’t too far from the spot where the photo from the media room was snapped. See, while we were waiting for the doors of the arena to open up, John, his friends and I walked around The Garden just checking out the pre-gig festival. We had bought big bottles of water, bananas and sandwiches from a nearby bodega and were just doing our best to have a fun time.
But while eating a sandwich and walking all while imitating Chevy Chase in the movie Vacation when he flirts with Christie Brinkley, my knee banged into a utility pole that I never saw. Worse, it was a utility pole that looked as if it had been severed with a chain saw or a bus accident, leaving behind a gnarled mess of steel with jagged edges.
Even worse than that, the pole was severed at knee level for a 6-foot-1, 20-year-old dude goofing around with a sandwich before a Grateful Dead gig at The Garden.
There was nothing sold at the concessions that could ever last as long as the souvenir I got more than 20 years ago.
Posted at 03:59 PM in 76ers, Grateful Dead, Madison Square Garden, Sixers | Permalink
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“Far beyond her nature and her sex”: The creation of a Protestant hagiography, 1590–1640
Lyndell O'Hara, Fordham University
Between the years of 1570 and 1640, Protestant clergymen mounted a campaign for a godly reformation to eradicate sin from the lives of the English people. Their portrayal of the lives and deaths of elect women from the higher echelons of society in funeral sermons and spiritual biographies played an instrumental part in this campaign. By illustrating the private devotional practices and pious lives of the godly women, preachers set forth a practical model to illustrate the abstract principles of faith and presented an archetype of Protestant religion which bound the church together in a common goal. In their quest, clergymen created a hagiography of elect women, setting forth ideals of sanctity which embodied the cultural, social and religious values of their era. Through a depiction of the lives of select maidens, wives and widows, ministers combined the contemporary societal ideal of femininity with the portrayal of a personal life to create a mimesis for men, women and children to emulate. This portrayal included not only a godly life, but a "comfortable" death, which was viewed as a divine mark of authenticity of a faithful life. Combining elements of the medieval Ars Moriendi with the tenets of Protestant faith, clergymen detailed the deathbed struggles of the women. Through the preacher's portrayal of women in the "lives and deaths," a feminine saint, one cast in the hagiographical elements of the past, yet reflective of the ideals and virtues of the Reformation era, was set forth as a standard. Preachers emphasized intellectual and spiritual apprehension over the limitations of gender and presented godly women who transcended traditional boundaries and entered a realm outside the strictures of society, far beyond their nature and their sex.
European history|Religious history|Womens studies
O'Hara, Lyndell, "“Far beyond her nature and her sex”: The creation of a Protestant hagiography, 1590–1640" (2006). ETD Collection for Fordham University. AAI3201136.
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Can a building clear the air?
View Shelter Designs
Smog over Almaty city, Kazakhstan - Igors Jefimovs
The competition is now closed. Thank you to all who contributed.
Please check back on March 30th when a gallery of the design submissions will be made public and voting will begin for the 'People's Choice Award'.
Community Forests International (CFI) is excited to announce its second architectural design competition for the backwoods cabin of the future. The first, hosted in 2014, drew in over 50 entries from 11 different countries and served as a platform for exploring how humans can get back to nature in the 21st century. Bringing together visionary architects, artists, green builders and DIYers, this new challenge addresses the climate crisis and will help transform the organization’s 235 hectare (580 acre) organic farm and forest outside of Sussex, New Brunswick, Canada into a Rural Innovation Campus.
The winning design will be constructed in the summer of 2016 and will accommodate students, guests, and innovators-in-residence on campus. The winning team will receive a $1,000 cash prize.
The Rural Innovation Campus compliments parallel efforts in Tanzania, where a sister facility was constructed on the island of Pemba, Zanzibar in 2013. These two facilities, though worlds apart, are aligned in an international partnership devoted to uniquely rural solutions - solutions to challenges such as: food, water, and energy insecurity; economic marginalization; and, above all else, climate change.
Permaculture training at the Rural Innovation Campus - Pemba Island, Zanzibar, Tanzania
Can a backwoods cabin help us reach these goals?
The build-up of greenhouse gasses in our planet’s atmosphere is one of the biggest challenges of our time. It’s changing the Earth’s climate – upsetting a natural balance which for thousands of years has ensured that the tides rise only so high, the rains come when needed, and the polar ice remains, well, ice.
If our generation is to meet this challenge we need to change too. We need to change how we generate energy, grow food, travel, build - we need to reimagine it all in light of how our lives impact our climate. Business as usual got us into this trouble, so now it’s time to disrupt the status quo.
The goal for anyone willing and able to tackle this historic problem is twofold:
1) limit the amount of greenhouse gases entering the atmosphere as quickly as possible; and
2) pursue innovations which allow humans and the planet’s natural ecosystems to absorb excess emissions and sequester them safely.
What do buildings have to do with it?
This is no small question. Buildings contribute 30% of annual global greenhouse gas emissions and consume more than 40% of global energy![1] The building sector is such a large contributor that if we don’t figure out how to reduce its impact we’re locking ourselves into worst-case scenario climate change. It’s a deal-breaker.
The good news is that like all big problems this presents an equally great opportunity. The building sector has the biggest potential for delivering significant greenhouse gas reductions at low or no-cost – more than transportation, agriculture, or waste.[2]
For the intrepid designer the bar is now set. Can we reshape our built environment so that it supports our natural environment? Can a building help heal the climate?
CFI staff explain the ideas behind the challenge and provide a tour of the completed 2014 winning design - Atlantic Journal / TV1
Design Challenge
In the interest of making this exercise as free and accessible as possible, CFI has modified the conventional approach to architectural design competitions. We hope that our architect friends will forgive us for taking liberties! The competition is open to anyone from anywhere - no registration required - and teams are invited to submit questions at anytime throughout the designated Q & A period (Feb. 12th - 26th, 2016) using the comments section below.
Conceive and design a small all-season shelter for backwoods accommodation of one or two people. The shelter will be used primarily as sleeping quarters for students, workers, dreamers, and guests. The overall user experience of this unique retreat-like accommodation should be a central design consideration.
Compact size and efficiency are important. Although there is no minimum size in this challenge, the shelter’s ground level footprint must not exceed 17.09 square meters (or 184 square feet). It should sleep at least two and provide for a woodstove. Loft accommodation may be considered, and additional features such decks, tables and seating are optional. A composting toilet will be located in a separate shelter ‘on site but out of sight’. Primary cooking and washing facilities will be accessed at communal infrastructure nearby (i.e. no washroom, plumbing or kitchen necessary in the shelter design).
Minimize greenhouse gas emissions. This is where the real innovation happens, and a building’s overall impact on the climate will be of primary importance in evaluating design entries. In this case we are looking for designs that pay careful attention to: 1) minimizing the embodied carbon of the construction materials (i.e. choosing materials with a low carbon footprint); and 2) minimizing the emissions associated with operating the building (i.e. designing for efficiency in terms of heating, cooling, and lighting). For more information on the carbon footprint of various building materials we recommend the Inventory of Carbon and Energy Database produced by Circular Ecology and available for download in Excel format here (see Summary Table tab within). A table drawn from that database and demonstrating the differing embodied carbon values for some common building materials follows:
Table 1. Embodied Carbon of Common Building Materials
Material costs for the cabin must not exceed $10,000 CAD and design solutions which keep costs low are encouraged. We understand this presents a significant challenge. As a charity we are limited in our resources, and in the interest of making our work transferable we have to assume the same for most other people and organizations too.
Teams are encouraged to carefully consider the region’s climate and geography, and to respond in meaningful and appropriate ways. We are situated within a local snow belt in a forested upland valley at 2,593,372 meters easting and 7,415,708 meters northing (UTM NAD 83 CSRS New Brunswick Stereographic). The average mid-winter low temperature is -14 °C (7 °F) and the average mid-summer high temperature is +25 °C (55 °F). Insulation and heating efficiency for the winter months is very important, but so are sun shading, passive cooling, and natural ventilation during the summer.
Develop strategies that maximize the use of local, sustainably sourced, and non-toxic building materials.
Teams may also draw inspiration from existing buildings on site and / or the region’s local architectural design and material history. This inland area of the Kennebecasis River Valley has straddled Mi’kmaq and Maliseet territory for thousands of years. The traditional dwelling of both these peoples is a portable wigwam constructed using softwood poles, spruce root lashing, and birchbark sheathing. The region’s Acadian architectural history includes stone foundations and fireplaces, shingled roofs, dovetailed logs, and heavy timber frames with cob infill walls. The early English settlers introduced more log shanties and timber frames, stone enders, saltboxes, etc. Wood construction has dominated in the region since the mid-1700s, due mainly to the abundance of forest products.
Teams should aim to keep structural and building techniques as simple as possible so that winning solutions are transferable to a wide scale.
Teams are required to submit their completed entries via this UPLOADER or by email to daimen@forestsinternational.org
1) Illustration (up to 6 pages)
Each proposal can consist of up to six (6) illustrated pages of letter-sized paper (8.5 × 11 inches) documenting the architectural design strategy. All submissions will be displayed in an online gallery under Creative Commons licensing via the CFI website and short-listed entries will also be displayed at a public venue in Saint John, New Brunswick. Your presentation should include the following drawings:
Exterior perspective or Axonometric
Building section or sections
Any other drawings or diagrams that you think might help explain your project
Illustrations are to be submitted as .PDF files labelled with the following filename designations:
TeamName_1.pdf
Design entries will initially be displayed anonymously for judging purposes, so make sure that the pages themselves do not have your team’s name or identity listed. Following judging, team authorship will be included with links to relevant online portfolios.
2) Project Description (up to 2 pages)
Provide a brief explanation of your entry’s design and approach, highlighting the particularly innovative and / or central themes (max 500 words).
Submit as .PDF file with the following filename designation:
TeamName_description.pdf
3) Materials & Price List (one page)
Provide a materials and price list for your entry in an Excel file. Remember that material costs for the cabin must not exceed $10,000 CAD.
Submit as .XLSX file with the following filename designation:
TeamName_budget.xlsx
Topographic map of building site and surrounds - Rural Innovation Campus, New Brunswick, Canada
Topographic map of building site and watershed - Rural Innovation Campus, New Brunswick, Canada
The building site is located on a southeast-facing slope at ~150 meters (~490 feet) elevation within a forest stand composed largely of white spruce and white pine. The tallest surrounding trees range between 16 - 18 meters (50 – 60 feet) high and irregular openings in the canopy allow dappled sunlight to reach the forest floor. Sightlines towards the south provide views over a young orchard and farm fields along the Whaelghinbran Valley. Moving west the slope climbs to ~290 meters (~950 feet) elevation.
Minimal selective pruning and canopy removal will be carried out at the south end of the building site to increase solar exposure for a photovoltaic array and / or passive heating. Aside from careful maintenance of this solar exposure and removal of hazardous trees when necessary, the site will remain largely untouched.
Aerial photo of building site and surrounds - Rural Innovation Campus, New Brunswick, Canada
Access to the building site is provided by a nearby forestry extraction trail and footpaths to the east which connect to a public dirt road. Therefore, only light machinery may be used for delivery of materials, excavation, construction, etc. The finished building will be accessed primarily on foot and seasonally by snowshoe or cross-county ski.
Whaelghinbran Nomadic Cabin - Rural Innovation Campus, New Brunswick, Canada
Currently the only additional building in the immediate vicinity is the Whaelghinbran Nomadic Cabin, a realization of the winning design entry from our previous competition. A simple firewood shelter will also be constructed nearby in the future as well as a small composting toilet. In time, it is envisioned that this area will be populated by a number of independent retreat cabins - a network of private accommodation sharing central cooking and cleaning facilities. Though teams are encouraged to consider how their design will contribute in a unique way to the larger community of buildings, each cabin will be sited for privacy and will be experienced in isolation.
Kate Wallace – Journalist, Writer, Founder of Ignite SJ
Kate has worked in the arts for well over a decade, most recently as a national award-winning journalist and as Executive Director of ArtsLink NB. A native New Brunswicker, she believes fully in the place of the arts in her province’s future. With degrees in anthropology (McGill, 1997) and journalism (Concordia, 2005), and lots of international stamps in her passport, Kate brings a deep curiosity about culture and a broad perspective to her work.
John Leroux - Architect, AANB
A graduate of the McGill School of Architecture and the graduate program in Canadian Art History at Concordia University, John has worked at several award-winning architecture firms in Toronto, Atlanta and Fredericton. John is a contributing architecture columnist for the Telegraph-Journal and Canadian Architect magazine, and also the author of six books on New Brunswick architecture including Building New Brunswick: an architectural history.
Kim Thompson - Natural Builder, Teacher, Executive Director of the Deanery Project
Kim lives in her handmade home in Nova Scotia, which happens to be the world's first ever code-approved load-bearing straw bale house. Her latest endeavor is the Deanery Project - a not-for-profit organization with a focus on the environment, youth and community, natural building, and the arts. In addition to straw bale the Deanery is a regional leader in such techniques as sod roofs, hempcrete, and natural finishes like earth plasters and milk-based paints.
Nathan Fisher – Architect, Defending Champ
An intern architect at Architects + Research + Knowledge in Toronto, Nathan was the winner of CFI’s first cabin design competition in 2014. He graduated from Lawrence Technological University, where his thesis project won a Re-Thinking the Futures International Thesis Award in 2013. Like his winning designs, Nathan seeks a symbiotic relationship between nature and architecture. In his spare time, Nathan can be found restoring his century-old home in Toronto.
Judith Mackin – Founder and Creative Director of Punch Productions, Punch Inside, and Tuck Studio
Judith Mackin is a Saint John-based entrepreneur with distinctions ranging from interior design and freelance journalism to heritage conservation and the arts. Judith recently completely an ambitious modern build with Acre Architects in the heart of St. John’s heritage district - INTO THE WILD – which was featured in the prestigious quarterly International Architecture & Design.
Craig Applegath - Architect, PPOAA, AAA, Architect AIBC, NSAA, FRAIC, LEED® AP
Architect, urban designer, and a pioneer in planning and design for regenerative buildings, urban resilience and symbiotic cities, Craig is a Principal at the Toronto studio of DIALOG, a multidisciplinary architecture, engineering, design, and planning firm.
Estelle Drisdelle – CFI Co-founder, Homesteader, and Permaculture Designer
Can we have our conservation and eat it too? This is the focus of Estelle’s work as Food and Ecology Specialist at CFI. Estelle is certified in Permaculture design - a holistic practice that emphasizes low-carbon and passive approaches to buildings and the natural systems that surround them – and she lives off-grid in hand built straw bale house. As CFI’s jury representative, Estelle will contribute her personal experience (read trials and tribulations) putting ecology and ethics first in the design, construction, and operation of a small home.
Mongolian ger (yurt) - Rural Innovation Campus, New Brunswick, Canada
All entries will be displayed via the innovation platform on CFI’s website. Short-listed entries will be printed and displayed in a public exhibition in Saint John, NB. The winning entrant will be announced on April 1st, 2016 and awarded a $1,000 cash prize. The winning design will be constructed at CFI’s Rural Innovation Campus in the summer of 2016 and profiled in associated media communications and on the CFI website.
Feb. 12th, 2016 Competition and Q & A Period Opens
Feb. 26th, 2016 Q & A Period Closes
Mar. 26th, 2016 Competition Closes*
March 30th - April 13th, 2016 People’s Choice Voting / Jury Deliberation
Apr. 15th, 2016 Winners Announced & Released to Press
*11:59 PM Atlantic Standard Time (AST) / Heure Normale de l'Atlantique (HNA). The Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) offset for AST time is: - 04.
All entries will be protected under Creative Commons licensing (Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International). Entries submitted should be the original work of the participant or team.
View south from building site area over young orchard and farm fields - Rural Innovation Campus, New Brunswick, Canada
[1] Buildings and Climate Change: Summary for Decision-Makers. United Nations Environment Program – Sustainable Buildings and Climate Initiative. 2009. pp. 6
[2] Common Carbon Metric: for Measuring Energy Use and Reporting Greenhouse Gas Emissions from Building Operations. United Nations Environment Program – Sustainable Buildings and Climate Initiative. 2010. pp.2
To foster environmental stewardship internationally by establishing community forests, promoting sustainable forestry techniques and initiating environmental education.
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The Next US-North Korea Summit
Donald Trump and Kim Jong Un are scheduled to meet again. Here are several reasons to be optimistic about next month’s summit.
By John Feffer, January 21, 2019 . Originally published in Hankyoreh.
Marina Linchevska via Shutterstock
The second meeting between Donald Trump and Kim Jong-Un is scheduled for next month. The most likely location will be Vietnam. The agenda is much the same as before: how to get North Korea to denuclearize and the United States to dismantle its sanctions regime. The question remains: which side will make the first substantial move?
The summit comes at a particular difficult time for Trump. The partial shutdown of the federal government is nearing the end of its third week, and most Americans blame the president. Pentagon chief James Mattis resigned over Trump’s insistence on withdrawing U.S. troops from Syria, a policy that other administration officials have attempted to reverse. The president faces fresh criticism of his relationship with Russian President Vladimir Putin. And the House of Representatives, now in the hands of the opposition Democratic Party, is getting ready to launch a slew of investigations into Trump’s affairs and policies.
Kim Jong Un, on the other hand, has been busy consolidating his position. He visited China for the fourth time this month and began making arrangements for Chinese leader Xi Jinping’s first visit to North Korea this spring. Relations with the South are proceeding more-or-less smoothly, with the groundbreaking ceremony for a new inter-Korean railroad taking place late last year.
In his annual New Year’s speech, Kim confidently spoke of his country’s ability to defend against any military attacks but spent the bulk of his speech identifying the economic advances the country has made and the challenges that remain. He did not project the image of a man in a corner. Rather, he appeared to be a man with options. He could keep his nukes or dismantle them. He could negotiate with the United State or not. He could fall back on China’s support if necessary.
A politically weak Trump and more confident Kim could be the best possible combination for a successful summit. Trump is desperate to demonstrate that he can successfully negotiate with someone, anyone. He is acutely aware of the criticism, particularly at home, generated by the first summit in Singapore. He wants to silence his critics with a grand foreign policy gesture.
Kim, meanwhile, has the backing of Beijing and the prospects of moving forward quickly on the economic front with South Korea. He may well be in the mood to compromise.
Trump has already been hit with preemptive criticism for his plan to meet Kim again in a second summit. “Trump has a history of making one-sided foreign policy moves without getting anything in return,” USA Today’s editorial board, for instance, complained. “What would Trump give Kim to preserve the appearance of diplomatic progress? Kim’s long-sought dream of a formal end to the Korean War, granting him legitimacy as leader of the north? Withdrawal of U.S. troops from South Korea?”
In The Washington Post, meanwhile, former Pentagon official Van Jackson argues that diplomacy has so far made no headway in addressing North Korea’s nuclear weapons program. He worries about four possible negative outcomes from a second summit. There might be no diplomatic progress. North Korea could be stalling as a tactic to advance its missile program, Trump might suffer a global embarrassment if the summit flops. Or Kim might maneuver Trump into making a unilateral concession like withdrawing U.S. troops from South Korea.
It’s easy to criticize diplomacy. When it does succeed, it’s only after months or years of minimal if any progress.
It’s also easy to criticize summits. They are often just for show.
Finally, it’s very easy to criticize Donald Trump. He shows little knowledge of or interest in foreign affairs. He believes that he alone can solve complex problems. And he is, above all, capricious in his behavior. He will change his positions from one hour to the next.
So, in the lead-up to the second Kim-Trump summit, expect even more negative press and critical commentary. It’s not just pundits. The Democratic Party savaged Trump after the Singapore summit. It’s a good bet that the opposition, now that it’s in charge of the House, will be tempted to use a meeting between the president and yet another autocrat to score some political points.
Here’s why I’m not so pessimistic about a second summit.
First of all, it would keep Trump engaged on the issue of Korea and focused on negotiations rather than war. As long as the U.S. president believes that he has a good friend in Pyongyang, he’s not as likely to make rash threats against North Korea or act on them.
Also, even though negotiations on North Korea’s nuclear program have not advanced, they are still in play. The situation right now is better than the “strategic patience” that the Obama administration adopted for most of its two terms – which amounted to ignoring North Korea and hoping that it would unilaterally change its policies. A summit may only sustain the illusion that negotiations are creeping forward. But even such an illusion is beneficial in light of the alternatives: a hostile standoff or an actual war.
A summit provides cover for inter-Korean rapprochement to continue. That’s why South Korean President Moon Jae-in is enthusiastic about such spectacles. When Trump shakes Kim’s hand, it sends a strong message that it’s perfectly okay for Seoul and Pyongyang to work together as well.
Finally, a summit offers an occasion for Trump to do something radically different. Most American pundits fear that the president will do something rash, as he has done by announcing a U.S. military withdrawal from Syria. I, for one, would welcome something similarly rash from Trump on Korea.
So far, U.S.-North Korean negotiations have stalled because North Korea has a single bargaining chip that it is reluctant to give up and the United States refuses to embrace the approach of step-by-step concessions. Somebody has to break this deadlock. As the much stronger party in the negotiations, the United States should be the one to shift its position and offer the first concession.
In other words, I support a second summit for the very same reason that the prospective meeting worries so many U.S. pundits. I welcome the possibility that Donald Trump will do something rash.
Donald Trump is a president who makes a great many stupid, aggressive, and destabilizing policy moves at home and abroad. Let’s hope that next month he does something rash for peace instead.
John Feffer is the director of Foreign Policy In Focus and the author of the new dystopian novel Frostlands.
Issues: War & Peace
Regions: Asia & Pacific, North Korea
Tags: China, Donald Trump, kim jong-un, Moon Jae-in, North Korea, South Korea, Summit, Vietnam, xi jinping
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Trump and the Geopolitics of Crazy
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North Korea: The Cyberwar of All against All
Will Trump Complete the Pivot to Asia?
Donald Trump and Kim Jong Un: Soul Brothers?
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Arcania: Fall of Setarrif
BVT Games Fund III
André Beccu
Dynamedion
Vision[1]
Microsoft Windows, Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4
PlayStation 3 & Xbox 360
Role-playing video game
Arcania: Fall of Setarrif is the standalone expansion for Arcania: Gothic 4. It was released on October 25, 2011 after a long period of silence from both publishers and after being delayed indefinitely in March 2011.[2]
It was announced by Spellbound and JoWooD on December 9, 2010.
Arcania: Fall of Setarrif ties up the loose ends of the main game's story and adds yet another chapter to the epic tale. After the demon that possessed King Rhobar III was exorcised, it made its way to Setarrif to find a new host. In Setarrif, which is cut off from the rest of the island, chaos and anarchy spread rapidly.
King Rhobar III is troubled by these facts and is afraid of losing the city and some of his companions, which are in Setarrif at that very moment. The nameless hero therefore is sent by the king and must journey to Setarrif but he has no idea of what lies before him.
A new threat casts its shadow over the Southern Isles. A mysterious demon, consumed by hatred, terrifies the population and pools his force against the coastal city of Setarrif. The dramatic situation exacerbates after a volcanic eruption in the mountains nearby. Thereupon the nameless hero joins forces with his strongest allies and courageously faces the new menace.
The development of the addon started around mid 2010, although it was planned earlier in the development of Arcania: Gothic 4. With the current financial problems of the publisher, no other details have been revealed regarding the development of the game. JoWooD's community manager announced on one of the fansites that the debut trailer will be available in March 2011.
On March 3, 2011, JoWooD Entertainment released the official website and first trailer for the addon.[3]
On March 22, 2011, JoWooD Entertainment announced that the expansion has been delayed indefinitely because of legal issues with BVT Games Fund III.
However, on September 21, 2011, the new publisher, Nordic Games, announced that the add-on will be available on October 25, 2011 for Microsoft Windows.[4]
^ "News – Trinigy | Press Releases". Trinigy.net. 2009-05-18. Archived from the original on 2010-05-24. Retrieved 2010-09-07.
^ "RPGWatch". Archived from the original on 23 September 2011. Retrieved 16 April 2015.
^ "Arcania - Fall of Setarrif - News". Archived from the original on 19 April 2015. Retrieved 16 April 2015.
^ "SpawnPoint - Where Gaming Begins". Archived from the original on 1 April 2012. Retrieved 16 April 2015.
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Kenneth Kaunda
This biography of a living person needs additional citations for verification. Please help by adding reliable sources. Contentious material about living persons that is unsourced or poorly sourced must be removed immediately, especially if potentially libelous or harmful.
Find sources: "Kenneth Kaunda" – news · newspapers · books · scholar · JSTOR (July 2012) (Learn how and when to remove this template message)
Kaunda during an official visit to the United States in 1983
1st President of Zambia
24 October 1964 – 2 November 1991
Reuben Kamanga
Simon Kapwepwe
Mainza Chona
Evelyn Dennison Hone as Governor of Northern Rhodesia
Frederick Chiluba
3rd Secretary General of the Non-Aligned Movement
8 September 1970 – 5 September 1973
Gamal Abdel Nasser
Houari Boumédienne
(1924-04-28) 28 April 1924 (age 95)
Chinsali, Northern Rhodesia (now Zambia)
UNIP
Betty Kaunda (1946–2012; her death)
8 including Tilyenji Kaunda
Kenneth Kaunda in Frankfurt, West Germany in 1970
Kenneth David Buchizya Kaunda (born 28 April 1924),[1] also known as KK,[citation needed] is a Zambian former politician who served as the first President of Zambia from 1964 to 1991.
Kaunda is the youngest of eight children born to an ordained Church of Scotland missionary and teacher. He was at the forefront of the struggle for independence from British rule. Dissatisfied with Harry Nkumbula's leadership of the Northern Rhodesian African National Congress, he broke away and founded the Zambian African National Congress, later becoming the head of the United National Independence Party. He was the first President of the independent Zambia. In 1973 following tribal and inter-party violence, all political parties except UNIP were banned through an amendment of the constitution after the signing of the Choma Declaration. At the same time, Kaunda oversaw the acquisition of majority stakes in key foreign-owned companies. The oil crisis of 1973 and a slump in export revenues put Zambia in a state of economic crisis. International pressure forced Kaunda to change the rules that had kept him in power. Multi-party elections took place in 1991, in which Frederick Chiluba, the leader of the Movement for Multiparty Democracy, ousted Kaunda.
Kaunda was briefly stripped of Zambian citizenship in 1999, but the decision was overturned the following year. At 95, he is the oldest living former Zambian president.
2 Independence struggle
2.1 Educational policies
2.2 Economic policies
2.3 One-party state and "African socialism"
2.4 Foreign policy
2.5 UNIP and Kaunda's autocracy during the Second Republic
3 Fall from power
4 Post-presidency
5 Awards and honours
Kaunda was the youngest of eight children. He was born at Lubwa Mission in Chinsali, Northern Province of Northern Rhodesia, now Zambia. His father was the Reverend David Kaunda, an ordained Church of Scotland missionary and teacher, who was born in Nyasaland (now Malawi) and had moved to Chinsali to work at Lubwa Mission. He attended Munali Training Centre in Lusaka (August 1941 – 1943).
Both Kaunda's father and mother were teachers. His father was from Nyasaland, also known as Malawi and his mother was the first African woman to teach in colonial Zambia. They were both teachers among the bamba ethnic group which is location in northern Zambia.This is where Kaunda received his education until the early 1940’s. It was very common during this time for Africans in colonial Zambia who has achieved a little bit of middle-class status. He later on followed in his parents footsteps and became a teacher; first in colonial Zambia but then in the middle of the 1940’s he moved to what is now Tanzania. (The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica)
Kaunda was a teacher at the Upper Primary School and Boarding Master at Lubwa and then Headmaster at Lubwa from 1943 to 1945. For a time, he worked at the Salisbury and Bindura Mine. In early 1948, he became a teacher in Mufulira for the United Missions to the Copperbelt (UMCB). He was then assistant at an African Welfare Centre and Boarding Master of a Mine School in Mufulira. In this period, he was leading a Pathfinder Scout Group and was Choirmaster at a Church of Central Africa congregation. He was also Vice-Secretary of the Nchanga Branch of Congress.
Independence struggle[edit]
In April 1949, Kaunda returned to Lubwa to become a part-time teacher, but resigned in 1951. In that year he became Organising Secretary of Northern Province's Northern Rhodesian African National Congress. On 11 November 1953 he moved to Lusaka to take up the post of Secretary General of the ANC, under the presidency of Harry Nkumbula. The combined efforts of Kaunda and Nkumbula failed to mobilise native African peoples against the European-dominated Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland. In 1955 Kaunda and Nkumbula were imprisoned for two months with hard labour for distributing subversive literature; such imprisonment and other forms of harassment were normal rites of passage for African nationalist leaders. The experience of imprisonment had a radicalising impact on Kaunda. The two leaders drifted apart as Nkumbula became increasingly influenced by white liberals and was seen as being willing to compromise on the issue of black majority rule, waiting until most of the indigenous population was responsibly educated before extending the franchise. The franchise was to be determined by existing property and literacy qualifications, dropping race altogether. Nkumbula's allegedly autocratic leadership of the ANC eventually resulted in a split. Kaunda broke from the ANC and formed the Zambian African National Congress (ZANC) in October 1958. ZANC was banned in March 1959. In June Kaunda was sentenced to nine months' imprisonment, which he spent first in Lusaka, then in Salisbury.
While Kaunda was in prison, Mainza Chona and other nationalists broke away from the ANC and, in October 1959, Chona became the first president of the United National Independence Party (UNIP), the successor to ZANC. However, Chona did not see himself as the party's main founder. When Kaunda was released from prison in January 1960 he was elected President of UNIP. In 1960 he visited Martin Luther King Jr. in Atlanta and afterwards, in July 1961, Kaunda organised a civil disobedience campaign in Northern Province, the so-called Cha-cha-cha campaign, which consisted largely of arson and obstructing significant roads. Kaunda subsequently ran as a UNIP candidate during the 1962 elections. This resulted in a UNIP–ANC Coalition Government, with Kaunda as Minister of Local Government and Social Welfare. In January 1964, UNIP won the next major elections, defeating their ANC rivals and securing Kaunda's position as prime minister. On 24 October 1964 he became the first President of an independent Zambia, appointing Reuben Kamanga as his Vice-President.
Educational policies[edit]
At the time of its independence, Zambia's modernisation process was far from complete. The nation's educational system was one of the most poorly developed in all of Britain's former colonies, and it had just 109 university graduates and less than 0.5% of the population was estimated to have completed primary education.[2] Because of this, Zambia had to invest heavily in education at all levels.[3] Kaunda instituted a policy where all children, irrespective of their parents' ability to pay, were given free exercise books, pens and pencils. The parents' main responsibility was to buy uniforms, pay a token "school fee" and ensure that the children attended school. This approach meant that the best pupils were promoted to achieve their best results, all the way from primary school to university level. Not every child could go to secondary school, for example, but those who did were well educated.
The University of Zambia was opened in Lusaka in 1966, after Zambians all over the country had been encouraged to donate whatever they could afford towards its construction. Kaunda was appointed Chancellor and officiated at the first graduation ceremony in 1969. The main campus was situated on the Great East Road, while the medical campus was located at Ridgeway near the University Teaching Hospital. In 1979 another campus was established at the Zambia Institute of Technology in Kitwe. In 1988 the Kitwe campus was upgraded and renamed the Copperbelt University, offering business studies, industrial studies and environmental studies.
Other tertiary-level institutions established during Kaunda's era were vocationally focused and fell under the aegis of the Department of Technical Education and Vocational Training. They include the Evelyn Hone College of Applied Arts and Commerce and the Natural Resources Development College (both in Lusaka), the Northern Technical College at Ndola, the Livingstone Trades Training Institute in Livingstone, and teacher-training colleges.
Economic policies[edit]
At independence Kaunda's government inherited a country with an economy that was completely under the control of foreigners. For example, the British South Africa Company (founded by the British imperialist Cecil Rhodes) still retained commercial assets and mineral rights that it had acquired from a concession signed with the Litunga of Bulozi in 1890. Only by threatening to expropriate it on the eve of independence did Kaunda manage to get favourable concessions from the BSAC.
Deciding on a planned economy, Zambia instituted a program of national development, under the direction of the National Commission for Development Planning, which instituted a "Transitional Development Plan" and the "First National Development Plan". These two operations, which attempted to secure major investment in infrastructure and manufacturing sectors, were generally regarded as successful.
A major change in the structure of Zambia's economy came with the Mulungushi Reforms of April 1968: Kaunda declared his intention to acquire an equity holding (usually 51% or more) in a number of key foreign-owned firms, to be controlled by his Industrial Development Corporation (IDC). By January 1970, Zambia had acquired majority holding in the Zambian operations of the two major foreign mining interests, the Anglo American Corporation and the Rhodesian Selection Trust (RST); the two became the Nchanga Consolidated Copper Mines (NCCM) and Roan Consolidated Mines (RCM), respectively. Kaunda also announced the creation of a new parastatal body, the Mining Development Corporation (MINDECO), while a Finance and Development Corporation (FINDECO) allowed the Zambian government to gain control of insurance companies and building societies. Major foreign-owned banks, such as Barclays, Standard Chartered and Grindlays Bank, successfully resisted takeover. In 1971, IDC, MINDE, and FINDECO were brought together under an omnibus parastatal, the Zambia Industrial and Mining Corporation (ZIMCO), to create one of the largest companies in sub-Saharan Africa, with Francis Kaunda as chairman of the board. The management contracts under which day-to-day operations of the mines had been carried out by Anglo American and RST were terminated in 1973. In 1982, NCCM and RCM were merged into the giant Zambia Consolidated Copper Mines Investment Holdings Ltd (ZCCM-IH).
Unfortunately this nationalisation policy was ill-timed. In 1973, the massive increase in the price of oil was followed by a slump in copper prices and a diminution of export earnings. In early 1973, the price of copper accounted for 95% of all export earnings; this had halved in value on the world market by early 1975. By 1976, Zambia had a balance-of-payments crisis, and rapidly fell into debt with the International Monetary Fund (IMF). The Third National Development Plan had to be abandoned as crisis management replaced long-term planning.
By the mid-1980s, Zambia had one of the highest debts of any nation on the globe, relative to its gross domestic product (GDP).[citation needed] The IMF insisted that the Zambian government should focus on stabilising the economy and restructuring it to reduce dependence on copper. The proposed measures included the ending of price controls, devaluation of the kwacha, reining in of government spending, cancellation of subsidies on food and fertiliser, and increased prices for farm produce. Kaunda's removal of food subsidies caused the prices of basic foodstuffs to skyrocket, sparking riots and disorder. In desperation, Kaunda attempted to sever his ties with the IMF in May 1987 and introduce a New Economic Recovery Programme in 1988. However, this was not ultimately successful and he eventually moved toward a new understanding with the IMF in 1989. In 1990 Kaunda was forced to make major policy shifts; he announced the intention to partially privatise the parastatals. However, these changes were too little and came too late to prevent his fall from power as a result of Zambia's economic woes.
One-party state and "African socialism"[edit]
In the wake of the Lumpa Uprising, Kaunda proclaimed a state of emergency, banning the Lumpa Church, which he considered a major source of opposition because it refused to allow its members to participate in compulsory voting. This created animosity between the Church and UNIP, resulting in some low-level conflict which claimed numerous lives. Kaunda tried to mediate the differences between the Church, local authorities and UNIP party members but was eventually unable to control party cadres in the North.
From 1964 onwards, Kaunda's government developed clearly authoritarian characteristics. Becoming increasingly intolerant of opposition, Kaunda banned all parties except UNIP following violence during the 1968 elections. However, in early 1972 he faced a new threat in the form of Simon Kapwepwe's decision to leave UNIP and found a rival party, the United Progressive Party, which Kaunda immediately attempted to suppress. Next, he appointed the Chona Commission, which was set up under the chairmanship of Mainza Chona in February 1972. Chona's task was to make recommendations for a new Zambian constitution which would effectively reduce the nation to a one-party state. The commission's terms of reference did not permit it to discuss the possible faults of Kaunda's decision. ANC party members boycotted Chona's efforts and unsuccessfully challenged the constitutional change in the courts. The Chona report was based on four months of public hearings and was submitted in October 1972 as a 'liberal' document. Finally, Kaunda neutralised Nkumbula by getting him to join UNIP and accept the Choma Declaration on 27 June 1973. The new constitution was formally promulgated on 25 August of that year.[4] At the first elections under the new system held that December, Kaunda was the sole candidate.
With all opposition having been eliminated, Kaunda allowed the creation of a personality cult. He developed a left nationalist-socialist ideology, called Zambian Humanism. This was based on a combination of mid-20th-century ideas of central planning/state control and what he considered basic African values: mutual aid, trust and loyalty to the community. Similar forms of African socialism were introduced inter alia in Ghana by Kwame Nkrumah ("Consciencism") and Tanzania by Julius Nyerere ("Ujamaa"), while in Zaire, President Mobutu Sese Seko, a much less "benevolent" ruler than Kaunda or Nyerere, was at a loss until he hit on the ideal ideology – 'Mobutuism'. To elaborate his ideology, Kaunda published several books: Humanism in Zambia and a Guide to its Implementation, Parts 1, 2 and 3. Other publications on Zambian Humanism are: Fundamentals of Zambian Humanism, by Timothy Kandeke; Zambian Humanism, religion and social morality, by Cleve Dillion-Malone S.J. and Zambian Humanism: some major spiritual and economic challenges, by Justin B. Zulu. Kaunda on Violence, (US title, The Riddle of Violence), was published in 1980.[5] He is known as "Gandhi of Africa" or "African Gandhi."
Foreign policy[edit]
Jimmy Carter and Kenneth Kaunda at the White House in 1978
During his early presidency Kaunda was an outspoken supporter of the anti-apartheid movement and opposed white minority rule in Southern Rhodesia. Although his nationalisation of the copper mining industry in the late 1960s and the volatility of international copper prices contributed to increased economic problems[citation needed], matters were aggravated by his logistical support for the black nationalist movements in Ian Smith's Rhodesia, South West Africa, Angola, and Mozambique. Kaunda's administration later attempted to serve the role of a mediator between the entrenched white minority and colonial governments and the various guerilla movements which were aimed at overthrowing these respective administrations. Beginning in the early 1970s, he began permitting the most prominent guerilla organisations, such as the Rhodesian ZANU and the African National Congress, to use Zambia as a base for their operations. Former ANC president Oliver Tambo even spent a significant proportion of his 30-year exile living and working in Zambia.[6] Joshua Nkomo, leader of ZAPU, also erected military encampments there, as did SWAPO and its military wing, the People's Liberation Army of Namibia.[7]
In the first twenty years of Kaunda's presidency, himself and his advisors sought numerous times to acquire modern weapons from the Unites States. In a letter written to Lyndon B. Johnson in 1967, Kaunda inquires if the United States would provide him with nuclear missiles, all of his requests for modern weapons were refused by the United States. In 1980, Kaunda would purchase sixteen MiG-21 jets from the Soviet Union, which would ultimately provoke a reaction from the United States. Kaunda responded to the United States, stating that the after numerous failed attempts to purchase weapons, buying from the Soviets was justified in his duty to protect his citizens, and Zambian national security. His attempted purchase of American weapons may have been a political tactic in order to use fear to establish his one-party rule over Zambia.[8]
From April 1975, when Kaunda visited Gerald Ford at the White House in Washington and delivered a powerful speech calling for the United States to play a more active and constructive role in southern Africa, until approximately 1984, the Zambian president was arguably the key African leader involved in the international diplomacy regarding the conflicts in Angola, Rhodesia (Zimbabwe), and Namibia. He hosted Henry Kissinger's 1976 trip to Zambia, got along very well with Jimmy Carter, and worked closely with Ronald Reagan's assistant secretary of state for African affairs, Chester Crocker. While there were disagreements between Kaunda and U.S. leaders (such as when Zambia purchased Soviet MIG fighters or when he accused two American diplomats of being spies), Kaunda generally enjoyed a positive relationship with the United States during these years.[9]
On 26 August 1975, Kaunda acted as mediator along with the Prime Minister of South Africa, B. J. Vorster at Victoria Falls to discuss possibilities for an internal settlement in Southern Rhodesia with Ian Smith and the black nationalists. After the Lancaster House Agreement, Kaunda attempted to seek similar majority rule in South West Africa. He met with P. W. Botha in Botswana to debate this proposal, but apparently failed to make a serious impression.
Meanwhile, the anti-white minority insurgency conflicts of southern Africa continued to place a huge economic burden on Zambia as white minority governments were the country's main trading partners. In response, Kaunda negotiated the TAZARA Railway (Tanzam) linking Kapiri Mposhi on the Zambian Copperbelt with Tanzania's port of Dar-es-Salaam on the Indian Ocean. Completed in 1975, this was the only route for bulk trade which did not have to transit white-dominated territories. This precarious situation lasted more than 20 years, until the abolition of apartheid in South Africa.[10]
Kaunda visiting Romania in 1970
For much of the Cold War Kaunda was a strong supporter of the Non-Aligned Movement.[11] He hosted a NAM summit in Lusaka in 1970 and served as the movement's chairman from 1970 to 1973. He maintained a close friendship with Yugoslavia's long-time leader Josip Broz Tito and is remembered by many Yugoslav officials for weeping openly over the latter's casket in 1980. He even had a special house constructed in Lusaka for Tito's visits to the country. He also visited and welcomed Romania's President, Nicolae Ceaușescu in the 1970s. In 1986, the University of Belgrade (Yugoslavia) awarded him an honorary doctorate.[12]
Kaunda had frequent but cordial differences with US President Ronald Reagan whom he met 1983[13] and British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher[14] mainly over what he saw as a blind eye being turned towards South African apartheid. He always maintained warm relations with the People's Republic of China who had provided assistance on many projects in Zambia, including the Tazara Railway.
Prior to the first Gulf War, Kaunda cultivated a friendship with Iraqi President Saddam Hussein, with whom he secured oil resources for his nation. He even went so far as to name Zambian streets in Saddam's honour.[citation needed]
In August 1989, Farzad Bazoft was detained in Iraq for alleged espionage. He was accompanied by a British nurse, Daphne Parish, who was arrested as well. Bazoft was an Iranian-born freelance journalist attempting to expose Saddam's mass murder of Iraqi Kurds. Bazoft was later tried and condemned to death, but Kaunda managed to negotiate for his female companion's release.[15] Kaunda served as chairman of the Organization of African Unity (OAU) from 1970 to 1973.
UNIP and Kaunda's autocracy during the Second Republic[edit]
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The creation of a one-party state effectively made Kaunda's presidency a legal dictatorship. From 1973 onward, his rule became increasingly autocratic. He personally appointed the Central Committee of UNIP, although the process was given a veneer of legitimacy by being "approved" by a National Congress of the party. In theory, Kaunda's nominations could be discarded by Congress. In practice, his control over the party was such that they were always accepted without modification. The argument used was that "the President knows the people who can work well with him, so if we modify the nominations we will end up with a less effective team". In turn, the Central Committee nominated a sole candidate for the party presidency. Of course, since the members of the Central Committee had been nominated by Kaunda, he was always the sole candidate. Constitutionally, whoever was in good standing with the party was at liberty to challenge him. In practice, no one did so because of his charisma and intolerance for dissent.[citation needed]
As president of UNIP, Kaunda was the only candidate for president of the republic. After UNIP went through the formalities of (re)electing him as its leader, the rest of the Zambian population was given the opportunity to express approval or disapproval of Kaunda by voting either "Yes" or "No" in a referendum. Since parliamentary elections took place at the same time, there was great pressure placed on parliamentary candidates to "campaign" for a "Yes" vote for Kaunda, in addition to their own campaigns. Parastatal companies (which were controlled through ZIMCO – Zambia Industrial and Mining Corporation) were also under pressure to "campaign" for Kaunda by buying advertising space in the two national newspapers (Times of Zambia and Zambia Daily Mail) exhorting the electorate to give the president a "massive 'Yes' vote". Under this system, Kaunda was confirmed as president in 1978, 1983 and 1988, each time with official results showing over 80 percent of voters approving his candidacy.[16][citation needed]
The parliamentary elections were also controlled by Kaunda: the names of candidates had to be submitted to UNIP's Central Committee, which then selected three people to stand for any particular constituency. The Central Committee could veto any candidate for any reason. Using these methods, Kaunda kept any potential rivals at bay by ensuring that they never got into a position to accrue any political power. For all intents and purposes, Kaunda held all governing power in the nation.[17]
This was the tactic he used when he saw off Nkumbula and Kapwepwe's challenges to his sole candidacy for the 1978 UNIP elections. On that occasion, the UNIP's constitution was "amended" overnight to bring in rules that invalidated the two challengers' nominations: Kapwepwe was told he could not stand because only people who had been members for five years could be nominated to the presidency (he had only rejoined UNIP three years before); Nkumbula was outmaneuvered by introducing a new rule that said each candidate needed the signatures of 200 delegates from each province to back his candidacy. Less creative tactics were used on a third prospective challenger. UNIP's Youth Wing simply beat him within an inch of his life, leaving him in no state to submit his nomination.[citation needed]
Fall from power[edit]
Kaunda in Amsterdam, 1986
Eventually, however, economic troubles and increasing international pressure to bring more democracy to Africa caused Kaunda to totter. While he had been known for his vehement opposition to apartheid in South Africa, his critics were increasingly emboldened to speak out against his authoritarian rule, and also questioned his competence. His close friend Julius Nyerere had retired as president of Tanzania in 1985 and was quietly encouraging Kaunda to follow suit.
Matters quickly came to a head in the summer of 1990. In July, amid three days of rioting in the capital, Kaunda announced a referendum on whether to legalize other parties would be held that October. However, he himself argued for maintaining UNIP's monopoly, claiming that a multiparty system would lead to chaos. The announcement almost came too late; hours later, a disgruntled officer went on the radio to announce Kaunda had been overthrown. The coup attempt was broken three to four hours later, but it was clear Kaunda and the UNIP were reeling.[18] Kaunda tried to mollify the opposition by moving the referendum to August 1991; the opposition claimed the original date didn't allow enough time for voter registration.[19]
While expressing willingness to have the Zambian people vote on a multiparty system, Kaunda maintained that only a one-party state could prevent tribalism and violence from engulfing the country. By September, however, opposition demands forced Kaunda to reverse course. He cancelled the referendum, and instead recommended constitutional amendments that would dismantle UNIP's monopoly on power. He also announced a snap general election for the following year, two years before they were due.[20] He signed the necessary amendments into law in December.[21]
At these elections, the Movement for Multiparty Democracy (MMD), helmed by trade union leader Frederick Chiluba, swept UNIP from power in a landslide. In the presidential election, Kaunda was roundly defeated, taking only 24 percent of the vote to Chiluba's 75 percent. UNIP was cut down to only 25 seats in the legislature. One of the issues in the campaign was a plan by Kaunda to turn over one quarter of the nation's land to Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, an Indian guru who promised that he would use it for a network of utopian agricultural enclaves that proponents said would create "heaven on earth".[22][23] Kaunda was forced in a television interview to deny practising Transcendental Meditation.[24] When Kaunda handed power to Chiluba on 2 November 1991, he became the second mainland African head of state to allow free multiparty elections and to peacefully relinquish power when he lost. The first, Mathieu Kérékou of Benin, had done so in March of that year.
Post-presidency[edit]
After leaving office, Kaunda clashed frequently with Chiluba's government and the MMD. Chiluba later attempted to deport Kaunda on the grounds that he was a Malawian. The MMD dominated government under the leadership of Chiluba had the constitution amended, barring citizens with foreign parentage from standing for the presidency, to prevent Kaunda from contesting the next elections in 1996; this would later prevent 2014-15 acting president Guy Scott from being a candidate. Kaunda retired from politics after he was accused[by whom?] of involvement in the failed 1997 coup attempt.[citation needed] After the coup, on Boxing Day in 1997 he was placed under arrest by Chiluba. However, many officials in the region appealed against this; on New Year's Eve of the same year, he was placed under house arrest until the court date. In 1999 Kaunda was declared stateless by the Ndola High Court in a judgment delivered by Justice Chalendo Sakala.[citation needed] A full transcript of the judgment was published in the Times of Zambia edition of 1 April 1999.[citation needed] Kaunda however successfully challenged this decision in the Supreme Court of Zambia, which declared him to be a Zambian citizen in 2000.[25]
After retiring, he has been involved in various charitable organisations. His most notable contribution has been his zeal in the fight against the spread of HIV/AIDS.[26] One of Kaunda's children was claimed by the pandemic in the 1980s. From 2002 to 2004, he was an African President-in-Residence at the African Presidential Archives and Research Center at Boston University.[27]
In 2006, he was seen in attendance at an episode of Dancing with the Stars; Kaunda is an avid ballroom dancer.[28]
President Michael Sata made use of Kaunda as a roving ambassador for Zambia. In February 2014 Kaunda was hospitalized for a fever at Lusaka Trust Hospital.[29]
Awards and honours[edit]
On 21 May 1963, he received an honourary degree of Doctor of Laws from Fordham University.[30]
On 28 May 1975 was made Knight Grand Cross of the Order of Prince Henry.
On 10 December 2002 Kaunda was awarded the Supreme Companion of OR Tambo by South Africa.[31]
On 4 October 2007 was made a Commander of the Most Courteous Order of Lesotho.[32]
On 19 October 2007 Kaunda was the recipient of the 2007 Ubuntu Award.[33]
Since Kenneth Kaunda was known to wear a safari suit (safari jacket paired with trousers) constantly, the safari suit is still commonly referred to as a "Kaunda suit" throughout sub-Saharan Africa.[34]
Unknown to many, Kenneth Kaunda wrote music about the independence he hoped to achieve. He would ride his bicycle for hundreds of miles singing his songs.[35]
Zambia Shall Be Free (1962), Heinemann African Writers Series
Zambia portal
Michael Sata
Harry Nkumbula
History of Christianity in Zambia
^ Profile of Kenneth Kaunda
^ Zambia - Education | history - geography | Britannica.com
^ An Introduction to African Politics by Alex Thomson.
^ The Law and Economic Development in the Third World, P. Ebow Bondzi-Simpson Praeger, 1992, page 25
^ Kaunda, Kenneth D., and Colin Morris. Kaunda on Violence. London: Collins, 1980.
^ Oliver Tambo Biography Archived 18 December 2005 at the Wayback Machine
^ April 27 1976 - an event exiled in history, The Namibian, 27 April 2007
^ Deroche, Andy (1 November 2016). "Asserting African Agency: Kenneth Kaunda and the USA, 1964-1980". Diplomatic History. 40 (5): 975–1001 – via Academic Search Complete.
^ Andy DeRoche, Kenneth Kaunda, the United States and Southern Africa London: Bloomsbury, 2016, especially pp.21-196
^ http://www.aptnlibrary.com/c43_mandela_01.html
^ See: "Message of President Kenneth D. Kaunda to the International Conference on Non-alignment", in: Hans Köchler, ed., The Principles of Non-alignment. London: Third World Centre, 1983, pp. 12–15. [1]
^ "University of Belgrade: Honorary Doctors". Archived from the original on 3 May 2012. Retrieved 11 June 2012.
^ http://www.reagan.utexas.edu/archives/speeches/1983/33083c.htm
^ "In pictures: 40 years of Zambia". BBC News. 24 October 2004. Retrieved 7 May 2010.
^ Iraq Frees Nurse Held for Aiding 'Spy', Reuters, Los Angeles Times, 16 July 1990
^ "Human Rights Watch". Human Rights Watch.
^ "Press Reference". Press Reference.
^ Perlez, Jane (1 July 1990). "Failed Zambia Coup Weakens Leader".
^ "Zambia's Leader Announces Plan to Free 1,000 Prisoners". The New York Times. Associated Press. 26 July 1990.
^ "Zambia Leader Assents To Multiparty Vote". The New York Times. The Associated Press. 25 September 1990.
^ After 17 Years, Zambia Allows Opposition New York Times, 18 December 1990
^ Van Niererk, Phillip (3 December 1994). "A transcendent approach to peace MOZAMBIQUE / Both the crime and accident rates are down and the rains have come. The President credits TM as the fount of all good things". The Globe and Mail. Toronto, Ont. p. A.21.
^ Meditation guru and Zambian strongman Philadelphia Inquirer, 18 Oct 24 October 1991
^ Lyman, Rick (16 October 1991). "HEAVEN'S STRANGE BEDFELLOWS; MEDITATION GURU AND ZAMBIAN STRONGMAN". Philadelphia Inquirer. p. A.1.
^ Andy DeRoche, Kenneth Kaunda, the United States and Southern Africa (London: Bloomsbury, 2016, 228.
^ Andy DeRoche, Kenneth Kaunda, the United States and Southern Africa (London: Bloomsbury, 2016), 213-214, 228-229.
^ BU | APARC | About the Center
^ "Behind the Scenes at Dancing with the Stars". PEOPLE.com. Retrieved 27 May 2018.
^ http://www.postzambia.com/post-read_article.php?articleId=45318
^ Kaunda, Kenneth D (1963). "Speech by The Honorable Kenneth D. Kaunda at the ceremonies at which he received the honorary degree of Doctor of Laws from Fordham University, Tuesday, May 21, 1963". Duquesne University Press. Retrieved 15 August 2018.
^ Presidency
^ "Lesotho Celebrates 40 Years of Independence". scoop.co.nz. Scoop Independent News. 10 October 2006. Retrieved 15 April 2017.
^ "Zambia's President: Kenneth Kaunda". New York Times. 9 December 1965.
^ "Metrosexual - stylish kaunda suit makes a comeback". AllAfrica.Com. 1 May 2014 – via ProQuest.
"Kaunda, Kenneth." Encyclopædia Britannica from Encyclopædia Britannica Online. Accessed 19 May 2006.
Fergus Macpherson, Kenneth Kaunda: The Times and the Man (1974)
Richard Hall, The High Price of Principles: Kaunda and the White South (1969)
David C. Mulford, Zambia: The Politics of Independence, 1957–1964 (1967)
At Ipenburg, 'All Good Men.' The Development of Lubwa Mission, Chinsali, Zambia, 1905–1967 (1992)
Andy DeRoche, Kenneth Kaunda, the United States and Southern Africa (London: Bloomsbury, 2016)
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USS Mahaska (1861)
For other ships with the same name, see USS Mahaska.
USS Mahaska shelling the Rebels at Harrison's Landing, 1 July 1862
Name: USS Mahaska
Namesake: Chief Mahaska
Builder: Portsmouth Navy Yard, Kittery, Maine
Cost: $130,001.68
Launched: 10 December 1861
Commissioned: 5 May 1862
Decommissioned: 12 September 1868
Fate: Sold, 20 November 1868
Type: Sidewheel steamer
Displacement: 1,070 long tons (1,087 t)
Length: 228 ft 2 in (69.55 m)
Draft: 10 ft 4 in (3.15 m)
Propulsion: Steam engine
Speed: 9 knots (17 km/h; 10 mph)
1 × 100-pounder Parrott rifle
1 × 9 in (230 mm) gun
4 × 24-pounder guns
The first USS Mahaska was a wooden, double-ender, sidewheel steamer of the third rate in the United States Navy during the American Civil War. She was named for Ioway Chief Mahaska.
Mahaska was built at the Portsmouth Navy Yard, Kittery, Maine, for $130,001.68; launched 10 December 1861 and commissioned 5 May 1862, Lt. Norman H. Farquhar in command.
Mahaska sailed from Portsmouth 15 May 1862, reporting shortly thereafter for duty in the rivers flowing into Chesapeake Bay. On 20 June she engaged the Confederate batteries along the Appomattox River and on 1 November destroyed entrenchments at West Point, Virginia. Continuing her patrols into the next year, she captured the schooner General Taylor in Chesapeake Bay 20 February 1863. Moving south later in the year, she joined in the blockade of Charleston and participated in the attacks on the forts and batteries in that harbor: Fort Wagner, 8 and 18 August; Morris Island, 13 to 17, and 20 August; and Fort Sumter, 21 August 1863. The following year she took part in the joint expedition against Jacksonville, Florida, 5 February to 4 April, remaining on picket and patrol duty in the St. Johns River until 16 August when she returned to Charleston, South Carolina. She then steamed north to Boston, Massachusetts for overhaul.
Overhaul completed 16 January 1865, Mahaska returned to Florida waters, capturing the schooner Delia, near Bayport, 17 February. After the end of the Civil War, the steamer continued to cruise in southern waters until decommissioned at New Orleans, Louisiana on 12 September 1868. She was sold 20 November 1868 to John Dole of Boston.
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=USS_Mahaska_(1861)&oldid=827434371"
Gunboats of the United States Navy
Wikipedia articles incorporating text from the Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships
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Page:Inside Canton.djvu/122
INSIDE CANTON.
The leaves which formed festoons oa the exterior, the curling vine, and the bamboo stalks which formed the handles, seemed to have been cast in lava which had become solidified on a luxuriant vegetation, of which it had preserved the impression after having reduced it to ashes. The Chinese bronzes deserve a special historian to give us the means of determining their ages, and to teach us how to distinguish the works of the masters from those of their clever imitators. It is probable that this gap will be filled, as Callery is engaged upon a work which will treat particularly of the arts in China.
The artistic genius of the Chinese is particularly evinced in those cases where constant application and great manual precision are necessary; difficulty overcome being, in the eyes of the children of the Land of Flowers, the principal merit in a work of art. A poor workman, who gains but a few francs a day, shut up in a garret or in the dark corner of a shop, is absorbed in his work, and early accustoms himself unhesitatingy to improvise subjects, which one of our most skilful artists would hardly dare to attempt. The consequence of this habitual boldness is, that a metal worker or wood engraver works with great ease. On a silver cup, between two knots on a bamboo stick, on the uneven horns of stags or oxen, they carve groups of people, animals, fruits, plants, and landscapes, the designs for which originally ex-
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(Redirected from North Jersey)
North America > United States of America > Mid-Atlantic > New Jersey
4.4 New Jersey today
6.2.1 Intercity busses
6.2.2 Commuter busses
6.3.1 Amtrak
6.3.2 NJ Transit
6.7 By bicycle or foot
11.1 State liquor laws
11.2 Local drinks
Newark at night
New Jersey is a state in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. It is the most densely populated state in the nation; heavily urban, suburban and industrialized. Despite this, it's well known for its vibrant beach towns and natural attractions, including the Pine Barrens, the migratory birds of Cape May, the Delaware Water Gap, a 72 mi (116 km) portion of the Appalachian Trail, and the Palisades. New Jersey's nickname of "The Garden State" rings true, with over a quarter of the state's land dedicated to agriculture, which can be seen in the blueberry farms and cranberry bogs that exist throughout the state's western and southern regions.
New Jersey is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the east, and by the states of New York to the north and northeast, Pennsylvania to the west, and Delaware to the southwest. The northeastern parts of New Jersey are suburbs of New York City, just across the Hudson River, and the southwestern parts are suburbs of Philadelphia, just across the Delaware River.
New Jersey is commonly simply divided into two regions: North Jersey and South Jersey. For the purpose of this guide, those two regions will be further divided into five areas.
New Jersey regions - Color-coded map
Western suburbs and satellite cities of New York City, anchored by most of New Jersey's largest cities and centers of industry, including Newark, Jersey City, Hoboken, New Brunswick, and Paterson.
Miles of beaches and boardwalks (including the original streets of the board game Monopoly) to enjoy, as well as chances to try your luck at Atlantic City's casinos. The Pine Barrens offer opportunities to camp.
Delaware River
The eastern suburbs of Philadelphia, anchored by Camden. State capital Trenton and Ivy League-center Princeton are included here for this guide, though those areas are just as much in New York's sphere of influence as Philly's.
Forested hills, miles of farmland and small mountains are the main attraction for visitors here, especially in the fall season when the leaves turn and apple orchards open.
Southern Shore
The beaches of Cumberland and Cape May counties don't get the attention that those to the north get, but they're good for a quiet, family-friendly weekend.
Cities[edit]
40.223748-74.7640011 Trenton – The state capital and home of The College of New Jersey (TCNJ)
39.377297-74.4510822 Atlantic City – A famed 1800s oceanfront resort town reborn as a gambling center in the late 1970s
39.94-75.1053 Camden – Rough with vast stretches of poverty, the city is also home to the USS New Jersey and Adventure Aquarium
40.75-74.034 Hoboken – A reborn former industrial city on the Hudson River with plenty of bars, restaurants, music and awesome views of Manhattan
40.714-74.0715 Jersey City – New Jersey's second largest city, its financial sector complements Wall Street across the river and ferries for the Statue of Liberty leave from Liberty State Park
40.72422-74.1725746 Newark – New Jersey's largest city has notable cultural centers of art and music, the New Jersey Devils hockey team, and fantastic cuisines from around the globe
40.486678-74.4444147 New Brunswick – Home to the original and largest campus of Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, a public research university founded in 1766
40.914746-74.1628268 Paterson – Site of the Great Falls of the Passaic River, a National Historical Park whose namesake waterfall powered factories and made the city the cradle of the Industrial Revolution
40.357115-74.6701659 Princeton – Home of the Ivy-League Princeton University, and the many hip bars, restaurants, cafes, bookstores, and music venues that come with a "college town"
Other destinations[edit]
Island Beach State Park
Crystal Springs — Large rural resort area featuring golf courses, hotels, a ski area and a waterpark
41.153811111111-74.9138805555561 Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area — Camping, hiking and rafting in a large valley on the Delaware River
40.048-74.0522 Island Beach State Park — 10 mi (16 km) stretch of undeveloped barrier island, the last in the state
40.95-74.63333 Lake Hopatcong — New Jersey's largest lake provides boating and swimming for families and singles.
The Pine Barrens — A natural pine forest that covers about a third of the state
40.0931-74.35624 Six Flags Great Adventure — Massive amusement park and safari, with neighboring waterpark
41.14-74.695 Sterling Mine — Former mine offering tours through caverns of fluorescent rock
40.788611111111-74.2552777777786 Thomas Edison National Historical Park — National park preserves famous inventor Thomas Edison's home and laboratory complex
Liberty State Park
Delaware Water Gap and Interstate 80
New Jersey's geography varies across the state. Much of the northern half of the state is made up of the easternmost hills of the Appalachian Mountains and other small ridge lines. Between these ridges lie the fertile river valleys that give New Jersey its "Garden State" nickname. High Point, at the border with New York in Sussex County, is the highest mountain in the state at 1,803 ft (550 m).
The southern half of the state is part of the Atlantic Plain, and as such is very flat. Much less developed, this area is covered in large part by the Pine Barrens. The Jersey Shore stretches along the coastline, and for much of its length is made up of narrow, long barrier islands.
New Jersey has four distinct seasons.
Winter in the state is usually marked by cold temperatures and frequent snowstorms that can drop anywhere from just a couple inches to up to 2 ft (0.61 m). It is not unheard of in the worst winters for temperatures to drop below freezing for long stretches, especially in January and February. This varies from year to year, however, and in some years winter may feature relatively mild temperatures and only one or two snowstorms.
Spring in New Jersey starts out cold and often damp, with rainstorms common in March. By late April and early May, temperatures begin to rise and trees and flowers bloom throughout the state.
Summer features brilliant sun that is only rarely scorching, with occasional heat waves. Humidity is often high, but the months are punctuated by spells of lower humidity that bring everyone outside to enjoy the weather.
Leaves start to turn color in September and Nor'easters (large subtropical rainstorms that travel up the coast) begin to occur, continuing through October. By late month, most of the leaves have fallen, and winter sets in throughout November.
New Jersey today[edit]
New Jersey is the most densely populated state and as such has a diverse population, rich culture, and many assets, including abundant natural resources and various Fortune 500 companies.
New Jersey's big cities are centers of government and commerce. Though parts of the larger cities have become run down with deindustrialization since the 1970s, they still have a lot to offer. Princeton, Hoboken and New Brunswick in particular are great cities and inhabited by the middle to upper class. Most New Jerseyans of middle class, however, prefer to live in the suburbs, which exploded in the state in the post-war era of the 1950s and 1960s. Rich folks cluster in certain old, established towns and rural enclaves like Alpine, Mendham, and Millburn. More than a third of the state, including the Pine Barrens, is rural and sparsely populated, with little or no public transportation.
There is a strong New York influence in the northern part of the state and Philadelphia influence in the south. All major local TV and radio stations that serve New Jersey are located in those cities. New Jersey also serves as a bedroom community for many people who work in New York City or Philadelphia. Accordingly, strong regional affiliations within the state are split among those lines, and distinct cultural differences can be seen between "North Jersey" and "South Jersey".
Talk[edit]
English is spoken throughout the state, and Spanish speakers can be found in most of the large cities and suburban areas of the Gateway and Delaware River regions.
People flock to New Jersey from all over, especially from New York City and Philadelphia, making it difficult to isolate the New Jersey accent. North Jersey's accent is strongly influenced by New York, and South Jersey's accent is strongly influenced by Philadelphia. Disparaging references to a "New Joisey" accent, "guidos" (working class Italian-Americans), the popular HBO series The Sopranos, or any part of the state's physical appearance are not recommended. Such characterizations are unwarranted and in many cases outdated, and may be resented by residents.
By plane[edit]
Terminal C at Newark Airport.
Newark Liberty International Airport provides the most convenient international access to New Jersey, and Philadelphia is another option. Atlantic City Airport provides some minor domestic service, but travelers should be aware that it is a good distance away from most destinations besides Atlantic City.
Newark Liberty International Airport (EWR IATA) in Newark. Extensive passenger and freight operations and a major hub for United Airlines. It has three passenger terminals connected by a monorail that extends to the airport's train station, providing access across the state and beyond via NJ Transit or Amtrak.
John F. Kennedy International Airport (JFK IATA) in the New York City borough of Queens. The busiest international air gateway to the United States and North America, and one of the busiest in the world, with over 90 airlines operating from it. "JFK" serves as the base of operations for JetBlue and is a major international hub for American Airlines and Delta Air Lines.
LaGuardia Airport (LGA IATA) in Queens. The smallest of the New York area's three primary airports, serving domestic and Canadian destinations.
Philadelphia International Airport (PHL IATA) in the Delaware Valley region of Pennsylvania. A major hub for American Airlines, who operates to destinations throughout the United States, Canada, the Caribbean, Latin America, Europe, and the Middle East.
Atlantic City International Airport (ACY IATA) near Atlantic City. A joint civil-military airport accessible via Exit 9 on the Atlantic City Expressway and served by Spirit Airlines, which offers flights to and from select Southern cities, mainly in Florida.
Trenton–Mercer Airport (TTN IATA) near Trenton. One of the lesser-used airports, but it has service to and from select Southern and Midwestern cities via Frontier Airlines.
Numerous bus companies serve New Jersey, with the typical long-distance intercity bus lines offering limited stops between New York and Philadelphia, Baltimore, and Washington, DC. Some of the same companies also offer express service direct from New York or Philadelphia to Atlantic City. Commuter buses operate from New York and Philadelphia to locations in northern and central New Jersey not served by the long-distance carriers. Unlike in other states, fares on the intercity bus lines are not much more expensive than a commuter bus and are sometimes less expensive than rail travel:
Intercity busses[edit]
Bolt Bus. Operates a bus from Newark Penn Station to New York City with some routes continuing north to Boston and south from Newark to Philadelphia and Washington DC on two separate routes. They also have another route going from Cherry Hill Mall to New York City (33rd St btwn 11th & 12th Ave stop) (updated Jan 2017)
Megabus Goes north from Secaucus to Boston and south to Baltimore and Washington DC on one route. From Princeton and New Brunswick to New York City on another route. They don't sell tickets for travel just between Princeton and New Brunswick on that route. And a third route from Ridgewood to Albany NY.
Greyhound & Lucky Streak, ☏ +1 800 231-2222. Operates buses between New York, Mt Laurel and Philadelphia along I-95/295. Some variations of this route is a non-stop service between New York and Philadelphia or via Newark and Camden to Philadelphia. Some Greyhound routes continue south from Mt Laurel and from Philadelphia towards Washington DC via Wilmington, DE; Baltimore, MD; New Carrolton MD and/or Silver Spring, MD. They offer service from New York City (via Garden State Pkwy) and from Philadelphia (via Atlantic City Expressway) to Atlantic City on two separate routes. (updated Jan 2017)
Martz Group (Martz Trailways), ☏ +1 570 821-3838. Martz Trailways offers commuter & intercity routes between New York City, Hackettstown, Panther Valley Mall, Atlantic City, Wilkes-Barre, Scranton, Stroudsburg, Poconos and Philadelphia (NJ, NY and PA). (updated Jun 2016)
Omnibus la Cubana, (Union City depot) 406 32nd St, Union City NJ, ☏ +1 201 864-6800. They travel contiguously between Miami and New York with stops in Union City and Elizabeth NJ. (updated Jun 2015)
Peter Pan/Bonanza Bus Co., ☏ +1 800 343-9999. Operates buses between New York, Newark, Mt Laurel, Camden and Philadelphia. Some variations of the route is a non-stop service between New York and Philadelphia while others continue from Mt Laurel towards Washington DC via Wilmington, DE; Baltimore, MD; New Carrolton MD and Silver Spring, MD. (updated Jun 2015)
Commuter busses[edit]
Academy Bus, ☏ +1 201 420-7000, toll-free: +1 800 442-7272. Operates commuter services from New York to Burlington, Mercer, Middlesex, Monmouth and Ocean Counties in New Jersey. They also operate a separate Casino Express to Atlantic City from the Port Authority Bus Terminal & 85th St Candy Store at E 85th St between 3rd & 2nd Ave in New York City. (updated Aug 2016)
Coach USA. They operate to various places in New Jersey under different brands including Megabus: (updated Oct 2015)
Community Coach scheduled service from Morris and Essex Counties to New York City.
Olympia Trails They operate local bus service Orange, Newark, and Elizabeth, NJ as the Orange Newark Elizabeth Bus (ONE/Independent Bus) and the Newark Airport Express between Newark Liberty International Airport and mid-town Manhattan and JFK International Airport. They also operate some Megabus routes from New York City to Boston, Washington, Baltimore, Albany, Ridgewood NJ and Toronto.
Rockland Coaches operates commuter bus service between New York City and points in Bergen County, NJ and Rockland County, NY. They also provide local bus service within and between both locales.
Suburban Trails offers commuter, casino, and charter services in Mercer, Middlesex, and Somerset Counties, NJ.
DeCamp, ☏ +1 973 783-7500. Between New York City and Nutley, Caldwell, Bloomfield, Montclair, Roseland, Kearney and Orange in northern New Jersey (updated Jun 2015)
Lakeland Bus Lines, ☏ +1 973 366-0600. Commuter buses between New York City and Essex, Morris and Sussex Counties in northern New Jersey (updated Jun 2015)
New Jersey Transit, ☏ +1 973 275-5555. Operates commuter buses from New York City and Philadelphia to various places in New Jersey on multiple routes and local buses within and between cities and townships within New Jersey and adjacent states. (updated Jun 2015)
The elegant Hoboken Terminal
Amtrak[edit]
Operates a single route through New Jersey with stops in Newark Penn Station, Newark Liberty International Airport, Iselin Metro Park, New Brunswick, Princeton Jct and Trenton on the Northeast Regional and the Keystone Service. The Acela Train stops only in Newark Penn Station, New Brunswick and Trenton while the Vermonter stops only in Newark Penn Station, Iselin-Metro Park and Trenton. The other Amtrak trains going further south past Washington DC (Crescent, Carolinian, Silver Service/Palmetto, etc) and west towards Pittsburgh (Pennsylvanian) stop only in Newark Penn Station and Trenton.
NJ Transit[edit]
Operates rail service from New York City to Bay Head, Gladstone, Hackelstown, High Bridge, Jarvis, Spring Valley and Trenton on multiple routes in several directions in northern and central New Jersey and from Philadelphia to Atlantic City in southern New Jersey. The ''Northeast Corridor'' line runs the same route as the Amtrak trains between New York and Trenton only with more stops including a stop at the Newark Liberty International Airport.
Other regional rail lines running into New Jersey are:
Port Authority Trans Hudson (PATH), ☏ +1 800 234-7284. Operates a single route from mid-town and lower Manhattan to Newark, Harrison, Hoboken, and Jersey City in metropolitan northern New Jersey (updated Jan 2017)
Port Authority Transit Corporation (PATCO). Operates along a single route from Philadelphia to Lindenwood via Camden, Collingswood, Haddon Township, Haddonfield, Cherry Hill & Voorhees Township. (updated Jan 2017)
Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority (SEPTA). Regional rail service from Philadelphia 30th St Station to the surrounding suburbs in Southeastern Pennsylvania; Philadelphia International Airport Wilmington DE; and Trenton on multiple routes (updated Jan 2017)
By boat[edit]
NY Waterway and Seastreak provide ferry service from Manhattan to New Jersey ports. NY Waterway crosses the Hudson River to nearby Hoboken, Weehawken, and Jersey City, and Seastreak serves the towns of Highlands and Atlantic Highlands, across the New York Bay near Sandy Hook.
The Cape May-Lewes Ferry provides service from Cape May, NJ to Lewes, Delaware, carrying both people and automobiles.
The Benjamin Franklin Bridge, connecting Philadelphia and Camden, New Jersey
The New Jersey Turnpike ("The Turnpike") is a segment of Interstate 95 and a toll road that runs north-south for the length of the state. Interstates 80 and 78 provide good access from the west. The Garden State Parkway ("The Parkway") is in many ways the backbone of the state, connecting many major cities in the north to the Jersey Shore region in the south. Interstate 287 is a roughly C-shaped interstate that acts as a beltway around New York City and loops all the way from Staten Island west into Bridgewater, north through Morristown and Parsippany, and up to Mahwah and New York State, and offers very convenient junctions at I-80 and I-78. Interstate 280 is a short but heavily-traveled interstate that extends out of I-80 and runs through Montclair, the Oranges, and Newark before finally ending at the Turnpike.
State law does not allow self-service at gas stations for regular fuel - station attendants must be the ones to pump gas. Just pull up to the pump and tell the attendant "'(Dollar amount)' or 'Fill it up with', (grade), (cash/credit), please", for example, "$20, regular, cash please". New Jersey has some of the most expensive gasoline in the country due to its high gas tax; however, partly due to the close proximity to major oil refineries, prices are slightly lower compared to nearby New York and Connecticut. Because of this, the cash price is often lower at smaller gas stations, usually around 10 cents/gallon cheaper. Check the posted prices to see whether the station has different prices for different means of payment. If you're filling up and paying cash, attendants will add enough gas to bring the bill to a whole dollar amount.
You are legally allowed to pump your own diesel fuel and many truck stops will allow this; however, not all gas stations do.
Most crossings of the Delaware River and all crossings into New York are tolled one-way leaving New Jersey - only the small, privately-owned Dingman's Ferry Bridge up in Sussex County charges a toll on vehicles entering the state. Prices range from $1 to $5 for Delaware River bridges, up to $15 for New York City crossings. Interstate 295 connects Trenton to Delaware and Philadelphia, and runs parallel to the New Jersey Turnpike for most of its length, providing a toll-free alternative for local traffic.
In New Jersey, if a road has a speed limit of 65 mph (~110 km/h), all fines are doubled for traffic violations. On highways of three lanes or more, the left lane is designated for passing slower traffic, and New Jersey State Police will pull you over for driving in the left lane. Also, New Jersey has a "lights on wipers on" law that requires headlights to be on when you have your windshield wipers on, as well as a hands-free law. New Jersey State Police are notoriously zealous and have a statewide reputation for being a bit showy (it is not uncommon to see patrol cars zoom through left lanes in traffic-less highways going 90-100 mph). When in doubt, play it safe and stay to the right (though there are also laws about moving out of the right lane or slowing down when passing by a stopped law enforcement vehicle on the shoulder, so keep that in the mind as well). You will find that most New Jersey drivers regularly break highway laws, usually by speeding; if you feel comfortable and judge it to be safe, feel free to go with the speed of traffic on major highways.
Toll road tips: for the Garden State Parkway, carry quarters and dollar coins for exact change only lanes, it will help you get through it fast and safe. Tolls range from fifty cents to two dollars depending on location. For the New Jersey Turnpike, if you are heading north use Interstate 295 and connect to the New Jersey Turnpike via Interstate 195 at Trenton (NJ Turnpike Exit 7A) if you desire to save a few dollars. Also, the New Jersey Turnpike is the only major road in the state to use sequential exit numbering - do not rely upon an exit number to gauge the distance between exits. Use the E-ZPass electronic toll collection system tag or a compatible tag like Illinois' I-Pass if you have one already - there's a (small) discount and you'll generally be able to avoid waiting in a line to enter or exit a toll road.
The Garden State Parkway's exit numbering system is also confusing despite some small changes. In some areas exits seem roughly consistent with the posted mileage; in others they run sequentially, without regard for miles.
By thumb[edit]
Believe it or not, it is possible to hitchhike out of the New York Metro area. If you are trying to go long distances, your best bet is to take NJ Transit far enough to put you well into the suburbs, preferably to a stop that puts you near (i.e. within walking distance of) a major highway, such as an Interstate. From there, get to an on-ramp and put out your thumb. New Jersey state laws on hitchhiking are, however, notoriously ambiguous, and you may be hassled by local police, so use common sense and discretion.
If you're trying to go west into Pennsylvania, a good tip is to take NJ Transit to Mt. Olive, a 5-minute walk from I-80, which generally carries a good amount of long-distance traffic going west.
By bicycle or foot[edit]
The George Washington Bridge, connecting New Jersey and Manhattan over the Hudson River, is crossable by bicycle or foot, and there are walkable bridges across the Delaware River as well, such as the Benjamin Franklin Bridge from Philadelphia. Alternatively, you can cross the land border with New York on the northern side.
Ellis Island and Jersey City
In addition to Amtrak's limited stops, there are numerous other companies operating commuter trains within New Jersey:
Amtrak. Operates along a single route through New Jersey with stops in Newark Penn Station, Newark Liberty Airport, Iselin Metro Park, New Brunswick, Princeton Jct and Trenton on the Northeast Regional and the Keystone Service. The Acela Train stops only in Newark Penn Station, New Brunswick and Trenton while the Vermonter stops only in Newark Penn Station, Iselin-Metro Park and Trenton. The other Amtrak trains going further south past Washington DC (Crescent, Carolinian, Silver Service/Palmetto, etc.) and west towards Pittsburgh (Pennsylvanian) stop only in Newark Penn Station and Trenton. (updated Jan 2017)
NJ Transit, ☏ +1 973 275-5555. Operates a network of trains, light rail and buses connecting communities throughout the entire state. It can be used for travel to Newark Liberty International Airport, Trenton and Philadelphia from New York City and from Philadelphia to Atlantic City. Its website provides a user-friendly method of planning your itinerary by all available forms of transport they offer. (updated Jan 2017)
Port Authority Transit Corporation (PATCO). Operates a high speed train that connects several suburban towns (Camden, Collingswood, Haddon Township, Haddonfield, Cherry Hill, Voorhees Township and Lindenwood) in southern New Jersey from downtown Philadelphia. (updated Jan 2017)
Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority (SEPTA). Regional Rail Lines connect Trenton and West Trenton with Philadelphia. (updated Jan 2017)
The following operate intrastate routes:
New Jersey Transit, ☏ +1 973 275-5555. A state funded and operated transit agency operating rail, light rail and local and express buses statewide. Some of the buses operate within a specific city or township while others travel between cities and townships within the state and into the adjacent cities of New York and Philadelphia in different places. (updated Jun 2015)
In addition to the above there are numerous other private companies operating local buses within specific counties and commuter routes from those counties to New York City.
Academy Bus, ☏ +1 201 420-7000, toll-free: +1 800 442-7272. Operates commuter services from New York to Burlington, Mercer, Middlesex, Monmouth and Ocean Counties in New Jersey. They also operate a separate Casino Express to Atlantic City from New York City. (updated Aug 2016)
Coach USA. They operate to various places within New Jersey under different brands: (updated Oct 2015)
Olympia Trails operates commuter services across the Hudson between Manhattan and northern New Jersey. They also operate local services in/around Hudson County, NJ (Jersey City) under the Red & Tan Brand (may of been discontinued); in/around Essex County, NJ as the Orange Newark Elizabeth Bus (ONE Bus); between mid-town Manhattan and Plainfield, NJ as the Westfield Commuter; and the Newark Airport Express between Manhattan and the Newark Airport. They also operate select Megabus routes out of New York to Boston, Washington, Baltimore, Albany, Ridgewood NJ and Toronto.
Greyhound & Lucky Streak, ☏ +1 800 231-2222. Operates buses between New York, Newark, Camden and Philadelphia along I-95/295. Some variations of this route is a non-stop service between New York and Philadelphia or via Mt Laurel to Philadelphia. They offer service from New York City & Newark (via Garden State Pkwy) and from Philadelphia (via Atlantic City Expressway) to Atlantic City on two separate routes. (updated Jan 2017)
Peter Pan/Bonanza Bus Co., ☏ +1 800 343-9999. Operates buses between New York, Newark, Mt Laurel, Camden and Philadelphia. Some variations of the route is a non-stop service between New York and Philadelphia. (updated Jun 2015)
Some traffic oddities are particular to New Jersey. Left turns are not permitted at intersections on many of the major divided highways in suburban and urban areas. Instead, exit ramps for left turns and U-turns are often found after the intersection and loop around to the cross street, providing opportunities to return to the desired intersection and make a U-turn back onto the original road or continue straight on the cross street, having ultimately made a "left turn". Some three-way intersections have a designated "jughandle", a small right turn loop that exists solely to allow the left turn. For both types of turns, watch for signage that says "U and Left Turns".
Also, many signals have a 'delayed' green light following a red, which allows oncoming traffic a chance to make left turns first. Many of these intersections are labeled with signs hanging from the signals, but keeping an eye on the traffic signal instead of observing oncoming traffic is essential. Traffic circles ('roundabouts') are quite common as well, and exits are not always clearly marked. Some toll bridges along the shore charge vehicles heading in one particular direction only, and will only accept cash.
View of the Delaware Water Gap from about 720 ft (220 m) above it on the Mount Tammany Trail
New Jersey has many scenic sites, including the majestic Palisades (where Aaron Burr killed Alexander Hamilton), opposite New York City on the western banks of the Hudson River. The cliffs rise about 300 to 500 feet in areas and give a breathtaking view of New York City across the river. There are also many mountains located in the western portion of the states that are full of many trails.
You can also visit the majestic, very wild Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area off Interstate 80. You can coast down the Delaware River on an inner tube, go canoeing and more there.
On Christmas Day you can watch a reenactment of Washington's crossing of the Delaware River just north of Trenton off NJ29.
No matter what you are interested in, you will probably find it in New Jersey. Fine beaches where you can surf, swim, sunbathe, or play volleyball in the summer, and run, stroll, walk your dog, or fly kites off season. Some skiiing in the Skylands region, hot air ballooning in Clinton, and canoeing in the Pine Barrens. Hiking trails and campsites, especially in Southern and Northwestern New Jersey. Plenty of nature preserves for birdwatchers and photographers. Many bed and breakfasts. Spectator sports, including two professional football teams, horseracing Monmouth Park and at Meadowlands Racetrack in the Meadowlands Sports Complex, and (at last count) 8 baseball teams, along with Sky Blue Soccer, a new women's professional soccer team. Many museums, concert halls, and historic sites, including George Washington's winter headquarters in Morristown. Several tourist railroads and preservation groups offer (in season) Santa Train Rides and Easter Bunny Train Rides [dead link]. Several college towns, including New Brunswick (Rutgers) and Princeton. Places of worship for every religion, may offering services in various languages. Virtually any kind of food you can imagine. Nightlife ranging from casinos in Atlantic City, to Albert Hall in Waretown, to clubs in Belmar, to jazz in Madison. Also some amusement parks, and countless places to shop, including main street stores and boutiques, craft shows, antique shops, estate sales, yard sales, flea markets, farm stands, and farmers' markets, as well as several very large shopping malls.
New Jersey is famous for its Jersey tomatoes, sweet corn, blueberries, and cranberries, and other fresh produce which every visitor will want to experience in season. That is easy to do, because the state has approximately 25,000 eateries, more per square mile than any other state in the US. And if that's not enough, there are loads of farms you can visit and buy from directly. Furthermore, the climate and soils offered there provide for ideal berry-growing environments.
They serve everything from fast food to haute cuisine, including Italian, French, Portuguese, Chinese, Indian, Korean, Japanese, and Syrian. There are also plenty of take-out shops and diners, which do not require reservations, seat patrons promptly, and offer large menus of inexpensive meals, which they serve quickly. Many are open 24 hours and breakfast is served all day.
Snack foods are also extremely popular, especially pizza, fries, and bagels. Other favorites include submarine sandwiches, sausage sandwiches, and Italian ice, which are known as hoagies and water ice in South Jersey. There many also enjoy soft pretzels and Philadelphia-style cheesesteaks and breakfast sandwiches of Scrapple, a loaf formed from cornmeal, pork scraps and spices, cut into 1/4 thick slices and fried crisp in butter or oil.
Many places in New Jersey sell "sloppy joes." These are completely different from the food known by that name in the rest of the United States. New Jersey sloppy joes are delicatessen sandwiches such as turkey, corned beef, and pastrami, which may be known as cold cuts in other part of the country. They in no way resemble the sandwich made of ground beef and onions in tomato sauce on a hamburger bun that goes by that name in the rest of the country.
State liquor laws[edit]
All alcoholic beverages can be purchased in freestanding liquor stores. which are open every day of the week, although for shorter periods on Sundays. A small portion of supermarkets are licensed to sell beer and liquor, however they are the exception, not the rule. Some stores are only licensed to sell warm (non-refrigerated) beer and malts (i.e. Mike's Hard Lemonade), while others may sell liquor, cold beer and wines. Home-rule provisions of state law allow municipalities to stipulate in their zoning that establishments that sell alcohol may not sell anything else beyond accessories to alcohol consumption, effectively prohibiting drugstores or convenience stores from selling beer as they do in most other states (there are a few exceptions, such as New Brunswick).
Since liquor licenses are for the most part limited by a quota system based on population, many communities, particularly smaller ones, may have only one liquor store, and one bar or restaurant with a license. Many establishments without a license are BYOB, or "bring your own bottle", where you are allowed to bring liquor purchased elsewhere to consume with your meal. Again, however, some municipalities are allowed to forbid even this. Bars, restaurants and liquor stores that held their licenses before the quota system was imposed in the late 1940s are exempt from it; this is the main reason why the small resort town of Wildwood in Cape May County has 48 bars.
Underage drinking is illegal and many disapprove of it, but it is common. Anyone who provides alcohol to a person under age 21 may be prosecuted. Drunken driving is illegal and there is no sympathy for those who do it. Anyone caught driving while intoxicated will be prosecuted and may end up in jail. Drunken driving checkpoints are extremely common on the shore (however, New Jersey is the only state in which driving while intoxicated is not a criminal offense; even though violators can and do receive jail time and fines in addition to having their licenses suspended or revoked, a conviction will thus not show up on a criminal background check). Smoking is illegal in all bars and restaurants (save designated "cigar bars").
One restriction in state liquor law has an upside. No establishment with a license for on-premises consumption may offer, as a promotion, discounts for drinks that do not apply to all customers. In other words, there are no Ladies' Nights at bars in New Jersey.
The freedom given to municipalities in regulating alcoholic-beverage sales extends to allowing them to go completely dry. Most of these communities are in South Jersey. The best known is the Cape May County resort of Ocean City, founded during the 19th century by Baptists as a family resort, and still promoted that way.
Local drinks[edit]
There are a variety of microbrews to try. Flying Fish, Cricket Hill and Cape May Brewing are recommended. Some liquor stores allow you to purchase individual bottles of beer.
The 7th largest producers of US wines, NJ produces wines from grapes grown in the state. New Jersey has more than 35 wineries that produce nationally and internationally acclaimed wines. You can visit New Jersey's wineries nestled amid rolling hills and breathtaking scenery. More than 250 wines can be sampled at wine festivals across the state where you can listen to great jazz and blues and sample delicious foods and artisan crafts. Along the Wine Trails, you can tour the wineries, discover how wines are made, try a pig roast or catch some fireworks.
The beach and Beach Avenue in Cape May
New Jersey is a fairly safe place to visit. Suburban and countryside areas are very safe along with most Jersey Shore towns. Cities are mostly safe but do exercise common travel sense. Some neighborhoods of Camden, Newark, Atlantic City, Jersey City, and Trenton are crime prone but it is unlikely that you will visit these areas. As in most US cities, when out at night, stay in well lit and well trafficked areas and you will be fine.
New Jersey has the highest density of car ownership in the United States so expect crowded highways and the occasional irate driver. Many major highways are under construction for expansion purposes, resulting in delays. Traffic tends to move well above the speed limit on the New Jersey Turnpike, The Garden State Parkway, or other highways and you can expect to be tail-gated when driving in the left lane. Best to stick in the middle or right lane if you don't like that sort of thing. The watchword is, drive defensively.
Under no circumstances whatsoever are you to import firearms into the state. New Jersey does not recognize any out-of-state gun licenses and there are no gun offenses that are graded below a felony. Police are known to enforce these laws vigorously, and if caught with a firearm you will be prosecuted, even if you are just a hunter traveling through.
Also, it is illegal to import fireworks into the state unless they are mandated by a municipality for special occasions to be attended by the public at a park or on the shore (i.e. Independence Day). However, you'll find that this is worked around quite easily - it is impossible to cross the border into Pennsylvania and not see signs for on-the-border fireworks shops.
Although the media and other sources portray residents as "rude" and "loud," most natives are proud of their state and are more than willing to help a tourist with directions and other tips. Don't hesitate to ask for assistance. Some areas - especially the famed Jersey Shore - are very used to tourists.
Since the 1980s, New Jersey has seen an increase in its once-nearly-extirpated population of black bears. These critters are most common in the forests of the northwestern counties but have been expanding their territory southwards. Though they can potentially be dangerous if they attack, the vast majority of the time they're just looking for food. Attacks on humans are incredibly rare, but to minimize your chances of an encounter you should handle and dispose of your garbage carefully so the smell won't attract hungry bears.
Respect[edit]
Culture, accent, and local dialect vary depending on what part of the state you visit. Although NJ is small, the north and south are very different. For example, a large sandwich in the northern region is called a "sub" and in the south the same sandwich is referred to as a "hoagie." The north identifies with New York culture while the south has a strong connection to Philadelphia. This loyalty extends to professional sports teams too. Ignoring these small differences may come off as very rude.
New Jersey natives are very aware of stereotypes fueled by popular television shows such as Jersey Shore and The Sopranos, and can be rather sensitive about how outsiders perceive them. Don't assume everyone from New Jersey is rude, loud, uneducated, etc. Making blanket statements about New Jersey can be rude and will most likely be met with hostility and shunning from locals. On the contrary, most people in New Jersey are remarkably polite and extremely friendly often in a sarcastic but well-intentioned way.
Life in New Jersey moves at a fast pace! A lot of the bustling and quickness stems from the fact that NJ is a densely populated state, squished between two massive metropolitan areas. "Taking it slowly," which is common in other areas of the country, may be met with impatience or even anger. However, if you are looking for a slower pace in New Jersey, the shore towns and the southern end of the state (south of Atlantic City and many towns east of the Garden State Parkway) can be more relaxed as it is more seasonal and more of a vacation area.
New York — One of the benefits of visiting New Jersey is that you're very close to New York City, which lies just across the Hudson River. Further afield is upstate New York, a generally rural and very beautiful area with a distinct culture.
Pennsylvania — Philadelphia is just across the Delaware River. Both Interstate 80 and Interstate 78 will take you through Northeastern Pennsylvania to the Poconos and the Lehigh Valley respectively, where there are many things to do year round.
Delaware — New Jersey's southern neighbor was the first state to ratify the Constitution (hence its nickname of the "First State") and offers an urban experience in its northern parts while providing a rural experience to the south.
This region travel guide to New Jersey is a usable article. It gives a good overview of the region, its sights, and how to get in, as well as links to the main destinations, whose articles are similarly well developed. An adventurous person could use this article, but please feel free to improve it by editing the page.
Retrieved from "https://en.wikivoyage.org/w/index.php?title=New_Jersey&oldid=3799516#Regions"
Usable regions
Region articles
This travel guide page was last edited at 03:03, on 20 June 2019 by Wikivoyage user Ikan Kekek. Based on work by Wikivoyage users Elevatorsarefun, Liberscriptus19, Threeyoda, Dough4872, Traveler100bot, K7L and Airport Chariot Car Service and Limo, Wikivoyage anonymous users 47.19.112.162 and 160.93.6.7 and others.
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HOME | ABOUT US | BOOKING ENTERTAINMENT | CONCERT MANAGEMENT | EVENT PRODUCTION | PAST EVENTS | FAQ'S | NEWS | CONTACT US
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Cinderella can be booked through this site. Cinderella entertainment booking site. Cinderella is available for public concerts and events. Cinderella can be booked for private events and Cinderella can be booked for corporate events and meetings through this Cinderella booking page.
Unlike most middle agents that would mark up the performance or appearance fee for Cinderella, we act as YOUR agent in securing Cinderella at the best possible price. We go over the rider for Cinderella and work directly with Cinderella or the responsible agent for Cinderella to secure the talent for your event. We become YOUR agent, representing YOU, the buyer.
In fact, in most cases we can negotiate for the acquisition of Cinderella for international dates and newer promoters providing you meet professional requirements.
Cinderella Biography
Hard rock band Cinderella gained success in the mid-'80s, turning out a series of million-selling albums and hit singles while placing music videos in heavy rotation on MTV. By the mid-'90s, the group's mass popularity had subsided due to professional setbacks and perceived changes in taste. But they continued to tour regularly well into the 21st century.
Cinderella was founded in Philadelphia, PA, in 1983 by singer/songwriter/guitarist/keyboardist Tom Keifer (born January 26, 1961) and bassist Eric Brittingham (born May 8, 1960), who quickly added lead guitarist Jeff LaBar (born March 18, 1963). Guitarist Michael Kelly Smith and drummer Tony Destra were also early members of the band, but they left in 1985 to form Britny Fox. Cinderella then added drummer Jody Cortez and continued as a four-piece. Insisting on playing original material, they performed in clubs and bars in Pennsylvania and New Jersey, and in 1985 Jon Bon Jovi caught one of their shows. He was sufficiently impressed to alert his record company, Mercury, which signed the band. Their debut album, Night Songs, was released in June 1986. Shortly after its completion, Cortez left the band and was replaced by Fred Coury (born October 20, 1964). The LP was not an immediate success, but it gained momentum gradually while the band toured extensively as an opening act to promote it. It broke into the Billboard chart in July, and the track Shake Me, although it failed to chart as a single, got enough radio attention to turn up on Billboard's Album Rock Tracks chart in August. On October 1, the album was certified gold. That month, Mercury released a second single, Nobody's Fool, accompanied by a music video that earned play on MTV; it broke into the charts in November and peaked at number 13 in February 1987. Its success further stimulated sales of the album, which was certified platinum in December 1986 and broke into the Top Ten by the end of the year; it peaked at number 3 in February 1987, and that same month was certified double platinum. In April, Mercury released a third single, Somebody Save Me, which peaked at number 66 in May. (The album was certified triple platinum in May 1991.)
Having broken through to popular success with Night Songs, Cinderella returned with their second album, Long Cold Winter, in July 1988. Radio initially focused on the track Gypsy Road, giving it a Top 20 ranking in the Album Rock Tracks chart, but Mercury did not release it as a single at first (although in the U.K., where it was released as a single, it charted). Instead the power ballad Don't Know What You Got (Till It's Gone) was released as a single in August, and it peaked at number 12 in November. The album reached number ten in September, the same month it was certified gold and platinum simultaneously, with a double-platinum certification following in November. (It was certified triple platinum in January 1997.) As the group continued to tour relentlessly through 1988 and 1989, Mercury broke more singles from the LP. The Last Mile, released in December, peaked at number 36 in March 1989; Coming Home, released in March, hit number 20 in June; and Gypsy Road, finally put on 45 a year after the release of Long Cold Winter in July 1989, and backed by a live version of the Rolling Stones' Jumpin' Jack Flash, got to number 51 in September.
Again, Cinderella came off the road and spent a year crafting its third album, Heartbreak Station, which appeared in November 1990. Although it was a hit out of the box, going gold in January 1991 and platinum in February, the album encountered more resistance than the band's previous efforts, peaking at number 19, with no multi-platinum certifications forthcoming. Leadoff single Shelter Me peaked at number 36 in February, and the title song reached number 44 in April. More disturbing than this mild commercial disappointment, however, were problems within the band. Coury departed, and Cinderella initially replaced him with Kevin Valentine, then hired noted session drummer Kenny Aronoff temporarily before bringing in Kevin Conway. Then, after the U.S. leg of the Heartbreak Station tour had ended and the band was gearing up to go to Japan in 1991, Keifer woke up one morning and found he couldn't sing. Doctors initially were unable to figure out what was wrong, but a specialist finally diagnosed paresis of the laryngeal nerve controlling the left vocal cord. Keifer was forced to undergo two throat operations, followed by extensive therapy. Cinderella managed to put a track, Hot and Bothered, on the chart-topping Wayne's World soundtrack, released in February 1992, but otherwise the band was out of commission for an extended period of time.
In the meanwhile, fashions changed. Cinderella had been part of a pop-metal movement including Bon Jovi, Great White, and Ratt, who preceded them, as well as Poison, the enormously popular Guns N' Roses, and L.A. Guns, who followed them. But when grunge rockers Nirvana, boasting a neo-punk style, broke through to success in the fall of 1991 with their album Nevermind and single Smells Like Teen Spirit, the record labels suddenly became enamored of their stripped-down approach. Suddenly, instead of the teased and blown-dry coiffures and skin-tight stage costumes of the pop-metal bands, it was the dirty-hair-falling-in-the-face, flannel-shirt-and-jeans look of Nirvana frontman Kurt Cobain that was all the rage. Soon, the pop-metal groups were written off with a new epithet, dismissed as hair metal bands. By the time Keifer & Co. finally emerged with the fourth Cinderella album, Still Climbing, in November 1994, it could only manage to spend one week at number 178 before disappearing. Mercury promptly dropped the band.
Cinderella's touring opportunities also dried up, and while the group did not formally disband in 1995, it became inactive for lack of offers. Keifer moved to Nashville in 1997 and worked on his songwriting, eventually getting cuts on albums by Andy Griggs and Lynyrd Skynyrd. By 1998, there was enough interest by promoters for Cinderella to reunite (with Coury rejoining) for a tour. On October 2 and 3, they appeared at the Key Club in Hollywood, CA, and recorded the show for an album, Live at the Key Club, released on Cleopatra's Dead Line label in July 1999. Unfortunately, the disc was also licensed out to other labels over the years and has confused consumers by also appearing under the titles In Concert and Live From the Gypsy Road. Meanwhile, Cinderella had been signed to Sony's Portrait label by famed record executive John David Kalodner, who was also signing other hard rock bands of the '80s. But initial Portrait releases were not successful, and Cinderella's contract was canceled. Nevertheless, a faithful fan base supported continuing road work by the band, which reunited in the summer of 2000 for a tour with Poison, followed by a second outing by the two groups in 2002. In 2005, VH1 sponsored the Rock Never Stops package tour, which Cinderella headlined, supported by Ratt, Quiet Riot, and Firehouse, with dates extending through the summer. ~ William Ruhlmann, All Music Guide
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Connected Nation - Pitch: TouchKeys - Andrew McPherson, Queen Mary University of London
How do you create a novel yet familiar musical instrument? TouchKeys transforms the piano-style keyboard into an expressive multi-touch control surface. Capacitive touch sensors on the surface of every key measure the position of each finger, allowing the player to intuitively add vibrato, pitch bends, timbre changes and other expressive effects just by moving the fingers on the key surfaces.
Transcript for Connected Nation - Pitch: TouchKeys
Andrew McPherson, Queen Mary University of London
My name is Andrew McPherson. I am a senior lecturer in the Centre for Digital Music, that’s a research group within the Electronic Engineering and Computer Science at Queen Mary University of London, and I will be exhibiting something called TouchKeys which is new musical instrument. Normally I’d show a quick video but you’ll be able to see it in a moment.
Basically, throughout human history people have been using technology to make music, and music has likewise been a powerful driver of new technology. A piece of technology that’s been around for hundreds of years now is, of course, the keyboard and it has to be doing something right because there are millions of people who have spent years of their life learning to play the piano, synthesiser and other keyboard instruments.
Now what you run into is that the keyboard has certain limitations, which is that once you play a note you don’t have a lot of convenient options for changing its sound before you release it, compared to say a violin where things like vibrato and pitch bends are very natural. So TouchKeys is a new sensor technology, it uses capacitive touch sensing, it goes on the surface of any keyboard and basically transforms it into an expressive, multi-touch control surface. So the idea is that it measures where the fingers are on the keys and that just by moving the fingers around you can change the pitch, the volume, the timbre of any of the notes.
Now I’ll let you try it for yourself after this but I developed this over several years at Queen Mary with support from EPSRC, AHRC and others, and in 2013 I ran a Kickstarter crowd funding campaign which exceeded its fundraising goal and got this out into the world, and into the hands of musicians; and more recently I’ve been spinning it out into an independent company, with a view towards hitting a larger segment of the keyboard market. I think I will stop there and I invite you to try it, outside there. Thank you.
TouchKeysOpens external site
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What is Vote Compass?
Vote Compass is a civic engagement application designed by political scientists and run during election campaigns. Based on their responses to a set of policy propositions relevant to a given election campaign, users are provided with a real-time assessment of their position in the political landscape and their proximity to each of the candidates included in the application. Vote Compass stimulates democratic participation by offering the electorate an opportunity to engage with and compare the policy platforms of candidates in a clear and accessible manner that addresses points of differentiation between the candidates on a range of important issues.
Who is responsible for Vote Compass?
Vote Compass is developed by Vox Pop Labs, an independent, non-partisan group of social researchers and data scientists. Neither Vote Compass nor Vox Pop Labs are affiliated with any political organisation or interest group. See credits for more information.
Why aren't all the candidates included in Vote Compass?
Candidate positions in Vote Compass are determined by way of a two-part process. A research team of political scientists analyzes the available data on candidate positions vis-à-vis the issues reflected in the questionnaire. Based on this analysis, a determination is made as to how each candidate would respond to each proposition. The research team then initiates a direct dialogue with each of the candidates represented in Vote Compass as an additional check as to the accuracy of its calibrations. All candidates are provided with an opportunity to review and, if necessary, challenge the calibrations before Vote Compass is launched. In cases in which there do not exist sufficient public disclosures to establish a candidate's position on all of the issues included in Vote Compass and the candidate does not respond to the questionnaire, it is impossible to include them in the tool.
Does Vote Compass tell me how to vote?
Vote Compass results are not intended and should not be interpreted as voting advice, nor as a prediction as to which candidate a given user intends to vote for. Every eligible voter decides for themselves which candidate is most appropriate to represent them based on variant criteria, not all of which are included in Vote Compass. The focus of Vote Compass is on public policy issues and how the candidates differ on these issues, both among themselves and in relation to individual voters.
Why do the response categories not allow me to fully express my position on the issues?
Vote Compass has established standard units of measurement by which to compare the policies of the candidates. We acknowledge that most issues are more complicated than can be captured on a 5-point scale, but by reducing this complexity the policy positions are made more accessible and a more accurate proximity estimate between user and candidate is made possible. Vote Compass uses a 5-point scale instead of simply "Yes" and "No" to provide users with the opportunity to qualify their responses to a limited extent. Users who answer "somewhat agree" are essentially saying "Yes, but..." and users who answer "somewhat disagree" are essentially saying "No, but…".
Why does Vote Compass place me closest to a candidate other than who I intend to vote for?
Vote Compass is not intended to predict which candidate a user intends to vote for in a given election nor which candidate a user feels that she or he is most closely aligned with. It specifies how the user is aligned with each of the candidates on the basis of the public policy issues included in Vote Compass.
How does Vote Compass determine my results?
Vote Compass calculates the user's alignment with the candidates by comparing the user's responses to the questionnaire with the candidates' positions on the same issues. See our methodology for details.
How does Vote Compass determine the positions of the candidates?
Candidates are plotted on the grid in the same way that users are: by using their responses to the questionnaire in order to plot them on the grid. Candidate responses to each of the questions in Vote Compass are derived through careful research of the individual platforms complemented by a consultative process between the academic team and the candidates themselves. See our methodology for details.
Why am I close to a candidate to whom I gave a low rating?
Candidate ratings are not included in the calculation of a user’s position in the two-dimensional plane. They are accounted for in the ratings graph on the results page.
Why am I close to a candidate for whom I specified that I was unlikely to vote?
The vote intention questions in Vote Compass are not used in the calculation of a user’s results.
Why do the graphs show different results?
In some cases, a user will appear to be more aligned with one candidate on the grid and a different candidate on one or both of the bar graphs. This is a normal and expected result. These various graphs are designed to provide different ways for users to interpret their results. The grid measures where users are situated in a multi-dimensional political system. The policy alignment bar graph measures how much you agree with the particular propositions included in the questionnaire. The leader evaluation bar graph measures your overall evaluation of the candidates. The multiple measures reflect the practical reality that a person may agree with certain policies of one candidate but feel more aligned with the general values of another. How an individual reconciles these competing perspectives is entirely up to her or him.
Is Vote Compass affiliated with any of the political parties or candidates?
No. Vote Compass is an independent, non-partisan initiative designed to provide users with an objective, transparent analysis of the political landscape.
What browser do I need to use Vote Compass?
Vote Compass includes support for current versions of Chrome, FireFox, Internet Explorer, and Safari. It is supported on tablet and mobile devices running current versions of iOS and Android.
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You are at:Home»Articles»Golf News
April 12, 2019 Golf News
Golfers are reminded that all players must check-in and pay at the Golf Pro Shop at all times when playing on the course. To make a tee time reservation, call 951-246-1782. Reservations may be made seven days in advance. Annual golf memberships are available to both residents and non-residents. For more information, visit canyonlakecc.com.
Green Fees Special
Residents can enjoy $20 green fees on Mondays, Tuesdays and Thursdays at 12 p.m. Residents may register one guest at this discounted rate. Regular price is $35.
Junior Golf Lessons
Junior golf lessons are available for children ages seven to 17. Lessons are $35 per 30-minute lesson. Reservations are taken at the Golf Pro Shop.
Adult Golf Lessons
Adult golf lessons are offered seven days a week. Lessons are $50 for a 30-minute lesson, $75 for a one-hour lesson, $210 for three one-hour lessons and $300 for five one-hour lessons. Reservations are required. For reservations and group pricing, call 951-244-6841, ext. 820.
After Lunch Bunch
Sixteen golfers played a game of Four Man Tin Whistle last week. The winners are as follows:
1st place: Bob Stinson, Dennis Franks, Jim Paulis and Sven Henrichsen, 74.
2nd place: Tom Pierick, Nick Valencia, Bob Tice and Ross Hanover, 67.
The winners of the Skins game are Bob Stinson on hole 3, Vern Kelch on hole 4, Nick Valencia on hole 7, Sven Henrichsen on hole 9, Fred Espinosa on hole 6 and Dennis Franks on holes 15 and 18. The Closest to the Pin contest winner is Mike Connor on hole 8.
Next week will be Two Best Balls of the Foursome with the ALB Committee picking the teams.
Now in its 39th year, the ALB offers a friendly game of golf every Friday throughout the year and an annual tournament in November. New players are welcome. Entries are open to male golfers with an established handicap. The entry fee is $5 with an optional Skins competition for $5. Tee time is 10 a.m.; signups are taken between 8:30 and 9:15 a.m. in the Magnolia Room at the country club or by phone at 951-249-4565 or 951-237-6102.
9ers Golf Club
The 9ers Golf Club is a member of the Women’s Southern California Golf Association. Ladies who are interested in playing golf and making new friends are invited to play; all levels of golfers are welcome. The club meets on Thursdays at 9:30 a.m. in the Magnolia Room at the country club and tee off at 10 a.m. For more information, contact Sheryl Lewis at 949-697-9351 or visit cl9ers.com.
Family Golf Club
The Family Golf Club promotes the sport of golf bringing together men, women and juniors in an atmosphere of education, camaraderie, fairness and competition in a friendly family oriented environment. The club hosts beginner and youth clinics, tournaments and social events throughout the year. The club’s official golf day is Wednesday at approximately 11:30 a.m. Some members schedule golf days on Mondays, Fridays or Saturdays at 11:30 a.m.
The tournament director works closely with Golf Pro Pat Kemball and his staff to assure tournaments are balanced. Family Golf Club is a member of the Southern California Golf Association. Open meetings are held on the third Tuesday of each month at 6 p.m. in the Magnolia Room at the country club. For membership information, contact Kevin O’Leary at 951-818-3361. For general information, contact Tom Ward at 714-309-6923.
Free Round of Golf
Canyon Lake residents can play their first round of golf for free. This offer is valid for new customers only and only one person per tract and lot.
Men’s Golf Club
Members of the Men’s Golf Club meet for play every Wednesday morning. Signups are taken between 6:30 and 7:30 a.m. in the Magnolia Room at the country club. In addition to Wednesday games, the club sponsors eight major tournaments throughout the year. Dues include membership in the Southern California Golf Association. Canyon Lake residents and property owners age 18 and older and any member of the public who purchases an outside annual golf membership are eligible to join the club. The club has a Junior Membership Division for males under the age of 18. For more information, contact Membership Director Greg Brack at 951-570-1239.
Women’s Golf Club
The Women’s Golf Club is a member of the Southern California Golf Association. The club meets on Tuesdays in the Magnolia Room at the country club between 7:00 and 7:30 a.m. to tee off at 8 a.m. for 18 holes of golf. The club’s mission is promoted through camaraderie, social events, recognition and tournaments throughout the year. Women in the community are invited to participate in all the club has to offer. For more information, contact President Ura Furry at 951-244-1910.
Annual golf memberships for Canyon Lake residents are $59 per month for juniors ages 17 years and younger, $109 per month for ages 18 to 35 and $167 for ages 36 and older. Annual family memberships are $296 per month. Annual memberships for non-Canyon Lake residents are $84 per month for juniors 17 ages years and younger and $225 per month for adults. Annual family memberships are $425 per month.
Golf and Lunch Special
Residents and non-residents can enjoy one round of golf, practice on the range, a complimentary tour of the course and lunch at the country club for only $55. Golf cart fee is included.
Golf Lessons Special
The golf course is offering a special of unlimited golf lessons for one month for $350. This special is available to residents and non-residents. For more information, contact Bryan Carlson at 951-595-5463.
The Golf Pro Shop at the country club features the latest in golf clubs from Ping, Mizuno, Callaway and Titleist. It also stocks Nike, EP Pro, Antigua and Footjoy golf apparel. Canyon Lake Property Owners Association members receive a 20 percent discount on apparel.
The Canyon Lake Country Club is open to the public and offers Happy Hour, daily specials and live music on Fridays. For reservations, call 951-246-1773.
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The Climate Change Act 2008 committed the UK to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions by at least 80 percent by 2050. The 2010-2015 Parliament has been a defining period for energy and climate change policy. Three Energy Acts set the policy framework to help the UK achieve its goal. Each Act was designed to support new forms of energy generation, promote energy efficiency and protect consumers. These ambitious pieces of legislation have set the benchmark against which the progress towards providing a secure, clean and affordable energy supply will be judged.
The Energy and Climate Change Committee plays a central role in scrutinising and improving the Government’s policy and legislation. In section two of this report, we provide a quantitative overview of the work we have undertaken in this Parliament. In section three, we look in more detail at three case studies – electricity market reform, competition in the energy market and shale gas – each of which highlights the key role we have played in holding the Government to account and improving policy and legislation. Finally, in section four we set out our future vision for the UK energy system, based on the views and evidence provided by the wide range of stakeholders that we work with. We also explore the challenges which will need to be overcome in the next Parliament if the UK is to achieve its ambitious long-term climate and energy goals.
We issued a call for evidence on future challenges and received 91 pieces of written evidence, for which we are grateful. These can be found on our website. Thank you to all the people who agreed to be interviewed as part of our work on future challenges. We would like to thank E.ON UK, Centrica, British Gas, EDF Energy, Cuadrilla Resources and the United States Geological Survey for providing material to support our videos. We would also like to thank Imperial College London and the Science Museum for kindly allowing us to film on their premises.
Work of the Committee 2010-2015
Parliament is the central institution in our democracy and its Select Committees provide a forum where ideas about how the country is run can be tested. As a Committee we work hard to engage with a wide range of stakeholders, draw evidence from multiple sources, and seek out examples of good practice to inform our reports and recommendations to Government. We regularly hear from the general public, consumer groups, NGOs, academics, think tanks and businesses. We have travelled across the country and overseas to see, hear and learn directly from experts on specific subjects. We have used all of this information to test the Government’s policy proposals and hold them to account. We have also ensured that the issues we raise are debated by other Members of Parliament in the House of Commons. The graphic below shows how we have gone about this in more detail.
Committee successes
Improving competition
Influencing the Government’s Electricity Market Reform
The UK is at a turning-point in the way it produces and uses electricity. Targets to cut greenhouse gas emissions and the expected closure of nearly a fifth of old power stations by 2020 mean that the UK needs to attract investment to build new, clean and efficient power stations. The Government has seized this as a once in a generation opportunity to shift to a low-carbon, secure and affordable energy future.
In 2010, the Government set out a series of Electricity Market Reform (EMR) proposals, which were designed to decarbonise electricity generation and keep the lights on while minimising costs to consumers. The Government introduced four key mechanisms:
Regulation of emissions from power stations, known as an Emissions Performance Standard (EPS), to prevent the construction of new coal-fired power stations without technology, such as carbon capture and storage, which is designed to reduce the amount of carbon they emit.
Financial support, known as Contracts-for-Difference (CfDs), to encourage investment in low-carbon electricity generation by providing companies with a guaranteed fixed price for the power they generate.
A Capacity Market, to support more reliable forms of power (both demand and supply side) to be available when demand for power is high.
A carbon tax, known as the Carbon Price Floor (CPF), to make low-carbon power generation more competitive with fossil fuel power stations.
From the beginning of EMR to its full-blown implementation, we have scrutinised the Government’s proposals. Our first report looked at Emissions Performance Standards. We highlighted concerns that a poorly designed EPS would have a range of unintended consequences. We also urged the government to push ahead with the wider range of EMR policies.
Ahead of the Government’s first detailed consultation on EMR, we launched an inquiry seeking views of stakeholders. In our subsequent 2011 report, Electricity Market Reform, we exposed weaknesses in the Government’s overly complex proposals, highlighting the lack of attention paid to energy efficiency and demand reduction. The Government White Paper on EMR and technical updates were published shortly after our report and we held follow-up hearings in January 2012.
We also carried out detailed pre-legislative scrutiny of the draft Energy Bill, which was published in May 2012. We influenced the draft Bill by outlining areas for improvement in the proposed CfD model and pushed Government to revert to a single counterparty model. We also repeated our concerns that the Government was still neglecting the contribution that demand-side activities could make to energy security and climate change objectives. Our scrutiny led to significant improvements to the proposals which became law in December 2013. But it was clear that more needed to be done to promote demand-side measures.
The implementation of EMR is now progressing at pace. The first CfDs have recently been awarded and the results of the first Capacity Market auction were announced early in 2015. We have continued to scrutinise the Government’s work through our more recent inquiry into EMR implementation where we heard first-hand accounts from stakeholders before and after the auctions were held. Despite a challenging timetable, the Government has succeeded in rolling out its reform relatively smoothly. Now the Government needs to focus on learning lessons from the first auctions and on developing the demand-side sector. If EMR is to create a long-term secure, affordable and low-carbon energy system, it must provide a stable policy framework to give investors the confidence they need.
Improving competition and trust in the energy market
Energy prices rising faster than inflation have put the operations of energy companies and the energy regulator, Ofgem, in the spotlight throughout this Parliament. Seemingly coordinated price hikes between the six largest energy suppliers – the “Big Six” – led to accusations of cartel-like behaviour. Even though Ofgem found no conclusive evidence of this, many stakeholders thought that these companies, who in 2010 controlled 98% of the retail energy market, could do more to promote competition and reduce energy prices.
We have been championing the interests of consumers throughout this Parliament. Our report on Ofgem’s Retail Market Review, published in July 2011, looked at Ofgem’s proposals to improve competition in the energy market. We outlined grave concerns about price increases and the complexity of energy tariffs and customer bills. We exposed the practice of doorstep mis-selling of energy contracts and challenged energy companies to come clean about their activities. Within weeks, most companies suspended all doorstep sales activity. Our action potentially saved thousands of consumers from signing up to more expensive tariffs.
In December 2012, we published a report on Consumer Engagement with Energy Markets. We concluded that consumer engagement was low mainly because of the complexity and lack of transparency of the energy market with its many and varied tariffs. The result of this was low levels of competition and a high proportion of customers unlikely or unwilling to switch their energy supplier. We kick started a national debate about what more the Government, Ofgem and energy companies needed to do to improve transparency and empower customers to get the best deal.
By the time we published our report on Energy Prices, Profits and Poverty, in July 2013, it was clear that Ofgem and energy companies were not doing enough to tackle these issues and restore consumer confidence. At a time when people were struggling with the rising cost of energy, consumers needed reassurance that the profits being made by the Big Six were not excessive. Unfortunately, the complex vertically-integrated structure of these companies mean that working out exactly how their profits were made was virtually impossible. We argued that Ofgem was failing consumers by not taking all possible steps to improve openness and increase competition in the energy market. In June 2014, Ofgem finally referred the energy market to the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) so that it could conduct a thorough investigation to decide once and for all whether the Big Six were exploiting customers. The CMA will publish both its interim and final reports after the 2015 general election.
While the CMA investigation kicked off we turned our attention in late 2014 to the impact of network costs (which cover the transmission and distribution of gas and electricity from power stations to households and businesses) on customers’ energy bills. This little scrutinised area makes up more than a fifth of the average energy bill. In our report Energy Network Costs: Transparent and Fair?, published in February 2015, we concluded that complexity on how network costs are determined means that consumers may not be getting the best deal. We recommended that Ofgem improve its scrutiny of the near monopoly companies that manage the network and keep down the costs being passed on to consumers.
As a result of our work, the Government has stepped up efforts to relieve the impact of high energy prices on the fuel poor and increase the number of consumers switching energy supplier. In February 2015 we were pleased to see the Government finally launch a national switching campaign designed to increase the number of customers switching their energy supplier. This campaign followed allegations made in late 2014 that some switching websites were not working in the best interests of consumers. We called in the companies involved to shine a light on their operations and concluded in our subsequent report, Protecting consumers – Making energy price comparison websites transparent, that these sites need greater regulatory oversight and that they must be much clearer about informing site users about the cheapest available deals and about the commission they make from energy suppliers.
Exploring the potential for shale gas
Hydraulic fracturing, also known as fracking, is a process that allows the extraction of hard-to-reach natural gas locked up in the tight pores of shale formations (a type of sedimentary rock). In America, this unconventional method has caused an energy revolution. Gas prices fell dramatically, as the United States went from importing large quantities of gas to becoming virtually self-sufficient.
Extracting shale gas involves very large quantities of fresh water and chemicals. In the US, millions of litres of water can be needed to extract shale gas. The fracking process also generates large volumes of waste water that has to be treated. Quite apart from potential pollution risks, the huge volumes of water required could be a problem in regions which already suffer water stress.
In 2011 we started investigating the prospects for shale gas in the UK at a time when it was virtually unheard of amongst the general public. We considered the risks and hazards associated with its extraction, and whether developing it as an energy source could be compatible with UK climate change targets. Our Shale Gas report concluded that provided that well casings are properly built hydraulic fracturing could be carried out safely. We recommended that the Government needed to monitor drilling activity very closely. We also emphasised the need for complete transparency and recommended that the Environment Agency insist that all companies involved in fracking declare the type, concentration and volume of all chemicals they are using. The Agency must also ensure it has the capabilities to monitor whether any of these chemicals appeared in local water supplies before it permits their use.
Differences between the UK and the US in terms of rock type, environmental regulations and public attitudes towards fossil fuel use meant that there was considerable uncertainty as to how much could be extracted in the UK. We concluded that until exploratory drilling for shale gas was carried out in the UK, it was too early to herald shale gas as a “game changer”, as it had been in the US.
In our second report The Impact of Shale Gas on Energy Markets, published in 2013, we assessed the potential impact of shale gas on energy markets and climate change mitigation. We concluded that the UK should learn lessons from experiences in the US, including by creating a favourable climate for companies to operate in, while ensuring environmental damage was avoided. We urged the Government to encourage exploratory shale gas operations to proceed in order to improve the accuracy of current estimates of recoverable reserves, but also to do more to persuade local communities that shale development was in their long-term interest as well as the nation’s. We argued that, crucially, communities affected by shale gas development should receive a meaningful share of the material benefits of any drilling in their area.
If substantial shale resources do turn out to be recoverable in the UK, and if community concerns can be addressed, then shale gas could reduce the UK’s dependence on imports and help in the transition to a low-carbon economy. Gas will likely be an important energy source in the short- to medium-term to heat homes and provide flexible electricity generation and shale gas could prove to be a valuable source of gas. While controversy about the environmental impacts of shale gas rages on, we have provided detailed evidence-based analysis to inform this debate. We are pleased that the Government has kept a level head and is now encouraging companies to get on and drill, while also setting a strong regulatory framework and encouraging companies to share the benefits of shale gas extraction with communities.
Future challenges
Significantly reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from the energy sector by 2030 is an essential first step towards meeting the UK’s climate change targets. A “cleaner” more efficient low-carbon energy system should be balanced with maintaining a “secure” supply of energy and ensuring the cost of energy to consumers is “affordable” – these three aims are often referred to as the energy “trilemma”.
As the 2010-2015 Parliament draws to an end, we wanted to show what a UK energy system that successfully tackles the energy trilemma might look like in 2030 and what challenges will need to be overcome during the next Parliament to help achieve this 2030 vision. We issued a call for evidence in November 2014 and received 91 pieces of written evidence. In this section we outline, drawing on the evidence we received, our vision of the energy system in 2030 and highlight the key challenges which will need to be overcome to help achieve it.
Our vision for the UK energy system
By 2030 the UK energy system is highly decarbonised. There is a diverse mix of energy sources. Low-carbon technologies such as renewables and nuclear play an integral role. As renewable energy technologies have matured, their costs have fallen, increasing the role of the market and reducing the role of the state.
Some fossil fuels are still used because of their relatively low cost and because the life of many assets has been extended into the 2030s. Gas, in particular, is used to heat homes and provide a flexible source of power. There is a modest amount of shale gas extraction supplementing the remaining reserves from the UK offshore production. The process of extracting shale gas is carefully regulated and the potential environmental impacts are being closely monitored. Some carbon capture and storage technology has been fitted to new and existing fossil fuel power stations. Combined Heat and Power is increasingly used to maximise the efficiency of the fuels that are used.
Demand-side measures have developed and this has helped to reduce the need for new supply-side infrastructure and manage the high proportion of intermittent renewables on the system. Smart meters, the smart grid, storage technologies and interconnection to Europe play an important role along with improved energy efficiency programmes. There is a significant increase in the number of communities producing their own heat and electricity.
A transparent energy system has empowered consumers routinely to switch energy supplier in order to find the best deals. Consumers understand the costs associated with decarbonising the energy system but have supported policies designed to facilitate this goal in light of the threat posed by climate change. The most vulnerable energy customers have been supported by cost-effective Government policies and the number of consumers in fuel poverty has fallen dramatically.
A significant carbon price is influencing investment decisions in favour of more low-carbon electricity and penalising the use of fossil fuels. The carbon price is set by a credible, well-functioning and widely respected EU Emissions Trading System – Europe’s main climate and energy policy instrument. A price of carbon has spread around the world to other emissions trading systems which are increasingly linked to one another in order to benefit from cheaper carbon reduction opportunities. As an early adopter of carbon pricing and low-carbon technologies, the UK is starting to reap a competitive economic advantage over other countries which have been slower to reduce their dependence on fossil fuels.
Challenges for the next Parliament
In order to achieve this 2030 vision, the Government will need to overcome a number of obstacles. We have outlined what we believe to be the three most important challenges.
1. Maintain political stability and leadership
It is critical that the Government maintains political consensus on the need to tackle climate change. This must be underpinned with a stable and consistent policy framework. It is estimated that the UK will need over £100 billion of investment to achieve its energy transition. The Government must prioritise giving investors’ the confidence they need to invest. This includes continuing to provide long-term certainty about future policy developments. The Government must, therefore, set the fifth carbon budget and ensure it has the policies required to meet it. We were very pleased to see the leaders of the three main political parties agree to work together to tackle climate change regardless of the outcome at the general election.
Most of the investment required to achieve the energy transition will go towards building new power generation in the form of low-carbon and renewable technologies such as wind, solar and nuclear. A lot of good work has already been done and significant amounts of investment in new projects has already been made. In order to continue to bring forward this investment, and avoid a hiatus, the Government must prioritise clarification of the future of the Levy Control Framework (LCF) and the allocations of Contracts for Difference early in the next Parliament. The LCF budget should be set annually on a rolling basis looking forward at least seven years to give investors better visibility. Government must also continue to incentivise a diverse energy mix, including more traditional forms of energy generation such as gas (building on maximising economic recovery of UK reserves), allowing the market to find the best solution and ensuring new companies are able to enter this market, thereby promoting value for money for the benefit of all consumers.
The UK has a proud history of helping to set the climate change agenda on the international stage. It has played a key role, alongside the EU, in negotiating the Kyoto Protocol and other international commitments. The Government must continue to provide strong international leadership on climate change. It must work hard to secure a global climate deal at United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Changes COP 21 in Paris at the end of 2015. This deal must stabilise greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere at a level that will prevent dangerous human interference with the climate system. This is currently defined as “keeping global average temperatures below 2°C”. If the Government wishes the UK to continue its lead on climate policy it must recognise the growth in the UK’s consumption-based emissions. In addressing the challenge of stabilising greenhouse gas emissions, the Government must address the impact of embedded emissions, which have previously been of concern to the Committee.
The UK also played a key role in establishing the world’s first and largest carbon emissions trading system, the EU ETS. It has demonstrated that it is possible to operate an international market in carbon emissions allowances. However, the oversupply of allowances has seen the carbon price stabilise at a level too low to encourage investment in low-carbon technology, incentivise emissions reductions and decarbonise the economy. It is therefore imperative that the Government pushes hard for the EU ETS to be reformed as soon as possible.
2. Support and promote new technologies
So far demand-side measures, such as energy efficiency, demand-side response (DSR) and electricity demand reduction (EDR), have been the Cinderella of energy policy. This is despite being one of the most cost-effective ways of reducing carbon emissions. The Government’s efforts to kick start an energy efficiency market, through the Green Deal, have largely failed. Similarly, companies developing DSR and EDR technologies are justifiably concerned that the Government is not treating them equally with supply-side technologies. The Government must bring about a step-change in energy efficiency by adopting a policy that genuinely engages the consumer and drives down energy demand. It must also develop policies which give equal weight to demand-side measures alongside supply-side measures so that they can compete on a level playing field.
The next generation of technologies has the potential to revolutionise the energy system. The high cost involved in researching and developing these technologies means that companies often require support from Government. The Government must support R&D in innovative technologies as well as in existing renewable and low-carbon technologies such as nuclear and CCS to ensure that they can effectively contribute to the energy transition. The Government must be careful, however, that it does not base policy decisions on the assumption that these technologies will be commercially viable in time to contribute significantly to meeting the UK’s climate targets. This is particularly the case with CCS.
3. Build consumer trust
Consumer trust in the energy market is low. There is a perception that energy companies, network operators and even some switching sites are profiting at the expense of their customers. This could undermine the Government’s efforts to move to a low-carbon energy system. The Government needs to build greater trust in both its policies and the energy companies that will deliver it. It needs to be honest about the costs and benefits of decarbonising the energy system to ensure consumer buy-in. Without this trust the vision of a cleaner, more affordable and secure energy system could be jeopardised.
In order to ensure that our 2030 vision, of a highly decarbonised energy system, is realised it will be critical that the Government seek to address the three challenges we have outlined – maintaining political stability and leadership, supporting and promoting new technologies, and building consumer trust. We hope that the next Energy and Climate Change Committee will find this report helpful and take a close interest in these issues over the course of the next Parliament.
Energy and Climate Change Committee | Contact us | © Parliamentary copyright
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A mix of clouds and sun. High 94F. Winds SE at 10 to 15 mph..
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Trump speaks at the 2019 Air Force Academy graduation | Full coverage
President Donald Trump delivered the commencement address for the 2019 Air Force Academy graduation on Thursday. Here are stories, photos, and videos from the event.
David Ramsey: We won't forget listening to Donald Trump's 2019 AFA graduation speech
It sticks with you to hear from the president of the United States, also known as the Most Powerful Man in the World. (I hope someday to hear from the Most Powerful Woman in the World.)
You might adore Donald J. Trump. You might despise him. You can’t dispute he’s president. And you can’t dispute his massive power over our country and our world.
He spoke Thursday to a packed and respectful crowd at Falcon Stadium. These were moments that will long remain in the minds of the crowd.
-Trump puts cadets front and center during Air Force Academy speech
-WATCH: Air Force Thunderbirds' flyover as AFA Class of 2019 is dismissed
-PHOTOS: 2019 Air Force Academy graduation
Here’s what I mean:
A decade ago, I was sitting on a plane awaiting departure in Minneapolis when a fellow passenger heard I was from Colorado Springs. She remembered, in detail, listening to John F. Kennedy's June address to the Air Force Academy’s 1963 graduates at Falcon Stadium.
JFK’s hair was flapping in the breeze, she said. He laughed frequently and with enthusiasm. She remembered how young he looked. So much, she said, seemed ahead for him and America. Her smile vanished as she remembered the still-mysterious November day in 1963 when JFK was shot and killed in Dallas.
Those bright spring moments from 1963 when JFK spoke to AFA grads remain with her always.
The day JFK became a member of Air Force's graduating class
It will be similar for the crowd at Trump’s speech. In 50 years, boys and girls who listened to Trump at the AFA will tell the tale to their grandchildren. These boys and girls may end up adoring Trump forevermore. They may end up despising him. Doesn’t matter. They will remember the day they heard the president.
Thursday’s speech revealed Trump at his most gracious. He didn’t speak the words “Democrats” or “Pelosi.” He mentioned “the press” only in passing and with a smile.
He opened with an indisputable remark about the parents of the cadets.
“Without them, you wouldn’t be here,” he said to the graduates.
“That’s the way it is.”
And this was a Trump flowing with exclamation marks. “Amazing!” “Like you’re never seen before!” The roar of air power, he said, is “the righteous sound of American justice!”
He scanned the sea of cadets in front of him. “Lot of good-looking people in this school, I have to say!”
The cadets are graduating at “a truly incredible time for our country! Our country is doing well! Our country is respected again!”
He introduced Air Force baseball star Nic Ready, winner of a 2018 college home-run derby. Then, to the surprise of everyone, he summoned Ready to the podium.
“Get up here, Nic!” Trump said. “I want to feel this guy’s muscles!”
David Ramsey: Let's return to Nixon's polarizing Air Force Academy graduation speech
And he did.
From the crowd came words of praise and love. “We love you, Donald!” was a frequent call. Two men sitting in the front row held signs that read, “Trump 2020.” Couples walked through the stadium wearing crimson “Make America Great Again” hats. No shouts of protest could be heard.
Of course, the crowd failed to offer a panoramic image of America, or Colorado Springs, under Trump. While driving to Falcon Stadium, I saw three dozen protesters standing at the very end of Academy Boulevard. “Liar in Chief,” read a typical sign. The protesters had no interest in joining a Trump lovefest.
I attended a rugged high school in Denver. Fights were common, but the battles ended on graduation day. For once, we were one in the South High spirit.
It was the same at Falcon Stadium. A respectful crowd gathered to celebrate 991 resilient Air Force graduates who persevered to the end. These grads survived one of the world’s more rigorous academic trials.
The graduation was like all graduations. A day of deserved joy. A party with meaning.
And this time, the Most Powerful Man in the World joined the celebration.
Trump puts cadets front and center during Air Force Academy speech
Sights, sounds and sentiments from the 2019 Air Force Academy graduation
Air Force Academy graduates join 'long blue line' with handshake from Trump
WATCH: Air Force Thunderbirds' flyover as AFA Class of 2019 is dismissed
AFA graduation vignettes: 'He's someone you're gonna read about'
PHOTOS: 2019 Air Force Academy graduation
VIDEO | Graduation moments 2019: Air Force Academy graduation
If nothing else, President Donald Trump broke the mold on Thursday. With a mix a humor and saber-rattling, accompanied by a Trumpian dash of adjectives and a bit of bravado, Trump saw off the Academy’s class of 2019, with a speech that was decidedly conventional for the famously off-the-cuff president.
"To dominate the future, America must rule the skies. And that is what your time at this great Academy has been all about," he said. ""You truly make America proud."
Trump steered clear of his troubles with Robert Mueller, Iran, Democrats, immigration and a hit-parade of issues and only took a single swipe at a phalanx of press who piled in Falcon Stadium for the address. The president also paused his remarks twice to invite cadets to the stage for a presidential pat on the back before wrapping up with a marathon of 1,000 handshakes and hugs doled out to the graduates.
“I’m shaking all 1,000, OK?” Trump told the crowd to cheers.
The crowd lavished applause on Trump, and more than a few shouted “four more years.” The crowd of more than 30,000 was wild for Trump despite a long wait.
-Air Force Academy graduates join 'long blue line' with handshake from Trump
-Sights, sounds and sentiments from the 2019 Air Force Academy graduation
-We won't forget listening to Donald Trump's 2019 AFA graduation speech| David Ramsey
The president arrived in Colorado Springs nearly an hour behind schedule, but paused at the Peterson Air Force Base to greet Mayor John Suthers before taking time to shake hands with Jack Plylar, an Elbert County World War II veteran who was one of his first Colorado supporters for the presidency.
PHOTOS: Air Force Academy 2019 graduation
The Thunderbirds fly overhead as cadets celebrate at the conclusion of the Air Force Academy graduation. (Photo by Jerilee Bennett, The Gazette)
Jerilee Bennett
President Donald Trump arrived at Peterson AFB and was greeted by a cheering crowd and local dignitaries. (Photo by Jerilee Bennett, The Gazette)
JERILEE BENNETT, THE GAZETTE
President Donald J. Trump gives the thumps up after arriving at Peterson Air Force Base. (Photo by Jerilee Bennett, The Gazette)
President Donald Trump is greeted by Mayor John Suthers at Peterson AFB and was greeted by a cheering crowd and local dignitaries. (Photo by Jerilee Bennett, The Gazette)
El Paso County Commissioner Mark Waller meets President Donald J. Trump . (Photo by Jerilee Bennett, The Gazette)
Citizens line the highway to greet Presidential Donald J. Trump. (Photo by Jerilee Bennett, The Gazette)
JERILEE BENNETT THE GAZETTE
President Donald J. Trump salutes as he walks past a row of cadets while entering the Air Force Academy graduation. The Air Force Academy held their graduation ceremony on Thursday, May 30, 2019. President Donald J. Trump was the commencement speaker. (Photo by Jerilee Bennett, The Gazette)
Secretary of the Air Force, Heather Wilson takes the field for the last time at the Air Force Academy graduation on Thursday, May 30, 2019. (Photo by Jerilee Bennett, The Gazette)
Gen. David Goldfein, chief of staff of the Air Force, spent time chatting with President Donald Trump at the Air Force Academy graduation on Thursday, May 30, 2019. (Photo by Jerilee Bennett, The Gazette)
Gen. David Goldfein, chief of staff of the Air Force, spent time chatting with President Donald Trump at the Air Force Academy graduation on Thursday.
President Donald Trump speaks during the commencement ceremony for the 61st graduating class at the U.S. Air Force Academy Thursday, May 30, 2019, at Falcon Stadium. (The Gazette, Christian Murdock)
CHRISTIAN MURDOCK THE GAZETTE
Cadet Parker Hammond gets called upon by President Donald Trump during graduation Thursday. Hammond battled cancer and was still able to graduate.
Air Force cadet Parker Hammond got called up out of the cadets to the stage by President Donald J. Trump. Hammond battled cancer and was still able to graduate at the Air Force Academy. The Air Force Academy held their graduation ceremony on Thursday, May 30, 2019. President Donald J. Trump was the commencement speaker. (Photo by Jerilee Bennett, The Gazette)
The Air Force Academy held their graduation ceremony on Thursday, May 30, 2019. President Donald J. Trump was the commencement speaker. (Photo by Jerilee Bennett, The Gazette)
Colin Zavislak and Hunter Ahlquist react after the hat toss of the Air Force Academy graduation. The Air Force Academy held their graduation ceremony on Thursday, May 30, 2019. President Donald J. Trump was the commencement speaker. (Photo by Jerilee Bennett, The Gazette)
Gen. David Goldfein, chief of staff of the Air Force, and President Donald Trump at the Air Force Academy graduation on Thursday, May 30, 2019. (Photo by Jerilee Bennett, The Gazette)
About 1,000 cadets graduation from the Air Force Academy at Falcon Stadium on Thursday, May 30, 2019.
Conrad Swanson
A spectator uses a program to shield himself from the bright sun before the start of the commencement ceremony for the 61st graduating class at the U.S. Air Force Academy Thursday, May 30, 2019, at Falcon Stadium. (The Gazette, Christian Murdock)
Cadets celebrate at the 2019 Air Force Academy graduation. (Photo by Jerilee Bennett, The Gazette)
President Trump waves to cadets at the Air Force Academy graduation Thursday, May 30, 2019.
President Trump at the Air Force Academy graduation Thursday, May 30, 2019, at Falcon Stadium.
Cadets apply a thick amount of sunscreen before the commencement ceremony for the 61st graduating class at the U.S. Air Force Academy Thursday, May 30, 2019, at Falcon Stadium. (The Gazette, Christian Murdock)
President Donald Trump walks into the stadium at the start of the commencement ceremony for the 61st graduating class at the U.S. Air Force Academy Thursday, May 30, 2019, at Falcon Stadium. (The Gazette, Christian Murdock)
President Donald Trump and Gen. David L. Goldfein, chief of staff of the Air Force, watch as the cadets march into the stadium for the commencement ceremony for the 61st graduating class at the U.S. Air Force Academy Thursday, May 30, 2019, at Falcon Stadium. (The Gazette, Christian Murdock)
The Secretary of the Air Force Heather A. Wilson speaks during the commencement ceremony for the 61st graduating class at the U.S. Air Force Academy Thursday, May 30, 2019, at Falcon Stadium. (The Gazette, Christian Murdock)
A cadet returns to his seat after receiving his diploma during the commencement ceremony for the 61st graduating class at the U.S. Air Force Academy Thursday, May 30, 2019, at Falcon Stadium. (The Gazette, Christian Murdock)
The United States Air Force Thunderbirds fly over the crowd in the east stands during a aerial demonstration after the commencement ceremony for the 61st graduating class at the U.S. Air Force Academy Thursday, May 30, 2019, at Falcon Stadium. (The Gazette, Christian Murdock)
The United States Air Force Thunderbirds fly over the crowd in the east stands during an aerial demonstration after the commencement ceremony for the 61st graduating class at the U.S. Air Force Academy Thursday, May 30, 2019, at Falcon Stadium. (The Gazette, Christian Murdock)
Children wait at the edge of the field for the hat toss and the chance to grab a cap at the close of the commencement ceremony for the 61st graduating class at the U.S. Air Force Academy Thursday, May 30, 2019, at Falcon Stadium. (The Gazette, Christian Murdock)
Cadets celebrates after receiving their diplomas during the commencement ceremony for the 61st graduating class at the U.S. Air Force Academy Thursday, May 30, 2019, at Falcon Stadium. (The Gazette, Christian Murdock)
The Class of 2019 celebrates as the Thunderbirds fly over the commencement ceremony for the 61st graduating class at the U.S. Air Force Academy Thursday, May 30, 2019, at Falcon Stadium. (The Gazette, Christian Murdock)
The Class of 2019 celebrates after the commencement ceremony for the 61st graduating class at the U.S. Air Force Academy Thursday, May 30, 2019, at Falcon Stadium. (The Gazette, Christian Murdock)
Graduating cadets Bailey Little, left, Michael Snell and Braxton Stocking help each other pin their 2nd Lt. boards onto their uniform after the commencement ceremony for the 61st graduating class at the U.S. Air Force Academy Thursday, May 30, 2019, at Falcon Stadium. (The Gazette, Christian Murdock)
As the weather on Thursday brought sun and 70 degree weather during the Air Force Academy graduation attendees sported sun hats and used posters, programs and other materials to shield themselves from the spring sun.
Parker Seibold
An Air Force Academy staff member walks up the stairs to bring the underclassmen down to the field to prepare for the start of the graduation ceremony.
Air Force Academy underclassmen perform a sword demonstration before the start of the graduation ceremony on Thursday afternoon.
President Donald Trump waves to an excited crowd as he takes his seat on stage at the Air Force Academy graduation.
Graduates holler and smile as they stand in formation at the entrance of Falcon Stadium.
Lt. Gen. Jay B. Silveria provides opening remarks at the 61st Air Force Academy commencement.
Cadets look up to the crowd to wave and say thank you to their loved ones for the support they provided during their time at the Air Force Academy.
Graduate Parker Hammond stands to wave while his classmates cheer him on as president Trump congratulates Hammond for graduating with his class on time even though he had been battling cancer and invites him on stage.
President Donald Trump stands with members of the 2019 graduating class as they give him their class gift.
An international cadet holds out their flag and sports a class ring as their name is called during a recognition of each of the international graduates.
A cadet holds their hat as they high five a classmate after receiving their diploma.
A cadet readjusts her hat as she walks back to her seat after getting her diploma. Graduates often lose their hats as they chest bump and jump in celebration of receiving their diploma.
Cadets watch the Thunderbirds perform an air show after the Air Force Academy graduation
Attendees hold up signs and celebrate as a cadet receives their diploma.
A cadet from Singapore stands and holds his flag after being mentioned during a recognition of international cadets that graduated with the Air Force Academy class of 2019.
President Donald Trump's salute to a cadet is mirrored by two Air Force Academy cadets that received their diplomas at the academy's 61st commencement.
A cadet reaches out from his seat to fist bump a classmate as he walks by after receiving his diploma.
Thunderbirds fly overhead as the graduating Air Force Academy cadets throw their hats at the end of the ceremony.
The Class of 2019 marches into Falcon Stadium before the start of the commencement ceremony for the 61st graduating class at the U.S. Air Force Academy Thursday, May 30, 2019, at Air Force Academy. (The Gazette, Christian Murdock)
President Donald Trump stands for the National Anthem during the commencement ceremony for the 61st graduating class at the U.S. Air Force Academy Thursday, May 30, 2019, at Falcon Stadium. (The Gazette, Christian Murdock)
Graduating cadets celebrate after receiving their diplomas during the commencement ceremony for the 61st graduating class at the U.S. Air Force Academy Thursday, May 30, 2019, at Falcon Stadium. (The Gazette, Christian Murdock)
Cadet Sonya McLaughlin shows her diploma to the crowd during the commencement ceremony for the 61st graduating class at the U.S. Air Force Academy Thursday, May 30, 2019, at Falcon Stadium. (The Gazette, Christian Murdock)
Cadets celebrate after receiving their diplomas during the commencement ceremony for the 61st graduating class at the U.S. Air Force Academy Thursday, May 30, 2019, at Falcon Stadium. (The Gazette, Christian Murdock)
A cadets celebrates after receiving their diplomas during the commencement ceremony for the 61st graduating class at the U.S. Air Force Academy Thursday, May 30, 2019, at Falcon Stadium. (The Gazette, Christian Murdock)
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Home Analysis National Security with Chinese Characteristics
National Security with Chinese Characteristics
GPF Team
By Jacob L. Shapiro
Summary China is attempting to centralize control of the various bureaucracies currently involved in creating and managing the country’s national security policy. A series of laws as well as recent revelations concerning Chinese citizens convicted of espionage are all a part of Beijing’s attempt to rationalize these disparate elements. They also fit with President Xi Jinping’s strategy of consolidating his power over China’s governing structure.
Last week, China Central Television (CCTV) featured two reports on Chinese citizens convicted of espionage. The first report appeared on April 19 and dealt with an allegedly disgruntled computer technician who contacted unidentified foreign intelligence services and sold them over 150,000 classified documents, including Chinese military codes, from 2002 to 2011. The computer technician was sentenced to death. The second report appeared the next day, and described the case of a Chinese man who reportedly had been recruited while working abroad and took pictures of military bases and harbors in Zhejiang province, on the coast of the East China Sea close to islands disputed between China and Japan. This man was detained in December 2013 and has been sentenced to seven years in prison.
These cases are unusual for two reasons: the timing and the publicity. Why the Chinese government would decide to publicize these cases now if the individuals in question were identified and arrested in 2011 and 2013 bears some explanation. But the publicizing of the cases themselves, while not unprecedented, is also atypical, especially given the level of detail that the reports provided about the crimes of each alleged domestic spy. The answer to both of these questions lies in an evolution taking place in Chinese security policy, as Beijing attempts to deal with a staggering number of domestic security challenges.
Creation of a New Security Institution
The revelation of these two espionage cases was carefully planned to coincide with a larger push by Beijing to highlight the issue to the Chinese public. April 15 was China’s first ever National Security Education Day. To mark the occasion, China’s Ministry of Justice distributed informational material to government organizations, schools and businesses, warning Chinese citizens of the potential dangers of outsiders attempting to gain access to information that could be used against China. One of the promotional materials that has received the most attention in the Western media is a poster with the title “Dangerous Love,” which warns of the dangers of fraternizing with foreigners by telling the story of a foreign national named David, who seduces a young Chinese woman and convinces her to provide him with secret documents.
To understand why China is placing such an emphasis on this now, we must return to 1997, when then-Chinese President Jiang Zemin paid an official visit to Washington and was impressed by the U.S. National Security Council (NSC). Since Jiang’s visit, the Chinese government had considered and debated whether Beijing ought to have its own equivalent of the NSC, but it took 16 years for those debates to lead to action. Finally, in November 2013, with current President Xi Jinping at the helm, the creation of the Chinese National Security Commission (CNSC) was announced following the third plenary session of the 18th Central Committee.
Since the CNSC’s creation, its actual responsibilities and the identities of its members have not been revealed. John Hopkins University Professor David Lampton noted in his 2015 article in the Journal of Contemporary China that it is not clear even in China who exactly is in charge of the CNSC. Lampton also noted that the CNSC would likely be much more involved in matters of internal security than external security or international relations. There are at least 10 commissions and bureaucratic groups that have an interest in the development of the CNSC, including the Public Security Bureaus and the Ministry for State Security, China’s primary foreign intelligence organization. The competing interests concerned with defining the scope of the CNSC’s responsibilities illustrate just how diffused responsibilities for national security currently are in China.
Despite the esoteric nature of the CNSC, since its establishment in November 2013, a series of laws has been promulgated by the National People’s Congress that are, bit by bit, laying the legal groundwork for the commission’s work. These laws are an attempt to better control the sprawling national security bureaucracy by creating an institution that sits above these bureaucratic groups and makes communication between them more efficient.
In November 2014, Xi signed a new Counterespionage Law, which supersedes the National Security Law passed in February 1992. The change in title is indicative of the focus of the new law. The CNSC is not mentioned by name – in fact, the CNSC is not mentioned in any of the three important laws we will discuss here. The purpose of the Counterespionage Law, however, is to lay out a framework for counterespionage within China. It describes both the abilities and limitations incumbent upon the “state security organs” involved in counterespionage – indicating a desire for a degree of centralized control and organization that had not existed previously.
Last year, the National People’s Congress passed two more notable laws: the National Security Law on July 1 and the Counterterrorism Law on Dec. 27. The seven-chapter, 84-article National Security Law is as vague as it is long. Even so, it is notable for two key reasons. First, while the CNSC is not explicitly mentioned, numerous articles of the law refer to an unnamed “central national security leading institution,” and Article 5 makes this nameless institution “responsible for deciding and coordinating national security efforts.” (All translations are taken from the China Law Translate project.) The law also ties this institution directly to the Chinese Communist Party (CPC), which is to be the leader of China’s national security efforts.
Second, the National Security Law furthered Xi’s general push to reboot the ideological legitimacy of the CPC. Article 15 emphasizes the importance of the state’s leadership in maintaining “socialism with Chinese characteristics.” Article 23 takes this a step further and equates national security with not only cultivating socialist values and the culture of the Chinese people, but also resisting “negative cultural influences,” an ominous turn of phrase for foreigners living or working in China. National security has an ideological and cultural component, as the National Security Education Day exemplifies, and the CNSC will be at the heart of that project.
The Counterterrorism Law gets down to brass tacks. The law itself is comprehensive and wide-ranging, encompassing everything from safety inspections at train stations and airports to restrictions on media reporting during terrorist incidents. Some of the contents of the law have worried Western observers because of its strictures. There is no globally agreed upon definition of terrorism, but in this law, China’s definition is extremely broad: any activity that “seriously harms society” by creating “havoc in public order” can be viewed as terrorism. An initial draft of the law contained a provision that would have required foreign companies to keep servers and customer data in China. While this provision was ultimately removed, the Counterterrorism Law still requires companies to cooperate with Chinese authorities and telecommunications operators and internet providers to provide state security with decryption and technical assistance.
A fourth law centered on the operations of foreign nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) has not yet been passed, despite being raised two years ago and a comments phase having failed to take place in June. At the most recent National People’s Congress, a Chinese official said that passing the NGO law was one of the goals of congress’ Standing Committee for 2016, but government spokesmen have been vague about the timeline, stating only that further revision and deliberation was needed. Foreign governments and various NGO representatives have decried the draft’s proposal to put management of foreign NGOs under the jurisdiction of the national police ministry. While China considers regulating NGOs a matter of national security, Beijing also seems, at least on the surface, to be sensitive to some of the international backlash the draft law received.
Strategic Challenges
As to why China has chosen to publicize these espionage cases and place great emphasis on counterespionage in general, one must turn to Chinese strategic interests. One of China’s core strategic imperatives is that Beijing must maintain social cohesion between the rich coastal provinces and the poorer provinces of the Chinese interior. Throughout its history, China has been unified when closed off from the rest of the world, but internally fragmented when integrated into the global economy. The state is employing various strategies to make sure that this fragmentation does not reappear in the 21st century, and publicizing these cases is one small way of accomplishing that. In the same way that China exaggerates every action it undertakes in the islands of the South China Sea, it is choosing to highlight cases of foreigners attempting to intervene in Chinese affairs. Fear and national pride can serve as a strong adhesive to hold disparate socioeconomic groups together.
China, because of its sheer population size and diversity, as well as the radical differences in wealth between the coast and the interior, must be able to exert control over the foreign entities operating within its borders. The Chinese government is attempting to create an institution – the CNSC – that can harmonize the vast bureaucracy of state organs, think tanks, intelligence services and military departments all working to maintain domestic national security but without any effective means of coordination. Destabilization is as much the enemy as whatever state secrets or photographs of Chinese harbors have been passed into a foreign government’s hands. Foreign companies do not want to be subject to far-reaching Chinese authority, but the effectiveness of that authority is also what helps China maintain internal cohesion.
It also should be noted that these issues are not confined to China. On April 11, news broke in the United States that a lieutenant commander in the U.S. Navy was arrested in September and faces espionage charges for allegedly passing state secrets to China. In a separate case, on April 14, an indictment against a Chinese-born naturalized U.S. citizen was unsealed, revealing charges of a multi-person espionage ring intended to steal U.S. nuclear secrets and send them to China. Clearly, countries spy on each other, invest in counterespionage capabilities and prosecute espionage cases. They also control how and when these issues are publicly revealed, often for political effect. Some of the atmospherics around China can obscure the fact that Beijing’s moves in this regard are directly related to internal and external security, which are intimately linked in China.
These laws are a part of Xi’s attempt to centralize decision-making and control. But they are also a warning to foreign companies and individuals operating in China. Warnings do not necessarily guarantee the presence of hostility. A clear delineation of the rules is as much an attempt to make the security system more efficient as it is a way of laying out very clearly what China expects from those choosing to do business within its borders.
This is the backdrop for the two espionage cases that were highlighted on CCTV last week. China is in the midst of completely reorganizing its national security structure, and it is also refocusing its efforts on counterespionage and national security. The CNSC’s role is still being defined, but the contours of a more unified approach are slowly taking shape. Hand-picking two cases that reveal the dangers China is facing and presenting them to the public at this specific juncture is a deliberate attempt to both inform and shape public opinion.
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What We’re Reading: Aug. 10, 2016
GPF Team - August 10, 2016
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2 Nights Paris & 3 Nights London
Charles Dickens: A Tale of Two Cities. George Orwell: Down and Out in Paris and London. You: My Wonderful Vacation to Paris & London. Yes, Paris & London are not just perfect settings for novels, but also for a vacation filled with fun, adventure, and memories. And Monograms lets you experience them in a hassle-free way! On this travel package, all you have to do is show up; we’ve arranged everything else for you: hotel reservations, sightseeing, and transportation between cities, daily breakfast, and transfers to/from the train stations. To help you get the most out of your vacation, your Monograms Local Host® is there for you in both cities-to answer your questions, to let you in on little-known secrets, and to help make sure your vacation is everything you want it to be.
Your vacation starts in Paris, where you will be met by your Local Host, who will welcome you to the city and give you a Paris destination guide, so you can get to know the city immediately. Your sightseeing the next day with a local expert includes the iconic Notre Dame Cathedral, where you’ll see its 13th-century, stained-glass windows, and the Louvre, home of Da Vinci’s Mona Lisa (Louvre replaced with Seine cruise on Tuesdays). Plus, you’ll receive VIP access and skip the lines, and you’ll be escorted throughout both-ensuring you won’t get home and realize you missed an important part of the museum or church. Just think of the time savings! In London, your exclusive sightseeing tour with a local expert includes VIP access to St. Paul’s Cathedral, with its deep history and famous dome. Get the inside story and learn its fascinating history before heading to Buckingham Palace to see the Changing of the Guard. In both cities, you’ll have a free day to explore on your own and to take optional excursions. Perhaps take a romantic dinner cruise on the Seine River in Paris and enjoy a pre-theater dinner and musical in London’s West End. Maybe visit the British Museum in London and the Musée d’Orsay in Paris. With these two cities, the opportunities are endless, and your Local Host in each city can help you personalize your vacation perfectly for you!
And that’s not all…this vacation package also includes a thrilling ride on the high-speed Eurostar train through the Chunnel, an engineering marvel, and transfers to/from the train stations to your hotels. What are you waiting for…Paris and London are waiting!
Included Features:
Guided sightseeing; inside visits and special features are shown in UPPERCASE
Day 1 Paris, France
Day 2 Paris
Day 3 Paris – London, England
Day 4 London
Restless, enduring and wonderful, London is Europe’s largest city. And surely, if you have the choice to visit only two or three cities of the world in your lifetime, by all means make one of them London.
The Romans started it all. The city they developed was “the square mile,” – and Londoners still hunt for Roman relics in the Thames. History is everywhere you look in London, yet today the city is as modern and metropolitan as any city on earth.
By day, London is buzzing with the frenetic pace of commerce not even Dickens could have imagined. By night, the excitement and glitter of theatres, cinemas, pubs and restaurants beckons throngs of travellers from around the world. But there is another London, a peaceful London of cool museums, quiet tea rooms, immaculate gardens and hushed churches.
There is Royal London – ancient pageantry in a modern kingdom – with its palaces, pomp and precise manoeuvres at the Changing of the Guard. And there’s outrageous London, the urban gathering ground for Cockney pitchmen, “fringe” theatre and the city’s youth, with their own distinctive style.
London, this extraordinary city of contrasts, holds a stunning abundance of hidden-round-the-corner surprises. You owe it to yourself to explore them all. Here, then, is the London you’ll come to know and remember.
As the French capital, Paris is the commercial, financial, and industrial focus of France, a major transportation hub, and a cultural and intellectual center of international renown. A beautiful city in which tourism is the main industry, Paris is cut by the Seine River. On its stately, formal right (northern) bank are many of the most fashionable streets and shops, and such landmarks as the Arc de Triomphe, Place de la Concorde, Louvre, and Sacré Coeur.
The left bank houses governmental offices and is the site of much of the city’s intellectual life. It is known for its old Latin Quarter and for such landmarks as the Sorbonne, the Luxembourg Palace, the Panthéon, and the modern Pompidou Center (see Beaubourg). The historic core of Paris is the Île de la Cité, a small island occupied in part by the Palais de Justice and the Cathedral of Notre-Dame de Paris. Above the city rises the Eiffel Tower. Paris is divided into 20 arrondissements (boroughs) and governed by a mayor.
A fishing village when it was conquered (52 B.C.) by Caesar, it became an important Roman town. It was a Merovingian capital in the 5th cent. and became the national capital with the accession (987) of Hugh Capet, count of Paris. It flowered as the center of medieval commerce and scholasticism but suffered severely during the Hundred Years War. Paris consistently displayed a rebellious and independent spirit, as in its resistance to Henry IV (1589-93); the first Fronde (1648-49); the revolutions of 1789, 1830, and 1848; and the Commune of Paris (1871). During World War II it was occupied (1940-44) by the Germans but was relatively undamaged.
The “Package Price” price is based on the lowest price available to book. Price is per passenger based on double occupancy and does not include airfare. Pricing may vary on this date due to hotel availability. Some packages require intra-vacation flights (and in some cases intra-vacation segments must be purchased from Monograms).
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JM Bullion
Premier Online Gold Bullion Dealer
Best Gold Prices in United States
Buy Gold Bars & Coins 24x7
UK Silver Coins
UK Silver Coins Overview
For investors looking to build a diversified portfolio of precious metals products, silver coins can certainly play an important role. Silver coins are relatively more affordable than gold or platinum, and can be bought at local coin shops or from online dealers. If you are looking to add different types of silver coins to your portfolio, then UK silver coins may be worth considering.
UK silver coins feature some of the finest coin designs available. Some UK silver coins feature designs commemorating important historical events or the monarchy.
The Royal Mint is reportedly the world’s leading export mint, producing various coins and medals for some 60 countries each year. The Royal Mint is tasked with making and distributing UK coins and official medals, as well as supplying blanks. The mint is headquartered in Llantrisant, South Wales, and it employs over 900 people. The mint has the capability to produce 90 million coins and blanks per week, with amounts to nearly five billion coins per year. The Royal Mint is a government owned company.
One of the most popular silver coins produced by The Royal Mint is the 1 ounce Silver British Silver Britannia coin. This coin features a design of the iconic goddess Britannia, famed guardian of Britain. The coin’s obverse features the profile portrait of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II. This popular UK silver coin contains 1 troy ounce of .999 percent fine silver, and is considered good, legal tender with a face value of 2 GBP. British Silver Britannia coins debuted in 1997, featuring the same designs as the gold Britannia which debuted in 1989. Until 2012, the silver coin contained less silver-with a .958 purity. All issues since that time have contained .999 percent fine silver.
For smaller investors or those on a tight budget, there are smaller weight UK silver coins available as well. The ¼ ounce S.S. Gairsoppa British Silver Britannia Coin contains ¼ ounce of .999 fine silver. The smaller silver content of this coin makes it relatively more affordable compared to 1 ounce weight coins.
For those looking to get more silver, there are also a number of 2 ounce coins available. The 2 ounce British Silver Queen’s Beast Unicorn Coin is a higher purity silver coin-packing 2 ounces of 999.9 percent fine silver. These coins are also produced by The Royal Mint, and are considered good, legal tender with a face value of 5 GBP. Like other UK coinage, they also pay tribute to Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II.
UK silver coins are easily transported, and can be stored in a home safe, a bank safe deposit box or in the depository of your choice. These silver coins can provide an excellent value to investors and collectors, with reasonable premiums over spot and strong liquidity for many products.
For more serious collectors, numerous UK silver coins are also available in proof finish. These coins are in excellent physical condition and have been thoroughly inspected for any flaws or defects.
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Carmen Maria Machado’s debut short story collection, Her Body and Other Parties, is forthcoming from Graywolf Press in October 2017. Her fiction and nonfiction has appeared in The New Yorker, Granta, NPR, Electric Literature, Gulf Coast, Best American Science Fiction & Fantasy, Best Horror of the Year, Year’s Best Weird Fiction, and Best Women’s Erotica. Her short story “The Husband Stitch” was nominated for the Shirley Jackson and Nebula Awards, awarded a Pushcart Prize Special Mention, and longlisted for the Tiptree Award. She holds an MFA from the Iowa Writers’ Workshop and has been awarded fellowships and residencies from the Michener-Copernicus Foundation, the Elizabeth George Foundation, the CINTAS Foundation, the Speculative Literature Foundation, the University of Iowa, the Yaddo Corporation, Hedgebrook, and the Millay Colony for the Arts. She lives in Philadelphia with her partner. You can find more of her work on her website.
The Husband Stitch
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Head, Division of Pulmonary and Sleep Medicine
Houston Methodist Hospital and Weill Cornell Medical College
Adult Hospital
Houston Methodist is comprised of a leading academic medical center located in the Texas Medical Center and seven community hospitals serving the Greater Houston area. Houston Methodist Hospital (HMH), the system’s flagship, is the #1 hospital in Texas according to U.S. News & World Report. The magazine named Methodist one of the country’s best in 13 specialties, ranked in more specialties than any other hospital in Texas. For that reason, it was named one of “America’s Best Hospitals.” Houston Methodist Hospital System is also ranked among FORTUNE magazine’s “100 Best Companies to Work For” for the seventh year in a row, remaining the only healthcare organization ranked in Texas. Houston Methodist’s primary academic affiliate is the top-ranked Weill Cornell Medicine.
The HMH Lung Center was developed to establish a single center of expertise in the diagnosis and management of all lung diseases. For patients, caregivers and referring physicians, the center provides one-stop access to expertise in breathing and respiratory disorders.
The Department of Medicine at Houston Methodist Hospital (HMH) is seeking a leader to serve as Head of the Division of Pulmonary and Sleep Medicine, as well as Director of the HMH Comprehensive Adult Lung Center. The Division Head will be responsible for academic leadership, developing basic and clinical research, creating a robust educational program including the operation of an ACGME-approved fellowship in Pulmonary/Critical Care Medicine. Additional faculty positions, and appropriate laboratory space will be available to help build a strong academic unit. An academic appointment at Weill Cornell Medical College is available, commensurate with the candidate’s academic accomplishments.
HMH is committed to expanding its reputation as a top tier academic, patient-care focused educational and research facility. This role offers a unique opportunity to build a world-class division that includes a major center for lung transplantation.
MD or DO with board certification in Pulmonary Medicine.
Eligibility for an unrestricted medical license in TX.
Outstanding clinical skills and a national reputation in the field.
Administrative and leadership skills capable of expanding and propelling both the Division and the Lung Center to national leadership in patient care, research and education.
Substantial scholarly achievements.
Strong track record of independent extramural research funding.
Effective supervisory skills, including clinical mentoring and coaching expertise; ability to advance and develop a superior clinical service.
Excellent interpersonal communication skills and presentation skills for both clinical and non-clinical audiences, in group settings or one-on-one.
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R.I.P. Robert Jordan
The world of high fantasy is poorer today.
James Rigney, better known to fantasy readers as Robert Jordan, has passed away. Although he had been fighting amyloidosis for several years, the news of his death still came as a shock to many, including me. He was so optimistic and determined that you had to think that if anyone could beat the disease, it would be him.
Jim was a good and gracious man, a pleasure to share a platform or a pint with, and his contributions to modern fantasy were many. His huge, ambitious WHEEL OF TIME series helped to redefine the genre, and opened many doors for the writers who followed.
He was also unfailingly generous towards other fantasists, always ready to offer them support and encouragement. My own ICE & FIRE series might never have found its audience without the cover quote that Jim was so kind as to provide, back when A GAME OF THRONES was first published. I will always be grateful to him for that.
The last time I saw Jim was at an Archon in Collinsville, Illinois. It was before his final illness. He was the convention Guest of Honor and I was the Toastmaster, and I introduced him by telling the audience that actually we were the same person. It was a gag that Jim himself had suggested in the Green Room beforehand. While I was doing the intro, and claiming credit for all his books, he slowly entered, walked up silently behind me, and stood looming over me, glowering like Zeus. We got a great laugh.
I had some great dinners with Jim and his wife Harriet there in Collinsville as well. We talked about other writers, editors, publishers, all the stuff that writers always talk about... oh, and a little about our own series as well... and Jim and Harriet invited me to visit them if I ever made it down to Charleston. Sad to say, I never did.
RIP, Jim. You will be much missed.
Current Mood: sad
( Read 158 comments )
skjaere
A sad year for fantasy fans all around.
skjaere : (no subject) [+0]
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A Massive Price Tag to Rebuild Iraq After Islamic State
It will take years to haul out the rubble that weighs down Mosul’s Old City. More than 3,000 tons cover every acre, and much of the shattered concrete and twisted metal that once made up people’s homes and shops is laced with explosives and unexploded ordnance.
The debris field marking the district where the Islamic State group made its last stand extends for nearly 2 ? miles along the western bank of the Tigris River and is more than a mile wide — and throughout, hardly a singly building is left unscathed. The Old City has the densest wreckage, but nearly every neighborhood in the western half of Mosul has entire blocks in ruins, and all five bridges crossing the Tigris have been disabled by airstrikes.
This is just one corner of the destruction that three years of war wreaked across northern and western Iraq. The U.S.-led coalition and Iraqi forces defeated IS militants , but the cost of victory is nearly incalculable. Baghdad estimates $100 billion is needed nationwide to rebuild. Local leaders in Mosul say that amount is needed to rehabilitate their city alone.
So far no one is offering to foot the bill. The United States has told the Iraqis it won’t pay for a massive reconstruction drive. Iraq hopes Saudi Arabia and other Gulf countries will step up, and Iran may also take a role. U.N. projects are repairing infrastructure in nearly two dozen towns and cities, but funding is a fraction of what will be needed. As a result, much of the rebuilding has come from individual Iraqis using personal savings.
In the meantime, many of those who fled IS or the fighting remain uprooted. While 2.7 million have returned, more than 3 million others cannot and they languish in camps. Worst hit is Mosul ; the U.N. estimates 40,000 homes there need to be rebuilt or restored, and some 600,000 residents have been unable to return to the city, once home to around 2 million people.
Corruption and bitter sectarian divisions make things even harder. The areas with the worst destruction are largely Sunni, while the Baghdad government is Shiite-dominated. The fear is that if Sunni populations feel they’ve been abandoned, resentment will feed the next generation of militants.
If Mosul is not rebuilt, “it will result in the rebirth of terrorism.” said Abdulsattar al-Habu, the director of Mosul municipality and reconstruction adviser to Nineveh province, where the city is located.
Mosul, overrun by IS in 2014, was declared liberated in July, after a months-long battle that inflicted its greatest destruction on its western sector. An Associated Press investigation found at least 9,000 civilians died in the assault to retake Mosul.
The enormity of the task ahead can be grasped by what has — and hasn’t — happened in Ramadi, which was liberated from IS two years ago. More than 70 percent of the Anbar provincial capital remains damaged or destroyed, according to the provincial council.
Nearly 8,300 homes — almost a third of the houses in the city — were destroyed or suffered major damage, according to UN Habitat. Repairs have begun on only three of the five damaged bridges over the Euphrates River. Three-quarters of the schools remain out of commission. The Anbar provincial council holds its meetings in a small building down the street from the pile of rubble that was once its offices.
Ahmed Shaker, a council member, said, “When we ask the government for money to rebuild, they said: ‘Help yourself, go ask your friends in the Gulf” — a reference to fellow Sunnis.
Halayl Sharqii, 75, and his wife Hanna borrowed money from extended family and got some help from a Qatari aid organization and managed to rebuild their destroyed two-room house. All around, other houses are in similar states of semi-repair, some still missing walls. Weeds are thick around abandoned homes.
Most of Ramadi’s pre-IS population of around a half million has returned. But like many, the Sharqiis’ returned out of desperation, not hope. Their savings were drained. “We had no other choice,” Halayl said.
The main engine for rebuilding has been the U.N. development agency, known as UNDP, which runs a stabilization program rehabilitating infrastructure and some homes.
But funding is far lower than what Iraq says it needs. So far, stabilization has received some $392 million. The United States and Germany are the top two donors, at $115 million and $64 million respectively.
Overall, Washington has contributed $265 million to reconstruction since 2014, on top of $1.7 billion in humanitarian assistance — compared to $14.3 billion it spent in fighting IS in Iraq and Syria.
Baghdad had expected American money would flow in after the defeat of IS, said a senior U.S. official who regularly meets with Iraqi leadership. But Secretary of State Rex Tillerson has said the United States is no longer in the business of “nation-building.”
“We just tell them, no, it’s not going to happen,” the U.S. official said.
The official said many in Washington believe past efforts in Iraq didn’t yield adequate returns and there is little appetite for large international reconstruction projects. After the 2003 toppling of Saddam Hussein, the U.S. pumped $60 billion over nine years into Iraqi reconstruction. Critics say the money did little to prevent political disarray and the rise of militants in Iraq.
Read the full article from Associated Press by Susannah George and Lori Hinnant on abc News, December 28, 2017.
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Candidate Profile: What a Bernie Sanders Presidency Could Mean for the Gulf
Looking to replicate the unexpected successes of his primary challenge in the 2016 Democratic nominating contest, Bernie Sanders (I-VT) has announced that he will be launching a second bid for the Democratic nomination for President in 2020. While this time around he will have to share the progressive lane with several other anti-establishment Democrats, Sanders benefits from the ways in which his prior campaign already necessitated that he beef-up his foreign policy credentials. Specifically in regards to the Gulf, while the foreign policy of several of his counterparts seems limited to scorning the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA), Sanders has a familiarity with the region that extends across the other states of the Arabian littoral. Still, in most recent memory Sanders’ foreign policy achievements are related to Saudi Arabia, and the Senator cemented his spot in history by becoming the first lawmaker to successfully pass a measure invoking the controversial War Powers Resolution. According to campaign aids, the application of a “progressive foreign policy” will be a central element to his 2020 message.[1] Should a Sanders Administration become a reality, Gulf states should anticipate American pressure to become more responsible for the security of their own region.
Like other potential 2020 candidate Vice President Joe Biden, Sanders was serving in Congress in 1991 as the nation weighed military action against Saddam Hussein’s invasion of Kuwait. Also like Biden, at the time Sanders criticized President George H.W Bush’s decision to liberate Kuwait, a country which he referred to alongside Saudi Arabia as being “feudalistic dictatorships.”[2] Sanders doubled down on his anti-interventionism in 2002 by voting against resolutions authorizing President George W. Bush to use military force in Iraq. Sanders frequently touted his vote against the unpopular War in 2016 election as a wedge issue against Hillary Clinton saying of her qualifications to be Commander-in-Chief, “I don’t think you are qualified if you have voted for the disastrous War in Iraq.”[3] During 2016, Sanders too directed criticism towards Clinton for her namesake foundation having accepted donations from foreign governments, saying of Saudi donations to the charity, “..I have a problem when a sitting Secretary of State and a foundation run by her husband collects millions of dollars from foreign governments, governments which are dictatorships.”[4]
Independent of his critique of Clinton, since having gained a wider platform in 2016 Sanders has become a leading Senate voice in reprimanding Saudi Arabia for the murder of Jamal Khashoggi and the humanitarian tragedy in Yemen. Sanders was the primary democratic sponsor for Senate Resolution 54, a bill invoking the War Powers Resolution in order to curtail US involvement in Yemen. After the bill passed in the Senate with bipartisan support Sanders took the time to recognize the unprecedented-nature of his accomplishment saying “the historic importance of today is not only moving the United States out of that horrific war, but is having the country see that their elected representatives are about to take back their constitutional responsibilities on the issue of war, one of the most important functions that the United States Congress has.”[5] While lack of experience in the foreign policy realm was a perceived weakness of Senator Sanders in his run against Secretary Clinton, Sanders has since beefed-up his foreign policy bona fides, and can point to this history making legislative maneuver to ensure that the same concerns are not leveled against his candidacy in 2020.
As mentioned, Sanders has utilized his newfound perch a top the Democratic Party in order to gain exposure within other Gulf related issues. During the previous presidential election Sanders lambasted Qatar for investing upwards of $200 billion on preparing the emirate for hosting the 2022 World Cup, saying that the money should be better spent fighting ISIS. His later remark in the same speech, “Wealthy and powerful Muslim nations in the region can no longer sit on the sidelines and expect the United States to do their work for them,” can be interpreted as a rebuke of each of the Gulf nations’ spending priorities.[6] He directed a similar criticism toward Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) in regards to Syrian refugee resettlement implying that the two oil-wealthy nations have not done their fair share in assisting displaced persons.[7] Both sets of comments indicate that Sanders expects the Gulf states to have a more pronounced presence in funding and executing strategies to improve Middle Eastern security.
In sum, Sanders represents a significant threat to the status quo of US-Saudi relations, and if ultimately elected president would almost certainly use executive authority to halt weapons sales and security assistance to the Kingdom. Additionally, given past statements it is likely Sanders would expect America’s Gulf allies to more prominently shoulder the burden of conflict and humanitarian disasters within the Middle East. Approaching 2020 with a wide fundraising and voter-turnout network, it would be a mistake for the Gulf states to underestimate the possibility that the Vermont Senator is ultimately able to implement his Gulf policy vision.
[1] Holly Otterbein, “Sanders Launches Second Bid for Presidency,” Politico, February 19, 2019.
[2] Bernie Sanders, “Bernie Sanders Speaking About the Persian Gulf War in 1991,” C-SPAN, January 17, 1991.
[3] Trevor Tim, “Bernie Sanders’ Focus on Clinton’s Iraq War Vote isn’t Harping – its Necessary,” The Guardian, April 11, 2016.
[4] Kyle Cheney, “Conflict of Interest: Sanders Assails Clinton Over Foundation,” Politico, June 5, 2016.
[5] Bernie Sanders, “Sanders Statement After Senate Passes Yemen War Powers Resolution,” Office of Senator Bernie Sanders, December 13, 2018.
[6] Edwin Rios, “Bernie Sanders Says Qatar Should Spend its Money Fighting ISIS, Not Hosting the World Cup,” Mother Jones, November 19, 2015.
[7] Rebecca Kaplan, “Bernie Sanders: I’m Concerned About GOP War Talk,” CBS News, September 13, 2015.
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When We Were Orphans
Author(s): Kazuo Ishiguro
By the Nobel Prize-winning author of The Remains of the Day and Never Let Me Go
Shortlisted for the Booker Prize
England, the 1930s. Christopher Banks has become the country's most celebrated detective, his cases the talk of London society. Yet one unsolved crime has always haunted him: the mysterious disappearance of his parents, in old Shanghai, when he was a small boy. Moving between inter-war London and Shanghai, When We Were Orphans is a remarkable story of memory, intrigue and the need to return.
A novel of memory and loss, set between London of the 1930s and Shanghai between the wars.
Kazuo Ishigurowas born in Nagasaki, Japan, in 1954 and came to Britain at the age of five. He is the author of A Pale View of Hills, An Artist of the Floating World, The Remains of the Day, The Unconsoled, When We Were Orphans, Never Let Me Go and Nocturnes. In 1995 Ishiguro received an OBE for Services to Literature, and in 1998 the French decoration of Chevalier de L'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres. He lives in London with his wife and daughter.
Publisher : Faber & Faber, Limited
Imprint : Faber & Faber, Limited
Dewey classification : 813
Author : Kazuo Ishiguro
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See “The Sound of Music” Live in Macau
The Sound of Music is a seasonal favourite with many film lovers. The famous film was turned into a musical in the West End. The West End production is currently running In Macau.
It includes famous numbers such as “Do-Re-Mi”, “My Favourite Things”, “Climb Ev’ry Mountain”, “The Lonely Goatherd”, “Sixteen Going on Seventeen”, and “The Sound of Music”. The production includes Hong Kong and Macau children playing the roles of the von Trapp children.
Some of the local cast members (credit: Parisian Macau)
Ticketing Details
The Sound of Music is on now until 7th January 2018 at the 1,200-seat Parisian Theatre in Macau. Tickets are priced at HK$/MOP 288-888. They are available at www.cotaiticketing.com, or by phone from 6333 6660 (Hong Kong), +853 2882 8818 (Macau) or 4001 206 618 (mainland China).
Getting to Macau
The simplest way to reach the Parisian from Hong Kong is via the Cotai Ferry. You can read our review here.
macau Parisian Macau The Sound of Music
The Cheapest Ways to Macau Airport
Review: Crazy Horse Paris “Forever Crazy”, The Parisian Macau
Air Macau’s horrible handling of weather delay
Last week, right around Easter weekend, Hong Kong, Macau and the rest of the Greater Bay Area was hit by a severe thunderstorm for multiple days. Weather delay happens all the time. When bad weather forces delays or...
Is It Worth Visiting Macau?
A lot of people who plan visiting Hong Kong ask me whether they should visit Macau and often I say no. They then visit it anyway and later tell me that they feel they shouldn’t have bothered (as per my original...
It is relatively simple to travel directly in either direction between Hong Kong Airport and Macau. As well as allowing you to save time by bypassing Hong Kong centre, for passengers going from Macau directly to Hong...
How to Get Cheap Macau Ferry Tickets
We’ve previously explained how to travel between Hong Kong and Macau by ferry in this post. For a short journey, the ferry ticket costs are actually pretty high whatever ferry operator you choose. There are a few ways...
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Tag: problems with palm oil
The problem with palm oil
Inodnesia has one of the highest tropical forest loss rates in the world with 74 million hectares of forest destroyed in the past 50 years. The lucrative hardwood trade; a lack of effective conservation laws; and endemic corruption have left the forests at the mercy of loggers, and the looming ecological disaster is well documented. But sadly Indonesia’s forests now face the biggest threat of all, an insatiable global demand for palm oil.
These days the roar of chainsaws is often followed by raging fires as the land is cleared and the ancient forests, home to some of the earth’s greatest biodiversity are replace by orderly rows of oil palms, standing like rows of soldiers. The battle lines have been drawn and hectare by hectare the forest is being claimed. Sound overdramatic? If only it was, but the facts paint a sad picture. In the 1980’s about one million hectares of forest were cleared annually, now it’s over two million and much of the land that has been deforested in the last 20 years is due to the planting of oil palms. Over half of the forest cover in Sumatra and Borneo has now been destroyed and along with the forest and the species that inhabit it, an ancient way of life is disappearing. There are also global ramifications for us all, in terms of the air we breathe, as these forests provide nature’s filtration system, storing toxic carbon dioxide and releasing life-giving oxygen.
the nut of an oil palm
What is palm oil
Palm oil is produced from the fruit of the oil palm and has been heralded as a wonder product. It is the most productive oil crop in the world, low in saturated fats, cheap to produce and highly versatile. It is found in cooking oil, confectionary, margarine, cakes, biscuits and snacks. As well as cosmetics, pharmaceuticals, household and industrial items and bio fuel.
Growing palm oil is a lucrative business and the price of crude palm oil has risen steadily, with demand expected to triple by the year 2050. Ninety per cent of the world’s palm oil exports come from the plantations of Malaysia and Indonesia. Palm oil in itself is not a bad thing, the problem lies in the degradation of primary forests in order to produce it. An estimated fifty million hectares of degraded land lays wasted in Indonesia, but palm oil companies prefer to use forest land where they can also make a profit from the timber they cut down.
The Quest for Green Gold
The biggest irony is the increasing use of palm oil for bio fuel, a supposedly ‘green’ fuel, proclaimed to be a low carbon solution to climate change. This quest for green fuel is actually causing more damage to the climate than the fossil fuels it was designed to replace. Once the useable wood has been removed, fires are often used to clear the land and peat bogs are drained to plant oil palms, a process which releases hundreds of millions of tones of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere making Indonesia the third highest contributor to CO 2 emissions in the world.
Greenpeace claims that more carbon emissions result from deforestation and peat fires than are produced by the entire global transport sector. Currently, over seven million hectares in Sumatra are utilized as oil palm plantations, and the plan is to extend this by a further 20 million hectares, in order to meet EU targets of ten percent of all transport fuel to come from crops by 2020.
While fortunes have been made from palm oil, it is a mistaken assumption that everyone involved in the process is getting rich. Plantation companies claim that that they create employment, especially in rural areas which in turn leads to economic development. Impoverished land owners often see few financial alternatives and many give up their land to become small stake-holders or to work on the plantations. But the social costs are high. Traditional communities have lived in the forests for generations, hunting bush meat, eating fruits and seeds, harvesting traditional medicine and planting subsistence crops. They were often poor but led a naturally sustainable way of life. Now they find themselves at the mercy of market forces and tied to a 25 year cycle on a single crop. Those who have retained small holdings can eke out a living as long as the boom continues, but those who have sold their land and now work for a minimum wage are often worse off as they have to pay for imported goods. Conflict is inevitable, and according to Sawit Watch, a local environmental organization, more than 500 cases of conflict have been reported.
Although illegal, the fires that are set to clear the land and can quickly burn out of control. The devastating fires of 1997 burned five million hectares of Indonesia’s forests and of the 176 companies accused by the Indonesian government of starting fires, 133 were oil palm plantations companies. The battle between big business and the environment is not new, and all too often the environment is the loser.
Pollution problems are also caused by effluent from the milling process and the intensive use of pesticides and herbicides in the plantations, creating toxic run- off which poisons the land and the water system. The low land forests of Borneo and Sumatra – the last remaining habitat for orangutans and a number of other species are the areas favoured for conversion and all unprotected areas are at risk. The fires of 1997 decimated one third of Borneo’s orangutan population; while the Sumatran orangutan population has decreased by half in the last twenty years and the estimated remaining 6500 animals have been classified as critically endangered. These endearing creatures make great ambassadors for Indonesia’s forests, and their plight has captured hearts around the world, but the orangutan is just the tip of the iceberg. They are known as a cornerstone species and play an important part in forest regeneration through the seeds and fruits they eat. If they become extinct there will be a knock-on effect on many other species
Palm oil factory near Bukit Lewang
A Glimmer of Hope
If palm oil could be planted without decimating the remaining forests, a potential ecological disaster could be averted, and there are signs that some companies are willing to explore this option. RSPO (Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil,) was set up in 2004 and is a not-for-profit association formed of companies and groups involved in palm oil production. Its mission is to promote the growth and use of sustainable palm oil. Forty percent of palm oil companies have joined RSPO, as well as banks, NGO’s and high profile companies such as Unilever, Body Shop and Cadbury. Last year the first batches of certified sustainable oil were shipped to Europe and now account for 3% of CPO. It’s a step in the right direction, but there is still along way to go. Sustainable plantations do not produce much at the moment, and the global demand for palm oil continues to grow.
There is also “Project POTICO” (Palm Oil, Timber, Carbon Offsets,) a partnership between WRI (World Resources Institute,) an American think tank, and NewPage Corporation. This initiative was set up earlier this year and slated to combat illegal logging, reduce greenhouse emissions and preserve virgin rainforests in Indonesia by diverting new oil palm plantations to degraded land. Over one million hectares of wasted land is marked for conversion under the three year program.
There are also indications that things are changing at a local level, In Aceh, Sumatra, officials recently gave 100 hectares of fallow agricultural land to 59 households in the village of Lami so they could grow oil palm without cutting down rain forests. The Indonesian environmental group YEL is overseeing the organic cultivation. Also in Aceh, the tiny and remote village of Tangkahan is another prime example of grass roots conservation where the community rejected the lure of palm oil and decided instead to set up eco-tourism. Elephants are used to patrol the jungle searching for illegal loggers, and small guesthouses provide the quintessential jungle experience. It was while staying in this hidden and untouched paradise that my interest in palm oil was ignited. Each evening I would eat with the local guides and the conversation always turned to palm oil. They hope to lead others by example and show that there are alternatives. “One step at a time,” Jungle Bob tells me, “we can’t do much, but at least we can do something.”
Within Indonesia the key lies in education and SOS (Sumatran Orangutan Society) runs a number of programs to this end. Their aim is to empower the next generation of Indonesian conservationists, and programs include: touring educational road shows: the development of a conservation curriculum for schools in North Sumatra: community forestry schemes to reinforce national park buffer zones and provide sustainable alternative incomes for people living adjacent to natural orangutan habitat; and a tree planting program that has seen the planting of over a quarter of a million indigenous tree seedlings to date.
Responsibility lies with the Indonesian Government and companies, but also with us because as end consumers we have the right to choose. It is fashionable in Australia and Europe to call for boycotts of palm oil, but this won’t solve anything, a cheap and versatile vegetable oil is necessary, and other alternatives such as corn and soya bean oil pose similar problems.
Conservationists call for labeling of products and claim that consumers have the right to choose to buy from sustainable plantations, much as they have the right to buy fair trade products or items that have not been genetically modified. Consumer pressure and preference might lead companies into using sustainable oil. Greenpeace, SOS and Rainforest Action Network urge people to talk about palm oil in order to get the issues known. You can also sign online petitions, make financial contributions to their campaigns, and write to supermarkets to tell them you want sustainable palm oil. It might not seem like much, but as consumers we do have power and doing something is always better than doing nothing. If you want to get involved, or to learn more, have a look at the websites listed below.
http://www.palmoil.org.uk
http://www.orangutans-sos.org
http://www.sumatra-indonesia.com/tangkahan.htm
http://www.sumatraecotourism.com
ran.org/the_problem_with_palm_oil
http://www.greenpeace.org.uk/forests/palm-oil
Author Alison BonePosted on October 1, 2014 May 14, 2016 Categories UncategorizedTags Borneo deforestation, deforestation, deforestation sumatra, indoesian forests, orangutans, palm oil, problems with palm oil, sumatra, sustainable palm oilLeave a comment on The problem with palm oil
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HeinOnline Blog
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North Korea and the Nuclear Crisis
Current Events, Searching
August 24, 2017 Lauren Mattiuzzo
North Korea recently made threats about a possible nuclear war, claiming that they have successfully built an intercontinental ballistic missile. In response to this announcement, Donald Trump has warned Kim Jong Un that the United States military is ready to retaliate if needed. Although media statements from North Korea revealed Kim Jong Un’s plan to fire missiles 25 miles off of Guam—a harbor to two U.S. military bases—he soon retracted his statement. While this is considered current news, history proves this conflict is nothing new.
History of North Korea and Nuclear Weapons
In 1985, North Korea signed the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. This international treaty was opened for signature in 1968 and entered into force in 1970. The NPT’s objective is to promote peaceful use of nuclear energy, prevent the spread of nuclear weapons and technology, and further the goal of achieving nuclear disarmament. Every five years the treaty is reviewed.
North Korea threatened to pull out of the NPT in 1993. However, no action was taken. A year later, North Korea and the United States signed an agreement in which North Korea agreed to cease and dismantle their old reactors in order to receive international aid to build new light-water nuclear reactors.
President George W. Bush named North Korea, Iran, and Iraq the “axis of evil” in 2002. Bush claimed North Korea admitted to violating their 1994 agreement. In turn, North Korea pulled out of the NPT in 2003 and declared they had nuclear weapons.
North Korea temporarily disabled their nuclear program in 2005, in exchange for economic assistance and energy resources. Nevertheless, North Korea test fired long range missiles in 2006, asserting their success.
By 2007, North Korea agreed to dissolve its main nuclear reactor by the end of the year in exchange for $400 million. Six months later they destroyed their water cooling tower, a main source for their reactor and weapon building, but in 2009 it was reported they conducted a second nuclear test.
North Korea agreed to temporarily disable long-range missile launches and nuclear activity in 2012 in exchange for food aid.
A third nuclear test was conducted by North Korea in 2013.
In late 2015, North Korea claimed they created a hydrogen bomb and in 2016 stated they successfully tested this bomb.
Research the history of North Korea and nuclear weapons in HeinOnline to see the extensive documents on this subject. From the Full Text tab on the HeinOnline homepage, enter “North Korea” AND nuclear AND weapon* into the search box.
Narrow down the search results using the facets on the left side of the page. Select U.S. Congressional Documents from the Collection/Library list. Included in the results are CRS Reports.
Locating the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty
To find the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty in HeinOnline, click the U.S. Treaty Index option in the U.S. Treaties and Agreements Library. Locate the Treaty Description option from the drop-down menu and type “Nuclear Non-Proliferation” into the search box. Enter 1968 into the date range and click the search button.
Search results display the United States Treaty citation, as well as the TIAS number. Click the Summary link to view a description of this treaty, or click on the treaty’s citation to access the full text of the treaty.
Locate more content in the Law Journal Library. Enter “North Korea” AND (“nuclear weapon” OR “nuclear weapons”) under the the Full Text tab and click the search button. Sort by Volume Date (Oldest First) at the top of the result list to see the first time this was mentioned in journals.
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Hawar news agency's daily 2-7-2019
DAILY 02 Jul 2019, Tue - 07:00 2019-07-02T07:00:00
- Following up the Resistance of the Age in the second stage, the situation of the people who are residing in al-Shahba, and the activities that support the Resistance of the Age.
- Following up the latest developments about the attacks of the Turkish occupation army on the lands of north and east Syria, Başûr (South Kurdistan) and the lawful defense zones, and the operations of the People's Defense Forces (HPG) against the Turkish occupation army.
The human rights organization in the region of Afrin documented a series of violations and crimes committed by the Turkish army and its mercenaries against the people of Afrin in May and June. The officials of the organization confirmed that the practices of the Turkish occupation and its mercenaries are considered war crimes against humanity and appealed to the international community to prosecute the perpetrators of these crimes. (Photo and video attachment).
- the Iraqi political analyst As'ad al-Abbadi described the case of the trial of Daesh foreigner mercenaries as the major problem, and stressed the need to increase the frequency of contact with the international community and those concerned for these mercenaries and to reduce the additional material and security costs that result from their survival on what they are now. (Photo and video attachment).
- The Turkish state seeks to occupy southern Kurdistan and the Middle East in general and expand the borders of its state, the writer and politician Ali Karimi said. He warned of the Turkish occupation will extend to Mosul and Baghdad in case not addressed. (Photo and video attachment).
- The member of the Syrian Women's Council in Aleppo, Haifa Hassan, confirmed that the meeting of the Women's Council in Ain Issa was a fundamental step for women and the source to highlight the women who were subjected to war in the name of religion in Syria. (Photo and video attachment).
Society and life
-People's Municipality in Al-Basira has achieved success at the service level in the town of Al-Basira and its affiliated villages in providing services and securing all life commitments despite the meager resources. (Photo and video attachment).
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Judge Orders British Man Opposing 5G Released from Jail – Attempts to Silence Him Failed
Mark Steele addressing the media after a judge released him. Image from YouTube.
by John P. Thomas
Anti 5-G Educator from England – Arrested and Jailed but not Silenced
Mark Steele, from England, has been making headlines for telling the truth about the dangers of 5-G. He has been trying to educate the Gateshead community and its Council about the serious risks of 5-G technology. [1, 2]
The Gateshead Council approved the installation of new LED street lights, which contain 5-G equipment. This allows 5-G equipment to be hidden in what people would assume to be harmless city lighting – but these new lights are anything but harmless. [1, 2, 3]
Gateshead Council Sought to Silence Him
Mark Steele began to speak out about the risks of this 5-G equipment in the Gateshead community where he lives. The Council objected to his vocal presence and sought to silence him.
Mark Steele told me what happened:
It all started with the Council sending council officers, workers, and councilors to my home to exaggerate and fabricate evidence about the events that happened as they engaged with me.
I knew all the time this was a set-up and I played along. We now have all of the evidence of the false statements and perjury of the witnesses.
Two councilors made false witness testimony about me and I was arrested. I spent a day in Police custody. It all came out in court and I was charged and found guilty of a lesser offence as I had admitted calling them baby killers. [1]
This was only the Beginning of the Battle
As is usually the case in situations like this, the matter did not end there.
Mark Steele provides more details. He stated:
Then they sought a full gagging order in the Civil Courts to stop any output about 5G from me. Their claim was I was frightening vulnerable people in the area. This was the civil case, which failed.
The Judge demanded that the 5G risk be debated. I was given an injunction to not break the law, which I haven’t.
I did send two emails to all councilors telling them to do their duty and uphold the law. I mentioned the crime of not complying with the law – [As a result] the court said this was intimidation of the Councilors and I was fined £250 suspended for two years.
The Council is still trying to silence me about 5G. However, the problem they have is the Court has sanctioned me to carry on the campaign. The recorder Nolan stated the “public have a right to know” “this is democracy in action” [1]
Highly Qualified to Speak out about 5-G
Mark Steele is an inventor, patent writer, and technologist. He worked for a company called Reevu where he was the lead innovator in product development. He brought the world’s first Rear Vision motorcycle helmet successfully to market. [1, 4]
According to Mark Steele, he is the inventor of the binocular wave guide, lift boats, exit tools, molecular reactors, and a raft of weapon sights. His inventions also include thermal imaging, surgical imaging systems, pilot fire, and rescue helmet imaging systems. He indicated that his inventions are all within current regulatory standards and international approvals. [1]
Mark Steele also appears in Sacha Stone’s 5-G documentary which brought together scientists and physicians from around the world to describe the risks of this technology. In the documentary, Mark Steele shows what is inside these new LED street lamps.
(The section where Mark Steele shows the device begins at 4:30 minutes.)
5-G is First and Foremost a Surveillance and Weapons System
Even though 5-G is being promoted as a major advancement for tech-savvy smartphone users, it is mainly designed for machine-to-machine communication.
It is purported to be the key to new robotic surgery, remote medical services, connected-object communications through the internet of things, and self-driving or autonomous vehicles.
However, it is also the key to highly sophisticated weapons and surveillance. [3]
5-G is different from 4-G and all other previous generation cellular services, because it uses beam forming antenna arrays. 5-G technology has the ability to direct a pulsing beam of radio frequency radiation (RFR) directly at a cell phone or other device.
It will have the potential capacity to increase the power of energy beams up to the point where the health and life of the device user is threatened. [3, 5]
No one should assume that if you put your smartphone down and walk away from it that you will be safe.
5-G can See through Walls and Look for People
The beam forming technology of 5-G can also be used to create 3-dimensional images of objects behind walls. Researchers tout the benefit of this technology as being of great benefit to fire and rescue workers.
They say it could help firefighters see what is inside smoke-filled and burning buildings so that they can more safely execute their rescue missions. [6]
The benefit to rescue workers is laudable, but the same technology can also be used by anyone to look through walls and see what is inside.
This means that if someone wanted to target a person for rapid onset illness and early death, then the system could search a building for human life and direct a 5-G beam of RFR at them all-day or all-night long.
Of course if the person keeps a smartphone on the night stand beside the bed, then this makes it even easier to target them.
But doesn’t 5-G have Trouble Penetrating Trees and Walls?
As currently configured, we are told that 5-G won’t be strong enough to send its beams through the leaves of trees or even through heavy rain. We are also told that it will have difficulty passing through concrete walls to reach inside warehouses, so much that warehouse managers will need to install 5-G booster equipment to distribute the 5-G signals into such buildings. [7]
Let’s stop and think about this for a minute.
If 5-G isn’t strong enough to get inside many buildings, to pass through trees, or even be functional during a rainstorm or snowstorm, [7] then what use is it? This would mean we all need to go outside to use our 5-G smartphones, and if it is raining, then we can’t use them at all.
5-G isn’t Really for End Users with Smartphones
5-G enabled smartphones will have both 5-G and 4-G capabilities.
When the 5-G signal isn’t strong enough, then the phone will just use the 4-G system. [7]
It is likely that most users will not even notice that 5-G isn’t in operation.
But doesn’t 5-G have Better Latency?
4-G has a 50 millisecond latency, which means there can be a 50 millisecond delay in response to a command.
5-G is supposed to have a 1-thousandth of a second delay under ideal circumstances. Experts are expecting a 10 Millisecond latency in practice. “Just to give that some context, it takes at least 10ms for an image seen by the human eye to be processed by the brain.” [18]
We are not talking 1 second versus 2 seconds or 1 tenth of a second versus 1 second. We are talking about a few thousands of seconds that might not be visible to the casual observer.
The primary benefit of having latency in the range of 1 millisecond to 10 milliseconds is for machine-to-machine communication such as might be used in driverless cars, 5-G traffic lights, and surveillance equipment – otherwise it is of minimal value to smartphone users unless they are doing intense gaming. [3, 18]
But, Doesn’t 5-G promise faster Downloads?
Is it really going to change anyone’s life if they can download a movie in 10 seconds versus 2 minutes? How many movies does a person need to download in a day? How many movies can a person watch in a day?
Super-fast downloads and uploads will mainly be beneficial to those using 5-G for surveillance tasks. It will enable inspectors to do real-time monitoring of city streets and to look inside of buildings. It will be needed by driverless cars and for 5-G controlled traffic lights and signage. [3]
FCC Greases the Skids to Permit Even Faster 5-G Rollout in the US
In policies issued in August and September of 2018 [8, 9], the FCC reinforced its position that nothing should be allowed to delay or stop 5-G buildout.
The FCC rulings clearly establish what they call a shot clock, which allows local government (municipalities and county government) only 60 or 90 days to approve the 5-G implementation plans given to them by telecom companies. [8, 9]
Local governments are prohibited from enacting moratoriums on 5-G installation. [8, 9]
Local governments must limit the charges they issue to telecom companies for installing 5-G equipment to the actual costs they incur according to a schedule of the FCC. [8, 9]
Local governments are prohibited from using esthetic standards that are beyond the standards used for other projects. [8, 9]
Local governments cannot prevent 5-G installation in areas where existing electric utility services are all underground. [8, 9]
Local governments cannot prevent 5-G installation in historic districts, and have been told to ignore requirements of the National Historic Preservation Act and National Environmental Policy Act. 5-G installation will be permitted on all federal lands and buildings. [8, 9]
Local governments cannot delay implementation of 5-G because of pending legislation by state government or other decision making bodies. [8, 9]
Finally, local governments must clear the way for 5-G installation by making sure that all utility poles that telecom companies plan to use are made accessible and are ready for their use. [8, 9]
In summary, the FCC has made it crystal clear that local governments can no longer use any of the above mentioned reasons as excuses for delaying or attempting to stop telecom companies from setting up their 5-G networks.
Objections to 5-G on the Basis of Health Risks are not Permitted
In case you are wondering about objecting on the basis of health concerns – the FCC already preempted all objections based on health concerns, so they didn’t need to restate the fact that local government cannot object to 5-G on the basis of health risks.
Cities Object to the Heavy Hand of the FCC and are Suing
As might be expected, cities from around the country are suing the FCC and the US Government for forcing them to submit to every desire of telecom companies as they rollout 5-G. [10]
In fact, more than two dozen municipalities, counties, and organizations are participating in lawsuits.
They include: the City of San Jose, California; the City of Arcadia, California; the City of Bellevue, Washington; the City of Burien, Washington; the City of Burlingame, California; Culver City, California; the Town of Fairfax, California; the City of Gig Harbor, Washington; the City of Issaquah, Washington; the City of Kirkland, Washington; the City of Las Vegas, Nevada; the City of Los Angeles, California; the County of Los Angeles, California; the City of Monterey, California; the City of Ontario, California; the City of Piedmont, California; the City of Portland, Oregon; the City of San Jacinto, California; the City of Shafter, California; the City of Yuma, Arizona; City of Albuquerque, New Mexico; National League of Cities; City of Brookhaven, Georgia; City of Baltimore, Maryland; City of Dubuque, Iowa; Town of Ocean City, Maryland; City of Emeryville, California; Michigan Municipal League; Town of Hillsborough, California; City of La Vista, Nebraska; City of Medina, Washington; City of Papillion, Nebraska; City of Plano, Texas; City of Rockville, Maryland; City of San Bruno, California; City of Santa Monica, California; City of Sugarland, Texas; League of Nebraska Municipalities; the City of Austin, Texas; The City of Ann Arbor, Michigan; the County of Anne Arundel, Maryland; The City of Atlanta, Georgia; the City of Boston, Massachusetts; the City of Chicago Illinois; Clark County, Nevada; the City of College Park, Maryland; the City of Dallas, Texas; the District of Columbia; the City of Gaithersburg, Maryland; Howard County, Maryland; the City of Lincoln, Nebraska; Montgomery County, Maryland; the City of Myrtle Beach, South Carolina; the City of Omaha, Nebraska; The City of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; the City of Rye, New York; The City of Scarsdale, New York; the City of Seat Pleasant, Maryland; the City of Takoma Park, Maryland; the Texas Coalition of Cities for Utility Issues; Meridian Township, Michigan; Bloomfield Township, Michigan; the Michigan Townships Association; The Michigan Coalition to Protect Public Rights- Of-Way, and City of New York. [11]
The US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit decided to consolidate the cases from cities and counties around the United States. The FCC opposed the plan by asking for an Abeyance, in other words an indefinite delay, presumably to give the FCC more time to resolve the matters. [11]
The court noted that the FCC does not have a strong history of promptly responding to concerns raised by anyone who opposes their decisions. [11]
The results of these lawsuits are not yet available.
A Criminal Conspiracy against Americans
In a report from the publication “State of the Nation” concerning the FCC and their attempt to force cities and counties to do the will of telecom companies, they stated:
It is critical for every U.S. citizen to understand that this illicit and highly consequential order by the FCC is wholly unprecedented. It is also reckless to the extreme. Much more significantly, however, this FCC ruling represents a massive and complex criminal conspiracy that will seriously injure the American people.
That the FCC would blatantly attempt to unlawfully arrogate power unto itself to foist 5G on the entire nation represents the height of federal overreach and governmental hubris. Such an illegal order is clearly a tyrannical move by the U.S. Federal Government to improperly impose the deployment of 5G on every city and county in the 50 states.
Not only is this usurpation of municipal authority completely unconstitutional, it’s a flagrant violation of various federal laws, state statutes, county codes and city ordinances. [12]
Multiple 5-G Systems on Every Street
Municipalities won’t just need to lay down and be walked on by one telecom company – they will need to permit all of them to put up their own 5-G systems anywhere they choose.
We are deceived if we believe that 5-G small cell towers will be spaced out every 100 or 200 feet. We must remember that there will probably be three or more systems on every street and in every neighborhood.
We should anticipate a 5-G unit of some type on top of every utility pole, light pole, school, bus-stop shelter, fire/police station, courthouse, and on anything else owned by a city or county. In addition, 5-G satellites will blanket the entire Earth with their radiation.
Conclusion – Momentum Against 5-G is Building Speed
My previous articles have been warning about the dangers of wireless technology for several years. In the beginning, source information was hard to come by.
But now, I am pleased to report that the internet is full of detailed articles about the health risks and hazards of 5-G technology, and scientists are raising serious concerns. [17]
Of course, telecom companies are responding to the truth by spitting out a never-ending litany of mind control articles telling us how wonderful their system will be when it is fully implemented.
Telecom companies are trying to convince us that we won’t know real happiness until we can sit down in a self-driving car and can download 20 or 30 full length movies on our 5-G smartphone as we lay back in our cars while being driven to work.
Others are telling us that we won’t know real contentment until we can have our brains wirelessly connected to the 5-G network and can use our minds to gather knowledge and seek pleasure of all kinds through the internet of things. [13, 14, 15]
As I read between the lines of all the 5-G hype, it seems that they are telling us that we won’t really be full citizens of the Smart City until we have Virtual Reality immersive experiences where our fantasy life can be merged with real life and we can use 5-G to create new worlds in our minds.
5-G may give people bits and pieces of a new reality, but there will be a big price to pay.
The system will be a total surveillance system, which will watch everything we do on the streets and in our homes. Nothing will be private – someone will always be watching.
And for people who don’t want to become living components of the 5-G network, that same system can potentially be used to punish objectors and resisters by inflicting pain and illness, and if necessary, by terminating their lives.
The truth is that there will be very little if any real happiness in the Smart Cities of the future. Life will be filled with never-ending amusement, mindless entertainment, meaningless activities, and early death.
Life will be short, because of the constant exposure to extremely high levels of radio frequency radiation.
One of the many good articles I recently read about the dangers of 5-G is linked below. The title itself tells the story and why I chose to highlight it here.
5G Super-Hotspots: You better know where the “kill zones” are located!
The 5-G kill zones are any location where telecom companies indicate that their 5-G system is fully operational. They want to be sure that their system sparkles and shimmers with spectacular performance.
To accomplish their goal, they are going to push up the signal strength so that trees, rain, people’s bodies, and walls won’t stop the 5-G signals. These locations will be kill zones. All forms of life will be threatened.
If you want to know where the current kill zones [16] are located, then just contact Sprint/T-Mobile, Verizon, or AT&T, and ask them where their 5-G system is fully operational. The following link identifies the cities where there are kill zones.
These are the cities with 5G or getting 5G in 2019
John P. Thomas is a health writer for Health Impact News. He holds a B.A. in Psychology from the University of Michigan, and a Master of Science in Public Health (M.S.P.H.) from the School of Public Health, Department of Health Administration, at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Learn more about 5G
[1] Mark Steele responded by e-mail to questions I asked him about his experiences with the Gateshead Council regarding their installation of 5-G enabled street lights. His response was dated 6/6/2019.
[2] “Britain’s First 5G Court Case and the People Won,” Smombie Gate, 12/10/2018.
[3] “’5G is a Weapons System, Nothing More, Nothing Less’: Technical Weapons Expert Mark Steele Issues Wake Up Call to All UK Residents on 5G LED Street Lights Rollout in Gateshead,” The EveryDay Concerned Citizen, 2/15/2019.
[4] Reevu homepage.
[5] “Interview with Mark Steele on 5G with Paul Seils of STOP 5G Global,” YouTube, 6/3/2019.
[6] “3D Mapping: The truth behind 2G 3G 4G 5G WIFI WIGIG,” Smombie Gate, 4/9/2018.
[7] “How Manufacturers Can Prepare for the 5G Revolution,” Manufacturing.net, 2/26/2019.
[8] “FCC Streamlines Pole Attachment Rules to Promote Broadband Deployment,” Keenan Adamchak, CommLawBlog, Fletcher, Heald & Hildreth, 8/7/2018. https://www.commlawblog.com/2018/08/articles/telecom/fcc-streamlines-pole-attachment-rules-to-promote-broadband-deployment/
[9] “FCC Adopts 5G Small Cell Deployment Order,” 10/1/2018.
[10] “New FCC Ruling Gives The Government Control Over 5G Internet Rollout,” Tyler Durden, Zero Hedge, 10/02/2018.
[11] “2019-0307 Joint Opposition to FCC Motion to Hold in Abeyance,” United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, March 7, 2019.
[12] “5G CRISIS: Historic Class Action Lawsuit Filed Against the FCC by Municipalities Across the USA,” The Millennium Report, State of the Nation, 6/5/2019.
[13] “Elon Musk launches Neuralink, a venture to merge the human brain with AI,” Nick Statt, The Verge, 3/27/2017. https://www.theverge.com/2017/3/27/15077864/elon-musk-neuralink-brain-computer-interface-ai-cyborgs
[14] “Team Linked to Elon Musk, Neuralink Outline Brain-Monitor System,” Sarah McBride, Bloomberg, 4/11/2019.
[15] “Elon Musk wants to put chips in our brains. I’d prefer to stay human,” Stephen Greenblatt, Opinion – The Guardian.
[16] “5G Super-Hotspots: You better know where the ‘kill zones’ are located!” The Millennium Report, State of the Nation, 5/3/2019.
[17] “5G Danger: 100s Of Respected Scientists Sound Alarm About Health Effects As 5G Networks Go Global,” Authored by Michael Snyder via The End of The American Dream blog, Zero Hedge, 5/5/2019.
[18] “5G vs. 4G | Differences in Speed, Latency, and Coverage Explained,” Julian Chokkattu, Digital Trends.
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"One Central Place for Tech News"
Women in Tech "The Real Story"
Rumors say the S8 Active won't crack under pressure thanks to a shatter-resistant screen.
We all have that friend whose phone screen looks like a mosaic. Some of us are that friend.
But shatter-resistant screens are here to put an end to the sadness. And it sounds Samsung's latest Galaxy S8 variant -- the Galaxy S8 Active -- will be merely the latest phone to get the goods.
How might it work?
Spiderwebs begone
In 2015, the Motorola Droid Turbo 2 was one of the first flagship smartphones to brag about a screen that wouldn't crack.
When CNET put that claim to the test, it turned out Motorola was right. The display was damn near invincible, and it was mostly thanks to a surprisingly simple old-school technique: Plastics.
Unlike hard glass screens, soft plastic ones don't tend to crack on impact.
The more recently released Moto Z2 Force, too, features a shatterproof display with polycarbonate (aka plastic) layers. The downsides are that plastic doesn't feel quite as nice to the touch and it tends to scratch easily -- which is why the Motorola phones typically come with a factory-installed screen protector to start.
Will Samsung do this?
Turns out it already has. The Galaxy S7 Active featured a screen that was made with a plastic/glass blend akin to the Motorola phones.
And now, it seems Samsung may give the S8 Active a similar treatment. A recent leak on Chinese Social network Weibo claims that the S8 Active could feature a shatter-resistant screen as well. It'll also be a flat screen according to previous leaks, which could protect from corner impacts as well.
But that might not be the only way Samsung improves upon the Galaxy S8. The Weibo leak claims that the S8 Active could get the following:
4,000mAh battery (vs. the S8's 3,000mAh battery)
MIL-STD-810G durability rating (meaning protection against things like extreme temperature, high altitudes, and shock)
Colors like gray and gold
And that's in addition to maintaining the Galaxy S8's IP68 water resistance and edge-to-edge display.
The S8 Active may also be slightly bigger and heavier than the S8, according to the leak.
When can I get one?
The S7 Active was released in July and the S6 Active in June. This could mean we're in store for a summer release, but there's still no official word yet. The closest we got to a confirmation of the phone was when it was mentioned in some Samsung documents back in June, but no release date was given
The Moto Z2 Force, meanwhile, will be available August 10.
Source and Credit: https://www.cnet.com/news/galaxy-s8-active-shatterproof-screen-rumor/
BY GORDON GOTTSEGEN
Why the Galaxy S8 Active could be nearly invincible
Microsoft is forging ahead to make FPGA processing power available to external Azure developers for data-intensive tasks like deep-neural-networking tasks.
Microsoft has been using field-programmable gate arrays (FPGAs) to improve performance and efficiencies of Bing and Azure for the last few years.
But next year, Microsoft plans to make this kind of FPGA processing power available to developers who will be able to use it to run their own tasks, including intensive artificial-intelligence ones, like deep-neural-networking (DNN).
At its Build developers conference this Spring, Azure CTO Mark Russinovich outlined Microsoft's big-picture plans for delivering "Hardware Microservices" via the Azure cloud. Russinovich told attendees that once Microsoft solves some lingering security and other issues, "we will have what we consider to be a fully configurable cloud."
"This is the core of an AI cloud," Russinovich said, and "a major step toward democratizing AI with the power of FPGA." (A good recap of Russinovich's remarks can be found in this TheNewStack article.)
FPGAs are chips that can be custom-configured after they're manufactured. Microsoft researchers have been doing work in the FPGA space for more than a decade.
More recently, Microsoft has added FPGAs to all of its Azure servers in its own datacenters, as well as implementing FPGAs in some of the machines that power Bing's indexing servers as part of its Project Catapult efforts. Microsoft's Azure Accelerated Networking service, which is generally available for Windows and in preview for Linux, also makes use of FPGAs under the covers.
In May, Russinovich said Microsoft didn't have a firm timeline as to when the company might be ready to bring hardware microservices and FPGA cloud-processing power to customers outside the company. But this week, Microsoft officials said the goal for doing this is some time in calendar 2018.
Microsoft's Hardware Microservices are built on Intel FPGAs. (Intel bought FPGA-maker Altera in 2015.) These chips, coupled with Microsoft's framework, will provide advances in speed, efficiency and latency that are particularly suited to big-data workloads.
Microsoft also is working specifically on the DNN piece via a project codenamed "Brainwave." Microsoft demonstrated BrainWave publicly at the company's Ignite 2016 conference, when Microsoft used it to run a massive language-translation demonstration on FPGAs.
Microsoft officials were planning to discuss Brainwave at the company's recent Faculty Research Summit in Redmond, which was entirely dedicated to AI, but looking at the updated agenda, it seems references to Brainwave were removed.
BrainWave is a deep-learning platform running on FPGA-based Hardware Microservices, according to a Microsoft presentation on its configurable-cloud plans from 2016. That presentation mentions "Hardware Acceleration as a Service" across datacenters or the Internet. BrainWave distributes neural-network models across as many FPGAs as needed.
Microsoft is not the only company looking to FPGAs in its cloud datacenters; both Amazon and Google are using custom-built silicon for AI tasks.
Amazon already offers an FPGA EC2 F1 instance for programming Xilinx FPGAs and provides a hardware development kit for FPGA. Google has been doing work around training deep-learning models in TensorFlow, its machine-learning software library and has built its own underlying Tensor Processing Unit silicon.
Credit and Source: http://www.zdnet.com/article/how-microsoft-plans-to-turn-azure-into-an-ai-cloud/
By Mary Jo Foley
How Microsoft plans to turn Azure into an 'AI cloud'
There is a dark web market called "The Real Deal" which posted fresh LinkedIn credentials for sale. A reported 117 million LinkedIn usernames and passwords has been leaked.
LinkedIn spokesperson confirmed that the company is working on resetting the affect users passwords. So they say they have no indication there has been a breach. Please help me understand how 117 million usernames and passwords have been taken but there is not a breach.
A security guy name Troy Hunt says the hacker inflated the data.
"He told FORBES he’d seen a number of passwords in plain text, indicating the hackers had managed to crack some of the hashes – the result of the password being passed through a cryptographic algorithm to turn it into gobbledygook. “The reality is, it’s a breach from four years ago and some passwords won’t just be valid today, they’ll be valid across different sites,” Hunt warned."
Source: http://www.forbes.com/sites/thomasbrewster/2016/05/18/linkedin-2012-password-hack-gets-much-worse/#3523fa2d6ae1
LinkedIn Warns Users To Reset Passwords As 117M Logins For Sale On Dark Web
BY NERMIN HAJDARBEGOVIC - TECHNICAL EDITOR @ TOPTAL
Whenever you see a headline that poses a question, the answer to that particular question is usually a big fat no. However, when it comes to software development for next-generation car infotainment systems like Android Auto and Apple Carplay, that’s not the case. If you can spare a few minutes, I will try to explain why.
We’ve all heard talk of autonomous, driverless cars for years, and many of us had a chance to try out some rudimentary implementations of such technologies, which are slowly making their way to mainstream cars. This post won’t deal with those for the following reasons: driverless cars are still years away, they will be closed for development, and they will not create a new market for developers, not unless you want your car to be parallel parked using code written by a 16-year-old coder freelancing for $5 an hour.
However, cars with next-generation connected infotainment systems will create new opportunities on several fronts. In case you already have an infotainment system with a neat touchscreen and GPS in your car, please accept my condolences; it’s about to become as obsolete as a Nokia 3310 compared to an iPhone.
Next-gen infotainment platforms are to current systems what smartphones are to feature phones.
I know that is a bold statement, and many of you won’t agree with me, but I like to kick off on a provocative note. I will do my best to change your mind, and if I fail, feel free to let me know in the comment section.
Evolution Of Car Infotainment Systems, Or Lack Of It
So what’s so wrong with the current generation of car infotainment and navigation systems? How come many of us chose not to buy them? Why don’t we see a lot of development in this niche?
It all boils down to a combination of technical and economic considerations. Consumer tech is rendered obsolete in years, roughly two product cycles for smartphones, three to four cycles for desktops and laptops. That usually translates into two to five years. Naturally, as products mature, their lifecycle is extended as well.
The car industry does not work that way, so very few of us go out and buy a new car nearly as often. In fact, many new cars ship with three- to five-year warranties, so most people are unlikely to sell them for five or more years. Cars are built to last a decade or more, and they can’t be upgraded like desktop PCs, or receive OTA updates like our smartphones.
But hold on, why don’t carmakers simply install off-the-shelf technology employed in tablets and smartphones? Why do we still have expensive dials if it would be cheaper to replace them with a high-resolution panel used in $200 tablets? The answer is simple; it wouldn’t work.
Automotive electronics are a world apart from consumer tech. While they can be based on similar chip architectures and technologies, they need to be a lot more durable. Unlike your iPad, your car infotainment system has to put up with a very hostile environment and deal with loads of potential issues:
Constant vibrations and G forces.
Extremely high and low temperatures.
Ability to stand up to high levels of humidity, or the occasional splash of water.
MTBF has to be much longer.
When they fail, they need to fail safe.
Infotainment systems are integrated with numerous other components.
Legal and regulatory issues must be addressed.
I could expand this list, but I think it’s enough to prove my point; a car infotainment system and an iPad don’t have that much in common. They may share the same DNA, but the same goes for a MacBook Air and a Panasonic Toughbook.
The good news is that developers needn’t be concerned by any of these issues, because they will be addressed by carmakers and tech companies trying to slide their foot in the door and grab a piece of this emerging market. That leaves us with good old chips and operating systems, and whether they’re in a desktop, smartphone, smart toaster or a new car, they all speak the same language; they all execute code.
What Sort Of Technology Is Coming To Our Cars?
A number of tech heavyweights, including Apple, Google, Texas Instruments, and Nvidia, have already entered this market. You can already buy cars equipped with some of these systems, and some solutions like Nvidia’s Tegra-based infotainment platforms, have been on the market for years.
The next obvious step is to open up these platforms and get more brands, and consumers, on the bandwagon.
Google Android Auto and Apple CarPlay are bound to dominate this space for years to come. In case you would like to check out a head-to-head comparison of the systems, you can head over to CNET.
Now, these platforms don’t have much in common with driverless cars, autonomous cars or whatever you choose to call them. They are merely a replacement for the “dumb” infotainment systems we have today. Here is an analogy that should explain what’s about to happen: next-gen infotainment platforms are to current systems what smartphones are to feature phones. They have a lot more potential for future development, integration with other devices, fast mobile broadband connectivity, and so on.
In terms of hardware, we will see more powerful System-on-Chip (SoC) solutions, capable of providing fast 4G data, stunning graphics, improved GPS capabilities, and even some cutting-edge features such as motion tracking.
For example, Nvidia is trying to leverage its GPU technology to enable motion tracking that should provide drivers with better situational awareness. This does not mean we’ll end up with driverless cars powered by Nvidia SoCs, but the technology could be used to look out for obstacles when parking, cars in our blind spots and so on. Not long ago, the computational power needed to pull this off was reserved for professional graphics solutions, but the latest crop of Nvidia Tegra processors features 192 GPU cores, or CUDA cores to be precise. Upcoming Tegras will feature even more powerful CPUs and additional CUDA cores (256 and more cores).
Even the current generation is powerful enough to enable the development of autonomous cars, let alone vehicles with some rudimentary motion tracking features. In case you are interested in the geeky details, you can check out this Nvidia blog, detailing how a Jetson TK1 development board can be used for low-power sensing and autonomy.
The really good news is that the industry will be able to use vast amounts of CUDA code, developed for discrete graphics cards. It will work on Nvidia mobile platforms as well. The bad news is that Android Auto and Apple CarPlay simply won’t harness this potential, at least not yet. Instead, they will act as “second screens” for our mobile devices.
Bottom line; hardware will not be an issue.
What Does This Mean For Developers?
By this point, many of you are probably asking this question. The potential for third-party development on these platforms will be limited; people won’t use them to browse or play games. Certain apps are off the table for safety considerations, the size of the market will remain limited for years, and growth will be slow due to long product lifecycles.
ABI Research estimates Apple CarPlay will be installed in about 24 million new cars shipped in 2019. The research outfit also expects Android Auto uptake to accelerate and be “more aggressive than CarPlay.” In any case, these numbers don’t look too exciting, at least not from our perspective. More than a billion smartphones are shipped each year, so shipping about 50 million cars with next-generation infotainment systems four years from now doesn’t look impressive. However, these cars will be on our roads for about a decade, while smartphones and tablets are rendered obsolete and replaced in 2-3 years. In spite of low overall sales, the infotainment user base will grow and by the end of the decade we could be looking at a couple of hundred million new cars with fancy infotainment systems on our roads. Now that sounds a bit more tempting, does it not?
The user base will be limited for years to come, but it boils down to quality over quantity. Those buying a $50,000 Audi with a new infotainment system can afford a few premium apps for their new toy. This is not the case with hundreds of millions of phone users, who simply don’t use paid apps at all.
But what are people going to develop for these things to begin with?
Well, to be perfectly honest, not much. While these units may be viewed as standalone platforms, with more than adequate hardware and software capabilities, in reality they will be used as “second screens” for mobile devices, they are projected from your smartphone to the infotainment system. There’s nothing wrong with that, and developers are already tackling wearables in a similar way.
This means we will end up with two approaches:
Standard mobile apps that will use infotainment systems as a second screen.
Apps developed specifically for automotive infotainment.
Developers working on certain types of applications that may be useful in cars will have to make sure that they work well on infotainment systems. The number of applications that could be considered useful in a car is limited. Apart from core apps, which will be preinstalled on these systems anyway, there won’t be a lot of room for standard mobile apps tweaked to run on infotainment systems. Games, fitness apps, outdoor apps, news readers, social apps – very few of them would make sense in a car.
The second approach looks more challenging, but it could prove more lucrative in the long run. There is no “killer app” specifically designed to use the multitude of sensors on our phones that will seamlessly integrate with infotainment systems. After all, would you rather have a killer app running on 10 percent of all deployed automotive systems than a mediocre iOS app installed by 0.1 percent of iPhone users? What if your team comes up with something truly useful and original, and eventually big carmakers start preinstalling your app on their systems. Long drinks on the yacht, anyone?
But what could third party developers create? Core apps will handle a lot of stuff, complemented by major services like Spotify, or TuneIn radio. The real question we should be asking is what we would want to use while driving, so here are a few basic apps, features, and services the average user would like to see on their infotainment screen.
Maps and navigation.
Voice calls and messaging.
Relevant notifications.
Music and radio.
Voice control.
It’s clear most of this will be covered by core apps, but there is always room for improvement. A lot of content streaming services are bound to pounce, because everybody loves good tunes on the road, whether they are streamed from your personal collection in the cloud, or if you are into talk radio. Maps and navigation are also covered by core apps and popular third-party solutions. Core apps will handle notifications, voice calls, messaging and voice commands.
Creating Opportunities For Small Developers
This does not leave much room for small third-party developers or startups keen to get in on the action. They will have to be creative and carve out an all-new niche if they want to make it big. They will have to be original, or cater to a very small group of potential users, like motoring enthusiasts.
This is an obvious problem, because small developers can be very agile, innovative, and they are a vital part of any app ecosystem. Still, this does not mean there is no room for them. Monetization will be a problem because startups and independent developers won’t be able to rely on ads. Even if they could, it wouldn’t make much difference due to the small user base and the fact that these apps wouldn’t be used nearly as often as their smartphone counterparts. Few automotive apps will be free (save for existing services trying to enter a new market), and I suspect many niche apps will end up with a hefty price tag to justify development and ensure ROI in a reasonable timeframe. There is also a chance industry leaders will try to subsidise development, but it’s too early to say.
Personally, I am a cautious optimist. We will see people with good ideas and the know-how to execute them and create entirely new services for these platforms. It might not be as straightforward as creating a cross-platform app, but risk-takers often hit the bullseye and build successful services.
So let’s take a look at what could be accomplished and which niches could be covered:
Road safety.
Security and insurance liability.
Applications for motoring enthusiasts.
Fuel economy applications.
Health and ergonomics.
Safety is obviously a great selling point, so developers could focus on some aspects not covered by core apps. It all depends on how elaborate the infotainment system is, whether it is opened up properly, and if there is room for improvement on preinstalled, stock solutions.
For example, how about an app that would collect anonymous information on the average speed of vehicles traveling on a particular stretch of road? Store the info in the cloud, match the vehicle type, road conditions, eliminate the outlier results (top and bottom 5%), and you could end up with a very simple way of informing the driver whether or not they are driving in a safe speed range (which they could define themselves, matching their personal preferences, abilities and their vehicle). If you are approaching a few hairpins, the system could warn you that other drivers slow down just behind the curve, or that they know something you don’t (i.e. the location of speed cameras). This would allow all drivers to rely on the experience of other drivers who are familiar with that particular road.
Security and insurance liability is another niche that could make a lot of sense, especially in some markets. In certain parts of the world, a huge number of drivers rely on dashcams. They act like cheap black boxes and help clamp down on insurance fraud. As an added bonus, we also get to see some amazing YouTube videos. A modern infotainment system could provide a lot more information than a dumb dashcam. You could extract location, acceleration/deceleration data, speed at impact and so on. This would, obviously, make many court cases and insurance claims an open and shut affair.
Theft is another problem, although it would be much harder to address with technology. Sure, you could set up some IP cameras that could identify the car thief as soon as they break in, but there is an inherent weakness to this approach; professional crooks already use jammers for cell phone frequencies and GPS signals.
Petrol heads might get some interesting apps that would allow them to interface with the vehicle’s On-Board Diagnostics (OBD) system. This would save a few expensive and unnecessary trips to the garage, but it could also provide motorists with additional information. Some of it could be displayed in real time, transforming the infotainment screen into a bunch of dials capable of displaying info the average driver couldn’t care less about. Some developers have already made a name for themselves in this niche, and if you are not familiar with the concept, you can check out the highly acclaimed Torque Pro app for more details.
Fuel economy could be improved with smart tech as well. The system could track your commute and figure out the most economical route, the most frugal driving style, and it could help you track expenses, compare prices at different petrol stations and so on. This could be of particular interest to fleet operators and businesses in general.
Health apps aren’t an obvious choice when it comes to automotive platforms, but bear with me. Thanks to wearables, we could feed the system with some important data, like the heart rate of the driver, physical activity and movement, and so on. The infotainment system could warn drivers to take a break if they are stressed out, or if they haven’t taken a break and stretched their legs for hours. What if new cars integrate driver-facing cameras? Those could also be used to check the driver’s posture and sound off if they notice the driver is about to doze off behind the wheel.
Why Develop For Apple CarPlay And Android Auto?
If you are interested in checking out the automotive niche, and if you think you have what it takes to develop for Android Auto, or Apple CarPlay, the official dev pages are the obvious place to start.
The Android Auto developer page offers a lot of useful info and resources, with more on the way. The focus is on extending your app to work in vehicles, so Google offers clear guidelines for Android Auto UI design, messaging apps, audio apps and so on. The best practices section is home to a lot of helpful info, so be sure to check it out if you want to get a clear picture of Google’s vision.
There aren’t as many freely available resources for Apple CarPlay, at least not for the time being. Since both platforms are still wet behind the ears, it’s understandable that the volume of documentation is limited.
On the face of it, the two platforms are similar, but Google’s appears to be more flexible and “smarter.” Since both are likely to evolve, it’s too early to pass judgement and say which will come out on top. I already mentioned some market forecasts, and it seems that both platforms will be evenly matched in terms of overall sales.
However, there are a few considerations developers should keep in mind. Since the lifecycle of these products will be much longer, users will be stuck with whatever they get for years. This isn’t a big deal when you buy a $300 tablet, but what about a $30,000 car? What if you decide to swap your Nexus for an iPhone, or vice versa? Well, you might as well buy a new car, because it won’t work. It’s probable that these systems will lock in users for years, forcing them to choose a mobile platform when they buy a new car, and stick with it. Most car makers are expected to offer both systems (as an optional extra, obviously), but this is not an elegant solution. What if your spouse or kids don’t use the same mobile OS as you? What if your car’s resale value is negatively affected by your choice of infotainment platform?
What about older cars? The good news is that aftermarket head units with CarPlay and Android Auto are showing up, but they aren’t cheap. Sooner or later Chinese white-box outfits will start making their own versions for a couple of hundred bucks. However, installing aftermarket head units in many modern cars can be tricky, so it’s a turn-off for many car owners.
In any case, despite their limitations and slow uptake, smart automotive platforms will become a significant niche market by the time the decade is out. Hardware outfits and carmakers will make a few billion dollars, but the potential for developers will remain limited for years to come.
Is Developing For Car Infotainment Systems like Android Auto and Apple Carplay the Next Big Thing?
On Thursday, the hacking group Anonymous claim to leak Donald Trump’s personal information including his Social Security number and cell phone number. Anonymous twitter account with 1.61 million followers tweeted a link to video that so called blast Trumps information. The information is a bit outdated, a lot of it has been on the internet for a year now.
Trump campaign say they have launched an investigation with authorities, aka the U.S Secret Service. They want to arrest the people responsible for attempting to illegally hack Trumps accounts.
Fox news state “Anonymous has already declared war on Trump”.
Source: http://www.foxnews.com/tech/2016/03/18/hackers-target-donald-trump-claim-to-leak-his-social-security-number.html
Hackers target Donald Trump, claim to leak his Social Security number
I hope you are not sleeping on Whatsapp. Just in case, WhatsApp Messenger is a cross-platform mobile messaging app which allows you to exchange messages without having to pay for SMS. You can leave voice recordings and make phone calls using your data. So I was reading an article by idownloadblog.com this evening about WhatsApp decision to remove annual subscription fees. As a consumer, this is awesome. I use this app frequently to communicate with international coworkers without using international calling on my phone. It’s a great feature that I would pay the 99 cent fee to continue using it. However, the company says that most consumers that uses the app doesn’t have a debit or credit card. The best option to prevent a halt in growth, is to just drop the fee. Fine with me!!
Along with this information, the company also announced a few new features with WhatsApp version 2.12.16.
You can now choose to save incoming media for specific chats in contact info or group info
Pull down on in-app notifications to quickly reply to them
Missed call notifications will now appear inside of chats
Share PDFs from other apps into WhatsApp.
Share PDF’s was a great idea. However, I would prefer to use email, Skype for Business or another business application to share documents.
Source: http://www.idownloadblog.com/2016/03/18/whatsapp-in-app-alerts-improvements/
Source: http://www.idownloadblog.com/2016/01/18/whatsapp-free-for-everyone/
WhatsApp Stop Charging annual subscription fee's
Turns out North-Bit, a software research agency, conducted research that proves 275 million Android devices could be prone to a hack. The security concern is within Android software library, Stagefright, which is Androids core component. Stagefright is collective name for a group of software bugs that affect versions 2.2(“Froyo”) to 4.0 and newer Android OS.
Sources state that Android operating systems 5.0 and 5.1 on HTC One, LG G3 or Samsung S5 are vulnerable to the new exploit.
In order for an attacker to succeed, they must bypass your security by tricking you to click on an infected link within a web page long enough for the hack to complete.
No fix yet, so watch what you are clicking!! I'm just saying.
Source: http://citifmonline.com/2016/03/18/275-million-android-devices-at-risk-from-hacking-report/
275 million Android devices can be at risk of a hack
The average Instagram user misses 70 percent of what’s in their feed, including great photos with tons of Likes and posts by their best friends. So today Instagram announced it will start rearranging the order of posts in its feed. Rather than strictly reverse chronological, Instagram will order posts “based on the likelihood you’ll be interested in the content, your relationship with the person posting and the timeliness of the post.”
The testing will start out slowly; at least at first “all the posts will still be there, just in a different order.” But eventually, low-quality posts might be filtered out entirely.
The changes mean if you don’t check your feed until the next morning but a friend whose photos you usually Like posted something awesome the night before, it could appear at the top of your feed even if it is hours old. This is essentially how Facebook’s feed works, and how Twitter recently reconfigured its feed to work.
On the one hand, the relevancy-optimized Instagram feed will make sure you don’t miss great content even if you don’t neurotically check it all the time. You’ll be able to follow more accounts without worrying about them drowning out your favorites. And it will be easier to keep up with international friends who might normally post while you’re asleep.
At the same time, remixing the feed will make Instagram less useful as a real-time content feed because the most recent posts won’t necessarily be at the top. Users will have to worry about making their posts good enough to be chosen by the algorithm or their posts could be de-prioritized. And brands might lose the reach of a previously reliable marketing channel, the same way they did with Facebook Pages.
Filtered feeds tend to score more attention from users, as there are few boring posts that push them to close the app and do something else. And at this point, Instagram is so ingrained in people’s lives that they’re unlikely to ditch it over this change. But with Instagram and Twitter both moving to algorithmically sorted feeds, getting seen on social media will become more of a competition than ever.
Source: http://techcrunch.com/2016/03/15/filteredgram/
Instagram is switching its feed from chronological to best posts first
Google is changing how its massive webcrawler, Googlebot, is identified when accessing websites. Googlebot's job is to scan the internet and add any new websites or updated webpages to Google's index, a catalogue that underlies its search engine. When doing this, Googlebot will pretend to be different devices in order to test the performance of individual sites on smartphones, laptops, tablets, etc. Right now, Googlebot tests mobile websites by pretending to be an iPhone running iOS 8.3. But that will change on April 18 when Googlebot will begin appearing as a Google Nexus 5X smartphone running Android 6.0.1 Marshmallow.
According to Google's Webmaster Central Blog, the switch will let Googlebot better understand web pages that use newer web technologies like HTML5. It's also making the switch because the tool that Googlebot uses to render webpages has been updated over time to behave more like an Android phone's native browser (Google Chrome) than an iPhone's native browser (Safari).
This could be seen as a symbolic move on Google's part, as iPhones have lost marketshare to Android phones over the past year. But in practical terms, the switch doesn't mean much. Google says that it should go unnoticed by most everyone, promising 99 percent of all websites won't be affected. Those could be sites already trying to block Googlebot from finding them. Anyone worried about the change can use Google's Fetch and Render tool to figure out if the mobile version of their site will continue to be catalogued as normal.
Source: http://www.theverge.com/2016/3/16/11244790/google-googlebot-webcrawler-iphone-nexus-5x-switch
Googlebot switches from iPhone to Android
The FBI wants Apple to do something no private company has ever been forced to do: break its own technology. Specifically, the FBI wants Apple to build a new version of its mobile operating system (iOS, or GovOS) so that the contents of an iPhone can be removed from an iPhone used by Syed Farook, one of the gunmen in the San Bernardino shooting.
A magistrate judge recently ordered Apple to comply with this request; Apple in turn filed a Motion to Vacate (MTV) the magistrate’s order. The key point made in the MTV — and the key issue on which this entire case hangs — is that complying with the FBI’s request would weaken a valuable encryption platform at a time when the United States desperately needs stronger, more effective encryption.
There is an arms race to create more-sophisticated, harder-to-crack encryption tools, and if the FBI gets its way, we will be running that race with a self-imposed handicap.
This week Apple is appearing before Congress to address the issues raised above. For those unable to attend the hearings, I want to explore how Apple is thinking about the FBI’s legal authority to compel the company to create new software to crack Apple’s security measures.
After exploring that legal issue, we’ll consider the broader constitutional stakes involved in this case. After all, it’s not everyday that the U.S. government asks a private company to undermine a technology platform without providing any concrete evidence that doing so will make Americans safer.
To understand what the law says, we must first properly frame what the FBI is trying to compel Apple to do. Without a precise understanding of what the FBI is demanding in this case, it is hard to clearly say that the FBI is trying to overstep its bounds.
What is the FBI seeking here? First, the FBI is demanding that Apple make a new software product. Second, that software product would have to be designed in accordance with specifications provided to Apple by the FBI. Third, once Apple created that software product, it would have to test the product to ensure it met Apple’s own quality standards. Fourth and finally, Apple would have to test and validate this software product so that criminal defendants would be able to exercise their constitutional rights to challenge the government’s legal claims as provided by the Federal Rules of Evidence (FRE).
Forcing a company to break its own technology appears to be something a dictatorship might do, not a democracy like the United States.
Simply put, the FBI is demanding that Apple create a new software product that meets specifications provided by the FBI. As Apple clearly articulates in its MTV, the FBI is demanding “the compelled creation of intellectual property.” The legal grounds for the FBI’s demand come from the Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act (CALEA) and the All Writs Act (AWA).
With this understanding in mind, what does the law say? Is there any law that allows a government agency such as the FBI to compel private companies to create new software products?
Let us begin with the key law regulating the interception of electronic communications, CALEA. This law was enacted to carefully control the government’s right and ability to intercept communications in order to enforce the laws of the United States. Specifically, CALEA outlines the circumstances in which a private company must provide law enforcement with assistance in order to effectively carry out electronic surveillance.
Under CALEA, there is a strong argument that Apple cannot be legally required to create new software of any kind for any department of the federal government. When Congress passed CALEA, it had the opportunity to include device manufacturers like Apple within the scope of the law. Congress decided to require telecommunications companies to ensure that their equipment and facilities are built in a way that allows the government to conduct surveillance on the basis of a lawful surveillance warrant.
In other words, telecommunications companies have to build in a back door. However, under CALEA, Apple is not a telecommunications company; instead, Apple is considered an “information service” to which CALEA does not apply. In short, Congress made it clear they did not intend for CALEA to even apply to companies like Apple.
Even if CALEA applied to Apple, the FBI would not be entitled under CALEA to force the company to break its encryption protocol. The statute in section 1002(b)(3) states that telecommunications companies are not responsible for decrypting communications “unless the encryption (1) was provided by the carrier and (2) the carrier possesses the information necessary to decrypt the communication.”
Because Apple does not currently possess that information, even an improperly broad interpretation of CALEA would not compel Apple to create GovOS in this case. The FBI can ask, but under CALEA it cannot compel.
The All Writs Act (AWA) also does not allow the FBI to compel Apple to create new software. Enacted in 1789 as a stop-gap that allows the government to efficiently administer its given legislative privileges, the AWA is being given an impermissibly broad interpretation by the FBI.
According to that interpretation, this stop-gap gives courts any relief that is not specially prohibited by existing law. So, if there’s no law expressly prohibiting Apple from being compelled to write code for the FBI, then the AWA gives courts the authority to force the company to do just that.
Apple should do what is necessary to preserve our enduring constitutional values.
Let’s take a completely make-believe example. Imagine that a federal law gives a particular agency the right to do X, but doing X is hard and costly. The AWA might be invoked to help get X done more efficiently. But the key is this: The AWA is only appropriate when there’s already a federal law or a constitutional principle that gives the particular agency the right to do X in the first place. That is precisely why the AWA cannot be lawfully used by the FBI in this case: The FBI has no underlying right to compel Apple to create new software products.
If this seems like a legal technicality, zoom out a bit and reconsider that for just a minute. Imagine if the Department of Homeland Security used the AWA to argue that citizens with certain last names should be subject to arbitrary detention to make it easier to catch terrorists. Would that violate American values and our system of laws? Absolutely.
Alternatively, consider a scenario in which the Department of Energy tried to use the AWA to force federally funded universities to “donate” resources to the DOE in order to enhance its Energy Materials Network. Would this be inappropriate? It would be completely inappropriate, because the DOE does not have the underlying legal right to force universities to do this.
In a nation of laws, the FBI’s attempt to expand the AWA is dangerous. The FBI’s interpretation of the AWA transforms the law into something it was never meant to be: a tool granting government agencies boundless powers not authorized under the Constitution or in existing federal law.
Lawyers have a fancy way of describing this problem. They say that expanding the AWA violates the separation of powers between the federal courts and Congress. After all, what is the purpose of Congress if our courts are allowed to expand federal law without any meaningful limitations? One might go further still and say that forcing a company to break its own technology appears to be something a dictatorship might do, not a democracy like the United States.
Fortunately, a Brooklyn judge recently ruled, in a separate but similar case involving a demand from the Department of Justice to unlock an iPhone, that the AWA only empowers courts with “residual authority to issue orders that are consistent with the usages and principles of law.” Judge Orenstein explicitly condemned the government’s overreach in that case, echoing the exact concerns explored above: “The implications of the government’s position are so far-reaching — both in terms of what it would allow today and what it implies about Congressional intent in 1789 — as to produce impermissibly absurd results.”
What should Apple do?
Apple should do what is necessary to preserve our enduring constitutional values, including life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. Those values also include the privacy and speech rights protected by the Constitution. The First Amendment famously protects an individual’s right to say what he or she thinks or feels, and the Fourth Amendment guarantees that Americans shall be free of unreasonable searches and seizure.
These values and constitutional ideals are not mere commodities to be traded away, but are instead regulative ideals that capture and define who we are. Such ideals must remain unmolested by the temporary whims of each and every government agency. That’s what it means to be a nation of laws that is guided by a constitution.
In this particular case, Apple has a responsibility to resist the FBI’s efforts to force the company to undermine the security measures in its mobile operating system. To understand what is at stake here, one has to think deeply about what the world would be like if Apple were to comply with the FBI’s demands.
Imagine that Apple complied with the FBI. To do so, Apple would need to build a new version of iOS (GovOS) that does three things.
First, GovOS would bypass the auto-erase function for an individual iPhone. This feature is designed to prevent third parties from getting unauthorized access to an iPhone’s contents.
Second, Apple’s newly minted GovOS would need to provide the FBI a new way of electronically submitting passwords to a particular iOS device. At present, these passwords must be manually submitted, and each incorrect password submission results in a delay before another attempt can be made.
Third, and finally, GovOS would disable the delay between incorrect password submissions. In a nutshell, GovOS would be a special version of iOS that allowed an iPhone to be cracked automatically without knowing the owner’s password.
The FBI, then, is asking Apple to build a technology that destroys the value of the key security mechanisms built into its mobile operating system: The FBI wants to force a private company to build a tool that completely breaks the security technology for what is arguably the world’s gold-standard for mobile operating systems, iOS.
On this narrow issue, the FBI has to agree and concede this critical point. For the FBI cannot say that (1) it needs Apple’s assistance to crack an iPhone but (2) Apple’s assistance would not break a world-class encryption product. Once the FBI says that it needs Apple’s help, the FBI can’t honestly challenge the fact that the help it seeks would utterly break a security suite that Apple has spent years developing.
A recent conversation with information security expert John Sebes (formerly of Securify, acquired by McAfee) put this issue into proper context. Imagine you are building a security mechanism for your mobile ecosystem. You have spent years developing this system because you want to provide your customers, private citizens as well as the government, a software product that is secure. Your intention, in other words, is to create a product that protects the security and integrity of information your customers place on any device that has that security mechanism.
Now, someone comes along and asks you to make a special technology that defeats your security mechanism. If you go ahead and create this special technology, what happens to the retained value of the security mechanism that you took so many years to create? It simply vanishes because your customers now know that you have designed a way to undermine your supposedly world-class security mechanism. No one has to wonder whether this security mechanism could be broken; you’ve already demolished it.
This is a key insight lost on many who argue that the FBI’s request can be honored without eliminating the value of Apple’s security features on iOS. Many have said that Apple or the FBI could protect the integrity of GovOS by maintaining a special lab specially designed to make sure no bad guys ever got access to GovOS.
Do you see the irony here? The agents in charge of this case are effectively admitting that they are deeply confused, because here’s what they’re saying: Once Apple makes technology B (GovOS) to compromise technology A (standard iOS), we’ll make sure that technology B can never, ever be compromised because we’ll make a special super-secure room that no one will ever be able to break into.
The idea that a super-secure place, virtual or real, can be designed to make sure none of the bad guys ever get ahold of GovOS is really, really silly. “If human beings can in any way touch the code, to create it in the first place or modify it later, then human beings can copy and steal it, period,” noted Mr. Sebes. Further condensed: If you can touch it, it can be stolen.
This is precisely the point: There is no perfect “super-secure room” to hide GovOS so only the good guys can use it to catch the bad guys. So, in a world where Apple created GovOS for the FBI, a couple of things would happen immediately.
First, the retained value of iOS’s security protocol would vanish. All of Apple’s customers, including government agencies, would know that iOS has been cracked. Reflect for a second on what this means: In this imagined future, we would all know with certainty that iOS could be breached.
Second, the bad guys would have an additional incentive to rely on non-Apple encryption technologies from third-party vendors. After all, once the bad guys know with certainty that Apple’s products are not secure, they will want to use tools that are not susceptible to countermeasures by the U.S. government.
Third, while the bad guys transition to third-party encryption vendors, Apple would have to rethink its strategy. Because its individual and government customers would know that iOS’s core security features had been defeated, the company would have to decide whether it should continue investing in best-of-breed encryption technology.
It’s really hard to say how Apple would internally approach this question. Yet one thing would loom large in the minds of Apple executives: Technological advances in encryption would no longer matter to consumers because they would no longer have any reason to believe that encryption is, well, what it’s meant to be — a technology that prevents any and all third parties from accessing one’s data.
Perhaps this is the right time to share Franklin’s adage about the moral quality, or lack thereof, of folks who want to trade privacy for a little temporary security. Franklin wrote the following to the Pennsylvania Assembly in 1755: “Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety.”
I truly wish Franklin’s quote sufficed to describe the constitutional predicament we are in today. But matters are far worse than that. Franklin’s quote imagines a scenario where “temporary safety” can indeed be purchased by giving up liberty. That’s not the bargain the FBI is offering.
Instead, the FBI is offering what some people have called a grand bargain — where A gives something of concrete value to B, but B is not required to clearly specify what A will receive in return. In this case, Apple is being asked to give something of concrete value to the FBI (e.g. the time of its engineers) but it is totally unclear what the FBI is giving back to Apple or to the American people.
In a nutshell, here’s where we are: A government agency is trying to force the world’s most valuable technology company to break its encryption technology despite (1) having no legal authority to do so and (2) being unable to articulate what they hope to achieve on behalf of the American people. Sounds like a grand bargain to me.
Source: http://techcrunch.com/2016/03/13/why-apple-is-right-to-resist-the-fbi/
Why Apple is right to resist the FBI
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Impeachment of Bill Clinton
It is very disappointing that many Democrats, government officials, and members of the legal profession were not outraged by President Clinton’s clear perjury in the Paula Jones sexual harassment lawsuit.
Apparently, they either fail to understand or else don’t care that his contemptible example can cause severe damage to the justice system and society at large.
The problem of perjury is already very serious in the legal field. Former prosecutor Vincent Bugliosi, who prosecuted the Charles Manson case, says perjury in criminal trials is so common as to be routine. He also states that experienced prosecutors are not surprised by perjury and expect to encounter it.
In their book No Contest: Corporate Lawyers and the Perversion of Justice in America, Ralph Nader and Wesley J. Smith report that a similar problem exists in civil litigation. They show that many corporate clients want their attorneys to employ win-at-all-costs tactics, including lying and concealing evidence. And they say many lawyers oblige by viewing their duty to zealously represent clients as meaning to “obstruct, lie, obfuscate, and abuse.”
In the Jones lawsuit, Clinton’s perjury occurred during discovery – an area where perjury is often a problem. Legal commentator Stuart Taylor Jr. writes: “I fear [that] the discovery process has been clogged by a culture of evasion and deceit that accounts for much of its grotesque wastefulness, and the adversary system has been perverted from an engine of truth into a license for lawyerly lies.”
These problems may get worse in the coming years. A 1996 study by the Josephson Institute of Ethics found that the 15- to 30-year-old generation is more likely to engage in dishonest and irresponsible behavior than previous generations. The same organization reported in 1998 that huge numbers of young people admit to lying to their parents, cheating on tests, and stealing from stores.
Blatant perjury and obstruction of justice by the president, and a dismissive attitude toward those crimes by many government officials, will only exacerbate the ethical deficiencies in the legal system and among young people. As great leaders and philosophers have recognized for millennia, the acts of government officials set a moral tone for the rest of society.
For example, Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis wrote: “Our government is the potent, the omnipresent teacher. For good or ill, it teaches the whole people by its example. Crime is contagious. If the government becomes a lawbreaker, it breeds contempt for law; it invites every man to become a law unto himself; it invites anarchy.”
By ignoring or minimizing the potential effect of Clinton’s criminal example, public officials and the legal profession turned a blind eye not only to society’s need for proper role models but to the tremendous harm perjury causes.
The great nineteenth-century lawyer and orator Robert Ingersoll eloquently described that harm: “If there is an infamous crime in the world it is the crime of perjury. All the sneaking instincts; all the groveling, crawling instincts unite and blend in this one crime called perjury. It clothes itself . . . in the shining vestments of an oath in order that it may tell a lie.
“Perjury poisons the wells of truth, the sources of justice. Perjury leaps from the hedges of circumstance, from the walls of fact, to assassinate justice and innocence. . . . Perjury can change the common air that we breathe into the axe of an executioner. Perjury out of this air can forge manacles for free hands.”
Clinton’s perjury constituted an outrageous attempt to prevent justice from being upheld in the Jones case and in the federal grand jury’s investigation. His example sends a terrible message to young people and the rest of society. It increases the probability that others will commit the same crime, and thus may cause more innocent victims to be harmed by perjury.
Furthermore, a reason the law prohibits convicted perjurers from holding public office is that they have shown, in attempting to undermine justice by lying under oath, that they cannot be trusted to uphold their oath of office and administer justice as a public official. If the Senate had applied this principle during impeachment, Clinton would not have been left in a position to again subvert justice, such as by pardoning the billionaire fugitive Marc Rich and other lawbreakers.
Rich was on the U.S. Justice Department’s list of “most wanted” international fugitives. Officials in the department were stunned to learn that he had been granted a full and unconditional pardon. Even members of Clinton’s inner circle and his strongest supporters in Congress viewed this act, and a number of other pardons issued during his last days in office, as terrible miscarriages of justice.
Because perjury is such a serious crime – particularly when committed by a high government official – Clinton should have resigned from office or Congress should have removed him.
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Joint ownership and the hold-up problem under asymmetric information
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Patrick W. Schmitz
In the standard property rights theory, joint ownership cannot be optimal, because it induces smaller investments in human capital than ownership by a single party. This result can be overturned if the parties have private information about the payoffs they can realize on their own.
Schmitz, Patrick W., 2008. "Joint ownership and the hold-up problem under asymmetric information," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 99(3), pages 577-580, June.
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Schmitz, Patrick W, 2007. "Joint Ownership and the Hold-up Problem Under Asymmetric Information," CEPR Discussion Papers 6478, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
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Valeria Gattai & Piergiovanna Natale, 2014. "Joint Ventures and the Property Rights Theory of the Firm: a Review of the Literature," Working Papers 287, University of Milano-Bicocca, Department of Economics, revised Dec 2014.
Kurt Annen, 2009. "Efficiency out of disorder: Contested ownership in incomplete contracts," RAND Journal of Economics, RAND Corporation, vol. 40(4), pages 597-610.
JEL classification:
D23 - Microeconomics - - Production and Organizations - - - Organizational Behavior; Transaction Costs; Property Rights
D82 - Microeconomics - - Information, Knowledge, and Uncertainty - - - Asymmetric and Private Information; Mechanism Design
D86 - Microeconomics - - Information, Knowledge, and Uncertainty - - - Economics of Contract Law
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IDSA COMMENT
Home » Publications » IDSA Comment
Contextualizing Madhesi Frustration in the Wake of Nepal’s New Constitution
Pramod Jaiswal
Pramod Jaiswal is Research Intern from Nepal at the Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses, New Delhi. He is also a Ph.D. candidate at South Asian Studies, School of International Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi.
At a time when Nepal should be celebrating its most awaited Constitution, people in the southern plains (known as Madhesis) who constitute almost half the population, are revolting against it. The Constitution, aimed at establishing lasting peace, has instead triggered fresh conflicts as it is being shunned by the marginalised communities such as Madhesis, Tharus, Janajatis, Dalits and women. The Government of Nepal has mobilised the Army as well as the Armed Police Force and has declared a curfew in several parts of the southern plains as the conflict has escalated and resulted in the tragic death of more than 40 people. A last ditch effort by the Indian Prime Minister’s special envoy S. Jaishankar failed to convince Nepal’s major political parties to take measures to pacify the situation.
Madhes and Madhesis
Madhes refers to the low-lying land in Nepal bordering India. It consists of about a quarter of the country’s total land area, stretching horizontally for about 885 km from the Mahakali River in the west to the Mechi River in the east, with a width varying from four to 52 km. It also includes the lower reaches of the Himalayas, known as the Siwalik range, with its valleys in certain areas in the north (the inner Madhes). The Madhes region, alternately called the Terai, is now home to half the country’s population, although the Madhesis residing in the region are only one third of the total population. The American scholar Fredrick H. Gaige projects the importance of Madhes thus: it contains 87 per cent of forest resources and generates 75 per cent of land revenue, 93 per cent of excise duty and 70 per cent of customs duty. In effect, Madhes generates about 77 per cent of the public revenue of the state.
Yet, the Madhesis are under-represented in all areas of national life. They are inadequately represented in state organs — they occupy less than 12 per cent of the posts in the judiciary, executive, legislature, political parties, industry and civil society, and less than five per cent in international organisations and multilateral donor agencies. Their representation is negligible in the security forces, particularly in the army, which does not have a single senior Madhesi officer.
The region is subjected to economic discrimination as well. Madhes is the backbone of the national economy, containing more than 60 per cent of agricultural land and contributing over two thirds of the GDP. However, the development of Madhes has been ignored for decades. National projects are devised in such a manner that the region hardly benefits from them. For example, the East-West highway, a vital transport artery, does not connect even one Madhes district headquarter directly. These districts are linked to the highway through poorly built feeder roads. The emphasis on a single language in clear disregard of the languages spoken in the region has also contributed to Madhesis’s marginalisation in some ways.
Citizenship Rights have been one of the major issues of concern for the Madhesis. The 1964 Citizenship Act and the 1990 Constitution imposed stringent criteria based on descent, which sought to disregard the claims of citizenship of the Madhesi people through naturalisation. Ironically, local officials often demand land ownership titles before granting citizenship even though without citizenship it is not possible to obtain land ownership titles. A government commission in 1994 reported that almost 3.5 million Madhesis have not yet obtained citizenship certificates. Those without citizenship cannot apply for government jobs, register births or marriages, get a passport, compete in elections, register a business, obtain bank loans or access government social benefits.
History of the Madhes Movement
The discrimination and exploitation of the Madhesis and the fight against it is not new. In 1951, Vedanand Jha had established the ‘Terai Congress’ with the following objectives: the establishment of an autonomous Terai state, recognition of Hindi language and adequate representation of Madhesis in the Civil Service. Similarly, Raghunath Thakur established the ‘Madhesi Mukti Aandolan’ in 1956 to fight against the discrimination and exploitation of the Madhesis. As the state turned a deaf ear to such demands, many Madhesi leaders tried to use force to make their voices heard. In 1961, Durga Nanda Jha even attempted to assassinate King Mahendra, whose nationalism agenda alienated the Madhesis from the state. He exploded a bomb targeting Mahendra’s car during the latter’s visit to Janaki Temple in Janakpur.
During the 1960s, the Madhesis formed the ‘Terai Liberation Front’ to wage an armed struggle as they saw their land being grabbed by people from the hills even while they could not register the land they tilled in their name due to lack of citizenship certificates. The state suppressed the insurgency by killing top leaders such as Ramji Mishra, Raghunath Raya Yadav and Satyadev Mani Tripathi.
In order to spread their influence in Madhes, the Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist) included the problems of Madhes in their agenda with the slogan of ‘Autonomy through Federalism’. It attracted many Madhesis in their ‘People’s War’. Surprisingly, however, the Maoists compromised upon the issue of Federalism when they joined the Peace Process by signing the Comprehensive Peace Accord in 2006. Since then, Federalism has emerged as a key demand of all Madhesi groups. Armed outfits also emerged and Maoist-Madhesi tensions escalated in the region with some cases of serious violence. Only after strong protests in the region twice (in 2007 and in 2008) demanding federalism, inclusion and proportionate representation, that the mainstream political parties incorporated these in the Interim Constitution and agreed to attend to these issues while finalising the constitution. However, they have now failed to fulfil the promises made to the Madhesis; hence the current round of agitation for more than 40 days now.
The Present Crisis
The present crisis in Madhes erupted when the top leaders of the major political parties represented in the CA – the Nepali Congress, the Communist Party of Nepal (Unified Marxist Leninist), the Unified Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist), and the Madhesi People’s Rights Forum (Democratic) – signed the 16-point agreement and agreed to federate the country into eight provinces and promulgate a constitution. The state Assemblies of the respective provinces were authorised to resolve the issue of designating names by a two-thirds majority. At the same time, the leaders of major political parties agreed to form a Federal Commission that would have six months to delineate the boundaries of the federal provinces. But as a result of the outcry from the Madhesi parties, the major political parties agreed to demarcate the boundaries of the federal provinces.
Initially, six provinces were proposed; but later, the number was increased to seven. Yet, such proposals have failed to calm the Tharus and the Madhesis. Rather, they only instigated violent protests around the country and the only Madhesi party that had supported the 16-point agreement, the MJF-D, had to reverse its stance. Unfazed by such opposition, Nepal’s top leadership chose to move ahead with the constitution making process by ignoring the disgruntled forces. The promulgation of the Constitution on September 20 further inflamed the Madhesis and Tharus and their agitation has gathered further momentum since then. The voices for a separate Madhes are now getting stronger by the day and gaining a firm hold among the youth. If the Government of Nepal does not make a sincere effort to reach out to the people and the discontented parties and address their genuine demands and resolve the problem amicably, it may lead to disastrous consequences. The implementation of the Constitution can be possible only by generating a consensus to accommodate dissent rather than by shutting out differences through majoritarian bullying.
The major demands that are being raised by the Madhesis that have not been accommodated in the new Constitution are:
Group the 20 districts of Madhes in two federal provinces. The present federal structure separates five Madhes districts (Kanchanpur, Kailali, Sunsari, Jhapa and Morang) from Madhesh provinces and merges them with other proposed neighbouring provinces.
Delineate electoral constituencies based on population, geography and special characteristics which were accepted by the Interim Constitution after the Madhesh Movement of 2008.
Incorporate the right to participate in state structures on the basis of principles of proportional inclusion, which was accepted by the Interim Constitution. Similarly, seats in the national assembly should be allocated on a proportional basis. Since Madhes has 51 per cent of the population, out of the proposed 165 electoral constituencies being proposed for direct elections, 83 should be allocated to the provinces in the Madhes region.
Interim Constitution had provided for re-demarcation of electoral constituencies every 10 years, as per the census; the new constitution has increased it to 20 years. The Madhesi parties do not approve of this change.
Citizenship should be passed on through the name of the mother as well. There should be no discrimination based on citizenship acquired by descent or naturalisation. The new Constitution states that only citizens by descent will be entitled to hold the posts of President, Vice-President, Prime Minister, Chief Justice, Speaker of Parliament, Chairperson of National Assembly, Head of Province, Chief Minister, Speaker of Provincial Assembly and Chief of Security Bodies.
The Indian Angle
India was initially hesitant to openly speak for the Madhesis due to unsubstantiated allegations levelled by Kathmandu elites that it has had an invisible hand in influencing the politics of Madhes. However, the fact remains that most Madhesi leaders criticise India for not doing enough for them despite the cross border linguistic and cultural linkages. And they accuse India of always trying to please the Kathmandu elite to serve its own national interest and ignoring the interests of the Madhesis. They point out that there are not too many India-funded developmental projects in Madhes and those few which were implemented there were never completed on time. They cite the example of the postal highway— which is a long pending project— to prove their point. There is also an opinion that India discriminates against the Madhesis while recruiting soldiers from Nepal for the much touted Gorkha regiments.
India’s expression of displeasure at the promulgation of the Constitution is being interpreted differently by the Madhesis. They argue that India was forced to behave like this for fear of the spill-over effect of the ongoing instability on the bordering provinces of India. There was also the feeling of betrayal or having been taken for a ride by the Kathmandu leadership who promised India a consensus-based constitution but ended up producing a majoritarian document ignoring the aspirations of a substantial number of the people of Nepal.
Aware of the tense situation prevailing in the region and its future cross-border implications, India had reportedly asked the top leaders of Nepal to accommodate all the groups and only then promulgate the Constitution even if it were to delay the process by a week or two. However, the top three leaders (Sushil Koirala, K.P. Oli and Pushpa Kamal Dahal) were in a desperate rush to get the Constitution promulgated, disregarding the advice from India to take along all the segments of Nepal’s population. With the deteriorating law and order situation and its effect on the border areas in India, especially at a time when elections are on the anvil in Bihar, India was finally forced to break its silence. Prime Minister Modi dispatched his most-trusted diplomat as his special envoy to resolve the crisis. Unfortunately, it was too late.
It goes without saying that an unstable and turbulent Nepal is not in India’s interest. Therefore, India has been trying its best to facilitate and bring the government and discontented groups to the table and resolve the outstanding issues amicably. Being a guarantor to the Peace Process, India has a right and a moral duty to involve itself in the process of change taking shape in Nepal. However, it has to tread cautiously and get the genuine rights for the historically marginalised groups recognized in the constitution. India, which has had direct or indirect influence on all the major political transitions in Nepal ought not to hesitate to get engaged with the process. Historically speaking, all the major political parties have garnered Indian support time and again to achieve their goals.
Long running instability and violation of human rights in Madhes is bound to attract international attention and interference. With the rising domestic violence in its backyard, India may also witness a domino effect in its bordering regions. Given its major investments and stakes in Nepal, India can ill afford to let the situation deteriorate especially when it has a long and open border with Nepal.
The present tension is between the state and the marginalised groups – not between Pahadis and Madhesis, as many analysts are projecting it. Ironically, the Kathmandu elites wrongly portray it as a tussle between India and Nepal. India has only raised its genuine security concerns as the entire Madhes region, along its border with Nepal, is witnessing unprecedented turmoil. The Madhesis are demanding implementation of the terms of previous agreements between their leadership and the power elite in Kathmandu. Unfortunately, the top leaders in Kathmandu have not shown enough sincerity and concern to thrash out the issues with the Madhesi leadership. Rather, they are falsely projecting it as Madhesi jingoism encouraged by India.
The only way to resolve the crisis is to acknowledge Madeshis as genuine citizens of Nepal, whose respect and dignity can be protected by a clear recognition of their rights in the new constitution. Any attempt to narrowly define Nepali nationalism and turn it into an exclusionary identity will lead to unnecessary chaos and confrontation, which the people of Nepal do not deserve. The spirit of Jana Andolan II must guide Nepalese leaders to recognise the genuine demands of the marginalised groups and put an end to the ongoing crisis.
Pramod Jaiswal is an Independent Analyst on South Asia Affairs and was previously associated with IDSA as an intern with the South Asian Centre.
Views expressed are of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the IDSA or of the Government of India
Oli’s India visit: Resetting bilateral relations for mutual benefit
BIMSTEC at 20: Hopes and Apprehensions
Post-Constitution Shivers in Nepal and India’s Response
New Nepal, Old Politics
Nepal's New Constitution: An Analysis from the Madheshi Perspective
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Two UCF Business Incubation Program Companies Receive $529,000 From Space Florida and Israel Partnership
July 12, 2018 /in 2018, Client News, News /by Michael Weiss
Orlando, Fla., July 13, 2018 – In a unique method of providing innovation for the future, two UCF Business Incubation Program client companies have been awarded funding for aerospace technology research and development through a partnership program connecting Florida businesses with Israeli companies.
Geeks and Nerds and Semplastics, were part of two of four partnerships selected for this year’s funding out of 14 partnerships that applied.
“This provides us a fantastic opportunity to create a new material system for space and aerospace applications,” says Bill Easter, CEO, Semplastics. “We look forward to doing our part to further the commercial space industry in Central Florida.”
The Semplastics partnership is with Israeli-based Polymertal. The two companies applied to develop a new class of material with high commercial value. They intend to merge their technologies and create unique, hybrid components with superior strength and high-temperature operating capabilities simultaneously reducing weight by 70 percent.
The award is valued at $240,000.
Geeks and Nerds’ partnership was with Israeli-based Astronautics, which has a significant presence in the commercial aviation industry. The plan is for Geeks and Nerds to develop a FlightShield product, which will be integrated into the electronic flight bag aboard air and spacecraft to prevent cyber-attacks while also providing on-board anomaly detection.
The Geeks and Nerds award is valued at $288,579.
“The Space Florida grant provides Geeks and Nerds Corporation a tremendous opportunity to utilize and enhance our cybersecurity technologies and bring them to the commercial aviation market.” Said Jeff Frost, Vice President, Geeks and Nerds “The UCF incubator soft-landing program was an instrumental partner providing the collaborative support necessary to expand our Florida operations and realize this opportunity.”
In October 2013, Space Florida and Israel Innovation Fund created a $2 million recurring joint fund to support research, development and commercialization of aerospace and technology projects that benefit both Israel and Florida.
In a press release from Space Florida, Governor Rick Scott said: “Through the Florida-Israel Innovation Partnership, we have worked together to support businesses that are helping strengthen Florida and Israel as global leaders for innovation. I’d like to congratulate today’s recipients and I look forward to seeing the innovation that is produced thanks to this partnership. We will continue to work with our partners in Israel to support projects that create new opportunities for our families.”
For more information media should contact –
Jeff Frost, Geeks and Nerds, 256-690-3495, jeff.frost@geeksandnerds.com
Bill Easter, Semplastics, 407-353-6885, wgeaster@semplastics.com
Carol Ann Dykes Logue, UCF Business Incubation Program, 407-635-9882, carolann.dykeslogue@ucf.edu
Alan Byrd, Alan Byrd & Associates, 407-415-8470, Alan@ByrdConnections.com
About Geeks and Nerds: Geeks and Nerds (GaN) Corporation is an employee-owned small business appraised at CMMI Maturity Level 3. GaN, incorporated in 2004, has primed numerous multi-million-dollar contracts for customers such as Ballistic Missile Defense Evaluation Directorate (BMDED), White Sands Missile Range (WSMR), Operational Test Command (OTC), Redstone Test Center (RTC), Space and Missile Defense Command (SMDC), Corps of Engineers (COE), and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). GaN employs people across nine states and has been nationally recognized for outstanding leadership and business ethics since its inception. The company’s core capabilities of Cybersecurity, Test and Evaluation Support. For more information, visit geeksandnerds.com.
About the UCF Business Incubation Program: The University of Central Florida Business Incubation Program is a community resource that provides early-stage companies with the tools, training and infrastructure to become financially stable, high growth/impact enterprises. Since 1999, this award-winning program has helped more than 390 local startup companies reach their potential faster by providing vital business development resources.
With seven facilities throughout the region, the UCF Business Incubation Program is an economic development partnership between the University of Central Florida, the Corridor, Orange, Osceola, Seminole and Volusia counties, and the cities of Apopka, Kissimmee, Orlando and Winter Springs. For the 2014/15 and 2015/16 fiscal years, the activities of these participating firms have helped sustain more than 4,710 local jobs and have had a cumulative impact of more than $725 million on regional GDP and more than $1.3 billion on regional sales. During the same period, the program has returned $7.41 for every $1 invested in the program. For more information, visit incubator.ucf.edu
About Space Florida: Space Florida was created to strengthen Florida’s position as the global leader in aerospace research, investment, exploration and commerce. As Florida’s aerospace and spaceport development authority, we are committed to attracting and expanding the next generation of space industry businesses. With its highly trained workforce, proven infrastructure and unparalleled record of achievement, Florida is the ideal location for aerospace businesses to thrive – and Space Florida is the perfect partner to help them succeed. spaceflorida.gov.
https://incubator.ucf.edu/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/Geeks-and-Nerds.jpg 165 165 Michael Weiss https://incubator.ucf.edu/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/UILexternal_KGrgb_Business-Incubation-Program-72dpi-300x69.png Michael Weiss2018-07-12 16:26:412018-07-13 16:27:51Two UCF Business Incubation Program Companies Receive $529,000 From Space Florida and Israel Partnership
Client News Archive
Orlando tech firms UniKey, Voxx team up to push toward keyless, fobless car-door... How this UCF Incubator startup is using tech funded by NASA to diagnose dis...
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Advertise About
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B'ham Bizarre
Five Points South
Home Business Going above and beyond: Husband and wife open community-focused car repair shop
Going above and beyond: Husband and wife open community-focused car repair shop
by JESSE CHAMBERS
Jesse Chambers
Mota Autohaus
Manuel Mota, co-owner of Mota Autohaus in Birmingham, at work on a BMW, his specialty.
Manuel Mota, right, and his wife, Alexis Ginsburg, are the co-founders and co-owners of Mota Autohaus in Birmingham. The shop — located on Fifth Avenue South near East Avondale and North Crestwood — specializes in repairing BMWs.
Getting your car fixed can be scary, especially if you don’t have a regular mechanic. You may wonder if you’ll be treated fairly, if the job will be done right and if the mechanic will fully explain the repair.
That’s why two Birmingham entrepreneurs — the husband-and-wife team of Manuel Mota and Alexis Ginsburg — say they want to change the way people look at auto repair shops.
They opened Mota Autohaus — specializing in BMWs — in June 2018, in a building they purchased on Fifth Avenue South in the East Avondale and North Crestwood area. They say they work hard to earn the trust of their customers.
“We just go above and beyond,” Mota said. “I really do care about the customer. I try to give the best price. I try to give the best service and just be honest.”
The age, condition or value of a car doesn’t matter, according to Mota. “I treat every car the same way with the same respect, and the same goes for the customer,” he said.
The couple also want Mota Autohaus to be a clean, attractive place that makes a positive addition to the neighborhood.
They’ve built a space in the shop for community members to host special events. “You need to nurture the community as much as the business,” Ginsburg said.
In fact, Mota and Ginsburg articulated such a strong vision for Mota Autohaus that they earned a place among five finalists in The Big Pitch in November 2018 — the annual “Shark Tank”-style business plan competition hosted by REV Birmingham.
Mota, originally from Puerto Rico, earned his bachelor’s degree in biology in 2006, took the MCAT and planned to become a doctor. But during college, he began working on cars and became interested in racing. And during his senior year, his “passion started shifting” away from medicine toward car repairs, Mota said.
“My last year in college, I learned more about racing than about biology,” he said. “I was thinking, ‘If I keep going to be a doctor, it will be more to make money than anything else.’”
Mota went to Orlando for training as a BMW mechanic and eventually became a level-one master technician, the highest certification available. He moved to Birmingham in 2009 and worked as a mechanic for most of the next decade before opening Mota Autohaus.
He met Ginsburg, a Magic City native, in 2009 after she moved back from Chicago, and they got married in 2012.
Like Mota, Ginsburg had been in pre-med — she earned a degree in science at Indiana University — but would find her own path as an entrepreneur. She went to Austin, Texas, and studied to become a certified pastry culinarian at Le Cordon Bleu, then opened her own wedding cake boutique in Birmingham, The Cakerie, which she still operates.
At Mota Autohaus, Ginsburg keeps the books and manages the shop. The shop is “very fair” on pricing repairs, she said.
Mota said he gives customers advance notice if he sees that their cars may need additional work later on.
“With every new customer, I will make a list,” Mota said. I might say, ‘‘You don’t need to repair all of this right now, but I want you to be aware that down the road you will.”
Mota also tries to communicate effectively with his customers. ”I take my time and explain every step of the process and why you need to do this repair,” he said.
Mota specializes in BMWs because he likes their performance, handling and racing heritage, and he hopes to build a solid niche in the tight-knit community of BMW owners in Birmingham.
“I want to be that place that when people say BMW, they think of me,” he said. “That’s my ultimate goal.”
In addition to managing the business, Ginsburg — who also built her own commercial kitchen — is managing the renovations at the shop.
The couple want the front waiting area, which has WiFi and a record player, to be inviting and comfortable.
“People can come in and have coffee or tea and relax,” Mota said.
And Ginsburg is excited about providing a small, affordable place for people to host events, which she thinks will fill a need. “It’s tough to find spaces,” she said.
Mota is also interested in finding a vendor to operate a coffee cart on the property during the morning rush hour.
The couple are happy with their location, according to Ginsburg. “We loved this building,” she said. “I see a vision here for the place. It can be so much more than just a car place.”
The couple recently replaced their garage doors on the front of the building and will have a mural painted on them.”That will be something nice for the neighborhood,” Ginsburg said.
Mota and Ginsburg live in Mountain Brook with their two children, Madeline, age 5, and Nico, age 2.
“With two small kids, we’re hoping we make the right leap for them,” Ginsburg said. “We want to show them that you have to challenge yourself to do something you love and that sometimes it’s worth it.”
Both partners said they enjoy the business, especially meeting their customers. They also derive purpose and direction from the commitment they’ve made. “Every morning I wake up motivated because you need to make it happen,” Mota said.
“It’s easier waking up at 6 a.m. when you are doing something for yourself,” Ginsburg said.
business Mota Autohaus auto repair East Avondale
Excellent report on the persistent and hard work of Lexi and Manolo. He certainly is one of the best BMW mechanics and, very lucky to have such a tenacious and intelligent wife. Kudos Alexis.
Manuel Mota-Castillo 22 days ago
Starnes Publishing
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Hudson Valley Writers Guild
a community of writers based in New York's Capital Region
Community of Writers Reading Sunday, March 1, Albany Public Library, 2:00PM
BOARD (as of January 2016)
A-M (members)
N-Z (members)
PEER WRITING GROUPS
HVWG Grant Application Guidelines
Requesting Board Approval of Guild-Sponsored Events
Sign-in Sheets at Guild-Sponsored Events
Hudson Valley Writers Guild Newsletter, September 2016
Posted on August 26, 2016 by Carolee Bennett | Leave a comment
Member Announcements:
Pauline Bartel announces upcoming classes
New member requests editing help
Area Announcements:
Spencertown Academy Arts Center 11th Annual Festival of Books September 3-5
New Writers in the Mountains (WIM) classes begin in September
Caffè Lena reading to feature The Gossamer Stone Poets September 7
Creative writing workshop for those with chronic lung conditions starts September 10
Third Thursday to feature poet Daniel B. Summerhill September 15
Evening of Poetry & Prose September 29
Indie Author Day October 8
Register by October 29 for fiction writing workshop at Roe Jan Library
Pauline Bartel announces the following upcoming classes:
Learn How to Write Your Life Story / A course for those interested in writing a life story or family history will be held on Tuesdays, September 20, 27, October 4 and 11, 2016 from 9:30 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. at Hudson Valley Community College. “Writing Your Life Story” is offered through the Office of Community and Professional Education. Course fee is $71, which includes a coursebook. To register, telephone (518) 629-7339. Instructor Pauline Bartel will discuss the step-by-step process that transforms memories into memoirs, including techniques for stimulating memories, conducting personal and family history research and writing the story of your life. One-on-one consulting with the instructor and reader feedback about works in progress will help you preserve precious stories for future generations.
Learn How to Write Personal Essays / Transform the ordinary events of your life into extraordinary personal essays. Learn the step-by-step process in “Writing from Your Heart: The Art of Personal Essays,” a course that will be held on Wednesdays, September 21, 28 and October 5, 2016 from 6:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. at SUNY Adirondack’s Wilton campus, 696 US 9, Wilton, NY 12831. Course fee is $59, which includes a coursebook. To register, telephone (518) 743-2238. Instructor Pauline Bartel will discuss the process of using writing games to unlock your experiences; choosing the most-effective essay style; shaping your experiences into a first draft; and allowing reader reaction to refine your draft into a polished essay.
Learn How to Write a Memoir o Family History / A course for those interested in writing a memoir or family history, “Writing Your Life Story,” will be held on Saturday, September 24, 2016 from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. at Schenectady County Community College in Schenectady, NY. Course fee is $59. A required coursebook ($15) is available from the instructor the day of the class. Register online (www.sunysccc.edu/wfdce) or in person. Instructor Pauline Bartel will introduce the step-by-step process that transforms memories into memoirs, including techniques for stimulating memories, conducting personal and family history research and writing the story of your life or your family.
Learn How to Write and Sell Fiction for Kids / If you’re a budding Beatrix Potter or a struggling Dr. Seuss, discover the secrets of writing and selling books for kids of all ages. “Writing and Selling Fiction for Kids” will be held on Thursdays, September 29, October 6, 13 and 20, 2016 from 6:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. at Hudson Valley Community College. Course fee is $71, which includes a coursebook. To register, telephone (518) 629-7339. Instructor Pauline Bartel will discuss how to develop a compelling plot, create characters that come alive on the page, write believable dialogue and how to market stories to publishers. One-on-one consulting with the instructor and reader feedback about works in progress will help students move confidently along the path to publication.
Bartel is an award-winning writer and the author of seven published books. In addition, she has been widely published in more than 100 juvenile, teenage and adult periodicals. She is a member of the prestigious American Society of Journalists and Authors. Visit her website (www.paulinebartel.com) for further information.
A note from new member Robert Generali: “I am in need of some editing help with a work of fiction I’ve completed of about 43,000 words in length. I have gone as far as I am able and really need another set of eyes on it. The wonderful world of editors, agents and publishers these days is difficult to navigate, to say the least, and is the reason I am reaching out. I would prefer to work with an experienced editor, one on one, and understand that compensation will be necessary.”
You can reach Robert regarding this opportunity via email: rgenerali@earthlink.net.
AREA ANNOUNCEMENTS
Spencertown Academy Arts Center’s 11th annual Festival of Books takes place over Labor Day weekend, September 3-5. The festival features a giant used book sale, two days of discussions with and readings by esteemed authors and a children’s program. Featured authors this year include Christopher Breiseth, Elizabeth Brundage, Michelle Hoover, Courtney Maum, David Pietrusza, Ruth Reichl, Russell Shorto, Will Swift, Mark Wunderlich and Steve Yarbrough. Admission is free to all of the events, save for the early book-buying opportunities detailed below.
Authors’ books will be available for purchase (at special event prices) and signing. Healthy, delicious snacks and beverages will also be for sale throughout the weekend, including the Academy’s signature “To-Die-For, No-Alarm Vegetarian Chili.” The Festival of Books is funded in part by Poets & Writers with public funds from the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Andrew Cuomo and the New York State Legislature.
The festival, which began in 2006 as a book sale to raise funds for the Academy’s community arts programs, has grown into one of the biggest and most eagerly anticipated cultural events of the year.
FESTIVAL MAIN STAGE / Saturday, September 3
The Festival kick-off at 11:30 a.m. — Prizes awarded to the top entries of the Festival of Books Teens’ Short Story and Poetry Contest.
12:15 p.m. — Reading by poet Mark Wunderlich
1:30 p.m. — Novelists Michelle Hoover and Courtney Maum discuss the narrative strategies of using one voice vs. many voices—how and why writers choose a point of view, along with the rewards and pitfalls of these approaches.
3 p.m. — Bestselling author and food writer Ruth Reichl will talk about the joys of shopping for local ingredients, cooking and eating in Columbia County and the Berkshires in conversation with Madaline Sparks, principal of Madaline Sparks Garden Design and Spencertown Academy board vice president.
FESTIVAL MAIN STAGE / Sunday, September 4
12 p.m. — Novelists Steve Yarbrough and Elizabeth Brundage will discuss the importance of setting in a novel. They will explore person, place, and thing— the elements involved in creating fictional worlds in novels.
1:30 p.m. — Non-fiction author Russell Shorto will give a talk titled “From Amsterdam to New Amsterdam” in which he will discuss the common thread that connects his two most recent books: water. It was the battle to control water with dams and dikes that led the Dutch city of Amsterdam to rise to prominence. Amsterdam in the 17th century gave rise to New Amsterdam, which became New York. And water management is today a vital issue with which both cities—and much of the rest of the world—are grappling.
3 p.m. — Sunday’s final program will be a panel discussion titled “FDR’s Legacy From The 1930s” with distinguished scholars Christopher Breiseth, David Pietrusza and Will Swift.
CHILDREN’S PROGRAM /The Festival of Books children’s program on Saturday, September 3 from 9:30 a.m. to 11:15 a.m. will feature a visit from the costumed character Pete the Cat of Eric Litwin’s popular children’s book series. Youngsters will get to shake Pete the Cat’s hand and pose for souvenir pictures with their storybook friend, as well as make book-related art projects in the crafts tent with Chatham art teacher Susan Grybas.
GIANT USED BOOK SALE /At the heart of the Festival is a giant book sale, one of the biggest in the region, featuring more than 10,000 gently used books, including fiction and non-fiction, hard and soft covers—all offered at very affordable prices. There’s a special Kids’ Corner for young readers and a media rack full of CDs and audio books. A first-floor gallery features a handpicked selection of specialty books, limited editions, out-of-print books and new books donated by leading national publishers. The book sale is open to the public on Saturday, September 3, from 9:30 a.m. to 5 p.m.; Sunday, September 4, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.; and Monday, September 5 (bargain day), from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Admission is free.
In addition, there are two early-buying events. Spencertown Academy members will have first crack at the books and enjoy wine, cheese and shopping at the Member’s Preview Party on Friday, September 2, from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. Admission is $25. Tickets and memberships will be available for purchase at the door. Please note: This event is for Academy members and their guests only. (Book dealers are welcome at the early-buying opportunity Saturday morning.)
Shoppers and book dealers who want first pick of the stock can take advantage of an early-buying opportunity on Saturday, September 3, from 8-9:30 a.m. Admission for early buying on Saturday is $20 (cash only). Serious bargain hunters will want to return to the sale on Monday, September 5, when all remaining sale books will be just $1, and all specialty books will be half off the already low prices. There will also be closing hour surprise specials.
Housed in a beautifully restored 1840s Greek-Revival schoolhouse at 790 State Route 203 in Spencertown, New York, Spencertown Academy Arts Center is a cultural center serving Columbia County, the Berkshires, and the Capital region. It offers a variety of free and low-cost community arts events, including concerts, readings, theater pieces, art exhibitions, and arts-related workshops and classes. For more information about the Festival of Books, see http://spencertownacademy.org/events.
Writers in the Mountains will offer three diverse classes beginning this September:
A Journaling Workshop will back by popular demand with veteran instructor Ev Ellsworth. The class will be held Tuesdays, 10 a.m. to 12 noon, from September 6 to October 11, at the Roxbury Public Library. Class fee is $70. Ev Ellsworth, one of WIM’s most insightful, understanding and popular teachers, helps even the most skeptical and scared novice to dare to write. She is expert at offering writers, from new diarists to veteran journal-keepers, the tools and support they need to ease into journaling.
Where Does a Play Come From – And Where Can It Go?, led by The Open Eye Theater’s artistic director, Amie Brockway, will be held at the Open Eye Theater, 960 Main Street in Margaretville, Mondays, 6 to 8 p.m., from September 12 through October 17. Class fee is $70 if you register and pay three weeks before the class begins and $85 after that. Amie has directed dozens of world premieres and nurtured playwrights through three seasons of Summer Shortcuts at the theater in Margaretville and the Eye on Playwrights Lab at The Open Eye Theater in NYC.
Anique Taylor’s popular 16-week Creative Nonfiction Workshop will resume September 15, to January 12. The class will be held Thursdays, 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. at the Pine Hill Community Center, Main Street, Pine Hill,. Class fee is $220. In a college-like semester packed with excitement and growth, this extended class will offer writers possibilities for deepening their craft, group support and continuing work on long projects. Anique holds a poetry MFA from Drew University, a drawing MFA from Pratt Institute and a diplome in French Literature from the Sorbonne. She has taught creative writing for Benedictine’s Oncology Support Program, Bard LLI, Artworks and Phoenicia Poetry Workshop.
Visit www.writersinthemountains for full class descriptions and registration information.
On Wednesday, September 7, Caffè Lena will present a poetry reading at Northshire Bookstore, Saratoga, by The Gossamer Stone Poets. An open reading will follow. Doors open for sign-ups at 6:30 p.m., and the readings will start at 7. The host for the event will be Carol Graser, and the event is free. Northshire Bookstore Saratoga is located at 424 Broadway (northshire.com).
The Gossamer Stone Poets began as The Northshire Poetry Reading Group in October of 2012, sponsored by Northshire Bookstore in Manchester, VT. By January 2013, they had become a poetry writing group, as well. In May of 2015 they self-published Border Lines: A poetry collection, which represents the poetry of six out of the eight Gossamer Stone Poets. The poets are from Southwestern Vermont and over the border into New York State, hence the name of their book. They meet twice a month for reading and writing meetings, enjoy getting away together for writing retreats to monasteries and Montreal and are in demand for “The Poet Is In” event. Although diverse in their poetry forms and styles, they share a passion for poetry that’s been a beacon in their creative lives.
Write With Carol–FREE! / Do you have asthma, emphysema, sarcoidosis or another chronic lung condition? Come to a wonderful 9-week creative writing class especially designed for you! The teacher is a Masters of Fine Arts student in her last term at the College of St. Rose, and she can’t wait to help you get your experiences and feelings on the page through poetry. Meet others who are going through the same things. Find support in the group. Come to learn, share and write!! Class will be held from 1 to 3 p.m. starting Saturday, September 10, in Albany. (You will be notified of exact venue.) Contact Carol, at (518) 441-7271 or cjewell601@strose.edu with any questions or for more information. She can’t wait to meet you!
Poet Daniel B. Summerhill will read from his work at the Social Justice Center, 33 Central Avenue, Albany, on Thursday, September 15, 7:30 p.m. Daniel Summerhill was previously named “Youth Poet Laureate” in 2009. He is an Oakland native an a nationally recognized poet/performance artist. His poetry collections include the 2016 Brown Boys on Stoops and the recent Crafted.
A reading by a local or regional poet is held each Third Thursday at the Social Justice Center. The event includes an open mic for audience members to read. Sign-up starts at 7 p.m., with the reading beginning at 7:30. The host of the readings is Albany poet and photographer Dan Wilcox. The suggested donation is $3, which helps support this and other poetry programs of the Poetry Motel Foundation and the work of the Social Justice Center. For more information about this event contact Dan Wilcox, (518) 482-0262 or dwlcx@earthlink.net.
Greetings, Literature Fans! Please join us for another special Evening of Poetry and Prose live from the Student Ghetto here in Albany, New York!
Where? At the Hudson River Coffee House, 227 Quail Street, between Madison and Western (on the corner of Quail and Hudson Streets)
When? 6:30 p.m., Thursday, September 29
The event is FREE, but if you like what you hear, books and chapbooks by the readers will be for sale. Coffee, tea and refreshments are for sale at affordable prices by Anton and his team! Please bring a friend. It should be a legendary evening for all. For more information, please contact harveyhavel@hotmail.com. For more specific directions or question about the HRCH, please contact Anton at: hudsonrivercoffee@gmail.com. We hope to see you there!
During the Inaugural Indie Author Day on October 8,libraries from all across North America will host their own local author events with the support of the Indie Author Day team. In addition to these local programs, each library’s indie community will come together for an hour-long digital gathering at 2 p.m. Eastern featuring Q&A with writers, agents and other industry leaders. Don’t miss out on this fantastic opportunity for libraries and authors to connect on both local and global levels!
The two Capital District libraries so far signed up to participate are:
East Greenbush Community Library
Schenectady County Public Library
For any writers interested in participating, contact the library directly. For more information go to http://indieauthorday.com/
“The ABCs of Writing Page-Turning Fiction,” a writers’ workshop taught by author, teacher and scholar Joanne Dobson, will be held on Saturday, November 12, 10 a.m. to 1 p.m., at the Roeliff Jansen Community Library.
The workshop is designed for writers of all levels — from more experienced writers who wish to refresh and deepen their skills to new writers who want to learn the basics. Brief lectures will cover fundamentals of creating compelling fiction: character, plot, voice, setting, narrative momentum and point of view. Lectures will be interspersed with short, intensive writing exercises permitting participants to explore the topic being addressed.
The fee is $20 for those who register by October 29, and then increases to $25. The fee can be waived upon request. To register or to request fee waiver contact Bobbie Slonevsky at bslonevsky@slonevskygroup.com. Snow date for the workshop is November 19.
Roeliff Jansen Community Library, which is chartered to serve Ancram, Copake and Hillsdale, is located at 9091 Route 22, approximately one mile south of the light at the Hillsdale intersection of Routes 22 and 23. For information on hours and events, call (518) 325-4101 or visit the library’s website at www.roejanlibrary.org. Follow the library on Twitter: @libraryroe.
Hudson Valley Writers Guild Newsletter August 2016
Posted on August 3, 2016 by Carolee Bennett | Leave a comment
Guild Announcements:
HVWG fiction contest deadline extended to August 15
Seeking board candidates
2016 mid-year membership report
Upcoming dates for “Write 4 a Day”
Judith Prest publishes collection of nature poetry and photography
Mary Kathryn Jablonski poems published in Numero Cinq
HVWG member seeks editing help
Ken Hada to read at Caffè Lena August 3
Reading of John Hersey’s “Hiroshima” August 6
Judith Prest to read at Arthur’s Market & Cafe August 10
WIM business writing workshop starts August 11
Third Thursday to feature poet Martin Manley August 18
Debbie Mayer presents an interactive talk on self-publishing August 18
Outreach from Smith Publicity
GUILD ANNOUNCEMENTS
HVWG short fiction contest deadline extended to August 15
Who says there are no “second chances” in life? The deadline for the 2016 HVWG short fiction contest has been extended to August 15.
The HVWG writing contest alternates genres annually. This year’s contest is short fiction. Winners will be awarded cash prizes and invited to read their winning piece at the Guild’s annual meeting in November 2016. Prizes will be awarded as follows: 1st prize, $100; 2nd prize, $75; 3rd prize, $50; and three honorable mentions, $20 each.
Eligibility: All contestants must be residents of New York State. Current members of the HVWG board and their families are not eligible.
Judges: Julie Lomoe, Joe Krausman and Andrea Portnick.
Entries must be postmarked between April 1 and August 15, 2016.
Entry fee: $15 for non-members of HVWG; $10 for members. (Make checks payable to HVWG and include with submission. Visit www.hvwg.org for a copy of the membership application.)
Identification/contact information MUST NOT appear anywhere on the submission.
Cover letter should include the following: name, address, phone number, e-mail address, title of submission and word count.
Word count must not exceed 5000 words. Any submissions that exceed this number will not be considered.
All submissions must be typed, double-spaced, 12-pt. standard font such as Cambria, Calibri or Times New Roman.
Submissions must be previously unpublished.
Submit four copies through the mail and an SASE if you would like a hard copy of results. Submissions will not be returned.
All entrants will be notified of winners by e-mail or SASE. Results will also be posted on our website at www.hvwg.org.
For more information, please contact Faith Green at greenfaith2@gmail.com or (518) 253-8557.<
Mail submissions with entry fee to: HVWG Fiction Contest, c/o Faith Green, 25B Patterson Drive, Glenmont, NY 12077.
NOTICE to all members of HVWG: At the September meeting, there will be a call for those willing to serve on the Board and/or elected office. Someone may be calling YOU. Please think about it. Thank you.
By the end of June 2016, the Hudson Valley Writers Guild had 118 active members, people who’d paid their membership dues in 2015 and 2016. Of them, 50 (42%) paid their 2016 dues by mid-year, contributing $1,870 to the Guild’s coffers. There were seven new members (half of last year) and 34 renewing members during this period, plus nine people who’d paid two-year memberships last year. But only two people have paid two-year memberships so far this year. During the first half of the year, 88 membership letters were mailed out (seven new member welcomes, 34 renewal thank yous and 47 membership dues reminders).
The Guild is especially pleased to welcome the following new members so far in 2016:
Lann Bell
Pat Berger
Robert Generali
Peggy Kowalski
Cheryl Rice
Lynn Seftner
Amber Thornton
The Guild had an honor roll at mid-year of three members who made extra financial contributions in addition to their membership dues. They were:
Anne Decker
Phyllis Hillinger
Kathleen O’Brien
The Guild’s membership efforts have slowed somewhat so far in 2016 compared to the last three years. That’s why the Guild’s Board is especially grateful for those new and renewing members who did express confidence by their support in the Hudson Valley Writers Guild and the work we do for writers in New York’s Hudson Valley.
Don’t you deserve at least one day to write? Write 4 a Day is a series of monthly one-day writing retreats in upstate New York. There is:
no workshop
no agenda
no required activities
no assignments
no schedule
Write. Don’t write. Think. Daydream. Doodle. Outline. Come for the whole day or just for part of it; network, collaborate or write solo; wander the woods, hills, fields and streams of Universal Pathways for inspiration (bring sturdy shoes) or sit in a comfy chair and brainstorm. It’s up to you.
WHO – you! We haven’t had to limit attendance yet, but it’s getting to be a consideration. If you want to be sure to reserve a space, email me via the contact form.
WHY – because you deserve a day to devote to your writing (or daydreaming or sketching or scheming or knitting or…)
WHAT – $20 fee for the space (cash/check/PayPal/$15 for HVWG members) and food (a dish to share or your own lunch)
WHEN – 10 a.m. – 5 p.m.; August 28, September 18, October 23, November 20, December 18
WHERE – Universal Pathways, 692 Pleasant Valley Rd, Berne, NY 12023 – Phone: (518) 872-2272
Detailed directions:
90 west to exit 1S
20 west to
146 west to
254/Pleasant Valley Road (the left turn after the turn to East Berne)
The road winds along. Continue past the stop sign at Barber Corners, around two bends to the right and then down into the valley; look for the yellow house with a green roof and garage on the right hand side, just past the Browne Farm’s big brown barn with all the quilts.
Judith Prest announces that she has a book coming out, in color. It is a collection of her nature poetry and photographs. The book, Elemental Connections, is self-published (Spirit Wind Studio, LLC) and printed at BookBaby. Book design is by vkdesign. She can be reached at jeprest@aol.com for any inquiries about the book.
Mary Kathryn Jablonski announces that she is grateful and thrilled to have five of poems appearing on the Numero Cinq website this month here. She hopes you’ll enjoy them, and feel free to comment on & share the page.
Here’s a note from new member Robert Generali: I am in need of some editing help with a work of fiction I’ve completed of about 43,000 words in length. I have gone as far as I am able and really need another set of eyes on it. The wonderful world of editors, agents and publishers these days is difficult to navigate, to say the least, and is the reason I am reaching out. I would prefer to work with an experienced editor, one on one, and understand that compensation will be necessary. As an unpublished writer, this is a big step forward and I think from the standpoint of comfort staying in the area is the best thing. Sincerely, Robert Generali (email: rgenerali@earthlink.net)
On Wednesday, August 3, Caffè Lena will present a poetry reading by Ken Hada. An open reading will follow. During renovations at Ken Hada to read at Caffè Lena, this event will be held at Northshire Bookstore, 424 Broadway, Saratoga Springs. Doors open for sign-ups at 6:30 p.m., and the readings will start at 7 p.m. The host for the event will be Carol Graser. This event is free.
Raised in the rural Ozarks, with close ties to his Hungarian ancestors in the gypsum hills of northwest Oklahoma, Ken Hada finds the natural order a powerful presence for writing. In addition to multiple journal publications, his work has been featured four times on The Writer’s Almanac. Ken has received national awards from the Western Heritage Museum and Western Writers of America. His six published books include Persimmon Sunday, Spare Parts, Margaritas & Redfish, The Way of the Wind and The River White: A Confluence of Brush & Quill. Ken Hada is a professor at East Central University in Ada, Oklahoma, where he directs the annual Scissortail Creative Writing Festival. Reviews and other information are available at www.kenhada.org.
Saturday, August 6, 11 a.m. Townsend Park (Henry Johnson Boulevard & Central Avenue), Albany. The event is free and open to the public, and the public is encouraged to join in the reading. Those interested in reading can sign up to participate when they arrive. Please bring folding chairs. Rain site is the Social Justice Center, 33 Central Avenue, Albany.
On August 6, 1945, the United States of America used the atomic bomb for the first time to destroy the city of Hiroshima, Japan. On August 9, the U.S. used the atomic bomb again on Nagasaki, Japan. Over 200,000 people died immediately in the two bombings, and over a hundred thousand more died in the following decades as a result of the effects of the radiation. Hiroshima by John Hersey tells the story of the bombing on August 6, 1945, by following the story of six of the survivors. The book version has been in print since 1946.
Co-sponsored by the Poetry Motel Foundation, the Tom Paine Chapter Veterans for Peace, Upper Hudson Peace Action and Bethlehem Neighbors for Peace. For more information, contact Dan Wilcox at (518) 482-0262 or dwlcx@earthlink.net.
Open-mic & featured poet at Arthur’s Market & Cafe, 35 N. Ferry Street, Schenectady, Wednesday, August 10. Sign up at 7 p.m. Readings begin at 7:30 p.m. Hosted by Catherine Norr.
The featured poet is poet, photographer and mixed-media artist Judith Prest. Judith has been widely published in numerous poetry reviews and anthologies. She has two poetry collections — Sailing on Spirit Wind (1998) and Late Day Light (2011) — and two chapbooks. She has exhibited collage and photography in the Capital Region and facilitates expressive arts/creative writing in retreat centers, prisons, treatment clinics, libraries and community centers. Her studio is Spirit Wind Studio, LLC. She lives in Duanesburg, NY, with husband Alan Kreiger and three cats.
Schenectady poet Martin Manley will read from his work at the Social Justice Center, 33 Central Avenue, Albany, on Thursday, August 18, at 7:30 p.m.
Martin Manley is a long-time activist working for peace, justice and labor rights who has been arrested a number of times for civil disobedience. Although he rarely reads his poetry out, he has been writing for many years. His collection of poems, Flint Knives, contains poems from 1973 to 2014.
A reading by a local or regional poet is held each Third Thursday at the Social Justice Center. The event includes an open mic for audience members to read. Sign-up starts at 7 p.m., with the reading beginning at 7:30. The host of the readings is Albany poet and photographer Dan Wilcox. The suggested donation is $3, which helps support this and other poetry programs of the Poetry Motel Foundation and the work of the Social Justice Center.
For more information about this event contact Dan Wilcox, (518) 482-0262 or dwlcx@earthlink.net.
WIM business 6-week writing workshop starts August 11
Writers in the Mountains will hold a 6-week business writing workshop with Dara Lurie, running from August 11 to September 15. The class will be held Thursdays from 4 to 6 p.m. at the Phoenicia Public Library.
This class, dubbed “Author Breakthrough,” is a program for small business owners, artists and freelance writers who wish to create valuable content and great marketing copy. No one understands the heart and soul of your business better than you do. Now it’s time to communicate your vision using effective stories and expert content. You do not have to be a professional writer to create great content. The most important function of your content – whether it’s a book, blog, story or expert article – is to connect with your core message and bring that message into sharp focus for your audience.
In Author-Breakthrough you’ll have access to the experience of like-minded entrepreneurs who will provide the valuable feedback you need to develop and refine your message. The class includes engaging writing and dialoguing activities, content development sessions, creative think-tank environment to develop and test your ideas. By the end of the program you’ll have ready-to-publish articles, stories or blogposts and client-attracting copy for email or social media posts, as well as an action-plan for best use of your content and copy.
Dara Lurie is an author, workshop leader and book coach who helps writers of all levels discover their passionate and original voices in stories. She received her Bachelor of Arts in Film & Theater from Vassar College and her M.F.A. in Creative Writing from Hunter College. Her first book, Great Space of Desire:Writing for Personal Evolution, is a memoir and creative guide for writers. For over 12e years, Dara has facilitated writing workshops and retreats in diverse locations from college classrooms in New York City and the Hudson Valley to an open-air pavilion in the Costa Rican Rainforest. This year, she launched a new online mentorship program for small-business owners who want to create inspired content and marketing copy to grow their business.
Class fee is $125. To register, call Jean Stone at (607) 326-4802 or e-mail her at jtstone@catskill.net. To register online, visit writersinthemountains.org.
Debby Mayer will give a free talk on self-publishing at the Cairo Public Library Thursday, August 18, at 6:30 p.m. This is an interactive talk based on Debby’s experience and with plenty of samples and discussion of what works and what doesn’t. Cairo Public Library, 15 Railroad Avenue. (518) 622-9864. cairolibrary@mhcable.com.http://cairolibrary.org/.Or find the Cairo Library on Facebook.
Smith Publicity would love the opportunity to connect with your group. We feel that we would be a great fit for a speaking opportunity to provide expert publicity tips and advice to your writers. Smith Publicity is widely regarded as one of the premier book marketing companies in the publishing industry, well-known for our work ethic, tenacity and creativity. From self-published business books to traditionally published national bestsellers, our record is unparalleled.
Members of our executive team – Dan Smith, Sandy Smith and Corinne Moulder – have presented and spoken to many publishing and author associations, participated on expert panels and spoken at national and regional trade-shows. They would be happy to provide book publicity tips and insights to your organization.
Please contact Faith Koerner for more information: faith@smithpublicity.com.
Hudson Valley Writers Guild Newsletter July 2016
Posted on July 5, 2016 by Carolee Bennett | Leave a comment
Finishing Line Press announces publication of chapbook of poems by Kate McNairy
Keith Willis’ book tour continues July 21 & August 18
“Breathing These Words” call for submissions (deadline August 15)
Book donations accepted starting July 6
Caffè Lena to feature Marilyn McCabe & Cheryl Clarke July 6 (at Northshire Bookstore)
2016 Poets in the Park readings scheduled for July 9, 16 & 30
Dinitia Smith to read at Roe Jan Library July 9
Writing exercises at the Tang Teaching Museum July 9
Barbara Ungar to read at Arthur’s Market and Cafe July 13
Third Thursday to feature Amani O+ July 21
Berkshire Festival of Women Writers presents “Write the Change” August 1-4
Registration now open for Festival of Women Writers
Balanced Rock submission deadline September 15
The Beiging of America submission deadline September 15
Fall 2016 Women At Woodstock retreats
In Light to Light, a new chapbook to be published by Finishing Line Press, Kate writes about comforts of love, losses of coming apart and all that is between—the bedlam of life. She has a previous chapbook, June Bug, also published by Finishing line Press (2014). It was a finalist in the Blue Light Press Poetry Contest (2013). Kate currently lives in Ballston Spa, NY. Of Kate’s work, Henri Cole states, “Kate McNairy’s poems carry inside them the mayhem of love and the aftermath, which is solitude. I hear a wolf howling underneath their matter-of-fact minimalism.”
Order Light to Light by sending $14.99 plus $2.99 shipping per copy (check or money order made out to “Finishing Line Press”) to Finishing Line Press, P.O. Box 1626, Georgetown, KY 40324. Or order on online at www.finishinglinepress.com. (Click on “Preorder Forthcoming Titles” at “Bookstore.”)
Join Keith W. Willis, author of Traitor Knight (Champagne Books), for an evening of dragons, damsels and deception at one of the following events during the “Knight Out On The Town” tour:
Thursday, July 21 at 6:30 p.m. at the Altamont Free Library, 179 Main Street, Altamont, NY
Thursday, August 18 at 7 p.m. at the Lake Pleasant Free Library, 2864 Route 8, Speculator, NY
Breathing These Words is in the planning stages. Breathing These Words is a pop-up poetry reading with instructional workshops for youth and seniors funded by Breathing Lights and its community hub partners, Do you live in Albany, Troy or Schenectady? We are in the process of curating poets and prose writers to research a vacant property/area and write about it with passion for inclusion in walking tours this fall in the areas where Breathing Lights’ hubs exist: the Albany Barn, the Sanctuary for Independent Media and the Boys & Girls Club of Schenectady and project partner Proctors.
Please send a brief proposal of one paragraph in length (include information on the vacant building/house you would research, a description or draft of your poem), a short bio and three samples of your poetry to nsktroy@aol.com. Include a cover page with your name, address, email, phone number and a short bio and remove all names and identifying information on your proposal and poetry. Please list the titles of your work samples on the cover page, so we can identify you later on. The deadline is August 15.
Spencertown Academy Arts Center announces a call for book donations for the Festival of Books, which will take place over Labor Day weekend, September 3-5. The Festival, which began in 2006 as a book sale to raise funds for the Academy’s community arts programs, has grown into one of the biggest and most eagerly anticipated cultural events of the year, with readings and book signings by nationally known and local authors and a children’s program.
At the heart of the Festival is a giant book sale, one of the biggest in the region, featuring more than 10,000 gently used books, including fiction and non-fiction, hard and soft covers—all offered at very affordable prices. There’s a special Kid’s Corner for young readers and a media rack full of CDs and audio books. A first-floor gallery features a handpicked selection of specialty books, limited editions, out-of-print books and new books donated by leading national publishers.
Beginning on Tuesday, July 5, there will be a large bin in the parking lot behind the Academy where donors can drop off books 24/7—in boxes or sturdy bags, but please, no loose books. Collection times at the Academy, with an attendant present at the back door to receive books, will be on Saturdays and Sundays from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m., July 9 – August 21, which will be the last day for donations.
The Academy requests “gently used” books. The books need not be perfect, but they should not be damaged. For example, please do not donate books with cracked spines or loose pages, books with stains, mildewed or musty books, books with mouse or insect damage, or with torn, yellowed or brittle pages. The Academy also welcomes donations of book and music CDs and vinyl records in nice condition, as well as DVDs. Please note: the Academy does not accept textbooks, encyclopedias, magazines or VHS and cassette tapes.
Housed in a beautifully restored 1840s Greek-Revival schoolhouse at 790 State Route 203 in Spencertown, New York, Spencertown Academy Arts Center is a cultural center serving Columbia County, the Berkshires and the Capital region. It offers a variety of free and low-cost community arts events, including concerts, readings, theater pieces, art exhibitions and arts-related workshops and classes. For more information about the Festival of Books, see http://spencertownacademy.org/events.
On Wednesday, July 6, Caffè Lena will present poetry readings by Marilyn McCabe and Cheryl Clarke at Northshire Bookstore. An open reading will follow. Doors open for sign-ups at 6:30 p.m., and the readings will start at 7. The host for the event will be Carol Graser, and the cost is $5.
While the Caffè is undergoing renovations, these monthly poetry events will be held at Northshire Bookstore, 424 Broadway, Saratoga Springs.
Marilyn McCabe’s new book of poems, Glass Factory, was published by The Word Works in Spring 2016. Her poem “On Hearing the Call to Prayer Over the Marcellus Shale on Easter Morning” was awarded A Room of Her Own Foundation’s Orlando Prize (Fall 2012) and appeared in the Los Angeles Review. Her book of poetry Perpetual Motionwas published by The Word Works in 2012 as the winner of the Hilary Tham Capitol Collection contest. A grant from the New York State Council on the Arts resulted in videopoem “At Freeman’s Farm,” which was published at The Continental Review and Motion Poems. She blogs about writing and reading at marilynonaroll.wordpress.com.
Cheryl Clarke is a black lesbian feminist poet and the author of five books of poetry, the most recent of which is By My Precise Haircut published by The Word Works Press of Washington D.C. She is currently working on a collection of essays entitled Adult Black Culture: Gaining Entry. She is one of the organizers of The 4th Annual Hobart Book Village Festival of Women Writers to be held Sept. 9, 10, 11, 2016 in Hobart, NY. Her website is cherylclarkepoet.com.
Poets in the Park is celebrating over 25 years of bringing poetry in July to the Robert Burns statue in Washington Park, Albany. The series was started in 1989 by the late Tom Nattell and is now run by Albany poet and photographer Dan Wilcox. This year the readings will be on Saturdays July 9, 16 and 30. The readings start at 7 p.m. and are free and open to the public. Donations are accepted. The rain site is the Social Justice Center, 33 Central Avenue, Albany. The series is co-sponsored by the Poetry Motel Foundation and by the Hudson Valley Writers Guild.
The 2016 readers are as follows:
July 9: Catherine Arra & Jan Barry
July 16: Mary Crane & Victorio Reyes
July 30: Sarah Browning & Bunkong Tuon
The Robert Burns statue is located near where Henry Johnson Boulevard passes through Washington Park and crosses Hudson Avenue. Please bring your own chairs or blankets to sit on. For more information, contact Dan Wilcox at dwlcx@earthlink.net or (518) 482-0262.
Award-winning author Dinitia Smith will read from her new novel The Honeymoon — centered on writer George Eliot’s late-life marriage to a much younger man — at the Roeliff Jansen Community Library, on Saturday, July 9, at 5:00 p.m.
Grounded in the study of the life, letters, journals, essays, poetry and novels of Eliot, her contemporaries, friends and loved ones, The Honeymoon is the imaginative fleshing out of a period in Eliot’s life about which little is known with certainty: Eliot’s honeymoon with John Walter Cross in Venice in June 1880.
“We are thrilled to be hosting Dinitia Smith, a seasonal resident of our area, who has interrupted her speaking tour to present this book to us,” says Maureen Rodgers of the library’s Literature Committee.
Roeliff Jansen Community Library, which is chartered to serve Ancram, Copake and Hillsdale, is located at 9091 Route 22, approximately one mile south of the light at the Hillsdale intersection of Routes 22 and 23. For information on hours and events, call (518) 325-4101 or visit the library’s website at www.roejanlibrary.org. Follow the library on Twitter at @libraryroe.
As part of the Tang Teaching Museum’s annual community day (called Frances Day in honor of the Museum’s namesake), poet Catherine Pond will lead a series of poetry writing exercises inspired by the artwork on view from 3-4 p.m. Saturday, July 9.
Catherine Pond is a poet from Alpharetta, Georgia. She lives in Brooklyn, teaches at the Fashion Institute of Technology, and is the Assistant Director of the New York State Summer Writers Institute. Her poems and prose have appeared in the Boston Review, the Antioch Review, the LA Review of Books and many others. She holds an MFA in Poetry from Columbia University and a BA in English from Skidmore College. She is assistant editor of Salmagundi Magazine as well as the associate poetry editor of H.O.W. Journal. She is also co-founder and co-editor of the online magazine Two Peach with Julia Anna Morrison.
The Museum is located on the Skidmore College campus at 815 N. Broadway in Saratoga Springs. Admission to the event is free and open to the public. For more information, contact Michael Janairo at (518) 580-5542 or mjanairo@skidmore.edu.
Open-Mic & Featured Reader | Wednesday, July 13 | Sign-up for Open-Mic 7-7:30 p.m. | Readings begin at 7:30 p.m. | Arthur’s Market and Cafe |35 N. Ferry Street, Schenectady, NY | Featured Poet: Barbara Ungar, who has won the Hilary Tham competition at The Word Works and also the Best Poetry Book award at this year’s Adirondack Center for Writing competition. She has been published in numerous journals, including Salmagundi and Rattle. Barbara teaches at St.Rose.
Poet and slam performer Amani O+ will read from her work at the Social Justice Center, 33 Central Avenue, Albany, on Thursday, July 21, at 7:30 p.m. Amani O+ was a member of Albany’s Nitty Gritty Slam Team that competed in the National Slam Championship and is the host of the Nitty Gritty Slam & Open Mic held at The Low Beat each first & third Tuesday.
A reading by a local or regional poet is held each Third Thursday at the Social Justice Center. The event includes an open mic for audience members to read. Sign-up starts at 7 p.m., with the reading beginning at 7:30. The host of the readings is Albany poet and photographer Dan Wilcox. The suggested donation is $3, which helps support this and other poetry programs of the Poetry Motel Foundation and the work of the Social Justice Center. For more information about this event, contact Dan Wilcox, (518) 482-0262;dwlcx@earthlink.net.
Berkshire Festival of Women Writers presents a 4-day writing workshop August 1–4, 1–4 p.m. at Bard College at Bard College at Simon’s Rock in Great Barrington, MA, led by experienced authors and educators Jennifer Browdy and Jana Laiz. In this intensive, hands-on writing workshop, participants will be guided to turn their passions—whether it’s the environment, food, fashion, humor, politics, health issues, women’s issues or parenting—into powerful, hard-hitting prose. Over the course of the 4-day workshop, each workshop participant will hone her message, target her audience and explore different genres and publishing or media platforms.
“The landscape of digital information in the world today provides an opportunity to share our voices broadly, but it can also be daunting to be heard above the noise,” says Berkshire Festival of Women Writers Director Jennifer Browdy, Ph. D. “Our aim is to help writers to find their voice and to write effectively for the audiences they wish to reach. We will introduce essential tools, strategies and approaches to the subjects our participants care about, whether they write fiction, memoir, essays or blog posts.”
Jana Laiz, M.Ed, is the author of two award-winning novels, Weeping Under This Same Moon, about refugees in New York City, and The Twelfth Stone, an eco-fairytale. She has also published a young adult biography of Elizabeth Freeman, better known as “Mumbet,” which is now being developed as a major motion picture. The first writer-in-residence at Herman Melville’s home Arrowhead, Jana founded Green Fire Press in 2015 with Jennifer Browdy.
Jennifer Browdy, Ph.D, is a longtime college professor of literature, writing and media studies, with a special interest in media strategies for social and environmental justice. Her blog, “Transition Times” (bethechange2012.wordpress.com), has received hundreds of thousands of visitors since its inception in 2011, and her articles have been published at Yes! Magazine, Kosmos Journal, Common Dreams, Berkshire Magazine and many other publications. Jennifer is the founder of the Berkshire Festival of Women Writers and the Butterfly Leadership Program for teen girls.
Tuition is $300; $350 after July 8. Space is limited; register at Berkshirewomenwriters.org or email info@berkshirewomenwriters.org for more information.
The Festival of Women Writers takes place September 9-11 in Hobart, NY (in the Catkills). Registration information available here: http://www.hobartfestivalofwomenwriters.com/.
Published by the Ruth Keeler Memorial Library, Balanced Rock: The North Salem Review is accepting submissions of art, poetry, fiction and nonfiction through September 15. Send submissions via email to keelerbalancedrock@wlsmail.org. For more information, visit www.ruthkeelermemoriallibrary.org.
2Leaf Press announces its open submission call for its forthcoming book The Beiging of America: Personal Narratives About Being Mixed Race in the Twenty-first Century. The publication is part of the 2LP Explorations in Diversity Series (Series Editor: Sean Frederick Forbes). The deadline for submissions is September 15, 2016, and the publication date is June 2017.
This collection takes on “race matters” and considers them through the experiences of mixed race people in the United States. Edited by Cathy Schlund-Vials and Tara Betts, who are both biracial (Schlund-Vials is Cambodian and white; Betts is African American and white), The Beiging of America will feature firsthand accounts and original works by authors and artists who, to varying degrees and divergent ends, identify as “multiracial.” Check out our submission guidelines before submitting your work.
For more information, contact beigingamerica@2leafpress.org.
Women At Woodstock, the online community and annual gathering in Woodstock, NY, for women of the Woodstock generation is hosting two back-to-back writers’ retreats this November at Lifebridge Sanctuary in Woodstock. Novice writers, published authors, bloggers, memoirists, fiction writers: all are welcome. The first retreat runs from Monday, October 31, through Thursday, November 3 (check out Friday Nov. 4); the second runs from Friday, November 4, through Sunday, November 6 (check out Monday Nov. 7).
Each day will start with a 1-hour workshop taught by resident writing coach Linda Lowen or by one of our guest authors, and then the day will be open for you to write, think and map out your writing future in peace and quiet, surrounded by other like-minded women also pursuing their own creative quests. There will be plenty of space and opportunity for private coaching, collaborative conversations or total quiet — whatever it is that you need. In the evenings after dinner, we’ll gather by the fire with good wine, share what we wish from the day’s work and exchange feedback under the guidance of the inimitable Linda Lowen.<
You can come for just one writing retreat or stay for both and gift yourself a full week devoted to your creativity and your craft! Click here to register. Cost: $295 for the 4-night retreat October 31 – November 4; $245 for the 3-night retreat November 4-7. Plus a nightly room rate which depends on what kind of room you choose. Costs are all-inclusive: meals, snacks, beverages, wine, taxes, fees and program costs are all included in the fee. $65 discount if you attend both retreats.
Hudson Valley Writers Guild Newsletter June 2016
Posted on June 2, 2016 by Carolee Bennett | Leave a comment
HVWG to host 1-day workshop to combat writer’s block June 4
Guidelines for the 2016 HVWG Fiction Contest
18th issue of misfit magazine is live
Pauline Bartel offers “Writing Your Life Story” workshop June 11 at HVCC
Bernadette Mayer’s summer poetry workshop dates
William Weaver Christman Tribute June 1
Perry Nichols and Annie Christain to read at Caffè Lena June 1
Spencertown Academy presents Benjamin “Bernie” Kukoff poetry reading June 4
Writers in the Mountains offers workshop on writing the nonfiction book proposal June 5
Donna Wojcik to read at Arthur’s Market & Cafe June 8
Tech Valley Center of Gravity Writers Workshop summer schedule starts June 9
B-Fest National Teen Book Festival at Barnes & Noble June 10-12 seeks local writers
Joseph Luzzi to read from his memoir at Roe Jan Library June 11
Third Thursday to feature poet Karen Fabiane June 16
Upcoming featured poets at Pine Hollow Open Mic Series
Tables available for Saugerties Public Library Comic Con July 16
Annual 5-day workshop for women writers at Paradox Lake Retreat Center starts July 17
The Hudson Valley Writers Guild is presenting a 1-day workshop,” Block Busting: How to Break Through the Barriers that Keep You from Writing,” to be held June 4, from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. at the East Greenbush Community Library, 10 Community Way. The workshop, led by novelist and poet Julie Lomoe, is free (but please see below for information on pre-registration).
Writer’s block afflicts every author sooner or later. If you’ve ever found yourself paralyzed, staring at an empty piece of paper or a blank computer screen, you know the feelings of frustration and even downright panic that can keep you from writing. In this workshop for writers or would-be writers of all levels, we’ll explore the underlying feelings behind your personal blocks and learn a variety of techniques to help you overcome the barriers that keep you from reaching your fullest potential as a writer. This workshop will use creative visualization and writing exercises along with a discussion of successful writers’ tips and techniques for overcoming creative blocks. Free handouts will include a tip sheet and bibliography.
Julie Lomoe is a novelist and poet with over three decades of experience as a creative arts therapist and workshop leader. She has published three novels: Mood Swing: The Bipolar Murders, Eldercide and her most recent Hope Dawns Eternal (her first venture into paranormal fantasy fiction and the first of a series featuring the vampire and soap opera star Jonah McQuarry).
Writers may pre-register by calling the East Greenbush Community Library at (518) 477-7476 or by going to www.eastgreenbushlibrary.org. For further information about the workshop, email Julie Lomoe at julielomoe@nycap.rr.com.
Entries must be postmarked between April 1 and June 30, 2016.
Entry fee: $15 for non-members of HVWG; $10 for members. (Make checks payable to HVWG and include with submission.)
No pornography or erotica.
For more information, please contact Faith Green at greenfaith2@gmail.com or (518) 253-8557.
Mail submissions with entry fee to: HVWG Fiction Contest, c/o Faith Green, 25B Patterson Drive, Glenmont, NY 12077.<
A note from Alan Catlin: “I would like to announce that the latest issue of misfitmagazine.net is posted. It is our eighteenth issue, jam-packed with poems, reviews and an essay on Poe as the first American freelance writer. Submissions are always welcome at submissions@misfitmagaine.net.
A course for those interested in writing a life story or family history will be held on Saturday, June 11, from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. at Hudson Valley Community College. “Writing Your Life Story” is offered through the Office of Community and Professional Education. Course fee is $43, which includes a coursebook. To register, telephone (518) 629-7339.
Instructor Pauline Bartel will discuss the step-by-step process that transforms memories into memoirs. Learn techniques for stimulating memories, conducting personal and family history research and writing the story of your life. Bartel is an award-winning writer and the author of seven published books. She is a member of the prestigious American Society of Journalists and Authors. Visit her website (www.paulinebartel.com) for further information.
Bernadette Mayer will lead her continuing workshop series in a summer session beginning in May 2016. She will once again provide participating poets with the opportunity to engage in her language experiments. She will talk about her mentors and contemporaries and suggest new directions in verse. Bernadette has been on the road a bit in the last 12 months and is glad to be back home doing her front porch poems. Her subject material promises to be immediate. She will also suggest books you should have to aid in your writing and how to publish your poems. Bernadette will write and distribute new poems for the benefit of workshop participants while continuing her effort to exercise new ideas and cognitions among those poets are taking advantage of the poetry workshops held in her living room.
Bernadette Mayer’s poetry writing workshop takes place at her home in East Nassau, NY. The workshop meets on five Saturdays: May 28, June 18, July 4 (party), July 16, August 20 and September 17. Each meeting will take place 2-4 p.m. Mayer will facilitate a conducive atmosphere that will bring forth enhanced new poems from each of the participants. Total Cost: $65, including drinks and light refreshments. Workshop limited to eight participants.
Bernadette Mayer (born May 12, 1945 in Brooklyn, NY) is a poet and prose writer. In 1967 she received a BA from New School for Social Research. She has since edited the journal 0 TO 9 with Vito Acconci and the United Artists Press with Lewis Warsh and worked as director of St. Mark’s Poetry Project. Her new book will be released by New Directions in the near future. Copies of her Benevolent Bird book All Fall Down will be available.
For more than a decade she and poet Philip Good has lived in East Nassau. From the beginning of this series of workshops in September 2011, she has provided an expansive menu of poetic technique and belief as well as her careful listening to an appreciative core of workshop participants. These poets have become regulars who continue to attend each new workshop session. They welcome new participants to their lively get together.
Contact: email ACASLINE@AOL.COM to reserve your place. The mailing address if email is not available is Rootdrinker, P.O. Box 522, Delmar, NY 12054.
Directions: Take Route 20 East from the Capital District. Just pass Brainard turn left on Route 66 North towards Troy. After a short time on Route 66 take a left on to Tatsawawassa Rd. Mayer’s house is 53 Tatsawawassa Rd. Red in color, it is the first house on the left side of the road. Google map using 53 Tatsawawassa, East Nassua, NY, as destination is recommended. Car pool from Albany area is available.
Payment: Payment of $65 may be made by check or money order. $40 of the total is a tax deductible contribution. Payment check should be made out to “Committee on Poetry.” IMPORTANT: write “Friends of Bernadette Mayer Fund” on check memo. Provide your mailing address to receive a letter to include in your tax returns for your deductions. Send your payment to Alan Casline, Rootdrinker Institute, PO Box 522, Delmar, NY 12054. We will verify your payment for the workshop and forward your contribution for your tax deduction.
A William Weaver Christman Tribute will be held on Wednesday June 1, at 6:30 p.m. with poetry by the Bozen Kill in honor of our own farmer, tree planter, nature lover and poet (held at the Christman Preserve).Take Trail to right to streamside. We meet on top of bank near large waterfall. Bring your own poems and Will Christman poems to read. Contact Alan Casline (ACASLINE@AOL.Com) if you plan on attending.
“Local poetry is contextual and includes everything about being at a location: biota, history, memory, geology, folklore, personal and reported events. When you open your eyes and look around—you admit a sensual moment, which is followed an instant later by another. The phenomenal world presents a reality gifted by our senses and made-up of some sort of physical joining of the inside with the outside.” from TOWARDS A BIOREGION OF LOCAL POETRY
On Wednesday, June 1, Caffè Lena will present poetry readings by Perry Nichols and Annie Christain. An open reading will follow. Doors open for sign-ups at 7 p.m., and the readings will start at 7:30. The host for the event will be Carol Graser, and the cost is $5. Caffè Lena, 47 Phila St., Saratoga Springs, (518) 583-0022, www.caffelena.org.
Annie Christain is an assistant professor of composition and ESOL at SUNY Cobleskill with poems appearing in Seneca Review, Oxford Poetry, The Chariton Review and The Lifted Brow, among others. She received the grand prize of the 2013 Hart Crane Memorial Poetry Contest, the 2013 Greg Grummer Poetry Award, the 2015 Oakland School of the Arts Enizagam Poetry Award and the 2015 Neil Shepard Prize in Poetry. Additional honors include her being selected for the Shanghai Swatch Art Peace Hotel Artist Residency and the Arctic Circle Autumn Art and Science Expedition Residency. Her book Tall As You Are Tall Between Them will be released Spring 2016 from C&R Press.
Perry S. Nicholas is an associate English professor at Erie Community College North in Buffalo, NY, where he was awarded the 2008 SUNY Chancellor’s Award for Scholarship and Creative Activities and the 2011 President’s Award for Classroom Instruction. He received the SGA’s Outstanding Teacher Award on two occasions. He has published one textbook on writing prompts, six books of original poetry and one CD of poetry.
Spencertown Academy Arts Center presents a poetry reading by Benjamin “Bernie” Kukoff on Saturday, June 4, at 4 p.m. An acclaimed film and television writer and producer, Kukoff will read from his debut poetry collection What This Country Needs (Conflux Press, 2015). The poignant, funny, wise and accessible poems explore his journey from a Brighton Beach youth as the child of Russian immigrants, to the upper tiers of entertainment industry success in Los Angeles, to trial separation from his wife and dating, to getting back together, to settling in the Hudson Valley, along with surprising digressions about major biblical characters. Following the reading, there will be a reception with light refreshments, and the author will sign copies of his book. Admission is free.
“I knew my old friend Bernie Kukoff could do almost anything. But write poetry? The hardest of the writing disciplines? Bernie’s done it, and in spades,” says Dick Cavett, author, journalist and host of The Dick Cavett Show. “And he can do it all. These superb poems are sharp, readable, sad, funny, painful, comforting, startling and profound. I dare you to read any three and try to stop.”
“I’m what my poetry teacher, Mary Stewart Hammond, calls a narrative poet. I’m a storyteller who writes about people, some I know or knew, some made up,” says Kukoff. “Much of my collection is autobiographical. None of it was pre-planned or thematic. I just wrote what came to me, or fairly gushed out of me, from what [my wife] Lydia refers to as my poetry vein. This happy happening was a total surprise, totally unexpected.”
Benjamin “Bernie” Kukoff has written poetry for more than 21 years, working with Mary Stewart Hammond in her master class at the New York Writers Workshop. Beyond poetry, he’s had a high-profile, eclectic career, having worked in television, film and theater. After graduating from the Yale Drama School, he acted Off-Broadway with Second City and was in the founding company of the Williamstown Theatre Festival. In a major career change, he moved to Los Angeles, where he created, produced and wrote TV series, specials and films over a span of 28 years. Among them were Diff’rent Strokes, The Cosby Show and shows starring Steve Allen, Jimmy Durante, The Everly Brothers, Glen Campbell, Milton Berle, Jerry Stiller and Howard Cosell. In New York, his first show as a theatrical producer was the blockbuster I Love You, You’re Perfect, Now Change, which ran for 12 years and won a Drama Desk Award. He and his wife, Lydia, share a 19th century farmhouse in New York’s Upper Hudson Valley.
Founded in 1972, Spencertown Academy Arts Center is a cultural center and community resource serving Columbia County, the Berkshires and the Capital Region. Housed in a landmark 1847 Greek Revival schoolhouse, the Academy is located at 790 State Route 203 in Spencertown, New York. For more information, please seewww.spencertownacademy.org or call (518) 392-3693.
Writers in the Mountains will present “Selling Your Nonfiction Book: The Art of Proposal Writing,” a Sunday seminar with Leslie T. Sharpe, June 5, 1-4 p.m. at the Andes Public Library. In three information-packed hours, Leslie will effectively detail what it takes to write a winning nonfiction book proposal, illustrated with several handouts. In the second half of the seminar, she will invite writers to present their projects for evaluation and input in order to best shape their own top-notch “winning” proposals.
In addition to its diversity of forms, nonfiction also offers writers (which literary fiction usually does not) the possibility of having an incomplete manuscript accepted by an agent or editor— accompanied by a strong proposal. The proposal-including elements such as an overview of the book, annotated table of contents, author’s platform and market analysis are usually submitted with two or three chapters of text and is, first and foremost, a writing sample, as well as a sales tool. What agents/editors look for in a proposal is strong writing with a clear and cogent presentation of the book’s subject and/or narrative arc, depending on the form, and a persuasive rationale for why the book should be published and why the author is the best possible person to write it.
Leslie T. Sharpe is an author, editor, and educator. She began her editing career at Farrar, Straus & Giroux and is currently an editorial consultant specializing in literary nonfiction, literary fiction and poetry. A member of PEN American Center, she is the author of Editing Fact and Fiction: A Concise Guide to Book Editing (Cambridge University Press), which is regarded as the “modern editing classic.”
Leslie was a regular contributor to New York Newsday’s “Urban ‘I’” column, and her essays and articles have appeared in a wide variety of publications including the Chicago Tribune, Christian Science Monitor, Global City Review, International Herald Tribune, New York Times, New York Tribune, Philadelphia Inquirer, San Francisco Chronicle, Village Voice, The Villager, The Writer and Psychology Today. She recently finished her memoir, Our Fractured, Perfect Selves, and her new book, The Quarry Fox and Other Tales of the Wild Catskills, a lyric narrative look at the wild animals of the Catskill Mountains, will be published by The Overlook Press. Her poems for children have appeared inLadybug Magazine, and she is currently at work on a poetry collection, Little Possums Book of Poems.
Leslie has taught writing and editing at Columbia University, New York University and the City College of New York.
To register, call Jean Stone at (607) 326-4802 or e-mail her at jtstone@catskill.net. To register online, visit writersinthemountains.org, go to “Register Online” page and fill in the registration form. Class fee is $35. Registration deadline is May 31.
The next “Open Mic & Featured Poet Second Wednesday” is June 8 at Arthur’s Market & Cafe, 35 N.Ferry St., Schenectady, NY.
The featured poet is Donna Dakota, a.k.a. Donna Wojcik, born in Chicago, who has become a beloved member of the very active writer’s scene in New York’s Capital District. She’s a long-time participant in writing marathons like National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) and the August Postcard Poetry Fest. “I write on the steering wheel of my Honda Fit,” Donna says, “…but only at red lights.” Her lively, funny and irreverant writing includes three works in progress: Accident-Related Works, Love Poems For Someone I Have Never Loved and He 4 She. Sample some of her work at donnadakota.com.
The reading is hosted by Catherine Norr. Sign-up for the open mic starts at 7 p.m.; readings begin at 7:30. Food and beverages available on-site!
Here’s the summer schedule for the Tech Valley Center of Gravity Writers Workshop: June 9 & 23, July 7 & 21, August 4 &18. Co-write with joy and focus on alternating Thursdays with the Tech Valley Center of Gravity Writers’ Group. Bring food and/or drink to share, your writing tool(s) of choice and a project on which to focus. All genres and platforms welcome. Electrical outlets, hot beverages, water and a snack provided. Wine and substantive finger foods encouraged!
6:00-6:25 – dine, settle in and socialize
6:30-8:25 – co-writing (no conversation; cell phones, text, FB and email silenced)
8:30-9:00 – sharing session (optional: stay to the end or leave at 8:30)
Bring other writers with you! Quiet co-writing time is the priority. TVCOG and TVGS members: free. All others: $5 at the door. Supports the TVCOG Kitchen. RSVP Rhonda Rosenheck, rhonda@reworkediting.com or srp-kitchen@tvcog.net.
A message from Laura D’Orazio, the Community Business Development Manager for Barnes & Noble Booksellers, Inc. in Colonie Center in Albany:
I have an opportunity which your organization is sure to be excited about! Barnes & Noble is hosting our first-ever B-Fest National Teen Book Festival. The event runs from Friday, June 10, through Sunday, June 12. We are looking for local authors who have published books in the teen genre to be involved in this festival. There are many ways in which your authors could participate.
Participate in a group author signing.
Help host a writing workshop.
Be part of a discussion panel.
Events are still being determined, but it is shaping up to be a fun event and a great way for your authors to advertise their books!
The requirements for participation in the group signing are as follows: the local author’s teen book must be available in our system to order, available at a trade discount and returnable to the publisher. Books will be ordered through the publisher, and no books will be taken on consignment. If the author’s book becomes unavailable for any reason or fails to meet the three requirements during the time leading up to the event, that author will have to decline attendance in the Teen B-Fest author signing portion of the event.
Please have any of your interested local authors respond as soon as possible as the event is just around the corner! They should send me their name, book title, book ISBN and what part of the festival they are interested in. If they are interested in the group signing, I will be able to determine their eligibility at that time. Keep in mind that all books must be categorized in the teen genre.
Contact: Laura D’Orazio via email: crm2275@bn.com
Writer and Bard College professor Joseph Luzzi will read from his memoir In a Dark Wood at the Roeliff Jansen Community Library on Saturday, June 11, at 5 p.m. In this memoir Luzzi writes of the days and months that followed the terrible event that left him suddenly both a widower and a first-time father. Luzzi’s wife, Katherine, eight-and-a-half months pregnant, was in an automobile accident and died from her injuries less than an hour after giving birth to their daughter, Isabel. Vanity Fair’s Nicole Jones, describes Luzzi’s memoir as “Heartbreaking. Heartrending. Heart-stopping.”
Luzzi, a professor of Italian studies and a Dante scholar, begins his book with lines from Dante’s The Divine Comedy: “In the middle of our life’s journey, I found myself in a dark wood.” The memoir describes the challenges that Luzzi faced as a grieving widower trying to balance his responsibilities as a single father and an academic, and “to open …[himself] again to love.” The book explores the parallels between Dante’s journey through the Inferno, Purgatory and Paradise, and Luzzi’s own journey through “Grief, Healing and the Mysteries of Love.”
Joseph Luzzi, the first American-born child in his Italian family, holds a doctorate from Yale and teaches at Bard. He is the author of My Two Italies, a New York Times Book Review Editors’ Choice, and Romantic Europe and the Ghost of Italy, which won the Scaglione Prize for Italian Studies from the Modern Language Association. An active critic, his essays and reviews have appeared in The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, Bookforum and The Times Literary Supplement. Dante has been the focus of his teaching and writing for over 20 years, and honors for his work on Dante include a teaching prize from Yale and an essay award from the Dante Society of America.
Poet Karen Fabiane will read from her work at the Social Justice Center, 33 Central Avenue, Albany, on Thursday, June 16, at 7:30 p.m.
Karen Fabiane has been writing and performing poetry for more than 40 years. She has published since 1976 in such small press journals as Home Planet News, MisFit, Momoware, Newsletter Inago, New Voices and others and in anthologies released by Bright Hill Press, which also published her book, Dancing Bears, in 2011. A second book,Seeing You Again, was published by Grey Book Press in 2014.
A reading by a local or regional poet is held each Third Thursday at the Social Justice Center. The event includes an open mic for audience members to read. Sign-up starts at 7 p.m., with the reading beginning at 7:30. The host of the readings is Albany poet and photographer Dan Wilcox. The suggested donation is $3, which helps support this and other poetry programs of the Poetry Motel Foundation and the work of the Social Justice Center. For more information about this event contact Dan Wilcox, (518) 482-0262; e-mail: dwlcx@earthlink.net.
Poets of Earth, Water, Tree and Sky. Pot luck at 6 p.m. Reading starts at 6:30 p.m. Pine Hollow Arboretum Visitors Center, 16 Maple Avenue, Slingerlands.
July 8: Katrinka Moore
August 12: 6th Annual Poets at the Arboretum Group Reading
September 9: The Birdbrain Players present Perious Frink and the Great Barrel Race Puppet Show
October 14: Dawn Marar
November 4: David Landrey
Also: Saturday afternoon, June 4, 1 p.m. for a Pine Hollow sponsored haiku writing workshop with Michael Czarnecki.
Scifi and fantasy writers: Set up a table at the Saugerties Public Library Comic Con! It will take place Saturday, July 16, from 10 a.m. – 2 p.m. at the Saugerties Senior Center. Tables are free, and we welcome you to sell your wares. Contact Christine at cpacuk@saugertiespubliclibrary.org or (845) 246-4317 for more information.
M. E. Kemp will lead a five-day workshop for women writers at the annual Paradox Lake Retreat Center for women writers beginning July 17. Kemp’s workshop will feature the five steps to writing a mystery. Other workshops at the retreat include poetry, memoir and nonfiction. For more information about retreat classes – and to register – contact Jill Hanifan at: jhanifan@nycap.rr.com.
Hudson Valley Writers Guild Newsletter May 2016
Posted on May 1, 2016 by Carolee Bennett | Leave a comment
Richard Gotti play to be part of Short Play Festival in Rhinebeck May 6-8
New York Times blog features HVWG member Barbara Traynor
New press and chapbook add to local poetry and prose scene
Keith Willis announces upcoming appearances, debut novel recognized as award finalist
Joan Murray to read at Caffè Lena May 4
Poetry & poetics from Michael Peters at Pine Hollow Arboretum May 6
Next “2nd Sunday @ 2” open mic for poetry and prose May 8
Arthur’s Poetry Open-Mic features Carolee Bennett May 11
Read your own prose or listen to local talent at Roe Jan Library May 14
Stephen A DiBiase Prize winners and finalists to read in Albany on May 15
Third Thursday to feature poet Mike Jurkovic May 19
Writers in the Mountains launches 6-week illustration workshop June 4
Writing opportunities from beyond the Upstate/Hudson Valley region
Judges: Julie Lamoe, Joe Krausman and Andrea Portnick.
Membership forms can be found here on this website.
For more information, please contact Faith Green at greenfaith2@gmail.com or (518) 253-8557. Mail submissions with entry fee to: HVWG Fiction Contest, c/o Faith Green, 25B Patterson Drive, Glenmont, NY 12077.
Richard Gotti’s play, The Wave, has been selected by Warrior Productions of Rhinecliff for inclusion in the 2016 Short Play Festival to be held at the Center for Performing Arts in Rhinebeck, May 6-8.
Information and tickets are available at www.warriorproductions.biz and www.centerforperformingarts.org.
Barbara M Traynor was featured in the The New York Times Well Blog on March 29 in an article called “Reinventing Yourself: Stories From Our Readers.” Ms Traynor is author ofSecond Career Volunteer, a passionate, pennywise approach to a unique lifestyle.
Nancy Klepsch, Lauren Pinsley and Dan Wilcox proudly announce the release of a new chapbook for poetry and prose and the establishment of a new local press called Riverside Community Press. The new chapbook called 2 is an historical anthology celebrating six years of the writers participating in the open mic called the “2nd Sunday @ 2 open mic for poetry and prose” at the Arts Center of the Capital Region in Troy, NY. The new press, called Riverside Community Press, is a literary journal for poetry and prose. You can order your copy for $5 plus postage by emailing nsktroy@aol.com.
There will be a call for entries with a theme to be announced in the near future. This publication seeks to reach out to diverse voices.
Keith W. Willis’ debut fantasy novel Traitor Knight has been recognized as one of five finalists in the fantasy competition in the Next Generation Indie Book Awards. NGIBA is the largest not-for-profit book awards program for independent publishers and self-published authors. The winners and finalists will be officially announced on April 30 and will be recognized atBook Expo America in Chicago in May.
Traitor Knight weaves fantasy, adventure, intrigue, a dash of romance and a dollop of wit into a fast-paced tale of a dashing, heroic and (literally) hopelessly romantic knight; a disillusioned damsel-in-distress; a surfeit of sinister spies; and a fearsome dragon with an inconvenient case of hiccups. Published by Champagne Books (Alberta, Canada) in electronic (Sept. 2015) and paperback (March 2016) editions, Traitor Knight has garnered numerous five-star reviews.
Keith will present the work at the following upcoming appearances:
Thursday, June 2: Traitor Knight Book Launch Party, Book House, Stuyvesant Plaza, 1475 Western Avenue, Albany. (518) 489-4761. Event starts at 7 p.m. Light libations and munchies will be served.
Saturday, June 4: Reading & Book Signing, Eden Café, 260 Osborne Road, Loudonville. (518) 977-3771. Event from 2-4:30 p.m. Café menu available.
Saturday – Sunday, June 11 -12: Vendor at NY Capital District Renaissance Festival, Indian Ladder Farms, 342 Altamont Voorheesville Road, Altamont.
Monday, June 13: Reading/Q&A/Book Signing, Cohoes Public Library, 169 Mohawk Street, Cohoes. (518) 235-2570. Event starts at 6 p.m.
On Wednesday, May 4, Caffè Lena will present a poetry reading by Joan Murray. An open reading will follow. Doors open for sign-ups at 7 p.m., and the readings will start at 7:30. The host for the event will be Carol Graser, and the cost is $5. Caffè Lena, 47 Phila Street, Saratoga Springs. (518) 583-0022. www.caffelena.org.
Joan Murray is a poet, writer and playwright, whose books include Swimming for the Ark: New & Selected Poems 1990-2015 (White Pine Press Distinguished Poets Series), Looking for the Parade (W. W. Norton), Dancing on the Edge and Queen of the Mist (both from Beacon Press), and The Same Water (Wesleyan University Press). A repeat guest on NPR’s Morning Edition, she is also a National Poetry Series Winner, a 2-time National Endowment for the Arts Poetry Fellowship Winner, a Wesleyan New Poets Series Winner and Winner of Poetry Society of America’s Gordon Barber Award.
Potluck 6 p.m.
Reading at 6:30 p.m.
16 Maple Avenue, Slingerlands, New York
It’s a hard knock life for young professor and poet Michael Peters. On the creative frontier auding experimental verse, Michael is also profound in other media. Take his books where he is visually detailing merged fields of image and words on the printed page. His poetry is easier to comprehend on the page than it is when he is presented as performance poetry with unique cadences and stretched vocalizations. We can expect at this Pine Hollow’s Open Mic (as has been experienced by those of us who have heard him before) his oral presentation promising an emergence field of sounds investing his poetry and performance with a unique tonal environment. At Pine Hollow, Michael is also going to take us behind the scenes with explanation of the poetics behind the work he is presenting.
I have heard it both ways: “I wish he wouldn’t read like that because I cannot understand his words when he does” and “Oh Michael, if only I could have you read my poems in the way you read your own.” If you have an appetite for un-ordinary work then this version of Pine Hollow’s Open Mic is for you.
Upcoming dates: May 8 and June 12. Please bring two poems or five minutes of prose to read. All are welcome. The Arts Center of the Capital Region, 265 River Street, Troy, NY. The seventh season starts September 11!
Arthur’s Poetry Open Mic features Carolee Bennett May 11
The next Arthur’s Poetry Open Mic and Featured Reader is May 11 (always the second Wednesday): 7 p.m. sign-up for open mic; 7:30 p.m. readings begin. 35 N. Ferry Street, Schenectady, NY.
This month’s feature is Carolee Bennett, an artist and poet living in Upstate New York, who once was the “almost” poet laureate of Smitty’s Tavern (first runner-up in the annual contest). She has been published in a number of print and online journals, and in 2015 her poem “On not shielding young minds from the dark” placed as semi-finalist for the Tupelo Quarterly Poetry Prize. She has an MFA in creative writing (poetry) from Ashland University in Ohio and works full-time as a writer in social media marketing.
Fiction, non-fiction and memoir writers are invited to read their work at a Short-Prose Open Mic at Roeliff Jansen Community Library on Saturday, May 14, 4-6 p.m. Non-writers and writers who do not choose to read are invited to enjoy and be inspired by the work of local talent.<
Writers must keep readings to a maximum of seven minutes in length. No pre-registration is necessary. For further information, contact Regina Colangelo at reginac18@verizon.net or(914) 954-3494.
Roeliff Jansen Community Library, which is chartered to serve Ancram, Copake and Hillsdale, is located at 9091 Route 22, approximately one mile south of the light at the Hillsdale intersection of Routes 22 and 23. For information on hours and events, call (518) 325-4101 or visit the library’s website at www.roejanlibrary.org. Follow the library on Twitter:@libraryroe.
Winning and final poems from the 2016 Stephen A DiBiase Poetry Prize contest will be read on May 15 between 2 and 4 p.m. at the main branch of the Albany Public Library, 161 Washington Avemue. This event is free and open to the public. The reading will take place in the large auditorium at the library.
The top prize winner, Dawn Marar of Delmar, will be the featured reader. Other regional poets who plan to read their entries are Karen Fabiane, Jackie Craven, Sylvia Barnard, Lucia Cherciu, Howard Kogan, Joe Krausman, Jennifer Circosta, Joel Best, Dan Wilcox, Phil Good and Sally Rhoades. Special guest Mary Panza and other poets will read several of the top entrants from outside the region. Information about the contest, including plans for the 2017 edition, will be provided.
Contact: Bob Sharkey, Editor for The Stephen A DiBiase Poetry Prize, (518) 369-9055, riverrun@nycap.rr.com
Poet Mike Jurkovic will read from his work at the Social Justice Center, 33 Central Avenue, Albany on Thursday, May 19, at 7:30 p.m.
Mike Jurkovic’s poems and music criticism have appeared globally but have yet to generate any reportable income. His first full length collection, smitten by harpies is just out from Lion Autumn Press. Other publications include Eve’s Venom (Post Traumatic Press, 2014), Purgatory Road (Pudding House Press, 2010) and inclusion in the anthologies WaterWrites & Riverine (Codhill Press, 2009, 2007) and Will Work For Peace (Zeropanik, 1999). In addition, he is the producer of CAPSCASTS, recordings from Calling All Poets, available atwww.callingallpoets.net. Music features, interviews and CD reviews appear in Elmore Magazine and the Van Wyck Gazette.
Writers in the Mountains (WIM) introduces “The Business and Art of Illustration” with Durga Yael Bernhard, a 6-week long workshop, running from June 4 to July 9. The class will be held Saturdays from 12:30 to 2:30 p.m. at the Phoenicia Public Library.
This class will be useful for artists who want to apply their talent to commercial use or for anyone who wants to learn the art of visual communication. Style development, visual research and the crucial importance of design will be discussed along with weekly hands-on exercises and group critiques. Business aspects of professional illustration will be covered, including freelancing, self-promotion, contracts, reproduction rights, computer skills and more. Special attention will be given to children’s book illustration if desired by the class. This is not a course in computer graphics or digital illustration. A small art supply list will be given to registrants prior to the first class.
D. Yael Bernhard is the illustrator of over three dozen children’s books – all of which she designed except for one – including fiction and non-fiction, natural science titles and multicultural folktales. She has also written several unique concept books for children. Her illustrated books include A Ride on Mother’s Back (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt); While You Are Sleeping (Charlesbridge Publishing); In the Fiddle is a Song (Chronicle Books); and Never Say a Mean Word Again (Wisdom Tales Press). Yael’s work encompasses several different styles and has been published on everything from book, magazine and CD covers, to business logos, brochures, websites, corporate promotional materials and other projects. Her website is dyaelbernhard.com.
To register, call Jean Stone at (607) 326-4802, or e-mail jtstone@catskill.net. To register online, visit writersinthemountains.org. Class fee is $70, if you register and pay by May 14, and $85 after that.
June 17: Walt Franklin
A message from Writer’s Atalier in Florida –> “My name is Racquel Henry, and I am the founder of the writing center, Writer’s Atelier, in Winter Park, FL. I am reaching out to writers to inform them of our offerings. We aim to offer writers affordable writing workshops and sometimes free events! I thought that our next online workshop might be of interest to some of the members of the Hudson Valley Writers Guild. It’s called, “First Five Pages,” and it will be lead by NYT bestselling author Anna Banks. The 4-week workshop (starting in May) features weekly lessons, weekly Q&A chats with the author, a five-page critique and a critique of the query letter. Writers of all genres are welcomed to participate. If you’re interested, you can email me directly at racquel@racquelhenry.com. Here’s the link to the workshop on our website.”
A message from Kazabo Publishing –> “Dear Hudson Valley Writers Guild, As your organization is dedicated to making authors successful, we thought you might be interested in a project we launched at AWP16 last month. Kazabo Publishing is something entirely new. At Kazabo, established authors are the publishers. In effect we give them an “imprint” and allow them to choose new authors to publish. It works like this. New and emerging authors submit their books to Kazabo and agree to review five books by other new authors. Based on the reviews their book receives, we put it into out editing process. At the end of that process, our established authors choose the books they believe will appeal to their loyal readers. Once the book is published, the established author uses their marketing platform to help promote the new author. For new authors, our royalty rates begin at 50% while the established author earns 15%. Initially, the new author is published to e-book and then moved into other media and languages as their sales progress. Before you ask, no, this does not cost the author anything. This is not vanity publishing. The only money we collect is from readers when they buy the author’s books! Nor is it, by any stretch of the imagination, self-publishing. Kazabo is very selective and no established author will back one of our new authors with their name and reputation unless they are genuinely impressed. Every book published by Kazabo will be a very good book indeed. So the vast majority of new authors who submit to Kazabo will not make the cut. But there is something in it for them, too. If your book is not selected for publication, you will still receive the five reviews that were done of your book. You will know that five of your fellow authors read your book, thought about your book and provided you detailed, written feedback about your book. There is a lot more to this program so I encourage you to visit our website, kazabo.com, for more information. Best Regards, Chiara Giacobbe, director, New Authors Division.”
A message from Writer’s Relief, Inc. –> “Announcing the WaterSedge Poetry Chapbook Contest Judged by Ohio’s Poet Laureate Amit Majmudar. The WaterSedge Poetry Chapbook competition is hosted by Writer’s Relief, Inc. The chapbook contest runs until May 25. The winning poet will receive a $500 cash prize; publication of the poetry chapbook in both print and e-book formats; Amazon distribution for Kindle and print; and 25 free copies. The contest is limited to poetry chapbooks 24 – 48 pages in length, and the entry fee is $20. For complete contest submission guidelines, visit http://writersrelief.com/watersedge-poetry-chapbook-contest/. We’re thrilled and honored to have Ohio poet laureate Amit Majmudar judge our poetry chapbook contest. Majmudar is the author of two novels and several poetry collections. He was a finalist for a Poetry Society of America’s Norma Faber First Book Award, and his poetry was selected for a Donald Justice prize. His most recent collection of poems, Dothead, was published on March 29. Majmudar’s poetry has appeared in The New Yorker, The New York Review of Books, The Atlantic Monthly, Poetry Magazine and The Antioch Review. His work has been featured in several anthologies, including Best of the Best American Poetry, 1988-2012. Since 1994, the Writer’s Relief office has been located a stone’s throw from the New Jersey Meadowlands: a large ecosystem of wetlands in the metropolitan region and an important bird habitat. The water sedge is one of several endangered plant species struggling to survive in this environment. The efforts of water sedge to flourish despite difficult odds seems kindred in spirit to poets hoping to successfully publish their poetry books and chapbooks in an uncooperative publishing environment. With the WaterSedge Poetry Chapbook Contest, we hope to help poets thrive and succeed.”
A message about the Aesthetica Creative Writing Award –> “The Aesthetica Creative Writing Award is an international literary prize, now in its ninth year, and is currently open for entries, presenting a fantastic opportunity for emerging and established writers from around the world to showcase their work to a wider audience. Prizes include publication in an anthology of outstanding poetry and short fiction, a consultation with a literary agent, subscriptions to leading writing organisations and publications. As an international award, we would really like writers and poets around the world to know about this opportunity. Specifics on the prizes are as follows:
£500 each (poetry winner and short fiction winner)
publication in the Aesthetica Creative Writing Annual
consultation with Redhammer Management (short fiction winner)
full membership to The Poetry Society (poetry winner)
selection of books courtesy of Bloodaxe and Vintage
1-year subscription to Granta
Short Fiction entries should be no more than 2,000 words. Poetry entries should be no more than 40 lines. Works previously published elsewhere are accepted. Deadline for submissions is August 31. To enter, visit www.aestheticamagazine.com/cwa. We are really excited about this year’s Aesthetica Creative Writing Award and hope that you can share the call for entries. Best wishes, Cassandra”
Hudson Valley Writers Guild Newsletter, April 2016
Posted on April 1, 2016 by Carolee Bennett | Leave a comment
Harvey Havel to host poetry and prose reading April 18
Keith Willis’ debut fantasy novel now available in paperback
Publication news from Alan Catlin
Results of the first annual Stephen A. DiBiase poetry contest
This Is Not A Literary Journal to host 30 prompts for NaPoWriMo
Roe Jan Library announces poetry month poem-a-day challenge and open mic
Rensselaerville celebrates 11th annual National Poetry Month
Steve Berry launches national book tour at University Club (April 1) and NYS Museum (April 2)
Roe Jan Library hosts poetry month open mic April 2 featuring poet Karen Schoemer
Caffè Lena to feature Lisa Wiley and Peter Marcus April 6
Luncheon and reading with young adult author Linda Miller-Lachman April 9
Arthur’s poetry open mic to feature Kelly de la Rocha April 13
Writers Workshop at Tech Valley Center of Gravity announces new schedule starting April 14
Public History Conference April 15-17: The Underground Railroad and American Identities
Third Thursday to feature poet Tina Barry April 21
Cara Benson leads “Playing on the Page” poetry workshop at Roe Jan Library April 23
On April 24 “Meet the Authors,” WIM’s Third Annual Catskills Book Festival
Sequestrum writing award deadline April 30
Announcing the 2016 Fence Show Call for Entries
Roe Jan Library hosts short-prose open mic May 14
At 7 p.m. on Monday, April 18, during Wordfest, Harvey Havel will host a poetry and prose reading at the Hudson River Coffee House, 227 Quail Street, Albany. Featured poets and prose writers will be:
Allen Parmenter
Daniel Nester
Heidi Pangratis
Harvey Havel (Host)
Brian Dorn
Keith W. Willis is delighted to announce that his debut fantasy novel, Traitor Knight, which was initially released in ebook format only, is now available in a paperback edition through Champagne Books or Amazon.
Alan Catlin had a new book of poetry, American Odyssey, published by Future Cycle Press. It is available in print and Kindle format from www.futurecycle.org.
Issue 17 of Misfit Magazine is now live. We are always interested in submissions at submissions@misfitmagazine.net. “It is about the poem, not the name.”
Bob Sharkey has announced the results of the first annual Stephen A. DiBiase poetry contest. The contest had 303 entries from 37 states and DC and from nine other nations. Local poet and Hudson Valley Writers Guild board member, Dawn Marar, took first place for her poem “Beyond the Naupaka Hedge.” Several other local and regional poets won awards or were finalists. A public reading by many of these poets will take place on Sunday, May 15, 2 p.m. at the Washington Avenue branch of the Albany Public Library.
A complete list of the awards and finalists follows:
First Place (bonus for community poet; bonus for local poet: $700): “Beyond the Naupaka Hedge” by Dawn Marar of Delmar, NY
Second Place ($250): “The Resolution of Neglect Syndrome” by Jen Karetnick of Miami Shores, FL
Third Place ($125): “Plantation’s Corn” by Paul Weidknecht of Phillipsburg, NJ
Fourth Place ($100): “On the Rising Prices of Corn at Festivals” by Michelle Chen of Whitestone, NY
Special Founder’s Award ($90): “Now, morning…” by Karen Fabiane of Troy, NY
Honorable Mentions ($65):
“Stopping By The Columbarium” by Jackie Craven of Schenectady, NY
“Siobhan In Washington Park (age 46)” by Sylvia Barnard of Albany, NY
“Argiope Aurantia” by Pat Tompkins of San Mateo, CA
“American Woman” by Lucia Cherciu of Poughkeepsie, NY
“Don’t Read This One Out Loud” by Merisa Dion of Derry, NH
“A Brief History of Fun” by Howard Kogan of Stephentown, NY
“Shipwreck” by Joe Krausman of Menands, NY
“Earthquakes in Oklahoma” by Lauren Elizabeth Delucchi of Washington, DC
“Nondescript” by Ashley Hyun of Tenafly, NJ
Other Finalists:
“I loved you long before I even met you” by Kirsten Textor of Lyngby, Denmark
“To a Child at Enlightenment” by J.C. Elkin of Annapolis, MD
“Winter Walk” by Francis DiClemente of Syracuse, NY
“Let Me View Life-The Way the Heart Feels…” by Jennifer Circosta of Campbell Hall, NY
“all told” by Joel Best of Niskayuna, NY
“Inside the Picture Frame-For Aiyana Stanley-Jones” by Keli Osborn of Eugene, OR
“Missing you” by Carol Kloskowski of Christmas, MI
“Sad Nymph” by Betsy Butcher of Iowa City, IA
“Richard Nixon Must Die (for all the victims of the War)” by Dan Wilcox of Albany, NY
“Salt Is The Spice Of Life” by Philip Good of East Nassau, NY
“modie badanov” by Canon Pau of Los Angeles, CA
“On a Night With a Poet” by Sally Rhoades of Albany, NY
“Meaning of Man” by Erin Gillett of Los Angeles, CA
Earlier this year, Carolee Bennett, HVWG member and newsletter editor, launched an online poetry prompt project called This Is Not A Literary Journal. The site typically publishes a prompt each week (Tuesdays) and plans to publish select poems from participants once the community begins to grow. This April, in celebration of National Poetry Writing Month (NaPoWriMo) and in support of those poets — herself included — who plan to write 30 poems in 30 days, This Is Not A Literary Journal will publish a prompt each day. To keep up with the prompts in April (and afterward!), you can subscribe to the site or follow it on Twitter: @notajournal.
Starting April 1, Great Barrington poet Janet Hutchinson will send out daily email poetry writing prompts during the month for the fifth annual “Poem-a-Day Challenge.” To receive daily prompts, send your email address to: janhutch44@gmail.com. Hutchinson says, “There are now more than 300 people in 12 states and three foreign countries receiving these prompts. Many people have told me that they did not actually complete 30 poems in April, but said that the five they did write were five more than they might have written otherwise.”
An open mic for Poem-a-Day Challenge participants to read some of the poems they wrote will be held at the Roe Jan Library, on Friday, April 29, 7-8 p.m.
Rensselaerville will hold its 11th annual Poetry Month celebration with events throughout the month of April. Details:
Today’s Poem
30 days … 30 poems. Starting April 1, we’ll post a new poem each day by a local poet. Visit www.rensselaervillelibrary.org and click the “Today’s Poem” button.
Featured poets: Peter Boudreaux, Dennis Sullivan, Howard Kogan, Linda Sonia Miller, Dan Wilcox, Katrinka Moore, Tim Verhaegen, Bob Sharkey, Philomena Moriarty, Nancy Dyer, Mark W. Ó Brien, Robert A. Miller, Thomas Bonville, Barbara Hatch Vink, Charlie Rossiter, Mike Burke, Cathy Anderson, Pam Clements, Mimi Moriarty, Alan Casline, Dianne Sefcik, Karen Schoemer, Dawn Marar, Therese Broderick, Edie Abrams, Ann Lapinski, Charles Burgess, Claire North, Emileigh Tanner and Tom Corrado.
Let Your Yoga and Poet Dance
Inspired by the Rensselaerville Library Poetry Group, poet and yoga dance instructor Ann Lapinski will combine her practice of Let Your Yoga Dance® with poetry focused on the body chakras.
April 9, 10:30 a.m – noon
Conkling Hall, 8 Methodist Hill Road, Rensselaerville, NY 12147
Visual Poetry Workshop: Asemic Writing
Asemic, or wordless, writing combines elements of visual arts and written language. Participants will begin by writing poetry and go on to create broadsides of their own asemic writing. The workshop will be facilitated by artist Nancy DeNicolo and poet Katrinka Moore. Open to beginning and experienced writers and artists.
Please register at (518) 797-3949 by April 8. There is a $5 registration fee, payable at the door.
April 16, 10:30 a.m. – 12:30 p.m.
Rensselaerville Library, 1459 Co Road 351, Rensselaerville, NY 12147
library@rensselaervillelibrary.org
Cowboy Poetry
Janet Botaish returns for an afternoon of Cowboy Poetry with special guests Mark Munzert and Kimmy Hudson-Munzert. Kimmy is a western singer, and Mark is the current Western Music Association Western Wordsmith’s Secretary and administrates a Cowboy Poetry Facebook page, which has over 7,000 members.
April 16, 3 – 5 p.m.
Wild Minds: Nature Poetry Reading
Poet Gary Snyder calls writers and artists who look deeply into the connection of humans and the environment “explorers of the wild mind.” Come listen to poems inspired by the natural world in a natural setting, the Huyck Preserve in Rensselaerville, NY. Free and open to the public.
Featuring poet Barbara Ungar and including Stuart Bartow, Charlie Burgess, Alan Casline, Tom Corrado, John Couturier, Carol Graser, Dawn Marar, Anita Marrone, Linda Miller, Robert Miller, Katrinka Moore, Philomena Moriarty, Claire North, Mark W. Ó Brien, Susan Oringel, Michael Peters, Joan Lauri Poole, Elizabeth Poreba, Dianne Sefcik, Lee Slonimsky and Emileigh Tanner.
April 23, 2016, 3 – 5 p.m.
Eldridge Research Station on Lincoln Pond, 284 Pond Hill Road, Rensselaerville, NY 12147
info@huyckpreserve.org
Singing in the Dark: Poetry of Courage/Poetry of Witness
The turbulent issues of the 21st century (including those related to refugees, terrorism, racism, nationalism, gender, age, free speech, climate and war) have resulted in a particularly fertile time for poetry, as well as for other forms of artistic expression. Poetry speaks to our deepest fears, as well as hopes. Around the world, poets are not only writing in reaction to the issues of the day, but they are also confronting these new times with new poetic forms such as documentary poetry, ecopoetry, spoken word/slam poetry, multi-genre expression, etc. The Singing in the Dark event seeks to pack into two hours an introduction to poets who use both traditional and new forms to address the challenges of living in these uncertain times, as well as to poets who have addressed historical events with similar urgency. You will hear poems by regional poets, as well as readings (by guest readers) of poems by well-known poets. The diverse voices of those moved to engage these issues, including the often unfamiliar poetry of indigenous peoples, will be represented in both this event and the Huyck Preserve event.
Featuring poets Jamaluddin Aram, Nancy Klepsch, Leland Kinsey, Marianne Rahn-Erickson, Victorio Reyes, Daniel Summerhill and Dan Wilcox; and including Thomas Bonville, Charlie Burgess, Tom Corrado, Curtis Flach, Christian Matthew Harris, Ian Macks, Cheryl MacNeil, Dawn Marar, Anita Marrone, Marilyn McCabe, Linda Sonia Miller, Philomena Moriarty, Robert Nied, Claire North, Dianne Sefcik, Bob Sharkey and Lynda Wisdo.
Carey Institute for Global Good, 100 Pond Hill Road, Rensselaerville, NY 12147
For info about these April events, contact Linda Miller (lsoniam@aol.com) or Kimberly Graff (director@rensselaervillelibrary.org)
Steve Berry, a master of thrillers with a historic twist, will launch the national tour for his latest book, The 14th Colony (Minotaur Books), at a “History Happy Hour” on Friday, April 1, 5:30 – 8 p.m. at the National Register-listed University Club of Albany, 141 Washington Avenue. One need not be a member of the University Club to attend.
The History Happy Hour will be followed by “Lessons from a Bestseller” at the New York State Museum on Saturday, April 2, from 9 a.m. – 1:30 p.m. This event is sponsored by the New York State Museum, and more information on the writer’s workshop is online at www.universityclubalbany.com.
Steve Berry and his wife, Elizabeth, have traveled the world researching Steve’s many books and saw the effects of dwindling funds dedicated to preserving our heritage. They established the History Matters Foundation to assist communities around the world with historic restoration and preservation. The foundation supports the cost of their travel, and he accepts no appearance fee. They are traveling throughout the month of April, but are kicking off the tour with a pair of events in Albany.
Online ticketing for both events may be found online:
History Happy Hour – http://conta.cc/1oPaOSB
Writers Workshop – http://conta.cc/1WRjLFr
Columbia County poet Karen Schoemer will read from her own work and host an open mic to begin the celebration of poetry month at the Roeliff Jansen Community Library on Saturday, April 2, 5-7 p.m. Schoemer, first place winner of the Hudson Valley Writers Guild 2015 Writing Contest, invites poets and poetry lovers “to share a poem and celebrate their own heritage and poetry’s shared heritage.” Participants can read one or two of their own poems or read poems from a favorite poet.
Karen Schoemer is a poet, author, performer and bookseller. Her poems have appeared in Chronogram, Up the River, Red Barn and Zephyrs. She is the author of Great Pretenders: My Strange Love Affair with ’50s Pop Music (Free Press, 2006), and her music journalism has appeared in many publications, including the New York Times, Rolling Stone and Newsweek. The former book manager for the Spotty Dog in Hudson, she has hosted readings and book events for authors throughout Columbia County and curated Arts Walk Literary for the Columbia County Council on the Arts in 2015. She is the vocalist for the Schoemer Formation, a Catskill-based rock band.
On Wednesday, April 6, Caffè Lena will present poetry readings by Lisa Wiley and Peter Marcus. An open reading will follow. Doors open for sign-ups at 7 p.m., and the readings will start at 7:30. The host for the event will be Carol Graser, and the cost is $5. Caffè Lena, 47 Phila Street, Saratoga Springs, (518) 583-0022, www.caffelena.org.
Friends of the Albany Public Library is proud to sponsor Lyn Miller-Lachman, author of books for young adults, at the “Spring Book & Author Event”:
Albany Public Library, 161 Washington Avenue, Second Floor Meeting Room
A buffet luncheon will be served at noon at the University Club, 141 Washington Avenue, Albany. Cost for the luncheon: $20. Please RSVP for the luncheon by contacting Gene Damm, (518) 482-7675, or by email gdamm@nycap.rr.com.
The next “Arthur’s Poetry Open-Mic and Featured Reader” will be Wednesday, April 13. Here are the details:
Featured poet: Kelly de la Rocha / Kelly’s quest to help others has lead her to Guatamala; Biloxi, Mississippi; and the foothills of the Appalachian Mountains, as well as close to home, including Schenectady Inner City Ministry’s food pantry. Many of the people she has met while volunteering color her work. Kelly’s love of nature also winds through her poetry, which has been featured in multiple print and e-publications. She lives with her husband and two children in Glenville, NY.
7 p.m. sign-up for open mic; 7:30 readings begin
Hosted by Catherine Norr
Arthur’s Market & Cafe, 35 N. Ferry Street, Schenectady, NY 12305
Writers Workshop at Tech Valley Center of Gravity, 30 3rd Street, Troy, NY 12180 (Corner of Broadway)
Join us more frequently and on our new night: alternating Thursdays
Upcoming dates: Thursdays, April 14 and 28, 6-9 p.m.
The schedule:
6-6:30 — Bring fun, healthy food and/or a beverage to share
6:30-8:30 — Co-writing; quiet, focused time (bring ear plugs/buds, etc. if they help you focus)
8:30-9 — Share and respond session, optional.
Sharing Rules:
If you stay at 8:30, stay focused until 9
3-4 sharers, chosen by the evening coordinator
Share from what you write at the workshop
Be excellent to others as you listen and respond
Free for TVCOG and TVGS members; $5/session for others.
Email rhonda@reworkediting.com for info and to RSVP
You are invited to “The Underground Railroad and American Identities.” Mark your calendars and plan to attend April 15-17. This 15th annual Public History Conference, organized by Underground Railroad History Project of the Capital Region, Inc., offers an ala carte selection of workshops, cultural performance, art exhibit, bus tour and receptions designed for young and mature alike.
Racism in America: Where do we go from here?” begins conference proceedings on Friday, April 15. This will be followed by “Moving Between: Intersectional Identities in the Struggle for Justice.” Panelist Ms. Barbara Smith, civil rights activist, scholar and Nobel Peace Prize nominee, will join Ms. Angelica Clarke, executive director of the Social Justice Center in Albany and a leader in the Capital Region’s civil rights activities, to address movements past and present and how embracing a multi-issued approach deepens the impact and effectiveness of our political work. Dr. Janell Hobson, graduate director of Women’s Studies at University at Albany, will moderate.
Saturday topics include
“Adapting to the Promised Land: Freedom Seekers in Canada”
“Pivotal Events in the Struggle for Freedom”
“History Mystery – play it again SharpMinds competition”
“Disability and Slavery in the Antebellum South”
“Lott Cary and His Forgotten Legacy”
Featured artists Marcus Kwame Anderson and Daesha Devón Harris will exhibit their work. The Young Abolitionists and the ‘Hutchinson’s Cousins’ will provide engaging, interactive cultural performances. Vendors, exhibitors and delectable culinary fare will round out the experience.
Sunday hosts a bus tour of AfroDutch heritage sites in the Capital Region. As part of the Mapping Slavery Project, initiated in the Netherlands and recently expanded to include New York State’s Hudson River Valley, tour operator and researcher Jennifer Tosch will lead this enriching experience to uncover the voices and stories of the AfroDutch residents who made the Hudson River Valley their home under Dutch colonial rule.
“The Underground Railroad and America Identities” will be hosted by Russell Sage College in Troy, New York. Co-sponsors include Russell Sage College, New York Council for the Humanities and Rensselaer County Historical Society. Full details are available at www.UndergroundRailroadHistory.org/conference or by calling (518) 432-4432 and requesting a paper registration brochure.
Poet Tina Barry will read from her work at the Social Justice Center, 33 Central Avenue, Albany, on Thursday, April 21 at 7:30 p.m.
Tina Barry’s poems and short stories have appeared in numerous literary magazines and anthologies, including Drunken Boat, Elimae, The NewerYork, Lost in Thought, Flash-Frontier, Boston Literary Magazine and Exposure, an Anthology of Micro-fiction. Mall Flower (Big Table Publishing) is her first book of poems and short fiction. Two poems in Mall Flower were nominated for the Pushcart Prize, and one prose piece was a winner in “The Best Short Fiction 2016” (Queens Ferry Press). A long-time Brooklynite, Barry now lives in upstate New York.
A reading by a local or regional poet is held each Third Thursday at the Social Justice Center. The event includes an open mic for audience members to read. Sign-up starts at 7 p.m., with the reading beginning at 7:30. The host of the readings is Albany poet and photographer Dan Wilcox. The suggested donation is $3, which helps support this and other poetry programs of the Poetry Motel Foundation and the work of the Social Justice Center. For more information about this event, contact Dan Wilcox, (518) 482-0262; e-mail: dwlcx@earthlink.net.
Poet Cara Benson will lead a poetry workshop, “Playing on the Page,” as a part of Roeliff Jansen Community Library’s Poetry Month celebration. The workshop is open to beginning and experienced poets, and it will run from 1-4 p.m., Saturday, April 23. Cara Benson says, “Let’s have some fun with language. We’ll pour it all out, then play with where the words go. Never made a poem before? Not sure what one is? Jump in—the water’s fine! Been loving poetry for decades? You’ll fit right in, too. We’ll read, write, talk and respond to each other’s work with kind attention. We’ll come away with a few new poems.”
Benson is a writer of fiction, non-fiction, poetry, essays and reviews. Her work has appeared in The New York Times, Boston Review and Best American Poetry. She is a recipient of a New York Foundation for the Arts Fellowship in Literature. She teaches creative writing in the graduate program at Prescott College and takes on students and clients one-on-one privately — or through Grub Street as a manuscript consultant.
The workshop fee is $15, and pre-registration is required. Some scholarships are available. Call the library at (518) 325-4101 to inquire about waiver of fee or to register.
Writers in the Mountains (WIM) invites you to a literary arts and community event and celebration we call “Meet the Authors,” the third in our series of annual book festivals. This year the event takes place on Sunday, April 24, from noon to 4 p.m. at the Union Grove Distillery in Arkville, NY, an exciting new enterprise in the area. Union Grove is housed in a big old barn-like building featuring comfortable spaces fitted with stainless steel and copper and wood, a roaring fireplace and the percolation of fine spirits — all making for a perfect environment in which to listen to, talk about and think about books and writing.
The daylong event welcomes all writers and readers, artists and audience and community members from every walk to brave the mud and chill of early spring and enjoy a warm gathering of successful and fascinating writers, illustrators, editors, educators, booksellers and publishers from Syracuse to New York City and points between and beyond. This year’s keynote speaker is Rosie Schaap, author of the celebrated memoir Drinking with Men, as well as the “Drink” column for The New York Times magazine. Rosie has been a bartender, a fortuneteller, a librarian at a paranormal society, an English teacher, an editor, a preacher, a community organizer and a manager of homeless shelters.
Come by to shop for books directly from their authors, hear readings and peer-to-peer discussions, join in an enticing raffle (books are the prize, of course) and vote in the “Best Book Cover Contest.”
The program is as follows:
12:30 — Poetry reading led by poet Sharon Israel.
1:30 — Group discussion on the latest news and trends in publishing.
Leslie T. Sharpe, a retired professor from Columbia University who also worked for Farrar, Straus and Giroux, and teaches for Writers in the Mountains and MediaBistro.com, will talk about traditional publishing.
Writer and consultant Simona David will touch on independent publishing.
Poet, painter and educator Anique Taylor will address getting published in literary journals.
Lillian Browne, editor-in-chief of The Reporter and editor of the Catskill Country Magazine, will share thoughts about her experience with the news media and travel magazine publishing.
2 p.m. — Rosie Schaap will deliver the keynote address.
2:30 — Carrie Bradley Neves, writer, musician, and editor (with a specialization in cookbooks), will talk about new ingredients in the cookbook scene during the “foodie” era. Other illustrated book authors will be in the spotlight.
3:30 — The raffle, with a prize of 10 selected book titles, will be awarded (come early, tickets are limited!), and the winner of the Best Cover Contest will be announced.
Throughout the day, participating authors will read from their works and share their stories with the audience. Admission is free. For more information, visitwritersinthemountains.org or e-mail writersinthemountains@gmail.com. Writers in the Mountains is a 501 (c) (3) not-for–profit organization with a mission to provide a nurturing environment for the practice, appreciation, and sharing of creative writing.
A note from the editors at Sequestrum: “We’re all writers at Sequestrum and respect the vital role local and regional organizations play for writers in all stages of their careers. We’d appreciate if you could pass this note along to any writers who might be interested in contributing to the journal. Deadline: April 30 – Editor’s Reprint Award (2016-Spring-Issue-6). Submissions will close on April 30 for the second annual Editor’s Reprint Award, in which $200 will be awarded to one piece of previously-published fiction or nonfiction (plus runner-up prizes). Winners and finalists last year included writing from literary giants, such as The Atlantic and Tin House, as well as work from smaller presses, defunct journals and everything in-between. Simultaneous and multiple submissions allowed. The Reprint Award is a chance for writers to nominate their own work for a second breath of life – a rare thing today. Editor’s Reprint Award guidelines are here: http://www.sequestrum.org/contests. Find publications, send submissions, and keep updated on everything we’re doing at www.sequestrum.org. Onward, Sequestrum.”
The Arts Center of the Capital Region is pleased to announce the call for entries for the 2016 Fence Show, our annual members’ exhibition. All members of The Arts Center of the Capital Region are invited to enter and be a part of the tradition of our largest and longest running exhibition.
The Fence Show is an annual opportunity for all Arts Center members to display their artwork in our galleries. Works include paintings, drawing, photography, fiber arts, stained glass and sculpture. There is a separate category that welcomes submissions from young artists in grades K-12. Now in its 51st year, the Fence Show got its name when members’ artwork was exhibited on the iron fence surrounding Washington Park in Troy, the original location of the Arts Center. Today, the exhibition typically features approximately 500 pieces, displayed salon style (floor-to-ceiling) in our galleries. All levels of skill and ability are represented, from novice to professional.
Artwork drop-off will be from May 1-4. For more information about the exhibit and drop-off dates, visit artscenteronline.org/fence-show.
Fiction, non-fiction and memoir writers are invited to read their work at a short-prose open mic at Roeliff Jansen Community Library on Saturday, May 14, 4-6 p.m. Non-writers and writers who do not choose to read are invited to enjoy and be inspired by the work of local talent. Writers must keep readings to a maximum of seven minutes in length. No pre-registration is necessary. For further information, contact Regina Colangelo at reginac18@verizon.net or (914) 954-3494.
Hudson Valley Writers Guild Newsletter, March 2016
Posted on March 1, 2016 by Carolee Bennett | Leave a comment
Website help wanted
Pauline Bartel’s “Learn the Art of Writing Personal Essay” starts March 3
Judith Prest offers visual journaling workshop on March 12
Harvey Havel shares review of his novel The Orphan of Mecca
Don’t you deserve at least one day to write?
Pauline Bartel’s “No Excuses: Writing and Selling Your Book” begins April 4
Caffè Lena to feature Rodney Parrot March 2
Auditions March 5 and 19 for upcoming performance of art on mental illness
Arthur’s Market & Cafe Poetry Open-Mic to feature Joe Krausman March 9
Call for poets: Response needed by March 15
Third Thursday to feature Annie Christain March 17
Upcoming writers’ workshops at Tech Valley Center of Gravity, Troy
Authors: Register for Writers in the Mountains’ “Meet the Authors” by April 3
Opportunity for ghost writer
The Guild is looking for someone with the appropriate skills and experience to re-vamp, improve and re-design our website (hvwg.org). Essentially, we want to incorporate much of our current website, with important other features such as online membership sign-up and electronic payment, online sign-up for the newsletter and expanded listings/calendars comparable with current state-of-the-art sites. In addition to the initial re-design, we are also interested in an ongoing relationship to maintain the website over time, all at a rate of payment to be negotiated.
We are preparing a detailed request for proposal (RFP) that we will post on our current website, but in the meantime if you are interested and have the skills to do this, you may send an email to hvwginfo@gmail.com with a copy of your CV or resume and your proposed rate of payment (i.e., hourly rate). If you do so, we will email you a copy of the RFP when it is posted.
Transform the ordinary events of your life into extraordinary personal essays. Explore the step-by-step process in “Writing From Your Heart: The Art of Personal Essays,” a course that will be held on Thursdays, March 3, 10 and 17, 6:30-8:30 p.m. at Hudson Valley Community College. Course fee is $59, which includes a coursebook. To register, telephone (518) 629-7339.
Instructor Pauline Bartel will examine the process of using writing games to unlock personal experiences, choosing the most effective essay style, shaping experiences into first drafts and allowing reader reaction to refine the draft into a polished essay. Bartel is an award-winning nonfiction writer and the author of seven published books. She is a member of the prestigious American Society of Journalists and Authors. Visit her website (www.paulinebartel.com) for further information.
Arlene’s Artist Materials is thrilled to present a visual journaling workshop with Judith Prest on Saturday, March 12, 1-5 p.m.
Take your creative writing to the next level with visual journaling. This workshop is perfect for anyone who has ever kept a journal or wants to get started. Discover the magic of line, color and texture through collage, watercolor and other mediums. Most importantly: be ready to have fun and come prepared to play.
This workshop is $50 per person, and space is limited to 12 students. To register, please either come into the store at 57 Fuller Road in Albany or call in (518) 482-8881.
The Orphan of Mecca is an ambitious novel that presents a tragic story of love and strife during Bangladesh’s Liberation War. Two idealistic students discover just how dirty a game politics can be in this romantic thriller from Havel (Charlie Zero’s Last-Ditch Attempt, 2014).
Readers meet Amina Mitra and Raja Gupta in 1969, optimistic college students from the first generation born after East Pakistan (now Bangladesh) and West Pakistan were partitioned from India after World War II. They meet on registration day at Dhaka University, join the nationalist cause and gradually fall in love. But there are obstacles (“Dating wasn’t an option in East Pakistan. The children simply grew to a certain age, and then their parents gave them away to the husband of their choosing”.) To make matters worse, Raja is Hindu and Amina is Muslim; in the charged political atmosphere of a revolutionary land, simply holding hands on the street is sufficient to land them in jail, or worse.
Both are political idealists, working to gradually liberate the nation of their birth from the manipulative and homogenizing influence of Islamabad, but Bangladesh is a small country trapped between the conflicting interests of the major powers during the Cold War. (Pakistan is President Richard Nixon’s door to China—the weapons Amina and Raja fear falling prey to are American-made.) As their romance deepens, the young couple find their idealism manipulated, the worlds of politics and spycraft both cogs in “a multi-layered machine that already understood that human beings were essentially animals and had to be controlled whenever their chain of command saw fit.”
As Havel leads his readers from idyllic Bengali villages and cruel interrogation cubes to paradisiacal Calcutta hotels and the hidden slums of Mecca, he presents not only vivid personalities but a compelling vision of history. At one point, Raja muses about the Indians and Pakistanis: “The Indians seemed happier, while the Pakistanis were always paranoid of India’s culture. India appeared to be living in peace, while Pakistan existed in a perpetual state of war and unrest.” Havel understands how the abstruse mechanizations of geopolitical brinksmanship can influence everythin, from whispering lovers to struggling nations. Readers should feel caught up in the events of half a century ago as though they were happening now (which, in some impoverished country, they assuredly are).
The Orphan of Mecca by Harvey Havel is a suspenseful romance between a Hindu and a Muslim and a nerve-racking historical tale. America Star Books (272 pp.). $27.95 paperback. ISBN: 978-1-63508-040-7
Write 4 a Day is a new series of monthly 1-day writing retreats in upstate New York hosted by HVWG member K.A. Laity. It’s a low-stress day that includes:
no WiFi!
Write. Don’t write. Think. Daydream. Doodle. Outline. Come for the whole day or just for part of it. Network, collaborate or write solo. Wander the woods, hills, fields and streams of Universal Pathways for inspiration (bring sturdy shoes) or sit in a comfy chair and brainstorm. It’s up to you.
WHO – you and host K.A. Laity
WHAT – $20 fee [$15 for HVWG members] + your lunch (or a dish to share)
WHEN – upcoming dates: March 20 and April 17, 10 a.m. – 5 p.m.
WHERE – Universal Pathways, 692 Pleasant Valley Road, Berne 12023 – Phone: (518) 872-2272
The course “No Excuses: Writing and Selling Your Book” will be held on Mondays, April 4, 11 and 18, 6:30-8:30 p.m. at Schenectady County Community College. Course fee is $85. A required coursebook ($15) is available from the instructor on the first night of class. Register online (http://www.sunysccc.edu/academic/acadser/webreg.htm) or in person.
Instructor Pauline Bartel will discuss the step-by-step process of transforming an idea into a published book, including creating a book proposal, finding agents and publishers and guiding a book to publishing success. Bartel is an award-winning writer and the author of seven published books. She is a member of the prestigious American Society of Journalists and Authors. Visit her website (www.paulinebartel.com) for further information.
On Wednesday, March 2, Caffè Lena will present a poetry reading by Rodney Parrot. An open reading will follow. Doors open for sign-ups at 7 p.m., and the readings will start at 7:30. The host for the event will be Carol Graser, and the cost is $5.
Rodney Parrot has a PHD in Asian religion and has written in many forms: academic articles, a book of Indian philosophy, a novel, poetry, homemade chapbooks, two ghost written books and short stories about his business, Rescued Art. His newest poetry collection, Flying, was published in January 2016 with Northshire Press. He has been a regular at Caffè Lena poetry for many years and has consistently delighted our audience with his insights, musical language and imagery.
Caffè Lena is located at 47 Phila Street, Saratoga Springs. (518) 583-0022. www.caffelena.org.
Come take part in staged readings of stories, poems and original music about mental illness. You will be taking the stage with some of the incredible essayists of the critically acclaimed book, Shades of Blue, edited by Amy Ferris. The show will be performed at the Wood Theater, May 28, at 7 p.m.
In a recent interview, editor of Shades of Blue, Amy Ferris, said, “Mental health issues need more attention. So whether it’s a story about depression or an essay about a suicide attempt or a piece about the issue of family suicide, we need to start talking about this. We need to start shouting about it, because people feel so alone.”
Be part of this essential conversation. See the audition details below:
Where and when: Saturday, March 5, in the Christine McDonald Room Crandall Library in Glens Falls, 1:30-4:30 p.m.; or Saturday, March 19, in the H. Dutcher Community Room of the Saratoga Library in Saratoga Springs, 1-3 p.m.
What to prepare: An essay, poem or original piece of music that speaks of your experiences having or loving someone with a mental illness. No more than 5 minutes, please.
How: Email director Logan Beth Fisher at loganbethfisher@gmail.com to schedule a time.
The event is sponsored by Warren Washington Association for Mental Health.
Joe Krausman was the MCA fellow in playwriting at Smith College. He has an MFA in fiction writing from the University of Massachusetts where he held the Massachusetts Fiction Writing Fellowship. He has taught at Grinnell College in Iowa and the University of Massachusetts in Amherst. In 2015, he won second prize in the Raynes Prize Contest. His poem was selected from over 600 poems. He was a finalist in the contest in 2013 and 2014. Krausman is a graduate of the advanced Yiddish course in Oxford, England. He has translated stories and poems from Yiddish into English.
Sign-up for the regular 2nd Wednesday open mic is at 7 p.m. Readings begin at 7:30. The event is hosted by Catherine Norr with much support from Ginny Folger and Jackie Craven. Arthur’s is located at 35 North Ferry Street, Schenectady, 12305.
The Rensselaerville Library’s Poetry Month committee is looking for a diverse group of poets to come to Rensselaerville for a poetry of courage/poetry of witness event and a nature poetry event. If you are interested in joining the stellar lineup of poets already enlisted, for either or both events, please send 2-3 poems and a 2-3 sentence bio. Email a single MS Word or PDF document for each event to poetrymonthrville@gmail.com by March 15, 2016. Please indicate the event(s) (Nature and/or Courage/Witness) in the subject line. Descriptions of the events follow:
Wild Minds: Nature Poetry at the Huyck Preserve, April 23, 3-5 p.m. / In Writers and the War Against Nature, Gary Snyder describes the wild side of the human mind as large, deep, complex…The explorers of the wild mind are often writers and artists.” We humans are part of the natural world, but it can be easy to lose sight of that as we move along our daily rounds. Nature poetry can help us remember our connection to our environment. Many nature poets celebrate natural beauty or describe personal responses to experiences in nature. Others confront environmental devastation and injustice. Possibly the most important reason to read, write or listen to nature poems is that they remind us to pay attention to our world. They call on us to use all our senses to discover aspects of wildness inside ourselves. The Research Station on Lincoln Pond (Pond Hill Rd., Rensselaerville) at the Huyck Preserve is a logical setting for an afternoon of readings of original work by regional poets, as well as readings of well-known poets by guest readers. It is a peaceful place where readers and audience members can respond to poetic explorations of the natural world.
Singing in the Dark: Poetry of Courage/Poetry of Witness at the Carey Center for Global Good, April 30, 3-5 p.m. / The turbulent issues of the 21st Century (including those related to refugees, terrorism, racism, nationalism, gender, age, free speech, climate and war) have resulted in a particularly fertile time for poetry, as well as for other forms of artistic expression. Poetry speaks to our deepest fears, as well as hopes. Around the world, poets are not only writing in reaction to the issues of the day, but they are also confronting these new times with new poetic forms, such as documentary poetry, ecopoetry, spoken word/slam poetry, multi-genre expression, etc. The Singing in the Dark event seeks to pack into two hours an introduction to poets who use both traditional and new forms to address the challenges of living in these uncertain times, as well as to poets who have addressed historical events with similar urgency. You will hear poems by regional poets, as well as readings (by guest readers) of poems by well-known poets. The diverse voices of those moved to engage these issues, including the often unfamiliar poetry of indigenous peoples, will be represented in both this event and the Huyck Preserve event.
Poet Annie Christain will read from her work at the Social Justice Center, 33 Central Avenue, Albany, on Thursday, March 17, at 7:30 p.m.
Annie Christain is an assistant professor of composition and ESOL at SUNY Cobleskill with poems appearing in Seneca Review, Oxford Poetry, The Chariton Reviewand The Lifted Brow, among others. She received the grand prize of the 2013 Hart Crane Memorial Poetry Contest, the 2013 Greg Grummer Poetry Award, the 2015 Oakland School of the Arts Enizagam Poetry Award and the 2015 Neil Shepard Prize in Poetry. Additional honors include being selected for the Shanghai Swatch Art Peace Hotel Artist Residency and the Arctic Circle Autumn Art and Science Expedition Residency.
A reading by a local or regional poet is held each Third Thursday at the Social Justice Center. The event includes an open mic for audience members to read. Sign-up starts at 7 p.m., with the reading beginning at 7:30. The host of the readings is Albany poet and photographer Dan Wilcox. The suggested donation is $3, which helps support this and other poetry programs of the Poetry Motel Foundation and the work of the Social Justice Center. For more information about this event, contact Dan Wilcox: (518) 482-0262 or dwlcx@earthlink.net.
Gather on the PEN-ultimate Wednesday of each month for co-writing with the TVCOG Writers’ Group. Brown bag a dinner and bring your writing tool(s) of choice and a project. All genres welcome. Electrical outlets, hot beverages, water and snacks provided. (Brown bag any other beverages you enjoy.)
Dates: March 23, April 20, May 18, June 22, July 20, August 24
Location: TVCOG, 30 3rd Street, Troy 12181 (corner of Broadway); http://www.tvcog.net/
Agenda/schedule:
6:00-6:25 – dinner, settling in and socializing (optional)
6:30-8:25 – co-writing (Shhhhh)
8:30-9:00 – sharing session (optional: stay or leave by 8:25)
Cost: TVCOG and TVGS members, free; non-members, $5 at the door
Bring other writers with you! RSVP to Rhonda Rosenheck at rhonda@reworkediting.com or srp-kitchen@tvcog.net.
Writers in the Mountains (WIM) invites authors residing in, working in or otherwise connected to the Catskills and Hudson Valley regions to a literary arts and community event and celebration we call “Meet the Authors,” the third in our series of annual book festivals. This year the event takes place on Sunday, April 24, from noon to 4 p.m. at the Union Grove Distillery in Arkville, an exciting new enterprise in the area. Union Grove is housed in a big, old barnlike building featuring comfortable spaces fitted with stainless steel, copper and wood, a roaring fireplace and the percolation of fine spirits—all making for a perfect environment in which to listen to, talk about and think about books and writing.
Building upon the past two years’ success of our literary fair and fare, regional authors and other authors who have a connection to the Catskill Mountains and Hudson Valley are once again invited to join us. Come to sell your books, promote your work and network with fellow writers and publishing professionals. Authors attending are also heartily invited (although not required) to give readings as part of the lively program of presentations and entertainment throughout the afternoon. This year’s keynote speaker is Rosie Schaap, author of the celebrated memoir Drinking with Men, as well as the “Drink” column for The New York Times magazine.
Participating authors will receive additional exposure and visibility for their works through the marketing materials (space ads, calendar listings, posters and flyers) and media appearances (Facebook and WIM is very active at local radio station WIOX) associated with this event. A light breakfast will be served for participants the day of the event. The fee to join us. The cost is only $35.
For more information, visit writersinthemountains.org, or contact us by e-mail at writersinthemountains@gmail.com or by phone at (845) 594-3548. Registration deadline is April 3.
A note to members from Bryan Hull: “Hello, I was looking online to hire a ghost writer to help me with composing a book about a 30-year career of a Hudson Valley resident who was the manager of the local Holiday Inn hotel in Fishkill, NY, during its pinnacle throughout the 60s, 70s and 80s. During that time, this one person has come into contact with many famous people, including politicians, famous singers, local community leaders, actors and anyone else who traveled in New York since it was one of the only places for lodging in the area. I am looking for someone who will be interested in working with the person to get the entire story down to paper in a professional manner. I decided to search locally since I believe whomever I search for will have a connection to the area and a greater desire to help me complete the work. If you have any questions or would like to speak further please respond via email (bhull044@gmail.com) or phone (845-702-0711).
The HVWG fosters an active community of writers and readers by encouraging the development of local authors and providing opportunities for them to share their talents with local audiences.
Published 1-2 times per month, our newsletter includes info about current literary events, workshops, readings, open mics, calls for submission, and many other resources for writers.
Send us an email to be added to the distribution list.
Our headquarters is in Troy, New York, and from that office, we serve the metropolitan areas of Albany, Schenectady and Troy, along with outlying suburbs and towns across New York’s Capital Region.
Some people get us confused with the Hudson Valley Writers Center out of Sleepy Hollow, New York. Looking for HVWC? You'll find it here.
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Archive for the ‘Dalia Ziada’ Tag
Filed under: Books, Politics, Religion, Uncategorized | Tags: AIC, American Islamic Congress, Civil Rights Movement, Comics Alliance, Dalia Ziada, Egypt, Fellowship of Reconciliation, Martin Luther King Jr, nonviolence, The Montgomery Method
Recently I posted a piece about Martin Luther King Jr’s global legacy, and later another one about religious unity during the protests in Egypt. Those two strands are tied together in this story on Comics Alliance:
Egyptian Activists Inspired by Forgotten Martin Luther King Comic
(Thanks to my friend Steven, who posted it on Facebook.)
The article details how The Montgomery Story, a comic book about King originally published in 1958 by the Fellowship of Reconciliation, was recently translated into Arabic and Farsi by the American Islamic Congress and distributed in the Middle East – including Egypt. The comic is an account of the historic bus boycott led by King in Montgomery, Alabama, and includes a primer on “the Montgomery method” – the program of nonviolent action that King initiated in the American civil rights movement and which proved so crucial in the struggle. The article hints the comic may have had an influence on some Egyptian activists during the resent uprising, and helped shape its largely peaceful nature.
Look, The Montgomery Story probably won’t ever win any artistic awards, but for a comic it is remarkably thorough and insightful in disseminating the spiritual values of nonviolent resistance and… well, love. It even includes a thoughtful recap of Gandhi’s satyagraha movement in India.
The translation and distribution of The Montgomery Story‘s Arabic edition was spearheaded by activist Diala Ziada, director of the AIC’s Egypt office. Ziada tirelessly promotes peace, civil rights and nonviolent change in the region with various media projects and sheer determination. Among her noteworthy projects is the Cairo Human Rights Film Festival, now in its third year.
It’s fascinating to read this Time Magazine profile, published in 2009, identifying Ziada as part of a “soft revolution” of Middle Eastern women pushing for change within Islam. It really highlights how the earthshaking events in Cairo this month have changed the paradigms completely – the story is so right and prescient about some things, and so completely wrong and outdated about others. How quickly our perspective has changed. Note the description of the trouble the first edition of the film festival encountered from the government authorities, and Ziada’s heroic efforts to keep it going:
The censorship board did not approve the films, so Ziada doorstopped its chairman at the elevator and rode up with him to plead her case. When the theater was suspiciously closed at the last minute, she rented a tourist boat on the Nile for opening night – waiting until it was offshore and beyond the arm of the law to start the movie.
I hadn’t heard of this woman until I read this article, and I have to say I’m seriously impressed with her courage and energy and her commitment to nonviolent principles. (And she’s only 28. Ever feel like you’re not doing enough with your life?) In covering the Middle East, the mainstream media has generally focused primarily on victims and bad guys, giving us impressions of violence and pathos and little else. That’s why so many of us were caught off guard with the uprising, a genuine people’s movement defying lines of class, gender and religion, and not dictated by the agendas of elites and foreigners.
The Comics Alliance article admits that since only 2000 translated copies of The Mongomery Story were distributed, its influence on the events in Egypt could not have been widespread. But righteous seeds have a way of germinating at just the right time, and having an impact far greater than it may seem at first. In this letter, Zadia insists the book has had an important effect on those it reaches:
When, at first, we went to print the comic book, a security officer blocked publication. So we called him and demanded a meeting. He agreed, and we read through the comic book over coffee to address his concerns. At the end, he granted permission to print, and then asked: “Could I have a few extra copies for my kids?”
The comic book has been credited with inspiring young activists in Egypt and the larger region… Last week I distributed copies in Tahrir Square. Seeing the scene in the square firsthand is amazing. Despite violent attacks and tanks in the street, young people from all walks of life are coming together, organizing food and medical care, and offering a living model of free civil society in action.
It’s quite an image, a young Muslim woman handing out copies of a 60-year-old comic book about the revolutionary vision of an American Baptist minister, right in the middle of her country’s greatest crisis. As the writer of the Comics Alliance article says, “It’s certainly cool that a comic book starring one of America’s greatest real-life heroes has inspired even one person to take to the streets in the way we’ve seen over the last several weeks.”
Click here for complete PDF versions of The Montgomery Story in Arabic, Farsi and English.
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The Art of Truth
By Carrie Koepke on June 8, 2017
When studying the rich tapestry of Columbia’s writing community, Steve Weinberg is a repeating pattern. His threads are integral, colorful and diverse. With over four decades of journalism experience, Weinberg has created a solid foundation in the field.
Weinberg obtained both a bachelor’s and master’s degree from the Missouri School of Journalism at the University of Missouri, and taught several courses for the J-School throughout the following years.
“In 1978, the university was looking for somebody to run their Washington D.C. semester,” says Weinberg. “From 1978-83, I was in D.C. working for the university.”
His journalism success, starting in the 1970’s, is marked with a staggering quantity of magazine features, newspaper articles, essays and book reviews. He has published eight books, including “Armand Hammer: The Untold Story,” “The Reporter’s Handbook: An Investigator’s Guide to Documents and Techniques,” and “Taking on the Trust: The Epic Battle of IdaTarbell and John D. Rockefeller.”
Weinberg has always found time to be heavily involved in not-for-profit organizations.
“In 1983, I was asked to move back to Columbia to work with the IRE – to serve as the Executive Director of Investigative Reporters and Editors, Inc.,” says Weinberg.
In addition to the IRE, Weinberg was involved in the American Society of Journalists and Authors and the Biographers International Organization.
“I was very involved with the National Book Critic Circle,” says Weinberg. “I was vice president for a while.” Steve also found ways to put his investigative journalism to work. He says, “I conceived and co-founded what is now called the Midwest Innocence Project.”
A major factor of Weinberg’s appeal is his perpetual evolution. Upon considering his published books, he recognizes his growth. Weinberg says, “In craft terms, I’m growing and learning.”
“Armand Hammer,” one of his earliest titles, received worldwide attention. “Armand Hammer was very controversial when he was alive. The book came out in 1989 when he was already in his 90s. He was alive for a few years after it came out and he sued me,” Weinberg says. “There was a lot of publicity. He died before it came to trial.”
Public attention aside, Weinberg recognizes that his writing has improved with each consecutive title. While “Armand Hammer” received attention due to the subject, he feels his most recent title, “Taking on the Trust,” shows his growth.
Weinberg is enjoying the process of working on his current project, a highly anticipated biography of Garry Trudeau. He knows that current politics make the work relevant. “Garry Trudeau did his first strip on Trump in 1987,” Weinberg says. “Trudeau has been doing Doonesbury since 1970, but he saw Trump as great material a long time ago. Trump has been a regular character.”
It is difficult to believe that Weinberg is less busy these days, having scaled back after suffering a debilitating stroke in 2015. He still submits book reviews for Kirkus Reviews, Dallas Morning News and the Minneapolis Star Tribune.
He is passionate about the Midwest Innocence Project. “I left the Board of Directors . . . but I am still involved.”
Currently, he has cut out doing magazine pieces beyond the reviews in order to focus on the book. “I am writing as much as I can,” he says. “I don’t have the mental stamina that I used to. Before when I had to, I could write productively 16 hours a day. Now, I still don’t sleep much, but my brain gets weary. I am not writing at my best after four hours.”
Somehow he also finds time for his reading habits. “I get maybe 50 print magazines,” says Weinberg. “Some of the reading is just to make myself a better person.” Weinberg reads a wide variety of topics, feeding his curiosity about politics, foreign relations and sciences.
Less simple to explain, than these tangible markers of success, is Weinberg’s larger contribution to Columbia’s community. He wants others to continue thinking, evolving and learning. Weinberg is also involved in most of the community writing and reading programs, if not from an organizational standpoint (a board member of Columbia’s Unbound Book Festival) then as a participating speaker or active audience member.
Weinberg’s nature is not simply to record what is happening, but to reach beyond documentation. From his involvement in the Midwest Innocence Project to his Facebook account, where he openly encourages thought, debate and deep considerations of current events, Steve does not shy away from difficult topics or strong opinions. He believes that through words, communication and education an enriched community can impact the world.
“I’ve tried to use Facebook as a salon,” says Weinberg. Browsing his feed, one can find a careful selection of informative and thought-provoking articles, alongside careful considerations and urges for his friends list to share their own.
“You will probably learn something new,” or “Please help me understand,” and “I highly recommend [reading article x] regardless of your beliefs.” Weinberg invites individuals to contact him for specific guidance of how to get involved — either in bettering their writing, educating themselves or actively making a difference with various organizations.
Though Weinberg is a journalist at heart, one never knows what the future might bring. “I started as a journalist. Like many nonfiction writers I have thought about doing a novel, but I’m not sure I have that gene. After I totally retire, I might try writing a novel and see if I can stand it myself before I show it to anybody.”
Retiring 31
Iconic Eats
Ghost Grappling
The Magic Tree Movement
Behind the Beard
The Ultimate Book for Tigers
Hurricanes to Homeless
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Tag Archives: Ask an Expert
A how-to of staying in shape on set
June 26, 2018 pressva Leave a comment
Andrey Ivchenko, photo by John Hong
As the brilliant Toni Sorenson once said, “If it was easy, the reward at the end would mean nothing.” This statement comes from a woman, mother, and author, who grew up in an orphanage and on the streets and chose a path to victory.
In the entertainment business, victory means booking a new role in a television series, feature film, producing a project you’re passionate about, selling a script you wrote or getting it optioned and made. Most people don’t realize though how big of a part fitness plays into those, especially with actors.
Hollywood, the entertainment capital of the world, has people from all over the world, near and far, looking to pursue their dreams and to make those dreams turn into a reality. Staying in shape while in pursuit of those dreams is not only important for one’s physical health, but their mental health as well. With rejection being one of the biggest struggles someone just moving to Hollywood will have to deal with, it’s very important to always have a healthy outlet for the ups and downs you will face on your journey.
Being an actor in Hollywood isn’t for people with thin skin. It tends to focus so heavily on what its idea of the “perfect image” is as we see daily from network TV shows, to commercials, to magazines, to models on billboards, you get the idea and know what I’m talking about. This business in particular holds people’s image to a much higher standard than one would face living anywhere else in the world. With that being said, the pressures that come with that responsibility are extremely high especially for an actor that will be seen on the silver or big screen.
The reason I mentioned the above is because throughout my experience of being in Hollywood, being a big guy, everyone is constantly judging. When I began this journey, I got into stunts since it seemed like a natural fit – I’m a big guy, 6 foot 3, built, with an accent, and told I could play bad guys all day because I guess that’s the “tough guy” image I give off. Given that that’s the direction I decided to pursue, I had to make sure that my image lived up to the hype. I was in the gym for several hours a day, 6 days a week, eating 7-8 meals throughout the day that consisted of consuming approximately 5,000 calories a day. Believe it or not, eating that much every day and working out that much isn’t easy, even for the big guys that make it appear that way.
As I transitioned into the acting side of the business, I was often told I was “too big.” Too big? I was just told for years I need to be bigger and tougher looking to be the bad guy and now I needed to become less bulk and leaner because now I would be playing more leading man roles, not just henchman types, and needed to be able to be diversified that way if casting or producers saw fit. So, the process began again and now instead of going to the gym six days a week, I was going four days a week and cutting my calories to 3,000 a day. Having been an athlete my entire life since I was a child, serving in the military, and also having a master’s degree in Kinesiology, made finding the discipline to re-write my fitness programs and stick to them pretty easy for me, but they require a lot of discipline! I’d say having discipline when it comes to fitness is one of the biggest skills one can achieve. Setting goals, making plans, and sticking to them. No one ever said looking “Hollywood” good was going to be easy! However, at the end of the day making all of those challenges and sacrifices can be very rewarding mentally as well as physically.
The entertainment business as a whole has put an emphasis on fitness since it was established. From physical comedy actors like Charlie Chaplin, to Steve McQueen, Ronald, Reagan, to action heroes like Sylvester Stallone, Clint Eastwood, and Dwayne Johnson. In addition, there are also actors who perform their own stunts like Tom Cruise in Mission Impossible, and Jackie Chan. Staying in shape for these guys is essential to their careers. For example, most people don’t realize what Hugh Jackman went through to achieve his transformation to become Wolverine. His training consisted of two or more hours in the gym six days a week and consuming 5,000-6,000 calories a day to gain all that muscle and then had to transition into a much lower calorie diet to lose all the water weight and increase his cardio, so he could get shredded for the role.
Working on Television shows like Nikita,XIII: The Series, and Warehouse 13, I was grateful that I was introduced to martial arts and gun skills at a young age because it really made it an authentic look for the characters I played on those shows. As well as feature films I’ve worked on like Freezerand Way of The Westthat were both very physical and challenging as well but required a lot of those trained skills that I already had.
In regards to stunt work, it’s not just about looking the part, but being able to execute the part. Doing stunts is tiresome work and requires extremely long hours and repeated choreography and actual physical fighting to get it right. Sometimes they change the whole thing altogether and you have to relearn from scratch all over again but staying focused mentally and physically is the key. You have to be really physically and mentally ready to keep up, stay alert, and be on point for every take and also take direction correctly from the stunt coordinator and the director. There are a lot of moving parts while shooting an action scene so it’s very important that it always be executed properly every time. I have worked through injury, blood, sweat, tears, and I can honestly say it was all worth the challenge in the end. Good work is applauded and recognized in the entertainment business and word of mouth about people can spread very quickly and, in some cases, can even lead you to your next job if you remain humble, keep the right mindset, and positive attitude which is the key to success in this business.
When I booked the feature film Freezer, I was eating about 3,000-4,000 calories a day to get bigger because the director wanted me to look big and intimidating in comparison to Dylan McDermott. And when I booked xXx: The Return of Xander Cage, Vin Diesel and the director, DJ Caruso, also wanted my character ‘Red Erik’ to appear really big and tough, but in some of these scenes my character was going up and down flights of stairs, so I made sure to really increase my cardio training, so I wouldn’t fatigue while shooting those scenes over and over. In addition, it required me to learn motorcycle stunt training which I hadn’t done since I was about sixteen years old. But I’d say because of my fitness level and ability it allowed me to re-learn quickly and efficiently. At the end of the day the stunts they decided to go with were so extreme they hired a stunt double for those that you see in the film, but I was still required to go through the training as if I were the one doing the stunts myself as well. Had I not been fit enough to be up to the task of creating the character vision they had and physically doing the stunts they wanted in those scenes, I don’t know if I would have booked the role at the end of the day.
Fitness, especially today, is a constantly growing trillion-dollar business that’s probably more trendy and popular now than it’s ever been before. With social media and all the pressures of having to post images and videos of your personal and professional life constantly, you frequently feel vulnerable to the pressures that Hollywood gives to always look your best. Regardless though of what the trends are, one thing always remains true which is that being healthy is essential so implement it into your everyday life regardless of your schedule or profession, and also make sure you get enough hours of sleep a night which is a key element that’s more important than most people realize. Resting the body keeps a healthy mind and allows the body to recover. Set your goals, make time for yourself and watch how many doors achieving those goals will provide in your life, physically, mentally, and emotionally. Again, as Toni Sorenson once said, “If was easy, the reward at the end would mean nothing.”
Written by Andrey Ivchenko
actingActorAsk an ExpertFilmFilmmakingFitnessTelevision
Producer, Television
Conducting a Reality Competition Interview for TV, a how-to by Supervising Producer Emma Greenhalgh
Being a reality producer certainly comes with a lot of preconceptions, but the reality of producing, in my experience, is actually a very warm and rewarding career.
My name is Emma Greenhalgh, and I’ve spent fifteen years producing on reality competition shows for TV. It’s fair to say I’ve produced and directed hundreds of people’s life stories along the way, whether it be with the Got Talent franchise, Dancing with the Stars, and more. It’s been my job to bring people’s personal stories, experiences and emotions to the nations TV screens as part of a carefully crafted TV show. The core of sharing these stories is an on-camera interview, the moment where our subject gets to share a piece of themselves with the show and in turn the nation. It’s an opportunity to open up, to explain the road that lead them to appearing on that show and essentially garner the sympathy or empathy of the viewer at home, and it’s my job to help them do this in the most effective way.
Interviewing for reality TV is something one learns over time. I think the biggest misconception is that contestants are told what to say by a team of producers no one ever gets to see, and whilst yes, we are working hard to bring your favorite shows to your TV screen, we are not telling contestants what to say…we are helping them structure their truth in a concise way to have maximum impact. The key to conducting this kind of interview is to take a story, a personal experience, and present that to an audience in not only the most relatable way possible, but also in a very short amount of time.
The foundation of this kind of interview really is listening. Sounds obvious, right? I have met many producers over the years who have gone in to their interview armed with a list of great questions and a plan of how they want the interview to go, but then forgetting that they have to listen and respond. Sure, ask your first question, make small talk to create a bond and put the person you’re interviewing at ease (they’ll likely be nervous) but from that point on you should be listening and responding. Hear the story you’re being told, enter the world of the person you’re interviewing, imagine how it might feel to have their life, to feel their feelings, to have seen what they’ve seen and feel what they feel. It’s surprising how often even the most hardened of interviewees can be telling you a story but the second you ask them how it feels, it leads them to emotionally connect with the experience again and the regaling of the story changes, now you have the connection and the true feelings.
Ensuring you understand how a person feels is the core of any successful interview and if I could only give one piece of advice that would be it. That said there are a number of ways you can ensure your interview for TV is as thorough and successful as it can be.
So, as you head in to a reality interview think about the following list:
Research your subject
Always go in to an interview knowing your interviewee’s background. Who they are, what their life has been like. Know their story in advance and how you want to tell it and have a clear idea of the structure.
Ideally talk to your subject in advance for a pre-interview conversation. If that’s not possible, then do your research and know as much as you can about them before you sit down.
Write your interview structure/questions in advance. This gives you a guideline to ensure that a) you hit all the beats and don’t miss anything and b) stops you veering off track. Of course, things may change in the interview, but that list of questions acts as your guide and will keep you from losing your way.
Start Light
This may seem obvious, but when you have a lot to cover in an interview and perhaps a short amount of time to get it all done, it can be tempting to get in to the heavy or core of a story straight away. This is not a good idea. Let’s face it an interview is a pretty unnatural situation. I always find it’s a good idea to have a chat off camera first, kind of outline what’s going to happen but generally just put them at ease, so they feel comfortable talking to you.
Once you begin the interview, always start with the light topics, who they are, where they’re from, their background, growing up etc. No one tells a story by going straight to the middle of the book, you need an introduction to ease in.
Always get the person to answer your question in a full sentence. The interviewers voice is rarely used. If you asked where a person grew up, if they simply answer ‘Denver Colorado’ there is no context for that answer or what you were asking. The person being interviewed needs to incorporate what was being asked in their response e.g. I grew up in Denver Colorado.
Stay Silent
A little less natural, but as you listen to what the person you’re interviewing says it’s important for you to remain silent. You need the audio of the interview to be clean. Thankfully, you can convey a whole range of emotions through your face without making a sound. Using your eyes and facial expressions you can easily nod, shake your head, be sympathetic, be surprised, laugh, but all without sound to encourage the person you are interviewing but not messing up your audio recording.
Be reactive and flexible
Often even with all the research and pre-chat before the interview starts, sometimes they just don’t go the way you expect them to. Maybe the timeline is different than you thought, maybe the person doesn’t feel the way you expected, maybe the person doesn’t want to talk about something you were hoping would be the heart of the interview, it happens. The key here is being reactive, being able to work around the hurdles, find a different story or change the direction of what you hoped to get and adapt to the new facts.
Engage and be empathetic
An interview shouldn’t just be a list of questions. It’s essentially a conversation. Don’t ask a question to hear an answer and then simply ask the next question on your list. React to the response, maybe it sparks another question, maybe it brings up something you never thought of, ‘hear’ what the person being interviewed says and respond to it, offer empathy, offer sympathy, ask more questions that feel natural. It’s important to remain human and imagine how it must feel for the person you’re talking to, give them space to feel and show that emotion within the interview
Respect the story, it’s someone’s life. Whether you are shocked, saddened, or find it funny, it’s important to respect the story and allow the person being interviewed to tell it their way in their words.
Pacing and Space
Don’t rush! This is both for the success of the interview and for post. Always allow room and space at the end of each response for the person to complete what they’re saying or feeling and for your editor to have a clean end before your voice starts again.
It’s also very important to allow the person you’re interviewing to talk at their own pace. If they clearly think something is funny, let them laugh, if they are super sad and start to cry, give them room to cry. You can of course be empathetic and sympathetic, but this is where you have to go against natural instincts a little. It may feel uncomfortable but it’s real and it allows the viewer at home to connect with the person.
Obviously there a so many variables when conducting an interview and no two interviews are the same, but ultimately an interview is a carefully crafted conversation where the interviewer is in control but the person being interviewed is still being given the opportunity to speak freely and honestly.
The best way to get better at TV reality interviews? Work in the field but ALWAYS work in the edit too. This way you can see precisely the mechanics and process of how the interview becomes the one-minute piece on TV. The best producers are those that work in both field and post, no question. Oh, and practice, practice, practice; like with anything, the more you do it, the better you will be.
Ask an ExpertBritish TalentProducerProducingSupervising ProducerTelevisionTV
Actor, Featured Actress
Overcoming diversity barriers in the industry
May 1, 2018 pressva Leave a comment
My name is Xiao Sun. I was born and raised in China before coming to Canada nine years ago. The performing arts has always been my passion and I have been getting up on a stage to express myself since I was only five years old. I have had the opportunity to work alongside some of Hollywood’s elite, like Oscar winners Jennifer Lawrence, Javier Bardem, Charlize Theron, and most recently Seth Rogan, to name a few.
Like many in this industry, my path towards becoming an actress has been unique. I originally started off as a dancer, training for ten years in Chinese traditional dance. I travelled around China with my team, competing and learning along the way. My dance background taught me how to express myself through performing arts from a young age, and I was later hired as a dancer in Cirque du Soleil’s touring show Amalunain Montreal, Canada.
After moving to Montreal with my parents in 2009, I also began modeling. I joined Miss Universe Canada and was one of the top 10 national finalists and was awarded the Best Runway Model award. At the time, I was the first Asian contestant to ever receive this prestigious award. That was when I realized, maybe for the first time in a professional sense, that I had the power to overcome diversity barriers and become a role model for other Asians looking to make their way in North America’s fashion and entertainment industries.
It was after this experience when I began pursuing my truest passion: acting. Not too long afterwards, I booked my first ever film, Fatal (Universal Pictures), and my career kicked off. However, as the years went by, the only roles that I was getting were those that were specifically looking for Chinese actresses to play “hot girl” or “girlfriend” or “receptionist” or “best friend”. I was and still am very grateful for these roles and how they helped develop my career, but I was beginning to want more. Very few casting calls were looking for Chinese or Asian actors for leading roles, and none of the roles had any real substance.
Recently, the trends in the industry are changing. The success of Black Panther was just one of many awakenings for Hollywood, showing production companies that films not only starring minorities, but also celebrating them, can become massive successes both critically and at the box office.
Television is undergoing a similar paradigm shift. Just last month, Glamour published an article titled “Now Trending on TV: The Sexy Asian Hunk” highlighting the many hit shows that feature Asian actors in the starring roles, playing roles that go beyond the typical stereotype often associated with Asian characters. This is exactly what I, like many Asians in the industry, love to see. However, even with all the progress that has been made in the last two years, dynamic female Asian leads are still very underrepresented.
For the first few years of my acting career, I was building quite the resume, but was still finding myself playing secondary characters that showcased Asian women in a way I found stereotypical; I was either hot, or nerdy, or a funny best friend, or a combination of the three. I wanted to be able to develop a role, get into the substance of the character, and really show a wide range of emotions while reminding myself why I got into acting.
I decided to slightly change the roles I was going for. I started going to less auditions, as I started picking roles that I felt were more suited to what I felt I wanted, and what I thought would be more interesting roles for an Asian woman. This included my 2016 appearance on Syfy’s Incorporated. The story took place in a future where the United States was no more, and China had taken over as the global superpower. I played a public influencer that encouraged and inspired people to save the kids suffering in areas affected by natural disasters caused by climate change. In Mother,opposite Jennifer Lawrence and Javier Bardem, my character was a huge fan of poetry. I travelled days to see a famous poet (played by Bardem) to tell him how much I liked his work, and my character was just a normal human being on this planet. These roles did not require a specific ethnicity. These types of roles are the type we should all strive for.
My most recent role, in Seth Rogan and Charlize Theron’s film Flarsky, I once again had the opportunity to play a character that was proudly Chinese. Initially, the role did not specifically call for an Asian actress, as the film was still being written. After getting the role, the finer details were ironed out, and I was written as a powerful Chinese executive passionate about rescuing animals. This character is passionate and complicated, and the kind of character I always dreamed of playing when I first set out to become an actress.
For too long, Asians have lived on the edge of screens. Jackie Chan and Lucy Liu were pioneers in overcoming such barriers, and in recent years, minorities are having more and more opportunities to take on roles that highlight their culture but are not limited to that audience. Asian actors still have a long way to go, but I would encourage all looking to break out in the industry to keep trying. Go for roles that you are passionate about, write the character you want to play in the story you think is important to be told, be proud of your accent, and sooner or later, audiences will have their own Asian “Black Panther” to look up to.
Written by Xiao Sun
actingActressAsk an ExpertCanadian ActressCanadian TalentChinese ActressChinese TalentDiversity
Producer, Reviews, Interviews & Features!, Television
Tips from the experts: Supervising Producer Jonathon Ridgard
February 28, 2018 pressva Leave a comment
My name is Jonathon Ridgard, and for over ten years, I have been working as a successful television producer all around the world, predominantly on prime-time entertainment shows such as The X Factor, American Idol, Got Talent franchises, Undercover Boss and Dancing with the Stars. As a Supervising Producer, I am responsible for leading teams of producers, associate producers and production assistants to create great television shows. I have worked on many leading entertainment formats around the world, in the US, UK and Australia, for networks such as NBC, ABC, FOX, BBC, ITV, Network Ten, and more.
No two jobs are the same; no two days are ever the same. To thrive in this industry and have a successful career, you will need perseverance, commitment, and to be prepared to put in a lot of hard work. It certainly isn’t an industry that nurtures the bewildered – you’ll want confidence to work on your skills, experience and contacts and not be afraid to work from the bottom up – with no ego.
Here are my tips, insight, and advice on what it takes to get into television and become a successful producer:
STARTING OUT – PRODUCTION ASSISTANT
My biggest advice to those starting a career in television is to start at the bottom. Irrespective of whatever degree you got in university – leave the ego at the door and learn your craft from the ground up. As a production assistant, you will get to work in every department on a show, work with equipment, and get a real insight into what life is like as a producer. Don’t be afraid to ask questions or ask for advice. Showing a keen interest and being pro-active with your role will only make you stand out to a producer. But remember, choose the right time to ask those questions! Approach every single task, however big or small, with enthusiasm as if your life depended on it. Do the coffee run, make perfect notes, anticipate the needs of your producer and you will be off to a good start.
WATCH TV / HAVE IDEAS
One of the things that I am always surprised at when speaking to people starting out in television is the amount of time they spend watching TV – or lack of. It is so important to watch TV, films, commercials, music videos, short films – anything that might give you inspiration. Mark Twain once said, “There is no such thing as a new idea”, but what a successful producer can do is look at and take inspiration from what they see around them. I have drawn so much inspiration from the stuff that I have watched, adapted it and created something myself.
Constantly make a list of your ideas, whether it’s for a new type of show, a segment of a particular type of show, an interesting game or a particular shot that you liked. You will never know when that might work.
I can’t stress how important it is to get to know as many people as you can, especially in the first few years of your career. Making connections is the key to success in the television industry. Jobs are rarely, if ever advertised. Most people get jobs through word of mouth, reputation and recommendation. So being a strong, creative worker with a good network is definitely an advantage. I haven’t had a ‘job interview’ in seven years and I have worked consistently. All of my work is through recommendations and network executives or executive producers reaching out and wanting me.
ENJOY YOURSELF AND BE NICE
Working in television should be a fun, creative experience – remember that, even when things get stressful. This career has given me the opportunity to work and travel the world, meet some of the most interesting people and have the most amazing, life changing experiences – take a moment to take them in.
Remember, always be nice. It’s very easy to develop an ego in this industry, but the one thing I always remember is while it’s nice to be important, it’s important to be nice.
Jonathon Ridgard is currently working on the newest season of American Idol, premiering March 11th on ABC.
Advice ColumnAsk an ExpertIrish TalentProducerProducingReality TelevisionReality Television ProducerTelevisionTV Producer
Ask an Expert: Executive Producer Ed Egan provides insight and advice
February 2, 2018 pressva Leave a comment
I’m Executive Producer Ed Egan, and for over 15 years I have worked in the television industry, becoming recognized as one of the leading game show producers in the world. As Executive Producer, I am responsible for leading teams who produce great television shows, but I am also tasked with developing new ideas to create formats which have the potential to sell all around the world. I have worked on many leading gameshow formats around the world, in the US, UK and Australia, for networks such as NBC, ABC, BBC, ITV, Network Ten among others.
Gameshow formats are notoriously difficult to crack and small, seemingly insignificant tweaks can have profound repercussions if they are not discovered through intensive gameplay testing. The last thing you want is to discover a flaw whilst filming a show, as there can be millions of dollars at stake. This is why an experienced Executive Producer, who can put together a strong team, is vital in the production of any new format. I have become well known for working on pilots and first seasons for my ability to tweak gameplay and iron out any potential problems that could arise.
I believe the most important role of an Executive Producer is to lead a team in a way that ensures every member provides their best possible work on a production and feels valued in what they are making.
Here are my quick tips to leading a production team to produce the best shows possible:
Choose the right team
It all comes from having a great team. Not only does it make your life as an Exec easier, it also makes the best product. Meet lots of people and spend time interviewing them. Some people give great interviews, and some don’t, but it’s important to make a distinction between those that can talk well and those that can actually do the job! Make sure to always check as many references as possible. Personality is also important though, as the people you are employing are going to be a team and will need to work well together. Finding a good, balanced mix with strong abilities is the key.
Stay in contact with people you’ve worked with.
It’s important to know what the availability is of people you like that you’ve worked with previously so that you can plan for when productions begin. Sometimes it can take weeks to get a full team on board and the more aware you are of who is and isn’t available at all times, the better prepared you will be.
Note down ideas
Keep notes in your phone when you see something you like or that inspires you. A film, another television show or even the design of a restaurant you happen to be in – if there’s something visual you like it may be useful in a show at some point. Commercials are often very useful starting points when trying to explain your vision of a project to people for the first time. Also, keep notes on possible talent that you see, whether this be TV, film or theatre, as you might want to use them in the future.
We’re very fortunate to work in a creative industry that often affords us the chance to go to exciting places, meet interesting people and we get to be creative. Enjoy it, encourage it in others and aim to inspire those who you are working with. They will be running teams in the not so distant future, so try to set a good example.
Like so many other Execs, we question ourselves and our abilities all the time and that’s not a bad thing. But, you are at the level you’re at for a reason, so make those decisions and stick to them. It’s important to remember that at times, especially when the going gets tough.
Work hard and be nice to people!
Ask an ExpertBritish TalentExecutive ProducerGameshowinternational TalentShowrunnerTelevisionTV
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FORM S-3
REGISTRATION STATEMENT
THE SECURITIES ACT OF 1933
Nevada 7389 26-1265381
Incorporation or Organization) (Primary Standard Industrial
Classification Code Number) (I.R.S. Employer
Identification Number)
400 Water Street, Suite 200
(Address, Including Zip Code, and Telephone Number, Including Area Code, of Registrant’s Principal Executive Offices)
Spring Valley Solutions, LLC
4955 S. Durango Rd. Ste. 165.
(Name, Address, Including Zip Code, and Telephone Number, Including Area Code, of Agent for Service)
Copies to:
Mark Stein, Esq.
Morgan, Lewis & Bockius LLP
One Federal Street
Scott Doney, Esq.
The Doney Law Firm
4955 S. Durango Rd. Ste 165
Approximate date of commencement of proposed sale to the public: From time to time after this Registration Statement becomes effective.
If the only securities being registered on this Form are being offered pursuant to dividend or interest reinvestment plans, please check the following box. ☐
If any of the securities being registered on this Form are to be offered on a delayed or continuous basis pursuant to Rule 415 under the Securities Act of 1933, other than securities offered only in connection with dividend or interest reinvestment plans, check the following box. ☒
If this Form is filed to register additional securities for an offering pursuant to Rule 462(b) under the Securities Act, please check the following box and list the Securities Act registration statement number of the earlier effective registration statement for the same offering. ☐
If this Form is a post-effective amendment filed pursuant to Rule 462(c) under the Securities Act, check the following box and list the Securities Act registration statement number of the earlier effective registration statement for the same offering. ☐
If this Form is a registration statement pursuant to General Instruction I.D. or a post-effective amendment thereto that shall become effective upon filing with the Commission pursuant to Rule 462(e) under the Securities Act, check the following box. ☐
If this Form is a post-effective amendment to a registration statement filed pursuant to General Instruction I.D. filed to register additional securities or additional classes of securities pursuant to Rule 413(b) under the Securities Act, check the following box. ☐
Indicate by check mark whether the Registrant is a large accelerated filer, an accelerated filer, a non-accelerated filer, a smaller reporting company or an emerging growth company. See the definitions of “large accelerated filer,” “accelerated filer,” “smaller reporting company” and “emerging growth company” in Rule 12b-2 of the Exchange Act.
Large accelerated filer ☐ Accelerated filer ☐
Non-accelerated filer ☐ (Do not check if a smaller reporting company) Smaller reporting company ☒
If an emerging growth company, indicate by check mark if the Registrant has elected not to use the extended transition period for complying with any new or revised financial accounting standards provided pursuant to Section 7(a)(2)(B) of the Securities Act. ☐
CALCULATION OF REGISTRATION FEE
Title Of Each Class Of Securities To Be Registered Amount
to be Registered (1) Proposed Maximum Offering
Share (1)(2) Proposed Maximum Aggregate Offering
Price (1)(2) Amount of Registration Fee
Primary Offering:
Common Shares, par value $0.001 per share — — — —
Preferred Shares, par value $0.001 per share — — — —
Debt Securities (3) — — — —
Warrants (4) — — — —
Units — — — —
Total Primary Offering $ 40,000,000 (5) $4,848.00 (6)
Secondary Offering:
Common Shares, par value $0.001 per share 2,103,702 (7) $ 34,795,231.08 (8) —
Total Secondary Offering 2,103,702 (7) $ 34,795,231.08 (8) $ 4,217.18
Total Primary and Secondary Offering — — $ 74,795,231.08 $ 9,065.18 (9)
(1) An indeterminate number and amount of the securities of each identified class to be offered at indeterminate prices is being registered pursuant to this registration statement with a maximum aggregate offering price not to exceed approximately $40,000,000.
(2) Includes such indeterminate amount of securities as may be issued upon exercise, conversion or exchange of, pursuant to anti-dilution adjustments, or pursuant to a stock dividend, stock split or similar transaction with respect to securities that provide for such issuance, exercise, conversion, exchange, adjustment, stock split or similar transaction. Separate consideration may or may not be received for any of these securities.
(3) Debt securities may be issued at an original issue discount or at a premium. If any debt securities are issued at an original issue discount, then the offering price of such debt securities shall be in such greater principal amount as shall result in an aggregate initial offering price not to exceed approximately $40,000,000, less the aggregate dollar amount of all securities previously issued hereunder
(4) The warrants covered by this registration statement may be debt warrants or equity warrants.
(5) The proposed maximum aggregate offering price has been estimated solely for purposes of determining the registration fee pursuant to Rule 457(o) under the Securities Act.
(6) Pursuant to Rule 457(o), the registration fee is calculated based on the maximum aggregate offering price of all securities listed.
(7) With respect to the Secondary Offering, the proposed maximum offering price per common share will be determined from time to time in connection with, and at the time of, sale by the holders of such securities named in the registration statement.
(8) Estimated solely for the purpose of computing the amount of the registration fee pursuant to Rule 457(c) under the Securities Act based on an average of the high and low reported sales prices of the Registrant’s Common Shares, par value $0.001 per share, as reported on the Nasdaq Capital Market on November 9, 2018, of $16.98 and $16.10.
(9) Calculated in accordance with Rule 457(o) under the Securities Act.
The registrant hereby amends this Registration Statement on such date or dates as may be necessary to delay its effective date until the registrant shall file a further amendment which specifically states that this Registration Statement shall thereafter become effective in accordance with Section 8(a) of the Securities Act of 1933 or until the registration statement shall become effective on such date as the Securities and Exchange Commission, acting pursuant to said Section 8(a), may determine.
The information in this prospectus is not complete and may be changed. These securities may not be sold until the registration statement filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission is effective. This preliminary prospectus is not an offer to sell these securities, and we are not soliciting offers to buy these securities in any jurisdiction where such offer or sale is not permitted.
SUBJECT TO COMPLETION, DATED NOVEMBER 13, 2018
Common Shares
2,103,702 Common Shares Offered by the Selling Shareholder
We may offer and sell from time to time common shares, preferred shares, debt securities, warrants or units. We may offer and sell these securities to or through one or more underwriters, dealers and agents, or directly to purchasers, on a continuous or delayed basis. Specific amounts and terms of these securities will be provided in supplements to this prospectus. The aggregate initial offering price of all securities sold by us will not exceed $40,000,000.
In addition, the selling shareholder named in this prospectus (the “selling shareholder”) may from time to time offer and sell up to 2,103,702 of our common shares. The selling shareholder may offer and sell our common shares in public or private transactions, or both. These sales may occur at fixed prices, at market prices prevailing at the time of sale, at prices related to prevailing market prices, or at negotiated prices. See “Plan of Distribution” for more information on how the selling shareholder may conduct sales of our common shares. We will not receive any proceeds from any sale of these common shares by the selling shareholders.
Each time we or the selling shareholder offer and sell securities, we will provide a supplement to this prospectus that contains specific information about the offering and the amounts, prices and terms of the securities. The supplement may also add, update or change information contained in this prospectus with respect to that offering. You should carefully read this prospectus and the applicable prospectus supplement before you invest in any of our securities.
Investing in our securities involves risks. See “Risk Factors” on page 3 of this prospectus and any similar section contained in the applicable prospectus supplement concerning factors you should consider before investing in our securities.
Our common shares are listed on the Nasdaq Capital Market under the symbol “OPRX.” On November 9, 2018, the last reported sale price of our common shares on the Nasdaq Capital Market was $16.96 per share.
Neither the Securities and Exchange Commission nor any state securities commission has approved or disapproved of these securities or passed upon the adequacy or accuracy of this prospectus. Any representation to the contrary is a criminal offense.
The date of this prospectus is November 13, 2018
OptimizeRx Corporation 1
About This Prospectus 1
Forward-Looking Statements 1
Where You Can Find More Information 2
Incorporation By Reference 2
Risk Factors 3
Use of Proceeds 3
Selling Shareholder 3
Description of Share Capital 4
Description of Debt Securities 8
Description of Warrants 8
Description of Units 8
Plan of Distribution 8
Experts 10
Disclosure of Commission Position on Indemnification for Securities Act Liabilities 10
Neither we nor the selling shareholders have authorized anyone to provide any information other than that contained or incorporated by reference in this prospectus or in any free writing prospectus prepared by or on behalf of us or to which we have referred you. We take no responsibility for, and can provide no assurance as to the reliability of, any other information that others may give you. Neither we nor the selling shareholders are making an offer of these securities in any state where the offer is not permitted. You should not assume that the information contained in or incorporated by reference in this prospectus or any prospectus supplement or in any such free writing prospectus is accurate as of any date other than their respective dates.
Unless otherwise indicated or the context otherwise requires, all references in this prospectus to “OptimizeRx Corporation” or the “Company,” “Registrant,” “we,” “our,” “ours,” “us” or similar terms refer to OptimizeRx Corporation, together with its subsidiaries, and, where the context requires, our predecessor entities.
We are a leading provider of digital health messaging via electronic health records (EHRs), providing a direct channel for pharmaceutical companies to communicate with healthcare providers. Our cloud-based solution supports patient adherence to medications by providing real-time access to financial assistance, prior authorization, education and critical clinical information. Our network is comprised of leading EHR platforms and provides more than half a million healthcare providers access to these benefits within their workflow at the point of care.
Our address 400 Water Street, Suite 200 Rochester, MI 48307. Our telephone number at this address is (248) 651-6568. Our principal website is https://optimizerx.com/. The information contained on, or that can be accessed through, our website is not a part of this prospectus.
About This Prospectus
This prospectus is part of a registration statement that we filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, or the SEC, using a “shelf” registration process. By using a shelf registration statement, we may sell securities from time to time and in one or more offerings up to a total dollar amount of $40,000,000 as described in this prospectus. In addition, under this shelf registration statement, the selling shareholder named in this prospectus may sell, from time to time, up to 2,103,702 of our common shares. Each time that we or the selling shareholders offer and sell securities, we will provide a prospectus supplement to this prospectus that contains specific information about the securities being offered and sold and the specific terms of that offering. The prospectus supplement may also add, update or change information contained in this prospectus with respect to that offering. If there is any inconsistency between the information in this prospectus and the applicable prospectus supplement, you should rely on the prospectus supplement. Before purchasing any securities, you should carefully read both this prospectus and the applicable prospectus supplement, together with the additional information described under the headings “Where You Can Find More Information” and “Incorporation by Reference.”
This prospectus, any prospectus supplement and the documents incorporated by reference herein or therein contain forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended (the “Securities Act”), and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended (the “Exchange Act”). Such statements contained in this prospectus or any prospectus supplement or incorporated by reference herein or therein are based upon current expectations that involve risks and uncertainties. Any statements contained in this prospectus or any prospectus supplement or incorporated by reference herein or therein that are not statements of historical fact may be deemed to be forward-looking statements. For example, the words “believes,” “anticipates,” “plans,” “expects,” “intends” and similar expressions are intended to identify forward-looking statements. Our actual results and the timing of certain events may differ significantly from the results discussed in the forward-looking statements. Factors that might cause such a discrepancy include, but are not limited to, those discussed in the “Risk Factors” section, in addition to the other information set forth in this prospectus or any prospectus supplement or incorporated by reference herein or therein. We claim the protection of the safe harbor for forward-looking statements contained in the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 for all forward-looking statements. All forward-looking statements contained in this prospectus or any prospectus supplement or incorporated by reference herein or therein are based on information available to us as of their respective dates and we assume no obligation to update any such forward-looking statements. Our actual results could differ materially from those anticipated in these forward-looking statements as a result of certain factors, including, but not limited to, those set forth under “Risk Factors” in this prospectus, our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2017 and our Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q for the quarters ended March 31, 2018, June 30, 2018 and September 30, 2018. You should carefully consider the risks described in the “Risk Factors” section, in addition to the other information set forth in this prospectus or any prospectus supplement or incorporated by reference herein or therein, before making an investment decision.
Where You Can Find More Information
We are subject to the informational requirements of the Exchange Act. Accordingly, we are required to file reports and other information with the SEC, including annual reports on Form 10-K, quarterly reports on Form 10-Q and current reports on Form 8-K. You may inspect and copy reports and other information filed with the SEC at the Public Reference Room at 100 F Street, N.E., Washington, DC 20549. Information on the operation of the Public Reference Room may be obtained by calling the SEC at 1-800-SEC-0330. In addition, the SEC maintains an Internet website that contains reports and other information about issuers, like us, that file electronically with the SEC. The address of that website is www.sec.gov. We also maintain a website at ir.smartm.com, at which you may access these materials free of charge as soon as reasonably practicable after they are electronically filed with, or furnished to, the SEC. The information contained on, or that can be accessed through, our website is not a part of this prospectus. Investors should not rely on any such information in deciding whether to purchase our common shares. We have included our website address in this prospectus solely as an inactive textual reference.
The SEC allows us to “incorporate by reference” the information we file with them, which means that we can disclose important information to you by referring you to those documents. The information incorporated by reference is an important part of this prospectus, and information that we file later with the SEC will automatically update and supersede this information. We incorporate by reference the documents listed below and all documents subsequently filed with the SEC pursuant to Section 13(a), 13(c), 14 or 15(d) of the Exchange Act of 1934, as amended, prior to the termination of the offering under this prospectus:
● Our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2017, filed with the SEC on March 8, 2018;
● Our Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q for the fiscal quarters ended March 31, 2018, June 30, 2018 and September 30, 2018, filed with the SEC on May 2, 2018, August 7, 2018 and November 5, 2018, respectively;
● Current Reports on Form 8-K filed with the SEC on October 17, 2018, September 14, 2018, March 27, 2018 and February 2, 2018; and
● The description of our common stock in our Registration Statement on Form 8-A, filed with the SEC on June 19, 2018, including any amendment or reports filed for the purpose of updating such description.
We are not, however, incorporating by reference any documents or portions thereof, whether specifically listed above or filed in the future, that are not deemed “filed” with the SEC, including any information furnished pursuant to Items 2.02, 7.01 or 8.01 of Form 8-K or certain exhibits furnished pursuant to Item 9.01 of Form 8-K.
You may request, and we will provide you with, a copy of these filings, at no cost, by calling us at (248) 651-6568 or by writing to us at the following address:
Exhibits to the filings will not be sent, however, unless those exhibits have specifically been incorporated by reference in this prospectus or any accompanying prospectus supplement.
An investment in our securities involves significant risks. Before purchasing any securities, you should carefully consider and evaluate all of the information included and incorporated by reference or deemed to be incorporated by reference in this prospectus or the applicable prospectus supplement, including the risk factors incorporated by reference herein from our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2017, as updated by annual, quarterly and other reports and documents we file with the SEC after the date of this prospectus and that are incorporated by reference herein or in the applicable prospectus supplement. Our business, results of operations or financial condition could be adversely affected by any of these risks or by additional risks and uncertainties not currently known to us or that we currently consider immaterial.
Use of Proceeds
Unless otherwise indicated in a prospectus supplement, the net proceeds from the sale of the securities will be used for general corporate purposes, including working capital, acquisitions, retirement of debt and other business opportunities. We will not receive any proceeds from any shares sold by the selling shareholder.
Selling Shareholder
We have prepared this prospectus to allow the selling shareholder or its transferees to sell or otherwise dispose of, from time to time, up to 2,103,702 common shares. On or about September 24, 2015, the selling shareholder, through a subsidiary company, made a strategic investment in our company and presently owns approximately 18% of the common shares in our company.
At the time of the investment, we entered into an Investor Rights Agreement, which provides, among other things, demand registration rights for its securities, inspection rights over our books and records, observer rights to attend and observe our director meetings, a seat on our board of directors, budget review of our financial plans, right of first refusal in the event we issue new securities and special board approval for certain matters.
WPP has not demanded registration; we have chosen to register these shares on behalf of the selling shareholder.
Also at the time of the investment, we amended and restated an existing Co-Marketing Agreement with Grey Healthcare Group, LLC (“GHG”) an affiliate of WPP. This agreement was amended to give the GHG the option to receive all or part of the compensation due under the agreement in our common shares. In March of 2018, we issued 100,000 shares of our common stock to a subsidiary of WPP related to the finalization and termination of the agreement.
The following table sets forth the activity between us and WPP in 2017 and 2016.
Total billings to WPP Agencies $ 3,554,168 $ 2,613,942
Revenue recognized from WPP Agencies $ 3,696,214 $ 1,542,411
Accounts receivable from WPP Agencies $ 1,173,614 $ 1,108,585
Rebates given to WPP Agencies $ 33,249 $ 24,519
Marketing services purchased from WPP Agencies $ 54,762 $ 190,686
Accounts payable to WPP Agencies $ - $ 12,600
Revenue share expense recorded to WPP Agencies $ 401,596 $ 177,372
Revenue share expenses owed to WPP Agencies $ 447,670 $ 127,458
The table below presents information regarding the selling shareholder and the common shares that they may sell or otherwise dispose of from time to time under this prospectus. Percentages of beneficial ownership are based upon 12,013,682 common shares issued and outstanding as of October 31, 2018. Beneficial ownership is determined under Section 13(d) of the Exchange Act and generally includes voting or investment power with respect to securities and including any securities that grant the selling shareholder the right to acquire common shares within 60 days of October 31, 2018. Unless otherwise noted, each person or group identified possesses sole voting and investment power with respect to the shares, subject to community property laws where applicable.
We do not know when or in what amounts the selling shareholder may sell or otherwise dispose of the shares covered hereby. We currently have no agreements, arrangements or understandings with the selling shareholder regarding the sale or other disposition of any of the shares by them other than the registration rights agreement described above. The selling shareholder might not sell any or all of the shares covered by this prospectus or may sell or dispose of some or all of the shares other than pursuant to this prospectus. Because the selling shareholder may not sell or otherwise dispose of some or all of the shares covered by this prospectus and because there are currently no agreements, arrangements or understandings with respect to the sale or other disposition of any of the shares, we cannot estimate the number of the shares that will be held by the selling shareholder after completion of the offering. For purposes of determining the beneficial ownership of the selling shareholder after this offering, we have assumed that all of the shares covered hereby have been sold pursuant to the registration statement of which this prospectus forms a part.
Name of Selling Shareholder Common Shares Beneficially Owned Prior to Offering Maximum Number of Shares to be Sold Pursuant to this Prospectus Number of Common Shares Owned After Offering Percentage of Common Shares Owned After Offering
WPP Luxembourg Gamma Three S.a r.l. 2,103,702 2,103,702 — —
Description of SHARE CAPITAL
Our authorized capital stock consists of 166,666,667 shares of common stock and 10,000,000 shares of preferred stock, par value $0.001 per share. As of October 31, 2018, there were 12,013,682 shares of our common stock issued and outstanding and 0 shares of our preferred stock issued and outstanding. Our Board of Directors approved a one for three reverse stock split that became effective May 14, 2018. The effects of this reverse split have been retroactively reflected in this registration statement.
Our common stock is entitled to one vote per share on all matters submitted to a vote of the stockholders, including the election of directors. Except as otherwise required by law or provided in any resolution adopted by our board of directors with respect to any series of preferred stock, the holders of our common stock will possess all voting power. Generally, all matters to be voted on by stockholders must be approved by a majority (or, in the case of election of directors, by a plurality) of the votes entitled to be cast by all shares of our common stock that are present in person or represented by proxy, subject to any voting rights granted to holders of any preferred stock. Holders of our common stock representing fifty percent (50%) of our capital stock issued, outstanding and entitled to vote, represented in person or by proxy, are necessary to constitute a quorum at any meeting of our stockholders. A vote by the holders of a majority of our outstanding shares is required to effectuate certain fundamental corporate changes such as liquidation, merger or an amendment to our Articles of Incorporation. Our Articles of Incorporation do not provide for cumulative voting in the election of directors.
Subject to any preferential rights of any outstanding series of preferred stock created by our board of directors from time to time, the holders of shares of our common stock will be entitled to such cash dividends as may be declared from time to time by our board of directors from funds available therefore.
Subject to any preferential rights of any outstanding series of preferred stock created from time to time by our board of directors, upon liquidation, dissolution or winding up, the holders of shares of our common stock will be entitled to receive pro rata all assets available for distribution to such holders.
In the event of any merger or consolidation with or into another company in connection with which shares of our common stock are converted into or exchangeable for shares of stock, other securities or property (including cash), all holders of our common stock will be entitled to receive the same kind and amount of shares of stock and other securities and property (including cash). Holders of our common stock have no pre-emptive rights, no conversion rights and there are no redemption provisions applicable to our common stock.
Our board of directors may become authorized to authorize preferred shares of stock and to divide the authorized shares of our preferred stock into one or more series, each of which must be so designated as to distinguish the shares of each series of preferred stock from the shares of all other series and classes. Our board of directors is authorized, within any limitations prescribed by law and our articles of incorporation, to fix and determine the designations, rights, qualifications, preferences, limitations and terms of the shares of any series of preferred stock including, but not limited to, the following:
(1) The number of shares constituting that series and the distinctive designation of that series, which may be by distinguishing number, letter or title;
(2) The dividend rate on the shares of that series, whether dividends will be cumulative, and if so, from which date(s), and the relative rights of priority, if any, of payment of dividends on shares of that series;
(3) Whether that series will have voting rights, in addition to the voting rights provided by law, and, if so, the terms of such voting rights;
(4) Whether that series will have conversion privileges, and, if so, the terms and conditions of such conversion, including provision for adjustment of the conversion rate in such events as the Board of Directors determines;
(5) Whether or not the shares of that series will be redeemable, and, if so, the terms and conditions of such redemption, including the date or date upon or after which they are redeemable, and the amount per share payable in case of redemption, which amount may vary under different conditions and at different redemption dates;
(6) Whether that series will have a sinking fund for the redemption or purchase of shares of that series, and, if so, the terms and amount of such sinking fund;
(7) The rights of the shares of that series in the event of voluntary or involuntary liquidation, dissolution or winding up of the corporation, and the relative rights of priority, if any, of payment of shares of that series; and
(8) Any other relative rights, preferences and limitations of that series.
Registration Rights
On May 2, 2018, we entered into a registration rights agreement with certain investors pursuant to which we agreed to register for resale the 1,666,669 shares of common stock (the “Registrable Securities”) acquired by the investors in an offering that closed on May 4, 2018. Pursuant to the Registration Rights Agreement, we agreed to use our reasonable best efforts to file a registration statement (the “Registration Statement”) with the Securities and Exchange Commission (the “SEC”) for the resale of the Registrable Securities within 30 days following the close of the offering and to use its reasonable best efforts to cause the Registration Statement to be declared effective as soon as practicable after the filing thereof, but in any event no later than 90 days following the close of the offering.
We filed a registration statement covering these shares in a post-effective amendment to Form S-1 on Form S-3, filed with the SEC on July 3, 2018.
Investor Rights Agreement
On September 24, 2015, we entered into an Investor Rights Agreement with WPP Luxembourg (the “Rights Agreement”), pursuant to which we agreed to the following:
● Demand Registration Rights. We granted the Investor registration rights for the 2,003,702 acquired from us and any securities acquired in connection with an Amended and Restated Co-Marketing Agreement after a period of two years.
● Inspection Rights. So long as the Investor owns not less than 25% of the Shares, we granted the Investor an annual right to inspect our books and records.
● Observer Rights. So long as the Investor owns not less than 25% of the Shares, we will allow the Investor to choose a representative to attend our board meetings as a nonvoting observer.
● Board Seat. So long as the Investor owns not less than 25% of the Shares, we agreed to appoint a nominee of the Investor as a member of our board of directors. We also agreed to a five member Board of Directors provided that it is not prohibited by the rules and regulations of an exchange that we trade on. We also agreed to enter into an Indemnity Agreement with the nominee.
● Budget Review. So long as the Investor owns not less than 25% of the Shares, we agreed to review our budget plans with the Investor’s nominee prior to submission to the Board of Directors, at the request of the Investor.
● Right of First Refusal. We agreed that, in the event that it proposes to sell new securities, we will first offer such new securities to the Investor.
● Special Approval Matters. So long as the Investor owns not less than 25% of the Shares, and provided that it is not prohibited by the rules and regulations of an exchange that we trades on, we agreed that 80% Board approval will be required for certain decisions, including:
o the incurrence of any indebtedness in excess of $1.5 million in the aggregate during any fiscal year;
o the sale, transfer or other disposition of all or substantially all of our assets;
o the acquisition of any assets or properties (in one or more related transactions) for cash or otherwise for an amount in excess of $1.5 million in the aggregate during any fiscal year;
o capital expenditures in excess of $1.5 million individually (or in the aggregate if related to an integrated program of activities) or in excess of $1.5 million in the aggregate during any fiscal year;
o making, or permitting any subsidiary to make, loans to, investments in, or purchasing, or permitting any subsidiary to purchase, any stock or other securities in another corporation, joint venture, partnership or other entity;
o the commencement or settlement of any lawsuit, arbitration or other legal proceeding related to our intellectual property or involving an amount in controversy greater than $1.5 million; and
o the issuance of new securities, except for securities issued under an equity incentive plan and any issuance of Common Stock to vendors, advisors, financial institutions, suppliers or joint venturers that do not exceed, individually or in the aggregate 5% of the issued and outstanding capital stock of the Company.
Provisions in Our Articles of Incorporation and By-Laws That Would Delay, Defer or Prevent a Change in Control
Our articles of incorporation authorize our board of directors to issue a class of preferred stock commonly known as a “blank check” preferred stock. Specifically, the preferred stock may be issued from time to time by the board of directors as shares of one (1) or more classes or series. Our board of directors, subject to the provisions of our Articles of Incorporation and limitations imposed by law, is authorized to adopt resolutions; to issue the shares; to fix the number of shares; to change the number of shares constituting any series; and to provide for or change the following: the voting powers; designations; preferences; and relative, participating, optional or other special rights, qualifications, limitations or restrictions, including the following: dividend rights, including whether dividends are cumulative; dividend rates; terms of redemption, including sinking fund provisions; redemption prices; conversion rights and liquidation preferences of the shares constituting any class or series of the preferred stock.
In each such case, we will not need any further action or vote by our shareholders. One of the effects of undesignated preferred stock may be to enable the board of directors to render more difficult or to discourage an attempt to obtain control of us by means of a tender offer, proxy contest, merger or otherwise, and thereby to protect the continuity of our management. The issuance of shares of preferred stock pursuant to the board of director’s authority described above may adversely affect the rights of holders of common stock. For example, preferred stock issued by us may rank prior to the common stock as to dividend rights, liquidation preference or both, may have full or limited voting rights and may be convertible into shares of common stock. Accordingly, the issuance of shares of preferred stock may discourage bids for the common stock at a premium or may otherwise adversely affect the market price of the common stock.
We have never declared or paid any cash dividends on our common stock. We currently intend to retain future earnings, if any, to finance the expansion of our business. As a result, we do not anticipate paying any cash dividends in the foreseeable future.
Share Purchase Warrants
We have no outstanding warrants to purchase our securities.
We had options outstanding to purchase 1,444,464 shares of our common stock at a weighted average exercise price of $3.62 as of September 30, 2018.
We have not issued and do not have outstanding any securities convertible into shares of our common stock or any rights convertible or exchangeable into shares of our common stock.
Certain Anti-Takeover Provisions
Nevada Revised Statutes sections 78.378 to 78.379 provide state regulation over the acquisition of a controlling interest in certain Nevada corporations unless the articles of incorporation or bylaws of the corporation provide that the provisions of these sections do not apply. Our articles of incorporation and bylaws do not state that these provisions do not apply. The statute creates a number of restrictions on the ability of a person or entity to acquire control of a Nevada company by setting down certain rules of conduct and voting restrictions in any acquisition attempt, among other things. The statute is limited to corporations that are organized in the state of Nevada and that have 200 or more stockholders, at least 100 of whom are stockholders of record and residents of the State of Nevada; and does business in the State of Nevada directly or through an affiliated corporation. Because of these conditions, the statute currently does not apply to our company.
Listing of Common Stock
Our Common Stock is currently traded on the Nasdaq Capital Market under the trading symbol “OPRX.”
Transfer Agent and Registrar
The transfer agent and registrar of our Common Stock is Empire Stock Transfer, 1859 Whitney Mesa Dr, Henderson, NV 89014, telephone: (702) 974-1444.
Description of Debt Securities
Any debt securities we may issue will constitute either senior or subordinated debt of our company. Any debt securities that are sold may be exchangeable for and/or convertible into common shares or any of the other securities that may be sold under this prospectus. Any debt securities will be issued under an indenture between us and a trustee we will designate, or one or more separate indentures between us and a designated trustee. We will include in a prospectus supplement the specific terms of each series of senior or subordinated debt securities being offered, including the terms, if any, on which a series of senior or subordinated debt securities may be convertible into or exchangeable for other securities. In addition, the material terms of any indenture, which will govern the rights of the holders of our senior or subordinated debt securities, will be set forth in the applicable prospectus supplement.
Description of Warrants
We may issue warrants to purchase our debt or equity securities or securities of third parties or other rights, including rights to receive payment in cash or securities based on the value, rate or price of one or more specified commodities, currencies, securities or indices, or any combination of the foregoing. Warrants may be issued independently or together with any other securities and may be attached to, or separate from, such securities. Each series of warrants will be issued under a separate warrant agreement to be entered into between us and a warrant agent. The terms of any warrants to be issued and a description of the material provisions of the applicable warrant agreement will be set forth in the applicable prospectus supplement.
Description of Units
As specified in the applicable prospectus supplement, we may issue units consisting of one or more warrants, debt securities, preferred shares, common shares or any combination of such securities.
Plan of Distribution
We and/or the selling shareholder, including its pledgees, donees, transferees, distributees, beneficiaries or other successors in interest, if applicable, may sell the securities in one or more of the following ways (or in any combination) from time to time:
● to or through underwriters or dealers;
● in short or long transactions;
● in one or more block transactions;
● in ordinary brokerage transactions or transactions in which a broker solicits purchases;
● in a pledge of the securities for any loan or obligation, including pledges to brokers or dealers who may from time to time effect distributions of the securities, and, in the case of any collateral call or default on such loan or obligation, pledges or sales of the securities by such pledges or secured parties;
● through one or more exchanges or over the counter market transactions;
● through distribution by a selling shareholder or its successor in interest to its members, general or limited partners or shareholders (or their respective members, general or limited partners or shareholders);
● through the writing of options, whether the options are listed on an options exchange or otherwise;
● through distributions to creditors and equityholders or the selling shareholders;
● directly to a limited number of purchasers or to a single purchaser;
● through agents; and/or
● through a combination of any of these methods of sale.
To the extent necessary, the prospectus supplement will state the terms of the offering of the securities, including:
● the name or names of any selling shareholder;
● the name or names of any underwriters, dealers or agents;
● the purchase price of such securities and the proceeds to be received by us, if any;
● any underwriting discounts or agency fees and other items constituting underwriters’ or agents’ compensation;
● details regarding over-allotment options under which underwriters may purchase additional securities from us, if any;
● any public offering price;
● any discounts or concessions allowed or reallowed or paid to dealers; and
● any securities exchanges on which the securities may be listed.
Any public offering price and any discounts or concessions allowed or reallowed or paid to dealers may be changed from time to time.
If we and/or the selling shareholder, if applicable, use underwriters or broker-dealers in the sale, the securities will be acquired by the underwriters or broker-dealers, as applicable, for their own account and may be resold from time to time in one or more transactions, including:
● negotiated transactions;
● at a fixed public offering price or prices, which may be changed;
● “at the market offerings,” within the meaning of Rule 415(a)(4) of the Securities Act, to or through a market maker or into an existing trading market, on an exchange or otherwise;
● at prices related to prevailing market prices; or
● at negotiated prices.
Unless otherwise stated in a prospectus supplement, the obligations of the underwriters to purchase any securities will be conditioned on customary closing conditions and the underwriters will be obligated to purchase all of such series of securities, if any are purchased.
We and/or the selling shareholder, if applicable, may sell the securities through agents from time to time. The prospectus supplement will name any agent involved in the offer or sale of the securities and any commissions we pay to them. Generally, any agent will be acting on a best-efforts basis for the period of its appointment.
We and/or the selling shareholder, if applicable, may authorize underwriters, dealers or agents to solicit offers by certain purchasers to purchase the securities from us at the public offering price set forth in the prospectus supplement pursuant to delayed delivery contracts providing for payment and delivery on a specified date in the future. The contracts will be subject only to those conditions set forth in the prospectus supplement, and the prospectus supplement will set forth any commissions we pay for solicitation of these contracts.
Underwriters and agents may be entitled under agreements entered into with us and/or the selling shareholders, if applicable, to indemnification by us and/or the selling shareholders, if applicable, against certain civil liabilities, including liabilities under the Securities Act, or to contribution with respect to payments which the underwriters or agents may be required to make. Underwriters and agents may be customers of, engage in transactions with, or perform services for us and our affiliates in the ordinary course of business.
The selling shareholder may also resell all or a portion of its securities in open market transactions in reliance upon Rule 144 under the Securities Act, provided it meets the criteria and conforms to the requirements of Rule 144 and all applicable laws and regulations.
A selling shareholder that is an entity may elect to make a pro rata in-kind distribution of shares of our common stock to its members, partners or stockholders pursuant to the registration statement of which this prospectus forms a part by delivering a prospectus. To the extent that such members, partners or stockholders are not affiliates of such selling shareholder, such members, partners or stockholders would thereby receive freely tradeable shares of our common stock pursuant to the distribution through a registration statement.
The selling shareholder may enter into sale, forward sale and derivative transactions with third parties, or may sell securities not covered by this prospectus to third parties in privately negotiated transactions. In connection with those sale, forward sale or derivative transactions, the third parties may sell securities covered by this prospectus, including in short sale transactions and by issuing securities that are not covered by this prospectus but are exchangeable for or represent beneficial interests in our common shares. The third parties also may use shares of the common shares received under those sale, forward sale or derivative arrangements or shares of the common shares pledged by the selling shareholder or borrowed from the selling shareholders or others to settle such third-party sales or to close out any related open borrowings of our common shares. The third parties may deliver this prospectus in connection with any such transactions. Any third party in such sale transactions will be an underwriter and will be identified in a supplement or a post-effective amendment to the registration statement of which this prospectus is a part, as may be required.
In addition, the selling shareholder may engage in hedging transactions with broker-dealers in connection with distributions of the securities or otherwise. In those transactions, broker-dealers may engage in short sales of securities in the course of hedging the positions they assume with selling shareholders. The selling shareholder may also sell securities short and redeliver securities to close out such short positions. The selling shareholder may also enter into option or other transactions with broker-dealers which require the delivery of securities to the broker-dealer. The broker-dealer may then resell or otherwise transfer such securities pursuant to this prospectus. The selling shareholders also may loan or pledge the securities, and the borrower or pledgee may sell or otherwise transfer the securities so loaned or pledged pursuant to this prospectus. Such borrower or pledgee also may transfer those securities to investors in our securities or the selling shareholders’ securities or in connection with the offering of other securities not covered by this prospectus.
Each series of securities other than the common shares, which is listed on the Nasdaq Capital Market, and any series of debt securities outstanding on the date hereof, will be a new issue of securities and will have no established trading market. Any underwriters to whom securities are sold for public offering and sale may make a market in the securities, but such underwriters will not be obligated to do so and may discontinue any market making at any time without notice. The securities, other than the common shares, may or may not be listed on a national securities exchange.
No expert or counsel named in this prospectus as having prepared or certified any part of this prospectus or having given an opinion upon the validity of the securities being registered or upon other legal matters in connection with the registration or offering of the Common Stock was employed on a contingency basis, or had, or is to receive, in connection with the offering, a substantial interest, direct or indirect, in the registrant or any of its parents or subsidiaries. Nor was any such person connected with the registrant or any of its parents or subsidiaries as a promoter, managing or principal underwriter, voting trustee, director, officer, or employee.
The Doney Law Firm, our independent legal counsel, has provided an opinion on the validity of our Common Stock.
Sadler, Gibb & Associates, LLC and KLJ & Associates, LLP have audited our financial statements included in this prospectus and registration statement to the extent and for the periods set forth in their audit reports. Sadler, Gibb & Associates, LLC and KLJ & Associates, LLP have presented their respective reports with respect to our audited financial statements. The reports of Sadler, Gibb & Associates, LLC and KLJ & Associates, LLP are included in reliance upon their authority as experts in accounting and auditing.
DISCLOSURE OF COMMISSION POSITION ON INDEMNIFICATION
FOR SECURITIES ACT LIABILITIES
Insofar as indemnification for liabilities arising under the Securities Act of 1933 may be permitted to our directors, officers and controlling persons pursuant to the following provisions, or otherwise, we have been advised that in the opinion of the Securities and Exchange Commission such indemnification is against public policy as expressed in the Act and is, therefore, unenforceable. In the event that a claim for indemnification against such liabilities (other than the payment by us of expenses incurred or paid by a director, officer or controlling person in the successful defense of any action, suit or proceeding) is asserted by such director, officer or controlling person in connection with the shares being registered, we will, unless in the opinion of its counsel the matter has been settled by controlling precedent, submit to a court of appropriate jurisdiction the question whether such indemnification by it is against public policy as expressed in the Act and will be governed by the final adjudication of such issue.
INFORMATION NOT REQUIRED IN PROSPECTUS
Item 14. Other Expenses of Issuance and Distribution
The following table sets forth the costs and expenses payable by the Registrant in connection with the sale of the securities being registered hereby.
Amount to Be Paid
Registration fee $ 9,065.18
FINRA filing fee *
Printing *
Legal fees and expenses (including Blue Sky fees) *
Transfer agent and trustee fees *
Rating agency fees *
Accounting fees and expenses *
Miscellaneous *
Total $
* Not presently known.
Item 15. Indemnification of Directors and Officers
Our officers and directors are indemnified as provided by the Nevada Revised Statutes and our bylaws.
Under the governing Nevada statutes, director immunity from liability to a company or its shareholders for monetary liabilities applies automatically unless it is specifically limited by a company’s articles of incorporation. Our articles of incorporation do not contain any limiting language regarding director immunity from liability. Excepted from this immunity are:
(1) a willful failure to deal fairly with the company or its shareholders in connection with a matter in which the director has a material conflict of interest;
(2) a violation of criminal law (unless the director had reasonable cause to believe that his or her conduct was lawful or no reasonable cause to believe that his or her conduct was unlawful);
(3) a transaction from which the director derived an improper personal profit; and
(4) willful misconduct.
Our bylaws provide that we will indemnify our directors and officers to the fullest extent not prohibited by Nevada law; provided, however, that we may modify the extent of such indemnification by individual contracts with our directors and officers; and, provided, further, that we shall not be required to indemnify any director or officer in connection with any proceeding (or part thereof) initiated by such person unless:
(1) such indemnification is expressly required to be made by law;
(2) the proceeding was authorized by our Board of Directors;
(3) such indemnification is provided by us, in our sole discretion, pursuant to the powers vested us under Nevada law; or;
(4) such indemnification is required to be made pursuant to the bylaws.
Our bylaws provide that we will advance to any person who was or is a party or is threatened to be made a party to any threatened, pending or completed action, suit or proceeding, whether civil, criminal, administrative or investigative, by reason of the fact that he is or was a director or officer, of the company, or is or was serving at the request of the company as a director or executive officer of another company, partnership, joint venture, trust or other enterprise, prior to the final disposition of the proceeding, promptly following request therefore, all expenses incurred by any director or officer in connection with such proceeding upon receipt of an undertaking by or on behalf of such person to repay said amounts if it should be determined ultimately that such person is not entitled to be indemnified under our bylaws or otherwise.
Our bylaws provide that no advance shall be made by us to an officer of the company, except by reason of the fact that such officer is or was a director of the company in which event this paragraph shall not apply, in any action, suit or proceeding, whether civil, criminal, administrative or investigative, if a determination is reasonably and promptly made: (a) by the board of directors by a majority vote of a quorum consisting of directors who were not parties to the proceeding, or (b) if such quorum is not obtainable, or, even if obtainable, a quorum of disinterested directors so directs, by independent legal counsel in a written opinion, that the facts known to the decision-making party at the time such determination is made demonstrate clearly and convincingly that such person acted in bad faith or in a manner that such person did not believe to be in or not opposed to the best interests of the company.
II-1
Item 16. Exhibits and Financial Statement Schedules
Exhibit Number Description
3.1 Articles of Incorporation of OptimizeRx Corporation (the “Company”)1
3.2 Amended and Restated Bylaws of the Company2
3.3 Certificate of Designation, filed on September 5, 2008 with the Secretary of State of the State of Nevada by the Company1
3.4 Certificate of Designation, filed on June 3, 2010 with the Secretary of State of the State of Nevada by the Company3
5.1 Opinion of The Doney Law firm with Consent to use**
10.2 Securities Purchase Agreement5
10.3 Registration Rights Agreement5
10.4 Investor Agreement5
10.5 Warrant Agreement6
10.7 Stock Purchase Agreement, dated September 24, 20157
10.8 Investor Rights Agreement, dated September 24, 20157
10.9 Indemnity Agreement, dated September 24, 20157
10.16 Purchase Agreement, dated May 2, 20188
10.17 Registration Rights Agreement, dated May 2, 20188
10.18 Amendment to Employment Agreement with William Febbo, dated September 10, 20189
10.19 Amendment to Employment Agreement with Miriam Paramore, dated September 10, 20189
10.20 Amendment to Employment Agreement with Terry Hamilton, dated September 10, 20189
10.21 Amendment to Employment Agreement with Doug Baker, dated September 10, 20189
10.22 Stock Purchase Agreement, dated October 17, 201810
21.1 List of Subsidiaries1
23.1 Consent of KLJ & Associates**
23.2 Consent of Sadler, Gibb & Associates, LLC**
1 Incorporated by reference to the Form S-1, filed by the Company with the Securities and Exchange Commission on November 12, 2008.
2 Incorporated by reference to the Form 8-K, filed by the Company with the Securities and Exchange Commission on July 16, 2010.
3 Incorporated by reference to the Form 8-K, filed by the Company with the Securities and Exchange Commission on June 11, 2010.
4 Incorporated by reference to the Form 8-K, filed by the Company with the Securities and Exchange Commission on September 20, 2013.
5 Incorporated by reference to the Form 8-K, filed by the Company with the Securities and Exchange Commission on March 18, 2014.
6 Incorporated by reference to the Form S-1/A filed by the Company with the Securities and Exchange Commission on May 12, 2014.
8 Incorporated by reference to the Form 10-Q, filed by the Company with the Securities and Exchange Commission on May 2, 2018.
10 Incorporated by reference to the Form 8-K,, filed by the Company with the Securities and Exchange Commission on October 17, 2018.
**Provided herewith
Item 17. Undertakings
(a) The undersigned Registrant hereby undertakes:
(1) to file, during any period in which offers or sales are being made, a post-effective amendment to this registration statement:
(i) to include any prospectus required by Section 10(a)(3) of the Securities Act;
(ii) to reflect in the prospectus any facts or events arising after the effective date of the registration statement (or the most recent post- effective amendment thereof) which, individually or in the aggregate, represent a fundamental change in the information set forth in the registration statement. Notwithstanding the foregoing, any increase or decrease in the volume of securities offered (if the total dollar value of securities offered would not exceed that which was registered) and any deviation from the low or high end of the estimated maximum offering range may be reflected in the form of prospectus filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission pursuant to Rule 424(b) if, in the aggregate, the changes in volume and price represent no more than a 20 percent change in the maximum aggregate offering price set forth in the “Calculation of Registration Fee” table in the effective registration statement; and
(iii) to include any material information with respect to the plan of distribution not previously disclosed in the registration statement or any material change to such information in the registration statement; provided, however, that paragraphs (i), (ii) and (iii) above do not apply if the information required to be included in a post-effective amendment by those paragraphs is contained in reports filed with or furnished to the Securities and Exchange Commission by the Registrant pursuant to Section 13 or Section 15(d) of the Exchange Act that are incorporated by reference in this registration statement, or is contained in a form of prospectus filed pursuant to Rule 424(b) that is part of the registration statement.
(2) That, for the purpose of determining any liability under the Securities Act, each such post-effective amendment shall be deemed to be a new registration statement relating to the securities offered herein, and the offering of such securities at that time shall be deemed to be the initial bona fide offering thereof.
(3) To remove from registration by means of a post-effective amendment any of the securities being registered which remain unsold at the termination of the offering.
(4) That, for the purpose of determining liability under the Securities Act to any purchaser:
(A) each prospectus filed by the Registrant pursuant to Rule 424(b)(3) shall be deemed to be part of the registration statement as of the date the filed prospectus was deemed part of and included in the registration statement; and
(B) each prospectus required to be filed pursuant to Rule 424(b)(2), (b)(5), or (b)(7) as part of a registration statement in reliance on Rule 430B relating to an offering made pursuant to Rule 415(a)(1)(i), (vii), or (x) for the purpose of providing the information required by Section 10(a) of the Securities Act shall be deemed to be part of and included in the registration statement as of the earlier of the date such form of prospectus is first used after effectiveness or the date of the first contract of sale of securities in the offering described in the prospectus. As provided in Rule 430B, for liability purposes of the issuer and any person that is at that date an underwriter, such date shall be deemed to be a new effective date of the registration statement relating to the securities in the registration statement to which that prospectus relates, and the offering of such securities at that time shall be deemed to be the initial bona fide offering thereof. Provided, however, that no statement made in a registration statement or prospectus that is part of the registration statement or made in a document incorporated or deemed incorporated by reference into the registration statement or prospectus that is part of the registration statement will, as to a purchaser with a time of contract of sale prior to such effective date, supersede or modify any statement that was made in the registration statement or prospectus that was part of the registration statement or made in any such document immediately prior to such effective date.
(5) That, for the purpose of determining liability of the Registrant under the Securities Act to any purchaser in the initial distribution of the securities:
the undersigned Registrant undertakes that in a primary offering of securities of the undersigned Registrant pursuant to this registration statement, regardless of the underwriting method used to sell the securities to the purchaser, if the securities are offered or sold to such purchaser by means of any of the following communications, the undersigned Registrant will be a seller to the purchaser and will be considered to offer or sell such securities to such purchaser:
(i) any preliminary prospectus or prospectus of the undersigned Registrant relating to the offering required to be filed pursuant to Rule 424;
(ii) any free writing prospectus relating to the offering prepared by or on behalf of the undersigned Registrant or used or referred to by the undersigned Registrant;
(iii) the portion of any other free writing prospectus relating to the offering containing material information about the undersigned Registrant or its securities provided by or on behalf of the undersigned Registrant; and
(iv) any other communication that is an offer in the offering made by the undersigned Registrant to the purchaser.
(b) The undersigned Registrant hereby undertakes to file an application for the purpose of determining the eligibility of the trustee to act under subsection (a) of Section 310 of the Trust Indenture Act in accordance with the rules and regulations prescribed by the Commission under Section 305(b)(2) of the Trust Indenture Act.
(c) The undersigned Registrant hereby undertakes that, for purposes of determining any liability under the Securities Act, each filing of the Registrant’s annual report pursuant to Section 13(a) or Section 15(d) of the Exchange Act 4 (and, where applicable, each filing of an employee benefit plan’s annual report pursuant to Section 15(d) of the Exchange Act) that is incorporated by reference in the registration statement shall be deemed to be a new registration statement relating to the securities offered therein, and the offering of such securities at that time shall be deemed to be the initial bona fide offering thereof.
(d) Insofar as indemnification for liabilities arising under the Securities Act may be permitted to directors, officers and controlling persons of the Registrant pursuant to the foregoing provisions, or otherwise, the Registrant has been advised that in the opinion of the Securities and Exchange Commission such indemnification is against public policy as expressed in the Securities Act and is, therefore, unenforceable. In the event that a claim for indemnification against such liabilities (other than the payment by the Registrant of expenses incurred or paid by a director, officer or controlling person of the Registrant in the successful defense of any action, suit or proceeding) is asserted by such director, officer or controlling person in connection with the securities being registered, the Registrant will, unless in the opinion of its counsel the matter has been settled by controlling precedent, submit to a court of appropriate jurisdiction the question whether such indemnification by it is against public policy as expressed in the Securities Act and will be governed by the final adjudication of such issue.
(e) The undersigned Registrant hereby undertakes to supplement the prospectus, after the expiration of the subscription period, to set forth the results of the subscription offer, the transactions by the underwriters during the subscription period, the amount of unsubscribed securities to be purchased by the underwriters, and the terms of any subsequent reoffering thereof. If any public offering by the underwriters is to be made on terms differing from those set forth on the cover page of the prospectus, a post-effective amendment will be filed to set forth the terms of such offering.
Pursuant to the requirements of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, the Registrant has duly caused this Registration Statement to be signed on its behalf by the undersigned, thereunto duly authorized in the City of Rochester, State of Michigan on November 13, 2018.
By: /s/ William Febbo
William Febbo
Principal Executive Officer and Director
By: /s/ Doug Baker
Chief Financial Officer,
Principal Financial Officer and
Principal Accounting Officer
Pursuant to the requirements of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, this report has been signed below by the following persons on behalf of the registrant and in the capacities and on the dates indicated.
Title: Chief Executive Officer,
By: /s/ James Lang
James Lang
Title: Chairman and Director
By: /s/ Lynn Vos
Lynn Vos
By: /s/ Gus D. Halas
Gus D. Halas
By: /s/ Patrick Spangler
Patrick Spangler
By: /s/ Bryan Archambault
Bryan Archambault
Title: Chief Financial Officer,
OptimizeRx Corp.
Re: OptimizeRx Corp. Registration Statement on Form S-3
We have acted as special counsel to OptimizeRx Corp., a Nevada corporation (the “Company”), in connection with the filing of a registration statement on Form S-3 (the “Registration Statement”) with the Securities and Exchange Commission under the Securities Act of 1933, as amended (the “Securities Act”). The Registration Statement includes a base prospectus (the “Base Prospectus”) that provides it will be supplemented in the future by one or more prospectus supplements (each, a “Prospectus Supplement”). The Registration Statement, including the Base Prospectus (as supplemented from time to time by one or more Prospectus Supplements), provides for the registration by the Company of:
● the resale of 2,103,702 shares of common stock, par value $0.001 per share, of the Company (the “Common Stock”) held by the Selling Shareholder named in the Registration Statement (the “Resale Shares”);
● shares of Common Stock, par value $0.001 per share, issuable by the Company (the “Company Shares”);
● shares of preferred stock, par value $0.001 per share, issuable by the Company (the “Preferred Stock”);
● debt securities, in one or more series (the “Debt Securities”), which may be issued by the Company pursuant to an indenture to be dated on or about the date of the first issuance of Debt Securities thereunder, by and between a trustee to be selected by the Company (the “Trustee”) and the Company, in the form filed as Exhibit 4.5 to the Registration Statement and one or more indentures supplemental thereto with respect to any particular series of Debt Securities (the “Indenture”);
● warrants to purchase Common Stock, Preferred Stock or Debt Securities (the “Warrants”), which may be issued by the Company under one or more warrant agreements, to be dated on or about the date of the first issuance of the Warrants thereunder, by and between a warrant agent to be selected by the Company (the “Warrant Agent”) and the Company (each, a “Warrant Agreement”); and
● units comprised of Common Stock, Preferred Stock, Debt Securities, Warrants and other securities in any combination (“Units”).
The Company Shares, the Preferred Stock, the Debt Securities, the Warrants and the Units are collectively referred to herein as the “Securities.” The aggregate public offering price of the Securities being registered is $40,000,000. The Securities and the Resale Shares are being registered for offer and sale from time to time pursuant to Rule 415 under the Securities Act.
In connection with our representation of the Company, and as a basis for the opinions hereinafter set forth, we have examined: (i) the Registration Statement, including the Base Prospectus and the exhibits (including those incorporated by reference) constituting a part of the Registration Statement; (ii) the Articles of Incorporation of the Company, as amended to the date hereof (the “Articles”); (iii) the Amended and Restated Bylaws of the Company, as amended to the date hereof (the “Bylaws”); and (iv) such other agreements, proceedings, documents and records and such matters of law as we have deemed necessary or appropriate to enable us to render this opinion. As to any facts material to the opinions expressed herein that were not independently established or verified, we have relied upon oral or written statements and representations of officers and other representatives of the Company.
For purposes of the opinions contained herein, we have assumed that:
(a) the Company will remain validly existing under Nevada law, the organizational documents of the Company will not be amended or modified in any respect relevant and material to our opinions expressed herein, and the number of Company Shares or Preferred Shares, as the case may be, offered and sold, will not exceed the number of Company Shares or Preferred Shares, as the case may be, authorized under the Articles (as then in effect) and not otherwise reserved for issuance;
(b) the terms of the Securities and the issuance and sale thereof do not violate any applicable law, are in conformity with the Company’s Articles and Bylaws (each, as then in effect), do not result in a default under or breach of any agreement or instrument binding upon the Company, and comply with any applicable requirement or restriction imposed by any court or governmental body having jurisdiction over the Company;
(c) the Registration Statement, and any required post-effective amendment thereto, have become effective under the Securities Act and the Base Prospectus and any and all Prospectus Supplement(s) required by applicable laws have been delivered and filed as required by such laws; and
(d) with respect to all documents examined by us, the genuineness of all signatures, the legal capacity of all natural persons signatory thereto, the authenticity of all documents submitted to us as originals, the conformity to the originals of all documents submitted to us as copies (including pdfs) and, with respect to all documents examined by us which contained facsimile signatures, that such signatures represent an original signature of the party and have the same force and effect as an original signature.
Based on and subject to the foregoing, and subject to the qualifications, assumptions and limitations stated herein, we are of the opinion that:
1. The Resale Shares have been validly issued and are fully paid and non-assessable.
2. With respect to the Company Shares offered under the Registration Statement, provided that (i) the issuance of the Company Shares has been duly authorized by all necessary corporate action on the part of the Company, and (ii) the certificates, if any, for the Company Shares have been duly executed by the Company, countersigned by the transfer agent therefor and duly delivered to the purchasers thereof against payment therefor, then the Company Shares, when issued and sold as contemplated in the Registration Statement, the Base Prospectus and the related Prospectus Supplement(s) and in accordance with a duly authorized, executed and delivered purchase, underwriting or similar agreement, or upon conversion of any convertible Preferred Stock, or convertible Debt Securities in accordance with their terms, or upon exercise of any Warrants in accordance with their terms, or any combination of the foregoing comprising Units, will be validly issued, fully paid and non-assessable.
3. With respect to the Preferred Stock offered under the Registration Statement, provided that (i) the terms and issuance of the Preferred Stock have been duly authorized by all necessary corporate action on the part of the Company, (ii) a certificate of designation relating to such Preferred Stock and conforming to the Nevada Revised Statutes, as amended (the “NRS”), has been duly filed with the Secretary of State of the State of Nevada, and (iii) the certificates, if any, for the Preferred Stock have been duly executed by the Company, countersigned by the transfer agent therefor and duly delivered to the purchasers thereof against payment therefor, then the Preferred Stock, when issued and sold as contemplated in the Registration Statement, the Base Prospectus and the related Prospectus Supplement(s) and in accordance with a duly authorized, executed and delivered purchase, underwriting or similar agreement, or upon conversion of any convertible Debt Securities in accordance with their terms, or upon exercise of any Warrants in accordance with their terms, will be validly issued, fully paid and non-assessable.
4. With respect to any series of the Debt Securities issued under the Indenture, and offered under the Registration Statement, provided that (i) the Indenture has been duly authorized by the Company and the Trustee by all necessary corporate action, (ii) the Indenture, in substantially the form filed as an exhibit to the Registration Statement, has been duly executed and delivered by the Company and the Trustee and has been qualified under the Trust Indenture Act of 1939, as amended, (iii) the issuance and terms of the Debt Securities have been duly authorized by the Company by all necessary corporate action, (iv) the terms of the Debt Securities (including the terms of their issuance and sale) have been duly established in conformity with the Indenture, and (v) the notes representing the Debt Securities have been duly executed and delivered by the Company and authenticated by the Trustee pursuant to the Indenture and delivered against payment therefor, then the Debt Securities, when issued and sold in accordance with the Indenture and a duly authorized, executed and delivered purchase, underwriting or similar agreement, or upon exercise of any Warrants in accordance with their terms, will be valid and legally binding obligations of the Company, enforceable against the Company in accordance with their terms.
5. With respect to the Warrants issued under the Warrant Agreements and offered under the Registration Statement, provided that (i) the Warrant Agreement has been duly authorized by the Company and the Warrant Agent by all necessary corporate action, (ii) the Warrant Agreement has been duly executed and delivered by the Company and the Warrant Agent, (iii) the issuance and terms of the Warrants have been duly authorized by the Company by all necessary corporate action, (iv) the terms of the Warrants (including the terms of their issuance and sale) have been duly established in conformity with the Warrant Agreement and as described in the Registration Statement, the Base Prospectus and the related Prospectus Supplement(s), and (v) the Warrants have been duly executed and delivered by the Company and authenticated by the Warrant Agent pursuant to the Warrant Agreement and delivered against payment therefor, then the Warrants, when issued and sold as contemplated in the Registration Statement, the Base Prospectus and the Prospectus Supplement(s) and in accordance with the Warrant Agreement and a duly authorized, executed and delivered purchase, underwriting or similar agreement, will be valid and legally binding obligations of the Company, enforceable against the Company in accordance with their terms.
6. With respect to the Units, when: (a) the applicable unit agreement, if any, with respect to the Units has been duly authorized, executed and delivered by the Company and the other parties thereto, (b) the terms of the Units and the related Securities and their issuance and sale thereof have been duly established in conformity with the applicable contracts, agreements or indentures that are a component of the Units (including authorization of the issuance of any Securities to be issued pursuant to such Units), (c) the Units have been authorized, offered and sold in accordance with the applicable unit agreement, if any, the Registration Statement, including the prospectus supplement thereto, and, if in an underwritten offering, a valid and binding purchase, underwriting or agency agreement, and (d) the Units have been duly executed and delivered by the Company to the purchasers thereof in the manner contemplated in the applicable unit agreements upon payment of the agreed-upon consideration therefor, the Units will be binding obligations of the Company;
Our opinions with respect to the legality, validity, binding effect, and enforceability of any of the Securities are qualified as to: (i) limitations imposed by bankruptcy, insolvency, reorganization, arrangement, fraudulent conveyance, moratorium or other laws relating to or affecting the rights of creditors generally; (ii) rights to indemnification and contribution, which may be limited by applicable law or equitable principles; and (iii) general principles of equity, including without limitation concepts of materiality, reasonableness, good faith and fair dealing, and the possible unavailability of specific performance or injunctive relief and limitation of rights of acceleration, regardless of whether such enforceability is considered in a proceeding in equity or at law.
This opinion is based on Nevada general corporate law, including the NRS, all applicable provisions of the Nevada constitution and reported judicial decisions interpreting those laws. We express no opinion herein as to the effect of the laws of any other jurisdiction.
This opinion is limited to the matters expressly stated herein and no opinion is inferred or may be implied beyond the matters expressly stated herein. We assume no obligation to supplement this opinion if any applicable law changes after the date hereof or if we become aware of any fact that might change the opinions expressed herein after the date hereof.
We hereby consent to the filing of this opinion as an exhibit to the Registration Statement and to the reference made to us therein. In giving this consent, we do not thereby admit that we come within the category of persons whose consent is required under Section 7 of the Securities Act or the rules and regulations of the Commission thereunder.
/s/ Scott Doney
CONSENT OF INDEPENDENT REGISTERED PUBLIC ACCOUNTING FIRM
To the Board of Directors
We hereby consent to the use of our audit report dated March 8, 2017, with respect to the consolidated financial statements of OptimizeRx Corporation as incorporated by reference in its registration statement on Form S-3. We also consent to the reference of our firm under the caption “interest of named experts and counsel” in the registration statement.
/s/ KLJ & Associates, LLP
Registered with the Public Company
Accounting Oversight Board
We hereby consent to the incorporation by reference in this Registration Statement on Form S-3 of our report dated March 7, 2018, with respect to the consolidated financial statements of OptimizeRx Corp. included in its Annual Report (Form 10-K) for the year ended December 31, 2017, filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission. We also consent to the reference of our firm under the caption “Experts” in the registration statement.
SADLER, GIBB AND ASSOCIATES, LLC
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Q&A with JustPremium’s Walter Aerts
|By Savina Parvanova
Walter Aerts currently serves as Vice President of business development at JustPremium, but he’s worn many hats with the company over the past five years. Today, he’s seeing an exciting evolution in how brands are approaching their digital media buys. In this Q&A, he discusses the recent client-side shifts in campaign measurement and creative experimentation that are paving a bright future for rich media advertising.
JustPremium: What are the main and most exciting changes in the industry right now that affect your work? What challenges and opportunities do you see in them?
Walter Aerts: We are seeing brands become more specific in what they are looking to measure. When we launched JustPremium, it was all about the CTR of a campaign. The campaigns we are running these days have multiple KPIs and are more focused on brand lift, viewabilty, brand safety and engagement. I think this trend is going to lead to an even bigger shift from direct I/O dollars to programmatic dollars, as buyers look to be fully in control and able to measure campaigns via their own or third-party technologies.
JP: In general, how do you think the industry will change in the short– and long-term?
Aerts: It is really exciting to see that our clients are looking to do cooler things with our ad units. We are getting more and more requests that involve our creative team, as our clients look to us to execute interactive elements, dynamic creative and new variations of existing ad units. I hope that this trend will continue in the future.
JP: What are the major projects you are working on? What do you aim to achieve with them?
Aerts: My job at JustPremium is to build up new markets for JustPremium. For the past 2.5 years, I’ve been working on the expansion of JustPremium in the United States. My next big project is to continue that expansion and open a JustPremium office in Los Angeles. We are looking to have a full sales office in place there by the end of 2018.
JP: What is the most exciting part of your work at JustPremium?
Aerts: I’ve been with JustPremium for more than five years, and I’ve served in many different roles. It has been exciting to see the growth of the company over the past five years, and I’m proud to be a part of that. For me personally, it has been very cool to constantly work in new markets. I get to show people who have never heard of JustPremium what we have to offer.
JP: What piece of advice would you like to share with our clients?
Aerts: Clients should never be afraid to loop JustPremium into their conversations at an early stage. We are always willing to help with creative and strategic ideas, and we are working with many creative agencies globally. I think clients can really benefit from our insights in their early campaign conversations.
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KMTC Launches its 2018-2023 Strategic Plan
Home \ Bulletins \
KMTC launched its 2018-2023 Strategic Plan on 15th November, 2018 at College’s School of Nursing Assembly Hall, Nairobi. The event was graced by the KMTC Board Chairman Prof. Philip Kaloki and attended by Board Directors, partners, the College’s Management, Principals, Heads of Department, staff and students.
The theme of the 2018 – 2023 Strategic Plan is “Transformative Training and Research Towards Achievement of the Universal Health Coverage Goals”.
In his remarks during the launch, Prof. Kaloki noted that “the strategic plan is a framework through which the College shall apply its resources and strengths to exploit available opportunities and confront threats that might hinder the institution from achieving its objectives”. He added that the Plan “provides a solid foundation for the training of Certificates, Diplomas and Higher Diplomas in different programmes. Coinciding with the Government’s agenda of Universal Health Coverage (UHC) for all Kenyans by 2022, the Plan sets KMTC on a path to ensure contribution to better health care through training of competent health professionals”.
Speaking during the launch, CEO Prof. Michael Kiptoo said that “the College operates in a dynamic environment where many changes occurred during the 2013- 2017 plan period at the levels of educational, technological, political and within the socio-economic environment”. These changes require an adaptive response so as to enable the College maintain an edge as leader in medical education in Kenya. The CEO added that “in this strategic planning period 2018 – 2023, the College will focus on enhancing efforts of income generation, resource mobilization, optimizing the capacity of the College at campus levels and tightening monitoring and evaluation across all functional areas for the achievement of the Plan goals”.
The College’s role being that of training various health disciplines for the health sector, its strategies have been aligned to those of the sector, which in turn draws its focus from the National Agenda of UHC. To achieve this, the Ministry of Health has defined priorities with targets to be implemented in the next four years (2018-2022). Among the priorities is ensuring that the necessary human resource for health are availed for efficient service delivery. As such, KMTC offers more than 70 courses, which are based on curricular tailor-made to ensure emerging and re-emerging diseases are targeted. The 2018 – 2023 strategic period is critical for the College since it falls within the period spelt out by government for achievement of UHC.
In line with the Government’s UHC agenda, the College has made effort to actualize this by: providing competent health workforce; improving the quality of training through a continuous review of training programs to align with emerging health needs in the country; continual sustenance of ISO 9001:2015 certification to uphold quality training; and developing training programmes including short courses that meet market demands/needs in the country.
As the College pursues its mandate in training health professionals during this strategic period, it will also aim at contributing to the achievement of three (3) Sustainable Development Goals (SGD’s) and in particular: Goal 3 – ensuring healthy lives and promoting well-being for all at all ages; Goal 4 – ensuring inclusive and equitable quality education and promoting lifelong learning opportunities for; and Goal 9 – building resilient infrastructure, promoting inclusive and sustainable industrialization and fostering innovation.
KMTC will direct its efforts on meeting three objectives that will sustain its leadership position in the training of competent health professionals. The objectives are: retaining the quality of training; making KMTC the institution of choice for training of health professionals by 2023; and increasing KMTC’s internally generated revenue by at least 50% by 2023.
Pursuing the aforementioned objectives in the next five years will enable KMTC to address strategic issues that are critical to the achievement of the strategic goals and objectives. The strategic issues are: quality of training; staff development; research, innovation and consultancy; linkages, collaboration and partnerships; development of infrastructure and other facilities; Information and Communications Technology (ICT); income generation and resource mobilization; and marketing, communications and brand recognition.
In view of KMTC’s mandate, the College has chosen the strategic focus of “leadership in the training of competent health professionals for sustainable development” for the strategic period. The Plan has outlined the KMTC background information; situational analysis; industry and market analysis; the competitive advantage of the College; strategic outlook; implementation, monitoring and evaluation framework; and financing strategy. During the life of this Strategic Plan, the KMTC Act will be reviewed to align it to the Constitution of Kenya 2010, relevant policies and other Government directives and operations of the College.
In this Strategic Plan, the College has put in place structures to cultivate stronger relationships with existing and new partners at both local and international levels. The College will leverage on the relationship with the partners to ensure improved training of health professionals for the health sector.
Through the Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP), the Strategic Plan has provided clearly spelt out activities of ensuring the College keeps abreast with uptake of Information and Communications Technology (ICT). Through automation, virtue learning and state of the art medical equipment, we will enhance service delivery in a cost-effective manner and ensure seamless operations and connectivity within all the departments and campuses.
The underpinning foundation for KMTC’s strategy is contributing towards the goal of Universal Healthcare Coverage (UHC), one of the Government’s big four agendas for economic development.
By KMTC | June 14, 2019 | Bulletins |
KMTC
KMTC signs MoU with West Pokot County Government
KMTC holds quarterly academic board meeting, reports excellent performance in student admission and enhanced training
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Miloud Chaabi was a Moroccan businessman and politician. His estimated net worth in 2016 was $800 million. According to Forbes, he enjoyed an estimated net worth of around $3 billion in 2011. ...
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Garth Brooks Explains How He Connects With Large Audiences + How Much He LOVES Minnesota
Curt St. John
Garth Brooks with Curt St. John
Garth Brooks headlined two incredible sold-out shows in Minnesota at U.S. Bank Stadium over the weekend, and we had a chance to get up close and personal with the man himself before he took the stage.
I had the chance to attend Garth's Stadium Show press conference Friday afternoon in the interview room, backstage at U.S. Bank Stadium. It was really cool -- we were escorted by stadium staff into areas you NEVER get access, and then before we knew it, there was Garth himself!
My wife Katie and I saw Garth's one-man show he did about 8 years ago at the Wynn in Las Vegas. I asked him how he was able to transition from connecting with the audience in a small venue like that was (probably about 350 seats or so) to the massive 70,000-seat U.S. Bank Stadium. Check out what he had to say below!
Garth also mentioned how appreciative he is of Minnesota. In fact, the Land of 10,000 Lakes is the area where he's sold the most tickets out of any of his shows, anywhere. He mentioned how amazed he was during his 2014 World Tour that he was able to do 11 separate shows at Target Center. He said the support he's had here in Minnesota has been with him his entire career, and he can't quite explain it, although he was quick to point out that radio stations like Quick Country 96.5 were some of the first to play his music when he was first starting out 30 years ago.
Garth flew into Minnesota Thursday night, and spent some time with the crew doing what they usually do when they're in Minnesota-- playing some basketball! They also always enjoy dinner at Manny's Steakhouse in Minneapolis. And, on Saturday morning, Garth and his wife, Tricia Yearwood, spent some time at Prince's Paisley Park. (The purple 'G' hat Garth wore during the press conference was in honor of Prince, he said, because he's married to 'the world's biggest Prince fan.')
It was a pretty surreal moment, realizing I was talking one-on-one with the biggest selling artist on the planet-- the same guy I've seen in concert many times and whose songs I've played on the radio countless times. I tried not to be too starstruck, but it was tough to do! Check it out:
Listen to Curt St. John from 6 to 10 a.m. on Quick Country 96.5
and from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. on 103.9 The Doc
Get the Quick Country App for more MN stories + Listen Live!
Source: Garth Brooks Explains How He Connects With Large Audiences + How Much He LOVES Minnesota
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The Histadrut: Its History and Role in Occupation, Colonisation and Apartheid (Trade Union Friends of Palestine)
Posted on October 11, 2012 | Comments Off on The Histadrut: Its History and Role in Occupation, Colonisation and Apartheid (Trade Union Friends of Palestine)
TUFP-The-Histadrut-RI-16.6.11
The Histadrut
Its History and Role in Occupation, Colonisation and Apartheid
Trade Union Friends of Palestine
Campaigning in solidarity with the Palestinian People
The Histadrut:
The General Confederation of Labour in the Land of Israel
The Histadrut was founded in December 1920 in British Mandate Palestine. From its inception its aims were neither to build workers’ solidarity nor represent or campaign for workers’ rights; instead it was founded as an exclusively Jewish organisation to facilitate the colonisation of Palestine. As such it worked in tandem with the Jewish Agency to promote the exclusion of Palestinian labour and produce and was at the forefront of the movement to turn Palestine from an Arab country into a Zionist one. Today it continues to work hand in hand with the Israeli government and promotes and defends policies that violate the basic civil, political and human rights of Palestinians.
The Early History of the Histadrut
The Histadrut’s main role during the British Mandate period (1920-1948) was to bring the Jewish work force under its control in order to ensure no solidarity or integration occurred between Palestinian and Jewish workers – a policy it called ‘Labour Zionism.’ Led by David Ben Gurion, the future Israeli Prime Minister and the man responsible for the expulsion of Palestinians in 1948-49, it actively promoted racial discrimination and boycotts. As an organisation it refused to countenance having Palestinians and Jews together in the same union with Ben Gurion railing against “the evil of mixed labour[1].” To this end it actively broke up unions like the Union of Railway, Postal and Telegraph Workers which had a mixed Jewish and Arab Palestinian membership[2] and likewise, as it established its own companies, eventually becoming the second largest employer in the country, it refused to employ non-Jews. Similarly it lobbied the British authorities for separate pay rates for Jews and Arabs[3] and despite excluding Palestinians itself, it did what it could to undermine Palestinian trade unions, ironically lobbying against them on the grounds that they were separatist, exclusionary and against the spirit of workers’ solidarity[4].
Prospective Jewish immigrants were told, “Palestine is a land without a people for a people without a land.”
Bringing western technology immigrants would ‘redeem the land’ and “make the desert bloom.”
Figure 1 Zionist poster from the 1920s encouraging eastern European Jews to come and ‘redeem’ the land.
Similarly when Palestinian workers took industrial action in support of representative national government the Jewish Agency and the Histadrut used the opportunity to fill their places, most famously during the 1936 Jaffa Dockers’ strike when they established Tel Aviv as an alternative port to Jaffa.
Indeed a planned and structured discrimination, similar to that of Apartheid, was all pervasive in the actions of the Histadrut. Leading Labour Zionist, Haim Aslosoroff, suggesting in 1927 that Zionism should emulate South Africa’s colour bar which excluded Black workers from skilled, unionised employment[5].
In addition, coupled with a boycott of Palestinian labour was a boycott of Palestinian produce; David HaCohen, former managing director of the Histadrut construction company Solel Boneh described what this meant:
I had to fight my friends on the issue of Jewish Socialism, to defend the fact that I would not accept Arabs in my trade union, the Histadrut; to defend preaching to housewives that they should not buy at Arab stores; to defend the fact that we stood guard at orchards to prevent Arab workers from getting jobs there… to pour kerosene on Arab tomatoes; to attack Jewish housewives in the market and smash Arab eggs they had bought… to buy dozens of dunums [of land] from an Arab is permitted but to sell God forbid one Jewish dunum to an Arab is prohibited; to take Rothschild, the incarnation of capitalism as a socialist and to name him ‘benefactor’ – to do all that was not easy[6].
Likewise French historian Nathan Weinstock records that a “mere rumour that a café in the exclusively Jewish town of Tel Aviv had taken on a few Arab workers provoked an angry gathering of thousands of demonstrators.” Also “Every member of the Histadrut had to pay two compulsory levies: (1) ‘For Jewish Labour’ – funds for organising pickets, etc. against the employment of Arab workers, and (2) ‘For Jewish Produce’ – for organising the boycott of Arab produce[7].”
“to pour kerosene on Arab tomatoes; to attack Jewish housewives in the market and smash Arab eggs they had bought…”
David HaCohen
Figure 2. Zionist poster from the 1930s encourages immigrants to buy only Jewish produce, (Israel MFA).
All this activity was aimed at creating an exclusively Jewish state and the Histadrut always closely aligned itself with the Jewish Agency, the Jewish National Fund and the Jewish Colonial Agency. It was through the Histadrut that Mapai, the Israeli Labour Party led by Ben Gurion was founded, and indeed also the Haganah, the Jewish paramilitary organisation that became the Israeli Army. Indeed throughout the Mandate era the Histadrut in collaboration with the Jewish Agency actively colluded with Britain to deny Palestinians their right to self-determination, its construction company Solel Boneh building many of the forts and border fences that cemented British colonial rule[8].
Figure 3. British police barracks at Latrun built by the Histadrut during the 1936-39 Arab Revolt for self-determination.
That all these Zionist organisations envisioned the ethnic cleansing of Palestine as a solution to their ‘Arab problem’ is not in doubt; both in their practice and their statements, their aim was always a Palestine with as few Palestinians as possible, as Joseph Weitz, friend of Ben Gurion and head of the Jewish Colonial Agency outlined in 1940:
Among ourselves, it must be clear that there is no place in the country for both peoples together… there is no other way but to transfer the Arabs from here to the neighbouring countries. Transfer all of them, not one village or tribe should remain[9].
Little wonder then that speaking years later Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meir remarked that when she joined the Histadrut Executive Committee in 1928 it “wasn’t just a trade union organisation. It was a great colonising enterprise[10].” Similarly, Ben Gurion paid tribute to its importance when he stated that without the Histadrut, “I doubt whether we would have a state[11].” What this meant for the Palestinians was expulsion, dispossession and exile, something the Histadrut has still to acknowledge any responsibility for.
“The inhabitants of Lydda must be expelled quickly, without attention to age.”
Military order personally approved by Ben Gurion.
Figure 4. David Ben Gurion, General Secretary of the Histadrut, and Golda Meir, Political Officer, both later became Prime Ministers of Israel. Under Ben Gurion’s leadership Palestinians were systematically expelled from the country. Yitzhak Rabin for example recalled that after the capture of Lydda and Ramle, Ben Gurion issued the order to drive out the 50,000 inhabitants[12]. Speaking in 1949 Ben Gurion himself said of the 750,000 Palestinian refugees, “The old will die and the young will forget.” Golda Meir was even more blunt, refusing to recognise the Palestinians as a people, she simply stated in a 1969 interview, “they did not exist.”
The Histadrut after 1948
Once Israel became independent the Histadrut became extremely powerful. Owning some of the biggest companies in Israel it became the country’s largest employer and by 1983 some 85% of Israel’s wage earners were members[13]. Despite this success discrimination against Israel’s Arab citizens remained endemic both within the Histadrut and within the government. Israel’s Arabs, although promised full equality by the Israeli Declaration of Independence, were placed under martial law until 1966 and were only permitted to join the Histadrut in 1959.
However, even following the admission of Arab Israelis the Histadrut has frequently shown an unwillingness to campaign for equal rights in the workplace; a 2009 Knesset parliamentary committee on fair employment, for example, found that although Arab Israelis make up over 20% of the population, only 6% of public sector employees are Arab, and that those who are employed invariably occupy menial positions. What this means for governance and democracy is neatly summarised by Israeli politician Ahmed Tibi: “The absence of Arabs in [senior] roles means they have no say in [government] ministries decision-making processes[14].” Indeed, according to the Association of Civil Rights in Israel, Arab citizens of Israel “have suffered entrenched discrimination since the establishment of the State[15],” a fact that even former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert acknowledged in December 2008: “It is terrible that there is not even one Arab employee [out of 900] at the Bank of Israel[16].”
Sadly this is a discrimination that the Histadrut has not only failed to challenge but has in many cases encouraged. A 1989 report found that Histadrut companies had the worst record of systematically excluding Arab workers[17].
Arab citizens of Israel “have suffered entrenched discrimination since the establishment of the State.”
The Association of Civil Rights in Israel
Figure 5. 1954 Histadrut poster encourages Jewish workers to build up the state. At this time Arab citizens of Israel were not permitted to join the Histadrut.
Despite extensive restructuring in the 1990s leading to the Histadrut selling off many of its companies and renaming itself the New Histadrut, there has been no change in its attitude towards defending Arab workers. Recently the Histadrut has failed to speak out when an Arab hotel manager was fired when he refused to forbid his Arab co-workers from speaking Arabic (2003); or intervene when McDonald’s Israel banned its employees from speaking Arabic (2004), or when Arab employees at a building site had their helmets marked with a red X to facilitate assassination in case of emergency (2004)[18]. Indeed, in 2009 when Israeli Railways sacked 150 Arab workers because they had not served in the army the Histadrut was again silent, leaving Wahbe Badarne, director of Labourer’s Voice to comment: “Unusually for a trade union, poor workers, and that means, overwhelmingly, Arab workers, are simply not on the Histadrut’s agenda. It is there to protect the jobs and good salaries of workers in the large state corporations and government offices[19].”
Unsurprisingly then whilst the Israeli NGO, the Adva Centre for Information on Equality and Social Justice in Israel, lists 14 organisations that advocate for Israeli Arab employment rights, the list does not include the Histadrut[20].
Significantly however, the Histadrut’s discrimination against Arab citizens of Israel extends beyond the economic sphere and has also been evident in colluding with the state to deny them their political rights. For example, in 1976 when Palestinian citizens for the first time protested the confiscation of their lands by calling a strike (Land Day), a day incidentally during which the Israeli police force shot dead six protestors, the Histadrut actively campaigned against the strike. The local media reported it planned to take reprisal measures and dismiss workers who participated in the strike, whilst a leaflet distributed amongst Arab workers warned them against absence on the day of the strike, stating absent workers would not be given trade union protection by the Histadrut[21]. Similarly, despite a spate of new racist legislation discriminating against Israel’s Arab citizens being passed in the Knesset (The Reception Committee Law, The Citizenship Law and the Nakba Law, all 2011), the Histadrut has been conspicuous by its silence; though, given the Histadrut’s record both with regard to Palestinian rights, and its earlier sustained support for South Africa’s Apartheid regime, this is only to be expected[22].
The Histadrut and the Occupied Palestinian Territories
Since June 1967 Israel has occupied the Palestinian Territories of the West Bank, the Gaza Strip and East Jerusalem. Throughout that time hundreds of thousands of Palestinians have worked for Israeli employers both inside Israel and in industrial zones and settlements in the Territories. Many have been employed in appalling conditions with no security of tenure, a lack of health and safety protection and no minimum wage[23]; emblematic of their status in Israeli society is that the places where Palestinian day labourers gather to be hired are openly referred to as “slave markets.[24]”
Figure 6. Lucky Palestinian workers with permits queue at the Bethlehem checkpoint to enter their capital city. Queues begin as early as 2am even though the checkpoint does not open until 5am. Well over 90% of Palestinians are illegally denied access to their capital city, East Jerusalem.
Palestinian workers inside Israel are denied the right to be represented by Palestinian unions and have never enjoyed the protection of the Histadrut, membership being denied to them[25] even though a condition of their employment has been the payment of 1% of their wages to the Histadrut as “an organising fee[26].” Describing the situation, Manawel Issa Abdellal of the Palestinian General Federation of Trade Unions stated, “The Histadrut has failed to represent any Palestinian workers inside Israel and the PGFTU is forbidden from defending Arab workers in such areas. It is very painful. We can see, witness, and hear of Israeli brutal exploitation of Arab workers, but we cannot do anything… It can only remind us of the Cantons of the Apartheid State of South Africa[27].”
Nevertheless, in 2008, most likely in an attempt to blunt the growing Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions Campaign, the Histadrut did agree to return a percentage of the money it had illegally taken as organising fees to the Palestinian General Federation of Trade Unions (PGFTU). Something which is today trumpeted by the Histadrut and Trade Union Friends of Israel as a landmark agreement but which leaves around $30 million unaccounted for[28].
In addition since the 1990s the Israeli government has imposed a further 2% levy on construction workers to promote the training of recent Russian Jewish immigrants; a situation that Jerusalem based economist Shir Hever has stated means in effect that Palestinian labourers are required to “subsidise the training of workers meant to replace them[29].” Sadly, Hever further comments that the Histadrut has not only failed to challenge this discrimination but has in fact endorsed it[30].
Worse still Hever’s 2009 report, “State Robbery,” found the Histadrut to be complicit in the Israeli government policy of deducting approximately a fifth of Palestinian workers’ wages supposedly as contributions towards welfare benefits, benefits which are for the most part denied to Palestinian workers. The report finding that only around 8% of the money deducted was actually used to benefit Palestinian workers, whilst around 90% was passed to the Israeli Finance Ministry where it has been used to fund infrastructure projects, including illegal West Bank settlements[31]. As Shir Hever states, “This is a clear-cut case of theft from Palestinian workers on a grand scale… There are no reasons for Israel to delay in returning this money either to the workers or to their beneficiaries.[32]” However, it is a theft the Histadrut choose to be complicit with.
Figure 7. Palestinians at work building the illegal Israeli settlement of Har Homa that separates East Jerusalem from Bethlehem. Unfortunately due to the Israeli occupation these are frequently the only jobs these workers can find; to add insult to injury they are denied union representation despite being made to pay an organising fee to the Histadrut.
Politically and practically the Histadrut has always supported the occupation. Its former construction company, Solel Boneh, built many of the early settlements[33]; the Yashav Bank, which it owns a 25% stake in, operates in occupied East Jerusalem[34]; and Israelis living in the illegal settlements are entitled to Histadrut membership whilst of course their Palestinian neighbours are not.
Politically Histadrut claims to be in favour of a two state solution yet it recognises Israel’s illegal annexation of the occupied Golan Heights and East Jerusalem, and despite the growing international consensus that Israel is fully to blame for the collapse of the peace process, the Histadrut chooses instead to place the blame on the Palestinians. In all respects then the Histadrut merely trumpets the views and positions of the Israeli government, which is only natural given its close ties to Israel’s political parties and the Israeli Labour Party in particular[35]. Indeed Histadrut Chairman Ofer Eini stated as recently as March 2011, “I will never attack our prime minister when I’m in another country. That’s my rule. I can only support him[36].”
The Histadrut also supported Israel’s illegal war on Gaza in 2008-2009[37], a war in which 1,385 Palestinians were killed, including 318 children[38], and which saw the large scale commission of war crimes and possible crimes against humanity[39]. Likewise the Histadrut supports the illegal blockade of Gaza, viewing only humanitarian assistance as appropriate[40], and yet this is a blockade that according to the Palestinian Medical Relief Society has caused a malnutrition rate of 52% amongst Palestinian children[41], and which the International Committee of the Red Cross has condemned as an illegal collective punishment[42]. Similarly a Histadrut statement on the Israeli attack on the Gaza Freedom Flotilla makes no mention of the fact that Israel initiated the illegal attack but rather blames the human rights activists on board for their own killings: “the conduct of the flotilla organizers, through the rejection of the Israeli proposal, was to attain provocation to strengthen Hamas, agitate the real peace efforts in the region and create an incident which now threatens to unravel the delicate diplomacy…[43]”
Despite supporting the Israeli attack on Gaza and the ongoing blockade, Histadrut claims it “will not cease its efforts to promote peace and mutual understanding…”
Figure 8. Women sit amongst the wreckage of their destroyed homes in Gaza in the aftermath of Israel’s 2008-09 assault, an assault the Histadrut supported, as indeed it still supports the illegal blockade of the territory.
Finally, the Histadrut is at the forefront of trying to blunt the growing Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement. Whilst the Histadrut attempts to present itself as a supporter of the peace process, co-existence and cooperation, it continually fails to acknowledge that there can be no respect or reconciliation whilst one people dominates, rules over and exploits another people. Unfortunately the Histadrut is not only part of this process of domination but has utilised its supposedly left wing credentials to pose as the acceptable face of the Israeli occupation. To this end it has misrepresented the position of the Palestinian General Federation of Trade Unions, claiming it does not support the Boycott movement[44] when in fact it has continually reiterated its call for a boycott of Israel until it abides by international law and human rights standards[45]. The PGFTU was in fact particularly scathing of the Histadrut’s attempt to use its name to whitewash Israel’s crimes, stating clearly as regards the blockade of Gaza and the killings of the Freedom Flotilla activists:
Instead of denouncing the killing of the civilians on the Flotilla, and demanding an end to the military blockade imposed for more than three years on Gaza, the Histadrut exploits a union to union cooperation [agreement] to handle industrial complaints for Palestinian workers as a cover to escape from the ethical responsibility as free, independent trade unions, to condemn the crime which was strongly denounced by all freedom lovers around the world.[46]
In 2009 the Director General of the International Labour Organisation, Juan Somavia stated:
In the face of economic and social hardship, Palestinians nurture noble aspirations, as my representatives have again found. The large majority want to get on, in peace, with plans for their own future, their children and their statehood. These aspirations are constantly challenged by today’s grim prospects, which leave little room for hope. Yet hope is vital to counter extreme alternatives that hold no future[47].
The issue then for trade unionists is whether continued engagement with the Histadrut can be considered as a positive dialogue that contributes to the achievement of legitimate Palestinian aspirations, or whether in actual fact such a dialogue merely reinforces Israel’s colonial occupation.
One answer was perhaps suggested by UNISON Scottish Regional Delegate, Mike Kirby, who in 2009 reluctantly felt the need to call for a review of his union’s relationship with the Histadrut:
Conference, I believe in dialogue with all parties. History in Northern Ireland illustrates the necessity. The potential for capacity building and joint vocational training with PGFTU and Histadrut is inspiring. However, when Histadrut condones the excess of ‘Operation Cast Lead” in Gaza, when Histradut is accused of organising in the illegal settlements, we must review our relations and contracts[48].
Given the history of Histadrut’s collusion in and profit from the occupation of Palestinian territory, including its support for racial discrimination and colonization, its refusal to defend the rights of Palestinian workers and to oppose the ongoing daily repression of the Palestinian people, it is not surprising that sections of the international trade union movement, including the British TUC and the Scottish TUC, are either severing or reviewing their relationship with this organisation. In the words of a 2007 Palestinian Labour Coalition:
Since its inception, the Histadrut has supported the occupation and enacted racist policies against our workers, denying them their rights. It has kept silent in front of Israel’s crimes against our people throughout the decades of occupation. We are thus asking the international trade unions to boycott the Histadrut to pressure it to guarantee rights for our workers and to pressure the government to end the occupation and to recognise the full rights of the Palestinian people[49].
Trade Union Friends of Palestine, May 2011
c/o ICTU
4-6 Donegall Street Place, Belfast, BT1 2FN
Contact: eamonmcmahon@hotmail.co.uk
[1] David Ben Gurion, Rebirth and the Destiny of Israel, Philosophical Library, 1954, p. 74.
[2] Sawt el-Amel citing Zachary Lockman, Comrades and Enemies: Arab and Jewish Workers in Palestine, 1906-1948, University of California Press, 1996.
[3] Gabriel Piterberg, The Returns of Zionism, Verso, 2008, p. 77.
[5] Zachary Lockman, Comrades and Enemies: Arab and Jewish Workers in Palestine, 1906-1948, University of California Press, 1996.
[6] David Hirst, The Gun and the Olive Branch, Nation Books, 2003, second edition, p. 185, citing Haaretz, 15 November 1969.
[7] Nathan Weinstock, Zionism: False Messiah, Ink Links Ltd, 1979, p. 184.
[8] Tom Segev, One Palestine Complete: Jews and Arabs under the British Mandate, (2000), p. 417.
[9] Uri Davis, Apartheid Israel: Possibilities for the Struggle Within, London, Zed Books, 2004, p. 20.
[10] The Observer, 24 January 1971, quoted by Uri Davis, Utopia Incorporated, Zed Press, p. 142.
[11] Moed, Histadrut Department of Culture and Education, 1963, p. 3, quoted by Arie Bober (ed.), The Other Israel: The Radical Case Against Zionism, p. 125.
[12] Cited in Martin Gilbert, Israel: A History, (1998), p. 218.
[13] The Jerusalem Post, http://newstopics.jpost.com/topic/Histadrut 7 April 2011.
[14] Ahmed Tibi quoted by Jonathan Cook, Arab Israeli Barred From Public Sector Employment,http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=19277, 30 December 2010.
[15] http://www.acri.org.il/eng/story.aspx?id=695, 30 December 2010.
[16] Ha’aretz, “Olmert decries ‘deliberate and insufferable discrimination’ against Arabs,” 11 December 2008,http://www.haaretz.com/news/olmert-decries-deliberate-and-insuffera…
[17] Ahmad H. Sa‘di, “Incorporation without integration: Palestinian citizens in Israel‘s labour market,” ‖ History of the Human Sciences, August 1995.
[18] Sawt el-Amel, Comrades and Enemies: Arab and Jewish Workers in Palestine, 1906-1948, University of California Press, 1996, p. 21.
[19] Wahbe Badarne quoted in Jonathan Cook, Israel Railways accused of Racism over sacked Arab Workers, http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=13074, 30 December 2010.
[20] Adva Center: Information on Equality and Social Justice in Israel, Non-Discriminatory Hiring Practices in Israel towards Arab Citizens, Ethiopian Israelis and new immigrants from Bukhara and the Caucasus, (November 2008), http://www.adva.org/uploaded/Affirmative%20Action%20in%20Israel%20i…
[21] “Position Paper: Sawt el-Amel’s Assessment of the Histadrut,”http://www.socialistproject.ca/inthenews/Histadrut_English.pdf 8 April 2011.
[22] For information on the Histadrut’s support for South African Apartheid see, “Briefing: Labour Zionism and the Histadrut,” the International Jewish anti-Zionist Network and Labor for Palestine (US), 13 April 2010,http://www.laborforpalestine.net/wp/wp-content/uploads/2010/06/Hist…
[23] For information on conditions of employment in settlements see, International Labour Office, The situation of workers of the Occupied Arab Territories, 2009, http://www.ilo.org/wcmsp5/groups/public/—ed_norm/—relconf/docum…
[24] David Hirst, The Gun and the Olive Branch, Nation Books, 2003, second edition, p. 146.
[25] Palestinian Workers Rights: A report commissioned by the Palestinian Human Rights Monitoring Group, May 2010, p. 26, http://www.phrmg.org/Palestinian%20worker%20rights.pdf
[26] Arab American Union Members Council, http://aaumc.org/drupal/node/26 7 April 2011.
[28] Jonathan Cook, “Israel Stole $2 Billion from Palestinian Workers,” The Electronic Intifada, 4 February 2010,http://electronicintifada.net/content/report-israel-stole-2-billion…
[33] http://www.whoprofits.org/Company%20Info.php?id=545 and Tony Greenstein, “Histadrut: Israel’s Racist ‘Trade Union,’ published Electronic Intifada, 9 March 2009, http://electronicintifada.net/content/histadrut-israels-racist-trad…
[34] http://www.whoprofits.org/Company%20Info.php?id=889
[35] See Report of the UNISON delegation to Palestine and Israel, 27 November – 3 December 2010, “Hussain Al-Foqaa, the President of the PGFTU Public Services Federation said in our meeting with him that the Histadrut had failed to make a significant statement on the peace process. He criticised the Histadrut for only wanting to talk about trade union issues and not taking a leading role in supporting the peace process. Such a position was untenable in the context of the Israeli Occupation. Shaher Sa’ed also criticised the Histadrut’s stance. He wondered why the Histadrut could not take a different position from that of the Israeli government and he wanted the Histadrut to take a clear position on the Occupation and the settlements,” http://www.unison.org.uk/file/reportDelegation02010.pdf
[36] “Histadrut Head tells US Jewish Leaders: Don’t Underestimate BDS Movement,” Jerusalem Post 10 March 2011,http://www.jpost.com/International/Article.aspx?id=211524 8 April 2011.
[37] Histadrut Statement on the situation in Southern Israel and Gaza, 13 January 2009,http://www.palestinecampaign.org/files/Histadrut%20Statement%20on%2…, 31 December 2010.
[38] Figures from B’Tselem, The Israeli Human Rights Centre for Information in the Occupied Territories,http://www.btselem.org/English/Gaza_Strip/20091227_A_year_to_Castle…
[39] Report of the United Nations Fact Finding Mission on the Gaza Conflict: Executive Summary,http://www2.ohchr.org/english/bodies/hrcouncil/docs/12session/A-HRC…, 31 December 2010.
[40] Histadrut Statement on Gaza, 10 June 2010.
[41] PMRS: “52% of Gaza Children Suffer from Malnutrition, http://www.imemc.org/article/59031, 30 December 2010.
[42] The International Committee of the Red Cross, Gaza Closure: Not Another Year!, 14 June 2010,http://www.icrc.org/eng/resources/documents/update/palestine-update…, 31 December 2010.
[43] Histadrut Statement Regarding Flotilla Attacks,http://www.tufi.org.uk/news/Flotilla_attacks_Histadrut_Statement.html, 31 December 2010.
[44] Histadrut Resolution: Peace and Co-operation, September 2009,http://www.tufi.org.uk/news/Histadrut%20Resolution%20%20Peace%20and…
[45] PGFTU Statement, 25 November 2009, http://www.bdsmovement.net/2009/a-statement-by-the-palestine-genera…
[46] PGFTU Statement 3 June 2010, http://bandannie.wordpress.com/2010/06/07/pgftu-nablus-vs-histadrut/, 31 December 2010.
[47] International Labour Office, The Situation of Workers of the Occupied Arab Territories, 2009,http://www.ilo.org/wcmsp5/groups/public/—ed_norm/—relconf/docum…
[48] http://www.unison-scotland.org.uk/conf2009/story15.htm
[49] Statement In The Occasion Of The Workers’ Boycott Call,11 February 2007, General Union of Palestinian Workers, Palestinian General Federation of Trade Unions, Coalition of Independent Democratic Trade Unions, General Union of Palestinian of Labour Vocational Associations, Palestinian Farmers Union, 11 February 2007, http://www.stopthewall.org/downloads/pdf/S-F2.pdf
Palestinian Trade Union Coalition for BDS (PTUC-BDS)
Statement of Principles & Call for International Trade Union Support for BDS
Occupied Palestine, 4 May 2011 – In commemoration of the first of May – a day of workers struggle and international solidarity – the first Palestinian trade union conference for boycotts, divestment and sanctions against Israel (BDS) was held in Ramallah on 30 April 2011, organized by almost the entirety of the Palestinian trade union movement, including federations, professional unions, and trade union blocks representing the entire spectrum of Palestinian political parties. The conference marked a historic event: the formation of the Palestinian Trade Union Coalition for BDS (PTUC-BDS) as the largest coalition of the Palestinian trade union movement. PTUC-BDS will provide the most representative Palestinian reference for international trade unions, promoting their support for and endorsement of the BDS Call, launched by Palestinian civil society in 2005, guided by the guidelines and principles adopted by the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions National Committee (BNC), of which PTUC-BDS has become a key component.
The global trade union movement has always played a key and inspiring role in its courageous commitment to human rights and adoption of concrete, ground-breaking, labor-led sanctions against oppressive regimes in a show of solidarity with oppressed peoples around the world. The trade union boycott of apartheid South Africa stands out as a bright example of this tradition of effective solidarity. Trade unions today are taking the lead in defending the Palestinian people’s right to self-determination, justice, freedom, equality and the right of return of our refugees as stipulated in United Nations General Assembly Resolution 194. Many of them have heeded the call from Palestinian civil society, and its labor movement in particular, to adopt BDS as the most effective form of solidarity with the Palestinians in our struggle to end Israeli occupation and apartheid.
The Conference decisively condemned the Histadrut and called on international trade unions to sever all links with it due to its historic and current complicity in Israel’s violations of international law and Palestinian rights. The Histadrut has always played a key role in perpetuating Israel’s occupation, colonization and system of racial discrimination by:
Publicly supporting Israel’s violations of the Fourth Geneva Convention and other tenets of international law
Maintaining active commercial interests in Israel’s illegal settlement enterprise
Allowing Jewish settlers in the occupied West Bank to join the organization
Supporting Israel’s war of aggression on besieged Gaza in 2008/9; it has later justified Israel’s massacre of humanitarian relief workers and activists aboard the Freedom Flotilla on 31 May 2010
Illegally withholding over NIS 8.3 billion (approximately $2.43bn) over decades of occupation from wages earned by Palestinian workers from the Occupied Palestinian Territory, deducted for ‘social and other trade union benefits’ that Palestinian laborers from the OPT have never received.
Recalling the trade union maxim “an injury to one is an injury to all”, and given the global trade union movement’s historic role in effective international solidarity with oppressed peoples around the world, PTUC-BDS:
Calls on trade unions around the world to review and sever all ties with the Histadrut.
Such non-violent measures of accountability must continue until Israel fulfils its obligations under international law in acknowledging the Palestinian people’s inalienable right to self-determination, and fully complies with international law.
Briefing paper written by Richard Irvine
Cover Image:
Palestinian workers queue at Gilo Checkpoint separating East Jerusalem from Bethlehem.
Back Image:
Palestinian workers queue at 4 am, Qalqilya checkpoint, West Bank © Richard Wainwright, 2010.
Comments Off on The Histadrut: Its History and Role in Occupation, Colonisation and Apartheid (Trade Union Friends of Palestine)
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Category Archives: Palestine New Federation of Trade Unions
The announcement of the establishment of the new Palestinian trade Unions
View in PDF format: The announcement of the establishment of the new Palestinian trade Unions
On Saturday, 19.03.2016 it was announced the establishment of the new Palestinian trade unions in Ramallah by the presence of Mr. Nasser Kitami, Undersecretary of the Palestinian Ministry of Labor and Bassam Salhi, secretary-general of the Palestinian People’s Party and Omar Shehadeh, leader of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine and representatives for the Palestine Committee Trade Union Section Norway, and with the participation of representatives of civil society organizations, trade unionists and a large representatives from the members of the New Unions.
Mohammad Jawabrah opened the trade union congress and he announced the birth of the organization of new Palestinian trade union that its responsibility is to defend the rights of the Palestinian people to live in justice, democracy society in order to get the freedom. Mr. Nasser Kitami, undersecretary of the Palestinian Ministry of Labor congratulated the participants because of their success conference and he wished to them the success and he expressed the readiness of the Ministry of Labour for cooperation in all areas of trade union work and social partnership that providing the possibilities for the success of trade union work enable them to defend workers’ rights. He emphasized on the importance of trade union pluralism in the work in order to support the national and social project and support our Palestinian people.
Bassam Salhi, secretary-general of the Palestinian People’s Party emphasized on the development and support of the union work to strengthen its role in defending of the interests of workers and to improve their living conditions and the achievement the social justice. He also talked about the trade union pluralism which does not contradict with the unity of the union work.
Salhi talked about the Struggle experience for the teachers and he called for learning from this experience and the importance of equal the rights between all professional sectors.
Omar Shehadeh, leader of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine conveying the greetings of Secretary General Ahmad Saadat and his deputy, Abu Ahmed Fouad to conferences and he support this Union in the hope that defending the rights of Palestinian workers and to promote the international solidarity with the Palestinian people.
Shehadeh emphasized on the importance of the Palestinian uprising and its goal and it still until the end of occupation and settlement and he praised on the movement of the teachers, and they should take all their rights in all the fields.
From the Palestine Committee of Norway, and trade unions in Norway, Mr. Thomas emphasized on his support to NU and support the struggle of the Palestinian people through resistance to the occupation and the settlements, and the parole of breaking connections with Histadrut in the Norwegian trade unions.
From the old unionists, Adnan Dagher talked about his experience of struggle and the trade union and the role that played by the trade union movement in the national and social field, and he called the members of NU to learn and rework union work to achieve the rights of the workers.
Finally Mohammad Bladi, the President of the Constituent Committee of the NU thanked the audience and the participants and all those who provided support to NU until this conference.
Thomas greeting the Congress on behalf of the Norwegians
Bladi talked about the stages of the establishment by adopting the workers’ issues who abandoned them by frameworks Official unions, which pushed for the need to build a new trade union organization depends on associative class, voluntary, democracy and independence and enable the workers to struggle in order to stop the violation of their dignity and disregard their rights and stop rebates unwarranted for those who working in Israel and retrieve the organize fees that are shared between the Histadrut and the number of trade unions, Bladi emphasized that they want unions that can struggle in order to apply the labor law and the minimum wage and the reduction of fatal work injuries and the creation of a labor court and social security should be fair and just.
After the end of the party opening, the conference started working through the verification of the quorum law of the Conference, which was attended by a large number of its members, and there was serious discussions about the rules of procedure for the union which was approved unanimously.
Last was elected the union council, consisting of 31 members of the Federation, who elected an executive committee composed of 17 members who are:-
1. Fadwa Qasmia
2. Nahla Othman
3. Wafaa Nassif
4. Salwa Odeh
5. Ali Rezqallah
6. Faed Ibdah
7. Zahi Zalmout
8. Fahd Mulaitat
9. Mohammed Wajih
10. Jaber Tmezi
11. Mustafa Shata
12. Rebhi Bakr
13. Hussein Barghouti
14. Jamal Juma
15. Mahmoud Abdel Razek Mohsen
16. Mohammad Bladi
17. Mohammad Jawabra
With our best regards Mohammad Blidi NU
Workmates International invitation
trade-union-solidarity-but-how
Trade Union Call
Posted in Palestine Legal, Palestine New Federation of Trade Unions
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Iconic North Yorks deli up for sale
Hunters of Helmsley: Grade II listed shop in a popular tourist town
One of Britain’s best-loved traditional market-town delis, Hunters of Helmsley, has gone up for sale with a £550k price tag.
The award-winning shop has been operating from its current premises in the picturesque North Yorkshire town of Helmsley for more than 25 years, and has been owned since 2008 by Chris and Christine Garnett.
Operating over two floors of a handsome Grade II listed stone building with a prominent spot in the popular tourist town, it now averages £21,000 sales a week, with annual net profit just shy of £100k.
Christine Garnett told FFD: “Chris is 62, I’m approaching 60 and we recently became grandparents, so we decided it was time to hang up our aprons.”
Hunters offers a classic combination of fresh meats, cheeses, salads and sandwiches from its ground floor deli and premium ambient groceries and gifts upstairs.
While the ambient range had been “decluttered” in recent years, Garnett said the deli’s old-school charm had been maintained. “We are still fairly traditional, which people seem to love judging by the daily comments we get in store.”
At the same time, the owners have been smart in their use of social media and PR to raise the profile of Hunters well beyond the North Yorkshire National Park.
Garnett added: “I’m sure a fresh pair of eyes will see new opportunities. I certainly can, and would implement them if I were 10 years younger.”
Hunters has won many plaudits under its current ownership. It was named independent food retailer of the year in the 2015 Yorkshire Life Food & Drink Awards, and in the same year won the national Best Small Shops competition run by the All-Party Parliamentary Small Shops Group.
Now run largely by its staff of seven full-timers and two part-timers, last year it was a regional finalist in the Guild of Fine Food’s Shop of the Year competition.
Garnett said the store’s eventual new owners should focus on keeping customer service “second to none”, listen carefully to the needs of locals, and not over-modernise the range. She advised: “Keep up with trends, but focus on local, particularly on the fresh deli.”
Hunters is being sold through Leeds-based business agent Ernest Wilson.
huntersofhelmsley.com
ernest-wilson.co.uk
Mick Whitworth
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Last of K Street’s great mansions is threatened
HistoryBy John DeFerrari (Guest Contributor) May 12, 2012 77
Photo by the author.
On the northeast corner of 11th and K Streets NW stands the last dilapidated vestiges of what K Street was once all about—large, elegant Victorian mansions that were the homes of the city’s most powerful and influential citizens. For the last 7 years, the mansion at 1017 K has been quietly crumbling behind the humiliating wrap of a massive fabric billboard.
It’s a mystery why the city allowed such an obnoxious misuse of the structure, but saner actions have been taken more recently. According to Washington City Paper‘s Lydia DePillis, after she contacted the DC Department of Consumer and Regulatory Affairs in March, the city raised the tax rate on the property in consideration of its blighted condition.
Rather than undertaking repairs that would remove it from blighted status, owner Douglas Development Corporation recently filed for a raze permit.
The building’s interior is apparently in poor condition, having been neglected for many years, and some floors are reported to be partially collapsed. Reclaiming it won’t be easy. Yet however much the structure has suffered, we owe it to ourselves to save this fine old mansion.
It seems odd to encounter a residential building like this on K Street, the avenue of “trophy” office buildings, and it’s even odder that the building has languished for so long. Many see it every day and wish that it would be restored after such profound neglect. Its woes have been written up on Peter Sefton’s engaging Victorian Secrets web site and noted in blogs such The Other 35 Percent.
Many were shocked to learn of the recent plans to tear it down. After the filing of the raze permit was first publicized on the H-DC History Net, local blogs quickly reported the alarming news, including The Location, Prince of Petworth, and the City Paper.
But the house is not yet doomed. The DC Preservation League filed an historic landmark nomination for the property in 2008, and thus the city’s Historic Preservation Review Board will be required to review the case before a raze permit can be issued. If the property is designated a landmark, the raze permit will be denied, although the owner will still have the right to appeal the decision.
Detail of the adjoining townhouse, included in the historic landmark nomination. photo by the author).
Architectural historian James Goode has called K Street between 9th and 20th streets the “Park Avenue of Washington” in the late 19th century because of its distinguished mansions and their prominent owners. “In the 80’s and 90s K street was the most exclusive residential section of Washington and the center of social life of the city,” wrote The Washington Post in 1929. “In those days all entertaining was at home and diplomats from foreign countries mingled with Government officials, statesmen, and ranking Army and Navy officers in the big, handsome houses set far back, fronted with deep lawns, hedges and trees, that lined the street.”
Among the most opulent were the Childs House at 1527 K, built by a wealthy Philadelphia widow in 1894. Designed purely for socializing, the mansion was in the French Renaissance style of Parisian townhouses. Nearby, wealthy Senator Stephen Elkins (1841-1911) built a massive Georgian Revival house at 1626 K in 1892. Elkins had made millions from land speculation in the west and mining in West Virginia. The mansion’s ballroom could accomodate 200 guests, was approached by a grand walnut staircase, and was decorated with gilt Louis XV furniture.
The fine house at the corner of 11th and K was not at the center of K Street’s gilded age excesses (which is one reason it has survived), but it has many of the key elements of the street’s lost residential format, including a spacious front lawn, officially called “parking” because it was reserved by city regulation for park-like features.
The distinguished building and adjoining structures were constructed in 1878 in the then-prevailing Second-Empire style by successful Washington builder Michael Talty (1812-1890), an Irish immigrant. An early resident of the house was William H. Burr (1819-1908), a former Senate stenographer who had become a well-known proponent of philosophical skepticism.
Peter Sefton has called Burr “one of Washington’s most notorious curmudgeons, iconoclasts, and disturbers of the cultural status quo.” After raising eyebrows with such incendiary tracts as Self-Contradictions of the Bible (1860) and Revelations of Antichrist (1879), Burr settled in at 1017 K as a kind of genteel retirement home in his later life.
Col. Harrison Allen during the Civil War. Image from the Library of Congress).
Another well-known resident was General Harrison Allen (1835-1904), who came to Washington in 1901 to be second deputy auditor of the Post Office department. During the Civil War, Allen had been commander of the 151st Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry, which he led at the Battles of Fredericksburg and Chancellorsville.
During an artillery bombardment shortly before Chancellorsville, a shell passed only a few feet over his head. Just before the Battle of Gettysburg, Allen was given leave, causing him to miss most of that big event. He was nevertheless retroactively promoted to Brigadier General in 1865 for “faithful and meritorious services.”
After the war Allen entered politics, serving as a delegate to the 1868 Republican Convention, as state senator, and as Pennsylvania’s auditor general. In 1882 he was appointed United States Marshal for the Dakota Territory, where he pursued stage coach robbers and horse thieves until getting his Washington appointment from President McKinley.
On September 22, 1904, he spent the evening playing cards with his wife and friends in the downstairs parlor at 1017 K and appeared to be in perfect health. However, the next morning he was found dead in his upstairs bedroom, the apparent victim of a heart attack. I’ll leave it to others to speculate whether his ghost still haunts the old house.
After Allen’s death, the inexorable process of change for 1017 K—and all of downtown Washington—slowly took shape. The wealthy began moving to the trendier, northwestern “suburban” neighborhoods of Dupont Circle and Kalorama and ultimately out of the city altogether. Many of the large buildings they left behind were subdivided for boarders or converted for commercial uses before eventually being torn down.
A photo from the Library of Congress of a K Street row near 14th Street, circa 1915, shows the transition taking place: A large Department of Justice building rises between two elegant Second Empire houses, looking ready to push them out. They’d all be gone before long.
Department of Justice Building on K Street c. 1915. Im agefrom the Library of Congress.
The mansion at 1017 K had a notable second life when it became the headquarters of the DC Statehood Party, organized in 1969. As described by Cultural Tourism DC, the DC Statehood Party gained prominence in 1971 when Julius Hobson (1919-1977), a noted civil rights activist, ran for the non-voting delegate seat in Congress now held by Eleanor Holmes Norton.
Hobson was a civil rights pioneer who between 1960 and 1964 had led more than 80 pickets of downtown retail stores, successfully gaining jobs for thousands of African-Americans who had previously been barred from or severely limited in working at these establishments. Hobson’s campaign for delegate, though unsuccessful, raised the profile of the Statehood Party and helped establish it as a viable third party in the District. The party continues to this day as the DC Statehood Green Party.
It’s been many years now since 1017 K has been occupied by the Statehood Party or any other organization, despite its unique status as the last of its breed. Striking parallels can be drawn with a legendary historic preservation case from the past, the Rhodes Tavern at 15th and F Streets NW. In the late 1970s and early 1980s an extraordinary effort was mounted by concerned local preservationists to save the tavern, which had been built in 1801 and was a polling place in the first DC municipal elections held in 1802.
There were many very good reasons to save that rare building, but one of the most compelling was that it was one of the last reminders we had left of the type of building that used to line Washington’s central business district in the the city’s earliest days. As Nelson Rimensnyder has pointed out, Washington’s first building regulations, decreed by George Washington himself in 1791, specified that “the wall of no house be higher than forty feet to the roof” and that “the outer and party walls of all houses…be of brick or stone.” The result was uniform rows of simple but elegant Federal-style townhouses along the city’s few main thoroughfares, including Pennsylvania Avenue and F Street.
The strategically located Rhodes Tavern, a prominent example of this type, witnessed every Presidential inauguration from Thomas Jefferson to Ronald Reagan. It was devastating when the fight to save the humble building ended in 1984 with its complete destruction. Not only was this particular jewel of early Washington gone, but all traces of the original building type specified by George Washington were lost forever from the inaugural parade route.
Rhodes Tavern before its destruction. Image from the Library of Congress).
The K Street mansions of the late 19th century were another major defining element of the city’s built environment that are now—almost—all gone. If 1017 K is torn down, we will have no reference point left on K Street to recall this part of our shared past. There will be nothing but office boxes, and we’ll never be able to undo the loss of this last reminder of the genteel residences that once lined this busy office canyon.
Cross-posted at Streets Of Washington.
Tagged: dc, downtown dc, historic preservation, history, preservation
John DeFerrari is a native Washingtonian with a lifelong passion for local history and writes about it for his blog, Streets Of Washington. His latest book about DC history is Capital Streetcars: Early Mass Transit in Washington, DC. John is also a trustee of the DC Preservation League. The views expressed here are his own.
What Metrorail station is between Gallery Place and L'Enfant Plaza on the Yellow or Green Line? Feel free to ignore station subtitles.
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Pictured at Psychiatry Visiting Day, from left: Nhi-Ha T. Trinh, MD, MPH, Anne D. Emmerich, MD, Alex S. Keuroghlian, MD, MPH, and Aude Henin, PhD.
Clinicians at the Massachusetts General Hospital Department of Psychiatry Visiting Day underscored the need for ongoing support of LGBTQ individuals.
Published 3 weeks ago by Mary Hurley in Health Policy, Patient Care, Psychiatry
The earlier the better: LGBTQ individuals who “come out” earlier rather than later in life have lower rates of depression, anxiety, and substance misuse, Alex S. Keuroghlian, MD, MPH, told an audience gathered at the eighth annual Massachusetts General Hospital Department of Psychiatry Visiting Day on June 3, 2019.
Dr. Keuroghlian, director of the Gender Identity Program at Mass General, was one of three clinicians who spoke on the topic, “Understanding and Caring for the Mental Health of LGBTQ Individuals.” He was joined by Nhi-Ha Trinh, MD, MPH, director of the Mass General Department of Psychiatry Center for Diversity and director of clinical services and multicultural studies at the Depression Clinical and Research Program, and Aude Henin, PhD, co-director of the Child Behavior Program in the Mass General Department of Psychiatry.
The rate of suicide attempts is four times greater for LGBTQ youth than it is for heterosexual youth.
Visiting Day was held at the Harvard Club of Boston, and was sponsored by the Leadership Council for Psychiatry. The council is made up of individuals and families dedicated to reducing the stigma of mental illness, increasing awareness and advancing the research and clinical care of the Department of Psychiatry. Mass General President Peter Slavin, MD, and Chief of Psychiatry Jerrold Rosenbaum, MD, delivered opening remarks. The keynote speaker was Roy Perlis, MD, director of the Center for Quantitative Health.
LGBTQ and Mental Health
Drs. Keuroghlian, Trinh and Henin described mental health challenges faced by the LGBTQ population:
LGBTQ teens experience significantly more symptoms of depression than their heterosexual peers
The rate of suicide attempts is four times greater for LGBTQ youth than it is for heterosexual youth
LGBTQ adults have more than twice as great a risk of suicide attempts compared to other adults
Among transgender adults, the lifetime prevalence of suicide attempts is 40% – the highest of any population in the U.S.
Nearly half of all individuals who identify as transgender experience depression and anxiety, compared to 6.7% and 18% of the general U.S. population, respectively
All risk factors for mental health issues in the LGBTQ population stem from what Dr. Trinh described as “the stress created by living as a stigmatized minority.”
Caring for the Transgender Population
Regarding the transgender population, Dr. Keuroghlian cited a recent study of 200 individuals in Massachusetts. It found that transgender adults who had early access to gender affirming hormone therapy and surgery were more likely to enjoy good mental health and higher socioeconomic status. “People are able to live their authentic selves earlier,” he said.
Read more about Mass General’s efforts on LGBTQ issues:
• Psychiatrist Works to Advance LGBT Health Care
• Mass General Works to Expand Transgender Care
• Bullying Can Affect LGBT Students into Adulthood
Early treatment is now available to go so far as “blocking” puberty, to give kids ages 9-15 a few years to decide which gender is for them, the clinicians noted. The American Academy of Pediatrics recently changed its guidelines for assessing and supporting children who identify as transgender. Previous guidelines took children’s ages into account and the practice of “watchful waiting” discouraged decisions about gender until children entered puberty, or later. The new guidelines suggest that a child who wishes to socially transition should be supported at any age, and to medically transition as developmentally appropriate.
“This was revolutionary and very important,” said Dr. Henin, who also acknowledged that “the safety risks are very real,” for transgender youth. Of transgender youth, 83% report bullying, with 55% reporting having been physically attacked.
Supportive families have a profound effect on the well-being of transgender youth, the presenters said, emphasizing that medical professionals have a critical role to play in helping families support their children.
Advocacy, Support at Mass General
“It really behooves us to advocate and fight for this community, so that they can feel safe.”
The clinician’s role is key, Dr. Trinh said, who advocates for “cultural humility,” which considers the full range of a patient’s personal and cultural identity. “As a clinician, I’m sitting here with an individual and I need to look at that person and think, ‘how am I going to understand them?’”
Mass General has launched initiatives in this area. “It’s been a very special year for us at Mass General,” said seminar moderator Anne D. Emmerich, MD, associate director of the Psychiatry Center for Diversity. The new Mass General Transgender Health Program works within the Department of Medicine and across the hospital to provide integrated care for people who are transgender. Meanwhile, the MGH Psychiatry Gender Identity Program has been established by Dr. Keuroghlian.
“It really behooves us to advocate and fight for this community, so that they can feel safe,” Dr. Keuroghlian said. “We are very excited to be generating an army of clinicians who really are affirming and aware of how best to treat LGBTQ folks.”
To learn more about how you can support the Mass General Department of Psychiatry please contact contact us.
Health Policy Advocates on the March for Patients
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Executive Producers
Liner Notes Productions
Welcome to Liner Notes Productions
Liner Notes Productions (LNP) was born in 2016 when the award-winning management and production team from Digital Café Tour joined the owner/creator of Crossroads, a premier New Jersey-based music and comedy venue for more than 20 years.
LNP’s current programs in production are: The Art of Comedy, hosted by actor/comedian, Kevin Pollak (Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, Billions, The Usual Suspects, Casino) and The Art of Music, to be hosted by a name talent actor/musician to be announced.
Our production partner is Academy Award-winning/nominated FilmNation: producers of Late Night, Arrival, The Big Sick, The King's Speech and Greyhound.
LNP's team brings...
30 years of experience producing/executive producing premium entertainment, including television, film and live music.
20 years of representing major recording artists (e.g. Creed), tours, and related transactions and opportunities.
20 years executive producing over 150 live concert and comedy productions at multiple venues.
23 years of owning, operating and booking a national touring destination venue and festival stages.
Produced or music produced multiple EMMY- nominated television shows and web series.
20 years of building branded video and audio content campaigns for major advertisers and agencies, including email list building and international contests.
13 years booking comedy for David Letterman
38 years in music A&R. (U2, Paul McCartney, Stevie Nicks, Cheryl Crow, The Police) THE LIST GOES ON...
30 years of writing and producing successful Indie music catalog: national tours, conventional and digital distribution.
Check out the sizzle reel for The Art of Comedy, hosted by Kevin Pollak.
Clip of Brian Fallon of The Gaslight Anthem recorded live at Crossroads.
© 2019 Liner Notes Productions
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News » Citizen
Hollis Welsh
The new executive director of Boise Philharmonic shares a renewed sense of harmony
It won't be difficult for the Boise Philharmonic to introduce its new executive director to the community. As an actress, Hollis Welsh has performed on stages across the region. She was also one of the co-founders of Alley Repertory Theater, has penned plays and, until very recently, was the interim managing director of Boise Contemporary Theater. Now, she has the corner office at the Boise Philharmonic.
Among the first items that Welsh brought to her new office were photos of her daughters, 5-year-old Ode and 7-year-old Sibelle. She also hung a few pieces of personal art on the walls, but admitted she was only just digging into the files and documents left on her desk by her predecessor. It was only Welsh's third day on the job when she sat down with BW, but she was anxious to talk about getting to know her colleagues; the professional challenges ahead; and how Idaho's largest and oldest performing arts organization honors its history, has a firm foundation in the present and sets its sights on the future, all at once.
Please take this the right way: It was surprising when the Philharmonic announced that you would be its new executive director.
I think you're not alone in that. I was surprised, too, in a wonderful way. I think it was the right fit for the Philharmonic. They wanted someone who has experience running a performing arts organization, but who is also local and knows this community.
Were you ready and looking for a change?
I was the interim director at BCT and they were doing their own search for a new director. So, my feeling was, well, I'm going to do my own search to see what options [are] out there.
When did your search start?
Fairly recently. February.
Wow, that is very recent.
I think my resume came to [the Philharmonic] under the wire. I had a wonderful meeting with the Philharmonic board in early March and the announcement was made March 7.
What did the board say they were looking for?
Outreach. They want help in expanding our audience, to tap into people who have recently moved into town and to tap into a constituent base that maybe we haven't yet appealed to. We have this amazing, wonderful patronage that returns year after year. And beyond these people, we clearly need to continue to grow.
Being from Boise, I'm assuming you knew exactly what they were talking about.
Starting as an artist and becoming an arts administrator, I like to think that I had my finger on the pulse of what draws people to shows, to concerts, to events.
Sometimes you'll draw a new audience with a game-changing event, but sometimes you'll draw a new audience through a slower, more gradual evolution.
I think it's a bit of both.
Speaking of game-changers, when I saw that the Philharmonic would be featuring an evening of Star Wars music, all I could say was, "Just tell me how much and when. I'm there."
What's really thrilling is that we've created a separate Pops series. In the past, our Pops concerts have been part of [our] classical series, but now, we have a separate Pops series.
That's long overdue.
I'm glad to hear you say that. And you can't get much bigger than Star Wars to start this new series off. I think it will help us reach some new people that hadn't thought about the orchestra as something relevant to them before.
Will you always look at what you do through the lens of being an artist, or is it a different lens you're looking through now?
I know what it's like to be an artist, to communicate to an audience. And through our artists, our orchestra, that's how we're communicating with our audience. I know how critical that is. I know that happy artists create really beautiful work. They thrive and help the organization grow, so I'll always be an advocate for artists. That said, I also know how to represent what is being offered to our community and say, "This is why this is valid. This is why this matters to all of us."
These are interesting times for the arts: Congress recently approved funding for the National Endowment for the Arts. But here we are again, with some political leaders, including President Trump, threatening to cut funding to the arts.
We know that kids who study music are better mathematicians, they're more engaged citizens, they're more supportive of a community. It's a fact. And the kids who deserve exposure to the arts have infrequent access. So, we're big advocates of exposing our children to the arts. The Philharmonic has an incredible education wing which I don't think the general public knows too much about. We reach thousands of Idaho children through our Artists in the Classroom and Conductors in the Classroom programs. Then we have programs where we'll bus school kids to the Egyptian Theatre to watch a free concert. I would love to see more children's concerts at some point.
Let's talk about this community's commitment to the arts. We are a fickle lot. We know what we love, and we love what we know.
But one of the great opportunities the Philharmonic has right now is to give our audience what they've come to know and love: music they're familiar with. But then, we can introduce, in little morsels, new music from new artists that will be the canon of classical music 100 years from now. What feels new to us right now won't in 50 years.
Let's say you're at the Saturday market and you meet a young couple or family. What's your pitch to them if they've never attended the Philharmonic before?
Music matters to all of us. There's something that comes alive in us when we hear live music, especially on such a grand scale as the orchestra. It can be quite sweeping, moving and uniting. You can experience the Boise Phil for less than $50 a couple and less than $70 for a family of four. Subscribers save even more.
Boise Philharmonic Orchestra
Pop Goes the Phil
"We already had this wonderful holiday event, always sold out, and we thought, 'Why not build a series around that?'
by George Prentice | Nov 28, 2018
Ballet Idaho/boise Philharmonic
BW Staff Pick: Best New Blood 2018
Ballet Idaho, Boise Philharmonic
by George Prentice | May 30, 2018
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Citizens Expectation For The Next 4 Years
Ray Morphy
It is no longer news that President Muhammadu Buhari has been reelected for second term. Nigerians spoke loud and clear on Saturday, February 23, 2019 when they voted overwhelmingly for his reelection in apparent demonstration that they have approved the job he has been doing in the past four years managing the affairs of the country. With the President’s reelection, the major challenge is to ensure that the administration does not take its eyes off the ball. In the United States where Nigeria borrowed the presidential system of government, second terms used to be time of big ideas, it is also time for complacency if it is not well managed. That is why many second term presidents in the United States used to have low job approval rating.
A key challenge for a second-term President lies in managing the delicate balance between what he wants (his priorities) and what he thinks the public wants (his perceived mandate)—and taking care not to confuse the two. In November, 1984, President Ronald Reagan was reelected in a landslide victory over Walter Mondale, taking forty-nine states and fifty-nine per cent of the popular vote.
The Reagan revolution was powerfully reaffirmed. Soon after, Donald Regan, the new chief of staff, sent word to a small group of trusted friends and Administration officials seeking advice on how Reagan should approach his last four years in office. It was an unusual moment in the history of the Presidency, and the experience of recent incumbents offered no guidance. No President since Dwight D. Eisenhower had served two full terms.
John F. Kennedy was assassinated. Lyndon Johnson, overwhelmed by the war in Vietnam, had declined to run for reelection in 1968. Richard Nixon resigned less than seventeen months into his second term. Gerald Ford (who was never elected) and Jimmy Carter were defeated. Reagan was worried when he won his second term because for a long time before then no American President had won a second term that he could peer review. In Nigeria, President Olusegun Obasanjo had been the only democratically elected President to have completed his second term.
President Shehu Shagari’s second term was cut short. President Goodluck Jonathan was a one-term president. There may not be much that President Muhammadu Buhari can take from Obasanjo’s second term given his abysmal performance and PDP’s not too salutary performance in power, however, we Nigerians can also push some ideas or agenda that would make his second remarkable and enduring.
One of the things that the President should pursue more vigorously is the unity of the country. There is so much mutual suspicion in the country blamed on our fault lines of ethnicity and religion. During the campaigns the singsong of the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) was that “the country has never been more divided.” While the majority of public did not buy into that, since they still reelected the President, there are however a significant number of our citizens who believed that the country is more divided under this administration than any other in our country’s history. The over 10million Nigerians who voted for the PDP presidential candidate may be agreeable to the assertion that the country is now more divided.
That is why forming an inclusive government is imperative in the second term of the President. Despite the fact that the President in his first term appointed ministers from all the states of the federation in line with the constitution of the country, a significant sections of the country still complain of marginalization. Since the second terms are usually time for creating lasting legacy for Presidents, President Buhari should use this period to show that he is the Father of the Nation, and the Unifier-In-Chief of the country.
The President’s infrastructural revolution in the area of road construction, railway development and expansion across the country as well as improvement in power generation and distribution should receive added impetus in this last lap of his administration. No true patriot can deny that too much power concentrated at the centre has hindered the development of the country. Things that should ordinarily be handled by local governments and state governments in other climes are made the responsibility of the federal government.
History and providence has now placed on the laps of the President the opportunity to push for the devolution of powers to the states and local governments. The President has the All Progressives Congress (APC) dominated Senate and House of Representatives to help him achieve this agenda that would make for a smaller federal government and a more empowered states and local governments. The devolution of power to states and local governments will accelerate the development of the country and create healthy competition among the states and local governments. However, even with devolution of powers in place, no meaningful development can take place without an educated population.
That is why it is also urgent that the President pays special attention to the education sector. A survey has shown that the population of out of school children in Nigeria has risen from 10.5 million to 13.2 million. The Demographic Health Survey (DHS) was conducted in 2015 by the United Nations Children Fund (UNICEF) and the Nigerian government. The Executive Secretary of Universal Basic Education (UBEC), Hammid Bobboyi, quoted the findings of the survey at the Northern Nigerian Traditional Rulers Conference on Out-of-School Children pre-conference recently in Abuja. Sadly despite this huge number of out of school children and dilapidated infrastructure in our schools several state governments have failed to pay the counterpart funds to access UBEC funds lying fallow due to the greed and corruption in many states.
That is why this author supports the Federal Government decision to start deducting counterpart funding meant for the development of basic education in the country from source if state governments’ attitude of deliberate refusal to provide counterpart funding for basic education continues. Under the Universal Basic Education Act, state governments are expected to provide 50 percent as matching grant in order to access funds released by the federal government for the development of basic education in their states.
However, the inability of some state governments to meet the matching grant had left huge sums of un-accessed funds with the Universal Basic Education Commission (UBEC). Minister of Education, Adamu Adamu, disclosed this during the ninth edition of the ministerial press briefing on Monday in Abuja. Adamu attributed the inability of some state governments to provide their counterpart fund for basic education on corruption and lack of political will. He explained that this made the federal government to deduct the counterpart fund from the last tranche of the Paris Club refund from all the states that had
not been able to access its funds with UBEC. The new policy of deducting counterpart funds from the source in order to improve basic education is worthy of commendation. If we can get our basic education right, then we will be on our way to improving other levels of the education chain. Space will not allow me to point out many other areas I think the President should focus in his second term. Hopefully we will add more to the list as we head towards the President’s inauguration for second term in May.
–Aluta Contnua!
Tribute To Justice Mamman Nasir
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The intersection of law enforcement (especially police) and public health is manifold, covering the widest range of public health issues; longstanding, with an evolving history of collaborations; critically important, with many issues requiring an intersectoral approach; and inadequately recognised and understood. The LEPH Conferences address these deficiencies and explore the nature of the myriad interactions between police and public health.
Major Conference Themes
Overarching theme
Disparities in Health and Criminal Justice
Health states are intimately related to socioeconomic status, which itself relates to the major direct determinants of health (including access to and quality of health care, social and physical environments, and health behaviors) and further indirect determinants (such as inequality in access to and quality of education, income inequality and occupational environment). Access to justice, and outcomes of involvement with the criminal justice system, are also intimately related to socioeconomic status and class. Both disparities affect the same communities in ways that are inextricably linked. Therefore, both disparities must be addressed jointly.
Health differences adversely affecting socially disadvantaged groups are particularly unacceptable because ill health can be an obstacle to overcoming social disadvantage … It is time to be explicit that the heart of a commitment to addressing health disparities is a commitment to achieving a more just society.
Braveman PA et al. Health Disparities and Health Equity: The Issue Is Justice. Am J Public Health. 2011 Dec; 101(Suppl 1): S149–S155
Global shifts are taking place in the culture and orientation of law enforcement agencies, who have seen their role as purely focused on public safety, specifically crime combat and maintenance of public order, but are increasingly beginning to understand the inextricable links between public safety and public health. In part this has resulted from deliberations about ‘community policing’, ‘problem solving policing’, ‘joined-up policing’ and ‘smart policing’. Being responsive and forward thinking has led police agencies, particularly in the Global North, to consider the range of social and economic issues that underpin insecurity and risk. Police are now engaging as nodal actors in the governance of both public safety and public health; how this is configured varies according to existing resources, skills and network actors.
Substantive themes
Crises & Catastrophes
‘Hidden in Plain Sight’
Vulnerable populations
Wellness & resilience
Corrections – prisons as public health institutions
Emerging themes
Epidemiological Criminology (conceptual development & methodology)
Economics of Policing (empirical research as related to policy making LEPH)
Policing and Public Health education and training agenda
Policing and Public Health technologies
This theme covers a very wide range of types of events in which health authorities and law enforcement must respond in a concerted manner and often in the worst of circumstances: natural disasters, major disease outbreaks and pandemics, mass violence, human-caused disasters, technological disasters and very topically, refugee crises. Adverse health outcomes following these events include injury and death, mental health and physical health problems, drug and alcohol use, increased mental health service demand; community safety is threatened by looting, destruction of property, and theft. Evacuations and food and water relief also call for cooperation and collaboration between health and law enforcement.
Violence causes major public health outcomes including massive health care service utilization with emergency room attendance and hospitalization, ensuing disability, and death. It is impossible to estimate the lifetime health impact of violence, as exposure to violence as a child can increase health risks in later life. Violence is contagious, inter-generationally reproduced, and shows one of the strongest inequalities gradients. By adopting a public health approach violence can be prevented, and a wide range of interventions are available to public health practitioners. Violence prevention is a critical element in tackling other public health issues. There is a strong evidence base behind public health approaches to violence prevention with collaborative multisectoral approaches led by police and public health authorities.
The LEPH conferences have to date focused on domestic and family violence and gender-based violence. With the first appearance of the LEPH conference in the Americas, gun violence becomes a major focus for LEPH2018 – 12 of the top 15 countries ranked in terms of per capita gun deaths are in the Americas.
Bellis M, Karen Hughes, Clare Perkins and Andrew Bennett. Protecting People, Promoting Health. Liverpool: North West Public Health Observatory, 2012
There is a disproportionate involvement of people with serious mental illnesses and in mental health crises in the criminal justice system: 10-30% of all police contacts involve people with mental illnesses, and high proportions of prisoners in all jurisdictions have a mental illness. Mental health related calls can and do results in police or persons with mental illness being seriously or fatally wounded. At the same time, mental health budgets are being cut in many countries, and many low and middle income countries have no or only rudimentary community based mental health services. As mental health services decline, the police role as gatekeepers to both the mental health and criminal justice systems becomes increasingly important; as a result, police see themselves as being relied on as an emergency mental health service. Police perceive mental health related calls as very unpredictable and dangerous, which without adequate training in de-escalation can rapidly escalate to disastrous ends. Police often do not feel adequately trained to effectively respond to mental health crises, see mental health calls as very time-consuming and divert officers from other crime fighting activities, and that mental health providers are not very responsive.
The collaboration of police and mental health service providers has become critical to appropriately serving the needs of individuals experiencing mental health crises and their families and communities.
Watson AC, Fulambarker AJ. The Crisis Intervention Team Model of Police Response to Mental Health Crises: A Primer for Mental Health Practitioners. Best Pract Ment Health. 2012 Dec; 8(2): 71.
Health and criminal justice systems frequently encounter people experiencing communication difficulties. This may occur in a wide range of situations such as when someone goes missing, are victims, witnesses or offenders of crimes. The needs of the individual may be unclear or misunderstood; they may be inappropriately placed and susceptible to repeat harm. Understanding the health/police intersect in support of people experiencing communication problems has become critical in the provision of timely and appropriately risk assessment and safeguarding interventions.
This theme covers a very wide range of events where health services and law enforcement agencies support people, their families and communities at times when communication is challenging. This may include contact with people who have dementia, learning difficulties, epilepsy, autism, neurobiological brain injury such as stroke or head trauma, hearing or sight impairment, or when someone is unresponsive through injury. Research and innovation in this area of health care is emerging, particularly within the field of speech and language therapy, yet there are opportunities to share and develop multi-agency learning and research in this crucial area of practice. In this theme, we encourage presentations from a range of disciplines to support understandings of communication innovations, joint practices and research to reduce barriers to effective communications, and improve health and police responses to those in need of communication support. We are particularly interested in exploring how such learning could be transferable and made available within police and health practice and multi-agency safeguarding to maximise opportunities for appropriate communication interventions.
Providing health services and policing services to Indigenous communities presents unique challenges. Indigenous peoples in Canada, US, Australia and New Zealand face very similar justice and health issues with lower life expectancies, overrepresentation in the courts and corrections and significant health issues, including higher rates of alcohol and other drug use, mental health issues and infectious diseases including HIV. Levels of violence are disproportionately higher among Indigenous people, especially intimate partner violence, and alcohol-related violence is a major health concern. Common contributing factors include denial of land rights, remoteness of communities, cultural differences, unemployment and discrimination, poor access to health and other services, poverty, and homelessness. These issues are generally well researched and well-known, yet they persist. While whole-of-government responses are required to significantly improve these conditions, the police and public health services often struggle to provide services relevant to Indigenous communities. The conference looks to engage with Indigenous leadership to better understand Indigenous concepts of justice, which includes broader social justice, and collaborative approaches to these highly complex issues, with public health and law enforcement working together with communities.
There is a range of areas in which the law enforcement collaboration is important in control and prevention of infectious disease: from enforcement of compulsory vaccination and food hygiene laws and regulations to epidemic responses (e.g. Ebola virus outbreaks). Within this range, the police partnership can be critical when the infections under consideration especially target groups who are stigmatized and marginalized – infections such as HIV and Hepatitis C, tuberculosis and STIs such as syphilis. The police role is often left out of consideration in planning responses and in responding to these endemic infections. This theme seeks to highlight successful collaborations with police in responding to infectious diseases.
Burris, S., Blankenship, K. M., Donoghoe, M., Sherman, et al. (2004), Addressing the “Risk Environment” for Injection Drug Users: The Mysterious Case of the Missing Cop. Milbank Quarterly, 82: 125–156. doi:10.1111/j.0887-378X.2004.00304.x
Vulnerability, just as with human fragility and suffering, is universal. Most police interactions are with people who are vulnerable, and as a consequence, vulnerability is increasingly addressed as a rule rather than as an exception in public health and law enforcement procedures. Positioning vulnerability at the centre of policing and public health aligns with many theoretical and applied considerations of disadvantage and how to manage it. A recent focus of commentators, practitioners and scholars on matters of vulnerability in law enforcement and public health has been in the recognition that vulnerability comes in different shapes and forms, and most importantly, that vulnerabilities can be standalone or multiple, layered, temporary or persistent, or even transgenerational. This theme of the conference looks at the various ways to operationalise vulnerability in law enforcement and public health processes, and at the various means to ward off or disrupt the more enduring, persistent, incremental or transgenerational forms of vulnerability.
Bartkowiak-Theron, IMF and Asquith, NL, 2016, “Conceptual divides and practice synergies in law enforcement and public health: some lessons from policing vulnerability in Australia”, Policing and Society, 27 (3) pp. 276-288.
Julian, R and Bartkowiak-Theron, I and Hallam, J and Hughes, C, 2017, “Exploring law enforcement and public health as a collective impact initiative: lessons learned from Tasmania as a case study”, Journal of Criminological Research, Policy and Practice, 3 (2)
Both licit and illicit drugs can be associated with adverse health outcomes and with crime and risks to public safety. Police have been critical actors in the reduction of alcohol-related road trauma, and in collaboration with health authorities can ameliorate much of the damage caused by alcohol. With illicit drugs too, the police role in supporting the proven public health approach of harm reduction to achieve common goals is critically important and requires a good understanding of the dynamics of drug markets, of drug use and of dependence, and a mutually respectful partnership between police and harm reduction programs. An example of a beneficial police role is in the administration of naloxone to people suffering an opioid overdose.
Policies regarding currently illicit drugs vary worldwide and are evolving in different countries and regions – sometimes rapidly. Decriminalisation and legalization of cannabis has occurred in many places, some which previously had immensely restrictive and punitive policies on cannabis. The police role clearly changes with changing policy – but in what ways? And where are the guidelines for police in the context of these changes? These are all topics the conference will examine, seeking better understanding of optimum partnerships between law enforcement and the harm reduction, drug treatment and primary care sectors.
Police are expected to cope with a myriad of complex and often deeply troubling circumstances, reinforced by informal police cultures which promote a type of machismo that does not allow for expressions of vulnerability. However, very little attention is given to police officer wellbeing and resilience. Police are often viewed as resilient when they may simply have developed ways of coping that ultimately lead to burnout and post traumatic stress disorder. It is not surprising, therefore, that the levels of use of alcohol and other drugs among police officers are high, according to the limited research on this subject; a number of other factors contribute to police vulnerability and compromised wellness, and as part of the society in which they are located, police are perhaps more vulnerable than other professionals to communicable diseases including sexually transmitted infections, particularly true of police in the Global South.
If law enforcement agencies are to operate optimally, deliberations and research focused on the challenges to police officer wellness and resilience are critical. This requires police agencies taking bold steps to empathically uncover the extent of compromised wellbeing amongst its members, and to ensure that help seeking is encouraged and enabled. This is important for the organisational health of law enforcement agencies. But equally important, the police are more likely to be empathic to those who are most vulnerable to public health threats if they are willing to acknowledge that they are affected by these issues too.
In this theme, we encourage presentations on the difficulties that law enforcement agencies and the individuals that constitute them face in regard to wellness and resilience. In so doing a space will be provided for participants at the conference to deliberate on what services and processes could be made available to the police to maximise wellness and resilience. The conference also provides a forum for exploring the legitimate fears that law enforcement officers have in policing of vulnerable population groupings.
In most societies at most times people who are incarcerated are disproportionately from lower social classes and have disproportionately increased health – especially mental health – needs. The provision of appropriate and high quality health care to prisoners is critically important for pragmatic reasons, as part of rehabilitation, but moreso to meet their human rights and address social inequities which compound their marginalization. But as well we must look at the role prisons play in the health of the wider community and address the role of prisons and imprisonment in spreading disease and impairing health and resilience. The HIV epidemic has been a classic example, where the role of prisons in the epidemic has been regularly described as being ‘incubators’ and ‘mixing machines’. Prisons in many societies act as de facto mental health institutions, but usually with few or no mental health services; a situation which aggravates the impact of mental illness on the whole community.
Ernie Drucker in A Plague of Prisons makes the case that our current unprecedented level of imprisonment has become an epidemic, and argues that imprisonment—originally conceived as a response to the crimes of individuals—has become mass incarceration: a destabilizing force, a plague upon our body politic, that undermines families and communities, damaging the very social structures that prevent crime. We seek in this theme to examine the public health role of prisons and ways to improve their impact on the public health of their society.
We must examine the public health impact of intensifying incarceration legislation—both within and beyond prison walls. …. although confirming associations between marginalization and disease is important, we equally and urgently need to improve the health and health care of those most at risk, with the hope of reducing the burden of HIV and HCV in the community.
Cowan-Dewar JC, Kendall C, Palepu A. Prisons and public health. Open Medicine 2011;5(3): e132–3
An emerging field
Those working in the fields of criminal justice and public health share a concern with understanding and reducing risky behaviors and environments. Yet ironically, it is only recently that these have engaged in strategic, interdisciplinary conversations to integrate theory and methods toward innovative policy, programmatic, and scientific solutions. This convergence can be depicted in the ‘Epidemiological Criminology’ paradigm, which encompasses efforts to understand and evaluate the nexus between crime and health in the context of behavioral change and analysis. Such efforts include the scientific study of risk and protective factors that transcend disciplinary, geospatial, and ecological boundaries.Epidemiological criminology subsumes the most innovative strands in criminological and public health theories and methods, including experimental criminology and environmental criminology – in dialogue with acute care and preventative medicine, public health practice and behavioral change, public health law research, and social epidemiology. From an epidemiological perspective, a central policy question for law enforcement practitioners and researchers is whether (and how) police officers (and the criminal justice system broadly) can influence behaviors and environments in ways that address threats to public health while, at the same time, disrupting and preventing criminal behavior. The ‘downstream’ effects of policing policy and practice on both the functioning and wider health impacts and health disparities of the criminal justice system is also subsumed under this emerging paradigm.
For this theme, presentations on innovative theoretical or methodological developments at the intersection of epidemiology and criminology are encouraged. Examples include, but are not limited to, data on the geographic patterning of crime and health-related incidents, or the presentation of new analytic techniques and theories for interpreting the spatial (and/or social) relationships between health risk behaviors and criminal behavior. Theoretical papers might address the influence of public health laws and/or criminal laws on policing policy and practice, or the ways in which community-based, problem-oriented policing (e.g., “Smart Policing”) interventions can or could impact the social determinants of health and crime. Other topics that bridge theories and methods in public health, policing, criminology and criminal justice systems are encouraged.
Akers, T.A., Potter, R.H., Hill, C.V. (2013). Epidemiological Criminology: A Public Health Approach to Crime and Violence. San Francisco: John Wiley and Sons.
Waltermauer, E. and Akers, T.A. (Eds) (2013). Epidemiological Criminology: Theory to Practice. New York: Routledge.
The Economics of Policing strives to understand the social and financial costs and benefits of policing by looking at the efficiency, effectiveness and equity of police service delivery and policing models. In examining these factors, it is important to understand the context and complexity of policing – that is the external factors impacting policing, relationships with the public, with other public and private service providers, legislation and the courts, and with governments – and within that understanding, to develop methods of costing, measuring performance, understanding the multi-disciplinary aspects of policing, and understanding sustainability. Policing does not operate independently of the public or of other government services; therefore collaborative approaches are needed to effectively contribute to public safety and community well-being.
Despite frequent aspirational calls for cross-sectoral collaboration, public health and safety professionals and institutions continue to work in silos, and – at times – at cross purposes. Numerous factors impede integration, including divergent professional cultures, skill-sets, incentives, as well as the pervasive demand to do more with less. Education and training serves as an additional barrier, but is also one of the key building blocks towards improved collaboration. Achieving police-public health synergy requires an agenda to reform training, skill-building and other educational infrastructure within these sectors, at both frontline and management levels. This includes developing a shared vocabulary, service systems, and key performance indicators, which can then be integrated into law enforcement and public health training curriculums. If police officers continue to take on an increasing role as public health interventionists and collaborators, then we also must start building a theoretical and practicum-based framework for better education. What pedagogical, technological, and other tools can be deployed to deliver new training content in most effective and cost-effective ways?
Academic public health education also needs to include the importance and role of law enforcement, especially police, in the public health mission. This theme emphasizes the importance of such training and education in bringing law enforcement and public health practitioners together in their pursuit of healthy and safe communities.
Further details to come
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Category Archives: Existentialism
Posted on August 6, 2016 by mfab23
One of my close friends introduced me to Rick and Morty and I immediately fell in love with it. At first, I just thought it was really funny and an interesting parody of Back to the Future. In summary, it is about the adventures of a young kid called Morty, and his grandfather named Rick who’s a brilliant, alcoholic scientist. But when I kept watching the episodes over and over again, I realized that there was a certain level of catharsis I felt after every episode. Rick and Morty is a unique adult cartoon in that the comedy is just as relevant as the emotional moments. Also, the existential euphemisms that are said throughout each episode hit hard while also allowing you to feel less responsible for the bullshit surrounding your life. For instance, when in one of the episodes, Rick explains to Morty that, in summary, love is just a chemical reaction that drives us to reproduce and marriage is a waste of time (basically an illusion). Although these are not new ideas being presented in any quotes of the show, it’s the way it’s presented that becomes funny and relatable to adults, especially late 20-somethings. Qualities like this make Rick and Morty one of the best adult animated shows ever made, in my opinion.
Existential Crisis 60% of the time, all the time:
The reason I say it’s most relatable to late 20-somethings is because we have hit the point in our lives where we realize that all the dreams we had growing up will most likely not happen and we just have to settle for the life we have available. This realization of realistic goals and the hopelessness involved in it is a main theme that seems to drive the show. For instance, at the end of the episode “Rick Potion #9,” Rick and Morty completely changed the universe and every person except their family turn into monsters. Rick decides to send them to an alternate universe where this did not happen in order to continue their lives. However, their other selves in this new universe die in a freak accident right before they get there, so they have to bury their other selves and take their places in their alternative universe family. At first, Morty is traumatized by this incident and has a difficult time coping with the fact that he buried himself. But then, a few episodes later when they’re watching TV with the rest of the family, Morty’s sister Summer becomes upset and Morty wants to console her. He does this by saying, “nobody exists on purpose, nobody belongs anywhere, everybody’s gonna die, come watch TV.” This is within a matter of two episodes that Morty eventually copes with his mortality and understands how hopeless and meaningless life can be.
Humor and Ignorance:
On the flip side, however, it also relates best with our age group because of it’s humor. Most of us have a dry sense of humor that teases on the ridiculousness of social expectations. At the beginning of the “Rickle in Time” episode, Rick says a joke about an obscure reference to Morty and Summer, and they both laugh at it. Then he responds with, “Oh, you agree, huh? You like that redgren grumbholdt reference? Yeah. Well, guess what? I made him up. You really are your father’s children. Think for yourselves. Don’t be sheep.” It hits the radical bone in a person while also being hilarious. Morty’s father, Jerry, is depicted as a fairly unintelligent individual that is constantly trying to prove himself as “man of the house,” and most jokes about the mundane life of social expectations usually center around him and his failing marriage to Rick’s daughter and Morty’s mother, Beth. A perfect example of this is the entire episode of “M-Night Shaym-Aliens!” when Jerry is in a poorly-made simulation that aliens created without realizing it, and ends up having the best day of his life without doing anything remotely intuitive. All the while, not even considering that anything was weird about the day at all, even though the simulated people were clearly acting robotically and unreal. This show plays off the ignorance of people in society, and flips it on the person to wake them up to their universes.
Catharsis:
With all this, why I truly find joy and catharsis from watching this show is that I work in, more or less, customer service. All day, everyday I deal with people that put their own, sometimes insignificant needs in front of anything else going on around them. I work at an abortion and family planning clinic that, although most situations and concerns of our patients are true and real, there is always a handful of people we deal with on a daily basis that love to ruin people’s lives with their petty bullshit. Whether it’s insurance issues that are out of our hands, the protesters outside of our clinic that we have no control over, their own personal lives that we have nothing to do with, or literally anything else they feel like making up to vent their emotions out on someone, we have to deal/fix these problems with a smile on our faces. And watching a show that makes fun of people that care too much about bullshit and slaps people in the face with the reality that nothing matters and everything is random feels really…really good.
So there you have it. Watch the show.
Posted in Cartoons, Existentialism, Film, Psychology, Random, Television Tagged besttvshowever, Cartoons, catharsis, Existentialism, ignoranceisbliss, life, rickandmorty, tv
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Fri Aug 10, 2018 / 9:03 PM EDT
Lawsuits accuse Tesla's Musk of fraud over tweets, going-private proposal
Jonathan Stempel
(Reuters) - Tesla Inc and Chief Executive Elon Musk were sued twice on Friday by investors who said they fraudulently engineered a scheme to squeeze short-sellers, including through Musk's proposal to take the electric car company private.
The lawsuits were filed three days after Musk stunned investors by announcing on Twitter that he might take Tesla private in a record $72 billion transaction that valued the company at $420 per share, and that "funding" had been "secured."
In one of the lawsuits, the plaintiff Kalman Isaacs said Musk's tweets were false and misleading, and together with Tesla's failure to correct them amounted to a "nuclear attack" designed to "completely decimate" short-sellers.
The lawsuits filed by Isaacs and William Chamberlain said Musk's and Tesla's conduct artificially inflated Tesla's stock price and violated federal securities laws.
Tesla did not respond to a request for comment on the proposed class-action complaints filed in the federal court in San Francisco. The company is based in nearby Palo Alto, California.
Short-sellers borrow shares they believe are overpriced, sell them, and then repurchase shares later at what they hope will be a lower price to make a profit.
Such investors have long been an irritant for Musk, who has sometimes used Twitter to criticize them.
Musk's Aug. 7 tweets helped push Tesla's stock price more than 13 percent above the prior day's close.
The stock has since given back more than two-thirds of that gain, in part following reports that the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission had begun inquiring about Musk's activity.
Musk has not offered evidence that he has lined up the necessary funding to take Tesla private, and the complaints did not offer proof to the contrary.
FILE PHOTO: Elon Musk, founder, CEO and lead designer at SpaceX and co-founder of Tesla, speaks at the International Space Station Research and Development Conference in Washington, U.S., July 19, 2017.
Reuters/Aaron P. Bernstein/File Photo
But Isaacs said Tesla's and Musk's conduct caused the volatility that cost short-sellers hundreds of millions of dollars from having to cover their short positions, and caused all Tesla securities purchasers to pay inflated prices.
Tesla's market value exceeds $60 billion, and its shares closed Friday up $3.04 at $355.49.
According to his complaint, Isaacs bought 3,000 Tesla shares on Aug. 8 to cover his short position.
The proposed class period in Isaacs' lawsuit runs from the afternoon of Aug. 7 through the next day, and in Chamberlain's lawsuit runs from Aug. 7 to Aug. 10.
The cases are Isaacs v Musk et al, U.S. District Court, Northern District of California, No. 18-04865; and Chamberlain v Tesla Inc et al in the same court, No. 18-04876.
(Reporting by Jonathan Stempel in New York; Additional reporting by Peter Henderson in San Francisco; Editing by Rosalba O'Brien, Toni Reinhold)
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Elysium ~ A Capsule Movie Review by Allen Kopp
Elysium is a science fiction story set in the year 2154 about a dystopian earth that is diseased, polluted, and overcrowded. In the sky can faintly be seen the satellite called Elysium. It is like an enormous wheel with houses, trees, people, etc., on the scooped-out inner rim of the wheel. It is a paradisiacal “habitat” (a controlled environment) that only the very rich can escape to. It is far enough above the earth to escape the pollution but close enough to benefit from the earth’s atmosphere. Everything is beautiful and lush on Elysium. In addition to all the wonderful things about living on Elysium, they have machines there that you can recline in and be cured of any disease in a matter of seconds. There are millions of people on earth suffering and dying who could be cured of whatever ails them if only they could get to Elysium, but the thing is that the people there have a strict policy against people from earth coming there and spoiling everything. (Do I detect a metaphor here?)
Matt Damon (who I instinctively dislike for some reason) plays Max, an “everyman” who lives in the squalor on earth. He has a disgusting job in some kind of a factory, where a hateful boss is always threatening to fire him. When he is accidentally exposed to a deadly level of radiation on the job, he is administered first aid by a robot, given a bottle of pills, and sent home to die within five days. Wanting to live, he is determined to get to Elysium, where he knows he can be cured. Ever since he was a child, he has longed to go to Elysium, but now he has a reason to go. He makes a deal with a man named Spider (you can’t understand anything he says) to have himself rigged up with an exoskeleton that is somehow wired into his nervous system. This will allow him to steal vital information, including passwords and codes for Elysium, from a prissy executive visiting earth who has all the information “downloaded” into his brain. Having this information will allow Spider and others to control Elysium, or to do whatever they want to do with it. First they must disable the aircraft the executive is using to fly back to Elysium from earth and kidnap him to steal the information. The executive is killed in the ensuing gunfire, but Max is able to retrieve the information he needs. All does not go smoothly, however.
There is a subplot on Elysium involving the ambitious secretary of defense (played by Jodie Foster with a strange accent), who doesn’t like the president and is plotting a coup to depose him and become president herself. (She is the archetypical hateful female administrator that we have all known at one time or another.) She uses a strange man named Kruger (another nearly incomprehensible accent) to do her dirty deeds for her back on earth. Max, meanwhile, has reconnected with a childhood friend, a girl named Frey. It seems they used to dream together about going to Elysium. She taught Max to read when they were children and helped to open his eyes to the world. Max hasn’t seen Frey for many years. She is now a nurse and has a daughter who is ill and dying from a disease from which she could easily be cured in a matter of seconds if only they could get her to Elysium.
Neill Blomkamp wrote and directed Elysium. He also directed and co-wrote the sci-fi classic District 9 a few years ago. While Elysium isn’t, for my money, as original and compelling as District 9, it is definitely worth the time and effort to see it. To me, the most interesting element is the giant wheel in the sky where rich people go to get away from the dystopian earth. I’d like to see an entire movie about that. Of course, it’s always going to be a story of those who “have” against those who “have not.”
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Migrants: ‘A powerful driver’ of economic growth, ‘dynamism and understanding’
IOM/Muse Mohammed (file)
Migrants boarding a bus headed towards a processing center in Amman, the capital of Jordan.
Human migration is “a powerful driver of economic growth, dynamism and understanding,” UN Secretary-General António Guterres has said, in his message commemorating International Migrants Day, marked on 18 December.
The UN chief explained that migration allows millions to seek new opportunities that benefit communities of origin and destination alike.
However, he pointed out “when poorly regulated, migration can intensify divisions within and between societies, expose people to exploitation and abuse, and undermine faith in government.”
“This month, the world took a landmark step forward with the adoption of the Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration,” he continued, referring to the first-ever UN global agreement on a common approach to international migration.
“Backed with overwhelming support by the membership of the United Nations, the Compact will help us to address the real challenges of migration while reaping its many benefits,” elaborated the UN chief, calling the Compact “people-centered and rooted in human rights.”
Mr. Guterres stressed that the Compact “points the way toward more legal opportunities for migration and stronger action to crack down on human trafficking.”
“On International Migrants Day, let us take the path provided by the Global Compact: to make migration work for all,” he concluded.
Also marking the day and drawing attention to the peril that so many migrants face, the UN Migration agency, IOM, said that close to 3,400 migrants and refugees have died worldwide this year so far.
In an appeal for respect and dignity for people who choose or who are forced to leave their homes, IOM Director General Antonio Vitorino said it was also time “to respect and listen” to those who are frightened of the “changes that migration brings to their lives”.
On 19 September 2016, the General Assembly adopted a set of commitments during its first ever Summit on Large Movements of Refugees and Migrants for their protection. These commitments, known as the New York Declaration for Refugees and Migrants, reaffirms the importance of the international protection regime and represents a commitment by Member States to strengthen and enhance mechanisms to protect people on the move and paved the way for the landmark Compact.
For an explanation of how the Global migration pact, differs from the Global Compact on Refugees which was affirmed by the UN General Assembly on Monday, read out story here.
Evidence-based approach crucial to migrants and migration – top UN officials
‘Multilateralism in action’ says UN chief ahead of expected agreement on migration compact
New compact to improve refugee response ‘a chance to chart a different course’ – UN agency chief
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Super Cup may return as season opener in 2019-2020
by IANS Published on Wednesday 17th April 2019, 05:18 PM
By Jaydeep Basu
New Delhi, April 17 (IANS) The recently concluded Super Cup in Bhubaneswar was hardly a super show in the absence of seven I-League teams, but the tournament may return as the season opener (2019-2020) in September-October this year.
In the general council meeting of the Indian Super League (ISL) last month, the franchises have been handed out the calendar for the next two seasons indicating Super Cup as the opening tournament. No I-League club is officially aware of the development.
Introduced in 2018, the Super Cup is India’s only knock-out tournament which is played as the season closer involving both I-League clubs and ISL franchises. The format of the tournament is strictly based on the final standings of the two leagues.
When contacted, a senior All India Football Federation (AIFF) official said: “They (ISL) have only chalked out a provisional calendar. There is no reason to take it as the final roster.”
I-League clubs have called the Super Cup a meaningless affair which does not offer any prize money. The winners of Super Cup are also not given a berth in the Asian tournaments. The two spots in the AFC Cup and the Asian Champions League are reserved for the winners of ISL and I-League, respectively.
An I-League club official expressed surprise at the mention of Super Cup being the season opener. “Since the I-League clubs also play in the Super Cup, how can the dates could be changed drastically without having a discussion with them? Or they simply just don’t want the I-League clubs to be part of the Super Cup,” asked the official.
Playing the Super Cup in September-October could pose problems for the I-League clubs, especially Mohun Bagan and East Bengal, as it may clash with the local league schedule.
(Jaydeep Basu can be contacted at [email protected])
jdb/arm
Are hunger, poverty Modi’s nationalism, asks Sidhu
East Bengal hand contract extension to Lalrindika
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Washburn University’s VP for Academic Affairs chosen as new Chancellor at Southern Illinois University at Edwardsville
6/6/16 9:58 am CDT
Dr. Randy Pembrook, Washburn University’s vice president for academic affairs, has accepted a new position as chancellor at Southern Illinois University in Edwardsville, IL. Pembrook, who has been at Washburn University since 2011, will start in his new position in Illinois in August. As chancellor, Pembrook will be the chief operating officer of the 14 thousand student Edwardsville campus overseeing all aspects ofmore...
Washburn University Launches United Way of Greater Topeka’s 2016 Fundraising Cycle with $28,868 Contribution
Topeka, KS –Storms couldn’t dampen the energy of Washburn University alumni, faculty and staff who gathered last week to learn the results of the Washburn University United Way campaign. Washburn University president Jerry Farley revealed the $28,868 campaign total to enthusiastic applause. “Washburn University believes in the United Way,” said Farley. “We want to live in anmore...
Washburn University Holds Graduation Ceremonies
Topeka, KS – A sea of caps and gowns will flood Washburn University’s campus Saturday, May 14, as more than 900 candidates for graduation participate in commencement ceremonies. “This is one of my favorite times of the year,” said Jerry Farley, Washburn University president. “Washburn University faculty and staff dedicate themselves to helping our studentsmore...
Washburn Tech Electrical Students Up to Code
All 29 electrical students at Washburn Tech have some newly-acquired power in their field. Students in the Electrical Technology program, led by instructor Kelvin Woodland, have earned International Residential Code (IRC) certifications from the International Code Council (ICC). Considered by many to be the most significant code and standard credential in the commercial construction industry, Washburn Tech is the only college in Kansas to participate in the ICC examination process.“Our 100%more...
Tech Partners with Sheriff’s Office for New Program
Washburn Tech is answering the call for more 911 dispatchers by offering a new program, Emergency Communications. This training, in partnership with the Shawnee County Sheriff’s Office, begins in August and is open to both high school and adult students.“Emergency dispatchers form the vital link in our community between callers in distress and emergency response teams,” said Clark Coco, dean, Washburn Tech. “Local officials say it is challenging to find and keep well-qualified dispatchers,more...
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Climate Change on the Antarctic Peninsula
In this activity about climate change on the Antarctic Peninsula, learners investigate environmental changes in the living and nonliving resources of Antarctic peninsula and the impact of these changes on Adélie penguin communities. The activity stresses the importance of evidence in the formulation of scientific explanations.
HS-LS2-2 Use mathematical representations to support and revise explanations based on evidence about factors affecting biodiversity and populations in ecosystems of different scales.
HS-ESS3-5 Analyze geoscience data and the results from global climate models to make an evidence-based forecast of the current rate of global or regional climate change and associated future impacts to Earth systems.
Apply concepts of statistics and probability (including determining function fits to data, slope, intercept, and correlation coefficient for linear fits) to scientific and engineering questions and problems, using digital tools when feasible.
Compare and contrast various types of data sets (e.g., self-generated, archival) to examine consistency of measurements and observations.
Construct and revise an explanation based on valid and reliable evidence obtained from a variety of sources (including students’ own investigations, models, theories, simulations, peer review) and the assumption that theories and laws that describe the natural world operate today as they did in the past and will continue to do so in the future.
Respectfully provide and/or receive critiques on scientific arguments by probing reasoning and evidence and challenging ideas and conclusions, responding thoughtfully to diverse perspectives, and determining what additional information is required to resolve contradictions.
Apply techniques of algebra and functions to represent and solve scientific and engineering problems.
Compare, integrate and evaluate sources of information presented in different media or formats (e.g., visually, quantitatively) as well as in words in order to address a scientific question or solve a problem.
Make directional hypotheses that specify what happens to a dependent variable when an independent variable is manipulated.
A complex set of interactions within an ecosystem can keep its numbers and types of organisms relatively constant over long periods of time under stable conditions. If a modest biological or physical disturbance to an ecosystem occurs, it may return to its more or less original status (i.e., the ecosystem is resilient), as opposed to becoming a very different ecosystem. Extreme fluctuations in conditions or the size of any population, however, can challenge the functioning of ecosystems in terms of resources and habitat availability.
Moreover, anthropogenic changes (induced by human activity) in the environment—including habitat destruction, pollution, introduction of invasive species, overexploitation, and climate change—can disrupt an ecosystem and threaten the survival of some species.
Current models predict that, although future regional climate changes will be complex and varied, average global temperatures will continue to rise. The outcomes predicted by global climate models strongly depend on the amounts of human-generated greenhouse gases added to the atmosphere each year and by the ways in which these gases are absorbed by the ocean and biosphere.
Though the magnitudes of human impacts are greater than they have ever been, so too are human abilities to model, predict, and manage current and future impacts.
Different patterns may be observed at each of the scales at which a system is studied and can provide evidence for causality in explanations of phenomena.
Changes of energy and matter in a system can be described in terms of energy and matter flows into, out of, and within that system.
Much of science deals with constructing explanations of how things change and how they remain stable.
Cause and effect relationships can be suggested and predicted for complex natural and human designed systems by examining what is known about smaller scale mechanisms within the system.
Feedback (negative or positive) can stabilize or destabilize a system.
The significance of a phenomenon is dependent on the scale, proportion, and quantity at which it occurs.
Algebraic thinking is used to examine scientific data and predict the effect of a change in one variable on another (e.g., linear growth vs. exponential growth).
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Where does SANDRU rank in the most common names in the U.S.?
SANDRU is identified by the U.S. Bureau of the Census as a surname with more than 100 occurrences in the United States for the year-2000 U.S. Census. In "Demographic Aspects of Surnames from Census 2000", the Census Bureau tabulated the surnames of all people who had obtained Social Security Numbers by the year 2000.
SANDRU ranks # 125639 in terms of the most common surnames in America for 2000.
SANDRU had 126 occurrences in the 2000 Census, according the U.S. government records.
Out of a sample of 100,000 people in the United States, SANDRU would occur an average of 0.05 times.
For the last name of SANDRU the Census Bureau reports the following race / ethnic origin breakdown:
Search the web for more on the name SANDRU :
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“The Cocktail Hour” & Talk Back
THE COCKTAIL HOUR
BY A.R. GURNEY
Tuesday to Thursday, & Saturday @ 6pm. Sunday* @ 3pm. Stay after the October 2nd show for a talk back with members of the cast!
Winner of the Lucille Lortel Award as Best Off-Broadway Play.
The time is the mid '70s, the place a city in upstate New York. John, a playwright, returns to his family's house, bringing with him a new play that he’s written about them. His purpose is to obtain their permission to proceed with production, but his wealthy, very proper parents are cautious from the outset. For them, the theatre is personified by the gracious and comforting Lunts and Ina Claire, and they are disturbed by the bluntness of modern plays. There is also John's sister Nina to contend with, although her reservations have to do with the fact that John has given her character a minor role. The confrontation takes place during the ritual of the cocktail hour, and as the martinis flow, so do the recriminations and revelations, both funny and poignant. In the end, it is evident that what John has written is closer to the truth than his family has been willing to admit, and that beneath their WASP reserve, his parents and siblings are as beset by uncertainties and frustrations as their presumed "inferiors." But though they seem shackled by the past and tantalized by an alien future, the ties that bind them do prevail—surmounting disputes and disappointments and, with unfailing warmth and humor, converting pained resignation into cautious but hopeful anticipation.
"The Cocktail Hour is as funny and moving as The Dining Room…it could be the best play he has done so far." —The New Yorker.
"An examination of an overprivileged family that fights domestic battles while downing drinks." —The New York Times "It makes for a deliciously funny and also occasionally touching evening, as Gurney's family sit around raking over old coals and settling old scores with a quite new and beguiling freshness." —New York Post
Directed by Dan Foster
Run time: 2 hours
Https://Web.Ovationtix.Com/Trs/Pe.C/10281997
Bennett Hall | 62 Centre Street
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Photography graduate’s powerful images feature in Great War Armistice commemoration exhibition
Rachel Smith October 31, 2018
A series of powerful contemporary images of The Somme by a photography graduate from The Northern School of Art form part of an ambitious commemoration for the Centenary of the Great War Armistice.
Local photographer Helen Crute is exhibiting current photographs from some of the battlefields and the National Memorial Arboretum, alongside archive photos with a background of recorded words and music in the historic Reading Room in Neasham near Darlington as part of Neasham Remembers from 5 -10 November.
Helen, who graduated last summer from the former Cleveland College of Art and Design with first class honours, has included a range of evocative images taken as part of her photography degree course, one of which was shortlisted for the Association of Photographers (AOP) Student Awards 2017.
Helen Crute graduated with a first class honours in photography in 2018
She said: “My final degree project was focused on the importance of memory and remembrance for social cohesion. It was incredibly emotional and I spent half the time in tears. This exhibition is a wonderful opportunity to show and share my work.
“I am particularly keen for the younger generation to come and have a look. It’s important to remember significant events in our history and for our young people to understand how they impact on our lives today.”
Helen is also introducing an Evening of Remembrance on Thursday 8 November at 7.30pm (doors open at 7.00pm) which will be followed by a talk on local WW1 history from Chris Lloyd, Chief Features Writer at the Northern Echo. The ticketed evening concludes with an Act of Remembrance.
In addition, as part of Neasham Remembers, the village is creating a Field of Remembrance on the Village Green. Poppy crosses and Remembrance tributes may be planted by anyone wishing to remember those who died in WW1, or during subsequent wars.
The tributes are available from the exhibition, the Fox and Hounds pub in the middle of the village, or direct from the British Legion. Poppy tributes can be planted at any time from 3 November and the Field will be dedicated at a ceremony on the Village Green on Saturday 10 November at 2.00pm.
The Neasham Remembers exhibition runs from Monday 5 to Saturday 10 November at The Reading Room, Sockburn Lane, Neasham, Co. Durham, DL2 1PH. Opening times are 10 – 12 and 1.30 – 4.30 Monday 5 to Friday 9 November and 10 – 12 on Saturday 10 November. Entry is free.
Tickets for the Evening of Remembrance on Thursday 8 November at 7.30pm (doors open at 7.00pm) cost £3.00 can be ordered from NeashamRR@gmail.com
Further information on all of the events is available at www.NeashamRemembers.co.uk
Fine art lecturer questions popular views of the mother in Prague exhibition
Students and staff use creative talents to mark WW1 centenary
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July 30, 2017 by Simon Sweetman
Swagger of Thieves: Film
Swagger of Thieves
Director: Julian Boshier
Niche Cameras Ltd.
“Head Like A Hole is the sweaty beast of NZ rock’n’roll music…” – that comes from a quote I wrote for a poster of the band; I look at that poster every day, it’s above my desk – it’s there because I had to create the quote first, get it to the band so they could meet the printer’s deadline for a tour poster, I then had to write the rest of the piece that would fit that quote in to run a day or so later.
The music of Head Like A Hole has meant a lot to me over the years – but the music is almost secondary to everything else about the band, a by-product. The energy, the anger, the frustrations, the lunacy, the spark, the raw edges, the madness – Head Like A Hole (or HLAH as they were for a time) is about back-story even though the music is front-loaded with rock’n’roll riffs, with aspects of hard rock, punk, metal and the pre-grunge 90s indie-funk amalgams.
You might arrive at Swagger of Thieves, the feature-length band documentary a part of this year’s Film Festival as a fan of the band. You might arrive at it with no prior knowledge of the band or its music – either option is fine. Filmmaker, Julian Boshier, understands that the least important aspect of a rock-doc is the music; it’s about the personalities, the landscape, the story. The music is there – in and of the soundtrack and it hangs heavy like a drunken hue, but this film is about the story of a band and in particular it becomes the story of the two Nigels – Nigel “Booga” Beazley, the frontman, lyricist and spotlight-hog and Nigel Regan, guitarist/songwriter and foil.
The two Nigels are the Mick and Keef of the band, perhaps more likely they’re the David St. Hubbins and Nigel Tufnel of the film.
Every band member, past and present, is in the film – but this is the story of the band’s implosion and its nearly-subtle reformation. It’s the story of the harrowing drug-ride, but it’s about so much more than just that. It’s about bitterness and frustration and creativity and hope and hype and it’s a startling warts’n’all depiction of a rock’n’roll dream and what it means to the principal players.
There is archival footage of the band in its various former glories but the framework is around the reunion tour – a dud opening night and some soul-destroying moments of low turnout, a postponed tour to begin with, the testiness of the band’s creative duo when it comes to finances – somewhat ironic given the perception is the two of them threw the band’s money up their arms in its first incarnation.
Swagger of Thieves is brutal and beautiful in equal measures. There’s the redemption of a man deemed addict and junkie. When we meet him in the film he’s a window-cleaner in Otaki, he has the love of a good woman, his then-fiancée, now wife Tamzin. She is a driving force in the film too – she has some of the best lines and is mediator, manager and if she wasn’t quite so strong-willed and confident you might see her referred to as long-suffering…Booga and Tamzin have toddler twins as Head Like A Hole sets about to relaunch.
They have a bass player they’ve never been particularly pleased with, musically. A drummer who is quieter than the first one, and keeps his clothes on too. They have a long, jaded history of being shock-rockers and junkies. They have the bitterness of Shihad’s success – their former running mates. They have attitude, still. Cocksure with confidence, at least most of the time. And they have a pair of stunted-growth teenagers bickering about almost anything but bonded by the music they first heard and shared together when they were (actual) teenagers – the first time around. Nigel and Nigel have a love/hate relationship, theirs is the long-suffering marriage that keeps the band together and keeps the chances of a smooth-run at bay.
Reunions become, rather quickly, about diminishing returns, the appeal of the band not waning, rather seeming ‘more selective’ – Swagger is Spinal Tap and these are definitely some kind of monsters, you can think, too, of the great doco, DiG! – where, here, HLAH are the version of BJM and Shihad is just fine and Dandy even though they’re never really in the frame, in the scope of this movie. They have their own excellent film already – but watching this made me realise that in a perfect world you get the band-doco you deserve. This is truly and utterly Head Like A Hole, it’s dirty, and real – full of tensions and delusions but with a strange magic attached. Shihad’s Beautiful Machine is a bit too picture-perfect, like the softening of their edge and their (now) lazy music – even the worst Head Like A Hole songs are still trying hard. Maybe sometimes a bit too hard, but at least they’re trying.
The landscape of New Zealand is – again, as is so often the way with our movies, documentaries and narrative feature films – a bit of a star. And I thought about this movie for days after. How the filmmaker had been the ultimate fly-on-the-wall, allowing us, his audience, in and closer than we ever imagined, and in one or two instances, closer than we probably ever wanted to be. How the band – silly and funny and festering and hopeful – sits there waiting for something, anything more; chasing the dream still even when it’s well off in the wings.
You hardly ever get to see this sort of footage and yet this story is everywhere – those of us trying to be something, to do something. Getting somewhere. And then not. Picking ourselves up and trying again. Why are we scared to present that story? Why does it always need polish and perfume? Not here. You smell the stench of the music and the men behind it. You marvel at the sweetness of the souls – locked in their internal battles, stuck with the external baggage, but hoping always to get on stage and entertain, to sell, to succeed, to find purpose through their art. They are all at once wise and stupid. They are at the very least and at their very best themselves. True. And real.
Swagger of Thieves is a masterpiece in film making – it’s everything you would ever want to know about Head Like A Hole and so much more; appealing to both fan and first-timer. And at the same time it’s about so much more than just a band, it’s about so much more than drugs, it’s about so much more than the hit-and-miss potential, the hit-and-hope hype, it’s about family and redemption, and artistic struggle – it’s about dumb decisions and delusions. It’s life on the big screen. The lives of real people doing things in real time and only as they can.
And there’s something profound hiding in between the lines, in the shadows around this band, in the way they’ve been framed here. Something beautiful, magical – maddening and lovely.
To check out a preview/reaction of the film written by Tamzin Beazley and published earlier on Off The Tracks click here
The world premiere of the film is this Thursday, August 3, 2017 in Auckland as part of the festival.
Posted in Blog, Reviews and tagged with Andrew Durno, Beautiful Machine, Booga Beazley, DiG!, Doc, Doco, Documentary, Drugs, Film Festival, Film Review, Head Like A Hole, HLAH, Julian Boshier, Junkies, Mark Hamill, Mike Franklin-Browne, Music, Niche Cameras Ltd., Nigel Beazley, Nigel Regan, Rock-Doc, Shihad, Swagger of Thieves, Swagger of Thieves: Film, Tamzin Beazley, Tom Watson. RSS 2.0 feed.
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3 Responses to Swagger of Thieves: Film
Liam Jorgensen says:
oh great – more positive discrimination from Simon Sweetman. Um, we’re not 18 anymore, OK Simon??
Chris Hobbs says:
It will be a terrible shame if this doesn’t have some sort of life post-film festival.
Ben Jones says:
Considering it took how many years to craft, it’s kind of embarrassing that this is the sad excuse for a so called definitive doco of one of New Zealand’s most seminal bands. I literally fell asleep half way through due to the poor excuse of a narrative. Mr Boshier didn’t make the grade on his first doco, let’s see how well he does on his next… I guess we’ll find out in other ten or so years.
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Tag Archives: #1985
O’Brien Coin Guide: Irish Decimal Fivepence
The five pence (5p) coin (Irish: cúig phingin) was a sub-division of the Irish pound. It was introduced in Ireland on Decimal Day, 15th February 1971 and re-used the design on the shilling coin first produced for the Irish Free State in 1928. Due to the similarity in size and weight, many of the old shillings…
May 2, 2015 in 20th C, decimal, Eire, Ireland.
O’Brien Coin Guide: The Irish Decimal Twopence
In 1971, Ireland decimalised its currency in parallel with the UK. We did this because we were tied to the UK Pound at that time and, of course, all of our coins were minted at the Royal Mint in the UK. Decimalisation also brought all of our coins back in line with the UK coin…
April 22, 2015 in 20th C, coins, decimal, twopence.
O’Brien Rare Coin Review: Why is the 1992 Irish 10p coin so valuable?
Introduction The Irish government began minting the original 10p coin two years prior to Decimal Day, 15 February 1971, hence the first 10p coins were dated 1969 and 1971 – when they were first circulated. These coins retained the exact design and dimensions (except denomination) of the old (pre-decimal) florin coin, first introduced to the…
August 21, 2014 in 20th C, coin, decimal, Eire, Ireland, Irish, O'Brien Rare Coin Review, rare, rarity, tenpence.
The new Irish 20p coin In 1982 the then Minister for Finance, Ray MacSharry, announced that a twenty or twenty-five pence coin might be designed and in August 1984 the twenty pence was chosen. The Arts Council of Ireland recommended the horse design. The twenty pence (20p) coin was introduced on 30th October 1986. It was first…
August 21, 2014 in coins, decimal, Eire, Ireland, Irish, O'Brien Rare Coin Review, rare, rarity.
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OLLU Professor Octavio Quintanilla named San Antonio Poet Laureate
Posted on March 26, 2018 by OLLUNewsletter
Our Lady of the Lake University (OLLU) professor and author Octavio Quintanilla, PhD, has been named San Antonio Poet Laureate for 2018-2020, Mayor Ron Nirenberg and the City of San Antonio announced Tuesday, March 20.
The mayor and the city’s Department of Arts and Culture will host a public investiture ceremony in City Council chambers on April 3, 2018, to make the official appointment.
“What an honor to represent my city as Poet Laureate and promote poetry as part of its constitution,” said Quintanilla, assistant professor of English, who teaches literature and creative writing in the Master of Arts/Master of Fine Arts (MA/MFA) program. “It was a surprise. I didn’t expect it.”
A native of Harlingen, Texas who lived in Mexico until the age of nine, Quintanilla has taught at OLLU since 2013. He is the author of the poetry collection, “If I Go Missing.” His works have been published in or are scheduled to appear in such journals as “Salamander,” “RHINO,” “Alaska Quarterly Review,” “Pilgrimage” and “The Texas Observer.”
“I have promoted poetry and the literary arts since I arrived in San Antonio,” Quintanilla said. “I will continue to do so by visiting schools, participating in literary events and supporting writers in the community as much as I can. My passion is not just reading and writing poetry, but also getting it in the hands of people as much as possible.”
Quintanilla joins previous San Antonio Poet Laureates Carmen Tafolla (2012-2014), Laurie Ann Guerrero (2014-2016) and Jenny Browne (2016-2018) in a role designed to generate interest and preserve the art of poetry. Tafolla, Guerrero and Browne have gone on to become State Poets Laureate of Texas.
“As a world-class city, San Antonio supports and fosters its creative and artistic communities — especially the many individuals who have committed their lives and work to preserving our city’s cultural legacy,” Nirenberg said. “Octavio is one of those committed individuals, and the City of San Antonio is proud to have him serve as our new Poet Laureate and promote the importance of literary arts in the community.”
In April, the City of San Antonio will join communities across the country in celebrating National Poetry Month. More information on the San Antonio Poet Laureate program and National Poetry Month can be found at www.GetCreativeSanAntonio.com.
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Business leaders learn how to turn their organisation into a cause: Professor Colin Coulson-Thomas
How to purchase precisely the website you seek: Denis Roberts
Rock And A Hard Place: Denis Roberts
He has a very lively and enquiring mind and innovative approaches to problem solving. He has a genuine interest in people and their personal and professional development. As a mentor he knows exactly the right questions to ask, he listens with great interest and he helps mentees successfully navigate their options.
Kathy Whymark (strategic partner)
University of Luton Business School
I am pleased to recommend Denis as a brilliant strategic thinker and group dynamic theorist.
Prof. Steve Gans
The Networking Firm (colleague)
This inspired me … in that it excited me … with an awareness of new possibilities … and how I could now focus on my strengths, which Denis had helped me highlight and be aware of … therefore giving me back the confidence I had lost.
This motivated me to do certain things and move on in my working life.
Professor Barry Curnow: Strategic Partner
Professor Barry Curnow is a consultants’ consultant and Group Analyst based in London,England. He specialises in strategic advisory, leadership and organisation work and provides coaching, counselling and mentoring for professional service firms and their clients. He has spent his career in the building, buying, leadership and selling of consulting firms and knowledge-based businesses internationally.
He is currently Immediate Past Chairman of the International Council of Management Consulting Institutes (Chairman, 2003-5), Principal of the Maresfield Curnow School of Management Consulting, and a Past President of both the Institute of Management Consultancy and the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development in the UK (formerly IPM).
Barry is a former Chairman and Managing Director of Hay-MSL Management Consultants Group and was previously a world-wide partner and main board director of the Hay Group in Washington DC, Chairman of Hay Pacific in Hong Kong and Managing Director of Hay UK.
A graduate of the Universities of Exeter (Economics) and London (Organisational Psychology), he has written widely on management and careers and teaches at Cass Business School, City University. He isVisiting Professor of Management Consulting at Cass and at Durham University Business School. He is the joint consulting editor of The International Guide to Management Consultancy (Kogan Page 2001/3) and joint author of The Chance to Live More than Once (Management Books 2000, 1997) and Third Age Careers, The Corporate Challenge (Gower, 1994).
He is a trustee director of the Tavistock Institute of Human Relations and consulting editor of the quarterly publication Management Perspectives
As a Group Analyst, Barry is trained in group dynamics and has a particular interest in conducting groups to improve business performance and develop professional personnel –i.e. to help them deal with “what makes organisations tick, (or stop!) underneath.” Together with his wife Penny de Haas Curnow, an Analytical Psychologist (Jungian Analyst) and fine artist, he is a co-director of Bollingen Blessing, a business that helps leaders achieve corporate cohesion, creativity and success in the struggle for integration between personal and family life.
Most recently, Barry has become Head of Human Resources and Organisational Behaviour Designate at University of Greenwich Business School.
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www.cotswoldwebservices.co.uk
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Browsing by Subject "Deputy Ministers'"
Meeting of Deputy Ministers Copenhagen, Denmark. May 27, 2010. Final Annotated Agenda.
Arctic Council (2010-05-27)
Agenda for the first Deputy Ministers' Meeting of the Arctic Council held in Copenhagen, Denmark 27 May 2010.
Meeting of Deputy Ministers Copenhagen, Denmark. May 27, 2010. Final Participant List.
Participant list from the first Deputy Ministers' Meeting of the Arctic Council held in Copenhagen, Denmark 27 May 2010.
Meeting of Deputy Ministers Copenhagen, Denmark. May 27, 2010. Final Report.
Arctic Council (2010)
Final Report from the first Deputy Ministers' Meeting of the Arctic Council held in Copenhagen, Denmark 27 May 2010.
Meeting of Deputy Ministers Copenhagen, Denmark. May 27, 2010. Presentation about Sustaining Arctic Observing Networks (SAON).
Calder, John (2010-05-27)
Presentation about the Sustaining Arctic Observing Networks (SAON) initiative delivered at the first Deputy Ministers' Meeting of the Arctic Council held in Copenhagen, Denmark 27 May 2010.
Meeting of Deputy Ministers Copenhagen, Denmark. May 27, 2010. Presentation on the Task Force on Short-Lived Climate Forcers Under the Arctic Council.
Toresen, Håvard; DeAngelo, Benjamin (2010-05-27)
Presentation on the Task Force on Short-Lived Climate Forcers Under the Arctic Council delivered at the first Deputy Ministers' Meeting of the Arctic Council held in Copenhagen, Denmark 27 May 2010.
Meeting of Deputy Ministers Copenhagen, Denmark. May 27, 2010. Search and Rescue Task Force of the Arctic Council Interim Report.
Interim Report from the Search and Rescue Task Force of the Arctic Council presented at the first Deputy Ministers' Meeting of the Arctic Council held in Copenhagen, Denmark 27 May 2010.
Meeting of Deputy Ministers Copenhagen, Denmark. May 27, 2010. Statement by Aleut International Association (AIA).
Gofman, Victoria (2010-05-27)
Aleut International Association's statement at the first Deputy Ministers' Meeting of the Arctic Council held in Copenhagen, Denmark 27 May 2010.
Meeting of Deputy Ministers Copenhagen, Denmark. May 27, 2010. Statement by Denmark.
Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Denmark (2010-05-27)
Danish statement at the first Deputy Ministers' Meeting of the Arctic Council held in Copenhagen, Denmark 27 May 2010.
Meeting of Deputy Ministers Copenhagen, Denmark. May 27, 2010. Statement by Finland.
Halinen Hannu, Ambassador (2010-05-27)
Finnish statement at the first Deputy Ministers' Meeting of the Arctic Council held in Copenhagen, Denmark 27 May 2010.
Meeting of Deputy Ministers Copenhagen, Denmark. May 27, 2010. Statement by Germany.
Federal Republic of Germany (2010-05-27)
German statement at the first Deputy Ministers' Meeting of the Arctic Council held in Copenhagen, Denmark 27 May 2010.
Meeting of Deputy Ministers Copenhagen, Denmark. May 27, 2010. Statement by Iceland.
Gunnarsdóttir Gréta, Ambassador (2010-05-27)
Icelandic statement at the first Deputy Ministers' Meeting of the Arctic Council held in Copenhagen, Denmark 27 May 2010.
Meeting of Deputy Ministers Copenhagen, Denmark. May 27, 2010. Statement by Inuit Circumpolar Council (ICC).
Stotts Jim, Chair (2010-05-27)
Inuit Circumpolar Council's statement at the first Deputy Ministers' Meeting of the Arctic Council held in Copenhagen, Denmark 27 May 2010.
Meeting of Deputy Ministers Copenhagen, Denmark. May 27, 2010. Statement by Norway.
Lahnstein Erik, State Secretary (2010-05-27)
Norwegian statement at the first Deputy Ministers' Meeting of the Arctic Council held in Copenhagen, Denmark 27 May 2010.
Meeting of Deputy Ministers Copenhagen, Denmark. May 27, 2010. Statement by Poland.
Republic of Poland (2010-05-27)
Polish statement at the first Deputy Ministers' Meeting of the Arctic Council held in Copenhagen, Denmark 27 May 2010.
Meeting of Deputy Ministers Copenhagen, Denmark. May 27, 2010. Statement by Sweden.
Belfrage Frank, State Secretary (2010-05-27)
Swedish statement at the first Deputy Ministers' Meeting of the Arctic Council held in Copenhagen, Denmark 27 May 2010.
Meeting of Deputy Ministers Copenhagen, Denmark. May 27, 2010. Statement by the European Commission.
Wiegand, Gunnar (2010-05-27)
European Commission statement at the first Deputy Ministers' Meeting of the Arctic Council held in Copenhagen, Denmark 27 May 2010.
Meeting of Deputy Ministers Copenhagen, Denmark. May 27, 2010. Statement by the Russian Association of Indigenous Peoples of the North (RAIPON).
Russian Association of Indigenous Peoples of the North (RAIPON) (2010-05-27)
Statement by the Russian Association of Indigenous Peoples of the North (RAIPON) at the first Deputy Ministers' Meeting of the Arctic Council held in Copenhagen, Denmark 27 May 2010. This statement is in Russian.
Meeting of Deputy Ministers Copenhagen, Denmark. May 27, 2010. Statement by the Saami Council.
Valkeapää, Niko (2010-05-27)
Saami Council statement at the first Deputy Ministers' Meeting of the Arctic Council held in Copenhagen, Denmark 27 May 2010.
Meeting of Deputy Ministers. Stockholm, Sweden. May 15, 2012. Arctic Council Secretariat Indicative budget 2013.
Arctic Council Secretariat Indicative budget 2013 as approved at the Deputy Ministers' Meeting of the Arctic Council held in Stockholm, Sweden 15 May 2012.
Meeting of Deputy Ministers. Stockholm, Sweden. May 15, 2012. Communication Strategy for the Arctic Council.
Communication Strategy for the Arctic Council as approved at the Deputy Ministers' Meeting of the Arctic Council held in Stockholm, Sweden 15 May 2012.
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Mount Davidson and its Historic Neighborhoods
Mt. Davidson is not only the highest geographic point (938ft.) on the world famous San Francisco skyline (the forested peak to the left of the Bay Bridge above, and covered with snow below) and home to the Mount Davidson Cross and the Annual Easter Sunrise Service 2019, but offers an insiders view of the development of the city, California, and the westward expansion of the United States from its heart West of Twin Peaks.
Named to honor George Davidson, noted scientist and incorruptible Chief of the U.S. Coast and Geodetic Survey’s Pacific Operations, Mount Davidson Park provides a peaceful 40-acre oasis of public open space in the middle of the densest city in California. At its top is a time capsule with a transcript of the title signed by the first Mexican Governor of California, Pio Pico, granting ownership of the mountain to Don Jose de Jesus Noe, the last Mexican Alcalde (mayor) of Yerba Buena. Noe was only the first of many of San Francisco’s mayors who have been drawn to its highest point. The fourth, Cornelius Garrison, bought Noe’s rancho from John Horner in 1855. Adolph Sutro, the 21st Mayor, purchased 1200 acres in 1881 from the estate of Francois Pioche.
The California Supreme Court overturned Sutro’s will of his land to charity and granted the appraiser of his estate, A.S. Baldwin, the right to develop the area around Mount Davidson into new residential neighborhoods. He and his fellow developers used a variety of warm and sunny advertising methods to get people to come from downtown San Francisco out to the foggy outside lands west of Twin Peaks. Behrend Joost called his new development Sunnyside. A.S. Baldwin built trails up to the top of the renamed Mount Davidson which inspired YMCA Director George Decatur to organize a sunrise Easter event there in 1923. Urban Realty Company built the world’s largest sundial to get publicity for their development of Ingleside Terraces. Miraloma Park had a home called Sunshine Gables.
To further entice people to the outside lands, these new City Beautiful Movement “residence parks”, including Balboa Terrace, Ingleside Terraces, Westwood Park, Mount Davidson Manor, Westwood Highlands, Monterey Heights, and Forest Hill had homes designed by leading architects, including Timothy and Milton Pflueger, Ida McCain, Harold G. Stoner and Julia Morgan, along landscaped and view enhancing curvilinear boulevards.
Margaret Mary Morgan, the first woman elected to the Board of Supervisors, State Park Commissioner, Madie Brown, and other women attending the sunrise services on Mount Davidson in 1926 were inspired to use their new 19th amendment political strength to organize one of the first grass roots environmental efforts to save the remaining open space from development. With Mr. Baldwin’s wife donating the six-acre summit of the City’s highest hill, they raised funds during the Great Depression to build the world’s largest cross. Designed by the creators of San Francisco’s tallest buildings, George Kelham and Henry J. Brunnier, four-term mayor and CA governor, Sunny Jim Rolph (below left}, laid the first cornerstone for the 103-foot Mount Davidson Cross with Mayor Rossi (center) looking on in 1934. Madie Brown “dared to dream” that President Roosevelt would accept her invitation to light the monument for “bringing light into many a darkened home,” and “instilling the principles of the Golden Rule into American business.” Mayors would continue to attend the annual event and many would make their home in the West of Twin Peaks District. George Christopher (below right), elected Mayor of San Francisco in 1956, had a dairy business below O’Shaughnessy Boulevard. Mayor John F. Shelley would plan to build his mansion in Sherwood Forest, Mayor George Moscone lived in the same neighborhood, Mayor Art Agnos down the hill in West Portal, and Mayor Willie Brown in Miraloma Park.
But it would take the help of the Mayor Rolph to get the financing to build the public transportation and roads to these new “suburbs in the city” before the children of the Gold Rush and others looking to fulfill the American Dream of owning their own homes came here to raise their families. After World War II, Tower Market (below) became the landmark gateway to the now family-filled West of Twin Peaks District. Many San Francisco notables made their home here including Dr. Carlton Goodlett, Publisher of the Sun Reporter, Calvin Simmons, Conductor of the Oakland Symphony, Police Chief Al Nelder, Evelyn Cisneros and Stephen Legate of the San Francisco Ballet, Jazz Saxophonist Joe Henderson, 49er Abe Woodson, City Attorney Louise Renne, Carol Channing, San Francisco Giant Willie Mays, Opera Singer Helen Dilworth, Architect Milton Pflueger, Engineer Henry Brunnier, Art Linkletter, Governor Edmund G. “Pat” Brown, his son, Governor and Mayor of Oakland, Jerry Brown, and many others whose businesses and civic activities made San Francisco a world class city including the Pommon, Hoegger, Puente, Brown, Davis, Jones, Larribeau, Bisho, Deliso, Pinto, Gullmes, Mettling, Kaplan families and more. Feeling the pulse of the city during times of crisis with crowds up to 75,000 seeking comfort and hope during World War II, the city’s highest hill and its monument inspired a second trip to the California Supreme Court a century after Adolph Sutro’s death in 1898 to settle a dispute about what can be built there. Neighbors of the historic park and monument organized the Friends of Mount Davidson Conservancy to protect it for the future.
San Franciscans are known throughout the world for their dreams and efforts to make them come true. The diverse and family friendly neighborhoods West of Twin Peaks continue this history of supporting the arts and sciences, environmental protection, educational and economic opportunities, and social justice … living and making San Francisco what it is today.
Next: Chapter 1 Birth of a Benevolent City – The California Dream
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Birth of a Benevolent City – The California Dream
San Francisco was first developed on what is now its most eastern boundary alongside San Francisco Bay. The first owner of the area now known as West of Twin Peaks was Don Jose de Jesus Noe, the last Mexican Alcalde (mayor) of Yerba Buena. The 4,443 acres of land granted to him in 1846 for Rancho San Miguel were equal to one-sixth of present day San Francisco. By 1853 and California statehood, Noe had sold his land to John Horner. The 1870 map shows the location of Blue Mountain and the adjacent San Miguel Toll Road built by Francois Pioche, which cuts across the middle of the rancho (he now owns with Bayerque and Parsons), to connect upper Market Street to Ocean House Race Course and the Pacific Ocean.
A native of Nottingham, England, George Davidson (1825-1911) came to Philadelphia with his parents when he was seven years old. At the age of 25 in 1850, he headed an expedition to the West for the U.S. Survey. From his new home in San Francisco he was engaged in determining geographic positions from San Diego to the Puget Sound.
George Davidson, in 1852, mapped Blue Mountain, now known as Mt. Sutro. Davidson’s research and testimony exposed as fraudulent a claim by Jose Yves Limantour to all land south of California and west of Divisadero Streets, including all of Rancho San Miguel. Treeless hill later named for Davidson on right.
After the take over of California by the United States, Jose Noe sold most of his land to “California’s 1st Farmer,” John M. Horner, for $200,000. San Francisco purchased 100 acres of the rancho for $10,000 from Horner at the intersection of the San Jose and Ocean House Roads for the construction of the San Francisco Industrial School – an institution to deal with neglected, abandoned, and delinquent children under the age of 16 from 1874-1892. The footprint of those 100 acres still exists on today’s maps as Balboa Park and San Francisco City College. (Courtesy Angus MacFarlane.)
Jose de Jesus Noe died on March 17, 1862, at the age of 57. There is a family burial marker in the floor of Mission Dolores for his wife and two children. Since there is no known headstone for Don Jose Noe, it is not known if he is buried in Mission Dolores with his family. (Courtesy Jeannie MacKenzie.)
Map of Rancho San Miguel in 1864 showing it is now owned by Pioche, Bayerque, and Parsons and bisected by San Miguel Ocean House Beach Macadamized Road. Parisian born in 1818, suave and cultured Francois Pioche was Secretary to the French Consul in Santiago, Chile, when he decided to join the Gold Rush to San Francisco in 1848 with Julius Bayerque.
Men at work here in 1891 developing a water supply for the San Francisco from Islais Creek, below what is now Mt. Davidson. It was one of the first water supplies developed by the Spring Valley Water Company. From a small dam west of the old Mission Viaduct near Rock House Gulch in Glen Canyon, Islais Creek water was carried through a flume around the hillside through the Mission to Buchanan and Market. Water to surrounding homes came from wells, however, as the area had ample streams and springs. The earliest recorded hook-up to the Spring Valley Water Company in the area was in 1909 to a house at 663 Mangels Avenue in the Sunnyside District. (Courtesy www.kenhoegger.com)
This menu is from the Clipper Restaurant on Pacific Avenue started in 1871 by George Dettner. Born in San Francisco, his parents came from Alsace in the 1830s. He left the restaurant business to start the Dettner Printing House on Howard Street. His son Ernest built a German style home in 1916 from 1906 Earthquake bricks in the corner of Noe’s Rancho San Miguel. Designed by Ida McCain (architect for Westwood Park), it is located at 45 Upper Terrace. At the streets end is where Adolph Sutro marked the exact center of San Francisco with his “Triumph of Light” monument. Granddaughter Elvira Dettner will move west of Twin Peaks to raise her family on Urbano Drive in Ingleside Terraces. (Courtesy Dave Bisho.)
California’s Gold Rush brought Adolph Sutro to San Francisco in 1850 where he became a tobacco merchant. For nearly a decade, his work on a tunnel through the Mount Davidson located above Virginia City, Nevada, to mine the Comstock Silver Lode progressed until completion in the summer of 1878. With his new found riches he bought a fourth of Rancho San Miguel and the land overlooking Seal Rock. (Courtesy Glenn Koch.)
Gambler Edward Corrigan bought 148 acres of Rancho San Miguel to build the Ingleside Race Track. He and his friends were not satisfied with the way things were run at the Bay District Track, and formed the Pacific Coast Jockey Club with A.A. Spreckels, Henry J. Crocker, Joe Ullman, O.B. Donough to build “the most sumptuous racing course in the west,” with a bandstand, stables for 300 horses, a clubhouse – everything a race track needed to compete. It opened on Thanksgiving Day, 1885, to a crowd of 8,000, and operated regularly for 20 years – until December 31, 1905. (Courtesy Margie Whitnah.)
Behrend Joost, “Grand Old Man of Twin Peaks,” bought a portion of Rancho San Miguel from Leland Stanford in 1891. He paved the way to development of Mount Davidson by building the first electric railway over the hills from Market Street to San Mateo through his Sunnyside subdivision. The boundaries he laid were: Melrose Avenue on the north, Havelock on the south, Circular Way on the east and Hamburg Street, now Ridgewood Avenue, on the west. (Courtesy Western Neighborhoods Project.)
Baldwin and Howell Real Estate Company is established in 1885. One of the oldest established realtors in San Francisco, Josiah R. Howell was the first to be elected president of the San Francisco Real Estate Board in 1905. The company developed Presidio Terrace in 1904 and Jordan Park in 1908. Partner A.S. Baldwin, was the appraiser of Adolph Sutro‘s estate. Sutro’s will stated that his Rancho San Miguel land could not be sold until the last heir died, and that proceeds would go to an educational trust. After Sutro died in 1898, the heirs took his will all the way to the California Supreme Court to get it overturned. From their headquarter office downtown at 318-324 Kearny Street, Baldwin and Howell would proceed to develop Adolph Sutro’s land in Rancho San Miguel into residential housing, beginning in 1912. (Courtesy Westwood Park Association.)
This was the H.M. Quast and Son Harness and Saddlery business located on Sanchez Street between 16th and 17th Streets. Daughter Jeanette Quast will move west of Twin Peaks to raise her family on Mount Davidson in Miraloma Park. Herman M. Quast came to San Francisco from his native Germany around 1870, when San Francisco had the highest percentage of foreign born of any major city in the United States, including New York City. (Courtesy Jeanne Davis MacKenzie.)
Next: Chapter 2 Liveable Neighborhoods
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Calvin Liang OPAM
View Calvin Liang OPAM's Website
Born in Canton, China, Calvin Liang began painting in high school and completed his art education at the Shanghai Academy of Fine Arts, recognized as one of Chinaís prestigious and competitive art academies. In China, his skills as a fine artist were applied to the theatrical industry, where he designed and created sets for operas and pusical dramas for the Canton Opera Institute.
In 1987, Liang moved to the United States, where he continued his profession as a full-time artist. He had a long and successful career creating visual art in animation for the entertainment industry, which included the Walt Disney Studios and Nickelodeon Studio, where he worked on The Little Mermaid and Spongebob Squarepants.
In early 2002 he decided to pursue a full-time career as a fine artist, painting themes of his choosing. Since then, his accomplishments included winning several top awards in important exhibitions including Jurorís Best of Show at the 38th Annual C. M. Russell in 2006, the Art-Talk Award of Excellence at the Oil Painters of America Juried Exhibition in 2005, the Peopleís Choice Award at he Bowers Museumís 6th Annual Laguna Plein Air Painting Event in 2002 , and Best of Show at the American Impressionist Societyís 4th Annual Juried Exhibition in 2002.
National art magazines also took notice. In 2004, Liangís work graced the cover of Art of the Westís special 16th Anniversary Edition, and in 2006, 2007, and 2008 he had a full feature article in American Art Collector. He has also been the subject of full feature articles in American Artist, American Artist Workshop, and Southwest Art.
Liang is a Master Member of Oil Painters of America and the American Impressionist Society, and a Signature Member of the California Art Club and the Laguna Plein Air Painters Association.
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APhA Accepting Nominations for 2020 Annual Awards and Honors Program
Nominations are now being accepted for the American Pharmacists Association (APhA) annual awards and honors program. The awards will be presented at the APhA Annual meeting and Exposition in Washington, DC, March 20-23, 2020. The APhA awards and honors program is the most comprehensive recognition program in the profession of pharmacy.
American Pharmacists Association – Profession Wide Awards:
Remington Honor Medal: the pharmacy profession’s highest honor, recognizes distinguished service on behalf of American pharmacy during the preceding year, culminating in the past year, or during a long period of outstanding activity or fruitful achievement.
Hugo H. Schaefer Award: recognizes APhA members who have made outstanding voluntary contributions to society, the profession of pharmacy and APhA.
Hubert H. Humphrey Award: recognizes APhA members who have made major contributions in government and/or legislative service at the local, state or national level.
Good Government Pharmacist-of-the-Year Award: recognizes an individual pharmacist who actively contributes to the community through his or her involvement in the political process.
Honorary Membership: is conferred upon individuals, either within or outside the pharmacy profession, whose activities and achievements have had a significant impact upon public health, the profession and its practitioners.
Honorary President: is conferred by the Association upon a member who has made significant contributions to the Association.
Gloria Niemeyer Francke Leadership Mentor Award: recognizes an individual who has promoted and encouraged pharmacists to attain leadership positions within pharmacy through example as a role model and mentor.
H.A.B. Dunning Award: recognizes an exemplary contribution to APhA and the practice of pharmacy by a pharmaceutical manufacturer, provider of support products or service, or other entities such as wholesalers, chain corporations, etc.
Distinguished Federal Pharmacist Award: recognizes a pharmacist who has distinguished himself or herself and the profession through outstanding contributions in federal pharmacy practice, resulting in significant improvement in the health of the nation and/or the population he or she serves.
Distinguished New Practitioner Award: recognizes an APhA member, within his/her first five years after graduation, who has demonstrated distinctive achievements in mentorship, service and commitment to the profession of pharmacy.
Community Pharmacy Residency Excellence in Precepting Award: recognizes a community pharmacy residency director or preceptor who has demonstrated excellence in precepting, mentoring, leadership and community pharmacy residency program administration.
Generation Rx Award of Excellence: recognizes an APhA member pharmacist who has demonstrated a commitment to substance abuse education.
American Pharmacists Association – Academy of Pharmacy Practice and Management (APhA-APPM):
Daniel B. Smith Practice Excellence Award: recognizes an APhA member, in any practice setting, who has distinguished himself or herself and the profession of pharmacy by sustained outstanding performance and achievement.
APhA-APPM Pharmacy Management Excellence Award: recognizes an APhA member in any practice setting who has distinguished himself/herself and the profession by outstanding performance in the area of pharmacy management.
APhA-APPM Distinguished Achievement Awards: recognize individuals who have made a significant or sustained contribution to pharmacy practice and have advanced the missions of APhA and APhA-APPM.
Distinguished Achievement in Pharmacy Practice
Distinguished Achievement in Pharmacy Management
Distinguished Achievement in Service
APhA-APPM William H. Briner Distinguished Achievement Award in Nuclear Pharmacy Practice: recognizes significant or sustained contributions to nuclear pharmacy practice.
American Pharmacists Association – Academy of Pharmaceutical Research and Science (APhA-APRS):
The Tyler Prize for Stimulation of Research: recognizes an individual(s) for encouraging research by peers, students, fellows, residents and others via publications or by directing research, serving as a preceptor, or mentoring in any discipline of the pharmaceutical sciences.
Research Achievement Award in the Pharmaceutical Sciences: recognizes outstanding, meritorious achievement in any of the pharmaceutical sciences.
Fellows of the American Pharmacists Association:
Fellows are either members of the APhA Academy of Pharmacy Practice and Management (APhA-APPM) or the APhA Academy of Pharmaceutical Research and Science (APhA-APRS) with a minimum of 10 years professional experience. To become a Fellow, members must have demonstrated exemplary professional achievements and service to the profession through activities with APhA and other national, state or local professional organizations.
Guidelines for nominations and complete criteria for each award are available at http://www.pharmacist.com/awards. Nominations are due no later than September 1, 2019. Please submit all nomination materials online. Nominations will not be accepted by mail or email. Nominator and support signatures are required on all letters. Award recipients will be notified in December 2019. For any APhA award related questions, please email awards@aphanet.org.
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In popular usage, an idealist is someone who believes in high ideals and strives to make them real, even though they may be impossible. It’s often contrasted with pragmatist or realist, i.e. someone whose goals are less ambitious but more achievable.
This sense of “idealism” is very different from the way the word is used in philosophy. In philosophy, idealism is about the basic structure of reality: idealists hold that the most basic “unit” of reality is not material, but conceptual.
But what does that actually mean? What are people talking about when they say that reality is conceptual rather than material? Answers vary widely.
II. Types of Idealism
Idealism doesn’t have well-defined sub-schools, but here are some labels for the purpose of this article:
a. Subjective Idealism
For some idealists, it means that nothing is truly real other than consciousness and its contents. That is, when you look out on the world what you are really seeing is a world created by the mind. Perception, in other words, is reality. That doesn’t mean that you’re stuck in your own mind, though, since we’re lucky enough to have other minds that we can communicate with. Thus, the truth may lie somewhere in between your mind and mine (but still not in any external physical world). We can call this intersubjective idealism.
b. Divine Idealism
Alternatively, the world may be seen as manifestations of some other mind, such as the mind of one God. (However, remember that all of physical reality would be contained in the mind of God on this view — so God would have to be a consciousness outside of the physical multiverse!)
c. Ontological Idealism
Others don’t take it quite as far: they argue that the material world exists, but that at its most basic level it’s made out of ideas. For example, some physicists believe that the universe, at its most basic level, is made of numbers. So scientific formulas don’t just describe physical reality; they are the physical reality. E=MC2, for example, would be seen as a fundamental aspect of reality which Einstein discovered, rather than a description that he invented.
d. Epistemological Idealism
Maybe it doesn’t actually matter whether there’s a physical world beyond the mind. After all, the mind is our only tool for understanding that world, and therefore all of our perceptions and understandings will be constrained by the structure of the mind. When we try to understand that structure, we may not be exploring the most basic truths of the universe (as ontological idealists would claim); rather, we’re just trying to understand the human mechanisms and tools that make all understanding possible.
Idealism also has a place in the analysis of history. Historical idealists hold that human history can be explained as the a process of ideas changing and evolving, and that ideas shape human beings rather than the other way around. This process, according to historical idealism, will eventually reach a stage of “complete expression,” when no more unfolding will be possible. At this point, history will end as there will be no more changes to human society (and, by extension, human consciousness). Very few historians accept this view today, since it seems that chaotic historical change will go on forever; but in the past, many historians believed that we would someday reach the end of history.
III. Idealism vs. Materialism
The opposite of idealism is materialism, or the view that reality is material instead of conceptual. For materialists, the physical world is the only true reality. Our thoughts and perceptions are part of the material world just like other objects. Consciousness is a physical process in which one chunk of matter (your brain) interacts with another (the book, screen, or sky that you’re looking at).
Idealism and materialism are both impossible to prove or disprove, of course — they’re unfalsifiable statements, which means there’s no neutral test that could weigh them against each other. The test, ultimately, has to be one of intuition, or “gut reaction.” Many people find that materialism makes more sense because, after all, everyone has the experience of interacting with an outside world and believing that’s really “out there.” On the other hand, it’s impossible for us to step “outside” our own minds, so how can we be so sure that there really is an “out there” at all?
IV. Famous Quotes About Idealism
When I enter most intimately into what I call myself I always stumble on some particular perception or other….and never can observe anything but the perception. (David Hume)
Scottish philosopher David Hume famously showed that we can’t prove that there is a stable self-identity over time. That is, how can you prove that your present self is the same as the self in your baby pictures? There is no way to prove scientifically that anyone has a stable “Self” that persists over time, and yet it’s one of our strongest intuitions — of course I’m me! There are many ways to answer, including one based on modern genetics (which Hume could not have imagined), but another is to think of personal identity in terms of ontological idealism. Rather than being a physical object, your selfhood is an idea — and, in accordance with ontological idealism, that’s exactly what makes it real!
The universe seems to me to be nearer to a great thought than to a great machine. It may well be, it seems to me, that each individual consciousness ought to be compared to a brain-cell in a universal mind. (James Jeans)
James Jeans was a British scientist and mathematician, and a great defender of ontological idealism. In this quote, he shows the overlap between ontological idealism and divine idealism. That is, he sees scientific reality as an expression of some fundamental ideas — but he also believes that those ideas are not just floating out there in the abstract, instead arguing that a great “universal mind” contains the ideas. Although he doesn’t use the word “God,” this could be taken as a kind of divine idealism. (Jeans himself was an agnostic, meaning he believed it was impossible to know whether or not God was real.)
V. The History and Importance of Idealism
Idealism can be traced back to Plato, who developed the doctrine of the Eternal Forms. This doctrine was kind of an early form of what we’ve been calling ontological idealism: Plato held that all the objects we see around us are instances of abstract concepts. These abstract concepts are like numbers: if you have four apples or four cats or four dollars, all of these things are instances of the same abstract quantity known as “four.” But for Plato, the same thing was true for the physical objects themselves. So your four apples are not just an instance of the abstract “four,” but also an instance of the abstract “apple.” Plato’s idea of the Forms is often confusing for modern readers (perhaps because we’re much more likely to be materialists than idealists!)
One of the most famous idealists was Descartes, who famously claimed that “I think, therefore I am.” If you examine this statement, you’ll see that it’s an extreme form of idealism. For Descartes, our existence is only demonstrated by our thought, and therefore thought is logically prior to existence! To be is to think, or to be thought. Descartes saw this as the only claim that was beyond doubt. Descartes has largely fallen out of favor among modern philosophers, but we still read him due to his immense historical significance.
Today, when philosophers talk about “idealism,” they’re usually talking about “German Idealism,” a rough tradition of thought defined by the work of Immanuel Kant. Kant developed a sophisticated form of idealism based on the distinction between phenomena (“things-as-they-appear”) and noumena (“things-in-themselves”). For Kant, the mind always drew on certain hard-wired techniques for shaping the noumena into phenomena — the mind, in other words, is like a set of tinted goggles that allow us to see the noumena but always with a certain amount of discoloration and distortion. We can never perceive them directly. For example, maybe the whole idea of “material/physical” reality is one of these mental techniques! Maybe the whole distinction between “material” and “mental” is something that our mind uses to make sense of the world, but that doesn’t really exist in the “noumenal world.” This would place us in a position beyond both materialism and idealism!
VI. Idealism in Popular Culture
What if all of reality, as we know it, was a computer program? This is the premise of The Matrix, and at first it looks like an idealist view: after all, a computer program is just an idea, an arrangement of information, not a physical object. (Computer programs are contained in physical circuits, of course, but you can copy a program from one hard drive to another and it’s still the same program — that’s what it means to say that it’s an idea.) However, in The Matrix we discover that there is an external, physical world beyond the computer program. This is more materialist than idealist. To understand ontological idealism, imagine instead that we live in a computer program, but that computer program isn’t actually installed on a hard drive anywhere — it’s just an abstract program. (Or, if you prefer divine idealism, think of God as the hard drive.)
But you know, I’ve learned something today. You see, the basis of all reasoning is the mind’s awareness of itself. What we think, the external objects we perceive, are all like actors that come on and off stage. But our consciousness, the stage itself, is always present to us. (South Park)
In an episode of South Park (“The Tooth-Fairy-Tats”), Kyle becomes obsessed with figuring out whether there is any such thing as reality. He reads Descartes as well as several books on Taoism and quantum mechanics, ultimately becoming convinced that nothing is real. After suffering an existential crisis through most of the episode, he finally settles on a kind of mild subjective idealism. He doesn’t necessarily argue that there is no such thing as the outside world, but he does argue that we have no way of accessing that world other than through consciousness. Therefore, we must accept at least a certain amount of idealism as the price of being sentient.
Materialism vs. Idealism: a Difference that Makes no Difference?
E=MC2 is a description of reality. (materialism)
E=MC2 is part of reality itself. (idealism)
At the end of the day, what is the difference between these two statements? Is there any practical difference, or a difference that might cause us to behave in a different way? Some philosophers (and many non-philosophers) argue that this is an important test for any philosophical debate. If there is no practical difference, then it’s probably a moot question, one that really doesn’t need to be resolved. In that case, there would be no need for further argument between materialists and idealists – they could just agree to disagree, and get to work on problems with more practical implications.
Of course, this view goes against centuries of Western philosophical tradition. Since at least Plato, philosophers have argued about idealism and materialism. To them, it seemed important to pin down the fundamental nature of reality and understand whether it’s made up of matter or ideas.
Idealism can be traced back to…
a. Jesus of Nazareth
b. Plato
c. Buddha
d. Thomas Jefferson
The opposite of idealism is…
a. Materialism
b. Realism
c. Pragmatism
d. Rationalism
This article discusses which of the following types of idealism?
a. Scientific idealism
b. Political idealism
c. Subjective idealism
“Consciousness is the only reality. Fortunately, we can communicate with other consciousnesses, and the truth of reality is what lies in between my perceptions and yours.”
This statement is an example of…
b. Philosophical idealism
c. Empiricism
d. Intersubjective idealism
TITUS CHILUBI December 19, 2017, 8:59 am Reply
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by George Stevenson and Jeremy T. Canipe, 2006.
See also: Indentured Servants
Apprenticeship, the system of binding a child to a master to learn a craft, trade, or occupation, has taken two forms in North Carolina. Compulsory apprenticeship was used from the last quarter of the seventeenth century into the beginning of the twentieth century. Voluntary apprenticeship has been in use from the earliest days to the present.
Compulsory apprenticeship had as its immediate objective the relief of indigent orphans, abandoned or illegitimate children, and the children of impoverished parents-the support and maintenance of whom would otherwise have fallen to the community. Its long-term objective was to train children in an occupation so that they could support themselves as adults. Such children, white or free black, male or female, were bound under court order to a master. The master stood in loco parentis and was entitled to the child's obedience and service, while being expected to offer moral instruction and paternal control. The courts sometimes removed apprentices from cruel masters. Boys were apprenticed to learn skilled crafts such as carpentry or farming, while girls were usually apprenticed to learn housekeeping or "feminine arts" such as weaving. In England only master craftsmen, certified by local guilds, had been able to take an apprentice, but in America-where trained artisans were fewer and social institutions were weaker-a more informal system evolved in which anyone could train apprentices. In North Carolina and the rest of the South, widespread use of indentured servants and slaves weakened the practice of apprenticeship, especially in rural areas.
With the end of slavery in 1865, the Freedmen's Bureau preempted the courts' power to apprentice indigent black children and orphans. From September 1865 to September 1867, the bureau apprenticed hundreds of these children ranging in age from infancy to late teens. Some were bound to learn skilled trades, many to learn farming and housekeeping, and a great number merely to serve as "apprentices or servants."
Although the system of compulsory apprenticeship lasted into the early 1900s, it was used less and less as the number of orphanages with their own agricultural, mechanical, industrial, and commercial training programs increased. The system was dropped altogether upon passage of the Child Welfare Act in 1919.
Voluntary apprenticeship in North Carolina was based on common law rather than statute law until the twentieth century. A father, white or free black, being entitled to the service and obedience of his child until age 21, was able to forge a binding agreement that his child should serve another for one or more years. The Apprenticeship Act of 1889 forbade voluntary apprenticing of children younger than 14 and set the term of their apprenticeship at three to five years. Since 1939 apprentices have been required to be 16 or older.
When slaves were apprenticed, the right of the slave owner to the services of his slave was absolute, and assent of the slave was unnecessary. Apprenticed slaves were generally made to learn skilled crafts that could not be learned on the plantation, such as shipbuilding, house carpentry, and coach making. Although slave craftsmen could not be masters of apprentices, they were sometimes the teachers from whom other African American apprentices learned.
Labor union policies, reluctance of employers to train apprentices who then sought employment elsewhere, and unfair wages and terms of apprenticeship led to the National Apprenticeship Act (or Fitzgerald Act) of 1937. In North Carolina provisions of the federal act were implemented in the 1939 Voluntary Apprenticeship Act, which provided for the creation of apprenticeship committees to work with school authorities, employers, and employees in setting up local programs. Agreements were to be signed by the apprentice (and, if a minor, by his or her father) and the employer, and to become effective only after review by the director of apprenticeship.
By the twentieth century's end, only those occupations that remained essentially on a handicraft basis (such as machining and the building trades) or those industries where production varies from unit to unit (such as printing, tool and die making, and molding work) needed apprentices. North Carolina's modern apprenticeship program, coordinated under the Department of Labor, is supported by cooperating industries and businesses, labor unions, technical institutes, and high schools.
Guion G. Johnson, Ante-Bellum North Carolina: A Social History (1937).
W. J. Rorabaugh, The Craft Apprentice from Franklin to the Machine Age in America (1985).
Apprenticeship, NCLabor : http://www.nclabor.com/appren/appindex.htm
National Apprenticeship Act, Seal of the United States Department of Labor, Employment & Training Administration: http://www.doleta.gov/oa/fitzact.cfm
Apprenticeship, Chapter 94, NC General Assembly: http://www.ncga.state.nc.us/EnactedLegislation/Statutes/HTML/ByChapter/Chapter_94.html
"This indenture from 1759 bonded Jesse Cook, aged seventeen, as an apprentice to Hezekiah Mohun, a Bertie County shipwright, until Cook's twenty-first birthday. "(From Bertie County, NC, County Records, Apprentice Indentures, North Carolina State Archives (CR.010.101.7) Image online from LearnNC. Available from http://www.learnnc.org/lp/editions/nchist-colonial/4290 (accessed November 1, 2012).
Canipe, Jeremy T.
Stevenson, George
1 January 2006 | Canipe, Jeremy T.; Stevenson, George
I had a third great
Permalink Submitted by John B. Hagler (not verified) on Fri, 02/23/2018 - 14:21
I had a third great grandfather who was an orphan. His father had died in 1772 and his mother remarried in 1775.
At the October 1777 session of Mecklenburg County court of Pleas and Quarter Sessions (CR065.301.1) page117 Phillip Hagler was bound to his brother (actually half brother) Jacob Hagler until he arrives at the age of 21 being ten years and six months old to learn the Blacksmith trade and at the expiration of his apprenticeship the said Jacob Hagler promised to give him Ten Pounds currency exclusive of the Provision made by an act of Assembly in that case.
I`d love to know what the Provision was that was made by an act of Assembly in that sort of case and the source information.
I`m handicapped to the extent I can no longer go down to the Archives and on my own research for the answer.
I found the following
Permalink Submitted by Byron Bowman (not verified) on Mon, 09/25/2017 - 11:24
I found the following statement in a Chancery Suit in Patrick County, VA.
"That at the death of the said John Bowman, his children were all small, and some of them had to be bound out by the authorities of the poor in North Carolina, and there was no one to look after their interests in their father's land over in Virginia, and it is only since these children have become of age it is being inquired into."
One of the Bowman children was my grandfather, and I would love to see the records of his being "bound out". The family were most likely in Stokes County, NC when John Bowman died about 1884.
Was a court involved in the binding out of the orphans, and if so, How can I access the court records of the process?
Eager to lear more, Byron Bowman
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Paisley Livingston
Art and Intention: A Philosophical Study
Paisley Livingston, Art and Intention: A Philosophical Study, Oxford University Press, 2005, 272 pp, $55.00 (hbk), ISBN 0199278067.
Reviewed by Dan Dahlstrom, Boston University
Richly informed, crisply written, and thoughtfully argued, Art and Intention makes a strong case for the role that intentions play and ought to be considered to play in producing and appreciating works of art. Intentions, in the author's highly plausibly understanding of them, are not always conscious or successfully realized; nor does he think that we can expect to appreciate a work's meanings in every case simply by understanding the artist's intentions. But there are also ample reasons for thinking that we will often fail to understand the individual or collective production of a work of art, its difference from texts and relation to other works in a single oeuvre, a proper interpretation of it, and, in some cases, its fictional status if we fail to pay attention to the relevant intentions. Livingston elegantly marshals these reasons in what is bound to be a major resource for philosophical thinking on the subject of intentions in art.
In the opening chapter, Livingston presents a general account of intentions and a defense of the viability of intentionalist discourse. He takes an intention to be a kind of propositional attitude, the content of which is a plan for doing something. To have the attitude of intending something is to have a firm yet defeasible commitment to executing some plan. Since there is time for making adjustments between the time the intending begins and the time the plan is executed, various philosophers distinguish future-oriented intentions and those presently acted upon ("intentions in action"). Livingston resists this temptation, arguing instead that prior and future-directed intentions (even proximal ones), while prior to the intended action, can, if not frustrated or altered, sustain and continue to guide its progress as long as the intended plan is not completed. In this connection Livingston invokes a helpful distinction between executing an intention (in the sense of performing or trying to perform "some action guided by the plan embedded in that intention") and realizing it (executing the intention and achieving a state of affairs specified by the plan, where the achievement is not a matter of deviant causal chains or sheer luck). While not necessarily deliberate or conscious, intentions prompt and terminate the process of deliberation, coordinating an individual agent's behavior over time. At the same time, this notion that the intention to do or to try to do something is a necessary condition for performing an intentional action is, he notes, compatible with unintended consequences of that action and the recognition of "unpredictable and spontaneous moments in our lives" (14).
Having attempted in this manner to give a plausible account of "the salient aspects of the roles of intentions in our lives as agents" (16), Livingston addresses the contention that intentionalist discourse is fundamentally erroneous. Since intentionalist notions inform anti-intentionalist positions, the anti-intentionalists are faced with a problem of internal consistency, leaving them, Livingston notes, with two equally unpalatable options, that of adopting a double standard or contextualist strategy towards such discourse or of working toward its elimination. Yet Livingston also recognizes both that the present or even future necessity of intentionalist discourse does not ensure its truth and that arguments in support of the fundamental character of intentionalist discourse seem to beg the question. Hence, instead of embracing a 'transcendental' or a priori argument for intentional realism, he makes a modest case for it by raising doubts about not only the coherence of anti-intentionalism but also the adequacy of its reductionist assumptions (such as the assumption of micophysics' causal completeness and fundamental status).
Livingston applies his general account of intentions to artistic production in Chapter 2. Without assuming that there is a single process that is associated with artistic creativity or that every aspect of it can be explained, he argues that there are some typical features of paradigmatic cases of artistic creativity and that intentions are integral aspects of these features. After dismissing as unconvincing supposed counterexamples to the thesis that art is an intentional activity, Livingston justifies the role of intentions axiologically: an artwork as such must be evaluable in terms of the artistry or lack thereof that went into its production. This bold claim resurrects a long-standing controversy about the role that skill should play in aesthetic evaluation. While the suggestion that artworks be identifiable in terms of an evaluatory criterion seems right and there is ample evidence of appreciation of artworks in terms of the skill involved in their production, Livingston owes us, I think, a larger story here, a fuller account of what is entailed by artistry and why artistry should serve in this capacity. For example, if evaluation of artistry demanded understanding of the process and tradition of production that went into a work, we might conceivably be precluded in some cases from being able to make evaluations of artistic skill and nevertheless be justified in identifying some artifact as art by reason of other qualities. (In such a case, intentions remain necessary to the artificial and not the artistic character of the work.)
Building on the general theory of the opening chapter, Livingston argues that intentions "in our ordinary and unanalysed sense of the term" may be conscious or unconscious and that distal (schematic) intentions, emergent and occasionally spontaneous proximal intentions, and temporally mixed ones may all play a role in a developing creative process. Critically adapting traditional psychological accounts of creativity, Livingston counters excessive Romantic (and poststructuralist) claims for inspiration by noting its interplay with processes of preparation and incubation, on the one hand, and verification and elaboration, on the other. Creation of art is typically a long and painstaking process, contradicting "the false choice between inspiration and the rational application of a technique or method" (33). The virtue of Livingston's account here is that it also gives these equally unquestionable yet contrary aspects of the creative process their due. He effectively glosses passages from Virginia Woolf's diaries to amplify these aspects of the artistic process and her own struggle to negotiate the horns of what he calls "Bratman's dilemma," viz., "unpremeditated scribbling," on the one hand, and execution of "prior intentions that prove inappropriate," on the other. Finally, Livingston addresses the role often significantly played by intentions in terminating artistic activity. A work, he argues, can be said to be complete aesthetically and/or genetically (by virtue of the artist's decision to stop and a retrospective judgment that the work is complete). "In a range of relatively simple cases," as he puts it, and as evidenced by our customary attitudes towards works interrupted by death or circumstances, the artist's decision is key to a work's completion, though this genetic attitude is merely necessary but not sufficient to establish that the finished product is a work of art. (The chapter concludes with a review of senses of 'fragment' in light of these considerations.)
In Chapter 3 Livingston addresses the matter of authorship and the ways in which authorship can be collective. After noting both the historical unsoundness of the Foucaultian claim that the author-function only emerged in the early modern context and the implausibility of Foucaultian construals of the author as merely a readership's projection, Livingston proposes a broad, intentional definition of authorship, applying to all utterances, ordinary as well as artistic. According to this definition, an author is an agent who intentionally makes an utterance with the aim of expressing or communicating. While the aim or plan here may be schematic, the aim of the expression is the public indication of a mental state or attitude. Communication is said to differ from expression by trying to get the audience to recognize the attitude in the right way. This broad conception of authorship, Livingston points out, does not entail "strong intentionalism" (the view that the meaning of the work is entirely determined by its author's intentions). While this general approach strikes me as eminently sensible, I am puzzled by Livingston's remark that "no specific social formations, even less institutions, are necessary conditions of authorship" (75). In this connection I would plea for clarification since the remark might suggest quite implausibly that either the expression or the communication necessarily involved in authorship could be on hand without some specific social formation.
Having staked out this general position on authorship, Livingston turns to the knotty issues of collaborative authorship. With a set of instructive examples (e.g., composers genuinely collaborating on a song) and counterexamples (e.g., a film produced by a series of film-makers hired and fired in succession by warring producers, a publication of an autobiography secretly written by a ghost writer), Livingston makes a compelling case that genuine joint authorship involves at least some measure of shared overall intentions that are acted upon (e.g., selection of the sort of work envisioned), shared decisions and control, action in accordance with "meshing sub-plans", and taking responsibility together for the results. (It bears noting that Livingston gives confusing signals on whether the example of one person providing the score, another the orchestration, still others advising is an instance of joint authorship or not; see pp. 85, 88). Livingston ends the chapter by noting how his definition needs to be altered if the authorship is artistic. The solution is "to replace the expression of attitudes by means of utterances or works with an emphasis on the intentional creation of works having artistically relevant qualities" (89). But the solution, Livingston acknowledges, is also extremely difficult to elaborate since the distinction between artistically relevant and irrelevant qualities or, equivalently, a definition of art, is wanting.
Chapter 4 presents Livingston's contribution to the problem of intra-oeuvral relations. He begins by taking issue with Levinson's appeal to second-order intentions to defend "forward retroactivism," the interpretation of a work's artistic content on the basis of a relation to features of a subsequent work. The relevant second-order intentions may simply be wanting or amiss and, even if one supposes that the artist creates a work (W1) with the intention that subsequent works will inflect its meaning, the supposition does not entail that W1 actually has "non-proleptic, first-order semantic properties relative to some subsequent" work (97). Equally problematic, Livingston submits, given the normal changes in a person's attitudes and intentions over time, is Levinson's occasional suggestion that we take an artist's works "as if they constituted the elements of a single utterance" (98). In order to suggest how intentions are, nonetheless, relevant to significant intra-oeuvral relations, Livingston delves into the different possible courses of events that could lead to them (i.e., cases where the relation is intended, unintended, or the combination of intended and unintended results). A discussion of Karen Blixen's self-translations aptly demonstrates that intra-oeuvral relations need not have been intended at any point by the author.
Can an account of intentions usefully be applied to the problem of distinguishing texts from works? In regard to this central question of Chapter 5, Livingston develops a conception of texts that reflects "a valuable, well-entrenched, and prevalent manner of identifying a text in literature" (124). After ruling out a purely syntactical approach to textual identity (on the grounds that exactness of character type is neither a necessary nor a sufficient condition of such identity) as well as pragmatic approaches (since they vitiate the text/work distinction), Livingston proposes a locutionary conception of texts that allows such things as illocutionary force and generic affiliation to provide a means for determining the identity of the work. "Reference to intentions is necessary … to the identification of a collection of sentences constitutive of the primary token of a locutionary text," a text that can then be said to be replicated if other tokens instantiate "all and only the same intended characters" in the same notation scheme (allowing for some acceptable deviations, e.g., alternative spellings, if they are not incompatible with the author's relevant intentions) (123). With Livingston's own caveat that there will be controversial, borderline case in regard to replication, this locutionary/illocutionary distinction provides a way of separating criteria for the identity of a text and for that of a work.
In the book's final chapters, Livingston develops a moderate or partial intentionalist theory of interpretation (Chapter 6) and applies it to questions of fiction and fictional truth (Chapter 7). The presence of unsuccessful or unrealized intentions on the part of the artist makes absolute intentionalism unpalatable and the existence of intended implicit meanings (e.g., irony) cannot be cashed out in terms of conventions and context alone, as anti-intentionalists contend. As to the knotty problem of standards for judging the successfulness of the intended, implicit meaning, Livingston proposes the default standard "that the intentions are compatible and 'mesh' with the linguistic and conventional meanings of the text or artifact taken in its target or intended context" (155). This moderate or partial intentionalism is superior, he submits, to both fictional intentionalism and hypothetical intentionalism. Livingston's debunking of the former is sweeping, succinct, and powerful. His problems with hypothetical intentionalism center on its supposition of a difference between an artist's categorial intention (e.g., to paint) and semantic intentions (e.g., to convey a meaning), such that the former plays or ought to play an evidentiary role, the latter a merely suggestive role in interpretation. Livingston argues that the distinction is sometimes unwieldy, given certain borderline cases, and the difference in status accorded the two intentions unjustified. While he rightly pounces on ambiguities in Levinson's account of this distinction, more, it seems to me, needs to be said to make these arguments. On the basis of an understanding of an artist's creative process, interpreters of artworks often make a workable distinction between the two kinds of intention, even if they are in some sense interdependent and in some cases inextricably joined (something that Levinson need not be interpreted as denying). It is noteworthy in this connection that Livingston himself continues to employ something akin to the distinction between categorial and semantic intentions, even as he contests "that we do not have any systematic way to separate the categorial wheat from the semantic chaff." Thus in the same context he sums up his position by asserting "that the theory of appreciation and interpretation should be attuned to the artist's constitutive role in the making of works. It is the artist who makes the work, and settling on categories and meanings is part of the creative process" (164; see, too, 180). Livingston's final chapter sketches an intentional analysis of fictions and fictional truth. On the former analysis, intentions targeting make-believe or imagining are at least part of what gives an utterance its fictional status. He proposes that fictional truth be elucidated in terms of the appropriateness of make-believe in response to a work's content, where the appropriateness, while generally permissive, may be restricted in particular cases by a goal of understanding fictional utterances in the author's artistic context.
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Adam Sutcliffe
Judaism and Enlightenment
Sutcliffe, Adam, Judaism and Enlightenment, Cambridge University Press, 2003, 329pp, $60.00 (hbk), ISBN 0521820154.
Reviewed by Steven Nadler , University of Wisconsin, Madison
What is to be done about the Jews? This, of course, is the great question faced by all Western societies from late antiquity onwards. Sometimes, as during certain periods in the Middle Ages, the answer was a relatively simple one, involving expulsion and/or violence. But the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries were, in some nations at least, supposed to be an “age of reason”. Despite the fact that, at the beginning of this period, Jews were still officially banned from several domains (including France and England), there was a great deal of sophistication in both official and unofficial attitudes towards Jews and Judaism in early modern Europe.
Just how sophisticated — and complicated — they were is made abundantly and eloquently clear in this fascinating book. Adam Sutcliffe’s subject is not just the obvious one of the legacy of the Enlightenment for the Jews, that is, what the toleration, secularism and rationalism of the Enlightenment held in store for Jewish emancipation, and how these principles lived in tension with the animus against Jews and Judaism by leading thinkers of the time (such as Voltaire). Rather, Sutcliffe wants to show just how “throughout the Enlightenment the question of the status of Judaism and of Jews was a key site of intellectual contestation, confusion and debate” (5). Indeed, he insists, “the complexities clustered around Judaism are of central importance for a general understanding of the Enlightenment itself” (6). Judaism for Sutcliffe becomes a kind of lens through which we can see deeply into Enlightenment thinking, and especially some essential ambiguities and tensions within it.
Sutcliffe is interested not only in intellectual, political and religious attitudes toward the Jews and philosophical reflections on Judaism (such as those we find in Toland, Locke and Bayle), but also in Jewish stimuli for Enlightenment polemics and even Jewish sources for Enlightenment modes of thought, including those modes that were hostile to Judaism. He examines what the Jewish problem — the question of how “Jewish difference” is to be accommodated in modern society, with its non-denominational universalism — meant for the Enlightenment, and how the tools for dealing with that problem sometimes came from within the Jewish milieu itself. It is a rich and complex story, one that Sutcliffe tells with great style, if not always with sufficient philosophical depth and detail. Above all, he offers a clear analysis of the ways in which Judaism, Jewish figures and Jewish writings — especially Hebrew Scripture, Spinoza and kabbalah, but also (astonishingly) Jewish anti-Christian polemics — provoked ambivalent and contradictory responses — alarm, perplexity, intrigue, assimilation — from Enlightenment thinkers.
Much of what Sutcliffe presents will not be new to readers of two other, landmark studies. His discussion of Hebraism in Christian academic circles in the seventeenth-century is familiar from Aaron Katchen’s 1984 study, Christian Hebraists and Dutch Rabbis, while his inquiry into the role played by Spinoza and his circle in the development of the Enlightenment echoes elements of Jonathan Israel’s magisterial Radical Enlightenment (2001). Where Sutcliffe goes beyond Israel’s work is in his claim that not only did certain heterodox Jewish figures play an influential role in the genesis of a radical stream in the Enlightenment, but Judaism itself — its history, its texts, its status — was “inescapably of special significance in the formation of Enlightenment rationalism” (181).
Sutcliffe begins his investigation with the Hebraism to be found in scholarly and religious milieux, especially in the Netherlands of the early seventeenth-century. It was not an unadulterated “philosemitism” — in fact, Sutcliffe explicitly declines to use the terms ’philosemitism’ and ’antisemitism’ to frame the terms of his discussion — but rather a profound interest in the texts, languages, culture and history of the ancient Hebrews, sometimes from academic motives, often as preparation for anti-Jewish polemics. The reader is introduced here to tensions that reappear later in Sutcliffe’s account, between, on the one hand, fascination for and use of res Judaica, and, on the other hand, antipathy toward and fear of Jews and Judaism. The same individuals who had a scholarly and sometimes even a religious respect for Jewish sources also believed in the obsolescence of Judaism itself.
For readers coming from philosophy and its history, the real interest of this book lies in Sutcliffe’s analysis of the role played by the Jewish material in the rise of Enlightenment rationalism. As we know from Israel’s study, the real culprit here is Spinoza, as well as the city of Amsterdam itself and the Portuguese-Jewish community that thrived in its cosmopolitan and relatively tolerant environment. Sutcliffe argues that Jewish Amsterdam was practically a breeding ground of the radical Enlightenment. Its cross-fertilizations of Protestant, Catholic and Jewish cultures and Dutch and Iberian sensibilities “touched the entire community and influenced the outlook of its leadership”, as well as its many members, with the result that it nourished “the minds of those isolated radicals who most insistently explored the intersection between those worlds” (112). Sephardic Amsterdam, with heterodox thinkers such as Da Costa, Prado and Spinoza, was a “crucible of theological dissent … [that] contributed to the ideas and arguments of the wider European Enlightenment, as it gathered force in the closing decades of the seventeenth-century” (117).
What the Enlightenment radicals found in Spinoza, above all, was a serious, knowledgeable de-sacralizing critique of Scripture, one that reduced it to a work of human literature. Spinoza’s Theological-Political Treatise gave them the tools they needed to undermine the claims of organized religion, and especially the political usurpations being practiced by contemporary ecclesiastics. But there was a problem. These arguments that the radical crowd found so useful came from a Jewish source. Thus, once again, we come across the tension that Sutcliffe finds so essential to the Enlightenment. The same Jewish tradition that needed to be rejected for its particularism — “the epitome of unenlightened superstition and legalism” — and as a threat to the universalist rationalism being promoted by these thinkers, offered the best practical tools for furthering their anti-establishment project. This brings Sutcliffe to one of the more interesting aspects of his story, viz., the way in which the Enlightenment labored to de-Judaize Spinoza and distance him from his Jewish origins. In order to claim Spinoza for itself, radical philosophy had to erase all traces of Jewishness from his identity. Spinoza may have been born and raised a Jew, but Judaism rejected him and he rejected Judaism, with the result that he ended up an atheist, and the period’s most prominent truly secular individual. Spinoza thus becomes to his radical but anti-Judaic acolytes the messiah of rationalism (or, to use Sutcliffe’s phrase, “the Jesus Christ of Reason”). Spinoza is represented in literature of the time “as something almost miraculous: a Jew who has utterly transcended the mark of his origin” (139). He gave early Enlightenment radicals messianic hope that a universalistic reign of reason was close at hand. “The dawn of Enlightenment is thus given a subliminally millenarian tinge, with Spinoza performing the key Messianic role as its necessarily originally, and then no longer, Jewish harbinger” (140).
Part of Sutcliffe’s argument on the role that Spinoza played in the genesis of the radical Enlightenment depends on what seems to be a somewhat questionable reading of Spinoza. Sutcliffe’s Spinoza is a thinker still sentimentally beholden to his Jewish roots. While Sutcliffe takes note of Spinoza’s denigration of and “profound hostility” towards “formal Judaism”, especially as an “unphilosophical” religion, his portrayal of Spinoza is that of someone who is nonetheless respectful, even defensive, about Judaism and its history. True enough, as Sutcliffe notes, “a distinctly Jewish perspective is woven into [Spinoza’s] philosophical arguments”. But Sutcliffe’s Spinoza still retains a sense of Jewish identity and “pride” in Jewish history and culture. “Jewish history was legitimated per se, as the collective memory of his own people” (124). It was not Spinoza, Sutcliffe claims, but only later thinkers (such as Lodewijk Meyer) for whom “Jewish difference … stands as a problem, to be transcended by the imminent triumph of secular reason. In implicitly situating Judaism as antithetical not simply to Christianity but to reason itself, Meyer injected a sharp hint of hostility into the relationship between Judaism and the radical early Enlightenment” (128). But is not this “hostility” already there in Spinoza, the man who insisted that Jews were “emasculated” by their religion? It is hard to read the Theological-Political Treatise and come away with the impression that its author still saw himself as a Jew, much less that he saw Judaism as compatible with progressive, secular reason. Sutcliffe takes a different approach from that of Steven Smith who, in his Spinoza, Liberalism and the Question of Jewish Identity, argues that it was Spinoza himself, and not only his followers, who required the transcending of a particularism that was represented above all by Judaism. Even Sutcliffe, later in the book, allows that Spinoza “unambiguously excludes Judaism from his standards of intellectual tolerability”, and that for him Judaism is “the starkest case of a worldview that does not conform to [the] standards” of rational logic (217-218).
Sutcliffe’s is ultimately a story of decline. In the end, the Enlightenment would turn on the Jews. What was originally, in the mid seventeenth-century, ambivalence and tension among gentile scholars who were engaged in the intense study of rabbinic and other Jewish texts — “eagerly scouring the Jewish tradition for guiding insights into fundamental questions of history, theology, hermeneutics and politics” (247) — and especially in the radical stream of the Enlightenment, becomes, by the early eighteenth-century, only tension, mainly between the moderate wing’s ideal of toleration and the intolerant invective often hurled against Judaism. Voltaire was willing to argue for the toleration of contemporary Jews, but he had nothing but contempt for Judaism itself. His was a rationalistic hostility, Sutcliffe argues, that stemmed not from rhetorical enthusiasm or unfortunate personal relations with particular Jews, as has been suggested, but from what he saw as Judaism’s resistance to fitting into the Enlightenment schema. It is an emblematic attitude. “Voltaire’s persistent hostility towards Judaism in a sense draws into unique focus the problems underlying the general Enlightenment stance towards a minority that appeared profoundly unassimilable to its logic” (233).
On the whole, this book is an outstanding addition to the literature. Like Arthur Hertzberg’s more narrowly focused The French Enlightenment and the Jews(1968), it will be required reading on the Enlightenment and the Jews; and, like Israel’s book, it will constitute an important source for the context and legacy of Spinoza’s thought. Readers, especially those seeking an elaboration of philosophical positions, will be frustrated by the quick pace and large cast of characters and works that Sutcliffe expertly surveys. He is great on sweep, but often short on details. For example, we are not told what exactly is the “purified Judaism” that, for the Dutch radical (and Spinozist) Adriaen Koerbagh, constitutes the “true philosophical religion” (131). But this is a minor complaint. Sutcliffe’s analyses and fluent narrative make for compelling and informative reading, and the picture that emerges throws a good deal of light on a hitherto neglected aspect of this period of intellectual history.
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by Matthew Strauss and Amy Phillips
Emo Musician William Control (Ex-Aiden) Accused of Running “Sex Cult,” Police Decline to Prosecute
Several women say William Francis beat them, forced them to get tattoos of his initials and sign contracts in blood, and otherwise abused them for years
William Roy Francis aka William Control, November 2013 (Joey Foley/Getty Images)
Multiple women have come forward with allegations of physical, sexual, emotional, and financial abuse against William Francis, the former frontman for emo band Aiden and a solo artist who records as William Control. A new investigative report from The Daily Beast’s Amy Zimmerman includes graphic descriptions from several women of violent acts they say were performed on them by Francis. They claim to have been forced into a “sex cult” by Francis, who, they suggest, used his public persona as a BDSM practitioner as a guise for violence. The accusations include being forced to tattoo Francis' initials on their bodies and sign contracts in blood, and being brutally beaten.
According to The Daily Beast, police in Federal Way, Washington investigated claims against Francis, but declined to prosecute. On June 7, Francis wrote on Facebook: “I went into the police for questioning about these allegations earlier this year. After showing the detective my side of the story, including private communication, he recommended no charges be pressed, because it was clear the behavior was consensual. I have in the past, engaged in heavy role play and bondage relationships WITH consent. However, I do not engage in that sort of play anymore. And for anyone who feels as though I have hurt them or violated their consent, I am sorry. It won’t ever happen again. There are lots of things that have been said that are outright lies. I have never been with underage girls. I have never been involved in a ‘sex cult.’”
One woman, a 22-year-old named Vitoria Chan, posted on Facebook earlier this month that Francis “targets young emotionally unstable women into becoming BDSM sex slaves.” She continued, “I started to get groomed into this cult when I was 14 years old.” Chan reiterated her statements to The Daily Beast.
Another woman, identified as Lily, told The Daily Beast, “He had me sign a contract, and the contract had to be signed in my blood.” She also claimed that Francis “wanted me to change my appearance, lose weight—I developed an eating disorder. There were rules, and he would make me film myself doing various degrading sex acts.” She also told The Daily Beast that Francis once anally raped her.
A woman named Sarka J told the website Salty that Francis financially manipulated her; she said she paid Francis $100,000 over three years. “He wanted plenty of money as proof of my love, and if I didn’t send it I wasn’t allowed to see him,” she recalled. Stormie Somers, who dated Francis for nine years, told The Daily Beast, “I’d send him money constantly; I’d have to do jobs to make sure that he had money. Even if he didn’t need the money, it was still my job to supply him with money.”
Sarka J and Stormie Somers also detailed particularly violent incidents they claim to have experienced with William Francis. Sarka told Salty, “I couldn’t consent because I was scared to death. I couldn’t consent because of the loaded gun being forcefully pulled to my mouth. Trying to refuse only meant more torture until I gave up. I couldn’t consent because being beaten heavily with fists to my face and head and temples, as well as being choked unconscious.”
Somers said to the Daily Beast that in October 2010, Francis “summoned” her to a hotel room in Los Angeles, where he assaulted her. “He collapsed my throat, dislocated my jaw, he gave me black eyes, a contusion to my spine,” Somers said. She also told The Daily Beast that Francis used her to recruit other women into the “sex cult.”
A woman identified as Sarah, who also says she was physically abused by Francis, told The Daily Beast, “I’m thousands of pounds in debt because of the things he insisted I buy for him and pay for.”
On June 8, Francis wrote on Facebook, “I've decided that in order to move forward with my life I am shutting everything down completely.” He continued, “I’m sorry to everyone but it’s best that I focus on my family and not have any more communication with the outside world.”
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Finally, Politically Incorrect Women Are Coming Out of the Closet
By Suzanne Venker 2016-11-16T11:42:11
I feel a strange sort of kinship with Donald Trump: my entire writing career has been built on people who support me privately, but not in public.
I’ll never forget the time I found a Southwest Airlines stewardess reading one of my books. I had walked to the bathroom in the back of the plane, only to find it occupied. So I found myself standing in the aisle, sandwiched between two flight attendants on my right who were busying themselves with drinks, and one on my left who was crouched down in a corner.
I happened to look down, and I could see the distinct green outline of The Flipside of Feminism.
I smiled, and asked her: “Is that a good book?”
She looked up as though she’d been caught doing something wrong. When I told her I am the author of the book, she looked at me for a few moments and then checked the photo on the book jacket. Then she smiled from ear to ear and instantly relaxed. She told me:
I can’t let my friends know I’m reading this book.
So she reads it in private, she said.
That exchange is a perfect example of political correctness -- the idea that there’s a “right” way to think and a “wrong” way to think -- run amok. And last week Donald J. Trump blasted this phenomenon wide open.
The 2016 election proved, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that our country is divided into two groups: the elite, most of whom are liberal-minded and thus think the “right” way, and everyday folks, most of whom are right-leaning and thus think the “wrong” way.
This narrative has been used to silence women.
In “The misogyny apocalypse,” Amanda Marcotte wrote the following in response to the election results:
Many of us believe -- or fear -- that huge swaths of women are in secret rebellion, that their outward submission belies a heart that believes that women are equal. But it’s actually simpler for women to accede not just their outward behavior, but their hearts, to this sexist system.
Marcotte's rhetoric, which is promulgated throughout the country on a regular basis, is precisely the reason that attendant was reading my book in private. If she dared show the world she doesn’t subscribe to Marcotte’s feminist ideology, she’d be shamed.
https://pjmedia.com/blog/finally-politically-incorrect-women-are-coming-out-of-the-closet/
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