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Tales of exodus: Talk at the junior doctors strike
Posted by kipdudden in Features, The NHS
junior doctors
Dr Mathew Stone is on strike. He is one of around two dozen people stood holding placards in the cold drizzle waving at tooting horns from the adjacent road. The conversation between this small group of doctors skips between two topics: the contract and Australia. As they speak through scarves and hoods, the temperature across the coast of New South Wales creeps over 20°C, there is a 0% chance of rain. Dr Stone has a plane ticket to Sydney leaving in three weeks.
Lewisham University Hospital is not an attractive building. Dr Stone silhouettes it’s industrial edges as the steam dances from his white polystyrene cup. It begins to rain and he reaches into the pocket of his high-vis and pulls out a woolly hat. He stands sombrely for a moment sipping his tea, a passer-by asks him what the strike is about and he tries to explain the situation.
The union who represent British doctors, the British Medical Association (BMA), have been in contract negotiations over patient safety and pay with the Government since 2014. Over 20,000 people marched in support of the junior doctors on 17 October last year following a complete breakdown in communications. Since then an agreement has almost been reached with the help of conciliation service Acas. Both sides have given ground but the BMA insists that Saturday must stay regarded as “unsociable hours”. On 9 February, the government denied rumours that Jeremy Hunt had walked away from a pay neutral deal, the day before this strike.
This isn’t the first time Dr Stone has been on a roadside protest against the actions of Jeremy Hunt. In October 2013, following a yearlong clash with local campaigners and hospital staff, the Court of Appeal ruled that the Health Secretary did not have power to implement cuts that would result in the closure of Lewisham A&E.
“I just feel like we’re in an ongoing battle with the Government to keep the NHS going. First they tried to close the A&E. Now they’re trying to tell me 5pm on a Saturday is the same as 9am on a Tuesday! I just don’t buy it. Originally they were happy for us to be working seven nights on the trot. It’s just not right.”
Dr Stone leaves for Australia in three weeks. He is coming back. This time. His trip will take him from Sydney up to Newcastle and finally back down to Canberra. He’s clearly excited about his holiday but he says there’s some work mixed in with the play. He and his partner, who is also a doctor, are going to make contacts and look at areas they might consider living.
He is not alone. When negotiations broke down in September last year Kwiksurveys conducted a poll for The Guardian asking members of the closed Facebook group junior doctors contract forum “If this new contract proposal goes through for August 2016, would you as a doctor leave the NHS?” Of the 4,129 respondents, 42% said they would leave to work abroad notably in Australia or New Zealand. Another 17.7% said they would leave the NHS and change career, and 11% said they would leave to work privately as a locum doctor.
Johann Malawana is the chair of BMA junior doctors committee. He was tweeting from the Royal London Hospital picket line:
Admittedly, it is far easier to tick a box in an online survey than it is to actually leave for the other side of the world. But figures compiled by Health Education England, the NHS medical training and education body, have revealed significant drops in the number of young doctors applying for training in medical specialities. After medical school all doctors have to complete two Foundation Years to be fully qualified. This new data shows that the number of Foundation Year 2 doctors who have applied to start training as a specialist in the NHS next August has fallen to just 15,855, a drop of over nine per cent since 2013.
The number of Foundation Year 2 doctors seeking to become family doctors has also fallen significantly. Only 4,863 have applied to train as GPs starting this August, 25 per cent fewer than the 6,447 who did so in 2013.
Also huddled in the group is Dr Mary Hynes. She came back from Australia three years ago in order to be closer to her ageing parents. But she is very clear about what it’s like working there:
“The pay and working conditions are far better. When you’re on shift people are always like; ‘Have you had a break?’ Have you had a break?’ It couldn’t be more different here. People think it’s competitive but they’re so desperate for doctors. Hospitals in Newcastle are paying agencies $10,000 for an immediate start.”
Mr Hunt has argued the new contract is necessary to create the so-called “seven-day NHS” outlined in the Conservative manifesto. However critics claim that the number of junior doctors needs to increase since many feel they are already spread too thin.
Dr Stone says he doesn’t want to leave the NHS, but feels like he is being given little choice. He talks of what he feels is a systematic effort to dismantle the system pointing to recent examples such as the privatisation of sexual health services in London.
“Everyone dreams of working in the NHS, very few people want to be private doctors. The pay and conditions might be glamorous but it’s not what it’s about. That’s not why I did this.”
“I feel guilty about even the idea of leaving, but to be honest, I’m not sure they’ll be much of an NHS left to stay for in a few years.”
This statement is greeted by a grave hum of consensus. As the rain continues puddles form and the picket line begins to thin out. The junior doctors have made a rota for people to stay until 9pm in the evening, still social hours under the new contract. The hospital’s hideous ultra-modern photovoltaic panels installed during the developments in 2007 will have generated very few kilowatts today.
Subedited by: David Gregg
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April 8, 2019 April 8, 2019 londonlifewithliz
In the company of Terry Waite
Those of us with memories stretching back to the 1980s vividly remember the day that Terry Waite was kidnapped. In Beirut, attempting to negotiate the release of British and American hostages, he was betrayed by one of the negotiating parties – and spent the next five years in captivity.
An unimaginable experience for most of us – and one which Waite brought vividly to life at tonight’s talk. In the tranquil surroundings of Southwark Cathedral, the Archbishop of Canterbury’s former envoy spoke to us of his experiences of negotiating, his time in captivity and how he adjusted to life once back home. It was a compelling talk and I’m going to share some of it with you, in the hope that you’ll be as engrossed as I was.
To understand those fateful days in 1987, which led to Waite’s imprisonment, we need to travel back to the early 1970s, which found Waite living with his family in Uganda, working as a negotiator. These were turbulent times for the country, as Idi Amin seized power and “caused havoc”. Never before, Waite recalled, had he seen so much bloodshed – including the murder of his friends in front of him; Waite himself was twice held up at gunpoint.
A frequent visitor to the prisons in Kampala, where a number of his church colleagues had been imprisoned without charge, this is where Waite had his first experience of negotiating at a senior level; he met Idi Amin several times and managed to achieve some successes. Above all, Waite says, he came to see that when law and order breaks down in society, all hell breaks loose: people can and will behave accordingly.
Having worked in “most of the world’s conflict zones”, Waite joined Robert Runcie’s staff in 1980 and spent time in Iran and Libya, negotiating with the likes of Colonel Gaddafi and “trying to listen and to understand why people were behaving as they did”. But how did this experienced negotiator and humanitarian come to be captured?
He hadn’t, Waite told us, originally intended to travel to Beirut. However, relatives of some of the hostages approached Southwark diocese, asking for help – and Waite agreed to do what he could, travelling to the Lebanese capital and establishing face-to- face contact with the hostage takers.
Politics, as always, interfered and the hostage takers found it difficult to believe that Waite’s motives were purely altruistic. Nonetheless, the discussions continued – until, one day, Waite was told that one of the hostages was close to death and asked whether he would like to see him. “They gave me their word that they wouldn’t imprison me, so I asked for 24 hours to think over their offer”.
Uncertain what to do, Waite was given conflicting advice by his colleagues. In the end, his conscience told him that he needed to spend time with this dying prisoner – and the die was cast.
Taken to a hotel, Waite spent five days on his own before being driven, blindfolded, to an underground car park. Told to jump out of the car, Waite found himself falling through a trapdoor. When he took off his blindfold, he found himself in a tiled cell. “My blood ran cold”, he told us. “Former prisoners had told me of their cells being tiled to make it easier to clean away the blood”.
And Terry Waite would soon experience for himself what those prisoners had been through. During his first year of captivity, he was beaten regularly, as his captors tried to establish whether he was the agent of a foreign power.
The mental torture was equally horrendous, if not worse. Waite was kept in solitary confinement permanently. Chained to a radiator, he was blindfolded and allowed just one bathroom visit per day. There was no natural light, and he had to eat and sleep on the floor. Nor was he allowed access to pens, paper or radio – or contact with his family. Sitting in his cell, he watched his skin turn white due to lack of sunlight – and his muscle tone disappear. “I felt age catching up with me very quickly”, Waite recalled.
His first reaction to being captured was anger: both at himself, and at his captors. Completely understandable: I’m sure we would have all experienced the same emotion. Yet, he told us, anger is a normal human emotion, “but you can’t let it get the better of you, or it’ll do you more harm than those who caused it”.
Waite maintains that he understood the risks inherent to his role: “If you work with dangerous people, you put yourself at risk”. He always, he says, knew there was a chance he could be captured or killed: “I would never blame others for my captivity. If things go wrong, bear the responsibility yourself”.
Rather than letting anger fester, Waite realised that he needed to remain mentally and spiritually alive. Aware that he had been placed in “an extreme situation” (an understatement if ever I’ve heard one), Waite compared himself with someone who’d been suddenly struck down by a chronic illness. To fill the time, he began to “write” in his head; a necessity, given that he was allowed a pen & paper only twice in his captivity – once, in advance of a mock execution, when he’d been told that he had just five hours to live and that he should write a farewell letter to his family.
What of Terry Waite’s faith, and the role it played in sustaining him through those long, dark years? Interestingly, Waite says that he never felt the close presence of God. “It’s dangerous”, he reflected, “to put too much emphasis on feelings where faith is concerned”. That said, he told his captors that they might possess his body and mind – but that they would never possess his soul, “which lies in the hands of God”.
Where his faith also helped him was in the power of language, which had been embedded in his mind since childhood. Every morning, he said the Communion Service to himself: Anglican psalms and prayers. Doing that, he says, made him feel part of a community around the world.
Amidst the pain and the bleakness there were, thankfully, some humorous moments. Desperately missing books, Waite begged his captors to bring him something to read. They refused – but eventually, he forged a friendship with one of them, through sign language (neither being able to understand the other’s language). His new friend communicated with a “chain” of people, through whom a book was passed along. “When it arrived, I ripped off my blindfold”, recalled Waite, “only to let out an enormous snort of laughter. The title of the book was ‘Great Escapes’”.
You couldn’t make it up, could you? More hilarity was to come when a manual on the subject of breast-feeding arrived in Waite’s cell. When it was followed by Dr Spock’s guide to child-rearing, Waite realised he would have to be more proactive. For the second and final time, he was given a pen and paper – and drew a penguin. It worked. One week later, he was presented with Laurie Lee’s ‘As I Walked Out One Midsummer Morning’ – and a succession of Penguin paperbacks followed.
Solitude, this inspirational human being told us, was both the breaking and the making of him – and, indeed, the title of one of Waite’s books. “I believe you should enjoy – and profit from – solitude”, he mulled – explaining that, whilst in solitary confinement, he was keenly aware that he was living close to death. Solitude can be “invigorating”, is his argument; a whole inner world is opened to you which you can turn into something creative.
What of Waite’s integration back at home: how on earth did he adjust to “normal living”? It took him, he says, around one year – and even now, there are elements of that year of which he has no memory, including a family holiday which took place shortly after his release: “It’s as though he I was walking in a trance”.
And has he been able to forgive his captors? Amazingly, Waite returned to Lebanon some years ago and met with members of Hezbollah, who were “surprised” to see him (another understatement, surely). Together, they agreed that they should put the past behind them.
Of Britain’s current state, Waite laments the ignorance shown over recent years in respect of foreign policy and believes that we need mature statesmen and leaders. But where, he asked, are they to be found? (The audience had no idea, either). We’re still coming to terms, he believes, with the fact that we’re no longer a global power, whilst behaving as though we still have an empire. Britain is yet to discover her new role in the world.
And yet, Waite remains hopeful for the future. Now 79 years old, he comes across as someone at peace with himself and the imperfect world around him. I was both impressed and moved by him and will leave you with a comment he made that we would all do well to remember:
“Suffering is no respecter of persons. But it need not destroy”.
Previous An introduction to Brazilian wines, by one of their biggest fans
Next Readers’ Day at the Guildford Book Festival, Post 1: in which Elizabeth Noble meets Seni Glaister
Anabel @ The Glasgow Gallivanter says:
Interesting! I’ve read the accounts of their captivity by Brian Keenan and John McCarthy. But nothing by Terry Waite.
londonlifewithliz says:
The same here, Anabel: I’ve read both Brian Keenan and John McCarthy’s accounts of their captivity, but for some reason have never read any of Terry Waite’s work. I shall have to put that right, as I found him to be an enthralling speaker and feel certain I would learn a lot from his writing.
Wow. That must have been an amazing evening.
It really was very special, Wendy. To listen to Terry Waite talk, without an ounce of bitterness, about his experiences in Beirut and how he picked up the pieces afterwards, was incredibly inspiring.
Such an awful, horrifying ordeal. I can understand his anger when it first happened, too. It’s incredible he’s able to recount the humorous elements and see a little light from his experiences. Being given a book called ‘Great Escapes’ is pretty damn ironic, not sure if I would have laughed at the time or not though! Thanks for sharing this, it made for fascinating reading as I only really know the basics of his story.xx
I’m so glad you enjoyed the post, Caz – and I agree, it’s incredible that Terry Waite is able to talk about such a horrific experience with humour – and forgiveness. He’s an example to all of us of how to forgive and move forward: thankfully, most of us will never be tested in that way.
Jane Rosebery says:
Oh my goodness, what a story. I am teary-eyed. Thank you so much for writing about this so I can learn about it!!
Thank you, Jane: I’m so glad you enjoyed the post. I was hugely inspired by Terry Waite and it was a privilege listening to him talk about the horrendous ordeal he endured and how he has come to terms with it and moved on. He’s an inspiration to us all.
Fascinating post as usual and as a car enthusiast it reminded me of the story of his MGB and his return home, I will post it here as a little addition to his story, I hope you don’t mind.
FREEDOM IS AN MGB: TERRY WAITE, HOME AT LAST, IN THE CAR HE DREAMED OF
Freedom is an MGB. Initially, it sounds like a cliched advertising slogan thought up in days of yore, when the sports car was a symbol of wind in the hair and the type of freedom that comes from driving along country lanes with the hood down.
However, freedom, in this instance, stands for something very different and is coined by one of the few men who would know the true meaning of the word, Terry Waite. The slogan isn’t part of some new campaign for the relaunch of the MGB, but part of a scheme to raise money (or and promote the work “Y” Care International, the world relief and development agency of the YMCA in Britain and Ireland. Terry founded ‘Y’ care in 1984 to raise money to fund community based projects run by local YMCAs in developing countries.
Why use an MGB to promote the project? The idea came as the result of a letter sent to Terry at RAF Lyneham on his return to England. Bryan Howells, MG Car Club Director, suggested as a gesture to welcome Terry home, that the Car Club should offer to get Terry’s by now famous MGB, back into running order after being off the road for so long. Lyn Jeffrey, Club Secretary, ensured that the letter wouldn’t get lost in the many sackfuls of post arriving daily at the base. There was pandemonium in the club office two days later when Terry phoned to accept the offer.
Will Corry, Club Chairman set about the project of putting Terry’s MGB back on the road. One of his first jobs was to make a hit list of contributors. Mansell McCarthy Motorsport was enlisted to carry out the work and set about recovering the vehicle from its long hibernation. Apart from a seized handbrake from being left so long.
(Terry later explained, “Well, I only in tended lo be away for a week!”), there were no real problems. A thorough examination revealed sound body work, but extensive corrosion to the brakes, suspension, steering and fuel systems.
Some new parts would be needed and naturally the Club turned to the advertisers in their own magazine Safety Fast for free contributions. When Pete Buckles at Moss Europe was first approached, he, like all of the other MG specialists the Club contacted, was more than willing to offer any parts and support that was needed.
While the car was stripped as necessary and rebuilt with new parts, it was not totally restored, as the objective was to reunite Terry with his old familiar MGB. The MG Car Club planned to hand over the keys of the car at a presentation ceremony at the London Transport Museum, Covent Garden. However, with the care and consideration of the man ever present, the Waite family suggested that a promotion of the event should be used not only to celebrate his freedom but also to benefit a worthy cause. The slogan ‘Freedom is an MGB’ was quickly endorsed by Terry and he decided to dedicate the promotion to “Y” Care. The MG Car Club agreed to promote the campaign and that “Y” Care would benefit from the proceeds.
The day of the presentation was thankfully clear and sunny. Adam Blackaby, Group Marketing Manager and Mike Standring, Group Sales Manager, attended the event on behalf of Moss Europe. The shining and polished Midnight Blue MGB was initially hidden away in the Transport Museum, where it was unveiled in front of a gaggle of press and television crews. Terry then drove the car outside into the sunshine for further photo opportunities. He looked very proud of the car, his famous bearded grin offered to the many calls of “Terry, this way!”, “Terry, over here!” as the press clamored for just the right publicity shot. Terry didn’t seem to mind, alter all it was all in good cause and he did have his MGB back. Freedom at last!
This is such a fabulous article: many thanks for sharing it. I love the idea of like-minded car enthusiasts coming together to restore Terry’s MGB and present it to him. I can imagine that was an incredibly emotional experience for everyone involved, all the more so as the presentation was used to raise money for the charity he founded.
Chris Karas says:
Great story! I love how he fought for his mental and spiritual health by reading and writing. I feel appreciative with the gifts in my life more after reading his account.
Thank you very much, Chris – and I agree: hearing such a story definitely makes you appreciate what you have in your own life more.
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Posts tagged ‘Super-Federation Council’
Which Timeline Do We Want?
A very long, very informative, very comprehensive post from Stillness in the Storm. I suggest reading it all. Due to it’s length, I have posted a portion of the article here. To read the entire article, please follow the links to the full blog post. In Joy!
Boeing’s “You Just Wait” Ad Reveals 100 Year Partial Disclosure Timeline — Analysis | Disproving Partial Disclosure, Insider Testimony, and Steering Collective Consciousness Toward the Full Disclosure Timeline
by Justin Deschamps
The Aerospace technology giantBoeing is celebrating their centennial or 100-year anniversary in 2016.
A campaign was launched in late 2015 along with a 30-second advertisement that debuted in early 2016 with the title You just wait.
It features interplanetary spacecraft, solar energy technology, colonies on Mars, and claims to have taken the world “across the universe and beyond.” For those who may not be aware, the narrative presented in the commercial sounds glaringly similar to the testimony of secret space program (SSP) insider and whistleblower Corey Goode. The researcher, writer, and presenter David Wilcock also brings forth information that lends credence to this narrative, but there are many others.
The following article provides an overview of the insider testimony that correlates with the Boeing advertisement as well as the partial disclosure agenda currently rolling out to the public. In addition, an analysis of the ad and its subtle influencing methods will be conducted suggesting that it is an effort to steer the collective consciousness of humanity into accepting a limited disclosure scenario.Goode became aware of this deceptive disclosure effort as a result of his contacts in the SSP Alliance and is doing everything he can to alert the public. This is because an alliance within the higher level SSP—whom he is connected to—is seeking full disclosure.
Full Disclosure vs. Partial Disclosure
This full disclosure scenario, as proposed by the SSP Alliance, and their allies, calls for a complete end to slavery in all its forms (the Babylonian money-magic system), the release of all hidden information and suppressed technology, and a truth and reconciliation style tribunal of the Cabal and their underlings. If the SSP Alliance gets their way, so much of the truth will be made public that attempting to institute a new form of slavery will be almost impossible. Clearly, the criminal syndicates operating on Earth and beyond want to do everything they can to stop this effort, including releasing advertisements that entice the public to accept a partial disclosure narrative.
But for those unaware of the insidious machinations of the Cabal (also known as the Illuminati, the New World Order, and so on)—those in power who have shaped the planet into a glorified form of modern day feudalism or slavery—the partial disclosure initiative will sound like a saving grace; because that’s what it’s designed to do. It’s designed to pacify the people who are the most aware while selling the unaware masses on a space-age style form of neo-enslavement.
Under this limited disclosure agenda, only some of the truth will be revealed to the public and even that will take 100 years. According to Goode and his contacts in the SSP Alliance, the Cabal-run groups, and their allies, have brokered an agreement with certain Earth-based alliances to begin this partial disclosure effort. Apparently, this agreement was made in late 2015 and bolstered in 2016, but this plan was most likely developed much earlier.
In a report issued in June of 2015, Goode stated that he attended a Super-Federation Council meeting wherein the first public allusion of a limited disclosure plan was mentioned:
The person at the podium then asked that there be no more Alliance Disclosures through myself or the people I am talking to including David Wilcock until after an agreed upon date in late November of 2015. They said that a well-known public servant would be sacrificed in the operation to implement their plan for an incremental disclosure. (Source)
Whether or not the “well-known public servant” was sacrificed remains unclear. On the other hand, partial disclosure efforts have continued to pour out into the public domain. These take on the form of entertainment media, such as films, television shows, and video games, as well as innuendo from science related propaganda outlets, like NASA.
For example, the initial discovery of exoplanets several years ago was a complete paradigm shift in the way science deals with the search for extraterrestrial life. Prior to this development, it was widely accepted in academia that humanity would most likely never find extraterrestrials—at least not anytime soon. Anyone searching for ETs with seriousness was quietly ridiculed and maligned—but not anymore. This is in part due to the discoveries of the Kepler Mission focusing on the search for habitable exoplanets.
Revised Drake Equation
To exemplify this shift, consider that the Drake Equation was “updated” recently.
This mathematical model from the mid 20th century was a boon for those unwilling to acknowledge the possibility of life evolving elsewhere in the cosmos. In its original form, the equation asserted that it was a statistical certainty that life doesn’t exist in the cosmos. But for those in the know, clearly, this isn’t true. Earlier this year, a team of scientists proposed changes that completely shifted how we look at the universe.
Adam Frank is a professor of physics and astronomy at the University of Rochester who helped co-author a paper proposing changes to the Drake Equation, which incorporate Kepler’s exoplanet observations. The team revised the framework of several factors so that instead of asking how likely is it that ET civilizations exist, it instead asks how likely is it that our civilization is the only one to have existed. (Source)
The new form of the Drake Equation suggests that it is nowa mathematical certainty that ancient ET cultures evolved and then went extinct many times over. Isn’t it interesting what changing some of the factors can do to shift the results? This new conclusion is an almost an 180º shift from the previous view. Take a moment to appreciate that within 10 years time, humanity went from “we are totally alone in the universe” to “extinct ancient ET cultures probably existed everywhere.”
And it just so happens that in the partial disclosure plan put forth by the Cabal, a central part is the admission of ancient ruins from ET cultures being found throughout the solar system and beyond. This item of information was supplied by Goode and Wilcock during their weekly online series Cosmic Disclosure.
Related Drake Equation Updated with Kepler Exoplanet Data | Scientists Say ET Life Probably Exists, but it’s All Extinct – Matches Partial Disclosure Narrative Discussed by Corey Goode
To be clear, Goode and other insiders have confirmed that it is true ancient ruins have been found all throughout the solar system and local star cluster. However, there are also countless extraterrestrial civilizations that have made contact with humanity in the relatively short time the SSP has been active, within the past 100 years. Goode states that there are at 40 to 60 extraterrestrial groups with longstanding outposts within the solar system, which have maintained a Super Federation alliance to ensure their agendas come to fruition. This federation has been actively conducting 22 genetic, social, and spiritual experiments on Earth for thousands of years.
The point being that the partial disclosure narrative only reveals extinct ancient ET cultures and makes no mention of contemporaneous non-terrestrial activities—a half-truth with the power to espouse many false impressions in the minds of the unaware masses.
Ceres Bright Spot
The Ceres bright spot is another point of soft disclosure laying the foundations for a limited disclosure event, as presented by David Wilcock. The planetoid captivated extraterrestrial enthusiasts when, in 2015, the Dawn spacecraft captured images of incredibly bright objects in one of the craters on the desolate surface.
Image Source. Ceres Bright Spot.
Image Source. Ceres Bright Spot seen as it moves from the sun-facing side. Here the luminosity doesn’t appear to be reduced as one would expect if it was reflecting sunlight off a surface, leading some to conclude these lights are artificial in nature.
Although mainstream science tells us these bright spots are nothing but reflective ice fields, certain analysts have suggested that the luminosity is too great to be a natural reflection.
Related Ceres’ Bright Spot Is Composed Of Many Smaller Spots | Closest look yet at Ceres’ bright spots
The discovery of thousands of exoplanets, the revising of the Drake Equation, and the Ceres bright spot are each playing a part in preparing humanity for disclosure.
And while these items will certainly be a part of a disclosure event, without the whole truth, it may not be the full disclosure experience many have been waiting for. These the points aloneprovide a basis for the Cabal-run media to push the limited disclosure plan, and as was mentioned earlier, involves the devulgence of ancient ruins left by ET races. Another element involves a narrative in which human beings were created from an ancient race of ET giants, known in the SSP as the progenitors or the Ancient Builder race.
To be clear, these elements are a part of the story, but not the whole truth. As such, gaining an understanding of what the whole picture looks like is essential to discerning the limited disclosure effort from the complete or full one.
What Will Partial Disclosure Look Like?
When the big push starts—which we are in the early stages of now—it will seem like the truth has finally been revealed: decades worth of banker fraud will be exposed, war criminals will be arrested, the 9/11 conspiracy will be unveiled, UFOs will be connected to black budget government projects (USAPs), and a financial reset or debt forgiveness will take place. And for those unaware of the greater truths—especially those related to higher level SSP activity—this will seem like our prayers have finally been answered. And again, all these things will probably be part of a full disclosure event, and as such, the Cabal needs certain features to be present within the limited disclosure plan in order to gain support from the public.
The limited plan calls for releasing information about lower level secret space program activityonly; nothing about the over 900 extraterrestrial groups we’ve been actively trading with; nothing about the over 60 million people who were enslaved by the programs during the Brain Drain era of the 1960’s; nothing about hundreds of thousands of people who go missing every year disappearing into highly immoral human trafficking operations with extraterrestrial races; nothing about the true power of our collective consciousness and its ability to affect reality; nothing about the organic evolution timeline and the complete fraud of transhumanism; nothing about the malevolent AI (Artificial Intelligence) that has infected the minds of so many high ranking societal figures, and so on.
In short, the partial disclosure agenda is nothing more than a softer and more palatable form of mass mind control and slavery. It is an attempt by despotic elites to regain control over the human population, which is presently showing signs of an organic mass awakening. It will do this by enticing the unawakened and unaware masses to accept a technological leap in society, which will seem like it imparts more freedoms but in reality, causes greater dependency and reliance on the would-be masters of this world.
One of the justifications for this plan, on the part of some of these Earth-based alliance groups pushing for partial disclosure, is that because the West had their 100 years of financial dominance (the Federal Reserve System), the East wants their turn to be masters of humanity. But slavery is still slavery, even if the shackles are a little less heavy.
Continure reading ….
Government Truth Seeking, Life Perspective, Uncategorized
Ancient Builder race
Brian Drain
Drake Equation
interplanetary
Justin Deschamps
partial disclosure
Super-Federation Council
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HomePosts tagged 'Vol 4'
April 10, 2016 April 10, 2016 mayobat Music Black Sabbath, Creem, Grand Funk, Lester Bangs, Nick Tosches, Paranoidm Master of Reality, Robert Christgau, Rolling Stone, Sabbath Bloody Sabbath, Sabotage, Vol 4
Let’s be fair. Sometimes critics just don’t fully understand what they are dealing with. Sometimes a band is so far ahead of their time, or so different from what came before, that a fair critical evaluation is difficult, if not impossible. And what do critics always do with something that they don’t understand? They hate it, of course. What do critics do with something that becomes hugely popular, despite their protestations? They try to kill it.
With Black Sabbath, they failed… although it would take decades before Sabbath were fully accepted by the mainstream. The Rolling Stone Record Guide tells an interesting story: In the 1979 edition of this venerable reference book, the review of Black Sabbath’s ‘Paranoid’ album received a lowly One Star. Ditto in the 1983 edition. In the 1992 edition, RS upgraded ‘Paranoid’ to 3.5 Stars. 2004: Five Stars. So it took RS 34 years to fully understand what we all knew in 1970.
Rolling Stone was the most widely-read and well-respected rock mags of the 70s. And they got Black Sabbath wrong four times on a row, trashing each Sabbath album from ‘Black Sabbath’ right through ‘Vol 4’. Robert Christgau, writer for The Village Voice, and self-proclaimed ‘Dean of American Rock Critics’, was another important journalist of the era who disparaged or dismissed Sabbath at every opportunity. The legendary Lester Bangs, whose work appeared in Rolling Stone and also in Creem, was also responsible for the first trashing of Sabbath in the American press: a scathing review of Sabbath’s debut. Journalists in the UK were no less abusive. So the biggest writers and publications in 70s music journalism all stepped up to disparage the Black Sabbath phenomenon. Of course, the widespread critical disdain of Black Sabbath did not destroy them; in fact, as we saw in Part I, it only made them stronger.
Now: A word about Grand Funk:
Before the mainstream the rock cognoscenti decided that Black Sabbath Must Be Destroyed, Grand Funk Railroad was their favorite whipping boy. GFR’s first 6 albums were all universally panned by critics; 8 of their first 9 went Top Ten in the U.S. The band also scored four Top Ten singles during 1973/74. Despite their enormous popularity, critics consistently dismissed the band and their music, attributing their success to ‘hype’, constantly referring to their music as ‘phony’, and generally unleashing the same level of vitriol and spite that they would visit upon Black Sabbath. In fact, writers often referenced GFR while beating up Sabbath, as we’ll see below, while we look back at how Sabbath’s first four albums were assessed by the more notable writers of the early 1970s…
Lester Bangs, Rolling Stone: “Over across the tracks in the industrial side of Cream country lie unskilled laborers like Black Sabbath, which was hyped as a rockin’ ritual celebration of the Satanic mass or some such claptrap… The whole album is a shuck—despite the murky songtitles and some inane lyrics that sound like Vanilla Fudge paying doggerel tribute to Aleister Crowley… —just like Cream! But worse.”
Robert Christgau, The Village Voice: “The worst of the counterculture on a plastic platter–bullshit necromancy, drug-impaired reaction time, long solos, everything… I’ve been worried something like this was going to happen since the first time I saw a numerology column in an underground newspaper. C-“
Robert Christgau: “They do take heavy to undreamt-of extremes, and I suppose I could enjoy them as camp, like a horror movie–the title cut is definitely screamworthy. After all, their audience can’t take that Lucifer bit seriously, right? C-“
Nick Tosches, Rolling Stone, April, 1971: Tosches, a highly-respected writer, wrote a 1,500 word ‘review’ that mentions neither the band’s name nor the name of the record, or any of the songs on it, blatantly dismissing both the band and the album. If there’s a point to his critique, I suppose it can be found in his use of the term ‘bubblegum satanism’.
MASTER OF REALITY
Richard Green, New Musical Express, August 1971: “At last here it is, but don’t expect this one to win any awards. It is quite possible to play tracks at random and, with one or two exceptions, not be able to tell much difference… Sorry, lads, not this time.”
Mike Saunders, The Rag, September 1971: “Grand Funk has been the most important band in the land for the last year, which you’re probably aware of anyway. Grand Funk in concert are as big an attraction as the Beatles were in their heyday, and the truth is this: Grand Funk are the first SUPERGROUP, popularity-wise, America has ever had. Black Sabbath have been creeping up on Grand Funk, though… Well, what should one make of all this? Is it all just another sign of the decadence that seems to be everywhere these days?”
Lester Bangs, Rolling Stone, November, 1971: “The real question is whether Black Sabbath can grow and evolve, as a band like the MC5 has, so that there is a bit more variation in their sound from album to album. And that’s a question this group hasn’t answered yet.”
Robert Christgau: “As an increasingly regretful spearhead of the great Grand Funk switch, in which critics redefined GFR as a 1971 good old-fashioned rock and roll band even though I’ve never met a critic (myself included) who actually played the records, I feel entitled to put this in its place. Grand Funk is like an American white blues band of three years ago–dull. Black Sabbath is English–dull and decadent. I don’t care how many rebels and incipient groovies are buying. I don’t even care if the band members believe in their own Christian/satanist/liberal murk. This is a dim-witted, amoral exploitation. C-“
Lester Bangs emerged in June of 1972 as a full-fledged convert, vehemently supporting Sabbath’s music as well as their message. His extensive 2-part piece in CREEM is not only an intelligent and passionate analysis of the Sabbath phenom (Master of Reality was then at #8 in the US, pulling the two previous LPs back into the Hot 100 with it), but also one of the finest pieces of rock writing you or I will ever read.
http://www.ideologic.org/news/view/creem_bangs_sabbath_72_pt1
Bangs peeks behind the curtain of negative hype and busts several myths surrounding Sabbath. The legendary scribe even goes so far as to compare the lyrics in ‘War Pigs’ to those in Bob Dylan’s ‘Masters of War’, in a bid to legitimize Sabbath’s oft-misunderstood lyrical stance. To stand tall among your peers and compare one of the most respected songwriters in all of rock music to one of the most hated and reviled bands ever took massive balls. Cheers to you, Lester Bangs. For the rest of Sabbath’s critics, however, it was still business as usual…
Tom Clark, Rolling Stone, December, 1972: “As the Sabs poured into ‘Wheels of Confusion’ like giant gobs of wet cement gushing from the heavens in the never-ending sameness of a taffy-pull performed by mutants…”
The rest of Clark’s review is jammed with more of this bizarre language and exaggerated hippie-speak, rendering the review impossible to comprehend or take seriously:
“Ten-ton dogs snarled in the mouth of the volcano. Storms of liquid metal blasted their way into the soap factory. Soaring zoos, etc.”
Billboard Magazine, hardly able to hide their sarcasm, wrote: “The red kings of demon rock have gotten it together and gifted their adoring public with a long awaited fourth album. They have not disinterred any new musical pathways here, their sounds are, as always, immediately recognizable. Some nice titles include ‘Wheels of Confusion’, ‘St Vitus Dance’, and ‘Cornucopia’.”
Max Bell, Let It Rock, December 1972: “Despite Black Sabbath’s protestations that they have spent both a great deal of time and money on their latest album (earthshatteringly entitled Volume 4) the end product still manages to be a monumental bore. In the past, say the Sabbath, their discs have suffered from a lack of the above essentials and, as a result, they have failed to do themselves justice on record. I am inclined to think that even with unlimited resources they would be hard put to make a really good album. They just don’t have sufficient talent or musical direction.”
SABBATH BLOODY SABBATH
By 1973 and Sabbath’s fifth album, the shift in critical appraisal that Lester Bangs began the previous year had begun to take hold. It didn’t hurt that ‘Sabbath Bloody Sabbath’ displays a healthy level of maturity and subtlety, and the band was rewarded with their first positive mainstream reviews. Their detractors were still out there, but the tide was starting to turn…
Gordon Fletcher, Rolling Stone, February, 1974: “This record transcends third-generation rock in that it possesses a degree of internal intricacy that belies popular conceptions of heavy-metal… An extraordinarily gripping affair… Sabbath, Bloody Sabbath is nothing less than a complete success.”
Billy Altman, Rolling Stone, September, 1975: “Sabotage is not only Black Sabbath’s best record since Paranoid, it might be their best ever… Even with the usual themes of death, destruction and mental illness running throughout this album, the unleashed frenzy and raw energy they’ve returned to here comes like a breath of fresh air.”
So Black Sabbath survived all attempts to destroy them, and a gradual critical reappraisal had begun. You’d think that after all of this, by the time of Van Halen’s debut, the critics would have learned their lesson:
Richard Riegel, reviewing Van Halen’s debut, Creem 1978: “LET ME TELL you about dinosaurs. No, ‘dinosaurs’ may be too harsh a term, even if Van Halen-style rockers do find their evolutionary fulfillment in a quick extinction…. Van Halen. Big rock. Remember the names. Extinct is forever.”
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Comfort, comfort my people, says your God. Speak tenderly to Jerusalem, and cry to her that her warfare is ended, that her iniquity is pardoned, that she has received from the Lord's hand double for all her sins. A voice cries: “In the wilderness prepare the way of the Lord; make straight in the desert a highway for our God. Every valley shall be lifted up, and every mountain and hill be made low; the uneven ground shall become level, and the rough places a plain. And the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together, for the mouth of the Lord has spoken.” ... Bible Verse Wall Art
Solomon made all the furniture which was in the house of the LORD: the golden altar and the golden table on which was the bread of the Presence; and the lampstands, five on the right side and five on the left, in front of the inner sanctuary, of pure gold; and the flowers and the lamps and the tongs, of gold; and the cups and the snuffers and the bowls and the spoons and the firepans, of pure gold; and the hinges both for the doors of the inner house, the most holy place, and for the doors of the house, that is, of the nave, of gold. Christian Gifts
Then Moses said to the people of Israel, “See, the Lord has called by name Bezalel the son of Uri, son of Hur, of the tribe of Judah; and he has filled him with the Spirit of God, with skill, with intelligence, with knowledge, and with all craftsmanship, to devise artistic designs, to work in gold and silver and bronze, in cutting stones for setting, and in carving wood, for work in every skilled craft. And he has inspired him to teach, both him and Oholiab the son of Ahisamach of the tribe of Dan. ... Christian Gifts
“Bezalel and Oholiab and every craftsman in whom the Lord has put skill and intelligence to know how to do any work in the construction of the sanctuary shall work in accordance with all that the Lord has commanded.” And Moses called Bezalel and Oholiab and every craftsman in whose mind the Lord had put skill, everyone whose heart stirred him up to come to do the work. And they received from Moses all the contribution that the people of Israel had brought for doing the work on the sanctuary. They still kept bringing him freewill offerings every morning, so that all the craftsmen who were doing every sort of task on the sanctuary came, each from the task that he was doing, and said to Moses, “The people bring much more than enough for doing the work that the Lord has commanded us to do.” ... Bible Verse Wall Art
And King Solomon sent and brought Hiram from Tyre. He was the son of a widow of the tribe of Naphtali, and his father was a man of Tyre, a worker in bronze. And he was full of wisdom, understanding, and skill for making any work in bronze. He came to King Solomon and did all his work. He cast two pillars of bronze. Eighteen cubits was the height of one pillar, and a line of twelve cubits measured its circumference. It was hollow, and its thickness was four fingers. The second pillar was the same. He also made two capitals of cast bronze to set on the tops of the pillars. The height of the one capital was five cubits, and the height of the other capital was five cubits. There were lattices of checker work with wreaths of chain work for the capitals on the tops of the pillars, a lattice for the one capital and a lattice for the other capital. ...
This is the book of the generations of Adam. When God created man, he made him in the likeness of God. Male and female he created them, and he blessed them and named them Man when they were created. When Adam had lived 130 years, he fathered a son in his own likeness, after his image, and named him Seth. The days of Adam after he fathered Seth were 800 years; and he had other sons and daughters. Thus all the days that Adam lived were 930 years, and he died. ...
It was carved with cherubim and palm trees; and a palm tree was between cherub and cherub, and every cherub had two faces, a man's face toward the palm tree on one side and a young lion's face toward the palm tree on the other side; they were carved on all the house all around. From the ground to above the entrance cherubim and palm trees were carved, as well as on the wall of the nave. The doorposts of the nave were square; as for the front of the sanctuary, the appearance of one doorpost was like that of the other. The altar was of wood, three cubits high and its length two cubits; its corners, its base and its sides were of wood And he said to me, "This is the table that is before the LORD." The nave and the sanctuary each had a double door. Each of the doors had two leaves, two swinging leaves; two leaves for one door and two leaves for the other. Also there were carved on them, on the doors of the nave, cherubim and palm trees like those carved on the walls; and there was a threshold of wood on the front of the porch outside. There were latticed windows and palm trees on one side and on the other, on the sides of the porch; thus were the side chambers of the house and the thresholds. Share Your Faith Products
Much of the art surviving from Europe after the fall of the Western Roman Empire is Christian art, although this in large part because the continuity of church ownership has preserved church art better than secular works. While the Western Roman Empire's political structure essentially collapsed after the fall of Rome, its religious hierarchy, what is today the modern-day Roman Catholic Church commissioned and funded production of religious art imagery.
He also made two capitals of molten bronze to set on the tops of the pillars; the height of the one capital was five cubits and the height of the other capital was five cubits. There were nets of network and twisted threads of chainwork for the capitals which were on the top of the pillars; seven for the one capital and seven for the other capital. So he made the pillars, and two rows around on the one network to cover the capitals which were on the top of the pomegranates; and so he did for the other capital. The capitals which were on the top of the pillars in the porch were of lily design, four cubits. There were capitals on the two pillars, even above and close to the rounded projection which was beside the network; and the pomegranates numbered two hundred in rows around both capitals. Thus he set up the pillars at the porch of the nave; and he set up the right pillar and named it Jachin, and he set up the left pillar and named it Boaz. On the top of the pillars was lily design. So the work of the pillars was finished. Now he made the sea of cast metal ten cubits from brim to brim, circular in form, and its height was five cubits, and thirty cubits in circumference. Under its brim gourds went around encircling it ten to a cubit, completely surrounding the sea; the gourds were in two rows, cast with the rest. It stood on twelve oxen, three facing north, three facing west, three facing south, and three facing east; and the sea was set on top of them, and all their rear parts turned inward. It was a handbreadth thick, and its brim was made like the brim of a cup, as a lily blossom; it could hold two thousand baths. Then he made the ten stands of bronze; the length of each stand was four cubits and its width four cubits and its height three cubits. This was the design of the stands: they had borders, even borders between the frames, and on the borders which were between the frames were lions, oxen and cherubim; and on the frames there was a pedestal above, and beneath the lions and oxen were wreaths of hanging work. Now each stand had four bronze wheels with bronze axles, and its four feet had supports; beneath the basin were cast supports with wreaths at each side. Its opening inside the crown at the top was a cubit, and its opening was round like the design of a pedestal, a cubit and a half; and also on its opening there were engravings, and their borders were square, not round. The four wheels were underneath the borders, and the axles of the wheels were on the stand. And the height of a wheel was a cubit and a half. The workmanship of the wheels was like the workmanship of a chariot wheel. Their axles, their rims, their spokes, and their hubs were all cast. Now there were four supports at the four corners of each stand; its supports were part of the stand itself. On the top of the stand there was a circular form half a cubit high, and on the top of the stand its stays and its borders were part of it. He engraved on the plates of its stays and on its borders, cherubim, lions and palm trees, according to the clear space on each, with wreaths all around. He made the ten stands like this: all of them had one casting, one measure and one form. He made ten basins of bronze, one basin held forty baths; each basin was four cubits, and on each of the ten stands was one basin. Then he set the stands, five on the right side of the house and five on the left side of the house; and he set the sea of cast metal on the right side of the house eastward toward the south. Now Hiram made the basins and the shovels and the bowls. So Hiram finished doing all the work which he performed for King Solomon in the house of the LORD: the two pillars and the two bowls of the capitals which were on the top of the two pillars, and the two networks to cover the two bowls of the capitals which were on the top of the pillars; and the four hundred pomegranates for the two networks, two rows of pomegranates for each network to cover the two bowls of the capitals which were on the tops of the pillars; and the ten stands with the ten basins on the stands; and the one sea and the twelve oxen under the sea; and the pails and the shovels and the bowls; even all these utensils which Hiram made for King Solomon in the house of the LORD were of polished bronze. In the plain of the Jordan the king cast them, in the clay ground between Succoth and Zarethan. Solomon left all the utensils unweighed, because they were too many; the weight of the bronze could not be ascertained. Solomon made all the furniture which was in the house of the LORD: the golden altar and the golden table on which was the bread of the Presence; and the lampstands, five on the right side and five on the left, in front of the inner sanctuary, of pure gold; and the flowers and the lamps and the tongs, of gold; and the cups and the snuffers and the bowls and the spoons and the firepans, of pure gold; and the hinges both for the doors of the inner house, the most holy place, and for the doors of the house, that is, of the nave, of gold. Thus all the work that King Solomon performed in the house of the LORD was finished And Solomon brought in the things dedicated by his father David, the silver and the gold and the utensils, and he put them in the treasuries of the house of the LORD. Bible Verse Wall Art
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Comfort, comfort my people, says your God. Speak tenderly to Jerusalem, and cry to her that her warfare is ended, that her iniquity is pardoned, that she has received from the Lord's hand double for all her sins. A voice cries: “In the wilderness prepare the way of the Lord; make straight in the desert a highway for our God. Every valley shall be lifted up, and every mountain and hill be made low; the uneven ground shall become level, and the rough places a plain. And the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together, for the mouth of the Lord has spoken.” ...
"Now I am sending Huram-abi, a skilled man, endowed with understanding, the son of a Danite woman and a Tyrian father, who knows how to work in gold, silver, bronze, iron, stone and wood, and in purple, violet, linen and crimson fabrics, and who knows how to make all kinds of engravings and to execute any design which may be assigned to him, to work with your skilled men and with those of my lord David your father. Share Your Faith Products
“You saw, O king, and behold, a great image. This image, mighty and of exceeding brightness, stood before you, and its appearance was frightening. The head of this image was of fine gold, its chest and arms of silver, its middle and thighs of bronze, its legs of iron, its feet partly of iron and partly of clay. As you looked, a stone was cut out by no human hand, and it struck the image on its feet of iron and clay, and broke them in pieces. Then the iron, the clay, the bronze, the silver, and the gold, all together were broken in pieces, and became like the chaff of the summer threshing floors; and the wind carried them away, so that not a trace of them could be found. But the stone that struck the image became a great mountain and filled the whole earth. Christian Canvas Art
"If you happen to come upon a bird's nest along the way, in any tree or on the ground, with young ones or eggs, and the mother sitting on the young or on the eggs, you shall not take the mother with the young; you shall certainly let the mother go, but the young you may take for yourself, in order that it may be well with you and that you may prolong your days.
This is the book of the generations of Adam. When God created man, he made him in the likeness of God. Male and female he created them, and he blessed them and named them Man when they were created. When Adam had lived 130 years, he fathered a son in his own likeness, after his image, and named him Seth. The days of Adam after he fathered Seth were 800 years; and he had other sons and daughters. Thus all the days that Adam lived were 930 years, and he died. ... Christian Gifts
“Come, everyone who thirsts, come to the waters; and he who has no money, come, buy and eat! Come, buy wine and milk without money and without price. Why do you spend your money for that which is not bread, and your labor for that which does not satisfy? Listen diligently to me, and eat what is good, and delight yourselves in rich food. Incline your ear, and come to me; hear, that your soul may live; and I will make with you an everlasting covenant, my steadfast, sure love for David. Behold, I made him a witness to the peoples, a leader and commander for the peoples. Behold, you shall call a nation that you do not know, and a nation that did not know you shall run to you, because of the Lord your God, and of the Holy One of Israel, for he has glorified you. ... Bible Verse Wall Art
The words of Jeremiah, the son of Hilkiah, one of the priests who were in Anathoth in the land of Benjamin, to whom the word of the Lord came in the days of Josiah the son of Amon, king of Judah, in the thirteenth year of his reign. It came also in the days of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah, king of Judah, and until the end of the eleventh year of Zedekiah, the son of Josiah, king of Judah, until the captivity of Jerusalem in the fifth month. Now the word of the Lord came to me, saying, “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you were born I consecrated you; I appointed you a prophet to the nations.” ...
“Then bring near to you Aaron your brother, and his sons with him, from among the people of Israel, to serve me as priests—Aaron and Aaron's sons, Nadab and Abihu, Eleazar and Ithamar. And you shall make holy garments for Aaron your brother, for glory and for beauty. You shall speak to all the skillful, whom I have filled with a spirit of skill, that they make Aaron's garments to consecrate him for my priesthood. These are the garments that they shall make: a breastpiece, an ephod, a robe, a coat of checker work, a turban, and a sash. They shall make holy garments for Aaron your brother and his sons to serve me as priests. They shall receive gold, blue and purple and scarlet yarns, and fine twined linen. ...
“See, I have called by name Bezalel the son of Uri, son of Hur, of the tribe of Judah, and I have filled him with the Spirit of God, with ability and intelligence, with knowledge and all craftsmanship, to devise artistic designs, to work in gold, silver, and bronze, in cutting stones for setting, and in carving wood, to work in every craft. And behold, I have appointed with him Oholiab, the son of Ahisamach, of the tribe of Dan. And I have given to all able men ability, that they may make all that I have commanded you: ...
He also made two capitals of molten bronze to set on the tops of the pillars; the height of the one capital was five cubits and the height of the other capital was five cubits. There were nets of network and twisted threads of chainwork for the capitals which were on the top of the pillars; seven for the one capital and seven for the other capital. So he made the pillars, and two rows around on the one network to cover the capitals which were on the top of the pomegranates; and so he did for the other capital. The capitals which were on the top of the pillars in the porch were of lily design, four cubits. There were capitals on the two pillars, even above and close to the rounded projection which was beside the network; and the pomegranates numbered two hundred in rows around both capitals. Thus he set up the pillars at the porch of the nave; and he set up the right pillar and named it Jachin, and he set up the left pillar and named it Boaz. On the top of the pillars was lily design. So the work of the pillars was finished. Now he made the sea of cast metal ten cubits from brim to brim, circular in form, and its height was five cubits, and thirty cubits in circumference. Under its brim gourds went around encircling it ten to a cubit, completely surrounding the sea; the gourds were in two rows, cast with the rest. It stood on twelve oxen, three facing north, three facing west, three facing south, and three facing east; and the sea was set on top of them, and all their rear parts turned inward. It was a handbreadth thick, and its brim was made like the brim of a cup, as a lily blossom; it could hold two thousand baths. Then he made the ten stands of bronze; the length of each stand was four cubits and its width four cubits and its height three cubits. This was the design of the stands: they had borders, even borders between the frames, and on the borders which were between the frames were lions, oxen and cherubim; and on the frames there was a pedestal above, and beneath the lions and oxen were wreaths of hanging work. Now each stand had four bronze wheels with bronze axles, and its four feet had supports; beneath the basin were cast supports with wreaths at each side. Its opening inside the crown at the top was a cubit, and its opening was round like the design of a pedestal, a cubit and a half; and also on its opening there were engravings, and their borders were square, not round. The four wheels were underneath the borders, and the axles of the wheels were on the stand. And the height of a wheel was a cubit and a half. The workmanship of the wheels was like the workmanship of a chariot wheel. Their axles, their rims, their spokes, and their hubs were all cast. Now there were four supports at the four corners of each stand; its supports were part of the stand itself. On the top of the stand there was a circular form half a cubit high, and on the top of the stand its stays and its borders were part of it. He engraved on the plates of its stays and on its borders, cherubim, lions and palm trees, according to the clear space on each, with wreaths all around. He made the ten stands like this: all of them had one casting, one measure and one form. He made ten basins of bronze, one basin held forty baths; each basin was four cubits, and on each of the ten stands was one basin. Then he set the stands, five on the right side of the house and five on the left side of the house; and he set the sea of cast metal on the right side of the house eastward toward the south. Now Hiram made the basins and the shovels and the bowls. So Hiram finished doing all the work which he performed for King Solomon in the house of the LORD: the two pillars and the two bowls of the capitals which were on the top of the two pillars, and the two networks to cover the two bowls of the capitals which were on the top of the pillars; and the four hundred pomegranates for the two networks, two rows of pomegranates for each network to cover the two bowls of the capitals which were on the tops of the pillars; and the ten stands with the ten basins on the stands; and the one sea and the twelve oxen under the sea; and the pails and the shovels and the bowls; even all these utensils which Hiram made for King Solomon in the house of the LORD were of polished bronze. In the plain of the Jordan the king cast them, in the clay ground between Succoth and Zarethan. Solomon left all the utensils unweighed, because they were too many; the weight of the bronze could not be ascertained. Solomon made all the furniture which was in the house of the LORD: the golden altar and the golden table on which was the bread of the Presence; and the lampstands, five on the right side and five on the left, in front of the inner sanctuary, of pure gold; and the flowers and the lamps and the tongs, of gold; and the cups and the snuffers and the bowls and the spoons and the firepans, of pure gold; and the hinges both for the doors of the inner house, the most holy place, and for the doors of the house, that is, of the nave, of gold. Thus all the work that King Solomon performed in the house of the LORD was finished And Solomon brought in the things dedicated by his father David, the silver and the gold and the utensils, and he put them in the treasuries of the house of the LORD. Christian Gifts
A Psalm of David. The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want. He makes me lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside still waters. He restores my soul. He leads me in paths of righteousness for his name's sake. Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me. You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies; you anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows. ... Christian Gifts
For I want you to know how great a struggle I have for you and for those at Laodicea and for all who have not seen me face to face, that their hearts may be encouraged, being knit together in love, to reach all the riches of full assurance of understanding and the knowledge of God's mystery, which is Christ, in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. I say this in order that no one may delude you with plausible arguments. For though I am absent in body, yet I am with you in spirit, rejoicing to see your good order and the firmness of your faith in Christ. ...
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Prosecutors want Shkreli's bail revoked for Hillary Clinton threat
by Aaron Smith @AaronSmithCNN September 8, 2017: 1:58 PM ET
Martin Shkreli guilty of securities fraud
Federal prosecutors want a judge to revoke bail for Martin Shkreli after he offered money to anyone who could grab Hillary Clinton's hair.
In a court filing on Thursday, the prosecutors called it part of "an escalating pattern of threats and harassment."
Shkreli, a former pharmaceutical executive who gained national notoriety two years ago for jacking up the price of a drug used by AIDS patients, was convicted of securities fraud last month for mismanaging two investment funds.
The prosecutors cited a Facebook post on Monday in which Shkreli promoted a conspiracy theory about the Clinton Foundation and offered the money for a lock of Clinton's hair.
Prosecutors wrote that it was "certainly not appropriate behavior for a defendant who has been found guilty of securities fraud and conspiracy to commit securities fraud -- a defendant whose detention is presumed under the law."
Shkreli later edited the post to say it was "satire" and then removed it altogether. However, the post triggered an investigation by the Secret Service, prosecutors said. Clinton is promoting "What Happened," her memoir of the presidential campaign. Her representatives and the Secret Service declined comment.
Prosecutors cited previous examples of harassment by Shkreli. After Clinton collapsed from pneumonia on September 11, 2016, Shkreli stood outside Chelsea Clinton's apartment, where her mother was recuperating, and live-streamed his own heckling, prosecutors said.
Related: Shkreli is auctioning Wu-Tang album on eBay
Prosecutors also mentioned his online harassment of a Teen Vogue editor in January, which got him kicked off Twitter.
Shkreli's lawyer, Ben Brafman, told CNNMoney: "However inappropriate some of Mr Shkreli's postings may have been, we do not believe that he intended harm and do not believe that he poses a danger to the community."
Related: Prosecutors request gag order for Shkreli
During his trial in the investment case, Shkreli's courtroom antics got him in trouble with the judge. She chastised him for entering an overflow courtroom used by reporters and speaking to them directly, without his lawyer present, to criticize his prosecutors as "junior varsity."
He also posted comments online and, against the wishes of his own lawyer, livestreamed his life on YouTube, where he would ramble on for hours, take calls and play chess, or sleep.
The most serious count against Shkreli carries a maximum prison sentence of 20 years. No sentencing date has been set.
CNNMoney (New York) First published September 8, 2017: 1:58 PM ET
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623. Richard Anthony: “I Don’t Know What To Do”
Posted by The Nixon Administration in Richard Anthony
VIP 25022 (A), August 1965
b/w What Now My Love
(Written by Richard Anthony and Silvano Santonio)
At first blush, this looks like a step backwards; the first time in three and a half years that Motown went to the trouble of buying in a finished record, paying for the rights to issue someone else’s single when there were several hours’ worth of top-notch unreleased home-grown recordings sitting in the vaults waiting for their chance.
The confusion only builds when we come to play the thing, and discover it’s a Merseybeat pastiche, a mid-Sixties attempt to ride the Beatles bandwagon; it’s quite a good Merseybeat pastiche, but, again, haven’t we done this already? Haven’t Motown grown too big for this sort of thing by now?
But then we dig a little deeper, and it turns out that rather than a retrograde step, this is actually a sign of Motown’s growing influence and widening ambitions. Richard Anthony was a star of the burgeoning French recording scene, and was starting to get airplay in England with his English-language cuts; Motown bid for the US rights to one of those singles – this one – and won the race, making Anthony the first European artist to appear on a Motown 45. The Sound of Young Europe.
M. Anthony, né Ricardo Btesh, was – is, since he’s still going strong at the time of writing – a genuine top-drawer French recording artist, packing out theatres and racking up hits on the French hit parade. He’d started out as a club singer in Egypt, growing up on the cosmopolitan banks of the pre-Nasser Suez Canal, mingling with French and British colonials and international visitors; as a result, he was fluent in several languages, not only becoming one of the first French stars to cover English-language American and British rock ‘n’ roll hits, but also one of the first to cover French hits for the English-speaking market.
By 1965, he could legitimately call himself one of the biggest names on the French rock scene. If he wasn’t exactly France’s answer to the Beatles, he came pretty close, with his armies of screaming fans and TV shows, his early alliance with the EMI empire even allowing him to record at Abbey Road in London, including his 1965 album Richard à Londres from which both sides of this single were taken. The cover gives a good idea as to Anthony’s appeal at the time: he looks and sounds like a rougher-edged Paul McCartney, slightly older, slightly chubbier but with a more worldly edge.
The record itself says a lot, too, about what on earth Motown were doing dipping a toe in these uncharted waters. It’s the sort of effortlessly bouncy, airy tune McCartney had turned in for filler on the early-mid Beatles’ LPs like A Hard Day’s Night, Beatles for Sale and – especially – Help!, slightly cheesy in places but with the authentic twang of Beatlemania stamped on it; only the brassy orchestral production (masterminded by the great Ivor Raymonde, about to become famous for his work with Dusty Springfield and the Walker Brothers) gives it away as hailing from a more MOR place than the Beatles were headed.
Even Anthony’s voice is not a million miles away from Liverpool, his French accent almost (though not completely) covered by his mid-Atlantic pronunciation, and the few occasions when his phrasing does mark him out as a non-native speaker just end up adding to the charm. In short, if someone told you this was a Beatles cover, you’d not necessarily doubt it; if they then told you it had also been a big hit, you’d not be too confused as to why.
It wasn’t a big hit, of course, and Motown wouldn’t be buying in any more Richard Anthony records to repeat the experiment, but the attempt makes sense all the same. I like the whistleable tune, I like the energy Anthony brings to this (when you consider the maudlin mess a contemporary like Claude François might have made of the same material), and the mariachi horns are an unexpected but welcome touch.
An irrelevant jaunt for Motown here at the height of their mid-Sixties powers, perhaps – the label’s own writers and singers were coming up with better pop records than this one in-house – but the whole thing ends up being sneakily likeable, and I’ve no quarrel with it at all.
(Or maybe you’re only interested in Richard Anthony? Click for more.)
“The Two Of Us” Richard Anthony
20 thoughts on “623. Richard Anthony: “I Don’t Know What To Do””
Would this possibly have anything to do with the jaunt the Motown Revue made overseas around this time?
It’s certainly possible, and the tour group and Richard might even actually have physically crossed paths in Paris or London for all I know – though if I had to guess, it’s more likely that Motown’s then-recent link-up with the EMI empire to license Hitsville stuff for European release via the Tamla Motown label probably led to Berry Gordy and the team looking for some sort of reciprocal traffic in European EMI acts for the US market. Maybe if this had been a hit, we’d have seen Motown singles on the likes of Anna Karina or France Gall…
(Interesting sidenote: since the rights to this were (and, I’m assuming, still are) owned by EMI – the CD reissue of “Richard à Londres” is still in print – presumably the compilers of The Complete Motown Singles would have had to pay to have this included on there a couple of years back.)
Hmmm…certainly if Marvin Gaye can sing “A Tribute to Nat King Cole” how about “Richard Anthony sings H-D-H” (tongue firmly in cheek).
It might not have been the complete train wreck you’d imagine. He covered a lot of American and British Invasion pop records, often translating the lyrics into French himself, as in this example – the video features the squarest “teen” crowd in the history of television, but it gives you some idea of who he was.
Hey man thats not bad at all! It also helps that i’ve always like “I Should Have Known Better”. I’ll give it a 7 (it would have been 8 but dude is clapping on the wrong beat).
Robb Klein said:
“If this would have been a hit”??? How could it have become a hit? There was no possible market for it. But, even if there had been, Motown didn’t put one penny into advertising it or pushing it with DJs. It was a throwaway from its inception. Motown probably only scheduled the record, and pressed a measly 500 up, as a reciprocal act for their EMI partners. Gordy had no intention of wasting money on that perceived lost cause.
Disagree. The Walker Brothers did plenty well for themselves in America mining this exact sonic territory, and Richard had scored top 20 hits across Europe by this point (including in England). You know I disagree with you about 30% of Motown’s 60s output being favours and tax write offs, so I won’t get into that again, but this isn’t a completely baffling commercial move, it’s exactly the sort of thing that would have seemed like a good idea to someone at the time.
Motown would have done better to put this out on Tamla-Motown in France, The U.K., Belgium, and The Netherlands. Or, DID they actually do that?
They didn’t, because they couldn’t. Motown paid – paid, not “were paid” – actual money for the US rights to some of Richard’s Abbey Road English-language cuts which had already been successfully issued in Europe.
There’s a note at the back of The Complete Motown Singles volume 5 indicating even those limited rights weren’t perpetual, which I’m assuming means Motown would have had to pay again to include this.
Incidentally the UK Tamla Motown label falls within this site’s remit, so if a record was ever released by TM in Britain it’ll be noted as such at the top of the essay.
I suppose it’s a reasonable enough “facsimile” of a “Merseybeat” song, which at the time, would have had to fight for radio time against hundreds of others of similar or better quality, and therefore, it would have been quite a longshot. It MUST have been pressed up as a “good faith” gesture to their EMI partners. It’s well done enough to give it a “5”. So, I agree with your assessment. When I first bought the record in 1965, I expected something quite different. But, that was par for the course, with the unpredictable mix of VIP records.
Do you not like the Walker Brothers, Robb?
The Walker Brothers’ hits were okay sounding. I can listen to them. But, that kind of music is more like “background” music to me. I don’t feel any emotional involvement. I didn’t buy them. I don’t like “Pop” nearly as much as R&B/Soul, on average. The only records I bought by “Caucasian” artists, who are not “termed “Blue-eyed Soul” or “White Neo-Doo Wop” artists, were those by The Four Seasons, Four Evers (Four Seasons’ clones), Dusty Springfield, Del Shannon, the Beach Boys, Jan & Dean, The Ripchords (Bruce & Terry), The Fantastic Baggies (and the other Surf harmony groups), and the Caucasian girls’ groups, but only those that had a “Soul tinge” to their sound, like the Philles/Dimension/Red Bird “Wall of Sound” style. I don’t really like The British invasion sound. I LOVE the original US R&B/Soul songs they remade (both the writing and the singing). But I don’t like the singing or the instrumentation on the remakes. As for the British original songwriting of those artists, I don’t like most of them. Ivor Raymonde is the only one I can even recall, who wrote more than one song in the style I like. Otherwise, I can only remember one other British songwriter whose song I like a lot (Pierre Tubbs-who wrote “Right Back Where We Started From”. I don’t even like Ian Levine’s modern “Motownlike” productions. Out of the many thousands of records I bought, I would guess I have no more than a few hundred records by “Caucasian” artists on vocals. I may have approaching 1,000 or so Jazz records by Caucasian artists (or mixed bands).
Sonic eric said:
It’s been a long time that I’ve been waiting for this one. I was fearing a dismissive critic but that is not the case. Richard, my fellow citizen, was one of the few french singers (with Joe Dassin) not to sing in “yaourt” (that awful “bouillie” that Claude François made in his english records) and he did a good job there. A million miles away from Marvin Gaye and Levi Stubbs but still a good job. Thanks for the reappraisal !
🙂 I aim to please. Well, no, I don’t, and fair warning: I really dislike the B-side. But Richard made lots of good records, and this one is good.
Richard sang this song very well. It’s very “Merseybeat” sounding. To ME it’s just not a well-structured song -and so, not a well-written song. It just wanders aimlessly. It’s a “facsimile” of the Merseybeat Sound, but it’s NOT inspired. It’s a poor copy, with no life of its own. That’s the main reason why it didn’t sell, and buying its rights was a poor investment. To Berry Gordy, who wasn’t really into The Merseybeat Sound, it sounded “sort of like” The Beatles, Jerry & Pacemakers, Billy J. Kramer & The Dakotas, et al. , so, it was worth a try. But, not being into the music from that genre, he was just listening superficially. It sounded “like” those hits that were making tonnes of money, so buying The US rights to it at a “bargain price” was worth the gamble. But had he asked a bunch of young, American Caucasian Beatles fans if they liked this cut, they’d have been luke warm . at best, and they’d have told him they wouldn’t have spent their hard-earned money on it.
This does, in hindsight, seem to be a forerunner to the licensing deals Motown would make with British labels for release on the Rare Earth label in the late 1960’s / early ’70’s period, doesn’t it? (Records that wound up, for those same reasons, excluded from Complete Motown Singles CD box sets.
Though I was somewhat familiar with Richard Anthony, I’d never heard of this particular record. And certainly wasn’t aware that Motown had ever issued any of his tracks in America. Checked it out on youtube and liked it at once. Talk about a recording with a perfect split personality, both aspects going full-bast at the same time ! Half lost Beatle track from “A Hard Day’s Night”, half Dusty Springfield single from the “Stay Awhile”.”I Only Want to be With You” period. Anthony’s serviceable enough – but how I would have loved to hear this by either the Fab Four or Dusty!
Dusty Springfield sang “I Only Want to be With You” and “Stay Awhile” in the style of a Soul singer. They don’t sound, to me, in the slightest, like Merseybeat, or, indeed, ANY British music. The Beatles’ music sounds nothing like Soul music to me.
(solo)diana-ross-don't-groove said:
The work that makes the author of this blog is truly remarkable, as everybody can notice.
As I’m French and know a little bit about French songs, even the worst, I can bring some precisions about this article.
The people interested can read them in the comments below the article about the b-side ‘What Now My Love’.
Rick Brixton said:
Minor criticisms of this extremely mid-sixties production could be made, but why “buther”? A delightful slice of obscurity from a French icon. Thanks for turning me onto it!
Have Your Say (dissent is encouraged!) Cancel reply
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Muslim children as young as 7 are being branded radicals by their schools
AuthorMedia DiversifiedPosted on May 26, 2015 March 29, 2016 CategoriesEducation, Islam, Islamophobia, Religion, Shohana Khan, What is British?TagsMuslim, Palestine, prevent, school
Please Can I Tell You About A Child Who Is Muslim?
by Shohana Khan
He didn’t answer back to his teacher, because his parents taught him the importance of respecting those who you learn from. This respect comes from the tradition of Islam – the child is Muslim.
Can I just tell you about a child? Yes, she doesn’t listen to Beyonce or watch The X Factor but she loves to recite the Quran, avidly reads Enid Blyton and loves helping others. And yes, she is Muslim.
But can I now tell you about the Muslim child who didn’t partake in the taunting, ridiculing, harassing of the overweight child in the playground? He turned away, because to be unkind to another, according to him, was ‘haram’ (forbidden) and he would be sinful.
But as soon as he said that, someone overheard and it wasn’t the bullies who got called to the office immediately, it was him. The talk of being sinful couldn’t be ignored; was it a sign of radicalisation?
Please let me tell you about the Muslim child who was passionate about the children he saw on BBC News 24. They were crying, shoeless, in Gazan rubble. He wanted to send them shoes, T-shirts and a toothbrush each. But as soon as he asked his friends to fill in his sponsorship form, he was called in by his teacher and asked multiple times why he cared so much. He didn’t know what to say, because his answer was so very simple. He just cared – and yes, he was Muslim… But of course, little did he know that Palestine has always been a marker for the radical, with Muslim charities for Palestine smeared with terrorism charges and now even very common boycotting efforts falling under the bracket of radicalisation. His charity to Palestine was possibly a sign of the sprouting of radicalisation. Little did he know.
Please can I tell you about the Muslim girl who started to wear hijab? She wanted to say that she was taking charge of her life, her ambitions. Maybe she would become a doctor, who would save lives. But this was only if the teacher could see that too – and not that she needed to be ‘deradicalised’, instead of being empowered.
I need to please tell you about the Muslim boy who started to pray religiously at lunch time and the teachers needed to make sure they weren’t negligent about terror. So instead of talking to him about his break time activities, the teacher talked to Prevent. And he didn’t even know.
Can I tell you, please can I tell you, that many Muslim children will be singled out by Prevent, their families ripped apart, in the belief that they were on the road to becoming terrorists. But all they wanted to do was be who they believed they should be. Muslims.
*All individuals are fictional, but based on real incidents that have been circulated amongst the Muslim community.
The Prevent strategy was formulated by the Labour Government in the wake of the 7/7 attacks as a means to try to ‘prevent’ acts of violent extremism, by addressing the ideas which led to violent extremism, but never clearly defining what these ideas were. In 2015, the Coalition government passed the Counter Terrorism and Security Act, obliging school teachers and other public sector staff to report signs of extremism and implement the Prevent strategy.
If a child is found to exhibit signs of extremism, teachers or Prevent officers refer them to the Channel programme, where a multi-disciplinary panel decides the intervention needed. This can include having to deal with police and/or social workers. According to APCO, out of the 2653 referrals made to the Channel programme from 2006-13, 78% did not need any assessment or further intervention.
The Prevent Strategy’s definition of ‘extremism and radicalisation’ does not hinge on any legal definition. Prevent training to service providers provides guidance on what could be signs of ‘radicalisation’; these include normative Islamic behaviour, and it is often left open to the subjective views of the service provider as to what constitutes indicators of those deemed to be on a pathway to ‘extremism’.
Currently there is no official record made of incorrect referrals when it comes to Prevent.
A copy of the ‘Counter Extremism’ survey being administered to primary school pupils in London
A graduate of English, *Shohana Khan writes about issues affecting women in contemporary society and specialises in explaining Islamic values in a modern society, seen in a blog with the Huffington Post. She has written about issues affecting the Muslim community in the UK.
*former Women’s rep of Hizb ut Tahrir
One thought on “Muslim children as young as 7 are being branded radicals by their schools”
Children are being forced to fill that?!
← Safe Spaces are for White Men
Schools in the UK Are Now Asking Muslim Children to Fill Out “Counter-Extremism” Tests →
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Home Perspectives Strategic change in US foreign policy
Strategic change in US foreign policy
Hichem Karoui
:: 1 ::
A recent "blueprint for post-war US policy" in the Middle east, issued by the Washington Institute for Near East policy, states that: "If we do not invest in helping Iraqis rebuild Iraq, then the legacy of our incomplete mission in that country will impede all our other Middle East endeavours for many years to come." The ‘Institute’ does not need to be introduced, as well as the writers of the document (such as Dennis Ross or Matthew Levitt), or its signatories (Lawrence Eagleburger, Newt Gingrich, Alexander Haig, William Perry, R. James Woolsey, etc.) It is well in such institutions that the US Foreign policy is made, which gives a particular authority to any statement or recommendation about the current issues, debated inside this framework. Nevertheless, even if we are not talking here about the official policy, which is expressed only by the State Department, the Pentagon, or the White House, we are not actually far away from it.
It is well the Washington Institute, which advised about seven years ago that the top priority for US policy was to achieve regime change in Iraq. How the policymakers reached this conclusion, is certainly a complicated process unleashed by the first crucial confrontation between the Baathist regime in Baghdad and the USA. Habitually, observers of the international scene, used to say that the US foreign policy in the Middle East has always sought to support the status quo. They often meant that the USA was playing the part of a quietening conservative force rather than that of a revolutionary one. Given the nature of the Arab regimes, it seemed then that the US foreign policy, mostly in the 60s, the 70s, and the 80s of the last century- was based on some "entente" with those Arab players willing to stay in power without too much concessions (concerning Democracy values, Human Rights, etc), either to the West or to their own peoples. As long as some interests were safe (oil, gas, trade, technical assistance, etc) both parties could display a positive self-satisfaction.
The Communist regimes of the ex-Eastern block have never really had a deep impact on the Arab societies, even when the governments were supported by Moscow (Yemen, Syria, Libya, Iraq, and Egypt until 1977 when Egyptian ex-President Sadate expelled the Russian advisers).
No wonder, the Arabs remain actually conservative in their majority, and this conservatism, which can be summed up in a profound attachment to the traditional values of religion and family- could ostensibly not cope with the Marxist-Leninist schema, even after retouching it with local cosmetics – which was the task of the Arab Communist parties. A task that piteously failed, it goes without saying. If they were not dismantled and their leaders broken by several years of jail, the Arab communist parties were confined to a marginal life.
That’s why the Americans have never lost the game in the Middle East. Even at the peak of the Cold War, when they had all reason to be concerned about the Soviet goals in the region, they knew that ? unlike them- Moscow could gamble on a unique issue, which was the ? alas! Still ? unsolved Arab-Israeli conflict. It was merely unthinkable that the Soviet model of life could touch those societies profoundly attached to the traditional values. One can also state that neither Nasser nor the Baathist regimes in Syria and Iraq have ever pretended to follow Moscow on that path. Those regimes were mainly concerned with survival, and to survive they figured out that weaponry was the key, not self-development; and Moscow happened to be more than willing to help them. Thus, the Arab military class began to accumulate force and weapons with the assistance of Moscow, and the latter pushed its pawns on the chessboard, with the result we know: Double failure in a double war (1967, and 1973), for Moscow allies. When he understood that schema, Sadate gave priority to a change nobody "in Egypt and the Arab world" was then prepared to admit: expelling Moscow advisers, and turning directly to Washington, which held as he thought 90 % of the solution for the Middle East main problem.
So, if America was not a force of change in the Arab world in those years, this does not mean that the Soviet Union was. True, the USA was concerned by keeping the Status quo, and the USSR by challenging it, although the challenge did not necessarily imply settling a project of society. I maintain that such a project, if ever it were available, would be merely rejected. What we call today the Arab Left, has never really had a political impact on the people’s life. The main contribution of the left concerned the cultural matters: artistic and intellectual production was likely more open to the Left appeal than political life. Anyway, what was the Arab left? This is a wide appellation, under which, we may find communist and socialist activists, pan Arabs, social democrats, and even minorities? parties.
There is no intellectual and ideological platform able to unify all those who claim to be on the left wing in the Arab world. We cannot even say that secularism is this unifying ideology, since there is no agreement between them about the signification of secularism: Some say that it implies atheism, and some others say that it can be perfectly tuned up with Islam, although secularism is actually about separating the two worlds that have never been parted in the Arab history: religion and politics.
To come back to our previous hypothesis, let’s assume that the USA have never gambled on changing societies in the Arab world, but rather on keeping the status quo. What was then the cause that drove such an upsetting change in its foreign policy? In the above-mentioned blueprint, it is said that achieving the regime change in Iraq has been recommended and urged as a top priority for US policy. The Bush administration embarked on a war to accomplish such an objective. So, in what consists the necessity of this enterprise? So far, as we know, the USA tried to be more allaying than disturbing, and more conciliating than clashing with the Arab policies. True, there is a dark spot in this almost clean picture. It concerns the coup masterminded by the CIA in the fifties against Mohammed Mosaddaq, Prime Minister of Iran. But with that exception, the Americans as a rule- have always played their game- if any- from behind the curtains. Their discretion, though dictated by the circumstances, was in itself a guarantee of success.
In this context, if the relations with the Arab states could be maintained at a satisfying level of conformity and fluidity, in spite of all the tempests that swept several times the region – (Israeli-Arab wars in 1967 and 1973; oil embargo in 73-74; isolation of Egypt after Camp David; Israeli invasion of Lebanon in 1981; etc.)- all the credit should be acknowledged to that old rule of diplomatic discretion. As a matter of fact, although we know that the Americans were surrounding the Middle East of military bases, from Diego Garcia to Turkey, and beyond them all the way round the famous "arc of crisis" (according to Z. Brzezinski), those forces have always remained in the shade. Moreover, with the exception of the Marines? landing in Lebanon ? at the request of the Lebanese President during the civil war-, the Americans have never interfered directly in the region. For many Arab states, – and despite the proclaimed hostility toward Israel- the Americans were perceived as friends, and protectors.
Today, precisely since the war against Saddam, and possibly even since the "Desert Storm", which was the first American war in the Arab land-, this picture inherited from the last century (60s, 70s, 80s), is rapidly changing. And this is certainly not because of 9/11: the threats against the former Iraqi regime actually preceded 9/11; and the strategy aiming at destabilizing Saddam, notwithstanding that it was really a hateful regime- was certainly being studied and planned well before the terrorist operations of 9/11. Whence the questions: what was the change about in the US foreign policy? Was it necessary? For whom? And why?
The main objection to the previous thesis would likely remind us of the Carter Doctrine, and subsequently, of the creation of the RDF (Rapid Deployment Force) and the CC (Central Command). True, these were not the manifestations of a discreet diplomacy. They have even been perceived in some left-wing spheres of the Arab world as the evidence that the USA was actually an imperialist power trying to subdue the Arabs by all means. But we should remember the context wherein they have appeared.
If I mention the reaction of the Arab Left, it is not because what we call today ?the Islamists? had not reacted to the international struggle, but rather because the latter precisely was altogether locally expressed by the internal political game, wherein the Islamists were not yet as influent as they seem nowadays. We should not omit the fact that at that time, the local political struggle of any country, would merely translate the language of the international game going on between the USA and the USSR. Generally, the Left "whether it was pro-Soviet or not- was more active in opposition, and the Right" an appellation that encompasses the governments in place as well as some loose liberal trends – was essentially on a defensive position. The Islamists i.e. the ultra right wing of the traditionalists- were rejecting both parties and marginalized.
To answer the objection, we need to recall that in 1979, one of the most important allies of the USA in the Gulf ? the Shah of Iran- has been dethroned by a revolution. Many American citizens have been then held in custody inside their embassy in Tehran. The USA have not tried to protect the regime of the Shah although such an action was expected and wished by Washington?s allies in Iran, which was perceived as a weakness. An imperialist power would at least seek the protection of its interests. But the Carter administration preferred not to clash with a population that held America – the main ally and supporter of the Shah somehow responsible for all the pains inflicted by the dreadful SAVAC (political police). Besides, the insurgents have hijacked many Americans in the embassy. President Carter had to react.
It is in this context that he declared in January 1980 the Gulf a zone of US influence, but that was more directed to the USSR than to the local population. In effect, he said in what came to be known as the Carter Doctrine: "Let our position be absolutely clear. An attempt by any outside force to gain control of the Persian Gulf Region will be regarded as an assault on the vital interests of the United States of America, and such an assault will be repelled by any means necessary, including military force." Then, to back up this doctrine, Carter created the Rapid Deployment Force, described by observers as an ?over-the-horizon? military unit capable of rushing several thousand US troops to the Gulf in a crisis.
Two points deserve to be noticed here:
1- In December 1979, the Soviet army invaded Afghanistan, and was thus standing on the boundaries of Iran and the Gulf.
2- The Carter Doctrine was only a reply to more an aggressive position taken by the USSR. In effect, the Brezhnev Doctrine preceded the Carter, since it proclaimed:
"When forces that are hostile to socialism try to turn the development of some socialist country towards capitalism, it becomes not only a problem of the country concerned, but a common problem and concern of all socialist countries."
This effectively meant that no country was allowed to leave the Warsaw Pact, and the doctrine was used to justify the invasions of Czechoslovakia in 1968 as well as the non-Warsaw pact nation of Afghanistan in 1979.
It was the conjugation of those two events (revolution in Iran and invasion of Afghanistan) that urged the proclamation of the Carter Doctrine and the creation of the RDF.
The main point to be retained here concerns the American position vis-Ã -vis Iran: No intervention, though any other Western power would have at least tried to force the liberation of its hostages, whose hijacking by the insurgents was in itself a war declaration.
Naturally, those same events would exert an influence upon the traditional course of the American policy in this region. Still, the Americans would not interfere directly in local politics, although they could not remain indifferent to the events threatening the status quo, which they have protected during the previous decades. But a new trend began to point out with the election of Ronald Reagan.
Thus, in the 1980s, the USA began pressing countries in the Gulf for access to bases and support facilities. The RDF was transformed into the Central Command, a new US military command authority with responsibility for the Gulf and the surrounding region from eastern Africa to Afghanistan. But it would not be until 1987, at the height of the war between Iran and Iraq, that the US Navy created the Joint Task Force-Middle East to protect oil tankers plying the waters of the Gulf, thus expanding a US naval presence of just three or four warships into a flotilla of 40-plus aircraft carriers, battleships, and cruisers.
So, if change there is in the American foreign policy, we should seek its seeds in that time, prior to the 1991 first American- led war against an Arab regime. The main turn was not taken during the great trouble of the Iranian revolution, although the latter did not hide its hostility toward the USA and its allies. It was taken during the trouble of the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait; and it was to defend a small Arab country against the greed of a bigger one, that the Americans intervened directly, though still sustained by other Arab states.
In the background of the first American involvement in the internal conflicts of the Arab world, as it dramatically happened in 1991, there is one of the most important upheavals of modern history: the collapse and the dismantlement of the Eastern Block led by the ex-USSR.
Although Gorbatchev signed the Soviet Union out of existence on December 25, 1991, the slow death of the red superpower has been creeping since years. Not to see what was rapidly changing on the international scene, and subsequently, not to draw the necessary conclusions as regards the affairs of the Middle East, was merely a blindness that only a dictatorial regime – such as the Iraqi under Saddam- could afford.
The invasion of Kuwait under those auspices by Saddam was not only a political misreckoning, – as was the invasion of Iran in 1980 that triggered the 8 years war-, but also – and above all- the evidence that a dictatorial regime – even with the best scientists and the best strategists- can neither understand the subtleties of the political processes, nor the deep trends on the international scene.
As Dr. Robert F. Miller observed, in his essay (the implosion of a superpower), if 1989 and 1990 were the years of the sudden dismantling of the Soviet empire abroad, 1991 witnessed the extension of the collapse of communist rule to the imperial heartland itself. Toward the close of the year it was not at all clear whether something resembling a unified state could even be stitched together to provide a partner for negotiating with the Western allies on the terms for the further reduction of nuclear weapons and the final ending of the cold war.
Mikhail Sergeyevich Gorbachev still officially represented the Soviet side, but in the wake of the failed putsch of 19-21 August, his position had been fundamentally altered. It was no longer clear whom he was speaking for on a given issue or whether his policy initiatives could be taken as the authoritative position of his country. These were matters of more than merely speculative or theoretical interest: the territory of the former USSR contained some 27,000 nuclear warheads scattered among several of the former republics, many of which began actively pursuing their sovereign independence. Who controlled these weapons and their potential involvement in internal civil conflict were serious issues for international stability.
Thus, those disturbances on the map of Europe, carried up with them – or inside them- the ineluctable signs that, henceforth, the responsibility of millions of lives threatened by all those nuclear warheads on the loose, would fall on the USA shoulders. Who else is capable of controlling that threat and confining it to acknowledged limits? To pretend that the US attempt to control such a danger stems from an imperialist will, is merely irresponsible, not to say pure madness.
It is obvious then that even if the USA did not want any involvement abroad, it would be like unleashing the wild animals of the zoo in a city and asking people not to put a nose outdoors. That would be a fine solution only for those who have nothing to do outdoors.
In that context, the strategic change in the American foreign policy, was imposed by the international conjunction of those dramatic events in Eastern Europe and the ex-USSR, on the one hand, and the grave misreckoning of the Baathist regime, which thought that in such ambiguous configuration, nobody would care about invading Kuwait and putting its wealth under the authority of a dictator who gazed his own people, while pretending to use his new asset (Kuwait) for a new casting of the game with Israel, on the other hand.
The curious thing is that to some degree, it worked. Many Arabs (from outside the Gulf Cooperation Council), oblivious of the Kuwaiti right to freedom, believed that Saddam was going really to beat Israel. With the wealth of Kuwait added to the Iraqi, Saddam would be able to reach a level matching Israel. Among those Arabs were the Palestinians, or some of them headed by Yasser Arafat, who did not hesitate to side with Saddam, although he owed everything to Kuwait.
I do not understand what is the logic that allowed such an unbelievable project. Even if Iraq was really able to match Israel, and even if Saddam was really serious about liberating the Palestinian people from its yoke, what is the ethical ground permitting to subdue a free people (the Kuwaiti) for the purpose of liberating another ( the Palestinian)?
Now, is it true that Saddam could beat Israel? With what? With his exhausted army? With his monstrous debts to all the Western States and Russia? With his 22 millions of people craving only for some peace after 8 years of a vain war? With his legions of hypocrites and sycophants lying about everything and never daring to tell the truth? With his censured media? With his political police forbidding any genuine expression or any free thought? And who were his allies? Who among the Arabs would have trusted him? Then, who pretended that he would stop after Kuwait? If the conquest of the latter was easy, why not to try a bigger shot? Saudi Arabia, for instance…or any other state of the Gulf! That would give him all the wealth and power he needed.
That’s exactly how all the dictators worked: a little country. Then, if nobody reacts, another. Then another, etc… Hitler was the model, not any righter of wrongs inspired by Salah Eddine al Ayyoubi, as Saddam’s propaganda lied.
The great turn in the US foreign policy in the Middle East came up in 1991, as a response to Saddam Hussein’s threat. In effect, the invasion of Kuwait was hardly representing any threat to Israel – as some Arab media suggested-, but it was surely a real threat to the freedom of the five other members of the Gulf Cooperation Council. It is well this plausible schema that disturbed what we previously called the Status quo, not any other farce of war against Israel fantasized about by some Arab media. For even with Kuwait under the Iraqi dictatorship, Israel was quite able to strike Saddam and crush him, if only the Americans allowed it. But that would have been a grave and irredeemable mistake: if Saddam wished to play the heroes and the martyrs, after swallowing up Kuwait, no rational mind would permit him to achieve such a satisfaction. The first priority was then to keep Israel away.
The security and the stability of the Gulf had so far little to do with the Israeli-Palestinian problem. Saddam naturally wished to open that gate, in order to cover up his crime in Kuwait. He attracted to his game a much-diminished Yasser Arafat, who almost desperately embarked on the Iraqi shaky ship, probably thinking that he would get through to a safe haven. A mistake, which the Kuwaiti will never forgive.
Until 1991, the United States was unable to persuade the Arab Gulf states to allow a permanent American presence on their soil, although military facilities on the perimeter of the Gulf, from Djibouti in the Horn of Africa to the island of Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean, have been expanded, and a web of bases and training missions has extended the US presence deep into Central Asia.
Meanwhile, Saudi Arabia, while maintaining its close relationship with the United States, began to diversify its commercial and military ties. In the late 80s, the USA had fallen to fourth place among arms suppliers to the kingdom, thus "supplanted by the British, the French, and even the Chinese", according to Chas Freeman, then American ambassador to the kingdom.
If Saddam could not even dream of defeating Israel in a real confrontation, as any rational mind would state at a simple comparison of the forces and the means available to both state at that time, it was easier for him to borrow a model of behaviour from his master Stalin, or maybe even from Bismarck if not from Hitler, to pretend to the unification of the Arab Gulf under his banner. On the ideological level, such a project would not alienate his Baathist followers. It might even attract or fascinate some other dreamers of Arab union, who have little – if any- respect for the conservative monarchies of the Gulf, besides the fact that they altogether don’t care whether Saddam is a democrat or a dictator, in the same measure that the pure and hard communists of the Cold War time were indifferent to the crimes of the Stalinism.
Few among the theorists of the generalised paranoia toward the West in the Arab world, would acknowledge that if the American military presence became ineluctable to protect the Western interests – and other assets -, it was well Saddam Hussein who became the Trojan horse of such intervention in the Gulf. Who else opened the gate to such disturbance?
Once Kuwait invaded, it was logical that the Gulf States would no longer oppose a direct US military presence. Once again, a dictator’s ambition proved that Israel was not necessarily the first enemy of the Arab states. Inside the Arab world, Saddam was the enemy within. Even from the perspective of the very official Arab League, when invading Kuwait, Saddam insulted and trampled on all the protocols and the conventions regulating the Arab National Security. What he did was exactly similar to the Israeli invasion of Lebanon, and to the Israeli occupation of the Arab territories. This is before all a matter of international law. Thus, one of the lessons we draw from that case, is that problems of democracy and/or dictatorship in the Arab-Islamic world are as important as the Israeli problem.
The point was not missed by the American theorists, who focused since then on this issue in connection either with the Iraqi problem or the Palestinian. Moreover, after 9/11, a line would be drawn between two choices: radicalism and terrorism in the name of Islam, or democracy and modernism inside the Islamic world.
The Washington Institute Strategy paper- i.e. Winning the peace in the Middle East- we have previously mentioned, states that " success in defeating Saddam and helping Iraqis rebuild their country offers opportunities for the United States to support the efforts of Arab and Iranian liberals to open the region’s closed, authoritarian societies. This will be the moment to assist their fight for greater freedom, not draw away from them…"
The point here is that the US foreign policy, breaking with a long-settled tradition of keeping the status quo, makes of assisting the liberals of Iran and the Arab world one of its top-priorities. A first question is: to which extent the Bush administration is ready to go in such an endeavour? A second question concerns the choice of allies: opposition or rulers? The third question is how the American strategists think it possible to conciliate the state-to-state diplomacy with assistance to opponents generally believed hostile not only to the rulers, but sometimes to the status quo?
Furthermore, there is almost a settled tradition in the Arab world, consisting in a permanent outbidding about the official positions towards the USA and the Western powers. From this perspective, a "good" leader – or party- of opposition is expected to be more aggressive toward the West and particularly the USA, than the government he is assumed to oppose.
Nothing could earn more popularity to an opposition leader in the Arab world than to display a hard-line stance against – for example- the negative attitude of the Bush administration toward the Palestinians and the Arabs in general. In this context, to keep good connections with -say- some official spheres in the West, – were it even with a diplomat- is considered as a negative aspect in the leadership. The Iraqi opposition in exile – for instance- was not exempt of such innuendoes disparaging its leaders. Naturally, it is quite an irrational aspect of the Arab politics, yet it is widespread.
Thus, as long as Saddam Hussein and his ministers were dealing with the American officials, they were "safe" from being their lackeys, for they represented the State of Iraq, and the State is empowered enough not to fall under American pressure (although everything actually hinted to the contrary)! But if it is the opposition, which deals with the foreign powers, then there is necessarily conspiracy whereby a party (the local) is conceding future rights and privileges to the foreigners. This is a standard scenario rehearsing itself many times in several cases, and not only in Iraq. Whence a first conclusion: as long as the Israeli- Palestinian conflict is not resolved, siding with the USA, were it for quite a fair cause – such as developing democracy and human rights’ considerations- would sound somewhat suspect in some Arab spheres, not to say merely discrediting. Suffice it to observe what were the positions of the majority of Arab opposition parties during the war against Saddam Hussein, to have a clear idea about this point. The fact is that they outbid the stances of their own governments, and rejected the American intervention, just because it was the Americans who intervened. That’s a fact.
Normally, an opposition party would side with a similar organization. In the case of Iraq, who does not know that it was a dictatorship that the opposition in exile was trying to overthrow, with the American help? Normally, the so-called liberals of the Arab world – and many organizations of opposition- should have identified with the Iraqi exiles in their ultimate and crucial fight against the regime of Saddam Hussein. But that did not happen. Why? That’s the point.
In this context also, we observe that the Palestinians in their majority did not identify either with the Iraqi opposition. The second conclusion we draw from this picture is that prior to democratizing the Arab societies, the Americans should first help the Arabs find a fair solution to the conflict with Israel. It is understood that terrorism is produced by societies closed to democracy and modernism. Understood that after 9/11, the USA had to protect itself and its allies. But although the democratization of those societies is the responsibility of its own elites, the US assistance would be much more admitted after a success in tackling the Israeli-Palestinian problem.
We notice that though we argued differently, this is also the conclusion of the Washington Institute blueprint, which states: " The Bush administration is already committed to two radical experiments in democratization in the Middle East- in Iraq and inside the Palestinian Authority. Their success is essential to the larger effort. Successes for the Iraqi and Palestinian peoples will create their own demonstration effect elsewhere in the region."
This is theoretically true. Yet, democratization is not a process that could be achieved in the short term. If the Bush administration wishes to be practical and efficient, it should give up the dream of democratizing Iraq and the Palestinian Authority in a year or two, or even in five. The American assistance is needed in launching the process in these two cases, but the rest would be achieved by the peoples themselves through many years of learning and training. In the Palestinian case particularly, there is an urgent need for freedom even before democratizating the PA. What’s the PA anyway? To the outside observer, it seems to be some kind of a provisory government – something like the Council that was running the affairs of Iraq. By no means it may be considered as a State or even representing a State, for it is lacking the prerogatives and the status of states, which is: sovereignty. In both cases, there is a force of occupation, which is the reference of authority. But if the Americans are directly involved in Iraq, and thus they are kept responsible for the whole ongoing process, this is not true for the Palestinian case. Here, the Palestinians under Israeli occupation need a real presence and a real involvement of the Americans as protectors of the peace process. And in both cases, if the Americans are not willing or not able to do more, they should give responsibility to a United Nations’ led mission. If both Iraqi and Palestinian situations evolve toward more violence, what is the wisdom of staying on the same positions and watching?
The Washington Institute’s mentioned paper acknowledges anyway that if in spite of all the efforts, an interim accord on provisional statehood is impossible to reach, a "coordinated unilateralism" would be a good solution: " In this case, the parties themselves are likely to opt for unilateral acts that each believes will provide some progress toward their respective strategic goals. For Israel, unilateral disengagement from a significant portion of the West Bank and Gaza; for the Palestinians, declaration of independent statehood in territories from which Israel had withdrawn". We will add only that to support such a scheme, a UN’s force of dissuasion would not be unwelcome.
Likewise for Iraq, the same paper advocated, "as soon as practicable, the US-led military administration should give way to an international administration". In this context, A United Nations’ authorized framework for a security force, would end the argument about whether the USA is " a colonial power erecting an empire in Iraq" or not. An UN-led security force may implicate the participation of Muslim states in assisting the government of Iraq in its hard mission.
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Hichem Karoui is a writer and journalist living in Paris, France. He is a regular contributor to Media Monitors Network (MMN).
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Fixing the Son of Pollard
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Home / news / WHATSAPP U- TURN ON GOVERNMENT DEMANDS: CANNOT TRACE THE SOURCE OF THE MESSAGE’S MESSAGE
WHATSAPP U- TURN ON GOVERNMENT DEMANDS: CANNOT TRACE THE SOURCE OF THE MESSAGE’S MESSAGE
Whatsapp has refused to develop software to locate the original source of the message on its platform. The government had demanded such technology from the company, which it has turned down. The government wants that Whatsapp develops such a solution that can detect the source of fake or false information. It is noteworthy that such incidents have happened in the country by the fraudulent information. However till yesterday Whatsapp was ready to meet the govt demands but now they have taken a complete u turn and rejected the govt demands.
Whats app reason for rejecting govt demands?
About this, a spokeswoman of Whatsapp said that the creation of such software would affect the encroachment from one side to the other side and also affect the personal nature of the whatsapp.By doing so, it will create more chances of misuse We will not undermine privacy protection.
He said that people are dependent on exchanging all kinds of sensitive information through Whatsapp. The spokesperson said, “Our focus is on working with others in India and educating people about wrong information. Through this, we want to keep people safe. “
During the last few months there has been a spread of false information from the Forum of Whatsapp, which has led to the killing of people by the beating of the crowd in India. The company is facing criticism for this. Whatsapp chief Chris Daniels met Ravi Shankar Prasad, Minister of Information Technology this week. Prasad had told reporters that the government has asked to develop a technology solution to create a local corporate unit from Whatsapp and to locate the original source of fake message. Along with this, Prasad also lauded the contribution of Face book’s company. Daniels had refused to comment after the meeting. However now Whatsapp has taken a u turn and refused to track the origin of message.
There are general elections to be held next year in the country. In such a situation, the government is taking stringent measures to prevent the spread of fake news from social media platform like Face book, Twitter and Whatsapp. The number of Whatsapp users in the world is one and a half billion. India is the largest market for the company. There are more than two million people who use Whatsapp.
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We Are All Astronauts
Dec 7, 2016 · 11 min read
Before chucking my old laptop away I did a final sweep of the documents folder for anything that missed getting transferred to Dropbox. Deep in my ludicrous filing system I came across some interview transcripts full of nuggets of musical advice that I’m very happy I found and wanted to share.
I while back, I had a long chat with Jono Grant, one third of Above & Beyond that are arguably one of the most well-loved electronic music acts and owners of A-list electronic music record labels Anjunabeats and Anjunadeep. Not ones to rest on their electronic laurels, the trio have been touring the world in 2016 performing a live acoustic show with a host of vocalists and musicians.
Tony, Jono and Paavo. The triumvirate that is Above & Beyond
I was researching for project on how modern music producers had turned themselves into global phenomena, and how they reach beyond the music to connect with their audiences on multiple levels. We talked candidly for a while about the beginnings of Anjunabeats, about standing out, and about finding inspiration.
I’ve kept my thoughts to a minimum and let Jono do the talking (everything in italics or quotes). There’s honestly so much gold in this conversation, hopefully it will give music producers some insight from an electronic music industry veteran and a bloody decent bloke. Enjoy.
How did Anjunabeats get started?
At university I studied commercial music and met Paavo there. We were both doing the same sort of thing independently, making remixes, and he said he wanted to set up the label. It was something I wanted to do as well and we both had a big overlap in the kind of music we liked, not the same, but very similar. We were both really into the trance music style at the time so we decided to make a track in that style.
I got a load of my studio gear in a taxi,drove it round to Paavo’s place, and we plugged it all in. It was brilliant fun, we were so excited about having this mega studio. Back then it was all hardware and the more hardware you had the better you were, haha, that sort of mentality.
Paavo did the label as his major project at university so he did have a set of goals for that, for the academic side of it. The goals for us were (1) to start a label, (2) release our own music, and (3) look to start signing other artists once we released a few tracks. The original point was to release our own music and be in control of our own music, not send off demos and be at the will of another company, egos, and all other music industry bullshit.
When we did it I wasn’t thinking ‘I don’t care if I lose money putting this record out’. From day one there was definitely a bit of business in there. I was confident, maybe a little naively, but we did make our money back by using my student loan to press the vinyl; quite a big effort to do back in 2000! It sold pretty well, we made a couple hundred quid out of it. Then we did it again, and again. And again.
The Anjunabeats logo on the 100th release artwork
There’s a general feeling in music that you’ve got to do it for the love and not the money. I think the successful people do it for both. Check out this great podcast between Jacob Henry of Silk Music and Jaytech (a long-time Anjuna artist and owner of Positronic) where they discuss balancing business and music, among other things. Things have changed since the formation of Anjunabeats. Back then, DJs could easily listen to all the new releases from a genre during a weekly record store visit. Now there are over 300 releases and over 1200 tracks on Beatport in the “progressive house” genre alone. Getting above the noise takes staying true to the art and keeping your business head on too.
Self-releasing and crowdsourcing through places like BandCamp and IndieGoGo are viable routes to getting your music out while still retaining all the rights - one of Jono and Paavo’s reasons for starting Anjunabeats. However, unless you already have thousands of followers (or the right contacts) this won’t reach as many listeners as releasing on established labels… but it’s certainly cheaper and less risky than blowing your student loan on a pressing of vinyl!
With the sea of music out there, how can a new artist or label really stand out?
Dance music has always been a style in which people borrow ideas of each other. The problem is that you end up with a lot of tracks that sound very similar and a lot of artists that don’t have any identity. It’s maybe a subconscious goal, but I think is really important to have a really strong identity and not to be just like everybody else. This can be a subtle thing as well, even though you need a strong identity it needn’t be anything complicated like having the mousehead - that’s an amazing identity but it needn’t even be as good as that.
It’s also really important to have a strong brand identity so that people know what they’re getting. We were hearing records that came along that we really liked that we didn’t feel were right for Anjunabeats, but we wanted to be involved in and have a home for. So [rather than dilute Anjunabeats] we decided to set up our sub-brand Anjunadeep and put those records out on there.
Things going off with Jono and Paavo at the helm.
How do you balance making what you want and making what people want to hear?
It’s such an important question, this goes back to the identity thing. I personally believe important that when your in the studio you make music you love and love doing. I’m quite a scientific person as opposed to being religious, but even with that head on me I believe that people can tell if something wasn’t done sincerely. If you’re making music with sincerity it tends to be better music.
Don’t think too much about your audience while you write the music. I don’t think Pink Floyd sat in the studio and did Dark Side Of The Moon thinking ‘hmm, what would our listeners like to hear’?
Side note: Recently I listened to the great James Altucher podcast episode with guest Brian Koppelman, the creator of the Showtime series “Billions”. He reiterated this point even more strongly, saying that trying to figure out what the next big thing in the collective unconscious will be is insanely harmful to the creative process.
There’s a time to say ‘how can we make this sound more like one of our records?’ And that is once you’ve got the ideas down. You don’t what those kind of thoughts too much in the initial spawning of ideas.You cant work like that properly. Maybe some people can, but for us, we have an inspiration and then go and do it. Unfortunately, and this is where it gets interesting, because we have a close relationship with our fans where they may be disappointed because they don’t like something we do. There comes a point where you have to say ‘I’ve got to stick to what I believe in and make music that I believe in’ and that’s the most important thing.
Obviously you’ve got to develop skills, but if you stick to what you believe in and make sure it truly is what you believe in and enjoy doing, at some point something has got to give and there will be some success because there will be other people in the world that feel that way and will relate to your music.
Music is an expression of emotion, if you’re making a musical expression of that emotion well then someone else is going to understand that.
So you don’t think it is necessary to stick to a single genre?
There’s no need to worry about needing to fit in with other people because you can always start with a great original song or piece of music and then remix it into that new style. It’s another argument for being individual in EDM, the better bits of music are the ones that last longer because they’re not style based. If the style comes before the idea it affects the longevity of the song.
There are songs that you just know are going to be listened to in ten years time or longer, and then there are others that are big hits now but you know they wont be listened to next year — they’re next year’s fish and chip shop paper.
Real hardcore fans of a particular genre or artist sometimes get so blinkered into one style or artist and think that anything else is really bad. Take Skrillex for example. Quite a controversial figure in the scene, not personally the music I like, but hugely talented and I’ve got a lot of respect for the guy. I see on Twitter where people say ‘dubstep is shit’ etc. As a producer I don’t feel that way. If you speak to most music producers that are worth their salt they enjoy a variety of styles, they’re really quite inspired when someone comes along and does something new and different or in a different genre. There’s good and bad music in all genres. It’s important to be a musical sponge. Absorb as much of it as you can and then spit out all the good bits when making your music.
Above & Beyond with Skrillex
As a group, how do you decide on an idea for an Above & Beyond track?
When we were starting Anjunabeats, we were making other styles of music. We did a harder track called Dirt Devils — The Drill. That was our biggest track in the early days. We did it as a complete laugh, had a techno mix as the original mix and then a trance version that became the radio mix that everyone knew.
Now everything that I or anyone else comes up with in the band gets put forward for Above & Beyond because that’s what we do best. We like to collaborate on things. Sometimes I’ll come up with a core idea and that core idea ends up being removed but it will have provided a springboard for one of the other guys to come up with something. “Cant Sleep” is classic example of that. It was a housey track I’d written. The chords stayed the same roughly, but before I knew it Paavo had come up with a new remix that complete threw away the other stuff and at the time I was like, ‘oh…’ and was a bit gutted! But actually, it ended up being a really big track and we loved it.
Where do you feel that your inspiration comes from?
I think its so important to listen to really good music. There’s a danger if you listen to just dance music. I love it to bits, but it’s derivative, it’s not the source music, it’s important to listen to the stuff that inspired those dance records rather than inspiring yourself purely on dance music. For me, I was really inspired by a lot of 80’s stuff, Depeche Mode, New Order and all that came into our music in some way as well, Tony is inspired by a lot of new wave stuff and that’s definitely in there as well. There’s a risk if you just listen to dance radio shows and that’s your only starting point that you wont really understand music on a fundamental level. Not that you need to understand the scoring of music, but having that innate ability to write music. If you go back to the source of some of those records… look at Depeche Mode and take it a step back to disco and then go back again you can keep going and you can find great albums that are often quite raw music. That’s important, dance music isn’t quite that raw as it’s music made to dance to. Hopefully it has some of the raw bits in too, I guess that’s what we try to put into our artist albums. We try and make sure it is great music as well as stuff you can dance to.
One thing I’ve noticed about creativity is that the best ideas come when you’re not concentrating. When you’ve had a shit day, and not come up with anything, and you’re tinkling on the keyboard, and you’re mum calls you because she’s not heard from you for ages, and you just happen to stumble across a really nice little sound or riff or chord pattern or whatever it is. It’s when you’re kinda switched off. I’m sure there are whole books that have been written on creativity and I’d love to read them. Actually, maybe then you’d be concentrating too much on that state of mind!
Celebrating the 150th episode of Group Therapy, Above & Beyond’s radio show
How do you feel that social media has changed music and interaction with fans?
The internet has changed the communication and sharing on such a big scale, and changed how you get feedback. Small minorities can have a big voice on the internet, whether they do or don’t like things, so heroes and failures are created on the internet from people reading stuff about themselves. The audience has a big influence.
It is more important than ever to have your own goals and stick to them because there’s so much potential for influence and being swayed off your path.
I personally believe that the way to long term success in the music industry is to focus very much on what you want to do and the rest will follow on from that. Assuming you’ve got some kind of idea, talent or passion, at some point someone else will share that passion if you put enough of yourself into it.
How do you figure out which are the valid criticisms of the music?
I think timing is so important in the music industry, it is important to recognize that in order to keep your head together. You get people that are overconfident, the ego heads, and you get those very vulnerable about what is said about their music. You’ve got to keep a level head. With a track going out there and having its story and people’s opinions on it, you have to be a little disconnected from that so you don’t get too involved with that side. Sit back on the sofa and say ‘aaaah’, rather than getting too stuck in with ‘oh my god, people are saying this and that’. If people are saying nice things you can give your self a pat on the back, but it’s hard just to see the positives.
Have good people around you that don’t just tell you its great for the sake of it, people that will give constructive feedback and be honest.
You get jealous people in the music industry, A&R people in record companies jealous they didn’t make that record themselves and they’ll maybe put you down for it, I’ve seen it all really! As long as you’re happy with what you’ve done, that’s the most important thing.
There’s not much I can add to that sound advice. To paraphrase Jono: develop your skills, stick to what you believe in, and once you’re happy with what you’ve made, then it’s all good. One day your time will come. Or as my dad says: “you’ll be an overnight success in a decade”.
Thanks to Jono, and thanks for reading.
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Jono Grant
Science, music and everything in between. www.weareallastronauts.net
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Winter 2009 ESCC/Internet2 Joint Techs
Enabling Collaboration for Global-Scale Science
Enabling Collaboration for Global-Scale Science more
Major science projects including the LHC, LIGO, GLAST and many
others rely on collaborative systems for videoteleconferencing and data sharing on a daily basis. This reliance persists through all phases of the experimental program, from the original conception and design, to construction and commissioning, to the extraction of results and discoveries.
Meeting the needs of these projects for collaborative work has
aspects which go beyond the commercial systems now on the market, including: global scalability and the ability to integrate across the full range of working environments from the desktop/laptop to conference and control rooms and auditoria, increasing quality while adapting to variable network conditions and efficient use of CPU and GPU processing power, and low cost of the equipment and operational manpower needed to support thousands of scientists at sites around the world.
I will present the technical requirements and methods for a solution to this critical set of issues, and refer to the current status and development path of the EVO (Enabling Virtual Organizations) system, and its autonomous real-time communications infrastructure, which has been deployed and operated by the Caltech team to meet these needs, building on developments of the last 14 years.
Speaker Harvey Newman California Institute of Technology
Speaker Dave Adamczyk California Institute of Technology
Enabling Collaboration for Global-Scale Science (pdf)
Speaker Tom Vest Eyeconomics
Session Media
Enabling Collaboration for Global-Scale Science Netcast Archive Major science projects including the LHC, LIGO, GLAST and many others rely on collaborative systems for videoteleconferencing and data sharing on a daily basis. This reliance persists through all phases of the experimental program, from the original conception and design, to construction and commissioning, to the extraction of results and discoveries. Meeting the needs of these projects for collaborative work has aspects which go beyond the commercial systems now on the market, including: global scalability and the ability to integrate across the full range of working environments from the desktop/laptop to conference and control rooms and auditoria, increasing quality while adapting to variable network conditions and efficient use of CPU and GPU processing power, and low cost of the equipment and operational manpower needed to support thousands of scientists at sites around the world. I will present the technical requirements and methods for a solution to this critical set of issues, and refer to the current status and development path of the EVO (Enabling Virtual Organizations) system, and its autonomous real-time communications infrastructure, which has been deployed and operated by the Caltech team to meet these needs, building on developments of the last 14 years. Enabling Collaboration for Global-Scale Science Netcast Archive Major science projects including the LHC, LIGO, GLAST and many others rely on collaborative systems for videoteleconferencing and data sharing on a daily basis. This reliance persists through all phases of the experimental program, from the original conception and design, to construction and commissioning, to the extraction of results and discoveries. Meeting the needs of these projects for collaborative work has aspects which go beyond the commercial systems now on the market, including: global scalability and the ability to integrate across the full range of working environments from the desktop/laptop to conference and control rooms and auditoria, increasing quality while adapting to variable network conditions and efficient use of CPU and GPU processing power, and low cost of the equipment and operational manpower needed to support thousands of scientists at sites around the world. I will present the technical requirements and methods for a solution to this critical set of issues, and refer to the current status and development path of the EVO (Enabling Virtual Organizations) system, and its autonomous real-time communications infrastructure, which has been deployed and operated by the Caltech team to meet these needs, building on developments of the last 14 years.
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Tennessee Plaza: 414 Tennessee Street, Unit Y Redlands, CA 92373 | amylynn@musicempowers.com | (909) 809-4150
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From The Grief Files Part II: Mothers’ Journeys Of Letting Go, To Hold Better
I don’t believe in accidents. I never have. I believe that bad things happen to good people, but I have to maintain that God has a hand in showing us the path to our higher learning from tragedy. In the grief work that has become a major focus for my current practice, I am blessed to witness the migrations of mothers who mourn. They are– beyond courageous. They are–the subject of this post, because in being a parent, the process of “coming to terms” with the loss of a child has a complication that almost no one but another parent can understand.
Any mother will tell you it’s a thankless job. No matter how old your children become, somehow, they can always hold you responsible for not doing things their way, otherwise known as the “right way.” When they shine you are Mother of the Year, and when they flounder, it can always be traced back to something you did or didn’t do. There’s no day off, there’s no bonus or hazard pay, and there’s no pension, but there is an unspoken commitment to nurture and guide that transcends age and even our time here on the planet. When mothers come to me there are a lot of “should haves” and “what ifs” accompanying them, even when their logical mind tells them there is nothing they could have done.
Rachel’s story:
Rachel came into my life when I was working at a booth at a health-focused festival. I could tell instantly she was not your average bear, smelling of essential oils and draped in layers of many colors and coordinating stones. She looked the part and pardoned the look; healer to healer, it takes one to know one. I believe she told me that day that she had lost her adult son a few months earlier, but it wasn’t for many months after that at an actual healer gathering, that she agreed to come to my Grief Support group. “I need to come,” she said. Rachel’s son was also a healer, a bright light and somewhat of a mystic legend in his community. He was so beloved by others that his passing seemed more like a glitch in the Matrix than just another unexplained tragedy.
The two were especially close, working together sometimes, speaking daily, soul connected. “The irony,” Rachel said, “is that he battled life-threatening cancer for years. I knew I would lose him young, but I wasn’t ready and I didn’t think it would be from something else—–I’m just so angry at his friends, they KNEW he wasn’t strong enough to go riding that day.” “Did he know it?” I asked her. After a long pause she said, “He did. But that’s just how he was, he transcended boundaries, and now he has transcended the ultimate boundary.”
It is often said that silence and rest are as important as the notes played in music. This was especially true in working with Rachel, because she herself was an empath, an intuitive helper, a sage. She had already done so much of her own work. What could Music Therapy offer her? I worked with Rachel mostly in a group setting, but a few times individually when we ended up by chance with a group of one (it happens). With the group we played singing bowls, and she chose a special song (one she felt had a connection to her son) to share with others for song analysis, we used instruments to give the loss a voice. In each instance it was sort of like co-leading the group because of her implicit knowledge. The group format offered a specific container to hold some of her overwhelming grief, as it does for any participant, but it also gave her a framework to model her best self to others. The group setting allowed her to cry, but then to hold others when they cried. It allowed her to sing along with her own song choice, but with others in the room to be with the experience in a more structured fashion. Finally, it allowed her to discover that she indeed still had a calling to serve and that a new vision of how to implement that calling would be forthcoming. Rachel and I worked on this using some imagery and music experiences individually as well. I encouraged her to dig and dig and dig until she knew exactly how she was supposed to channel both her gifts and her pain into a new life purpose.
One day Rachel came to group with some writing to share. She had been asked to share her grief story in a collection to be published and once she started telling her tale, there was no stopping her. Reading it in a small setting of people with similar longings seemed to validate and direct her. It wasn’t long before a combination of dreams, symbols and what other people may call coincidences led her to start a special Facebook Group for grieving mothers called—Lullaby Letters– (links listed by permission at the conclusion of this article).
Lately Rachel hasn’t made it to the group. She’s been too busy hiking with her grandkids, offering her own groups, and living out loud with a destiny re-defined.
https://www.facebook.com/groups/lullabyletters/
Ticket to HOPE: The Healing Power of Music: Must Be Present to Win!
From The Grief Files Part I: Mothers’ Journeys Of Letting Go, To Hold Better
Power of the Group
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Converted rapper Ja Rule, tripped up at Fyre Festival, seems to have gone prodigal
What has happened to Ja Rule?
The early 2000s hip-hop sensation famously became saved after a stint in prison for tax evasion and illegal possession of a firearm. Specifically, he accepted Christ at New York’s Hillsong church after filming the Christian movie, I’m in Love with a Christian Girl.
But now Ja Rule has become embroiled in the Fyre Festival fiasco. After promoting a bacchanal hedondom to well-heeled millennials, he’s being sued for failing to deliver the lavish hotel, food, rock stars and hotties. Partiers found themselves stranded in refugee camp tents with cheese sandwiches on the Bahamas Island. The stunning models were noticeably absent.
Has the New York rapper become a prodigal?
Famous for “Always on Time” and “Mesmerize,” Ja Rule — born Jeffrey Atkins – had songs ranked in the Top 20 from 1999 to 2005. He received Grammy nominations, notoriety and tons of money, but police busted him for tax evasion. Released from prison in 2013, he picked up a role in the movie I’m In Love with a Church Girl. As he promoted the movie in churches, God began to draw his heart.
Luxury accommodations at Fyre Festival?
His prior involvement in Jehovah’s Witnesses marred his understanding of God. His mother left the group in his pre-teens, and the rest of the family completely ostracized her.
“The family wasn’t speaking to my mother, and I saw how much it hurt her, I didn’t want to have anything to do with the religion,” he said.
But his aversion towards God changed due to his involvement in the movie.
“I kind of reconnected with God by doing the movie,” Ja Rule told a radio station. “I reconnected with God in a different way. I was going to all these different churches, and they were great, but I didn’t feel like they were talking to me until I went to Hillsong right here in the city.”
Hillsong projected a non-traditional image that he found appealing.
“You walk into this church and it’s dark in there and the disco ball is still in there and you see the lights and you’re like, well this is different, and then you get in there and you start to look at everybody around you, and they look just like you,” he said. “It really gave me the feeling that when they say come as you are, they mean the skater kids in the back with the skateboards, like they just came off the street coming to church. It was a different type of crowd.”
In response to one of the sermons, he and his wife, Aisha, were both saved.
His first steps in the Lord were tentative, but he didn’t shy away from discussing them.
“I want to make sure I’m doing the right thing. I don’t want people to misconstrue what I’m doing here,” Ja Rule said. “I’m taking baby steps, and I want to get closer to God. I feel it’s something you should do in life.”
But then he was quiet about his faith for a number of years.
Earlier this year, Ja Rule joined brash entrepreneur Billy McFarland in hyping an elitist rock competition on beautiful beaches that was supposed to rival or surpass Coachella.
Ja Rule promised purchasers of $1,200 event ticket they would be “living like movie stars, partying like rock stars, and f—–g like porn stars.”
Hmmm. That doesn’t sound very Christian. Read the rest of Ja Rule Christian.
Posted in Christian hip hop, ja rule, New York City
Tagged Bible, Christianity, fyre festival, God, hillsong new york, hip hop, im in love with a Christian girl, Jesus, rap
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One and Many
Seraphine--Music Box Films
24 City--Cinema Guild
Seraphine de Senlis (1864-1942) was a servant and a painter. She worked as a housemaid, a laundress, a butcher's helper, anything she could find. She also painted, in her room at night. Some of her work now hangs in museums.
The French director Martin Provost has made a film about her, called Seraphine, which he wrote with Marc Abdelnour. Laurent Brunet is at the camera, and Yolande Moreau is in the title role. Of course the prevailing sensibility was Provost's, but the gifts of all these people have created a film that holds and enfolds. And it leaves us with an ancient haunting mystery.
Seraphine is Provost's fourth feature, and clearly he wanted to do more than tell the story of her life, which is much too singular for mere recounting. He wanted the very texture of the film to amplify the story as it unfolded. With Brunet's cinematography, in which beauty is immediate, and with Moreau's acting, which is an embrace more than a performance, and with his own insight and spirit, Provost has made a picture that is almost biblical in its simplicity and its passion. More, he has brought about a paradox: Seraphine, like many superior films, is part of the film world yet seems nearly to renounce it.
It is 1914 in Senlis, a town not far from Paris. No music at the start, then a chorus is heard as we move across a body of water into a church and there discover Seraphine praying, singing. She is middle-aged, plain, with the face of a woman resigned to hardship but not beaten by it. Visually, the opening sequence has a suggestion of blue in it, as if the air were azure, and that tint is consistent through most of the film's indoor scenes. The outdoor scenes- -the fields, the flowers, the trees--are viewed in such a way that, when eventually we see some of Seraphine's paintings, which are all of trees and flowers, we understand them. We understand, too, why at one point she climbs up a great tree merely to sit on one of its branches, to be with it, to view the world (we believe that she believes) as the tree does.
Her chief job is as a housemaid in a place where the owner, a sharp woman, takes in tenants. Seraphine is treated brusquely but is no meek slavey: she is sufficiently snippy that, from time to time, her boss reproves her. Yet she slaves. And she has her secret. At night, in her room, she paints, on small wooden panels. She works by candlelight: we even see her tip wax out of lighted church candles into a container that she takes home to refresh her own candles. She grinds her own colors: she paints with her fingers. We never discover how she learned to do any of these things: we just know that it happened.
But we do know how her work is discovered. A German art critic, Wilhelm Uhde, wealthy and renowned, comes to stay in the house where she works and, by accident, sees one of her paintings. He is immediately struck by its adoring yet forceful view of some flowers. He speaks with Seraphine and learns that she is in love with natural things: she talks to trees, to birds, to flowers. He is taken with her ease about her extraordinary feelings. He has influence in Paris and moves to bring her work to others' attention--or would move except that it is now August 1914. The German army is advancing, and if Uhde is found here by the Germans, he will be shot as a deserter. He goes home.
He doesn't return to France until 1927, to a place not far from Senlis, but, possibly because he is involved with a new boyfriend, it is a while before he goes to see Seraphine. This time he really does bring about her critical success in the Paris art world. She makes some money, but Uhde still supports her to a considerable extent. That support is crimped by the Wall Street crash of 1929, which affects his wealth. His sponsorship is even more painfully crimped by Seraphine's mental condition, which begins to deteriorate drastically and swiftly. She is soon put in a mental hospital, where he visits and finds her in a large common room with others. He arranges private quarters for her, paying for them out of the sales of her paintings. This sadly unbalanced woman is thus paying for her own care.
Provost closes his film with a moment that is in essence true to the dark facts yet is lovely. At the end she is given a new hospital room opening on a field. She takes a small chair and starts upward to a lone tree standing on a rise. In a quite long shot we watch as she walks up the hill carrying that chair, then sits under the tree, the closest she can now come to that earlier moment in a tree. Our distance from her, the wholeness of this last shot--sky, hill, large tree, small woman--make it heartbreaking.
Ulrich Tukur as Uhde provides the contemptuous pride of a connoisseur burdened with perception when so many others are myopic. Uhde sees Seraphine as a naive artist (something like Le Douanier Rousseau, whose career he also influenced), and Tukur convinces us that Uhde is right. Moreau (unrelated to Jeanne Moreau), a veteran of theater, film, and television, is, oddly enough, best known in France as a comedienne. Here she has clearly seen Seraphine as the role of a lifetime, and she honors it with utter understanding. Seraphine made work that will last, and Moreau has meant to do the same.
The mystery we are left with is perennial. Talent. How did this drudging housemaid learn to paint--learn to want to paint? She loves God's world, but how did she find this means of expressing it? How did she acquire the will, the insistence? These questions are in addition to the one of her sheer ability. She might have loved nature just as much and painted badly. In the play/film Amadeus, Peter Shaffer raised the subject of divine injustice. Why, the serious Salieri broods, does he have less talent than the comparatively frisky Mozart? Here we are left wondering how, fundamentally, Seraphine happened. The disposition of talent is, as it often is, a bit eerie.
The Chinese documentary 24 City is about Chinese transition. The director Jia Zhang-ke, who won a Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival with an earlier film, is following what has almost become a pattern. Several Chinese directors who have had success feel the need to say something in some way about the country that fostered them. Some of them slipped into prosey servility. But Jia's documentary is the work of a sophisticated artist.
The place is Chengdu, another of those Chinese cities with a multi-million population that crowd the country and that most of us have never heard of. A large factory that had manufactured aviation engines has closed. On the site a giant housing project is being built. Jia wants to counterpoint two themes: the idea of progress and the fact that the old factory meant something in personal terms to its workers. It was not only the place where they worked: it was the organizing center of their lives--in habits, relations, ambitions. Thus, in two contrasting ways, Jia is celebrating his country. Not only is it progressive, he implies, but the way it uses working people doesn't stunt them, it cultivates them as--yes, fellow skeptics--individuals.
China, as it wills, educates and, at least in some degree, empowers film- makers. The very first shots of the huge empty factory tell us that Jia is imaginative, perhaps an outright romantic. He makes us think of caverns, of immense enclosed space, of a place that harbored years of people's lives, of labor done here, of design, rewards, disappointments. Jia converts emptiness into history.
This transmutation is helped by interviews. (He punctuates all these interviews with an occasional blip of black screen--not for emphasis or time lapse, just as a sort of stylistic dash.) Five former workers in the plant speak of their pasts in and around it, and all of them are interesting as people holding forth their lives to us in trust. But there are three other interviews that have caused, rightly, some fuss. They are fictional and are spoken by actors, well known to the Chinese audience, who pretend to be workers like the others. One of them, Joan Chen, is somewhat familiar in the United States.
Jia says that he wanted to integrate documentary and fiction "because this seemed to me the best way of representing the last half-century of Chinese history." Though this is more valid than he can mean, his own reasons do not become clear. Further, Jia says that "history is always a blend of facts and imagination." This is often true when the historian is dealing with the past; but with the present, or the relative present, his statement seems a mere excuse to add unusual touches to his film. (Like those black blips.) For the interview with Chen, he even has her seated in front of a large mirror so that we get a symbolic double image--the actress and the person she is pretending to be. If that isn't enough, he also finds a way to include a clip from one of Chen's films.
Admittedly he has succeeded, with his gimmicks, in making 24 City unique. Without those gimmicks, however, his picture would have been even more distinguished. Still, China, so often ominous, is a dizzyingly interesting country--more than a country, a large chunk of the world--and Jia's documentary, despite its trickery, deploys its prodigious contradictions.
Stanley Kauffmann is the film critic at The New Republic.
By Stanley Kauffmann
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Record number of people visit Saaremaa, Hiiumaa over Midsummer weekend ({{commentsTotal}})
Two of Estonia's new island ferries, Piret and Tõll. Source: TS Laevad
The Saaremaa and Hiiumaa ferries transported a record number of passengers and vehicles between June 21 and 24, shipper TS Laevad reported on Tuesday. A total of 61,005 passengers and 21,130 vehicles were moved along the Virtsu-Kuivastu and Rohuküla-Heltermaa routes in just four days.
According to TS Laevad, this is a new record. In addition to a massive increase in passenger and vehicle numbers over the Midsummer weekend, Midsummer Day also stood out, with more than 18,000 people moved on a single day—also a new record.
"On the Virtsu-Kuivastu route, we moved a total of 45,563 passengers and 15,963 vehicles between Friday and Monday," the company said. "Compared to the same period last year, that is an increase of 22 and 18 percent, respectively."
Business was good on the Rohuküla-Heltermaa route to Hiiumaa as well, where passenger numbers grew by 13 percent.
The total of 61,005 people moved to the islands for Midsummer and back again means that year on year, the number of passengers has increased by 35,000, more than the permanent population of Saaremaa at 33,000 people.
TS Laevad expects the period from July 4 to 7 to be very busy as well, although this time because islanders will likely be traveling to Tallinn for the 2019 Song and Dance Celebration.
saaremaaferriests laevadhiiumaamidsummer
More than 20,000 travel to Saaremaa for Midsummer
Midsummer weekend relatively quiet for police, rescue services
TS Laevad February passenger numbers up 8.9% on year
Over 250,000 trucks carried between Western islands, mainland in 2018
TS Laevad serves record number of passengers on island routes in 2018
Warm summer sees queues for Saaremaa ferry reach Midsummer levels
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No Matter What You Are Doing On September 25th – Don’t Miss The Big One.
Last month I wrote a column about the Concert Across America To End Gun Violence and I likened it to the great Woodstock festival in 1969 that helped define the popular culture of a generation. But I’m beginning to think that the Concert Across America that takes place on September 25th will probably eclipse Woodstock both in terms of cultural symbolism and political significance because Woodstock was just a big, live concert event with lots of music and lots of bands (and lots of dope) but the Concert Across America is shaping up to be much more.
First of all, let’s cover some specifics. When I wrote my last column, the New York City concert at the Beacon Theater had Jackson Browne, Rosanne Cash and Marc Cohn, but now the program has added the Gospel Choir of Harlem and Pearl Jam’s Eddie Vedder, and there may be more artists to come. I also didn’t yet know about the program for the concert at Santa Barbara’s Arlington Theater which is a real a doozie because it includes Kenny Loggins, Michael McDonald, Zach Gill, Christopher Cross and OZOMATLI – I mean, what could be better than that! Boston has a show that will headline Bill Janovitz of Buffalo Tom; Los Angeles has Dan Felder of the Eagles and Ryan Cabrera – it just goes on and on.
I didn’t have time to count every venue but a quick eyeball tells me that there will be concerts, events and performances at more than 350 locations in 44 states. So don’t sit back and think that this is just another one of those highbrow, elitist moments that will only happen in places where most people don’t own guns. Thinking of buying a pair of ECRU pants? The company is a corporate sponsor of this event, as is a little-known transportation company called UBER. Ever hear of them?
These concerts are also being supported by more than 100 organizations representing just about every group that wants to see an end to gun violence here and now. And this is what makes the September 25th event so much more meaningful than Woodstock, because the concert at Max Yasgur’s farm had no political or social agenda; if you could get there it was just something hip and cool. And being hip and cool in 1969 was a cultural statement of some sort, but nobody really knew what those words meant.
The September 25th Concert Across America To End Gun Violence is a much different breed of cat. It has a very clear and very specific political agenda – it is a spectacular effort to increase public awareness and concern about the 100,000+ deaths and injuries suffered by Americans each year because if guns. And it doesn’t matter whether the guns are in the ‘wrong’ hands or anyone’s hands; it doesn’t matter whether it’s an assault rifle or not; this gun violence has got to stop. And that’s what this concert is all about.
Yesterday my concert t-shirt with the beautiful logo arrived and its arrival made me think. The organizations that are partnering to support this event – Moms Demand Action For Gun Sense is now millions strong, Faiths United To End Gun Violence counts 55 separate religious organizations and States United to End Gun Violence is now a collection of grass-roots operations in 31 states. Could these three organizations and the other supporting groups together represent five million or more? That’s probably an undercount.
What I am saying is that the concerts and events on September 25th are not just concerts and events. They also represent what may be the burgeoning of a national movement that will continue to grow and will not only level the playing field but will finally tilt it back the other way. And the other way means to admit that guns cause violence and gun violence has to end.
This entry was posted in Blogs and tagged Beacon Theater, Concert Across America, Eddie Vedder, Gun control, Gun violence, OZOMATLI, Roseann Cash by mikethegunguy. Bookmark the permalink.
1 thought on “No Matter What You Are Doing On September 25th – Don’t Miss The Big One.”
khal spencer on September 17, 2016 at 6:32 pm said:
More important than Woodstock? Oohh. I think Janis Joplin and Jimi Hendrix are spinning in their graves!
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John M. Olin: A man of business
The following is an archived story from the 1988 edition of Business School News. (Photo: John M. Olin, on right).
John M. Olin was a leader among this nation’s entrepreneurs, scientists, conservationists, and philanthropists. His life, his work, his compassion, and his generosity touched the lives of thousands.
John M. Olin
He began his career in 1914, in East Alton, Illinois, with Western Cartridge Company, a family company that evolved, under his leadership and direction, into the industrial giant Olin Corporation, a major manufacturer with interests in brass, chemicals, paper, cellophane, sporting goods, and home building. Olin left his position as chairman of the board in 1957, after having become an outstanding example of an entrepreneur and industrialist skilled in the way of American business and certain of the importance of free enterprise.
A chemical engineering graduate of Cornell University, Olin set out on a career of research, study, and discovery. In his lifetime he earned 24 patents for his scientific inventions. Olin was also an outstanding leader in the conservation field. He developed the game preserve concept on his Nilo Farms outside Alton in 1951, setting aside almost 600 acres of land for scientific improvement of habitat and replenishing wildlife through artificial stocking. Revolutionary at the time, his game preserve concept has gained wide acceptance throughout the years.
As a philanthropist, Olin set an example that challenges others. His lifetime of generous giving to educational institutions, to charitable and community institutions, and to prominent “think tanks” and to public policy groups provided a stellar example of the best in the uniquely American tradition of philanthropy.
He was an influential member of the University’s Board of Trustees for nearly 40 years. He joined the board on December 1, 1942; became a life trustee in 1973; and served until his death in 1982. As frank counselor to six chancellors—William H. Danforth, Thomas H. Eliot, Carl Tolman, Ethan A. H. Shepley, Arthur Holly Compton, and George H. Throop—Olin championed balanced budgets and conservative financial policies, principles still guiding the administration of Washington University today. In nearly four decades he helped nurture a good university to greatness. He provided vision; he cajoled; he criticized; he encouraged, often providing the resources for the University’s expansion and improvement.
A product of America’s heartland, Olin believed that Washington University could play a major part in the development of the region and the nation. He gave his wealth and counsel to strengthen the University for that role. He was a major force in the evolution of Washington University into an international center for education and research.
John M. Olin died on Sept. 8, 1982.
John M. Olin personally provided nearly $6 million in gifts and grants to the University as well as invaluable counsel and advice. Four areas of the University have been particularly influenced by his generosity, interest, commitment, and challenge: The John M. Olin Library, the School of Medicine, the Center for the Study of American Business (now the Weidenbaum Center), and general support.
The John M. Olin Foundation was established in 1953 with a commitment to “the preservation of the principles of political and economic liberty as they have been expressed in American thought, institutions, and practice.” Grants from the Olin Foundation exceeded $18 million at the time of the naming of the business school.
Sources: Washington University Photographic Services.
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March 7, 2019 July 9, 2019
— Women’s History Month —
Editor’s note: First in a three part series about how women have made an impact in media in Southeast Texas.
Since she was a little girl, Jackie Simien wanted to be on TV. She watched the news as if it were a sitcom and was inspired by her local news anchor to pursue a career in broadcast journalism.
“I grew up in Lake Charles and the main anchor there was — and still is — Cynthia Arceneaux,” Simien, KFDM Channel 6 lifestyle correspondent, said. “I grew up watching her and I remember telling my mom that I was going to be on TV one day.”
Simien began her career in media in college as a broadcast journalism major at Louisiana State University and through a scholarship sponsored by the National Association of Black Journalists, earned her first job at an ABC affiliate in Orlando, Fla. as an intern before moving to Beaumont to be the weekend anchor for KFDM Channel 6 in 1994.
Simien left her position as co-anchor in 2007 and said the negative stories in the news impacted her psyche, and she had to leave in order to recover.
“It wasn’t bad when I started in the business, something major would happen maybe quarterly in a year and you could recover from it,” she said. “But now it’s like every second of the day something crazy is happening and there’s no recovery time.”
After working at KBMT Channel 12 and two non-profits, Simien returned to Channel 6 in November as the lifestyle correspondent.
Jackie Simien reflects on her experiences as a woman in broadcast journalism, Friday, KFDM Channel 6 studio. UP photo by Olivia Malick
Simien said that television is not as glamorous as it may seem to be. She said there’s a lot of work that goes into being a broadcast journalist, and even after 25 years in the industry, she’s still learning new things.
“I’m having to learn how to use a new system because the graphics you see on the screen, the banners that have people’s names and who they are — the reporters and anchors are responsible for that,” she said.
Simien said it takes a long time to earn a well-paid position and that women have added challenges and expectations when entering the field.
“I have to worry about how I look a whole lot more than my male colleagues do,” she said. “I saw this experiment a couple of years ago where this anchor wore the exact same suit everyday for a whole year, he maybe only changed his tie, and nobody knew.
“There’s no way a woman could get away with that. We have to worry about what we’re wearing, our hair, even our nails — and we’re in HD now so I try to do my best.”
There are things that some women go through in all industries that men do not have to experience, Simien said.
“Right after I had my daughter, I was nursing, so after the six o’clock news every night during that time I would be in a conference room pumping . Tell me what man has to do that?” Simien said.
Sacrifice is a big part of the job, especially when it comes to family, Simien said.
“Women have personal responsibilities also that may impact them differently than men,” she said. “I hate to admit it, but sometimes you do have to choose between your career and your family.
“When I was growing up, women were being fed the belief that ‘You can have it all.’ I have tried to have it all — but I remember Oprah saying, ‘You can have it all just not all at the same time.’”
Simien said that after working every week night for 13 years of her daughter’s life, she realized that her sacrifice wasn’t worth it. But she kept coming back to broadcasting.
“The time I was in, it was worth it,” Simien said. “When I decided I had to go and get out, it was very scary getting out — I was always taught once you get out it’s hard to get back in.
“I’m not scared anymore. It scared me, getting older and being replaced by younger people, but there’s still something to be said for experience. I’ve been in this area for 25 years. There are things that I know that a younger, prettier, less expensive reporter just will not know so it’s up to them to decide do they want my experience or do they want to pay somebody less but not have the experience?”
The idea of what diversity actually is has been twisted in today’s society, Simien said.
“When people talk about diversity, they just mean it for diversity sake, you know just to say that we have one of everything, but that’s not what the point is,” she said. “The point is, if I’m a woman, then I may contribute something to the story that only women know or only women feel.
“If I’m a black woman, that’s another layer. I may know something that only black women have experienced. I’m also a mother. The way I told stories when I was in my 20s versus now in my 40s is totally different, it’s like day and night. The way I told stories when I was single versus now that I’m married is different.”
Simien said Women’s History Month is important because it gives the opportunity to tell stories that have never been told before.
“Women’s history, black history – it’s American history,” she said. “If American history were told the way it was supposed to be, we wouldn’t need Black History Month or Women’s History Month because we would know those stories already.”
Simien said the most important thing she’s learned throughout her career is the importance of knowing how to talk to people.
“That seems obvious, but everyone is different,” she said. “I’m still learning how to talk to people. I’m learning not to be upset anymore. I used to debate people all the time and I wanted to be right all the time, but I don’t argue anymore.”
Simien said she is happy with where her life and career are at and that she’s grateful to have been able to be a trusted local news anchor for the past 25 years.
“I always envisioned that this business would take me to a bunch of cities, but at the same time, I always wanted to be the trusted local news anchor just like the one I grew up watching,” she said. “I have fulfilled a childhood dream. How many people can say that they realized their childhood dream?”
Olivia Malick, UP managing editor
Previous Post Previous post: UP Vol. 95, No. 18 — March 7, 2019
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The complete, unabridged USGA rules of golf, as previously adopted, printed on one poster print. This elegant print measures 27in x 40in and carries the complete text of the Official USGA Handbook.
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The Rules of Golf
The rules of golf are a set of standards and regulations for which players of the game are required to adhere, or otherwise, face penalties for rule violations. Worldwide, the rules of golf are composed and overseen by rules of golf are composed and overseen by the international governing body of the sport of golf, the R&A (formerly The Royal and Ancient Golf Club of St Andrews). The United States Golf Association (USGA), however, oversees the rules of golf for the United States and Mexico. Issued repeatedly, The Rules of Golf rulebook also outlines the rules regulating amateur status.
While it is not an official numbered rule, one of the chief tenets of the rules of golf is placed on the inside cover of the R&A’s publication of The Rules of Golf: f the chief tenets of the rules of golf is placed on the inside cover of the R&A’s publication of The Rules of Golf: “Play the ball as it lies, play the course as you find it, and if you cannot do either, do what is fair. But to do what is fair, you need to know the Rules of Golf.”
Apart from the rules of golf, the game of golf also recognizes a particular protocol for appropriate behavior, or etiquette, which involves both respecting other players and the golf course itself. Golfers typically consider etiquette to be as significant as the very rules of golf.
Before the international regulation of the rules of golf, individual golf clubs often followed their own rules of golf. While overall, the rules of golf were the same across different clubs, there were often some minor variations, for instance the rules around removing loose impediments such as twigs or pebbles. In the late 1800s, the majority of golf clubs started to fall in line with the rules of golf of one of two clubs: the Society of St. Andrews Golfers or the Gentlemen Golfers of Leith, which would go on to become the R&A and the Honourable Company of Edinburgh Golfers, respectively.
The first recorded rules of golf were drafted on March 7, 1744 by the Gentlemen Golfers of Leith for a golf tournament on April 2, 1744. Made up of thirteen rules, the first rules of golf were titled “Articles and Laws in Playing at Golf.”
“You must tell your ball within a club’s length of the hole.”
“Your Tee must be upon the ground.”
“You are not to change the ball which you strike off the tee.”
“You are not to remove stones, bones or any break club, for the sake of playing your ball, except upon the fair green within a club’s length of your ball.”
“If your ball comes among water, or any watery filth, you are at liberty to take out your ball & bringing it behind the hazard and teeing it, you may play it with any club and allow your adversary a stroke for so getting out your ball.”
“If your balls be found anywhere touching one another, you are to lift the first ball, till you play the last.”
“At holing, you are to play your ball honestly for the hole, and not to play upon your adversary’s ball, not lying in your way to the hole.”
“If you should lose your ball, by its being taken up, or any other way, you are to go back to the spot, where you struck last, & drop another ball, and allow your adversary a stroke for the misfortune.”
“No man at holing his ball, is to be allowed, to mark his way to the hole with his club, or anything else.”
“If a ball be stopp’d by any person, horse, dog or anything else, the ball so stop’d must be play’d where it lies.”
“If you draw your club in order to strike, and proceed so far in the stroke as to be bringing down your club; if then, your club shall break, in any way, it is to be accounted a stroke.”
“He whose ball lies farthest from the hole is obliged to play first.”
“Neither trench, ditch or dyke, made for the preservation of the links, nor the scholar’s holes, or the soldier’s Lines, shall be accounted a hazard; but the ball is to be taken out and play’d with any iron club.”
There is still a dispute over who in fact wrote these original rules of golf, which bear the signature of John Rattray, and of which many elements are present in golf today, including rules surrounding interference, water, the order of play, the stroke, and the penalties for losing a ball. Despite the fact that Rattray signed the rules of golf, this does not mean that he was entirely responsible for their creation. He is considered the likely author, however, due to his standing in the Edinburgh society. Rattray proceeded to win the silver club playing under these rules for the second time in April of 1745.
Every four years, the Rules of Golf is published alongside the Rules of Amateur Status by the USGA and the R&A. The Rules of Golf delineates how golfers are expected to play the game of golf. Since 1952, the Rules of Golf have been published jointly by the R&A and USGA, and prior to 2012, the groups published the same material in separate versions. Now, the same material is published in identical fashion with matching formats and covers, with only minor variations in logos and spelling. The R&A, which was formerly The Royal and Ancient Golf Club of St Andrews until 2004, is responsible for the rules of golf internationally, with the exception of the rules in the United States and Mexico, which fall under the USGA.
The name “Rules” can be used to denote any of the following:
The rules for the etiquette of golf, which are addressed in the main book, and outline the appropriate behavior for players of the game.
Local rules that are established by a golf club committee, for instance, to designate the manner used to identify ball drops, course boundaries, and environmentally sensitive areas, and so on.
The book, Decisions on the Rules of Golf, which is published every other year by the R&A and the USGA to explain questions about the Rules.
Rules that govern players with disabilities who follow A Modification of the Rules of Golf for Golfers with Disabilities, published by the USGA and R&A.
Rules that regulate the shape, size and function of golf gear – clubs and balls – as outlined by the USGA and R&A.
Rules that are regularly embraced in competition, such as prohibiting the use of automotive transportation in the course of a round.
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Africa’s Lake Chad Basin: Over $2.1 billion pledged, to provide comprehensive crisis response
OCHA/Ivo Brandau
A refugee camp in northern Cameroon hosting Nigerian refugees (file photo). Boko Haram violence in north-east Nigeria forced thousands to flee their homes, many sought refuge in neighboring countries.
A United Nations-backed humanitarian conference to raise much needed resources for relief, development and peacebuilding programmes in Africa’s Lake Chad Basin concluded on Tuesday, raising some $2.17 billion in support and about $467 million in concessional loans for the crisis-ridden region.
Achim Steiner, the Administrator for the UN Development Programme (UNDP) said that the promised funds amounted to a “strong endorsement” of the Organization’s work, to address both urgent humanitarian needs and the root causes of the crisis.
“In this way, our response to a crisis is also an opportunity to invest in a future where crises are less likely and nations are more resilient,” he said.
The two day High-Level Conference on the Lake Chad Region, was organized in Berlin, by UNDP and the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), together with the governments of Germany, Norway and Nigeria.
It brought together more than 70 countries, regional organizations, international financial institutions and humanitarian organizations to discuss immediate relief needs, crisis prevention and stabilization, as well as development, to chart a way forward for a comprehensive and inclusive response.
In this way, our response to a crisis is also an opportunity to invest in a future where crises are less likely and nations are more resilient – Achim Steiner, UNDP Administrator
According to OCHA, the conference also provided an “excellent opportunity” for in-depth deliberations on issues emerging from last February’s Oslo humanitarian conference on the region, that raised some $650 million in pledges for humanitarian programmes in 2017 and beyond.
“Participants agreed that a coherent, multi-year approach is needed, that integrates all available instruments to tackle the protection crisis and the root causes of the conflict,” said the organizers in a news release.
“This is needed to pave the way for sustainable and resilient development of the region, and thus contribute to a better future for the affected people.”
The conference also highlighted the regional dimension of the Lake Chad crisis, and the crucial role of local actors, cross-border cooperation and ownership at all levels.
More than 17 million people across the four Lake Chad Basin countries – Nigeria, Cameroon, Chad and Niger – remain mired in a complex crisis driven by extreme poverty, climate change and violent conflict.
As a result, more than 2.4 million are displaced and over 10 million people need more assistance to meet their basic protection and humanitarian needs.
Lake Chad Basin|nigeria|cameroon|chad|niger
Progress made but Lake Chad crisis is not over, says UN relief chief, urging greater support for region
Top UN official in Nigeria condemns killing of abducted aid worker; calls for immediate release of two others
Nigeria: Top UN officials say more support needed to ease humanitarian crisis and rebuild lives in conflict-ravaged north-east
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CVC Provides UVA Employees a Way to Give to Their Favorite Causes
Anne E. Bromley, anneb@virginia.edu
The fall season signals many beginnings, one of them being the annual Commonwealth of Virginia Campaign, the employee charity-fundraising drive. Held in state agencies across Virginia, this year’s – the 18th edition – kicks off Monday.
With about 1,000 charities and nonprofit organizations to choose from, the campaign provides an easy way to make a difference to the community and support causes that match employee interests. One hundred percent of employees’ contributions go directly to the charities, which include those whose work focuses on health and human services, animal welfare, historical preservation, environmental conservation, medical research and more.
University of Virginia employees and volunteers across Grounds are essential to the campaign’s success. UVA has been the state’s leading participant in the CVC for 16 years, with contributions totaling more than $13 million. During last year’s drive, University employees contributed more than $998,000 – more than 25 percent of the entire commonwealth’s contributions.
“Through the CVC, we come together in support of the causes that matter most to us,” Sullivan wrote in a letter of support. “I encourage employees to join me and thousands of others across Grounds in the CVC at UVA. Collectively, we can have a significant impact in our area and throughout the Commonwealth of Virginia.” Although offices and units typically hand out pledge cards in familiar red envelopes, many are going paperless this year and encouraging donations to be made online. Salaried employees may choose to give through payroll deduction beginning with the first paycheck in January. Pledges must be made by Dec. 16 to ensure processing for the 2016 tax year.
University Deputy Spokesperson Office of University Communications
mhc8r@eservices.virginia.edu (434) 924-7384
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HPV Discovery Raises Hope for New Cervical Cancer Treatments
Josh Barney, jdb9a@virginia.edu
Researchers at the University of Virginia School of Medicine have made a discovery about human papillomavirus, or HPV for short, that could lead to new treatments for cervical cancer and other cancers caused by the virus.
HPV is responsible for nearly all cases of cervical cancer and 95 percent of anal cancers. It is the most common sexually transmitted disease, infecting more than 79 million Americans. Most have no idea that they are infected or that they could be spreading it.
“Human papillomavirus causes a lot of cancers. Literally thousands upon thousands of people get cervical cancer and die from it all over the world. Cancers of the mouth and anal cancers are also caused by human papillomaviruses,” researcher Anindya Dutta of the UVA Cancer Center said. “Now there’s a vaccine for HPV, so we’re hopeful the incidences will decrease. But that vaccine is not available all around the world, and because of religious sensitivity, not everybody is taking it. The vaccine is expensive, so I think the human papillomavirus cancers are here to stay. They’re not going to disappear. So we need new therapies.”
HPV and Cancer
HPV has been a stubborn foe for scientists, even though researchers have a solid grasp of how it causes cancer: by producing proteins that shut down healthy cells’ natural ability to prevent tumors. Blocking one of those proteins, called oncoprotein E6, seemed like an obvious solution, but decades of attempts to do so have proved unsuccessful.
Dutta and his colleagues, however, have found a new way forward. They have determined that the virus takes the help of a protein present in our cells, an enzyme called USP46, which becomes essential for HPV-induced tumor formation and growth. And USP46 enzyme promises to be very susceptible to drugs; Dutta calls it “eminently druggable.”
“It’s an enzyme, and because it’s an enzyme, it has a small pocket essential for its activity, and drug companies are very good at producing small chemicals that will jam that pocket and make enzymes like USP46 inactive,” said Dutta, who chairs UVA’s Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Genetics. “So we are very excited by this possibility that by inactivating USP46 we’ll have a way to treat HPV-caused cancers.”
Curiously, HPV uses USP46 for an activity that is opposite to what the oncoprotein E6 was known to do. E6 has been known for more than two decades to recruit another cellular enzyme to degrade the cell’s tumor suppressor, while Dutta’s new finding shows that E6 uses USP46 to stabilize other cellular proteins and prevent them from being degraded. Both activities of E6 are critical to the growth of cancer.
The researchers note that enzyme USP46 is specific to HPV strains that cause cancer. It is not used by other strains of HPV that do not cause cancer, they report.
Findings Published
The researchers have published their findings in the scientific journal Molecular Cell. The team included Shashi Kiran, Ashraf Dar, Samarendra K. Singh, Kyung Yong Lee and Dutta – all from UVA’s Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Genetics.
The work was supported by the National Institutes of Health, grant R01 GM084465. To keep up with the latest medical research news from UVA, subscribe to the Making of Medicine blog.
Josh Barney
UVA Health System
jdb9a@virginia.edu 434-243-1988
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Weedmaps ∙ News ∙ Law & Politics
Student Financial Aid Form Might No Longer Penalize Drug Convictions
Marijuana Moment ∙ May 16, 2019 1:54 pm PDT
A congressional bill designed to streamline the student federal financial aid application process — which would also remove a question about prior drug convictions from the form — was filed in the Senate on May 15, 2019, with the support of two presidential candidates.
Democratic Sens. Cory Booker of New Jersey and Kirsten Gillibrand of New York, who are running for their party's 2020 presidential nomination, along with Democratic Sens. Jeff Merkley of Oregon and Catherine Cortez Masto of Nevada, are among the seven lawmakers who introduced the legislation, called the Simplifying Financial Aid for Students Act of 2018. The bulk of the bill is designed to help low-income students get the most out of the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA), but it also includes provisions to remove questions that are “duplicative and irrelevant.”
One of those questions concerns past drug convictions. The application asks “Have you been convicted for the possession or sale of illegal drugs for an offense that occurred while you were receiving federal student aid (such as grants, work-study, or loans)?”
Via FAFSA
Answering “yes” could cause financial aid to be denied or suspended, and affected students are required to complete drug rehabilitation programs, pass two drug tests, or wait for specified periods of time to have their grants or loans reinstated.
“The complexity of a financial aid form should not limit the opportunities available to our country's young people,” Booker said in a press release. “Yet, that is sadly the reality for many low-income students and students of color. Our future depends on how we educate the next generation — it's time we start lowering the barriers to entry and begin including more students.”
Our future depends on how we educate the next generation — it's time we start lowering the barriers to entry and begin including more students. Click To Tweet
The drug conviction question has penalized tens of thousands of students since the requirement was added in a 1998 reform of the Higher Education Act. Despite attempts to revise to question so there isn't an automatic loss of all federal financial aid for a self-reported conviction, even partial losses can adversely affect students, particularly those who are low-income.
Beyond simply removing the drug question from the FAFSA form, the new legislation would also repeal the underlying penalty that strips aid from students with convictions for marijuana or other controlled substances.
“Students for Sensible Drug Policy (SSDP) supports Senator Booker's new bill because it would lift or ease many of the barriers to higher education that currently exist today,” Betty Aldworth, executive director of SSDP, told Marijuana Moment. “SSDP has been seeking the removal of the Aid Elimination Penalty since it was first signed into law and this bill would finally repeal the harmful penalty that continues to derail the lives of thousands of students every year — for too long, another compounding harm of our broken and dangerous drug policy borne primarily by people of color or low income who are most often targeted by police.”
“No student should lose access to higher education simply for a drug conviction and this bill would finally have the law catch up to common sense on this issue,” she said.
No student should lose access to higher education simply for a drug conviction and this bill would finally have the law catch up to common sense on this issue. Click To Tweet
Booker introduced an earlier version of the legislation in 2018. Before that, Democratic Rep. Lisa Blunt Rochester of Delaware called for the elimination of the drug conviction eligibility question on the FAFSA in 2017.
Booker, a 2020 Democratic presidential candidate, has been a champion of several wide-ranging marijuana reform bills, including the Marijuana Justice Act, which would remove cannabis from the list of federally controlled substances and punish states that continue to enforce marijuana prohibition in a discriminatory way.
Gillibrand is also running for her party's presidential nomination and has been active on marijuana reform legislation.
At the same time that the senators are looking out for students with non-violent drug offenses on their records, other lawmakers in Congress are pushing to ensure that universities that study marijuana do not have their federal grants withheld.
Feature image: A bill introduced by Democratic senators would remove a question about convictions for drug possession or sales from the Free Application for Federal Student Aid. (Photo by TaxCredits.net via Flickr)
This article has been republished from Marijuana Moment under a content syndication agreement. Read the original article here.
Marijuana Moment
Cannabis Industry Banking Access Bill Set for 1st House Vote March 26
Law & Politics 4 monthsMarijuana Moment
A bipartisan bill designed to protect banks that service the marijuana industry from being penalized by federal regulators will get a vote in a key congressional committee on March 26,...
Denver Dispensary Owners Plead Guilty in Illegal Marijuana Sales Case
Law & Politics 6 monthsAP
DENVER — The owners of a Denver marijuana business pleaded guilty Jan. 25, 2019, to drug and racketeering charges and will spend a year in prison in what city officials...
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NB Financial Health.
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Stephen Ufford
Fast Lane to the Future: Three ways the ‘leapfrog effect’ is transforming developing countries – and revolutionizing finance
The “leapfrog effect” has long been a global development buzzword, and it’s easy to see why. It’s an appealingly optimistic concept: The term refers to the phenomenon, in fast-growing emerging economies, of technological advances permitting shortcuts in infrastructure building. Instead of proceeding through all the previous iterations of a technology when developing their infrastructure, these countries are able to jump to the most current version. This saves them considerable time and money – and can let them achieve quick results that took several decades to attain in more developed countries.
Though the existence of technology in itself doesn’t guarantee that this leap will occur, and successfully executing it requires support from both private and public sector actors, the leapfrog effect is already reshaping several vital elements of emerging economies. Let’s take a look at three.
Communications is the classic example of the leapfrog effect, and it’s the sector through which related opportunities flow. To understand the potential of leapfrogging, consider the massive effort that has gone into the communications infrastructure in the developed world. Since the late 19th century, telephones have been the primary method of long-distance spoken communication there. And setting up a telephone system traditionally involved running countless miles of cables from town to town and house to house, as well as installing wiring within each home. The amount of resources and time needed for a developing country to accomplish this from scratch is mind-boggling.
Fortunately, with the advent of mobile phone technology, there is no longer a need to create an intricate network of wires in order to make a phone call. Instead, developing countries can completely bypass landlines and jump straight into building mobile towers and connecting those to the main network. The resulting access has facilitated not just voice communications, but increasingly – with the emergence of cheap smartphones – access to mobile Internet. For many in developing countries, technologies like dial-up Internet access, floppy disks and even computers themselves are likely to remain relics of the past, as entire countries jump directly to the smartphone era.
The World Bank’s latest statistics put the current global unbanked population at 2 billion. Although that’s an improvement from 2.5 billion in 2011, we still have a long way to go before that number hits zero. And achieving that goal will be unlikely if it depends on the construction of a brick-and-mortar bank branch network.
Meanwhile, advances in mobile connectivity have made bank branches as outdated as rotary-dial telephones. As mobile banking has grown in popularity in industrialized nations, it has been outpaced by parallel innovations like M-PESA and M-Shwari in Kenya, which have revolutionized the way developing countries approach banking. Today, groups like the Better than Cash Alliance are helping governments in emerging countries make the transition to electronic payments rather than relying on cash, as mobile money innovators everywhere vie to be the next M-PESA.
In another intriguing development, there’s increasing talk about the possibility that developing countries – especially in Africa – could ultimately use cryptocurrencies to leapfrog the need for a traditional financial infrastructure. The unbanked in Kenya and Tanzania already have access to bitcoin-based services such as BitPesa that allow them to affordably send and receive funds without the need of a bank account.
Our concept of identity, like that of communications and banking, has been turned on its head in our increasingly digital world. The use of paper documents as proof of identity is becoming obsolete, particularly due to the cost and inefficiency of acquiring, handling and storing these documents, and the ease with which criminals can now create high-quality forgeries. As governments and policymakers around the world uncover reliable new ways to confidently identify people, leveraging advanced technology and data offers robust and unique solutions.
Now that mobile phones, particularly smartphones, are coming into greater use – especially in developing countries – an alternative form of identity is on the rise. As each person uses their mobile phone, whether it’s to make calls, top up minutes, communicate on social networks or send mobile payments, they begin to cultivate a network of electronic records that can be used to uniquely identify them. In effect, they are “triangulating the self” and creating a digital footprint that can be used as proof of identity.
This footprint can be used by financial services providers, not only to comply with “know your customer” requirements, but also to demonstrate creditworthiness. MasterCard Advisors found that alternative sources of data, including mobile prepaid and social activity, could provide a wealth of data that can be effectively used to determine an individual’s ability and willingness to repay loans. Big data analytics companies have developed models that show that a few months of this data can suffice to not only verify individuals’ identity, but to allow financial services companies to quickly assess factors like income level and employment status.
Using these types of data, as well as data from peer-to-peer marketplaces and online commerce, to reach the unbanked is both my personal mission and that of Trulioo, a global ID verification company that I launched in 2011 focused on building trust online, best privacy practices and financial inclusion. That’s why Trulioo is working to harness the power of big data analytics, collectively called cyber ID data (CID), in our identity verification product, GlobalGateway. It is our goal to help remove barriers that are preventing the world’s poor from accessing basic financial services.
When combined, the leapfrog effect that is happening in communications, banking and identity could hold the key to solving the problem of financial exclusion. Developing countries are now free of the burden of having to integrate new technologies into existing, long-established systems, allowing them to make digital financial services widely available while reducing risk for financial institutions.
As technology continues to become more affordable and accessible in developing countries, we will undoubtedly see more of the benefits of leapfrogging. Through the use of CID and other tools, I look forward to the day when everyone will be on a level playing field and have the same opportunity to participate in the global economy, regardless of location, race, creed, circumstance, environment or financial situation.
Stephen Ufford is the founder and CEO of Trulioo.
Entrepreneurship, Technology
banking, bitcoin, business development, financial inclusion, infrastructure, mobile banking, mobile finance, mobile money, mobile phones, technology, telecommunications
Wednesday July 17, 2019Why Payment Fraud is a Critical Threat to Financial Inclusion – And How Mojaloop is Making it Worse
Thursday July 11, 2019How Artificial Intelligence Can Simplify International Development Research: An Intriguing Experiment (Involving NextBillion)
Tuesday June 25, 2019Creating an Inclusive Fintech Ecosystem? Here Are Three Facts Accelerators Should Consider
@NextBillionFH (link opens in a new window)
News via @KahawaTungu (link opens in a new window): Two Companies Approved To Run #SouthSudan (link opens in a new window)’s First Mobile Money Platform,#mGurush (link opens in a new window):… https://t.co/MYFZ8wt6sg (link opens in a new window)
News via @BusInsiderSSA (link opens in a new window): @thebankofghana (link opens in a new window) Asks #MobileMoney (link opens in a new window) Operators to Reduce the High Cost of Services:… https://t.co/3OBXkghgOd (link opens in a new window)
News via @Reuters (link opens in a new window): Kenyan Betting Firms Say Payment Systems Suspended Following Government Order:… https://t.co/kpfbku4eMt (link opens in a new window)
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Thursday July 18, 2019PayPal Fires up “Ripple-Killer” Xoom App for International Payments
Thursday July 18, 2019Singapore’s CredoLab to Power Digital Financial Inclusion in Sub-Saharan Africa
Tuesday July 16, 2019Two Companies Approved To Run South Sudan’s First Mobile Money Platform, m-Gurush
Tuesday July 16, 2019Bank of Ghana Asks Mobile Money Operators to Reduce the High Cost of Services
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Wednesday July 24, 2019Webinar: Council on Smallholder Agricultural Finance (CSAF) State of the Sector
Monday October 21, 2019SAM 2019: It’s All About Impact
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Lay Down, Build Up
January 31, 2017 January 31, 2017 n2pax
Lay Down – Build Up
Epiphany 25-26
A common cry throughout the history of the world has been the call to lay down arms. In other words, stop fighting. The quote “War is hell” has been attributed to General William Tecumseh Sherman, although he himself claimed to not remember saying it. David Wallechinsky & Irving Wallace, authors of the series “The People’s Almanac” explain: Historians generally agree that this is Sherman’s statement on war, but the Civil War general could not remember ever having said these three words. Before his death in 1891, Sherman made an extensive search through all of his private papers in a fruitless effort to convince himself that the words were actually his. There are several accounts of when the words were said. The earliest version dates back to 1863, after the fall of Vicksburg, when Sherman’s troops were crossing a pontoon bridge over the Pearl River at Jackson, Miss. According to eyewitness John Koolbeck, a soldier from Iowa, Sherman watched the crossing from the water’s edge and then said to the passing troops, “War is hell, boys.” Another account has Sherman delivering the line in a graduation address at the Michigan Military Academy on June 19, 1879. Still a third account says that Sherman made the famous statement in a speech before a group of Union veterans in Columbus, O., on Aug. 11, 1880. At other times, he did state, “War is cruel and you cannot refine it” and “War at best is barbarism.”
The bearing of a weapon greatly increases the likelihood that said weapon will be used. Hateful words spoken aloud greatly increases the chance that uttered hatred will spread. History bears witness to the truth of those two statements. Usually, religion is given as the cause for such things like war. Within the last two thousand years, the three Abrahamic faiths have been the culprits and there is evidence that they have contributed even though was is not a part of any religion’s doctrine.
Those who claim that isolation and violence are the path towards goodness are walking blindly. It is with much sadness and anger that I must admit the events of this past weekend at US airports will be forever linked to Christianity. People with legal documentation that gave them the right to travel to and in the USA have been held up and prevented from arrival. Claiming to be laying down arms while beefing up security, a new regime has hijacked both the US Constitution and the Christian faith.
How do I make such a bold statement? Matthew 25:31-46 from the New Testament is my proof. “When the Son of Man comes in His glory, and all the 3holy angels with Him, then He will sit on the throne of His glory. All the nations will be gathered before Him, and He will separate them one from another, as a shepherd divides his sheep from the goats. And He will set the sheep on His right hand, but the goats on the left. Then the King will say to those on His right hand, ‘Come, you blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world: for I was hungry and you gave Me food; I was thirsty and you gave Me drink; I was a stranger and you took Me in; 36 I was naked and you clothed Me; I was sick and you visited Me; I was in prison and you came to Me.’ Then the righteous will answer Him, saying, ‘Lord, when did we see You hungry and feed You, or thirsty and give You drink? When did we see you a stranger and take you in, or naked and clothe you? Or when did we see You sick, or in prison, and come to You?’ 40 And the King will answer and say to them, ‘Assuredly, I say to you, inasmuch as you did it to one of the least of these My brethren, you did it to Me.’ Then He will also say to those on the left hand, Depart from Me, you cursed, into the everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels: for I was hungry and you gave Me no food; I was thirsty and you gave Me no drink; I was a stranger and you did not take Me in, naked and you did not clothe Me, sick and in prison and you did not visit Me.’ Then they also will answer Him, saying, ‘Lord, when did we see You hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison, and did not minister to You?’ Then He will answer them, saying, ‘Assuredly, I say to you, inasmuch as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to Me.’”
Borgna Brunner explains how Islam actually has two holidays that reference helping others, the building up of each other. Eid al-Fitr (1 Shawwal)is the Celebration concluding Ramadan, the month of fasting. Ramadan ends with the festival of Eid al-Fitr. Literally the “Festival of Breaking the Fast,” Eid al-Fitr is one of the two most important Islamic celebrations (Eid al-Adha is the other). At Eid al-Fitr people dress in their finest clothes, adorn their homes with lights and decorations, give treats to children, and enjoy visits with friends and family. A sense of generosity and gratitude colors these festivities. Although charity and good deeds are always important in Islam, they have special significance at the end of Ramadan. As the month draws to a close, Muslims are obligated to share their blessings by feeding the poor and making contributions to mosques.
Hajj is the pilgrimage to Mecca that all Adult Muslims are expected to make at least once in their lifetime. Eid al-Adha (10 Dhu’l-Hijjah) is the celebration concluding the Hajj. Eid al-Adha, or the Feast of Sacrifice, commemorates the prophet Abraham’s willingness to obey Allah by sacrificing his son Ishmael. According to the Quran, just before Abraham sacrificed his son, Allah replaced Ishmael with a ram, thus sparing his life. One of the two most important Islamic festivals, Eid al-Adha begins on the 10 day of Dhu’l-Hijja, the last month of the Islamic calendar. Lasting for three days, it occurs at the conclusion of the annual Hajj, or pilgrimage to Mecca. Muslims all over the world celebrate, not simply those undertaking the hajj, which for most Muslims is a once-a-lifetime occurrence. The festival is celebrated by sacrificing a lamb or other animal and distributing the meat to relatives, friends, and the poor. The sacrifice symbolizes obedience to Allah and its distribution to others is an expression of generosity, one of the five pillars of Islam.
“Tzedakah” is the Hebrew word for the acts that we call “charity” in English: giving aid, assistance and money to the poor and needy or to other worthy causes. However, the nature of tzedakah is very different from the idea of charity. The word “charity” suggests benevolence and generosity, a magnanimous act by the wealthy and powerful for the benefit of the poor and needy. The word “tzedakah” is derived from the Hebrew root Tzadei-Dalet-Qof, meaning righteousness, justice or fairness. In Judaism, giving to the poor is not viewed as a generous, magnanimous act; it is simply an act of justice and righteousness, the performance of a duty, giving the poor their due. Giving to the poor is an obligation in Judaism, a duty that cannot be forsaken even by those who are themselves in need. Some sages have said that tzedakah is the highest of all commandments, equal to all of them combined, and that a person who does not perform tzedakah is equivalent to an idol worshipper. This is probably hyperbole, but it illustrates the importance of tzedakah in Jewish thought. Tzedakah is one of the three acts that gain us forgiveness from our sins.
Rabbi Moshe ben Maimon went one step further in explaining how such charity should be given, a hierarchy of learning how to give. Giving begrudgingly is the first step, followed by giving less that you should, but giving it cheerfully. Giving after being asked and giving before being asked follow. Then there is giving when you do not know the recipient’s identity, but the recipient knows your identity and giving when you know the recipient’s identity, but the recipient doesn’t know your identity. After a while, giving becomes the important thing, not being known for giving as in giving when neither party knows the other’s identity. Finally, at the top is the true purpose for tzedakah which enables the recipient to become self-reliant.
When we lay down our hatred and weapons, we are then able to build each other up through the Christian, Jewish, and Islam paths of charity and generosity. War with its many forms and variations is cruel and does little to build for the future. Evil should be stopped but we are an intelligent race. Surely we can figure a way to create peace and a better tomorrow with mercy and goodness.
Categories: #beliefs, #diversity, #faith, #identity, #religion, #Spirituality, #theology, #war, Prayer, self-help, Uncategorized Tags: #gospelofmatthew, #mercy, #POTUS, #Qu'ran, #RabbiMoshebenMaimon, #Talmud, #TheBible, #war
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Where does SAMAHA rank in the most common names in the U.S.?
SAMAHA 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.
SAMAHA ranks # 31235 in terms of the most common surnames in America for 2000.
SAMAHA had 702 occurrences in the 2000 Census, according the U.S. government records.
Out of a sample of 100,000 people in the United States, SAMAHA would occur an average of 0.26 times.
For the last name of SAMAHA the Census Bureau reports the following race / ethnic origin breakdown:
1.57 percent, or 11 total occurrences, were "Non-Hispanic Asian and Pacific Islander Only"
2.99 percent, or 21 total occurrences, were "Non-Hispanic of Two or More Races"
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Where does SANTANDREA rank in the most common names in the U.S.?
SANTANDREA 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.
SANTANDREA ranks # 106477 in terms of the most common surnames in America for 2000.
SANTANDREA had 155 occurrences in the 2000 Census, according the U.S. government records.
Out of a sample of 100,000 people in the United States, SANTANDREA would occur an average of 0.06 times.
For the last name of SANTANDREA the Census Bureau reports the following race / ethnic origin breakdown:
16.13 percent, or 25 total occurrences, were "Hispanic Origin"
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North American Society for Oceanic History
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Welcome to North American Society for Oceanic History
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The North American Society for Oceanic History (NASOH) was founded in 1973 to provide a forum for maritime history and remains actively devoted to the study and promotion of naval and maritime history.
The society’s mission is to promote the exchange of information among scholars interested in the history of the seas, lakes, and inland waterways; to call attention to books, articles, and documents pertinent to naval and maritime history; and to work with local, regional, national, international, and government organizations toward the goal of fostering an awareness and appreciation for North America’s naval and maritime heritage.
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Along with the Canadian Nautical Research Society, NASOH co-sponsors publication of The Northern Mariner/ Le Marin du Nord, a quarterly journal of maritime history scholarship.
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As advised in February following approval from the National Capital Commission, the Canadian Museum of Nature will begin construction in April of a temporary surface parking lot on the west side of its property. This follows review of a proposed five-year concept for the area (4.2 Mb PDF).
Preparations for construction will start within the next week, weather-depending. The area will be marked off with a construction fence for the duration of the project, which is expected to be completed by the end of June.
First steps will involve removal of infrastructure, including curbs, the booth and the gate along Argyle Avenue. A tree will also be removed as part of the plans. Because of restrictions along Argyle and McLeod avenues, trucks will exit by a temporary thru-way across the park to O'Connor Street. Regular hours of construction will be Monday to Friday according to City of Ottawa bylaws.
The proposal was presented at a public information session on September 16, 2013. The overall plan will reduce the footprint of the currently available parking on the west side, and maximize the remaining area for public use. The concept plans also include the Regions of Canada Garden and an Arctic sculpture. These two elements are subject to a separate approval process.
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MacPhee earns “King of Berlin” title, second bracelet
October 27, 2015 Mary W.
It was an American invasion in Berlin this weekend, as Kevin MacPhee of Idaho won the 2015 World Series of Poker Europe No-Limit Hold’Em Main Event – taking home a WSOP bracelet and the €883,000 first-place prize. The win marked MacPhee’s second-ever gold bracelet; his first came earlier this year when he conquered the $5,000 No-Limit Hold’Em Turbo High Roller.
“It was a goal of mine just to win one bracelet,” the Idaho native told WSOP.com. “Having two in the same year feels pretty unreal. I’m not the greatest mixed-game player, I’m more of a no-limit tournament specialist, so it’s very difficult for me to win two in a year.”
MacPhee started the final day with a massive chip lead after Erik Seidel was eliminated short of the six-handed final. MacPhee’s first ouster at the six-handed final table saw his ♤ flush put German Kilian Kramer (A♡, 10♢) to the sword.
The final heads-up duel between MacPhee and runner-up David Lopez came after Lopez rivered two-pair against JC Alvarado (A♢, K♡), sending the Mexican home in third.
MacPhee then slowly-but-surely furthered his chip lead over Lopez until a weak ace was enough to overwhelm the short-stacked Spaniard and take home the win.
Five years ago, MacPhee broke onto the scene with a win in the sixth season of the European Poker Tour.
“I took a big risk being a kid from Idaho and coming out to Europe, leaving everything behind, including family and friends, and just putting my stuff in storage to come out on tour,” he said. “That was seven years ago and I’ve been on the road since then. I felt validated when I won the EPT, and yeah, the bracelet was really nice. This is just the icing on the cake. Now I can start to cement my legacy. … I think this starts to secure my reputation as an elite player. There’s a lot of players with one bracelet. Two bracelets, you thin out a lot of people. Two bracelets and an EPT title, there’s not too many people that have that.”
If MacPhee ever does leave life on the road, he knows where he might like to settle down.
“Berlin is a just a great city,” MacPhee told PokerNews. “It’s a 24-hour city and I come here knowing that even if I have a bad time at the poker table, I’m going to have a great time in the city. I would love to live here some time.”
Final table results:
Kevin MacPhee, U.S. – €883,000
David Lopez, Spain – €475,000
JC Alvarado, Mexico – €315,000
Andrew Lichtenberger, U.S. – €225,000
Kilian Kramer, Germany – €175,000
Felix Bleiker, Switzerland – €130,000
(Photo credit: Wikipedia, Creative Commons.)
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Wednesday: 11 Iraqis Killed, 18 Wounded
by Margaret Griffis Posted on November 19, 2008 August 7, 2009
Updated at 7:10 p.m. EST, Nov. 19, 2008
At least 11 Iraqis were killed and another 18 were wounded in today’s attacks. Also, the Iraqi governent reported that they had discovered a mass grave three months ago near Najaf. The grave contained 150 bodies killed during the Saddam era. Meanwhile, debate in parliament over a U.S.-Iraqi security agreement turned hostile and was postponed until tomorrow. Elsewhere in Baghdad, U.S. and Turkish officials joined the Iraqis for talks on the situation with Kurdistan Workers Party rebels.
Sadrist lawmakers had already disrupted parliament several times today when a particularly aggressive incident caused adjournment of the session until tomorrow. Lawmakers were discussing a proposed U.S.-Iraqi security agreement that Shi’ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr has come out against. A smaller Shi’ite group, the Fadhila Party, has also come out against the pact, saying that they were left out of negotiations. The agreement is expected to pay on Nov. 24 despite Sadrist opposition. Meanwhile, demonstrations in support of the agreement took place in Hilla and Tikrit.
Iraqi officials repatriated the bodies of 150 Kurds who were found in a mass grave near Najaf three months ago. The victims were men, women and children. Documents on the bodies identified them as Kurds, so they were flown to Arbil. Asaad Abu Gilel, governor of Najaf Province, said that the mass grave was one of 45 local sites attributable to the Saddam regime, when thousands of Kurds were sent to concentration camps in the south.
In Baghdad, two bombs injured five people in the Karrada district. One dumped body was found. Five security personnel were injured during operations that netted 42 suspects; 250 bombs were defused as well. Also, a senior Iranian Revolutionary Guards’ elite Quds force member was arrested at the airport on suspicion of funneling arms into Iraq as he was trying to leave the country.
In Mosul, a suicide bomber wounded two policemen in eastern Mosul, while a second bomb injured two more in the 17 Tamouz neighborhood.
Residents near Tikrit called police before attacking several gunmen in their area. Four of the gunmen were killed and a fifth was injured. One resident was also injured during the clashes.
A female body was found north of Kirkuk.
A police officer was killed in Samarra when a sticky bomb attached to his car blew up.
Two family members were wounded when joint U.S.-Iraqi forces raided a home in Diwaniya. A former Iraqi army officer was arrested.
The Iraqi army killed three suspects and detained 23 more across Iraq. Another 92 were detained in and around Mosul alone.
TNT was seized in Makhmour.
As the U.S., Turkey and Iraq held talks over the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) in Baghdad, one Turkish soldier was killed and five more were wounded just over the border in Turkey. The PKK uses northern Iraq as a base from which to launch attacks in Turkey. The separatist group would like to see an autonomous Kurdistan in parts of Iraq, Turkey, Iraq, Syria and Armenia. Meanwhile, one rebel was killed separately, and another rebel surrendered.
Compiled by Margaret Griffis
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Hitting is better than sex.
Reggie Jackson
Reggie Jackson's quotes
After Jackie Robinson the most important black in baseball history is Reggie Jackson, I really mean that.
Babe Ruth was great. I'm just lucky.
A baseball swing is a very finely tuned instrument. It is repetition, and more repetition, then a little more after that.
I don't mind getting beaten, but I hate to lose.
October, that's when they pay off for playing ball.
I am the best in baseball.
The only difference between me and those other great Yankees is my skin color.
When you take a pitch and line it somewhere, it's like you've thought of something and put it there with beautiful clarity.
The only way I'm going to win a Gold Glove is with a can of spray paint.
When you've played this game for ten years and gone to bat seven-thousand times and gotten two-thousand hits do you know what that really means? It means you've gone zero for five-thousand.
The only reason I don't like playing in the World Series is I can't watch myself play.
I'd like to be able to light the fire a little bit.
Please God, let me hit one. I'll tell everybody you did it.
I didn't come to New York to be a star, I brought my star with me.
I'm human and I've played my butt off for ten years. I'm not a loafer, I'm not a jerk, I'm a baseball player.
In the building I live in on Park Avenue there are ten people who could buy the Yankees, but none of them could hit the ball out of Yankee Stadium.
I was reminded that when we lose and I strike out, a billion people in China don't care.
You know, this game's not very much fun when you're only hitting .247.
I have a hard time believing athletes are overpriced. If an owner is losing money, give it up. It's a business. I have trouble figuring out why owners would stay in if they're losing money.
The greatest manager has a knack for making ballplayers think they are better than they think they are.
You don't face Nolan Ryan without your rest. He's the only guy I go against that makes me go to bed before midnight.
Fans don't boo nobodies.
Young actors often don't think of the consequences of doing nudity or sex scenes. They want the role so badly that they agree to be exploited, and then end up embarrassing family, friends, and even strangers.
Sex is the most beautiful thing that can take place between a happily married man and his secretary.
I think I had a more European outlook about the body and sex. The body is in no way dirty, and sex is something beautiful to give to and share with a lover. It has nothing to do with promiscuity, because I only believe in being in love with one man at a time.
Dorothy Stratten
I would rather take the role and work and make my own money and self respect than to have sex with someone who has a lot of money.
Kristy Swanson
There's nothing better than good sex. But bad sex? A peanut butter and jelly sandwich is better than bad sex.
The fact is that young people are going to have sex whether you like it or not.
I wasn't a sex symbol, I was a sex zombie.
Veronica Lake
I wouldn't recommend sex, drugs or insanity for everyone, but they've always worked for me.
Nymphomaniac: a woman as obsessed with sex as an average man.
Mignon McLaughlin
Young kids are taking Viagra, ecstasy. They even want instant sex.
Tim Reid
This is the point being missed by readers who lament Liquor's lack of hot sex scenes, probably because they aren't old enough to understand that a passionate relationship could be about anything other than sex.
When authorities warn you of the sinfulness of sex, there is an important lesson to be learned. Do not have sex with the authorities.
Love ain't nothing but sex misspelled.
I think sex is very interesting for most people, but I'm interested in sex as a way of communication, I'm not that interested in the fantasy version of a sex scene.
I have tried sex with both men and women. I found I liked it.
Sex and drugs were simply not discussed in our culture at that time.
War is a perversion of sex.
I come before you to declare that my sex are entitled to the inalienable right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.
The fact is I am not having sex. But I feel absolutely ripe for the, what would you say? plucking?
Managing people's sex lives is something that I don't think is a good role for government.
Sex is hardly ever just about sex.
Sex education has to do with what's in people's head.
Donna Shalala
Sex education may be a good idea in the schools, but I don't believe the kids should be given homework.
Sex in a woman's world has the same currency a penny has in a man's. Every penny saved is a penny earned in one world and in the next every sexual adventure is a literary experience.
Harry Golden
Sex is. There is nothing more to be done about it. Sex builds no roads, writes no novels and sex certainly gives no meaning to anything in life but itself.
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Traci RockTraci Rock
Watch: Hurricane Irma Live Tracking, Expected to Hit Florida Directly by Sunday
Above: Live tracking of Hurricane Irma, via WFTS in Tampa.
Hurricane Irma is now all but certain to hit Florida directly, likely making landfall sometime around sunrise Sunday morning, according to weather experts. The storm's winds may have lowered slightly from their record-setting 185 mph pace sustained over the previous several days, but at average speeds of 155 mph it remains a Category 4 storm, the second-most powerful level. Gusts have reached 190 mph.
Florida Governor Rick Scott has pleaded with residents of South Florida, particularly on the coasts, to evacuate immediately. "We will quickly run out of good weather to evacuate," he told reporters at a news conference Friday morning. "Today is the day to do the right thing for your family and get inland to safety."
Winds aren't the only danger. Storm surge in South Florida is expected to reach as high as 12 feet in some areas in the southwest part of the state, enough to completely submerge a one-story building. (You can read the full set of warnings from the National Hurricane Center here.)
The core of Irma, where the storm is strongest, stretches to about 140 miles, which is more than the entire width of the state of Florida. The storm's full breadth would be able to completely cover Texas.
"This storm is wider than our entire state," said Governor Scott, "and is expected to cause major and life-threatening impacts from coast to coast."
Financial damages are impossible to estimate for now, but it is expected to be among the most expensive of all time -- if not the most expensive. The human cost is already coming into picture:
The death toll from Hurricane Irma has increased to 20 with four more deaths reported in the British Virgin Islands. The other lives lost include nine on the French Caribbean islands of St. Martin and St. Barts, four in the U.S. Virgin Islands, and one each on the islands of Anguilla, Barbuda and the Dutch side of St. Martin.
To make matters somehow even worse, another massive storm is brewing farther east in the Atlantic. Hurricane Jose was just upgraded to a Category 4 and is gathering strength as it bears down on the already battered eastern Caribbean islands like Barbuda and St. Martin.
Below is an image provided by the NOAA, in which you can see both storms:
Filed Under: florida, Hurricane, Weather
Categories: National News, Weather
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Major League Soccer (MLS) is a men's professional soccer league, sanctioned by U.S. Soccer, that represents the sport's highest level in both the United States and Canada. MLS constitutes one of the major professional sports leagues of the United States and Canada. The league comprises 22 teams—19 in the U.S. and 3 in Canada. The MLS regular season runs from March to October, with each team playing 34 games; the team with the best record is awarded the Supporters' Shield. The postseason includes twelve teams competing in the MLS Cup Playoffs through November and December, culminating in the championship game, the MLS Cup. MLS teams also play in other domestic competitions against teams from other divisions in the U.S. Open Cup and in the Canadian Championship. MLS teams also compete against continental rivals in the CONCACAF Champions League.
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In early 2015, the league announced that two teams: Los Angeles FC and Minnesota United, would join MLS in either 2017 or 2018. The 20th season of MLS saw the arrivals of several players who have starred at the highest levels of European club soccer and in international soccer: Giovanni Dos Santos, Kaká, Andrea Pirlo, Frank Lampard, Steven Gerrard, Didier Drogba, David Villa, and Sebastian Giovinco. On December 6, 2015, MLS announced its intent to expand to 28 teams. MLS confirmed in August 2016 that Minnesota United would begin play in 2017 along with Atlanta United FC.
In April 2016, the league's commissioner Don Garber reiterated the intention of the league to expand to 28 teams, with the next round of expansion "likely happening in 2020". In December 2016, he updated the expansion plans stating that the league will look to approve the 25th and 26th teams in 2017 and to start play in 2020. In January 2017, the league received bids from 12 ownership groups.
In July 2017, it was reported that Major League Soccer had rejected a $4 billion offer by MP & Silva to acquire all television rights to the league for 10 years following the conclusion of its current contracts with Fox, ESPN, and Univision.
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mahabharat full movie in hindi online full hd is an animated Indian mythological drama film, directed by Amaan Khan based on epic of the same name. The film is produced by Kushal Kantilal Gada and Dhaval Jayantilal Gada. The film was a Christmas release on 27 December 2013. Several actors like Amitabh Bachchan, Madhuri Dixit, Ajay Devgn, Vidya Balan, Sunny Deol, Anil Kapoor, Jackie Shroff, Manoj Bajpayee, Deepti Naval have been signed up for the characters in the film. Mahabharat is touted as most expensive animated film in Bollywood.
mahabharat full movie in hindi online full hd
Mahabharat is a 2013 Indian computer animated historical drama film, directed by Amaan Khan and based on the Hindu epic of the same name The film is produced by Kushal Kantilal Gada and Dhaval Jayantilal Gada. The film was a Christmas release on 27 December 2013.Several actors like Amitabh Bachchan, Ajay Devgn, Vidya Balan, Sunny Deol, Anil Kapoor, Jackie Shroff, Manoj Bajpayee, Deepti Naval have been signed up for the characters in the film. Mahabharat is touted as the most expensive animated film in Bollywood.The movie tells the story of the Indian epic Mahabharata in a way children would find entertaining
Mahabharat is considered as the greatest and the longest epic in world literature It has all the possible elements that a story could have – conflict, duty, sacrifice, heroism, truth, justice, romance, adventure, fantasy and relationships – making it truly an all-encompassing fascinating saga.
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Oxford Research Encyclopedia of American History
Oxford Research Encyclopedias American History
20th Century: Post-1945
20th Century: Pre-1945
Antebellum History
Asian American History
Civil War and Reconstruction
Early National History
Foreign Relations and Foreign Policy
Labor and Working Class History
Late 19th-Century History
Latino History
Pre-Contact History
Revolutionary History
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20th Century: Post-1945 (123)
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Asian American History (27)
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The Woman Suffrage Movement in the United States
Rebecca J. Mead
Legal History, Political History, Cultural History, Women's History
Woman suffragists in the United States engaged in a sustained, difficult, and multigenerational struggle: seventy-two years elapsed between the Seneca Falls convention (1848) and the ... More
Woman suffragists in the United States engaged in a sustained, difficult, and multigenerational struggle: seventy-two years elapsed between the Seneca Falls convention (1848) and the passage of the Nineteenth Amendment (1920). During these years, activists gained confidence, developed skills, mobilized resources, learned to maneuver through the political process, and built a social movement. This essay describes key turning points and addresses internal tensions as well as external obstacles in the U.S. woman suffrage movement. It identifies important strategic, tactical, and rhetorical approaches that supported women’s claims for the vote and influenced public opinion, and shows how the movement was deeply connected to contemporaneous social, economic, and political contexts.
Women and Patriarchy in Early America, 1600–1800
Kelly A. Ryan
Colonial History, Revolutionary History, Early National History
Patriarchy profoundly affected social relations and the daily lives of individuals in early America by supporting the elaboration of both racial differences and sexual hierarchies. ... More
Patriarchy profoundly affected social relations and the daily lives of individuals in early America by supporting the elaboration of both racial differences and sexual hierarchies. Patriarchal ideals held that men should supervise women and that economic, sexual, legal, and political power rested with men. Laws and religious practices demanded women’s subordination to men, and governmental and extralegal controls on women’s sexual and familial lives buttressed patriarchal ideals and practices by enforcing their dependence on white men.
Women played a variety of roles within households, which differed according to region, race, generation, and condition of servitude. Marriage was central to the delineation of white women’s roles, and slavery was critical to developing ideas and laws affecting African American women’s place in society. Interactions with Europeans brought patriarchal influences into native women’s lives. Indian servitude and slavery, European missionary efforts, and cross-cultural diplomacy resulted in the transmission of patriarchal practices that undermined Indian women’s access to political, sexual, economic, and religious power
Women gained esteem for fulfilling their duties within the household and community, while others resisted patriarchal customs and forged their own paths. Some women served as agents of patriarchy and used their status or positions to oppress other women. White women often held power over others in their households, including servants and slaves, and in the early republic some of the public sphere activities of middle-class white women targeted the homes of Native Americans, African Americans, and poor women for uplift. Other women resisted subordination and found autonomy by pursuing their own goals. Sexuality was a critical arena in which women could breech dictates on behavior and advance their own agenda, though not always without consequences. Women in urban communities found greater economic opportunities, and some religious communities, like the Society of Friends, allowed women a larger role in decision making and religious speech. Though patriarchal structures would change over time, the idea of men as the leaders of the household and society was remarkably resilient through the 19th century.
Women and Politics in the Era of the American Revolution
Sheila L. Skemp
Revolutionary History, Women's History, Antebellum History
Historians once assumed that, because women in the era of the American Revolution could not vote and showed very little interest in attaining the franchise, they were essentially ... More
Historians once assumed that, because women in the era of the American Revolution could not vote and showed very little interest in attaining the franchise, they were essentially apolitical beings. Scholars now recognize that women were actively engaged in the debates that accompanied the movement toward independence, and that after the war many sought a more expansive political role for themselves. Moreover, men welcomed women’s support for the war effort. If they saw women as especially fit for domestic duties, many continued to seek women’s political guidance and help even after the war ended.
Granted, those women who wanted a more active and unmediated relationship to the body politic faced severe legal and ideological obstacles. The common law system of coverture gave married women no control over their bodies or to property, and thus accorded them no formal venue to express their political opinions. Religious convention had it that women, the “weaker sex,” were the authors of original sin. The ideology associated with “republicanism” argued that the attributes of independence, self-reliance, physical strength, and bravery were exclusively masculine virtues. Many observers characterized women as essentially selfish and frivolous creatures who hungered after luxuries and could not contain their carnal appetites. Nevertheless, some women carved out political roles for themselves.
In the lead up to the war, many women played active, even essential roles in various non-consumption movements, promising to refrain from purchasing English goods, and attacking those merchants who refused to boycott prohibited goods. Some took to the streets, participating in riots that periodically disturbed the tranquility of colonial cities. A few published plays and poems proclaiming their patriotic views. Those women, who would become loyalists, were also active, never reluctant, to express their disapproval of the protest movement.
During the war, many women demonstrated their loyalty to the patriot cause by shouldering the burdens of absent husbands. They managed farms and businesses. First in Philadelphia, and then in other cities, women went from door to door collecting money for the Continental Army. Some accompanied husbands to the battlefront, where they tended to the material needs of soldiers. A very few disguised themselves as men and joined the army, exposing as a lie the notion that only men had the capacity to sacrifice their lives for the good of the country. Loyalist women continued to express their political views, even though doing so brought them little more than physical suffering and emotional pain. African American women took advantage of wartime chaos to run away from their masters and forge new, independent lives for themselves.
After the war, women marched in parades, lobbied and petitioned legislators, attended sessions of Congress, and participated in political rallies—lending their support to particular candidates or factions. Elite women published novels, poems, and plays. Some hosted salons where men and women gathered to discuss political issues. In New Jersey, single property-owning women voted.
By the end of the century, however, proponents of women’s political rights lost ground, in part because new “scientific” notions of gender difference prepared the way for the concept of “separate spheres.” Politics became more organized, leaving little room for women to express their views “out of doors,” even as judges and legislators defined women as naturally dependent. Still, white, middle class women in particular took advantage of better educational opportunities, finding ways to influence the public sphere without demanding formal political rights. They read, wrote, and organized benevolent societies, laying the groundwork for the antebellum reform movements of the mid-19th century.
Women and Religion in Colonial North America and the United States
Catherine A. Brekus
Colonial History, Women's History, African American History, Religious History
Historically, women in colonial North America and the United States have been deeply influenced by their religious traditions. Even though world religions like Judaism, Christianity, ... More
Historically, women in colonial North America and the United States have been deeply influenced by their religious traditions. Even though world religions like Judaism, Christianity, Buddhism, Hinduism, and Islam are based on scriptural traditions that portray women as subordinate to men, women have made up the majority of most religious groups in America. While some Americans have used religious arguments to limit women’s legal, political, and economic rights, others have drawn on scripture to defend women’s dignity and equality. Women’s religious beliefs have shaped every aspect of their lives, including their choices about how to structure their time, their attitudes toward sexuality and the body, and their understanding of suffering. Unlike early American Catholic women, who saw their highest religious calling as the sisterhood, most white colonial women identified their primary religious vocation as ministering to their families. In the 19th century, however, white Protestant women become increasingly involved in reform movements like temperance, abolitionism, and women’s suffrage, and African-American, Native American, Asian-American, and Latina women used religious arguments to challenge assumptions about white racial supremacy. In the 20th century, growing numbers of women from many different religious traditions have served as religious leaders, and in some cases they have also demanded ordination. Despite these dramatic changes in religious life, however, many religiously conservative women opposed the Equal Rights Amendment during the 1970s and early 1980s, and in the first decades of the 21st century they have continued to identify feminism and religion as antithetical.
Women and Reproduction in the United States during the 19th Century
Shannon K. Withycombe
Early National History, Slavery and Abolition, Late 19th-Century History, Women's History
Throughout the 19th century, American women experienced vast changes regarding possibilities for childbirth and for enhancing or restricting fertility control. At the beginning of the ... More
Throughout the 19th century, American women experienced vast changes regarding possibilities for childbirth and for enhancing or restricting fertility control. At the beginning of the century, issues involving reproduction were discussed primarily in domestic, private settings among women’s networks that included family members, neighbors, or midwives. In the face of massive social and economic changes due to industrialization, urbanization, and immigration, many working-class women became separated from these traditional networks and knowledge and found themselves reliant upon emerging medical systems for care and advice during pregnancy and childbirth. At the same time, upper-class women sought out men in the emerging profession of obstetrics to deliver their babies in hopes of beating the frightening odds against maternal and infant health and even survival. Nineteenth-century reproduction was altered drastically with the printing and commercial boom of the middle of the century. Families could now access contraception and abortion methods and information, which was available earlier in the century albeit in a more private and limited manner, through newspapers, popular books, stores, and from door-to-door salesmen. As fertility control entered these public spaces, many policy makers became concerned about the impacts of such practices on the character and future of the nation. By the 1880s, contraception and abortion came under legal restrictions, just as women and their partners gained access to safer and more effective products than ever before. When the 19th century closed, legislatures and the medical profession raised obstacles that hindered the ability of most women to limit the size of their families as the national fertility rate reached an all-time low. Clearly, American families eagerly seized opportunities to exercise control over their reproductive destinies and their lives.
Women and Sexual Assault in the United States, 1900–1940
Mara Keire
20th Century: Pre-1945, Legal History, Women's History
In the United States, the history of sexual assault in the first half of the 20th century involves multiple contradictions between the ordinary, almost invisible accounts of women of all ... More
In the United States, the history of sexual assault in the first half of the 20th century involves multiple contradictions between the ordinary, almost invisible accounts of women of all colors who were raped by fathers, husbands, neighbors, boarders, bosses, hired hands, and other known individuals versus the sensational myths that involved rapacious black men, sly white slavers, libertine elites, and virginal white female victims. Much of the debate about sexual assault revolved around the “unwritten law” that justified “honorable” white men avenging the “defilement” of their women. Both North and South, white people defended lynching and the murder of presumed rapists as “honor killings.” In courtrooms, defense attorneys linked the unwritten law to insanity pleas, arguing that after hearing women tell about their assault, husbands and fathers experienced an irresistible compulsion to avenge the rape of their women. Over time, however, notorious court cases from New York to San Francisco, Indianapolis and Honolulu, to Scottsboro, Alabama, shifted the discourse away from the unwritten law and extralegal “justice” to a more complicated script that demonized unreliable women and absolved imperfect men. National coverage of these cases, made possible by wire services and the Hearst newspaper empire, spurred heated debates concerning the proper roles of men and women. Blockbuster movies like The Birth of a Nation and Gone with the Wind and Book of the Month Club selections such as John Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men and Richard Wright’s Native Son joined the sensationalized media coverage of high-profile court cases to create new national stereotypes about sexual violence and its causes and culprits. During the 1930s, journalists, novelists, playwrights, and moviemakers increasingly emphasized the culpability of women who, according to this narrative, made themselves vulnerable to assault by stepping outside of their appropriate sphere and tempting men into harming them.
Women and the US War in Vietnam
Jessica M. Frazier
20th Century: Post-1945, Women's History
Women on all sides of the US war in Vietnam pushed for an end to the conflict. At a time of renewed feminist fervor, women stepped outside conventional gender roles by publicly speaking ... More
Women on all sides of the US war in Vietnam pushed for an end to the conflict. At a time of renewed feminist fervor, women stepped outside conventional gender roles by publicly speaking out, traveling to a war zone, and entering the male-dominated realm of foreign affairs. Even so, some claimed to stand squarely within the boundaries of womanhood as they undertook such unusual activities. Some American women argued that, as mothers or sisters of soldiers and draft-age men, they held special insight into the war. They spoke of their duty to their families, communities, and nation to act in untraditional, but nevertheless feminine, ways. But women did not act uniformly. Some joined the military as nurses or service personnel to help in the war effort, while others protested the war and served as draft counselors. By the end of the war, some anti-war protestors developed feminist critiques of US involvement in Vietnam that pointed to the war as a symptom of an unjust society that prioritized military dominance over social welfare. As in wars past, the US war in Vietnam created upheavals in gender roles, and as nurses, mothers, lovers, officers, entertainers, and activists, women created new spaces in a changing society.
Women, Gender, and World War II
Melissa A. McEuen
20th Century: Pre-1945, 20th Century: Post-1945, Women's History
The Second World War changed the United States for women, and women in turn transformed their nation. Over three hundred fifty thousand women volunteered for military service, while twenty ... More
The Second World War changed the United States for women, and women in turn transformed their nation. Over three hundred fifty thousand women volunteered for military service, while twenty times as many stepped into civilian jobs, including positions previously closed to them. More than seven million women who had not been wage earners before the war joined eleven million women already in the American work force. Between 1941 and 1945, an untold number moved away from their hometowns to take advantage of wartime opportunities, but many more remained in place, organizing home front initiatives to conserve resources, to build morale, to raise funds, and to fill jobs left by men who entered military service.
The U.S. government, together with the nation’s private sector, instructed women on many fronts and carefully scrutinized their responses to the wartime emergency. The foremost message to women—that their activities and sacrifices would be needed only “for the duration” of the war—was both a promise and an order, suggesting that the war and the opportunities it created would end simultaneously. Social mores were tested by the demands of war, allowing women to benefit from the shifts and make alterations of their own. Yet dominant gender norms provided ways to maintain social order amidst fast-paced change, and when some women challenged these norms, they faced harsh criticism. Race, class, sexuality, age, religion, education, and region of birth, among other factors, combined to limit opportunities for some women while expanding them for others.
However temporary and unprecedented the wartime crisis, American women would find that their individual and collective experiences from 1941 to 1945 prevented them from stepping back into a prewar social and economic structure. By stretching and reshaping gender norms and roles, World War II and the women who lived it laid solid foundations for the various civil rights movements that would sweep the United States and grip the American imagination in the second half of the 20th century.
Women in the Civil Rights and Black Power Movements
Christina Greene
20th Century: Post-1945, Women's History, African American History
Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X are the names that come to mind for most Americans if asked about the civil rights or Black Power movements. Others may point to Presidents John F. ... More
Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X are the names that come to mind for most Americans if asked about the civil rights or Black Power movements. Others may point to Presidents John F. Kennedy and Lyndon Johnson, both of whom backed pathbreaking civil rights legislation. However, recent scholarship suggests that neither black male leaders nor white male presidents were always the most important figures in the modern struggle for black freedom. Presidents took their cues not simply from male luminaries in civil rights organizations. Rather, their legislative initiatives were largely in response to grassroots protests in which women, especially black women, were key participants. African American women played major roles in local and national organizing efforts and frequently were the majority in local chapters of groups as dissimilar as the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People and the Black Panther Party. Even familiar names like Rosa Parks and Coretta Scott King have become little more than sanitized national icons, while their decades-long efforts to secure racial, economic, and gender justice remain relatively unknown. Aside from activists and scholars, even fewer of us know much, if anything, about the female allies of the black freedom struggle, including white southerners as well as other women of color. A closer look at the women who made enormous contributions to both the modern civil rights and Black Power movements sheds new light on these struggles, including the historic national victories we think we fully understand, such as the U.S. Supreme Court’s 1954 Brown v. Board of Education decision and the 1965 Voting Rights Act. In short, examining women’s participation in the “long civil rights movement,” which historians increasingly date to the New Deal and World War II, calls for a redefinition of more conventional notions of leadership, protest, and politics.
Women, Militarized Domesticity, and Transnationality in the U.S. Occupation of Okinawa
Mire Koikari
20th Century: Pre-1945, Women's History, Asian American History
After World War II, Okinawa was placed under U.S. military rule and administratively separated from mainland Japan. This occupation lasted from 1945 to 1972, and in these decades Okinawa ... More
After World War II, Okinawa was placed under U.S. military rule and administratively separated from mainland Japan. This occupation lasted from 1945 to 1972, and in these decades Okinawa became the “Keystone of the Pacific,” a leading strategic site in U.S. military expansionism in Asia and the Pacific. U.S. rule during this Cold War period was characterized by violence and coercion, resulting in an especially staggering scale of sexual violence against Okinawan women by U.S. military personnel. At the same time, the occupation also facilitated numerous cultural encounters between the occupiers and the occupied, leading to a flourishing cross-cultural grassroots exchange. A movement to establish American-style domestic science (i.e., home economics) in the occupied territory became a particularly important feature of this exchange, one that mobilized an assortment of women—home economists, military wives, club women, university students, homemakers—from the United States, Okinawa, and mainland Japan. The postwar domestic science movement turned Okinawa into a vibrant theater of Cold War cultural performance where women of diverse backgrounds collaborated to promote modern homemaking and build friendship across racial and national divides. As these women took their commitment to domesticity and multiculturalism into the larger terrain of the Pacific, they articulated the complex intertwining that occurred among women, domesticity, the military, and empire.
Women, Race, and the Law in Early America
Terri L. Snyder
Colonial History, Legal History, Cultural History, Women's History
Everywhere across European and Indigenous settlements in 17th- and 18th-century North America and the Caribbean, the law or legal practices shaped women’s status and conditioned their ... More
Everywhere across European and Indigenous settlements in 17th- and 18th-century North America and the Caribbean, the law or legal practices shaped women’s status and conditioned their dependency, regardless of race, age, marital status, or place of birth. Historians have focused much of their attention on the legal status, powers, and experiences of women of European origin across the colonies and given great consideration to the law of domestic relations, the legal disabilities of coverture, and women’s experiences as plaintiffs and defendants, both civil and criminal, in colonial courts. Early American legalities, however, differed markedly for women of color—whether free, indentured, or enslaved, and whether Native or African in origin or descent—whose relationships to the legal regimes of early America were manifold and complex. In their status under the law, experiences at the bar, and, as a result, positions in household polities, women of color reckoned with a set of legalities that differed from those of their European counterparts. The diversity of women’s experiences of the law was shaped not only by race but also by region: Indigenous people had what one historian has labeled jurispractices, while Europeans brought and created a jurisprudence of race and status that shaped treatments of women of color across imperial spaces. A widely comparative analysis of women and the law reflects ways in which race shaped women’s status under and experiences of the law as well as the legalities of their marriages in pre-Revolutionary America.
Women’s Movement and Women Workers, Post-1945
Dennis Deslippe
20th Century: Post-1945, Labor and Working Class History, Women's History
Working women and their issues played a central role in the women’s movement in the decades following World War II. Feminists lobbied, litigated, and engaged in direct action for workplace ... More
Working women and their issues played a central role in the women’s movement in the decades following World War II. Feminists lobbied, litigated, and engaged in direct action for workplace fairness. Working women, especially those in unions, joined feminist organizations and established their own organizations as well. There were fault lines within the women’s movement over the issues, strategies, and level of commitment to the causes of working women. In the first two decades after 1945, the unionists and liberal reformers who constituted the so-called Women’s Bureau Coalition (named after the U.S. Women’s Bureau) opposed the mostly affluent and conservative members of the National Woman’s Party for their support of the Equal Rights Amendment, supporting instead protective laws and policies that treated women differently from men in the workplace. With the arrival of second-wave feminism in the 1960s and 1970s, “labor feminists” clashed with the middle-class professional women at the helm of newly formed feminist organizations. As support for gender equality transformed employment practices, some labor feminists sought to retain (or extend to men) selected protective measures introduced in the early 20th century to shield women workers from the worst aspects of wage labor. In the face of harsh economic conditions in the 1970s, labor feminists again opposed other feminists for their efforts to modify the union practice of “last hired, first fired” as a way of retaining affirmative-action hiring gains.
In recent decades feminists have focused on equity measures such as comparable worth and pregnancy leave as means of addressing the unique challenges women face. In addition they have expanded their concern to lesbian and transgender workers, and, increasingly, to the needs of immigrant workers who make up an increasingly percentage of the working population.
Women’s Rights, Abolitionism, and Reform in Antebellum and Gilded Age America
Faye E. Dudden
Women's History, African American History
The U.S. women’s rights movement first emerged in the 1830s, when the ideological impact of the Revolution and the Second Great Awakening combined with a rising middle class and increasing ... More
The U.S. women’s rights movement first emerged in the 1830s, when the ideological impact of the Revolution and the Second Great Awakening combined with a rising middle class and increasing education to enable small numbers of women, encouraged by a few sympathetic men, to formulate a critique of women’s oppression in early 19th-century America. Most were white, and their access to an expanding print culture and middle class status enabled them to hire domestic servants; they had the time and resources to assess and begin to reject the roles prescribed by cultural domesticity and legal coverture, or the traditional authority of husbands. A critical mass of these rebellious women first emerged among those who had already enlisted in the radical struggle to end slavery. When abolitionists Sarah and Angelina Grimke faced efforts to silence them because they were women, they saw parallels between their own situation and that of the slaves. The Grimkes began to argue that all women and men were created by God as “equal moral beings” and entitled to the same rights. The ideology of the women’s movement soon broadened to encompass secular arguments, claiming women’s part in a political order ostensibly based on individual rights and consent of the governed. At Seneca Falls, New York, in 1848, and at subsequent women’s rights conventions, the participants articulated a wide range of grievances that extended beyond politics into social and family life. Almost all the leading activists in the early women’s movement, including Lucretia Mott, Lucy Stone, Susan B. Anthony, and Elizabeth Cady Stanton, were trained in “the school of antislavery,” where they learned to withstand public or familial disapproval and acquired practical skills like petitioning and public speaking. The women’s rights activists’ efforts were complicated by questions about which goals to pursue first and by overlap with other reform efforts, including temperance and moral reform as well as abolition and black rights. Women and men related to the movement in a range of ways—activists were surrounded by a penumbra of non-activist contributors and an interested public, and much grassroots activity probably went unrecorded. After the Civil War destroyed slavery, Reconstruction-era politicians had to define citizenship and rights, especially the right to vote. Realizing this opened a rare window of political opportunity, the women’s movement leaders focused on suffrage, but their desperate efforts uncovered ugly racism in their ranks, and they betrayed former black allies. Disagreeing over whether to support the 15th Amendment, which guaranteed the vote to black men only, the women’s movement fell into two rival suffrage organizations: Stanton and Anthony’s National Woman Suffrage Association, which did not support the 15th Amendment, faced off against the American Woman Suffrage Association, led by Lucy Stone and Henry Blackwell. Stymied in their political moves, the suffragists then found their judicial strategy, the “New Departure,” checkmated by a conservative Supreme Court. By 1877, the moment of radical opportunity had passed, and though the women’s suffrage movement could count a few marginal successes in the West, it had stalled and was increasingly overshadowed by more conservative forms of women’s activism like the Women’s Christian Temperance Union.
Working-Class Environmentalism in America
Scott Dewey
Labor and Working Class History, Environmental History
“Working-Class Environmentalism in America” traces working Americans’ efforts to protect the environment from antebellum times to the present. Antebellum topics include African American ... More
“Working-Class Environmentalism in America” traces working Americans’ efforts to protect the environment from antebellum times to the present. Antebellum topics include African American slaves’ environmental ethos; aesthetic nature appreciation by Lowell, Massachusetts “mill girls” working in New England’s first textile factories; and Boston’s 1840s fight for safe drinking water. Late-19th-century topics include working-class support for creating urban parks, workers’ early efforts to confront urban pollution and the “smoke nuisance,” and the exploration of conservationist ideas and policies by New England small farmers and fishermen in the late 1800s.
In the early 20th century, working-class youth, including immigrants and African Americans, participated in the youth camping movement and the Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts of America, while working-class adults and their families, enjoying new automobility and two-day weekends, discovered picnicking, car-camping, and sport hunting and fishing in newly created wilderness preserves. Workers also learned of toxic dangers to workplace safety and health from shocking stories of 1920s New Jersey “radium girls” and tetraethyl lead factory workers, and from 1930s Midwestern miners who went on strike over deadly silicosis. The 1930s United States rediscovered natural resource conservation when the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) employed millions of working-class youth. Lumber workers advocated federal regulation of timber harvesting.
Postwar America saw the United Auto Workers (UAW), United Steelworkers (USWA), Oil Chemical and Atomic Workers (OCAW), American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO), and other labor unions lobbying for wilderness and wildlife preservation, workplace and community health, and fighting air and water pollution, while the United Farmworkers (UFW) fought reckless pesticide use, and dissidents within the United Mine Workers (UMW) sought to ban surface coal mining. Radical organizations explored minority community environmentalism and interracial cooperation on environmental reform. Following post-1970s nationwide conservative retrenchment, working-class activists and communities of color fought toxic wastes and explored environmental justice and environmental racism at places like Love Canal, New York and Warren County, North Carolina and formed the Blue-Green Alliance with environmentalists.
Zoning in 20th-Century American Cities
Christopher Silver
20th Century: Pre-1945, 20th Century: Post-1945, Political History, Urban History
Zoning is a legal tool employed by local governments to regulate land development. It determines the use, intensity, and form of development in localities through enforcement of the zoning ... More
Zoning is a legal tool employed by local governments to regulate land development. It determines the use, intensity, and form of development in localities through enforcement of the zoning ordinance, which consists of a text and an accompanying map that divides the locality into zones. Zoning is an exercise of the police powers by local governments, typically authorized through state statutes. Components of what became part of the zoning process emerged piecemeal in U.S. cities during the 19th century in response to development activities deemed injurious to the health, safety, and welfare of the community. American zoning was influenced by and drew upon models already in place in German cities early in the 20th century. Following the First National Conference on Planning and Congestion, held in Washington, DC in 1909, the zoning movement spread throughout the United States. The first attempt to apply a version of the German zoning model to a U.S. city was in New York City in 1916. In the landmark U.S. Supreme Court case, Ambler Realty v. Village of Euclid (1926), zoning was ruled as a constitutional exercise of the police power, a precedent-setting case that defined the perimeters of land use regulation the remainder of the 20th century.
Zoning was explicitly intended to sanction regulation of real property use to serve the public interest, but frequently, it was used to facilitate social and economic segregation. This was most often accomplished by controlling the size and type of housing, where high density housing (for lower income residents) could be placed in relation to commercial and industrial uses, and in some cases through explicit use of racial zoning categories for zones. The U.S. Supreme Court ruled, in Buchanan v. Warley (1917), that a racial zoning plan of the city of Louisville, Kentucky violated the due process clause of the14th Amendment. The decision, however, did not directly address the discriminatory aspects of the law. As a result, efforts to fashion legally acceptable racial zoning schemes persisted late into the 1920s. These were succeeded by the use of restrictive covenants to prohibit black (and other minority) occupancy in certain white neighborhoods (until declared unconstitutional in the late 1940s). More widespread was the use of highly differentiated residential zoning schemes and real estate steering that imbedded racial and ethnic segregation into the residential fabric of American communities.
The Standard State Zoning Enabling Act (SSZEA) of 1924 facilitated zoning. Disseminated by the U.S. Department of Commerce, the SSZEA created a relatively uniform zoning process in U.S. cities, although depending upon their size and functions, there were definite differences in the complexity and scope of zoning schemes. The reason why localities followed the basic form prescribed by the SSZEA was to minimize the chance of the zoning ordinance being struck down by the courts. Nonetheless, from the 1920s through the 1970s, thousands of court cases tested aspects of zoning, but only a few reached the federal courts, and typically, zoning advocates prevailed.
In the 1950s and 1960s, critics of zoning charged that the fragmented city was an unintended consequence. This critique was a response to concerns that zoning created artificial separations among the various types of development in cities, and that this undermined their vitality. Zoning nevertheless remained a cornerstone of U.S. urban and suburban land regulation, and new techniques such as planned unit developments, overlay zones, and form-based codes introduced needed flexibility to reintegrate urban functions previously separated by conventional zoning approaches.
PRINTED FROM the OXFORD RESEARCH ENCYCLOPEDIA, AMERICAN HISTORY (oxfordre.com/americanhistory). (c) Oxford University Press USA, 2019. All Rights Reserved. Personal use only; commercial use is strictly prohibited (for details see Privacy Policy and Legal Notice).
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Category: Disabled adults
Somewhere, Somehow, Somebody
On June 11, 2016 By pamkirst2014In Books, Disabled adults, Refugees13 Comments
…Everybody’s had to fight to be free
You see you don’t have to live like a refugee
—Tom Petty and Michael W. Campbell, “Refugee”
Sometimes I go looking for books. A friend might say, “Oh, you really should read The Improbability of Love,” and I’ll track it down at the library and find out there are rows of reserve requests seven deep. I’ll decide to use my gift card to the big bookstore, combine it with the 20 per cent discount that landed in my email inbox, and I’ll have that book in my hand–and on my shelf–within four days. I’ll savor and enjoy the reading, and the enjoyment will be enhanced by a kind of treasure hunt–what in this book spoke so clearly to Susan? Where does our appreciation overlap?
I search that book out; I make sure it is there to be read. Very seldom am I disappointed to have invited it in.
And sometimes, I swear, books come looking for me.
That was the case with Dr. Mary Pipher’s The Middle of Nowhere, in which she chronicles her work with refugee families in Lincoln, Nebraska. I kept seeing it at libraries and bookstores; it just kept turning up. The book finally found its way into my basket from a clearance shelf. It came home with me and waited, patiently demanding to be read. I danced around it, and then, when I finally caved in and opened it, I was enriched.
Pipher shares the tales of several refugee families, and she says those families have a great deal to teach those of us blessed with citizenship from birth. Refugees turn pain into meaning; they give, says Pipher, meaning to their trials, reasons for the stories of their lives to be shared. Refugees demonstrate growth and redemption.
“Viktor Frankl wrote that while he was in a concentration camp,” Pipher said, “he discovered that everything could be taken from a person but one thing: the ability to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances.” ( http://apa.org/monitor/dec01/refugees.aspx)
“What helps them recover, she found, is family, community and personal characteristics such as flexibility, sense of humor, hope, resiliency, and the ability to find new people to love and attach to.” (apa.org)
And, Dr. Pipher notes emphatically, the refugees do much better when the community welcomes them.
I enjoyed The Middle of Nowhere, and I thought about its message of outreach and welcome, and I put it on my shelf to return to later. And then I plunged in to other reading, and I didn’t think about Pipher’s book until another book found me.
This book was Steve Silberman’s Neurotribes, and it was recommended, strongly, by a couple of bloggers I highly respect on WordPress. That same week, a colleague forwarded me a video of Silberman talking about autism. So, when an Amazon gift card came my way within days of the recommendation, I used it to order Neurotribes, and I read it with fascination. Silberman tells the story of autism, from its first identification in the pre-World War II years to our current understanding of the condition. Silberman reveals the personal agendas and quests for glory that undermined a real understanding of autism for many years; he highlights autistic heroes and heroic supporters.
And he talks about Dr. Temple Grandin, a genius with the diagnosis of Asperger’s–and he writes about her remarkable ability to tell her story to a wide range of people, to explain how her mind works and how it feels to live in a world that rewards a whole different kind of thinking. Grandin felt, she said, like an anthropologist from Mars, living in a whole different world.
Her story fascinated Dr. Oliver Sacks, a professor of neurology and a gifted writer. He made it a point to meet Grandin; and when he came to know her, he was determined to tell her story. He wanted to explain why this brilliant woman who happened to have Aspergers syndrome felt like a refugee in her own land.
His resultant book, An Anthropologist on Mars, is next up on my reading stack.
I thought about this today when I went to a People First meeting with Jim. We have recently had the great good luck to meet a dedicated group of visionaries who are changing the way adults with disabilities are perceived and treated in our community. One of the many things they are doing, in their ‘person-centered’ philosophy, is helping disabled adults advocate for themselves.
Self-advocacy is the goal and the reason for being of People First (http://www.peoplefirst.org/). There’s a new but thriving chapter in this town; its officers attended their first conference this year. For some, it was the first time, at age twenty or thirty or forty or even beyond, they’d stayed in a hotel; it was the first time they spoke in front of a group of people who sat and listened and asked questions. It was the first time their words were received with applause.
They came back energized and wanting to do more.
So they have decided, with their mentors, to create a skit that they can take on the road. They want to go to K-12 schools and service organizations and colleges; they want to talk to anyone who’s open to helping society change the way it regards and treats adults with disabilities.
And because Jim, who is diagnosed with Asperger’s/PDD-NOS, enjoys writing scripts, one of People First’s guiding lights, Missy, asked him to attend today’s meeting.
The meeting convened at the disabilities services annex, in a large bright room where twenty or so adults sat at round tables. They were a mixed and welcoming group–they represented a wide range of ages, and they had a wide range of communicative ability.
They all introduced themselves and they all told us we were welcome. And then Sandy, the facilitator, pulled them into a discussion. The group decided, once they watched a couple of YouTube videos and understood where they were headed with the skit creation, that they wanted to address the issue of bullying.
Sandy led them in a discussion of bullying words–words they hate to hear, and better words that could be put forth to replace them. She drew examples from the people assembled, who offered up things like this:
I don’t like it when people tell me I’m fat. (Lots of nods at this, mostly from the female participants.)
I don’t like the R word. (Animated discussion followed this. It was agreed that using the word “retard” was just mean and ignorant, and people need to stop doing it.)
Dumb.
All of the group had heard these words. Let’s replace them, they suggested, with special. Unique. Nice. Friendly.
Then, “I don’t like it,” said one young woman, “when someone tells me, ‘Oh, you can’t speak French!'” There was a swivel of heads. There were looks of surprise.
And there was an instant reaction of kindness. “Yeah,” said Jeannette. “It’s bad when people say things like that.”
Sandy wrote, “People say you can’t speak French” on the smart board. She told a short story about a cousin who’d always taunted her by speaking French; she knew Sandy didn’t understand. The discussion went on.
List compiled, Sandy and the other leaders directed the group to a discussion of a scenario. There were plenty of ideas; there was discussion and feedback, and the group created a real and concrete picture. One of us, they said, is at the beach. That person is building a sandcastle and having fun. And then a stranger comes over and decides to wreck it. That person lays right on top of the sandcastle, and flattens it. And–that person says bad things.
Jim and I left a little later; Missy is going to send him details and he is going to create his first script for live theater. He’s pretty excited about the opportunity.
And he was pretty moved by the meeting and the topics and the stories he heard.
“How,” he asked, “could anyone abuse or bully people as kind and innocent as that?”
And yet he knows it happens. He’s had it happen to him–he’s heard the R word used to describe him because he’s different. He’s been ignored or taunted, too.
Jim, like other adults with disabilities, often finds the rules and the reasons of our society random and unfathomable. But, like Pipher’s refugees, people with disabilities choose their attitudes. They’re kind, for the most part, and they’re trusting. And they believe in their own abilities to contribute. This skit, they think, might make a difference, might touch one heart or teach one person a little bit about how bullying hurts the victim and the bully.
It’s apt, I think, the comparison of adults with disabilities to geographic refugees–two groups living in societies with codes and cues and secret handshakes they may never ever learn. But each has the tools to survive and to thrive anyway. Many have family support; those that don’t tend to create families to take that place. They take the slings and arrows life shoots at them, and they fend them off with humor and openness. If I had to characterize, in just one word, the feeling in that room today when the People First members were planning their skit, I’d choose the word hope.
Those folks, the adults with disabilities and the professionals who work with them, see the possibility of a bright and open future. They see a time when job opportunities are different and people in general are more accepting and nobody yells at them because they aren’t fluent in the language.
And they have the tools and the support to actively work for the change. I thought about Pipher’s list of things needed for refugees to successfully transition into the new society: Family. Community. Flexibility and sense of humor. The ability to find new people to attach to. Those attributes were all there, in operation, in that room.
It was an exciting privilege to watch the group at work. I don’t know if they’re Tom Petty fans, but they’re living his lyrics. Sure somebody, somewhere, has kicked them around some. But they’ve chosen to pave a new road; they’re a living demonstration that no one has to live like a refugee.
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Air Rules
Nature’s Comeback
From acid mine drainage site to natural paradise, Pittsburgh Botanic Garden finally prevails
by Matthew John Milligan
Photo courtesy of Pittsburgh Botanic Garden A rustic white cedar gazebo is a centerpiece in the heart of the largest remaining stand of native dogwood trees in the region.
Every year, while spring was busy prying away the season from winter’s grasp, my family would make the trek down to Deep Creek, Maryland, to visit my grandparents’ cottage. The drive from our Long Island home was just over seven hours, which, to a kid with very little concept of or care for time, was just short of excruciating. However, somewhere between my merciless seat-kicking and the 28th “are we there yet,” my restlessness slowly changed to anticipation as the highway narrowed and the forest thickened.
Click any image to launch gallery
https://pittsburghquarterly.com/pq-environment/pq-environment/item/1027-natures-comeback-fall-2015.html#sigProIdc4b96a18f9
My father would occasionally pull the car off to the side and point out toward the trees: “Look!” We’d clamor to the window as if we were touring Jurassic Park. To me, seeing a deer by chance on a car trip was just short of busting Santa red-handed in my living room. My appreciation for the outdoors was founded on these getaways — chasing chipmunks, spying on hummingbirds, playing in clay embankments and ruining my clothes. Now, decades later, when I glimpse a deer near the road, I say a quiet prayer that it doesn’t decide to ruin my day and insurance premium.
I was pleasantly surprised recently when a similar childlike anticipation crept upon me while navigating a windy back road en route to the Pittsburgh Botanic Garden. Originally formed in 1988 as the Horticultural Society of Western Pennsylvania, the garden has had to overcome its fair share of obstacles and misfortunes prior to the opening of its first completed section in 2014. A 20-minute drive west of downtown, the 460-acre project sneaks up on you fairly quickly off of I-376.
One of, if not the most unique aspects of the garden is the history of the land on which it sits. It’s been home to two brothers, both participants in the Revolutionary War and the Whiskey Rebellion in the late 18th century. Hugh Brackenridge, founder of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette and what is now the University of Pittsburgh, owned another large portion of the land. It’s been farmed by generation after generation of families, logged in the 1920s, and eventually deep-mined and strip-mined by the Pittsburgh Coal Company (which would later merge with other mining companies to form what we know today as Consol).
The task of cultivating a world-class botanical garden here seems a bit… unconventional. Nevertheless, through the efforts of a passionate staff coupled with the generosity of countless volunteers, a beaten-down, wounded terrain has slowly been healed into a blossoming horticultural sanctuary.
The rich history of the land is evident the moment you pull up: a barn from the 1870s has been pristinely restored as the welcome center, and a similarly refinished 1760 log cabin still stands, built by one of the first documented settlers of the region, 16-year-old Scots-Irish immigrant John Henry.
The scars of the land also are apparent. Along the trails, a keen eye can spot the occasional steel pipe just barely poking through the mulch, or the dilapidated terracotta drainage system that originally was used to remove 10 gallons per minute of aluminum hydroxide byproduct from the abandoned coal mines (commonly known as acid mine drainage). They serve as reminders of the garden’s most pressing obstacle: decades of neglect and disrepair.
When the lease for the land first was signed in 1998, the group had a relative understanding of what they were getting into on paper. Invasive species of plants had laid their claim to much of the territory, the barn and log cabin had been vandalized, and a milky white pond had accumulated 90 years’ worth of mine runoff. As such, a nagging question I had for garden president Greg Nace was a simple one: How was this land in particular, with all of its obvious flaws and deterrents, chosen for this reclamation project? The answer, in retrospect, was just as obvious: “Nobody knew what to do with it.”
The one unpredictable variable was Mother Nature. After gaining significant traction in the restoration effort, the garden was left at a crossroads in 2004 when Hurricane Ivan swooped in with six inches of rainfall, undoing years of hard work and investment in the cleanup. The massive flooding made the task of controlling the acid runoff nearly impossible, and many of the oldest remaining trees were destroyed. With the support of Allegheny County and a construction contractor willing to take on the task, the decision was made to stay the course.
Not so fast. In 2012, the contractor passed away and the company was subsequently sold. And yet through it all, much like the many native trees and plants making their resurgence throughout the garden, the Pittsburgh Botanic Garden adapted. Fast forward to present day and nature is finally beginning to reward the dedication and perseverance demonstrated by staff and volunteers. Forty species of wildflowers have found their way back, and bee hives are being installed to help keep the population thriving. “We wanted this to be a pollinator’s paradise,” says Kitty Vagley, who’s in her fifth year as director of development.
Native trees also have joined the comeback; having been logged in the 1920s, a tree inventory in 2010 revealed only 30 species on site, while the number ideally should be closer to 120. Once decimated by anthracnose three decades ago, the garden now hosts what Vagley describes as “the last large stand of native dogwoods in the entire Pittsburgh region,” currently totaling more than 500. “All planted by Mother Nature.”
A ripple effect has allowed the wildlife of the region to flourish as well. “We know we have rodents, rodents bring snakes, snakes bring hawks and owls — we’ve seen this whole ecosystem reviving itself right in front of our eyes,” comments Vagley while showing me the line of bluebird houses along the trail. In fact, 105 species of birds have been documented, up from a count of 58 in 1998.
Perhaps the most profound transformation comes in the form of the aforementioned drainage pond, or what is now known somewhat miraculously as the Lotus Pond. In 2013, 450 tons of crushed limestone filled a state-of-the art filtration system designed to bring the pond back to appropriate pH levels. In only two days, the pH level rose from 2.9 to 7.1, essentially transforming a pond with the acidity of vinegar into habitable water. It was stocked with almost 500 fish last year, and the filtration system won the 2014 Governor’s Award for Environmental Excellence.
There is still a long road ahead, but the progress over the last few years has been remarkable. The garden held its first wedding this spring, and a number of special events are planned throughout the year. Activities along the trails have been designed specifically with children in mind, and the garden will play host in 2016 to Nature Connects, an increasingly popular touring exhibit of sculptures made out of 1.6 million-plus Lego pieces. You can even get your yoga on, with classes offered twice a month next to the Lotus Pond.
As the victories keep trickling in, Vagley hopes to see more of the species that made such a positive impact in getting the garden to where it is today: Pittsburghers themselves. “The most heart-wrenching part of this job is that our neighbors don’t know we’re here.”
Category : Environment
Pittsburgh Botanic Garden
Horticultural Society of Western Pennsylvania
Hugh Brackenridge
Pittsburgh Coal Company
Matthew John Milligan
Matthew John Milligan is a freelance writer living in Aspinwall.
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Former DHS Secretary Chertoff: No Changes in Refugee Policy Needed After Ohio State Attack
WASHINGTON – Former Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff said the U.S. government does not need to change the number of refugees it allows into the country after the Ohio State University attack because people who are not refugees have committed similar crimes.
Abdul Razak Ali Artan, 20, was a refugee from Somalia who drove into a crowd of pedestrians and stabbed people with a butcher knife at Ohio State on Monday. ISIS claimed Artan was one of their lone wolves.
Some lawmakers have previously suggested limiting the number of refugees the U.S. accepts from countries with a high level of terrorist activity. President-elect Donald Trump tweeted today, “ISIS is taking credit for the terrible stabbing attack at Ohio State University by a Somali refugee who should not have been in our country.”
Chertoff, who served in the George W. Bush administration, was asked if reducing the number of refugees coming into the U.S. from certain countries would be an appropriate response to the Ohio terrorist attack.
“No. I don’t think it’s — first of all, we don’t know about this person’s background. The fact that someone was a refugee doesn’t make them necessarily a problem or not a problem. It’s like we have people like Dylann Roof, who is not a refugee and he killed people in a church,” he said, referring to the white supremacist who killed nine at a Charleston church last year, following a Council on Foreign Relations discussion on “Domestic Security in the Age of ISIS.”
“So I think you’ve got to be a little bit more precise in knowing if there’s something about this person’s background, why did they do it? What’s it about? Otherwise, you are going to wind up excluding everybody, including people born in the country, because you are always going to find somebody who committed an act of violence that comes from a particular background,” he added.
During the event, Chertoff mentioned that Latin America is an area that “has not been discussed much” as it relates to national security.
“It tends to pop up when we see kind of an uptick in mass migration, and it’s really not Mexico. You get into parts of Central America, which are really almost ungoverned, and where we’ve actually been sending back. You talk about MS-13 — we send back, you know, gangsters, and they basically wind up not being properly controlled and you have people fleeing that,” he said, referring to the international gang Mara Salvatrucha.
“Plus you now have — I mean, there’s good news out of Colombia. There’s a peace agreement. Brazil, though, is now reeling with a number of corruption scandals. It’s not clear what Venezuela’s going to do. If people are in fear of their life, they’re going to run. And I don’t care how big the wall is; if someone’s got a gun at your back, you’re going over the wall,” he added.
https://pjmedia.com/news-and-politics/2016/11/30/former-dhs-secretary-chertoff-no-changes-in-refugee-policy-needed-after-ohio-state-attack/
Related: Department of Homeland Security, immigration, latin america, Refugees, somalia, terrorism
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Locations (CE), CE, Ape Rebellion (CE),
Muir Woods Park
North of San Francisco; United States
Muir Woods National Monument, also known as The Redwood Forest, is a United States National Park on the Pacific coast of southwestern Marin County, California, 12 miles (19 km) north of San Francisco and part of the Golden Gate National Recreation Area. It protects 559 acres (226 ha), of which 240 acres (97 ha) are old growth Coast Redwood (Sequoia sempervirens) forests, one of a few such remaining in the San Francisco Bay Area.
Feature Edit
Due to its proximity to the Pacific Ocean, the forest is regularly shrouded in coastal fogs, contributing to a wet environment that encourages vigorous plant growth. The fog is also vital for the growth of the redwoods as they use moisture from the fog during the dry summer. One hundred and fifty million years ago ancestors of redwood and sequoia trees grew throughout the United States, and before the logging industry came to California, there were an estimated 2 million acres (8,000 km²) of old growth forest containing redwoods growing in a narrow strip along the coast. By the early 20th century, most of these forests had been cut down. Congressman William Kent purchased 611 acres (247 ha) of uncut land in a valley named Redwood Canyon just north of the San Francisco Bay, and in 1907 donated 295 acres (119 ha) of the redwood forest to the Federal Government, thus preventing a local water company from damming and flooding the valley. In January 1908, President Theodore Roosevelt declared the land a national monument. The original suggested name was the Kent Monument but Kent insisted it be named after naturalist John Muir, whose environmental campaigns helped to establish the national park system. In 1937, the Golden Gate Bridge was completed and park attendance tripled.
Rise of the Planet of the Apes Edit
Scientist Dr. Will Rodman took his chimp surrogate son, Caesar, to Muir Woods for the first time when he was three years old. For the next five years, it became his favorite place to play and spend time in a habitat more natural to him.
After leading a mass breakout of genetically altered apes from the San Bruno Primate Shelter, the Gen-Sys Laboratories and the San Francisco Zoo, Caesar tried to take the apes to freedom in the Muir Woods redwood forest across the Golden Gate Bridge. Seeing only rampaging wild apes, the San Francisco authorities tried to corral the apes on the bridge and massacre them, but after a battle and many deaths on both sides, most apes survived and reached Muir Woods.
The apes were then followed by Will Rodman who stole a police car and searched the forest for Caesar but his loud calling had alerted Koba who was going to kill him on the spot only for him to be quickly swatted away by Caesar. Koba tried to attack Will again but Caesar threatened the bonobo to leave Will alone though angered by this, Koba backed away and ran off into the woods as Caesar tended to Will. It is here where Caesar says his goodbyes adoptive human father by speaking to him telling him "Caesar is home" after the latter begged him to come back home with him. Will was amazed that Caesar talked and looking upon the other apes decided to respect his adoptive son's wishes and allowed him to stay with his ape followers. With that, Caesar turned to his followers who cleared a path for him as he walked to his favorite tree which he loved climbing as a child. As he approached the tree, he turned to face the other apes who rose to stand on their feet like him showing they accept him as their leader. Caesar ran up his favorite tree where he was joined by Maurice and Rocket on the adjacent trees and three looked upon the damage inflicted upon the city of San Francisco and wondered what future awaited their people.
Ten years after the Ape Rebellion and Battle on the Golden Gate Bridge, the apes of San Francisco have made the Muir Woods their home. They have created their own village at the top of the hills where their population has increased to over thousands and continues to grow while outside the forest in San Francisco, human civilization rots from the inside out while survivors are forced to flee to any safe place they can find.
Also the population of the other animals in the woods, such as elk and bears have increased due to the number of humans going down because of the Simian-Flu.
War for the Planet of the Apes Edit
Two years into the Human-Ape War, the army of the Alpha-Omega have tracked the apes to the woods and have destroyed several parts of the forest to draw out the apes' hiding spots but had no luck.
While searching for the apes hideout, a battle took place and led to the deaths of many on both sides but ended in the victory for the ape army.
It was shown that the apes have made a secret passageway beneath the waterfall into their new home after the destruction of their village.
Following the attack on the waterfall, the apes decided to leave the comfort of the woods and evacuate to a safer haven in the form of a park in an oasis on the other side of a desert far humanity.
A human family visiting the forest.
Caesar visiting the forest with his human parents.
An Ape's Paradise: The home of Caesar's Ape Colony.
The Ape Village - Outside.
The beginning of Caesar's reign.
Caesar leads an attack through the forest.
The apes after a hunt in the forest.
Blue Eyes and Ash in the woods.
The Ape Kingdom's home
Caesar discovers humans in the forest.
Malcolm in the Woods.
Malcolm enters the Ape Village through the gate.
Alex and Maurice in the woods.
The Ape and Human armies fighting in the woods.
Ape Waterfall.
See Also Edit
West African Jungle
San Bruno Primate Shelter
Gen-Sys Laboratories
Rodman House
Ape Gate
Ape Village
Ape Waterfall
Muir Woods National Monument article at Wikipedia
Retrieved from "https://planetoftheapes.fandom.com/wiki/Muir_Woods_Park?oldid=59267"
Locations (CE)
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Podcast November 18, 2013 Ezra Rosser Podcast Lisa R. Pruitt More Podcasts Poverty Law, Policy, And Practice: Notes from the Cutting Room Floor
Native American Poverty
Ezra Rosser in Conversation with Faculty Affiliate Lisa Pruitt
In this podcast, visiting scholar Ezra Rosser and UC Davis Law professor and Center faculty affiliate Lisa Pruitt discuss a range of issues related to Native American Poverty, from its lack of visibility and interest for legal scholars to its causes and possible solutions.
Rosser is a professor of Law at American University’s Washington College of Law. He has also served as a 1665 Fellow at Harvard University, a visiting scholar at Yale Law School, and a Westerfield Fellow at the Loyola University New Orleans School of Law. He has written extensively on American Indian law.
Pruitt writes about the intersection of law and rural livelihoods, considering a range of ways in which rural places are distinct from what has become the implicit urban norm in legal scholarship. She has worked with lawyers in more than 30 countries to negotiate cultural conflicts in several arenas.
Download the transcript of this podcast
Pod November 25, 2013
Ezra Rosser Podcast
Profile February 16, 2012
Lisa R. Pruitt
Lisa Pruitt’s areas of research include legal and policy implications of income inequality along the rural-urban continuum and legal aspects of declining mobility, with an emphasis on diminishing access to higher education.
1111 King Hall
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CFO Data Needs: How IT Stacks Up
If you think about how the data is going to be presented and used by the CFO’s group, the technological decisions to ensure data accuracy and determine types of data you present actually become easier.
Are CIOs giving their colleagues in finance access to the data they need to make intelligent business decisions? CFOs say they don’t have the right data they need to make such educated decisions. Many of them are using outdated and underpowered software to analyze data, according to a recent study.
This is according to a study commissioned by ERP vendor Epicor Software and conducted by firm Redshift Research Ltd. based on interviews with 1,500 CFOs and other business finance professionals from 11 countries who work at companies with at least 100 employees. Well over half of respondents were from companies with at least 500 employees, and the largest number of respondents worked in organizations with more than 1,000 employees. Most respondents were from manufacturing, services, or retail sectors.
More than a fifth of respondents (28%) said that big data was going to be a top issue for their departments in the next two to three years, with 27% saying that investment in new IT capability will be one of the top issues affecting their departments in the next two to three years. That’s probably because they find current IT lacking.
Fully one third of respondents said that planning and forecasting were their major challenges this year. “Gut feeling” dominates the decision-making process for 46% of respondents, who said they lacked the data to make good business decisions. More than four in ten respondents (44%) said that they see mistakes occur as a result of missing or false information. More than a third (37%) said inaccurate data was the biggest cause of mistakes in their decision-making process.
We spend a lot of time at InformationWeek talking about the latest advances in big data and business intelligence, so we were particularly surprised to read in the report that 60% of respondents still use spreadsheets, despite having ERP and other IT systems at their disposal.
Data is a convenient scapegoat for mistakes after the fact. How many times have we heard a business colleague say, “Oh, if I had only known that, I’d have never made this mistake.” Sometimes the term inaccurate data is another way of saying hindsight is 20-20. Data isn’t supposed to replace management knowledge and experience, but augment them.
During the InformationWeek Conference in April 2015, I gave a talk on the failures of analytics. The room was full of CIOs who shared horror stories of providing data to management, only to have their business colleagues ask them to change the data to match their gut feelings. One CIO was asked to change numbers at every weekly meeting to justify marketing decisions that were already written in stone before the data was even considered. When those decisions backfired, the numbers were always blamed.
It doesn’t take blatant manipulation to create the feeling that data is the cause for a mistake. So, we need to take the numbers with a grain of salt, understanding that there are fallacies with dealing with data that will never make any CFO 100% happy. If they had all the imaginary data in the world to make a perfect decision, data scientists would be gods. Since they don’t, any failure can be blamed on whatever the missing variable was.
Here are two stats from the Epicor study that IT can reduce: the 60% of respondents who were still using spreadsheets, and the 46% who said they’re not getting enough data. More than half of the CFOs polled (52%) said they make financial decisions collaboratively. Does a spreadsheet seem the best way to do that? When designing your data program, make it a priority for collaborators to visualize, share, and manipulate the data. The user experience is, ultimately, more important than deciding which data points need to be shared. If you think about how the data is going to be presented and used by the CFO’s group, the technological decisions to ensure data accuracy and determine types of data you present actually become easier.
The purpose of data is to inform decisions. If the decision, rather than the data, is the focus, you’ll find the CFO is a lot happier with the data he or she receives.
This is taken from the article CFO Data Needs: How IT Stacks Up and has been written by David Wagner
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Woman dies from rabies after rescuing puppy on vacation
Megan Johnson
Yahoo Lifestyle 11 May 2019
File image of rabies test (Photo: Getty Images)
A Norwegian woman has died from rabies after rescuing a puppy she found while on vacation.
24-year-old Birgitte Kallestad was vacationing in the Philippines when she found the dog, and couldn’t resist picking it up off the side of the road. She brought the puppy back to her resort, where she washed and played with it.
According to BBC.com, Kallestad’s family said she received “small scrapes” by the puppy as she played with it, but sought no more medical attention.
It was only after Kallestad had returned to her home country that she began to fall ill. According to her family, doctors couldn’t initially determine what was the cause of her illness, despite several trips to the emergency room. She was admitted to a hospital on April 28, when physicians determined she had rabies after being bitten by the dog while on vacation, reports Verdens Gang, a Norwegian publication, according to the Washington Post.
“The patient was admitted to our intensive care unit, and died peacefully with the closest family around her,” Trine Hunskar Vingsnes, director of health at Helse Forde hospital, told VG.
“Our dear Birgitte loved animals. Our fear is that this will happen to others who have a warm heart like her,” the Kallestad family said in a statement. They suggested that a rabies vaccine should be added to a list of inoculations for people traveling to the Philippines.
“It’s really important to stress that even if you’ve been vaccinated before you travel, if you do have contact [with a potentially infected animal] you need to go to a local health clinic for a second vaccination,” Siri Feruglio, Senior Medical Officer at the Norway’s Institute of Public Health, told the BBC. “This is a disease that’s endemic in 150 countries and it’s a huge health problem.”
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), the rabies virus is transmitted in the saliva of rabid animals. It generally enters the body via virus-laden saliva from a rabid animal into a wound, like a scratch, or through bite wounds that provide direct exposure of mucosal surfaces to saliva from an infected animal. The virus cannot infiltrate intact skin. 95% of cases are reported in Asia and Africa.
Man with week to live hopes to re-home his 11 rescue dogs
Man hits bartender with car after he wasn’t allowed to bring dog into bar
This bride bought a matching wedding dress for her dog: ‘She is my family’
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Long-term youth unemployment in the South East up by over a fifth
20/10/2012 in News | Tags: job seekers allowance, medway, region, tuc, unemployment, youth
Long-term youth unemployment in the South East is up by over a fifth (22 per cent) since the government came to power in May 2010, according to TUC analysis. The South East now has over 8,300 extra 16-24 year-olds out of work for six months or longer. The TUC research also shows that as long-term unemployment has rocketed government support for unemployed young people has fallen by 26 per cent following the replacement of the previous government’s Youth Guarantee (which included the Future Jobs Fund) with the new Youth Contract.
According to the TUC study, the government will spend £98m less this year on support for jobless young people claiming Job Seeker’s Allowance (JSA) in England than was previously provided under the Youth Guarantee. For the South East this means a cut in funding of nearly £10m. The TUC is concerned that with the new funding levels under the Youth Contract dependent upon employers taking-up the government’s job subsidy places, the cuts could be even sharper. No statistics have yet been published on employer take-up levels but concerns have been raised by the manufacturers’ organisation the EFF that many employers do not know about the new scheme.
The TUC said the findings – published in the week that thousands plan to walk through central London as part of A Future That Works march and rally –highlighted the impact that austerity measures are having upon young people and the inadequate levels of support being given to them. The TUC believes that the funding cuts, combined with the axing of the Educational Maintenance Allowance (EMA), the hike in tuition fees and the proposed scrapping of housing benefit for under 25s, are making it much harder for young people to get on and find decent long-term work.
South East TUC Regional Secretary Megan Dobney said: “With such sharp cuts in support for young unemployed people, it’s no surprise that the government is failing to get to grips with this urgent problem. It is deeply concerning that many of the areas hit hardest by unemployment in our region are seeing such a steep drop in financial support for jobless youngsters.
“Long-term youth unemployment is a ticking time bomb under the South East’s and the nation’s finances, with severe consequences not just for young people but also for their communities and the country’s wider economic prospects. This crisis simply cannot be tackled on the cheap. These cuts are a false economy – failing to act now will cost us all in the longer-term.
“Rather than rationing opportunities for young people, through scrapping the EMA, raising tuition fees and cutting housing benefit, the government should be making it easier for them to get on and fulfil their full potential. We need a future that works and that is why thousands of young people, their parents and their families will be marching in London this Saturday.”
This article may seem to contradict an earlier post but it should be considered that this article refers to the region as a whole not just the area of the Medway Towns
« £20 MILLION BOOST FOR THAMES GATEWAY BUSINESS
Chance to shape health services for Medway »
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2014 OSCE-wide Counter-Terrorism Conference "The role of OSCE in addressing current terrorism challenges"
application/pdf Concept paper (English, 173.71 KB)
application/pdf Logistical information (English, 70.99 KB)
The conference intends to make use of the comprehensive OSCE approach to security allowing a cross-dimensional discussion on current counter-terrorism issues, including kidnappings for ransom, human rights and counter-terrorism, and "foreign fighters".
The Swiss OSCE Chairmanship with the support of the Transnational Threats Department (TNTD), in close co-operation with the Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) and other OSCE executive structures will organize an OSCE-wide Counter-Terrorism Conference to address new challenges of particular concern to the international community, and possibly conclude with reasoned deliverables for the OSCE Ministerial Conference in Basel.
The themes to be discussed are:
Terrorism Financing – addressing kidnapping for ransom;
Ensuring legality, transparency and accountability in counter-terrorism and;
Responding to the phenomenon of individuals leaving their home country to take part in violent hostilities within or outside the OSCE area (“foreign fighters”).
In particular, the Swiss Chairmanship proposes to put a strong emphasis on a cross-dimensional consideration of these challenges and contributions from civil society organizations.
The OSCE promotes a comprehensive approach to security, linking the politico-military, economic and environmental, and human dimensions in preventing and combating terrorism. In particular, participating States have pledged to fully respect international law, including international human rights law, humanitarian law and refugee law, when preventing and countering terrorism. They have reaffirmed on a number of occasions that the struggle against terrorism is not directed against any particular religion, nation or people. They have also recognised the crucial role that can be played by civil society, businesses and the media in anti-terrorism efforts, and have pledged solidarity with victims of terrorism. In the 2012 Consolidated Framework for the Fight against Terrorism, the OSCE participating States have identified the protection and promotion of human rights as one of the strategic focus areas for OSCE counter-terrorism activities.
The expected participants of this conference are counter terrorism national coordinators, senior experts or equivalent national authorities nominated by OSCE participating States and OSCE partners for Co-operation.
Simultaneous interpretation in English and Russian will be provided during the conference.
Participation of experts from international and regional organizations, non-governmental organizations and the civil society is upon invitation only.
OSCE Secretariat / Transnational Threats Department
Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR), OSCE Chairmanship, OSCE Secretariat / Transnational Threats Department / Action against Terrorism Unit
Delegations, Experts, Government officials, International organizations, OSCE staff
human rights violations, terrorism, kidnapping, foreign terrorist fighters
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Official opening of the new RASCO factory production hall
After nearly eight months of construction, a new production facility within the RASCO production plant has been completed. The new production plant, covering a surface area of 1804.85 m2, has been added onto the existing Hall 3, and is intended for the production of municipal...
EUnited introduces new PM Test label, RASCO’s SX2 sweeper receives top mark
The new maximum achievable level is now four stars. In the past, up to three stars on the label showed how much a sweeper positively exceeded the test requirements. RASCO’s SX2 sweeper upgrade for Holder Muvo implement carrier vehicles now carries the PM Test label with the...
The President of the Republic of Croatia visited RASCO
President and her delegation were welcomed in front of the production plant by owner and director Darko Paviša and CEO Ivan Franičević. The visit was opened with the presentation of the work and the company's results so far. After that, the president and her delegation...
Welcome to new RASCO corporate website
Website was developed with quality and user experience in the first place. We wanted to make browsing through the website as simple as possible, and ensure that you find RASCO product that fits your needs as quick as possible. One of the main benefits of the new website is...
New distributor in Denmark: Sivertsen A/S
RASCO’s products became available to the Danish customers through the Sivertsen A/S, new exclusive distributor for the RASCO products in Denmark. Specialized for municipal maintenance Sivertsen A/S was originally founded in 1938 and today it is, together with Sivertsen...
RASCO machines available in Canada!
Through this partnership RASCO set a strong foothold on the North American continent, prerequisite for the seamless distribution and post-sales support of the RASCO’s full product portfolio. Cubex is a well known name in Canada when it comes to supply and maintenance of...
Suisse Public 2017 is approaching
The Swiss fair will gather more than 600 exhibitors from all areas of municipal maintenance and municipal technology. RASCO and our Swiss partner Leiser will exhibit a part of RASCO’s product portfolio. Visit us on open exhibit spaces 4/119 and 4/117, and take a look at...
RASCO is acknowledged as a Certified Body Builder for MAN vehicles
The certificate is one of many confirmations of RASCO’s quality, durability, and trust we have earned amongst our partners and buyers. We are looking forward to future projects with MAN...
7th annual distributors meeting
The distributors meeting is a starting point for making short-term and long-term strategies for R&D, sales, post-sales support and marketing in RASCO and for all our business partners. On this year’s distributors meeting we have officially introduced new business and...
Ivan Franičević receives an award for Manager of the year 2016
„This award came as a result of constant work and effort of each and every employee of RASCO company. From a small craft workshop with two employees, we have grown to a company which employs almost 250 people and exports to more than 30 countries in the...
New Energy and municipal technology: RASCO on EcoFair
The events will be held under the mutual moto „New Energy“. During both fairs RASCO will exhibit part of its product programme, along with the multifunctional vehicle Holder. Minister of Mining and Energy of Republic of Serbia Aleksandar Antić opened EcoFair on Thursday,...
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Charles Callahan
Charles Callahan is among today’s most prolific of American composers, with over 300 works in print for organ, piano, chorus, solo voice, chamber ensemble and orchestra, many of which have had premieres throughout the world with such notable artists as the Choir of Saint Thomas Church (New York City), Harvard University Choir, St. Olaf Choir, Washington Choral Society, and the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra, with broadcasts on television (The History Channel) and on National Public Radio. Born in 1951 in Cambridge, Massachusetts, he is a graduate of the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia and the Catholic University of America, Washington, D.C. He took additional study with Flor Peeters in Mechelen, Belgium, with Daniel Roth in Paris and at Solesmes Abbey, France. Dr. Callahan has taught at Baylor University, Middlebury College, Catholic University and Rollins College and has served as organist and music director for churches in Philadelphia, Washington, D.C. and New York City. As a concert organist, he has made recordings on new and historic instrument and performed recital tours through America and Europe. He is author of an educational book for church organists, ”The Art of Hymn-Playing” (2006), and of two books which have become standard reference works on American organ building, ”The American Classic Organ” and ”Aeolian-Skinner Remembered.” Dr. Callahan remains active throughout each year as an organ consultant, recitalist, recording artist and workshop leader. He presently resides in Vermont, and is the Director of the Vermont Conservatory of Music.
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Communication #7: Targets of Opportunity Program (TOP)
Provost's Communications
Communication #1: Budgetary Principles and Practice
Communication #2: Offering Academic Positions
Communication #3: Appointments of Faculty, Specialized Faculty, and Academic Professionals
Communication #4: Faculty Excellence Program
Communication #5: Term Professorial Appointments (“Q” and “W” Appointments)
Communication #6: Named Faculty Appointments
Communication #8: Dual Career Academic Couples Program
Communication #9: Promotion and Tenure
Promotion & Tenure Frequently Asked Questions
Communication #10: Guidelines and Procedures for Notice of Nonreappointment for Nontenured Faculty Members and for Denials of Promotion Not Linked to Tenure Decisions
Communication #11: Guidelines and Procedures for Notice of Nonreappointment for Academic Professional Employees and Other Members of the Academic Staff
Communication #12: Policy for Awarding Emeritus/Emerita Status
Communication #13: Review of Faculty in Year Three of the Probationary Period
Communication #14: Special Tenure Code Provision for Appointments Beginning After the Eighth Week of the Academic Year
Communication #15: Effect of Leave Without Pay on the Probationary Period
Communication #16: Policy on Interruptions of the Probationary Period (Tenure Code Rollbacks)
Communication #17: Program for Multi-Year Contracts for Eligible Academic Staff
Communication #18: Unassigned
Communication #19: Sabbatical Leaves of Absence
Communication #20: Leaves of Absence Without Pay
Communication #21: Annual Faculty Review
Communication #22: Annual Review of Academic Professional Employees
Communication #23: Appointment and Review of Faculty Members With Budgeted Joint Appointments
Communication #24: Five-Year Review of Administrators
Communication #25: Employment Guidelines for Specialized Faculty Holding Non-Tenure System Positions
Communication #26: Promotion to Teaching, Research or Clinical Associate or Full Professor Titles
Communication #27: Shared Governance for Academic Units
Return to Policies
Communication #7:
Targets of Opportunity Program (TOP)
TARGETS OF OPPORTUNITY PROGRAM:
RECRUITING MEMBERS OF UNDERREPRESENTED GROUPS
PROGRAM CRITERIA
APPROVAL PROCESS AND FUNDING
TENURE REVIEW PROCESS
FUNDING LIMITS
START-UP DISCRETIONARY FUNDS
The University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign is committed to building and maintaining a faculty that is excellent in many dimensions. The Office of the Provost supports three programs in which partial or total central financial support for academic positions may be provided: the Faculty Excellence Program (see Communication No. 4); the Targets of Opportunity Program, described here, and the Dual Career Program, (see Communication No. 8).
We require all appointees to faculty and academic staff positions to meet the highest standards in teaching, research and service. Normally, faculty and academic staff members meeting these criteria are best identified though the regular recruitment and search processes, funded through departmental and college procedures. In special circumstances, however, the Provost may provide funding (as described below) for a position and/or authorize a waiver search when a special recruitment will contribute to the university’s excellence through attraction of highly qualified individuals whose recruitment supports strategic objectives and institutional priorities.
Further criteria for different categories of TOP requests are described below. Decisions on requests for financial support and/or waivers of search under this policy are made by the Provost in the best interests of the University. Decisions of the Provost are final.
II. Targets of Opportunity Program: Recruiting Members of Underrepresented Groups
The mission of the University of Illinois is to transform lives and serve society by educating, creating knowledge and putting knowledge to work on a large scale and with excellence (http://www.uillinois.edu/about/mission.cfm). In serving that mission, one of the values that guides the University of Illinois is inclusiveness. On the Urbana-Champaign campus, we are committed to the principle that a diverse community adds to and enhances our educational environment. We strive to incorporate diversity in every aspect of university life from student affairs, to academic units, to research activities, and to public engagement. Illinois is determined to achieve the next level of excellence in education, scholarship, and public engagement by fostering and sustaining a diverse and inclusive academic environment.
The Targets of Opportunity Program (TOP) is designed to support recruitment of outstanding faculty members who will enhance our institution’s strategic goals and build on our reputation as a leading public research university. The goal of the program is to attract leading faculty members among groups that are underrepresented by race, ethnicity, gender, disability, and veterans’ status in specific units on campus. All students benefit from a learning environment that is enriched by a diverse faculty. The University has a strong interest in promoting the recruitment and retention of a diverse student body. A faculty with diverse backgrounds also assists the University in strengthening its relationship and service to the citizenry of Illinois.
III. Program Criteria
TOP nominations are accepted for entry-level, highly tenurable, and tenured faculty prospects. TOP nominations also may be accepted for high-level academic professionals if a unit can demonstrate that the position will directly enhance the educational mission of the campus.
For faculty positions, the nominee must demonstrate excellence and promise in the specified field based on an established research agenda, publication record, grants, awards, etc. The candidate also should have a record of teaching excellence and experience.
The faculty nominee also must support the strategic excellence of the requesting unit. The request must address how the proposed hire will (a) assist the unit in promoting its strategic goals, (b) enhance the excellence of the unit, (c) address specific needs within the unit and/or across campus, and (d) contribute to the diversity goals of the unit. Overall, the request must articulate the match of the proposed hire with the unit and the campus strategic plans and initiatives.
For academic professional positions, nominees will be reviewed based on a variety of factors, including: (a) underrepresentation based on data from the Office of Equal Opportunity and Access; and (b) level of engagement with the campus (i.e., the visibility and nature of the position).
In evaluating the appropriateness of this program for a unit, the Provost’s Office will consider whether the use of the program furthers the campus’ commitment to diversity and whether the use is supported by the most recent availability and peer comparison data in the Office of Equal Opportunity and Access’ Faculty Report. By college and department, the OEOA Faculty Report compares the representation of tenured and tenure-track faculty within a unit based on race, ethnicity, and gender to the representation at peer institutions and to a national pool of tenured and tenure-track faculty. In general, African-Americans, Mexican-Americans, Native Americans (that is, American Indians, Alaskan Natives, and Native Hawaiians), and mainland Puerto Ricans are significantly underrepresented in the faculty at Illinois relative to their representation nationally. Additionally, women are underrepresented in specific STEM fields. Underrepresentation also exists on campus with respect to veteran status and persons with disabilities.
Nominees for TOP recruitment are typically U.S. citizens or permanent residents. In very exceptional circumstances, scholars and academic professionals who are not U.S. citizens will be considered.
Requesting units should have a demonstrable record of promoting diversity (e.g., success in making diverse hires, a Diversity Plan for the unit).
IV. Approval Process and Funding
The Office of the Provost will support the hiring of TOP candidates in two ways: (1) through the traditional search process and (2) through a search waiver. Consistent with our campus goal of enhancing diversity within the standard search process, the majority of positions will be funded through traditional searches. However, occasionally a unit may identify an excellent candidate from an underrepresented group outside of the traditional search process. In those instances, the unit may petition for a search waiver. The two processes are outlined below.
1. Traditional Search Process
Regular searches are vetted and approved by the colleges, so campus-level support for TOP hires within this process requires minimal review. If a unit identifies a person from an underrepresented group as the selected choice for a position, the unit can apply for TOP funding to support up to $85,000 in recurring salary. Alternatively, the unit may apply for assistance with start-up funds in lieu of salary support if that is a greater need.
In some instances, a search committee may identify two highly qualified candidates, one of whom may further the campus’ diversity objectives. If there is such a candidate from an underrepresented group, a unit may apply for partial TOP funding to support an additional position from a single search. This second position must be vetted and supported by the dean of the college and should be approved only if the unit has a strategic need for additional faculty (e.g., large number of undergraduate majors, large amount of service teaching for the campus, strategic excellence in the college). In the case of a second position, the Provost’s Office will support up to $60,000 in recurring salary.
For TOP candidates identified through the traditional search process, the unit should submit the request with a brief rationale outlining the candidate’s excellence and strategic fit within the unit as well as the contributions to diversity in the unit/college (see Attachment 1).
2. Search Waiver
The search waiver method is the approach that has been used most often for TOP hires since the program’s inception. We will continue to support this approach, although our goal is to reward and incentivize most of our diversity hires through the traditional search process.
There are times when an exceptional faculty candidate from an underrepresented group is identified as recruitable outside of a traditional search. Such opportunities are typically time-sensitive and require flexibility outside the routine hiring cycle. Two separate approvals at different stages in the process are required, each catalyzed by a request from the unit.
Stage 1 involves requesting approval from the dean for funding to bring the candidate in for a visit (see Attachment 2). Such requests should be based on the following criteria: (a) strategic fit of the candidate’s research and teaching expertise with unit’s goals; (b) the need for additional faculty in the unit, based on size of the major and/or amount of service teaching; (c) candidate’s fit with the strategic priorities of the college and campus; (d) the diversity of the current faculty and student body in the unit; and (e) data from the Office of Equal Opportunity and Access’ Faculty Report.
It is important to be careful in representing our institution properly in this initial stage of the potential recruitment process. At this earliest stage, it may not be necessary or appropriate to identify the efforts as related to recruitment; a simple invitation to make a presentation on campus and to visit with faculty and students in the unit can be very effective without asking a potential candidate to commit to interest in a position. Clearly, no commitments regarding availability of an appointment should be made.
Stage 2 involves requesting a search waiver from the campus (see Attachment 3). Second stage approval is requested only after the unit has completed its evaluation of the candidate.
If the unit and the dean agree that the candidate would be an exceptional hire, the unit may apply for a search waiver and campus-level support. Stage 2 requests for hires will be reviewed by the TOP Advisory Committee, chaired by the Vice Provost. Requests will be reviewed in three cycles, two in the fall (due by October 1 for first cycle, due by December 1 for second cycle), one in the spring (due by March 1 for the third cycle). If a request is time sensitive, a unit may send it forward at an off-cycle time but it is preferable that requests be assessed collectively within these three time frames. It is important to note that the Provost’s Office will approve a limited number of search waivers and funding for such targeted recruitments so there is no guarantee that Stage 1 approvals from the deans will translate into approved hires.
If a search waiver is granted, the campus will support up to $85,000 in salary support for up to three years. After that time period, the unit will need to take over the entire salary for this additional position. Alternatively, the unit may apply for assistance with start-up funds in lieu of salary support if that is a greater need.
Please refer to Attachment 1 (for traditional searches) and Attachments 2 and 3 (for search waivers) for various stages of approval for appointments funded under the Targets of Opportunity Program.
V. Tenure Review Process
If tenure is involved in a TOP hire, the unit will need to submit the appropriate materials to the Provost’s Office for review by the off-cycle Promotion and Tenure Committee as part of the hiring process.
VI. Funding Limits
The campus’ contribution for TOP hires normally will not exceed $85,000. Funding at a higher level may be requested, but will not necessarily be approved. Upon the resignation, termination, or retirement of the faculty member, the funds allocated by the campus to the unit (including any campus funds used for salary increments) will revert to the campus.
VII. Start-Up Discretionary Funds
Note: This is a separate request from the TOP process.
Discretionary research support is available through the program of Assistance in Recruiting Underrepresented Minority Faculty offered by the University System Vice President for Academic Affairs (http://www.vpaa.uillinois.edu/Policies/minfaculty.cfm). Awards in this program provide up to $10,000 per year for the first three years of service on the faculty. The VPAA provides the first year’s funds, to be matched on a 2:1 basis by campus sources in years two and three. The Office of the Provost will provide $10,000 to complete the match. Proposals for recruitment awards should be made through the dean of the college to the Provost. If approved by the Provost, the proposal will be forwarded to the Vice President for Academic Affairs for final approval. Questions about this program should be directed to the Office of the Vice President for Academic Affairs (333-3077). This program is intended to enhance minority recruitment, so requests under this program should be made at the same time that required paperwork to offer the position is being completed. This timetable allows departments to offer the research funds at the same time they are offering a position.
Requests for research funds also may be requested from the Vice Chancellor for Research. Questions about these funds (http://www.research.illinois.edu/rar/) should be directed to the Office of the Vice Chancellor for Research (333-0034).
VIII. Assistance
There are several helpful websites that identify potential candidates for faculty positions who are members of groups underrepresented in higher education. These include the following:
Committee on Institutional Cooperation (CIC) Doctoral Directory
Diversifying Higher Education Faculty in Illinois (DFI) Directory of Graduates
National Registry of Diverse & Strategic Faculty (The Registry) (Please contact OEOA for user name and password)
For additional assistance with special recruitments in support of institutional priorities, please contact the Office of the Provost (333-6677).
IX. Attachments
View or download the following documents related to Provost’s Communication #7:
Transmittal for TOP Traditional Search
Transmittal for Stage 1 Approval for TOP Search Waiver
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Watching Our Water Ways
Watching Our Water Ways Environmental reporter Christopher Dunagan discusses the challenges of protecting Puget Sound and all things water-related.
State Sen. Christine Rolfes sees ongoing need to tackle climate change
Christopher Dunagan
Climate change will likely emerge as one of the top five issues facing the Washington Legislature next year, predicts state Sen. Christine Rolfes of Bainbridge Island, a key leader in the state Senate.
Sen. Christine Rolfes
The issue is not going away, she told me, despite (or perhaps I because of) voter rejection of a billion-dollar climate change initiative on last week’s ballot.
“If you are in elective office and you are aware of threats to the climate and the future of the state, there is a moral imperative to do something,” she said, “even though this particular proposal didn’t pass.”
Still on the table are a multitude of ideas for clean power, cleaner transportation and greater energy efficiency, she explained as we sat down to coffee on Monday at a Bainbridge Island establishment.
The overwhelming vote against Initiative 1631 was not a vote against taking action on climate change, according to Sen. Rolfes. It was a message that voters want to take action in a different way. As chairwoman of the Senate Ways and Means Committee, with its special focus on budget issues, she will play a key role in the passage of any climate-change measures. See Kitsap Sun, Jan. 6, 2018.
Some people are always going to vote against taxes, she noted, but the swing votes were from people concerned about the huge amounts of money involved, the so-called “loopholes” regarding who would pay the tax, or the uncertainties over how the money would be spent.
“I had people coming to me and wanting to know whether the Legislature could still do something,” she said. “They wondered, if they voted no, if they would be dooming the state to inaction.”
Even the oil companies, which spent tens of millions of dollars to defeat the measure, acknowledged that climate change should be addressed, she said. They were mainly arguing that this initiative was the wrong way to go.
In fact, many businesses across the U.S. have developed strategic plans for dealing with ongoing climate change. Among them are the oil companies, including BP with its plan for “advancing the energy transition” and Shell with its “Energy Transition Report.” Oil company officials have said they are willing to work with the Legislature for a better system than the one on the ballot.
Surveys have shown that a sizable majority of Washington state residents recognize that climate change is a problem exacerbated by greenhouse gases resulting from human activities. See Yale Climate Opinion Maps and Plan Washington among others.
“There is a feeling that climate change is our generation’s responsibility, and we need to act now to reduce carbon emissions,” Christine told me. “But there is also a recognition that we live in a democracy. People get to decide what path forward we should take. That’s where you need leadership to bring it all together.”
She anticipates that the Senate, House and Governor’s Office will present a package of climate-change bills — perhaps some of the same bills that failed to pass in the last legislative session, a time when the looming climate initiative complicated efforts for a legislative compromise.
Ideally, Democrats and Republicans can work together, she said, because compromise results in more “durable” solutions. “But that depends on Democrats maybe not exactly getting their vision and Republicans wanting to participate. If Republicans come out and say, ‘The voters have spoken; there is nothing to be done,’ then there will be nothing to compromise on.”
At least until now, climate change is recognized as a problem by most legislators, Democrat and Republican, said Rolfes, herself a Democrat. The one dead-end argument is when someone says that China and other countries are the real problem, so it doesn’t matter what we do in Washington state.
I asked Christine if she thought people might benefit from a deeper understanding of climate science or the consequences of global warming, sea-level rise and ocean acidification. She said she wasn’t sure.
We agreed that it might help if we could tell people how much their insurance rates will go up as a result of increasing fires, floods and hurricanes; how food prices will rise as droughts become more common; and which dangerous diseases are likely to spread to our region from the tropics.
Climate change is already affecting the ecosystem in the Puget Sound region and across the state as winter snowpack declines, glaciers melt and salmon struggle to survive warmer waters, she said.
“I don’t know what it is about Americans where we can’t see what is right in front of us,” she said. “We’re living the crisis.”
Since she assumed the job of helping to write the state budget, she sees demands for funding to address problems such as flooding in Southwest Washington, firefighting capacity in the forests and ecosystem protection in Puget Sound. Climate change is already affecting people in many ways.
“Some people have already thrown in the towel, saying climate change is coming our way, so let’s build more dikes and just move the houses,” she said. “We see this tension between building in resilience and trying to reduce climate change so that we don’t need to be so resilient.”
Either way, the personal and governmental costs are likely to keep going up until we can slow down the rate of climate change.
Among the state’s top priorities still facing budget writers are education and health care, including mental health and drug addiction. But climate change is not far behind, according to Sen. Rolfes.
Most of the climate change initiatives are not new, having been enacted into law previously or proposed as legislation. They could include:
Mandating and/or offering incentives for electric utilities to increase their renewable energy sources
A more modest fee on carbon emissions than proposed by Initiative 1631, or perhaps a cap-and-trade system previously proposed by Gov. Jay Inslee that would use market forces to limit future greenhouse gas emissions.
Tax incentives or rebates to install home-based solar and wind power generation
Tax incentives to purchase electric vehicles
Mandates to produce cleaner fuels such as by increasing the use of biodiesel and ethanol in gasoline.
Mandating increased energy efficiency in homes and consumer products
“What’s scary or sad is that we are now at the place where scientists say we have 10 years left to act on climate change, yet we have a federal government that won’t do anything,” she said.
As for the Legislature, it could all come down to leadership and political courage.
“There is the need to do something big and dramatic without hurting people,” she said. “There is also the need to keep plugging away at what we have been doing well all along.”
November 15, 2018 Business and industry, Climate change, Education, Planning, SalmonChristine Rolfes, cleaner transportation, Climate change, electric utilities, greenhouse gas emissions, renewable energy sources, Washington Legislature
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4 thoughts on “State Sen. Christine Rolfes sees ongoing need to tackle climate change”
Terry Howard says:
She left out the most reasonable of all “alternative” energy sources…Nuclear.
New generations of nuclear plants are proving to be safe, efficient…and of course, green.
http://www.world-nuclear.org/information-library/current-and-future-generation/nuclear-power-in-the-world-today.aspx
Paul Catorce says:
Nuclear energy is not politically correct.
Michael Bollinger says:
Give me a plan, state the goal in the temperature and or the climate effects of the plan. Tell me how much it will cost, and how long until Earth is finally returned to the range of “perfection” that is the goal. While these climate alarmists are at it, please tell me at what time was climate perfection achieved. Is it the 1850’s 1700’s? 1900? How about during the dust bowl? How about during the last ice age, where Washington state was covered in glaciers?
You see, climate change is a scam to fleece taxpayers out of TRILLIONS of dollars, for absolutely no benefit. The Earth is not in any danger from burning so called fossil fuels. The Earth IS in danger from power mad bureaucrats and politicians promising something they can never deliver. Just like “peace in our time” “the end of poverty” or “prosperity for all.”
Christopher Dunagan says:
I can’t tell from your email how much you know about climate change. A good backgrounder on the issue can be found on NASA’s website.
Leave a Reply to Michael Bollinger Cancel reply
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National Queer Arts Festival 2013
La Rosa Mixtape Qcc2Admin 2017-11-10T20:19:51+00:00
Borders and Freedom. Imaginations and Reality. La Rosa Mixtape is a night of short films and performances on the journeys and migrations of queer diasporas. Featuring films from all over and performances by local Bay Area drag artists, La Rosa Mixtape reflects brave visions amidst a world in flux.
La Rosa Mixtape: Queer Journeys and Migrations
Edgardo Cervano-Soto & Felíx Buo, E.R.O.S Film Collective
MCCLA, 7PM
$5-$20 sliding scale
Tickets: http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/376223
Tumblr: http://erosfilmcollective.tumblr.com/larosamixtapefilmfestival
Edgardo Cervano-Soto is a social documentarian and filmmaker from Richmond, CA. He believes in the power of image, text and sound in empowering communities. Cervano-Soto is committed to expanding the presence of immigrant, queer youth of color and first generation families in film. Cervano-Soto graduated from Stanford University in 2011, and received a B.A in Urban Studies with an emphasis on immigrant communities and social incorporation.
Félix Buo is an Honduran immigrant filmmaker and sound artist currently residing in San Francisco, CA. He is also known as Brenda Froots, winner of Miss Congeniality in Nuestra Belleza México Gay 2011. Buo believes in self-empowerment through drag.
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Speaker: Diana Hu
Director of Engineering & AR Platform @NianticLabs
Diana Hu, is the Director of Engineering and Head of the Augmented Reality Platform at Niantic Inc., creator of AR games like Pokemon Go, Ingress, and Harry Potter Wizards Unite. Diana leads the engineering team, building core technology that enables developers to create shared AR experiences that seamlessly blend the real with the digital. Previously, she was the Cofounder and CTO of Escher Reality, a startup that was acquired by Niantic. In the past, she served as the first data scientist for cloud television at Intel and Verizon Labs and eventually built the data science team that brought research projects into products. She holds seven patents in computer vision and machine learning and has a BS in and MS in Electrical Computer Engineering with computer vision and machine learning focus from Carnegie Mellon University.
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Australian Economy
atm, automation, banking, banknotes, bonds, business, business services, capex, cash rate, central clearing, china, commodities, credit, cryptocurrency, currency, data analytics, debt, derivatives, educators and students, emerging markets, employment, fees, finance, financial instruments, financial stability, financial markets, forecasting, forex, funding composition, household services, india, inflation, interest rates, investment, labour market, manufacturing, market operations, markets, martin, mining, modelling, monetary policy, money, mortgages, non-mining, npp, payments, prices, rba survey, reforms, regulation, retail, resources sector, securitisation, services sector, shadow banking, start-ups, technology, trade, wages
In Bulletin September Quarter 2018
The New Payments Platform and Fast Settlement Service
Access to Small Business Finance
Does It Pay to Study Economics?
The Effect of Minimum Wage Increases on Wages, Hours Worked and Job Loss
Money in the Australian Economy
Firm-level Insights into IT Use
The Cyclical Behaviour of Labour Force Participation
Interest Rate Benchmarks for the Australian Dollar
Financial Stability Risks and Retailing
RMB Internationalisation: Where to Next?
Bulletin – September 2018 Finance Money in the Australian Economy
Emma Doherty, Ben Jackman and Emily Perry[*]
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credit, banknotes, money
Photo: Image Source
Money forms part of our everyday lives and is integral to the smooth functioning of the financial system and the real economy; however, discussions of what money is and how it is created are generally left to economics textbooks. This article provides an introduction to the concept of money and describes how it is created and measured. We also discuss what these measures can tell us about economic activity.
Characteristics of money
In the most general sense, money refers to something that is widely accepted as means of payment – commonly referred to as a medium of exchange in economics textbooks. What is ‘widely accepted’ depends on the context. For example, Japanese yen are widely accepted as a means of payment for goods or services purchased in Japan, but not in Australia. Similarly, whereas rum was widely accepted as a means of payment in the early days of Australian colonisation, the same cannot be said of today. This contextual element highlights that whether something is considered to be money or not is at least partly the result of convention – that is, a situation has arisen where people believe that this something called money will be accepted as a means of payment and, as such, they believe there will be continuing value in holding this form of money in order to make future payments.
This belief that there will be continuing value in holding money as a method of making future payments touches on a second property of money: it tends to be a good store of value. If you are going to hold money primarily for the purpose of purchasing other goods or services, it is important that it holds its value over time. If a type of money was not a good store of value, you would want to spend it quickly because its purchasing power would decrease over time.[1]
In addition to the two properties above, a third common property of money is that it is used as a unit of account. For example, it is common for prices to be expressed in terms of the number of units of the money that is widely accepted as a means of payment. For example, the price of a cup of coffee is expressed as the number of Australian dollars required. If it were expressed in terms of some other unit of account (e.g. a foreign currency) then the current exchange rate between Australian dollars and that other unit of account (e.g. US dollars) would need to be known to all parties participating in the transaction.
All goods exhibit ‘money-like’ qualities to varying degrees.[2] Non-perishable goods typically serve as a store of value for some period; most goods can be used as a medium of exchange, albeit with varying difficulties; and any good can be used as a unit of account, although the calculus required to value one good in terms of another is often inconvenient. Institutional settings – such as the currency recognised by the government as a means of paying taxes (and receiving benefits) – often play an important role in determining what becomes accepted as money in an economy. While there is typically nothing stopping the use of other currencies for private transactions, in most modern economies, convenience and convention have resulted in just one type of money becoming the medium of exchange and unit of account.[3],[4] In Australia, that type of money is Australian dollars, although this money can take a number of forms.
Types of money
What constitutes money has evolved over time. ‘Box A: Early Forms of Money in Australia’ summarises some of the different types of money used in Australia's colonial period.
The two forms of money most commonly used to make payments in modern day Australia are currency – Australian banknotes and coins – and Australian dollar deposits.[5] Both can be used readily as means of payment for goods and services in Australia, the prices of which are typically expressed in Australian dollars. The Reserve Bank has a role in ensuring that Australian dollar currency and deposits are a good store of value: by achieving a low and stable rate of inflation, the Reserve Bank helps to maintain stability in the purchasing power of Australian dollars (both in terms of currency and deposits). Also, prudential regulation and supervision helps to ensure that deposits are a good store of value by ensuring that authorised deposit-taking institutions (ADIs) are able to meet the demands of their depositors in full.[6]
Early Forms of Money in Australia[7]
When the colony of New South Wales was established in 1788, colonists relied on barter and used rum (spirits) as a makeshift currency. In 1792, a shipment of Spanish dollars was sent to Australia for use as currency alongside the other international currencies that were used in the colony at the time. To address persistent coin shortages, new forms of money were developed in the following decades. These included the creation of the holey dollar and dump by Governor Macquarie (which made two coins out of one), the use of promissory notes or IOUs, and copper tokens issued by businesses. IOUs and copper tokens proved an unreliable source of currency, partly because they had no official guarantee.
In 1825, the British Government legislated a sterling currency for the colony, which remained the basis of Australian currency until the transition to decimal currency, the Australian dollar, in 1966. Australia's first gold coins were minted in 1855. The gold rushes spurred the development of banking and commercial banks issued banknotes backed by gold, though these banknotes did not constitute a national currency. Like many other countries at the time, Australia adhered to the gold standard and the total amount of notes that banks could issue was limited by their gold reserves. At the turn of the twentieth century, Australia's currency remained a mixture of British coins, Australian coins and the notes of private banks and the Queensland Government.
In 1910, legislation for a national currency was enacted. The Australian Government issued ‘superscribed’ banknotes, whereby words were overprinted on notes purchased from the private banks. These were the first currency notes accepted across the nation. The first true Australian banknote was produced in May 1913, with additional denominations produced during 1913 to 1915.
How Is Money Created?
Australia's notes and coins are produced by the Reserve Bank of Australia and the Royal Australian Mint, respectively. Australian banknotes, which represent around 95 per cent of Australian currency by value, are a liability of the Reserve Bank. Under established agreements, commercial banks purchase banknotes from the Reserve Bank as required to meet demand from their customers. Hence, growth in the value of banknotes in circulation represents growth in the demand for cash.[8]
Australian deposits are liabilities of Australian financial intermediaries such as ADIs.[9] Deposits are created when funds are credited to a deposit account at an Australian financial intermediary. For example, when a business takes the cash revenue it has earned to a bank at the end of the day it exchanges currency for an increase in its deposit balance. This type of transaction creates a deposit, but does not create money, as the business is simply exchanging one type of money (cash) for another (a deposit).[10]
More importantly from the perspective of money ‘creation’, deposits can also be created when financial intermediaries make loans.[11] When a bank extends a loan, it makes a sum of money available to the borrower (for example, to buy a car, a house or equipment for a business). Typically, this will be in the form of a deposit. The bank may credit the deposit account of the borrower, who withdraws the funds when making their payments. Alternatively, the bank may credit the deposit account of the seller of the asset, good or service that the borrower was intending to buy (on behalf of the borrower). In either case, the deposit will typically end up being in the account of a seller of an asset, good or service.
The process of extending loans will therefore typically create deposits at a system-wide level, although it may or may not create deposits at the intermediary that extended the loan (see ‘Box B: Money Creation Case Study’ for more details). In the same way that extending loans will typically create deposits, repayment of loans will typically extinguish deposits. For example, if the deposit funds credited to the seller are used to repay an existing loan, the (system-wide) deposit base will remain as it was before this series of transactions. Other transactions of financial intermediaries can also create or extinguish deposits and therefore money (see ‘Money, deposits and bank funding’ section).
While the process of extending loans is integral to the process of money creation, this does not mean that financial intermediaries are able to make loans and create money without limits. Deposit-taking institutions need to hold sufficient liquid assets to meet withdrawals from depositors (to ensure that repayment obligations can be met without selling illiquid assets); assets (loans) needs to be backed by capital (to absorb any losses arising from defaults or other sources); and the rate of return on assets must be sufficient to cover the costs of deposits and other funding sources, and operating costs, while allowing the financial intermediary to earn a profit so that shareholders will earn a return. These all serve to constrain the extent of lending of any financial intermediary seeking to remain in business. These limits are further reinforced for ADIs by minimum liquidity and capital adequacy requirements set by the prudential regulator (refer to ‘Box B: Money Creation Case Study’ for further examples).
Money, deposits and bank funding
As noted above, deposits represent a liability for the financial intermediary, which has an obligation to repay the depositor in full. These deposits represent a source of funding to support the financial intermediary's assets (including loans). But deposits are not the only source of funding available to financial intermediaries – they can also raise funds by issuing debt or equity securities.
When a bank issues a debt security such as a bond, the holder of that security pays the bank a sum of money for the debt security. The effect of this payment (assuming it is not paid for using currency) is to decrease the deposit balance of the security holder by a commensurate amount while leaving the banking system's total liabilities unchanged; that is, the reduction in deposit liabilities has been offset by an increase in bonds issued.[12] Thus the result of this transaction is a decrease in the money stock (via a decrease in deposits) but no change in the overall stock of banks' funding liabilities.[13] Conversely, when the bond is redeemed, if the holder has their deposit account credited with the proceeds, this increases the money stock and the banking system's deposit funding while leaving the stock of bank funding unchanged.
This example highlights that transactions of financial intermediaries, such as issuing or redeeming bonds or issuing equity securities, can affect the money stock. Accordingly, individual banks' decisions about the use of different sources of funding will also have implications for the aggregate stock of money in the economy.
The share of Australian banks' funding that comes from domestic deposits has risen significantly since the global financial crisis as banks have become less reliant on funding sources such as short-term debt (Graph 1).[14] The decline in the share of short-term debt securities issued by Australian banks and the increase in domestic deposits implied a larger money stock than would have occurred if the funding shares had remained unchanged.[15]
Money Creation Case Study
This box sketches out the process of money creation through loans and deposits at financial intermediaries on a fictional island, illustrating some of the concepts outlined in the main article.
The first two banks open
Currency – notes and coins – are widely used on our fictional island, but there has been no banking system – and therefore no deposits. Two commercial banks open their doors, one with $100 of equity and one with $50 of equity. The initial balance sheets of both banks are shown below (with cash representing the physical currency asset arising from the shareholders' equity) (Figure B1).
Figure B1: Initial State
Hypothetical bank balance sheets, dollars
Bank A
Bank B
Cash 100 Equity 100 Cash 50 Equity 50
A borrower arrives
Let's first consider the case where a customer (Borrower 1) turns up at Bank A seeking a loan of $80. If Bank A decides to make the loan, as a first stage they record a loan asset and credit the customer's deposit account with the funds (Figure B2). The customer then withdraws $75 to use, decreasing Bank A's cash holdings and deposit liability (Figure B3). This highlights that, in order to make the loan, Bank A needs to hold sufficient cash (liquidity) to enable it to pay out the funds when the loan is drawn down. Note that, if the customer had wanted to borrow $120 and Bank A agreed to lend them this amount, then Bank A would have had insufficient cash (liquidity) if their customer wanted to withdraw the entire value of the loan; in addition, as the loan would have exceeded the entire amount of equity available to the bank, if the borrower were unable to repay the loan then the bank's equity (capital) would have been wiped out.
Figure B2: Borrower 1 – Funds Available
Cash 100 Deposit 80 Cash 50 Equity 50
Loan 80 Equity 100
Figure B3: Borrower 1 – Funds (Partially) Withdrawn
Cash 25 Deposit 5 Cash 50 Equity 50
Bank A's customer then uses the $75 they have withdrawn to pay a business (Depositor 1), who deposits that money with Bank B (Figure B4).
Figure B4: Depositor 1
Cash 25 Deposit 5 Cash 125 Deposit 75
Loan 80 Equity 100 Equity 50
A second borrower arrives
Now a new customer (Borrower 2) approaches Bank B wanting to borrow $40. If Bank B decides to make the loan, and the customer withdraws the entire amount of credited funds, Bank B's balance sheet will look as follows (Figure B5). Note that if Bank B had lent more than $50 this would have left Bank B in a position where it may have had insufficient liquidity (cash) to cover its deposits and insufficient capital to survive if the borrower were to default.
Figure B5: Borrower 2
Cash 25 Deposit 5 Cash 85 Deposit 75
Loan 80 Equity 100 Loan 40 Equity 50
If the $40 withdrawn from Bank B is used to pay a merchant who in turn deposits the funds at Bank A (Depositor 2), the result is shown in Figure B6.
Cash 65 Deposit 45 Cash 85 Deposit 75
Money creation
With two loan customers and two deposit customers undertaking transactions, the banks have made a combined $120 in loans and have accrued $120 in deposits across the system. The extension of loans led to the creation of deposits in the banking system and hence an increase in money in the economy (cash plus deposits). However, the bank making each loan did not necessarily create a deposit at their own institution as funds may be withdrawn for use elsewhere.
More importantly, this example highlights that the creation of loans (and deposits) depends on a number of decisions – of the borrower to approach the bank and the bank to extend the loan. And the process is constrained by the need for the banker (and its regulator) to ensure sufficient liquid assets to meet expected withdrawals (both drawdowns relating to the new loan and withdrawals by existing deposit customers) and sufficient equity to absorb any losses from loans that are not fully repaid. These constraints are also going to be influenced by financial market conditions, including the willingness of investors to place equity with the banks and to hold any debt that they may issue. Again, all of these various capital and liquidity management constraints limit the ability of banks to write loans and create deposits.
Measures of Money
As discussed above, the most commonly used types of money in modern day Australia are currency and Australian dollar deposits at Australian financial institutions. However, the degree to which certain types of deposits exhibit money-like characteristics varies – for example, it may not be possible to use a term deposit that expires in a year's time to pay for a loaf of bread you want to buy today. Hence, it is common to produce a range of different measures of the stock of money. These are commonly called ‘monetary aggregates’. The narrower aggregates typically include only those products that are the most money-like in terms of the characteristics covered above. In contrast, the broader aggregates contain products that may be less money-like on one or more of the characteristics, but which can still be thought of as having many of the features of money.
In line with international norms, the RBA publishes key monetary aggregates each month: currency, M1, M3, broad money and base money (Table 1).
In general terms, currency, M1, M3 and broad money represent money-like liabilities of Australian financial intermediaries with respect to Australian households and businesses that are not financial intermediaries. The term AFI (all financial intermediaries) is used to denote intermediaries such as ADIs – such as banks and credit unions and building societies (CUBS) – and registered financial corporations (RFCs) that are treated as money issuers. Money-like liabilities of AFIs with respect to other money issuers, the government and non-residents are generally excluded from the monetary aggregates.[16] The measures therefore represent the money holdings of private sector Australian residents outside the banking sector.
The money base represents the money-like liabilities of the central bank.[17] Historically, growth in the money base has had close links to the expansion of bank balance sheets and credit creation through fractional reserve (or similar) requirements.[18] It has become less relevant (and received less attention) in recent decades as these requirements have been removed. Following the period of financial deregulation in the 1980s, these constraints have been replaced by the various requirements of the market and the prudential regulator regarding liquidity and capital adequacy, partly decoupling banks' balance sheets from central bank liabilities.
Table 1: Australia's Monetary Aggregates
Description(a)
Value $ billion
Share of nominal GDP Per cent
Holdings of notes and coins by the private non-bank sector 74 4
Currency + current (cheque) deposits of the private non-bank sector at banks 357 19
M1 + all other deposits of the private non-ADI sector at banks (including certificates of deposit) + all deposits of the private non-ADI sector at CUBS 2,086 113
Broad money
M3 + other deposit-like borrowings of AFIs from the non-AFI private sector (such as short-term debt securities) 2,096 114
Money base
Currency + banks' holdings of notes and coins + deposits of banks with the Reserve Bank + other Reserve Bank liabilities to the private non-bank sector 109 6
(a) These descriptions abstract from some detail. See the Financial Aggregates release for more information.
Source: ABS; APRA; RBA
We can use these measures to monitor growth in different types of money. Over the past two decades, M3 and broad money have shared a similar trajectory, increasing as a share of GDP. The two series are now almost indistinguishable (Graph 2). Unsurprisingly, their growth rates have also been quite similar, averaging just below 10 per cent per annum over the past two decades (Graph 3).[19] M1 has also increased as a share of nominal GDP over the past few decades, although it has been broadly stable over the 2000s. Currency and the money base have been little changed as a share of nominal GDP over the period shown.[20] While the growth rates of the money base and M1 have been lower, they have also been more volatile.
The sharp increase in the growth of M3 and broad money prior to and immediately following the global financial crisis was driven initially by rapid growth in certificates of deposit issued by banks, followed by very strong growth in term deposits and other non-cheque deposits issued by banks. This growth in banks' deposit funding is consistent with the compositional shift towards deposit funding discussed above.
What Can Measures of Money Tell Us about the Economy?
There are various reasons why, at least in theory, we might expect to observe a relationship between the value of money in circulation and economic activity and/or inflation. Given money's role as a widely accepted means of payment, the amount of financial assets held in the form of money – as opposed to less liquid assets such as property or shares – could be expected to have a link with expected near-term purchases. For example, we might expect that household deposits would provide an indication of expected household consumption. Secondly, given the link between money and credit, we would expect money growth to tend to increase when credit growth increases, which in turn may be associated with a higher level of (nominal) economic activity.
The potential relationships between money, economic activity and inflation have been used by central banks in different ways throughout history. In particular, measures of the money stock have been used to provide an indicator of economic activity. As monetary aggregates are typically published with a shorter delay and at a higher frequency than measures of economic activity such as GDP, they may provide early information if the aggregates have a reliable contemporaneous relationship with activity.
In addition, there have been times when the money stock has been an intermediate target of monetary policy. This approach to monetary policy – which was commonly used in the 1970s and 1980s, including in Australia – differs from approaches that target an interest rate, such as the cash rate, as an intermediate target of monetary policy.[21] However, in the later part of the twentieth century, a wave of financial deregulation and innovation led to the relationship between money growth and economic activity becoming increasingly unreliable. ‘Box C: The Velocity of Money’ provides an illustration of the change in the relationship between monetary aggregates and economic activity through the decline in the velocity of money. This change in the relationship between money and activity prompted many central banks to move away from using monetary aggregates as a target for monetary policy.
Box C
Velocity of Money
The use of monetary aggregates as an intermediate target for monetary policy was strongly influenced by the theory of monetarist economics. A central proposition of this theory was the quantity theory of money, which implies that a change in the money supply leads to a proportionate change in nominal GDP if the velocity of money – the frequency at which a unit of money is used to purchase final goods and services included in nominal GDP – remains constant.[22],[23] If this latter condition were to hold, then it was considered that the monetary aggregates would exhibit a stable relationship with inflation and output and that controlling money growth would, therefore, result in predictable outcomes for these variables.
However, shifts in the relationship between M3 – the monetary target used by the Reserve Bank between 1976 and 1985 – and nominal income in the early 1980s led to the abandonment of monetary targeting in Australia.[24] One way in which the shifts in these relationships can be seen is through examining the velocity of M3 (or other monetary aggregates) (Graph C1). The financial deregulation of the 1980s is frequently cited as driving the breakdown in the expected relationship between monetary aggregates and nominal income. This more recent data shows that the velocity of money has continued to decline following the period of rapid deregulation. As is shown in the next section, the relationship between growth in nominal GDP and growth in monetary aggregates has continued to vary over the past few decades.
Graph C1
It is likely that the financial deregulation of the 1970s and 1980s has influenced the behaviour of the financial aggregates in more recent times. The well-documented rise in credit as a share of GDP can help to explain the trajectory of broad money as a share of GDP (the inverse of velocity) given the role of lending in deposit creation (Graph C2).[25] The phenomenon of credit increasing as a share of GDP was common to many advanced economies over this period.
How close has the relationship between money and economic activity been for Australia more recently?
Simple graphs of annual growth in selected monetary aggregates and nominal non-farm GDP allow us to get a general sense of the relationship between these variables over recent decades (Graph 4). The narrower M1 measure does not show much evidence of a clear relationship with non-farm GDP throughout the period shown. In contrast, there is evidence of a relationship between broad money and non-farm GDP over the period shown.
To analyse this further, we calculate contemporaneous correlations between growth in the monetary aggregates and growth in selected activity and price variables over the period June 1978 to June 2018.[26] Correlations between some of the narrower monetary aggregates – base money and M1 – and nominal activity variables – non-farm GDP, private business investment and household consumption expenditure – are weak and statistically insignificant (Table 2). In contrast, the correlations of both currency and the broader monetary aggregates with nominal activity variables are stronger and statistically significant. These correlations are strongest for the broadest aggregate – broad money – and for the broadest activity measure – nominal non-farm GDP – rather than its components. Correlations of the monetary aggregates with prices are weaker than those with nominal non-farm GDP, but stronger than the correlations between the monetary aggregates and real activity variables.[27]
Table 2: Correlations between Monetary Aggregates and Economic Activity and Inflation(a)
Correlations of annual growth rates, June 1978–June 2018
Base money
Nominal Non-farm GDP
0.53** 0.03 0.16 0.66** 0.77**
Nominal Private Business Investment
Nominal Household Consumption Expenditure
0.46** −0.07 0.05 0.52** 0.64**
Non-farm GDP Implicit Price Deflator (IPD)
0.36** −0.11 −0.05 0.48** 0.58**
Real Non-farm GDP
0.08 0.11 0.23 0.28* 0.31**
Real Private Business Investment
0.10 0.01 0.16 0.34** 0.37**
Real Household Consumption Expenditure
−0.41** −0.23 −0.33** 0.23 0.24
(a) All monetary aggregates other than base money are seasonally adjusted and adjusted for breaks to the series. Base money is neither seasonally adjusted nor break adjusted. One asterisk indicates statistical significance at the 10 per cent level and two asterisks indicate statistical significance at the 5 per cent level. Statistically significant positive relationships are shown in bold.
Sources: ABS; APRA; RBA
Given that financial deregulation has been linked to a breakdown in the relationship between monetary aggregates and activity measures, we can examine whether the relationship has re-established itself more recently. One way to do this is to estimate correlations over a rolling window. The calculated correlations between broad money and nominal non-farm GDP over a 5- or 7-year rolling window show that the relationship has changed substantially over the past few decades (Graph 5). During the 1980s, the calculated correlation ranged from moderately strong to very weak and back to very strong. While this strong correlation persisted through the early 1990s, it was replaced by a very strong negative correlation towards the end of the 1990s. Over the past 15 years, the calculated correlations have averaged around 0.6, although with some variation over time. This indicates that the relationship has continued to vary following the period of financial deregulation.
One of the key questions addressed by Reserve Bank research on the monetary aggregates in the 1980s and 1990s was whether they contained some information about future economic activity; this research generally found little evidence in favour of this proposition in the post-deregulation period.[28] While updated tests of this question are beyond the scope of this article, we can use correlations to get some sense of the relationship. When compared to the contemporaneous correlations, the relationship between the growth of the broader money measures in the current period and the growth of nominal non-farm GDP one year in the future weakens. In contrast, the relationship between current growth in M1 and future growth in various economic activity measures strengthens; however, the correlations are relatively weak at between 0.3 and 0.5 (see Table A1 in Appendix A). These results are broadly consistent with previous Reserve Bank research suggesting that the monetary aggregates have limited use as an indicator of future activity.
The most commonly used forms of money in Australia are currency and deposits, although other similar products can also be considered to be money to the extent that they can be readily made liquid for the purposes of purchasing goods, services or assets. Hence, there are various measures of the money stock starting from the very liquid forms and ranging up to broader aggregates that include somewhat less liquid forms of money. Money creation primarily occurs via the extension of loans by financial intermediaries. However, their ability to do so is subject to various limitations, including the need to ensure that lenders maintain sufficient liquidity and capital. Correlation analysis indicates that the relationship between growth in the money stock and various measures of economic activity has varied somewhat over recent decades. Over the entire period since the late 1970s, there is a reasonably strong contemporaneous correlation between growth in broad money and nominal activity; the relationship with real activity in the current period or future economic activity is weaker.
Appendix A Additional Correlation Results
Table A1: Correlations between Monetary Aggregates and the Following Year's Economic Activity and Inflation(a)
0.48** 0.29* 0.41** 0.56**
0.17 0.49** 0.06 0.16
0.62** 0.24 0.43** 0.57**
0.05 0.53** −0.09 −0.05
−0.07 0.43** −0.08 −0.03
−0.03 0.33** 0.11 0.11
(a) All monetary aggregates are seasonally adjusted and adjusted for breaks to the series. One asterisk indicates statistical significance at the 10 per cent level and two asterisks indicate statistical significance at the 5 per cent level. Statistically significant positive relationships are shown in bold.
The authors are from Domestic Markets Department. [*]
Something can be a poor store of value if it depreciates in value quickly – ice-creams are unlikely to be a good store of value in a very hot climate without freezers. Things that fluctuate (alternatively appreciate and depreciate) in value can also be poor stores of value because the redeemable value may be lower than expected when you want to undertake a transaction. [1]
The notion of goods possessing money-like characteristics of varying degrees is expressed by Hayek (1990; p 56): ‘… it would be more helpful for the explanation of monetary phenomena if “money” were an adjective describing a property which different things could possess to varying degrees’. A similar sentiment can be found in Keynes (1973). [2]
Exceptions include countries where multiple currencies (for example, a local currency and a foreign currency) are in use. [3]
On a topical side note, Richards (2018) notes that bitcoin shares very few of the attributes of other currencies or monies. [4]
This generalisation abstracts from the details of what is included in specific types of monetary aggregates; the ‘Measures of Money’ section contains more information. Lowe (2017) and Richards (2018) provide thoughts on whether there might be a case for the RBA to issue a digital form of the Australian dollar – an ‘eAUD’ – in the future. [5]
Prudential oversight helps to ensure that, unlike some other financial instruments, (retail) deposits typically do not fluctuate in value based on the performance of the ADI. Deposit insurance provides a backstop to that. [6]
This and more information is available at the RBA Museum website: <<http://museum.rba.gov.au/>> [7]
For more information on the RBA's issuance of banknotes see the Reserve Bank's annual report, available at <http://www.rba.gov.au/publications/annual-reports/rba/2017/banknotes.html> and Flannigan & Staib (2017). [8]
As banks account for the vast bulk of the ADI sector's deposit liabilities – and total liabilities – the term ‘bank’ is generally used interchangeably with ‘ADI’ in this text; Graph 1 and Table 1 are exceptions to this general case. [9]
As is described in the ‘Measures of Money’ section below, cash held by financial intermediaries such as ADIs is typically excluded from measures of money. [10]
A thorough exposition of this concept can be found in McLeay, Radia & Thomas (2014). [11]
The simplest case would be one in which the buyer of the bond holds a deposit at the same bank. [12]
As discussed in the section on ‘Measures of Money’, bonds are not considered to be money. The effect on the money stock will also depend on whether the buyer is a money issuer – see ‘Measures of Money’. [13]
The reasons for this change in funding composition have been extensively covered in other RBA publications; for example, see Battellino (2009), Debelle (2010) and sections 4.2.1.3 and 5.5.2 of RBA (2014). [14]
This is true for narrower measures of the money stock. As noted in the section on ‘Measures of Money’, broader measures of the Australian money stock – such as broad money – include short-term debt securities as a type of money. For these measures, the substitution between these two classes would have no overall effect on the measured money stock. [15]
Considerations such as data availability mean that there are some exceptions to this general rule for particular liabilities and/or for particular monetary aggregates. [16]
The money base also includes coins on issue, which are not a liability of the Reserve Bank. [17]
For more information see Battellino & McMillan (1989) and Grenville (1991). [18]
As in the financial aggregates publication, the levels are not break adjusted or seasonally adjusted, while the growth rates are. [19]
The pronounced increase in the money base in 2013 was associated with the introduction of open repo (where repurchase agreements are contracted without a maturity date) to support the same day settlement of Direct Entry payments; volatility in the money base in the mid 1990s was associated with preparations for the introduction of a real-time gross settlement (RTGS) system in Australia. [20]
See Edey (1997) for a discussion of various possible monetary policy systems. [21]
This is represented by the equation MV = PY where M represents the money supply (or stock), V represents the velocity of money and PY represents nominal GDP. [22]
More recent versions of the quantity theory of money assert that velocity is a function of a small number of variables that influence the demand for money, including interest rates, income and inflation expectations (e.g. Friedman 1956). [23]
See, for example, Macfarlane (1998) and Fraser (1994). [24]
For more background on the increase in credit to GDP in Australia, see Battellino (2007). The RBA's submission to the Financial System Inquiry provides a more recent perspective and details the drivers of growth in the financial sector more broadly (see in particular Chapter 2 of RBA (2014)). [25]
Correlations are calculated on growth rates of annual (end-June) observations, with the activity and prices data constructed from the quarterly national accounts. The calculated correlation coefficients are bounded between 1 (indicating perfect positive correlation) and −1 (indicating perfect negative correlation), with 0 indicating no correlation. A finding that the correlation is ‘statistically significant’ indicates that there can be some confidence that the underlying correlation between those two variables is not zero. [26]
This latter finding is not surprising given that both nominal non-farm GDP and (nominal) broad money will tend to share a common trend relating to prices. [27]
While research using simple correlations (such as Bullock, Morris & Stevens (1988)) found some evidence of a leading role for a narrower monetary aggregate, research relying on more formal techniques finds little evidence of a leading relationship for any of the monetary aggregates or that they do little to improve forecasting performance in models with other variables (see Bullock, Stevens & Thorp (1988), Stevens and Thorp (1989) and Tallman and Chandra (1996, 1997)). More recent analysis (Norman & Richards 2010) found some evidence that money may be empirically relevant for future inflation, but concluded that the relationship was not strong enough to justify inclusion in inflation models. [28]
Battellino R and N McMillan (1989), ‘Changes in the Behaviour of Banks and Their Implications for Financial Aggregates’, RBA Research Discussion Paper No 8904.
Battellino R (2007), ‘Some Observations on Financial Trends’, Address to Finsia-Melbourne Centre for Financial Studies 12th Banking and Finance Conference, Melbourne, 25 September.
Battellino R (2009), ‘Some Comments on Bank Funding’, Remarks to the 22nd Australasian Finance & Banking Conference, Sydney, 16 December.
Bullock M, G Stevens & S Thorp (1988), ‘Do Financial Aggregates Lead Activity?: A Preliminary Analysis’, RBA Research Discussion Paper No 8803.
Bullock M, D Morris & G Stevens (1988), ‘The Relationship between Financial Indicators and Economic Activity: 1968–1987’, RBA Research Discussion Paper No 8805.
Debelle G (2010), ‘Bank Funding and Capital Flows’, 23rd Australian Finance and Banking Conference, Sydney, 15 December.
Edey M (1997), ‘The Debate on Alternatives for Monetary Policy in Australia’, in P Lowe (ed), Monetary Policy and Inflation Targeting, Proceedings of a Conference held at the H.C. Coombs Centre for Financial Studies, Kirribilli, pp 42–67.
Flannigan G and A Staib (2017), ‘The Growing Demand for Cash’, RBA Bulletin, September, pp 63–74.
Fraser B (1994), ‘The Art of Monetary Policy’, Talk to the 23rd Conference of Economists, Surfers Paradise, 26 September.
Friedman M (1956), ‘The Quantity Theory of Money: A Restatement’, in M Friedman (ed), Studies in the Quantity Theory of Money, University of Chicago Press, pp 3–21.
Grenville S (1991), ‘The Evolution of Financial Deregulation’, in I Macfarlane (ed), The Deregulation of Financial Intermediaries, Proceedings of a Conference held at the HC Coombs Centre for Financial Studies, Kirribilli, pp 3–35.
Hayek FA (1990), Denationalisation of Money – the Argument Refined: An Analysis of the Theory and Practice of Concurrent Currencies, third edition, The Institute of Economic Affairs, London.
Keynes JM (1973), The General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money, fifteenth edition, Macmillan Press, London.
Lowe P (2017), ‘An eAUD?’, Address to the 2017 Australian Payment Summit, Sydney, 13 December.
Macfarlane I (1998), ‘Australian Monetary Policy in the Last Quarter of the Twentieth Century’, Shann Memorial Lecture, University of Western Australia, 15 September.
McLeay M, A Radia & R Thomas (2014), ‘Money creation in the modern economy’, Bank of England Quarterly Bulletin, Q1, pp 14–27. Available at <https://www.bankofengland.co.uk/-/media/boe/files/quarterly-bulletin/2014/money-creation-in-the-modern-economy.pdf>.
Norman D and Richards A (2010), ‘Modelling Inflation in Australia’, RBA Research Discussion Paper No 2010-03.
Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) (2014), ‘Submission to the Financial System Inquiry’, March.
Richards T (2018), ‘Cryptocurrencies and Distributed Ledger Technology’, Australian Business Economists Briefing, Sydney, 26 June.
Stevens G and S Thorp (1989), ‘The Relationship between Financial Indicators and Economy Activity: Some Further Evidence’, RBA Research Discussion Paper No 8903.
Tallman EW and N Chandra (1996), ‘The Information Content of Financial Aggregates in Australia’, RBA Research Discussion Paper No 9606.
Tallman EW and N Chandra (1997), ‘Financial Aggregates as Conditioning Information for Australian Output and Inflation’, RBA Research Discussion Paper No 9704.
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Statement on Monetary Policy – August 2014 Box B: Iron Ore and Coal Cost Curves
Global ‘cost’ curves for iron ore and coal provide an indication of the profitability of production at different price levels, which has implications for the future supply of these bulk commodities. These curves are based on the average variable costs of production of different mines, and are constructed by ranking production at each mine according to its costs. Average variable costs of production of mines include wages, processing costs and, where available, the cost of transportation.[1] The cost data, compiled by a private sector company using company reports and other public information, do not include a return on capital, debt-servicing costs or fixed costs associated with running a mine.[2] The data cover most of global iron ore production and around 80 per cent of the coal that is traded by sea. With the exception of coking coal, an attempt is made to adjust for differences in the quality of each tonne of output.
While the ‘level’ of cost curves may not provide an entirely accurate measure of all relevant costs, they can provide a good guide to the costs of particular mines relative to other global producers. For iron ore, Australian and Brazilian producers tend to be at the lower end of the global cost curve (Graph B1). In contrast, Chinese iron ore production tends to be at the higher end, which is likely to reflect higher processing costs due to the lower quality of iron ore mined as well as the high cost of transporting domestic ore to steel mills owing to the inland location of the iron ore mines.
A comparison of costs curves over time illustrates how the dynamics of the market have changed. The iron ore cost curve has shifted outward and flattened in recent years because of the significant increase in iron ore production capacity that has resulted from substantial new investment, particularly from lower-cost iron ore producers in Australia, and to a lesser extent Brazil (Graph B2). Over the next few years, the pace of expansion in iron ore production is expected to slow as existing investment projects reach completion and there are few plans to commit to new projects (at this stage). Indeed, the sharp fall in iron ore prices over the year to date may elicit a reduction in existing supply from higher-cost producers.
The thermal and coking coal cost curves only capture production that is traded by sea; they do not include coal that is produced and consumed domestically (including in China). China makes up around 50 per cent of total global coal production, and has been a net importer of coal since 2009. China's demand for, and production of, coal has a significant impact on prices in the global market. There have been substantial expansions in recent years to seaborne coal production, including in Australia (which accounts for a large share of the global seaborne market). This has led to an outward shift of the cost curves for thermal and coking coal. As with iron ore, the global supply of coal is expected to increase further over the next few years, although the pace of growth is expected to be slower than in the past few years. The net increase in supply will also depend on the response of higher-cost coal producers to the recent decline in prices.
As noted before, there is some error in the measurement of the level of the cost curves, but even accounting for some omitted costs, at the current spot prices of around US$88, the bulk of Australian iron ore production is profitable. In contrast, at the current spot prices for coking and thermal coal of US$114 and US$69, respectively, given these cost curves, analysts suggest that a sizeable share of Australian and other coal mines producing for the seaborne market may not be profitable. Australian coking coal production spans a wide range of low-cost to high-cost mines (Graph B3). For thermal coal, Australian production is, on average, higher-cost than many other producers that are active in the globally traded market (Graph B4). Over the past year, some producers (including in Australia) have announced plans to shut higher-cost coal mines, while coal producers have also reportedly been looking for ways to reduce costs in the short run. However, some miners may be willing to continue producing and incur losses for a time, given the costs involved in ceasing production and restarting later (assuming that prices recover).
For Australian producers, this will include take-or-pay contracts (where miners pay a fixed cost for access to port and rail facilities regardless of whether they use them or not). These contracts are regularly renegotiated, which is why they are often treated as variable costs. [1]
The data used in this box are sourced from AME Group. [2]
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Acrylamide is a widely used industrial chemical that is believed to be a human carcinogen. Workplace inhalation of large amounts of acrylamide causes neurological damage. Acrylamide is also a component of tobacco smoke, and it can form in some carbohydrate-rich foods when they are cooked at high temperature.
Acrylamide is a small organic (carbon-containing) molecule with the chemical formula C3H5NO. It is a colorless, odorless solid. The primary use of acrylamide is in the production of polyacrylamide polymers and acrylamide copolymers that contain additional molecular units. These polymers and copolymers are used in many industrial processes, including paper, dye, and plastic production; the manufacture of food packaging, caulking, and adhesives; and treatment of drinking water, wastewater, and sewage. Acrylamide and polyacrylamides are also used in the production of textiles, cosmetics, contact lenses, and organic chemicals; in ore processing and sugar refining; and as soil stabilizers and grout in various types of construction. Although acrylamide may enter drinking water during water treatment, it is not expected to accumulate in the environment, since it is rapidly broken down by bacteria in water and soil and is not usually found in the air. Nevertheless, acrylamide has been found in a few National Priority List Superfund sites designated by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).
It is unclear whether the amounts of acrylamide in foods increase the risk of human cancers. At very high doses, acrylamide causes various types of cancer in laboratory rats and mice of both sexes, indicating that it is a strong carcinogen. The International Agency for Research on Cancer, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, and the EPA classify acrylamide as a likely human carcinogen based on animal studies. In the human body, acrylamide is converted into glycidamide, which damages DNA and is classified as carcinogenic. High workplace inhalation of acrylamide causes neurological damage but has not been shown to increase cancer risk.
The major risk factors for acrylamide exposure in the general population are cigarette smoke and a wide range of carbohydrate-rich foods cooked at high temperatures. Blood markers of acrylamide exposure are three to five times higher in smokers compared to nonsmokers. Children have the most exposure to acrylamide in foods because of their lower body weight and their tendency to eat more of acrylamide-containing foods. Common acrylamide-containing foods include:
fried potato products
soft and crisp breads
canned black olives
Other risk factors for acrylamide exposure include:
breathing secondhand tobacco smoke
drinking water from wells located near dye or plastic plants
inhalation or skin contact in workplaces that produce or use acrylamide or acrylamide-containing products
Acrylamide forms naturally when starchy foods containing sugars such as glucose or fructose and the amino acid asparagine are cooked or processed at everyday high temperatures over 248°F (120°C) with low moisture. Most acrylamide formation occurs as part of a chemical reaction called a Maillard reaction, which contributes to the browning, flavor, and aroma of cooked foods. Ingested acrylamide is absorbed through the gastrointestinal tract and distributed throughout the body, where it is extensively metabolized, especially to glycidamide. Glycidamide is believed to be responsible for the mutagenic and carcinogenic activities observed in animal studies.
Although the nervous system and the male reproductive system are the main targets of acrylamide toxicity, these are not thought to be at risk from dietary exposure. Some acrylamide workers have reported nervous system symptoms that include:
numbness in the hands and feet
unsteadiness and clumsiness
Acrylamide can cross the placenta of pregnant women and result in fetal exposure. Animals exposed to acrylamide during fetal development have decreased body weight, decreased startle responses, and lower levels of some brain neurotransmitters. Acrylamide has also been detected in human breast milk.
Acrylamide exposure can be diagnosed by measuring acrylamide and its metabolites in blood and urine.
Workplace accidents resulting in high-level acrylamide exposure require emergency procedures, including immediate removal from the source of acrylamide, decontamination and basic life-support measures.
In 2010, the Joint Food and Agriculture Organization/World Health Organization (FAO/WHO) Expert Committee on Food Additives labeled acrylamide a human health concern. The FAO and WHO maintain an international data-sharing network on acrylamide in foods, which is operated by the Joint Institute for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition, a collaboration between the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the University of Maryland.
In 2015, the European Food Safety Authority published a risk assessment, asserting that high levels of acrylamide in food could potentially increase the risk of all types of cancer in all age groups. In response, the United Kingdom's Food Standards Agency launched a Go for Gold campaign, advising consumers to aim for a golden yellow color or lighter when frying, baking, roasting, or toasting starchy foods such as potatoes, root vegetables, and breads. It also advised the pubic to follow cooking instructions carefully, to eat a balanced and varied diet, and not to store raw potatoes in the refrigerator, which causes the so-called cold sweetening that increases acrylamide levels.
The FDA regulates the amount of residual acrylamide in materials that contact food. As of 2018, the FDA did not regulate the amount of allowable acrylamide in food itself, although it was developing industry guidelines for reducing acrylamide levels in processed foods. Further studies by the National Toxicology Program were expected to inform the FDA's assessment of human risk from low-level acrylamide exposure and the need for measures to reduce food-related exposure. Additional studies on acrylamide formation during cooking are required, as well as a determination of whether acrylamide is present in any additional foods. Long-term epidemiologic studies are needed to assess any increased cancer risk from acrylamide in foods.
The EPA regulates acrylamide in drinking water. It has determined that concentrations of 1.5 mg/L for one day or 0.3 mg/L for ten days are not expected to adversely affect children.
The U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration limits workplace acrylamide exposure to 0.3 mg/m3 (1.3 yd.3) of air for an 8-hour workday and 40-hour workweek.
An amide-containing amino acid that, in its protein-free form, can react with certain sugars in foods to form acrylamide.
A substance known to cause cancer.
Glycidamide—
A mutagenic and carcinogenic compound that is formed from acrylamide in the body.
Maillard reaction—
A chemical reaction that produces acrylamide in foods from the high-temperature reaction of certain sugars with asparagine.
Mutagen—
An agent that damages DNA, potentially causing cancer.
In 2018, a California judge ruled that Starbucks, Dunkin' Donuts, and dozens of other major national chains must warn consumers about potentially carcinogenic acrylamide formed during the roasting of coffee beans. California's Safe Drinking Water and Toxic Enforcement Act (Proposition 65) requires companies with more than ten employees to warn customers of the presence of any of almost 900 toxins, including acrylamide. The 2018 judge's ruling was in response to a lawsuit brought in 2010 by the Council for Education and Research on Toxics, a California nonprofit. Several of the original defendants, including 7-Eleven Stores, had previously settled out of court. However, many cancer experts argue that there is no evidence for increased cancer risk from drinking coffee, which contains at least 1,500 other compounds, and that coffee is an antioxidant that may actually reduce the risk of some types of cancer. In 2016, WHO rescinded its earlier designation of possible carcinogenic effects from drinking coffee.
Methods for preventing or reducing acrylamide exposure include:
Should I worry about acrylamide in our food?
What can I do to minimize acrylamide in foods I eat?
What are other potential sources of acrylamide exposure?
Should my children be tested for acrylamide in their blood or urine?
Is there any treatment for acrylamide exposure?
See also Cancer ; smoking .
Halford, Nigel G., and Tanya Y. Curtis. “Acrylamide in Cereals: The Problem and Potential Genetic and Agronomic Solutions.” In Biotechnology of Major Cereals, edited by Huw D. Jones. Boston: CABI, 2016.
Jones, Keith, editor. Environmental Health Sourcebook. 4th ed. Detroit: Omnigraphics, 2016.
Zhang, Yu, and Xinyu Chen. “Chemistry and Safety of Acrylamide.” In Food Safety Chemistry: Toxicant Occurrence, Analysis and Mitigation, edited by Liangli Yu, Shuo Wang, and Baoguo Sun. Boca Raton, FL: CRC, 2015.
Hsu, Tiffany. “Coffee Drinkers Need Cancer Warning, Judge Rules, Giving Sellers the Jitters.” New York Times March 31, 2018: B2. https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/30/business/coffee-cancer-warning.html (accessed April 4, 2018).
Marcason, Wendy. “What's the Latest on Acrylamide?” Journal of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics 116, no. 6 (June 2016): 1056.
European Food Safety Authority. “Acrylamide in Food Is a Public Health Concern.” http://www.efsa.europa.eu/en/press/news/150604 (accessed March 3, 2018).
National Cancer Institute. “Acrylamide and Cancer Risk.” https://www.cancer.gov/about-cancer/causes-prevention/risk/diet/acrylamide-fact-sheet (accessed March 3, 2018).
National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences. “Acrylamide.” https://www.niehs.nih.gov/health/topics/agents/acrylamide/index.cfm (accessed March 3, 2018).
U.S. Food and Drug Administration. “Acrylamide Questions and Answers.” https://www.fda.gov/food/ucm053569.htm (accessed March 3, 2018).
Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry, Division of Toxicology and Human Health Sciences, 1600 Clifton Rd. NE, Mailstop F-57, Atlanta, GA, 30333, (800) 232-4636, https://www.atsdr.cdc.gov .
Environmental Protection Agency, 1200 Pennsylvania Ave. NW, Washington, DC, 20460, https://www.epa.gov .
European Food Safety Authority, Via Carlo Magno 1A, Parma, Italy, 43126, +390521 036111, Fax: +390521 036110, http://www.efsa.europa.eu/en .
International Agency for Research on Cancer, 150 Cours Albert Thomas, 69372 Lyon, France, CEDEX 08, 33 (0)4 72 73 84 85, http://www.iarc.fr .
National Cancer Institute, BG 9609, MSC 9760, 9609 Medical Center Dr., Bethesda, MD, 20892-9760, (800) 422-6237, https://www.cancer.gov .
National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, PO Box 12233, MD K3-16, Research Triangle Park, NC, 27709-2233, (919) 541-3345, Fax: (301) 480-2978, webcenter@niehs.nih.gov, https://www.niehs.nih.gov .
U.S. Food and Drug Administration, 10903 New Hampshire Ave., Silver Spring, MD, 20993, (888) 463-6332, https://www.fda.gov .
World Health Organization, Avenue Appia 20, 1211 Geneva, Switzerland, 27, 41 22 791 21 11, Fax: 41 22 791 31 11, http://www.who.int/en .
Margaret Alic, PhD
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Refresh Working Group
The Cook’s Nook: Entrepreneurial Food and Collective Power
Joi Chevalier knows how to create products that sell. While she was writing a dissertation on technology, pedagogy, and British Literature at the University of Texas, Austin and helping to develop some of the first network-based classrooms in the mid-1990s, she was recruited to work at an Austin-based startup.
Her training in humanities prepared her to understand culture and people, using technology in a unique way that led some of her colleagues to call her a “cybersociologist.” For 18 years, she worked for technology companies in product strategy and management, focusing relentlessly on customer experiences and how people use and consume products. After years of working in the industry, she became ill and began to reconsider her health behaviors and the role food played in her life.
Working through those issues, Joi saw a new area where her skills and expertise could be useful: Austin’s burgeoning food+tech scene. In particular, Joi wanted to find a way to support traditionally underserved and underrepresented communities in that world while encouraging entrepreneurship and ownership as a key part of financial independence and self-determination. On one hand, she wanted to help people create successful small businesses. But she also wanted to encourage those communities to do what she had done for herself: redefine their relationship with food and enterprise. With those goals in mind, while managing global products and teams during the day, she went to culinary school at night and developed the idea for The Cook’s Nook.
Expanded opportunities
When it opened in 2017, The Cook’s Nook was Austin’s first purpose-built culinary incubator. Today, it remains the only space in the area with the necessary business and production infrastructure for fledgling food entrepreneurs to launch their catering, packaged goods, meal kit, food truck, R&D, and other food service and experiences businesses.
Its commercial kitchen and coworking facility provides shared food production and meeting space to incubate new businesses. By pooling resources, The Cook’s Nook builds collective power among more than 20 member companies by reducing the costly overhead and capital expenses that so often prevent small businesses from “making it.” It’s an important venture, given obstacles those entrepreneurs must overcome. Reliable stats are hard to come by, but the Austin City Council has recognized this struggle by recently approving funding for a study of the disparities that minority- and women-owned businesses face in the local area. Nearly 2/3 of the businesses at The Cook’s Nook are owned and managed by women.
Fresh approaches
The Cook’s Nook draws upon the tech industry’s principles of testing, adapting, and improving upon an initial proposition to help businesses, particularly those owned by women and underserved communities, find their footing more easily.
Joi quickly saw the role her experience in technology could play in the food space. Looking at the changing world of how people consume food, Joi’s experience in product development led her to focus on what she describes as: “the need to disrupt and create an ecosystem, developing products quickly and bringing them to market, very much like the process we have for technology.” Instead of focusing on the traditional brick and mortar restaurant, Joi observes increasing demand for everything from organically-driven CPG ideation to meal kit logistics and entrepreneurial catering startups to private chefs. By identifying these new trends, she’s able to provide the necessary capacity building support to expand the range of opportunities available to members of The Cook’s Nook.
By bringing these entrepreneurs together and supporting them, Joi fosters the sort of collective power that can change a city’s food culture. Her extensive academic and industry experience, mixed with the culinary skills and ambitions of The Cook’s Nook’s members, is a powerful recipe for “refreshing” local food systems.
Ben Thelen
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Robert Barbere
~ All In A Day's Work
Posted by robb1138 in Uncategorized
What I found interesting while watching the film “Libertador” (The Liberator) starring Venezuelan actor Edgar Ramirez, was that after all that Simon Bolivar and the men he worked with to achieve freedom from Spain, was that he never achieved his true goal of the Gran Colombia. Like the founding fathers of the United States, Bolivar came from the merchant class and was a land owner. His greatest challenges came, not on the battlefield, but were political. His inability to set up a government that encompassess a whole continent, became illusive, and that my be because of a lack of structure that the United States worked out during the creation of the United States Constitution. Below we examine bicameralism and how the founding fathers in North America crafted this system.
One of the greatest fears that the founders of the United States had was the abuse of power. After breaking free from what they considered the tyranny of rule by a monarchy, they decided to distribute the reins of power between the Executive, the Judicial, and the Legislative branches, the latter, also known as Congress. The goal was to ensure that laws would not favor one branch over another. They took the concept one step further when they also split the legislature into two bodies, or into two houses. In spite of endless debates and apparent gridlock in moving proposed legislation from bill to law quickly, and efficiently, we spare ourselves the potential of having our basic human rights crushed. The United States Constitution specifies in Article 1 Section 1 the creation of these two houses. Section 2 describes the framework for the House of Representatives while Section 3 describes how to set up the Senate. Sections 4 – 6 describe the maintaining and elections of the two houses. Section 7 outlines the creation of laws for the people, while Section 8 – 10 provide for what powers that are in domain of the Legislature and not the states. In providing the framework for this system, the natural outcome is a body that represents the people of this country by demographic, political party and by socio-economic values. Although not perfect, this work in progress evolves with the changing attitudes of the populace influenced by changes in technology, culture, morality, and scientific shifts that come as human awareness evolves.
We refer to the Legislative Branch of the United States government as a bicameral system. Our language today is somewhat removed in time and culture in that the roots of one our governments most outstanding body is obscure. To get at the meaning of the word “bicameral,” one needs to dissect the word cameral. The first reaction is to see the very familiar word “camera.” Reviewing the word camera and its various forms, the one we use today referring to the box like objects that we have been recording images for over one hundred and seventy years comes from the Latin term, “camera obscura” meaning dark room or chamber (See: Ayto, John. Online Etymology Dictionary. The word chamber is important as the word “room” or “chamber” is referring to a place where one meets. Today, we have two chambers where our two legislative houses meet and while representing both the citizens at a local level and the citizens at the state level.
The two houses of Congress feature structures unique to each of their houses. Some examples include exactly whom each member of congress represents depending on which house the representative is from, the elections of Senators and Representatives occur at different frequencies, minimum ages and citizenry requirements are different for Senators and Representatives. The structure of how the two chambers are also different. The smaller Senate has fewer restrictions in how they go about conduction themselves as they review and establish laws for the country. While the House, being larger established for themselves more guidelines of timing and setting up of committees etc. The House wants a majority of its members to agree in order to act, while the Senate must be unanimous. Some of the less tangible features of each house tend to be toward the amount of personal staff, media coverage, and prestige each chamber may have over the other.
There are 100 Senators, two for each state represented in the Senate. Each Senator is accountable to all members of their home states. In spite of the population of any particular state, that state has an equal voice in the Senate. On the other hand, the population of a state determines the number of Representatives in the House of Representatives. The number of districts in a state is determined at the national level based on the Federal Census, while each state can determine who resides in which district. Ideally, the framers of the Constitution were looking to provide not only a system of checks and balances, but also create a level playing field for the former smaller colonies like Rhode Island and Delaware. As the country grew and new, but less populated states joined the union, although they may have very few seats in the House of Representatives, and therefore less of a voice, they do have their two representatives in the Senate.
The term for members of the House of Representatives is two years; the possibility of failing to retain their seats in the House is highly possible. The framers of the Constitution did this intentionally in the hopes that the representative will be in closer accord with the voice of their constituents. This also means that the voice of the people may change often and may not reflect a longer-term vision for the country. In 1787, James Madison expressed his feeling about the House of Representatives in having two terms and the need to please their voters, “were liable to err also, from fickleness and passion.” In mitigating this possibility, Madison proposed, “A necessary fence against this danger would be to select a portion of enlightened citizens, whose limited number, and firmness, might seasonably interpose against impetuous councils.” Senator’s serve a six-year term before their next election cycle, the opportunity to see a longer vision and limit the pace at which the bills become laws. (See Madison, James. (June 26 1787). The Debates in the Federal Convention of 1787.
Is the system that the framers of the Constitution laid out for Congress effective? It is certainly not efficient, however, the goal the founders had in mind had to do more with justice and the maintaining of personal freedoms, rather than a swift and effective but potentially crushing government. An example of how the use of committees can go against what is right and just, comes from the midst of the Great Depression and continues all the way to the middle of the Civil rights movement. The House of Representatives by the way of the Rules Committee effectively blocked legislation pertaining to civil rights, health care, and poverty (Magleby, et al 2008).
Ideally, allowing the two chambers to decide how they govern themselves in how they go about their business, this gives them the ability to break down their houses into more manageable parts. To give each house a sense of direction, the leader of the political party, which has the majority of members, becomes the Speaker of the House. His job is to lead, with some restrictions, the House’s direction. Due to the number of members in the House of Representatives, they also have rules to limit the amount of time to debate a bill and they have the ability to appoint special committees that can move legislation through the process faster. The Senate’s set of rules differ than the House in various ways. For example, The House of Representatives, because of its size has limits on the amount of time that a member can monopolize the House floor for making a point. In 1841, The House declared, “no member shall be allowed to speak more than one hour to any question put under debate.” However, in the Senate during the passage of the 1957 Civil Rights Act, Strom Thurmond, a segregationist Senator from South Carolina used a filibuster to delay the vote. While representing the people of his state he used the tactic of making a long speech or series of speeches in order to delay a vote. For 24 hours and 18 minutes, he read election laws, the Declaration of Independence, Washington’s farewell address, as well as the Bill of Rights (See Thurmond, Strom. (1957). Congressional Record proceedings and Debates of the 85th Congress First Session. Fortunately, the bill passed into law with a 72 to 18 vote in the Senate.
The people of the United States are only represented by either house in proportion to the amount they speak up and let their representatives know what they want. As a whole, United States citizens want their independence from government; however, they want government to fix their problems when it is convenient. Having two-year terms for House members seems like a good idea, one’s Representative, is almost always essentially campaigning in their home districts. They must split time between Washington D.C. and their home states. While Senators spend more time in Washington, reviewing laws, approving the one thousand or so presidential appointments and lobbying for their favorite bill. One strategy used by House members to meet the people they represent; besides having open office hours is to announce that they will be meeting with their constituents at a public place. Meeting your Representative or Senator certainly gives one the sense of being heard, however, because of the time it takes to get a proposal through the bill to law stages, a House member may not be able to follow a piece of legislature through the long process. A Senator, may be less available, however, may actually be in office long enough to see the bill become a law. Together, while a House member may start the process of make a proposal a law, ultimately it relies on how influential they are on the House floor. Once the bill passes the House and moves on to the Senate, it is up to the state constituents to influence their Senator to vote on that bill.
American citizens make up Congress and they took an oath to serve their country faithfully to defend and protect the Constitution and the people they represent. However, what good intentions they arrive in Washington with, they are subject to the pressures that surround them both in their home states and in the halls of Congress. Each member, I believe, that in their own minds are doing what their constituents elected them for and as they go to their Senate or House meetings and vote for or against a bill, they believe they are keeping the gears of this nation turning. A democracy of any form, be it pure democracy, representative, or constitutional democracy depends on the hearts and minds of those elected. The system our founders set down was done in the hopes that the minds and hearts of the people electing their representatives also had a certain sense of altruism as well. The system, with its caucuses, seniority, committees etc. is working as the founders intended, bulky but moving in the right direction
Ayto, John. Online Etymology Dictionary. Retrieved May 7, 2014 from http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=cameral
Magleby, David B., Cronin, Thomas E., Light, Paul C., O’Brien, David M., and Peltason
J.W. Government by the People. New Jersey: Prentice Hall, 2008.
Madison, James. (June 26 1787). The Debates in the Federal Convention of 1787. Retrieved May 7 2014, from http://www.constitution.org/dfc/dfc_0626.htm
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Z is for Zaachila
My 2017 A to Z Challenge theme is “The History of Kanata”, the parallel world that is the setting for “Eagle Passage”, my alternative history novel that all began when I wondered, “What would have happened if Leif Eriksson had settled Vinland permanently in 1000 AD? For further details and links to my other A to Z posts – and hints at the ones to come visit “Kanata – A to Z Challenge 2017”.
Z is for Zaachila: 15 August 1521, Zaachila – After receiving news of the defeat of their arch-enemies the Aztecs, King Cosijoeza the Zapotec ruler of Zaachila decides that his people should not to confront the Spaniards and suffer the same fate. However, he hesitates on hearing the Aztec capital Tenochtitlan has been destroyed, including all the temples, and that Hernán Cortés, leader of the Spaniards has banished the surviving Aztec people, having ruthlessly killed many of them.
Seeking the advice of Kanata diplomat, Brynja Migisi, he is advised that the Spaniards will suppress all of Mesoamerica until it is subject to the Spanish crown and the Catholic church. Cosijoeza asks for strategic guidance from Brynja and her Mjölnir Militia bodyguards as he unites the Zapotecs, Mixtecs, Tarascans, Xochimilcas, and other nations in the region.
Seeking more land to conquer and heathens to convert, Hernán Cortés sends ruthless conquistador Pedro de Alvarado with 180 cavalry, 300 infantry, crossbows, muskets, four cannons, large amounts of ammunition and gunpowder, and thousands of allied Mexican warriors to subdue the Mayans.
However, crossing the Tehuantepec Isthmus in Zapotec territory, Alvarado is confronted by Cosijoez’s superior forces with their own horses, iron and steel weapons, and gunpowder;. Brynja Migisi with her Mjölnir bodyguards attempts to negotiate a truce explaining that the Norse have learnt to live with the indigenous people. Alvarado calls her a pagan and refuses to negotiate, instead ordering the Kanatians executed. But his Mexican allies turn on the outnumbered Spaniards, and with Cosijoez’s forces drive the surviving Spaniards back to their isolated enclaves. Mesoamerica would absorb the invaders.
Location of Zapotec Civilization – Based on cartography produced by User:Koba-chan – Author: Yavidaxiu – Public domain
In our timeline: Source – Wikipedia
Zaachila was a powerful Mesoamerican city in what is now Oaxaca, Mexico. The city is named after Zaachila Yoo, the Zapotec ruler, in the late 14th and early 15th century. It is now an archaeological site. A large unexplored pyramid mound is in the centre in which two tombs were discovered in 1962. These tombs are thought to belong to important Mixtec persons.
Following the fall of Monte Alban, Zaachila became the last Zapotec capital. Sometime before the arrival of the Spaniards, the capital was conquered by the Mixtecs. The history of the pre-Hispanic city is unclear. One theory is that the site flourished 1100 and 1521 AD. Another theory is that the city was founded in 1399 and could be compared to Tenochtitlan, as it was a city in the middle of a lake. The full extent of the ancient city is not known either, principally because excavation is impeded by the fact that most mounds have inhabited structures on them.
The Zapotec civilisation was an indigenous pre-Columbian civilisation that flourished in the Valley of Oaxaca in Mesoamerica. Archaeological evidence shows that their culture goes back at least 2,500 years. The Zapotec left archaeological evidence at the ancient city of Monte Albán in the form of buildings, ball courts, magnificent tombs and grave goods including finely worked gold jewellery. Monte Albán was one of the first major cities in Mesoamerica and the centre of a Zapotec state that dominated much of the territory that today belongs to the Mexican state of Oaxaca.
At the time of Spanish conquest of Mexico, when news arrived that the Aztecs were defeated by the Spaniards, King Cosijoeza ordered his people not to confront the Spaniards so they would avoid the same fate. They were defeated by the Spaniards only after several campaigns between 1522 and 1527. However, uprisings against colonial authorities occurred in 1550, 1560 and 1715.
The Spanish conquest of the Aztec Empire (begun February 1519) was one of the most significant events in the Spanish colonisation of the Americas.
The Spanish campaign began in February 1519 and was declared victorious on August 13, 1521, when a coalition army of Spanish forces and native Tlaxcalan warriors led by Hernán Cortés and Xicotencatl the Younger captured emperor Cuauhtemoc and Tenochtitlan, the capital of the Aztec Empire. However, the conquest was much more complex and took longer than the three years that it took Cortés to conquer Tenochtitlan. It took almost 60 years of wars for the Spaniards to suppress the resistance of the Indian population of Mesoamerica.
Pedro de Alvarado y Contreras was a Spanish conquistador and governor of Guatemala. He is considered the conquistador of much of Central America, including Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador. Although renowned for his skill as a soldier, Alvarado is known also for the cruelty of his treatment of native populations, and mass murders committed in the subjugation of the native peoples of Mexico.
Could Mesoamerica survive until the year 2020 despite the Spaniards? Would they be a threat to Kanata or allies?
Important Links for the A to Z Challenge – please use these links to find other A to Z Bloggers
Website: http://www.a-to-zchallenge.com
Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/atozchallenge/
Twitter handle: @AprilAtoZ
Twitter hashtag: #atozchallenge
This entry was posted in A to Z Challenge, Alternative History, Ideas, Writing and tagged #atozchallenge, A to Z Challenge, Alternate History, Alternative History, Aztec Empire, Blogging from A to Z Challenge, Cosijoeza, History of Kanata, Kanata, Mesoamerica, Mixtec, Pedro de Alvarado, Spanish colonisation of the Americas, Spanish conquest of Mexico, Tenochtitlan, Zaachila, Zapotec. Bookmark the permalink.
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2 thoughts on “Z is for Zaachila”
jazzfeathers says: May 1, 2017 at 4:20 pm
Great wrop up of your challenge, Roland. I’m familiar with this piece of history because when I was a kid I got completely fascinated withthe Inca histoy, so I learned quite a few things abotu Mesoamerica.
Congratulation on finishing the challenge. I’m sure it was a great tool of worldbuilding for you story ^_^
I really enjoyed reading it.
Thanks, Sarah, I’ve yet to visit other A to Z Bloggers as been so behind all month – but I’m sure that you finished too and deserve congratulations. I have to tidy up my worldbuilding now, but it felt good ending in Mesoamerica as that was my specialist history subject.
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Rooftop solar future boosted as Labor pledges support
The future of the rooftop solar industry looks more assured after Labor pledges support for current legislation, and Save Solar campaign expands and gains political traction. However, the outlook for large scale wind and solar developments remains uncertain.
Giles Parkinson Posted on 15 September 2014 21 July 2016 2 Comments
The future of the muli-billion dollar rooftop solar industry in Australia is looking more secure after Labor leader Bill Shorten pledged support for the small-scale component of the renewable energy target to stay as is.
Shorten’s pledge on the rooftop solar scheme comes as he prepares to join the Save Solar campaign, which moves this week to the marginal Sydney seat of Barton this week, and reflects the growing traction that solar is having as an emerging political issue.
The Australian Solar Council is to move its campaign to the Melbourne seat of Deakin in October and will also target by-elections in NSW and state elections in Victoria, Queensland, and NSW.
In an interview with the Australian Financial Review published on Monday, Shorten was scathing of the Warburton Review and called on the government to disown the recommendations.
“If the Prime Minister wants to work with Labor to fix the mess he created, he has to rule to the recommendations in the Warburton review,”Shorten said.
“That’s the job for Tony Abbott. This is the Prime Minister’s report with the industry and job-decimating recommendations he wanted. It belongs in the bin.”
The Abbott government has managed to convince some in the media that it is moving away from the Warburton findings, but all that Industry Minister Ian Macfarlane has said is that the target will not be scrapped. But scrapping is not the language that Warburton used – he urged it either become a 16,00GWh target (where it is now, so effectively closed to new business), or a 26,000GWh target, or a true 20 per cent. The renewable energy sector says either option would be a death knell for the industry.
Warburton also urged the small-scale scheme to be ended now, or changed significantly to rapidly phase out upfront rebates. He also called for eligible rooftop installations to be cut from 100kW to 10kW – a move that the industry says would kill commercial scale solar just as it starts to build.
Rooftop solar is a particularly threat to incumbent coal fired generators because it is reducing demand from the grid, and doing so a the time of the day that the generators used to make most of their revenue.
Macfarlane has been seeking to put pressure on Labor to “compromise” on the target, but this has been rejected by both Labor and the renewable energy industry. In any case, says Labor, Macfarlane is yet to make any approach.
Solar Citizens , which has helped orchestrate the Save Solar campaign that targets marginal seats with large numbers of rooftop solar installations, welcomed Labor’s commitment to the rooftop solar scheme.
“Solar users around Australia will hold the Coalition to their pre-election promise that there would be no cuts to the Target,” Solar Citizens Campaigns Director Claire O’Rourke.
“Eighty-two per cent of Australians want to keep the Target strong – any attempt to weaken it will come at a political cost to the major parties.”
The Coalition does have the option to impose changes on the SRES by regulation, but there is growing speculation that even this could be resisted – a highly unusual move.
Asked about this, a spokeswoman for environment spokesman Mark Butler said: “We don’t want to see any changes to the SRES and won’t enter into hypothetical discussions. The Government has offered no plan to negotiate with Labor.”
Labor is however, prepared to negotiate with the Coalition on the large-scale component of the target.
But, it would seem, according to Shorten’s remarks to the AFR, that it will only go only as far as the recommendation of the chairman of the Climate Change Authority, Bernie Fraser, who said last week the target should stay at 41,000GWh, but the deadline could be pushed back a few years.
As we reported last week, the clean energy industry could likely accept this, as long as the target was not pushed back much beyond 2022 – otherwise is would simply create another void where there would be no new investment in coming years.
As it is, there has been no new commitments since late 2012, and the industry will continue to stagnate until the policy certainty is resolved. Modelling for the Warburton review rejected the complaints of the fossil fuel generators that the target could not be met, but if uncertainty remains, then that 2020 target becomes more difficult.
The Coalition knows this and is trying to use it as a blunt hammer, although there are signs some parts of the party are now starting to appreciate the political consequences of acting so deliberately in the interests of coal–fired generators.
This is in stark contrast with the US, where the combination of state-based-renewable energy policies and federal emission rules is likely to reduce the amount of coal-fired generation in that country by one quarter. And in China, where coal imports have actually declined for the first time.
Still, some environmental groups are disappointed that Labor is not taking a more ambitious stance, suggesting that it should be seeking an even higher renewable energy target.
“Labor does not need to back down from the existing target,” said Andrew Bray, from the Australian Wind Alliance.
“The government’s own modelling showed that keeping the current target delivered the best result for the consumer. Labor needs to be saying to Australians we can have more renewable energy, to clean up our power supply and reduce our cost of living.”
Any delays in the target, however, is likely to result in more solar projects than wind projects, as the price of utility-scale solar is expected to fall and crowd out all but the best tier-one wind projects.
Bloomberg New Energy Finance has suggested that by 2018, around half of new large-scale renewable energy projects being constructed could be solar. The key is the cost of finance. There is little doubt there are several dozen solar projects ready to roll out, some already with planning approval.
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Coal-fired generation in US to fall by 1/4 by 2020
Ken Dyer 5 years ago
The basic problem with Abbot’s government and the Liberal Party in general is that they have no philosophy, or ideal or aim. Once you discount religion, capitalism, democracy and the Australian way of life, the Abbott government has no common purpose, or indeed any purpose at all.
This is what happens when the fossil fuel industry collides with global warming.
The fossil fuel industry is using every tool it can to preserve its wealth and power by pressuring governments, political parties, universities, regulators, courts, and voters.
It is just as well that labor pledges support. Otherwise. the institutions of democracy will be remade in order to protect the interests of the fossil fuel industry, creating
a politics that privileges fossil fuel interests and fails to respond effectively to the democratic aspirations and long-term interests of the broad population.
The Abbott government is selling Australia out to the highest bidder.
Well done the alternative government for (so far) supporting the 41 TWh RET. I’d like for them all to come to an amicable agreement on the date to achieve it, without a boom-bust mentality in either the investment or workforce required to achieve it.I’d also like to see large scale wind and solar and emerging technologies compete on merit in the period after that. Perhaps the old solar multiplier and then the 15 year up-front deeming confused the STC situation a bit, with over $40 STCs being let go from the clearing house for only $27, only to benefit retailers really.Possibly one way to have a sustainable STC system and not disadvantage large scale construction would be to pay STCs annually at full market rate, after meter readings, for a life of 30 years rather than 15 years.
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Input-centric profiling and prediction for computational offloading of mobile applications
Rehn, Adam James (2016) Input-centric profiling and prediction for computational offloading of mobile applications. PhD thesis, James Cook University.
PDF (Thesis)
Relentless growth in mobile computing technologies continues to bring the vision of ubiquitous computing closer than ever before. As mobile hardware becomes more powerful and connected, user expectations of smartphones and tablets continue to push the boundaries of device capabilities. However, the inherent limitations of portability continue to impose constraints that are not present on traditional server platforms. The confluence of high-speed network connections and cloud compute services allows mobile applications to leverage cloud servers, in order to augment device capabilities and overcome the limitations of mobility.
Computational offloading frameworks are a widely-researched tool for optimising the performance and resource use of mobile applications by exploiting the benefits of cloud computing. Offloading frameworks transparently facilitate the delegation of processing to remote servers, allowing mobile applications to utilise the power of cloud computing resources without imposing additional burden on developers. The improved performance and reduced energy use offered by computational offloading helps to mitigate the inherent limitations of mobile devices.
Modern computational offloading frameworks facilitate dynamic offloading decisions that adapt to changing application and device conditions. Adaptive offloading is utilised to ensure that processing is always performed in the most efficient manner. To achieve this, offloading frameworks monitor the behaviour of the application and the state of the mobile device, and perform a cost-benefit analysis designed to produce optimal offloading decisions. The quality of these offloading decisions is dependant on the accuracy of the information used to produce them.
Existing computational offloading frameworks fail to take into account the full influence of an application's input data on its behaviour. Changes in arbitrary input characteristics can result in dramatic changes in application behaviour. However, the overwhelming majority of existing offloading frameworks consider only the size of input data when making offloading decisions. Many frameworks model changes in application behaviour only indirectly through monitoring performance changes over time. This approach assumes a temporal pattern in input characteristics that is not guaranteed to exist, and cannot cleanly differentiate between changes in application behaviour and performance differences caused by changes in device state.
Hardware power saving features implemented in modern mobile devices allow a given device to shift between a number of different system states. Each of these states results in different performance characteristics for mobile applications running on the device. The interactions between hardware components, the mobile operating system, and user-facing applications, result in performance variations that introduce noise into measurements of application performance. This interference is known as OS noise. Both changes in device state, and the presence of OS noise in performance measurements, must be taken into account by computational offloading frameworks in order to provide accurate information for making offloading decisions.
The overall aim of this thesis is to develop a system for profiling and predicting the performance of mobile applications, that takes into account the influence of arbitrary input characteristics, whilst mitigating the effects of OS noise. This profiling and prediction system should be efficient enough to perform the frequent processing required in order to adapt to changes in device state, and produce accurate predictions of application performance that can be used by a computational offloading framework to make quality offloading decisions.
This thesis focusses on five research objectives in order to address the identified gap in the existing literature. The first three objectives are concerned with expanding the existing understanding of OS noise on traditional desktop and server platforms to encompass mobile device platforms, and examine the interaction between mobile device state changes and OS noise. The fourth objective is concerned with developing a new approach for mitigating the effects of OS noise on performance benchmark data, whilst accounting for the influence of changing device states. The fifth objective applies the outcomes of the preceding objectives to address the overall research aim, and is concerned with developing and input-centric profiling and prediction system for use by a computational offloading framework.
Chapter 1 provides background detail on how computational offloading frameworks function, and presents a thorough literature review of current offloading frameworks. The gap in the existing literature is discussed, and the research question and objectives are described in detail. A brief overview of the Design Science Research Methodology (DSRM) used in this thesis is described, and the choice of methodology is discussed. Overviews of the data chapters of the thesis are provided, along with publication details and a statement of contributions for each chapter.
Chapter 2 describes in detail the DSRM utilised by the research in this thesis. This chapter focusses on extending the existing evaluation methodology of the DSRM to address the unique technical challenges associated with evaluating research outputs that target mobile device platforms. Requirements are drawn from existing literature on both evaluation methodology and mobile data collection, then a model is proposed for automating the evaluation of Design Science artifacts targeting mobile device platforms. The proposed model automates feedback loops of the DSRM to facilitate rapid iteration, providing richer information to researchers.
Chapter 3 addresses research objectives 1, 2, and 3, and addresses part of research objective 4. The first part of this chapter describes a study into the levels of OS noise present on Apple iPad Air devices, which addresses research objective 1. Examination of the collected data confirms that the characteristics of OS noise on mobile devices are consistent with those observed on traditional desktop and server platforms in the existing literature, thus addressing research objective 2. Further data analysis demonstrates that a relationship exists between OS noise levels and changes in device state, thus addressing research objective 3. The second half of the chapter proposes an adaptive noise mitigation technique for mitigating the effects of OS noise on micro-benchmarking datasets. This addresses the key requirements of research objective 4.
Chapter 4 builds on the work presented in Chapter 3. Research objective 4 requires that the adaptive noise mitigation technique be fully automated. However, the outlier removal phase of the noise mitigation technique described in Chapter 3 is only semi-automated. This chapter proposes a fully automated outlier removal technique. The proposed technique exploits the inherent clustering structure present in outliers introduced by OS noise to perform outlier removal. Hierarchical Agglomerative Clustering (HAC) is used to capture the nested clustering structure of the data, and a heuristic algorithm automatically extracts clusterings that isolate outliers from meaningful data.
Chapter 5 extends the work presented in Chapter 4 by proposing a novel parallel algorithm for performing hierarchical clustering of single-dimensional data. The classical algorithm for HAC features computational costs that make it too expensive for use on resource-constrained mobile devices. The proposed algorithm utilises GPGPU technologies to enable massive parallelism on commodity consumer hardware, including modern mobile devices. By exploiting the unique properties of single-dimensional data, the proposed algorithm maximises the amount of processing that can be performed in parallel. This efficiency makes the proposed algorithm, and thus the automated outlier removal technique proposed in Chapter 4, suitable for use on resource-constrained mobile devices. This addresses the remaining requirements of research objective 4.
Chapter 6 builds the foundation for addressing research objective 5. This chapter reviews existing software timing models from the literature on Worst-Case Execution Time (WCET), and adapts elements of two popular models for use on resource-constrained mobile devices. The proposed timing model simplifies these models to substantially reduce information requirements and computational complexity. Validation of the proposed timing model for individual code execution paths demonstrates that it is an extremely accurate approximation of the information represented by the models that it simplifies. The efficiency of the proposed timing model allows it to be invoked repeatedly to adapt to changes in device state.
Chapter 7 completes the work that was started in Chapter 6 to address research objective 5. This chapter proposes a language- and platform-agnostic tooling pipeline that can be used to implement the proposed input-centric profiling and prediction system for any programming language and mobile device platform. The implementation of a prototype of the proposed model targeting the C++ programming language and the Apple iOS platform is then described. The second half of the chapter validates the predictive power of the input-centric profiling and prediction system for code with multiple execution paths. Validation results demonstrate that the produced predictions are extremely accurate across all of the code modules tested. The accuracy and efficiency of the proposed input-centric performance model make it well-suited for use in a computational offloading framework.
Chapter 8 summarises the outcomes of the preceding chapters, and discusses the contributions of this thesis to the greater body of knowledge. Theoretical, empirical, and real-world contributions are discussed. The limitations of the thesis are then discussed and used to motivate directions for future research.
The outcomes achieved by addressing the five research objectives represent a number of contributions to the greater body of knowledge. The OS noise study undertaken in Chapter 3 to address research objective 1 is the first detailed exploration OS noise on mobile device platforms of which I am aware. The examination of the collected data that was undertaken to address research objective 2 demonstrates that the characteristics of OS noise on mobile devices are consistent with those characteristics observed on traditional desktop and server platforms in the existing literature. The data analysis performed to address research objective 3 demonstrates that a relationship exists between changes in OS noise levels and changes in device state.
The work done in Chapters 3, 4, and 5 to address research objective 4 resulted in contributions that extend beyond mobile computing, to the field of data mining. The adaptive OS noise mitigation technique proposed in 3 is the first approach for mitigating the effects of OS noise on micro-benchmarking data to maximise accuracy by taking into account the actual noise profile of the device the benchmark is running on. The automated outlier removal technique proposed in Chapter 4 demonstrates that the structure of outliers introduced by OS noise can be exploited to provide an efficient, automated technique for removing such outliers from micro-benchmarking data. The novel GPU-accelerated clustering algorithm proposed in Chapter 5 demonstrates the enormous performance improvements that can be achieved through the maximisation of merge parallelism, by exploiting the unique properties of single-dimensional datasets.
The input-centric profiling and prediction system presented in Chapters 6 and 7 to address research objective 5 represents the key contribution to the field of computational offloading. The application timing model developed in Chapter 6 simplifies popular software timing models from the existing literature to substantially reduce information requirements and computational complexity. This simplification demonstrates the feasibility of adapting timing models for use on resource-constrained mobile devices, even when the unmodified timing models are unsuitable for use in a mobile context.
The language- and platform-agnostic tooling pipeline proposed in Chapter 7 allows the proposed input-centric profiling and prediction system to be implemented for any programming language, and for any target mobile device platform. Evaluation of the input-centric profiling and prediction system in Chapters 6 and 7 demonstrates that the produced predictions are extremely accurate. The proposed system accounts for the influence of arbitrary input characteristics on application behaviour, whilst mitigating the effects of OS noise. The efficiency and accuracy of the proposed system make it well-suited for use in a computational offloading framework. The use of deep application-specific knowledge provides high-quality information for making optimal offloading decisions, thus maximising the performance and energy efficiency of mobile applications.
Thesis (PhD)
automation, benchmark, cloud computing, innovation, jitter, microbenchmarking, mobile apps, mobile feedback loops, mobile microbenchmark, mobile, noise reduction, operating system noise, operating systems, outlier removal, rapid iteration, software
https://researchonline.jcu.edu.au/34966/
Publications arising from this thesis are available from the Related URLs field. The publications are:
Chapter 2: Rehn, Adam, Holdsworth, Jason, and Hamilton, John (2014) A model for an automated evaluation framework for design science artifacts targeting mobile platforms. Journal of Management Systems, 24 (2). pp. 1-21.
Chapter 3: Rehn, Adam, Hamilton, John, and Holdsworth, Jason (2014) Towards an adaptive OS noise mitigation technique for microbenchmarking on mobile platforms. In: Proceedings of the Fourteenth International Conference on Electronic Business and the First Global Conference on Internet and Information Systems, pp. 263-269. From: Fourteenth International Conference on Electronic Business and Fourteenth International Conference on Electronic Business and the First Global Conference on Internet and Information Systems, 8-12 December 2014, Taipei, Taiwan.
Chapter 3: Rehn, Adam, Holdsworth, Jason, and Hamilton, John (2014) Adaptive OS noise mitigation for microbenchmarking on mobile platforms. Journal of Management Systems, 24 (4). pp. 1-17.
Chapter 4: Rehn, Adam, Holdsworth, Jason, and Lee, Ickjai (2015) Automated outlier removal for mobile microbenchmarking datasets. In: Proceedings of 2015 10th International Conference on Intelligent Systems and Knowledge Engineering, pp. 578-585. From: IEEE ISKE 2015: 10th International Conference on Intelligent Systems and Knowledge Engineering, 24-27 November 2015, Taipei, Taiwan.
08 INFORMATION AND COMPUTING SCIENCES > 0805 Distributed Computing > 080502 Mobile Technologies @ 50%
08 INFORMATION AND COMPUTING SCIENCES > 0805 Distributed Computing > 080503 Networking and Communications @ 25%
08 INFORMATION AND COMPUTING SCIENCES > 0805 Distributed Computing > 080504 Ubiquitous Computing @ 25%
89 INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION SERVICES > 8902 Computer Software and Services > 890202 Application Tools and System Utilities @ 50%
89 INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION SERVICES > 8902 Computer Software and Services > 890299 Computer Software and Services not elsewhere classified @ 50%
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Assassin’s Creed: Heresy
The Assassin’s Creed franchise has expanded out from its video game origins to encompass comics, movies and even novels. With Assassin’s Creed: Heresy, author Christie Golden has stepped into a well established world to pave a new path. The story takes some bold moves that set it apart from the games, yet it still weaves its way into the fabric of the universe populated by Templars and Assassins. Whether you are new to the franchise or not, Heresy is a book with potential. I can’t say it is for everyone, but if you’re like me, you may find yourself engrossed in the story and the characters for an intriguing ride.
Now to set the stage, I’m a bit of a noob when it comes to Assassin’s Creed. I’ve played a little bit of the video games, but I’ve never paid much attention to the story. I also skipped out on the movie. Furthermore, Heresy is the first piece of Assassin’s Creed literature that I’ve dived into. Thus if you don’t have much exposure to this franchise, I’ve got you covered. For those who are deeply invested in it, I can only speculate how this book will play out for you. However, I can say it was unexpected. For starters, I expected the story to follow a character who would be travelling around in time assassinating people and learning the art of the Assassins. That isn’t what this book sets out to do. Instead, it stars a Templar, one of the bad guys as portrayed by just about everything else out there relating to the Assassin’s Creed universe. Normally the Assassins are the good guys and they fight the Templars. However, this book spins that around to show the perspective of the Templars. Rather than painting them as an entire organization run by evil people, it shows that there is much more to them that was has previously been told.
Taking place in both the past and the present, the book tackles two time periods and two main characters. On one hand it explores the Hundred Years’ War and centers on Joan of Arc as she adventures out on her mission to save the people of France. For this trip through history, the viewpoint character is a man named Gabriel who devotes himself to Joan and follows her through victory and defeat. In the modern day, the main character is a man named Simon Hathaway who is a member of the Inner Sanctum of the Order of the Templars. Simon has taken it upon himself to show how much more useful the Animus can be when used from a broader, historical perspective. He hopes to travel through the memories of his ancestors to discover the mystery of Joan of Arc and her sword. You see, in this book, in this world, there are magical items called the Pieces of Eden. They are relics of an ancient civilization called the Precursors. The Templars hope to use those relics to drive forward their own goals of unity and order in the world. By traveling back in time through the Animus and reliving the memories of his ancestor Gabriel, Simon hopes to observe the power of Joan’s sword which happens to be one of the Pieces of Eden.
These two narratives interweave into a double mystery. Simon tries to unravel the mysteries for his own gains in the present while navigating the complexities of the Templar Order and internal power plays amongst its members. Through the trips to the past, the reader is exposed to the life of Joan of Arc. We get to see her powers, her triumphs, her struggles, and eventually, her downfall. The mysteries of Joan’s life are explored in a gripping tale all of its own. Yet those jumps into the past are interwoven with the pressing turmoil of the present. On the surface, Simon might seem trivial and boring, yet his real world life is very grounding. It gives readers something they can relate to. His trips into the past are an escapism that, as a reader, we can equally bond with. That need to escape the real world and explore something else is a desire in all of us. But for Simon, these trips into the past reveal mysteries that pose a great danger to his wellbeing in the present. Discovering the mysteries of Joan of Arc could very well unravel the Order of the Templars.
One thing that is very different about this book, and it might be a stumbling block for gamers, is the lack of action and violence in this novel. For a story involving Assassins and plunging back into history to explore battles between the French and the English, there is very little violence. Simon, being a historian first and foremost, is very non-violent, and reliving the carnage of bloody battles is something that shocks him. On the flip side, Joan of Arc is also a very non-violent character. While she led people into battle, she herself never killed anyone. It’s actually really surprising how the book manages to avoid violence without hurting the story. To be honest, it’s refreshing. With so much violence in the world and in every medium we consume, to read a book where violence is minimalized is kind of a nice break. However, I could see where it might not be for everyone. A lot of the focus in the games is going around as an Assassin and stabbing people with the hidden blade, sword fighting and, well, being an assassin. Yet Heresy is not about being an assassin but exploring history and uncovering truths. Through well crafted characters and an intriguing storyline, it can capture your imagination and lead you on an entertaining journey without the buckets of bloodshed.
If you’re looking to try something new, to explore the possibility of the Templars being good guys or to witness the events of the life of Joan of Arc, Assassin’s Creed: Heresy offers those opportunities. With its refreshing approach of minimalized violence in favor of suspense, intrigue and enjoyable characters, it paves a way for something new and enjoyable. As such, I give it a four out of five metal bikinis. It takes a non-standard approach that drives forward an engaging story that carries you from beginning to end and leaves you wanting more without feeling unsatisfied.
Reviewed By: Skuldren for Roqoo Depot.
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Was Jericho a “City” or a Military Fortification?
The ruins of ancient Jericho, scarred by over a hundred years of archaeological digs, as seen from the air. It would probably take no more than an hour or so to walk around the “city.”
I had the privilege of visiting the Holy Land some years ago, and one day our tour bus drove through the modern city of Jericho. At one point during our drive, our tour guide announced that we were passing the ancient site of Jericho. But before I had enough time to pull out my camera, we were gone and left the ancient “city” far behind.
It was not quite what I had imagined. As a kid, I was accustomed to hear the story of how “Joshua fit the battle of Jericho,” and destroyed the “city.” Now, when I think of “city,” I think of a relatively large population area. My hometown, Williamsburg, Virginia, is fairly small by the standard of most cities today, about 9.1 square miles in size, or just a little under 6,000 acres. Contrast that with ancient Jericho, which is approximately only 6 acres in size.
That’s about less than half the size of my small neighborhood.
Wow…. If ancient Jericho was really a “city,” then it must have been a really, itsy-bitsy small one. I suppose the people in such a really small “city” could have been packed in like sardines, but it got me thinking about what the Bible says in Joshua 6 about the “city” of Jericho. What are we to make of this?
City or Military Fortification?: The Clue of the Citadel of Rabbah
We can become so accustomed to certain ways of reading the Bible that we miss some of the finer details. Denver Seminary Old Testament scholar, Richard Hess, has written one of the premier commentaries on the Book of Joshua. Hess argues that the Hebrew word that is often translated in English as “city”, transliterated from the Hebrew as “ir,” can have a variety of meanings. Here are some examples:1
The small town of Adam, where the waters of the Jordan were dammed up, in Joshua 3:16, allowing Israel to cross into the Promised Land.
The village of Bethlehem (1 Samuel 20:6).
Tent encampments (Judges 10:4, 1 Chronicles 2:22-23).
The army fortress of Zion in Jerusalem, but not the whole city at large (2 Samuel 5:7, 9; 1 Chronicles 11:5,7).
One particular example from Richard Hess that stuck out to me was the description of Rabbah, which is where the modern capital of Jordan exists, Amman. This was where Joab, one of King David’s men, engaged in battle, before David later arrived to completely conquer the city:
Now Joab fought against Rabbah of the Ammonites and took the royal city. And Joab sent messengers to David and said, “I have fought against Rabbah; moreover, I have taken the city of waters. Now then gather the rest of the people together and encamp against the city and take it, lest I take the city and it be called by my name.”So David gathered all the people together and went to Rabbah and fought against it and took it. (2 Samuel 12:26-29 ESV)
The ESV translation, following that of the traditional and venerable King James Version (KJV), is fairly literal here, by consistently translating the Hebrew “ir” as “city,” but it is quite confusing. At first, Joab takes “the royal city,” and then reports to David that he had taken “the city of waters” (a minor question, but what is that all about?). David eventually arrives and then takes the city.
So, how can the city be taken eventually by David, if the city had already been taken by his man, Joab?
That does not make a lot of sense.
However, a look at the NIV 2011 translation makes it a lot clearer:
Meanwhile Joab fought against Rabbah of the Ammonites and captured the royal citadel. Joab then sent messengers to David, saying, “I have fought against Rabbah and taken its water supply. Now muster the rest of the troops and besiege the city and capture it. Otherwise I will take the city, and it will be named after me.” So David mustered the entire army and went to Rabbah, and attacked and captured it.
So, the NIV 2011 renders the Hebrew “ir,” what Joab initially captured, as the royal “citadel,” and not the “city” as a whole (The NIV also clarifies that the “city of waters,” from the ESV, is most probably a reference to the city’s water supply). Therefore, Joab first takes the citadel; that is, the city’s military fortification (along with the city’s water supply), and then when David arrives later, David takes the rest of the city. This makes a lot more sense. But is it a correct reading of the text?
Well, modern archaeology has shown us the location of the remains of this ancient citadel in Rabbah, or modern Amman. Though the original fortifications in David’s day are lost, we see that this area holds strategic high ground within the surrounding city of Amman. Take a visual tour here (note that the antiquity of the site goes back even further than what the video claims):
How then should this Hebrew “ir,” or “city,” which shows up several times in Joshua 6, be understood with respect to Jericho? Following the clue of the citadel of Rabbah might help.
Based on the small size of Jericho as a “city,” it is probably more appropriate to call ancient Jericho a “military fortification,” or a “military outpost,” if you will. Jericho was not necessarily the huge population center I had imagined from popular lore. Considering the fact that Joshua 6 never mentions any specific non-combatants in Jericho, aside from Rahab and her family, this seems like a reasonable conclusion to make.
But not only is it reasonable, it helps to explain a particular conundrum in archaeological research in Jericho, with respect to the Bible. Contemporary archaeological research has concluded, for the most part, that there was no substantial population center located in Jericho at the time of the conquest of Canaan. This has led some to further conclude that Joshua’s conquest of Jericho is more fiction than historical fact.2
This last conclusion, based on the data in the ground, is still hotly debated among archaeologists. But the lack of evidence of a large population living in Jericho, during the period specified in Joshua 6, is a problem for those who would traditionally argue that Jericho was a densely populated city. However, if Jericho was not a major population center in Joshua’s day, this particular Bible difficulty is rendered less difficult. A military fort in Joshua’s day would not have left the same type of archaeological footprint as we would expect with a large population center.
By taking a closer look at the “city” of Jericho, we gain a better appreciation for the story of the Bible, instead of just sticking with a traditional view that raises more questions than it answers.
1. See this essay by Richard Hess, in PDF format. Most of the information from this blog post comes from this essay.,↩
2. Al Mohler, a defender of biblical inerrancy, admits that this is indeed a major difficulty for biblical inerrancy in Five Views of Biblical Inerrancy (kindle location 744). On the other hand, a re-examination of the biblical data comports better with the current state of archaeological discovery.↩
About Clarke Morledge
Clarke Morledge -- Computer Network Engineer, College of William and Mary... I hiked the Mount of the Holy Cross, one of the famous Colorado Fourteeners, with some friends in July, 2012. My buddy, Mike Scott, snapped this photo of me on the summit. View all posts by Clarke Morledge
This entry was posted on Friday, November 18th, 2016 at 6:35 pm and tagged with jericho, joshua, rabbah and posted in Apologetics, Archaeology. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
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The Septuagint and the Original Old Testament?
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The Legends: Violeta Parra
Gear, Mood and Intention: Q+A with Warpaint’s Jenny Lee Lindberg
Get to Know Deep Sea Diver’s Jessica Dobson
Text by Robert Moore
Chilean singer and guitarist Violeta Parra (Oct. 4, 1917- Feb. 5, 1967) was a politically-minded performer dedicated to discovering and preserving her country’s fading roots music traditions.
Parra spent much of her career interviewing and recording aging musicians who had fled rural areas for the shantytowns of Santiago due to economic and political change. In the process, she preserved songs and memories that otherwise might have been lost forever.
Her efforts helped spearhead Nueva Cancion (“new song”), Chile’s own politically-charged folk revival later carried on by Parra’s son Angel and daughter Isabel. Her original and preserved songs reached a wider audience through the “Canta Violeta Parra” radio program that ran from 1953-1954 on a leftist radio station, offering culturally-rich programming on a medium then-dominated by escapist entertainment. She also helped keep folk traditions alive on the home front by running La Peña de los Parra, a performance space and community center that served a similar purpose as modern D.I.Y. performance and art spaces.
Among Parra’s best-known compositions is “Gracias a la Vida” from her 1966 album Las Ultimas Composiciones De Violeta Parra (RCA Victor). It’s one of the most covered Latin American songs of the past 50 years and was the title track for Joan Baez’s 1974 Spanish language album. Like many of her global folk music peers, Parra compiled a diverse catalog that blended heartfelt love songs (“Volver a los 17”) with socio-political allegories (“La Jardinera”).
In addition to her music, Parra was a multi-talented visual artist, creating paintings, sculptures, and tapestries inspired by Chilean folk traditions. In 1964, she became the first Latin American artist to have a solo exhibition at the Louvre. Yet it’s her dedication to preserving musical traditions swept aside by modernization that makes Parra a giant among 20th century folklorists and songwriters.
In 2014, Museo Violeta Parra was founded by the artist’s children Angel and Isabel Parra, in Santiago, Chile in order to preserve and share her work and legacy. More information can be found here.
Select Discography:
El Folklore De Chile (Odeon, 1964)
Las Ultimas Composiciones De Violeta Parra (RCA Victor, 1966)
Canciones Reencontradas En París (Peña De Los Parra, 1971)
20 Grandes Exitos (EMI, 1988)
Haciendo Historia (EMI, 1997)
Wood, A. (Director). (2013). Violeta Went to Heaven [Motion picture on Amazon Prime].
Xaviera says:
Great Article!! Another great song by her is “Arriba Quemando el Sol” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s2E9AXJozGw
Fca says:
I like Violeta’s song called ” Que Pena Siente El Alma”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SX7wJsfG2sU
Cool article. Greetings from Chile.
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AQA to replace exam papers after batch stolen
Wed 8th May 2019, 16.57
The exam board AQA will replace four exam papers already sent to schools after a batch was stolen.
Police have arrested a 16-year-old boy in connection with the disappearance of a package containing AS sociology papers 1 and 2, GCSE French reading, foundation and higher tier and GCSE French writing, foundation and higher tier.
The papers must now be replaced so no pupils are unfairly advantaged.
A Thames Valley Police spokesperson confirmed the force is investigating a theft from a vehicle in Milton Keynes on April 26 “in which exam papers were stolen”.
“A 16-year-old boy has been arrested on suspicion of theft and handling stolen goods. He has been released under investigation.”
AQA first became aware of the incident over a week ago when a school got in touch to say a package of exam papers had not arrived. The courier was contacted and the exam board launched an investigation into the incident, informing Thames Valley Police.
The first exam affected, sociology paper 1, is due to be sat next Tuesday, as is the French reading paper. All schools are expected to receive replacement papers in time.
Claire Thomson, AQA’s director of operations, said: “These exam papers were sent to a school but never arrived. The police and the courier company are both investigating and an arrest has been made.
“We’ve known about this issue for over a week so the process of sending new papers to schools to make sure no-one has an unfair advantage is well underway. Our message to students is that there’s nothing for them to worry about – they can carry on with their revision as if nothing’s happened and we’ll take care of it.”
It comes after police investigating high-profile leaks of Edexcel A-level exam papers in 2017 and 2018 passed their first case to the Crown Prosecution Service.
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Home Health Shaky hand, stable spoon: Device helps essential tremor patients
Shaky hand, stable spoon: Device helps essential tremor patients
For people whose hands shake uncontrollably due to a medical condition, just eating can be a frustrating and embarrassing ordeal – enough to keep them from sharing a meal with others.
But a small new study conducted at the University of Michigan Health System suggests that a new handheld electronic device can help such patients overcome the hand shakes caused by essential tremor, the most common movement disorder.
In a clinical trial involving 15 adults with moderate essential tremor, the device improved patients’ ability to hold a spoon still enough to eat with it, and to use it to scoop up mock food and bring it to their mouths.
The researchers measured the effect three ways: using a standard tremor rating, the patients’ own ratings, and digital readings of the spoon’s movement.
The results are published online in the journal Movement Disorders by a research team that includes U-M neurologist and essential tremor specialist Kelvin Chou, M.D., as well as three people from the small startup company, Lift Labs, that makes the device, called Liftware. The study was funded by a Small Business Innovation Research grant from the National Institutes of Health that the researchers applied for together.
Public-private partnership – with a Michigan difference
The technology came full circle to its test in the UMHS clinic. The company’s CEO, Anupam Pathak, Ph.D., received his doctorate from the U-M College of Engineering – where he first worked on tremor-cancelling advanced microelectronic technologies for other purposes.
The concept is called ACT, or active cancellation of tremor. It relies on tiny electronic devices that work together to sense movement in different directions in real time, and then make a quick and precise counter-motion.
Lift Labs, based in San Francisco, developed the device, which resembles an extra-large electronic toothbrush base. It can adjust rapidly to the shaking of the user’s hand, keeping a detachable spoon or other utensil steady. In other words, it shakes the spoon in exactly the opposite way that the person’s hand shakes.
But to truly test whether their prototype device could help essential tremor patients overcome their condition’s effects, the Lift Labs team turned to Chou, who with his colleagues sees hundreds of essential tremor patients a year.
UMHS offers comprehensive care for the condition as part of its Movement Disorders Center. Chou and his colleagues have experience in prescribing a range of medication to calm tremors, and evaluating which patients might benefit from advanced brain surgery to implant a device that can calm the uncontrollable nerve impulses that cause tremor.
“Only about 70 percent of patients respond to medication, and only about 10 percent qualify for surgery, which has a high and lasting success rate,” says Chou, who is an associate professor in the U-M Medical School’s departments of Neurology and Neurosurgery. “People get really frustrated by tremor, and experience embarrassment that often leads to social isolation because they’re always feeling conscious not just eating but even drinking from a cup or glass.”
The trial, Chou says, showed that the amplitude of movement due to the tremor decreased measurably, and that patients could move the spoon much more normally. Though the trial did not include patients with hand tremors caused by other movement disorders such as Parkinson’s disease, the device may be useful to such patients too, he notes.
Says Pathak, “A key aspect of Liftware is a design with empathy. We hear of people struggling every day, and decided to apply technology in a way to directly help. We hope the final product is something people can feel proud of using, and allow them to regain independence and dignity.”
How the study was done
The researchers tested the device’s impact both with the microelectronics turned on, and with them turned off so there was no correction for movement. Patients and Chou could not tell by feeling the device whether it was on or off.
All three measures – objective rating by Chou, subjective rating by patients, and digital data from the device’s connection to a computer – showed improvement for eating and transferring items when the device was turned on, compared to when it was off.
When the patients were asked to simply hold the spoon halfway between the table and their mouth, the two objective measures showed improvement when the device was on, though the patients didn’t report a significant difference themselves.
“Our data show this device has very good potential to assist those who have tremor and aren’t candidates for surgery,” he says. “Compared with other devices designed to limit tremor by weighting or constraining limbs, this approach allows movement and is easier to use.”
The study included 15 adults between the ages of 59 and 80 whose tremor caused them to spill food or drink. They had experienced tremor for anywhere from 5 years to 57 years. All of the patients stopped taking their medication temporarily before testing the Liftware device. Five of the patients had undergone deep brain stimulation, but turned off their tremor-controlling implant for the study.
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South Dakota student journalists struggle to get information about campus lockdown
September 26, 2013 September 5, 2018 Samantha Vicent
SOUTH DAKOTA — A residence hall at South Dakota State University went on lockdown for about 45 minutes earlier this month, but student journalists say campus police have stymied their attempts to obtain and report any additional details about the incident.
South Dakota State University’s police department received a call about a man with a gun in one of the school’s dorms around 11 p.m. Sept. 12, The SDSU Collegian reported. Officials with campus police told the paper at the time that the incident remained under investigation, and they declined to provide reporters with an incident report. Instead, the students at the Collegian obtained basic information about the incident from Bob Otterson, SDSU’s executive assistant to the president — but it should not have come to that, the paper said.
“If the investigation into the matter is still ongoing, fine. We’re not here to obstruct justice in this matter. When more details of this story emerge, we’ll be happy to report them,” the Collegian wrote in an editorial printed Sept. 18. “But students should have the very basic facts on this already and the fact that they do not is pretty embarrassing.”
Collegian Editor-in-Chief Marcus Traxler said Wednesday he still has not received the incident report. When the reporter visited university police three business days after the incident occurred to see the daily crime log entry, the incident had not been added, Traxler said.
The Jeanne Clery Act requires schools that receive federal funding to comply with several campus safety requirements, one of which is maintaining a daily crime log detailing incidents from the past 60 days. The log must be available during business hours, and log entries older than 60 days must be made available within two business days of the request. The act also requires incidents to be entered in the log within two business days after they were reported.
“We’ll keep trying until we get something, but it’s really a shame that they don’t have an interest in helping the public in this instance and in following the law,” Traxler said. “They did not release an incident report and I imagine we’re not going to get a look at that unless charges are filed. It’s hard to say if that will happen or not.”
In 2010, a Department of Education review revealed that South Dakota State had not properly complied with several aspects of the Clery Act, including such errors as failing to properly classify and disclose crime statistics and inaccurately reporting such information to the Department of Education. DOE charged the school with updating its campus security report statistics, as well as revising the police department’s policies and procedures.
Police provided the log information to the Collegian on Friday, six business days after it was first reported, and the paper’s adviser has since met with department officials and discussed how police will respond to the Collegian’s future information requests, Traxler said.
The log entry indicates the weapon was an air pistol and shows the case was “referred judicial.” Otterson told the SPLC and the Collegian the police file was sent to the state’s attorney, but a legal assistant at the Brookings County state’s attorney’s office said Wednesday that the office had not yet received any information about the incident.
The university declined to release the police report to the SPLC, citing an exemption in the state’s open records law, which says records developed or received by law enforcement agencies and other public bodies that have investigative duties are not open to public inspection.
The state of South Dakota does not have case laws on the books applicable to that exemption, which makes it difficult to determine whether it applies, according to the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press Open Government Guide. The exemption for law enforcement agencies and other laws on confidential criminal justice information could lead to different interpretations, the website says. Also, the statute does not distinguish between open and closed investigatory records.=”#sthash.qf9mlzn8.dpuf”>
Kenneth Bunting, the executive director for the Missouri-based National Freedom of Information Coalition, said Wednesday in an email that South Dakota State’s decision not to release information from the report to the public is contrary to the purpose of campus safety laws.
“The Clery Act was intended to keep colleges and universities from sweeping safety and security issues under a rug,” Bunting wrote. “And state and federal public disclosure laws are intended to make all public agencies more accountable and transparent. But when investigative exemptions are stretched to convoluted heights … university officials are guilty of practicing a shamefully irresponsible dodge that clearly does not serve the public interest.”
Traxler said the Collegian likely would not have known any details of the incident without Otterson’s help, and more than two weeks later, South Dakota State students still seek answers about what happened that evening and who is responsible.
“Any member of the public should be able to walk up to their office and be able to look at (the information,) especially when you consider students care about their safety and their parents care about their safety,” Traxler said. “(Police) are ignoring the law in this instance and it’s really unfortunate.”
By Samantha Vicent, SPLC staff writer. Contact Vicent by email or at (703) 807-1904 ext. 126.
Tagged access to public records, campus police records, South Dakota, South Dakota State University
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Child kickboxing debated in Thailand after 13-year-old dies
KAWEEWIT KAEWJINDA and TASSANEE VEJPONGSA (Associated Press)
The Associated Press November 14, 2018, 11:39 AM UTC
BANGKOK (AP) -- The death of a 13-year-old boy who was knocked out during a kickboxing match in Thailand has sparked debate over whether to ban matches involving children.
The death of Anucha Tasako came after a Muay Thai - Thai boxing - match Saturday in the Bangkok suburb of Samut Prakarn. The Facebook page Muaythai Krobwongjorn, which covers the sport, said he died from a brain hemorrhage. Protective gear is normally not worn in the sport, and video circulated on social media said to be of the fight shows Anucha not wearing any.
Child boxing is widespread in Thailand, especially in rural areas, where it offers a way for children to help provide for their families and a path to lift them out of poverty, according to its advocates. Opponents say the sport is dangerous, citing studies such as one published last month by Thailand's Mahidol University saying that allowing children under 15 to box could result in various types of brain damage.
Thai lawmakers are considering legislation proposed last month banning children under 12 from competitive boxing. The legislation has been forwarded to the Ministry of Tourism and Sports, which has already drafted a revised version, said Gen. Aduldej Intapong, a member of the National Legislative Assembly.
Kickboxing is one of the most popular sports in Thailand and its boosters oppose regulating it.
''This would have a major impact on the industry,'' Sukrit Parekrithawet, a lawyer who represents several boxing training camps, said of the proposed legislation. ''Those who drafted the law do not know anything about the sport of Thai boxing, and this would make Muay Thai become extinct.''
''If you don't allow younger players to learn their way up, how can they be strong and experienced enough to fight?'' he said. ''We call it 'boxing bones.' You need to have boxing bones built from a very young age.''
Sukrit said the death of the 13-year-old, who fought under the name Petchmongkol S. Wilaitong, was a one-off incident and the result of a poorly organized event.
''This has never happened before and it's unprecedented,'' he said. ''There are several factors involved which have nothing to do with age. The referee wasn't quick enough to stop the fight and the venue didn't have a doctor on standby, which shouldn't happen.''
Public television station ThaiPBS reported that Anucha had fought more than 170 matches since he began boxing at the age of 8, and was currently fighting in the under 41 kilogram (under 90 pound) weight division. It said he was raised by his uncle, who is a boxing trainer, after his parents separated.
The uncle, Damrong Tasako, told Thai PBS that Anucha's death was an accident but he would like to see regulations for children under 15 to wear protective gear to soften blows to the head and body.
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Ed Bugos
Dollar Vigilante
Ed Bugos is a senior analyst for the Dollar Vigilante. The Dollar Vigilante is a free-market financial newsletter focused on covering all aspects of the…
After Paris Attacks The Eurozone Is Hanging By a Thread
By Ed Bugos - Nov 18, 2015, 7:45 AM CST
The following is a short extract from the 64-page report just issued to TDV subscribers. Original blog can be found HERE
On September 13th, the exact end-date of the Shemitah and the beginning of what we said was going to be a crisis period that would erupt in the fall, we wrote, "Eurozone Collapses, Borders Erected Across Europe on Shemitah End Day".
Many on the Internet said we were exaggerating or blowing a "temporary issue" out of proportion.
Yet, here were some of the headlines, just a day before the Paris Attacks (more on that below) on November 12th.
EU council president Donald Tusk says the EU’s open border system could be about to collapse — The Independent (UK)
The European Union Is Crumbling Right Before Our Eyes — Activist Post
The Latest: Fences Sprout Up Across Europe Against Refugees — Breitbart.com
But we stated that this trend, as well as wars across the Middle East and Northern Africa, were all part of a grander plan that intend to collapse the Eurozone, and more specifically, European society.
We noted how these plans had been in place for decades and were part of the plans of the Project For A New American Century, which created Al-Qaeda as a bogey-man and blamed 9/11 on it... leading to General Wesley Clark being told ten days after 9/11 that the US already had plans in place to "take out" seven countries in the next five years. Those countries being, "Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Libya, Somalia, Sudan & Iran".
They have not had the luck they expected as we are now 14 years later and they have only "taken out" Iraq and Libya.
Syria has been their main focus for years now mainly due to the fact that Syria is one of the only countries remaining without a Rothschild backed central bank.
But while they havent "taken out" Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and his government they have succeeded in turning Syria, a once moderate and civilized country, into hell on Earth.
Syria before (top) and after (bottom) US backed "Regime Change"
This, along with the destruction of Libya, resulted in a massive amount of refugees. Many of them fled to Turkey where they were held in refugee camps until this summer when, "all of a sudden", many of them ended up in Europe. *Note that the G20 conference was being held in Turkey on November 15th and 16th... the timing is likely not a coincidence. And, of course, the main topic of discussion is on the Paris attacks that took place on Friday, November 13th. Also note that the G20 has already passed an information sharing agreement that will see all members exchanging financial information on their citizens with the other G20 countries.
Europes 9/11: The Paris Attacks
On the evening of 13 November 2015, a series of coordinated attacks—consisting of mass shootings, suicide bombings and hostage-taking—occurred in Paris, France, and Saint-Denis, its northern suburb.
As of this writing, reports are of 132 people killed and 352 injured.
Some truth came out of the political realm as Presidential candidate, Rick Santorum, stated that the US created ISIS and was therefore responsible for the Paris attacks.
While it is still early, this already has many of the trappings of a CIA/Israeli/financial-elite false flag. In fact, on October 29th, CIA Director John Brennan, former UK MI6 Chief John Sawers, Director of the French Directorate for External Security Bernard Bajolet, and former Israeli National Security Advisor Yaacov Amidror were on a panel titled "The Shared 21st Century International Mission" (similar to the Project for a New American Century)
Earlier this year, the Charlie Hebdo attacks, also in Paris, were all but proven to be a false flag by independent researchers.
And in the wake of the Paris attacks we have much of the same storyline as with 9/11 including:
The first supposed identification of the perpetrators was a Syrian passport found near one of the suspected suicide bombers. After 9/11, one of the first clues released was also that a passport of one of the hijackers was found "a few blocks from the World Trade Center". Whatever they make these passports out of must be incredibly high tech as they seem to survive both airline explosions and bombs.
Iraqi Foreign Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari has said his countrys intelligence services shared information they had which indicated that France, the United States and Iran were among countries being targeted for attack. This is in addition to numerous ISIS threats against France for their terrorist bombing of Syria. Yet, French security was supposedly completely unaware of this attack and police even waited for 2 hours before entering the Bataclan theater while people inside were being killed and posting to social media. As with 9/11, 7/11 and the Boston Marathon "bombing", a drill was being run for the exact situation on the exact day. Patrick Pelloux a "chronicler" at Charlie Hebdo said on French radio after the attack, "As luck would have it, in the morning at the Paris SAMU (EMT) a multi-site exercise had been planned." [More foreknowledge of the attack and attackers can be seen here.]
The Bataclan theatre, where 89 people were killed and 200 injured, had just been sold in September after being owned by Pascal and Joel Laloux who often held "Pro-Israel" events at the theatre. This has similarities to "Lucky" Larry Silverstein who managed to purchase the World Trade Center complex for $14 million of his own money six weeks before 9/11 and insured the complex for "terrorist attacks" and was later awarded $4.55 billion. It is also similar to the Charlie Hebdo attacks which had a hostage taking in the Kosher Supermarket owned by Emsalem Michel who sold the supermarket the day before the hostage taking.
It should also be noted that nearly a year ago Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu warned it would be a "grave mistake" for the French parliament to follow the suit of several other European nations in recognizing a Palestinian state... which they subsequently did this September.
It should also be noted that we mentioned to subscribers last month that the European version of Jade Helm, called Trident Juncture, could be in preparation for European breakdown. Trident Juncture ended on November 6th. (also note that what is being called "Jade Helm II", called UWEX 16, is being planned for Texas - labelled as "enemy territory in Jade Helm I" - from March to June, 2016)
As well, we mentioned in a past issue of TDV that the cover of the Economist seemed to hold some occult predictions of what would occur in 2015.
We noted the two arrows in the bottom right-hand corner that appeared to have two dates on the quills that could be interpreted as November 3rd and 5th.
However, note that the painting next to the arrows is Leonardo Da Vincis "La Belle Ferronière". That painting is currently located in the Louvre, in Paris.
As for the dates, 11.5 and 11.3 the numbers when rearranged could also form 11/13/15.
And the image also features French President President François Hollande looking the other way.
Coincidence? Perhaps.
Most chilling about this image is a nuclear bomb going off in the upper right. Especially given that the Pentagon is about to spend $8 billion to turn a stockpile of obsolete nuclear weapons located in Europe into something a little more "usable."
Given what is going on geopolitically and militarily around the world, nuclear war appears to be closer to reality than it has been in decades.
We stated that September would be the beginning of a fall crisis period that would last well into 2016 and we appear to be well on the way towards that now.
Gold Stocks Buckle
Elliott Wave Analysis On Gold And SP500
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FIVE DAYS – THREE UNINTENTIONAL SHOOTINGS
Posted on June 11, 2016 by safetennesseeproject
WHEN ADULTS ACCIDENTALLY SHOOT ANOTHER PERSON, MOST OFTEN THE VICTIM IS A CHILD
In less than a week, three Tennessee adults unintentionally shot themselves or another person. In the most recent incident, a handgun dropped from a man’s pants and discharged, injuring a 4-year-old child.
“Unintentional shootings continue to be a serious problem in our state,” said Beth Joslin Roth, policy director for The Safe Tennessee Project. “It’s bad enough when an adult unintentionally shoots themselves, but in at least 8 incidents this year, an adult unintentionally shot another person, most often a child. In one of these incidents, a 13-year-old girl was killed. If a person chooses to be a gun owner, they must be responsible with it at all times. Too often in Tennessee, people aren’t.”
THREE UNINTENTIONAL SHOOTINGS IN FIVE DAYS:
JUNE 9, 2016 – MEMPHIS
A family, including a 4-year-old boy, was locked out of their home. A family friend attempted to climb through the window to open the door. As he climbed through the window, a gun fell from his pants and discharged, firing a bullet that hit the 4-year-old. The child was taken to the hospital with non-critical injuries.
http://www.commercialappeal.com/news/crime/4-year-old–injured-in-accidental-shooting–382469211.html
JUNE 7, 2016 – NASHVILLE
A man was attempting to clear his pistol when it unintentionally fired two rounds into his leg. He was hospitalized and is reported to be in critical condition.
http://www.wsmv.com/story/32170219/nashville-man-accidentally-shoots-himself-in-leg
A Memphis man unintentionally shot himself in the leg. He was hospitalized with non-critical injuries.
http://wreg.com/2016/06/05/man-in-hospital-after-accidentally-shooting-himself/–
“Shooting yourself while cleaning or handling your gun is not being a responsible gun owner,” said Roth. “Carrying a loaded gun in your pocket where it can easily fall out and discharge is extremely careless, not to mention an issue of public safety. If you can’t exercise the most basic level of gun safety, you don’t need a gun. You’re putting yourself and others at risk.”
2016 INCIDENTS WHERE AN ADULT UNINTENTIONALLY SHOT SOMEONE ELSE
JUNE 9, 2016 – MEMPHIS – CHILD INJURED
MARCH 15, 2016 – CHATTANOOGA – ADULT KILLED
A 22-year-old man was handling a weapon when it discharged, killing 19-year-old Carly Ellis inside a Chattanooga home. The bullet went through a wall and hit Ellis in the neck, according to Chattanooga police.
http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/local/story/2016/mar/16/womshot-killed-chattanooghome/355528/
MARCH 14, 2016 – CHATTANOOGA – CHILD INJURED
A 15-year-old teen was accidentally shot in what Chattanooga police describe as an “domestic-related” shooting. No word on his condition.
http://www.wrcbtv.com/story/31464741/teen-shot-in-chattanooga
FEBRUARY 4, 2016 – MEMPHIS – CHILD INJURED
A 20-year-old was handling a gun that fired and hit a 16-year-old girl. Police report the two knew each other and that the shooting was an accident. The 20-year-old has been charged with aggravated assault and reckless endangerment. The victim is in stable condition.
http://www.fox13memphis.com/news/jeffrey-gray-charged-after-teen-accidentally-shot-in-oakhaven/63473488
FEBRUARY 3, 2016 – KINGSPORT – ADULT INJURED
As he was attempting to kick out an unwanted houseguest, a Kingsport man accidentally shot the houseguest in the chest. The shooting victim was taken to the hospital in critical condition.
http://www.johnsoncitypress.com/law-enforcement/2016/02/04/Kingsport-man-arrested-after-accidental-shooting-1.html
JANUARY 7, 2016 – MURFREESBORO – ADULT INJURED
A Murfreesboro man was unloading his 9mm when it accidentally discharged. A bullet penetrated the wall, through his neighbor’s bedroom before lodging in another wall. The woman was injured. No charges were filed.
http://www.dnj.com/story/news/crime/2016/01/07/police-bullet-shoots-through-sleeping-womans-bedroom/78445954/?from=global&sessionKey=&autologin=
JANUARY 5, 2016 – MEMPHIS – ONE INFANT INJURED AND ONE CHILD KILLED
According to police, a 21-year-old man and another person were handling a gun in the upstairs part of a townhome-style apartment when the gun accidentally discharged. The bullet went through the floor, striking a 13-year-old girl who was holding a 12-week-old boy, police said. LeTara Jones, a sixth-grader at Humes Preparatory Academy, was taken to Le Bonheur Children’s Hospital in critical condition and later died. The infant was grazed by a bullet and was in noncritical condition at the hospital. As the 21-year-old man tried to run away, he was shot by a family member.
http://www.commercialappeal.com/news/Police-A-13-year-old-girl-dies-after-shot-at-Frayser-apartment-364230151.html
PERMIT HOLDERS WHO UNINTENTIONALLY SHOT THEMSELVES IN 2016
MARCH 5, 2016 – KNOXVILLE
A Knoxville man with a valid gun permit accidentally shot himself outside the West Towne Mall Cheesecake Factory. The 23-year-old man unintentionally discharged his Glock, injuring his leg.
http://www.knoxnews.com/news/local/kpd-man-who-shot-himself-in-mall-parking-lot-was-gun-permit-holder-2d78717c-a272-1e1d-e053-0100007f3-371275611.html
An employee at City View Magazine with a valid carry permit was holstering his handgun after using the restroom when he accidentally shot himself in the right leg. He was taken to the hospital to be treated.
http://www.wbir.com/news/local/man-accidentally-shoots-self-in-leg-after-using-bathroom/45010846
TENNESSEE UNINTENTIONAL SHOOTINGS BY THE NUMBERS
2016 UNINTENTIONAL SHOOTINGS TO DATE – 6/10/2016
This includes ALL 2016 unintentional shootings, including those where children were unintentionally shot by adults and those where a child gains access to an unsecured, loaded gun.
Unintentional shootings involving children- deaths: 3
Unintentional shootings involving children- injuries: 14
Unintentional shootings involving children: 17
Unintentional shootings involving adults- deaths: 5
Unintentional shootings involving adults- injuries: 23
Unintentional shootings involving adults with no injuries: 0
Unintentional shootings involving adults: 28
Total accidental shooting incidents to date: 45
2015 UNINTENTIONAL SHOOTINGS THROUGH – 6/10/2015
This includes 2015 unintentional shootings, including those where children were unintentionally shot by adults and those where a child gains access to an unsecured, loaded gun through June 10, 2015.
Unintentional shootings involving children- injuries: 7
Unintentional shootings involving adults- injuries: 5
Unintentional shootings involving adults: 9
Total 2015 accidental shooting incidents to date through 6/10/2015: 20
2015 UNINTENTIONAL SHOOTINGS
Unintentional shootings involving children- fatalities: 9
*Intentional (fatal) shooting of a child by a child with an unsecured gun: 1
Total Unintentional shootings involving children: 25
Unintentional shootings involving adults- fatalities: 4
Unintentional shootings involving adults with no injury: 4
Total accidental shooting incidents in 2015: 51
“There’s no way you can look at these numbers and not see this is a growing problem in our state,” Roth said. “This time last year, there were 9 adult-involved unintentional shootings. This year, there have already been 28. In all of 2015, there were 51 total unintentional shooting incidents. We are not even halfway through 2016, and there have already been 45. As unintentional shooting numbers continue to go up in Tennessee, our lawmakers continue to expand where guns can be carried, and the gun lobby continues their push to eliminate the requirement to have a permit to carry firearms in public.”
tagged with Accidental shooting children, Accidental shootings, Child access prevention, Irresponsible gun storage, MaKayla's Law, Negligent firearm storage, negligent gun storage, Safe storage, Unintentional shooting, Unintentional shooting children
Gun Violence in Tennessee
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4730 Woodman Avenue, Ste 405
myersankary@gmail.com
About Myer J. Sankary
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Using Influence to negotiate better deals
Mediating the litigated dispute
Mediation and Essential Negotiating Skills
Mediator’s Sources of Power
Stage One
Good Decision Making Is Key To Successful Negotiations
by Myer Sankary
The process of making a decision whether to accept a settlement proposal or reject it and go to trial deserves the lawyer’s best efforts, skill, knowledge and judgment. Too often, the decision is made without careful thought, but rather is the result of undue optimism or pessimism, and is clouded with emotional frustration. Lawyers are often unaware of the different stages of negotiating a legal dispute and sometimes press for a resolution before the case is ripe for settlement. This article will review the four stages of a legal dispute with emphasis on the fourth and critical stage – making a decision to reach agreement or accept an impasse.
Failure to develop and consistently implement an objective rational decision making process often leads to acceptance of a settlement that is far less than what a client might have obtained if the attorney had been better prepared for this critical phase of the negotiating process., Moreover, poor decision making can result in an unnecessary trial that is costly for the client as well as the attorney. A disciplined decision making process may not result in the “best possible settlement” (for that goal is not always attainable), but it can lead to a “reasonable decision” which the client and the attorney can make and live with in confidence.
Most lawyers are natural negotiators. They love to argue and persuade others to their point of view. Many rely on intuition and past experience as their primary guide through the negotiation process. Unfortunately, because negotiating efforts come so easily to some lawyers, they fail to analyze what they are doing or to learn how to improve their negotiation skills. . Failure to examine negotiating tactics and strategies can lock us into patterns of thinking and behavior that defeat our primary objectives which is to represent our clients competently in making deals and settling disputes. (Some may disagree and argue that the main objective of the lawyer is to get the maximum amount of money or obtain the best possible result for his or her client.)
Clients seek advice from their lawyers because of their knowledge, experience, analytical skills and good judgment. In representing a client in either a deal or a dispute, lawyers are generally capable of investigating the facts, researching the law and drawing conclusions about whether a client has an actionable claim or whether a deal meets legal muster. Indeed, lawyers usually perform competently during the first three phases of the negotiation process as outlined below, but it is in the critical fourth stage when poor decision making can lead to poor results.
Orientation, Positioning And Developing Strategy
In this initial stage, attorneys gather facts, evaluate their client’s story, research the applicable law, draw certain preliminary conclusions about the claims or defenses of their client’s case, contact opposing counsel and explore the negotiating environment. The lawyer will begin to develop a strategy or roadmap that will lead to the desired result.
In the opening stages, attorneys may signal to opposing counsel either a cooperative, problem solving approach or an adversarial competitive one. A cooperative lawyer will indicate that he will want to work with his colleague to reach a fair and equitable outcome for both parties based upon fair objective standards. He may also indicate that he follows an integrative approach seeking to create options and to package a deal that meets everyone’s interests and needs. The competitive lawyer may demonstrate a maximalist approach – asking the most he can get for his client, perhaps even asking a lot more than he expects to get, leaving room for some compromise, but always in his client’s favor.
It is essential that the skilled negotiator detect whether he is dealing with the “cooperative” or the “competitive” lawyer early in the negotiations and understand what to expect in order to adjust one’s own approach so as not to become manipulated, bullied or exploited. Studies have indicated that a cooperative approach can be very effective, but not if the opponent is adversarial. A tit for tat approach may be required at least until the cooperative approach is accepted by all participants. Through the early stages, each negotiator will signal the style that he or she will use. A lawyer should be prepared to react appropriately.
Discovery, Perception, Argument, Persuasion
At this stage, the lawyer tries to obtain as much information about both sides of the case as possible either through formal discovery or through direct communications, written and oral. In the course of discovery, the negotiator tries to shape the perception most favorably toward his own case so that his opponent will believe that his client will ultimately prevail in his claim or defense. Through presentation of arguments the issues become more defined, strengths and weakness become apparent, and each party tries to find out the real position of the other. The advocate may tend inflate the merits of his case in hopes that his opponent will overvalue his hand. (An unintended consequence of exaggerating a claim is that the client may come to believe that he or she is entitled to the maximum demand – this can become a serious obstacle to settlement unless the client has been thoroughly advised about the true range of value including the potential for loss if the opposition’s case is believed.) Some concessions may be made at this stage. The style of each negotiator becomes apparent through discovery – either full disclosure is made to reasonable questions or objections and roadblocks prevent exchange of information.
Emergence And Crisis
At this stage, negotiators come under pressure from court deadlines, financial constraints, and ultimate trial dates. Each side realizes that concessions must be made, new options created, or they face impasse and the risk of trial. Crisis is reached when neither side wants to make further concession; both sides are fearful of being exploited or manipulated, no more room for compromise seems possible; breakthrough is required to avoid future expenses and uncertainties; and the client is concerned about whether he should accept his lawyer’s advice to settle. The legal advisor should have prepared the client for the eventual critical crossroads of decision making which will lead the client to the certainty of settlement or the uncertain risk of trial.
Stage Four
Agreement Or Impasse – Making a Decision
The pressures of cost, uncertainty of outcome, and sufficient compromise usually brings the parties to agreement in more than 90 percent of litigated cases. This is the stage that is most critical for the client, because a fundamental decision must be made whether to accept the last proposal, continue to negotiate thereby risking withdrawal of a final offer, or proceed to trial.
It is during this critical final stage that the lawyer must have a disciplined systematic approach to decision making to enable him to give competent professional advice to his client. Unfortunately, in these circumstances, when the client is reliant the most on his lawyer for helpful advice, some lawyers are not equipped with the analytical skills necessary to advise their clients to make a “smart choice” not a “perfect one!”
Making a decision whether to accept or reject a last and final walk-away offer is indeed one of the most important decisions a client will be required to make. Counsel must always remember that the final decision whether to settle or go to trial is the client’s, although that decision is usually based upon counsel’s judgment and advice. Yet, all too often, the client is surprised to find out that the final best offer falls far short of his expectation which was based upon his attorney’s assurances about the value of his case. It is not uncommon for tensions to arise between a client and his attorney resulting in a loss of trust and confidence. A client, who has not been prepared to face the critical crossroad of decision making, may refuse to accept an offer recommended by his own attorney.
Attorneys and their clients are often disappointed in the mediation process because it resembles an arm-twisting mandatory settlement conference. These encounters are highlighted by judicial pressures and threats with nothing more to support the final decision than judicial intimidation. In this context, neither the attorney nor the client feels that a decision to settle was based on a fair and rational process.
On the other hand, through the assistance of an experienced mediator trained in decision making process, the lawyer can receive support in his advice to his client about why the last offer is a reasonable one under the circumstance that should receive serious consideration. The mediator can assist both parties in understanding the decision making process so that they can have confidence that the decision was a good one based upon a rational analysis.
The Lawyer Has a Duty to Obtain a Reasonable Compromise if Possible
The standard for determining whether a lawyer has met his professional obligation by recommending a settlement in litigated cases was recently examined in Barnard vs. Langer. In Barnard, [2] a client claimed that the attorney was negligent by compromising his claim without achieving the “best” possible result. The appellate court rejected this claim, citing Mallen, on Legal Malpractice (fn. 13 – see below):
“The standard should be whether the settlement is within the realm of reasonable conclusions, not whether the client could have received more or paid less. No lawyer has the ability to obtain for each client the best possible compromise but only a reasonable one.” Barnard at p. 588 (emphasis added).
One of the best discussions about how to make a rational decision of an offer to settle a litigated case in the face of uncertainty can be found in the book, Smart Choices. [3]
The Smart Choice approach is based upon eight elements, referred to as PrOACT. Harvard Business School Professor Howard Raiffa explains that a smart decision requires a step-by-step analysis of the core considerations:
The Alternatives
The Consequence
The Tradeoffs
Three additional elements — uncertainty, risk tolerance, and linked decisions help clarify more complex decisions, such as whether to take the last proposed offer.
Lawyer should keep in mind several key concepts. In deciding whether to accept an offer, the litigant should isolate three essential considerations:
1. The chances of winning at trial and, if so, the different possible jury awards.
2. The time and stresses associated with trial and not going to trial, together with the degree of the litigant’s regret if she loses, or satisfaction if she wins.
3. The litigant’s willingness to take risk Supra, at p. 127
A decision to accept a final and last offer or to reject it and go to trial is a choice between finality and certainty on the one hand and continued litigation in the face of an uncertain outcome on the other hand. A competent lawyer will develop analytical tools to advise his client about how to make such a decision based upon a consistent rational approach to problem solving.
The lawyer should prepare a risk profile to simplify decisions involving uncertainty as follows:
A. Identify Uncertainties
Many uncertainties exist within a lawsuit, such as what facts will be admitted to support each claim or defense; how will the judge rule as to admission of evidence; what testimony will be elicited from each witness ; how will the jury react to the attorneys, to the parties and to the witnesses? Whose story will the trier of fact most likely believe?
B. Define Outcomes
This is a two stage process. First, determine how many possible outcomes are needed to ascertain the extent of uncertainty; and how each possible outcome can best be defined. Second, in a litigated matter, anticipating a variety of possible outcomes is much more useful than predicting only two – a win or a loss. (See table below)
C. Assign Chances
Although difficult to predict, it is important to place a number on each possible outcome, the total adding up to 1 or 100 percent. This exercise replaces fuzzy concepts (“You have a ‘good’ chance of winning”) with precise thinking based upon the lawyer’s experience, knowledge, and judgment. (See table below.)
It is essential to use more refined probabilistic predictions about the litigation outcome in order to compare possible outcomes with the final offer. [4] This requires the lawyer to examine each material issue, weigh the evidence, and make a realistic prediction about the outcome of each finding leading to a final verdict. In predicting possible outcomes at trial, lawyers should try to predict a range of probable outcomes giving each range a probability factor. An effective negotiator should factor the probability of a loss (meaning – the result predicted by your opponent as adjusted by your evaluation of what a loss may mean in financial and legal consequences to your client) together with the probability of a low recovery, average, and high recovery.
For example, in a personal injury case, with some risk of proving liability (or having a major portion of comparative fault attributed to your client) a reasonable prediction may be the following:
Instead of telling the client, “I think you have a good chance of winning,” or “You should prevail,” or “Your position is very risky,” numerical estimates for various probabilistic outcomes gives a more precise statement of your assessment of the case.
By making a prediction of this type, the client will be in a better position to assess what a win looks like as opposed to a loss with the probability of each alternative occurring.
D. Use a Decision Tree as Graphic Illustration of Risk
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Use a “decision tree” to graphically illustrate a risk profile. The authors of Smart Choices recommend this method of displaying the interrelationships among choices and uncertainties to create a blueprint for making a complex decision. (See illustrative decision tree analysis at the end of this article)
Counsel should also seek to understand how the decision styles of your client, yourself, and other parties to the litigation affect the negotiating process. A decision style reflects how much information one needs to make a decision, how much time is required to process the information to reach a conclusion and one’s personality trait when under pressure. To force a client to make a decision before all of the information is obtained and understood could result in rejection of the advice.
Also, often overlooked by attorneys who give advice about accepting or rejecting the last offer is the client’s tolerance for risk. This aspect of decision making is perhaps one of the most important elements of decision analysis, for it is based upon each client’s intangible willingness to take risk. Although the attorney may feel more more confident about the outcome of a trial than the client and may therefore be willing to go to court if the settlement is not what the attorney believes is adequate, it is the client’s personal decision whether the cost of losing outweighs the potential upside of winning. More than likely, your client will be more risk averse than you. Risk tolerance can be quantified by desirability or utility scoring. (See pages 140 et seq. in Smart Choices.).
In discussing your client’s willingness to choose the risk of going to trial, be sure not to fall into the following mental traps:
Don’t be overly pessimistic about your chance for success
Don’t underestimate the probabilities to account for risk
Don’t ignore significant uncertainty
Avoid foolish optimism
Don’t avoid making risky decisions because they are complex
Pp.155-156
The opportunity for lawyers to utilize these decision-making tools can be found in the mediation process, provided the mediator is knowledgeable and experienced in this dynamic approach. When an attorney guides his clients through the decision making process in negotiations, he must be able to provide sound advice and suggests ways the client can choose whether or not to accept the last best offer. Fortunately, because of the substantial advances in mediation research and training, a knowledgeable and experienced mediator can assist the attorney and his client to make a rational decision. The mediator has the opportunity to learn critical information from the other side which may be unknown to attorney; he can also provide a more balanced approach to quantifying risk assessments on each of the issues in dispute. The right mediator can be a fair and impartial sounding board as well as a trusted guide through the complicated and difficult maze of making a reasonable decision either to accept the certainty of a settlement or to undertake the risk and unknown consequences of a trial.
Whether or not you agree with the opinions and assessments of the mediator, the opportunity to compare your projections and analysis of the possible outcomes of a trial with those of an objective and experienced neutral facilitator should be worth the investment of time and money.
The important thing is to make a decision you and your client can live with. Armed with the knowledge of the four stages of a legal dispute and how to make a smart choice when facing uncertainty, the attorney and his client will have confidence that when they arrive at the critical crossroads, the decision they make will be a reasonable one under the circumstances. At that point making a decision is better than making none at all. When the final choice has to be made, the knowledgeable attorney should keep in mind the wisdom of Yogi Berra who said, “When you come to a fork in the road, take it!
Decision Tree Diagram – Smart Choices, Hammond, Keeney, Raiffa (1999), at 151
Illustration of components of making a decision whether to accept an out of court settlement for a net of $210,000 or to go to court with various possible win or lose outcomes.
At Stage 1, the attorney and client must decide whether to accept the settlement or go to court. In making the decision, the attorney should advise the client about possible outcomes based upon the attorney’s knowledge, experience and judgment. In the above example, the attorney believes that there is a 70 percent chance of winning and a 30 percent chance of losing.
At Stages 2 and 3 the outcomes at trial are uncertain, but in making a reasonable decision, the client is better informed when he is told about the range of possible outcomes at trial. This is translated into numbers which the client can understand better than the general observation – “you have a good chance of winning!” Of course no attorney can guarantee a result in litigation, but he should use his expertise and skills to illustrate for his client what a possible win or loss will look like.
Combining the risk profile of trial with the risk tolerance of the client will assist the client in making a reasoned decision, not a perfect one.
[1] One of the classic textbooks on legal negotiations is Legal Negotiation and Settlement, by Gerald Williams (West Publishing 1983). His work is based upon research and studies observing a variety of attorneys negotiate in a number of different settings. One of the important findings of the studies that skilled legal negotiators should know is that every negotiation of a disputed claim goes through four basic stages (page 70 ff)
[2] Barnard vs. Langar footnote 13 D.J. cite: 2003 DJDAR 7090 ( June 23,2003 2d dist –Justice Vogel)
“The hindsight vulnerability of lawyers is particularly acute when the challenge is to the attorney’s competence in settling the underlying case. As a leading legal malpractice text observes, the amount of a compromise is often “an educated guess of the amount that can be recovered at trial and what the opponent was willing to pay or accept. Even skillful and experienced negotiators do not know whether they received the maximum settlement or paid out the minimum acceptable. Thus, the goal of a lawyer is to achieve a ‘reasonable’ settlement, a concept that involves a wide spectrum of considerations and broad discretion. Theoretically, any settlement could be challenged as inadequate, and the resolution is likely to require a trial. . . . A claim regarding an inadequate settlement often fails because it is inherently speculative. Negligence cannot be predicated on speculation that the attorney or another attorney could have secured a more advantageous settlement or the fortuitous event that a jury instead of a judge may have returned a higher award. A client, who was a plaintiff, must establish not only that concluding such a settlement fell outside the standard of care, but also what would have been a reasonable settlement and that such sums would have been agreed to and could have and would have been paid.” (4 Mallen, Legal Malpractice (5th ed. 2000) Error – Settlement, § 30.41, pp. 582-585, citing Thompson v. Halvonik, supra, 36 Cal.App.4th 657, and Marshak v. Ballesteros, supra, 72 Cal.App.4th 1514.) As the same text notes, the speculative nature of hindsight challenges to recommended settlements “often are protected as judgment calls. In evaluating and recommending a settlement, the attorney has broad discretion and is not liable for a mere error of judgment. The standard should be whether the settlement is within the realm of reasonable conclusions, not whether the client could have received more or paid less. No lawyer has the ability to obtain for each client the best possible compromise but only a reasonable one.” (Id. at p. 588.)
[3] See Smart Choices, (Harvard Business School Press 1999) an excellent book by Hammond, Keeney and Raiffa, who have set forth a proven roadmap for decision making that will take some of the guess work out of this important part of the negotiation and mediation process. Professor Raiffa has developed these principles more fully in his recent book, Negotiation Analysis (Belknap-Harvard 2002) in collaboration with Richardson and Metcalfe
[4] Roger Fisher and William Ury in their landmark publication, Getting to Yes, urged negotiators to know their BATNA before engaging in the final stages of negotiating a settlement. The Best Alternative to a Negotiated Agreement can be determined through the analysis set forth in Smart Choices and the use of the decision tree. Knowing your BATNA can give the attorney and his client a degree of confidence in making the decision whether to settle or litigate.
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Taxes Are the Dues We Pay to Live in a Civilized, Democratic Society
Written by: Terry Link
Primary Source : Possibilitator, February 5, 2017
[I attempted to get this viewpoint published in three newspapers in Michigan without success. So I am putting it out there via the blogosphere. Share as you see fit].
Taxes are the dues we pay to live in a civilized, democratic society.
Recent Michigan legislation introduced to eliminate the state income tax therefore suggests the end of our so-called democracy. We have been accelerating our race towards oligarchy in recent years with the deleterious Citizen’s United case that makes it easier for the wealthy to purchase elections, the recent election handing the 0.1% the reins of government, and the avalanche of mergers and acquisitions that concentrate more wealth and power in fewer and fewer hands.
Who accrues the most from the elimination of income tax? No surprise, it’s the wealthiest among us. And when government is totally starved, who will repair all the market failures and pay for externalities like pollution that aren’t in the private sector’s balance sheets? The extreme wealthy already own our government via fossil fuels, banking, the military-industrial-complex and pharmaceutical conglomerates, with their minions at the top. A functioning democracy would wrestle some of the power back to the citizens. Voting isn’t enough. Citizens need to pressure government to do the right thing. Democracy is not a spectator sport.
Here’s an example: The poisoning of the Tittibiwassee River from dioxins was largely the work of Dow Chemical upstream in Midland. Once the problem was identified, largely with the help of concerned citizens who live in the watershed, Dow was approached by the DEQ and EPA to fix it. But Dow, now merging with Dupont after swallowing Union Carbide following that firm’s deadly example of citizenship in Bhopal, India, sought delay after delay. The cost of cleanup was substantial, hence their reluctance to finance the repair, a similar story only magnified in Bhopal . But much of the Dow largess is tucked away in Dow Family foundations, which bequeath some small portion each year to beautify Midland and support other community causes; the benefactors are then showered with adulation from those who benefit from the crumbs from their table.’
When I sat for a brief stint on an environmental advisory panel that looked at that issue more than a decade ago, I noted that tapping some of the Dow Foundation money could easily cover the cost of cleaning up the Tittibiwassee mess. Of course, such a radical suggestion was quickly ignored and the foundations, who weren’t at the table, weren’t offering.
There is something magical about great wealth. We tend to be enamored of it, perhaps imagining ourselves living in palatial surroundings, totally unconcerned about expenditures. Those who argue that the wealthiest among us pay the most in taxes (in real dollars) always neglect a fundamental reality: it’s not how much one pays but how much one has left that really matters.
The median household income in the US is roughly $50,000. Current Michigan tax (4.25%) on that amount is $2,125, leaving $47,875. To be in the semi-lofty 1% category you need to make a minimum of $429,000, in which case your tax would be $19,072, leaving you a meager $409,928 to scrape by. But this is one year only. If those incomes stay steady for even ten years the one-percenters earn $4,290,000 and pay democracy dues of $190,725, leaving them with $4,099,275 compared with our median family which has earned $478,750. The difference, then, between the two families’ wealth has grown from $362,053 to $3,620,500.
This is the disease that is spreading rapidly here and abroad. It is now among the highest risk concerns as identified by the World Economic Forum in their recent 2017 Global Risks Report. Our state legislators are oblivious. We shouldn’t be.
Terry Link
Terry Link is a retired MSU librarian, former founding director of the MSU Office of Campus Sustainability, and co-founder and former chair of the American Library Association’s Task Force on the Environment. He recently served as associate editor for the two-volume encyclopedia, Achieving Sustainability: Visions, Principles, and Practices(Gale/Cengage 2014). He has also served as executive director of a regional food bank and as a county commissioner. Currently he is president of Starting Now, LLC, a sustainability consulting firm, a Senior Fellow for the U.S. Partnership for Education for Sustainable Development and serves on numerous non-profit organization boards.
Latest posts by Terry Link (see all)
Enough Already!! - April 18, 2019
Attitude of Possibility - March 1, 2019
Two Books – Real Gifts - December 27, 2018
February 5, 2017 Terry Link Posted in Economics, Social Science, Sustainability Tagged Citizen’s United case, Democracy, DOW, inequality, Taxes Post Permalink
← Baby Universes in the Laboratory
Independent Streams (Week of February 6) →
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Beulah homestead with outbuildings behind photo Paolo Busato.jpg
Beulah homestead with outbuildings behind. Photo © Paolo Busato for Sydney Living Museums
Background on Beulah
Beulah, on Appin Road south of Campbelltown, is a unique property that combines elements of both heritage and environmental significance.
The site contains a state-significant 1830s stone homestead and surrounding farm outbuildings alongside 60 hectares of critically endangered woodlands. Its history includes entrepreneurial Irish convicts and one of NSW’s most significant settlement families. The property was purchased by Sydney Living Museums (SLM) in 2010 and is being developed as an Endangered Houses Fund project.
Until recently, the Beulah homestead was generally assumed to have been built by one of the Hume family and the property has derived a great deal of its significance from this association. The Hume family were the pioneering settlers of the district and best known for the early explorations of Hamilton Hume and his overland journey of exploration to Port Phillip in 1824-25 with Captain William Hovell.
New research by Megan Martin, SLM’s Head of Collections and Access, has uncovered a different story which sheds new light on the story of Irish convicts in Australia.
The Beulah farmhouse was built around 1835-1836 by an emancipated Irish convict named Connor, or Cornelius, Boland, a native of County Clare, transported on the Three Bees in 1814. It was built on land promised to another emancipated Irish convict, Cornelius, or Connor, Bryan from County Tipperary, who had been transported for life on the Atlas 2 in 1802. Bryan was given an Absolute Pardon in 1812, promised the grant in1814 and formally granted the land in 1823. By that time Bryan had long since returned to Ireland, leaving the property in the control of Connor Boland and a man called Thomas Connell, one of Bryan’s shipmates on the Atlas 2. Boland consolidated the property, buying two neighbouring grants sometime in the 1820s, although the title remained in the name of Denis O’Brien, one of Boland’s shipmates from the Three Bees and a fellow County Clare man.
Boland also acquired land in the Illawarra. He built up a substantial herd of cattle which he grazed at Appin and in the Illawarra and on a property near Maitland. He also bred horses. By the time he got his Absolute Pardon in 1834 he was already wealthy enough to return home. It is likely that he built the house largely as a means to maximizing the capital return on his assets. He put the property, then known as Summerhill, along with 250 head of cattle, on the market in September 1836 as he prepared to leave the colony. The advertisement for sale described the ‘lately erected’ cottage as:
a well finished substantial stone house, containing a verandah, passage, 8 good rooms and an attic story over the whole, fit for storage or any kind or servants’ apartments.
The Hume connection was established in 1846 when Francis Rawdon Hume bought Summerhill in the name of his six-year-old son, John Kennedy Hume. Francis already owned the front block of land that connected Summerhill to Appin Road and the adjacent property, Meadowvale. The front block was consolidated with the other Summerhill holdings to form the extent of the property as we now know it. Hume let Summerhill out to tenant farmers for the next 30 years.
In 1884 John Kennedy Hume, his wife Emma Johnson Clayton and ten-year-old daughter Ellen returned to Appin and changed the name of the property from Summerhill to Beulah, a Hebrew term for the land of Israel; the choice of this name may have been influenced by John Kennedy Hume’s adherence to the ideas of British Israelism. John, Emma and Ellen lived at Beulah for the rest of their lives, with John Kennedy Hume dying there in 1905 and his widow Emma in 1919. Ellen died unmarried in 1936 and the property began a long decline into dereliction.
Ellen Hume left the property to the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (RSPCA) but with the provision that her “maid and companion” Sarah Papworth and her husband could continue to have the “use and enjoyment” of Beulah for as long as she made the property her principal place of residence. Sarah died in 1960 and David continued living at Beulah until his own death in 1967.
Following David Papworth’s death the house chattels were distributed between various beneficiaries of Ellen Hume while other items disappeared or were given away by the RSPCA. The property was formally conveyed to the RSPCA in December 1969, they promptly auctioned the property the following year. The property was bought by Beulah Investments, a land investment company that was anticipating the expansion of metropolitan Sydney into the south-west sector. While they waited for the hoped-for rezoning of the land, the company let parts of the property out on agistment leases. The farm buildings continued to deteriorate but, following assessments by the State Planning Authority and the National Trust, Beulah was formally classified in 1980 on the National Trust register as a significant heritage item and in 1987 a Permanent Conservation Order was placed over the homestead and its surrounding farm building and fences.
In 2002 Beulah Investments were advised by the NSW Heritage Branch that they were in breach of the Heritage Act by allowing the deterioration of the homestead. The heritage architects Clive Lucas Stapleton and Partners were contracted to assess the building and in 2004 they supervised a schedule of repair works on the building including the reconstruction of the collapsed stone walls of the two northern verandah rooms, the reconstruction of a roof structure over these rooms, and the replacement of five verandah posts to match the originals
It was around this time that the Historic Houses Trust of New South Wales (HHT, now SLM) became aware of Beulah. In August 2004 the then Director of the HHT, Peter Watts, wrote to Beulah Investments explaining that the property had been brought to the Trust’s attention as a potential candidate for the Trust’s Endangered Houses Fund (EHF).
In September 2010, the HHT entered into a funding agreement with the Office of Environment & Heritage to purchase the property through the EHF. The Office of Environment and Heritage’s interest in Beulah was because of the significance of the 60 hectares of bushland on the property. This rare remnant parcel of woodland had been first noted in a study of the native vegetation of the Sydney area published in 1969 and had been further explored by botanist Doug Benson from Sydney’s Royal Botanic Gardens in a report completed in 1986.
The bush in the front block of Beulah may never have been cleared. The block is crossed by Woodhouse Creek, with the woodlands to the east of the creek comprising endangered Shale Transitional Forest while the woodlands to the west transition into critically endangered Cumberland Plains Woodland. The block of woodlands and the connecting ribbon of bush that extends along the northern boundary of Beulah provide a wildlife corridor between the Georges and Nepean rivers. The bushland also includes areas of high indigenous archaeological sensitivity, particularly around the creek bed and its four tributaries.
The Office of Environment & Heritage contributed funds towards the purchase of Beulah through the Growth Centres Biodiversity Offset Program. In return for their support, the HHT agreed to the 60 hectares of bushland being turned into a Biobank area. The Biobank status provides permanent conservation for the bushland and establishes a trust fund from which the owner of the land is paid an annual fee in perpetuity to manage and maintain the land. The annual funding pays for a prescribed program of bush management works that includes weeding, revegetation, fencing, controlled burns and pest control.
The significant heritage items on the property include the 1830s homestead, the footings of the homestead’s previous outbuildings and vestiges of its former formal gardens, the dilapidated timber farm buildings and summer house, remnant post and rail fencing, the round yard in front of the homestead, and the stone bridge on the driveway in from Appin Road. The property provides rare evidence of agricultural practices on a farming property that was continuously occupied and worked from the 1820s to the 1960s.
The homestead is a comparatively rare example of colonial masonry construction and retains its original plan and form as described in the 1836 advertisement for sale. Significant elements include the remnant shingle roof, rubble wall construction, flagged verandah and the overall form and arrangement. The views to and from the homestead are unchanged from the 1820s. The building is, however, in dilapidated condition, with sections of collapsed ceilings and floors, missing windows and doors and no internal fittings. Conservation of the house will be a significant project.
To the south of the house are two timber farm buildings – both in a severely ruined state. Closest to the homestead is the former farm-manager’s cottage, one section of which has completely collapsed. A further 50 metres away is the remnants of the coach-shed, again largely fallen. On the crest of the ridgeline that traverses the property, 100 metres to the west of the homestead, sits the remnant octagon-shaped roofed of the gazebo, where the occupants of the farm would have previously gone to enjoy the breezes and views across the Menangle Valley, Southern Highlands and adjacent Hume homestead (Meadowvale).
The bridge that spans Woodhouse Creek on the driveway in from Appin Road is a remarkable structure. The age of the bridge is debated; it may date from the period of construction of the homestead or, more likely, from shortly after the purchase of Summerhill by Francis Rawdon Hume. Either way, the structure is probably still the oldest surviving stone bridge on private property on the Australian mainland. The stone abutments of the bridge are intact although the original timber bearers and deck, and a secondary deck that was overlaid around the 1950s have since collapsed. Along with the roadway, the bridge forms a romantic bush-lined access way in to the homestead group and open pastures at the rear of the property.
As a first step in the conservation of the property the SLM Heritage Team is working towards the reinstatement of the Beulah driveway and bridge.
... a comparatively rare example of colonial masonry construction...
Beulah homestead across dam.
Beulah driveway before reconstruction
Beulah bridge before reconstruction
Beulah homestead
View from Beulah homestead c1910-20
Beulah verandah March 1899
Looking across Menangle Valley
Farm manager's cottage and coach house
Interior of homestead
Rear of homestead
Woodhouse Creek
Beulah homestead viewed across dam.
Photo © Paolo Busato for Sydney Living Museums
Tap for full size image
Beulah driveway before reconstruction showing area of original road fabric.
Beulah bridge before reconstruction.
Beulah homestead with outbuildings behind.
View from Beulah homestead across formal garden c1910-20.
Photographer Iona, private colleciton
Beulah verandah March 1899.
Photo Joseph Henry Whitehouse. Private collection.
Collapsed roof of summer house, looking across Menangle Valley.
Dairy attached to Beulah homestead.
Farm manager's cottage (right) and coach house (left).
Interior of Beulah homestead.
Rear of Beulah homestead looking back towards Beulah Forest.
Woodhouse Creek through Beulah Forest.
Former Project Manager
Heritage Team
Richard Taylor was a project manager in the heritage team at Sydney Living Museums.
Exploring Beulah
Experience the Beulah homestead with 360-degree imagery of the house and its surrounds.
Rebuilding the Beulah bridge
The bridge at Beulah is believed to be the oldest privately owned bridge on mainland Australia.
News from Beulah
Beulah as native fauna refugeTuesday 26 June 2018
A male koala has been seen in the bushland at Beulah, our Endangered Houses Fund property south of Campbelltown, this month.
Furry sighting at BeulahFriday 14 August 2015
We are very excited about our first documented koala sighting at Beulah in over 60 years!
Beulah bridge archaeologyFriday 27 February 2015
The civil works contractor and archaeologist working on the reinstatement of the Beulah road and bridge are continuing to reveal and document the original structures.
Beulah road work commencesThursday 26 February 2015
Pepping up the pastures at BeulahWednesday 10 December 2014
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Home/Polymers and Advanced Materials/Staple Fibers Market
Staple Fibers Market: Information By Type (Cotton, Cellulosic, Polyester), Application (home furnishing, personal care), Structure (Solid and Hollow) and Regional Outlook - Forecast Till 2026
Global Statistics Representing Staple Fibers Market Scenario
Increasing Per capita consumption of cloths and growing fashion industry are likely to escalate the global demand for Staple Fibers. As staple fibre plays vital role in production of cloths and garments. For instance, according to the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE), the global turnover of fashion industry was around US$ 179.74 billion and it produced 60 million tonnes of garments in 2018 and it is anticipated to reach at 100 million by 2030.
Rising per capita income and changing cloths preference positively impact on the textile industry which in turn propel the growth of staple fibre market during forecast period 2019 - 2016. For instance, according to the Indian Brand Equity Foundation, the domestic textile industry was valued at US$ 223 billion in 2017 and it is forecasted to reach at US$ 150 billion by 2021.
Apparel segment is surmised to be one of the major consumer of staple fibers. According to the study conducted by the Chemicals & Petrochemicals Manufacturers' Association, Apparel segment is said to have consumed 3,365 kilo tons in 2016 and it is estimated to raising at a CAGR of 4.2% from 2017 to 2025 and it is also expected to be the dominant driver of demand.
Global staple fibers market was valued at USD 24.11 billion in 2017 and is expected to reach a value of USD 36.44 billion at a CAGR of 3.8% during the forecast period, 2019–2026.
Staple Fibers Manufacturers
Staple Fibers Reselling Companies
Research and Development Institutes
Traders, Distributors, and Suppliers of Thermal Ceramics
Global staple fibers market is segmented by type, application and structure.
By type, the market staple fibers is segmented into cotton, cellulosic, polyester and others. Cotton segment is expected to grow at the fastest CAGR as it find major applications in the textile industry. Growing textile industry is expected to propel the growth of the staple fibers market. For instance, according to the Indian Brand Equity Foundation, textile industry is critically based on the cotton. Besides, according to the same sources, Indian textile industry is expected to reach US$ 223 billion by 2021.
By application, the staple fibers market is segmented into home furnishing, personal care & hygiene, automotive, construction, apparel, and filtration. Automotive is gaining major traction in the global staple fibers market. Staple fibers finds its major application in the production of automobile carpets, roof, floor, seating fabrics, insulation material, safety belts etc. Growing automotive components market is anticipated to boost the staple fibers market during the forecast period 2019- 2026. For instance according to the news published by consultancy.uk (UK's advisory and consulting industry) in 2017, the global automotive industry is expected to grow 114 million units in worldwide sales annually by 2024 and growing at rate of 2.8 per annum during forecast period 2019-2026.
Addition to that, personal care and hygiene segment is likely to gain significant market share in the global staple fibers market owing to increasing use in the production of personal care wipes, baby care wipe, adult incontinence products such as adult diaper, large shaped pads, washable Under pads, mattress protectors etc. Adult incontinence is the emerging and widely getting accepted by the society which is forecasted to boost demand for staple fibre.
By Structure, the staple fibers market is segmented into Solid and hollow. Hollow polyester fibers are majorly used in the production of artificial lather materials owing to high resilience properties so as it is also used in high performance market such as ballistic protection, high pressure water jet suits etc.
Geographically, the global staple fibers market is segmented into four regions: North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, and Latin America and the Middle East & Africa (LAMEA).
North America is projected to lead global staple fibers market during forecast period 2019- 2026 owing to the growing automotive industry in North America. Staple fibers are frequently used in production of automotive component such as seat, seat belts, airbag etc... For instance according to the American Automotive Policy Council, the contribution of automakers and their suppliers in America's GDP was 3% in 2018. Besides America exported more than US$ 692 billion valued vehicles and parts in 2018.
Asia Pacific is estimated to be growing and becoming lucrative market for staple fibers market in global perspective. It is due to the growing construction industry where staple fibers are extensively used for various purpose such as it is used in concrete to improve the cracking resistance, also used for roofing materials. for instance, according to Invest India (regulated by Government of India), construction market in India is anticipated to be third largest ,market in the world and construction output in India is projected to grow at average annual rate of 7.1 %.
Europe is likely to witness significant growth in staple fibers market, in account of increasing apparel market. For instance, according to the Global Apparel & Textile Trade and Sourcing, Germany Apparel Market was valued at US$ 52,000 million in 2016 and it is anticipated to grow at US$ 72,320 million by 2020.
LAMEA is expected to witness steady growth in staple fibers market owing to increasing investment on textile and apparel sector. For instance, according to Texbrasil (The Brazilian Textile and Fashion Industry Internationalization Program), Brazils total investment on textile and apparel sector was 0.28 million in 2016 and increased up to 0.3 million in 2017. This investment intensifies the balanced growth in the region.
Barnet GmbH & Co. KG(Germany), Aditya Birla Group (India), Sateri International Co. Ltd.(China), Zhejiang Hengsheng Chemical Fiber Co., Ltd. (China), China Petroleum & Chemical Corporation (China), Reliance Industries Limited (India), Celanese (United States), Hubei Botao Synthetic Fiber Co. (China), ltd. TEIJIN FRONTEIR Co. Ltd., Indorama Ventures Public Company Limited (Thailand), Toray Industries, Inc. (Japan), Zedtex Australia Pty Ltd. (Australia) and XINDA Corp (Germany).
Staple Fibers Market Segmentation
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Cult Film: A Clockwork Orange
strathtelegraph
Starring: Malcolm McDowell, Patrick Magee
by Emma Guinness
Stanley Kubrick’s adaptation of Anthony Burgess’ novel A Clockwork Orange is, in my opinion, the quintessential cult film. Upon its release in 1971, the film was banned in America due to its violent and sexually explicit content. Despite its notorious reputation, this film is not one which is centred on debase subject matter, but a question which will always be relevant to mankind: what is the true nature of ‘goodness’? This is, however, just one of the many reasons why A Clockwork Orange is worth watching; other unusual features such as the culture which exists amongst its portrayals of inhuman brutality, and the captivating way it has been filmed have obtained it cult status – Alex and his gang’s outfits, for example, symbolise its sexually explicit nature through the codpieces they wear.
A Clockwork Orange’s plot is centred on the teenage anti-hero Alex DeLarge. A disturbed young man marauding through a future dystopian society with his three droogs, (told using the slang language of ‘Nadsat’, the word ‘droog’ being the Russian word for ‘friend’), they commit some heinous crimes, including vicious rapes. As instigator of most of the activities, it is Alex who is eventually caught out. Instead of being incarcerated, Alex agrees to be a guinea-pig for the sinister ‘Ludovico technique’, which promises to cure and reform violent criminals permanently. This technique is disturbing as it removes Alex’s capacity to make a moral choice, though it ostensibly appears to make him into a model citizen. The film follows Alex’s subsequent journey after undergoing the Ludovico Technique, and the effects it has upon his ability to choose between good and evil – a choice which is integral to the individual’s humanity.
This film has become a cult classic largely due to its unusual content, such as the culture that exists amongst its portrayals of inhuman brutality. Alex’s fascination with Beethoven, for example, provides a stark contrast between the innocent nature of music, and the acts of violence which he carries out. Indeed, although Beethoven is played at various points throughout, it is most poignant when it is played as Alex commits heinous crimes. The visual aspects of A Clockwork Orange are also particularly effective as although it is set in a future society, it is not a distant future as seen in sci-fi films, but one that can be related to – a tomorrow not far from today. It is because of this that the film’s questioning of the nature of ‘goodness’ has remained relevant to modern audiences, and emphasizes that moral choice is of key importance in any society, regardless of whether it is 1970 or 2070.
Ultimately, A Clockwork Orange is worth watching because of the poignant comment it makes about human nature. It will always be relevant because it reveals that it is the choice between good and evil which makes the individual human – without this choice, they become something mechanical and clockwork. This adaptation of Burgess’ novel possesses many qualities which the book does not, and in my opinion, it is these qualities, such as Alex and his gang’s outfits, which have obtained it cult status. Therefore, if you are willing to look past A Clockwork Orange’s notorious reputation, you will be rewarded with a film that is both captivating and complex, and it is because of this that it is worth recommending.
Categories: Arts
Tags: cult film, film
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TellyMix / News / The Only Way Is Essex 2019 /
Mark Wright and Amy Childs 'in talks for TOWIE reunion special'
Posted June 21, 2019 19:33 by Staff Reporter
Some of The Only Way Is Essex's original cast members could be back for a one-off special.
The likes of Mark Wright and Amy Childs are said to be in talks for a 10-year reunion show next year.
It'd mark a decade since the first episode of the hit reality show began in 2010.
TOWIE, which originally began on ITV2 before moving to its current home on ITVBe, has aired 300 episodes across 24 series and specials.
A source told The Sun newspaper: "Towie’s ten years anniversary is coming up next year and bosses want to mark it in some way.
“It been a cultural phenomenon really and some of the original cast members have gone down in reality TV history.
“No one is entirely sure what they will do or if any of the cast mates will agree to come back but at the moment it’s a case of never say never!”
Not one of the original TOWIE cast remain on the show after James "Arg" Argent and Lauren Pope left last year.
Currently the longest running cast members are Chloe Sims and Gemma Collins, who both joined in series 2 in 2011.
You can catch up with the latest episodes of TOWIE via the ITV Hub or with Amazon Prime Video.
More on: Amy Childs Mark Wright The Only Way Is Essex 2019
Oti Mabuse 'ruled out' as Darcey Bussell's replacement on Strictly
Ant and Dec confirmed to host I'm A Celebrity in 2019
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What the Law Says About Campus Free Speech
As faculty grapple with how to set a culture that maximizes learning, administrators must also ensure the university follows the law.
Mark Storslee
Illustration: Aad GoudappelThe First Amendment applies only to the government, not to private organizations. In general, that means that while public universities are required to comply with the requirements of the First Amendment, private universities are not.
But in California the situation is different because of the Leonard Law. Enacted in 1992, that state law forbids all private, nonreligious universities in California from disciplining students for speech that is protected by the First Amendment or the California Constitution.
At Stanford, the Fundamental Standard requires all students to show “such respect for order, morality, personal honor and the rights of others as is demanded of good citizens.” In 1990, however, the Student Conduct Legislative Council interpreted that rule as governing not just conduct but also speech that was “intended to insult or stigmatize” on the basis of race, sex or other characteristics.
In Corry v. Leland Stanford Junior University, a California court ruled that this interpretation violated the Leonard Law. The court explained that although Stanford may regulate actual harassment or speech that provokes immediate violence, the First Amendment forbids punishing speech “because of the message it conveys.”
Current university rules prohibit “acts of intolerance” toward individuals or groups based on traits such as race or sexual orientation. But the rules specifically state that “[e]ngaging in constitutionally protected expressive activities will not subject a student to discipline under the Fundamental Standard.”
The situation for free speech on college campuses might be changing everywhere. Recently, the Trump administration issued an executive order commanding the heads of many federal agencies to ensure that universities receiving federal research funds “promote free and open debate” on their campuses. Unlike the Leonard Law, the executive order does not explicitly say that private universities must comply with all standards of the First Amendment. But it does suggest that the federal government may be getting more serious about protecting speech at all institutions of higher learning, whether public or private.
Mark Storslee is the executive director of the Constitutional Law Center. His research focuses on the First Amendment freedoms of speech, association and religion, as well as broader questions in constitutional law.
What Should Free Speech Mean in College?
Universities must cultivate a climate in which students feel comfortable taking intellectual risks. Four faculty members weigh in on why setting that culture is hard.
Re: The Thought Police
On college campuses, how do we achieve both civility and candor?
Her knowledge of Internet law is profound, and her advocacy for civil liberties is fierce. Meet Jennifer Granick, one of the country's most powerful voices for digital privacy.
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Posts Tagged ‘die prematurely’
‘Crazy Claims About Death Panels’ Sadly Not Crazy At All
Are you familiar with the phrase, “the banality of evil”? The opening paragraph in the Wikipedia article on the subject summarizes the concept quite well:
The banality of evil is a phrase coined by Hannah Arendt and incorporated in the title of her 1963 work Eichmann in Jerusalem: A Report on the Banality of Evil. It describes the thesis that the great evils in history generally, and the Holocaust in particular, were not executed by fanatics or sociopaths but rather by ordinary people who accepted the premises of their state and therefore participated with the view that their actions were normal.
Again and again, we have seen great evils inflicted by governments upon their people. And we want to find monsters, because that’s who we want to believe would alone be capable of such monstrous evil. But again and again, we find ordinary people – faceless bureaucrats performing faceless functions – had carried out what we later realize were monstrous deeds with a blithe acceptance of the premises of their government’s policies.
One of the reasons that these policies – later correctly described as “evil” – were allowed to begin, develop, build momentum, and ultimately turn monstrous is because too many people dismissed the possibility that such evil could ever happen. “Our government would never do such a thing.”
Only it did. It’s happened too many times before, and it will happen again.
With that introduction, let us look at the ubiquitously mocked term, “death panels.” Nothing like that could ever actually happen. Right?
Wrong. If you go to Europe, it’s happening right now. And the same sort of quasi-socialist liberals who want to create government health care here were created it there.
Terminally ill grandmother ‘left to starve’ by doctors
Hazel Fenton, an 80-year-old grandmother who was placed under a controversial care plan and left to “starve to death” after doctors identified her as being terminally ill, only recovered after the intervention of her daughter.
By Richard Savill
Published: 10:30PM BST 11 Oct 2009
Hazel Fenton pictured with her daughter Christine Ball Photo: ANDREW HASSON
Mrs Fenton, from East Sussex, is still alive and “happy” nine months after doctors declared she would only survive for days, withdrew her antibiotics and denied her artificial feeding, her daughter, Christine Ball, said.
“Without my persistence and pressure I know my mother would be dead now,” she added.
Mrs Fenton, a former private school house mother, had been placed on the Liverpool Care Pathway (LCP) scheme, which was originally developed as a way to care for cancer patients towards the end of their lives.
However, there has been recent criticism that not only cancer patients but others with terminal illnesses are being made to die prematurely under the NHS scheme.
Last month six prominent British doctors and health care professionals wrote to The Daily Telegraph, expressing concern that some patients were being wrongly judged as close to death.
Under NHS guidance introduced in England, medical staff can withdraw fluid and drugs from dying patents and many are put on continuous sedation until they pass away. But this approach can also mask signs of improvement, it has been argued.
Miss Ball, who had been looking after her mother before she was admitted to the Conquest hospital, Hastings, East Sussex, on Jan 11, said she had to fight hospital staff for weeks before her mother was taken off the plan and given artificial feeding.
Miss Ball, 42, a carer, from Robertsbridge, East Sussex, said: “My mother was going to be left to starve and dehydrate to death. It really is a subterfuge for legalised euthanasia of the elderly on the NHS. ”
Mrs Fenton was admitted to hospital suffering from pneumonia. Although Mrs Ball acknowledged that her mother was very ill she was “astonished” when a junior doctor told her she was going to be placed on the plan to “make her more comfortable” in her last days.
On Jan 19, Mrs Fenton’s 80th birthday, Mrs Ball said her mother had lost “an awful lot of weight” but was feeling better, and told her she “didn’t want to die”.
But it took another four days to persuade doctors to give her artificial feeding, Miss Ball said.
Mrs Ball said the fight to save her mother had been made harder by the Mental Capacity Act. “I was told that we had no rights, and food and hydration were classed as treatment, which meant they had the right to withhold feeding. It gave a doctor the power to play god with my mother’s life,” she said.
Mrs Fenton is now being looked after in a nursing home near her daughter’s home.
A spokesman for East Sussex Hospitals NHS Trust said: “Patients’ needs are assessed before they are placed on the [plan]. Daily reviews are undertaken by clinicians whenever possible.”
At the same scripted event in which White House aides handed out white coats to create a propaganda moment, Barack Obama recently said:
“We have now been debating this issue of health insurance reform for months,” Obama said. “We have listened to every charge and every counter-charge — from the crazy claims about death panels to misleading warnings about a government takeover of our health care system.”
Death panels. Crazy, right? Nothing like that could ever happen here.
Unless it occurs to you to stop and THINK, and ask yourself why you would think that corrupt House Ways and Means Chairman Rep. Charlie Rangel – or the Democrats who refuse to hold him accountable for his crimes – would be so much better than British liberals.
Provide your case that they are only evil over there in Britain, but our big government liberals here are ontologically good, and simply incapable of creating a system that would grow and degenerate until it tries to starve human beings to death.
There are all kinds of things going on in the United Kingdom and in Continental Europe that will very quickly be going on here, too, because too many of us just shut our minds off to the banality of evil that we have already seen time and time again.
And it’s already going on here. Right now. Under the very sort of medical system that Barack Obama wants to impose across the nation.
Take the story of Barbara Wagner, who was condemned to die by her state government medical system. They denied her the drugs she needed to save her life, but agreed to pay for her to be euthanized. Some faceless liberal bureaucrats “who accepted the premises of their state and therefore participated with the view that their actions were normal” decided that Barbara Wagner’s life was not worth saving, but only worth taking.
The banality of evil. Coming soon to a hospital or a doctor’s office near you.
And right now, Democrats are trying to expand the banality of evil.
The Wall Street Journal exposed that ObamaCare will cut essential cardiology and oncology care in order to lower the cost of the health system:
In President Obama’s Washington, medical specialists are slightly more popular than the H1N1 virus. Compared to bread-and-butter primary care doctors, specialists cost more to train and make more use of expensive procedures and technology—and therefore cost the government more money. Even so, the quiet war Democrats are waging on specialists is astonishing.
From Senate Finance Chairman Max Baucus’s health-care bill to changes the Administration is pushing in Medicare, Democrats are systematically attacking specific medical fields like cardiology and oncology. With almost no scrutiny, they’re trying to engineer a “cheaper” system so that government can afford to buy health care for all—even if the price is fewer and less innovative ways of extending and improving lives.
And the results of such measures and others will be a holocaust of the elderly. With all measures undertaken in the spirit of bureaucratic efficiency:
The Congressional majority wants to pay for its $1 trillion to $1.6 trillion health bills with new taxes and a $500 billion cut to Medicare. This cut will come just as baby boomers turn 65 and increase Medicare enrollment by 30%. Less money and more patients will necessitate rationing. The Congressional Budget Office estimates that only 1% of Medicare cuts will come from eliminating fraud, waste and abuse.
The assault against seniors began with the stimulus package in February. Slipped into the bill was substantial funding for comparative effectiveness research, which is generally code for limiting care based on the patient’s age. Economists are familiar with the formula, where the cost of a treatment is divided by the number of years (called QALYs, or quality-adjusted life years) that the patient is likely to benefit. In Britain, the formula leads to denying treatments for older patients who have fewer years to benefit from care than younger patients.
It is also highly relevant that Medicare denies treatment at a rate of more than double any private insurer’s average right now. Is government care the thing you should most trust, or the thing you should most fear?
When Barack Obama mocks “the crazy claims about death panels,” it is ultimately up to you have to ask yourself just how much you implicitly trust the government to take care of you even when it is in the bureaucrats’ economic interests to allow you to die. And it is up to you to decide if history is incapable of repeating itself.
Tags:artificial feeding, banality of evil, Barbara Wagner, Britian, bureaucrats, cancer patients, cardiology, claims, death panels, denies, die prematurely, drugs, elderly, Hazel Fenton, health care, Medicare, NHS, oncology, seniors, specialists, UK, United Kingdom
Posted in Barack Obama, Conservative Issues, health care, morality, Politics, Sarah Palin, socialism | Leave a Comment »
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Posts Tagged ‘higher cost’
ObamaCare Increases Health Cost By $311 Billion While Threatening Access To Care
Just in case you didn’t catch it, it’s official: ObamaCare was packaged and sold entirely based on lies.
CMS Study Shows Health Care Law Increases Costs–$311 Billion in 10 Years
By Tom White, on April 23rd, 2010, at 11:43 am
US Senate Morning Briefing
Last night, the chief actuary at the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) released his long-awaited report on the Democrats’ health care spending bill. The report states, “[W]e estimate that overall national health expenditures under the health reform act would increase by a total of $311 billion during calendar years 2010-2019. . . .” This was an assessment that was requested by Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell prior to the final votes on health care in the House, but CMS told Republicans that they couldn’t complete an analysis in time for the vote. Given the report’s findings, it’s easy to see why Democrats decided to rush ahead with a vote before the report could be completed.Reporting on the CMS analysis last night, the AP wrote, “President Barack Obama’s health care overhaul law will increase the nation’s health care tab instead of bringing costs down, government economic forecasters concluded Thursday in a sobering assessment of the sweeping legislation. A report by economic experts at the Health and Human Services Department said the health care remake will achieve Obama’s aim of expanding health insurance — adding 34 million Americans to the coverage rolls. But the analysis also found that the law falls short of the president’s twin goal of controlling runaway costs. It also warned that Medicare cuts may be unrealistic and unsustainable, driving about 15 percent of hospitals into the red and ‘possibly jeopardizing access’ to care for seniors.”
But in the run-up to the vote, indeed throughout the year-long debate on health care, Democrats and President Obama repeatedly insisted that their unpopular legislation would control costs and save the government money. In December, President Obama announced, “We agree on reforms that will finally reduce the costs of health care. Families will save on their premiums. Businesses that will see their costs rise if we do nothing will save money now and in the future.” Sen. Max Baucus (D-MT) insisted at the beginning of debate in the Senate, “The Republican Leader just a few moments ago says that this bill raises costs. With all due respect to my good friend from Kentucky, that statement is false.” And Democrats repeatedly cited a CBO report saying that if all the Medicare cuts are implemented, the bill could save $130 billion over the next decade. This was pointed to by everyone from Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius to rank-and-file House Democrats like Ohio Rep. John Boccieri.
But as the AP story explains, “The [CMS] report acknowledged that some of the cost-control measures in the bill — Medicare cuts, a tax on high-cost insurance and a commission to seek ongoing Medicare savings — could help reduce the rate of cost increases beyond 2020. But it held out little hope for progress in the first decade. ‘During 2010-2019, however, these effects would be outweighed by the increased costs associated with the expansions of health insurance coverage,’ wrote Richard S. Foster, Medicare’s chief actuary. ‘Also, the longer-term viability of the Medicare … reductions is doubtful.’”
As Sen. McConnell said when President Obama signed the health care bill, “Most Americans out there aren’t celebrating today. . . . People oppose this bill not because they don’t know what’s in it, but because they know exactly what’s in it. . . . They know you don’t have to slash Medicare by half a trillion dollars to get lower premiums. . . . People know you won’t save money on health care by spending another $2.6 trillion on health care. . . . They know you don’t reduce the deficit by creating a massive new government program that even Democrats have described as a Ponzi scheme. They know you can go a long ways towards doing all these things without creating a brand new entitlement at a time when we can’t even cover the cost of the entitlements we have.”
Once again, studies by neutral observers have shown that Democrats’ claims about their health care bill just do not match reality. This was a flawed bill rushed through because Democrats wanted to “make history.” But Americans know better. At a time of record deficits and debt, this irresponsible health spending bill should be repealed and replaced with legislation that actually addresses health care costs.
All one has to do is look at Obama’s plunging polls in the aftermath of the passage of ObamaCare to verify that the American people did not want and do not want this “boondogglization” of the American health care system. Polls across the board show Obama’s approval plunging dramatically since health care “reform” was shoved down the nation’s throat: Quinnipiac has Obama’s approval at a lowest-ever-measured 44% – with a majority disapproving of him; top-pollster Rasmussen has Obama at only 47% – with a whopping 52% disapproving of him; and the RCP average has Obama WELL below a 50% approval. Barack Obama is no longer in any way speaking for or representing the American people.
It turns out this is the same guy who is on tape at least eight times saying all the health care negotiations would all be on C-SPAN – and then he went to closed-door meeting after closed door meeting that resulted in a health care bill that NOBODY knows anything about. It turns out that this is the same guy who promised he would unite the country in a bipartisan manner – and instead broke that promise and became the most polarizing and divisive president in history. This is the same guy who said he would NEVER allow health care to pass by the awful partisan reconciliation tactic – and then he did exactly what he promised he wouldn’t do. This is the guy who repeatedly promised that he wouldn’t tax anyone making less than $250,000 a year – and now everyone knows he’ll break that central, fundamental promise. This is the same guy who demonized Republican Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell for doing what his own chief of staff had just done only the day before.
I can go on. For example, I can talk about how his administration promised up and down that the $787 billion (subsequently massively upwardly revised to $862 billion) stimulus – which will actually cost $3.27 TRILLION – would keep unemployment under 8%. Obama sold a massive lie to sell a massive porkulus. And now we’re paying for a fat pile of lies.
Now we find out that this fundamental liar told yet another massive, fundamental lie.
Now we find out that Barack Obama personally and repeatedly lied to the American people about the cost of his precious boondoggle ObamaCare:
“I pledged that I will not sign health insurance reform — as badly as I think it’s necessary, I won’t sign it if that reform adds even one dime to our deficit over the next decade — and I mean what I say.”
You loathsome, vile LIAR.
You said whatever you thought you needed to say to get the American people to jump into bed with you. Then you raped them. And then moved on to the next lie and rape. And the next lie and rape after that.
Now, you think this is terrible news about the terrible ObamaCare power-grab? You aint seen NOTHING yet. Have a gander at this:
Not one of its major programs has gotten started, and already the wheels are starting to come off of Obamacare. The administration’s own actuary reported on Thursday that millions of people could lose their health insurance, that health-care costs will rise faster than they would have if the law hadn’t passed, and that the overhaul will mean that people will have a harder and harder time finding physicians to see them.
The White House is trying to spin the new report from Medicare’s chief actuary Richard Foster as only half bad because it concludes that, while costs will increase, only 23 million people will remain uninsured (instead of 24 million previously estimated).
But looking at the details of Foster’s report shows the many, many danger signs for Obamacare and how many of its promises will be broken:
1. People losing coverage: About 14 million people will lose their employer coverage by 2019, as smaller employers terminate their plans and workers who currently have employer coverage enroll in Medicaid. Half of all seniors on Medicare Advantage could lose their coverage and the extra benefits the plans offer.
2. Huge fines for companies: Businesses will pay $87 billion in penalties in the first five years after the fines trigger in 2014, partly because they can’t afford to offer expensive, government-mandated coverage and partly because some of their employees will apply for taxpayer-subsidized insurance.
3. Higher costs for consumers: Tens of billions of dollars in new fees and excise taxes will be “passed through to health consumers in the form of higher drug and devices prices and higher premiums,” according to Foster. A separate report shows small businesses will be hit hardest.
4. A program created to fail: The new “CLASS Act” long-term-care insurance program will face “a significant risk of failure,” according to Foster. Indeed, he finds, “there is a very serious risk that the problem of adverse selection will make the CLASS program unsustainable.”
5. Spending increases: Under the new law, national health spending will increase by $311 billion over the coming decade. And instead of bending the federal spending curve down, it will move it upward “by a net total of $251 billion” over the next decade.
6. “Free-riders”: An estimated 23 million people will remain uninsured in 2019, roughly 5 million of whom would be undocumented aliens; the remainder would be the 18 million who decline to get coverage and who will pay the penalty.
7. Spending reductions are fiction: Estimated reductions in the growth rate of health spending “may not be fully achievable” because “Medicare productivity adjustments could become unsustainable even within the next ten years, and over time the reductions in the scope of employer-sponsored health insurance could also become an issue.”
8. You can’t keep your doctor: Fifteen percent of all hospitals, nursing homes, and other providers treating Medicare patients could be operating at a loss by 2019, which will “possibly jeopardize access to care for beneficiaries.” Doctors are threatening to drop out of Medicare because cuts in Medicare reimbursement rates mean they can’t even cover their costs.
9. Coverage but no care: A significant portion of those newly eligible for Medicaid will have trouble finding physicians who will see them, and the increased demand for Medicaid services could be difficult to meet.
This is an objective report by administration actuaries that shows this sweeping legislation has serious, serious problems.
And there’s more: Joint Economic Committee Republicans explain in a new report the impact of a rarely mentioned $14.3 billion per year tax on health insurance, effective in 2014. They find this tax will be mostly passed through to consumers in the form of higher premiums for private coverage. It will cost the typical family of four with job-based coverage an additional $1,000 a year in higher premiums and will fall largely, and inequitably, on small businesses and their employees.
States are fighting back. The Florida legislature voted Thursday to place a state constitutional amendment on the ballot that would ban any laws that compel someone to “participate in any health care system.” It requires a 60 percent vote to succeed. The legislation is modeled after the American Legislative Exchange Council’s Freedom of Choice in Health Care Act, which has been introduced or announced in 42 states.
It just makes you want to cry. Fifteen percent of hospitals are going to close, tens of thousands of doctors will leave medicine, and yet millions of people are going to start swamping the healthcare rolls. If I wanted to destroy our healthcare system, that’s how I’d do it.
On top of that – something that will crash the system even sooner – is the fact that more and more healthier people will increasingly pay the fines and opt out of ObamaCare, will more and more sick people enter the system. The result will be a social catastrophe. Our very worst enemy couldn’t have engineered our downfall better.
Business after business have been and will continue to be writing down billions and billions of dollars in profits to cover the huge costs of ObamaCare. These are businesses that would have hired workers, only now the skyrocketing costs of paying for ObamaCare for their employees will keep that hiring to an absolute minimum.
Barack Obama proudly and arrogantly said, “You Can Measure America’s Bottom Line By Looking At Caterpillar’s’” – and then he torpedoed Caterpillar’s bottom line.
Unemployment is going to be soaringly high for years – as even the Obama White House acknowledges. Now you know why.
What’s the result of the Democrats’ idiotic policies? Ask Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, who just told us that sky-high “unemployment is likely to remain unacceptably high for a long time.”
The unemployment rate “is still terribly high and is going to stay unacceptably high for a very long time,” Geithner said.
Of course, if unemployment is going to stay “unacceptably high” for “a very long time,” you’re pretty much accepting it, aren’t you?
Meanwhile, there will be trillions of dollars in additional spending that Obama and the Democrats refused to allow the CBO to count: such as the SIX TRILLION DOLLARS it will cost Americans to buy ObamaCare policies or face fines.
The Titanic wasn’t as big of a disaster as ObamaCare. If we can’t repeal and replace it, it will bankrupt the country.
Tags:Awaited Report, Barack Obama, bending the curve, businesses, Calendar Years, Care Families, Chief Actuary, class, cost, deficit, divisive, doctors, Economic Experts, Economic Forecasters, Expanding Health Insurance, fines, Government Money, Health Care Law, Health Care Spending, Health Reform Act, higher cost, hospitals, Law Increases, lied, lose employer coverage, mandated, Medicaid, Medicaid Services, Medicare cuts, Mitch McConnell, National Health Expenditures, pay the fine, penalties, polarizing, polls, presidential approval, profits, promise, Quinnipiac, Rasmussen, reconciliation, remain uninsured, Richard Foster, Runaway Costs, Senate Republican leader, spending will increase, states, stimulus, unemployment, unsustainable, US Senate, write-downs
Posted in Barack Obama, Conservative Issues, Economy, health care, Politics, socialism, taxes | Leave a Comment »
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Home Charity & Community Lowestoft accountant takes on London Marathon
Lowestoft accountant takes on London Marathon
24/04/2019 - Lovewell Blake
A Lowestoft accountant who only took up running in October is set to take on one of the sport’s toughest challenges later this month, when she lines up alongside 40,000 others to tackle the London Marathon.
Amy Randall, who works at Lovewell Blake’s office on Quay View Business Park, applied for a place in the race after being egged on to do so by her sister, who ran it ten years ago, began her training once her place in the marathon was confirmed.
As well as aiming to complete her first marathon just six months after taking up the sport, Amy is also raising money for two causes close to her family’s heart: The Motor Neurone Disease Association and The Parkinson’s Foundation.
“My sister, who ran the London Marathon ten years ago, suggested that we should run the event together,” said Amy.
“But she didn’t get a place and I did – and suddenly it dawned on me that I was going to have to run the equivalent of Lowestoft to Norwich in six months!”
She has already smashed her initial fundraising target of £1,000 and has now set herself an ambitious target of raising £3,000 to be split between the two charities.
Meanwhile, despite insisting that her only running target is to cross the finishing line, Amy admits to an ambition of finishing in 4 hours 30mins – roughly equivalent to averaging ten-minute miles.
“I was trying to make it about finishing, but I have now got the bug for running, and I fear if I don’t get the time I want, I’ll do it again – and I don’t think my body will thank me for that,” she said.
“I regretted going in for the ballot at first, but now I’m really proud of what I have achieved. It just goes to show that it’s amazing what you can achieve if you put your mind to it.”
Anyone wanting to support Amy’s fundraising efforts can do so by donating here
For more information Lovewell Blake you can visit their website here
Keep up to date with all the latest Suffolk news and events here
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Freddie and friends are swimming back to Lowestoft this summer!
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Justia › US Law › US Case Law › US Supreme Court › Volume 272 › United States v. Chemical Foundation, Inc.
United States v. Chemical Foundation, Inc., 272 U.S. 1 (1926)
United States v. Chemical Foundation, Inc.
Argued December 9, 10, 11, 1925
Decided October 11, 1926
272 U.S. 1
1. A decree of the circuit court of appeals, entered prior to the taking effect of the Jurisdictional Act of February 13, 1925, and affirming dismissal on the merits of a bill by the United States to set aside, as unauthorized and fraudulently procured, sales of patent and other rights and properties seized pursuant to the Trading with the Enemy Act was reviewable by this Court on appeal (Jud.Code §§ 128, 241). Certiorari denied. P. 272 U. S. 5.
2. The purpose of the Trading with the Enemy Act was not only to weaken enemy countries by depriving their supporters of their properties, but also to promote production in the United States of things useful for the effective prosecution of the war. P. 272 U. S. 9.
3. The Act should be construed liberally to effect its purposes. P. 272 U. S. 10.
4. Congress has power to authorize seizure, and use or appropriation, of enemy properties without compensation to their owners. P. 272 U. S. 11.
5. Where German properties were seized and sold under the Trading with the Enemy Act, the Act (including its provision that, after war, enemy claims shall be settled as Congress shall direct) gave the former owners no rights in, or to question the adequacy of, the proceeds of sale. Moreover, the Treaty of Berlin prevents the enforcement of any claim by Germany or its nationals against the United States or its nationals on account of such seizures and sales. P. 272 U. S. 11.
6. The Act, as amended, (§ 12), vested the Alien Property Custodian with the powers of a "common law trustee" over all
Page 272 U. S. 2
property other than money taken over by him, with power, under the President, to make any disposition of it "by sale or otherwise" and to exercise any appurtenant rights or powers "in like manner as though he were the absolute owner." A proviso regulated sales, requiring, inter alia, that they be public, to the highest bidder" unless the President, stating the reasons therefor, in the public interest shall otherwise determine."
(1) That a disposition of enemy patents, made at private sale to a corporation organized for the purposes of taking over and holding them as a trustee for American industries affected, of eliminating hostile alien interests and advancing chemical and allied industries in the United States through licenses under the patents free to the United States and upon equal terms to others, was within the authority granted by the Act to the President and the Custodian. P. 272 U. S. 9.
(2) That empowering the President thus to determine the terms of sale of enemy properties in the light of conditions arising in the progress of the War was not an unconstitutional delegation of legislative power. P. 272 U. S. 12.
7. Under § 5a, providing that the President may exercise any power conferred on him by the Act "through such officer or officers as he shall direct," the power to determine how enemy property should be sold could be delegated, and this also is constitutional. P. 272 U. S. 13.
8. An order of the President under § 5a is not invalid because it purports to "vest" the power in another, instead of "to act through" him, nor because of its failure to show that he was an officer, when he was in fact such, appointed by the President and confirmed by the Senate. P. 272 U. S. 13.
9. Orders made by the President's delegate describing enemy patents which had been seized by the Alien Property Custodian, and authorizing private sale thereof to the defendant "Foundation," held valid exercise of the President's power under § 12 of the Act. P. 272 U. S. 14.
10. Evidence claimed to show that such orders were induced by misrepresentation and made without knowledge of material facts, will not be reexamined in face of concurrent findings of two courts below to the contrary. P. 272 U. S. 14.
11. Such orders are supported by the presumption of official regularity, and the validity of reasons stated therein, or the basis of fact on which they rest, will not be reviewed by the courts. P. 272 U. S. 14.
12. Order of the President held to have ratified and confirmed sales and transfers of patents made by the Alien Property Custodian. P. 272 U. S. 15.
13. In making such an order, the President is presumed to have known and acted in the light of the material facts. P. 272 U. S. 16.
14. Section 41 of the Criminal Code lays down a general rule for the protection of the United States in transactions between it and corporations to prevent its action from being influenced by anyone interested adversely to it. It is a penal statute, and is not to be extended to cases not clearly within its terms or to those exceptional to its spirit and purpose. P. 272 U. S. 18.
15. Section 41 of the Criminal Code is inapplicable to affect the validity of transactions carried out under authority conferred on the President by the Trading with the Enemy Act, whereby enemy patents were transferred, for prices less than their commercial value, from the Alien Property Custodian to the " Chemical Foundation," a corporation created as an instrumentality to receive and subsequently control the patents in the public interest, the Custodian being the president of the company and others representing the government being also representatives of the corporation, but none of them interested in it financially. P. 272 U. S. 17.
16. In such case, the rule forbidding sale of trust property by the fiduciary to himself or to a corporation of which he is the head does not apply. P. 272 U. S. 20.
17. In absence of statutory authority, stenographers' fees and expense of printing transcripts cannot be adjudged against the United States. P. 272 U. S. 20.
18. This immunity from costs is a sovereign prerogative which cannot be waived by the Attorney General or other government counsel in the case. P. 21.
19. Equity Rule 50 does not attempt to allow taxation of stenographers' fees against the United States. P. 272 U. S. 20.
5 F.2d 191 modified and affirmed.
Appeal from a decree of the circuit court of appeals which affirmed a decree of the district court (294 F. 300) dismissing the bill, on final hearing, in a suit brought by the United States to set aside transactions whereby patents, copyrights, etc., which had been seized as enemy property, were transferred to the defendant corporation by the Alien Property Custodian,
acting, by direction of the President, under authority conferred by the Trading with the Enemy Act.
APPEAL FROM THE CIRCUIT COURT OF APPEALS
FOR THE THIRD CIRCUIT
MR. JUSTICE BUTLER delivered the opinion of the Court.
Suit was brought by the United States in the District Court for Delaware to set aside sales made by it to the Chemical Foundation of a number of patents, copyrights, trademarks, and other similar properties -- which, for brevity, will be referred to as "patents" -- seized pursuant to the Trading with the Enemy Act of October 6, 1917, c. 106, 40 Stat. 411, as amended by the Act of March 28, 1918, c. 28, 40 Stat. 460, and the Act of November 4, 1918, c. 201, 40 Stat. 1020, and other Acts. The complaint alleges that a number of domestic manufacturers, as a result of war conditions, had been able to combine and monopolize certain chemical industries in this country, and, fearing that, at the end of the war, German competition would destroy the monopoly, they conspired to bring about transfers and sales of the patents at nominal prices to themselves or to a corporation controlled by them; that the patents so obtained would control the industries in question and perpetuate the monopoly, and that the sales were procured through the fraudulent deception of the President, the Alien Property Custodian, and other officials.
The answer denies conspiracy and fraud, and asserts that the transfers were made in good faith and pursuant to law, and that they are valid. There was a trial at which much evidence was taken. The district court dismissed the complaint (294 F. 300), and its decree was affirmed by the circuit court of appeals. 5 F.2d 191. Both courts found that no unlawful scheme, combination, or conspiracy was shown, and that there was no deception or fraud.
The United States took an appeal under § 241, Judicial Code, and has applied for a writ of certiorari under § 240. The decree of the circuit court of appeals was entered March 26, 1925, prior to the taking effect of the Act of February 13, 1925, amending the Judicial Code. Chapter 229, 43 Stat. 936. Since this is not a case in which the decree of that court is made final by § 128, the United States had the right of appeal. The application for certiorari is therefore denied.
The chemical industries in question are closely related to the production of explosives, gasses, and other things directly used in waging war, as well as to the production of dyestuffs and medicines essential to the welfare of the people. At the outbreak of the war, many necessary medicines and other substances, as well as most of the dyestuffs used in this country, were imported from Germany or were manufactured under patents owned by enemy Germans. The amount of such things here produced was small. Importations were hindered by the blockade, and ceased when this country entered the war. To meet the demand, numerous plants were developed, and by 1919, chemicals, dyestuffs, medicines, and the like were being produced here in large quantities. A number of associations of manufacturers were formed for the advancement of such industries; they included in their membership the producers of nearly all the dyestuffs and like chemicals made in this country. Mr. A. Mitchell Palmer was the Alien Property Custodian until he was
appointed Attorney General, March 4, 1919. In order to protect the United States against enemy and foreign control of its chemical industries and to stimulate production here, he favored the seizure and sale of the patents in question. To that end, a number of conferences were held between his representatives and those of the industries. The plan that was carried into effect was formulated under his direction.
In February, 1919, the Chemical Foundation was incorporated under the laws of Delaware. The certificate of incorporation discloses that it was created and empowered to purchase enemy-owned patents seized by the Custodian, and to hold the
"property and rights so acquired in a fiduciary capacity for the Americanization of such industries as may be affected thereby, for the exclusion or elimination of alien interest hostile or detrimental to the said industries, and for the advancement of chemical and allied science and industry in the United States;"
to grant to the United States nonexclusive licenses to make, use, and sell the inventions covered by the patents, and also to grant like licenses, on equal terms and without advantage as between licensees, to American citizens and corporations under control of American citizens. The board of directors is authorized to prescribe the terms and conditions of such licenses. It may refuse to issue any license or may revoke any license granted by it. The corporation is required to enforce its rights and to protect the rights of its licensees. The authorized capital stock is $500,000, consisting of 5,000 shares of the par value of $100 each: 4,000 shares constitute nonvoting preferred stock, the holders of which are entitled to a cumulative dividend of 6 percentum per annum, and 1,000 shares constitute the common stock, the holders of which are entitled to dividends not exceeding 6 percentum per annum after dividends on the preferred stock have been provided for. The preferred stock is subject to redemption at par plus
accumulated dividends, if any, and, after such redemption, net earnings not needed for working capital
"shall be used and devoted to the development and advancement of chemistry and allied sciences, in the useful arts and manufactures in the United States, in such manner as the board of directors may determine."
The holders of the common stock have all the voting power. The certificate provides that, without the approval of the board of directors, stockholders may not sell any of their stock. The board of directors consists of three members. The executive officers are president, vice-president, and a secretary and treasurer. The president and vice-president are required to serve without pay. The shares of the Foundation were subscribed by those interested in the chemical and dye industries. But a voting trust agreement was made pursuant to which all common stock was deposited with, and all voting power was vested in, five trustees. Directors and officers were chosen March 8, 1919. Francis P. Garvan, Douglas I. McKay, and George J. Corbett were made directors and constituted the board. Mr. Garvan, then Alien Property Custodian, was elected president. Mr. McKay was elected vice-president, and Mr. Corbett secretary and treasurer. Otto T. Bannard and four others were made voting trustees. All the directors, officers, and voting trustees were chosen by or in accordance with the direction of Mr. Palmer, given while he was Custodian.
The President, by Executive Order December 3, 1918, declared: "I hereby vest in Frank L. Polk all power and authority conferred upon the President by the provisions of § 12" of the Trading with the Enemy Act as amended. Mr. Polk was then counselor for the Department of State, but was not so described in the order. He made two orders, dated respectively February 26, 1919, and April 5, 1919, to authorize the Custodian to sell at private sale to the Foundation without advertisement at such places and upon such terms and conditions as to the
Custodian might seem proper, all patents found to relate to the objects and purposes of the Foundation as expressed in its charter. These orders contained a statement of the reasons therefor in the public interest. Briefly, they were that the patents could not be sold to the best advantage at public sale after advertisement; that the Foundation had been incorporated to hold the patents as a trustee for American industries affected by the patents, to eliminate hostile alien interests and to advance chemical and allied industry in the United States, and that it was obligated to grant nonexclusive licenses upon equal terms to qualified American manufacturers and was empowered to grant free licenses to the United States; that the public interest would be best served by a wide use of the inventions, which most readily could be promoted by licenses which the Foundation was obligated to grant; that a private sale would prevent the patents from falling into the hands of purchasers unwilling or unable to use the inventions or who would use them for speculative purposes; that it would be impossible to make a public sale that would secure these benefits, and that a private sale would avoid unnecessary expense, delay, and inconvenience.
Prior to and contemporaneously with the organization of the Foundation, the representatives of the chemical industries cooperated with those of the Custodian in making lists of the patents to be seized and sold by the Custodian to the Foundation. Mr. Garvan, the Custodian, from time to time commencing April 10, 1919, executed and delivered to the Foundation various assignments of the patents. The considerations paid by the Foundation to the Custodian amounted in all to $271,850.00. The President, February 13, 1920, made an executive order which was held by both courts below to constitute a ratification of the transactions. And, pursuant to that order, the Custodian confirmed the assignments theretofore made.
We come to the question whether, as held below, the Act, as amended March 28, 1918, empowered the President to authorize, and the Custodian under his supervision to consummate, these sales.
The pertinent provisions of the act are in § 12 as amended:
"The Alien Property Custodian shall be vested with all of the powers of a common law trustee in respect of all property other than money which has been or shall be, or which has been or shall be required to be, conveyed, transferred, assigned, delivered, or paid over to him in pursuance of the provisions of this Act, and, in addition thereto, acting under the supervision and direction of the President, and under such rules and regulations as the President shall prescribe, shall have power to manage such property and do any act or things in respect thereof or make any disposition thereof or of any part thereof, by sale or otherwise, and exercise any rights or powers which may be or become appurtenant thereto or to the ownership thereof in like manner as though he were the absolute owner thereof: Provided, that any property sold under this Act, except when sold to the United States, shall be sold only to American citizens at public sale to the highest bidder, after public advertisement of time and place of sale which shall be where the property or a major portion thereof is situated, unless the President, stating the reasons therefor, in the public interest shall otherwise determine. . . ."
40 Stat. 460.
"After the end of the war, any claim of any enemy or of an ally of enemy to any money of other property received and held by the Alien Property Custodian or deposited in the United States Treasury, shall be settled as Congress shall direct. . . ."
It is conceded that, when seized, the patents belonged to enemy Germans, and that they were lawfully taken over by the Custodian. The purpose of the Trading with the Enemy Act was not only to weaken enemy countries
Page 272 U. S. 10
by depriving their supporters of their properties (Miller v. Robertson, 266 U. S. 243, 266 U. S. 248), but also to promote production in the United States of things useful for the effective prosecution of the war. Section 10(c) authorized the President, if he deemed it for the public welfare, to grant licenses to American citizens or corporations to use any inventions covered by enemy-owned patents. Subsection (c) of § 7 of the Act as amended November 4, 1918, authorized the seizure of enemy-owned patents, and provided that all property so acquired should be held and disposed of as provided by the Act. And there is no ground for contending that the seizure and transfers did not tend to lessen enemy strength and to encourage and safeguard domestic production of things essential to or useful in the prosecution of the war. There is nothing to support a strict construction of the Act in respect of the seizure and disposition of enemy property. On the other hand, contemporaneous conditions and war legislation indicate a purpose to employ all legitimate means effectively to prosecute the war. The law should be liberally construed to give effect to the purposes it was enacted to subserve.
As originally enacted, § 12 gave the Custodian in respect of properties in his possession "all of the powers of a common law trustee." He was authorized, acting under the supervision and direction of the President and under rules and regulations prescribed by the President, to manage the property and do any act or things in respect thereof or make any disposition of it by sale or otherwise and to exercise any rights appurtenant to its ownership
"if and when necessary to prevent waste and protect such property and to the end that the interests of the United States in such property and rights, or of such person as may ultimately become entitled thereto, or to the proceeds thereof, may be preserved and safeguarded."
The Custodian was a mere conservator, and
was authorized to sell only to prevent waste. But brief experience made it clear that this restriction on the power to dispose of enemy property sometimes operated to defeat the purpose of the Act and brought profit and advantage to the enemy. The amendment of March 28, 1918, eliminated the restriction upon the power of sale. It stated that the other powers given were "in addition" to those of a common law trustee. And it authorized the Custodian under the President to dispose of such properties by sale or otherwise "in like manner as though he were the absolute owner thereof."
There is no support for a construction that would restrain the force of the broad language used. Congress was untrammeled and free to authorize the seizure, use, or appropriation of such properties without any compensation to the owners. There is no constitutional prohibition against confiscation of enemy properties. Brown v. United States, 8 Cranch 110, 12 U. S. 122; Miller v. United States, 11 Wall. 268, 78 U. S. 305 et seq.; Kirk v. Lynd, 106 U. S. 315, 106 U. S. 316; Stoehr v. Wallace, 255 U. S. 239, 255 U. S. 245; White v. Mechanics Securities Corp., 269 U. S. 283, 269 U. S. 300. And the Act makes no provision for compensation. The former enemy owners have no claim against the patents or the proceeds derived from the sales. It makes no difference to them whether the consideration paid by the Foundation was adequate or inadequate. The provision that, after the war, enemy claims shall be settled as Congress shall direct conferred no rights upon such owners. Moreover the Treaty of Berlin prevents the enforcement of any claim by Germany or its nationals against the United States or its nationals on account of the seizures and sales in question. *
While not denying the power to confiscate enemy properties, the United States argues that, as construed below,
the provision in question is unconstitutional because it attempts to delegate legislative power to the executive. But the Act gave the Custodian, acting under the President, full power of disposition. No restriction was put upon dispositions other than by sales. And sales to the United States were not regulated. The general rule laid down was that all dispositions by sale or otherwise should be made in accordance with the determinations of the President; the proviso made an exception including a class of sales; and, upon the failure of the President otherwise to determine stating the reasons therefore in the public interest, it required that such sales should be made as there specified. It was not necessary for Congress to ascertain the facts of or to deal with each case. The Act went as far as was reasonably practicable under the circumstances existing. It was peculiarly within the province of the Commander-in-Chief to know the facts and to determine what disposition should be made of enemy properties in order effectively to carry on the war. The determination of the terms of sales of enemy properties in the light of facts and conditions from time to time arising in the progress of war was not the making of a law; it was the application of the general rule laid down by the Act. When the plenary power of Congress and the general rule so established are regarded, it is manifest that a limitation upon the excepted class is not a delegation of legislative power. Field v. Clark, 143 U. S. 649, 143 U. S. 692; Buttfield v. Stranahan, 192 U. S. 470, 192 U. S. 496; Union Bridge Co. v. United States, 204 U. S. 364, 204 U. S. 377; United States v. Grimaud, 220 U. S. 506, 220 U. S. 516.
The language of the statute is too plain to be misunderstood. Except as affected by the proviso, the Custodian's dominion over the property and power to dispose of it, acting under the President as provided, were as unlimited as are the powers of an absolute owner, and the power of the President to determine terms and
conditions of sales or other disposition was not restricted. He was authorized, stating the reasons therefor in the public interest, to dispense with any or all requirements specified in the proviso and to substitute others for them. Cf. Levinson v. United States, 258 U. S. 198. When the amended section is read in comparison with the original enactment and regard is had to the chemical warfare and other conditions existing at the time of the amendment, March 28, 1918, the inevitable conclusion is that it empowered the President to authorize, and the Custodian, acting under him, to consummate, the sales in question.
The United States argues that the Executive Order of December 3, 1918, was void, and that the one of February 13, 1920 did not authorize or ratify the transactions.
Section 5(a) of the Act provides that: "the President may exercise any power or authority conferred by this Act through such officer or officers as he shall direct." The language of the executive order is: "I hereby vest in Frank L. Polk all power and authority conferred upon the President by the provisions of § 12. . . ." Obviously all the functions of his great office cannot be exercised by the President in person. The contention that power to determine how enemy property should be sold could not be delegated to another is not sustained. This Court has had occasion to consider a like question in Central Trust Co. v. Garvan, 254 U. S. 554, 254 U. S. 567; Stoehr v. Wallace, 255 U. S. 244, supra, and Commercial Trust Co. v. Miller, 262 U. S. 51, 262 U. S. 53. These decisions sustain the delegation here involved.
It is argued that the order was not made in conformity with the statute, because to "vest" power in another is not to "act through" him, and because the order did now show that Mr. Polk was an officer. But if two constructions are possible, and one of them would render the order useless and the other give it validity, the latter is to be adopted. Cf. 264 U. S. Co. Johnson, 264 U.S.
375, 264 U. S. 390; United States v. Coombs, 12 Pet. 72, 37 U. S. 75-76. The intention to exert the power conferred under § 5 is plain. Meticulous precision of language was not necessary. Russell Co. v. United States, 261 U. S. 514, 261 U. S. 523. While the use of the word "vest" was not accurate, it must be deemed sufficient when the context and circumstances are considered. Mr. Polk was an officer through whom the President was authorized to act. He was counselor for the Department of State, appointed by the President and confirmed by the Senate. United States v. Germaine, 99 U. S. 508. No particular form of designation was required. It would be unreasonable to read the order otherwise than as meaning that, in respect of the matters covered by § 12, the President determined to act through Frank L. Polk, Counselor for the Department of State.
And the validity of each of the orders made by Mr. Polk is attacked by the United States on the ground that it was too broad, and constituted an attempt to give to the Custodian the very power granted to the President by the Act -- that is, the power to determine that enemy properties should be disposed of otherwise than as specified in the proviso. But the contention cannot prevail. Each of the orders sufficiently described the patents seized and authorized a private sale to the Foundation without advertisement. This was enough to indicate a determination to take these sales out of the class covered by the proviso. And it is insisted that the orders were induced by misrepresentation, and were made without knowledge of the material facts. But both courts found that the United States failed to establish any conspiracy, fraud or deception alleged. Findings of fact concurred in by two lower courts will not be disturbed, unless clearly erroneous. Washington Sec. Co. v. United States, 234 U. S. 76, 234 U. S. 78. Under this rule, the findings must be accepted. The presumption of regularity supports the official acts of public officers, and, in the absence of clear evidence to the
contrary, courts presume that they have properly discharged their official duties. Confiscation Cases, 20 Wall. 92, 87 U. S. 108; United States v. Page, 137 U. S. 673, 137 U. S. 679-680; United States v. Nix, 189 U. S. 199, 189 U. S. 205. Under that presumption, it will be taken that Mr. Polk acted upon knowledge of the material facts. The validity of the reasons stated in the orders, or the basis of fact on which they rest, will not be reviewed by the courts. Dakota Cent. Tel. Co. v. South Dakota, 250 U. S. 163, 250 U. S. 184; Monongahela Bridge v. United States, 216 U. S. 177, 216 U. S. 195; Martin v. Mott, 12 Wheat. 19, 25 U. S. 30. Cf. Levinson v. United States, 258 U. S. 201, supra.
We agree with the lower courts that the sales and transfers of the patents were ratified and confirmed by the President's order of February 13, 1920. It is urged that there was no ratification because it is not shown that the President had knowledge of the material facts, that he did not intend to ratify the sales of patents, and that the language used in the order is not broad enough to include the patents, trademarks, any copyrights in question.
The Polk order of February 26, 1919, described the property covered as
"all of the letters patent, trademarks and rights under letters patent and trademarks, including all profits and damages . . . for the past infringement thereof which the Alien Property Custodian may seize or may have seized . . . and which he from time to time shall determine relate to the objects and purposes"
of the Chemical Foundation. The President's order of confirmation recites that the Polk orders authorized the Custodian to sell
"certain choses in action and rights, interests, and benefits heretofore determined to belong to, or to be held for, by, or on account of, or for the benefit of persons heretofore determined to be enemies."
The language last quoted was used to define the same properties that were covered by the Polk orders -- that is, "choses in action and rights," etc. -- were used to
include "letters patent, trademarks," etc. The President's order also states that it was the intention of the Polk orders to authorize the Custodian to sell
"all choses in action, rights, interests and benefits under agreements and rights and claims of every character and description, including rights to receive moneys by way of royalties or otherwise as compensation for the use of patents, trademarks, or tradenames which the Alien Property Custodian may have seized . . . and . . . determined to relate to the objects and purposes"
of the Foundation. It recites that doubt had arisen as to the authority of the Custodian to sell and convey to the Foundation "certain of the said choses in action," etc., "including rights to receive moneys by way of royalties or otherwise." And the President expressly authorized the Custodian to sell at private sale without public or other advertisement to the Foundation upon such terms and conditions as to the Custodian might seem proper
"all choses in action, rights, interests, and benefits under agreements and rights and claims of every character and description which the Alien Property Custodian may seize or may have seized"
under the Act. The President further authorized the Custodian by a suitable instrument to conform and ratify sales theretofore made by him of any property as to which his authority under the Polk orders might be deemed doubtful. And he stated that his reasons for the determination and order were given in the Polk orders, and in addition specified other reasons which need not be quoted.
This order authorizes sales of the patents to be made and ratifies and confirms those theretofore made by the Custodian. The President will be presumed to have known the material facts and to have acted in the light of them. His intention to ratify the sales is plain. The comprehensive language used is broad enough to include the patents. Moreover the statement that his reasons for the determination are given in the Polk orders shows
the intention to cover the properties there referred to. As the transactions in question were ratified, it is unnecessary to consider the objections made by the United States to the procedure of the Custodian under the Polk orders.
The United States contends that the sales were void because made in violation of § 41 of the Criminal Code, 35 Stat. 1088, 1097, and the rule of law forbidding sales by a public officer or fiduciary of trust property in his custody to himself or to a corporation of which he is the head.
Section 41 provides:
"No officer or agent of any corporation, . . . and no . . . person directly or indirectly interested in the pecuniary profits or contracts of such corporation . . . shall be employed or shall act as an officer or agent of the United States for the transaction of business with such corporation. . . ."
Violators are made punishable by fine and imprisonment. The United States lays much stress on these facts: Mr. Garvan, while director of the Bureau of Investigation, Joseph H. Choate, Jr., chief of the chemical division of that bureau, and Ramsey Hoguet, patent attorney for the Custodian, conferred with the representatives of the chemical industries to arrange to make the seizures and sales of the patents. Later, Mr. Garvan, then Custodian, acted for the United States in making the transfers to the Chemical Foundation, of which he was the President. Mr. McKay and Mr. Corbett were directors and officers appointed by the Custodian of various corporations of which he had taken control. Before the transfers were made, Mr. Choate became the general counsel and Mr. Hoguet the patent attorney of the Foundation. Mr. Bannard and the other voting trustees were members of the Advisory Sales Committee, appointed by the President to see that sales of enemy properties were fairly made to qualified buyers. Without further reference to the facts relied on to support
its contention, we assume in favor of the United States that those who acted for it in the transactions complained of were at the same time directors and officers of the corporation; that the members of the Advisory Sales Committee, while they were voting trustees, participated in the fixing of the prices paid for the patents by the Foundation, and that such prices were much less than the value of the properties, and would have been inadequate to constitute just compensation if the patents belonged to nonenemy owners and were taken for public use under the power of eminent domain.
Section 41 was enacted when there was no war, and long before the Trading with the Enemy Act. It lays down a general rule for the protection of the United States in transactions between it and corporations, and to prevent its action from being influenced by anyone interested adversely to it. It is a penal statute, and is not to be extended to cases not clearly within its terms or to those exceptional to its spirit and purpose. United States v. Noveck, 271 U. S. 201; Baender v. Barnett, 255 U. S. 224, 255 U. S. 226; Hawaii v. Mankichi, 190 U. S. 197, 190 U. S. 212; United States v. Kirby, 7 Wall. 482, 74 U. S. 486; Bishop on Statutory Crimes (3d ed.) § 235. At the time of the enactment, there were no enemy properties to be dealt with, and, save the generality of the language used, there is nothing to indicate a legislative purpose to deal with that subject. The Trading with the Enemy Act is a war measure covering specifically, fully, and exclusively the seizure and disposition of enemy properties. The authority of the President to authorize sales and to determine terms and conditions in lieu of those specified in the proviso undoubtedly included the power to cause the Chemical Foundation to be incorporated to purchase and hold the patents as specified and to direct the selection of the directors, officers, and voting trustees. The President, and under him the Custodian, acting for the United
States, the seller of the patents, caused the Foundation to be created to buy and hold them and caused it to be controlled by officers or representatives of the United States acting exclusively in its interest. Neither Mr. Garvan nor any of the others who acted for the United States had any financial interest in the Foundation, its profits, or its contracts. All the corporate shares were subscribed and paid for by others -- those interested in the chemical industries. They furnished the money to carry out the plan formulated by or under the direction of Mr. Palmer while he was Custodian. Under the voting trust agreement, shareholders were divested of all voice in the control, business, or affairs of the corporation. All shares are to be held by the voting trustee for 17 years, within which all patents will expire. And, by charter provisions, dividends were limited to 6 percentum per annum. Transferable certificates of beneficial interest were issued by the trustees to the shareholders, but these cannot be used to control the corporation. The arrangement was intended to amount to a public trust for those whom the patents will benefit and for the promotion of American industries, and to give to them the right to have on equal and reasonable terms licenses to make, use, and sell the inventions covered by the patents. The Foundation is properly to be considered an instrumentality created under the direction of the President to effect that disposition and subsequent control of the patents which he determined to be in the public interest. The transactions complained of did not involve any of the evils aimed at by § 41. The Act will be construed and applied as not qualified or affected by that provision of the Criminal Code. Utah Power & Light Co. v. United States, 243 U. S. 389, 243 U. S. 406; Kepner v. United States, 195 U. S. 100, 195 U. S. 125; Townsend v. Little, 109 U. S. 504, 109 U. S. 512; In re Rouse, Hazard & Co., 91 F. 96, 100. And, as the power to dispose of the properties
by sales on the terms and conditions specified was included in the grant made by the statute, it follows that the rule in respect of sales of trust properties by fiduciaries does not apply.
Before the commencement of the trial, the district court found that it was necessary that the testimony be taken down in shorthand and transcribed, and appointed an official stenographer for that purpose, and it was ordered that his fees be ultimately taxed as a part of the costs. By another order, counsel consenting, the court directed that the expense of printing 100 copies of the transcript, to be available for use in that court and on appeal, be advanced from time to time and borne in equal amounts by the parties and form a part of the taxable costs. The decree directs that the Chemical Foundation recover from the United States the money advanced by the Foundation on account of such fees and expenses, and orders the amount to be taxed as costs in the case. The government insists that this is erroneous.
The general rule is that, in the absence of a statute directly authorizing it, courts will not give judgment against the United States for costs or expenses. United States v. Hooe, 3 Cranch 73, 7 U. S. 91-92; Shewan & Sons v. United States, 267 U. S. 86; United States v. Davis, 54 F. 147, 152, et seq.. But the Foundation insists that, under Equity Rule 50, taken with the consent of counsel and the orders, the court was authorized to direct that these items be taxed as costs and to give judgment against the United States therefor.
Equity Rule 50 in general terms provides that stenographers' fees shall be fixed by the court and taxed as costs, but it does not specify costs or judgment for money against the United States. The rule does not mention the United States, and does not affect the sovereign prerogative not to pay costs. Congress alone has power to waive or qualify that immunity. But no statute authorizes
the giving of judgment against the United States for these items or authorizes the Attorney General or other counsel in the case to consent to such a judgment. No such authority is necessary for the proper conduct of litigation on behalf of the United States, and there is no ground for implying that authority. It follows that the direction for judgment against the United States for costs cannot be sustained. That part of the decree will be eliminated, and the decree, so modified, will be affirmed.
Decree modified and affirmed as modified.
MR. JUSTICE SUTHERLAND, and MR. JUSTICE STONE took no part in the consideration or decision of this case.
* Part X, § IV, Article 297, and annex paragraphs 1 and 3, Treaty of Versailles, adopted by Article II(1), Treaty of Berlin, 42 Stat. 1939, 1943.
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PRODUCT: Frames
BRAND: Dabney Lee
ITEM NUMBER: DF30
MATERIAL: Lucite - 1" thick, no easel
PLEASE NOTE: Replace your 4x6 photo anytime with thesewith these magnetic frames
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Wintergarden by Manet was NOT Looted by the Nazis
June 25, 2014 September 14, 2018 by Netisha, posted in Monuments Men, World War II
In 1912 David C. Preyer wrote in his book The Art of the Berlin Galleries that the then Royal National Gallery did not until 1896 make any effort to add foreign works to its collection. In taking the reader through a tour of Gallery V of the museum, which contained principally the work of French Impressionists, he pointed out one work by Edouard Manet, titled “In the Conservatory.” He wrote that it showed a man and a woman, M. and Mme. Guillemet, “friends of the artist, whom he posed on the veranda of his studio in the Rue d’Amsterdam before a group of exotic plants.” “It is,” he observed, “a beautiful painting, of vibrating colour, rich, pure paint, simple composition, with the whole picture based upon two or three values.”[1] This painting, also known as “The Greenhouse” and “Wintergarden,” had been given to Berlin’s National-Galerie as a gift by the Berlin Friends of Art in 1896.[2] After the Nazis took over Germany, there were some who apparently considered selling French Impressionist works, including Manet’s work, from German museums.[3]
National Archives Identifier 575184
In The Washington Post this past week was a photograph of American soldiers in the mine at Merkers, Germany, looking at the Manet painting. The caption read: “U.S. soldiers examine the painting Wintergarden by French Impressionist Edouard Manet, stolen by the Nazi regime and hidden in a salt mine in Merkers, Germany.” Actually this piece of art work, as all others stored and recovered at Merkers, were German-owned, not looted.
Yet, newspapers, articles, and other published sources for decades have labeled the painting as looted. They did so based on an erroneous caption on the Signal Corps photograph at the National Archives. But it does not take much effort to know that the paintings evacuated from Berlin’s museums to Merkers in March 1945, were not looted. There are numerous articles and books that explain what art works were taken to Merkers and what happened to them. See for example my article “Nazi Gold: The Merkers Mine Treasure,” in Prologue: Quarterly of the National Archives and Records Administration, Vol. 31 No. 1 (Spring 1999).
The art works recovered at Merkers in mid-April 1945 were moved by the U.S. Army to the Reichsbank in Frankfurt. In late August they were moved to the Wiesbaden Central Collecting Point, a repository primarily for German-owned property.
At Wiesbaden Manet’s Wintergarden (like the other German-owned art works) were recorded on Property Cards, documenting accessions and transfers. The Manet work was assigned the accession identification WIE 0/199, with the presumed owner being listed as Berlin’s National-Galerie. The cards erroneously indicate that the painting had been deposited at Merkers in March 1944, when it was actually in March 1945. The cards show the painting arriving at the Wiesbaden Collecting Point during August-September 1945 and leaving in November 1945, with the location on August 31, 1946, being Washington. Manet’s work was sent in November 1945, along with some 200 other German-owned art works, to be exhibited at the National Gallery of Art and other museums. The catalogue for the exhibit very carefully listed how the German museums received the art works, to dispel any belief that any of the works had been looted. The property card for its accessioning shows that it returned to the Wiesbaden Central Collecting Point on May 5, 1949 and left again on May 31, 1949. The latter date was when the work was returned to the German Government. It is on display today at the Alte Nationalgalerie.
The property cards are part of the series Records Relating to the Wiesbaden Central Collecting Point Property Accessions, 1945–1949 (NAID 2431627) and Records Relating to the Wiesbaden Central Collecting Point Property Transfers, 1945–1948 (NAID 2431631), Record Group 260, and are available on rolls 102 and 114 of National Archives Microfilm Publication M-1947.
[1] David C. Preyer, The Art of the Berlin Galleries: Giving a History of the Kaiser Friedrich Museum with a Critical Description of the Paintings therein contained, together with a Brief Account of the National Gallery of XIX Century Art (Boston: L. C. Page & Company, 1912), pp. 259, 265.
[2] Masterpieces from the Berlin Museums Exhibited in Cooperation with the Department of the Army of the United States of America 1948-1949 (Cleveland: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1948), p. 63.
[3] Lynn H. Nicholas, The Rape of Europa: The Fate of Europe’s Treasures in the Third Reich and the Second World War (New York: Vintage Books, A Division of Random House, Inc., 1995), p. 33.
Tagged cultural property, Edouard Manet, Greg Bradsher, Merkers Mine, RG 260, Wiesbaden Central Collecting Point, Wintergarden
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50/50 Day
Character Day
Home 50/50 Day Character Day About Us All Products CONNECTED Home Discussion Kit Your cart (0)
Home > Products > CONNECTED Home Discussion Kit
CONNECTED Home Discussion Kit
CONNECTED Home Discussion Kit - $ 40.00
“Examining everything from the Big Bang to twitter…Incredibly engaging!” - The New York Times
Have you ever faked a restroom trip to check your email? Slept with your laptop? Or become so overwhelmed that you just unplugged from it all? In this funny, eye-opening, and inspiring film, Director Tiffany Shlain takes audiences on an exhilarating rollercoaster ride to discover what it means to be connected in the 21st century. From founding The Webby Awards to being a passionate advocate for The National Day of Unplugging, Her love/hate relationship with technology serves as the springboard for a thrilling exploration of modern life…and our interconnected future. Equal parts documentary and memoir, the film unfolds during a year in which technology and science literally become a matter of life and death for the director. As Shlain’s father battles brain cancer and she confronts a high-risk pregnancy, her very understanding of connection is challenged. Using a brilliant mix of animation, archival footage, and home movies, Shlain reveals the surprising ties that link us not only to the people we love but also to the world at large. A personal film with universal relevance, “Connected” explores how, after centuries of declaring our independence, it may be time for us to declare our interdependence instead.
This highly acclaimed feature documentary film, premiered at Sundance in 2011 and was selected by the U.S. State Department to represent American Filmmaking in embassies around the world for the 2012 American Film Showcase. Along with this the film has received 17 awards and distinctions including The Disruptive Innovation Award from The Tribeca Film Festival as well as completed its theatrical tour in 11 U.S cities with extended runs in 5 cities including New York, San Francisco, Seattle.
The Home Discussion kit includes:
“Connected” DVD (80min)
Two award-winning short films: “A Declaration of Interdependence” and “Yelp: With Apologies to Allen Ginsberg’s Howl”
Deck of conversation cards (with graphics, quotes, and thought experiments from the film)
100 page Companion Book, A Complete Guide to the Universe and Everything in it (Condensed Version)
*This product does not include a public screening license, and may only be shown in private homes to non-paying audiences. Check out the “CONNECTED Educator’s Edition” and “Public Screening License” for pricing and information.
IMPORTANT: In order to protect from copyright infringement and illegal copying we do not accept returns of this item.
CONNECTED Home-Use DVD
CONNECTED Educator's Edition
"Evolution of Man" Poster
Copyright © 2019 Let It Ripple + Tiffany Shlain Film Studio
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Review: Rising stars in Othello, Wilton's Music Hall
Review: Chummy, White Bear Theatre - the thriller that doesn't quite thrill.
Coming soon: My picks from London's fringe theatre
Pop Up Opera: Il Matrimonio Segreto
Miller revival After a critically acclaimed sell-out run at the Finborough Theatre, Phil Willmott’s new production of Arthur Miller’s Incident at Vichy transfers to the King’s Head Theatre. In this forgotten masterpiece about Jewish registration in Nazi-occupied France, Miller’s play seems closer than ever to today’s world of “Extreme Vetting” and religious persecution. King’s Head Theatre, Islington, 7-25 June, 2.15pm/7pm 85 minutes.
Crime and punishment Death row in America. Men sit in isolated dungeons awaiting execution. An investigator works tirelessly to save them. She will not let men go to their deaths without a fight. The Enchanted highlights issues around capital punishment, child abuse, and the self-perpetuating cycle of violence corrupting the US penitentiary. Bunker Theatre, Borough, 6-17 June, 3/7.30pm, 90 minutes
Comedy adaptation Jekyll and Hyde meets Blackadder via Monty Python, with just a hint of Spike Milligan. Let Them Call It Mischief's comedy is set against the backdrop of Victorian London complete with Cholera and everything. Jekyll and Hyde, Pleasance Theatre, Islington, 22 May – 03 Jun, 5pm/7.30pm.
Fringe opera The Pop Up opera team is taking the rarely-seen opera from the late eighteenth century, Cimarosa’s Il Matrimonio Segreto (The Secret Marriage) on the road this summer around their usual eclectic mix of venues. It tells the tale of a rich Italian businessman as he attempts to marry off one of his daughters to a mad English toff with disastrous results. Various venues in London and beyond from 18 May to 30 July. For full tour dates: http://popupopera.co.uk/ (If you’ve not seen an opera before or are unsure whether it is for you, then Pop Up Opera is a great introduction.)
Noir thriller Chummy explores the mind of a serial killer in the moments before his first murder. Desperate to control himself, the mysterious psychopath 'Chummy' pleads with private investigator Jackie Straker to stop him killing in a new stage play by BAFTA winner John Foster. White Bear Theatre, Kennington, 23 May - 10 June, 3pm/4pm/7.30pm
Posted on 21/05/2017 at 06:10 PM in Coming soon, Fringe/pub theatre | Permalink | Comments (0)
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Necessary? Or paranoid waste of time? from www.shutterstock.com.au
Do we really have to wash fruit and vegetables?
January 14, 2016 2.21pm EST
Senaka Ranadheera, Victoria University
Senaka Ranadheera
Senaka Ranadheera is a Friend of The Conversation.
Early Career Research Fellow, Advanced Food Systems Research Unit, College of Health and Biomedicine, Victoria University
Senaka Ranadheera receives funding from Victoria University, Australia.
Victoria University provides funding as a member of The Conversation AU.
There is a growing demand for fruit and vegetables across the Western world, thanks to increased awareness of their nutritional and health benefits. But we’ve always been taught they might not be safe to eat straight out of the supermarket, and they have to be washed first. Is this the case? And what might happen if we don’t?
What’s in a veggie?
Fruits and some vegetables are often consumed raw, fresh-cut or minimally processed, which is often why there are concerns about their safety. Fresh fruits and vegetables and unpasteurised juices can harbour disease-causing bugs (knows as pathogens) such as Salmonella, Campylobacter, Listeria and Shiga-toxin-producing E. coli (strains of E.coli). They can also contain pesticide residues and toxic compounds produced by moulds on the surface or even inside tissues of these foods.
Fresh fruits and vegetables may also contain allergens, which may be naturally occurring or contaminated, that can cause severe discomfort to people suffering from an intolerance. Of the potential risks, contamination with tiny bugs or organisms called microbes is the most prevalent.
The ingestion of very small numbers of dangerous bugs may not be harmful as our immune system can fight them off. But problems begin when the body’s defences fail, causing these “bad bugs” to multiply and spread throughout the body.
In recent years, fruits and vegetables such as sprouts, celery and rockmelons were identified as potential sources of food-borne pathogens. They are more susceptible to being contaminated. This has caused a number of health and social issues and major economic losses worldwide.
Last year there was an outbreak of listeriosis in the US, a disease caused by the ingestion of bacterium Listeria monocytogenes, linked to commercially produced, prepacked whole caramel apples. Thirty-five people from 12 states were infected with the disease, and three people died.
There could be more than caramel lurking in there. from www.shutterstock.com
In May 2011, Germany experienced the largest epidemic of hemolytic–uremic syndrome (a disease characterized by anemia, acute kidney failure and low platelet counts), caused by Shiga-toxin–producing E.coli associated with fresh produce such as fenugreek sprouts. Over a period of about three months nearly 4000 fell ill with symptoms such as headache and diarrhoea, and a further 800 contracted hemolytic–uremic syndrome. Authorities reported 53 deaths.
In the US in 2011, cantaloupes become contaminated with the bacterium Listeria monocytogenes. One-hundred and forty-six people in 28 states were sick and 30 died.
While Australia is considered one of the safest food suppliers in the world, a significant number of foodborne illnesses are still reported every year. The government-funded organisation OzFoodNet reported 674 outbreaks of enteric illness, including those transmitted by contaminated foods, in the last quarter of 2013 alone.
Does washing help?
The washing of fruits and vegetables is one of the most important processing steps at the industrial level. Washing is designed to remove dirt and dust and some pesticides, and to detach bugs. Washing improves not only the safety and quality, but also the product’s shelf-life.
However, the quality of water used for washing is crucial. Washing water can serve as a source of cross-contamination as it may be re-used during harvesting and processing stages. Washing with sanitising agents is much better; washing removes microorganisms by detaching them from the products, and sanitising kills them.
Washed and ready to use? Safer to wash it again. Screenshot from Woolworths website, CC BY
Although this first stage of washing can significantly reduce the level of pathogens, infiltration of pathogens into cracks, crevices, and between the cells of fruits and vegetables has been shown to be possible.
Once positioned in these niches, pathogens may survive and multiply by the time the infected produce is consumed. Therefore pre-washed produce may not be 100% safe. Peeling can help to get rid of bugs on the surface, but it also risks cross-contaminating the inner part of the product.
Cooking temperatures kill most of the pathogenic bugs, but the compounds produced by them (metabolites) may be heat-tolerant and can cause serious health issues. Washing may help to remove some of these compounds, but not necessarily all.
The risk of eating contaminated produce is much greater now than it has been in previous centuries because primary production, processing and trade of fruits and vegetables occur in diverse climates and within different countries’ rules and regulations and food processing systems.
Most of these foodborne illnesses are preventable. Washing in clean running tap water significantly reduces the level of E. coli bacteria on broccoli and lettuce, although it doesn’t completely eliminate it. Therefore washing fruits and vegetables using clean water at home – including pre-washed products – before consumption may help minimise the risk of foodborne infections.
Never eat or buy produce that looks spoiled, however be aware produce that is contaminated may look, taste and smell similar to the produce that is safe to eat. Make sure kitchen surfaces are clean and use the correct temperature and time for cooking.
Washing fresh produce is an important part of ensuring your favourite fruits and veggies are safe to consume, but also be sure to pay regular attention to the media for any outbreaks or updates related to fresh produce safety.
China’s export food safety standards are much more stringent than domestic ones. Image sourced from Shutterstock.com
Contaminated berries scare unlikely to slow China food exports
Hey! You got a friend in Taenia solium. Roberto J. Galindo
The top ten parasites that could be lurking in your food
Only a small proportion of people who eat these berries will become infected. Chiot's Run/Flickr
Scary berries: how food gets contaminated and what to do
It’s OK to put your head under but try not to drink the water. GetHiroshima.com/Flickr
What lies beneath: the bugs lurking in your swimming pool
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Hate speech, jailed bloggers...a hint of what we may soon face?
In Egypt and Pakistan: Profiles in Courage and Repression
Posted on June 26, 2014 by Alfredo Lopez
As bad as things get for our movement in this country, we are not yet feeling the full throttle of repression and, if one needs a reminder of that and perhaps a profile of what’s in store for us if we don’t organize now, the situation facing Internet activists in the Middle East provides it.
Two weeks ago, June 11, Egyptian blogger and on-line activist Alaa Abdel Fattah was sentenced to 15 years in jail by an Egyptian court. His crime? He was part of a Nov. 26, 2013 peaceful demonstration in front of the Egyptian Shura council protesting a proposed constitutional provision allowing military trials for civilians. His trial was held at a police station and he and 23 other defendants in his case weren’t allowed to be present. They were all sentenced in absentia as they stood outside the courtroom.
Fattah is one of the world’s best-known Internet activists; he’s given interviews to so many countries he’s like a United Nations of sound-bites. That makes even more brazen the farcical trial and nightmarish sentence handed down. It also makes clear how far governments will go in implementing the blueprint for Internet repression that is being followed, in one way or the other, world-wide.
Ahmad (left) and Fattah: profiles in principle and courage
About a week later, Pakistan’s chapter of Bytes for All (among the most acclaimed Internet rights organizations in the world) released a remarkable study about hate speech in Pakistan. The study is among the most informative ever on this topic and that’s an enormous contribution. But its most important finding is that hate speech isn’t some random rant by a fool or a crazy person; it is political, organized and a motor of repression.
Perhaps the greatest lesson is that the study was publized at all. Bytes for All (Pakistan) operates under relentless attack and repression. Its coordinator, Shazhad Ahmad, has been sentenced to death (the sentence deferred) and can’t live with his family for security reasons. Its staff is constantly harassed and some staff members have been arrested and one was beaten fiercely outside the organization’s office.
This is about how much worse repression can get and how it is being facilitated. But it’s also about how, despite the conditions, brave people keep fighting and should be supported.
The Bytes for All report is couched in the careful and fact-laden language of NGO activism to present a treasure trove of facts, cases and quotes while making the case that all this is politically driven. Page after page of the report describes cases in which on-line and other public communications systems have been used to repress movements, deepen the oppression of women and target (sometimes successfully) opposition leaders for beatings or death.
But it also reveals an important fact about the government response to political and social crises: regimes are now using mass expression to oil their repression and to build extremist right-wing movements to protect them. The hysterical leaflets and screaming speeches that were once the mobilizing cry of fascism have been replaced by hateful statements floating on the pixels dancing across computer screens. There’s something incremental about these “one at a time” rants. With each Facebook entry or tweet on Twitter, the hysterics of hate deepen and become more violent: shooting vituperative volleys like spraying bullets, the calibre increasing with each post.
The 63-page report was written by Pakistani journalist Jahanzaib Haque, who writes for the popular Pakistani publication Dawn.com (among others), and was based on an online survey on hate speech to which 559 Pakistani Internet users responded. This was complemented with monitoring and information-gathering from “high impact, high reach” Facebook pages and Twitter accounts.
According to the report, 92 percent of all respondents have come across hate speech online and over half (51 percent) have been the target. Of those targeted people, 42 percent said they were targeted for their religious beliefs, 23 percent for their nationality, 22 percent based on race/ethnicity and 16 percent for sex/gender/sexual orientation.
“…the 30 Facebook pages analyzed (3,000 shares and related comments) contained 10,329 counts of hate speech, which translates to more than three counts of hate speech on every single share,” the report’s findings synopsis says.
It’s disturbing but not surprising. This is after all the country where Malala Yousafzai, the 12-year-old student who advocated for education for women, was shot point-blank in the face by a Taliban thug as she was riding home on a school bus. Her case provoked international reaction as she slowly recovered from her wounds outside her country and a promise by the Taliban, which admitted planning her murder, to finish the job if she ever returned. The shooting was the culmination of a remarkably virulent attack campaign on Facebook.
Pakistan is the place where on-line hate speech has fanned sectarian flames morphing into murderous mobs like those in Rawalpini in 2013 (where Musliam and Sihks engaged in a community-based war leaving scores dead). It’s a country where a charge of blasphemy, supported by hundreds of twitter or Facebook messages, can end in a death sentence or imprisonment. It’s the place where media personalities, journalists and even actors can see their lives endangered and careers ruined by an on-line hate campaign.
It’s also, not unconnected, a country that has been bombed, attacked, invaded, violated, bullied and villified by the United States government: treatment that appears to have fed the right-wing ferocity documented in this report.
The Pakistani government’s reaction to all this is dramatized by the fact that it goes on uninterrupted while the regime continues through threat, intimidation, beatings, arrests and even a recent tax case to shut Bytes for All down. The target isn’t the crime; it’s the crime’s opponent.
In places where there are still some democratic rights, like the United States, the issue of hate speech on-line is framed as a debate over whether some fool has the right to say something sexist or racist and whether Facebook or Twitter have the right to block that post. It’s all about individuals and hurtful words and, in a sense, the veneer of respect. This is, without question, important to notice and organize around. Because if left unchallenged, it will morph into the situations in many other countries, like Pakistan, where hate speech is an organized force with the government compliant or actually involved.
Ironically, the key here may be to resist the obvious solution: repression of these forms of communication. That would be the government’s choice, of course, because free expression is the greatest threat to it.
“We at Bytes for All hold Freedom of Expression very dear as an inviolable fundamental human right,” Bytes for All’s Ahmad said, “but often see it being fettered in false paradigms of morality, security, national interest or even hate speech.”
“The need to counter the spread of hate speech in Pakistan’s online space,” the report’s summary states, “is a pressing concern that needs to be addressed through a multi-pronged approach that educates, creates awareness and discourages hate and intolerance, prohibits and criminalizes the most extreme and dangerous forms of hate speech by law, yet guarantees that fundamental human rights to free speech and information are safeguarded.”
Why we need to safeguard those rights was made painfully obvious earlier this month when the Egyptian court sentenced Alaa Abdel Fattah to 15 years in jail for being part of the 2013 demonstration. While Egypt — known for the bizarre decisions of some of its judges — has never been a beacon for judicial fairness, this imprisonment has a logic. That logic has become even clearer with the remarkably nasty sentencing this week of three journalists for the Al Jazeera network.
Fattah is one of Eqypt’s most visible democracy activists and his blog, read world-wide, is one of the democracy movement’s most respected news sources. Eloquent, charismatic, funny and principled without question, he’s the kind of guy repressive governments view as a rash.
But the popular blogger has been much more than a source of information and interviews. He’s a revolutionary activist and, possibly most dreaded, a “techie”. He has spent the last period of time alternating between his blog and the training of Egyptian young people in the important tasks of coding, running servers and developing websites.
They knew what they were doing when they jailed Alaa Abdel Fattah. This was an attack, not only on free communications but on people’s ability to develop the tools of communication.
The Al Jazeera case has provoked a deserved condemnation internationally but the attention to Fattah’s case has been largely limited, at least in the United States, to technology organizations and rights groups. That has to change. The Internet is ours. It was started by people (not governments or companies) and the movements for change in this world now use it as our principle communications and mobilizing tool. Governments are not happy about that and their efforts to control it (and repress it when they can’t control it) are attacks on our movements, our future and us. We can’t ignore that.
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Port Alberni, British Columbia
Mon 01 6:24 AM PDT 0.0 ft 12:50 PM PDT 8.2 ft 6:00 PM PDT 3.8 ft 5:18 AM PDT 9:27 PM PDT 4:23 AM PDT 8:35 PM PDT
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Wed 31 6:47 AM PDT −0.8 ft 1:15 PM PDT 8.5 ft 6:31 PM PDT 3.3 ft New Moon 5:49 AM PDT 9:00 PM PDT 5:03 AM PDT 9:07 PM PDT
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Swimming At June Lake, California
Jodi Thornton-O'Connell, Leaf Group Updated January 18, 2018
June Lake is just a 30-minute drive from Yosemite National Park. (Photo: Medioimages/Photodisc/Photodisc/Getty Images )
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Tucked among peaks stretching to 12,000 feet in the Sierra Nevada Mountains in California, it is possible to find June Lake. This sparkling lake is less than a half hour's drive away from Yosemite National Park and a bit south of Lake Tahoe. June is just one of four lakes found along the 16-mile June Lake Loop that is a hotbed of resorts, campgrounds and trailheads leading into the Ansel Adams Wilderness -- and the only one with a swimming beach.
June Lake's sole beach is found at the northeast part of its 3-mile shoreline. Two parking areas provide access to each end of the beach, with restrooms available on site. The sand beach slopes gradually into the water, with rocky areas flanking either side of the designated swimming area. Dogs are not allowed at the public beach, but there is an easily walkable trail along the shoreline to dog-friendly areas away from the public beach. Water temperature during the summer is a constant 65 degrees Fahrenheit at the beach, and expect daytime air temperatures averaging in the high 70s.
Rent a boat or put a personal one the water at the June Lake Marina on the southeast shore of the Lake. The lake allows motorized boats but enforces a 10 mph speed limit. Sailboats, kayaks, paddle boards and wind surfing provide popular alternatives to access the lake's cool waters. Head out for a trip around the lake, and stop at an unmaintained rock or sand beach found along the lake's perimeter to take a swim or dive into deeper water off the boat's deck. A dirt trail on the lake's western shore provides alternative access to some of the more remote areas. Beaches vary with water levels and are more prevalent when lake waters are lower.
Take It Indoors
Winds rolling over the lake in the afternoon are a hit with wind surfers but sometimes leave swimmers shivering in their towels on water's edge. Boulder Lodge has the area's sole indoor, family friendly swimming pool open throughout the year. The heated pool is square, allowing easy swim laps. A hot tub and sauna round out the poolside amenities, with large view windows looking out at the lake while staying snug inside. The lodge sits on 3.4 acres of lake frontage and has one-, two-, or three-bedroom suites with fireplaces, balconies, kitchens and Wi-Fi.
Fitness Swimming
Double Eagle Resort and Spa maintains a 60-foot pool reserved for spa and lodging guests. Swim laps or take a fitness class at the pool, with family swimming sessions open during mid-day and late afternoon. Youth between the ages of 13 and 17 may complete a certification process entitling them to use the facilities without an adult present, but children under 12 must be under the direct supervision of an adult. The resort provides restrooms, showers and locker rooms at the pool.
June Lake Loop Chamber of Commerce: Welcome to June Lake, California
California's Greatest Lakes: June Lake Loop
United States Department of Agriculture Forest Service: June Lake Loop
Recreation.gov: June Lake, California
Boulder Lake Lodge: Our Lodge
California's Greatest Lakes: Boating on June Lake
Indulging her passion for vacation vagary through the written word on a full-time basis since 2010, travel funster Jodi Thornton-O'Connell guides readers to the unexpected, quirky, and awe-inspiring.
Medioimages/Photodisc/Photodisc/Getty Images
Attribution: Photographersnature; License: Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license
Thornton-O'Connell, Jodi. "Swimming At June Lake, California." Travel Tips - USA Today, https://traveltips.usatoday.com/swimming-june-lake-california-110236.html. 18 January 2018.
Thornton-O'Connell, Jodi. (2018, January 18). Swimming At June Lake, California. Travel Tips - USA Today. Retrieved from https://traveltips.usatoday.com/swimming-june-lake-california-110236.html
Thornton-O'Connell, Jodi. "Swimming At June Lake, California" last modified January 18, 2018. https://traveltips.usatoday.com/swimming-june-lake-california-110236.html
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GLOBAL TREASURES: Turkey (Blue Mosque)
Global Treasures: Blue Mosque
Ullman, Frank - Television Director
Scarson, Peter O. - Producer
Catalogue Number: GTR-DVD-1088
Global Treasures - History's Most Protected Monuments - Heritage is our legacy from the past, what we live today, and what we pass on to future generations. Our cultural and natural heritage are both irreplaceable sources of life and inspiration. Places as unique and diverse as the wilds of East Africa's Serengeti, the Pyramids of Egypt, the Great Barrier Reef in Australia and the Baroque cathedrals of Latin America make up our world's heritage. Join us as we explore one of these protected monuments.
The tall minarets of the Sultan Ahmed Mosque, the "Blue Mosque," tower proudly into the heavens and dominate the skyline of Istanbul, the Turkish capital on the Bosporus.
At the beginning of the 17th century, the young and ambitious sultan Ahmed I decided that an additional building should replace the Hagia Sophia as the city's main mosque.
With its graduated cupolas, the building was designed to be as impressive as possible, thus a spacious courtyard was also included. Elegant columned halls surround a square, at the centre of which there is an hexagonal fountain where the faithful once cleansed themselves prior to prayer. Today, the faithful wash themselves along the external side walls of the courtyard. In the eastern section is the Mederse, the mosque's School of the Koran.
Four five-metre-thick pillars known as "elephants' feet" support the incredible weight of the Blue Mosque's massive central cupola. It derived its popular alias of the Blue Mosque due to its internal décor, which consists of 21,000 precious blue-colored Fayence wall tiles from Iznik.
The Topkapi Palace, which over the years was greatly extended by various sultans, is also located in the historic centre of Istanbul, and until 1853 it was the royal residence of the Osmanic royal family.
Along the picturesque shoreline of the Bosporus are numerous ancient mosques, palaces and villas. One of the longest and most impressive suspension bridges in the world connects this fascinating European city and its twelve million inhabitants to Asia.
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Interim CEO of UNG’s Oconee Campus named
(July 19, 2016) - University of North Georgia (UNG) President Bonita Jacobs announced the appointment of Jerry Sullivan as the interim CEO of the Oconee Campus, effective August 1.
Sullivan is currently associate vice president for Auxiliary Services and Real Estate at UNG and lives in the Athens area. In this temporary role, he will report to Dr. Richard Oates, vice president of the Gainesville Campus and will manage the day-to-day business of the campus. Sullivan will have dual reporting responsibilities and will retain the Auxiliary title while serving in the interim role.
Since joining UNG in April 2014, Sullivan has led the auxiliary services operations across the entire university, and has been involved with multiple projects on the Oconee Campus. For the seventeen years prior to joining UNG, he was a vice president with the Follett Higher Education Group, a provider of campus retail services and course materials technologies at over 1,000 colleges and universities across North America, and also served as assistant director of community relations at Waycross College in Waycross, Georgia.
He earned an MBA from Brenau University, a bachelor’s of fine art from Valdosta State University, and completed additional graduate work at the University of Georgia.
Sullivan's appointment fills the post vacated by Dr. Eric Skipper, who now serves as new executive vice chancellor for Academic Affairs for the University of South Carolina Beaufort.
A search committee will be formed for the permanent position in the fall.
Sylvia Carson
Executive Director of Communications
sylvia.carson@ung.edu
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I Don’t Wanna Fight (No More)
The year 1993 was a real Tina Turner year and offered the full range of a pop star´s work and output: a new album (or at least partly new as most of the tracks were re-recordings), several releases as singles, a tour in the United States and several festival concerts overseas and – of course – magazine articles, TV appearances and – the reason for all the drama – the autobiographical movie “What´s Love Got To Do With It”. 1993 started with the release of “I Don´t Wanna Fight” which turned out to be a big hit on both sides of the Atlantic.
Thoughts on “I Don´t Wanna Fight”
Most of us know it and the others might have heard about it (and will therefore learn it their own way sooner or later): the end of a relationship can be and typically will be painful. It does not have to disastrous as we see it in the song but it can also be a new step and another phase of life. In most cases, we would expect fights, the struggle for a new beginning and we would catch the last straw to save the relationship. Sometimes, the love and the mutual affection can indeed return to us and we, our partner and the relationship as an entity of its own could be reborn stronger than before. It may seem to us like a phoenix rising from the ashes. But – in the case of the song – there is no guarantee for such a turnaround. Here, we are at the end where there are only coldness and a dry acceptance of a simple fact: We lost it and it won´t ever come back.
The first person narrator – could be a man or a woman but we would expect a woman as Tina sings it – is past all the fighting and struggling. You can see it best in the chorus. She does not want to fight any longer. The time for disagreements and misunderstandings, discussions and explanations, verbal attacks and war is over. She cannot see any progress or any way out of the situation but already accepted the mere fact that this relationship – as sad as it is – is over. During all the last months, we can see her putting up a fight to get things clear and done, to re-build a new setting for the relationship but somehow, it did not work out so well. In the end, she does not care anymore “who´s wrong or right”, there was “too much talking” and “this is time for letting go”.
I don’t care who’s wrong or right
I don’t really wanna fight no more (too much talking babe)
Let’s sleep on it tonight
I don’t really wanna fight no more (this is time for letting go)
In the first stanza, we are introduced to her. Obviously, she is the romantic type as the imagines a “pale moon in the sky” which is “the kind you make your wishes on”. But this light – may it be pale – is now gone and nowhere to be seen. The dreams are shattered, the deception and the disillusion filled out the empty space in the sky long ago and darken her mood and cast shadows upon her life. And yet, she does not give up so easily. She can give up the relationship but she does not give up herself and her will to be happy again. Now, she can understand that they are both only pretending to be back on track with their love and that they are actually further apart from each other than ever before. And somehow, this understanding and the acceptance of the situation give her strength to overcome the trap which they have set for themselves and allow her to open the door to a pathway out of the cold world they are now caught in.
There’s a pale moon in the sky
The kind you make your wishes on
Like the light in your eyes
The one I built my dreams upon
It’s not there any longer
Something happened somewhere
And we both know why
But me, I’m getting stronger
We must stop pretending
I can’t live this life
And finally, in the last stanza, we find her summary and the conclusion which she could draw after all the reasoning during the last past months. “Hanging on to the past” can be good if there is still a way into the future where they would find their happy ending for the sake of that very past. But unfortunately, she can only see that “it only stands in our way” and despite all the memorable moments from the good old times she cannot see any other way than to leave. But – and this is the central message of all her reckoning – leaving is not the same as escape and the end of this love is not the end of it all. The good times can be a treasure and should be kept as one but now they have to separate from each other so as to gain freedom and happiness – not together but alone.
Hanging on to the past
It only stands in our way
We had to grow for our love to last
But we just grew apart
No, I don’t wanna hurt no more
Of course, there is no doubt that this is definitely not a happy song. But it is not an angry song either because no one is to blame. It just happened, you could say. It is not even a really sad song but we can locate it on the edge of melancholia. Here we find the final acceptance of a sad truth. The woman will be alone and without a partner – but she is not bitter. This reminds us of the famous Tina Turner quote “I have no time for bitterness”. The past is the past, we seal it, we enjoy the good moments – because they are always good moments which we must not forget just because the end was painful – we bottle them for being remembered but there is no bitterness. There might be wounds but they will heal, and if there are scars then these scars won´t be deep enough to mark us for the rest of our lives. We observe, we learn and accept, we decide and leave. But we leave to go on and to start again.
Commercial success
“I Don´t Wanna Fight” was released on April 23rd, 1993 in different and localized formats. The dominant synthesizer and typically 1990s background track – given the fact that it was a Tina Turner release –was not only a very good selection for the end credits of the bio pic but also quite successful. Tina Turner jumped to top 20 chart positions in various countries around the world and also in many relevant business regions. To name just a few chart positions:
Canada #1
Spain #4
Belgium #5
UK #7
New Zealand #7
Italy #8
Norway #8
US Billboard Hot 100 #9
Switzerland #11
Japan #11
The Netherlands #14
Ireland #14
Poland #19
France #49
Austria #29
Germany #35
Sweden #39
Australia #39
The song was also heavily remixed, for example in a ‘Holiday Inn lounge mix’ (does this mean it was specifically remixed to be played in Holiday Inn hotels, we still don’t know). These remixes were gathered together on a rare 7-track promo single, released for publicity purposes only in the United States. You can listen to some of the mixes from this releases in this previous post.
Later, the song even brought her two Grammy nominations in 1993: one for “Best pop vocal performance, female” and “Best song specifically written for a motion picture”.
“I Don´t Wanna Fight” was written by British singer Lulu and Steve DuBerry. Lulu (born in 1948) is a singer from Scotland but also worked as an actress and is best-known for her hit “To Sir With Love” – the title song of a movie bearing the same name – and also for the title song of the James Bond movie “The Man With The Golden Gun”. Steve DuBerry is a highly successful songwriter and record producer and wrote material for many top-artists like Joe Cocker, Cliff Richard and Chris De Burgh. Other members of the team behind the song are well-known to Tina Turner fans as they collaborated with her on many other numbers. The song was mixed by Chris Lord-Alge who mixed nearly all her albums from the 80s and 90s, and Peter Lindbergh took the black-and-white cover photo of the “I Don´t Wanna Fight” single.
Produced by Chris Lord-Alge, Tina Turner and Roger Davies
Written by Steve DuBerry, Lulu
Engineered and mixed by Chris Lord-Alge
Cover photography of the CD-/LP-single by Peter Lindbergh
Released by Parlophone (Europe) and Virgin (North America)
I Don’t Wanna Fight was included in all the concerts of Tina’s 1993 What’s Love..? tour. The best-known live version was recorded at The Blockbuster Pavilion, San Bernardino, California. This concert was later released as a video cassette and laser disc.
Another excellent live performance was recorded in Lüneburg, Germany during the short Rock over Germany tour that took place at the end of August, beginning of September 1993. Several songs from this show were broadcast on the radio, including I Don’t Wanna Fight. Listen to this live version in this post.
“I Don´t Wanna Fight” – Live on TV
Tina Turner appeared several times on TV with her new hit in order to promote the song itself and also to stir up attention and interest for the “What´s Love Got To Do With It” movie. Fans from the UK will remember best her Top Of The Pops appearance where she wore blue jeans and a white blouse and sang live against the pre-recorded background track and ended the last lines a cappella.
While the TOTP appearance was pre-recorded without an audience in Monte Carlo where she appeared on the occasion of the World Music Awards 1993, viewers of the WMA show enjoyed another recording of the song with actual audience where she wore a highly dramatic and shiny black dress.
The US audience got a third live appearance on the Late Show with David Letterman which included not only a live version of the song – with Tina Turner again wearing the white blouse and blue jeans – but also a very interesting interview about the upcoming movie.
Posted in SongsTagged 1993, i don't wanna fight, Live, Lulu, lyrics, Movie, Peter Lindbergh, Soundtrack, Tina Turner, Tina Turner Songs, Video, What's Love Got To Do With It, What's Love TourBy Ben
14 Replies to “I Don’t Wanna Fight (No More)”
One of my favorite periods in Tina Turner’s career: I loved the album, liked the movie, loved the photos from that summer, esp. the magazine spreads she did…her hairstyle for that period (the shag) is my favorite after the 80s look she had from 1983 onwards. I want the album to be remastered, repackaged (as a mini-LP replica CD) and expanded to include much of the material from the TOMMY soundtrack and her first 3 solo albums before the Private Dancer era. A 20th anniversary edition would be great encompassing 1966-1984, like her autobiography did. I’ve had this idea since 2002. Nothing has come of it, though.
Ben & Sjef says:
A re-release of the soundtrack would be great with a special design for its 20th anniversary could be a nice idea accompanied by a brand new cd of course 😉
Pingback: I Don’t Wanna Fight (No More) | The Tina Turner Blog | Gregg Rowe
Lousina says:
I really love this song!! Very nice analysis of this song and thanks for sharing the recordings. It’s also very interesting to know who worked on/made/produced this song. Thanks guys.
Thanks for your comment Lousina! All credits to Marco who made his first special contribution for the blog with this article!
marga says:
Me encantó, me gustó mucho escuchar todas las versiones, y recordarla de esta manera Gracias
Gracias Marga!
Cergio says:
This Tina period was and still is so fresh! The movie, the soundtrack, this single, the new lyrics, the new look. For a lenght of time, I used to listen to this song several times in the day. I makes me happy, even though now, paying more attention to the lyrics and the message, it is more of a reflection-song. If this song means coming to an end of a love affair, well, this is one pretty ending! I wish we all could (and can) live by this example. Big hug, thanks so much for reviving this. Also, very well written interpretation from your side! Congrats.
Thanks a lot for sharing your thoughts Cergio!
milkyaqua says:
Lovely song and lovely write up by you folks as usual. This is also one of my favorite Tina videos. I saw the What’s Love tour (a more or less redo of The Foreign Affair tour). I don’t think it was mentioned that this song was offered to Sade first who declined and passed it on Tina’s way.
This article is Marco’s first contribution to the blog so on his behalf, Thanks you!
Pingback: What’s love got to do with it? The soundtrack to Tina’s life | The Tina Turner Blog
Pingback: Burn, baby, burn! Disco in Reno | The Tina Turner Blog
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Next PostNext From Nutbush, TN to Küsnacht, Switzerland: Tina Turner is a Swiss citizen
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Experiential and Essential
With 29 clinics in a wide range of fields of law and policy, Harvard Law School students can develop skills in an experiential program that constantly adapts to their interests, as well as to new approaches and areas of the law. Here are four accounts from students using that opportunity to address pressing legal and social issues. Continue Reading
Morality in the Machines
Researchers at Harvard’s Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society are collaborating with MIT scholars to study driverless cars, social media feeds, and criminal justice algorithms, to make sure openness and ethics inform artificial intelligence. Continue Reading
No Paper Tiger
A new book by Laurence Tribe and Joshua Matz examines the real and threatened power of impeachment.
Branch Returns to Her Navajo Roots
As attorney general of the Navajo Nation, Ethel Branch ’08 aims to strengthen tribal law and native voices. Continue Reading
Clinical education at HLS: Four experiences
More Featured Stories
Researchers at Harvard’s Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society are collaborating with MIT scholars to study driverless cars, social media feeds, and criminal justice algorithms, to make sure openness and ethics inform artificial intelligence.
On a Mission
A Monument to Madison
A State of Danger?
Inside HLS
Value Innovation
During his nearly 10 years on the Harvard Law faculty, Holger Spamann S.J.D. ’09 has always enjoyed teaching corporate finance, but he’s also found it challenging. Some students have worked as traders at hedge funds or in private equity and others have been newly minted English majors who haven’t thought much about business concepts.
Celebrating Lani
‘I go way back with Professor Ogletree’
Hats Off!
Honoring ‘a Towering Intellect’ and ‘a Good Man’
Alumni Notes and Newsmakers
Bringing Blockchain to the Cowboy State
Caitlin Long ’94 left Wyoming for Harvard Law School and the career on Wall Street that followed, but she’s never forgotten her home state or its only university.
No Crime to Be Poor
There is no shortage of serious legal issues facing poor people in Greater St. Louis, especially people of color, says Blake Strode ’15, who was born and raised in the area. Just three years out of HLS, Strode is back home fighting the criminalization of poverty as executive director of ArchCity Defenders, a nonprofit civil rights law firm in St. Louis that has filed landmark cases that have already improved the lives of tens of thousands of low-income people.
HLS Authors
Summer reading: From a queer critical legal studies approach to law reform, to a memoir about growing up bi-racial, to a biography of Chief Justice Marshall.
From the Palazzo del Quirinale to the Lizard Lounge
Harvard Law School Association events bring together alumni around the world.
On the Street Where He Lived
Thanks to Peter Trooboff ’67, a plaque now marks the building in Lviv, Ukraine, where his mentor international law Professor Louis Sohn LL.M. ’40 S.J.D. ’58 spent part of his childhood in the 1930s.
A Musical Second Act
Glenn Feit Sr. ’57, longtime New York City corporate attorney, had an “unexpected turn of career” in the last seven years and is now a musician in the Hamptons (on the East End of Long Island, New York).
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Tag Archives: Tom Holland
Oscar Watch – Spider-Man: Far From Home
Posted on June 28, 2019 by toddmthatcher
Spider–Man: Far From Home opens on Tuesday next week with solid reviews in its corner. With a 90% rating on Rotten Tomatoes, many critics are calling it an improvement on its direct predecessor – 2017’s Spider–Man: Homecoming.
When it comes to Oscar’s history with the Spider-Verse over multiple features, there is past and very recent occurrences. The first two editions of Sam Raimi’s Tobey Maguire trilogy garnered nods. 2002’s Spider–Man nabbed Sound and Visual Effects nominations. Its 2004 sequel won Visual Effects, in addition to Sound nods. Since then, the four live-action features (one more with Maguire, two with Andrew Garfield, and Homecoming) received no awards love. However, last year’s animated and acclaimed Spider–Man: Into the Spider–Verse was the winner of Best Animated Feature.
Far From Home is, of course, part of the massive Marvel Cinematic Universe. If the studio pushes for Oscar votes, their attention in 2019 is likely to focus on Avengers: Endgame. So even with sturdy critical reaction, I would anticipate this being the fifth non-animated Spidey pic in a row to go empty handed. My Oscar Watch posts will continue…
Posted in Oscar Predictions | Tagged academy awards, Andrew Garfield, Avengers: Endgame, Cobie Smulders, J.B. Smoove, Jacob Batalon, Jake Gyllenhaal, Jon Favreau, Jon Watts, Marisa Tomei, Marvel Cinematic Universe, MCU, movies, Oscar Predictions, Oscar Watch, oscars, Sam Raimi, Samuel L. Jackson, Spider-Man, Spider-Man 2, Spider-Man 3, Spider-Man: Far From Home, Spider-Man: Homecoming, Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, The Amazing Spider-Man, The Amazing Spider-Man 2, tobey maguire, Tom Holland, Zendaya | Leave a reply
Spider-Man: Far From Home Box Office Prediction
Peter Parker’s European vacation goes awry and Marvel looks to have its third massive 2019 blockbuster in a row when Spider–Man: Far From Home opens next week over a long holiday weekend. The sequel to 2017’s Spider–Man: Homecoming finds Tom Holland returning to the title role after appearing in Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame in between. Jon Watts is back directing with familiar MCU faces Samuel L. Jackson, Cobie Smulders, and Jon Favreau among the cast. Returnees from Homecoming include Zendaya, Marisa Tomei, and Jacob Batalon. Newbies to this cinematic universe are J.B. Smoove and Jake Gyllenhaal as main villain Mysterio.
The sequel should benefit tremendously from the MCU’s hot streak. Endgame and Captain Marvel stand as the top two grossers of the year so far. Homecoming was well received two summers ago with a $334 million domestic haul. Advance word of mouth is strong.
Spidey flicks have a history of debuting over the July 4th frame. 2004’s Spider–Man 2 also had a six-day rollout and earned $180 million in that time frame. Same goes for 2012’s reboot The Amazing Spider–Man with $137 million from Tuesday to Sunday.
Far From Home gets underway on Tuesday and I believe earnings approaching $200 million is doable. I’ll say this manages a bit under $100 million from the traditional Friday to Sunday frame with just under the double century mark over the holiday.
Spider-Man: Far From Home opening weekend prediction: $92.5 million (Friday to Sunday); $190.4 million
For my Midsommar prediction, click here:
https://toddmthatcher.com/2019/06/26/midsommar-box-office-prediction/
Posted in Box Office Predictions/Results | Tagged Avengers: Endgame, Avengers: Infinity War, Box Office, box office predictions, Captain Marvel, Cobie Smulders, J.B. Smoove, Jacob Batalon, Jake Gyllenhaal, Jon Favreau, Jon Watts, Marisa Tomei, Martin Starr, Marvel Cinematic Universe, Marvel Comics, MCU, movies, Robert Downey Jr., Samuel L. Jackson, Spider-Man, Spider-Man 2, Spider-Man: Far From Home, Spider-Man: Homecoming, The Amazing Spider-Man, Tom Holland, Zendaya | Leave a reply
Avengers: Endgame Movie Review
Posted on April 29, 2019 by toddmthatcher
**There’s really no way to write a review of Avengers: Endgame without some minor spoilers. You may wish to read this post viewing…
The word “epic” can be overused by those who review movies like me, but it unquestionably applies to Avengers: Endgame. It’s epic in its running time (none of the other 21 MCU pics run three hours) and epic in the number of well-known thespians reprising their superhero and villain characters. It doesn’t seem feasible that so many characters could manage to coexist in this vast universe without seeming like a gimmick. If you happen to think predecessor Infinity War was overcrowded, you’ll get whiplash here. Truth be told, there are moments when this borders on playing like a greatest hits reel based on what’s preceded it during the last eleven years.
Yet Endgame figures out a rewarding way to stick the landing and honor the dozens of faces that we’ve spent billions of dollars visiting since 2008. At the conclusion of Infinity War, bad guy Thanos (Josh Brolin) had collected his precious Infinity Stones and decimated half the intergalactic population into dramatic looking dust particles. What’s left is mostly the core of the OG Avengers – Tony Stark/Iron Man (Robert Downey Jr.), Steve Rogers/Captain America (Chris Evans), Thor (Chris Hemsworth), Bruce Banner/Hulk (Mark Ruffalo), and Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson). There’s others as Rocket (voice of Bradley Cooper) is the sole surviving Guardian of the Galaxy. And we have the two notable characters that were MIA last summer – Hawkeye (Jeremy Renner) and Ant-Man (Paul Rudd).
One might think this whole saga might be about the original band and some newer friends taking on Thanos. You would be wrong. Endgame has plenty of time bending tricks up its endless story arch sleeves. The first is an unexpected resolution that comes very early. However, that climax is just a set-up to further complications.
This is indeed a time travel movie in which the screenwriters almost sheepishly concede the contrived nature of such a device. The survivors set upon a course of multiple back in time ways to retrieve the Stones and bring back their loved ones. It doesn’t happen overnight and the lengthy nature of the plan coming together provides funny and poignant moments. Tony is off the grid with his beloved Pepper (Gwyneth Paltrow) and a new addition. Bruce is in full Hulk mode, but kindler and gentler. Thor is rounder and drunkenly grappling with his losses. Hawkeye is a full-blown vigilante. When the gang revs up their figurative DeLoreans, it gives us a chance to revisit lots of MCU personnel. And it’s a LOT of former players. Some are genuinely surprising. During this lengthy stretch, the film walks a fine line of not devolving into nostalgic sugar shock amidst the action sequences. By the final act, it rises above it.
We know the battle scenes will be well choreographed and well-directed (with the Russo Brothers handling duties once again). The final one is rather jaw dropping with the mixing of so many known quantities. Thanos is one of the stronger villains in MCU history and he remains so here, though there’s nothing fresh to add about his character. His daughter Nebula (Karen Gillan), on the other hand, continues her evolution as a fine addition to the roster.
The comic relief comes more from Thor as opposed to Ant-Man or Rocket and Hemsworth is up to the task. Captain America and Black Widow are given their emotional moments that we’re invested in from their backstories. To this writer, it’s Tony who’s always been the damaged beating heart of this franchise. The Marvel Cinematic Universe simply wouldn’t exist as it is without Downey Jr.’s brilliant work. That’s never changed. The quality of the movies he’s appeared in has. His performance has always been fantastic. If we’re ranking, I would put Endgame as an overall experience just under the first Avengers in 2012 and Infinity War. I can’t promise that thinking about all the shifting time plot points might raise as many questions as answers. I won’t deny that its emotional payoff is real and we have Downey and an amazing group of technicians bringing these comics to life to thank for it.
***1/2 (out of four)
Posted in Todd's Movie Reviews | Tagged Angela Bassett, Ant-Man, Anthony Mackie, Anthony Russo, Avengers: Endgame, Benedict Cumberbatch, Benedict Wong, Black Panther, bradley cooper, Brie Larson, Captain America, Captain Marvel, Chadwick Boseman, Chris Evans, Chris Hemsworth, Cobie Smulders, Danai Gurira, Dave Bautista, Doctor Strange, Don Cheadle, Elizabeth Olsen, Evangeline Lilly, Guardians of the Galaxy, gwyneth paltrow, Hayley Atwell, iron man, Jeremy Renner, Joe Russo, John Slattery, Jon Favreau, josh brolin, Karen Gillan, Letitia Wright, Marisa Tomei, Mark Ruffalo, marvel, Marvel Cinematic Universe, Marvel Comics, Marvel Studios, Michael Douglas, Michelle Pfeiffer, movie reviews, movies, Paul Rudd, Pom Klementieff, Rene Russo, Robert Downey Jr., Robert Redford, Samuel L. Jackson, Scarlett Johansson, Sebastian Stan, Spider-Man, Stan Lee, Tessa Thompson, Thor, Tilda Swinton, Tom Hiddleston, Tom Holland, vin diesel, William Hurt, Winston Duke, Zoe Saldana | Leave a reply
Oscar Watch – Avengers: Endgame
Last year, Marvel’s Black Panther became the first comic book pic to score a Best Picture nomination. While it didn’t win, it took home three gold trophies from its seven nods. This weekend, box office records are highly likely to break with the release of Avengers: Endgame. The 22nd MCU title had its review embargo lift hours ago… try to your best to avoid spoilers.
The verdict? A 98% Rotten Tomatoes score thus far. Some critics are going as far as saying it’s the best overall entry in the massive franchise. Others write ups, while positive, don’t go that far. One thing seems certain as Endgame is classified as an epic experience.
Could lightning strike two years in a row for Marvel with Academy voters? Here’s the advantage: this fourth Avengers saga is seen as the culmination of not just its three predecessors, but also the many other pictures MCU blockbusters over the past 11 years. That lifts its chances for recognition as Oscar could see this as an “atta boy” for the whole series.
That said, I’m doubtful. The first three Avengers flicks garnered a grand total of two nominations. The 2012 original and last year’s Infinity War both received Visual Effects nods. Neither won. The middle child (2015’s Age of Ultron) got no love. Last year, Disney was undoubtedly more focused on getting Black Panther recognition and they succeeded. In 2019, they could put together a more robust campaign for Endgame.
A third calling in Visual Effects is probably inevitable, but anything else from the Academy is questionable and maybe even doubtful. Yet I wouldn’t totally count out some Disney marketing campaign magic. My Oscar Watch posts will continue…
Posted in Oscar Predictions | Tagged academy awards, Anthony Mackie, Anthony Russo, Avengers: Age of Ultron, Avengers: Endgame, Avengers: Infinity War, Benedict Cumberbatch, Black Panther, bradley cooper, Brie Larson, Chadwick Boseman, Chris Evans, Chris Hemsworth, Chris Pratt, Danai Gurira, Dave Bautista, Don Cheadle, Elizabeth Olsen, Evangeline Lilly, gwyneth paltrow, Jeremy Renner, Joe Russo, Jon Favreau, josh brolin, Karen Gillan, Letitia Wright, Mark Ruffalo, Marvel Cinematic Universe, MCU, movies, Oscar Predictions, Oscar Watch, oscars, Paul Bettany, Paul Rudd, Pom Klementieff, Robert Downey Jr., Robert Redford, Russo Brothers, Scarlett Johansson, Sebastian Stan, Stan Lee, Tessa Thompson, The Avengers, Tilda Swinton, Tom Hiddleston, Tom Holland, Winston Duke, Zoe Saldana | Leave a reply
Avengers: Endgame Box Office Prediction
This current massively successful phase of the Marvel Cinematic Universe draws to a close next weekend with the release of Avengers: Endgame. There’s an excellent chance that it achieves the largest opening weekend gross of all time with the grand finale. Endgame follows up directly with last summer’s Avengers: Infinity War, which is the current record holder with $257 million.
Anthony and Joe Russo return in the directors chairs with a core group of familiar heroes battling Josh Brolin’s Thanos. They include Robert Downey Jr.’s Iron Man, Chris Evans as Captain America, Chris Hemsworth’s Thor, Scarlett Johansson’s Black Widow, Brie Larson as Captain Marvel, Mark Ruffalo’s Hulk, Paul Rudd’s Ant-Man, and Jeremy Renner’s Hawkeye. That’s just scratching the surface, by the way. The events (spoiler alert if you’ve been in a year-long coma) of Infinity War dissolved numerous other beloved characters into dust including Chadwick Boseman’s Black Panther, Tom Holland’s Spider-Man, Benedict Cumberbatch’s Doctor Strange and the majority of the Guardians of the Galaxy (Chris Pratt, Zoe Saldana, Dave Bautista) save for Bradley Cooper voicing Rocket. It’s quite likely you’ll see them again. And also in the roles we’ve seen them in before… there’s Gwyneth Paltrow, Karen Gillan, Danai Gurira, Tessa Thompson, Don Cheadle, Jon Favreau, Anthony Mackie, Elizabeth Olsen, Paul Bettany, and Evangeline Lilly. Oh… and Letitia Wright and Sebastian Stan and Tom Hiddleston.
Whew. Back to the numbers crunching. When early tickets went on sale a couple of weeks ago, Endgame smashed every record in sight. Its YouTube trailer views are off the charts. Audiences know this is the culmination of what we’ve paid billions of dollars for over the past decade plus. Yes, there’s a three-hour runtime which is unprecedented for the MCU.
I have a feeling that won’t matter when it comes to reaching a premiere level we’ve yet to witness. No other movie is daring to compete against it and most holdovers will be earning $10 million and less. In other words, multiplexes will clear a ton of real estate for this.
Initial estimates put Endgame around $250 million, but the buzz has this inching upwards. I believe that’s a correct assumption. While I don’t believe this will hit $300 million (as the rosiest projections suggest), a gross just north of $285 million seems feasible. If it achieves that mark, the endgame here will indeed set records.
Avengers: Endgame opening weekend prediction: $289.6 million
Posted in Box Office Predictions/Results | Tagged Anthony Mackie, Anthony Russo, Avengers: Age of Ultron, Avengers: Endgame, Avengers: Infinity War, Benedict Cumberbatch, Black Panther, Box Office, box office predictions, bradley cooper, Brie Larson, Captain America, Captain Marvel, Chadwick Boseman, Chris Evans, Chris Hemsworth, Chris Pratt, Danai Gurira, Dave Bautista, Disney, Doctor Strange, Don Cheadle, Elizabeth Olsen, Evangeline Lilly, gwyneth paltrow, iron man, Jeremy Renner, Joe Russo, Jon Favreau, josh brolin, Karen Gillan, Letitia Wright, Mark Ruffalo, marvel, Marvel Cinematic Universe, Marvel Comics, MCU, movies, Paul Bettany, Paul Rudd, Robert Downey Jr., Russo Brothers, Scarlett Johansson, Sebastian Stan, Spider-Man, Stan Lee, Tessa Thompson, The Avengers, Thor, Tom Hiddleston, Tom Holland, Zoe Saldana | Leave a reply
Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse Movie Review
Posted on March 20, 2019 by toddmthatcher
In the 21st century cinematic universe, the famed web slinger has been reinvented on a number of occasions – from Tobey Maguire to Andrew Garfield to Tom Holland. Spider–Man: Into the Spider–Verse is the first one that feels truly inventive. Anyone thinking this animated experience would be a sub par spin-off or money grab will find themselves sorely mistaken. This iteration of the iconic hero has a lot of heart, plenty of action, and a warped sense of humor that elicits genuine laughs. Directors Bob Perischetti, Peter Ramsey, and Rodney Rothman (who co-wrote the screenplay along with Phil Lord) have drawn up what is probably the most satisfying Spidey pic on its own terms.
The picture posits the theory that our title character does his Spidey thing in multiple dimensions and in different forms than just Peter Parker. These characters are familiar to fans of the Marvel Comics and even includes Spider-Ham, representing the hero in pig form. He’s here and he’s fabulous. Our primary Spidey here is Miles (voiced by Shameik Moore), a Brooklyn teen with a police officer father and a potentially shady uncle that he admires. Miles attends a prep school and feels lost in his adolescence just like Peter Parker did. He’s a fan of Spider-Man, who is currently fighting Big Apple crime in the manner we’re accustomed to. That’s until bad guy Kingpin (Liev Schrieber) knocks him off, but not before Miles get a radioactive bite that gives him the well-known powers.
What follows is a visually splendid adventure where it’s clear that the makers really adore the character. At the same time, they take him in unforeseen directions that perhaps only the animated format could allow. Miles’s Spidey teams with an aging and out of shape Peter Parker (Jake Johnson) from a different “verse”, along with Spider-Woman (Hailee Steinfeld) and the aforementioned Ham version. There’s others, but part of the fun is watching them appear without me spoiling it.
Plenty of superhero movies take themselves quite seriously and many have succeeded with that tone. Guardians of the Galaxy and Deadpool introduced a different dynamic that is evident here. Yet Spider–Verse is not derivative. It manages to take one of the most repeated story arcs in the genre and cleverly turn it on its head. I enjoyed it immensely. The possibilities are many for this particular universe to continue and I’m up for it.
Posted in Todd's Movie Reviews | Tagged Andrew Garfield, Bob Persichetti, Brian Tyree Henry, chris pine, Deadpool, Guardians of the Galaxy, Hailee Steinfeld, Jake Johnson, John Mulaney, Kathryn Hahn, Liev Schreiber, Lily Tomlin, Mahershala Ali, marvel, Marvel Comics, movie reviews, movies, Nicolas Cage, Peter Ramsey, Phil Lord, Rodney Rothman, Shameik Moore, Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, Stan Lee, tobey maguire, Tom Holland, Zoe Kravitz | Leave a reply
Oscar Watch: Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse
Posted on November 28, 2018 by toddmthatcher
Over the past 16 years, we’ve witnessed numerous iterations of the famed web slinging superhero Spider-Man. From Tobey Maguire to Andrew Garfield to Tom Holland and two franchise reboots, the character has been omnipresent in our multiplexes. So the idea of an animated version might have seemed like overkill when Sony announced Spider–Man: Into the Spider–Verse, which creates a world in which multiple people can be the iconic character.
Critical reaction out today suggests otherwise. Spider–Verse stands at 100% on Rotten Tomatoes with over 30 reviews in. Some write-ups claim it’s the best Spidey feature since 2004’s Spider–Man 2. Select others claim it’s the best of the whole bunch (this will be seventh stand-alone entry).
Will Oscar notice? It seems highly likely. That would mean a nod in Best Animated Feature. It marks a fourth near “sure thing “ in that race, including current box office champ Ralph Breaks the Internet and Isle of Dogs. The raves bestowed upon this suggests it could even stand a better chance at winning than those pictures. Yet it could be a tall order to overcome the Pixar juggernaut involving other superheroes – Incredibles 2.
Bottom line: Spider–Verse is into the Animated Feature mix in a major way. It’s out stateside on December 14. My Oscar Watch posts will continue…
Posted in Oscar Predictions | Tagged academy awards, Andrew Garfield, Animated Movies, Animation, Bob Persichetti, Brian Tyree Henry, Hailee Steinfeld, Incredibles 2, Isle of Dogs, Jake Johnson, Liev Schreiber, Lily Tomlin, Mahershala Ali, movies, Oscar Predictions, Oscar Watch, oscars, Peter Ramsey, Phil Lord, Ralph Breaks the Internet, Rodney Rothman, Shameik Moore, Spider-Man, Spider-Man 2, Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, tobey maguire, Tom Holland | Leave a reply
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Botched New York Times Hit On Nikki Haley Marks Left’s Fear Of Highly Competent Conservative Women
Democrats see her as a dangerous adversary, one that even their own voters admire.
By Juliana Knot
The New York Times published an ugly attack piece in the guise of investigative journalism on Thursday targeting Nikki Haley, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations.
The headline, “Nikki Haley’s View of New York Is Priceless. Her Curtains? $52,701,” was paired with a picture of Haley, giving the impression she had wastefully spent taxpayer dollars at a time when the State Department is trying to cut costs.
Nikki Haley’s View of New York Is Priceless. Her Curtains? $52,701. https://t.co/Y8k6QXeQhs
— Gardiner Harris (@GardinerHarris) September 14, 2018
A spokesman for Haley emphasized, however, that plans to buy the mechanized curtains were made in 2016, during the Obama administration. Haley had no say in the purchase, he said. The New York Times initially buried this fact in the story.
Haley wasn’t the ambassador at the time of the purchase and had no say in the matter. The pricey drapes found their way into the ambassador’s residence during the Obama administration, not the current administration. However, the original headline, picture, tweet, and Facebook post went out of their way to obscure that fact.
After it was called out, The New York Times ended up changing the headline, scrapping the photo of Haley, heavily editing the article, and issuing a massive correction at the top of the story. But the damage had already been done. Numerous other outlets ran with the story, all propping up the narrative that Haley was a modern-day Marie Antoinette, buying golden drapes while other diplomats wore rags. Had it not been for mass conservative outrage on Twitter (the author’s tweet of the story got few retweets but thousands of angry replies), the story would have remained unchanged.
Haley isn’t a stranger to attacks on her character. According to an interview with Politico, opponents wrongly accused her of adultery when she ran for governor of South Carolina. Earlier this year, while Michael Wolff was pedaling his soundly debunked book, “Fire and Fury,” about the Trump White House, he made false claims that Haley was sleeping with the president. In their attempt to discredit the administration, many news outlets gave air time to this disgusting smear.
During her tenure as a politician, Haley has repeatedly shown herself to have sterling character. Why the need to show otherwise? In short, Haley is an effective conservative leader who contradicts the Democratic Party’s messaging on race and sex.
As governor of South Carolina, she welcomed business into the state, leaving with more than 400,000 more jobs in the state than when she had started. Her poise and compassion in the wake of the racially-motivated Emanuel AME Church shooting brought down the Confederate flag from the South Carolina statehouse. With political wins in education and smooth leadership through a hurricane, her record stands out.
Now as ambassador, Haley has shown herself to be the toughest in recent history. When members of the U.N. stated that America’s embassy placement in Jerusalem had caused Palestinian violence, she firmly contradicted them and walked out of the room on the Palestinian representative. She left the U.N.’s Human Rights Council, a sham that boasts member countries such as Venezuela and the Democratic Republic of Congo. Most importantly, she has asserted American sovereignty, stating that no foreign nation will tell the United States how to govern.
Haley is not only effective, she is well-liked. Almost the entirety of the Republican Party came to her defense after the misleading New York Times story, a feat in today’s fragmented GOP. Her support isn’t limited to the Republican Party. A Quinnipac University poll in April showed that 63 percent of Americans approve of the job she’s doing, with 55 percent of Democrats approving as well. To give some context, the same percentage of Democrats support Haley as support House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi.
Her identity as a woman, a non-Caucasian, and a daughter of immigrants distinguishes her as well. All three of those categories of voters supposedly belong to the Democratic bloc. Haley shows that it’s possible to be all of these things and right-of-center.
Her long and accomplished resume makes her the subject of future presidential chatter. After her appearance at Turning Point USA’s national headquarters, where she told students “to do more than own the libs,” conservative student activist and Parkland survivor Kyle Kashuv tweeted he “can’t wait” to see her as president.
I believe I will eventually see a @nikkihaley presidency and I can't wait.
— Kyle Kashuv (@KyleKashuv) August 13, 2018
He’s not alone. That’s why the smears that have come out against her character will likely be the first of many.
Democrats, who are sorting out their choice of presidential nominee, are aware of Haley’s effectiveness and potential. They have strong incentive to discredit her before she can get on the ballot. There seems to be a strong correlation between the number of hit pieces on conservative politicians and how good they are at their job.
The intensity becomes stronger when the conservative politician checks demographic boxes she’s not supposed to check. The two biggest personal attacks on Haley as part of the Trump administration were very gendered. A successful conservative woman? She must have slept her way to the top and can’t control her spending habits now that she’s there. Sexist remarks are okay as long as they’re employed against the right women. And by right women, they mean women on the right.
The takedown of the recent New York Times smear piece and Wolff’s outlandish claim are heartening, but these kinds of attacks are only going to increase with Haley’s political successes. Democrats see her as a dangerous adversary, one that even their own people admire. Haley knows how to stand against lies and smear campaigns as ambassador to the U.N. Hopefully, she’ll carry this skill with her into the next political firestorm.
This article has been corrected with respect to Kashuv’s political leanings.
Juliana Knot is an intern at The Federalist.
Democrats Foreign Policy Kyle Kushev Michael Wolff Nancy Pelosi Nikki Haley political smears smears The New York Times
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DesJarlais: Mistress wasn't pregnant, so abortion not necessary
By Justin Sink - 10/12/12 05:15 PM EDT
Embattled Congressman Scott DesJarlais (R-Tenn.) — who made headlines earlier this week after a recording of a telephone call emerged in which the congressman, who opposes abortion rights, encourages his mistress to procure just such a procedure — said Friday that the woman turned out not to be pregnant.
"I don't mind telling people that there was no pregnancy, and no abortion," DesJarlais told WTN-FM. "But I also don't mind telling people that this was a protracted two-year divorce back in 1999 and 2000. There was some difficult times, for sure."
In the tape, a copy of which was obtained by the Huffington Post, DesJarlais is heard pressuring the woman to undergo the abortion. The woman was also a patient of DesJarlais's, who was a doctor before being elected to Congress.
"You told me you'd have an abortion, and now we're getting too far along without one," DesJarlais says. "If we need to go to Atlanta, or whatever, to get this solved and get it over with so we can get on with our lives, then let's do it."
In the radio interview Thursday, DesJarlais said he hoped "when the voters judge me, they judge me on the marriage I have now."
DesJarlais skipped a planned debate with his Democratic opponent, Eric Stewart, on Thursday night, saying he was tasked with presiding over Friday's pro forma session of the House. DesJarlais briefly presided over a prayer and the Pledge of Allegiance Friday morning before gaveling the House closed.
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Put it in Park: States with the Most License Suspensions
Getting your license suspended can have serious consequences for your car insurance. These are the states with the most suspended licenses.
No one sets out on the road with the intention of getting a speeding ticket or a citation for tailgating, but of course, sometimes things happen. You don’t realize that the speed limit has changed, or your mind wanders for a minute and you find yourself too close to the car in front of you. A single violation also isn’t the end of the world. It might set you back a couple of hundred dollars in fines, unless it’s as severe as a reckless driving citation or a DUI.
It’s when the citations pile up that you could land in hot water. Too many over the course of a year (three to five depending on the state) can get your license suspended, and that has unfortunate consequences for your wallet. A suspended license can raise your insurance costs, making it more costly to find good quotes.
To take a deeper look at suspended license rates, the research team at Insurify, a website for comparing auto insurance quotes, took a look at the data to determine which states have the highest proportions of suspended licenses.
National averages. In total, 2.95 percent of drivers nationwide have suspended licenses. Additionally, the national average for car-related fatalities per 100,000 people was 11.4, and 12.58 percent of all drivers had suffered a prior accident. Finally, 13 percent of all drivers involved in a fatal crash had a suspended license at the time.
More suspended licenses doesn’t mean more accident prone drivers. A logical thought is that a state with more suspended licenses should contain more drivers with prior accidents. After all, license suspensions are often for offenses such as reckless driving. However, the data doesn’t provide any evidence of that. Analysis showed no significant correlation between the proportion of drivers with a suspended license, and the proportion of drivers with at least one prior accident.
…Or more fatalities. It might also be logical to assume that more drivers with suspended licenses means more dangerous roads and thus more fatalities, but the numbers didn’t back that assumption up either. Once again, analysis revealed no significant correlation between the share of drivers with a suspended license and the rate of vehicle fatalities per 100,000 drivers. One possible reason why? A higher proportion of suspended licenses could take the most dangerous drivers off the roads, thus preventing some fatalities.
In order to determine which states had the highest share of drivers with suspended licenses, the data science team at Insurify, a website to compare auto insurance quotes, pulled the numbers from its database of over 1.6 million car insurance applications. To receive quotes, drivers input personal and vehicle information as well as information about driving history including whether or not they have a suspended license. The number of drivers with a suspended license was analyzed against the total number of motorists in each state. The top 10 states with the most revoked licenses were then selected. Data on the percentage of drivers with a prior accident also came from the Insurify database, while the numbers on fatalities per 100,000 people were compiled in a 2017 study on vehicle fatalities by the Insurance Institute of Highway Safety (IIHS). Information about the percentage of fatal crash drivers with a suspended license was drawn from a 2014 study done by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA).
10. Oregon
Percentage of drivers with suspended licenses: 4.54%
Percentage of drivers with a prior accident: 14.4%
Vehicle-related fatalities per 100,000 drivers: 10.5
Share of drivers involved in fatal crashes with suspended licenses: 13%
Oregon, the only west coast state on the list, kicks off the countdown with the U.S’s 10th highest suspension rate. However, Some cities there are actually trying to make it more difficult to suspend a driver’s license. Legislation was recently proposed in Salem that would not allow the Department of Motor Vehicles to rescind a license for certain types of traffic tickets. That said, it has not been put to a vote yet.
9. Minnesota
Vehicle-related fatalities per 100,000 drivers: 6.4
Share of drivers involved in fatal crashes with suspended licenses: 9%
Statistically, Minnesota appears to be a fairly safe place to drive. The Land of 10,000 Lakes has one of the five lowest fatality rates per 100,000 drivers of any state. Its share of drivers that have suffered at least one prior accident is also below the national mean. Given this stellar statewide driving record, what is one possible reason that it still makes the list for drivers with the most suspended licenses? In 2017, it issued roughly 333 speeding tickets per 10,000 citizens, a figure which ranks above the national average, according to a study done by a Honda dealership in Yonkers, New York.
8. Idaho
Percentage of drivers with a prior accident: 12.24%
Idaho, which claims the number eight spot on the list, stacks up worse than Minnesota in both safety-related statistics (fatality rate and percentage of drivers with a prior accident). It has a fatality rate well above the national average, though its percentage of drivers with a prior accident is still slightly better than the national mean. The numbers also show that not all the blame rests with drivers whose licenses are suspended. After all, of drivers who have caused a fatal crash, the share whose licenses were actively suspended in Idaho was less than in Minnesota.
7. Tennessee
Percentage of drivers with suspended licenses: 5%
Much like Oregon, Tennessee is trying to decrease the number of drivers with suspended licenses. In October 2018, a U.S. District judge ordered that drivers who were unable to pay court costs or traffic ticket fines could no longer have their licenses suspended. In addition, the ruling also stated that drivers with suspended licenses would have to pay no additional fees to have their licenses reinstated. The ruling may pay dividends in the future, but for now the Volunteer State still has the seventh-highest percentage of license suspensions.
6. Kansas
Kansas, which claims the number six spot in the top 10, has the highest rate of vehicle-related fatalities per 100,000 drivers of any state on this list, and has the 12th highest share nationwide. In a reversal of trend, it also has the smallest percentage of drivers with a prior accident of any state in the top 10, painting a confusing picture about the safety of driving in Kansas. What is clear, though, is that the Sunflower State has a lot to work on in terms of license suspension.
5. Nebraska
In Nebraska just five percent of drivers involved in fatal crashes have suspended licenses. That figure, which is well below the national average, is actually tied for the lowest rate in the country. Even so, that doesn’t mean that Nebraska is a perfect place to drive. Its share of drivers with a prior accident is among the 10 worst in the country.
4. Virginia
Virginia is home to Reston, the city with the highest proportion of suspended drivers licenses in the entire country. However, that could soon change. Virginia—much like Tennessee—has introduced legislation that will reinstate the licenses of all drivers that had their certifications revoked for unpaid court debts. The law, which goes into effect on July 1, 2019, will restore the licenses of an estimated 613,000 motorists.
3. Ohio
The percentage of drivers with suspended licenses in Ohio is more than double the national average, but once again, recently introduced legislation may reduce that number. In June and July 2019, the state is allowing drivers to apply for license reinstatement with an amnesty program that will forgive the debts and reinstatement fees associated with 25 different traffic violations. It’s estimated that nearly 300,000 Ohioans will qualify for the program, an amount that could drastically decrease the number of drivers with license suspensions.
2. Indiana
Indiana, which comes in at number two on the list, is worse than average in all the metrics listed above. It ranks among the 20 worst states in the country in both prior accident percentage as well as fatalities per 100,000 drivers, and has a significant suspended license problem to go along with that. Additionally, unlike many of the other states on the list, there’s no current legislation in the pipeline to reduce that percentage.
1. North Dakota
Percentage of drivers with suspended licenses: 7.1%
Williston, which has the second highest percentage of drivers with a suspended license of any city in the country, is the biggest contributor to the suspended license problem for North Dakota, which takes the top spot on the list. Its share of drivers with a suspended license is nearly two and a half times the national average. But that’s not the only issue North Dakota has: just four states have a higher share of drivers involved in fatal crashes with a suspended license, and the Peace Garden State also ranks in the top 10 for vehicle-related fatalities per 100,000 drivers.
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Rejection, My Beloved
smartcapture
A review of my song, Of Love and Fear, as told through the rejections I received from music magazines… Because there is nothing like rejection to inspire clarity in our thoughts and actions.
“The song doesn’t quite have enough substance in the arrangement for me and I am looking for something more accomplished in the songwriting and musicianship. I also don’t feel the vocal delivery and melody is strong enough. Thanks for submitting.” Podcart
So, I LOVE THIS COMMENT. It is very representative of the world we live in today. Basically we have the politically correct and the just-don’t-give-a-fuck bomb throwers, trying to figure out how to coexist. Now a days, the politically correct are just not going to be heard, so they are trying to be bomb throwers, but in a civilized, acceptable manner. Editors in general have to be able to shred your work to pieces. So what you have in this first comment is a politically correct editor setting off his bomb.
You must have seen the clips of Andrew Gillum’s debate with Ron DeSantis where he said, “First of all, he’s got neo-Nazis helping him out in the state. He has spoken at racist conferences. He’s accepted a contribution and would not return it from someone who referred to the former president of the United States as a Muslim n-i-g-g-e-r. When asked to return that money, he said no. He’s using that money to now fund negative ads. Now, I’m not calling Mr. DeSantis a racist. I’m simply saying the racists believe he’s a racist.”(Vox)
Gillum was so smooth that it took a lot of the violence out of the fact that he was, rightfully by all accounts, ripping DeSantis to shreds. After Gillium was done, DeSantis’ face looked as if he was thinking, “oh shit, I am a racist!”
Yeah, so that was way off topic, but what I was getting at was style. In his comment to me, the editor of Podcart explained that my song didn’t have enough substance, musicianship, or vocal chops as well as melody. That was a very nice way of saying that the song sucked and has none of the qualities that a decent song should possess. But he or she said all of these things in such a polite way and with a thank you, that after it was over, I was like, “No thank you!”
I once wrote a song for a project and asked a friend to come and play on it with me and when he came he said he liked it but was confused about two things: the beat and the melody. We have figured out all kinds of nice ways for conveying that we think something is crap while trying not to offend anyone.
“Thanks for sending. There was some cool elements in this song but overall I think the whole thing needs to be tightened up a little more to feel more complete.” Rock the Pigeon Music Blog
Rejection is the tip of the spear in our battle with an illusory world, our ego, a fate unclear. It cuts through the bullshit I sometimes think is important. I have never been scared of failure. Instead I embrace the possibilities it provides. For me, if you don’t have the chance to mess it up, then it’s not really fun at all.
I used to be the harmonium player at Amma’s San Ramon ashram. I spent 16 years there, almost all of which I have since blacked out. (Hey, now I’m at the flagship, I can forget about all of the minor league years.) But one thing I remember clearly is that I preferred not to know the songs but to just wing it. That way, there was always a possibility of messing up and it would be that much more exciting. Maybe not so exciting for the singers that I was accompanying, but hey, simple pleasures, right…
“Very nice lyrics. Realize that what you were going for but just a bit of a miss with the recording. Think your lyrics deserves better than that. But that’s just us. All the best.” Comeherefloyd
Well, since we are already about 600 hundred words in, let’s go back and start at the beginning. As many of you know, I recently uploaded a bunch of my songs to BandCamp, so as to share with whoever is interested in hearing from the other side of my heart. Most of the songs are just me and my guitar. Because I am not at all about technique and more about the words I’m conveying, I put myself into the folk/blues box believing that it allowed me to be less ashamed with the belligerent nature of my singing.
“Hi, Thank you for your submission. We liked the song. However, the song sounds like it was recorded in a home studio. There is nothing wrong with that. However, we only feature music that is recorded professional. Sorry for not being able to accommodate “Of Love and Fear” on our playlists at this time.” PopFiltr
Being the ballsy guy that I am, I then sent one of my belligerent recordings out to twenty music blogs for the possibility for review. It was very quick into the process that I realized I had set myself up for twenty rejections.
“I can very much appreciate the vulnerability here, and some really poignant and interesting lyrics; some great rhymes. I think for its part, the acoustic guitar does a great job – the strings aren’t too new, it’s a compelling delivery, but I don’t get enough dynamic range from the production approach. It’s very live-sounding, which is great, but I wanted just a little bit of sparkle from some other elements.” Chill Filtr
And they are completely right. The recordings are crap. The production is crap. The songs are not built up and lack dynamics. And I forgot for a moment why I even released the songs. To share with y’all.
“I appreciate the acoustic style, unfortunately the recording style is not a natural fit for us.” Ear To The Ground Music
It is funny how easy it has become for me to take rejection and criticism on my writing and music but how I still can’t be told that there is too much salt in my soup. Maybe that is because, although I write stories and music that I love and hope that their might be an audience for them, when it comes to cooking, I am putting my heart into something that I want everyone who eats it to love. With my books, if you don’t know the basics about the devotional path and guru disciple relationships, then you are probably going to be pretty confused with my stories. But with food, everybody eats. You of course want everybody to love it. But that is just not possible because everyone has different tastes. Because the intent that goes into the offering is different, the way the criticism is received is also different.
“This song needs more production help. But you can stay in touch by following us on Facebook at Americana Highways.” American Highways
And she did indeed reach out separately – which is the awesomest rejection ever – to see if I wanted to get in contact with people that could help me out, recording wise. But I’m an ashram guy. I’m doing my thing from my tiny room in a fishing village in the very south of India. I wouldn’t actually want to change that. I love my day job of cooking for the ashram. I love writing. The only way to make the dream even greater is if a great singer sung one of my songs and took it to where it deserves to go.
“This is very cool. Love the lyrics and the stripped down vibe. Just not sure it’s for us atm. Thnx.” Santa Rosa Records
I am a songwriter and I’ve worked with a lot of singers, all immensely more talented than me. Through working with others I’ve learned that a lot of the process is about knowing your limitations and offering what you can. Some are pitch singers and they are perfect with that but they don’t always have the emotion to back it up. Some are personality singers and they might be a little carefree with the pitch, but they have something equally important to bring to the table. I definitely fall into the second category.
“The song shows a lot of potential. I’m just getting hooked in this form. Maybe it needs to be fleshed out a bit more.” Pop Occulture
“Thanks for sending in your music! From my perspective, you need to work on your music some more altogether. Just too raw and needs more done to it when dealing with the production as a whole. Best of luck in the future!” Nasty Tracks
I’m well into my forties now. I’ve seen too many people go all in with their recording efforts only to have nobody listen to their music. If anyone is going to listen to my music, it won’t be because it has a great beat. It will only be because they want to hear what I have to say.
I feel kind of embarrassed that my Google knowledge panel calls me a singer-songwriter instead of just a writer. It makes me feel like doing vocal warm ups or something. But do I really want to do all of that just because of Google’s mistake? Um… not likely. I can’t even get myself to study Malayalam consistently and that would be a lot better use of my time right about now.
“Nice songwriter folk but a bit too lofi in the recording for us.” Modern Music Maker
Ok, enough with the tangential philosophizing, let’s get back to the shit recording.
“hey thanks for sharing “Of Love and Fear” with me, correct me if I’m wrong but it sounds like an iphone demo. the style you’re playing could give way to being similar to Jack Johnson or Jason Mraz but I think you could up your recording game, would be interested in hearing more.” Its Not Records
For the record, I don’t have an IPhone. It’s actually a more ghetto process than that. I recorded a live video in the closet, I mean my room, on the bunk bed, which may look a bit like a cell, and then a friend downloaded the music from YouTube and I ran that download through GarageBand just to get a working file for BandCamp… So… not an IPhone.
“Good acoustic track, but we pass. Thanks.” Indie Obsessive
And yes, that means it’s a little bit too Indie. But I accept that. It’s not music for the masses.
“Recording quality was pretty low and the song just didn’t flow well.” Digital Tour Bus
And I got my own flow, and I’m not really a guitar player, but it helps me to work out my ideas. And, and wait… I’m pretty sure I have some more excuses and disclaimers… Nah, I’m all done.
“The sound here is effective is creating a sense of emotion and melancholy, though the track’s lyrics didn’t quite catch my ear enough.” Various Small Flames
I am grateful for all of the honest feedback, because I enjoy living in reality. There is nothing like rejection to inspire clarity in our thoughts and actions. I write for the love of words and thoughts, – putting them together in ways that make my brain tingle – and how they can reflect worlds beyond words and thought. If I can inspire a quiver in the brains of others, an occasional laugh or a tear, then it is an added benefit to an already satisfying venture.
If after all of that, you are dying to hear the track that I sent out for review, you can listen to it here:
Ok, it’s time to get back to my day job – cooking delicious food and yelling at unsatisfied customers!
Tags: Criticism, Discover, Folk Music, For the Record by Sreejit Poole, Longreads, Music Review, Of Love and Fear, Philosophy, Political Correctness, Rejection
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9 thoughts on “Rejection, My Beloved”
I had to smile and giggle a bit as I read this…thinking back on all the rejection letters I’ve received over a lifetime….really loved how you ended this post.
Thanks for making it all the way to the end. I was sure how many people would actually get there. It was fun, at least for me, to compile all of the rejections and look at them together and think about what it really does or doesn’t mean to me.
As I recall some of our greatest writers received more rejection letters than you did…be well my friend.
I love the way you wrote this post. Very effective and creative. I’m struck by how strong and clear the recording is. Amazing since it was done in the room you describe.
I remember all of the rejections when I wrote professional articles during my time as an assistant professor at the University of Washington. I learned to not be surprised by them, so just turned around and sent them to someone else. Eventually someone published them. Rejection didn’t bother me in that setting.
It was a different situation when I published my books about my years with Amma. Those were so much closer to my heart. I was much more sensitive to peoples’ reactions and let any negative comments get to me. That was even more a problem when I wrote some bhajans…. or even when I led bhajans. Even after all these years, I am much too sensitive in that arena.
Thanks for sharing your process in this post.
Yeah, we can handle the expected criticisms but when the things we really love are criticized, then it just hurts.
Just keep on keeping on! You will be fine.
🙂 All I can do.
I read it all. I love who you are.
Thanks you.
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War Crimes Shouldn’t Pay
Stopping the looting and destruction in South Sudan
Foreword by George Clooney and John Prendergast, The Sentry Co-Founders
After nearly two years of following the money underwriting South Sudan’s war economy, this report represents the first public release of the findings of The Sentry’s investigation into the links between public corruption and armed conflict.
The Sentry’s investigation has generated substantial information indicating that top officials ultimately responsible for mass atrocities in South Sudan have at the same time managed to accumulate fortunes, despite modest government salaries. Some have been involved in questionable business deals while others have apparently received large payments from corporations doing business in South Sudan. Meanwhile, some top officials and their family members own stakes in a broad array of companies doing business in the country—and in some cases, these commercial engagements may be in violation of South Sudanese law. Members of their families often live in multi-million dollar mansions outside the country, stay in five-star hotels, reap the benefits of what appears to be a system of nepotism and shady corporate deals, and drive around in luxury cars—all while much of their country’s population suffers from the consequences of a brutal civil war, and in many places, experiences near-famine conditions. In short, The Sentry found that South Sudan’s top officials have benefited both financially and politically from the continuing war and atrocities committed within their country.
Our investigation also found that top officials in South Sudan could not maintain the status quo without the system of international banks, businesses, arms brokers, real estate firms, and lawyers who, knowingly or unknowingly, facilitate the violent kleptocracy that South Sudan has become. The Sentry’s investigation found instances of reliance on these types of institutions and actors on five different continents: Europe, North America, Africa, Asia, and Australia.
Sentry analysts have painstakingly collected documents and other information that illustrate how money that could be used to improve the living standards of South Sudan’s population is used to fund weapons purchases or armed groups and is effectively diverted from public coffers and moved out of the country.
In the wake of this investigation, we propose a new strategy to counter mass atrocities that would utilize the tools of financial pressure normally reserved for countering terrorism, organized crime, and nuclear proliferation. The new approach would combine anti-money laundering measures with targeted asset freezes focused on key leaders and their networks, accompanied by robust enforcement. These tools would have two objectives: to create leverage in support of more effective peace efforts, human rights protections, and good governance initiatives; and to bring to account those responsible for atrocities—officials who have been operating with impunity because the international community imposes no meaningful consequences for their war crimes and appropriation of state resources.
In South Sudan, war crimes shouldn’t pay.
South Sudan, the world’s newest state, continues to be embroiled in a horrific civil war. Tens of thousands of people have lost their lives, many of them civilians. Mass rape has been used as a weapon of war. Children are routinely recruited as soldiers and sent as cannon fodder into combat. As of July 2016, some 2.3 million people have been displaced by the conflict. A staggering 5.1 million people—almost half the country’s population—require food assistance. Entire towns have been destroyed. The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) has called South Sudan “one of the most horrendous human rights situations in the world.”
The key catalyst of South Sudan’s civil war has been competition for the grand prize—control over state assets and the country’s abundant natural resources—between rival kleptocratic networks led by President Kiir and Vice President Machar.
The proximate cause of this brutal civil war was a falling out between the country’s top politicians: President Salva Kiir Mayardit and deposed Vice President Riek Machar Teny. But South Sudan’s civil war is not the result of a blood feud between two men, conventional explanations notwithstanding. The key catalyst of South Sudan’s civil war has been competition for the grand prize—control over state assets and the country’s abundant natural resources—between rival kleptocratic networks led by President Kiir and Vice President Machar. The leaders of South Sudan’s warring parties manipulate and exploit ethnic divisions in order to drum up support for a conflict that serves the interests only of the top leaders of these two kleptocratic networks and, ultimately, the international facilitators whose services the networks utilize and on which they rely.
In 2015, The Sentry began to follow the money that has been and continues to be amassed by these networks. This report highlights the link between systemic corruption and violent conflict, including the mass atrocities committed during the civil war. The Sentry’s investigation focused on top officials identified by the United Nations and African Union as having command authority over military operations that have resulted in widespread human rights crimes since December 2013, including President Kiir; Vice President Machar; Gen. Paul Malong Awan, the Chief of Staff of the Sudanese People’s Liberation Army (SPLA); South Sudan’s armed forces; Gen. Malek Reuben Riak, the Deputy Chief of Staff of the SPLA for Logistics who is in charge of military procurement; and Gen. Gabriel Jok Riak, a field commander under sanctions by the United Nations Security Council. The following are the findings of The Sentry’s investigation.
The Sentry is an initiative of the Enough Project and Not On Our Watch (NOOW), with its implementing partner C4ADS.
The Sentry press conference, September 16, 2016.
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early 00’s emo bands
The Early November
I know I’ve only had this blog for a little over a year now, but I’m still not sure why I didn’t make a post about this band at this time last year. Yesterday it occurred to me when I was trying to think of a blog topic for the week that it would be the perfect time to write about the band The Early November because ironically it is early November (obviously intentional). I used to listen them back in high school. I wouldn’t say they were one of my favorite bands, but I had quite a few of their songs downloaded.
I first heard of The Early November sometime between mid 2004-late 2005. I can’t exactly pinpoint the moment like I often times do with many of the bands I write about. I’m guessing it was some time after I purchased the 2003 Vans Warped Tour Compilation, which was in the summer of 2004 (“Every Night’s Another Story” is listed on my iTunes as being from that album). They came into existence a few years before I first listened to them though.
The Hammonton, New Jersey band was founded in 1999 by guitarist and front man Arthur “Ace” Enders, along with former member Jim Sacco (later replaced by Joseph Marro), Sergio Anello, and Jeff Kummer. The band signed with Drive-Thru records in 2002 releasing two EP’s that year, For All of This and The Acoustic EP (acoustic versions of all the songs on For All of This), with the label. The Early November played dates on the Vans Warped Tour and the Skate and Surf Fest the same year. While still touring, the band debuted their first full length album, The Room’s Too Cold, in the fall of 2003.
In 2006 the band released their sophomore record, a triple disc album, The Mother, The Mechanic, The Path. The album debuted at #31 on the Billboard Top 200, which was their highest charting album to date. It was around the release of the second album that guitarist Bill Lugg was added to the ensemble. In 2007 the band announced an indefinite hiatus and played their final show at Bamboozle on May 6th. At the time, the future of the group was uncertain, but they did not rule out a possible reformation, which is exactly what happened four years later.
The band reunited in the fall of 2011 to play several shows on the east coast. At one of the shows (Starland Ballroom in Sayreville, NJ), it was confirmed that Ace was working on a new album for the group. The Early November’s third album and first album in 6 years, In Currents, was released in July of 2012. Since then, the band has toured and released a fourth album, Imbue, which came out in May of this past year.
When I was in high school and college, I never had the opportunity to see The Early November live. I did see Ace Enders perform an acoustic show once though in early 2012 along with Anthony Raneri of Bayside, Matt Pryor of The Get Up Kids, Chris Conley of Saves the Day, and Evan Weiss of Into It. Over It. on the Where’s The Band? Tour. I’m pretty sure I remember Ace playing a few Early November songs along with songs from his side project band I Can Make A Mess Like Nobody’s Business. It was a fantastic acoustic show. I highly recommend seeing any of your favorite bands play acoustic if you ever have the opportunity.
Truth be told though, I haven’t listened to The Early November in a very long time. It’s been so long that I haven’t even heard any of the music they released post-hiatus. The last time might have been at that acoustic show almost 4 years ago and even then I wasn’t listening to them like I had in the past. Even now as I played their songs while writing this post, it occurred to me that things are so much different for me than they were back in high school. Their music falls under the emo, alternative, indie, punk rock genres. I can’t listen to their music and relate to it in the same way. I’m a much different person. I have more confidence, more hope, and an overall more positive outlook than I did as a teenager. Although my life is currently nowhere near where I’d like it to be and I’m still trying to achieve my goals, it does get better. For nostalgia’s sake though here are some of my former favorite songs by The Early November:
Ever So Sweet
All We Ever Needed
Sesame, Smeshame
I Want To Hear You Sad
For All of This
Posted in Music and tagged 2002 Vans Warped Tour, 2003 Vans Warped Tour, 2003 Vans Warped Tour Compilation, 2013 Vans Warped Tour, Ace Enders, acoustic show, acoustic shows, alternative, alternative bands, alternative music, alternative rock, alternative rock music, Arthur "Ace" Enders, arthur enders, Bamboozle, Bamboozle 2007, bands who went on hiatus, Bill Lugg, drive-thru, drive-thru records, early 00's alternative, early 00's alternative music, early 00's emo, early 00's emo bands, early 00's emo music, early 00's music, emo, emo band, emo bands, emo music, For All of This, Hammonton, Hammonton New Jersey, Hammonton NJ, hiatus, hiatus bands, I Can Make A Mess, I Can Make A Mess Like Nobody's Business, imbue, In Currents, indie, indie music, indie rock music, Jeff Kummer, jersey bands, Jim Sacco, Joseph Marro, Music, music blog, New Jersey bands, punk, punk music, punk rock, punk rock music, Sayreville, Sayreville New Jersey, Sayreville NJ, Sergio Anello, Skate and Surf Fest, Skate and Surf Fest 2002, Starland Ballroom, the acoustic ep, the early november, The Mother The Mechanic The Path, The Rooms Too Cold, vans warped tour, warped tour, Where's The Band? Tour on November 4, 2015 by prostreetcross. Leave a comment
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