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Saldana and Del Toro help open new Disney ‘Guardians’ ride
ANAHEIM, Calif. (AP) — Stepping inside Disney’s latest theme park attraction, Guardians of the Galaxy: Mission BREAKOUT!, is like being thrust into one of blockbuster films’ pulsating, action-packed trailers.
Music blares throughout the tower drop ride as guests are treated to a visual feast of images from the “Guardians” universe, as well as cameos by series stars Chris Pratt, Zoe Saldana and others. The motion of the ride, set primarily in a prison tower elevator, depends on which of six songs from the `60s, `70s and early `80s is playing. That variety is what Disney is hoping will keep guests returning multiple times.
The attraction, Disney’s first based on its slate of Marvel films, debuted Thursday night for journalists and VIPs at an elaborate grand opening.
The ride at Disney California Adventure Park in Anaheim opens to the public on Saturday.
The attraction offers numerous visual and audio treats, starting with the 8-foot (2-meter) gilded statue of Benicio Del Toro’s flamboyantly-dressed character, The Collector, which greets visitors when they walk in.
Del Toro called the statue, which he saw for the first time inside the attraction Thursday, surreal. “Actually I look pretty cool in that statue,” he said. “The whole thing and then the ride, it’s a blast.”
Saldana, Del Toro, Michael Rooker and “Guardians” director James Gunn were among the celebrities attending Thursday’s opening.
The attraction is housed in a 183-foot (55-meter) tower that’s been transformed into a prison where Guardians characters are held by The Collector. Riders are told they are part of a VIP group touring The Collector’s latest acquisition, the Guardians, before being enlisted in a plot to help the heroes escape.
In keeping with the film, music and irreverent humor are frequently used throughout the ride.
The ride’s action is centered in an elevator that ascends and drops through the tower during the rescue mission. The elevator’s movements change depending on which song is playing. On one ride guests might get an experience tailored to Elvis Presley’s “Burning Love” while others will have the elevator controlled by the rhythms of a hit from The Jackson 5 or Pat Benatar. The media preview was set to Benatar’s “Hit Me With Your Best Shot.”
The ride was developed with Gunn’s assistance. Through two “Guardians” films, he’s transformed the characters from little-known denizens in Marvel’s universe into household names. Gunn directed scenes with Pratt and other characters during shooting of “Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2,” which has earned more than $300 million in its first three weeks in theaters.
Gunn said working on the ride was radically different from filming a movie. “Everything is a little bit bigger, everything is a little be more grand than it is in the movies and the actors reflect that and so that was a lot of fun for me because it was creating a lot of the kabuki theater version of the Guardians which was really cool.”
The ride is housed in a redesigned drop tower structure that once housed the Twilight Zone Tower of Terror attraction.
Part of the makeover included adding Del Toro’s Collector character and other Easter Eggs from the films. Rocket, a lethal wise-cracking raccoon-like creature voiced in the films and ride by Bradley Cooper, is brought to life through animatronics.
The ride is Disney’s major addition to its West Coast theme parks. Walt Disney World’s Animal Kingdom in Lake Buena Vista, Florida, is opening a 12-acre attraction, Pandora — The World of Avatar, this summer.
Saldana also experienced the Pandora attraction this week. “I know that for me I was very thrilled by it, because even though I was part of this movie, I didn’t get to experience it like that,” she said. “We got to imagine it but we never got to walk in it.”
Saldana said she was grateful to Gunn and Disney for immortalizing her and the rest of the Guardians cast with the new ride.
Disney isn’t done transforming its films into interactive theme park experiences. It’s scheduled to open two new “Star Wars” parks at Disneyland in California and Walt Disney World in Florida in 2019.
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No. 18 Florida gets 2 defensive scores, beats Missouri 40-14
GAINESVILLE, Fla. (AP) — When Steve Spurrier spoke to No. 18 Florida earlier in the week, he talked about how one player can affect the entire team.
The message stuck with Jalen Tabor, who wanted to be — and was — that guy Saturday.
Tabor and Quincy Wilson returned interceptions for touchdowns, helping No. 18 Florida beat Missouri 40-14 and move into first place in the Southeastern Conference’s Eastern Division.
The cornerback tandem provided nearly as many highlights as either offense and seemingly saved the Gators (5-1, 3-1) from a fourth homecoming loss in the last seven years.
“Anytime you get a defensive score or a non-offensive score, it’s a momentum shift for the whole team,” Tabor said. “I felt like I did that for my team today.”
What a day in The Swamp! #UFHomecoming
See what you missed with complete highlights here. #MIZZvsUF pic.twitter.com/UQEhi2lHAh
— Gators Football (@GatorsFB) October 16, 2016
Tabor, widely considered a first-round pick in the 2017 NFL draft, squatted on a short pass by Drew Lock and went untouched for a 39-yard score in the second quarter. It was Tabor’s second Pick Six in as many years against the Tigers (2-4, 0-3). Not to be outdone, Wilson stepped in front of Sean Culkin on the ensuing possession, picked off Lock’s pass and went 78 yards the other way for his first career touchdown.
“When you’ve got two great corners like that, they’ve got to pick one side of the field,” Gators coach Jim McElwain said. “It’s like pick your poison. Where you going to go with it?”
Florida, at least early, looked like it might need both of them on a rainy day in the Swamp.
Playing for the first time in a month, Luke Del Rio threw three interceptions in his return from a sprained left knee. And the Gators were flagged for eight false starts.
“Knee felt great,” Del Rio said. “Brett Favre said it: Playing injured or hurt is not an excuse for playing poorly. The knee didn’t affect me at all. It was just bad decisions, bad throws.”
Florida’s defense once again bailed out a less-than-sharp offense, which has become an all-too-often occurrence in Gainesville.
Missouri went three-and-out on its first six possessions, and Lock threw for a meager 39 yards. The result was a ninth consecutive conference loss for the Tigers.
“It’s definitely one of the worst feelings as a quarterback when you can’t hold up your end,” Lock said. “It’s on you. You force your defense back out on the field and they can barely get off the field because they’re so tired. We’re out there making them play for 10 minutes at a time and that’s not right.”
Mizzou’s latest loss came after an off week in which coach Barry Odom retooled his defense in hopes of better results. The Tigers allowed 418 yards rushing in a 42-7 loss at LSU two weeks ago.
Florida finished with 523 yards.
“They took advantage of mistakes we made, and that’s what good teams do,” Odom said.
Tabor and Wilson have done that before and surely will again.
“It’s like a domino effect with those guys,” Florida defensive tackle CeCe Jefferson said. “If one gets one, the other’s guaranteed to get one. That was big, man. That was big. It definitely changed the momentum of the game. We were definitely rolling from there.”
Missouri: The Tigers will surely face more questions about an inept offense and a run-porous defense that has struggled to adjust to a new scheme.
Florida: Despite losing to rival Tennessee last month, the Gators now control their fate in the SEC East. But to win the division for the second consecutive year, Florida probably will need to beat Georgia, Arkansas, South Carolina and LSU in consecutive weeks down the stretch.
KEY INJURY
Florida linebacker Jarrad Davis, the team’s leading tackler, injured his left ankle in the third quarter and had to be helped off the field. McElwain said Davis was getting tests to determine the severity, but said it was not broken.
FOLEY’S FINALE
McElwain gave the game ball to retiring athletic director Jeremy Foley. It was Foley’s final game at Florida Field. He officially steps down Nov. 1.
POLL IMPLICATIONS
Florida should move up a few spots in the next AP poll . The Gators topped 500 yards for the second time this season and would have enjoyed an even easier time had it not been for four turnovers.
Missouri: Hosts Middle Tennessee next Saturday. The Tigers won the only other meeting, 41-40 in overtime in 2003.
Florida: Gets another off week before playing rival Georgia in nearby Jacksonville. The Gators have won 20 of the last 26 in the series.
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Excerpt From The Greater Journey - Americans in Paris - AARP Bulletin
There’s always more to discover with an AARP membership. Check out your member benefits.
Excerpt From 'The Greater Journey: Americans in Paris'
High hopes in the City of Light
by David McCullough, AARP Bulletin, July 7, 2011 | Comments: 0
Strolling over the Seine with [educator and author Emma Willard] on the Pont des Arts, James Fenimore Cooper assured her there was no finer view in all of Europe.
See also: Interview with David McCullough.
David McCullough radio interview on The Greater Journey. Listen
Penelope Rowlands' essays, Paris Was Ours. Listen
Fodor's 75th anniversary guide: Glimpse Europe before WWII. Listen
The City of Light gets brighter. Listen
She had come to Paris to "see and learn." Suggesting in one of her letters that her students at home [in New York] accompany her, in a matter of speaking, to the "very heart of Paris," she led them not to the Pont des Arts or to the shops of the Palais Royal, but to the Louvre, and few other Americans would have contested the choice. Like the cathedral at Rouen, the Louvre was a nearly overpowering reminder of the immense difference between the Old World and the New.
It was the world's greatest, richest, most renowned museum of art in what had formerly been a royal palace. Its history was long and complicated. A great part of it had been built for Catherine de Medici in the 16th century. Its famous Grande Galerie on the second floor was the longest room in the world, fully 1,330 feet, or more than a quarter of a mile, in length, its entire tessellated wood floor waxed like a table top.
The collection of paintings numbered 1,224, and only masterpieces were included. It had been opened to the public, the admission free, by the government of the Revolution in 1793, the same year King Louis XVI and his wife, Marie Antoinette, were taken to the guillotine. Though the Parisian public was admitted only on Sunday, "etrangers" were welcome every day, much to the surprise of the Americans. They had only to show their passports.
He entered the Louvre "with a throb," wrote Charles Sumner. Ascending its magnificent marble stairway, he rejoiced to think that such a place was not something set apart for royalty only. So numerous and vast were the galleries that he spent four hours just walking through them.
"[Oliver Wendell] Holmes and I actually were at the Louvre this morning three hours instead of one, such is the seduction of the masters," recorded Thomas Appleton, who was in raptures. "O Rubens, emperor of glowing flesh and vermeil lips; Rembrandt, sullen lord of brown shades and lightning lights ... O Titian, thou god of noble eyes and rich, warm life ... O Veronese … when shall I repay you for all the high happiness of this day?"
From The Greater Journey: Americans in Paris by David McCullough, copyright © 2011 by David McCullough, published by Simon & Schuster, 1230 Avenue of the Americas, New York, New York, 10020. Used by permission of the publisher.
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Home » FAQs » Responding to Financial Crisis
1. What role can faculty play in institutional financial decisions?
In accord with principles of shared governance described by the AAUP and other organizations over the course of several decades, the faculty should participate meaningfully in major decisions about institutional direction and priorities. This principle applies equally to basic financial decision-making, and is elaborated in the AAUP statement The Role of the Faculty in Budgetary and Salary Matters. Here are two key passages:
The faculty should participate both in the preparation of the total institutional budget and (within the framework of the total budget) in decisions relevant to the further apportioning of its specific fiscal divisions (salaries, academic programs, tuition, physical plant and grounds, and so on). The soundness of resulting decisions should be enhanced if an elected representative committee of the faculty participates in deciding on the overall allocation of institutional resources and the proportion to be devoted directly to the academic program. This committee should be given access to all information that it requires to perform its task effectively, and it should have the opportunity to confer periodically with representatives of the administration and governing board. . . .
Circumstances of financial exigency obviously pose special problems. At institutions experiencing major threats to their continued financial support, the faculty should be informed as early and as specifically as possible of significant impending financial difficulties. The faculty—with substantial representation from its nontenured as well as its tenured members, since it is the former who are likely to bear the brunt of any reduction—should participate at the department, college or professional school, and institution-wide levels in key decisions as to the future of the institution and of specific academic programs within the institution.
2. How can I get data on institutional finances?
The means for obtaining data on institutional finances vary somewhat depending on type of institution; please see separate sections below addressing public and private institutions. However, there are some points that apply to all institutions.
The fundamental principle of faculty participation in shared governance applies to financial decisions as well. Meaningful participation means that faculty representatives must receive complete information before major decisions are made.
Financial information is most useful when you can look at trends over time. A report covering a single year does not necessarily provide a complete view of an institution’s financial position. Use good judgment in pressing your request for additional information, but try to get at least three years of data.
One key point that applies everywhere: “budget” documents are not necessarily the same as actual financial statements and reports. A budget is a plan. Faculty members should be involved in institutional financial planning and it’s important that they receive the complete information used in creating and monitoring budgets. However, when it comes to assessing the ongoing fiscal health of the institution, it’s important to look at several years of actual financial reports, including the most recently completed statements available. Always pay attention to the distinction between “budget” and “actual” amounts, and if that distinction is not made plain, ask questions.
Ideally, the most complete source of information would be an audited financial statement, or its equivalent. Most institutions should be producing these every year, to meet various reporting requirements.
All colleges and universities complete a series of data reports each year to the U.S. Department of Education Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS). The IPEDS Finance report includes sections on each institution’s assets and liabilities; revenue and expenditures; scholarships and fellowships (including tuition discounting); endowment value; and debt (public institutions only). The data are reported for the fiscal year completed prior to the current academic year, but are not generally available on the IPEDS website for several months after that. Every college or university should have an IPEDS coordinator; impress him or her by requesting a copy of the most recent IPEDS Finance reports—you might just get them! And although retrieving the data from the IPEDS website is not for the faint of heart, these are public data; see instructions for how to retirieve and interpret a U.S. Department of Education Data Feedback Report, including basic institutional financial information.
In addition to federal reporting requirements, many of the regional accrediting agencies now require that institutions submit regular financial reports. Because these are not government agencies, the data they collect through this process are not generally available to faculty or the public. But on the basis of principles of shared governance elaborated above, faculty members should have access to basic financial information; ask your institutional accreditation liaison for a copy of the most recent financial report to the accreditor.
3. What should I know about getting data on public colleges and universities?
The first principle to keep in mind at public institutions is that essentially all financial information is public. Although the exact definitions vary somewhat from one jurisdiction to another, this extends to all aspects of institutional revenues and expenditures, and includes salaries of all public employees. The exceptions might be what are referred to as “working papers,” but periodic reports do not generally fall under that rubric. On the basis of this principle, and in combination with the principle of faculty participation in financial decision-making articulated above, faculty representatives should insist on access to complete institutional financial information, with a level of detail sufficient to inform judgment on key issues.
At many public colleges and universities, institutional finance information is readily available online. Check for an online fact book or financial reports; they may be available through offices of institutional research, finance and/or administration, or the president or chancellor. If your institution is part of a larger system, or is required to file certain reports with a state agency—which is the case in virtually every state—you may actually have better luck finding the information you need from a state agency or legislative website.
If the financial reports you need are not available on a website, ask for paper copies from one or more of the offices noted above. Again, these are public documents, and as a faculty representative you are most certainly entitled to participate in the financial planning process. Be persistent, if necessary.
4. What should I know about getting data on private nonprofit colleges and universities?
Although private institutions do have more leeway in what documents they make public, their nonprofit status means that significant amounts of institutional financial information should be readily accessible. All nonprofit institutions are required to file a Form 990 with the Internal Revenue Service each year. The Form 990 includes aggregate financial information on revenue; expenditures; changes in net assets or fund balance; assets and liabilities; and some limited figures on compensation and lobbying expenditures. It may also include copies of audited financial statements.
The Form 990 is a public document, so your institutional finance or business office should provide a copy upon request. This will likely get you the most recent information available.
If for some reason the administration is not forthcoming, you can obtain copies of 990 forms from either of two sources. Depending on the institution, the forms available may not be the most current.
The Foundation Center, “990 Finder” . (Note that the 990-PF form is for private foundations.)
Guidestar. Basic information, including 990 forms, is available at no cost, although registration is required.
Private colleges and universities also frequently have fully staffed development offices, since they are often significantly reliant on charitable giving. The development (or advancement) office may produce an annual report, which may include a more-or-less detailed annual financial statement. Although the level of detail in these statements may not be sufficient for a thorough analysis of the institution’s position, it may be useful to know what information the college or university is providing to prospective donors.
Remember, basic principles of shared governance mean that you should not need to resort to subterfuge to obtain financial documents. Your administration should provide these documents in support of the faculty’s participation in institutional planning.
5. What should I know about getting data on private for-profit colleges and universities?
For-profit institutions may be less forthcoming with full details of their financial operations, and less likely to provide mechanisms for faculty participation in decision-making. (Indeed, for-profits have very few full-time faculty.) Even so, for-profit institutions are subject to IPEDS Finance reporting requirements (albeit with less detail) and those of their regional accreditor, if so accredited. In addition, if shares of the institution are publicly traded, annual reports including financial statements should be available.
6. What should I be looking for in reviewing institutional financial information?
Ideally, faculty representatives and institutional financial administrators will collaborate in an ongoing review of institutional financial information, and they will be provided complete data and sufficient explanation to enable all parties to participate in significant decisions.
Faculty members with some experience in accounting, business, or economics may be able to use these Accounting Guidelines for Analysis of Financial Exigency along with data from financial statements obtained as described above to begin a thorough analysis of the institution’s financial position.
Even if complete information is not available, or if faculty representatives do not have sufficient financial analytical capabilities, there are key pieces of information for which to look. In each case, it’s very important to get data from more than one year; many financial indicators are useful only when tracked over time. And assertions about “national averages” or “typical” practices are no substitute for the real data from your institution!
(a) State and local operating funds – For public institutions, support from state and/or local government is often a significant revenue source. Calculate state/local funding as a percent of total revenues. Note that an “appropriation” is only a projected amount, and in some cases represents an upper limit rather than actual revenues.
Pay attention to the dollar amount of state and local funding as well as the percentage. If state and local dollars are increasing, but they make up a decreasing percentage of total funding, that may be an indication of inappropriate spending choices. Insist that these funds be used to support core functions—instruction and research—and that spending cuts be made elsewhere first.
It’s also important to know that funds from state and local government sources are generally not designated for certain types of expenditures. Although funding may follow a “formula,” the institution usually has significant discretion in how the funds are spent. (Unfortunately, however, it is often true that “capital” funds for buildings and land acquisition are restricted. That doesn’t mean those capital projects are the best use of funds, however.) Ask for the details, and be a little skeptical.
(b) Tuition dependence – Especially for private institutions, tuition and fees are a substantial proportion of annual revenues. (Enrollment figures are important for many public institutions, as well, but the effects on funding are often less direct or immediate.) Calculate tuition/fees as a percent of total revenues. Be sure you know whether the tuition figures are “net” of discounts and/or financial aid. Ask for details on enrollment projections used to forecast tuition revenues; faculty members should be a part of decisions on changes to basic admissions policies that will affect the institution’s direction and financial health.
(c) Endowment income – Earnings from institutional endowment and/or investment funds may be a significant source of operating revenue, especially for private colleges and universities. However, institutions vary widely in the contribution of these revenues to the regular operating budget. Just because “the market is down” doesn’t mean that your institution’s operating budget must be cut; find out specifically how much investment income was anticipated in budget planning for the year.
(d) Expenditure on instruction - Calculate spending on instruction as a percent of total expenditures. In many institutions, this figure has been declining for several years. If that’s the case at your institution, ask why that is the case. Instruction is a core function, and that should be reflected in institutional spending decisions.
Although exact dollar figures may not be available, it’s also important to look at the number of faculty employed, preferably by full-time/part-time and tenure-track status. At many institutions, the proportion of faculty members employed part-time or in full-time non-tenure-track positions is increasing. This, too, is a reflection of a decision on priorities, and it should be a matter for shared decision-making.
For a sample financial analysis, see "Analysis of the Financial Condition of the University of Illinois System." (.pdf)
7. How can I get information on the number of administrators and their salaries?
A common observation among faculty at many institutions is that the number of administrators has grown more rapidly than the number of full-time (especially tenure-track) faculty over the last decades. This observation is borne out by national data assembled by the AAUP.
As with other financial information, aggregate figures on the number of employees by job category and employment status (full-time/part-time) should be available to faculty representatives participating in shared governance. Ideally, you should examine trends over time.
Information on the number of employees by category may be available in institutional fact books or other standard reports. These may be available on the Web, or from offices of institutional research, human resources, and/or finance and administration. In some cases these may be filed with a system office or state agency.
Each institution is also required to file an IPEDS Human Resources report with the US Department of Education each year, which includes counts of employees, full-and part-time, by category. One drawback to this report is that academic deans, including associate and assistant deans, are most often counted in the “instructional” category along with faculty, rather than in the “executive/administrative/managerial” category. You can ask for a copy of this report from your institutional IPEDS coordinator.
Salaries for administrators are available in different ways, depending on the type of institution. At public colleges and universities the salaries of all employees are public information. However, the availability of this information varies widely from state to state and institution to institution. The IRS Form 990 filed by private non-profit colleges and universities includes two different sections that might potentially provide salary figures for administrators. ( For information on obtaining 990s, see Question 4 above.)
The Chronicle of Higher Education has assembled salary information on presidents of both public and private institutions for several years. Most of the Chronicle’s data come from Form 990s. In addition to an annual report on presidential compensation, the Chronicle has maintained a searchable online database available to subscribers. The complete new report on highest-paid employees is apparently available only for separate purchase.
Note that presidents and chancellors frequently receive additional forms of compensation: supplemental salary, in some cases paid by a private foundation; deferred compensation and/or “performance” or “retention” payments; and car, housing, and entertainment allowances.
8. How can I get data on peer institutions?
The AAUP can provide institutional peer comparison reports. Because of the time it takes to provide these, we usually charge a fee for this service. In light of the dire circumstances being faced by faculties at many institutions we will provide them free of charge for AAUP chapter officers on a case-by-case basis.
To request one, please follow these steps:
Step 1. Define an institutional peer group
In most cases, the administration already has a group of institutions identified as “peers” for purposes of comparison. It’s usually best to start with this group, so that results of any AAUP analysis can be compared with other items. If faculty members feel that additional and/or different institutional peers are more appropriate, additional analyses should be completed.
In accord with principles of shared governance, faculty representatives should be involved in selecting institutional peers. This is especially true when the object of comparison is faculty compensation or faculty status (use of contingent faculty), but it is also true when broader questions of academic programs or institutional mission are under consideration.
It’s also useful to distinguish between peer institutions that might be termed “comparables,” representing those institutions currently most similar to the basis of comparison, and “aspirational peers”—representing a future institutional direction or goal. There’s nothing wrong with using both types of peers for comparison, but there should be some identification of each type and agreement on its inclusion.
Step 2. Choose the reports that will be most useful
There are a number of reports from which to choose. All are in .pdf format. Samples are linked below. Some reports are limited to institutions providing data.
Full-Time Faculty Salaries (five options)
Average Salary, by rank. See sample.
Average Salary, all ranks. See sample.
Average Compensation, by rank. See sample.
Average Compensation, all ranks. See sample.
Salary Change for Continuing Faculty. See sample.
Expenditure on Full-Time Faculty Benefits (three options)
Total Benefits as Percent of Salary. See sample.
Retirement Benefits as Percent of Salary. See sample.
Medical/Dental Benefits as Percent of Salary. See sample.
Step 3. Complete a report request
Please complete this order form to request data. The AAUP Research Office will process orders as they are received and custom reports will be provided on a case-by-case basis.
If you have any questions, please contact aaupfcs@aaup.org.
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The importance of Campbeltown to whisky in Scotland historically or even today, cannot be underestimated. This small town is the major settlement on the remote Kintyre peninsula.
The importance of Campbeltown to whisky in Scotland historically or even today, cannot be underestimated. This small town is the major settlement on the remote Kintyre peninsula. With a population of around just 6000 currently, it can only be reached via a long drive across Argyll or the small regional airport. Originally founded by the Seventh Earl of Argyll in 1609, many enthusiasts flock to Campbeltown for its whisky heritage on an annual basis to enjoy its legacy and whisky festival.
Formerly in the early 1900’s, Campbeltown was enthusiastically dubbed the whisky capital of the world for its prominence with producing and exporting whisky. The area has a strong tradition with whisky and in the late 1700’s was populated with abundant illicit stills. The introduction of the Excise Act in 1823 changed the face of whisky in Scotland forever and none more so than in Campbeltown. An initial handful of legal distilleries were soon joined by an onslaught of new arrivals and just a couple of years later Campbeltown played host to 25 distilleries and this number continued to grow. The majority of the distilleries from this boom period have been lost to time and their names are not widely recognised today, but a handful are thanks to the work of Springbank that has taken inspiration from the town to revive fallen comrades such as Hazelburn and Longrow.
All of Campbeltown’s distilleries could count upon an abundance of the raw ingredients to produce whisky such as water, coal, peat and barley from nearby farms. Despite its geographical remoteness, Campbeltown was self-sufficient and this legacy endures today. The style of the Campbeltown whisky from this era was a sooty, oily, dense and peated spirit. The quality of the product varied greatly with some distilleries showing great promise such as Hazelburn and others merely content to churn out a variable product.
Whilst the town was still a difficult journey by land during its rapid growth, its port allowed swift access to Ireland, Scotland and further afield. This was in contrast to other parts of Scotland that were still being connected by rail and reliant on treacherous roads. This meant that Campbeltown could supply its wares more efficiently and cheaply that its competitors and for a while it was a winning combination. Money flowed through the streets as much as the whisky but then things started to change for a variety of reasons.
The tastes of blenders and the consumers started to change and favoured the lighter more approachable Speyside style of whisky. In 1898 the Pattison crisis dented consumer confidence and demand, but the Campbeltown region managed to survive relatively unscathed. The ensuing drop-in demand was more related to the domestic market, whilst appetite for Scotch abroad still remained buoyant. Campbeltown could count on North America, that is until the Great Depression and Prohibition delivered their knockout blows. It’s speculated that the demise of the region was not because of a drop-in demand from this major market. In essence, the exact opposite happened and the distilleries could not satisfy the demand from the bootleggers and importers seeking whisky. The only way to even keep up with the demand was to cut corners in distillation and maturation that then created a bad product. Sales were only be buoyant for the short term and potential customers would look elsewhere.
The effects were catastrophic as by 1930, Campbeltown only had 3 remaining distilleries in the form of Rieclachan, Scotia and Springbank. Soon this number dwindled to 2 with the closure of Rieclachan in 1934, despite the help from the Mitchell family who own Springbank. After this the legacy of Campbeltown was all but a mere memory and in 2010 the Scotch Whisky Association no longer recognised it as an official whisky region. This was only a temporary blip as the Mitchell family quite rightly gauged how many distilleries it took to be recognised as a region from those remaining. The custodians of Springbank have been strong supporters of the town by creating local jobs and opportunities even during the harsh times. Urged on to regain the whisky regional status, they revived a lost Campbeltown distillery in the form of Glengyle that is known as Kilkerran for today’s market.
Surprisingly, this remains the only new distillery in Campbeltown despite the ongoing whisky boom that has heralded countless new distilleries across Scotland. However, it’s a welcome addition to the longstanding duo of Glen Scotia and the formidable Springbank, which attracts such devotion from enthusiasts across the world. You can read about each individual distillery in greater detail via its own specific page.
Hazelburn (1)
Kilkerran (2)
Longrow (2)
J & A Mitchell & Co Ltd (1)
Over 46% (2)
Longrow 18 Year Old | 2019 Release
Kilkerran 8 Year Old Cask Strength - 56.5%
Longrow Red 11 Year Old Cabernet Franc Matured
Kilkerran 12 Year Old | Bottled 2018
Spirit of Freedom Blend 'The 62'
Hazelburn 10 Year Old
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House Judiciary Committee Hearing Addresses Regulatory Reform
Wednesday, September 26, 2012 7:37 PM - Kinsey Cooper - Legislation, Politics & Policy, Regulations -
In response to a U.S. House of Representatives’ Judiciary Committee hearing titled, “Regulation Nation: The Obama Administration’s Regulatory Expansion vs. Jobs and Economic Recovery,” ABC Sept. 20 called for comprehensive regulatory reform and offered its support for a series of bills that will help achieve that goal.
In a letter sent to the chairman and ranking member of the committee, ABC pointed out that for the last four years, the White House has encouraged federal regulatory agencies to assert their power through rulemaking. Because these agencies have operated relatively unchecked, many rulemakings are based on poor or incomplete economic cost-benefit forecasting and data, resulting in higher costs for the construction industry.
“It is particularly alarming that small businesses, which comprise the vast majority of the industry, are disproportionately affected by the administration’s irresponsible approach to regulation,” the letter stated.
To address these issues, ABC called for comprehensive regulatory reform, including across-the board requirements for departments and agencies to appropriately evaluate risks, weigh costs and assess the benefits of all regulations. ABC also offered its support for four pieces of legislation passed by the U.S. House of Representatives that they believe could create help achieve reform.
The bills ABC supported include:
The Regulatory Accountability Act of 2011 (H.R. 3010), which would provide earlier outreach to the public and earlier access to information, in addition to allowing for greater stakeholder input and mandatory public hearings on the most costly proposals. Under this bill, agencies will be required for the first time to look at potential indirect and cumulative economic impacts. They also will be held accountable if the data or analyses rules are based on are deficient or unsound, and will be required to adopt the least burdensome regulatory option, unless a strong reason can be provided not to do so.
The Regulatory Flexibility Improvements Act of 2011 (H.R. 527), which requires agencies to closely look at the impact of a rule on small businesses, gives the Small Business Administration’s Office of Advocacy more authority and requires more in-depth “regulatory flexibility” analyses during the federal rulemaking process. In addition, this bill aligns with President Obama’s Executive Order 13563, which requires agencies to conduct a retrospective analysis of existing rules to determine which need ones to be modified or reformed.
The Midnight Rule Relief Act of 2012 (H.R. 4078, Title II), which prohibits future lame-duck administrations from issuing midnight regulations with an economic impact of more than $100 million between the election and inauguration.
The Sunshine for Regulatory Decrees and Settlements Act of 2012 (H.R. 4078, Title III), which promotes enhanced openness and transparency in the regulatory process in situations where entities sue agencies with the objective of forcing them into confidential settlements in order to expedite regulations—often in unreasonable timeframes that do not allow for data collection, science-driven research or proper cost estimates. This bill would require agencies to seek public feedback prior to entering into such settlements with courts, providing regulated industries proper notice and making it possible for stakeholders to participate in the actual settlement negotiations.
ABC believes that passing these legislative policies would be a positive step toward creating jobs and much-needed regulatory reform which are imperative at a time when the construction industry faces an unemployment rate greater than 11 percent.
To view the full letter and read more about the proposed legislation, click here.
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Thomas Jefferson University Hospital Philadelphia Pa
Proscia, a Philadelphia, PA-based developer. Henry Ford Health System, Hospital Puerto Montt, Johns Hopkins Department of Pathology, and Thomas Jefferson University Hospitals.
769 reviews from Thomas Jefferson University and Hospitals employees about Thomas. Unit Clerk (Former Employee) – Philadelphia, PA – April 4, 2019.
Princeton Woodrow Wilson Mpa Ms. Kamsky then attended the MPA program at Princeton University’s Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs. Ms. Kamsky began her career at the then Chase Manhattan Bank in 1975 and. Two graduates of Princeton’s Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International. Coles came to Princeton after earning a B.A. from Morehouse College. He
Hospitals of the University of Pennsylvania-Penn Presbyterian in Philadelphia, UPMC Presbyterian Shadyside in Pittsburgh and Thomas Jefferson University Hospitals in Philadelphia. According to U.S.
The Web site for Thomas Jefferson University, its contents and programs, is provided for informational and educational purposes only and is not intended as medical advice nor, is it intended to create any physician-patient relationship.
The Thomas Jefferson University Hospital has been providing quality care for those in the Philadelphia area since 1825. Contact The Chocolate Works.
Hospitals of the University of Pennsylvania-Penn Presbyterian in Philadelphia, Pa. is ranked No. 14 on the Best Hospitals Honor Roll. It is nationally ranked in 12 adult specialties and rated high.
An ambulance company that provides services to Thomas Jefferson University Hospital, Main Line Health, and Crozer-Keystone Health System plans to close up shop June 30. The company, Falck USA, an arm.
Here in the Philadelphia region. 2017 ranged from a low of 0.3 percent at Paoli Hospital. Bryn Mawr Hospital, and Einstein Medical Center in East Norriton, to a high of 3.3 percent at Thomas.
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The Declaration Of Independence Literary Analysis NEOLITHIC PERIOD. The closing phase of the Stone Age, lasting in Ukraine from ca 5000 to 2500 BC. The Neolithic Period was characterized by the development of agriculture and pottery manufacturing, the establishment of sedentary agriculturally based settlements, the use of polishing techniques for stone tools, the emergence of increasingly complex systems of religious belief,
Thomas Jefferson University Hospitals. A Medical Group Practice located in Philadelphia, PA.
The Web site for Thomas Jefferson University Hospitals, its contents and programs, is provided for informational and educational purposes only and is not intended as medical advice nor, is it intended to create any physician-patient relationship.
Thomas Jefferson University, private, state-aided, coeducational institution of higher education in Philadelphia, Pa., U.S.It has one of the largest independent medical schools in the United States.The university comprises Jefferson Medical College, the College of Health Professions, the College of Graduate Studies, and a teaching hospital, the Thomas Jefferson University Hospital.
ABINGTON, PA — Jefferson Health-Abington Hospital in Abington. Coming in second was UPMC Presbyterian Shadyside. Jefferson Health-Thomas Jefferson University Hospitals in Philadelphia was ranked.
Find parking costs, opening hours and a parking map of all Thomas Jefferson University Hospital parking lots, street parking, parking meters and private.
Thomas Jefferson University began as a medical school. During the early 19th century, several attempts to create a second medical school in Philadelphia had been stymied, largely by University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine alumni. In an attempt to circumvent that opposition, a group of Philadelphia physicians led by George McClellan sent an 1824 letter to the trustees of Jefferson.
Compare 210 hotels near Jefferson University Hospital in Philadelphia using. Hospital and refine your search within Philadelphia or Pennsylvania based on.
Facing the complexity of a large campus with several locations within Center City, Philadelphia, as well as outlying areas Thomas Jefferson struggled with.
Academic Title: Professor Executive Vice Chair, Department of Emergency Medicine Team Emergency Physician, Philadelphia Flyers Associate Dean, Diversity and Community Engagement, Sidney Kimmel Medical College Associate Provost, Diversity and Inclusion, Thomas Jefferson University
Built from the legacies of two renowned institutions, Philadelphia University and Thomas Jefferson University, Jefferson is crossing disciplines to reimagine the way you learn.
At Thomas Jefferson University Hospital., we take postoperative pain management very seriously. We employ a wide variety of techniques to control postoperative pain, utilizing a wide variety of drugs.
Philadelphia, PA, USA; 6 Department of Genetics, Stony Brook University, Stony Brook, NY, USA; 7 Department of General Surgery, Thomas Jefferson University Hospital, Philadelphia, PA, USA; 8.
THOMAS JEFFERSON UNIVERSITY HOSPITAL. (215) 955-6000. 111 south 11th street philadelphia, PA 19107. No one's rated this hospital. Be the first!
Coming in second was UPMC Presbyterian Shadyside. Jefferson Health-Thomas Jefferson University Hospitals in Philadelphia was ranked third. Among Pennsylvania’s 15 best hospitals, the Hospitals of the.
Dr. Thomas Czajkowski, MD is a family medicine specialist in Allentown, PA. He graduated from Jefferson Medical College Of Thomas Jefferson University, Thomas Jefferson University and specializes in family medicine.
In 1950, he earned a medical degree from Vanderbilt University and then went to Thomas Jefferson University Hospital for an internship. American St., Philadelphia, Pa. 19106.
Coming in second was UPMC Presbyterian Shadyside. Jefferson Health-Thomas Jefferson University Hospitals in Philadelphia was ranked third. You can see the complete list of Pennsylvania rankings here.
Assistant Professor of Surgery at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania and the Presbyterian Medical Center of Philadelphia
Kimmel’s Major Philadelphia Cash Gifts TEDx speaker Dr. Stephen Klasko: The future of medicine and Jefferson 3.0 The money arrives at a time of tumult in health care and as Thomas Jefferson University.
In October, first lady Melania Trump visited Thomas Jefferson University. hospital stays, with opioid use present in 75.8 out of every 1,000 maternal hospital stays. Opioid use was present in 23.
"Deaths and cardiac arrests during the triathlon are not rare" and exceed the one fatal event. but Dr Reginald Ho (Thomas Jefferson University Hospital, Philadelphia, PA), who with Dr Karen Glanz.
Sidney Kimmel Medical College at Thomas Jefferson University’s Office of Continuing Medical Education is now on Twitter at @JeffCME. Quick Links. Access Your CME Transcripts and Certificates
M.D., professor of Neurology at Thomas Jefferson University and director of the Jefferson Comprehensive Epilepsy Center at the Vickie and Jack Faber Institute for Neuroscience in Philadelphia, Pa.
The Department of Urology at Thomas Jefferson University and the Kimmel Cancer Center provides comprehensive services in all areas of urologic care in Philadelphia.
George Washington Carver Bank Newton County sites In Newton County, both the Neosho National Fish Hatchery and George Washington Carver National Monument were closed. which is located on the fifth floor of the US Bank building. James Buchanan Calculus Of Consent Epub “The Calculus of Consent” is the title of a famous modern book in political economy by Nobel
Jefferson Health-Thomas Jefferson University Hospitals in Philadelphia, Pa. is nationally ranked in 10 adult specialties specialties and rated high performing in 3 adult specialties and 7.
Since 1972, Wills has served as the department of Ophthalmology for Thomas Jefferson University’s medical school, then known as Jefferson Medical College, the 9 th oldest medical school in the country, and our residency program is the "Wills Eye Residency Program at Jefferson." Jefferson Health is now the sixth largest medical system in the country, and its many professional schools, huge.
1 Department of Orthopaedic Surgery, Thomas Jefferson University Hospital, College of Biomedical Science, Philadelphia, PA, USA; 2 Orthopaedics, Rothman Institute, Philadelphia, PA, USA; 3 Department.
Israeli startups to collaborate with Thomas Jefferson University on healthcare Israel Innovation Authority will give four startups total of $1 million to develop healthcare tech that will be tried.
PHILADELPHIA. Jefferson Health System was ranked as one of the Top 15 Health Systems in the nation by Thomson Reuters and Thomas Jefferson University Hospital was recently named to U.S. News &.
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John Christopher Knowles, 79, of Philadelphia and Winter Harbor, Maine, the founding father of Temple University’s architecture program, died Sunday, March 18, at Thomas Jefferson University Hospital.
Thomas Jefferson University Hospital. Home; Locations; Thomas. Philadelphia PA, 19107. United States. Caring For Basketball Concussions in Philadelphia.
A leading center for practice-changing discovery and comprehensive cancer treatment, the Sidney Kimmel Cancer Center of the Thomas Jefferson University has been known as a Designated Center by the National Cancer Institute since 1996, and is one of only 70 institutions in the nation to hold this prestigious recognition.SKCC is committed to delivering the most advanced, personalized cancer care.
The hospitals ranked No. 14, a slight drop from the No. 10 position they held last year. HUP and Presbyterian are the only hospitals in the Philadelphia region. GI surgery specialty ranked No. 3.
Cultural History Of Hawaii
Abraham Lincoln The Play
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V2 05-06-2018 | 06:42:06
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Local leaders remember Bush for friendliness, Clean Air Act
KATHLEEN MOORE, The Post-Star, and AARON CERBONE, Enterprise Staff
Tupper Lake Mayor Paul Maroun, right, meets then-Vice President George H.W. Bush and Barbara Bush at a ball in early 1989. (Photo provided by Paul Maroun)
After the death of former President George H.W. Bush on Nov. 30, North Country residents and local leaders are remembering his major environmental legacy, as well as his sincerity, amiable personality and penchant for writing letters displaying both those qualities.
In the North Country, Bush was remembered for saving the Adirondacks from acid rain and ozone depletion through the amended Clean Air Act.
Lake George Waterkeeper Chris Navitsky said an earlier Clean Air Act hadn’t made much of a difference in the Adirondacks, which are particularly vulnerable to acid rain because there is so much precipitation and impermeable bedrock.
The amended act that Bush pushed for was far stricter, and that had the effect this region needed.
Locally, acidified lakes have become much cleaner, and Lake George is far better off than it would have been without the increased protection. Data collection on Lake George has shown an improvement in water quality as acid rain diminished. Data released this year found that many acidified lakes in the Adirondacks have recovered to the point where they are habitats to waterfowl and fish again.
The amended law also helped the ozone layer recover, phasing out ozone-depleting substances. This year, researchers announced the hole in the ozone is starting to close.
Letter from a leader
Tupper Lake village Mayor Paul Maroun said he saw Bush’s character qualities firsthand and even has a framed letter from the man from when he was the vice president.
Maroun worked in Washington, D.C., from 1985 to 1989 as the senior executive assistant to the administrator of the St. Lawrence Seaway and got to speak with the vice president briefly, six or seven times.
Maroun’s position required him talking with leaders from around the world, and at one point he received approval from Bush to speak with the Lebanese ambassador at the embassy. Maroun, who has Lebanese ancestry, wrote Bush about the meeting, and the vice president wrote back, thanking him for his “thoughtful letter” and “supportive words.”
“That’s the kind of guy he was,” Maroun said. “He sent Paul Maroun a note. There’s millions of low-level appointees in Washington, but he was just a nice guy.”
Maroun remembers meeting Bush again at a ball in early 1989, right around when he had been inaugurated as president. He shook his hand and talked with the man for a minute, and then, as Bush walked away, added a greeting from his boss.
“He walked by a bit, and I said, ‘Oh, by the way, Mr. Vice President, Jim Emery,’ who is the administrator, ‘says hello,'” Maroun said. “He had his whole detail come back, and he said, ‘Be sure to tell him hello.'”
Bush also sent greetings to Jim’s wife, Jill Emery, who had recently run for Congress and been appointed director of the Women’s Bureau of the U.S. Department of Labor.
Maroun said Bush was the “definition of a gentleman.”
American example
Bush was also a man of the people, said Queensbury resident Freda Solomon, the widow of former U.S. Rep. Gerald Solomon.
She and her husband were once invited to the White House private quarters for dinner.
“He took us on a complete tour of the private quarters, through all the rooms, including their bedroom and bathroom, which had wet towels everyplace,” Solomon recalled with a laugh.
Bush’s wife Barbara “threw up her hands” when her husband insisted that they see the bathroom.
“But he said, ‘This is the people’s house, and I want you to see it,'” Solomon said.
She remembered Bush as a trustworthy gentleman who worked with everyone to find solutions to the nation’s biggest problems.
“The solutions were thoughtfully prepared,” she said. “There was just more respect.”
U.S. Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., also cited Bush’s ethics.
“He was a fine man and even when he opposed your views, you knew he was doing what he thought was best for America,” Schumer said in a statement. “His yearning for a kinder and gentler nation seems more needed now than when he first called for it.”
Likewise, U.S. Rep Elise Stefanik, R-Wilsboro, called Bush the embodiment of the Greatest Generation.
“I join the nation in honoring the life and legacy of President George H.W. Bush, a true son of America who lived an extraordinary life of service, grace, strength, and character,” she said in a statement. “President Bush will be remembered by the world for his enduring strength that brought an end to the Cold War, his extraordinary commitment to serving others through his thousand points of light, and his beautifully written letters. He was truly a great man who lived a giant life.”
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How South Africa ministers \'secretly plotted’ to protect Sudan President
He was ‘promised maximum protection’
JOHANNESBURG - The South African government secretly plotted to ensure safe passage out of the country for Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir despite an international warrant for his arrest on war crimes charges, a newspaper reported on Sunday.
Bashir, who is wanted by the International Criminal Court (ICC) for genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity over the conflict in Darfur, was able to fly out of Pretoria last Monday despite a court order blocking his departure.
South Africa's Sunday Times newspaper, revealing what it said was a secret meeting of top ministers to discuss protecting Bashir, said he was escorted to his plane by President Jacob Zuma's own police.
The ICC had called on South Africa -- which is a signatory to the court -- to detain Bashir while he was in the country for an African Union summit.
But security ministers agreed at a meeting before the Sudanese leader arrived that South Africa would "protect Bashir by any means necessary -- even if it meant flouting court rulings and undermining the constitution", the Sunday Times said, quoting a senior government source.
After the meeting, which was attended by the defence and police ministers and the director general of Zuma's office, Bashir was given the go-ahead to fly to South Africa and "promised maximum protection", the source was quoted as saying.
Bashir left on the final day of the summit in Johannesburg, even as the local high court was still hearing arguments over an urgent application to force the authorities to detain him on the ICC warrant.
The Sunday Times said word had spread that Bashir had been tipped off that he must leave "because the case did not bode well for him", and he was escorted by members of the police force's Presidential Protection Unit to his plane at a military air base.
"When people were making noise on Sunday that he must be arrested, we just told Bashir to relax because there was no way he was going to be arrested," a security service source told the paper.
The South African government has come under fire from the ICC, rights groups and several other governments over its failure to detain Bashir.
A South African court last Monday gave the government a week to explain why it defied its order barring Bashir from leaving.
Bashir has evaded justice since his indictment in 2009 over the conflict in Darfur, which erupted in 2003 when black insurgents rose up against Bashir's Arab-dominated government, protesting they were marginalised.
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Islamist rebels consolidate victories with capture of Syria army base in Idlib
Recent gains open up strategic route to Latakia province
BEIRUT - Al-Qaeda's Syria affiliate and rebel allies overran a regime military base in Idlib on Monday, a day after government raids killed 73 civilians in the northwestern province, a monitoring group said.
The capture of Al-Qarmid, southeast of the provincial capital, consolidated a series of victories for the rebel alliance of Al-Qaeda affiliate Al-Nusra Front and other Islamist factions.
"The Al-Qarmid base fell to rebel fighters, and the regime has withdrawn from it," Syrian Observatory for Human Rights director Rami Abdel Rahman said.
He said the regime stored several tanks and heavy artillery pieces at Al-Qarmid.
Many of those weapons were seized on Monday by the same Islamist coalition that captured the last major government-held city in Idlib province on Saturday.
The fall of Jisr al-Shughur followed the loss of Idlib city last month.
Syrian state television reported that the army had killed "a number of terrorists" in fierce clashes around Al-Qarmid.
But Abdel Rahman said government forces had failed to hold the base despite heavy shelling of rebel positions, and had lost 15 soldiers.
He had no immediate information on rebel casualties.
Early on Monday, Al-Nusra's official Twitter and Facebook accounts published photos of tanks and artillery with the caption: "Inside Al-Qarmid military base: the jihadists' spoils."
The accounts also carried pictures of fiery explosions, that they said were caused by suicide bombers blowing themselves up at checkpoints before the base was stormed.
Abdel Rahman said at least two suicide bombers in cars laden with explosives targeted entrances to the base.
He said forces loyal to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad still held three other bases in Idlib province and a military airport further east, as well as smaller towns.
But the rebels' recent gains have opened up a strategic assault route to neighbouring Latakia province on the Mediterranean coast, a bastion of the Assad regime.
Since the Saturday capture of Jisr al-Shughur, the regime has launched a spate of air strikes on rebel-held towns in Idlib province that killed at least 73 civilians on Sunday alone.
Abdel Rahman said 19 children and 11 women were among the dead, with the deadliest strike coming in the town of Darkush, near the Turkish border.
Raids there on Sunday hit a marketplace, killing 53 people, including eight children and nine women.
More than 220,000 people have been killed in the conflict in Syria since it began with peaceful protests in March 2011.
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Photo: Scott Olson/Getty ImagesPhoto: Scott Olson/Getty Images
Ted Cruz Hates “New York Values” But Sure Loves New York Money
Jon Schwarz
January 15 2016, 3:03 a.m.
On Tuesday on the syndicated Howie Carr Show, Ted Cruz declared that Donald Trump “comes from New York and he embodies New York values.” That night on Fox, New York-born Megyn Kelly asked Cruz to explain exactly what “New York values” are. Cruz responded: “The rest of the country knows exactly what New York values are, and I gotta say, they’re not Iowa values and they’re not New Hampshire values.”
Yesterday Kellyanne Conway, president of Keep the Promise I, one of four significant pro-Cruz Super PACs, endorsed Cruz’s anti-New York perspective: “New York is home to many wonderful people and places, but the emphasis is more on money than morality. The line to get into Abercrombie & Fitch is a mile longer than the line to get into St. Patrick’s Cathedral.”
But here’s what Cruz and Conway haven’t mentioned:
Keep the Promise I is registered in New York and has raised $11,000,000 from a single New Yorker, financier Robert Mercer. Mercer is co-CEO of the hedge fund Renaissance Technologies, located on New York’s Long Island. The Super PAC’s only other donor is from Florida and contributed $5,000, so Mercer has provided 99.95 percent of its money.
U.S. hedge fund manager Robert Mercer’s new super yacht Sea Owl on the River Thames, London.
Photo: REX/London News Pictures/AP
However, to be fair to Cruz and Conway, their view on the apparent moral failings of New Yorkers does seem to apply to Mercer himself, who was sued in 2013 by his current and former household staff. According to the complaint, Mercer failed to pay overtime and docked their pay for such infractions as “failing to replace shampoos and other toiletries if there was an amount of less than one-third of a bottle remaining,” “failing to properly close doors,” and “improperly counting beverages.” The same year Mercer took delivery of the Sea Owl, a 203-foot-long super yacht, seen at right.
In addition, as of 2012 Renaissance Technologies owned over $26 million of Abercrombie & Fitch stock — although the hedge fund recently sold its entire position, perhaps out of concern that Abercrombie was damaging the nation’s moral tone.
Cruz also benefited from the affection of ultra-wealthy New Yorkers during his 2012 Senate race. The biggest intervention of the cycle by the Super PAC Club for Growth Action was in Cruz’s primary against Texas Lieutenant Governor David Dewhurst, consisting of $5 million worth of attacks on Dewhurst. Club for Growth Action spent $630,000 in support of Cruz during the cycle as well. During this time Club for Growth received donations totaling $500,000 from Mercer, as well as $100,000 from his fellow New York hedge fund manager Paul Singer and $100,000 from Laura Fisch, wife of the founder of the New York private equity firm American Securities.
Cruz has received $486,795 in regular, non-Super PAC presidential campaign donations from New York, making it his fourth-most important state behind Texas, California and Florida. According to Doug Weber, senior researcher at the non-partisan Center for Responsive Politics, New Yorkers also gave Cruz $290,965 in his 2012 Senate race.
Lastly, Cruz received $1 million in low-interest loans to help finance his Senate campaign from Goldman Sachs and Citigroup, both headquartered in New York City. His wife Heidi is on leave from her job as a Goldman managing director.
(Disclosure: I live in New York.)
Jon Schwarz[email protected]theintercept.com@Schwarz
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The Aviation Law Review - Edition 6
Dimitri de Bournonville
Cyril-Igor Grigorieff
Charlotte Thijssen
Kennedys
The European Union comprises 28 Member States and its origins lie in the 1957 Treaty of Rome. In March 2017, the United Kingdom officially announced its decision to leave the European Union, which triggered the start of two years of negotiations with the EU.
For a long time, air transport was not addressed by the different European institutions. European air transport law emerged only in the early 1990s from the work of the European Commission, the European Parliament and the European Council.
European legislation comprises mainly Regulations, which are directly applicable, and Directives, which need to be transposed into national law. European aviation law today covers many aspects of the industry.
I PASSENGER RIGHTS
Regulation (EC) No. 261/2004 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 11 February 2004 establishing common rules on compensation and assistance to passengers in the event of denied boarding and of cancellation or long delay of flights, and repealing Regulation (EEC) No. 295/91 (OJ, 17 February 2004) (the Regulation) is the main piece of legislation on passenger rights.
The Regulation entered into force in 2005 and aims at ensuring a high level of protection of air passengers, providing them with specific rights in the event of denied boarding against their will, flight cancellation or delay.
i Scope
The Regulation applies to passengers departing from an airport located in the territory of a Member State (whether they travel with a European Union carrier or not), and to passengers departing from an airport in a third country to an airport situated in the territory of a Member State if they travel with a European Union carrier and under the condition that they do not receive benefits or compensation or are given assistance in the third country.
In its early decision Emirates of 10 July 2008 (C-173-07), the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) held (in the case of a non-European air carrier) that the Regulation does not apply to the case of an outward and return journey in which passengers who have originally departed from an airport located in the territory of a Member State travel back to that airport on a flight from an airport located in a non-Member State. According to the Court, the fact that the outward and return flights are the subject of a single booking has no effect on the interpretation of that provision.
The Regulation also applies to any scheduled and non-scheduled flights, including package tours, except when the package tour is cancelled for reasons other than the cancellation of the flight.
In the Wegener decision of 31 May 2018 (C-537/17), the CJEU ruled that the Regulation applies to a passenger transport effected under a single booking and comprising, between its departure from an EU airport and its arrival in a non-EU airport, a scheduled stopover outside the EU with a change of aircraft.
ii Denied boarding
When an operating carrier reasonably expects to deny boarding, it will first call for volunteers to surrender their reservation in exchange for benefits commonly agreed and with at least a right to reimbursement or rerouting.
If no or insufficient passengers surrender, the operating carrier may then deny boarding to passengers against their will. In this situation, the Regulation provides that the air carrier will have to immediately compensate the concerned passengers according to the chart set out in Article 7 of the Regulation, which foresees fixed and immediate compensation between €250 and €600 depending on the destination. The air carriers will also be required to offer reimbursement or rerouting to the denied boarding passengers and to provide them with assistance, which may include free food, hotel accommodation, and calls and emails.
Under the Regulation, denied boarding passengers are those who are obviously denied the right to board the aircraft against their will, but to fall within the definition of the Regulation they should also have a confirmed reservation on the flight and have presented themselves for check-in at the agreed time or, if no time was agreed, at least 45 minutes before the published departure time.
In the Germán Rodríguez Cachafeiro case of 4 October 2012 (C-321/11), the CJEU held that the concept of 'denied boarding' includes situations where, in the context of a single contract of carriage involving a number of reservations on immediately connecting flights and a single check-in, an air carrier denies boarding to some passengers arguing that the first flight included in their reservation has been subject to a delay attributable to that carrier and that the latter mistakenly expected those passengers not to arrive in time to board the second flight.
On the same day, in the Lassooy decision (C-22/11), the CJEU considered that this regime related not only to cases where boarding is denied because of overbooking but also to 'those where boarding is denied on other grounds, such as operational reasons'. The Court noted that the occurrence of 'extraordinary circumstances' resulting in an air carrier rescheduling flights after those circumstances arose 'cannot give grounds for denying boarding on those later flights or for exempting that carrier from its obligation to compensate, [. . .] a passenger to whom it denies boarding on such a flight'.
The regime described above does not apply when there are reasonable grounds to deny boarding, for instance for health, safety, security or inadequate travel documentation reasons.
iii Cancellation
Cancellation is defined by the Regulation as the 'non-operation of a flight that was previously planned and on which at least one place was reserved'. In such a case, the Regulation provides that the affected passenger should be offered the choice between reimbursement and rerouting under comparable transport conditions, and also be given food, refreshments and calls, all free of charge. In the event of rerouting, when a stay of at least one night becomes necessary, the passenger should also be offered hotel accommodation and transport from and to the airport.
One particularity of this legislation consists in the automatic and standardised financial compensation offered to the passengers whose flight is cancelled. Article 7 sets this compensation at between €250 and €600 depending on the travel distance. These amounts may, however, be decreased by 50 per cent, in a rerouting situation, when the arrival time does not exceed the scheduled arrival time originally booked by two to four hours depending on the distance.
This automatic standardised compensation may nevertheless be avoided if the passenger is informed of the cancellation within a certain time limit or if the cancellation results from extraordinary circumstances.
The CJEU, in its Rodriguez decision of 13 October 2011 (C-83-10) ruled that the term 'cancellation' also covers cases in which a flight departs but then returns to the airport of departure and does not proceed further.
In the Wunderlich order of 5 October 2016 (C-32/16), the CJEU also ruled that a flight in respect of which the places of departure and arrival accorded with the planned schedule but during which an unscheduled stopover took place could not be regarded as cancelled.
In the Krijgsman decision of 11 May 2017 (C-302/16), the CJEU ruled that the operating air carrier is required to pay the compensation where a flight was cancelled and that information was not communicated to the passenger at least two weeks before the scheduled time of departure, including in the case where the air carrier, at least two weeks before that time, communicated that information to the travel agent via whom the contract for carriage had been entered into with the passenger concerned and the passenger had not been informed of that cancellation by that agent within that period.
iv Extraordinary circumstances
The automatic standardised compensation in the event of cancellation of a flight does not need to be paid by an operating carrier if it can prove that the cancellation is the result of extraordinary circumstances 'which could not have been avoided even if all reasonable measures had been taken'.
The recitals of the Regulation indicate that such extraordinary circumstances may occur in situations of political instability, weather conditions, security risks, unexpected flight safety shortcomings, strikes or air traffic control decisions.
The CJEU, in its Wallentin decision of 22 December 2008 (C-549/07) held that the 1999 Montreal Convention's rules on limitation and exclusion of liability were not decisive for the interpretation of the liability provisions of the Regulation. In its decision, the Court considered that a:
technical problem in an aircraft which leads to the cancellation of a flight is not covered by the concept of 'extraordinary circumstances' [. . .], unless that problem stems from events which, by their nature or origin, are not inherent in the normal exercise of the activity of the air carrier concerned and are beyond its actual control.
The Court then ruled that the fact that an air carrier has complied with the minimum rules on maintenance of an aircraft cannot in itself suffice to establish that the carrier had taken 'all reasonable measures'.
Later, in the Eglitis case of 12 May 2011 (C-294/10), the Court ruled that since an air carrier is obliged to implement all reasonable measures to avoid extraordinary circumstances, it must reasonably:
at the stage of organising the flight, take account of the risk of delay connected to the possible occurrence of such circumstances. It must, consequently, provide for a certain reserve time to allow it, if possible, to operate the flight in its entirety once the extraordinary circumstances have come to an end.
In the McDonagh decision of 31 January 2013 (C-12/11), the Court ruled that circumstances such as the closure of part of European airspace as a result of the eruption of the Icelandic volcano constituted extraordinary circumstances. The Court recalled on this occasion that the concept of 'extraordinary circumstances' does not release air carriers from their obligation to provide care as described above.
In the Siewert order of 14 November 2014 (C-394/14), the Court recently ruled that mobile stairs colliding with an aircraft does not automatically constitute extraordinary circumstances.
In the van der Lans decision of 17 September 2015 (C-257/14), the Court again reduced the scope of the concept of extraordinary circumstances in considering that a delay resulting from a technical problem, which occurred unexpectedly, and that was not attributable to poor maintenance or detected during routine maintenance checks did not fall within the concept of 'extraordinary circumstances'.
In the Peskova decision of 4 May 2017 (C-315/15), the Court ruled that a bird strike should be considered as 'extraordinary circumstances'. In the same decision, the Court also ruled that when a delay results from both an extraordinary circumstance and another circumstance that does not qualify as 'extraordinary', the delay caused by the first event must be deducted from the total length of the delay in arrival of the flight concerned in order to assess whether compensation for the delay in arrival of that flight must be paid.
In the Krüsemann decision of 17 April 2018 (C-195/17), a wildcat strike was ruled as not constitutive of an extraordinary circumstance.
v Delay
The Regulation does not provide a definition of the concept of 'delay' as it does for 'cancellation'. It generally provides that when an operating carrier reasonably expects a flight to be delayed beyond its scheduled time of departure by a certain time, which varies depending on the travel destination, passengers shall be offered meals and refreshments, the ability to place two calls, and accommodation and transfer from and to the airport under certain conditions. If the delay is at least five hours, the concerned passengers should also be offered the choice of a reimbursement and of a return flight to the first point of departure.
Soon after the entry into force of the Regulation, these provisions were challenged before the CJEU as they seemed to overlap and be contrary to the provisions of the 1999 Montreal Convention and the Regulation (EC) No. 2027/97 on air carrier liability in respect of the carriage of passengers and their luggage by air, as amended by Regulation No. 889/2002. In fact, this Convention was duly approved by the EU and provides for what seemed to be an exclusive cause of action and liability related rules. In its IATA case of 10 January 2006 (C-344/04), the Court held that two different kinds of damage exist in cases of delay:
First, excessive delay will cause damage that is almost identical for every passenger, redress for which may take the form of standardised and immediate assistance or care for everybody concerned . . . Second, passengers are liable to suffer individual damage, inherent in the reason for travelling, redress for which requires a case-by-case assessment of the extent of the damage caused and can consequently only be the subject of compensation granted subsequently on an individual basis (Point 43).
On these grounds, the Court affirmed the validity of the Regulation with regard to EU law and the Montreal Convention.
The Court later ruled, controversially, in its Sturgeon decision of 19 November 2009 (joint cases C-402/07 and C-432/07), that passengers whose arrival at their final destination was delayed by three or more hours should be treated as passengers whose flight has been cancelled and therefore entitled to the same financial compensation:
passengers whose flights are delayed may be treated, for the purposes of the application of the right to compensation, as passengers whose flights are cancelled and they may thus rely on the right to compensation laid down in Article 7 of the regulation where they suffer, on account of a flight delay, a loss of time equal to or in excess of three hours, that is, where they reach their final destination three hours or more after the arrival time originally scheduled by the air carrier.
However, the Court underlined that:
Such a delay does not, however, entitle passengers to compensation if the air carrier can prove that the long delay was caused by extraordinary circumstances which could not have been avoided even if all reasonable measures had been taken, namely circumstances beyond the actual control of the air carrier.
The Grand Chamber of the Court reaffirmed this position on 23 October 2012 in the Nelson case (joint cases C-581-10 and C-629/10). The Court held that there was no conflict between the Montreal Convention and the Regulation insofar as (in the Court's opinion) they covered two different situations.
On 26 February 2013, the Court ruled in the Folkerts case (C-11/11), regarding connecting flights, that the same compensation for delay is payable to passengers who have been delayed at departure for a period below the limits specified in the regulation, but have arrived at the final destination at least three hours later than the scheduled arrival time.
In the Henning case of 4 September 2014 (C-452/13), the Court held that the concept of 'arrival time', in the context of computation of delay, referred to the time at which at least one of the doors of the aircraft is opened.
In the Bossen case of 7 September 2017 (C-559/16), the Court ruled that the concept of 'distance' relates, in the case of air routes with connecting flights, only to the distance calculated between the first point of departure and the final destination on the basis of the 'great circle' method, regardless of the distance actually flown.
vi Downgrading
The Regulation provides that in case of downgrading, the operating carrier shall reimburse the passenger from 30 per cent to 75 per cent of the price of the ticket according to the flight distance.
In the Mennens decision of 22 June 2016 (C-255/15), the Court ruled that where a passenger is downgraded on a flight, the price to be taken into account in determining the reimbursement for the passenger affected is the price of the flight on which he or she was downgraded, unless that price is not indicated on the ticket entitling him or her to transport on that flight, in which case, it must be based on the part of the price of the ticket corresponding to the quotient resulting from the distance of that flight and the total distance that the passenger is entitled to travel. The Court added that the price of the ticket to be taken into consideration for the purpose of determining the reimbursement is solely the price of the flight itself, with the exclusion of taxes and charges indicated on that ticket, as long as neither the requirement to pay those taxes and charges nor their amount depends on the class for which that ticket has been purchased.
vii Further compensation
The Regulation provides that its application should not, except in cases of denied boarding 'volunteers', prejudice passengers' rights to further compensation, adding that the compensation granted under the Regulation may be deducted from such compensation. In the Rodriguez case of 13 October 2011 (C-83/10), the CJEU ruled that the meaning of 'further compensation' must be interpreted to the effect that 'it allows the national court to award compensation, under the conditions provided for by the Montreal Convention 1999 or national law, for damage, including non-material damage, arising from breach of a contract of carriage by air.'
viii Time limitation
The Regulation does not stipulate any time limitation for action. In the Moré case of 22 November 2012 (C-139/11), the Court held that the time limits for bringing actions for compensation, under the provisions regarding cancellation and compensation are determined in accordance with the rules of each Member State on the limitation of actions.
ix Means of redress
Next to the 'extraordinary circumstances' means of defence mentioned above, the Regulation specifically mentions that it does not restrict the right of an operating air carrier, which complied with its obligations to indemnify passengers in cases of delay or cancellation, to seek compensation from any person, including third parties, in accordance with applicable law.
x National enforcement body
The Regulation provides that each Member State must designate a competent authority responsible for its enforcement. In a decision of 17 March 2016 (C-145/15), the Court confirmed that where an individual complaint has been made by a passenger to the body designated by each Member State following the refusal by an air carrier to pay to the passenger the compensation, that body is not required to take enforcement action against the carrier with a view to compelling it to pay the compensation.
xi Evolution and revision of the Regulation
In its Proposal to amend Regulation 261/2004 (COM (2013) 130 final of 13 March 2013), the European Commission aims to promote a high level of air passenger protection in cases of disruption. The Proposal was voted on by the European Parliament on first reading on 5 February 2014.
In a certain number of key areas, the European Parliament has proposed a different approach from the one initially taken by the Commission.
The five-hour threshold for delay compensation proposed by the Commission was rejected and the European Parliament instead proposed a three-hour threshold. Furthermore, the European Parliament has suggested the height of compensation to be €300 for all journeys of 2,500 kilometres or less, instead of €250.
Although the European Parliament agreed with the Commission to define extraordinary circumstances outside the control of the air carrier in an unambiguous manner, it has taken a similar approach to the CJEU in the Wallentin-Hermann verdict by considering that technical defects could not fall within the concept of 'extraordinary circumstances'. The Parliament has proposed an exhaustive list of extraordinary circumstances, contrary to the initial proposal of the Commission under which the concept was an open one, so as to possibly include exceptional events and their consequences, such as the ash cloud in 2010 or the Japanese tsunami in 2011.
The current Regulation does not provide for a limit to liability, even in extraordinary circumstances or major air traffic disruptions. The Commission hence proposed the introduction of a three-night limit in circumstances of strikes, storms or snows. This has proven to be sufficient in most circumstances and allows air carriers to foresee the impact on their passenger rights budgets. The Parliament agreed to a limit but proposed to set the limit at five nights. A cap on the duty to provide for accommodation in cases of extraordinary circumstances also for persons with reduced mobility, pregnant women, unaccompanied children and other persons in need of special medical care was rejected by the Parliament in its entirety.
The Parliament rejected the proposal of the Commission on no-shows on the first leg of a multi-sector journey, and has proposed that it should not be possible for passengers to be denied boarding on a section of the journey of a two-way (return) ticket on the grounds that they have not travelled on every leg of the journey covered by the ticket.
Other proposals by the European Parliament include the imposition of bankruptcy insurance upon air carriers to ensure that passengers are, in cases of bankruptcy, assured of the reimbursement of costs and repatriation.
With regard to the issue of denied boarding, the Parliament proposed to extend the definition of denied boarding to include 'a flight for which the scheduled time of departure has been brought forward with the consequence that the passenger misses that flight shall be considered a flight for which the passenger has been denied boarding'.
The discussions on the proposal are currently suspended.
On 10 June 2016, the Commission published new Interpretative Guidelines on the Regulation. These Guidelines essentially summarise the recent case law of the CJEU.
On 9 March 2017, the European Commission published an Information Notice on relevant EU consumer protection, marketing and data protection law applicable to claim agencies' activities in relation to Regulation 261/2004 on air passenger rights. This Information Notice provides, inter alia, that the passenger should always seek to contact the operating carrier before considering other means to seek redress for his or her rights, and that claim agencies must be able to produce a clear power of attorney and should not resort to persistent unsolicited telemarketing.
xii Passengers with reduced mobility
The Regulation provides that passengers with reduced mobility (PRM) and the persons accompanying them should be given priority by the carrier. Additional requirements towards PRM are laid down in Regulation (EC) No. 1107/2006 concerning the rights of disabled persons and persons with reduced mobility when travelling by air. This legislation establishes that air carriers cannot refuse carriage to PRM, unless for specific safety requirements or if the size of the aircraft makes the embarkation physically impossible. Instead, the PRM and accompanying persons should be offered reimbursement or rerouting under certain conditions. Assistance without additional charge should also be offered by the managing body of the airport to PRM.
xiii Regulation 2027/97 and the 1999 Montreal Convention
Beside the Regulation 261/2004, passengers' rights are also protected by the Regulation 2027/97, amended in 2002, on air carrier liability in respect of the carriage of passengers and their baggage by air, and by the 1999 Montreal Convention, which was approved by the Community2 with the consequence that it is an integral part of the European Union legal order allowing the CJEU to give a preliminary ruling concerning its interpretation.
In the Walz decision of 6 May 2010 (C-63/09), the CJEU ruled that the term 'damage', under Article 22(2) of the Montreal Convention that sets the limit of an air carrier's liability for the damage resulting, inter alia, from the loss of baggage, must be interpreted as including both material and non-material damage.
In the Sanchez decision of 22 November 2012 (C-410/11), the Court ruled that the same Article 22(2) of the Montreal Convention read in conjunction with its Article 3(3) must be interpreted as meaning that the right to compensation and the limits to a carrier's liability in the event of loss of baggage apply also to a passenger who claims that compensation by virtue of the loss of baggage checked in in another passenger's name, provided that the lost baggage did in fact contain the first passenger's items.
In the Prüller-Frey decision of 9 September 2015 (C-240/14), the CJEU ruled that Regulation 2027/97 and the Montreal Convention preclude claims on the basis of Article 17 of the Convention for damages brought by a person who was a passenger in an aircraft that had the same place of take-off and landing in a Member State and was being carried free of charge for the purpose of viewing from the air a property in connection with a property transaction planned with the pilot of that aircraft.
In the Wucher decision of 26 February 2015 (C-6/14), the Court ruled that Article 17 of the Montreal Convention must be interpreted as meaning that a person who comes within the definition of 'passenger' within the meaning of Article 3(g) of Regulation 785/2004 on insurance requirements for air carriers, also comes within the definition of 'passenger' within the meaning of Article 17 of that convention, once that person has been carried pursuant to a 'contract of carriage' within the meaning of Article 3 of the Montreal Convention.
In the Air Baltic Corporation decision of 17 February 2016 (C-429/14), the Court ruled the Montreal Convention must be interpreted as meaning that an air carrier that has concluded a contract of international carriage with an employer of persons carried as passengers, such as the employer at issue in the main proceedings, is liable to that employer for damage occasioned by a delay in flights on which its employees were passengers pursuant to that contract, on account of which the employer incurred additional expenditure.
In the Finnair decision of 12 April 2018 (C-258/16), the Court held that, under certain conditions, a complaint recorded in the information system of the carrier fulfils the requirement of being in written form.
II LICENSING OF OPERATIONS
Regulation (EC) No. 1008/2008 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 24 September 2008 on common rules for the operation of air services in the Community deals with the conditions under which commercial air carriers established in one of the Member States of the European may start and carry out their activities.
Undertakings established in the European Union are not permitted to provide air services unless they have received an appropriate operating licence from the competent authority of a Member State. Undertakings meeting the requirements of the Regulation are entitled to receive an operating licence. Therefore, applications from such undertakings that meet the criteria cannot be rejected.
Simplified rules apply to carriers operating smaller aircraft and no licence is required when the concerned air services are performed by non-power-driven aircraft or ultralight power-driven aircraft and for local flights.
The holder of an operating licence must comply with these requirements at all times:
its principal place of business must be located in the licensing Member State;
it has an air operator's certificate (AOC) granted by the same licensing Member State;
it has one or more aircraft at its disposal operated through ownership or dry lease (meaning that the air carrier must initially and at all times operate at least one aircraft under its own AOC);
its main occupation is to operate air services or the repair and maintenance of aircraft;
its company structure allows the competent licensing authority to control if it complies with the Regulation, notably in terms of majority ownership and effective control requirements;
it must be majority-owned and effectively controlled by EU Member States or nationals of EU Member States, except as provided under agreements between the European Union and third countries;
it meets certain financial and insurance requirements. These requirements notably include the ability to demonstrate that it can meet actual and potential (financial) obligations for at least the 12 months (or for a period of 24 months from the start of operations), the obligation to communicate audited accounts to the licensing authority on a yearly basis and to comply with minimum insurance requirements in respect of passengers, baggage, cargo, mail and third parties; and
the physical persons who will compose the management of the air carrier must be of good repute.
The operating licence may be revised in certain circumstances. For instance, the licence needs to be resubmitted for approval when operations have not started six months after the licence has been granted, if operations have stopped for more than six months, if the licensing authority determines that changes affecting the legal situation of the European carrier require it (such as a merger or takeover) or in the event of significant change in the financial situation of the air carrier.
In addition, the air carrier is obliged to notify its licensing authority in certain cases: when it plans to make substantial changes to its activities, when it is involved in a merger or acquisition project or when there is a change in ownership of shares representing more than 10 per cent of the equity capital of the air carrier. Depending on the significance of the proposed change, the licensing authority may require a revised and updated business plan, decide that the licence has to be resubmitted for approval or suspend or revoke the licence, or grant a temporary licence.
Finally, the operating licence can be suspended and the air carrier prevented from continuing its operations when, in the opinion of the licensing authority, the airline cannot meet its obligations for a 12-month period, when the carrier's audited accounts have not been communicated in due time, when the carrier has knowingly or recklessly provided false information, when the AOC has been suspended or withdrawn or when the conditions of good repute are no longer met.
Ownership and effective control requirements apply to European Union air carriers and are reflected in the Regulation. It is indeed a well-established principle of EU aviation law that an operator can obtain, and maintain, an operating licence in the EU only if it has EU nationality. Article 4(f) of the Regulation provides that Member States or nationals of Member States must own more than 50 per cent of the undertaking and effectively control it, whether directly or indirectly through one or more intermediate undertakings, except as provided for in an agreement with a third country to which the EU is a party. Effective control is defined as:
a relationship constituted by rights, contract or any other means which, either separately or jointly and having regard to the considerations of fact or law involved, and further possibility of directly or indirectly exercising a decisive influence on undertaking, in particular by (a) the right to use all parts of the assets of an undertaking; (b) rights or contracts which confer a decisive influence on the composition, voting or decisions of the bodies of an undertaking or otherwise confer a decisive influence on the running of the business of the undertaking.
A transaction by which a non-EU carrier acquires either ownership or control or both in a Community carrier would contravene this principle and result in the loss of EU nationality and the operating licence.
The ownership requirement has been interpreted to mean that at least 50 per cent plus one share of the capital of the air carrier must be owned by Member States or nationals of Member States. However, the scale of the third-country investment, as well as the distribution of the shares within each group of shareholders, needs to be taken into account in assessing compliance with the effective control requirement. Complications may arise where it is difficult to identify the beneficial owner (and therefore the nationality of ownership) of shares, for example, through structures involving nominee shareholders on behalf of undisclosed persons. Equally, shares that do not have voting rights or otherwise different rights might be weighted differently. In practice, this difficulty can be avoided through more simple structures that clearly confer majority ownership in the EU.
As regards effective control, at issue is the question of who in practice is making a company's decisions. The Swissair/Sabena case3 established that effective control cannot be exercised jointly between EU and non-EU persons. The non-EU person or persons must not have decisive influence over the carrier. The Commission has stated that the starting point of the national licensing authority would be to assume that control would follow ownership. However, control may not be in direct proportion to ownership, for example if some shares have more votes attached to them than others, or if conditions in loan or lease agreements confer unusual powers on the lender or lessor. The licensing authority should examine the key legal documents including the statutes of the company and any shareholders' agreement and any powers of veto given to a third-country investor on matters that would normally within be within the powers of a company's board to decide.
In the Swissair case, the Commission concluded that EU nationals or Member States, individually or together with other EU nationals or Member States, must have the ultimate decision-making power in the management of the air carrier (in matters such as the appointment to the decisive corporate bodies of the carrier, the carrier's business plan, its annual budget or any major investment or cooperation projects). Further, this ability must not be substantially dependent on the support of natural or legal persons from third countries.
On 8 June 2017, the Commission adopted interpretative guidelines on the rules on Ownership and Control of EU carriers (Commission Notice C (2017) 3711 final), which supplement the information provided in the Swissair/Sabena case and in its previous Information Note of 2011, among others regarding financial links between the carrier and third-country shareholders.
The Regulation also expands and clarifies the conditions for aircraft leasing, by providing for definitions of dry-lease and wet-lease agreements, by stating that EU air carriers can freely lease aircraft as long as they continue at all times to operate at least one aircraft under their own AOC (except for safety reasons) and by imposing a prior approval of the licensing authority when at least one of the parties to a dry-lease agreement is an EU air carrier and when an EU carrier wet-leases in (as a lessee) an aircraft. More stringent conditions apply for wet-leases in an aircraft registered outside the European Union, such as the obligation for the concerned carrier to demonstrate that the leasing is necessary to satisfy exceptional or seasonal capacity needs or to overcome operational difficulties.
Subject to EU competition rules (discussed in Section IV) and any applicable safety requirements, the Regulation allows EU air carriers to combine air services and to enter into code-sharing arrangements with any other EU or third-country air carriers on intra-EU air routes as well as on air routes between Member States and third countries. Code-sharing arrangements between EU carriers and third-country air carriers on air routes between Member States and third countries may be restricted by the Member State concerned in certain circumstances.
The Regulation provides clear criteria and a specific procedure for when air routes may be covered by public service obligations: routes to an airport serving a peripheral region; routes to an airport serving a development region; or 'thin' routes to any airport. The procedure involves the initiating Member State, the other (destination) Member States concerned (if any), the European Commission, the airports concerned and the air carriers operating the route in question. The Regulation also provides for Member States to restrict access to the route in question to a single air carrier and, if needed, to compensate its losses. A number of requirements need to be fulfilled to proceed to exclusive concessions and the concession must be tendered according to the procedures set out in the Regulation.
The other rules provided for under the Regulation are dealt with in other chapters in this publication.
III SAFETY AND SECURITY
Safety and security are mainly dealt with at European Union level through various regulations, which the present section will not list or review in an exhaustive manner.
Regulation 216/2008 aims, inter alia, to establish common rules on aviation safety to guarantee a high level of safety and to ensure and enhance the efficiency of the certification process. It applies essentially to the design, production, maintenance and operation of aeronautical products, parts and appliances, as well as personnel and organisations involved. The European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) was established and is based in Cologne, Germany.
The EASA prepares, among others, legislation for the Commission in the field of safety and sees its scope of competence increase regularly. Member States are required to comply with this legislation, but may still on some occasion have some room for manoeuvre regarding the way it is implemented and the timing for implementation. As an example, in Belgium, the rules set out in Regulation 923/2012 on Standardised European Rules of the Air have been implemented and supplemented by a national Royal Decree.
Next to the preparation of EU legislation, the EASA also publishes acceptable means of compliance (AMC) and certification specifications. Contrary to the EU legislation, each Member State may depart from the AMC if they find it necessary to fulfil their task of implementing EU law, provided they issue alternative means of compliance in line with the regulations. Where a Member State intends to develop its own means of compliance, it must notify it to the EASA if the field covered relates to air crew, air operations, aerodromes or air traffic controllers' licences. In the fields that do not fall within the scope of the EASA, Member States remain free to adopt their own set of rules. Therefore, even if the harmonisation is not totally achieved yet, many national safety rules have now been replaced by EU ones.
Alongside the certification process, the European Union has introduced, through Regulation (EC) No. 2111/2005, a list of carriers banned from operating to, from and within the European Union. This Regulation also establishes the right for passengers to be informed on the identity of the operating carrier.
Investigation and prevention of accidents and incidents in civil aviation is regulated by Regulation (EU) No. 996/2010. This Regulation aims to prevent future accidents and incidents by requiring, for each accident or serious incident, an independent safety investigation and an Investigation Report. This Investigation Report will, however, not seek to apportion blame or liability. This Regulation also aims to improve the assistance to the victims of air accidents and their relatives. In this perspective, the Regulation provides that airlines offer travellers the opportunity to give the name and contact details of a person to be contacted in the event of an accident before the name of the person on board is made publicly available. In the same context, EU carriers and third-country carriers operating flights from the EU are required to make available a list of all persons on board within the two hours following the notification of the accident. The Member States must establish a civil aviation accident emergency plan at national level. The Regulation requires them to ensure that all airlines established in their territory have a plan for the assistance to the victims of civil aviation accidents and their relatives. In addition, Directive 2003/42 amended by Regulation No. 596/2009 on occurrence reporting in civil aviation was adopted with the objective of collecting, reporting, storing, protecting and disseminating all sorts of relevant information on safety.
On 26 February 2014, the European Parliament voted on the European Commission Proposal for a 'Regulation on the reporting, analysis and follow-up of occurrences'. This Regulation is aimed at facilitating and enhancing exchange of information on aviation safety incidents between stakeholders in the aviation industry as well as between Member States, with the objective of enabling a thorough analysis and ensuring that adequate action is taken to prevent the occurrence of similar accidents. The proposed text was adopted and enacted in Regulation (EU) No. 376/2014 on the reporting, analysis and follow-up of occurrences in civil aviation, which amended Regulation (EU) No. 996/2010 and repealed Directive 2003/42.
European security legislation is voluminous. The aviation security legislation is essentially organised upon the framework of Regulation (EC) No. 300/2008 on common rules in the field of civil aviation security. This Regulation sets common rules and common basic standards on aviation security together with mechanisms for monitoring compliance. The common basic standards mainly refer to methods of screening, categories of articles that may be prohibited, access control and criteria for staff recruitment. The Regulation also provides that every Member State shall draw up, apply and maintain a national civil aviation security programme and a quality control programme. Equal requirements apply to airports and air carriers. This Regulation should be read in connection with its supplementing regulations, notably the regularly amended Regulation (EU) No. 185/2010 laying down detailed measures for the implementation of the common basic standards on aviation security, and its implementing regulations. Note, for example, the requirements on air carriers flying cargo and mail into the EU from non-EU countries to be designated, following a strict procedure, as an 'Air Cargo or Mail Carrier operating into the Union from a Third Country Airport'. Equally, Regulation 452/2014 requires third-party operators to obtain an authorisation to be allowed to operate within, into or out of the EU.
Directive 2004/82 imposes on Member States the obligation for immigration purposes to develop a system for collecting passenger data, known as 'Advanced Passenger Information', through air carriers. This information includes the number and type of travel document used, the nationality, the full names, the date of birth, the border crossing point of entry into the territory of any of the Member States, the code of transport, the departure and arrival time of the transportation, the total number of passengers carried on that transport and the initial point of embarkation.
In 2016, Directive (EU) 2016/681 was also adopted regarding the use of passenger name record data for the prevention, detection, investigation and prosecution of terrorist offences and serious crime. This directive was required to be transposed into the national law of the Member States by 25 May 2018.
IV COMPETITION
EU competition law applies to the aviation sector as to other sectors. The principal elements are:
Article 101 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU), which prohibits anticompetitive agreements such as cartels;
Article 102 TFEU, which prohibits the abuse of a dominant position;
Articles 107 to 109 TFEU, which control state aid; and
Regulation (EC) No. 139/2004, which creates an EU-wide system of merger control.
The regulatory framework of aviation influences how the competition rules are applied; for example:
Regulation No. 1008/2008 provides that EU air carriers must be owned (by more than 50 per cent) and effectively controlled by EU Member States or nationals of Member States, directly or indirectly. This restricts the degree of foreign ownership of EU carriers and with it, the possibility of global airline consolidation; and
the EU–US Open Skies Agreement, amended in 2010, significantly liberalised air traffic between those two regions, which in turn enabled competition authorities on both sides of the Atlantic to take a more lenient view of the BA/AA alliance within OneWorld.
i Article 101 TFEU and airline cartels
Airlines have been fined for cartel activity: the European Commission fined 11 carriers €799,450,000 in Airfreight; and the Commission closed its case on passenger fuel surcharge price-fixing for administrative priority.
ii Article 101 TFEU and airline alliances
The European Commission's alliance decisional practice includes:
SAS and Maersk (1999): a cooperation agreement principally about code-sharing agreements and cooperation in periods of high demand led to a complaint of market sharing, which was upheld. The Commission fined the parties.
OneWorld (2010): the American Airlines, Iberia and British Airways tie-up was found to be compatible with Article 101 TFEU subject to slot divestment remedies at London Heathrow or London Gatwick as well as various other remedies designed to facilitate new market entry.
Star Alliance (2013): Air Canada, United and Lufthansa gave 10-year slot availability commitments in relation to their revenue-sharing joint venture on the Frankfurt–New York route.
iii Abuses of dominance
Market definition
Product markets for passenger air transport are generally defined on the basis of a route described as an origin–destination pair. At its narrowest, each origin–destination pair will be a separate market. More broadly, the market may include substitute airports and other modes of transport; and it may distinguish markets by passenger type, such as time-sensitive or non-time-sensitive passengers.
Abuse of dominance: predatory pricing
There are no guidelines or case law on airline predatory pricing as these questions are essentially dealt with at national level or challenged through the non-compliance of the state aid rules.
Abuse of dominance: other airline abuses
British Midland/Aer Lingus (1992) confirmed that refusal to interline was not normal commercial practice and could be a selective and exclusionary abuse restricting the development of competition.
Virgin/British Airways (2000) established that BA's bonus schemes for travel agents were illegal exclusionary rebates that had a loyalty-inducing effect. BA was found to be a dominant buyer of travel agent services. The CJEU upheld the decision and stated that a system of discounts or bonuses that did not constitute quantity discounts, bonuses, or fidelity discount or bonuses, could be abusive if it was capable of making market entry very difficult or impossible for competitors and if it made it more difficult or impossible for co-contractors to choose between different sources of supply or commercial partners. The Court also found that the scheme was not economically justified.
Airports abuse cases
In Zaventem Airport (1995), the threshold of monthly fees needed by an airline to obtain the highest level of discount was so high that only a carrier based at Brussels Airport could benefit from the discount, placing the EU carriers at a competitive disadvantage. In Ilmailulaitos/Luftfartsverket (1999), the Finnish airports operator had abused its dominant position in awarding a 60 per cent discount on landing fees at various Finnish airports for domestic flights but not for intra-EU flights, giving domestic flights favourable treatment. Similar cases have been decided in relation to Portuguese, Spanish and Italian airports. In 2011, the Airport Charges Directive came into effect, a form of ex ante regulation requiring, inter alia, the setting of airport charges on a non-discriminatory basis.
iv Merger control
Ryanair/Aer Lingus (2007) was blocked because the Commission found that the merger would have combined the two leading airlines operating from Ireland and would have created a monopoly or a dominant position on 35 routes operated by both parties. The remedies were considered insufficient. The General Court upheld the decision.
Olympic/Aegean (2011) was blocked because the merger would have resulted in a quasi-monopoly on the Greek air transport market. Together, the two carriers controlled more than 90 per cent of the Greek domestic air transport market with no realistic prospect that a new airline of sufficient size would enter the routes to constrain the merged entity's pricing. The remedies were considered inadequate.
IAG/bmi (2012) was cleared, conditional on the release of 14 daily slots at London Heathrow to facilitate new entry and on IAG's commitment to carry connecting passengers to feed the long-haul flights of competing airlines at London Heathrow.
Ryanair/Aer Lingus (III) (2013) was blocked. The merger was found likely to harm consumers, and the remedies package, including two upfront buyers, was considered inadequate. The decision is under appeal to the General Court of the EU.
FedEx/TNT (2016) was cleared. Nevertheless, EU ownership and control rules prohibited FedEx from acquiring TNT Express's subsidiary, TNT Airways SA, which was hence sold to ASL Aviation Group prior to the acquisition of TNT Express by FedEx.
v State aid
In April 2014, the Commission published new Guidelines on State Aid for Airports and Airlines, replacing the 2005 Guidelines, which gave rise to around 100 decisions while in force.
The aims of the new Guidelines are to permit investment aid in cases of a genuine transport need, to allow small airports a transition period, to establish a simple framework for the start-up of new routes, to provide flexibility with regard to isolated regions and to ensure the right use of state aid.
Four reforms have been declared critical by the Commission:
to allow for the transition period for operating aid, to enable unprofitable airports to gradually adjust to market change;
to ensure that public support better targets cases where it is truly needed;
to simplify rules for start-up aid, to start using new airports and attract airlines to fly to new destinations; and
to establish a clear framework for airport–airline agreements, to ensure that they are aid-free and help to contribute to the profitability of concerned airports.
The new guidelines simplify the conditions for start-up aid. Under these new rules, airlines will be able to receive aid that covers 50 per cent of the airport charges for new destinations during a period of three years. More flexibility as regards airport size and eligible destinations can hence be justified for airports in remote regions.
On 17 May 2017, the Commission approved new state aid rules that exempt certain public support measures for airports from prior Commission scrutiny.
V OTHER DEVELOPMENTS
i Airport charges
On 19 May 2014, the European Commission issued its report on the application of the Airport Charges Directive (the Directive). The Directive establishes common principles for the levying of airport charges and aims to enhance transparency of the calculation of airport charges; ensure the non-discrimination between airlines in the application of airport charges; create consultation between airlines and airports on a regular basis; and establish, in each Member State, an Independent Supervisory Authority (ISA) in charge of dispute settlement on airport charges between airports and carriers, and that will supervise the correct application of the provisions of the Directive by Member States. Member States were required to transpose the provisions of the Airport Charges Directive into national law by March 2011. The report of May 2014 analyses the application of the Airport Charges Directive by Member States.
The Commission found that several of the main objectives of the Airport Charges Directive have been achieved. Air carriers raised concerns about transparency with regards to cost and other commercial information airports were to provide, as well as the efficiency of the consultation process established by the Directive. Furthermore, air carriers have complained about the large variety of differentiation in airport charges and the compliance with the criteria of relevance, objectivity and transparency. In particular, 'incentive schemes' and discounts to new entrants and low-cost carriers were identified as controversial. The controversy of 'incentive schemes' or discounts was also raised in relation to capacity constraints and access to tailored services and dedicated terminal (parts) but then on the side of airports. On the establishment of an ISA (Articles 6 and 11), controversial issues were its role and apparent lack of independence, and the absence of a statutory deadline for airlines to submit an appeal and the suspensory effects of such appeals. The Commission has initiated infringement procedures against certain Member States on the application of the obligations the Directive establishes. The Commission will furthermore organise meetings with ISAs to discuss the enforcement of the rules. It will also investigate and evaluate whether the Directive needs to be revised to better achieve its objectives.
ii Emissions Trading System
The Emissions Trading System (ETS) of the EU, through Directive 2003/87/EC, regularly amended, puts a cap on carbon dioxide emissions in relation to the aviation sector. Under this system, air carriers could buy and trade allowances to compensate their emissions pursuant to a market-based system. Whereas initially air carriers were to pay for their emissions when their point of departure or destination lay in the territory of the EU, strong opposition, threats of retaliation and trade war from third countries have caused the EU institutions to surrender to a temporary system in which only carriers operating intra-EU flights are subject to the EU ETS regime.
Following the adoption in October 2016 by the ICAO Resolution 39-3 of the Carbon Offsetting and Reduction Scheme for International Aviation (CORSIA), the European Union adopted in 2017 a regulation to continue the current limitation of its EU ETS to intra-EU flights and to prepare the implementation of CORSIA from 2021.
iii Unmanned aircraft systems
In its Communication (2014) 207 and in the Riga Declaration of 6 March 2015, the European Union is taking a step forward in its political will to regulate the use of unmanned aircraft systems, commonly known as drones. The EASA is currently working on a proposal for an operation-centric, proportionate, risk- and performance-based regulatory framework for all unmanned aircraft in the EU.
iv Package Travel Directive
The current Package Travel Directive (Directive 90/314/EEC) has been recast in a new directive (Directive 2015/2302). Member States were required to transpose it into their national legislation by 1 January 2018.
v Aviation Strategy
With regards to the ever improving safety requirements, in December 2015 the Commission released its new Aviation Strategy – COM(2015)598 – that, among other things, proposes the modification of the 216/2008 Regulation (the EASA Basic Regulation). The text should be adopted and published in 2018.
In the context of this Aviation Strategy, the Commission adopted on 8 June 2017 a series of measures to further support open and connected aviation markets in the EU and beyond. This includes Interpretative Guidelines regarding rules of Ownership and Control of EU carriers, Interpretative Guidelines on Public Service Obligations, Practices favouring Air Traffic Management Service Continuity, and a proposal for a Regulation on safeguarding competition in air transport repealing Regulation 868/2004, which was, to our knowledge, never applied in practice.
1 Dimitri de Bournonville is a partner, Cyril-Igor Grigorieff is a senior associate and Charlotte Thijssen is an associate at Kennedys Brussels LLP. The authors would like to acknowledge the contribution of Jeremy Robinson, who co-wrote the chapter in the first edition upon which this chapter is based.
2 2001/539/EC: Council Decision of 5 April 2001 on the conclusion by the European Community of the Convention for the Unification of Certain Rules for International Carriage by Air (the Montreal Convention).
3 It was assessed under a previous version of the nationality rule in Commission Decision of 19 July 1995 on a procedure relating to the application of Council Regulation (EEC) No. 2407/92 (Swissair/Sabena). At the same time it was assessed by the European Commission under the old merger control rules in Case No. IV/M. 616 – Swissair/Sabena under Regulation (EEC) No. 4064/89 on 20 July 1995.
Other chapters on European Union
The Cartels and Leniency Review
The Government Procurement Review
The Intellectual Property and Antitrust Review
The International Trade Law Review
The Life Sciences Law Review
The Technology, Media and Telecommunications Review
The Trademarks Law Review
All titles on European Union
The Shipping Law Review Edition 5
Editors George Eddings, Andrew Chamberlain and Rebecca Warder
HFW
The fifth edition of this book aims to continue to provide those involved in handling shipping disputes with an overview of the key issues relevant to multiple jurisdictions. We have again invited contributions on the law of leading maritime nations, including both major flag states and the countries in which most shipping companies are located.
The International Capital Markets Review Edition 8
Editor Jeffrey Golden
P.R.I.M.E. Finance Foundation
This book serves two purposes, one obvious, but the other possibly less so. Quite obviously, and one reason for its continuing popularity, The International Capital Markets Review addresses the comparative law aspect of our readers’ international capital markets (ICM) workload and equips them with a comparative law reference source. Globalisation and technological change mean that the transactional practice of a capital markets lawyer, wherever based, no longer enjoys the luxury, if ever it did, of focusing solely at home within the confines of a single jurisdiction. Globalisation means that fewer and fewer opportunities or challenges are truly local, and technology more and more permits a practitioner to tackle international issues.
The Healthcare Law Review Edition 2
Editor Sarah Ellson
Fieldfisher LLP
Welcome to the second edition of The Healthcare Law Review. The Review provides an introduction to healthcare economies and their legal frameworks in 17 jurisdictions, with new contributions from Japan, Korea and Finland. These new chapters, together with updates to the jurisdictions previously covered in the first edition, only serve to emphasise that this is a constantly changing environment. While hugely diverse, it is possible to discern common challenges and similar approaches in very different countries.
The Oil and Gas Law Review Edition 6
Editor Christopher Strong
2018 has been a transitional period for the international oil and gas industry. With the industry enduring a fourth straight year of low oil prices, and with no prospects for a significant increase in sight, participants in the industry have been forced to adapt. Oil companies must continue to be disciplined, allocating scarce capital only to their best prospects, and shelving less promising projects for future years. Some in the industry have already started to worry that by reducing capital expenditures the seeds of a future price shock are being sown.
The Sports Law Review Edition 4
Editor András Gurovits
The Sports Law Review is intended as a practical, business-focused legal guide for all relevant stakeholder groups in the area of sports, including sports business entities, sports federations, sports clubs and athletes. Its goal is to provide an analysis of recent developments and their effects on the sports law sector in 18 jurisdictions. It will serve as a guidebook for practitioners as to how a selected range of legal topics is dealt with under various national laws.
The Gambling Law Review Edition 4
Editor Carl Rohsler
Memery Crystal
Welcome to the fourth edition of The Gambling Law Review. The primary purpose of this work is to provide a short summary of the gambling law of a wide range of jurisdictions. The second aim is to allow practitioners in the field to be updated on developments over the course of the year. And last, of course, it is a good way to bring together some of the leading lawyers in this fascinating field, so that they can stay in touch and communicate with each other.
The Executive Remuneration Review Edition 7
Arthur Kohn
Janet Cooper
Tapestry Compliance
Executive remuneration encompasses a diverse range of practices and is consequently influenced by many different areas of the law, including tax, employment, securities and other aspects of corporate law. We have structured this book with the intention of providing readers with an overview of these areas of law as they relate to the field of executive remuneration. We hope that readers find the following discussion of the various tax, statutory, regulatory and supervisory rules and authorities instructive.
The Real Estate M&A and Private Equity Review Edition 3
Editors Adam O Emmerich and Robin Panovka
Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz
This publication is a multinational guide for understanding and navigating the increasingly complex and dynamic world of liquid real estate and the transactions that mostly produce it. The sea change in the markets, sometimes called the ‘REIT Revolution’, has meant that major real estate transactions have migrated from ‘Main Street’ to ‘Wall Street’. They now often take the form of mergers, acquisitions, takeovers, spin-offs and other corporate transactions conducted in the public markets for both equity and debt.
The Real Estate Law Review Edition 8
Editor John Nevin
Real estate is increasingly viewed on a global basis and readers can only benefit from a general understanding of how individual jurisdictions operate within the global real estate market. This edition extends to 31 jurisdictions and each chapter provides an invaluable insight into key legal issues and market trends in the author’s jurisdiction and, together, they offer an up-to-date synopsis of the global real estate market. The Review seeks to identify distinctions in practice between the different jurisdictions by highlighting particular local issues.
The Public-Private Partnership Law Review Edition 5
Editors Bruno Werneck and Mário Saadi
Mattos Filho, Veiga Filho, Marrey Jr E Quiroga Advogados
We are very pleased to present the fifth edition of The Public-Private Partnership Law Review. Notwithstanding the number of chapters in various publications in The Law Reviews series on topics involving public-private partnerships (PPPs) and private finance initiatives (in areas such as projects and construction, real estate, mergers, transfers of concessionaires’ corporate control, special purpose vehicles and government procurement), we identified the need for a deeper understanding of the specific issues related to this topic in different countries.
The Technology, Media and Telecommunications Review Edition 9
Editor John P Janka
Latham & Watkins LLP
This fully updated ninth edition of The Technology, Media and Telecommunications Review provides an overview of evolving legal constructs in 26 jurisdictions around the world. It is intended as a business-focused framework for both start-ups and established companies, as well as an overview for those interested in examining evolving law and policy in the rapidly changing TMT sector.
The Employment Law Review Edition 10
Editor Erika C Collins
For the past nine years, we have surveyed milestones and significant events in the international employment law space to update and publish The Employment Law Review. This tenth edition is proof of the continuously growing importance of international employment law. As the various editions of this book have highlighted, changes to the laws of many jurisdictions over the past several years emphasise why we continue to consolidate and review this text to provide readers with an up-to-date reference guide.
The Product Regulation and Liability Review Edition 6
Editors Chilton Davis Varner and Madison Kitchens
King & Spalding LLP
This edition covers 16 countries and territories and includes a high-level overview of each jurisdiction’s product liability framework, recent changes and developments, and a look forward at expected trends. Whether the reader is a company executive or a private practitioner, we hope that this edition will prove useful in navigating the complex world of product liability and alerting you to important developments that may affect your business.
The Mining Law Review Edition 7
Editor Erik Richer La Flèche
Much of the mining sector continues to emerge from a lengthy down-cycle. The world economy continues to expand, albeit at a deliberate pace. This book gathers the views of leading mining practitioners from around the world. The first part of the book is divided into 18 chapters, each dealing with mining in a particular jurisdiction. These countries were selected because of the importance of mining to their economies and to ensure a broad geographical representation. Mining is global but the business of financing mining exploration, development and – to a lesser extent – production is concentrated in a few countries, Canada and the United Kingdom being dominant. As a result, the second part of the book has five chapters that focus on financing.
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The International Capital Markets Review - Edition 8
Marieke Driessen
Niek Groenendijk
Simmons & Simmons LLP
I INTRODUCTION
i General overview
As the Netherlands is an EU Member State, Dutch capital markets law and regulation is heavily influenced by EU law. EU Directives are implemented in Dutch law, generally in time and without substantial deviation, whereas EU Regulations have direct effect in the Netherlands. Most of the EU Directives relevant to the capital markets (including the Capital Requirements Directive,2 the Prospectus Directive3 and the Transparency Directive)4 have been implemented in the Dutch Financial Supervision Act, which sets out the main licensing and other requirements for participants in the financial markets. Legislative acts, such as the Dutch Financial Supervision Act, are adopted by the Dutch parliament and often delegate the power to stipulate detailed rules to ministers of the government by way of decrees and regulations.
ii Regulatory authorities
The Dutch capital markets are supervised by the Dutch Authority for the Financial Markets (AFM), which focuses on supervision of the financial markets and its participants, and the Dutch Central Bank (DCB), which focuses on the prudential supervision of financial institutions, with certain (intervention) powers reserved to the Minister of Finance. Since the introduction of the EU Banking Union, certain large Dutch credit institutions are under the direct supervision of the European Central Bank regarding prudential matters, whereas other Dutch credit institutions remain under the direct supervision of the DCB (with the European Central Bank conducting indirect supervision through the DCB).
The supervisory authorities may conduct industry-wide or institution-specific investigations and may impose administrative sanctions, including administrative fines and the publication of findings and fines. The authorities may also refer (suspicions of) criminal offences or crimes to the public prosecution service, which may then conduct its own investigation and bring criminal charges through the criminal court system. Where areas of Dutch or EU capital markets law are not clear, the AFM in particular may issue guidance in the form of guidelines applicable to the market generally, or interpretations applicable to a given case. It will generally not provide the latter on a no-names basis.
Ultimately, the Dutch courts interpret and enforce Dutch capital markets law, which may overturn decisions of the supervisory authorities (which they do on occasion).
iii Litigation
The Netherlands has a reputation for an independent high-quality and generally efficient court system that operates on the basis of a pragmatic code of civil procedure. Litigation before the courts is based on the principle of party autonomy where, subject to certain exceptions, the jurisdiction of the courts is limited to the claims, arguments and defences submitted to the courts by the relevant parties. Judges play an active role in case management and fact finding. Court proceedings do not allow for US-style 'discovery', with the exception of a few, narrowly defined instances only.
Litigation is generally conducted before the Courts of First Instance, with the possibility of appeal as to both fact and law to the Courts of Appeal, and a further possibility to appeal – on the grounds of law, but not fact – to the Supreme Court of the Netherlands. Dutch courts may refer doubts about the correct interpretation or application of EU law to the EU courts or questions about the correct interpretation or application of Dutch law to the Supreme Court.
For the Dutch equity capital markets in particular, an important specialised court is the Enterprise Chamber of the Amsterdam Court of Appeals, which may, for example, conduct internal investigations in respect of Dutch companies at the initiative of certain shareholders holding a de minimis shareholding, for example in the context of takeover bids.
In recent years, the Netherlands has positioned itself as a hub for the resolution of international civil and commercial disputes, in the fields of both arbitration and litigation. The Netherlands Commercial Court (a division of the Amsterdam courts) is soon to be launched, allowing court proceedings to be conducted in English before the Dutch courts in Amsterdam.
II THE YEAR IN REVIEW
There have been extensive legal and regulatory changes affecting capital market transactions and market participants during 2017 and 2018. Below we describe some of the most significant developments affecting (1) the capital markets generally, (2) the debt capital markets specifically, and (3) the equity capital markets in particular. Our overview will conclude with legal and regulatory developments affecting financial institutions active in the capital markets.
i Developments affecting capital markets generally
In 2018, the European and Dutch capital markets were affected by the entry into force of the Markets in Financial Instruments Directive (MiFID II)5 and the Markets in Financial Instruments Regulation (MiFIR),6 certain elements of the Prospectus Regulation7 and the Benchmarks Regulation.8
MiFID II and MiFIR
A major focus of capital market participants were the changes brought by MiFID II, which affected the licensing of market participants, documentation and capital markets transactions directly in a significant way for years to come.
Product governance – target markets
MiFID II introduced a new product governance regime applicable to firms that manufacture financial instruments (manufacturers) or distribute the same to end investors (distributors), or both.
For the purposes of MiFID II, manufacturers are MiFID firms 'that create, develop, issue and/or design financial instruments, including when advising corporate issuers on the launch of new financial instruments'9 whereas distributors are MiFID firms 'that offer or sell financial instruments and services to clients'.10
As such, any MiFID firm issuing financial instruments may be considered to be a manufacturer. However, the position is less clear in relation to managers and underwriters. Owing to the broad scope of the definitions of the terms manufacturer and distributor, the common view is that, in the context of a typical issuance of debt instruments, the (joint) lead managers involved may qualify as both (co-)manufacturers and distributors, whereas more passive, managers potentially only qualify as distributors (but not as manufacturers). That being said, this is not a hard rule that can be observed in all circumstances. An assessment will always need to be made, for each case, as to who is a manufacturer and who is a distributor (or both) with regard to the activities performed by the relevant managers and underwriters.11
MiFID II requirements applicable to manufacturers
A manufacturer of financial instruments must, among other things:
identify a target market for the relevant financial instruments, ensuring that the distribution strategy is consistent with the target market and taking reasonable steps to ensure that the financial instruments are distributed to the target market;
regularly assess whether the relevant financial instrument remains consistent with the needs of the identified target market;
provide the distributors with information on, among other things, the appropriate distribution channels and the identified target market in order for the distributors to understand and recommend or sell the relevant financial instruments in a proper manner; and
enter into a written agreement with co-manufacturers (including third-country firms and non-MiFID firms, which perform the same activities as a manufacturer) outlining their mutual responsibilities. A written agreement is typically included in the subscription/underwriting agreement on the basis of industry standards developed by the International Capital Markets Association (ICMA).
MiFID II requirements applicable to distributors
Pursuant to MiFID II, a distributor of financial instruments must, among other things:
identify its own target market and distribution strategy, using the information obtained from manufacturers and information about their own clients;12 and
provide the manufacturers with information about sales and, where appropriate, other information that would support the manufacturers in their product review.
As distributors, in practice, rely on information given to them by the manufacturers of the financial instruments when recommending or selling financial instruments, the MiFID II product governance rules are likely to affect a large number of transactions with an EEA nexus – where the financial instruments are to be distributed within the EEA – even where the issuer and entities performing the function of manufacturer are not subject to MiFID II themselves. As such, identifying a target market and forming an appropriate distribution strategy is something that non-EEA firms and issuers will need to take into consideration going forward if there is an intention to reach EEA investors.
In the context of the above, it can be noted the AFM deems a variety of complex financial products as not suitable for marketing to retail clients. For example, contingent convertible securities (CoCos) are deemed not suitable for retail clients, unless on an advised basis.13
Underwriting and placing
MiFID II also introduced additional requirements on MiFID firms underwriting and placing financial instruments, relating to conflicts of interest that may arise between the MiFID firm placing and underwriting financial instruments and its issuer-client.
Conflicts identified in the context of the provision of underwriting and placing services include, among others, the following situations:14 corporate finance advice provided prior to underwriting and placing (which requires adequate prior disclosure of the available financing alternatives), pricing and allocation of financial instruments (which are both subject to policy and transparency requirements), the combination of underwriting and distribution or the existence of a previous credit relationship (with both required to be addressed in conflict of interest policies and being subject to organisational requirements).
Prior to the coming into force of MiFID II, the Netherlands had already introduced an inducement ban prohibiting MiFID firms from paying or receiving inducements (directly or indirectly) in connection with the provision of investment and ancillary services to non-professional investors (subject to limited exceptions),15 meaning that, in general, only direct payment by the non-professional client for the investment services is permitted. The Dutch inducement ban applies to all MiFID firms providing investment or ancillary services in the Netherlands, with the exception of EEA MiFID firms providing such services in the Netherlands solely on a cross-border basis pursuant to the EEA passporting regime, and continues to apply in addition to the MiFID II rules described below.
In addition to the Dutch inducement ban, the enactment of MiFID II has introduced a regime that applies to inducements received by MiFID firms in connection with the provision of all investment services to all types of investors (unlike the Dutch inducement ban, which only applies to investment services provided to non-professional investors). However, the inducement regime does not apply to execution-only investment services provided to eligible counterparties.16 Under the MiFID II inducement regime, MiFID firms are generally prohibited from paying or being paid any fee or commission, or providing or being provided with any non-monetary benefit in the context of the provision of an investment or ancillary service by a party other than to or by the client (or a person acting on behalf of the client).17
An exception applies, however, where the payment or benefit (1) is designed to enhance the quality of the service and (2) does not impair the MiFID firm's duty to act honestly, fairly and professionally in accordance with the best interest of its client.18
Stricter requirements apply where the MiFID firm has informed its client that it is providing independent investment advice and where the MiFID firm is providing the investment service of portfolio management, in which case the MiFID firm is not entitled to receive non-monetary benefits (other than certain minor non-monetary benefits19 that are capable of enhancing the quality of service provided to a client and are disclosed to the client) and may only accept and receive fees, commissions or monetary benefits received from third parties in the context of such services where they are transferred in full to the client as soon as reasonably possible after receipt.20
One significant change introduced by MiFID II is that investment research21 is now expressly considered to be a non-monetary benefit (even where there is no clear inducement possibility, because, for example, the provider of the investment research does not offer any execution services). This has had a significant impact on MiFID firms providing portfolio management services and independent investment advice, given that such firms are, in principle, not allowed to receive non-monetary benefits, except under very limited circumstances as described above. Under MiFID II, investment research shall not be considered a prohibited inducement, however, where (1) the investment research is paid by the MiFID firm out of its own resources or (2) where the investment research is paid for from a separate research payment account controlled by the MiFID firm,22 provided that certain conditions regarding the operation of the account are met.23
In practice, many large portfolio managers have opted to absorb the costs of investment research themselves although no uniform practice throughout Europe can be discerned at this moment. For example, various large portfolio managers have also opted to set up a research payment account or have opted to pay for research through a combination of both a research payment account and their own resources.
The Prospectus Regulation
The Prospectus Regulation was published in the Official Journal of the European Union on 30 June 2017, entering into force on 20 July 2017. While the bulk of the provisions of the new Regulation will apply from 21 July 2019, certain provisions had direct effect earlier, expanding the scope of certain exceptions to the obligation to publish a prospectus.
Revisions to exceptions to the obligation to publish a prospectus
Under the Prospectus Regulation, the obligation to publish a prospectus is still triggered when securities are offered to the public or admitted to trading on a regulated market situated or operating within an EEA Member State. However, certain exceptions to this obligation already existed under the Prospectus Directive, some of which have been expanded or restricted under the Prospectus Regulation.
Fungible issues
As of 20 July 2017, the requirement to publish a prospectus does not apply to the admission to trading on a regulated market of securities fungible with securities already admitted to trading on the same regulated market, provided that the securities represent, over a period of 12 months, less than 20 per cent of the number of securities already admitted to trading on the same regulated market.24 (This exception is up from 10 per cent under the equivalent exception under the Prospectus Directive.) In addition, contrary to the equivalent exception under the Prospectus Directive, the exception under the Prospectus Regulation applies to all securities and not only to shares, meaning that tap issues for listed notes (that are not being offered to the public) may now benefit from the exception, provided that the issuer remains compliant with the aforementioned 20 per cent limit.
As of 20 July 2017, additional restrictions are imposed on the exception to the obligation to publish a prospectus for admission to trading on a regulated market in connection with shares resulting from the conversion or exchange of other securities or from the exercise of the rights conferred by other securities. Under the Prospectus Directive, this conversion exception was not subject to any sort of quantitative limit, whereas under the Prospectus Regulation, the exception only applies where the resulting shares represent, over a period of 12 months, less than 20 per cent of the number of shares of the same class already admitted to trading on the same regulated market (subject to certain exceptions, notably (1) where a prospectus was published for the securities that had been converted and (2) where the conversion shares qualify as certain types of capital instruments under the Capital Requirements Regulation25 or the Solvency II Directive26).27
Small offers of securities
As of 21 July 2018, the Prospectus Regulation prescribes that the Prospectus Regulation shall not apply an offer of securities to the public with a total consideration in the EEA of less than €1 million, which shall be calculated over a period of 12 months.28 In addition, the new Regulation provides for the option of allowing Member States, at their discretion, to exempt offers in the EEA of up to €8 million over a period of 12 months. The Dutch legislator has made use of this Member State option, setting the maximum amount at €5 million (up from €2.5 million), meaning that offers of securities to the public with a total consideration in the EEA of less than €5 million over the last 12 months does not require the publication of a prospectus under Dutch law. For the purposes of calculating the maximum amount, the offerings of the issuer and its affiliates shall be aggregated.
For offerors to make use of this exception, Dutch law prescribes that the offeror must notify the AFM of the offering prior to its commencement and simultaneously provide the AFM with (1) certain information regarding the issuer, the offeror and the offering, and (2) an information document in the form prescribed by law.29 In addition, if the offer is not solely made to qualified investors, additional standard exemption disclosure language is required to be included in documents regarding the offering for offerors to make use of this exception.
The Benchmarks Regulation
In the wake of various benchmarks-related scandals, the Benchmarks Regulation was introduced in 2016, with the majority of the provisions applying from 1 January 2018 onwards (subject to certain transitional provisions that apply until 1 January 2020). It applies to (1) the provision of benchmarks, (2) the contribution of input data to a benchmark and (3) the use of a benchmark, within the EEA.
The key term is 'benchmarks', which for the purposes of the Benchmarks Regulation is defined as:
any index30 by reference to which:
the amount payable under, or the value of, a financial instrument, for which a request has been made for admission to trading, or which is traded, on a regulated market, multilateral trading facility (MTF) or organised trading facility (OTF), or which is traded via a systematic internaliser;31 or
the amount payable under a consumer credit agreement within the scope of the Consumer Credit Directive32 or a consumer credit agreement relating to residential immovable property within the scope of the Mortgage Credit Directive33 (each being a financial contract as defined in the Benchmarks Regulation);
is determined; or
an index that is used to measure the performance of an investment fund, an alternative investment fund or an undertaking for the collective investment of transferable securities (UCITS) with the purpose of tracking the return of the index or of defining the asset allocation of a portfolio or of computing the performance fees.34
For the purposes of the Benchmarks Regulation, benchmarks are further divided into critical, significant and non-significant benchmarks. The type of benchmark determines, for example, the regulatory framework within which the administrator must operate: the administrators of non-significant benchmarks are subject to fewer mandatory provisions of the Benchmarks Regulation than administrators of critical and significant benchmarks. The Benchmarks Regulation also provides for certain provisions to ensure the continuity of certain critical benchmarks (such as EURIBOR, EONIA and LIBOR),35 going as far as to enable competent authorities to require the mandatory administration of such benchmarks where the relevant administrator intends to cease the administration thereof or, where a competent authority believes that the representativeness of a critical benchmark is put at risk, require supervised entities36 (such as credit institutions, investment firms and certain investment funds and investment fund management companies) to contribute input data to the critical benchmark (regardless of whether the supervised entity has previously provided input data to the benchmark, or not).
Provision of benchmarks
The Benchmarks Regulation governs the provision of benchmarks, which is defined as (1) administering the arrangements for determining a benchmark, (2) collecting, analysing or processing input data for the purpose of determining a benchmark and (3) determining a benchmark through the application of a formula or other method of calculation or by an assessment of input data provided for that purpose.37
Any person who has control over the provision of a benchmark is considered an administrator for the purposes of the Benchmarks Regulation.38 This includes parties such as ICE Benchmark Administration Limited in relation to LIBOR and the European Money Markets Institute in relation to EURIBOR and EONIA. Administrators are subject to various transparency, governance and conflicts of interest requirements under the Benchmarks Regulation and will need to be authorised by the competent authority of the Member State where the person is located (or in the case of the (intended) provision of (1) non-significant benchmarks or (2) non-critical benchmarks (provided by supervised entities other than administrators) registered with the competent authority. The names of the administrators so authorised or registered will be included in a register for benchmarks and administrators maintained by the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) pursuant to Article 36 of the Benchmarks Regulation.
A provider of a benchmark that is not located in the EEA is, in principle, not bound by the provisions of the Benchmarks Regulation. However, subject to the transitional provisions of the Benchmarks Regulation, supervised entities will only be able to use the benchmarks (including non-EEA benchmarks) provided by the non-EEA person within the EEA if the person and the benchmark are included in the register maintained by ESMA as referred to above, or, pending an equivalence decision by the European Commission, the benchmark has been recognised by the relevant competent authority in the Member State of reference in accordance with the Benchmarks Regulation.39 Alternatively, an EEA administrator may request to endorse a non-EEA benchmark to make it available for use by supervised entities within the EEA.40
Contribution of input data to a benchmark
The Benchmarks Regulation governs the contribution of input data to a benchmark, which is defined as the provision of any input data not readily available to an administrator (or to another person for the purposes of passing to an administrator) that is required in connection with the determination of a benchmark and is provided for that purpose.41
The Benchmarks Regulation requires administrators to prepare a code of conduct regarding the provision of input data – specifying, among other things, the contributor's responsibility in relation to the input data it provides – and administrators are required to satisfy themselves (continuously) that contributors comply with the code of conduct.42 However, direct obligations are imposed on supervised contributors (i.e., supervised entities that contribute input data to an administrator located in the EEA) under the Benchmarks Regulation, making them, among other things, subject to adequate governance and control requirements, specifically to avoid conflicts of interest.43
Use of a benchmark
The Benchmarks Regulation governs the use of benchmarks, which is defined as:44
the issuance of a financial instrument that references an index or a combination of indices;
the determination of the amount payable under a financial instrument or financial contract by referencing an index or combination of indices;
being party to a financial contract that references an index or combination of indices;
the provision of a borrowing rate calculated as a spread or mark-up over an index or a combination of indices and that is solely used as a reference for a financial contract; or
the determination of the performance of an investment fund through an index or combination of indices for the purpose of tracking the return of the index or combination of indices, of defining the asset allocation of a portfolio or of computing the performance fees.45
Pursuant to the Benchmarks Regulation, supervised entities may only use benchmarks that are (1) provided by EEA administrators that are included in the register of benchmarks and administrators maintained by ESMA or (2) included in the aforementioned register. However, certain transitional provisions apply, pursuant to which supervised entities may continue to use existing benchmarks (as used prior to 1 January 2018 (the date of application of the Benchmarks Regulation)) provided by non-registered or authorised EEA administrators, respectively benchmarks that are not included in the aforementioned register:
in the case of benchmarks provided by EEA index providers: until (1) 1 January 2020 or (2) where the index provider submits an application for authorisation or registration, unless and until authorisation or registration is refused; and
in the case of benchmarks provided by non-EAA index providers: as a reference for financial instruments, financial contracts, or for measuring the performance of an investment fund that already references the benchmark in the EEA, or that add a reference to benchmarks prior to 1 January 2020, unless the European Commission has adopted an equivalence decision or unless an administrator has been recognised, or a benchmark has been endorsed.
Additional requirements to users of benchmarks that are supervised entities
Under the Benchmarks Regulation, supervised entities are required to produce and maintain robust written plans setting out the actions that they would take in the event that a benchmark materially changes or ceases to be provided.46 If feasible and appropriate, such plans are required to feature the nomination of an alternative benchmark to be used, indicating why it would be suitable. In practice, however, there are no readily available commonly used benchmarks such as LIBOR and EURIBOR, let alone that an alternative can readily be determined in advance.
Supervised entities are required to reflect their written plans, as referred to above, in their contractual relationships with their clients (so not necessarily in all documentation with counterparties). In terms of existing documentation, ESMA requires supervised entities to amend their existing contractual relationships on a best-efforts basis.47 An amendment can, in practice, often be executed by updating the applicable general terms and conditions, but in many circumstances supervised entities will need to contact their clients to amend certain contractual documentation in place between themselves and their clients.
Changes to prospectuses
Where the object of a prospectus to be published under the Prospectus Directive (Directive 2003/71/EC, as amended) or the UCITS Directive (Directive 2009/65/EC, as amended) relates to transferable securities or other investment products that reference a benchmark, the issuer, offeror, or person asking for admission to trading on a regulated market is required, under the Benchmarks Regulation, to ensure that the prospectus includes clear and prominent information stating whether or not the benchmark is provided by an administrator included on the register for benchmarks and administrators maintained by ESMA.48
In practice, certain market participants have included risk factors in prospectuses dealing with the risk of termination of, and material amendments to, benchmarks and risks associated therewith.
Market Abuse Regulation
The new Market Abuse Regulation, which applies as from 4 July 2016, introduced a number of changes relevant to capital market transactions, the most of significant of which related to the introduction of an EEA-wide market soundings regime. Market participants made a significant effort to get to grips with the new market sounding rules throughout 2016 and 2017, implementing policies and procedures to log inside information, insiders, transactions and market soundings.
ii Developments affecting (structured) debt capital markets specifically
The Packaged Retail and Insurance-based Investment Products Regulation
Effective as of 1 January 2018, the Packaged Retail and Insurance-based Investment Products (PRIIPs) Regulation aims to make in-scope products more transparent and comparable in an effort to make these types of products and their features, as well as their associated risks and cost, more understandable for retail investors. The products within the scope of the PRIIPs Regulation are either packaged retail investor products or insurance-based investment products (which are beyond the scope of this chapter).
Packaged retail investor products
For the purposes of the PRIIPs Regulation, packaged retail investors products are defined as 'an investment . . . where, regardless of the legal form of the investment, the amount repayable to the retail investor is subject to fluctuations because of exposure to reference values or to the performance of one or more assets which are not directly purchased by the retail investor'.49 The manner in which this term is defined is rather broad and identifying whether a particular product qualifies as a packaged retail investor product may not always be straightforward, especially because products that are within the scope of the PRIIPs Regulation are primarily determined by products that are specifically referred to as being out of scope (such as deposits (or certificates that represent deposits), other than structured deposits50).51
Given the definition of packaged retail investor products, it is clear that fixed rate bonds were never within the scope of the PRIIPs Regulation as fixed rates bonds do not depend on a reference value. However, the position on straightforward floating rate notes (such as bonds that reference LIBOR or EURIBOR) was less clear upon the introduction of PRIIPs, as these type of products could technically fall within the scope of the aforementioned definition. It was nevertheless not long before a market consensus arose that these types of vanilla floating rate bonds should not be considered within scope and that basic features, such as guarantees or simple put or call options, would not, on their own, render vanilla fixed and floating rate bonds to be within the scope of the PRIIPs Regulation.52 On the other hand, products that are typically considered to be within the scope are products such as fund units, structured products and contracts for difference.
Main obligations under the PRIIPs Regulation
The PRIIPs Regulation imposes various obligations on persons manufacturing, advising on or selling PRIIPs – the three main obligations for the purposes of this chapter are:
for the PRIIP manufacturer to draw up a key information document (KID);
for the PRIIP manufacturer to regularly review (and, as appropriate, revise) the KID; and
for a person advising on, or selling, a PRIIP to provide the retail investors with a KID.
The PRIIP manufacturer53 (which would typically include the issuer, but could potentially also include other persons advising on the features or issuance of the PRIIP, such as lead managers) is required to draw up a three-page KID in accordance with the requirements of the PRIIPs Regulation and publish the same on its website.54 The KID should be drawn up before a PRIIP is made available to retail investors55 so that the retail investor is able to understand, and can take into account, the information on the PRIIP.56
The Netherlands has not made use of the Member State options (1) that KIDs should be notified ex ante to the AFM, or (2) to accept KIDs in other languages, meaning that KIDs used in the Dutch market should always be in Dutch.57
The Securitisation Regulation
The Securitisation Regulation came into force on 17 January 2018 and is applicable from 1 January 2019. The main changes brought about by the Securitisation Regulation are the following:
A concept is introduced of securitisations complying with the standards of being a simple, transparent and standardised (STS) securitisation, which may benefit from favourable capital treatment,58 whereas issuers, originators and sponsors will be responsible for designating a transaction as STS-compliant among themselves.
A positive obligation is introduced on originators, sponsors and original lenders to ensure that risk retention requirements are satisfied.
Due diligence procedures (which slightly differed across sectoral legislations) have been harmonised.
An EU-wide ban on re-securitisations will be introduced.
Alternative Investment Fund Managers Directive and repackaging transactions
Various asset-backed transactions, in particular with a pass-through structure, remain subject to a risk of the issuer or special purpose vehicle qualifying as a manager of an alternative investment fund within the meaning of Directive 2011/61/EU (AIFMD),59 exposing it and associated parties to significant fines, other penalties and regulatory intervention.
Scope of the AIFMD
The rules and obligations as laid down in the AIFMD apply to persons who manage an alternative investment fund (an AIFM). An AIFM performs at least risk management or portfolio management for the alternative investment fund. An alternative investment fund (AIF) is in turn defined as a collective investment undertaking (including investment compartments thereof) that (1) raises capital from a number of investors, with a view to investing it in accordance with a defined investment policy for the benefit of those investors, and (2) does not require a licence under the UCITS Directive.60 This definition is quite broad and could apply to a number of entities, including issuers of structured financial instruments that would normally not be considered as investment funds. Further guidance can be found in ESMA's Guidelines on key concepts of the AIFMD,61 to which the AFM adheres.62
The regulatory authorities of several other EU jurisdictions have clarified that certain structured finance vehicles from their jurisdiction are beyond the scope of the AIFMD or have issued guidance that a straightforward exemption applies to the extent that issued instruments qualify as debt. This is not the case in the Netherlands. Although the AFM has made it clear that an entity will not qualify as an AIF if investors provide 'debt' to the issuer, it has also noted that 'capital raised with investors under the sole label of debt, is not regarded as debt, if, taking into consideration the legal and/or economic characteristics of such capital and the rights and obligations belonging to investors, in reality such capital is a form of equity'.63 This has led to market uncertainty for structures where, for example, redemption amounts or other payouts fluctuate according to the performance of a basket of collateral.
Audit committees and structured finance vehicles
Pursuant to the Audit Directive,64 public-interest entities are required to have an audit committee, which is a stand-alone body or a committee of the administrative or supervisory board that performs an internal audit function. For the purposes of the Audit Directive, public-interest entities are (1) EEA entities whose transferable securities (including debt securities) are admitted to trading on a regulated market of any EEA Member State, (2) credit institutions,65 (3) insurance undertakings66 and (4) certain entities that are designated as such by EEA Member States.
The Audit Directive includes an option pursuant to which Member States may elect to exempt certain public-interest entities from the obligation to have an audit committee, including, among others, those of which the sole business is to act as an issuer of asset-backed securities67 (provided the entity explains to the public (for example, in its annual report) the reasons for which it considers it not appropriate to have either an audit committee or an administrative or supervisory body entrusted to carry out the functions of an audit committee).68
The Netherlands has made use of the Member State option referred to above. However, the exemption from the obligation of having an audit committee for public-interest entities the sole business of which is to act as issuer of asset-backed securities has been implemented by means of a decree69 featuring an exemption that refers to entities for securitisation purposes, rather than tracking the wording of the Audit Directive, causing some uncertainty as to the scope of the exemption as laid down in Dutch law.
For these purposes, an entity for securitisation purposes is defined as an undertaking:
that is not a credit institution;
that has been established for the benefit of one or more securitisations;
whose activities are limited to what is necessary for those securitisations;
whose establishment serves to separate its obligations from the obligations of the initiating party;70 and
whose owners can unconditionally pledge or sell their participation.
A securitisation, in turn, is defined as a transaction or scheme in which (1) the credit risk of a receivable or collection of receivables is divided into at least two tranches, (2) the payments made in the context of the transaction or scheme depend on the performance of the receivables or the collection of receivables, and (3) the ranking of the tranches determines the allocation of losses during the course of the transaction or scheme.71
As such, the Dutch implementation is significantly more restrictive than the exemption contemplated by the Audit Directive itself. In particular, the requirement that the entity is established for the purposes of engaging in tranched transactions would disqualify straightforward repackaging vehicles from relying on the exemption to have an audit committee.
The relevant explanatory memorandum relating to the Dutch implementation of the aforementioned exemption does not explain why the Dutch legislator has opted for its restrictive approach, instead suggesting that the legislator simply wished to make use of the exemption for certain issuers of asset-backed securities as referred to in the Audit Directive. The Dutch capital markets have dealt with this uncertainty by having repacking vehicles instal an audit committee, taking the safe route rather than risking non-compliance.
iii Developments affecting equity capital markets specifically
New Corporate Governance Code
The 2008 Dutch Corporate Governance Code was replaced in 2016 by a new Dutch Corporate Governance Code.
The main changes brought about by the 2016 Code, as compared to the 2008 Code, are the following:
an increased focus of management on long-term goals and the interests of stakeholders;
a new focus on the culture of the company;
more principle-based (and less detailed) rules on remuneration, with the overarching principle that remuneration policies should be clear and understandable;
increased attention on risk management and the internal audit function;
new rules on checks and balances within the executive committee, management board and the non-executive or supervisory board, including new rules on diversity and expertise;
f new rules on the independence of supervisory or non-executive directors, including that they should, in principle, be appointed for not more than two consecutive periods of four years (down from three consecutive periods of four years); and
g an increased focus on the quality of the explanations given when companies do not apply the Corporate Governance Code.
Legal basis for compliance with the 2016 Dutch Corporate Governance Code
Pursuant to the Dutch Civil Code, Dutch companies that have their shares listed on a regulated market (or equivalent) (but not those who only have non-equity securities listed on a regulated market (or equivalent), unless their shares are listed on an MTF) are required to provide a statement on their compliance with the new 2016 Corporate Governance Code as of the year 2018, on a comply-or-explain basis, as well as any other governance code that they voluntarily apply.
In addition, as of 1 January 2018, Dutch companies whose shares are listed on an MTF (having assets over €500 million (according to their (consolidated, if available) balance sheet with explanatory notes) are also required to provide a statement on their compliance with the 2016 Code, even if they have not issued any securities that are listed on a regulated market. This new rule has been introduced to ensure that companies that are not small or medium-sized enterprises cannot avoid application of the 2016 Code by electing to list their shares on an MTF rather than a regulated market.72
iv Developments affecting financial institutions issuing securities
Contingent convertibles
In 2014 (in respect of credit institutions) and in 2015 (in respect of insurance undertakings), the Dutch legislator implemented certain changes to Dutch tax law allowing for the tax deductibility of coupons paid on CoCos, creating a level playing field for Dutch issuers compared to their EU counterparts in relation to the issuance of regulatory capital (in particular, Additional Tier 1 instruments).
Shortly thereafter, questions were raised as to whether the CoCo tax treatment would constitute illegal state aid to Dutch credit institutions and insurance undertakings. This resulted in the European Commission requesting the Netherlands, on 22 June 2018, to take measures to address what it deemed illegal state aid risks. On 27 June 2018, the State Secretary for Finance published a letter in which he announced that the tax deductibility of coupons paid on CoCos would be abolished with effect from 1 January 2019, citing, among other things, the risks identified by the European Commission.
The risk that the tax deductibility of coupons paid on CoCos is lost as a result of illegal state aid claims is not a risk that is exclusive to the Netherlands, as various other EU Member State also allow this form of tax deductibility in their tax legislation. In his letter of 27 June 2018, the State Secretary for Finance noted that the European Commission had indicated that it would also look into other EU Member States that had implemented specific tax deductibility rules on CoCos for the benefit of the financial sector. The state aid queries raised by the European Commission in respect of the Netherlands may therefore have a knock-on effect on other EU Member States in a similar position in the coming years.
Senior non-preferred debt
On 27 December 2017, a directive amending Directive 2014/59/EU (on the recovery and resolution of credit institutions and investment firms (the bank recovery and resolution directive (BRRD)) was published in the EU Official Journal, pursuant to which a new rank of debt instruments was introduced in relation to entities subject to BRRD – referred to as 'senior non-preferred debt' – to be redeemed immediately after senior unsecured liabilities (such as deposits and other ordinary senior liabilities) and before subordinated liabilities (such as Additional Tier 1 and Tier 2 capital instruments).73 The bill implementing the senior non-preferred asset class in the Netherlands is, at the time of preparation of this chapter, pending before the Dutch parliament, with European law prescribing that the amending directive is to be implemented by 28 December 2018 (a deadline which is likely to be met by the Netherlands).
The Dutch legislator has followed what is now commonly known as the French approach, pursuant to which (1) entities subject to BRRD may elect, case by case, whether to issue instruments as senior preferred or senior non-preferred (or even more subordinated, such as Tier 2 instruments) and (2) existing instruments remain unaffected. This can be contrasted with the German approach, pursuant to which existing senior debt instruments were immediately and retroactively demoted from their senior status to senior non-preferred status following implementation of the senior non-preferred debt asset class in Germany.
III OUTLOOK AND CONCLUSIONS
As a result of the UK Brexit vote, many capital market players have been looking to the Netherlands as their gateway to Europe, for a number of reasons, including the attractiveness of Dutch law, Dutch courts, the good reputation of the Dutch supervisory authorities, and the stability and efficiency of the Dutch government. We expect the Dutch capital markets also to do well in the years to come.
In general, the Dutch capital markets will be affected by further proposed legal and regulatory changes, including, in the context of benchmark reform, the EU Capital Markets Union, the new prospectus rules under the Prospectus Regulation coming into effect in July 2019 and a proposal for a revised EU covered bond framework, as well as Omnibus 3 proposals. In addition, capital markets participants will be on the look-out for the Dutch government's proposals to abolish dividend withholding tax, which in its current form has attracted criticism from both the political opposition and international investors.
1 Marieke Driessen is a partner and Niek Groenendijk is a senior associate at Simmons & Simmons LLP.
2 Directive 2013/36/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council of 26 June 2013 on access to the activity of credit institutions and the prudential supervision of credit institutions and investment firms.
3 Directive 2003/71/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 4 November 2003, as amended (including by way of Directive 2010/73/EU).
4 Directive 2013/50/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council of 22 October 2013 amending Directive 2004/109/EC on the harmonisation of transparency requirements in relation to information about issuers whose securities are admitted to trading on a regulated market.
5 Directive 2014/65/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council of 15 May 2014 on markets in financial instruments.
6 Regulation (EU) No. 600/2014 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 15 May 2014 on markets in financial instruments.
7 Regulation (EU) 2017/1129 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 14 June 2017 on the prospectus to be published when securities are offered to the public or admitted to trading on a regulated market.
8 Regulation (EU) 2016/1011 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 8 June 2016 on indices used as benchmarks in financial instruments and financial contracts or to measure the performance of investment funds.
9 Commission Delegated Directive (EU) 2017/593 of 7 April 2016, Recital 15.
10 id.
11 Note that in the context of Euro Commercial Paper programmes, a common market understanding seems to have arisen that in certain cases the relevant arranger and dealers are not to be considered manufacturers (although an assessment will always need to be made on a case-by-case basis). This may be the case in particular when parties take a more administrative role and do not advise the issuer on the structuring of the products issued under the programme.
12 Although, where a MiFID firm acts as both a manufacturer and a distributor, only one target market assessment is required.
13 'Coco's niet geschikt voor meeste particuliere belegger', Dutch Authority for the Financial Markets (AFM), 30 March 2015. See https://www.afm.nl/nl-nl/nieuws/2015/mrt/cocos-particuliere-beleggers.
14 In general, see Directive 2014/65/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council of 15 May 2014, Articles 16(3), 23 and 24.
15 See the Market Conduct Supervision Financial Institutions Decree, Article 168a. Exceptions apply, among other things, to (1) inducements that enable or are necessary for the provision of the investment service, (e.g., custody costs, settlement and exchange fees, regulatory levies or legal fees) and (2) minor non-monetary benefits within the meaning of Commission Delegated Directive (EU) 2017/593 of 7 April 2016, Article 12(3), provided the client is informed of such minor non-monetary benefits prior to the commencement of the provision of the services. Further specific exceptions apply to underwriting and placing investment services, provided that certain transparency requirements are met, the inducement enhances the quality of the investment service and the inducement does not lead to conflicts of interests and does not impair the MiFID firm's duty to act in accordance with the best interests of its non-professional client.
16 Directive 2014/65/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council of 15 May 2014, Article 30(1).
17 Contrary to the Dutch inducement ban, MiFID firms are allowed to receive inducements from third parties provided they forward such amounts directly to their client.
18 Directive 2014/65/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council of 15 May 2014, Article 24(9). In addition, similar to the Dutch inducement ban, exceptions apply to, among other things, payments or benefits that enable or are necessary for the provision of the relevant the investment services (e.g., custody costs, settlement and exchange fees, regulatory levies or legal fees) (Directive 2014/65/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council of 15 May 2014, Article 24(9)).
19 Within the meaning of Commission Delegated Directive (EU) 2017/593 of 7 April 2016, Article 12(3).
20 Commission Delegated Directive (EU) 2017/593 of 7 April 2016, Article 12(1).
21 Within the context of MiFID II, investment research should be understood broadly, covering material and services regarding financial instruments or other assets, the (potential) issuers thereof, or the material or services that are closely tied to a specific industry or market so that it informs a view in relation to financial instruments and other assets and issuers within that sector. The key elements for the material and services to qualify as investment research is that they must (۱) explicitly or implicitly recommend or suggest an investment strategy and (۲) provide a substantiated opinion as to the present or future value or price of the financial instruments or assets, or otherwise contain analysis and original insights and reach conclusions based on new or existing information that could be used to inform an investment strategy and be relevant and capable of adding value to the MiFID firm's decisions on behalf of the relevant clients. See Commission Delegated Directive (EU) ۲۰۱۷/۵۹۳ of ۷ April ۲۰۱۶, Recital ۲۸.
22 Commission Delegated Directive (EU) 2017/593 of 7 April 2016, Article 13.
23 These conditions are that (1) the research payment account is funded by a specific research charge to the client, (2) as part of establishing a research payment account and agreeing the research charge with its clients, the MiFID firm sets and regularly assesses a research budget as an internal administrative measure, (3) the MiFID firm is held responsible for the research payment account and (4) the MiFID firm regularly assesses the quality of the research purchased based on robust quality criteria and its ability to contribute to better investment decisions. See Commission Delegated Directive (EU) 2017/593 of 7 April 2016, Article 13(1)(b).
24 ibid., Article 1(5)(a).
25 Regulation (EU) No. 575/2013 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 26 June 2013 on prudential requirements for credit institutions and investment firms.
26 Directive 2009/138/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 25 November 2009 on the taking-up and pursuit of the business of Insurance and Reinsurance (Solvency II).
27 The Prospectus Regulation, Article 1(5)(b) and Article 1(5) second subparagraph.
28 ibid., Article 1(5)(b) and Article 1(3).
29 Exemption Regulation Dutch Financial Supervision Act, Article 53(4). The requirement to provide the information document does not apply to offerors which are subject to the PRIIPs regulation and managers of investment firms which are required to provide a prospectus to investors on the basis of the Dutch Financial Supervision Act, Article 4:37l(1).
30 For the purposes of the Benchmarks Regulation, an index is any figure that is (1) published or made available to the public and (2) regularly determined (a) entirely or partially by the application of a formula or any other method of calculation, or by an assessment and (b) on the basis of the value of one or more underlying assets or prices, including estimated prices, actual or estimated interest rates, quotes and committed quotes, or other values or surveys. See Regulation (EU) 2016/1011, Article 3(1)(1) and, for further guidance, Commission Delegated Regulation (EU) 2018/65 of 29 September 2017.
31 Regulation (EU) 2016/1011, Article 3(1)(3).
32 Directive 2008/48/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 23 April 2008 on credit agreements for consumers.
33 Directive 2014/17/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council of 4 February 2014 on credit agreements for consumers relating to residential immovable property.
34 Regulation (EU) 2016/1011, Article 3(1)(16).
35 See Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2017/2446 of 19 December 2017.
36 As referred to in Regulation (EU) 2016/1011, Article 3(1)(17).
38 ibid., Article 3(1)(6).
39 ibid., Articles 31 to 33 (inclusive).
40 ibid., Article 34.
44 For these purposes, 'financial instrument' refers to a financial instrument for which a request has been made for admission to trading, or which is traded, on a regulated market, a multilateral trading facility or an organised trading facility, or which is traded via a systematic internaliser and a financial contract refers to a consumer credit agreement within the scope of Directive 2008/48/EC or a consumer credit agreement relating to residential immovable property within the scope of Directive 2014/17/EU.
46 ibid., Article 28(2).
47 Questions and Answers on the Benchmarks Regulation, ESMA70-145-11 (Version 9), Answer 8.1.
48 Regulation (EU) 2016/1011 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 8 June 2016, Article 29(2). This requirement is without prejudice to outstanding prospectuses approved under the Prospectus Directive prior to 1 January 2018 and prospectuses approved prior to 1 January 2018 under the UCITS Directive. The underlying documents shall be updated at the first occasion or at the latest within 12 months of that date. See Regulation (EU) 2016/1011, Article 52.
49 Regulation (EU) No. 1286/2014 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 26 November 2014, Article 4(1).
50 See Directive 2014/65/EU, Article 4(1)(43).
51 See Regulation (EU) No. 1286/2014, Article 2(2).
52 International Capital Market Association, Quarterly Report, 12 October 2016, Fourth Quarter, Issue 43, page 26.
53 Meaning (1) any entity that manufactures PRIIPs or (2) any entity that makes changes to an existing PRIIP, including, but not limited to, altering its risk and reward profile or the costs associated with an investment in a PRIIP. See Regulation (EU) No. 1286/2014, Article 4(4).
54 See Regulation (EU) No 1286/2014, Article 5.
55 ibid., Article 5(1).
56 Commission Delegated Regulation (EU) 2017/653 of 8 March 2017, Recital 24.
57 See Regulation (EU) No. 1286/2014, Articles 5(2) and 7(1).
58 Note that commercial mortgage-backed securities transactions have been carved out from being capable of qualifying as simple, transparent and standardised transactions.
59 Directive 2011/61/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council of 8 June 2011 on Alternative Investment Fund Managers (AIFMD).
61 Guidelines on key concepts of the AIFMD, ESMA/2013/600.
62 Pursuant to the ESMA Guidelines, if any one of the composite elements of the definition of alternative investment funds as referred to above is not satisfied, a structure would not qualify as an alternative investment fund (AIF) for the purposes of the AIFMD. However, these same guidelines also stipulate that the absence of one or more of the characteristics under each of the elements in the definition of an AIF does not conclusively demonstrate that a structure is not an AIF if the presence of all the concepts is otherwise established. See Guidelines on key concepts of the AIFMD, ESMA/2013/600, page 30, para. 5.
63 'Q&A on the AIFMD', AFM, 17 November 2017, page 11 – see https://www.afm.nl/nl-nl/professionals/doelgroepen/aifm/aifm/faq.
64 Directive 2014/56/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council of 16 April 2014 amending Directive 2006/43/EC on statutory audits of annual accounts and consolidated accounts.
65 Within the meaning of Directive 2013/36/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council of 26 June 2013, Article 3(1), except those referred to in Article 2 of that Directive.
66 Within the meaning of Council Directive 91/674/EEC of 19 December 1991, Article 2(1).
67 Within the meaning of Commission Regulation (EC) No. 809/2004 of 29 April 2004, Article 2(5).
68 Directive 2006/43/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 17 May 2006, Article 41(6)(c).
69 Decree on the Instalment of Audit Committees.
70 i.e., the (indirect) originator or the undertaking that buys receivables and subsequently securitises them.
71 Decree on Prudential Rules Dutch Financial Supervision Act, Article 1.
72 Pursuant to the Dutch Financial Supervision Act, Article 5:86, institutional investors whose shares are listed on a regulated market or MTF (or equivalent) are also required to provide a statement on their compliance with the 2016 Code.
73 The aim of these changes to BRRD was to facilitate the issuance of sufficient bail-inable liabilities so that entities subject to BRRD could comply with any applicable global (TLAC) and European (MREL) requirements in relation to minimum amounts of bail-inable liabilities.
The International Capital Markets Review
Editor's Preface
Other chapters on Netherlands
The Acquisition and Leveraged Finance Review
The Anti-Bribery and Anti-Corruption Review
The Asset Management Review
The Asset Tracing and Recovery Review
The Class Actions Law Review
The Corporate Governance Review
The Corporate Immigration Review
The Dispute Resolution Review
The Employment Law Review
The Executive Remuneration Review
The Financial Technology Law Review
The Franchise Law Review
The Gambling Law Review
The Insolvency Review
The Intellectual Property Review
The Inward Investment and International Taxation Review
The Islamic Finance and Markets Review
The Lending and Secured Finance Review
The Merger Control Review
The Mergers & Acquisitions Review
The Patent Litigation Law Review
The Public Competition Enforcement Review
The Real Estate Law Review
The Restructuring Review
The Securities Litigation Review
The Shareholder Rights and Activism Review
The Tax Disputes and Litigation Review
The Third Party Litigation Funding Law Review
The Transfer Pricing Law Review
All titles on Netherlands
The Banking Regulation Review Edition 10
Editor Jan Putnis
Banking regulation continues to confound the idea that views about how banks should be regulated will eventually settle down to an orthodoxy broadly accepted throughout the world. This edition covers 37 countries and territories in addition to our usual chapters on international initiatives and the European Union. There must be a feeling among many of the authors that banking regulation is a subject that will never settle down; that it will never return to being the rather duller subject that it was before it became a political issue more than 10 years ago.
The Transport Finance Law Review Edition 5
Editor Harry Theochari
Norton Rose Fulbright
This book is intended to provide the legal industry with a guide to transport finance today, in each of the key jurisdictions globally in which aircraft, rolling stock and ships are financed. Each contribution reflects the significance of the transport sector today, and the need for readily available funding for industries that underpin the global economy by transporting people and commodities around the world every day.
The Consumer Finance Law Review Edition 3
Editors Richard Fischer, Obrea Poindexter and Jeremy Mandell
Consumer choice for financial products and services is proliferating across global markets. The ability to reach consumers at any time on their mobile phones, tablets or other devices has helped attract substantial capital investment in consumer financial services. This survey of consumer finance law describes the legal and regulatory approaches taken in the jurisdictions covered. Each chapter addresses the key characteristics of, and current climate within, a particular jurisdiction. Although payments, lending and deposits are the focus of this survey, other financial products and services are discussed where relevant.
The Restructuring Review Edition 11
Editor Christopher Mallon
The global economic upswing, which began in 2016, continues to strengthen with global GDP growth reaching 3.9 per cent in the second quarter of 2018 and expected to increase further in the second half of 2018. World trade growth accelerated by 4.7 per cent in 2017, following trade growth of only 1.8 per cent in 2016. This is largely driven by cyclical improvements and an increase in investment growth in developed economies.
The Islamic Finance and Markets Review Edition 3
Editors John Dewar and Munib Hussain
Milbank LLP
Islamic finance has grown rapidly during the past 20 years, in market participants, structuring expertise and transaction types. The chapters in this book illustrate the dynamic manner in which Islamic finance has adapted and continues to develop globally. Although each country will have variations, one of the most striking features of Islamic finance as a legal discipline is that it includes core concepts and structures that cross jurisdictional boundaries.
The Acquisition and Leveraged Finance Review Edition 5
Editor Marc P Hanrahan
While there have been ups and downs, of course, for leveraged finance over the last 40 years (most notably during the financial crisis), leveraged finance used to support acquisitions has become a very big business and is almost certainly here to stay (and probably grow). This volume is intended to contribute to the knowledge base of lawyers who participate, or aspire to participate, in leveraged finance used for acquisitions. It will hopefully provide an overview and introduction for the novice and be a ready resource for an active practitioner who needs to know about relevant laws and practices in jurisdictions around the world.
The Project Finance Law Review Edition 1
Editor David F Asmus
Many of the classic project finance texts are becoming increasingly dated as the years go by, while project finance itself continues to evolve with the markets it serves. The purpose of this volume is to provide a living guide to project finance that will be updated on a regular basis, while still tackling the core project finance concepts that every practitioner needs to understand.
The Virtual Currency Regulation Review Edition 1
Michael S Sackheim
Nathan A Howell
The Virtual Currency Regulation Review is intended to provide a practical, business-focused analysis of recent legal and regulatory changes and developments, and of their effects, and to look forward at expected trends in the area of virtual currencies on a country-by-country basis. We are still very much in the early days of the virtual currency revolution. No one can truthfully claim to know what the future holds for virtual currencies, but as it does not appear to be a passing fad, we have endeavoured to provide as much useful information as practicable concerning the regulation of virtual currency
The Transfer Pricing Law Review Edition 2
Editors Steve Edge and Dominic Robertson
Transfer pricing rules are, of course, a central plank in governments' fight against profit shifting, and the application and evolution of these rules will (rightly) continue to be high up the corporate tax agenda for many years to come.
The Private Wealth & Private Client Review Edition 7
Editor John Riches
RMW Law LLP
The overriding theme of the last 12 months is that of continuing regulatory change in the private wealth arena. A sense of increasing pace and convergence in particular stand out in comparison with earlier years. The pace component is best seen in the introduction of new regimes or the updating of existing rules. The theme of convergence is based upon how centrally significant the concept of ‘beneficial ownership’ is becoming to many of the initiatives. A third strand is an increasing divergence between the European Union and the United States in this arena: the European Union continues to force the pace on transparency, while the United States proceeds at a much more leisurely speed and gives greater weight to privacy concerns than its European neighbours.
The Insolvency Review Edition 6
Editor Donald S Bernstein
This volume offers an in-depth review of market conditions and insolvency case developments in key countries around the world. A debt of gratitude is owed to the outstanding professionals the world over who dedicated their time and talents to this book. This book is a significant undertaking because of the current coverage of developments we seek to provide. As always, the hope is that this year’s volume will help all of us, authors and readers alike, reflect on the larger picture, keeping our eye on likely, as well as necessary, developments, both on the near and distant horizons.
The Asset Management Review Edition 7
Editor Paul Dickson
While the global financial crisis of 2007 and 2008 may feel like an increasingly distant memory, its effects continue to be felt across the whole of the financial world. Despite significant improvements in the global economic landscape in the intervening years, global growth has been hampered in recent years by various geopolitical factors, including political uncertainty resulting from the change in administration in the US in 2016 and the rise of populist movements in Europe. The world of asset management is increasingly complex, but it is hoped that this edition will be a useful and practical companion as we face the challenges and opportunities of the coming year.
The Financial Technology Law Review Edition 2
Editor Thomas A Frick
We are delighted to present the second edition of The Financial Technology Law Review. The authors of this publication are from the most widely respected law firms in their jurisdictions. They each have a proven record of experience in the field of fintech; they know both the law and how it is applied. We hope that you will find their experience invaluable and enlightening when dealing with any of the varied issues fintech raises in the legal and regulatory field.
The Banking Litigation Law Review Edition 2
Editor Christa Band
Linklaters LLP
As we noted in the Preface to last year’s edition of the Banking Litigation Law Review, banks will always be regular litigants – generally as defendants – and this year’s contribution of jurisdiction-specific chapters explains how and why.
The Lending and Secured Finance Review Edition 4
Editor Azadeh Nassiri
This fourth edition of The Lending and Secured Finance Review contains contributions from leading practitioners in 25 different countries, and I would like to thank each of the contributors for taking the time to share their expertise on the developments in the corporate lending and secured finance markets in their respective jurisdictions and on the challenges and opportunities facing market participants.
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A teen trying to pay for her order at a McDonald's in MInnesota said she was insulted by the man behind her, which led to a confrontation.
Photo: Joe Raedle/Getty Images
Police arrest man who had confrontation with Minnesota teens at McDonald's
Bob D’Angelo, Cox Media Group National Content Desk
Update 12:03 a.m. EST Nov. 24: Police arrested Lloyd Edward Johnson, 55, on a probable cause second-degree assault charge in the wake of the incident involving Somali teens at a McDonald’s in Eden Prairie, WCCO reported. Johnson, who is from Eden Prairie, is being held at the Hennepin County Jail in downtown Minneapolis.
Original report: A Somali teenager said a man waved a handgun at her and her friends after she confronted him at a McDonald’s in Minnesota after an alleged ethnic slight, the Star Tribune reported.
>> Read more trending news
The incident, which occurred at the fast-food restaurant in Eden Prairie, is being investigated by police, WCCO reported.
Jihan Abdullahi, 17, said she was trying to pay for her order with an app on her smartphone but the clerk was having trouble processing the order, the Star Tribune reported.
“Once we gave up on paying, we just canceled the order,” Abdullahi told the newspaper. “And as (we) are walking away, the man says under his breath, ‘You were paying with EBT (electronic benefit transfer); that’s why it didn’t work.’”
Abdullahi said she asked the man, “‘Just because I’m black you think my friends and I live under EBT?’ And he said, ‘Yes.’”
In a 45-second video that has been shown on Twitter, the teens are yelling at the man, who was shoved near the door to the restaurant. As the man stumbled backward, the teens backed away and several customers shouted that the man had a gun, although it is unclear in the video if a weapon was brandished.
A police report said the man allegedly pulled the firearm from his waistband, the Star Tribune reported.
A manager then stepped in and yelled, “I want everyone out of my store, now,” according to the video. Another customer then came to the aid of the teens, telling the manager to call the police, WCCO reported.
Paul Ostergaard, the owner and operator of the Eden Prairie McDonald’s, released a statement Tuesday, the television station reported. Ostergaard said he is taking the incident seriously and is working with police.
“Nothing is more important than the safety and security of our customers and employees,” Ostergaard said in his statement.
In a statement, Eden Prairie city officials said police are investigating whether a crime was committed, the Star Tribune reported.
“Officers obtained video evidence and witness statements from the scene, and police are investigating the circumstances surrounding the incident to determine if a crime was committed,” the statement said.
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Alcohol & Health
Calories & Weight
Alcohol: A Case of Denial
There is now consensus within the scientific community that the moderate consumption of alcohol is associated with better health and greater longevity than is either abstaining or drinking heavily. Increasingly, the mechanisms through which alcohol confers its benefits are being identified.
A major research study recently revealed that the consumption of alcohol is most effective in reducing the risk of myocardial infarction among men when they drink light to moderate amounts of alcohol at least three to five days per week.
This important health information was greeted by a response of denial. The National Council on Alcoholism and Drug Dependence (NCADD) asserted that it is “dangerous to promote the notion that alcohol consumption is a healthy practice.” Perhaps this response reflects the fact that the alcohol activist group was founded by Marty Mann, the first female member of Alcoholics Anonymous.
But an essay in Time magazine groused that “we keep hearing so much about alcohol's supposed benefits” because writers and editors are often known for their drinking. The piece asserts that one can almost hear the editors chuckling “Ha! Here’s a vice that’s good for you.” And implicitly, a so-called vice to which they have succumbed
But drinking in moderation isn’t a vice. It’s a health virtue, unless contra-indicated by pregnancy, alcohol addiction, or other reasons.
An editorial in the Washington Post concluded that “public health officials probably should do what they’re already doing concerning alcohol, which is to stay silent until the research holds steady for a decade or two.”
Scientific evidence of the health benefits of moderate drinking has been published for about 100 years. Yet the Post wants us to wait a decade or two more before being convinced. Why?
It’s time for us to be persuaded by scientific evidence rather than the temperance sentiment that pervades our society.
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Caution over Tamil rebel warning
Sri Lanka's President's party says it is studying a Tamil rebel warning of secession unless a Norwegian-backed peace bid is revived.
Kumaratunga (L) and Wickremesinghe are bitter rivals
President Chandrika Kumaratunga's People's Alliance said it was looking at the speech made on Thursday by Tamil Tiger Supremo Velupillai Prabhakaran who said the political turmoil had endangered the peace initiative.
"We don't want to give a piecemeal reaction," party spokesman Sarath Amunugama said in Colombo on Friday. "We are studying the speech and we will come up with a detailed response next week."
The president's party had earlier been quick to criticise the Tamil Tigers as well as the Norwegian-backed peace bid. But diplomats said the party appeared to be taking a more measured approach amid international pressure not to scuttle the peace
Prabhakaran in his speech denied allegations by Kumaratunga that the rebels were re-arming, recruiting and strengthening themselves taking advantage of an Oslo-brokered truce since 23 February 2002.
There was also no immediate comment from Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe's government to the speech.
Prabhakaran, who marked his 49th birthday on Wednesday, said a power struggle between Kumaratunga and Wickremesinghe had cast doubts over the peace process.
"It has now become a universal truth that she took this serious action as an immediate response to our draft proposals"
Velupillai Prabhakaran,
chief, Tamil Tigers
Kumaratunga sacked three ministers in Wickremesinghe's government and suspended parliament for two weeks on 4 November, four days after the Tigers unveiled their first-ever blueprint for peace.
In the ensuing political crisis, peace-broker Norway suspended its involvement in the process saying they needed "clarity" on who was really in charge in Colombo.
"Whatever the reasons she (Kumaratunga) attributes to her actions, it has now become a universal truth that she took this serious action as an immediate response to our draft proposals," Prabhakaran said. "As a consequence ... the peace process is
severely endangered."
Diplomats and sources close to the peace process said the Tiger leader's speech had been on expected lines, blaming the majority Sinhalese political establishment for trying to scuttle a peace settlement.
The threat to secede had been reiterated every year, but diplomats said it assumed a new dimension this year in the context of the stalled peace initiative.
However, the rebels also made it clear that they were committed to the peace process and had no intention of returning to a war which has already claimed over 60,000 lives in the past three decades.
Why a hipster, vegan, green tech economy is not sustainable
Improving eco-efficiency within a capitalist growth-oriented system will not save the environment.
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No big breakthroughs at G8 summit
Leaders of the world's major industrialised powers have wrapped up a three-day summit without patching up differences over NATO's involvement in Iraq and new initiatives to end the Palestinian-Israeli conflict.
Putin (L) cautioned NATO against looking for a new enemy
The Group of Eight leaders remained at odds over the despatch of occupation troops to Iraq, a possible role for NATO and debt relief for the country's interim government.
Summit host and US President George Bush, faced with opposition from NATO allies France, Germany and Russia, admitted on Thursday that his earlier suggestion for the alliance to play a greater role by sending troops was "unrealistic".
French President Jacques Chirac, who quickly dismissed Bush's suggestion after it was first made, reiterated his opposition to the idea at the summit's end, saying Paris had "clearly indicated that we could not accept a mission of this type for NATO".
"Any interference by NATO in this region appears to us to run great risks, including the risk of confrontation between the Christian West and the Muslim East," said Chirac.
NATO decisions have to be made by consensus - meaning that French objections risk derailing Anglo-US plans or at least causing them to be altered.
Finding an enemy?
German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder said Berlin would not try to block NATO engagement in Iraq but stressed that he remained convinced such a move was unwise and would not help improve security.
Russian President Vladimir Putin, whose country along with Japan is the only non-NATO member of the G8, also shot down the idea of NATO troop deployment. He suggested that the alliance was seeking to replace its Cold War enemy, the Soviet Union, with a new one.
"NATO needs an enemy," he said. "In the past, it had one. Perhaps it is looking for one now. For Iraq, it would be better it the role was limited to the United Nations," he said.
Chirac (L) rejected Bush's idea of
of a bigger role for NATO in Iraq
NATO's involvement in Iraq has so far been limited to providing logistic support to a 6,500-strong occupation force under Polish command.
G8 leaders also remained split on the issue of debt relief for Iraq, which Washington is pushing. The question of Iraq's $120 billion debt is a thorny one, with Washington pushing for the cancellation of up to 90% and Paris, Moscow and Ottawa unwilling to go that far.
Palestinian issue sidelined
The summit also closed without any substantial progress on the Palestine-Israeli dispute. President Bush failed even to mention the issue in his closing press conference.
The G8 powers endorsed the largely moribund international "road map" aimed at ending the conflict and called for a new meeting of the four heavyweights that engineered it by the end of the month.
The quartet includes the United States, Russia, the United Nations and European Union.
In their closing statement, G8 leaders said the quartet should meet in the region before the end of June to find a way to kickstart the peace process.
However, US officials admitted that such a meeting would only be a routine gathering.
On Wednesday the summit adopted the US-backed Broader Middle East Initiative aimed at promoting 'democracy' and human rights in a swathe of the Muslim world from North Africa to South Asia.
But how far it takes hold remains to be seen. Egypt and Saudi Arabia, two of the biggest countries covered by the initiative but alarmed by its potential implications, declined invitations to the summit.
Tunisia, which holds the rotating presidency of the Arab League, also snubbed the G8 by turning down its invitation.
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ANSI Webinar Describes Key Changes to OMB Circular A-119, Slides and Recording Available
The American National Standards Institute (ANSI) hosted a free webinar on February 16 on the recently published revisions to White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Circular A-119, "Federal Participation in the Development and Use of Voluntary Consensus Standards and in Conformity Assessment Activities.”
Over 200 stakeholders from the standardization community participated in the webinar. Slides and a recording are now available for all interested parties:
Slides (in .pdf format)
Recording (in proprietary WebEx format; you or your IT team may need to install a plug-in to view this properly)
“To say that OMB A-119 is important to the standardization community is an understatement. Truly, it is the defining document of our nation’s public-private partnership for standardization. And that is why ANSI has been closely monitoring the OMB’s revision process since it was first announced in 2012,” said S. Joe Bhatia, ANSI president and CEO.
“I’m so pleased to report that the revision has taken many points raised by ANSI into account. And it’s wonderful news that the revision maintains a strong preference for using voluntary consensus standards over government-unique standards in federal regulation and procurement.”
The circular, in conjunction with the National Technology Transfer and Advancement Act (NTTAA) of 1995, instructs U.S. federal agencies to consider using voluntary consensus standards developed privately instead of government-unique standards whenever possible. It was last updated in 1998 and has been revised again to reflect notable changes that have occurred in the ensuing years in connection with voluntary consensus standards, conformity assessment activities, and the federal government's participation in and use of standards.
Guest speakers at the webinar included:
Jasmeet Seehra, Policy Analyst, OMB
Jeff Weiss, Senior Advisor for Standards and Global Regulatory Policy, U.S. Department of Commerce
Gordon Gillerman, Director, Standards Coordination Office, National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST)
For more information visit www.ansi.org/ibr, or contact Elizabeth Neiman, ANSI senior director of communications and public relations, at eneiman@ansi.org.
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One of the ‘Most Miserable Cities’ in the U.S. Mounts a Comeback
Through research and collaboration, the National Resource Network is bringing hope to struggling cities and helping them chart a course toward financial recovery.
By: Hannah Sawyer
Above: Rockford, Illinois, is hoping for a turnaround as it works with the National Resource Network to tackle its financial health and deteriorating public infrastructure. "I think the next five years will tell us a lot about who we will be and what we can be,” said Mayor Thomas McNamara. (Jacob Boomsma/Getty Images)
Rockford, Illinois, was once known as the “screw capital of the world,” an industrial powerhouse in the 1970s and ’80s that produced billions of screws, bolts, and fasteners for manufacturers around the globe.
But over the past 20 years, the city — where good-paying jobs straight out of high school were once plentiful — has struggled with long-term economic decline. The issues cut so deeply that in 2013 “Forbes” gave Rockford a dubious distinction as one of the most miserable places to live in the country.
Mayor Thomas McNamara would be the first to admit Rockford has some big problems. His first day on the job a little over a year ago brought him face-to-face with public safety issues, deteriorating public infrastructure, and a $156 million, eight-year budget deficit.
However, the headlines don’t tell the whole story, he says. Over the years, dedicated members of the community have been reinvesting in Rockford, even when the picture looked bleak. Now with the help of the National Resource Network, a consortium of experts who work hand-in-hand with city governments to tackle serious financial issues, McNamara and others hope to change how people view the city.
“I think the next five years will tell us a lot about who we will be and what we can be,” he said in December.
‘Death by 10,000 cuts’
The National Resource Network was formed by the Obama administration following the 2008 recession to help rebuild areas of the country that were particularly hard hit by the stock market collapse. However, when Executive Director David Eichenthal and his team arrived in some of the most distressed cities in the United States, they found many of their problems had been exacerbated by the recession, not caused by it.
The 2008 recession hit Rockford, Illinois, hard. Rockford's Rock River Valley Food Pantry saw first-time clients rise 43 percent and include everyone from professionals to laborers. (M. Spencer Green/The Associated Press file)
A Blueprint for Recovery
How it works: After extensive research and stakeholder interviews, the National Resource Network makes a range of recommendations that cities can choose to adopt or adapt to their needs. This is a starting point for sometimes difficult conversations about what is necessary for long-term health.
Who is involved: During the roughly five years the National Resource Network has been around, it has worked with more than 50 cities. Arnold Ventures has funded their efforts in nine: Savannah, Georgia; Norristown, Pennsylvania; Danville, Virgina; Rockford, Illinois; Salinas, California; Gary, Indiana; Salem, Massachusetts; Seaside Heights, New Jersey; Trenton, New Jersey.
Good to know: Funding to the National Resource Network is provided through Arnold Ventures’ Public Finance initiative, which works with governments to develop programs and policies that support economic growth and strengthen communities.
Long-running financial problems were leading to “literally death by 10,000 cuts” in forgotten places dotting the country from coast to coast, Eichenthal said.
When the Network started working with Fall River, Massachusetts, for example, the city had a 100-year record of population decline. Downtown Waco, Texas, was wiped out by a tornado in the 1950s, and the city had struggled to attract businesses ever since. And Rockford had been hit by periods where unemployment soared to more than 20 percent.
“What you’re left with, particularly in an economically challenged city, is a city government that essentially provides police protection and fire service and not much else,” Eichenthal said. And communities that were dealt such “body blows,” as he calls them, were struggling to figure out what to do next.
Eichenthal’s team decided that what these cities needed was a plan. That idea wasn’t necessarily a new one: Private companies already offered consulting services to small governments. But what Eichenthal came to believe, and what would come to separate the Network’s approach, was that it wasn’t the recommendations that mattered as much as the way they were developed.
So it created a process that was collaborative and tailored: In each city, team members conduct extensive interviews and go line-by-line through the budget to understand how money is spent. They then perform in-depth benchmarking and financial analysis to project what might happen over the next five to 10 years. They bundle their work into a financial roadmap to show cities how they got to where they are, where they could make cuts to stabilize finances, and what could happen if they don’t make any changes.
The historical context is important in places such as Rockford, where problems are often cyclical: Governments squeezed by population loss will hike taxes, which deters new businesses and homeowners. As costs continue to rise, officials divert money from investments in community and economic development, infrastructure, code enforcement, and other things that promote growth to core functions.
When textile company Dan River Mills closed in the early 2000s, thousands of Danville, Virginia, residents were left unemployed. At its peak, the mill employed 14,000 people in the city of a little more than 40,000. (Photo courtesy of City of Danville, Virginia)
Such was the case in Danville, Virginia, which still hadn’t recovered from the closure of textile company Dan River Mills in the early 2000s by the time City Manager Ken Larking met Eichenthal’s team in 2015.
At its peak, the mill employed 14,000 people in the city of a little more than 40,000.
“When it finally closed and the last few thousand jobs went away, that’s when it really hit everyone,” Larking said. Since then, “all the metrics that someone would normally look at, we’ve struggled to keep up.”
People would drive through neighborhoods, see dilapidated homes vacated by the former employees of the mill, and decide against buying. Home values fell. Investors snapped up cheap properties and let them fall into disrepair. Property tax revenue was flat while the cost of public services increased, leaving Danville in a financial bind.
But even as the city struggled, the community began to rally together. The local government turned to nonprofits and homeowners to clean up the blight, starting with the downtown area and historic district.
They then sought further help from the Network, which sifted through city records and financial and economic data. In April 2018, the team presented a 165-page document with recommendations ranging from a citywide wage freeze to building a new parking lot in the downtown district to spur development of new office space.
National Resource Network Danville Presentation
Danville City Council met on July 17, 2018 to hear a presentation on long- and short-term strategies for financial growth developed by the National Resource Network.
Eichenthal admits that some of the recommendations the Network made to Danville were politically controversial. And he knows not everyone will agree with them, despite the fact that the proposals were based on extensive research and case studies of similar communities.
However, Eichenthal said, the Network never intends for its plans to be adopted in their entirety: They’re supposed to be a starting point for tough conversation and a blueprint for moving forward.
What the Network gave Danville officials was a strategy for continuing their investments in the city and building on the work that’s already been done.
Envisioning a different future
McNamara had a reason to be optimistic as 2018 drew to a close: The Rockford mayor was celebrating the recent passage of the next budget. For the first time in 20 years, Rockford would enter the next year with a surplus, which McNamara and the council planned to apply to projected future deficits. And the city had already begun working on its 2020 budget.
Before now, “we never focused on anything but the year right ahead of us,” McNamara said.
“I do this because I think these places matter, and I think the people in these places matter.”
David Eichenthal Executive Director, National Resource Network
During the roughly five years the Network has been around, it has worked with more than 50 cities; Arnold Ventures has funded their efforts in nine of those cities, including Danville and Rockford. Eichenthal and his staff have become staunch believers in the idea that recovery is possible for cities that were written off long ago.
“I do this because I think these places matter, and I think the people in these places matter,” he says.
Rockford is no longer the world’s screw capitol, but it has reestablished itself as a national aviation repair hub. It has seen a double-digit drop in violent crime — all while cutting the eight-year projected budget deficit to under $80 million, thanks to help from the Network. McNamara, the son of a former Rockford mayor, hopes this is the beginning of a long comeback for the city.
Danville Reimagined
(Photos Courtesy of City of Danville, Virginia)
In Danville, Larking said people used to read about crime on the front page of the local news, but now they’re reading about a new business and development in downtown. There’s a lot more work to be done, but he says he hopes the picture of Danville is a hopeful one. He wants to see people start moving back to the city.
Across from the desk where he sits each day hangs a photo of a neon sign that reads “Home,” a visible reminder of the sentiment fueling Danville’s nascent turnaround.
The sign used to be atop Dan River Mills, but several years ago the city, working with the Danville Historical Association and Danville Regional Foundation, restored it and moved it downtown.
“It’s become a symbol for a lot of people in this community to say this is our home,” Larking said, “and we care about it, and we’re proud of it.”
See before and after photos of Danville River District
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arsenal cinema
film database
cinema info
November 2018, arsenal cinema
The Living Word – The Films of Eugène Green
LE FILS DE JOSEPH, 2016
The films of Eugène Green form some of the boldest, most unique, and most charming attractions in contemporary cinema. Since making his directorial debut at the age of 53 with TOUTES LES NUITS (2001), he has consistently retained his own personal, inimitable style and developed it further: schooled in the film poetics of Robert Bresson, his actors perform in anti-psychological, minimalist fashion, reciting their lines while looking directly into the camera or with their gaze fixed on the person they’re addressing with penetrating directness. Drawing on the full sound and force of language, they celebrate each syllable with baroque enjoyment, even as the form of expression stems from the language of the present day. Green’s visual compositions (for which Raphaël O’Byrne has been responsible from his very first film onwards) move between fragmentation and the intense presence of bodies and faces. With these stylistic fixtures as a starting point, LE MONDE VIVANT (2003) went on to add a degree of laconic, mischievous wit to the mix, giving his works their tragi-comic potential. His progressively materialistic approach to staging was equally accompanied by an increased degree of spiritual content. The origins of his cinema and its relationship to language stem from a desire articulated by Émilie, the female lead of TOUTES LES NUITS: “I’ve never been looking for happiness, but rather for joy.” Eugène Green was born in the US and came to Europe at an early age, eventually setting in Paris in the late 60s after brief stays in Czechoslovakia and Munich. It was in the French capital that he founded the Théâtre de la Sapience in 1977, which conceived of baroque theatre in new, contemporary ways. From the end of the 90s, he also made his debut as an author of poetry volumes, novels, essays, and notes on a “Poetics of the Cinematographer” (2009). We are showing Eugène Green’s entire cinematic oeuvre to date, with the director in attendance on the two first evenings: eight features and four shorter works.
LE FILS DE JOSEPH (Son of Joseph, France/Belgium 2016, 3.11., with guest Eugène Green & 9.11.) After growing up with his single mother, 15-year-old Vincent sets out in search of his father over the course of one Parisian summer. His investigations lead him to a famous publisher and ultimately to his brother Joseph, who becomes his spiritual guide. “Eugène Green drops biblical motifs – Abraham and Isaac, Mary and Joseph – into this genuinely contemporary setting as if it were the most natural thing in the world, augmenting them with nods to crime films and Italian Baroque music (…) A film where divine seriousness rubs up against bizarre comedy, where theology meets caricature, an intriguing film, anachronistic and innovative in equal measure.” (Birgit Kohler)
A RELIGIOSA PORTUGUESA (The Portuguese Nun, France/Portugal 2009, 4.11., with guest Eugène Green & 11.11.) Julie de Hauranne, a young French actress of Portuguese descent, travels to Portugal for the very first time: she is supposed to play the leading role in a literary adaptation of a 17th century epistolary novel about a Portuguese nun and her love for a French officer. While she explores the city of Lisbon by night, she becomes aware of a nun who prays daily in a chapel on a hill. This is just the start of a whole series of fateful meetings.
TOUTES LES NUITS (Every Night, France 2001, 5. & 9.11.) 1967 in rural Aix-en-Provence: school friends Henri and Jules are preparing for their final exams and dream of a future dedicated to art and nothing else. Then Henri falls in love with Émilie (Christelle Prot, from this point on an indispensable present in Green’s cinema), the wife of his coach, and absconds with her to New York. Back home, Jules experiences the turmoil of ’68. The friends lose touch with one another, but remain connected via Émilie. Green depicts twelve years in the lives of his protagonists as one rousingly epic flow, as a fascinating mosaic of characters and life plans that become inextricably linked with the events of their time. LES SIGNES (The Signs, France 2006) will be shown beforehand: in a small harbor town, a woman has been waiting for years for her husband to return, who apparently disappeared at sea.
LA SAPIENZA (France/Italy 2014, 6. & 12.11.) On the banks of Lago Maggiore, middle-aged couple Alexandre and Aliénor come across siblings Goffredo and Lavinia: the former two weary from the routine nature of the careers and the monotony of their lives together, the latter duo full of youthful, infectious enthusiasm for art, above all the architecture of Francesco Borromini. In majestic images and switching between stylistic registers in unpredictable fashion, Green tells a tale of how the harried modern spirit becomes increasingly immersed in the timelessness of thoughts and dreams. CORRESPONDANCES (France/South Korea 2009) will be shown beforehand: in this commission for the Jeonju International Film Festival, Green stages an electronic letter exchange between a woman and a man, creating a “mini-film” that was later combined with others by Harun Farocki and Pedro Costa to form an omnibus film.
LE MONDE VIVANT (The Living World, France/Belgium 2003, 7. & 10.11.) Green’s second feature established his reputation as an eccentric, formally radical, and humorous auteur. He has perhaps never been as playfully anarchistic again as in this gem, which is set in the Middle Ages, but constantly breaks the illusion of the past thanks to jeans, modern expressions, and intellectual insider gags such as those involving the “Lacanian witch”. The Chevalier au lion and the young Nicholas want to free the land from a child-eating ogre, whose wife loves the Chevalier and thus helps him in the duel against her husband. LE NOM DU FEU (The Name of Fire, F 2002) will be shown beforehand, which was already shown together with LE MONDE VIVANT on its original theatrical release: a patient confesses to his doctor that he’s a werewolf and suggests that she be present at his transformation.
LE PONT DES ARTS (The Bridge of Arts, France 2004, 7. & 10.11.) Sarah sings in a baroque quartet, Pascal studies at the Sorbonne. He hears her singing and sets out in search of her. Green depicts an intensive, piercing ode to the love between two people who are never able to meet. “One scene from LE PONT DES ARTS shows central representatives of the younger generation of directors, such as Bertrand Bonello, Mathieu Amalric, Serge Bozon, and Axelle Ropert, who follow the acting of a Japanese Nô play with total concentration: as if Green wanted to say that it’s necessary to return to the essential, to that which lies beyond short-lived cinema trends”. (Christoph Huber)
EN ATTENDANT LES BARBARES (Waiting for the Barbarians, France 2018, 8. & 14.11.) Green’s most recent feature was created as the conclusion of a workshop for actors given at renowned acting school Les Chantiers Nomades. Six people seek protection in the house of a witch and wizard couple from the advancing barbarians, whose arrival is imminent according to social media. COMO FERNANDO PESSOA SALVOU PORTUGAL (How Fernando Pessoa Saved Portugal, Portugal/France/Belgium 2018)will be shown beforehand: in the 20s, poet Fernando Pessoa developed an advertising slogan for the drink Coca-Louca, which plunged the authoritarian government of the time into total panic.
FAIRE LA PAROLE (Making the Word, France 2015, 8. & 13.11.) Green’s first documentary bears witness to his ongoing engagement with Basque culture and its language, which is the oldest in Western Europe. He followed four adolescents from the Basque Country over one summer as they explore their homeland. On their journeys, they come across people fighting against the encroaching disappearance of their cultural identity in times of tourism and globalization as well as the vitality of the Basque language, whose archaic richness of tone carries history within it as well as serving as a means of self-discovery. (gv)
An event with the friendly support of the Institut français.
Back to: past programs
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For more than 20 years, Team Steven Knapp Home Improvements, led by Team Captains, Steven Knapp and Lori Chapin, has maintained a consistent presence at Alzheimer’s New Jersey’s Southern Regional Walk to Fight Alzheimer’s® in Point Pleasant Beach. The annual Walk has become a much anticipated tradition for longtime team members, some of whom were still in strollers when they first joined the team. Twenty four years later, some of the youngest team members are now bringing along their own friends and significant others to participate. Today, the team ranges between 18 to 25 members strong and includes Steven’s siblings, Lori’s sister and her mom. Over the years, Team Steven Knapp Home Improvements has successfully raised close to $100,000 in support of Alzheimer’s care and research.
Steven began walking for Alzheimer’s in 1994 after his father, John, was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease. Back then, Steven and Lori, his wife of 16 years, were not yet married and just out of college. Steven, with the support of his siblings and Lori, played a large role in helping his mother, Eileen, in keeping John at home for as long as possible, until the last year of his life and his passing in 2002. A year or so later in about 2003, his mom was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s. Steven and Lori again found themselves in caregiving roles with support and assistance from family and outside resources –until Eileen passed away in 2011. The heartache of watching your most beloved family members slip away before your eyes, only served to drive Steven and Lori’s passion to continue to increase awareness, support local programs and help fund research for a cure.
Family and friends who wanted to honor John and Eileen, and who were also personally affected by Alzheimer’s in their own lives, started to join the couple at the Point Pleasant Beach Walk in 1996. “As our team continued to grow, we walked in honor of many loved ones,” said Steven. “We walk with hope for a brighter future, and in memory and honor of those we have lost and those we love.”
Steven and Lori are aware of the challenges that come with fundraising and asking for donations on behalf of charitable organizations like Alzheimer’s New Jersey. Lori offers some practical advice for other Team Captains who may be struggling with this as well. “Asking for money isn’t easy, but social media has made it so much easier than when we first started,” she said.
“Be patient, don’t be afraid to ask your full network by sending personal email and letting people know why this cause is so near and dear to you. After that, do regular posting (on social media) using pictures and a direct link to your fundraising page on your social media platform.” And perhaps, the single most important piece of advice from Steven and Lori: “Be sure to thank people as you go along.”
We hope you’ll be able to join Team Steven Knapp Home Improvements at the Southern Regional Walk to Fight Alzheimer’s in Point Pleasant Beach on Saturday, September 22. Register today for this Walk as well as our 4 other walks throughout New Jersey.
By Alzheimer's New Jersey|August 23rd, 2018|News|
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TV/Film Why “Sweat” by Lynn Nottage is a must-see
The trite phrase of “appreciating the arts” has been said millions of times, yet no one ever seems to protest its usage. The harmony of the words, their pretty little alliteration, and the core message behind them seem all very inoffensive to any audience. In actuality, I’d never thought twice about the implication behind that phrase until I went to go see Sweat by Lynn Nottage.
It was a busy week filled with essays to write and exams to take, and I didn’t have time to look up any information about the play before I went into see it. I knew that Lynn Nottage was the first woman to have won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama twice, because a Google search yielded that much; otherwise, I had no presumptions, or even expectations, going into the play. Perhaps because of my “blank slate,” I was more susceptible to the allure, the menace of the performance.
Sweat opens with a meeting, set in 2008, between Evan, a black parole officer, and Jason, a white ex-convict with white supremacist tattoos on his face. Jason then admits to running into Chris, a black ex-convict, and the scene shifts to Evan’s meeting with Chris. The dialogue refers to some event in the past but its ambiguity and the characters’ clear discomfort makes it all the more mysterious. Without any questions answered, the scene shifts to 2000, at a bar in Reading, Pennsylvania.
The majority of the play takes place in this bar. Three close friends—Cynthia, Tracey, and Jessie—are frequent guests, with Cynthia’s ex-husband, Brucie, making an appearance now and then. While Stan bartends, Oscar does manual labor in the back, quietly and alone. At first, their boisterous conversations and happy, lazy smiles, all glazed with a bit too much alcohol, seem typical of an after-work bar crowd. Cynthia, Tracey, and Jessie all work at the same factory, and Jason, Tracey’s son, and Chris, Cynthia’s son, are the best of friends. But there is a tangible and growing schism and tension between friends.
For me, as an audience member, witnessing that schism firsthand changed and even disturbed me. The racial and class lines become more and more apparent and visible, even when the audience doesn’t particularly want to see them. In the play’s first opening minutes, 2008 Jason talks back to his parole officer and calls him the N-word. Cynthia, the sole black female in the show, being promoted above her two white friends, Tracey and Jessie, is seen by her friends as an excuse for companies to “diversify,” rather than well-deserved recognition of her merit and hard work. Oscar, an American citizen of Colombian descent, is so palpably ignored that it seems to break the rule of the stage. His complete silence and everyone’s lack of acknowledgment of his presence make him all the more noteworthy and glaring in the framework of the theater.
Later, Tracey, one of the feistiest, racist, characters in the play, and Oscar are smoking outside the bar. When Oscar tells her that he saw a job posting for her factory at his community center, she adamantly tells him to not apply and leers at the Spanish-written advertisement. The mere rumor of “moving the factory to Mexico” becomes true when Tracey, Jessie, Chris, Jason, and all the other workers are locked out of the factory one day without any forewarned notice. Brucie, Chris’s father, begs his son for spare change when they unexpectedly run into one another.
These moments aren’t aestheticized. Everyone is in plain clothes, without any of the heavy makeup typical to theater. While watching this play, something deep within my heart kept bothering me. Sure, there were ugly, racist words that decorated the stage. There was violence and hurt and pain so visceral that it was hard to watch. There were examples of humans hitting absolute rock bottom. But these are common tropes in literature, film, and songs; I have seen people being broken a thousand times before, and none of those depictions have affected me like this play has.
After a lot of introspection on my ride home, I discovered the root of that invisible itch. It is the itch that hasn’t stopped since the election of 2016, the itch that began the first time I was told I was ‘pretty for an Asian girl,’ the itch that sparked when I was ridiculed at school for my beautifully handmade Korean lunch that my aunt packed me. It is the itch of the other—those who laughed at me for my culture, those who belittled me with their so-called compliments, and those who voted for Trump in the 2016 election. In this town of Reading, Pennsylvania, through the lens of the theater, I met a fraction (and well-represented one at that, as Lynn Nottage spent two years meeting the locals in these broken, industrial towns for research) of the Other, those whom I could never, ever understand. I saw these people as more than ignorant, racist monsters; they were humans who liked to drink and wanted to get by. This empathy for people to whom I never thought I could be sympathetic got me thinking: is their racism and discrimination justifiable because of their humanity? While my immediate, automatic response was no, I wanted to observe and support my reasoning. What I came up with is that racism, like bullying, arises from a place of extreme fear and insecurity in oneself.
If you are a victim of a racist remark or violence, it’s really, really hard to be a compassionate, loving, understanding person towards the perpetrator. When someone has reduced you to your ethnicity, you want to view them as something less than an individual too. I always hated being told that I had to be a bigger person, because I saw no rationale in forgiving, no less being responsible for a racist stranger’s problem and stupidity. And perhaps I emerged from this play more confused and conflicted. I, for one, am not justifying racism in any shape or form. You can cry over spilled milk all you want, but the fact that it’s been spilled doesn’t change. Racism can’t be solved overnight, but in the course of 2 hours and 45 minutes, my own viewpoint on racism shifted. Now, I’m cognizant of the idea that racist projections stem from a place of deeper hatred and fear within oneself. As such, I think I would be more willing to have a dialogues with not only the perpetrators of racist crimes but also a larger audience trying to delve into this topic.
Maybe it’s impossible to break the mob mentality of white-supremacist or neo-Nazi groups. But buying them tickets to Sweat by Lynn Nottage may at least shift their understanding of race, at least a little bit. Maybe it won’t, but the theater forces its audience to listen at least for the allotted time. Perhaps, in that act of listening and observing, some deeper sentiment can arise, whether it be anger, pain, or even regret. In this context, we all ought to do a little more than “appreciate the arts.”
Tags: diversity Pulitzer entertainment discrimination racism play
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Brian Fithian in Westchester, NY
Tutor of: SAT, ACT, Math Level 1, Math Level 2, U.S. History, GRE; Academic Math (through Calculus), Academic Statistics, Academic Economics
Brian graduated from Harvard University with a B.A. in Economics. Recognized for academic excellence, Brian was a National Merit Scholar, a Robert C. Byrd Scholar, and an AP Scholar with Distinction. Brian performs improv comedy every week at the Upright Citizens Brigade Theater in New York. Over the past four years, he's been a proud member of UCB house teams Apollo, The Governess, and Dr. Snake.
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You are at:Home»News»Acoustic & Vibration»DLR research aircraft flight tests new noise abatement system
DLR research aircraft flight tests new noise abatement system
By Anthony James on 29th September 2016 Acoustic & Vibration, Flight Testing
Reducing aircraft noise over residential areas while saving kerosene – this dual improvement is the aim of a joint research project being conducted by the German Aerospace Center (DLR) and the Umwelt- und Nachbarschaftshauses (UNH) in Kelsterbach, Germany.
From September 26 to 28, DLR used its A320 Advanced Technology Research Aircraft (ATRA) to flight test a new low noise augmentation system (LNAS), which is a pilot assistance system for noise-optimized landing approaches.
Currently, during landing – generally the most labor-intensive phase of a flight – it is often difficult for pilots to select the optimum times at which to extend the flaps and lower the landing gear so that the greatest possible part of the landing approach can be conducted in quiet, fuel-efficient circumstances, with the engines at idle.
As a result of a doctoral research project at the DLR Institute of Flight Systems in Braunschweig, Germany, an assistance system has been developed that shows the pilots a flight deck display of the points at which they need to carry out certain actions to create the optimum low-noise descent in line with the approach controller’s instructions. To date, the system has been successfully tested in a simulator and in initial research flights with no surrounding air traffic. Now it is time to test the system during peak traffic at Frankfurt Airport.
Weather conditions, poor visibility, the weight of the aircraft, and instructions from air traffic control, each have a different effect on every landing. DLR researchers want to find out how these variable influences affect the new assistance system and how professional pilots respond to the system. For this reason, pilots from several airlines have taken turns to sit alongside a DLR test pilot on ATRA’s flight deck and make approach flights to Frankfurt – sometimes with the assistance system, sometimes without.
The test flights are being coordinated with the German air traffic control service Deutsche Flugsicherung (DFS) and Frankfurt Airport. Before the actual flight tests, extensive trials were carried out in the DLR Air Vehicle Simulator (AVES).
“We are delighted to now be able to send the newly-developed assistance system for a real-life check at the busiest airport in Germany,” said Stefan Levedag, head of the DLR Institute of Flight Systems.
“An important step in the development process is gathering the impressions and experiences of experienced airline pilots with the new system in the demanding operational environment at Frankfurt Airport, with its high volume of traffic.”
Another advantage is the numerous noise measurement stations that have been set up around the airport. These can be used to locally quantify the noise reduction effect of the optimized approaches. The results of the project will be presented at ICANA 2016, the fourth International Conference on Active Noise Abatement, in November and then subsequently published.
The test flight program includes a total of five test flights of five hours per day, including take-off, approach and go-around, using the northwest runway at Frankfurt Airport. During each test flight, the flight captain (a DLR pilot) will be accompanied by four pilots who will each carry out two approaches in normal operational conditions – once with and once without the pilot assistance system. The sequence of pilots and use of the system has been arranged so that any learning effect is excluded.
In the test flights, the altitude and speed profiles of conventional approach flights will be investigated in terms of their potential for reducing noise, fuel consumption and flight time within the constraints of real flight operations. In addition to improvements in terms of noise and precision, error-free functioning of the prototype in actual flight operation is expected from the start, along with a high level of acceptance by the pilots.
Boeing to flight test new technologies in its 2019 ecoDemonstrator
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jr chap. 10 pp. 114-127
Are You Daily Asking, “Where Is Jehovah?”
God’s Word for Us Through Jeremiah
JEREMIAH TURNED TO JEHOVAH IN PRAYER
JEREMIAH FED HIS HEART WITH KNOWLEDGE
LEARNING FROM EXPERIENCE
DO YOU DAILY ASK, “WHERE IS JEHOVAH?”
Can You Imitate Jeremiah’s Endurance?
“I Have Put My Words in Your Mouth”
“I Cannot Keep Silent”
“You Must Say to Them This Word”
CHAPTER TEN
1, 2. (a) What was the spiritual condition of the Jews of Jeremiah’s day? (b) How should the Judeans have reacted to their condition?
JEREMIAH was in tears. He was affected both by the present condition of his people and by what God had him foretell about their future. He wished that his head were like a water source and his eyes a fountain so that he could cry without stopping. Jeremiah had reason to grieve over the condition of the nation. (Jer. 9:1-3; read Jeremiah 8:20, 21.) The Jews kept rejecting divine law and did not obey Jehovah’s voice, thus calamity would come.—Jer. 6:19; 9:13.
2 However, the people of Judah, who loved to hear the ‘all-is-well’ chorus of their religious leaders, were not genuinely interested in what Jehovah thought of their conduct. (Jer. 5:31; 6:14) They were like patients looking for a physician who would say soothing things but ignore serious symptoms. If you were seriously ill, would you not want an accurate diagnosis so that you could be treated in time? Spiritually speaking, the Jews in Jeremiah’s day should have sought an honest appraisal of their spiritual condition. They ought to have asked: “Where is Jehovah?”—Jer. 2:6, 8.
3. (a) How could the Jews have answered the question, “Where is Jehovah?” (b) What was one way for the Jews to seek Jehovah?
3 For the Jews to ask, “Where is Jehovah?” would have meant seeking divine guidance when faced with decisions, both major and minor. The Jews at that time did not do so. But after the desolation of Jerusalem and their return from Babylon, they were to ‘seek Jehovah’ and ‘search for him.’ By so doing, they would be able to find him and come to know his ways. (Read Jeremiah 29:13, 14.) How could they do that? One way was by approaching God in sincere prayer, asking for his direction. That was King David’s attitude. He asked God: “Make me know your own ways, O Jehovah; teach me your own paths.” (Ps. 25:4) Note the invitation that the Hearer of prayer extended through Jeremiah in the tenth year of King Zedekiah. “Call to me, and I shall answer you and readily tell you great and incomprehensible things that you have not known.” (Jer. 33:3) If the king and the renegade nation called to God, He could reveal things “incomprehensible” to them, the desolation of Jerusalem and its restoration after 70 years.
4, 5. In what other ways could God’s people have sought Jehovah?
4 Another way the Jews could have sought Jehovah was by searching through history and considering how he dealt with his people. Thus they could have called to mind what had gained God’s approval and what had incurred his wrath. They had Moses’ writings and a number of inspired historical records as well as the annals of the kings of Israel and Judah. By meditating on those and by listening to God’s true prophets, the Jews in Jeremiah’s day could have grasped the answer to the question “Where is Jehovah?”
5 A third way those Jews could have sought Jehovah was by learning through their personal experiences and those of others. Not that they had to learn everything through trial and error, but they could have benefited from considering what they themselves had done in the past and how Jehovah viewed the way they had acted. If they had been observant, they could have understood how God viewed their conduct.—Prov. 17:10.
6. What encouragement may you find in Job’s example?
6 But let us bring this down to our day. Have you been regularly asking, “Where is Jehovah?” when you are making decisions and choosing your course? Some may feel that they have not been as conscientious as they should have been. If in some sense that might be true of you, do not be downhearted. Even the faithful patriarch Job struggled in this regard. When he was under pressure, he was wrapped up in himself. Elihu had to remind him of the common tendency of mankind: “No one has said, ‘Where is God my Grand Maker?’” (Job 35:10) Elihu encouraged Job: “Show yourself attentive to the wonderful works of God.” (Job 37:14) Job needed to observe the mighty works of Jehovah in the creation around him and in God’s dealings with humans. Through his own experience, Job came to understand Jehovah’s ways. After he had endured his ordeal and had seen how Jehovah handled the matter, Job said: “I talked, but I was not understanding things too wonderful for me, which I do not know. In hearsay I have heard about you, but now my own eye does see you.”—Job 42:3, 5.
7. As depicted on page 116, what are we going to discuss next?
7 As for Jeremiah himself, the prophet continued to seek Jehovah and was able to find him. Unlike his countrymen, over the decades of his faithful service, Jeremiah kept asking: “Where is Jehovah?” In what follows in this chapter, we will see from Jeremiah’s example how we can seek Jehovah and find him through prayer, study, and personal experiences.—1 Chron. 28:9.
What does it mean to ask, “Where is Jehovah?” In what ways could the Jews of Jeremiah’s day have asked that?
8. Under what circumstances did Jeremiah approach God in prayer?
8 Over the years while serving as God’s mouthpiece to the nation of Judah, Jeremiah sought Jehovah through heartfelt prayers. He turned to God for support when he had to proclaim unpopular messages, when he felt that he could not continue, and when he had questions about why certain things took place. God answered him and gave direction as to how to proceed. Consider a few examples.
9. (a) How did Jeremiah express himself at Jeremiah 15:15, 16, and how did Jehovah respond? (b) Why do you think it is important to express your feelings in prayer?
9 Once when Jeremiah was given a denunciatory message to proclaim, he felt that everyone was calling down evil upon him. So the prophet called on God to remember him. Consider his prayer, recorded at Jeremiah 15:15, 16, in which he tells how he felt about the divine response. (Read.) In that prayer, Jeremiah expressed his feelings of anguish. Yet, when he found God’s words and put them in his mouth, as it were, he became joyful! Jehovah helped him to appreciate the privilege of bearing the divine name and proclaiming a divine message. Jeremiah could clearly see where Jehovah was in this matter. What lesson is there in that for us?
10. In what way did God respond when the prophet said that he would not speak in Jehovah’s name anymore?
10 On another occasion, after the priest Pashhur the son of Immer struck him, Jeremiah said that he would not speak in Jehovah’s name anymore. In what way did God respond to Jeremiah’s prayerful expression? (Read Jeremiah 20:8, 9.) The Bible does not tell us that God responded by speaking to Jeremiah from heaven. But God’s word became like a burning fire shut up in his bones, and he could not help but declare it. Indeed, by honestly expressing himself before God and allowing himself to be moved by what he knew of His will, Jeremiah was motivated to follow through on what God wanted him to do.
11, 12. How did Jeremiah receive an answer to his question about the seeming success of the wicked?
11 Jeremiah had a vexing question when he observed the wicked succeed. (Read Jeremiah 12:1, 3.) Though not at all questioning Jehovah’s righteousness, the prophet sought a response to his “complaint.” His forthrightness made it clear that he had a strong bond with God, much like that of a child with his beloved father. It was just that Jeremiah did not understand why many Jews were prospering despite being wicked. Did Jeremiah get a satisfying answer? Jehovah assured him that He would uproot the wicked. (Jer. 12:14) As Jeremiah saw the outworking of the matters he took to God in prayer, his confidence in divine justice must have deepened. As a result, Jeremiah must have increasingly turned to God in prayer, expressing himself to his Father.
12 Near the end of Zedekiah’s reign, when the Babylonians were laying siege to Jerusalem, Jeremiah referred to Jehovah as someone “whose eyes are opened upon all the ways of the sons of men, in order to give to each one according to his ways and according to the fruitage of his dealings.” (Jer. 32:19) Jeremiah could see where Jehovah stands on the matter of justice, that God is indeed watching over what each one is doing and hearing the earnest prayers of his servants. And, correspondingly, they would see more and more evidence that He gives to “each one according to his ways and according to the fruitage of his dealings.”
13. Why are you confident of the outworking of God’s will?
13 We may not feel that we have any doubt about God’s justice and the wisdom of how he both accomplishes and will yet accomplish his will. Nevertheless, we can benefit from reflecting on what Jeremiah went through and bringing up in our prayers how we feel at heart. Our expressing ourselves in that way can reinforce our confidence in Jehovah, that his will is certainly going to be accomplished. Even if we do not fully understand at present why things are developing as they are, or why God’s will is proceeding at the rate it is, we can express in prayer to him our confidence that he is in complete control. His will is going to take place in the way and at the pace he knows is best. This is guaranteed; we have no reason to doubt it. We will continue to ask, “Where is Jehovah?” in the sense of prayerfully seeking to comprehend his will and to see evidence of its outworking.—Job 36:5-7, 26.
What assurance do you derive from Jeremiah’s experiences in seeking Jehovah in prayer?
14. How do we know that Jeremiah researched the history of God’s people?
14 In connection with the question, “Where is Jehovah?” Jeremiah was well-aware of the need for ‘knowledge of Jehovah.’ (Jer. 9:24) He must have studied the history of God’s people as he compiled the books now known as 1 and 2 Kings. He specifically mentioned “the book of the affairs of Solomon,” “the book of the affairs of the days of the kings of Israel,” and “the book of the affairs of the days of the kings of Judah.” (1 Ki. 11:41; 14:19; 15:7) Accordingly, he came to understand how Jehovah had dealt with various situations. Jeremiah could see what pleased Jehovah and how He viewed people’s decisions. He could also consult inspired writings available at the time, such as those by Moses, Joshua, Samuel, David, and Solomon. No doubt, he was knowledgeable about the earlier prophets as well as his contemporaries. How did Jeremiah’s personal study benefit him?
15. What benefit might Jeremiah have derived from his research into Elijah’s prophecy?
15 Jeremiah recorded the account about Jezebel, the wicked wife of King Ahab of Samaria. His account included Elijah’s declaration that dogs would eat up Jezebel in the plot of the land of Jezreel. (1 Ki. 21:23) And in harmony with what Jeremiah recorded, you know that some 18 years later, Jezebel was thrown out of a window, trampled upon by Jehu’s horse, and eaten by dogs. (2 Ki. 9:31-37) Research into Elijah’s prophecy and its fulfillment, even in its details, must have strengthened Jeremiah’s faith in God’s word. Indeed, behind his perseverance as a prophet was faith that had been built up by his study of Jehovah’s past activities.
16, 17. Why do you think Jeremiah could persevere in warning the wicked kings of his day?
16 Let us take another example. What do you think enabled Jeremiah—despite being persecuted—to keep on warning such wicked kings as Jehoiakim and Zedekiah? A major reason was that Jehovah made Jeremiah “a fortified city and an iron pillar and copper walls” toward the kings of Judah. (Jer. 1:18, 19) But let us not overlook the fact that Jeremiah had done extensive research into the reigns of earlier kings of Judah and Israel. He had made a record of the fact that Manasseh had built “altars to all the army of the heavens in two courtyards of the house of Jehovah,” had sacrificed his own son in the fire, and had shed innocent blood in very great quantity. (2 Ki. 21:1-7, 16; read Jeremiah 15:4.) Yet, Jeremiah must have known that when Manasseh humbled himself and kept praying to Jehovah, “He let himself be entreated,” and Jehovah restored the king to his place.—Read 2 Chronicles 33:12, 13.
17 In his writings, Jeremiah did not mention Jehovah’s mercy toward Manasseh. But Manasseh died only 15 years or so before Jeremiah embarked on his prophetic career. Hence, the prophet must have heard about what happened when the king repented of his past wickedness. Researching Manasseh’s terrible conduct and the outcome must have helped Jeremiah to see the value of urging kings, such as Zedekiah, to seek Jehovah’s mercy and loving-kindness. Even a king notorious for idolatry and bloodshed could repent and be forgiven. If you had been in Jeremiah’s situation, would the events involving Manasseh have encouraged you, giving you reason to persevere during the reigns of other bad kings?
18. What could Jeremiah learn from Urijah’s example, and why do you so answer?
18 During his career as a prophet, Jeremiah certainly learned from seeing how his contemporaries acted in given situations. One was the prophet Urijah, who prophesied against Jerusalem and Judah during the reign of Jehoiakim. However, out of fear of King Jehoiakim, Urijah fled to Egypt. Thereafter, the king sent men to bring him back from Egypt, and then he had Urijah killed. (Jer. 26:20-23) Do you think Jeremiah learned a lesson from the experience of Urijah? The fact that Jeremiah kept warning the Jews of their impending doom—even doing so in the temple area—proves that he must have learned a lesson. Jeremiah maintained his courage, and Jehovah did not abandon him. God must have moved Ahikam, Shaphan’s son, to protect the life of courageous Jeremiah.—Jer. 26:24.
19. Jeremiah could see what from Jehovah’s persistence in sending prophets to His people?
19 Jeremiah also learned from his own experience of being used by Jehovah to warn His people. In the fourth year of King Jehoiakim, Jehovah told Jeremiah to write down all the words that He had spoken from Josiah’s day to that time. What was the reason for this divine direction? It was to encourage individuals to turn from doing bad and be forgiven. (Read Jeremiah 36:1-3.) Jeremiah, who got up early to give warning messages from God, even pleaded with the people to end their detestable practices. (Jer. 44:4) Is it not clear that Jeremiah must have realized from his own experience that God had sent the prophets out of compassion for His people? And would that not have engendered compassion in Jeremiah himself? (2 Chron. 36:15) You can understand, then, that when Jeremiah survived Jerusalem’s destruction, he could say: “It is the acts of loving-kindness of Jehovah that we have not come to our finish, because his mercies will certainly not come to an end. They are new each morning.”—Lam. 3:22, 23.
How must Jeremiah have been affected by researching God’s past dealings and meditating on what he and others had experienced? What can we learn from this?
20. How can you imitate Jeremiah in seeking Jehovah?
20 In the decisions that you face daily, do you make it a point to seek out what is God’s will, to ask, “Where is Jehovah?” (Jer. 2:6-8) Unlike the Jews in his day, Jeremiah always looked to the Almighty for help in discerning which way he should go. Imitating Jeremiah in daily seeking Jehovah’s view is undoubtedly the wise course for each of us when making a decision.
21. What kind of prayer might help you in connection with your ministry, such as when someone responds harshly?
21 The decision does not have to be regarding a major issue or a turning point in life. For example, what of the decision to go out in the field ministry on the day you planned? Perhaps you wake up and note an overcast sky, which may not be inviting. The territory scheduled for house-to-house witnessing that day may have been covered repeatedly. You may recall that some of the people turned you away with feigned politeness or with outright rudeness. At that early point in the day, could you ask in prayer, “Where is Jehovah?” Doing so might help you to think of the beauty of the message you will bear and to sense more deeply that it is God’s will that you declare that message. You then might feel the word of Jehovah becoming a source of joy and exultation for you, as it was for Jeremiah. (Jer. 15:16, 20) If later during your ministry you meet someone who is very harsh or even threatening, you can again express your feelings in prayer to God. Will you? Do not forget that he can provide holy spirit so that you can respond appropriately, and your desire to speak God’s message will overpower negative feelings.—Luke 12:11, 12.
22. Why might some prayers be blocked?
22 It is good to be aware that some prayers can be hampered, or blocked. (Read Lamentations 3:44.) Jehovah did not listen to the prayers of the rebellious Jews because they were ‘turning their ear away from him’ and persisting in a practice of lawlessness. (Prov. 28:9) The lesson must have been clear to Jeremiah, as it should be to us: If a person fails to act in harmony with his or her prayers, that will disappoint God and can result in His ceasing to hear the prayers. Surely, that is something we should seek to avoid at all costs.
23, 24. (a) What is essential if we are to find out Jehovah’s will? (b) How can you make your personal study more beneficial?
23 In addition to sincere prayer for Jehovah’s direction, we need to continue in our personal study, a key means of finding out Jehovah’s will. In this, we have an advantage over Jeremiah. We have the complete Bible. Like Jeremiah, who did deep research to compile his inspired historic account, you can rove about in the Word of God and look for divine guidance, asking, “Where is Jehovah?” By seeking to learn his will, you put trust in him, and you “will certainly become like a tree planted by the waters, that sends out its roots right by the watercourse.”—Read Jeremiah 17:5-8.
24 As you read and meditate on the Holy Scriptures, try to discern what Jehovah wants you to do in various situations. You can look for principles that you want to remember and apply in your life. While reading historical accounts, divine commands, godly principles, and wise sayings in God’s Word, consider how those passages should influence your daily decisions. In response to your asking, “Where is Jehovah?” he can reveal to you by means of his written Word how to deal with even dire situations you might face. Why, you may see in the Bible the “incomprehensible things that you have not known” or sensed in a certain light!—Jer. 33:3.
25, 26. Why can experiences benefit us?
25 Additionally, you can consider experiences, your own and those of others. For instance, you may see that a few stop relying on Jehovah, as in the case of Urijah. (2 Tim. 4:10) You can learn from their course and avoid the same disastrous outcome. Call to mind often Jehovah’s loving-kindness in dealing with you, remembering that Jeremiah too appreciated God’s mercies and compassion. No matter how desperate your situation, do not think that the Most High does not care about you. He does, just as he cared about Jeremiah.
26 As you meditate on Jehovah’s dealings with individuals today, you will realize that he is providing daily guidance in various ways. Aki, a young sister in Japan, felt that she was unworthy of being a Christian. One day when in field service with the circuit overseer’s wife, Aki expressed herself: “I feel that Jehovah is about to spew me out of his mouth, but I am hanging on to his lips, asking him to give me a little more time.” The circuit overseer’s wife looked her in the eye and said: “I’ve never felt that you were a lukewarm Christian!” Later, Aki mulled over that reassuring comment. In fact, there was no real indication that Jehovah had ever viewed her as lukewarm. Thereafter, Aki prayed to Jehovah: “Send me wherever you wish. I will do whatever you want me to do.” About that time, she visited a foreign land where there was a small Japanese group that needed someone who spoke the language and who could stay and serve with them. It so happened that Aki had been born in that land, which made it easy for her to move there and help. But where could she live? A sister whose daughter had just relocated offered a room. “It was just like pieces of a jigsaw puzzle falling into place; Jehovah was opening the way for me,” Aki concluded.
27. Why should the question, “Where is Jehovah?” motivate you?
27 Many brothers and sisters can relate instances in which they personally felt God’s guidance, perhaps as they did Bible reading or personal study. You too may have had similar experiences. Such should strengthen your bond with Jehovah and move you to approach him in prayer even more frequently and fervently. Trust that as we daily keep asking, “Where is Jehovah?” he will show us his way.—Isa. 30:21.
How can you find an answer to the question, “Where is Jehovah?” In what ways can you search for his guidance?
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Towson football coach Ambrose receives contract extension
By By Don Markus
Towson University football coach Rob Ambrose has agreed to an extension, athletic director Mike Waddell said Thursday night.
Ambrose received three years on top of the two left on the deal he signed when he took the job in 2009. Financial terms of the new contract were not announced.
"It's more than a job to Rob," Waddell said of Ambrose, a 1993 Towson graduate. "He wants to build a championship program, not just from a professional standpoint, but for personal reasons."
Ambrose's new deal comes nearly three weeks after the Tigers finished a 9-3 season with a 40-38 loss to Lehigh in the second round of the Division I football championships, Towson's first postseason appearance as a Football Championship Subdivision team. Towson won the Colonial Athletic Association title for the first time.
Ambrose called it "an honor to get an extension and a new five-year contract."
In a telephone interview Thursday night, Ambrose said he took his family into consideration.
"With a wife and young kids, it was important to get some continuity," he said.
Ambrose said that he had been contacted recently through a third party -- "a very respected person in college football -- to gauge his interest in a Football Bowl Subdivision job. Ambrose declined to name the school or the person who contacted him but added that he never took the inquiry any further.
"I didn't have any much interest," Ambrose said. "The goal is to make [Towson] legitimate for a very long time."
Ambrose said his desire to remain at Towson has to do a lot with second-year athletic director Mike Waddell's aggressive marketing of the program, which included paying $60,000 to host a home playoff game that sold out Johnny Unitas Stadium for the first time in history.
[More from sports] AFC North position rankings: Steelers, Browns will challenge Ravens for defensive supremacy »
"It's great to know that the people you care about so much care about you," Ambrose said.
Waddell, who acknowledged that Ambrose made him aware of the situation, said, "It's rare these days where as a coach you can live where you want to live and coach at a school that has so much meaning for you. The grass is not always greener [in FBS]."
Ambrose grew up outside Frederick, where his father was a high school football coach and his mother is a judge.
Ambrose said he began to discuss the new contract with Waddell early in the season but had to put discussions on hold as the Tigers were making their run to the school's first playoff since they were a Division II team in the mid-1980s. Ambrose has much higher aspirations for the program now than he did a year ago.
"I am confident that we can win a national championship at Towson as everyone is showing a strong commitment to create a positive environment across the board," he said in the statement.
[More from sports] Mike Mussina’s departure from Orioles still rankles some, but decision might have paved his way to Cooperstown »
Ambrose, 41, is a finalist for the Eddie Robinson Award given to the top FCS coach. Freshman tailback Terrance West (Northwestern) is in the running for the Jerry Rice Award, given to the top FCS freshman.
The extension for Ambrose follows the Tigers completing the biggest turnaround in Division I college football this season. Towson finished 1-10 last season and 2-9 in Ambrose's first season as head coach since returning to his alma mater.
"Rob and his staff are building a strong foundation that will give our football program an opportunity to sustain success over the long term," Waddell said in a statement that will be released by the school Friday. "The 2011 season has energized our campus with a swell of Towson pride, and as we move into a new year that will only continue to build. Our student-athletes are achieving on the field, in the classroom and represent our university in the community as we drive to establish ourselves as Baltimore's college football team. It takes time to build a football program and after three years, Rob's leadership has put us ahead of schedule in many aspects."
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don.markus@baltsun.com
Most Read • College Football
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Posted by Auden Johnson November 04, 2015
Guest Post | Writting Tips by KJ Taylor
KJ will be awarding an eCopy of Broken Prophecy to 3 randomly drawn winners via rafflecopter during the tour.
There’s a lot of generic writing advice around, partly because authors tend to be very individual. We all write differently, and the stock-standard advice doesn’t necessarily apply to everyone, so with that in mind my first tip is not to take all the advice you’re given as gospel. For instance, some people insist that you must sit down and write out a detailed plot outline for your book. This is untrue. Some authors do this and it works for them, but for others it doesn’t work at all. I myself have been told at least once that I have to write outlines, but when I tried it it didn’t work, and so I stopped doing it.
Many will also say that it’s important to find time to write every day. This is true in a sense. In the beginning I believed I could only write when everything was exactly right – I had to start at the proper time, there had to be a candle burning, and so on. If I felt that I wasn’t “in the mood”, then I wouldn’t write.
Years later I discovered that I could actually write whenever I wanted to; if I wasn’t “in the mood” when I sat down at the computer, the “mood” would come along all by itself as soon as I started typing.
But you shouldn’t expect to be able to do this overnight. The process of writing becomes easier with practice, so you if you find you can’t sit down and write whenever you like, don’t beat yourself up about it. You should have a go at it, though. Reward yourself with a drink or something else nice when you’ve written something, and that will no doubt make it easier – it worked for me!
Another important tip is not to get too attached to a single project. In the early days (ie. when I was a teenager) I had a series which I was very invested in. I spent years working on it – I filled an entire shelf with scrawled notebooks that way. Rewrites, re-imaginings, drawings, a custom zodiac system, two different runic scripts – it was huge.
But, despite all my hard work and passion, it just plain wasn’t any good. The day when I made myself face that fact was a hard one, but I finally decided that it was time to drop it and move on to other things. It wasn’t an easy decision to make, but it was still the right decision. If I hadn’t done that I might well have remained largely unpublished, stubbornly clinging to a series which was essentially a Redwall ripoff about talking mice with magic swords.
With that said, I do not for one moment believe that the time I spent working on that series was wasted. The things you don’t publish are in a way just as important as the things you do – what matters is to have written them. I learned a lot in the process, and that means it was worth it!
Finally, don’t write for the sole purpose of getting published. Publishing isn’t about art; it’s about business, and you should be doing this because you are an artist. Art is about making life richer and more meaningful, and if you can achieve that for only one person – even if that person is yourself – then you’ve accomplished something worthwhile.
K.J. Taylor was born in Australia in 1986 and attended Radford College and the University of Canberra, where she returned to obtain a Master of Information Studies in 2012. She currently works as an archivist.
She published her first work, The Land of Bad Fantasy, through Scholastic when she was just 18, and HarperVoyager went on to publish The Dark Griffin in Australia and New Zealand five years later. The Griffin's Flight and The Griffin's War followed in the same year, and were released in America and Canada in 2011. The Shadow's Heir, The Shadowed Throne and The Shadow's Heart have now joined them in both Australia and the US.
Website | Amazon
Title: Broken Prophecy
Author: KJ Taylor
A fun adventure that satirises fantasy tropes in the style of Terry Pratchett.
Ambit Afterman is the Chosen One. Born with the mark of the silver bellflower on his palm and given a magical spear, he is the one whose coming the prophecy foretold.
Unfortunately, he would much rather drink beer and get laid - destiny can go fuck itself.
Together with his demon friend Snarl, Ambit sets out on a mighty quest - to make sure the prophecy doesn't come true, and avoid doing anything heroic under any circumstances. Along the way he will make polite conversation with demons, not deliver any great speeches, not train with the wise monks, and weasel his way out of adventure and into the nearest pub. But there may just be time to have cheap sex with the beautiful princess along the way.
Once, long ago, the Land of Flowers was happy.’ The storyteller paused to look meaningfully at his audience. ‘Yes, very happy,’ he added. ‘But then the demons came. One day the sky went dark and the Nine Mountains erupted, with fire and smoke pouring into the sky. The land went dark and lava flowed over the earth, and the demons came crawling out of the ground – thousands of them, with burning eyes and metal teeth. They spread everywhere, killing everyone they found, destroying villages and towns, spoiling everything.’
The storyteller’s voice rose dramatically and his audience, mainly children, listened expectantly. Around them other people were half listening. Adults relaxed in the shade after a long day’s work, and a young woman was singing for tips in the background. She provided a rather nice soundtrack.
‘Today, the Nine Mountains are home to the nine demon lords,’ the storyteller continued, ‘and they send their minions out to oppress anyone living too close to the ruined lands they’ve taken for themselves. One day, perhaps, they will spread through the whole of the land and the human race will be wiped out.’
‘Or maybe they’ll bore themselves to death first,’ a lazy voice put in from somewhere behind the audience.
‘But there is still one thing that can stop the demons and put everything right again,’ said the storyteller, ignoring the interruption.
‘The Chosen One!’ a small girl piped up. Around her, the other children buzzed excitedly.
‘Fifty years ago, when the demons first came, it was said that someone would come with the power to drive them away forever,’ the storyteller nodded. ‘A special warrior, with a special weapon.’
‘Bullshit!’ the heckler from up the back shouted.
The storyteller glared in his direction, and went on doggedly. ‘Some say this destined one hasn’t been born yet. Others believe he is already here, and that one day, any day now, he’ll appear to begin the fulfillment of his great destiny. For all we know, he could be here today. He could be one of you, and you don’t even know it yet.’ He smiled at the fascinated children.
‘I wouldn’t count on it, kids,’ the heckler threw in.
‘When will the Chosen One come?’ a boy asked.
‘Nobody knows,’ said the storyteller. ‘That’s all I know. But maybe, one day . . .’
‘Maybe one day people will stop wasting time on fairy tales,’ said the heckler.
‘Will you shut up?’ the storyteller finally snapped.
The young man lounging on a rock by the wall of the town tavern only grinned at him, and when the other adults nearby muttered ominously, he grinned at them too. The singing girl took the opportunity to sing a little more loudly, and was rewarded with a faint rattle of demon eyes thrown into the bowl at her feet.
Seemingly realizing he wasn’t going to win this particular confrontation, the storyteller pushed his red-striped hair away from his face and turned his attention back to his listeners. ‘If you want to know more about the Chosen One, the monks in the valley are the people to ask,’ he said. ‘They know the prophecy, and they can recognize the Chosen One. Many people go to them asking if they’re the one, but all of them have gone away disappointed.’
‘I want to go and see them!’ a small boy said immediately. ‘I want them to teach me how to fight demons!’
‘That’s definitely something you can find there,’ said the storyteller. ‘The monks are always happy to take on new apprentices.’
The boy glanced proudly at his friends, golden eyes shining with excitement.
‘Oh goody, let’s all go and get ourselves killed,’ the heckler muttered. ‘Why is everyone letting this old goat tell their kids what a great idea it is to go and fight demons?’
‘And I suppose a coward like you would tell them they shouldn’t?’ the storyteller threw at him.
‘I’d tell them to make up their own minds, is what I’d do,’ said the heckler, idly rolling the shaft of a spear over his palm. ‘That’d be why you’re the popular one, right?’
‘Well, I’m not too scared to go and see the monks,’ the golden-eyed boy told him.
‘That’s because you’re a stupid kid,’ said the heckler. He winked at the singer, who had stopped singing and was now eyeing him with interest. ‘Hey, sweetie, want to see my spear?’
‘Who are you, anyway?’ someone else asked. ‘I’ve never seen you around here before.’
The heckler shrugged. ‘I’m just passing through.’
‘Going anywhere in particular?’ the man asked.
‘Trying to work out where I’m going at the moment,’ said the heckler, resting one long leg on the other and stifling a yawn. He leaned his spear, which was a shabby thing with its shaft bound with leather, against the wall beside him.
‘One of the Dispossessed, are you?’ said the storyteller.
‘Stop doing that,’ the stranger growled.
‘Doing what?’
‘Giving everything names,’ said the stranger. ‘It’s obnoxious. I’m not a Dispo-whatever; I’m a traveler. Labels are unnecessary. And right now I’m way too sober, so fare-thee-well, grandpa.’ He stood up, heaving a heavy pack onto his shoulder, and sauntered off into the tavern
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Ms. Arellano's career encompasses 41 years in education. As a social studies teacher, dance educator, drill team instructor, assistant principal, associate principal, head principal of freshmen wing and secretary of the KISD school board, she has had the opportunity to work with thousands of students in public education.
Dance education has always been the focus of Cathy's life. In college at UT Austin, she audited dance classes because there was not an opportunity to major in Fine Arts Dance in the '70s. After graduation from UT, she taught social studies, drill team and cheerleader. Her career began at La Marque HS, and after 5 years, moved to Oak Ridge HS where she created the dance team, Oak Ridge Liberty Belles. Ms. Arellano remained at Oak Ridge for 6 years and then spent 15 years as the dance team at Klein Oak High School, before becoming an administrator for 14 years. Since retiring, Cathy now owns classes in The Woodlands for Jazzercise and has been a certified instructor for over 20 years. She is the President of MDDTTEXAS Dance Competition Company and co-owner of "Dance Surge" Dance Camps and "Battle Ground Special Events". Cathy was a drill team/dance instructor for 26 years. She received the honor of Texas Dance Educators' Association President for 2 years (94-96), Director of the Year, recipient of the Lifetime Achievement Award, TDEA Hall of Fame Recipient, and Klein ISD Teacher of the Year ('99) and Klein ISD Administrator of the Year (2016). Ms. Arellano's teams were well known throughout US for their successful competition seasons and performed for the Rockets for over 25 years, and opened the Thanksgiving Day Parade in 2000- 2001. Her team won titles of National Champions, and State Champions over a span of 20+ years.
As President of TDEA at the time, she was the spokesperson for Texas Dance Educators in Austin. After 2 years of continuous persistence, Dance became a Fine Art in 1996. Cathy is the proud mom to son, Chance. Chance is 34, special needs and a vital part of the dance team world. Chance, prides himself in being the official photographer for the MDDTTEXAS Contests. He is in his 12th year at Klein Oak in food service and loves taking pictures of all the teams!
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Middle East selected
Iran nuclear deal: Why do the limits on uranium enrichment matter?
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-48776695
Image caption President Hassan Rouhani (R) says Iran is retaliating against US sanctions
Iran says it has resumed enriching uranium to higher levels - breaching its commitment under its nuclear deal with world powers.
Under the accord, Iran agreed to limit its sensitive nuclear activities and allow in international inspectors in return for the lifting of crippling economic sanctions.
What is enriched uranium?
Enriched uranium is produced by feeding uranium hexafluoride gas into centrifuges to separate out the most suitable isotope for nuclear fission, called U-235.
Low-enriched uranium, which typically has a 3-5% concentration of U-235, can be used to produce fuel for commercial nuclear power plants.
Highly-enriched uranium has a concentration of 20% or more and is used in research reactors. Weapons-grade uranium is 90% enriched or more.
Image caption Iran's low-enriched uranium stockpile was limited to 300kg for 15 years under the nuclear deal
Under the nuclear deal, Iran is allowed to enrich uranium only up to a 3.67% concentration, to stockpile no more than 300kg (660lbs) of the material, and to operate no more than 5,060 centrifuges.
Another part of the deal instructs Iran not to accumulate more than 130 tonnes of heavy water, which contains more hydrogen than ordinary water, and to redesign its heavy-water nuclear reactor at Arak. Spent fuel from a heavy-water reactor contains plutonium, which can be used in a nuclear bomb.
What has Iran done?
The global nuclear watchdog that monitors compliance with the nuclear deal, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), confirmed on 1 July that Iran had breached the enriched uranium stockpile limit.
On 7 July, Iran announced that it had resumed enriching uranium above 3.67% concentration "based on our needs".
A spokesman for the Atomic Energy Organisation of Iran, Behrouz Kamalvandi, said it would initially enrich uranium up to 5% so that it could provide fuel for the Bushehr power plant.
It did not need to produce 20% enriched uranium to fuel the Tehran research reactor "right now", the spokesman added.
Experts at the Arms Control Association, a US-based advocacy group, said the breach of the 300kg stockpile limit did not pose a near-term proliferation risk.
They noted that Iran would need roughly 1,050kg of 3.67% enriched uranium to be able to produce enough weapons-grade material for one bomb.
Image caption Iran is allowed to operate 5,060 uranium enrichment centrifuges at Natanz
But the experts warned that if Iran resumed higher levels of enrichment, that would pose a more serious proliferation risk and shorten the break-out time.
That is because going from uranium's natural state of 0.7% concentration of U-235 to 20% takes about 90% of the total effort required to get to weapons-grade.
The nuclear fuel cycle
Iran nuclear crisis in 300 words
Iran nuclear deal - all you need to know
Before the nuclear deal was implemented in 2016, Iran had a sufficient amount of 20% enriched uranium and number of centrifuges that its so-called "break-out time" - the time it would theoretically take to acquire enough fissile material for one bomb, if it chose to do so - was estimated to be about two to three months.
The deal slowed the break-out time to at least a year. But any reversal of Iran's commitments on uranium enrichment would see that start to shorten.
The steps Iran has taken could lead to it being found to be in "material breach" of the nuclear deal, which would allow other parties to "snap back" the UN and EU sanctions that were lifted.
No member of the UN Security Council would be able to veto such a move.
Why did Iran stop abiding by its commitments?
The Iranian economy has slumped since President Donald Trump withdrew from the nuclear deal in May 2018 and began reinstating sanctions. He said the deal was flawed and that he wanted to force Iran's government to renegotiate the terms - something it refused to do.
Image caption Iran's oil exports - the government's principal source of revenue - have more than halved
The other parties to the deal - the UK, France, Germany, China and Russia - criticised Mr Trump's decision and said they remained committed to the deal.
In May 2019, the White House stepped up pressure on Iran by ending exemptions from secondary sanctions for countries still buying Iranian oil.
How reinstated sanctions have hit Iranians
US-Iran relations: A brief history
It also ended exemptions for countries participating in deals under which Iran exchanged its surplus low-enriched uranium for un-enriched ore concentrate known as "yellowcake" and sold its surplus heavy water. Such transfers allowed Iran to continue production of both materials without exceeding the stockpile limits.
Iran's President Hassan Rouhani subsequently said it would retaliate against the US sanctions by suspending its commitment to comply with the stockpile caps.
Image caption Donald Trump's decision to end sanctions waivers for importers of Iranian oil sparked protests
Officials noted that article 36 of the nuclear deal allows one party to "cease performing its commitments… in whole or in part" in the event of "significant non-performance" by other parties. They said the US violated the deal a year ago and that European countries had failed to deliver its promised economic benefits.
The European Union has set up a mechanism for facilitating trade, known as Instex, which essentially allows goods to be bartered between Iranian and foreign companies without direct financial transactions. It became operational on 29 June, but Iran said it did not meet its needs.
Does Iran want a nuclear bomb?
Iran insists it has never sought to develop such a weapon.
The international community does not believe that, pointing to evidence collected by the IAEA suggesting that until 2003 Iran conducted "a range of activities relevant to the development of a nuclear explosive device". Some of those activities continued until 2009, according to the IAEA.
Last year, Israel displayed what it said were archives it secretly took from Iran which showed Iran continued to pursue nuclear weapons knowledge after 2015 - though Iran called the accusation "ridiculous".
In January, the US intelligence community nevertheless assessed that Iran was "not currently undertaking the key nuclear weapons-development activities we judge necessary to produce a nuclear device".
Iran-US relations
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Summary of 'The Mindsets Factor in Ethnic Conflict: A Cross-Cultural Agenda"
Summary of
The Mindsets Factor in Ethnic Conflict: A Cross-Cultural Agenda
By Glen Fisher
Summary written by Conflict Research Consortium Staff
Citation: Glen Fisher. The Mindsets Factor in Ethnic Conflict: A Cross-Cultural Agenda. Yarmouth, ME: Intercultural Press, 1998, 114 pp.
The Mindsets Factor in Ethnic Conflict: A Cross-Cultural Agenda is concerned with the psycho-cultural dimension of ethnic conflict, and seeks a way to analytically approach this insidious and consistently under-treated aspect of ethnic conflict. Fisher aims to illuminate "the role that mindsets play in ethnic conflicts and the importance of the cross-cultural task often posed in understanding them" (ix-x). This book was written in light of the fact that many ethnic conflicts were ongoing in the world at the time, and that many of those intervening are "outsiders" that have to hurdle cultural barriers to even begin helping the situation. The work is therefore oriented toward "practitioners [outsiders] who must manage conflict situations on the spot" (xi). The Mindsets Factor in Ethnic Conflict: A Cross-Cultural Agenda is orchestrated to help "outsider" peacemakers identify aspects of culture and perception (cross-cultural analysis) that may lead back to the root of the confrontation and thus potential resolution strategies.
In the Introduction, "Diagnosing Ethnic Conflict: Taking Culture and Perception Into Account", Fisher states that the analysis or diagnosis of ethnic conflict alone, is an extremely difficult task. The term and phenomenon of "ethnic" presents the key challenge to international relations analysts dealing with the implications of these conflicts for the rest of the world. Ethnic, "implies the injection of exclusive cultural orientations and group identities into the diagnosis-cultural characteristics and a group experience that most likely will be alien in some degree to those who have to manage things from a perspective outside the conflict itself" (3). Fisher notes that the most difficult aspect of this challenge is to understand someone else's ethnicity deeply enough, and to avoid superficial short cuts. The author also provides a five-point analytical agenda that includes a series of basic questions to use as starting points for analysis. These questions include: 1) "What are the key ingredients that go into the 'fixed mental attitudes' that come into conflict?" 2) "In terms of a given conflict, who is to be included as part of an ethnic group?" 3) "How rigidly 'set' are the mindsets that are pertinent to a conflict?" 4) "Do the solutions that are proposed for conflict resolution themselves raise cross-cultural considerations?" 5) "What outlooks pertain to the role that the international community -- or its representatives -- is expected to play?" (11-15).
The chapters of The Mindsets Factor are laid out in terms of "Problem Areas" with each chapter addressing a different task that cross-cultural peacemakers must cope with. The first question that should be addressed is, "what does ethnic culture have to do with this conflict". However, Fisher warns readers to carefully examine what it is about a given culture that forms those people's particular point of view. Meticulousness is essential, as oftentimes these concerns are only superficially addressed and third parties never get to why conflicts are occurring. The key concept introduced in Chapter One is "ethos", or the relationship between culture and personality, along with the notion that ethos is intimately connected to how people perceive conflict.
The second "problem area" addressed in this work is entitled, "Sorting Out Ethnic Identities and Calculating Their Strength". With this chapter, Fisher shifts his focus to consider ethnicity in terms of what people are to be included in certain ethnic groups and "by what rules of loyalty" (37). The principle offered here is that the voracity with which individuals and groups identify with an ethnicity will be reflected in the intensity with which people engage in conflict, thus revealing how much their involvement is related to their ethnicity. The majority of this chapter provides general theories on the factors that affect the strength of group identity such as language, ethics and religion, history, and the culture's own provisions for preserving identity.
Chapter Three discusses the issue of intransigence in ethnic conflict, or refusal to compromise. Such obstacles present serious challenges to mediators and negotiators as the reasons behind intransigence are often tied to mindsets, which are tied closely to people's identities and are extremely difficult to alter. Fisher notes that the trick for dealing with these obstacles "is to anticipate intransigence, understand its sources and dynamics for the ethnic group in question, judge its firmness or malleability, and adapt one's strategy accordingly" (56).
Chapter Four considers the tension between conflict remedies developed by outsiders and how people on the inside of a conflict will respond to their implementation. Mindsets will affect the success of conflict management strategies designed and implemented by those thinking within the framework of the international community. Fisher explains some of the assumptions that are projected by broader-thinking, Western-style peacemakers. The scope and/or scale of people's "social universe" is of key importance in these cases, as the concerns of ethnic groups are often far more narrow and focused then the broad, encompassing concerns of people in the international peacemaking community.
The final "problem area" identified in The Mindsets Factor is that of "Legitimizing the International Community's Role in Addressing Ethnic Conflict". In addition to the aforementioned aspects, Fisher believes that mindsets also play a significant role "in the ways of thinking by which the international community and its representatives feel called upon to intervene in managing ethnic conflicts in the first place, and in turn, the ways of thinking by which ethnic groups react to such intervention" (89). Fisher notes that the most critical factor influencing the acceptance of international aid organizations involved in resolving ethnic conflicts is that the social universe of many of the involved groups is expanding. He thinks that as more groups recognize their connectedness to the international community, international organizations will become more accepted by local peoples.
In the conclusion of The Mindsets Factor, Fisher outlines a list of questions to guide the analysis of specific ethnic conflict cases. These are: 1) "How does the way that past events are perceived set the stage for confrontation?" 2) "How do issues and problems in contention play on and trigger the sense of ethnic identity?" 3) "What outlooks and positions on issues exist that simply will not be subject to negotiation?" 4) "What do people actually want and expect from government?" 5) "What is the prevailing culture of public service and public administration?" 6) "How have people come to think about their economy?" 7) "In cross-cultural perspective, how are leaders and leadership defined?" 8) "How is conflict itself perceived?" 9) "What differing perspectives and styles are brought into the negotiation and bargaining process?" 10) "What reactions can be expected to the use of force and coercion, especially that used by outside peacekeepers?" 11) "Is there a cultural dimension to the way that humanitarian activity is perceived?" 12) "How do psychocultural factors affect prospects for the economic and political development projects that often go along with conflict management efforts?" (99-103). This final chapter provides a practical wrap-up to this highly theoretical work, actually getting at how to go about investigating "the mindsets factor" in ethnic conflict. Overall, the book provides a good introduction to the complexities inherent in ethnic conflicts and the important role that cultural beliefs and behavior patterns play in conflict dynamics. However, readers seeking an in-depth analysis of these topics will want to use this volume as a starting point -- not an endpoint -- to their investigation.
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FARMING MATTERS: A star filled countryside show
Countryfile Live 2018
Heather Jan Brunt
Published: 07:00 Saturday 18 August 2018
Recently I went to Countryfile Live at Blenheim Palace. This was my first visit and it was an impressive event.
Spread across the beautiful Oxfordshire estate of the Duke of Marlborough it could hardly fail to satisfy country lovers as the expansive show was nestled amongst the trees and lake set against the backdrop of the magnificent palace.
On my first attempt to cover the site I was convinced I would never manage to see everything in a day, and of course I didn’t. There were loads of talks and demonstrations and workshops taking place and it was impossible to attend everything. But I did manage to cover the ground on foot and at least look or walk past everything on offer and this included a four wheel drive course, canoeing, the Wildlife Zone, Morris dancing, family fishing, a zip wire and a dog lovers arena plus tonnes of food, shopping and clothing stands..
The presenters from the Countryfile television programme were of course all there, taking part in discussions but also making them available across the site. And Adam Henson, probably the most popular of the presenters judging by the queues around him, had his very own area of the show at Adam’s Farm, which was where the majority of the animals at the show were located. In here we could see pigs, horses, sheep, goats, hens and rabbits as well as Adam himself, signing copies of his books and posing for photographs with his adoring fans.
Although farmers and the farming community could easily enjoy this show, I did feel, as a stalwart of many a county show, that this one was geared more towards the general public. There wasn’t the feel of business being done here by farmers. But having said that, there were many very valid talks taking place and I rather wish I’d had the time to attend them all. NFU president Minette Batters was in conversation with Michael Gove, the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs talking about farming post Brexit; and there was a discussion about the loss of productive farm land to housing.
In addition to the big farming names there were many other well known faces taking part in the event including journalist Jeremy Paxman, chef James Martin and BBC weather lady Carol Kirkwood.
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Veyance Technologies Case Study
Manufacturer Adopts Cloud Solution to Reduce Email Costs by 40 Percent
“By choosing Office 365, we acquired more capabilities and capacity, and we saved about 40 percent in costs compared to what we previously spent on email alone.”
- John Hill, Chief Information Officer, Veyance Technologies
Based in Fairlawn, Ohio, Veyance Technologies is the exclusive manufacturer of Goodyear Engineered Products worldwide, such as air springs, power transmission products, conveyor belts and services, industrial and hydraulic hoses, and rubber track and molded rubber products. Veyance serves a variety of markets, including the military, automotive, industrial, and manufacturing sectors. Formerly known as Goodyear Engineered Products, the company changed its name to Veyance Technologies in 2007 after being spun off from the Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company.
Veyance has more than 9,000 associates, with facilities in 21 countries around the world. Each of the major facilities ran its business as an independent operation with its own back-office services, such as accounting, HR, IT, and customer service. In 2011, new executive leadership decided to introduce shared services with the goal to transform the business into a connected global enterprise to reduce costs and better compete in the marketplace. John Hill, the Chief Information Officer at Veyance Technologies, explains, “Veyance had lots of duplicated services and fragmented business processes across different regions. We wanted to change the business to operate as a global enterprise by improving communications and collaboration capabilities and using shared services to provide uniform service levels across the company.”
To meet the pace and speed in which the new leadership team wanted to achieve change, Veyance decided to explore cloud-based solutions as a new IT strategy. Hill says, “We wanted to transition to the cloud to enable a global infrastructure, achieve rapid implementation, and take advantage of the cost savings that cloud solutions provide.” The search for a cloud-based global communications and collaboration solution led Veyance to select Microsoft Office 365. Office 365 delivers Microsoft Exchange Online, SharePoint Online, and Lync Online as a connected solution, along with the familiar Office applications in Microsoft Office 365 ProPlus. Office 365 ProPlus is the full client version of Office delivered as a service. It includes applications such as Microsoft Outlook, Word, PowerPoint, Excel, and OneNote. “We looked at alternative solutions, but we felt that these solutions lacked the breadth of enterprise capabilities we needed, such as a full-featured Office suite and the ability to work effectively in a disconnected state,” says Hill. “Microsoft creates additional value for our business, and we knew that our employees would appreciate the synergy of using one connected solution; something that alternative solutions cannot provide.”
Because of its rapid deployment of Office 365 cloud-based services, Veyance quickly modernized its communications and collaboration infrastructure and empowered its employees to support its business transformation strategy. Hill says, “We had a strategy to operate as a global enterprise, and without Office 365, we would not be able to pursue that strategy as effectively. Office 365 is a real catalyst to enabling employee communications and collaboration for the purpose of creating customer value.”
Enable Global Business Transformation
By adding Lync Online and SharePoint Online to its global infrastructure, Veyance employees can now easily access company expertise and skills that exist in other parts of the world. Employees can not only...
Industries: Manufacturing
Based in Fairlawn, Ohio, Veyance Technologies is the exclusive manufacturer and marketer of Goodyear Engineered Products worldwide. It has locations in North America, South America, Europe, Asia, Australia, and South Africa.
In 2011, new leadership decided to transform the business from a decentralized operation to a global enterprise. Veyance sought a robust platform to improve employee communications and collaboration.
Veyance’s search for a cloud solution led it to select Microsoft Office 365 for email, instant messaging, presence, conferencing, and collaboration capabilities for its employees.
Improve communications and collaboration
Reduce the cost of email by 40 percent
Provide always up-to-date, fully managed services
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The Thirty Nine Steps (Heroes & Villains)
Description - The Thirty Nine Steps (Heroes & Villains) by John Buchan
May 1914. Britain is on the eve of war with Germany. Richard Hannay is living a quiet life in London, but after a chance encounter with a mysterious stranger he stumbles into a hair-raising adventure - a desperate hunt across the country and against the clock, pursued by the police and a cunning, ruthless enemy. Hannay's life and the security of Britain are in grave peril, and everything rests on the solution to a baffling enigma- what are the thirty-nine steps?
Buy The Thirty Nine Steps (Heroes & Villains) by John Buchan from Australia's Online Independent Bookstore, Boomerang Books.
Thriller / suspense
Imprint: Vintage Classics
Publish Date: 5-Apr-2018
Book Reviews - The Thirty Nine Steps (Heroes & Villains) by John Buchan
» Have you read this book? We'd like to know what you think about it - write a review about Thirty Nine Steps (Heroes & Villains) book by John Buchan and you'll earn 50c in Boomerang Bucks loyalty dollars (you must be a Boomerang Books Account Holder - it's free to sign up and there are great benefits!)
Author Biography - John Buchan
John Buchan was born in Perth in 1875, the son of a Scottish Presbyterian minister, and educated at Glasgow. He gained a first at Oxford University, where he began writing, producing two volumes of essays, four novels and two collections of stories and poems before the age of twenty-five. He worked briefly as a lawyer, then served as a private secretary in the colonial administration of South Africa after the Boer War. During the war he worked both as a journalist and at Britain's War Propaganda Bureau, eventually becoming Director of Information. He published his most popular novel, The Thirty-Nine Steps, in 1915, and it has never since been out of print. In 1935 Buchan was elevated to the peerage, becoming Baron Tweedmuir of Elsfield, and later that year was appointed Governor General of Canada by King George V. He died on 11 February 1940.
Books By John Buchan
Thirty-Nine Steps
Complete Richard Hannay Stories
Paperback / softback, July 2010
Witch Wood
Paperback / softback, March 2018
Blanket of the Dark
Paperback / softback, January 2009
View All Books By Author John Buchan
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Orrin Hatch to Host Meeting with Tech Execs Who Want More Guest-Worker Visas
AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin
Sen. Orrin Hatch’s (R-UT) Senate Republican High-Tech Task Force will host a meeting next week with executives from some of the nation’s most prominent high-tech companies who have pushed Congress to massively increase the number of H-1b guest-worker visas for foreigners.
Breitbart News has learned that Senate Republicans received invites this week to the March 3 meeting with the Business Software Alliance’s board of directors, which includes executives from Apple, Microsoft, Oracle, Dell, IBM and other high-tech companies.
Hatch, who chairs the High-Tech Task Force, has co-sponsored legislation to increase the number of H-1b visas. And Republicans reportedly are hoping that a high-tech immigration bill can be a gateway to a more comprehensive amnesty bill.
The event, according an announcement, will “provide an excellent opportunity to discuss timely issues such as patent reform, data privacy, high-skilled immigration, trade, or any other high-tech initiative important” to Senators.
Though there is no evidence of a shortage of high-tech workers, tech companies such as Microsoft, which announced that it would lay off 18,000 American workers, have been clamoring for massive increases in H-1b visas that would lower the wages of American high-tech workers.
But when a ComputerWorld reported exposed Southern California Edison for laying off hundreds of workers for H-1b guest-workers who were not better qualified than the workers they were replacing, even Rep. Darrell Issa (D-CA), who sponsored legislation in the House to increase H-1b visas, said he was “deeply disturbed” that Southern California Edison may be abusing the H-1b visa system.
Ron Hira, a Howard University public policy professor, released a report last week that found Tata and Infosys, the top two India-based H-1b outsourcing companies that helped Southern California Edison find its guest-workers, were “abusing” the H-1b system.
“The H-1B workers Infosys and Tata hire are being used as temporary, cheaper, disposable labor, not as a way to permanently introduce talent and innovation into the American labor market,” Hira concluded in his report, which was based on government data he received through a Freedom of Information Act request.
Hira has urged Labor Secretary Thomas Perez to conduct a thorough investigation to see if Southern California Edison violated immigration or labor laws. As ComputerWorld noted:
Hira pointed out that as a part of the application process to obtain H-1B approval from the Labor Department, an employer is required to attest to the following: “Working Conditions: The employer attests that H-1B, H-1B1 or E-3 foreign workers in the named occupation will not adversely affect the working conditions of workers similarly employed.” This statement is in Form 9035CP of the LCA.Further, Hira noted that the Labor Department states, “The Immigration and Nationality Act (INA) requires that the hiring of a foreign worker will not adversely affect the wages and working conditions of U.S. workers comparably employed.
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"Affordable" Counsel
Those of us raised on cop dramas take for granted that in this country you have the right to an attorney, and that if you cannot afford it, one will be provided to you....
Maggie Barron
Those of us raised on cop dramas take for granted that in this country you have the right to an attorney, and that if you cannot afford it, one will be provided to you. What Americans don't know is that in courtrooms across the country, there is a lot of room to interpret what "afford" actually means.
This week, the Brennan Center for Justice released a new report, "Eligible for Justice," exposing the lack of standards for determining who is eligible for court-appointed defense counsel. In a national study, the Brennan Center found that many jurisdictions use flawed screening processes to separate those who can afford counsel from those who cannot, and as a result are denying government-funded defense counsel to people who should receive it, in violation of the Sixth Amendment.
The landmark Supreme Court case Gideon v. Wainwright requires that states provide counsel to all people charged with felonies who are unable to afford their own attorney without substantial hardship. Yet states have been provided with little instruction on how to determine which individuals are genuinely unable to pay for counsel. Some courts have no standards at all.
"Eligibility for defense counsel is determined differently almost everywhere we looked," says Laura Abel, an author of the report and Deputy Director of the Brennan Center's Access to Justice Program. "It depends on the county you live in, or the judge hearing your case, or the mood of the prosecutor that day. The result is a policy disaster."
In Florida, Tennessee and Wisconsin, for example, courts routinely deny requests for counsel if a defendant has enough money to post bond, without considering how much money is left over. Some jurisdictions deny counsel if you have a family member who has enough money to post your bond—the logic being that that family member should be able to pay for your counsel as well. In Arizona; Collin County, Texas; Florida; and New Hampshire, courts deny counsel to defendants who have cars and houses, demanding that people sell these possessions in order to pay for an attorney.
Not surprisingly, in such a situation many people are forced to defend themselves (which often involves pleading guilty without a full hearing), or must sell their possessions, or go without staples like food and clothing, in order to pay for an attorney that the 6th Amendment says should be provided to them at no cost.
The solution? Courts across the country should implement simple, consistent screening processes that can fairly and transparently determine which people cannot afford counsel.
The full report is available here.
Ending Mass Incarceration: Ideas from Today's Leaders
Ending Mass Incarceration: A Presidential Agenda
Criminal Justice Solutions: Model State Legislation
Private prisons have boomed under Trump. Elizabeth Warren just vowed to eviscerate them
Cory Booker has a plan to reform the criminal justice system — without Congress
Biden defends crime bill amid criticism from Democratic foes and Trump
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Johnson v. Bush
The Center, representing more than 600,000 Florida citizens in a class action suit, challenged Florida’s permanent disenfranchisement of people with felony convictions. Together with co-counsel, the Center argued that, because of its discriminatory intent and effect, Florida’s voting ban violated both the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments and the Voting Rights Act of 1965.
NAACP v. Harvey
Voting After Criminal Conviction
Allison v. Vilsack
This case is a challenge to Iowa's Executive Order No. 42, which restored voting rights to approximately 80,000 Iowans who had fully served their criminal sentences by July 4, 2005.
League of Women Voters of Ohio v. Blackwell
The Center filed suit on behalf of Ohio voters to stop Ohio Secretary of State J. Kenneth Blackwell from proceeding with the State’s plan for handling provisional ballots in the upcoming November 2 election.
Michigan State Conference of NAACP Branches v. Land
The Center filed suit on behalf of Michigan voters to stop the Michigan Secretary of State and Director of Elections from proceeding with the State’s plan for handling provisional ballots in the upcoming November 2 election.
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Henry E. Lowood
When Nintendo released The Legend of Zelda for the Japanese market in 1986, it marked a new era in the culture, technology, and business of video games. The game’s designer, Miyamoto Shigeru, was already a star, having produced Donkey Kong and the Mario Brothers series. Now he wanted to push further the concept of open-ended game play by giving players a large but unified world in which they could discover their own path for the development of the main character, named Link. Miyamoto’s design exploited the improvements in graphics processing made possible by Nintendo’s MMC (Memory Map Controller) chip, and the provision of battery-powered backup storage in Nintendo’s new game cartridges allowed players to save their progress, thus making extended story lines more practical. The game interface also featured new elements, such as screens that were activated to manage the hero’s items or abilities—a technique similar to the pull-down menus then beginning to appear in business software. These innovations gave players freedom to navigate through a fully two-dimensional world (viewed from the top down) as Link’s personality evolved through his efforts to defeat the evil Ganon and rescue princess Zelda. Moreover, Miyamoto paid careful attention to the pacing and complexity of the game, ensuring that players would improve their skills as Link progressed to more difficult challenges. Success in The Legend of Zelda was measured by playing the game to completion over multiple sessions lasting perhaps dozens of hours, rather than scoring as many points as possible in a single session. Miyamoto thus raised expectations for greater narrative scope and more compelling game mechanics in a new generation of video games.
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British Genealogy & Family History Forums > County Forums including Ireland, Scotland, Wales and British Islands. > Across 'The Pond(s)' Forums > Europe Genealogy > Edward Bruyn (France) late 1700s early 1800s
View Full Version : Edward Bruyn (France) late 1700s early 1800s
Wayne Cook
This is a wild card search.
I am wanting to find out if there is a marriage for an Edward Bruyn/Bruin to a Margaret ? in the late 1700's early 1800's possibly near or at Graville, Le Havre, Seine, France (that is where their son Daniel, his wife and their children lived when they were in France in the 1840's just before the Industrial Revolution and they had to flee).
I am lead to believe via my Great Grandmother's sister Ellen Bruyn's Obituary that they came from a Long Establish French family.
Her father was born in Roscommon Ireland about 1813 but I suspect his parents (or one of them) may have come from France and may have even been married in France but I have no evidence to say either way. (it is a hopeful guess)
Lesley Robertson
Wayne, that spelling (Bruyn, Bruin, Bruijn) is Dutch/Flemish. Are you sure that they didn't originate a little further north, maybe in what was then known in the Low Countries (now mostly Belgium)? The population of western Europe did move around quite a lot time, although I'm not sure why an Industrial Revolution would force anyone to flee (emigrate yes, a lot did).
France didn't have a good middle 19th century - there was a revolution against the Bourbon monarchs in 1830 when when the House of Orleans took over the Monarchy until 1848 when they had another revolution and Louis-Napoleon Bonaparte became President. In 1851 there was a coup after which he declared himself Emperor Napoleon and ruled until 1870.
Alternatively, maybe it was Edward's wife who was French.
What did these people do for a living?
emmteeyess
I'm sorry I can't help at all with this query, even though Roscommon caught my eye as I have distant ancestors from there.
But I just had to say this typifies what I love about this Brit-Gen forum (and genealogy in general) - family rumours, a bit of history and geography, the odd document quoted (Great Grandmother's sister's Obituary) and a random wildcard plea for help. I love it.
Best of luck with the other replies.
:cheers2:
1848 revolution plus states a long Established French Family. Her sisters Margaret Monaghan and Elizabeth Cook (my Great Grandmother) were alive when she died and this obit was written (they lived in France with her at the time and would know their family connections and origins).
https://www.british-genealogy.com/extensions/uploads/bf55a4d3-5ff7-4fa1-bd00-ad4d0f5e0b7b.jpg
Lesley, I have used near Graville, Le Havre, Seine, France as a starting point as I know their son's family lived there for 4 years when they were in France and left there in 1848 when the revolution was happening.
Lesley, I know their son was a Blacksmith (the one who went to France for 4 years with his family and then had to flee in 1848). Yes it could be his wife that was French but I have no surname for her at this point in time. Hence trying to locate a Marriage.
That fits with what I said - Bonaparte took over in 1848. Not an industrial revolution but just another ambitious man who didn't mind who got hurt...
You're right to start simply. There's a lot of unknowns. A lot depends on what the obit meant - for example we don't know what they meant by long-established... 3 generations or 5?
In your place, I would go to the search engine on FamilySearch.org and feed it with the different spellings of Bruyn, specifying France and the relevant time period and see what pops up. If you then move the search into Belgium, you'll have to add the bride's name as the surname becomes more common.
Don't forget that the west coast of Europe had a lot of wars over the 18th/19th centuries (the Spanish, the Napoleons, etc) and a lot of Churches for burned...
Thanks. I will try that site again. I was of the belief, it was an Industrial Revolution because it was over people like the Bruyn family going to France and taking away the jobs of the French people. Hence most left when the revolution started without their wages and belongings as they fled.
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10th anniversary for the Wiels Contemporary arts centre and the “destroyer of capitalism”
The Wiels Contemporary arts centre in Brussels (Forest) will celebrate its 10th anniversary in 2017. To mark the occasion, it will host a large exhibition called “The absent museum” from the 20th of April to the 13th of August. The exhibition will include work by 45 emblematic artists from the contemporary arts scene, including Luc Tuymans, Marcel Broodthaers, Francis Alÿs and Gerhard Richter.
This large exhibition will be held in the refurbished “Bloome” area and two neighbouring buildings, which were part of the “Wielemans brewery”.
To kick off this year of celebration, Wiels has got the Antwerp artist Sven ‘t Jolle, who was born in 1966, to exhibit from the 13th of January to the 19th of March. He is a passionate critic of capitalism. His sculptures, collages, installations and paper pieces are constellations of images, forms and ideas. They are full of historic references and current anecdotes, and influenced by Art’s history and popular culture. They are of course also critical of politicians. He plays with language and mixes slogans and proverbs in French, Dutch and English.
The theme of his exhibition says it all: “The age of Entitlement or affordable tooth extraction”. It’s a reference to a very controversial speech by the Australian Finance Minister Joe Hockey back in 2013. Mr Hockey is the current US ambassador for his country. In his speech, he talked about current restrictions on healthcare, which could lead to people taking out their own bad teeth.
Behind the term “entitlement” is “enlightenment”, which refers to the 18th century and the century of Enlightenment in Europe. Its ideals are based on Reason, Tolerance and Freedom. The artist says the same terms are now used in a neo-liberalist way and their meaning has changed dramatically.
Some of his work deals with immigration policies and austerity. The artist explores the values and inequalities of contemporary society with light humour.
Andy Sanchez (Source: Belga)
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Guest Opinion: Legislation will allow will of community to be heard
By Tammi Bathke
The three Republicans on Mount Laurel’s Township Council have said their ordinance for a referendum to change from partisan to nonpartisan elections was to allow the people to be heard. They have stated that this is something residents have asked them for when they knocked on doors in recent weeks.
At the council meetings in the last few months, many residents have spoken against this change, and a few in support of it.
Current law allows a referendum to be placed on the ballot to change the election with either signatures of 10% of the last election's voters in the New Jersey Assembly or a simple majority of the council. This law does not allow for the will of the community to be heard.
Assemblywoman Carol Murphy, a Democrat from Mount Laurel, and state Sen. Troy Singleton, a Democrat from Delran, have created legislation that will change this law. They are looking to raise the requirements for getting a referendum to change the election. They want to make sure that if only a few partisan politicians want this change, it will not pass unless there is strong community support for it.
In November, if the turnout is at the normal level for an off-year election, we will have a turnout of about 30% of registered voters. That would be less than a third of the community deciding how Mount Laurel will hold its elections. Mount Laurel should not have its township government changed because of 15% of registered voters saying yes to a referendum.
If this referendum was to be put on the ballot in 2020, the turnout would be 80% of registered voters. It could still pass or be defeated without majority support. That is why it is so important for a referendum like this to have real support before getting on the ballot. A question like this without strong support could tear a town apart, as both sides present their case for why this should be passed or defeated.
If the legislation is signed into law prior to Monday's Township Council meeting, it will protect Mount Laurel from a contentious battle this summer and fall. We as a town must join together and say we do not want party politics to run our council, as it has since 1985.
We do that by voting in people who put the town ahead of their own political agenda, people who do not look for campaign contributions from township vendors to help pave their re-election.
We the people of Mount Laurel need to hold our elected officials to a higher standard. This bill from the state will help us do that by raising the standard for changing an election or a local government.
Tammi Bathke is a resident of Mount Laurel.
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Home News I’ve be...
I’ve been using Samsung’s new $1,000 Galaxy Note 9, and it’s the only smartphone actually worthy of its high price tag
Antonio Villas-Boas, Business Insider US
I’ve been using the Galaxy Note 9 as my daily phone for a little over a week now, and I’m confident this is one of the best phones I’ve used to date.
It combines everything I love about the Galaxy S9, like the gorgeous screen, camera, and design, and enhances it with a large display and an S Pen I’ve only recently come to appreciate.
While everyone can use the Galaxy Note 9, it’s also the second $1,000 mainstream phone to become available after the iPhone X. That particular price tag isn’t for everyone. But the Galaxy Note 9 has a particular kind of user in mind: the power user.
Check out the Galaxy Note 9:
Design-wise, the Galaxy Note 9 is a gorgeous device.
Despite its notchless display and slightly wider side bezels compared with the Galaxy Note 8 and the Galaxy S9, the only other Android phones that come close to or match the Galaxy Note 9 in terms of design are the OnePlus 6 and the Essential Phone.
As is always the case with Samsung phones, the Galaxy Note 9’s display is the best in the business.
While design may be subjective, the quality of the Galaxy Note 9’s display is universally top notch. Its bright, sharp, colors are rich, and dark colors are deep, making for a stunning display with gorgeous contrast. That’s pretty typical for Samsung’s Galaxy line of flagship smartphones, but it’s accentuated by the large 6.4-inch display, which is one of the larger screens you can get on a smartphone.
While I do love the Galaxy Note 9’s large screen, it’s not an easy phone to handle with one hand. It’s a trade-off I’m willing to make for the joys of a large screen. Not only do apps and video look great on a large display, but it’s also large enough that I felt comfortable sharing the screen with two apps for actual, real multitasking. I could easily split the Galaxy Note 9’s screen with the Slack office messaging app and the Gmail app. And when I’m not working, splitting the screen between the YouTube app and Chrome during my commute has been invaluable to pass the time.
Spec-wise, you’re getting one of the most powerful phones you can buy, but it’s still not as fast as the fastest Android phone you can buy, which costs $530.
The Galaxy Note 9 runs off the latest and most powerful smartphone chip of 2018, the Qualcomm Snapdragon 845. Most flagship devices released in 2018 use the same chip, but the Galaxy Note 9 has an advantage with its extra RAM. The base model comes with 6 GB of RAM, and the higher-end model comes with 8 GB of RAM.
Those specs are similar to those of the fastest Android phone you can buy: the $530 OnePlus 6. And yet, the Galaxy Note 9 still doesn’t feel quite as snappy or smooth as the OnePlus 6.
Don’t get me wrong; the Galaxy Note 9 is no slouch. But the OnePlus 6 just sets such a high bar that no other phone has achieved so far.
The Galaxy Note 9 makes it easy for you to unlock the phone.
Considering how often smartphone users unlock their phones in a single day, I find this to be a pretty important facet in a smartphone. It might seem trivial, but not all phones have good fingerprint readers or face detection.
You can set the Galaxy Note 9 to use three different sensors to unlock the phone, including an iris scanner, face detection, and a fingerprint sensor on the back. With all those options enabled, the Galaxy Note 9 unlocks the phone using whichever part of your body it senses first, and it makes for a nice, easy, and relatively fast unlocking experience.
I can’t believe I’m saying this, but I’ve become an S Pen convert …
With the Galaxy Note 9, I made more effort than ever to use the included S Pen, and I’ve been loving it.
I don’t use it all the time, but it’s been better than simply using my finger in certain situations, such as taking notes when a thought suddenly crosses my mind or jotting down a packing list for a coming vacation.
And combined with the Galaxy Note 9’s large display, using the S Pen helped me do things on the phone that I would usually reserve for a computer. The task of booking a hotel for my vacation wasn’t as daunting as it usually is on a smartphone’s smaller display without a stylus. The S Pen also gives me more precision for finer items, like setting the time period I want to stay at the hotel.
Samsung added some nifty features like controlling the camera remotely for better selfie shots from farther away and with groups. The idea is that you can perch the Galaxy Note 9 on something, walk back a few feet, and take a snapshot using the S Pen. I’m not the target demographic for this kind of feature, but selfie takers may actually like this.
The camera is one of the best on any smartphone.
I tested the Galaxy Note 9’s camera against the Pixel 2’s, which is widely viewed as the best smartphone camera, and the Galaxy Note 9 comes pretty close. That’s to say the Galaxy Note 9 has one of the best available smartphone cameras.
New to the Samsung’s Galaxy phones, Samsung added some camera smarts that let the Galaxy Note 9 recognize certain objects or scenes you’re taking a photo of and adjust the camera settings that best match them. And it does seem to help in taking better photos.
It comes with an incredible amount of storage that a lot of people probably don’t need, and it most likely drives up the cost of the Galaxy Note 9.
You can’t get a Galaxy Note 9 with less than 128 GB of storage, which is massive. That’s far more storage than I’d ever need.
And should you want more storage, you can add a 512 GB microSD card to the Galaxy Note 9. Add that to the 512 GB model of the Galaxy Note 9, and you have a 1 terabyte smartphone. I suppose it’s nice to have, but I’ve never met anyone who uses that much storage on a mobile device.
I didn’t really notice any extra battery life from the Galaxy Note 9’s massive battery.
The Galaxy Note 9’s large 4,000 mAh battery didn’t really give me a noticeable boost in battery life compared with phones that have batteries in the 3,000 mAh range. That’s most likely because of the Galaxy Note 9’s large screen.
As with most Android phones these days, a fast charger is included with the Galaxy Note 9. But I have to say, charging is actually pretty slow on the Galaxy Note 9 compared with even the Galaxy S9. That probably has something to do with the size of the Galaxy Note 9’s battery.
There’s also wireless “fast charging,” which really isn’t fast compared with its wired alternatives, and you need to buy separate accessories.
You won’t notice that it’s not running the latest version of Android.
Oddly, the Galaxy Note 9 runs on Android 8.1 Oreo, even though Google released Android 9 Pie a few days before the Galaxy Note 9’s announcement. You won’t really notice that it’s an older version of Android, as Android 9 features like Adaptive Battery are more under-the-hood improvements than anything else.
Still, running on an older version of Android feeds into Android’s fragmentation problem that Google can’t seem to shake off. Overall, it would be better for security if Android phones all ran the latest version of Android, not to mention benefits from Google’s latest Android features, whether or not they’re noticeable.
I actively dislike how Samsung is trying to get you to use Bixby.
Antonio Villas-Boas/Business Insider
The Bixby button on the left edge of the Galaxy Note 9 summons Samsung’s artificial-intelligence assistant. At the moment, it’s not possible to change what the Bixby button does, and it’s not even possible to turn off the button, which is a poor move on Samsung’s part. Hopefully it’s something that will change in updates.
I accidentally press the Bixby button several times a day, which interrupts what I’m doing. It’s incredibly frustrating that Samsung is forcing this button and Bixby down your gullet in this way. I don’t use smart AI assistants on smartphones very often, so this is a particularly irritating aspect.
I also couldn’t change the Bixby Home screen when you swipe right. It’s either Bixby or nothing. Bixby Home is meant to show me things I’d be interested in on apps like YouTube and Twitter and a variety of other apps that can link to Bixby Home, but it does an astoundingly poor job at showing anything relevant to me. I found myself yearning for the Google Assistant Feed from the Pixel 2.
Should you buy it?
If you’re comparing the $1,000 Galaxy Note 9 with the $1,000 iPhone X, I’d say the Galaxy Note 9 is the superior phone.
With the iPhone X, you’re just getting a fancy iPhone. With the Galaxy Note 9, however, you’re getting a little more than just a phone. The Galaxy Note 9 is a more complete all-in-one kind of device that makes it comfortable to do more on the phone because of its large screen and the S Pen. It is, indeed, designed with the power user in mind, and it’s priced as such. But I understand the appeal.
The Galaxy Note 9 is the only $1,000 smartphone I’d consider actually worthy of its price tag, at least for power users who would benefit from the Galaxy Note 9’s large display and S Pen. Regular smartphone users should do fine with smaller, S Pen-less smartphones like the Galaxy S9 or other top Android phones. For those users, I’d recommend the OnePlus 6.
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'Acrimony' Star Taraji P. Henson Is Still Fighting To Prove Herself To Hollywood — Even At The Top Of Her Game
By Kadeen Griffiths
Greg Doherty/Getty Images Entertainment/Getty Images
Taraji P. Henson's portrayal of Cookie Lyon on Empire led her to become the first black actor to win a Critics Choice Television Award for Best Actress in a Drama Series in 2015. A year later, she was named one of the most influential people in the world by Time Magazine. In 2017, she won a SAG Award for her portrayal of Katherine Johnson in the box office smash Hidden Figures. And yet, as she tells me over a recent breakfast at the Ritz-Carlton, she still has to convince Hollywood that she's a serious actor.
"I always feel like I’m still proving that I’m a bonafide actress, you know what I mean?" she says when we meet in March, during promotion for her new Tyler Perry film Acrimony. "Where I came from made me who I am, but I’m also a trained actress. Just because I talk like that girl who was in the hood, you can’t judge me by that. Because once you give me the script, as I’ve proven time and time again, I deliver."
There's a lot of proof to back Henson up. Hidden Figures — in which she co-starred alongside Octavia Spencer and Janelle Monáe — became the highest-grossing Best Picture nominee to date, making over $200 million worldwide. Hell, even her first prominent role was as Yvette in 2001's Baby Boy, which was fifth at the box office its opening week and received four out of five stars from Roger Ebert. But none of those results are enough to change the facts. Black women are paid 64 cents to every dollar that white men make in and out of Hollywood. Forbes' highest paid actresses of 2017 list didn't have a single black woman in the top 10. And, even in 2018, people are hating on celebrities like Tiffany Haddish or Henson for being too "loud" or "annoying" or "classless" — just for being their authentic selves.
"A lot of times I get judged for being me. But you can't do that. You can’t just assume I can’t give you Shakespeare in the Park or Chekhov or Euripides because I speak like this. I went to an HBCU [Historically Black Colleges & Universities], yes, but I was still trained," Henson says with clear passion. "I’m just gonna work until my work can’t be denied. So that, one day, when they finally get it, they’re going to wake up and be like, 'oh my god, wow, she’s been doing this right under our noses all this time.' While you were judging, I’ve been working."
Photo by Chip Bergmann/Lionsgate
Acrimony, out March 30, is some of Henson's finest work to date. In the film, she plays Melinda, a "woman scorned" whose ex-husband has betrayed her. Her grudge runs so deep that she's out for revenge — whether or not her ex-husband (Lyriq Bent) is truly deserving of magnitude of her rage. Despite the fact that Melinda goes to increasingly alarming lengths to get even for the perceived slight, Henson doesn't qualify her as a villain, and she doesn't play her like one. In the actor's hands, Melinda has depth and gravitas to be both hated and loved for who she is — not unlike Henson's most famous creation, Cookie Lyon.
"That’s the challenge to play a character that can be easily hated. Cookie’s like that. I mean, the things she says out of her mouth! But... she’s a truth sayer, so literally she’s saying things that people are afraid to say," Henson explains. "I love to play characters that can be easily liked and then flip it so you’re sitting there like 'why do I like this person, I should really hate her, she’s not a good person, but I like her.'"
While trailers might make Melinda seem like the "angry black woman", shouting, destroying property, and having to be held back from fights, that's a harmful stereotype that the character calls out in the film, and Henson does in our conversation. "I don’t call it black woman rage, because... that’s a human trait to snap. That doesn’t have a color to it," the actor says. "We battle dark side and light side every day. That’s a choice we make. Some people might be wired differently in the brain and they can’t help themselves, but for the most part we have to choose, 'Today’s gonna be a good day. I’m not gonna slap a b*tch because she’s looking at me wrong.' That’s a choice that we make. We all are capable of rage."
Lionsgate Movies on YouTube
How deeply Henson thinks about her characters is why she's capable of communicating an entire wealth of emotion with only a single look — through Melinda, through Cookie, through Yvette, and everyone in between. But no matter how hard she works, how many awards she's nominated for or wins, or how many hurdles she jumps, the goal posts just keep moving, and not just in the ways she's perceived by audiences.
Take, for example, an issue that Henson brings up in her 2016 memoir, Around The Way Girl. In the book, the actor claims that she was paid less than 2 percent of Brad Pitt's salary for The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, the movie for which she was nominated for her first Oscar. (At the time, representatives of the film declined to comment on the claims.) "The math really is pretty simple," Henson wrote in her memoir. "There are way more talented black actresses than there are intelligent, meaningful roles for them, and we’re consistently charged with diving for the crumbs of the scraps, lest we starve."
And while a 2016 Variety article reports that Henson makes the same $175,000 per episode as her Empire co-star Terrence Howard, that salary is almost than half of what many of TV's white lead actors are being paid. So, it's no wonder that Henson still feels that her hardest fight in Hollywood is "getting my money."
But of course, she's not going to stop fighting — and not just for herself. "I have an audience who has been following me since Baby Boy, and they are still with me. Not a lot of people can say that," Henson says, sounding equal parts grateful and humbled. "I don’t take my job lightly. I know people are counting on me. I want to be the type of actress when you hear my name on something, [you're like] 'I gotta go see it because I know she’s gonna deliver.' Undeniable."
Henson has two films under her belt for 2018 already — Acrimony and Proud Mary before it — and at least two more to come, so it shouldn't be long before those who don't already consider her "undeniable" come around. But even if Hollywood keeps sleeping on everything she has to offer, there's no doubt that the actor will still be working, fighting, and delivering, time and time again.
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Driverless Trucks – Evolution or Revolution?
September 1, 2016 By ByBox
When most people think of driverless trucks, they think of a truck running from location to location without any human input (at least during the journey itself). However, the first thing to understand about driverless trucks is, at least for the foreseeable future, they will not truly be driverless.
This may seem counter-intuitive, but the process is likely to be similar to an aircraft’s autopilot. In most commercial aircraft the majority of the flight is dealt with by an autopilot system, however, the pilots are still on hand to assist with landing, take-off and (on rare occasions) deal with any unforeseen issues that may arise. The technology currently being trialed in driverless trucks works very similarly. Drivers will be needed to set off the vehicle, park the vehicle and perform any manoeuvres the computer couldn’t handle. This currently includes dealing with heavy traffic and complicated roads.
In this way, a driverless system is more like an intelligent cruise control. It will be great for long stretches of motorway, but congested towns and cities will still need a manual touch.
It is true to say that the technology will only improve, and it will almost certainly advance to a point where trucks can go from location to location without human input. However, it would still be necessary to have someone in the vehicle. Trucks aren’t self-maintaining and there is some field maintenance that could only be performed by a person. As a result the prediction that this technology will eliminate the 45% of logistics costs that is currently taken up by driver’s wages is unrealistic. So, if the technology doesn’t save significantly on cost, what are the advantages of a driverless system?
Driverless systems will provide lorry drivers with an easier work life. Operating a lorry can be stressful and at times monotonous, but having a driverless system will alleviate some of these issues. It is also very likely that as the system becomes more reliable, the training requirements to operate heavy goods vehicles (HGVs) will be reduced. This will help bring new drivers into the market and alleviate the current driver shortage.
Crucially driverless systems are also much safer. Google’s driverless system was used for over six years and travelled 1.7 million miles without ever being involved in an accident where the system was at fault. When considering that HGVs are implicated in one in five road accidents, and over half the fatal motorway accidents in the UK, this improvement in safety will certainly be welcomed by motorists.
These benefits are unlikely to revolutionise the way your businesses operates, but will be significant enough to make many logistics professionals want to adopt the technology. And, as the systems are only going to improve, it would seem to be a worthwhile investment when it is available.
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Actress Olivia Wilde steps behind the camera to direct ‘Booksmart’
Ed Symkus More Content Now
Even before Olivia Wilde got her first screen credit, she was fascinated by the art and technical process of moviemaking. The native New Yorker had studied stagework at the Gaiety School of Acting in Dublin, but hadn’t yet landed her breakout role - Alex Kelly on the TV show “The O.C.” - when she scored a gig as a casting assistant for the feature film “The Girl Next Door.” It was on that set where her career took a couple of turns. In need of a SAG card so she could get health insurance, she persuaded the filmmakers to let her have one line of dialogue. And her curiosity concerning how films were made kicked in, so she paid attention to what everyone else on the set was doing. A lot more acting came her way, and her desire to know more led to her talking to and learning from various cinematographers and camera crews and directors - among them Ron Howard (“Rush”), Spike Jonze (“Her”), and Jon Favreau (“Cowboys & Aliens”).
It also led her to directing. Her first time, in 2011, was on a sweet comedy short titled “Free Hugs.” Now, Wilde, 35, has finished her first feature, “Booksmart,” another sweet comedy that offers a refreshing look at two young women going through coming-of-age issues. It’s nuanced and thoughtful, it has a good balance of drama and humor, and the right amount of attention is given to assorted characters. Wilde obviously learned from what other directors were doing. She recently visited Boston to talk about what went into making the film.
Q: Did you know early on that you wanted to direct films as well as act in them?
A: By the time I made “Free Hugs” I had spent 10 years on sets, and I had found myself gravitating toward the director and the director of photography. I would see other actors go to their trailers between set ups, and put on their slippers. But I like consistency. I have a very hard time engaging emotionally, dropping that wall, becoming vulnerable, creating a moment, and then zipping it all up and putting it away for an hour. And then doing it all again, and then ... lunch! I found that my happy place on-set was sitting at the monitor, slowly inching my way closer. When I was a casting assistant on “The Girl Next Door,” I found myself hovering behind video village, and watching what everyone was doing. Then I started acting in more and more films and on television, and I was asking a lot of questions. I am the product of hundreds of people being incredibly generous with their time, and allowing me to ask questions like, “What’s that lens? Why does it make a difference?” I was trying to supplement my lack of film school with experience, and just shadowing people as much as possible.
Q: “Free Hugs” was made through an initiative for female filmmakers that was started by Glamour magazine. What was that all about?
A: I was seriously thinking about trying directing. Glamour Reel Moments was a program the magazine did and that my short came out of. They gave pretty sizeable budgets to women who wanted to direct, and I benefited from that. I had fun with it and I had never been that happy. I started asking all the directors I had worked for how to do it. I asked Spike Jonze and he said, “You’ve gotta make music videos.” Luckily a couple of bands took a risk on me (Red Hot Chili Peppers and Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros) and then I started getting offers from a lot of different bands. But I only wanted to do the videos if I loved the song. I also knew that I would need to find a feature that I really loved. I started the process of figuring out what would be the thing that I can love enough, and it was “Booksmart.”
Q: How did you and “Booksmart” first get together?
A: I read the original draft of the script, which had been written a few years earlier, and I knew that it contained a story that I really wanted to tell. But I felt that it needed to be updated to match today’s world. I thought the story was a great idea - two women who are best friends who are incredibly smart, in different ways, and who are proud of being intelligent. It is not a story of nerds trying to assimilate. It is a story of two women realizing there’s something they haven’t yet experienced, and they believe in their own multidimensionality. It’s a story that is more existential than a simple quest for losing one’s virginity or trying to be loved by the popular kids. I saw the potential for that and I knew I had to find a collaborator who could flesh that out and take it to the next level. I met Katie Silberman and she understood not only how to do the things I had been hoping for, but so many other dimensions to the story that hadn’t even occurred to me. We wrote the script together, then collaborated on every stage after that.
Q: You ended up working with veteran actors as well as actors who were in their first film. Was that a big challenge?
A: Everybody was bringing so many different types of experience and energy to it, and that kept it all really interesting. I truly believed that this could be a two-hander (a film focused on just two characters), while also investing in the ensemble. I’m really inspired by Amy Heckerling in general, but specifically by her film “Fast Times at Ridgemont High.” It’s a perfect example of a fully fleshed out ensemble. Right before we started shooting, we had a screening of “Fast Times” for the whole cast. A lot of them hadn’t seen it, and they were coming up to me and saying, “That movie is amazing! It really inspired me! I have so many ideas now!” So, everybody was recognizing that there were no small characters, no small roles. And I think that is why our cast comes off so beautifully. Because everybody invested, and nobody was phoning it in. People were coming up with ideas, choices, specificity. It was so much fun to be able to create the environment conducive to that.
“Booksmart” opens on May 24.
Ed Symkus writes about movies for More Content Now. He can be reached at esymkus@rcn.com.
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From ‘Ethnic Cleansing’ to Casualty Count, Prof. Qumsiyeh Errs
By: Tamar Sternthal August 20, 2004
Mazin Qumsiyeh, an associate professor of genetics at Yale University, has an active extra-curricular life. The co-founder and media coordinator for Al-Awda, the Palestinian Right of Return Coalition, he busies himself publishing letters and op-eds in newspapers across the country. His latest installment, a July 27 op-ed (“Time to apply South Africa remedy to Israel”) in the New Haven Register, contained highly distorted and unsubstantiated accusations against Israel. While the accusations were of an extremely general nature, Qumsiyeh did make some specific allegations which are demonstrably false.
For instance, he claims that “The center of this problem is the ethnic cleansing of Christian and Muslim Palestinians while opening the gate for any Jew or convert to Judaism to take their place.” Ethnic cleansing? In actuality, Israeli Arabs and Palestinians have the highest rate of natural increase in the world. According to Professor Arnon Soffer, Israel’s leading demographer, the natural rate of increase of the Arab population in Israel and the West Bank is 3.5 percent. Among the Beduins (in the south of Israel) and in the Gaza Strip the figure is as high as 4.5 percent, which means that the population doubles in 15 to 17 years (“Israel, Demography 2000-2002,” University of Haifa). For comparative purposes, Egypt’s natural rate of increase is 1.89 percent, and Saudi Arabia’s is 3.41.
Figures from the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics back up this data. According to PCBS statistics dating back to 1997, the Palestinian population in the Palestinian territories has increased steadily each year, from 2,783,084 in 1997 to 3,827,914 in 2004.
Likewise, despite the supposed “ethnic cleansing,” the Arab population inside Israel itself has also been flourishing. In 1997, Israel’s Arab population (Muslims and Christians) was 1,069,400. By 2002, the figure increased to 1,263,900 individuals. (Statistical Abstract of Israel, 2003)
As for Christians, in particular, Israel is one of the few places in the Middle East where that population has been growing. In contrast, the Christian population in the Muslim Palestinian territories has been diminishing (Daphne Tsimhoni, “Christians of Israel and the Territories,” Middle East Quarterly, Winter 2001). Thus, in 1997, Israel’s Christian Arab population was 104,800. In 2002, it rose to 114,300. This growth represents an increase of 9.1 percent. Israel’s Muslim population during this period increased from 867,900 to 1,038,300, representing a huge increase of 19.6 percent!
While Qumsiyeh suggests that Jews are “taking the places” of Christians and Muslims in Israel, the opposite is true. In the 1997 to 2002 time period, Israel’s Jewish population growth lagged far behind that of Muslims and Christians. It grew from 4,701,600 to 5,094,200, an increase of just 8.4 percent.
So, just who exactly is replacing whom?
The facts again do not fit Qumsiyeh’s venomous charge that “Violence always kills more native civilians than the settlers or colonialists. The ratio is 5-to-1 in the case of Palestinians.” It is unclear exactly what Qumsiyeh means by “colonialists,” though by the context it seems that he is referring to any Israeli since he already has settlers in a separate category. Thus, by the most generous count–assuming that every single Palestinian killed was a “native civilian” and every single Israeli killed was a “settler” or “colonialist” (but not a “civilian”)–then Qumsiyeh is still not correct.
According to the Associated Press, since September 2000, “3,045 people have been killed on the Palestinian side, and 970 people have been killed on the Israeli side” as of Aug. 4, 2004. This is a ratio of 3.1-to1. And, of course, this AP figure does not at all take into account that the Palestinian side does not solely consist of “native civilians,” but also includes suicide bombers, others killed while carrying attacks out on Israelis, terrorists killed when their bombs prematurely exploded, and “collaborators” killed by fellow Palestinians.
Moreover, according to the Institute for Counter-Terrorism, of the 921 Israelis killed from Sept. 27, 2000 until May 1, 2004, 715 people, or 77.6 percent, were noncombatants killed by Palestinians. In contrast, on the Palestinian side, in the same period only 985 out of 2806–or 35.1 percent–were noncombatants killed by Israelis.
Even when Qumsiyeh provides purported sources, they do not support his claims. For example, he writes:
Israeli colonial activity, including the wall, violates a number of international laws and covenants: The Fourth Geneva Convention of 1949; U.N. resolutions; the Hague Regulations; the U.N. Code of Conduct for Law Enforcement Officials; International Covenant of Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights/Convention on Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination and the Convention on Rights of the Child.
Had Qumsiyeh bothered to read the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination, for example, he would learn that it actually upholds the Israeli Law of Return which he so vilifies. Article 1, Section 3 states: “Nothing in this Convention may be interpreted as affecting in any way the legal provisions of States Parties concerning nationality, citizenship or naturalization, provided that such provisions do not discriminate against any particular nationality.” In other words, states single out certain groups for preferential treatment so long as they do not discrimate against any particular group. In that respect, Israel is no different from numerous other democratic countries which grant certain privileges to particular ethnic groups. Just like Israel’s Law of Return extends automatic citizenship to any Jew who desires it, many other nations provide certain people easier access to citizenship, including Mexico, Finland, Greece, Poland, Germany, Italy and Denmark.
In addition, Section 4 establishes that affirmative action–displaying preferences to undo prior discrimination–is legitimate:
Special measures taken for the sole purpose of securing adequate advancement of certain racial or ethnic groups or individuals requiring such protection as may be necessary in order to ensure such groups or individuals equal enjoyment or exercise of human rights and fundamental freedoms shall not be deemed racial discrimination, provided, however, that such measures do not, as a consequence, lead to the maintenance of separate rights for different racial groups and that they shall not be continued after the objectives for which they were taken have been achieved.
And, if ever there was a people in need of affirmative action it was the Jews of Palestine. A few years earlier, European Jewry was nearly wiped out in the actual ethnic cleansing of World War II, when the free world tightly locked its doors to Jewish refugees and the British turned back boatloads of the Jewish condemned who attempted to reach safety in Palestine.
Finally, Qumsiyeh misrepresents what became of Mandate Palestine when he writes: “The wall literally makes concrete the colonization of roughly 30-40 percent more of the 22 percent of Palestine that remains” (emphasis added). The figure of 22 percent is based on the area of Mandate Palestine. His suggestion that Israel took over the other 78 percent is entirely fallacious because the original land of Palestine, as determined by the League of Nations, includes what is now Israel, Gaza, the West Bank and the entire state of Jordan. In 1922, the British severed Mandate Palestine so that nearly 80 percent of it became Transjordan (now Jordan), from which Jewish immigration was barred. Palestinian Arabs, however, were not restricted from settling in Transjordan or what was left of Palestine. In 1947, the United Nations partitioned the 20 percent of what remained of Palestine, offering Israel only about half. And, when Jordan annexed the West Bank in 1950, Arabs controlled approximately 80 percent of Mandate Palestine while the Jewish state held a mere 17.5 percent. (Gaza, under illegal Egyptian occupation, was the remainder.)
Thus, with the 1947 United Nations offer, 89.4 percent of the original Mandate (comprised of Jordan and almost half of the land that was left after Jordan’s creation) would have been in Palestinian Arab hands.
It seems the Yale scientist disregards the norms of careful research and documentation when it comes to his after-school activities.
WASHINGTON POST-WATCH: A Tale of Two Papers
Tamar Sternthal Tamar Sternthal is director of CAMERA’s Israel Office. She monitors both U.S. publications and the English-language Israeli daily Ha’aretz, and heads up CAMERA’s “Ha’aretz, Lost in Translation” project. Her columns have appeared in numerous American and Israeli publications, including the Times of Israel, Jerusalem Post, Ynet, Algemeiner, Philadelphia Daily News, St. Petersburg Times, and the Jewish Journal of Greater Los Angeles. Sternthal is interviewed on radio about the media's coverage of the Arab-Israeli conflict and regularly participates in panels about the media, hosted by universities and think tanks in Israel.
Twitter handle: http://twitter.com/TamarSternthal
Collegian (University of Massachusetts Newspaper)
New Haven Register
Mazin Qumsiyeh
Christian Issues
Minorities in Israel
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Thom Mayne - Cersaie 2008
Architecture is becoming more fluid. The square tile no longer exists as a standard. Formal language emerges from lines of force and space develops fluidly in response to rapidly evolving conditions and technologies. Process and materials need to evolve and adapt to contemporary conditions to remain relevant and current in architecture. Fluidity enables the continued emergence of innovation of materials; materials that accommodate the double curve or the 3rd dimension for curvilinear spaces represent immense potential and creativity for architecture and design.
Thom Mayne received his Bachelor of Architecture degree from the University of Southern California in 1968 and his Master of Architecture from Harvard University in 1978. He was a founder of the Southern California Institute of Architecture and has held teaching positions at Columbia University, Harvard University (Elliot Noyes Chair, 1998), Yale University (Eliel Saarinen Chair, 1991), the Berlage Institute in the Netherlands and the Bartlett School of Architecture in London. Currently, he holds a tenured faculty position at the UCLA School of the Arts and Architecture.
His distinguished honors include the National Design Award for Architecture (2006), Pritzker Prize Laureate (2005), Rome Prize Fellowship from the American Academy of Design in Rome (1987), the Alumni of the Year Award from USC (1992), Member Elect from the American Academy of Arts and Letters (1992), and the 2000 American Institute of Architects / Los Angeles Gold Medal in Architecture.
With Morphosis, Thom Mayne has been the recipient of 25 Progressive Architecture Awards, 60 AIA Awards and numerous other design recognitions. Under his direction, the firm has been the subject of extensive publications and exhibitions throughout the world.
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Bush, Putin At Odds Over Middle East
By William Vitka
July 15, 2006 / 5:07 PM / CBS/AP
President Bush on Saturday blamed Hezbollah alone for the escalating violence in the Middle East, putting himself at odds with Russian President Vladimir Putin, who was more critical of Israel.
At a joint news conference, Mr. Bush and Putin showed the divide that could dominate this weekend's meeting of world industrial leaders.
"In my judgment, the best way to stop the violence is to understand why the violence occurred in the first place," Mr. Bush said. "And that's because Hezbollah has been launching rocket attacks out of Lebanon into Israel and because Hezbollah captured two Israeli soldiers."
Putin said it was unacceptable to try to reach political goals through abductions and strikes against an independent state. "In this context we consider Israel's concerns to be justified," he said.
At the same time, he said, "the use of force should be balanced."
Israel's war planes began striking Lebanon after Hezbollah guerrillas captured two Israeli soldiers and killed eight others Wednesday in a cross-border raid into Israel. Since Wednesday, Hezbollah has fired hundreds of rockets at northern Israel.
"The best way to stop the violence is for Hezbollah to lay down its arms and to stop attacking," Bush said. "And therefore, I call on Syria to exert influence over Hezbollah."
The fighting came at a time of tensions between Iran and Syria and the West. Foreign policy experts suggest that Iran and Syria believe the violence will strengthen their positions in their conflicts with the West and show they hold the key to a settlement of the Arab-Israeli issue.
The violence is a late but unavoidable addition to the agenda at the weekend summit of the Group of Eight industrialized nations that was beginning with a dinner hosted by Putin Saturday night.
The G-8 countries - the United States, Russia, Japan, Germany, Britain, France, Italy and Canada - were expected to issue a joint declaration on the Lebanon crisis.
Mr. Bush said he and Putin, who held two hours of bilateral negotiations in advance of the meeting's start, were not able to agree on Russia's admission to the World Trade Organization.
The talks broke off because of differences over assurances the United States was seeking over the protection of U.S. copyrights and patents and promises that Russia would accept greater amounts of U.S. farm goods.
Mr. Bush said the administration believed Russia needed to offer more in trade concessions to satisfy the Congress.
He said both sides would continue to negotiate to get a deal. The United States is the only country that has yet to signoff on Russia's membership in the WTO.
But the leaders were able to agree on an initiative to combat nuclear terrorism. The new agreement builds on an existing "Proliferation Security Initiative," a U.S.-led group of dozens of nations working together to help seize illicit weapons as they are transported around the world.
A copy of the document shown to CBS News warns of "the threat of the possibility of secret and sudden attack." The two former nuclear adversaries will agree to improve control of nuclear material, reports CBS News correspondent Peter Maer.
The new program, known as the Global Initiative to Combat Nuclear Terrorism, calls on states to improve accounting, control and physical protection of nuclear material and radioactive substances as well as the security of nuclear facilities.
The agreement pledges joint efforts to detect and suppress illicit trafficking in nuclear, biological and chemical materials - particularly measures to prevent their acquisition and use by terrorists. Participating nations also will be bound to respond together to mitigate the consequences of acts of nuclear terrorism.
Mr. Bush and Putin, who casually called each other by their first names, sought to downplay U.S.-Russia tensions over the Russia leader's authoritarian drift.
"I talked about my desire to promote institutional change in parts of the world like Iraq where there's a free press and free religion," Mr. Bush said. "I told him that a lot of people in our country, you know, would hope that Russia would do the same thing. I fully understand, however, that there will be a Russian-style of democracy."
Putin, who opposed the U.S.-led war in Iraq, replied: "We certainly would not want to have the same type of democracy that they have in Iraq."
"It is true that we assume that nobody knows better than us how we can strengthen our own nation," Putin said. "But we know for sure that we cannot strengthen our nation without developing democratic institutions. And this is the path that we'll certainly take, but certainly we will do this by ourselves."
First published on July 15, 2006 / 5:07 PM
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Though Bruce’s new album was mostly recorded at his home studio in New Jersey, he drew most of the inspiration for these songs from his favorite Southern California pop records of the ’60s and ’70s.... more
These musical tales of crime and desperation—recorded at home by Bruce on a four-track—made for a riveting listen and a huge hit with fans and critics alike. Reaching #3 in ’82, it includes... more
The Wild, The Innocent & The E Street Shuffle
Bruce Springsteen & the E Street Band: Live in New York City
Genre: Rock, Music Video (Concert/Performance)
A rejuvenated E Street Band dazzled with this 2001 live release, a stirring set of fan favorites, obscure songs and new ones. Feel them connect deeply with the crowd as they do "Lost in the Flood,"... more
The Complete Video Anthology 1978-2000
Includes never-before-seen clips of "Hungry Heart" "If I Should Fall Behind," "Highway Patrol Men" directed by Sean Penn, "The Ghost of Tom Joad" from the Tonight Show with Jay Leno 1995, and more -... more
Two CD edition. Springsteen on Broadway is an album of music and stories by Bruce Springsteen, and the soundtrack to the Netflix film of the same name. The album is the complete live performance of... more
Bruce’s first Top 10 smash, the #5 hit Hungry Heart, sent this 1980 LP soaring to #1 (like "Born to Run," it stayed on the charts for more than two years). Stomping rock ’n’ roll sits alongside sad... more
The Essential Bruce Springsteen
A 2015 double-disc update of the Boss’ best: "Thunder Road," "Rosalita (Come Out Tonight)," "Born To Run," "Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out," "Badlands," "The River," "Hungry Heart," "Glory Days," "Dancing... more
Bruce stayed in the Top 5 with this 1978 tour-de-force of hard-luck characters and hard-hitting rock. His hits "Prove It All Night" and "Badlands" join the thundering, organ-powered "Adam Raised a... more
Born In The U.S.A.
It spent well over two and a half years on the charts…it shot straight to #1…it’s still the Boss’s most famous album, and it returns here in gloriously remastered fashion on both CD and 180-gram... more
Greetings from Asbury Park N.J.
Bruce burst out of the box with this 1973 debut, his own vivacious spin on the Dylan folk-rock tradition (with the added influence of ’50s rock ’n’ roll sax). His own "Blinded by the Light" joins... more
Every big star has a big bang, and this was it for Bruce: the 1975 instant classic that shot him all the way to #3. The unforgettable, utterly irresistible, fist-pumping sing-along title smash and... more
Bruce’s own liner notes for this new album tell us where these recordings came from. Tom Morello, who toured with Bruce in Australia, recorded versions of the Havalinas’ High Hopes and the Saints’... more
What we have here, at long last (after months of rumors), is the release of Bruce’s 17th studio album—an album rich with political and social comment, spiritual dimension and unexpected accents of... more
Chapter And Verse
Available on CD or double vinyl, this companion album to Bruce’s new autobiography starts with 1966 and 1967 recordings by his high school band the Castiles, then unearths songs by his early band... more
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Bruce Springsteen & the E Street Band: London Calling: Live in Hyde Park
2010 double DVD release. Captured in London at the Hard Rock Calling Festival on June 28, 2009 in HD, the 172-minute film documents 27 tracks of live Springsteen that begin in daylight and progress... more
Live in Dublin
A year after surprising and greatly pleasing fans with his collection of songs made famous by Pete Seeger, "We Shall Overcome: The Seeger Sessions," Bruce put out this live document of that 17-piece... more
Bruce, for the first time, has allowed one of his albums to be fully remastered (by Bob Ludwig), and the disc comes with a 48-page photo booklet and an introduction penned by the man himself. Then... more
Live 1975-85 (3 Cd's In Double Jewel Case)
It was no wonder that this live collection shot to #1 when it came out in ’86; his band, after all, was one of the most famous on-stage acts on the planet. He thrilled fans with these concert... more
Bruce Springsteen: Album Collection Vol 1 1973-84
What a "boss" box we have here, just in time to celebrate Bruce’s 65th birthday! "Born to Run" and "Darkness on the Edge of Town" were remastered for boxed-set release in recent years, but this new... more
This is a new release, but it takes you back to the exhilarating early days of Springsteen’s superstardom. The Boss recorded way more music in the wake of his "Born to Run" breakthrough than could... more
We Shall Overcome: The Seeger Sessions
Springsteen’s sprawling set of songs made famous by Pete Seeger ranges gleefully from country to bluegrass to folk to New Orleans jazz. This edition, on double-vinyl (180-gram), includes O Mary Don’t... more
Hammersmith Odeon, Live '75
This spectacular concert came out on DVD in the 30th-anniversary "Born to Run" set. Here on 2 CDs, it finds the E Street Band on stage and on fire the year "Born to Run" hit; they prove themselves to... more
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Charity Commission deputy chief executive leaves the regulator
David Holdsworth, chief operating officer, Charity Commission
David Holdsworth, deputy chief executive of the Charity Commission, has left regulator to take up a position at the Intellectual Property Office.
He has been appointed as the deputy chief executive and director of operations at the Intellectual Property Office, which is part of the civil service on a higher band than his Commission role.
Holdsworth joined the Commission in 2015 as head of operations and was promoted to deputy chief executive in 2017. As the chief operating officer he held responsibility for most of the commission’s casework. He also led teams that register new charities, organised annual returns, and was responsible for driving efficiency in frontline services.
Prior to this, he worked in the private sector in senior executive positions and spent a decade at the Home Office in roles including deputy chief caseworker.
Helen Stephenson, chief executive of the Charity Commission, said: “David has shown great dedication and commitment to his role at the Commission and has made a huge contribution in his time here, in particular to our digital transformation programme. David has been a key part of my leadership team and has been core to the significant progress the Commission has made in recent years. We are sorry to see David go, but wish him every success in his new role. Work now begins on appointing an equally brilliant successor.”
The Commission has advertised for a director of operations at a salary of between £70,000 and £80,000 to be based in its Liverpool office. The deadline is 17 May and the Commission hopes to have someone in place by September.
David Holdsworth: Putting the user at the heart of the regulator's services
09 Jan 2017 Interviews
Charity Commission re-appoints board members
Charity Commission responds to public benefit reporting research
People & culture 1713
Regulators 311
Faith Charities Forum
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Currently Playing Greatness of Our God
by Newsboys
For Castro, those five words – “You just gotta have faith” – currently serve as a kind of creative centerpiece. “I love ‘Only a Mountain’ as the first single, because I think it sums up a lot of things that I’ve realized in the past few years,” he says. “There’s definitely been a lot of challenges and adversity, and those things have really shaped the album. I’ve found a new life through all of it.” Castro admits he’s gone through some pretty “monumental stuff” of late – including the birth of his first child, daughter Madeline, in August of 2011 – but it’s brought him to an even stronger spiritual place. “I’ve always believed in God and his power, but I didn’t really have faith, you know?” he asks. “I had this knowledge, and this acknowledgement, like, ‘God, you’re there, I want you to be honored and everything… but I’m not ready to give you this.’” He pauses, and his joy is palpable. “I’ve learned to give it up.”
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Contractor Panel Explores HVACR Industry’s Leading Challenges
Convened during the 2019 AHR Exposition, the panelists for Emerson's E360 Breakfast reviewed refrigerant changes, new technologies and labor challenges.
During its E360 Breakfast — held during the 2019 AHR Expo in Atlanta— Emerson hosted a panel discussion among HVACR contractors to glean their insights and opinions on the biggest challenges and emerging trends impacting their businesses. The contractor panel consisted of: Michael Duffee, owner of Restaurant Equipment Services, Inc.; Martin Hoover, owner of Empire Heating & Air Conditioning; and Jim Wharton, area vice president of Link Network, ABM. The discussion was moderated by Talbot Gee, chief executive officer of Heating, Air-conditioning & Refrigeration Distributors International (HARDI).
While the discussion spanned a wide range of topics, the bulk of the conversation was focused on three key issues:
The regulatory uncertainty surrounding refrigerants
The emergence of new technologies and analytics
The ongoing labor shortage and its effects on recruitment and training
With different specialties and customer bases, each panelist brought a unique perspective on these topics, while also sharing similar challenges and customer experiences. In many ways, their firsthand interactions with customers provided rare insights into how these issues ultimately impact an end user. Today, there are many questions about which direction the industry might be headed, and this conversation shed some much-needed light on potential answers.
The service impacts of refrigerant regulations
Imagine showing up to a job site and not knowing which refrigerant is being used in the refrigeration or AC system. According to Hoover, this is an all too common scenario and a consequence of the rapidly changing refrigerant landscape. “When pressures aren’t reading true, we have to start from scratch with a total refrigerant evacuation, recovery and recharge before even attempting a diagnosis,” he stated.
Photo: from left to right are E360 panelists Michael Duffee, Martin Hoover and Jim Wharton.
The transition from a legacy refrigerant to a lower-GWP option comes at a cost, even for those that are considered drop-in replacements. Duffee said customers aren’t accustomed to seeing recovery and disposal fees tacked on to their bill, and this is adding competitive pressures to small contracting businesses. “Many companies may not be following proper recovery protocols to win business, which can put companies like ours at a disadvantage, and is obviously counterproductive from an environmental standpoint,” he said.
Gee, who moderated the panel discussion, asked if customers were even interested in the trend toward using lower-GWP refrigerants. Duffee noted that in his experience, cost considerations are most customers’ first priority. Even if their legacy systems are leaking, they’re reluctant to invest in equipment replacements. But, sooner or later an investment is inevitable, and that’s when they may be more open to a refrigerant discussion.
Wharton’s larger enterprise customer base has demonstrated more interest in making these investments, and his company is trying to frame this transition as an opportunity. “It’s challenging to align customers’ goals with the available equipment options, but there are some cases where federal and regional regulations are forcing a change,” he said.
Wharton added that this isn’t always good news for their customers, but he helps them understand the full scope of their investment, including: total lifecycle costs, energy efficiency and performance advantages.
But the refrigerant uncertainty is also adding complexity to the equipment decision-making process. Hoover said his customers are carefully evaluating the long-term viability of their selections: “The last thing they want after investing in a new system is for it to be phased out in four to five years due to a refrigerant change,” he said.
All panelists agreed that the industry would benefit greatly from the standardization of new refrigerants. “Preferably, we’d like to see one refrigerant, not five or six different options, to replace the old ones. He said that many contractors simply aren’t able to carry multiple varieties of refrigerants in their trucks at all times. And since these different refrigerants often have unique performance characteristics, the increasing variety only adds complexity to service calls.
The roles of new technologies, IoT and analytics
In recent years, the industry has experienced an influx of new electronic controls, connected technologies and data analytics enabled by the internet of things (IoT). As these technologies come online, each of the panelists had varying degrees of experience and interaction with them in the field — from component-level information to facility management insights.
Wharton explained that while data collection capabilities have been available for decades in different forms of energy management systems (EMS), too often operators don’t use them to their full potential. He said that many glance at their facility dashboards, see multiple areas running in the red (out-of-tolerance conditions), and may simply ignore them.
“Most operators know the way their building behaves, and if they see an alarm in a certain area, they also know whether it will go away or if they need to act on it,” said Wharton. He added that advanced data analytics are now offering more insights and the potential for additional tangible operational value by:
Helping to drive informed decisionmaking
Detecting performance trends
Providing equipment diagnostics and troubleshooting
Hoover’s customer base crosses over into the residential arena where consumers are embracing whole-home automation. He said that these customers love getting notified of routine maintenance items such as when to change filters or fix a water clog or leak. But most importantly, they’re using systems to diagnose issues: “They like the fact that their home automation systems can let us know if something’s broken, so we can fix it before it affects their comfort levels,” said Hoover.
But from a technician’s perspective, Hoover insisted that these systems should not replace their ability to perform their own system diagnostics. He also stressed that diagnostics technology should not be seen as a substitute for proper technician training and education: “This doesn’t allow us to take someone straight out of high school and put them in the field, but it certainly makes it easier,” he added.
On-board compressor controls are also helping service contractors gain deeper insights into overall refrigeration system performance. Duffee cautioned that these enhancements only offer advantages in the hands of trained technicians: “If they’re not familiar with the technology, then you have to train them to avoid misdiagnosis, so there’s still the potential for things to go wrong,” he said.
Designing these sensor technologies to be resistant to the impacts of weather, water and humid conditions is a very important consideration for Duffee. As an example, he said, “In walk-in cooler environments, where it’s wet and sometimes caustic with the food and so forth, we’ve seen issues with consistency and where sensors and microprocessors can cause problems.”
Addressing the technician shortage
Throughout the panel discussion, the technician shortage was a recurring theme — regardless of the topic discussed. But once Gee turned the conversation specifically toward labor challenges, each panelist was eager to detail how it was impacting his business and what steps the industry could take to help improve the situation.
“We all would agree that labor is our number one issue,” said Hoover.
Finding qualified candidates starts at the company level, and each panelist had different approaches to the recruitment, onboarding and training processes. Hoover said recruitment never stops: “We’re a small company and we recruit 24/7/365,” he said. His company has developed an accelerated career progression plan for promising candidates, a plan specially designed to appeal to younger candidates new to the trade.
“We’ve divided career steps into 30-day increments, which engages the younger generation from the entry level and allows them to progress very quickly,” Hoover said. The goal is to accelerate their path to senior technician level and provide ample avenues for advancement.
Duffee said one of the biggest recruitment hurdles continues to be the negative public perception of the trade. “Let’s face it, the trades sometimes have a less than positive image, and our trade is very demanding,” he said. “We get our hands dirty, we work with heavy equipment, on rooftops in the pouring rain, in snow and 100-degree temps,” he added. Because of these factors, his company places a premium on candidates who are enthusiastic and possess positive personality traits.
According to Duffee, the industry needs a renewed focus at the high school level to promote the trades. As experienced technicians retire from the industry, Duffee sees the labor shortage only getting worse in the coming years: “We all should be aware and take whatever steps necessary to change this trend,” he concluded.
Adding to Duffee’s point, Wharton said that HVACR has fallen off the radar of many high schools with trade programs: “When you talk to high schools about trades, no one is talking about HVACR, so most don’t know it as an option,” he said. Instead, his company relies on alternative sources for recruitment, including:
Former members of the U.S. military
Vocational schools and technical colleges
Career and technical organizations
From a training and preparedness perspective, Hoover explained that on-the-job experience is the final step toward developing a well-rounded technician: “Tech schools don’t really teach someone how to present yourself to a customer and have the proper communication skills,” he said.
New challenges bring new opportunities
With the introduction of new refrigerants and technologies, there’s no question that the HVACR service technician trade is more challenging than ever. But within this confluence of issues lie opportunities. As Hoover pointed out, “The technician shortage will drive up pay rates.” And the influx of connected technologies, software and analytics may help make the job more attractive to younger, tech-savvy candidates.
Emerson sources said creating awareness of HVACR technologies and career opportunities at high schools and technical colleges is one of the keys to attracting the next generation of candidates. Even as technologies advance to provide more proactive and predictive capabilities, the industry will still need highly skilled individuals in the field to apply their own experiential know-how to system diagnosis and repair.
TAGS: Refrigeration
The Riso Report
The Many Benefits of GPS Tracking
Don't Get Hung Up on Door Hangers!
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We must save the over-50s from the job scrapheap says Charles: Prince speaks of lack of value suffered by middle-aged who are out of work
Talked with pride about PRIME - The Prince's Initiative For Mature Enterprise
Charity helps unemployed mature workers start their own business
It has already helped more than 23,000 in England and Wales
By Rebecca English for the Daily Mail
Prince Charles has delivered an impassioned plea to save the spiralling number of over-50s shattered by redundancy from the scrapheap.
He spoke from the heart about the ‘lack of value’ suffered by many of the estimated 425,000 middle-aged men and women currently unemployed in Britain.
But he also talked with pride about a charity he has set up to help mature workers who are out of a job or facing the threat of redundancy to start their own business.
Prince Charles talked with pride about a charity he has set up to help mature workers who are out of a job or facing the threat of redundancy to start their own business
PRIME – The Prince’s Initiative For Mature Enterprise – is the only organisation of its kind in the country to offer business advice and mentoring to older people and has already helped more than 23,000 in England and Wales.
Rod's not the only one who has to look up to Penny! Leggy...
Charles said: ‘People feel they have no value any more and once you’re made redundant clearly it’s very difficult.
‘The great thing about all this effort is that no one should be afraid of backing someone because of their age because at the end of the day, if it’s a good idea, it’s a good idea, whatever age you are.
‘So we aim, through PRIME, to show that there’s still life in the old dog yet! And so often we find that over-50s who start their own businesses actually are more sustainable, in terms of a percentage of the success rate, than those who are younger.
‘So I think probably age and experience and wisdom does help you.’
Speaking at St James’s Palace after a reception to celebrate the entrepreneurs PRIME has helped to create, Charles, who turns 65 himself this year, could barely hide his frustration that so many older people are effectively being put out to pasture after redundancy.
Support: Charles, who turns 65 himself this year, hosted a reception at St. James's Palace, where guests included actress Lynda Bellingham (pictured)
He talked about the dent in self-confidence that a once working, productive member of society can experience when they suddenly lose their job – ‘a crying shame’, he said – when so many still need to provide for their families and have a desire to contribute.
Figures from the Office for National Statistics highlight the nightmare facing a generation of older people when they are made redundant in their 50s.
Since the recession began in 2008, the number of unemployed people aged 50 and above has rocketed by nearly 80 per cent to 425,000.
Of the total, one in four has been desperately looking for work without success for more than two years – which means self-employment is a hugely attractive proposition.
Charles said that while he was proud of the work that his more well-known charity, The Prince’s Trust, had done in helping young people on to the job ladder, he felt that there was an equally important – and vulnerable – section of society that needed his help.
PRIME, set up in 1999, has actively helped to set up more than 5,000 businesses, with a surge of people seeking support in recent years.
Charles said: ‘People were writing to me, they still do, that there isn’t anything out there to give them any help.
‘We can help people who want to develop a hobby sometimes into a viable business. We run courses which give them an idea about enterprise and business plans and how you manage cashflow and marketing and all these things, and provide them with a mentor.
‘We need to spread the word that PRIME exists and we’re here to help.’
Read more at www.prime.org.uk
Too close: Lady gets lucky and avoids tree cutting accident
Democratic candidate for Mississippi state House shoots his wife dead at her office before killing himself after being served divorce papers
Instagram removes 'likes' from the social media app for users around the world - but not in the UK or US . . . yet
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NYT Reporter: Obama Administration Is ‘Greatest Enemy of Press Freedom’
Rob Bluey / @RobertBluey / March 25, 2014 / 1 comment
Photo: Pete Souza
New York Times reporter James Risen, a two-time Pulitzer Prize winner, claims the Obama administration is “the greatest enemy of press freedom that we have encountered in at least a generation.”
Risen won the Pulitzer Prize in 2002 and 2006 for his reporting on national security and terrorism. He has clashed with the Obama administration over his refusal to reveal a confidential source in a matter that reached the Supreme Court in January.
Speaking last week at a New York conference called Sources and Secrets, Risen voiced his concern about the Obama administration’s interaction with journalists, according to a report from Poynter’s Andrew Beaujon:
New York Times reporter James Risen, who is fighting an order that he testify in the trial of Jeffrey Sterling, a former CIA officer accused of leaking information to him, opened the conference earlier by saying the Obama administration is “the greatest enemy of press freedom that we have encountered in at least a generation.” The administration wants to “narrow the field of national security reporting,” Risen said, to “create a path for accepted reporting.” Anyone journalist who exceeds those parameters, Risen said, “will be punished.”
The administration’s aggressive prosecutions have created “a de facto Official Secrets Act,” Risen said, and the media has been “too timid” in responding.
The conference also featured remarks from Jeffrey Toobin, a staff writer for The New Yorker and senior legal analyst for CNN, and Sen. Chuck Schumer (D–N.Y.). They were among the speakers who debated a federal shield law for the press.
>>> Check Out: Liberal Professor Slams Obama’s Use of Executive Orders
Risen’s critique of the Obama administration comes just weeks after Sharyl Attkisson left her job at CBS News following investigative reports on the Obama administration’s handling of the Fast and Furious gunrunning operation and Benghazi terrorist attack.
In an interview with talk-radio host Chris Stigall, Attkisson shared her concerns about coordination between journalists and government officials, particularly the White House’s pre-screening of questions from reporters:
I wouldn’t surprised if sometimes there is that level of cooperation with some questions. If I need something answered from the White House and they won’t tell me, I’ll call our White House correspondent. They’re friendlier with the White House Correspondents in general. So the White House correspondent may ask Jay Carney or one of his folks about an issue and they will be told “ask that at the briefing and we’ll answer it.” They want to answer it in front of everybody. They do know it’s coming and they’ll call on you. There’s that kind of coordination sometimes.
I wouldn’t be shocked if there’s sometimes more coordination. I don’t think it’s everybody on every briefing, every day. I’m pretty sure it’s not. But I think people would be surprised at the level of cooperation reporters have in general with politicians.
>>> Read More: Sharyl Attkisson Leaves CBS News, Liberal Bias Cited
This story was produced by The Foundry’s news team. Nothing here should be construed as necessarily reflecting the views of The Heritage Foundation.
@RobertBluey
Rob Bluey
Rob Bluey is executive editor of The Daily Signal, the multimedia news organization of The Heritage Foundation. Send an email to Rob.
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Our latest update ~ MARCH 2017
Perched high above the cinema audience was the projection room. Many people thought that it was a small room with a projector in it. In fact the rooms in most situations were spacious. The exceptions were the Music Hall, the Majestic, and possibly the Glynn, and the Picturedrome. Projection departments at the Gaumont, ABC Regal, Odeon, and Tatler (Classic) were of a respectable size. These rooms were a vital part of the cinema operation. Containing two projectors, spot lights, slide lanterns, and lighting control gear, together with much ancillary equipment. They usually had a staff of between five or six full-time projectionists, headed by a chief projectionist. In the company’s pecking order, he was placed next to, and sometimes on an equal to the general manager. It was deemed that a good working relationship between the two was essential. On paper that seemed OK, but usually the two would be strong characters, they had to be!
In Chester cinemas during the early years, the chief projectionists would often be spotted in the entrance hall, and foyers alongside the manager. The two were in cahoots, knowing exactly how to get the best from the cinema exhibition, and their staff. Surprisingly, when opening new cinemas, the company would sometimes move across both the chief projectionist and manager from their previous cinema, as was the case at the 1937 opening of the ABC Regal, when the chief and manager transferred from the Blackpool ABC Hippodrome.
ERNEST HALL
Their title was chief, often followed by their surname, e.g. Chief Smith. Only the manager called them by their first name (in private). Although the manager was the company’s employer, the chief usually had his full consent to hire, and fire as he thought fit. A practice that carried through until the sixties, when projection staff levels started to be reduced thanks to automation being introduced into the projection rooms.
Chester Odeon’s Ernest Hall, was the longest serving chief projectionist of all in Chester’s cinemas. He was the original chief when the cinema opened on 3rd October 1936. Terry Gregory who was trained by Ernest, and worked alongside him from 1965 to 1968, speaks about him with high regard. At this time a dual shift system was in operation, with Terry working on shift with chief Hall, and 2nd projectionist Gordon Potter working with Malcolm Leech, who was soon to emigrate. Gordon Potter became chief on Ernest’s retirement, due to ill health in 1968.
Two chiefs. Peter Davies at a staff fancy dress party, with Gordon Potter who had left the business a few years before
Peter Davies took over the chief’s position in early 1977 until 1991, when Mark Jenkins (the youngest technical manager at only 23 took charge). After Mark left to pursue a career in film production with numerous awards for his camera, and editing skills in TV, Fred Sheldon became chief.
Returning as Town Chief (meaning over two cinemas, the other being Wrexham), it was Peter Davies who returned in the final years of Chester Odeon who oversaw its closure. He was the last person to hold the position.
Hugh Price Jones was the chief at the ABC Regal since the opening day in 1937. Small in stature, a VERY clever man, but with a problematic and terrifying temper who suffered no fools in “his” domain. Chief Jones was replaced by his son Charlie in the late sixties. The final chief at the ABC was Joe Strain.
At the Music Hall chief Tom Sutton reigned for many years, with Fred Dickenson and Bert Eggington at the Gaumont being in charge. The Tatler (Classic) among numerous chiefs were Tony Jones, Clive Holdstock. The final chief being John Lightfoot, who was also chief at The Park Saltney. His brother, Harold, worked in the projection room at The Majestic, and was most probably the chief.
John Lightfoot. Chief at the Park & Classic
Although women worked in the Chester projection rooms, there were no women chiefs. If we take a broad view of the chiefs throughout the years, they controlled the technical operation with a small staff. They were responsible for the precision machinery in the projection rooms at a time when breakdowns were not accepted by the companies. Their jobs could be under threat if the technical operation did not operate at 100% efficiently.
The Odeon circuit changed the position title of chief projectionist to that of Technical Manager during the late 1970’s in line with the company’s more modern business re-structuring.
The majority were liked, and appreciated not only by their own staff, but also by the theatre’s management and staff.
chestercinemas.co.uk (c)
Peter MacDonald was born in North West London on 20 June1939. He finished his education at Secondary Modern School, now called High Schools. He left at fifteen and his first job was with an Australian newspaper based in Fleet Street, London. He spent around six months with them. He then saw an advertisement for the screen advertising company Pearl and Dean at the now long gone Southhall Studios, London. He wrote to them and they gave him a job as a clapper boy. He said he knew then that film was the business he wanted to work in.
After Pearl and Dean he went on to shoot TV material for a company called Sapphire Films, who were based at Walton Studios, Walton- Upon Thames, London. He was a clapper loader on a Children’s favourite at the time, Robin Hood. He also loaded for Sir Lancelot and The Four Just Men. MacDonald called it a good learning curve.
Later he entered features as a clapper loader. The first three, which included First Man in Space (1959) were photographed by the late Geoffrey Faithful (1893-1979), who MacDonald regarded as one of his mentors.
He went on to work with director of photography Geoffrey Unsworth (1914-1978), first as a clapper loader on The Main Attraction (1962), then as a focus puller on Half a Sixpence (1967) and 2001 A Space Odyssey (1968). He began focus pulling on The Bliss of Mrs Blossom (1968) but was promoted to camera operator when a B camera was required. He went on to operate for Unsworth on several pictures, including A Bridge Too Far (1977) and Superman (1978). His first outing as a second unit director was Zulu Dawn (1979). After this he went back to operating on main units between more second unit directing work. He would sometimes also be the DP on the second unit. In 1984 he became a DP on Secret Places (1984). He then worked on films either as a DP, operator or second unit director. Later he moved into main unit directing and as a producer
What were your first memories?
My first memories were during WW2. They were fear, noise, smoke and a great uncertainty. Even as a five year old I realised it was serious. After the war it was very grey and your playground was a bombsite.
When did cinema come into your life
The cinema for me and many others, during and after the war was escapism. It was an escape from reality – from a world that was hanging in rags. You saw films and believed them, even though later you found out it wasn’t true. America wasn’t full of heroic cowboys and Doris Days singing over a white picket fence.
Where did you go after working on The Bliss of Mrs Blossom?
I got a phone call from cinematographer/director Jack Cardiff (1914-2009) about working on Girl on a Motorcycle (1968) as an operator. He made it very clear to me that I would be given a two-week trial. I passed, and the film was good fun because we went all round Europe. I think that took four months to shoot.
How long were you an operator for?
A long time – I loved every second of it. Of course in those days there was no video playback, you were the only one who saw the image when you shot. Everyone else had to wait twenty-four hours; if on location sometimes a week. It was a job you had to be trusted at. I loved the responsibility. I worked very closely with directors. DPs like Geoffrey Unsworth allowed me to do the set-ups while they concentrated on the lighting. I was a wonderful and difficult job because you had to judge whether something worked or not.
Would you name some of the great directors you have enjoyed working with?
The top of my list is Bob Fosse. I loved working with Sidney Lumet, who was the most precise director I have ever met in my life. John Boorman was fantastic and Richard Donner was superb on Superman. Others include Tim Burton, Sir Laurence Olivier, Alfonso Cuaron and Barbra Streisand.
What was your first big picture as a camera operator and who directed it?
The first big studio film was The Assassination Bureau (1969) shot at Pinewood Studios, London with director Basil Dearden (1911-1971), a former director at Ealing Studios. He was a little man and he had one of those little man’s problems. Everyone was terrified of him, including myself because it was my first big opportunity. Dearden said: “There goes my schedule, here comes the apprentice operator,” which scared me. In some ways it was good because I was determined to do well. We used a 10:1 zoom lens on some shots. We mixed the zoom and the camera move, not doing it as a straight zoom, which I hated. We mixed it in with camera moves so you can change sizes as your tracking He hadn’t worked with this before and I think eventually he was impressed with that because you worked quicker.
What was it like working on a Bridge Too Far?
That was great. Richard Attenborough, the director was the first to admit that great big set piece battles weren’t really his strong point, so he allowed myself and the assistant director David Tomblin (1930-2005) a lot of input into working out, for example the big parachute drop, which had over twenty cameras on it. Robin Browne took control of the aerial shots and I took control of the ground-based cameras. It was a challenge because you were telling a true story of incredible bravery and incredible stupidity by the people that organised it by not listening to reports they were getting in. So I felt a great responsibility to make it as real as possible. It was all shot in Holland. The Dutch authorities allowed us to close the bridge which replicated the Arnhem road bridge for several weeks and people would go to work and visit friends by ferry boat. Every week we would have a different star coming on the bridge to do their bit, so it was never boring. What was wonderful was that a lot of the people who had been soldiers at Arnhem were with us as advisors. Anthony Hopkins (1937-) played Colonel John Dutton Frost, a wonderful man, who led the brigade. The real Frost was with us. We had lined up a tracking shot and during rehearsals we tracked really fast. I heard colonel Frost (1912-1993), who was behind me say, “Peter, I never ran.” We had a private, a Welsh man, who had lost both legs. I asked him if that was true. He said, “Oh yes, sometimes he’d do a fast walk but he never ran in front of the Germans.”
I think it was good for us and the actors to work with the real people. While filming we lost a set by the bridge that went on fire.
What do you think of digital cinematography?
I think there is a lot going for it. I know there is a lovely nostalgia for film but I don’t think we will go back that way again. When you see people who know how to use digital, it is great. I feel the downside to this is you have people working from black tents. Now there is not the working relationship I was used to. We were on the floor next to the actors.
Why were you asked to direct the main unit of Rambo 3?
There was a lot of sacking taking place, which included cameramen, editors and assistant directors. Eventually Australian director Russell Mulcahy (1953-) was fired. Sylvester Stallone asked me to take over and I was intrigued by the challenge. I tried very hard to change the Rambo character a bit and make him a vulnerable and humorous person. I failed totally.~~~Were several cameras used on the stick fighting sequence? No, I did it all myself using a hand held camera. The scene, which was shot in Bangkok, was done in short pieces because the moves were very difficult. Stallone would remember three or four moves, and then we would cut. It was shot fairly quickly.~~~How did you achieve the great special effects on the tank and fighting the Soviets sequences? For real. Rambo 3 was long before digital effects. We shot the final battle in Arizona. The film was shot in Israel, Thailand and Arizona USA. There were so many restrictions in Israel, where you could and couldn’t shoot. The producers and Stallone decided they would go back to Arizona where they had looked long before I was on the film. There was a group there called the re-enactors. We had around two hundred and fifty of these guys who re-enact the American civil war. They were called on to do fight sequences, which they loved.
Was it always your goal to be a director?
Yes, I always liked it. Sometimes I couldn’t understand why some directors were so bad tempered until I started directing myself. Then I realised it is not only what happens during the day, it’s the phone calls you get at night from the studio and people promising you one thing but not actually coming up with it, and I could see the frustration.
Would you tell me about working on Neverending Story 3?
NEVERENDING STORY III, 1994
The Neverending Story 3 (1994) was shot at the beginning of the digital era. We were torn between the old fashioned way of working. We had special effects men Derek Meddings and Paul Wilson on board. I didn’t really have enough help in my opinion to know what you could do digitally. In those days you were charged by the frame. After we had edited the film I went away for a break and when I came back the producer had re-edited it and anything he felt was scary was cut out. With that a lot of the effects were taken out, which I had been given for free. I felt the film had been watered down compared to the first The Neverending Story. It was disappointment for me. I talked to my agent about taking my name off the film. I was talked out of it – he said if you do that you are going to have that reputation. I tried all I could to persuade them to put some material back but not enough to make it what it should have been.
Finally, do you have interests away from the film set?
I enjoy classical and Jazz music, travel, reading, theatres and movies.
David A Ellis © chestercinemas.co.uk
Check out David’s books that are available NOW
In APRIL’S update DAVID chats with the man who filmed ‘A HARD DAY’S NIGHT’ and the original 1976 ‘STAR WARS’~~~~DON’T MISS IT!
Where DID Oscar get the name ODEON to put on his cinemas?
Lots of different stories have been put forward about how the most famous name ever for UK cinemas was derived. The original odeions were the popular amphitheatres of ancient Greece. The name Odeon had been appropriated by cinemas in France and Italy in the 1920’s.
Oscar Deutsch’s son, Ronnie, in a recent interview spilled the beans on the origin of the UK Odeon name- it was lifted from elsewhere! As the flurry of aggressive expansion in cinemas took place in the late 1920s, it was one of Oscar’s friends, and financial backer of the cinema projects – grocery store owner Mel Mindelsohn – who suggested the Odeon name after spotting it on a cinema in Tunis, North Africa while on holiday there. The first cinema building to be given the name was in Perry Bar, Birmingham in 1930.
The name firmly established on the business, it would be years later that the company’s publicity machine came up with the apocryphally ‘Oscar Deutsch Entertains our Nation’.
“Sometimes my father would be opening two cinemas on the same day and there would be a big party on the stage,” adds Ronnie.
Oscar Deutsch seated left on the stage
Odeon brand became Oscar’s own as far as the UK was concerned. Since then it has become a trading name most associated with British cinemas, and is still proudly the largest and most influential cinema brand in the UK, and is now part of the massive AMC worldwide cinema group.
Deutsch was born at Balsall Heath, Birmingham, in 1893, the son of Leopold Deutsch, a Jewish scrap merchant, Hungarian by birth, and Leah Cohen, a Jewish emigrant from Poland.
Small in build, Oscar was intelligent, quick, and very powerful. He was generous and sentimental – staffs were offered interest free loans when they got into debt. His acts of everyday kindness were well known. Deutsch also worked around the clock. He had to: there was no other way so many new cinemas of such quality could be built in such a short space of time. In just ten short years 258 Odeons opened throughout Britain, more than half of them in new buildings. They brought not only the latest British films and Hollywood movies, but also a standard of contemporary design that was absent from the lives of most people in these determinedly old-fashioned islands.He died at only 48 in 1941.
THE BRAND NEW ODEON NORTHWICH ~ NOW OPEN
Northwich is so fortunate to have been selected to have a splendid all new Odeon multiscreen cinema. The Odeon is in a commanding position on the Barons Quay development. With lashing of FREE undercover free parking, the Odeon has already scored points for the regular movie fans, and those looking for a change of venue.
The building is large, and fronted by a pleasant Costa coffee lounge, which overlooks the nearby river. The cinema foyer is on the second floor, with escalators & lifts for easy access. The high-ceilinged main entrance foyer is more than impressive with it’s fabulous panoramic view of the quayside. The concessions area is not overpowering, with everything from tickets to ice cream close at hand. One thing that is striking is the posters are now digitally presented, and that there is little cardboard display clutter. The information is there without being overpowered by it, A clean cut modern approach! All screens have the very latest in projection technology as you would expect from the UK’s largest cinema exhibitor. The huge ISENSE screen; with four times the resolution of standard projectors, it delivers almost nine million pixel power for an even brighter, clearer and more detailed picture, together with blowing sound. ISENSE is the natural home of the big, booming blockbuster and the 3D epic. Feel the blast of every explosion. The impact of every blow. Truly amazing! The cinema is a must to visit for the more discerning movie goer.
Peter Davies (c) chestercinemas.co.uk
When the BBC took over Ealing’s famous studios on Ealing Green in 1956, they housed their film unit there. A plaque on the front of the building read: BBC Television Film Studios. There, they had film crews, cutting rooms, film despatch, projection room, a dubbing theatre and sound transfer, where the quarter inch tape, which had been recorded on the Nagra tape machine by the sound recordist, was transferred to 16mm magnetic. Film crews were despatched all over the world and the cameras were 16mm Arriflex.
Ealing was only one of several areas that ran film before the transmission prints made their way to the telecine areas. The BBC employed around eighty preview projectionists, known as Film Assistants.
Ealing projection area showing power re-winders and projector in back ground
The projectionist mainly ran 16mm and 35mm film. He/she was occasionally required to show 8mm and 9.5mm. The projection equipment consisted of Kalee 21, Ross and German Bauer for 35mm. 16mm was also Bauer, and were double band machines, meaning a separate magnetic track could be run on them. They could also run optical and magnetic stripe.
Bauer projector
Before the Bauer, 16mm was projected on the Bell and Howell 609s, which were made redundant in the mid sixties. They had carbon for projection, the Bauers xenon. At Ealing the projection room was open plan. The projectors were in cubicles and were numbered from E to K. The 16mm Bauer machine had the intermittent movement instead of the claw. There were portable projectors in theatre J, and these had the claw movement. Theatre K was a separate room at the end, which housed two 35mm Kalee 21 machines for showing features and American 35mm shows, such as Dallas and Mission Impossible, before transmission. We would also run some old Tele recordings on 35mm with a separate 35mm magnetic sound track, run off a bay.
The films would be shown on split spools and then rewound on a power rewinder. The projectionist would run rushes, sync rushes, cutting copies, answer prints and prints that would eventually go to telecine for transmission. The transmission copies were always marked up as irreplaceable, but of course another print could be struck from the negative.
Film operations manager checking rushes.
Rushes would be shown to the Film Operations Manager (FOM), who would check if the quality the camera people had shot was good enough. The projectionist was often asked to show the rack (frame line) to determine if a hair that appeared was a camera hair, or just in the projector. To get rid of projector hairs, each projector had an air line.
Sync rushes would have all the takes joined together and would be viewed by production people. With these all the takes would be screened. Some scenes had numerous takes, which were fun to watch. Cutting copies, (edited versions) would be viewed by film editors. These would have numbers printed on the side so the negative cutter could match it. Some prints in the editing stage would be shown with several sound tracks, run on bays and locked to the projector by a selsyn system. At TV centre it was the synchrostart system. The sound would have to be patched to pick up all the tracks. Later, all these tracks would go to the dubbing theatre to be mixed down to one mono track. Unlike cinema projectionists, the BBC projectionist was only required to show the films. Cleaning and maintenance was left to others.
Bays to load soundtracks.
Another job was running films to the dubbing mixers. At Ealing there was a dubbing theatre B and at Television Centre, theatres X and Y. At Ealing the dubbing theatre was separate from the projection area. At TV Centre, it was in the same area. The projectionist would load the projector and several magnetic sound tracks on to bays. The dubbing mixer would control the projector, which also ran in reverse, called rock and roll, so the mixer could go back on a section. The other areas included Lime Grove, which had been the Gaumont British Studios. Current affairs programmes were based there as well as a film examination department.
Projectionists would run films shot on reversal, meaning there was no negative. The film, which was run in the camera, would be the one that was projected. The reason reversal stock was used in current affairs was for speed. All other 16mm productions were filmed using negative stock. When seen on the TV, scratches, when running reversal could often be seen, as well as joins. These would have occurred in the editing stage. At Lime Grove there were three preview theatres. There was a 35mm theatre, which employed Kalee 21 machines and two 16mm theatres, using Bauers. Feature films were screened in the 35mm theatre, and it was often used by Film Examination. One of the 16mm theatres would screen some of the American TV series, such as Little House on the Prairie. These prints would be copies that had been screened in America and often contained commercials that had to be removed by Film Examination. Film clips for programmes such as Natiowide were screened at Lime Grove because the programme was based there.
Sue Lawley
Presenter Sue Lawley would often grace us with her prescence. Television Centre had an area with several 16mm machines and two Bauer 35mm machines. On the 35mm Bauer the intermittent sprocket was not turned when framing, as it is on other machines. At TV centre the theatres were C1 – C5. C1 was the 35mm theatre. The Bauer projectors could be locked to 35mm sound bays. C2 mainly ran transmission copies before they were sent for transmission. C3 ran similar material. C4 was mainly used to screen rostrum material. Several rolls of rushes containing rostrum work would arrive, and we would join the rolls together. After viewing the spool would be taken away and returned later. We didn’t have to break them down. Opposite C4 was the Steenbeck room, housing three Steenbeck machines. A regular visitor to the Steenbeck room was Top of the Pops producer Robin Nash. C5 had portable Eiki projectors, and were usually only used in the mornings to screen rushes. Rushes would come in white paper bags. Sometimes we would spend most of the morning showing them. Maida Vale was where film sound tracks were transferred to tape for radio, using Ross machines and RCA sound. We would run the film, and a recordist in another room would record it for the airways.
Alexandra Palace, where British TV started, was equipped with 35mm Ross and 16mm Bauer. There was a separate area for 16 and 35mm. Before moving to Milton Keynes the Open University was based there. Projection equipment was also housed at Kensington House and Woodstock Grove. As well as operating projectors, the projectionists would operate the German Steenbeck machines. These were used for editing and the viewer, after we had loaded it, was left to control it themselves. They could keep going back on the film or stop it if required. Researchers usually used these machines. I remember a researcher, who was working on a nostalgia programme telling me that a lot of material had been junked. There were only a handful of some of the programmes left, for example Six Five Special and Juke Box Jury. Many tapes had been wiped after use. At Centre House, opposite Television Centre in White City was where the programme acquisition department was. There we ran features and American TV material. The projection room housed two 35mm Bauer machines and two 35mm Kalee 21 projectors. I remember running the feature The Man that Shot Liberty Valance. One of the reels was completely out of sync. At the lab the sound negative must not have been aligned with the picture negative.
Villiars House, which was by Ealing Broadway station, was the home of BBC Enterprises, the sales side of the BBC. Here we would run prints that were destined for home and abroad. The projection room had portable projectors and Perfectone bays. When video became popular many had the programme sent to them on Umatic cassette instead of film.
At Television Centre there was the news department. There was a projection area where 16mm reversal film was screened, with separate magnetic sound. Later, Sony Umatic videocassettes were employed for news items. Projectionists would move from area to area and sometimes be required to spend a couple of weeks in the provinces. I was sent to Cardiff and Bristol. Apart from editors, directors etc many film, TV and pop stars came to see the films, including Morecambe and Wise, Anthony Quinn, Suzy Quatro and Pauline Collins, who bought me a coffee from the Ealing canteen. Great days.
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Inside the magical world of Martellus Bennett
By By Leonor Vivanco and @lvivanco
Football player. Arist. Singer. Is there anything Bears tight end Martellus Bennett can't do? (Scott Strazzante / Chicago Tribune)
Like a stylish mad scientist, Martellus Bennett tinkers in his laboratory.
It's away from football and in the basement of his suburban home where his creative mind flourishes. It's where the self-proclaimed "visionary architect" paints, doodles and dabbles in so many ventures that it's a struggle to keep up.
At age 26, Bennett is unlike any athlete in Chicago. The gregarious and eccentric tight end is halfway through his first season with the Bears and sixth in the NFL as Baltimore heads to Soldier Field on Sunday. He has made quite an impression since being lured from the N.Y. Giants with a reported four-year, $20.4 million deal.
Drawing attention comes naturally for Bennett. He's a nonstop quote machine, having likened coach Marc Trestman to Willy Wonka as a nod to his intelligence and compared himself and his wife to celebrity power couple Jay Z and Beyonce.
His outspoken personality hasn't changed much since he was 14, said tight end Fendi Onobun, who grew up with Bennett in Houston and is on the Bears practice squad.
"He's always been outgoing," Onobun said. "He's always been an individual who just can attract attention. He's funny, he's witty, that's just him. There's really no word to really describe his personality. He's just Marty."
Away from the field, Bennett clutches a sketchpad as effortlessly as he cradles a football. He's as comfortable wearing Louis Vuitton designer kicks as he is in cleats. He tweets daily and floods his Instagram account with GQ-esque style photos.
Even though he has a few years left on his contract, he is plotting his next move.
"For me, life after football, all I really want to do is just create stuff and make stuff," Bennett said.
"It just gives me balance because football is so structured all the time and you have a routine and a certain way to do things. So when you create things, you can do it any way you want to do it. If I was just all football all the time, I'd go crazy. If I was just all art all the time, I'd go crazy as well."
Playing football is how Bennett earns his paycheck. But he's much more than a pass catcher and blocker. He's a joker and a jack of all trades.
With 40 catches, 421 yards and four touchdowns so far this season, the 6-foot-6 Bennett is approaching the career highs he posted in New York in 2012 (55, 626, five).
Big plays definitely are part of his repertoire, like his acrobatic, game-winning touchdown grab against Minnesota in Week 2.
"He can lock down a defensive end. He's great at run blocking. Then you see him run routes and you're like, man, we've got to throw him the ball," quarterback Jay Cutler said.
Against New Orleans in Week 6, a scary airborne flip scared his wife badly.
"I was all right," he said matter of factly afterward. "I mean, it probably looked cool on TV, but I'm all right. I made the play and that's all that really matters. … I did gymnastics as a little kid so I finished the flip."
Pssst. Bennett and his wife, Siggi, are expecting a girl in March. The man known as @MartysaurusRex on Twitter refers to their first child baby, due in March, as Minisaurus Rex.
In his spare time, Bennett has started a collection with monster and dinosaur books while working to baby-proof his home.
"I want to be a lot like my dad was," he said. "Basically I want to help her grow, help her blossom. I want to be the gardener in her life until her petals are big enough where she starts having her own flower bed."
He can come off as so playful that one can see how easily he would get along with kids. He often poses with his nieces on Instagram and says Matt Forte's daughter smiles when she sees him.
"He's still a child at heart and that's one of the qualities I love about him so much," Siggi Bennett said. "I think what he's going to bring to parenting involving that [passion for art] is going to be awesome, and our kid is going to be the most eclectic, weird, imaginative, creative child that was probably ever born."
If Bennett wasn't a football player, he'd beg Pixar or DreamWorks for a job. He's a fan of Tim Burton, Walt Disney and Dr. Seuss and would love to make an animated film.
He's already got the storyline in mind. He shared his vision last month at an art show at City Winery in the West Loop where he introduced McGuire, a character named after his agent, in the fictional Dinosaurland theme park. He's been developing the characters, personality and artwork for two years.
The Bennett home is something of an art gallery, and so is his body. He counts 287 tattoos, and most are designs he sketched. He still wants more, perhaps a leg sleeve or on his ribs where he still has space.
When his football gloves are off, more ink is visible. "Failure" is tattooed on his left hand and "success" on his right hand because he considers success to be the right option in life.
He's no stranger to the mic, either. Bennett has a hip-hop album with his younger brother called "Fast Food" on iTunes, and his now-famous "I love Cap'n Crunch" video.
He tweeted last month that his next album will be titled "Dinosaurs and Dinomite," out next summer.
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"I might take the Will Smith approach now and not curse anymore," said Bennett, who played trombone, trumpet and clarinet as a kid. He did get in trouble and was reportedly fined $22,000 by the Cowboys in 2009 for posting a rap video with derogatory language to YouTube.
Consider Bennett a style maven.
Before moving to Chicago, he said he donated 400 pairs of sneakers to charity. That cleared room for his new collection of designer shoes. So far he's got about 25 pairs and counts Louis Vuitton and Balenciaga among them.
Bennett delved more into fashion after living in New York City. He's sketched designs and even interned for a day at Young & Reckless clothing company.
"I just like to look good, honestly," he said. "What happened was when I started feeling like, 'Man, I'm spending a lot of money buying clothes,' why don't I just make what I want to wear? I like women's fashion more, so I like dressing my wife, like styling her and buying stuff for her more so than myself."
Want more? Discuss this article and others on RedEye Sports' Facebook page.
Martellus Bennett
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Top 10 Shake-Up After Day 2 Of Eventing Dressage As Germany Slips Into The Lead (Views: 18144)
By: Mollie Bailey and Lindsay Berreth
Aug 7, 2016 - 11:13 AM
Rio de Janeiro—Aug. 6
A strong performance by Ingrid Klimke and Hale-Bob OLD boosted Germany to the top of the team leaderboard after Day 2 of the eventing dressage at the Olympic Games—but the team’s not celebrating yet. France slipped down to second by a mere .2 points, and Australia will head into cross-country day on a mark of 126.4, just 4.2 points off the lead.
Klimke slotted into individual fourth just ahead of her teammate Michael Jung after a strong test. She warmed up the 2014 Pau CCI**** (France) winner over canter poles, then he lit up right outside the competition arena at the applause. But when he entered the ring he settled in.
“He was like ‘Here I am!’ and I was like ‘OK! Let’s go for it,’ ” she said. “I could really ride all the extensions, especially in the trot. He said ‘OK, you want it? Here it is!’ It was pure fun. I really don’t think he could do any better.”
Several more pairs broke into the top 10 today, but no one could top William Fox-Pitt and Chilli Morning’s test from yesterday (37.0). France’s Mathieu Lemoine and Bart L, who were the only other combination to break into the 30s all day, moved into third on a mark of 39.2 penalty points. He said the gelding was a bit stressed, but it certainly didn’t show.
“For the moment it went very well, I’m quite happy with the result, but of course I can’t really say that I’m perfectly happy because I know that points go away, and I could have done better with my score,” he said. “I want to keep it positive, and I’m still very happy.”
The French team is made up of mostly team first-timers, and Lemoine said they’ve been enjoying training camp in France learning to work together.
“The goal of the training was to form this new French team and build the links between the competitors,” he said. “[We’ve been going for] gallops on the beach.”
Several combinations didn’t perform quite to expectations, including New Zealand’s Jonelle Price, favored for a shot at an individual medal, whose Faerie Dianimo broke to canter in the first medium trot and showed some tension after that.
New Zealand’s Clarke Johnstone and Balmoral Sensation and Italy’s Stefano Brecciaroli and Apollo VD Wendi Kurt were also expected to score a bit lower than what they got—46.5 and 41.9, respectively.
Karin Donckers, riding as an individual for Belgium on Fletcha Van’t Verahof, scored a 41.1 for seventh place to become the only individual rider in the top 10.
“As a rider for me in the ring it’s always a great feeling if you have the feeling that you can do what you want in the ring, that your horse is with you, that your horse is obedient, that your horse is concentrated, and it feels like you won with the horse,” she said. “That’s the feeling I had in the ring, so I must be happy When you come out of the ring at the Olympics and you have that feeling.”
The final U.S. combination Phillip Dutton on Mighty Nice, provided the strongest performance for Team USA, who currently sits tied for sixth with New Zealand on a mark of 137.5.
“It could always be better. The last flying change wasn’t great,” said Dutton. “There’s a lot of atmosphere there. I couldn’t be more proud of my horse. It could have been a lot worse. I was hoping to get close to 40, and it’s about as good as he can do.”
When asked if he felt pressure being the anchor rider, Dutton replied, “everybody’s just trying to do their best. It’s sport, and sometimes it doesn’t always go right. But this is a cool horse. He’s starting to understand the sport. I was reasonably confident that he’d hold it together. There’s atmosphere there, but he knew his job. He’s getting better and better, and I’m glad we’re helping out the team.”
Cross-country gets underway tomorrow at 10 a.m. local time (9 a.m. EST, it’ll be live-streaming at this link).
Mollie Bailey and Lindsay Berreth are on the ground in Rio de Janeiro for the Chronicle and will be reporting with all the news, fantastic photos and behind-the-scenes details all posted on www.coth.com. Your go-to page for all things Olympic is http://www.chronofhorse.com/2016-Olympics
We’ll have live blogs of competition sessions, Twitter updates, photo galleries, stories about each day’s competition and so much more. Don’t miss a thing—we’ll have everything you need to know. Also make sure to follow along on the Chronicle’s social media outlets: Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.
Categories: 2016 Olympic Games: Eventing, Eventing, Eventing
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READ RELATED ARTICLE: Top 10 Shake-Up After Day 2 Of Eventing Dressage As Germany Slips Into The Lead
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Studies in Intelligence
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hue-1968
Intelligence in Public Media
Hue 1968: A Turning Point of the American War in Vietnam
Mark Bowden (Atlantic Monthly Press, 2017), 608 pp., notes, Vietnamese glossary, index.
Reviewed by Thomas G. Coffey
Hue 1968 is a book on a mission, refusing to be just another war story. Instead of simply chronicling the plight of those caught up in it, Bowden is bent on convincing the reader that the battle was not only very consequential but overseen by a foolish top leadership. And so the book is a mixed bag. As a war story, Hue 1968 is a quite compelling and moving account of its participants—the US Marines and Army, the communist fighters, and the Hue citizens in the middle of the fight. As a larger history of the Tet offensive and Vietnam War, the book is flawed and facile.
The battle for Hue was part of the Tet offensive begun in late January 1968, in which communist units attacked 39 of South Vietnam’s 44 provincial capitals, five of six autonomous cities, 71 of 242 district capitals, some 50 hamlets, virtually every allied airfield, many other military targets, and Saigon itself.[1] But whereas the enemy, failing to ignite a general uprising in support of the attacks, was forced to retreat from most places in a matter of days, the fighting in Hue lasted for 25 days. The communists saw control of the former capital and still cultural center of all Vietnam as a prime goal and devoted massive resources to achieve this end—10,000 North Vietnamese army and Viet Cong troops. The US military and its South Vietnamese counterpart (ARVN) retook the city, but at a heavy price. Two hundred and fifty US Marines and soldiers were killed, and 1,554 wounded. Another 458 ARVN soldiers were killed and an estimated 2,700 wounded. Estimates of communist losses run from 2,400 to 5,000. As for the civilians, Bowden calculates about 8,000 died, including those the communists put to death in political reprisals. More than 80 percent of the city’s structures were either destroyed or seriously damaged. (495)
Bowden constructs the narrative around the three battles within a battle for Hue: one in southern Hue to retake the Triangle, using the MACV compound there as a base. Another in northern Hue for the Citadel (the iconic, old, walled city center that contained the historic seat of government) consisted of ARVN soldiers holding on at their base until the US Marines could assist them. The last part of the fight for Hue involved a US Army move down from the northwest to overtake La Chu, a key command and supply center for communist forces in Hue. Each battle had its heroic leaders: Lt. Col. Ernie Cheatham in the Triangle, Maj. Bob Thompson in the Citadel, and Col. James Vaught on the road to La Chu. For the enemy, the battle strategy was originally to take the city, prepare for the impending counterattack, and triumph with support from the general uprising of the residents. When no uprising took place, the strategy simply became one of exacting a tremendous toll on the Marine and ARVN attempts to retake Hue. The best way to do that was to stay close—“hold the enemy by the belt” (266)—so the US military could not bring its superior firepower to use without endangering its own troops.
The learning curve required to understand how to fight an enemy in close contact, as well as one entrenched in an urban setting, is one of the most compelling parts of the story. Given that the last experience the US military had had with urban warfare was the battle for Seoul during the Korean War, Cheatham looked for field manuals on the topic, finding two relevant ones, Combat in Built-Up Areas and An Assault on a Fortified Position. (239) He also chose older, more powerful weapons to blast holes, such as the 106-mm recoilless rifle and bazookas. The often maligned—but still popular with the troops—Ontos, a small armored vehicle mounted with six recoilless rifles, played a paramount role during attacks on entrenched enemy positions. (207)
Much of the power of Hue 1968 comes from what happened to the Marines when they did not—or sometimes when they did—do what the manuals said: Stay off the streets. Go through walls, not around or over them. Avoid going through doors and windows. Blast your way forward, through anything that stands in your way. Clear the ground floor on the way to the top. For rooms, toss in a grenade, then have one soldier fire left of center, another right of center, and another aim at the ceiling, in case more enemy are upstairs. Bowden’s detailing these tactics and his accounts of soldiers doing this painstaking and dangerous work is superbly rendered—it’s even amusing at times, as when he recounts a Marine captain’s visiting an abandoned Esso gas station looking for a proper map of the city . . . or when some Marines changed tactics and conducted a night assault on a building, only to find it abandoned. The enemy found the Marines’ predictable focus on day fighting allowed them to rest in safer spaces at dusk.
The plight of the citizens is also well covered. Many of them tried to lay low, or when discovered, just go along, most of them unenthusiastically, with communist attempts to whip up their support for the cause. Citizens pressed into service to help with Viet Cong and NVA defenses worried about being mistaken for the enemy when the seemingly inevitable US military and ARVN counterattack came. When the tide of battle started to turn, many residents tried to get behind Marine lines for protection. Some citizens, however, went along quite enthusiastically with political reprisals for those on enemy lists, which were so sweeping as to include “the law faculty of Hue University.” (299) Bowden notes the difficulty of sorting out whether those found in the mass graves were assassinated for political reasons, victims of score settling, or simply people killed during the fighting. (393)
As the rather extensive collaborators list suggests, the communists planned meticulously for taking and holding the city. They distributed new uniforms to boost the morale of the troops and show the citizens the communist forces were not some ragged force but a respectable outfit. Instead of raising the North Vietnamese flag above the royal palace, a new, gigantic one was created that would underscore that the battle was one of liberation—not conquest. Its design and color scheme were chosen to pay respect to the city’s major factions—Buddhists, Catholics, and intellectuals. Even when the battle increasingly looked less like liberation and more like a losing cause, a leading general outmaneuvered his political overseers, who were seeking permission to withdraw from the city; the general saw much gain in prolonging the battle and inflicting damage on the image of United States, abroad. (341)
The book gives brief mention to the ARVN’s heroic defense of its base at Mang Ca in the Citadel—and that’s about it, for the South Vietnamese Army’s perspective. Bowden suspects that the presence of a Vietnamese government translator during some of his interviews may have had a chilling effect on those considering whether to participate—too dangerous, even today. Bowden is not alone here: the perspective of the South Vietnamese is sorely missing from most accounts of the Vietnam War. In addition, scant mention is made of the civilian US government personnel (Department of State, US Agency for International Development, Central Intelligence Agency, etc.) who were in Hue. A rough count from the book puts fewer than 20 US officials in Hue, of which seven were killed or executed; four were captured, with two of those dying along the Ho Chi Minh trail while being moved north; and five who made it to safety after a week.[a]
The harrowing experiences of those fighting or trapped in the embattled city should be material enough for a powerful story without having to oversell it, but Bowden seems conflicted about intelligence’s role in warning about the Tet offensive, coming down on the side of judging it the “worst intelligence failure of the war.” (525) As CIA historian Harold Ford makes clear in CIA and the Vietnam Policymakers, CIA’s Saigon Station in November and December 1967 drafted three major cables, each of which warned that a powerful, nationwide enemy offensive was coming. And though Headquarters poured cold water on these assessments, the US military command in Vietnam (MACV) did act on the warnings, redeploying some troops to Saigon.
A particularly flawed attempt to make for a better story is Bowden’s noting what American soldiers had supposedly told themselves about the war. “The enemy was weak. He had little or no popular support. He had no significant presences in South Vietnam beyond the small bands of rebels capable of minor raids in rural areas.” (90) However, it was these very soldiers who provided input into 1967 estimates of the Viet Cong strength alone, with Defense putting the total at 300,000 and the CIA at 430,000.[2] Either estimate shows a very formidable and capable enemy. The biggest unknown about the communist forces was intent, not capability. As for enemy presence in South Vietnam, a 1967 CIA map shows most of the country as either controlled by the enemy or up for grabs.[3]
Part of the problem was Bowden’s initial concept for the book. He agreed with his publisher’s idea of chronicling the Battle for Hue as a “way of writing about the entire Vietnam War.” (541) This explains where an otherwise absorbing book goes wrong, with the author, who has never written anything about the war except for this book, making sweeping judgments for which he lacks established expertise. Bowden is less equipped to assess the larger landscape of one battle than authors who have written voluminously about the same war, such as Stephen Sears writing about the Civil War, and Antony Beevor writing about World War II.
So, the further away from the battlefield Bowden goes, the more assertive, even polemical, Hue 1968 gets. A case in point is the initial missions the Marines were sent on to recapture territory including the Truong Tien Bridge linking northern and southern Hue. Given that the enemy was entrenched and vastly outnumbered the Marines, these attacks were suicidal. Bowden powerfully details how the Marines fought bravely against all odds. He rightly places blame all the way up the military leadership chain for its stubborn refusal to acknowledge the enemy’s strength and control of the city.
When the story gets to Gen. William Westmoreland, though, the narrative gets looser. Besides tiresomely referring to him as “Westy,” Bowden draws the general as a caricature, some clueless and hidebound military leader who paled next to his more astute successor, Creighton Abrams. However, as Vietnam historian Dale Andrade points out, both generals faced the same quandary: devote a significant share of US forces to keeping enemy conventional units away from the population, and only then would pacification stand a chance. “Whether the operation was called ‘search and destroy’ (under Westmoreland) or ‘one war’ (under Abrams) made little difference.”[4]
The book’s epilogue does not add much, and includes oft-repeated formulations, such as the Vietnam War “ought to have taught (but has not) Americans to cultivate deep regional knowledge in the practice of foreign policy, and to avoid being led by ideology instead of understanding . . . Beware of men with theories that explain everything.” (526) In the end, Bowden admits the book is “mostly the work of a journalist, in that it is primarily based on interviews.” (564) Hue 1968 worked best when Bowden stuck to this modest understanding.
[a] For more on the situation in Hue, see Raymond R. Lau, “The 1968 Tet Offensive in Vietnam and the Seizure of Hue—A CORDS Advisor Remembers,” Studies in Intelligence 61, no. 4 (December 2017): 1–14; available online at https://www.cia.gov/library/center-for-the-study-of-intelligence/csi-publications/csi-studies/studies/vol-61-no-4/pdfs/a-cords-advisor-in-hue.pdf.
[1]Harold P. Ford, CIA and the Vietnam Policymakers: Three Episodes, 1962–1968(Center for the Study of Intelligence, 1998), 123; available online at https://www.cia.gov/library/center-for-the-study-of-intelligence/csi-publications/books-and-monographs/cia-and-the-vietnam-policymakers-three-episodes-1962-1968.
[2]Ibid., 86.
[3]CIA and the Wars in Southeast Asia, 1947–75 (Center for the Study of Intelligence, 2016); available online at https://www.cia.gov/library/center-for-the-study-of-intelligence/csi-publications/books-and-monographs/Anthology-CIA-and-the-Wars-in-Southeast-Asia.
[4]Dale Andrade, “Westmoreland was right: learning the wrong lessons from the Vietnam War,” Small Wars and Insurgencies 19, no. 2 (2008):145–81.
The reviewer: Thomas G. Coffey has served in CIA's Directorate of Analysis. He is currently a member of the Lessons Learned Program of the Center for the Study of Intelligence.
All statements of fact, opinion, or analysis expressed in this journal are those of the authors. Nothing in any of the articles should be construed as asserting or implying US government endorsement of their factual statements and interpretations. Articles by non-US government employees are copyrighted.
Last Updated: Apr 12, 2018 02:40 PM
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Central European and Russian Diet
A health gap separates Central and Eastern Europe from the United States, Canada, Japan, and the Western part of Europe. This East-West gap in health started during the 1960s. Almost half of this gap was due to cardiovascular disease (CVD) mortality differentials. There has been a marked increase of CVD in Central and Eastern Europe, which is only partially explainable by the high prevalence of the three traditional CVD risk factors (hypercholesterolemia, hypertension, and smoking) in these countries. There is an extreme nonhomogeneity of the former Soviet bloc, and the data from each country must be analyzed individually. The aim here is to present the latest available data, which show the health status of various regions of postcommunist Europe. All data used are taken from the World Health Organization (WHO) Health for All Database (as updated in June 2003). The last available data from most countries are from the year 2002.
As premature mortality was considered the most important information, the standardized death rate (SDR) for the age interval 0–64 years was used (SDR is the age-standardized death rate calculated using the direct method; it represents what the crude death rate would have been been if the population had the same age distribution as the standard European population).
Central Europe (Poland, Hungary, Czech Republic, Slovakia)
Total, CVD and cancer mortality in Central Europe was relatively low at the beginning of the 1960s, but then an increase occurred. While the differences in 1970 between the nations of the European Union (EU) and the Central European communist countries were not great, from the mid-1970s on, the relative trends in CVD mortality in EU countries and Central Europe showed a marked change: mortality in Central Europe increased, whereas in EU countries it decreased steadily. Between 1985 and 1990, the male CVD mortality in Central Europe was more than two times higher than in EU countries. A substantial proportion of this divergence was attributable to ischemic heart disease. After the collapse of Communism, however, a decrease in CVD mortality in Central Europe was observed.
The Former Soviet Union (Russian Federation)
The most significant changes in CVD mortality have been observed in the region of the former Soviet
Male and female life expectancy at birth in Europe, 2004
Russian Federation 59 72
Ukraine 62 73
Hungary 79 83
Romania 68 76
Bulgaria 69 76
Poland 71 79
Slovakia 70 78
Czech Republic 73 79
Portugal 74 81
Spain 77 83
United Kingdom 76 81
Germany 76 82
Sweden 78 83
Switzerland 78 83
France 76 83
SOURCE: World Health Organization.
(Illustration by GGS Information Services/Thomson Gale.)
Union (USSR). Between the years 1980 and 1990, male premature mortality was relatively stable in all regions of the USSR, and two to three times higher than in EU nations, or average. After the collapse of the USSR, CVD mortality began to rise dramatically in all the new independent states within the territory of the former USSR. In 1994 the male CVD mortality in Russia and Latvia was more than five times higher than the EU average. Women in these countries have been affected to almost the same degree as men, and the CVD mortality trends were strongest among young adults and middle-aged individuals. Cancer mortality was stable during this period, however. In 1994 the life expectancy of Russian men was almost twenty years less than that of men in Japan and some European countries. After 1994, however, there was a sudden drop in mortality both in males and females, followed by a further increase.
Lifestyle and Nutrition
Communist period (1970–1989). The socioeco-nomic situation in the democratic part of Europe and in the United States after World War II was substantially different than that in the Soviet bloc. The United States and the European democratic states were prosperous countries with effective economies and a rich variety of all kinds of foods. The communist states, however, had ineffective centralized economies and lower standards of living. The amount of various foods, especially foods of animal origin, was almost
Antioxidant—Substance that prevents oxidation, a damaging reaction with oxygen.
Free radical—Highly reactive molecular fragment, which can damage cells.
Hypercholesterolemia—High levels of cholesterol in the blood.
Hypertension—High blood pressure.
Plasma—The fluid portion of the blood, distinct from the cellular portion.
always insufficient in the USSR and the majority of its satellite countries. Data on food consumption compiled by the Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) confirm that meat consumption was, between 1961 and 1990, substantially lower in the USSR, Poland, Romania, and Bulgaria than in Western Europe or the United States. Similarly, the consumption of milk and butter in Bulgaria, Hungary, and Romania was significantly lower in comparison with Western and Northern Europe.
The increase of CVD mortality within the Soviet bloc seems to be only partially associated with a high prevalence of traditional risk factors. Efforts to apply the experience gained from successful preventive projects in Finland or the United States without analyzing the specificity of risk factors in this region, could lead to an incorrect formulation of priorities when determining preventive measures. The contribution of physical activity remains an open issue, but due to technical backwardness (lower number of cars, lower mechanization, etc.), the physical activity of people working in industry, agriculture, and services was generally higher in Eastern Europe than in the West.
Some authors believe that economic conditions were the principal determinant of the gap in health status between the East and West. The close relationship between the gross national product per capita and life expectancy is well known, but the inhabitants of Central Europe were less healthy than their wealth predicted. The dramatic changes that occurred after the onset of communism created a toxic psychosocial environment. A loss of personal perspectives, chronic stress, tension, anger, hostility, social isolation, frustration, hopelessness, and apathy led to a lowered interest in health and to a very high incidence of alcoholism and suicide. People living for many decades in the informationally polluted environment rejected even useful health education.
It is widely believed that chronic stress can aggravate the development of chronic diseases. However, the reasons for the high cancer and CVD mortality in Eastern Europe are (with the significant exception of male smoking) not yet known. It is possible that in communist countries the effect of traditional risk factors has been intensified unidentified factors. Hypothetically, such factors can comprise psychosocial disorders, alcoholism, environmental pollution and specific nutritional deficiencies (e.g., very low intake of antioxidant vitamins, folic acid, and bioflavonoids). Very low blood levels of antioxidants, especially of vitamin C and selenium, were found in various regions of Central and Eastern Europe between 1970 and 1990.
Postcommunist period (after 1989). Thanks to its geographical location, Central Europe was best prepared for the democratic changes that occurred after 1989. After the collapse of communism, the decrease in CVD mortality in politically and economically more consolidated countries occured. The positive changes in Central European countries can be explained by higher consumption of healthful food, including a substantial increase in the consumption of fruit and vegetables, a decrease in butter and fatty milk consumption, and an increase in the consumption of vegetable oils and high-quality margarines. There was also a rapid improvement in the availability and quality of modern CVD health care.
Finnish and Russian epidemiologists compared the plasma ascorbic-acid concentrations among men in North Karelia (Finland) and in the neighboring Russian district. Almost all Russian men had levels suggesting a severe vitamin C deficiency, while more than 95% Finns had normal vitamin C levels. Comparison of fifty-year-old men in Sweden and Lithuania found significantly lower plasma concentrations of some antioxidant vitamins (beta-carotene, lycopene, gamma-tocopherol) in Lithuanian men. They also had substantially lowered resistance of low-density lipo-protein to oxidation than Swedish men. It is probable that in Russia an imbalance arose in which factors enhancing the production of free radicals (alcoholism, smoking, and pollution) dominated protective antioxidant factors.
High prevalence of smoking and alcoholism has also been an important factor in high CVD mortality rates in Russia. A substantial proportion of CVD deaths in Russia, particularly in the younger age groups, have been sudden deaths due to cardiomyopathies related to alcoholism. Alcoholism has evidently played a key role in the extremely high incidence of CVD mortality, as well as in the numbers of accidents, injuries, suicides, and murders. There is no way to determine a reliable estimation of the actual consumption of alcohol in Russia, since alcohol is being smuggled into the country on a large scale.
Normalization in the Russian Federation will likely be more difficult than in Central Europe. Trends in lifestyle, smoking, food selection, alcohol consumption, and other areas will be determined by both economic and political factors. The successfulness of the economic transformation, which provides hope for a sensible life, will be a key factor in improving health status in post-communist countries. A significant decrease in cardiovascular and cancer mortality in Central Europe provides hope for the Russian Federation. Unfortunately, differences in life expectancy between these countries and Western Europe are still very great.
World Health Organization. “Health for All Database: Mortality Indicators by Cause, Age, and Sex.” Available from <http://www.euro.who.int/hfadb>
Emil Ginther
Nutrition is the science that studies the interactions between living organisms and food. Human nutrition includes the study of and other substances found in foods; how the human body uses nutrients for growth and maintenance; and the relationship between foods, food components, dietary patterns, and health. The study of nutrition encompasses all aspects of the ingestion, digestion, absorption, transport, interaction, storage, and excretion of nutrients by the body. In a broader sense, the study of nutrition also includes the various psychological, sociological, cultural, technological, and economic factors that affect the foods and dietary patterns chosen by an individual.
Digestion and Absorption
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Aussie Wildlife You Won’t Want To Miss!
When it comes to wildlife tours, Australia really is the best place to be, with over 378 types of mammals, 828 types of bird, 4,000 types of fish, 300 types of lizards, 140 types of snake and many more calling the land their home. A lot of animals found in Australia are unique to its land, in fact it’s more than 80 per cent, making most encounters once-in-a-lifetime. So, before you travel down under, it’s a good idea to be clued up on which animals to see in Australia. To help you spot some native creatures such as kangaroos, koalas, echidnas, dingoes, platypuses, wallabies and wombats, we’ve compiled a list of Australian animals you’ll want to look out for on your guided tour of Australia.
Emus – Standing at almost 2 metres tall, the flightless emu is a hard one to miss. If you want to catch them in the wild, they’re most commonly found on the savannah woodland, sclerophyll forests and large areas of grassland.
Lyrebird – With its beautiful feathered tail, the lyrebird often resides in forests and open woodlands. In Mt Warning National Park and Gondwana Rainforest, you may come across the Albert’s lyrebird, but if not, you should find the more common Superb lyrebird in: Sydney’s Royal National Park and the Illawarra region; the Dandenong Ranges and National Parks surrounding Melbourne; Victoria’s Tower Hill and in many other National Parks along the east coast.
Penguins – If you want to see one of Australia’s little penguins then the Philip Island in Victoria and Kangaroo Island in South Australia is where these lovely little birds dwell.
Kookaburras – You may have heard about the bird with the almost human-like laughter. Well that’s the kookaburras. They’re often found in the countryside and city suburbs, and can be heard at dusk and dawn when they make their call.
Snakes – Australian wildlife is truly incredible but it’s important to stay cautious. For example, Australia is home to 21 out of the world’s top 25 most venomous snakes.
Lizards – You will come across different species of lizard all over Australia including the captivating frilled lizard and bearded dragons. But if you want to see something particularly cool then the Thorny Devils are usually lurking around Western Australia’s desert land in Shark Bay, Carnarvon and Exmouth.
Crocodiles – They may be slightly intimidating, but crocodiles are glorious creatures to observe, you just need to keep your distance. If you want to see crocodiles in their own territory then Kakadu and Kimberly National Parks are superb places to visit.
Fish – Out of all animals found in Australia fish are probably the most varied, with Australia’s marine environment supporting about 4,000 of the world’s 22,000 types of fish.
Whale – From May to November you should be able to find majestic humpback and orca whales along the east and west coastlines.
Fur Seal – The adorable Australian fur seals are now protected species, and although you can visit Australian zoos to see these endearing animals, it’s much more authentic experience to see them in their natural habitat. One of the greatest places to observe these animals is on the coast of Kangaroo Island.
Monotremes
Platypus – When it comes to animals native to Australia, you’ll struggle to find anything as unique as the platypus. Endemic to Eastern Australia, you may have to work harder to find these shy creatures, as they can be difficult to spot.
Echidna – These spiny anteaters are another one of Australia’s native animals. Looking like a cross between a hedgehog and a porcupine, these prickly animals should be found on Kangaroo Island.
Kangaroos and Wallabies – When you think about animals in Australia, a Kangaroo is possibly the first that springs to mind. There are 55 different species of kangaroos and wallabies, all native to the land. You’ll likely come across these creatures in the wild in most rural areas and even more so in the outback where you will see them hopping across the road like any old pedestrian.
Koalas – These sweet, adorable animals are one of Australia’s most beloved. Although they can be found in zoos, it’s much more exciting to witness them in the wild in places like Yanchep National Park and Victoria’s Phillip Island.
Dingo – The dingo is one of Australia’s largest carnivorous mammals. Although it may be mistaken for a wild dog, it has been verified as its own species. If you want to spot one of these wild animals then you probably won’t have to go far as they’re found all over Australia (excluding Tasmania.)
Numbats – When observing the wildlife of Australia you never need to travel far. However, if you have your sights set on numbats, then you’ll need to make sure you venture into western Australia.
Tasmanian Devil – Out of all the wild animals in Australia the Tasmanian devil is an exciting one to spot. If you want to see these creatures in the wild then you need to be in Tasmania, as this is the only place they reside.
Image courtesy of Tourism Australia
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Yvanna Reyes
Yvanna Reyes serves as Director of Bands at Dessau Middle School and assists with marching band and flute lessons at Connally High School. Ms. Reyes comes to the Pflugerville ISD after having served five years as Associate Band Director at Harlingen High School, in Harlingen, Texas.
Ms. Reyes recently earned her fourth consecutive UIL Concert and Sightreading Sweepstakes Award with the Harlingen High School Concert Band. In addition, she led an active private lesson studio and managed the entire woodwind program at Harlingen. Ms. Reyes has also had successful experiences teaching marching band including placement at the UIL Texas State Marching Band Championships and Bands of America Regionals. As a private lesson teacher, Ms. Reyes has had students place as high as first chair in All State, Area, and Region ensembles since 2012.
An active member of the Texas Music Educators Association, Ms. Reyes has served as Secretary for the Region 28 Band Division, assisted with TMEA All State Band Auditions, Honor Band Hearings, and has been an organizer for several region bands.
Ms. Reyes has also been recognized by the Harlingen CISD Superintendent and Board of Trustees for fours years of consecutive UIL Sweepstakes.
Ms. Reyes grew up in the city of Brownsville, Texas and is a 2012 graduate of the VanderCook College of Music in Chicago, Illinois. She is a member of the Texas Music Educators Association and Texas Bandmasters Association.
Juan Carrera
Assistant Band Director
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Homeland Security LIVE
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Home > News > Press Releases > Remarks By Vice President Mike Pence At The Northern Triangle Conference On Prosperity And Security In Central America
Remarks By Vice President Mike Pence At The Northern Triangle Conference On Prosperity And Security In Central America
THE VICE PRESIDENT: Thank you, Mr. Secretary. And thank you all, I’m truly honored to be with you at this important gathering.
But before I begin, allow me to address the attack that took place yesterday in our Nation’s Capital.
President Trump and I were deeply saddened when we were informed yesterday morning that a gunman had opened fire on the Republican congressional baseball team, injuring five people as they practiced for tonight’s annual charity baseball game.
I served with many of these congressmen. They're my friends, including Representative Steve Scalise, who was seriously wounded. But I can say with confidence that he continues to receive the best possible medical care at MedStar Hospital in Washington, D.C.
Congressman Scalise is a good man. He’s a principled leader and a patriot. And like all those who come to serve in our Nation’s Capital, Steve loves this country, and his service does credit to the people of his state and the people of this nation.
Karen and I join millions across America in praying for Steve, for all the injured, and their families in this difficult time. But we're especially grateful to the brave police officers who ran into danger without regard to their personal safety.
As I told her and her family this morning at the hospital, the courageous actions of Officer Crystal Griner and that of Officer David Bailey saved lives and prevented an even greater tragedy. And the American people are grateful for these courageous police officers. (Applause.)
While there will always be those who seek to divide, who profit from insult over insight -- tonight, on a baseball field in our Nation’s Capital, the world will see America is better than that. As President Trump said yesterday, we are strongest when we are unified, when we work together for the common good.
And when a neighbor is hurting or under attack, the American people always come together with generosity, compassion, and prayer. And we always will.
It’s in that spirit, that I’m honored to stand here with all of you today -- our neighbors, as well, from across North, Central, and South America -- at this historic gathering.
So President Hernandez, President Morales, Vice President Ortiz, Secretary Videgaray, Secretary Osorio, members of the Cabinet, honored guests, it is my privilege as Vice President of the United States to welcome you to this Conference on the Prosperity and Security in Central America. (Applause.)
I bring greetings today from my friend, and a champion of the strong partnership between the United States and Central America, the 45th President of the United States, President Donald Trump.
Allow me also to thank Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and Secretary John Kelly, and their Departments of State and Homeland Security for their extraordinary efforts in bringing together this historic gathering.
Allow me to also thank the government of Mexico for their full partnership in making this event possible. Let’s give these departments and let’s give the government of Mexico a vigorous round of applause. (Applause.)
I am also grateful for the presence of our Treasury Secretary, Steven Mnuchin. And I want to express my appreciation to the Inter-American Development Bank and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce for organizing yesterday’s economic event.
And also let me personally thank all the public- and private-sector leaders who traveled to be here from across the Western Hemisphere and Europe.
Before such a distinguished group of leaders, today it is my privilege, on President Trump’s behalf, to thank President Hernandez, to thank President Morales, and to thank [Vice] President Ortiz for the progress that you have made in the Northern Triangle. We congratulate you and we commend you. (Applause.)
Thank you for your leadership. Thank you for your courage. And thank you for your strong stand and your personal sacrifice to ensure a more secure and prosperous Central America. We couldn’t be more grateful.
Since the founding of the Alliance for Prosperity in 2014, Guatemala, Honduras, and El Salvador have devoted significant resources toward a brighter future for your people.
You’ve courageously pursued the fight against corruption, crime, and drug trafficking. You’ve undertaken structural reforms to establish a stronger foundation for economic growth; and you are working in close cooperation with regional partners, your business communities, and multinational institutions to implement long-term solutions to the problems facing Central America.
Your resolve is impressive and know today that you have the great respect of the President of the United States and the American people. (Applause.)
And on behalf of the President, allow me to assure you the United States of America stands with the nations and people of the Northern Triangle. We stand with you in your commitment to root out crime and corruption. We stand with you in your commitment to stop the scourge of drug trafficking once and for all.
And the United States of America stands with you as you build a more secure and prosperous future for the benefit of your people and the benefit of the Western Hemisphere. (Applause.)
In a word, we're in this together. As the President has said often, his highest duty as President of the United States is to keep America safe. But this President knows that your security and your prosperity are directly connected to ours.
This very gathering is a testament to President Trump’s commitment to a stronger, safer, and more prosperous Central America. I’m pleased to announce, at the President’s direction, that I’ll be traveling to Central and South America later this year to continue to build on the good work being done at this conference. (Applause.)
The people of the United States have a special place in our hearts for the nations and the people of Central America, especially in the Northern Triangle of Guatemala, Honduras, and El Salvador.
Your nations experienced your birth of independence when the United States was still in the youth of our own. We are bound together by history and geography. We are bound together by commerce and the nearly $25 billion in goods and services that flow between us every year.
But most of all, we are bound together by friendship, by the rich traditions and contributions that the sons and daughters of the Northern Triangle have made to the fabric of American life and make to this day.
Be assured, the United States is proud of our strong partnership with nations in the Northern Triangle. We are committed to strengthening that partnership so that we can continue to address the significant problems facing our neighborhood.
You sit at the heart of the Western Hemisphere, where North meets South; and every day, countless people and products pass over your streets, through your airports, your seaports, and across your borders. By and large, this flow of commerce and crowds benefits us both in the exchange of culture and goods and services.
But as we all know, Central America has been plagued, as well, by vicious gangs and vast criminal organizations that drive illegal immigration and carry illegal drugs on northward their journey to the United States. These criminal syndicates wreak havoc everywhere their tentacles spread, as your people know all too well.
At this very moment, there is an estimated 85,000 active gang members in the Northern Triangle alone, and they bring untold misery, corruption, and violence to your communities. One out of every five citizens in this region is a victim of crime every year -- from theft, to extortion, to kidnapping, to human trafficking, or worse.
But the consequences of this rampant crime are not restricted to the Northern Triangle. They radiate outward, and swiftly reach us here in the United States. Central America is merely the beginning of a journey for too many migrants fleeing poverty and violence. It’s merely a stop on the highway as people confront the merchants of death in the region.
Driven by the high demand for narcotics here in the United Stated States, fully 80 percent of documented drug traffic travels through Central America -- 80 percent. The American people are reminded of the terrible cost of drug trafficking, gang violence, and illegal immigration every day.
We see it in the gangs and violence that plague our streets and cities. We see it in the news with the names of the victims and their families. And we see it on the faces of our families and friends who have fallen prey to the scourge of drug addiction.
President Trump has made it clear that this must end, and under his leadership and yours, this will end. (Applause.)
President Trump has already taken decisive action to protect the American people from the harshest consequences of illegal immigration and the transnational drug trade.
This President has ordered the creation of, in his words, an “aggressive strategy to dismantle the criminal cartels that have spread all across our nation,” and our administration has wasted no time under the leadership of Secretary Kelly in removing gang members, drug dealers, and criminals off the streets of America.
The President’s leadership is already making a difference. Criminal organizations such as MS-13 are being decimated and going directly into prison.
And thanks to President Donald Trump, illegal crossings at America’s southern border are down nearly 70 percent since the start of this year. And we are grateful for our partners in Mexico and across the Northern Triangle who have contributed to our progress in this area.
But to further stem the flow of illegal immigration and illegal drugs into the United States, President Trump knows, as do all of you, that we must confront these problems at their source. We must meet them -- and we must solve them -- in Central and South America.
The United States’ partnership with the Northern Triangle is built to accomplish this vital mission. It’s what brings us here today. In terms of security, the United States of America is helping train your police forces. We’re supporting your attorneys general as they target drug traffickers, gang leaders, and corruption. We're sharing information to better disrupt the flow of weapons and cash into criminal hands.
The United States is proud to support programs in the Northern Triangle that strengthen civil society, improve education and literacy, and spur economic growth in impoverished areas.
American assistance in business development and agriculture in Guatemala, El Salvador, and Honduras in recent years has created more than 40,000 jobs and lifted tens of thousands of families out of poverty.
Rest assured, under the leadership of President Trump, the United States will continue to work with our partners to support the programs that prove effective.
Even in this time of fiscal challenges, I’m pleased to report that President Trump has made clear our commitment to this region by requesting an additional $460 million for security and prosperity in Central America. (Applause.)
But as you all know, the most important work throughout the region is to be by the nations and the people who call it home. A secure and prosperous Central America requires nothing short of national transformation on an ongoing basis from within -- in the economy, in civil society, in the halls of government. In the Northern Triangle, we ask you with great respect that you maintain and seek to expand your commitment to tackle these problems head on.
Through the Alliance for Prosperity, you have already made sustained annual commitments in recent years exceeding $2.8 billion to stimulate growth, improve safety, root out corruption, end the environment of impunity, and enact other important reforms. These are vital investments in your future.
Yet continued action is more necessary now than ever before. On behalf of the President, we urge you to cement the gains that you have made and make renewed progress toward our shared goal of security and prosperity in Central America.
Working together, we will continue to build professional and accountable civilian police forces throughout the region. We’ll continue to support your campaign against public corruption and to strengthen the rule of law.
And together, we’ll continue to provide more people with a path out of poverty -- to give the citizens of Central America a better path and a brighter future. But to accomplish these goals, the nations of Central America must continue to work with new partners -- in the business community, in government, and in the faith community -- to foster stronger and more robust civil societies and economies, to stanch the flow of illegal drugs and illegal immigration, and to combat gang violence and organized crime.
A flourishing economy gives people a reason to put down roots in the land of their birth and to grow, rather than fleeing to the north. Good-paying jobs give people an alternative to a life of poverty, hopelessness, and crime.
By fostering opportunity in the cities and towns of Central America, we’ll keep families together. We’ll create stronger and more stable communities where your sons and daughters can climb the ladder of success and build a brighter future for themselves, their loved ones, and your nations as a whole.
The surest way to make progress toward opportunity and prosperity is for the nations of the Northern Triangle to continue to break down barriers to job creation and growth, to reform their tax and regulatory systems, and to root out corruption at every level of government.
This room is proof that businesses also see tremendous opportunity in the Northern Triangle and beyond. Businesses from North and Central America are so well represented here, as are the Inter-American Development Bank, the World Bank, and the International Monetary Fund.
These institutions and industry leaders I can assure you want to partner with your nations to improve the investment climate, to create jobs, to spur the kind of growth that will build a foundation for a brighter future for your nation and for ours.
And on behalf of the President and all the American businesses represented here, I can promise you we want you to grow. We want to export more goods and services to your countries because your success is our success.
These are the new and stronger partnerships that’ll be necessary for a more prosperous Central America. And a more prosperous Central America, built on a foundation of democracy and the rule of law, will be an inspiration to other nations in this hemisphere and beyond.
We need only look to the nation of Venezuela to see what happens when democracy is undermined. That once-rich nation’s collapse into authoritarianism has pushed it into poverty and caused untold suffering for the Venezuelan people.
We must, all of us, raise our voices to condemn the Venezuelan government for its abuse of power and its abuse of its own people, and we must do it now. (Applause.)
And across the wider region we must show Venezuela and its people that there is a better path -- the path of democracy, of justice, and above all else, we must show Venezuela that freedom is the only path to true prosperity and to a brighter future for their people.
But we must always remember that security is the foundation of prosperity. In the Northern Triangle, we must pursue new and stronger partnerships in a word to drive out the criminals, the cartels, the gangs, and all who would undermine a future of peace and safety for your people.
It’s vital that that the Northern Triangle expand its security cooperation and integration not just with the United States, but also with the other nations of Central America -- Belize, Costa Rica, Nicaragua, and Panama.
So too must we continue to work closely with Mexico to cripple drug traffickers and disrupt criminal organizations as they seek to travel north. And we cannot overestimate the importance of strong borders. Under President Donald Trump the United States’ borders will be strong. But the borders of the United States will always be open to legal immigrants and the lawful flow of commerce. But we will make sure our borders are closed to those who would do us harm -- and it will be impassable to the drugs that are besetting our families and communities.
Today, we pledge to strengthen the bonds that join the United States, the Northern Triangle, and all the nations of Central America together in this New World.
Let today mark the beginning of a new era here in the New World -- of partnership and progress throughout our neighborhood for the benefit of all our people.
As the Old Book says, let us “encourage one another and build each other up,” just as, in fact, we are doing.
Together, I know we will build on the foundation of friendship between our lands and between our people. Together, we will reach new heights of safety and security and peace and prosperity. And together, with the help of all the leaders gathered here, with your determination and renewed commitment to the principles that make security and prosperity possible, with President Donald Trump in the White House, and with God’s help, I know we will finish the task before us. We will step forward together in the Western Hemisphere and meet the glorious future that awaits us.
Thank you. God bless you. God bless Central America and God bless the United States of America. (Applause.)
#CentAm2017
Last Published Date: June 19, 2017
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Diplomacy - ★★★★★
This classic game of pure negotiation has taken many forms over the years.
The first Avalon Hill version has perhaps the widest release, but Avalon Hill (Hasbro) re-released the game in 1999, complete with a colorful new map and metal pieces. They recently released a 50th anniversary edition with a new map and cardboard pieces representing the armies and navies.
In the game, players represent one of the seven "Great Powers of Europe" (Great Britain, France, Austria, Germany, Italy, Russia or Turkey) in the years prior to World War I. Play begins in the Spring of 1901, and players make both Spring and Autumn moves each year. There are only two kinds of military units: armies and fleets. On any given turn, each of your military units has limited options: they can move into an adjoining territory, support an allied unit in an attack on an adjoining territory, support an allied unit in defending an adjoining territory, or hold their position. Players instruct each of their units by writing a set of "orders." The outcome of each turn is determined by the rules of the game. There are no dice rolls or other elements of chance. With its incredibly simplistic movement mechanics fused to a significant negotiation element, this system is highly respected by many a gamer.
2-7 players
Strategi, Klassiska
Speltyp
Grundspel
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Key Dates:
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Complete List of Upcoming Events
March 29 - April 2, 2020
Venue: Hilton Denver City Center
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Journal of Environmental & Engineering Geophysics (JEEG)
Dale Rucker is the Chief Technical Officer for hydroGEOPHYSICS, Inc. in Tucson AZ. Dale has his PhD in hydrogeology and he uses geophysics to solve hydrogeologically-related problems. His specialties are in electrical and electromagnetic methods.
Esther Babcock is a research geophysicist with the U.S. Geological Survey at the Alaska Science Center in Anchorage, Alaska. With a primary appointment to the Glaciers Program, her research focuses on near-surface geophysical investigations of climate-induced changes in Arctic and sub-Arctic ecosystems and the implications of these changes for land use and resource management.
Isabel Lopes is an Engineering Geologist at TPF Consultores in Lisbon, Portugal. Isabel has her PhD in Geology – Geotechnics (FCUL - Lisbon University) where she started in near-surface geophysics with the use of MASW for geotechnical site characterization. In the near-surface geophysics field, the use of seismic methods in geotechnics is her main interest, which includes among other subjects, joint inversion or seismic site characterization in urban environments.
Moe Momayez is Associate Professor in the Department of Mining and Geological Engineering at the University of Arizona, USA. He has a Bachelor's and PhD degree in Geophysics and Rock Mechanics from McGill University, Canada. He has extensive experience in geosensing, development of contact, non-contact and distributed sensing systems to measure physical-mechanical-geotechnical properties of geomaterials. He also has a longstanding interest in the development of new technologies that improve mine safety and productivity, specifically in geomaterials characterization, rock breakage, energy/process efficiency, and renewable energy.
Satish R. Chintakunta has spent nearly 12 years in the government, academic, and private sectors of specialized infrastructure inspection and monitoring. He specializes in the research, development, and application of nondestructive testing & evaluation (NDT/NDE) technologies and health monitoring for the transportation, nuclear, geophysical and telecom industries, among others. At SES Group & Associates, LLC, he serves as Research Engineer with the responsibilities of developing and utilizing new technologies.
Nectaria Diamanti is a Research Scientist with the Department of Geophysics, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece. From 2013 to 2018 she worked for Sensors & Software Inc., Canada in the area of ground penetrating radar (GPR) R&D and applications and she continues to be an active contributor to their scientific research and applications advancements as well as their outreach and cooperative projects. Nectaria has her Ph.D. in engineering & electronics from The University of Edinburgh, U.K. and her main research activity involves the development of geophysical techniques – especially GPR technologies – and their application to geophysical/engineering problems ranging from environmental monitoring to non-destructive testing and archaeological prospection. Her areas of research include: numerical modelling using the finite-difference time-domain (FDTD) technique, application of numerical modelling to GPR.
Dan R. Glaser is a research geophysicist at the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Cold Regions Research & Engineering Laboratory in Hanover, NH. His research interests lie in the application of electrical and electromagnetic geophysical methods for near surface imaging and detection. More specifically in the application and theory of methods such as ground penetrating radar, electrical resistivity, and spectral induced polarization. Additional interests include surface acoustic and seismic signal propagation modeling.
Zhangshuan (Jason) Hou is a senior research scientist at the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory in Richland WA USA. His research includes exploratory data analysis, uncertainty quantification, inversion approaches, and numerical modeling, solving problems related to carbon sequestration, oil/gas exploration, environmental remediation, climate change, and power systems.
Priyank Jaiswal joined the faculty of the Boone Pickens School of Geology at Oklahoma State University in August 2009, where he serves as an Associate Professor teaching and training graduate and undergraduate students in geophysical modeling and quantitative interpretation. Dr. Jaiswal holds a Ph.D. in Earth Science from the Rice University. His expertise includes gas hydrate, biofilm, sub-thrust imaging, rock physics and geomechanics.
Elizabeth Maag received her B.S. in Geophysical Engineering from the Colorado School of Mines in May of 2013 and is currently pursuing her PhD in Geophysics within the Center for Gravity, Electrical, and Magnetic Methods (CGEM), also at CSM. Her research interests include discrete-valued inversion using fuzzy c-means clustering for both gravity and gravity gradient data, as well as the partial differential equation solution for gravity for use in inversion methods.
Deqiang Mao is Professor in the School of Civil Engineering at Shandong University, China. He has a PhD degree in Hydrogeology from the University of Arizona and postdoc research experiences in Geophysics in Colorado School of Mines. His major interest is developing state-of-art inversion algorithms to interpret hydrogeophysical data, and applying hydraulic tomography test, electrical resistivity survey, induced polarization measurement and self-potential survey to solve problems in subsurface hydrology.
Antonio Menghini works as EM geophysicist for the processing of Airborne EM data in Aarhus Geofisica s.r.l. (Italy), for mining, hydrogeological and geotechnical applications. In 1989 he received a degree in Geological Sciences at The University of Rome, La Sapienza. He was Professor of Applied Geophysics at the University G- D'Annunzio in Chieti. He participated to several international projects (Muses) and workshops (Dead Sea Sinkholes).
Vincenzo Sapia is a researcher at the Istituto Nazionale di Geofisica e Vulcanologia. Since 2008, his main research interests include electrical, magnetic, and frequencydomain methods for disposal sites and archaeological investigations in addition to time-domain electromagnetic geophysics and electrical tomography applied to geologic, hydrogeological, and geotechnical investigations. He is interested in many aspects of airborne electromagnetic methods, from data processing and inversion to data interpretation and 3D modeling. He partecipates to many national and international projects which involve the use of applied geophysical methods to solve geological and environmental issues. He is author or coauthor of several between scientific papers and extended abstracts from conferences worldwide.
Blair Schneider has a Ph.D. in Geophysics from the University of Kansas and is currently completing a postdoc as the TRESTLE Program Manager at the KU Center for Teaching Excellence. Her research focuses on the application of near-surface geophysical methods for archaeological research, with an emphasis on GPR and magnetics. She is Past-President of the Association for Women Geoscientists (AWG) and now serves as a Director for the Association for Women Geoscientists Foundation. She also currently serves as secretary on the Women's Network Committee for the Society of Exploration Geophysicists (SEG) and is a co-PI for the NSF-funded ADVANCEGeo Partnership grant.
Michael Scott is the Founder and President of ADOJAM. His primary experience and expertise is specialized in GPR applications to civil infrastructure, including State of Good Repair and QC/QA initiatives of the U.S. Department of Transportation.
Remke L. van Dam is a geophysicist and Earth scientist with expertise in GPR, ERT, TEM and magnetic methods. He is a former president of the NSGS/SEG Near Surface. He currently is a research fellow and professor at CEFET-MG and works as a consulting geophysicist based in Belo Horizonte, Brazil. He holds adjunct faculty positions at Michigan State University and Queensland University of Technology.
Xue Guoqiang works at the Institute of Geology and Geophysics, Chinese Academy of Sciences in Beijing China. His major interest is in the transient electromagnetic method. He has proposed a new TEM configuration named SOTEM, which takes advantages of the stronger signal in the near surface, is easier to layout, and has a better resolution than the conventional LOTEM method.
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Follow @Countercurrents
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US Military March Through Eastern Europe And Ukraine Cash Contribution To Clinton Foundation Gets Exposed
By Countercurrents.org
As U.S. military convoy pushes through countries in eastern Europe while cash contribution to Clinton Foundation gets exposed. Activists are protesting the U.S. military march.
An AP report said:
A U.S. army infantry convoy is driving through eastern Europe seeking to provide reassurance to a region concerned that the Ukraine conflict threatens its security.
The report said:
The U.S. "Dragoon Ride" convoy started its journey last week from Estonia and passed through Latvia and Lithuania before entering Poland on Monday.
The Warsaw datelined report said:
“Flying U.S. flags, dozens of Stryker and other armored vehicles from the 3rd Squadron of the 2nd Cavalry Regiment are driving down the roads on their way back to base in Vilseck, Germany. They took part in the Atlantic Resolve exercise that shows NATO's readiness to defend its members. They will stop in some Polish towns to meet local residents.
“The move comes at a time when Poland is stepping up its own defenses by calling thousands of reservists for urgent military training and by hosting major NATO and international exercises this year. Also Monday, Canadian and Polish troops held exercises at a test range in Drawsko Pomorskie, in the northeast.”
Poland, however, has bad memories of defense alliances with Britain and France that failed when Nazi Germany invaded in 1939.
The US army convoy rolled highway during the military exercise in Riga, Latvia on March 22, 2015. The US troops’ trek began on March 21.
Don’t throw tomato
Another media report said:
The Czech people were told not to throw tomatoes and eggs at a US military convoy. Fearing that protesters could stage “provocations”, the Czech government has instructed its military to protect the U.S. military convoy during its march through the country.
The Czech TV Nova broadcast a warning: Those found throwing egg and tomato may get up to three years if convicted. In case of skirmishes, offenders can expect to spend up to 3 years of prison, and serious violence may incur 10-year sentences for the perpetrators.
The Czech Army Press warned: If someone decides to sabotage the US operation, he or she would also face charges. “Sabotage and/or attacks including attempts to undermine defense capabilities are subject to imprisonment ranging from 8-12 years or forfeiture of property.
It is expected that the US military convoy will cross the Czech Republic between March 29 and April 1 on its way to a base in the Germany.
No tanks, thanks
Czech anti-war activists have launched the ‘Tanks? No thanks!’ campaign to protest the US Army convoy march. They say the military march is a “provocative victory parade” near the Russian border.
The U.S. procession has been labeled “an unnecessary and dangerously provocative military maneuvers, which only increase international tension” on the ‘Tanks? No thanks!’ page on Facebook.
The campaigners say the relocation of vehicles has been turned into “a victory parade” as the US convoy is expected to “organize activities to impress local residents with their military power.”
Besides creating public opinion through social networks, the activists have placed fake road signs, with a tank in a red circle and a red line though it, along the announced route of the U.S. military convoy
“We don’t want such vehicles from foreign armies coming here ever again,” said Tana Bednarova from the ‘World without Wars and without Violence’ organization.
Bednarova has also slammed the expansion of NATO to the east, saying that if the U.S. and its allies really “wants to create security in the world then Russia and China and all other countries of the world should be invited to join.”
Last week, the US military convoy march was authorized by the Czech government without any debate in the parliament.
Czech communists speaking out against the ride say it will only cause traffic jams and annoy locals.
The Stryker vehicles are usually transported by rail, but it was decided that they would take a ride through Eastern Europe to demonstrate U.S. commitment in the region.
Ukraine cash contribution to Clinton
Media reports from the U.S. said:
“From 2009 up to 2013, the year the Ukrainian crisis erupted, the Clinton Foundation received at least $8.6 million from the Victor Pinchuk Foundation, which is headquartered in the Ukrainian capital of Kiev, a new report claims.
“In 2008, Viktor Pinchuk, who made a fortune in the pipe-building business, pledged a five-year, $29-million commitment to the Clinton Global Initiative, a program that works to train future Ukrainian leaders “to modernize Ukraine.” The Wall Street Journal revealed the donations the fund received from foreigners during 2009-2014.”
“Several alumni of the program have already graduated into the ranks of Ukraine’s parliament, while a former Clinton pollster went to work as a lobbyist for Pinchuk at the same time Clinton was working in government.
“Between 2009 and 2013, the very period when Hillary Clinton was serving as US secretary of state, the Clinton Foundation appears to have received at least $8.6 million from the Victor Pinchuk Foundation.
“The Pinchuk foundation said its donations to the Clinton-family organization were designed to make Ukraine ‘a successful, free, modern country based on European values.’ It went on to remark that if Pinchuk was hoping to lobby the US State Department about Ukraine, ‘this cannot be seen as anything but a good thing,’ WSJ quoted it as saying.
However, critics have pointed to some disturbing aspects regarding the donations including the coincidence of the Ukrainian crisis, which began in November 2013, and the heavy amount of cash donations being made to the Clinton Foundation on behalf of wealthy Ukrainian businessmen.
“First, as already mentioned, Clinton was serving as the US secretary of state at the time that the donations to her family’s charity were being made. Although it is true that the Clinton Foundation refused donations directly from foreign governments while Clinton was serving in the Obama administration, the door remained wide open to donations from public citizens like Pinchuk, who has advocated on behalf of stronger ties between Ukraine and the European Union.”
The report added:
“Political connections in the Pinchuk family run deep. Not only did Viktor Pinchuk serve two terms as a Ukrainian parliamentarian, but his wife is the daughter of former Ukrainian President Leonid Kuchma.
“After being introduced to former US President Bill Clinton by Doug Schoen, a political analyst and pollster who has worked for both Clintons, Pinchuk and his wife began making donations to Clinton-family charities, WSJ reported.
“During Hillary Clinton’s time at the State Department, Schoen began work as a congressional lobbyist for the Ukrainian oligarch. Schoen defended his lobbying activities, saying there was no connection to Pinchuk’s hefty donations.”
“Schoen said he and Viktor Pinchuk met on several occasions with Clinton aides including Melanne Verveer, a Ukrainian-American who holds membership in the influential Council on Foreign Relations, as well as the Trilateral Commission.
“The purpose of these meetings, according to Schoen, was to encourage the U.S. government to pressure Ukraine’s former President Viktor Yanukovich to release his jailed political opponent, Yulia Tymoshenko.”
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VIDEO: Realtor of massive house for sale says new ALR rules would hurt wealthy farmers
A 14,500-square-foot King Road home is the fourth largest to ever hit the market in Abbotsford
Tyler Olsen
Proposed new rules limiting the size of homes that can be built on agricultural are overly restrictive and will penalize wealthy farmers, says a realtor currently selling a 14,000-square-foot mansion.
Last month, the province announced that it intends to pass legislation that will ban the building of new mansions over 5,400 square feet on farmland unless the owners can show they will benefit agriculture. Most homes that have been built on agricultural land over the last three years would have been barred under the proposed new rules, which aim to discourage estate homes from gobbling up the region’s precious farmland.
This week, one such estate home – a 14,500-square-foot, six-bedroom, 10-bathroom house on King Road – went up for sale this week. The house is the fourth largest to ever be put up for sale in Abbotsford, according to realtor Jonathan Gelderman. The mansion was built by the owner of an adjacent farm. The home also functions as a bed-and-breakfast and has a ground floor with a commercial-style kitchen and rooms that can host conferences.
The cost of agricultural land in the Lower Mainland, Gelderman said, is that those who farm are either rich or have pooled their resources with extended family.
“To own a farm you have to be wealthy in the valley. You’re not going to get a five- or 10-acre farm, fully operational, without millions of dollars … so people here farming are wealthy and for you to tell a wealthy person they can’t have a nice home is insane,” he said.
Those who aren’t individually wealthy, but have bought land with extended family, are not allowed to build multiple non-modular homes on the Agricultural Land Reserve (ALR). Construction of single, larger houses is the natural result of that policy, Gelderman said.
He said a more effective means to ensure the productive use of ALR land would be to increase the amount of farm income a property owner needs to show in order to qualify for significant tax breaks.
“I know a lot of people – quote, unquote – farming in Abbotsford and the reason they farm – in quotes – is because they want to pay less property tax,” Gelderman said.
That so-called farming, he said, isn’t actually productive.
“If you took that threshold and bumped it up to … something meaningful, then what’s going to happen is, if they’re not actually operating a farm and you have to tax them on the full value of their estate, they’re going to be paying gobs of money.”
The province has said that the proposed changes may not be the end of new rules, and a panel aimed at “revitalizing” the ALR has highlighted the issue. The City of Abbotsford did the same in a letter to the Minister of Agriculture earlier this year. Meanwhile, Gelderman says the value of mansions like that which he is selling on King Road will only increase.
“Homes like this are going to go up [in value] because you can’t build them anymore,” he said. “Right now, people who want a home of this magnitude want to build it themselves. But if the government takes that right away, houses like this are going to jump up.”
RELATED: Most homes being built on Abbotsford farmland exceed new size limits
RELATED: Abbotsford asks for help enforcing ALR rules
RELATED: Agricultural Land Reserve changes heading in right direction, say ag reps
@ty_olsen
tolsen@abbynews.com
Alcohol, legal liability and the #MeToo movement at the staff Christmas party
Trump lawyer Michael Cohen met Russian, offering ‘political synergy,’ U.S. says
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Transnational Environmental Governance
Lars H. Gulbrandsen
In recent years a wide range of non-state certification programs have emerged to address environmental and social problems associated with the extraction of natural resources. This book provides a general analytical framework for assessing the emergence and effectiveness of voluntary certification programs. It focuses on certification in the forest and fisheries sectors, as initiatives in these sectors are among the most advanced cases of non-state standard setting and governance in the environmental realm. Learn More
Environmental Politics and Deliberative Democracy
Edited by Karin Bäckstrand, Jamil Kahn, Annica Kronsell, Eva Lövbrand
Can new modes of governance, such as public–private partnerships, stakeholder consultations and networks, promote effective environmental policy performance as well as increased deliberative and participatory quality? This book argues that in academic inquiry and policy practice there has been a deliberative turn, manifested in a revitalized interest in deliberative democracy coupled with calls for novel forms of public–private governance. By linking theory and practice, the contributors critically examine the legitimacy and effectiveness of new modes of governance, using a range of case studies on climate, forestry, water and food safety policies from local to global levels. Learn More
A Handbook of Environmental Management
Edited by Jon C. Lovett, David G. Ockwell
A Handbook of Environmental Management presents a range of case studies that demonstrate the complementary application of different social science techniques in combination with ecology-based management thinking to the natural environment. This eloquent and unique Handbook provides a broad overview, complemented by specific case studies and techniques that are used in environmental management from the local level to international environmental regimes. Learn More
The International Handbook of Environmental Sociology, Second Edition
Edited by Michael R. Redclift, Graham Woodgate
This thoroughly revised Handbook provides an assessment of the scope and content of environmental sociology, and sets out the intellectual and practical challenges posed by the urgent need for policy and action to address accelerating environmental change. Learn More
Governance for the Environment
Edited by Alessandra Goria, Alessandra Sgobbi, Ingmar von Homeyer
The integration of environmental concerns into other policy areas is widely recognized as a key element to achieve sustainable development. It also represents a challenge for the environmental community, requiring not only a new approach to policy-making but also changes to existing policies and their implementation. This essential book presents a diverse set of perspectives and experiences on how to support sustainable development through the integration of environmental issues into various policy sectors. Learn More
Global Threats, Global Futures
Thayer Scudder
Global threats can be expected to cause a global environmental crisis and declining living standards for most people. Threats analyzed include poverty, cultural, economic, political and religious fundamentalism, consumption, population increase and degradation of the global ecosystem. Chapters on the United States, China and Zambia illustrate difficulties that high, middle and low income countries face in addressing such threats. The final chapter examines the type of transformational change required just to reduce the rate and magnitude of future decline. Learn More
Governance and Complexity in Water Management
Edited by Hans Bressers, Kris Lulofs
The premise of this book is that careful reconsideration of strategies to achieve water management ambitions, together with more in-depth knowledge on the theories and practices of boundary spanning, could bring solutions for contemporary water problems within reach. Learn More
Transnational Multi-Stakeholder Standardization
Kristina Tamm Hallström, Magnus Boström
This enriching book provides a novel analysis of the organizational processes behind the establishment, maintenance, and challenges of non-state authority. In doing so, it compares three transnational, multi-stakeholder standard-setting processes: those of the Forest Stewardship Council, the Marine Stewardship Council, and the International Organization for Standardization on the subject of social responsibility (ISO 26000). The authors theorize the fragility of authority defined as legitimate power. They examine the problematic nature of the long-term transnational multi-stakeholder work upon which this authority is based, including the risks of being ruled out by competing rule setters or being split apart by the centrifugal forces inherent in the multi-stakeholder logics. Learn More
Water Policy Entrepreneurs
Edited by Dave Huitema, Sander Meijerink
This major volume focuses on the role of policy entrepreneurs in revolutionizing water management worldwide. Adopting an international comparative perspective, the authors explore the changes taking place in water policy across fifteen countries, at both the global level and within the European Union. Their analysis highlights the importance of groups and individuals in stimulating progress and reveals the crucial part played by policy entrepreneurs. Learn More
The Making of International Environmental Treaties
Gerald Nagtzaam
Gerry Nagtzaam contends that in recent decades neoliberal institutionalist scholarship on global environmental regimes has burgeoned, as has constructivist scholarship on the key role played by norms in international politics. In this innovative volume, the author sets these interest- and norm-based approaches against each other in order to test their ability to illustrate why and how different environmental norms take hold in some regimes and not others. Learn More
Caching the Carbon
Edited by James Meadowcroft, Oluf Langhelle
Over the past decade carbon capture and storage (CCS) has increasingly come to the fore as a possible option to manage carbon dioxide emissions that are currently contributing to human induced climate change. This book is concerned with the politics of CCS. The authors examine the way CCS has been brought into the political realm, the different interpretations of the significance of this emerging technology, and the policy challenges government and international institutions face with respect to its development, deployment and regulation. The book includes case studies of engagement with CCS in a number of developed countries as well as more thematically focused analysis. Learn More
Carbon Sinks and Climate Change
Colin A.G. Hunt
Reforestation and avoiding deforestation are ways of harnessing nature to tackle global warming – the greatest challenge facing humankind. In this book, Colin Hunt deals comprehensively with the present and future role of forests in climate change policy and practice. A review of the workings of carbon markets, both based on the Kyoto Protocol and voluntary participation, provides a base from which to explore forestry’s role. Emphasis is on acknowledging how forests’ idiosyncrasies affect the design of markets for sequestered carbon. Chapters range from the role of forests in providing biofuels and biodiversity, to measuring and valuing their stored carbon. Learn More
Greening the Car Industry
John Mikler
This ground-breaking book will be of great benefit to students and academics, particularly those with an interest in comparative politics, public policy and international political economy. It may also serve as a resource for courses on environmental politics and environmental management as well as aspects of international relations and business/management. Given the book’s contemporary policy relevance, it will be a valuable reference for policy practitioners with an interest in industry policy, multinational corporations, the environment, and institutional approaches to comparative politics. Learn More
Handbook on Trade and the Environment
Edited by Kevin P. Gallagher
In this comprehensive reference work, Kevin Gallagher has compiled a fresh and broad-ranging collection of expert voices commenting on the interdisciplinary field of trade and the environment. For over two decades policymakers and scholars have been struggling to understand the relationship between international trade in a globalizing world and its effects on the natural environment. The authors in this Handbook provide the tools to do just that. Learn More
Innovation in Environmental Policy?
Edited by Andrew J. Jordan, Andrea Lenschow
Environmental Policy Integration (EPI) is an innovative policy principle designed to deliver sustainable development. This book offers an unrivalled exploration of its conceptualization and implementation, drawing upon a set of interlinked case studies of the most common implementing instruments and the varied experience of applying them in six OECD states and the EU. Written by a team of international experts, it identifies and explains broad patterns and dynamics in what is an important area of contemporary environmental policy analysis. Learn More
Promoting Sustainable Electricity in Europe
Edited by William M. Lafferty, Audun Ruud
This is a timely and comparative assessment of initiatives to promote renewable electricity sources (RES-E) in eight European countries. Carried out by the ProSus research programme at the University of Oslo in cooperation with leading research institutions in each country, the book focuses on the promotional schemes used to foster RES-E in Austria, Denmark, Finland, Ireland, the Netherlands, Norway, Spain and Sweden. The book is unique in that it monitors progress on implementing the EU RES-E Directive in relation to the impact of the ‘dominant energy systems’ in each country. Employing notions of ‘path dependency/path creation’, the analysis demonstrates that crucial lessons for promoting RES-E are to be found in the contextual conditions of national and regional settings; conditions that qualify the effects of more general, market-oriented schemes. The conclusions reached are of direct relevance for the ongoing debate as to the most effective policy instruments for achieving sustainable energy and climate policies in Europe. Learn More
Protecting Nature
Edited by C. S.A. (Kris) van Koppen, William T. Markham
Providing a detailed description of all the major nature protection organizations and networks, including overviews of their current membership, activities, and as far as available, budgets, Protecting Nature will be of great interest to lecturers and postgraduate students in social science fields, as well as researchers in the fields of environmental policy, environmental NGOs, social movements, civil society, nature management and policy. Members of nature protection, environmental and other civil society organizations who seek a better understanding of the historical development of nature protection organizations and networks, as well as the strategies employed by those organizations, will also find much to interest them in this book. Learn More
Partnerships, Governance and Sustainable Development
Edited by Pieter Glasbergen, Frank Biermann, Arthur P.J. Mol
This significant study discusses the emergence of partnerships for sustainable development as an innovative, and potentially influential, new type of governance. With contributions from leading experts in the field, the ‘partnership paradigm’ is discussed and the contributors explore the process, extent and circumstances under which partnerships can improve the legitimacy and effectiveness of governance for sustainable development. Learn More
Aynsley Kellow
This book is an examination of a neglected form of scientific corruption – corruption by political attachment to noble causes. Learn More
The Impact of the WTO
Trish Kelly
This volume is the first to provide a comprehensive analysis of the nine environmental and health disputes that have been adjudicated at the WTO since 1995. The investigation concludes that criticism of the WTO has been overstated and, surprisingly, nations do in fact retain sovereignty over environmental and health policy. The disputes explored suggest that the WTO has been able to balance trade, environmental and health objectives. The discussion illuminates the strengths and weaknesses of the dispute resolution process and closes with suggestions for improving it. Learn More
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Zheng Chongbin
(b. 1961, Shanghai)
Born in Shanghai, Zheng Chongbin studied at the Zhejiang Academy of Fine Arts in China before traveling to the U.S. where he received an MFA from the San Francisco Art Institute in 1991. Like many other contemporary Chinese artists, he is bi-cultural and spends his time between China and the U.S. Influenced by both western and eastern cultures, Zheng uses ink wash art as the artistic language in his works and keeps exploring the potential of ink as a medium. He studied figurative painting at first and later focused on conceptual art, abstract expressionism, and the post-modern deconstruction of light and space.
His work in the ink medium embodies a concept in which matter both imposes on its own form and also produces a metaphysical dimension. Zheng says, "my intention is to investigate the logic of the ink medium and its perceptual characteristics, the alternation between transcendence and the materiality of the work. The medium retains the core values of its history, while emphasizing contemporary procedures, especially in regard to material content, which it concerns about the perception of mental volumes in relation to physical space. It forms a shift toward objectification, toward an experience of architectonics and frontality."
Zheng's works have been exhibited at Christie's at New York (2013), Hong Kong Arts Centre (2012), Saatchi Gallery (2012), Shanghai Gallery of Art (2011), Zendai Himalayas Centre (2010), the Asian Art Museum of San Francisco (2010), Valentine Willie Fine Art Singapore (2010), the Doland Museum (2009), the Pacific Asia Museum (2009), Busan Municipal Art Museum (2008), National Taiwan University of Arts (2008), the 3rd Chengdu Biennial (2007).
His works are collected by the British Museum in London, the Asian Art Museum of San Francisco, and the Daimler Art Collection in Stuttgart, Germany, and the DSL Collection in France. Zheng is the subject of a documentary film, The Enduring Passion of Ink, and an in-depth monograph Zheng Chongbin Impulse, Matter, Form, edited by Britta Erickson and distributed by D.A.P. in the United States.
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Arts culture entertainment
Cinemobile in Dungloe, Gaoth Dobhair this week
The Cinemobile, Ireland’s travelling cinema, will stop in Dungloe today and in Gaoth Dobhair later this week to screen a selection of feature films.
The Cinemobile will be located in Dungloe’s Main Street car park today and tomorrow, and in Gaoth Dobhair on Thursday and Friday.
Today, June 14, screenings in Dungloe include the animated comedy “Rio” at 4 pm, and “Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides” at 8 pm.
Tomorrow, Cinemobile offerings in Dungloe include “Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides” at 4 pm and “The Hangover, Part 2” at 8 pm.
The Cinemobile rolls into Gaoth Dobhair on Thursday, June 16, where they will set up in the car park of St. Mary’s Church in Derrybeg. On the Gaoth Dobhair schedule for Thursday, June 16, are “Rio” at 4 pm and “Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides” at 8 pm. On Friday, June 17, the Cinemobile in Gaoth Dobhair will show “Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides” at 3.30 pm; “Jig”, a documentary about the world of competitive Irish dancing, at 6 pm; and “The Hangover, Part 2”, at 8 pm.
Tickets are 5 euro for afternoon screenings and 7 euro for screenings after 6 pm. The Cinemobile is available for group bookings daily from 9.30 am. For more information, contact 091 751629.
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"Runaway" (2004) - Eight Short Stories by Alice Munro (1931-), Canadien Author and Winner of the 2013 Nobel Prize For Literature
By DonRocks, January 26, 2014 in Literature
2013 Nobel Prize (Literature)
DonRocks
donrocks@aol.com
If anyone could commit to being my reading-discussion partner with "Runaway," I'd love to do something similar to what we're doing with "Troilus and Cressida" over in the theatre forum. Obviously, the more the merrier, but I need at least one person. I'd never read Alice Munro before she won last year's Nobel Prize for Literature (*), but from what little I've read so far, she is an astounding, amazing, unique writer - as Cynthia Ozick states in something of a hyperbolic fit: she is "Our Chekhov." Or, as Jonathan Franzen writes:
"Runaway is so good that I don't want to talk about it here. Quotation can't do the book justice, and neither can synopsis. The way to do it justice is to read it ... Which leaves me with the simple instruction that I began with: Read Munro! Read Munro!"
The eight stories are between 33 and 65 pages long, depending on which edition you have. This book is easily found in Barnes and Noble, and can be ordered in paperback from Amazon (the book pictured is the exact edition I have).
Having recently spent some time in Vancouver and Victoria, BC, this book is especially meaningful to me because Munro writes about "little things" from small-town British Columbia (this "Impressionist-like" celebration of local, ordinary life is what inspired Ozick's Chekhov comment, although Munro's laser-like prose is certainly not Impressionistic).
Unlike Shakespeare, we can't copy the text here which is a shame, but it's all we have to work with.
Who's in? Let's begin with story #1: the eponymous "Runaway."
(*) It's such a shame Eudora Welty passed away before she, herself, won the prize.
PappyVanWise
Little Mazda
Just borrowed the ebook from the local library, so I'm in for now. It'll be nice to put my English degree to good use.
Well then, seeing as though we can't reproduce the text here:
A general warning since I don't know what others will write: Every reader should consider every comment from now forward to be a Spoiler unless clearly marked otherwise.
I urge people to read the first story ("Runaway") before reading the rest of this post. None of the other seven stories will be addressed here, so if you've only read the first story, you're safe to read this.
Let's start with the first story, "Runaway."
The question, The Question, is ...
1) Was Flora real? (At first, of course she was, but afterwards?)
Breaking it down further:
2) Did Flora actually appear to Sylvia and Clark?
If the answer to question 2) is "yes" (by no means a given):
3) Did Clark dispose of Flora on the way home?
Also, by no means a given.
In lesser hands, the essential plot of this story could have been a Twilight Zone episode (i.e., cheap, decently written fun and escapism); instead, it turns out to be the biggest Mind Fuck I can remember reading. I've heard Munro described as an author offering up sympathetic, hyper-realistic prose; by no means is that evident in "Runaway," the first story. This story is a psychological thriller, as well as about fifty other things.
I am left haunted by the combinatorics at play in this work. There are so many possibilities here as to what happened, and Munro played her hand brilliantly in leaving each one on the table as the story ends.
When I first purchased this book, I "cheated" by reading the shortest story ("Silence") first. That was a mistake - my gut feeling is that this is a symphony, and these "movements" need to be read in order. I might be wrong about this - time will tell (I purposely haven't read anything but the barest hint of critical discussion about this book because I don't want to spoil it for myself). I would urge you, gentle reader, to follow my instinct and forego these discussions until reading each corresponding story beforehand - I don't think the ordering of the book is random.
DIShGo
I found this to be a beautifully written story. I particularly like Munro's depiction of the inner turmoil Carla faces, while riding the bus to Toronto and after she returns to Clark.
After seeing your question about whether Clark and Sylvia actually saw Flora, or if it was simply part of Sylvia's dream, I reread that part of the story. I believe Flora did return and the two witnessed it. I am glad, however, that I read that part of the story again. It is somewhat chilling if you read it and assume Clark is speaking about Carla instead of the goat. Every statement he makes about Flora actually is a commentary on Carla.
I also think Clark did something to Flora. Whether is was something sinister or simply leading her away, I don't know. What he did doesn't matter nearly as much as Carla's reaction to it. Her fear, which she eventually "got used to" and her unsettling resignation that she would never try to find out, are, for me, what makes this an eerily compelling story.
While I loved the first story, Runaway, I was underwhelmed by the trilogy that followed: Chance, Soon and Silence. The three stories follow the life of a character named Juliet. In the first story, Juliet is a young scholar traveling on a train where she meets Eric, the man who fathers her daughter, Penelope. In the second story, she takes Penelope to her parents' home where her mother is dying. In Silence, the third story, Juliet faces the death of Eric and is abandoned by her beloved Penelope.
I enjoyed Munro's writing style. Some of her phrases and imagery are striking. In Chance, I liked her depiction of putting the thing that was your bright treasure in the closet. Or in Soon, when she writes, "as if misfortunes were something to accumulate, like charms on a bracelet." I loved her description of her dream about her father and Irene: "The dream was suffused with sticky horror. Not the kind of horror that jostles its shape outside your skin, but the kind that curls through the narrowest passages of your blood."
Faith, or the lack of it, is a theme that ties the stories together. Perhaps my disappointment with this trilogy lies in my dislike of Juliet. In the third story, particularly, I found it astonishing that she finally learns of her daughter's whereabouts, but does nothing about it! As a mother, I couldn't stand that!
I've finished the trilogy as well (although I read the final story last October as a standalone). I think there is an entire web of common motifs: Juliet herself and her relationships (1. with men 2. with her parents 3. with her daughter), acceptance and rejection, dependence and independence, life and death, and certainly parent-child. I find that in this trilogy, reading it on a surface level does no good, as the "tales" themselves aren't that interesting; it's the underlying literary components that contain both the challenges and the rewards.
Unlike me reviewing restaurants, Munro is not constrained by any sort of "truth" or recounting of events; she can write about anything she chooses. Why, then, did she pick Chagall's "I And The Village" as *The* painting in the second story. I really wish I took notes as I read - the description of the old Pontiac, for example, meant something, and I remember realizing it at the time, but now I can't remember what it means. Why did Juliet's father choose to pick her up at the train station twenty miles from town?
There's a lot of meat in this trilogy, plenty of foreshadowing, metaphor (e.g., Sam's relationship with Irene), and everything ties in together. But this is work, not pure pleasure, and it's going to take some digging to uncover which is why I wanted to start this discussion group. I suspect piecing together the inter-story components of this trilogy will make it the most challenging thing in the entire book, like threading together the movements of a Sonata instead of listening to an Impromptu.
Unlike me reviewing restaurants, Munro is not constrained by any sort of "truth" or recounting of events; she can write about anything she chooses. Why, then, did she pick Chagall's "I And The Village" as *The* painting in the second story.
What's the animal in this painting?
What kind of animal is Flora?
We have not just a trilogy to deal with, but something larger than that.
I think Munro chose "I and the Village" as the painting in the second story for a number of reasons. Chagall is said to have painted it because it reminded him of his childhood village. It had the same significance for Juliet. The painting also is divided into thirds. Clearly groupings of three are very significant here. There are three stories about Juliet. She is involved in a love triangle with Eric and Christa. She is an only child, and she and Eric have one child.
Looking at the painting, I see her mother, the fair, sweet, fragile goat looking at her father, the man who sells vegetables and is clearly linked to the natural world depicted here. Juliet is the woman milking the goat. The man pursuing the upside down woman represents her father and Irene.
The fact that the print has been removed from the wall symbolizes the changes within her family since her departure and the arrival of Irene. Juliet feels threatened by Irene, and vice versa. "Everything here distracted her. The heat, Irene, the things that were familiar and the things that were unfamiliar. "I and the Village."
It is interesting that Sara is the one to explain that the picture was removed from the wall because of Sam's perception that it would offend Irene. This demonstrates that Sara is aware of how significant Irene is to Sam and has accepted it.
The Pontiac clearly represents Sara. The old gray mare that hasn't given up. The description of the car follows detailed depictions of Sara's declining physical state and Irene's robust youth. Sam says that he would like to trade it in for a truck, and Sara immediately insists he is joking. The relationship between Sam, Irene and Sara, and their interdependence on one another is illustrated here, as well as Juliet's discomfort with the situation.
I think Juliet was picked up at the other train station because her parents were ashamed that she was an unwed mother. Despite their unconventional ways, they were still influenced by the small town values of their village during the 1960s. I think the fact that Juliet was not picked up in her usual spot underscores her discomfort with the changes that have taken place, particularly the arrival of Irene.
Near the end of the second story, why do you think Sara said, "When it gets really bad for me--when it gets so bad--you know what I think of then? I think, all right. I think--Soon. Soon I'll see Juliet."
This is very significant, but why? The story is called "Soon." The last part is italicized.
After Sara's death, Juliet is distraught that she didn't respond to Sara when she said this. What should she have said? Why does she think "she had not protected Sara?" Protected her from what? Why did this bother Juliet so much?
The third story in the trilogy, Silence, ends on such a sad note. Juliet has resigned herself over the years to the fact that Penelope has found a deeper, more spiritual life without her. She has come to accept that this spirituality is what Penelope needs. When it is revealed to her that Penelope is living a typical suburban life, it is more than Juliet can bear.
The Silence in the story becomes not about Penelope's alienation, but Juliet's denial of her. She stops telling her boyfriends that she has a daughter. Juliet cannot accept the rejection. She enjoyed her fantasies about Penelope was living out some mystical life, much like the Greek mythological characters that she loved so much. When this turned out not to be the case, she could not handle it.
"My father used to say of someone he disliked, that he had no use for that person. Couldn't those words simply mean what they say? Penelope does not have use for me. Maybe she can't stand me. It's possible."
I think it would be so interesting to read Penelope's story. The untold story of what really happened here.
I think Juliet was picked up at the other train station because her parents were ashamed that she was an unwed mother.
You're absolutely correct that "groupings of three" are significant here, but you missed a biggie.
Chagall is known for his Christian imagery, but not as a Christian (Chagall was Jewish). Many of his works, to me, seem to turn Christianity - and its Holy Trinity - upside down, in this case, perhaps literally.
It is not a coincidence that Juliet's best friend is named Crista, or that Crista's brother's family name is Lamb.
There was no discussion of Juliet and Eric having sex before Penelope was born - in fact, I don't remember *any* discussion of Juliet having sex in this story. Could Juliet indeed be an allegory for the Virgin Mary who lost her child (or, vice-versa)? Note that there's an explicit reference to Eric having had sex with Crista.
There's something in "Runaway," when Flora makes her mystical appearance in the blinding light, that reminds me of The Annunication - a foreshadowing of things to come, in which case it would not be an accident that "Runaway" was placed first in the book, immediately preceding the trilogy. Note that in The Bible, a separate Annunciation to Joseph occurred in a dream, and it's arguable that Sylvia was still in a dream-state when Flora appeared.
There's something in "Runaway," when Flora makes her mystical appearance, that reminds me of The Annunication - a foreshadowing of things to come, in which case it would not be an accident that "Runaway" was placed first in the book, immediately preceding the trilogy.
Actually, I did think of the Holy Trinity as well.
There is a description of Eric and Juliet having sex. It is when he returns home and she is waiting for him after his wife's death.
"He advances on her and she feels herself ransacked from top to bottom, flooded with relief, assaulted by happiness. How astonishing this is. How close to dismay."
I liked that passage.
I think if you grouped all three stories together, the underlying theme is rejection. Real and simply perceived. It begins with the man's suicide, apparently because Juliet rejected his friendship, and ends with Juliet being rejected by her daughter.
Rejection is a thread throughout. She feels rejected by Eric when he sleeps with Christa while she is away. She feels rejected by her parents' love of Irene. Her rejection of religion. Her father is rejected from the school where he taught, apparently for defending Juliet's honor. I think on a certain level she felt rejected by Eric because he did not marry her, although she claimed she did not.
Peter rejected Jesus thrice.
Yes, he did! Excellent observation.
I really enjoyed the fifth story, Passion. I am looking forward to discussing it.
And in keeping with our Biblical theme, the next two stories are "Passion" and "Trespasses."
I really liked the fifth story, Passion.
In Christianity, the Passion (translated from Greek, to suffer), refers to the short, final period in the life of Jesus. Similarly, this story deals with the final hours in the life of Neil, the alcoholic, despondent brother of Grace's fiancé. The Biblical theme is further illustrated in the central character's name: Grace. And, when Neil's wife Mavis is being bratty during an after-dinner word game, Gretchen, her sister-in-law says, "What fun. Jesus wept."
Grace, who feels no passion for her fiancé, despite acting as if she does, is drawn to Neil. She misinterprets his intentions that afternoon, wishing his longing were for her. At some point she realizes that Neil is doomed, yet she can't tear herself away. She sees a darkness in him that she recognizes in herself. "..and in the middle of that she had come on this rock-bottom truth. This lack of hope--genuine, reasonable, and everlasting."
"She'd thought it was touch. Mouths, tongues, skin, bodies, banging bone on bone. Inflammation. Passion. But that wasn't what had been meant for them at all. That was child's play, compared to how she knew him, how far she'd seen into him, now."
This story drew me in from the start, talking about going back to visit a place you once knew and fearing you'd find in changed, or worse, not changed at all. Grace, who is supposedly falling in love with Maury, is in fact falling in love with his family, his lifestyle, his home and, particularly, his mother.
A theme I have noticed in all five stories is that one's perception of home is a shifting thing. Grace struggles with thoughts of returning to her aunt and uncle's home, caning chairs for the rest of her life. It is a place that never felt like home to her. When Maury speaks of marriage, she is delighted by the idea of traveling with him, but bristles at the idea of building a home together.
This theme is central to "Runaway" and the trio, as well. In "Runaway," Carla comes to the very sad conclusion that home for her must include Carl. Flora, the little goat, tries, unsuccessfully, to find her way home. Juliet, in the trio, realizes on her visit to see her dying mother that home for her now is with Eric in Whale Bay. For Penelope, home is far away from Juliet.
Munro's writing is exquisite in this story, with beautiful passages I read over and over again.
ill-tempered sea bass
Interesting, I didn't like Juliet, either, but I felt like Juliet's "doing nothing about it" redeemed her. She finally was able to accept the reality of the situation and did what she thought Penelope would want her to do - leave her alone. Quite a selfless act.
The way you describe it, I see even more Christian imagery here (I guess for that to hold, letting go of the child would have to somehow redeem everyone else).
I didn't think of it that way, but it makes sense. Particularly since she knew Penelope was safe and probably happy, so she didn't need to worry about her anymore.
Still, there was something about Juliet's personality that made me feel that the act, while selfless, was also motivated by her fear of rejection. Juliet was overly concerned about what other people thought of her, and I think she was terrified to confront her daughter and hear the reason why she left. Juliet knew in her heart why Penelope rejected her, but I don't think she could face hearing it from her.
I am curious: have you read the rest of the book? I would love to know what you think about the women in the remaining stories. While I didn't care for Juliet, I really liked many of the other characters in the book. I think Munro is a master at portraying the thoughts and feelings of women.
Still working on it. I've read through "Trespasses". Mixed feelings. I don't really relate to any of the characters, but I'm enjoying Munro as a wordsmith. She sometimes can sum up an entire range of emotions or lifetime of experience in one small, carefully crafted phrase. At the moment I can't think of an example, though.
She sometimes can sum up an entire range of emotions or lifetime of experience in one small, carefully crafted phrase. At the moment I can't think of an example, though.
I think that, to some degree, these two sentences sum up Munro.
Still working on it. I've read through "Trespasses". Mixed feelings. I don't really relate to any of the characters, but I'm enjoying Munro as a wordsmith.
I agree with you on that one. I didn't relate to the characters in Trespasses, and it was one of my least favorite stories in the book. The seventh story, Tricks, however, is my hands-down favorite. I can't wait to see what the two of you think of that one.
I agree. This is something she does extremely well.
To me, a perfect example are these lines about Carla in Runaway: "It was as if she had a murderous needle somewhere in her lung, and by breathing carefully, she could avoid feeling it. But every once in a while she had to take a deep breath, and it was still there."
I think this captures precisely the feelings of someone trying to survive day to day in a bad marriage.
I also need to clarify my comment about Tricks. It is my favorite story because I connected with it on an emotional level. However, I think Passion and Runaway are better written.
Now I've read everything through "Tricks." That was tragic. I'm having a hard time summing up my feelings about Munro's women; they seem very distant, even though they're well fleshed out. If there's a single one I can relate to at all it's Lauren in "Trespasses" (which might've been my least favorite story).
Nice choice of quote from "Runaway". Probably agree with your last sentence.
Does Munro often set the story in the present, then spend most of the time developing the back story? There's a certain sameness to many of the stories, stemming partly from this technique. Also, the volume could have been titled Regrets....
This is not my usual taste in fiction, but I'm glad to have expanded my horizons by giving it a try, which I did only because of the discussion in this thread. So, thanks.
Have you read Interpreter of Maladies by Jhumpa Lahiri? It a similar collection of stories, beautifully written with themes of loss and regret, yet to me, her characters are more fleshed out than Munro's characters. It was her debut work, and she won the Pulitzer Prize for it in 2000. It is one of my four favorite books.
I was curious to see if there was a connection between the two, and indeed, Lahiri says Munro is one of her heroes. I found an article in which a young writer lamented that Lahiri's critically acclaimed novels that followed Interpreter of Maladies lacked something found in her first book. Rohin Guha wrote about Lahiri's Unaccustomed Earth, "It was as wonderful as an Alice Munro book: A collection of well-constructed sentences, embedded with a modicum of anguish, and the vague sense that important things were happening, but without any real urgency."
You are right, there is a sameness to all of the stories. Regret, loss, searching for a sense of home and the dealing with the expectations placed on women of a certain era--are themes Munro repeats throughout these stories.
I am *so* glad you wrote this because I finished "Passion" a couple of days ago, and (other than the obvious metaphor), it went right over my head - I had forgotten you wrote about it here in such detail. Much appreciated!
(Were Grace and Maury actually engaged? I thought Grace denied that she would marry Maury.)
Anyway, I labored through this story, and got very little payoff. I'd like to think I'm a fairly sophisticated connoisseur of literature, but some of the things in Passion I simply don't understand. The $1,000 check, for example - what the hell? Is this some sort of Judas/gold-coin/born-again thing? There are many, many other examples of this. The brick steps going up the wooden house in a zig-zag. Grace falling asleep after Neil goes into the third house (there's that "three" thing again). The fact that Neil's last name is Borrow. Grace cutting her foot after jumping off the swing (is this supposed to be nailed-to-the-cross imagery?) And even if these things are all Christian metaphor - so what?
This may sound dimwitted, but her subtleties are lost on me in this particular story. So far I've read several analyses of the story, and all they've done is summarize the plot. What the hell kind of review is this? The person just rewrote the story!
I *know* Munro didn't write all these things randomly, but I'll be darned if I can figure out what they mean. I have a friend whose initials are "TT" and who imports German Wine. He devours books, and reads as much as anyone I've ever known. He is one of the few people whose opinion I've sought who simply does not love Munro, and I'm starting to wander into his camp.
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Wandering turtle found in Rolls-Royce warehouse
A turtle has been discovered wandering through the vehicle yard of a Rolls-Royce warehouse.
Staff at the industrial centre in Bognor Regis, West Sussex, contacted the RSPCA after spotting the reptile and managing to corner it and place it in a water-filled sink.
Animal collections officer Claire Goddard, who went to rescue the Chinese soft shell turtle on July 2, said: “It’s a ‘turtle’ mystery how this little guy got into the warehouse.
“The centre is in the middle of nowhere so I haven’t a clue where he’s come from.
“Staff spotted him wandering through the warehouse and, unsurprisingly, had quite the shock.
“Luckily, he doesn’t seem to be too worse for wear and didn’t have any signs of injuries on his head, legs or carapace (shell). He’s a lucky turtle.”
Ms Goddard said it was believed the turtle had been abandoned in a pond nearby before making its way on to the industrial estate.
It was taken to an animal welfare centre for specialist care.
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Plans and Programs
Enrich Chicago has assembled a running list of further reading around the history of systemic racism in the united states and anti-racism organizing tools. your Suggestions are welcome via email, info(at)enrichchi.org.
SELECTED ANTIRACISM RESOURCES
African-American History & Studies
Bennett, LeRone. Before the Mayflower: A History of Black America. 25th Anniversary Edition, Penguin Press, 1961.
Blackmon, Douglas, Slavery by Another Name: The Re-Enslavement of Black Americans from the Civil War to World War II. Anchor Books, 2008.
DuBois, W.E.B., The Souls of Black Folk. Penguin Books, 1903, 1989.
Franklin, John Hope, From Slavery to Freedom: A History of African Americans. Vintage Press, 1961.
Marable, Manning, Race, Reform & Rebellion: The 2nd Reconstruction in Black America, 1945-1990. 2nd Ed,University of Mississippi Press, 1991.
Muhammad, Khalil, Condemnation of Blackness: Race, Crime and the Making of Modern Urban America. Harvard University Press, 2010.
Robinson, Randall, The Debt: What America Owes to Blacks. Plume, 2000.
Wilkerson, Isabelle, The Warmth of Other Suns. Vintage Books (now paperback & audiobook), 2010.
Woodson, Carter G., The Mis-Education of the Negro. Trenton, NJ, Africa World Press, 1933, 1990.
Asian-American History & Studies
Chou, Rosalind S. & Joe R. Feagin, The Myth of the Model Minority: Asian Americans Facing Racism. Paradigm Publisher, 2008.
Takaki, Ronald, Strangers From a Different Shore: A History of Asian Americans. Little Brown, 1998.
Latino/a History & Studies
Acuna, Rodolfo, Occupied America, A History of Chicanos. Pearson, 3rd Edition. 1987.
Gonzalez, Juan, Harvest of Empire: A History of Latinos in America (revised edition). Penguin Books, 2000, 2011.
“Harvest of Empire: The Untold Story of Latinos in America,”http://player.vimeo.com/video/48145023
Martínez, Elizabeth, De Colores Means All of Us: Latina Views for a Multi-Colored Century. South End Press, 1998.
Quiñones-Rosado, Raúl, “Hispanic or Latino? The Struggle for Identity in a Race-based Society,” The Diversity Factor, Vol. 6, No. 4, Elsie Y. Cross Associates, Inc., Philadelphia PA, 1998.
Rodríguez, Victor M, Latino Politics in the United States: Race, Ethnicity, Class and Gender in the Mexican American and Puerto Rican Experience. Kendall Hunt, 2005.
Native-American History & Studies
Jaimes, M. Annette, The State of Native American Genocide, Colonization & Resistance. South End Press, 1992.
White History & Studies
Allen, Theodore, Invention of the White Race. Verso Books, Vol. I - 1994, Vol II - 1997.
Brodkin, Karen, How Jews Became White Folks & What That Says About Race in America. Rutgers University Press, 3rd ed. 2000.
Hitchcock, Jeff, Lifting the White Veil. Crandall, Dostie & Douglass Books, 2011.
Hughes, Langston, The Ways of White Folks. Vintage Books, 1990.
Ignatiev, Noel, How the Irish Became White. Routledge, 1995.
Kinchelow, Joe. L., White Reign: Deploying Whiteness in America. St. Martin’s Press, 1998.
Lipsitz, George, The Possessive Investment in Whiteness: How White People Benefit from Identity Politics. Temple University Press, 1998.
Painter, Nell Irvin, The History of White People, New York, WW Norton, 2010.
Terry, Robert, For Whites Only. Wm. B. Eardmans Publishing Co, June 1975.
History of Racism - General
Aptheker, Herbert, Anti-Racism in U.S. History. Praeger, 1993.
Gossett, Thomas, Race: The History of an Idea in America. Pendulum Press, 1987.
Gross, Ariela J., What Blood Won’t Tell: A History of Race on Trial in America. Harvard Univ. Press, 2008
Hacker, A, Two Nations: Black and White, Separate, Hostile, Unequal. New York: Ballantine, 1992.
Higgenbotham, Leon A. Jr., In the Matter of Color: Race and The American Legal Process: The Colonial Period. Oxford, 1980.
Jordan, Winthrop D, The White Man’s Burden: Historical Origins of Racism in America. Oxford, 1974.
Katznelson, Ira, When Affirmative Action Was White. WW Norton, 2005.
Lopez, Ian Haney, White By Law: The Legal Construction of Race. NYU Press, 1999.
Lui, Meizhu, et al., The Color of Wealth: The Story Behind the U.S. Wealth Divide. New York, New Press, 2006.
Montagu, Ashley, Man’s Most Dangerous Myth, The Fallacy of Race. Alta Mira Press, 1942; reissued, 1997.
Moore, Robert B. “Racism in the English Language.” http://www.angelfire.com/or3/tss/raclang.html.
PBS. “Race: The Power of an Illusion.” Los Angeles, California NewsReel. 2005. Episode One: “The Difference Between Us;” Episode Two: The Story We Tell;” Episode Three: The House We Live In.”
Roediger, David R., How Race Survived U.S. History: From Settlement and Slavery to the Obama Phenomenon. Verso Press, 2008.
Smedley, Audrey and Brian D., Race in North America: Origin and Evolution of a World View. Westview Press, 2007.
Takaki, Ronald, Iron Cages: Race and Culture in 19th Century America. Oxford Press, 1979.
Zinn, Howard, A People’s History of the United States: 1492-Present. Harper Perennial Library, 1995.
Racism in Post-Civil Rights U.S.
Alexander, Michelle, The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness. The New Press, 2010.
Bonilla-Silva, Eduardo, Racism without Racists: Color-Blind Racism and the Persistence of Racial Inequality in the U.S. Rowman & Littlefield, 2003.
Davis, Kari. “A Girl Like Me.” http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rjy9q8VekmE.
Hedges, Chris and Joe Sacco, Days of Destruction/Days of Revolt. New York, Nation Books, 2012.
Oliver, Melvin L. & Thomas M. Shapiro, Black Wealth/White Wealth: A New Perspective on Racial Inequality. Routledge, 1997.
Roberts, Dorothy E., Fatal Intervention: How Science, Politics and Big Business Re-create Race in the 21st Century. The New Press, 2012.
Root, Marla, Racially Mixed People in America. Sage Publishers, 1992.
Steinberg, Stephen, Turning Back: The Retreat from Racial Justice in American Thought and Policy. Beacon Press, 1995/2001.
Wise, Tim, Color-Blind: The Rise of Post-Racial Politics and the Retreat from Racial Equity. City Lights Publishing, 2010.
Racism and Education
Derman-Sparks, Louise, Carole Brunson Phillips, Asa G. Hillard III,
Teaching/Learning Anti-Racism: A Developmental Approach. Teachers College, 1997.
Freire, Paulo, Pedagogy of the Oppressed. Herder & Herder, 1970.
Hale, Janice, Learning While Black: Creating Educational Excellence for African American Children. Johns Hopkins Press, 2001.
Kozol, Jonathan, Savage Inequalities: Children in American Schools. Harper Collins, 1991.
Loewen, James, Lies My teacher Told Me: Everything Your American History Textbook Got Wrong. New Press, 1995.
New York Collective of Radical Educators. “No Human is Illegal: An Educators Guide for Addressing Immigration in the Classroom. April. 2006. http://www.nycore.org.
Noguera, Pedro and Jean Yonemura Wing, eds., Unfinished Business: Closing the Racial Achievement Gap in our Schools. Jossey Bass, 2006.
Pollock, Mica, ed., Everyday Antiracism: Getting Real About Race in School. The New Press, 2008.
Tatum, Beverly D., Why Are All the Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria? New York: Basic Books, 1997.
Van Ausdale, Debra & Joe Feagin, The First R: How Children Learn Race and Racism. Roman and Littlefield, 2002.
Race and Gender
Davis, Angela, Women, Race, and Class. Random House, 1981.
hooks, bell, Ain’t I a Woman: Black Women and Feminism. South End Press, 1981.
Ware, Vron, Beyond the Pale: White Women, Racism and History. 1992.
Racism and Health/Mental Health & Medicine
Blitz, Lisa and Pender Greene, Mary, Eds., Racism and Racial Identity: Reflections on Urban Practice in Mental Health and Social Services. New York, Haworth Press, 2006.
Hoberman, John, Black and Blue: The Origins and Consequences of Medical Racism. Univ. of California Press, 2012.
Hoftrichter, Richard & Raji Bhatia, eds., Tackling Health Inequities through Public Health Practice: Theory to Action, Second Edition. Oxford University Press, 2010
Institute of Medicine, Unequal Treatment: Confronting Racial and Ethnic Disparities in Health Care. National Academy Press, 2002.
Leary, Joy, Post-Traumatic Slavery Syndrome: America’s Legacy of Enduring Injury and Healing. Uptone Press, 2005.
PBS. “Unnatural Causes: Is Inequality Making Us Sick?” Los Angeles, California Newsreel, 2008. 4-hour, 7-parts.
Smith, Jeremy, Jason Marsh & Rodolfo Mendoza-Denton, Are We Born Racist? New Insights from Neuroscience and Positive Psychology. Beacon Press, 2010.
Steele, Claude, Whistling Vivaldi: And Other Clues to How Stereotypes Affect Us. WW Norton & Co, 2011.
Sue, D. et al., “Racial Microaggressions in Everyday Life: Implications for Clinical Practice,” American Psychologist, Vol. 62, No. 4, 2007.
Washington, Harriet, Medical Apartheid: The Dark History of Medical Experimentation on Black Americans from Colonial Times to the Present. Doubleday, 2007.
Racism and Media
Gonzalez, Juan & Joseph Torres, News for All the People: The Epic Story of Race and the American Media. Verso, 2011.
Contemporary AntiRacist Analysis and Strategy
Barndt, Joseph, Understanding and Dismantling Racism. Minneapolis MN, Fortress, 2007.
Burrell, Tom, Brainwashed: Challenging the Myth of Black Inferiority. New York, Smiley Books, 2010.
Calderón, JLove, Occupying Privilege: Conversations on Love, Race & Liberation. Love-N-Liberation Press, 2012.
Chisom, Ronald & Michael Washington, Undoing Racism: A Philosophy of International Social Change. PISAB, 1997.
Coss, Ellis, The End of Anger: A New Generation’s Take on Race and Rage. Harper Collins, 2011.
Cushing, Bonnie, et al, eds., Accountability and White AntiRacist Organizing: Stories from Our Work Crandall, Dostie & Douglass Books, 2010.
Fullilove, Mindy, Root Shock: How Tearing Up City Neighborhoods Hurts America and What We Can Do About It. One World/Ballantine, 2005.
Kivel, Paul, Uprooting Racism: How White People Can Work for Racial Justice. Canada, New Society Publishers, 2002.
Okun, Tema, The Emperor Has No Clothes: Teaching Race and Racism to People Who Don’t Want to Know. Information Age, 2010.
Quiñones-Rosado, Raúl, Consciousness in Action: Toward an Integral Psychology of Liberation & Transformation, Ilé Publications, Caguas, PR, 2007.
Radcliffe, Kenneth L., Applying Alcohol Anonymous Principles to The Disease of Racism.
Radcliffebooks@verizon.net, 2012.
Biography/Fiction
“Anne Braden – Southern Patriot (1924-2006),” First Person Documentary – annebradenfilm.org, appalshop.org, 2012.
Braden, Ann, The Wall Between. University of Tennessee, 1999.
Segrest, Mab, Memoirs of a Race Traitor. South End Press, 1994.
Smith, Lillian, Killers of the Dream. Norton & Co, 1947; re-issued, 1994.
Willis, Teresa Ann, Like a Tree Without Roots. www.atreewithoutroots.wix.com/latwr
Home History Purpose Plans and Programs
Partners and Staff Recommended Reading
Contact us: info(at)enrichchi.org
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5 Reasons Why New York and Arlington Were Amazon's Choice for HQ2
'Location, location, location' is all very well, but for Amazon, 'access to talent' takes all.
Image credit: Matteo Colombo | Getty Images
Thomas Smale
Founder of FE International
When Amazon finally announced the location of its new second headquarters (HQ2), multiple cities were sorely disappointed, and many observers, surprised. Rather than put all its eggs in one basket, Amazon elected to split the baby and set up shop in two locations: New York City and Arlington, Virginia.
Related: Amazon HQ2 Search Exposes Gaps in America's Tech Workforce
How many cities were let down? The Wall Street Journal put the number that bid on HQ2 (with Seattle being the first) at an extraordinary 236.
Competition among the candidate cities was, in fact, fierce. Bloomberg opinion columnist Shira Ovide likened the selection process to the popular reality-TV show, The Bachelor. The difference was that this beauty contest atmosphere led to plenty of free publicity for Amazon and some bizarre ploys on behalf of the contestants.
According to the Seattle Times, Tucson, Ariz., actually sent Jeff Bezos a giant cactus as a gift -- which was rejected. CNET reported that the mayor of Kansas City, Mo., purchased 1,000 items on Amazon, then left a fact, stat or story about the city as a product review. "The idea was easy -- make Kansas City the most well-reviewed city on Amazon," Mayor Sylvester "Sly" James Jr. said in a statement.
As with any competition, however only one contestant ultimately emerged triumphant -- or in this case, two did. Here are five reasons why Amazon decided on New York and Arlington for its HQ2.
Amazon is a secretive company, so we’ll likely never know the exact criteria that ultimately led to the choice of New York City and Arlington for HQ2. But the consensus among observers is that access to a talent pool of qualified candidates to fill the 50,000 positions the company will hire for was the single biggest determining factor in the decision.
Amazon is not alone in its struggle to find qualified workers. As of October 2018, the U.S. unemployment rate sat at 3.7 percent, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, and this was the lowest in 48 years. Choosing a location in the country’s most densely populated city, New York -- which in 2017 attained a record-high 8.5 million population, according to the New York Times -- gives Amazon easy access to a potentially huge and diverse talent pool.
Attracting (and retaining) employees
Few would dispute New York City’s standing as one of the world’s premier cities. And Arlington is less than three miles from downtown Washington, D.C. -- the 20th most populous city in the nation and the seat of American political power. As noted above, Amazon plans to recruit existing New York City and D.C. area residents for many of the 50,000-- plus positions it has pledged to create.
Related: Amazon's Search for HQ2 Proves That Location, Location, Location Is Still What Matters Most
Inevitably, though, Amazon seeks to cast a wider net by attracting and retaining employees from across the country and around the world. As Jeff Bezos put it in Amazon’s HQ2 release, “These two locations will allow us to attract world-class talent that will help us to continue inventing for customers for years to come.”
A survey by Glassdoor found that location was the fourth most critical factor that job-seekers take into account when looking for a new position; it's behind only salary, growth opportunities and work/life balance. Location also has a significant impact on No. 3: work/life balance.
Amazon’s press release makes the lifestyle benefits of each location clear. Long Island City (LIC) -- the Queens neighborhood where half of HQ2 is to reside -- is described as “a mixed-use community where arts and industry intersect.” The release goes on to note that, “[LIC] is a diverse community with a unique blend of cultural institutions, arts organizations, new and converted housing, restaurants, bars, breweries, waterfront parks, hotels, academic institutions and small and large tech sector and industrial businesses.”
Amazon describes Arlington, meanwhile, as home to “abundant parks and open space with sports and cultural events for residents of all ages throughout the year.”
Amazon's language is clearly aiming to boost both locations' appeal to both current employees and future prospects to be based at HQ2.
While 238 cities vied for HQ2, arguably few of them have the infrastructure to absorb the 50,000 employees that Amazon plans to hire. Of the 20 finalists, as reported by Recode, the vast majority were large cities.
As Amazon has grown, it has come under heavy fire in its first home of Seattle for everything from skyrocketing real estate prices to “stealing Seattle’s soul,” according to The Times. By basing HQ2 in or near cities with sufficient capacity to accommodate the influx of Amazon employees, the company may be seeking to circumvent the bad publicity and resentment this sudden population growth might create in smaller cities.
Despite this protective strategy, nevertheless, the inevitable backlash has already begun.
Each of the 238 cities vying to become Amazon’s second home offered the company incentives far more significant than a giant cactus or even something as major as its very own city -- which Atlanta did, according to the Journal-Constitution. Companies do not always publicly reveal the details of the financial incentives they're offered, but Amazon was forthright about the enticements it received.
From New York State, Amazon received “performance-based direct incentives of $1.525 billion based on the company creating 25,000 jobs in Long Island City.”
Amazon also signaled its intention to apply for additional incentives from the Big Apple.
Virginia, meanwhile, offered Amazon “performance-based direct incentives of $573 million based on the company creating 25,000 jobs with an average wage of over $150,000 in Arlington.”
While these subsidies are substantial -- in New York, for example, Amazon expects to save $48,000 in taxes over ten years for each job it creates -- they were not the most lucrative. Slate recently compiled a list of over-the-top incentives by the candidates that lost.
Examples? Montgomery County, Md., proposed $6.5 billion in tax breaks and an additional $2 billion in infrastructure upgrades meant to benefit Amazon workers.
Newark, N.J. -- a stone’s throw from New York City -- offered $7 billion in tax breaks. Those numbers indicate that, while important, government incentives were far from the sole determining factor in Amazon’s selection.
Political considerations
As Amazon becomes an ever more ubiquitous facet of American life, speculation that it may one day be the subject of antitrust regulation grows. In this context, there's been conjecture that by building HQ2 in the backyard of the president and lawmakers, Amazon seeks to exert more influence over any attempts to curtail its rapid growth.
Related: These 5 Cities Pulled Out All the Stops to Get Amazon's HQ2. They Didn't Make the Cut, But We Salute the Attempt.
It will be years before the impact, positive or otherwise, on the two cities Amazon selected for HQ2 can be gauged accurately. But for now, there is much reason for optimism. Bill de Blasio, New York's mayor, was one of those optimists, stating, “This is a giant step on our path to building an economy in New York City that leaves no one behind.”
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Teen Asks For Favor On Facebook Hours After Throwing Her Baby Out The Window
By Amanda Fama
A teenager from Omaha, Nebraska threw her newborn baby out the window of her apartment building -- and then turned to Facebook for help.
The mother in question is Antonia Lopez, and she's being charged as an adult for her child's death.
According to DailyMail.com, authorities said the 16-year-old girl went into labor on Friday and gave birth to a baby girl in the bedroom of her second floor apartment.
After that, she threw her child out the window.
Authorities said Lopez told her mother what happened after tossing her baby. Her mom found her granddaughter in the grass outside of their apartment, quickly called 911 and then gave her CPR while waiting for the paramedics.
However, 32 minutes before help arrived at the scene, an eerie Facebook status was posted under Lopez's name. She was asking Facebook for a "favor" -- specifically one from someone who owns a car.
The status now has many Facebook users commenting on it. They're outraged by the actions of the teenager, calling her a "baby killer" and questioning what she would have done with a car.
Regardless of Lopez's intentions, her baby girl was dead by the time she was transported to the hospital, paramedics said.
On the Friday following the crime, Lopez was taken to the hospital and was later charged with one felony count of child abuse turning to death.
Although there isn't yet a clear answer as to why she threw her daughter out the window of her apartment, another chilling Facebook status of hers from January is making a lot of people question her character.
The post shows Lopez holding a baby doll, which was supposedly an assignment for a class on parenting. Her caption reads, "This thing so annoying," with an emoji showing disgust.
Whether or not this post was a sign of what was to come or simply a coincidence, Lopez will forever deal with the consequences of killing her newborn daughter.
Citations: DailyMail.com
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She Performs Elvis’ Classic As A Dedication To Her Late Mother. You’ll Be Touched By The Reason Behind It!
Inspiration, LIFE, VIDEOS
Eric Emmanuel May 22, 2015 No Comments
At 7 years of age, Rhema Marvanne has gone through a lot in life. This can be justified by the number of blues songs she has been capable of writing… as a matter of fact, a whole album. When you hear the little girl sing, you will know what I’m talking about!
Diagnosis done on Rhema’s mother showed that she had ovarian cancer while she was very young. Her father did not hide the truth from her and decided to take her along on every visit he made to visit the mother. The presence of Wendi’s daughter in her final days was more than comforting though she was going through a lot of pain and suffering. This little girl was made strong by this difficult experience.
Though Rhema used to sing, her singing increased after the death of her mother and she did this in most occasions to dedicate it to the mother. Here, she sings Elvis Presley’s Song, “Blue Christmas”; a song that her mother loved to listen to over Christmas. According to her YouTube page, she says the song was dedicated to her mother Wendi Marvanne who is in heaven
I was left in tears when I listened to her do a rendition of Elvis’ classic in a soulful and beautiful manner. Surely, if the mother is watching from above, she must be proud of the talent in the young girl.
Share the post “She Performs Elvis’ Classic As A Dedication To Her Late Mother. You’ll Be Touched By The Reason Behind It!”
WOW this lady…shamelessly LIED about her entire encounter with the Police Officers..and here’s the proof! What a fool.
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One Person Decided To Break In Their GoPro By Putting It On Some Train Tracks.
Girl Who Was Mercilessly Bullied During Childhood Writes The Greatest Open Letter To Her Attackers. Wow.
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Brittle Kosovo, Serbia relations feel strain over ex-PM’s arrest
EURACTIV.com with Reuters
Kosovar banner in support of former Prime Minister Ramush Haradinaj, who was arrested in France on Wednesday. Many of Kosovo's citizens see former guerrilla fighters like Haradinaj as freedom fighters and their prosecution is strongly opposed. [Quinn Dombrowski/ Flickr]
Fraught diplomatic ties between Serbia and Kosovo came under further strain yesterday (5 January) in a row over international arrest warrants issued by Belgrade for former Kosovar guerrillas, including an ex-prime minister detained in France.
Ramush Haradinaj, a guerrilla commander during the 1998-99 war against Serbian rule who served briefly as prime minister in 2004 and 2005, was arrested on Wednesday (4 January) and remanded in prison by a French court on Thursday.
Kosovo asked the European Union on Thursday to press Serbia to drop the warrants against him and others, and angry government and opposition leaders in Pristina called for a halt to EU-mediated normalisation talks between Belgrade and its former, mainly ethnic Albanian province.
The talks are a precondition for both countries to make progress towards membership of the bloc.
Serbia confirms it will not recognise Kosovo
Serbia plans to implement all the agreements it has made with Kosovo, but does not intend to recognise Kosovo’s independence. EURACTIV Serbia reports.
As Serbia – which still formally considers Kosovo part of its territory – confirmed it would seek Haradinaj’s extradition, Kosovo cancelled a visit by Serbian President Tomislav Nikolić to a mainly ethnic Serb town in Kosovo scheduled for today (6 December), the eve of Christian Orthodox Christmas Day.
A Serbian government official, who asked not to be named, said Nikolić’s forward team was “harassed” at the border crossing and could not perform necessary security checks.
“The visit will not proceed as planned, this is likely related to the Haradinaj arrest,” the official said.
Serbia has charged him with the murders of Serbs in the late 1990s war, while the majority of Kosovo’s 1.8 million population are opposed to any trials of ex-guerrillas they see as freedom fighters.
Serbia will arrest Thaçi if he attends Belgrade conference
Serbia warned yesterday (16 April) it would arrest the foreign minister of its former province of Kosovo Hashim Thaçi for alleged terrorism if he turns up in Belgrade next week to attend a conference, which ironically is dedicated to the reconciliation following the Yugoslav wars.
A security source in Pristina told Reuters that, in all, there were currently around 20 Kosovo citizens subject to Interpol Red Notice arrest warrants – mainly ex-members of the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) that fought Serbian security forces.
Kosovo’s minister in charge of the EU-brokered dialogue with Serbia, Edita Tahiri, said she had written to Brussels asking it to use its leverage to make Serbia withdraw the arrest warrants.
“With these primitive acts, Serbia is not only hurting the spirit of the dialogue to have good neighbourly relations, but is proving that it is a destabilising factor in the whole region, and international partners should be seriously worried,” Tahiri told local media.
Serbia hopes to complete accession talks with the EU by 2020. Kosovo, which declared independence in 2008, has signed a trade and association pact with the EU but remains far from membership due to serious corruption and organised crime.
Kosovo still dreams of EU and NATO membership
Kosovo’s foreign affairs minister has reaffirmed his country’s ambitions to join both NATO and the European Union, in an interview with EURACTIV Spain.
France to study extradition request
Haradinaj appeared late on Thursday at the appeals court in Colmar, in east France, which ruled he would remain in prison until Serbia made a formal request for his extradition. That would then be studied by the relevant institution, the court said.
Serbian Prime Minister Aleksandar Vučić said on Thursday that if France did not extradite Haradinaj, West European states should stop “patronising” Serbia about judicial reforms it had undertaken to help qualify for EU accession.
Serbia easily digests Commission’s ‘progress report’
The government in Belgrade is generally satisfied with the European Commission’s annual report on Serbia’s progress in European integration published on Wednesday (9 November), even though it might not agree with all of its conclusions. EURACTIV Serbia reports.
After his stints as premier, Haradinaj was tried and acquitted twice of war crimes at a UN tribunal in The Hague. At the time, Kosovo was a ward of the United Nations.
Serbia accuses Hague tribunal of selective justice
Serbians reacted angrily at the acquittal of a former Kosovo guerrilla leader by the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY), less than two weeks after the court freed two Croatian military commanders who were accused of war crimes. EURACTIV Serbia reports.
The war ended after NATO bombed Serbia for 11 weeks to compel it to withdraw forces that had killed some 10,000 Albanian civilians in counter-insurgency operations.
In June 2015, Haradinaj, now an opposition party leader, was arrested by Slovenian police but freed after two days following diplomatic pressure.
Around 130,000 people were killed in a decade of conflict following the break-up of the old federal Yugoslavia, and its successor states were loath to prosecute their own ethnic kin.
Western governments that believed prosecutions of all sides were needed to bring reconciliation and stability to the region and move it closer to the EU set up two international criminal courts – one for former Yugoslav republics (ICTY) such as Bosnia, and one for Kosovo, both based in The Hague.
Set up in 1993, the ICTY is due to complete its work this year, having prosecuted and jailed mainly Bosnian Serbs. The Kosovo court came into being only at the beginning of this year and indictments must wait until judges, none of whom has yet taken office, have drawn up rules of procedure.
EU enlargement
EU-Kosovo relations
EU-Serbia relations
Ramush Haradinaj
Serbia-Kosovo conflict
Tomislav Nikolic
Yugoslav wars
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trains trams & railways
Moscow-Kazan rail project: Investors were yesterday given a sneak preview of the Moscow-Kazan high-speed railway concession project. The railway will be the first genuine high-speed link in Russia with trains reaching speeds of up to 400km per an hour, reducing the journey between Moscow and Kazan from some 13 to 3.5 hours. The project is expected to cost around $40m per km compared to a global average of $49m. The Moscow Times
Nursultan proposes high-speed Almaty-Minsk rail link
Japan on track to build first bullet train for India in $14.6bn…
Assad looks to Russia to help rebuild Syria
Putin sets his sights on Russian agribusiness
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Sport / Dundee United
Dundee United must stop giving up chances warns Neilson
by Tom Duthie
Dundee United manager Robbie Neilson feels his team can improve.
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Dundee United boss Robbie Neilson has warned his team they are still surrendering up far too many scoring opportunities.
Robbie has been delighted with the improvement shown over his first three games in charge, a period that’s seen seven points from a possible nine taken.
And when he did his video analysis of last weekend’s 2-0 victory at Dunfermline, he admitted it was even more impressive than he felt when watching from the side of the pitch.
But there were areas where he knows his players can, and have to, improve.
“You watch the game when you’re there at the time and you’re never 100% comfortable, I don’t think, until you get that third goal,” he said.
“If we’d got it with 15 minutes to go, then you can start relaxing a wee bit.
United claimed a 2-0 win at Dunfermline on Saturday.
“It wasn’t until I watched the game after that I felt we had quite a bit of dominance in the game.
“Even so, we still gave up a few chances and I spoke to the defenders about it.
“You look at some of the games and we’ve given up clear-cut chances that we need to cut out.
“If you play against better players and better teams that will be goals.”
Robbie stressed how pleased, overall, he’s been with the work put in so far.
He feels his squad have shown their quality and has challenged them to show they can do it in the long term.
“The players have been great. They’ve been working hard and listening to what we’ve but asking them to do.
“I keep saying it’s only three games in, we’ve still got a long way to go.
“We have to continue doing that, we have to make sure players continue to work hard, keep pushing themselves and keep pushing each other.”
Meanwhile, Tangerines season ticket-holders will get the chance to hear Robbie’s thoughts on the job that lies ahead of him when he meets them face to face.
Monday evening will see him taking part in a special question and answer session in the Hegarty Suite at Tannadice, with the proceedings kicking off at 7pm.
Fans wanting to attend can get their ticket in exchange for voucher N from their season books at the club shop.
Demand has already been high and it’s expected to be a sell-out.
Neilson
Robbie Neilson
Kilmarnock boss Angelo Alessio apologises for Europa League exit
Liverpool Women pass time during pre-season weather delay with bucket challenge
Trailer for all-star Cats film released
Candeias heading out of Rangers as club progresses in Europe
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"Logan" and "Hillbilly Elegy": The Bewilderment of the Blue-Collar Hero
September 1, 2017 The Unbound Writers
Today on Fiction Unbound, we bring you a cross-genre speculation featuring two recent works that would seem unlikely traveling companions under any circumstances: Logan, the final X-Men movie to feature Hugh Jackman in his signature role as Logan/Wolverine, and Hillbilly Elegy, J.D. Vance’s memoir about growing up in an impoverished Ohio steel town. Logan broke box-office records as the highest grossing Wolverine movie and the 4th highest R-rated opening in North America. Hillbilly Elegy, released in June 2016, was hailed as “essential reading” by David Brooks of the New York Times, and has remained on the NYT bestseller list for almost 60 weeks as of the time of this writing. Aside from striking a chord with their respective audiences, what do these stories have in common? So glad you asked.
Logan is a superhero fantasy with a noir twist. In a gritty near-future America where it has been 25 years since the last mutants were born, an aging, hard-drinking Logan works as an Uber limousine driver, anonymous in a world that seems to have moved on from its time of superheroes. When he isn’t chauffeuring bachelorette parties and drunken bros, he cares for the elderly Professor Xavier, who has been stricken with a degenerative brain disease. The rest of the X-men are dead. It seems Logan and Xavier are among the last of their kind, soon to be gone. Then they meet Laura, a young girl with mutant powers identical to Logan’s, and Logan is once more thrust into the role of reluctant hero.
Hillbilly Elegy is Vance’s moving personal story of his family’s struggles with poverty, domestic violence, and substance abuse in a working-class Appalachian culture beset by both economic insecurity and its own contradictions.
On the surface, superhero fantasy and memoir belong in different sections of the library catalog. Yet if we accept the premise that speculative fiction is a lens through which we view contemporary anxieties, then the illusion of separation disappears and the two stories converge, with Logan depicting a fictionalized framing of the anxieties that the real people portrayed in Hillbilly Elegy are living every day.
Unbound writers CS Peterson, Amanda Baldeneaux, and Mark Springer sat down to discuss these two works that seem to have manifested the zeitgeist of this present American moment.
Fair warning: Our discussion necessarily contains a wealth of spoilers. If you haven’t already done so, go read the book and watch the movie, then pour yourself a bourbon and come join the speculation.
CS Peterson: I have a confession: I’ve seen Logan almost two dozen times since it came out, and I'm a little puzzled by my obsession with it. It’s audience is 68% male, with 84% of those male viewers between the ages of 18-44—not my demographic.
Amanda Baldeneaux: I wonder if you feel a connection to the sense of loss that Logan feels towards the erasure of mutants and that Vance feels towards the decline of an economically stable hillbilly community because of your connection to the Ringling Bros. Circus. You’ve mentioned in conversation and on social media your memories of working as a professional clown and your sadness over the circus’s closing, the disbanding of the performers who coexist in a type of family, and the end of an icon in American entertainment: the big-tent traveling circus. It’s also notable that now you’re a teacher at a school for gifted children, much like the school Xavier leads in the X-Men canon. Vance didn’t attend a special school, but it’s clear he was a kid with all of the potential he didn’t fully explore until later in life because of his difficult circumstances, and I wonder if that loss of talent and suppression of talent resonates with the teacher-side of you.
CSP: I hadn’t made that circus-loss connection, but now that you mention it, that does ring true. And the founder of our school announced her retirement last spring, so that may have struck a chord, too.
What stands out most for me, though, is the bewilderment that Logan experiences as he tries to make sense of what his world has become. When the film opens he is driving for Uber—a far cry from what we have come to expect of the most lethal of the X-men. In these early scenes he looks and acts like a man who woke up in someone else’s life and can’t figure out how to get back to his own. This sense of bewilderment is what connects the film to Hillbilly Elegy in my mind. There are moments in the book where Vance looks at the poverty consuming his community and is perplexed by his family’s inability to break the cycle and claim the promised American dream.
Once I started thinking about the two stories as linked by this shared pathos, I saw more similarities between them: heavy drinking and substance abuse, broken dreams, deep emotional trauma, violence.
Mark Springer: The stories are also linked in another way: each stems from a betrayal. In Hillbilly Elegy, it is the betrayal of a working-class way of life by impersonal economic forces and a national culture indifferent to the plight of the people harmed by those forces. The people suffering this betrayal, blue-collar breadwinners and their families, were once considered an indispensable part of America’s post-World War II greatness. Now they are in crisis. The promise that a man could provide for his family if he was willing to work hard has been broken. There are fewer jobs, fewer opportunities. Whole towns and regions are dying, communities collapsing.
In Logan, the betrayal is more intimate: Xavier, who founded the X-Men and strove to make mutants a force for good in the world, has been betrayed by his own mind. He suffers debilitating seizures that cause him to lose control of his powers, with terrible consequences. (We eventually learn that it was the telepathic blast unleashed by Xavier’s first seizure that killed the rest of the X-Men.) Everything Xavier worked for, everything he built, the people he gathered around a common purpose and educated and cared for—it was all destroyed in an instant, leaving Logan to pick up the pieces.
Neither betrayal is intentional. The economic, social, and cultural forces Vance chronicles in Hillbilly Elegy are beyond the control of any one person, just as Xavier has no control over his seizures or their consequences. But if betrayals like these aren’t a good reason for people to be bewildered, I don’t know what is.
CSP: Technology plays a part, too. It’s an unstoppable force of change, rushing forward at a head-spinning pace. In the movie, as in the real world, robotics and automation are employed in the service of an economy that has no regard for the human consequences. Self-driving cars will eventually take Logan’s Uber job. Mr. Munson, the kindly farmer who offers Logan and his companions aid, will never be able to compete with the giant robots (“behemoths with tiny little brains”) that cultivate the sprawling corporate cornfields surrounding his small family farm.
And the service delivered by this technology is terrible! The self-driving trucks are rude. The patented GMO corn tastes awful, eliminates the benefits of natural selection, and is secretly being used by an evil mega-corporation to suppress accidental mutation in humans (this is the reason mutants with superpowers are no longer being born in the general population). Alkali-Transigen, the mega-corp, is on the way to commodifying all of nature, including human beings. It’s not just the end of blue-collar society, it’s the end of humanity.
AB: The automation in the film’s near-future setting is an extension of Vance’s personal and family experiences in a town previously dominated by a thriving steel mill. His grandparents moved to Ohio, along with scores of other Kentucky hillbilly transplants, for the better life and steady wages promised by jobs in the Armco mill. When those jobs were later automated or exported overseas in 1980s and ‘90s and nothing replaced them, it created an employment vacuum in the town, literally sucking away the livelihoods of the residents. Vance describes how this scenario went from bad to worse when unemployment (in part) begat poverty, alcoholism, opioid addiction, depression, and a host of other obstacles that can be insurmountable without help, a strong support network, and superhuman willpower. Willpower that’s difficult to muster when the deck seems stacked against you, economically and culturally.
Automation is responsible for the loss of more manufacturing jobs in the United States than global outsourcing, but Alkali-Transigen and other interests would have you believe otherwise.
CSP: We can’t talk about these stories without talking about violence. The characters in Logan and the people depicted in Hillbilly Elegy are subjected to—and participate in—a lot of violence. And I mean a lot. Vance’s childhood is defined by it. After high school he joins the Marines. And his Mamaw was, what, fourteen when she first held a gun to a man’s head?
MS: The graphic violence in Logan is shocking. This is not the blend of superhuman feats and stylized violence perfected by the hugely popular Marvel Cinematic Universe, in which the physical and emotional consequences of people doing great bodily harm to one another are glossed over with careful editing and hoards of aliens/robots/anonymous soldiers who die bloodless deaths. This is visceral, bloody, severed-heads-and-limbs violence—exactly what you would expect from a character codenamed Wolverine, whose mutant power is a supercharged healing factor that allowed ethically challenged scientists at a secret weapons lab to endow him with retractable razor-sharp claws.
Logan has always been a close-quarters fighter; his violence is by nature intimate, even if it has rarely been depicted that way. In the Wolverine and X-Men comic books I read when I was younger, this intimacy was always elided by keeping the moment of violence out of frame, or by obscuring it with sound effects (e.g., “RRRRIP!” followed by screaming). Previous films featuring Wolverine elided it, too, no doubt to avoid a box-office-limiting Restricted rating.
Logan, however, was conceived from the start as an R-rated project, and Hugh Jackman reportedly accepted a pay cut to ensure the film would be green-lit and released without compromising that ambition. As difficult as the violence is to watch, its effect is undeniably powerful. For me it amplified the film’s emotional resonance—I was haunted by the brutality as much as Logan is himself.
CSP: Early in the film, Logan tells Pierce, the commander of the Reevers, a team of cyborg soldiers who run security for Alkali-Transigen, “I don’t like guns.” The Reevers are bionically enhanced, but unlike Logan they rely on firearms to do their killing. Guns can kill at a distance; they make the violence impersonal. The Reevers put their target in the crosshairs, and from a distance they can see that target not as a human being but as an impersonal thing, just another objective in their mission. Then all they have to do is pull the trigger to complete their objective. Too easy.
Violence doesn’t get more intimate than a berserker mutant slashing you to death with his adamantium claws, but until Logan, fans were spared from the graphic reality by clever editing.
AB: I like that Laura gets to put distance between herself and her final kill by using a gun. Throughout the film we see her slash grown men to ribbons and then suffer the trauma of that violence in private. Being able to shoot the boss-level bad guy in an attempt to save Logan rather than herself is her first step away from intimate violence and the burden of responsibility of violence. Throughout the film, Logan and Laura engage in close-contact kills that force them to bear full responsibility for the deaths they inflict. There’s no sidestepping the guilt that is genetically coded into the human psyche. (“You’re going to have to learn to live with that,” Logan tells Laura. “They were bad people,” she says. Logan replies, “All the same.”)
In Hillbilly Elegy, Vance presents a similar situational culpability for those enmeshed in poverty in Rust Belt towns, frankly stating examples of friends who struggled to survive but held no work ethic or made deliberate choices that inevitably led to destruction. One thing Vance never criticizes, however, is the strength of hillbilly familial ties and loyalties. The film is also deeply rooted in the power (for better or worse) of family.
MS: Logan is a poignant conclusion to the X-Men film series (though I doubt it will stand as the conclusion for long; in Hollywood, all it takes to resurrect/reboot a lucrative franchise is $100 million and one line of dialogue). The film works so well because it explicitly addresses the family dynamics at the heart of the original X-Men concept: Xavier begins as the father-figure for all the X-Men, and especially for Logan, who in the early X-Men mythology fills the role of the proverbial orphaned child lost in the wilderness. The film brings this dynamic to the fore, then reverses it. “You were an animal, but we took you in,” Xavier says. “I gave you a family.” But the X-Men are dead—“They’re gone,” Logan says bitterly—and now it is Logan who must protect Xavier and plan for their future in a cruel, indifferent world. The task only gets more complicated when Laura shows up with the Reevers and Alkali-Transigen in hot pursuit.
CSP: Now Logan is the parent to his father figure, Xavier, and to Laura, an unexpected child, where he used to be the troubled child in need of parental love and support. The skillset of the warrior is useless in his new role. He needs to give love, patience, and tenderness, and these are not his strong suit.
MS: Worse, Logan has given up hope and is basically waiting around to die. His long-term plan when the story begins is to buy a boat and take Xavier far out to sea where the old man can die of a seizure without harming anyone else. Then, once Xavier is gone, Logan plans to kill himself with an adamantium bullet. We’re definitely meant to have some serious doubts about whether Logan will be up to the challenge of becoming a father.
Even in his darkest hours, Professor X (Patrick Stewart) never loses hope.
AB: I saw another parallel with Hillbilly Elegy here: Xavier is a teacher to Logan, just as J.D.’s mother and Mamaw were to him. Logan then becomes a caretaker to Charles just as J.D. evolves into for his mother as an adult. It’s the same type of role-reversal.
CSP: I can’t stop thinking about the childhood traumas that link the two stories—the trauma of children being left alone with monsters. In Logan, Laura grew up with monstrous men in charge of her world. Alkali-Transigen’s intent is to make her and her peers into monsters themselves—human weapons fueled by rage and stripped of conscience. Nurse Gabriella tries to shield Laura but is reprimanded for every human kindness she shows the children, because kindness and compassion interfere with the conditioning that is supposed to make them cold-blooded killers.
In Hillbilly Elegy, Vance’s mother struggles with addiction throughout his life. His Mamaw grew up in a violent world. As a young mother, she took her babies and escaped Papaw’s abuse several times. Every generation in the book suffers childhood trauma. Somehow, Vance makes it through without losing hope. That was powerful to me.
Similarly, some of the poignancy of the movie is that Xavier never loses hope. The last day of his life he is still teaching hope to monsters. He tells Laura she can be better. Logan echoes this later, taking on Xavier’s role in his own final moment. “You don’t have to fight anymore,” he tells Laura. “Don’t be what they made you.”
MS: Logan doesn’t come to this moment of hope easily. His own traumas have left him cynical and world-weary (I mean more so than when he brooded his way through the original X-Men film 17 years ago). Logan has no patience for Xavier’s idealism, or for idealism in general. This sets up a brilliant scene in which he disparages the X-Men comic books Laura has been reading. The film implies that the comic books are historical fiction rather than fantasy fiction—imaginative retellings, like movies “inspired by true events.” But in Logan’s eyes they are little better than lies. “You do know they’re all bullshit, right?” he says to Laura. “Maybe a quarter of it happened, and not like this. In the real world, people die. And no self-promoting asshole in a fucking leotard can stop it.” This is the painful reality of Logan’s life distilled to its essence. Logan’s subsequent journey from cynicism to hope—his reluctant hero’s journey—doesn’t so much as refute this reality as qualify it. The world is full of violence and suffering, and people die, and some people do horrible things to other people, and yet we’re not completely powerless; sometimes we can make a difference.
With Logan, you can have your Alkali-Transigen GMO cake and eat it, too: the film is both a celebration and a critique of superhero fantasy tropes. More, please!
AB: The fictionalized comic-book presentation of the X-Men (both in the film and in our own reality) mirrors Vance’s idea of how America fictionalizes its impoverished populations. The poor are portrayed as either the deserving poor to be pitied, or the looting poor to be feared and jailed, in sync with our obsession with black-white, madonna-whore dichotomies. Vance expresses his anger at America’s treatment of its poor most readily when describing society’s misguided efforts to pity the poor and provide what it is assumed they need, without making any meaningful effort to understand what people actually need and how to effectively help them.
Logan takes a similar stance when he assumes that Eden is a fantasy inspired by Laura and Gabriella’s foolish belief in the idealized fictions of the X-Men comic books. He comes to realize, however, that Laura needs to believe in that fantasy to survive.
CSP: The idea of Eden gives Laura hope; it’s what keeps her going in the face of the grim reality that has brought Logan himself to the brink of despair. Without hope, Laura would be lost. Believing in the fictionalized X-Men stories makes it possible for her to believe in a better future.
Similarly, belief in a better future is what helped J.D. Vance to escape the cycle of poverty that continues to ensnare so many people in America. Vance was born with the deck stacked against him. He was lucky in the relationship with his Mamaw, who gave him hope where others saw only despair. Without her support and belief in him it is not clear that he would have made such positive changes in his life.
Laura, despite everything she experiences, is comparatively lucky as well. Of all the mutant children who escape Alkali-Transigen, she is the one who gets guidance from parental figures—nurse Gabriella, Professor Xavier, Logan. Despite their flaws and failings, each of these adults protects her and helps to prepare her for the challenges she will face as an outsider in a dangerous and indifferent world—and each makes the ultimate sacrifice so that she, and the other children, will have what we all want: a chance to live, a chance to hope, a chance to be better.
Beginning the New Year with Beginnings
As we crack the cover on 2019 and dig into the books on our resolution reading lists, Christie and Meghan take a look at what makes a great opening.
Personal Narratives and the Eye of the Beholder: Julie Buffalohead at the Denver Art Museum
The best world-building is participatory, a collaboration between artist and audience. Artist Julie Buffalohead creates narrative images layered with personal meaning, both playful and serious. At the same time, she invites the viewer in, leaving of room for the mysterious.
Image: Julie Buffalohead (Ponca), A Little Medicine and Magic, 2018. Oil on canvas; 52 x 72 in. Courtesy of Julie Buffalohead and Bockley Gallery. Image courtesy of Julie Buffalohead and Bockley Gallery
Ghosts in the House & the Machine: A Love Story, Hill House, & Two-Tongued Jeremy
Parenting is risky business, more so when ghosts take an uninvited co-parenting role.
You Don't Just Lose Your Life: An Interview With Gabino Iglesias
Writer Gabino Iglesias’ new book Coyote Songs hit book stores this week. Check out this interview for ideas about writing, the horror of murder and living interstitially.
The Magic at Our Elbow: Anime and the Fantastical Woven into the Everyday
In the world of Japanese anime you can slip from the ordinary to the magical at any moment.
We Can't Outrun Pain: Interview with Priya Sharma
Fiction Unbound’s Gemma Webster chats with UK writer Priya Sharma.
Southern Gothic: Wrestling With Our Demons -- Part 2, Novels
Head into the swamps with some fallen families and wild grotesques in Part 2 of our Southern Gothic extravaganza.
Southern Gothic: The Present Haunted by the Past -- Part I, Short Stories
An exploration of Southern Gothic speculative literature.
The Wild, Raging Girl
Wild, raging girls seem to be everywhere these days, from movies like Logan to books like The Girl with All the Gifts.
In Speculations Tags comics, Noir, Superheroes, CS Peterson, Mark Springer, Amanda Baldeneaux
← Fiction Unbound Reviews: Best Online Science Fiction and Fantasy MagazinesHugo Award Winners 2017 →
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Four blocks of flats in Fife town to be demolished
The Mayview flats. Picture: Google
Published: 11:18 Thursday 21 March 2019
Fife Council is to knock down four blocks of flats as fewer than half of them are in use.
At the North East area committee, councillors agreed to demolish the Mayview premises in Anstruther.
The flats, which are in a run down condition, are only currently half full.
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The cost of refurbishing them was put at more than £4m, while tearing them down would cost £2m.
At the committee, councillors were told that offers to relocate to homes in the flat were regularly turned down.
Only 18 of the council owned 40 flats are let. Anyone who owns a flat in the blocks will be offered the market value for their property, which is estimated at around £100,000.
Residents will be offered one of the new council homes to rent.
There are plans to build new council homes on the site.
Other options included refubishing one block while demolishing the others or refurbishing all blocks.
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Local councillor Linda Holt welcomed the decision, but added: “The people who have bought houses will lose out here, as they won’t be able to afford another home in Anstruther, and that’s why they’re unhappy.
“We’re not allowed to offer and can’t give them a replacement house.
“And there are people who are proud and pleased to own their own home.
“They’re now being told they’ve got to enter a council house if they want to stay in the area – people who might have paid off their mortgage, will now have to go back to paying rent. They are getting a raw deal and we need to acknowledge that. It’s very regrettable.”
Councillor Bill Porteous raised concerns over the management of the flats for a number of years that lead them to fall into disrepair. He asked for a report to be brought back to council on how they got into this situation in the first place.
He said: “There needs to be a review on the basis of estate management, and around issues surrounding a lack of consultation with the tenants and a failure to address repairs. The fact that we have a waiting list of people waiting to be homed, who won’t accept these because of their condition is unbelievable.”
The council agreed to have a review into the management of the flats, but also agreed to go ahead with the demolition.
Two pedestrians killed on Glenrothes road
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Project: Space Station, Part 2: The Dream
As long as there has been a space program, there have been space-program boosters. With budgets dwindling and interest waning after Apollo 11, however, NASA suddenly needed them as never before. Various people started various organizations to educate, to advocate, to lobby, sometimes even to agitate the case for space. Briefly among the more prominent of these folks during the early 1980s was Stan Kent, a precocious English rocket scientist still in his mid-twenties.
Growing up working class in the industrial city of Wolverhampton in the West Midlands, Kent wrote to NASA asking for more information about the Titan rocket used to hoist the Gemini space capsules into orbit. Much to his family’s surprise, they sent it, cementing a passionate love affair with space and with NASA. (NASA was notably wonderful about this sort of thing in their 1960s heyday; many a starry-eyed kid all over the world received a similar thick envelope filled with pictures and articles for no charge but the cost to mail a letter to Houston.) At age 15, he demonstrated for the first time what would prove to be a lifelong knack for self-promotion. Determined to find a way to study rocket science, he entered a contest to design a functioning powered aircraft which won him national attention inside his home country and was enough to recommend him to a wealthy philanthropist in Santa Clara, California, named Austen Warburton. With Warburton’s assistance, he came to the United States to attend university at the age of 17, and graduated from Stanford with a Masters in aerospace engineering in 1978 at the age of 22, winning the prestigious Herman Oberth Gold Medal in the process for his paper on “The Space Shuttle External Tank as a Reentry Module.” He was soon working for Boeing and later Lockheed, and doing consulting jobs for NASA itself.
Kent’s public space advocacy began in 1979, when he got wind of proposals within NASA to stop monitoring the two Viking probes that had landed on Mars three years before simply because they couldn’t afford to continue to pay people to do it. He organized a Viking “charity” which presented NASA administrator Robert A. Frosch with a check for $60,000 to go toward continued monitoring on January 7, 1981. The sum would increase to over $100,000 in the months to come, then increase dramatically again when he organized with former astronaut and Moon-walker Pete Conrad to sell off recovered pieces from the old Skylab space station by way of further fundraising. (By that time Viking 2 had already gone offline due to a failed battery. Viking 1 would continue to transmit — and, yes, to be monitored — until a botched software update took it offline on November 11, 1982.)
Under the aegis of Delta Vee, the nonprofit corporation he set up with the assistance of Warburton and some aerospace colleagues, Kent stumped the country on behalf of space, appearing on television, on radio, in Omni magazine (with whom he did much of his advocacy in partnership), and in countless newspaper articles. He worked to set up a nationwide network of “neighborhood space centers” — “the McDonald’s of space” — and gave speeches to anyone who would have him. Far from your stereotypical rocket scientist, Kent made space cool in what the L.A. Times described as his “new-wave haircut, beige suit, purple shirt, and bright red tie”; he looked like “he might be a member of a rock band.” In September of 1981 he testified before the Congressional Subcommittee on Space Science and Applications at the age of just 25. His pitch emphasized a new, more pragmatic take on space very much in keeping with the dawning hyper-capitalism of the 1980s. The NASA that Kent described was fundamentally a practical enterprise whose work would bring scientific and technological breakthroughs to make life better for ordinary Americans, along with economic benefits to the country; Kent was fond of citing such dubious surveys as the one done in 1972 by Chase Econometrics, which claimed that every $1 spent on the space industry injected $10 to $15 back into the economy within five to seven years.
In that spirit, he and his partners soon set up a second, for-profit corporation they named AstroSpace. Its initial purpose was to research and hopefully to exploit a pet idea Kent called SOLARES: “Space Orbiting Light Augmentation Reflector Energy System,” a way to beam concentrated sunlight down to Earth for use as energy. In the meantime, though, the home-computer boom was happening. Soon Kent hit upon a more earthbound project for his company: to create a computer game that simulated the building and operation of the permanent space station that he and so many others felt represented the next logical steppingstone to Mars and beyond. By 1983 he had sold the idea to Jay Balakrishnan of Human Engineered Software, who loved big, high-concept edutainment titles.
Project: Space Station was certainly that. The game that Kent and Balakrishnan described (separately) to InfoWorld magazine in 1984 — it was quite obviously the HES product that the latter was most excited to discuss — filled nine disk sides. Balakrishnan:
It’s an absolute simulation. First of all, to start you have to go to Congress to requisition a budget. You have to choose your scientific team that will comprise the space mission. There’s a book, almost like a story, with different fictitious characters that you can select your team from. There’s a whole page of biographical data on each person — where they went to school, whom they married, whether they’re stable individuals or not, and so on. Then you must decide on what kind of industry you’re going to develop in space — for example, if you want to make ball bearings or crystals or whatever.
Then you design your space station. Each one is a different module. You might build a plant area, living quarters, etc. Then you run a simulation. Now the plant starts working, giving oxygen and life, and the industry starts working. You see that it’s a viable operation. Finally, after you have overseen everything, you resign your post. You were the director of a successful space industry, so you get your gold watch at the end. Of course, during the game all kinds of random things can occur. Maybe you’ve gone over budget. So you go back to Washington, D.C., and appeal for a higher requisition to keep the business going.
Together Kent and Balakrishnan organized an “advisory” board for the project that consisted of Kent’s colleagues in the aerospace industry along with the high-school students who would be the game’s most obvious target market, all “overseen” by the hapless, computer-illiterate Leonard Nimoy (who must have been wondering by this point why he’d signed on with HES at all).
I find this original conception of Project: Space Station fascinating as an early example of a computer game with an explicit real-world rhetorical goal. One could call it without hyperbole propaganda, a political advertisement for a NASA space station. The justifications it makes for such a project are the same as those Kent was making in his speeches, and, indeed, those that Ronald Reagan more obliquely referred to in his State of the Union address of 1984. In Project: Space Station, players would enjoy success not so much in the form of exploratory firsts or pure scientific breakthroughs but rather that of crop surveys that would make American agriculture more efficient, new semiconductors that would make American computers more powerful, lasers that would revolutionize American manufacturing, even the proverbial cure for cancer. If it wasn’t always entirely clear why some of these research projects had to be done by people in space, well, that was a problem Project: Space Station shared with some of Kent’s speeches.
This huge game being developed by a bunch of aerospace people with no experience in game development was of course all but doomed to failure. Kent and company did manage to get far enough to produce some intriguing screenshots that, as published in the April 16, 1984, issue of InfoWorld, stand today as the only tangible artifacts left to us from this version of Project: Space Station. The whole thing collapsed by the end of that year, with HES going bankrupt and being absorbed by Avant-Garde Publishing and AstroSpace coming to an abrupt end along with Kent’s time as a space advocate. He made an extreme and kind of bizarre change in life direction, opening back in Santa Clara a night club called One Step Beyond that became a regular stop on the college-rock touring circuit for some years. Today he writes erotica, hosts naughty events at a sex shop, and is something of a fixture of the Southern California nightlife scene while apparently still keeping his hand in from time to time as a rocket scientist. In 2012 he consulted on the perfect combination of all his interests: a proposed Playboy space station.
(Stan Kent’s space advocacy is chronicled in the August 3 1980 Washington Post, the January 8 1981 and November 12 1982 New York Times, and the July 22 1982 L.A. Times. The two InfoWorld articles that describe Kent’s original vision for Project: Space Station are in the April 16 1984 and September 3 1984 issues. A transcript of his testimony before Congress is contained in the government publication “Future Space Programs, 1981: Hearings Before the Subcommittee on Space Science and Applications of the Committee on Science and Technology, U.S. House of Representatives, Ninety-seventh Congress, First Session, September, 21, 22, 23, 1981.” The space-advocacy movement of the late 1970s and early 1980s and the place of a space station within are treated at length in Reaching for the High Frontier by Michael A. G. Michaud, available online from The National Space Society.)
Posted by Jimmy Maher on July 28, 2014 in Digital Antiquaria, Interactive Fiction
Tags: hes, holland, project space station
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Cinema Fearité Pays Tribute To Bill Paxton With ‘Frailty’ – The Late Legend On Both Sides Of The Camera
March 2, 2017 by James Jay Edwards
Another blow was dealt to not only the horror scene, but to Hollywood in general this past weekend when versatile everyman actor Bill Paxton died from complications following heart surgery at the age of 61. Paxton was first noticed by most fans as a punk in The Terminator (“Your clothes. Give them to me.”) and as bully older brother Chet in Weird Science (“How about a nice greasy pork sandwich served in a dirty ashtray?”). He went on to play legendary roles in classic films like Aliens and Near Dark, and even had mainstream success in big studio movies such as Apollo 13 and Titanic. In 2001, Paxton pulled double duty, starring in and directing Frailty, one of the most psychologically disturbing movies of the twenty-first century.
Frailty begins with a young man named Fenton Meiks (Matthew McConaughey from Dallas Buyers Club) visiting an FBI agent named Wesley Doyle (Powers Boothe from the Sin City movies) claiming that he has information about a serial killer known only as The God’s Hand Killer. Fenton then tells Doyle a long story about how his father (Paxton) would have visions of angels who gave him lists of people to kill, claiming that they were demons in human form. When he touched his victims, the father said that he could see their crimes, and only then would he make his sacrifice to the angels. Fenton (played in flashbacks by Brick’s Matt O’Leary) is skeptical of his father’s claims, but his brother, Adam (Into the Storm’s Jeremy Sumpter), buys into it, becoming his father’s homicidal little helper. When Fenton pushes back against the plan to turn the family into killers, he finds himself suffering his dad’s wrath himself.
The script for Frailty is the first, and so far only, produced feature from screenwriter Brent Hanley (although he did write a John Landis-directed episode of “Masters of Horror”). It’s not your run-of-the-mill horror movie. Sure, it’s got a serial killer and a body count, but the story is almost like a reverse-whodunit, a murder mystery told from the side of the murderer. The big catch is that the audience has to question the reliability of the narrator, since it’s all in the form of a first-person narrative tattling on his father and brother. By the time the film reaches its inevitable climax, the viewer doesn’t know what to make of it – which sets the whole thing up for a beautifully executed Shyamalanian twist. And what a twist it is.
Onscreen, Bill Paxton is a very atypical horror movie villain. He plays the father (never referred to by name and only known in the credits as “Dad Meiks”) with compassion and empathy, yet still gives him an evil twinge of insanity that leads to his psychotic misdeeds. There is little doubt that Dad cares for his sons, he’s just misguided and tortured with grief from losing his wife. He imposes what he believes to be discipline upon his sons in the same way that he imposes it upon his victims. For all of the killing that he does, Dad Meiks is a fairly sympathetic antagonist.
Behind the camera, Paxton shows off an auteur’s eye. He takes the already grim screenplay and applies a dark and desolate vision to it, filling every scene with dread and despair, packing just enough unsettling imagery and hyper-realistic brutality into the movie to keep the audience on its toes. Paxton is helped out by a talented cast (himself included – it’s hard to imagine another actor playing the father) and some great technical filmmaking, but in the end, Frailty is more than just a bunch of performances surrounded by light and sound; it’s a horrifying slowly-careening rollercoaster ride of a movie – one that, once it gets going, the viewer can’t get off of, even if they want to. Which they don’t.
For such a gritty and dirty film, Frailty has a crazily surreal look. Cinematographer Bill Butler (Jaws, Grease) uses unnatural lighting to emphasize certain objects or situations to reinforce the religious aspects of the father’s story. For example, he’ll show a heavenly beam of focused illumination calling attention to an axe that Dad will end up using in his crusade. In other scenes, he’ll backlight Dad in an almost comic book-way in order to make him look more like a holy warrior. Butler also using sweeping and swaying camera motion, allowing the audience’s view to switch from character gaze to casual observer and back again. As if that isn’t enough, there are tastefully utilized instances of almost video game-style wackiness, things like a vision of an angel with a flaming sword or the floating head of one of the sons, that further push the film’s visual aesthetic towards madness. Butler’s photography gives Frailty a unique blend of reality and dreamscape.
The music for Frailty was provided by composer Brian Tyler, who also worked on Final Destination 5 and John Dies at the End. The score is one of those gradually building, slow-climbing suspenseful orchestral scores which blows up into a raucous wall-of-noise cacophony at just the right time. It’s a very subliminal score, but it works wonderfully. The soundtrack is rounded out with a handful of country songs by artists like Johnny Cash and Dale Watson that help to remind the audience of the film’s Texas setting. The music in Frailty is the unsung hero of the film; it’s never overpowering, but it’s an important part of the experience.
Bill Paxton was one of those actors who seemed to show up everywhere, from nutty disaster movies like Twister to soon-to-be fringe horror classics like Nightcrawler. Audiences everywhere will miss his appearances as an actor, and the world has been cheated by the fact that Frailty remains his only feature-length narrative directorial effort. Rest in peace, and stand down, Private Hudson.
(Initially, this week’s column was scheduled to wrap up Women in Horror Month by taking a look at Antonia Bird’s Ravenous. Provided there are no other legends that need tributes **knock on wood**, you’ll be able to find Ravenous in the Cinema Fearité space next Thursday.)
Filed Under: Cinema Fearité Tagged With: Bill Butler, Bill Paxton, Brent Hanley, Brian Taylor, Jeremy Sumpter, Matt O'Leary, Matthew McConaughey, Powers Boothe
Cinema Fearité Pays Tribute To Bill Paxton With ‘Frai…
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India vs England: MS Dhoni says split captaincy does not work in India, backs Virat Kohli
Sports PTI Jan 13, 2017 16:39:40 IST
Pune: "Split captaincy does not work in India", said Mahendra Singh Dhoni as he explained his shock decision to step down from India's limited-overs leadership and asserted that the team under Virat Kohli will rewrite history by becoming the most successful ever.
Dhoni, who stunned the Indian cricket fraternity with his decision to quit captaincy ahead of the ODI series against England which begins on Sunday, said he does not believe in having different captains for different formats.
"I don't believe in split captaincy. For the team there has to be only one leader...Split captaincy doesn't work in India, I was waiting for the right time. I wanted Virat to ease into the job. There is no wrong decision in it. This team has potential to do well in all three formats. I felt it was right time to move on," Dhoni said in his first media interaction since stepping down from captaincy a fortnight ago.
File photo of Virat Kohli as he speaks with then captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni. AFP
"Virat and this team will win more games than me. I feel it will be the most successful team ever. That's the kind of experience and potential they have. They have played in knockout tournaments, they have played under pressure. I firmly believe that this will be the team that will rewrite history. They will do very well," he added.
Recalling the chain of events leading up to his decision, Dhoni said he had informed the BCCI well in advance. He said it had been playing on his mind ever since he quit Test captaincy during the tour of Australia in 2014.
"I believe that one player leading the team is crucial. It was on my mind when Virat took over the Test captaincy. I wanted him to take over and ease into the job. I wanted to be around for some game and now I finally decided that it was time to move on and give Virat captaincy (of limited overs teams as well)," he said.
Asked how quitting captaincy would impact his role in the side, Dhoni said he would continue to give his suggestions and opinions to Kohli.
"Wicketkeeper is always the vice-captain of the side. I will have to keep a close eye on what the skipper wants. I already had a chat with Virat on where he wants his fields. I will have to be aware," he said.
"I will be there to give as many suggestions to him as and when he wants. I will have to keep a close eye to read the field positioning," he added.
The 35-year-old, under whom India won both the ODI and the Twenty20 World Cup, said he had thoroughly enjoyed his stint as the leader despite the many ups and downs he witnessed.
"I don't regret anything in life. What doesn't kill you makes you stronger. Plenty of good things happened, difficult to pick one. It's been a journey for me, the ups and downs. When I started, lot of senior player were in the side. I tried to groom the youngsters. Once the seniors left us, from that point till now, the juniors have done well. They have taken the legacy of Indian cricket forward," he said.
"It was a journey I really enjoyed and it brings a smile on my face when I think of it. Whether it's tough or easy, I have enjoyed the overall journey," he added.
Quizzed on the dynamics of his equation with Kohli, Dhoni said it has always been a relationship of mutual respect.
"We have been very close. Virat was always somebody who wanted to improve in whatever chances he got, always wanted to give more. That was the key factor. We have interacted a lot. He has improvised his cricket and his thinking. He will keep getting better. My job will be to assist him wherever needed, giving him my thoughts from behind the stumps. That's the real asset of the wicketkeeper," he said.
"From my side, it will be a flow of information. Information that doesn't confuse and then he can pick and choose. The good thing is that if I go up with 100 ideas to him, he can say no to all of them. That is important because he has to take the responsibility. So the more I can serve to him, the more he can pick and choose, and the better it will be for Indian cricket," he explained.
On whether he would consider a change in his batting position, which has mostly been lower down the order so far, Dhoni said, "Since I was the captain, I wanted to take added responsibility of playing lower down the order. I would have preferred batting at four but then if somebody is more comfortable at four, that gives our team more power. At the end of the day team is more important than individual.
"Whatever the demands of the team, I am ready to bat there."
Dhoni also spoke about what he thought was the role of the leader in a team.
"The main job of the captain is to ensure that potential of the players is achieved. You have to be practical, you have to be honest. You should know how to handle individuals. You have to figure out what really works. You have to be clever enough to evaluate. The leader's job is to get the best out of the team," he said.
The reticent cricketer also touched on his relationship with the media, saying that he never liked coming for pre-match press conferences.
"I always believed that there are too many press conferences. We don't need press conference everyday. I always felt, there is too much exposure. I thought it's a waste of time to have pre-match press conferences by captains. I always felt, post match is when captain can express himself, pre-match I think is a waste of time," he said.
Tags : BCCI, Captain, Captaincy, Cricket, England In India 2017, India Vs England, Indian Cricket, MS Dhoni, ODI, Virat Kohli
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India vs New Zealand, ICC Cricket World Cup 2019: MS Dhoni coming in at No 7 described as 'tactical blunder' by Indian batting greats
1India vs England: MS Dhoni says split captaincy does not work in India, backs Virat Kohli
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Bees and Wasps
Beetle Species
Disease-Carrying Mosquitoes
Bed Bugs In the Home
Each time you travel or purchase used furniture, you may be putting your home at risk of a bed bug infestation.
Do you have a bed bug problem?
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Beg bugs, also known as cimex lectularius, measure about 4 to 5 mm in length, roughly the same size as an apple seed. These bugs vary in colour from a light yellow to brown, depending on the lifecycle stage but after they have fed on their victims, they take on a reddish brown tint. Telltale signs of bedbugs include droppings which manifest as dark patches on sheets, skins or cuticle that gets left behind after shedding and the presence of live bugs in hiding places. Tiny bloodstains or spots on sheets can also be evidence of bed bugs.
Females can lay anywhere from one to five eggs in a single day, and these eggs take about one to two weeks to hatch. Bed bugs are transparent in their appearance before feeding but become reddish brown after they’ve feasted on a victim. When deprived of food, bed bugs can lie dormant for as long as one year.
Where do bed bugs live?
These parasites thrive in human environments because they feed on human blood. Bed bugs that are the thickness of a credit card can be exceedingly difficult to spot. Bed bugs picked up on vacation are often transported home unwittingly by victims in their luggage. They can also be introduced into the home via used furniture, backpacks, and suitcases. Once they enter your property, bed bugs make themselves at home by crawling around quite rapidly, working their way through cavities in the walls and floors.
From there, they conceal themselves in sofas, picture frames, beds, curtains, radios, wheelchairs and smoke detectors. They have also been known to hide behind baseboards, between sheets of loose wallpaper, between the pages of books and in storage boxes.
When are bed bugs most active?
Bed bugs are nocturnal as they prefer a dark environment. In the daytime, these pests hide in crevices in furniture, particularly headboards and other items in the bedroom. When night falls, they emerge and search for a host, with a sleeping human becoming the most likely victim.
Why are bed bugs a pest?
While bed bug bites are not painful, allergic reactions to their saliva are common. Symptoms can include redness, itching, and swelling. It can be difficult to tell bed bug bites from other types of insect bites such as horse-fly or mosquito bites, but a telltale sign is where they cluster (in a straight line) and where they’re found on the body (legs and ankles).
The most damage bed bugs can do is on the reputation of hotels, motels, inns, backpacker businesses and even transportation vehicles. They cause great distress and a severe infestation can lead to loss of income through both a ‘bad reputation’ and the need for servicing.
Do I need professional bed bug control?
Bed bugs are not a problem that will go away on its own or that you can eradicate by yourself. If you suspect a bed bug infestation, call us immediately. We believe that a joint effort between the property owner and the Flick Anticimex technician will provide a long-term, effective bed bug control system. For more information on our bed bug solutions, click here.
Tips for avoiding bed bugs
Be wary when purchasing used furniture (particularly bedding) and inspect it thoroughly before taking it home.
Never leave open suitcases lying around on the floor when you are on vacation.
Do not store your suitcase close to the bed in hotel rooms. Inspect your suitcase before bringing it into the house when you return from vacation.
Wash your clothes at a temperature of at least 60°C after returning from vacation.
Pop dubious objects in the freezer and keep them there for at least 24 hours.
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BMJ editorial: ‘Apparently Coca-Cola’s voice counts more than those of directors of public health’
Coca-Cola Christmas truck should be banned, argue public health campaigners
By Rachel Arthur contact
Related tags: Public health, Coca-cola
An editorial published in the journal BMJ this week calls for Coca-Cola’s Christmas truck to be banned as public health campaigners seek to improve children’s health. But Coca-Cola GB has hit back, saying that its tour operates in line with its responsible marketing policy and that the focus on sugar and soft drinks alone will not address public health concerns.
The BMJ editorial points to the sugar content of free products distributed by the truck; criticizes Coca-Cola for positioning the truck as a ‘Christmas tradition’, and also says that local media coverage fails to acknowledge the voice of public health officials.
Coca-Cola’s annual Christmas Truck Tour covered 44 stops on the 2016 tour around Great Britain, giving out Coca-Cola drinks and attracting considerable attention from local press.
But health campaigners say that Britons can celebrate the festive season ‘without allowing Coca-Cola to hijack Christmas by bringing false gifts of bad teeth’.
Coca-Cola has defended its tour: saying that sugar free options were also given out on the tour, and that it is ‘difficult to understand’ why a ban on the truck would improve public health.
‘Coca-Cola’s marketing campaign in overdrive’
It is not the first time the Coca-Cola campaign has come under fire, with dentists among those to criticize the tour in the past.
Writing in the BMJ this week, Robin Ireland, a public health activist and director of Food Active, and John R Ashton, public health consultant, emphasize the high consumption of sugary drinks in school-age children in the UK. Free products handed out during the Coca-Cola tour include a 150ml can of standard Coca-Cola, which contains 15.9g of sugar (around four teaspoons), they add.
But the authors also attack the way Coca-Cola markets the truck tour, which has run since 2011, accusing them of attempting to turn it into a ‘Christmas tradition’.
“At Christmas, Coca-Cola’s marketing goes into overdrive as newspapers across the country regurgitate press releases for its Christmas truck tour, with advertorials promoting the truck as a Christmas tradition. And of course the truck is just the latest of Coca-Cola’s campaigns to become a holiday brand and, indeed, to help brand Santa Claus himself,” they write.
Unbalanced newspaper coverage
Ireland and Ashton also criticize local newspaper coverage of the Christmas truck tour for failing to acknowledge the voice of public health officials.
“This Christmas the truck visited five locations in north west England in the first week of December. The major local newspapers such as the Liverpool Echo and the Manchester Evening News provided substantial coverage over several days, including where to see the truck, live blogs, and reproducing images of the bright red truck with lights twinkling.
“Coca-Cola’s campaign was scarcely welcomed by local directors of public health, medical professionals, educationalists, or indeed members of the public. Food Active, a healthy weight campaign based in north west England, organised a letter of concern [with 108 signatories].
“But neither the letter nor the accompanying press release received any coverage in either Liverpool or Manchester. As we wrote in follow-up letters to the Liverpool Echo and the Manchester Evening News (that also went unpublished) it is of huge concern that no alternative views were provided in the face of a concerted commercial marketing campaign by Coca-Cola.
“Apparently Coca-Cola’s voice counts more than those of directors of public health.”
A 2015 report from Public Health England suggested that a successful program to reduce sugar intake would include reducing the opportunities to market and advertise high sugar products. It also suggested a soft drinks industry levy, which has since been announced by the government and is due to be implemented in April 2018.
Coca-Cola: ‘Sugar intake from soft drinks continues to decline’
Coca-Cola Great Britain points out that the beverages handed out during the tour were a small 150ml can of Coca-Cola Classic (a standard can size being 330ml) along with sugar-free Diet Coke and Coca-Cola Zero Sugar.
“We operate the tour in line with our responsible marketing policy and we do not provide drinks to under 12s unless their parent or guardian is present and happy for us to do so,” said a spokesperson.
“The Coca-Cola Christmas truck tour began in 2011. The data referenced by the BMJ opinion piece shows that the dental health of children in the north west has been consistently improving since 2008 and that childhood obesity is lower than at any time since 2010.
“It is therefore difficult to understand why they think banning the Coca-Cola Christmas truck will improve public health in the region.
“As government data show, sugar intake from soft drinks by both children and teenagers continues to decline and consumption of full sugar soft drinks in general has fallen by 44% since 2004. We will continue to take actions to help people to reduce the sugar they consume from our range of drinks, but the evidence suggests the current focus on sugar and soft drinks alone will not address the problem.”
Coca-Cola's Christmas truck campaign: video.
Related topics: Beverage, Diet and health, Reformulation, Policy
UK retailers bask in pre-Christmas price hike
‘Tastes more like Coke’: Coca-Cola’s £4.5m advertising campaign for Coca-Cola Zero Sugar
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About Foundry.
20 years of experience in visualisation
We advance the art and technology of visual experience. We help bring incredible ideas to life. We are Foundry.
We have been developing creative software for the Digital Design, Media and Entertainment industries for over 20 years. Our products are used to create breathtaking visual effects sequences on a wide range of feature films, video-on-demand, television and commercials.
Our clients and partners include major feature film studios and post-production houses such as Pixar, ILM, MPC, Walt Disney Animation, Weta Digital, DNEG, and Framestore as well as automotive, footwear, apparel and technology companies such as Mercedes, New Balance, Adidas and Google.
We partner with these companies to solve complex visualization challenges to turn incredible ideas into reality. This is why our software has been integral in the making of every VFX Oscar-winning film, award-winning TV show and commercial for more than a decade.
Founded in 1996, Foundry is headquartered in London, with 300 staff and a presence in the US, China, Japan, Australia and Europe.
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In 2019, the London Stock Exchange named Foundry one of the “1000 Companies to Inspire Britain.” We regularly feature in The Sunday Times’ Tech Track as one of Britain’s fastest-growing private technology companies.
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Jody Madden
Jody MaddenChief Executive Officer
Jody Madden was appointed CEO in July 2019 to lead Foundry's next stage of growth. Since joining Foundry as Chief Operating Officer in 2013, Jody has been responsible for the overall customer strategy and product line ensuring our customers’ needs remain at the heart of the business. Prior to joining Foundry, Jody spent more than a decade in technology management and studio leadership roles at Industrial Light & Magic, Lucasfilm, and Digital Domain. Jody graduated from Stanford University.
Simon RobinsonCo-Founder and Chief Scientist
With a BA Hons in Engineering and Computing from Cambridge University, Foundry co-founder Simon Robinson began his career at IBM Research in New York. He subsequently worked in technology development at companies including Digital Pictures, Rushes, Framestore and MPC, before starting up Foundry in 1996. He continues to play a key role in the direction and development of the company.
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Martin joined Foundry in 2015, following its acquisition by HgCapital. He has over 20 years of experience working with international businesses undergoing significant change and growth. Martin has a MA (Hons) in French & German from Cambridge University and is a chartered accountant.
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Jon WadeltonChief Technology Officer
Jon Wadelton joined Foundry in 2007 and has been instrumental in driving the engineering and product development of NUKE. Since becoming CTO, Jon’s remit has expanded to include all IP at Foundry, including both existing products and long-term R&D. Jon has over 20 years experience in software leadership roles within the media production and telecom industries and holds a bachelor’s degree from La Trobe University.
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Prior to joining Foundry in 2004, Phil completed a degree in Engineering and Computing Science, and then spent a short stint at technology company NaturalMotion. He has taken on a number of roles at Foundry, and is currently director of engineering, with responsibilities across development, QA and support.
Our award-winning node-based compositor, Nuke provides a dynamic end-to-end solution for realizing the creative visions of today's most forward-thinking directors.
Modo brings you the next generation of 3D modeling, animation, sculpting, effects and rendering in a powerful integrated package.
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Hiero gives you an all-in-one shot management, conform and review solution that supports smooth collaborative working and quick shot turnaround and delivery.
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Senate Subcommittee Accuses Apple of Tax Gimmicks
Published May 20, 2013 TechnologyFOXBusiness
Apple avoids billions in U.S. taxes through creative, unique tax structures, and even negotiated a special corporate tax rate of less than 2% with the Irish government, according to a report released by the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, ahead of its Tuesday hearing featuring CEO Tim Cook.
“Over a four-year period, from 2009 to 2012, this arrangement facilitated the shift of about $74 billion in worldwide profits away from the United States to an offshore entity with allegedly no tax residency and which may have paid little or no income taxes to any national government on the vast bulk of those funds,” said the committee report.
The report also accuses Apple of using “multiple U.S. tax loopholes” enabling the tech company to amass offshore $102 billion of its $145 billion in holdings. Federal tax law allows companies to defer paying federal taxes on offshore profits until companies return that money to the U.S.
Apple’s first-tier offshore affiliate, Apple Operations International, has a mailing address in Cork, Ireland and has never had employees in its 30-year history, according to subcommittee staff. From 2009 to 2012, Apple Operations International received nearly $30 billion in dividends from other international affiliates, comprising 30% of Apple’s worldwide net profit, said the report. Over that period, Apple Operations International failed to pay any corporate income tax to any government, according to the subcommittee.
In prepared remarks released Monday by Apple, Cook defended Apple Operations International calling it “a holding company that performs centralized cash and investment management of Apple’s foreign, post-tax income The existence of AOI does not reduce Apple’s US tax liability.” Cook also denied his company uses tax gimmicks and highlighted its nearly $6-billion 2012 federal tax bill.
“Apple complies fully with both the laws and spirit of the laws. And Apple pays all its required taxes, both in this country and abroad,” said Cook.
Subcommittee staff investigators acknowledge Apple’s tax structure may be unique, though it’s hardly out-of-bounds or even uncommon for international businesses. This subcommittee said it has also examined Microsoft and Hewlett Packard’s international tax structures. The reports are designed to highlight vulnerabilities of U.S. corporate tax law, said committee staff members.
Cook agreed, and called for a dramatic simplification of the corporate tax system that is revenue neutral, eliminates all tax expenditures, lowers tax rates and implements a reasonable tax on foreign earnings that allows free movement of capital back to the U.S.”
Democratic committee staff members argued corporate tax income has fallen as a share of federal revenues, making the case to revise the tax code to raise revenue.
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Trump's Russia leak: The real scandal behind the Washington Post story
By Fred Fleitz, | Fox News
WH denies report that Trump leaked info on ISIS to Russia
Griff Jenkins reports from Washington, D.C.
The Washington Post started a new anti-Trump firestorm late Monday when it reported that President Trump revealed highly classified information on terrorist threats from ISIS in Syria to Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and Russian Ambassador to the U.S. Sergey Kislyak. The Post’s sources, current and former U.S. officials, portrayed this as a major scandal that put sensitive intelligence sources and methods at risk.
The Post claims it did not reveal all the details of the disclosures from its sources because U.S. officials said this would “jeopardize important intelligence capabilities.”
Yes, there’s a scandal here. It concerns former and current U.S. officials leaking classified information to the press to undermine a U.S. president.
Did President Trump slip and accidently tell the Russians something classified? Other U.S. participants in the meeting denied this. National Security Adviser H.R. McMaster told the press Monday evening: “I was in the room. It didn’t happen.”
But keep in mind U.S. officials unfamiliar with intelligence sometimes make such mistakes. For example, in 2014, the Obama White House accidently revealed the name of the CIA Station Chief in Afghanistan to the press. The Obama White House also reportedly revealed sensitive intelligence to the media concerning the Stuxnet virus to sabotage Iran’s nuclear program and details of the Usama bin Laden raid. Where was the outrage by the mainstream media and Congressional Democrats over these leaks?
Senator Dianne Feinstein accidently leaked classified sensitive information on drone strikes in 2009 during a Senate Intelligence Committee hearing. Nothing happened to her.
And of course there is Senator Patrick Leahy who deliberately leaked classified information to hurt President Reagan in 1987. As a result, he was thrown off the Senate Intelligence Committee and earned the nickname “Leaky Leahy.”
Furthermore, under U.S. law, the President of the United States is our nation’s ultimate classification authority. He can declassify information as he sees fit to conduct his national security policy.
The real scandal here concerns the current and former U.S. officials who spoke to the Washington Post to generate this story. We don’t know if these sources lied, misrepresented what went on in the Trump meeting with the Russians, or were second-guessing what Trump told them.
We do know that current U.S. officials -- possibly with the NSC and intelligence agencies -- originated this story and revealed highly classified intelligence to the Post as part of their leaks. They were joined by former U.S government officials who I assume worked for the CIA and the Obama NSC. These people committed felonies. They must be identified and prosecuted.
The leaks also are another indication of the serious problem the Trump administration continues to face with leakers. Major house cleanings at the NSC, CIA, ODNI and the State Department to address this serious security threat are long overdue. It is urgent that the Trump administration bring in new blood to replace hundreds of Obama loyalists placed in key positions throughout the government by the last administration.
Just as serious is how partisan cowards entrusted with national security information are anonymously leaking U.S. intelligence to ruin an American president and our democratic system. It’s about time the mainstream media and congressional Democrats start focusing on the dangers of such leaks to our security and system of government instead of just using them to advance their political agenda against President Trump.
Fred Fleitz, president of the Center for Security Policy, served in 2018 as deputy assistant to the president and to the chief of staff of the National Security Council. He previously held national-security jobs with the CIA, the DIA, the Department of State, and the House Intelligence Committee staff. Twitter @fredfleitz.
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Singer Robert Goulet Dies at 73
LOS ANGELES – Robert Goulet was in good spirits as he waited for a lung transplant, even telling doctors before they inserted a breathing tube, "Just watch my vocal cords," his wife said.
The big-voiced baritone, whose Broadway debut in "Camelot" launched an award-winning stage and recording career, died Tuesday at a Los Angeles hospital, where he had been awaiting the transplant after being diagnosed last month with a rare form of pulmonary fibrosis. Goulet was 73.
Vera Goulet, his wife of 25 years, said they were last able to speak three weeks ago before the singer was placed on a respirator.
Longtime friend Wayne Newton said Goulet's sense of humor "kept my spirits up in some of the lowest valleys in my life."
"His incredible voice will live on in his music, and as Bob so brilliantly sang, 'There will be another song for him and he will sing it,' for God now has another singing angel by his side," Newton said in a statement.
The Massachusetts-born Goulet, who spent much of his youth in Canada, gained stardom in 1960 with "Camelot," the Lerner and Loewe musical that starred Richard Burton as King Arthur and Julie Andrews as his Queen Guenevere.
Goulet played Sir Lancelot, the French knight who falls in love with Guenevere.
He became a hit with American TV viewers with appearances on "The Ed Sullivan Show" and other programs. Sullivan labeled him the "American baritone from Canada," where he had already been a popular star in the 1950s, hosting his own TV show called "General Electric's Showtime."
Goulet won a Grammy Award in 1962 as best new artist and made the singles chart in 1964 with "My Love Forgive Me."
"When I'm using a microphone or doing recordings I try to concentrate on the emotional content of the song and to forget about the voice itself," he told The New York Times in 1962.
"Sometimes I think that if you sing with a big voice, the people in the audience don't listen to the words, as they should," he told the newspaper. "They just listen to the sound."
While he returned to Broadway only infrequently after "Camelot," he won a Tony award in 1968 for best actor in a musical for his role in "The Happy Time." His other Broadway appearances were in "Moon Over Buffalo" in 1995 and "La Cage aux Folles" in 2005, plus a "Camelot" revival in 1993 in which he played King Arthur.
His stage credits elsewhere include productions of "Carousel," "Finian's Rainbow," "Gentlemen Prefer Blondes," "The Pajama Game," "Meet Me in St. Louis" and "South Pacific."
Goulet also performed in movies ranging from the animated "Gay Purr-ee" (1962) to "Underground" (1970) to "The Naked Gun 2 1/2" (1991). He played a lounge singer in Louis Malle's acclaimed 1980 film "Atlantic City."
He returned to Broadway in 2005 as one half of a gay couple in "La Cage aux Folles."
Goulet had no problems poking fun at his fame, appearing recently in an Emerald nuts commercial in which he "messes" with the stuff of dozing office workers, and lending his name to Goulet's SnoozeBars. Goulet also has been sent up by Will Ferrell on "Saturday Night Live."
"You have to have humor and be able to laugh at yourself," Goulet said in a biography on his Web site.
The only son of French-Canadian parents, Goulet was born in Lawrence, Mass. After his father died, his mother moved the family to Canada when the future star was about 13.
He received vocal training at the Royal Conservatory of Music in Toronto but decided opera wasn't for him. He made his first professional appearance at age 16 with the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra.
Pianist Roger Williams said he first met Goulet when he performed on a Canadian television show.
"He appeared on the last part of the show, and I knew then that he was a tremendous talent," Williams said. "He could shake a room with that big beautiful voice."
In his last performance Sept. 20 in Syracuse, N.Y., the crooner was backed by a 15-piece orchestra as he performed the one-man show "A Man and his Music."
Although Goulet headlined frequently on the Las Vegas Strip, one period stood out, evidenced by a photograph that hung on his office wall. It was the mid-1970s, and he had just finished a two-week run at the Desert Inn when he was asked to fill in at the Frontier, across the street.
Overnight, the marquees of two of the Strip's hottest resorts read the same: "Robert Goulet."
"I played there many, many years and have wonderful memories of the place," Goulet told the Las Vegas Review-Journal.
His first two marriages ended in divorce. He had a daughter with his first wife, Louise Longmore, and two sons with his second wife, Carol Lawrence, the actress and singer who played Maria in the original Broadway production of "West Side Story."
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Media activists fear for their lives in southwestern Syria
By BASSEM MROUE | Associated Press
BEIRUT – Several media activists and citizen journalists based in southwestern Syria appealed on Wednesday for help so that they can leave the region as it is on the verge of falling into the hands of government forces.
The appeal came as the Committee to Protect Journalists issued a statement saying that at least 70 Syrian journalists are "trapped" in the country's southwest, where government forces have been on the offensive for the past three weeks.
The opposition media activists say they fear for their lives if captured by government troops, adding that some citizen journalists went missing after Syrian forces took the eastern suburbs of the capital, Damascus, earlier this year and that their fate remains unknown.
Since July 19, government forces have captured most of southwestern Daraa province and control much of the border with Jordan. That has left most of the remaining citizen journalists trapped in nearby Quneitra province, along the frontier with the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights.
"We want to be evacuated from Quneitra to Turkey or any other place in the world," said Quneitra-based citizen journalist Jalal al-Ahmad.
Al-Ahmad and two other citizen journalists who spoke to The Associated Press by telephone said Russia-brokered deals to evacuate Syrian rebels and their families from the region do not include media activists.
"No one has discussed the fate of journalists so far," al-Ahmad said, adding that many fear death under torture in the hands of Syrian troops after they take the area. "We have received death threats over the phone and through Facebook."
Another citizen journalist who goes by the name of Maher Hariri said that they are under siege and "want someone to save our lives. We want to go to any place that is safe."
Syria is one of the most dangerous countries in the world for journalists, according to CPJ. At least 120 journalists have been killed in the country in relation to their work since the conflict began in 2011, according to CPJ research. At the time of CPJ's most recent prison census, at least seven journalists were in Syrian state prisons while many others are missing.
"Given the danger from fighting, as well as Syrian security services' heavy-handed treatment of journalists and media workers in the past, it is no wonder that the journalists in Daraa and Quneitra are afraid," CPJ's Mideast and North Africa coordinator, Sherif Mansour, said from Washington.
"We call on all governments in the region to work together to ensure that the journalists' well-being is safe-guarded," he added.
Syrian warplanes and helicopter gunships pounded on Wednesday areas in the nearby Yarmouk Basin controlled by a faction linked to the Islamic State group. The strikes came a day after a suicide attack in the village of Zeizoun killed 14 troops, a war monitor said.
The Syrian side of the Yarmouk Basin is controlled by the IS-linked Khaled bin Al-Waleed Army
The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the airstrikes came as the government continued to send reinforcements to the area ahead of a ground offensive. The extremists are holding about 30,000 civilians there as "human shields," the Observatory added.
The IS-affiliated Aamaq news agency carried the militants' claim for the attack in Zeizoun, which was captured by government forces earlier this week as part of the offensive in southern Syria. The Observatory said the suicide bombing killed 14 soldiers and pro-government gunmen.
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Tennis | September 15, 2015
Edberg: Federer can still win Slams
Stefan Edberg, the coach of Roger Federer, believes that the Swiss world number two still has it in him to win more grand slam titles.
Federer, 34, has lost twice to world number one Novak Djokovic in grand slam finals this year, losing at Wimbledon and in Sunday’s US Open final.
The Serb beat Federer in our sets 6-4, 5-7, 6-4, 6-4 in a match that lasted over three hours on Sunday.
Edberg feels that conditions played a big role in the match against Djokovic in New York City.
"The match was postponed due to rain. It was much cooler and the courts were slower," said Edberg.
"The match was all on luck as only two points separated them (Djokovic won 147 points, while Federer 145). The match was tied and if Federer had a little more luck things could turn out differently," said Edberg.
The Swede still believes that Federer has it in him to still achieve a lot in tennis before he ever decides to stop playing.
"Roger has played some of his best tennis in the past few years and will not give up.
"He works hard and will ultimately reap the benefits.
"If he continues to play at this same level, he surely will create more chances to win Grand Slams," Edberg said.
Home Tennis Edberg: Federer can still win Slams
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Minuteman Press Int'l. :
Longevity in Long Island: George Dormani Celebrates 20 Years as Minuteman Press Franchisee in Rockville Centre
By: Minuteman Press Int'l. | 2 Shares 28 Reads
George Dormani has spent 33 years as part of the Minuteman Press franchise team in Rockville Centre and is celebrating 20 years as the owner of the business.
June 10, 2019 // Franchising.com // NEW YORK - For over three decades and 20 years as the sole owner, George Dormani is proud of the business he has been able to build with his Minuteman Press design, marketing, and printing franchise in Rockville Centre. Long Island and the New York Metro area is the home base of Minuteman Press International, which started in 1973 and has grown to nearly 1,000 franchises worldwide. George says, “Minuteman Press was up and coming in the 1980s and today we are as relevant and vital as ever! I began 33 years ago in Rockville Centre working with an owner who was right off Wall Street. In 1999 I became the sole owner and since I started I have found Minuteman Press and myself to be a great match.”
The printing industry has certainly evolved over the years, and George is quick to credit Minuteman Press International for keeping up with the times and leading the charge with new products, services, and innovations. He says, “Minuteman Press helps us stay on top of the latest trends and best technology. I also feel like being here for 33 years means personal success and that I did something right!”
Prior to franchising with Minuteman Press, George’s passion was cars. After working in the automotive industry as a mechanic, he realized, “I enjoyed working on my car but hated working on other people’s cars and didn’t like working for an employer.” That is when he turned to Minuteman Press and made the transition that helped George become his own boss.
One of the biggest reasons George has been able to grow his business and achieve such stability over the years is his faith in the Minuteman Press franchise system, which focuses on making connections in the community and providing the best quality and customer service. He says, “I feel it is important to be involved with groups and networking in the community. I’m involved with the Rockville Centre and Oceanside Chambers of Commerce, the Rockville Centre Lions Club. We also offer discounts to the schools and teachers in our community, and we donate quite a bit to those community-related organizations. Whatever we give back we seem get back in return, and a little goodwill goes such a long way.”
George continues, “Customer service is the big secret to our longevity. Without our customers, we wouldn’t be here and it is important for them to trust us to be reliable and do right by them. The outstanding customer service we strive for is achieved thanks to the dedication of the staff here at Minuteman Press of Rockville Centre. They carry the work load and make sure that our customers always get what they need and that they leave with smiles on their faces. I have the best people working here and most of them have been here 15 years and more. Nobody wants to leave, I hear it every day. They actually love their jobs.”
When asked about his clients, George shares, “We work with such a diverse array of customers and that is because everyone needs and uses print and wants to market themselves! We have large corporations, small businesses, lawyers, doctors, architects, engineers, and other professionals who are all part of our client base. We also get a lot of business from entrepreneurs who are starting their own businesses as they depend on our experience to guide them with getting their feet off the ground and sparking growth. Birth announcements and wedding invitations are also popular in our community.”
Gary Titus is Minuteman Press International Senior Vice President. Gary works with Long Island Minuteman Press franchise owners and provides crucial knowledge and ongoing support along with his local field team. Gary says, “George has been in business a long time because he is motivated to meet the needs of his clients and engage with his community. He follows the Minuteman Press system that started right here in Long Island and also takes advantage of our unique ability to support him with new products, services, software, and innovations. George stays true to our core values of providing the best quality and service, and has earned the trust and loyalty of his clients for good reason.”
The future remains bright for the printing industry and Minuteman Press in Rockville Centre. George’s son currently works with him in the business, paving the way for the second generation. In fact, in Long Island alone, there are seven Minuteman Press franchises that are either being run by second-generation owners or have the second generation working in them. George says, “Our future goals are to continue to evolve with the industry and stay on the cutting edge of technology. We depend on Minuteman Press International to keep us informed and support us all the way like they always have in my 33 years affiliated with the franchise.”
Minuteman Press has also allowed George to rekindle his passion for guitars and cars. He says, “It is nice to be in a position to enjoy my cars and play some guitar. I’ve actually been collecting guitars since the 1980s. I like to pursue classic cars and hotrods and other interesting automobile and music collectibles. I do both buying and selling and keeping…mostly keeping. That’s something that is a lot of fun and very gratifying for me.”
George’s advice to others looking into owning a franchise is this: “Don't jeopardize your business by cutting corners. Follow the system closely and listen to those who have been doing this a long time. I also believe the little things make all the difference. With a small business, they are more important than you may think at first, and can lead to bigger and better things along the way.”
About Minuteman Press International
Minuteman Press International is the number one rated business marketing and printing franchise that offers world class training and unparalleled ongoing local support. Started in 1973 by Roy Titus and his son Bob, Minuteman Press began franchising in 1975 and has grown to nearly 1,000 business service franchise locations worldwide including the U.S., Australia, Canada, South Africa, and the United Kingdom. Minuteman Press is ranked #1 in category by Entrepreneur 28 times and 16 years in a row, including 2019. Independent franchisee satisfaction firm Franchise Business Review has also named Minuteman Press International to its 2019 Top Franchises, 2018 Top Franchise Leaders, Top Franchises for Women, and Top Franchises for Veterans lists thanks to positive reviews from our owners.
At Minuteman Press, We Are The Modern Printing Industry™ providing high quality products and services that meet the needs of today's business professionals and go way beyond ink on paper. Today, our centers offer innovative branding solutions and produce custom designs, promotional products, branded apparel, direct mail marketing, large format printing (banners and posters), signs and graphics, and much more. Prior experience is not necessary to own and operate a successful Minuteman Press franchise.
To learn more about #1 rated Minuteman Press franchise opportunities and speak with one of our experienced franchise representatives at no obligation, call 1-800-645-3006. Continue your franchise research, watch exclusive owner videos and access Minuteman Press franchise reviews at https://minutemanpressfranchise.com
Minuteman Press International
https://minutemanpressfranchise.com
Chris Biscuiti
cbiscuiti@mpihq.com
SOURCE Minuteman Press International
Minuteman Press is the world's largest & number 1 rated printing & marketing franchise. Our business model features multiple revenue streams, a high repeat business factor, normal hours of operation, a royalty cap and much more!
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At the Institute’s core is the Gilder Lehrman Collection, one of the great archives in American history. More than 70,000 items cover five hundred years of American history, from Columbus’s 1493 letter describing the New World to soldiers’ letters from World War II and Vietnam. Explore primary sources, visit exhibitions in person or online, or bring your class on a field trip.
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Livingston, Philip to Robert Livingston re: news of deaths
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Gilder Lehrman Collection #: GLC03107.01681 Author/Creator: Livingston, Philip Place Written: Albany, New York Type: Autograph letter signed Date: 1725/08/25 Pagination: 1p. + addr. 27.3 x 20.5 cm
Summary of Content: Philip informs his father of the deaths of some individuals known to them. Docketed on address leaf.
Historical Era: Colonization and Settlement, 1585-1763
Subjects: Death
Sub Era:
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Copyright Notice: The copyright law of the United States (title 17, United States Code) governs the making of photocopies or other reproductions of copyrighted material. Under certain conditions specified in the law, libraries and archives are authorized to furnish a photocopy or other reproduction. One of these specific conditions is that the photocopy or reproduction is not to be “used for any purpose other than private study, scholarship, or research.” If a user makes a request for, or later uses, a photocopy or reproduction for purposes in excess of “fair use,” that user may be liable for copyright infringement. This institution reserves the right to refuse to accept a copying order if, in its judgment, fulfillment of the order would involve violation of copyright law.
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Home > World Regions > Asia Pacific News > New Zealand intelligence agency is recruiting for a new boss
New Zealand intelligence agency is recruiting for a new boss
By Winnie Agbonlahor on 27/11/2015
Greek taxpayers will be required to submit a 56-page digital tax form, from this year, to combat Greek tax evasion. Image: iStock
One of New Zealand’s national security agencies is looking for a new chief with “experience managing cultural change.”
The Government Communications Security Bureau (GCSB ) – the government body providing information assurance and cyber security, as well as foreign intelligence, is advertising for the role of director, which is limited to New Zealand citizens.
The GCSB has an annual budget of around Aus $89m (US$64) and around 300 employees in a wide range of disciplines including foreign language experts, communications and cryptography specialists, engineers, technicians and corporate staff.
The GCSB’s head office is located on Pipitea Street in Wellington. GCSB also has two communications collection and interception stations: a high frequency radio interception and direction-finding station at Tangimoana, near Palmerston North, and a satellite communications interception station at Waihopai near Blenheim.
Together with the New Zealand Security Intelligence Service (NZSIS) and the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet (DPMC) Security and Intelligence Group, it forms the core New Zealand Intelligence Community (NZIC).
Apart from strong organisational leadership skills, the ideal candidate has a “proven ability to make informed decisions, assessing risks and acting swiftly and decisively as risks change”; the “ability to manage external stakeholders (including international stakeholders) as well as those within the New Zealand Intelligence Community”; the “ability to manage talent, including sensitive performance management”; and “experience managing cultural change and strategic planning” – according to the job description.
The organisation’s new director will be charged with “protecting, advancing and maximising New Zealand’s broader intelligence interests by developing and sustaining relationships with government departments, counterpart agencies in overseas jurisdictions and with the private sector in relation to cyber security; maintaining productive and effective technical links with counterpart offshore agencies ensuring the bureau provides an uninterrupted conduit for classified material; and ensuring collaborative and sector orientated relationships with the Officials Domestic and External Security Committee , and those government agencies with roles in New Zealand’s security and intelligence community.”
Prime minister John Key announced earlier this month that SIS and GCSB are now under review, following the Paris attacks.
He said that the amount of “dark communications” which New Zealand spy agencies are unable to intercept is increasing, following reports that French intelligence did not pick up any communications which foreshadowed the massive, co-ordinated terror attacks in Paris, according to the New Zealand Herald.
Applications for the position for GCSB are open until 4 December.
APACAsia PacificCivil servicecybersecurityNew ZealandPolicy & GovernancePublic servicesReformsecuritytechnology
About Winnie Agbonlahor
Winnie is news editor of Global Government Forum. She previously reported for Civil Service World - the trade magazine for senior UK government officials. Originally from Germany, Winnie first came to the UK in 2006 to study a BA in Journalism & Russian at the University of Sheffield. She is bilingual in English and German, and, after spending an academic year abroad in Russia and reporting for the Moscow Times, Winnie also speaks Russian fluently.
Digital Leaders: Transform Your Business
Is your organisation suffering from digital deadlock? According to new research from IDC and Workday, the answer is likely to be ‘yes’. In this webinar, we go beyond our survey of 400 digital leaders, which reveals 80% say their finance and HR systems need modernising. Richard Doherty, Senior Director, Product Marketing at Workday, and Philip […]
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No Winner: What Happens If the Presidential Election is Close?
By Greg Guma
Global Research, November 07, 2016
In-depth Report: U.S. Elections
It was 1:30 a.m. and CBS still wasn’t ready to call Ohio’s 20 electoral votes, or the presidential election, for George W. Bush. In Washington, Karl Rove was already declaring victory. But unlike 2000, when Al Gore almost conceded before it was clear that Florida deserved a recount, the Democrats were not rolling over this time.
For a while in November 2004, it looked like the counting could go on for weeks. As expected, Bush had swept the southern and mountain states, while John Kerry carried most of the two coasts. The President was leading in the popular vote, but neither candidate could claim the required electoral college majority.
As it emerged that Ohio might be the new Florida, ABC’s Cokie Roberts complained, “This could be the worst of all possible worlds.” She meant the prospect of extended litigation. Bush was ahead, but the Democrat were challenging Republican tactics and holding out for the counting of provisional ballots, a process that could take at least a week. Republican operatives called the tactic “bizarre, absurd, and ludicrous.” This year they may copy it.
Commenting on the high 2004 turnout, George Will offered a disquieting Vietnam analogy. “When we have high turnout we tend to be an unhappy country,” he argued, then adding that 1968 “was one of the worst years in US history. It ran up turnout, but I don’t think we want to do that constantly.”
State ballot initiatives were also influential, mainly bringing out social conservatives who tended to back Bush. Items calling for the rejection of same-sex marriage passed convincingly in 11 states; of these, nine went for Bush. In this sense, 2016 will be very different. The marriage debate is basically over, but five states will vote on recreational marijuana; another four will choose whether to permit its medical use. Four states are also voting to raise the minimum wage, and three will decide on background checks for gun buyers.
Still, one dynamic has stayed very much the same. It remains a closely divided electorate. As Chris Matthews put it in 2004, “It’s an election between north and south that will be decided by the Midwest.”
Using CNN’s new high-tech wall of graphics, Jeff Greenfield posed various scenarios, including the possibility of a 269-269 tie. That prospect, an irresistible storyline that has emerged again this year, lingered into the night. Would the House of Representatives end up choosing the President? And if someone like that happened now, who would the GOP-dominated House choose?
As the night wore on, speculation began to pass for fact. Shortly after 1 a.m., MSNBC announced that Bush was only one electoral vote shy of victory, while Kerry would have to win every remaining state to reach a tie. Actually, Bush had substantially fewer electors tied up at that point. The desire for an exciting story had eclipsed pre-election promises of caution.
By dawn the next morning, Bush actually had 254 electoral votes to Kerry’s 252. That left Iowa and New Mexico, two states where Bush was clinging to a slim lead, and Ohio, where the likelihood of a Kerry victory looked slim. Kerry conceded by early afternoon. If something similar happens this time, no one expects either candidate to say uncle.
Whatever the outcome, there will be deep suspicions and lingering claims of fraud and manipulation. That certainly happened in 2004, when claims of cyber-warfare surfaced after the vote. The difference now is Trump, who will use any opening or legal option to block defeat and challenge the legitimacy of the election.
Copyright © Greg Guma, Global Research, 2016
Articles by: Greg Guma
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Nonprofit Graduate School Grant Program
Graduate students already employed or promised to be employed by qualifying nonprofit organizations may apply for The Chamber's Nonprofit Graduate School Grant Program! This program is made possible by the New Haven Real Estate Educational Foundation fund at The Community Foundation for Greater New Haven.
The Nonprofit Graduate School Grant Program provides direct payments to Graduate Student Loan servicers for up to $10,000 over two years, paid in semi-annual installments.
Applications are due by SEPT. 21, 2019. Award recipients will be honored during the Nonprofit Awards Breakfast at The Big Connect, Business Expo, on THUR. NOV. 21, 2019.
Download application here.
The Greater New Haven area has a long history as an education center with Hopkins Grammar School, founded on the New Haven Green in 1660 and Yale University, which dates to 1701. The area also has an extraordinary number of schools, colleges and universities for its size. Local universities include graduate schools in architecture, fine arts, arts & sciences, business, drama, divinity, forensic science, forestry and environmental studies, hospitality, law, management, medicine, music, nursing, public health, and other professions.
Albertus Magnus College- New Dimensions
Charter Oak State College
Southern CT State University
Stone Academy
University of New Haven
New Haven Network for Public Education
The New Haven Network for Public Education, Inc. (formerly the New Haven Public Education Fund) was created as an initiative of The Community Foundation for Greater New Haven in 1986 in response to concerns the New Haven community has expressed regarding public education.
The Mission of the New Haven Network for Public Education is to facilitate community advocacy in order to improve and achieve the highest quality of public education for all children in New Haven Public Schools.
For more information, contact Garrett Sheehan at 203-782-4389.
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Russia Wants to Ban LinkedIn After Legal Breach
Russia wants LinkedIn blocked in the country. JAAP ARRIENS/NURPHOTO/SIPA USA.
Following LinkedIn's infringement of Russian law requiring that all companies holding Russian citizens' personal details be stored in servers within the country, Russia is now working on measures to ban the site from the country.
Russia's national telecommunications and media agency, Roskomnadzor, says that talks with LinkedIn officials is currently in the works. However, the Russian government is also working on a ruling against LinkedIn violations which will be presented on a meeting with the company's representatives.
LinkedIn spokesperson May Chow confirms that the company is very interested in pulling off a compromise with the Russian government. The company is also willing to transfer its servers in Russia to accommodate the country's citizens.
Russia is a big market for LinkedIn which currently stands at 5 million members. United States remains the biggest at 128 million, followed by India at 35 million, and Indonesia and the Netherlands with 6 million each.
Since September of 2015, the need to localize all personal data of Russian citizens was put into law. This means, all foreign firms such as Facebook, Twitter, Whatsapp, Instagram and LinkedIn among many others should transfer their Russian clientele's details on Russia-based servers.
As of now, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Whatsapp have failed to release official statements. These sites have also been operating as usual, with servers based in the United States. Only LinkedIn has stepped up to defend their grounds in the country by complying with Russian law.
But following the long process of server transfers, LinkedIn filed for an appeal to Russian courts. However, the appeal was denied last week.
Foreign firms confirm that this new law is a big blow to many international companies, given the cost of having to localize servers just to accommodate the Russian clientele.
Rob Enderle of advisory firm Enderle Group says, "These laws have already significantly adversely impacted international sales of technology and services across a broad spectrum of firms, and will likely continue hurting domestic revenues, jobs and taxes."
But it appears that Russia's call to action is far from being unfounded. Analysts speculate that it may have to do with the U.S. National Security Agency's PRISM Surveillance Program launched several years ago. The program is aimed at monitoring global users' online data and movements at an unprecedented scale.
Roskomnadzor's rally for localization of servers has been talked about in Moscow since 2011. Some Russian citizens find this disturbing, with activist Pavel Chikov quoted into saying this might be a first step in Russia's attempt to "ease (the country) out of the global Internet."
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Andrea Grover
Andrea Grover is the Executive Director of Guild Hall. Prior to joining Guild Hall in 2016, she was the Curator of Special Projects at the Parrish Art Museum, where she was awarded both a Tremaine Foundation and an AADA Curatorial Award for her exhibition, Radical Seafaring. At the Parrish, she established the extremely popular community-driven program PechaKucha Night Hamptons, and the exhibition series Parrish Road Show and Platform. Grover founded the nonprofit film center Aurora Picture Show, Houston, Texas, at age 27. She has received fellowships from the Center for Curatorial Leadership, the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, STUDIO for Creative Inquiry at Carnegie Mellon University, and the Warhol Foundation, and has served as a panelist or advisor for Pew Foundation for Arts & Heritage, Pulitzer Arts Foundation, Rauschenberg Foundation, and Bogliasco Foundation, among many others. She holds an MFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, and a BFA from Syracuse University.
Sign up for the latest updates on Guild Hall events & programs
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