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Hillsdale Neighborhood Association Bylaws
Adopted November 13, 1996
First Amendment Adopted December 6, 2000
Second Amendment Adopted March 1, 2006
Third Amendment Adopted July 2, 2008
Fourth Amendment Adopted December 1, 2010
Fifth Amendment Adopted November 4, 2015
Sixth Amendment Adopted October 3, 2018
Bylaws of the Hillsdale Neighborhood Association
Article I The Association
(a) Name
The name of the organization shall be the Hillsdale Neighborhood Association (HNA).
(b) Purposes
The HNA is organized to provide a balanced and open process by which all Members of the neighborhood can involve themselves in the affairs of the community in a courteous and respectful manner by sharing information and ideas and organizing for the betterment of the community.
(c) Activities
This corporation shall be organized and operated exclusively for charitable, scientific, literary, and educational purposes. Subject to the limitations stated in the Articles of Incorporation, the purposes of this corporation shall be to engage in any lawful activities, none of which are for profit, for which corporations may be organized under chapter 65 of the Oregon Revised Statutes or its equivalent future statutory language and Section 501(C)(3) of the federal Internal Revenue Code or its equivalent future statutory language.
Article II Members and Membership
(a) Eligibility for, Consent to, and Term of Membership.
(1) Membership in HNA shall be open to any person having attained the age of sixteen (16) who lives in, or owns real property in, or attends school in, or is employed by or holds a business license for a business located within the boundaries of HNA as described in these bylaws. Others may become eligible for membership by requesting and receiving written approval of the Board of Directors.
(2) An eligible person becomes a member of HNA five days after providing written consent in accordance with the procedures established by HNA.
(3) An eligible individual’s term of membership shall be 24 months from the date of last consent to HNA membership. Membership may be extended an unlimited number of times.
(b) Powers of the Membership
The Membership has the power to: (1) nominate and elect a Board of Directors; (2) ratify the Board's decisions setting the number of director positions, filling Board vacancies, and appointing Alternates; (3) remove directors and officers, with or without cause, pursuant to the procedures of Article V Section 10 of these bylaws regarding Removal; (4) approve amendments to the Articles of Incorporation and bylaws; (5) approve Articles of Dissolution; (6) adopt Advisory Motions to advise the Board of the sense of the voting community on any matter affecting the Association; (7) cause the Board to call a special meeting of the Membership upon a petition signed by ten (10) percent of the Membership; and (8) ratify such limited actions as may, from time to time, be referred by the Board to the Membership for ratification.
Note: The term “limited” actions is used advisedly so that it is not supposed that actions of the Board may routinely be referred for ratification. It is the opinion of the Drafting Committee that overuse would undermine the power of the Board such that management of the Association would be performed by the Membership and not the Board, contrary to the intent of these bylaws.
(c) Voting and Procedures for Voting
(1) In General. On all matters, HNA Members shall have one vote. There shall be no voting by proxy.
(2) Voting by Email, or Remotely
(A) There shall be no voting by email.
(B) Remote voting shall be restricted to advisory votes of the Membership and be available only to those requesting to attend the meeting electronically in the United States, and by prior arrangement with the President, as to which the President shall use best efforts to accommodate the request.
Note: It is the view of the Drafting Committee (1) that the prohibition against proxies should be restricted to voting and that, for example, a reading by proxy of someone’s position on a given issue should be permitted, and (2) that the “arrangement” to be made for accommodating an absent Member by electronic connection may well be for a time and duration certain, not for an entire meeting.
(d) Advisory Votes.
(1) Initiating an Advisory Vote before the Meeting. The Membership, by Advisory Motion duly presented and adopted, may express its advice to the Board for its consideration, but the presenter of such Advisory Motion shall have made best efforts to inform President of its substance at least seven (7) days before the meeting date and must present a written copy of said motion, restricted to a single issue, to the Presiding Officer before any discussion may ensue.
(2) Significant Controversy. Any Advisory Motion involving a matter of significant controversy (at the sole judgment of the Presiding Officer) shall require reading and debate at two separately-noticed meetings before a vote.
(3) Advisory Motions at the Meeting. Any agenda item may be discussed by all those present at any meeting. The Presiding Officer shall have the authority to ask those present, following a full discussion of the agenda item, “Would anyone like to offer an Advisory Motion for Board consideration?” The motion shall be restricted to the single agenda item under discussion. The Presiding Officer, may then allow discussion of the motion by all present. When satisfied that all relevant questions and facts pertaining to the Advice have been addressed, the Presiding Officer will then announce, “Does any Member wish to move to advise the Board to take action on the issue which has just been discussed?” Any Member except the Presiding Officer, after first affirming his/her Membership, if requested, may move that the Board be advised to take such action. The Advisory Motion must be restricted to a single topic, and requires a second by a Member The Members will then discuss the motion. Once satisfied that all questions have been asked and answered, the Presiding Officer shall call for a vote of the Members present, report the number of ayes and nays thereon to the Board, and, in due course, with due dispatch, report the Board’s reaction back to the Membership.
(4) Tabling a motion. An Advisory Motion may not be tabled indefinitely, but only to a time certain. A motion to table to a date certain must be seconded by a Member, and may be debated.
(5) Relinquishing the Chair/ Identification of Board Members. The Presiding Officer may not speak to the merits of any matter before the Membership without relinquishing the chair for the duration of his/her remarks, nor may a Board member speak to merits of any matter without identifying his/her Board affiliation.
(6) Parliamentary Procedure. The foregoing procedure is deemed sufficient for the conduct of HNA business; there shall be no reversion to Robert’s Rules, or any other parliamentary practice.
Note: (1)Regarding the submission of an Advisory Motion before a meeting, the Drafting Committee recognizes the tension between the desirability of early notice to the Membership and the capability of leadership to comply. We recommend that leadership make best efforts to promote early notice to it and concomitant early notice to the Membership, as noted in subsection (d)(1) directly above (7 day notice).
(2) Regarding identification of a Board Member before he or she speaks on the merits of a matter, it is the opinion of the Drafting Committee that a rule of flexibility should be observed by the Presiding Officer in enforcing this rule, such that, depending on the circumstances, one identification during the meeting may suffice, since the aim is simply to identify possible biases, not to promote redundant disclosures.
(e) Membership Roster.
(1) Compilation. The President shall appoint a Board member to maintain a current Membership roster of the preceding 24 months for every HNA meeting, which roster shall be available upon request to any Member certifying that it will not be used for purposes of commercial or financial solicitation.
(2) Required Sign-in. A sign-in sheet for every meeting shall be provided requiring the name, email address, street address (optional if email supplied) and phone number of each attendee, and bearing a notice that completion of the sign-in sheet constitutes attestation of qualification for and consent to membership in the HNA, but to no commitment of duty or obligation.
Note: It is the opinion of the Drafting Committee that a sign-up sheet need be of no particular form so long as it conveys the information necessary to satisfy the conditions and acceptance of Membership.
Article III Dues/Funds
HNA shall not charge dues or Membership fees. However, HNA may accept voluntary contributions. HNA may hold activities to raise funds for its use.
Article IV Meetings of the Association.
(a) Regular Meetings
There shall be at least two meetings of the Membership annually. HNA shall provide at least seven (7) calendar days advance public notice of such meetings.
(b) Special Meetings
The President, or a majority of the Board of Directors, may call a special meeting of the Membership to discuss a specific matter, and shall call a meeting when called upon to do so by a written petition signed by ten (10) percent of the Membership. Notification of a special meeting shall require not fewer than seven (7) calendar days Public Notice . No other business than that for which the President or Board of Directors gave notice may be discussed or acted on at a special meeting.
(c) Agenda.
(1) In General. The President shall cause an agenda for every meeting to be prepared, with sufficient detail to apprise the Membership of the substance of each item, to be publicly disseminated at least seven (7) calendar days in advance of the meeting. Any person may propose an item for the agenda for a regular meeting by submitting the item in writing to the President at least seven (7) calendars days in advance of the meeting.
(2) Additions to the Agenda at the Meeting. Subject to the procedures of Article II(d)(2) regarding a significant controversy, any Member may move to add an item to the agenda at any regular meeting of the Membership. Adoption of the motion requires a second by a Member and a majority vote of those Members present.
(d) Quorum and Voting.
(1) In General. A quorum for any meeting of the Membership shall be at least six (6) Members in attendance, including at least one (1) member of the Board of Directors.
(2) Minimum vote required for Passage. Unless otherwise specified in these bylaws, decisions of any body of HNA, whether Membership, Board, or committee, shall be made by a majority vote of those present and eligible to vote..
Note on counting those present and the danger of abstention by counting those “present and voting”: The voting requirement is made advisedly, to allay the problem, where abstention is permitted of the vote of only one person controlling the vote, as in the rule of counting just those “present and voting”. In short, under “present and voting” if you abstain you may be permitting one person to control the outcome. This can lead to confusing counter-intuitive results, E.g., the quorum of six is met, and the motion under discussion receives 3 ayes, 2 nays, and 1abstention; the motion fails under the rule proposed.
(e) Requirement of Open Meetings /Limited Exception for Board Only
With the exception of an Executive Session of the Board (which may occur only by majority vote from an open meeting of the Board), any meeting of the Membership, or of any Committee, or of the Board of Directors, is open to any person who wishes to attend.
Note: It is the expectation of the Drafting Committee that the exception for Executive Session, although discretionary with the Board, will be little used.
Article V Pertaining to the Board of Directors (Board).
(a) Powers of the Board.
(1) In General. The Board shall manage the affairs of HNA. Any formal and official action of HNA may be authorized and enacted only by the Board of Directors.
(2) Duty to Listen. Anyone may offer advice and any Member may offer a proposed motion to the Board of Directors regarding any Hillsdale neighborhood concern or issue. The Board is charged to listen attentively to the opinions and advice of of all who appear before it, and to seek the views of anyone especially affected by any proposed policies, before taking any action on behalf of HNA.
(b) Responsibilities of the Board and of a Director.
A director is expected to discharge the duties of that position in good faith, with the care an ordinarily prudent person in a like position would exercise under similar circumstances, and in a manner the director reasonably believes to be in the best interests of the HNA.
(c) Number of Directors/ Alternates
(1) Number. There shall be seven (7), nine (9), eleven (11), or thirteen (13) director positions on the Board. Subject to ratification by the general Membership, the Board is authorized to change the number from year to year, as the needs of HNA dictate, Public Notice shall be given of such change.
(2) Alternates. In order to lighten the workload of Board members and to provide for the leadership training, a Board member may, subject to ratification by the Board and the Membership, appoint an Alternate to assist a him or her in the conduct of Board and Officer duties when the appointing director is indisposed. Only one person may act officially at a time for the two.
(d) Term of a Director/ No Term Limit.
(1) Term. Each Director shall hold office for a term of two years for which he or she is elected or appointed, until his or her successor shall have assumed office . directors shall be elected to fill odd-numbered positions in odd-numbered years and even-numbered positions in even-numbered years, position numbers to be determined by custom or by order of the Board. Terms of officers and Directors shall begin the next July 1 following election, except as may be determined by the Board to better suit prevailing circumstances.
(2) No Term Limit. There shall be no term limit for a Director.
(e) Eligibility for Service as a Director.
Only HNA Members may serve on the Board of Directors.
(f) Desire for Geographic Diversity among Directors.
For positions other than officers, HNA shall endeavor, to the extent reasonably practicable, to have Directors from various areas of the neighborhood serve on the Board. The purpose of this section is to bring perspectives from different sectors of the neighborhood to the Board; this section, however shall not be interpreted to prevent a qualified, willing and able candidate from running for or serving on the Board simply because the candidate may not meet the geographic diversity goals set forth herein. Notwithstanding the desire for geographic diversity, it is the responsibility of each Director to represent the interests of the whole neighborhood encompassed by the HNA.
(g) Nominations for the Board.
Prior to the meeting at which the annual vote for Directors will occur, the President shall appoint a nominating committee to prepare a slate of nominees and present those names to the Membership at least seven (7) business days before the meeting. Additionally, Members eligible to vote for directors may nominate persons for the Board at the meeting at which the vote takes place.
(h) Election of Directors.
Directors whose terms expire shall be elected each year by a vote of the Membership at a meeting in the Spring. Election requires a majority vote of eligible Members present .
(i) Filling Vacancies.
The Board may fill any vacancy on the Board by majority vote of the directors present at the Board meeting, subject to ratification of the Membership. A director appointed to fill a vacancy shall serve the remainder of the unexpired term and until his or her successor assumes office.
(j) Election of Board Officers/ Term Limit of Officers.
(1 )At a convenient time after its election, the Board shall convene and choose among its members those who will fill the offices of President, Vice-President, Secretary, and Treasurer for the ensuing 12 months (this being the term of office). In the event of a vacancy of any office prior to the expiration of the term of the director vacating the position, the Board shall appoint a director to fill that position until the next election .
(2) There shall be a term limit of two consecutive full terms for any Board office, but a gap of no fewer than three (3) years shall permit the term limit to renew.
(k) Duties of Board Officers.
(1) President:
(A) The President shall be responsible for the faithful implementation and execution of the HNA Bylaws, and for HNA responsibilities as a member of Southwest Neighborhood, Inc. (SWNI), or its successor. She/he shall be the official public spokesperson of HNA and shall be responsible for filing legally required documents in a timely manner, as well as for submitting accurate records to ONI, SWNI, and to HNA members.
(B) The President shall have the power to appoint a Presiding Officer for the conduct of any meeting, or part thereof, pertaining to the affairs of the HNA.
(C)The President shall appoint members of committees, and may appoint, with Board approval, the chairs of Committees. The President, with Board approval, may remove members or the chairs of committees. The President may participate ex-officio on all HNA committees as a non-voting member.
(D)The President shall accept all grievances and oversee the grievance resolution process. However, any grievance matter directed at the President shall be resolved with the Vice-President acting as chair of the grievance resolution committee.
(2) Vice-President:
The Vice-President shall assist the President, shall function as president in the absence of the President, and shall serve as or appoint a parliamentarian. The Vice- President shall be responsible for scheduling and conducting an annual strategic planning meeting open to all HNA Members, focused, at a minimum, on the major topics from the then current Hillsdale Town Center Plan (including land use/zoning; transportation; business growth/development; urban design; community; environment/recreation; and housing), whether formally adopted by the City or not, as well as undertaking such duties as may be assigned by the President.
(3) Secretary:
The Secretary shall: keep minutes of all Membership and Board meetings and post them on the HNA website; maintain the non-financial files of HNA in accordance with ONI’s retention standards; make records of HNA available for inspection for any proper purpose at reasonable times, and shall maintain the record of attendance at Membership and Board meetings. The Secretary shall also be responsible for preparing correspondence of HNA, as well as undertaking such duties as may be assigned by the President. The Board of Directors may delegate signature authority for the Association to the Secretary in such matters as it may determine.
(4) Treasurer:
The Treasurer shall manage all funds and shall give an accounting as requested by the President and shall receive, safeguard, and disburse HNA funds, except that any funds exceeding $5,000 shall be received, safeguarded, and disbursed by a fiscal agent appointed by the Board. The Treasurer shall also undertake such additional duties as may be assigned by the President.
(l) This section is unassigned to avoid confusion in numbering.
(m) Meetings of the Board.
The Board shall meet at a time the President shall designate; however, a majority of all Directors, by signed petition, may call a special Board or Membership meeting, provided the meeting is given Public Notice .
(n) Quorum/ Voting of the Board.
(1) In General. A quorum for Board meetings shall be a majority of those representing the then-authorized number of director positions.
(2) Minimum vote required. The Board shall make decisions by majority vote of those representatives present.
(o) Emergency Actions of the Board.
Whenever the Board determines that circumstances require a neighborhood response or Board action before the issue in question can be presented to the Membership, and the Board, at its discretion, determines that the issue must be addressed, the Board may take action but shall indicate to the requestor such is the case. Such a meeting shall be given such prior Public Notice as the circumstances permit. The Board shall present the action it took to the Membership within a reasonable time for discussion or ratification as it may determine is appropriate.
(p) Alternative Procedures for Submitting Proposals to the Board.
(1) Submittals. Any person or group, inside or outside the boundaries of HNA, may propose in writing to the President an item for HNA consideration. The Board shall decide whether the proposed item will appear on the agenda, if at all, of either a meeting of the Board, a committee, or the general Membership.
(2) Notifications. The President shall notify the proponents of the proposal and Members directly affected by such no fewer than seven business (7) days in advance of the time and place the proposal will be reviewed, unless the Board or Membership reviews the proposal in an emergency meeting, or not at all. For an emergency meeting, the President shall notify the proponents and Members directly affected by such proposals as soon as feasible following a decision to call an emergency meeting.
(3) Rights of Proponents. The proponents may attend any ensuing meeting to make a presentation and answer questions concerning the proposal.
(4) Outcomes. The HNA shall submit recommendations and dissenting views as recorded from the meeting to the proponents and other interested parties.
(q) Non-Voting Members and Advisors.
(1)The Hillsdale Business and Professional Association (HBPA) may appoint one (1) person to serve as a non-voting Member of the HNA Board of Directors.
(2) The HNA’s representative to the Southwest Neighborhoods, Inc. (SWNI) Board of Directors may also attend Board meetings as a non-voting Member of the HNA Board of Directors.
(3) The Board may also appoint other neighborhood Members to serve as non-voting advisors.
(r) Removal of a Director/ Forfeiture of Office
(1) In General. (For “A person or group harmed as a result of a decision or action of HNA” consult Article VIII Grievance Procedures.)
Subject to compliance with applicable statutory procedures, the Membership of the HNA may remove a director, either with or without cause, at any time by a vote of two-thirds of the Members present at a special meeting called for the sole purpose of voting on the removal.
(2) Removal Procedure.
(A) Initiation of Removal. To initiate the removal process a Member must submit a formal written request to that effect to the President as well as the Secretary. The Presiding Officer will then read the request at the next regularly scheduled meeting of the HNA. Before announcing the date of a special meeting to discuss and vote on the matter, the Presiding Officer shall publicly ask the Member to affirm that she/he wishes to proceed with the removal process, or instead wishes to withdraw the request. If the Member wishes to proceed, the President will announce the date, time, and place of a special meeting.
(B) Special Meeting for Removal. Once the matter has been fully discussed at the special meeting, the Presiding Officer shall ask whether any Member wishes to make a final statement. The director named in the request for removal shall then be given an opportunity to make a final statement. Members will then be given ballots and asked to vote “Yes” “No” to the ballot question: “Shall (Name of the director) be removed as a member of the Board of Directors the Hillsdale Neighborhood Association?” The Presiding Officer shall announce the vote count and state whether those in favor of removal equal no less than sixty-seven percent (67%) of those Members present.
(C) Effect of Removal. A director removed by this process will immediately lose his/her position of director, as well as any official responsibilities associated with it.
(3) Forfeiture of Office. Subject to compliance with applicable statutory procedures, the unexcused failure of a director to attend three (3) consecutive Board meetings shall work a forfeiture of the position and any attendant office.
Article VI Committees of the Board.
(a) Creation.
The Board may establish standing and ad hoc committees as it deems necessary, subject to the rights of the President in Article V(k)(1). The Board of Directors shall establish operating procedures that set forth the responsibilities and authorities of the committees.
(b) Duties and Authority of Committees.
Committees shall be responsible for the coordination of activities and programs, for research and review of issues and proposals, and for recommending actions to be considered by the Board of Directors or the Membership in the areas of responsibility assigned to the committee.
(c) Governance.
All committees shall be subject to the provisions of these bylaws.
(d) Membership and Voting.
Any person is eligible to serve on an HNA committee and may vote, if votes are taken, or necessary to be taken. The President and Board shall endeavor, to the extent reasonably practicable, to ensure that committees reflect the geographic, ethnic, and gender diversity of the neighborhood. However, this section shall not be interpreted to prevent a qualified, willing and able candidate from serving on a committee simply because he or she may not meet the geographic diversity goals set forth herein.
(e) Officers of Committees
Except in cases where the President, with approval of the Board of Directors, appoints the chair for a committee, each committee may choose its own officers. The chair of each committee may serve as a non-voting member of the Board of Directors. The chair of any committee shall report to the Board of Directors at the request of the President.
(f) Minutes of Committee Meetings
Unless required by the Board, committees shall have no duty to keep minutes. If minutes are required, however, the chair of such committee shall cause them to be kept and, within two weeks of the meeting, shall present a written copy thereof to the President of HNA who shall cause them to be posted on the HNA website .
(g) Operating Procedures for Committees
The Board of Directors shall review annually its operating procedures for committees.
(h) SWNI Representations.
The President shall, with the approval of the Board of Directors, appoint Members, and their alternates, to serve as representatives on SWNI’s standing and ad hoc committees, including one Member to serve as HNA’s representative on SWNI’s Board of Directors.
Article VII. Conflict of Interest
(a) General Rule. Whenever a Member or director determines that he or she has a conflict of interest relating to an item under discussion, he or she shall inform the body hearing the proposal that a conflict of interest exists and refrain from discussing or voting on the matter.
(b) Policy.
The Board may adopt a policy for defining a conflict of interest
(c) Right to Challenge.
Any Member may, by filing a grievance, challenge a failure to declare a conflict of interest.
Article VIII Grievance Procedures
(a) General Rule.
All parties are encouraged to resolve disagreements and disputes through face-to-face meetings, discussions with directors and Members, and/or mediation whenever possible.
(b) Eligibility to Grieve.
A person or group harmed as a result of a decision or action of HNA may file a formal grievance if they believe the action taken by HNA violated a provision of these bylaws, a formally-adopted policy of HNA, or the ONI Standards.
(c) Submittals.
Any person or group eligible to grieve may submit a grievance in writing, on a form substantially in conformance with that available from the Office of Neighborhood Involvement, to the President, or to any other director the President has designated for this purpose, within forty-five (45) business days of the discovery of the cause of the grievance, irrespective of when the cause of the grievance occurred. The grievance shall include a proposed solution and a statement how that solution furthers the purpose of HNA.
(d) Review.
Within seven (7) calendar days of the receipt of a grievance, the President shall call a special meeting of the Board of Directors. At that meeting, the Board shall elect a grievance committee consisting of at least three Members, one (1) of whom shall be a director. Within seven (7) calendar days following its appointment, the grievance committee shall arrange with the petitioner and any declared or reasonably ascertainable opponents a mutually acceptable place and time for a review of the grievance. The grievance committee shall, in writing, within thirty (30) calendar days of that meeting recommend a resolution of the grievance to the Board of Directors.
(e) Resolution.
The Board will review the recommendation of the grievance committee together with any new information or arguments the petitioner and any declared or reasonably ascertainable opponents may submit. Within sixty (60) calendar days of the date the grievance was submitted, the Board shall issue a final written decision on the grievance and provide notice to the petitioner, the general Membership, and any declared or reasonably ascertainable opponents of same. The decision shall include supporting findings for the decision.
(d) Appeal.
Right of appeal, if any, shall be governed by SWNI bylaws, ONI standards, or other controlling city processes.
Article IX Boundaries
(a ) Description.
The boundaries of HNA are as follows:
Beginning where SW Dosch Road intersects SW Beaverton-Hillsdale Highway;
North on SW Dosch Road to SW Flower Terrace; then around SW Flower Terrace including all properties on this street;
Continuing North on SW Dosch Road, including properties on both sides of SW Dosch Road to 4110 SW Dosch Road and then running on the centerline of SW Dosch Road, including in Hillsdale only those properties on the west side of Dosch Road from 4025 SW Dosch Road to 3831 SW Dosch Road, and including 3408 SW Dosch Court.
The boundary shall run easterly down SW Martin’s Lane, with the properties fronting on Martin’s Lane not being in Hillsdale.
At the point where Martin’s Lane turns to the northeast, the boundary extends through the block between 4017 SW Altadena Avenue and 4029 SW Altadena Avenue to SW Altadena Avenue, and crossing that street encompasses the properties on the both sides of SW Washouga Avenue all the way to the right-of-way located just south of 4242 SW Washouga Avenue.
From there the boundary point extends to the middle of SW Washouga Avenue, Hillsdale having the western side, and proceeds south to SW Twombly Avenue.
At SW Twombly Avenue, the boundary heads northeast to SW Chesapeake Avenue, Hillsdale having the southern side, and heads southeast halfway down the street to the pedestrian walkway between 4280 SW Chesapeake Avenue and 4308 SW Chesapeake Avenue.
At the walkway, the boundary proceeds northeast up the pedestrian walkway, Hillsdale having the southwestern side and turns southeast along the back fence lines of the houses fronting on SW Melville Avenue.
The boundary line then runs southeast along the southeastern border of 4445 SW Melville Avenue.
At that point, the boundary extends south along the southern and western boundaries of the properties facing SW Fairmount Boulevard, until it meets a line corresponding to an extension of SW Hamilton Street.
Here the boundary turns east, crossing the entire ridge top to where it crosses SW Fairmount Boulevard as that street traverses the eastern slope of the ridge.
The boundary then proceeds south on Fairmount to where it intersects the south line, extended, of the north one-third of the west one-half of the James Terwilliger Donation Land Claim , which corresponds to the north line of SW Northwood Avenue, extended.
The boundary then proceeds south on Northwood Avenue, including all properties on this street, to its intersection with the north line of the south one-third of the west one-half of the DLC.
The boundary then proceeds east on that line extended to its intersection with SW Barbur Boulevard.
The boundary then proceeds south, then west on SW Barbur Boulevard to where it intersects SW Terwilliger Boulevard.
The boundary then proceeds south on SW Terwilliger Boulevard, including all properties on the west side of the street, to Interstate-5.
The boundary then proceeds southwest along the northwest side of 1-5 to the SW 19th Avenue viaduct.
The boundary then proceeds north on SW 19th Avenue to SW Capitol Hill Road.
The boundary then proceeds west and north on SW Capitol Hill Road to SW Nevada Court.
The boundary then proceeds west on SW Nevada Court to SW 26th Avenue.
The boundary then proceeds north on the extended line of SW 26th Avenue to SW Capitol Highway.
The boundary then proceeds west on SW Capitol Highway to SW 30th Avenue.
The boundary then proceeds north on SW 30thAvenue to SW Beaverton-Hillsdale Highway and SW Dosch Road, the beginning point.
(b) Map (north at the top).
Note: The northern boundary does not cross Fairmont; the eastern boundary does not cross Barbur until as it becomes the southern boundary, where at Terwilliger the southern boundary becomes I 5. The western boundary does include some properties on the western side of Dosch, and excludes some on the eastern side of Dosch.
Article X. Records and Reports of HNA
(a) Responsibilities.
HNA shall abide by its Articles of Incorporation, its bylaws , the ONI Standards, and all Oregon statutes relative to public meetings and public records, as amended from time to time. Official actions that HNA takes must be on record or part of the minutes of the meeting in which they are taken. The minutes shall include a record of attendance and the results of any vote taken. Along with any recommendation that HNA makes, the implementing document, or minutes recording the decision, shall include a summary of dissenting views.
(b) Public Notices and Dissemination of Information.
At a minium, all Public Notices required herein shall be posted on the official HNA website, if such exits, and, where possible, shall be published in the SWNI News, or its successor publication. Further, the President shall endeavor, personally and through delegates of her/his choosing, to communicate meeting announcements, official minutes of Board and Membership meetings, and other noteworthy HNA reports and information, to the residents of the Hillsdale community through HNA email lists, appropriate social media, and blogs, and shall set up mechanisms to continually monitor the efficacy of such efforts.
Article XI Non-Discrimination.
HNA shall not discriminate against individuals or groups on the basis of race, religion, color, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, age, disability, legal citizenship, national origin, income, or political affiliation in any of its policies, recommendations or actions.
Article XII. Provisions of General Application
(a) Definitions.
(1) “Advisory Motion” means a motion heard by the Membership.
(2) “Board” means the Board of Directors of HNA.
(3) “Executive Session” means any part of a meeting of the Board which, at its sole discretion, is closed to certain persons for deliberation on certain matters, and which is not prohibited by Oregon law.
(4) “HNA” means Hillsdale Neighborhood Association.
(5) “Member” means a person who is eligible to vote on an issue before the HNA.
(6) “Membership” means the aggregate of Members in the HNA at any given time.
(7) “ONI” means the Office of Neighborhood Involvement.
(8) “ORS” means Oregon Revised Statutes.
(9) “Public Notice” means that notice which is fairly and reasonably thought to reach the Membership and the general public within the times prescribed in these bylaws.
(10) “Presiding Officer” means the person authorized to conduct a formal meeting of the Membership, Board, or a Committee of HNA.
(11) “SWNI” means Southwest Neighborhood, Inc.
Note: The Drafting Committee intends capitalized terms, used in the proper context, to be regarded as words of art defined as shown above.
(b) Computation of Time.
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All amendments to these bylaws must be proposed in writing and submitted to Members at least seven (7) days before voting on their adoption, and may be proposed by the Board or a petition signed by no less than twenty (20) percent of the HNA Membership. Adoption of an amendment to these bylaws shall require a two-thirds vote by the Members present at a meeting of the Membership. Amendments shall be effective immediately upon adoption, unless otherwise provided in their text.
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AIHA Briefs Congressional Staffers, Media on Protecting Workers from Silica Dust
On Feb. 15, AIHA briefed members of Congress, congressional staffers, reporters, and others on Capitol Hill about the dangers of respirable crystalline silica and the protections provided by OSHA’s recent final rule. AIHA CEO Larry Sloan, CAE, introduced the event’s speakers, which included AIHA Past President Daniel H. Anna, PhD, CIH, CSP, and former Assistant Secretary of Labor for OSHA David Michaels, PhD, MPH, who is also a professor in the Department of Environmental and Occupational Health at the Milken Institute School of Public Health of George Washington University.
Also addressing the briefing were three members of the U.S. House of Representatives: Joe Courtney, D-Conn., Carol Shea-Porter, D-N.H., and Darren Soto, D-Fla.
OSHA’s final rule sets a new permissible exposure limit (PEL) for respirable crystalline silica of 50 micrograms per cubic meter of air calculated as an eight-hour time-weighted average. Under the new rule, employers are required to use engineering controls to limit worker exposure to the PEL, provide respirators when engineering controls cannot adequately limit exposure, and limit worker access to high exposure areas.
The process of developing the current rule began nearly two decades ago. Rep. Courtney described the rule, which was issued last year, as “the absolute poster child of the OSHA problem.”
“Despite the fact that methods of production in America’s economy change all the time … the system to protect the people who actually have to do the work has just never kept up with it,” Rep. Courtney said.
Anna’s presentation sought to help those at the briefing understand the role of industrial hygienists and other OHS professionals in keeping workers healthy and safe on the job. He discussed the occupational hazards of silica dust, highlighting OSHA’s estimate that 2.3 million U.S. workers are exposed to respirable crystalline silica. That estimate includes approximately two million construction workers and 300,000 workers in general industry operations such as brick manufacturing, foundries, and hydraulic fracturing.
OSHA went through approximately 34,000 pages of documents, including testimony and submissions, during the rulemaking process for its silica rule.
Michaels provided further insight on the development of OSHA’s silica rule, noting that the agency went through 34,000 pages of documents, including testimony and submissions, during the rulemaking process.
“The reason [for the high volume of documents] is that the requirements to issue a standard are very high,” Michaels explained. “Everything that OSHA will require has to be economically and technologically feasible to every type of industry covered.”
OSHA estimates that, when fully effective, the new final rule will save more than 600 lives and prevent more than 900 new cases of silicosis annually. Rep. Shea-Porter called on the Trump administration and others to protect OSHA’s rule so that “those 600 people can enjoy their families and so that others don’t have to suffer.”
The event was cosponsored by the American Association of Occupational Health Nurses (AAOHN), the American College of Occupational and Environmental Medicine (ACOEM), the American Board of Industrial Hygiene (ABIH), the American Society of Safety Engineers (ASSE), and the Board of Certified Safety Professionals (BCSP). Anna noted that, collectively, AIHA and these organizations represent more than 60,000 occupational and environmental health and safety professionals.
AIHA produced a live-stream of the event via Twitter, and Twitter users joined the conversation through social media by using the hashtag #SilicaBriefing.
View AIHA's Congressional Silica Briefing (run time: 57:49)
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This is How I Rule
Nowadays I mostly use SFX! and its variants (a system of my own devising), though I do use Stars Without Number for a science fiction game with the kids, and a homebrewed version of D&D when they want to go dungeon delving. I also recently ran a one-shot of Old School Hack.
As a player I play in my friend Mac’s homebrewed D&D game, and in Russell’s homebrew he calls brew 20, as well as the SFX!-based campaigns my friends are running: Russell’s Surf City campaign using Argh!, and Dan’s Warhammer 40K campaign that recently converted to Zap!
In the past we did a bunch of Savage Worlds, D&D third edition, FUDGE, and others too numerous to mention.
This is How I Role
When it comes to sitting on the player side of the table,
I prefer games with a lot of scope for player initiative and planning. I don’t insist on Sandbox worlds, but I really dislike railroading.
I tend towards playing Mad Thinker types; even my brutes tend to have flashes of So Stupid It’s Brilliant insights. My favorite parts of the game are when the brilliant flashes of insight pan out, followed by PC interaction, then PC-NPC interaction.
The mere process of grinding through combat until a foe runs out of HP is fairly boring; adding fiddly bits to make the combat “more interesting” mostly makes it more tedious. I prefer combat to be made more interesting by giving the players scope to do stuff that doesn’t involve invoking obscure rules or counting hexes, and by making the stakes more interesting.
Adding fiddly bits that directly let the players push the story around usually annoys me as a player, though I don’t object to it as a GM, and as a player I don’t object to having input into the direction of the story as long as it happens outside of the game. It’s having story-manipulation resources that I have to track that gives me the pip.
Following Greyhawk Grognard and Big Ball of No Fun, here’s a post of my preferences in RPGs:
The rules as you play should all fit in your head, with maybe a cheat sheet or a character sheet to remind you. Having to stop and look something up in the middle of a combat is a failure; having to try to remember which book to look in for the rule is beyond the pale. I’ll make allowances for things like character generation or leveling up that are done in the downtime, but even then I’d rather not have the players passing around books, or waiting until somebody’s done with the book that has the part they need.
It is not the GM’s job to prevent the players from having too much fun. If things are going the players’ way and they’re enjoying themselves, the GM doesn’t have to suddenly throw something at them to rob them of their victory or teach them the game-world is a harsh place.
The only thing that’s important to balance is spotlight time. It simply doesn’t matter if one character can slay a dragon in a single blow while another can be taken down by an angry toddler as long as the time spent in play and importance for the character goals is balanced between dragon fighting and diplomacy or whatever the other character is good at.
Game mechanics should get out of the way as much as possible, they’re there to support role-playing. RP shouldn’t suddenly stop so you can play a miniatures skirmish game, or a card game, or a game of jenga. Play those when you’re in the mood for them, not as resolution mechanisms for the action in an RPG.
If you want to write a novel, write a novel. RPGs are games, and they have to satisfy everybody at the table. That means the GM doesn’t get to say this is my world, and your role is to admire it and provide bits of improv color while my grand narrative unfolds. By the same token, players don’t get to try to turn it into collaborative fanfic about their Mary-Sue character. If everybody has agreed that it’s a game set in a relatively realistic version of medieval Wessex, don’t try to wheedle the GM into allowing you to play a ninja, even if it would be cool.
Use dice, and let the dice fall where they may. It’s the best, most reliable way to have events happen in the game that surprise everybody; unexpected triumphs and setbacks are much more interesting than ones the GM has planned out even before the players sit down at the table. Corollary: don’t roll for anything if you’re not willing to accept a random result. If the adventure can’t proceed if they don’t find the hidden door, and having the adventure end right there isn’t acceptable, just have them find the door.
Talk about what you want. Don’t try to handle out-of-game problems and clashes of preference by tweaking in-game rules and events in the game-world.
There’s a bunch more I could say, and have in other posts, but those are pretty much the core of how I approach RPGs. They are my preferences, and I don’t expect everybody to share them. If you don’t, you’re not playing wrong, though there’s a good chance I won’t really enjoy playing the games that you like the way you like them.
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The War of the World
2006, Military and War 69 Comments
Controversial historian Professor Niall Ferguson argues that in the last century there were not in fact two World Wars and a Cold War, but a single Hundred Years' War.
It was not nationalism that powered the conflicts of the century, but empires. It was not ideologies of class or the advent of socialism driving the century, but race.
Ultimately, ethnic conflict underpinned 20th-century violence. Finally, it was not the west that triumphed as the century progressed - in fact, power slowly and steadily migrated towards the new empires of the East.
The Clash of Empires. An alternative perspective to the events of the 20th century, offering different explanations for the two world wars and the shifting balance of power as the 1900s progressed. He begins by studying the origins of World War One, arguing that the conflict sparked racial hatred which was exploited by nation states for their own ends.
A Tainted Triumph. The last years of World War Two, considering the terrible ethical compromises the Allied nations were forced to make to defeat their German and Japanese enemies, and the long-term consequences for the victors.
The Icebox. How during the Cold War, World War Three actually took place. With the US and the Soviet Union unable to engage in battle with each other directly for fear of the nuclear consequences, Third World nations ended up serving as proxies for the superpowers, causing carnage to rival World War One.
The Plan. How the US became the envy of the world in the aftermath of World War One, a state of affairs that was shattered by the Wall Street crash. He also considers the effect of the Great Depression on people’s attitudes to capitalism and democracy, and how it led to the rise of totalitarian states.
Killing Space. How the rise of the Axis powers led to a fundamental redrawing of the world map. He pinpoints 1942 as a pivotal year, and considers how the 20th century might have unfolded had World War Two ended differently, with totalitarian regimes dividing the globe between them
The Descent of the West. Controversial historian Professor Niall Ferguson concludes the series by challenging the received wisdom that the fall of the Berlin Wall represented ultimate triumph for Western values, pointing to racial conflict in the last decades of the 20th century. He also considers the possibility of a further global war in the future.
Racism: A HistoryHistory - ★7.52 A documentary which is exploring the impact of racism on a...
China vs. USA: Empires at WarPolitics - 52 min - ★7.21 Is a war between China and the United States imminent?...
Martin Luther: Reluctant RevolutionaryHistory - 55 min - ★7.35 Few if any men have changed the course of history like...
The Silk RoadsSociety - 47 min - ★7.31 As we remain isolated in the bubble of our daily lives, and...
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R.A. Dutton - 08/09/2018 at 20:49
Ferguson has always concocted theories on the basis of peculiar ideology and contrarianism versus fact. He enjoys being the odd man out and getting the resulting public attention. This does not mean that he is a good historian nor a good theorist of history.
Hedge Witch - 06/09/2016 at 05:43
I read the book twice, and was told of these documentaries on You Tube. The book left me feeling hopeless and bleak. The documentaries are a little brighter, but Fergusson himself seems almost angry throughout. I would love to talk to him.
tazmo - 01/22/2016 at 19:28
Good Ole Wall Street
Bockstensmannen - 06/25/2014 at 17:41
No no. It was a rasit war. It was aginst to defren system. Stalin was not a russien. He was what we will call a communist.
bGreenInnes - 05/25/2014 at 02:40
About to start. Fatalistic WW3 comments very discouraging, like 'bring it on'. Can environment withstand new WW ie depleted uranium ammo, etc? Many comments on banks/Fed so... did NF wish to divert our attention onto something else like a good academic lapdog? Hmm...
I've made it to the beginning of Episode 3 and while I do think it is very well done for what it does - there is absolutely NO MENTION of the bankers, their banks, and corporate entities that made it all happen.
I do find that bizarre - but it is nice to fill in the event gaps left by my censored US 1970's public education. I will watch it to the end.
Maybe Niall Ferguson's efforts were paid for by the Ford Foundation or one of those other evil family foundations...
WinstonCN - 12/25/2013 at 09:23
Pythus - 01/19/2013 at 11:57
the world, and particularly europe (for it had been the power center of the world in the most recent centuries) had been in a perpetual state of conflict for hundreds, even thousands of years. the only periods of peace had been during periods of balance in power between ethnic groups and later nations. humans have always been in conflict, and will always be in conflict. one could deduce that the relative period of peace we are currently experiencing in the world is due to pax americana and the american hegemony. this would be the view of the american neo-conservative movement. human nature and adversarial tendencies compounded upon economic interdependence will make the 21st century very interesting.
mark enriquez - 11/05/2012 at 12:21
this seems like such a "no **** Sherlock" thesis...i would postulate that ALL wars, going back to homo sapian extincting the Neanderthals, have a race component to them. its totally natural that humans distrust other races...we have been at war with each other for 4000 years!!
manfruss - 10/29/2012 at 22:46
The world has not known peace. We've lived with thousands of years of continuous warfare. Even action today in Afghanistan and Iraq/Iran are merely a continuation of old ideologies. If we want a world of peace, we must move forward, and not cling the the habits and thinking of the past.
Jose Davila - 09/03/2012 at 01:09
There was a tango call "Cambalache" (the translation would be: mess), and describes how the XX century: a cambalache. "If you don't cry, you don't suckle"
Paul Krugman - 08/25/2012 at 22:28
ferguson is a cheat
batvette - 08/18/2012 at 19:21
This concept that the 20th century was an anomaly of violence is absurd, it ignores Napolean's conquests, the Crimean Wars, the US Civil, Indian and Spanish wars and many others of the 19th century. It ignores 21st century events like the Russian conflict in Chechnya, the US Wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Anything can be focused on and singled out if we need to magnify it to prove a point. Look at the way US soldiers were portrayed at Abu Grahib to make them look brutal, ignoring the realities of the way Saddam ran the same facility.
I'm sure one could vilify a bunny rabbit's treatment of a clump of grass as brutal and sadistic if one wanted to forget about the wolf who came along later and ate the rabbit- or someone shooting the wolf and skinning it for a trophy for their wall. Or that hunter dying a painful, protracted death by cancer that ravages their body, suffering far more and longer than the wolf or rabbit ever did.
The point to all this is the existence of everything- be it humans, animals, even plants- is full of adversity. Without pain we don't know pleasure, without hate we don't know love, without hunger we don't know being full.
If man ever ends his desire to wage war, to argue, to prove who is best, he will no longer be human at all.
Mankind's greatest technological leaps also come as a result of those desperate times when self preservation is his motivation, as well some of the greatest artistic works also are born.
This is not to say we should embrace or encourage war, but stoically accept it for what it is, and not pretend we could eliminate it, just because we were born and we wish it to be now that we are alive. War existed in every single one of hundreds of generations of man, how silly are we to think ours might be different?
C H - 09/11/2012 at 15:04
Yea. Just like slavery, right?
Steven Schroeder - 07/07/2012 at 05:35
So apparently "Money Changers" is just code for Jews it seems. Wow. The comments here are riff with references of so-called Money Changers.
Glen Hale - 06/15/2012 at 14:27
Sad The Allies did not keep going and take out Russia but then again USA would have found some one else to attack like they have been doing for the last 70yrs. Much to the joy of the Federal Reserve Bank so the banks can keep making money.
yazantak - 04/17/2012 at 17:20
completely disregarded the presence of Muslims and the effect of the wars on the middle east until today!
David - 04/09/2012 at 09:45
We are all, as Jesus said, brothers. The Human Genome Project proves this. 200,000 years ago the human race almost died out. We were reduced to nearly 2,000 members. How can we not realize this in light of modern (21st century) knowledge?
i think it was 50,000 years ago..right after a large meteor hit the indian ocean...many think this event is the reason so many cultures have a flood-myth...
DirtyDenis - 01/02/2013 at 04:21
The genetic bottleneck David refers to is a period, as revealed by analysis of mitochondrial DNA, when the global population of homo sapiens was reduced to fewer than a thousand breeding couples.
The generally accepted theory is that this was caused by the eruption of the Mount Toba supervolcano on Sumatra in Indonesia 74,000 years ago which produced a prolonged severe seismic winter. Layers of ash fall up to 5 metres thick have been located as far away as India.
This has given rise to arguments for two waves of migration 'out of Africa', homo erectus by at least 200.000 years ago followed by homo sapiens at about the time of Mt Toba.
This also raises the question of regional evolution which some paleo-anthropologists suggest may help explain the many different hominid species, a number of which actually co-existed with homo sapiens.
Epidode 5: Fighting Dirty. Yes we did. Many people disappeared. Mayan genocide happened. But the United States was not the main perpetrator in this genocide. The governments of Guatemala and Mexico had their own reasons for removing the Native Maya population. The Maya people were caught between modernization (land) and development (more land) and were once again defeated by their spanish conquerors. If you think this is American Propaganda, ask the Maya. They will tell you exactly what is going on, and the oppression of the Espanol.
And he's wrong. The atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki were not a dereliction of morality. The casuality count for American troops estimated in a coventional invasion were 300,000. The casuality for Japanese (they were arming and training schoolgirls with bamboo staffs) was estimated at more than 1 million. It was most certainly a victory: We rid the world of the Bushido Code. Having been Truman, which would you have chosen?
So any brutality is justified as long as the numbers add up?
Micah Dufresne - 10/12/2013 at 18:10
The point of the atomic bomb however was not to spare a full inavsion of japan but instead to end the war before the advancing russian army did. As far as the japaese were concern the atomic bomb just destroyed a city as did so many other fire bombings. The massive russian army however was tearing through manchuria and on its way to japan.
You youngsters, are any of you even approaching 60?, don't know what the world was like then. Don't know what it's like to fear for your way of life, your life itself, the life of your mother, your father/wife/children. I have sworn, SWORN that if you do not agree with me I will come into your house and KILL you and your entire family with the LAW to back me up. Are you beginning to understand?
Hodd - 06/30/2012 at 22:49
At what age does dementia usually start setting in?
We who lived through the twentieth century know the meaning of FEAR. Stalin, Hitler, Yamamoto, Hirohito, Mussolini, people who want to come into your living-room with bayonnets and force you to live according their Fuerher, Emperor, Duce, whatever. The fall of the Soviet Union. You are all so spoiled with complacent peace I guess we won. God help your complacency at home. You WILL have to live with it.
ButteredBread - 01/06/2012 at 05:04
lol ummm anyone else see the alien face on the guys face just above the neck at 1:35 - 1:40? Kinda creepy that it comes right at the time the narrator says "they were not martians, they were human beings".
adilrye - 09/03/2011 at 05:39
Just a quick re-review, having watched all six of the episodes. I know his theme is racial conflict explains the 20th century...but the docs don't really play out that way. It seems to be an afterthought. In fact, this just seems to be looking at the 20th century with a different lens and challenging Western commonly held notions about it. For example, WW II as good vs. evil, the fall of the USSR as being a result of American defense policy, the "end of history" idea. He inserts race as a basis...but it really isn't that way. In fact, in episode 5, he basically makes two mentions of that idea.
Still, it's a fine documentary and very worthy of the long time it takes to watch. An interesting recap of the century.
Stevo Macg - 09/02/2011 at 12:07
Episode 3 and 4 seem to work ok in the UK...
Simple Simon says - 09/01/2011 at 10:38
Tells me that channel 4 wont let me watch it, ok I will spend a week boycotting channel 4, I will do that every time I see that message.
GoughLewis - 09/01/2011 at 08:20
Lazy documentary. Not historically accurate. Missing the geo political grand chess game that was going on by global power elites. I agree with the point of the documentary that there is racist, eugenics, xenophobia in play in the world...but it is to simple an analysis as the progenitor for global control.
For illumination of the geo politics read "Tragedy and Hope: A History of the World in Our Time" By Carroll Quigley. Excerpt below:
""...[T]he powers of financial capitalism had another far-reaching aim, nothing less than to create a world system of financial control in private hands able to dominate the political system of each country and the economy of the world as a whole. This system was to be controlled in a feudalist fashion by the central banks of the world acting in concert by secret agreements arrived at in frequent private meetings and conferences. The apex of the system was to be the Bank for International Settlements in Basle,Switzerland, a private bank owned and controlled by the world's central banks which were themselves private corporations...."
The private money masters from the Rothschild and Morgan lineage control England and the U.S. through their privately held central banks (Bank of England & The Federal Reserve). New York Wall Street Morgan banks (agents of the Rothschild banking family) financed the Communist Revolution for example. The motive is power, money, resources, control of currency. "Race" is the simplistic analysis put forward in this series that motivates global power plays, which is not really accurate. Money does not care what race you are.
Ok AGahool, I updated my comment. My Avatar Eye kind of looks Illuminati... yeah, I see what you mean.
AGahool - 09/01/2011 at 13:27
Okay, thanks for sharing,
PaulBraveheart - 09/07/2011 at 19:58
Well said! Could not have said it better!
bluetortilla - 08/31/2011 at 15:48
DARN DARN DARN! It's no longer embedded. I think the rise of the digital imperialists should be included in this doc. I really hate YouTube! They just keep getting worse and worse. More and more villainous!
Also, I'd like to point that property has been an extremely alien concept to many societies throughout history. The absurd notion that someone has 'intellectual' or 'copyright' property is just as unintelligible to me. Do we really have to line the pockets of others just to share information?
The control of information is a dangerous and extremely oppressive tool. That's why the notion of legislating Freedom of Speech was enacted in the first place. Thought is free. Anyone who tells you different is a liar.
As for the 20th Century, very sad, very sad indeed.
You really don't believe people have ownership of ideas? If you come up with something, it should be allowed to be stolen from you in the name of egalitarianism?
Exactly. I do not prescribe to that 'belief.'
Intellectual property is a very recent 'idea' and was not a even a phrase until the 20th C.
In the name of egalitarianism? I'm not sure what you mean by doing something "in the name of" something else. Sounds very leagalistic. Why not just 'be' egaltarian and act accordingly? Ideals often seem to be things we know to be right yet end up being plattitudes to defend our selfishness. I'm sure that deep down what we all want in common is harmony, and that fighting 'for what's mine' hasn't worked out well for us. Give what you're good at, benefit others, and graciously accept what's offered to you. The fallen fruits are free.
Greed abhors me, and greed is why you can't watch this on TopDocs and instead are forced to watch it on the growing ever greedier Google's YouTube.
Yeah, but what does that mean if you put time and money into an idea, you work hard to bring it to fruition, yet it's okay for someone to go and steal it? That's not fair to the person that worked hard to create something. Why is it wrong to have ownership of something YOU or YOUR ORGANIZATION created? And then, what's the point of creating something if you will never benefit? It doesn't only take goodwill and spirit to make something, it takes money and resources.
And so what if it's a 20th century idea? What does that even mean? Does that discredit it or make it less important? As our landscape has gotten more complex, so have ideas.
RileyRampant - 08/31/2011 at 13:00
he's got a pretty solid thesis, since the events of history bear it out.
ethnic / tribal / imperial conflict has steadily eaten away at security, especially for any country outside of europe, north america and the UK which
has:
an, in any way unsettled, political situation
absolutely no mention of israel, that i noticed. also, his treatment of reagan as a mere partner of thatcher was cute.
but in the main, looked to me like solid history. we can say that race isnt real, doesnt matter - but then, what is that thing we keep tripping over, eh?
dont be weak in this world. you will get jobbed.
There are many different ways to look at the 20th century and explain why it was so violent. It could be a clash of ideologies, a power vacuum left open by the fall of the British Empire...he just chooses to look at race and racism as the dominant factor. It is a pretty solid thesis.
Pauline Carr - 08/29/2011 at 04:20
Yes, utterly pathetic that you cant get to see it in the UK.
Not impressed.
PavolvsBitch - 08/29/2011 at 00:50
I was 'denied access' to this film as I live in England and apparantly, this infringes copyrite laws as it contains footage from C4 or BBC. This excuse is being used to block so much content from the inhabitants of the country in which it was made. Censorship.
Maciej - 08/27/2011 at 01:33
I really liked this doc. Especially that it focused on the concept of alienating ppl and killing those 'aliens'. Once I thought it was a fashion of its times but it reoccures all the time in different places.
Also it delivered plenty of facts I didn'n tknow before in one timeline.
One can get to the conclusion that since ruling class received ways to communicate between themselvs (like telegraph and phone) and means of transporting soldiers/civilians (rail) they wanted to try it out. Just like boys with new toys.
Joey Foo - 08/26/2011 at 20:26
Hey Vlatko,
i m just curious, whats with your name! Vlad III the Impaler ?
i hope its the Vlad III the Impaler of lies and deceits !
Joey ... probably you will never grasp the whole stupidity of your questions.
Nwttp - 08/27/2011 at 21:17
Uuuh what? If something has to be up with it, it should be, "Vlat - knock outer of illogic"
...wow. You guys don't understand?
Vlad the IMPALER of lies and deceits. As he IMPALES (i.e. kills) lies and deceit?
It's a compliment. Duh.
Yep, my bad. Dont know this language much.
Good to know I can get help from a Hitler of English language like you.
(and yes... thats a compliment too ;D)
You scared a few with your Dracula!...lol
Kyle Worlitz - 08/26/2011 at 18:55
Interesting ideas, but his delivery style was distracting in its flamboyance.
well It takes awhile to watch, but it's quite startling. I see the modern societal blueprint in this account of history.
well researched and a fine doc. jmo
Very worth the time.
Love him or hate him, Niall Ferguson makes some pretty interesting documentaries. This is a pretty epic one...
I've always found the 20th century to be the ultimate paradox. Consider the world in 1900 and the world in 2000. In 100 years we changed (and this time, I truly mean we as a world) so much, in every aspect from advancements in science and technology to major social, political and economic changes. It is truly the most important century in human history. It was a century of progress and achievement.
Yet, at the exact same time, it was the single most brutal century of human history as well. Wars, genocides, totalitarianism, nuclear weapons, terrorism, famine, colonialism...
Our most amazing century is also the most brutal and violent. Kinda sums up the human story, doesn't it?
we bask in the progress, and avert ourselves from the carnage. many millions have died in my own lifetime.
it aint right. to the extent our governments are implicated in it and we benefit, we aint right, either.
Justin_Funski - 08/26/2011 at 00:45
This doc makes some very sweeping generalizations which don't hold up and could be considered deceptive.
MESSENGER - 08/26/2011 at 02:57
I find your opinion absolutely amazing. After World War 2, Winston Churchill called World Wars 1 and 2, "The Second Thirty Years War." Have you heard of the Thirty Years War? Are you fairly knowledgeable about the 1st Hundred Years War? Do you know much about history? You are living in the history that students will be studying 50-100 years from now, if there is anyone left to study anything. What we do now to control the greed of The Money Masters will determine if there is anyone left alive in 50-100 years. But of course, I'm just making sweeping generalizations that don't hold up and could be considered deceptive.
Mistah Kurtz he dead
A penny for the old guy . . .
We are the hollow men
This is the way the world ends
Not with a bang but a whimper.
--- T.S. Eliot
Yeah, the whole "New Hundred Years War" or "European Civil War" idea has been bounced around a lot. It's nothing radically new.
noahracheljohnson - 08/26/2011 at 06:57
I became a T.S. Elliot fan way too young by reading 'The Stand' way too young. Has nothing to do with the doc, but the poem brings back fond memories I didn't -and perhaps do not still- understand...
fonbindelhofas - 08/26/2011 at 10:27
I found some stuff what i do not believe in here 2, generaly i agree with most things author speaks of but... Was it racial hate the driving force? imo it was just a machine to drive masses to war, Who created those reasons? The key individuals and financial groups who still rule today... Non speaks of them. Who made profits from all of this? The principal of power is power.
And finaly the history books are worthless peaces of toilet paper, writen for dumb western consumer, he do not need (or willing) to know the history so he can continue to make the same horrors for his pupet masters.
Monk - 08/28/2011 at 16:19
Your 'Heart of Darkness'/'Apocalypse Now' perspective/ analogy works well!!
Besides a few minour, but intentional mitakes, I agree with most of it. Also being British he down graded the roles of Britania in the wars.
But most importantly, It is now a common knowledge amoung most people that the polititions and the heads of states are pupets to their Money Changer Masters. And yet there is no mentioning of them. Its like he wants to cheat us to believe that the regular people are flawed and hatered is the main reason.
These Money Changers (banker Families) have been behind every war, revolution, assasination and genocide, and for the past 3 hundred years or so. And, as long as these families are alive and manipulating the world freely and safely, there will be no peace and tolerance on Earth. We need to come together informe each other and un-root these evil remains.
I recommend every one to watch" The Money Masters " (1996), if you have not seen it already. It will sweep you off your feet.
I'm a Brit, but never in the Elite...which is why I find it easier to see the same attitude of arrogance, with Britain and all Empire Builders....
Some of the most caustic criticisms toward the States these days are from Citizens... of that very country.
@oddsr, Thanks for your reply,
As I am growing older, I more and more appreciate the people of Britain and all other nationalities. We all are in this together. Even our good leaders are on our side, at first, until the Money Changers either intimidad them or bribe them or Assasinate them. Just who the he11 think they are? they are just a bounch of cowerd parasites who need to be pestesised. They change their family names to hide themselves. But anybody could find them, if look for them.
But the truth is that People in the western countries have had a good life up until the past couple of decades. Now, the Money Changers are even greedier and they do not even care for their own people. The rest of the world however, has been suffering from these corrupted Money Changers for a very very long time.
I am glad that The Westerners are standing up for their rights. But I fear that they are going to have some very tough times ahead of them. I mean that there will be more violance in Europe and the USA. But we need to focus and do our best. After all no pain no gain.
I am English and my forefathers were duped into becoming cannon fodder for the rich and wealthy who have never been brought to book for the genocide they initiated during any and all wars which they created for control, for greed and power. Rothschild being but one criminal amongst many!!
SaintNarcissus - 08/25/2011 at 16:54
embedding disabled...
Vlatko - 08/25/2011 at 18:10
Yeah... bummer. Click "Watch on YouTube".
jurica - 09/04/2011 at 17:04
tried but problems - boycott ch 4!
I must admit though I spent most of the time watching shaking my head so much so my neck hurts -
and yet the killing and atrocities continue
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Founder/CEO: Debbie Johnson
A healthcare professional with over 20 years of experience in both clinical care and healthcare management experience, Debbie was once homeless herself. She is recognized for her ability to work with very diverse clients and staff, and for outstanding skills in assessing needs, recommending sensible solutions and effectively managing and motivating staff to implement quality care in a spirit of collaboration. Ms. Johnson possesses a Bachelor’s Degree in Science and is currently studying for a Master’s Degree in Public Health and Social Work. She has received numerous awards since establishing TLCC.
Executive Assistant/Navigator: Jackie White
Instructor/Navigator: Charles King
Chief Development Director: Karen Meizner
Tommie Bedford, President
Tommie has a Bachelor of Science Degree in Home Economics from Prairie View A & M University,Prairie View, Texas. She is a widow with two children and four grandchildren. She was a Substitute Teacher in Albuquerque Public School for three years and Home Economics / Culinary Arts Teacher at Albuquerque Job Corps for nine years. Currently involved in Church and Grandchildren’s activities, she loves to travel, sew, quilt and make crafts. Tommie is currently the nursery coordinator and new comer welcome baskets overseer at her church and a volunteer instructor at TenderLove
Josh E. Eden
is an Attorney with his own law firm specializing in personal injury cases including vehicle accident, insurance bad faith, Social Security disability, medical malpractice, real estate litigation and workers’ compensation. He received his BA and his JD from UNM. He previously served on the board of Wesley Kids’, a nonprofit entity providing daycare services to all income level families, and has volunteer for for Habitat for Humanity, Roadrunner Food Bank, Samaritan Counseling Services and Joy Junction.
Anthony Onimole, Treasurer
Tony came to the U.S. in 1977 to study Petroleum Engineering at NM Institute of Mining and Technology, earing a Bachelor’s in Engineering in 1982. After many years in Petroleum Engineering, Tony found fulfillment teaching math to at risk youth, first as an instructor at YDDC, then at RFK Charter School, and since 2006, teaching Intermediate Algebra as a remedial education instructor at CNM.
“I played ping pong, soccer, tennis, and field hockey before I became the Sports prefect in my senior year in high school in 1973. This was when I started to learn about Christianity. I have had the opportunity to travel to Puerto Rico, Bolivia, and Mexico to represent Nigeria in World Racquetball Championships between 1998 thru 2002. I have been active within my church community since 1990. I am currently active in the Ushers, Marriage, Men, and Prison ministries.” He has been married for 35 years, and has a son and a daughter.
Lily Stafford
Owner/Operator of an assisted living facility in Albuquerque, NM. Ms. Starford has a degree in Business Management, has been a health care professional for more than 15 years. Lily’s invaluable support and advice was essential for TenderLove to open for its first program year in 2013. She continues to be an essential part of TenderLove.
Adesola Adedokun, MD
Dr. Adedokun is one of the three founders of TenderLove, giving generous spiritual and financial support. Specializing in Family Medicine, he attended Obafemi Awolowo University Ile-Ife Nigeria obtaining an M.B.Ch.B. (M.D.) degree in 2004. He currently studying to be certified in the U.S.
Board Meetings are held quarterly and are open to the public.
Please contact TenderLove Community Center for date, time and location of next board meeting.
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Howards End First Look: Hayley Atwell Goes Full-On Costume Drama for Starz
By Dave Nemetz / May 4 2017, 2:00 PM PDT
Courtesy of Starz
She traveled back to the 1940s for Agent Carter; now Hayley Atwell is going back even further in time.
Starz has released the first photo from its miniseries adaptation of the classic E.M. Forster novel Howards End, set in circa-1900 England and starring Atwell as headstrong young woman Margaret Schlegel. (Emma Thompson won an Oscar for playing Margaret in the 1992 film version of Howards End.) And just like Agent Carter‘s Peggy, Margaret seems to have a fondness for hats.
Atwell is joined in the photo by Ripper Street alum Matthew Macfadyen, co-starring as conservative businessman Henry Wilcox, who courts Margaret after his wife Ruth (Julia Ormond) dies suddenly. They’re dining at the landmark Simpson’s-in-the-Strand restaurant in London, which is a great shooting location for period dramas: It opened back in 1828.
The Howards End cast also includes Tracey Ullman (as Aunt Juley), Philippa Coulthard (as Margaret’s sister Helen) and Joseph Quinn (as bank clerk Leonard Bast). Oscar-winning screenwriter Kenneth Lonergan (Manchester by the Sea) is penning the miniseries, with Doctor Who veteran Hettie Macdonald on board to direct. The four-hour miniseries is slated to air in 2018.
TAGS: Hayley Atwell, Howards End, Starz
GET MORE: First Look
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Lisa Bhungalia
Research & Teaching
I joined the Department of Geography at Ohio State University as a SBS Postdoctoral Fellow in the fall of 2014. I am coming to OSU from Syracuse University where I received my PhD in Geography in December 2013. I was also a Postdoctoral Faculty Fellow in the Humanities at Syracuse University during the 2013-14 academic year.
My research explores the relationship between national securitization, liberal warfare, and transnational linkages and encounters between the U.S. and the North Africa/Middle East region. My current book project, “From the American People:” Aid, Counterinsurgency, and the U.S. Security State in Palestine, details the operation of the U.S. security state in the West Bank and Gaza Strip through a civilian regime of aid workers, non-governmental organizations, development and private contractors, local entrepreneurs, and foreign experts. Drawing on fifteen months of ethnographic research in the Palestinian territories, I examine how counterterrorism and counterinsurgency strategies are being mobilized through the networks of aid governance. My next project, A Global Geography of U.S. Terrorism Law, examines the deepening entanglements of terrorism law and global assemblages of war and policing.
I have designed and taught both upper and lower-level undergraduate courses in geography and in the humanities. At Syracuse University, I taught an undergraduate course on borders, mobility, and global change, and a second on historical and contemporary encounters between the U.S. and the Middle East. I have also taught an upper-division undergraduate course, Geographies of the Middle East, which serves as an introduction to contemporary trends in the political geography of the modern Middle East.
Interview with Walaa Alqaisiya and Lisa Bhungalia by Mat Coleman and Mary Thomas @ the Society and Space open site
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Nikky Finney
Nikky Finney was born on August 26, 1957. She is an award-winning American poet, respected academic, and social justice and cultural preservation advocate. In a 2011 interview with “Poets and Writers” magazine, Finney declared, “I’m trying to have a conversation about truth.” Finney has long encouraged other lesbian poets to write, publish, and read their work.
Born Lynn Carol Finney in Conway, South Carolina, she is one of three children, and the only daughter of Ernest A. Finney, Jr., a respected attorney and retired chief justice for the state of South Carolina. Ernest Finney served as head legal counsel for the Friendship 9, a group of Black junior college students arrested and charged when trying to desegregate McCrory’s lunch counter in Rock Hill, South Carolina. Her mother, Frances Davenport Finney, was an elementary school teacher. Both of Nikky Finney’s brothers are attorneys in South Carolina.
Nikky Finney was educated in both the Catholic and South Carolina public school systems during the era of desegregation. She was very close to her maternal grandmother, Beulah Lenorah Butler Davenport, and felt connected to the nearby South Carolina sea. Finney immersed herself in books and writing poetry, acquiring the nickname “Nikky” after poet Nikki Giovanni, who would later become a friend and mentor. Finney graduated from Sumter High School in 1975, and went on to attend Talladega College, an historically black college in Alabama, where she was mentored by renowned poet and essayist Dr. Gloria Wade Gayles.
After graduating in 1979, Finney turned to photography and documenting Black contributions to creativity and culture in the United States. She matriculated at Atlanta University, working in the African American Studies department, and joined the Pamoja Writing Collective community writing workshop. She also immersed herself in the poetry and visual arts of the Black Arts Movement. After abandoning graduate studies due to limited opportunities, Finney returned to working in photography in Talladega. She joined the staff at the National Black Women’s Health Project, and traveled to Nairobi, Kenya, for the United Nations conference, “End of the Decade of Women,” in 1985.
Finney’s first book of poems, “On Wings Made of Gauze,” was published by William Morrow in 1985. She relocated to Northern California, where she continued her work as a poet and became involved in progressive causes. From 1989-1990, Finney was a visiting writer in the English department at the University of Kentucky, and was eventually offered a permanent position on the faculty. She would remain there for more than two decades, becoming a Provost’s Distinguished Service Professor of English.
Her second book of poetry, “Rice,” was published in 1995 by Canadian publisher SisterVisions, and received a PEN American Open Book Award in 1997. Finney’s story cycle, “Heartwood,” geared toward literacy students, was published in 1998 by the University Press of Kentucky. She took a temporary leave from the University of Kentucky in 1999 to hold the Goode Chair in the Humanities at Berea College, the first interracial and coeducational college in the American South.
Finney’s third book of poetry, “The World is Round,” was released in 2003, and was honored with the Benjamin Franklin Award for Poetry. In 2007, she became interim director of the African American Studies and Research Program at the University of Kentucky. That same year, “The Ringing Ear: Black Poets Lean South,” was published by the University of Georgia Press under the auspices of Cave Canem, an organization that fosters opportunities for African American poets. The collection, which was edited and introduced by Finney, highlighted the work of one hundred African American poets who are from or wrote about the South. From 2007-2009, Finney served as the Grace Hazard Conkling Writer-in-Residence at Smith College in Northampton, Massachusetts.
“Head Off & Split,” Finney’s fourth book of poems, was published in 2011, and was honored that year as the winner of the National Book Award for Poetry. Her acceptance speech at the awards ceremony, touching on race, reading, and writing, was so extraordinary that host John Lithgow called it “the best acceptance speech for anything that I’ve ever heard in my life.” “Head Off & Split” was also selected as the 2015-2016 First Year Book by the University of Maryland, College Park, providing students the chance to discuss issues using a common text. The University of Maryland also commissioned her work, “The Battle of and for the Black Face Boy,” which, in 2015, became the first feature-length poem to be published in the “Oxford American.”
In addition to traveling, and writing for journals, magazines, and other publications, Finney holds the John H. Bennett, Jr., Chair in Creative Writing and Southern Letters at the University of South Carolina in Columbia. She returned to her beloved home state in 2013 after teaching creative writing at the University of Kentucky for more than twenty years. Finney wrote in an open letter to her readers, “The University of South Carolina, graciously, made me an offer I could not refuse.”
Finney is a founding member of the Affrilachian Poets, a writing collective based in Lexington, Kentucky, and served on the faculty and is an honorary director of the Cave Canem Foundation, which she called “the major watering hole and air pocket for black poetry.”
We thank Nikky Finney for her impactful poetry, her lifelong commitment to teaching, and for her many contributions to our community.
by Ubuntu Biography Project on August 26, 2017
Categories: All, August, August 26, Finney, Nikky • Tags: 1957, August 26, Nikky Finney, Ubuntu Biography Project
← Chris Dickerson
Kylar William Broadus →
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June 21, 2019 / 7:38 AM / a month ago
U.S., Japan may need more tools to shore up banking system: Fed's Rosengren
FILE PHOTO - The Federal Reserve Bank of Boston's President and CEO Eric S. Rosengren speaks during the "Hyman P. Minsky Conference on the State of the U.S. and World Economies", in New York, April 17, 2013. REUTERS/Keith Bedford
(Reuters) - The United States and Japan may need to shore up bank oversight to prepare for economic downturns, the head of the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston warned on Friday.
Eric Rosengren, president of the Boston Fed, said in a speech that policymakers in the two major economies should consider whether regulators need more tools, including requiring banks to hold more capital now, to counteract economic risks.
“Japan, like the United States, might benefit from considering an expanded set of macroprudential tools to enhance the financial system’s resilience,” Rosengren said in remarks prepared for delivery at a conference in Eltville, Germany.
Rosengren, who is voting member of the Fed this year on U.S. interest rates, did not discuss his monetary policy outlook in the speech. The Fed on Wednesday signaled that rate cuts could begin as early as July in response to growing economic risks, rising U.S. trade tensions and tepid inflation. The Fed has cited high levels of U.S. corporate debt among major risks to the economy today.
Rosengren’s speech focused largely on lessons from the late-1990s financial crisis in East Asia and what he sees as weaknesses in Japan’s financial system today. The speech also pointed to the role that central banks’ powers beyond setting rates, including overseeing banks, may play in the next downturn. Policymakers could have lessened the impact of prior financial crises by “stress testing” banks and requiring them to hold extra cash, Rosengren said.
“Despite the passage of time and adoption of better policies, one could argue that the Japanese banking system is now, once again, being threatened by adverse economic conditions,” said Rosengren, who was at the Boston Fed when the 2008 global financial crisis shook the economy.
“A shrinking population, aging demographics, and very low interest rates provide very little room for Japanese banks to operate profitably. This of course provides an incentive to reach for yield, potentially implying additional risk-taking.”
While Rosengren endorsed requiring banks to keep extra capital cushions during good times, the Fed itself has shied away from requiring banks to do so, keeping its “Countercyclical Capital Buffer” requirement for banks at 0%. Rosengren does not have a vote on those capital requirements.
The Fed is due to report later on Friday some results from its own annual “stress tests” of banks’ ability to weather a major downturn.
Reporting by Trevor Hunnicutt; Editing by Leslie Adler
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Spider-Man | Rise Of Electro | International Trailer
New International Trailer For The Amazing Spider-Man 2 Focusses On Electro.
Sony pictures have dropped a new trailer for The Amazing Spider-Man 2. Focussing mainly on the film’s main antagonist Electro we also get a brief glimpse of The Green Goblin.
The Amazing Spider-Man 2 is in cinemas from early May.
We’ve always known that Spider-Man’s most important battle has been within himself: the struggle between the ordinary obligations of Peter Parker and the extraordinary responsibilities of Spider-Man. But in The Amazing Spider-Man 2, Peter Parker finds that a greater conflict lies ahead. It’s great to be Spider-Man (Andrew Garfield). For Peter Parker, there’s no feeling quite like swinging between skyscrapers, embracing being the hero, and spending time with Gwen (Emma Stone). But being Spider-Man comes at a price: only Spider-Man can protect his fellow New Yorkers from the formidable villains that threaten the city. With the emergence of Electro (Jamie Foxx), Peter must confront a foe far more powerful than he. And as his old friend, Harry Osborn (Dane DeHaan), returns, Peter comes to realize that all of his enemies have one thing in common: OsCorp.
RELATED | Fantasy Epic, His Dark Materials, Comes To Television
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Sting's classical effect: The former Police front man is touring with the Royal Philharmonic Concert Orchestra. Unlike his former band's reunion tour, he is enjoying himself... reports The Los Angeles Times
Sting's classical effect...
The former Police front man is touring with the Royal Philharmonic Concert Orchestra. Unlike his former band's reunion tour, he is enjoying himself.
Reporting from New York - As the afternoon sun poured through the living room window of his grand apartment overlooking Central Park, Sting was calmly reflecting on his trying reunion with the Police, and anticipating, with genuine excitement, his current tour with the Royal Philharmonic Concert Orchestra, performing imaginative new versions of his solo and Police hits.
Sitting on a stately sofa with his back to the window, shadowed by the park's round green elm trees, the 58-year-old musician was the picture of the artist in repose. If Sting could appear glib when he was younger, he came across on this late April day, looking fit as an athlete, in gray running pants and V-neck white T-shirt, as genial and likable. Not that his yoga mellowness has drained him of strong opinions.
During his darkest hours on the road in 2007 and 2008 with Police mates Stewart Copeland and Andy Summers, Sting admitted he felt sick. "It was like going back to a dysfunctional marriage," he said. "Before the tour I asked myself, 'What should I do next? What would surprise people? What would surprise me?' One voice said, 'The biggest surprise you could throw right now is to re-form the Police.' Then another voice goes, 'No, no, don't do it!' "
What sickened him about the tour? "It was an exercise in nostalgia," he said. "And I'm not a terribly nostalgic person. It just seemed like an asset that needed to be realized. I have no regrets at all. But it was difficult. It was not a marriage made in heaven." According to Forbes, the tour allowed Sting and band mates to realize a net asset of 5 million.
It may seem like a contradiction, then, that Sting is mining his past songs for his current tour, which began last week in Vancouver, Canada, and continues next week at the Hollywood Bowl and Verizon Wireless Amphitheater in Irvine.
But that's not how he sees it. Playing 'King of Pain', for instance, with an orchestra, liberates the song from its Police incarnation.
"The song becomes new," he said. "Of course, writing new songs would be nice. But the old songs need to be kept alive, need to be regenerated, with new life blown into them. With an orchestra, a pallet that large, you can literally re-create everything. The whole of my 120 songs, or however many songs I've written, seems available. I'm intrigued to hear them all this way."
Watching Sting rehearse is a reminder of what a fine musician he is. In April in a New York studio, he bopped around on a stool and offered musical cues to dynamic New York-bred conductor Steven Mercurio and a contingent of classical players, many of whom performed with the Metropolitan Opera and New York Philharmonic.
Previously Sting had sent his songs to a host of arrangers, granting them creative carte blanche to reanimate the melodies, harmonies and beats with the strings, woodwinds and brass instruments of the orchestra. Once Sting was satisfied with each of the arrangements, which were worked out in rehearsal with the New York musicians, the final scores would be issued to London's Royal Philharmonic, which Mercurio is conducting on tour.
Just now the New York players were running through 'Russians' from Sting's first solo album, 'The Dream of the Blue Turtles'. Sting sang softly - a long day of rehearsal and an allergy had taken a toll on his voice - and accompanying singer, Jo Lawry, an Australian with a warm and alluring tone, carried the lyrics with wit and passion.
Mercurio had the idea to preface Vince Mendoza's stirring arrangement with the clamorous coronation scene from Mussorgsky's 'Boris Godunov', which granted the song a wonderfully ominous Russian setting. Which was fitting, as Sting originally crafted the song on a theme from Prokofiev's 'Lieutenant Kije Suite'.
Sting sipped tea at the song's conclusion. "Can you hold the last two notes on the trumpet?" he asked the horn player. Sting sang the notes with sustain. "It's much more lyrical that way."
Later the orchestra ran through a radical version of 'Moon Over Bourbon Street', the New Orleans jazz-flavored ballad from 'The Dream of the Blue Turtles'. Nicola Tescari, a fascinating composer from Italy, originally arranged the song for piano and voice for wondrous keyboard player Katia Labeque. (In one of his most piercing vocal performances, Sting sings the spare version on Labeque's album, 'Shape of My Heart'.)
For orchestra, Tescari remade the song as a Kurt Weill dirge, punctuated by a woozy Day of the Dead marching band. Sting clearly enjoyed singing the new arrangement and ended with a long wolf howl. Some of the orchestra members applauded.
Still, said Mercurio, the song "needs to be more 'horror movie.'" "Can we get a thunder machine?" Sting asked. "Perfect," said Mercurio. A thunder machine is a long sheet of metal that when shook makes the sound of spooky thunder.
During a rehearsal break, Mercurio said he canceled his summer performances of 'Rigoletto' with Rome's Teatro L'Opera. "Conduct with Sting? It was such a rare chance that I couldn't pass it up," he said. Mercurio has conducted many of the world's best orchestras and recorded with Andrea Bocelli and Chick Corea. The key to the Sting concerts, he explained, was ensuring "the orchestra is not just humming along in neutral, playing whole notes behind pop tunes."
Just then music supervisor Rob Mathes, who had been noting the score changes, and who arranged Police rockers like 'Next to You' for the tour, joined the conversation. "Whenever there's something in the charts that's cheesy, Steven looks at me and goes, 'That's a little Velveeta.' "Mercurio laughed. "But we're editing all that frilly stuff out," Mathes said. "We don't want to sound like a Pops concert."
Back in his apartment, Sting said he conceived this tour, called 'Symphonicity', after feeling inspired by performing a set of his songs with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra in 2009. The orchestra had invited him to perform a private concert for its corporate benefactors. Two major donors, billionaire hedge-fund managers, had requested Sting.
Sting has been a fan of classical music since he first started playing rock and jazz in his hometown of Newcastle, England, in the '70s. In part, he explained, he recorded 2006's 'Songs From the Labyrinth', a collection of ballads by Elizabethan lutenist John Dowland, and 2009's 'If on a Winter's Night', a set of beautifully played carols and reconfigured tunes by Bach and Schubert, to honor his native land and musical ancestry.
But, he offered with a touch of humility about his current project, "We're not doing here classical music here. We're making orchestral music out of pop music. And that's a different thing." A studio recording of 'Symphonicity' will be released this July.
Still, Sting relished the idea of crossing genres and exploding the strictures of rock. "I can't imagine a more conservative music than rock 'n' roll," he said. "It's tyranny in the backbeat. It's 4/4 time. It's the same three chords 'round and 'round. It's almost like a fundamentalist religion. Stravinsky is more rebellious than rock 'n' roll by far. Rock 'n' roll has become like a dead art."
The criticism Sting's endured over his long career for weaving jazz or Algerian music into rock has only inspired him. "People want to keep you in the box they've given you," he said. "It's a tribal consciousness. Stay in your class. Stay in your country. Because if you move you're trouble. But the fact is, that volatile molecule is the one that transforms everything for the better. So I think it's always worth doing."
© The Los Angeles Times by Kevin Berger
Sting expands European Symphonicity tour with dates in Tallinn, Vilnius, Prague, Geneva, Zurich, Manchester, and Edinburgh...
We are pleased to announce that Sting, accompanied by the Royal Philharmonic Concert Orchestra as conducted by Maestro Steven Mercurio, has expanded this autumn's European Symphonicity tour with new dates in Tallinn, Vilnius, Prague, Geneva, Zurich, Manchester, and Edinburgh...
THE SAN DIEGO UNION-TRIBUNE
Sting turns to symphonic pop - Concert tour, album a bold move in rocker's musical journey. It's purely a coincidence, Sting insisted with a chortle, that he and Peter Gabriel each decided to tour and record this year with full orchestras - two Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductees doing highbrow symphonic-pop projects at nearly the same time...
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Kenneth Kelly was a character who appeared in six episodes of Barney and Friends from Season 3. He was played by Nathan Regan. According to his first appearance On The Move, Kenneth's last name is Kelly. He also has a dog revealed in that episode. He also has a rabbit named Snuggles, from Our Furry Feathered Fishy Friends!.. For some reason, Kenneth never made an appearance with Jason, who was played by Kurt Dykhuizen. However, he appeared with everyone else in Season 3.
On the Move (first appearance)
Our Furry Feathered Fishy Friends
At Home with Animals
Who's Who on the Choo Choo?
Are We There Yet? (cameo)
Hats Off to BJ! (last appearance)
Retrieved from "https://timewarnercablekids.fandom.com/wiki/Kenneth?oldid=4776"
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All Listings Environment
Utah Physicians for a Healthy Environment
Utah Physicians for a Healthy Environment is dedicated to protecting the health and well-being of the citizens of Utah by promoting science-based health education and interventions that result in progressive, measurable improvements to the environment. UPHE will continue to be on the front lines to protect the health of our families by taking action to improve air quality and remove exposure to environmental hazards such as lead poisoning.
Mormon Environmental Stewardship Alliance
"Answering the call to be good stewards of Earth and all Creation by building a movement of environmental stewardship and conservation action."
Utah Diné Bikéyah
“Preserve and protect the cultural and natural resources of ancestral Native American lands to benefit and bring healing to people and the Earth.”
Allen and Alice Stokes Nature Center
Our Mission is to provide nature education, promote outdoor exploration, and foster appreciation and stewardship of our natural world for people of all ages.
Virgin River Land Preservation Association
Raising funds to acquire the 419-acre Sheep Bridge Crossing property, permanently protecting the lower section of the popular JEM trail and trailhead and the adjoining scenic Virgin River canyon corridor, is one example of how we achieve our mission-- "working with communities and landowners to preserve southwestern Utah's heritage of scenic beauty, open lands, and quality of life."
Friends of Kings Peak
Friends of Kings peak is looking to fund a Wilderness Intern for the Henry's Fork Portion of the high Uintas Wilderness. Henry's Fork is the trailhead in the high unitas wilderness that provides the fastest approach to the summit of Kings Peak the highest point in Utah. Annual visitation is roughly 10,000 per year with most visits occurring during late June to the third week of August. This is the sixth summer Friends of Kings Peak has provided an American Conservation Experience Intern to the
Ogden Nature Center
Ogden Nature Center's mission is to unite people with nature and nurture appreciation and stewardship of the environment.
Breathe Utah
Breathe Utah improves Utah's air quality through education, collaboration, and sound policy.
Utah Rivers Council
The Utah Rivers Council promotes sustainable aquatic ecosystems by protecting Utah’s watersheds and the communities they support. For 24 years, we have successfully protected some of the West’s most precious aquatic landscapes.
Utah Society for Environmental Education
USEE's mission is to promote excellence in environmental education by providing support, resources and networking to Utah's community of educators.
USEE is a statewide leader in promoting high-quality environmental education. USEE encourages environmental literacy by teaching Utahans how to think, not what to think, about the environment.
Save Our Canyons
"Dedicated to protecting the wildness and beauty of the Wasatch Mountains, canyons, and foothills."
Swaner Preserve and EcoCenter
To preserve the land and the human connection to the natural landscape, to educate the local and broader communities about the value of nature, and to nurture both the ecosystem and the people connected with it.
Wild Utah Project
Founded in 1996, Wild Utah Project is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization. Our mission is to provide science-based strategies for wildlife and land conservation. For 22 years, we have applied the principles of conservation science to land and wildlife management.
Conserve Southwest Utah
Conserve Southwest Utah advocates, educates and acts to conserve and steward our area’s natural and cultural resources and to implement Smart Growth policies for the benefit of present and future generations.
Friends of Cedar Mesa
Friends of Cedar Mesa provides stewardship to ensure the public lands of San Juan County - with all their natural and cultural values - are respected and protected.
Friends of Alta
As Alta’s local land trust, the Mission of Friends of Alta is to protect the environment of Alta, including watershed and wildlife habitat areas; to preserve Alta’s unique character and heritage, and to encourage stewardship and sustainability of Alta’s environment and community.
Cottonwood Canyons Foundation
The Cottonwood Canyons Foundation's mission is to work to continuously improve the environments of Big and Little Cottonwood Canyons through education and stewardship programs.
HawkWatch International
The mission of HawkWatch International is to conserve our environment through education, long-term monitoring, and scientific research on raptors as indicators of ecosystem health.
Utah Clean Energy
Utah Clean Energy works locally to reverse the most threatening effects of climate change, to ensure future generations will live in a world with clean air and a healthy climate, powered by renewable energy. In partnership with state and local government, utilities, and other advocacy groups, we are rapidly and economically removing pollution from our energy system.
Uranium Watch
Uranium Watch works to educate and advocate for protection of public health and the environment from past, current, and future impacts of uranium mining, uranium milling, nuclear waste disposal at uranium mill sites, and nuclear fuel chain projects in Utah.
Uranium Watch is encouraging and facilitating public participation in state and federal regulatory decision-making processes related to the White Mesa Mill, uranium mining, development of small modular reactors, and nuclear waste.
Loveland Living Planet Aquarium
The mission of Loveland Living Planet Aquarium is to inspire people to explore, discover, and learn about Earth's diverse ecosystems. The Aquarium is dedicated to celebrating life on Earth by fostering a greater awareness and knowledge of the various ecosystems around the world and creating a deeper understanding of our connection as part of the global system of life. It allows visitors an up-close-and-personal look into unique and interesting aquatic and animal life.
TreeUtah
SALT LAKE CTY
TreeUtah's mission is to improve Utah's quality of life for present and future generations by enhancing the environment through tree planting, stewardship, and education.
Utah Recycling Alliance
We empower people, organizations and communities statewide to create a zero waste lifestyle by building successful models and practices that promote reuse, recycling and resource conservation.
Utah Open Lands
Our mission is to keep Utah’s unique and vibrant heritage, recreational opportunities, wildlife habitat and agriculture alive through the perpetual protection of open space. We strive to ensure that present and future generations are able to experience an unparalleled quality of life in the place we are lucky enough to call our home.
Wasatch Community Gardens
Our mission is to empower people of all ages and incomes to grow and eat healthy, organic, local food.
Summit Land Conservancy
Summit Land Conservancy works with our communities to protect and preserve land and water for the benefit of people and nature.
Open space is the heart of our community. Our sense of place is clearly defined by the shared landscapes that anchor us here. These mountains, trails, farms, and rivers connect us to each other and to the natural world. The Summit Land Conservancy cares for these lands forever, nurturing a healthy community that is founded on its strong connection to th
Re LEAF UTAH
We share the healing power of trees through education, maintenance, preservation and planting.
Sierra Club Foundation, fiscal sponsor for Sierra Club Utah
SCF: San Francisco, CA | SC: Salt Lake City, UT
Sierra Club - Utah Chapter's mission is to protect and promote Utah’s outdoors and natural landscapes; educate and advocate for the responsible preservation of clean air, water and habitats; and support the development of sustainable renewable energy for the benefit of present and future generations. Sierra Club Foundation has a mission to promote efforts to educate and empower people to protect and improve the natural and human environment and is the 501c3 fiscal sponsor for the Utah Chapter.
Seven Canyons Trust
The Seven Canyons Trust works to daylight and rehabilitate the seven canyon creeks of Utah’s Wasatch Range, restoring beauty and health to the hydrology of the Salt Lake valley.
Jordan River Foundation
To provide funding to preserve and enhance life and enjoyment of this community asset known as the Jordan River Parkway.
The Foundation is an active partner and collaborator, providing funds for projects, serving as a clearinghouse working with prospective funders to vet proposals, and providing accountable reporting on project outcomes. The organization raises funds for select projects: those that are well defined, relatively low in cost, scalable, and may be continued on an ongoing basis .
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Read Next: Sally Field, Linda Ronstadt and 'Sesame Street' Among 2019 Kennedy Center Honorees
Emmy Nominations Announced: ‘House of Cards’ Makes History
By Jon Weisman
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Netflix series “House of Cards” and “Arrested Development” broke through to become the first digitally distributed series to earn a major nomination for the 65th annual Primetime Emmy Awards.
65th Primetime Emmy Nominations: Complete List
“House of Cards” had nine nominations overall. Lead acting nominations for the series went to Kevin Spacey and Robin Wright, and David Fincher was nominated for directing the opening episode. “Arrested Development” had three noms, including lead comedy actor for Jason Bateman. Netflix totaled 14 nominations.
“American Horror Story” had 17 nominations for the second year in a row, leading all programs. “Game of Thrones” had 16 to lead all series.
EMMYS: Hollywood Reacts to Nominations
HBO film “Behind the Candelabra” and NBC’s “Saturday Night Live” had 15 nominations, followed by 13 each for AMC’s “Breaking Bad” and NBC’s “30 Rock.”
HBO had 108 nominations — 27 more than last year — to lead all networks, followed in cable by Showtime with 31 and AMC and FX with 26. CBS and NBC tied for the broadcast network lead with 53 noms apiece, followed by ABC with 45, PBS with 25 and Fox with 19.
The milestone for the Netflix series comes on the 20th anniversary of the first cable show to earn a series nomination: HBO’s “The Larry Sanders Show” in 1993. Garry Shandling also received a lead comedy actor nom that year.
EMMYS: Netflix Crashes the Nomination Party
Digitally distributed shows have been eligible to enter the main Emmy categories for seven years, according to TV Academy senior vice president of awards John Leverence.
Except for “House of Cards” replacing “Boardwalk Empire,” the drama series nominations remained the same as last year: were 2012 winner “Homeland,” “Breaking Bad,” “Downton Abbey,” “Game of Thrones” and “Mad Men.”
EMMYS SCORECARD: Broadcast & Cable Networks
In comedy series, five of six nominees also returned: “30 Rock,” “The Big Bang Theory,” “Girls,” “Modern Family” and “Veep,” with “Louie” replacing “Curb Your Enthusiasm.”
Nominations for reality-competition series went to longtime behemoth “The Amazing Race,” “Dancing with the Stars,” “Project Runway,” “So You Think You Can Dance,” “Top Chef” and “The Voice.” In reality program, the noms were “Antiques Roadshow,” “Deadliest Catch,” “Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives,” “MythBusters,” “Shark Tank” and “Undercover Boss.”
EMMYS: Michael Douglas Hits High Note With Liberace Noms
Lead drama actor nominations went to defending champ Damian Lewis of “Homeland,” Hugh Bonneville (“Downton Abbey”), Bryan Cranston (“Breaking Bad”), Jeff Daniels (“The Newsroom”), Jon Hamm (“Mad Men”) and Spacey.
In lead drama actress, new-show nominees Connie Britton (“Nashville”), Vera Farmiga (“Bates Motel”) and Wright joined 2012 winner Claire Danes (“Homeland”), Michelle Dockery (“Downton Abbey”), Elisabeth Moss (“Mad Men”) and Kerry Washington (“Scandal”).
Moss was also nominated as a lead miniseries-movie actress for “Top of the Lake.”
Tina Fey and Alec Baldwin of departing NBC series “30 Rock” each completed their streak of acting nominations for all seven years of the show’s run. They were joined on the comedy lead actor side by Bateman, Louis C.K. (“Louie”), Don Cheadle (“House of Lies”), Matt LeBlanc (“Episodes”) and Jim Parsons (“The Big Bang Theory”) and on the actress side by HBO thesps Laura Dern (“Enlightened”), Lena Dunham (“Girls”) and Julia Louis-Dreyfus (last year’s winner for “Veep”), along with Edie Falco (“Nurse Jackie”) and Amy Poehler (“Parks and Recreation.”)
The most notable omission in the supporting acting categories was last year’s supporting comedy actor winner, Eric Stonestreet, who was left out while co-stars Ty Burrell, Jesse Tyler Ferguson and Ed O’Neill nabbed spots.
SEE ALSO: Too Many Good Shows To Talk ‘Snubs’ (Opinion)
Last year, “American Horror Story” tied “Mad Men” with 17 nominations, but while the FX project, which went with some amount of controversy into the movies-miniseries category, managed to pull two wins (hairstyling and supporting actress), “Mad Men” was shut out.
“Game of Thrones” (11 nominations in 2012) and “Homeland” (nine) won the most Emmys last September with six apiece.
Aaron Paul (“Breaking Bad”) and Emmy host Neil Patrick Harris (“How I Met Your Mother”) made this morning’s nominations announcement with TV Academy Chairman & CEO Bruce Rosenblum at the Academy’s Leonard H. Goldenson Theatre in North Hollywood. Kate Mara (“House of Cards”) was scheduled to join but was unable to arrive because her scheduled flight from Santa Fe, where she is shooting on location, had a mechanical malfunction— echoing last year when travel issues prevented Nick Offerman from presenting with Kerry Washington.
Academy COO Alan Perris, who is retiring at the end of the year, made pre-presentation remarks.
The Emmys themselves will return to the Nokia Theatre at Los Angeles’ L.A. Live on Sept. 22.
Amy Poehler Snl Host
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The cast of “SpongeBob SquarePants” paid tribute to the late Stephen Hillenburg during their panel at San Diego Comic-Con on Thursday. “SpongeBob to me represents Steve in a really profound way,” said Bill Fagerbakke, who voices Patrick Star. “The nature of that character is what the whole show is built on and so it’s kind [...]
NBC is bringing together two of its biggest stars in Ted Danson and Tina Fey for a new comedy. The network has issued a straight to series order for a comedy in which will star Danson as a wealthy businessman who runs for mayor of Los Angeles for all the wrong reasons. Once Danson’s character [...]
Jerry Seinfeld and Eddie Murphy Talk Stand-Up, Stardom and Reuniting for 'Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee'
In July 1976, Jerry Seinfeld and Eddie Murphy were rising comics, launching their stand-up careers at the Comic Strip in New York City. In fact, the two started at the famed comedy club the same week. “[Seinfeld] was always the funniest. He had his show down, he was polished, he had it all down before [...]
On-Location Filming Slides 3.9% in Los Angeles in Second Quarter
Held down by a lack of soundstage space, total on-location filming in greater Los Angeles declined 3.9% in the second quarter to 8,632 shoot days, permitting agency FilmLA reported Thursday. “Although our latest report reveals a decline in filming on location, local production facilities tell us that they are operating at capacity,” said FilmLA president [...]
'Nash Bridges' Revival With Don Johnson in Development at USA Network
USA Network is in early development on a revival of “Nash Bridges,” Variety has confirmed. Original series star Don Johnson has signed on to star in the series, reprising the title role he played for six seasons when the show originally ran on CBS. Carlton Cuse, who created the original show, is not attached as he [...]
'BH90210's' the Peach Pit Pop-Up to Open in L.A. (EXCLUSIVE)
Fox and Popsugar have teamed up to open the Peach Pit in celebration of “BH90210,” Variety has learned exclusively. The beloved retro diner has been recreated for the upcoming continuation series debuting August 7 on Fox, and for a few nights leading up to the big premiere, reservations can be made to dine in. Taking [...]
John Ford to Exit as Head of Unscripted Producers Trade Association NPact
John Ford has stepped down as general manager of NPact, the trade association that represents unscripted TV producers. Ford is exiting the post he’s held since 2015 because of the potential for conflicts of interest arising from his role as head of programming for digital multicast outlets Justice Network and Quest Network. The channels were [...]
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You are here: Home Photo Gallery Israel/Palestine Yad Vashem - A Name and a Memorial
Yad Vashem - A Name and a Memorial
The holocaust memorials I'd seen in Paris and Rotterdam were locally focussed. And visits to the Ann Frank House in Amsterdam and The Hiding Place in Haarlem tell the story through one person's experience. Here in Jerusalem there's a comprehensive, if somewhat overwhelming, overview of all of Europe. But it's that overview which adds perspective, and there's always something more to learn:
The seeds of anti-semitism date back to early Christendom; how Hitler developed his policy that the Jews 'should go'; the role of medics in euthanasia for disabled children, their expertise then transferred to the concentration camps; the majority of Jews were in Russia and Poland, but also significant numbers in North Africa; ghettoes were the creation of the authorities and seem to be the forerunners of the concentration camps; the forced marches when Germany's defeat seemed near.
Whilst the seeds of Zionism were sowed earlier, the holocaust obviously prompted the European powers to push ahead with creating a homeland for Jews in what was to become the state of Israel. Without it we might not have been visiting Israel today.
Two highlights for me - The Hall of Names, where the names of six million holocaust victims are recorded in volumes stacked around the walls in folders. And then the memorial to the 1.5 million children killed - a cavernous room, darkened, but with a light to represent each child. Eerie and moving. Children!
And a (horrible) quote to remember: 'Keep withholding the truth from them until they die!'
The visit stirred memories of elsewhere for me: forced relocations under South Africa's group areas act - we lived there while it happened. And of the 'communities' of India where the Dalits were forced to live outside the village, shoemakers together, sweepers together, scavengers together. Birds of a feather do flock together, but they may be forced together in cages.
Visits in Israel/Palestine in recent days, revealing restrictions on Palestinians and Jews to separate areas have shown that the concept of separation and isolation is alive and well nearby. I just hope this does not have an equally unhappy ending.
It seems appropriate to have visited Yad Vashem on Remembrance Sunday, remembering those who gave themselves in the defence of freedom and to rid the world of the cause of the holocaust.
But perhaps most importantly, I need to keep a balanced approach to peoples of all kinds, and guard against anti-semitism and other forms of racism in myself. Let me work for peace, please!
The concentration camps
1.5 million lights
Remember the children!
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Glock Canada Manager Cassells Comments on New Orders, Gun Bans
TheGunBlog.ca — Following is an interview with James Cassells, the sales manager for Canada at Austria-based Glock GmbH. He comments on business, products, new police contracts and possible gun bans.
Cassells, a former Toronto police officer and SWAT member who developed use-of-force training for the police in the early 1990s, spoke with TheGunBlog.ca by telephone today after the company said it will sell its new G48 pistol specifically designed to be legal in Canada.
Read: Glock’s New G48 Is First Pistol Designed to Be Canada Legal
The interview was edited for clarity.
Was the G48 designed for Canada?
While we have modified various models in the past to make them Canada legal, the G48 was the first standard model to account for Canada compliance in design.
What do you think of it?
For sports shooting, it will be a great pistol to start with. It’s going to be lower cost, so it will be a good entry pistol.
For law enforcement, it’s a perfect plain-clothes pistol.
It’s probably going to be around $650 Canadian. There will be a slight adjustment in our prices because of the dollar being where it is now.
When will the G48 be available in stores?
We’re waiting for the U.S. government to get back to work. If they go back to work pretty soon, we could see them by late February, early March.
How were last year’s sales for Glock in Canada?
It was the best year we’ve had.
You have to take into account that we had a couple Canadian models, the G19 and G19X. We had the G17M contract for the OPP [Ontario Provincial Police].
I guess you sold more than 10,000 pistols?
Just on the law-enforcement side we did more than 10,000.
I’m just preparing the totals for Canada. It’s less than 20,000.
Are you seeing a bump in sales from people buying guns before any gun bans take effect?
What’s going on with law enforcement?
The law-enforcement side is a big part of what I do.
We’re bringing on the Lethbridge police department. Everybody in the province of Alberta will use Glock, everybody in the province of Saskatchewan uses Glock. It was exciting to bring the Lethbridge police on board.
We also just brought the Mirabel police force on board in Quebec. They switched from Smith & Wesson.
Which pistols are they getting?
We have a lot of agencies that are going from .40 calibre to 9 mm. It’s something that’s just going to continue for the next few years as far as I can see.
Some agencies that use .40 calibre pistols are coming up for replacement. You’ve got to remember that half the country never went to .40 calibre.
One of the big benefits of 9 mm is that ammunition is cheaper. As more and more agencies move away from .40 calibre south of the border, you’re going to see the price of .40 calibre go up. 9 mm is softer to shoot, and generally your follow up shots in the event they are required are easier to control.
The New Westminster police in B.C. are going from .40 cal Glocks to G17 MOS models. I’m pretty sure they are the first police agency in North America where the whole department is doing that. They aren’t going to put optics on every pistol, but it’s very progressive thinking of them and is in keeping with the fact that they have purchased a replacement pistol for likely the next 15 to 20 years.
How significant is new ammunition design in moving to 9 mm?
I don’t get too deep into ballistics.
A good 9 mm law-enforcement round is as good as a .40 calibre round these days. That’s different than the case 15 years ago.
For law enforcement, you have to remember that you’re not buying a pistol for tomorrow. You’re buying a pistol for the next 15 years.
People qualify more easily on 9 mm. That’s one of the biggest factors with 9 mm: people’s skill level improves, and they keep the skills longer. That’s critical for law enforcement.
Will you be selling the G45 in Canada with a 106 mm barrel?
Not yet. The G45 will probably be released later in 2019.
For guns that we specifically make for Canada, I have to be careful that we don’t build too many, that we don’t have more than the market can bear.
After the G19 with the maple leaf, we’re still going to make those in limited quantities. I don’t want them sitting in the factory, and once we make them for Canada, we can’t sell them anywhere else.
How do you gauge interest for the G45?
With the G45, there’s definitely an interest in having it with a Canadian barrel.
We’ve had agencies adopt the 45. I actually think that’s the best pistol we make for law enforcement today.
Glock 45 pistol with Streamlight TLR-7 light. Source: James Cassells, Glock
One of the challenges for law enforcement is size and weight.
If you take pistol lights like the Streamlight TLR-1 or the Surefire X300, they take two batteries. They hang off the pistol over the muzzle. That makes for a longer draw out of the holster and a bigger holster.
The advantage of the G45 is that if you pair that with the Streamlight TLR-7, I personally think it’s the best light out there for a pistol. It gives you a small, compact design, only uses one battery, and it doesn’t protrude past the front of the barrel and the slide. You’re now in the draw of the pistol, not in the draw out of the pistol to accommodate the light.
The G45 is a great pistol because you have the slide of the G19 and the grip of G17.
Think about a police officer in a patrol car. You don’t have a whole lot of room. It’s not unheard of for police officers to have to draw a pistol from a seated position in a car. Those are things you should take into consideration.
What about Surefire?
Surefire makes a phenomenal light, there’s no question about it. Streamlight makes a great light as well. You have to see the whole picture.
When you add something to a pistol, you need to see how it impacts everything. When you or I draw from a pistol, we might not have any trouble. But try putting on body armour and a winter jacket, and it’s a different experience.
If you’re thinking of buying a pistol light or any other product via Amazon.ca, please consider going through TheGunBlog.ca Store. It helps to support our work and doesn’t cost you extra.
What do you think of the government’s possible gun bans?
I think there’s great reason to be concerned.
Nothing is going to change for law enforcement.
The challenge I see for the prime minister is: what problem are you trying to solve? If you’re going to talk about crime, you should talk to the police.
There’s a huge problem with people buying some gun parts without a licence, or 80 percent lowers or using high-cap mags.
If the government said you need a PAL to buy gun parts, nobody would say a thing.
The stores police themselves. They go beyond the law because they know it’s the right thing to do. They will ask people for their PAL even when the law doesn’t require them to.
As you well know, licensed gun owners are less likely to commit any crime than anyone else, less likely to be involved in domestic violence, less likely to be charged for impaired driving, or in general commit crimes.
The problem isn’t legitimate gun owners. Statistically, the legitimate gun owner gets involved in less crime. They’ve got more to lose.
We do such a miserable job of telling people the reality of the situation.
I don’t want us to take a vocal, “It’s my right.” voice because it’s not our right, so it would be foolish to say that. But what I would like is for us to be more vocal about reality.
PAL holders are not the problem.
Today: Glock’s New G48 Is First Pistol Designed to Be Canada Legal
March 2017: Q&A With Glock Canada Sales Manager James Cassells
© 2019 TheGunBlog.ca
Tags: Bans, Glock, Industry
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Trump issues first veto, warning of 'reckless' resolution
By Jordan Fabian - 03/15/19 03:52 PM EDT
President Trump Donald John TrumpAmash responds to 'Send her back' chants at Trump rally: 'This is how history's worst episodes begin' McConnell: Trump 'on to something' with attacks on Dem congresswomen Trump blasts 'corrupt' Puerto Rico's leaders amid political crisis MORE on Friday issued the first veto of his presidency, stymying Congress’s attempt to block him from obtaining funds for his wall at the U.S.-Mexico border without lawmakers’ approval.
Trump vetoed a resolution of disapproval of his emergency declaration that passed the House and the Senate. The measure won support from both parties, including 12 Senate Republicans, in what was seen as a significant rebuke of the president.
In an Oval Office ceremony, Trump said Americans would be put at risk if the “dangerous” and “reckless” resolution became law.
“Today I am vetoing this resolution. Congress has the freedom to pass this resolution, and I have the duty to veto it,” Trump said.
The resolution of disapproval will now return to the Democratic-controlled House, which is expected to hold a vote on March 26 on overriding Trump’s veto, according to a leadership aide. But leaders lack the two-thirds support of the chamber necessary to pass the bill over the president’s objections.
The 59-41 vote in the Senate on Thursday marked the first time Congress has voted to block a president’s emergency declaration. The House passed the measure last month by a vote of 245-182.
Trump’s move capped off weeks of conflict with members of both parties over the wall, an issue that will play a key role in his 2020 reelection race.
Opponents of the national emergency declaration denounced it as a violation of the Constitution’s separation of powers. But Trump framed the vote as a referendum on his immigration agenda, rather than his presidential authority.
“People hate the word ‘invasion,’ but that’s what it is,” the president said of the situation on the southern border.
Trump also said anyone voting to overturn the national emergency is voting “against reality” and asserted that Republican voters were “overwhelmingly” against the resolution.
Trump signed the veto at a made-for-television ceremony flanked by Vice President Pence, Cabinet members, law enforcement officials and others. He handed the pen he used to a so-called “angel mom” whose son was killed by a person living illegally in the U.S., telling family members “they will not have died in vain.”
Despite the veto, the battle over the emergency will continue in court where a number of states and advocacy groups have sued to stop it.
“Even members of President Trump’s own party are beginning to realize that he is a one-man constitutional crisis,” said Anthony Romero, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union, one of the groups challenging the order. “The president’s veto is as meaningless as his signature on the national emergency declaration. Congress has rejected the president's declaration, and now the courts will be the ultimate arbiter of its legality.”
Attorney General William Barr said the order is “clearly authorized under the law and consistent with past precedent.” He added the situation at the border “is exactly the type of situation the president is allowed to address” under the National Emergencies Act of 1976, which formalized the president’s emergency powers.
GOP senators voting against the president said the constitutional issues created by the emergency declaration were too great to ignore.
“Never before has a president asked for funding, Congress has not provided it, and the president then has used the National Emergencies Act of 1976 to spend the money anyway,” said Sen. Lamar Alexander Andrew (Lamar) Lamar AlexanderThe Hill's Morning Report - Presented by JUUL Labs - Trump attack on progressive Dems draws sharp rebuke Republicans make U-turn on health care Trump announces, endorses ambassador to Japan's Tennessee Senate bid MORE (R-Tenn.), who is not seeking reelection. “Our nation’s founders gave to Congress the power to approve all spending so that the president would not have too much power.”
The president said he has sympathy for members of his own party who felt compelled to vote for the resolution and that he did not pressure any GOP senators, even though White House officials have said Trump spent time phoning and meeting with them ahead of the vote.
“They’re doing what they have to do, and I put no pressure on anybody,” he said. “I actually said, ‘I could have gotten some of them to come along.’ I said, ‘I want for you to vote your heart. Do want you want to do. I’m not putting any pressure.’”
During his first two years in office, Trump held firm control over congressional Republicans who did little to challenge his authority under one-party rule. But this week’s vote, combined with the Senate’s passage of a resolution against U.S. involvement in Yemen, showed some GOP lawmakers are willing to buck Trump in order to claw back powers of the legislative branch.
Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer Charles (Chuck) Ellis SchumerTop Democrats demand security assessment of Trump properties Lawmakers pay tribute to late Justice Stevens Trump administration denies temporary immigrant status to Venezuelans in US MORE (D-N.Y.) also criticized Trump’s veto, saying “it is no surprise that the president holds the rule of law and our Constitution in minimal regard.”
“There is no emergency,” Schumer said in a statement. “While the president has chosen to trample all over the Constitution, we Democrats in the Senate will never stop defending our country from an overreaching president.”
— Updated at 4:54 p.m. Cristina Marcos contributed.
Tags Lamar Alexander Charles Schumer Donald Trump Border wall Emergency declaration Veto
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‘New socialism’ won’t move America forward
By Grady Means, opinion contributor — 02/13/19 01:00 PM EST
In his State of the Union message, President Trump Donald John TrumpAmash responds to 'Send her back' chants at Trump rally: 'This is how history's worst episodes begin' McConnell: Trump 'on to something' with attacks on Dem congresswomen Trump blasts 'corrupt' Puerto Rico's leaders amid political crisis MORE felt compelled to assert that we are not — and never will be — a socialist country. Democrats in the room smirked. Many Democrats tout platforms of “social justice,” and some proudly proclaim themselves as socialists. They call for massive income redistribution, citing America’s “immoral” economic system, and even suggest outright property seizures (“wealth taxes”) to fix social wrongs.
Having worked as an economist in the former U.S. Department of Health, Education and Welfare in the 1970s and in the Ford White House, I’ve begun to wonder two things:
Do contemporary Democrats think they’ve suddenly invented “social justice” and that serious politicians from both parties have not worked tirelessly to address the huge disparities involving women, minorities and the poor during the past 60 years? Can they not appreciate the tremendous progress America has made?
Do they not understand that many of the “issues” they have “discovered” have been addressed by programs that have led to more progress than they could have imagined, and that the other “new ideas” they call for have been tried and failed, or so fully debated and tested that the clear evidence was that they would fail?
Since 1960, America has created and expanded, in Republican and Democratic administrations, the civil rights acts, programs to address a guaranteed income floor for the poor and their children (Aid to Families With Dependent Children), food for poor families (food stamps), housing for the poor (Section 8), opportunity for children in poor families (Head Start, Women Infants and Children, and busing), legal aid for the poor, urban development programs to revitalize inner cities, Title 1 and Title 9 to increase opportunity for the disadvantaged and women in education, affirmative action and EEO, and other efforts to assure fairness for women and minorities in the workforce and education, health care for the poor and the elderly (Medicare and Medicaid), and many other programs to create equal opportunity for everyone.
Over the course of the past 60 years, America has spent trillions of dollars and the human efforts of tens of millions to move the country forward on all fronts. The results are clear. Many minorities and women are millionaires, CEOs, heads of universities and other institutions, judges, members of Congress, cabinet members and leaders in every walk of life. Unemployment among women and minorities is the lowest in history — progress undreamed of 60 years ago in America or anywhere else in the world.
The “new socialists” have discovered no new problems, nor put forward any useful new ideas to move America forward. The huge progress of the past 60 years was not built on the back of a socialist, massive-redistribution economy. It was built on the back of a competitive, capitalist economy that created great wealth and quite a few billionaires while at the same time lifting a massive number of people in the United States and throughout the world out of grinding poverty.
To many, this seems like a Faustian bargain. Simply stated, when a country applies very high taxes on its wealthy citizens, or seizes their property for “redistribution,” investment dries up, business fails, tax revenues decline and everyone is, equally, poorer and miserable. In contrast, when a country respects achievement and property rights, trusts its citizens and markets to invest more wisely than the government, and keeps taxes, even for the very rich, at moderate levels, the market does better, investment increases, tax revenues increase, and there is more “fairness” to spread around than even the most angry socialist could hope for.
Do socialists not understand that the idea of “Medicare-for-all” was thoroughly studied (the National Health Insurance Experiment), debated and rejected because, in brief, it would collapse the American health care system and really be “Medicare for none.” Do socialists not understand that 70 percent tax rates were tried recently in France and led to collapsing investment, capital flight, economic collapse, and a new president? Do socialists not understand that a mini-Green New Deal of sorts was just tried in France and led to riots in the streets?
Throughout history, promoting “grievance” and promising “more free stuff” has been a tried-and-true, although highly cynical, recipe for attaining political power. “It’s free” or “It’s unfair” is a much easier political speech to give than to say “It’s complicated.” President Trump is right in the sense that America has been built on the ideal of “equal opportunity,” which would advance the entire country, rather than a pure economic “equality” that would level everyone down to equal poverty and misery.
Bottom line: After a century, the results are clear in the United States and worldwide. The American version of freedom and capitalism makes everyone better off, rich and poor. Socialism makes everyone worse off, rich and poor. Trump was right. New socialism is nonsense.
Grady Means is a writer and retired corporate strategy consultant. He was special assistant to Vice President Nelson Rockefeller for domestic policy in the Ford White House, and was an economist and policy analyst for Secretary Elliot Richardson in the former Department of Health, Education and Welfare from 1971-73.
Tags Donald Trump Socialism Political ideologies Economy of the United States Federal assistance in the United States
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"I'm pleased to support non-partisan investigative journalism; it's crucial to building a better New Orleans." --Mike M., River Ridge
Mike Matthews
The Lens (https://thelensnola.org/2014/05/01/louisiana-execution-method-calls-for-same-drug-used-in-botched-oklahoma-execution/)
Louisiana execution method calls for same drug used in botched Oklahoma execution
By Della Hasselle | May 1, 2014
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A death house gurney of the type Louisiana uses to execute prisoners at Angola.
Tuesday night, an inmate in Oklahoma reportedly writhed on a gurney and gasped for air after being given a dosage of drugs never used before in an execution. Convicted murderer Clayton Lockett had been declared unconscious, but woke up a few minutes later, convulsed, tried to speak and then died of a heart attack, witnesses said.
Three months earlier, Ohio inmate Dennis McGuire reportedly gasped, choked and took about 30 minutes to succumb to a previously untested mix of injected drugs. It was the longest execution in Ohio since the state brought back the death penalty in 1999.
Those two executions have something in common. Both involved a drug called midazolam, a sedative used to render inmates unconscious and, at least theoretically, to forestall pain. Along with another painkiller, hydromorphone, it’s the same drug Louisiana officials plan to use in executing convicted child-killer Christopher Sepulvado.
Midazolam dosage in botched Oklahoma execution
Midazolam dosage called for in Louisiana
When it was adopted, Louisiana’s execution protocol was the same as Ohio’s: a combination of 10 milligrams of midazolam and 40 milligrams of hydromorphone. By comparison, Florida uses 500 milligrams of midazolam as part of a three-drug execution mix.
In light of a lawsuit following McGuire’s execution, Ohio officials on Monday announced they would increase the dosages of midazolam and hydromorphone to 50 milligrams each.
Oklahoma officials used 100 mg of midazolam in Tuesday’s execution. That’s how much Virginia’s protocol called for, but officials there announced Wednesday that the state would increase its dosage from 100 milligrams to 500 milligrams.
Pam Laborde, communications director for Louisiana’s Department of Public Safety and Corrections, said the state hasn’t changed its execution plan.
States coming up with new drug combinations to execute inmates
Since the manufacturers of drugs once commonly used in death chambers forbade their use in executions, states have scrambled to find substitutes and have experimented with dosages. It’s a gamble that some death-penalty critics say is causing cruel and unusual deaths, in violation of the U.S. Constitution.
“There’s no science to determining the proper amount of drugs to use for the death penalty because this is not something we study,” said Dr. David Waisel, an associate professor of anesthesia at Harvard Medical School who has testified in several death-penalty lawsuits. “They’re are making it up as they go along.”
According to Waisel, a 10-milligram dose of midazolam — the amount used in a Louisiana execution — does not preclude suffering even in combination with another painkiller such as hydromorphone.
“I can say with confidence that in the McGuire execution [in Ohio], 10 milligrams of midazolam did not prevent his suffering,” Waisel said.
Drug dosages will be at issue in a June hearing as death row lawyers challenge the constitutionality of Louisiana’s two-drug protocol.
“The execution protocol proposed by the State of Louisiana, which provides for the use of an experimental drug combination — midazolam and hydromorphone — is woefully inadequate,” Mercedes Montagnes, an attorney for Sepulvado, told The Lens.
“Reckless experimentation with untested drug combinations will lead to nightmarish results, as the botched executions of Dennis McGuire in Ohio and Clayton Lockett in Oklahoma have recently demonstrated,” Montagnes said. “The secretive and inadequate protocol proposed by the state presents an unacceptable risk that executions in Louisiana will be slow and torturous.”
Dosages not tailored to each inmate
In the medical field, midazolam is used to induce sleepiness and relieve anxiety, according to a report issued by the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction.
Waisel has previously said that an improper administration of drugs can cause “air hunger” — a suffocation-like experience that he calls a “horrible feeling.”
Part of the problem, according to Waisel, is that states have created protocols that call for a “one size fits all” approach using a set amount of midazolam, regardless of the inmate’s size, weight, or medical history.
By contrast, in a hospital setting it’s standard to take those factors into account before administering a drug such as midazolam because it may affect individuals differently, Waisel said.
The drug’s warnings call for “individualization of dosage“ and list negative effects, especially in combination with other drugs. Those effects include hypoventilation, airway obstruction and apnea, conditions that “can lead to hypoxia and/or cardiac arrest unless effective countermeasures are taken immediately.”
Midazolam dosage by state
Louisiana 10 mg
Ohio 50 mg (increased from 10 mg)
Oklahoma 100 mg
Florida 500 mg
Virginia 500 mg (increased from 100 mg)
Florida uses fifty times more midazolam than Louisiana to execute prisoners
In October, William Happ became the first condemned inmate to be injected with midazolam. Reportedly, he blinked repeatedly, shook his head back and forth and took 14 minutes to die.
In March, the Florida Supreme Court found the protocol constitutional, based on testimony from Dr. Roswell Lee Evans, a professor and dean at Auburn University’s Harrison School of Pharmacy. Evans said an inmate would no longer feel anything after an initial dosage of 250 milligrams, half the amount specified in the Florida protocol.
According to a Florida Supreme Court ruling, Evans found that a high dosage of midazolam would have a very significant effect on the central nervous system, and the recipient of the drug would “almost immediately lose consciousness and not be able to feel pain.”
Though the Ohio protocol called for administering 10 milligrams of midazolam to McGuire, Waisel has testified that someone of McGuire’s weight — 250 pounds — would need at least 29 milligrams of midazolam to cause unconsciousness.
Although witnesses say otherwise, a report on McGuire’s death by the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction found that he did not suffer. “He did not experience pain, distress or air hunger after the drugs were administered or when the bodily movements and sounds occurred,” the report reads.
In that same report, however, officials said they intended to increase the drug dosages anyway.
Questions about Oklahoma execution
It’s not clear what went wrong during Oklahoma’s execution.
According to prison officials, Lockett’s vein line ruptured after he was given the midazolam as a sedative. This happened while the other two drugs — the paralytic vecuronium bromide and the heart-stopper potassium chloride — were flowing into his body.
Even though Lockett was declared unconscious after being given midazolam, he jerked and spoke after the other two drugs were administered. Oklahoma officials conceded that the combination of drugs therefore didn’t have the intended effect.
According to an article in The Atlantic, the theory that the vein line ruptured is “dubious.” Lockett’s lawyers have also questioned the effectiveness of midazolam.
A day after the botched execution, Oklahoma Gov. Mary Fallin said she has ordered a review of death chamber protocols.
“The State’s protocol fails to ensure that the execution team will be trained to properly administer the lethal injection drugs or manage any possible paradoxical or negative side effects,” Montagnes said.
Even if midazolam is effective, Sepulvado’s lawyers have questioned how the drug is injected in Louisiana executions. They contend that the Department of Corrections staff lacks the expertise to administer the drug properly because they’re not doctors. That’s likely, they argue, to cause their client to suffer the way Lockett did.
This story was updated after publication to include a comment from the Louisiana Department of Public Safety and Corrections. (May 1, 2014)
About Della Hasselle
Della Hasselle, a freelance journalist and producer, reports environmental and criminal justice stories for The Lens. A graduate of Benjamin Franklin High School and the New Orleans Center for Creative Arts, Hasselle lived in New York for 10 years. While up north, she produced and anchored news segments, wrote feature stories and reported breaking news for DNAinfo.com, a hyperlocal news site. Before that, she worked at the New York Daily News. She obtained her master’s degree from the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism. She can be reached at (917) 304-6121.
More by Della
Executions on hold for at least a year as Louisiana sorts out death penalty method
By Della Hasselle | June 23, 2015
The ruling delays a child-killer’s execution, as well as four others on death row.
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I’m donating to Wikipedia this year, and so should you
by Nate Swanner — in Opinion
Every year, Wikipedia asks for donations. Like clockwork, I’ve been ignoring it — every year.
That’s all changing. This year I’m donating, and you should too.
Why the sudden change of heart? Wikipedia has transformed into a source rather than a website for me. Its inclusion into Spotlight search in iOS 9 has made it something I use more often.
As a result, I find myself checking there often when I’m not quite sure I’ve got facts straight, or need to find details not readily available on the Web at-large. It’s still not a citable source, but the information is typically correct.
I search for Swift all the time. My colleague Owen, who captured these screenshots, obviously prefers Taylor Swift.
I also believe that you should pay for apps or services you enjoy and believe in. There’s also something to be said for supporting something you use often; even if you’re just clearing your conscience, it’s worth a few bucks.
Before iOS 9, I likely visited Wikipedia about three times a year. I can’t say I felt compelled to donate anything to a website I visited for no more than 10 minutes annually.
Now, I’m likely checking Wikipedia weekly. Sometimes it’s to learn a thing or two about a historical figure. Other times I’m checking for a distilled list of source information, which comes in handy as I do some deep dives on programming languages — and it saves me a lot of time.
I can’t say everyone will be compelled to donate to Wikipedia, but I am. I take advantage of what it has to offer, and often. If that sounds like you, I’d encourage you to donate as well.
➤ Wikipedia
Read next: The world's first website is 25 years old today
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Iran and P5+1 Unlikely to Reach Nuclear Deal by July 20
Gareth Porter: U.S. remains unwilling to compromise with Iran on the number of centrifuges
The Porter Report
US and Iran Send Positive Signals – Saudis and Israelis Not Pleased
Gates Memoir Omits Key Facts on Obama’s Afghan War Strategy
Porter: Mainstream Media Fails To Get Facts Straight on Iran’s Nuclear Fatwa
CIA’s Wash Post Leaks Aimed At Silencing Drone Critics
The Petraeus Myth
Did IAEA Fudge the Numbers?
Hamas Has Been Willing to Negotiate a Peace Deal Based on ’67 borders
Divisions Over Iran Strike in Israeli Leadership Revealed
Will the US Negotiate State to State with Iran?
ANTON WORONCZUK, TRNN PRODUCER: Welcome to The Real News Network. I’m Anton Woronczuk in Baltimore. And welcome to another edition of The Porter Report. Now joining us is Gareth Porter.
Gareth is an historian and investigative journalist on U.S. foreign and military policy. He writes regularly for Inter Press Service on U.S. policy towards Iraq and Iran. He’s the author of five books, the latest of which is Manufactured Crisis: The Untold Story of the Iran Nuclear Scare.
Thanks for joining us, Gareth.
GARETH PORTER, INVESTIGATIVE JOURNALIST: Happy to be with you, Anton.
WORONCZUK: So we’re two weeks away from a July 20 deadline for the nuclear talks between Iran and the P5+1–that’s United States, France, Britain, Russia, and China plus Germany. What is being discussed at the talks in Vienna, and what’s holding them back right now from reaching a final deal?
PORTER: Well, I can’t give you, certainly, a definitive answer as to what precisely is being discussed at the talks, but I can tell you that what the United States delegation is saying publicly in the last several days suggests that the U.S. is still pushing Iran very, very hard publicly on the question of the size of the centrifuge capability or the enrichment capability of Iran, appearing to at least insist that Iran must accept a very significant downsizing of the number of centrifuges in the comprehensive agreement.
Now, I’m not so completely convinced that this is the bottom line for the United States. I have a very strong feeling that what’s really going on here is that the United States is using this public insistence that Iran must accept downsizing of the centrifuge, the size of its centrifuge collection, as a means of pushing Iran on the longer-term question of how many centrifuges Iran could have at a later date, that is, on the grounds that Iran would claim that it needs to support the Bushehr reactor itself or to support indigenous reactors that might come on-stream later on. This could happen somewhere between seven and 15 years from today.
And the question I think that is really roiling these negotiations, perhaps more than anything else at this point, is when that second stage or that later stage would take effect, the United States is saying that after the first stage of this agreement, that whether it’s 15 or 20 years from now, Iran would be free to do whatever it wants, but it’s insisting that that would not take place for quite a long time. And I think it’s pretty clear that Iran wants to move that date up to a much closer date, perhaps around 2020, ’21, ’22, something like that, so it would be able to have enough centrifuges to have a credible claim that it can support its nuclear power program, which it can’t at this point. It has far too few centrifuges. So my hunch is that that’s what’s going on, but no certainty about that.
WORONCZUK: Okay. And do you think that the U.S.’s need to cooperate with Iran over the crisis in Iraq will affect the outcome of the negotiations?
PORTER: I see no sign thus far that that has any bearing whatsoever on U.S. diplomacy in these talks. The U.S. has gone out of its way, in fact, to deny that Iraq is being discussed at all on the sidelines, let alone in the negotiations themselves. And, indeed, it strikes me as quite credible that they are in fact refusing to allow Iraq to enter into these talks.
Now, that doesn’t mean that they don’t want to have any role whatsoever in cooperation with Iran on Iraq. I do think they want to have cooperation in that regard. But I don’t think that they’re going to allow this to interfere with U.S. pressure on Iran in the talks, and to allow that there would be an interest on the part of the United States to intervene would be to weaken, obviously, the pressure. And so they’re unwilling to do that–so far, at least.
WORONCZUK: Now, let me get your response to a recent op-ed by Secretary of State John Kerry that appeared in The Washington Post at the end of June. He wrote, quote:
“There remains a discrepancy (…) between Iran’s professed intent with respect to its nuclear program and the actual content of that program to date. The divide between what Iran says and what it has done underscores why these negotiations are necessary and why the international community united to impose sanctions in the first place. (…) To gain relief from sanctions, the world is simply asking Iran to demonstrate that its nuclear activities are what it claims them to be.”
What’s your response?
PORTER: Well, clearly what Kerry is doing here is alluding to the U.S. demand that Iran must accept something far less than what it now has in terms of enrichment capability. The Iranians have 19,000 centrifuges, of which some 10,000 are actually in use or have been in use up to now. And the clear implication of this is that the United States does not want to allow Iran to have anything close to 10,000, let alone 19,000, centrifuges. And that has been leaked to the media on more than one occasion. So that’s what I was alluding to a few moments ago when I said the United States is pressuring Iran to accept this much smaller number.
The problem that I have with this is twofold. First of all, the rationale that has been offered by U.S. officials on and off the record for this demand is that the United States must increase the so-called breakout time or timeline, meaning the amount of time that it would take Iran, once it made a decision to actually enrich a sufficient amount of weapons-grade uranium, to be able to build one single atomic bomb. And that, as I say, has been the rationale for the demand.
But, in fact, it’s not necessary for the United States to demand a deep cut in centrifuge numbers in order to lengthen that timeline, that breakout timeline, from the present two or three months to six to 12 months. That can be done in other ways, specifically by reducing the level of the stockpile of already low-enriched uranium that Iran has on hand. And the Iranians have made it clear already that they are willing to negotiate methods of assuring the United States that it cannot have a breakout capability–by not having a stockpile of low-enriched uranium. In other words, they’re willing to work with the U.S. on a scheme that would be an alternative to reducing the number of centrifuges to a very small proportion of the present number. And that appears to be, thus far, what the United States has resisted. But the logic of the situation is that the United States will compromise on this because they know perfectly well that they can in fact achieve what they’ve claimed they need to achieve without cutting the number of centrifuges so severely.
WORONCZUK: And in regards to an issue that is formally separate from the nuclear talks, what’s the status of the International Atomic Energy Agency’s years-long probe into Iran’s alleged development of detonators for nuclear weapons?
PORTER: Well, the probe, of course, is on a broader subject, not just the subject of the detonators, which supposedly the IAEA believed could be used or was used for a covert nuclear weapons program, but on the broader subject of a number of activities that the IAEA has in published reports suggested were indicative of possible military dimensions, as they call it, of the Iranian nuclear program. And the present status of it is that Iran and the IAEA reached an agreement back in February that there would be a series of steps that Iran would take to cooperate with the IAEA’s investigation over the next few months and that once any of those issues were resolved through Iranian information and explanation to the satisfaction of the IAEA, the IAEA would then close the file on that issue.
Now, what has happened instead of that–and I wrote about this last month–is that Iran did in fact provide information and documentation to the IAEA on this question of detonator development, a program of detonator development. The Iranians have always said that they had their own program to develop a detonator, a detonator program for non-nuclear applications. They’ve always made that clear. The IAEA has demanded that Iran prove, in effect, that it did in fact have non-nuclear applications. And apparently the Iranians provided documentation which pretty much did prove that. But what then happened or what didn’t happen was that the IAEA did not close the file and has simply said, well, we’ll let you know at some appropriate moment what we think of this. And that seems very clear to me to be a political response by the IAEA to keep the file open for political reasons, so that the Iranians are not given any favorable publicity suggesting that they’re cooperating freely and taking the pressure off politically, so that the United States can more effectively pressure Iran, as I’ve talked about just before in this interview.
WORONCZUK: Okay. And then, briefly, do you expect to see a deal by July 20?
PORTER: Very difficult to say. I mean, my guess at this point is that it’s not going to happen, in part because just four days ago, again a senior administration official, obviously someone involved directly in the talks because it was a briefing that was done in Vienna, again talked about the fact that Iran must make moves that would convince the United States that it is serious about not having aspirations for nuclear weapons. And the tenor of that was such that it certainly underlined the determination of the United States to push Iran on the number of centrifuges once more. And the intensity of that convinces me that we are in for probably a longer period of negotiations and that we’re not close, really, to an agreement at this point.
WORONCZUK: Okay. Gareth Porter, thank you so much for joining us.
PORTER: Thanks so much.
WORONCZUK: And thank you for joining us on The Real News Network.
DISCLAIMER: Please note that transcripts for The Real News Network are typed from a recording of the program. TRNN cannot guarantee their complete accuracy.
Gareth Porter is a historian and investigative journalist on US foreign and military policy analyst. He writes regularly for Inter Press Service on US policy towards Iraq and Iran. Author of four books, the latest of which is Perils of Dominance: Imbalance of Power and the Road to War in Vietnam.
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Building and destroying a legacy: Luís Figo at Barcelona
14/09/2018 by Steven Scragg
“Whites weep. Congratulate the champions.” Enthusiastically delivered words of a similar emphasis were expelled from Luís Figo’s mouth, from his vantage point on the balcony of the Palace of the Catalan Generality in the Plaça Sant Jaume. The La Liga title and the Copa del Rey had both been won by Barcelona within an emblematic 11-day span in late April 1998. The coronation of a new king of Catalonia had just been played out in front of an adoring congregation. He was their captain, and now he was their footballing head of state.
Following on in the footsteps of Johan Cruyff, Figo was a figure who was seen to embrace and embody Catalonia, having been drawn in and absorbed by a hypnotic part of the world, he had become one of their own. Figo may not have been born of Catalonia, but he was deemed to be of Catalonia.
Within two years, however, that love and adulation unbound had turned into the white heat of a hated unconfined.
So much has been said and so much has been written about the invective nature of Barcelona-based feelings towards Figo, and also about the vagaries and conundrums of his summer 2000 transfer to Real Madrid, that it has served to largely obliterate the image of Figo the Barcelona player.
Summon up your initial minds-eye when it comes to Figo and it’s difficult to draw yourself away from him in the all-white of Real. This is despite the fact that at the Santiago Bernabéu, Figo was essentially a cog in the star-studded wheel, compared to his role as the matador of the Camp Nou.
Figo was well on his way to being canonised by the Barcelona faithful when he turned his back on them. As a result, his time and his achievements at the Camp Nou have almost been stricken from the record. Whitewashed from existence. Yet the pain of his departure, or more pertinently the destination of his departure, is still felt.
Read | João Pinto: the other member of Portugal’s golden generation
The idolisation of Figo at Barça was at fever pitch. The depth of positive feeling towards him is something which still sits uncomfortably on the shoulders of the supporters of the Blaugrana. In the eyes of the Culés, Figo betrayed them. He will never be forgiven.
The visage of Figo in the red and blue stripes of Barça is one which is distorted now, as if seen through frosted glass. A mirage that confuses the senses. While Figo isn’t alone in having made the controversial switch from the Camp Nou to the Bernabéu, this is a visual sensation which isn’t necessarily applicable to Michael Laudrup for instance. Laudrup still somehow belongs in the colours of Barça, more so than he does in the white of Real, despite the torrent of abuse he received on his return to Catalonia in white.
When Figo arrived at Barcelona in 1995, a year after Laudrup’s departure, he did so without fanfare. Signed from Sporting CP for a fee of just £2.2m, he glided in under the radar after a projected move to Serie A floundered, when he controversially signed pre-contract terms with both Juventus and Parma.
In Cruyff’s final season at the helm, Figo was given time and space to acclimatise to his new surroundings, sharing the Camp Nou stage with the prodigiously talented, but soon to be departing, Gheorghe Hagi and José Maria Bakero, plus the sublime yet injury-plagued Robert Prosinečki.
Third place in LaLiga, defeat in the final of the Copa del Rey to the double-winning Atlético Madrid, and a narrow loss to Bayern Munich in the UEFA Cup semi-final brought the end for Cruyff, in what was a decision born of a power struggle between coach and president, rather than for on-field failings.
In the post-Cruyff Barcelona world, Figo would rise and prosper as others fell by the wayside. If not collectively, 1995/96 was a personal success for Figo. His first taste of El Clásico had ended with a point gained at the Bernabéu, on an evening when Luis Enrique was Real’s midfield enforcer. The return game at the Camp Nou saw Barça emerge 3-0 victors, with Figo netting the pivotal second goal midway through the second half.
Read | The great Rivaldo hat-trick of 2001
Euro 96 served to enhance Figo’s blossoming reputation. As part of Portugal’s much celebrated golden generation, alongside Rui Costa and João Pinto they purveyed what Ruud Gullit christened ‘sexy football’. It was a triumvirate of talent that had together won the 1991 World Youth Championship, with the nucleus of the side that had lost to Scotland in the semi-finals of the 1989 World Under-16 Championship.
While Euro 96, and an unexpected quarter-final loss to the Czech Republic, went on to set the tone for a series of glorious shortfalls when it came to the international scene for Figo, his club career was on the brink of a silver-laden future.
As Bobby Robson was brought in as successor to Cruyff, it also marked an influx of new arrivals to the Camp Nou inclusive of Luis Enrique from Real, Ronaldo from PSV, Vitor Baía from Robson’s previous employers Porto, plus the return of Hristo Stoichkov after a year at Parma.
The air of regeneration, after the civil war aura of the previous year or so, brought a wonderful openness and at times endearing naivety to Barça’s football throughout 1996/97. While they always seemed a step-and-a-half behind Real in the LaLiga title race, then did come to administer often forgotten pressure on their bitter rivals during the run-in, ultimately finishing just two points behind Fabio Capello’s champions.
Disappointment in the league was, however, offset by cup success, both domestically and in Europe. The Cup Winners’ Cup was claimed in Rotterdam against Paris Saint-Germain and the Copa del Rey was won in dramatic circumstances at the Bernabéu, when the Blaugrana twice came from behind against Real Betis to win in extra-time. Figo was on the scoresheet twice, inclusive of the winning goal.
Despite the combination of promise and success during 1996/97, change still came. Robson was reluctantly moved to desk duties, making way in the dugout for Louis van Gaal, and the club cashed in on the force-of-nature which was Ronaldo, as he left for Internazionale.
Read | Louis van Gaal: a divisive success story
Once again, Figo remained central to proceedings as the dust settled. He was a man increasingly venerated by the supporters, a man growing in self-value. Robson had been sidelined at the Camp Nou due to perceived weaknesses in tactical organisation and defensive solidity. In finishing runners-up to Real in ’97, Robson’s Barça had scored 102 goals, conceding 48.
Within a year, Figo was on that balcony at the Palace of Catalan Generality, captain of the double winners. Rivaldo now his partner in footballing beauty, yet as ever when it comes to Van Gaal, a degree of sleight of hand was an ingredient. This Barça wasn’t as free-flowing as the 1997 vintage; it scored 24 fewer goals and conceded eight more than Robson’s had. It had been a more functional side that had taken them to comfortable LaLiga glory, and retained the Copa del Rey on a night at the Mestalla when they came to within a penalty kick of losing to 10-man Real Mallorca.
Like previously, political issues came into play at the Camp Nou. During their centenary year, Barça retained the LaLiga title, in what was the bare minimum requirement. The hierarchy had, however, fully expected to see their club grace the Champions League final on home soil, yet they instead exited the competition at the group stages.
Figo, having seen his nation fail to qualify for the 1998 World Cup finals, was feeling the vague sense of a lack of prestige by the summer of 1999. He felt the adoration of the Culés but a degree of under-appreciation from his employers. He wanted to be on the most elevated of platforms. He wanted wider recognition of his talents, and he reportedly wanted that with Barcelona, with a club and within a city he had taken as his own.
Figo’s final season at the Camp Nou was one fraught with internal conflict, both personally for him and generally within the club. As Van Gaal flooded his squad with players from his own home nation, a split appeared. Ruud Hesp, Michael Reiziger, Frank and Ronald de Boer, Phillip Cocu, Bolo Zenden, Winston Bogarde and Patrick Kluivert all arrived during Van Gaal’s first 12-months at the helm. Explosive arguments raged between Van Gaal and Rivaldo over which position he should play.
Throughout 1999/2000, Figo excelled amidst the rancour. Domestically, Barça couldn’t shake the gathering clouds enough to challenge sufficiently as Deportivo La Coruña took their very first LaLiga title. In Europe, however, they did rise. The periodical nature of the games suited a club which was ill at ease with itself domestically. Navigating both group stages with ease, they launched a stirring second-leg comeback in the quarter-finals against Chelsea.
Read | Remembering Florentino Pérez’s Pavones, the players Real Madrid forgot
Figo was pivotal to it all, although having received a yellow card in both legs of the quarter-final, he had to sit out the first leg of the semi-final against Valencia at the Mestalla. It proved to be the night when the path of his entire career arguably changed direction. From the stands, Figo watched on as his teammates were dismantled by Héctor Cúper’s side. A 4-1 reversal left the Catalans with a mountain to climb, and hopes of an El Clásico Champions League final was in shreds.
Yet again, Figo carried the hopes of the Culés onto the turf at the Camp Nou. It proved to be a bridge too far, however, as Barça were comprehensively out-thought. It was the last time that the Portuguese star strode into the Camp Nou as a Barcelona player.
An ebullient Euro 2000, where he helped Portugal to the semi-finals, was soon followed by the seismic news of Florentino Pérez unexpectedly winning the Real Madrid presidential elections, and subsequently by him fulfilling his manifesto pledge to meet Figo’s buy-out fee.
Aged 27 and at the peak of his powers, the unthinkable happened. Figo not only became the most expensive footballer in the world, but he crossed the most volatile divide within the game. Not only did he move between bitter footballing rivals, he switched from the ideological, independence-seeking Catalans to the very seat of centralised power. It wasn’t that he dared to leave, it was where he went to that was the problem. The hero of Barcelona, the captain, the flag bearer, left to join their mortal enemy.
Beyond the wall of hate which met his every return to the Camp Nou, the novelty-sized currency with his face on it, the pigs heads thrown in his direction, the request from the club itself to UEFA for him to be removed from a combined Barcelona-Juventus representative game prior to the 2015 Champions League final in Berlin, the lingering pain is still there as we approach two decades since his infamous transfer.
It is because Luís Figo meant so much to the Blaugrana, and that his actions stung them so badly, that the image of him in the colours of Barcelona to this day seem like a figment of the imagination. In the wake of Louis van Gaal’s expected departure in the summer of 2000, Figo was expected to once again emerge from the dust, standing central to Barcelona’s future path. Instead, he created an even bigger sandstorm.
By Steven Scragg @Scraggy_74
Tags: barcelona, figo, la liga, real madrid
Steven Scragg 14/09/2018
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Why use JET
Jen@TravelAgentJen.com
9-Night Mediterranean Treasures Voyage
Experience the classic beauty of the Mediterranean on this exceptional voyage. Begin in Venice and spend the day exploring its romantic waterways and the lively Rialto Market before a sunset departure. Next stop is Split, Croatia. Nestled in the shadows of Mount Mosor, where the old world collides with modern life and makes up for Croatia’s second-largest city. During your visit, don’t miss the breathtaking Diocletian’s Palace-a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
Don’t be surprised if you leave a piece of your heart in Kotor. Another UNESCO World Heritage Site, the old town is filled with churches, shops, bars, restaurants, and hidden piazzas. Spend the next day taking in all your boutique hotel at sea offers before we begin our Italian exploration in Sorrento-a cliff-side city home to the archeological ruins of Pompeii. Rome, the Capital of the World, holds infinite wells of culture and history at every turn, and Livorno is the gateway to the masterpieces of Florence and Pisa (with an overnight stay here, you can explore to your heart’s content).
With an overnight stay in glamorous Monte Carlo, you’ll be amazed by the opulence, by the breathtaking beautiful surroundings, and for some of the finest people watching this side of the Atlantic. Your voyage concludes in Barcelona. Consider staying an extra night or two before you head home, and leave time to visit Las Ramblas, a delightful tree-lined boulevard and center of activity.
Day 1 Venice, Italy
Depart Time: 6:00 PM - Arrive Time: --
Day 2 Split, Croatia
Depart Time: 8:00 PM - Arrive Time: 12:00 PM
Day 3 Kotor, Montenegro
Depart Time: 8:00 PM - Arrive Time: 9:00 AM
Day 4 At Sea
Day 5 Sorrento, Italy
Day 6 Rome (Civitavecchia), Italy
Day 7 Florence/Pisa(Livorno), Italy
Depart Time: 10:00 PM - Arrive Time: 7:30 AM
Day 8 Monte Carlo, Monaco
Depart Time: -- - Arrive Time: 8:00 AM
Depart Time: 7:00 AM - Arrive Time: --
Day 10 Barcelona, Spain
Ajaccio Corsica
Ajaccio lies about 150 miles (240 km) south of Nice, and is located on the island of Corica. It is an unspoiled city with a blend of French and Italian cultures. Ajaccio is famed for being the birthplace of Napoleon and a charming Mediterranean resort. Explore the spacious squares, narrow streets and little cafes of the town; then venture to the sandy beaches, chestnut woods and deep pine forests that cover more than half the island.
ATHENS — Athens provides a good study in how the New South coexists with the Old South. A lively music scene
(supported by students from the University of Georgia) flourishes in the bars, clubs and coffeehouses of the restored
downtown (it brought the world such bands as R.E.M. and the B52s). But you don’t have to look far to find the Old South: It’s apparent in the many Greek Revival homes and buildings that dot the city, the best example being the Taylor-Grady House. The University of Georgia, across the street from downtown, boasts a number of these Greek Revival buildings, including Demosthenian Hall and the president’s house. The university is where you’ll also find the Georgia Museum of Art (a collection heavy in 19th- and 20th-century American and Italian Renaissance paintings). Off campus you’ll find the Church-Waddel-Brumby House, the oldest surviving residence in the city, now serving as the visitors center. Athens is also home to the fragrant State Botanical Gardens of Georgia. Nature trails wind through the gardens of native flora — the rose garden is especially nice (it blooms May-November). Southeast of Athens in Washington is the Robert Toombs House, the restored home of a recalcitrant Southern politician who hated the North for political reasons and hated the Confederacy almost as much for not electing him president. One of the least mellow individuals the smooth-as-silk South has produced, Toombs never gave up his secessionist fervor or his cantankerous manner. 66 mi/106 km east of Atlanta.
The airport for Puerto La Cruz in northeast on the Caribbean. Isla de Margarita is off the coast.
Located in Oregon, at the mouth of the Siuslaw River. Known as the City of Rhododendrons, which explodes with vivid pink blossoms in late spring. In addition to its coastal features, fresh-water lakes and estuaries create an abundance of things to do:
~ Take a ride on a stern-wheeler or windsurf the river.
~ Explore restored shops and historic buildings in Old Town.
~ Catch a seaplane for a bird’s-eye view of the coast.
~ Visit the Fly-Fishing Museum or try your luck on the Siuslaw.
~ Tee off at Sandpines, Golf Digest’s Best New Public Course of 1993.
Maó-Mahón, or Mahon, is the capital city of the island of Minorca (Menorca), off the Mediterranean coast of Spain. It offers one of the largest natural harbors in the world.
Minorca is home to one of the most respected dairy plants in Europe, where the well-known Mahón cheese is produced. Some believe the city is also the birthplace of mayonnaise.
Popular options for visitors to this vibrant town include shopping, with choices ranging from stylish boutiques to fascinating fish markets, experiencing the town’s colonial past and diverse architecture, and taking a ride on the Mahon Express train to see the sights of the city from a different point of view.
Ah, the French Riviera…is yours for the taking, for a few hours anyway, when you leave the town of Villefranche to tour Monaco, Monte Carlo,St.-Paul-de-Vence, Cannes, and the Grand Corniche.
Monaco is one of the smallest nation’s of the World and Monte Carlo is its city with the Palace place on top of a high rock overlooking the city, the quaint port and the Meditteranean Sea. The small town and Palace area are a must. Plan to spend at least half of a day exploring the many shops along the narrow streets and enjoy the views from the Palace grounds.
Monte-Carlo was founded in 1866 during the reign of Charles III,who gave it his name. This area includes the world famous Casino, great hotels and the recently completed recreational centers consisting of the Centenaire gardens, the Larvotto beach and the Monte-Carlo Sporting Club.
Rome wasn’t built in a day…but you can tour it in just over 10 hours. A teeming anthill of humanity and antiquity intermingled with awful traffic jams, Rome grew up on the Tiber (“Fiume Tevere”) among seven low hills that rise from the river’s soggy eastern banks. It’s a city of many peeling layers of history, of which the bottom layer–that of the earliest Roman centuries–is the most interesting and still astonishingly whole. The hub of this layer is the Palatine Hill, the Forum, the Colosseum and the Circus Maximus.
On the western bank is the Citta Vaticana, the independent papal city where the Pope blesses pilgrims from all over the world. Neighboring Trastevere (“Across the Tiber”) is a mix of Roman, Greek and Jewish subcultures, great for little restaurants and nightlife. Further north on the other bank is “vecchia Roma,” medieval Rome of the Pantheon and Piazza Navona; Renaissance Rome is centered south of the Corso Vittorio Emanuele. Commercial Rome is the city of the Via del Corso, the Piazza del Popolo, the controversial Victor Emmanuel monument and finally the Stazione Termini, the nexus for all trains and roads from Rome.
Come back to Sorrento and “O sole mio” are probably two of the most famous songs in the world. Amidst the colour and noise of all the small towns fringing the Bay of Naples, Sorrento is a haven of peace and quiet with its orange groves and in its associations with history and art. This small town is built on a cliff top that plummets down into the limpid blue sea and looks across to Capri. Torquato Tasso was born here, and the Tarantella is danced here as nowhere else. The Correale Museum is well worth a visit: it is beautifully situated and has a rich collection of furniture, paintings and porcelains.
As you approach the city over the bridge from the Italian mainland, you leave behind terra firma and, with it, earthbound notions of how to see and experience a city. Venice is not solely the spill of churches and palazzi on either side of the Grand Canal, but rather a city of islands, 118 in all, some of which are little more than the weedy, humps you see in the Lagoon of Venice. And yet these mud flats provided haven for the people who fled here (without benefit of a bridge) from Huns, Visigoths, and other marauders in the fifth century. And those refugees gave birth to a culture that ripened into a thousand years of greatness.
As you near the end of the bridge, you see at first only the back side of the city itself. But in the time it takes to walk through the train station, you begin to hear sounds peculiarly Venetian–the low rumble of boat motors, a humid incubation of voices, water lapping insistently against wood and stone. And then Venice confers her greatest gift: No matter how many times you’ve been here, it always seems, in that first glimse, like the first time.
If you are smart, you will immediately start a tour down the Grand Canal by hopping on a vaporetto (water bus) or gondola or water taxi. If you are lucky, it will be during those few hours before sunset when the light shines most kindly on the venerable facades that line this liquid boulevard. If you are particularly observant, you might even notice that neither the light nor the colors are quite Italian, not like the tawny earth tones of Florence or Rome.
The canal is a murkey green, the palazzi a mix of faded, grimy sherbets–watermarked mint and sun-blanched apricot and deep overripe peach. Sunlight shatters into spangles on the water, gondolas knife bach and forth, the Rialto Bridge looms overhead, and then, beyond one final curve, the Palladian church of Santa Maria della Salute and the Campanile (bell tower) of San Marco come into view.
Piazza san Marco is Venice’s grand salon–expansive, familiar, picturesque, pigeonesque. It is anchored at its eastern extreme by the Basilica di San Marco, which is not only the spiritual seat of Venice’s patron saint but also one of the most glittering monuments of Christendom.
Inside$2239.00
Outside$2519.00
Balcony$3149.00
Suite$6369.00
Prices shown in U. S. Dollars. What’s included: Shipboard accommodations, Ocean transportation, most meals, some beverages, most entertainment aboard the vessel. What is not included: Air transportation (except as indicated in the itinerary noted), transfers (except as indicated in the itinerary noted), optional shore and land excursions, and food and beverages on the land portion of the tour (except as indicated in the itinerary noted), travel Insurance.
Jennifer Elliott Travel LLC
985-231-1200 • Jen@TravelAgentJen.com
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Illinois, Massachusetts, Ohio, Montana, Hawaii, Colorado, New York, South Carolina, Utah, Kansas, Virginia
Classical Music’s Most Scenic U.S. Festivals
By: Idoia Gkikas
Soak in the sounds – and the views – at classical music’s most scenic U.S. festivals.
Picture yourself surrounded by awe-inspiring views while relaxing to classical music, perhaps with a glass of wine in your hand as the sun sets in the distance – far, far away from the busyness of everyday life. Intrigued? Take a look at these music venues, concerts and festivals that combine the timelessness of the classical symphony with beautiful spaces and places throughout the USA.
Chicago, Illinois – Grant Park Music Festival
The Grant Park Symphony Orchestra and Grant Park Chorus conduct this 10-week summer concert series in Chicago’s Millennium Park. Performances are at the Jay Pritzker Pavilion, an architecturally inspiring stage designed by Frank Gehry. While you’re there, snap photos of the park’s other landmarks, including Cloud Gate (aka “The Bean”), Crown Fountain and Lurie Garden. In nearby Highland Park, the Ravinia Festival is the oldest outdoor music festival in the USA held every summer since 1905.
Watching a nighttime show at the Jay Pritzker Pavilion
Grant Park Music Festival
Lenox, Massachusetts – Tanglewood Music Festival
Some of classical music’s biggest names, including Yo-Yo Ma, Susan Graham and Lang Lang, have performed during the summertime Tanglewood Music Festival, where many of the concerts begin at sunset under the open sky. In addition to shows by the Boston Symphony Orchestra and Boston Pops, this festival presents a variety of rock, pop and jazz musicians, too, from June through August. Recent artists include Béla Fleck, Roger Daltrey, Alison Krauss and Harry Connick Jr.
The Boston Symphony Orchestra performing at Tanglewood
Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio – Blossom Music Festival
Spread out your picnic blanket and enjoy the show at Blossom Music Center, host to the annual Blossom Music Festival. The event calendar spans June through September and features concerts by the Cleveland Orchestra and Blossom Festival Orchestra. The amphitheater’s striking pyramid shape is surrounded by the lush forests of the Cuyahoga Valley National Park.
Blossom Music Festival
Big Sky, Montana – Big Sky Classical Music Festival
One of the biggest draws to this three-day festival? The main outdoor performances are absolutely free and open to all ages. Every August, the Big Sky Classical Music Festival presents open-air classical performances at Town Center Park, an indoor ticketed concert at the Warren Miller Performing Arts Center as well as activities geared toward student musicians.
Listening to live music in the mountains in Big Sky
Big Sky Classical Music Festival
Hawaiian Islands – Hawaii International Music Festival
Founded in 2016 by violinist Eric Silberger, pianist Carlin Ma and opera soprano Amy Shoremount-Obra, the Hawaii International Music Festival quickly grew into a week-long, multi-island festival. Every facet of the August event highlights an aspect of Hawaiian culture, whether it’s with a traditional ukulele performance or coffee brewed from locally harvested beans. Not surprisingly, the music is accompanied by Hawaii’s unforgettable natural scenery.
Hawaii International Music Festival
Vail, Colorado – Bravo! Vail Music Festival
In winter, Vail is a snow sports paradise. In summer, the hills come alive with the sound of classical music at the Bravo! Vail Music Festival from June to August. Bravo! Vail attracts some of the most respected orchestras in the country – Dallas Symphony Orchestra, Philadelphia Orchestra and the New York Philharmonic – in addition to soloists and small ensembles. Plus, the alpine scenery surrounding the Gerald R. Ford Amphitheater can’t be beat.
A gorgeous summertime day in Vail’s village
Bravo! Vail Music Festival
Katonah, New York – Caramoor Summer Music Festival
Caramoor Center for Music and the Arts is the sprawling estate-turned-cultural-center in the town of Katonah, about 80 kilometers north of New York City. Explore the picturesque gardens, reserve a tour of the Rosen House and, if you’re visiting in summer, attend a concert during the Caramoor Summer Music Festival. Opera, orchestral music and other classical genres are performed throughout the estate grounds, including the Spanish courtyard and historic music room.
Caramoor Summer Music Festival
Charleston, South Carolina – Spoleto Festival USA
Charleston’s popular Spoleto Festival USA, held in May and June, is the U.S. counterpart to the Festival dei Due Mondi based in Spoleto, Italy. During its 17-day run, the festival offers a variety of performances, including opera, choir, theater, ballet recitals, chamber music and more. Charleston is a city steeped in Southern culture, from the onset of the American Civil War at Fort Sumter National Monument to its historic architecture and traditional cuisine.
The iconic architecture and palm trees of Charleston
Spoleto Festival USA
Logan, Utah – Utah Festival Opera & Musical Theatre
Fans of opera and stage performances can’t miss this unique festival, held at the Ellen Eccles Theatre every July and August. With more than 100 events over its five-week run, the Utah Festival Opera covers opera, Broadway musicals, orchestral shows, choral performances, backstage tours and more. The festival is held in Logan, about 130 kilometers north of Salt Lake City.
A performance of the 'Hunchback of Notre Dame' during the Utah Festival Opera in Logan
You may enjoy
Hear the Music, Experience the USA
Cottonwood Falls, Kansas – Symphony in the Flint Hills
The wind-swept, tallgrass prairies of Kansas serve as the setting for the Kansas City Symphony’s esteemed event, Symphony in the Flint Hills. This one-day festival in June offers a new theme every year – 2018 was “water” – with a day of educational events in the pavilion and live musical performances as the sun sets behind the endless horizon. Nearby, explore nature at Tallgrass Prairie National Preserve or visit the cities of Wichita and Topeka.
Symphony in the Flint Hills
Vienna, Virginia – Wolf Trap National Park for the Performing Arts
Bring lawn chairs, food and drinks to watch live concerts at the only U.S. national park dedicated to the performing arts – the Wolf Trap National Park for Performing Arts in Vienna, 30 minutes east of Washington, D.C. From May to September, you might catch a stage musical, classical concert or performance by the Wolf Trap Opera. In addition to the Filene Center and Children’s Theatre-in-the-Woods, the grounds feature hiking trails and ranger-led tours.
Wolf Trap National Park for Performing Arts
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← Now, more than ever, Ireland needs a Strategic Investment Bank
Ireland’s Investment Crisis: Diagnosis and Prescription →
Irish Corporation Tax: Running out of Road in a Zero Sum Game ?
The Irish economic model is premised on the ability to attract an out-sized share of Foreign Direct Investment, particularly from the US, and has been for decades. As a result, we have a vibrant multinational sector that directly or indirectly supports hundreds of thousands of jobs. There are many factors at play, but there can be little doubt that our tax regime is the key driver.
Across the political spectrum, there is near unanimous agreement that the 12.5% corporation tax rate, in place since 1998, can’t be touched. It simply isn’t seen as a policy variable. Any suggestions that this may be otherwise are quickly silenced. Moreover, protecting Ireland’s right to set its own rate has long been a diplomatic priority at EU level.
Our European neighbours have long resented the fact that Ireland has been so successful in attracting foreign investment with its ultra-competitive corporate tax rate. They felt aggrieved when at the same time that they were channeling billions of euros worth of structural funds into the country, and more recently when they were called on to bail the country out in 2010.
The French were always among the most vocal critics, but more recent detractors come from closer to home, in Britain and Northern Ireland. It can hardly be a surprise that the Obama administration has turned the magnifying glass on the leakage of corporate taxes from the US. He campaigned on the issue in 2008, as did John Kerry in 2004.
Unlike many other countries, Ireland has few exemptions or derogations, so that very nearly 12.5% of all profits generated in Ireland accrue to the state in tax revenue. The recent controversy, however, centres on those profits which are not generated in Ireland, but channeled through Ireland to benefit from the fact that they are not subject to Irish tax.
Some of the faux outrage at the testimony of Apple CEO Tim Cook to the US Senate recently was a little tough to take: there is nothing new about this phenomenon, and anyone who knows anything about the Irish economy knows that it has been going on for years in one form or another.
One only has to look at the super-sized profits generated by a well-known soft drinks manufacturer going back many years. With no disrespect to the many people who work hard for the company in Ireland, but much of these profits were artificial, based on inflated royalties paid by one part of the company to another for use of the famous recipe – or so-called intellectual property rights. This is known as ‘transfer pricing’, a practice used and often abused – albeit usually within the law – by big business to locate as much of their profits as possible in the most attractive tax regime possible.
Certainly, Ireland has benefitted: generating billions in tax revenue that would not otherwise have been collected and thousands of jobs that would not otherwise have been created. But at what cost? In this game, for every winner there has to be a loser… and a small player can only keep winning in a zero-sum game for so long.
Ultimately, Ireland is not the sole aggressive competitor when it comes to corporation tax, and not even the most egregious. Neither can Ireland solve the problem by acting unilaterally – firms would just move, or move their profits, to the next most attractive tax regime. It is only through concerted action at a global level that the problem can be addressed.
That tax figured so highly on the UK’s G8 agenda is testament to the issue’s salience. It remains to be seen whether a concrete deal will take shape, and what this would mean for Ireland. What is needed is a level playing field so that countries can agree on what can be taxed where, and then set their own tax rates. In Europe, this concept was at the core of the controversial – in Ireland – proposal for a Common Consolidated Corporate Tax Base (CCCTB). This, or something like it, may yet be revisited at European, or even global level.
The multinational sector has been one of Ireland’s great strengths, but it hides some important weaknesses. Firstly, the economy as a whole, and tens of thousands of employees, are at the mercy of investment decisions made elsewhere. Secondly, while some of the most innovative, high-tech companies have located significant operations in Ireland, the extent to which cutting-edge Research & Development takes place in the country is much more limited. Thirdly, inter-linkages between the domestic and multinational sectors have not developed as they might have. Fourthly, indigenous industry has not sufficiently benefitted from the economic ecosystem generated to sustain the multinational sector in that few Irish firms have managed to scale up to compete globally.
It is important that Ireland remains a competitive location for FDI, but equally important that we support and encourage indigenous industry and entrepreneurship. We have so much to offer as a country; it would be a pity for our perceived Unique Selling Point to be the fact that we allow multinational corporations to avoid paying their fair share.
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We Talk. We Listen.
Conversations about Diversity
What I’ve Learned Since Graduating Seminary… – Elyssa Salinas, M.Div.
Category: Standing Rock Sioux
Standing with Standing Rock Takes All of Us – Rev. Dr. Gordon Straw
On January 7, 2019 January 7, 2019 By wetalkwelisten453In Rev. Dr. Gordon Straw, Standing Rock Sioux1 Comment
The news of Rev. Gordon Straw’s illness and abrupt passing has utterly devastated not only my home institution, the Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago, but much of it’s parent denomination as well – The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. A member of the Brothertown Indian Nation, Gordon had long been a leader and advocate for some of the most neglected yet vibrant voices in the church – those among the Native community and lay leaders. In honor of his passing, We Talk. We Listen. has reposted a reflection he wrote for our blog at the height of the conflict at Standing Rock. Centering around Dakota concept of metakuye oyasin, Straw speaks of how its insights go far beyond Standing Rock. These words are a classic expression of this wonderful man in all of his aspects – professor, husband and father, mentor, friend, and fellow worker in the vineyard – and we are proud to share them again in tribute.
You are missed, Gordon – and we’ll be keeping an eye on your loved ones.
Rev. Dr. Linda E. Thomas – Professor of Theology and Anthropology, Chair of LSTC’s Diversity Committee, Editor – “We Talk. We Listen.”
Just say the name, “Standing Rock,” in a crowd and see what happens.
There are not many people in this country, perhaps the world, who haven’t heard that name and has already painted a picture in their minds of what that name signifies. But, do we really know what “Standing Rock” is? My guess is that each person you ask will have a different answer to the question. The most obvious difference in answers are found in opposing parties: the water protectors, the oil protectors, the Standing Rock Nation, Energy Transfer Partners and all the financial investors in the project, etc. These differences seem insurmountable and most likely they are. These differences are buttressed by decades (even centuries) of distrust, anger, hatred, and completely disparate worldviews. But, if there is to be any hope for a nonviolent resolution that most people can accept, these differences can’t be insurmountable. These are not the only differences of opinion or strategy about this phenomenon called “Standing Rock.”
There are differences of vision within the larger, binary parties of “for” and “against” the Dakota Access Pipe Line (DAPL), too.
Within the “pro-DAPL” party, there are different views: those who are directly connected to the project and looking to profit from it; tribes who are “pro-oil”, but are appalled at the violent, disproportionate use of violent force against another sovereign native nation; much of the federal government who seem to be in favor of the pipeline, but want the route altered to honor the sovereignty of the Standing Rock Nation; law enforcement officers or entities who disagree over the use of force and what appears to be a “bending of the rules” regarding basic human and civil rights; church members who are divided over whether the biblical principles of justice and the preferential option for the poor and disadvantaged (not just Natives) take precedence over the economic context in western North Dakota, which is heavily dependent upon the oil industry.
Within the “anti-DAPL” party, there are different views: the Standing Rock Nation, whose lands and access to clean water are directly impacted by the pipe line; the environmental groups who want the whole project ended, at all costs; there are groups of activists who are focused more on the actual conflict and not on the issues of the conflict, and any number of “well-meaning” people who just want to help the Indians and don’t understand why Chairman David Archambault III is asking them to go home, not understanding the basic premises of tribal sovereignty. Now, I will admit immediately that listing out these differing positions is not comprehensive, are broad generalizations, and are probably not all that helpful at getting at the nuances of this phenomenon we call “Standing Rock.”
Ditches dug for the pipeline.
But, here’s the thing: if we can’t ALL stand with the Standing Rock Nation in some way, this will not end well for most, perhaps all.
What “standing with Standing Rock” means specifically is that we stand in solidarity with the Standing Rock Nation by honoring their inherent right to govern themselves and to take hold of their own destiny. So, when Chairman Archambault asks people in the camps to go home for the winter, we stand with Standing Rock by going home without second guessing the wisdom of that decision. It is not ours to make. When the Standing Rock Nation insists that the federal government and corporate interests honor the boundaries of the 1868 Fort Laramie Treaty as sovereign territory of the Sioux Nation, we stand with them. It also means, specifically, that we stand with the Standing Rock Nation and all other nations in declaring that Water is Life. No amount of tainting the earth’s fresh water supply with oil or chemicals is acceptable. Our nation’s dependence upon fossil fuels (that’s each and every one of us, folks) is threatening our Mother, the Earth, especially the waterways which bring life.
There is an important concept in the Dakota language and culture, metakuye oyasin (meh-TAH-kway oh-AH-see). The common English translation is “all my relatives” or “all my relations.” This phrase is used at the end of prayers, much like our use of the word, “amen.” The concept is a recognition that every aspect of existence is connected to every other aspect of existence, because all things have a single origin, the Creator. It’s not merely an acknowledgment that everything has an existence. It is a declaration that I am connected to everything that exists. I cannot do anything that does not affect ALL my relatives. I cannot pretend that I am not connected to the people, things or forces that I do not want to recognize or even that I hate. We are all related, period. Similar to Martin Luther’s notion of “neighbor,” this extends to all of Creation, not just those closest to us. For the Dakota, it doesn’t even end at the distinction between conscious/not conscious. I am related to all humans, all the members of: the winged nation, the plant nation, the buffalo nation, etc., etc. I am related to the wind and the rain, the sun and the moon, the seven sacred directions, and the forces that move the planets and stars.
All Saints – Wassily Kandinsky (1911)
It literally takes ALL of us, creatures of the Great Mystery, to stand with the Standing Rock Nation, to stand with the people of Aleppo, with the unemployed and the uninsured, the disabled and the disaffected- with ALL my relatives. This is the intention of the Creator, that we stand with each other for the benefit of each other. There is no other reality, but this earthly reality. Even if you could build a spaceship, as some Westerners seem to think will make a difference, it would be the same reality. Metakuye oyasin is a recognition that I am one part of the great Web of life that rests in the Creator.
A while back, at a theological conference that brought Lutherans from the Western hemisphere together, I shared the podium with one of my relatives and mentor in things spiritual. Albert White Hat, Sr. was a greatly respected Lakota spiritual elder of the Lakota people on the Rosebud Indian Reservation in southwestern South Dakota. He was a professor of Lakota language at Sinte Gleska University on the Rosebud Reservation. He led a handful of Lakota elders who re-formed the Lakota language to restore much of the original meaning of the language, which had been lost through translation into English by the White missionaries. By chance (not really, in the native world, there is no such thing as a coincidence), I gave my presentation first. I spoke about the beauty of the concept of “metakuye oyasin.” How it binds all creatures together in a harmony of relationships. As a Christian theologian, I identified this as the work of the Holy Spirit. For 45 minutes I spoke on this theme. The group took a short break, then Albert got up. He thanked me profusely for my presentation, then said, “But, you’ve got “metakuye oyasin” all wrong.
Albert went on to explain what “metakuye oyasin” means to the people of the Great Sioux Nation, which include both the Rosebud and the Standing Rock Reservations. He explained that by virtue of our creation by the Great Mystery, the Creator of all things, each individual creature has the power to make one of two choices: to bring life or to bring destruction. “That is what binds all creatures,” he said. It isn’t a neat, abstract, “kumbaya” notion of “we all live in harmony and isn’t that great?” Metakuye oyasin is the understanding that each of us, at each point in our lives, has the power to choose to bring life to the world around us or to choose to bring destruction to the world around us.
“It is that simple,” he said.
Simple, yes; Simplistic, definitely, no.
Joya Martin
Applying “metakuye oyasin” to your life today is about understanding the power you have, not only for your life, but for the life of the whole world. You have the power to choose self-interest, greed, parochialism, xenophobia, hatred and distrust of others (including your enemies), and the attitude that none of the things that are happening in our communities, our nation, or in the world apply to you. In that case you have chosen to bring destruction: of the earth, of relationships, of community. You also have the power to choose the common good, generosity, respect for all others (including your enemies), tolerance, love, and the attitude that everything that happens in my community, my nation, or in the world is directly connected to me. In that case, you chose to bring life.
No matter where you stand on any particular issue in your world today, including the issue of protecting the water and sacred lands of the Standing Rock people, you must take a stand.
You have no option.
No option other than to choose either life or destruction of life. Standing with Standing Rock, indeed, takes all of us. Metakuye oyasin.
“Standing Rock may be the new Selma.” – Presiding Bishop of the Michael Curry Episcopal Church
The Rev. Gordon Straw brought years of experience in organizational development, development of lay ministry leaders, and experience and commitment to intercultural competency to his work for the church – culminating is his appointment to the Cornelsen Chair for Spiritual Formation at the Lutheran School of Theology (LSTC) in the Spring of 2017. Gordon is an enrolled member of the Brothertown Indian Nation. Prior to his work at LSTC he was in charge of Lay Schools for Ministry in the ELCA as well as functioned as their Director for American Indian/Alaska Native ministries . Gordon is survived by his wife Evelyn Soto and their daughter Amanda, a recent graduate of DePauw University.
Standing With Standing Rock Takes All Of Us – Rev. Gordon Straw, Enrolled Member of the Brothertown Indian Nation
On December 19, 2016 December 23, 2016 By wetalkwelisten453In #NoDAPL, Standing Rock Sioux1 Comment
The Rev. Gordon Straw is an ordained pastor, a member of the Brothertown Indian Nation, and has been long a leader among the Native community in the ELCA. In a follow-up to Bishop Erwin’s post from last week, Pastor Straw fills us in on another important perspective to understand the situation at Standing Rock – the Dakota concept of metakuye oyasin, a word that in the Dakota language group means These insights go far beyond Standing Rock, however, and it is into this larger, cosmic understanding of connected-ness that Straw invites us. Read, comment, and share!
The Rev. Gordon Straw brings years of experience in organizational development, development of lay ministry leaders, and experience and commitment to intercultural competency. Gordon is an enrolled member of the Brothertown Indian Nation. He currently serves as the program director for Lay Schools for Ministry in the ELCA and is a former director for American Indian/Alaska Native ministries in the ELCA. Gordon is married to Evelyn Soto and they have a daughter, Amanda, who will begin her second year at DePauw University, Greencastle, IN in the fall.
Why Do I Go to Standing Rock? – the Rev. Dr. R. Guy Erwin, Bishop of the Southwest California Synod (ELCA)
On December 12, 2016 December 12, 2016 By wetalkwelisten453In #NoDAPL, Doctrine of Discovery, Standing Rock Sioux2 Comments
We have a special guest today on the campus of LSTC. Today – Monday, December 12 – the Rev. Dr. R. Guy Erwin, will be giving a lecture from 2:30-3:30 in our seminary’s Common Room. The lecture, “Honoring the Land, Serving the Neighbor: Reformation Perspectives on Standing Rock” is something of a follow-up to today’s post. As a “mixed-race member of the Osage Nation of Oklahoma,” as Erwin explains, when the Water Protectors at the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation began occupying the land to protest it’s despoiling for the sake of the Dakota Access Pipeline, he was one of the first voices in his church to vehemently raise the issue. The following post is the pastoral epistle he wrote on the eve of his departure for Standing Rock (dated October 24, 2016), an honest compilation of his thoughts, historical observations, and hopes. But though the construction on the pipeline has been indefinitely halted as of two weeks ago,there is still much to be done, making this reflection just as vital and urgent now as it was two months ago. So read, comment, and share – and never forget,mni wiconi, WATER IS LIFE!
ELCA delegation to Standing Rock – (left to right) Presiding Bishop Elizabeth Eaton; Bishop of the Montana Synod, Jessica Crist; the author.
Why do I go to Standing Rock?
I go to Standing Rock because I am a Christian, living out my baptismal vocation in service to Christ’s church as a bishop in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. I am also a mixed-race member of the Osage Nation of Oklahoma, born on land inhabited by my Osage ancestors for a thousand years.
I go to Standing Rock as a pilgrimage to the Native encampments that have been built to help the Standing Rock Sioux Nation stop construction of the Dakota Access Pipeline. I go because I want to show my support for their efforts, to add my prayers to theirs as they call to God for justice, to add my voice to the protest against the indifference to Native rights, violation of sacred land, and endangerment of the natural environment I believe this pipeline represents.
I go to Standing Rock aware that there are many dimensions to the construction of this pipeline, and that there are some who will be hurt regardless of what happens. The pipeline has economic implications for the residents of North Dakota, and it is part of a vast business strategy of corporations that profit from the extraction, transport and sale of fossil fuels to an energy-hungry consumer society. These are painful realities.
I go to Standing Rock in the belief that this pipeline represents for the Native community yet another example of disregard for their concern for the sacredness of the land to which they belong. I believe it also shows disregard for the sovereignty Native nations possess by the gift of God, and which the government of the United States recognizes as being as valid as its own. And I go hoping that this time, the outcome will be different, and that Native voices will be heard.
Water protesters being sprayed with teargas by police.
Time and again, Native interests and rights have been subordinated to the desire of the majority of the population for growth, development, and exploitation of the land. Time and again, the support of the Federal government—uneven and unreliable though that has been—has been Native peoples’ only recourse against state and local government and business interests, which almost always find Native rights inconvenient and an obstacle to what they believe to be progress. Time and again, Native inhabitants of North America have been shown that their lives and rights matter less than those of the non-Native population which now makes up the great majority of the land’s inhabitants.
The pipeline has the potential to bring great wealth to some and increased prosperity perhaps to many. But it also carries with it the potential for great destruction. Though pipelines might be a safer method of transporting oil than trucks or trains, they are still far from safe for the environment, as recent spills across the country continue to show us. It is not so much a question of whether a pipeline will break, as when and where it will, and who will suffer from the damage that ensues.
If a pipeline is safe enough to be built on Native land, or where Native people stand to suffer most from its failure, it ought to be safe enough to be built where the majority population lives. This is not a numbers game: for the larger settler population systemically to discourage the flourishing of Native communities, and then to act against their interests on the ground that they are numerically few, is to add modern insult to historic injury.
I go to Standing Rock because I find in our Lutheran understanding of the Ten Commandments, as articulated in Luther’s Small Catechism, ample reason to see in the threatened Native communities throughout our country precisely those neighbors to whose care we have been called by God. In the spirit of Luther’s teaching, I call Lutheran Christians in the United States to self-examination and repentance wherever they have taken part in the use of power, for self-interest, against the rights and lives of others.
As a nation—to use Luther’s language—we have tricked our Native neighbors out of their inheritance, and we have falsely claimed legal rights to that which was not our own. We have deprived them of their property by crooked deals, and with promises not kept. These are violations of the Seventh and Ninth Commandments, which call on us neither to steal nor to covet, but instead call us to protect others’ property and to be of help and service to our neighbors in maintaining what is theirs.
Then, having subordinated Native peoples, confining them to reservations and curtailing their rights, we have continued to betray and slander them through racial prejudice. Even now, we diminish them through stereotypes and caricatures and mock their attempts to assert their dignity and their rights.
This is a violation of the Eighth Commandment, which instead calls us to the defense of our neighbors’ reputations.
I go to Standing Rock because this year, at its Churchwide Assembly, our church took public action to repudiate these injustices of the past, to seek pardon and reconciliation, and to work in support of Native peoples’ legitimate claims for justice and redress. In its repudiation of the Doctrine of Discovery, the ELCA put itself on the side of Native people.
I go to Standing Rock to live into the promises our church has made.
Tomorrow, on October 25, our Presiding Bishop, accompanied by me and four other bishops, will go to Standing Rock. We go to listen, to learn, and to pray. We go to stand with our feet on the prairie—on the earth our God has made, the land our Native siblings revere, and we go to show reverence and respect for Creation and our fellow human beings. We go to hear the songs and laments of those whose ancestors were on this continent for untold ages before Europeans arrived, and to salute their descendants’ courage. We go, simply to be there.
We go to Standing Rock.
(October 24, 2016)
Bishop Erwin received his B.A.degree from Harvard College in 1980. He holds the M.A., M.Phil. and Ph.D. degrees from Yale University, and has taught both at Yale and California Lutheran University along with having served as pastor on both the east and west coasts. He became bishop of the Southwest California Synod of the ELCA in 2013 and lives in Los Angeles and is married to Rob Flynn, a member of the ELCA.
Chaos and Living Waters – Liz Christensen Kocher; Candidate for Ordination, ELCA
On November 7, 2016 November 7, 2016 By wetalkwelisten453In #NoDAPL, Protests, Standing Rock Sioux4 Comments
The Holy Spirit is moving mightily among us these days – not-so-subtly exposing the systemic evil that plagues this country in everything from our criminal justice system to our electoral politics. It is no wonder than, the dignity of our nations indigenous people’s would eventually come to the fore as well. In response, M.Div. senior Liz Christensen Kocher has written a brief reflection on her time visiting the Standing Rock Sioux last week, effectively modeling the passionate, compassionate, and fearless leadership which church-leaders must provide in times such as these. Read, comment, and share, friends!
In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth, the earth was a formless chaos, and darkness covered the face of the deep. A wind from God swept over the face of the waters. (Genesis 1.1-2)
Then the Spirit showed me the river of the water of life, bright as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb through the middle of the city. On either side of the river is the tree of life with its twelve kinds of fruit, producing its fruit each month; and the leaves of the tree are for the healing of the nations. (Revelation 22. 1-2)
The banner of the delegation of ELCA seminarians.
In his essay, “Out of Chaos,” Native theologian Vine Deloria Jr. narrates the ways that indigenous peoples have been living in exile since their first contact with colonialism. This exile exists when peoples with intimate, divine ties to land and place are systematically removed from those lands and stripped of that spiritual identity. What we are witnessing at Standing Rock is a return from exile, the beginnings of the realization of Deloria’s hope that…
“out of the chaos of their shattered lives…Indians would begin to probe deeper into their own past and view their remembered history as a primordial covenant.”[1]
Out of chaos comes this kairos moment at Standing Rock: this season of time when God’s liberating actions are breaking through the injustices of the world and breathing life and hope into God’s people in this time and space.
So when Episcopal priest and long-time advocate for the Standing Rock Sioux Nation, Father John Floberg, relayed a call from Standing Rock Sioux elders to summon clergy of all denominations and faiths to join together for a public witness, myself and 10 other members of LSTC followed. And during this kairos moment we engaged in peaceful, prayerful, non-violent, and lawful witness to the compassion that the water protectors and Standing Rock Sioux were actively demonstrating in protesting the Dakota Access Pipeline.
Huddled together on bleachers in a community gym in the town of Cannon Ball, ND, our journey in this witness together began. We clarified that our purpose there was not to ‘save’ the people at Standing Rock or to fight their battles, but to be advocates and allies, to be a voice affirming the protests and the actions. We dwelt in the chaos, complication, and uncertainty of the situation. We lamented the places where brokenness was still deep, places as yet unhealed. We embraced anger. We prayed for the law enforcement, knowing that the Creator binds us all together as one body.
Gathering during the morning of Thursday, November 3, 2016.
And then on the chilly morning of Thursday, November 2, 2016, 524 clergy – representing more than 24 faith traditions – stood in front of the Standing Rock Sioux elders, while hundreds from the camp looked on.
We began by publically repudiating the Doctrine of Discovery, a church-created document that negated the humanity of indigenous peoples and allowed for colonial expansion on this very land. Fr. Floberg proclaimed that we could not authentically advocate for the Standing Rock Sioux and all native peoples without first repenting the evil of the doctrine. “They are protecting a pipeline that was put in place because of a church doctrine. And we are here to say that we were wrong.”
With songs of “Amen,” with blessings of a sage smudging, and with the testimonies of Elders and protectors, we began. And when it was our turn to move forward in the march, we heard others saying to us, “I love you. We love you.” Through tears, an indigenous woman at the camp proclaimed these words to both the clergy gathered and the water protectors, elders, and campers at Sacred Stone camp, alike. We gathered at the borderland bridge with clergy from indigenous nations in the Pacific Islands, Central America, and North America; Muslim, Jewish, Buddist, Universalist testimony to the holiness of creation; Native peoples sharing their lands’ religious and spiritual history. The thread that drew us together was the sacredness of the water. Mni Wiconi. Water is life.
Giving testimony at the borderland bridge.
Throughout the time of testimony we clergy were invited, a few at a time, to approach the border of the bridge and pray. With helicopters above my head, militarized police in front of me, surveillance and sniper vehicles ever-present in the distance, we emerged from the crowd of protectors and silently approached that border. I offered words of gratitude to the water protectors, shook their hands, and then lifted my own hand in blessing to the border, and the law enforcement beyond the border. My silent prayer was one of reconciliation, hope, and safety, that the fullness of God’s creation might be restored.
When I returned to our clergy witness, we were gathering, single-file, clergy and non-clergy alike, into an enormous circle. We prayed, and then offered a sign of peace to one another. Every one of us, to every other one of us. And just like that, our time together was over, and after sharing a sack lunch near the bridge, watching the flow of our own little river of life, we explored a bit more of the camp, then embarked on the long journey home.
This kairos moment is about the Dakota Access pipeline, and it’s also about more than the pipeline. It’s about how God created the waters of our land to be the veins of the body of creation, a life force that none can live without. It’s about water protectors coming together to protect that life force, protectors representing over 200 tribal nations, coming together for the first time in at least a century. It’s about standing up to a system that allows desecration of indigenous peoples and lands for the benefit of those in power. It’s about naming the wrongs of 524 years of broken land treaties, abuse, cultural and physical genocide, exiling of a people, and actively righting those wrongs. It’s about breaking free from the reservation system, named by some protectors as “POW camps,” which keeps indigenous peoples in a cycle of staggering unemployment, poverty, and suicide. It’s about the full humanity of every indigenous person in all creation. It’s chaos. It’s amazing. My voice and presence is simply one of thousands that can witness to the creative force that, like Revelation’s tree of life, is for the healing of the nations.
As public leaders, we are called to show up in those places of chaos and uncertainty, beauty and hope. Places like Standing Rock, Ferguson, Baltimore, Michigan Avenue and the street of South Side Chicago, ICE detention centers, advocacy centers and shelters in our small, rural towns. It doesn’t take a far look to see where people are hurting.
LSTC’s delegation to Standing Rock.
Not everyone can make the trip to North Dakota. Not everyone feels called to make the trip to North Dakota. The size and shape of advocacy is a diverse and varied as the make-up of the human family. And yet it is precisely with that beautiful chaos that God uses us to bring about God’s kin-dom.
[1] Deloria Jr., Vine, “Out of Chaos,” in For This Land: Writings on Religions in America. New York: Routledge Publishing, 1999. 248.
For ways to support the Sacred Stone camp and Standing Rock Sioux Tribe:
http://standwithstandingrock.net/
http://standingrock.org/
More information on our clergy gathering:
http://episcopaldigitalnetwork.com/ens/2016/11/04/peaceful-prayerful-nonviolent-stand-of-solidarity-with-the-standing-rock-sioux/
hTtp://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com/2016/11/04/image-gallery-500-interfaith-clergy-and-laity-answered-call-stand-standing-rock-166361
Liz Christensen Kocher is a candidate for ordained ministry in the ELCA and in her final year at the Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago. She is from Omaha, Nebraska, and sees her call to ministry as one that builds bridges, embraces the beautiful diversity of all God’s creation, and has a hope and faith in the future of our church. Liz finds life and energy in making music and hiking with her husband, Phil.
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"... No appetites are safe from the magnificent Southern Creole cuisine when visiting Wells restaurant, located uptown in the Big Apple. Famous for more than their chicken and waffles, Wells entertains customers with Caribbean flair and a frenzy of live music. Harlem hasn't been the same since Wells opened in May 1938. The owner, Elizabeth Wells, is determined to bring people a humble, homey atmosphere with exciting home-style cooking, but with a twist of island flavor and a lot of fun. Joseph T. Wells, the late husband of Wells, had a record of cooking techniques in the mix. Working as a waiter and manager of a restaurant in Florida, Joseph took his craft to New York during the late 1920s. It was inevitable for the young entrepreneur to start his business and, by the spring of 1938, the restaurant bearing his name opened its doors. Elizabeth Wells entered the picture later. They married in 1966, even though she had joined the establishment in 1963. The married couple produced a son named Tommy Wells. With an avalanche of victory for the restaurant, Wells bloomed as one of the greatest hot spots in Harlem, with a bevy of entertainers who dropped in...Wells has been spinning the wheels of the restaurant with tip-top soul food and no regrets..."
This did the job, but it sure wasn't streamlined. Here is a photo from a World War II era training pamphlet. The subject was "How to use electrical appliances." Many rural households were just getting electricity due to the Rural Electrification Administration (REA) and the pamphlet was intended to get folks up to speed with the rest of the country. This photo shows the Government-approved method of "seasoning" a waffle iron (you put oil on it and let is burn in, creating the organic equivalent of Teflon). Any vegetable oil will do.
Bella's rotating waffle maker bakes one round traditional waffle in less than 3 minutes, making it one of the quickest-to-cook models we tested. It received near top performance scores amongst traditional waffle makers tested, producing perfectly tender waffles from both a mix and from scratch and evenly browned 'em, too. Little ones helping cook breakfast will love flipping the waffle maker over after you add the batter.
Traditional waffle irons are attached to tongs with wooden handles and are held over an open flame, or set on a stove. Most modern waffle irons are self-contained tabletop electrical appliances, heated by an electric heating element controlled by an internal thermostat. There are also two variants of the electric iron: one with removable plates and ones with non-removable plates.[2] Professional waffle makers are usually made of cast iron whereas domestic models are often teflon coated. Many have a light that goes off when the iron is at the set temperature. Most modern waffle irons - particularly cast aluminum ones - are coated with a non-stick coating (e.g. teflon) to prevent the waffles from sticking to them. Cast-iron waffle makers are usually not coated and require seasoning like a cast-iron frying pan.
Earliest of the 16th century waffle recipes, Om ghode waffellen te backen – from the Dutch KANTL 15 manuscript (ca. 1500–1560) – is only the second known waffle recipe after the four variants described in Le Ménagier de Paris.[23] For the first time, partial measurements were given, sugar was used, and spices were added directly to the batter: Take grated white bread. Take with that the yolk of an egg and a spoonful of pot sugar or powdered sugar. Take with that half water and half wine, and ginger and cinnamon.[24]
Although the Krups Belgian Waffle Maker is our top pick, for the reasons laid out in the slides below, you should also consider the Oster CKSTWF2000 Belgian Waffle Maker in Stainless Steel, the All Clad 99011GT Stainless Steel Belgian Waffle Maker 2-Square, the Cuisinart WMR-CA Round Classic Waffle Maker, the Chef's Choice Pro Express Waffle Maker, and the Black & Decker G48TD 3-in-1 Waffle Maker.
Belgian waffles are a North American waffle variety, based on a simplified version of the Brussels waffle.[73] Recipes are typically baking soda leavened, though some are yeast-raised.[74] They are distinguished from standard American waffles by their use of 1 ½" depth irons.[75] Belgian waffles take their name from an oronym of the Bel-Gem brand, which was an authentic Brussels waffle vendor that helped popularize the thicker style at the 1964 New York World's Fair.[76]
Waffles remained widely popular in Europe for the first half of the 19th century, despite the 1806 British Atlantic naval blockade that greatly inflated the price of sugar.[50] This coincided with the commercial production of beet sugar in continental Europe, which, in a matter of decades, had brought the price down to historical lows.[51] Within the transitional period from cane to beet sugar, Florian Dacher formalized a recipe for the Brussels Waffle, the predecessor to American "Belgian" waffles, recording the recipe in 1842/43.[52][53][54] Stroopwafels (Dutch syrup wafels), too, rose to prominence in the Netherlands by the middle of the century.[52] However, by the second half of the 1800s, inexpensive beet sugar became widely available, and a wide range of pastries, candies and chocolates were now accessible to the middle class, as never before; waffles' popularity declined rapidly.[50][51]
Breakfast is better with this stainless steel Belgian-style waffle maker. The nonstick, extra-deep grids make thick, fluffy waffles with plenty of room for all your favorite toppings. Plus, the nonstick plates are easy to clean and they’re perfect for making a variety of foods—try out hash browns, grilled sandwiches, brownies, cinnamon rolls, and more! The versatile BLACK+DECKER™ Belgian Waffle Maker lets you create new treats and discover classic favorites.
Brian, I am so glad I’m not alone in regards to the chaos in the kitchen! You most definitely need to get on the waffle iron flow. I totally understand why you don’t have one, though! There’s so much food one can consume and often there’s no time to make the same recipes over and over again each week. The waffle iron is definitely a piece of equipment that won’t get a ton of love compared to a stand mixer or a food processor, though I highly recommend getting a good one that’s inexpensive (got mine for $20 when it was on sale on Amazon); you’ll have some good waffle moments with it. Even non-waffle recipes would be fun to try in one!
The important qualities of a waffle maker are pretty much the same, though, no matter which type of waffles it makes. The ability to provide even heat across all of the plates tops our list; obviously, no waffle is going to be crunchy and delicious if part of it is undercooked, or if it’s necessary to burn one side to a crisp in order to cook the other side all the way through.
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Marine Le Pen’s party in crisis: is this the end?
November 6, 2017 By Bill Wirtz
It was only back in May that Marine Le Pen, the head of the National Front and daughter of its antisemitic founder, performed staggeringly well against Emmanuel Macron in France’s presidential election. Winning 40 percent against Macron in the second-round vote and electing eight candidates to the French National Assembly, Le Pen produced a dream result for her party and her platform of immigration skepticism and political populism. The National Front made all the big headlines, and her candidates dominated primetime TV news.
Several months later, Le Pen’s National Front is in shambles, torn apart by infighting and strife. What happened? It’s important to understand—and resist the temptation to engage in schadenfreude.
Many National Front members were, despite the record result, disappointed after the election, having hoped they’d be able to elect Le Pen president. So the Front’s vice chairman Florian Philippot created a think tank to restructure the party. That effort was undermined when in early September, as her approval ratings declined and Philippot raised more criticism over the party’s policy line, Le Pen decided to strip him off of his responsibilities, which led him to quit the National Front. This divided the party, and put Le Pen at a crossroads.
Le Pen is known for her low-tolerance attitude towards those she regards as traitors. According to Agence France Presse (AFP), she’s either arranged for the departures or straight-out excluded 17 percent of the party’s internal board since 2014. Her heavy hand towards her own allies famously extended to her own father, who she booted from the party after concluding that his antisemitism was a liability. This ruthless purging was the reason the Front lost seven out of its 24 seats in the European Parliament, stripping it of its title of the strongest French party in the European Union.
Le Pen’s authoritarian approach has today left her facing tough questions about her future in the National Front. These woes have led the French press to repeatedly ask: Is this the end of the French far right?
But covering just everyday party politics doesn’t necessarily position one to understand why political movements emerge in the first place. Le Pen wasn’t successful because she had a good team or a fantastic strategy: alas, Donald Trump has shown that neither is really needed to win a presidential election against an establishment opponent. Le Pen’s success is that of her ideas.
Take her protectionism. According to an IFOP (French Institute for Public Opinion) poll in 2012, prior to the presidential election that year, 53 percent of French people believed that free trade has a negative impact on consumer prices, 69 percent asserted that it aggravates the deficit, and a staggering 81 percent believed that it has a negative impact on employment. These views are not limited to any particular demographic: they’re shared throughout the private and the public sector, across different kinds of professions, between urban and rural areas, those working and retired, men and women. Nor did voting intention—whether a respondent was far-left, far-right, centrist, conservative, or socialist—seem to make much difference as to how trade was perceived.
And while age groups did show marginal differences when it came to opinions on protectionism, the perception that Le Pen’s National Front is only supported by old people longing for a new Charles De Gaulle is highly misleading. In the first round of the 2017 presidential election, Le Pen gathered more support among those aged 18-24 than she did from those over 60. In fact, between them, the communist-backed Jean-Luc Mélenchon and Le Pen—both staunch protectionists—amassed over 50 percent of support among young people. The National Front itself ironizes this on its website, in response to the suggestion by other party leaders that the French voting age be lowered to 16: “Since the National Front is the favorite choice for young people, we might be suspected to be interested in such a measure. That is, however, not the case.”
This is why it doesn’t matter if Le Pen’s party stands or falls. It will either reassemble elsewhere or the voters will hijack another party. Ideas don’t just disappear because the messenger left for an early pension. The question in politics is much less “who is in charge?” than “why are they in charge?” Those who oppose the National Front need to change the hearts and minds of people rather than pronouncing a political party dead based on its leadership changes. The best way to defeat the far left and far right is to challenge the economically illiterate and welfare-heavy promises that both sides make, which are exactly what France doesn’t need right now.
Until then, even if Marine Le Pen fades away, France will see a new figure of her kind pop up in the coming years. It’s bad ideas we have to fight, not people.
This article was first published by the American Conservative.
Pictures are Creative Commons.
EnglishFrance, Politics
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Daily Current Affairs 4 July 2018
Daily Current Affairs 4 July 2018: Your guide for daily General Knowledge Preparation
This post contains important current affairs of 4 July 2018. It includes all Major National, International, Business and Sports related current affairs of 4 July 2018. A brief explanation of every current affair is provided to further enhance your general knowledge. Once you have gone through these current affairs we would recommend to you to try 4 July 2018 Current affairs test.
1. The Umbrella scheme “Relief and Rehabilitation of Migrants and Repatriates”.
Cabinet has given its approval for continuance of the 8 existing schemes of the Ministry of Home Affairs up to March 2020 for relief and rehabilitation of migrants and repatriates under the Umbrella scheme.
The schemes will provide relief and rehabilitation assistance to the refugees, displaced persons, civilian victims of terrorist/communal/LWE violence and cross border firing and mine/IED blasts on Indian Territory and riot victims of various incidents etc.
2. Cabinet approves DNA Technology (Use and Application) Regulation Bill, 2018
The primary intended purpose for enactment of the “DNA Based Technology (Use and Regulation) Bill 2018” is for expanding the application of DNA-based forensic technologies to support and strengthen the justice delivery system of the country.
The utility of DNA based technologies for solving crimes, and to identify missing persons, is well recognized across the world.
3. Major General VD Dogra Becomes 1st Serving Indian Army Officer to Complete Ironman Competition
Major General VD Dogra became the first serving Indian Army officer and the only General across the world to have completed a gruelling ‘Ironman’ competition held in Austria.
The Ironman is an international triathlon consisting of three consecutive events- 3.8 km of swimming, 180 km cycling and 42.2 km of running .
4. Happiness Curriculum
Arvind Kejriwal along with the spiritual leader Dalai Lama today launched a ‘Happiness Curriculum’ for students studying in Class Nursery to Class 8 in government schools.
The curriculum will include a 45-minute ‘Happiness’ class, which will include meditation, value education, and mental exercises.
5. First oil Public Sector Undertaking (PSU) in India to adopt an online legal compliance system
Numaligarh Refinery Ltd (NRL),Assam has became first oil Public Sector Undertaking (PSU) in India to adopt an online legal compliance system by introducing ‘Legatrix‘.
This initiative aims to induce greater transparency NRL’s operations and augment its contribution towards Digital India Mission of the Government.
1. 5th Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) inter-sessional ministerial meeting
The 5th Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) intersessional ministerial meeting was held in Tokyo, Japan. It was first RCEP ministerial gathering to be held outside ASEAN countries.
The RCEP is a proposed Free Trade Agreement (FTA) between the ten member states of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) (Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, Vietnam) and the six states with which ASEAN has existing free trade agreements (Australia, China, India, Japan, South Korea and New Zealand).
2. 19th World Congress of Food Science and Technology
India will host the 19th “International Union of Food Science and Technology (IUFoST) 2018” in Navi Mumbai from October 23-27, 2018.
The focal theme for this edition of the prestigious congress is 25 Billion Meals a Day by 2025 with Healthy, Nutritious, Safe and Diverse Foods.
3. Bank of China to operate in India
RBI issued license to Bank of China to operate in India .It is the commitment made by Prime Minister Narendra Modi to the Chinese President XiJinping, during the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) Summit in Qingdao, China.
The Bank of China (BoC) opened its first branch in South Asia in Pakistan’s Karachi last year.
1. Cabinet approves extension of Scheme of Recapitalization of Regional Rural Banks upto 2019-20
Cabinet has approved the extension of the scheme of recapitalization of Regional Rural Banks (RRBs) for the next three years i.e. upto 2019-20.This will enable the RRBs to maintain the minimum prescribed Capital to Risk Weighted Assets Ratio (CRAR) of 9 per cent.
A strong capital structure and minimum required level of CRAR will ensure financial stability of RRBs which will enable them to play a greater role in financial inclusion and meeting the credit requirements of rural areas.
2. Saraswati Prasad Assumes Charge As SAIL CMD
Saraswati Prasad, Special Secretary and Financial Advisor, Ministry of Steel, has taken over the additional charge of the post of Chairman and Managing Director of the Steel Authority of India (SAIL).
He is going to replace P K Singh.
3. IIFL is India’s No. 1 investment bank for Fiscal Year 2017 to 2018
According to Prime Database Investment Bankers League table for Fiscal Year 2017-18, IIFL is India’s top investment bank for equity issuances by private sector companies.
IIFL is a publicly listed company and is engaged in Investment Banking, Securities dealing, Wealth & Asset Management and Loans & Mortgages.
4. Project ‘SASHAKT’
Sunil Mehta committee on bad loans resolution has recommended a five-pronged strategy Project ‘SASHAKT’ to deal with Non-performing Assets in the country’s banking system.
Finance minister Piyush Goyal announced that government has accepted a report submitted by a committee of bankers led by Punjab National Bank chairman Sunil Mehta.
1. The highest ever IT20 individual score
Aaron Finch the Australian captain hit 172 runs, the highest T20I scores, against Zimbabwe in the ongoing tri-series.
The previous record was held by Martin Guptill and Kane Williamson, 171 runs, between New Zealand and Pakistan in 2016.
2. New President of Delhi and District Cricket Association (DDCA)
TV anchor Rajat Sharma, known for his show ‘Aap Ki Adalat’, has been elected as President of Delhi and District Cricket Association (DDCA)
Rajat Sharma defeated cricketer Madan Lal by 517 votes.
3. Kohli becomes fastest to reach 2,000 runs in T20I cricket
In 56 matches , Virat Kohli has become the first Indian and fastest overall to reach 2,000 runs in men’s T20I cricket.
Martin Guptill holds the record for scoring the most T20I runs (2,271).
Try some Quiz Questions now: Current Affairs Quiz,4 July
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[Then you look at ?] Good Omens miracles
Credits Good Omens / Amazon Prime Video
Almost thirty years after the release of the book Good Omens : The nice and accurate prophecies of Agnes Nutter Witch, Neil Gaiman sign itself, the adaptation of the title on our screens with a six-part series, available from today on Amazon Prime. A script faithful to the original work, which traces the adventures of the demon Crawled (Crowley VO), and the angel Aziraphale, two creatures bible despised by their peers, and determined to save the universe from the Apocalypse. After having lived thousands of years among the men, the two partners do indeed seem to not really decided to give up the pleasures of the earthly life, and will eventually decide to team up to prevent the Antichrist – personified in a boy of eleven years, from destroying the world. But would it still know where is the last…
A casting fiendishly effective
For this mini-series in six episodes, which should not (normally) not aware of, following, Neil Gaiman offers a casting tasty, the british accent no hidden. The tandem master, played by David Tennant (Doctor Who, Jessica Jones) and Michael Sheen (Alice in wonderland, Twilight), works wonderfully, and gives the reply to the second role, no less talented. You will find Frances McDormand (Fargo) in the divine voice, Adria Arjona (True Detective) as a witch prophetic a little clueless, or even Jon Hamm (Mad Men) in unbearable Archangel Gabriel. A cast that is as effective as successful, at the height of the rest of the series. Used to the epic biblical with American Gods, the second season has made its arrival in 2019 on Amazon Prime Video, Neil Gaiman offers us this time a new battle is theological, where the figures of christ are more akin to the ball than true deities.
Humor apocalyptic
After watching the first two episodes of the series, the conclusion is without appeal : if the bet fit on the small screen the work of Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett was bold, it is devilishly successful. Mid-way between H2G2 and The Orphans Baudelaire, Good Omens sign a fine posthumous tribute to Terry Pratchett. Put in image by the film’s director Douglas McKinnon, who was already a few episodes of Doctor Who and Sherlock, the humor of the series is resolutely british, irreverent, colorful and funky, sometimes bordering on the burlesque. The universe of the series shouldn’t disorient fans of the inheritance Pratchett, who in turn will find an artistic direction to a colorful and dreamlike.
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Heinrich Himmler Becomes Head of the Gestapo
On April 20,1934 Göring and Himmler agreed to put aside their differences (largely because of mutual hatred and growing dread of the Sturmabteilung) and Göring transferred full authority over the Gestapo to Himmler, who was also named chief of all German police forces outside Prussia. Himmler on April 22, 1934 named Heydrich the head of the Gestapo. Himmler was later named the chief of all German police on June 17, 1936. At that point, the Gestapo was incorporated into the SIPO or Sicherheitspolizei with the Kripo or Kriminalpolizel (Criminal Police) and considered a sister organisation of the SD or Sicherheitsdienst. Reinhard Heydrich was head of the SIPO (Gestapo & Kripo) and SD. Heinrich Müller, was the chief of operations of the Gestapo. He answered to Heydrich. Heydrich answered only to Himmler, who in turn answered only to Hitler.
The merger of the SS and Gestapo effectively removed it from the oversight of Frick, who as interior minister would have normally been Himmler's superior. However, Himmler and the SS, as mentioned above, were responsible only to Hitler.
The Gestapo had the authority to investigate treason, espionage and sabotage cases and cases of criminal attacks on the Nazi Party and Germany. The basic Gestapo law passed by the government in 1936 gave the Gestapo carte blanche to operate without judicial oversight. The Gestapo was specifically exempted from responsibility to administrative courts, where citizens normally could sue the state to conform to laws. As early as 1935, however, a Prussian administrative court had ruled that the Gestapo's actions were not subject to judicial review. Werner Best, Himmler's right-hand man with the Gestapo, summed up this policy by saying, "As long as the police carries out the will of the leadership, it is acting legally." A further law passed later in the year gave the Gestapo responsibility for setting up and administering concentration camps. In September 1939 the security and police agencies of Nazi Germany were consolidated into the Reich Main Security Office (RSHA), headed by Heydrich. The Gestapo became Amt IV (Department IV) of RSHA and Müller became the Gestapo Chief, with Heydrich as his immediate superior. After Heydrich's assassination in 1942, Ernst Kaltenbrunner became head of RSHA, and Müller remained the Gestapo Chief, a position he occupied until the end of the war.
Adolf Eichmann was Müller's direct subordinate and head of Department IV, Section B4, which dealt with Jews.
The power of the Gestapo most open to misuse was called Schutzhaft – "protective custody", a euphemism for the power to imprison people without judicial proceedings. An oddity of the system was that the prisoner had to sign his own Schutzhaftbefehl, an order declaring that the person had requested imprisonment – presumably out of fear of personal harm (which, in a way, was true). In addition, thousands of political prisoners throughout Germany – and from 1941, throughout the occupied territories under the Night and Fog Decree – simply disappeared while in Gestapo custody.
During World War II, the Gestapo was expanded to around 46,000 members.
Source: Wikipedia Added by: Rob Brent
Another ambitious Nazi, SS Reichsführer Heinrich Himmler, soon set his sights on the Gestapo. A fierce rivalry then developed between Himmler and Göring, with both men working against each other to curry favor with Hitler as to who would actually run the Gestapo. On April 20, 1934, after much infighting, Göring decided to cede the Gestapo to Himmler and his associate, Reinhard Heydrich, who took over as Gestapo chief two days later.
The ever-ambitious Göring had set his sights on something much bigger than being a policeman. The former World War I flying ace and recipient of the prestigious Pour le Mérite medal fancied himself as a military leader. He wanted to take charge of a rejuvenated German Air Force. His interest in police matters and the Gestapo had diminished as Hitler's plans for a huge military buildup became apparent.
Source: The History Place Added by: Rob Brent
The Gestapo is Born
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Former World Champion Says AEW Is Not ‘Legitimate Competition’ For WWE
Former World Heavyweight Champion Batista returned to WWE for the second time in 2019, setting up a feud with Triple H that culminated in a match with “The Game” at WrestleMania 35.
The bout on the “grandest stage of them all”, which Batista ultimately lost, was his last as a wrestler. “The Animal” officially announced his retirement the day after the big show.
In an interview with Chris Van Vliet, Batista spoke about a variety of topics, including his final run with WWE, and his views on All Elite Wrestling.
When asked if he saw Tony Khan’s new promotion as a threat to Vince McMahon’s WWE, Batista said it’s “not even close”:
“I don’t see it as legitimate competition. I see it as competition, which is great, there should always be competition. But until they actually produce one of their own major stars, until they actually have a production that is as big as WWE, and until they start… I mean, WWE has already got the next three generations of Superstars because they have NXT camps all over the world now. They’re so far ahead of the game that I don’t see any competition, like real competition. Not even close. But I believe that competition is always good, especially in the sports entertainment industry. I really support them.”
This comes after it was reported that Vince McMahon and others within WWE were surprised with how well AEW is doing in its infancy.
Thanks to Cageside Seats for the transcription.
Eric Bischoff Not Involved In First Bischoff Era SmackDown Live 17th July 2019 at 11:18am by Andy Datson
Will Ospreay Gives Injury Update Following Missed G1 Climax Match 17th July 2019 at 2:01pm by Andy Datson
Vince Russo Tells Becky Lynch To Screw Seth Rollins, Becky: “I did” 17th July 2019 at 11:57am by Andy Datson
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Home Editorials Labour’s left leadership is paralysed as Blair and Co move in for...
Labour’s left leadership is paralysed as Blair and Co move in for second referendum!
PM May yesterday attacked former Labour PM Tony Blair accusing him of ‘undermining’ her Brexit talks by calling for a second referendum.
In fact Blair’s intervention is a stroke of good fortune for the beleaguered Tory leader, whose mission always was to ‘leave’ the EU but leave the working class still bound hand and foot by the EU and its European Court of Justice (ECJ) via a never-ending ‘backstop’.
Blair’s support for anything is a real ‘kiss of death’. He is hated as the man who took the UK to war with Iraq, based on a pack of lies. Hundreds of thousands of completely innocent men women and children died because of his decision to support a US attack on Iraq, which destroyed it and led to the rise of ISIS, and further mass killings, and not least the massive exodus of millions from the Middle East as people fled for their lives.
Now Blair is returning and fancies installing himself as the leader of Labour’s right wing, by fomenting an anti-Brexit coup. Their choice is either a second referendum or a straight forward House of Commons coup after the ECJ found that the UK could unilaterally rescind Article 50 and remain in the EU.
They want a second referendum, but also dread that they could lose it or that it could lead to battles on the streets, or to claims that it was being rigged. In fact workers in the UK are becoming more and more anti-EU, as they look at the French workers being battered in the streets by ‘Emperor’ Macron.
When Macron declares for a European Army, UK workers and youth declare ‘Leave us out of it’. The working class in the UK is going to quit the EU to go forward to socialism. And they are not on their own, the workers of France, Italy, Belgium and Greece feel exactly the same way.
The Tory party is now in a desperate crisis with splits and divisions galore and with many MPs desperate to capitulate to the EU bullies who are treating the UK exactly as they treated Greece. Instead of pushing forward to defend Brexit as Labour did when it destroyed May’s majority in the 2017 general election, and opposing May’s capitulation to Brussels, Labour’s left leadership is paralysed. It is unable to say exactly what it will do.
Appearing on the Andrew Marr Show on Sunday morning, Andrew Gwynne, Shadow Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, was asked directly: ‘Are you going to try to bring down this government before Christmas?’
He replied: ‘The main thing that we want next week is that meaningful vote on the withdrawal agreement… We’ve secured that meaningful vote for Parliament, we can’t move to the next stage until Parliament has decided whether or not to back the prime minister’s deal.’
‘So to be absolutely crystal clear,’ said Marr, ‘you will not put down a motion of no confidence in this government until you’ve had a meaningful vote on the Brexit arrangements?’ Gwynne replied: ‘Well we think that that’s the next logical step because we want to make sure that Parliament has its say on what is a catastrophically bad deal for this country. We can then move on beyond that, but I’m not interested in the theatrics of what goes on in the House of Commons. I want to make sure that Parliament takes back control of this process and has a say on Theresa May’s deal.’
Marr continued: ‘Why not go to the House of Commons tomorrow and put down a vote of no confidence in the government and try to win it?’ Gwynne replied: ‘Because we want to do that when we can succeed and the first step is to get this deal decided on by the House of Commons. Until the Commons has had its view on Theresa May’s deal she’s going to limp on pretending that this can get through. The reality is this can’t get through.’
Marr said: ‘Can I ask you is it still clearly the position as far as you are concerned, if you don’t get that general election you will vote for a second referendum?’ Gwynne replied: ‘We’ve said we want a general election, that is the party policy, and it was agreed unanimously at Labour Party Conference, clearly if we get beyond that period then everything has to be on the table here.’
Marr said: ‘In that circumstance, if there is a second referendum, if that’s voted through by the House of Commons and happens, is the Labour Party going to go into that second referendum advocating that we should stay in the EU or that we should leave the EU?’
Gwynne could not even reply to that question. He said: ‘We are going to have to discuss tactics if and when we come to that? Policy is decided by our members in a democratic and open way.’
With Labour paralysed workers must defend Brexit and see it through with mass strike actions to bring Parliament to its senses, or bring it down. Workers must join the WRP and build the revolutionary leadership that will organise to break with the EU at once, and expropriate the British bankers and bosses to go forward to socialism. It will ally itself with the workers of Europe to bring down the EU and replace it with the Socialist United States of Europe. This is the only way forward!
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Woman dies in head on crash with truck in Sydney’s west
By 9News Staff
6:16am Dec 11, 2018
A woman has died in a head-on crash in Sydney’s west.
Her car collided with a truck on Mamre Road in St Clair at 3am.
She died at the scene.
A woman has died in a head-on crash with a truck at St Clair. (9News)
The truck diver only suffered minor injuries. (9News)
The male driver suffered minor injuries and was taken to Nepean hospital for mandatory tests.
Local diversions are in place, which are expected to affect peak hour traffic this morning.
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Trump: New Iran sanctions are for peace
9:08pm Aug 7, 2018
The first set of US sanctions against Iran that had been eased under the landmark nuclear accord have gone back into effect under an executive order signed by President Donald Trump.
The sanctions target financial transactions that involve US dollars, Iran's automotive sector, the purchase of commercial planes and metals including gold.
More US sanctions targeting Iran's oil sector and central bank are to be reimposed in early November.
In an early-morning tweet, Trump said the re-imposition of sanctions mean, "Anyone doing business with Iran will NOT be doing business with the United States."
"I am asking for WORLD PEACE, nothing less!"
Trump pulled the US out of the international accord limiting Iran's nuclear activities three months ago, declaring that the landmark 2015 agreement was "horrible" and left the Iranian government flush with cash to fuel conflict in the Middle East.
But European Union foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini, during a visit to Wellington, New Zealand, said that the EU is encouraging enterprises to increase their business with Iran, as the country has been compliant with their nuclear-related commitments
Britain urges Iran to 'de-escalate tension' in the region after attempted tanker seizure
Trump says Iran 'better be careful' as Tehran increases uranium enrichment
"We are doing our best to keep Iran in the deal, to keep Iran benefiting from the economic benefits that the agreement brings to the people of Iran because we believe this is in the security interests of not only our region, but also of the world," she said. "If there is one piece of international agreements on nuclear non-proliferation that is delivering, it has to be maintained."
A senior administration official, briefing reporters under ground rules requiring anonymity, said the United States is "not particularly concerned" by EU efforts to protect European firms from the sanctions.
Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said that Iran still can rely on China and Russia to keep its oil and banking sectors afloat. Speaking in a television interview, he also demanded compensation for decades of American "intervention" in the Islamic Republic.
Months of uncertainty surrounding the sanctions have already further hurt Iran's economy. The country's rial currency has tanked, and the downturn has sparked protests across the nation.
The "Trump Administration wants the world to believe it's concerned about the Iranian people," Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said in a statement posted to Twitter. But, he said, the reimposed sanctions would endanger "ordinary Iranians".
"US hypocrisy knows no bounds," he said.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, a firm foe of the Iranian government, said the sanctions symbolise "the determination to block Iran's regional aggression as well as its continuous plans to arm itself with nuclear weapons".
© AP 2019
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Sheldon Danziger: “Economic growth on its own is no longer a sufficient antipoverty strategy”
On May 13, 2010, Sheldon Danziger was inducted as the John Kenneth Galbraith Fellow of the Academy at the Newseum in Washington, DC. In inducting him, Kenneth Prewitt noted “For nearly half a century Sheldon has been in the thick of scholarly attention to and policy debates about inequalities, lamenting that ‘Poverty remains high not because of a shortage of effective antipoverty options but because the public and policy-makers have not made reducing poverty a priority.’ He shares that troubling conclusion with John Kenneth Galbraith, as he does a concern to plug away at correcting that flaw in the body politic.” The following is a transcript of Danziger’s remarks.
“I am honored to have been selected as a John Kenneth Galbraith Fellow. Over the course of my career, I have analyzed trends in poverty and income inequality and the antipoverty effects of social programs. John Kenneth Galbraith brought the extent of poverty in the post-World War II economy to the attention of policy-makers and the public. His The Affluent Society (1958), Michael Harrington’s The Other America (1962) and Robert Lampman’s 1959 presentation to the Joint Economic Committee of Congress provided the moral and economic motivation for President Johnson’s declaration of War on Poverty in January 1964.
Before preparing these remarks, I re-read The Affluent Society and found passages that resonate with the most important research findings and policy contributions of my career. According to Galbraith (1998, 40th Anniversary edition, p. 238), “The most certain thing about this poverty is that it is not remedied by a general advance in income.” That is, economic growth on its own is no longer a sufficient antipoverty strategy.
Explicitly testing this hypothesis was the focus of several papers that I co-authored with Peter Gottschalk in the 1980s, that culminated in America Unequal (1995). This research was supported by the Russell Sage Foundation. We demonstrated that, to quote Galbraith, poverty was no longer being “remedied by a general advance in income,” for two reasons. First, economic growth, especially growth in inflation-adjusted male wages, was much slower after 1973 than it had been in the prior quarter century. Second, “a rising tide was no longer lifting all boats” and earnings inequality and family income inequality were increasing even during economic recoveries.
In 2010, few will find it odd when I assert that poverty will remain high for the next several years even as the economy emerges from recession, because it is now conventional wisdom that economic growth for the last three decades has favored highly skilled professionals and left behind blue-collar and service sector workers. However, in the early 1980s, Gottschalk and I faced a skeptical readership. We even had an informal contest with AAPSS Fellows Rebecca Blank and Alan Blinder who had written that poverty would fall significantly during the economic recovery of the mid- to late-1980s. In contrast, Gottschalk and I expected poverty to fall little because the poverty-reducing effects of growth were being offset by the poverty-increasing effects of rising inequality. The economic history of the past 35 years has proved Galbraith prescient, as the official poverty level never fell below the 1973 level.
Another Galbraith hypothesis—that poverty remained high in our affluent society because “individual inadequacy precludes employment and participation in the general advance (p. 238)”—foreshadows the conclusions of my research on the effects of the 1996 welfare reform on the economic well-being of low-income mothers. Sandra Danziger and I, and several University of Michigan colleagues, developed the Women’s Employment Study that interviewed welfare mothers multiple times between 1997 and 2003. An unexpected finding, confirmed in numerous subsequent studies, is that many low-income mothers have multiple barriers to employment that prevent them from working steadily even when the unemployment rate is low.
Prior to our study, researchers and policy-makers focused on two conflicting hypotheses as primary causes of low employment levels—either (a) welfare mothers were unwilling to take available jobs or (b) spatial and skill mismatches made available jobs unsuitable for or inaccessible to these women. As a result, we had designed and analyzed policies to raise educational attainment and labor market skills and experiences. The Women’s Employment Study analyzed the extent of employment barriers in domains that were not previously studied by poverty researchers and documented high rates of learning disabilities, maternal health and child health problems, mental health problems, such as depression and post-traumatic stress disorder, and experiences of domestic violence. Because these barriers had been neglected, the Work First programs implemented by the states after the 1996 welfare reform primarily provided job search assistance. Agency staff did not provide assessments and referrals to services, such as to health and mental health treatment that might help these women overcome their barriers. As a result, the 1996 reform reduced welfare dependency, but created a new problem—“disconnected mothers,” those who were willing to work, but could not find jobs after being terminated from cash welfare.
Congress will soon consider the re-authorization of welfare reform. It is likely that the debate will address multiple barriers to employment, as our study stimulated additional research and a randomized demonstration focused on the hard-to-employ.
Poverty has increased because of the recession that began in December 2007. Fortunately, the Obama administration has promoted policies that address Galbraith’s concerns and my research findings about both the antipoverty effects of economic growth and the barriers of the hard-to-employ. Many antipoverty policies were included in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA), the 2009 Economic Stimulus. The Act raised Food Stamp benefits, expanded the Earned Income Tax Credit for low-income families with three or more children, subsidized the purchase of health insurance through COBRA for laid-off workers, extended the per capita child credit in the federal income tax to families with earnings between $3,000 and $12,000 per year, extended unemployment insurance benefits and provided states with incentives to modernize their UI programs. Most relevant for welfare reform reauthorization, the ARRA provided emergency funds [that] more than 20 states are using to subsidize temporary public service jobs for those willing to work but [are] unable to find an employer to hire them.
The ARRA reforms are more significant than anything that the federal government has done for the working poor and near poor in decades. However, most of these reforms will expire within a year without Congressional action. And, there is already more discussion in Washington about reducing the deficit than there is about making these policies permanent. If these reforms expire, then poverty and income inequality will remain high in our affluent society even when the economy fully recovers from the “Great Recession.” Galbraith called attention to these problems 50 years ago; his concerns remain relevant today.”
Sheldon Danziger:”Economic growth on its own is no longer a sufficient antipoverty strategy,” Kenneth Prewitt’s Induction
Sheldon Danziger:”Economic growth on its own is no longer a sufficient antipoverty strategy,” Sheldon Danziger’s Remarks
Carol S. Dweck: The Importance of Mindsets in Achievement, Resilience, and Conflict ResolutionFellows
Kitty Calavita: “The persistent gap in immigration law and its stubborn failures”AAPSS, Fellows
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The Important Role of Social Motives in the Economic Domain
My research over the last 20 years has aimed at a better understanding of the role of human motivation in economic and social interaction. Twenty to 30 years ago, mainstream thinking in economics was thoroughly based on the assumption of, first, rationality and, second, self interest. While it is undoubtedly the case that self interest is one important component in human motivation, it is not the only component and I always was convinced that social motives – motives to help, to support, to reciprocate, to cooperate, and to do justice to other people – play an important role, even in the economic domain. But one’s beliefs and what one can prove scientifically are two different pairs of shoes.Therefore, I started a research program studying the economic implications of these social motives, with the help of laboratory experiments and, more recently, by conducting field experiments and combining neuroscience with experimental economics.
I still remember in the early 1990s, when I started doing this, the smiles on my colleagues’ faces, who did not take that seriously. In the course of this research, we found, among other things, that individual heterogeneity in social motives is fundamentally important for how institutions function. Small institutional details, which should play no role at all if all people are selfish, can play a tremendous role if some people have social motives. In fact, it is possible to show, theoretically and empirically – and that is what we did – that even a small share of people who have social motives can make a big difference for aggregate outcomes in the economy, for what happens in various types of social interaction, in organizations and in markets.Economics is beginning to change and to take some of these insights seriously and I have the feeling and the impression that even politicians are taking that seriously. The insight that institutional design has to take into account fundamental human motivations is, I think, quite an important insight. And, by the way, this year the Nobel Prize in Economics has been awarded to three famous economists for their work on mechanism design, which is concerned with the question “How should we design a good world, how should we design good institutions?” The literature on mechanism design has without doubt provided deep insights and important foundations for economics. But in my view one limit of many of the contributions to this literature is that they assume that all people are exclusively selfishly motivated. What our research has shown is that this assumption can lead to wrong conclusions and that you have to take into account these motives, even if only a small share of the people have these motives.
Another point why I find my research satisfying is that it happened several times in the past that politicians sat in the audience and after they listened to my presentation they came to me and said, “We have to change the way we present ourselves, we have to take these insights into account and we should not just assume that everybody is all the time selfish.” Finally, what also has been very gratifying is the potential wide applicability of our experimental paradigms in the other social sciences like, for example, sociology, political science, or anthropology and, more recently, even neuroscience and behavioral genetics.
Ernst Fehr is Director of the Institute for Empirical Research in Economics at the University of Zurich.
Fehr is the 2008 AAPSS John Kenneth Galbraith Fellow. These remarks were delivered upon accepting his Fellowship on May 8, 2008.
economics, methodology
Crafting Rules to Sustain ResourcesAAPSS, Fellows
The Importance of “Deep Involvement in the World of Action”AAPSS, Fellows
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The Craigellachie style of whisky is a memorable experience thanks to the continuing use of worm tubs at the distillery. It’s an earthy yet fruity style with a hint of smoke and a heavy malt style on the palate with traces of nuts and sweetness with a dry finish.
During the midst of a whisky boom towards the tail end of the 1800’s, many were encouraged to start up their own distilleries in the pursuit of wealth, or seek out new suppliers due to existing demand for their blended scotches. For Craigellachie these sides came together to form the Craigellachie Distillery Company Limited in 1890, with the name meaning the rocky hill and the hiring of Charles Doig to design the distillery meant no expense was spared.
The major partners were Peter Mackie who owned Lagavulin and the White Horse Distillers brand, alongside was Alexander Edward who had already established Aultmore and Benrinnes. It was a convenient arrangement as Edward’s powerbase was on Speyside, whist Mackie was seeking producers for his White Horse blend. Craigellachie would grow to become a major component of the blend over the next several decades and in 1916 Mackie gained total control of the distillery, thus securing its output. Edward had fallen on hard times after his Midas touch in the 1890’s, where the Pattison Crisis and the harsh economic realities of the First World War had forced him to sell and Aultmore followed suit a couple of years later.
Eventually the company was acquired by the Distillers Company Limited when they purchased the White Horse portfolio, before transferring Craigellachie to Scottish Malt Distillers in 1930. Its uneventful existence continues until 1964 when the distillery is rebuilt and the number of stills are doubled to 4. This was a growing trend across Speyside with distilleries turned more into production units and other duties such as maturation and cask filling were utilised at a central facility. In 1992 its output was licensed to White Horse Distillers unsurprisingly given its stature in their blend, which has declined in sales since its glory decades of the 1950’s. The distillery was acquired shortly afterwards in 1998 by John Dewar & Sons with its parent company today being Bacardi.
Until relatively recently, Craigellachie was a distillery you drove past when in the region, but rarely saw make an appearance on the shop shelf. That all changed in the 1990’s when a 14-year-old bottling appeared as part of the Flora & Fauna range that was primarily created to showcase lesser known distilleries. Today it’s one of the more collectable releases in the range, as not many were released and in 1998 the distillery and others within the John Dewar company were sold to Bacardi, which put an end to any further releases in the range. However, in 2004 it appeared as an official standalone single malt bottled at 14-years-old and until recently continued to exclusively support the Dewars range of blends including its White Label scotch.
This all changed in 2014, as Bacardi decided to showcase the distilleries it had acquired as part of the Dewar deal with a new range of single malts known collectively as the Last Great Malts programme. Each distillery received a unique bespoke design and a series of age statement expressions. For Craigellachie this comprises of the 13, 17 and 23 year olds that were joined by a 19 edition destined for travel retail. This was eventually crowned by the premium 31-year-old that in 2017 was voted as whisky of the year, giving the distillery and its whiskies a new prominence and no doubt a sales boost.
The Craigellachie style of whisky is a memorable experience thanks to the continuing use of worm tubs at the distillery. It’s an earthy yet fruity style with a hint of smoke and a heavy malt style on the palate with traces of nuts and sweetness with a dry finish. Currently it is producing around 4.1 million litres of alcohol that were mainly destined for the blended market but with this award and continuing support from independent bottlers, we may be seeing a lot more of Craigellachie in the coming years.
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The video is no longer available.
Lateline: ABC TV
Ex-US Govt staffer reviews Iraq position
Posted Wed 22 Mar 2006, 12:16am
Updated Tue 21 Mar 2006, 10:46pm
Former US Government staffer Colonel Lawrence Wilkerson is reviewing his position on the Iraq War, despite being instrumental in the putting the case for invasion.
TONY JONES: Well, as the chaos in Iraq continues, more and more former supporters of the war are reviewing their respective positions, including some of those involved in putting the case for invasion. Colonel Larry Wilkerson served in the US military for 31 years, seeing action in Vietnam and also spending time in Korea and Japan. In 1989,he began working for Colin Powell - a relationship which lasted 16 years, ending only when Powell stood down as US Secretary of State at the beginning of last year. By then, Colonel Wilkerson was Colin Powell's chief of staff and instrumental in preparing his testimony and speeches leading up to the invasion of Iraq three years ago. Colonel Wilkerson joins us now from the ABC's Washington studio. Larry Wilkerson, thanks for being there.
COLONEL LARRY WILKERSON, FORMER CHIEF OF STAFF TO COLIN POWELL: Good to be here.
TONY JONES: Can I ask, when did you first come to the conclusion that the invasion of Iraq was the worst ineptitude in governance, decision-making and leadership in 50 years?
COLONEL LARRY WILKERSON: Well, it took a great deal of study, both as an academic, looking back over the time period in which I was involved and also reviewing my notes and looking at things during that time period itself, that is the time period when I was involved. Let me just correct one thing - I'm not saying that the decision to go to war or the war itself in and of itself was an inept decision. What I'm saying is the aftermath, the lack of planning, the lack of post-invasion thought, even, was an ineptitude of the first order and possibly even the greatest ineptitude of the history of America.
TONY JONES: You're a Vietnam veteran. Do you seriously think it is worse than Vietnam?
COLONEL LARRY WILKERSON: I'm coming seriously to believe that the leadership that I saw and have studied since as an academic with regard to Vietnam, is being parallelled, if not exceeded, by the leadership, both uniformed and civilian, in this conflict and I pray to God that we don't have four or five more years of this before someone comes to the conclusion in the leadership that enough is enough and we do something to change the situation dramatically.
TONY JONES: You have talked about a cabal influencing President Bush in his decision-making. Who's in that cabal, what do you mean by that?
COLONEL LARRY WILKERSON: If you look at our Government structure since World War II, principally since the 1947 National Security Act set up the decision-making process and the national security structure that we have today, you can find during that 50-plus-year period many times when the statutory process was flummoxed, it was adumbrated and obscured and deviated from, choose your verb. We have had accumulations of power during that period, for example, that our founding fathers would find egregious. I only need cite one when Henry Kissinger was both National Security Adviser and Secretary of State to give you some idea of how this has happened in the past. Today, what we have is the most powerful Vice President in the history of the republic. We have a Vice President who has a staff that equates to the National Security Council staff, that is the statutory staff under the law. We have a Vice President who gets numerous bites at the apple, so to speak, with the President of the United States and who has inordinate and dramatic influence on the President of the United States, through not just his own demeanour and his own feelings and opinion but also through the enormous staff that he has that, as I said, is the equivalent of the statutory staff. So, while in the past we might have had accumulation of power in a man who was both Secretary of State and National Security Adviser - we might have had different concentrations of power during Iran Contra and so forth that led to failures - we now have a unique concentration of power and it is in the office of the Vice President and it is amplified by the fact that the office of the Vice President tends to depend largely on the Defence Department when it comes to advice and consent with regard to many of the most important national security decisions and that's what I call a cabal.
TONY JONES: Let me take you back to just a little more than three years ago, when as Colin Powell's Chief of Staff you were tasked with gathering the intelligence from the CIA that he took to the UN Security Council on February 6th. Can you tell us, first of all, what sort of pressure was there to come up with the right sort of information to make that case for war?
COLONEL LARRY WILKERSON: I actually - I was the head of the taskforce but Secretary Powell was the real head, Secretary Powell and DCI director of central intelligence George Tenet. I must tell you, in my view Secretary Powell did everything he could possibly to limit the, what I would call the "unsourced information", that is to say, non-intelligence community information that went in to that presentation, even though subsequently, as we all know now, a lot of that information proved to be false, especially the information dealing with stockpiles of biological and inactive nuclear program. When we started the process we were handed a script, essentially a 48-page script, on WMD from the White House and that was to be the secretary's presentation at the United Nations. We took the script out to the CIA and examined it thoroughly and found it to be unsourced in a way we could corroborate. We found it to be a Chinese menu of everything that could possibly be cherry-picked with regard to Iraq and WMD so within several hours, we discarded that and under the tutelage of the DCI, George Tenet, we reverted to and used exclusively the national intelligence estimate they had done in response to the Congress in October 2002. As everyone now knows, that turned out to be fallacious in a number of key areas, too, but at least we moved away from that cherry-pick script to the national intelligence estimate.
TONY JONES: The national intelligence estimate, as you said, proved to be fallacious in quite a few areas, including a number of areas highlighted by Colin Powell before the UN Security Council, as he made the case for war to the entire world in a very sincere fashion. Does he now regret his involvement in making that speech?
COLONEL LARRY WILKERSON: Well, you'd have to ask him that. I characterise it this the way - when I realised I was the taskforce leader, so I had six days and six nights and I had a taskforce that literally got no sleep in order to put this together. When we watched it at the UN Security Council I felt that it was a very ineffective presentation. So one of the things I talked about with my taskforce was, we don't really think this is a very effective presentation, so why is the press spinning this as an effective presentation? We answered our own question almost immediately. It was because the most trusted man in America, in terms of the national leadership, a man who had poll ratings as high as Mother Teresa's gave it and so the real affect of that presentation, the drama of that presentation, the credibility of that presentation was because of the man who gave it, Colin Powell. It was not because of the effectiveness of the presentation. We all agreed that the presentation was not very effective.
TONY JONES: Do you think in what case that Colin Powell's international prestige was, in effect, used by people who wanted war at any cost?
COLONEL LARRY WILKERSON: Well, that's a difficult question to answer because I would put people who wanted war at any cost in a different category from those at the pinnacle of our national leadership. And to say they had the power to use Colin Powell is to say a little bit much, I think. You're asking me was the President of the United States, the Vice President of the United States, were they using Colin Powell -
TONY JONES: Actually, I'm not. In fact, I'm asking about the CIA because it was the CIA who provided the key intelligence, most of which proved to be wrong.
COLONEL LARRY WILKERSON: In that case, I'd have to tell you that I've come to believe that we have a tremendous problem in this country and we've not solved this problem with the restructuring that we've done with our intelligence community. In a word, we have a broken intelligence community and until we fix that and until we take the infrastructure, the institutions, the leadership and so forth and make it better, we're never going to have perfect intelligence, but we need to have at least a good intelligence community. We're going to be in trouble. We're going to be in trouble again and again and again and the intelligence failures over the last few years already create a legacy that's just daunting when you consider the fact that we are a superpower and we are the leader of the free world and we have such an inept intelligence community.
TONY JONES: Let me ask you this - the Vietnam War damaged the morale of the US military, of which you were a member for so many decades. It damaged the morale for decades and I'm wondering, do you think Iraq is likely to have the same damaging effect?
COLONEL LARRY WILKERSON: I think, unquestionably. I'm hearing from lieutenants, captains, majors, generals, many in uniform, many of whom were my students in years passed when I taught at the nation's war colleges. I'm hearing from the civilians who were foreign service officers, civil service and so forth in our embassy in Baghdad and I can tell you that the morale in the uniformed military is being impacted and I can also tell you that our ground forces are stretched to the point where you hear talk about withdrawal from Iraq. Within 24 months, we're going to have to withdraw from Iraq, whether the situation there, politically, economically and so forth, is adequate or not because we've stretched our ground forces to the point of breaking. We have officers who are leaving the Army and the Marine Corps now because they don't want to do a third and possibly a fourth tour in Afghanistan or Iraq. We have people who are beginning to question their leaders, just as they did in Vietnam. We have families that are beginning to fall apart because of second and third tours in Iraq. This is a situation with which I am well familiar. The signs are there and the signs are available for anyone to see, which is what makes me consider Secretary Rumsfeld an inadequate Secretary of Defence at best because he doesn't seem to see those signs, or if he does, he's not doing anything about it.
TONY JONES: We've just seen in the news tonight that the US military will conduct a criminal investigation into an alleged massacre of Iraqi civilians by US marines last November. Could we be seeing the same pattern of abuse that happened in Vietnam, where civilians were routinely seen as the enemy?
COLONEL LARRY WILKERSON: Well, I don't know the details of that particular case but I can tell you that from what I'm hearing from lieutenants and captains, in particular, people who are actually on the ground confronting the enemy and confronting the Iraqis everyday, would lead me to believe that, yes, the answer to your question is when you get this kind of deterioration in morale and when you get this kind of endless deployment and you get this kind of tour after tour after tour and no light at the end of the tunnel, so to speak, then you do have a deterioration in the ability of leaders to compel their troops to follow the rules of war, the law of war and so forth and it does present leaders with a tremendous problem.
TONY JONES: Now, you were, I believe, a Republican for many years, you worked with the Republican administration and the Republican secretary of state. Do you think the Republicans and the Republican President will end up paying the price, the political price, for this war?
COLONEL LARRY WILKERSON: Yes and I'm very concerned about that as a citizen. My mum wrote me a letter the other day and she said,"Son," - she's 86 years old - she said, "Son, please don't become a Democrat". And I told my mum, I called her and I said, "Mum, you know what? I want my party back. I don't want to become a Democrat. I want my party back." The Republican Party that I knew, that I grew up in, a moderate party, a party that believed in fiscal discipline, a party that believed in small government, a party that had genuine conservative values. This is not a conservative leadership. This is a radical leadership. I called them neo-Jacobins. They are radical. They're not conservative. They've stolen my party and I would like my party back.
TONY JONES: Larry Wilkerson, once again, as with many articulate people, we'd quite like to speak to you for a lot longer. We have to leave you now. Perhaps you'll come back and join us on another occasion. We thank you for taking the time to talk to us tonight.
COLONEL LARRY WILKERSON: Thank you for allowing me to.
TONY JONES: It's a pleasure.
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Was Ronald Reagan The Devil
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Adams & Adams Attorneys | Thandi Project
Thandi Project
Thandi, ‘beloved’, is an initiative located in rural Shoshanguve. The project’s primary focus is to assist with the well being of the children in the community, many of whom live in abject poverty.
“We cannot build a peaceful world on empty stomachs and human misery.” The words of Dr. Norman Borlaug ring vociferously whenever any of the staff or professionals of Adams & Adams pay a visit to the hub of the Thandi Project at Bana Ba Kgosi school in Soshanguve.
“Passion is central for us in deciding whether we want to become involved in a social project,” says Adams & Adams Chairman, Gérard du Plessis. “True passion is a driver for change and the work that the Reverend Doris Molefe and her staff are doing in Soshanguve is the epitome of passion that creates change. The Sun International CEO Sleepout™ was like déjà vu for us, and that’s why we’ve thrown our weight behind that initiative as well.”
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“Our scheme has played a vital role in the alleviation of malnutrition and has had an encouraging impact on those suffering with HIV, TB and skin problems, explains Bana Ba Kgosi Manager, Ruth Masinga. “Previously unable to take their medication because of a lack of food, youngsters have put on weight and their health has improved.”
Additional parcels containing these nutritionally enhanced foods are also provided the children during the school holidays and delivered to orphans, child-headed households and families in need.
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Tag Archives CRTC
General, Machinery & Shop
Regulatory change urged to help expand rural broadband
A parliamentary committee is calling on the federal government to use legislative tools to help shore up broadband access for rural and remote areas of Canada. The House of Commons’ standing committee on industry, science and technology, chaired by Vancouver area Liberal MP Dan Ruimy, on Tuesday released its report and recommendations for meeting federal […] Read more
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Canada’s wireless providers have until April 2018 to set up wireless public alerting systems on LTE networks. The Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) on Thursday issued a directive to that effect to all wireless service providers. The alert system would allow emergency management officials to warn Canadians via mobile devices of “dangers to life […] Read more
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CNS Canada — As spring approaches, some producers are searching for new technology to integrate into their operations — while others have opted out of the ag tech sector, whether by choice or through a lack of accessibility. “Even two years ago, it was way worse out there in terms of apps, in terms of […] Read more
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Anthropology and Sociology Courses
101 An Introduction to Sociology (1)
(Sociology) Provides students with the analytic tools for adopting a sociological perspective in order to better understand their own lives and the lives of others. Emphasis on how sociologists think about the social world, how they research that world, and what we know about the social world based on sociological research. From our most personal experiences such as our identities and our interactions with others to the broader organization of institutions such as family, government, media, religion, economy and education, students will be encouraged to explore how social forces shape their own experiences and life chances and the experiences and life chances of others. Melzer, Verduzco-Baker, Staff.
105 An Introduction to Anthropology (1)
(Anthropology) What does it mean to be “human”? How can we understand human variation and change? This course provides a basic introduction to anthropology, with an emphasis on cultural anthropology. It also explores archaeology, biological anthropology, and linguistics. Chase, Staff.
Biological and Ecological Foundations
242 Biological Anthropology (1)
Prerequisite: A&S 105 or permission of instructor.
(Anthropology) Biological anthropology is the holistic study of the origins and bio-cultural nature of the human species. This course addresses several of the most important areas of biological anthropology such as human evolution; patterns of human physical diversity; human health and nutrition; gender and sexuality; bioarchaeology; primatology; dynamics of genetic ancestry, race, and ethnic identity; and forensic anthropology. Chase, Harnish.
271 Nature and Society: An Introduction to Ecological Anthropology (1)
(Anthropology) Provides an understanding of the diverse and ever-changing relationships between people and their natural environments. Considers the historical foundations of ecological anthropology and the human dimensions of contemporary environmental issues ranging from deforestation and desertification to ecotourism and environmental justice. Through cross-cultural case studies, students learn how human perceptions of and interactions with the environment are conditioned by social variables like gender, race, politics, economics and religion/worldview. Harnish.
357 Violent Environments (1)
(Anthropology) Does environmental degradation produce violence? What is the relationship between population growth, resource scarcity and violent conflict? In what ways do different environments (e.g., African national parks, Appalachian coal mines, hurricane-ravaged coastal cities) feature differential access to and control over natural and economic resources? This course first explores anthropological perspectives on violence, including biological, archaeological and cultural approaches to understanding war. Then, it investigates the multifaceted linkages between environments and conflict—the articulations among resource extraction, urbanization, economic development, population growth, biotechnology, biodiversity, natural disasters, human health, structural violence and social inequality. Harnish.
240 Ancient Civilizations (1)
(Anthropology) Although the human species has been on the planet in its present form for at least 100,000 years, complexly organized societies with cities, governments and organized religions did not emerge until the last 5,000. This phenomenon took place independently throughout the globe, and while some ancient civilizations collapsed, others became the foundations upon which the modern world was constructed. Why is this so? Through a comparative analysis of Mesopotamian, Egyptian, Indus, Maya, Aztec and Incan societies, among others, students will learn to analyze the factors that have led to the emergence and transformation of civilizations. Chase.
241 Principles of Archaeology (1)
(Anthropology) Archaeology is the investigation of human societies through the study of their material remains. It provides the only source of information regarding the period from the evolution of humans over the last two million years to the widespread adoption of the written word (in some places) over the last few thousand. During historical periods, archaeology gives voice to those rendered invisible by their exclusion from historical documents. More fundamentally, archaeology provides novel insights into the material worlds that actively shape as well as reflect social life. Students will learn the fundamentals of archaeological research through the analysis of case studies in conjunction with a series of hands-on field and laboratory exercises. Chase.
346 Archaeology of Social Change (1)
(Anthropology) In the last 6,000 years people from all over the world have shifted from living in societies in which status and leadership was based on age, gender, and individual achievement to societies in which some people are born into superior social positions. In most societies today—including our own—small groups of people have access to greater resources and economic benefits for little reason other than their family history. How did this come about? Why did people allow themselves to become the subjects of others? Archaeological case studies are analyzed in an attempt to understand this fundamental transition in human society. Chase.
365 The Archaeology of Empire (1)
(Anthropology) The global interconnections and inequalities that characterize the twenty-first century have their origins in the sixteenth-century European imperial expansions that drew peoples from all regions of the globe into novel economic, political and ideological relationships that fundamentally transformed the identities of all parties involved. European imperialism, however, was not a unique incidence of this phenomenon, but was rather the most recent in a series of colonial encounters that began over 5,000 years ago as the institutions of the world's first cities expanded their influence beyond the floodplains of Mesopotamia. In this course students gain a more complete understanding of the modern world through the critical review of case studies including Uruk, Greek, Roman, Aztec, Incan and European civilizations. Chase.
238 South Asian Identities (1)
(Anthropology) An introduction to the peoples and cultures of South Asia (Sri Lanka, India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal and Bhutan). Examines issues including caste, South Asian religions, family life, colonialism, communal violence, popular culture and the South Asian diaspora. Chase.
248 Africa: Peoples and Cultures (1)
Prerequisite: A&S 101 or 105, or permission of instructor.
(Anthropology) A survey of African cultural diversity past and present. Explores the lives and livelihoods of African peoples through ethnographic case studies that span the continent. Engages stereotypes and challenges the ways in which Africa is popularly depicted in the media. Considers key issues in anthropology, including colonialism, conflict, ecology, economic development, food security, gender, childhood, religion, health, humanitarianism and globalization. Harnish.
256 Native North America (1)
Prerequisite: A&S 101 or 105 or permission of instructor.
(Anthropology) The historical and anthropological study of Native peoples of North America, with an emphasis on the twentieth century. Topics include federal policy, political movements, gender, the construction of identities and relationships between scholars and Native communities. Same as History 256. Staff.
263 Modern China (1)
(Anthropology or Sociology) Same as History 263. Staff.
264 International History of Modern Japan (1)
(Anthropology or Sociology) Same as International Studies 264. Yoshii.
Society and the Individual
222 Sociology of Childhood (1)
(Sociology) Uses sociological theory and research findings to examine childhood and adolescence as historical constructs and social contexts (rather than developmental moments) and children as social actors in their own right (not only adults in the making). Pays particular attention to how race, class and gender shape experiences of childhood as we investigate what it means to be a child or adolescent in the United States, how children’s lives are shaped by their social contexts and how children as social actors shape the worlds in which they live. Verduzco-Baker.
225 Criminology (1)
(Sociology) An introduction to the sociological study of crime, including varying definitions, causes, consequences, and societal responses. Scrutinizes multiple criminological theories (structural and interactionist), research methods, patterns in crime data, and public perception/media coverage, placing crime in a socio-historical context. Issues include criminal occupations, property crime, victimless crime, organized crime, white-collar crime, gangs, sex offenders, intimate violence and capital punishment. Melzer.
230 Men and Masculinities (1)
Prerequisite: A&S 101, or Women's and Gender Studies 106 or 116, or permission of instructor.
(Sociology) Examines how biological males are transformed into boys/men who interact in the social world through shared gendered meanings. Analyzes various socio-historical constructions of masculinity both in the United States and beyond, paying particular attention to how these differ over time, across cultures and within subcultures. Focuses on gender as a central organizing principle of society, and how this socially constructed characteristic affects individuals (men and women), society and, quite literally, the world. Also examines relational aspects of gender including women and femininities, as well as comparing masculinities by race, ethnicity, class, age, sexual orientation, etc. Discusses structural inequalities, cultural similarities and differences, and individual issues related to masculinities. Melzer.
280 Children of Immigrants (1)
Same as Ethnic Studies 280. Verduzco-Baker, Staff.
336 Social Psychology: Sociological Perspectives (1)
Prerequisite: A&S 101 and junior standing or above, or permission of instructor.
(Sociology) The study of the relationship between personal experiences and society. Explores how our sense of self, identity, subjective experience, feelings, beliefs, and relationships to and interactions with others are shaped by and influence social life. Focuses on theoretical traditions and trends within micro-sociology and their applications and usefulness for empirical research. Special attention will be paid to connecting the micro-workings of social life to larger institutional, cultural and political processes and issues. Melzer.
360 Intimate Violence (1)
Prerequisites: A&S 101, 324 (or Psychology 204) or permission of instructor.
(Sociology) Examines violence between intimates, primarily (but not solely) within the United States, covering a range of interpersonal relationships (children, parents, spouses, partners, acquaintances, siblings, etc.) as well as various forms of abuse (emotional, physical, neglect, sexual assault/rape, etc.) Traces intimate violence socio-historically, including theoretical, methodological, empirical and applied issues and debates within the field. Analyzes the incidence and prevalence of intimate violence, and, in the process, attempts to identify causes and solutions. Focuses on the importance of structural gender inequality in shaping individuals' violent behavior and the degree to which gender inequality influences various forms of violence. Melzer.
235 Global Transformations (1)
(Anthropology or Sociology) Is "globalization" just a marketing slogan or does it actually describe a process involving profound change in life on this planet? Topics include communication and transportation technologies, political and economic developments, commerce and consumerism in the modern world. Considers relationships between the global and the local and explores whether the changes associated with globalization are best considered as progress or problem. Staff.
333 The Sociology of Sex and Gender (1)
Prerequisite: A&S 101 or 105 or Women's and Gender Studies 106 or 116, or permission of instructor.
(Sociology) Examines the social construction and social consequences of gender difference and gender inequality with a specific focus on the United States. Gender theory and research will be used to explore masculinity and femininity as identities, as behavioral expectations and as organizing features of social life. Covers belief systems; broad social institutions such as family, employment, media and health; experiences of sexuality and violence; and individual behavior such as personal styles and modes of interacting with others. Focuses on how gender as an organizing feature of social life benefits some and is disadvantageous to others, paying special attention to how race, ethnicity, class and sexuality intersect with gender. Melzer.
345 Race and Ethnicity (1)
(Sociology) Alternative theories of racial and ethnic relations, and their application to groups within the United States. Particular attention will be focused on the reasons for ethnic conflict and strategies for conflict resolution. Verduzco-Baker.
350 Comparative Families: A Global Perspective (1)
(Sociology) What is the family? Is the family a "natural" unit or a social construct? Is the family a dying institution or is it merely changing? How do family structures, values and dynamics vary across cultures? How is family structure in the United States different from those in Nigeria, India, China, Sweden and Saudi Arabia? This course utilizes a comparative perspective to explore the changing family in its historical, cultural, economic, social and political contexts. Topics include variations in family patterns; marriage and related issues such as dating, mate selection, divorce, single parenting and family violence: poverty and stress in family life; communication; power relations; gender roles; and family policies in selected societies. Staff.
370 Social Stratification (1)
(Sociology) An examination of the changing patterns of social stratification within the U.S. since World War II. Topics include income and wealth inequality, education and social mobility, the reorganization of the workplace, poverty and social welfare. Verduzco-Baker.
312 Sociological Theory (1)
Prerequisite: A&S 101 and junior standing, or permission of instructor.
(Sociology) An overview of sociological theory from classical to contemporary, and an assessment of how these theories frame research and analysis. Theorists range from the foundational work of Marx, Durkheim and Weber, to the more recent work of Parsons, Goffman and a number of critical and post-structuralist authors. Highly recommended for students who intend to do graduate work in the social sciences. Verduzco-Baker.
323 Qualitative Social Research (1)
(Sociology) An overview of qualitative social research methods with a focus on three key forms: ethnography, document analysis and interview. Examines research design and a variety of types of data collection and analysis as well as considering ethical issues in social research. Students design and carry out their own research project based on that semester’s theme. Verduzco-Baker.
324 Quantitative Social Research (1)
(Sociology) An overview of quantitative social research methods and statistics. Topics include problem formulation and connection between theories and research; research designs, measurement and sampling techniques; ethical issues in research; data processing and data analysis with discussion of descriptive statistics; hypothesis testing and chi-square tests of significance; correlation; and multiple regression models. Students design and carry out their own independent research projects in addition to an extensive application of SPSS in laboratory assignments using secondary data. Staff.
343 Theory and Method in Anthropology (1)
(Anthropology) Addresses questions surrounding what anthropologists should study and how they should study it. Considers how the basic assumptions, research methods, and the social conditions of anthropological practice have changed over time. Examines how anthropologists have been rethinking assumptions about culture, nature, power, the primitive and the modern, as well as the social and political conditions of research in colonial and post-colonial contexts. Also explores developments in biological anthropology, archaeology and other subfields. Staff.
(Anthropology or Sociology) An examination of subjects or areas not included in other courses. Staff.
(Anthropology or Sociology) An examination of subjects or areas not included in other courses. May be taken more than once for credit. Staff.
(Anthropology or Sociology) Offered on a credit/no credit basis. Staff.
(Anthropology or Sociology) Staff.
408 Senior Paper (1)
Prerequisite: Senior standing, a major in the department.
(Anthropology or Sociology) An intensive study and written paper emphasizing a topic in either anthropology or sociology. Staff.
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Canadian mayor refuses to quit over drug use
Rob Ford refuses to step down as Toronto mayor despite having admitted to smoking crack cocaine during "drunken stupor".
Toronto Mayor Rob Ford admitted during a heated City Council debate that he bought illegal drugs while in office, but adamantly refused to step down despite calls from nearly every councilor to take a leave of absence and get help.
"I'm most definitely keeping this job," the 44-year-old Ford said on Wednesday, insisting he was "a positive role model for kids."
I am not an addict of any sort, so I am not quite sure why you are saying that I need help,
Rob Ford, Mayor of Toronto
But he asserted his intention to continue to work as mayor so he can carry out his promise to save money for Toronto taxpayers.
Asked if he had bought illegal drugs in the past two years, he replied somberly: "Yes, I have." Ford, elected in 2010 on a promise to end the City Hall "gravy train", admitted last week that he had smoked crack cocaine in "one of my drunken stupors". Wednesday's call for him to step aside came in council's first meeting since that admission.
"Our city's reputation has been damaged and continues to suffer," City Councillor Jaye Robinson read from a non binding petition signed by 30 of the city's 44 councillors, and passed by a vote of 41 to two.
"Together we stand to ask you to step aside and take a leave of absence to address your challenges privately outside of the public eye."
Councillors will vote later on a separate motion that asks Ford both to take a leave of absence and to apologise for "misleading" Toronto residents.
Council has no power to force the mayor to step down or take a break unless he is convicted of a crime, and Ford insists he has no plans to go, or to seek treatment.
'Not an addict'
"I am not an addict of any sort, so I am not quite sure why you are saying that I need help," he told councillors during an hour-long grilling that centred on his fitness to remain the city's chief magistrate.
"I can understand how people would perceive my behaviour," he added. "The reason I drank or did drugs was not because of stress, it was out of sheer stupidity. That's all it was."
As the questions continued, hundreds of protesters gathered outside City Hall, many of them calling on Ford to step down.
An Ipsos-Reid poll conducted for several TV and radio stations showed that 76 percent of Toronto voters think Ford should step down or take a leave of absence, while only 24 percent agreed with Ford's insistence on staying in his job.
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Serena Williams wins US Open women's title
American captures her 15th Grand Slam title and fourth US Open crown with victory over World No.1 Victoria Azarenka.
Mon Sep 10 2012 00:34:44 GMT+0000
Serena Williams beat Victoria Azarenka in the championship match at the 2012 US Open tennis tournament [AP]
Serena Williams has captured her 15th Grand Slam title and fourth career US Open crown with a 6-2, 2-6, 7-5 victory over World No.1 Victoria Azarenka.
On Sunday, in the first three-set final at the US Open since 1995, US fourth seed Williams joined her sister Venus and Steffi Graf as the only women to win Wimbledon, the Olympics and the US Open in the same year.
The American showed all her great fighting qualities to claw her way back from the brink of defeat to become the oldest women's champion at Flushing Meadows in nearly four decades.
Against the odds after losing the first set, Azarenka looked to be on the verge of an unlikely victory when she led 5-3 in the decider.
She got within two points of winning the championship but was unable to prevent Williams reeling off the last four games in a row to seal her win and enhance her status as one of the greatest players the game has seen.
Doubles title
Earlier, Italy's Sara Errani and Roberta Vinci won their second grand slam title of the year when they beat the Czech pair Andrea Hlavackova and Lucie Hradecka 6-4, 6-2 at the US Open.
The number two seeds came through a tough opening set before running away with the second to add the US Open to the French Open title they won in June.
For Errani, it was the perfect pick-me-up after her defeat by Serena Williams in the semi-finals of the singles event.
"It is better to finish with a win," said Errani, who also reached the French Open singles final and who will go to the top of the doubles rankings on Monday, with Vinci rising to number two.
For Hlavackova and Hradecka, it was the third near-miss this summer, having lost to Serena and Venus Williams at Wimbledon and the Olympics.
"We should walk away from this tournament with a big smile," Hlavackova said.
Errani said becoming world number one was a dream come true.
"We played an amazing year so this is very important for us," she said. "We played good from Australia, where we made the final, and we won Paris. Of course it's an amazing year. We hope to continue."
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You are at:Home»News»Materials Testing»MIT’s ultra-light composite morphing aircraft wing
MIT’s ultra-light composite morphing aircraft wing
By Anthony James on 9th November 2016 Materials Testing, Technology
A new wing architecture, which could greatly simplify the manufacturing process and reduce fuel consumption by improving the wing’s aerodynamics and improving its agility, has been developed by engineers at MIT and NASA. It is based on a system of tiny, lightweight subunits that could be assembled by a team of small specialized robots, and ultimately could be used to build the entire airframe. The wing would be covered by a ‘skin’ made of overlapping pieces that might resemble scales or feathers.
Researchers have been trying for many years to achieve a reliable way of deforming wings as a substitute for the conventional, separate, moving surfaces, but all those efforts “have had little practical impact,” said Neil Gershenfeld, director of MIT’s Center for Bits and Atoms (CBA). The biggest problem was that most of these attempts relied on deforming the wing through the use of mechanical control structures within the wing, but these structures tended to be so heavy that they canceled out any efficiency advantages produced by the smoother aerodynamic surfaces. They also added complexity and reliability issues.
By contrast, Gershenfeld said, “We make the whole wing the mechanism. It’s not something we put into the wing.” In the team’s new approach, the whole shape of the wing can be changed, and twisted uniformly along its length, by activating two small motors that apply a twisting pressure to each wingtip.
Building up a large and complex structure from an array of small, identical building blocks, which have an exceptional combination of strength, light weight and flexibility, greatly simplifies the manufacturing process, Gershenfeld explained. While the construction of light composite wings for today’s aircraft requires large, specialized equipment for layering and hardening the material, the new modular structures could be rapidly manufactured in mass quantities and then assembled robotically in place.
While exploring possible applications of this nascent technology, Gershenfeld and his team consulted with NASA engineers and others seeking ways to improve the efficiency of aircraft manufacturing and flight. They learned that “the idea that you could continuously deform a wing shape to do pure lift and roll has been a holy grail in the field, for both efficiency and agility,” he said.
Given the importance of fuel costs in both the economics of the airline industry and that sector’s contribution to greenhouse gas emissions, even small improvements in fuel efficiency could have a significant impact.
Wind-tunnel tests of this structure showed that it at least matches the aerodynamic properties of a conventional wing, at about one-tenth the weight.
Thyseenkrupp updates aerospace certifications
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Long-term Care Resources
Hospital Resources
Comparative Effectiveness Reviews
Evidence Reports and Technical Reviews
MONAHRQ
System Design Resources
Primary Care Transformation
Assessing the Health and Welfare of the HCBS Population
Technical Appendix
HCBS Population
Availability and Use of State Medicaid HCBS
Outcome Indicators for the HCBS Population
Outcomes by HCBS Participant Characteristics
The major data sources used in this report are Medicaid and Medicare administrative data for calendar year 2005. Medicaid data for the 50 States and the District of Columbia are from the Medicaid Analytic eXtract (MAX) dataset compiled by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) from the Medicaid Statistical Information System (MSIS) data (CMS, 2010b). MAX data were used to identify the universe of people in the home and community-based services (HCBS) population, the population of interest for this report (N=2,234,716).
MAX data provided information about the characteristics of the HCBS population and HCBS users (1915(c) waiver and State plan services). The data also included personal attributes of HCBS participants (age, gender, race/ethnicity, managed care enrollment, 1915(c) waiver enrollment, and county and State of residence). MAX data on the HCBS population (minus exclusions as noted below) were also used as outcome indicator denominators in Tables 7-19.
For people eligible for Medicaid only, MAX data on hospital inpatient stays were used to construct the numerator data used in Tables 7-19. For HCBS participants dually eligible for Medicare and Medicaid, the Medicare MedPAR data (CMS, 2010d) on hospital inpatient stays were used to calculate the numerator in the outcome indicators used in Tables 7-19. Both MAX and MedPAR data were used to categorize HCBS participants into the HCBS clinical subpopulations used in this report.
The Medicare Denominator File data (CMS, 2010d) were used to provide information on people who were dually eligible for Medicare and Medicaid. HCBS participants linked to the Medicare Denominator File were designated as dually eligible for Medicare and Medicaid for the entire year. The Medicare Denominator File was also used to check the accuracy of the MAX data on the percentage of dually eligible HCBS participants enrolled in Medicare Advantage Plans. The numbers reported in Table 3 were derived from MAX data only, but the two sources provided effectively the same results.
The CMS report, MAX 2005 Waiver Crosswalk, provided a list of all waivers (1115, 1915(b), 1915(c), and 1915(b/c)) operating in 2005. We selected 1915(c) waivers from this list and used that as the basis for developing our database of 1915(c) waiver characteristics. For each waiver listed, we abstracted information about the qualifying level of care, populations covered, financial eligibility, and covered services from the CMS online database of approved waiver applications (CMS, 2010e).
Information for 160 of 292 waivers was available from the CMS Web site. Information for the remaining 132 waivers was obtained from the University of California-San Francisco Personal Assistance Services Web site (2010) and State web sites. Information from waiver application form version 3.5 or later was standardized. Information from earlier 1915(c) applications on the CMS Web site or from other sources was not standardized, and data extraction depended on careful review and conceptual understanding by the people extracting the data. Frequent communication among those individuals helped to maintain reliability of data extraction. Information from sources other than waiver applications may be incomplete.
Additional data sources were used to describe the service system characteristics (e.g., types of services covered, waiver program characteristics) and context (e.g., supply, area health characteristics, State service characteristics). State-specific information on the availability of various Medicaid State plan HCBS (Tables 1 and 9) was abstracted from the CMS publication "Medicaid-At-a-Glance 2005" (CMS, 2010b).
Other contextual variables were obtained from the Area Resource File (ARF), Census Bureau data sources (e.g., Small Area Income and Poverty Estimates, American Community Survey [ACS]), Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS), and other published reports (Burwell, et al., 2006; Grabowski, et al., 2009; Mollica & Reinhard, 2005). All contextual data used in this report were linked to HCBS participants based on the person's county or State of residence as reported on the MAX Person Summary (PS) file. Unless noted otherwise, contextual measures were constructed for calendar year 2005. Variable-specific details are provided in the Definitions section of this appendix.
Age. Age of HCBS individuals was based on date of birth (as reported on the MAX PS file) and calculated as of January 1, 2005.
Age 65+, percentage. For purposes of Table 15, the percentage of the population age 65 and older was measured at the county and State level (based on the HCBS participant's place of residence). Source data for the percentage 65+ were from the Census Bureau's Population Estimates (Census County Characteristics File) as of July 1, 2005, and as reported on the 2008 ARF.
Age 85+, percentage. For purposes of Table 15, percentage age 85+ was defined as the percentage of an area's (county and State) population age 85 or older. Source data were from the Census Bureau's 2000 Decennial Census, as reported on the ARF (2008).
African American, percentage. For purposes of Table 15, percentage African American was defined as the percentage of an area's (county and State) population that was identified as non-Hispanic black. Source data were from the Census Bureau's population estimates (Census County Characteristics File) for July 1, 2005 (ARF, 2008).
Difficulty going outside of the home, percentage of State's population 65+ with. Measured with the 2005 ACS (Census Bureau, 2010a). ACS respondents were asked if they had a physical, mental, or emotional condition lasting 6 months or more that made it difficult "going outside the home alone to shop or visit a doctor's office."
Disability, percentage of State's population 18-64 with any. Disability was measured as any of the following six types of disability: sensory disability, physical disability, self-care disability, mental disability, difficulty going outside of the home, or a work disability as measured with the 2005 ACS (Census Bureau, 2010b).
Disability, percentage of State's population 65+ with any. Disability was measured as any of the following five types of disability: sensory disability, physical disability, self-care disability, mental disability, or difficulty going outside of the home as measured with the 2005 ACS (Census Bureau, 2010a).
Dual eligibility status. HCBS participants were classified into two categories: those dually eligible for Medicare and Medicaid and those eligible for just Medicaid. MAX HCBS participants linked to the Medicare Denominator File at any point during 2005 were classified as dually eligible for Medicare and Medicaid. For the outcome indicators, which are based on quarterly denominators, dually eligibly status was defined on a quarterly basis determined by the date of Medicare enrollment during 2005. Individuals were classified as dually eligible for the entire quarter during the quarter of initial enrollment.
Federally qualified health center (FQHC), supply of. FQHCs and rural health centers (RHCs) are "safety net" providers such as community health centers and clinics. FQHC supply was measured as the total number of FQHCs plus the total number of RHCs per capita (State and county level). Source data on safety net providers were for 2005 and from the CMS (ARF, 2008); population data were from the Census Bureau (ARF, 2008).
HCBS population. Using 2005 MAX data, we defined people as being in the HCBS population if at least one of the following conditions was satisfied:
The individual was enrolled in a 1915(c) program during the year (or quarter). This was defined as any monthly waiver enrollment flag during the year (or quarter) that indicated the person was enrolled in a 1915(c) for aged and disabled people; aged people only; disabled people only; people with brain injuries; people with HIV/AIDS; people with mental retardation or developmental disabilities; people with mental illness; people who are technology dependent; or people in an unspecified waiver (on the PS file, MAX_ WAIVER_ TYPE_ 1_MO_1 through MAX_WAIVER_TYPE_3_ MO_12 [any of three waivers per month for the year or quarter with a value = G, H, I, J, K, L, M, N, or O]).
The individual showed evidence of State plan HCBS use during the year (or quarter). State plan use was defined as Medicaid fee-for-service use of any of the following: personal care (PS file CLTC_FFS_ PAYMT_AMT_11>0), adult day care (PS file CLTC_FFS_ PAYMT_AMT_13>0), home health care exceeding 90 days (total number of home health days [based on SRVC_BGN_DT and SRVC_END_DT] was summed across all records on the OT file where CLTC_FLAG=14), residential care (PS file CLTC_FFS_ PAYMT_AMT_15>0), at-home private duty nursing (OT file CLTC_FLAG=12 and PLC_OF_SRVC_CD =12), or at-home hospice care (OT file CLTC_FLAG=19 and PLC_OF_SRVC_CD=12). Quarterly versions of State plan use were subsequently based on service begin and end dates on the OT file (SRVC_BGN_DT and SRVC_END_DT).
The individual showed evidence of use of 1915(c) waiver services during the year (or quarter). As defined in the MAX, 1915(c) waiver services are defined as: personal care, private duty nursing, adult day care, home health care, residential care, rehabilitation, targeted case management, transportation, hospice care, durable medical equipment, or other waiver services not listed. If any of these services had a Medicaid fee-for-service payment amount greater than zero, the individual was defined as a user of 1915(c) waiver services (CLTC_FFS_PAYMT_AMT_30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, or 40 are >0). Quarterly versions of waiver service use were subsequently based on service begin and end dates on the OT file (SRVC_BGN_DT and SRVC_END_DT).
For purposes of calculating the outcome indicator denominators used in Tables 7-19, the HCBS population was constructed as previously described on a quarterly basis and exclusions were applied. Exclusions were: (1) individuals younger than age 18; (2) individuals with only institutional use in a given quarter (details below); (3) individuals enrolled in Medicaid managed acute or managed long-term care plan for any month of the year (or quarter) (if any monthly PS file EL_PHP_TYPE_1_1 through EL_PHP_TYPE_4_12 = 01, 05, or 06); (4) individuals dually eligible and enrolled in a comprehensive Medicare managed care plan at any point during the year (or quarter) (on the Medicare Denominator File, Medicare entitlement/buy-in indicator BUYIN01 through BUYIN12 [value >0 for any month] and HMO indicator HMOIND01 through HMOIND12 [value >0 for any month]); and (5) all persons in States with severe data limitations (Arizona, Maine, Wisconsin, and Washington).
People were determined to have only institutional use in a quarter if claims from the MAX Long-Term Care (LT) file at any point during the quarter were found with any of the following values: (1) ICF-MR day count >0; (2) nursing facility day count >0; (3) inpatient psychiatric facility for individuals under 21 day count >0; (4) mental hospital for aged day count >0; or (5) MAX type of service code (MAX_TOS) for any of the following: 02 (mental hospital for aged), 04 (inpatient psychiatric facility for individuals under 21), 05 (ICF-MR), or 07 (nursing facility services) and the person did not have any community-based long-term care claims during the quarter. Quarterly versions of institutional use were based on service begin and end dates on the LT file (SRVC_BGN_DT and SRVC_END_DT).
HCBS (clinical) subpopulations. Using MAX and MedPAR 2005 data, we defined the following four subpopulations:
Intellectual/developmental disabilities (I/DD). HCBS participants were classified into the I/DD group if any one of four criteria (all measured for 2005) were met: (1) enrollment in an I/DD waiver (if any of the monthly MAX Waiver Type Code variables [MAX_WAIVER_TYPE_1, 2, or 3] on the MAX PS file equals L), (2) use of an intermediate care facility for people with mental retardation (ICF-MR) (on the MAX PS file, persons with positive fee-for-service� payment amount for an ICF-MR [FFS_PYMT_AMT_05 >0]), (3) relevant diagnosis codes on the person's hospital inpatient stay records (for the dual eligible population, MedPAR diagnosis code variables = DGNSCD1through DGNSCD10 ; for the Medicaid-only population, MAX IP diagnosis code variables DIAG_CD_1 through DIAG_CD_9), or (4) relevant diagnosis codes on the person's MAX HCBS OT service records (MAX OT diagnosis code variables DIAG_CD_1 or 2).
Relevant diagnoses and associated International Classification of Diseases, Ninth Revision (ICD-9) codes were: Down's syndrome (758.0), developmental delay-chromosomal abnormalities (330.0-330.3, 330.8-330.9, 758.1-758.2, 758.31, 758.33, 758.39, 758.7, 759.5, 759.81-759.83, or 759.89), developmental delay-severe brain injury of childhood (768.5, 768.73, 773.4, 774.7, or 779.7), developmental delay-cerebral palsy/epilepsy/spina bifida/physical disabilities (343.2-343.4, 343.8-343.9, 345.00-345.01, 345.10-345.11, 345.2-345.3, 345.40-345.41, 345.50-345.51, 345.60-345.61, 345.70-345.71, 345.80-345.81, 345.90-345.91, 741.00-741.03, 741.90-741.93), developmental delay-fetal alcohol syndrome (760.71), or developmental delay-other major cognitive disabilities (autistic disorder, mental retardation) (299.00-299.01, 299.10, 299.80, 299.90, 314.1, 318.0-318.2, or 319).
Serious mental illness (SMI). HCBS participants were classified into the SMI group if any one of four criteria (all measured for 2005) were met: (1) enrollment in a mental illness/serious emotional disturbance waiver (if any of the monthly MAX Waiver Type Code variables on the MAX PS file equal M), (2) use of an inpatient psychiatric facility or a mental hospital for the aged (on the MAX PS file, persons with a positive FFS payment amount for either of the two institutions [FFS_PYMT_AMT_02 >0 or FFS_PYMT_AMT_04 >0]), (3) relevant diagnosis codes on the person's hospital inpatient stay records (for the dual eligible population, MedPAR diagnosis code variables DGNSCD1 through DGNSCD10; for the Medicaid-only population, MAX IP record diagnosis code variables DIAG_CD_1 through DIAG_CD_9), or (4) relevant diagnosis codes on the person's MAX HCBS OT service records (MAX OT diagnosis code variables DIAG_CD_1 or DIAG_CD_2).
Relevant diagnoses and associated ICD-9 codes were: psychoses except in presence of affective disorders (schizophrenia, schizoaffective disorder, paranoid state, delusional disorder, shared psychotic disorder (295.00-295.05, 295.10-295.15, 295.20-295.25, 295.30-295.35, 295.40-295.45, 295.50-295.55, 295.60-295.65, 295.70-295.75, 295.80-295.85, 295.90-295.95, 297.0-297.3, 297.8, or 297.9), major affective disorders (bipolar I disorder, manic disorder, major depressive disorder) (296.00, 296.02-296.04, 296.10, 296.12-296.14, 296.20, 296.22-296.24, 296.30, 296.32-296.34, 296.40, 296.42-296.44, 296.50, 296.52-296.54, 296.60, 296.62-296.64, 296.7, 296.80-296.82, or 296.89), major anxiety disorders (panic disorder, obsessive-compulsive disorder) (300.01, 300.21, or 300.3), or other major disorders due to medical conditions (293.83, 294.0, 294.8, or 310.1).
65+. All HCBS participants who are age 65 or older.
Under 65 with physical disabilities. All people who are under age 65 and are not classified as I/DD or SMI (includes, for example, traumatic brain injury and HIV waiver participants).
These subpopulations were defined to be non-mutually exclusive, so an individual could be classified as I/DD, SMI, and 65+ simultaneously. The under 65 with physical disabilities group is a residual category, needed in order to assign all HCBS participants to a subpopulation. Thus, there is no overlap between the under 65 group and the other three subpopulations.
Health maintenance organization (HMO). For purposes of Table 3, HCBS participants were classified as being enrolled in an HMO (managed acute care plan) if the MAX data indicated enrollment in a medical or comprehensive managed care plan at any point during the year. (If any of the PS file plan variables EL_PHP_TYPE_1_1 through EL_PHP_TYPE_4_12 equal 01, the person was designated as being enrolled in an HMO). Data on managed care enrollment among dually eligible people were checked against HMO enrollment as recorded in the Medicare Denominator File. Therefore, we interpret the HMO variable derived from MAX as including both Medicaid and Medicare managed care plans.
Hispanic, percentage. For purposes of Table 15, percentage Hispanic was defined as the percentage of an area's (county and State) population that was identified as Hispanic or Latino, regardless of race. Source data were from the Census Bureau's population estimates (Census County Characteristics File) for July 1, 2005 (ARF, 2008).
Home health agencies, supply of. Supply of home health agencies was measured at the county and State level as the total number of home health agencies certified by CMS as a Medicare or Medicaid home health agency, per population age 65 and older. Source data on home health agencies were from CMS (ARF, 2008); population data were from the Census Bureau (ARF, 2008).
I/DD. See HCBS subpopulations.
Intermediate care facility-mentally retarded (ICF-MR), supply of. ICF-MRs are certified by CMS to provide an institutional level of care to people with an intellectual or developmental disability. The supply of ICF-MR facilities was measured as the per capita number of ICF-MRs in an area (county and State measures). ICF-MR source data were the CMS Online Survey and Certification Reporting system as reported on the institutional 2005 Quarter 2 Provider of Service file (CMS, 2010a); population data were from the Census Bureau (ARF, 2008).
Long-term care funds spent on HCBS, percentage of a State's. For purposes of Table 13, the percentage of long-term care funds spent on HCBS is calculated as the following:
Medicaid expenditures for community-based long-term care services
_____________________________________________________________________________________
Medicaid expenditures for community-based long-term care + institutional long-term care expenditures
Medicaid community based long-term care expenditures include expenditures for 1915(c) waivers, Medicaid personal care services, and Medicaid home health care services. Medicaid institutional expenditures include expenditures for nursing facility services and ICF-MR services. Expenditures are for fiscal year 2005 and are from CMS Form 64 data as reported by Burwell, et al. (2006).
Managed long-term care plan, enrollment in a. For purposes of Table 3, HCBS participants were classified as being enrolled in a managed long-term care plan if the MAX data indicated enrollment in a managed long-term care plan or in a Program for All-Inclusive Care for the Elderly (PACE) plan at any point during the year. The MAX PS file captures enrollment in four prepaid plans for each month of the year; if any of the plan variables EL_PHP_TYPE_1_1 through EL_PHP_TYPE_4_12 = 05 or 06, the person was designated as being enrolled in a managed long-term care plan.
Median income, area's. Median household income information is derived from the Census Bureaus' Small Area Income and Poverty Estimates (SAIPE) program, which uses the American Community Survey as a primary data source. County-level information for 2005 was obtained from ARF (2008); State-level information was obtained directly from the Census Bureau (2010b) and measured income as of 2003.
Medically needy eligibility criteria, State's. The Medicaid option for medically needy people allows States to provide Medicaid to individuals who are ineligible because of excess income but have high medical expenses. Whether a State had a program for medically needy people in 2005 was abstracted from "Medicaid At-a-Glance 2005" (CMS, 2010c). States with a program for medically needy people were classified into one of two categories: more restrictive eligibility criteria and less restrictive eligibility criteria.
The categories were based on a State's 2005 income and assets eligibility criteria for the program for medically needy people. States were ranked based on income and asset criteria separately, and the rankings across the two were averaged. States that were ranked as less restrictive across income and assets combined were then classified as less restrictive and the remaining States as more restrictive.
States without programs for medically needy people were Alabama, Alaska, Colorado, Delaware, Idaho, Indiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Nevada, New Mexico, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, South Carolina, South Dakota, and Wyoming. States with more restrictive programs for medically needy people were California, Kansas, Louisiana, Minnesota, New Hampshire, New York, Pennsylvania, and Rhode Island, as well as the District of Columbia. All other States were classified as less restrictive.
Mental disability, percentage of State population 65 and older with a. Mental disability was measured with the 2005 ACS (Census Bureau, 2010a). ACS respondents were asked if they had a physical, mental, or emotional condition lasting 6 months or more that made it difficult "learning, remembering, or concentrating."
Metropolitan statistical area (MSA). HCBS individuals are designated as living in an MSA if their county of residence was classified as an MSA by the Office of Management and Budget in June 2003; otherwise, people are classified as living in a nonmetropolitan area (non-MSA). This was determined using the ARF data for the Rural/Urban Continuum Codes (codes 01, 02, and 03 were used to code a county as an MSA).
Nursing home bed supply. Bed supply was measured at the county and State level as the total number of nursing home beds (skilled nursing facility beds plus nursing facility beds) per population age 65 and older. Source data on 2005 nursing home beds were from CMS (ARF, 2008); population data were from the Census Bureau (ARF, 2008).
Nursing home level of care eligibility criteria for HCBS. Federal regulations require that States limit eligibility for 1915(c) waiver services to Medicaid beneficiaries who meet the State's criteria for admission to a Medicaid institution (in addition to meeting the State's financial eligibility criteria). Criteria are set for a nursing home level of care and for ICF-MR level of care. States are responsible for establishing the criteria, which may be strict or flexible. A strict criterion limits the number of people who can receive HCBS.
A 2002 review of 45 States found that States use four approaches (or a combination of approaches) to set the nursing home level of care criteria (Mollica & Reinhard, 2005) and that the criteria can be arrayed on a continuum. Specifically, nursing home "admissions based solely on impairments in one or two out of five to six ADLs would be placed on the low end of the spectrum, those based on ADLs and medical criteria in the middle, and those based on medical criteria on the high end." (ADLs are activities of daily living and refer to tasks such as bathing, eating, and dressing.)
For purposes of Table 13, and using the continuum developed by Mollica and Reinhard (2005), California, Delaware, Kansas, New Hampshire, Ohio, Oregon, Rhode Island, Washington, and Wyoming were classified as having low criteria. Alaska, Arkansas, Colorado, Connecticut, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, New Jersey, New Mexico, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Texas, Vermont, and Wisconsin were classified as having middle criteria. Alabama, Arizona, Hawaii, Maine, Maryland, Tennessee, Utah, and Virginia were classified as having high (strict) criteria.
Physical disability, percentage of State population 65 and older with a. Physical disability was measured with the 2005 ACS (Census Bureau, 2010a). ACS respondents were asked if they had "a condition that substantially limits one or more basic physical activities such as walking, climbing stairs, reaching, lifting, or carrying."
Poverty, percentage of area's population in. Poverty information is derived from the Census Bureaus' SAIPE program, which uses the ACS as a primary data source. County and State-level information (for 2005) was obtained from the ARF (2008).
Prevalence of asthma, State's. Data are from the BRFSS (CDC, 2010) for 2005. Prevalence estimates are based on adult BRFSS respondents who responded yes to the question: "Have you ever been told by a doctor, nurse, or other health professional that you had asthma?"
Prevalence of cardiovascular disease, State's. Data are from the BRFSS for 2005 and are based on the questions: "Has a doctor, nurse, or other health professional EVER told you that you had any of the following? (Ever told) you had angina or coronary heart disease?"
Prevalence of diabetes, State's. Data are from the BRFSS for 2005 and are based on the question: "Have you ever been told by a doctor that you have diabetes?"
Prevalence of high blood pressure, State's. Data are from the BRFSS for 2005 and are based on the question: "Have you ever been told by a doctor, nurse, or other health professional that you have high blood pressure?"
Prevalence of serious mental illness, State's. Numerator data used to calculate the prevalence of serious mental illness were based on the work of Hozler, et al. (1981), as reported by Grabowski and colleagues (2009). A statistical model was used to estimate the number of people with serious mental illness in 2005, by State, based on State risk factors. The definition is based on a minimum impairment score; a minimum number of disability days; and a range of chronic conditions including bipolar I and II, mania, major depression with hierarchy, dysthymia hierarchy, generalized anxiety, hypomania, major depressive episode, panic disorder, posttraumatic stress disorder, agoraphobia with or without panic, social phobia, and specific phobia. Denominator data used to calculate the State prevalence rates for serious mental illness were Census Bureau population data (ARF, 2008).
Psychiatric beds, supply of. As defined by the American Hospital Association (AHA), the supply of psychiatric beds is the number of psychiatric care beds set up in short-term general hospitals. Bed supply was measured as the number of psychiatric beds per area population (at State and county level). Source data were AHA information for 2005 (as reported on the 2007 ARF); population data were from the Census Bureau (ARF, 2007).
Race/ethnicity. Classification of HCBS participants by race/ethnicity is based on the following five racial/ethnic groups: white only non-Hispanic, black only non-Hispanic, Hispanic, other non-Hispanic races or multiple races, and unknown (non-Hispanic) race. Data were from CMS administrative data provided on the MAX PS file (RACE_CODE_1 through RACE_CODE_5 and ETHNICITY_CODE).
Self-care disability, percentage of State's population 65 and older with a. This percentage was measured with the 2005 ACS (Census Bureau, 2010a). ACS respondents were asked if they had a physical, mental, or emotional condition lasting 6 months or more that made it difficult "dressing, bathing, or getting around inside the home."
Sensory disability, percentage of State's population 65 and older with a. This percentage was measured with the 2005 ACS (Census Bureau, 2010a). ACS respondents were asked if they had "blindness, deafness, severe vision or hearing impairment."
Short-term acute care hospital beds, supply of. Defined by AHA as short-term general hospitals, these hospitals are general medical and surgical hospitals; most patients stay fewer than 30 days. Supply of hospital beds was measured as the number of hospital beds per capita (at the State and county level). Source data for 2005 bed supply were from AHA as reported on the ARF (2008); population data were from the Census Bureau (ARF, 2008).
SMI. See HCBS subpopulations.
Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI), percentage of State's population 18-64 with. Numerator data for the percentage of people identified by the Social Security Administration as disabled and ages 18-64 are as reported in Table 8 of the Annual Statistical Report on the Social Security Disability Program 2005 (Social Security Administration, 2010). Population data for the denominator were for the 2005 resident population ages 18-64 and are from the Census Bureau (ARF, 2008).
SSDI persons in State with diagnosis of mental retardation as a percentage of State's population. Numerator data for the percentage of people identified by the Social Security Administration as disabled and with a diagnosis of mental retardation are from Table 10 of the Annual Statistical Report on the Social Security Disability Program 2005 (Social Security Administration, 2010); population data for the denominator were for 2005 and are from the Census Bureau (ARF, 2008).
State plan services offered. For purposes of Table 9, optional State plan services offered were abstracted from "Medicaid-At-a-Glance 2005" (CMS, 2010c). The data were merged to HCBS participants based on the person's State of residence as reported on the MAX PS file. Services offered are for home health therapies (physical therapy, occupational therapy, speech therapy, or hearing services), private duty nursing, personal care, targeted case management, hospice care, transportation, adult day care, and residential care.
State plan services, users of. For purposes of Tables 5 and 11, users of optional State plan services are defined as people in the HCBS population who have a positive community long-term care Medicaid fee-for-service payment for nonwaiver services at any point during 2005. Services include private duty nursing, personal care, targeted case management, hospice care, transportation, adult day care, and residential care (MAX PS file CLTC_FFS_PAYMT_AMT_11, 12, 13, 15, 17, 18, or 20 are >0).
Users of home health therapies are defined as people with fee-for-service payment for physical therapy, occupational therapy, speech therapy, or hearing services greater than zero (MAX PS file FFS_PYMT_AMT_34 >0). For purposes of Table 5, users of mandatory State plan home health services are defined as people with a positive value for community long-term care nonwaiver home health fee-for-service payment (CLTC_FFS_PAYMY_AMT_14 >0).
Underserved by mental health providers. People living in a county designated by the Health Resources and Services Administration (as of November 2004) as a Health Professional Shortage Area for mental health professionals were categorized as being underserved based on the number of professionals per capita. Mental health providers include psychiatrists, clinical psychologists, clinical social workers, psychiatric nurse specialists, and marriage and family therapists. Data are from the 2008 ARF.
Underserved by primary care providers. People living in a county designated by the Health Resources and Services Administration (as of November 2004) as a Health Professional Shortage Area for primary care practitioners were categorized as being underserved based on the number of primary care providers per capita. Primary care practitioners are defined as non-Federal doctors of medicine or osteopathy who provide direct patient care and who practice principally in one of four specialties: general or family medicine, general internal medicine, pediatrics, and obstetrics and gynecology. Data are from the ARF (2008).
Users of HCBS State plan and 1915(c) waiver services. For the purposes of Table 3, HCBS participants were categorized into one of three categories based on the fee-for service community-based long-term care (CLTC) payment amount variables provided on the MAX PS file.
Used only HCBS State plan services. HCBS State plan services were defined as nonwaiver services at any point during 2005 for personal care, private duty nursing, adult day care, home health care, residential care, rehabilitation for aged or disabled enrollees, targeted case management for aged or disabled enrollees, transportation for aged or disabled enrollees, or hospice care for aged or disabled enrollees. If any of these services had a Medicaid fee-for-service payment amount greater than zero and the individual used no 1915(c) waiver services, then the individual was categorized as a user of only HCBS State plan services (on the MAX PS file, CLTC_FFS_PAYMT_AMT_11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, or 19 are >0) and CLTC_FFS_PAYMT_AMT_30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, and 40 have no positive values).
Used only 1915(c) waiver services. Waiver services were defined as 1915(c) waiver services at any point during 2005: personal care, private duty nursing, adult day care, home health care, residential care, rehabilitation, targeted case management, transportation, hospice care, durable medical equipment, or other waiver services not listed. If any of these services had a Medicaid fee-for-service payment amount greater than zero and the individual used no HCBS State plan services, then the individual was categorized as a user of only 1915c) waiver services (CLTC_FFS_PAYMT_AMT_30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, or 40 are >0 and CLTC_FFS_PAYMT_AMT_11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, and 19 have no positive values).
Used both HCBS State plan and 1915(c) waiver services. Individuals who used both HCBS State plan services and 1915c) waiver services at any point during 2005 were categorized into this category (CLTC_FFS_PAYMT_AMT_11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, or 19 are >0) and CLTC_FFS_PAYMT_AMT_30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, or 40 are >0).
Waiver plan enrollment groups, 1915(c). States classify 1915(c) waivers into categories that indicate the target population served by the HCBS waiver. The target population enrollment groups are aged and disabled people, aged, physically disabled people, people with brain injuries, people with HIV/AIDS, mentally retarded/developmentally disabled people, people with mental illness/serious emotional disturbance, and technology dependent/medically fragile people. For the purposes of Table 4, HCBS participants enrolled in a 1915(c) waiver at any time during 2005 were classified by their respective waiver target population group (an unknown residual category is also reported). For the few persons enrolled in more than one 1915(c) waiver, persons are counted for each of their respective waivers. Waiver target population enrollment groups are as defined by the States in their MSIS as reported on the MAX PS file (any MAX_WAIVER_TYPE_1_MO_1 through MAX_WAIVER_ TYPE_3_MO_12 equal to F, G, H, I, J, K, L, M, N, or O, for their respective waiver population enrollment group).
Waiver services offered by the State. For purposes of Table 10, waiver services were defined as 1915(c) waiver services used at any point during 2005 for: personal care, case management, adult day/health care, residential care, durable medical equipment/supplies, or transportation. To determine if an individual was enrolled in a 1915(c) waiver plan that provided the subject service, we abstracted information on waiver plans taken from approved State waiver applications available from the CMS Web site (2010e).
For waivers without an electronic application on the CMS Web site, we compiled data from the University of California-San Francisco Personal Assistance Services Web site (University of California-San Francisco, 2010) and State Web sites. The waiver application plan level information on availability of the individual services was then linked to HCBS participants (by MAX_WAIVER_TYPE_1, 2, or 3 plus MAX_WAIVER_ID_1, 2, or 3). For the few people enrolled in more than one 1915(c) waiver, persons are linked to services for both of their respective waivers. Enrollment in waiver plans that provided residential care or durable medical equipment/supplies were obtained from the waiver application field "Other Services" and extracted for analytical purposes.
Waiver services, users of 1915(c). For purposes of Tables 6 and 12, waiver services were defined as 1915(c) waiver services for personal care, case management, adult day/health care, residential care, durable medical equipment, or transportation. If any of these waiver services had a Medicaid community long-term care fee-for-service payment amount greater than zero (at any point during 2005), the individual was categorized as a user of that service (MAX PS file CLTC_FFS_PAYMT_AMT_ 31, 33, 35, 37, 38, or 40 >0).
White, percentage. For purposes of Table 15, the per-capita white population was defined as the percentage of an area's (county and State) population that was identified as non-Hispanic white. Source data were from the Census Bureau's population estimates (Census County Characteristics File) for July 1, 2005, as reported on the 2008 ARF.
Appendix References
Administration on Aging. AGing Integrated Database (AGID). Available at: http://www.agidnet.org . Accessed June 2010.
Area Resource File (ARF). Rockville, MD: Health Resources and Services Administration, Bureau of Health Professions; 2008.
Burwell B, Sredl K, Eiken S. Medicaid long-term care expenditures in FY 2005. Cambridge, MA: Chronic Care and Disability Group, Thomson Reuters; July 7, 2006.
Crowley J. Medicaid medically needy programs: an important source of Medicaid coverage. Washington, DC: Kaiser Commission on Medicaid and the Uninsured; January 2003.
Census Bureau. American Community Survey 2005 public use microdata sample files. Accessed June 2010a.
Census Bureau. Small Area Income and Poverty Estimates program. Available at: http://www.census.gov/did/www/saipe/index.html. Accessed July 2010b.
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System. Available at: http://www.cdc.gov/brfss/. Accessed June 2010.
Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS). Health plans, reports, files and data: institutional-2005, POS Institutional Report. Available at: http://www.cms.gov/Research-Statistics-Data-and-Systems/Statistics-Trends-and-Reports/HealthPlanRepFileData/index.html. Accessed June 2010a.
CMS. Medicaid Analytic eXtract (MAX) general information. Available at: http://www.cms.gov/Research-Statistics-Data-and-Systems/Computer-Data-and-Systems/MedicaidDataSourcesGenInfo/index.html. Accessed November 2010b.
CMS. Medicaid At-a-Glance 2005. Available at: http://www.cms.gov/Research-Statistics-Data-and-Systems/Computer-Data-and-Systems/MedicaidDataSourcesGenInfo/MMAG2005.html. Accessed June 2010c.
CMS. Research Data Assistance Center (ResDAC) Medicare Data Documentation. Available at: http://www.resdac.org/ddvh/Index.asp . Accessed November 2010d.
CMS. Medicaid state waiver program demonstration projects: Medicaid waivers and demonstrations list. Available at: http://www.medicaid.gov/Medicaid-CHIP-Program-Information/By-Topics/Waivers/Waivers.html. Accessed April 2010e.
Grabowski DC, Aschbrenner KA, Feng Z, et al. Mental illness in nursing homes: variations across states. Health Aff 2009;28(3):689-700.
Holzer CE, Jackson DJ, Tweed D. Horizontal synthetic estimation: a strategy for estimating small area health related characteristics. Eval Program Plann 1981;4(1):29-34.
Mollica R, Reinhard S. Establishing "nursing home level of care" criteria: how states vary. (Prepared under CMS Grant No.11-P-92015/2-01 by National Academy for State Health Policy (NASHP) and the Rutgers Center for State Health Policy (CSHP) for the Community Living Exchange at Rutgers/NASHP). Issue Brief. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers CSHP; October 2005. Available at: http://www.adrc-tae.org/tiki-download_file.php?fileId=2129 (Word® file). Accessed June 2010.
Social Security Administration. Annual Statistical Report on the Social Security Disability Program, 2005. Available at: http://www.ssa.gov/policy/docs/statcomps/di_asr/2005/index.html. Accessed June 2010.
University of California-San Francisco. Personal Assistance Services Web site: Medicaid waiver data. Available at: http://www.pascenter.org/state_based_stats/index.php . Accessed June 2010.
Page last reviewed December 2012
Page originally created December 2012
Internet Citation: Technical Appendix. Content last reviewed December 2012. Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, Rockville, MD. https://www.ahrq.gov/professionals/systems/long-term-care/resources/hcbs/hcbsfindings/hcbsfindtap.html
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Home » Holocaust Studies » People
Rabbi Gustman's Astounding Survival
Apr 17, 2017 | by David Page
Incredible, harrowing stories from the life of a great Torah scholar.
Adapted from "Rav Gustman" (ArtScroll)
Rabbi Yisrael Zev Gustman (1908-1991) was a Talmudic genius. As a young man, he married the daughter of a top rabbi in Vilna, the center of Jewish life in the early 20th century. Rabbi Gustman's father-in-law died shortly before the wedding, thus the young 20-year-old inherited a seat on the illustrious rabbinical court of Rabbi Chaim Ozer Grodzinski, the head of European Jewry prior to WW2.
World War Two broke out in September 1939, with the Third Reich attacking Poland. Soon the Nazi murder machine followed the Wehrmacht, and the mass extermination of Jews at the front began. Meanwhile, pursuant to the secret treaty known as the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact, the Soviet Union invaded and took over the eastern areas of Poland and all of Lithuania.
Times became increasingly hard in Lithuania under Russian occupation. Whatever was needed was unavailable or in desperately short supply, including with winter boots. A delegation of citizens approached the Commissar (the Russian political leader of Vilna) with a desperate plea that he somehow manage to obtain boots for the city residents, without which they would be unable to withstand the bitter cold of the Lithuanian winter.
The Commissar answered them confidently. "Do not worry yourselves about this matter," he said, "The Soviet Socialist Republic, led by its great and kind father (Joseph Stalin), provides for the people!"
The Commissar was as good as his word about the boots. Within a relatively short period, by Soviet command-and-control economic standards, a locomotive entered the Vilna train station pulling boxcars filled with boots.
But there turned out to be a snafu: Upon unloading them, it turned out that the boxcars were filled with left boots only! What was to be done with thousands of left boots? No one among the Soviets had any idea what had happened. There were various theories, culminating in one question: Were there other boxcars somewhere else filled with right boots? If so, where were the missing boxcars?
Rabbi Gustman described this problem to Rabbi Chaim Ozer, who poured over railway maps in great detail. He finally pointed at a particular interchange, saying that the boxcars were there, and instructed Rabbi Gustman to go to the Commissar and inform him of the location.
If you are wrong, you will be taken out to the wall and shot for wasting our precious time with mystical nonsense during wartime.
Rabbi Gustman replied that he was aware of the short fuse of the Soviet authorities and there was a possibility that he would be treated as some kind of suspect or saboteur, and imprisoned or worse. But Rabbi Gustman relied on Rabbi Chaim Ozer's statement and proceeded to the Commissar.
The Commissar received him with all the contempt of a Communist faced with a "superstitious person" from the reactionary class of religious clerics, peddling what Karl Marx called "the opiate of the masses." The Commissar laughed at what he called the "wild guesses" of an old rabbi who could not possibly know the complexities of Soviet railway transportation. But Rabbi Gustman stood his ground, and the Commissar eventually listened.
"We will send word there to inquire about the missing boxcars," he said. "But know this: If you are wrong, you will be taken out to the wall and shot for wasting our precious time with mystical nonsense during wartime and for making a mockery of Soviet power."
Shortly thereafter, the Commissar received a telegram, and wonder of wonders! The boxcars were where Rabbi Chaim Ozer had indicated they would be, marked with the words "Destination Vilna." As a result, many of the freezing residents of Vilna received both right and left boots. From then on, the Soviet Commissar held Rabbi Gustman in high esteem, for he had divined what even Soviet Power had failed to reveal.
Life Saved
Rabbi Gustman related that during the entire period of the War, he recited Vidduy (the confession before death) hundreds of times, because death approached so close and so frequently. At such times he used the short form of the Viduy because he was unsure if he would be alive long enough to recite the long form.
On one occasion, the Nazis decided to "liquidate" all the Jews in a Vilna labor camp. Rabbi Gustman and other Jews were marched to the Ponary Forest outside of Vilna and lined up at the edge of a long pit. An SS man walked down the line of Jews and shot them in the head one by one, after which each one fell backwards into the pit. When the SS man came to Rabbi Gustman, he shot him in the head as well. Rabbi Gustman felt the bullet and fell into the pit as the others had, assuming he was dying.
When the SS man came to Rabbi Gustman, he shot him in the head.
But once in the pit, he found that he could move his hands and feet. He was alive! He lay still until the Nazis had finished their work, then untangled himself from all the corpses and pulled himself out of the pit. Rabbi Gustman attributes his survival in that instance to an open miracle: The bullet was actually embedded in his skull, though was invisible and no apparent wound had been inflicted.
On another occasion in the Ponary Forest, Rabbi Gustman was present when Jewish families were brought. A pit had been dug and the men were separated to stand on one side of the pit while the women and children stood on the other side. The Nazis then took the children out of their mothers' arms, flung them up in the air, then shot them while they were still in the air – after which they would fall into or be hurled into the pit. Mothers would run up to the Nazis and beg to be killed first as not to witness the death of their children.
Seeing this horrific scene, Rabbi Gustman could not hold himself back and determined to speak to the hearts of the executioners. He approached the Nazi officer in charge of the massacre and requested permission to speak to him. In response, the Nazi bashed him in the head with the butt of his rifle, and Rabbi Gustman fell to the ground bleeding from a gash in his head.
When he later lived in Jerusalem, Rabbi Gustman used to stand and watch the children march through the streets each year during the Jerusalem Day parade. He explained: "My eyes that have seen children murdered can appreciate the sight of Jewish children marching in joy through the streets of Jerusalem."
Murder of Only Son
Rabbi Gustman had an only son, Meir HY"D, whom he called Meirke. He was the apple of Rabbi Gustman's eye, a boy as sweet and beautiful as any little boy one can imagine. During an Aktion against the Jewish children of the Vilna Ghetto, the SS found the improvised hiding place that Rabbi Gustman had found for 4-year-old Meirke. Rabbi Gustman lifted the boy and held him in his arms to protect him. But the Nazis beat and beat the boy as Rabbi Gustman held him, until blood flowed all over his father's body. When they were convinced the boy was dead, they pushed Rabbi Gustman and his son into a pile of manure.
Rabbi Gustman washed and buried his precious son's body himself and took off the boy's shoes, which he exchanged for bread for his starving wife and daughter. His usual procedure was to divide all the food he managed to obtain, giving the largest portion to his daughter, the next largest portion to his wife, and the smallest portion for himself. But this time, as he tried to consume his portion of bread, he found himself unable to do so; he felt he was consuming his own son's flesh, as it is written in Deuteronomy 28:53, "And you shall eat the flesh of your children."
Saved from the Ghetto
One night Rabbi Gustman's young daughter told her father that they were starving in the Ghetto and that they should leave. Rabbi Gustman knew it was mortal danger to try to escape from the Ghetto, as many had attempted to do so and had been shot (including Rabbi Gustman's own brother). But the little girl insisted that they needed to escape. After hearing the heartfelt plea of his little daughter, Rabbi Gustman decided on the spot that they would flee.
He decided to split the small pea in half, for his wife and daughter.
The Gustmans managed to escape through a small gap in the fence without being seen by the Nazis. They walked along the side of the road, reaching the forest near Vilna. Shortly afterwards the Nazis "liquidated" the Ghetto of Vilna, slaughtering the Jews still clinging to life there. They had escaped before the ultimate catastrophe.
Once while hiding in the forest, Rabbi Gustman found a single pea without the peapod and had a question about how to divide it between himself, his wife, and his daughter, all of whom were suffering from hunger pangs. He ultimately decided to divide the single pea into two halves and gave one half to his wife and the other half to his daughter, foregoing his own share. From this episode and others like it, Rabbi Gustman would say that he learned the value of food.
Forest Partisan
When Rabbi Gustman reached the forest, his plan was to become a partisan to fight against the Nazis and defend himself and his family. However, to be accepted as a partisan, there was a single condition: A person had to come with a weapon.
Rabbi Gustman's opportunity came when he saw a lone Nazi soldier passing through a quiet place in the forest. Rabbi Gustman jumped the soldier, threw his rifle as far as away as he could, and killed the soldier with his bare hands. Years later Rabbi Gustman would look down at his hands and say, "I fulfilled the mitzvah of killing Amalek with my bare hands."
At times when the partisans were hiding deep in the forest from the Wehrmacht, with food and water extremely scarce, the partisans lips were so parched and their tongues so heavy that they lost the ability to speak. In order to be able to communicate when necessary, the partisans were forced to rub bird droppings on their mouth, in that way regaining the minimum ability to speak.
Saved by the Garden
Prior to the war, Rabbi Gustman was once traveling outside Vilna with his teacher, the sagely Rabbi Chaim Ozer. Rabbi Chaim Ozer pointed out a cave and said, "Remember this cave." Rabbi Gustman had no idea why.
Further en route, Rabbi Chaim Ozer spent a great deal of time pointing out to Rabbi Gustman various plants, explaining which types were good to eat and which were poisonous. At the time, Rabbi Gustman was puzzled: What made Rabbi Chaim Ozer – whose sole pursuit was Torah study – spend his time on a lesson in botany?
In gratitude toward the plants which saved his life, Rabbi Gustman personally served as gardener at the yeshiva.
During the war years, as Rabbi Gustman and his family hid from the Nazis in the forest, they were dependent on whatever wild plants he could gather for nourishment. He then understood the importance of that lesson – and credited Rabbi Chaim Ozer with prophetic foresight in instructing him on techniques of wilderness survival.
After the war, Rabbi Gustman lived in America, and eventually made his way to Jerusalem where he headed a prominent yeshiva. Till the end of his days, as a mark of gratitude toward the plants to which he owed his life, Rabbi Gustman personally served as gardener of the yeshiva building in Jerusalem.
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(9) Anonymous, May 6, 2019 8:02 AM
What happened to his wife and daughter?
Did they survive ?
(8) Samuel Kosofsky, July 26, 2017 6:44 PM
Rav Gustman and kavod
A bachur found Rav Gustman cleaning the bathroom in his yeshiva before Shabbos. He said Rebbe lo l'fiy kvodecha, this is beneath your kavod. The Rav said when I was on the beis din in Vilna I came in a little late once. On that day the Chofetz Chayim happened to be there. Rav Chaim Ozer stood up for me. When the Chofetz Chayim saw that he too stood up for me. That's all the kavod I want for the rest of my life.
(7) Kathleen Dahnke Nottestad, April 26, 2017 8:46 AM
Devine intervention intermittent through out ones life!
The saying "there but for the grace of God go I", God works in mysterious ways. Preparing the Rabbi with talents that one day would save his life. I enjoyed his stories of the many close en - counters with death. Through heartbreak finding the will to go forward and always keeping his loved ones under his wings. Then having the gift one day of caring for HIS own garden in remembrance of his skills and the one who was sure he would have the skills needed to sustain their lives, when needed. A plan!
(6) ronald gordon, April 25, 2017 2:16 PM
Thank you for bringing Rabb Gustmans incredible story to your suscribers.
There must be many like me, overwhelemed by his spirit z'tz'l
(5) Anonymous, April 24, 2017 6:38 PM
I was a secretary in Rav Gustman's yeshiva in Jerusalem
Thank you for this wonderful excerpt .
Rav Gustman was personable, warm, exhibited love and concern particularly for his bochrim and for Israeli soldiers, and definitely had "a twinkle" He loved his garden , which he called the"pardes", "A giant of a man"! I feel lucky indeed for having been in his presence. May his memory be cherished by all of us!
(4) Gustavo Barajas, April 23, 2017 3:57 PM
May his merits and virtues be emulated by all! ATzaddik who always showed the Creator at all costs!
(3) Jack Levenstein, April 21, 2017 7:56 AM
The article says he was the gardener of the yeshiva's garden. I thought he took care of the plants in the small public park near the yeshiva.
Shraga Simmons, April 23, 2017 5:23 PM
Yeshiva
That may have been true as well, but I believe it was the garden at the front of the yeshiva building
(2) Helen (Chaiah Schwab, April 20, 2017 8:54 PM
These are deeply touching stories, giving us a small window's view into the suffering during the Holocaust.
(1) John, April 20, 2017 3:21 PM
Thank you from Australia..Thanks be to the Shield of Abraham, who does not forsake us. Aaaaaamen!
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Taylor Swift torches Donald Trump's 'harmful' LGBTQ stance, issues rallying call to fans
Lee Moran
Jun 1st 2019 10:59AM
Taylor Swift jumped back into the political arena with a bang on Friday.
The “Shake It Off” singer knocked President Donald Trump’s stance on LGBTQ issues as she launched a campaign aimed at convincing senators to support the Equality Act.
Swift acknowledged in a note on Twitter celebrating Pride Month, which starts Saturday, that while there was “so much to celebrate, we also have a great distance to go before everyone in this country is truly treated equally.”
The House’s recent passing of the Equality Act — to protect LGBTQ people from discrimination at work, home and school — was “excellent news,” she wrote. But it is still to come before the Senate.
So, Swift called on her fans to write to their senators to ask for them to support the act ― and share their messages on social media with the #lettertomysenator hashtag.
#lettertomysenatorhttps://t.co/EKYMXZw5U9pic.twitter.com/Ym0mGeOHgc
— Taylor Swift (@taylorswift13) June 1, 2019
Swift also launched a Change.org petition which demands that “on a national level, our laws truly treat all of our citizens equally.” It had garnered more than 25,000 signatures by early Saturday morning.
“Politicians need votes to stay in office,” wrote Swift in her note. “Votes come from the people. Pressure from massive amounts of people is a major way to push politicians towards positive change.”
“Our country’s lack of protection for its own citizens ensures that LGBTQ people must live in fear that their lives could be turned upside down by an employer or landlord who is homophobic or transphobic,” she added. “The fact that, legally, some people are completely at the mercy of the hatred and bigotry of others is disgusting and unacceptable.”
Swift, who lives in Nashville, also shared the letter that she herself had sent to her own senator, Tennessee Republican Lamar Alexander:
In it, Swift said she personally rejected Trump’s reported claim that his administration “‘supports equal treatment of all,’ but that the Equality Act, ‘in its current form is filled with poison pills that threaten to undermine parental and conscience rights.’”
“No. One cannot take the position that one supports a community, while condemning it in the next breath as going against ‘conscience’ or ‘parental rights.’ That statement implies that there is something morally wrong with being anything other than heterosexual and cisgender, which is an incredibly harmful message to send to a nation full of healthy and loving families with same-sex, nonbinary or transgender parents, sons or daughters.”
Swift broke her political silence in 2018 when she backed Democratic candidates in the midterm elections and encouraged her fans to vote. Last month she made a $113,000 donation to the Tennessee Equality Project, an LGBTQ advocacy group.
Trump, meanwhile, faced backlash Friday after he pre-empted Pride Month celebrations with a tweet that was widely panned due to his administration’s repeated attempts to erode LGBTQ rights.
Taylor Swift's hair evolution
Taylor Swift at the Curb Event Center at Belmont University in Nashville, Tennessee (Photo by John Shearer/WireImage)
NASHVILLE, TN - APRIL 16: Singer Taylor Swift poses for a photo with her award for 'Breakthrough Video of the Year' in the press room at the 2007 CMT Music Awards at the Curb Event Center at Belmont University April 16, 2007 in Nashville, Tennessee. (Photo by Evan Agostini/Getty Images)
Singer Taylor Swift arrives at the 2007 American Music Awards at the Nokia Theatre on November 18, 2007 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Jon Kopaloff/FilmMagic)
NEW YORK - MAY 05: Musician Taylor Swift departs from the Metropolitan Museum of Art Costume Institute Gala, Superheroes: Fashion and Fantasy, held at the Metropolitan Museum of Art on May 5, 2008 in New York City. (Photo by Andrew H. Walker/Getty Images)
HOLLYWOOD - APRIL 02: Taylor Swift arrives at the Los Angeles premiere of 'Hannah Montana The Movie' at the El Capitan Theatre on April 2, 2009 in Hollywood, California. (Photo by Jean Baptiste Lacroix/WireImage)
NASHVILLE, TN - NOVEMBER 11: Singer Taylor Swift arrives at the 43rd Annual CMA Awards at the Sommet Center on November 11, 2009 in Nashville, Tennessee. (Photo by Jon Kopaloff/FilmMagic)
NASHVILLE, TN - JUNE 09: Musician Taylor Swift attends the 2010 CMT Music Awards at the Bridgestone Arena on June 9, 2010 in Nashville, Tennessee. (Photo by Jason Merritt/Getty Images)
LOS ANGELES, CA - NOVEMBER 21: Actress/singer Taylor Swift arrives at the 2010 American Music Awards held at Nokia Theatre L.A. Live on November 21, 2010 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Todd Williamson/WireImage)
LAS VEGAS, NV - APRIL 03: Recording Artist Taylor Swift arrives at the 46th Annual Academy Of Country Music Awards at MGM Grand on April 3, 2011 in Las Vegas, Nevada. (Photo by Jon Kopaloff/FilmMagic)
LOS ANGELES, CA - NOVEMBER 20: Singer Taylor Swift arrives at the 2011 American Music Awards held at Nokia Theatre L.A. LIVE on November 20, 2011 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Steve Granitz/WireImage)
NEW YORK, NY - OCTOBER 22: Singer Taylor Swift leaves the 'Katie Couric Show' at the ABC Lincoln Center Studios on October 22, 2012 in New York City. (Photo by Ray Tamarra/Getty Images)
NASHVILLE, TN - DECEMBER 05: Singer Taylor Swift attends The GRAMMY Nominations Concert Live!! held at Bridgestone Arena on December 5, 2012 in Nashville, Tennessee. (Photo by Larry Busacca/WireImage)
LOS ANGELES, CA - AUGUST 20: Musician/actress Taylor Swift, wearing Elie Saab top and shorts, attends a press event for breaking The Staples Center's record of most sold-out shows for a solo artist held at The Staples Center on August 20, 2013 in Los Angeles, California. She has surpassed Madonna and Justin Timberlake for seven sellouts and Britney Spears at eight sellout shows. (Photo by Kevin Winter/Getty Images)
HOLLYWOOD, CA - SEPTEMBER 24: Recording artist Taylor Swift attends the premiere of Relativity Media's 'Romeo & Juliet' at ArcLight Hollywood on September 24, 2013 in Hollywood, California. (Photo by David Livingston/Getty Images)
TORONTO, ON - JUNE 16: Singer Taylor Swift arrives at the 2013 MuchMusic Video Awards at MuchMusic HQ on June 16, 2013 in Toronto, Canada. (Photo by George Pimentel/WireImage)
NEW YORK, NY - AUGUST 25: Musician Taylor Swift attends the 2013 MTV Video Music Awards at the Barclays Center on August 25, 2013 in the Brooklyn borough of New York City. (Photo by Jamie McCarthy/Getty Images for MTV)
HOLLYWOOD, CA - SEPTEMBER 24: Musician Taylor Swift arrives at the premiere of Relativity Media's 'Romeo & Juliet' at ArcLight Hollywood on September 24, 2013 in Hollywood, California. (Photo by Jason Merritt/Getty Images)
LOS ANGELES, CA - NOVEMBER 24: Taylor Swift attends the 2013 American Music Awards at Nokia Theatre L.A. Live on November 24, 2013 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Kevin Mazur/AMA2013/WireImage)
BEVERLY HILLS, CA - JANUARY 25: Taylor Swift arrives at the Clive Davis And The Recording Academy Annual Pre-GRAMMY Gala at The Beverly Hilton Hotel on January 25, 2014 in Beverly Hills, California. (Photo by Steve Granitz/WireImage)
BEVERLY HILLS, CA - MARCH 01: Singer Taylor Swift attends The Weinstein Company Academy Award party hosted by Chopard on March 1, 2014 in Beverly Hills, California. (Photo by Stefanie Keenan/Getty Images for Chopard)
WEST HOLLYWOOD, CA - MARCH 03: Singer Taylor Swift arrives at the 2014 Vanity Fair Oscar Party Hosted By Graydon Carter on March 3, 2014 in West Hollywood, California. (Photo by Jon Kopaloff/FilmMagic)
LAS VEGAS, NV - APRIL 06: Singer/songwriter Taylor Swift attends the 49th Annual Academy Of Country Music Awards at the MGM Grand Garden Arena on April 6, 2014 in Las Vegas, Nevada. (Photo by Jason Merritt/Getty Images)
LAS VEGAS, NV - SEPTEMBER 19: Recording artist Taylor Swift attends the 2014 iHeartRadio Music Festival at the MGM Grand Garden Arena on September 19, 2014 in Las Vegas, Nevada. (Photo by Bryan Steffy/Getty Images for iHeartMedia)
LOS ANGELES, CA - NOVEMBER 23: Recording artist Taylor Swift attends the 42nd Annual American Music Awards at the Nokia Theatre L.A. Live on November 23, 2014 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Frederick M. Brown/Getty Images)
LOS ANGELES, CA - DECEMBER 05: Taylor Swift attends the KIIS FM's Jingle Ball 2014 held at the Staples Center on December 5, 2014 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by JB Lacroix/Getty Images)
LOS ANGELES, CA - MARCH 29: Singer-songwriter Taylor Swift attends the 2015 iHeartRadio Music Awards which broadcasted live on NBC from The Shrine Auditorium on March 29, 2015 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Jeff Kravitz/FilmMagic)
LOS ANGELES, CA - FEBRUARY 15: Musician Taylor Swift attends The 58th GRAMMY Awards at Staples Center on February 15, 2016 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Jason Merritt/Getty Images for NARAS)
GOLD COAST, AUSTRALIA - JULY 10: (EUROPE AND AUSTRALASIA OUT) Singer Taylor Swift leaves restaurant 'Gemelli Italian' in Broadbeach on the Gold Coast, Queensland. (Photo by Jerad Williams/Newspix/Getty Images)
Singer Taylor Swift arrives at the Vanity Fair Oscar Party in Beverly Hills, California February 28, 2016. REUTERS/Danny Moloshok/File photo
NEW YORK, NY - NOVEMBER 23: (EXCLUSIVE COVERAGE) Taylor Swift poses backstage at the hit musical 'Kinky Boots' on Broadway at The Al Hirschfeld Theater on November 23, 2016 in New York City. (Photo by Bruce Glikas/Bruce Glikas/Getty Images)
This article originally appeared on HuffPost.
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Expert Interview: Keith Koo on A Horizon View of Third Party Risk, Cyber-Risk, and Emerging Technologies
posted by Aravo
Sometimes, in the world of third party risk, we spend a lot of time looking at what is directly in front of us (or re-actively, what’s behind us), or even with our heads in the sand. Industry expert, Keith Koo, spends a lot of time looking to the horizon. When you meet Keith – you are immediately struck by the energy and enthusiasm he brings to the topics near and dear to his heart: disruptive technology, digital innovation and cyber-security, and the intersection of all these trends with third party risk.
Not only has Keith had significant experience in managing large third party risk programs for large banks and enterprise technology companies, he now advises companies with the most complex and pressing third party management challenges as a Managing Partner at Guardian Insight Group.
However, it’s been his experience working in the Silicon Valley, that also spurred Keith’s long-term interest in digital innovation, cyber-security and emerging, disruptive technologies such as cryptocurrencies and blockchain.
He’s brought his experience and passion together in the form of a Radio Show and Podcast series “Silicon Valley Insider” where Keith and other leading innovators in the industry discuss “what’s hot” in the digital world, best practices and big concepts for innovation, disruption and pivoting in the Silicon Valley.
We recently sat down with Keith to discuss third party risk, emerging technology, and what organizations should have on their horizon view.
How do you think third-party relationships will evolve over the next two-to-three years? In particular the role that third parties may play within a company’s business model.
The role of third parties will continue to evolve – they will become even more important to companies, who will continue to become more strategically dependent on them. Technologies such as artificial intelligence, machine learning, and big data will strengthen this trend, because companies will choose to work with third parties who have existing expertise in these areas, rather than develop the expertise themselves.
However, that does not mean that companies can outsource their understanding of the technologies being used by third parties in the process. Executives must keep current in their awareness of how third parties are delivering on their contracts and with what kind of technologies. They need to understand the risks these technologies could bring to the relationship and how their very business model could be damaged by those risks.
The Facebook/Cambridge Analytica scandal has shown the dangers of not taking these issues into account. Following the scandal, Facebook announced plans to end the company’s consumer-tracking program that allows data brokers such as Acxiom, Oracle Data Cloud, Experian, Epsilon and others to target the social media platform’s users based on their shopping habits or other data profiles. Facebook, which is a third party to these companies, announced a shift in business strategy. Now their own business models will have to pivot to change the way they target customers, and their revenues may take a hit. The question is – how aware were companies of the technologies and dependencies that were driving this part of their third party ecosystem?
Now, it will not be possible to predict every impact like a Facebook/ Cambridge Analytica event. But this is where having a business model that recognizes that you can’t know everything, and therefore has resilience and responsiveness built into it, that is important. When it comes to third party risk management, companies need to embrace the understanding that they don’t know what they don’t know. This is where resilience comes in – does the company have the right incident management and change management in place? Does it have the ability to bounce back once a vulnerability is realized? This resiliency needs to be incorporated into the business model and into their approach to third party risk management.
How could blockchain or cryptocurrencies change the shape or dynamic of third-party relationships
Ultimately blockchain could disrupt or change the shape of third party relationships because it will disintermediate the need for a middle person. Firms will seek to simplify their supply chains because what blockchain inherently strives to do is cut out all middle parties.
However, this is not going to happen for a while. I like to say that blockchain technology is really at the stage where we just invented the wheel and we’ve not invented a bicycle or a car yet. The utopian stage of disintermediation that people are excited about is some way off, but it still may come sooner than some people think.
It is very much the same with cryptocurrencies. It will be a long time before these replace fiat currencies for day-to-day transactions in most economies. However, this sort of use for cryptocurrencies may come sooner in underdeveloped countries where individuals cannot rely on their fiat currency.
Are companies finally waking up to the danger posed by cyber-risk within their third-party relationships? Why or why not?
I think, yes and no. I believe that everyone is fully aware of the dangers of cyber-risk. Having run a TPRM team – third party risk is a microcosm of every operational risk, including cyber. I have seen how people are becoming more and more aware that there is an infinite number of threat vectors in cyber-risk or information security. It’s not a question of whether or not you are going to get hacked, it’s a question of when.
Most large banks face 50,000-100,000 attempted hacks a day. And what’s great about financial institutions that many people overlook, is that with that volume of attacks, we rarely hear of an incident or a breach.
With large banks, if they do get hacked, the spot of vulnerability is basically a soft underbelly. Companies know this, and regulated entities like financial services, insurance, healthcare – these kinds of companies have to be more aware by design, because regulators expect that of them.
However, no one wants to admit vulnerability on their watch. Here, industries can be like a herd of ostriches with their heads in the sand. So, by in large, companies are not using security services that could actively find potential areas of breach, that could show where a system is vulnerable. People say, “we cannot use something like that because the moment you identify a potential source of a breach for us we’d have to disclose that to the regulator and our auditors”.
Regulated companies need to start having conversations with their regulators about these issues – they need to bring their risk analysis to their regulators and come to an understanding about how they can test using these new technologies.
If they do not, there could be the potential for significant systemic risk – on a scale as damaging or more damaging than the Atlanta, Georgia attack, for instance, where more than 10 days after the incident public sector employees still could not use their computers. Suppose something like that happened to an entire financial institution, or several?
What shape could this risk – cyber-risk within third-party relationships – take over the next two or three years? How is it going to evolve?
Whether you are a purchaser of technology or a seller of technology, that ecosystem is becoming more complex. In TPRM, we are now talking a lot about fourth party risk, which is the risks posed by the supplier’s supplier. Companies simply don’t know all the different layers of organizations and technologies supporting them.
New risks are emerging all the time at third parties, and fourth parties. For example, a few months ago, a major new technology vulnerability was announced called the Meltdown and Spectre chip flaws. These flaws effected nearly every modern CPU in a PC, server or smartphone. It is a 20-year-old design flaw that programmers thought (many years later) was an untapped resource to increase CPU performance. Those programmers then starting using the flaw in their code they wrote, so it became a feature. Through the flaw, hackers can essentially see everything that people do on their computers. The chip was, of course, made by third parties that the computer manufacturers worked with, but the problematic element of the chip was delivered to the third-party by a fourth-party. (Keith points out that he and other experts used to hypothesize that the microcode in CPUs is the one example he could think of where the industry wouldn’t need to audit fourth parties. He laughingly admits he is now proven wrong).
Another new issue is disposing of data when a firm stops working with a third party. What people don’t realize is that lots of hardware devices store the data and there is no way of getting rid of it without codifying the procedures with the third party ahead of time. It’s not designed into the hardware to be able to proactively get rid of that data. Another very recent example is Google’s decision as the third party to push all data risk onto the publishers (i.e. their customers).
People need to stop thinking about cyber-risk and third party risk as an academic exercise. They need to realize they need to start doing this – not think about it because the auditors and regulators want them to – they need to embrace keeping themselves secure, otherwise they won’t be around as a business.
How could blockchain support third party risk management – or is it simply just another risk?
One way blockchain can support third party risk management is simply by what we call a smart contract, a feature built into a blockchain. Blockchain in itself is an open public ledger that is a distributed ledger, so it is not controlled by any one computer or company, and it keeps an immutable record of everything that ever happened. So, it provides a strength of governance that regulators and auditors care about.
On the other hand, blockchain in itself is completely opposed to today’s data privacy requirements. So, HR system transactions, healthcare records, and financial transactions, for example, that carry PII won’t work at all in a blockchain environment right now. People have not yet architected how “permissionless” blockchains can transport a transaction without sharing sensitive data information.
A private, permissioned, or consortium blockchain, which is what 90% of all banks and insurance companies are doing right now, is an entirely controlled system or closed system. The problem with these is that they don’t give the end-user the same confidence in the immutability of the data.
Certainly, blockchain will revolutionize entire industries – but we are not there yet. Some of the technology doesn’t exist yet.
Given this outlook, are regulators moving fast enough to head off systemic risk implications of blockchain, cryptocurrency, and/or cyber-risk issues?
Regulators are doing everything they can to quickly come up to speed on what these technologies are. With blockchain, there are at least six US regulators that are devoting a lot of effort to the area. There is no doubt in my mind that regulators are moving as fast as they can. But to the question, are they moving fast enough – I don’t think they can move fast enough because they are trying to cover everything about blockchain. They are trying to keep consumers and businesses safe, which is good, but the technology is maturing too fast.
It may be that, ultimately, a new type of regulator will be needed to effectively oversee a technology like blockchain.
There is financial risk – in the US, the regulators have made it difficult to do initial coin offerings (ICOs), because they want to prevent “pump and dump” schemes and other forms of fraud. There were over 900 ICOs in the world last year, 2017 and by February of this year, already almost 50% had collapsed, either because they were fake or because they were inherently flawed.
There is also operational risk. People believe that blockchain isn’t hackable, and truthfully it is virtually unhackable. However, there are hackers trying to hack into the entire network and if they were successful, it would collapse the entire chain that was hacked. (As of the timing of this interview, a research group discovered a flaw in Ethereum, the most prolific enterprise blockchain that was patched very soon after the vulnerability was announced. If exploited, the entire Ethereum ecosystem could have been compromised).
What should organizations be doing today to either better manage the risks posed by these three trends – or potentially profit from the upside? And what role could third parties play?
We’ve gone full circle. The first thing is don’t be a herd of ostriches. Take your head out of the sand, educate yourself, get the training you need. Don’t rely on just internal experts – even the most seasoned technology folks in your institution – nobody can know everything that is going on right now, it’s all too new and dynamic. Keep an open mind and educate yourself and your organization on what these emerging technologies are, and what they can do both in terms of benefits and risks.
Companies should also consider working with organizations that are developing solutions in these spaces that could potentially be disruptive competitors. Many financial institutions are doing this at the moment, for example. The more enterprises can clearly articulate how they could use a nascent aspect of blockchain to further their own products, the more potential upside there could be for them. Companies, and their third parties, will also need to be able to pivot when change occurs.
Finally, there are big, unanswered questions still out there. For instance, while blockchain may disintermediate third parties – is it a third party itself? How will organizations list blockchain as a third party? How would you bring it into your system and conduct due-diligence?
About Keith Koo
Managing Partner, Guardian Insight Group / Host “Silicon Valley Insider” Radio Show and Podcast
Keith is a Founder and Managing Partner of Guardian Insight Group (GIG), a Technology Risk advisory firm dedicated to identifying, assessing, controlling, and mitigating risks associated with doing business with technology companies and vendors such as: financial, blockchain, pricing/cost, cyber, information security, business resiliency, disaster recovery, regulatory and compliance.
Before founding GIG, Keith was the Managing Director/Head of Third-Party Risk Management for the Mitsubishi Financial Group (MUFG) and was responsible for ensuring that the Bank had the proper framework, policies and controls to meet regulatory standards for effective oversight of third parties/vendors.
Keith is also the creator and Host of the “Silicon Valley Insider” Radio show and Podcast which focuses on innovation, disruption and the risks associated with doing business. Keith is also an adviser to fortune 1000 companies and startups.
Previously he held leadership roles at Cisco Systems, Hewlett Packard, and other technology and financial service companies in Mergers and Acquisitions, Divestitures, Technology and Risk Management. Keith is a frequent speaker, emcee, and moderator.
keith@guardian-insight.com
https://twitter.com/SVI_Keith
https://facebook.com/keithkoo.sv
Cybersecurity & Vendor Risk: The Third Party Risk Challenge Is Here Now Expert Interview: Victoria Munoz-Titos on Seven Changes we can Expect to See in TPRM by 2021 Transforming Insights into Cyber Resilience via Technology Integration Five Top Trends in Cybersecurity Regulations Expert Interview: John Bree on the Top Five TPRM Program Mistakes Firms Often Make Aravo Perspectives on AI & Machine Learning for Third-Party Risk Management | 2019 Expert Interview: Tom Garrubba on Six Ways Collaboration Can Enhance Your TPRM Program Third-Party Risk Management in the Dynamic of Business Scale, Complexity, and Change Aravo and SecurityScorecard Partner to Improve Actionable Third Party Cybersecurity How To Build a Business Case for Better Third-Party Risk Management
data privacytechnologyblockchaincryptocurrencycyber riskData Security & Privacythird party risk management
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Appendix 2 Spilsbury – My Cousin Shakespeare May 25, 2010
Filed under: Uncategorized — Tony @ 9:26 pm
Tags: Arden, Shakespeare, Spilsbury
The Spilsbury Family
and My Cousin Shakespeare – sixty-six degrees of separation!
To thee, my cousin Shakespeare, this poor verse
I dedicate in honour of thy name.
I draw a rather long bow, or much worse,
When distant kinship I with thee proclaim.
Much have I admired thy wondrous power and sway
And worship thee “this side idolatry”
(As once thy rival Jonson dared to say),
For I, in sooth, love thy sweet harmony.
The road that lies betwixt my name and thine
Is long indeed and truly sinuate;
The links, as in a golden chain, are fine,
That golden road a maze to navigate.
But, oh, fair coz, what pleasure ’tis to me,
To find I am related so to thee.
My great grandfather Alexander Edward Butler (b.1828, d.1899) had a brother named Spilsbury (b.1836) and a son named Charles Spilsbury (b.1865, d.1876). It never occurred to me to question the origin of the unusual name, Spilsbury.
So, it was with some surprise that I received an email in May 2009 from Joanne Sholes (of California USA) entitled “Butler and Spilsbury connections question”. It opened up a whole world of enquiry and pointed me eventually towards a relationship – albeit a circuitous, “sinuate”, one – with William Shakespeare.
The aim of this article is to indicate as clearly as I can from the documentary evidence available the connection between my Butler family and William Shakespeare, the Stratford man who wrote those wonderful plays.
My information is gleaned from several sources. I am primarily indebted to Joanne Sholes for setting me on this path and for providing a great deal of information that allows me to trace the Butlers back to Edward Butler who married Deborah Vicares in 1681. It was their son Joseph who married Mary Spilsbury (1720). And it is the Spilsbury family that provides the link with Shakespeare through his mother, Mary Arden. One member of the Arden family, Anne (b.1750), married a Spilsbury – Benjamin (b.1746). No date is currently available for the marriage.
This primary information has been corroborated and developed from two other sources: Stirnet.com, and the website of John Spilsbury of Wolverhampton UK, rootsweb.ancestry.com.
In my own research I did not trace my Butler ancestry back beyond Edward Butler and his wife, Elizabeth Hammond Bishop. Thanks to Joanne Sholes I have found some ancestors of Edward Butler (b.1766) and Elizabeth Hammond Bishop (m.28.7.1794). His father was Edward John Butler (b.1736, Kidderminster, Worcestershire, UK; d.11.7.1779) who married Mary Austin. Edward John Butler’s father was Joseph Butler (b.4.10.1694) and his mother was Mary Spilsbury (b.23.1.1697). Both Joseph and Mary were born in Kidderminster, Worcestershire, UK, and they were married in Kidderminster, 23.11.1720. Joseph Butler’s parents were Edward Butler and Deborah Vicares who married in 1681. And that is as far back as I can trace the Butlers at present.
So it is that we turn to the Spilsburys, which family will give us the link to the Ardens, which will, in turn, link us to Shakespeare.
It must be said that tracing families back to the distant past is fraught with dangers and it is easy to assume connections where none exist. I found, for instance, the following information on RootsChat.com: “I have William of Bewdley being born in 1565 in Rock (IGI references plus another document). William is the son of John Spilsbury (b. 1525, also Rock). John is the son of Thomas, b. 1498. Thomas had one other son, John, b. 1525. From the original Thomas, there are a whole mess of Spilsburys. I’ve a copy of the Domesday book … Paraphrased it says: ‘Between the parish of Fladbury is Worcester and Chipping Norton in Oxford lies the village of Eynsham. The family of Richard de Spellesbury described as a landowner had occupied the land in 1086 … No idea how Richard came to ‘occupy’ that land.”
However, Joanne Sholes advised me: “The quote you included from Rootschat was that of my sister Carol aka Bamboogirl. I am not convinced of the earlier connects being made for William. I do feel comfortable with William and family forward. I am not sure of his birth year … Death, yes. I think there might be some leaps of faith being made re the earlier ancestors so I decided to work from William forward. This tree on rootsweb by John Spilsbury takes William back to Richard then to Thomas.”
The following material, then, is derived from John Spilsbury’s site
http://wc.rootsweb.ancestry.com/cgi-bin/igm.cgi?op=GET&db=johnspilsbury58&id=I09494
and also from
http://www.stirnet.com/HTML/genie/british/aa/arden2.htm
Because I have not undertaken any research for this article personally, I am relying on the information of others. Sometimes the details about a particular ancestor available from the several researchers do not coincide, so I have tried to give both accounts.
According to John Spilsbury’s researches, the earliest authenticated Spilsbury in the family relevant to this story is Thomas (b.1520, Rock, Worcestershire UK; d.1574, Worcestershire UK). He married Isobel — (b.1520, Worcestershire UK). They had five children, all born in Rock, Worcestershire UK: Thomas (b.1546), Richard (b.28.4.1550), John (b.4.1.1553), Robert (b.13.3.1553) and Edward (b.21.9.1555).
Richard (b.28.4.1550). His wife’s name is presently unknown. There were seven children, all born in Rock, Worcestershire UK: Joyce (b.31.8.1589), Thomas (b.8.12.1590), Margaret (23.9.1592); William (b.1.4.1594), Anne (b.20.4.1596), Richard (b.21.9.1598) and John (b.14.11.1600).
William (b.1.4.1594, d.27.11.1672, buried Ribbesford Church, North Bewdley,[1] Worcestershire UK) married Ann — (b.15.10.1600). No date is currently available. There were seven children, all born in Ribbesford: Mary (b.6.6 1623), Sarah (b.5.3.1625), John (b.25.5.1628), Anne (b.28.12.1630), Susanne (29.9.1633), Elizabeth (b.26.2.1636), and James (b.24.11.1639). Sholes writes: “William Spilsbury of Bewdley (d. 1673) and wife Anne (d. 1664) are buried in the churchyard of St. Leonard’s in the hamlet of Ribbesford. The church is located in the countryside near the River Severn one mile south of Bewdley. The baptisms of at least seven of the recorded nine children born to William and Anne can be found in the parish records of St. Leonard’s, and William and Anne are buried there.”
It is the descendants of John and James that concern us here: John’s granddaughter Mary married Joseph Butler (23.11.1720), and James’s great grandson Benjamin married Anne Arden (no date currently available). John and James are of some further interest because they became prominent as Dissenting Ministers.
John (b.25.5.1628, d. 10.6.1699) married Hanna Hall (b.c.1630) in Bromsgrove, Worcestershire. They had one child, John (b.1667, Worcester). Sholes adds some important details: “John is often referenced in association with the Particular Baptist movement. Records for John note that he obtained his MA from Magdalen in 1652 and afterward held a fellowship there for two years. He married Hannah Hall 5.6.1661. Hannah’s brother, John Hall, was an associate of John Spilsbury’s and was referred to as the Bishop of Bristol. He was vicar of Bromsgrove until being ejected in 1662 because of religious differences. John was imprisoned in Worcester because of his dissenting views. The three years he spent incarcerated took a toll on his health. He continued his ministry privately to believers. He and Hannah had one child, John, born 1667. This branch of the Spilsbury family has long been referred to as the ‘Dissenting Ministers’ as several of John’s descendants continued to pursue the ministry. There appears to be some debate regarding the actual date of his death. Several early references list his death as 1669, but transcription of a copy of a funeral sermon for John Spilsbury delivered by John Eccles and dated 1699 suggest he lived several years several years past 1667.”
John (b.1667, d.31.1.1727) married, 26.10.1693, Mary Bridges (b.1672, Worcester). There were eight children, all born in Kidderminster except the last child, Francis, who was born in Bromsgrove: William (b.?), John (b.11.1.1694), Hannah (b.1.5.1696), Mary (b.23.1.1697), Hester (b.2.1.1698), Hall (b.18.11.1701), Elizabeth (b.22.4.1704), and Francis (b.1706). Sholes adds the following information: “Like his father, John went into the ministry, becoming pastor for a congregation of Dissenters in Kidderminster. His marriage to Mary Bridges (1672-1759) was recorded 26 Oct 1693. A portrait of Mary Bridges Spilsbury survives in the Baxter United Reformed Church of Kidderminster, a church built on the site of the original meeting house. After John’s death, his son-in-law, Matthew Bradshaw continued the ministry. There is a plaque on the wall of the church noting his service from 1693 till 1727. It was John and Mary’s daughter Mary who married Joseph Butler.”
Mary Spilsbury (b.23.1.1697) married (23.11.1720) Joseph Butler (b.8.5.1692) in Kidderminster, Worcestershire. There seems to be some difference of opinion about the number of children. Joanne Sholes lists five children, all born in Kidderminster: Mary (b.24.2.1728); Deborah, named after her grandmother (b.31.7.1730); Edward who was born 5.3.1734 and died aged 13 months, 4.4.1735; Edward John (b.1736) who married Mary Austin; and John (b.13.3.1738). John Spilsbury lists seven: Hanna (b.?), Mary (b.24.2.1728), Deborah (b.31.7.1730); Edward (b.5.3.1734), Sarah (b.13.3.1743); Edward John (b.13.3.1737) who married Mary Austin, and Joseph (b.-.5.1746).
As I wrote above, Joseph Butler’s parents were Edward Butler and Deborah Vicares who married in 1681. The descendants of Edward Butler and Deborah Vicares relevant to this account are Joseph Butler who married Mary Spilsbury (23.11.1720), their son Edward Butler who married Mary Austin (m.1761), their son Edward Butler who married Elizabeth Hammond Bishop (m.28.7.1794), their son Alexander Bishop Butler who married Charlotte Selina Mortimer of the prominent Mortimer gunsmith family in London (m.13.9.1827), their son Alexander Butler who married Eliza Helyar (m.8.4.1852), their son Edward William Butler who married Lilian McLean (m.29.12.1897), and their son Malcolm George Butler who married Honor Whittaker (m.26.9.1936), who are my parents.
So we now turn to the Dissenting Minister James Spilsbury (brother of John Spilsbury), for it is his great grandson Benjamin who married into the Arden line.
James was born 24 November 1639 in Ribbesford and died 5 February 1698 in King’s Norton, Worcestershire (the home of another of my ancestors, William Dedicoat, aka – among other names – William Jones, the convict, and William Day, the father and bushranger). His main place of residence seems to have been Oxford, but in 1663 he was head teacher at Bewdley Grammar School and in 1878 he was chaplain at St John’s chapel, Deritend, Birmingham. He was buried in Mosely, 5.2.1698. Sholes adds some more information: “Fewer references to James appear but records exist for his matriculation at Magdalen College Oxford and identify him as a curate of St John’s Chapel Deritend until his death in 1699. In research compiled by his descendants, he was referred to as James of Rock but this is not proven. He is also referenced in a book titled Nonconformity by William Urwick as having been educated at Tewkesbury.”
James married Ann — (b.1650) and there were four children, all born in King’s Norton: James (b.3.2.1682), William (b.3.9.1687), Mary (b.30.5.1690) and Elizabeth (b.17.7.1694).
Their first son James (b.3.2.1682, d.1740) married (1) (10.6.1708) Elizabeth Bridges (b.18.8.1674) by whom he had one son, James (b.14.4.1710, Kidderminster) who, we may assume, died young; and (2) (1.7.1712) Elizabeth Lucas with whom there were six children, all born in Alcester, Warwickshire: Elizabeth (b.10.6.1713), Lucas (b.7.1.1714), James (b.9.3.1715), Thomas (b.13.9.1718), John (b.4.1.1720) and Ann (b.14.9.1723); and then, in 1736, James married (3) Mrs Flowers.
Lucas Spilsbury (b.7.1.1714, d.14.7.1764) married (26.1.1741) Dorothy Ward (b.1720, Willington, Derbyshire). There were seven children, all born in Willington: Francis Ward (b.6.11.1742), Lucas Ward (b.9.10.1743), John (b.1744), Benjamin (b.1746), Elizabeth (b.1748), Joseph (b.1752) and Dorothy (1754).
It is Benjamin Spilsbury (b.1746, d.-.8.1818) who married into the Arden line in the person of Anne (b.19.5.1750, Yoxall, Staffordshire; d.31.12.1829). No date is currently available for their marriage. There were three children, all born in Willington, Derbyshire): Elizabeth Ward (b.21.2.1787), Francis Ward (b.10.5.1788) and Anne Georgiana (b.23.4.1789)From here we work through the ancestry of Anne to discover her kinship with William Shakespeare. It is a long way back to her g.g.g.g.g.g.g.g grandfather Walter, one of whose grandsons, Robert, was the father of Mary Arden, Shakespeare’s mother. A long trail of breadcrumbs or a serious clew will help!
But first, something about the illustrious Arden family. Wikipedia writes:
“The Arden family is, according to an article by James Lees-Milne in the 18th edition of Burke’s Peerage/Burke’s Landed Gentry, volume 1, one of only three families in England that can trace its lineage in the male line back to Anglo-Saxon times (the other two being the Berkeley family and the Swinton family). The Arden family takes its name from the Forest of Arden in Warwickshire.
“Alwin (Æthelwine), nephew of Leofric, Earl of Mercia, was Sheriff of Warwickshire at the time of the Norman Conquest. He was succeeded by his son, Thorkell of Arden (variously spelt Thorkill, Turchil etc.), whose own son and principal heir, Siward de Arden, subsequently married Cecilia, granddaughter of Aldgyth, daughter of Ælfgar, Earl of Mercia, and from this union the Ardens descend (Siward was Thorkell’s son by his first wife, whose name is not recorded; his second wife, Leofrun, was another daughter of Ælfgar). Subsequent generations of the family remained prominent in Warwickshire affairs and on many occasions held the shrievalty. From the time of Sir Henry de Arden in the 14th century the Ardens had their primary estate at Park Hall, Castle Bromwich. Robert Arden was executed in 1452 for supporting the uprising of Richard, Duke of York. The same fate befell Edward Arden in 1583, who came under suspicion for being head of a family that had remained loyal to the Catholic Church, and was sentenced for allegedly plotting against Elizabeth I. His father William was second cousin to Mary Arden, mother of William Shakespeare. Edward’s great-grandson Robert died unmarried and without issue in 1643, bringing the Park Hall male line to an end. The Arden family survives to this day in many branches descended from younger sons in earlier generations.”[2]
“The descent from Alwin is as follows:
Alwin (d. c.1083)
Thorkell of Arden (d. c.1100)
Siward de Arden, m. Cecilia
Henry de Arden (d. aft. 1166)
William de Arden, m. Galiena
William de Arden, m. Avice
Sir Thomas de Arden, m. Riese
Ralph de Arden (d. aft. 1290)
Ralph de Arden, m. Isabel de Bromwich
Sir Henry de Arden (d. c.1400), m. Ellen
Sir Ralph Arden (d. 1420), m. Sybil
Robert Arden (executed 12 Aug 1452), m. Elizabeth Clodshall
Walter Arden (d. 5 Aug 1502), m. Eleanor Hampden
Sir John Arden (d. 1526), m. Alice Bracebridge
Thomas Arden (d. 1563), m. Mary Andrewes
William Arden (d. 1546), m. Elizabeth Conway
Edward Arden (executed 20 Dec 1583), m. Mary Throckmorton
Robert Arden (d. 27 Feb 1635), m. Elizabeth Corbet
Sir Henry Arden (d. 1616), m. Dorothy Feilding
Robert Arden (d. 1643)”
We begin our story with Walter de Arden, the thirteenth of the Ardens listed above.
Walter de Arden (b.c.1441, Park Hall, Warwickshire, d.5.8.1502, Aston, Birmingham, West Midlands) and Eleanor Hampdon (b.c.1445, Great Hampden, Buckinghamshire) were the parents of Sir John Arden (b.c.1461, Park Hall, Warwickshire, d.27.6.1526), the eldest son, and Martin (b.1467), Thomas (b.1469), William, Joyce, Elizabeth, Margaret, Alice, Robert and Henry. It was from Thomas (b.1469) that William Shakespeare was descended – but of that in its place.
Sir John Arden (b.c.1461, Park Hall, Warwickshire, d.27.6.1526) who married (13.2.1474) Alice Bracegridle (b.c.1462, Kingsbury, Warwickshire), had seven children: Thomas Arden (b.c.1481) and (as listed on the Stirnet site) six other children: John, Geys, Katherine, another daughter, then Margaret and Agnes.
Thomas Arden of Park Hall (b.c.1481, Saltley, [3] Warwickshire, d.5.2.1563, Saltley) married Mary Andrewe(s) (b.c.1481, Charwelton, Northampton). Simon Arden (b.c.1500, d.1600[sic!]) was the oldest of their nine children. The other children were: Thomas (b.1504), William (b.c.1509), Edward (b.c.1513), George (b.c.1515), Joyce (b.c.1517), Elizabeth (b.c.1519), Cecily (b.c.1521), and Mary (b.c.1523). They were all born in Saltley, Warwickshire.
Simon Arden Sheriff of Warwickshire (b.c.1500, Park Hall, Warwickshire, d.1600) married twice: Margaret — and Mrs Christine Bond – the order of the two marriages is not clear. Ambrose Arden of Longcroft (b.1555) was the oldest son of Simon Arden and Margaret — who had several other sons: John, Ambrose of Barton, and, maybe, Richard, Simon and Walter.
Ambrose Arden of Longcroft (b.1555, Barton Under Needwood, Staffordshire, d.1624, Barton Under Needwood) married (1588) Mary Wedgewood. There is one son: Humphrey Ambrose Arden (b.1610, Barton Under Needwood).
Humphrey Ambrose Arden (b.1610, Barton Under Needwood, d.15.7.1656, Longcroft, Yoxall) married twice: (1) Elizabeth Lascelles by whom there were two children – Henry and John; and (2) (1.12.1630 Marchington, Staffordshire) Jane Rowbotham by whom there was one son, Humphrey, and, according to Stirnet, four daughters: Mary, Elizabeth, Anne and Grace.
Humphrey Arden of Longcroft (b.2.11.1634 Barton Under Needwood, Staffordshire, d.1706 Longcroft, Yoxall [a/c to John Spilsbury] OR b.c.1631, d.31.1.1705 [a/c to Stirnet]) married [a/c to Stirnet] — Lassal of London OR [a/c to John Spilsbury, Elizabeth Lascelles]. No date is given for the marriage. Their offspring included Henry Arden (b.7.11.1665), Catherine and Elizabeth.Henry Arden (b.7.11.1665 Longcroft, Yoxall, d.10.8.1728) married (14.1.1692 Alrewas, Staffordshire) Anne Allcock (d.6.1.1698). John Arden (b.1.1.1693) was the oldest son and there was a daughter, Elizabeth (buried 12.6.1696, probably only 2 or 3 years of age).
John Arden (b.1.1.1693 Longcroft, Yoxall, Staffordshire), Sheriff of Staffordshire, married (1) (date currently unknown) Anna Catherena Newton (d.17.3.1727). Henry Arden was the oldest child and there were two other children: Catherine and Anna. John Arden later married (2) Anne Spateman.
Henry Arden (b.18.4.1723 Yoxall, Staffordshire, d.22.6.1782 Longcroft, Yoxall) married (Lichfield 18.5.1749) Alathea Cotton (Alithaea Cooper, b.31.10.1723, d.1.7.1783, a/c to John Spilsbury [Rootsweb]). According to Stirnet their issue included John (b.-.3.1752, d.10.2.1803), Humphrey (b.6.12.1758), Anne Arden (b.19.5.1750, Yoxall, Staffordshire; d.31.12.1829 Willington, Derbeyshire) who married Benjamin Spilsbury; Henry (b.1754), Robert (1757-1759), Samuel (b.23.11.1760) and Alathea Catharina. [4]
To complete the connection with William Shakespeare, we have to return to an earlier member of the family.
It is from Sir John Arden (b.c.1461)’s brother Thomas Arden (b.1469) that William Shakespeare was descended. From above, we remember that Sir John Arden (b.c.1461,) was the oldest son of Walter de Arden and Eleanor Hampdon and that there other children, including Thomas (b.1469).
Thomas Arden (b.1469, Wilmcote, Aston Cantlow, Warwickshire) – wife’s name unknown – had two children: Robert Arden (b.1506, Wilmcote, Aston Cantlow, Warwickshire; later of Snitterfield; d. 16.12.1556), and Grace (b.1515 [1512 a/c to Stirnet], Stratford on Avon, Warwickshire, d.3.12.1539).
Robert Arden (b.1506, Wilmcote, Aston Cantlow, Warwickshire; later of Snitterfield; d. 16.12.1556) married (1) Agnes Webb (b.1536 [?] Stratford on Avon, Warwickshire) and (2) Mary Webb (b.5.2.1511, Stratford on Avon). There were eight children: Joyce (b.c.1534, Stratford on Avon), Agnes (b.c.1536, Stratford on Avon), Mary (b.c.1537, Wilmcote, Aston Cantlow, Warwickshire), Margaret (b.c.1538, Wilmcote, Aston Cantlow), Thomas (b.c.1540, Stratford on Avon), Joan (b.c.1542, Stratford on Avon), Alice (b.c.1544, Stratford on Avon) and Katherine (b.c.1545, Stratford on Avon).
Mary Arden (b.c.1537, Wilmcote, Aston Cantlow, d.9.9.1608, Stratford on Avon) married (June 1557) John Shakespeare (b.c.1537, Wilmcote, Stratford on Avon, Warwickshire). And of her was born William who was called The Bard.
There were eight children born to Mary Arden and John Shakespeare: Joan (bpt.15.9.1558, d. soon afterwards), Margaret (bpt.2.12.1562, died one year later), William (b.23.4.1564, d.23.4.1616)[5], Gilbert (bpt.13.10.1566, d.3.2.1612, unmarried), Joan 1569-1646, m. William Hart; their descendants lived in Stratford until 1806.[6]), Anne (b.1571, d.1579), Richard (bpt.11.3.1574, d.4.2.1613, unmarried), Edmund (bpt.3.5.1580, d.1607, unmarried).
While it can never be proved conclusively, it is a strong possibility that William Shakespeare grew up in a strongly Catholic family. His mother’s family was undoubtedly committed to the old faith and there is some evidence that John Shakespeare was also committed to the same faith. As for Shakespeare’s strong personal commitment to that same faith, it is unlikely, though in my view his works are pervaded by a deep understanding of the Christian faith of one variety or another.
So while this branch of the Butler family cannot claim any direct connection with the Ardens, let alone William Shakespeare, there is a happy if somewhat circuitous connection which has some delight if not much import.
[1] Rock, Ribbesford and Bewdley are west of Kidderminster, near Stourport (Map 29, A33, Collins Road Atlas, Britain 1985)
[2] Wikipedia
[3] Park Hall was situated in Bromwich, north-west of Birmingham.
[4] According to the list generated by Stirnet.
[5] No, there are no direct descendants of William Shakespeare living today. Shakespeare and his wife Anne Hathaway had three children: Susanna, who was born in 1583 and twins Judith and Hamnet, who were born in 1585. The boy Hamnet died in 1596 aged 11 years. Susanna married John Hall in 1607 and had one child, Elizabeth, in 1608. Elizabeth married twice (in 1626 to Thomas Nash and in 1649 to John Bernard), but she never had any children. Judith married Thomas Quiney in 1616 and had three sons, one of whom died in infancy. The other two sons both died unmarried in 1639.
[6] I believe there are numerous Hart descendants alive today.
Chapter 1 Alexander Bishop Butler, Spilsbury, Mortimer and Cousin Shakespeare November 15, 2008
Filed under: FamilyHistory — Tony @ 3:31 pm
Tags: Alexander Bishop Butler, Blanch, Mortimer, Shakespeare, Spilsbury
ALEXANDER BISHOP BUTLER
“Celebrated Gunsmiths”
Appendices: the Spilsbury Family and the Mortimer Gunsmiths
The story of the Butler family in Australia begins with the “great progenitor,” Alexander Bishop Butler. I have a copy of the original marriage entry for Alexander Bishop Butler and Charlotte Selina Mortimer. It was given to me by my aunt, Julia Blake (née Butler), but I have no idea how she came by this document, or when it was copied, but it is possible that it is the original document given to the newly married couple. I viewed the microfilm of the same document, readily identified by a stain on the word Banns, at County Hall, London, in 1981. The certificate reads: “Alexander Bishop Butler of this Parish, Bachelor, and Charlotte Selina Mortimer, of this Parish, Spinster, were married in this Church,[1] by Banns[2] this thirteenth day of September, in the Year One Thousand, Eight Hundred and Twenty-Seven, By me, Samuel Benson, Curate. This marriage was solemnized between us in the Presence of Jackson Mortimer, Ann Eleanor Blanch, John Blanch. The above is a Copy of the Marriage Certificate of the Parish of St Saviour, Southwark in the County of Southwark.” The surnames Butler, Mortimer and Blanch which appear on the certificate spring to life as research shows them to be Charlotte’s father, sister and brother-in-law. Both Blanch and Butler married Mortimer sisters who, with Henry William Mortimer, were the children of Jackson Mortimer, gunsmith, of 21 St James Street, London. Any student of gunmaking in Nineteenth Century London would be familiar with two of those names, for Mortimer and Blanch were “celebrated gunsmiths” of the time.[3]
Our family believed that Alexander Bishop Butler was a London man, for that city appears on several relevant certificates. However, material in Melbourne’s Latrobe Library, confirmed by the International Genealogical Index (IGI), shows that he was born in Birmingham, 3 May 1805, son of Edward Butler and Elizabeth Hammond Bishop. The IGI shows the name as “Elizabeth Ham”, but other documents indicate that the name is “Elizabeth Hammond Bishop”. Alexander Bishop Butler was christened 12 November 1807, in the Non-Conformist Church, Birmingham.
His parents, Edward Butler of St Martin’s Birmingham, and Elizabeth Hammond Bishop, were married at Kempsey, four miles south of Worcester, 28 July 1794. They had six children: Edward, b.2 April 1795, Mary, b.3 April 1800, Henry Bishop, b.25 May 1802, Spilsbury, b.25 June 1803, Alexander Bishop b.3 May 1805, Francis Spilsbury, b.17 March 1807 and Rebecca, b.9 May 1810. They were all registered with the Congregation of Protestant Dissenters, Old Meeting House, Birmingham. Edward Butler, coffin furniture manufacturer, died 14 October 1846, at 39 Summer Row, Ladywood, Birmingham, of natural decay, in the presence of his son Spilsbury.
The name Spilsbury is so unusual and occurs frequently enough to demand attention. The Spilsbury connection is presented in Appendix A to this chapter. In my original research (1984-5) I could not trace my Butler ancestry back beyond Edward Butler and his wife, Elizabeth Hammond Bishop. Since then I have found some ancestors of Edward Butler (b.1766, m.28.7.1794). His father was Edward John Butler (b.1736, Kidderminster, Worcestershire, UK; d.11.7.1779). He married Mary Austin. Edward John Butler’s father was Joseph Butler (b.4.10.1694) and his mother was Mary Spilsbury (b.23.1.1697). Both Joseph and Mary were born in Kidderminster, Worcestershire, UK, and they were married in Kidderminster, 23.11.1720. Joseph Butler’s parents were Edward Butler and Deborah Vicares who married in 1681. That is as far back as I have traced the Butlers at present.
Of Alexander Bishop Butler’s first twenty years nothing is known. My original information indicated that he was apprenticed to gunsmith Jackson Mortimer in 1820. He may have begun his interest in gunsmithing in Birmingham, the centre of a thriving gunmaking industry at that time, centred on St Mary’s Church and bounded by Slaney, Shadwell, Loveday and Steelhouse Streets. There were other Butlers in the gunmaking trade in Birmingham in the early nineteenth Century, one of whom will turn up in a later chapter, coincidentally, namely Thomas Butler of Darlaston, a town twelve miles north west of Birmingham.
At that time there were three gunmaking firms of the name Mortimer in London. The three Mortimers were brothers: Jackson Mortimer whose shop was in St James Street and who made flintlock muskets under Royal Government contract; Thomas J. Mortimer and Son, Ludgate Hill; and the senior firm of Harvey Walklate Mortimer whose shop was in Fleet Street. At the time of the Lord George Gordon Riots in 1780 when other gunsmiths were sending their weapons to the Tower of London for safe keeping, Harvey Walklate kept his goods in his shop and was “rewarded by disposing of his stocks at high prices”[4]. For a fuller account of the Mortimers, see Appendix B to this chapter.
However, according to the Orphans Register Belonging to the Worshipful Company of Farriers from 24 June 1694 to 18–, Alexander Bishop Butler was apprenticed to Henry William Mortimer, 19 April 1820. Henry William Mortimer was the only son of Jackson Mortimer, and had been in partnership with his father between about 1811 and 1820. The Minute Book of the Worshipful Company of Farriers, London, indicates on the same day that “Justin[5] Butler, son of John Butler of Birmingham, Factor, and Alexander Bishop Butler, son of Edward Butler of Birmingham, Factor, were bound apprentice to the said Henry William Mortimer for seven years from this day” for £63 each. One week before, 12 April 1820, “Henry William Mortimer, [then of 2 Hackney Terrace], formerly of Fleet Street in the City of London, Gun Maker, Citizen and Farrier of London, was made free of the Company of Patrimony.”
Alexander Bishop himself was “admitted and sworn a Freeman of the Worshipful Company of Farriers of London by servitude”, 25 February 1828. He was living at 5 Hope Street, Hackney Road. By now Henry William Mortimer had left for Tasmania in 1825, so Alexander Bishop served the remainder of his apprenticeship with John Blanch – his wife’s sister’s husband. However, because he “was not turned over to the said John Blanch in the regular mode”, he could not be admitted to the freedom of the City “without the sanction and authority” of the court. The court ordered “that he be admitted into the freedom of the City by redemption in the Company of Farriers on payment of forty-six shillings and eight pence”.
It was in London that Alexander Bishop met and married his master Jackson Mortimer’s daughter, Charlotte Selina.
John Blanch, one of those who witnessed Alexander Bishop’s marriage, has a significant part in this history. His father, also John Blanch, was a shoemaker and his son John, the gunmaker, was born about 1786; he married Ann Eleanor Mortimer (Charlotte Selina’s older sister) in 1809. Their children were: John b.1810 d. young; John b.1812, m. Sarah 1833; Eliza b.1814 d. young; Henry William b.c.1816; Henry Mortimer b.1817, m. Mary Barton 1839 (they had 13 children); Eliza b.1819; William b.1822, m. Elizabeth (they had 8 children); and Christiana Maria b.1830.
A descendant of John the gunmaker, H.J. Blanch, in his book A Century of Guns, says that, as a lad, John Blanch was apprenticed to “the well-known gunsmith Jackson Mortimer”, whose firm began in 1790, of 21 St James Street, and “like the proverbial good apprentice, he married his master’s daughter”, Ann Eleanor, at Stepney Spitalfields Christ Church, 2 December, 1809 (IGI). He served for three years with John Manton (1752-1834), “the leading gunsmith of the time”. Having learnt the trade of gunsmithing “under two such competent instructors”, John Blanch started for himself in the city in 1809 at 39 Fish Street which then led down to Old London Bridge, close to the Monument. Blanch and Jackson Mortimer were partners for several years (1811-12). In 1826 he removed his business, when the New London Bridge was a-building, to 29 Gracechurch Street, where it was still functioning in 1909. In 1833 his eldest son John (1812-1839) had set up a gunsmith’s shop in Hull, Yorkshire, and in 1836 he went to Australia where we will meet him again later in tragic circumstances. In 1848 John Blanch senior took his third son, William, into partnership. In 1909 only three of the gunsmiths’ names from the 1812 London Post Office Directory still appeared as such: Barnet, Blanch and Wilkinson. Today, Blanch has disappeared.
Charlotte Selina Mortimer, the younger sister of her sister Ann Eleanor (b.1789) and her brother Henry William (b.1792), was the daughter of Jackson Mortimer and Elizabeth Vaughan and was born in London in 1800. Her parents had been married at Spitalfields Christ Church, Stepney, London 6 December 1788. Her father, Jackson Mortimer, was born 22 October 1762, the son of Samuel Mortimer and Eleanor Jackson, who married in 1752. Jackson himself had three children by this first marriage. Later he was to marry Mary Ellerby, spinster, 16 September 1809, at Christchurch Spitalfields.
In my original account of the Mortimer family I wrote: “Jackson’s father Samuel, born at Warwick, was the youngest of twenty-one children born to his father, Edward Mortimer. Edward Mortimer himself was born (year unknown) at Newcastle-under-Lyme some 30 miles NW of Birmingham, had eleven children from his first marriage and ten from his second, and was an army captain at the time of King Charles I (d.1649). This phenomenal effort is recorded in an article by James Arthur Guns Review July 1978.”
However, in 2008 I had some professional research done on Edward Mortimer. The results provided no further information on him, but the researcher made some pertinent suggestions concerning the relationship between Edward Mortimer and his putative son, Samuel. At the same time I received an email from Alan Ingram who suggested that the relationship might not be as clear as the above comments suggest. Consequently I offer the following reflections on the supposed relationship.
Alan Ingram wrote, 27 October 2008 (I summarise): “My interest is in the family of Jackson Mortimer born 1762 and his five children: Ann Eleanor, Henry William and Caroline [Charlotte] Selina by first marriage to Elizabeth Vaughan; Mary Emma and Jane by his second marriage to Mary Etherley. Mary Emma Mortimer was my great-great grandmother. It is clear from the records of St Philip’s Birmingham that Jackson Mortimer was christened 5 November 1762, his parents being Samuel and Eleanor, and that Samuel Mortimer married Eleanor Jackson 4 May 1852. But who were Samuel’s parents and where was he born?”
Ingram continues: “On a visit to the British Library, I saw the article by James Arthur (Guns Review, July 1978), but unfortunately he gives no indication of how he arrives at this information, so I can only approach this information with a good deal of caution. The Guns Review has now ceased publication so I wondered whether you had had an opportunity of finding out his sources. It would be good to know if there is any way that this information can be confirmed.”[6]
Genealogical researcher Val Atkinson carried out the research I requested about Edward Mortimer and reported as follows: “Research was carried out at the Staffordshire County Record Office Eastgate Stafford for 2 hours. The Parish Registers of St Giles, Newcastle under Lyme are held here on microfiche. Originally I was given a possible birth range of 1615-1625 for Edward Mortimer in Newcastle but in the second communication it was stated that his son Samuel married in 1752. There is a huge gap between 1625 and 1752. Even if Samuel were the youngest son and older when he married I would expect a birth date for his father Edward to be 1660-1680 which would be after the beheading of Charles I.
“Information provided: Edward MORTIMER born c.1615-1625 [guestimate by A.M. Butler], son Samuel MORTIMER born Warwick, youngest of 21 children of Edward Samuel MORTIMER, married Eleanor JACKSON 4 Apr 1752, son Jackson MORTIMER born 22 Oct 1762.
“QUESTION: Could there be a generation missing? There are 127 years from the birth of Edward to the marriage of his son Samuel. [In a later communication (25 October 2008), the researcher wrote: If there is a relationship between Samuel MORTIMER and Edward the Civil War army captain, it can’t be father and son no matter what the various claims are. We know for a fact that Samuel married in 1752 which is over a hundred years after the birth of Edward.]
“Bearing this anomaly in mind, I examined the Registers in the 1st volume of St Giles which covered 1615-1621. Dates searched were 1563-1705. There was no sign of a Baptism for Edward or indeed of anyone with the Mortimer name. 1621-1627 are missing entries. 1628-1653 no Mortimer mentioned. 1653-1712 no Mortimer mentioned.
“I had time to check as far as 1712 but with the same result. All Baptisms, Marriages and Burials were covered. Some entries are very faded or difficult to read and I had to rely heavily on the transcripts in many instances but nevertheless there were no MORTIMER entries that I could see. St Giles was the only Anglican Parish Church in operation in the town of Newcastle until into the 1800s.”
Consequently, until further information comes to light, it would be wise to regard the supposed relationship between Edward and Samuel Mortimer (father and son) as suspect.
The details of Charlotte Selina’s meeting with and marrying Alexander Bishop are not known, but we do know that Alexander Bishop followed the example of John Blanch and he too “like the proverbial good apprentice married his master’s daughter.” Whatever the case, when he was barely twenty and she was twenty-seven, they were married, 13 September 1827, in the parish church of St Saviour, Southwark, in the County of Surrey. This church is now the Cathedral Church of St Saviour and St Mary Ovarie, on the south side of the River Thames. It is diagonally opposite the Tower of London and not far down the river from the site of Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre. The church contains a memorial to William Shakespeare, “for several years an inhabitant of this parish”, and is the burial place of William Shakespeare’s brother, Edmund. It also contains memorials to John Harvard, founder of the famous American University, and to Bishop Lancelot Andrewes (d.1626).
The newly-weds, Alexander Bishop and Charlotte Selina Butler, must have stayed in London for about two years. Their first child, Alexander Edward, was born 12 July 1828 and christened 15 February 1829 in St Matthew’s Church, Bethnal Green, London. Later in 1829 Alexander Bishop Butler was practising as a gunsmith in Cheltenham, Gloucestershire,[7] where his second son, William Mortimer, was born in 1830.
Other children followed. From Charlotte Selina’s death certificate we learn that Alfred Blanch was born in 1832 in Cheltenham, Mary Anne in 1834 and Spilsbury in 1836, both in Bradford.
The family left Bradford and, departing from London 22 September 1837, arrived in Tasmania per the Derwent, 9 January 1838[8] with four sons and two daughters, Selina Eliza being born either on board or soon after their arrival in Tasmania.
The Butler family did not arrive amongst total strangers. Charlotte’s brother, Henry William Mortimer, had settled in Tasmania in 1825, and their nephew John Blanch, eldest son of their brother-in-law John, had migrated there with his wife Sarah in 1836. The Blanches moved to Port Phillip soon after – The Port Phillip Gazette of 27 October 1838, advertises J. Blanch, gunmaker and ironmonger, as selling port wine.
Henry William Mortimer is worth a book of his own, and there is material abundant for it. He was born in about 1792 in London and died in Melbourne in 1887. He married Mary Addis, with whom there were ten children. Before arriving in Tasmania he practised as a gunmaker at 2 Hackney Terrace (1820) and then at 4 East Street, Hoxton (1823). He was at one stage gunmaker to HRH The Prince Regent. He arrived with his wife in Tasmania per Elizabeth, 21 April 1825. Amongst his many occupations in Tasmania he was gunsmith, constable, York District Pound keeper, secretary and treasurer of the Tasmanian Game Association; he also held a lease for a whaling station. In late 1839 he chartered a vessel and moved to the infant Port Phillip settlement; there he moved into public life as an auctioneer, butcher and town councillor (one of the “first Aldermanic Quartette”[9]).
He set up several companies, and became the first Registrar of Births, Deaths and Marriages for Fitzroy and Collingwood; he was an active supporter of the Baptist Church, being responsible for securing the services of Melbourne’s first ordained Baptist minister, Mr Ham of Birmingham. Mortimer himself was an Independent but showed great “energy and liberality on behalf of the early Baptists.[10]
Mortimer’s favourite pursuit, according to his obituary in The Australian, 23 July 1887, was ship-owning: among other vessels, he owned the first vessel built on the banks of the Yarra and he was the owner of the barque Favourite[11] built for him by Mr Birnie in Launceston. He set up a lucrative trade in fruit with the South Seas Islands, and with his sons he opened the sugar trade with Mauritius. In Melbourne he commenced a butcher’s business which he carried on successfully for many years.
The following is the full text of his obituary:
DEATH OF ONE OF THE FIRST ALDERMEN OF MELBOURNE
We have to record the death of Mr Henry William Mortimer, in his ninety-first year. He is the last of twelve councillors who formed the first council of the corporation of the City of Melbourne, elected in 1842, in December of which year he was elected by the council alderman for Lonsdale ward, but in consequence of ill health he resigned his position in the corporation in the December following. Mr Mortimer was a very old colonist, having arrived in Tasmania in 1825. He was among the first of the free settlers, who were induced to settle in that colony by the home government offering grants of land under land warrants. [A document from the Colonial Office dated Downing Street, 25 September 1824, states: “Sir, The Bearer, Mr H.W. Mortimer, having been strongly recommended to Lord Bathurst, I am directed by his Lordship to recommend him to your protection and good offices and to request that he may receive a Grant of Land proportioned to his means of bringing it into cultivation.” It is addressed to Lieut. Gov. Arthur and signed “D.W. Norton”. He received a grant of 1000 acres.] This inducement, and symptoms of decline, prompted his desire for colonial life. He took up his grant and remained in Tasmania until December 1839 when he removed to Melbourne. He had landed but a day or two when his nephew, Mr John Blanch, gunmaker, and his wife, were killed by an explosion in Market Street, just below the present Union Club Hotel.[12] Mr Mortimer was an energetic and enterprising colonist; in everything he put out all his powers, and his avocations were very various. Originally a gunmaker, and a member of the very old firm in London of Mortimer and Blanch, Gracechurch Street, gunmakers and armourers, on his arrival in the colonies he entered into farming, whaling and trading out of Hobart and along the coast … Unhappily the last years of Mr Mortimer’s life were clouded by loss of sight. For nearly 15 years he was quite blind, and thus was shut out from the active life to which he was accustomed. He retained his mental powers until within a few days of his death, which occurred on July 21st at the residence of his son-in-law, Mr J.R. Brennand, JP, Toorak Road, South Yarra.
Garryowen sums him up as “intelligent and conscientious, but having a precise and pragmatical [sic] mannerism which prevented him from becoming popular”.[13]
At the moment nothing is known about the Butlers’ sojourn in Tasmania. We know that their sixth child, Selina Elizabeth was born there or on board ship in 1838, and that they left Tasmania in December 1839. At that time, Henry Mortimer chartered the brig Caroline to take his family and building materials to Port Phillip. Also on the Caroline were Miss Knox, the Mortimer children’s governess, and Mr and Mrs Butler and family, Mrs Butler being near her time with their seventh child. The ship, of 156 tons, set out from Hobart Town under her Master, Captain Wordin, on 4 December 1839 with “timber, sundries, passengers”. The following laconic comment occurs in Syme’s Shipping Arrivals and Departures. Victorian Ports: “driven ashore on Swan Reef, Van Dieman’s Land, en route, unloaded and salvaged; resumed voyage”.[14] The Port Phillip Gazette, 18 December 1839, is equally laconic: “On Monday last [arrived] from Hobart Town the ship Caroline, Wordin, with timber and sundries”.
They arrived in Port Phillip, Monday 16 December, and no sooner had they arrived than tragedy struck. John Blanch, son of Ann Eleanor, sister of Henry William Mortimer and Charlotte Selina Butler, had been established as a gunsmith in Melbourne since mid-1838. He had been a signatory of the 7 October 1839 letter of welcome to Governor LaTrobe in The Port Phillip Patriot. On Tuesday 17 December, the day after the Butlers and Mortimers arrived, John, aged 26, and his wife Sarah, aged 22, were the victims of an explosion in his Market Street gunsmith’s shop.
The Port Philip Gazette reported:[15]
“About four in the afternoon of Tuesday the shop and warehouse of Mr Blanch, the gunmaker, blew up from the ignition of a large quantity of powder, causing the total destruction of the building itself and involving, in one horrible scene of death and anguish, the unfortunate inmates of the house. Two passengers, lately arrived by the Westminster, in passing Mr Blanch’s Emporium, dropped in with the usual design of customers, one holding a gun in his hand imprudently fired off a cap; the gun was loaded and discharged itself into a quantity of powder lying loose in the shop; above was a large square box filled with the same destructive material. After a few moments there was the deep sound of a distant storm as the expanding air struggled into the lower apartments – another minute and it burst through the upper story, and with a crash equal to the loudest thunder, carried away in a huge mass of smoke and fragments the roof, rafters and walls. Hundreds of persons immediately rushed to the scene while a few dragged from amidst the charred and smoking ruins the body of a female; her whole form, scorched and withered, was denuded of every particle of clothing except the fragment of a shoe that remained on the right foot. The parties were bearing the mangled figure over to the house of Dr Cussens, but seeing life became extinct after a slight convulsion of the limbs, it was carried to Mr Lilly’s rooms. Mr Blanch himself was taken to Mr Cotter’s surgery, where after lingering in great torture, but sensible to the last, he died at 10 this morning [Wednesday 18 December]. Of the surviving two, neither it is expected will survive the injuries received; their names are Henry Griffin and Charles Deering. Dr Cotter, the medical attendant, reports however that both are better this morning than was expected. Mr McEchnie, the Tobacconist, whose premises adjoin those of Mr Blanch has also been severely scorched. The funeral of Mr and Mrs Blanch will take place this afternoon at four o’clock when all persons are invited to attend the remains to their last melancholy home.”
As The Port Phillip Patriot, Thursday 19 December 1839, adds some other details, it is worth quoting in full:
Dreadful Accident
On Tuesday last, about four o’clock pm, the whole town was alarmed by a tremendous shock, which caused the houses to rock to and fro, and a low but heavy sound as of thunder was heard. We will give the account in the words of our informant:-
“I heard a sound resembling thunder, immediately I perceived through my window, the roof of the house open, and a dense volume of smoke, with flashes of flame issuing out, and a second and third shock took the smoke up an immense height. It then appeared to descend and enter the adjacent parts of the town. I said to my friends near me, let us hasten down, Mr Blanch’s house is on fire. The men and myself proceeded instantly to the spot, and used every endeavour to rescue the people from the ruins, and save what property could be got out, and whilst thus engaged canisters of gunpowder frequently exploded amongst us. It then came out the house had been blown up with gunpowder. Two young men, passengers per Westminster, were found, then Mr MacNechie, who attended in the cigar shop, and next Mrs Blanch, the men were alive, more or less burnt, but unfortunately Mrs Blanch was dead, and burnt in a most horrible manner, Mr Blanch was still in the ruins, crying for help, and the parties in attempting to extricate him tore the burnt skin from his feet; he was much burnt and dreadfully cut in the head, yet he was sensible, and named a place where certain articles might be found. I noticed, as most active in my sight, Captains Smith and Smythe, with the printers, and other young men of Mr J. E. Fawkner’s Establishment; together with Mr Field and many others. Captain Smith placed a cordon of armed sentinels around the buildings and goods to preserve them, who were assisted by the Chief Constable and his band.
Further particulars. – When the accident happened there were eight persons in the house. Mrs. Jackson, who resided in the back rooms, as also 3 workmen, escaped unhurt, the partition not having given way, the other five, as described, were all seriously burnt. The accident occurred thus, as we hear:- A gentleman, one of those injured, and who now lies in a very dangerous state, snapped a gun in the shop, which went off and set fire to a large quantity of gunpowder, which first explosion caused a second – some say a third, for the powder was not all in one room.
Further Particulars. – Two men were detected stealing from the ruins, and taken to gaol. Fortunately two of Mr Blanch’s children were at school, and the third out with the nurse.
Wednesday Morning, Nine O’Clock. – Mr Blanch has yielded up his life.
We learn that Drs Cropper and Ewing paid every attention to the unfortunate sufferers.
Our proprietor has suffered a great loss by this accident, to the tune of £104/-, a year, the premises being insured to him by Mr Blanch, the Insurance Office refusing to grant a policy, on account of the powder.
We also learn that the Government are to blame in this matter, application having been made to the authorities for a place to store the powder. Had this been done, the property would have been saved, and the lives of Her Majesty[’s] subjects spared. It is fortunate for the town that more damage was not done.
The immediate reaction, then as now, was to take up a collection for “the purpose of relieving the consequent distress”. The Port Phillip Gazette reported that same day:
“At a meeting held at the British Hotel of several owners and masters of vessels now living in the Port of Melbourne, who witnessed the melancholy accident of Mr Blanch the Gunsmith. It was unanimously resolved that a subscription should be entered into for the purpose of relieving the distress consequent upon the dreadful catastrophe.”
A list of subscribers follows, with the amounts contributed, ranging from one to five pounds: J.D. Nichols, J. Moses, B. Barnett, M. Abrahams, A. Friend,[16] W. O’Connor.
There were three Blanch children: John, William Harnett and Ann Eleanor. According to the Port Phillip Patriot,[17] two of the children were at school, the other out with the nurse. The other paper says they were all out walking with the nurse. There is no mention of their recently arrived relatives. Henry William Mortimer had intended that his wife and younger children should stay with the already established Blanch family, but their deaths put paid to that idea. Instead, Mortimer moved into Flinders Lane and reared the three Blanch children with his own. In April 1841, John and William Harnett Blanch were on their way to England, Henry William Mortimer having advertised in The Port Phillip Gazette, 3 March 1841, for passengers to England willing to take care of two “stout and healthy boys”, who were only six and five years old.
Young John Blanch, who was born in 1835, never married. He became a sea captain and died at sea. William Harnett Blanch, born 1836 at sea on the voyage to Australia, married Clarissa Little and had four children. The family remained in England. Ann Eleanor Blanch, born in Hobart in 1838, married Edmund L’Anson. They had five children and lived in South America.
Another Blanch was to arrive in Melbourne some years later – Henry Mortimer Blanch, the Melbourne merchant referred to in Leslie Arthur Schumer’s 1975 Henry Dendy and his Emigrants.[18] He is another son of John Blanch senior, hence a brother of the John Blanch who died in the Melbourne explosion. He was born in 1817, was apprenticed to his father in 1827 and migrated to Australia in 1843. Henry Mortimer Blanch was noted in 1846 as a settler of Bourke Street Melbourne, and of Brighton. In 1850 he is recorded as a wholesale hardware man of 117 Collins Street Melbourne. He married Mary Harriet (1839) and they had at least two children: Ann Eleanor born 1854, and William Septimus, born 1856.[19]
Let us return to Alexander Bishop and Charlotte Selina Butler.
Ten days after their arrival in Port Phillip, Charlotte Selina Butler gave birth to her seventh child, a son, Phillip Henry, 29 December 1839, baptised in the Independent Church 9 February 1840.
In 1840, Alexander Bishop Butler was running a store in Queen Street, Melbourne, and moved in 1841 to Collins Street where he remained in 1842. The Port Phillip Directory for 1841 has Alexander Butler in a general store in Queen Street.[20]
In my original account (1986) I wrote:
“After that, Alexander Bishop Butler effectively disappears from our knowledge: Directories and Electoral Rolls reveal no trace of him, though his sons appear regularly for at least another fifty years until 1895, after which I have not checked. Microfiche records of Deaths have no mention of him and searches through Hall’s records of miscellaneous deaths and burials bring no bones to the light of day. There are no references to him in any of the standard texts of the early history of Port Phillip, though his second son, William Mortimer Butler, does achieve the distinction of a paragraph in Victoria and its Metropolis Past and Present,[21] vol. II. Nor could I find any notice of an inquest or a will.
“The last record, to my knowledge at this date, is in the 1841 Census: A.B. Butler, Township of Melbourne, No. of persons – 9. He is, however, advertising, in The Port Phillip Gazette, 30 January 1841, the sale of ‘greengages, damsons and apples’ from his general store in Queen Street.
“That he predeceased his wife we know from the following obituary in The Argus, Wednesday 24 October, 1860: ‘On the 15th inst. at her residence, Union Street, Richmond, after a long and painful illness, in the 60th year of her age, Charlotte Selina, relict of the late Alexander Bishop Butler, and sister of W.H. Mortimer of this city.’
“In the 27 August 1893 issue of the Tatler magazine there is a photograph of ‘Bishop Butler, an Old Colonist of Victoria’. It is a reasonable assumption that this is Alexander Bishop Butler, and as the photograph reveals quite a mature man of some 50 years of age, it is further assumed he died not long before his wife.[22] She was buried in Melbourne General Cemetery. He may have accompanied his sons to the goldfields at Bendigo in the mid-fifties and died there. All is assumption.”
Since then I have discovered the following information: Alexander Bishop Butler died Hobart, 30 September 1846, Gunmaker, aged 40, of consumption. Informant: James Billing, undertaker, Liverpool St, Hobart. Certificate No: 1177.[23] Tombstone reads: “Alexander Bishop Butler, of this city who departed this life Septr. 30, 1846; aged 40 years. After so many years of severe suffering, borne with exemplary Christian resignation, leaving a wife and seven children to lament their loss.”[24] It seems that he had left his wife, indeed, in Melbourne (unless she went with him to Tasmania and returned to Melbourne later.)
Alexander Bishop and Charlotte Selina Butler had seven children. The eldest son, Alexander Edward, my great-grandfather, was born in London. Of him, more later in his own chapter.
William Mortimer Butler, the second son, was born in Cheltenham, Gloucestershire in 1830, when Alexander Bishop was following his trade as gunsmith. After arriving in Port Phillip, he lived at Richmond; in 1846 he was in Geelong; in 1851 he was at Fryers Creek; between 1852 and 1881 he is listed as a grocer at Castlemaine. At the age of 26 he married Harriet Dunkinson of Narre Warren, 23 December 1856. At that time he was a butcher in Richmond Road, Richmond, as is seen from the 1856-7 Victorian Electoral Roll. He did well enough in public life to warrant mention in Sutherland’s Victoria and its Metropolis Past and Present, Melbourne 1883, vol. II:
“Butler, William Mortimer. Castlemaine; arrived in Victoria in 1839 and was apprenticed to Mr George Board of Melbourne with whom he remained for twelve months when he went to Castlemaine in 1852. After trying his fortune as a miner at Eaglehawk, Bendigo, etc., he was next at Richmond for ten years and then travelled for several firms for about sixteen years. In 1881 he bought his present business of a wine and spirit merchant at Castlemaine and has carried it on since with success. He is also connected with several quartz and reef mines and has been auditor for the New Era and Barfold Range mines for ten years, and for some others.”
William Mortimer, one of the signatories of the 1867 Loyal Address to the Duke of Edinburgh, died 2 March 1919 at Castlemaine. His children included Selina Jane b.1858, Alfred Edward b.1860 (both died pre-1864), William Mortimer b.1861, and Christina Harriet b.18 June, 1884, who married David Forbes, 26 July 1893, in Richmond Victoria.
Alfred Blanch, the third son of Alexander Bishop and Charlotte Selina Butler, born 1832, was a seaman, b.1832, Cheltenham. He married Elizabeth Walker Morris, 16 November1869 and they had nine children, all born in Victoria. He died 3 June 1896, Abbotsford, Victoria aged 64, his occupation given as carpenter.[25]
Mary Anne, the first daughter, born in England in 1834, married a Mr Dunkinson of Narre Warren, presumably Harriet’s brother.
Spilsbury, born in England in 1836, married Louisa Barrett. He was living in Union Street, Richmond, in 1860, undoubtedly looking after his mother as suggested by her death certificate. Both he and Philip Henry signed the Loyal Address to the Duke of Edinburgh in 1867. In 1883 or 1884 Spilsbury was living at Aberdeen Street, Prahan, and moved to Bent Street, Malvern, in 1890. By 1895 Philip Henry joins him in the Sands Directory, but I did not trace them any further.[26]
Selina Elizabeth, born in Tasmania in 1838, was to marry her cousin, Richard Mortimer, who was born in Tasmania in 1834. Her mother and Richard’s father were sister and brother.
Philip Henry was born 29 December 1839 a few days after the family arrived in Port Phillip: his cousin, John Blanch, left the world just before Philip Henry entered it. He was baptised 9 February 1840. Philip was to marry Sarah Ruth O’Brien and one of their children, named Charlotte Selina after her grandmother, born 20 March 1898, married Charles Ernest Blake according to Leask[27] – the only member of the family, to my knowledge, to be accorded an entry in Leask.
And so the history of this particular branch of the multitudinous Butler family begins in Australia in 1837 in Tasmania, establishing itself in Port Phillip in 1839, where it made no little impact on public life and commerce. The family has since spread to New South Wales and elsewhere – but the elsewhere must be left to another researcher.
My great grandfather Alexander Edward Butler (b.1828, d.1899) had a brother named Spilsbury (b.1836) and a son named Charles Spilsbury (b.1865, d.1876). It never occurred to me to question the origin of the unusual name, Spilsbury. So, it was with some surprise that I received an email in May 2009 from Joanne Sholes (California USA) entitled “Butler and Spilsbury connections question”.
This Appendix sketches the story of the Spilsbury family in so far as it is relevant to the Butlers. My information is gleaned from several sources. I am primarily indebted to Joanne Sholes who provided the information that allowed me to trace the Butlers back to Edward Butler who married Deborah Vicares in 1681. Their son Joseph married Mary Spilsbury (1720).
Edward Butler (b.1766) married Elizabeth Hammond Bishop 28 July 1794). His father was Edward John Butler (b.1736, Kidderminster, Worcestershire, UK; d.11.7.1779) who married Mary Austin. Edward John Butler’s parents were Joseph Butler (b.4.10.1694) and Mary Spilsbury (b.23.1.1697). Both Joseph and Mary were born in Kidderminster, Worcestershire, UK, and they were married in Kidderminster, 23.11.1720. Joseph Butler’s parents were Edward Butler and Deborah Vicares who married in 1681. And that is as far back as I can trace the Butlers at present.
So it is that we turn to the Spilsburys, their connection to the Arden family and, by a circuitous route, to William Shakespeare. This information has been corroborated and developed from two sources: Stirnet.com, and the website of John Spilsbury of Wolverhampton UK, rootsweb.ancestry.com.
It must be said that tracing families back to the distant past is fraught with dangers and it is easy to assume connections where none exist. Because I have not undertaken any research for this article myself, I am relying on the information of others. Sometimes the details about a particular ancestor available from the several researchers do not coincide, so I have tried to give both accounts.
According to John Spilsbury’s researches, the earliest authenticated Spilsbury in the family relevant to this story is Thomas (b.1520, Rock, Worcestershire UK; d.1574, Worcestershire UK). He married Isobel [?] (b.1520, Worcestershire UK). They had five children, all born in Rock, Worcestershire: Thomas (b.1546), Richard (b.28.4.1550), John (b.4.1.1553), Robert (b.13.3.1553) and Edward (b.21.9.1555).
Richard (b.28.4.1550). His wife’s name is presently unknown. There were seven children, all born in Rock, Worcestershire: Joyce (b.31.8.1589), Thomas (b.8.12.1590), Margaret (23.9.1592); William (b.1.4.1594), Anne (b.20.4.1596), Richard (b.21.9.1598) and John (b.14.11.1600).
William (b.1.4.1594, d.27.11.1672, buried Ribbesford Church, North Bewdley,[28] Worcestershire) married Ann [?] (b.15.10.1600). There were seven children, all born in Ribbesford: Mary (b.6.6 1623), Sarah (b.5.3.1625), John (b.25.5.1628), Anne (b.28.12.1630), Susanne (29.9.1633), Elizabeth (b.26.2.1636), and James (b.24.11.1639). Sholes writes: “William Spilsbury of Bewdley (d. 1673) and wife Anne (d. 1664) are buried in the churchyard of St Leonard’s in the hamlet of Ribbesford.”
It is the descendants of John and James that concern us here: John’s granddaughter Mary married Joseph Butler (23.11.1720), and James’s great grandson Benjamin married Anne Arden (no date currently available). John and James are of further interest because they became prominent as Dissenting Ministers.
John (b.25.5.1628, d. 10.6.1699) married Hanna Hall (b.c.1630) in Bromsgrove, Worcestershire. They had one child, John (b.1667, Worcester). “John is often referenced in association with the Particular Baptist movement. He obtained his MA from Magdalen in 1652 and afterward held a fellowship there for two years. He married Hannah Hall 5.6.1661. John was imprisoned in Worcester because of his dissenting views. The three years he spent incarcerated took a toll on his health. He continued his ministry privately to believers. He and Hannah had one child, John, born 1667. This branch of the Spilsbury family has long been referred to as the ‘Dissenting Ministers’ as several of John’s descendants continued to pursue the ministry. Several early references list his death as 1669, but transcription of a copy of a funeral sermon for John Spilsbury delivered by John Eccles and dated 1699 suggest he lived several years several years past 1667.”[29]
John (b.1667, d.31.1.1727) married, 26.10.1693, Mary Bridges (b.1672, Worcester).
John Spilsbury and Mary Bridges Spilsbury
There were eight children, all born in Kidderminster except Francis, who was born in Bromsgrove: William (b.?), John (b.11.1.1694), Hannah (b.1.5.1696), Mary (b.23.1.1697), Hester (b.2.1.1698), Hall (b.18.11.1701), Elizabeth (b.22.4.1704), and Francis (b.1706). “Like his father, John went into the ministry, becoming pastor for a congregation of Dissenters in Kidderminster. His marriage to Mary Bridges (1672-1759) was recorded 26 Oct 1693. A portrait of Mary Bridges Spilsbury survives in the Baxter United Reformed Church of Kidderminster, a church built on the site of the original meeting house. It was John and Mary’s daughter Mary who married Joseph Butler.”[30] John Spilsbury and his wife Mary Bridges are my g.g.g.g.g.g. grandparents.
So we now turn to the Dissenting Minister James Spilsbury (brother of John Spilsbury), for it is his great grandson Benjamin who married into the Arden line. The following is a very brief account of the Spilsbury-Shakespeare connection.
James was born 24 November 1639 and married Ann [?] (b.1650). Their first son James (b.3.2.1682, d.1740) married thrice. His second wife was Elizabeth Lucas (m.1.7.1712) with whom there were six children, all born in Alcester, Warwickshire. Their second child, Lucas, concerns us. Lucas Spilsbury (b.7.1.1714, d.14.7.1764) married (26.1.1741) Dorothy Ward (b.1720, Willington, Derbyshire). There were seven children, all born in Willington. It was their fourth child, Benjamin Spilsbury (b.1746, d.-.8.1818) who married into the Arden line in the person of Anne (b.19.5.1750, Yoxall, Staffordshire; d.31.12.1829). No date is currently available for their marriage.
If we work a long way back through Anne Arden’s illustrious ancestry we come to William Shakespeare, through his mother, Mary Arden.
The Arden family is one of only three families in England that can trace its lineage in the male line back to Anglo-Saxon times, beginning with Alwin (d. c.1083). We begin our story with Walter de Arden, the thirteenth in the line of the Ardens, and the g.g.g.g.g.g.g.g grandfather Anne, as above. Walter was the father of John and Thomas. Thomas’s son Robert was the father of Mary Arden who married John Shakespeare. Their eldest surviving child was William.
There are no direct descendants of William Shakespeare living today. Shakespeare and his wife Anne Hathaway had three children: Susanna, who was born in 1583 and twins Judith and Hamnet, who were born in 1585. The boy Hamnet died in 1596 aged 11 years. Susanna married John Hall in 1607 and had one child, Elizabeth, in 1608. Elizabeth married twice (in 1626 to Thomas Nash and in 1649 to John Bernard), but she never had any children. Judith married Thomas Quiney in 1616 and had three sons, one of whom died in infancy. The other two sons both died unmarried in 1639.
So while this branch of the Butler family cannot claim any direct connection with the Ardens, let alone William Shakespeare, there is a happy if somewhat circuitous connection which has some delight if not much import. My sonnet is a bold effort.
This Appendix written 25 May 2010. Revised August 2013.
The Mortimer Family of Gunmakers[31]
The gunmaking firm of Mortimer was established during the reign of King George I (1714-1727), in 1720, at Ludgate Hill in London, though the actual founder of the firm is not known. The first known gunmaker of the family was Harvey Walklate Mortimer, b.19 April 1753 at Newcastle-under-Lyme, the eldest of a family of eleven children of whom five were sons. His father was Samuel Mortimer, a victualler. He is supposed to have been the youngest of twenty-one sons born from two marriages to Edward Mortimer, an Army Captain in the time of Charles I (d.1649), but as we have seen, this is unlikely. Harvey Walklate was a gunmaker at 89 Fleet St London from about 1780-82 and from at least 1789 was described as Gunmaker to George III. Married three times, he had five sons and two daughters, two of the sons becoming ministers of religion. One of his sons, also Harvey, continued his father’s business from about 1815.
Harvey Walklate Mortimer (1753-1819), born at Newcastle-under-Lyme in Staffordshire, was converted by the preaching of the Wesleyan itinerant John Hilton in 1770 and moved to London soon after. Mortimer went on to occupy some of the most responsible lay positions in the London Society, including steward, chapel trustee and treasurer. He became a close friend of John Wesley, who regarded him as a shining example of what a lay official should be like. Mortimer’s second wife was the prominent female Methodist Elizabeth Ritchie. He was a leading supporter of the link with the Church of England and it was no coincidence that it was shortly after he died, that Methodist itinerants were permitted to read the prayers at City Road Chapel.[32]
Elizabeth Ritchie (1754-c.1835) was born in Otley, Yorkshire, the daughter of a naval surgeon. Her parents were Methodists and John Wesley often stayed at their home. As a young woman, Ritchie attended her local parish church and regarded Methodism with some hostility. Converted in 1772, she was appointed a class leader and became influential in the Otley Methodist society as a teacher and spiritual advisor. After 1780 she travelled quite extensively and corresponded with many leading evangelicals especially John Wesley, who summoned her to his side during his final illness. She was a close friend of the preacher Sarah Crosby. In 1801 she married Harvey Walklate Mortimer and settled in London where she resumed her role as a class leader.[33]
Thomas Mortimer was Samuel’s second son, born Birmingham, 18 July 1755. He too became a gunmaker, being apprenticed to his father in 1772. Originally in partnership with his brother Harvey, he moved in 1807 to 44 Ludgate Hill, and became the first of four successive generations of family gunmakers, spanning some 150 years.
The sixth child and third son, Jackson, also became a gunmaker. He was born 22 October 1762 and married twice. He was apprenticed to his father in 1777 as well as to Thomas Allport in Birmingham. He was in partnership with his son-in-law, John Blanch, in 1811-12; then as Jackson Mortimer and Son he was appointed Gunmaker Extraordinary to the Prince of Wales in 1811. It seems that his son Henry William Mortimer was in partnership with him for some years after this, either until 1820 or until he left for Tasmania in 1825. His other two children, daughters, Ann Eleanor and Charlotte Selina, who married John Blanch and Alexander Bishop Butler respectively. By 1817 Jackson Mortimer has his own business at 21 James Street, but by 1819 the business was under the name of his nephew Thomas (son of Jackson’s brother Thomas). By 1835, Thomas had set up in Edinburgh where the business survived with a Mortimer connection until 1938.
Summary of Dates
1649 Mortimer, Edward, Army Captain (Charles I)
There seems to be some gap at this point and no current evidence to fill it.
1752 Mortimer, Samuel married Elizabeth Jackson
1762, 22 October Mortimer, Jackson born
1786 Blanch, John (gunmaker), born
1788, 6 December Mortimer, Jackson married Elizabeth Vaughan, London
1794, 28 July Butler, Edward married Elizabeth Hammond Bishop
1800 Mortimer, Charlotte Selina, born, London
1805, 3 May Butler, Alexander Bishop, born, Birmingham
1807, 12 November Butler, Alexander Bishop, christened, Birmingham
1809 Blanch, John married Ann Eleanor Mortimer
1820, 19 April Butler, Alexander Bishop, apprenticed
1825 Mortimer, Henry William, leaves for Tasmania
1827, 13 September Butler, Alexander Bishop m. Charlotte Selina Mortimer
1828, 25 February Butler, Alexander Bishop, Freeman
1828, 12 July Butler, Alexander Edward born, London
1829 Butler, Alexander Bishop, gunsmith, Cheltenham
1834-7 Butler, Alexander Bishop, gunsmith, Bradford
1837, 22 September Butler, Alexander Bishop and family leave London
1838, 9 January Butler, Alexander Bishop and family arrive Tasmania
1839, 16 December Butler, Alexander Bishop and family arrive Melbourne
1846, 30 September Butler, Alexander Bishop died Hobart
1846, 14 October Butler, Edward (Alexander Bishop Butler’s father) died
Originally written 1985, revised 1998; more information added March 2014; revised February 2017.
Brother Tony Butler
[1] The parish church of St Saviour, Southwark, in the County of Surrey.
[2] The word is almost obscured.
[3] Read H. Lee Munson The Mortimer Gunmakers 1753-1923, 1992.
[4] Blanch, H.J. A Century of Guns 1909. Republished 1976.
[5] “Austen” according to H. Lee Munson The Mortimer Gunmakers 1753-1923, 1992, p.81.
[6] Lee Munson (H. Lee Munson The Mortimer Gunmakers 1753-1923, 1992) wrote to me, 23 January 2005: “The family tree that was used in James Arthur’s article in Guns Review was original compiled by Robert Mortimer in 1930 and has some mistakes in it. Arthur used it without crediting Robert Mortimer … but I have a copy of the original as well as a copy of the Guns Review article. I did not carry my research back to Edward Mortimer because it was the gunmaking Mortimers which held my interest.”
[7] Bailey De Witt and D.A Nie, English Gunmakers: Birmingham and Provincial Gun Trade in the 18th and 19th Century 1978.
[8] Notes from the Latrobe Library Melbourne.
[9] Garryowen, Chronicles of Early Melbourne 1888.
[10] Garryowen, Vol.I, p.170
[11] I wonder whether this was the Favourite on which another ancestor William Dedicoat travelled from Williamstown (Melbourne) to Sydney, August 1851.
[12] The shop was about 200m. from the river, near the corner of Collins street and Market Street. The site is now the entrance to an underground car park
[13] Vol.I. p 314
[14] P.42
[15] Wednesday 18 December 1839.
[16] An interesting name.
[17] Thursday 19 December 1839
[18] Pp.48, 53, 56
[19] This information was provided by Mrs Sandy Sellars.
[20] Latrobe notes.
[21] Alexander Sutherland, 1888.
[22] It must be admitted that the identity of the man in the photo is by no means certain.
[23] Courtesy Valda Strauss January 1987. Valda is a Helyar descendant and has been of invaluable help to me in compiling my family history, both the Helyars and the Butlers. Valda was a faithful correspondent until 2010 after which Valda and husband George entered a Nursing Home.
[24] From Inscriptions in Stone, Richard Lord, compiled from headstones, St David’s Churchyard. Courtesy Sandy Sellars, 1989.
[25] His great-great grand-daughter, Jacqueline Kelly, has researched this branch of the family.
[26] Sandra Sellars, a great grand-daughter of Spilsbury, has researched this branch of the family.
[27] B. Chalmers Leask, Genealogical Guide to Some Australian Families, 1979.
[28] Rock, Ribbesford and Bewdley are west of Kidderminster, near Stourport (Map 29, A33, Collins Road Atlas, Britain 1985)
[29] Joanna Sholes.
[31] I am indebted to H Lee Munson’s The Mortimer Gunmakers 1753-1923 (1992) for much of the information contained in this Appendix.
[32] Stevenson, George J. City Road Chapel, London, and its Associations 1872, pp. 153 and 554-555.
[33] Dictionary of Evangelical Biography, edited by Donald Lewis (1995) and Encyclopedia of World Methodism (1974)
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Revision as of 17:53, 12 June 2019 by IBobi (talk | contribs) (Reverted edits by 207.189.218.18 (Talk) to last version by Scarwood)
Earth : North America : Canada
1.1 Time zones
1.3 Holidays
5.1 Character concerns
5.1.1 Rehabilitation
5.1.2 Temporary resident permits
5.1.3 Pardons
5.1.4 Credit History
5.1.5 Other concerns
5.2 From the United States
6.1.1 Air Hitchhiking
6.1.2 Air Couriers
6.4 By RV
6.4.1 Traffic rules to be aware of
6.7 By ride sharing
8.1 Toronto
8.2 Ottawa
8.3 Montreal
8.4 Quebec City
8.5 Vancouver
9.1 Spring
9.2 Summer
9.3 Fall
9.4 Winter
10 Buy
10.1 Bargaining
10.2 Garage sales
10.3 Currency exchange
10.4 Credit cards
10.5 Electronic banking/purchasing
10.6 Taxes
10.7 Major chains
11.1 National franchises
12.1 Beer
12.2 Wine
12.3 Cider
12.4 Distilled spirits
12.5 Other beverages
14.1 Working Holiday Visas
15.1 Law enforcement in Canada
15.2 Snatching of Luggage
15.3 Winter storms
15.4 Firearms and Weapons
15.5 Fires
15.6 Drug Use
15.7 Drunk Driving
15.8 Hate Speech & Discrimination
15.9 Prostitution
16 Stay healthy
16.1 Food preparation
16.2 Medical Tourism
16.3 Sexual Health
17.1 Social Etiquette and Gestures
17.2 Quebecian Etiquette and Gestures
17.3 Indigenous people
17.4 Things to avoid
17.4.1 Politics:
17.4.2 Religion:
17.4.3 Sensitive Issues:
18 Environmentalism and animal protection
19.1 By phone
19.1.1 Mobiles
19.2 By net
19.3 By mail
Capital Ottawa
Government Federal parliamentary democracy
Currency Canadian dollar ($, CAD)
Area 9,984,670km²
water: 891,163km²
land: 9,093,507km²
Population 35,540,419(2014 est.)
Language Official: English and French
(recognized at territorial levels:
Inuktitut, Inuinnaqtun, Chipewyan, Cree, Gwich’in, Inuinnaqtun, Inuktitut, Inuvialuktun, North Slavey, South Slavey, Tłı̨chǫ, +66 other indigenous languages
Religion Roman Catholic 38.7%, Protestant ~17%, No religious affiliation 23.9%, Other ~10%
Electricity 120V, 60Hz (Type "A" plug)
Country code +1
Internet TLD .ca
Emergencies dial 911
Canada is by size, the largest country in North America, second in the world overall (behind only Russia). Renowned worldwide for its vast, untouched landscape, its blend of cultures and multifaceted history, Canada is one of the world's wealthiest countries and a major tourist destination.
"With or without the Royals, we are not Americans. Nor are we British. Or French. Or Void. We are something else And the sooner we define this, the better." — Will Ferguson
Canada is a land of vast distances and rich natural beauty. Economically and technologically, and in many other ways she closely resembles her neighbour to the south, the United States, although there are significant differences between the two countries. While both countries have a long and continuing history of colonialism over the Indigenous people of their countries, Canada is perfectly happy with its British heritage and many Canadians are proud of this. Much of Canada's current built environment and influence has come primarily from immigrants from two European nations, Britain and France. This dual nature is very different than in the United States, and in some parts of Canada, particularly Quebec and parts of New Brunswick, Canadians primarily speak French. Canada became a self-governing dominion in 1867 by an act of the British parliament, and is still a proud member of the Commonwealth of Nations. By 1931 it was more or less fully independent of the United Kingdom, although true independence did not occur until 1982. Canada's past and ongoing colonialism is still of some contention between Indigenous people, Canadians, and the Canadian government. Though a medium-sized country by its population (35 million), Canada has earned respect on the international stage for its strong diplomatic skills, peacekeeping efforts, and respect for human rights. Canadians generally enjoy a very high quality of life - Canada consistently scores very well on indices of economic freedom, corruption, respect for civil rights, and more. Domestically, the country has displayed some success in negotiating compromises amongst its own culturally and linguistically varied populations, a difficult task considering that language, culture, and even history can vary significantly throughout the whole country. Similarly to the United States' traditional image of itself as a melting pot, there are many different minorities from all over the world living in Canada, particularly in urban centres. Canadians are, for the most part, used to living and interacting with people of different ethnic backgrounds on a daily basis and will usually be quite friendly and understanding if approached in public. The country is largely urban-based, where peoples of all backgrounds may rub elbows with one another.
The Canadian Sir Sandford Fleming first proposed time zones for the entire world in 1876, and Canada, being a continental country, is covered coast to coast with multiple zones. Canada uses the 12-hour clock system, however the 24-hour clock system is used in the provinces of Quebec and New Brunswick where French is an official language and this clock system is used with that language; and where ambiguity must be avoided, such as train or airline schedules when given in both English and French, because they will be indicated in each clock system. Daylight Saving Time, when clocks are moved forward by one hour, is observed in most of the country from 02:00 on the second Sunday in March until 02:00 on the second Sunday in November; during this time, for example, British Columbia is observing GMT-7 while Alberta is observing GMT-6. Saskatchewan does not observe Daylight Savings Time, but the City of Lloydminster does.
GMT-8 Pacific Time (Yukon, British Columbia)
GMT-7 Mountain Time (Alberta, Northwest Territories, Nunavut)
GMT-6 Central Time (Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Ontario)
GMT-5 Eastern Time (Ontario, Quebec)
GMT-4 Atlantic Time (Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island)
GMT-3.5 Newfoundland Time (Newfoundland and Labrador)
Trying to distil the climate of Canada into an easy-to-understand statement is impossible, given the vast area and diverse geography within the country. Overall, in most places, winters are harsh compared to much of the world, on par with northern Eurasia. The most populated region, southern Ontario, has a less severe climate, similar to the bordering regions of the midwestern and northeastern United States. Iqaluit, the capital of Nunavut, is just south of the Arctic Circle and remains very cold except for the months of July and August, when the July average maximum is only 12°C (54°F). On the other hand, the coastlines of British Columbia are very mild for their latitude, remaining above freezing for most of winter, yet they are not far away from some of the largest mountain glaciers found on the continent.
Most of the large Canadian urban areas are within 200 kilometres (124 mi) of Canada's border with the United States (Edmonton and Calgary being the only exceptions). Visitors to most cities will most likely not have to endure the weather that accompanies a trip to more remote northern or mountainous areas often pictured on postcards of Canada. Summers in the most populated parts of Canada are generally short and hot. Summer temperatures over 35°C (95°F) are not unusual in Southern Ontario, the southern Prairies and the southern Interior of B.C., with Osoyoos being the hot spot of Canada for average daily maximums. Toronto's climate is only slightly cooler than many of the larger cities in the northeastern United States, and summers in the southern parts of Ontario and Quebec (includes Montreal) are often hot and humid. In contrast, humidity is often low in the western interior during the summer, even during hot weather, and more cooling occurs at night. In the winter, eastern Canada, particularly the Atlantic Provinces, are sometimes subject to inclement weather systems entering from the U.S. bringing snow, high wind, rain, sleet, and temperatures in their wake of under -10°C (14°F).
Many inland cities, especially those in the Prairies, experience extreme temperature fluctuations, sometimes very rapidly. Owing to a dry climate (more arid west than east on the southern Prairies), bright sunshine hours are plentiful in the 2300-2600 annual hours range. Winnipeg (also colloquially known as 'Winterpeg') has hot summers with bouts of aggressive humidity, yet experiences very cold winters where temperatures around -40°C (-40°F) are not uncommon and can stay below -15°C (5°F) for long stretches. The official hottest temperature in Canada ever recorded was in southern Saskatchewan, at 45°C (113°F), while the coldest was in Snag, Yukon -63°C (-81°F). Summer storms in the Prairies and Ontario can be violent and sometimes unleash strong damaging winds, hail, and rarely, tornadoes. On the west coast of British Columbia, Vancouver and Victoria are far more temperate and get very little snow, average low wind speeds and seldom experience temperatures below 0°C or above 27°C (32-80°F) but receive high rainfall amounts in winter then in turn dry, sunny, pleasant summers.
The average temperature is typically colder in Canada than in the U.S. and Western Europe as a whole, so bring a warm jacket and other winter clothing if visiting between October and April. The rest of the year, over most of the country, daytime highs are generally well above 15°C (60°F) and usually into the 20s-30s°C(70s-90s°F) range during the day. Most weather forecasts outside border towns are in degrees Celsius (°C), however degrees Fahrenheit (°F) are well known and used by much of the population.
Canada recognizes and celebrates the following national holidays (some provinces may have minor differences):
New years day — 1 January
Family Day — 3rd Monday in February (not observed in all provinces, known as Louis Riel Day in Manitoba, Islander Day in PEI)
Good Friday — typically sometime in late March or early April
Easter Sunday — the Sunday after Good Friday
Victoria Day—Last Monday in May before 24 May (always one week before the U.S. holiday of Memorial Day)
Canada Day—1 July
Civic Day — first Monday in August (only applies in some provinces, under different names ie. in Ontario its referred to as Simcoe Day after an early Lieutenant Governor)
Labour Day — first Monday in September
Thanksgiving—Second Monday in October (the same day as the U.S. holiday of Columbus Day)
Halloween —31 October
Remembrance Day —11 November (this day is observed in the U.S. as Veterans Day)
Christmas — 25 December
Boxing day—26 December
Note also that Canada's Labour Day is not celebrated on 1 May, as in much of the world, but on the first Monday in September (the same day as the U.S. celebrates its Labor Day).
Canada's government is a parliamentary democracy based on the Westminster system inherited from the British and similar to that of the United Kingdom, Australia and New Zealand. Canada is formally a constitutional monarchy, with Queen Elizabeth II as the head of state. She is represented in Canada by the Governor-General, currently Julie Payette, who carries out her duties. The monarchy serves mostly as a figurehead, though, and in practice the Prime Minister, his or her cabinet, and the Parliament are the source of almost all real political power.
Canada is a federal state, and Canadian provinces have a great deal of autonomy. Each province has its own legislature and provincial government, and the Canadian constitution defines certain areas of exclusively provincial jurisdiction. For example, each province sets its own drinking age, minimum wage, sales tax, labour regulations, and administers their own road, healthcare and education systems. Two of the three territories' legislative assemblies (Nunavut and the Northwest Territories) are peculiar, as they are non-partisan - no political parties are represented.
There are three main parliamentary parties at the federal level: the currently-governing Liberal Party (centre), the opposition Conservative Party (right of centre), and the New Democratic Party (left of centre).
Visiting Canada all in one trip is a massive undertaking. Over 5000 kilometres (3100 mi) separate St. John's, Newfoundland from Victoria, British Columbia (about the same distance separates London and Riyadh, or Tokyo and Kolkata). To drive from one end of the country could take 7-10 days or more (and that assumes you're not stopping to sight see on the way). A flight from Toronto to Vancouver takes over 4 hours. When speaking of specific destinations within Canada, it is better to consider its distinct regions
Canada regions
Atlantic Provinces (New Brunswick, Newfoundland and Labrador, Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island)
This region is known for its history, particularly during the formation of Canada as a sovereign state. Atlantic Canada is well-known for unique accents, the origin of Acadian culture, natural beauty (particularly around coastal areas), the historic beauty of Halifax, and a huge fishing and shipping industry. It is also home to the distinctive culture of Newfoundland and Labrador, which was simultaneously the first part of what is now Canada to be explored by Europeans and the last part to join the confederation.
Quebec is one of the most unique regions in Canada, and for that matter, North America. Originally settled as part of New France, Quebec is culturally distinct from the rest of Canada. French is the dominant language, unlike the rest of the country, and the province is known for great cultural sites like Quebec City's Winter Festival, Montreal's classic architecture, and maple syrup and poutine (two staples of Canadian cuisine). Montreal is also the second largest French-speaking city in the world, though through centuries of influence from both the British and the French, its inhabitants have developed a distinct sense of identity.
Canada's most populous province is also quite geographically vast, allowing for endless activities to partake in. Toronto, Canada's largest city, is eclectic and vibrant, and prides itself on its multiculturalism. The province is also home to Ottawa, Canada's charming, bilingual capital, as well as Niagara Falls, and the untapped natural beauty of the Muskoka and beyond. All these things and more make Ontario showcase a lot of what is considered quintessentially Canadian by outsiders.
Prairies (Alberta, Manitoba, Saskatchewan)
Known for their vast open spaces and plentiful resources, the Canadian Prairies are a dynamic set of provinces with some of the most stunning natural beauty in the world. On the western edge of the Prairies, in Alberta lie the mountainous national parks of Banff and Jasper, and on the eastern edge in Manitoba, lies the beginning of the Canadian Shield, which contains some of the oldest rock on the surface of the earth. The major cities of Calgary, Edmonton, and Winnipeg are modern cities with everything from massive rodeos to high-class museums.
Colloquially known as "B.C.", this province prides itself on being beautiful. From cultured Vancouver, to charming Victoria, to the iconic ski slopes in Whistler, to the wineries of the Okanagan, B.C. is filled with wonder, both natural and man-made. The province also has the mildest winters in Canada on average (though often cloudy), especially in coastal regions, making it popular with Canadians who are less enthusiastic about winter.
The North (Northwest Territories, Nunavut, Yukon)
The Territories are some of the most remote regions on Earth and constitute most of Canada's landmass. Though more known for their unique fauna and landscapes, the Territories also have some interesting human settlements, including Dawson City, a city that looks nearly untouched from the gold rush of 1898, and Iqaluit, Canada's newest territorial capital, which is home to some interestingly adaptive architecture to the harsh climate of the North.
There are many cities in Canada, all of which are distinctive, welcoming to tourists, and well worth visiting. Just NINE of these are:
Ottawa - Sitting in Eastern Ontario with a view of Quebec across the river, Ottawa is the national capital of Canada. It's home to Parliament Hill, many national museums, the ByWard Market, and the best Canada Day celebrations.
Calgary - Confident and modern, Calgary is booming like nowhere else in Canada currently. Every summer, it plays host to the Calgary Stampede, a near city-wide celebration of Calgary's ranching heritage. The city is also home to the Calgary Tower, Calgary Zoo, and Canada Olympic Park (the city hosted the 1988 Winter Olympics). Calgary is a stepping off point for visitors to Banff and the Canadian Rockies, 1 hour away.
Halifax - home to the second largest natural harbour in the world, Halifax is rich in history with architecture dating back to colonial times. The city is very compact and walkable, meaning most amenities are just a short walk away (if you're downtown), such as the Citadel Hill, Canadian Museum of the Atlantic, the Public Gardens (oldest park in Canada), and Pier 21.
Montreal - Once Canada's largest metropolis, Montreal can still pack a serious punch as one of the most unique cities in North America. It is the cultural heart of Canada's francophone culture, and the city's multilingualism is one of its defining aspects. Have a Montreal-styled bagel in Mile End, stroll the streets of Old Montreal, take the metro to Olympic Park, visit one of the city's innumerous festivals, and take in the views atop Mont-Royal.
Quebec City - Quebec's capital city, which is well known for its quaint Old City, its grand winter festival, and gorgeous architecture, such as the Chateau Frontenac. Visitors and locals alike boast about Quebec City's charming European feel.
Toronto - As the largest city in Canada, Toronto is economic and cultural capital of Canada (particularly Anglophone Canada). Toronto prides itself on its diversity and is famous for landmarks like the CN Tower. But Toronto is also a very eclectic city, home to endless neighbourhoods that offer quality shopping, cuisine, and cultural amenities. The city is also home to the third largest live theatre scene in the world (after New York and London).
Vancouver - A city unto urbanism itself, Vancouver is clean, modern, and efficient. Owing in part to its mild climate (that never gets too cold or too hot), the city has a strong outdoorsy streak in it. Vancouver is a city where you can hit the beach and the ski slopes in the same day. The city was also host to the 2010 Winter Olympics.
Whitehorse - Midpoint of the Alaska Highway, gateway to the outdoor activities of Canada's far north.
Winnipeg - Formerly known as the "Bulls Eye of the Dominion", this city has a rich mixture of culture, including Metis and French-Canadian. Winnipeg also contains the Royal Canadian Mint, the old skyscrapers of the Exchange District, and the vibrant Forks.
The Interlake Area
Saint John River Valley
Terra Nova National Park
Waterton Lakes National Park
Brampton Jain Temple
Do I Need a Visa?
Visa Not Required
Visa Not Required, but eTA Required for Air Entry
All EU & EEA member states (biometric passport necessary for Romanian citizens)
All British nationals, including BN(O), BOT, BOC and British Subject passport holders
Taiwan (with National ID Number recorded in passport)
Transit Visa Not Required (Only for transit to and from the United States under certain conditions)
Visa Required
An advance visa is required of all other foreigners not listed.
Most travellers entering or transiting Canada by air will need an Electronic Travel Authorization (eTA) or a visitor visa. (Exceptions include U.S. citizens/nationals and Saint-Pierre and Miquelon residents.) An eTA costs $7 and is valid for five years or until your passport expires, whichever comes first. Entry requirements for other methods of travel (land, sea) have not changed.
Those who are not eligible for an eTA are required to obtain a Temporary Resident Visa prior to travelling to Canada. This can be done at the applicants' nearest Canadian Visa Office. Applicants are required to submit, as part of their application:
A valid travel document (such as a passport)
Two properly-formatted, passport-sized photos for all applicants
The application fee (The fee per person is $100 for a visa, single or multiple entry, or a maximum of $400 for a family (multiple or single entry); no charge for Transit Visas)
Reservation confirmation (for tourists) or letter of invitation (for everybody else).
Proof that you have enough money for your visit to Canada. The amount of money may vary, depending on the circumstances for your visit, how long you will stay and whether you will stay in a hotel, or with friends or relatives. You can get more information from the visa office.
Other documents as required. These documents could be identification cards, proof of employment, or a proposed itinerary. Check the website of the visa office responsible for the country or region where you live for more information.
If you plan to visit the United States and do not travel outside the borders of the US, you can use your single entry visa to re-enter as long as the visa has not passed its expiry date.
Working while in Canada is forbidden without a work permit, although Canada does have several temporary work permits for youth from specific countries. See "Work" below.
United States/American Samoan citizens to Canada need only proof of citizenship and identification for short-term visits. In addition to a driver's license, a number of other documents may also be used to cross the border:
United States Passport Card (issued by the Department of State)
United States Passport Book (issued by the Department of State)
Enhanced Drivers License or Non-Driver Photo ID card (currently issued by Michigan, New York, Vermont, and Washington State)
Enhanced Tribal ID Card
Trusted Traveler Cards issued by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security for the Canadian Border (NEXUS and FAST).
DHS issued cards for the Mexican Border (SETRI) and for international air travelers (Global Entry) cannot be used to enter Canada, but they are acceptable to re-enter the United States and may be used in the dedicated NEXUS lanes into the US, where available.
Prior to 2009, it was possible to travel across the US-Canada border with just a driver's license. Birth certificates are technically still acceptable to enter Canada, but United States Customs and Border Protection stopped accepting birth certificates when the Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative (WHTI) went into effect. This is due to the fact that many (especially older) certificates are little more than a typewritten piece of carbon paper with no security. If you try to re-enter the United States with a US birth certificate, you will eventually be let in, but only after significant delays while CBP verifies the information on it with the issuing department, you may also be fined or prosecuted for non-compliance, although anything more than a written warning is unlikely for a first time violator. Since after 2009 a normal driver's license will still get you in Canada but will not be accepted coming back into the US.
Upon entry to Canada, the standard questions will include your intended itinerary, if you have visited Canada before, and if you are in possession of any firearms. Under no circumstance is it a good idea to try to carry weapons over the frontier. If you are driving you should have proof of insurance coverage ready to go and you should have some listed hotels or places to stay ready to present if asked.
Residents of Greenland, Saint-Pierre and Miquelon and some Caribbean nations are not required to present a passport if they can prove nationality and identity via some other means.
Residents of Greenland, Saint-Pierre and Miquelon, and the United States also benefit from arrangements where applications for work and study permits can be made upon arrival in Canada at the Immigration Office at the port of entry without the need for an advance Temporary Resident Visa or advance application at a consulate. However, all the paperwork normally needed for such a permit has to be submitted at the port of entry as it would at a consulate, including a letter of introduction/invitation, the appropriate paperwork issued by the institution/employer, and the appropriate fees.
Character concerns
All potential visitors, whether applying for a temporary resident visa or requesting landing permission at the border must be of good moral character, and under Canadian law this means having a completely clean criminal history. Immigration authorities take character concerns of visitors very seriously and any offence, misdemeanour or felony, regardless of how minor or how long ago it took place can exclude you from Canada for a period of time, indefinitely, or permanently. This also includes US citizens, some of whom had to be turned back while attempting to drive across the border. In fact, even former U.S. President George W. Bush needed to apply for a waiver to enter on an official state visit during his term in office because of a conviction for drunken driving. There are a few exceptions, and if you are inadmissible because of a criminal conviction, you do have some options.
As a general rule, a conviction for anything more serious than a speeding ticket will keep you out of Canada for at least five years from the date you finish your sentence. More serious offences (such as felonies) may require you to wait up to ten years, or in the most serious cases obtain a pardon or other civil relief locally before applying for entry. In addition to criminal convictions, certain "summary offences" (which include minor drug possession tickets that are not handled through the criminal system) are considered criminal convictions for the purpose of immigration law, even if you were never arrested, charged with a crime or sentenced. Additionally, you cannot enter Canada if there are current charges pending against you or a trial is underway.
Although unlikely as a visitor who meets all other entry requirements, you may also be refused if you have significant unpaid debt, have an active civil judgement against you, or have recently declared bankruptcy. In these cases, you can regain your ability to enter Canada by either paying the debt in full, showing evidence of a payment plan in good standing or after a bankruptcy showing a history of financial solvency over the period of a few years.
Offences committed before the age of 18, parking tickets, local ordinance violations and crimes of conscience (such as publishing statements critical of the government in China) generally do not result in inadmissibility. Similarly, non-criminal traffic tickets usually do not result in inadmissibility, although if you were ever required to appear in court over a traffic violation (not simply going to court to challenge a ticket) or you accumulated enough points that your license was summarily suspended or revoked, you may be inadmissible and should contact a Canadian embassy or high counsel for advice.
If you have a single misdemeanor or summary offence on your record and it's been at least five years since you finished your sentence, and your offence would be punished with a prison term of 10 years or less in Canada, you can be deemed rehabilitated on the spot by an immigration officer without formally applying in advance. That being said, you have one chance in your entire lifetime at this type of rehabilitation and the border officer has the absolute final decision on your fate. The burden is on you, the visitor, to provide proof that you have indeed reformed and are unlikely to re-offend. Possible proof includes but is not limited to:
Police "good conduct" reports
Character references
Letters from employers, pay stubs, tax returns or other documentation showing that you have steady employment
Evidence of any educational, volunteer or treatment experience that you've completed since your conviction.
Bring everything and anything you have that suggests you're living a stable and crime-free life. The more documentation you have and the less the officer has to rely on your word that you've turned your life around the stronger your case is for being admitted.
If you are turned away, or if your offence makes you ineligible to be deemed rehabilitated, you can apply for individual rehabilitation directly to Citizenship and Immigration Canada (CIC). Again, at least five years must have passed since you completed your sentence. An application for individual rehabilitation has onerous documentation requirements, costs between $200 and $3000 depending on the nature of the offence and whether the application requires approval from the Minister of Justice (most do) and can take up to a year to get an answer. While you can compile the documentation and submit the application yourself, both CIC and many who have gone through the process highly advise retaining an immigration attorney to complete and file the application on your behalf. If you are denied rehabilitation, there is no right of appeal, you will not be given specific reasons as to why your application was denied, and you must wait at least one year before applying again.
Temporary resident permits
If you aren't qualified for either type of rehabilitation or are turned down, another option is a temporary resident permit, or TRP, is a one-time waiver for an inadmissible person to enter Canada. This is not the same as a temporary resident visa, but the two can be applied for together if you are from a country requiring such a visa. These used to be relatively easy to obtain with documented good behavior and a good enough reason for traveling besides going on vacation, but today they are only issued for "exceptionally compelling humanitarian grounds" or "reasons of significant national interest." The website of the Canadian Counsel General Office in Buffalo states that temporary resident permits will not be issued for "sightseeing, visiting friends or relatives, attending cultural or sporting events, attending business meetings or conventions, hunting or fishing trips, or going to the family cottage" [1]. Terms of the permit are fairly specific as to duration and purpose. Visitors from the U.S. with a previous DUI often don't realize it's considered a serious offence in Canada and are often denied entry. Thousands are denied entry into Canada each year on the basis of criminality.
Pardons
Obtaining a pardon or unconditional discharge will generally restore your ability to travel to Canada, and depending on your circumstances you may have much more luck going this route. If the crime was committed in Canada, there's a centralized process you can go through and odds of success are fairly high if you've shown commitment to turning your life around and kept your nose clean since then.
If your pardon or discharge was issued for a crime outside Canada, be sure to bring documentation to that effect with you to the border or when applying for a visa.
Canada may consider your credit history as part of the character and risk assessment when applying for a visa or landing permission at the border. Whether a credit check will occur and what role (if any) it will play into your admissibility decision depends largely on what immigration status you're applying for.
As a temporary visitor (especially from a country that doesn't require a temporary resident visa) merely having bad credit should not affect your entry to Canada as long as you can show means of supporting yourself. If the visa or border officer doubts your ability to maintain yourself whilst in Canada then a credit check can be used to support a decision to grant or refuse entry or a visa for financial reasons based on the totality of the circumstances.
If you are applying for a work permit, a long term visa of any kind or are immigrating to Canada, expect your financial history to be heavily scrutinized and be prepared to explain any exceptionally bad marks (i.e. chargeoffs, repossessions, etc...) if asked. This does not apply to family stream immigrants (as long as the sponsor is financially solvent), nor does it apply to refugees or asylum seekers.
Bankruptcy and debt related litigation are public records that will come up in background checks and are considered character concerns - refusal is very likely unless you can make and prove a highly compelling case for it to be set aside (such as if the judgement resulted from identity theft or a disability). If this describes you, and you can afford it - discuss your situation with an immigration attorney prior to making travel plans or applying for a visa. Keep in mind also that depending on the jurisdiction where the bankruptcy or litigation occurred (such as Australia and the United Kingdom) you may not be allowed to travel internationally at all, or may require a waiver or permission from the court.
In mainland China, most Gulf Cooperative Council nations (Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates) as well as a handful of US States (such as Minnesota) certain types of unpaid debt may be treated as a criminal offense punishable with a jail term, and standard rehabilitation procedures would apply prior to entering Canada.
Other concerns
Besides a criminal record, CIC lists a host of other situations that may prevent admission into Canada. While most of these shouldn't be an issue for the average traveller (e.g. previously overstayed or violated visa conditions, human rights violations, involvement with terrorism or organized crime, etc...), there are a few that do occasionally complicate or bar entry for visitors:
Purpose of visit. The days when you could simply walk over the Rainbow Bridge with your driver's license, telling customs that you wanted to see the other side of the city are long gone. If you're visiting as a tourist (including day-trip pedestrians from Niagara Falls, NY or Detroit), border officers expect that you have a clear idea of what you plan to do and see while in the country. Vague answers and those such as "I'll see when I get to this city" will only invite further scrutiny of your case. They are going to want a detailed itinerary of the places you'll be visiting. It's a good idea to research the places you intend to tour and have all the pertinent information written down ahead of time, and to include contact information if any of your destinations aren't standard tourist attractions or more off the beaten path. Also be prepared with a physical street address at which you will be staying (a hotel name by itself is not acceptable) if you'll be in the country for more than a single day.
Letter of invitation. In absence of a visa authorizing employment, long-term residency or study, a letter of invitation (sometimes called a "letter of introduction") is required for persons visiting for any reason other than tourism (including visiting relatives or friends). For business visitors, there is specific information this letter must contain (including a statement of financial support), but for everybody else something in writing (e-mail or hard copy) along with contact information from the person you're visiting is sufficient. You must bring the letter with you to the port of entry, even if you used it to apply for a temporary resident visa. The letter of invitation requirement is strictly enforced. If you are a business visitor and show up without one you will be denied entry. Others may or may not be admitted after significant delays and additional rounds of unpleasant questioning while border officials attempt to verify your story.
Health concerns. If you are very sick, to the point where the border officer has to consider whether you might burden the healthcare system during your visit, you will be denied entry.
Support funds . You need to prove you have enough funds to support yourself and dependants while in Canada. For most Western tourists a major credit card (not a debit, ATM or bank card) is sufficient.
Inadmissible family members. If you have an immediate family member who is deemed inadmissible, you may also be disqualified from entry based on that fact, although this is at the discretion of the border or visa officer. It seems to be a problem more for persons with known terrorists, members of the Mafia, or other high profile criminals in their family, not just a sibling with a misdemeanour conviction.
As a general rule, admissibility and rehabilitation decisions cannot be appealed beyond a supervisory review at the visa office or border. The only exception is if you can prove the decision was based on wrong information (for example you were acquitted of a crime, but that fact was never properly recorded in Canada's database.) That being said, you are usually allowed to apply again once any specific issues relating to a refusal have been corrected, once the requisite time has passed for rehabilitation, or one year after being denied rehabilitation.
From the United States
If you are travelling to Canada from the United States and you are not a permanent resident of either country you need to be careful to satisfy the U.S. authorities on any subsequent trip that you have not exceeded their limits on stays in North America. Your time in Canada counts towards your maximum allowed United States stay if you are returning to the US prior to your departure from North America.
If you are returning to the US in this trip, keep your visa documents. Do not hand over your US visa or visa waiver card (I-94 or I-94W) to border control. You can enter the US multiple times during the time allocated to your visa (for Western tourists, normally 90 days), but you need to have the immigration document as well to validate the visa. If you come back from the US without that document, you will not only have to apply again for a visa or visa waiver but also will also need to satisfy US immigration of the validity of your trip (meaning to show them that you will not intend on immigrating there).
If your default US time is going to run out while you are in Canada, and you want to return to the US direct from Canada, you need to apply for a US visa with a longer time period (eg B-1/B-2, or a C-1 transit visa) before your first trip through the US. For example, if you are going to stay in Canada for six months, and you transit through the US on a visa waiver, then the US will regard your six months in Canada as not allowing you to return to the US without leaving North America first, as you have stayed more than 90 days in North America in total. Note that in this scenario, you have not done anything wrong by visiting the US and then staying in Canada for a long time, simply that the US will not allow you to return directly from Canada, you have to reset their clock by leaving North America. Visa waiver travellers may be able to avoid this by returning their I-94W (green) form to their airline upon departing the US, or to the Canadian immigration inspector if entering Canada by land; since the US has no outbound immigration check, it's up to the traveller to remember this.
If you are intending to leave North America entirely without returning to the US on this trip, return any visa documents at the time of leaving the US for Canada. This means handing over your I-94 or I-94W card to airline staff at the check-in counter if departing by air, or to the Canadian immigration inspector if departing by land. If you do not, you will need to prove to the US that you didn't overstay to be admitted on future trips (the US CBP website has information on how to correct this mistake).
If you leave Canada to briefly visit the United States and wish to re-enter Canada in a short period of time, you generally may do so without getting a new Canadian visa as long as you return within the initial period authorised by the immigration officer or have a valid temporary residence permit authorising you to re-enter, and you do not leave US soil before returning to Canada (eg, not even during a cruise which begins and ends at a US point but crosses international waters in-between). If you leave US soil for a third country for any reason on a single-entry Canadian visa, you will have to apply for a new visa before re-entering Canada.
You are likely to arrive to Canada by air, most likely into Montreal, Ottawa, Toronto, Calgary or Vancouver (the 5 largest cities, from East to West). Many other cities have international airports as well, with the following being of particular use to visitors: Halifax, St. John's, Winnipeg, Edmonton, Regina, Saskatoon, Kelowna, and Victoria.
Air Canada [2] and WestJet [3] are the country's only national air carriers, covering the entire country and international destinations (Note that a number of regional domestic airlines also exist as well as charter airlines serving only international destinations).
As a rule of thumb, all Canadian three-letter IATA airport codes start with a "Y".
Note that most of the major Canadian airports have U.S. Pre-Clearance facilities where travelers on United States-bound flights (even if they will be flying to a third country immediately afterward) complete U.S. immigration and customs processions prior to departing Canada. If flying back to the U.S. from such an airport, make sure you get to the airport extra early, so you have time to complete this process (Toronto's and Vancouver's pre-clearance facilities are particularly busy). The good news is that this service spares you the need to complete the formalities upon arrival in the U.S.
Luggage allowance for flights to or from Canada usually operates on a piece-wise in addition to the weight system even for foreign carriers. This means that you are allowed a limited number of bags to check-in where each bag should not exceed certain linear dimensions (computed by adding the length, width and height of the bags). The exact restrictions on weight, linear dimension and number of baggage allowed are determined by the carrier you are flying with and the class of service you are travelling in, usually individual bags may be up to 23 kilos (50 lb) if traveling in economy class.
Additionally, if you are coming from the United States, be advised that Air Canada (on transborder itineraries only - not Canadian domestic service) as well as all US based carriers that operate transborder service (Alaska, American, Delta, United and US Airways) charge checked bag fees. Typically $25 for a single bag of up to 23 kilos/ 50 pounds, and $35-50 for a second bag, unless you qualify for a fee waiver based on elite status or class of service.
Canada has a land border with only one country - the United States. See the "from the United States" subsection for more information on what to do when leaving the US.
You might also enter the country by road from the United States through one of many border crossing points. Obviously, the same rules will apply here, but if your case is not straightforward, expect to be delayed, as the officials here (especially in more rural areas) see fewer non-U.S. travelers than at the airports. Also expect delays during holiday periods, as border crossings can become clogged with traffic.
Drivers of American cars will need to carry a Canadian Non-Resident Insurance Certificate in addition to their standard insurance card and must be prepared to present both documents for inspection. The Certificate comes in the form of a yellow paper card which can only be issued by foreign insurers who are authorized to do business in Canada.
Canada has some of the highest levels of minimum auto insurance coverage in the world: $200,000 in all provinces except Quebec and Nova Scotia (which are $50,000 and $500,000 respectively.)
Since most US states have insurance minimums under $50,000 and some states do not require insurance at all, the non-resident certificate signifies that your insurance company will cover you up to provincial mandatory limits while driving in Canada (which the company was required to agree to as a condition of doing business in Canada). Rules regarding the issuing of this certificate vary widely depending on which carrier you have. GEICO and AAA will issue a certificate valid for the entire term of your policy if you ask for it. Liberty Mutual and Progressive will only issue a certificate with advance approval for a specific date range, and some insurance companies (especially smaller local insurance companies in non-border states) will not cover you in Canada at all. If you are planning on driving into Canada, its very important to talk to your insurance company as soon as you know you'll be going so they can print up the certificate (if they offer it) and mail it to you.
If you are a U.S. citizen or permanent resident and travel to Canada frequently, you may consider applying for a NEXUS card. NEXUS allows pre-approved, low risk travelers to use expedited inspection lanes both into Canada and the United States at many land crossings with minimal questioning. You can also utilize kiosks to make your customs declaration and clear the border at major international airports if you opt for an iris scan. The application fee is $50 and requires being legally admissible to both nations, thorough background investigation, fingerprinting and an interview with both U.S. Customs and Border Protection and Canada Border Services Agency. See [4]
If you intend to enter Canada using a U.S. car, take note that after crossing the border going north, the road signs change into metric units (i.e. distances are in kilometres and speed limits posted are in kilometres per hour). The usual speed limit on U.S. freeways is between 65-75 miles/hour, but you will need to read your speedometer in kilometres for the speed limit (in km/hour) once past the border, ie. 100 km/h = 62.5 mp/h. One mile is equivalent to 1.6 km so divide what you see on the road signs by 1.6 to get its equivalent in miles ie. 40km = 25 miles. If you plan on renting a car from the U.S., be sure to rent one with a speedometer that has both metric and U.S. units (a standard feature on modern U.S. cars); in this case, U.S. units are on top or outward while metric units are below or inward.
When driving within Montreal, Vancouver or Toronto keep in mind that these cities are densely populated and parking can be difficult to find and/or expensive. All three cities provide extensive public transit, so it is easy to park in a central location, or at your hotel or lodging, and still travel in the metropolitan area. You can usually obtain maps of the public transit systems at airports, subway kiosks, and train stations.
Via Rail [5] is Canada's national passenger rail service. Amtrak [6] provides connecting rail service to Toronto from New York via Niagara Falls, Montreal from New York and Vancouver from Seattle via Bellingham. The train is an inexpensive way to get into Canada, with tickets starting from as low as US$43 return to Vancouver. There is also thruway service between Seattle and Vancouver.
Be wary though: Not many private citizens in Canada take the train as a regular means of transportation. Most citizens simply drive to where they want to go if the distance is short (which in Canada can still mean hundreds of kilometres!), or fly if the distance is long.
Important: If you're traveling cross-border on Amtrak service, you must have your tickets validated prior to boarding. Pick up your tickets from the window (not the Quick-Trak kiosk) and show your passport or travel document to the agent (your travel document information is sent ahead of time on a manifest to border services to facilitate crossing procedures). Some stations, such as New York City have a dedicated window for international passengers.
See also: Rail travel in Canada
Greyhound Canada serves many destinations in Canada, with connecting service to regional lines and U.S. Greyhound coaches. Be sure to inquire about discounts and travel packages that allow for frequent stops as you travel across Canada. Many routes connect major Canadian and American cities including Montreal - New York City which is operated by New York Trailways [7], Vancouver - Seattle operated by Greyhound and Toronto - New York City via Buffalo, this route in particular is operated by a number of bus companies: Greyhound, Coach Canada [8], New York Trailways, Megabus [9], and Ne-On [10].
Note: in July 2018, Greyhound announced it was ending bus and freight service to the western provinces (Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Alberta, British Columbia) as well as some routes in Northern Ontario, as of October 2018. Some regional carriers have been established or will be picking up some, but not all, of the routes, and mostly only within provinces.
In British Columbia, you can enter Canada by ferry from Alaska and Washington. Alaska Marine Highway serves Prince Rupert, whereas Washington State Ferries serves Sidney (near Victoria) through the San Juan islands. There is a car ferry from Victoria to Port Angeles run by Black Ball; there are also tourist-oriented passenger-only ferries running from Victoria to points in Washington.
There is a passenger ferry running from Fortune in Newfoundland to Saint Pierre and Miquelon.
A small car ferry operates between Wolfe Island, Ontario (near Kingston) and Cape Vincent, NY.
A small car ferry operates between Pelee Island Ontario, Kingsville Ontario and Sandusky Ohio when ice and weather allows.
The CAT car ferry between Rochester, NY and Toronto, Ontario was discontinued in January 2006 because of poor ridership. The Bay Ferries route from Bar Harbor in Maine to Yarmouth, Nova Scotia, also called the CAT, was discontinued in 2010 due to a lack of funding. (Bay Ferries does still run a New Brunswick to Nova Scotia ferry.)
Several cruise lines run cruises between the eastern United States and Halifax. Most freight routes run to Montreal on the east coast and Vancouver on the west coast. International passengers will be required to pass through customs in their port of arrival.
Canada is large - the second largest country in the world after Russia. This means that you will need several days to appreciate even a part of the country. In fact, St. John's, Newfoundland, is geographically closer to London, UK, than it is to Vancouver.
The best way to get around the country is by air. Air Canada [11] is the main national carrier, and has by far the largest network and most frequent schedules but WestJet [12] also offers a very similar service. For travel between major centres, no-frills carrier WestJet [13] offers competitive fares. Unfortunately, due to protectionist government policies favouring Air Canada, fares tend to be more expensive than flying similar distances in the United States, Australia or China, and sometimes, transiting in the US could be cheaper than a direct domestic flight.
Another reason for why air fares are so high in Canada is that the Canadian federal government is notorious for using airports as a cash cow and levying higher-than-average fees and taxes upon airports. They can do that because traditionally the federal government expropriates land for airports and then leases it back to local governments to operate them, which contrasts sharply against the US model where local governments own and operate airports, then contract with the federal government for particular services like security and immigration. While most industrialized governments hit airport travelers with a lot of fees and taxes, the ones imposed by Canada are unusually severe. To save money, many Canadians often drive to US airports just across the border to save hundreds of dollars per flight. Unless they are enrolled in the NEXUS trusted traveler program, they have to put up with long lines to enter the US.
Most major airports are served by public transit. This consists of feeder buses running at peak frequencies ranging from five to fifteen minutes or less (Toronto, Montreal, Winnipeg, Ottawa). Service may be spotty or nonexistent late at night or on weekends if you are outside the major centres. To travel to the city centre/downtown, one or more connections are required in all cities except Vancouver, Montreal, Winnipeg and Ottawa, making a taxi or shuttle a better idea for large groups or those with a lot of luggage.
Air Hitchhiking
Float planes, lake to lake in northern Canada is another way to travel. It is possible to do this for free. One can Air Hitch above the Arctic Circle by flying out of any of the airports, but the trick is getting access to pilots. This can be easier at the Abbotsford Air Show, near Vancouver, Canada, in the summer.
When one gets further north, above Prince George say, one needs to hook up with pilots, often delivering mail lake to lake. Often there are general store and post office type places near the lakes. Many air hitchers catch up with the pilots when they stop for a meal or coffee as one does with truck drivers. In the major and regional airports, one can catch the pilots going in or out of the Environment Canada weather offices.
Air Couriers
Often professionals like lawyers need to transport documents urgently between cities and countries. Most use FedEx or UPS these days, but sometimes it is possible to wangle free air transportation, as an Air Courriers, a category of traveler recognized by IATA. Air Courriers negotiate either directly with a professionals or through a broker or courrier agent. In this way many Air Hitchers travel for free between Paris and Montreal, the main difficulty being that one may only travel with carry on luggage.
If one accepts work in Canada’s high north, many employers will pay one's passage. Because it pays so well and there is little work in places like Newfoundland, many Canadians commute from the North Atlantic provinces to well-paid jobs in Northern Canada and Alberta.
Travel by intercity coach is available between most major cities in Canada. Service is best in the densely packed Windsor - Quebec City corridor which includes the major cities of Toronto and Montreal as well as the national capital, Ottawa. Service in this corridor is provided by a number of companies, chief among them being: Coach Canada [14] and Megabus [15] whose main route is the heavily used Toronto - Montreal route, Greyhound [16] who runs the Toronto - Ottawa route, the Montreal - Ottawa route and routes between Toronto and southwestern Ontario and Orleans Express [17] who runs the Montreal - Quebec City route using modern, leather-upholstered coaches with North American and European electrical sockets at every seat. To the west of this corridor most routes are operated by Greyhound and to the east routes are operated by Acadian [18] a subsidiary of Orleans Express. In Canada, only one company is given a license to run a particular route, as a result there is little to no competition among providers and fares can be unusually high and can be raised without notice. The only exception to this is the Toronto - Niagara Falls route, which is run by many American coach companies, who continue on to Buffalo and ultimately New York City. Prices on a U.S. bus company are usually slightly less than their Canadian counterparts.
Routes in the prairies can be extremely long, some of them taking several days; as a result, passengers should be sure they will be able to bear sitting in a seat for 48 or more hours with only rare stops for food and toilet breaks. Despite a recent violent murder on a bus in the prairies, intercity buses in Canada are generally very safe, however travelers should be aware of their belongings at all times and make sure that their valuables are on their person if they intend to sleep. In contrast to the United States, most Canadian bus stations are not owned or run by the coach companies serving them, they are generally run by the municipal government or, in the case of Montreal and Ottawa, a separate third-party corporation. Also unlike the United States, bus stations in Canada are not generally in the worst parts of the city, in fact, in Toronto, the bus station is located between a major theatre and shopping district and a neighbourhood full of large, wealthy, research-intensive hospitals.
Canada is one of the only two countries (the other being the United States) to have the world's lowest set driving age. But the legal driving age varies between 14 and 16 throughout the country. Alberta is among the places in the world with the lowest set driving age (14).
Of course, many people choose to rent a car. Although somewhat expensive if you are travelling alone, this can be an economically reasonable alternative if you are sharing the costs with others. However, there are many limitations and drawbacks on car rentals in Canada. To name a few of them:
Surcharges associated with dropping off the car at a different location than where it was picked up are usually very high.
“Unlimited” km may be limited for the province you rent it in only (check the conditions thoroughly). If they are and you enter another province, even for a few km, your entire trip gets limited (mostly to 200km or 124 mi a day).
Driving is usually permitted on paved roads only (most rental companies won't stop you or charge extras but CDW and roadside assistance is void outside paved roads).
There are no manual transmission rental cars available in Canada. Don't bother searching.
Basically, if you really want to get around in Canada, except in Vancouver, Toronto, and Montreal, or places where there are few or no roads, it's best to have a car.
In some cases, frugal travellers may be able to "earn" budget travel by delivering a car across Canada. The option is not common. Nor does it offer the opportunity to spent much time stopping along the way. However, it can be a cheap way to cross Canada while seeing the interior. CanadaDriveAway and HitTheRoad.ca are two options.
In Montreal, Toronto and Vancouver, public transit is a strongly recommended alternative to driving.
Unlike the US, gas is sold by the litre and as of March 2014, it cost CAD1.30-1.40 per litre (CAD4.92-5.29 per US gallon) in most urbanized areas in Canada (closer to CAD1.20 per litre in Alberta), and the price typically escalates in March, just in time for summer driving season. Year round, prices tend to be about 50% higher than those in the US after converting litres into gallons and factoring in higher taxes and the currency exchange rate. American drivers will generally find that their credit and debit cards do not work in gas pumps in Canada (due to US cards generally not having "chip and PIN" functionality), although many of the larger chains (such as Petro-Canada and Esso) can run US cards via magnetic stripe if you bring the card inside to the cashier. (This is becoming a non-issue however, as of 2015 the US has made the switch to chip and PIN debit and credit cards.)
Of particular note is highway 407/ETR (Express Toll Route) in Ontario, which circles around the northern flank of Toronto. The 407 is an electronic toll road (the only privately owned road in Canada), in that tolls are billed to the vehicle's owner based on license plate number, or transponder account. Be sure to check your rental agencies' policy regarding use of this road as some firms have been known to add fees and surcharges that can easily double or triple the original toll.
Many jurisdictions also have red light and speed cameras that issue fines via mail to the car's registered owner, again via license plate when the car is automatically photographed running (disobeying) a red traffic light or going above the speed limit. The above warning regarding rental agency policies applies to these as well. Your best bet to avoid this nasty surprise is to simply not run any red lights or speed.
By RV
If you are set on a road trip, an alternative to car rental is to hire an RV (motorhome or campervan). This gives you the flexibility to explore Canada at your own pace and is ideal if your trip is geared around an appreciation of Canada's natural environment. Costs can also be lower than combining car rental with hotels, however RV rentals usually apply milage charges while car rentals usually don't.
Canadream [19]
Cruisecanada [20]
OnRoadCampervan [21]
Traffic rules to be aware of
Canadians drive on the right of the road.
In the province of Quebec, roadsigns are written solely in French but for the most part their meaning is obvious.
Canadians use the metric system for traffic measurements. Speed measurements are measured in kilometers and speed are in km/h.
Metric Conversions 50 mph = 80 km/h
In many areas of Canada (with the exception of the Island of Montreal) it is legal to turn right (after stopping) on a red light. Drivers may also turn left after stopping at a red if they are turning onto a one-way street from another one-way street.
Pedestrians have the right of way at intersections and crosswalks, provided they are not crossing against a signal.
In Canada, you must always yield to a police car, fire truck, or ambulance when their emergency lights are flashing. If they are approaching from behind, you must pull to the right and stop. And when passing any emergency vehicle (including tow trucks in many provinces) you must slow down to 60 km/h or below in any lane directly beside the responding vehicle.
Private vehicles displaying flashing green lights in Ontario are volunteer fire fighters responding to an emergency, and should be yielded to as a matter of common sense.
In many jurisdictions, including British Columbia, motorists are also required to slow down and move into a non-adjacent lane when passing a stopped emergency vehicle. Slowing to 60km/h (37mph) is the norm on a highway.
The use of hand-held mobile devices while driving is banned in all provinces; the last holdout, New Brunswick, passed a ban that took effect in early 2011. Yukon is considering such a ban as well. Use of hands-free devices while driving is legal throughout Canada, although the Canadian Automobile Association is currently (January 2011) lobbying for such a ban. Some provinces such as Alberta expand upon this basic ban with Distracted Driving laws that also forbid other activities such as reading maps, doing makeup, and programming on-board GPS systems while driving.
Some provinces have blood alcohol limits of 0.05%. The national Criminal Code limit is 0.08% - a foreign national exceeding this can expect to be fined heavily and deported - See respect below. Police in some provinces such as B.C. and Alberta may impound vehicles temporarily if the driver is between 0.05% and 0.08%, even though this doesn't violate national laws. Most provinces have "Checkstop" programs in place -- these are randomly placed police checkpoints, usually set up at night, during which an officer will ask motorists if they've been drinking and gauge based upon their response and other factors whether to initiate further roadside sobriety or breathalyzer tests. If you encounter one while driving -- and assuming youhaven't been drinking -- in most cases you'll be let through after only a few seconds, though you may be asked to show your driver's license (have your car rental agreement handy too, if it's requested).
During winter, a flashing blue light usually identifies a snow removal vehicle. Snow removal vehicles in the four western provinces use amber lights.
Beware: In British Columbia, a (slow) flashing green light means the traffic light is green (you can go) but it is controlled by the pedestrian. The light will remain flashing green until a pedestrian pushes the button to cross the street; when you see a flashing green light, traffic coming towards you will also see a flashing green light. In Ontario, Québec and Nova Scotia, a (fast) flashing green light indicates advanced turn, signaling the driver can make a left hand turn across oncoming traffic because oncoming traffic has a red light.
In British Columbia there are many roads, mainly in mountain passes, which require vehicles to be equipped with winter tires or carry chains from October 1 - April 30.
In Quebec, winter tire use is mandatory for all taxis and passenger vehicles from December 15 to March 15. (Note that this applies only to vehicles registered in the province; tourists driving into the province can use all season tires.)
Speed limits vary per province from 100km/h (62mph) to 110km/h (68mph) and you may encounter roads and portions of highways enforced by radar. Best to go with the flow of traffic and cars that are around you.
In Ontario, exceeding the speed limit by more than 50km/h (30mph) is considered "racing" or "stunt driving" and results in immediate roadside vehicle impoundment (usually for 7 days), regardless of who owns the vehicle -- even if it is a rental. In addition to fines and possible license suspension, the driver is also responsible for the towing and storage/impound fees.
Main article: Rail travel in Canada
Passenger rail service in Canada, although very safe and comfortable, is often an expensive and inconvenient alternative to other types of transport. The corridor between Windsor and Quebec City is a bit of an exception to this generalization. Also, if natural beauty is your thing, the approximately three-day train ride between Toronto and Vancouver passes through the splendour of the Canadian prairies and the Rocky Mountains, with domed observation cars to allow passengers to take in the magnificent views.
Make arrangements ahead of time to get lower fares. VIA Rail is the main Canadian passenger rail company.
By thumb
Hitch hiking is quite common among younger travellers strapped for cash or seeking adventure.
In the mountainous regions of Alberta and B.C. hitching is accepted and safe. Hitch hiking in the urban areas of Southern Ontario, and Montreal is not a sure thing as many drivers will not pick up hitch hikers in these regions. Further east, in the maritimes, it is easier and somewhat more common.
Paying for a hitch is not normal, and most trucking companies prohibit their drivers from taking passengers.
As anywhere in the world, use your common sense when taking or offering a ride.
By ride sharing
Ride sharing is increasing in Canada, as well as the United States, due in large part to the internet website Craigslist [22] and dedicated ridesharing sites such as LiftSurfer [23] and RideshareOnline [24]. This method of transport works best between major centres, for example Toronto-Montreal or Vancouver-Calgary. Generally anything along the Trans-Canada Highway corridor (Victoria, Vancouver, Banff, Canmore, Calgary, Regina, Winnipeg, Thunder Bay, Sault Ste Marie, Sudbury, Toronto, Ottawa, Montreal, Quebec City, St Johns, Halifax, PEI) should be no problem if your dates are flexible.
Some tourist destinations, especially those popular with young people, can be accessed via rideshare as well, for example: Vancouver-Whistler or Calgary-Banff. People sharing a ride will usually be expected to pay for their fair share of the fuel cost, and may also be asked to do some of the driving on long hauls.
For best results be sure to post a request listing, and start checking for offer listings at least one week prior to your anticipated ride date. Backpacker's hostel notice boards are also a good resource for ride sharing.
Like hitchhiking, some common sense and discretion is advisable.
English and French are the two official languages in Canada. All communications and services provided from the federal government are available in both languages. Most Canadians are functionally monolingual, although some parts of the country have both English and French speakers. Over a quarter of Canadians are bilingual or multilingual. Many people in Montreal, Ottawa, and Quebec City are at least conversationally bilingual.
English is the dominant language in all provinces except Québec, where French is dominant and actively promoted as the main language. However, there are numerous francophone communities scattered around the country, such as:
the national capital region around Ottawa,
some parts of eastern and northern Ontario,
the St. Boniface area of Winnipeg and towns in southeastern Manitoba,
the Bonnie Doon neighbourhood in Edmonton, and several surrounding communities,
many parts of the Acadian region of Atlantic Canada, scattered across Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island and the French Shores of Newfoundland).
Likewise, there are anglophone communities in Québec, such as some of the western suburbs of Montreal.
Canadian English uses a mixture of British and American spellings, and many British terms not usually understood and employed in the United States are more likely to be understood in Canada. Certain words also follow British instead of American pronunciations, but the accents of Anglo-Canadians and Midwestern/Northeastern Americans are nonetheless still quite similar.
Atlantic Canada is reported to have the greatest variety of regional accents in English-speaking North America, largely as a result of the isolated nature of the fishing communities along the Atlantic coastline prior to the advent of modern telecommunications and transportation. A visitor to the Atlantic provinces may have some difficulty understanding strong local accents rich in maritime slang and idiom, particularly in rural areas. From Ontario westward, the accent of English Canadians is more or less the same from one region to another and is akin to that spoken by those in northern US border states.
English-speaking Canadians are generally not required to take French after their first year of high school, and thus many citizens outside of Québec and Ottawa do not speak or use French unless they are closely related to someone who does, or have chosen to continue French studies out of personal or professional interest. Education in many other languages is available, such as Spanish, German, Japanese, etc. However, these are rarely taken. Most immigrants learn English or French in addition to speaking their native tongue with family and friends.
In Québec, one can get by with English in the major cities and tourist destinations, but some knowledge of French is useful for reading road signs as well as travels off the beaten path, and almost essential in many rural areas. It may also be useful to know at least a few basic French phrases in the larger cities, where some attempt by travellers to communicate in French is often appreciated. The French spoken in Québec and the Acadian regions (Southern Gaspe and Northern New Brunswick) differs in accent and vocabulary from European French, although if you speak European French you will get by with few problems.
Vancouver, Toronto and Montreal are home to large Chinese migrant populations, and Cantonese is commonly spoken in the Chinatowns in these cities.
There are also dozens of aboriginal languages spoken by Canadians of aboriginal descent. Almost all first nations inhabitants that speak their native communities tongue are still bi-lingual in either English or French depending on what province you are in. In Nunavut more than half the population speaks Inuktitut, the traditional language of the Inuit.
Two sign languages are predominant in Canada. American Sign Language, or ASL, is used in Anglophone Canada; Québec Sign Language, or LSQ, is used in Francophone Canada. While the two are distinct languages, they share a degree of mutual intelligibility. Both are part of the French Sign Language family, and LSQ is believed to be a mix of French Sign Language and ASL.
See also: French phrasebook
CN Tower A Canadian landmark, a 553-meter tower with a revolving restaurant and a glass floor. It's located besides the Roger Stadium a 1-minute walk from here.
Roger Centre 1-minute walk from CN Tower and home of the Toronto Blue Jays. Famous for its retractable roof & hosts concerts
Parliament Hill A parliament building on a top of a hill where the government resides
Embassy District A famous district in the capital where many foreign dignitaries stay and live
Old port Montreal Popular complex with shops & activities along the St.Lawrence River
Mount Royal Also known as Mont-Royal in French. A park on top of a hill
Montreal Olympic Park Landmark site of 1976 Summer Olympics
Quebec Citadel Complex featuring a long-standing active fort, plus a museum & changing of the guard ceremonies.
Quartier Petit Champlain Cooperative-owned shopping quarter with independent boutiques, galleries, restaurants & a theatre.
Old Port Quebec City The port of the old-quarter of the city where historic buildings with French Architecture still surrounds to this day.
Art Gallery of the Château Frontenac (Galerie d'Art du Château Frontenac) An art gallery at the heart of Quebec old town
Place d'armes A public squre similar to the one in Montreal with the statue of Paul de Chomedey
Old-town Quebec An old quarter of the city famous for its french architecture and history of French Canada
Stanley Park A vast green open space park located near the Pacific Ocean.
Capilano suspension bridgeThe longest cable-suspended walkway in Canada
Granville Market Located in Granville Island, where you can buy fresh produce
Gastown quarter A famous district in Canada that is famous for its steam clock.
Robson Street A shopping street lined with shops and restaurants and a shopping mall
Bear Watching, Whale Watching and Wildlife Viewing
In Manitoba, Churchill is known for its Polar Bears and Belugas and Riding Mountain National Park and adjacent Parkland area for its abundant population of Black Bears that vary in color from blond, cinnamon and chocolate to black. Riding Mountain National Park is known for its "watchable" wildlife. Canada is known for its wildlife. There are countless local tours across the country. [25]
Canada is a country with a rich cultural heritage. In Canada, festivals and events are held annually to celebrate the multicultural landscape of this great nation. Each festival represents a single cultural facet belonging to the diverse population of Canada. These festivals are easily identified by season.
In some parts of the country, April and May mark the beginning of Canadian music festival season. Yellowknife in the Northwest Territories celebrates spring with the Cariblues Festival, Halifax showcases chamber music with the Scotia Festival of Music and Ottawa highlights concerts, flowers and history at the Canadian Tulip Festival.
Canada is also renowned the world over for its theatre festivals such as Ontario's Stratford Festival [26] in beautiful Stratford Ontario and the Shaw Festival [27] in scenic Niagara on the Lake, both of which begin at this time and continue through to the fall. There are also a number of children's festivals including the Calgary International Children's Festival and the annual Saskatchewan International Film Festival for Young People.
June 21 to July 1 marks 10 days of celebrations in Canada (though not all parts of Canada participate in each celebration). The festivities begin on 21 June with National Aboriginal Day and celebrations across the country continue on 24 June with Saint-Jean-Baptiste Day, in honour of the patron saint of French Canadians, on 27 June with Canadian Multiculturalism Day, and culminate with Canada Day with parties everywhere on 1 July (Ottawa has the best Canada Day celebrations on Parliament Hill).
In addition to this, summer is peak season for festivals of any kind in Canada. Cities such as Montreal, Toronto, Edmonton, and Winnipeg often pride themselves on their diverse summer festivals. Some festivals are music-orientated, such as Ottawa's Bluesfest, Montreal's Jazz Festival and Piknic Elektronic, Toronto's NXNE, and both Calgary and Edmonton's Folk Fests. Others are cultural (or multicultural) events, such as Caribana in Toronto, Folklorama in Winnipeg, and Caraquet's (New Brunswick) Acadian Festival, along with the many well-attended gay pride festivals across the country. Others still are driven by the arts, such as the Toronto International Film Festival, Montreal's Just for Laughs Comedy Festival, Edmonton's Fringe Theatre Festival, and Vancouver's Khatsalano Festival. Summer is also when the Calgary Stampede takes place, one of the most popular festivals in all of Canada, which showcases the Canadian ranching culture of Southern Alberta and Saskatchewan.
Fall is traditionally a time for literary festivals and film festivals. Lovers of the written and spoken word may like the Trois-Rivières’ bilingual Festival International de la Poésie, Halifax’s Atlantic Canada Storytelling Festival, and Toronto’s International Festival of Authors. Film lovers can choose from the Toronto International Film Festival, the Vancouver International Film Festival, the Montreal World Film Festival, the Atlantic Film Festival, and St. John's International Women's Film Festival in Newfoundland, among many others.
Kitchener-Waterloo hosts the largest Oktoberfest celebration outside Bavaria. This nine-day festival features numerous cultural and entertainment activities. Many local venues are converted into biergartens (Beer Gardens) and take on Germanic names for the duration of the festival. Kitchener-Waterloo Oktoberfest attracts over 700,000 visitors annually.
Fall is also a time for families to enjoy the autumn splendour of nature in fall festivals or in simple activities where one enjoys the beautiful countryside.
If you go bowling in Canada, you will find that small ball bowling games such as candlepin, five-pin and duckpin are more dominant in Canada. Tenpin bowling is available in larger metropolitan areas. Across western Canada, most of Ontario and Newfoundland, five pin bowling is the dominant type of bowling. Candlepin is the dominant type of bowling in New Brunswick and Nova Scotia. Duckpin bowling is common in Quebec. Tenpin bowling is dominant in Sault Ste. Marie, select areas of Southern Ontario and select areas in Quebec. Some bowling alleys offer tenpin on a convertible lane, which uses a specialized string-type pinsetter. Depending on the city, prime rates for tenpin bowling can be up to 40% higher than the small ball equivalent.
Winter is the time when Canadians and their families take to the slopes and hit the ice at ski resorts and community hockey rinks across the country. Canada’s world-famous winter festivals take place in late January and February including Carnaval de Québec in Quebec City and Winterlude/Bal de neige in Ottawa and Gatineau. There are also winter events that pay homage to Canada’s hardy pioneers such as the Festival du Voyageur in Winnipeg and the Yukon Sourdough Rendez-vous Festival set in Whitehorse.
In Calgary, the month of January is devoted to showcasing challenging national and international theatre, dance, and music in The High Performance Rodeo, one of Canada’s leading festivals of new and experimental theatre.
Especially popular in British Columbia, winter sports such as skiing and snowboarding are practiced and enjoyed regularly during the winter. British Columbia is home to many of the world's top ski resorts, including Whistler. The 2010 Winter Olympics and Paralympics took place in Whistler and Vancouver. Vancouverites can easily access smaller ski resorts, such as Cypress Mountain, Mount Seymour, and Grouse Mountain. This is typically a 15-30 minute drive from Downtown Vancouver.
Canada's currency is the Canadian dollar (symbol: $ proper abbreviation is CAD), commonly referred to simply as a "dollar", "loonie" or "buck" (slang). One dollar ($) consists of 100 cents (¢). In the 1970s, the Canadian dollar was worth more than the U.S. dollar, but it slipped to about 66 cents U.S. by the mid-1990s. Currency traders made jokes about the "Hudson's Bay Peso". As of August 2017, the Canadian dollar is roughly at $0.80 for every American Dollar.
Canadian coins are of 1¢ (penny; phased out, but still accepted as legal tender), 5¢ (nickel), 10¢ (dime), 25¢ (quarter), $1 (loonie) and $2 (toonie). The purchase total is rounded to the nearest nickel if you pay with cash. (Most coins roughly match their U.S. counterparts in size, shape, and colour, but not in metallic composition.) Canadian notes come in $5 (blue), $10 (purple), $20 (green), $50 (red) and $100 (brown) denominations. Although paper notes remain legal tender, banks have been taking them out of circulation in favour of plastic bills.
Note: Due to the physical similarity between Canadian and American 5, 10 and 25 cent coins, it is common to receive US coins in change in Canada, especially in major tourist destinations or communities close to the US border. Generally speaking, these US coins are accepted at face value and are treated like Canadian coinage because merchants and consumers rarely bother to look. This also applied to the 1-cent coin, however few merchants accept them anymore since the phasing out; although still legal tender, they are generally only accepted at banks. The American 50 cent and $1 coins are not similar to the Canadian equivalents and are not accepted in the same way. Note however that American coins, especially the quarter, may not always be accepted by Canadian vending machines, parking meters and video lottery terminals that have been calibrated for the lighter Canadian coins.
In comparison to the United States, Canada can be more expensive with some things (fast food, certain groceries, apparel, etc.) costing ~25-50% more than what they would in the United States, due to higher sales taxes (see below), higher tariffs on certain goods, and the cost of importing certain goods from the US, among other reasons.
In general, you should focus on buying brands or specific goods that are available only in Canada or are manufactured there (e.g., Canadian souvenirs). International tourists visiting the US and Canada on the same itinerary should plan to do most of their shopping in the US, where they can get much more for their money. For most international tourists, it makes sense to splurge in Canada only if they can't or don't want to enter the US.
Be aware that Canada sells fuel (gasoline, diesel, etc.) in liters, as opposed to gallons. Alcohol and cigarettes are much more expensive in Canada than in the US, due to higher taxes on these goods. There are now many microbreweries across the country, many with restaurants and pubs on premises; some of these are permitted to sell beer and cider on site.
Bargaining is extremely rare in ordinary retail shopping in Canada and attempts to talk a retail worker down in price will result in nothing (besides testing the employee's patience). This is rarely a problem, as most retailers in Canada price their items fairly and do not look to extort their customers due to the highly competitive market and well-off economy. For larger-ticket items, especially high-end electronics and vehicles, many employees work on commission, so bargaining is sometimes possible for these items, and sales-people may offer you a lower price than what is ticketed right from the get-go. Some large retail stores will offer you a discount if you can prove to them that one of their competitors is selling the same product for a lower price. However, in certain establishments such as flea markets, antique stores, farmer's markets, garage sales (see below) etc, you may be able to negotiate a lower price, although it is, again, often unnecessary to put forth the effort.
Like the US, many homes in Canada host garage sales (also known as yard and basement sales depending on the venue; block sales occur when entire groups of homes take part) where household goods, and other items are sold privately. Most often held on Saturdays and Sundays during the warmer months (spring to fall), these sales are not only a good way to find unique items, but offer a chance to explore the neighbourhoods of a community (useful for those considering relocation). Prices vary widely from extremely low to "antique store", though bargaining (see above) is common. As private sellers, people hosting garage sales do not charge tax. There is a risk for those who expect to cross a border and go through customs returning home, however, as the providence of items found at a garage sale cannot be verified and garage sales generally do not give out receipts that can prove that an as-new item with a retail value of $50 was actually purchased at a garage sale for a mere $1.
In all cities and towns, it is possible to convert between Canadian dollars and most major currencies at many banks. In addition, many retailers in Canada will accept US currency either at par or at slightly reduced value, and many Canadian bank branches allow users to withdraw USD cash instead of CAD. All Canadian banks provide currency exchange at the daily market value. In some areas, private exchange bureaus will give better exchange rates and lower fees than banks, so if you have time during your travels to look one up. It might save you some money on the exchange both when you arrive and before you leave, because Canadian dollars may not be worth as much in your home country, particularly the coin.
Private businesses are under no obligation to exchange currency at international rates. Even in the most rural areas, converting between Canadian and American dollars should not pose a problem, although travelers expecting to convert other currencies at a Canadian bank may need to be patient. In fact, most tourist destinations will accept American dollars as such, and are most likely to give a very good exchange rate. This is particularly true of regions that rely on tourism as a cornerstone of their local economy.
As Canadian Banks cash Canadian dollar travellers cheques free of charge, almost all businesses will do the same. This makes travellers cheques a safe and convenient way to carry money in Canada.
Many businesses across Canada accept U.S. Currency based on their own exchange rate for general purchases. Bills are taken with the current exchange rate. Most U.S. coins are similar in size to Canadian coins and are accepted at equal value; it is quite common for change to be given in a mix of Canadian and US coins, however most vending machines will reject U.S. coins.
Credit cards are widely accepted, with Visa and MasterCard being accepted in most places, and American Express somewhat less frequently and Diners Club only in the more upscale restaurants and hotels. Discover is usually accepted at places geared towards Americans such as hotels and car rental agencies. Generally, using a credit card also gets you a better exchange rate since your bank will convert the currency automatically at the prevailing daily rate.
Electronic banking/purchasing
The banking system is well developed, safe and technologically advanced. ATM usage in Canada is very high. There is a safe and widespread network of bank machines (ATMs) where you may be able to use your bank card to withdraw money directly from your account at home, but the fees involved can be more than for credit cards. If possible, try to use chartered bank ATM machines as the fees are often cheaper than the independent ATM machines. All Canadian banking institutions are members of the Interac international financial transaction network. Most retailers and restaurants/bars allow purchases by ATM card through Interac, even if they do not accept major credit cards, and many Canadians rarely use cash at all, prefering electronic forms of payment. Other ATM networks, including PLUS are widely supported and will be indicated on the ATM screen.
No more GST rebates
Until 2007, travellers to Canada could claim back their GST on leaving the country, but this is no longer possible.
Be aware that (in contrast to other countries where what you see is what you pay and so called "hidden costs" are forbidden by law) you will almost always pay more than the prices displayed, as listed prices usually exclude sales tax.
Taxes will be added on top of the displayed price at the cashier. Exceptions where the displayed price includes all applicable taxes are gasoline (the amount you pay is as it appears on the pump), parking fees, liquor bought from liquor stores, some groceries, and medical services such as eye exams or dentistry.
A Federal Goods and Services Tax (GST) of 5% is applied to most items. In addition to the GST, all provinces except Alberta and Canada's 3 territories charge an additional Provincial Sales Tax (PST) on purchases. Ontario and the Atlantic Provinces of Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, and Newfoundland and Labrador have joined or "harmonized" the PST and GST. In these provinces, instead of being charged two separate taxes on a purchase, consumers will see one tax called the Harmonized Sales Tax (HST).
While the GST and PST or HST are charged on most goods and services, some items are currently exempt from taxation. While this list can vary by province and tax, some common examples are: basic groceries (not prepared foods), prescription drugs, residential housing, medical and dental services, educational services and certain childcare services.
The sales tax rates (as of January 2014) are:
Alberta - no PST, GST only (5% total)
British Columbia - 7% PST and 5% GST (12% total)
Manitoba - 8% PST and 5% GST (13% total)
New Brunswick - 13% HST (13% total)
Newfoundland and Labrador - 15% HST(15% total)
Northwest Territories - no PST, GST only (5% total)
Nova Scotia - 15% HST (15% total) -- Previous provincial government promised to reduce the HST to 14%, but this is no longer planned.
Nunavut - no PST, GST only (5% total)
Ontario - 13% HST (13% total)
Prince Edward Island - 14% HST(14% total)
Quebec - 10% PST and 5% GST (15% total)
Saskatchewan - 5% PST and 5% GST (10% total)
Yukon - no PST, GST only (5% total)
Additional taxes have been placed on some goods (such as alcohol and gasoline) and vary by province; however, these taxes are often included in the displayed price of the good.
Major chains
Many large US retail chains such as Walmart, Costco, and Best Buy are also found throughout Canada, and the country's shopping malls feature dozens of US and European boutique chains. However, for many decades, Sears was the only major US department store that had a major Canadian presence; after several years of planning, US luxury department store Nordstrom finally opened its first Canadian stores in 2015. The dominant Canadian department store companies are Hudson's Bay, Holt Renfrew, and La Maison Simons.
The dominant Canadian pharmacy chain is Shoppers Drug Mart; the big three US pharmacies (Rite Aid, CVS, and Walgreens) do not operate in Canada.
Many US retail chains have attempted to enter the Canadian market, but ultimately exited after they were chewed up and spat out by ferocious local competitors. The latest examples of this are Target (closed all stores in 2015) and Safeway (sold all stores to Sobeys in 2013).
Like the US, Canada's supermarket chains operate under multiple legacy brands specific to particular regions and market segments. The major supermarket operators are Sobeys, Loblaw, Metro, and Jim Pattison, but they operate under many different local brands.
Other retail chains that are unique to Canada and not found anywhere else include Canadian Tire (automotive/hardware), RONA (hardware), Winners (clothing), Mark's Work Wearhouse (clothing), Urban Behavior (clothing), West 49 (clothing), Home Outfitters (Home Goods), The Brick (Furniture/Home Goods), Sport Chek (sporting goods), Chapters (bookstore), and Indigo Books and Music (bookstore), among others.
Beavertail with sugar and cinnamon, Ottawa
Poutine, Quebec
Buttertarts-flash-zoom
Nanaimo Bar
English Canadians may be mystified if you ask where you can get Canadian food. English Canadian cuisine varies from region to region. Some specialties include maple syrup, Nanaimo bars (chocolate-topped no-bake squares with custard or vanilla butter filling and crumb base), butter tarts (tarts made with butter, sugar, and eggs), beaver tails (fried dough topped with icing sugar), fiddleheads (curled heads of young ferns), peameal bacon (a type of back bacon made from lean boneless pork loin, trimmed fine, wet cured, and rolled in cornmeal; eaten at breakfast with eggs or for lunch as a sandwich), and Halifax donairs (sliced beef meatloaf wrapped in pitas and garnished with onions, tomatoes, and a sweet condensed milk sauce). They are an important, if somewhat humble, part of the Canadian culinary landscape. In other respects, English Canadian cuisine is similar to that of the northern United States. Canadians may be unaware that they even have national dishes, especially in the more urbanized areas; that said, there is a rising trend among Canadian chefs and restaurateurs to offer locally produced ingredients, and most major cities have bistros that specialize in local and national cuisine.
To many Canadians and non-Canadians, Maple syrup is the prominent element of Canadian cuisine. It is most often used on breakfasts (e.g. pancakes or crèpes), but can also be used as a sweetener for baked goods, warm milk for coffee, mixed with mustards or other sauces, etc. However, a lesser known tree syrup that is produced in the more northerly parts of Canada, closer to the boreal forests, is Birch syrup (which some from parts of Scandinavia may also recognize). It is usually not commercially produced to the same extent as maple syrup, but can be found in certain specialized stores in the southern cities, although typically at a higher price point than it's maple counterpart. It is almost always darker and has a more intense, molasses-y flavour than maple syrup.
French Canadian cuisine is distinctive and includes such specialties as tourtière, a meat pie dish that dates back to the founding of Quebec in the 1600s, cipaille (vegetable pie), poutine, a dish consisting of French fries, cheese curds and gravy (its popularity has spread across the country and can be found from coast to coast), croquignoles (home-made doughnuts cooked in shortening), tarte à la farlouche (pie made of raisins, flour and molasses), tarte au sucre (sugar pie), and numerous cheeses and maple syrup products. Staples include baked beans, peas and ham. French-Canadian cuisine also incorporates elements of the cuisines of English-speaking North America, and, unsurprisingly, France.
One peculiar tradition that you may notice in nearly every small town is the Chinese-Canadian restaurant. A lot of the reason for this is the role Chinese immigration played historically in the early settlement of Canada, particularly in the building of the railroad. These establishments sell the usual fast food Chinese cuisine, adjusted for Western ingredients and tastes. Most American visitors will find this cuisine very familiar, since the Canadian cuisine developed in parallel with a virtually identical version in the States. In Toronto and Vancouver, two large centres of Chinese immigration, one can find authentic Chinese cuisine that rivals that of Hong Kong and Shanghai. In Toronto, visit the Chinatown area of Spadina-Dundas; if north of the city, consider a visit to the Markham area, which has recently seen an influx of newer Chinese immigrants.
Montreal is well known for its Central and Eastern European Jewish specialties, including local varieties of bagels and smoked meat. In the prairie provinces you can find great Ukrainian food, such as perogies, due to large amounts of Ukrainian immigrants.
If you are more adventurous, in the larger cities especially, you will find a great variety of ethnic tastes from all over Europe, Asia and elsewhere. You can find just about any taste and style of food in Canada, from a 20 oz T-Bone with all the trimmings to Japanese sushi (indeed, much of the salmon used in sushi in Japan comes from Canada). Consult local travel brochures upon arrival. They can be found at almost any hotel and are free at any provincial or municipal tourist information centre.
Americans will find many of their types of cuisine and brands with subtle differences, and many products unique to Canada, such as brands of chocolate bars and the availability of authentic maple syrup.
National franchises
You will find that many American chains have a well-established presence here.
Canadian chains include:
A&W [28] Found all over Canada; although unrelated to the American A&W. The Canadian A&W uses a "family" model to identify their burger products. It's targeted mostly to the boomer demographic, and as such has offerings of an arguably higher quality than most American chains, but prices can approach those of cheaper sit-down restaurants, with a combo meal (a "trio" in Québec) usually setting one back no less than $7.
Boston Pizza [29] was founded in Edmonton and found throughout Canada (especially the Western provinces and Ontario). Boston Pizza is casual dining that specializes in pasta and pizza, but also offers a range of other meals, including sandwiches, steaks, and hamburgers. Most locations have a sports lounge separate from their main dining area.
Booster Juice [30] is Canada's largest chain of fresh juice and smoothie bars.
Cactus Club Cafe [31] is based in Vancouver and is quickly expanding with locations in British Columbia, Alberta, and soon Ontario and Saskatchewan. Somewhat trendier and more upscale (though not very pricey) than more casual dining establishments and offers a more basic menu with extensive drinks.
Cora's [32] started in Quebec, and is rapidly expanding across the country. Cora's serves only breakfast and lunch. If you want a hearty, North American style breakfast that makes you feel that you started your day right, Cora's is the place to go.
Earls [33] is found throughout Ontario and Western Canada (and is even in a couple cities in the US) and specializes in trendy, casual dining with a variety of dishes (though most are normal staples of North American cuisine).
East Side Marios [34] is a chain restaurant specializing in Italian cuisine that is found throughout Canada.
Freshii [35] a fast casual chain specializing in healthy food such as salads, wraps, burritos, juices, frozen yoghurt, and smoothies.
Harvey's [36] is a fast food chain, common in Ontario and found in almost every province, that features made-to-order hamburgers and other sandwiches.
Jugo Juice [37] is a fast food chain, specializing in smoothies, sandwiches, and wraps.
The Keg [38] steak houses, usually with tables and booths for 4-6 people. Apart from the steaks they also have good salads and starters. The Keg Mansion in Toronto is worth a visit.
Kelsey's [39] provides casual family dining, very similar to Applebees or T.G.I. Friday's in the United States.
Lick's Homeburgers & Ice Cream [40] is a restaurant chain famous for its fresh, thick, juicy burgers, which are called "homeburgers".
mmmuffins [41] is a coffee, muffin and doughnut retailer. Currently owned and operated by Timothy's World Coffee Inc. as an independent brand.
Montana's Cookhouse [42] is a family oriented, outdoor wilderness themed restaurant. Montana's promises hearty portions of home-style cooking and friendly, efficient service in a lodge setting.
Mr. Sub [43] is a submarine sandwich store chain.
New York Fries [44] is a fast food restaurant that mainly serves french fries and hot dogs. There are locations in several provinces throughout Canada.
Pizza Pizza [45] is a national chain (known as Pizza 73 in Alberta and parts of Saskatchewan and B.C.) of pizza delivery restaurants.
Second Cup[46] serves coffee and cakes. This chain is very similar to Starbucks, in terms of atmosphere and product offerings.
Smitty's [47] is a pancake house/coffee shop chain similar to Denny's in the US.
Smoke's Poutinerie [48] is a restaurant chain specializing in Poutine.
Swiss Chalet [49] is a casual sit down restaurant are operated by Cara, the same company that runs Harvey's, Kelsey's, and Montana's. They specialize in rotisserie chicken and ribs and are known for their special sauce.
Chocolate glazed timbits
Tim Hortons [50] franchises are spread across the country. Started by a hockey player as a chain of doughnut shops, their coffee has become an obsession for many Canadians, and are actually starting to make inroads in the United States, particularly border states such as New York and Michigan. A common joke holds that if a Tim Hortons was placed on every corner of every street, there would still be a lineup out the door. Even though coffee is what they are famous for, their menu is worth considering, offering a variety of very inexpensive sandwiches, soups, bagels and baked goods. Their doughnuts are very popular, as are the 'Timbits', small balls of doughnut. Tim Hortons is so popular that visitors from other countries are often shocked and amused by the Tim Hortons franchises (and coffee cups) found nearly everywhere. You will probably find it very hard to avoid a Tim Hortons while in Canada. The 'double double' - two cream and two sugar - is a common coffee.
Timothy's World Coffee [51] (a.k.a. Timothy's) is the third-largest Canadian-owned chain of cafés, behind Tim Hortons and Second Cup.
Yogen Fruz [52] is a leading frozen yogurt chain featuring Probiotic frozen yogurt, which was founded in Canada in 1986. Yogen Fruz is a staple in malls all over Canada.
The drinking age in Canada varies from province to province. In Alberta, Manitoba and Quebec the age is 18, while in the rest of the provinces and territories it is 19. A peculiarity of many Canadian provinces is that liquor and beer can only be sold in licensed stores and this usually excludes supermarkets, corner stores, etc. In Ontario alcoholic beverages can only be sold in licensed restaurants and bars and "Liquor Control Board" (LCBO) stores that are run by the Province; although you can also buy wine in some supermarkets in a special area called the "Wine Rack". Supermarkets in other provinces generally have their own liquor store nearby. Québec has the least restrictions on the sale of alcohol, and one can usually find alcohol at convenience stores (depanneur), in addition to the government-owned Société des Alcools du Québec (SAQ) stores. Alberta is the only province where alcohol sales are completely decentralized, so many supermarket chains will have separate liquor stores near the actual supermarket. Prices may seem high to Americans from certain states, bringing alcohol in to Canada (up to 1L of hard liquor, 1.5L of wine, or a 24 pack of beer), is advisable. American cigarettes are also quite popular to bring in as they are not sold in Canada.
Canadians are known for their love of beer, although wine and hard alcohol or spirits are also popular.
Like neighboring United States, some places in Canada are dry communities. Which, just like in the dry counties in the U.S., means that the sale of alcohol is either prohibited or restricted.
Canadian variant of Molson beer
Canadian mass-market beers (e.g., Molson's, Labatt's) are generally a pale gold lager, with an alcohol content of 4% to 5%. Like most mass-market beers, they are not very distinctive (although Americans will notice that there are beers made by these companies that are not sold in the States), however, Canadian beer drinkers have been known to support local brewers. In recent years, there's been a major increase in the number and the quality of beers from micro-breweries. Although many of these beers are only available near where they are produced, it behooves you to ask at mid-scale to top-end bars for some of the local choices: they will be fresh, often non-pasteurized, and have a much wider range of styles and flavours than you would expect by looking at the mass-market product lines. Many major cities have one or more brew pubs, which brew and serve their own beers, often with a full kitchen backing the bar. These spots offer a great chance to sample different beers and to enjoy food selected to complement the beers.
Canadian Ice Wine
The two largest wine-producing regions in Canada are the Niagara Region in Ontario and the Okanagan in British Columbia. Other wine-producing areas include the shores of Lake Erie, Georgian Bay (Beaver River Valley) and Prince Edward County in Ontario, and the Similkameen valley, southern Fraser River valley, southern Vancouver Island and the Gulf Islands in British Columbia. There are also small scale productions of wine in southern Quebec and Nova Scotia. Imported wines from France, Italy, the US, Australia, and others are also popular and available in large varieties
Ice wine, a (very) sweet dessert wine made from frozen grapes is a Canadian specialty, with products made by Inniskillin vinery [53] in particular found at airport duty-free stores around the world. In contrast to most other wine-producing regions in the world, Canada, particularly the Niagara Region, consistently undergoes freezing in winter and has become the world's largest ice wine producer. However, due to the tiny yields (5-10% compared to normal wine) it's relatively expensive, with half-bottles (375 ml / 13 fl oz) starting at $50. It is worth noting that Canadian ice wine is somewhat sweeter than German varieties.
Saké, or Japanese rice wine, is also growing in popularity. Most market share goes to imported brands, but Ontario Spring Water Sake Company in Toronto's Distillery District and Artisan SakeMaker of Vancouver's Granville Island are some of the most distinctive locally produced variants.
Cider, sometimes called "hard cider" in Canada to distinguish it from non-alcoholic apple cider, is growing in popularity in Canada. Many imported brands such as Somersby, Magners, and Strongbow can be found in many parts of the country. But "craft cider" is also growing to the same extent as "craft beer" during it's earlier revival. Examples of these include Merridale, Dukes, Spirit Tree, Thornbury, and County Cider/Waupoos. Québec also has a distinctive and well established estate cidery industry, with many prominent smaller producers with lower production.
Canada is famous in other countries for its distinctive rye whiskey. Some famous editions include Canadian Club, Wisers, Crown Royal to name just a few. In addition to the plentiful selection of inexpensive blended ryes, you may find it worth exploring the premium blended and unblended ryes available at most liquor stores. One of the most-recognized unblended ryes is Alberta Premium, which has been recognized as the "Canadian Whiskey of the Year" by famed whiskey writer Jim Murray.
Canada also makes a small number of distinctive liqueurs. One of the most well-known, and a fine beverage for winter drinking, is Yukon Jack, a whiskey-based liqueur with citrus overtones. It's the Canadian equivalent of the USA's Southern Comfort, which has a similar flavour but is based on corn whiskey (bourbon) rather than rye.
Ungava Gin is also distinctive in that it uses botanicals found in Québec's far north, including Labrador tea, crowberry, and cloudberry. There are many other local distilleries producing distinctive spirits, including (among others) Dillon's in Ontario, Victoria Gin in British Columbia, Lucky Bastard in Saskatchewan, etc.
You can find most nonalcoholic beverages you would find in any other country. Carbonated beverages (referred to as "pop", "soda" and "soft drinks" in different regions) are very popular. Clean, safe drinking water is available from the tap in all cities and towns across Canada. Bottled water is widely sold, but it is no better in quality than tap water, so you'll save a lot of money by buying a reusable water bottle and filling it up from the tap.
A non-alcoholic drink one might drink in Canada is coffee. Tim Hortons is the most ubiquitous and popular coffee shop in the country. Starbucks is massively popular in Vancouver and becoming more so in other large centres such as Calgary (where it is larger than Tim Hortons), and Toronto. There is a Starbucks in most every city, along with local coffeeshops and national chains such as Second Cup, Timothy's, mmmuffins (currently owned by Timothy's Coffees of the World but operated under original trade name), Country Style, Coffee Time. Tea is available in most coffeeshops, with most shops carrying at least half dozen varieties (black, green, mint, etc.)
Accommodations in Canada vary substantially in price depending on time and place. In most cities and many tourist areas, expect to pay upwards of $100 or more for a good hotel room. If inquiring always ask if taxes are included, because some offer it with taxes included, some not.
Hotels play an integral part of Canadian history, with some of the country's most well known landmarks being hotels. The Canadian Railway Hotels are a series of grand hotels that were constructed in major cities (Vancouver, Calgary, Edmonton, Regina, Saskatoon, Winnipeg, Windsor, Toronto, Ottawa, Montreal, Quebec, St. John's and Halifax) in the early 1900s. Most of these are still standing and owned by corporations such as Fairmont Hotels & Resorts. The Grand Railway Hotels are all four star franchises, with prices ranging from $150-400 a night depending on the city and the size of the room. These hotels are architecturally stunning and sumptuously decorated, and in addition to being exceptional places to stay, are tourist attractions in their own right. Even if you are not staying in a Grand Railway hotel, it would be more than worth it to explore the main lobby or dine at the hotel restaurant.
In rural areas, motels (short for "motor hotel") are small, simple hotels where you might pay as little as $40-60 for a night's accommodation (especially in the off season.) In many areas, a B&B (bed and breakfast) is a nice option. These are normally people's homes with suites for guests. The price - anywhere from $45 a night to $140 a night - usually includes a breakfast of some kind in the morning. Visit the official Bed and Breakfast Niagara website [54] for listings.
Other options include cottage rentals on the lakes and in the countryside and apartment rentals in the cities. Prices compare to hotels and motels and this type of lodging provides some comfort of home while you are traveling.
Youth hostels are a good choice, offering lodging in shared dorms ($20-40) or private rooms ($45-80). Some useful resources are Hostelling International Canada [55], Backpackers Hostels Canada [56], SameSun Backpacker Lodges [57] and Pacific Hostel Network [58] (which also covers Alaska and the Northwestern U.S.). Most hostels in Canada meet very high standards.
Some universities will rent their dormitory ( more commonly called "residence" or "rez") rooms in the academic off season -May- August. Check university websites for more information.
Finally, there is a huge number of campgrounds in Canada. These range from privately owned R.V. parks to the publicly operated campgrounds in national and provincial parks, and are almost always well-kept and generally very beautiful.
Canada is generally a good place to work. The minimum wage varies by province, from as low as $10.20/hour in Yukon Territory and $13.60 ( 2017 ) in Alberta to $11/hour in Nunavut and $14/hour in Ontario. As with most of the developed world, the economy is shifting from one dominated by manufacturing to one dominated by services. Thus, factory and manufacturing work is becoming scarcer every year and is highly sought, with most factories requiring a high school education or trade certificate. Minimum wage jobs are becoming more common every year, however with the housing market booming there is still a fair number of good construction jobs to be had.
Hiring practices are similar to those in the US.
A Working Holiday Visa (also referred to as an "International Experience Canada / Working Holiday Visa") enables young citizens from certain countries to spend 1 or 2 years in Canada and to legally gain employment while in the country. The eligibility and length of stay rules vary by nationality. The standard rule used to be that a 1-year stay would be issued to nationals of participating countries who were between 18-30 years of age, however, some countries (Australia) now get a two-year visa, and applicants from some other countries can now apply up to age 35. Some countries' nationals (eg citizens of Mexico) need to be post-secondary students at the time the application is made.
The full official list of participating countries and their associated eligibility requirements is available on the Government of Canada's website for this program. As of May 2011, Canada had working holiday agreements with the following countries: Australia, Austria, Belgium, Chile, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Ireland, Italy, Japan, South Korea, Latvia, Lithuania, Mexico, New Zealand, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Taiwan, Ukraine, United Kingdom.
United States citizens can also participate in a Working Holiday program through SWAP without requiring a Temporary Resident Visa prior to entry, but the work permit is limited to six months and the program is limited to post-secondary students at the time of the application.
Safety in Canada is not usually a problem, and some basic common sense will go a long way. Even in the largest cities, violent crime is not a serious problem, and very few people are ever armed, especially when compared to the United States. Violent crime need not to worry the average traveler, as it is generally confined to particular neighbourhoods and is rarely a random crime. Drug-related crimes also happen. Street battles between gangs happen rarely but have made national headlines, these outbreaks of violence usually happen in bunches over a given area because of a turf war or drug supply shortage. Overall crime rates in Canadian cities remain low compared to most similar sized urban areas in the United States and much of the rest of the world (though violent crime rates are slightly higher than most western European cities). Crime is higher in the Yukon, Northwest Territories and Nunavut. Recently there have been several high-profile shootings in public/tourist areas - i.e. the June 2012 shootings at Toronto's Eaton's Centre and HUB Mall in Edmonton; the fact these incidents are so heavily covered by the media is related to the fact that they are considered very rare events.
Law enforcement in Canada
Police in Canada are almost always hardworking, honest, and trustworthy individuals. If you ever encounter any problems during your stay, even if it's as simple as being lost, officers will be able to help you.
There are several different types of law enforcement. The federal police force for Canada is the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (Gendarmerie Royale du Canada) (RCMP/GRC), or mounties. Ontario, Quebec and Newfoundland have their own provincial police force and are not patrolled by RCMP/GRC.
In their capacity as a federal police force, RCMP officers typically wear regular police uniforms and drive police cruisers while performing their duties. However, a minority of RCMP officers may appear in their iconic red dress uniform (Known as the Red Serge) in tourist areas, and for official functions such as parades. Some RCMP officers participate in elaborate ceremonies such as the Musical Ride horse show. While wearing their full dress uniform, their main function is to promote the image of Canada and Canadian Mounties. RCMP officers in full dress are generally not tasked with investigating crime or enforcing law, although they are still police officers and can perform arrests. In some tourist regions, such as Ottawa, both types of RCMP officers are commonly encountered. This dual-role and dual-appearance of the RCMP, both as federal police, and as a tourist attraction, may create confusion among tourists as to the function of the RCMP. Keep in mind that all RCMP officers are police officers, and have a duty to enforce the law.
Cities, towns and regions often have their own police forces, with the Toronto, Vancouver and Montreal forces being three of the largest. Some cities also have special transit police who have full police powers. Some quasi-government agencies, such as universities and power utilities also employ private special police. The Canadian National Railway and Canadian Pacific Railway each have their own police force.
Canadian Forces Military Police can be found at military bases and other defence-related government facilities.
All three types of police forces can enforce any type of law; federal, provincial or municipal. Their jurisdiction overlaps, with the RCMP being able to arrest anywhere in Canada, the OPP and municipal police officers being able to arrest anywhere within their own province. Powers of arrest for Federal, Provincial and municipal police agencies in Canada exist for officers on or off duty.
In the national capital region of Ottawa-Gatineau, one can encounter more police jurisdictions than in any other part of Canada. The Royal Canadian Mounted Police (both regular uniformed and full dress), the Ontario Provincial Police, the Ottawa police, the Sûreté du Québec, the Gatineau Police, Military Police, and OC Transpo Special Constables, all operate in the region, each with a different style of uniform and police cruiser.
Snatching of Luggage
If you are unfortunate enough to get your purse or wallet snatched, the local police will do whatever they can to help. Often, important identification is retrieved after thefts of this sort. Visitors to large cities should be aware that parked cars are sometimes targeted for opportunistic smash-and-grab thefts, so try to avoid leaving any possessions in open view. Due to the high incidence of such crimes, motorists in Montreal and some other jurisdictions can be fined for leaving their car doors unlocked or for leaving valuables in view. Try to remember your license plate number and check that your plates are still in place before you go somewhere as some thieves will steal plates to avoid getting pulled over. Auto theft in Montreal, including theft of motor homes and recreational vehicles, may occur in patrolled and overtly secure parking lots and decks. Bike theft can be a common nuisance in metropolitan areas.
Canada is very prone to winter storms (including ice storms and blizzards). Reduce speed, be conscious of other drivers, and pay attention. It's probably a good idea to carry an emergency kit in your car, in case you have no choice but to spend the night stuck in snow on the highway (yes, this does happen occasionally, especially in more isolated areas). If you are unfamiliar with winter driving and choose to visit Canada during the winter months, consider using another mode of transportation to travel within the country. Make note that while the vast majority of winter weather occurs, naturally, during the winter months, some parts of Canada such as the prairie provinces and north and mountain regions may experience severe, if brief, winter-like conditions at any time during the year.
If you are touring on foot, it is best to bundle up as much as possible in layers with heavy socks, thermal underwear and gloves; winter storms can bring with them extreme winds alongside frigid temperatures and frostbite can occur in a matter of minutes.
Firearms and Weapons
Unlike the U.S., Canada has no constitutional rights relating to gun ownership. Firearm regulation in Canada is significantly more restrictive than its Southern neighbor. Possession, purchase, and use of any firearms requires proper licenses for the weapons and the user, and is subject to federal laws. Firearms are classed (mainly based on barrel length) as non-restricted (subject to the least amount of training and licensing), restricted (more licensing and training required) and prohibited (not legally available).
Prohibited Firearms
Handguns with a barrel length inferior to 105 millimetres (4.1 in), or;
Handguns that are designed to discharge .25 or .32 calibre ammunition;
Rifles and shotguns that have been altered by sawing, cutting or any other means, so that either, the barrel length is inferior to 457 millimetres (18.0 in) (regardless of overall length), or; the overall length is inferior to 660 millimetres (26 in)
Firearms which have fully automatic fire capability, or "converted automatics" (i.e.: firearms which were originally fully automatic, but have been modified to discharge ammunition in a semi-automatic fashion)
Hundreds of other firearms listed by name, including any variants or modified versions. The list includes shotguns, carbines, rifles, pistols, and submachine guns, as well as tasers. Examples are the AK-47, FN-FAL, HK G3, Thompson SMG, MP5 SMG, Uzi, and many others. [59]
Magazines designed for semiautomatic centerfire rifles that exceed 5 rounds, and pistol magazines that exceed 10 rounds (Magazines designed for manually operated firearms and all rimfire weapons have no limits)
Any handgun that is not prohibited (Handguns cannot be non-restricted)
Any non-prohibited semiautomatic firearm with a barrel length inferior to 470 millimetres (18.5 in)
Any firearm that can be fired when the overall length has been reduced by folding, telescoping, or other means to less than 660 millimetres (26 in)
The AR-15 by name and any variant of it, centrefire and rimfire
any other rifle or shotgun, other than those referred to above. Includes long guns of all types of function except for fully automatic.
Generally the only people who legally permitted to carry handguns in public are Federal, Provincial, and Municipal Police, Border Services Officers, Wildlife Officers in most provinces, Sheriff's Officers in some provinces, private security guards who transport money and people who work in remote "wilderness" areas who are properly licensed. It is possible to import non-prohibited firearms such as most types of rifle and shotgun for sporting purposes like target shooting and hunting, and non-prohibited handguns for target shooting may also be imported with the correct paperwork. Prohibited firearms will be seized at customs and destroyed. Travellers should check with the Canada Firearms Centre [60] and the Canada Border Services Agency [61] before importing firearms of any type before arrival.
Be aware that it is unusual for civilians to be seen openly carrying weapons in urban areas. While generally not illegal, openly carrying a weapon will likely be treated with suspicion by the police and civilians, as opposed to some areas of the US where it is more commonplace.
Switch blades, butterfly knives, spring loaded blades and any other knife that opens automatically are classified as Prohibited and are illegal in Canada. As are Nunchucks, Tasers and other electric stun guns, most devices concealing knives, such as belt buckle knives and knife combs, and articles of clothing or jewelry designed to be used as weapons. Mace and pepper spray is also illegal unless sold specifically for use against animals.
Forest fires usually occur in summer and are possible across a wide swath of the country, most frequently in the western Provinces. Always check the news for info on forest fires and if you must go through them, be very cautious. Often the roads are impassable; alter travel plans accordingly and be prepared for evacuation if forest fires are on your doorstep.
Fires in British Columbia are particularly vicious because of steep mountainous terrain. The combination of dry summers, dry lightning strikes and large forested sections are all factors. The province had serious issues with forest fires in the summers of 2003 and 2009, with many thousands having to be evacuated.
Because of its popularity, easy availability and allowances for "medical purposes", many visitors believe that the use of marijuana is legal. Indeed, on October 17 2018, the possession, consumption and sale of recreational marijuana was legalized. Those over the age of 19 (18 in Alberta and Quebec, but the latter may change to 21 in 2019) may now possess up to 30 grams of cannabis in public, share up to 30 grams with other adults, purchase cannabis products from a licenced provincial or territorial retailer, and grow up to 4 plants per residence (not per person) for personal use from licensed seeds or seedlings.
The laws relating to the usage of cannabis vary at the provincial and territorial levels. For example, Alberta, British Columbia, the Northwest Territories, Ontario and Quebec generally allow cannabis to be smoked in public in areas where tobacco may be smoked, whereas all other provinces and territories do not allow the public consumption of cannabis. Be sure to check the local laws before consumption.
When entering or exiting Canada, make sure you do not possess any marijuana or marijuana related products as it still remains illegal to import and export [62]. This is especially important if you plan to visit the United States as you risk a lifetime US travel ban that may complicate your future travels to any country.
Driving while impaired by drugs (including marijuana and even legal "drowsy" drugs) is a criminal offence and is treated similarly to driving under the influence of alcohol, with severe penalties. Do not attempt to drive while under the influence of drugs; visitors can expect to be deported after serving jail time or paying very large fines.
Be advised that unlike many other countries, Khat is illegal in Canada, and will get you arrested and deported if you try to pack it in your luggage and get caught by customs.
Needless to say, under no circumstances should you attempt to bring any amount of anything that even resembles a controlled substance into the United States from Canada, or vice versa. This definitely includes cannabis; despite legalisation, it remains highly illegal to take cannabis out of Canada, even if it is to a region where it is legal. Penalties in the U.S. for smuggling even small amounts of drugs are more severe than in Canada, with prison sentences being 20 years to life for trafficking.
Canadians take drunk driving very seriously, and it is a social taboo to drink and drive. Driving while under the influence of alcohol is also punishable under the Criminal Code of Canada and can involve lengthy jail time, particularly for repeat offenders. If you "blow over" the legal limit of blood alcohol content (BAC) on a roadside Breathalyser machine test, you will be arrested and spend at least a few hours in jail. Being convicted for driving under the influence (DUI) will almost certainly mean the end of your trip to Canada, a criminal record, and you being barred from re-entering Canada for at least 5 years. 80mg of alcohol per 100ml of blood (0.08%) is the legal limit for a criminal conviction. Many jurisdictions call for fines, license suspension and vehicle impoundment at 40mg of alcohol per 100ml of blood (0.04%), or if the officer reasonably believes you are too intoxicated to drive. Note this difference; while having a BAC of 0.03% when tested at a police checkpoint ('Checkstop' or 'ride-stop', which is designed to catch drunk drivers) will not result in arrest, having the same BAC after being pulled over for driving erratically, or after getting involved in an accident may result in being charged with DUI.
Those crossing the land border into Canada from the USA or visa versa while driving under the influence could get arrested by the Border Services Officers and be subject to lengthy interrogation in addition to the above punishments
Refusing a Breathalyzer test is also a Criminal Code offense, and will result in the same penalties as had you blown over. If a police officer demands that you supply a breath sample, your best option is to take your chances with the machine.
Hate Speech & Discrimination
Canada is a very multicultural society, and the majority of Canadians are open minded and accepting. Thus, it is unlikely to meet ridicule in major urban centres on the basis of race, gender, religion,as a large amount of Canadians (from major urban centres) have encountered every type of person imaginable. Certainly, if racial minorities do encounter discrimination, it almost never results in violence, and when it does the police are generally very tough on assaults against racial & sexual minorities. Canada was one of the first countries in the world, and consequently many Canadians are tolerant and good people. In big cities, especially Toronto and Montreal, and a majority Canadians will not be bothered by, or even interested in, this. Canada is known around the world, and many Canadians are mostly proud of this. Hate speech that incites violence is illegal in Canada and can lead to prosecution, jail time and deportation.
Buying sex services is illegal everywhere in Canada. Expect to be fined at least 300C$. Sometimes, the police may raid brothels and arrest you.
You are unlikely to face health problems here that you wouldn't face in any other western industrialized country (despite claims of long waiting lists and inferior care, which often varies by hospital and is usually exaggerated). Furthermore, the health care system is one of the best on the planet, and is very effective and widely accessible. In the past two summers, Canadians in some provinces (Ontario, Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Alberta) have faced a few cases of West Nile virus, an occasionally fatal infection transmitted by mosquitoes. Also several diseases like whooping cough, diphtheria, and measles are common throughout Canada. Visitors should note that, while Canada has universal health care for residents, health care is not free for visitors, therefore it is important to make sure you are covered by your insurance while traveling in Canada. It should also be noted that, while large hospitals in major cities can be very good, hospitals in mid-sized cities without a large medical school tend to be chronically underfunded and understaffed; hospitals in working class neighbourhoods of large cities tend to suffer from the same problems.
Be aware that most Canadian provinces have banned all indoor smoking in public places and near entrances. Some bans include areas such as bus shelters and outdoor patios. See Smoking.
Canada has quite high standards for restaurant and grocer cleanliness and such if there is a problem with the food you have bought then talk with the manager to report it. You will usually be compensated for the meal, and many managers appreciate patrons who are willing to come forth as opposed to staying silent about it (as long as you aren't rude). Getting sick from contaminated food is unlikely.
Compared to the United States, some medical care in Canada is available about 30 to 60 percent cheaper. Medical tourism firms help visitors to obtain medical care such as cosmetic surgery and joint replacement in major cities including Vancouver and Montreal. After their treatments, patients can enjoy a vacation and relax in a cabin in the Canadian Rockies, explore colourful Montreal, or other activities.
Condoms and other barrier forms of birth control are widely available in drug stores, grocery stores, and corner stores. Hormone-based forms such as oral contraceptives ("the birth control pill"), "the patch", and "the ring" are available from pharmacies only with a prescription.
Canadians in general are welcoming and friendly folk. Most of them take pride in their nation's reputation for being progressive and culturally diverse.
Social Etiquette and Gestures
Canadians, in general, tend to be indirect, neutral communicators; They try to avoid conflict and confrontation wherever necessary, but that being said, Canadians tend to express their thoughts clearly and openly, but in a respectful and tactful manner, even if they disagree with you. This said, they tend to avoid the company of argumentative, confrontational or opinionated people.
Canadians are more reserved and polite than Americans and take matters of etiquette a little more seriously. It is prudent to shake hands and introduce yourself when meeting Canadians for the first time. Eye contact is very important.
Do not hug or back slap someone unless you're well acquainted with them. It's considered rude manners.
Do not interrupt or butt into a conversation. It's considered rude manners.
Do not raise your voice or lose your temper in a conversation. Canadians tend to avoid losing their temper in public, and it is widely viewed as a sign of impatience and arrogance.
Canada is a largely egalitarian society. Bragging about your material possessions, or coming off as morally superior to others is seen as contrived and arrogant.
Canadians are proud of their distinct national, historic, and cultural identity. Conversations about the similarities or distinctions between Canadians and people south of the border should be approached with caution, and using the term "American" to refer to or include Canadians would be considered factually inaccurate ("I'm not American, I'm Canadian.") and irritating. When necessary, the term "North American" would be more commonly used. Americans may be surprised by opinions held toward their country's policies, though most Canadians tend to distinguish between the American government and its citizens.
Punctuality is highly valued. Arriving late to an appointment can be seen as rude manners unless you can provide a good reason for your defence.
When entering a private home in Canada it is usually expected that you take off your shoes, or at least attempt to do so.
Quebecian Etiquette and Gestures
Although Quebec is a part of Canada, it has a distinctive language and culture that sets it apart from the rest of the country, and thus some important cultural considerations are worth bearing in mind.
Kissing on the cheeks is quite common. When close friends and family meet in Quebec, they use each other's first names and kiss both cheeks.
It's common for a man to kiss the hand of a woman. Female travellers should not be surprised about this and should accept it. A male traveller kissing the hand of a woman in Quebec, however, would result in some puzzled, confused looks.
Although Quebecians are proficient in English, make an attempt to speak in French to them. In most cases, you'll find them becoming noticeably more aloof if you approach them speaking English than in French.
Do not use a thumbs down gesture. It is considered offensive.
Do not slap an open palm over a closed fist. It is considered offensive.
A thumbs up gesture means "OK". It isn't considered offensive.
Do not talk with your hands in your pockets. It is considered rude manners.
Do not summon a waiter or waitress by snapping your fingers or shouting. Instead, say Monsieur (male waiter) or Mademoiselle (female waiter) quietly.
Do not eat while standing or walking. It's considered rude manners.
Quebecians have a relaxed view of time. Showing up early to an occasion or a social appointment can be seen as impolite.
Do not confuse Quebecians as French. It can result in some puzzled, confused stares.
The terms "aboriginal" ("autochthones" in French) or "indigenous" are commonly used to refer to the cultural groups that existed in present-day Canada before the arrival of Europeans. These umbrella terms are used to refer to other sets of cultural groups. Although terminology and distinctions among groups are not well understood even by many Canadians, basic familiarity is essential for accurate and respectful understanding.
The term Inuit refers to the indigenous people of the northern regions of Canada, the United States, and Greenland. The once-common term "Eskimo" is at best outdated and at worse, a racial slur. The term Metis (pronounced MAY-tee) is usually used by people who consider themselves to be both indigenous Canadians and descendants of mixed aboriginal and European heritage.
The term First Nations refers to indigenous Canadians who do not identify themselves as either Inuit or Metis.
Tourism related to aboriginal culture is a complex issue. Tourists may be welcomed in some communities as visitors or guests and as a possible source of revenue. Other communities may not wish to have their heritage or identities be considered a tourist attraction. Issues around the sale of aboriginal-made products or those inspired by aboriginal cultures (particularly by or for the benefit of non-aboriginal people) is equally complex. As always, respect for local people and their wishes should always take precedence over tourists' interests in experiences or souvenirs.
Discussions about regional or linguistic politics should also be approached with caution. While not likely to cause real offence, the learning curve for Canada's political culture can be very steep and it can usually result in some fierce, aggressive debates depending on how you approach it. Publicly spouting strong political opinions won't be welcomed by many Canadians. Don't be afraid of asking any questions that you may have, but know that being a foreigner puts you in a delicate, fragile position.
Avoid discussing or questioning someone's religious beliefs. Religion is a strictly private matter, and investigation into other people's faith won't be tolerated or welcomed.
Sensitive Issues:
Steer clear of discussing Quebecian independence. This is one of the most contentious issues in Canadian society, and it's wise to refrain from bringing up or commenting on the subject as it can very quickly result in a heated argument, especially if there are French-speaking Canadians around.
Steer clear of discussing the status of Aboriginal, Indigenous Canadians. Aboriginal Canadians have endured a great degree of social problems, and their plight is widely considered by many to be embarrassing to Canadian society. It's wise to refrain from bringing up or commenting on this subject altogether as it could result in a heated argument, especially if there are Indigenous Canadians around.
Avoid using terms like "Indian" and "Native". They are regarded as controversial and it is safer to avoid their use as they may be considered racial slurs.
Environmentalism and animal protection
Canada is very much into animal and nature protection and has many protected areas used solely for nature and animals. You should be considerate of this. Don't litter, cut down trees, hunt animals offseason, shoot endangered species, or trespass on lands that are reserved for plant and animal life.
The communication infrastructure of Canada is what you would expect for an industrialized country. However, the cost of voice and data communication tends to generally be more expensive compared to most European countries.
The international country code for Canada is 1. Area codes and local phone numbers are basically the same as used in the United States. (Three-digit area code, seven-digit local phone number). Some cities only require a seven-digit local phone number to place a call, but in most major cities you must use ten digit dialing even for local calls. For example, in Vancouver, if you look up the phone number for a business or friend across the street or across town as 987-6543, then you must dial 6049876543 to call it. This is a local call. Add the "1" if you are dialing a long distance call, or 16049876543. Knowing what constitutes a long distance call is part art, but if your number is for a place more than 50km away from your position, it most likely would be a long distance call. Always check area codes, some cities have more than one, such as Vancouver which could be (604) or (778).
Due to the extremely high cost of cell phones, Canada has one of the lowest cell phone ownership rates in the developed world and highest landline retention rate. This is especially the case in Atlantic Canada and Quebec. Pay phones are much more widely available than in the United States, and provide a considerably cheaper way of making lengthy phone calls than cell phones. Local calls cost $0.50; for long distance calls, a prepaid long distance card is recommended and will provide calling to Canadian numbers for around $0.05-0.07 per minute.
Cell phones are widely used, but due to Canada's large size and relatively sparse population, many rural areas that are not adjacent to major travel corridors have no service.
Of the major national carriers, Bell Mobility and TELUS operate national CDMA networks and a more modern UMTS (WDCMA/HSPDA) network. Rogers Wireless operates a GSM network. All of these networks operate on the 850MHz/1900MHz bands and phones from outside North America are unlikely to work unless they are specifically marketed as World Phones, or Quad-Band. Note that quad-band/world phones may still not be compatible with Bell and TELUS's HSDPA network, but they should work on Rogers.
Both Rogers and TELUS operate separate discount brands using the same infrastructure as their main networks. For Rogers this is the Fido and Chatr services, and for TELUS it is Koodo Mobile. These brands typically aren't really much cheaper (the parent company is obviously not going to undercut itself), but the plan options may be better suited for some people.
In addition to the major incumbent networks noted above there are several regional carriers and some new start-up carriers servicing limited geographical areas. One of these new carriers is Wind mobile, operating a 1700/2100MHz GSM network in a half dozen or so metropolitan areas.
All of the major national carriers offer pre-paid SIM cards with start-up packages in the range of $75 with a specified amount of airtime included. Prepaid plans usually have a per minute rate of $0.25, but many have "evenings and weekends" add-ons for around $30/month.
Visitors from outside North America will be surprised to learn that Canadian carriers charge for incoming calls, either by using a plan's included minutes, or at a rate of $0.25 to $0.35/minute. In addition, if you are outside of your phone number's local calling area when answering a call, you will be charged long distance on top of the air time charge. This means that answering an incoming call outside of the phone's local calling area can cost you up to $0.70/minute.
Internet via GSM is prohibitively expensive. Due to the nearly complete dominance of three companies, mobile rates in Canada are among the highest in the world. The Canadian government continually promises to open up the market and help smaller companies compete and continually fails to do so. However, the recent entry of WIND Mobile, a smaller player with substantial overseas ownership was recently approved and may signal a change in the official government stance.
If entering with an iPad, be aware that Bell and Telus will NOT offer local iPad plans without some form of Canadian ID.
There are many ways to access the Internet, including a number of terminals at most public libraries.
Most large and medium-sized towns will have Internet and gaming cafes.
Wi-Fi access is common in cities and can be found at most coffee shops, public libraries, and some restaurants. Although some locations charge an excessive fee for its use, others provide free WiFI, including Blenz coffee houses, McDonalds, Second Cup, Tim Horton's, and Starbucks. Note that purchasing the establishment's product is expected, even if they are charging for internet access. Buying a small coffee or tea typically meets this requirement. Most airports and certain VIA Rail stations also offer free Wi-Fi in passenger areas. See wififreespot.com for a partial listing of establishments offering free WiFi.
It is worth noting that if you are staying at a private residence, please be considerate and go easy on your usage. Unlike most other countries, Canada's fixed-line internet plans prescribe a data allowance (e.g. 40GB, 80GB, 100GB). The amount your hosts pay a month will depend on the amount of data they wish to subscribe to and they will pay additional charges if they exceed their allowance or wish to do so. A $48/month plan will get 40GB of internet.
Of course, there is always the postal system. While its delivery times can be hit or miss (as quick as the next day in the same city to two weeks across country), Canada Post's domestic rates and service are more expensive (85 Canadian cents for domestic letter) than its American counterpart's. International parcel postal services can be costly. Sending a parcel from Canada to the United States is generally more expensive than sending the same parcel to Canada from the United States, although, strangely enough, sending a parcel within Canada will often be more expensive than sending the same one to the United States. Ordering items online is generally prohibitively expensive for this very reason; a handful of hardcover books, for instance, may cost hundreds of dollars to ship. Postal offices are usually marked by the red and white Canada Post markings. Some drug stores, such as the Shopper's Drug Mart chain, Jean Coutu, Uniprix, etc., feature smaller outlets with full service. Such outlets are often open later and on weekends, as opposed to the the standard M-F 9AM-5PM hours of the post offices.
Canada's southern neighbour, the United States, can become a side trip from Canada or even a major part of your vacation. Places like Niagara Falls, New York State, New York City, Detroit, and Seattle are easily reached on public transportation or on foot in some cases. See the main article on the U.S. for entry requirements - if you need a visa be sure to apply well in advance.
Saint-Pierre and Miquelon are two relatively small islands off the coast of Newfoundland. Despite their small size and relative proximity to the Canadian coast line, they are overseas Departments of France and the only vestige of French colonialism in North America. To step into this charming French seaside community, take the car ferry from Fortune, Newfoundland during the summer, or scheduled flights from Montreal, Halifax, and St. Johns year round.
Greenland, Canada's major eastern island neighbour, despite being separated by less than 50km of water in some locations is not easily accessible from North America. The flag carrier Air Greenland flies from Iqaluit in Nunavut (YFB) to the capital Nuuk (GOH) twice a week from June through September. Seasonal flights are also available from Reykjavik, Iceland (KEF) and year round via Copenhagen (CPH). Another, albeit more expensive option are the summer cruise ships originating in both the U.S. and Canada. Despite the relative difficulty of reaching the island, the untouched natural Arctic beauty of one of the most remote places on earth makes it well worth the effort.
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Study finds how stress may be making you sick
ANI | Updated: Jan 11, 2018 10:40 IST
Washington D.C. [USA], Jan 11 (ANI): Stress is often a hidden health hazard that can literally make you sick.
A Michigan State University researcher is providing new insight into how certain types of stress interact with immune cells and can regulate how these cells respond to allergens, ultimately causing physical symptoms and disease.
The federally funded study showed how a stress receptor, known as corticotropin-releasing factor, or CRF1, can send signals to certain immune cells, called mast cells, and control how they defend the body.
"Mast cells become highly activated in response to stressful situations the body may be experiencing," said Adam Moeser, an associate professor and endowed chair who specializes in stress-induced diseases.
"When this happens, CRF1 tells these cells to release chemical substances that can lead to inflammatory and allergic diseases such as irritable bowel syndrome, asthma, life-threatening food allergies and autoimmune disorders such as lupus."
One chemical substance, histamine, is known to help the body get rid of invading allergens such as pollen, dust mites or the protein of a particular food like a peanut or shellfish. The histamine causes an allergic reaction and in a normal response, helps the body clear the allergen from its system.
If a patient has a severe allergy or is under a lot of stress, then this same response can be amplified, resulting in more severe symptoms ranging from trouble breathing, anaphylactic shock or possibly even death.
During the study, Moeser compared the histamine responses of mice to two types of stress conditions - psychological and allergic - where the immune system becomes overworked. One group of mice was considered "normal" with CRF1 receptors on their mast cells and the other group had cells that lacked CRF1.
"While the 'normal' mice exposed to stress exhibited high histamine levels and disease, the mice without CRF1 had low histamine levels, less disease and were protected against both types of stress," Moeser said. "This tells us that CRF1 is critically involved in some diseases initiated by these stressors."
The CRF1-deficient mice exposed to allergic stress had a 54 percent reduction in disease, while those mice who experienced psychological stress had a 63 percent decrease.
The results could change the way everyday disorders such as asthma and the debilitating gastrointestinal symptoms of irritable bowel syndrome are treated.
The findings have been published in the Journal of Leukocyte Biology. (ANI)
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by Teck Chi Wong and Miranda Stewart
Image by Henry Burrows CC2.0 via Flickr https://flic.kr/p/5eXoDR
This post was originally published as part of the Tax and Transfer Policy Institute Policy Brief series. Read Part 2 here.
The Open Budget Survey 2017, released in January 2018, assesses and compares budget transparency, oversight and participation in countries around the globe. Countries are ranked in the Open Budget Index (OBI) using their transparency score from the Survey. We previously provided a brief overview of the Survey including Australian findings and recommendations. This Policy Brief explains the OBI in more detail and discusses the state of budget transparency, participation and oversight in Australia, regionally and globally. We identify some gaps in the Australian budget system and conclude with lessons to be learned from the Survey for Australia and the region.
The Open Budget Survey is the only independent global survey on budget transparency. It is conducted every two years by a US-based non-government organisation, the International Budget Partnership (IBP). This is the sixth Survey coordinated by the IBP, but it is the first time Australia has been included. In its first Survey report, Australia received a transparency score of 74 out of 100 and was ranked 12 out of 115 countries in the OBI. The three highest-ranked countries are New Zealand (score: 89), South Africa (score: 89) and Sweden (score: 87).
The IBP works with independent researchers within countries to make evidence-based assessments about the country’s budget system. The Australian questionnaire was completed by the Tax and Transfer Policy Institute (TTPI). The assessments are subject to rigorous and anonymous review by governments and independent reviewers. The questionnaire, country report and correspondence in the review process can be viewed on the IBP website.
Australia’s score of 74 out of 100 indicates that Australia has a good level of transparency and provides substantial budget information to its citizens. Australia also does well on budget oversight scoring 70 out of 100, indicating that it has adequate institutional practices in place to oversee the budget process.
On the third measure of public participation, Australia received a lower score of 41 out of 100. The Survey finds that participation opportunities are scarce in most participating countries so, with this low score, Australia is in fact close to the top. New Zealand has the highest participation score globally, at 59 out of 100.
Budget transparency and accountability: A global challenge
If there is one thing to be learned from this year’s Open Budget Survey report, it is not to take budget transparency and accountability for granted. This year’s report depicts a rather bleak global picture for budget transparency.
In this round, the Survey assessed 115 countries, 13 more than the previous 2015 edition. The Survey finds that only 26 of the 115 countries surveyed have adequate budget transparency (defined as countries with a score of 61 and above). The Survey covers developed and developing countries across most continents. There are 22 OECD countries in the Survey this year including Australia, Canada and Japan as new additions. Australia’s score of 74 puts it equal with France and the United Kingdom.
For the first time since the Survey began in 2006, global progress toward greater transparency has stalled. The average OBI score fell two points to 43 in 2017 for the 102 countries surveyed in both rounds.[1] There are regional differences. Asia Pacific and South Asia have recorded significant improvements in their transparency scores, but other regions saw slower growth or declines. In particular, Sub-Saharan African countries recorded a double-digit fall in transparency: the regional average score of Sub-Saharan Africa declined from 39 in 2015 to 29 in 2017.
Even developed countries are facing challenges in maintaining and enhancing budget transparency, with some countries registering a decline in their score, notwithstanding the fact that they are still more transparent than most parts of the world. All OECD countries perform better than the global average of 42. However, eight are deemed not to be providing sufficient information to the public. Hungary is the lowest, with a score of 46. This year’s scores of OECD member countries are presented in Figure 1.
Figure 1: Open Budget Index – OECD countries and global average
Source: IBP 2015; 2018a
Note: Scores of 81-100 indicate provision of extensive budget information, 61-80 indicate substantial budget information, 41-60 indicate limited budget information, 21-40 indicate minimal budget information and 0-20 indicate scant budget information. Australia, Canada and Japan are new additions in this round.
The United States transparency score fell four points from 81 in 2015 to 77 in 2017; Spain’s score slipped four points to 54; Germany’s score declined two points to 64; France’s score fell two points to 74 and the UK’s score dropped one point to 74. These declines in transparency scores of developed countries have occurred at a time when there appears to be declining public trust in the government and in democracy in these countries, and voters may feel that the systems are distorted to serve the rich and powerful rather than the masses (Edelman 2017).
The global assessments are also not optimistic about the other pillars of budget accountability, being oversight and participation. Most countries have weak legislative oversight of their budgets, with only 28% of legislatures having adequate practices in place to oversee the budget process.
Better scores are achieved for oversight by supreme audit institutions, such as the Australian National Audit Office (two-thirds of the countries had adequate oversight). However, audit institutions tend to be weaker in countries with less transparency. The Survey also identifies independent fiscal institutions for the first time, finding that 18 countries surveyed have such an institution – including Australia’s Parliamentary Budget Office.
The Survey finds not a single country has adequate participation opportunities in place for the public. Four countries (New Zealand, the UK, Australia and the Philippines) are in the range of 41 to 60, which indicates limited opportunities for public participation. The remaining 111 countries scored less than 40.
Improvements in the Asia Pacific
There are still some reasons to be optimistic. Overall, government budgets are generally more transparent today than they were a decade ago. In the Asia Pacific, we see progress toward greater transparency, albeit from a lower basis. Figure 2 shows the 16 Asia Pacific countries covered in the Survey and their score compared to the global average.
Figure 2: Open Budget Index – Asia Pacific countries and global average
Note: Scores of 81-100 indicate provision of extensive budget information, 61-80 indicate substantial budget information, 41-60 indicate limited budget information, 21-40 indicate minimal budget information and 0-20 indicate scant budget information. Australia and Japan are new additions.
Some of the spectacular improvers in this year’s Survey are from our part of the world, including Fiji (improved 26 points to 41), Thailand (improved 14 points to 56), Cambodia (improved 12 points to 20) and Myanmar (improved 5 points to 7). This pushed up the regional average transparency score by 3 points to 44.
However, promoting budget transparency is still a challenge in China, with its transparency score dropped one point to 13 in this round. Its neighbour South Korea also slipped 5 points to 60. New Zealand is far ahead of other countries in the region with a score of 89, slightly improved from 88 in 2015. Malaysia remains unchanged at a score of 46.
How Australia performs
From a global perspective, Australia performs relatively well. This is not surprising, given that Australia has a vibrant parliamentary democracy, an effective annual budget process and was able to implement a number of reforms since the 1990s to enhance budget transparency including the Charter of Budget Honesty (1998), which uses the disclosure of budget information as a means to achieve fiscal discipline of the Government. However, there are also some gaps in the Australian budget system, as identified by the Survey country report.
This Survey assessed budget events and activities that occurred in the period up to 31 December 2016. Thus, for Australia, the Survey covers the whole of the 2015-16 budget year and the first half of the 2016-17 budget year.
Australia’s score of 74 is considerably higher than the global average of 42 and indicates that relevant budget information is provided to the public to a large extent.
In the Asia Pacific region, Australia is only behind New Zealand and has a higher score than the two other developed countries participating in the Survey, South Korea and Japan, which share an equal rank of 27 globally (see Figure 2). The Philippines (score: 64), another budget transparency enthusiast in the region, ranks 19th globally and 3rd in the region. Even within the OECD, a natural comparison for Australia, the country is in the leading group. Out of 35 OECD countries, 22 participated in the Survey. Australia’s score of 74 is higher than the OECD average of 68 and also better than another new entrant, Canada (see Figure 1). Yet, Australia still lags behind the United States and New Zealand.
The Survey report presents more detailed transparency scores for eight key budget documents, which according to the best practices, should be made available on a timely basis to the public at different stages throughout the budget process.[2] Australia performs well in publishing most budget documents, which include:
Executive’s Budget Proposal (score: 87 out of 100);
In-Year Reports: Commonwealth Monthly Financial Statements (score: 70);
Mid-Year Review: Mid-Year Economic and Fiscal Outlook (MYEFO) report (score: 93);
Year-End Report: Budget Outcome Report (score: 64); and
Audit Report by the Australian National Audit Office (score: 81).
However, Australia performs less well for other key documents. In particular, Australia does not publish a Pre-Budget Statement (score: 0, as pre-budget documents are produced only for internal use of the government). Australia also publishes less information than the benchmark in the Enacted Budget (the Appropriation Acts, score: 39) and the Citizens Budget (a simpler and less technical version of the government’s budget documentation, which is available at the Treasury’s Budget website, score: 50).
To put the findings into perspective, we can compare Australia with our trans-Tasman neighbour New Zealand, since both countries share similar political, institutional and historical roots. New Zealand is far ahead of Australia in terms of budget transparency in respect of all budget documents except the Mid-Year Review where both countries scored the same (see Figure 3).
Figure 3: How comprehensive is the information provided in the key budget documents? Comparison between Australia and New Zealand
Source: IBP 2018b, 2018d
Note: Scores of 81-100 indicate provision of extensive budget information, 61-80 indicate substantial budget information, 41-60 indicate limited budget information, 21-40 indicate minimal budget information and 0-20 indicate scant budget information.
Out of the eight budget documents, New Zealand has six providing extensive information (scores 81-100), while the remaining have substantial information (scores 61-80). Whereas Australia only has three providing extensive information and two providing substantial information. This suggests there are significant gaps between the two countries in budget transparency.
Budget oversight
Australia scored 70 out of 100 for institutional oversight of the budget, suggesting there are adequate practices in place to oversee the budget.
Figure 4 compares Australia’s budget oversight score with other OECD countries participating in the Survey. Australia’s score is slightly above the OECD average of 69 and far behind Norway (score: 91), which tops among the OECD countries. Australia lags behind Germany (score: 89), France (score: 85), South Korea (score: 85), the United States (score: 85) and New Zealand (score: 78), but is still ahead of the UK (score: 63). There are six OECD countries that do not have adequate institutional oversight, including Japan and Canada.
Figure 4: Budget oversight – comparison with OECD countries
Source: IBP 2018a; OECD average is based on our own calculation.
Note: Scores of 61-100 indicate adequate oversight, 41-60 indicate limited oversight and 0-40 indicate weak oversight.
In the Asia Pacific region, Australia lags behind Indonesia (score: 85), South Korea (score: 85), New Zealand (score: 78), Mongolia (score: 76) and, surprisingly, Vietnam (score: 72), which has a transparency score of 15. This suggests that adequate oversight practices do not necessarily lead to accountable budgets if transparency is absent. Fiji has the weakest institutional oversight in the region, with a score of 15; while China (score: 28) is only slightly better. Figure 5 provides a comparison of Asia Pacific countries.
Figure 5: Budget oversight – comparison with Asia Pacific countries
Australia’s financial oversight by the Australian National Audit Office (ANAO) is very strong (score: 100). The main reason Australia is trailing behind other is because of its relatively weak legislative budget oversight. The Survey finds that the Parliament provides adequate oversight at the executive and audit stage (score: 67), but limited oversight at the formulation and approval stage for the budget (score: 48).
The main barriers to effective legislative oversight in Australia, according to the country report, are the lack of pre-budget debate by the Parliament, the Executive’s Budget Proposal being only available to members of Parliament less than two months before the start of the budget year, and in-year budget implementation not examined by a parliamentary committee.
Public participation is the weakest link in Australia’s budget accountability system. Australia scored only 41 out of 100, indicating limited opportunities for the public to engage in the budget process. Yet, participation opportunities are much scarcer in most other countries in the world and Australia is in fact one of the top performers on participation. Even among OECD countries, less than half scored more than 20 and Turkey scored nil. Figure 6 provides a comparison of the public participation opportunities available in OECD countries.
Figure 6: Public participation – comparison with OECD countries and global average
Source: IBP 2018a; the OECD average is based on our own calculation.
Note: Scores of 61-100 indicate adequate public participation opportunities, 41-60 indicate limited opportunities and 0-40 indicate few or no opportunities.
Interestingly, three out of the four top performers on participation are in the Asia Pacific region (see Figure 7). South Korea is not far behind Australia with a score of 39. However, half of the countries in the Asia Pacific have participation scores below the global average of 12.
Figure 7: Public participation – comparison with Asia Pacific countries and global average
Source: IBP 2018a; the Asia Pacific average is based on our own calculation.
The Australian participation score is particularly low for the executive branch (score: 30), which reflects the lack of opportunities for the public to participate when the budget is formulated. Opportunities are more, but still limited, for the public to participate in the legislative branch (score: 50). The ANAO, with a score of 67, is the only institution in Australia found to provide adequate opportunities for the public to engage.
[1] The decline is partly due to the change in definition of ‘publicly available’ this round to exclude hard copies document and consider only those available on the internet. This requirement should not be the cause of declines in developed countries. The IBP identifies a decline in globally transparency even if the definition is unchanged, mainly due to deteriorating transparency in Sub-Saharan Africa.
[2] See the OBS 2017 report (IBP 2018a), p.49 for the release deadlines of the documents.
Alt, JE & Lassen, DD 2006, ‘Transparency, political polarization, and political budget cycle in OECD countries’, American Journal of Political Science, vol. 50, no. 3, pp. 530-550;
Alt, JE, Lassen, DD & Wehner, J 2012, Moral hazard in an economic union: politics, economics, and fiscal gimmickry in Europe, available at SSRN, https://ssrn.com/abstract=2102334
Arbatli, E & Escolano, J 2015, ‘Fiscal transparency, fiscal performance and credit ratings’, Fiscal Studies, vol. 36, no. 2, pp. 237-270
Arbatli, E & Mastruzzi, M 2016, How does civil society use budget information?, International Budget Partnership, Washington DC.
de Renzio, P & Masud, H 2011, ‘Measuring and promoting budget transparency: the Open Budget Index as a research and advocacy tool’, Governance, vol. 24, no. 3, pp. 607-616.
Edelman 2017, Edelman trust barometer 2017: Executive summary, http://fipp.s3.amazonaws.com/media/documents/Edelman%20Trust%20Barometer%202017_Executive%20Summary.pdf.
Global Initiative for Fiscal Transparency 2015, Principles of Public Participation in Fiscal Policy, http://fiscaltransparency.net/PP_Approved_in_General_13Dec15.pdf.
Hawke, L & Wanna, J 2010, ‘Australia after budgetary reform: a lapsed pioneer or decorative architect?’, in J Wanna, L Jensen & J d Vries (eds), The reality of budgetary reforms in OECD nations: trajectories and consequences, Edward Elgar, Cheltenham, pp. 65-90.
International Budget Partnership 2015, Open Budget Survey 2015, International Budget Partnership, Washington DC.
International Budget Partnership 2018a, Open Budget Survey 2017, International Budget Partnership, Washington DC.
International Budget Partnership 2018b, Australia Open Budget Survey 2017 Country Summary, International Budget Partnership, Washington DC.
International Budget Partnership 2018c, Australia Open Budget Survey 2017 Questionnaire, International Budget Partnership, Washington DC.
International Budget Partnership 2018d, New Zealand Open Budget Survey 2017 Country Summary, International Budget Partnership, Washington DC.
Khagram, S, Fung, A & de Renzio, P 2013, Open budgets: the political economy of transparency, participation, and accountability, The Brookings Institution, Washington DC.
Marchessault, L 2014, Public participation and the budget cycle: lessons from country examples, Global Initiative for Fiscal Transparency, Washington DC.
Petrie, M & Shields, J 2010, ‘Producing a citizens’ guide to the Budget: why, what and how?’, OECD Journal on Budgeting, vol. 10, no. 2, pp. 1-15.
Reinikka, R & Svensson, J 2004, ‘The power of information: evidence from a newspaper campaign to reduce capture’, World Bank Policy Research Working Paper no. 3239, World Bank, Washington DC.
Seifert, J, Carlitz, R & Mondo, E 2013, ‘The Open Budget Index (OBI) as a comparative statistical tool’, Journal of Comparative Policy Analysis: Research and Practice, vol. 15, no. 1, pp. 87-101.
Stewart, M & Wong, TC 2018, Open Budget Survey 2017 Part 1: How Transparent is the Australian Budget?, Austaxpolicy: Tax and Transfer Policy Blog, 20 March 2018, Available from: http://www.austaxpolicy.com/open-budget-survey-2017-part-1-transparent-australian-budget/
Stewart, M & Wong, TC 2018, Open Budget Survey 2017 Part 2: What Can Australia Do to Improve Our Budget Process?, Austaxpolicy: Tax and Transfer Policy Blog, 2 May 2018, Available from: http://www.austaxpolicy.com/open-budget-survey-2017-part-2-budget-process/
Wilkinson, J 2018, ‘Fiscal transparency and the Parliamentary Budget Office’, Address at the launch of the Open Budget Survey for Australia, Crawford School of Public Policy, Australian National University, Canberra, 20 March, https://www.aph.gov.au/~/media/05%20About%20Parliament/54%20Parliamentary%20Depts/548%20Parliamentary%20Budget%20Office/Presentations/Fiscal%20transparency%20and%20the%20PBO%20PDF.pdf?la=en.
Wong, Teck Chi & Stewart, Miranda, (2018), Budget Transparency: The Open Budget Survey 2017 – Part 1, Austaxpolicy: Tax and Transfer Policy Blog, 19 October 2018, Available from: https://www.austaxpolicy.com/budget-transparency-open-budget-survey-2017-part-1/
Briefs, Fiscal institution, Transparency
Teck Chi Wong
Teck Chi Wong completed his Master of Public Policy at the Crawford School of Public Policy, ANU. He is a research assistant at the Tax and Transfer Policy Institute.
See all articles by Teck Chi Wong
Miranda Stewart
Professor Miranda Stewart is a Fellow at Tax and Transfer Policy Institute, and a Professor at Melbourne Law School, University of Melbourne. Miranda has 25 years of research, practical and leadership experience in taxation law and policy in academia, government and the private sector. She engages in research, policy advice and teaching across a wide range of tax policy and law design projects and sectors. Recent research addresses taxation of corporations; budget institutions; gender equality in the tax and transfer system; and resilience, legitimacy and effectiveness of tax systems and tax reform.
See all articles by Miranda Stewart
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Your Kid’s Germ-Ridden Daycare May Actually Be a Blessing in Disguise, Says New Study
Julie Scagell
Everyone knows kids are little petri dishes of boogers, dirt, and germs. In fact, there have been countless theories about how young you should expose children to germs. I know my working mom friends and I have had healthy (and sometimes heated) arguments about the merits of daycare vs. a nanny for this very reason.
But a new Dutch study puts these philosophies to the test when they tracked the stomach flu in 2,200 children over their first six years of life. The study found that, while rates of the flu were similar in daycare vs. non-daycare kids, the daycare-goers (and their parents) were more likely to contract it during the first two years of life, which could help build up their immune system.
As a mom of three children who have all gone to daycare, I don’t find this surprising at all. One, because I’ve lived through the harrowing bug myself as well as a slew of other nastiness during their first year of daycare, but also because I have watched as my child licked snot off of one of his classmates. It was as charming as it sounds to witness.
In addition to health benefits, this study (and others like it) cite that daycare kids have better long-term academic success (better test scores and likelihood of getting a college degree), are more well behaved in their school years, and have better social skills than their stay-at-home comrades. Obviously, these studies are 100 percent accurate. Did I mention my kids go to daycare?
But I digress. Let’s get back to the health benefits. According to the Medical Center Utrecht epidemiologist, they believe “if you are infected at an early age you build up immunity against these viruses or bacteria.” There is a possible link that shows a “protective effect” that will continue into adulthood from being sick at an earlier age, but more research is needed to prove their theory further.
Obviously, parents must take into consideration other factors including the overall health of their child and the financial viability of in-home vs. daycare for your children, but the reality is kids are going to get sick. All things being equal, it comes down to whether you want your child building up his or her immune system earlier or later in life.
Let’s be honest, no amount of hand-sanitizer in the world will protect my son after licking snot off his pal — no matter how old he was when he did it.
h/t: Science of Us
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U.S. Attorney's Office
S. Amanda Marshall
, United States Attorney
Contact: Gerri Badden
http://www.justice.gov/usao/or
Medford Felon Sentenced to 10 Years Federal Prison for Possessing Firearm
MEDFORD, OREGON— On Monday, October 20, 2014, Senior U.S. District Judge Owen M. Panner sentenced Dennis William Lee, 45, of Medford, Oregon, to 10 years in federal prison for being a felon in possession of a firearm. Sanchez will be on three years of supervised release after he completes his prison term. Lee’s 10-year sentence is the maximum allowed under federal law.
On November 12, 2013, the Medford Area Drug and Gang Enforcement team (MADGE) served a search warrant at defendant’s residence after developing probable cause through surveillance and controlled heroin purchases from Lee. Lee was standing outside when police approached and he grabbed a female standing next to him, shoved her at the police, and turned to flee, only to encounter two MADGE detectives approaching from behind. Lee threw a cup of alcoholic beverage into one detective’s face and then collided into him. Officers wrestled Lee to the ground, where he continued fighting until he was tased and taken into custody.
Officers found a loaded 9mm handgun in Lee’s pocket and $2,616 cash. Detectives searched Lee’s trailer and found digital scales, a half-pound marijuana, $6,975 cash, and assorted drug packaging materials that smelled of heroin, and a small amount of methamphetamine.
Lee recently moved to Medford from Sacramento, California. His criminal history shows 40 arrests, with felony convictions for obstruct/resisting executive officer in 2007 (16 months prison), possession of heroin for sale in 2005 (four years prison), possession of methamphetamine for sale in 1997 (five years prison), sale of rock cocaine in 1990 (three years prison), possession of a controlled substance in 1993 (three years prison), and receiving stolen property in 2010 (16 months prison). In addition, Lee has misdemeanor convictions for assault with a weapon, resisting arrest, possession of burglary tools and reckless driving.
This case was investigated jointly by the Medford Area Drug and Gang Enforcement Team and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms, and was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Douglas W. Fong.
Seattle Field Division
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Home > News & Blog > Trump’s Supreme Court Pick a “Disaster” for Religious Equality
Trump’s Supreme Court Pick a “Disaster” for Religious Equality
July 9, 2018 American Atheists Legal, Statements
Washington, DC—At a press conference tonight, President Donald Trump announced the nomination of Judge Brett Kavanaugh from the District of Columbia Circuit Court of Appeals to the United States Supreme Court to fill the vacancy left by the retirement of Associate Justice Anthony Kennedy. Following the announcement, American Atheists’ legal and policy director Alison Gill released the following statement:
From day one of this administration, the President has bent over backwards to do the bidding of religious ideologues. So it comes as no surprise that the nomination of Judge Kavanaugh continues this pattern of elevating the religious views of an extreme minority above the rights of women, LGBTQ Americans, atheists, and religious minorities.
During his time on the DC Circuit Court of Appeals, Judge Kavanaugh has repeatedly allowed religion to be used as a license to discriminate and ignore the law. In his view, filling out a form to take advantage of an accommodation under the Affordable Care Act was an illegal ‘burden’ on the religious rights of a corporation. The fact that he has the full-throated support of the Christian-supremacist and anti-LGBTQ hate group the Family Research Council says a lot.
We have closely examined Judge Kavanaugh’s record, and it is clear that he will ignore decades of legal precedent and choose instead to protect bigotry, animus, and religious privilege in the name of their distorted conception of ‘religious freedom.’ This agenda is being advanced by extremist groups to stack the courts in their favor for generations.
Justice Kennedy had a mixed record at best on religious equality issues during his time on the bench, but a future Justice Kavanaugh would be an unmitigated disaster. We urge Senators to protect the shared values of the American people and reject the extremism of this nomination. The American people deserve a Supreme Court that vigorously defends the Constitution’s guarantee of equality under the law for all, not religious privilege for some.
AMERICAN ATHEISTS is a national 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization that defends rights of atheists, freethinkers, and other nonbelievers; advocates for the absolute separation of religion and government; and addresses issues of First Amendment public policy. American Atheists was founded in 1963 by Madalyn Murray O’Hair.
Your ticket for the: Trump’s Supreme Court Pick a “Disaster” for Religious Equality
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Rahala Board Game Design
Year: 2006. Client: Explorers Game, Lebanon.
Rahala (Explorers) is a board game aiming to promote the cultural history and heritage of the Middle East and to highlight its diverse makeup through game playing. It use s entertainment to bring knowledge and offers an opportunity to delve into the legacy of the historic Middle East while challenging ones own knowledge and thought.
The entrepreneur behind the game board concept, the first board-game available about Middle Eastern history and societies, commissioned Tarek Atrissi Design studio to design and produce the game. This included the game design, the visual identity, the packaging, graphic design and all information design and 3D components associated with the game.
The project was an exciting opportunity to study in depth the visual culture associated with the different historical eras present in the board game: Ancient Civilizations; Hellenism & Byzantine; Early Islam; Age of Discovery; Mamluks & Ottomans; and the Modern Times.
An independent graphic look and feel was created for each era, based on the art and visual heritage inherited from it. The overall different eras had to connect under one style to keep the game coherent as one identity.
Rahala board game was printed and produced as a high quality product with a lot utmost attention to design details and production methods. It is an example of a project that combines multidisciplinary design skills such as graphic design; gaming design; information design; packaging & product design as well as design production management and coordination.
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CENTRAL SUNBELT
Laurel, MS
CENTRAL SUNBELT is an NCUA-insured credit union started in 1953 and currently headquartered in Laurel, MS. As of December 31, 2017, the credit union had assets of $212.3 million.
With 81 full-time employees, the credit union has amassed loans and leases worth $82.6 million. Its 34,824 members currently have $174.2 million in shares with the credit union.
Overall, Bankrate believes that, as of December 31, 2017, CENTRAL SUNBELT exhibited a superior condition, earning a full 5 stars for safety and soundness. Keep reading for a look at how the credit union faired on the three important criteria Bankrate used to score U.S. credit unions on safety and soundness.
Capital is a key measurement of an institution's financial fortitude. It works as a bulwark against losses and provides protection for members when a credit union is experiencing financial instability. From a safety and soundness perspective, the higher the capital, the better.
On our test to measure the adequacy of a credit union's capital, CENTRAL SUNBELT achieved a score of 22 out of a possible 30 points, exceeding the national average of 15.65.
CENTRAL SUNBELT's capitalization ratio of 22.00 percent in our test was above the average for all credit unions, a sign that it's stronger than its peers.
This test's purpose is to try to understand how the credit union's reserves set aside to cover loan losses, as well as overall capitalization could be affected by problem assets, such as past-due loans.
Having extensive holdings of these types of assets means a credit union may have to use capital to absorb losses, decreasing its equity cushion. Many of those assets are also likely to be in non-accrual status and thus aren't earning interest for the credit union, resulting in depressed earnings and potentially more risk of a future failure.
CENTRAL SUNBELT scored 40 out of a possible 40 points on Bankrate's asset quality test, beating out the national average of 38.09.
A lower-than-average ratio of troubled assets of 0.00 percent in our test was potentially indicative of greater financial strength than other credit unions.
How successful a credit union is at earning money has an effect on its safety and soundness. Earnings can be retained by the credit union, boosting its capital cushion, or be used to deal with problematic loans, likely making the credit union more resilient in tough times. Obviously, credit unions that are losing money have less ability to do those things.
CENTRAL SUNBELT scored 18 out of a possible 30 on Bankrate's earnings test, beating the national average of 10.11.
One sign that CENTRAL SUNBELT is running ahead of its peers in this area was its earnings ratio of 0.00 percent in our test, better than the average for all credit unions.
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The products (hereinafter the “Products”) sold on [www.barrett.it] (hereinafter the “Website”) are sold and invoiced by FiloBlu S.p.a, with registered office in Via Caltana, 116/C – 30030 Santa Maria di Sala (VE), a company registered with the Venezia Rovigo Delta Lagunare Chamber of Commerce (Camera di Commercio, Industria, Artigianato e Agricoltura, C.C.I.A.A.) under Economic and Administrative Index No. 354686 in the Company Register, Italian Fiscal Code and VAT no. 04274870288.
Applicable from [27/09/2016]
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(ii) Credit card
If a credit card is used for payment of the goods, the transaction may go through the Paypal secure server or another secure server chosen by FiloBlu.
FiloBlu will not learn the Customer's credit card information in any case or in any payment phase, as this information is transmitted via a protected connection directly to the website of the bank managing the transaction. Said data is not stored in any computer archive of FiloBlu and FiloBlu therefore cannot be held liable for any fraudulent or improper use of credit cards by third parties at the moment of payment.
(iv) Bank credit transfer
If a bank credit transfer is used for purchase, the bank details for payment will be displayed. Any credit transfer charges and/or foreign currency commission applied by the bank will be paid entirely by the Customer. The goods will only be shipped when the payment is received at the bank.
4. Product delivery and delivery costs
4.1 The products purchased will be delivered to the address indicated by the Customer in the Order within 2 (due) working days of receipt of the Order Confirmation, if the destination is in Italy, oro entro 2 (due) giorni lavorativi dalla ricezione della Conferma d’Ordine, se la destinazione è in territorio UE, ovvero entro 3 (tre) giorni lavorativi dalla ricezione della Conferma d’Ordine per tutte le altre destinazioni, al costo indicato specificamente nel Sito prima dell’invio dell’Ordine. FiloBlu si riserva la facoltà di accettare o meno consegne richieste fuori dai confini italiani o europei. In ogni caso, per consegne da eseguirsi fuori dai confini italiani, le spese di spedizione ed i tempi di consegna potrebbero subire variazioni. I nostri vettori effettuano consegne dal lunedì al venerdì, con esclusione dei giorni festivi.
4.2 For deliveries in non-EU countries, the total price indicated in the Order and summarised in the Order confirmation will include only direct taxes (if applicable) and any shipping costs, so any customs charges and/or import duty will be paid by the Customer. The amount of duties and/or other taxes varies from country to country, depending on the Products and/or their value. The Customer will be solely liable for payment of duties and/or taxes and hereby agrees to pay them, if due, in addition to the price indicated in the Order and confirmed in the Order Confirmation, according to the laws of the country to which the Products will be delivered. The Customer is therefore asked to contact the customs authorities of his/her own country beforehand to check the costs and any importation limits. The Customer acknowledges and accepts that not knowing the costs, charges, duties, levies and/or taxes indicated in this Article 4.2, when the Order is sent to FiloBlu, is not a cause of termination of this contract and FiloBlu may not be charged said costs under any circumstances.
4.3 The delivery times indicated by Filoblu are purely indicative and not binding for FiloBlu, so any delay in them, or a delivery made in successive and split shipments, does not justify the Customer refusing the delivery or demanding compensation or indemnity. FiloBlu therefore may not be held liable for any losses or damages suffered by the Customer as a result of delays in delivery of the Products, unless said delay is the result of wilful misconduct or gross negligence of FiloBlu. For orders made by credit card, an extra working day must be added to the normal shipping times for the normal administrative checks. For orders made by bank credit transfer, the shipping times will be calculated starting from the confirmation of payment.
4.4 The risk of loss or accidental deterioration of the Products will be transferred to Customer when he/she or a person representing him/her and who is not the carrier takes material possession of the Products. However, the risk will be transferred to the Customer when the Products are delivered to the carrier if said carrier has been chosen by the Customer, without prejudice to the Customer's rights with said carrier. For purposes of transfer or risk, refused or late acceptance of the Products by the Customer...
4.5 When the Products are delivered, the Customer must check:
● that the number of packages delivered corresponds with what is indicated on the delivery note;
● that the packaging is complete, undamaged, not damp or altered in any way, including the sealing materials (adhesive tape or metal straps).
Any damage to the packaging and/or product or non-correspondence of the number of packages or the indications must be reported immediately, by indicating this specifically on the delivery note, which must be returned to the carrier.
Any problems relating to the physical integrity, correspondence or completeness of the products received must be notified within 7 (seven) days of delivery, by sending an e-mail to [customercare@barrett.it]. The legal warranty of conformity in favour of the Customer referred to in article 6 below and the right of withdrawal referred to in article 5 below continue to apply in all cases, if the requirements for their application are satisfied.
5. Right of withdrawal - Information
5.1 Pursuant to art. 52 of Leg. Decree 206/2005, as amended by Leg. Decree 21/2014, the Customer may withdraw from the Terms and Conditions and therefore from the purchase contract for any reason, within indicating the reasons and without any penalty, within 14 (fourteen) days of (i) delivery of the Product, or (ii) in the case of purchase of several Products in a single order but delivered separately, from when the last of said Products is delivered.
5.2 In order to exercise the right of withdrawal referred to in article 5.1 above, the Customer must notify FiloBlu of withdrawal, within the times indicated, at the following e-mail address [customercare@barrett.it], ovvero utilizzare l’apposito modulo presente sul Sito www.barrett.it/awrma/guest_rma/index/
5.3 In the case of withdrawal, the Customer must, at his/her own expense, return the products to Barrett within 14 (fourteen ) days of said withdrawal, to the following address: Via Gesù 9 20121 Milano Italy. Il suddetto termine sarà rispettato se il Cliente eseguirà la rispedizione prima della scadenza del periodo di 14 (quattordici) giorni, indipendentemente dalla data in cui successivamente i Prodotti saranno effettivamente riconsegnati a FiloBlu. La merce dovrà essere restituita integra, completa di tutte le sue parti e negli imballi originali (buste e confezioni), custodita ed eventualmente adoperata per il tempo strettamente necessario per stabilirne e verificarne natura, caratteristiche e taglia, secondo la normale diligenza, senza che vi siano segni di usura o sporcizia, nel rispetto delle condizioni di seguito riportate:
● the right of withdrawal may be applied to the Product purchased in its entirety; it is not possible to exercise the right of withdrawal solely for a part of the Product purchased (e.g.: accessories, additions, etc...);
● for withdrawal to be possible, the Product must be unopened and returned in its original packaging, complete in all parts (including packaging, any documentation and accessory items, such as labels, cards, tags, seals, etc.);
● the shipping costs (and any customs duties, if present) to return the Product will be paid solely and exclusively by the Customer.
● the Customer is solely and exclusively liable for shipment of the returned Products, up until certified receipt at the warehouse indicated by Filoblu;
● in the case of damage to the goods during transport, FiloBlu will notify the Customer, to allow him/her to submit a claim against the courier chosen and obtain the relative refund; the Product will then be placed at the disposal of the Customer and the withdrawal request simultaneously cancelled;
● FiloBlu may not be held liable, under any circumstances, for damage, theft or loss occurring during or dependent upon shipment for return.
5.4 If the right of withdrawal is exercised correctly and legitimately, FiloBlu will refund the entire amount already paid to the Customer, including delivery costs of paid by the Customer to receive the Products, minus any additional shipping costs pursuant to art. 56, paragraph 2, of Leg. Decree 21/2014 (e.g.: if the Customer has chosen a delivery type other than the most inexpensive available on the Website), no later than 14 (fourteen) days from receipt, by FiloBlu of the Customer's notification of withdrawal, through refund of the amount charged, using the same payment method used by the Customer for the initial transaction, unless otherwise agreed. The Customer will not incur any cost for said refund under any circumstances. FiloBlu may suspend the refund until the returned Product has been received or until the Customer has demonstrated that the Product has been correctly resent, if this occurs first.
5.5 The Customer is liable for any loss in value of the Products resulting from handling other than what is strictly necessary to establish the nature, characteristics and functioning of said Products. Consequently, if the returned Products are damaged (e.g. signs of wear and tear, scrapes, scratches, dents, etc.), not complete in all parts and accessories (including the labels and tags attached to the Product, which must be unaltered and still attached), not accompanied by the instructions/notes/manuals attached, by the original packets and packaging and by the warranty certificate, if present, the Customer will be liable for said lower value of the Product and will only be entitled to a refund of the amount corresponding with the residual value of the Product. For this purpose, the Customer is asked not to handle the Products beyond what is strictly necessary to establish their nature, characteristics and functioning and to cover the original wrapping of the Products with protective packaging which ensures it is not damaged and is protected during transport, including against writing or labels. FiloBlu reserves the right to check the conditions in which the Products are returned after the right of withdrawal is exercised and to inform the Customer via e-mail of any loss in value of the Products resulting from handling other than what is strictly necessary to establish their nature, characteristics and functioning, and to make the refund referred to in Article 5.4 above taking said lower value into account.
6. Legal warrant on conformity
6.1 All the Products sold by FiloBlu via the Website are covered by a 24 (twenty-four) month warranty on non-conformities, from the date of delivery to the Customer, pursuant to Title III of Leg. Decree 206/2005. In order to apply for assistance under warranty, the Customer must keep the invoice, or payment receipt, together with the delivery note.
6.2 The warranty on defects in conformity will only apply if the Product has been used correctly, according to its intended use and the use and washing instructions present in and/or accompanying the Product.
6.3 This warranty will only be valid of the Customer submits any claims on defects and non-conformities within 2 (two) months of discovery, sending the specific form by e-mail [customercare@barrett.it] to FiloBlu [www.barrett.it/awrma/guest_rma/index/] or through the contact form [www.barrett.it/contact], correctly filled out and indicating the defect and/or non-conformity discovered, and also the documentation indicated on said return form (at least 1 (one) photograph of the Product, a copy of the Order Confirmation transmitted by FiloBlu and/or the sales receipt).
6.4 FiloBlu will assess the defects and non-conformities claimed by the Customer. After performing the necessary controls to check effective non-conformity of the Product, FiloBlu will reach a decision on whether or not to authorise return of the Products. The Customer will receive a reply from FiloBlu via e-mail, at the address indicated during registration on the Website or on transmitting the Order, containing the “Return code” and the instructions on how to return the defective and/or non-conforming Product. Authorisation to return Products will not constitute any acknowledgement of defects or non-conformities, the existence of which will be ascertained after the Products are returned. The Products for which FiloBlu has authorised return must be delivered by the Customer at his/her own expense, together with a copy of the authorisation for return containing the “Return code”, within 30 (thirty) days of notification of the non-conformity, to the following address: via Gesù 9 20121 Milan Italy.
6.5 If non-conformity of the Product is confirmed, FiloBlu will refund the Customer for the shipping costs paid to return the non-conforming Product and, at no cost to the Customer, will repair the Product or replace it with a new Product, at its own discretion; in this latter case, the non-conforming and returned Product will remain the property of FiloBlu. If, for any reason, FiloBlu is unable to provide the Customer with a product under warranty (repaired or replaced), or repair or replacement of the product would be excessively expensive, due to the value of the product, FiloBlu may reduce the price paid or return the entire amount paid with termination of the contract. The refund will be paid, where possible, using the same payment method used by the Customer on purchasing the Product.
7. Complaints and requests for information
7.1 Any claim or request for information may be sent to FiloBlu at [customercare@barrett.it – telephone +39 041 8380002]. The cost of the telephone call varies according to the user's telephone provider.
8.1 The personal data collected when the Order is sent will only be processed by FiloBlu to satisfy the Customer's requests, in accordance with Leg. Decree EU 2016/679 and the privacy information present on the Website. Any further processing will only be performed with the Customer's express consent.
8.2 The Customer represents and warrants that the data provided to FiloBlu on sending the Order is correct and true.
8.3 For further information on the Customer personal data processing methods, please refer to said privacy information and to the Privacy and Cookie Policy section of the Website [www.barrett.it/pricavy-policy.html].
9.1 FiloBlu may not be held liable for total or partial non-fulfilment of its obligations under this contract if said non-fulfilment is caused by unpredictable events and/or natural events beyond its reasonable control, including, but not limited to, natural catastrophes, acts of terrorism, wars, popular revolts, electricity blackouts, general strikes of public and/or private sector workers, strikes and traffic restriction for couriers and aircraft.
10.1 These Terms and Conditions have been prepared in italiano, inglese and French. In the case of divergence between the versions in different languages or doubts over interpretation, the text in Italian will prevail.
11.1 The contract of sale to which these Terms and Conditions refer and its fulfilment are governed by Italian law and the rules on conflict and the United Nations Convention on International Sales of Goods are not applied. If the Customer, intended exclusively as a "consumer" according to the Consumer Code, does not intend to bring or accept an action for extra-judicial settlement of the dispute, the court with jurisdiction, on choice of the Consumer, will be either the court in the Customer's town of residence or Padua Court.
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Look What We Found: A photograph of Franklin Roosevelt’s ‘Black Cabinet’
By Phyllis Graber Jensen —
A framed black-and-white photograph hangs in the Pettengill Hall office of Associate Professor of African American Studies Sue Houchins, a reminder of family and the power of education.
Taken 80 years ago this month, on March 15, 1938, it depicts 20 African American leaders who comprised President Franklin Roosevelt’s so-called Black Cabinet: some of the country’s finest minds and specialists in a variety of fields, including Houchins’ father, economist Joseph Roosevelt Houchins.
He’s in the second row at far right in the photo, taken by photographer Addison Scurlock, famous for documenting black Washingtonians. All 20 people in the photo are men, except the legendary educator and activist Mary McLeod Bethune, known as “the First Lady of the Struggle.”
Associate Professor of African American Studies Sue Houchins. (Phyllis Graber Jensen/Bates College)
Growing up, Sue Houchins knew of the photo because her father kept it rolled tightly in his top dresser drawer. “Every now and then we would unroll it, although it stayed rolled up for too long.”
A Cornell University–trained attorney and labor economist, Joseph Houchins led Roosevelt’s Division of Negro Affairs in the U.S. Department of Commerce until 1953. He later joined the president’s Committee on Government Contracts, where he used his skills as a lawyer and economist to address discrimination by federal contractors, including the denial of jobs to blacks at shipyards in Mississippi and Alabama.
“He was a troublemaker, and he knew what people needed,” says his proud daughter. It’s what she learned from him, she says.
In 1950, Houchins prepared an influential analysis of the African American population based on the U.S. Census, work that was featured in Ebony magazine, providing census data to a popular audience.
In 1961, he joined the economics department at Howard University, where he served as chair and mentored younger scholars. Sue Houchins occasionally meets one of those now-elderly scholars, and they sing his praises as “the father of black economics” or as the source of important economic data that strengthened the NAACP’s landmark Brown v. Board of Education case in 1954.
To raise awareness of her father’s contributions to American society and to academe, Sue Houchins and Howard economist Rodney Green recently co-authored a scholarly essay that chronicles his career, including publication of two Commerce reports he authored in the 1930s.
One analyzed the high failure rate of black-owned insurance companies, and the second reported on a national survey Houchins conducted to create a complete listing of black chambers of commerce that could be used for intra-racial communication and support.
Joseph Roosevelt Houchins at Cornell University, circa 1930.
Sue Houchins also remembers the kind of father he was — one who instilled a love of learning. “On Saturdays, he would take me to a second-hand book store, put some money in my hands, and send me to where I wanted to go. He would go where he wanted to go, and then we’d have an ice cream sundae afterward.”
Born in the South in 1900, Joseph Houchins grew up in the Ithaca, N.Y., home of an uncle who was a janitor. He earned four Cornell degrees: two bachelor’s, plus a master’s and a doctorate of the science of law.
Sue Houchins says that her firebrand mother, Frankie V. Lea Houchins, a physicist and photographer, engineered her father’s Commerce job by applying for it in his name without his knowledge. They hadn’t yet wed, and he was teaching at a small historically black college in Texas at the time.
According to family lore, Frankie seemed much more interested in marrying him if she could arrange a move up North. And she succeeded.
Categories Academic Life BatesNews BatesNews Diversity Humanities and history
Tags African American history Black Cabinet Economics New Deal
Look What We Found: Wes Chaney’s historical contracts
Bates in the News: June 28, 2019
$10,000 grant to help Gwendolyn Whidden ’19 create debate program in Rwanda
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Bayer supports the United Nations’ Universal Declaration of Human Rights and a number of globally recognized declarations for multinational enterprises1.
As founding member of the United Nations Global Compact, Bayer already committed itself in the year 2000 to its ten principles2 derived from the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
In addition to these guidelines we support the United Nations Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights - also known as the “Ruggie Framework” - which provides global standards for preventing and addressing the risk of adverse impacts on human rights linked to business activity.
Human Rights in Our Own Operation
1. Working Conditions
With our compensation and benefits we aim to provide an adequate standard of living for our employees and their families.
We foster a work environment where each of us can perform best, innovate and develop. We encourage our employees to fully utilize their potential by offering ample development opportunities and supporting a feedback culture throughout the enterprise.
We respect the right to rest and leisure, including vacation with pay, and the right to family life, including parental leave and comparable provisions as applicable.
Our employees’ lifestyles reflect the diversity of our people. Flexible work-time arrangements empower employees to use opportunities to balance their employment with their personal or family lives by helping them to better plan their leisure time, enabling working parents to make equal use of career opportunities in the company and helping the growing number of employees who take care of close relatives.
2. Diversity and Inclusion
Equal treatment of all employees is a fundamental principle of our corporate policy.
No person is to be unfairly disadvantaged, favored or ostracized because of irrelevant characteristics such as race, national origin, gender, age, physical characteristics, social origin, disability, union membership, religion, family status, pregnancy, sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression or any unlawful criterion under applicable law.
Harassment of any kind is forbidden.
We expect our employees to be respectful, professional, and fair in their dealings with colleagues and third parties, including customers, suppliers and officials.
Under comparable prerequisites, we provide equal pay for equal work.
3. Freedom of Association and Collective Bargaining
We are committed to an open and constructive dialogue with our employees and their representatives.
Our employees are free to join organizations of their choice that represent them. These organizations may engage in collective bargaining according to the applicable legal regulations.
At all Bayer sites worldwide, employees have the right to elect their own representatives. Employees who act as representatives are neither disadvantaged nor favored in any way.
4. Health and Safety
We ensure uniformly high health protection, safety, environmental protection and quality (HSEQ) standards at our sites.
HSEQ regulations are consistently applied worldwide to minimize the occurrence of accidents and incidents.
Experts on occupational safety support line management in preventing illnesses and accidents by implementing appropriate measures.
Our sites offer employees an ample range of health care services, including measures that go beyond health at work.
As a high profile company with a broad-based portfolio and business activities in almost all countries across the globe, we ensure and uphold the Corporate Security Mission: “Protecting our people and our business, minimizing economic losses & disruption and safeguarding the Group’s integrity and reputation.”
Additionally, we offer concrete support for our employees in terms of providing behavior training, training to prevent violence at work, sensitization & awareness training for business trips and crisis management in case of an emergency.
Freedom of fear means a free and fearless working environment in a globalized world. We follow the fundamental right derived from the principle of human security.
6. Forced Labor
All forms of forced and compulsory labor are strictly prohibited.
We comply with all applicable laws and agreements on working time and paid leave.
7. Child Labor
We follow a clear ‘zero tolerance to child labor’ policy in our business operations worldwide.
Our efforts to fight child labor are consistent with the ILO’s (International Labor Organization) core labor standards and the United Nations Global Compact principles.
By acting responsibly in our collaboration with business partners – suppliers and customers – we aim to minimize risks and create stable, long-term business relationships.
1. Suppliers
Bayer expects all its suppliers and subcontractors to share our commitment to high ethical standards and to operate in a responsible and ethical manner towards their employees and their own suppliers. Moreover, we expect our suppliers to replicate these standards further down the supply chain.
Our principles are expressed in our Supplier Code of Conduct. The Code forms the general basis for our collaboration and comprises an important component of supplier selection and evaluation. It is made available to our suppliers with the goal of strengthening our mutual understanding of how sustainability should be practiced in day-to-day business. It is legally binding and integrated into electronic ordering systems and contracts throughout the Group.
The human rights topics that are specified in the Code of Conduct comprise material aspects in the areas Ethics, Labor and Health, Safety, Environment & Quality.
We are committed to ensuring that the products delivered to us are responsibly manufactured by suppliers. Supplier assessments and audits are used to check whether the demands whithin the Code of Conduct are actually being implemented and complied with among our supply base.
2. Customers
As a world-class innovation company we focus on the needs of our customers. Our products and services are designed to benefit people and improve their quality of life – in line with our mission “Bayer: Science For A Better Life.”
Our commitment to the principle of sustainability comprises our goal to protect the health and safety of everyone who comes into contact with our products.
We assess the possible health and environmental risks of a product throughout its entire lifecycle. This starts with research and development and continues through production, marketing and use by the customer through to disposal.
We do not tolerate legal violations in the marketing of our products. Responsible marketing means acting ethically and morally and adhering to sustainability principles.
HealthCare continuously assesses the medical benefit-risk profile of its pharmaceuticals and medical devices throughout their entire life cycle.
Safety of patients included in clinical trials conducted by us or contracted Clinical Research Organizations (CROs) is our highest concern. Research in humans is conducted according to strict scientific and ethical principles and to uniform global standards. These standards are followed in accordance with regulatory requirements and local as well as international laws and regulations and have been incorporated in respective Bayer policies. We base the implementation of all clinical studies on the Good Clinical Practices of the World Health Organization (WHO), the guidelines of the International Conference on Harmonization (ICH) and on the Declaration of Helsinki.
We concentrate on the research and development of innovative drugs, novel therapeutic approaches and medical products. Furthermore, we are constantly improving established products and at the same time are committed to improving access to medical care around the world. With our strategic commitment in numerous collaborations and partnerships, we are facing up to the challenges, so that also needy people worldwide have access to the products and therapies we develop.
The application of crop protection products requires the greatest possible care. Supporting our customers and partners in the proper and safe handling of the products is therefore a focus of product stewardship at CropScience.
We observe the International Code of Conduct on the Distribution and Use of Pesticides of the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). The principles of this code cover the entire life cycle of a product, from its development to its application and beyond. We will ensure that appropriate programs are implemented in order to train, instruct and, as necessary, update our own staff and customers in all aspects of the responsible management of our products in line with the principles of our Product Stewardship Policy.
We base our stewardship activities and decisions on ethical behavior that seeks to balance economic prosperity, environmental protection, public health and social need.
3. Acquisitions
In the case of acquisitions we examine prior to the transaction, to the extent possible, whether the applicable environmental and occupational safety regulations and fundamental employee rights referred to in this policy are complied with in the company in question.
We monitor and address the impact our business has on our plant neighbors, local communities and global society.
Security guards of sites – whether our own employees or third-party providers – are trained locally, especially to abide with the local laws and environment. Generally speaking, security guards must only behave in a preventative manner and attempt to solve security related issues with non-violent means. For situations where defensive force is necessary, the security guards are adequately trained as to what levels of force are to be used for the different security situations. The roles and responsibilities of the security guards are clearly defined by the Bayer country organizations for which they provide their services.
We aim to use natural resources responsibly, in so doing promoting biodiversity and thus recognizing the diversity of species, the diversity of ecosystems and genetic diversity. We are explicitly committed to the United Nations’ Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) and its objectives, including the conservation of biological diversity, the sustainable use of its components and the fair and equitable sharing of the benefits arising out of the utilization of newly discovered genetic resources and traditional knowledge.
We respect the rights of indigenous people and reflect on the human rights impact our operations have on these people.
Within the scope of our social commitment, we also make contributions in the areas of science and education, health, social needs and community projects.
Grievance Mechanisms
The Compliance function at the Group and country levels monitor compliance with the relevant laws and regulations, including the Bayer Human Rights Policy. We maintain and improve operational-level grievance mechanisms.
Bayer provides different communication channels to report possible compliance violations.
Employees may contact any of the following: manager/supervisor, department head, Law, Patents and Compliance Department, Compliance Officer, Corporate Auditing or Human Resources (for employment only matters).
Additionally, we have established a worldwide system available to employees and the general public through which possible compliance violations can be reported – anonymously if desired.
We are committed to enabling the remediation of any adverse human rights impacts caused by our business activities.
We expect all our employees to strictly adhere to the principles contained in this policy. If employees are uncertain or have questions about the practical application of the principles in question they should contact their supervisor or the responsible Compliance Officer.
Our managerial staff holds a particular responsibility for ensuring compliance with the principles of this policy in everyday operations. We therefore expressly urge all managerial staff to meet their commitment to maintain resolute and exemplary behavior in this area and to work with their employees to uphold the ethical principles of the Bayer Group in their field of responsibility.
The Corporate functions Environment & Sustainability and Human Resources & Organization have a steering and supporting role – particularly with regard to governance, and processes.
We Have Clearly Defined Human Rights Standards
The Bayer mission statement “Science For A Better Life”, our LIFE values and our Corporate Compliance Policy – combined with the United Nations Global Compact – clearly define human rights standards. These standards require all employees around the world to act with fair and lawful conduct toward other employees, colleagues, business partners and local communities. We are committed to upholding and supporting human rights and to transparently reporting about them. In particular we
have policies, processes and monitoring systems in place to implement human rights in our own operations
expect our business partners – suppliers and customers – to share our commitment to respect human rights, and to conduct their business in an ethical manner and act with integrity
support human rights in local communities.
The Bayer commitment to promoting human rights applies to all Bayer locations and business operations worldwide. As a global company, we regard this as representing a social and ethical commitment as well as a key requirement for sustainably developing our business.
Human rights standards guide our decision-making and constructive engagement both internally and in our sphere of influence, while the responsibility of national governments for the protection of human rights is respected at the same time.
• Global chemical industry’s Responsible Care Global Charter
• Tripartite Declaration of Principles concerning Multinational Enterprises and Social Policy of the International Labor Organization (ILO),
• Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD)
• United Nations’ Universal Declaration of Human Rights
• International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights
• International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights
• International Labor Organization’s (ILO) eight core labor standards
https://www.unglobalcompact.org/aboutthegc/thetenprinciples/
Chapter on „Human Rights“ in the Integrated Bayer Annual Report 2018
Bayer Human Rights Policy (PDF, 396 KB)
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Home » John le Carre: The Biography (Hardcover)
John le Carre: The Biography (Hardcover)
By Adam Sisman
Out of Stock; Usually Arrives in 2-5 Days
The definitive biography of the internationally adored author of The Spy Who Came in from the Cold, Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, and A Perfect Spy—arguably one of the most important and influential writers of the post-World War II period—by the National Book Critics Circle Award-winning biographer Adam Sisman.
In this definitive biography—blessed by John le Carré himself—Adam Sisman reveals the man behind the bestselling persona. In John le Carré, Sisman shines a spotlight on David Cornwell, an expert at hiding in plain sight—“born to lying,” he wrote in 2002, “bred to it, trained to it by an industry that lies for a living, practiced in it as a novelist.”
Of course, the pseudonym “John le Carré” has helped to keep the public at a distance. Sisman probes Cornwell’s unusual upbringing, abandoned by his mother at the age of only five and raised by his con man father (when not in prison), and explores his background in British intelligence, as well as his struggle to become a writer, and his personal life. Sisman has benefited from unfettered access to le Carré’s private archive, talked to the most important people in his life, and interviewed the man himself at length.
Who is John le Carré? Intriguing, thorough, and packed with entertaining detail, this biography will be a treat for the legions of le Carré fans.
“What could have been a cloying hagiography or a lurid warts-and-all exposé is instead a balanced, focused and compelling study of a man of depth and individuality… This biography expertly shows how distance, distrust and even disillusionment have informed Mr le Carré and influenced his bestselling fiction.”
“In John le Carré: The Biography, Mr. Sisman creates an insightful and highly readable portrait of a writer and a man who has often been as elusive and enigmatic as his fictional heroes.”
— Michiko Kakutani, New York Times
“Loose threads are what fascinate most about Adam Sisman’s biography of David Cornwell, who at 84 still writes and publishes knotty, brainy thrillers under the pseudonym John le Carré…Best of all, Sisman provides aficionados of le Carré‘s fiction with canny assessments of, and inside information on all his written work.”
“The major themes of Adam Sisman’s meticulously researched John le Carré: The Biography are twofold: the desperate search for love and artful self-invention through spying and writing fiction . . . . [the book] is unfailingly engrossing.”
— San Francisco Chronicle
“John le Carré: The Biography is a candid and enthralling account of heartache, betrayal and adventure, and how hard facts helped create great fiction.”
— Minneapolis Star Tribune
“Admiring without being toadying, detailed without being overstuffed, highly readable and, above all, knowledgeable about the work. . . . Sisman is the kind of thorough, serious writer who inspires trust...and what we take away is a new appreciation of le Carré‘s full range.”
— Joseph Kanon for The New York Times Book Review
“It is a disappointment to reach the end of John le Carré which is admirably scholarly.”
— Wall Street Journal
“Sisman has written an admirable biography. It’s at its best when recounting...David’s struggles to escape from his father’s malign influence and find purpose in life, which he did when the worldwide success of his third novel...liberated him to write full time.”
— The Financial Times
“John le Carré shows us that the novelist’s real life is just as fascinating as those le Carré depicts in his novels…There’s a con-artist, larger-than-life father; a destructive, blockbuster affair with a good friend’s wife; dust-ups with publishers; and tetchy relationships with various movie stars.”
— The Oregonian (Portland)
“A fascinating [and] superb biography, bristling with fresh insights.”
— BBC.com
“A talented biographer brings the great spy novelist in from the cold.”
— Washington Independent Review of Books
“The definitive [authorized!] biography of the internationally adored author of “Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy”-arguably one of the most important and influential writers of the post-World War II period-by the National Book Critics Circle Award-winning biographer Adam Sisman.”
— My Edmonds News (Seattle, WA)
Publication Date: November 3rd, 2015
Kobo eBook (November 2nd, 2015): $9.99
Paperback (November 2016): $18.99
MP3 CD (November 2016): $14.99
Compact Disc (November 2016): $19.99
Pre-Recorded Audio Player (March 2016): $99.99
MP3 CD (November 3rd, 2015): $19.99
Compact Disc (November 3rd, 2015): $69.97
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BigSpeak Voice
Informing and inspiring you with the latest news and views from the world’s top business speakers, CEOs, motivational speakers, celebrities, and leadership experts.
Shark Tank’s Kevin O’Leary Joins BigSpeak Exclusively
After years of dominating the speaking industry together, respected investor and entrepreneur Kevin O’Leary has entered into an exclusive partnership with BigSpeak Speakers Bureau.
Kevin O’Leary is most notable for his commanding presence as “Mr. Wonderful” on ABC’s Shark Tank, as well as its Canadian counterpart Dragons Den. As an angel investor and entrepreneur, he has toppled giants and dominated industries and now he’s here to bring his knowledge to you.
O’Leary’s impressive reputation is built upon his entrepreneurial vision, investment smarts, and cut-throat ruthlessness. His expert opinion and guidance are seen through his hosting of BNN’s O’Leary Live and formerly host position of CBC News World’s business show, Lang & O’Leary Exchange, and BNN’s SqueezePlay.
In 1986, O’Leary co-founded SoftKey Software Products, and by the late 1990s, SoftKey had acquired numerous competitor companies including Compton’s New Media, The Learning Company, Mindscape, and Broderbund. The company’s growth was unparalleled.
After 10 years, O’Leary grew his startup into an industry leader, selling Softkey to Mattel Toy Company for $3.7 billion. To this day, this is one of the largest deals ever done in the consumer software industry. His first big business venture put him on the map and gave weight to his name as a powerful entrepreneur.
Extreme Eco-preneur and Entrepreneur
O’Leary became co-investor and a director in Storage Now, and in 2007, he joined the advisory board of Genstar Capital LLC. As a devoted “Eco-preneur,” O’Leary’s focuses on investments that make money, while helping protect our environment. He is the founding investor and director of Stream Global and he is currently working as the co-host for the Discovery Channel’s, Discovery Project Earth, a new program that explores innovative ways humans can reverse global warming.
As an investor and advisor, O’Leary has grown over 22 companies from startups to successful and prosperous businesses. His eye for opportunity and his straight talk can take any brand to the next level. He founded O’Leary Ventures, O’Leary Mortgages, O’Shares ETF, O’Leary Books, and O’Leary Fine Wines. He truly does it all.
His book series Cold Hard Truth and keynote speaking captures the no-nonsense philosophy he uses in business and teaches audiences how to spot a good idea and what to do with it.
O’Leary’s speaking topics include…
Cold Hard Truth
Lessons From a Dragon
An Evening with Kevin O’Leary
The content writers at BigSpeak Speakers Bureau are Experts on the Experts. They hold doctoral, masters, and bachelors’ degrees in business, writing, literature, and education. Their business thought pieces are published regularly in leading business publications. Working in close association with the top business, entrepreneur, and motivational speakers, BigSpeak content writers are at the forefront of industry trends and research.
Kevin O’Leary
Entrepreneur Speakers
Financial Speakers
Megan Rapinoe’s Cultural Impact
The True Story of How One Man Used Stories to Become the Number One Salesperson
What You Need to Know About Setting Meeting Agendas
Toastmasters’ to Award Jia Jiang the 2019 Golden Gavel
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H.R. 7222 - Megan Rondini Sexual Assault Victims Protection Act of 2018
Sponsor: Ted Poe (R)
Bill Status: Referred to the Committee on Energy and Commerce, and in addition to the Committees on Ways and Means, and the Judiciary, for a period to be subsequently determined by the Speaker, in each case for consideration of such provisions as fall within the jurisdiction of the committee concerned.
To require the Secretary of Health and Human Services to establish the Megan Rondini national sexual assault care and treatment task force; and for other purposes.
Mr. Poe of Texas (for himself, Mrs. Black, and Mr. Griffith) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Energy and Commerce, and in addition to the Committees on Ways and Means, and the Judiciary, for a period to be subsequently determined by the Speaker, in each case for consideration of such provisions as fall within the jurisdiction of the committee concerned
This Act may be cited as the “Megan Rondini Sexual Assault Victims Protection Act of 2018”.
SEC. 2. Megan Rondini national sexual assault care and treatment task force.
(a) Establishment.—The Secretary of Health and Human Services shall establish a task force to be known as the “Megan Rondini National Sexual Assault Care and Treatment Task Force” (referred to in this section as the “Task Force”) to identify barriers to improving access to sexual assault forensic examiners, sexual assault nurse examiners, and other forensic medical examiners.
(b) Membership.—The Task Force shall include a representative from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Health Resources and Services Administration, the Indian Health Service, the Office for Victims of Crime of the Department of Justice, the Office on Women’s Health of the Department of Health and Human Services, and the Office on Violence Against Women of the Department of Justice, a survivor of sexual assault; representatives from regional and national organizations with expertise in forensic nursing, rape trauma or crisis counseling, investigating rape and gender violence cases, survivors’ advocacy and support, sexual assault prevention education, rural health, and responding to sexual violence in Native communities; representatives from hospitals, patient groups, and emergency department physicians; and representatives of States, including States that have in effect State laws or procedures that address the objectives described in subsection (c).
(c) Objectives.—To assist and standardize State-level efforts to improve medical forensic evidence collection relating to sexual assault, the Task Force shall—
(1) identify barriers to the recruitment, training, and retention of sexual assault forensic examiners, sexual assault response teams, sexual assault nurse examiners, and others who perform such examinations;
(2) make recommendations for improving access to medical forensic examinations, including the feasibility of, or barriers to, utilizing mobile units and telehealth services;
(3) make recommendations for improving coordination of services, other protocols regarding the care and treatment of sexual assault survivors, and the preservation of evidence between law enforcement officials and health care providers;
(4) make recommendations for updating national minimum standards for forensic medical examiner training and forensic medical evidence collection relating to sexual assault;
(5) make recommendations for the development of resources and best practices described in subsection (e) for inclusion on the public website of the Department of Health and Human Services;
(6) make recommendations on the collection and retention of sexual assault kits, including anonymous or unreported sexual assault kits; and
(7) make recommendations on processes and best practices for communicating to sexual assault survivors who seek care in the emergency room information about the availability of forensic medical evidence collection as part of the care and treatment of such survivors.
(d) Transparency requirements.—
(1) IN GENERAL.—Not later than one year after first convening, the Task Force shall submit to the Secretary a report on the recommendations, findings, and conclusions of the Task Force.
(2) REPORT.—Not later than 18 months after the date of enactment of this Act, the Secretary shall submit to Congress a report on the recommendations, findings, and conclusions of the Task Force.
(e) Sexual assault treatment resources.—
(1) IN GENERAL.—Not later than July 1, 2019, the Secretary shall post on the public website of the Department of Health and Human Services resources and best practices developed by health care providers, forensic scientists, law enforcement representatives, and advocates of sexual assault victims, relating to the treatment of individuals for sexual assault by health care providers. Such resources and best practices shall include the following:
(A) RESOURCES FOR HEALTH CARE PROVIDERS.—Resources and best practices for health care providers, including—
(i) best practices for training personnel on sexual assault forensic evidence collection;
(ii) best practices relating to providing counseling and appropriate referrals to such individuals; and
(iii) other resources and best practices determined appropriate by the Secretary.
(B) RESOURCES FOR SEXUAL ASSAULT SURVIVORS.—Resources and best practices for sexual assault survivors, including—
(i) information about the forensic exam furnished by a sexual assault forensic examiner, including the process and potential benefits of collecting evidence;
(ii) information on available State-wide databases of sexual assault nurse examiner-ready or sexual assault forensic examiner-ready facilities;
(iii) survivor advocacy group websites and hotlines;
(iv) next-steps guides for survivors with best practices for preserving evidence and seeking treatment after an assault; and
(v) other resources and best practices determined appropriate by the Secretary.
(2) UPDATES.—As soon as practicable after the submission of the report under subsection (d)(1) to the Secretary, the Secretary shall update the resources and best practices posted on the website of the Department of Health and Human Services under paragraph (1) to take into consideration the recommendations, findings, and conclusions of the Task Force contained in such report. The Secretary shall update such resources and best practices periodically, but not less frequently than annually.
(f) Annual Summit.—The Secretary shall convene an annual stakeholder meeting to address gaps in health care provider care relating to sexual assault that includes the Task Force.
(g) Definitions.—For purposes of this section:
(1) MEDICAL FORENSIC EXAMINATION.—The term “medical forensic examination” means an examination provided to a sexual assault survivor by medical personnel trained to gather evidence of a sexual assault in a manner suitable for use in a court of law.
(2) SECRETARY.—The term “Secretary” means the Secretary of Health and Human Services.
(3) SEXUAL ASSAULT.—The term “sexual assault” means any non-consensual sexual act proscribed by Federal, tribal, or State law, including when the individual lacks capacity to consent.
(4) SEXUAL ASSAULT EXAMINER.—The term “sexual assault examiner” means a registered nurse, advanced practice nurse, physician, or physician assistant specifically trained to provide comprehensive care to sexual assault forensic examinations.
(5) SEXUAL ASSAULT FORENSIC EXAMINER.—The term “sexual assault forensic examiner” means a medical practitioner who has specialized forensic training in treating sexual assault survivors and conducting medical forensic examinations.
(6) SEXUAL ASSAULT NURSE EXAMINER.—The term “sexual assault nurse examiner” means a registered nurse who has specialized forensic training in treating sexual assault survivors and conducting medical forensic examinations.
(7) SEXUAL ASSAULT RESPONSE TEAM.—The term “sexual assault response team” means a multidisciplinary team that provides a specialized and immediate response to survivors of sexual assault, and may include health care personnel, law enforcement representatives, community-based survivor advocates, prosecutors, and forensic scientists.
SEC. 3. Promoting coordination of sexual assault care in local communities.
Not later than one year after the date of the enactment of this Act, the Secretary of Health and Human Services shall revise section 489.24(j) of title 42, Code of Federal Regulations, to require each formal community call plan (as described in section 489.24(j)(2)(iii) of such title (or a successor regulation)) to provide—
(1) with respect to the delineation of on-call coverage responsibilities described in subparagraph (A) of such section, for a delineation of such coverage responsibilities for screening and treatment relating to sexual assault and includes a schedule of the on-call coverage availability for such screening and treatment at each hospital with on-call coverage responsibilities for such treatment; and
(2) with respect to assurances related to local and regional EMS system protocols described in subparagraph (D) of such section, for an assurance that such protocols include information with respect to community on-call arrangements for screening and treatment relating to sexual assault.
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Tommy Leonard, Falmouth Road Race founder and fabled bartender, dies at 85
By Bryan Marquard Globe Staff,January 23, 2019, 8:42 p.m.
Mr. Leonard, shown in 1996, was a bartender at the famed Eliot Lounge.(Globe Staff/File)
Tommy Leonard founded the Falmouth Road Race in 1973 on his 40th birthday, and his August classic became a present to generations of runners — from Olympic gold medalists to beginners lucky enough to snag a spot on the starting line.
“It’s a dream that became reality,” he once told the Globe, and over the past 45 years, his race achieved a mythical status among many runners second only to the Boston Marathon.
Mr. Leonard, who was 85 when he died in Falmouth on Jan. 16, was a magnet for many of the greatest names of the running boom of the mid- to late-1970s.
Olympic marathon gold medalists Frank Shorter and Joan Benoit Samuelson ran and won the Falmouth Road Race. Four-time Boston Marathon winner Bill Rodgers finished first in the second Falmouth contest and walked away with what was then the top prize — a Waring blender.
Everyone from the elite to the huffers-and-puffers were drawn by the beauty of the course, part of which runs along Vineyard Sound, and perhaps even more by the race’s most attractive feature: Mr. Leonard himself. A fabled bartender, Marine veteran, and marathon runner, he created a summer bookend to the Boston Marathon.
“He was quite the dude,” Rodgers said. “He was definitely a different breed of cat. Yes, he was a bartender, but obviously so much more, the way he used his mind to change lives.”
A pioneer of using races to raise money for causes, Mr. Leonard donated the proceeds from the first Falmouth race to pay the expenses for high school girls in town to travel to races..
“Tommy was doing that back in 1973, so he was ahead of his time,” Rodgers said. “From the very beginning, Tommy had a big heart.”
Dave McGillivray, race director for the Boston Marathon and what is now officially the New Balance Falmouth Road Race, said that what he “will remember most about Tommy is his kind soul and compassion.”
From left: Tommy Leonard, Johnny Kelley, and Ed O'Connell posed for a photo after the first annual Falmouth Road Race in Falmouth on Aug. 15, 1973.(Globe photo/file)
He called his friend “a genius” for launching a 7.1-mile race “from one bar to another bar, along the beautiful ocean landscape in the summer on Cape Cod.”
Mr. Leonard’s “gem,” McGillivray added, “became America’s road race.”
During most of Mr. Leonard’s running years and long afterward, he also was a beloved bartender who championed numerous fund-raisers.
The Falmouth Chamber of Commerce named him Citizen of the Year in 2009 for his civic contributions, but to those perched on barstools, he was the man of the evening for decades. Notably, he had tapped beers at the Brothers 4 in Falmouth Heights, and worked for nearly a quarter century at the Eliot Lounge in the Back Bay.
Through the force of Mr. Leonard’s personality, the Eliot became what Outside magazine called “The World’s Most Famous Runners’ Bar.”
“I was interested in making this place a rendezvous, something for apres race,” he told the Globe in 1986 of the Eliot’s reputation as the place to go after the Boston Marathon.
“I didn’t care if they came in dead last or they took five hours,” he told Outside in 2017. “I wanted everybody to be treated like Joan Benoit and Bill Rodgers.”
Still, for tens of thousands of runners who count the Falmouth Road Race among their most treasured runs, the course along the water remains Mr. Leonard’s lasting achievement.
“I call it an American classic,” Rodgers said. “Maybe it’s the number one road race in America.”
Thomas Francis Leonard was born in Springfield on Aug. 15, 1933. His parents were Edward Leonard, a railroad conductor, and Elizabeth McCarthy, a homemaker. Mr. Leonard and his sister, Grace of Parkville, Md., were young when their parents died of health ailments.
Mr. Leonard recalled in 1986 that when he was a boy his father “brought me to the orphanage the week before President Roosevelt declared war. It was snowing like heck outside. I had all my earthly possessions in a shopping bag, and I wouldn’t let go of my father’s hand.”
The orphanage fed him in the kitchen, but “there were tears in my pancakes,” he said. “Of course, when I came out, my father was gone. They asked me to go to the playroom, and I went in and jumped out the window, clutching my shopping bag, and landed neck-deep in snow. I made a run for Route 20, wanting to go back home to Springfield.”
Mr. Leonard eventually went to live in Westfield with Frank and Eleanor Tierney. He considered their children — Susan Tierney Oslin of West Dennis and Michael Tierney of Westfield — his adopted siblings. Grace, Susan, and Michael are Mr. Leonard’s immediate survivors.
The Tierneys “were wonderful to me, and that settled my life down,” Mr. Leonard recalled. “I always liked to run — I ran before the boom. I went to Westfield High and ran the mile. I did all right, but I was kind of a rapscallion. I’d skip practice and all.”
He enlisted in the Marines and, after Parris Island, was assigned to be a guard at the Portsmouth Naval Prison. That afforded off-hours time for long training runs.
“When I ran my first Boston Marathon in ’53, the Portsmouth Herald played it up: ‘Local Marine Runs Marathon,’ ” said Mr. Leonard, who eventually ran the race 24 times.
Post-military life included a quick stint at Holyoke Community College. He also held jobs in New York and California, where he began tending bar in Santa Monica and “liked it. I knew I had found my niche.”
Mr. Leonard then returned to Massachusetts to stay, except for moving briefly to Houston in the late 1980s, when the owners of a bar enticed him with a generous offer.
Mr. Leonard (right) worked behind the bard at the Elliot Lounge and Eddie Doyle (left), bartender at the Bull & Finch Pub and the model for Sam Malone of “Cheers,” seen together on Aug. 15, 2017.(David L. Ryan/Globe Staff)
He lived most of his life in Falmouth and Boston, where his friends included Eddie Doyle — famous for bartending at the Bull & Finch, better known as the “Cheers” bar. The two teamed up to raise thousands of dollars to replace a duckling that had been stolen from the “Make Way for Ducklings” sculpture in the Public Garden.
“Those guys were like brothers,” Rodgers once observed. “Peas in a pod.”
Mr. Leonard’s name adorned a bridge over Commonwealth Avenue and a Falmouth bench where runners can catch their breath at the end of “the little race that grew and grew. I used to run the course by myself, and I was struck by its beauty,” he once said. “It’s been my big rush.”
A funeral Mass will be said at 11 a.m. Thursday in St. Patrick Church in Falmouth. Burial will be in Massachusetts National Cemetery in Bourne.
Mr. Leonard “had a way of reaching people,” recalled his sister Susan, who said he was as warm a presence with his family as he was with his extended family of runners and customers.
“I’m the most fortunate bartender in the world,” he said in 1987, as he prepared to return to Boston from Houston. “I’ve got friends that money can’t buy.”
Ultimately, even a higher salary couldn’t buy a longer stay away from Massachusetts.
“What I miss is walking along Commonwealth Avenue in the springtime and a quiet run in the Sunday morning stillness of the Freedom Trail,” Mr. Leonard said, and he added: “I left my heart and soul in the Back Bay.”
Bryan Marquard can be reached at bryan.marquard@globe.com. Follow him on Twitter @BryanMarquard.
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Platinum Hit
It's Poppin'
July 28, 2011, 10:29 AM ET
Jewel explains how she came around to pop music and how difficult this week's elimination was.
How did you like hearing everyone's first solo-written song? I loved it!
The "Queen of Media" Perez Hilton stopped by to help with this week's challenge -- POP music.
I met Perez when I was promoting my pop album, "0304," and was impressed with how much he obviously loved music. He told me he had been to a bar show of mine way back when I was just starting out and he was just 16. Small world! His love for all things music is contagious. He loves all kinds of music, but he is unabashedly a pop fan.
Personally, I was slow to come to pop music. I didn't know I was writing pop music when I started out, and when someone suggested "You Were Meant For Me" and "Foolish Games" were pop songs, I cringed with a feeling of failure. I thought pop music was dumb, as I tended to listen to John Prine, Tom Waits, Bob Dylan, and Merle Haggard types of writing. I had no idea that all the cover songs I grew up singing in bars with my dad, since age 8, were pop songs: "Brown Eyed Girl," "Heartbreak Hotel," "Takin' It Easy," and "Help Me Make It Through the Night." Pop simply meant a great melody and a streamlined concept. I guess, though I never listened to Madonna as a child, (that crush developed much later for me!) pop music slipped into my head through all the songs my dad and I sang and found its way into my music -- and what a blessing that was. Pop is a wide open format that includes everything from Elvis to Roy Orbison. And today's pop charts include everything from Nickleback to Eminem to Selena Gomez.
It was fun to let the high school kids judge the wining song. It must have felt pretty good to Sonyae to see all of them pointing to the exit and making their own little dance move on the first listen. That's huge. Tapping into a concept that's immediately digestible is so difficult, and that's what's great about writing pop music -- it's simplicity is deceiving, making it sound simple and obvious on the first listen is the hardest part of the craft.
I thought all the writers began to come into their own on this show. They all showed a lot of growth from the first episode.
This was a judging panel that lasted into the wee hours of the morning, as we disagreed about who should be sent home. That's the beauty of art -– it's not a science. It's completely subjective, and there is sometimes no wrong answer -– just a difference of taste.
I really thought Nick deserved to stay. His song hit home for me and he finally delivered what we had been harping on him for the entire show. It was honest. It was universal, and I could see more bands cutting it than I could Jes'. I even thought his melody was strong. That's why you don't see me saying much on his elimination. It was hard for me to punish him for doing all the right things. It was a toss-up. But Jes' song was good too. She is starting to come on strong as the competition goes on, and I have to admire her can-do attitude. She knows the others look down on her, and yet she digs in and smiles and writes. You gotta admire that. She has a lovely voice and sells her songs well because she is appealing to listen to. We try to listen through that as judges and just hear the song, and that's where I still wonder who would cut the song she wrote besides herself. . .but she couldn't pick a better time to be turning on, and time will tell who the best writer is on the show. Right now, it's anybody's game.
That's all for now; only one episode left. Let me know your thoughts on Twitter (@jeweljk) or on the comments here. xo jewel
Hip Hip Sonyae!
The Write Girl
Sonyae Elise: Platinum Hitmaker
Sticking With You
Dare to Suck
Full Performance - My Religion
The Winner of 'Platinum Hit'
Full Performance - Come Alive
Full Performance - Beautiful You
Judges' Table: Final Decision
See All Clips
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Looking for ideas?
Bridgeman has selected important historical anniversaries for which we can provide high resolution images and archive footage.
For more information about researching or licensing, please contact us.
Lee Jun-fan, known professionally as Bruce Lee, martial artist, actor, filmmaker, and founder of the martial art Jeet Kune Do. died. 45 years.
Arshile Gorky, Armenian-American painter and illustrator, died. 70 years.
Alan Bartlett "Al" Shepard, American naval officer and aviator, test pilot, flag officer, and the first American to travel into space, died. 20 years.
"Paris is well worth a Mass". Henry IV of France publicly converts from Protestantism to Roman Catholicism. 425 years.
George Grosz, German painter and illustrator, was born. 125 years.
Stanley Kubrick, American director, producer, screenwriter, and cinematographer was born. 90 years.
Charlotte Corday, French assassin of Jean-Paul Marat, was born. 250 years.
Emily Brontë, English author and poet, was born. 200 years.
Henry Ford, American industrialist and founder of Ford Motor Company, was born. 155 years.
Jean Reno, Moroccan-French actor, was born. 70 years.
The Slavery Abolition Act was passed by the British Parliament. 190 years.
Thomas Gainsborough, English portrait and landscape painter, died. 230 years.
Warren G. Harding, 29th President of the United States, died. 95 years.
Dom Perignon invented champagne. 325 years.
Great Train Robbery: £2.6 million robbed from a Royal Mail train heading from Glasgow to London at Bridego Railway Bridge, Ledburn, near Mentmore in Buckinghamshire. 55 years.
8th-11th August 1918
The Battle of Amiens: the opening phase of the Allied offensive known as the Hundred Days Offensive that led to the end of the WWI. 100 years.
The Musée du Louvre was officially opened in Paris, France. 225 years.
Eddie Fisher, American singer and actor, was born. 90 years.
Jean-Michel Basquiat, American painter, died. 30 years.
Eugene Delacroix, French romantic artist, dies. 155 years.
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What Is Melisandre's Necklace On 'Game Of Thrones'? This Mystical Object Could Be Full Of Great Power
If you're still having a hard time wrapping your head around the fact that Melisandre is actually an old woman on Game of Thrones , then trust me when I tell you that you're not the only one. Each and every viewer took a collective gasp when the Red Woman removed her magical necklace and watched the sands of time shift drastically upon her reflection. So what exactly is Melisandre's necklace and how does it work? That's a question that is still up for a lot of debate, actually.
While some observers may think that the mystical object serves as a type of glamouring charm, allowing the wear to simply shield their true form to the outside world, that may not be the full extent of its power. In George R.R. Martin's novel, Melisandre is at one point given her own P.O.V. chapter, which seems to implicate that she isn't just old, but rather immortal. One line from the book reads: "Melisandre had practiced her art for years beyond count, and she had paid the price," while another section goes on to explain how she doesn't eat and only sleeps for an hour each night.
Is this all due to the power of the necklace or is the necklace merely one facet with which she channels her abilities? As of now, the series is choosing to leave us all guessing.
During a recently interview with Entertainment Weekly, director Jeremy Podeswa declined to comment on how much of a role the necklace plays in the red priestess' powers, however, he did admit that her taking it off is a sign that her faith is being tested. "At that moment, it’s a telling gestural thing to do," Podeswa explained. "She’s questioning her power and ability to prosthelytize. She’s at her lowest point, looking at the mirror and her true self. It’s a sign of her frailty. You’re seeing her at her most vulnerable moment."
However, many fans have been quick to point out the time where Melisandre didn't appear to be wearing the necklace while taking a bath in front of Selyse in Season 4. Is it hidden somewhere else on her, or was she perhaps showing her "true form" to Selyse in that moment, which is why Selyse couldn't seem to look away from her? The possibilities are endless at this point, but given how the gem on the neck glows red and changed color once she removed it, I'd say there's definitely a lot of power hidden within the depths of that jewel.
Maybe it's even capable of harboring a life force within it — one that will eventually be transferred into Jon Snow's body. That way Jon Snow himself will still remain dead (as they've all promised), but Kit Harington's lovely face will still be able to grace our screens.
Like I said, this is all just speculation for now, but I have a sneaking suspicion Melisandre and her mysterious necklace will end up playing a vital role in the war that is to come.
Images: HBO (2)
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Remembering O.J. Simpson's Insane Car Chase In His White Bronco, Minute By Minute
By Fiona Lowenstein
Pool/Getty Images News/Getty Images
Twenty years ago Tuesday, O.J. Simpson led cops on a slow-speed car chase that lasted for two hours, and was watched by 95 million people. At 11 a.m. on June 17, 2014, an APB was put out on O.J., who had been missing since 1 a.m. that morning, according to his attorney. By 5 p.m. that afternoon the police said they had used "cellphone transmissions" to pick up Simpson's location — which at the time must have seemed like a pretty exciting use of technology. During the chase, Simpson drove a 1993 Ford White Bronco, a car that has come to be iconic.
Who was in the car?
Shortly into the chase, someone from the Ford Bronco dialed 911. The man on the phone did not identify himself, but police gathered from the car that he was Simpson's friend Al Cowlings, and that he was being held at gunpoint by Simpson. Simpson allegedly asked Cowlings to drive him to Simpson's mother's house. At this point in the chase, at least five black police cars were following the Bronco, but the vehicle Simpson was in continued at a rate of about three to four miles per hour.
How did the chase affect the American public?
The highway Simpson was driving on had been cleared of traffic, but cars had gathered on nearby highways and bridges, and people were actually stepping out of their cars to wave at Simpson. (We're surprised no one asked him for an autograph.)
About a half hour into the chase, local CBS news spoke with Vance Evans, a friend of Simpson's, who sounded teary and tired. "Everything is going against him right now," Evans said. "I just want him to know how much he's loved." A few minutes later, CBS got a call that showed just how much Simpson was loved. The caller identified herself as "Sue" from Chicago and, speaking at a rapid pace, made clear that she was a huge fan of Simpson's.
Sue said that even though she was "not black," she thought Simpson "has such great courage." Sue went on to say:
I don't have many heroes anymore, but there's always been on my coffee table a book about OJ Simpson... and it goes into his background about how he overcame a malformed leg, and it talks about the courage it has taken for him to overcome all these obstacles.
This is one of the weirdest portions of the car chase, and is indicative of the massive amount of attention the chase drew. After this call, one of the newscasters speculates that the white Bronco isn't heading in any specific direction, but is "just driving at this point."
What was OJ thinking?
As the chase neared its end, Detective Tom Lange was able to get in touch with Simpson on the phone. Lang says the police had Simpson's cell phone number, and decided to call him. "To my amazement, he picked up," Lange told Larry King in a subsequent interview.
The recording of the call was released to the civil jury, and most of it can be heard in this crazy recording. During most of the recording, Simpson is moaning loudly, and his words sound slurred. He repeats several phrases, namely, "I deserve to get hurt," and "all I did was love Nicole."
Throughout the call, Lange tries to get Simpson to throw his weapon out the window, but Simpson refuses. Simpson says, "I've got to keep you guys away from me. This is for me." To which, Lang responds, "Please, just toss it, you're scaring everybody." Simpson then says, "Aww, I'm not gonna hurt nobody... just tell them I'm sorry."
The call is bizarrely honest on both ends, and shows Simpson in an incredibly confused and vulnerable state. Lang stayed on the phone with Simpson until he reached his house, at which point Lange frantically tried to convince Simpson not to shoot himself.
zfacts on YouTube
As Simpson turned onto his street, he was met by a crowd of people. The news coverage of this moment is especially poignant. On CBS, newscasters express shock that Simpson is actually going home. "Oh my god," one of them says, "he's come home. After all of that."
Images: Youtube/zfacts
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Corpus Christi ranks third best U.S. city to celebrate Día de los Muertos
Lawnstarter recently ranked 10 U.S. cities where Dia de los Muertos is the most popular according to Google search data.
Corpus Christi ranks third best U.S. city to celebrate Día de los Muertos Lawnstarter recently ranked 10 U.S. cities where Dia de los Muertos is the most popular according to Google search data. Check out this story on caller.com: https://www.caller.com/story/news/local/2018/11/02/corpus-christi-ranks-best-u-s-city-celebrate-dia-de-los-muertos/1859839002/
Meagan Falcon, Corpus Christi Caller Times Published 4:40 p.m. CT Nov. 2, 2018 | Updated 5:05 p.m. CT Nov. 2, 2018
More than a few thousand people filled the streets of downtown Corpus Christi to celebrate the annual Día de los Muertos Street Festival Oct. 27, 2018. Meagan Falcon, Corpus Christi
Corpus Christi celebrates Dia de los Muertos Festival on Saturday, Oct. 27, 2018 in Downtown Corpus Christi (Photo: Casey Jackson/Caller-Times)Buy Photo
There are hundreds of festivals across the country that celebrate Día de los Muertos, but Corpus Christi ranks as one of the best.
Lawnstarter recently ranked 10 U.S. cities where Día de los Muertos is the most popular according to Google search data, and listed the Sparkling City by the Sea as the third-best city to celebrate the Mexican holiday.
Every year, the holiday allows families to celebrate the lives of loved ones who are deceased with altars, food and drinks, parties, music and activities.
More: This is what you need to know about Día de los Muertos
The article states Corpus Christi is a unique city on the Texas coast that features a Día de los Muertos-themed block party that spans 10 blocks and is attended by more than 35,000.
Other cities featured in the top 10 ranking are San Diego, California; El Paso; Los Angeles; San Antonio; Tucson, Arizona; Alburquerque, New Mexico; Fort Lauderdale, Florida; Chicago; and Sacramento, California.
"Dia de los Muertos is definitely growing in popularity thanks to movies like 'Coco' and a growing Hispanic cultural influence," said Alan LaFrance, author of the article. "So, we decided to look to see where people are celebrating the holiday."
Corpus Christi celebrates Dia de los Muertos Festival on Saturday, Oct. 27, 2018 in Downtown Corpus Christi (Photo: Casey Jackson/Caller-Times)
This year, more than a few thousand people filled the streets of downtown Corpus Christi to celebrate and remember loved ones at the 11th annual Día de los Muertos Street Festival on Oct. 28.
More: How to do sugar skull makeup for Dia de los Muertos
Visitors had a chance to check out more than 100 arts and crafts vendors, view a fine-art exhibition at K Space Contemporary, enjoy live music and entertainment on three stages, and watch folklorico dancers from around the world.
More about Día de los Muertos:
Families learn to make Sugar Skulls for Dia de los Muertos
Dia de los Muertos Sugar Skull face painting
How to make Sugar Skulls
Corpus Christi celebrates Dia de los Muertos Festival
Corpus Christi celebrates Dia de los Muertos Festival on Saturday, Oct. 27, 2018 in Downtown Corpus Christi Casey Jackson/Caller-Times
Read or Share this story: https://www.caller.com/story/news/local/2018/11/02/corpus-christi-ranks-best-u-s-city-celebrate-dia-de-los-muertos/1859839002/
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DPS identifies man in fatal crash near Robstown
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Obituary: Juanita Winter
Juanita Fay Winter, 85, of Galva, died at 8:03 a.m. Saturday, April 20, 2019, at her home. Cremation will be accorded and a memorial service will be held at 11 a.m., Saturday, April 27 at the First United Methodist Church, in Galva. Pastor Trisha Chapman will officiate. There will be no visitation. Inurnment will be held at Galva Cemetery. Memorials may be directed to the First United Methodist Church. Rux Funeral Home is assisting the family with arrangements.
Juanita was born July 11, 1933, in Macomb, the daughter of Jacob and Pearl (Cheesman) Stoneking. She married Richard H. Winter on Sept. 2, 1983, in Galesburg.
Juanita graduated from Macomb High School in 1951. She worked as a clerk at Kroger’s grocery store in Galesburg and Kewanee. She was a member of the First United Methodist Church. She enjoyed sewing, embroidering, scrapbooking and putting together family photo albums.
Survivors include her husband of Galva; their children: Rhonda (Roger) Callahan, Terry Shryack and Gary Shryack, all of Galesburg; Julie (Kevin) Peachey, of Varna; Tim (Ruth) Shryack, of Springfield, Mo.; Robert (Gail) Winter, of Galesburg; Richard (Cheryl) Winter, of Dunlap; and Denise Bailey, of Knoxville; her sister, Dolorus (Jim) Miller, of of Macomb; 21 grandchildren and 30 great-grandchildren. She was preceded in death by her parents; a sister, Dorothy Litchfield; a son and daughter-in-law, Paul (Crislyn) Winter; and a son-in-law, Dennis Bailey.
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TripAdvisor plays it a little too straight
10/3/2012 — By Sean O'Neill
Courtesy broma/Flickr
Is it just me, or could TripAdvisor do more to court gay and lesbian travelers? The giant of user-generated hotel reviews doesn't let you filter reviews by sexual preference—to zero in on reviewers like yourself—the way it allows users to filter reviews by special categories like business, family, couples, friends getaways, and solo travel. The site also seems to shy away from officially acknowledging the presence of the LGBT community.
It goes without saying that gays and lesbians travel for business, with families, and so forth—so many of TripAdvisor's filters have broad appeal. But LGBT travelers have unique concerns. When we're picking hotels, for instance, we often wonder whether the front-desk clerks are well trained and well mannered. If they aren't, they'll make a silly mistake when a same-sex couple asks for a single king bed: They'll act weird about it. And weirdness is exactly what I want TripAdvisor to help me avoid.
I've also noticed that the U.S. division of TripAdvisor has never put out a press release or marketing campaign acknowledging gays and lesbians. A month ago, its U.K. branch produced its first list of the Top 10 Gay & Lesbian-Friendly Hotels in Europe, and I hope this anticipates a formal acknowledgement of the crowd here in the States, too. How about a simple Top 10 List of Gay-Friendly Hotels in America?
All I wish is for the Internet's leading hotel review site to do as much to welcome LGBT travelers as nearly every airline, hotel chain, and major destination does. Online travel site Orbitz has a microsite for gay travelers, as does Travelocity. Major airlines have LGBT marketing, such as American Airlines' aa.com/rainbow. Nearly every major U.S. and European city seems to have a webpage or a brick-and-mortar kisok dispensing LGBT travel information, such as Seattle's and London's gay-tourism portals. In fact, the U.S. travel industry as a whole has a proven track record of being much better about courting the gay customer than other industries.
To its credit, TripAdvisor allows its users to post info about LGBT travel on its site, particularly in its Gay Travel Forum. Users have posted travel guides ranging from the best LGBT-friendly lodging in New Hampshire to the most LGBT-friendly neighborhoods in Paris. For instance, guides on Fort Lauderdale, Fla., and Dublin, Ireland, have lots of helpful info.
But allowing your users to ask each other trip-planning questions on your Travel Board is nothing special. What's more: While thousands have participated in TripAdvisor's forums, I bet most TripAdvisor users aren't even aware the forums exist. The site could do more to promote these forums. As of today, on the homepage for TripAdvisor's forums, the Gay Travel Forum isn't listed. (Though things like "Rugby World Cup 2010" are listed.) You have to click "see all" to find it.
Some people might say, you can't measure "gay-friendliness," but there are proven proxies for estimating it. Reviews are one way. If TripAdvisor started collecting user-information on how gay-friendly a hotel is, it could build a powerful database. It could add a checkbox on the review form giving a reviewer a chance to mention their interest in LGBT friendly hotels.
Another way to judge a hotel is by how it treats its staff because that affects how the staff treats the guests. Will the housekeepers give a same-sex couple second looks? They probably won't if the hotel makes a policy of not discriminating against LGBT staff. TripAdvisor could add a little tag to the listing for any hotel that has been TAG Approved, namely a hotel vetted by an independent organization for its employment policies, services, and support returned to the LGBT community (and not for pay-for-placement deals).
At the end of the day, this is a missed business opportunity for TripAdvisor—gay travelers seem to travel more than the average American and should be a growth market for the site. Parent company Expedia was the first major travel site to offer specific content for the gay and lesbian travel market back in 2001, which leads me to think its TripAdvisor division is simply making an oversight.
What do you think? Am I making a mountain out of a molehill?
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Politics·Analysis
Keeping Tom Mulcair may have been safer bet for NDP, history suggests
Members of the NDP decided to send Tom Mulcair packing as leader, hoping for better things for the future of the party. But a look at the historical performance of parties that have lost seats suggests that retaining Mulcair might have been the safer bet.
Parties that have lost seats but kept their leaders have had more future success
Éric Grenier · for CBC News · Posted: Apr 13, 2016 5:00 AM ET | Last Updated: April 13, 2016
New Democrats decided upon a leadership race after 2015's election defeat. But was that the right decision? (Codie McLachlan/Canadian Press)
Losing seats from one election to the next can sting for the devotees of a political party. The natural reaction may be to call for a change of leadership, as New Democrats did on Sunday at the NDP's convention.
But history suggests that a change in leadership is not necessarily a ticket for future success — in fact, holding on to the leader may be the safer choice.
Analysis: NDP lost the left to Justin Trudeau before rejecting Tom Mulcair
Aaron Wherry: NDP brothers and sisters left between a manifesto and a premier
Both the Conservatives and New Democrats suffered a rebuke at the polls last October, and both parties are now searching for new leaders.
The Conservatives' choice was made for them when Stephen Harper resigned on election night. But New Democrats made the decision for a change at the top themselves when 52 per cent of party delegates at the convention voted to hold a leadership race.
The reasons for doing so may have varied greatly from delegate to delegate — some likely felt that Mulcair was not equipped to lead the party to greater success in 2019, while others may have disagreed with the direction in which he might lead the party, whether or not that would bring the NDP future victories.
But for those delegates who voted for a change of leadership in order to have a better showing in the next federal election, past experience argues against their decision.
A look at past electoral results for major parties that have lost seats from one election to the next — at the federal level as well as in provincial elections in Ontario and Quebec since 1867, for a total of over 120 cases — reveals that parties that have retained their leaders after a loss have had better performances in the subsequent election than parties that have undergone a change of leadership.
Eric Grenier looks at what past changes in party leadership suggest about the NDP's move to replace Tom Mulcair. 4:10
Unsurprisingly, parties are more likely to change leaders after suffering a loss in seats. This has happened 55 per cent of the time federally and in Ontario and Quebec, while parties that have gained seats have retained their leaders 71 per cent of the time.
In that sense, the NDP's decision was not an unusual one, though that decision is usually made by the leader him or herself, rather than by party members. But that doesn't necessarily make it a good one.
Love the one you're with
Of the parties that lost seats but stuck with their party leader, 70 per cent of them experienced a gain in seats in the next election with that leader.
Of the parties that lost seats but experienced a change of leadership, 62 per cent had growth in the subsequent election with a new leader.
The good news for the New Democrats is that history suggests they have a two-to-one shot of winning more seats in 2019, as parties have more often than not rebounded after a loss regardless of their leadership situation. Indeed, the NDP has never experienced a drop in seats or vote share in two consecutive elections.
Mulcair, seen casting his vote for the party leadership at the convention on Sunday, said he will stay on as leader until a new one is chosen. (Jason Franson/Canadian Press)
But even if the odds are in favour of the next leader of the NDP doing better than Mulcair did, the party's membership may have had reason to expect more gains under a second Mulcair bid, at least based on the historical precedent.
Parties that have experienced a change of leadership after losing seats have, on average, had their seat totals increased by about 46 per cent in the next election.
But parties that have given their leaders a shot at redemption have, on average, seen their seat total increase by an average of 61 per cent.
In other words, the average rate of growth after losing seats in the next election with the same leader would boost the NDP's current crop of 44 seats to 71, compared to an average increase to 64 under a new leader.
In both cases, though, the seats would not make up for the loss of 59 seats the party suffered between the 2011 and 2015 federal election, dropping them from 103.
NDP precedent mixed
There are only limited examples to look to within the federal NDP. The party has lost seats six times, one of which being the last election. In two of those cases, the leader stayed in place. In the three remaining cases, the leader was replaced. In all cases, the party won more seats in the next election — and on average experienced more gains under new NDP leaders than on returning ones after dropping seats.
But there are some less positive examples at the provincial level for the NDP.
In 1975, Stephen Lewis led the Ontario New Democrats to Official Opposition status, dropped back to third party status in 1977, and then suffered more seat losses under new leader Michael Cassidy in 1981.
Bob Rae later led the party into government in 1990 before suffering a stinging defeat in 1995. The reins were then passed on to Howard Hampton, who lost more seats over the next two elections.
The fate of the next leader of the federal New Democrats, of course, will depend on much more than the historical precedent. Nevertheless, that precedent suggests Mulcair was more likely to have done better than whoever his replacement will be if he had been given one more kick at the can.
The Pollcast: Subscribe to Éric Grenier's podcast
Manitoba Poll Tracker: Check out the election's latest numbers
Éric Grenier
Politics and polls
Éric Grenier is a senior writer and the CBC's polls analyst. He was the founder of ThreeHundredEight.com and has written for The Globe and Mail, Huffington Post Canada, The Hill Times, Le Devoir, and L’actualité.
Read more CBCnews.ca columns from Éric Grenier
Follow Éric on Twitter at @EricGrenierCBC
NDP caucus asks Tom Mulcair to remain leader until successor is chosen
NDP lost the left to Justin Trudeau before rejecting Tom Mulcair
NDP brothers and sisters left between a manifesto and a premier
Tom Mulcair left New Democrats wanting more, and now looking for what's next
NDP aftermath: An early look at potential candidates to replace Tom Mulcair
Rejecting Mulcair, NDP delegates vote in favour of new leadership race
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Toyota celebrates 50 years in New Zealand
If you're a fleet manager or just a vehicle owner in New Zealand, the chances are good that you have at some point in your life owned or driven a Toyota. They are one of our country's most popular manufacturers and seem to have been around since time immemorial. Almost.
In reality, Toyota has actually been here for a total of 50 years – the anniversary of which was recently celebrated with a planting of a native Puriri tree at the Toyota National Customer Centre in Palmerston North.
A history of strengths
Toyota has certainly stood the test of time. Beginning in 1966, the brand opened plants in Christchurch and Thames in order to assemble their vehicles, which were at that time imported from Japan.
However, after the tariffs on imported vehicles were lifted in the late 1990's, the plants were shut down and converted into administrative buildings.
In those 50 years, Toyota has offered us the Corolla, the Hilux, the Crown and the Corona – all staples of the New Zealand motoring landscape. The introduction of hybrid vehicles was picked up very swiftly by Toyota, every year shifting over 1,000 of these innovative transportation options. Despite a recent recall of the RAV4 due to concerns about safety, Toyota continues to dominate the market for the 28th year in a row.
"Toyota New Zealand entered the New Zealand market with the aim of leading the way to the future of mobility; that remains our mantra 50 years later," said CEO Alistair Davis.
"Recognising the 50-year journey is not only taking a moment to reflect back on the challenges and the triumphs but largely an opportunity to celebrate, motivate and prepare for the next 50 years."
Celebrate Toyota's continued success by ensuring your own. Try out a Card Smart fuel card and get yourself a bargain on petrol. Toyota, Ford, Holden or Ferrari, there's no reason that a savvy fleet manager shouldn't be aiming to get the best deals for their vehicles!
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Paul Rabil
Paul Rabil - a male celebrity - born on Saturday December 14th 1985, in Unknown.
Paul Rabil is practical, down to earth with strong ideas about right and wrong. He is orderly, organized, systematic and controlled, and once committed - he employs decisive and methodical steps to problems solving, without giving up easily.
Paul seeks to establish a solid foundation, and would rather use hard work and long hours to build a business or career than search for "get rich quick" schemes. He has great potential for success, but only after putting out effort and overcoming the limitations he so often encounters. Courageous and a true survivor, he is a builder and the foundation of any enterprise, and his hard work and practical values pay off to provide Paul Rabil with the rewards he seeks and deserves.
Justice and honesty are sacred to Rabil, making him reliable and dependable, and quite often - a cornerstone in the community. Also, though not a typical idealist, Paul Rabil is willing to work for a better world in a realistic way.
Paul Rabil works well with others, but it is important that he would have his own responsibility and well-defined task, because he performs better when his responsibilities are not overlapping with those of others.
Due to the rare discipline and perseverance that Rabil possesses, not everyone can keep up with him, and he has to be careful not to be bossy and rude. He can be also rigid in his ideas and get stuck in convention or too quick in judging his fellow man.
Paul Rabil is loyal to those he loves. He is well suited for marriage and often becomes a responsible loving parent. However, anything that violates his profound sense of order, such as separation or divorce can be a shattering experience for him. More...
Entrepreneurial and progressive, Paul Rabil is ever-striving, heading for the top, and enjoying an enterprising, ambitious and determined personality to do things well, and an unyielding dedication to his plan until the goals are achieved.
There is danger, however that his trait of determination and dedication will shift to stubbornness, making Paul cling to ideas and projects well past their fruitious season. It is a good idea for him to keep fresh pipeline of ideas to make it easier to replace outdated plans by new and better ones.
Paul Rabil makes a good performer, but at the same time he can be quite intense and serious.
His artistic talent is emphasized in the performing arts where sensitivity and understanding for people and situations is called for.
Paul can easily gain high respect in the community, being understanding of the views of others, and he often tends to achieve his goals.
When balanced, he is compassionate and emotionally secure. Rabil is also a natural healer, with leadership qualities and the ability to genuinely empathize. He also radiates love and spiritual happiness to those around him.
When unbalanced, drama queen is not an unfamiliar term to Paul, and he often likes to give advice to others even when his own life is a mess.
By becoming aware of his emotions, he can gain control over them rather than have his emotions control his life. And the reward is great because then he shows vast depth of understanding while keeping his emotions checked.
July 18th 2019 is a day of changing priorities for Paul Rabil. This state of mind may also cause him to go through loss of friendship, painful as it may be.
Paul should look at today as a day of karmic healing, exercise letting go, forgiveness, tolerance, and compassion.
Wise and emotional that he is makes today a perfect day for Rabil to invest in humanitarian causes.
Other male celebrities born on the same day as Paul Rabil
Stan Smith (1946)
A former world No. 1 American tennis player and two-time Grand Slam singles champion who also, with his partner Bob Lutz, formed one of the most successful doubles teams of all time and won many major titles all over the world
Raj Kapoor (1924-1988)
Nostradamus (1503-1566)
A French apothecary and reputed seer who published collections of prophecies that have since become widely famous, and is best known for his book Les Propheties in which he is said to have predicted many major world events
Spike Jones (1911-1965)
James Comey (1960)
An American lawyer and the seventh Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) from 2013 until his dismissal in 2017, who was responsible for overseeing the FBI's investigation of the Hillary Clinton email controversy
Michael Owen (1979)
A Soccer Player and Athlete
King George VI (1895-1952)
Sanjay Gandhi (1946-1980)
Shannon Briggs (1971)
Frances Bavier (1902-1989)
Paul Rabil personality profile | © Copyright 2009-2019 Celebrities Galore and Master Numerologist Hans Decoz
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Pieties and Pitfalls
Voting Integrity
Internet Voting and the DOD
Internet Voting in Colorado
Electronic Voting Machines
Organizational Websites
Voting News
“C” is for Coloradans
“VI” is for Voting Integrity
Why CFVI?
A Recent Action
Broken Ballots: Will Your Vote Count?
By Douglas W. Jones and Barbara Simons
CSLI Publications, Stanford, CA
This valuable work starts with a history of use of technology in elections — of special interest to the technologist — and continues with many chapters on our recent electronic voting history as it relates to election integrity issues – made the richer because the authors were often participants as events unfolded.
— National —
www.VerifiedVoting.org
The Verified Voting organization has two components: VerifiedVoting.org, a 501(c)(4) nonprofit lobbying organization and The Verified Voting Foundation, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit educational organization. You may access both from VerifiedVoting.org.
From their About page:
“VerifiedVoting.org is a non-partisan non-profit organization that advocates for legislation and regulation that promotes accuracy, transparency and verifiability of elections. We believe the integrity and strength of our democracy relies on citizen’s trust that each vote be counted as cast. Our primary concern lies in ensuring that the means for verifying election outcomes are in place and used for that purpose. We also focus on the reliability and security of voting systems. We connect those who are making and implementing policy that shapes how we vote to those who understand the particular risks associated with the emerging digital landscape, particularly on-line and electronic voting…”
About the Verified Voting Foundation:
“Verified Voting’s mission is “Safeguarding elections in the digital age.” We are a non-governmental organization working toward accuracy, integrity and verifiability of elections…The Verified Voting Foundation, Inc. is an educational nonprofit 501(c)(3) corporation.
“Since its founding in 2003 by Stanford computer science professor David L. Dill, the Verified Voting Foundation has worked at the local, state, and federal levels to ensure that all votes in U.S. elections are cast and counted accurately. By bringing national attention to the need for publicly verifiable voting systems, VVF gives voice to both scientists and concerned citizens who are concerned about the challenge that paperless electronic voting presents to the ongoing integrity of elections. VVF stakeholders share a desire that technologies be employed in ways that enhance, rather than compromise, the trustworthiness of our electoral process.”
www.BlackBoxVoting.org
From the welcome message written by Bev Harris, Founder:
“Black Box Voting, founded in 2004, is a nonpartisan, nonprofit investigative reporting and public education organization for elections.
“We are supported entirely by small citizen donations…
“Influential reporting by Black Box Voting is referenced worldwide. We became known for our groundbreaking work on electronic voting machines, which can remove transparency of the vote count; our other important work pertains to voter lists, election chain of custody, transparency problems with absentee voting, election industry corporate governance, and financial accountability in elections.
“Opaque, non-transparent voting can afflict voter lists, poll lists, vote counting and chain of custody; political finance can also be “black box.” The road to better transparency begins with knowledge and public, grassroots dedication. I am glad you are here!”
— Colorado —
electionquality.com
The Election Quality News is a website that monitors election quality “from Colorado and beyond.” An excellent springboard for investigating issues of election quality and integrity, especially at the local and regional level.
www.TheVotingNews.com/News
The Voting News, which is a news service of the Verified Voting Foundation, lists various sources of voting-related news, and includes a weekly newsletter, national and international voting-related news, editorials, and blogs.
www.BradBlog.com
The Brad Blog, written by Brad Friedman, is independent of corporate or foundation funds, and often has original news stories on election integrity or lack thereof, as well as other topics.
Below is a quote from the site:
“The BRAD BLOG is a 100% independent investigative news, journalism, blogging, muckraking and trouble-making outlet, now in our tenth year!
“We focus on issues such as election reform, media reform, social justice, the environment, accountability, good government and rights and freedoms, in a way that no other outlet does.”
Mail Ballots and Elections – What We Have Lost
By Charles E. Corry, Ph.D, F.G.S.A, President, Equal Justice Foundation
Charles E. Corry is an accomplished scientist who, eschewing the pedantic, writes about the serious problems with electronics in voting and voting registration; and with mail ballots. He has served on the Voting Equipment Standards Committee of the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers since 2001.
Designed by _GHO
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Dalton Woman To Serve At Least 30 Years For Murder Of Her Father
Hannah Henderson
A 26-year-old Dalton woman was sentenced on Tuesday to life in prison for the murder of her father.
Hannah Celese Henderson entered a guilty plea before Superior Court Judge Jim Wilbanks in the slaying of George Henderson, on the evening of Oct. 13, 2018. Ms. Henderson pled guilty to felony murder predicated on family violence aggravated assault.
District Attorney Bert Poston said, "Felony murder exists when a person is killed as a result of an intentional violent felony, regardless of whether the defendant intended specifically to cause the death. The aggravated assault charge merged into the murder charge for sentencing purposes."
He said Ms.
Henderson will have to serve 30 years from the date of her arrest on Oct. 14, 2018 before becoming eligible for parole.
She was represented by Natalie Glaser, head of the Public Defender’s Office for Whitfield and Murray Counties.
DA Poston said, "The case was investigated by Detective Dwayne Holmes of the Whitfield County Sheriff’s Office and received significant media attention because of claims that Ms. Henderson made on a recorded 911 telephone call that she had shot her father after walking into his bedroom and catching him touching her one-year-old son’s penis.
"Recorded 911 calls are generally released upon request even as they relate to ongoing investigations and can give false impression about a case before the rest of the investigative details become public. Detective Holmes investigation revealed that the allegation was most likely false although it becomes very difficult if not impossible to prove a negative – that is to prove that something did not happen.
"Investigators and prosecutors working on the case did not believe the allegations for a variety of reasons. The shooting took place on the other end of the house, nowhere near the bedroom where the touching was alleged to have occurred and the shooting occurred a good bit later in the evening than the alleged touching.
"During the investigation, the Defendant admitted that she had accused her father of molesting her son two days earlier without evidence and based on nothing more than a feeling. As she was questioned about what led up to the shooting, her version of events shifted towards self-defense and away from provocation as initially alleged.
"At her guilty plea, Ms. Henderson retracted the allegation, stating to Judge Wilbanks that 'it was a lie then and it is a lie now.' Ms. Henderson expressed remorse for her actions and stated that her father never did anything like that or anything at all to deserve what she did to him.
"Detective Holmes’ investigation further revealed that George Henderson was shot twice in the head and that the Defendant was standing behind her father both times. The first shot was to the back of the head near the base of the skull and was a contact wound. That is, the muzzle of the weapon, a Ruger LCP .380 caliber pistol, was directly touching the victim’s skin when the defendant pulled the trigger. The first shot passed below the victim’s skull and the bullet exited through his left cheek bone. Mr. Henderson was standing in the hallway facing towards the kitchen when shot and fell to the ground where a good bit of blood pooled before he was able to move again. The bullet was recovered near the doorway between the kitchen and living room.
"Somehow he managed to get into the kitchen and was standing at or leaning on the kitchen table when the Defendant shot him a second time. The Defendant again stood behind her father and this time reached around with her right hand and shot her father in the right temple area. The second shot was near contact, meaning that the muzzle of the gun was approximately 1-3 inches away from the victim’s temple when the trigger was pulled. The second shot went through the front part of George Henderson’s brain, killing him instantly. The bullet was recovered at autopsy.
"At sentencing, Ms. Henderson did not offer an explanation for why she had shot her father but stated that she was an addict and not a monster and that she understood the pain that she had caused to so many people and was sorry for what she had done.
"Ms. Henderson had a history of substance abuse problems although no significant criminal history. Her father had allowed her and her son to move in with him and was trying to help her when he died. In addition to providing her a place to live, he had provided her with a car and with a food truck so that she could earn an income. As part of the negotiated plea agreement, Ms. Henderson agreed to execute two legal documents. One to surrender her parental rights so that a member of the family could adopt her son and the second to waive any right she might have to inherit from her father’s estate. Georgia law would have prohibited such inheritance and her sentence will keep her in custody until her son is an adult but it is hoped that the legal documents will make it easier and faster to settle the estate and complete the adoption."
Senator Lamar Alexander on Thursday released the following statement on his vote to confirm Tennessean Cliff Corker as a U.S. District Judge for the Eastern District of Tennessee: “Cliff ... (click for more)
Mac Evans, 56, has died from injuries he sustained in an accident on July 11. At approximately 2:31 p.m. on July 11, the Chattanooga Police Traffic Unit responded to 6510 Bonny Oaks Drive ... (click for more)
Click here for the latest Bradley County arrest report. (click for more)
Senator Lamar Alexander on Thursday released the following statement on his vote to confirm Tennessean Cliff Corker as a U.S. District Judge for the Eastern District of Tennessee: “Cliff Corker currently serves as a United States Magistrate Judge on the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Tennessee. He was selected to serve as a magistrate judge by the District ... (click for more)
Mac Evans, 56, has died from injuries he sustained in an accident on July 11. At approximately 2:31 p.m. on July 11, the Chattanooga Police Traffic Unit responded to 6510 Bonny Oaks Drive on a serious traffic crash. Mr. Evans who was driving a Ford Explorer was traveling west on Bonny Oaks Drive. David Fields, 59, was in a Ford F-350 traveling east on Bonny Oaks Drive. ... (click for more)
Latest Hamilton County Arrest Report
Smedley, Smith, Boyd, Bankston, Graham Among Candidates Mentioned For 2022 County Mayor Race With Coppinger Possibly Retiring
Charges Bound To Grand Jury Against Man Who Sped Toward Firefighters At Boy Scout Road
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Firm’s expansion leads to jobs’ boost
AJW Aviation's headquarters in Slinfold
Sarah Page
Expansion at a world-leading specialist in the global management of aircraft spare parts has now led to a jobs’ boost.
The AJW Group is recruiting for 20 roles at its state-of-the-art headquarters in Slinfold.
The company says its recruitment drive follows a period of significant growth, during which AJW was awarded a series of strategic contracts with major airlines and aircraft manufactures.
The company is now recruiting for positions across a variety of departments, including customer services, sales and marketing, operations, logistics, finance and technical.
Potential recruits will have a chance to find out more at a careers open evening at AJW Group’s headquarters in Slinfold on Thursday (May 3) from 6pm - 8pm.
Company spokesman Kellie Plummer said: “This is an exciting period of expansion for AJW Group, and we are delighted to be able to recruit for such a wide variety of roles. While we operate in a very technical field we welcome applicants with transferable skills from other industries and offer a variety of flexible working arrangements to cater for a diverse range of people.
“Our people give AJW Group its competitive edge and enable us to stand out from the crowd as industry-leaders. We look forward to hearing from individuals across the wider Sussex area, as well as candidates from London looking for a move away from the city.”
For more information about AJW’s careers open evening, or to apply for positions online, visit http://www.ajw-group.com/open-evening
Fly-tipper prosecuted for dumping waste on land between Horsham and Crawley
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Home » Crime Library » Crime in the Media » Sherlock
Sherlock is a crime drama that began airing on the BBC in 2010, but after it picked up critical acclaim, became widely popular in the United States as well. The show is based on Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s popular stories about his famously intelligent sleuth, Sherlock Holmes, and his sidekick, Dr. John Watson. However, the show has given new life to this well-worn plot with a twist: the entire show is set in modern times. Benedict Cumberbatch stars as the famed detective Holmes, alongside Martin Freeman, who plays Dr. Watson. In addition, the show features web content blogs maintained by the two leads, paying homage to Dr. Watson’s journaling in Doyle’s original series. The series focuses on re-imagining different stories in modern times, creating interesting new stories. Both Holmes and Watson are portrayed as younger and fresher versions of Doyle’s characters, appealing to the demographic. The show, although serious and intellectual, manages to be funny and attention grabbing.
Sherlock has garnered lots of critical acclaim. With 133 nominations and 81 wins, it is safe to say that this show is quite well received. Its two leads, prior unknowns, have gone on to star in blockbusters like Star Trek and The Hobbit.
To the disappointment of the viewers, Sherlock’s seasons have only three episodes each, and seasons air once every year or once every two years. A special aired in 2016, and the fourth season of the show aired January 1, 2017.
Sherlock’s first three seasons are available on Netflix.
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Communication Major & Minor
Mission & Learning Goals
Home / Communication Major & Minor / Erin Szabo
Erin Szabo
Erin Szabo is a bit of an anomaly in the communication department, since she brings with her a very research-based, statistical, social science approach to the study of communication. With our communication department firmly grounded in the humanities, she was surprised at the welcome reception she received when she joined the staff. When she interviewed for the position, says Szabo, “the one thing I loved about the communication department is that they respected what I did regardless of whether they agree with the methods I use.”
That openness has allowed her to do research and teach communication by the numbers rather than the nuances. She is teaching a course this year, for example, about strategic communication campaigns, taking a very “social science” approach to persuasion. Joan Steck, the chair of the department, also teaches a class in persuasion, but in looking at the syllabus, Szabo was glad to see they were coming at it from very different directions. She says of her fellow professors, “we’ll take an issue and approach it very differently, but we come to similar conclusions. We just get there in a unique way.”
After discovering through several discussions with a colleague that school children were being frightened by “what they’d seen or heard that day on the news”, communication assistant professor Erin Szabo decided to pursue an investigation into children’s fear response to the TV news.
Her preliminary findings, after working with kids at a school district in central Minnesota, revealed that students were indeed frightened by the news on TV. As you might expect, the level of fear differed based on the age of the student. Parents need to realize, says Szabo, that students at all age levels are forced to watch TV news in school, and it can create a lot of fear in younger kids. The upshot of the investigation is that we probably need to be more careful about what we expose our young people to as part of their education.
Even though Szabo pursues research and worked for a year on a large project investigating the effectiveness of anti-smoking on 5th and 6th grade students, teaching is her first love. “When it came down to it, I chose the small liberal arts school over the research university because the students are really why I went into it. I love the research, but I love the teaching more,” says Szabo. She sees communication as cross-disciplinary by its very nature. Szabo explains that a humanities approach to communication involves interpreting and uncovering meaning in text, about “finding an answer.” She relies on quantitative research because, as she puts it, “my ultimate goal is objectivity. It’s all about finding the answer.”
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Going to School With Hemophilia
Going to School with Hemophilia: Building a positive relationship with school officials
Five ways to help your child succeed.
By Debra Moffitt 09 Jan 2018
Shonda Joshua gave herself a goal when she learned her son, Michael, had severe hemophilia B.
"I had to help this young man live a very close to normal life," she says.
That meant going to school just like other kids, but it wasn't easy handing over his care and safety to teachers and the school nurse. At age 4, Michael was diagnosed with hemophilia. So Joshua understands what it's like to be that nervous parent.
"The one place they have to go that you cannot go is school. You can look in the window, but you have to leave," she says.
Here are her five tips for keeping your child safe and building a positive relationship with school officials:
Some parents don't inform teachers and school nurse that their child has a bleeding disorder. This is a mistake, Joshua says, though she understands their strong wish for the child to not feel different from other students. But failing to tell the school can lead to unintended consequences, such as suspicions your child may be being abused due to frequent bruises, Joshua says.
It's far better for the child's safety and health that school officials know about your child's illness. Then, they'll know what to do and who to call if your child gets hurt or develops a bleed at school. Also have your child wear a medical ID bracelet because not every school official will know your child personally – substitute teachers, for instance.
2. Be polite and professional.
It's understandable that parents are protective of their children. Some may want the school staff to uphold their own very high safety standards. Other parents may want the school to allow the child to fully participate in everything, including physical activity that carries a risk of injury.
But taking a bossy approach with school officials doesn't work. Respect their time and expertise, she advises.
"We don't want them to be sorry we walked in the door," Joshua says.
3. Bring in experts.
Though parents often know quite a lot about their child's bleeding disorder, it's better to bring in a health care provider who has expertise in hemophilia to talk with teachers and the school nurse. The school nurse, though medically trained, may know little about hemophilia.
"Don't minimize her experience. Offer to provide an expert to help the nurse learn more about the bleeding disorder your child has," Joshua says.
An in-service session with a bleeding disorder expert can go a long way. Rightly or wrongly, what an impartial expert says will have more authority than "just a parent." Request the school’s permission to set up the session. It can be a good opportunity to ask about accommodation plans and procedures that the school already has in place for students with medical needs.
"Attend the in-service as a mom," Joshua says.
Also involve your health care provider in the discussion about gym class, so everyone feels comfortable and your child isn't needlessly left out of physical activity, she says. The National Hemophilia Association provides guidance on sports and physical activities for children who have bleeding disorders.
4. Create an emergency plan and, if needed, a 504 plan.
Simple things like keeping emergency contact numbers up to date can make a big difference if your child gets injured or has a bleed at school, Joshua says. Make sure your emergency plan includes current information about the medications your child takes.
A 504 plan is a customized education plan that specifies how a publicly funded school will make accommodations for a child with special needs. Federal regulations govern the plans, which can be helpful in specifying and ensuring your child gets what's needed to be successful.
5. Know when to go over someone's head.
A respectful, collaborative working relationship is best for everyone involved, but what if you've tried your best and your child still isn't getting what he or she needs at school? Your child's health, safety, and well-being, including freedom from being isolated unnecessarily, are a parent's top priorities, Joshua said. Sometimes, you have to escalate the situation.
Start by giving the school official a reasonable time to respond, meet with you, or address your concerns. If that doesn't work, it's time to move up the chain to the principal or superintendent of schools.
"Keep in mind that everyone has a boss," Joshua says.
It can help to talk with other parents whose children have hemophilia, or other chronic conditions. They likely have felt the same frustrations and navigated the same issues.
"We have the bleeding disorder. The bleeding disorder doesn't have us," Joshua says.
"We're all in this thing together."
Hemophilia and Youth Sports: Do They Mix?
Physical activity is important. Learn how to play it safe.
What is Hemophilia?
This original animation explains.
Watch this short animation
16 Jan 2018 People
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Code-breaker Alan Turing to be pardoned (finally)
Vilified by the British government for his homosexuality -- a fact that many say led to his suicide -- the famous mathematician and Enigma code-breaker is now likely to receive a posthumous pardon.
Chris Matyszczyk
July 20, 2013 9:37 AM PDT
Alan Turing Joe Stoltz/YouTube screenshot by Chris Matyszczyk/CNET
The British government chemically castrated Alan Turing.
Now it wants to say that wasn't quite cricket.
Or, rather, it wants to pardon him for the heinous crime of having been a homosexual.
As the Guardian reports, the government has decided to offer its support to a bill that would give him a complete posthumous pardon.
In the 1950s it didn't matter to the powers-that-be that Turing was a brilliant mathematician whose Turing Machine was the basis of so much of modern computing.
It didn't matter that he had helped crack Germany's Enigma Code during World War II.
What mattered was that he was prosecuted for homosexuality -- or gross indecency, as it was called in those days -- and told he could either go to jail or be chemically castrated. He chose the latter.
In 1954, aged a mere 41, he ate an apple laced with cyanide. This was officially recorded as a suicide, though not everyone agrees with that conclusion.
Over the years, the British government has been resistant to offering Turing a pardon. In 2009, however, Prime Minister Gordon Brown did offer an apology and admitted that Turing's treatment had been "appalling."
It is likely that Turing -- who was celebrated in a Google doodle last year -- will finally receive his posthumous pardon at the end of this year. Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon, a senior government figure in the House of Lords, told the Guardian he expects the pardon to pass speedily through the system. Finally.
Some might be astonished that this move had to be debated among Britain's lords. However, during the debate, a Lady Trumpington told her fellow lords and ladies: "I am certain that but for his (Turing's) work we would have lost the war through starvation."
How Alan Turing ushered in modern computing (photos)
What greater contributions Turing might have made if he had just been allowed to live his own personal life.
There's something so pitiful that someone should get a Google doodle before they get a pardon from their own government.
Technically Incorrect Culture Gaming Alan Turing Google
Discuss: Code-breaker Alan Turing to be pardoned (finally)
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In this March 4, 2018 file photo, Jeff Bezos and wife MacKenzie Bezos arrive at the Vanity Fair Oscar Party in Beverly Hills, Calif. Jeff Bezos and MacKenzie, announced Thursday, April 4, 2019, in a series of tweets that they have finalized their divorce, ending a 25-year marriage that played a role in the creation of the online shopping giant. (Photo by Evan Agostini/Invision/AP, File)
Amazon’s Jeff Bezos and wife MacKenzie finalize divorce
MacKenzie Bezos said she is giving up all her interest in The Washington Post and Blue Origin
Amazon said Thursday that founder and CEO Jeff Bezos has finalized his divorce with wife MacKenzie, who will get a stake in the online shopping giant worth more than $35 billion.
In a tweet, MacKenzie Bezos said she is giving up all her interest in The Washington Post, the newspaper that Jeff Bezos bought in 2013, and Blue Origin, the space exploration company he founded.
READ MORE: Bezos probe concludes mistress’ brother was Enquirer source
“I’m grateful for her support and for her kindness in this process,” Jeff Bezos said in a tweet Thursday. “And am very much looking forward to our new relationship as friends and co-parents.”
The couple announced they were divorcing in January, just before the National Enquirer published a story saying Jeff Bezos was having an affair with a former TV host. Jeff Bezos later accused the tabloid’s publisher of threatening to publish explicit photos of him unless he stopped investigating how the Enquirer obtained his private messages.
pic.twitter.com/OJWn3OOLS6
— MacKenzie Bezos (@mackenziebezos) April 4, 2019
When the divorce is complete, which is expected to happen in about 90 days, MacKenzie Bezos will have a 4% stake in Amazon. Before the separation, Jeff Bezos had a 16% stake in Amazon worth more than $140 billion, making him one of the world’s richest people.
He’ll still be the company’s biggest shareholder when the divorce is complete, with a 12% stake in Amazon.
Joseph Pisani, The Associated Press
Canadians spend thousands on cars that sit idle 96% of the time: study
Chevron seeks NEB licence that could nearly double production at Kitimat LNG
Pacific Salmon Foundation contributes $42,000 to Comox Valley wild salmon restoration projects
The Pacific Salmon Foundation announced it is contributing more than $42,000 to… Continue reading
Editorial: Plastic bag court battle inevitable, but just a waste of time
Court ruling striking down Victoria’s plastic bag ban unneeded speedbump on road to doing right thing
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Healthcare tax for citizens, free healthcare…
Healthcare tax for citizens, free healthcare for noncitizens
Gov. Gavin Newsom discusses his revised 2019-2020 state budget during a news conference Thursday, May 9, 2019 in Sacramento, Calif. Some lawmakers and advocates are raising doubts about the Democratic governor’s plan to shore up Obamacare with a tax penalty on people who don’t buy insurance. (Photo by Rich Pedroncelli, The Associated Press)
By Jon Coupal | |
PUBLISHED: June 16, 2019 at 12:00 pm | UPDATED: June 16, 2019 at 12:00 pm
If there was any question whatsoever as to whether California has gone completely off the rails, proposals in the new state budget should remove all doubt. Perhaps the most egregious of these involve changes in state law as they relate to health care.
As of this writing, those proposals have yet to be adopted by both houses of the legislature – which is constitutionally required to pass the budget bill by June 15th every year – but statements by legislative leaders have caused a great deal of angst among the taxpayer public.
First among the inexplicable ideas is the proposal to force citizen and legal immigrant taxpayers to pay a new healthcare tax in order to subsidize healthcare for California residents who are living in the country illegally. Yes, you read that right. The tax that Gov. Gavin Newsom wants to impose is a penalty on all those who don’t comply with the “individual mandate.” If this sounds familiar, it should. The individual mandate was a key component of Obamacare at the federal level until the penalty was repealed by the Republican-led Congress in 2017.
If it passes, California would be one of only four states imposing a tax on those who won’t or can’t obtain the kind of health insurance coverage the government requires. The state-imposed mandate would parallel the federal mandate which, in 2016, amounted to $695 per adult or 2.5 percent of yearly household income, whichever was higher. The tax is projected by Newsom to generate about $1 billion over three years.
Adding insult to injury, a portion of that $1 billion generated would go to provide healthcare coverage to people living in the country illegally. Currently, full-scope Medi-Cal benefits are provided to illegal immigrants up to the age of 19. This proposal, estimated to cost about $100 million, would extend that eligibility to the age of 26.
We doubt that imposing a healthcare tax on citizens and legal residents to generate funds for healthcare benefits for illegal residents will resonate with voters. At this point, it is unclear whether the penalty will be labeled as a tax by the legislature. Its inherent unpopularity might compel politicians to call it a “fee” or a “charge” instead of a tax. But proponents need to understand two things. First, the United States Supreme Court has labeled Obamacare’s penalty as a tax — indeed that is the only thing that saved Obamacare’s constitutionality and, second, California voters know a tax when they see one.
A solution that preserves worker flexibility is needed in gig economy proposals
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In California, if the Legislature imposes a tax, it must receive a two-thirds vote of each house. Because the Democrats have a solid two-thirds-plus majority, one would assume that this threshold will be met. However, after the recall of then-Sen. Josh Newman for his support of the infamous gas tax hike, and the recent drubbing of Measure EE in Los Angeles, who knows what moderate Democrats may be thinking about voting for a new tax hike.
Finally, there is something unseemly about the individual mandate and the penalty for non-compliance. The tax for not buying insurance was one of the Affordable Care Act’s most unpopular features and many Americans cheered when it was repealed as part of the federal tax reform legislation.
The notion that government can force you to buy a product that you may not want is inconsistent with basic precepts of freedom and individual responsibility. In resurrecting the individual mandate and penalty, California is only reinforcing its image as a high-tax and limited-freedom place to live. That’s probably why more than one million residents — mostly middle class — have bailed out to other states that still retain a modicum of sanity.
Jon Coupal is president of the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association.
Jon Coupal
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‘I Have a Girl Brain but a Boy Body’: Virginia Kindergartners Are Read Transgender Story
Tony Perkins / @tperkins / March 06, 2019 / Leave a comment
"With radical sex ed around every corner—including first-graders’—and now this dangerous excuse for “story time,” it’s no wonder that U.S. homeschooling is in the middle of its biggest surge in 20 years," Tony Perkins writes. (Photo: Raul Arboleda/Stringer/Getty Images)
Tony Perkins / @tperkins
Tony Perkins is president of the Family Research Council.
It looked like your typical reading class. Dozens of kindergarten students sat cross-legged on the floor watching their teacher turn to the first page. It didn’t take long for the 5-year-olds to realize: This was no ordinary children’s book. “I have a girl brain but a boy body,” Miss McBride started. “This is called transgender. I was born this way.”
Thanks to a new partnership between two radically liberal forces—the National Education Association and Human Rights Campaign—there’s no telling how many elementary school students heard the exact same message in their own classrooms. That’s because Monday was Read Across America Day, and for the first time, the country’s biggest LGBT extremists were official sponsors.
The NEA, which has been a satellite office for the far-left wing of the Democratic Party for years, insisted that it was “urgent” to ally with HRC now that the president has rolled back Barack Obama’s bathroom mandate. “The Trump administration has been openly hostile,” said NEA President Lily Garcia, “whether or not you’re a transgender soldier or transgender little boy or girl. It is more important than ever before that we speak out.”
In The Washington Post article about this new initiative, no one explains whether parents were warned. Judging by both organizations’ track record, it’s safe to assume they weren’t. After all, this is exactly the kind of outrageous indoctrination that’s caused millions of parents to pull their kids out of school and either move them to Christian campuses or teach them at home.
With radical sex ed around every corner—including first-graders’—and now this dangerous excuse for “story time,” it’s no wonder that U.S. homeschooling is in the middle of its biggest surge in 20 years.
Encouraging kids to accept—or worse, live out—this kind of genderlessness is not only destructive, it’s what the American College of Pediatricians calls “child abuse.”
“When an otherwise healthy biological boy believes he is a girl, or an otherwise healthy biological girl believes she is a boy, an objective psychological problem exists that lies in the mind not the body, and it should be treated as such,” the American College of Pediatricians warns.
Not to mention, the physicians go on, that this type of confusion is a passing phase. “As many as 98 percent of gender confused boys and 88 percent of gender confused girls eventually accept their biological sex after naturally passing through puberty.”
For years, LGBT activists wanted to keep the goal of luring children into sexual confusion under wraps. Now that they’ve hoodwinked a lot of the country on their agenda, these extremists no longer have to hide. In fact, they are increasingly bold—even boastful—about their real intentions of recruiting kids. As the head of a Toronto publishing company famously said: “I have come to indoctrinate your children (and I’m not a bit sorry).” It’s up to vigilant parents to make sure they don’t succeed.
Originally published in Tony Perkins’ Washington Update, which is written with the aid of Family Research Council senior writers.
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Fact check: Trump's political spin on migrant deaths
By Calvin Woodward Associated Press
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump twisted circumstances behind the deaths of two migrant Guatemalan children to insulate his administration from any blame, contending without justification that they were in dire health before they reached the border.
The children cleared initial U.S. health screenings and one of them was in the U.S. for five days before suddenly showing signs of illness.
His weekend tweets on the deaths in U.S. custody of a 7-year-old girl and an 8-year old boy were his first public words on the subject and conveyed no empathy for the children or their families. Instead he said the children's fate shows why the U.S. needs a wall at the Mexican border.
On Monday, Trump assailed Democrats who called his proposed border wall immoral, tweeting "it is far more immoral for people to be dying!"
Trump addressed the matter during a week in which he also misrepresented what he's done for military pay in a speech to troops in Iraq and told a faulty story about the Iran nuclear deal.
A look at some of his statements and the reality behind them:
MEXICAN BORDER
TRUMP: "The two ... children in question were very sick before they were given over to Border Patrol. The father of the young girl said it was not their fault, he hadn't given her water in days. Border Patrol needs the Wall and it will all end." — tweets Saturday.
THE FACTS: This account is not supported by timelines released by Customs and Border Protection or other sources.
As well, Trump is wrong in saying the father of the girl who died has absolved U.S. officials of responsibility. Through family lawyers, Nery Gilberto Caal Cuz said he made sure his daughter Jakelin had food and water as they traveled through Mexico. The Border Protection timeline on her case says: "The initial screening revealed no evidence of health issues." And nothing was mentioned about the girl being dehydrated.
The record so far neither establishes that U.S. officials were to blame for the children's deaths nor clears them of blame, despite Trump's pronouncement. All the facts are not known, but he rendered what is known inaccurately.
Circumstances are laid out in the Customs and Border Protection accounts of the capture, treatment and deaths of Jakelin Caal, 7, and Felipe Gomez Alonzo , 8, who both came to the border with their fathers:
When Jakelin Caal and her father were caught the evening of Dec. 6, her father described her as in good health and no illness was observed by agents. It's possible father and daughter did not acknowledge an illness. The next morning, she vomited on a bus waiting to take them to a Border Patrol station, then stopped breathing. Twice revived by Border Patrol personnel, she was then flown by helicopter to an El Paso, Texas, trauma center, went into cardiac arrest and was revived once more. She died Dec. 8 at 12:35 a.m.
Trump's assertion that both children were very ill before their apprehension is even more flagrantly untethered from the record in the case of Alonzo.
Catarina Alonzo, the boy's mother, told The Associated Press her son was well and eating chicken after arriving at the U.S. border when she spoke with him by phone.
According to a Border Protection timeline, Felipe and his father, Agustin Gomez, were caught Dec. 18 near El Paso. Agents recorded giving them 23 "welfare checks" — checking on the well-being of father and son — over the next four days. No concern about the boy's health is noted in the timeline. But on Dec. 24, a day after being transferred to a New Mexico center, the boy was taken to a hospital with a cough and high fever, released after more than five hours with flu medicine, then taken back late that evening. He lost consciousness on the way and doctors could not revive him.
TRUMP: "I am in the Oval Office & just gave out a 115 mile long contract for another large section of the Wall in Texas." — tweet Dec. 24.
TRUMP: "Yesterday, I gave out 115 miles' worth of wall, 115 miles in Texas. It's going to be built, hopefully rapidly. I'm going there at the end of January for the start of construction." — remarks to reporters Tuesday.
THE FACTS: He appears to be representing work financed months ago, as new construction. A president cannot simply give out a construction contract. U.S. Customs and Border Protection and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers award contracts for border wall construction after Congress approves the money and months have gone into planning.
In March, Congress approved money for 33 miles (53 kilometers) of construction in South Texas' Rio Grande Valley, the busiest corridor for illegal border crossings. The government said in November that construction in the Rio Grande Valley would begin in February. Targeted areas include the nonprofit National Butterfly Center, a state park and privately owned ranches and farmland. Trump's statement that he plans to visit the site in late January suggests he may be referring to this previously announced construction.
It's a mystery how he comes up with 115 miles (185 km), and neither the White House nor the Homeland Security Department explained that when asked.
Homeland Security has said the money approved by Congress in March will pay for 84 miles (135 km) altogether along the southern border, including the Texas stretch. If the Trump administration got the entire $5 billion it's requested from Congress, the administration says that would be enough to build 215 miles (346 km) of barrier.
What's not a mystery is that Trump has repeatedly exaggerated what's been accomplished on his campaign promise to build a wall sealing the border with Mexico.
TRUMP: "You just got one of the biggest pay raises you ever received. Unless you don't want it. Does anybody here? Is anybody here willing to give up the big pay raise you just got? I don't see too many hands. Ah, OK. Don't give it up. It's great. You know what? Nobody deserves it more. You haven't gotten one in more than 10 years. More than 10 years. And we got you a big one. I got you a big one." — remarks prompting cheers from troops Wednesday at al-Asad Air Base in Iraq.
THE FACTS: He's wrong about there being no pay increase for service members in more than 10 years and about their raise being especially large. U.S. military members have gotten a pay raise every year for decades. As well, several in the last 10 years have been larger than service members are getting now — 2.4 percent this year and 2.6 percent in 2019. Raises in 2008, 2009 and 2010, for example, were all 3.4 percent or more.
Trump has repeatedly told service members that they're getting the biggest or only pay raise that they have received in 10 years or more. In May, for example, he told graduates of the United States Naval Academy: "We just got you a big pay raise. First time in 10 years."
TRUMP: "You had plenty of people, they came up, they said, you know we could make it smaller. We could make it 3 percent, we could make it 2 percent, we could make it 4 percent. I said, 'no, make it 10 percent — make it more than 10 percent.'" — remarks Wednesday at al-Asad base.
THE FACTS: Whatever he might have said at the time, the 2.6 percent for 2019 obviously falls far short of the 10 percent or more that he implied was achieved.
TRUMP: "For all of the sympathizers out there of Brett McGurk remember, he was the Obama appointee who was responsible for loading up airplanes with 1.8 Billion Dollars in CASH & sending it to Iran as part of the horrific Iran Nuclear Deal (now terminated) approved by Little Bob Corker." — tweet Monday.
THE FACTS: There are three or more things wrong with this short tweet as he takes a slap at a retiring Republican senator who criticized him, Bob Corker of Tennessee, and a U.S. official who resigned in protest against Trump's plan to pull troops from Syria, Brett McGurk.
First, Corker was no architect of the 2015 deal between world powers and Iran. He was a leading critic of it in Congress.
He argued at the time that President Barack Obama should have made the pact a treaty subject to approval by the Senate. When Obama didn't do that, Corker helped fellow senators write legislation that subjected the accord to periodic congressional review. The legislation would have blocked the deal if that effort got enough votes. It didn't. Obama brought the deal into effect, not Congress.
Corker has sharply criticized Trump, calling him "utterly untruthful" and responsible for "the debasing of our nation."
Second, branding McGurk an "Obama appointee" is misleading. The veteran diplomat bridges administrations. Republican President George W. Bush appointed him as a senior aide for Iraq and Afghanistan. During the negotiations for the Iran nuclear deal by the Obama administration, McGurk led secret side talks with Tehran on the release of Americans imprisoned there. He is Trump's envoy to the coalition fighting the Islamic State group in Syria, but quitting in protest of the troop withdrawal.
As for cash flown to Iran, that's true, though Trump is off on the amount and leaves out important context: The money was a debt owed to Tehran, which bought military equipment from the U.S. that it never received because relations ruptured when the shah was overthrown in 1979. A cargo plane took $400 million, representing the principal, to the Iranians. The remaining $1.3 billion, representing interest accrued over nearly 40 years, was transferred separately.
The diplomatic break meant that a variety of debts between the two countries went uncollected and became the subject of international arbitration. As part of that process, Iran paid settlements of more than $2.5 billion to U.S. citizens and businesses over the years.
Former doctor of Warren sentenced in Madison Heights opioid drug case
Royal Oak crime: Rx drugs stolen in break-in; Meier employee faces embezzlement charge
Over 40 Berkley businesses offer deals for Couples Night Out
Woman charged with stealing, crashing Ferndale police car
Live Music Thursdays return for the summer in downtown Royal Oak
Royal Oak to get six MoGo bike share stations as system expands into Oakland County
Royal Oak to start work on rules for marijuana businesses
Ferndale mayor launches early campaign for state rep
Rush bassist to sign books in Livonia
Royal Oak business women’s group seeks nominees for award
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Okorocha: Imo people know their next governor
By Jude Aguguo Owuamanam, Owerri | Published Date Jan 11, 2019 3:06 AM
Governor Rochas Okorocha of Imo State has said that the governorship election has been won and lost as the people already know who will govern them in 2019.
Okorocha, who spoke when the new General Officer Commanding (GOC), the 82 Division of the Nigerian Army, Enugu, Maj. Gen. A. C. Maikobi, paid him a courtesy call at the government house Owerri, urged the military to ensure free and fair elections.
The governor also called for severe punishment for politicians who adorned hoodlums with uniforms and armed them during elections.
He said this is the time all effort must be geared towards ensuring that the nation’s democracy was saved.
Speaking earlier, Maikobi said he had come with his team to inform the governor that he had taken over as the GOC of the 82 Division of the Nigerian Army Enugu and the flag-off of Operation Egwueke 3 in the South-East with their headquarters at Abakaliki, Ebonyi State.
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Adapting to a Newly Fragile Environment: Lessons from Mali
By guest-bloggers Steve Mason, Aga Khan Foundation Canada (AKFC), and Katie McGregor, University of Ottawa.
Renowned as a place of rich history, diverse cultures and world-famous musicians, Mali has been making headlines for very different reasons over the past twelve months. Once cited as a model of peace and stability in West Africa, Mali’s two decades of democracy came to an abrupt end on March 22, 2012, with an internationally condemned coup d’état. The political void in Bamako combined with Tuareg and Islamic rebellions in the North and intensifying drought across the Sahel to set off a three-fold crisis: political, security and humanitarian.
Development actors were largely unprepared for the speed with which the situation deteriorated on the ground. The Aga Khan Foundation (AFK), active in Mali since 2007, was among the first to confront the crisis through its work in the Mopti Region, a border zone between the rebel-controlled north and government-controlled south of the country. AKF initially suspended activities for a four-week period in April 2012 in order to ensure the safety of its staff team of over 60 people and to recalibrate its programming to the evolving context. Nutrition and agriculture activities were scaled up to combat growing food insecurity, internationally displaced persons (IDPs) were integrated into services offered, and a new security protocol was developed. AKF also engaged with local and national coordination bodies, including the UN Cluster System, to facilitate humanitarian actions as well as with donors, such as USAID, USDA and CIDA, to redirect existing funds and secure new ones.
Unraveling the complex, historically rooted, and multi-faceted nature of the Malian crisis has been the subject of intense debate and will continue to be so for some time. Nonetheless, AKF’s experiences in the country point to some key lessons learned for development actors and donors adapting to a newly fragile environment:
Rethinking aid delivery mechanisms
There is a pressing need for donors to branch out and diversify aid modalities. The near-exclusive focus on government budget support in Mali reduced donor ability to respond flexibly and rapidly to the crisis. A more balanced approach, supporting government, civil society and the private sector, would reduce fragility and enable continuity of donor investment. Aid suspension in the face of political crisis is a blunt instrument with blunt results. Often, suspended aid includes not only aid to government but also aid to NGOs, compounding the negative impact of the crisis on the population. The results are particularly severe in a country like Mali, where close to 40% of the government’s budget depends on aid flows. Instead, donors should redirect aid to NGOs and civil society actors who can continue to provide essential services. In this context, the UN Cluster System can support the humanitarian response; however, the Mali case has shown that regional coordination bodies, such as the one chaired by the Governor of Mopti Region, can be more effective in tailoring responses to the needs of the population.
Balancing local and regional approaches
On the whole, donors need to scale up and prioritize investments in local actors. Bottom-up approaches build the capacity for local governance structures to mitigate fragility and cope in times of crisis. This includes investing in the capacity of civil society organizations that can help underwrite the forces of pluralism. The localization of staff is also critical. One of the primary reasons that AKF was able to quickly resume activities at full scale was the fact that 100% of its Mopti staff is local. Yet there is also a need for coordinated regional approaches. The situation in Mali is intimately linked to what is happening in neighbouring countries of the region. Coordinating aid, diplomatic and defense efforts across borders would increase their effectiveness.
Investing in long-term solutions
As noted at the conference on February 8, the success of development engagement is often constrained by donor impatience and risk-adversity, which encourage a short-term, project-based approach. Donors can reap large dividends by moving from a reactive to a preventative model. Investing in resilience is paramount. The humanitarian situation in Mali resulted partly from the absence of social safety nets and coping mechanisms. AKF beneficiaries who had greater asset bases were much less impacted by the overall situation. Contingency and scenario planning is also necessary, even in seemingly stable situations. In Mali, the underlying issues were well known, yet no one was prepared for the speed and suddenness of the crisis.
This blog post is part of an online discussion on “Development in Fragile States? Lessons and Options for Canada” building on a symposium held at the University of Ottawa on February 8, 2013. Bringing together academics, Canadian government representatives and non-government experts, the conference and this blog series aim to create space for constructive, evidence-based policy dialogue on the development dimensions of Canadian engagement in fragile and conflict affected states.
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Concorso d’Eleganza Villa d’Este 2019 Corriere d’Eleganza VII
Dear Friends of the Concorso,
The countdown is ticking away, the excitement is increasing: there are just a few weeks until the Concorso d’Eleganza Villa d’Este 2019. This issue of “Corriere d’Eleganza” today brings you all the latest news about the Jurys for automobiles and motorcycles, about the award classes for the automobiles and other highlights of this year’s event.
We wish you an enjoyable read.
Your Concorso d’Eleganza Villa d’Este Team
Lorenzo and his 12 colleagues with their unbiased perspective
If you happen to see groups of three walking about the grounds of Villa d’Este wearing virtually identical clothing (blue blazer, beige trousers, white shirt and Panama hat), you will know: here comes the Jury for Historic Cars ready to judge the treasured vehicles. You can find out here who belongs to the Jury alongside Jury President Lorenzo Ramaciotti…
Apart from the prizes conferred in the Public Referendum, there are a number of awards – including the most important prize “Best of Show – which are decided by a distinguished Jury. They are all automobile experts and devoted connoisseurs of the scene. The President is Lorenzo Ramaciotti, former Chief of Design at Pininfarina and the Fiat Group.
He is supported by Ian Cameron (former Chief Designer at Rolls-Royce), Winston Goodfellow (Journalist and Automobile Historian), Harm Lagaaij (former Chief Designer at Ford, BMW and Porsche), Patrick Le Quément (former Chief Designer at Renault), Charles Henry Gordon Lennox, 11th Duke of Richmond (British Peer, Promoter of Motor Sport and Founder of the Goodwood Festival of Speed), Adolfo Orsini (Expert on Historic Motor Sport), Stefano Pasini (Author of Automobile Books) and Johann Philip Rathgen (Automobile Journalist). This Jury is complemented by four Honorary Judges.
Three women who are all experts in classic cars: Quirina Louwman, Yasmin Le Bon and new member Laura Kukuk. The quartet is completed by Shiro Nakamura (formerly Chief Creative Officer at Nissan, Infiniti and Datsun), who is also here for the first time.
Two Presidents for Two-wheelers
The Jury for the Historic Motorcycles has two presidents at the same time: Francois-Marie Dumas (former Motorcycle Journalist and Product Consultant at Yamaha) is President of the Jury. He is supported by Carlo Perelli (Doyen of the Motorcycle World and former Motorcycle Journalist), who was sole President of the Jury for many dedicated years and who now acts as the Honorary Jury President. Who are the other members of the Jury?
The two presidents are joined by six other Jury members. Sara Fiandri (Fashion Editor at Cosmopolitan and passionate Motorcycle Rider), Mick Duckworth (Motorcycle Journalist and Book Author), Paul d’Orleans (Co-founder of the Motorcycle Film Festival and the Motorcycle Arts Foundation), Arnost Nezmeskai (Director of the National Technical Museum in Prague), Ralf Rodepeter (Head of Brand and Product Management at BMW Motorrad).
Beatriz Gonzales Eguiraun is a new member of the Jury this year (TV Journalist and Motorcycle Expert).
Eight award classes for the “Symphony of engines”
52 classic cars from different decades have been chosen by the Selecting Committee and they are divided into eight award classes. And at this stage, we can reveal that all manner of cars are represented that will make the heart of classic car enthusiasts beat a little faster. They include exceptionally rare examples, vehicles of stunning elegance, spectacular representatives from motor sport and automobiles that in their era were regarded as inspirationally futuristic.
The automobiles are being presented…
The automobiles are being presented in eight award classes:
Goodbye Roaring Twenties: The Birth of the Concorso.
This class with participants from the late 1920s recalls the birth and the early years of the Concorso.
Fast forward: A Quarter Century of Progress.
This class features vehicles from the years 1914 to 1939 which defined benchmarks in their time – for engineering and design.
A new Dawn: Into the Rock’n’Roll Era.
This class is unmistakeably directed towards automobiles from the 1950s. These are vehicles which even then were regarded as dream cars in the post-war era.
Swinging Sixties: The Sky’s the Limit.
Breathtaking sports cars from the 1960s are represented here. Breathtaking in design and breathtaking in power.
Class E
Small and perfectly formed: The Coachbuilder’s Art in Miniature.
Compact vehicles are by no means a recent invention. Automobiles with compact dimensions were already being designed in the 1950s and 1960s. Undoubtedly, well proportioned and elegant, but also rather idiosyncratic at times.
Class F
Baby You Can Drive My Car: Musical Stars’ Cars.
Exclusive and coveted sports cars from the 1960s to the 1980s with famous previous owners from the world of music.
Speeding Against the Clock: Endurance Racing Legends.
These vehicles were created for the battle against the clock. Spectacular endurance racing cars between 1949 and 1966.
Daring to Dream: Concepts which rocked the Motoring World.
In the 21st century, the world is debating whether the future of the automobile lies solely with e-mobility. During the 1960s and 1970s, the perspective for the future was focused almost entirely on the design.
Complete field of entrants
Every year many collectors and fans of historic vehicles apply to participate in the Concorso d’Eleganza Villa d’Este. For the Selecting Committees of Historic Cars and the Motorcycle Concours it is a tough job to decide which of the treasures will be accepted to participate.
However, the call lists for 2019 are closed, all decisions are made and we are looking forward to the presentation of 52 outstanding historic cars as well as 35 more than remarkable motorcycles in May.
On 15th May 2019, a joint press conference will be held at Milan’s Scala with Grand Hotel Villa d’Este, BMW Group Classic and BMW Italia. The call lists for the Historic Car Concours, Concept Cars & Prototypes as well as for the Motorcycle Concours will be published in the course of the conference.
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The Weekly Watchman: Farm to food stamps
Drew White · June 26, 2018
Singh_Lens | Getty Images
The House outlook
The House of Representatives came back into session on Monday, June 25, for what is expected to be a big week before the July 4 recess. All eyes are on competing immigration legislation and the lingering possibility of a disastrous amnesty vote just four and a half months before the November elections.
The first votes began around 6:30 p.m. EST on Monday, with a lengthy series of suspension bills. These are bills that operate outside the normal rule-making process and require a two-thirds vote to pass instead of a simple majority. Suspension bills are ones that the House leadership deems “non-controversial” and largely bipartisan. But the suspension calendar is often filled with legislation that grows government with little debate.
The suspension calendar spotlight
The House is planning to vote on a total of 21 suspension bills this week. These bills will not have any amendment votes and are likely to pass overwhelmingly. One bill of note is H.R. 1791 by Rep. Dave Reichert, R-Wash. This bill would create a new national heritage area without allowing House members to debate or offer amendments.
Mountains to Sound Greenway National Heritage Act
Sponsor: Rep. Dave Reichert, R-Wash.
Committee of Jurisdiction: Natural Resources Committee
What does the bill do? The bill would create a new national heritage area in Washington state following an initial feasibility study dated 2012.
Should conservatives be concerned? Yes. National heritage areas are not codified in federal statute and continue to expand. They are implemented by Congress on an ad hoc basis as a form of earmark for members who want to secure projects for constituencies in their home districts. In general, they are little more than land grabs by the federal government and threaten private property rights through restrictive zoning despite assurances that private property rights will be protected.
Does the bill grow government? Absolutely. This new national heritage area will secure more land for the federal government, threaten private property rights in the surrounding areas, and increase future funding to the National Park Service while diverting resources from that agency’s core mission.
Conservative contrast: Many conservatives might wonder why the Republican-controlled Congress is spending its floor time adding more land to the federal government’s ledger instead of rolling back harmful EPA or Department of Energy regulations — or, perhaps, repealing the Obamacare health insurance regulations crushing American families and households.
The House could vote on immigration bills this week. There are two bills likely to be considered. The first, H.R. 4760, is the original iteration of a bill introduced by Rep. Bob Goodlatte, R-Va. This bill is widely considered the strongest legislative measure introduced in the 115th Congress to address our ongoing border crisis. However, the bill is not without its faults.
According to multiple sources on Capitol Hill, this bill has garnered the most support thus far within the Republican conference.
Highlights of H.R. 4760
The bill provides renewable three-year non-immigrant visas to the DACA population (roughly 700,000 individuals). It does not provide a pathway to citizenship via green cards. Many conservatives still consider this a form of amnesty.
The bill eliminates family-based chain migration by the end of the current fiscal year.
The bill eliminates the diversity visa lottery program but offsets that positive policy change by moving these 55,000 visas over for use in a program designed for high-skilled labor.
The bill brings an end to the abhorrent practice of catch-and-release and requires ICE to detain illegal aliens who present a risk to the American public.
The bill cuts off law enforcement grants to sanctuary cities and mandates that businesses implement e-Verify to determine the immigration status of their employees.
The bill includes Kate’s Law, which provides for mandated prison sentences for illegal aliens who return to the U.S. after being deported.
The second bill, H.R. 6136, is a leadership-modified version of the Goodlatte bill. Suffice to say, the stronger provisions have been watered down to appease more moderate members of the Republican conference — including the Tuesday Group faction, which is hell-bent on working with Democrats to pass amnesty.
Highlights (lowlights?) of H.R. 6136
The bill provides a pathway to citizenship for 700,000 DACA recipients as well as the “Dreamer” population and beyond—going back to illegal immigrants who have been in the United States since 2007. In total, this potentially could mean amnesty for three million people.
The bill eliminates two categories of family-based chain migration, while retaining other categories such as spouses and parents.
The bill eliminates the diversity visa lottery program and replaces it with a point-based system.
The bill does not include strong interior enforcement provisions to cut off funds to sanctuary cities and fails to incorporate Kate’s Law to deal with repeat illegal alien offenders.
Bottom line: There’s a lot at stake this week for Speaker Ryan, R-Wisc., and the House leadership. After an intense standoff between Ryan and Rep. Mark Meadows, R-N.C., who chairs the Freedom Caucus, trust between the various factions in the Republican conference is in increasingly short supply as moderates work with Democrats to shove through amnesty legislation.
Rumors are circulating that leadership may add mandatory e-Verify provisions to the Ryan bill to secure more conservative support. Nevertheless, any bill that provides a pathway to citizenship for DACA recipients and “Dreamers” should be dead on arrival.
If House leadership cannot secure the majority votes needed for passage, no bill will come to the floor this week. Given what’s at stake, many conservatives would likely view this as a victory.
The Senate outlook
Bleak as usual. The Senate resumed its consideration of H.R. 5895, which continues to designate some of the $300 billion in increased spending above the previous budget caps from the recently passed $1.3 trillion omnibus disaster. If there’s one thing members of Congress can agree on, it’s that they love working across the aisle to spend our hard-earned tax dollars.
Details of H.R. 5895
The bill that the Senate is voting on is a combination of three different appropriations bills—Military Construction and Veterans Affairs, Energy and Water Development, and Legislative Branch.
Just the energy and water section of the bill alone is $8 billion higher than the president’s requested level and $1.5 billion more than last year’s actual levels. This includes $13.4 billion on energy research and subsidy programs that continue to elevate non-reliable forms of energy such as wind and solar.
The Senate version allocates $86.4 billion for the VA—the largest dollar amount ever provided to the Department of Veterans Affairs and $5 billion above last year’s levels, while the VA’s abysmal record in its treatment of our veterans (due almost entirely to its socialized approach to medicine and health care) remains fresh in the minds of the public.
Of greater concern in the Senate is the stated intention to move on to H.R. 2, otherwise known as the “Farm Bill.” The House passed this legislation last week after it initially failed on the floor. There’s no other bill in Congress that more perfectly encapsulates the nature of the Swamp than the absurdly misnamed “farm bill.”
Details of H.R. 2
The total cost comes out to $867 billion over a decade, with over 75 percent of that taxpayer money spent on food stamps. While the House bill incorporated work requirements that aimed to put recipients of the program into the workforce, the Senate will strip these provisions out in its bill.
The bill continues exorbitantly costly agriculture subsidies (over $20 billion annually), including a continuance of shallow loss programs that literally subsidize the profit margins of large agri-businesses if they have minor losses. So far, these programs have cost $10 billion more than the claims made by the farm lobby and lawmakers in 2014.
These agriculture subsidies are courtesy of the American taxpayer, who foots the bill to subsidize profits of large agri-corporations. These shallow loss programs are currently estimated to cost 76 percent more over the course of the decade than original estimates claimed from just four years ago.
Bottom line: With the United States facing down nearly $22 trillion in debt, the continued unholy alliance between urban Democrats and rural Republicans to ratchet up agriculture subsidies and food stamp spending remains one of the larger crocodile-infested swamps in need of draining in Washington. Permanently separating food stamps from agriculture subsidies is the only way to implement reforms.
Liberty outlook
Summary: The possibility of a vote on legislation in the House that would provide a “special pathway” to citizenship for nearly three million illegal aliens in the DACA and “Dreamer” population, coupled with the virtually assured passage of a $1 trillion food stamp and farm welfare bill in the Senate, puts this week’s liberty outlook at: Code red.
For anyone concerned about the debt, our future prosperity, the rule of law, and American sovereignty, this may be a good week to grab those Gadsden flags and give your representatives and senators a call.
The Weekly Watchman
Welcome to the Weekly Watchman, a regular series at Conservative Review where we highlight and analyze legislation pending on the House and Senate floors so that you know exactly what your representatives are voting on — and the impact those votes will have on your freedom.
The truth is that every single vote cast in Congress either advances liberty or diminishes it. And in all the noise on social media and 24/7 cable news chaos, it can be difficult to keep track of what is really happening on Capitol Hill and what it means for you and your family.
Patrick Henry once stated, “The liberties of a people never were, nor ever will be, secure when the transactions of their rulers may be concealed from them.”
Author: Drew White
Drew White spent three years at Heritage Action for America as a legislative strategist covering domestic policy issues. He then served as Sen. Ted Cruz’s domestic policy adviser for two years, working on issues including Obamacare repeal, educational freedom, elimination of federal agencies and departments, and defunding Planned Parenthood. Most recently, he served as senior federal policy analyst at the Texas Public Policy Foundation. He currently resides in Austin, Texas, with his wife, son, and golden retriever, happily clinging to his guns and religion.
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Talking the language of borders at the University of Strasbourg
By Chronicle Staff Share
Local writer M. G. Sanchez recently took part in ‘Negotiating, Subverting, Reconfiguring Borders in the English-Speaking World’ – a two-day international conference held at the University of Strasbourg.
The conference was held at the Maison Interuniversitaire des Sciences de l’Homme d’Alsace, the University of Strasbourg’s main building for the Humanities and Social Sciences.
Dr Sanchez delivered the first talk of the conference - a presentation entitled “Between a Rock and a Hard Place: a short (and very personal) history of the Gibraltar border.”
His talk focused on the problems we have seen at the border in the last few decades and explained how continuing border tensions have impacted on the lives of ordinary people on both the Spanish and Gibraltarian side.
Dr Sanchez said that his conference presentation had gone very well and that a number of academics had approached him wanting to know more about Gibraltar.
He added that he was very grateful to the Ministry of Culture – and in particular Seamus Byrne – for the support they had offered him in the run-up to the conference.
He also wanted to extend his thanks to the conference’s three main organisers – Dr Monica Manolescu, Dr Hélène Ibata and Dr Sandrine Baudry – for having invited him to Strasbourg and for having organised such a friendly and intellectually engaging event.
Dr Sanchez will now be heading to the University of Barcelona, where he is scheduled to give two lectures on October 22 and 23 at the behest of the Centre d'Estudis Australians i Transnacionals and the IAFOR (the International Academic Forum).
May pays tribute to Gibraltar for Grace 1 detention, highlights importance of ‘independent legal process’
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Subscribe To Ben Affleck’s Batman Movie May Be Going Through Even More Major Changes Updates
Ben Affleck’s Batman Movie May Be Going Through Even More Major Changes
By Mike Reyes
The last thing the DC Cinematic Universe could use right now is more disarray when it comes to its cinematic canon. Yet that's exactly what The Batman seems to be doing through its various shake-ups and changes, most important of which was the one that started it all. Now, in an incarnation that's seen Ben Affleck step down from the director's chair of the project, it looks like there's going to be a lot more change to come. Specifically, it looks like the creative team is going to be tasked with crafting a brand new story for the Caped Crusader's latest solo effort.
This hunch comes from Forbes, who also reported that there's a possibility that Jared Leto's Joker may be appearing in some capacity in The Batman. Apparently the latest round of re-writes, headed by Argo and Justice League co-writer Chris Terrio, is set to be a complete and total refresh from top to bottom. Furthermore, this re-write is set to be executed once the creative team for The Batman has been secured, with a new director at the head of that transitional team. (Matt Reeves, according to Forbes, remains a frontrunner.) Last, but not least, the film could be on track for a 2019 release date, rather than the more optimistic 2018 slot people were hoping would be in the offing.
All of a sudden, those random rumors that Bret Easton Ellis had to walk back seem to be a bit more credible, as his back channel talk with producers reporting problems with the script now seem to have been vindicated. While it seemed as if Ben Affleck's departure from the director's chair may have been in part enforced by the brass at Warner Bros., possibly due to the under performance of Live By Night, it seems like that may have merely been the straw that broke the studio's bat.
With the change in creative team, director, and now the script looming, we can't help but think to ourselves, "Why would Ben Affleck stay on board with The Batman?" Sure, he's dedicated to staying on board as an actor and producer on the project, but as the Forbes piece pointed out, he was similarly adamant about being the project's director. Knowing the eventual fate of that statement, it's pretty much anyone's guess as to what's going on with The Batman, except that Warner Bros is probably making it soon, and it'll more than likely hit theater screens at some point in the future.
There's so much uncertainty swirling around the solo Batman movie, but because of the anticipated changes that have to occur following Ben Affleck's departure as the film's director, then these delays and creative shifts are inevitable. The movie needs a director. The movie's getting a script refresh. And the movie's likely to get a release-date shuffle, though nothing has been announced by the studio as of yet on that front. As soon as we hear anymore information on The Batman's production progress, no matter how much it may be subject to change, we'll let you know immediately.
Does Margot Robbie's Harley Quinn Teaser Have a Batman Easter Egg?
Joe Manganiello Is Teasing DC Fans About Deathstroke
Rumor: Is This When Matt Reeves’ The Batman Will Finally Begin Filming?
Jay and Silent Bob Reboot Will Feature Three Batman Actors
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With Carson Wentz's status uncertain, Eagles rookie Clayton Thorson tries to learn quickly
The Eagles don't have an experienced backup behind Carson Wentz, who was diagnosed with a stress fracture in his back last December.
With Carson Wentz's status uncertain, Eagles rookie Clayton Thorson tries to learn quickly The Eagles don't have an experienced backup behind Carson Wentz, who was diagnosed with a stress fracture in his back last December. Check out this story on delawareonline.com: https://www.delawareonline.com/story/sports/nfl/eagles/2019/05/10/carson-wentz-status-uncertain-eagles-begin-rookie-camp-2-new-quarterbacks/1114636001/
Martin Frank, Delaware News Journal Published 1:22 p.m. ET May 10, 2019 | Updated 6:02 p.m. ET May 10, 2019
First-round pick Andre Dillard and second-round pick Miles Sanders on their first days in Eagles' un Martin Frank, The News Journal
PHILADELPHIA — Eagles coach Doug Pederson wasn't providing much clarity on Carson Wentz's rehab from a stress fracture in his back – or the quarterback's availability for organized team activities, which begin May 21.
Pederson would only say that Wentz had been taking part in Phase 2 of the offseason program, which began April 29. That consists of on-the-field drills like running and throwing. Phase 2 does not consist of team drills.
GAME 7: Sixers force all-or-nothing game vs. Raptors
But as the Eagles began a three-day rookie minicamp Friday (Wentz, obviously, can't participate), that was about as far as Pederson would go.
Philadelphia Eagles' Clayton Thorson drills during rookie camp at the NFL football team's practice facility, Friday, May 10, 2019, in Philadelphia. (Photo: Matt Slocum, AP)
"Not going to get too specific or detail a lot of the things," Pederson said. "But he’s been working. I'm encouraged by his progress and where he’s at. Just looking forward to the next few weeks with him."
When Pederson was asked if Wentz, who was sidelined last December with a stress fracture in his back, will be taking part in the OTAs later this month, he replied tersely: "How does that pertain to rookie minicamp?"
NEW CONTRACT: Eagles pick up 5th-year option on Carson Wentz's contract, worth about $23 million
The quarterbacks who are on the field for the Eagles' rookie minicamp this weekend are fifth-round pick Clayton Thorson, from Northwestern, and free agent signee Luis Perez, who played in the now-defunct Alliance of American Football this spring.
Thorson said he's ecstatic to get a chance to take the bulk of the snaps this weekend, something that will change whenever Wentz is cleared to take part in team drills. Backup Nate Sudfeld will get his share of snaps, too.
But Thorson said the coaches will work with him even when the veterans report for the OTAs.
"From what I’ve heard, even when (Wentz and Sudfeld) are here, (the coaches) are still working one on one with me and trying to develop me," Thorson said. "I think that's really cool. ... I just view it as a great opportunity to learn from those guys. They’ve been here for a while. Carson is the guy. To learn about this offense from a guy who’s an MVP candidate every year is such a good opportunity for me."
The Eagles don't have an experienced backup behind Wentz. It's assumed that Sudfeld, entering his third season with the Eagles, will be the backup. Sudfeld has thrown just 25 passes in his career.
That's fine with Thorson.
"They’re young, but Carson has played a lot of ball, and Nate has been at a couple of places," Thorson said. "I’m going to learn a lot from those guys and Coach Pederson, who’s obviously been around. I think it’s a big advantage for me."
Thorson has a long ways to go before he can challenge Sudfeld for the backup quarterback job. This is his first experience on the field, and there's a lot for him to learn in a short amount of time.
But Thorson did start 53 games at Northwestern, beginning his freshman year. That included games against current Eagles players from the Big Ten conference, such as Penn State's Miles Sanders and Shareef Miller, the Eagles' second and fourth-round picks two weeks ago. Sanders is a running back, and Miller a defensive end.
"Me and Shareef were unfortunately pretty familiar," Thorson said with a laugh.
When asked if Miller sacked him, Thorson replied: "He did, yeah. He was sure to remind me of that (Thursday) when I saw him. He was a beast."
Pederson detailed what Thorson is going to learn this weekend.
"From the quarterback position, it starts in the huddle," he said. "He’s got to be able to get the play. ... He’s gotta process it; he’s gotta call it in the huddle, get the guys to the line of scrimmage, the cadence, how well he processes the defense.
"If it’s a play where we have multiple options, how well he can process that? And listen, the things we do at this level, a lot of these college guys, especially at the quarterback position, have done. It’s just a matter of picking up the terminology, being able to do that in the huddle setting with different guys.
"That, to me, is the importance of this weekend, to kind of get his feet wet. And Luis as well."
Carson Wentz met with the media after the Eagles opened their voluntary offseason workout program Monday. Martin Frank, The News Journal
For the first day, Thorson made an impression on the other rookies. That included wide receiver J.J. Arcega-Whiteside, the Eagles' second-round pick.
"He's a really good, really accurate quarterback," Arcega-Whiteside said. "I think the best thing about Clayton is that he's not trying to bullet (the ball), but he's not trying to be reserved either. He's just being that calm, collective guy."
Pederson: Dillard not moving
Pederson said he relishes the idea of cross training offensive linemen, mentioning left guard Isaac Seumalo as someone who has played guard, tackle and center since the Eagles drafted him in 2016.
He said he would work Halapoulivaati Vaitai at both left and right tackle, as well as Australian Jordan Mailata, who is entering his second season.
Photos: 76ers battle Raptors in Game Six
Philadelphia 76ers' Tobias Harris, center, goes up for a shot between Toronto Raptors' Marc Gasol, left, and Kawhi Leonard during the first half of Game 6 of a second-round NBA basketball playoff series Thursday, May 9, 2019, in Philadelphia. Matt Slocum, AP
A Philadelphia 76ers fan looks on during warm ups before game six of the second round of the 2019 NBA Playoffs against the Toronto Raptors at Wells Fargo Center. Bill Streicher, Bill Streicher-USA TODAY Sports
May 9, 2019; Philadelphia, PA, USA; Toronto Raptors guard Danny Green (14) drives the ball as Philadelphia 76ers guard Jimmy Butler (23) defends during the first quarter in game six of the second round of the 2019 NBA Playoffs at Wells Fargo Center. Bill Streicher, Bill Streicher-USA TODAY Sports
Former Philadelphia 76ers great Julius Erving (L) talks with guard Ben Simmons (R) prior to game six of the second round of the 2019 NBA Playoffs against the Toronto Raptors at Wells Fargo Center. Bill Streicher, Bill Streicher-USA TODAY Sports
May 9, 2019; Philadelphia, PA, USA; Philadelphia 76ers guard Jimmy Butler (23) blocks Toronto Raptors guard Danny Green (14) during the first quarter in game six of the second round of the 2019 NBA Playoffs at Wells Fargo Center. James Lang, James Lang-USA TODAY Sports
Philadelphia 76ers guard Ben Simmons (center) stands during the national anthem before the start of game six of the second round of the 2019 NBA Playoffs against the Toronto Raptors at Wells Fargo Center. Bill Streicher, Bill Streicher-USA TODAY Sports
May 9, 2019; Philadelphia, PA, USA; Philadelphia 76ers forward Tobias Harris (33) is fouled by Toronto Raptors center Marc Gasol (33) during the first quarter in game six of the second round of the 2019 NBA Playoffs at Wells Fargo Center. Mandatory Credit: James Lang-USA TODAY Sports James Lang, James Lang-USA TODAY Sports
May 9, 2019; Philadelphia, PA, USA; Philadelphia 76ers center Joel Embiid (21) shoots as Toronto Raptors center Marc Gasol (33) defends during the first quarter in game six of the second round of the 2019 NBA Playoffs at Wells Fargo Center. Mandatory Credit: Bill Streicher-USA TODAY Sports Bill Streicher, Bill Streicher-USA TODAY Sports
May 9, 2019; Philadelphia, PA, USA; Philadelphia 76ers forward Tobias Harris (33) goes up for a shot as Toronto Raptors center Marc Gasol (33) defends during the first quarter in game six of the second round of the 2019 NBA Playoffs at Wells Fargo Center. Mandatory Credit: James Lang-USA TODAY Sports James Lang, James Lang-USA TODAY Sports
Philadelphia 76ers' Jimmy Butler, right, goes up for a shot against Toronto Raptors' Kyle Lowry during the first half of Game 6 of a second-round NBA basketball playoff series Thursday, May 9, 2019, in Philadelphia. Chris Szagola, AP
Philadelphia Eagles' Lane Johnson, left, and Chris Long acknowledge the crowd before Game 6 of the second-round NBA basketball playoff series between the Philadelphia 76ers and the Toronto Raptors, Thursday, May 9, 2019, in Philadelphia. Chris Szagola, AP
Philadelphia 76ers' Joel Embiid, right, tries to get past Toronto Raptors' Marc Gasol during the first half of Game 6 of a second-round NBA basketball playoff series Thursday, May 9, 2019, in Philadelphia. Chris Szagola, AP
Toronto Raptors' Serge Ibaka (9) goes up for a shot against Philadelphia 76ers' James Ennis III (11) and Joel Embiid (21) during the first half of Game 6 of a second-round NBA basketball playoff series Thursday, May 9, 2019, in Philadelphia. Chris Szagola, AP
Toronto Raptors' Kawhi Leonard, left, tries to knock the ball away from Philadelphia 76ers' Ben Simmons during the first half of Game 6 of a second-round NBA basketball playoff series Thursday, May 9, 2019, in Philadelphia. Chris Szagola, AP
Philadelphia 76ers' Mike Scott reacts after a 3-point basket during the first half of Game 6 of the team's second-round NBA basketball playoff series against the Toronto Raptors, Thursday, May 9, 2019, in Philadelphia. Chris Szagola, AP
Toronto Raptors' Kawhi Leonard, left, goes up for a shot past Philadelphia 76ers' Tobias Harris (33) and James Ennis III during the first half of Game 6 of a second-round NBA basketball playoff series Thursday, May 9, 2019, in Philadelphia. Chris Szagola, AP
But when asked if he would consider doing that with first-round pick in left tackle Andre Dillard, Pederson was more definitive: "Andre is different. We’re trying to get his feet wet, in the playbook and get him moving around. At this time, we’re going to keep him where he’s at and let him play there."
The Eagles, after all, see Dillard as Jason Peters' successor, perhaps as soon as the 2020 season.
Rookie camp numbers
The Eagles had 50 players on hand for their rookie minicamp this weekend. The list included their five draft picks, 11 undrafted free agents, five players with one year of experience signed as free agents and 29 players on a tryout basis.
Contact Martin Frank at mfrank@delawareonline.com. Follow on Twitter @Mfranknfl.
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Blue Rocks pitcher gets second solo no-hitter in team history
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CBS Sports college football analysts deliver message to charter school students
CBS Sports college football analysts deliver message to charter school students CBS Sports college football analysts deliver message to charter school students Check out this story on demingheadlight.com: https://www.demingheadlight.com/story/news/2019/02/22/cbs-sports-college-football-analysts-deliver-message-students/2943000002/
Bill Armendariz, Deming Headlight Published 6:00 a.m. MT Feb. 22, 2019
Deming Cesar Chavez Charter High School students given choices on path to success
Brian Jones, or "Uncle Brian" as he is referred to by Deming Cesar Chavez Charter High School students, addresses the student body during a recent visit. (Photo: Bill Armendariz - Headlight Photo)
DEMING – An old familiar friend of Deming Cesar Chavez Charter High School stopped by for a visit to meet with the student body and continue his work with reinforcing values and student success.
Brian Jones, a former NFL player and current college football analyst for CBS College Sports, was the commencement speaker at last year’s DCCCHS graduation ceremony. He was able to offer a path for graduating students to follow that would help them on the road to success in life after high school.
Jones returned to the school and met with students in the gymnasium to further reinforce his stand on helping young adults through life’s channels. Jones was initially invited to speak to the students by DCCCHS Counselor Jerry Lee who coached Jones in high school.
“The staff and students know I have a fondness for college football. I guess it’s because of the values and character it instills in young people,” Lee told the audience.
That is where his tight-knit relationship with Jones comes into play. Jones considered Coach Lee a mentor and a father figure who helped guide him from a a less-than-fortunate upbringing and into a college football career at Texas and UCLA and had a shot in the National Football League. He had stints with the Oakland Raiders, New Orleans Saints, Miami Dolphins and Indianapolis Colts as a linebacker.
Jones introduced his CBS Sports counterpart Aaron Taylor to the student body. “Uncle Brian” addressed the student body with “Hello nieces and nephews,” and reiterated the DCCCHS motto, “Si Se Puede (Yes You Can).
Aaron Taylor had a stellar career at Notre Dame and won a Super Bowl Ring with the Green Bay Packers. (Photo: Bill Armendariz - Headlight Photo)
Taylor turned a troubled childhood into a fabled college football career at Notre Dame where he was a two-time All-American. He was a first-round draft pick as an offensive guard and went on to play in the NFL with the San Diego Chargers and the Green Bay Packers. Taylor won a Super Bowl with the Packers.
Taylor shared his troubled childhood and how he was given two paths to follow to adulthood. After seeing the path many of his childhood friends took and wound up dead or incarcerated, the path he chose was an easy choice.
Taylor’s path to success was built on numbers he said. “There is a pathway for everyone in this room. It depends on where you want to go and who you want to be. It’s like a combination lock. If you have the right numbers, you can unlock your pathway to being successful and achieving your goals in life.”
DCCCHS Principal Stan Lyons could not thank the CBS duo enough for their visit. Lee’s reputation as a mentor to Jones has been the driving force in having the students take life lessons from Jones and Taylor.
Deming’s charter school continues to provide quality education to its student and have been recognized on a state-wide scale.
Bill Armendariz can be reached at 575-546-2611 (ext. 2606) or biarmendariz@demingheadlight.com.
Read or Share this story: https://www.demingheadlight.com/story/news/2019/02/22/cbs-sports-college-football-analysts-deliver-message-students/2943000002/
School district provides free meals
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M Fantasy
Sorry, there are no upcoming session times for Maleficent at Dendy Newtown
The untold story of Disney's most iconic villain from the 1959 classic 'Sleeping Beauty'. A beautiful, pure-hearted young woman, Maleficent has an idyllic life growing up in a peaceable forest kingdom, until one day when an invading army threatens the harmony of the land.
Maleficent rises to be the land's fiercest protector, but she ultimately suffers a ruthless betrayal – an act that begins to turn her heart into stone.
Bent on revenge, Maleficent faces an epic battle with the invading King's successor and, as a result, places a curse upon his newborn infant Aurora. As the child grows, Maleficent realizes that Aurora holds the key to peace in the kingdom - and to Maleficent's true happiness as well.
Rating M | Fantasy violence
Cast Angelina Jolie, Elle Fanning, Juno Temple, Sharlto Copley
Director Robert Stromberg
G Adventure
When Bonnie takes the toys on her family’s road trip in Disney and Pixar’s “Toy Story 4”, Woody ends up on an unexpected detour that includes a reunion with his long-lost friend Bo Peep, whose adventurous spirit and life on the road belie her delicate porcelain exterior. Woody and Bo are worlds apart when it comes to life as a toy, and they soon realize that’s the least of their worries.
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Colorado fires consume homes, force evacuations
NewsColorado News
Fires burn structures near both ends of the Royal Gorge Bridge on Tuesday, June 11, 2013.
A house is fully engulfed by the Black Forest Fire.
The Black Forest fire consumed 7,500 to 8,000 acres as of 10 p.m. Tuesday. There was zero containment.
By Sadie Gurman, Ryan Parker | rparker@denverpost.com and Joey Bunch | jbunch@denverpost.com | The Associated Press
PUBLISHED: June 11, 2013 at 3:29 pm | UPDATED: June 9, 2016 at 11:13 am
As temperatures soared and dry winds blew across the state Tuesday, Colorado weathered its most destructive day of fires so far this year, consuming dozens of homes and prompting evacuations in five counties.
No fatalities were immediately reported from the fires in northeast El Paso County, at the Royal Gorge, in Rocky Mountain National Park and in Huerfano County.
El Paso County Sheriff Terry Maketa said some residents who were asked to leave the Black Forest area near Monument did not.
“It’s gone from an evacuation to a search-and-rescue,” he said of the Black Forest fire, northeast of Colorado Springs, which was first reported at about 1 p.m.
The blaze had destroyed or damaged at least 40 to 60 homes — a number that was likely to grow — and spread to 7,500 to 8,000 acres over a 24,000-acre evacuation area, Maketa said Tuesday night. About 2,530 homes and businesses in northeast El Paso County were evacuated.
Maketa said federal firefighting crews would take command Wednesday.
“That gives you an indication of how serious we’re taking this,” he said.
In the meantime, local authorities asked helicopters and fire crews from Fort Carson to join the fight.
Gov. John Hickenlooper arrived in Colorado Springs late Tuesday and addressed reporters.
“We recognize this is sort of like the first day of a new season,” he said. “Lord knows we can’t be more prepared than we are, and I’m sure there are things we could do more of and we could do better.”
The Black Forest fire, like others in the state Tuesday, was fed by near-record temperatures, gusty winds and low humidity this week, the hottest stretch so far this year, the National Weather Service said.
“It’s been very dry here,” said Cindy Antil, who evacuated from her home in Abert Estates near the Black Forest fire. “We figured it was just a matter of time.”
The Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment has issued an air-quality advisory for the Colorado Springs region, especially the northern and eastern areas, until 9 a.m. Wednesday because of the dense smoke from the Black Forest fire. Very young people, older people and anyone with breathing problems were being urged to limit outdoor activity.
Near Cañon City, the 3,800-acre Royal Gorge fire threatened the famous suspension bridge there and forced the evacuation of about 1,400 visitors and 200 staff, as well as about 60 people from the Pueblo Community College Fremont Campus.
At 10 p.m., the Department of Corrections began evacuating about 800 inmates from the Colorado Territorial Correctional Facility in Cañon City to other local prisons, based on security levels and medical needs.
Department spokeswoman Adrienne Jacobson said the prisoners were being moved as a precaution.
Lightning sparked the Big Meadows fire on the west side of Rocky Mountain National Park, officials said. The fire grew from 3 acres to as many as 400 acres Tuesday and continued to move northeast toward Nakai Peak, park officials said.
In Huerfano County, the Klikus fire prompted evacuations, burned an estimated 50 acres and threatened structures in the Middle Creek area west of Walsenburg near La Veta.
The 2-acre Bergen Rock fire in the Pike National Forest in Douglas County prompted authorities to ask residents to be ready to evacuate Tuesday afternoon.
On the Western Slope, the 950-acre Tabeguache Creek fire is burning in the Uncompahgre National Forest, in portions of the Tabeguache Special Management Area.
Although the fire is burning in a remote area, it is being managed to drive it away from private property, including three cabins.
In Aurora, 10 families were displaced Tuesday afternoon when wind whipped up a fire that was burning a fence that then damaged five two-unit buildings at 1731 S. Pagosa Road.
Red Cross evacuation centers were set up Tuesday evening at Palmer Ridge High in Monument and New Life Church in Colorado Springs for the Black Forest fire; at the Evangelical Free Church in Cañon City for the Royal Gorge fire; and the Huerfano County Community Center in Walsenburg for the Klikus fire.
Critical “red flag” warnings were in effect across southern Colorado and the length of the Front Range until 9 p.m. Tuesday because of soaring temperatures, gusty wind, single-digit humidities and dry grass and brush after weeks of little or no rain in many locations.
Relief could arrive Wednesday, as a cold front from the northeast is followed by more humid air, said Mike Baker, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Boulder.
No rain is in the immediate forecast, however, other than a few isolated afternoon showers.
“Unfortunately, we’re headed into the driest, hottest few weeks of the year, the last two weeks of June and the first week of July,” Baker said.
Moisture from the summer monsoon season isn’t expected to arrive in Colorado until mid-July, he said.
El Paso County residents watched towers of white and black smoke burn in an evacuated residential area near the 12600 block of Peregrine Way near Black Forest Regional Park on Tuesday afternoon.
Susan Hurst and her 12-year-old son, Joseph, were among those forced from their homes in the Black Forest fire. The Hursts, a family of seven, have lived on Holmes Road for three years.
“We smelled the smoke. We went outside and saw the plume,” Hurst said. They then ventured down the road, where a police officer told them they needed to leave, fast. “We packed everything up.”
The family had discussed their plans during last year’s fires, but, Hurst said, “it’s like getting struck by lightning. You don’t ever think it’s going to be you.”
They took their pets to a shelter and waited at New Life Church for word about whether they could stay with friends.
Mark Cuppeak said he had invested in fire prevention and defensible space around the home since 1995, located about a mile from where the Black Forest fire began. He was still worried.
“We’re not out of harm’s way until all the smoke is gone,” he said.
His wife and animals were safe.
“All that is left to be destroyed,” he said, “is property.”
Joey Bunch: 303-954-1174, jbunch@denverpost.com or twitter.com/joeybunch
Colorado wildfires 2013
Terry Maketa
Ryan Parker
Ryan Parker was a reporter for The Denver Post from 2011 until May 2014. A Colorado native, Parker started his career at smaller weeklies and worked for YourHub before becoming a breaking news reporter for The Post.
Joey Bunch
Joey Bunch was a reporter for 12 years at The Denver Post before leaving to join The Gazette in Colorado Springs. For various newspapers he has covered the environment, water issues, politics, civil rights, sports and the casino industry. He likes stories more than reports.
Follow Joey Bunch @joeybunch
More in Weather
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The heat will be on for the Mile High City this week, with the mercury forecast to soar well into the 90s and perhaps close in on the century mark Wednesday or Thursday.
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No current plans for another Geometry Wars, damn it
Bizarre Creations's Geometry Wars: Retro Evolved is incredible. The sequel? Even better. They may be among some of my personal favorite games of all time. But according to Bizarre level designer Peter Collier, there's no plans for another title right now.
"It's just a great thing having titles that people love, that they associate with our studio -- and Geometry Wars is one of them," he told VideoGamer. "It's very close to a lot of fans' hearts. I guess it's just one of those things, that it's a great and very proud feeling having something that the fans adore so much, but we don't want to over-saturate it by carrying on with it. It's may be something that we keep as something we love, and move on to other things, you know?"
After crushing my soul, he added "There's nothing on the current horizon, but we can't rule anything out." Like an abusive spouse, this one.
Bizarre is currently hard at work on putting the finishing touches on the upcoming James Bond title, Bloodstone. I was going to buy it in the hopes that there's be a Geometry Wars game hidden in there somewhere. But now? Forget it!
Bizarre reluctant to return to Geometry Wars [VideoGamer via 1UP]
Filed under... #Bizarre Creations #Geometry Wars #PC #WHAAAAAAT? #Xbox 360
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Alliance Announcements
Joel Spolsky Named Chairman of Application Developers Alliance Board of Directors
Washington, D.C. (October 17, 2012) – The Application Developers Alliance announced today that Joel Spolsky has been named Chairman of its Board of Directors. The 22 member Board unanimously elected Spolsky, a pioneer and thought leader in the developer community, to be its chairman. As Chairman, Spolsky will help to shape programming and policy initiatives for the Alliance and its more than 15,000 members. Spolsky is the co-founder of Fog Creek Software and the co-founder of Stack Exchange. His website “Joel on Software,” is read by developers around the world and translated into thirty languages.
“When a developer writes applications software, they are writing a script for the future. They’re creating little pre-programmed robots which they will send into the future. That’s why app development is incredibly important and why I joined the App Developers Alliance,” said Spolsky.
The Application Developers Alliance works to ensure that developers have the resources, network, and policy environment they need to innovate and power the world through software. Spolsky is a founding member of the Alliance Board of Directors and has been an integral part of the Alliance’s growth to represent nearly 100 companies and more than 15,000 individual developers in its first year.
“The application development industry is young, dynamic, and rapidly evolving. As the Application Developers Alliance works to meet the needs of the developers driving the industry, Joel’s guidance and support is invaluable. Throughout his career Joel has dedicated his energy and considerable talents to making developers lives better. He is uniquely qualified to be our Chairman, and we are thrilled to have him lead our Board of Directors,” said Jon Potter, Alliance President.
In addition to his popular website, Spolsky has written four books about software development, including Smart and Gets Things Done: Joel Spolsky’s Concise Guide to Finding the Best Technical Talent (Apress 2007). Spolsky has previously worked at Microsoft, where he designed VBA as a member of the Excel team, and at Juno Online Services, developing an Internet client used by millions.
Read Spolsky’s announcement here: http://www.joelonsoftware.com/items/2012/10/17.html
Source: http://www.appdevelopersalliance.org/press-releases/joel-spolsky-named-chairman-of-application-developers-alliance-board-of-directors
Tagged: Chairman, Application Developers Alliance, Board of Directors, Joel Spolsky, Stack Exchange
Newer PostApplication Developers Alliance Partners with Fortify.vc
Older PostRetreat for App Industry Leaders on Financing and Distribution to be held November 2, 2012
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