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By John Doucette Interviews, Journalism, Pop Culture, The Virginian-Pilot, Writing
Writing Craft, Vol. XIII: The AV Club contributor Will Harris talks about freelancing (Part Two)
NORFOLK, Va.– This is the second part of my Q&A with writer Will Harris, contributor to The AV Club pop culture Web site, among others. Harris also has his own blog, which you can check out by clicking on this link.
If you want to read part one first, click this link, and an earlier Belligerent Q&A is here.
This portion of the talk deal with making it work as a freelancer, as well as approaching Q&As by structuring questions and knowing how far to push.
Q: Can we talk about the nuts and bolts of being a freelancer? One of the things I always had to struggle with was getting the invoices out.
Yeah, my wife has been very helpful in giving me a wall calendar so I can monitor when my assignments are due for various publications, when I need to send the invoices out. I’m lucky a couple of them send emails automatically saying, ‘Please give me your invoice tomorrow.’ Otherwise, I’m keeping track as well.
Q: I have a client when I was in New York who was a good steady client, but, basically, they would forget to pay me. Have you been through that with various publications?
Well, with [one publisher] there were occasions when I was unable to cash a check. I had to wait. There was no money in the account. … I attempted to cash a check and was told there was insufficient funds in the account. For the most part, I haven’t had an issue with people not paying me in a timely fashion.
Q: When I was a freelancer, I basically had to do magazine stories to afford to do the newspaper stories I wanted to do. There’s a lot of working for clients you maybe would not [normally] work for.
For me, the only one I do is [writing about] real estate, which I didn’t love to begin with but have pretty much grown to live with. It’s not even difficult, it’s just so completely different from anything I’ve done previously or that I am doing, I just feel I have to change gears at the same time I’m getting all these emails from other people I am currently writing for – I’m literally shifting gears as I have to write the piece.
Q: You have to take this work sometimes.
It’s a steady check. I get it every two weeks. It’s hard to reject that kind of regular money.
Q: I’ve – more when I was at The Pilot – but I’ve talked to journalism students. One thing I loved doing at The Pilot was talking to the high school program they had at The Pilot at the time. And the one thing the kids talked about is how they were going to write this, and they’re going to write that, and that’s not the reality of what it is to write. Especially, I think, when you’re a freelancer.
The real reality is if you’re going to be a newspaper writer you have to basically surrender to whatever it takes to get on the paper and work your way to where you want to be. Freelancing, it’s a little bit easier to pick and choose, but you still have to have an amount of foresight as far as what’s going to pay the bills.
Q: You’ve got to make so much every month, no matter what you want to write.
Right. I was talking about this the other night. Jim Morrison, a freelance writer, when I went freelance I talked to him first because he’s one of the few people I know who have made a living at it. The first thing he told me was, ‘You can make it in freelancing if you can get five [clients you can count on] per month. You can build a budget based on that.’ I’ve fortunately been able to do that.
Q: In New York, I made enough to pay bills but I didn’t have insurance.
If my wife did not have insurance through Norfolk Public Schools, then I would be out of luck, and would probably not be working full time as a writer.
Q: I would never want to write for The AV Club because I would never want to be in the position of screwing up a site I read every day. [Laughter.] If that makes sense.
Q: But one of the cool things is I read The AV Club – and you and I have talked about this before – but I read it pretty maniacally. I’m pretty sure I go there once, if not twice per day to see whatever Sean O’Neal is writing or whatever. It’s really cool to know somebody who writes there. I wonder if people come up and talk to you about that or just, ‘How do you do it?’
A lot of people around here don’t know I write for The AV Club, outside of Facebook, but I have several good friends who say, ‘How do you get in with The AV Club?‘ The best advice I can give you is what Noel [Murray, an AV Club contributor,] gave to me, which is you need to have an in, and even then there’s so many people who want to write for The AV Club that it doesn’t even get you that far.
Q: How much of the work is pitched to you? Or how much do you pitch?
I pitch a lot. I’ve built a pretty huge collection of publicist friends during the five years I was at Bullz-Eye, and the four years at Bullz-Eye while I was in the [Television Critics Association], and it’s incredible how far The AV Club name will get you in addition to the people I already knew. You just jump to a complete other echelon with The AV Club.
The biggest issue I find is a lot of the publicists don’t know what The AV Club is but they do know what The Onion is, and you have to sell it as being The Onion AV Club at the same time you’re clarifying, ‘It’s not the jokes. It’s for real and it’s serious.’ It’s kind of a delicate line sometimes.
Q: Could you talk about pitching? My pitches used to be letters.
It’s email. I get so many emails from publicists pitching me interviews. Some of them are not obviously huge names. One of the things I love doing at The AV Club is [a feature called] ‘Random Roles.’ You don’t have to be a big name. You just have to have a very long career. By virtue of that, whenever I even get remotely interested in a pitch for that, I send it off and it’s reached a point now where I’ll say 70 percent of the time they will be like, ‘Go for it.’ [Harris checks to ensure] nobody else has pitched it. I’m very sensitive about stepping on anyone’s toes.
It is literally a dream gig.
Q: The comments just go off the charts on that site, and they’re not always very kind to the writers.
They’re not, but there’s perpetual criticism about ‘Random Roles’ about, ‘Oh, how come you didn’t ask them abut this?’ I seem to have built some semblance of a fan base in the comments section.
Q: I think one of the reasons ‘Random Roles’ works so well is stories with big stars usually suck.
One thing about ‘Random Roles’ is it can be a big star. Like Mark Harmon, when I set that interview up, he was the number one most-loved TV celebrity, and yet I talked to him for an hour and asked him about all this stuff he never gets asked about anymore. And at the very tail end of it, I asked about NCIS, and prefaced it by saying, ‘This has got to be the longest interview you’ve done in years where you’ve barely been touching NCIS.’
Q: People who are character actors, those people tend to be, for me, more interesting, because they seem to be more forthright.
Yeah. I think they’re rightfully convinced they can get work even if they mouth off.
Q: One of the things I like about The AV Club, and your writing specifically, is an appreciation for the forms. Whatever you think about reviews, there’s an appreciation for an art. One of the greatest things I’ve heard in my life is the commentary by Roger Ebert for Dark City. It’s a great commentary, and I think one of the few film commentaries I’ve listened to more than once. There’s such an appreciation for film. I think you really get a sense that the people writing for The AV Club, too, they really care about the form and they find meaning in it. How does that work for you to get to write about pop culture?
I’ve been a trivia geek since I’ve been in single digits. … I was just eating this stuff up because I’d never heard of it and it sounded interesting to me. I’ve just been an obsessive about pop culture since then. The opportunity to write about pop culture for an audience that, as evidenced in the comments section, loves pop culture as much as I do, it’s an honor. And not one I thought I would ever see.
Q: Is it difficult to get people who have reached a certain level of success in the entertainment industry and get them to sit down and to ask them tough questions?
I’ve rarely been one to ask the hard-hitting questions. Not because I don’t think I could, but because I don’t think I have an interest in them. I’m never going to ask somebody a gossipy kind of question like you’d read in a publication like People or Us Weekly because I don’t have an interest in that.
If you send a reporter who actually enjoys talking to an interview subject or just is friendly with them, I think you get a better interview. At a certain point, if you are friendly with the person, they will open up about the stuff.
Q: Do you feel that’s what happened with the Larry the Cable Guy interview? You asked him some questions about a situation he had [with criticism from comedian David Cross].
Yeah, but I asked at the end of the interview and I didn’t ask in a confrontational way. I literally said, ‘I don’t know that I’ve ever seen you talk about this. I’m really just curious what you thought of it.’ As a result, I had another half-hour conversation with him. It was arguably a hard-hitting topic, but it was not a hard-hitting question. As a result, I got some really great answers. I don’t know if that tactic works for me all the time or some people any of the time.
Q: Do you feel like you have to ask questions like, ‘Do you hate gay people? Do you hate Arabs? When you make jokes like that?’ Do you feel that’s a responsibility for a critic?
I think it’s responsible to ask those questions. It’s just not something I would want to do. I’m very aware of the difference between a real person and an act. I’ve interviewed Andrew Dice Clay and I know that’s an act, but certainly it’s offensive to plenty of people.
Q: The thing that David Cross was kind of pointing out in Larry the Cable Guy’s act is that he goes for the easy joke.
You could argue that if you go back and read his responses, his response was a little disingenuous, you could say. Kind of avoiding the direct accusations in favor of being, ‘Why me? Why’s he picking on me?’ If I was a different kind of interviewer, I probably would have asked a harder hitting question, but I still got a better answer than a lot of people would have gotten. I just didn’t feel the need to go for it. That wasn’t why I asked the question in the first place. …
If it had been like a major headline story and I had an opportunity to ask him about it that would be one thing, but this was four years after the fact. It wasn’t like I was waiting with bated breath to find out what Larry the Cable Guy thought of David Cross’ letter.
Q: What I was going to ask about was actually structuring interviews.
When it comes to asking questions that could piss somebody off, I invariably wait until either the very end of the conversation or at a point in the conversation when I’ve developed enough of a rapport with the person that they know I’m not trying to be a dick by asking them. …
If you’ve got somebody on the phone where they’re in a position to hang up on you, you can probably wait until you have everything else you need first, and then ask the question.
Q: Have you ever had anybody just get pissed off and hang up the phone?
Ving Rhames, more or less. … Basically, it was for Death Race 2, the straight to DVD prequel to the remake of Death Race 2000.
Q: That’s the saddest line anyone’s ever said.
I’ve talked to a lot of people for straight to DVD sequels. I’m not going to lie to you.
Q: But no other film can claim that superlative.
No. So I think it was the day before or even that day and they said, ‘Oh, Ving Rhames is going to do some interviews.’ Well, I’ve got to get in with that. They forewarned me that they were not going to have copies of the video to screen in advance. So we talked for about five minutes, and we were supposed to have 15, and it’s going pretty well. I very casually and not trying to draw attention to it said, ‘I haven’t actually been able to see the film yet, but I understand you do such and such.’ Before I can even finish the statement, he goes, ‘What do you mean you haven’t seen the film?’ I said, ‘They haven’t sent me a copy of the film. It wasn’t available.’
[Rhames then quoted the Russian actor and theater director Constantin Stanislavski as saying] ‘if you do not take your job seriously, I will not work with you.’ [Laughter.] So I wait to see if he’s kidding. Apparently not, so go, ‘Then the interview is over? I hope not.’ He says, ‘No, that was Stanislavski. I will finish this interview, but I think you need to, as a journalist, take your job more seriously.’ [The interview lasted about two more minutes.] I do take my job seriously. If they had a copy available I would have watched the film.
Q: What’s the name of the film again?
Death Race 2.
Q: Why didn’t you take your job more seriously?
Ah, again, I really have no more of an answer for you than I did for Ving Rhames.
Q: It’s not just a race. It’s a race about death.
The second race about death.
Playing us out is a trailer Stanislavski undoubtedly would have loved.
Tagged bullz-eye, david cross, death race 2, freelance, freelancing, keith phipps, larry the cable guy, noel murray, pop culture journalism, stringing, the av club, the onion, ving rhames, will harris
One thought on “Writing Craft, Vol. XIII: The AV Club contributor Will Harris talks about freelancing (Part Two)”
In which the internet collapses in upon itself like a pop culture referent denoting itself « John-Henry Doucette says:
[…] Look, future aliens are going to note this moment as when the internet collapsed in upon itself in a wormhole of self-referentiality. Might as well make it count for a guy with a great Ving Rhamses story. […]
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Home > Golden Rice
The Imperiled Birth of a GMO Superfood
Ed Regis
The first book to tell the shocking story of Golden Rice, a genetically modified grain that provides essential Vitamin A and can save lives in developing countries—if only they were allowed to grow it.
Ordinary white rice is nutrient poor; it consists of carbohydrates and little else. About one million people who subsist on rice become blind or die each year from vitamin A deficiency. Golden Rice, which was developed in the hopes of combatting that problem by a team of European scientists in the late '90s, was genetically modified to provide an essential nutrient that white rice lacks: beta-carotene, which is converted into vitamin A in the body. But twenty years later, this potentially sight- and life-saving miracle food still has not reached the populations most in need—and tens of millions of people in India, China, Bangladesh, and throughout South and Southeast Asia have gone blind or have died waiting.
Supporters claim that the twenty-year delay in Golden Rice's introduction is an unconscionable crime against humanity. Critics have countered that the rice is a "hoax," that it is "fool's gold" and "propaganda for the genetic engineering industry." Here, science writer Ed Regis argues that Golden Rice is the world's most controversial, maligned, and misunderstood GMO. Regis tells the story of how the development, growth, and distribution of Golden Rice was delayed and repeatedly derailed by a complex but outdated set of operational guidelines and regulations imposed by the governments and sabotaged by anti-GMO activists in the very nations where the rice is most needed.
Writing in a conversational style, Regis separates hyperbole from facts, overturning the myths, distortions, and urban legends about this uniquely promising superfood. Anyone interested in GMOs, social justice, or world hunger will find Golden Rice a compelling, sad, and maddening true-life science tale.
Ten Lessons in Public Health
Chickenizing Farms and Food
Under the Big Tree
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Joanna Mikulski
storyteller – policy geek – generalist
Category: social sector
Mapping Informal Transit Networks: “Imagine Not Knowing Where Any Bus in Your City Goes.”
November 11, 2013 February 27, 2016 JoannaLeave a comment
When traveling in the developing world, two things fascinate me: the informal transit networks that form the backbone of travel and commerce in many areas and the prevalence of cell phones. Last year, on an extended trip through Southeast Asia, my husband and I relied on word-of-mouth connections, sometimes facilitated by a quick call, to get from place to place. On one trip from Sihanoukville to Kep in Cambodia, we first took a tuk-tuk (an auto rickshaw) from an outlying beach to the center of town. The driver stopped at an unmarked stand, spoke with another man for a bit, and then said, “You can go now for $20 or wait for more people to come and it will be cheaper.” We’d spent a lot of time on hot, slow buses, so we hopped in the car. Along the way our driver stopped twice, once to retrieve what looked like a container of fish from a roadside stand and another time to take a piss.
As a traveler who wasn’t in rush, I didn’t mind our slow progress and appreciated how asking about transportation options opened the door to conversations that helped us learn more about the people and the communities where we visited. It’s a stark contrast to travel in Washington, D.C. or my new home Berlin, where public transit systems are generally automated and effective ways to get around. During my daily commute in D.C., I rarely spoke to anyone because thanks to an iPhone app, updated maps, and timetables, I knew when the bus would come and where it would take me.
Of course, not knowing where transit routes go is much less fascinating when you need to rely on them everyday. As you can read in this report focusing on three Indonesian cities, informal transportation networks can provide crucial support to city residents and reach communities and geographic areas that public transportation (where it does exist) do not. However, the beneficial aspects of these networks may be overshadowed by the problems created by a lack of information and regulation, including traffic congestion, accidents and lost time for passengers. The good news is that in several cities, including Nairobi, Mexico City, and Dhaka, efforts are underway to take advantage of the prevalence of cell phones as a way to collect and then disseminate data on informal transportation networks. Tomorrow representatives from several projects are meeting in Washington, D.C. at a workshop hosted by the World Bank, MIT and Columbia University.
In Nairobi, Digital Matatus, an initiative led by a team at MIT, University of Nairobi, Columbia University, and the consulting firm Groupshot, is using spatial data collected through a cell phone application to map the routes of matatus, the mini-buses that serve as the defacto city bus system. Today information on where the matatus run and whether there are transit disruptions is limited. Sarah Williams, the project director at MIT, says that Nairobi residents typically know where the routes go in their local community, but in travel beyond their neighborhood often rely on word-of-mouth connections. With data it collected through a cell phone application in the common General Transit Feed Specification (GTFS) format, the Digital Matatus team has just finished a draft paper map of the matatu network. Williams hopes that when finalized, the matatu map will make it easier for citizens to navigate their city— and become the first informal transit network included in Google Maps.
“Imagine not knowing where any bus in your city goes,” Williams said. “Citizens are very excited to get this data.”
Publishing the data, of course, has implications not just for citizens, but also for the local government and the large and small matatu companies that now largely self-regulate. According to Williams, the local agencies and at least some matatu collectives are supportive of the effort, but their engagement has been limited.
“I think they’ll get more engaged once the data is out there, and they have an idea of what it means for them,” said Williams.
In particular, the data could be very helpful for traffic planning purposes. Today, any attempt to model Nairobi’s terrible traffic doesn’t include the matatus— a major source of congestion since they stop wherever they want and often fail to obey traffic laws.
Moving forward, Digital Matatus will face a challenge familiar to many social innovators: ensuring that they can sustain and improve their work. Right now, the initiative can only produce a map that reflects a static point-in-time representation of the matatu network. The data like this can become out-of-date very quickly, particularly for a transportation system that changes dynamically, even on a day-to-day basis. In the future, the group hopes to develop a new application that will allow citizens to report changes and disruptions in real-time. The team is also working on finding a Nairobi-based organization to take ownership of the effort long-term.
“We want somebody from Nairobi to take on the data and maintain it,” said Williams. “This should be local knowledge.”
Digital Matatus is a great example of how technological advances (in this case, the prevalence of cell phones) can be harnessed to provide citizens with information that wouldn’t otherwise be available to them— hopefully giving them more control over their lives and schedules. It will be interesting to see how local governments and the operators of informal transportation, both in Nairobi and elsewhere, adapt to the availability of this data as it gets into the hands of citizens. Will city agencies use it to help tame traffic congestion or bring more formal regulation to these systems? Will the operators of informal transportation change their services and routes as better-informed citizens demand it?
There’s still much work to be done, but perhaps next time I’m in Cambodia, I’ll use my phone to map my route from Sihanoukville to Kep.
Posted in design in government, innovation, social sectorTagged cell phones, transportation networks
Why We Should Think About Innovation as a Process: An Interview With Christian Seelos, Visiting Scholar at Stanford University
November 5, 2013 February 27, 2016 JoannaLeave a comment
The social sector is overflowing with big, creative ideas these days, and thank goodness! Poverty, growing inequality, high youth unemployment, lack of access to clean water and healthy food— to solve these and other seemingly intractable problems throughout the world, we need to rethink traditional models and service systems. However, as anyone who has tried to turn an idea into an actual product or service knows, dreaming up “the next big thing” is often the easy part. Next comes the difficult work of implementation and ongoing efforts — often over a long period of time— to continually improve and adapt an organization’s model.
Unfortunately, much of the discourse in the social sector today focuses on innovation as an easy answer and risks undervaluing the benefits that come from sustaining and scaling an organization’s existing work. Christian Seelos, a visiting scholar at the Stanford University Center on Philanthropy and Civil Society, and Johanna Mair, a professor of management, organization and leadership at the Hertie School of Governance in Berlin and the Hewlett Foundation visiting scholar at the Stanford Center on Philanthropy and Civil Society, argue that the social sector needs to move away from viewing innovation as an ideology and instead think about innovation an organizational process. They put forward their case in “Innovation is Not the Holy Grail,” a August 2012 article in the Stanford Social Innovation Review, and later explored the balance between innovation and scaling here.
In the interview below, you can listen to my conversation with Seelos about their work and specifically, the experience of Aravind Eye Care Hospital in India. Aravind has grown from an 11-bed hospital in Madurai in 1976 to become the world’s largest provider of eye care. It focuses on one chief intervention that addresses a major cause of preventable blindness: cataract surgery. Through dedicated focus on incremental improvements, Aravind has achieved a level of productivity that allows it to remain profitable, even as it provides many of its surgeries free of charge to India’s poorest citizens. It’s a great illustration of why we shouldn’t underestimate the value of the continual, small improvements to a model that eventually lead to better outcomes for individuals and communities.
This model of “incremental innovation” is as relevant in the developed as the developing world. In future posts, I will explore U.S. organizations that take a similar approach.
Listen below or download the interview.
https://joannamikulski.files.wordpress.com/2013/11/christian-seelos_final.mp3
Posted in innovation, social sector
Post-Shutdown Reflection: Creating Better Feedback Loops between Government and Citizens
October 22, 2013 JoannaLeave a comment
The U.S. government is up and operating again after a 16-day shutdown. Watching your country— or really, a few extreme members of Congress— flirt with economic catastrophe from abroad is not a pleasant experience. I’d prefer not to repeat it. What many people don’t realize is that the shutdown put a temporary halt to lots of innovative and interesting work that often flies under the radar, but has the potential to help build a more effective, adaptable and responsive government. (Case in point: the U.S. Department of Labor’s new Pay for Success grants, announced shortly before most of the agency’s workers were furloughed.)
This seems like an appropriate time to start a blog focused on bringing better design to the public and social sectors. Given the state of affairs in Washington, D.C. over the past few weeks—where the loud voices of a few overwhelmed the more reasonable voices of many—I think it’s appropriate to begin with the topic of the federal government and better citizen feedback.
We all know that we’re living in a new world where social media and other technologies allow for rapid feedback – getting immediate reactions to our every thought on facebook, Twitter and Tumblr is changing how we interact with the world and our expectations about how public and private sector institutions should engage with us. Governments across the world are responding to these changing attitudes through a range of initiatives designed to allow citizens to build popular support for issues that they care about. At We the People, citizens have offered petitions on issues as diverse as gay marriage, immigration, and Death Stars. In Germany, citizens can ask questions of Chancellor Merkel and receive responses on a platform at DirektzurKanzlerin (Direct to the Chancellor). Providing information to the public and responding to questions and concerns is a critical function of a responsive and open government, but to build a more effective and adaptive public sector, federal agencies need to go a step further – they need to figure out how to better incorporate rapid and continual citizen feedback into the design and implementation of programs and strategies.
Why should governments incorporate regular citizen feedback into the design and implementation of programs? Research suggests that the collective intelligence of the crowd (e.g., the service providers designing a program, the researchers evaluating it, and the adults and youth receiving services) is smarter than a small group of experts (even the smartest experts). Harnessing this collective knowledge—particularly in the context of an initial testing (or prototyping) phase— could lead to better early program design. Many of the most effective social programs then continue to engage with stakeholders throughout implementation, combining that feedback with ongoing analysis of outcomes to refine their models. We often think of innovation in terms of big ideas and disruptive technologies, but ongoing feedback is a critical part of a different and powerful kind of innovation—innovation as process (or incremental innovation). (For an overview of the idea of innovation as process, try this article by Profs. Johanna Mair and Christian Seelos.)
This isn’t a radical or new idea. Successful businesses routinely prototype products before bringing them to market and update them based on customer feedback. In principle, there’s no reason why the government can’t do the same thing. But in reality, there are barriers.
First, there are (initially well-intentioned) laws that make creating ongoing feedback loops really difficult. If you’ve never worked for or with the U.S. federal government, you may not have heard of the Paperwork Reduction Act. It’s a law that governs what type of information federal agencies can gather from individuals and organizations and how they may do it. Clay Johnson, a former White House Fellow, does an excellent job in this podcast explaining why it needs to be rethought. Secondly, institutional culture and practices can get in the way. I don’t want to imply that government officials never talk to or listen to stakeholders. Of course, they do. However, in my experience, officials too often rely on a relatively small circle of recognized experts. They had excellent ideas, but I often wondered whether there were other different and promising ideas—perhaps from social workers who have gathered insights from years of on-the-ground work or youth who were served by a program and have ideas about how it could work better. This brings me to my final point— the federal government needs to get better at adopting technology that allows agencies to tap into a broader range of voices. (A task made more difficult by the Paperwork Reduction Act—you really should listen to that podcast.)
The enabling technology exists, and initiatives—particularly at the state and local level— are exploring how to better involve citizens in the design of programs. This report from IBM and the Deliberative Democracy Consortium details a range of strategies—and associated projects—that could allow for effective citizen engagement. All Our Ideas, an open source tool for collecting citizen feedback on ideas or projects in a dynamic way, has been used in a planning project in New York City. Brazil used a similar model to engage citizens in the design of public health programs. The Obama Administration has sought to foster outside engagement in problem solving through initiatives like Challenge.gov. The challenge comes in building on initiatives like these, and adopting crowdsourcing and citizen feedback as a normal part of the business of federal agencies.
In future posts, I look forward to exploring more examples of how citizen and stakeholder feedback can be effectively used to inform program design and development—at all levels of government and in the social sector. Below are some questions I plan to explore on this blog—and because those of you in the crowd know better than me, I’d appreciate your help in answering them:
What are the most effective models for incorporating citizen feedback into the design of social programs? How did those models overcome barriers to tapping into the wisdom of the crowd (whether legal, cultural or otherwise)?
What are some examples of programs that failed due to a lack of feedback? How might things have turned out differently if citizens were more actively engaged?
How could experiences with citizen feedback in other countries inform U.S. domestic policy?
Thanks for reading my blog, and I look forward to continuing the conversation.
Posted in deliberative democracy, design in government, government, innovation, social sector
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Indigenous bacterial spores as indicators of Cryptosporidium inactivation using chlorine dioxide
Sophie Verhille
Department of Civil Engineering, University of Toronto, 35 St George Street, Toronto, Ontario, Canada M5S 1A4
Ron Hofmann
Christian Chauret
Biological and Physical Sciences Unit, Indiana University Kokomo, 2300 South Washington Street, Kokomo, IN 46904-9003, USA
Tel: +1 (765) 455-9290 Fax: +1 (765) 455-9310; E-mail: cchauret@iuk.edu
Robert Andrews
J Water Health (2003) 1 (2): 91–100.
https://doi.org/10.2166/wh.2003.0011
Sophie Verhille, Ron Hofmann, Christian Chauret, Robert Andrews; Indigenous bacterial spores as indicators of Cryptosporidium inactivation using chlorine dioxide. J Water Health 1 June 2003; 1 (2): 91–100. doi: https://doi.org/10.2166/wh.2003.0011
This objective of this study was to explore the practicality of monitoring naturally occurring organisms to predict drinking water treatment plant performance, in this case for the reduction of Cryptosporidium. Surface and ground water from seven drinking water treatment plants across North America that use chlorine dioxide were surveyed for aerobic and anaerobic bacterial spore concentrations. The concentrations of total spores were usually high enough in both raw and treated water to allow 4- to 5-log reductions to be observed across the treatment train by filtering up to 2 l of sample. These results suggested that naturally occurring treatment-resistant spores could be candidates as indicators of treatment performance. However, to be useful as indicators for Cryptosporidium reduction, the organisms would have to exhibit similar resistances to disinfection (chlorine dioxide in this case) in order to be useful. The inactivation kinetics of seven of the most common species were determined, and all were observed to be considerably more susceptible to chlorine dioxide inactivation than Cryptosporidium as reported in the literature. This study therefore did not identify an appropriate ambient microbial indicator for Cryptosporidium control.
Bacillus, chlorine dioxide, Cryptosporidium, disinfection, drinking water, spores
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Tag: Faith in Action
Atttn.: San Mateo ~ STOP THE SEPARATION OF FAMILIES, IMMIGRANT RAPID RESPONSE NEIGHBORHOOD CANVAS organized by Faith in Action
Organized by Faith in Action Bay Area.
The Immigrant Rapid Response hotline is up and running in the San Francisco Bay Area. We now have teams with hundreds of volunteers ready to converge whenever an ICE raid is taking place in our neighborhoods. The teams are trained to witness and record the event and ensure that the rights of immigrants are protected. Now, we need to make sure our neighbors in the immigrant community are aware of the hotline.
Help distribute the rapid response hotline information in UUSM’s own neighborhood. We will meet at UUSM on Saturday and spread out to canvass the neighborhood with posters and cards. For questions, email rapidresponse@faithinactionba.org. Please RSVP HERE.
MEET AT: Unitarian Universalists of San Mateo, 300 E. Santa Inez Avenue, San Mateo, CA 94401 @ 10 a.m. on Saturday, May 6th.
JEWS, CHRISTIANS, MUSLIMS, UNITARIAN UNIVERSALISTS: San Francisco Peninsula Clergy standing in solidarity for the sacredness of all humans
Public domain USGS Satellite photo of the San Francisco Bay Area. The San Francisco peninsula protrudes northward. San Francisco is at its tip.
As you might suspect, there was a reason for featuring Emma Lazarus and her poem, The New Colossus, as part of the American She-Poets series this a.m. … the reason being a reminder of our American ideals in the face an unreasonable ban, free-flowing hostilitities, and the fear vulnerable people have given the ramped-up deportation policies finding support and stride under the current Republican administration. Almost all immigrants to this country are refugees even if they are not formally declared so. Formally or informally they seek refuge from violence, poverty, joblessness, hunger and environmental degradation.
“Now ‘refugees’ are those of us who have been so unfortunate as to arrive in a new country without means and have to be helped by refugee committees …. We lost our home, which means the familiarity of daily life. We lost our occupation, which means the confidence that we are of some use in this world. We lost our language, which means the naturalness of reactions, the simplicity of gestures, the unaffected expression of feelings. . . . ” We Refugees, an essay by Hannah Arendt in the 1943 issue of Menorah
The lack of empathy and compassion for and the fear of and prejudice toward immigrants is not new in American history and, as better people than me have said, unless you are a Native American, you are an immigrant, no matter how far back your roots go in these United States. It is likely that your own progenitors felt the sting of prejudice, might have suffered greatly and even died at its hands.
Here I report on the programs and practices that are being implemented by our interfaith community with the help of a number of organizations including Faith In Action, which is integral to the design of a Rapid Response Program. My hope is that in reading this more people in our own community will become involved and that other communities that don’t have programs and collaborations will be inspired to create them.
The Peninsula Solidarity Network of clergy representing diverse faiths was originally initiated to discuss and address the shortage of housing and affordable rents throughout the San Francisco Peninsula and South Bay area and is now taking on another crisis: creating sanctuary and building a Rapid Response Network to witness, accompany and advocate for immigrants facing deportation. On Wednesday, February 8th, it hosted a training by Faith In Action Bay Area. The training was on the Sanctuary Movement and The Rapid Response Network, a project of Faith In Action Bay Area, PICO and the Archdiocese of San Francisco in collaboration with Pangea Legal Services and California Immigrant Youth Justice Alliance.
Please note: I do not speak for or represent the Peninsula Solidarity Network or its clergy and lay-leader members, Faith In Action or the Rapid Response Network, but I was a butterfly on the wall with the good fortune to listen in and report back to you. This is what I learned. Any mistakes or mistaken assumptions are my own. If you are clergy or a professional journalist interested in the Peninsula Solidarity Network, the Sanctuary Movement, and/or Rapid Response email clergyhousingsummit2@gmail.com J.D.
While deportation is not a new problem, these efforts by the federal government are escalating and Faith In Action is working to bring our congregations together to foster the bigger scale of action and involvement that is necessary now . . . and we need everyone. Our job is to facilitate support among the races. Everyone has a role to play: diverse immigrant communities supporting one another and the greater community showing presence. Vulnerable ethnic and religious groups need special help and American citizens have responsibility to be present for victims and involved in this work.
Within the immigrant community congregations are the center for hope. Faith organizations can offer training to help families to defend themselves, to know their rights, and to get deportation defense through community campaigns, solidarity networks and for advocacy at local, state and federal levels.
Each city needs RAPID RESPONSE TEAMS of at least forty people. First responders verify raids, are moral and legal observers and connect families with legal services, social and economic services, advocacy and accompaniment services.
Victims of immigration raids can’t leave home or work to find sanctuary in a congregation. With rapid response, the congregation goes to the people.
In California, clergy and congregation members can also help by supporting the proposed California Values Act (SB 54) of California Senate President pro Tempore Kevin de León. Here is the short link to info about SB 54: http://tinyurl.com/j6e6ayv
Donate to Faith In Action Bay Area, 1336 Arroyo Ave, San Carlos, CA 94070-3913 (510) 234-8983
OUR PENINSULA RESIDENTS ARE INVITED TO attend the Faith In Practicing Solidarity During Immigration Raids Training (Rapid Response Network: Witness, Accompany and Advocate) to be offered on February 12, 4 p.m. – 6 p.m. at the First Congregational Church, 225 Tilton Ave., San Mateo, CA (Parking on Catalpa). You will learn how to witness (be a legal observer), accompany (provide moral support) and advocate (prepare for opportunity to pass new protections). There will be a second training offered on February 28, 6:30 – 8:30pm, 2266 California St, San Francisco.
For more information on the training call 415 867 6279. REGISTER HERE or RSVP at fiaba@faithinactionba.org … Faith In Action Bay Area website is in the development stage.
What follows is a short film (about 20 min.), which tells the history of immigration in the United States. If you are reading this feature from an email subscription, you’ll likely have to link through to watch the video.
The following Q & A on the Sanctuary Movement was shared with me by Rev. Ben Meyers (Unitarian Universalists of San Mateo) and was developed by Rev. Dr. Penny Nixon (Congregational Church of San Mateo) with minor adaptions for use here.
Why a revival of the Sanctuary Movement?
Too many people are deported – or “returned” – many of them are long-term residents woven into the fabric of our communities and congregations, including our neighbors. Often this results in splitting up families with children who are U.S. citizens.
Time after time Congress has refused to address our broken immigration system. Donald Trump launched his campaign for president pledging to build a wall and deport immigrants. During his first two weeks in office he issued orders intended to begin implementing his vision for America. An order establishing a travel ban on Muslims from seven majority Muslim nations has had a chilling effect on nearly all foreign nationals living among us as friends, neighbors, classmates, coworkers or family in communities nationwide. Consequently, a New Sanctuary Movement is rapidly gaining momentum among people of faith and moral conscience.
Why get involved as a Faith Community?
Our shared religious ideals call us to affirm and promote the inherent worth and dignity of all people; to seek justice, equity, and compassion in human relations, and to create world community with peace, liberty and justice for all. We commit our values to action as we work together to transform ourselves while creating congruence between our ideals and our actions. Deportation of our neighbors and the breaking up of immigrant families in our communities are among the most compelling social justice issues of our time. Our congregations can make a difference. We can get involved in the New Sanctuary Movement by taking the National Sanctuary Pledge and becoming a Sanctuary Congregation, joining hundreds of others from all faith traditions across the country
What does it mean to be a Sanctuary Congregation?
Principally, it means helping prevent deportation of persons facing an order of deportation, on a case-by-case basis, one at a time, in concert with their legal representation. Participation varies from joining Networks of Protection and Rapid Response teams; Advocating for due process and policies; Accompanying Immigrant families and youth for protection and providing a safe haven. This latter role means hosting or otherwise supporting a person in your facility and possibly their family too, while the person is engaged in legal proceedings intended to prevent them from being deported. We expect the duration of a person’s stay in Sanctuary would be from three weeks to three months. As part of growing coalitions of congregations you would not be doing this alone.
Is a house of worship a safe place?
Historically, churches, schools and hospitals have been classified as “sensitive locations” under the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Sensitive Locations Policy. ICE has not entered any of those venues to take custody of a person facing an order of deportation. However, we should be aware that this could change as the current administration implements its plans. [ICE officials can make entry with a warrant. / J.D.]
How are candidates for Sanctuary vetted?
As a Sanctuary Congregation, you will have a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with one or more not-for-profit organizations providing legal services for immigrants in or around your area. That organization, in concert with a person’s lawyer, will decide that the person would be the right candidate for Sanctuary: (1) ICE would not likely consider them a priority for deportation; (2) they are a good candidate for prosecutorial discretion, winning a stay of removal or an order of supervision or some other form of legal relief from deportation; and (3) they would satisfy any other requirements specified in our MOU. Where a candidate meets the requirements, the organization presents the case to the Sanctuary Congregations’ rabbi, minister or Iman and a “Vetting Team.”
During the last forty years, no congregation has been prosecuted for allowing undocumented people to find shelter in their Church; no person associated with a Church Sanctuary Program has been convicted for offering Sanctuary; and no Church’s tax-exempt status has been affected. In the words of Martin Luther King, Jr., “There comes a time when a moral man [sic] can’t obey a law which his conscience tells him is unjust. And the important thing is that when he does that he willingly accepts the penalty – because if he refuses to accept the penalty he becomes reckless, and he becomes an anarchist.”
Sanctuary for Modern Day Josephs and Marys, Jamie Dedes
Leading in Difficult Times, Conversations Among the Clergy of San Mateo, CA, Jamie Dedes
Faith in Housing Weekend, Jamie Dedes
Sanctuary Not Deportation website
Inside the New Sanctuary Movement, Puck Lo, The Nation, May 8, 2016
What the Fugitive Slave Act Teaches About How States Can Resist Oppressive Federal Power, Eric Foner, The Nation, February 6, 2017
Thousands Expected to Participate in SF Peninsula Inauguration Protest, inspired by the Philippine People Power Revolution
THE BACKSTORY ON
THE INAUGURATION DAY PEACEFUL PROTEST
ALONG EL CAMINO REAL
ON THE SAN FRANCISCO PENINSULA
I stood in the office of a friend who happens to be Filipino-American and he said, “we need to have a protest along the El Camino Real. We did it in the Philippines – The People Power Revolution – and it was a success.”
My friend was referring to a revolt (some may remember) in the Philippines in 1986, a nonviolent protest that to took place largely along the stretch of Epifanio de los Santos Avenue (EDSA). This avenue is a highway around Manila and the main thoroughfare in Metro Manila, which passes through six capitol regions.
The protest was implemented from February 22–25, 1986, a revolt against violence, electorial fraud and President Marcos. It reportedly involved over two million Filipino civilians, as well as several political and military groups and included religious organizations too. (Do you remember the news features on the “kleptocrat” Imelda Marcos – then first lady – and all her shoes?)
The protest resulted in the ouster of Marcos from Malacañang Palace to Hawaii. It culminated in a free election and the installation of Corazon Aquino (the widow of the assassinated Benigno Aquino, Jr., a former Senator who stood in opposition to Marcos) as President of the Philippines. So, yes! This peaceful protest was a success … and an inspiration …
INAUGURATION DAY SIDEWALK PROTEST ALONG EL CAMINO REAL
Now we are not comparing the current situation in the United States with the violent and traumatic events that lead to the People Power Revolution initiated by our Filipino brothers and sisters. It did birth the idea though for our Inauguration Day Protest to be held on the 20th from noon to 1 p.m., the time of the inauguration.
“[Nonviolence] is directed against forces of evil rather than against persons who happen to be doing the evil.” Martin Luther King Jr., Stride Toward Freedom: The Montgomery Story
El Camino Real (ECR) (Spanish for The Royal Road, also known as The King’s Highway), spans the historic 600-mile road connecting the twenty-one Spanish missions in California ), along with a number of sub-missions, four presidios, and three pueblos. It travels from the southern end San Diego area Mission, San Diego de Alcalá, to the trail’s northern terminus at Mission San Francisco Solano in Sonoma, just above San Francisco Bay. Relative to the EDSA and the greater length of El Camino Real, our effort is relatively modest spanning just the cities from San Jose to San Francisco.
The action call went out on December 31 when UUSM Minister Rev. Ben Meyers invited area residents and workers to stand in solidarity for peace, sustainability and social justice. “If you too are concerned about the rhetoric and proposed policies of the incoming administration,” Rev. Meyers said, “you are encouraged to come out and show that as a community we will stand our ground and fight for tolerance, decency, economic justice and democracy in our country.”
A site was set up – ecrprotest.blogspot.com – as an invitation/call to action. It details the event and some rules of behavior. There’s a link to the American Civil Liberties’ legal guidance for protest. The invitation is translated into Tagalog, Spanish, Chinese and Simple Chinese, respecting the diversity of our communities. It can be printed out as flyers to be distributed.
We’ve been gratified with the response: 13,000 visits to the ecrprotest.blogspot.com site as of this afternoon … Hence, we look forward to thousands of participants. If you live and/or work in on the Peninsula and relate to the mission, we hope you’ll join us.
This “Sidewalk Protest” is coordinated by the Unitarian Universalists in concert with Faith in Action and Suite Up! Action Network Mid-Peninsula-SF Bay Area.
We have set up a Facebook Group to facilitate meet-ups.
– Jamie Dedes
Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. (1929-1928)
“I left India more convinced than ever before that nonviolent resistance was the most potent weapon available to oppressed people in their struggle for freedom. It was a marvelous thing to see the amazing results of a nonviolent campaign. India won her independence, but without violence on the part of Indians. The aftermath of hatred and bitterness that usually follows a violent campaign was found nowhere in India. The way of acquiescence leads to moral and spiritual suicide. The way of violence leads to bitterness in the survivors and brutality in the destroyers. But the way of nonviolence leads to redemption and the creation of the beloved community”.The Autobiography of Martin Luther King, Jr. chapter 13, “Pilgrimage to Nonviolence”
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Tag Archives: coffee
africa, cbs sunday morning, changing lives, coffee, conspire, ethiopia, helping others, Hugh Jackman, keep saying yes, laughing man, Morocco, not whats given, what you do with it
I am amused by Hugh Jackman’s name. All the time I transpose his name to ‘Huge Ackman’ and it makes me laugh to myself.
This morning he appeared on CBS Sunday Morning to talk about his fair trade coffee company, Laughing Man. The story touched me.
The back story is that he was doing a documentary on coffee growers in Ethiopia and met a man who influenced his life in surprising ways. This man was happy and made him laugh, for one. Hugh found himself pulled in and before long, he was opening a coffee store he named Laughing Man, after this happy Ethiopian. He since has opened additional stores and gives all proceeds to charity, like Paul Newman did with his salad dressing. His business is successful and lives have been affected.
I’m skipping a bunch of the story because I want to get to the good part. The part where Hugh talks in a way that I completely relate to. The part where he talks about watching people’s lives change. His experience resonates deeply with me.
“It’s not what you’ve been given, it’s what you do with it.”
He also says:
“Sometimes it’s tempting for my ego to go ‘Oh wow! Look what I’ve created!’ But I know I haven’t. Things have conspired and sometimes it just takes saying yes and ‘having a go’ for these things to sort of play out. …a cup of coffee changes the lives of these [coffee] growers. I’ve seen a massive difference with just one cup of coffee. It’s changing a life.”
This resonates with me because often, when describing the events of my own life this past 3-4 years since falling in love with Morocco, I say “It’s not me! I’m just saying yes to what’s presented me!”
But I never can quite describe it. Like I’m in a jet stream flying where the air takes me. Like I’m a marionette being controlled by something that wants me to go in a certain direction. But now today, thanks to Huge Ackman, I can say it’s like things have conspired and I’m saying yes and giving it a go.
That’s exactly what it is!
Hugh Jackman – Laughing Man coffee
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Kaiulani
Dancing with Kaiholunuie has been a rich and rewarding experience for Kaiulani. She has gained friendships, knowledge, and experience as a professional dancer. She began learning to dance the art of hula from her mother at the age of three, and made her debut performance at the Hamden, CT YMCA at the age of five, where she and her little sister performed “Hukilau”. They both charmed the audience with their moves. Since that moment, Kaiulani has remained a dedicated student of hula, creating an ori fusion class that incorporates traditional Tahitian dance steps and drumming with fitness, and contemporary music. With over fifteen years of experience in dancing, she realized that with the fusion of formality, technique, and fresh new songs, younger people would be drawn in. Today, she is a skilled performer in the art of hula and Tahiti Ori. Kaiulani currently attends UConn and is a double major in political Science and Sociology.
Being a part of Kaiholunie has been a great adventure for Tiare, In her words, "I have met and work with a wonderful group of people, and learning about hula has been a fantastic experience." Tiare has been a belly dancer for nine years, taking lessons from local and international dancers, and still dances professionally in hookah lounges and restaurants around the state. Belly dance introduced her to her love for dance and since then she has taken classes for enjoyment in multiple dance disciplines. Once she discovered Polynesian Dance forms, she was hooked. Her love of this art form began with Tahiti Ori (dance), mostly because of the physical challenge of it while making it look graceful. During the day Tiare works as a barista, but is still exploring options for a career in the arts. She currently holds a BFA in Illustration from the University of Hartford.
Kawika
In addition to being a skilled musician, Kawika is well versed in Polynesian dancing, including Hula and Maori with a focus on Tahitian Kane (Male) style of dancing. He currently performs as a dancer and singer at Kaiholunuie, where he receives dancing instruction from Kekai, and occasionally passes his knowledge to the younger Kane students seeking instruction. He has also received dancing instruction from Tiare Kahana of Kahana Hula, Kumu Lani-Girl Kaleiki-Ahlo, Michael Heremana and Kumu Kawika Alfiche of Halau ‘O Keikali’i. See Kawika’s music bio below for information on his musical contributions to Kaiholunuie.
Ikaika
Ikaika began dancing with Kaiholunuie when he was a Keiki and has loved every moment of the experience. He first began dancing hip-hop when he was 6 years old, but his love for the Polynesian culture and dance led him to love the art of Hula, and other various Polynesian dance forms. He is currently a freshman in high school and takes part in a wide variety of extracurricular activities which include soccer, swimming, track & field, and he has recently achieved his Eagle Scout. He continues to do well in school and plans on pursuing engineering following high school. "Kaiholunuie is an amazing ohana filled with love and offers outstanding experiences”.
Pikake is one of Kaiholunuie’s newest additions after just having joined the group a couple years ago – and loving every minute of it! Pikake has been the lead dancer and choreographer of the ALAY Philippine Cultural Group of Greater Danbury which specializes in traditional Filipino folk dance and Hula. She has been dancing since she was six years old under the training of instructors from the Philippines where Hawaiian/Polynesian influences are greatly prominent in the melting pot that is the Filipino culture. Pikake is also classically trained in ballet, pointe with the Brookfield School of Performing Arts and enjoys all types of dance! She is a proud graduate of the University of Connecticut with her bachelor’s degree in Allied Health and a minor in Psychology. She is currently working towards her Master’s degree in Gerontology as she is the Program Coordinator/Asst. Director of the New Milford Senior Center. It is Pikake’s joy to be able to share her love of dance and culture and spread the spirit of aloha to all! Pikake is also one of our event coordinators.
Iwalani
Iwalani was inspired to learn Polynesian dance by her Aunt, which moved her to seek out and join Kaiholunuie in 2017. She has had prior experience learning a Tahitian dance where she performed in college. Iwalani often reinforces her love of the beauty, culture, and stories of the islands that are conveyed through movements in hula and Tahitian styles. With her joyous nature, Iwalani often states, “These celebrated dances bring joy and makes people smile.” Since she was little, Iwalani has had a passion for dance and learning. She holds a PhD in biomedical engineering from Yale University and is currently a research scientist, using imaging as a tool to study brain diseases. Throughout the challenges of school and life, dance has always been an outlet and a way of expression. Iwalani’s extensive dance experience encompasses multiple genres, and she has learned to dance and perform salsa, Argentine tango, samba, hip hop, lyrical...and now the art of hula! Iwalani is also one of our event coordinators.
Makana discovered her love for hula at nine years old at a studio that taught hula in Japan. She has been dancing this style ever since. After she explored other types of dances she knew hula was for her. When she first came to the United States she was introduced to another dance studio where her mother also worked. Makana’s hula experience as a dancer in Japan made her fall instantly in love with the spiritual art form. She is an experienced dancer who works hard to make hula as graceful as it should look. As she grew in her Polynesian dance experience, she started participating at shows in county fairs, holiday parades, birthday parties, and other venues. Makana took a little break from dancing when she moved all the way from California to Connecticut until life settled down. She joined Kaiholunuie in 2018, and realized how much she missed and loved dancing. The only regret she has is she didn’t meet Aunty Kekai soon enough! When she’s not dancing, Makana loves to cook for her husband Adam, play video games, and play tug of war with her 160lb. Newfoundland, Buster. She loves the spiritual form of how hula has blossomed in her heart, and wants to share the Aloha spirit with the world.
Our Musicians
Ku'umomi
Ku’umomi has been a hula dancer since the age of three, learning and studying the art of hula under her mother’s tutelage. Upon picking up her first instrument, the flute in fourth grade, she realized how much she loved music. Ku’umomi attended the Educational Center for the Arts in New Haven, Connecticut for vocal and instrumental training. She is classically trained in the flute, and is self-taught in piano, guitar, ukulele, and drums. She also sings and writes songs in other genres of music and is currently in the process of releasing an album. She is the songstress for Kaiholunuie, which she loves, and balances her performances alongside being a university student. She would like to consider a career in Psychology with a minor in music therapy. Today, Ku’umomi attends the University of New Haven, CT for voice and instrumental training as well as music production.
Having been born in Kahului, Maui, the heritage and rich cultural experiences Aaron had growing up in Hawaii have always remained in his heart. Even after relocating to the mainland as a young boy, Hawaii and it’s culture of food, music, dance, and aloha have remained a big part of his daily life by maintaining cultural values and norms. Today, Aaron plays several instruments including guitar, ukulele, and steel guitar. Aaron’s true musical loves are playing mele O Hawaii and contemporary arrangements as well. Aaron has enjoyed working with Kekai Colello and her Halau Kaiholunuie over the last few years, and is one of Kaiholunuie’s primary musicians and vocalists. Aaron currently lives in Killingly, CT with his wife Alison and son Ross.
Kawika has been a percussionist and musician with Kaiholunuie since 2013. He began studying music at age 11 and was a member of several drum corps in his early years. More recently, he has been a member of several rock groups with an extensive discography. His journey in Polynesian music began when he was discovered by Tiare Kahana during the Hartford, CT’s Dragon Boat festival and was introduced to Tahitian drumming. Since then he has been actively performing with numerous Polynesian dance groups located in the Northeast. He has received training from master drummers Lloyd Chandler & Jay Medeiros of Tahiti Fete of San Jose, CA where he had the honor of participating in the symphony of drums as part of Tahiti Fete. Although drumming is his main passion, he is also well versed in various other types of Polynesian percussion and string instruments, chanting and dancing. Kawika currently holds a Bachelors in performing arts from Long Island University.
Sa'u
Sa'u is a Polynesian dancer and drummer who has been performing with Kaiholunuie for several years. He has drummed for Kailulani, Ku'umomi and the ladies of Kaiholunuie at various shows throughout the Northeast. His twenty plus years of experience encompass numerous Tahitian competitions and performances in Tahiti, Hawaii and throughout the continental U.S. His training and performances have come under the direction of Hula Halau O' Makalapua Marama Te Mafatu Nui and Te Pura O Te Rahura'a in California. He continues his dedication to the Polynesian cultural arts with Kaiholunuie and is excited to be part of such an energetic, young and extremely talented group where the 'sky's the limit'! Sa'u double majored in Biology and Marine Science and holds a BS degree in both from the University of Miami. He is currently close to completing his MS in Quality Assurance at CSU Dominguez Hills.
Kekai - Owner/Instructor
Kaiholunuie Polynesian Dance Company (KPDC), expresses the cultural vitality of Polynesia through many dance styles of the South Pacific. Our performance company consists of a thriving multicultural group of ladies, men, young people, and keiki (children), who come together as extended ohana (family). It is here they learn the art of, and deeper meanings of the hula, as well as other forms of Polynesian dance. Those dance forms consist of Tahiti Ori, Maori dance from New Zealand, and Samoan Siva. While KPDC maintains a commitment to authenticity, we strive to be inclusive to all those who seek deeper knowledge of Polynesian culture and share in aloha spirit. KPDC has performed across the state of Connecticut, into Massachusetts, New York, and Rhode Island. KPDC also performs at international fairs and schools in an effort to maintain our educational partnerships. It is our mission to educate and inform all youth through the arts, and workshops as a platform to instill a deeper understanding of Polynesian culture, artwork, regalia, and history. Many of KPDC’s artists are educators, parents and professionals who have a deep desire to preserve and perpetuate the cultural heritage and history of the people of the South Pacific. Kaholunuie Polynesian Dance Company is based out of Wallingford, Connecticut and was founded in 2004 by Kekai Colello, Artistic Director. She has over forty-five years of Polynesian dance experience, and over thirty years of experience in choreography and instruction. She holds a BA in English with an emphasis in multicultural literature, and a Masters Degree in Education. She is a graduate of Quinnipiac University in Hamden, CT.
Keona - Accountant/Outreach Coordinator
Keona has been with KPDC for the last five years. Having tried numerous dance styles since childhood, she has finally found her preferred style. With a MA in archaeology and PhD in anthropology through Yale University, Keona works as an associate research scientist at Yale University on Near Eastern prehistory and cultures, as well as a researcher at SIAS Global, a technology-development and information-analysis company. Having fallen in love with Hawaii and its culture after a visit for an academic conference, KPDC allows her to pursue her passion in anything Polynesian. Through dancing and assisting in the administrative aspects of bookkeeping and outreach at KPDC, Keona is excited to be part of such an uplifting group and hopes to be able to share her love of the islands with many more people through various KPDC activities.
Hi'ilani - Webmaster
With over thirty years of experience in the IT industry, Hi'ilani's primary role with the ohana is webmaster for this site. She also serves as "roadie" for her husband Kawika, helping to transport, set up, and take down his sound system and numerous musical instruments. During one performance where Kekai was not able to attend, Hi'ilani was dubbed the "Minister of Music (MoM)" when she was left in charge of making sure all musical needs were met for the show. That title has stuck with her ever since. In addition, Hi'lani's crafting skills has led her to help make many of the costumes for the drummers and dancers. Hi'ilani currently holds a Bachelors in Information Systems from New York University and a Masters in Computer Science from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.
Our Haumana
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Killer Calling Hoax
Posted in Kakuma Town and Kenya, News Updates by KANERE on November 8, 2010
Many mobile phone users in Kakuma panicked after they received false warning messages.
Mobile phone users have been told to ignore SMS and email messages warning against calls from certain strong numbers because it would kill.
The messages—which are a hoax—warn users that 27 people have died after answering death calls that emit high frequent rays causing brain hemorrhage and death. The Communication Department of Kenya said the messages were a hoax. According to the Daily Nation newspaper on September 2, 2010: “Have you got a call or an SMS from a friend warning against some certain numbers referred to as causing death?” Numbers are coming to the subscribers in different colors: Red, Blue, Green and ‘Private or Call’ indicating no numbers visible on the mobile screen and causing quick death are as listed: 7888308001, 9316048121, 9876266211, 9888854137, and 9876715587.
The listed numbers are non–existent as mobile, fixed or international calls, yet subscribers have received them in their mobiles, as refugees have complained to KANERE journalists. “It was after receiving a call that I began vomiting blood, the blood also started coming through my nose and mouth,” said Santo, a Sudanese refugee in an interview after he was admitted at the main Refugee hospital on 4th September 2010 and discharged after 5 days in the Hospital. The medical personnel stated that no death cases were received at the IRC hospital.
The message started circulating Tuesday night, August 31, and continued until September 3, 2010. It sent thousands of refugees and local Kenyans into great panic. Despite the citation from the Kenyan Communication Department, mobile users still fear the so-called rumors. “I have family and friends abroad and I still cannot answer any calls that are strange or coming as private or just calling because others were doing the same and I cannot risk dying simply,” said Mohamed, a Somali living in Kakuma One.
In the refugee camp people had different opinions regarding the warning. Some people stated that a ghostly red number was appearing on the mobile and killing people, while others claimed that mobiles explode upon answering or even rejecting the killers’ calls. “The Communication Commission of Kenya said mobile phones cannot emit the sound frequencies that can cause immediate physical injury or death,” stated the Daily Nation Magazine in an attempt to counter the rumors. “I have received a call with a number of 13 digits and red in color. I threw the mobile down and run away,” said Abdi Chiro, an Ethiopian, He adds that he saw someone who received a call on his mobile but didn’t answer it due to fear.
In the camp, many refugees switched off their mobile phones for over a week, fearing death. In an interview with Kakuma police officers, an officer commanding the station stated that this thing might be there but we could not establish the cause. “However, no death cases were seen and we don’t have it in our records,” said the police officer.
Universal TV, based in Nairobi, offered a statement in response to public rumors that two persons were admitted to a hospital in Nairobi following the receipt of killers’ calls, adding that these persons experienced bleeding through the mouth and nose on September 4, 2010 at 10:45 pm local time. It was a breaking news highlight, but the status of the hoax reports remains unclear.
According to a reliable source, the hoax has since done the rounds in Ghana, India and Middle East countries.
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Murder of an Infant »
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The 50 Authors Who Shaped Me
Adult writers
Children’s Authors
Best Books On Writing & Creativity
Non Fiction Writers
Writing Journal
What Katie Read
Searching For Charlotte
The Blue Rose
The Silver Well
Beauty In Thorns
The Beast’s Garden
Bitter Greens
Dancing on Knives
The Witches of Eileanan
The Rebirth of Rapunzel
Children’s Books – 9+
Long-Lost Fairy-Tales
The Impossible Quest
The Puzzle Ring
The Chain Of Charms
The Chronicles Of Estelliana
Picture Books – 2+
Two Selkie Stories from Scottland
The Magical Misadventures
Grumpy Grandpa
Writing Retreat in The Cotswolds
The 50-50 Project
The Familiars by Stacey Halls
Mary de Morgan Blog
‘Help me, sweet Love!’ she cried, and then began to weep.
‘Poor Queen Blanchelys!’ said Love. ‘Your rose-tree is dead then.’
‘My tree is dead,’ sobbed Queen Blanchelys, ‘and the King loves me no more. Ah, tell me who has killed my tree?’
‘Your cousin Zaire has killed it,’ said Love. ‘She asked Envy to help her, and Envy has given her a viper, which she laid at the tree’s roots, and it has spat its deadly venom on to the red heart (of the rose) … and killed it.’
‘Tell me, then, how to make it live again,’ gasped the Queen.
‘There is only one thing in the world that can do that!’ said Love.
‘And what is that?’ asked the Queen.
The blood from your own heart,’ said Love.
Mary de Morgan, ‘Seeds of Love’
On A Pincushion & Other Fairy Tales (1877)
Ask anyone for the names of the great fairy-tale tellers, and most people will answer Charles Perrault, the Brothers Grimm and Hans Christian Andersen. A few may summon up the names Andrew Lang, Oscar Wilde or George Macdonald.
But hardly anyone will mention Mary de Morgan, even though her literary tales were as beautiful, strange and eerie as any told by the famous men above.
Mary de Morgan was born in London in February 1850, a month of wild storms in which windows were broken by hail, slates were torn off roofs, chimneys were blown down, and ships were wrecked upon the shore. She was the youngest daughter of the brilliant mathematician Augustus de Morgan and his wife Sophia, who was tutor to Ada Lovelace, the daughter of Lord Byron and an accomplished mathematician herself.
When Mary was three years old, her sister Alice died from measles at the age of 15. This great sorrow drew her mother into spiritualism, and she began to hold séances in her home and to attend lectures and demonstrations by mediums. At the age of six, Mary began to dream about Alice, seeing her playing in a garden attended by doves and haloed with gold. Her mother Sophia began to record Mary’s dreams and other psychic occurrences (including Mary’s uncanny ability to tell people’s futures from reading their palms). Sophia de Morgan’s book From Matter to Spirit: The Result of Ten Years’ Experience in Spirit Manifestation was published in 1862, when Mary was thirteen. It is one of the seminal work on spiritualism in Victorian times.
A year or so later, Mary and her favourite brother, William de Morgan, met William Morris and were drawn into the circle of Pre-Raphaelites. William de Morgan eagerly adopted the principles and philosophies of this group of free-thinking bohemians, and became a famous potter, designer and novelist.
Mary and her brother were frequent guests at the Morris home, and were well acquainted with Edward Burne-Jones and his family, and with Christina Rossetti and her artist-brother, Dante Gabriel Rossetti.
Mary was known for her boldness and outspokenness. She once told the landscape artist Henry Holiday: ‘All artists are fools! Look at yourself and Mr. Solomon.’
Agnes Poynter, Georgiana Burne-Jones’s sister, wrote of her at the time: ‘She chattered awfully, and Louie, she is only just fifteen. I believe a judicious course of snubbing would do her good!’
Mary’s mother Sophia was an early campaigner for women’s rights, attending meetings and marches, and signing the famous petition of 1866. From the age of sixteen, Mary was active in the suffragette movement too, and was also involved with her mother in the fight against animal cruelty.
Her family were sadly riddled with consumption, and in Mary’s late teens she lost her her brother George, her sister Chrissie and her father. Sophia and Mary moved in with William in his rather ramshackle artist’s lodging, and Mary began to write stories of her own. Her first publication was in 1873, a collection of stories co-authored with a female friend, Edith Helen Dixon, and entitled Six by Two: Stories of Old Schoolfellows.
In 1873, at a Christmas party at the Burne-Jones’s house in Kensington, Mary entertained the children by telling them fairy-tales. Her audience included Jenny and May Morris, Philip and Margaret Burne-Jones, and their cousins, Rudyard and Alice Kipling, and Angela and Denis Mackail.
The children were enchanted and kept begging her for more. Mary wrote down the stories she told them, and these were published in 1877 under the title On A Pin-Cushion, when she was just twenty-seven.
Some of the tales in this collection are just extraordinary. There’s ‘The Story of Vain Lamorna’, a pretty girl who is badly scarred in her quest for beauty and only then realises the emptiness of vanity; ‘The Seeds of Love’, a tragic tale of love gone wrong; and ‘The Toy Princess’, a subversive tale about a princess whose fairy godmother rescued her from the stifling etiquette of the royal court and replaced her with a robot-princess who only spoke a few stock polite phrases. The real princess is brought up by a fisherman and his family and learns the value of hard work and true love.
I love this last story of Mary de Morgan’s in particular, and retold it for my collection of feminist fairy-tales, Vasilisa the Wise & Other Tales of Brave Young Women (illustrated by Lorena Carrington & published by Serenity Press).
Another fairy-tale collection, Necklace of Princess Florimonde, was published in 1880. The stories show her strong liberal philosophies, with tales like ‘The Bread of Discontent’ illuminating the evils of poor-quality mass-produced goods, in contrast to the loving work of artisans and craftspeople.
In 1887, Mary’s brother William married another artist, Evelyn Pickering, who (under her married name, Evelyn de Morgan) became one of the most accomplished (and mystical) painters of the later Pre-Raphaelite movement. Mary had to move out and live on her own, supporting herself as a typist while she continued to write. Her tragic novel of social realism, ‘A Choice of Chance’, was published in that same year.
Her friendship with William Morris continued to deepen, and she became involved with his activities with the early British socialists. She undertook social work in East End slums, attended suffragette rallies, and in 1899, joined Emmeline Pankhurst’s ‘Women’s League’.
In 1898, she was one of the few people admitted to William Morris’s bedchamber as he lay dying of tuberculosis. She helped nurse him and told him stories to keep him entertained, and helped his wife Jane and daughter May embroider the famous bed-hangings which can now be seen at Kelmscott Manor.
In 1900, Mary’s last book ‘Wind Fairies’ was published, and five years later she went to Egypt to run a reformatory school for girls. She died in Cairo in 1907, of tuberculosis.
In 1963, Victor Gollanz published The Necklace of Princess Fiorimonde – The Complete Fairy Stories of Mary de Morgan, with an introduction by Roger Lancelyn Green. Mary is quoted as saying: ‘I am so thankful I have only a small income – it is so delightful planning things and deciding what one can afford. It would bore me to death to be rich!’
I find the life and work of Mary de Morgan utterly fascinating. I badly wanted to tell her story in my novel Beauty in Thorns, inspired by the lives of the Pre-Raphaelite sisterhood, but in the end her chapters ended up on the cutting-room floor. Maybe one day I will turn them into a novel!
It has been suggested that Mary de Morgan’s stories have been forgotten because she was a woman, and certainly her feminism was radial and confronting for the times in which she lived.
It may also be because many of her tales ended tragically, eschewing the traditional ‘happy ever after’ denouements of classic fairy-tales.
Not all stories end happily, however, and there is something so powerful and sorrowful about Mary de Morgan’s struggle to change the world through her storytelling.
‘… Then she kissed him softly thrice, and bid him adieu, and went out of the palace to her dear rose-tree in the garden. It was nothing now but a bare black stump. So Queen Blanchelys lay down on the ground, and put her arms round the trunk, and from the dead branch she tore a long smooth thorn, and pierced her heart with it, and the drops of blood trickled to the roots of the tree, and at once the serpent at the roots shrivelled and died, and the tree again began to bud and sprout.
When the King awoke in the morning the first thing he saw was the Queen’s letter, and he took it and read it at once, and as he read his cheeks turned pale, and he sighed bitterly, and then he called his courtiers, and told them what had happened, and they all went out into the garden to the rose-tree, under which lay dead poor Queen Blanchelys.
But the tree which before was only a piece of dead wood was covered with green leaves and rose-buds.
The King kissed the Queen’s pale face, and ordered that there should be a grand funeral, and that she should be buried under the rose-tree, and from that day forth the King thought of no-one but Queen Blanchelys … but Zaire was stripped of all her fine dresses and jewels … and was banished from the land, and had to beg her bread for door to door.
But when the rose-tree burst into bloom, the roses which were white before were as red as the blood which sprang from the Queen’s heart …’
Kate Forsyth
VINTAGE WRITING POST: Q & A for Kate Forsyth on Vasalisa The Wise
VINTAGE POST: Vasilisa The Wise
Copyright 2018 Kate Forsyth | All Rights Reserved
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World Sound Radioadmin2019-04-21T17:15:49-05:00
Music • Reggae / World
World Sound Radio provides a window on the world of popular and traditional music not heard on other broadcast media in the Kansas City area. It also provides a unique service airing live, international world music artists who visit the metropolitan area.
Tom Crane
• Airs on Sundays at 1:00 pm
Every Sunday at 1:00pm
Tom Crane acquired his interest in world music after working several years as a volunteer with a publc health project in Malawi, Central Africa. He received his M.A. in International Affairs, African Studies, at Ohio University in Athens, Ohio and has worked in Africa several times. During his travels in over 30 nations, Tom accumulated and recorded his library of world music.
World Sound Radio provides a window on the world of popular and traditional music not heard on other broadcast media in the Kansas City area. It also provides a unique service airing live, international world music artists who visit the metropolitan area. The show provides an educational service to Kansas City by sharing information about other nations and cultures, particularly non-Western ones and offering guests who have an international perspective. Currently World Sound Radio airs from 1 PM to 3 PM every Sunday at KKFI.ORG or on 90.1 FM in Kansas City, Missouri, U.S.A. (In the center of North America)
The World Sound Radio’s purpose is to promote world peace and international understanding by exposing Kansas Citians to information and music unavailable on other media. It also gives a voice to those from refugee and ethnic communities which do not have access to the airwaves.
During its history, the WS has worked with many communities in the Kansas City area including groups, individuals, and associations from Sierra Leone, Nigeria, Pakistan, Iran, China, Malawi, South Africa, France, Zimbabwe, Germany, Scotland, Tibet, Cameroon, and many others. A live interview with Fela Anikulapo Kuti, a world renowned artist from Nigeria was aired on the WS during his visit to Kansas City. In addition, the WS has promoted citywide events such as the Scottish Highland Games, and the Ethnic Enrichment Festival. The WS was helpful in setting up the visit of Thomas Mapfumo from Zimbabwe to Kansas City, an important world music artist, to be the featured artist who performed at the Kansas City Ethnic Enrichment Festival.
A BRIEF HISTORY OF THE WORLD SOUND RADIO
The two-hour WS began when KKFI went on the air. Hosted by one of the station’s founders, Tom Crane. In its 15 years on-air, it has provided music from over 90 countries and had guests from over 25 nations. During its history, the show has appeared in several time slots. In the 90’s, when the WS aired on Saturdays from 11:00 AM to 1:00 PM, it was a top station fund-producing program during pledge drives.
December 1, 2019 Music, Reggae / World
World Sound Radio • Dec. 1, 2019
November 24, 2019 Music, Reggae / World
World Sound Radio • Nov. 24, 2019
November 3, 2019 Music, Reggae / World
World Sound Radio • Nov. 3, 2019
October 27, 2019 Music, Reggae / World
World Sound Radio • Oct. 27, 2019
October 6, 2019 Music, Reggae / World
World Sound Radio • Oct. 6, 2019
September 29, 2019 Music, Reggae / World
World Sound Radio • Sept. 29, 2019
Contact the team at World Sound Radio.
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Las Vegas illusionists Kyle and Mistie Knight have traveled to over 80 different countries performing their own unique style of magic. The husband and wife duo have headlined in Las Vegas, at the famed Magic Castle in Hollywood, and at The House of Magic at Studio City Resort in Macau, China. On television Kyle Knight & Mistie recently appeared on the hit show “Penn & Teller: Fool Us” on the CW network, on BBC One’s “Now You See It”, and were the grand-prize winners on SyFy’s magic competition show “Wizard Wars.”
Each bringing their own unique talents to the show, Kyle has won several first place awards in sleight of hand and stage illusions, while Mistie is a former Miss Las Vegas who performs her own magic and costume quick changes. Kyle & Mistie showcase incredible magic and connect with the audience in any venue, from smaller cabaret rooms, to corporate events or large theaters, and are able to customize their show depending on the demographic. Together Kyle & Mistie perform magic with bold and a modern style with a touch of irreverence, allowing their audience to get up close and involved in ways they’ve never seen before.
became interested in the art of magic at a young age, and during his teen years he was hired to teach magic courses at the local university. Performing magic to pay his way through college, Kyle broadened his talents and earned a degree in video and television production. He has been recognized by the Society of American Magicians, the International Brotherhood of Magicians and the Houdini Society, and has received numerous first place awards in magic competitions for his skills in sleight of hand, escapes, and stage illusions.
MISTIE KNIGHT
has been Kyle’s better half and onstage costar for over a decade. She is involved in every aspect of the show, and adds personality and production with her own magic, piano performances and costume quick changes. Representing the “Entertainment Capital of the World,” Mistie was honored to be crowned Miss Las Vegas 2006, a preliminary in the Miss America Organization, and win the overall talent award with her classical piano performance. In addition to her roles in onstage, she also acts as business manager for Knight Magic Productions, and works as an agent and entertainment consultant for other performers as well. For more info about Mistie and her own magic check out her website:
www.mistieknight.com
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← Self-Righteous Anger on the Left
A New Narrative →
Posted on April 26, 2016 by John Boylan
The problem I have with Bernie Sanders has nothing to do with Bernie Sanders, and everything to do with you and me. The key point: we can’t elect visionary and progressive leaders without having a powerful, well-organized progressive movement behind them. If we do so, we are dooming them to twist in the wind. And I don’t see that movement happening any time in the near future.
I like Bernie Sanders, his passionate sense of social justice, his ideas for creating a just, equitable, and sustainable society. And the popularly driven campaign that he has created is wonderful. Is he electable? Maybe, at this point, it’s looking bleak. But whether or not he is electable may not matter.
This is not about Bernie versus Hillary. It’s more about what happens when we elect an uncompromising leader without creating a huge and well-organized support structure as well.
If he were to make it to the White House, Bernie Sanders would instantly face a wall. If you think that Obama got pushback when he got to the presidency, just wait for Sanders the socialist. Even if the Democrats take back the Senate, they probably won’t make 60 seats, and they probably won’t tend to unite behind Sanders.
His cabinet nominees will be delayed, filibustered, derailed by Republicans, possibly with the support of a few Democrats. His initiatives, whether they’re single payer or his plan for universal free college, will be stopped dead. Right off the bat, he’ll be pushed into executive action territory, and I can’t help but wonder if Obama might have tapped that well dry, at least for now.
Sanders has been in Congress for a long time. Looking at the past couple of years, I’m not sure that he has been the sort of senator to cajole or arm-twist his fellows, in the old LBJ mold (if that’s even doable in 21st century America). And if he can’t do that while in Congress, I’m not clear how well he will be able to do it from the Oval Office. I believe that as wonderful a fellow as he is, he will be left twisting in the wind.
Unless.
Unless he were to have at his back a solid, progressive movement across this country. I’m thinking of the sort of movement that would extend even to the most conservative states. I’m thinking of a movement that would be quickly responsive, generous and inclusive, effective and smart. It’s the sort of movement that would get people away from their televisions and into community meetings, a movement that would accept differences, where a pro-choice woman and anti-abortion woman might find themselves united in a fight for clean drinking water.
It’s the sort of movement whose members would be masters of getting their message across, especially in places like the local six pm news broadcast. It’s a movement where local organizations would tie in with each other across the country, and volunteers would keep an eye out for pending legislation, so that congressional offices might be flooded with phone calls and letters at a moment’s notice.
It’s not a third party. In our winner-takes-all system, a third party usually ends up as little more than a spoiler of the chances of a potential ally. This movement would need to ally with the Democrats where appropriate and push them where that makes sense.
And that’s where you and I come in. We’re not creating this movement. Oh sure, we’re doing our best with our favorite causes, and occasionally we’ll see glimpses of what such a movement might be. But on the whole, we’re far from where we need to be.
I can hear Sanders volunteers responding: “Wait just one minute! We’re building that movement! We’re building it around Bernie.” To that, I say “Nope.” It just doesn’t work that way. A presidential campaign is the worst way to build a long-term, effective, political campaign. Ask all the kids who turned out for Clean Gene McCarthy, the Bernie Sanders of the 1960s. Or those who rallied behind Howard Dean decades later. Or even those who worked so hard for Obama in 2008, despite the creation of Organizing for America after the campaign.
After Obama was elected, I often wondered what things might have been like if he’d had that progressive movement at his back, pushing him left where needed, backing him up where appropriate. But it never quite happened. When the Tea Party began to seize the national spotlight, there wasn’t a strong counterforce.
A presidential campaign will never be a good foundation for a strong, long-term movement, because it isn’t set up that way. An effective presidential campaign is designed to be temporary. When the campaign is over, win or lose, those field offices, the headquarters of the “ground game” that the pundits love to discuss, they go away. There’s no long-term funding to keep them in place. And the people running them have either moved on to work in the White House, or if the candidate loses, to the next campaign. Campaign pros are by nature short-term campaigners, not long-term organizers.
Sure, there are some great local organizers in any campaign; I’ve known a lot of them. But they work within a candidate-centered, short-term goal. But “We’ve been getting huge numbers of people out to work on the campaign, staffing the phone banks, doing get-out-the-vote work! And these are people who’ve never been involved in politics before.” Sure, and that’s very valuable. But where do these newly energized people go once the campaign is over? That’s not clear.
I don’t have an easy answer here. This essay is not a defense of Hillary Clinton. A lot of this applies to her as well. But it is essential to the Sanders campaign, especially because he is advocating positions that, while not at all radical, will require a definite shift in a progressive direction, a shift that requires a progressive movement at its back. And that’s not happening, not yet.
1 Response to The problem I have with Bernie Sanders….
Ursula barril says:
Well said. That type of progressive movement begins at the societal level and is taught in the home and at school with the understanding of the common good not the individualistic ideal. But there is hope when so many young people are behind a man that is old enoigh to be their grandfather and whose ideals they fully back.
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Home > News > ZYUS and University of Saskatchewan Partner to Conduct Cannabinoid-Based Research on Possible Treatment of Brain Disorders
admin, 2 weeks ago
SASKATOON, Saskatchewan–(Business Wire)–ZYUS Life Sciences Inc. (“ZYUS”), a company focused on the global development and commercialization of innovative and patient-focused cannabinoid-based formulations, and the University of Saskatchewan have signed an agreement to partner on a pre-clinical study to determine the impact of cannabis derivatives on mental health conditions.
The pre-clinical study entitled ‘Cannabis Derivatives: Therapeutic Potential in Animal Models of Brain Disorders’ will be conducted by Dr. Yanbo Zhang, a psychiatrist and assistant professor in the University of Saskatchewan’s College of Medicine. Dr. Zhang is a member of the University of Saskatchewan–led Cannabinoid Research Initiative of Saskatchewan (CRIS), an interdisciplinary network of leading scientists active in the field of cannabinoids.
“We are excited to partner with Dr. Zhang’s team at the University of Saskatchewan’s College of Medicine on this advanced, patient-focused, cannabinoid-based formulation project,” said Brent Zettl, President and CEO of ZYUS. “Our new relationship with the University of Saskatchewan and commitment to this pre-clinical study further demonstrates our dedication to provide patients and health care practitioners with a scientific approach to cannabinoid-based formulations.”
The aim of the pre-clinical study is to help advance understanding of how cannabinoids can effectively treat mental health conditions. Throughout the partnership, ZYUS will leverage its medical cannabis expertise to help the University of Saskatchewan study the application of cannabinoids to help improve patient outcomes both in Canada and around the world.
“Cannabinoids have long been used for medicinal purposes but there is still a lack of scientific evidence respecting the full potential of cannabinoids and their interactions,” said Dr. Zhang. “This exciting project will provide a better understanding of the therapeutic potential of cannabinoids and scientific evidence that will potentially benefit mental health patients, heath care practitioners and policy makers.”
About ZYUS Life Sciences Inc.
ZYUS is a Canadian-based life sciences company focused on the global development and commercialization of innovative cannabinoid-based therapeutics and product candidates. Through clinical research and IP development, we intend to deliver high-quality oils, gel-caps, topical creams and other cannabinoid-based therapeutics and product candidates to patients worldwide. The ZYUS vision is to elevate cannabinoids as a standard of care and expand the potential of protein-based therapeutics in pursuit of a transformational impact on patients’ lives. ZYUS: Advancing the Science of Well-Being. Visit www.zyus.com
About the University of Saskatchewan
One of Canada’s top research universities, the University of Saskatchewan (USask) is home to world-leading research in areas of global importance, such as water and food security. Study and discovery is enhanced by outstanding facilities and centres including the Canadian Light Source, VIDO-InterVac, Global Institute for Food Security, Global Institute for Water Security, and Sylvia Fedoruk Canadian Centre for Nuclear Innovation. USask leads the Cannabinoid Research Initiative of Saskatchewan (CRIS), an interdisciplinary research team exploring the application of cannabinoids and cannabis derivatives for addressing health, disease, and disorders in humans and animals: https://crissk.squarespace.com/
This news release contains forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which may cause the actual results, performance or achievements of ZYUS to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by the forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to expectations with respect to our business plans and product lines.
Often, but not always, forward-looking statements can be identified by the use of words such as “expects,” “expected,” “expectation,” “anticipates,” “believes,” “intends,” “estimates,” “predicts,” “continues,” “potential,” “targeted,” “plans,” “possible” and similar expressions, or statements that events, conditions or results “will,” “may,” “could,” “would” or “should” occur or be achieved, or the negative of these terms or other comparable terminology. Forward-looking statements are based on certain assumptions and are subject to various known and unknown risks and uncertainties, many of which are beyond the Company’s control, and cannot be predicted or quantified and consequently, actual results may differ materially from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements.
Accordingly, readers should not place undue reliance on the forward-looking statements and information contained in this press release. Since forward-looking statements and information address future events and conditions, by their very nature they involve inherent risks and uncertainties.
Actual results could differ materially from those currently anticipated due to a number of factors and risks. Readers are cautioned that the foregoing list of factors is not exhaustive. The forward-looking statements contained in this news release are made as of the date of this release and, accordingly, are subject to change after such date. ZYUS does not assume any obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether written or oral, that may be made from time to time by us or on our behalf, except as required by applicable law.
Jennifer Thoma
USask Media Relations
Jennifer.thoma@usask .ca
ZYUS Media Inquiries
media@zyus.com
ZYUS Investor Relations
investors@zyus.com
Original Article: http://www.digitaljournal.com/pr/4549994
Closing gaps in cannabinoid research to make progress in pain management
admin, 1 month ago
Synthetic Cannabinoids: The New Age of Medical Marijuana– CFN Media
Aurora Cannabis to Conduct CBD Research for Athlete Wellness
Arthritis Foundation releases recommendations for using CBD products
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An open access, peer reviewed, interdisciplinary journal exploring all aspects of the relationship between human numbers and environmental issues.
A tale of two islands.
Invited article
A tale of two islands. The reality of large-scale extinction in the early stages of the Anthropocene: a lack of awareness and appropriate action.
Fred Naggs
First online: 3 December 2019
Fred Naggs is a Scientific Associate at the Natural History Museum, having retired after 42 years at the Museum in 2016. Initially the Curator of non-marine Mollusca, Fred was appointed as the Biodiversity & Conservation Officer in 2003. He established international collaboration and ran programmes throughout south and much of tropical south-east Asia. He is a visiting professor at Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok.
freddynaggs@gmail.com
The endemic biotas of oceanic islands were vulnerable and many have been lost. The more ancient, complex and dynamic biotas of continents were more resilient but are now being obliterated. Sumatra and Madagascar are large continental plate islands with very different histories and biotas that exemplify the situation on continental land masses. Both tropical islands have suffered massive habitat loss and species extinction from human population pressure, Sumatra mostly from global and Madagascar from local pressure. Snails demonstrate the complex history of faunal origins as illustrated by the relationships between Madagascan, Indian and southeast Asian snail faunas and their plate tectonic geological history. Snails also reveal our limited knowledge of the details but not the scope of extinctions through habitat loss. International agencies are failing to address the root causes of natural habitat loss and consequent extinctions, which are overpopulation and an economic system based on perpetual growth. The fallacy of sustainable development and the limitations of current conservation practice are addressed. Recognition that we cannot stop extinctions in the immediate future demands a new, supplementary approach to conservation based on advances in molecular technology.
Keywords: Sumatra; Madagascar; conservation; sustainable development; land snails; cryo-banking.
From a negligible figure just a few thousand years ago humans and their livestock now constitute over 95% of mammalian biomass (Bar-On et al., 2018). From an ecological perspective, there are simply too many of us. The biodiverse world that we were born into is disappearing and many branches of life will not be with us in the future. Much attention is focussed on the threats to a few iconic species but the extent of extinctions remains largely hidden, unknown in detail but indisputable in scale. We need to be aware of what we are losing. The earliest undisputed evidence of life on Earth dates from at least 3.5 billion years ago and there is evidence that life began much earlier. We, together with all complex multicellular organisms, belong to the eukaryotes and each individual is the end product of 2.7 billion years of eukaryote evolution. To appreciate the wonder of each group of animals and plants, we need to consider their history, and how they came to be where they are. The history of life is an interaction of biotic evolution with the complexities of the planet’s geological history, continuous fluctuations in climate and vast spans of time, punctuated by frequent local and rare global cataclysmic events.
Despite the numerous perils facing marine environments, most extinctions in the current episode have been confined to terrestrial and non-marine aquatic environments. Many vertebrates are under intense threat, populations have crashed, some have become extinct, others are close to extinction (Ceballos et al., 2015). This justly generates much human anguish. However, over 99% of animals are invertebrates (Tetley et al., 1999). Invertebrate extinctions are massive, most notably in the biodiverse terrestrial faunas of tropical forest. Invertebrates form the foundation on which ecosystems and many life forms are totally reliant. If we are concerned about biodiversity loss then their story needs to be told and their fate needs to be a focus of our attention.
Different invertebrate groups can provide different perspectives. Numerous insects have become extinct without the losses being recorded (Hochkirch, 2016). Insect populations have crashed in many parts of the world, from Europe (Hallmann, et al., 2017) to the tropics (Lister and Garcia, 2018), along with their associated predators such as many reptiles, amphibians and birds. However, some of these results are controversial (Willig et al., 2019; Lister and Garcia, 2019) and although chemical controls are the main suspects, notably neonicotinoids, there is often no proven link to causes of declines in abundance. Despite overwhelming subjective evidence for massive drops in insect numbers (Vogel, 2017), we have a problem in that despite numerous recording schemes of insect species occurrence, there have been few long-term studies of insect species abundance.
Molluscs can provide a different perspective. They are a major invertebrate group in terms of both biodiversity and biomass (Bar-On et al., 2018), and land snails can be particularly informative about patterns of diversity and current extinction events (Lydeard et al., 2004). I am interested in and concerned about the whole of living diversity but land snails have several attributes that render them particularly informative about all scales of evolution and changes in the environment, such as climate and habitat changes through time. Good examples of this were made available when the channel tunnel was excavated, giving access to previously hidden fossil-rich deposits (Kerney et al., 1980; Preece and Bridgland, 1999), and examples of successive horizons are equally informative in tropical ecosystems such as in Jamaica (Goodfriend and Mitterer,1988, 1993; Paul and Donovan, 2005; Donovan et al., 2013).
Land snails are not what is termed a ‘natural group’. In the distant past, several aquatic and only distantly related snails colonised the land independently (Little, 2009). Some such as the terrestrial Caenogastropoda are derived from winkle-like ancestors, they have separate sexes and seal the apertures of their shells with a plate that is attached to the top of their tails; they are numerous in parts of the tropics, less so in temperate regions. The other main groups included in the Pulmonata have more developed lungs and are hermaphrodites, they occupy all habitat types in which land snails occur from deserts to marshland, from leaf litter to the heights of tree canopies.
Snails generally have relatively poor powers of dispersal but, given sufficient time, a few are passively dispersed over long distances, by hurricanes for example. There is also strong evidence of long-distance dispersal of snails by birds (Gittenberger et al., 2006; Leeuwen et al., 2012). In the short to medium term, most snails are confined to their location in ways that many other organisms are not. Unlike the majority of terrestrial arthropods, they cannot run or fly; the vulnerability of their delicate bodies is primarily offset by retracting and taking refuge within their shells. This limited motility makes them vulnerable to extinction when conditions change. However, where natural habitats are continuous, they can successfully change their distributions, including latitudinal and altitudinal changes, with the shifting of ecosystems in response to climate change. The shells may sometimes be delicate but many are robust and may survive long after the snail has died. In several lineages the shells are vestigial or lost altogether. There is a continuous transition between snails, semi-slugs and slugs but for convenience and to allow generalisations to be made, slugs are not considered here.
Whatever the season, a good measure of what snails are present in an extant habitat can be gained by collecting their shells. Thus, natural history museums around the world often hold extensive collections of shells that require no special procedures for their preservation and storage. Where well documented, these collections provide a partial record of where snail species were found in the past. Day to day routine identifications and classifications may be carried out solely by examination of snail shells. However, more sophisticated methods of morphological study of internal organs and molecular methods are essential for more critical studies. Such studies have shown that numerous cryptic species and even higher taxonomic categories can be recognised compared to identifications based solely on shell characters.
Extinctions on oceanic islands and on continents
The unique radiations of animal diversity that occurred on oceanic islands, most less than 10 myr old, took place in habitats that were free of the taxonomically diverse and highly evolved systems of predators and competitors that had developed on continents through tens and hundreds of millions of years. This contributed to island biotas’ vulnerability to human introductions of continental species that had attuned to the harsh selective pressures from which the evolution of oceanic island species had been sheltered. The arrival of humankind on oceanic islands has progressively led to the widespread loss of oceanic island species, their unique habitats and ecosystems (Fordham and Brook, 2008). Recorded extinctions of land snails on oceanic islands exceed those of all other groups combined (Lydeard et al., 2004).
Losses on continental land masses through human activity also have a long history but they have generally been less visible. We are now losing continental species at an unprecedented rate, with complete and complex ecosystems that have evolved over many millions of years. This is a growing tragedy of the Anthropocene. Although these large-scale extinctions are now taking place on continental land masses, the circumscribed nature of continental islands (fragments of continental tectonic plates) allows them to be examined as discrete units and used as exemplars for what is going on in continents as a whole. To this end, aspects of the fauna of two of the world’s largest and very different tropical islands, Madagascar and Sumatra, are considered here in the context of regional faunas with particular reference to their land snails.
Sumatra epitomises a manifestation of the sixth mass extinction and demonstrates the disaster that is rapidly unfolding in southeast Asia (Sodi et al., 2004; Hughes, 2017). What has happened in Sumatra has significantly influenced my thinking on extinction because nearly all of the lowland and much of the montane forest habitats, which previously blanketed the landscape, have been lost in my lifetime (figure 1). At 443,066 square kilometres, an area greater than twice the size of Great Britain, Sumatra is a large, geologically complex island about 3.3 times the area of Peninsula Malaysia. It was repeatedly connected to the continental land mass as an integral part of Sundaland, a southeast Asian global biodiversity hotspot, throughout glacial episodes. Thus, during the past 2.6 million years of ice ages, its biotic history and composition was as a part of continental southeast Asia (Woodruff, 2010).
Figure 1. Forest loss on Sumatra due to logging and conversion to agriculture. The red depicts remaining forest cover. © WWF.
Straddling the equator at an angle of about 45°, Sumatra is geologically a part of continental Eurasia and part volcanic in origin, its southern border lies along the subduction zone of Sundaland and the Indo-Australian plate and it is part of one of the most tectonically active areas in the world. Frequent volcanism, earthquakes and tsunami impact on the biota. Notably, the explosive eruption of Mount Toba 73,500 years ago must have had a massive impact on southeast Asia and peninsula India’s biota through ash deposition (Bühring and Sarnthien, 2000; Jones, 2007). Nevertheless, a mixture of plains and complex mountain systems offered a diverse array of forest habitats in Sumatra providing it with some of the richest biodiversity on the planet. Despite enormous expenditure on conservation effort, lowland forest was close to being entirely lost at the end of the twentieth century (Whitten, et al., 2001), just a few diminishing patches remain. Iconic mammals such as the Sumatran tiger, rhinoceros, elephant and orangutan are all widely recognised as being critically endangered.
Benthem Jutting (1959) listed just 192 species of land snails from Sumatra and a few have been described since (Maassen, 1999, 2000; Páll-Gergely, 2017). However, we have little idea of how many species might have been present in Sumatra 60 years ago; it is likely to have been closer to 2,000 than 200. What is clear is that with most natural habitat destroyed in Sumatra, many of the endemic species will be extinct. The invertebrate diversity of Sumatra’s lowland forests was never studied methodically and now never can be. This demonstrates what scientists mean when they speak of species going extinct before they have even been described. The loss of 98% of forests in large parts of Indonesia is projected by 2022 (Hughes, 2017, 2018). Sumatra stands out because the scale of destruction has been so rapid. It is not just forests that are disappearing. Limestone hills are habitat islands rich in biotic diversity with particularly high snail diversity and density. The more isolated a limestone hill, the greater the likelihood that it possesses high levels of biotic endemism and the greater the risk of its destruction for limestone extraction.
In Sumatra the main driver of habitat loss and consequent extinctions was explicitly and succinctly identified by Whitten et al. (2001), three pages of essential reading for anyone who wants to understand where conservation efforts in Sumatra stood at the turn of the century. What happened in Sumatra should and could have been avoided, and at least mitigated, but it wasn’t. Despite massive conservation effort, all of the management plans, political accords and expenditure of unknown millions of US dollars, deforestation continued unabated. Big business and political corruption, both equally ruthless, rode over any conservation efforts. The whole purpose of the flourishing academic field of conservation was questioned by Whitten et al. (2001, p.1):
In these same three decades we have also seen conservation biology rise as a respected and attractive discipline, with great successes in producing journals, books, and students. But if conservation biology is ineffective in helping to stop something as globally significant as the devastation of Indonesian forests, then what, please, is the point of it?
Sumatra has a human population of approximately 52 million, around 90.5 people per km²; the human population of Indonesia as a whole has increased to 3.5 times its 1955 level. For comparison, consider Sri Lanka, which has a population of just over 20 million, 340 per km², about twice its 1955 level with 82% living in rural areas. Much forest has been lost in Sri Lanka but it has a number of relatively well-protected areas and has so far retained a rich biota including large mammals such as thriving populations of elephants and leopards. It appears that local human population pressure in Sumatra, with 6.75 times the area of Sri Lanka, might not have been the major driver of habitat loss and extinctions. It is in fact clear that the primary driving force of habitat loss and extinctions in Sumatra is external, consumption of its resources around the world, an insatiable demand for its products, notably palm oil and timber, facilitated by greed and corruption.
With an area of 587,041 km², Madagascar is a large continental fragment of Gondwana, one of the two great landmasses that separated from the single land mass of Pangaea with the opening of the Tethys Ocean about 175 million years ago. The southern continent of Gondwana was separated from the northern land mass of Laurasia for about 100 myr. During the subsequent breakup of Gondwana, Madagascar together with India, separated from Antarctica about 125 mya, having separated from Africa some 20 myr earlier. Around 88 mya, India separated from Madagascar. Madagascar moved slowly north to its current longitude whereas India was drawn north much more rapidly until it collided with Eurasia (Smith et al., 1994). India is still thrusting into Asia and continues to force up the Himalaya.
The world was a much warmer place throughout most of Madagascar’s existence and large tracts of what is currently dry land were covered in shallow sea. The limestone deposited during these marine incursions provided a particularly rich habitat for limestone biotas including land snails. 88 myr of isolation have endowed Madagascar with a truly unique biota. Unlike Sumatra, Madagascar is an ancient land mass and geologically is relatively stable, although there is some tectonic activity and it possesses dormant volcanos (Pratt et al., 2016). The closest Indian coastline is now some 3,800km away but it was of course closer throughout much of the past 88 myr and there were periods when a series of islands, now largely submerged, provided potential stepping stones for biotic transfer. Mainland Africa, currently some 450km away at its closest point, has remained in relatively close proximity throughout.
Whereas the climate in Sumatra is hot and wet throughout the year, the climate in Madagascar is much more complex being dominated by the joint action of the moist southeast trade winds and the wet northwest monsoon. The east coast has a high annual rate of precipitation but on reaching the plateau prevailing winds have lost much of their humidity resulting in only light rain and mist, leaving the west in a rain shadow; areas of the southwest are semidesert. Madagascar’s biota has exploited the diverse range of habitats that are strongly influenced by this climate. For agriculture, the climatic variations across Madagascar present challenges ranging from severe drought to deluge flooding.
A large proportion of Madagascar’s biota is endemic but, during its 88 Ma of isolation, rare dispersal events across the seas introduced new biotic elements from further afield, some of which radiated into significant new components of Madagascar’s biota. A classic example is the lemurs, now confined to Madagascar. Molecular phylogenetic and anatomical evidence suggests that the ancestor of the currently recognised 111 species and subspecies, 20% of the world’s primate species, reached Madagascar from Africa at around 54 mya (Martin, 2000; Mittermeier et al., 2008). Following the loss of natural habitats (figure 2), some 95% of lemur species are on the threshold of extinction. The IUCN Species Survival Commission (SSC) raised over US$8 million to spearhead efforts to save them with a 3-year conservation plan in 2013 (IUNC, 2013). An IUCN updated assessment in 2018 (Bristol Zoo, 2018) showed that, despite some local successes, the threat of lemur extinction has increased.
Figure 2. Ecoregions and forest types in Madagascar. Madagascar can be divided into four climatic ecoregions with four forest types: the moist forest in the East (green), the dry forest in the West (orange), the spiny forest in the South (red), and the mangroves on the West coast (blue). The dark areas represent the remaining natural forest cover in 2014. Forest types are defined on the basis of their belonging to one of the four ecoregions. (Reproduced from Vieilledent et al., 2018).
Evidence strongly supports two Africa-to-Madagascar dispersal events for chameleons across the Mozambique Channel, one at about 65 mya, the second at about 47 mya (Tolley et al., 2013). These two rare events gave rise to the amazing diversifications of chameleons in Madagascar, about half of the world’s chameleon species diversity. According to an assessment by the SSC, 52% are threatened, including 5 species that are critically threatened and 18% are near threatened (Hance, 2014).
As with Sumatra, by the middle of the twentieth century, some 200 species of land snails had been recorded from Madagascar. However, following intensive studies, notably by Emberton between 1990 and 2009, the total number reached about 1100 (Slapcinsky, 2014). Despite their commendable efforts, it is impossible for a handful of people to have described most of the land snails of the 587,041 km² of Madagascar. With no one dedicated to their study, there is unlikely to be the same pace in new species descriptions. Many will now be extinct but there may have been about 2,000 species in total.
Despite its 88Ma history as an isolated land mass, Madagascar’s snail fauna has origins that extend across all directions of the Indian Ocean. The most distinctive components, the 115 described species of Acavidae, are considered to be Gondwanan relicts (Emberton, 1999). Their ancestors were distributed across Gondwana prior to its breakup and acavids are now found only on continental fragments of Gondwana: South America, Africa, Madagascar, the Seychelles, Sri Lanka and Australia. The mode of dispersal of acavids is to sit tight on continents for tens of millions of years and wait for plate tectonics to do the work for them. The acavids possess large, often brightly coloured shells and produce disproportionally large, bird-like eggs. With even their hatchlings being relatively large, their size seems likely to have contributed to the fact that they appear not to have spread across oceans by natural means.
The genera Kalidos, Boucardicus and Tropidophora have radiated into numerous Madagascan species. There is evidence that the ancestor of Kalidos made its way to Madagascar from southeast Asia, possibly via India. Boucardicus shows similarities with genera found in south and southeast Asia but, with similar looking fossils in 100 myr old Burmese amber, it is clear that these groups have been around for a very long time and their relationships need to be established by molecular methods A different distribution pattern is shown by Tropidophora, which also occurs on the opposite land area of Africa, on the Comoros and the Seychelles. Related genera are found around the Indian Ocean from Socotra, mainland Yemen and Oman, with a separate genus and two species occurring in the Western Ghats, India (Raheem et al., 2014).
They may be more ancient arrivals but the radiations into numerous species within single genera such as Kalidos and Tropidophora are suggestive of relatively recent arrivals of these genera into Madagascar, possibly during the Miocene (23 mya to 5.3 mya).
What the lemurs, chameleons and land snails have in common with much of Madagascar’s and other tropical biotas is that most species have very restricted distribution ranges within the complex mosaic of naturally diverse habitats. The majority of Madagascar’s land snails have been described on the basis of a few individuals from a single locality, some from partially weathered shells of species that may have already been extinct at the time of their description. Habitats cannot be transformed by human activity without the consequent wholesale loss of localised species. The composition and diversity of land snails conveys the long biotic history of Madagascar better than any vertebrate group and their Anthropocene extinction is already well underway.
There have been years of debate and a lack of consensus on the causes of tropical diversity but, whatever the mechanism, high diversity dominated by limited range distributions is widespread in the tropics and has been for millions of years (Brown, 2013). Despite the age of this biotic diversity of lineages in the wet tropics, they are now extremely vulnerable to habitat loss and transformation because of their often-restricted distributions and their being surrounded by a matrix of human transformed habitats.
With well-established recognition of its incredibly rich biodiversity and extreme levels of endemism, Madagascar has been a priority target of international research and conservation effort for decades (National Research Council, 1980; Myers, et al., 2000; Goodman and Benstead, 2005). Efforts reached a height during the implementation of a series of National Environment Action Plans between 1993 and 2008, when hundreds of millions of US$ were spent on over 500 environmentally-based projects. Eight Millennium Development Goals were established for a fifteen-year period from 2000, supported by the Madagascar Millennium Development Goals National Monitoring Survey (INSTAT, 2014) and the protected areas network was expanded threefold. Projects aimed at sustainable development and reducing poverty have failed, in fact none of the Millennium Development Goals were met nor was progress made towards them, and relentless deforestation continues unabated (Waeber et al., 2016; Vieilledent et al., 2018). The protected area network is widely ignored.
Madagascar is larger than Sumatra but has a smaller human population estimated at 20-27 million, approximately half that of Sumatra (population density of Madagascar some 46 per km²; Sumatra 90.5 per km²). It might be thought that human population levels would have less impact. However, Madagascar is in a sorry state (UNIC, 2019):
The country’s health and education systems are not really working, they are crumbling; In the last two years 77 % of the population have been living on less than 1.25 dollars a day.
More than 92% of Malagasy live on less than US$ 2 a day (World Bank, 2013). Madagascar’s infant mortality rate is over 5% and three-quarters of the population live in rural areas. The estimated median age in 2017 was 18.7, compared with 40.1 for the UK, indicating that population growth is hardwired into the immediate future. Although the total fertility rate (TFR) has fallen from 7.3 in 1960 to 4.18 in 2016, Madagascar’s TFR is still nearly double replacement level. Logging and mining controls are ineffective. Large numbers of people have little choice other than to take what they can from their environment, regardless of any conservation needs. Traditional slash-and burn agriculture is increasingly practiced in desperation and on a completely unsustainable scale, destroying natural habitats. They are not alone. As pointed out in the executive summary of the World Conservation Strategy (IUCN-UNEP-WWF, 1980, p. vi):
… hundreds of millions of rural people in developing countries, including 500 million malnourished and 800 million destitute, are compelled to destroy the resources necessary to free them from starvation and poverty.
Reponses to the biodiversity crisis
“It is far better to grasp the Universe as it really is than to persist in delusion, however satisfying and reassuring.” – Carl Sagan
The cases of Sumatra and Madagascar demonstrate both the scale and causes of biodiversity loss. In Sumatra conservation efforts have failed in the face of insatiable global demand for its resources along with greed and corruption, while in Madagascar endogenous factors, including poverty and population growth, have been the most significant causes of habitat destruction. Given the scale of biodiversity loss as exemplified by these islands, the following sections go on to consider some aspects of the global responses by governments, conservation agencies and academics.
Earth Optimism was launched in 2017 with a series of meetings including in Washington (Smithsonian Conservation Commons, 2017), in Cambridge (Cambridge Independent, 2017) and London (ZSL Institute of Zoology, 2017). The momentum of Earth Optimism continues and a Conservation Optimism summit was held at Oxford in 2019 (University of Oxford, 2019).
A number of justifications for Earth Optimism have been put forward. One suggestion is that such an approach is essential in order to engage with the public. Others suggest that people who are seeking careers in the field need to be encouraged by a sense of optimism and that it is needed to secure corporate and government funding. To quote from the ZSL Institute of Zoology (2017):
Budding and perennial conservationists need to feel inspired and continue in the profession, not put off by pessimism. The public, businesses and government need to know that their actions can make a difference.
However, promoting optimism in this way exaggerates successes in relation to the size of the problem and ultimately is not only inappropriate but misleading. Importantly, it infantilises the public by assuming that they will only engage with optimistic information and runs the risk of undermining trust in scientific integrity. Perhaps the most worrying aspect of Earth Optimism is that in focussing on the celebration of those success stories the overriding issues of human overpopulation and overconsumption that are driving mass extinction are ignored.
The Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) grew around the concept enshrined in Article 1 of the Convention (CBD, 1992, p.3):
The objectives of this Convention, to be pursued in accordance with its relevant provisions, are 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 genetic resources, including by appropriate access to genetic resources and by appropriate transfer of relevant technologies, taking into account all rights over those resources and to technologies, and by appropriate funding.
With almost universal celebration and after years of preparation, the CBD was launched in Rio de Janeiro in 1992. Bureaucracies proliferated and numerous agencies were created so that many thousands are employed at great cost in developing both national and international plans and in attending massive international conferences. From a brief initial focus on conservation it soon became a behemoth of international agencies seeking to extract funding resources for development, programmes that had little if anything to do with biological conservation. It is an empire of vested interests that has failed to deliver conservation objectives. Extinctions continue unabated (Anon, 2016) and bio-nationalism has impeded international conservation efforts. The United Kingdom’s flagship CBD programme, the Darwin Initiative, epitomises the change in direction that effectively constitutes a high-jacking of the CBD agenda from a biodiversity capacity building focus to a development agency based on poverty alleviation. Worthy as these objectives may be in their own right, they have not even slowed the current scale of biodiversity loss.
Brown (2015, p.1) provided an impeccable and succinct demolition of the notion of sustainable development:
Unfortunately, “sustainable development,” as advocated by most natural, social, and environmental scientists, is an oxymoron. Continual population growth and economic development on a finite Earth are biophysically impossible. They violate the laws of physics, especially thermodynamics, and the fundamental principles of biology. Population growth requires the increased consumption of food, water, and other essentials for human life. Economic development requires the increased use of energy and material resources to provide goods, services, and information technology.
Sustainable development goals can provide neither sustainability nor a pathway to halting the sixth mass extinction. However, governments, numerous agencies and commercial enterprises around the world, together with academics, fail to acknowledge their flawed nature. For example, the UN Sustainable Development Goal 15, life on land (UN, 2019), should be of key importance to biodiversity loss. Goal 15 seeks to sustainably manage forests, combat desertification, halt and reverse land degradation and halt biodiversity loss. However, there are no realistic mechanisms or new ideas put forward of how this could be achieved on a scale commensurate with the problem. Reference is made to the Lion’s Share Fund, a worthy programme but one that can only have a tiny, if useful, impact on biodiversity loss.
A wide range of conservation activities are pursued by the IUCN including the formulation and development of international agreements such as the 1974 Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species, and the CBD. Together with partner organisations the IUCN is pursuing a pathway to conservation based on the concept of sustainable development. However, their Red Listing system (IUCN, 2019) is unique in aiming to provide hard data of extinction risk in support of conservation and, particularly for large vertebrates, has many merits. An example of an outstanding achievement with invertebrates is the IUCN Red List of European Terrestrial Snails (Neubert et al., 2019), which was developed from many years of recording schemes and input from numerous contributors. However, the situation for a single species, the world’s largest cat, the tiger, is illustrative of the problematic nature of the IUCN’s approach. Project tiger (National Tiger Conservation Authority, 2019) has been running for nearly 50 years, has cost millions of US$, involved thousands of people and supported numerous careers. Yet controversy surrounds the results of surveys and in obtaining accurate figures of tiger numbers (Karanth, 1995; Karanth et al., 2017; Mazoomdar, 2019). In contrast, only a handful of people have been dedicated to surveying land snails in the tropics, a totally inadequate number for assessing the status of numerous often tiny snails in the world’s rainforests. For most species and areas, it is not remotely possible to obtain accurate information within a timeframe commensurate with the urgency imposed by the rate of habitat loss and extinctions. We remain in ignorance or, in Red List terminology, data deficient. The WWF sets out its agenda in the Living Planet Report 2018: Aiming higher. This would be a highly commendable document but for the fact that it ignores the major underlying causes of the problems it identifies: human overpopulation and the ecologically impossible concept of sustainable development. Together with overpopulation, economics is at the heart of our current unsustainable trajectory. Global economics is currently based on growth and benefits from population growth and increased wealth with consequent increases in consumption. Clearly, this is not to suggest that reduction in poverty is in itself undesirable but that it has inevitable, undesirable and unsustainable consequences. Much can be done to mitigate but not remove the impact of increased consumption, for example, by the reduction and ultimate elimination of the use of fossil fuels and by modifications to diets. However, the human ingenuity argument fails to recognise that improvements that science and technology have brought to human welfare have not been shared with the natural world. While economic growth is necessary to improve the welfare of the world’s poor, endless economic growth to satisfy the wants of an ever-increasing global consumer class is simply unsustainable.
The desperately urgent need for a strategy aimed at establishing an inventory of what remains of living diversity has been recognised for some considerable time (Wheeler, 1995). It is utterly shameful that this has not happened. The Earth Biogenome Project (2019) is wildly overambitious to the extent of being utterly unrealistic in aiming to sequence, catalogue and characterize the genomes of all of Earth’s eukaryotic biodiversity over a period of ten years. This to include what it estimates as the 80-90% of eukaryotes that have yet to be described. Over two centuries of just searching out living diversity has left us with a long way to go and locating the whole range of species is a long way off, even though that unknown number is rapidly declining. The Earth Biogenome Project (EBP) is described as a ‘moonshot for biology’ (EBP, 2019). It might have launched but it cannot reach its ten-year scheduled destination. Despite its extravagant claims as a means of contributing to the conservation of species (Lewin, et al. 2018), as it stands, it will not do so. Sequencing eukaryote diversity might provide employment for numerous scientists, if only for a decade; it can satisfy human curiosity and yield new means of exploiting natural resources but it will not contribute to preventing the loss of natural habitats or reduce human driven climate change. Their analogy with space exploration seeks to link the EBP with human achievements that are widely celebrated and have numerous indirect benefits. However, all such scientific endeavours should be judged by the proportionality of effort and cost in the context of priorities on our own planet and the destruction we are collectively inflicting on it. In the context of the sixth mass extinction, the disappearance of its subject matter, and unless balanced in new directions, the EPB objectives are a self-satisfying indulgence. This is analogous to a consortium of hospitals of global prestige around the world being obsessed with gaining academic stature while ignoring countless thousands of dying patients.
Curiosity driven research provides inspiration and motivation for learning about the universe and the EPB has the merit of recognising the scale of the issue and timeliness, if not the constraints. In addition, the EPB fails to accept the requirement for voucher collections that are needed to support the molecular sequencing. Unless intended as an abstract exercise, or an exclusively molecular based alternative to existing concepts, it is meaningless to sequence samples without being able to relate them to physical entities. Voucher specimens are the preserved samples linked to the genomes to be sequenced. Some species might be sufficiently well known for their identity to be accepted but such are insignificant compared to the vast majority of described but poorly understood species and for undescribed species. Traditionally, voucher samples were whole preserved specimens and there is still a place for these but detailed images could in many instances be a practical option in combination with tissue sampling. In addition to traditional methods of preservation and frozen tissue collections, it is possible to prepare specimens in an ultimate state of preservation by preserving viable cells, cell lines, without sacrificing or harming the animal. Most importantly such preservation can underwrite all traditional conservation efforts. If this were included in the EBP protocols then it would completely transform the value of the programme. This is the obvious direction in which resources and research efforts should be directed. It is early days and there are numerous difficulties in extending the practice to a wide range of species but cryogenically stored viable sperm and egg cells are already being used as a measure to conserve species close to extinction (Hermes et al., 2018) and viable somatic cells can potentially be cloned. Thus, it is not only possible to conserve and utilise genetic diversity of threatened species but preservation of viable cells offers the potential to restore species if they should become extinct (Naggs, 2017), together with associated organisms such as their gut biota. Viable cells of extinct species are already being stored. The Hawaiian tree snail Achatinella apexfulva, supposedly the first recorded extinction of 2019, was given extensive media coverage including by the National Geographic (Wilcox, 2019) and the Natural History Museum (Pavid, 2019). Living cells of Achatinella apexfulva are cryogenically stored in the San Diego Zoo Institute for Conservation Research’s (2019) Frozen Zoo. As with Kew’s Millennium Seed Bank, this material could potentially be cryogenically stored for hundreds of years and should be the routine mode of preservation. Who can say what future capabilities might be but, if we do not act now, whatever current and future potential value they might have will be lost forever and options for their use will not exist.
One hurdle to surmount is that access to specimens has become much more difficult and complicated. The way forward is to establish and nurture long-term relationships, particularly with biodiverse countries. The pilot project that I ran in 2013 demonstrated the value of collaboration and that viable cell preparation could be routinely added to existing field practice (Naggs, 2017). The sixth mass extinction should position natural history in the forefront of scientific endeavour to record and conserve living diversity in an urgent structured, focussed and relevant way.
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) is the United Nations body invested with the task of evaluating the science related to climate change. Scientific evidence is not determined by consensus but the overwhelming assessment of scientific information is clear and cannot be ignored, humankind is causing global warming. Where the IPCC has failed is in recognising that by our very existence and ever-growing numbers, we cannot avoid global warming. Indeed, there is clear evidence that the rise in CO2 and CH4 began some 7,000 years ago with human driven deforestation and the development of agriculture and livestock tending (Ruddiman, 2014, and references therein). Furthermore, Ruddiman presents the case that without anthropogenic influence, we would already have entered a new ice age. We undoubtedly need to take steps to mitigate global warming but, even when we deal with eliminating fossil fuel, as we must, the transformed landscapes and biomass of humans and their livestock will continue to deliver elevated CO2 and CH4 above natural levels.
Climate change is integral to earth history and happens regardless of human activity, sometimes very rapidly. It is instructive to recognise that throughout much of earth’s history CO2 levels have been much higher and global temperatures have been much higher than they are now and natural events could overwhelm any anthropogenic changes. We should be prepared for the inevitability of climate change in one direction or another. Living diversity has accommodated to climate change throughout its existence. What is unique about the current situation is that natural forest landscapes have been transformed into a mosaic of modified (largely agricultural) habitats and fragmented natural forest, the forest remaining as isolated and shrinking patches. Combined with climate change, the barriers to dispersal will precipitate a new catastrophic wave of extinctions and there is an urgent need to provide habitat corridors and to be prepared to intervene with the seeding of new habitats that develop in response to climate change.
The history of life on earth shows it to be a dynamic mix and match of blending and separating of biotas through time. In addition to the many other human impacts on the natural world is an acceleration of this mixing to a global scale and breakdown of geographical isolation. In the mixing of biotas there are a few winners and numerous losers. Increased mixing leads to a reduction in local endemism and thus a reduction in biodiversity.
Sumatra and Madagascar demonstrate that both local and global human population pressures produce the same outcome, habitat loss and extinction. Socioeconomic factors and human numbers present an unsolvable conundrum. There is a widespread belief that human ingenuity can solve such problems. Proponents of this view correctly point out that living standards throughout much of the world have improved dramatically through the application of science and technology. The same cannot be said of natural environments that have suffered as a consequence. We are already a long way down the road of destroying the natural world. Habitat fragmentation combined with climate change will precipitate a surge of extinctions in the near future. Conservation is thriving as an academic discipline and can point to success stories but overall it is a failure. Such an assessment is often dismissed as a doom and gloom scenario but there are many opportunities to act in positive ways. There are too few habitats approaching pristine condition for them to be the sole focus of conservation effort and some transformed habitats retain significant subsets of biological diversity and need to be integrated into conservation practice. Again, snails show the way in demonstrating that some forest fragments and transformed habitats can still support a significant subset of forest species (Raheem et al., 2008, 2009; Triantis et al., 2008), although such transformed habitats are being rapidly lost to more intensive modes of agriculture.
We have to accept that we cannot halt large scale extinctions and act accordingly. A new drive for a zoological species inventory, that also conserves biodiversity and secures options for the future, is essential in the context of massive species loss. For conservation in the here and now, new and direct emergency action is needed to protect natural habitats. One overriding need is for a simple and straightforward mechanism for providing significant funding for poor but biodiversity rich countries to protect natural habitats. Used for the benefit of their human populations, this is possibly the only way to arrest immediate biodiversity loss where it is driven by poverty. This is happening in a small way but it needs to be on a huge scale, something appropriate for private agencies and governments to engage with through the United Nations.
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Editorial introduction Vol. 4, No. 1.
Bioproportionality: a necessary norm for conservation?
Could humanity’s hoofprint overwhelm nature?
The potential environmental impacts of EU immigration policy
Vol. 4, No. 1, 2019 – Special issue: biodiversity
Vol. 3, No. 2, 2019
Vol. 3, No. 1. Autumn/Winter 2018
Vol. 2, No. 2. Spring 2018
JP&S latest articles
Publication Ethics Policy
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Throwback Thursday 3.14.13 Jake Sharp (Football) 2006-09
As a senior at the University of Kansas in the fall of 2009, Salina, Kan., native Jake Sharp played in 10 games and rushed for 429 yards while catching 34 passes for 266 yards. He left KU with the 10th-most rushing yards in school history with 2,239. He finished his career with 23 rushing TDs, third all-time.
In 2008 Sharp rushed for 860 yards in 13 games. He was named Honorable Mention All-Big 12. He became the first running back in KU history to record 100 receiving yards in a game when he accomplished the feat vs. Iowa State. Sharp finished his junior campaign with 25 catches for 283 yards.
Currently, Sharp co-owns the Salina Bombers, an indoor football team. He also owns Sharp Performance, a business that has training programs for youth and adults. In addition, he also manages a fitness center in Pratt, Kan., called Blythe Family Fitness.
What was your first experience on the KU campus?
“My first experience was when my roommate-to-be Tyler Lawrence and I came to watch the spring game when we were seniors in high school. We met up with Todd Reesing who came to KU a semester early; we thought he was pretty cool since he was already in college.”
What was your favorite on-field memory during your time at KU?
“When we beat Missouri in the last game of the regular season in 2008. It was the greatest team effort that I thought we put together. Everyone was pretty beat up and we came together to get the win. We were down and drove the field. It started to snow and Kerry (Meier) caught the TD pass from Todd (Reesing) with 27 seconds left in the game.”
What was your most memorable off-the-field moment at KU?
“Working with some of the finest academic advisors in college athletics, Paul Buskirk and Shanda Hayden. If it wasn’t for them, I am not sure I would have gotten through college. They pushed me and I ended up graduating from college with a GPA above 3.0. They reminded me why I was at KU and they were always around to keep me on the right track.”
Did you pursue a professional playing career after college?
“I had always hoped to play after college. Going into my senior season I thought I had a good shot, but we had a disappointing season. I got into camp with the (Chicago) Bears, but that did not work out. I sat out a year and then got into indoor football and played six games with the Wichita Wild. I ended up signing with the Omaha Nighthawks outdoor professional team, but I got cut there too. I then decided to put my career in my own hands and start my own business.”
What are you doing for a career now?
“I have my hands in three different things. I currently own Sharp Performance (sharp-performance.com) which is my business that I run out of an indoor facility in Salina, Kan. We have training programs for youth and adult fitness. I train a lot of high school and college athletes. I train pre-draft athletes and we write online training programs. I run speed camps and football camps for kids with NFL players through Sharp Performance.”
I also co-own the Salina Bombers indoor pro football team. What’s great about this is our players train at my indoor facility and we are trying to get our players moved up to the Canadian Football League and NFL. It’s a big week for the team. Our home opener and first game in team history is this Saturday versus Wichita.”
Finally, I manage a fitness center in Pratt, Kan., called Blythe Family Fitness. I did a speed camp at the grand opening of their facility last year and they liked what I did so they decided to hire me.”
What do you like most about being a team owner?
“I am familiar with the indoor game and professional game as a player so I can offer advice to players. I also saw things I did not like as a player, so I focus on the little things and make sure my players are being treated right. I can’t wait to send a guy from our team to the CFL or NFL; that’s what this is about for me. I will be just as excited as the player when he gets that shot.”
What do you like least about being a team owner?
“It’s hard for me to watch guys play in our league that should be given a shot in the NFL. It bothers me when I see guys in the NFL do all the wrong things, but there are guys in our league that do everything right, but haven’t been given a shot. It’s hard to see guys get overlooked.”
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The KYOI Story.
(an Australian perspective by Calvin Melen)
These notes have been created from what little material is still available from the era, my own recollections - now somewhat lacking, items related to successive owners of KYOI, and entities not directly associated with KYOI. I have included my own comments, opinions and memories of how I made an extremely minuscule impact on the unfolding events.
Whilst every care has been taken, I am sure there are many errors, omissions and some hyperbole in this document. Much work is still to be done expanding this site. I gratefully acknowledge the assistance offered from many sources worldwide. I would be grateful for comments from anyone who can expand on, or correct, this document. A full bibliography and citation listing is provided at the conclusion.
Company names, trademarks and product names are used merely in describing their historical association with KYOI. No commercial gain or infringement of ownership rights is intended in their use.
In the Beginning:
The idea for a pop / rock station on Shortwave first appeared in early 1980. At the time there was an upsurge of popularity in shortwave listening amongst teenage Japanese, brought about partly by the availability of inexpensive, good quality portable receivers. It was hoped that a station specifically targeting their interest in Western Rock music would be able to find a niche.
To achieve the goal, a company by the name of 'Marcom' was formed to provide the financial and technical backing required. The company president was a gentleman by the name of Lawrence S. Berger, at the time owner of KHVH talk / news radio in Honolulu, Hawaii.
In a discussion I had with him early 1989, he informed me that the total expenditure required to make KYOI operational was approximately (US)$4,000,000. As president, Mr. Berger's personal financial commitment to Marcom was 50% of it's total worth, a very large gamble to make! He summarised what was discussed in a letter (Click on the link to see this document - 46k) he wrote to me on February 27, 1989. I am now sorry I didn't make notes about what was discussed. We covered a lot more ground, in the fifteen or so minutes of conversation, most of which has faded from memory now!
Building the Station:
A transmission site was selected - Agingan Point (Grid Coordinates: 145 41'E 15 07'N) on the island of Saipan, part of the North Marianas Islands. Guam and the North Marianas Islands are all part of the 'Commonwealth of Micronesia', a United States protectorate.
The construction work on Saipan took approximately 8 months. It's remote location certainly added to the cost and logistics of making this all happen. The building housed a Continental Electronics 418D-2 A.M. 100kW shortwave transmitter. The transmission antenna was a TCI 4 x 4 curtain antenna (Model TCI 611) - approximate gain of 16dB. The position on Saipan allowed for a single hop propagation path to Japan, and with the available transmitter power and antenna gain, provided a very strong signal in the primary target area suitable for reception on inexpensive receivers. Included here is the only photograph I have been able to find of the transmitter site from this era. This was taken shortly after construction was completed.
Full time operation began on December 17, 1982. In the weeks prior, the station had been heard intermittently during testing. With the slogan 'Super Rock' it was an instant hit in the intended target area of Japan, but also unexpectedly with listeners worldwide. The initial schedule was:
KYOI - Transmission Schedule
2200 - 0300 UTC on 15405kHz
1600 - 1900 UTC on 9665kHz
Subsequently 1600 to 2200 UTC consolidated on 9670kHz. This schedule remained unchanged for just over four years. The only interruption to the continuous flow of music occurred on the first Tuesday of the month from 0200 - 0600 UTC when the station would close for maintenance, if required.
The programme consisted of continuous top 40 / rock music controlled primarily by a computer audio sequencing system, with automated song title and station ID announcements inserted as required.
The programming was produced by Drake - Chenault in Canoga Park, California. I suspect this is how the slogan 'Now Music from L.A.' wound up being used on KYOI. Hank Landsburg from Drake-Chenault tells me that they did nothing special as far as the production values used in making tapes for KYOI. Marcom were merely another customer, who had chosen the 'no-announce' and mono programme options for their contract. Presumably Marcom was adding the English and Japanese voice announcements independently, probably using studio facilities provided by KHVH in Hawaii.
The equipment used to present the programmes was industry standard 1/4" tape. There is a lot of detail on how the automation system worked on the Drake - Chenault website.
I did notice a few times at which something would go wrong with the flow of music, but it is a tribute to how well the automation system was designed however, that such failures were rare. The most likely time that the sequencing would be noticeably wrong was immediately after KYOI returned to air after a maintenance break. I suspect that this 'mis-sequencing' were caused by the technicians at Saipan unceremoniously stopping the automation system mid-song, instead of closing it down properly and resetting the tape positions prior to restarting.
The Drake - Chenault system was the state-of-the-art in taped music presentation in this era. The audio transitions from track to track were very smooth and well structured. On air, it sounded so natural that the audience were unaware of the fact that they were listening to a computer sequencing system.
'Seiko' had the distinction of being the first commercial advertiser on the station, sponsoring the automated time announcements at the top of each hour.
My Recollections:
I first heard KYOI on Saturday, 5 February 1983. I was instantly taken! It was one of the few places on the shortwave dial where you could hear top 40 / rock music, and what was even better, with virtually no interruptions and 24 hours a day!
Reception in Australia for most of the 24 hours was excellent, even on a modest portable receiver such as my Sony ICF2001 using the inbuilt whip antenna. The period from 1600 - 2200 UTC was the poorest, primarily because during this time, KYOI's signal on the 31m band suffered a lot of competition from other stations.
My enthusiasm soon spread amongst my friends and KYOI picked up several more devotees in south-east Queensland.
Whilst in Japan:
In 1984 I travelled in Japan, and made sure I had a portable shortwave receiver with me. (by then a Sony ICF7600D) To my surprise, the signal quality in Japan was really no better than what we were hearing in Australia, primarily again because of high levels of interference. Whilst in an electronics goods store in Kyoto, I noticed a plaque on the wall with the by then, familiar KYOI 'bird' mascot emblazoned on it. Below the mascot was a small metal plate with the inscription:
"Presented to Amita Corporation by the Sony Corporation."
I remarked to the sales assistant that it was the first time I had seen any KYOI promotional material. She knew little about the station, and was under the mistaken belief that it was located on Guam. I corrected the error! I never did discover what the association between Sony, Amita and KYOI was, if any.
The Format Expands:
Within months of it's debut KYOI was adding new features. 'Music World' (short music industry related news items, interspersed throughout the music), the 'Top 30 Countdown' (presented by KYOI announcers Doug Flodin and Mariochan) aired twice over the weekend, and 'New Rock Special' produced by KROQ in Los Angeles. These programmes had great listener appeal, and were the spots where the vast majority of advertising aired.
These specialist programs certainly were not live. They were probably pre-produced and presented from reel-to-reel tape, I suspect from the KHVH studios in Hawaii. The ending of these programmes presented one of the rare opportunities were the station had to 'fill' to the top of hour, and the return of normal programming. A special 'station ID promo' track was created for this purpose.
Doug Flodin passed away in mid 1985 and was replaced by Scott Kenyan as the English voice of KYOI.
Writing to KYOI:
In April 1984 KYOI began running announcements asking for listeners to write to them. They specifically asked for listener's location and age. The address given was P.O. Box 1629, Canoga Park, C.A. 91304, U.S.A.
I asked Lawrence Berger about this when we spoke in 1989. He was really at a loss to explain why this post office box was advertised, except that perhaps it was in keeping with the slogan: 'Now Music from L.A.' - it would appear that the mail was being diverted via the Drake - Chenault offices to Hawaii. In reality KYOI, through the entire period of ownership by Marcom, had it's headquarters at the KHVH offices at Palua Towers, 1001 Bishop Street, Honolulu, Hawaii. Later on (probably some time in mid 1985), the promo was changed to give the Hawaii address instead.
The Struggle for Cash:
To remain a viable entity KYOI had to sell advertising time. Unfortunately, Marcom got a very cold reception in the Japanese advertising community. They also had very little interest from the U.S. marketplace, which is heavily reliant upon audience demographics, something the station could never hope to provide in the required detail.
Despite the disinterest, some advertising was secured. I remember advertisements for companies such as Coca-Cola (in Japanese) and AT&T. KYOI was in reality however, being primarily supported by it's initial backers, a situation which could never be sustained indefinitely.
The Downhill Slide:
At the end of 1985, things took a turn for the worse when a major transmitter fault silenced the station for several weeks. It returned to air in the last week of 1985.
On-air announcements began explaining that:
'the high cost of providing 24 hours of rock music from Los Angeles'
was threatening the survival of KYOI, and asked for donations to help cover the cost. On-air acknowledgment was promised, and apparently some were made, but I don't recall hearing any such messages myself.
I donated, as did many others worldwide. I now have a 'Certificate of Appreciation' in recognition of support - something I will always treasure. Unfortunately, the flow of donations did not halt the slide towards financial collapse. Towards the end of 1986 Marcom had no choice but to place KYOI on the market, hoping to find a buyer willing to continue their plans.
The Sale:
In December 1986 the Herald Broadcasting division of the Christian Science Monitor Syndicate Inc. purchased KYOI. Their intention was to form a network providing the 'World Service of the Christian Science Monitor' using KYOI for coverage of Asia, WCSN (operational March 1987) for coverage of Europe from Scotts Corner, Maine U.S.A. and WSHB (operational March 1989) for coverage of Canada, Europe, Africa and the Pacific from Cyprus Creek, South Carolina, U.S.A.
Initially the KYOI callsign was retained, and programming was unchanged. I suspect that Drake - Chenault was still providing the programme content after the change of ownership, but have never been able to confirm this. Herald Broadcasting hinted at this in a FAQ (Click on the link to see an excerpt from this document - 100k) sheet they published.
The New Owners:
By this stage the listeners of KYOI were aware that it had been starved of funds and was in serious need of help. Transmission quality had slipped badly, with loud hum being evident on the transmitter.
After several phone calls attempting to reach Annetta Robinson (General Manager - Herald Broadcasting), I was put in contact with Thomas Nickell (Operations Manager). I was surprised to discover that they had no knowledge of the fact that there were technical problems. They obviously also had no understanding of how much KYOI supporters were missing the glory days, and how much we disliked the programme changes that were being proposed. (By this stage, if I recall correctly, on-air announcements were being made about the addition of news and other items to the programme.)
Whilst I had the opportunity, I even asked (half tongue-in-cheek) if Herald Broadcasting would consider modifying the curtain antenna on Saipan, by removing the rear reflector screen to make the radiation pattern bi-directional. This idea would have dropped the forward gain by 3dB (barely perceptible in Japan), but would have raised the field strength in Australia by about 20dB. He liked the idea, but pointed out that it was not practical. Apparently he had actually visited the site, but did not say so in as many words.
He gave me an undertaking to contact the technical support staff at Saipan, and also gave me the phone number and contact details for the transmitter site on Saipan, and suggested I make a follow-up call to discuss the problem with them directly.
I phoned Saipan - The station manager, Mr. Dominador Villar, was most attentive and a delight to talk to. He was aware there was a problem, but not how serious it was. Apparently, the output from the transmitter audio monitor point, where they usually checked the performance, was marginal but still satisfactory. After my explanation of problems as perceived at the receive end, immediate steps were taken to diagnose the fault. Within 10 days repairs were completed and KYOI returned to sound quality we all expected. I included a photograph here of Mr. Villar and co-workers in the transmitter hall.
Changes Begin:
Herald Broadcasting was obviously aware that the listeners of KYOI didn't want the format of the station changed. In a FAQ (Click on the link to see an excerpt from this document - 100k) they published it was stated:
"Q: Will there be program changes on KYOI?
A: Because KYOI's audience has indicated strong interest in music, we plan to keep it a key part of the broadcasts. We are primarily producers of international news and religious programs, so news-related and religious programming has been added to the music of KYOI."
Despite the promises, the fade-out of top 40 / rock music began, and by mid 1989 it had totally ceased. Around this same time KYOI was removed from the air to allow for a major upgrade of the Saipan transmitter site. The changes included the addition of another Continental 418E A.M. 100kW transmitter (with digital modulator stage as opposed to the old Class B modulator) and installation of two more curtain array antennas providing coverage of the Indian subcontinent and Australia / New Zealand. The original 100kW transmitter was refurbished, being converted to digital modulator. (new designation 418D-2/E) It had operated for over 55,000 hours virtually continuously. The station returned to air in November 1989 with the new callsign of KHBI. Herald Broadcasting advised the listeners of the changes in this letter.(Click on the link to see an excerpt from this document - 73k)
The Conqueror is Conquered:
Things did not go well for Herald Broadcasting either. Their plans for a world broadcasting system, begun in mid 1985 with the initial licensing application for WCSN, the acquisition of KYOI in December 1986, and completed with the opening of WSHB in early 1989, began to fall apart. Financial pressure was again ultimately victorious. I believe the managers at Herald broadcasting were ill-prepared for the true costs of operating such major transmitting facilities.
By February 1994 air-time was being sold to third parties at WCSN in an attempt to reduce operating costs. This measure proved inadequate to stem the financial losses, and shortly thereafter WCSN was sold.
Prophecy Countdown, a Florida-based Seventh Day Adventist ministry, acquired the station and operated it under the title of 'High Adventure Ministries'. They changed the site callsign to WVHA and the licensed location to 'Greenbush' in Maine. (Obviously they did not physically move the facility, they merely changed the location as registered with the United States F.C.C.) It is reported that ultimately the running costs of this WVHA proved too great for Prophecy Countdown. When utility bills and loan repayments fell into arrears they were locked out of the station and the lender foreclosed. The station again appeared on 'for sale' lists. In 2002 it was purchased by LeSea Broadcasting and operated for several years under the callsign WHRA.
The consolidation plans of Herald Broadcasting, first set in motion with the sale of WCSN, still didn't provide adequate savings. In 1998 the decision was taken to end programme distribution via shortwave. WSHB was advertised for sale at an asking price of (US)$12,000,000. In mid 2004 it was also purchased by LeSea Broadcasting and now uses the callsign WHRI. (Replacing the old LeSea transmitter site in Indiana that had previously used this callsign)
In 2009 LeSea Broadcasting decided that WHRA had outlived it's usefulness and it was closed down and dismantled. The transmitter and some other elements of this station were relocated to WHRI in South Carolina.
The former KYOI operation on Saipan suffered a similar fate. 1998 saw Herald Broadcasting place KHBI on the market. It sold quickly, and is now owned by the International Broadcasting Bureau (IBB), the U.S. Government body responsible for the operation of shortwave stations which provide U.S. government opinion to various world troublespots.
The Saipan site has been expanded and the building now houses 3 x 100kW Continental 418 transmitters (a Continental 418F was added) and three TCI 611 curtain antennas. It has been operationally merged with a new transmitting station located on the nearby island of Tinian. This merged entity is known as the "Robert E. Kamosa Transmitting Station (REKTS)" - more information is available here.
Programmes transmitted originate from the Voice of America, Radio Free Asia and the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (A.B.C.) Asia Pacific Service.
Thus ended an era - a great pity in reality. With the advent of digital transmission using techniques like DRM, a station like KYOI with it's original format, would probably enjoy a whole new lease on life. Improvements in automation and transmitter reliability would also mean the station operation costs would be substantially lower than was the case 20 years ago. The much better audio quality and availability of low cost, simple to operate receivers would ensure a vastly expanded audience, and a much greater probability of financial success.
I now listen to what few recordings of the era survive and reminisce about what might have been.
What Other People Have to Say:
I receive quite a bit of email from people across the Globe who have their own recollections of the KYOI era. You can read some of their thoughts here.
Bibliography and Citations:
Station history details: World Radio TV Handbook 1983 - 1995 (1983 ISBN 0-902285-08-4)
KYOI site photographs: provided by George Jacobs and Associates Inc.
KYOI promotional materials and audio clips: © Marcom
Audio system information and format details: Hank Landsberg, Director of Engineering, Drake-Chenault Enterprises, Inc. (1974-1988)
Transmitter history information and technical details: Transmitter Documentation Project © Ludo Maes
Special Thanks to Alex Zinoviev and Oleg A (from the former Soviet Union), Norbert Kreitel from Germany for additional information, audio clips, help and encouragement in maintaining this site.
Oleg A maintains a copy of this site translated into Russian at http://soul-d.narod.ru
Norbert Kreitel has provided a copy of this site translated into German here.
Who is Visiting This Site?
Click on the map above for a larger view - Courtesy of ClustrMaps.
Observation: Our website hits seem to match KYOI's coverage area quite well !
Display of these pages optimised for Version 4.08 or later, on a 1024 x 768 pixel display with 64k colours or better.
All promotional photographs and advertising material, corporate names and logos, product names, trade names, trademarks and registered trademarks are the property of their respective owners, and are acknowledged as such. Whilst every care is taken in the preparation of the information presented in these pages, I take no responsibility for errors or omissions.
Please report any problems encountered with these web pages to kyoi@zcm.com.au
Copyright ©2002 - 2011 Calvin MELEN, Australia. Last updated on March 16, 2011.
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With Second Strike Looming, Twin Cities Janitors Clean Up
April 12, 2016 / Mark Brenner Enlarge or shrink text login or register to comment
A thousand janitors who clean Minneapolis office buildings walked off the job for a day February 17 and filled downtown. The strike was part of a citywide week of action to address the Twin Cities’ extreme racial and economic inequality. Photo: SEIU Local 26.
Twin Cities janitors were headed for a second strike in as many months when they reached an agreement March 7.
A thousand janitors who clean Minneapolis office buildings walked off the job for a day February 17 and filled downtown. It was the city’s first janitors strike in decades, although security officers, also represented by Service Employees (SEIU) Local 26, have struck twice in recent years.
“I was surprised by how many members struck, since we hadn’t done it before,” said executive board member Brahim Kone, who has been a janitor for 15 years. “But now the fear is gone. Members are ready to fight.”
The tentative agreement pushes wages for most of the workforce over $15 an hour immediately, providing a 12 percent increase over the four-year agreement.
It adds new workload protections, including the right to review your workload with a steward on company time. Health care co-pays and deductibles will decrease. Part-timers will now be able to use the health plan at no additional cost.
“They fought us on everything,” Kone said. “Even the simple language like having a union billboard was so hard.”
But employers fought off the union’s effort to lift up the lower end of the market. They refused to eliminate the bottom tier (a transitional pay scale for newly unionized contractors) and will maintain the practice of paying new hires a slightly lower wage their first two years on the job.
“I’m proud of the settlement, but we lost some stuff too,” Kone said.
COORDINATED PROTESTS
The strike was buoyed by a week of action, organized through the coalition Minnesotans for a Fair Economy (MFE), to address the Twin Cities’ extreme racial and economic inequality. The area’s racial divides in unemployment, graduation rates, and poverty are among the worst in the nation.
Besides the janitors strike, St. Paul teachers held “walk-ins” at 50 schools to push for more student services, like counselors.
Members of the worker center Centro de Trabajadores Unidos en Lucha (CTUL), who work for a cleaning contractor at Macy’s, struck for better pay and the right to unionize.
U.S. Bank workers, who are also unionizing through the Committee for Better Banks (backed by the Communications Workers and UNI Global Union), occupied the bank’s headquarters—along with hundreds of supporters who were also pushing the company to drop its payday lending operations.
And protesters from across the coalition blocked highway traffic during morning rush hour, creating a three-mile backup into downtown Minneapolis.
EDUCATION FOR ACTION
In a combined leadership school, members from different unions, worker centers, and faith and community organizations discussed how the “Dirty Dozen” most influential Minnesota-based corporations are connected to elected officials and each other. Photos: Greg Nammacher.
A hundred members from the coalition’s partner groups—which include unions, worker centers, and faith and community organizations—took part in a parallel leadership school, and turned out for one another’s actions.
They learned practical skills, like speaking to the media and marshaling for a rally, and discussed bigger-picture topics, like how the economy works and how it reinforces racial inequality.
This kind of training really brings people together, said Todd O’Connor, a Local 26 member who works as a security guard at Target’s corporate headquarters. “It feels like we’ve known each other for years.”
MFE affiliates have been conducting their internal education separately for the past two years, though often sharing similar exercises and materials. For instance, the “Dirty Dozen” is an analysis of the most influential Minnesota-based corporations, including household names like Target, US Bank, Wells Fargo, Best Buy, and General Mills.
Members discuss how these companies are connected to elected officials and to each other, and how they’re using these connections to advance a corporate agenda. “People don’t always see how things are connected,” said Mary Spaulding, a member of Take Action Minnesota. “This shows where these companies overlap, that they are intertwined.”
MFE affiliates are moving towards more joint education—like the leadership school—to foster a common outlook and sense of shared strategy.
“$15 an hour is connected to health care, and that’s connected to why so many people can’t vote because they’re on probation or parole,” Spaulding said. “Now you have allies, no matter where you’re going.”
STRIKE BUILD-UP
These education programs dovetailed with internal organizing by the janitors, who started building for their strike six months in advance.
As a supplement to their 100-person bargaining team, the janitors grouped their work sites geographically into a half-dozen “strike zones.” The 20-30 stewards in each zone teamed up to lead education and contract campaigning with their co-workers.
Each zone planned its own action to support the contract fight—and designed its own flag. Some of these elements were inspired by what the janitors learned from unionists and farmworkers they met two years ago on a delegation to Brazil.
Stewards started leading monthly lunchtime conversations, which the union reports reached 600 members each month. These discussions began with contract enforcement questions on health insurance, paid time off, and workload.
But they expanded to address the ways employers use divide-and-conquer to weaken the union, the outsized political influence of corporations and the wealthy, and who really runs Minnesota’s economy.
“Now it’s back to organizing. We have to be prepared,” Kone said. “My co-workers are saying that the one day strike wasn’t enough—we’ll need to do more next time.”
A version of this article appeared in Labor Notes #445. Don't miss an issue, subscribe today.
Mark Brenner is the former director of Labor Notes.
Privatizers Said It Was Impossible for Chicago Teachers to Strike. How Wrong They Were. »
Chicago Teachers Go Out On Strike Again »
How Four Roses Bourbon Strikers Fought Off Two-Tier »
Indianapolis Janitors Push for Health Care, Sick Days, and a Living Wage »
Labor's Real Innovators Will Come from the Ranks, Not the Corporate World »
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Tag Archives: zoos
Toronto Zoo’s New Generation
Every year for my birthday I always visit the Toronto Zoo. It’s a tradition and always memorable. To be honest, I’ve been visiting the Toronto Zoo and it’s amazing animals for over 30 years, 35 to be exact! I’ve grown up watching many of them grow and mature and have babies of their own. And…
November 27, 2016 in Toronto Zoo, Zoological Parks.
Antwerp Zoo Highlights
Located in the heart of Antwerp, the Antwerp Zoo is right next to the Central Train station. The zoo opened its doors to the public in 1843, making it the oldest zoo in Belgium and one of the oldest in the world. It’s now even listed as a monument. Home to over 5000 animals, representing…
August 29, 2016 in Antwerp Zoo.
Bristol Zoo Highlights
The Bristol Zoo opened in 1836, making it the 5th oldest zoo in the world and the second oldest in England after the London Zoo. Located in Bristol’s Clifton neighbourhood and set on 12 acres which may not seem large, but it makes up for size with its awesome exhibits and gorgeous gardens. Most of…
June 12, 2016 in Bristol Zoo.
Prague Zoo Highlights
The Prague Zoo, which opened in 1930, is located in Drahan-Troja Nature Park and is considered one of the most beautiful zoos in the world. Set on 140 acres and home to over 4000 animals representing over 600 species with over 100 of those species listed as threatened, the Prague Zoo has been a part…
March 6, 2016 in Prague Zoo, Zoological Parks.
Durrell: Going Batty for Bats and Lemurs
In the final chapter of my visit to the Durrell Wildlife Park I continue on the last leg of the park through the Island Bat Roost to Lemur Lake and finally to the Gerald Durrell Story exhibition. Much like the gorilla enclosure, the Island Bat Roost was built with the help of over 400 people…
January 3, 2016 in Durrell Wildlife Park.
Durrell: From Dodos to Reptiles
The Durrell Zoo, created in the inspiring vision of Gerald Durrell who wanted to not so much create a zoo to entertain visitors by its frolicking animals but instead wanted to create an ark to help save endangered species and also help educate the public on conservation matters and what they can do to help.…
November 1, 2015 in Durrell Wildlife Park, Zoological Parks.
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« From the Vault: A Look Back at the October 15, 2014, Flash Rally | Main | Optimists and Pessimists in the Housing Market »
Does U.S. Health Inequality Reflect Income Inequality—or Something Else?
Maxim Pinkovskiy
Health is an integral part of well-being. The United Nations Human Development Index uses life expectancy (together with GDP per capita and literacy) as one of three key indicators of human welfare across the world. In this post, I discuss the state of life expectancy inequality in the United States and examine some of the underlying factors in its evolution over the past several decades.
I will describe evidence in the health literature that first, inequality in life expectancy in the United States is increasing, and second, that life expectancy has become increasingly correlated with income. However, I will also argue that the mechanism at work is more complicated than higher income pushing up life expectancy. In particular, I will cite evidence that indicators of health care access do not correlate strongly with life expectancy among lower-income individuals. Instead, I will argue that shifts in the incidence of unhealthy behaviors explain much of the increase in life expectancy inequality. Specifically, I will show that the changing distribution of smoking across the income spectrum explains the strengthening of the relationship between life expectancy and income.
The chart below plots estimates of average life expectancy by county (from the Institute of Health Metrics and Evaluation, IHME) against log county income per capita from the BEA for 1995 (in blue) and 2010 (orange). Each dot represents a county, and the size of the dot is proportional to the county’s population. We see that over these fifteen years, life expectancy across U.S. counties has increased markedly—the 25th percentile of the 2010 population-weighted county life expectancy distribution is above the 75th percentile of the 1995 one. However, we also see that the 2010 distribution is more unequal than the 1995 distribution: Many counties enjoy much higher life expectancy than the mean, but a swath of counties—the points that still overlap with the 1995 life expectancy distribution—are falling behind. The interquartile range (the difference between the 75th and 25th percentiles, also a measure of variability of the distribution) grew from 2.38 years in 1995 to 2.73 years in 2010.
Most strikingly, we see that county life expectancy is much more closely related to county personal income in 2010 than it was in 1995. The blue and orange lines through the clouds of points show the lines of best fit between county life expectancy and log county income in 1995 and 2010. It is immediately obvious that the orange line is steeper than the blue line; life expectancy is more correlated with income in 2010 than it was in 1995. A 10 percent increase in county income was associated with an increase in average life expectancy in 1995 of three and a half months—versus an increase of five and a half months in 2010. It is also obvious that the orange dots (for 2010) fall more tightly around the orange line than do the blue dots around the blue line. Log county income explained 14 percent of the overall variability in average life expectancy across counties in 1995, but by 2010, it explained nearly one-third of that variation.
Looking at the chart, one may be tempted to conclude that the correlation it plots is causal –having a high income is now more important to accessing quality medical care, which in turn prolongs life. However, the story is more complicated. In a landmark 2016 paper in the Journal of the American Medical Association, Raj Chetty and his coauthors investigate the correlates of the life expectancy of the poor across U.S. commuting zones. They find that the biggest determinants of life expectancy among low-income individuals are behavioral variables, such as smoking, obesity, and exercise rates. Surprisingly, measures of access to health care, such as the fraction of poor people who have insurance, or the provision of preventive care, are not correlated with the life expectancy of the poor, and neither are measures of a county’s economic health, such as its unemployment rate.
An even starker illustration of the limits of health care goods as a means to a higher life expectancy comes from recent work by Chen, Persson, and Polyakova (2019), who investigate the mortality-to-income gradient in Sweden. Unlike the United States, Sweden has universal health insurance, guaranteeing access to a baseline level of health care services to everyone regardless of their income. However, Chen et al. (2019) show that although Swedish mortality (the probability of dying in the next year at age 59) is lower than U.S. mortality for both the rich and the poor, the slopes of the two gradients are similar. That is, moving up an extra percentile in the Swedish income distribution would yield a very similar mortality reduction as moving up a percentile in the U.S. income distribution. This suggests that access to care is not the issue, since Swedes’ access is generally unrelated to their incomes.
I conclude by showing that the strengthening of the relationship between county life expectancy and county income in the United States can be statistically explained by a third variable: the smoking rate. To do this, I use data on U.S. smoking prevalence by county from 1995 to 2010 from IHME. (This dataset runs from 1996 to 2012; I use the 1996 numbers for 1995 to match up with the county income dataset). The next chart shows that the relationship between smoking prevalence and income across U.S. counties has become stronger over time, mirroring the relationship between life expectancy and income. Not only did the smoking rate in the United States decline, on average, over these fifteen years, but it declined much more in high-income places than in low-income places.
Finally, the last chart compares the residuals of life expectancy and income in 1995 and 2010—subtracting the predictions of the values of life expectancy and income based on the smoking prevalence in each year, county by county. Now, the two scatterplots are right on top of each other, and the lines of best fit through them—the relationships between life expectancy and income, controlling for smoking prevalence, in 1995 and in 2010—are nearly identical. In fact, controlling for the changes to smoking prevalence, income explains nearly the same (low) share of the cross-county variation in average life expectancy in 2010 as it did in 1995. The strengthening of the relationship between income and life expectancy that we observed before can be explained entirely by the intensification of the relationship between income and smoking prevalence.
While income now appears to be more salient to health outcomes than it has been in a generation, paradoxically, redistributing income and the health resources that it buys does not seem sufficient to improve health outcomes for individuals in the bottom of the life expectancy distribution. Instead, a more promising approach might center on reducing adverse health behaviors that used to be widespread but are now increasingly concentrated among the poor. Figuring out how to do this will be the key to reducing health inequality.
Maxim Pinkovskiy is a senior economist in the Federal Reserve Bank of New York’s Research and Statistics Group.
How to cite this post:
Maxim Pinkovskiy, “Does U.S. Health Inequality Reflect Income Inequality—or Something Else?,” Federal Reserve Bank of New York Liberty Street Economics, October 15, 2019, https://libertystreeteconomics.newyorkfed.org/2019/10/does-us-health-inequality-reflect-income-inequalityor-something-else.html.
Posted by Blog Author at 07:01:00 AM in Inequality
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PART X.2Tax in Respect of Registered Investments (continued)
Marginal note:Publication of list in Canada Gazette
204.5 Each year the Minister shall cause to be published in the Canada Gazette a list of all registered investments as of December 31 of the preceding year.
1980-81-82-83, c. 48, s. 94
Marginal note:Tax payable
204.6 (1) Where at the end of any month a taxpayer that is a registered investment described in paragraph 204.4(2)(b), 204.4(2)(d) or 204.4(2)(f) holds property that is not a prescribed investment for that taxpayer, it shall, in respect of that month, pay a tax under this Part equal to 1% of the fair market value at the time of its acquisition of each such property.
(2) Where at the end of any month a taxpayer that is a registered investment described in paragraph 204.4(2)(a) or (b) holds property that is a share, bond, mortgage, hypothecary claim or other security of a corporation or debtor (other than bonds, mortgages, hypothecary claims and other securities of or guaranteed by Her Majesty in right of Canada or a province or Canadian municipality), it shall, in respect of that month, pay a tax under this Part equal to 1% of the amount, if any, by which
(a) the total of all amounts each of which is the fair market value of such a property at the time of its acquisition
(b) 10% of the amount by which
(i) the total of all amounts each of which is the fair market value, at the time of acquisition, of one of its properties
(ii) the total of all amounts each of which is an amount owing by the trust at the end of the month in respect of the acquisition of real property or immovables.
Marginal note:Tax payable — real property or immovables
(3) If at the end of any month a taxpayer that is a registered investment described in paragraph 204.4(2)(a) holds real or immovable property, it shall, in respect of that month, pay a tax under this Part equal to 1% of the total of all amounts each of which is the amount by which the excess of
(a) the fair market value at the time of its acquisition of any one real or immovable property of the taxpayer
(b) the total of all amounts each of which was an amount owing by it at the end of the month on account of its acquisition of the real or immovable property
was greater than 10% of the amount by which the total of all amounts each of which is the fair market value at the time of its acquisition of a property held by it at the end of the month exceeds the total of all amounts each of which was an amount owing by it at the end of the month on account of its acquisition of real or immovable property.
R.S., 1985, c. 1 (5th Supp.), s. 204.6
Marginal note:Return and payment of tax
204.7 (1) Within 90 days from the end of each taxation year commencing after 1980, a registered investment shall
(a) file with the Minister a return for the year under this Part in prescribed form and containing prescribed information, without notice or demand therefor;
(b) estimate in the return the amount of tax, if any, payable by it under this Part for the year; and
(c) pay to the Receiver General the amount of tax, if any, payable by it under this Part for the year.
Marginal note:Liability of trustee
(2) Where the trustee of a registered investment that is liable to pay tax under this Part does not remit to the Receiver General the amount of the tax within the time specified in subsection 204.7(1), the trustee is personally liable to pay on behalf of the registered investment the full amount of the tax and is entitled to recover from the registered investment any amount paid by the trustee as tax under this section.
Marginal note:Provisions applicable to Part
(3) Subsections 150(2) and 150(3), sections 152 and 158, subsections 161(1) and 161(11), sections 162 to 167 and Division J of Part I are applicable to this Part with such modifications as the circumstances require.
1985, c. 45, s. 126(F)
1986, c. 6, s. 108
PART X.3Labour-sponsored Venture Capital Corporations
204.8 (1) In this Part,
annuitant
annuitant has the meaning assigned by subsection 146(1); (rentier)
eligible business entity
eligible business entity, at any time, means a particular entity that is
(a) a prescribed corporation, or
(b) a Canadian partnership or a taxable Canadian corporation, all or substantially all of the fair market value of the property of which is, at that time, attributable to
(i) property used in a specified active business carried on by the particular entity or by a corporation controlled by the particular entity,
(ii) shares of the capital stock or debt obligations of one or more entities that, at that time, are eligible business entities related to the particular entity, or
(iii) any combination of properties described in subparagraph (i) or (ii); (entreprise admissible)
eligible investment
eligible investment of a particular corporation means
(a) a share that was issued to the particular corporation and that is a share of the capital stock of a corporation that was an eligible business entity at the time the share was issued,
(b) a particular debt obligation that was issued to the particular corporation by an entity that was an eligible business entity at the time the particular debt obligation was issued where
(i) the entity is not restricted by the terms of the particular debt obligation or by the terms of any agreement related to that obligation from incurring other debts,
(ii) the particular debt obligation, if secured, is secured solely by a floating charge on the assets of the entity or by a guarantee referred to in paragraph (c), and
(iii) the particular debt obligation, by its terms or any agreement relating to that obligation, is subordinate to all other debt obligations of the entity, except that, where the entity is a corporation, the particular debt obligation need not be subordinate to
(A) a debt obligation, issued by the entity, that is prescribed to be a small business security, or
(B) a debt obligation owing to a shareholder of the entity or to a person related to any such shareholder,
(c) a guarantee provided by the particular corporation in respect of a debt obligation that would, if the debt obligation had been issued to the particular corporation at the time the guarantee was provided, have been at that time an eligible investment because of paragraph (b), or
(d) an option or a right granted by an eligible business entity that is a corporation, in conjunction with the issue of a share or debt obligation that is an eligible investment, to acquire a share of the capital stock of the eligible business entity that would be an eligible investment if that share were issued at the time that the option or right was granted,
if the following conditions are satisfied:
(e) immediately after the time the share or debt obligation was issued, the guarantee was provided or the option or right was granted, as the case may be, the total of the costs to the particular corporation of all shares, options, rights and debt obligations of the eligible business entity and all corporations related to it and 25% of the amount of all guarantees provided by the particular corporation in respect of debt obligations of the eligible business entity and the related corporations does not exceed the lesser of $15,000,000 and 10% of the shareholders’ equity in the particular corporation, determined in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles, on a cost basis and without taking into account any unrealized gains or losses on the investments of the particular corporation, and
(f) immediately before the time the share or debt obligation was issued, the guarantee was provided or the option or right was granted, as the case may be,
(i) the carrying value of the total assets of the eligible business entity and all corporations (other than prescribed labour-sponsored venture capital corporations) related to it (determined in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles on a consolidated or combined basis, where applicable) did not exceed $50,000,000, and
(ii) the total of
(A) the number of employees of the eligible business entity and all corporations related to it who normally work at least 20 hours per week for the entity and the related corporations, and
(B) 1/2 of the number of other employees of the entity and the related corporations,
did not exceed 500;
(g) [Repealed, 1998, c. 19, s. 51(1)] (placement admissible)
eligible labour body
eligible labour body means a trade union, as defined in the Canada Labour Code, that represents employees in more than one province, or an organization that is composed of 2 or more such unions; (organisme syndical admissible)
labour-sponsored funds tax credit
labour-sponsored funds tax credit[Repealed, 1997, c. 25, s. 55(1)]
national central labour body
national central labour body[Repealed, 1994, c. 7, Sch. VIII, s. 118(2)]
original acquisition
original acquisition of a share has the meaning assigned by subsection 127.4(1); (acquisition initiale)
original purchaser
original purchaser[Repealed, 1997, c. 25, s. 55(2)]
registered labour-sponsored venture capital corporation
registered labour-sponsored venture capital corporation[Repealed, 1997, c. 25, s. 55(1)]
reserve means
(a) property described in any of paragraphs (a), (b), (c), (f) and (g) of the definition qualified investment in section 204, and
(b) deposits with a credit union that is a member institution in relation to a deposit insurance corporation (within the meaning assigned by subsection 137.1(5)); (réserve)
revoked corporation
revoked corporation means a corporation the registration of which has been revoked under subsection 204.81(6); (Version anglaise seulement)
specified active business
specified active business, at any time, means an active business that is carried on in Canada where
(a) at least 50% of the full-time employees employed at that time in respect of the business are employed in Canada, and
(b) at least 50% of the salaries and wages paid to employees employed at that time in respect of the business are reasonably attributable to services rendered in Canada by the employees; (entreprise déterminée exploitée activement)
specified individual
specified individual, in respect of a share, means an individual (other than a trust) whose labour-sponsored funds tax credit (as defined by subsection 127.4(6)) in respect of the original acquisition of the share is not nil or would not be nil if this Act were read without reference to paragraphs 127.4(6)(b) and 127.4(6)(d). (particulier déterminé)
start-up period
start-up period of a corporation means
(a) subject to paragraph (c), in the case of a corporation that first issued Class A shares before February 17, 1999, the corporation’s taxation year in which it first issued those shares and the four following taxation years,
(b) subject to paragraph (c), in the case of a corporation that first issues Class A shares after February 16, 1999, the corporation’s taxation year in which it first issues those shares and the following taxation year, or
(c) where a corporation files an election with its return under this Part for a particular taxation year of the corporation that ends after 1998 and that is referred to in paragraph (a) or (b), the period, if any, consisting of the taxation years referred to in paragraph (a) or (b), as the case may be, other than the particular year and all taxation years following the particular year. (période de démarrage)
terminating corporation
terminating corporation in respect of a particular corporation means a predecessor corporation in circumstances where
(a) subsection 204.85(3) applies to a merger of the particular corporation and the predecessor corporation,
(b) Class A shares of the particular corporation have been issued to the predecessor corporation in exchange for property of the predecessor corporation, and
(c) within a reasonable period of time after the exchange, Class A shareholders of the predecessor corporation receive all of the Class A shares of the particular corporation issued to the predecessor corporation in the course of a wind-up of the predecessor corporation. (société sortante)
Marginal note:When venture capital business discontinued
(2) For the purposes of section 127.4, this Part and Part XII.5, a corporation discontinues its venture capital business
(a) at the time its articles cease to comply with paragraph 204.81(1)(c) and would so cease to comply if it had been incorporated after December 5, 1996;
(b) at the time it begins to wind-up, and for the purpose of this paragraph a corporation is not to be considered to have begun to wind up solely because it discontinues its venture capital business under prescribed wind-up rules;
(c) immediately before the time it amalgamates or merges with one or more other corporations to form one corporate entity (other than an entity deemed by paragraph 204.85(3)(d) to have been registered under this Part);
(d) at the time it becomes a revoked corporation, if one of the grounds on which the Minister could revoke its registration for the purposes of this Part is set out in paragraph 204.81(6)(a.1); or
(e) at the first time after the revocation of its registration for the purposes of this Part that it fails to comply with any of the provisions of its articles governing its authorized capital, the management of its business and affairs, the reduction of paid-up capital or the redemption or transfer of its Class A shares.
Marginal note:Date of issue of Class A shares
(3) For the purposes of this Part and subsection 211.8(1), in determining the time of the issue or the original acquisition of Class A shares, identical Class A shares held by a person are deemed to be disposed of by the person in the order in which the shares were issued.
1994, c. 7, Sch. II, s. 164, Sch. VIII, s. 118, c. 8, s. 29
1998, c. 19, ss. 51, 209
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Home Family Law Massachusetts Chartley
Chartley, Massachusetts Family Lawyers
Ruthanne Withers
Attleboro, MA Family Law Attorney with 14 years experience
(508) 222-0002 144 Bank Street
Attleboro, MA 02703
An associate with the firm and focuses her practice on domestic relations matters, including divorce, custody, child support, contempt, and modification cases. Attorney Withers graduated magna cum laude from The George Washington University in 2000 with a B.A. in Spanish Language and Literature. After graduation she worked for two years as a litigation paralegal for a Washington, D.C., personal injury firm. She graduated with her J.D. from Northeastern University School of Law in 2005 where she participated in the Domestic Violence Clinic. From 2005 through 2013 she was employed as a Staff Attorney at Community Legal Aid specializing...
Paul F. Lorincz
Attleboro, MA Family Law Lawyer with 44 years experience
A PARTNER with the firm, concentrates his practice in the areas of family law, including mediation and conciliation, corporate and business law, civil litigation, and estate planning. A magna cum laude graduate of Boston College in 1972, Attorney Lorincz graduated from Boston College Law School in 1975 and is admitted to the Massachusetts Bar, the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts, and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit. He is a member of the Attleboro, Bristol County, and Massachusetts Bar Associations. In addition, he is a member of the Massachusetts Council on...
Christopher G. Kehoe
New Bedford, MA Family Law Lawyer with 30 years experience
(508) 207-7937 50 Homers Wharf
Family, Business, Estate Planning and Tax
University of Connecticut School of Law
Christopher G. Kehoe, Esq., A Former IRS Tax Attorney Offices Locations: Wakefield RI, Warwick RI, Attleboro, MA, New Bedford, MA. Member of Rhode Island and Mass Bar. Authorized to practice before the IRS and US Tax Court throughout the US. 20 Years of Experience Legal Services Include: Tax Matters: IRS & State Tax Problems & Matters, Offer in Compromise, Installment Agreements & Time Payment Agreements, Abatement of Penalties, Tax Collection, Bank Levies, Wage Levies, Tax Levies, Property Seizures, Tax Liens, Unfiled Tax Returns, Tax Amnesty, Tax Audits, Motor Vehicle License & Register Blocks, Professional Consultations, Tax Appeals, Tax...
Attleboro, MA Family Law Lawyer
144 Bank St. - PO Box 2320
Meghan L Howard
Foxboro, MA Family Law Attorney with 5 years experience
(508) 543-0600 132 Central Street
Foxboro, MA 02035
Free ConsultationFamily, Criminal Defense, Divorce and Personal Injury
Meghan L. Howard joined Stopa & Associates as an Associate Attorney in July 2015. Ms. Howard focuses her practice in family law, divorce, personal injury, criminal defense.
A native of Jupiter, Florida, Ms. Howard received her undergraduate degree in political science from the University of Central Florida in 2011. During her time at the University of Central Florida, Ms. Howard was a member of the Phi Alpha Delta law fraternity. Ms. Howard was also a member of the Phi Theta Kappa Honor Society while she attended Palm Beach State College prior to transferring to the University of Central...
Robert Finlay
Taunton, MA Family Law Attorney with 9 years experience
(508) 884-6067 4 Court Street
Free ConsultationFamily, Bankruptcy, Divorce and Personal Injury
St. Thomas University School of Law
I am originally from Houston, Texas but spent many formative years in New York State. I am a proud husband for the last 8 years and soon to be father of twins. I am an avid outdoors enthusiast and enjoy fishing and kayaking. I originally went to law school thinking I would become a corporate lawyer in a large firm but found myself (through experience) wanting to help people one by one and be an independent attorney. I've been an independent for five years and have enjoyed every moment of it.
Brian D. Roman
North Attleboro, MA Family Law Lawyer with 29 years experience
(508) 576-5922 98 Orne St
Free ConsultationFamily, Divorce, Domestic Violence and Personal Injury
Attorney Roman is a zealous advocate who will provide you with the legal representation you deserve.
Shannon Benay
(508) 454-6836 30 Washington St.
Family and Arbitration & Mediation
Roger Williams University School of Law
Shannon Benay is a family law mediator and founder of Benay & Associates Mediation Services. Benay & Associates is a full service mediation firm with convenient locations in Attleboro, MA and Providence, RI. We provide our clients with a more effective and customized alternative to lengthy, expensive hearings and trials in matters relating to family law and landlord/tenant disputes. To accomodate our clients' busy schedules, we also offer evening and weekend appointments. At Benay & Associates, we understand that being a party in a dispute can be stressful, so we strive to provide our clients with the...
Tracy Galloway
Mansfield, MA Family Law Attorney with 27 years experience
(508) 631-5702 20 Cabot Boulevard, Suite 300
Free ConsultationFamily, Divorce and Juvenile
I work closely and responsively with my clients to get to the heart of their individual situation, to answer all questions, and to tailor a strategy that will be most effective with opposing counsel, and within the court system.
Laurie P. Mullen
Fall River, MA Family Law Attorney with 30 years experience
(508) 679-9811 161 Lindsey Street
Fall River, MA 02720
Over 23 years of experience in all phases of family law. Locations in Fall River and Rehoboth. Serving Bristol and Plymouth Counties. Divorce mediation services offered.
Alexander Nesson
Taunton, MA Family Law Lawyer with 25 years experience
Free ConsultationFamily, Criminal Defense, DUI & DWI and Divorce
I represent people going through difficult legal issues. I have represented thousands of cases. I handle a significant amount of trials and litigations. This includes high conflict custody cases along with DCF cases. I have also worked as a GAL and mediator in divorce cases. I had worked in the US AG and DA's office and handled numerous criminal cases
Robert Holmes Fennessy Jr
Mansfield, MA Family Law Lawyer with 18 years experience
(508) 668-5595 200 Chauncy Street
Free ConsultationFamily, Animal, Divorce and Estate Planning
Attorney Fennessy is admitted to the Massachusetts Bar, the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts, and the United States Supreme Court. He routinely practices before the Family and Probate Courts in all matters involving divorce, separation, and family law. Attorney Fennessy is an Adjunct Professor of Law at UMass Law School in Dartmouth, and was formerly an Adjunct Professor of Law at the Southern New England School of Law. He has been an elected official in his town for more than two decades as Selectman, Finance Committee member, Conservation Commission, and Constable, and has served...
Ronald J. Mone
South Easton, MA Family Law Lawyer with 28 years experience
(508) 238-8801 49 Belmont Street Rear
Family, Divorce, Estate Planning and Probate
Western New England University School of Law
I have been practicing law for 24 years. I practice divorce, family, and probate law. I provide a no nonsense approach to the practice of law. I do not tell my clients what they want to hear. I tell it like it is. I return all telephone calls. "Prompt Service Makes a Difference!"
Edward Krippendorf
Westwood, MA Family Law Attorney with 18 years experience
(617) 523-3500 355 Providence Hwy
Free ConsultationFamily, Criminal Defense, Divorce and Domestic Violence
Attorney Edward Krippendorf, a partner at Eisenstadt, Krippendorf, and Galvin, has years of experience helping clients in need of legal help. He focuses his practice in Criminal Defense and Family Law, areas in which he prides himself on the outcomes that he gets for his clients.
As a seasoned criminal defense lawyer, Attorney Krippendorf vigorously defends his clients in District and Superior Courts throughout Massachusetts as well as the Federal District Court of Massachusetts. He handles all range of criminal cases from Misdemeanors in District Court, to Felonies carrying a potential life sentence in Superior Court. He is noted as being...
Joseph Eisenstadt
Attorney Eisenstadt, a founding partner of the law firm of Eisenstadt, Krippendorf, and Galvin, handles all types of criminal cases throughout the Superior Courts, Municipals Courts, and District Courts of Massachusetts. He has won jury trials, bench trials, motions to suppress, and motions to dismiss on behalf of his clients. Attorney Eisenstadt has reached successful outcomes for his clients with charges of larceny, embezzlement, operating under the influence of alcohol, operating under the influence of drugs, assault and battery, drug cases, gun cases, assault and battery with a dangerous weapon, motor vehicle homicide, and all other manner of criminal case.
Prior...
Amber R. Cohen
Raynham, MA Family Law Lawyer with 12 years experience
(508) 880-6677 10 Commerce Way
Raynham, MA 02767
Family, Criminal Defense, Divorce and Domestic Violence
University of Massachusetts - Dartmouth
Areas of practice: Adoption, Divorce, Child Support Modification, Family Law, Civil Litigation, Criminal Law, Estate Litigation, Guardianship of Incapacitated Persons, Guardianship of Minors, Termination of Guardianship, Paternity, Restraining Orders, Debt Collection, Visitation/Custody Dispute, 93A Consumer Protection, and General Litigation Before co-founding Cohen Cleary, P.C., Attorney Cohen worked as associate counsel with Schonland & Associates, P.C. Attorney Cohen concentrates her legal practice in the areas of family law, probate and estates, guardianships of minors and incapacitated persons as well as civil litigation. Attorney Cohen is passionate about her work in representing those who are in need of legal representation, and strives...
Wilfred C. Driscoll Jr.
Fall River, MA Family Law Lawyer with 43 years experience
(508) 672-8718 209 Bedford Street
New England School of Law
I have been a lawyer in Fall River, Massachusetts for over 30 years. I have practiced extensively in the courts in Bristol County, Plymouth County, Suffolk County and Norfolk County. My practice focuses on Divorce and Criminal Law including DUI/OUI. I handle all aspects of Family Law including child custody, visitation, father's rights, divorce modifications, separation agreements and property division. I also have an office in Quincy, MA. There is no cost for your first appointment.
Susannah Brown
Free ConsultationFamily, Arbitration & Mediation, Criminal Defense and Divorce
Susannah Brown practices primarily in Divorce and Family Law. She represents clients in a full range of family matters including divorce, child custody, parenting plans, child support, alimony and marital property division. Her experience extends to post divorce issues as well, such as modifications, contempt actions, adoptions and guardianships. Attorney Brown is also a Certified Mediator. Whether providing amicable mediation or acrimonious litigation, she will pursue the best possible results. Attorney Brown is dedicated to both aggressive representation, and compassionate advocacy for your rights and needs, in an effective, expeditious and affordable manner.
Attorney Brown received her J.D. from...
Beth M. Nussbaum
Sharon, MA Family Law Attorney with 23 years experience
(781) 327-1907 15 Highland St.
Sharon, MA 02067
Free ConsultationFamily, Appeals, Arbitration & Mediation and Divorce
Nussbaum Family Law provides mediation and collaborative representation in family law matters such as prenuptial and postnuptial agreements, contested and uncontested divorce, modification or contempt involving issues such as paternity, child custody, parenting time, and support. We believe in a collaborative approach to solving family law issues peacefully whenever possible, to save you the expense, stress, uncertainty and loss of privacy of a court case. In addition to collaborative law and mediation, Nussbaum Family Law provides mediation support services including consulting and document review services. When court is unavoidable, we offer skilled, effective negotiation-based advocacy to achieve your goals and...
Mary E. Bono
Stoughton, MA Family Law Attorney
(781) 436-8667 247 Washington Street
Stoughton, MA 02072
University of Massachusetts School of Law - Dartmouth
Attorney Mary E. Bono is a graduate of the University of Massachusetts School of Law - Dartmouth where she served as both the Editor-in-Chief and Managing Editor of the University of Massachusetts School of Law Roundtable Symposium Law Journal and participated in the UMASS Law Immigration Law Clinic. While at the University of Massachusetts School of Law - Dartmouth, Attorney Bono received the Dean's Service Award and the Aquilla Ward Memorial Scholarship Award. Attorney Bono is a member of the Board of Directors for the Young Lawyer's Division of the Bristol County Bar Association and is also a...
Edward Sharkansky
Brockton, MA Family Law Lawyer with 26 years experience
(508) 587-7977 1342 Belmont Street - Suite 102
Massachusetts Law Attorney Edward Sharkansky has over 20 years of courtroom experience beginning as a prosecutor in the district attorney’s office. From those experiences he opened his own practice as a criminal defense attorney, providing his legal expertise as a defense and trial attorney to hundreds of clients from all walks of life throughout the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Attorney Sharkansky’s practice has evolved into assisting individuals with cases in DUI law, family law, personal injury, and other criminal law issues. As your attorney with a great deal of courtroom and settlement experience, he will work with you throughout the entire...
Sarah Y. Hubbard
Medfield, MA Family Law Lawyer with 5 years experience
Medfield, MA 02052
Marc Roberts
My name is Attorney Marc Roberts and I want to let you know a little about me and what I believe about the law. I am a graduate of the University of Hartford with a Bachelorâs of the Arts Degree obtained from majoring in Psychology. I obtained my law degree at Roger Williams University School of Law in 2004. I passed the Massachusetts and Rhode Island Bar Examinations in 2004 and have been a practicing attorney ever since. My career started off as an Assistant District Attorney for the Bristol County District Attorneyâs Office where I was stationed primarily in the...
Tiffany M. Ambrose
Norfolk, MA Family Law Lawyer with 5 years experience
(508) 359-4043 65 Holbrook Street, Suite 270
Norfolk, MA 02056
Family, Divorce and Education
Pennsylvania State University - Dickinson School of Law
Tiffany is originally from Long Island, NY. She says she isn’t a baseball fan, but she is passionate about being a voice for those who need it most. No matter the challenging and sometimes confrontational nature of divorce and family cases, Tiffany is committed to protecting the best interests of the firm’s clients and their children. Clients appreciate her positive attitude and level-headed approach to resolving their cases. However, Tiffany is also experienced in and eminently capable of representing her clients inside the courtroom.
Upon graduation from law school, Tiffany practiced family law in Central Pennsylvania until relocating to...
Susan A. Fiore
Canton, MA Family Law Lawyer with 25 years experience
(617) 620-5762 793 Washington St
Free ConsultationFamily, Divorce, Probate and Social Security Disability
I help clients in family law, social security disability, workers’ compensation, personal injury, and probate cases.
Amy Saunders
Dedham, MA Family Law Attorney with 22 years experience
(781) 471-5055 858 Washington St Suite 103
Amy Saunders, Esq. is attorney and founder of Legal Solutions in Dedham, Massachusetts (www.legal.solutions). An experienced litigator, she now devotes her practice primarily to family law. Outgoing and down-to-earth, she makes clients and attorneys feel at ease in solving family and divorce disputes. She was legal counsel in what would become the most important decision of the year, by Massachusetts Lawyer Weekly for changing the way bias cases are handled in Massachusetts. She successfully argued 11 out of 11 cases before the Supreme Court, Supreme Judicial Court and Massachusetts Appeals Court. As a full-time, single mother and divorcee, she brings...
Laurie R. Martucci
Franklin, MA Family Law Lawyer with 27 years experience
(508) 528-4007 4 West Street
Family, Bankruptcy, Collections and Education
Jason Carrozza
(508) 803-1333 2 Master Drive, Suite 4
Jason M. Carrozza is a partner and founder of Family Legal Partners, P.C. Attorney Carrozza was previously the owner of Carrozza Law Office, P.C., a law firm which also focused on family law and estate planning. In 2014, Jason was selected as a Massachusetts Rising Star by New England Super Lawyers and Boston Magazine. Attorney Carrozza graduated from New England Law with magna cum laude honors. Admitted to practice before the Massachusetts Courts, he is a member of the Massachusetts Bar Association. Attorney Carrozza has been certified to accept trial level state intervention assignments for the Children and...
Stephen F McDonough Esq.
Norfolk, MA Family Law Lawyer with 15 years experience
(508) 359-4043 65 Holbrook St
Free ConsultationFamily, Arbitration & Mediation, Divorce and Probate
I am a divorce and family law attorney and mediator in Massachusetts, and the owner of Next Phase Legal LLC in Norfolk, MA. I also provide parenting coordination services and am a trained collaborative law practitioner.
For more info about me, you can read my full bio here: http://nextphaselegal.com/about-us/stephen-mcdonough/
Morgan Bernal
Sharon, MA Family Law Attorney with 4 years experience
(617) 901-0052 15 S. Main Street, #125
I practice divorce, family law and child welfare law in the greater Boston area. My goal is to assist both men and women in divorce, child custody and support proceedings and paternity, in addition to modifications that arise post judgement. I have extensive experience working with victims in court, particularly women and children who were physically or sexually abused. Most victims want an attorney who "just gets it," and it has been my experience than many do not "get it" nor do they feel comfortable representing or relating to clients with a domestic violence component to their case. Family...
William Galvin
Westwood, MA Family Law Lawyer with 18 years experience
Attorney William Galvin, a highly esteemed and experienced criminal lawyer, is one of the founding partners of the law firm of Eisenstadt, Krippendorf, and Galvin. He represents clients in the Municipal, District, Superior, and Federal courts throughout Massachusetts. Attorney Galvin routinely wins trials and motions to dismiss on behalf of his clients. He helps clients in all manner of criminal charges from misdemeanors to life felonies. He is known and highly-esteemed in courts throughout Massachusetts as a skilled and experienced criminal defense attorney.
Prior to entering private practice, Attorney Galvin worked for years as a Suffolk County Assistant District Attorney where...
Frank Gaynor III
Norfolk, MA Family Law Attorney with 43 years experience
(508) 528-8400 P.O. Box 186
The Law Office of Frank Gaynor has advised hundreds of Massachusetts clients about family law matters since 1980. If you need assistance in dealing with your family situation, or would just like to learn what options are available to you, please visit our website to learn more about the issues involved in various types of family law actions. www.GaynorLegal.com
Noah Kilroy
Fall River, MA Family Law Attorney with 6 years experience
Family, Criminal Defense, DUI & DWI and Personal Injury
Paul Lancia
Fall River, MA Family Law Attorney
(774) 929-0565 PO Box 9502 Providence 02940
Family, Animal, Divorce and Domestic Violence
Law practice providing legal representation and consulting services to individuals and business. Firm associates practicing in the areas of commercial law and litigation, business and real estate law, construction law criminal defense, domestic relations, personal injury and civil rights; special education/disabilty law, estate probate and litigation. Admiralty, Maritime and Marine Salvage law. International matters with a legal significance. Immigration, Visas, Contracts, Import/Export Experienced working within EU countries. Subspecialty practice of representation of motorcyclists and motorcyclist organizations with issues involving motorcycle specific laws and enforcement; lobbying; injuries resulting while operating a motorcycle and related legal matters. Providing pro bono legal services to deserving individuals and...
David Callahan
(508) 372-1200 20 Cabot Blvd., Suite 300
Licensed to Practice Law in Massachusetts, Connecticut and before the U.S. District Court of the Commonwealth.
Attorney David L. Callahan has been practicing law for over ten years. His primary focus is domestic relations including divorce, custody, modification actions, child support, alimony, paternity, guardianship, adoption, prenuptial and postnuptial agreements. Having been involved in thousands of family law matters across the Commonwealth of Massachusetts he puts that experience to use in every case he handles. Attorney Callahan has litigated matters on behalf of people from every walk of life including fathers seeking to enforce their rights, members of the military, the LGBT...
Eric L Hargraves
Fall River, MA Family Law Lawyer with 9 years experience
(508) 203-1848 155 North Main Street`
Family, Business, Estate Planning and Landlord Tenant
Attorney Eric L. Hargraves is a graduate of the University of Rhode Island and the Roger Williams University School of Law. He is admitted to practice in all courts in the State of Rhode Island and the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Attorney Hargraves is also a member of the bar of the Supreme Court of the United States of America.
Prior to founding the Law Office of Eric L. Hargraves, Attorney Hargraves worked in the Consumer Protection Division of the Rhode Island Attorney General drafting advisory opinions and reviewing settlement and transfer agreements, as well as cases of potential consumer fraud...
Cheryl Tracy
Free ConsultationFamily
The Law Office of Frank Gaynor has advised hundreds of Massachusetts clients about family law matters since 1980. Our husband & wife team of attorneys and skilled paralegal can apply their legal knowledge and experience to assist you in successfully resolving your specific family situation. If you need assistance in dealing with your family situation, or would just like to learn what options are available to you, please visit our website to learn more about the issues involved in various types of family law actions.
Steven David Weil
(508) 541-3000 124 Grove Street
Family, Business, Divorce and Real Estate
Attorney Steven Weil is a shareholder in the firm, who has practiced law in Massachusetts since 1986. He concentrates in the areas of civil litigation, domestic relations and real estate law. He is a 1982 graduate of Union College and a 1986 graduate of Boston University School of Law. Before joining Doherty, Ciechanowski, Dugan & Cannon, he worked as a staff attorney at South Middlesex Legal services, served as a law clerk to the Justices of the Massachusetts Superior Court and spent 17 years at two private law firms located in the City of Boston. Attorney Weil regularly appears in the...
Tracey McNamara
Randolph, MA Family Law Attorney with 5 years experience
(781) 507-3795 P.O Box 201
Family, Education and Probate
Timothy J. Teehan
Franklin, MA Family Law Lawyer
(774) 571-2893 430 Franklin Village Drive #245
Free ConsultationFamily, Bankruptcy, Collections and Divorce
Family Attorneys in Nearby Cities
Family Attorneys in Nearby Counties
The Oyez Lawyer Directory contains lawyers who have claimed their profiles and are actively seeking clients. Find more Chartley, Massachusetts Family Lawyers in the Justia Legal Services and Lawyers Directory which includes profiles of more than one million lawyers licensed to practice in the United States, in addition to profiles of legal aid, pro bono and legal service organizations.
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Random Fact – Margaret Ann REED
Old Bishopwearmouth [1]
Margaret Ann REED was the sixth child born to John REED and Mary Ann CHAPMAN [2]. She was commonly known as Mary. This may have been because she was named for an older sister who had died early.
The REED family lived in Bishopwearmouth, County Durham prior to migrating to Australia. John and Mary Ann had six children prior to migrating in 1854 on the Dirigo to South Australia [3]. On the voyage with them were, John Henry born 7 May 1845 [4] and Margaret Ann born 13 March 1854 [5].
Snippet of the Passenger from the Dirgio [6]
They had the following children who had died early.
Jane REED 16 August 1842 – 21 August 1845 [7]
Thomas REED 1849 – 15 October 1852 [8]
Margaret REED 4 Dec 1850 – 8 Oct 1853 [9]
Frank REED 24 October 1852 – 17 Apr 1853 [10]
One can only imagine he heartbreak of having some many children who died young. Added to this was the moving across the world with your two remaining children.
Shops in Gawler where the family settled [11]
On arrival in South Australia the family moved to South Gawler and settled there. John and Mary Ann were to have several more children before she died at the age of 43 [12].
Death Notice Mary Ann REED [13]
[1] Old Bishopwearmouth Sunderland Public Libraries accessed on https://www.flickr.com/photos/sunderlandpubliclibraries/4194911610
[2] Bishopwearmouth Saint Michael Parish Register Microfiche REED, Margaret Ann 1854
[3] State Records SA, Shipping Records GRG35/48/11854 Dirigo accessed at https://www.archives.sa.gov.au/sites/default/files/documentstore/passengerlists/1854/GRG35_48_1_54-26_Dirigo.pdf
[4] Bishopwearmouth Saint Michael Parish Register Microfiche REED, John Henry 1845
[7] Bishopwearmouth Saint Michael Parish Register Microfiche REED, Jane 1842 and 1845
[8] Bishopwearmouth Saint Michael Parish Register Microfiche REED, Thomas 1849 and 1852
[9] Bishopwearmouth Saint Michael Parish Register Microfiche REED, Margaret 1850 and 1853
[10] Bishopwearmouth Saint Michael Parish Register Microfiche REED, Margaret Ann 1852 – 1853
[11] State Library of SA Shops in Gawler PRG 1717/16/2. Accessed online at https://collections.slsa.sa.gov.au/resource/PRG+1717/16/2
[12] Family Notices (1867, January 5). South Australian Weekly Chronicle (Adelaide, SA : 1858 – 1867), p. 1 (Supplement to the South Australian Chronicle and Mail). Retrieved December 11, 2018, from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article91261061
[13] ibid
#52 ancestors, #Loades family, #Reed family, Family History
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opinionated SOB!
lobotero
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Find His Way Back Home
Closing Thought–13May19
Rudy Giuliani is a political HACK……Americ’s Mayor is a JOKE!
The MSM has shown that it is about as predictable as I have been saying for decades.
The MSM likes to drive the news cycle…..and Rudy gave them the perfect opportunity to make the news for us mere mortals……
President Trump’s personal lawyer says he is urging Ukraine to open investigations that could benefit Trump politically in the United States. Rudy Giuliani used Twitter on Friday to explain his rationale for planning a trip to Kiev to push for two investigations, the AP reports. One is the origin of special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into Russian election interference.
The other is the involvement of 2020 rival Joe Biden’s son in a gas company owned by a Ukrainian oligarch. Giuliani wrote to Democratic Sen. Chris Murphy to “explain to me why Biden shouldn’t be investigated,” and accused Democrats of interfering. Democrats rushed to denounce Giuliani. Rep. Jerrod Nadler said American politics were in “a sorry state” if the president’s lawyer was seeking foreign interference. Giuliani’s trip was first reported by the New York Times.
A Trump lackey pounding his chest as if he was something important…he is not…he is an enabler and the worse mouthpiece EVER!
President Trump’s personal attorney Rudy Giuliani says it’s his right to travel to Ukraine to “defend” his client — to try to push for investigations that he thinks could be “very helpful” to the president. The New York Times first reported Giuliani’s travel plans — he told the Times that he plans to ask Ukraine’s new president, Volodymyr Zelensky, to look into the origins of special counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia investigation, as well as former Vice President Joe Biden’s son’s past connections to the country.
He said there’s “nothing illegal” about his effort to pursue probes in Ukraine, since he is not trying to carry out foreign policy initiatives on behalf of the administration.
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/rudy-giuliani-defends-ukraine-trip-to-help-defend-trump/
Rudy has a change of heart!
Speaking with Fox News’ Shannon Bream on Friday night, President Donald Trump‘s lawyer Rudy Giuliani said he is not going to the Ukraine after all.
Giuliani told Bream that in order to avoid any political suggestion, “I will step back and just watch it unfold.”
Bream then asked if that meant “no trip on Sunday” and no trip to the Ukraine.
Giuliani said that it did.
Rudy Giuliani Says He’s Not Going to the Ukraine
Rudy NEVER intended on going to the Ukraine….he was trying to change the calculus of the news cycle and the networks bit…..
I have been telling you that the MSM only reports on stuff that they want…not the news and Rudy is living proof.
Rudy got what he wanted…..control of at least one news cycle…..to change the focus…..and he succeeded.
By loboteroin International Situations, News, Observations, Politics 13 May 2019 477 Words4 Comments
Bring ‘Em Home!
I remember in Trump’s SOTU speech this year (yes I am one of those geeks that would watch a Trump speech) and I applauded him when he stated that “Great nations do not fight endless wars”!
The hope was finally an American president that would bring our troops home and give them a much deserved rest…..to Trump’s credit he tried to bring them home from Syria and Afghanistan…and the M-IC went batcrap crazy! So bad that Trump had to pull back from his bold statement….which kinda amazed me since he claims to be his own man and would do what he thought was best….(well apparently that claim is total bullshit).
I bring this up because a veterans group has taken on the president, a Koch Brothers group, Concerned Veterans of America…….
A Koch backed advocacy group focused on veterans issues is launching a new effort to pressure President Donald Trump to make good on his campaign commitment to pull US troops out of Afghanistan and Syria.
During his State of the Union speech earlier this year Trump declared “Great nations don’t fight endless wars.”That quote will be prominently displayed on a new website and used in a digital advert as part of a campaign from the group, Concerned Veterans for America.
The group is investing six figures in the campaign which will initially focus on pressuring the White House and lawmakers in Washington to withdraw US troops from the frontlines. CNN is first to report on their campaign.”This will be a full-spectrum, integrated issue campaign. It is going to be nationwide. We are going to do a lot of work in DC and work on leveraging our grassroots army across the country,” said Dan Caldwell, a CVA senior adviser.
https://www.cnn.com/2019/05/09/politics/koch-veterans-trump/index.html
I am pleased to see someone with more resources than me trying to bring our weary troops home where they belong.
Is it possible that conservatives hate war as much as I?
Could be. Let us look at history.
Conservatives’ detestation of war has no “touchy-feely” origins. It springs from conservatism’s roots, its most fundamental beliefs and objectives. Conservatism seeks above all social and cultural continuity, and nothing endangers that more than war.
Why Conservatives Hate War
If this is true then the GOP cannot claim to be conservative…is that not the logical conclusion?
Learn Stuff!
By loboteroin International Situations, Military, Observations, Professor's Classroom, War 13 May 2019 403 Words8 Comments
Party Politics For 2020
If we look at the two parties for our political future then where do some of the more popular candidates fall?
****Below are Dem candidates and the parties that their policies favor****
Democrats • Tulsi Gabbard • Mike Gravel • Bernie Sanders
Centrist Democrats • Elizabeth Warren
Moderate Republicans • Cory Booker • Kirsten Gillibrand • Kamala Harris
Republicans • Michael Bennet • Joe Biden • Pete Buttigieg • Amy Klobuchar • Beto O’Rourke
Not one of them favor the policies of socialism regardless of what the media and idiots want you to believe.
AXIOS has done a fine job of putting together the Dem candidates and there ONE big thing…..ALL the many many candidates and their ONE BIG THING!
Joe Biden: Hey, remember Obama? (Also: I can beat Trump.)
Bernie Sanders: Revolution! Thanks to me. (He takes credit for pushing the rest of the field toward progressive proposals he championed first, like “Medicare for All.”)
Pete Buttigieg: The fresh face. (How many other Midwestern, gay, millennial, Afghanistan veteran mayors are in the race?)
Kamala Harris: The “largest working and middle-class tax cut in a generation,” as she calls it. The LIFT Act would provide a tax credit of up to $6,000 a year.
Elizabeth Warren: The “wealth tax.” (A 2% tax on Americans with more than $50 million in assets.) She’s also running a policy-heavy campaign in general.
Beto O’Rourke: As of this week, it’s his $5 trillion climate change plan.
Cory Booker: His theme is “Justice for All,” including criminal justice reform and an expansion of the Earned Income Tax Credit.
Amy Klobuchar: She depicts herself as a practical Democrat. Her first policy proposal was a $1 trillion infrastructure plan.
Michael Bennet: Another moderate who calls himself a “pragmatic idealist.” (He rejects popular Democratic proposals like Medicare for All and free college.)
Julián Castro: He’s put out an immigration plan that rolls back policies implemented by Trump and George W. Bush.
John Delaney: He promises only bipartisan proposals in his first 100 days.
Tulsi Gabbard: She says she’s anti-war and will talk to “both adversaries and friends in the pursuit of peace.”
Kirsten Gillibrand: She has emphasized issues like sexual assault and reproductive rights, but her first campaign proposal is a “clean elections” campaign finance plan.
Mike Gravel: He’s running on a platform of “ending all wars.”
John Hickenlooper: He’s a centrist and is basing his campaign on that, criticizing progressive Democratic proposals like the Green New Deal.
Jay Inslee: He’s basing his campaign on fighting climate change.
Wayne Messam: His big idea is canceling student loan debt. (His campaign advisers hope he’ll do well in the southern states and with African-American voters.)
Seth Moulton: Foreign policy, national security and defense.
Tim Ryan: He says he wants to “rebuild the middle class.” (He’s concerned about the decline of the industrial Midwest.)
Eric Swalwell: He’s running on gun control.
Marianne Williamson: She’s calling for a “moral and spiritual awakening.”
Andrew Yang: He wants to give every citizen $1,000 a month — a universal basic income — to combat job replacement from automation.
Go to AXIOS and their coverage of the Dem candidates…..pick your favorite and check out if they have the “grit” to be the nominee….
Go deeper: A closer look at Joe Biden, Bernie Sanders, Beto O’Rourke, Kamala Harris, Pete Buttigieg, Elizabeth Warren, Cory Booker, Amy Klobuchar, Michael Bennet, Julián Castro, John Hickenlooper, John Delaney, Tulsi Gabbard, Kirsten Gillibrand, Jay Inslee, Wayne Messam, Seth Moulton, Tim Ryan, Eric Swalwell, Marianne Williamson, and Andrew Yang.
As typical candidates come and go in favor with the media…….
Mayor Pete once the darling of the media seems to losing his allure…..but let’s say he wins the nomination the first question that will be asked (not by me) is America ready for a gay president?
A new Quinnipiac University poll finds that 70% of voters (including 86% of Democrats and independents who lean Democratic) say they are open to electing a gay president.
The same poll also discovered, however, that only 36% of voters (including 40% of Democrats and independents who lean Democratic) think the United States is ready to elect a gay president.
https://www.cnn.com/2019/05/04/politics/poll-of-the-week-gay-president/index.html
DO NOT ALLOW THE MEDIA TO PICK YOUR CANDIDATE!
Then VOTE!
By loboteroin Elections, Political Theory, Politics, Professor's Classroom 13 May 2019 696 Words3 Comments
Slice And Dice Death
Recently there has been a rise in civilian deaths….both reported and those that are hidden from the light…..and it is not limited to one conflict or another it is across the spectrum in our War on Terror…..
“There is no military solution” is an often-heard saying since the “global war on terror” began almost 18 years ago.
We need political solutions to the military conflicts we’ve embroiled ourselves in over the last two decades, most policymakers agree. But in the meantime, the last three administrations have sent in the military to pave the way for a political solution—and have kept them there, allegedly to protect civilians from the Taliban in Afghanistan, ISIS in Syria and al-Shabab in Somalia, among other militant groups.
Yet all too often, these civilians become casualties of the very military forces Washington supposedly deployed to protect them.
A series of new reports document an alarming escalation of civilian casualties caused by U.S. operations in Syria, Afghanistan and Somalia — and with it, a pattern of U.S. denial about the scale of the problem. The result is a global war on terror that persists in killing and injuring civilians—including children—in ever rising numbers.
https://www.commondreams.org/views/2019/05/10/alarming-rise-civilian-deaths-war-terror
The Pentagon has come up with a solution to the alarming rise in civilian deaths……a new missile!
Ever heard of a missile that doesn’t explode? That, the Wall Street Journal reports, is a key feature of a secret weapon adapted by the US military. It’s a modified version of a Hellfire missile that hits pinpoint targets but doesn’t explode on impact, meaning reduced damage and less risk of civilian casualties. The weapon, which the Journal likens to a “speeding anvil” falling out of the sky, is known as R9X. But it also has a nickname, “the flying Ginsu,” inspired by its hidden ring of six blades, which emerges just before impact and shreds anything it meets. The missile was in development as early as 2011—a similar weapon was reportedly considered in the plot to kill Osama bin Laden—but so far the Journal has found only two instances in which it’s been used.
Essentially, the weapon is employed when a regular airstrike on a high-value target would pose a risk to innocent bystanders. Aware that the US would want to avoid civilian casualties, terrorists routinely hide in places with women and children. With the R9X, the US can minimize the risk. After the CIA used the R9X to kill an al-Qaeda terrorist traveling by car in Syria in 2017, for example, photos showed a large hole in the vehicle’s roof, along with some cracks in the windshield. Otherwise, the exterior of the car appeared in pretty good shape. Gizmodo notes rumors have been swirling about a secret weapon since that time.
(antiwar.com)
If you would like to read more……https://www.businessinsider.com/us-has-a-secret-knife-missile-to-kill-terrorists-not-civilians-2019-5
The key to the claim is the term “minimize” civilian deaths…..then they, the civilians, are still at risk just a lower risk than say a Hellfire…..
Sorry I am still not impressed….it is still an implement of destruction that will continue the killing of civilians but at a lower rate (does anyone see how silly that sounds?)
By loboteroin Foreign policy, International Situations, Military, Terrorism, War 13 May 2019 546 Words4 Comments
Middle East, As Bad As It Ever Was.
When the Middle East is mentioned most Americans just shake their heads and make some indistinguishable sounds……
It all began with the Sykes-Picot Agreement……https://wwi.lib.byu.edu/index.php/Sykes-Picot_Agreement ……..and but it was the Balfour Declaration that made most of the problems today…..a short but sweet statement…..
Dear Lord Rothschild,
I have much pleasure in conveying to you, on behalf of His Majesty’s Government, the following declaration of sympathy with Jewish Zionist aspirations which has been submitted to, and approved by, the Cabinet.
“His Majesty’s Government view with favour the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people, and will use their best endeavours to facilitate the achievement of this object, it being clearly understood that nothing shall be done which may prejudice the civil and religious rights of existing non-Jewish communities in Palestine, or the rights and political status enjoyed by Jews in any other country.”
I should be grateful if you would bring this declaration to the knowledge of the Zionist Federation.
And so it begins…….
Fast forward to the desk of FDR…….
There is no question that the Middle East Arab-Israeli-oil situation is one of the world’s most enduring and vexing problems. Almost every economically significant country in the world has a major stake in how this scenario plays out and most countries orient and arrange a large part of their foreign policy and energy strategy with Middle East considerations front and center in their planning.
What if the United States had been presented with the opportunity to circumvent the Mid-East Jewish-Arab-oil crisis before it had a chance to metastasize into the worldwide scourge it is today? The opportunity did, in fact, present itself in 1945. Unfortunately, the United States—under FDR—failed to capitalize on it and thus the world today lives in constant danger caused by the flashpoint of those seemingly unending, unsolvable regional tensions.
The missed opportunity was the result of FDR’s mishandling of his historic meeting with King Abdel Aziz Ibn Saud of Arabia on Great Bitter Lake in the Suez Canal on Feb. 14, 1945. FDR’s actions here essentially created the 70+ year economic and political tensions and conflicts regarding oil that continue to afflict international relationships and define the national security and oil acquisition strategy of virtually every developed country in the world today. Most of the damaging international energy related circumstances in the present-day world were set in motion by FDR’s actions at that meeting.
https://www.realclearhistory.com/articles/2019/04/11/another_fine_mess_in_the_middle_east_431.html
And then there is another view……
But again, the European powers were the ones who actually divided the region that once existed as the Ottoman Empire. After the first World War, the victors went on to partition the large Islamic State into several smaller nations. The problem was not only that there was no natural boundary, such as rivers and mountains, that separated the very similar groups of people, but also the direct and indirect colonization of those states by Britain and France. People who shared a common history, religion, language and culture had to live within those arbitrarily drawn boundaries, and under foreign control. In addition, the British promise to establish a national home for the Jews in Palestine, as well as the free movement of a large number of Jews from Europe to the region, further infuriated the Arab people. The Jews were seen as rivals who took Arab’s land and jobs.
At this point, the United States had a benevolent image in the Middle East, because it had restrained itself from interfering in the region in the name of national and economic interests. Instead, the U.S. entered the region as a diplomatic ally with several lucrative characteristics, such as industrialization, economic expansion and western systems of market and economy. The Middle Eastern nations believed these would improve their lives. The Arab nations saw hope in the United States in the aftermath of WWI and leading into WWII.
https://www.theodysseyonline.com/the-middle-east-mess
Yada….Yada…..and then there is Donald Trump and he had/has a plan (put a invoice his son-in-law in charge of finding a Middle East peace)……with tht said what is Our Beloved Supreme Leader’s “Big” plan?
That’s not to say their respective policies are remotely the same. Beneath these continuities lie significant shifts in emphasis that, unless corrected, risk doing serious damage to America’s interests and position. As Trump embarks on his first trip to the Middle East as president and the region wonders what to expect, I see four trends—one encouraging, and three worrying—that have emerged:
https://newrepublic.com/article/142764/know-donald-trumps-middle-east-policy
https://warontherocks.com/2017/04/trumps-middle-east-policies-boorish-and-belligerent-but-surprisingly-normal/
There are some that think they have the answer to a region that has few true answers……(I do not agree with most of this op-ed)…..
This is how the United States can pursue its interests in the Middle East and make the region safer for America and its allies.
The United States is a global power with global interests and responsibilities. Protecting these interests hinges on access to the commons (sea, space, air, cyberspace) and stability in Europe, the Middle East and the Indo-Pacific region (the great trading centers).
In some ways the Middle East is the most important of these three regions. It is the intersection of commercial air and sea travel between the other key regions. It is a global energy hub, a lynchpin of international financial networks and a crossroads for human migration. Much of what is good (and evil) in the world is based in the Middle East or passes through it.
https://nationalinterest.org/feature/5-sustainable-solutions-middle-east-security-54282
One of the most out there solutions was one that the MSM overlooked to focus on something else……Trump will ask the Saudis to pay for his “deal of the Century”……
For an administration not exactly famed for strategic patience and deliberative policymaking, President Trump’s push for an impending Middle East “deal of the century” could be a notable outlier.
Trump administration officials have spent the past two years quietly pursuing back-channel communications with wealthy Gulf Arab powers and Palestinian business leaders in preparation for the much-anticipated rollout of a major peace plan aimed at resolving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict once and for all.
https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2019/apr/23/trump-asks-saudi-arabia-pay-middle-east-peace-deal/
Just a short look at what is the Middle East and why it is such a complicated mess.
By loboteroin Foreign policy, History, International Situations, News, Professor's Classroom 13 May 2019 1,088 Words2 Comments
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2019 - Luxurylaunches.com
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Madeleine Davies
Typewriters and latch-keys
Archive for September, 2015|Monthly archive page
A Syrian Love Story: review
In Uncategorized on September 20, 2015 at 7:48 pm
In a Q&A after the screening of A Syrian Love Story in Crouch End, the host proposed to director Sean McAllister that it was “not exactly Mills and Boon”.
She’s right; but the film, five years in the making, is unmistakeably a love story. Jealousy, nostalgia, and passion are all shown in unsparing close-up – the camera is generally inches from the subjects’ faces – in this account of a marriage in crisis, for which the tragic failure of the Syrian uprising is the extraordinary backdrop.
McAllister met Amer Daoud, a Palestinian freedom fighter, in Damascus in 2008. Unlike those journalists who responded to the Syrian government’s overtures by printing puff pieces, he asked awkward questions about the detention of political prisoners. Daoud suggested he tell the story of his wife, Raghda Hasan, an Alawite (like President Bashar al Assad) but also a dissident. She was in prison, at the time, and Daoud was raising their children, including three-year-old Bob, alone.
Bob, 3, talks to his mother, in prison
Over the course of the subsequent years, McAllister filmed the family on a small camera purchased from a shop in Damascus, capturing Hasan’s release in 2011 during an amnesty prompted by the Syrian uprising, through to their exile to Lebanon, and, eventually, safety in Paris. He has also preserved evidence of a marriage under huge strain: a wife told she cannot be “both Che Guevara and a mother” and a father struggling to reconnect with the woman he fell in love with through a hole in a prison wall who has emerged, drawn, from a dungeon. The footage is intimate, occasionally uncomfortably so, filmed in the sparse apartments through which the family move in search of refuge. It’s a complete contrast to documentaries that seek to explain the Middle East through news archive footage and talking heads pontificating in the studio.
It’s extremely illuminating.
Give Me Sex Jesus: thoughts from the UK
As titles go, Give Me Sex Jesus, is pretty tasty clickbait.
The trailer promises “the naked truth…behind life’s touchiest subject” and cuts together shots of a couple devouring an apple together (FALL IMAGERY!), American preachers propounding “biblical norms” and talking heads revealing some very personal truths (“I don’t want to be 35 and a virgin; “I learned to masturbate in the forests of Ohio”).
I watched it on Friday, and really enjoyed it.
Hello! Welcome to my blog. My friend Mike suggested I set this up. He is an expert programmer who knows about things like decent widget frameworks. He also told me that arguments about blogs being egotistical died out about five years ago. Lordy, I hope he’s right. I am a ... Continue reading →
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Paul McCartney Is Scoring The Theater Production Of 'It's A Wonderful Life'
posted by Katrina Nattress - Jul 19, 2019
Paul McCartney is adding something else to his already impressive resume: he's scoring the stage musical adaptation of Frank Capra's 1946 film It's a Wonderful Life. The theater production is slated to premiere at the end of next year, though it has yet to be revealed if it will debut in London, New York, or elsewhere.
This will be the former Beatle's first musical — something he never saw himself working on, until he chatted with theater producer Bill Kenwright.
“Like many of these things, this all started with an email,” McCartney told The Guardian. “Bill had asked if it was something I might be up for. Writing a musical is not something that had ever really appealed to me, but Bill and I met up with [writer] Lee Hall and had a chat and I found myself thinking this could be interesting and fun.”
Hall, who is writing the script, is best known for writing Billy Elliot and this year's Elton John biopic Rocketman.
Kenwright described working with McCartney as "a dream realized." He's praised the demos he's heard, declaring that they have “exceeded expectations … The songs take you somewhere you don’t expect to go. They sound simple – but it’s deceptive. That’s Paul’s genius.”
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Top 5: Mancunian authors
Photo: Chris [email protected] www.chrisboland.com
Written on 18th October 2016 . Posted in Books
www.chrisboland.com
Manchester has produced some of the greatest authors to be found in the UK. With this in mind, I have attempted the impossible and created a list of the most influential Mancunian writers to have graced the city.
5. Mike Harding
First up is Mike Harding, an author who has created some of the funniest writings to have ever come from Manchester. This includes his rib-tickling Killer Budgies, which features not only a host of maniacal birds but also a policeman who thinks he is a cup, and a naked Pope, with this giving you a sense of Harding’s twisted imagination. Through becoming the author of so many equally funny books like this, Harding has come to cement Manchester’s reputation as a city of comedy.
4. Jeff Nuttall
As the number one writer of the underground literature of Manchester, how could the anti-establishment Jeff Nuttall not make it onto our list? With his self-published My Own Mag, Nuttall set the scene for Manchester to become a city of counter-culture that was not interested in the social norm or living up to society’s expectations. If you would like to find out more about Jeff Nuttall, then I highly recommend visiting the John Rylands Library’s exhibition on his works in which you will be able to see some original copies of his magazines.
3. Lemn Sissay
Currently acting as the Chancellor of the University of Manchester, our very own Lemn Sissay is next up on the list. While it may be the wonderfully worded poem on the side of the Hardy’s Well pub that first springs to mind when Sissay is mentioned, he has produced a wealth of beautiful poetry to be explored. From the often brutally honest Rebel Without Applause to the inner-city drama of his Listener poetry collection, there is almost certainly something to engage you within his writings.
2. Elizabeth Gaskell
One of the first writers to turn an inquiring eye towards the suffering of the working classes in Manchester, Elizabeth Gaskell was a must for this list. Through her work Mary Barton, Gaskell delved into the cramped houses of the workers in order to convey the level of their suffering in the industrial conditions of 19th century Manchester. With the worker bee still acting as a potent symbol of Manchester’s status as a working class city, it is a small wonder that Gaskell has remained such a permanent fixture in the collective memory of Manchester.
1. Carol Ann Duffy
At first place, perhaps unsurprisingly, we have Carol Ann Duffy. Acting as our Poet Laureate, and a lecturer in poetry at Manchester Metropolitan University, Duffy has produced some of the greatest works of feminist poetry to ever be conceived. This includes her poetry collection The World’s Wife, in which Duffy systematically gives voice to all of the otherwise silenced women of history, myth and legend. As such, Duffy’s presence in Manchester has reinforced it as a city playing a key role in the ever-growing feminist movement.
Rhys Walker
Tags: authors, books, Carol Ann Duffy, Elizabeth Gaskell, Jeff Nuttall, Lemn Sissay, Manchester, mancunians, Mike Harding, Writers
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>> Home / Media / Digital Filmmaking
professional advice on embracing new technology
Mike Figgis is the director of one of my favourite films, Liebestraum, as well as the much better known Leaving Las Vegas. He’s multi-talented as a director, a musician, and a writer; but like most film directors (most recently David Lynch) he’s now embracing the new possibilities of digital filmmaking. Suddenly, all the laborious paraphernalia of the Hollywood film-making process can be concentrated into a cheap hand-held digital camera that we could buy from Amazon for less than the price of an entry level laptop.
Figgis has taken on the new possibilities that these technological developments have made available. And in this book he’s sharing his reflections on the art of film-making in a way which is addressing both an amateur YouTube enthusiast or a serious film school would-be at the same time.
And none of his advice is theoretical: he’s actually using the new technology in making his own films. It’s not so much a book of practical tips: this is more the philosophy of film-making. But he’s acutely anti-snobbish about using the new equipment available. His emphasis is on the love of your equipment – get to know it, use its features, and don’t imagine your talent is being held back by lack of access to the latest kit.
It’s a terrific insight into the consciousness of a creative person: he thinks out loud concerning the creative process – all the time keeping in mind the practical matters of the medium in which he is working and how much it costs.
As the story progresses from one level of film technology to the next, you can feel his creative hunger coming off the page. Instead of telling camera and lighting technicians what you’re looking for, why not do it all yourself? Which is what he did – even after being enmeshed with Hollywood. Indeed, as he argues, especially after being so. The new technology puts more control into the hands of the director.
He goes into a lot of interesting professional detail on such matters as lighting, camera movement(s) and dealing with actors – on all of which issues it seems he likes being in control, but with a sympathetic respect for the professionalism of others.
I was interested to note that when it got to the point of post-production editing, he dealt with the problem of having so much, in fact too much material – and the solution to this problem is what’s called in the IT world ‘meta-tagging’ – that is, you need to name and log what you’ve got, in order to control the architecture of the final product.
His two final topics are music on soundtracks and film distribution – on both of which he knows whereof he speaks. He’s a qualified music teacher and a former keyboards player with Roxy Music. It was his soundtrack for Liebestraum which first alerted me to the quality of his work. He has lots of ingenious suggestions for independent filmmakers and ideas galore for anybody who is prepared to engage in new digital technology.
It’s a pity the book isn’t illustrated – because from the text it’s quite clear that Figgis makes a detailed record of his work process, and it would have been useful to see a few screenshots of the effects and techniques he’s talking about. But as a guide to the new possibilities of film-making, it’s truly inspirational.
Mike Figgis, Digital Filmmaking, London: Faber, 2007, pp.158, ISBN: 0571226256
More on theory
Filed Under: Media Tagged With: Digital Fimmaking, Film, Media, Open Sources
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Home » Musicians » Steve Hackett
Steve Hackett is renowned as an immensely talented and innovative rock musician. He was lead guitarist with Genesis as part of their classic line up with Gabriel, Collins, Banks and Rutherford, that produced acclaimed albums such as Selling England by the Pound (a favourite of John Lennon). With Steve's extraordinary versatility in both his electric guitar playing and his composing, he involves influences from many genres, including Jazz, World Music and Blues. He is equally adept in his classical albums that include renditions of pieces by composers from Bach to Satie, his own acoustic guitar compositions that have gained the admiration of many, including Yehudi Menuhin, and ambitious guitar/ orchestra albums such as A Midsummer Night's Dream, recorded with the Royal Philharmonic.
With Genesis, Steve's guitar playing produced some of the most memorable moments, from the sensitivity of his acoustic sound on Horizons and Blood on the Rooftopsto the dramatic rock guitar solos of Firth of Fifth and Fountain of Salmacis. As he embarked on his solo career he developed his exceptional range, pushing musical boundaries into exciting areas, inventing new sounds and also techniques such as 'tapping'. His solo career went from strength to strength and the mid eighties not only saw the hit single Cell 151, but also the Steve Hackett and Steve Howe super group GTR, highly successful in America.
After GTR Steve worked further with many renowned musicians such as Paul Carrick, Bonny Tyler, John Wetton and Brian May, who has credited Steve as an early influence. Steve went on to produce his hit album Genesis Revisited. He went even further back to his roots with Blues with a Feeling, whilst continuing to challenge his own 'horizons' with an amazingly eclectic mix of sounds, genres and a sense of the exotic that excites his many followers to this day.
Recent albums have possessed a high level of sophistication, along with an ever-present powerful dynamic, from the dramatic and atmospheric darkness of Darktown and Wild Orchids to the colourful voyage through time and space of To Watch the Storms. 2009's Out Of The Tunnel's Mouth, written and recorded in the midst of domestic and professional upheaval, was released to an overwhelmingly positive response from fans and reviewers alike, many of them proclaiming it his best ever. Hot on the heels of OOTTM was Beyond the Shrouded Horizon released in 2011, which has easily received an equally enthusiastic response. In 2012 Steve collaborated with Chris Squire of Yes on the “Squackett” album A Life Within a Day.
Steve's live electric gigs take his fans on an extraordinary journey drawn from a rich musical heritage. Perennial Genesis favourites such as the mighty Firth Of Fifth sit alongside solo classics, while more recent material, with much of Out Of The Tunnel's Mouth and Beyond the Shrouded Horizon now included, demonstrate that Steve is an artist still at the very top of his game. Supported by some of the best musicians on the planet, Steve's unique guitar work remains the fulcrum on which this challenging and exhilarating show is balanced.
Genesis' induction into the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame in March 2010 stands as a testament to the enduring qualities of their music. Steve has always held a torch for the classic Genesis music. His Genesis Revisited II, a double CD, involves several iconic artists and contains many Genesis favourites. It is due for release in late October 2012 and a Genesis Revisited worldwide tour is planned to follow in 2013... Never one to rest on his laurels, though, Steve continues to blaze a trail with new material and to be an exhilarating and groundbreaking artist.
Steve was born on 12 February 1950 at London University Hospital. Except for an initial period south of the river and a brief time in Vancouver, Canada when he was seven years old, he spent his childhood and teens living in Pimlico, London. It was indeed a golden age of steam, with nearby Battersea Power Station and the trains belching out smoke... In contrast was the colourful excitement of Battersea Funfair, which inspired many of Steve's early dreams.
His brother John was born on 13 March 1955. They enjoyed music together from an early age and both were playing instruments by the time they were in their teens. Both of Steve's parents June and Peter were encouraging with the music and Peter also possessed creative talent as an artist and painter.
Steve experienced the changing face of the sixties first hand in his daily walks along the famous Kings Road to Sloane Grammar School, and he shared a fascination of all the new up and coming bands, as well as the wonder of books with his first girlfriend Barbara. She introduced him to the works of writers like Jean Paul Sartre and Albert Camus. He was heartbroken when they split up, but this didn't stop his hunger for music. He and his friend Jock loved to make the journey to Eel Pie Island for the musical experience of heroes like Peter Green and Paul Butterfield. Later on bands like King Crimson and the Jimmy Hendrix Experience became an inspiration. Through all this time Steve followed his musical path and put regular adverts into Melody Maker, until finally Peter Gabriel picked up on Steve's ad...
Joining Genesis was a turning point for Steve - he was now living the dream. All the band members formed equally important parts of the Genesis story. Steve still loves the guys and the stunning work they created together.
He married Ellen Busse in 1972. They had a son, Oliver in 1974 but they subsequently divorced. It was a difficult time for Steve, but he enjoys a good relationship with Oliver who lives in Germany.
Another challenging time for Steve was when he left Genesis. He had enjoyed his journey with them and had some trepidation about starting out alone, yet he also felt the need to explore his own path. He had many creative ideas that he wanted to develop.
Steve married Brazilian artist and jewellery designer Kim Poor on 14 August 1981. They divorced on 18 May 2007. A court case followed which came to an end in 2010.
Steve married author Jo Lehmann on 4 June 2011. They often write lyrics and music together, which Steve then takes on to the next stage with Roger King. Steve is really proud of his band and team.
Steve's output is particularly prolific these days, as his ideas continue to flourish and grow. He's always found that books have long been a rich source of inspiration and that life itself gives him ideas. He enjoys the experiences of his travels even more than ever as he explores many places with Jo. The moment he sees the Sphinx or a sunset over the Colosseum his notebook is out instantly and the notes start to flow... Show less
Steve Hackett: Wolflight (Extended Edition)
Steve Hackett: Genesis Revisited - Live at the Royal Albert Hall (Limited...
Steve Hackett: Genesis Revisited - Live at Hammersmith
Steve Hackett at Casino du Lac Leamy Theatre
Wild Orchids by John Kelman
Feedback 86/Live Archives-70,80,90s/Darktown by Glenn Astarita
Italian Prog Ensemble Sarastro Blake Release Debut Cd Featuring Members...
Debut Release By UK Prog Band Lifesigns Featuring Guest Appearances By...
Steve Hackett Concerts
Mar6Fri
Mar7Sat
Bergen Performing Arts Center
Mar8Sun
NYCB Theatre at Westbury
Mar13Fri
Scottish Rite Auditorium
Mar19Thu
Variety Playhouse
The Plaza Live
Albums by Steve Hackett
Steve Hackett:...
Wolflight
Embarka Records
Wild Orchids
InsideOut Music America
guitar, electric
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Yes, we can have affordable ‘Medicare for All’ with consumer choice. Here’s how.
Posted on September 19, 2018 by Michael J. Waddell
From https://www.jsonline.com/story/opinion/contributors/2018/09/13/we-can-have-both-medicare-all-and-consumer-choice/1205407002/
Thomas R. Hefty – Published 12:03 p.m. CT Sept. 13, 2018
(Photo: Justin Sullivan, Getty Images)
The election-year debate on health care has begun. Bernie Sanders and liberal Democrats argue for old-fashioned “Medicare for All.” They want a single-payer system.”
Conservatives call the idea “implausible” and the “same old bad idea,” and meantime, Republicans chip away at Obamacare’s weaknesses.
But although partisan rancor prevents serious discussion of alternatives, American health care challenges have not gone away.
Health care is too expensive. Health care costs continue to rise faster than general inflation. Administrative costs are too high. Almost 20 million people still lack health coverage. Families are confused by the overlapping programs and health care options.
The Bernie Sanders Medicare for All plan is a good step, but it’s also imperfect and insufficient. It does reduce administrative cost. It builds on a successful Medicare model, one which enjoys high public confidence. It is a national health care solution, not the current patchwork of state programs. It has a robust administrative program — avoiding the failures of the early days of Obamacare. And it has popular support: In recent surveys, 59% of national respondents favored Medicare for All.
But those surveys did not mention the costs or how to cover them.
Sanders’ costly plan
The Sanders plan of taxpayer-paid single-payer health care will not work for three reasons. It is built on a model of Medicare from a quarter-century ago; Medicare today is different. Medicare in 2018 no longer a single-payer plan — despite the attraction of that political slogan.
Old-fashioned “Medicare for All” ignores the American tradition of health care choices — choice of plan, choice of physician. Obama famously promised, “If you like your health plan; if you like your doctor, you can keep them.” But that wasn’t true with Obamacare. The Sanders plan ignores the lesson of Obamacare — consumer choice matters. Although voters may like Medicare for All, they may not like single-payer.
Both liberal and conservative analyses of the Sanders plan reach the conclusion that taxpayer-funded Medicare for All is simply too expensive. A 2018 conservative Mercatus Institute analysis finds that taxpayer-paid Medicare for All would cost $32 trillion over a decade. An earlier analysis from the liberal Urban Institute found a similiar cost.
The cost of Bernie Sanders’ Medicare for All plan could be as high as $32 trillion. (Photo: Getty Images)
Neither estimate is affordable, given the unpalatable choices for taxpayers — a 35% income tax increase or a 31% boost in payroll taxes from current levels. The Washington Post editorial questioned the Sanders’ math in a recent editorial, “The Cosmically Huge ‘if’ of Medicare for All.”
But there is a tested solution — Medicare Advantage for All. Let consumers buy into Medicare and Medicare Advantage — or if they choose, keep their private coverage.
Medicare, with choices
The name “Medicare Advantage” may be unfamiliar to some. If you ask a recent retiree, they might say, “I have my Medicare with Humana, United Health, Blue Cross or a local HMO.” Even the American Association of Retired Persons offers a Medicare Advantage plan. These are directed and regulated by the federal government but operated by private insurers. It is a national program with competition and consumer choice.
Medicare sounds simple, but it is an alphabet soup of coverages. Part A for hospital coverage is taxpayer funded. Part B is for physicians and is partly funded by taxpayers and partly by premiums; Part B is voluntary. Part C is Medicare Advantage —which must include both Part A and B basic benefits. Part D is voluntary pharmacy coverage — again funded by a mix of taxes and premiums.
For the parts with premiums charged to participants, there is a sliding scale based on income reported to the federal government. There are deductibles and co-payments. To cover the costs, 20% of participants in traditional Medicare also choose to buy a Medi-gap or Medicare Supplement insurance policy.
The federal government has a “star rating” system for all Medicare Advantage plans, giving consumers information to make better choices. Cost containment is built into the competitive plans. Using plan savings, consumers can gain additional benefits, such as vision benefits, dental coverage and wellness plans. Consumers can choose between competing plans — or take traditional Medicare. Or they can switch back if they are unsatisfied.
The practical solution of “Medicare Advantage for All” is to permit younger individuals to buy into the Medicare and Medicare Advantage programs. Employers today can buy into Medicare Advantage plans for retirees; there is an existing sliding scale of premiums based on income. Why not give younger individuals the same choice?
The George W. Bush administration created the Medicare Advantage model in the Medicare Modernization Act of 2003. Medicare recipients are essentially offered a voucher to buy Medicare Advantage coverage — private insurance coverage with benefits equal to or greater than traditional Medicare.
In a recent survey, 75% of respondents favored a public option — giving consumers the right to buy into Medicare and Medicare Advantage. Medicare Advantage enrollment has tripled in a little over a decade with nearly 18 million participants.
Consumers have spoken — the market has spoken. But politicians are not listening.
High marks for Advantage plans
A July 2018 McKinsey research report on Medicare Advantage gave the consumer information system high marks. The report, “Assessing the Medicare Advantage Star Rating System,” found that consumers were using the plan ratings to make better health care choices. It assessed performance over a decade, finding that performance had improved, quality standards had risen, and consumers were making good choices.
The report also found that Medicare Advantage saves money — using competition to create better cost containment — while still satisfying customers. In recent years, Medicare Advantage cost 90% of the traditional fee-for-service Medicare system, according to McKinsey. Insurers use those savings to offer additional benefits to consumers.
Under the Medicare Advantage model of Medicare for All, if consumers wish to continue their individual plan, they can keep it. If employers wish to continue their employer-sponsored plan, they can keep it. Physicians and hospitals can choose to participate —or not.
Medicare Advantage plans have quietly become the most successful healthcare financing innovation since Medicare itself. Without notice by the pundits, one-third of recipients have chosen a Medicare Advantage Plan over traditional Medicare. In Wisconsin, 40% of Medicare recipients — more than 400,000 individuals — have chosen Medicare Advantage plans.
Proponents of Medicare for All — of a single-payer plan — have overlooked the success of Medicare Advantage. The Sanders single-payer plan would force more than 400,000 Medicare Advantage participants in Wisconsin to change health plans again. In six states, more than 40% of Medicare recipients are enrolled in Medicare Advantage programs.
In only three states is Medicare Advantage enrollment less than 10%. One of those is Vermont, Bernie Sander’s home state, which may explain his failure to consider the consumer choice enjoyed in other states.
Similar to the choices offered to consumers, physicians can decide whether to participate in Medicare Advantage plans. Both consumers and medical professionals have a choice. They can opt-out, going back to traditional Medicare or going back to the private health insurance market or employer-sponsored plans.
The Medicare Advantage program is market tested. It is administratively robust and federally protected. Consumer confidence in the program is high. It saves money through competition.
Why is this choice so difficult? Because of differing political philosophies and histories.
Medicare was a Democratic idea, passed under President Lyndon B. Johnson in 1965. Medicare Advantage was a Republican idea, passed under President George W. Bush in 2003 in a cliffhanger congressional vote. Both were political compromises. The entire Part A and Part B structure of the original Medicare program — Part A government funded and Part B voluntary and participant funded — took ideas from both political parties. Part C of Medicare brought the Republican idea of consumer choice. Part D of Medicare brought prescription drug coverage — an idea first championed by Democrats. Parts C and D were passed together in 2003.
In the current political environment, perhaps Medicare Advantage for All should be called the Bush-Sanders Plan. It is a comprehensive national program — something Sanders and liberal Democrats want — combined with a buy-in program that includes consumer and physician choice and the competitive market efficiency promoted by Bush and Republicans.
Health care is about making people’s lives better — not about scoring political points.
Thomas R. Hefty is the retired chief executive of Blue Cross Blue Shield United of Wisconsin.
The ‘Zombie Gene’ That May Protect Elephants From Cancer
Posted on August 14, 2018 August 14, 2018 by Michael J. Waddell
From https://www.nytimes.com/2018/08/14/science/the-zombie-gene-that-may-protect-elephants-from-cancer.html:
Elephants ought to get a lot of cancer. They’re huge animals, weighing as much as eight tons. It takes a lot of cells to make up that much elephant.
All of those cells arose from a single fertilized egg, and each time a cell divides, there’s a chance that it will gain a mutation — one that may lead to cancer.
Strangely, however, elephants aren’t more prone to cancer than smaller animals. Some research even suggests they get less cancer than humans do.
On Tuesday, a team of researchers reported what may be a partial solution to that mystery: Elephants protect themselves with a unique gene that aggressively kills off cells whose DNA has been damaged.
Somewhere in the course of evolution, the gene had become dormant. But somehow it was resurrected, a bit of zombie DNA that has proved particularly useful.
Vincent J. Lynch, an evolutionary biologist at the University of Chicago and a co-author of the paper, published in Cell Reports, said that understanding how elephants fight cancer may provide inspiration for developing new drugs.
“It might tell us something fundamental about cancer as a process. And if we’re lucky, it might tell us something about how to treat human disease,” Dr. Lynch said.
Scientists have puzzled over cancer, or the lack thereof, in big animals since the 1970s. In recent years, some researchers have started carrying out detailed studies of the genes and cells of these species, searching for unexpected strategies for fighting the disease.
Some of the first research focused on a well-studied anticancer gene called p53. It makes a protein that can sense when DNA gets damaged. In response, the protein switches on a number of other genes.
A cell may respond by repairing its broken genes, or it may commit suicide, so that its descendants will not have the chance to gain even more mutations.
In 2015, Dr. Lynch and his colleagues discovered that elephants have evolved unusual p53 genes. While we only have one copy of the gene, elephants have 20 copies. Researchers at the University of Utah independently made the same discovery.
Both teams observed that the elephant’s swarm of p53 genes responds aggressively to DNA damage. Their bodies don’t bother with repairing cells — they only orchestrate the damaged cell’s death.
Dr. Lynch and his colleagues continued their search for cancer-fighting genes, and they soon encountered another one, called LIF6, that only elephants seem to possess.
In response to DNA damage, p53 proteins in elephants switch on LIF6. The cell makes LIF6 proteins, which then wreak havoc.
Dr. Lynch’s experiments indicate that LIF6 proteins make their way to the cell’s tiny fuel-generating factories, called mitochondria.
The proteins pry open holes in the mitochondria, allowing molecules to pour out. The molecules from mitochondria are toxic, causing the cell to die.
“This adds an important piece to the puzzle,” said Dr. Joshua D. Schiffman, a pediatric oncologist at the Huntsman Cancer Institute at the University of Utah who has also studied cancer in elephants.
More experiments are needed to confirm that LIF6 works the way Dr. Lynch and his colleagues propose, Dr. Schiffman added. “As a start, I think this is fantastic,” he said.
LIF6 has a bizarre evolutionary history, as it turns out.
All mammals carry a similar gene, simply called LIF. In our own cells, it performs several different jobs, such as sending signals from one cell to another. But almost all mammals — ourselves included — have only one copy.
The only exceptions to that rule are elephants and their close relatives, such as manatees, Dr. Lynch and his colleagues found. These mammals have several copies of LIF; elephants have ten.
These copies arose thanks to sloppy mutations in the ancestors of manatees and elephants more than 80 million years ago.
These newer copies of the original LIF gene lack a stretch of DNA that acts as an on-off switch. As a result, the genes could not make their proteins. (Humans also carry thousands of copies of so-called pseudogenes.)
After the ancestors of elephants evolved ten LIF genes, however, something remarkable happened: One of these dead genes came back to life. That gene is LIF6.
Somewhere in the course of elephant evolution, a cellular mutation inserted a genetic switch next to LIF6, enabling the gene to be activated by p53. The resurrected gene now made a protein that could do something new: attack mitochondria and kill damaged cells.
To find out when the LIF6 gene first came back to life, the researchers took a close looks at DNA retrieved from fossils.
Mastodons and mammoths also carried LIF6. Scientists estimate that they shared a common ancestor with modern elephants that lived 26 million years ago.
Dr. Lynch speculated that LIF6 came back to life at the same time that the ancestors of living elephants evolved extra copies of p53. As they developed more powerful defenses against cancer, the animals could begin reaching their enormous sizes.
Elephants likely evolved other new genes that follow p53’s orders, Dr. Lynch predicted. He also suspects that elephants have also evolved ways to fight cancer that are separate from p53 altogether.
“I think it’s all of the above,” he said. “There are lots of stories like LIF6 in the elephant genome, and I want to know them all.”
Donald Trump has no earthly clue about how real people buy groceries
Posted on August 2, 2018 by Michael J. Waddell
https://www.cnn.com/2018/08/01/opinions/trump-has-no-earthly-clue-about-how-everyday-people-live-psaki/index.html
Everything you need to know about personal finance
Posted on April 28, 2018 April 28, 2018 by Michael J. Waddell
9 Simple Money Rules All On 1 Index Card
There are countless personal finance books, blogs and articles that offer advice on investing, savings, retirement and taxes.
You could read all those books.
Or, you can listen to this University of Chicago social scientist.
His name is Harold Pollack, and when it comes to investment advice, he believes that you can fit all the investment advice you’ll ever need on a single index card.
In 2013, Pollack interviewed personal finance writer Helaine Olen about her book, Pound Foolish. During their online video chat, Pollack shared his views on personal finance advice and what Pollack calls the “financial industry’s most basic dilemma.”
“[The best personal finance advice] can fit on a 3-by-5 index card, and is available for free in the library,” Pollack said during the interview. “So, if you’re paying someone for advice, almost by definition, you’re probably getting the wrong advice because the correct advice is so straightforward.”
Pollack’s comment was not intended to be the centerpiece of the interview. If anything, it was a one-off comment and he did not even elaborate on the specific financial advice.
After Pollack posted the video, he started receiving emails asking where to find this index card and what was the advice.
The problem: the index card didn’t exist.
So, Pollack grabbed an index card from his daughter, wrote several personal finance principles, snapped a photo with his phone and posted it online. The actual index card was 4-by-6 inches (rather than 3-by-5).
The result: the photo went viral.
Posted on December 16, 2017 June 19, 2018 by Michael J. Waddell
How 15 Tech Companies, Sites and Gadgets Got Their Names
Posted on August 21, 2012 April 15, 2018 by Michael J. Waddell
The idea of a video phone has been around for decades. While there have been a handful of real video phones, they were never widely available for the average Joe. Then, a company with a strange name harnessed the power of the internet and the ever-growing ubiquity of webcams to bring that dream to the masses. But what does the name Skype have to do with talking to other people online?
Skype is a peer-to-peer communication technology, meaning one person connects to another person, via the Skype service. Of course to the average person, the connection is happening in a mysterious, ethereal realm. So when they were developing the name, they hit upon the rather descriptive “Sky peer-to-peer,” which was shortened to “Skyper.” However, when they went to register the web address for their new product, skyper.com and the other .something variations were already taken. So, they decided to try dropping the “r” and, sure enough, skype.com was available. In hindsight, it worked out for the best – saying you’re “Skypering” with your friend sounds a bit clumsy.
Would President Obama have fought so hard to keep his “LeapFrog” phone? Because the phone was leaps and bounds over everything else on the market, this was one of the names considered for the BlackBerry. Another possibility was “Strawberry,” because the tiny keys resembled seeds. But when someone felt the word “straw” sounded too slow, another berry was suggested. For anyone addicted to their BlackBerry, the origins of the nickname “CrackBerry” should need no explanation. More possible names were mentioned in a 2011 article in The New Yorker: EasyMail, MegaMail and ProMail.
One of the fastest-growing websites around, Reddit was started in 2004 by then-college students Steve Huffman and Alexis Ohanian. The site allows community members to submit links to online content, which is then voted up or down to decide which submissions are most worthy of being read by everyone else.
The name Reddit is little more than a play on the phrase “read it,” as in, “I read it online.” But, as one member of the site (also known as a “redditor”) pointed out, there is a Latin parallel to the site’s name that turned out to be a pretty cool coincidence. One loose translation of “reddit” is “render,” which can mean “to submit for consideration or approval,” which is exactly what people do on the site. [See Also:Our 2008 interview with Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian]
4. eBay
Whether you’re cleaning out the attic or looking for a deal on your next must-have gadget, there’s a good chance you’re going to wander over to eBay. But where did this powerhouse of e-commerce come from? And what the heck does that name mean, anyway?
Oddly enough, there’s actually a legend surrounding the founding of eBay. For a while, it was widely believed that, in 1995, then-28-year old software developer Pierre Omidyar created a website called AuctionWeb just so that his fiancee could buy and sell collectible PEZ dispensers. While the PEZ part isn’t true – Omidyar was simply looking for a way to make something cool online – it does make for a good story. What’s not legend, though, is that the first item sold on eBay was anything but glamorous – a broken laser pointer. Omidyar only intended the laser pointer listing to be a test, but was surprised to find that someone actually bought it — according to legend, someone who collected broken laser pointers.
Thinking he might be on to something, Omidyar started working in earnest on the program. While contemplating names for the site, he initially planned to use the name of his computer consulting company, Echo Bay. However, echobay.com was already taken (and still is). So Omidyar shortened the name to “ebay” and bought the web address we all know and love.
5. Kindle
E-readers have really hit the mainstream in the last couple of years, with the strangely named Kindle from Amazon leading the charge. The name is not meant to be a dig at paper books (as in “kindling” for a fire, now that e-books are so common). The company says the name refers to an intellectual fire of new ideas that could spread to readers all over the world who now have quick and easy access to the vast digital library at Amazon.
6. Woot
Since 2004, Woot has offered a new item every night at midnight to devoted fans, known as Wooters, who obsessively check Woot’s sites to buy everything from computers to flashlights to a “Bag of Crap” (BOC)—a coveted, mystery grab bag that is often sold out within minutes of its unveiling.
If you’re at all familiar with internet culture, you’ll know that “woot” is also an expression of excitement, sometimes spelled “w00t.” According to Matt Rutledge, Founder/CEO of Woot.com, that is where the company got its name, but it goes a bit deeper than that.
“The company Woot was designed from the ground up to fit that name and adapt itself as a public ’employee store’ type of liquidation retailer,” Rutledge said. “What type of store would you load up and say “w00t!” to? Answer…that would be what we built and strive every day to reach.”
So Woot is named after “w00t,” but where does “w00t” come from? That’s actually a bit of a mystery. Some believe it first appeared in the mid-90s, adopted from the songs “Whoomp! (There It Is!)” and “Whoot! There It Is!” Others define it as the acronym, “We Owned the Other Team,” originating as a victory cry for online gamers. Still others say it comes from an old hacker term used whenever someone has gained full, or “root,” access to a server, exclaiming “w00t! I have root!”
Whatever the origin, there are a few important distinctions between “w00t!” and “Woot.” The company name does not have the zeros replacing the Os, and the exclamation point is only used in the logo or when there is genuine cause for excitement.
Founded in 2005, the online marketplace Etsy has amassed over seven million registered users and saw revenues of just over $300 million in 2010. And while the name is catchy, many have often asked what it means.
For a while, the company was pretty tight-lipped about the origin, leaving users to come up with their own acronyms or explanations. However, in a January 2010 interview for Reader’s Digest, founder Rob Kalin finally revealed the secret:
“I wanted a nonsense word because I wanted to build the brand from scratch. I was watching Fellini’s 8 ½ and writing down what I was hearing. In Italian, you say ‘etsi’ a lot. It means ‘oh, yes.’ And in Latin, it means ‘and if.'”
8. Bing
When Microsoft was developing the name for their new search engine, they wanted something that was a single syllable, memorable, and easy to spell. Of course once they got into the naming process, there were other things to consider as well. For example, one idea—“Bang”—was rejected because you couldn’t make a verb out of it without sounding, well, inappropriate. (“What other movies has Kathy Bates been in?” “I don’t know. Bang her and find out!”)
So the marketers decided to put their money on “Bing.” Not only was it a single syllable, easy to spell, and easy to remember, it also sounded like “Bingo,” which is usually said when you’ve found what you’re looking for. The name also reminded people of the moment an idea is hatched, sort of like when that little light bulb goes off over a cartoon character’s head. You hear a “Bing,” which is what Microsoft hopes will happen when you use their website. Even better, in China, the website is called bì yìng, which translated means, “very certain to answer.” But Bing’s detractors are quick to suggest that the name is really an acronym: Bing Is Not Google.
9. TiVo
Can you imagine if, instead of “TiVo-ing” the latest episode of Lost, you were “Bongo-ing” it? “Bongo” and “Lasso” are just two of the 800 possible names the marketing folks kicked around before settling on TiVo. The final name was cobbled together from “TV” and the engineering acronym “I/O,” which stands for “input/output.” Little did they know their noun would become a verb and their oddly-named invention would forever change the way people watch television.
10. Bluetooth
Despite the lack of dignity displayed by people who shout into their Bluetooth headsets wherever they go, the name of the device actually has a rather regal origin. In the 10th Century, Danish King Harald Blatand was able to unite warring factions in Norway, Sweden, and Denmark under one banner. Similarly, the developers of the Bluetooth signal wanted to unite many different forms of technology — cars, computers, and mobile phones — under one communications network. So when they were coming up with a name, they went with the English translation of the Danish king’s last name, “Bluetooth.”
11. Hulu
Hulu means many things to many people. To some, it’s a great online resource for watching their favorite TV shows and movies. But to a native Hawaiian, it means “hair.” To someone who speaks Swahili, it means “cease.” To an Indonesian, it means “butt.” While these translations are accurate, the folks behind naming hulu.com were inspired by a couple of Mandarin Chinese definitions instead ““ “interactive recording” and “a hollowed-out gourd used to hold precious things.” Despite this often misunderstood word, the website is rapidly becoming one of the biggest names in streaming video. Well, except in Indonesia…
12. Nintendo Wii
Although the off-color jokes almost write themselves, Nintendo had other ideas when they named their latest video game system. First of all, the word is pronounced “we,” which emphasizes the social concept that Nintendo envisioned for the console. The name is also universal, without any direct translation into any particular language, reinforcing that all-inclusive idea and avoiding any Hulu-like situations. They even liked the double-i spelling because it looks like two people standing side-by-side. The name was not popular at first, but the concept obviously caught on, because Americans have purchased over 20 million Wiis since its debut in 2006, making it one of the most successful video game systems ever.
13. Wikipedia
While the origin of the second half of the name might seem rather obvious, the first half is still a mystery to many. “Wiki” is used to describe any website content that is specifically designed to be edited by its users. The name was first coined by Ward Cunningham to describe software he wrote back in 1994 that was meant to speed up the communication process between computer programmers. He borrowed the word from the Hawaiian language, where it means “fast”, after hearing it in the Honolulu airport when an employee told him to take the “Wiki Wiki Shuttle” between terminals. Many people mistakenly believe Wiki is an acronym for “What I Know Is.” However, that definition was actually applied to the word after the fact, making it instead a backronym (which is now my new favorite word).
14. Asus Computers
Netbook computers are the hottest gadget out there, with around 14 million of the cheap little laptops sold in 2008. One of the big names in netbook production is the Taiwanese computer company, Asus, which gets its name from the winged horse of Greek mythology, Pegasus. But if you took a quick glance at the phone book, “Pegasus” wouldn’t have been too high in the directory of computer companies. So, to increase their visibility in alphabetical lists, they dropped the first three letters of their name. It was an unusual strategy, but apparently it worked.
15. Prius
While developing the world’s first mass-produced hybrid vehicle, Toyota believed the Prius was going to be the predecessor of the cars of the future. So to name their groundbreaking car, they turned to the Latin word, “prius,” meaning “[to go] before,” the root of our modern word “prior.” And with the growing popularity of hybrid vehicles, it appears they were right about the Prius’ legacy. What they couldn’t have predicted, though, was the controversy the name would create when people want to refer to more than one of the cars. Many think the plural is “Prii”; others believe it should be “Priuses.” The official word from Toyota used to be that there is no plural form, it’s just “Prius” (sort of like “moose”). That was until 2011, when an online poll crowned “Prii” the official plural. But really, I’m sure they really don’t care what you call them if you’re buying two or more.
Metacrap (or Why The Semantic Web Is a Pipe-Dream)
I read a couple of journal articles this afternoon on “the coming Semantic Web meta-utopia.” After I stopped laughing, I re-read Cory Doctorow’s piece from 2001 to see if all of his “insurmountable obstacles” were still relevant…. They are.
Metacrap (or Why The Semantic Web Is a Pipe-Dream) [PDF]
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Balfour anniversary drives a wedge into British consensus on Israel
CultureOpinion
Robert Cohen on October 24, 2017 28 Comments
Arthur Balfour, who as Britain's Foreign Secretary in 1917 issued the Balfour Declaration to Lord Rothschild
This past week Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn snubbed a dinner invitation from the Jewish Leadership Council while Jonathan Arkush, President of the Board of Deputies of British Jews, sent an angry email to the UK Ambassador to the United Nations.
Arthur Balfour and his infamous Declaration are to blame for both incidents.
It doesn’t sound like much to get worked up about. But you should do. As the Balfour centenary year approaches its climax on 2 November, we’re witnessing in Britain the fracturing of decades of mainstream political consensus over Israel and the gradual isolation of the Jewish communal leadership as it becomes ever more intolerant of Palestinian solidarity.
Three weeks ago at the annual Labour Party conference, Corbyn’s biggest applause line was not about Brexit or austerity but for this:
“Let’s give real support to end the oppression of the Palestinian people, the 50-year occupation and illegal settlement expansion and move to a genuine two-state solution of the Israel-Palestine conflict.”
It wasn’t only because the 4,000 party members in the hall endorsed the sentiment that they applauded for so long. It was because they were fed up with the intimidation from the Israel lobby in the UK that attempts to turn every expression of Palestinian solidarity into an investigation about antisemitism. See Jamie Stern-Weiner for a forensic take-down of the most recent attempt to make Labour toxic on this issue.
Hardly surprising
Corbyn has been a Patron of the Palestine Solidarity Campaign for many years. So it was hardly surprising that he refused the JLC invitation to celebrate Balfour when Palestinians view the document as an historic betrayal of their rights. It would have been astonishing if the Labour leader had said “yes”. And the JLC would have known that.
That didn’t stop the JLC Chair, Jonathan Goldstein, from using the dinner refusal to accuse Corbyn of more anti-Jewish sentiment. But that was likely the plan all along.
“I do think it will not have been amiss for Mr Corbyn to understand that the Jewish community will have taken great heart and great comfort for seeing him attend such an event because it recognises the right of Israel to exist.”
You can be sure though that Tony Blair or Gordon Brown would have accepted the invite if either of them had still been leading the Labour Party today. So times have certainly changed.
The Board gets mad but not even
Meanwhile, over at the Board of Deputies, there’s been plenty of pointless bashing and feigned upset going on too in the last few days.
The whole story turns on a tweet sent by a member of the UK’s UN Mission in New York which said:
Let us remember, there are 2 halves of #Balfour, 2nd of which has not been fulfilled. There is unfinished business. @AmbassadorAllen #Israel pic.twitter.com/BoAXOcsKdz
— UKUN_NewYork (@UKUN_NewYork) October 18, 2017
“Let us remember, there are 2 halves of #Balfour, 2nd of which has not been fulfilled. There is unfinished business. @AmbassadorAllen #Israel”
Whoever composed and sent the tweet was referring to the second half of the Balfour Declaration which follows the promise of a Jewish “national home” with this reassurance:
“… it being clearly understood that nothing shall be done which may prejudice the civil and religious rights of existing non-Jewish communities in Palestine…”
The “existing non-Jewish communities” were of course the 90% plus indigenous Arabs living in Palestine who were not considered even worthy of the slightest consultation on the matter.
Also worth noting is that this anonymous majority of non-Jews were only being promised “civil and religious rights” while the Jews were being promised national and political rights.
President Arkush was furious though. He wasted no time in dashing off an apoplectic email rebuking the UK Ambassador to the UN, Matthew Rycroft, and conveying his “deep disappointment”. Arkush described the tweet as: “unworthy, hostile, unbalanced, negative and evidently intended as criticism of the State of Israel”.
It’s worth a moment to examine Arkush’s tweet critique because it turns out that: “unworthy, hostile, unbalanced, negative” is a better description of the Board President than the UK’s Mission to New York.
The standard Zionist history lesson
Arkush is keen to give Ambassador Rycroft the standard Zionist history lesson in which all blame for the last 100 years of conflict rests squarely, and exclusively, with the intransigent and rejectionist Palestinians.
“First, the ‘civil and religious rights of all existing non-Jewish communities in [former] Palestine’ (the terms used in the Balfour Declaration) are fully protected.”
Well, that’s hardly true in the 60% of the West Bank under total Israeli control for the last 50 years where the lives of Palestinians are administered under an apartheid regime. Nor can it be true for the 1.8m Gazans besieged by Israel by land, sea and air. And while the Palestinian citizens of Israel itself (20% of the population) have freedom of movement and democratic voting rights, they are still discriminated against in a host of other ways.
Arkush attempts another line of attack:
“Secondly, the United Nations offered the partition of Palestine between the Jewish and Arab communities more than once. The Jewish community accepted, the Arabs rejected it outright.”
But why would the Palestinians have voluntarily offered to partition their land when they were still the majority in numbers and ownership but were being offered less than half the territory?
Arkush tries again:
“Thirdly, the Balfour Declaration was no more or no less than a British Government expression of sympathy. It came 30 years before the UN vote to establish a Jewish homeland. If an Arab or Palestinian homeland was not established, that cannot be the fault of Israel, which did not exist, but would be a criticism of either the international community, or more fairly the Arab community who repeatedly rejected the notion of establishing their own country.”
But the original tweet (if you can remember that far back) doesn’t mention Israel at all. It simply talks about “unfinished business”. The responsibility to fix this does not rest solely with Israel or the Palestinians. The problem, as Arkush admits, was created internationally. It will need to be solved internationally too. And if the Balfour Declaration was nothing more than an “expression of sympathy,” why has its celebration become the touchstone of support for Israel and criticism of it a mark of antisemitism?
Arkush then blames the Palestinians for all on-going rejection and violence.
“At Camp David the PLO was offered recognition of a Palestinian state on 95% of the West Bank. Yasser Arafat rejected it and responded by starting a cycle of violence which continues to this day.”
Much has been written about the so-called “generous offer” made to Arafat at Camp David in 2000. It was no such thing. Check it out if you want to know how to challenge this perennial distortion of recent history.
Hypocrisy or accuracy?
Finally, Arkush shows what’s really bothering him.
It’s the mismatch in attitudes between the British Conservative government, on whom he can rely on for support to Israel, and the career diplomats in New York who actually understand what’s gone on and have studied a bit of history and read the occasional book on the subject.
“… the tweet is completely inconsistent with the United Kingdom’s declared policy to mark, commemorate and celebrate the Balfour Declaration (all terms used by the Prime Minister and other Ministers in recent weeks). In just a fortnight’s time a commemorative dinner is to take place to be attended by the Prime Minister and Prime Minister Netanyahu. It is deeply unattractive for the UK’s Mission to the UN to strike a critical note and exposes the UK Government to a charge of hypocrisy.”
Well, President Arkush, God forbid anyone should be leaving themselves open to a charge of hypocrisy.
The problem for our Jewish leaders in the UK is that they have put all their Israeli eggs into one Conservative shaped basket. And the current chaos of Brexit negotiations hardly makes the Tories look like the ‘natural party of government’.
However, in truth our Jewish leadership’s mistake goes back much further. Signing up to be the puppets of the State of Israel’s Foreign Ministry is where it all went wrong.
The JLC, the Board, and indeed the Chief Rabbi, now look like nothing more than local adjuncts to the Israeli Embassy. Years ago they should, and could, have taken on the role of critical friend to Israel and developed a nuanced Jewish diaspora position that held Israel to account for its excesses and campaigned for a genuine 2-state solution. But instead they opted to be local sub-contractors for Israeli propaganda. And now it’s too late to turn back.
A landmark year
So the Balfour anniversary year is turning out to be more revealing and significant than I imagined 12 months ago.
At a national political level there is now no agreement over Israel at Westminster.
Meanwhile the formal Jewish leadership in the UK are painting themselves into a blue and white corner and looking ever more out of touch with a general public which is beginning to understand that Israel/Palestine is a conflict about human rights and not about terrorism. As for bullying national politicians and career diplomats over Israel that does not look like smart communal politics and certainly nothing like the Jewish tradition championing justice and compassion.
The final two weeks of the Balfour anniversary year will show up further divisions on Israel across British public life. There are numerous speeches, rallies, marches, celebrations and protests planned across the country. They will prove that Britain no longer has a consensus on Israel.
This article was originally published by Patheos here on October 22, 2017.
Robert Cohen
Cohen is a British writer. He blogs at Micah's Paradigm Shift. http://micahsparadigmshift.blogspot.co.uk/
Other posts by Robert Cohen.
annie on October 24, 2017, 1:40 pm
love it. things are heating up.
bintbiba on October 26, 2017, 10:44 am
Yup annie !
About time, too !!
Brewer on October 24, 2017, 3:07 pm
Wheels within wheels:
“British Colonial Secretary Lord Cavendish also wrote about this agreement and its result in a 1923 memorandum to the British Cabinet, stating: “The object [of the Balfour Declaration] was to enlist the sympathies on the Allied side of influential Jews and Jewish organizations all over the world… [and] it is arguable that the negotiations with the Zionists…did in fact have considerable effect in advancing the date at which the United States government intervened in the war.”Former British Prime Minister Lloyd George similarly referred to the deal, telling a British commission in 1935: “Zionist leaders gave us a definite promise that, if the Allies committed themselves to giving facilities for the establishment of a national home for the Jews in Palestine, they would do their best to rally Jewish sentiment and support throughout the world to the Allied cause. They kept their word.”[xxiv]
Brandeis University professor and author Frank E. Manuel reported that Lloyd George had testified in 1937 “that stimulating the war effort of American Jews was one of the major motives which, during a harrowing period in the European war, actuated members of the cabinet in finally casting their votes for the Declaration.””
https://israelpalestinenews.org/wrote-balfour-declaration-world-war-connection/
Elizabeth Block on October 25, 2017, 10:32 pm
(1) Nothing in the Balfour Declaration about a Jewish state. I’m sure Balfour never envisioned Palestine becoming anything other than a British colony.
(2) Giving away something you don’t own – i.e. the land in Palestine – is like a band of robbers divvying up the money they have stolen. What legal weight should it carry?
(3) I quote Ilan Pappe, Israeli historian: “There is no reason why a native population would ever volunteer to partition its homeland with settlers.”
john_manyjars on October 26, 2017, 4:41 am
IIRC Chaim Weizmann was instrumental in helping the Brits fight WWI, by inventing a process to make acetone for artillery shells- the payment for which was the establishment of a ‘Jewish Homeland’.
Maghlawatan on October 24, 2017, 4:06 pm
No light between Israel and UK Jewish leadership. Squeaky bum time. Israel has torn the arse out of procrastination. Israel has nothing to offer UK voters.
amigo on October 24, 2017, 4:28 pm
Who would have thought that Nigel Farrage,s decision to call for a referendum on BREXIT , would possibly lead to the UK Gov voting in favour of a Palestinian State.
Given the present state of turmoil within the Conservative party vis a vis the Brexit negotiations and the likelihood of a leadership change , Jeremy Corbyn,s stock has risen exponentially and he is on track to be the Next Pm.
I sure would not want to be a soldier in the Friends Of Israel army (Labour or Conservative) when he takes up residence in number 10.
These people are rightfully going to be at the top of the list of pay back for their treasonous activities on behalf of a foreign Government.
Off with their heads Jeremy and never mind the accusations of Antisemitism.
echinococcus on October 24, 2017, 7:15 pm
Off with their heads, who in his right mind wouldn’t agree?
As to their being at the top of the payback list for treasonous activity on behalf of a foreign Gov., I wouldn’t take that to the Bank of E. You see, guv’nor, they are Zombies. Real, honest-to-Jehovah Zombies. They’ll buy a way out if not enough people keep shrilly demanding their heads on a platter.
ErsatzYisrael on October 25, 2017, 10:03 am
echinococcus said on October 24, 2017, at 7:15 pm:
Yep, these treasonous British Jews should be deprived of their British nationality and have their heads posted to Palestine on platters, and pronto.
JeffB on October 25, 2017, 10:16 am
@Amigo
I suspect you are going to be sadly disappointed in Corbyn’s wrath. Momentum is a majority of Labor party primary voters, it is not a majority of MPs nor Labor Party voters. More importantly Momentum oriented MPs will a definitely minority within Commons. Corbyn needs to get majorities to pass his agenda regardless of whether he is PM or not. The whole antisemitism thing is a symptom of the bigger problem for Corbyn that the Blairite Labor party does not agree with Corbyn’s policies and are not going to want to see them enacted into law. If he tries to govern the way he has led all that happens, even with the title of PM, is bill after bill just gets voted down and potentially other legislation takes its place. Corbyn to get policies through either needs to compromise or horse trade. He can only compromise or horse trade to his right. The enthusiasm for Momentum will fall off as Corbyn ends up passing bills far to the right of what his supporters expect. The numbers just aren’t there for a strong Corbyn and will never be there. PM Corbyn needs to avoid all of:
1) A Blairite faction that negotiates and compromises with the Tories to pass alternatives to the official Labor Party agenda.
2) An outright party split.
3) Constant erosion as MPs and moderate Labor voters defect to the Tories.
#3 is the reason he can’t intimidate himself a majority. Deselection is a serious threat in an environment of a strong Conservative party. In a weaker environment the Conservative party will be actively recruiting Blairite MPs to switch. Unless the Blairites are in the Cabinet and actively making decisions what is he going to threaten them with?
Getting specific to Jews there is even less he can do. 75% of Jews are Tory. The remaining 1/4 mostly float between Labor and Lib-Dems with little attachment to either party. The purge you think is going to happen already happened a generation ago. An anti-Israel Tory PM combined with Corbyn would be threatening to Jews interests. Corbyn alone not so much.
Sure Corbyn can crack down on Jewish Friends of Labor and watch his Jewish support fall below 3%. If Labor has 3% or less Jewish voters are considering Labor, the view of Labor as an openly antisemetic party is going to be mainstream opinion. What Jewish Friends of Labor allege now the British public would be saying openly as simple fact after they are purged. There wouldn’t be a debate. This gets compounded because some of the public might would like having a mainstream antisemetic party. You better believe the Tories and Blairites are going to have lots of televised interviews with voters who talk about how much they love PM Corbyn and voted for him because he is finally standing up to and sticking it to the Jews. So Corbyn in your crackdown world is not going to be having subtle debates about when anti-Zionism turns into antisemitism like leftist like. The whole define antisemitism so narrowly that no actual person qualifies trick won’t work for a PM.
You think Corbyn doesn’t like the pressure now when the conversation is about antisemitism in Labor. He would like it far less when the conversation is Labor’s antisemitic platform and policy. The Daily Mail or the Sun writing about antisemetic incidents is trouble. Those are mean papers. But wait until in your crackdown world it the USA State Department in an official report. PM Corbyn likely will need to fight desperately to keep the problem at only the current level of heat. So sorry. Your revenge fantasy ain’t going to play out.
If anything I mostly suspect much the opposite happens. Momentum is where Corbyn is strongest. It is going to be far easier for him to moderate Momentum on Israel than to effectively do anything about British policy or politics on the issue. Corbyn will drag Momentum to the right, because he has to on Israel and many other issues.
Misterioso on October 25, 2017, 11:21 am
Face reality. You and your fellow Zionists are steadily losing ground in Britain (as well as Europe and America.) The entity known as “Israel” is increasingly seen for what it truly is, i.e., an historical anachronism, an abomination, racist, an illegal/brutal occupier, an ethnic cleanser, a serial violator of had won international law, a rogue and a pariah.
Jewish News:
http://jewishnews.timesofisrael.com/government-acted-unlawfully-over-council-boycott-restrictions-high-court-rules/
June 22/17
“[British] Government acted unlawfully over council boycott restrictions, High Court rules”
“Activists herald a ‘victory for Palestine’ after court rules that attempts to prevent local government ‘ethical’ boycotts of Israel are unlawful.”
More From Britain re High Court’s decision:
http://freespeechonisrael.org.uk/pensionregulationsillegal/
“Judge tells Government: allow BDS” by Mike Cushman June 22/17
“A High Court judge has ruled that the Government was exceeding its power in trying to direct Local Government Pension Funds to ignore calls for BDS and abandon ethical investing. The Government, he said: ‘has acted for an unauthorised purpose and therefore unlawfully’.“
“Jamie Potter, Partner in the Public Law and Human Rights team at Bindmans LLP said: ‘This outcome is a reminder to the Government that it cannot improperly interfere in the exercise of freedom of conscience and protest in order to pursue its own agenda.’ This goes beyond a welcome victory for BDS campaigners. All supporters of the right to free expression and the right to oppose Government policies will welcome this push back against executive over-reach.”
Mooser on October 25, 2017, 1:06 pm
. “Corbyn will drag Momentum to the right, because he has to on Israel and many other issues.”
Thank you, Dr. Panglossowitz. It’s always the best if all possible worlds for Zionism.
Jeff , go see a taxidermist.
Bumblebye on October 25, 2017, 5:11 pm
Point 1) Momentum is a private company.
Point 2) Labour Party membership is over 560,000. Momentum membership isn’t even one tenth of that.
Point 3) Jon Lansmann (owner, chief exec) has been and continues, cosying up to Jeremy Newmark of JLM, passionately pro-israel right or wrong, failed parliamentary candidate for Finchley during the last election.
Point 4) People passionate about justice – even in Palestine – can be found throughout the party.
Jeffy boy again shows he hasn,t a clue what he is talking about.
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/jun/14/momentum-grassroots-democracy-labour-unstoppable
“The 24,000-member group didn’t deserve those dismissive pre-election labels, but it has certainly earned the more recently positive ones. Credited with mobilising the youth vote, Momentum’s snappy social media campaigns gleaned millions of shares. The group also sent scores of campaigners – some of them first-time canvassers – into the country’s most marginal constituencies, helping to drive up support for Labour, house by house and street by street.”
These people are not moving to the right and 300,000 british Jews do not decide elections in the UK. Zioniist infiltrators , (spys) and british traitors wont decide it either, even if they succeed in “taking down ” democratically elected British Ministers.
https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2017/jan/07/israeli-diplomat-shai-masot-caught-on-camera-plotting-to-take-down-uk-mps
Read the article and come back with more nonsense or use your usual go to excuse and claim your response got the thumbs down by the moderators when you run out of excuses.
Just as with Irish politics you know sfa about British politics.
ritzl on October 26, 2017, 1:10 am
“Jeremy Corbyn,s stock has risen exponentially and he is on track to be the Next Pm.”
IF so, he will have shown a path for any who follow on how to navigate the fake-but-still-potent “anti-semitism” tool/canard.
Unfortunately, Corbyn may be unique in his consistency and perseverance about rights and justice generally. I don’t see any other leaders out there who are equally committed. Even Sanders.
Keith on October 24, 2017, 6:07 pm
ROBERT COHEN- “… the Jewish tradition championing justice and compassion.”
Here we go again. Another liberal Zionist wrapping himself in the proclaimed Jewish values. You and Suzanne Nossel. So, why do so many Jews support Israel and Zionism if it offends their traditional values?
“… the Jewish tradition championing justice and compassion.”
Well, mostly for us, but that’s a start, anyway.
Jamie Sternweiner’s article (linked in the piece) really was an excellent take down. But long!
As for the BoD, they should rename themselves the BoZ!
Hi Bumblebye. Didn’t see Jamie’s link. Can you repost it?
Nevermind. Got it. He’s great! Thanks for making me look.
https://jamiesternweiner.wordpress.com/2017/10/12/labour-conference-or-nuremberg-rally-assessing-the-evidence/
Years ago they should, and could, have taken on the role of critical friend to Israel and developed a nuanced Jewish diaspora position that held Israel to account for its excesses and campaigned for a genuine 2-state solution.
Shut your Zionist cake-hole, Cohen, British Jews don’t owe Zionism or “israel” any kind of favor, period. And there’s no such thing as a “Jewish Diaspora”, nor is there a need for “a nuanced” approach to ideological cancer.
Vera Gottlieb on October 25, 2017, 10:35 am
How tiresome to have to put up with the Zionists’ never ending arrogance and demands.
RobertB on October 25, 2017, 12:55 pm
Who wrote the Balfour Declaration and why: The World War I Connection
By Alison Weir
“While Americans today are aware of many of these facts, few know that Zionism appears to have been one of those factors. [Zionism was a political movement to create a Jewish state in Palestine. When this movement began, in the late 1800s, the population of Palestine was 96 percent Muslim and Christian. The large majority of Jews around the world were not Zionists.]
Diverse documentary evidence shows that Zionists pushed for the U.S. to enter the war on Britain’s side as part of a deal to gain British support for their colonization of Palestine.
From the very beginning of their movement, Zionists realized that if they were to succeed in their goal of creating a Jewish state on land that was already inhabited by non-Jews, they needed backing from one of the “great powers.”[vii] They tried the Ottoman Empire, which controlled Palestine at the time, but were turned down (although they were told that Jews could settle throughout other parts of the Ottoman empire and become Turkish citizens).[viii]”
“In 1917 British Foreign Minister Lord Balfour issued a letter to Zionist leader Lord Rothschild. Known as the Balfour Declaration, this letter promised that Britain would “view with favour the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people” and “use their best endeavours to facilitate the achievement of this object.”
The letter then qualified this somewhat by stating that it should be “clearly understood that nothing shall be done which may prejudice the civil and religious rights of existing non-Jewish communities in Palestine.” The “non-Jewish communities” were 92 percent of Palestine’s population at that time,[xiii] vigorous Zionist immigration efforts having slightly expanded the percentage of Jews living in Palestine by then.
The letter, while officially signed by British Foreign Minister Lord Balfour, had been in process for two years and had gone through a number of edits by British and American Zionists and British officials.[xiv] As Zionist leader Nahum Sokolow later wrote, “[e]very idea born in London was tested by the Zionist Organization in America, and every suggestion in America received the most careful attention in London.”[xv]
Sokolow wrote that British Zionists were helped, “above all, by American Zionists. Between London, New York, and Washington there was constant communication, either by telegraph, or by personal visit, and as a result there was perfect unity among the Zionists of both hemispheres.” Sokolow particularly praised “the beneficent personal influence of the Honourable Louis D. Brandeis, Judge of the Supreme Court.”[xvi]
The final version of the Declaration was actually written by Leopold Amery, a British official who, it came out later, was a secret and fervent Zionist.[xvii]”
Click on link below for the rest of the story:
http://ifamericaknew.org/
mcohen.. on October 25, 2017, 3:49 pm
labour party is compromised.pakistani IT “experts” are being purged from american governmemt and the Democrat party.the same will happen to labour in britain
https://www.google.com.au/amp/s/www.thenews.com.pk/amp/210523-British-Pakistani-voters-helped-surge-for-Labour-Party
so why pretend that this is about the labour party and Britain. it is simply a muslim country pakistan siding with muslims in the middle east.political influence peddling to sway british politicians to tear up past agreements.
i like this reexamination of documents.especially the balfour declaration.you never know what else could pop up from the past
“to tear up past agreements”
So the Zionists can blow up the King David Hotel, and fight Britian for its “independence”, but the “Balfour Letter” has the force of law?
Ho-kay. Shall we go flying down to Remo now?
just on October 25, 2017, 5:55 pm
“From the West Bank to London The Palestinian Plan to Protest the Balfour Declaration’s 100th Anniversary
The Palestinian Authority is planning a major demonstration in London and will request the British government to recognize the State of Palestine…”
read more: https://www.haaretz.com/middle-east-news/palestinians/.premium-1.819126
jon s on October 28, 2017, 4:54 pm
This week the streets here in Be’er Sheva are decorated with with the flags of Australia and New Zealand, in anticipation of the event commemorating the ANZAC cavalry battle:
http://anzac.co.il/100years/
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Medical Board Cases
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California – Neurology – Lamictal, Depakote, And Topamax For Seizures
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A 14-year-old girl was referred by her pediatrician to a child neurologist for seizures. The child neurologist first saw the patient on 8/10/2009. The patient’s first seizure occurred at age 10, early morning on 2/21/2006, and a second episode occurred in the early morning sometimes around December 2008. At the time the patient saw the child neurologist, her medication included Klonopin 0.5 mg p.m., Depakote at 750 b.i.d., and Vistaril 10 mg p.m. The patient’s MRI on October 2008 was normal. The patient’s EEG performed on October 2007 noted 3-13 seizures. The child neurologist’s assessment was “juvenile myoclonic epilepsy; rule out adverse effect of med correctly given; insomnia unspecified; depressive disorder; and cafe au lait spots x 2.” The child neurologist ordered a video EEG “to rule out any epileptogenic foci.”
On 8/12/2009, the video EEG was performed. The technician reported sharp and slow waves left F3-C3. The child neurologist read it as normal. A BAER was performed on the same day even though it was not ordered by the child neurologist. The BAER was not indicated, and the referring diagnosis for the BAER was not in the record and was used only for billing.
The child neurologist next saw the patient on 8/21/2009 for a follow-up visit. The child neurologist noted that the patient was tolerating Depakote well. The Depakote level was 101. The child neurologist diagnosed breakthrough seizures despite the fact that no seizures were reported. The child neurologist added Topamax Sprinkles 25 mg to increase to 50 mg b.i.d. She stopped the Klonopin and Vistaril.
On 11/2/2009, the child neurologist saw the patient for a follow-up visit. She noted that patient was gaining weight with Topamax and wanted to stop Depakote, though it was well tolerated. The patient had no seizures and no myoclonic jerks. The child neurologist ordered another video EEG without medical indication. The result of the second video EEG was normal. The child neurologist’s reading of the video EEG followed a template and was the same with all of her video EG reports except for the first paragraph regarding time of sleep, wake, and meals.
The child neurologist next saw the patient on 5/3/2010. The patient reported no auras or seizures. The child neurologist noted under past medical history that the patient had suicidal thoughts. The child neurologist did not address this issue during this visit. The child neurologist continued Topamax 50 mg b.i.d., even though there was a note of memory problems. The child neurologist reduced Depakote to 500 b.i.d. She ordered labs and a 4-day ambulatory EEG without any medical indication. The 2 previous video EEGs were normal, and the patient did not have any seizures. The patient underwent a third video EEG on this visit, which was not ordered nor medically indicated.
On 6/8/2010, the child neurologist saw the patient for a follow-up visit. The patient was taken off Topamax. Her memory improved, but her headaches recurred. The child neurologist diagnosed migraines without asking sufficient questions to make that diagnosis. She added amitriptyline 10 mg, Imitrex 100 mg, and continued Depakote 500 b.i.d.
The 4-day ambulatory EEG ordered on 5/3/2010 was performed on 7/6/2010. It was completed despite the fact that the patient just underwent a third video EEG on 5/3/2010. There was no medical indication for the 3 previous EEGs and the 4-day ambulatory EEG. The 4-day ambulatory EEG was read as normal.
On 8/23/2010, the child neurologist saw the patient for 2 back-to-back seizures that occurred on 8/11/2010. The patient was taken to the emergency room with a history of early morning twitching since the seizures. The child neurologist’s assessment was breakthrough seizures. The child neurologist added Lamictal 100 mg b.i.d. and raised Depakote from 500 mg b.i.d. to 1000 mg b.i.d. The child neurologist failed to recognize that on 7/29/2010, the patient was having myoclonic jerks, which were described as twitches. The patient had been on 750 mg b.i.d. with a level of 100 and had been seizure free for 2 years. The child neurologist failed to recognize the important interaction between Lamictal and Depakote. The child neurologist failed to consider that it was very likely that the patient had toxic levels of both Depakote and Lamictal. The child neurologist did not check the patient’s blood levels. The child neurologist ordered another video EEG and another ambulatory EEG. The video EEG was performed on September 2010 and was normal. The child neurologist used the same template on her report.
The child neurologist next saw the patient on 11/4/2010. The patient was unable to sleep, had difficulties with coordination and balance, was forgetful; all symptoms consistent with medication toxicity. The child neurologist failed to recognize it as such. The patient was on Depakote 500 mg b.i.d. and Lamictal 100 mg b.i.d. Suicidal ideation was noted in the child neurologist’s previous notes, but the child neurologist failed to address this issue. The child neurologist added Prozac 20 mg, which had a black box warning for suicidal ideation.
The Medical Board of California judged that the child neurologist’s conduct departed from the standard of care because she ordered 4-5 video EEGs and an ambulatory EEG without medical indication, ordered a BAER with no medical indication, lacked knowledge and/or did not consider the important interaction between Depakote and Lamictal. The child neurologist diagnosed migraines without establishing diagnostic criteria, diagnosed circadian sleep disorder without asking any questions regarding symptoms and adding the polysomnogram report in the chart, and prescribed Prozac to patient with a history of suicidal thoughts despite the black box warning.
For this case and others, the Medical Board of California placed the child neurologist on probation and ordered the child neurologist to complete a medical record keeping course, a professionalism program (ethics course), an education course (at least 40 hours per year for each year of probation), and a clinical training program equivalent to the Physician Assessment and Clinical Education Program offered at the University of California San Diego School of Medicine. The child neurologist was assigned a practice monitor and was prohibited from supervising physician assistants and advanced practice nurses.
Specialty: Neurology, Pediatrics
Symptom: Headache
Diagnosis: Neurological Disease, Drug Overdose, Side Effects, or Withdrawal, Psychiatric Disorder
Medical Error: Improper medication management, Diagnostic error, Failure to examine or evaluate patient properly, Unnecessary or excessive diagnostic tests
Significant Outcome: N/A
Case Rating: 3
Link to Original Case File: Download PDF
Virginia – Psychiatry – Adjusting Lithium Dosage Based Only On Patient Symptoms
A psychiatrist increased and decrease a patient’s lithium dosage based on the patient’s symptoms. She did not test the patient’s lithium blood serum level.
On 8/28/2015, the patient was admitted to a hospital for lithium toxicity. The psychiatrist stated that lithium blood serum levels for long-term lithium patients should be tested at least annually, but also at any time a patient complains of adverse side effects. The psychiatrist admitted her failure to test the patient’s lithium levels and stated that it “was an inadvertent oversight for which [she] is remorseful.” The psychiatrist reported that following the patient’s hospitalization for lithium toxicity, she reviewed the charts for her other patients on lithium and determined if they needed testing for lithium blood serum levels.
She provided evidence that she completed 99 hours of CME in psychiatry in 2015 and 58 credit hours of CME in psychiatry in 2017. She provided a spreadsheet that she created for use in monitoring her patients on lithium. She was reprimanded by the Virginia Board of Medicine.
Date: October 2017
Specialty: Psychiatry
Symptom: N/A
Diagnosis: Drug Overdose, Side Effects, or Withdrawal, Psychiatric Disorder
Medical Error: Improper medication management, Failure to properly monitor patient
Vermont – Family Practice – Oversight In Anorexia Nervosa Monitoring
A patient was treated by a family practitioner from May 2012 to September 2012.
On the first office visit, the patient presented with symptoms and behaviors that met the DSM-IV criteria of anorexia nervosa, as well as the National Institute for Mental Health criteria of Pediatric Acute Neuropsychiatric Syndrome (PANS). The patient’s medical records from the patient’s prior primary care physician included a diagnosis of anorexia nervosa and a prior recommendation for inpatient mental health treatment for anorexia.
The family practitioner made the following diagnoses: systemic inflammatory syndrome with multi-systemic symptoms and marked neuropsychiatric dysfunction with probable underlying infectious triggers; PANS (Pediatric Acute Neuropsychiatric Syndrome); and probable PITANDs (Pediatric Infection-Triggered Autoimmune Neuropsychiatric Disorders). Anorexia nervosa was not documented as a primary or differential diagnosis. The family practitioner indicated that he considered the possibility of a purely behavioral syndrome like anorexia nervosa, but felt that the patient’s anorexia was “part of a more complex multi-system picture.”
The family practitioner based his diagnosis on the patient’s history and symptoms meeting the diagnostic criteria for PANS, testing positive to three infectious agents, and an initial response positive response to PITANDs treatment, in addition to a lack of positive response to anorexia nervosa focused management with the patient’s prior primary care physician and other consultants.
The family practitioner saw the patient on three occasions over a four month period, which the Board believes is inadequate for management of anorexia for an adolescent. The family practitioner relied on his nurse to call the patient on weekly updates and weight checks.
In addition to three office visits, the family practitioner’s treatment included ordering numerous blood tests, and the prescribing of medications, antibiotics, herbal supplements, and vitamins for the infection etiologies and the inflammatory conditions. However, he did not prescribe any medications for the treatment of anorexia nervosa. While the family practitioner believed that the patient was being treated by his primary care physician, this was not confirmed with any other provider, and the family practitioner did not communicate directly with any other provider beyond sending his initial office visit note and lab results to the patient’s primary care physician.
The Board judged the family practitioner’s medical records and communication with the patient’s primary care physician concerning his treatment of the patient were inadequate. The family practitioner’s office notes did not document past surgical and family history, temperature, height, BMI calculation, and growth curve charting.
Based on review of the family practitioner’s medical records concerning his treatment of the patient and the documentation of his communication with the patient’s parents, it appears that the family practitioner did not clearly explain his role in the patient’s care to the patient’s parents until the end of his treatment. Is it possible that the patient’s parents believed that the family practitioner had taken over the role as the primary care physician and was actively managing the patient’s care.
The family practitioner’s position was that he believed that he was participating in the care of the patient in the role as a consultant to his primary care physician and that the patient’s primary care physician was concurrently monitoring the patient. With the exception of the provision of his initial office note and lab results, the family practitioner did not communicate with the patient’s primary care provider during the course of his treatment. After sending his initial note and lab results, the family practitioner did not communicate with the patient’s primary care provider or any other medical professionals until the patient had an acute worsening of the condition on 9/13/2012.
The Board judged that the family practitioner failed to appropriately monitor, manage, and maintain comprehensive medical records on a juvenile patient with a severe eating disorder.
The Board ordered that the family practitioner be reprimanded, complete one hour of continuing medical education on cognitive bias, and that he shall only practice medicine in a structured, group setting for a period of three years.
Specialty: Family Medicine, Psychiatry
Symptom: Weight Loss
Diagnosis: Psychiatric Disorder
Medical Error: Improper treatment, Failure of communication with other providers, Failure of communication with patient or patient relations, Failure to properly monitor patient, Lack of proper documentation
Vermont – Psychiatry – Pediatrician Prescribes A Combination Of An SSRI And A Benzodiazepine
A pediatrician first met a patient in 2010 when conducting a routine college physical. In 2011, the pediatrician started the patient on Prozac (fluoxetine) 10 mg daily after the patient started reporting that he was having problems with depression. After a month, the patient indicated that the medication was working “a little” and denied any side effects, the pediatrician prescribed another 30 tablets of Prozac 20 mg with no refills.
The pediatrician did not see the patient again until 1/30/2014 when the patient came in for a physical exam. The pediatrician documented that the patient was doing well and was off Prozac.
On 1/22/2015, the patient again came in to see the pediatrician for a physical exam. The patient was experiencing decreased energy levels, sleeping well, having some difficulty with depression and occasional panic attacks. The patient was noted as stating that the Prozac he had taken previously did not really help. The notes document that education and counseling were done, but there was no comment on suicidality.
The pediatrician started the patient on Prozac 40 mg once a day, 30 tablets with no refills, because he had tolerated the 20 mg dose in the past with no side effects. The patient was also prescribed Xanax (alprazolam), 0.25 mg, 5 tablets with no refills, and was told to take one as needed.
On 1/29/2015, the patient was seen by the pediatrician to follow up on his anxiety and depression. The patient reported that he was still having panic attacks, for which he took 2 of the 0.25 mg Xanax, and that overall his depression was worse, but that he was dealing more with anxiety than depression. The patient indicated that he was tolerating the Prozac well. The patient denied any suicidal ideation or planning. The pediatrician prescribed the patient Klonopin (clonazepam) 1.0 mg, two times a day, 60 tablets with no refills and increased his Xanax prescription to 0.5 mg as needed, five tablets with no refills. The pediatrician documented that he provided education and counseling and referred the patient to psychiatry, although the patient indicated that he did not want to go.
On 1/31/2015, the patient reported losing most of his Xanax at work. The pediatrician advised the patient to stay on Prozac and Klonopin and to save the few Xanax he had for severe panic attacks. The pediatrician advised the patient that he would look into getting the patient to see a psychiatrist and that he would figure out what to do with the Xanax the following week, but in the meantime, the patient could go to the emergency department or call the pediatrician if he had a panic attack. The patient agreed to this plan.
During this time, the mother observed changes in the patient’s behavior, including slurring of words, wobbling on his feet, and sleepiness and the patient also became erratic and volatile. This was not brought to the attention of the pediatrician.
On the morning of 2/2/2015, the patient called his mother from work and advised they were sending him home because his behavior was similar to someone who was intoxicated. It was also claimed the patient met with a pharmacist at work, who allegedly told him that the dose of Klonopin was too high and he should cut the dose in half.
The patient returned home and continued to exhibit erratic, volatile, and irrational behavior. The patient also advised his mother that he tried to cut his wrist and glued it shut. None of these events were told to the pediatrician and the patient did not show the cut to the pediatrician during the appointment on 1/29/2015 appointment. The patient made an appointment with another doctor, but could not get in until 2/6/2015. The patient’s mother asked the patient if he wanted to go to the emergency department but the patient declined, indicating that he had a plan (to cut the dose of Klonopin in half). That evening the patient had an argument with his girlfriend and committed suicide.
Prozac (fluoxetine) packaging contains a “Black Box” warning for patients up to 21 years of age that indicates there is a very small chance of an adverse reaction that can make the patient more agitated and prone to increased suicidal thoughts. The patient’s medical chart does not indicate whether the pediatrician explained the Black Box warning to the patient.
The pediatrician retired from the practice of medicine in Fall 2016 as previously planned and for reasons totally unrelated to the allegations in this matter. He is not currently practicing medicine in the State of Vermont.
The Board judged the pediatrician’s conduct to be below the minimum standard of competence given his failure to maintain adequate and comprehensive medical records, his improper prescribing of an unusually high dose of Prozac, Xanax, and Klonopin, and his failure to conform to the essential standards of acceptable and prevailing practice.
The Board ordered that the pediatrician be reprimanded, pay a fine, and if he applies for a license renewal, he must take a continuing education course on psychotropic medications and retain the services of a practice monitor for a minimum of two years.
Specialty: Psychiatry, Pediatrics
Symptom: Psychiatric Symptoms
Medical Error: Improper medication management, Lack of proper documentation
Significant Outcome: Death
Florida – Internal Medicine – Patient With Suicidal Ideations Referred To A Psychiatrist For The Following Day
On 12/1/2014, a 68-year-old female presented to an internist for a three-month follow-up appointment for hyperlipidemia, anxiety with panic attack, and hypertension. The patient reported a twenty-year history of untreated depression that was worsening.
The patient reported suicidal ideations, including that the patient had been sitting with a gun to her head.
The internist’s progress note for the patient included a statement that the patient needed to see a psychiatrist that day. The internist referred the patient to a psychiatrist and scheduled an appointment with the patient with the psychiatrist the following day.
The Board judged the internist’s conduct to be below the minimal standard of competence given that he failed to arrange for the patient to be escorted to a psychiatrist or an emergency department that day.
The Board issued a letter of concern against the internist’s license. The Board ordered that the internist pay a fine of $5,000 against her license and pay reimbursement costs for the case at a minimum of $1,983.04 and not to exceed $3,983.04. The Board also ordered that the internist complete five hours of continuing medical education in depression, which shall include the diagnosis and treatment of patients with depression, and complete five hours of continuing medical education in “risk management.”
Specialty: Internal Medicine, Psychiatry
Medical Error: Delay in proper treatment
California – Family Practice – Patient With Multiple Psychiatric Conditions And A Low Platelet Count Placed On Enbrel For Rheumatoid Arthritis
On 11/17/2008, a family practitioner first began treating the patient. The family practitioner treated the patient for anxiety, panic disorder, neuropathic pain from an old left thigh stab wound, post-traumatic stress disorder, bipolar disorder, chronic insomnia, obesity, and hypothyroidism.
On 7/18/2013, the patient was seen in an emergency department. The laboratory results from that visit indicated that the patient had a very low platelet count of 63,000 versus a normal platelet count of 140,000 to 150,000. The laboratory results also stated that the mean corpuscular volume (MCV) was found to be 106.6. The MCV is the average volume of red cells in a specimen.
On 7/19/2013, the patient was treated by the family practitioner. The medical notes for that visit state that the patient “returns for follow up on an ER visit yesterday for abdominal pain.” The notes also state, “Labs reveal macrocytic RBC indices.”
Red blood cell (RBC) indices are part of the complete blood count (CBC) test. The indices also include MCV, hemoglobin amount per red blood cell (MCH), and the amount of hemoglobin relative to the size of the cell (hemoglobin concentration) per red blood cell (MCHC).
The MCV, MCH, and MCHC were all recorded in the patient’s laboratory results from the 7/18/2013 emergency department visit.
On 8/9/2013, the patient commenced treatment for rheumatoid arthritis by using the drug Enbrel, which was prescribed by the family practitioner, even though Enbrel can cause a low platelet count and even though the family practitioner knew or should have known that as of 7/19/2013, the patient’s platelet count was low.
On 10/8/2013, the patient informed the family practitioner that another clinic treating the patient noted that the patient’s platelet count was dropping and advised the patient to go directly to the hospital for a blood draw. The family practitioner then discontinued the patient’s use of Enbrel, writing, “discussed fact that thrombocytopenia is a rare but recognized adverse side effect of Enbrel treatment.”
Additionally, any patient treated with Enbrel should have a Tuberculosis (TB) skin test prior to commencing therapy in order to confirm the absence of disease.
Contrary to standards, the family practitioner provided no documentation for the required pretreatment negative tuberculin skin test prior to the commencement of treatment with Enbrel. In fact, not until 9/17/2014, more than one month after treatment with Enbrel commenced, was a negative TB skin test noted in the patient’s medical record.
On 10/18/2011, the family practitioner noted in the patient’s medical records that the patient was positive for hepatitis C. Yet, the family practitioner never referred the patient to a liver specialist for hepatitis C.
The family practitioner allowed the patient to dictate the treatment by prescribing, on multiple occasions, medications that the patient had requested.
On 7/8/2009, the family practitioner prescribed clonidine for the patient for insomnia. Clonidine is a drug normally used to treat hypertension, but it has been effectively used in low doses to treat insomnia in children on ADHD medications. At that time, the patient’s blood pressure was charted as 110/60.
On 7/15/2009, the family practitioner discontinued the patient’s use of clonidine when the patient reported that the medicine was not effective for sleep and that it caused dizziness. On that same date, the patient’s blood pressure was charted as 80/60.
Between 7/8/2009 and 7/15/2009, the patient was using the following medications with the family practitioner’s knowledge: fluoxetine, diphenhydramine, clonidine, and olanzapine.
On 8/16/2011, the family practitioner prescribed Saphris for the patient for insomnia, even though insomnia is a known side effect of Saphris. By 9/9/2011, the patient stopped taking Saphris after claiming to have developed a tolerance for the medication.
The Board judged the family practitioner’s conduct as having fallen below the standard of care for multiple patients given failure to record a physical exam in the progress notes, failure to revise and update assessments or plans for those patients, and failure to include a problem list or medication list in his progress notes.
The family practitioner was placed on probation for 5 years with the stipulations of completing 40 hours annually of continuing medical education in the areas of deficient practice, a prescribing practices course at the Physician Assessment and Clinical Education Program, a medical record keeping course, an ethics course, a clinical training program equivalent to the Physician Assessment and Clinical Education Program, and undergo clinical practice monitoring.
Specialty: Family Medicine, Internal Medicine, Psychiatry
Symptom: Psychiatric Symptoms, Dizziness
Medical Error: Improper medication management
California – Family Practice – Elevated Glucose Levels In A Patient On Aripiprazole, Asenapine, Quetiapine, And Olanzapine
On 11/6/2007, a family practitioner first began treating a patient and continued treating the patient until at least 6/9/2014.
On 12/21/2009, the family practitioner noted in the patient’s medical records that the patient was diabetic, writing “Lab-Spot glucose 242.” A level of 200 mg/dL or higher often means one has diabetes.
On 1/11/2010, the next exam noted in the patient’s records, the family practitioner noted a refill was needed for glipizide. However, there is no record that the patient was ever prescribed glipizide prior to this date.
During the course of treatment from the family practitioner, the patient was also prescribed aripiprazole, quetiapine, asenapine, and olanzapine for bipolar disorder. Aripiprazole, asenapine, and olanzapine can cause or worsen diabetes. According to medical notes, on 6/13/2011, the family practitioner was treating the patient with both aripiprazole and olanzapine as well as glipizide, which was to control diabetes.
On 7/11/2011, the patient’s blood sugars were noted to be in the 400 range, while 100 to 110 is considered to be the normal range for blood sugars in an individual. The family practitioner started the patient on insulin glargine to address diabetes on a daily basis.
In an interview that occurred on 10/1/2015, the family practitioner admitted that the family practitioner had no idea if the patient was taking the prescribed medications while under his care.
The Board judged the family practitioner’s conduct as having fallen below the standard of care for multiple patients given failure to record a physical exam in the progress notes, failure to revise and update assessments or plans for those patients, and failure to include a problem list or medication list in his progress notes. In addition, the family practitioner’s repeated, excessive and/or inappropriate prescribing of large doses of multiple strong antipsychotic medication and antidepressants to the patient with no regard or concern for drug interactions constituted a lack of knowledge and/or unprofessional conduct.
Diagnosis: Diabetes, Psychiatric Disorder
California – Psychiatry – Improper Prescribing Practices Of Quetiapine, Venlafaxine, Lamotrigine, Lorazepam, Zolpidem, Fluoxetine, And Alprazolam
On 8/7/2012 continuing through 9/13/2013, a patient received psychiatric treatment from a psychiatrist over eight appointments. The patient presented as a 54-year-old 135-pound female patient seeking treatment for the management of bipolar disorder. During each of these appointments, the patient was at the hospital while the psychiatrist provided treatment remotely from his home via telepsychiatry. The initial assessment noted that the patient was normal for mood, affect, memory, depression, and anxiety with no suicidal ideation. Per the Board, the psychiatrist’s medical records for the patient failed to contain an adequate history of the patient and lacked adequate documentation to support a bipolar diagnosis.
Over the course of his treatment of the patient, the psychiatrist consistently prescribed large quantities and high doses of psychiatric medications to be taken simultaneously, including the following: quetiapine, venlafaxine, lamotrigine, lorazepam, zolpidem, fluoxetine, and alprazolam.
The psychiatrist prescribed the patient 10 mg of zolpidem despite the advisory from the FDA that women should receive no more than 5 mg due to the potential for cognitive and memory impairment and the psychiatrist’s medical records for the patient fail to reflect a consideration or discussion of the risks versus benefits of treatment with this medication. The psychiatrist prescribed the patient daily doses of quetiapine and venlafaxine at the maximum recommended dose. The psychiatrist prescribed the patient lamotrigine at twice the recommended dose for bipolar disorder and the psychiatrist’s medical records for the patient fail to reflect why he chose to prescribe the medication at these doses.
Per the Board, the psychiatrist diagnosed the patient with depression; however, he failed to adequately document the history, extent, degree or other information regarding the patient’s depression or include any identifiable symptoms that might support a diagnosis of depression. The psychiatrist failed to recognize and/or document the possibility that the patient’s flat affect could be caused by overprescribing and polypharmacy given the extraordinarily high doses of quetiapine and benzodiazepines he prescribed.
The psychiatrist diagnosed the patient with insomnia; however, he failed to adequately document the patient’s difficulty sleeping or include any identifiable symptoms that might support a diagnosis of insomnia. The psychiatrist failed to recognize and/or document the possibility that the patient’s insomnia could be caused by overprescribing and polypharmacy given the extraordinarily high doses of antidepressants (venlafaxine, mirtazepine, and fluoxetine) he prescribed, which are known to produce insomnia in patients.
The psychiatrist failed to discuss and/or document a discussion of the risk of metabolic syndrome with the patient. The psychiatrist failed to monitor and/or order labs to check the lipids, blood sugar, or weight of the patient, all of which are known risk factors with high dosages of quetiapine.
The psychiatrist’s records for the care and treatment of the patient mostly consisted of identical information copied from one appointment to the next. Per the Board, the psychiatrist’s notes failed to contain any useful information that is unique to the patient and instead contained only conclusions without facts to support them. The mental status examination, interval history, and diagnosis portions of the medical records were identical in wording and formatting throughout all eight appointments with the psychiatrist. In contrast to the boilerplate language copied from prior visits, the limited number of original entries by the psychiatrist were short, telegraphic informational, and appeared in short lines with abbreviation and misspellings. The psychiatrist’s medical records for the patient failed to document prescriptions of Percocet from another medical provider.
On 2/14/2013, the patient presented to the hospital emergency department with a “possible accidental overdose of benzodiazepines.” The patient was treated but was not admitted to the hospital. The psychiatrist saw the patient several days later and attributed the overdose to an accidental overdose due to taking the incorrect medication in the dark. The psychiatrist prescribed multiple psychiatric medications without reducing the dose or quantity of medications available to the patient to prevent a future overdose due to noncompliance with the medication regimen. The psychiatrist failed to document the potential for a repeated overdose event in the patient’s medical records.
On 6/17/2013, the patient presented to the hospital emergency department unconscious with a CPK over 3000 and elevated BUN and creatinine levels. The patient was admitted and with a diagnosis of acute rhabdomyolysis, dehydration, and benzodiazepine overdose. Toxicology tests were negative for substances of abuse, but revealed high levels of the byproducts of venlafaxine, fluoxetine, mirtazapine, alprazolam, and nortriptyline. The patient became septic with multiple organ failure, went into a coma, and was intubated on 6/22/2013 and subsequently transferred to another hospital.
The Board judged the psychiatrist’s conduct as having fallen below the minimum level of competence given his unnecessary prescription of multiple simultaneous prescriptions of two short-acting benzodiazepines to be taken concurrently with zolpidem, his prescription of numerous dangerous drugs and controlled substances in the absence of a discussion over the risks of treatment, his prescription of excessive doses of zolpidem, his failure to obtain a second opinion, his failure to assess the patient’s suicide risk, and his overall failure to appropriately manage the patient’s medications.
The Board ordered that the psychiatrist be placed on probation for a period of three years, complete 40 hours of continuing medical education for each year of probation, enroll in a prescribing practices course, enroll in a medical record keeping course, be prohibited from supervising physician assistants, and be assigned a practice monitor.
Diagnosis: Psychiatric Disorder, Drug Overdose, Side Effects, or Withdrawal
Medical Error: Improper medication management, Failure of communication with patient or patient relations, Failure to properly monitor patient, Lack of proper documentation
Washington – Psychiatry – Ingestion Of A Large Dose Of Zoloft In A Suicide Attempt
On 1/25/2016, a patient reported to the emergency department for treatment of the ingestion of a large dose of Zoloft in an apparent suicide attempt. The patient reported that she took the medication approximately four hours prior to her arrival to the emergency department. The patient indicated she had a twenty-seven-year history of depression.
The emergency department notes indicated that the patient suffered nausea, vomiting, and tachycardia. After successful treatment of the patient’s drug ingestion, she was still deemed to be at risk for suicide, and inpatient treatment was recommended. The patient was stabilized after a course of inpatient treatment and subsequently discharged.
On 3/21/2016, the physician that had prescribed the Zoloft told the Commission that the patient had received a consistent dose of Zoloft from primary care providers for approximately eight to ten years for treatment of depression. The physician indicated that he provided the patient with prescriptions for Zoloft on two or three occasions since 2010 to avoid interruptions in her ongoing regimen, due to difficulties establishing timely medical appointments and changes with insurance provider procedures. When writing the patient’s prescription for Zoloft, the physician used his typical prescription language allowing renewals to be refilled for up to one year. The physician did not document the prescriptions or physical assessment of the patient in the medical record.
The physician failed to meet the standard of care in prescribing Zoloft for the patient when he provided her, a patient with a twenty-seven-year history of depression, with a year supply of medication on several occasions without proper evaluation or follow-up of her condition.
The Commission stipulated the physician reimburse costs to the Commission, complete a live/in-person course on prescribing medications, and write and submit a paper of at least one thousand words, plus bibliography, addressing the risks of prescribing medications without appropriate clinical oversight and recordkeeping.
Symptom: Nausea Or Vomiting, Palpitations
North Carolina – Psychiatry – Patient Expresses Suicidal Intent If He Were To Be Arrested
The North Carolina Medical Board was notified of an action taken by the Florida Board of Medicine against a psychiatrist’s medical license.
On 09/20/2012, a patient was arrested and charged with indecent exposure. The patient indicated that if he were to be arrested, he would commit suicide. The patient was involuntarily brought to the hospital where an ED physician was employed.
The psychiatrist admitted the patient for overnight observation and the following morning determined that the patient was not a suicide risk and discharged him back to the police. The next day, the patient committed suicide.
On 03/13/2015, as a result of the patient’s suicide and information provided to the Florida Board, an administrative complaint was filed against the psychiatrist alleging that the psychiatrist had not performed a thorough examination of the patient.
On 08/18/2015, the complaint was resolved by a Final Order and Settlement Agreement. In this agreement, it was noted that the psychiatrist was issued a letter of concern, ordered the psychiatrist to complete continuing medical education in risk management, and ordered to pay a fine.
The Board issued a public letter of concern, which was reported to the Federation of State Medical Boards. It was not reported to the National Practitioner Data Bank.
Medical Error: Underestimation of likelihood or severity
Arizona (2) California (13) Florida (2) Indiana (2) Kansas (2) North Carolina (1) Vermont (2) Virginia (6) Washington (2) Wisconsin (4)
Case Date Range
Emergency Medicine (1) Family Medicine (8) Gynecology (1) Internal Medicine (7) Neurology (1) Obstetrics (1) Pediatrics (4) Physician Assistant (2) Psychiatry (29)
Confusion (1) Dizziness (1) Headache (3) N/A (9) Nausea Or Vomiting (1) Pain (3) Back Pain (2) Palpitations (1) Psychiatric Symptoms (22) Vision Problems (1) Weight Loss (1)
Autoimmune Disease (5) Gout (2) Cancer (137) Breast Cancer (22) Colon Cancer (13) Gynecological (Endometrial, Ovarian, Cervical) Cancer (19) Lung Cancer (13) Prostate Cancer (13) Cardiovascular Disease (115) Acute Ischemic Limb (10) Acute Myocardial Infarction (27) Aneurysm (5) Cardiac Arrhythmia (13) Deep Vein Thrombosis/Intracardiac Thrombus (7) Heart Failure (12) Hypertensive Emergency (3) Dermatological Issues (19) Drug Addiction (9) Drug Overdose, Side Effects, or Withdrawal (98) Ear, Nose, or Throat Disease (15) Endocrine Disease (36) Diabetes (22) Gastrointestinal Disease (97) Acute Abdomen (66) Gynecological Disease (38) Hematological Disease (13) Hemorrhage (28) Infectious Disease (114) Epidural Abscess (2) Meningitis/Encephalitis (6) MRSA (6) Necrotizing Fasciitis (5) Pneumonia (16) Sepsis (51) Septic Arthritis (5) Liver Disease (3) Medical Device Malfunction Or Implantation Failure (3) Musculoskeletal Disease (43) Compartment Syndrome (4) N/A (121) Neurological Disease (176) Intracranial Hemorrhage (19) Ischemic Stroke (17) Spinal Injury Or Disorder (103) Obstetrical Complication (109) Ectopic Pregnancy (3) Obstetrical Hemorrhage (11) Preeclampsia (16) Ocular Disease (22) Post-operative/Operative Complication (272) Procedural Site Infection (23) Psychiatric Disorder (36) Pulmonary Disease (38) Asthma (4) Pneumothorax (8) Pulmonary Embolism (11) Renal Disease (21) Trauma Injury (58) Fracture(s) (38) Urological Disease (20) Testicular Torsion (5)
Accidental error (1) Accidental Medication Error (1) Diagnostic error (13) Failure to examine or evaluate patient properly (10) Underestimation of likelihood or severity (1) Unnecessary or excessive diagnostic tests (1) Ethics violation (4) Failure of communication with other providers (6) Failure of communication with patient or patient relations (5) Physician concern overridden (1) Failure to follow up (3) Failure to properly monitor patient (6) Improper treatment (25) Delay in proper treatment (1) Improper medication management (22) Lack of proper documentation (18) No error found (1)
Death (7) Hospital Bounce Back (1) N/A (28)
Case Rating
All Ratings 5 (1) 4 (1) 3 (8) 2 (12) 1 (14) 0 (0)
Case data, edits, and summaries provided herein are for informational purposes only and subject to copyright by Medical Board Cases. The information contained herein should NOT be used as a substitute for the advice of an appropriately qualified and licensed physician or other health care professional. Medical Board Cases is not associated or affiliated with any State Medical Board and does not maintain copyrights or hold ownership over original PDF documents that are available by State Medical Boards in the public domain.
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Delwyn D. Miller, MD
Katherine Griffin Professorship in Schizophrenia and Major Mental Illness
Professor of Psychiatry
1-291 Medical Education Building
del-miller@uiowa.edu
UIHC Profile Page
BS, Pharmacy, University of Iowa College of Pharmacy, Iowa City, IA
PharmD, Pharmacy, University of Kentucky College of Pharmacy, Lexington, KY
MD, Medicine, Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine, Cleveland, OH
Resident, Hospital and Clinical Pharmacy, University of Kentucky Hospitals and Clinics
Resident, Psychiatry, University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics, Department of Psychiatry, Iowa City, IA
Fellow, University of Iowa Carver College of Medicine, Iowa City, IA
Fellow, Schizophrenia, Mental Health Clinical Research Center for the Study of Schizophrenia, University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics, Iowa City, IA
Postdoctoral Fellow, University of Iowa Carver College of Medicine, Iowa City, IA
Licensure and Certifications
Psychiatry certification - American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology
Buckley, P. F., Schooler, N. R., Goff, D. C., Hsiao, J., Kopelowicz, A., Lauriello, J., Manschreck, T., Mendelowitz, A. J., Miller, D. D., Severe, J. B., Wilson, D. R., Ames, D., Bustillo, J., Mintz, J. & Kane, J. M. (2015). Comparison of SGA Oral Medications and a Long-Acting Injectable SGA: The PROACTIVE Study. Schizophrenia Bulletin, 41(2), 449-459. DOI: 10.1093/schbul/sbu067.
Buckley, P. F., Schooler, N. R., Goff, D. C., Hsiao, J., Kopelwicz, A., Lauriello, J., Manschreck, T., Mendelowitz, A. J., Miller, D. D., Severe, J. B., Wilson, D. R., Ames, D., Bustillo, J., Mintz, J., Kane, J. M. (2014). Comparison of SGA Oral Medications and a Long-Acting Injectable SGA: The PROACTIVE Study. Schizophrenia Bulletin. PMID: 24870446.
Sodhi, S. K., Linder, J., Chenard, C. A., Miller, D. D., Haynes, W. G. & Fiedorowicz, J. G. (2012). Evidence for accelerated vascular aging in bipolar disorder. Journal of Psychosomatic Research, 73(3), 175-9.
Keefe, R. S., Vinogradov, S., Medalia, A., Buckley, P. F., Caroff, S. N., D'Souza, D. C., Harvey, P. D., Graham, K. A., Hamer, R. M., Marder, S. M., Miller, D. D., Olson, S. J., Patel, J. K., Velligan, D., Walker, T. M., Haim, A. J. & Stroup, S. T. (2012). Feasibility and pilot efficacy results from the multisite Cognitive Remediation in the Schizophrenia Trials Network (CRSTN) randomized controlled trial. The Journal of Clinical Psychiatry, 73(7), 1016-22. PMID: 22687548.
Aberg, K., Adkins, D. E., Buksza, J., Webb, B. T., Caroff, S., Miller, D. D., Perkins, D., Sebat, J., Stroup, T. S., Vladimirov, V. I., McClay, J. L., Liberman, J. A., Sullivan, P. F. & van den Oord, E. J. (2012). Genome-wide association study of antipsychotic-induced QTc interval prolongation. The Pharmacogenomics Journal, 12(2), 165-72. PMID: 20921969.
Fiedorowicz, J. G., Miller, D. D., Bishop, J. R., Calarge, C. A., Ellingrod, V. L. & Haynes, W. G. (2012). Systematic Review and Meta-analysis of Pharmacological Interventions for Weight Gain from Antipsychotics and Mood Stabilizers. Current Psychiatry Reviews, 8(1), 25-36. PMID: 22712004.
Kerfoot, K. E., Rosenheck, R. A., Petrakis, I. L., Swartz, M. S., Keefe, R. S., McEvoy, J. P. & Stroup, T. S. (2011). Substance use and schizophrenia: Adverse correlates in the CATIE study sample. Schizophrenia Research, 132(2-3), 177-82. PMID: 21872443.
Chakos, M., Patel, J. K., Rosenheck, R., Glick, I. D., Hammer, M. B., Tapp, A., Miller, A. L. & Miller, D. (2011). Concomitant psychotropic medication use during treatment of schizophrenia patients: Longitudinal results from the CATIE study. Clinical Schizophrenia & Related Psychoses, 5(3), 124-34. PMID: 21983496.
Stroup, T. S., McEvoy, J. P., Ring, K. D., Hamer, R. H., LaVange, L. M., Swartz, M. S. & Rosenheck, R. A. (2011). A randomized trial examining the effectiveness of switching from olanzapine, quetiapine, or risperidone to aripiprazole to reduce metabolic risk: comparison of antipsychotics for metabolic problems (CAMP). The American Journal of Psychiatry, 168(9), 947-56.
Prabhakar, M., Haynes, W. G., Coryell, W. H., Chrischilles, E. A., Miller, D. D., Arndt, S., Ellingrod, V. L., Warren, L. & Fiedorowicz, J. G. (2011). Factors associated with the prescribing of olanzapine, quetiapine, and risperidone in patients with bipolar and related affective disorders. Pharmacotherapy, 31(8), 806-12. PMID: 21923607.
Calarge, C. A., Miller, D. D. (2011). Predictors of risperidone and 9-hydroxyrisperidone serum concentration in children and adolescents. Journal of Child and Adolescent Psychopharmacology, 21(2), 163-9. PMID: 21486167.
Caroff, S. N., Davis, V. G., Miller, D. D., Davis, S. M., Rosenheck, R. A., McEvoy, J. P., Saltz, B. L., Riggio, S., Chakos, M. H., Swartz, M., Keefe, R., Stroup, T. S. & Liberman, J. A. (2011). Treatment outcomes of patients with tardive dyskinesia and chronic schizophrenia. The Journal of Clinical Psychiatry, 72(3), 295-303.
Bishop, J. R., Miller, D. D., Ellingrod, V. L. & Holman, T. (2011). Association between type-three metabotropic glutamate receptor gene (GRM3) variants and symptom presentation in treatment refractory schizophrenia. Human Psychopharmacology, 26(1), 28-34. PMID: 21344500.
Sodhi, S., Linder, J., Coryell, W. H., Miller, D. D. & Fiedorowicz, J. G. (2011). Health behaviors contribute to arterial stiffness later in the course of bipolar disorder. Poster Presented at the 50th Annual Meeting of ACNP.
Caroff, S. N., Miller, D. D., Dhopesh, V. & Campbell, E. C. (2011). Is there a rational management strategy for tardive dyskinesia?. Current Psychiatry, 10(10), 23-32.
Foster, A., Miller, D. D. & Buckley, P. (2010). Pharmacogenetics and schizophrenia. Clinics in Laboratory Medicine, 30(4), 975-93. PMID: 20832661.
Andreasen, N. C., Pressler, M., Nopoulos, P., Miller, D. D. & Kane, J. (2010). Antipsychotic Dose-Years: A Quantitative Method for Measuring Dose Equivalents and Cumulative Drug Exposure. Biological Psychiatry, 67(3), 255-262. PMID: 19897178.
Tsai, H. T., Caroff, S. N., Miller, D. D., McEvoy, J., North, K., Stroup, T. S. & Sullivan, P. F. (2010). A candidate gene study of Tardive dyskinesia in the CATIE schizophrenia trial. American Journal of Medical Genetics, 153B(1), 336-40.
Aberg, K., Adkins, D. E., Buksza, J., Webb, B. T., Caroff, S., Miller, D., Perkins, D., Sebat, J., Stroup, T. S., Vladimirov, V. I., McClay, J. L., Liberman, J. A., Sullivan, P. F. & Van den Oord (2010). Genome-wide association study of movement-related adverse drug effects in schizophrenic patients. Biological Psychiatry, 67(3), 279-282.
Jin, Y., Pollock, B. G., Coley, K., Miller, D. D., Marder, S. R., Florian, J., Kirshner, M. & Bies, R. R. (2010). Population pharmacokinetics of perphenazine in schizophrenia patients from CATIE: Impact of race and smoking. Journal of Clinical Pharmacology, 50(1), 73-80. PMID: 19843655.
Calarge, C. A., Ellingrod, V. L., Acion, L., Miller, D. D., Moline, J., Tansey, M. J. & Schlechte, J. A. (2009). Variants of the dopamine D2 receptor gene and risperidone-induced hyperprolactinemia in children and adolescents. Pharmacogenetics and Genomics, 19(5), 373-82. PMID: 19339912.
Lieberman, J. A., Papadakis, K., Csernansky, J., Litman, R., Volavka, J., Jia, X. D., Gage, A. & MEM-MD-29 Study Group (2009). A randomized, placebo-controlled study of memantine as adjunctive treatment in patients with schizophrenia. Neuropsychopharmacology, 34(5), 1322-9. PMID: 19005465.
Bishop, J. R., Miller, D. D., Ellingrod, V. L. & Holman, T. L. (2009). Association between GRM3 and GRIN2B gene variants and symptoms in treatment refractory schizophrenia. Abstracts of the International Congress on Schizophrenia Research Meeting.
Grove, T. B., Taylor, S. F., Moline, J., Miller, D. D., Holman, T. & Kerr, J. (2009). Pharmacogenetics of Folic Acid Metabolism and Metabolic Disturbances in Schizophrenia. Abstracts of the International Congress on Schizophrenia Research Meeting.
Ellingrod, V. L., Meden, M., Grove, T. B., Taylor, S. F., Moline, J., Miller, D. D., Holman, T. & Kerr, J. (2009). Relationship between the Adiponectin (APM1) 276G/T variant and metabolic disturbances in a schizophrenia population receiving antipsychotics. Abstracts of the International Congress on Schizophrenia Research Meeting.
Feng, Y., Pollock, B. G., Coley, K., Marder, S., Miller, D. D., Aravagiri, M., Kirshner, M. A. & Bies, R. R. (2008). Population pharmacokinetic analysis for risperidone using highly sparse sampling measurements from the CATIE study. British Journal of Clinical Pharmacology, 66(5), 629-39. PMID: 18771484.
Miller, D. D., Caroff, S. N., Davis, S. M., Rosenheck, R. A., McEvoy, J. P., Saltz, B. L., Riggio, S., Chakos, M. H., Swartz, M., Keefe, R., Stroup, S. & Liberman, J. A. (2008). Extrapyramidal side-effects of antipsychotics in a randomized trial. The British Journal of Psychiatry, 193(4), 279-88. PMID: 18827289.
Fiedorowicz, J. G., Palagummi, N. M., Forman-Hoffman, V. L., Miller, D. D. & Haynes, W. G. (2008). Elevated prevalence of obesity, metabolic syndrome, and cardiovascular risk factors in bipolar disorder. Annals of Clinical Psychiatry, 20(3), 131-7. PMID: 18633739.
Swartz, M. S., Wagner, H. R., Swanson, J. W., Stroup, T. S., McEvoy, J. P., Reimherr, F., Miller, D. D., McGee, M., Khan, A., Canive, J. M., Davis, S. M., Hsiao, J. K. & Liberman, J. A. (2008). The effectiveness of antipsychotic medications in patients who use or avoid illicit substances: Results from the CATIE study. Schizophrenia Research, 100(1-3), 39-52. PMID: 18191383.
Bigos, K. L., Pollock, B. G., Coley, K. C., Miller, D. D., Marder, S. R., Arvagiri, M., Kirshner, M. A., Schneider, L. S. & Bies, R. R. (2008). Sex, race, and smoking impact olanzapine exposure. Journal of Clinical Pharmacology, 48(2), 157-65. PMID: 18199892.
Ellingrod, V. L., Miller, D. D., Taylor, S. F., Moline, J., Holman, T. & Kerr, J. (2008). Metabolic syndrome and insulin resistance in schizophrenia patients receiving antipsychotics genotyped for the methylenetetrahydrofolate reductase (MTHFR) 677C/T and 1298A/C variants. Schizophrenia Research, 98(1-3), 47-54. PMID: 17976958.
Ellingrod, V. L., Grove, T. B., Taylor, S. F., Moline, J., Miller, D. D., Holman, T., Kerr, J. & Kerr, J. (2008). Relationship Between The Methylenetetrahydrofolate Reductase (MTHFR) 677C/T And Brain Derived Neurotrophic Factor (BNDF) Val66Met Variants And Metabolic Complications Seen With Antipsychotic Use In Schizophrenia Subjects. pp. 206. Abstracts of the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology (ACNP) 47th Annual Meeting.
Miller, D. D., Eudicone, J. M., Pikalov, A., Vester-Blokland, E. & Kim, E. (2007). Comparative assessment of the incidence and severity of tardive dyskinesia in patients receiving aripiprazole or haloperidol for the treatment of schizophrenia: A post hoc analysis. The Journal of Clinical Psychiatry, 68(12), 1901-1906. PMID: 18162021.
Moore, T. A., Buchanan, R. W., Buckley, P. F., Chiles, J. A., Conley, R. R., Crismon, M. L., Essock, S. M., Finnerty, M., Marder, S. R., Miller, D. D., McEvoy, J. P., Robinson, D., Schooler, N. R., Shon, S. P., Stroup, T. S. & Miller, A. L. (2007). The Texas Medication Algorithm Project antipsychotic algorithm for schizophrenia: 2006 update. The Journal of Clinical Psychiatry, 68(11), 1751-62. PMID: 18052569.
Foster, A., Miller, D. D. & Buckley, P. F. (2007). Pharmacogenetics and Schizophrenia. The Psychiatric Clinics of North America, 30(3), 417-35. PMID: 17720030.
Jin, Y., Pollock, B. G., Coley, K., Miller, D. D., Marder, S., Kirshner, M. A. & Bies, R. R. (2007). Population pharmacokinetics of perphenazine in schizophrenia patients from CATIE: Impact of race, smoking and concomitant medications. Abstracts of the 3rd Great Lake Symposium.
Ellingrod, V. L., Miller, D. D., Taylor, S. F., Holman, T. L., Kerr, J. & Moline, J. (2007). Association between the Methylenetetrahydrofolate Reductase (MTHFR) 677C/T Variant and Atypical Antipsychotics (AAPs). pp. 503. Abstracts of the Sixth Annual Pharmacogenetics in Psychiatry Meeting.
Ellingrod, V. L., Bishop, J. R., Moline, J., Lin, Y. C. & Miller, D. D. (2007). Leptin and leptin receptor gene polymorphisms and increases in body mass index (BMI) from olanzapine treatment in persons with schizophrenia. Psychopharmacology Bulletin, 40(1), 57-62. PMID: 17285096.
Miller, D. D. (2007). Sedation with Antipsychotics: Manage, don't accept adverse 'calming' effect. Current Psychiatry, 6(8), 38-51.
Miller, D. D., Kim, E., Eudicone, J., Pikalov, A. A. & Vester-Blokland, E. (2007). Treatment-Emergent Tardive Dyskinesia in Patients Receiving Aripiprazole or Haloperidol for the Treatment of Schizophrenia or Schizoaffective Disorder. (Vols. 33). (2) Abstracts of the XX International Congress on Schizophrenia Research Meeting. Schizophrenia Bulletin.
Lin, Y. C., Ellingrod, V. L., Bishop, J. R. & Miller, D. D. (2006). The relationship between P-glycoprotein (PGP) polymorphisms and response to olanzapine treatment in schizophrenia. Therapeutic Drug Monitoring, 28(5), 668-72. PMID: 17038883.
Keefe, R. S., Bilder, R. M., Harvey, P. D., Davis, S. M., Palmer, B. W., Gold, J. M., Meltzer, H. Y., Green, M. F., Miller, D. D., Canive, J. M., Adler, L., Manschreck, T., Schwartz, M., Rosenheck, R. A., Perkins, D. O., Walker, T. M., Stroup, T. S., McEvoy, J. P. & Liberman, J. A. (2006). Baseline neurocognitive deficits in the CATIE schizophrenia trial. Neuropsychopharmacology, 31(9), 2033-46. PMID: 16641947.
Chakos, M. H., Glick, I. D., Miller, A. L., Hamner, M. B., Miller, D. D., Patel, J. K., Tapp, A., Keefe, R. S. & Rosenheck, R. (2006). Baseline use of concomitant psychotropic medications to treat schizophrenia in the CATIE trial. Psychiatric Services (Washington, D.C.), 57(8), 1094-1101. PMID: 16870959.
Swartz, M. S., Wagner, H. R., Swanson, J. W., Stroup, T. S., McEvoy, J. P., McGee, M., Miller, D. D., Reimherr, F., Kahn, A., Canive, J. M. & Lieberman, J. A. (2006). Substance use and psychosocial functioning in schizophrenia among new enrollees in the NIMH CATIE study. Psychiatric Services (Washington, D.C.), 57(8), 1110-6. PMID: 16870961.
Swartz, M. S., Wagner, H. R., Swanson, J. W., Stroup, T. S., McEvoy, J. P., Canive, J. M., Miller, D. D., Remiherr, F., McGee, M., Kahn, A., Van Dorn, R., Rosenheck, R. A. & Liberman, J. A. (2006). Substance use in persons with schizophrenia: Baseline prevalence and correlates from the NIMH CATIE study. The Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease, 194(3), 164-72. PMID: 16534433.
Bishop, J. R., Ellingrod, V. L., Moline, J. & Miller, D. D. (2006). Pilot study of the G-protein beta3 subunit gene (C825T) polymorphism and clinical response to olanzapine or olanzapine-related weight gain in persons with schizophrenia. Medical Science Monitor, 12(2), BR47-50. PMID: 16449941.
Feng, Y., Pollock, B. G., Coley, K., Marder, S. R., Aravagiri, M., Miller, D. D., Kirshner, M. A. & Bies, R. R. (2006). Assessing Sources of Variability in Risperidone Pharmacogenetics: A Population Analysis of Risperidone Using Highly Sparse Sampling Measurements from the CATIE Study. (Vols. 59). pp. 230S. Biological Psychiatry.
Chakors, M. H., Glick, I., Miller, A., Tapp, A., Hammer, M. B., Miller, D. D., Patel, J. & Rosenheck, R. (2006). Concomitant Psychotropic Medications in Treatment of Schizophrenic Patients: Baseline Use in the CATIE Trial. (Vols. 59). pp. 154S. Biological Psychiatry.
Miller, D. D., Kim, E., Eudicone, J., Pikalov, A. A., Vester-Blokland, E. & Coryell, W. H. (2006). Incidence and Severity of Tardive Dyskinesia in Patients Receiving Aripiprazole or Haloperidol for the Treatment of Schizophrenia or Schizoaffective Disorder. (Vols. 29). (Suppl. 1), pp. S175. Abstracts of the ACNP 45th Annual Meeting.
Ellingrod, V. L., Bishop, J. R., Moline, J., Lin, Y. C. & Miller, D. D. (2006). Leptin and Leptin Receptor Gene Polymorphisms and Increases in Body Mass Index (BMI) from Olanzapine Treatment in Persons with Schizophrenia. Abstracts of the fifth Annual Pharmacogenetics in Psychiatry Meeting (New York, NY).
Chew, M. L., Pollock, B. G., Coley, K., Marder, S. R., Miller, D. D. & Bies, R. R. (2006). Population Pharmacokinetic Model of Quetiapine Using Highly Sparse Data from the CATIE Study. Biological Psychiatry, 59, 74S.
Bigos, K. L., Pollock, B. G., Coley, K., Marder, S. R., Miller, D. D., Kirshner, M. A. & Bies, R. R. (2006). Sources of Variability in Olanzapine Exposure from the CATIE-AD Study. (Vols. 59). pp. 140S. Biological Psychiatry.
Miller, D. D., McEvoy, J. P., Davis, S. M., Caroff, S. N. & Saltz, B. L. (2005). Clinical correlates of tardive dyskinesia in schizophrenia: baseline data from the CATIE schizophrenia trial. Schizophrenia Research, 80(1), 33-43. PMID: 16171976.
Buckley, P. F., Miller, D. D., Singer, B., Arena, J. & Stirewalt, E. M. (2005). Clinicians' recognition of the metabolic adverse effects of antipsychotic medications. Schizophrenia Research, 79(2-3), 281-8. PMID: 15964743.
Bishop, J. R., Ellingrod, V. L., Moline, J. & Miller, D. D. (2005). Association between the polymorphic GRM3 gene and negative symptom improvement during olanzapine treatment. Schizophrenia Research, 77(3-Feb), 253-260. PMID: 15913960.
Perry, P. J., Argo, T. R., Carnahan, R. M., Lund, B. C., Holman, T. L., Ellingrod, V. L. & Miller, D. D. (2005). The association of weight gain and olanzapine plasma concentrations. Journal of Clinical Psychopharmacology, 25(3), 250-4. PMID: 15876904.
Ellingrod, V. L., Perry, P. J., Ringold, J. C., Lund, B. C., Bever-Stille, K., Fleming, F., Holman, T. L. & Miller, D. D. (2005). Weight gain associated with the -759C/T polymorphism of the 5HT2C receptor and olanzapine. American Journal of Medical Genetics, 134B(1), 76-8. PMID: 15666332.
Miller, D. D., Ellingrod, V. L., Holman, T. L., Buckley, P. F. & Arndt, S. (2005). Clozapine-induced weight gain associated with the 5HT2C receptor -759C/T polymorphism. American Journal of Medical Genetics, 133B(1), 97-100. PMID: 15635667.
Miller, D. D., Ellingrod, V. L., Holman, T. L. & Buckley, P. F. (2005). 5HT2C Receptor Polymorphisms, Weigh Gain, and Clinical Response to Clozapine Treatment. (Vols. 31). (2), pp. 273. Schizophrenia Bulletin.
Ellingrod, V. L., Moline, J. & Miller, D. D. (2005). Association between the polymorphic GRM3 gene and negative symptom improvement during olanzapine treatment. Abstracts of the Fourth Annual Pharmacogenetics in Psychiatry Meeting.
Keefe, R. S., Bilder, R. M., Harvey, P. D., Davis, S., Palmer, B., Gold, J. M., Meltzer, H. Y., Green, M. F., Miller, D. D., Canive, J., Adler, L., Manschreck, T., Swartz, M., Rosenheck, R., Perkins, D. O., Walker, T. M., Stroup, T. S., McEvoy, J. P. & Liberman, J. A. (2005). Baseline Neurocognitive Assessment of 1364 Patients with Schizophrenia in the Clinical Antipsychotic Trials for Intervention Effectiveness (CATIE) Project. (Vols. 31). (2), pp. 361. Schizophrenia Bulletin.
Stirewalt, E. M., Miller, D. D., Singer, B. & Buckley, P. F. (2005). Implementing Guideline Recommendations for Managing Metabolic Effects of Antipsychotic Medications. (Vols. 31). (2), pp. 270. Schizophrenia Bulletin.
Ellingrod, V. L., Miller, D. D., Ringold, J. C. & Perry, P. J. (2004). Distribution of the serotonin 2C (5HT2C) receptor gene -759C/T polymorphism in patients with schizophrenia and normal controls. Psychiatric Genetics, 14(2), 93-5. PMID: 15167695.
Miller, A., Hall, C. S., Buchanan, R. W., Buckley, P. F., Chiles, J. A., Conley, R. R., Crimson, M. L., Ereshefsky, L., Essock, S. M., Finnerty, M., Marder, S. M., Miller, D. D., McEvoy, J., Rush, A. J., Saeed, S. A., Schooler, N. R., Shon, S., Stroup, S. & Tarin-Godoy, B. (2004). The Texas Medication Algorithm Project antipsychotic algorithm for schizophrenia: 2003 update. The Journal of Clinical Psychiatry, 65(4), 500-8. PMID: 15119912.
Miller, D. D. (2004). -759C/T and Cys23Ser Polymorphisms of the 5HT2C Receptor, weight gain, and Clinical Responses Associated with Clozapine Treatment. Third Annual Pharmacogenetics in Psychiatry Meeting.
Miller, D. D. (2004). Atypical antipsychotics: Sleep, Sedation, and Efficacy. Primary Care Companion to The Journal of Clinical Psychiatry, 6(Suppl 2), 3-7. PMID: 16001094.
Buckley, P. F., Miller, D. D., Stirewalt, E. M., Singer, B. & Arena, J. (2004). Diabetes and Antipsychotic Medication; Are we Ready?. (Vols. 29). (Suppl 1), pp. S110. Abstracts of the ACNP 43rd Annual Meeting.
Miller, D. D., Ellingrod, V. L., Holman, T. L. & Buckley, P. F. (2004). Polymorphisms of the Genes that Code for the 5HT2C Receptor, Weight Gain, and Clinical Response During Clozapine Treatment. (Vols. 29). (Suppl 1), pp. S175. Abstracts of the ACNP 43rd Annual Meeting.
Miller, D. D. (2003). Clozapine and tardive dyskinesia. The American Journal of Psychiatry, 160(3), 588. PMID: 12611849.
Ellingrod, V. L., Lund, B. C., Miller, D. D., Fleming, F. & Perry, P. (2003). 5-HT2A receptor promoter polymorphism, -1438G/A and negative symptom response to olanzapine in schizophrenia. Psychopharmacology Bulletin, 37(2), 109-12. PMID: 14566219.
Miller, D. D., Ellingrod, V. L. & Buckley, P. F. (2003). Clozapine-induced weight gain associated with the -759C/T polymorphism of the 5HT2C receptor. pp. 380. Abstracts of the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology.
Miller, D. D., Ellingrod, V. L., Holman, T. L., Buckley, P. F. & Singer, B. (2003). Weight gain associated with the -759 C/T polymorphism of the 5HT2C receptor and clozapine. pp. 380. Abstracts of the Second Annual Pharmacogenetics in Psychiatry Meeting.
Ellingrod, V. L., Perry, P. J., Lund, B. C., Bever-Stille, K., Fleming, F., Holman, T. L. & Miller, D. D. (2002). 5HT2A and 5HT2C receptor polymorphisms and predicting clinical response to olanzapine in schizophrenia. Journal of Clinical Psychopharmacology, 22(6), 622-4. PMID: 12454564.
Corson, P. W., O'Leary, D. S., Miller, D. & Andreasen, N. C. (2002). The effects of neuroleptic medications on basal ganglia blood flow in schizophreniform disorders: a comparison between the neuroleptic-naive and medicated states. Biological Psychiatry, 52(9), 855-62. PMID: 12399138.
Ellingrod, V. L., Miller, D. D., Schultz, S. K., Wehring, H. & Arndt, S. (2002). CYP2D6 polymorphisms and atypical antipsychotic weight gain. Psychiatric Genetics, 12(1), 55-8. PMID: 11901361.
Miller, D. D., Schultz, S. K. (2002). Differential diagnosis of schizophrenia. In J. Csernansky (Eds.) Schizophrenia: A New Guide for Clinicians. pp. 53-68. Marcell Decker, Inc..
Lund, B. C., Perry, P. J. & Miller, D. D. (2001). Treating depression in schizophrenia. The American Journal of Psychiatry, 158(9), 1528-9. PMID: 11532750.
Buckley, P. F., Friedman, L., Krowinski, A. C., Eaton, Y., Tronetti, M. & Miller, D. D. (2001). Clinical and biochemical correlates of "high-dose" clozapine therapy for treatment-refractory schizophrenia. Schizophrenia Research, 49(2-Jan), 225-7. PMID: 11428347.
Miller, D. D., Andreasen, N. C., O'Leary, D. S., Watkins, G. L., Boles Ponto, L. L. & Csernansky, J. (2001). Comparison of the effects of risperidone and haloperidol on regional cerebral blood flow in schizophrenia. Biological Psychiatry, 49(8), 704-15. PMID: 11313038.
Buckley, P. F., Miller, D. D., Singer, B. & Donenwirth, K. (2001). The evolving clinical profile of atypical antipsychotic medications. Canadian Journal of Psychiatry, 46(3), 285. PMID: 11320683.
Perry, P. J., Ellingrod, V. L., Bever-Stille, K. A., Lund, B. C., Miller, D. D. & Fleming, F. W. (2001). 5HT2A receptor polymorphisms and negative symptom response to olanzapine. (Vols. 49). (1-2), pp. 78. Schizophrenia Research.
Miller, D. D., O'Leary, D. S. & Andreasen, N. C. (2001). Differences in the effect of risperidone and haloperidol on rCBF in patients with schizophrenia performing a practiced memory task. pp. 380. Abstracts of the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology (ACNP).
Nopoulos, P. C., Miller, D. D., Flaum, M. & Andreasen, N. C. (2001). Issues in the assessment of negative symptom treatment response. In Negative Symptom and Cognitive Treatment Response in Schizophrenia. pp. 19-32. American Psychiatric Press.
Ellingrod, V. L., Miller, D. D., Schultz, S. K., Arndt, S. & Wehring, H. J. (2001). Polymorphisms of CYP2D6 as a risk factor for weight gain with olanzapine. (Vols. 49). (1-2), pp. 283. Schizophrenia Research.
Miller, D. D., Tandon, R. (2001). The biology and pathophysiology of negative symptoms. In Negative Symptom and Cognitive Treatment Response in Schizophrenia. pp. 163-186. American Psychiatric Press.
Buckley, P., Miller, A., Olsen, J., Garver, D. & Miller, D. D. (2001). When symptoms persist: Clozapine augmentation strategies. Schizophrenia Bulletin, 27(4), 615-28. PMID: 11824488.
Ho, B. C., Andreasen, N. C., Flaum, M., Nopoulos, P. & Miller, D. (2000). Untreated initial psychosis: Its relation to quality of life and symptom remission in first-episode schizophrenia. The American Journal of Psychiatry, 157(5), 808-15. PMID: 10784476.
Miller, D. D., O'Leary, D. S. & Andreasen, N. C. (2000). Differences in the effect of risperidone and haloperidol on rCBF in patients with schizophrenia performing a practiced memory task. pp. 312. Abstracts of the American College of Neuropsychoparmacology (ACNP) 39th Annual Meeting.
Miller, D. D. (2000). Optimization of clozapine treatment. pp. 52. Abstracts of the American Psychiatric Association (APA) Annual Meeting.
Miller, D. D. (2000). Review and management of clozapine side effects. The Journal of Clinical Psychiatry, 61 Suppl 8, 14-7; discussion 18-9. PMID: 10811238.
Ho, B. C., Miller, D., Nopoulos, P. & Andreasen, N. C. (1999). A comparative effectiveness study of risperidone and olanzapine in the treatment of schizophrenia. The Journal of Clinical Psychiatry, 60(10), 658-63. PMID: 10549681.
Andreasen, N. C., Nopoulos, P., O'Leary, D. S., Miller, D. D. & Wassink, T. (1999). Defining the phenotype of schizophrenia: Cognitive dysmetria and its neural mechanisms. Biological Psychiatry, 46(7), 908-20. PMID: 10509174.
Corson, P. W., Nopoulos, P., Miller, D. D., Arndt, S. & Andreasen, N. C. (1999). Change in basal ganglia volume over 2 years in patients with schizophrenia: typical versus atypical neuroleptics. The American Journal of Psychiatry, 156(8), 1200-4. PMID: 10450260.
Meltzer, H. Y., Casey, D. E., Garver, D. C., Lasagna, L., Marder, S. R. & Masand, P. S. (1999). Clinical trial evaluations and outcome measures in psychiatry. Journal of Clinical Psychiatry, 59(12), 1-1.
Miller, D. D., O'Leary, D. S. & Andreasen, N. C. (1999). Comparison of the effect of haloperidol and resperidone on regional cerebral blood flow in schizophrenia. (Vols. 36). (3), pp. 228. Schizophrenia Research.
Miller, D. D., O'Leary, D. S. & Andreasen, N. C. (1999). Comparison of the effects of haloperidol and risperidone on rCBF in patients with schizophrenia performing a complex narrative task. pp. 278. Abstracts of the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology (ACNP).
Schultz, S. K., Miller, D. D. (1999). Effects of aging on psychotropic efficacy and toxicity. In Psychiatric Treatment in the Medically Ill. pp. 499-521. Marcell Decker, Inc..
Flaum, M. A., Magnotta, V., Sears, L., Arndt, S., O'Leary, D. S., Miller, D. D. & Andreasen, N. C. (1999). Effects of olanzapine on regional cerbral blood flow as assessed by functional magnetic resonance imaging in patients with schizophrenia. (Vols. 36). (3), pp. 221. Schizophrenia Research.
Miller, D. D., Schooler, N. R., Kane, J. M., Marder, S. R., Miller, A. L., Conley, R. R., Essock, S., Volavka, J. V., Glick, I. D. & Davis, J. M. (1999). New methodological issues in the study of treatment-refractory schizophrenia. pp. 41. Abstracts of the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology (ACNP).
Miller, D. D., O'Leary, D. S. & Andreasen, N. C. (1999). The relationship between haloperidol dose and regional cerebral blood flow in persons with schizophrenia. (Vols. 36). (6), pp. 228. Schizophrenia Research.
Buckely, P. F., Miller, D. D., Singer, B. & Donenwirth, K. (1999). What's new with the new antipsychotics. pp. 202. Abstracts of the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology (ACNP).
Westmoreland Corson, P., Miller, D. D., O'Leary, D. & Andreasen, N. C. (1998). Cerebral Blood flow in the caudate and putamen of neuroleptic naïve schizophrenic patients. pp. 333. Abstracts of the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology (ACNP).
Miller, D. D., O'Leary, D. S. & Andreasen, N. C. (1998). Comparison of the effect of haloperidol and resperidone on regional cerebral blood flow in schizophrenia. pp. 336. Abstracts of the American Colleg of Neuropsychopharmacology.
Miller, D. D., O'Leary, D. S., Cizaldo, T. & Andreasen, N. C. (1998). Comparison of the effect of typical and atypical antipsychotics on regional cerebral blood flow in schizophrenia. Abstracts of the Congress of the Collegium Internationale Neuropsychopharmacologicum (CINP) 21st Annual Meeting.
Coryell, W., Miller, D. D. & Perry, P. J. (1998). Haloperidol plasma levels and dose optimization. The American Journal of Psychiatry, 155(1), 48-53. PMID: 9433338.
Ho, B. C., Miller, D. D. & Andreasen, N. C. (1998). The Efficacy of Risperidone in the Maintenance Treatment of Patients with Recent-onset Schizophrenia. Abstracts of the Congress of the Collegium Internationale Neuropsychopharmacologicum (CINP) 21st Annual Meeting.
Miller, D. D., Andreasen, N. C., O'Leary, D. S., Rezai, K. & Watkins, G. L. (1997). Effect of antipsychotics on regional cerebral blood flow measured with positron emission tomography. Neuropsychopharmacology, 17(4), 230-40. PMID: 9326747.
Miller, D. D., Rezai, K., Alliger, R. & Andreasen, N. C. (1997). The effect of antipsychotic medication on relative cerebral blood perfusion in schizophrenia: assessment with technetium-99m hexamethyl-propyleneamine oxime single photon emission computed tomography. Biological Psychiatry, 41(5), 550-9. PMID: 9046987.
Miller, D. D., O'Leary, D. S., Cizaldo, T., Hichwa, R. D. & Andreasen, N. C. (1997). Comparison of the effect of typical and atypical antipsychotics on regional cerebral blood flow in schizophrenia. pp. 298. Abstracts of the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology (ACNP).
Andreasen, N. C., Flaum, M., Schultz, S., Duzyurek, S., Miller, D. D. & Andreasen, N. C. (1997). Diagnosis, methodology and subtypes of schizophrenia. Neuropsychobiology, 35(2), 61-3. PMID: 9097293.
Schultz, S., Miller, D. D., Arndt, S. V. & Andreasen, N. C. (1997). Effects of low versus high potency neuroleptic withdrawal on symptoms and dyskinetic movements. (Vols. 24). pp. 266. Schizophrenia Research.
Buckely, P. F., Miller, D. D., Richman, C., Chapman, P., Negron, A. & Friedman, L. (1997). Electroencephalographic pattern, side-effect profile and clozapine plasma levels in patients receiving 900 mg of clozapine. (Vols. 24). pp. 264. Schizophrenia Research.
Miller, D. D. (1997). Long-term use of atypical antipsychotics. Abstracts of the 150th Annual Meeting of the American Psychiatric Association.
Miller, D. D., Ziebell, S., Nopoulos, P. & Andreasen, N. C. (1997). Risperidone versus haloperidol in a longitudinal follow-up of recent-onset schizophrenia. (Vols. 24). pp. 195. Schizophrenia Research.
Schultz, S. K., Miller, D. D., Oliver, S. E., Arndt, S. & Flaum, M. (1997). The life course of schizophrenia: Age and symptom dimensions. Schizophrenia Research, 23(1), 15-23. PMID: 9050124.
Miller, D. D. (1996). Sedation--therapeutic or side effect in psychoses. Pharmacotherapy, 16(6 Pt 2), 141S-142S. PMID: 8947996.
Consensus Study Group on Risperidone Dosing, Borison, R. L., Romano, S., Daniel, D. G., Davidson, J., DeVane, C. L., Hansen, M. S., Horne, R., Miller, D. D. & Remington, G. (1996). Changing antipsychotic medication: Guidelines on the transition to treatment with risperidone. The Consensus Study Group on Risperidone Dosing. Clinical Therapeutics, 18(4), 592-607; discussion 591. PMID: 8879889.
Miller, D. D. (1996). The clinical use of clozapine plasma concentrations in the management of treatment-refractory schizophrenia. Annals of Clinical Psychiatry, 8(2), 99-109. PMID: 8807035.
Miller, D. D., Schultz, S. & Alexander, B. (1996). Rational Pharmacological Approaches in the Management of Treatment-Resistant Schizophrenia. Psychiatric Clinics of North America, 3, 89-118.
Miller, D. D., Ziebell, S., Nopoulos, P. & Andreasen, N. C. (1996). Risperidone versus haloperidol in a naturalistic follow-up of recent-onset schizophrenia. Abstracts of the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology.
Miller, D. D. (1996). Schizophrenia: Its Etiology and Impact. Pharmacotherapy, 16(1 Pt 2), 2-5. PMID: 8778683.
Schultz, S. K., Miller, D. D., Arndt, S., Ziebell, S., Gupta, S. & Andreasen, N. C. (1995). Withdrawal-emergent dyskinesia in patients with schizophrenia during antipsychotic discontinuation. Biological Psychiatry, 38(11), 713-9. PMID: 8580223.
Flaum, M., O'Leary, D. S., Swayze, V. W., Miller, D. D. & Arndt, S. (1995). Symptom dimensions and brain morphology in schizophrenia and related psychotic disorders. Journal of Psychiatric Research, 29(4), 261-76. PMID: 8847654.
Arndt, S., Andreasen, N. C., Flaum, M., Miller, D. D. & Nopoulos, P. (1995). A longitudinal study of symptom dimensions in schizophrenia. Prediction and patterns of change. Archives of General Psychiatry, 52(5), 352-60. PMID: 7726715.
Andreasen, N. C., Arndt, S., Alliger, R., Miller, D. D., Flaum, M. & Andreasen, N. C. (1995). Symptoms of schizophrenia. Methods, meanings, and mechanisms. Archives of General Psychiatry, 52(5), 341-51. PMID: 7726714.
Buckley, P. F., Krowinski, A. C., Miller, D. D., Friedman, L., Eaton, Y. & Tronetti, M. (1995). Clozapine plasma levels and clinical efficacy at 900 mg dose. Abstracts of the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology (ACNP) 34th Annual Meetign.
Andreasen, N. C., Arndt, S., Miller, D. D., Flaum, M. & Nopoulos, P. (1995). Correlational studies of the Scale for the Assessment of Negative Symptoms and the Scale for the Assessment of Positive Symptoms: an overview and update. Psychopathology, 28(1), 7-17. PMID: 7871123.
Schultz, S., Travis, K., Ziebell, S., Miller, D. D., Arndt, S. & Andreasen, N. C. (1995). Polydipsia and schizophrenia: A comparison of neuroleptic-naïve and treated patients. (Vols. 15). pp. 165. Schizophrenia Research.
Schultz, S., Zeibell, S., Miller, D. D., Arndt, S. & Andreasen, N. C. (1995). Schizophrenia and aging: A comparison of symptoms. Abstracts of the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology (ACNP).
Coryell, W. H., Miller, D. D. & Perry, P. J. (1995). The clinical utility of haloperidol plasma levels. (Vols. 15). pp. 146. Schizophrenia Research.
Miller, D. D., Flaum, M. A., Nopoulos, P., Arndt, S. & Andreasen, N. C. (1995). The concept of dose years: A reliable method for calculating lifetime psychotropic drug exposure. (Vols. 15). pp. 159. Schizophrenia Research.
Miller, D. D., O'Leary, D. S., Hichwa, R. D., Nopolous, P. & Andreasen, N. C. (1995). The effect of antipsychotic medication on PET studies of cerebral blood flow during tasks assessing language and memory in schizophrenia. (Vols. 15). pp. 92. Schizophrenia Research.
Beck, D. A., Miller, D. D. (1994). Clozapine-associated neutropenic enterocolitis. Annals of Clinical Psychiatry, 6(3), 185-8. PMID: 7881499.
Miller, D. D., Fleming, F., Holman, T. L. & Perry, P. J. (1994). Plasma clozapine concentrations as a predictor of clinical response: a follow-up study. The Journal of Clinical Psychiatry, 55 Suppl B, 117-21. PMID: 7961554.
Miller, D. D., Flaum, M., Arndt, S., Fleming, F. & Andreasen, N. C. (1994). Effect of antipsychotic withdrawal on negative symptoms in schizophrenia. Neuropsychopharmacology, 11(1), 11-20. PMID: 7945739.
Andreasen, N. C., Miller, D. D., Flaum, M., Schultz, S., Nopolous, P. & Gupta, S. (1994). Assessing and Treating the Negative Symptoms of Schizophrenia. (Vols. 10). (3S), pp. 70S. Neuropsychopharmacology.
Miller, D. D., Perry, P. J., Cadoret, R. J. & Andreasen, N. C. (1994). Clozapine's effect on negative symptoms in treatment-refractory schizophrenics. Comprehensive Psychiatry, 35(1), 8-15. PMID: 8149734.
Miller, D. D., Perry, P. J., Cadoret, R. J. & Andreasen, N. C. (1994). Clozapine's effect on negative symptoms in treatment-resistant schizophrenics. (Vols. 2). (4), pp. 88-91. Focus on Psychiatry 2.
Andreasen, N. C., Miller, D. D., Nopoulos, P., Schultz, S., Gupta, S. & Flaum, M. (1994). Issues in the Assessment of Negative Symptoms. Abstracts of the 150th Annual Meeting of the American Psychiatric Association.
Andreasen, N. C., Nopoulos, P., Schultz, S., Miller, D. D., Gupta, S., Swayze, V. & Flaum, M. (1994). Positive and negative symptoms of schizophrenia: Past, present, and future. Acta psychiatrica Scandinavica, 384, 51-9. PMID: 7879644.
Andreasen, N. C., Arndt, S., Miller, D. D., Flaum, M. A., O'Leary, D. S. & Nopolous, P. (1994). The Clinical and Biological Significance of Negative and Affective Symptoms. (Vols. 10). (3S), pp. 150S. Neuropsychopharmacology.
Miller, D. D., O'Leary, D. S., Hichwa, R. D., Nopolous, P. & Andreasen, N. C. (1994). The effect of antipsychotic medication on PET studies of cerebral blood flow during tasks assessing language and memory in schizophrenia. Abstracts of the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology (ACNP).
Ziebell, S., Miller, D. D. & Andreasen, N. C. (1994). Withdrawal-Emergent Dyskinesia in Patients with Schizophrenia During Antipsychotic Discontinuation. Abstracts of the 150th Annual Meeting of the American Psychiatric Association.
Miller, D. D., Arndt, S. & Andreasen, N. C. (1993). Alogia, attentional impairment, and inappropriate affect: their status in the dimensions of schizophrenia. Comprehensive Psychiatry, 34(4), 221-6. PMID: 8348799.
Perry, P. J., Miller, D. D., Arndt, S. V., Smith, D. A. & Holman, T. L. (1993). Haloperidol dosing requirements: the contribution of smoking and nonlinear pharmacokinetics. Journal of Clinical Psychopharmacology, 13(1), 46-51. PMID: 8486817.
Miller, D. D., Arndt, S. & Andreasen, N. C. (1993). Alogia, Attentional Impairment, And Inappropriate Affect: Their Status In The Dimension of Schizophrenia. (Vols. 9). pp. 104. Schizophrenia Research.
Miller, D. D., Perry, P. J., Cadoret, R. J. & Andreasen, N. C. (1993). Clozapine's Effect On Negative Symptoms In Treatment-Refractory Schizophrenia. (Vols. 9). pp. 245. Schizophrenia Research.
Andreasen, N. C., Flaum, M. A., Arndt, S. V., Miller, D. D., Nopolous, P. & O'Leary, D. S. (1993). Dimensions of Psychopathology in Schizophrenia: Evolution Over Time. Abstracts of the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology (ACNP).
Arndt, S., Davis, C. S., Miller, D. D. & Andreasen, N. C. (1993). Effect of antipsychotic withdrawal on extrapyramidal symptoms: statistical methods for analyzing single-sample repeated-measures data. Neuropsychopharmacology : Official publication of the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology, 8(1), 67-75. PMID: 8093835.
Swayze, V. W., Andreasen, N. C., O'Leary, D., Flaum, M. A., Sickels, W., Miller, D. D. & Ziebell, S. (1993). Long-Term Follow-Up Study of Frontal Lobotomy in Schizophrenia. (Vols. 9). pp. 210. Schizophrenia Research.
Miller, D. D., Arndt, S. & Andreasen, N. C. (1993). Negative Symptoms in Antipsychotic-Naïve Schizophrenia Patients and The Effect of Haloperidol Treatment. Abstracts of the 150th Annual Meeting of the American Psychiatric Press.
Andreasen, N. C., Swayze, V. W., O'Leary, D., Miller, D. D., Flaum, M. A. & Gupta, S. (1993). Structural Brain Abnormalities Revisited: Measurement Of Volumes And Surface Strcutures Based On Three-Dimensional Magnetic Resonance. (Vols. 9). pp. 191. Schizophrenia Research.
Perry, P. J., Miller, D. D. (1993). The clinical utility of clozapine plasma concentrations. In Clinical Use of Neuroleptic Plasma Levels. pp. 85-100. American Psychiatric Press.
Miller, D. D. (1993). What Are the Advantages Of The New Antipsychotic Drug Risperidone?. The Harvard Mental Health Letter, 10, 8.
Miller, D. D., Perry, P. J., Cadoret, R. J. & Andreasen, N. C. (1992). A Two and One-Half Year Follow Up of Treatment-Refractory Schizophrenics Treated With Clozapine. (Vols. 31). pp. 85A. Biological Psychiatry.
Perry, P. J., Cadoret, R. J., Andreasen, N. C. & Miller, D. D. (1992). Follow-Up of Clozapine Treated Schizophrenics. Abstracts of the 145th Annual Meeting of the American Psychiatric Association.
Miller, D. D. (1992). Negative symptome und therapeutische strategien bei schizophrenie. In Schizophrenie-aktuelle Trends und Behandlungs-strategien. pp. 73-82. Springer-Verlag.
Andreasen, N. C., Miller, D. D., O'Leary, D., Flaum, M. & Rezai, K. (1992). Pleasure and anhedonia: Definition and neural substrates.
Andreasen, N. C., Flaum, M., Arndt, S. V., Alliger, R., Miller, D. D. & O'Leary, D. (1992). Positive and negative symptoms and syndromes: Assessment and biological correlates. In Nosology in Contemporary Psychiatry. pp. 79-87. John Libbey CIC.
Flaum, M., Arndt, S., Alliger, R., Miller, D. D. & O'Leary, D. (1992). Pozitif ve Negatif Belirti ve Sendromlar: Degerlendirme ve Biyolojik Karsiliklari. Turk Psikyatri Dergisi, 3, 171-176.
Miller, D. D., Alliger, R., Rezai, K. & Andreasen, N. C. (1992). The Effect of Antipsychotic Medication on Regional Blood Flow in Schizophrenia; Assessment Tc99m HMPAO SPECT. Abstracts of the American College of Neuropharmacology (ACNP) 31st Annual Meeting.
Miller, D. D., Sharafuddin, M. J. & Kathol, R. G. (1991). A case of clozapine-induced neuroleptic malignant syndrome. The Journal of Clinical Psychiatry, 52(3), 99-101. PMID: 1672311.
Perry, P. J., Miller, D. D., Arndt, S. V. & Cadoret, R. J. (1991). Clozapine and norclozapine plasma concentrations and clinical response of treatment-refractory schizophrenic patients. The American Journal of Psychiatry, 148(2), 231-5. PMID: 1670979.
Miller, D. D., Flaum, M. A. & Andreasen, N. C. (1991). A Magnetic Resonance Imaging Study Comparing Treatment-Refractory and Treatment-Responsive Schizophrenics. (Vols. 4). pp. 406. Schizophr Research.
Miller, D. D., Flaum, M. A., Coryell, W. H. & Andreasen, N. C. (1991). A Magnetic Resonance Imaging Study In Schizophrenia Comparing Treatment Responses. (Vols. 29). pp. 43A-44A. Biological Psychiatry.
Andreasen, N. C., Flaum, M., Miller, D. D., Ehrhardt, J., Rezai, K., Cohen, G. & O'Leary, D. (1991). Clinical heterogeneity of schizophrenia: Perspectives from Neuroimaging. In Biological Psychiatry. pp. 455-457. Elsevier Science Publishers.
Miller, D. D. (1991). Effect of phenytoin on plasma clozapine concentrations in two patients. The Journal of Clinical Psychiatry, 52(1), 23-5. PMID: 1988414.
Andreasen, N. C., O'Leary, D., Flaum, M. A., Sickels, W., Peterson, R. & Miller, D. D. (1991). Effects of Leucotomy Lesion Size and Location on Personality and Intellect. (Vols. 4). pp. 395. Schizophr Research.
Miller, D. D., Swayze, V. W., O'Leary, D. & Andreasen, N. C. (1991). Negative Symptoms in Schizophrenia: Phenomenology and Neuroimaging. Abstracts of the 144th Annual Meeting of the American Psychiatric Press.
Lovdahl, M. J., Perry, P. J. & Miller, D. D. (1991). The assay of clozapine and N-desmethylclozapine in human plasma by high-performance liquid chromatography. Therapeutic Drug Monitoring, 13(1), 69-72. PMID: 2057995.
Miller, D. D., Flaum, M. A., Arndt, S. V., Fleming, F. & Andreasen, N. C. (1991). The Effect of Antipsychotic Discontinuation on the Positive and Negative Symptoms of Schizophrenia. Abstracts of the American College of Neuropharmacology (ACNP).
Perry, P. J., Miller, D. D. & Coryell, W. H. (1991). The Influence of Cigarette Smoking on Haloperidol Dosing Requirements. (Vols. 4). pp. 292. Schizophr Research.
Coryell, W., Kelly, M., Perry, P. J. & Miller, D. D. (1990). Haloperidol plasma levels and acute clinical change in schizophrenia. Journal of Clinical Psychopharmacology, 10(6), 397-402. PMID: 2286709.
Miller, D. D., Kelly, M. W., Perry, P. J. & Coryell, W. H. (1990). The influence of cigarette smoking on haloperidol pharmacokinetics. Biological Psychiatry, 28(6), 529-31. PMID: 2223923.
Miller, D. D., Perry, P. J., Kelly, M. W. & Coryell, W. H. (1990). Pharmacokinetic protocol for predicting plasma haloperidol concentrations. Journal of Clinical Psychopharmacology, 10(3), 207-12. PMID: 2376619.
Nopoulos, P., Flaum, M. & Miller, D. D. (1990). Atypical Neuroleptic Malignant Syndrome with an Atypical Neuroleptic. Annals of Clinical Psychiatry, 2, 251-253.
Miller, D. D., Arndt, S. V. & Cadoret, R. J. (1990). Clozapine and Norclozapine Plasma Concentrations and Clinical Response in Treatment-Refractory Schizophrenics. Abstracts of the 30th Annual New Clinical Drug Evaluation Unit (NCDEU).
Miller, D. D., Perry, P. J. & Cadoret, R. J. (1990). Clozapine Plasma Concentrations and Clinical Response. Abstracts of the American Psychiatric Association Annual Meeting.
Kelly, M. W., Coryell, W. H., Perry, P. J. & Miller, D. D. (1990). Reduced haloperidol plasma concentration and clinical response in acute exacerbations of schizophrenia. Psychopharmacology, 102(4), 514-20. PMID: 2096408.
Miller, D. D., Perry, P. J., Cadoret, R. J. & Andreasen, N. C. (1990). The Relationship Between Positive and Negative Symptoms and Clozapine Plasma Concentrations in Treatment-Refractory Schizophrenics. Abstracts of the American College of Neuropharmacology (ACNP).
Hershey, L. A., Miller, D. D. (1985). Adverse Psychiatric Drug Reactions. Neurology and Neurosurgery Update Series, 5(34), 1-8.
Hassan, E., Miller, D. D. (1985). Toxicity and elimination of trazodone after overdose. Clinical Pharmacy, 4(1), 97-100. PMID: 3971693.
Miller, D. D., Hershey, L. A., Duffy, J. P., Abernethy, D. R. & Greenblatt, D. J. (1984). Serum haloperidol concentrations and clinical response in acute psychosis. Journal of Clinical Psychopharmacology, 4(6), 305-10. PMID: 6511996.
Abernethy, D. R., Greenblatt, D. J., Ochs, H. R., Willis, C. R., Miller, D. D. & Shader, R. I. (1984). Haloperidol determination in serum and cerebrospinal fluid using gas--liquid chromatography with nitrogen--phosphorus detection: Application to pharmacokinetic studies. Journal of Chromatography, 307(1), 194-9. PMID: 6725485.
Miller, D. D., Sawyer, J. B. & Duffy, J. P. (1983). Cimetidine's effect on steady-state serum nortriptyline concentrations. Drug Intelligence & Clinical Pharmacy, 17(12), 904-5. PMID: 6653407.
Miller, D. D., Macklin, M. (1983). Cimetidine-imipramine Interaction: A Case Report. The American Journal of Psychiatry, 140(3), 351-2. PMID: 6829810.
Miller, D. D., Andorn, A. C., Stern, S. & Seideman, E. (1983). The Average Daily Dose of Antipsychotic Drugs as Clinically Prescribed in an Inpatient Setting. Society for Neuroscience Abstracts, 9, 432.
Hershey, L. A., Miller, D. D., Duffy, J. P., Gift, T. & Rivera-Camlimlim, L. (1983). Usefulness of Drug Levels in Monitoring Adverse Neurologic Effects of Antipsychotic Agents. Neurology, 33(Suppl. 2), 69.
Perry, P. J., Alexander, B., Dunner, F. J., Schoenwald, R. D., Pfohl, B. & Miller, D. D. (1982). Pharmacokinetic protocol for predicting serum lithium levels. Journal of Clinical Psychopharmacology, 2(2), 114-8. PMID: 7076875.
Blouin, R. A., Bauer, L. A., Miller, D. D., Record, K. E. & Griffen, W. O. (1982). Vancomycin pharmacokinetics in normal and morbidly obese subjects. Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy, 21(4), 575-80. PMID: 7081978.
Miller, D. D., Love, D. W. (1980). Drug Therapy Reviews: Evaluation of minoxidil. American Journal of Hospital Pharmacy, 37(6), 808-14. PMID: 6994495.
Miller, D. D. (1980). A New Alternative for Severe Hypertension.
Gustafson, M. E., Miller, D. D., Davis, P. J. & Rosazza, J. P. (1977). Steriochemistry of the Side-Chain Dehydration of N-Benzylaxycarbonyl (S)-tryptophan by Chromobacterium Violaceum. Chemical Communications, 842-843.
Secondary Faculty Members
Partner Departments
Administrative Office Phone: 1-319-356-4658
Clinical Scheduling Phone: 1-319-353-6314
Chair and Department Executive Officer: Peggy Nopoulos, MD
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Articles containing potentially dated statements from 2020, All articles containing potentially dated statements, Articles incorporating text from Wikipedia,
Arleigh Burke-class destroyers
Active destroyers of the United States
Carrier Strike Group Eight
United States Navy Massachusetts-related ships
Ships built in Mississippi
USS Ramage (DDG-61)
Career (US)
Namesake: Lawson P. Ramage
Ordered: 21 February 1990
Builder: Ingalls Shipbuilding, Pascagoula, Mississippi
Laid down: 4 January 1993
Launched: 1 February 1994
Commissioned: 22 July 1995
Homeport: Norfolk, Virginia
Motto: Par Excellence
Status: in active service, as of 2020[update]
Badge:
Class & type: Arleigh Burke-class destroyer
Light: approx. 6,800 long tons (6,900 t)
Full: approx. 8,900 long tons (9,000 t)
Beam: 66 ft (20 m)
Draft: 31 ft (9.4 m)
Propulsion: 4 General Electric LM2500-30 gas turbines, two shafts, 100,000 total shaft horsepower (75 MW)
Speed: >30 knots (56 km/h)
4,400 nautical miles at 20 knots
(8,100 km at 37 km/h)
Complement:
33 commissioned officers
38 chief petty officers
210 enlisted personnel
Sensors and
processing systems:
AN/SPY-1D 3D Radar
AN/SPS-67(V)2 Surface Search Radar
AN/SPS-73(V)12 Surface Search Radar
AN/SPG-62 Fire Control Radar
AN/SQS-53C Sonar Array
AN/SQR-19 Tactical Towed Array Sonar
AN/SQQ-28 LAMPS III Shipboard System
& decoys:
AN/SLQ-32(V)2 Electronic Warfare System
AN/SLQ-25 Nixie Torpedo Countermeasures
MK 36 MOD 12 Decoy Launching System
AN/SLQ-39 CHAFF Buoys
1 × 29 cell, 1 × 61 cell Mk 41 vertical launching systems with 90 × RIM-156 SM-2, BGM-109 Tomahawk or RUM-139 VL-ASROC missiles
2 x Mk 141 Harpoon Missile Launcher SSM
1 × Mark 45 5/54 in (127/54 mm)
2 × 25 mm chain gun
4 × .50 caliber (12.7 mm) guns
2 × 20 mm Phalanx CIWS
2 × Mk 32 triple torpedo tubes
Aircraft carried:
2 Sikorsky MH-60R helicopters can be embarked
USS Ramage (DDG-61) is an Arleigh Burke-class guided missile destroyer of the United States Navy. The ship is named for Vice Admiral Lawson P. Ramage, a notable submarine commander and Medal of Honor recipient in World War II.
Ramage was laid down 4 January 1993 at the Ingalls Shipbuilding in Pascagoula, Mississippi, launched 11 February 1994, sponsored by Barbara Ramage (wife of the admiral), and commissioned 22 July 1995.
Construction Edit
Ramage was constructed utilizing efficient modular shipbuilding techniques pioneered by Ingalls in the 1970s and enhanced in recent years through the development of Product-Oriented Shipbuilding Technology (POST).[1]
These innovative techniques allow a large ship, such as Ramage, to be built in three separate hull and superstructure modules and later joined to form the complete ship. Heavy machinery, such as propulsion equipment, as well as piping, duct work, and electrical cabling were installed in hundreds of sub-assemblies, which were joined to form dozens of assemblies. These assemblies were then joined to form the three hull modules. The ship's superstructure, or "deck house", was lifted atop the mid-body module early in the assembly process.[1]
Ramage's launching was as unique as her construction. The ship was moved over land via Ingalls' wheel-on-rail transfer system and onto the shipyard's launch and recovery drydock. The drydock was ballasted down, and DDG 61 floated free on 11 February 1994. She was then moved to her outfitting dock in preparation for the traditional christening ceremony and completion of outfitting and testing.[1]
On 25 November 1996 Ramage embarked on her maiden deployment to the Mediterranean Sea. Ramage visited 6 countries and made 16 port calls. Ramage was awarded the Meritorious Unit Commendation ribbon, the Sea Service Ribbon and the Armed Forces Service Medal while on deployment.
In March 1997 Ramage provided logistic and communications support for Marines in Albania during Operation Silver Wake. On 21 July 1997, Ramage was an escort of the USS Constitution when she set sail in Massachusetts Bay.
On 24 May 1999, as a member of the Theodore Roosevelt Battle Group, Ramage departed on her second deployment to the Mediterranean and Arabian Seas, MED/MEF 2–99. While deployed overseas, Ramage visited 8 countries and made 15 port visits. Ramage also participated in Operation Allied Force off the coast of Montenegro.
Following the 11 September 2001 attacks Ramage sortied to the waters off the East Coast of the United States where she provided extended radar coverage of the New York City and the surrounding area in the wake of the terrorist attacks.
Ramage deployed with the George Washington Surface Strike Group to the Arabian Sea in support of Operation Enduring Freedom. During this deployment Ramage participated in multi-national exercises Neo Tapon 04 and Iron Siren 04.
Ramage again deployed to the Persian Gulf in support of the Global War on Terrorism in October 2006. While on station Ramage participated in Operations Argos Asterion and Argos Declion. Ramage was also the first ship to respond to the Horn of Africa during the Ethiopian and Somalian hostilities of late December, 2006 providing extended coordination for P-3 coverage of the events. Ramage visited 8 different countries and conducted 10 port calls.
In August 2008 Ramage departed for a 7-month deployment in the Persian Gulf with the Iwo Jima Expeditionary Strike Group. Ramage participated in multi-national Operation Red Reef and Focused Operation Trident Knight. Ramage returned to home port in April 2009 after visiting 4 countries and making 6 port calls.
Ramage departed for the North Sea and Baltic Sea to participate in Joint Warrior 09 in September 2009. Ramage operated with HMS Illustrious and many other multi-national naval units. After making 5 ports of call in 4 countries, Ramage returned in November 2009. On 28 October 2009 while pierside at Gdynia, Poland after participating in a Joint Warrior exercise, a sailor on the ship conducting maintenance accidentally discharged one of the ship's M240 machine guns into the port city. Two rounds from the gun's three-round burst hit a warehouse, causing no injuries, the third round was not recovered. Local police allowed the ship to depart as originally scheduled later that day after questioning the ship's crew.[2]
Ramage departed on deployment to the Mediterranean Sea on 5 January 2010. In late January 2010, the Ramage was dispatched to the Mediterranean Sea to assist with the search-and-rescue effort in the wake of the crash of Ethiopian Airlines Flight 409.[3] Ramage also provided Ballistic Missile Defense to the Eastern Mediterranean during this deployment. Ramage's port visits included: Naples, Italy; Haifa, Israel; Kusadasi, Bodrum, and Aksaz, Turkey; Limassol, Cyprus; Rhodes, Greece; Augusta Bay, Sicily; and Ponta Delgada, Azores. Ramage returned to home port on 6 August 2010.
On August 8, 2013, Ramage departed for an eight month deployment into the US Navy 6th Fleet area of responsibility to assist with ballistic missile defense. Its last deployment was from May, 2012 to January, 2013[4][5]
The USS Ramage entered the eastern Mediterranean Sea as a response to the Syrian civil war. It was specifically deployed after allegations that President Bashar al-Assad's regime had used chemical weapons on its own people in suburbs of Damascus. The Navy destroyer USS Ramage has arrived in the region, a defense official said late Friday 23 August 2013. It was intended to replace the USS Mahan, but the Mahan will remain temporarily along with the USS Gravely and USS Barry. All four are equipped with cruise missiles.
↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 Official Navy Ramage site. Retrieved 20 September 2005. Note: quoted text has since been removed from the site.
↑ Ewing, Philip, "Destroyer accidentally fires on Polish port", Military Times, 28 October 2009.
↑ Miles, Donna. (25 Jan 2010). "Navy Assists Ethiopian Airlines Search, Rescue Effort". US Department of Defense. http://www.defense.gov/news/newsarticle.aspx?id=57697. Retrieved 27 January 2010.
↑ http://wtkr.com/2013/08/07/uss-ramage-to-deploy/
↑ http://archive.is/20130808045924/www.washingtonpost.com/local/uss-ramage-to-leave-va-on-deployment-to-mediterranean-sea/2013/08/07/307eb72a-ff27-11e2-8294-0ee5075b840d_story.html
USS Ramage in the Atlantic Ocean
Wikimedia Commons has media related to USS Ramage (DDG-61).
Ramage homepage
navysite.de info, with pictures
navsource.org: USS Ramage DDG-61
Flight I ships
Curtis Wilbur
John S. McCain
Mitscher
Laboon
Stethem
Benfold
The Sullivans
Milius
Flight II ships
McFaul
Donald Cook
Flight IIA ships
5"/54 variant
Oscar Austin
Bulkeley
McCampbell
Shoup
Momsen
Chung-Hoon
Nitze
James E. Williams
Forrest Sherman
Truxtun
Sterett
Wayne E. Meyer
Jason Dunham
William P. Lawrence
John Finn
Ralph Johnson
Rafael Peralta
Thomas Hudner
Paul Ignatius
Preceded by: Spruance class
Followed by: Zumwalt class
List of destroyers of the United States Navy
List of destroyer classes of the United States Navy
Retrieved from "https://military.wikia.org/wiki/USS_Ramage_(DDG-61)?oldid=2791578"
Articles containing potentially dated statements from 2020
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The self-proclaimed witchy Wise sits down with Milk.
By Brandon Tan
Anna Wise on Her New EP, 'The Feminine Act: II', And Her SXSW Showcase
Anna Wise, purveyor of damn good music with damn good lyrics and some damn good beats, has recently released her second EP, The Feminine Act: II, a follow-up to her last body of hits, Act: I. The artist, now touring the country, is currently performing at SXSW in Austin, Texas, playing some of our favorites from her new EP, like “Some Mistakes”, “Coconuts”, and “Self On Fire”. In case our word isn’t enough to sell you on her exceptional musical talent, let it be known that Wise is also a Grammy award-winning artist (crowned for her collaboration on Kendrick Lamar’s “These Walls”). Otherwise, you can see for yourself by giving her songs a listen and should you be so lucky, watching her perform at SXSW, or any of her other upcoming tour performances.
While her music is undeniably groovy, there’s a lot more to what she’s selling. In fact, labeling her as just a musician almost feels unjust, as the young artist has also proven herself a pledged feminist, an advocate for general equality, and a very passionate authority on environmentally conscious fashion. We chatted with the very charming, very spirited Wise on all of the above, including an enlightening period in her life, the importance of self love, and her new EP; peep her music video for ‘Coconuts’ and the full interview below.
Congrats on your new EP and tour. I was just jamming out to “Some Mistakes”. Do you have a favorite track on the EP?
“Some Mistakes” is so groovy! And the spell I’m trying to cast is about accepting and loving yourself. Have you ever just laid in bed and maybe you’re high, maybe you’re not, but you’re thinking about some awkward moment wishing ‘Why did I do that!? Why did I say that!?’ “Some Mistakes” is the moment where you’re like, “Ah, fuck it!”
Picking a favorite track is hard, I love them all so much, but I would say I’m really, really proud of “Self on Fire”, because I produced that entirely myself. Every song I co-produced, some more than others—and I’m an obsessive bitch—but I’ve been getting a lot of good feedback on that one. Meanwhile, I was thinking it’s too out there and it wouldn’t be anyone’s favorite. So hearing that kind of feedback is amazing!
And I wanted to touch upon this new EP, it has the same name as your first, but it’s Act:II. So could you speak about the relationship between the two, whether you consider them sequels or sister EPs?
So the first EP, I like to think of, say we’re stuck outside this room and it’s pretty harsh outside, but I have this sledgehammer. So it’s about taking this sledgehammer and smashing through the fucking walls of the room with no door or windows, because I’m going to get in it. EP I is about breaking the walls, and EP II is me entering the room. Inside this room is beautiful colors, kind of like in my “Coconuts” music video, with beautiful colors and saturated lights. There’s this rose in the center, and it has a bunch of thorns, you’re going to get pricked if you touch it, but it’s still so beautiful. So with the first EP I wanted it to be smashing you in the brain, overstimulation. And EP II is more of a peaceful place, where women, or anybody marginalized, can feel safe and understood. That is my message to you, to everyone listening to the song, what everyone thinks of you is just their opinion, fuck that and love yourself! And what’s crazy to me is that it’s so relevant right now, look at what’s happening! But I really think that this administration is the last cry of the patriarchy, it’s ending, we just have to keep fighting, keep loving each other and that’s what EP II is about.
Would you say there’s a difference in style of the two EPs as well? You spoke a lot about the messages, but regarding the style of music, is it a metamorphosis or an evolution?
Absolutely, I’d call The Feminine Act: I the bangers and The Feminine Act: II more ethereal.
So you really incorporate a lot of potent, charged, meaningful lyrics into your music, but there’s also a very identifiable and strong production and sound to each song. How do you start the conversation between the two?
I don’t even think about it. I just make what I like and write what I’m thinking. I think it’s funny, especially now, I went home to my parents’ house and found all these old diaries of mine, and I actually found the first poem I wrote when I was seven years old and the first lines were like, ‘The curvature of spacetime, a pretty little daisy.’ It’s the weirdest thing, but I was like ‘Holy fuck, Anna! You’re an artist and you’ve been an artist all of your life.’ It’s just in me and it always has been, and I’m so grateful for that.
With that said, was there a point in your life when you decided that music was what you were going to pursue or have you always been writing and singing? Did you ever take lessons?
I’ve been kicked out of every training I was ever put into. I knew from the time I was like one and a half, I have pictures of my mom holding me up to the piano so that I could play a song. I knew every single lyric to the Sound of Music, I knew every song in the movie Selena—one of the best movies of all time.
My father was a pastor and also the worship leader of a non-denominational Christian church, so I did my first solo alone when I was five. That was my first performance, and I still have those feelings… I’ve had a funny journey, because I’ve always loved to sing, but I wasn’t really a performer. When I would get up on stage to sing, I’d just close my eyes and stand still the whole time, I was so nervous. And now I’ve developed into being whatever it is I am now, and I’m sure I’m developing further.
I’m curious about the religion aspect, is your music at all influenced by that?
Well, I’m not religious right now. I’d call myself a witch before anything else. I have issues with the patriarchy surrounding religion and just with the close-mindedness of it all, like people’s refusal to accept gay or trans people—that to me is a huge red flag. How could you be preaching love and then not be accepting of other people? Their choice is the choice of love–to love themselves or someone else and we should all be accepting of that. I made a huge shift from religion about seven years ago and I just haven’t really looked back.
Speaking on the patriarchy, did you have a moment in which you decided, “I’m going to stand up to this and make it a part of my art,” since its so prevalent in your music?
Yes, definitely. It’s what I think about all the time. But it’s not just about the patriarchy, it’s all the things—equal rights for every single person on this planet—whether thats standing up to racism, homophobia, transphobia, classism, xenophobia, etc. Whatever the fuck it is, I support equal rights. So seven years ago, I had what I refer to it as an epiphany. I came to this realization that I had been programmed my whole life, and not just to be feminine or look a certain way, but inclusive of certain moments where I hesitated to stand up for myself for the fear of being disliked. And I had a realization about all these things that were poisoning me and everyone—fast food and corporate soda. I just had a realization about everything and turned my life around.
A general enlightenment?
That’s exactly what it was, and I also became illuminated to not just the patriarchy, but to all those things I mentioned, also acknowledging, “Hey, I grew up white and privileged, what does that mean?” All of these things, it was just a huge epiphany and it wasn’t necessarily everything to do with the patriarchy, but it was the lens I chose for my music, and it’s the experience that I’m closest to because it’s the form of oppression that I’m most familiar with.
Is style and fashion something that you’re very conscious of when putting together your work? Way of dress has historically been used as a vehicle of activism, so is this something that you keep in mind or play with, even regarding the gender binary?
Yeah, I think so. I have styled all of my music videos, and for “Coconuts”, the video I just put out, I reached out to this small business in Portland called “ALTAR” to make the costume. I also just went to the fabric store with my friend Milly and made some things. So my interest in fashion comes more from a sustainability standpoint, which was a part of my epiphany seven years ago, especially in regard to mass-produced fashion and to who owns what company. There are tons of fashion companies whose owners have very questionable political associations, and I don’t shop at those places. So I’m more mindful of fashion as an activist than as fashionable, and if I can still come off as fashionable despite that, I am very happy. I’m just obsessed with social justice in general, protecting the Earth and the living things on this Earth.
Do you have a particular message for people listening to your music?
If it was one message it’d be, “Love yourself exactly how you are.” I love myself exactly how I am, and it took me so long, but once I get there it’s like, “Why did I spend so much time hating myself?” And it manifests in your body! It has to do with self-love. I just want people to understand that if the world isn’t loving you, create that world inside yourself and it will emanate out and people will be drawn to you simply because you love yourself so much. I think that’s what people are so drawn to about me. People come to my shows and people call it a therapy session. If that’s what I can be… This is why I don’t sign a record deal, I don’t care about being famous. That’s not what this is about. I’m glad I have a platform, I love the idea of growth and having enough money to accomplish my goals, but it’s not about being so famous that I can be the queen or king in the castle, on the high hill separating myself from everyone. No. I want to connect with people and feel ourselves together.
Peep Wise’s upcoming tour dates below:
3/13-19 Austin, TX – SXSW Showcase:
Empress: #BossBabesATX x Girlfriend Showcase @ Cheer Up Charlies – 3:30PM
SXSW Official Showcase @ Swan Dive – 8:00PM
Exploded Drawing/Juiceland showcase @ at Mazda Studio at Empire Control Room – 10:00PM
3/25 Atlanta, GA – Aisle 5
4/8 Philadelphia, PA – PhilaMoca
4/13 Boston, MA – The Middle East
4/26 Brooklyn, NY – Union Pool
Image courtesy of Anna Wise
Stay tuned to Milk for more on emerging artists and performers at SXSW.
#Anna Wise
#SXSW
#The Feminine Act: II
The Bishops Talk Sibling Artistry, SXSW, And "Blood Ring"
Sofi Tukker on 'Soft Animals', The "Johny" Vid, And SXSW
Björk Hints At The Release of Her New Album
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Bernice Selfridge ’15
Full name: Bernice Selfridge Forbes
University of Montana School of Law, Class of 1915
First Woman to Graduate from the University of Montana School of Law
+++++“The Montana State University School of Law, later to become the University of Montana School of Law, held its first classes on September 13, 1911.”
+++++“In 1912, the first woman student, Bernice Forbes, took courses in the law school.”
+++++According to a Dedication booklet, celebrating the first fifty years of the law school, and published in 1961:
+++++“Although she had not yet completed her pre-legal work and hence was not included in the registration record of 21 students, Bernice Selfridge (now Mrs. Bernice Selfridge Forbes) was allowed to take two law courses, ‘with the dubious consent of the law faculty.’ . . . This, it may be observed, was two years prior to adoption of the amendment to the Montana Constitution giving women equal suffrage and the right to hold public office, although the Constitution of 1889 had accorded women the right of admission to all departments of the state university. Miss Selfridge, incidentally, was a member of the campus Equal Suffrage Club.”
+++++After graduation in 1915, Ms. Forbes did not practice law. She married in 1918, had two children, and became a teacher and high school principal, mostly in Oregon, for the rest of her work life.
7 June 1912 — Daily Missoulian
+++++“President Duniway] also read the names of those who have won scholarships in other lines during the year. The Bonner scholarship was awarded to Miss Bernice Selfridge. . . . The Bonner scholarship is offered every three years to the freshman showing the highest record in scholarship and adjudged most deserving in other ways of the prize. It carries $300 a year for three years.”
4 June 1915 — Butte Miner — “Butte Girl Wins Distinction at U; Miss Bernice Selfridge First Maid to Receive an L. L. B. at Institution”
+++++“Miss Bernice Selfridge of Butte, who will receive a bachelor of arts and a bachelor of law degree at the University of Montana commencement exercises tomorrow will have the distinction of being the first girl to receive an L.L. B. at the university.
+++++Miss Selfridge has been one of the foremost girls in the university during her four years here, always taking an active part in school affairs as well as maintaining her standing in the classroom. Four years ago she was awarded the E. L. Bonner scholarship, an award made to the best freshman student every four years.
+++++Miss Selfridge did not state whether or not she would begin to practice law this year.”
11 July 1915 — Anaconda Standard — “FIRST WOMAN GRADUATE FROM STATE LAW SCHOOL”
+++++“Miss Bernice Selfridge of this city holds the distinction of being the first young lady graduate of the law department of the University of Montana. She graduated from the Butte high school in 1912 and has spent the four years since making special preparation for a legal career.
+++++Miss Selfridge was admitted to practice by the supreme court of Montana last Tuesday. She could have been admitted sooner had it depended upon her knowledge of the law and ability to qualify in that respect. However, there is a requirement that a person must be 21 years of age to be admitted to practice and Miss Selfridge had to wait until her twenty-first birthday before she could secure the required order from the supreme court.”
14 June 1916 — Anaconda Standard — “Selfridge’s Case Before the Court”
“Judge Lynch is Reviewing the Action of Mayor Lane; Engaged by Mayor Duncan; Assigned to the fire department as machinist and did duty also as fireman — Wants to be reinstated on force from which was dropped.”
+++++“Bert Selfridge’s fight to get reinstated in the fire department came up yesterday before Judge Lynch in the district court. Selfridge was placed on the department list as machinist by then Mayor Lane. The proceeding brought was for the purpose of having the action of Mayor Lane set aside, and Selfridge given a place in the department again. The city resisted the effort on the ground that no provision was made by law for the position to which Selfridge was appointed by Mayor Duncan.
+++++Mayor Lane was represented in the action by Assistant City Attorneys Rotering and Growneveld. Selfridge was represented by Attorney W. E. Carroll and Miss Bernice Selfridge. The latter is a niece of Selfridge. She studied law at the state university, and was admitted to practice after examination by the supreme court. . . .”
14 April 1918 — Anaconda Standard
+++++“On Sunday, April 7, at the home of the bride’s parents, Mr. and Mrs. Dean W. Selfridge, 817 Colorado Street, Bernice Selfridge and Lucius E. Forbes of Harlowton, were united in marriage, the Rev. Walter M. Jordan officiating.”
24 May 1964 — Statesman Journal — “Classroom Work Spans 40 Years”
+++++“An impatient young law graduate, who took up teaching because she was too young to be admitted to practice, is ending a classroom career here that has spanned nearly 40 years.
+++++Perrydale students of two decades gathered here recently to help pay homage to Mrs. Bernice Forbes whose retirement as a science and math teacher comes at the end of the current school year.
+++++Mrs. Forbes started teaching science at Melrose, Mont., High School back in 1915 while waiting for her 21st birthday to come along. She mixed teaching and family-raising in both Montana and Oregon, teaching also at Pedee High School before starting at Perrydale in 1944.
First Woman Graduate
+++++She had the distinction of being the first woman to receive a bachelor of laws degree from the University of Montana, along with a bachelor of science degree at the age of 20. But that was a year too young to be admitted to practice law.
+++++Mrs. Forbes met the man she was to marry while both were attending the University of Montana and in 1918 they were married at Corvallis, Mont. Her husband, Lucius Elder Forbes, was a graduate of the University of Wisconsin with a bachelor degree in psychology. He later received his Doctors and Masters degree. He is now deceased.
Raised Two Sons
+++++Mrs. Forbes interrupted her teaching career to raise her two sons, Lucius E., a graduate of the University of Oregon and now school psychologist in Yakima, Wash., schools.
+++++The second son, Dean, is also a University of Oregon graduate. He did graduate work at Stanford University. He served in the Air Force in World War II and at present is a research tester for the Baltimore, Md. district. Both sons are working toward their doctor degrees, which they hope to complete this summer.
+++++Forbes, a psychology teacher at Oregon College of Education, took graduate work in Seattle for three years, during which time Mrs. Forbes taught at the Vashon, Wash. High School.
+++++Mrs. Forbes was twice president of the Monmouth Parent Teacher Association and also president of the Civil Club during the many years she has made Monmouth her home.
+++++Every class which had attended Perrydale High School during her years there was represented at a reception in her honor earlier this month.
+++++Many came from distant towns — LaGrande, Glendale, Portland, Eddyville, Springfield, Albany, Bend, Seattle, and Bellevue, Wash.
Scrapbook Compiled
+++++A scrapbook of pictures of former students and their families and post cards and letter from those unable to attend, was compiled by Mrs. Dan Van Otten Sr., a former Perrydale teacher, and her committee for the event.
+++++Mrs. Forbes was presented with a silver plated, indexed, address file, inscribed “To Mrs. Forbes, In Appreciation” 1944-1964 from the community, by Al Wilson, chairman of the school board.”
4 December 1969 — Oregonian — “Mrs. Bernice Forbes
+++++Mrs. Bernice Forbes, 75, a longtime teacher in Willamette Valley schools in Oregon and the first woman ever to earn a law degree at the University of Montana, died here Tuesday in a local hospital.
+++++Mrs. Forbes was born and reared in Butte, Mont., and earned her BA and LL.B. degrees at the University of Montana. Instead of going into law, she became a teacher for some 30 years prior to her retirement in 1965.
+++++She taught school in the Wenas Valley near Yakima, Vashon Island off Seattle, and later in the Willamette Valley. At the time of her retirement she was teaching grade and science classes in the Perrydale School District near McMinnville.
+++++She was a member of the Delta Kappa Gamma honorary.
+++++Four years ago she moved to Yakima where she made a home with a son, Lucius Forbes.
+++++Other survivors include another son, Dean, Beaverton; a sister, Mrs. Geraldine Harvey, Butte; and two grandchildren.
+++++Memorial service will be Friday in Yakima at St. Michael’s Episcopal Church. Cremation will follow.”
+++++25 June 1894, in Butte, Montana
+++++Dean Selfridge and Elizabeth Kempsey
+++++1 sister and 1 brother
+++++University of Montana
+++++LL.B., University of Montana School of Law, 1912-1915
+++++Lucius Elder Forbes on 7 April 1918
+++++2 sons
Corvallis, Montana
+++++Teacher
+++++2 December 1969
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Technology and Culture
Marketing the Moon: The Selling of the Apollo Lunar Program by David Meerman Scott, Richard Jurek (review)
Margaret Weitekamp
Volume 56, Number 3, July 2015
10.1353/tech.2015.0081
Marketing the Moon: The Selling of the Apollo Lunar Program by David Meerman Scott, Richard Jurek
Margaret Weitekamp (bio)
Marketing the Moon: The Selling of the Apollo Lunar Program.
By David Meerman Scott and Richard Jurek. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2014. Pp. xiv + 130. $39.95.
In this beautifully illustrated, large-format book, David Scott and Richard Jurek, marketing professionals and avid space memorabilia collectors, argue that the Apollo lunar landing program represented not only a technological feat and a cold war triumph but also “the largest . . . marketing and public relations case study in history” (p. ix). They aim to provide analysis from two perspectives: from the inside out, by looking at how public affairs officers handled events at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), and from the outside in, examining how Apollo program contractors advertised their participation in the lunar landing missions. There is more of the former than the latter, resulting in an insider’s look at selling spaceflight.
In the first three chapters, illustrated (as is the entire book) with glossy photographs and illuminated with topical sidebars, Scott and Jurek offer as background three topics that could each also stand alone. The first chapter traces public interest in spaceflight from its roots in art and literature, including Jules Verne’s fiction, to the more realistic speculative visions promoted by the Collier’s magazine series and Disney’s “Man in Space” television program in the 1950s. Scott and Jurek add some intriguing tales to the known stories: for instance, the anecdote of Buzz Aldrin explaining 2001: A Space Odyssey around the water cooler at NASA’s Manned Spacecraft Center in Houston, Texas, or the sidebar on Pavel Klushantsev’s Soviet film Road to the Stars (1957). In the second chapter, the authors argue that NASA pioneered “brand journalism”: having public affairs officers operate in sync with journalists without attempting to spin the content, and offering information to hungry media. Marketing the Moon offers an inside history of the personalities and policy within NASA, including the Mercury [End Page 777] astronauts’ contract with Life magazine. The third chapter adds the story of private contractors who created press materials and commercial advertisements based on their connections to the Apollo program.
An extended discussion of the Apollo lunar missions forms the heart of Marketing the Moon. Chapter 4 describes how the technology of television transmission improved over the course of the missions, as live TV transmitted from space went from something actively resisted by the astronauts to a concerted campaign orchestrated by NASA to maximize ratings (and garner public support). Apollo 11 unites chapter five, a discussion of how CBS News used its space coverage to raise the profile of its news division and how local affiliates and specific newspapers covered the first lunar landing.
Chapter 6 offers insider stories about how the astronauts managed their celebrity. The post-flight fifty-state tour of the Apollo 11 command module Columbia and the international display of Moon rocks make up chapter seven. Scott and Jurek end with reconsideration of the social and political contexts of the 1960s space flights.
The analysis sometimes seems a bit too much in thrall of the space program as depicted by the press kits and advertisements. The authors argue, for instance, that the Apollo 11 landing resulted from “unprecedented cooperation between the government and the private sector” (p. 35), a statement that forgets precedents set during World War II. Or, even as they explain how world events overshadowed the later Apollo missions, they lament that “the failure of the television networks and the American public to fully appreciate the later Apollo missions is difficult to understand” (p. 60). The introduction suggests that the Apollo program’s marketing can serve as a material lesson for NASA, stating, “In our analysis, the reason humans have not been to Mars is, essentially, the result of a marketing failure,” likening NASA to a company “caught in an identity and brand crisis” (p. xiii). In sum, the broad arguments sometime lack scholarly distance and qualification.
Marketing the Moon offers the most to scholars of science and technology, however, when examined alongside books such as Howard McCurdy’s Space and...
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« A Martial Arts Story
Sessions Scandal Just a Case of Media Partisanship »
Homosexuals Aren’t Very Gay
Gay Marriage, Homosexuality
Michael Hobbes, in HuffPo, wonders why, after our courts have decided that homosexuals can marry and the rest of us had better bake them a cake or else, members of that subculture are still so lonely and unhappy.
In our lifetime, the gay community has made more progress on legal and social acceptance than any other demographic group in history. As recently as my own adolescence, gay marriage was a distant aspiration, something newspapers still put in scare quotes. Now, it’s been enshrined in law by the Supreme Court. Public support for gay marriage has climbed from 27 percent in 1996 to 61 percent in 2016. In pop culture, we’ve gone from “Cruising” to “Queer Eye” to “Moonlight.” Gay characters these days are so commonplace they’re even allowed to have flaws.
Still, even as we celebrate the scale and speed of this change, the rates of depression, loneliness and substance abuse in the gay community remain stuck in the same place they’ve been for decades. Gay people are now, depending on the study, between 2 and 10 times more likely than straight people to take their own lives. We’re twice as likely to have a major depressive episode. And just like the last epidemic we lived through, the trauma appears to be concentrated among men. In a survey of gay men who recently arrived in New York City, three-quarters suffered from anxiety or depression, abused drugs or alcohol or were having risky sex—or some combination of the three. Despite all the talk of our “chosen families,” gay men have fewer close friends than straight people or gay women. In a survey of care-providers at HIV clinics, one respondent told researchers: “It’s not a question of them not knowing how to save their lives. It’s a question of them knowing if their lives are worth saving.” …
“Marriage equality and the changes in legal status were an improvement for some gay men,” says Christopher Stults, a researcher at New York University who studies the differences in mental health between gay and straight men. “But for a lot of other people, it was a letdown. Like, we have this legal status, and yet there’s still something unfulfilled.”
This feeling of emptiness, it turns out, is not just an American phenomenon. In the Netherlands, where gay marriage has been legal since 2001, gay men remain three times more likely to suffer from a mood disorder than straight men, and 10 times more likely to engage in “suicidal self-harm.” In Sweden, which has had civil unions since 1995 and full marriage since 2009, men married to men have triple the suicide rate of men married to women.
All of these unbearable statistics lead to the same conclusion: It is still dangerously alienating to go through life as a man attracted to other men.
One Feedback on "Homosexuals Aren’t Very Gay"
Surellin
To use a term popular when I was at university, the “bride pool” for gays is a thirtieth of the bride pool for straights. Ditto for “friends pool”, if one wants gay friends. I’m reasonably certain that a majority of gays in my state have come here to Capital City to have a community big enough to be viable. Would suck even more to be gay out in the hinterlands.
07 Mar 2017 um 7:22 am
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New England Cottontail Management - newenglandcottontail.org
Conservation Actions Keep Cottontail Off Endangered Species List
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service administers the federal Endangered Species Act (ESA), including deciding which of our country’s animals and plants require the law’s protection. From 2006 until 2015, the Service classified the New England cottontail as a candidate species for ESA protection. In September 2015, the Service removed the cottontail as a candidate species, determining that, as a result of conservation actions, the species no longer meets the definition of threatened or endangered.
Summertime, and the living is easy: New England cottontail feeds in habitat created by conservationists in Maine./K. Boland
In making this important decision, the Service evaluated threats to the New England cottontail and its population by asking questions: What is the species’ population trend, and where does the New England cottontail occur? Is important habitat being lost or changing so that it’s no longer useful? Is hunting harming the population? Are diseases, predators, or competition with other wildlife imperiling the rabbit’s continued existence? Are the past, ongoing, and planned conservation actions addressing the effects of those threats to the species?
Those conservation actions are described in the New England Cottontail Conservation Strategy developed through a partnership with state, federal, and private conservationists. The actions include creating and maintaining the young forest and shrubland that New England cottontails need to survive. The partnership has a proven track record for implementing the strategy and its specific actions throughout the species’ range, and has clearly demonstrated that those actions will continue. Thus, the Service determined in September 2015 that the species can be recovered without the formal protection of the Endangered Species Act.
Conservation Strategy
In 2012, a Conservation Strategy for the New England Cottontail laid out actions to address threats to the cottontail and explained how conservation partners have begun carrying out those actions to help the species. The 2015 New England Cottontail Performance Report provides updated information.
Science underpins the effort to restore the New England cottontail.
Scientists have developed computer models that integrate satellite data on different habitats with land-ownership patterns to identify specific locations where New England cottontail restoration is most likely to succeed. They have delineated focus areas where habitat restoration is likely to help cottontails the most. Researchers use DNA analysis of rabbit droppings and radio-telemetric monitoring to learn where New England cottontails live, how they move across the land, and how they interact with other wildlife. A captive breeding program is producing cottontails that have been reintroduced into areas of new, vacant, and improved habitat.
The New England Cottontail Technical Committee – a group of biologists from all six states within the species’ range, as well as professionals with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service – identified habitat and population goals for the species. The Technical Committee believes that 27,000 acres capable of supporting 13,500 New England cottontails will ensure the survival of the species into the future.
Forging a Future for the Cottontail
One thing is certain: Conservationists will continue working hard to make sure this rabbit remains among our region’s native wildlife. Fortunately, New England cottontails have a high reproductive rate and, if provided with good habitat, have the potential to rebound.
In states where the New England cottontail is considered endangered, the Fish and Wildlife Service and state wildlife agencies can draw up Candidate Conservation Agreements with Assurances, or CCAAs, that let private landowners use their land and gain income from it while voluntarily creating habitat. CCAAs provide legal guarantees that no additional regulatory burdens will be placed on cooperating landowners should the New England cottontail ever be listed as threatened or endangered under the federal Endangered Species Act.
Preserving habitat for New England cottontails benefits other wildlife as well as humans./J. Scanlon
New England cottontails inhabit many important natural places, including shrub swamps, floodplains, pine barrens, and coastal scrubland. Safeguarding – and, in some cases, managing – those habitats enriches humans’ experience of nature while preserving crucial functions such as protecting our communities against damages from floods, hurricanes, and wildfires; filtering and storing groundwater; and promoting biodiversity. These special habitats support a vast array of wildlife, including migrating birds, rare plants and insects, reptiles and amphibians, and abundant game animals. When we work to conserve the New England cottontail, we help save some of New England’s and New York’s best remaining natural landscapes.
Rabbit Basics
Behavior and Feeding
Breeding and Lifespan
Competing Cottontails
Survival Depends on Habitat
Helping Cottontails
To Save a Species
Connecting Populations
Great Thicket Refuge
WSFR Funding
NRCS Habitat Programs
Where They Live
Habitat Ins and Outs
Management Over Time
Different Kinds of Habitat
About Invasive Shrubs
Making Habitat Wisely
Harvesting Trees
Improving Old Fields
Cutting Older Shrubs
Controlled Burning
Learn how...
Want to Make Some Cottontail Habitat?
Young Forest Guide
How Thoughtful Forestry Can Help Birds
New York Birds At Risk From Climate Change
Young Forest on Private Lands Helps Bring Back Kirtland’s Warbler
Please visit our other websites
timberdoodle.org
youngforest.org
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Baseball 10:01, 20-Jun-2019
Former Red Sox star David Ortiz not the target of shooting
The orchestrated attack that resulted in David Ortiz getting shot at a nightclub earlier this month was not meant to target the former Boston Red Sox star, Dominican Republic authorities said Wednesday.
Attorney General Jean Alain Rodriguez told reporters the actual target was a man sitting with and dressed similarly to Ortiz outside a club in Santo Domingo, Ortiz’s hometown.
Rodriguez did not offer a motive, but said a member of Mexico’s Gulf Cartel was behind the attack.
Police are hunting for Rodriguez Mota, who faces attempted murder charges in the case.
At least 10 people are in custody in the case.
Rolfi Ferreira Cruz, 25, is jailed and reportedly confessed to being the shooter. However, he maintained last week that he was hired to kill someone else, not Ortiz.
Former Boston Red Sox designated hitter David Ortiz wipes away tears during his number retirement ceremony in Boston, June 23, 2017. /VCG Photo
Ortiz, 43, was shot in the back June 9 as he visited a club in his hometown. He had surgery for internal injuries that evening, then was flown to Boston the following day and underwent a second operation.
He has been upgraded to "good" condition but remains hospitalized in Boston, where he was transported a day after.
Known affectionately as "Big Papi," Ortiz played 14 seasons for the Red Sox and made 10 All-Star appearances in his 20-year career.
The former designated hitter and first baseman retired in 2016.
(With input from AFP and Reuters)
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Home » Maine League’s Mason says S. 2155 is win for Main Street
Maine League’s Mason says S. 2155 is win for Main Street
Passage of the Economic Growth, Regulatory Relief and Consumer Protection Act (S. 2155) is a win for Main Street and consumers who depend on it, Maine Credit Union League President/CEO Todd Mason wrote in the Bangor Daily News last week.
Mason thanked Rep. Bruce Poliquin (R-Maine) for his support of S. 2155 during House consideration of the bill, particularly for his in-district meeting with credit unions to hear stories about the need for regulatory relief.
“Although some groups have mischaracterized the bill as boon to big banks, the reality is that it helps Main Street far more than it helps Wall Street. Credit unions are Main Street. We are community-based, local not-for-profit financial cooperatives,” Mason wrote. “We reinvest our earnings back in our members. In fact, there are nearly 700,000 credit union members in Maine and our credit unions work every day to improve their financial lives.”
He goes on to says that S. 2155 will improve credit unions’ abilities to do even more for its members, specifically citing the provision that will offer some protections for financial services employees reporting suspected elder financial abuse as an example. That provision came from legislation co-sponsored by Sen. Angus King (I-Maine) and supported by Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine), as well as by Poliquin in the House.
“When Dodd-Frank was passed it cast a one-size-fits all net, which credit unions were inadvertently caught in despite being clearly different and not part of the problem,” he wrote. “Credit unions should not have been caught in that net, and S. 2155 helps.”
KEYWORDS S. 2155
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Opinions and Editorials
Fake news and hate speech
Published April 18, 2017, 10:00 PM
By Florangel Rosario Braid
Dr. Florangel Rosario Braid
Two phenomena sweeping many societies around the world today are the spread of “fake news defined as “made-up stuff,” masterfully manipulated to make them appear as credible journalistic reports that are easily passed online to large audiences. The other is “hate speech” which refers to expressions that advocate an intent to harm, based upon the target’s being identified with a certain social or demographic group. It advocates, threatens, or encourages violent acts as well as fosters a climate of prejudice or intolerance.
From recent news reports, a large number of websites carrying news started to spread to wider audiences during the Trump-Clinton electoral campaign. This continues up the present, threatening the credibility of American mainstream media and politics.
This trend is undoubtedly affecting the global media, including our own local media. But its negative impact goes further. Developing countries, and especially one like ours which faces the challenges of climate change, rising unemployment, and food security requires the free flow of authentic information and knowledge. Our vision of a dynamic economy and vibrant democracy that promotes a level playing field depends on good governance which can only happen if we have a citizenry that is well-informed.
Let’s therefore examine the origin of “fake news” how it grew, and what can be done to avert it.
Actually, fake news is not really new. Our society had survived hoaxes, libelous information, and lies peddled as truths since the early beginnings of journalism. But it was during the US electoral campaign between President Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton that false news or what is called “alternative media” proliferated within the US and beyond its shores. An example of a big fake news of 2016 was the supposed endorsement of Trump by Pope Francis.
The rapid spread of fake and alternative news can be attributed to Facebook, a main game changer today. With 1.79 billion people around the world using Facebook each month, it easily dwarfed other online programs.
As Craig Stevenson, editor of BuzzFeed, a website, said fake news, especially that coming from Facebook, became popular and resonated with its users. People liked them and shared them with others. The stories that performed well were mostly pro-Trump and anti-Clinton. Partisan content evidently fared better on Facebook than on mainstream media. More than a hundred websites peddling false news stories for the American voting public were created. What is even more surprising is that pro-Trump websites were found in countries like Macedonia and Russia.
The Trump campaign helped circulate false news stories from fake news websites. Trump was known to have lied many times but being a man of influence, this even helped create a formidable environment for encouraging falsehood. Analysts of the electoral campaign noted that the “spread of fake news with unprecedented impunity” was abetted by the two polarizing presidential candidates and their passionate supporters.
But charges of fake news are nothing new as related by a Christian writer who narrates that while growing up in Tennessee, she was taught to distrust information coming from the scientific or media elite because these sources did not hold a “Biblical worldview.” As examples, climate change which was believed as not real, and evolution, which is a myth that was made up by scientists who hate God, or that capitalism is God’s ideal for society. These conservative evangelicals believed that the Bible, their authority, is inerrant and supernatural as well as scientifically sound. This gave the rationale to reject information from scientific sources.
Hate speech, on the other hand, is race-related. But it also springs from hatred based on people’s gender or sexual orientation. The International Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Racial Discrimination, calls for a ban on expressing ideas of superiority or inferiority of people by “race.” For hatred on the basis of nationality or religion, this is criminalized in Article 20 of the International Convention on Civil and Political Rights.
Hate speech, because it creates the “us” and “them” and fosters a climate of prejudice and intolerance, is not allowed on Facebook. But Internet’s speed and reach makes it difficult to enforce national legislation.
How can our society deal with these challenges?
People from academe, journalists, and other concerned citizens offer this advice: By learning how to spot fake news by being skeptical of headlines, by investigating a source (most real news outlets have websites with an “About” section that provides information such as the company that runs it, staff members and a mission statement, and examining the photos; developing critical thinking and through what is called targeted advertising boycotts. Utilize fact-checking sites. Stop getting news from social media, and don’t rely on only one media outlet. And, finally, to support good journalism, and offer media literacy in schools.
Fake news is not illegal and thus, the need to think of innovative ways to curb and eliminate the scourge.
My email, Florangel.braid@gmail.com
Tags: fake news, Fake news and hate speech, Florangel Rosario Braid, journalistic reports, Manila Bulletin, mb.com.ph, violent acts
Senate bills will help barangay officials
Start ‘em young
Eruptions, natural or political
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University issues statement following revised executive order
As you may have seen, a revised executive Order was issued Monday (March 6) by President Donald Trump. The new executive order, which will go into effect on March 16, 2017, removes Iraq from the list of seven countries impacted by the previous Order, and implements a 90-day suspension on issuance of new visas, including student visas, to citizens from Sudan, Syria, Iran, Libya, Somalia and Yemen who wish to travel to the United States (U.S.). An important distinction is that the new Order exempts current visa holders and those who held visas at the time the original Order was implemented. International students and scholars with valid F, M or J visas are not affected at this time. It also provides for a “case-by-case” waiver process for individuals from these six countries who fit certain criteria.
While the modest relaxation this new order represents is a positive change, and we hope this Order will be immediately less disruptive for our community, we remain concerned that it will still have an overall detrimental impact. Many in our community will still be anxious about its implications. If you have questions or concerns regarding your individual situation, please contact Penn State’s Office of Global Programs, 814-865-7681, or an adviser to discuss your circumstances.
Let us reiterate, emphatically, that we will continue to fully support all members of our academic community, regardless of country of origin. We recognize the tremendous value and contributions of our international students and scholars to our academic enterprise. We strongly believe that diversity of faculty, staff and students enriches our university and nation, as well as each of us as individuals, and powerfully enables our mission of research, teaching, service and economic development.
Penn State, aligned with the Association of American Universities (AAU), remains committed to those who are part of our community today, and to those who we hope will be in the future. We strive to be, and succeed in being, a destination of choice for the most creative and talented individuals from across Pennsylvania, the U.S., and abroad. Our ultimate goal is to provide the highest quality education and to deliver innovative and world-class research results, which cannot be accomplished without individuals from all over our extraordinary world.
Our University is committed to respecting and honoring each individual; and to the impact that those fostering a diverse and inclusive community offer; and creating an environment where global engagement and leadership is fostered. For up-to-date information and statements on immigration, changes in federal policy and key issues impacting the Penn State community, please visit pennstateupdate.psu.edu.
The University today (March 7) has issued a statement following the issuance of a revised executive order on immigration.
IMAGE: L. Reidar Jensen
Penn State president shares message on DACA announcement
President joins U.S. higher education leaders, signs letter on immigration order
A message to the university community
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Awards and HonorsResearch
Stony Brook Pioneers Compete for 2019 Discovery Prize
In a high-stakes competition to be held April 23, one of four young scholars will receive the 2019 Discovery Prize, a $200,000 award given to a Stony Brook University faculty member in the STEM disciplines whose...
AcademicsCollege of Arts & SciencesCollege of Engineering & Applied SciencesEventsOn CampusResearch
Quantum Immersion Workshop to Showcase Research
The goal of the Quantum Immersion Workshop — held on Monday, February 25, from 8 am to 5 pm in the Charles B. Wang Center — is to build a Quantum Information Science (QIS) community of researchers at Stony Brook...
Alumni EventsStony Brook Matters
Stony Brook University Alumni Invitational at The Saint Andrew’s Golf Club
At the Stony Brook University Alumni Invitational at The Saint Andrew’s Golf Club, alumni will enjoy world-class golf and fine dining at one of the most prestigious private golf clubs in the country, while helping...
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Michigan State University, USA Gymnastics and the US Olympic Committee need to be Held Accountable
January 24, 2018 January 30, 2018 Gina Flores3 Comments
By Gina Flores
The recent sentencing of former Olympic physician, Dr. Larry Nassar to 175 years in prison for sexually abusing more than 150 women and girls is only a very small victory for the survivors involved. Some of the women recently had a chance to publicly address this monster in a courtroom setting. And although his victims may have obtained some form of closure from being able to participate in such a process, it’s more likely than not they will all have to deal with the presence of deep psychological scars from their abuse for the remainder of their lives.
How does a predator like Larry Nassar get away with sexually abusing young, female athletes for the past two decades? How is it possible that Larry Nassar was allowed to behave in such a horrible way for so long and not be held accountable and put out of his misery by the US Olympic Committee or his former employers, USA Gymnastics and Michigan State University? All of these are fair questions that need to be addressed and fully investigated from a legal standpoint in the months that follow. This is an obvious can of worms that needs to be cracked wide open; a real rabbit hole that undoubtedly is extremely deep!
USA Gymnastics and the US Olympic Committee need to be punished immediately and the first thing that comes to my mind are the future Olympic Games scheduled for the summer of 2020.
There is no good reason, in my opinion, why the United States women’s gymnastics team should be allowed to participate under the American flag in those games. It’s time to punish the enabling organizations that played a key part in these horrific crimes.
Larry Nassar is a sick predator and will be locked up for the remainder of his life. That’s a good thing! USA Gymnastics and the US Olympic Committee, on the other hand, allowed this animal to survive and hunt his prey for over 20 years. This is inexcusable and should not be tolerated by the International Olympic Committee (IOC).
The women athletes from the United States Gymnastics team should only be allowed to participate in the 2020 summer games under the Olympic flag. A similar scenario has been put in place for Russia’s Olympic team in February, 2018 in South Korea because of their involvement in systematic, rampant doping. Discipline handed down by the IOC in this manner would allow the enabling organizations at fault, and not the women athletes, to be properly punished.
If the IOC does not punish team USA, it would demonstrate a disturbing double standard within the construct of that organization as well as their total lack of concern for past, present, and future Olympic athletes.
All of the players involved in these organizations need to resign or be removed from their positions. This includes presidents, board members, trustees and executives at any and all levels.
What do you think about this story?
mainstream media, medicine, PizzaGate, UncategorizedGina Flores, International Olympic Committee, IOC, Larry Nassar, no fake news, nofakenews, US Olympic Committee, USA Gymnastics
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#5- Samuel Brown on In Heaven as It Is on Earth and “Believing Adoption” [MIPodcast]
https://media.blubrry.com/byumipodcast/p/content.blubrry.com/byumipodcast/5-MIP-Samuel-M-Brown.mp3
In this episode of the Maxwell Institute Podcast, physician and historian Samuel M. Brown discusses his book, In Heaven as It Is on Earth: Joseph Smith and the Early Mormon Conquest of Death (New York: Oxford University Press, 2012). As the book’s jacket describes, “The world of early Mormonism was besieged by death—infant mortality, violence, and disease were rampant. A prolonged battle with typhoid fever, punctuated by painful surgeries including a threatened leg amputation, and the sudden loss of his beloved brother Alvin cast a long shadow over Smith’s own life. Smith embraced and was deeply influenced by the culture of ‘holy dying’—with its emphasis on deathbed salvation, melodramatic bereavement, and belief in the Providential nature of untimely death—that sought to cope with the widespread mortality of the period.” Brown explores how anticipation of death impacted the theological climate of early Mormonism. He also discusses his recent BYU Studies article, “Believing Adoption.” Through his historical research, Brown came to believe that in Joseph Smith’s theology, humans become the children of God through premortal adoption as opposed to being created in some sort of spirit-birth process. Brown reflects on reconciling his academic endeavors with his personal beliefs. You can download the article for two bucks here. [display_podcast] You can subscribe to the Maxwell Institute Podcast through iTunes. Help our podcast grow by rating and reviewing it there. The podcatcher RSS feed is mi.byu.edu/feed/podcast. Send questions or comments about this and other episodes to blairhodges@byu.edu.
BLAIR HODGES: Hello. This is Blair Hodges. Before we start this episode of the Maxwell Institute Podcast I have an important announcement on some geeky technical stuff. We’re in the process of moving this podcast over to our new website. If you’re subscribed to the podcast in iTunes you should be able to get new episodes without making any changes, but here’s the important part. If you use other programs to download the podcast you’ll need to update the RSS feed. The new RSS feed is maxwellinstitute.byu.edu/feed/podcast.
One other thing, if you’ve enjoyed the podcast so far we’d really appreciate it if you’d go into iTunes and rate us and write a review. It only takes a second and it helps encourage other people to check us out. Hopefully we’ll get all the new website issues sorted out in the next week or so.
Now here’s the latest episode featuring author Sam Brown.
BLAIR HODGES: This is the Maxwell Institute Podcast. I’m Blair Hodges. In this episode I’m joined by Samuel M. Brown, physician and historian who joins me to talk about his book In Heaven as It Is on Earth: Joseph Smith and the Early Mormon Conquest of Death, published in 2012 by Oxford University Press. As the book’s jacket describes, the world of early Mormonism was besieged by death. Infant mortality, violence, and disease were rampant. A prolonged battle with typhoid fever punctuated by painful surgeries, including a threatening leg amputation, and the sudden loss of his beloved brother Alvin cast a long shadow over Joseph Smith’s own life. Smith embraced and was deeply influenced by the culture of holy dying, with its emphasis on deathbed salvation, melodramatic bereavement, and belief in the providential nature of untimely death that’s sought to cope with the widespread mortality of the period.
Brown also discusses his recent BYU Studies article on adoption theology. Through his historical research Brown came to believe that in Joseph Smith’s theology humans become the children of God through pre-mortal adoption, as opposed to being created in some sort of spirit-birth process. Two seemingly unrelated topics, death and adoption, brought together in this episode of the Maxwell Institute Podcast.
Brown joined me via Skype and I apologize for some of the sound issues that happened throughout this episode.
I want to start by talking about this attention to death, Sam, that you give in your book. It’s kind of an unusual and perhaps unexpected theme. Let’s start by talking about why you brought that issue to bear on your study of early Mormonism in such a central way, this culture of death idea.
BEGINNINGS OF THE BOOK
SAMUEL BROWN: Well it comes back to a conversation that I had with my wife about ten years ago. She’s a religious historian and we were thinking about the nature of angels and early Mormonism. It had arisen out of my first article on Mormon history, a quantitative study pattern on the work the Shepherd brothers did on General Conference addresses. Mine was looking at temple dedication prayers over time and I noticed that there were these named angels that were specified in early prayers and then in later prayers there was a more general nod toward angels as a generic class of beings. I initially had been taking an approach to these ancestors that was in line with my fascination with Mircea Eliade and this notion of sacred ancestors and how tribal consciousness arrives at a new time in comparison with the ancient time, or the “yon time” as Eliade talks about it.
As I was talking to my wife we were vacationing up in Camden, Maine and had stopped in the town just outside the town square, wandering about and were in their colonial cemetery and walking and looking at the stories on their grave markers and had a eureka moment, which was that in early Mormonism angels were actually dead people rather than being an entirely separate class of individuals. That theological historical insight combined with the fact that as an independent physician, I finished my residency just as this was happening, as an independent attending physician I was being with people when they died. I realized that Mormonism had something very distinctive to say about what human beings are and what angels are, to wit that angels are a kind of human, and that we in our contemporary world had a very distorted view of life’s final moments.
That got me reading pretty broadly in the death studies literature that for a while and the quirky way of academic jargon was called thanatology, I think it’s now just called death studies or death and dying studies. But I read broadly in that literature and then read in the early modern into Antebellum literature about the nature of angels, and then returned to the primary documents of early Mormonism, which were so easily available, both in terms of Dan Vogel’s wonderful work with the Early Mormon Document series, and the great work that Rick Turley’s been supervising with getting digital copies of the materials at the Church History Library available. The RLDS now Community of Christ publishing houses that have provided bound copies of the early Mormon periodicals, all of these rich opportunities to reacquaint myself with the primary literature and in many cases to acquaint myself for the first time with the intricacies of that primary literature I just started reading.
As I was reading the ubiquity of premature, undesired mortality was stunning and telling. As you walk through these newspapers and these journal accounts and these revelation manuscripts you realize there’s an awful lot going on about how people understand themselves in relationship to prior generations and how people understand themselves in relation to the people they love now who will not always be present with them. That then led me into a fair bit of reading in Antebellum Protestant theology, reading the classics, both the new Evangelical historians and the Mark Noll, George Marsden kind of camp, and reading more broadly and just the cultural intellectual history of Antebellum America, and from that came ultimately In Heaven as It Is on Earth.
MORTALITY AS A PHYSICIAN
HODGES: There’s something also in your background that you didn’t draw as much attention to and that’s that you’re also involved in medicine, right? You’re a doctor.
BROWN: I’m an Intensive Care Unit physician, and mostly a medical professor and medical researcher, but I do also take care of patients.
HODGES: So you’d be working with mortality quite often it seems in your everyday occupation, then. Was that brought to bear at all on the topic?
BROWN: Absolutely. Part of what struck me was the incredible courage of people as they were on their deathbed or as they were the loved ones of someone nearing death. It was striking and stirring to me and simultaneously I felt that there were huge cultural gaps in terms of the support structures that people had available to them as they were navigating that experience.
I’m a big fan of lived religion as it’s preached by the key figures and contemporary religious history and religious studies and for me I feel like I’m inhabiting lived religion two dot zero because I’m actually seeing what happens to people religiously and culturally when the rubber hits the road, when it really matters what religious claims are, when it really matters what people believe and how they (inaudible) relationships. How do they behave? What words do they use? What images and concepts do they draw on? What rituals are meaningful to them?
I brought that sensibility of the time spent treating patients and thankfully in 2013 the large majority of our patients actually do recover and get back to home and get back to good strength, but there is still a certain proportion of them who do not survive despite all our best efforts. Being with them, not abandoning them when it looked like our life-supporting technologies were not going to work was an important part of what got me asking questions of historical documents that were specific to the lived experience of people in Antebellum America, particularly in that western frontier.
A THEME IN JOSEPH SMITH’S SERMONS
HODGES: You talk about in the introduction to the book death presiding over all of human history, but one thing that your book sort of draws out I think is that our anxieties or our approaches to death culturally have changed over time. One element of Joseph Smith’s prophet hood that I hadn’t really considered quite as much is his often returning to the theme of death and his anxiety, his concern about death. This would usually happen in the context of funeral sermons that he would deliver and these types of situations where death would be on the mind. So was it pretty easy for you to find those types of sources from Joseph Smith? Did you find that to be a pretty common theme in his sermons?
BROWN: Absolutely. Bill Smith at BYU is working on an annotated anthology of Joseph Smith’s funeral sermons that I think will be a great pleasure to read when it comes time for it to be published and I think Bill has found and I have found and others have found that this was an incredibly important topic for people. The anthropologist of theologians, Doug Davies had written a book called The Mormon Culture of Salvation that was trying to think through what salvation meant for early Mormons. It’s a book I bumped into as I was just finishing up In Heaven as It Is on Earth.
I think he had a couple of insights from a formal theological anthropological perspective that were important. Even independent of theological or anthropological vistas on this material it’s just everywhere, and you realize that there was a sort of historiographical collective forgetting that extended for many decades. It began to change at the tail end of 1960s into the 1970s, but you really have to be ignoring a lot of your primary materials to not be allowing death to be a part of the story that you are telling as a historian of pre-Civil War America.
THE TOMB OF JOSEPH
HODGES: Yeah, it’s interesting to see in some of his sermons he would refer to this tomb that he had been planning, this tomb, a family tomb or something?
BROWN: Yeah, it was the tomb of Joseph. And as reminder that part of how Joseph Smith positioned himself was as a person through whom God allowed the past to be relived. We talk about restorationism and primitivism and those are true. It’s important to understand the Campbellite and similar contexts in which Joseph Smith is heading up the restoration. But it’s also remarkable the extent to which Joseph Smith is through his very life as he lives it exemplifying what it means for the past to be relived.
So the tomb of Joseph is his reference to the tomb of Joseph of Egypt, just described very briefly in the Hebrew Bible and he nods, he in one says that the Book of Mormon itself proclaimed the importance of having that kind of a sacred tomb. He understood it as both him living as a modern-day Joseph of Egypt, sort of (inaudible) that patriarchal figure and made it part of his temple, which is a fascinating thing. Kevin Barney reminded me that corpses were considered so polluted in the Hebrew cultist that they would never had had a tomb on the temple grounds, but for Joseph Smith that notion of pollution was not present. There’s this strongly cultic element, and by cultic I don’t mean these nincompoops that are yelling at Mormons or other new religious movements, I mean specifically related to the ways rituals are performed and the way a church community hangs together around those rituals.
So there’s clearly an element with the tomb of Joseph of that religious and ritual significance, but then there’s also, and there was always present with Joseph Smith, a sense of warm familiarity and hand-holding-hand and people embracing each other. There was a sense in which the tomb of Joseph was also the place where the Smith family would awaken in the resurrection and discover each other and would be immediately able to resume their tender intimacies as a loving extended family the moment the first resurrection happened.
So the tomb of Joseph was this fascinating structure that was on the Nauvoo temple grounds, and he was even trying to get Alvin, his older brother Alvin, that he looked up to so much, he was trying to figure out a way to get Alvin’s remains disinterred and then reinterred in the tomb of Joseph. He of course was killed under such nasty circumstances that there was no way that they could have interred him in the tomb of Joseph. There’s talk, who knows whether it’s true or not, I assume it is because it has to do with buying and selling things, but there were rumors that philologists and others would pay a premium to have Joseph Smith’s remains so they could put it on a museum display. So they had to hide Joseph Smith’s body and he ultimately was not able to be buried in the tomb of Joseph.
BURIAL OF JOSEPH SMITH
HODGES: I think they buried him for a time in the basement of one of the buildings in Nauvoo, right?
BROWN: Yeah. I’m going to forget whether it was the mansion house or the Nauvoo house proper. It’s a little contested, but my guess is that Emma became worried that Joseph’s remains would be desired by the apostles or others who were with the apostles and she had Joseph and Hyrum removed from their original burying place and moved to a new location and then actually misremembered where they had been placed, and it wasn’t until the mid-1920s that a reorganized LDS engineer was able to track down the original tombs.
HODGES: That’s when they moved them to their current place.
BROWN: Yeah. They had to move them back. They were worried that the Mississippi was going to cut into the area where they had been interred. So now the actual bones are under the grave marker that you can see if you tour Nauvoo now.
HOLY DEATH CULTURE
HODGES: So let’s talk a little bit more about some of the more specific ways that Joseph Smith dealt with death and confronted death, you call it the conquest of death. That’s kind of a combination of theological ideas and rituals and beliefs that all kind of deal with what happens to people when they die, and what will happen in the resurrection and these sorts of ideas. How do you see Joseph Smith as differing from some of the other theological visions of his time and what are some similarities that he shared with them?
BROWN: That’s a great question. Doug Davies, who is the one that initially popularized the broad notion of death conquest, also referred to it as death transcendence. The restoration happens and Joseph Smith lives his life in a complicated but mostly Protestant environment in which the dominant traditions were Calvinism, which was on the wane. It was on the wane in the way these sorts of comprehensive worldviews often are on the wane, but when people decide that they need to come up with a new idea they did it by attacking some caricature of Calvinism.
The best known of the opponents to Calvinism in the period were particularly the one with (inaudible) frontier life was Arminianism. These are broad terms that can mean a lot of very different things and of all the differences between Calvinism and Arminianism is a story about the significance of human will and specifically is there a way that a human being could in any way affect her or his salvation, and strict Calvinism says no, this is not something that is up to a human, this is something that depends exclusively on God’s majesty, excellency, and choice.
The Arminians, even though Arminius himself was not Pelagian, it specifically said it’s not that you could earn your own salvation, it’s that you can lose it by backsliding. As it gets (inaudible) in other ways, Arminianism does become much more a story about the role that the human being has in defining its own status. Both of them were (inaudible), specifically because the intense focus on the need to either be elect under Calvinism, or to not ever backslide under Arminianism. I think the deathbeds of the two broad traditions are useful for understanding what Joseph Smith found to be problematic in his society.
HODGES: Is this like the holy death? Is this what you’re referring to?
INDIVIDUAL VERSUS COMMUNITY
BROWN: Yeah. The holy death culture broadly, and the practice of holy dying or beautiful dying or good dying, encompassed both Calvinism and Arminianism in various ways. This was a (inaudible) about meeting your death in a way that assured your salvation. Under Calvinism you had to keep on keeping on because if you didn’t then that was a (inaudible) you had never been elected. Under Arminianism or Methodism you had to continue on because if you continue on in great piety and introspection and faith because if you didn’t that meant you had backslid. The problem is that the individual believer was the locus of these battles to assure that you would be saved. You had to wage that battle until your very dying breath.
Joseph Smith saw that and said that a) salvation is not a story about an individual, salvation is a story about communities of individuals, and b) life is richer and more filled with spirit when we are not constantly worried about whether we have measured up, whether we have demonstrated our election under Calvinism or whether we have avoided backsliding under Arminianism.
So Joseph Smith’s response to the crisis of death was to define a communal rather than an individual approach to salvation, and to restore or reveal a ritual system that allowed people to know that it would be okay, that they did not need to worry endlessly about whether they would be saved, whether their children would be saved, but that through the revealed rituals of the restoration they could have the assurance that they would be together again in the afterlife and they could get about the business of living together.
HODGES: So that’s kind of situating it with some of the Protestant views, Calvinism, Arminianism, what’s interesting is you could kind of look at Mormonism as being a Protestant-like sect, or a Protestant-like religion and that it obviously wasn’t Catholicism, but at the same time Joseph Smith’s return to the importance of priesthood in ordinances was a departure from a lot of other Protestant groups. There’s this sense that his returning to this communal salvation, which is contingent on priesthood authority—
BROWN: There was clear pushback. He got pushback from Protestants, he got pushback from Emerson and the transcendentalists. Everybody saw him as an idiosyncratic crypto-Catholic, or somebody who was rejecting the fundamental corners of both the Lutheran and the Calvinist reformations. When it comes down to it, and I’m sure people will argue with me, when it comes down to it the story of the reformation seems to be a story about the primacy of scripture over church and church tradition and the primacy of the individual and the individual’s conscience over and against the early modern Catholic church.
So then Joseph Smith said well no, it’s not just about the biblical canon as you have decreed it. The canon is an evolving canon that evolves under the guidance of living prophets and it turns out it’s not just an individual hammering out the details of belief in his mind as he reflects upon the scripture. It’s this living, breathing, sacramental restoration.
So there are ways in which Joseph Smith appears very Protestant or that the restoration had come through him as phrased in Protestant sounding ways, but when you get down to the innards of the restoration they are profoundly non-Protestant. I think if we could step back from the fighting and the posturing about it we could acknowledge that when many Protestants say we’re not Christian what they really mean is we are un-Protestant and we really are un-Protestant. In our core beliefs we do not sound Protestant. It’s okay to embrace the fact that we are not Protestants at the same time that we extend love and understanding and kindness to our Protestant peers.
ADOPTION AND CHRISTIANITY
HODGES: One way I think we can do that is just by looking at history and looking at some of the similarities and differences, kind of what you’ve done in your project. You bring up the language of adoption, this idea of adoption in pre-Civil War, Protestant religion. You trace it all the way back from there to the New Testament in Paul. So let’s shift over to this idea of adoption and kind of give listeners the background here about the roots of this idea of adoption. How adoption fits into Christianity.
BROWN: Adoption starts in the writings of Saint Paul as an explanation of how people who are not Israelite by birth could be heirs of the covenant between Yahweh, we often call him Jehovah or the Lord, but as heirs of the covenant that Yahweh makes with Israel. So in Paul adoption is a story about the way Christ becomes the father to the Gentile faithful and through adoption by Christ people gain or obtain a birth right as Israelites. That’s deeply meaningful.
In the Letter to the Romans there’s such gorgeous language about the spirit testifying to our spirit, that we are heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ that I find just deeply moving because it’s the story about relationships and dignity that doesn’t depend on who your biological parents are. It doesn’t matter what side of the tracks you were born on, it doesn’t matter what nation you were born into, Christ’s atonement is fundamentally a story about the potential for all of us to be the children of God in a deeply meaningful sense. In general for most of creedal Christianity that’s the sense that people maintain around the notion of adoption, that there are different distinct variations on that fundamental notion. But in its essence it’s a story about how Gentiles could become Israelites and they become that through Jesus the Messiah.
HODGES: So you trace that up through the Puritans, right? So what are some of the ways that the Puritans incorporated this idea of adoption? I ask because it’s really interesting to see the way that it fades in Christian thought and then in some ways seems to reemerge in some ways with Mormonism.
BROWN: The Puritans had a very clearly defined sense of covenant theology. Covenant theology was a very communal theology. They were hard-nosed, mean, petty people but the reality is that they were theocrats. They believed that a civil system should be built on the basis of an ecclesial society, and the covenant theology of the Puritans was the notion that there could be a merger of civic society and religious society and family community and networks.
Part of what they realized as they worked through covenant theology was that there would be interruptions where they would be a black sheep in the family and the grandparents loved their grandchildren, as they commonly did, and were able to get their grandchildren to come into the church, but the parents of those grandchildren were unregenerate or were reprobate or had died in their sins.
So they (inaudible) to be sure that the grandchildren could still be a part of the sacred covenant and the line of election that came through the families. So people were (inaudible). What do you do when it feels like salvation ought to extend through familial and relational networks but manifestly you have people who defy and deviate from the expected course and disappoint their parents? With the waning of establishment of congregationalism and the remnants of what we think of as Puritanism, there is a pretty sharp distinction from that. But then Joseph Smith definitely has a sense that there were elements of Puritan theology and Puritan covenant theology that were important friends of the original gospel that needed restoration.
MORMONISM AND ADOPTION THEOLOGY
HODGES: When you tie this into Mormonism you talk about some of the early Mormon discussions on adoption and you point to the Book of Mormon as a place where adoption comes up and this is where people make a covenant to be called the children of Christ, his sons and his daughters, and they enter into this sort of family relationship of believers. They take upon them a new name, the name of Christ, and this sort of thing. It seems like you don’t see adoption theologies really taking off in Mormonism for a couple of years. Is that impression right?
BROWN: I think if you judge by the published documents that are most compatible with the vision of adoption that Joseph Smith had in Nauvoo that you’re right, you don’t see those documents early on and whether it was Joseph Smith being called to further clarify and explore the implications of adoption theology that had been present in prior (inaudible) or if they have an alternative explanation. I don’t think the documents tell you one way or the another. But there’s a sense in which Joseph Smith thinks it through and prays about it and worries over it and gets revelation about it, but he’s able to tell more of a story of adoption. It’s almost like those old Paul Harvey broadcast where he says, “And that’s the rest of the story.” Joseph Smith as he’s continuing to grow as a prophet isn’t able to explain the (inaudible) traditional Christian adoption.
PATRIARCHS AND ADOPTION
HODGES: There was a part that really surprised me, I didn’t expect to see it in there, you had a pretty long discussion about patriarchs, the idea of Mormon patriarchal blessings and how this ties into the idea of adoption. I think people would be interested to hear about that because today we just sort of think of patriarchs as these people that give us our patriarchal blessings, some kind of like a personalized scripture that just gives us some instruction about our lives, assigns us to a tribe of Israel or identifies us as a tribe of Israel, but patriarchal blessings you see as playing a more formative role I think in early Mormon thought of adoption, right?
BROWN: Yeah. I think that the later twentieth century experience of the patriarchal blessing is as you described it. It’s a private revelation to you that is a kind of miniature bible that is relevant to your specific life, that’s something that you will turn to in times of need. That sense of a patriarchal blessing is certainly present in the earliest patriarchal blessings. If you look at the theology that Joseph Smith was describing and elaborating to describe what patriarchs were and what their role was, there was actually a lot more to it in the early years, particularly under Joseph Smith, but persisting after Joseph Smith died.
Specifically patriarchal blessings were one of the early ways that Joseph Smith was trying to communicate this sense that human beings could serve a role as extensions of the Christ or as secondary saviors. Joseph Smith saw these secondary saviors as he called, and this was a borrowing I think from Obadiah, saviors on Mount Zion. The early understanding of saviors on Mount Zion was these were the people that would bring others to the joyful reunion at Zion’s Mount when the Messiah returned.
There was almost a sense in which Christ had deputized us to be saviors to each other. You could get into trouble, particularly with Evangelical Protestants who say you’re trying to demean Jesus and you’re trying to say that human beings are just as good as Jesus, and that’s not really a caricature of what Joseph Smith was preaching, but what he was preaching I think was that the purpose of our lives is to be as like Jesus as we can. When you phrase it in those terms they say of course that’s what we believe. What was Jesus doing? Jesus was bringing the covenant, and by the covenant it’s not just an agreement, the covenant was also the operating rules of a community, Christ was bringing a community and forgiveness and love and the opportunity for repentance to all of us to allow us to assemble.
EVANGELISTS AND SO FORTH
HODGES: The thing that fascinates me when you’re talking about this is the way that you tie baptism for the dead, patriarchal blessings, and these things, even missionary work, with a project that goes back in time and forward in time that’s executed in present time. So with baptism for the dead you’re performing ordinances for people who have already lived, but you’re also anticipating meeting them in the millennium or in the next world and you both will have received these saving ordinances together, you both can rejoice together. With patriarchal blessings it’s this idea that reaches back through the Hebrew Scriptures. You’re connected to a tribe of Israel, but it’s also something that projects forward as well to your posterity. Patriarchal blessings would mention the posterity of the person being blessed and that these blessings could be handed on. We talk about children being born in the covenant and these sorts of ideas. So these revelations that Joseph Smith had, they seem to project out past and future and I thought that was really interesting.
One of the most interesting things I hadn’t considered before was where the Article of Faith says, “We believe in Evangelists and so forth.” If you ask Mormons today they say we don’t really have anything that’s necessarily called an Evangelist, but Joseph Smith said that the patriarch was an Evangelist. You connect it to these ideas I’m just talking about. You provide a really interesting interpretation of what he might have meant by that, by an Evangelist being a patriarch. So take a second to mention that. I thought that was really interesting.
BROWN: So to understand this I think you’ll understand that Joseph Smith was saying that we as human beings can aspire to spread the light and covenant and community of Christ throughout the world. There are a variety of ways we can do it, as you so eloquently summarized. Baptisms for the dead, patriarchal blessings, parent’s blessings, healing blessings, washings and anointings, and also the (inaudible) tie between someone who brings the gospel to a convert and that convert.
In Joseph Smith’s hands that connection between a loving parent and a reciprocally loving child is the whole story. It’s the story of God and Christ, it’s the story of Christ and all of us, and it’s the story of the relationships we craft. When Smith talks about converting someone, bringing the gospel to a person who subsequently embraces it and is baptized, he says that it’s creating a relationship that has the kind of durability that it can persist into the afterlife. In the essay, and I think it’s probably true, there’s that merger where the Evangelist is the adoptive parent of the convert, and the patriarch as the adoptive parent of the person receiving the patriarchal blessing. That’s a parallelism that we have not really explored, in part because we’ve lost track, many of us, of that original theology of the amplifications of Christ through our interactions with each other that are modeled on the tender love of a parent for a child and vice versa.
HODGES: You’ve got a lot of really interesting insights in the book, but that one in particular I don’t know why but that one in particular just really struck me, and it’s a questions that I’d had for a long time. Why would Joseph Smith equate evangelists and patriarchs? That doesn’t make sense. But when you put it in this context of a missionary becoming a sort of spiritual father or mother to a convert or a patriarch becoming a sort of spiritual father to someone he’s giving a blessing to, then it makes sense within this frame. I can’t say for sure if that’s what he had in mind, but boy I think you make a really strong case for that. That’s one that I’ll take for my default position for now.
FELT LOVE AND CHOSEN LOVE
BROWN: I’m always open to be corrected. I think you follow the evidence that you see in the documents, you think carefully about it, you chat with other scholars, and then you propose what you think is a reasonable hypothesis, always recognizing that new information particularly a large amount of information and a new theoretical framework can further clarify what it is you’ve thought.
I really think in my own faith work, and I’m a beliving, practicing, Latter-day Saint, and in my own faith (inaudible) think about that love I feel for my children that is visceral and beyond words and can tie me in knots and can elevate me into a perfect happiness. I think about the fact that I would die for them and that I can’t disentangle my identity from them, you can clearly take this into psychologically dangerous paths, I’m not advocating that, but I think that’s supposed to be our model for how we strive to feel about each other, not just our biological children but about everybody, that we should feel a sort of power in our associations with each other. I think that’s a key element of what Joseph Smith is describing, and with adoption he raises the role of the will.
I’ve taught my own preaching in church about a love that is felt and a love that is chosen. I feel the love that is felt that’s so natural and spontaneous with regard to our children, but there’s also a love that we choose. I think that the story of our mortal sojourn is understanding how to allow a love that is felt and a love that is chosen to mutually enrich each other so that we will have them both, that incredibly powerful bond with each other and the ability to bring others into that kind of a bond. It’s very easy and it feels increasingly easy as time goes on to imagine that the horizons of our world of regard, our coterminous with maybe our own fence at our own nice little house, maybe our ward boundaries, but (inaudible) God and Jesus, the prophet Joseph, well beyond that. I think the framework of adoption theology makes explicit the rule that a chosen love will play in our observance of the gospel.
SPIRIT BIRTH OR SPIRITUAL ADOPTION
HODGES: That’s actually what led to this interview. You published an article in the previous issue of BYU Studies on adoption. The BYU Studies article was written on the premise that you see a distinction between your formal historical work and then your perspectives as a believer. You kind of make a distinction between those, not to say they can be entirely separated by each other, but there’s sort of a difference when you’re talking to fellow members of the church or when you’re writing an academic article or book.
So in this BYU Studies article you’re kind of able to reach members of the church who think about these types of issues and you talk about the idea of adoption, but you also talk about spirit birth, and you propose that a spiritual adoption model might be more fitting, at least to you personally, than spirit birth. This is the idea that Heavenly Parents somehow literally have some sort of procreative act that results in a brand new spirit child and that sort of thing.
So maybe, we only have a few minutes left, but can you talk for a second about how these different views came up? There’s a view of spirits as born to Heavenly Parents in an extremely literal way and one of the Heavenly Parents becoming adoptive parents of eternal intelligences. Where are kind of the roots of that?
BROWN: I can’t find any contemporary evidence in Joseph Smith’s period that suggests this (inaudible) would associate with the Pratt brothers and ultimately with Brigham Young and William Phelps and others. What I see Joseph Smith writing about is a sense in which God organizes intelligences into his family and imagery of divine adoption and of us as secondary saviors practicing adoption. Shortly after Joseph Smith’s death you see a fair bit of his lieutenants puzzling through what the meaning of God’s literal parenthood of us might be, and in that setting they tended to take a tack that suggested in an almost Sweden Borgen inflection that what we think of as human sexuality would persist into the afterlife and that pregnancy (inaudible) parturition either would be painless but that they would persist in the afterlife.
As Jonathan Stapley and I were going back and forth in the late thoughts about adoption and thinking it through we did a pair of essays where I did the Joseph Smith through Woodruff’s ending of adoption as we knew it. While talking about it it occurred to us that when you look at the Smithian documents they feel adopted and they feel like they’re a story about God seeing us and seeing us needing to develop further and knowing that the way we would develop further is in a parental relationship with him, and that he then adopts us into his family.
It makes sense to me. I think the reason that it makes sense to me is that it’s a story about a love that is chosen, that Christ calls us to love, not just spontaneously but to train ourselves to love and to always be aspiring to broaden the compass of our domestic love in the noble and godly sense. I understand that there are well meaning and inspired and inspiring Latter-day Saints who feel like the spirit birth model as we call it is the only possible account, and I’m not after any kind of argument. I don’t think that I am an expert on it exactly (inaudible) God conducts his private life or even on the details of the shape of heaven. I attempt to hear what seems like God wants us to hear and to try to construct a meaningful heaven and family life here on earth without needing to know all the specific details, but I think good Latter-day Saints can (inaudible) either in a spirit birth model or an adoptive model or a hybrid or another model. I don’t think anybody’s salvation will be in peril by that specific belief about theology. But if you do believe in a spirit birth model I think you have to be open to the possibility that the adoptive model or adoptive (inaudible) broadly can change the way we think about the intense love we should feel for each other, not just for our biological children.
SCHOLARSHIP AND RELIGION
HODGES: I think what’s most striking then about this is just the idea that your scholarship you recognize as explicitly in this article, your scholarship does have direct bearing on your life as a believer and of your religious views. I think it’s interesting and great that you had the opportunity to explore those issues because I don’t think many Mormon studies folks often get the chance to do that, usually those are the types of connected questions, especially in historical analyses that it wouldn’t really fit in in a lot of journals and things like this. I hope just—
BROWN: I wrote the history as a historian trying to understand what the document said. After I’d written it I thought about it, and I read it, and I thought that sounds like a reasonably accurate historical representation and then having written the history with the approach of a historian I then was able to come to what had been created and think about well does this mean anything to me as a believer?
I felt like that kind of it’s not a full (inaudible) but it’s a (inaudible) projects. Figure out what the documents say and what they mean according to the standards of history and then once you’ve done the hard work of figuring out what the documents seem to suggest, then bring a believer’s eye to that question. I’ve found personally that letting the history take me where the history would and then thinking what it might mean, that model worked for me, and meant that I didn’t have to pretend that there was not a believer in me, but that I also was able to write a history that was as true to the documents as I could figure out to be and that couldn’t (inaudible) sense to someone who was not a believer.
HODGES: Thanks for joining us today on the Maxwell Institute Podcast, Sam. We really appreciate it.
BROWN: Thanks, Blair.
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On September 25, 2018 September 25, 2018 By Middlesex CC
September 26 – MA Community College Night at Fenway Park
September 27, 8 a.m. – Trustees Meeting, Trustees’ House, Bedford
October 4, 2:30 p.m. – Faculty Staff Association (FSA) meeting, Academic Arts Center, Lowell
October 5, 10-11 a.m. – Audit Committee meeting, President’s Conference Room, Cataldo Building, Bedford
October 10, 2 p.m. – MILES Open House, Bedford Campus Center
October 12, 7 p.m. – World of Music Concert Series Kick-off event: Honoring the City of Lowell through Music, Academic Arts Center
October 25, 8 a.m. – Trustees Meeting, Trustees’ House, Bedford
October 27, 9:30 a.m. – Open House, Bedford Campus Center
December 4, 5:30 p.m. – Trustee Meeting w/Student Government, Nesmith House, 229 Andover St., Lowell
December 7, 7:00 pm – PTK Honor Society Induction Ceremony, Café East, Bedford
Middlesex Community College christens new arts center
http://www.lowellsun.com/breakingnews/ci_32154822/middlesex-community-college-christens-new-arts-center (Lowell Sun, 9/21/18)
Local medical assistants have their own day
http://www.lowellsun.com/mysun/ci_32145661/local-medical-assistants-have-their-own-day (Lowell Sun, 9/18/18)
MCC students provide tooth treatments at a reduced cost
http://www.lowellsun.com/news/ci_32141675/mcc-students-provide-tooth-treatments-at-reduced-cost (Lowell Sun, 9/16/18)
Middlesex Humanities Center Hosts ‘Lowell’s Urbanscape’ Exhibit
https://patch.com/massachusetts/bedford-ma/middlesex-humanities-center-hosts-lowell-s-urbanscape-exhibit (Massachusetts Patch, 9/4/18)
Campus life, right from day one
http://www.thevalleydispatch.com/ci_32111974/campus-life-right-from-day-one (The Valley Dispatch, 9/3/18)
Julie Lun
Through the support of the AANAPISI grant, we are delighted to welcome two Graduate Fellows from UMass Lowell, Julie Lun and Diana Santana. Both Julie and Diana will be working in the Asian American Connections Center on the MCC Lowell Campus.
Julie Lun has over 2 years of experience in higher education at UMass Lowell, including being the Office Assistant for Student Financial Services, and the Site Director for the “Let’s Get Ready Program”, where she mentored and assisted first generation college students with their transition to post-secondary education. Julie is currently pursuing a Master’s Degree in Criminal Justice, and would like to work as a Victim’s Advocate in the court system. In her role at MCC, she will be providing program support to PAASA staff, as well as working to develop and implement programs that will support student’s professional development.
Diana Santana currently works as a Graduate Assistant in the Office of Multicultural Affairs at UMass Lowell, where she provides program support and coaches students in leadership development. Diana earned her AA in Communications from MCC, and is currently pursuing a Master’s Degree in Community Social Psychology. Diana will continue to coordinate the MAPP mentorship program and provide program support to PAASA staff.
Nine MCC faculty members are participating in an online course in research-based effective teaching practices. This pilot course, provided by ACUE (Association of College and University Educators), is being funded by our current Title III grant. Other MCC 360 activity includes upcoming weekly MCC Navigate training (starting on Friday, Oct 12th). These training sessions will alternate on both campuses.
As well as the hiring of our new Analytics Officer, Robin Marra, MCC360 is undertaking implementation of HelioCampus, a data warehouse that will support the use of analytics related to student progress and retention. Stay tuned as reporting on various facets of the student experience, as well as administrative functions, become available through Tableau interactive dashboards.
Mark your calendars Advisory Board members, the coming year’s quarterly MCC 360 Advisory Committee meetings are tentatively scheduled for the following dates:
Monday, October 15; Monday, December 17; Monday, March 11; Monday, June 17
2018 Lowell Medical Assistant Day Institute
Claudia Guillen, the coordinator of the Medical Assistant program, was a keynote speaker at the first Lowell Medical Assistant Day Institute on August 25, 2018. The Institute is a workforce development activity designed to engage Medical Assistants in lifelong learning skills leading to better performance, higher recognition, and professional promotion. This event was designed in collaboration with the Greater Lowell Health Alliance, Lowell General Hospital, Lowell Community Health Center, Middlesex Community College, and Damian Folch M.D. A variety of workshops were presented during the day for CEUs. Twenty-eight Medical Assistants participated in the event and fourteen of them received awards ranging from $100 to $500 for their leadership, compassion, teamwork, and logo design.
Congratulations to Dr. Sandra Shapiro, the Director of Nurse Education, for the publication of her research article “An Exploration of the Transition to the Full-Time Faculty Role Among Associate Degree Nurse Educators” in the July/August 2018 edition of Nursing Education Perspectives
We welcome Jeanne McIsaac as new full-time faculty to the nursing department. Jeanne’s education includes a nursing degree from Somerville Hospital School of Nursing, a baccalaureate degree from Chamberlain College, and a master’s degree in nursing education from Salem State University. She has teaching experience as an adjunct faculty member in a variety of educational settings that serve diverse student populations. These include: Roxbury Community College, Bay State College, and Regis College/Lawrence Memorial. Jeanne will also bring her 25 years of clinical expertise in maternal/child health nursing to her classroom. She is a great addition to the nursing faculty team. We are very excited to welcome Jeanne!
Humanities Division
Music Department Activities
MCC Music department faculty members were involved in many exciting activities this summer and early fall.
Orlando Cela was the conductor of the Orchestra of the North Carolina Governor’s School for six weeks. Later in the summer he was the music director of Li-E Chen’s “Silent Opera” presented at The Place, in London, England.
Richard Chowenhill was the Associate Artistic Director and resident composer of the Davis Shakespeare Festival, which runs every summer in Davis, CA.
David Janssen’s Sonata Fantasia for Violin/ Cello Duo and Suite for Unaccompanied Cello were given world premieres at Chapel Hill United Methodist Church in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma.
Marcus Santos, percussionist, performed at Carnegie Hall in Orchestra Sings, an interactive show created by the Education Department of Carnegie Hall to inspire music education for students of New York City public schools. Later he traveled to Slovakia to participate in a percussion festival. He ended the summer in Trinidad and Tobago where he was an artist in residence at the University of the West Indies for a week.
Anna Ward, soprano, sang an aria from Act 1 of the opera Jeanne, composed by Mark Warhol. Anna was accompanied by the Ensemble Warhol and several dancers. This took place at the Green Street Studios in Cambridge at the beginning of September.
MCC Music students
Encouraged by MCC faculty member Raley Beggs, MCC students Patricia Connors and Fatima Al-Muntafik participated in the Boston GuitarFest at New England Conservatory this past June. Classical guitarists of all ages and levels participated in a variety of programs that included lessons, ensembles, workshops, competitions, master classes, and concerts. The students had a wonderful time.
STEM Division
STEM new faculty and staff: STEM is fortunate to have been able to fill several positions this summer and we would like to introduce you to these talented individuals.
Ahmed Alsaaedi joined the faculty of our Computing and Engineering Technology Department as an Assistant professor of IT Cybersecurity. He is a computer engineer is focused on electrical and computer engineering as well as IT. He has been developing professionally since 2008 and holds a master’s degree in computer engineering. He is very enthusiastic about design and technology and in participating in the digital revolution. When he has some extra time, he watches TV and solve math problems.
Amanda Bordenca joined the STEM divisions as the IT lab tech/Cybersecurity EDP Systems Analyst I. In this role, she collaborates with faculty and the IT department to ensure that the technology in both programs meets the needs of the programs. She works to assist the faculty and students of the CAD/Engineering Department and the Information Technology Cybersecurity Department. She is a graduate of MCC with an Associate Degree in Science in Information Technology Cyber Security and a background in computer science. In her free time enjoys spending time with her family and discovering new technology.
Sophie Kazanis joined the faculty of the Science Department as an Assistant Professor of Chemistry. Dr. Sophia Kazanis received her Ph.D. in Bioorganic chemistry at Brandeis University. Her research investigated the relationship between structure and function of small iron-containing proteins using NMR (Nuclear Magnetic Resonance) techniques. She received her B.Sc. from Concordia University in Montreal, Canada. Before joining the faculty at MCC, she taught chemistry part-time as an adjunct professor at Salem State University and prior to that, she tutored chemistry at Mount Wachusett Community College. Dr. Kazanis worked for many years at Bruker Biospin Corporation in Billerica, MA as an application scientist. There she demonstrated the capabilities of high-field NMR spectrometers and instructed customers how to best use their spectrometers. She is interested in helping students prepare for future STEM careers.
Julia Kelly joined the faculty of our Computer Science Department as an Assistant Professor. Julia’s journey to her career as a computer scientist and an assistant professor teaching computer science at Middlesex Community College was not straightforward. Throughout her childhood, Julia vacillated among plans to become a veterinarian, a detective, or a marine biologist. In high school, she thought of herself as a physicist. Because 11% of the women physicists in the United States are Bryn Mawr College graduates, Julia applied as an aspiring physicist. However, cultural and linguistic anthropology wooed her and computational linguistics drew her into computer science. Thus, Julia graduated as an anthropology and computer science double major. Stints in Quality Assurance and IT work led to her desire to go back to school and pursue a graduate degree focusing on educational game design at University of California Santa Cruz. With her new MS in Computer Science, Julia began her career as the founding teacher of computer science, serving students at the Groton School for four years. In an attempt to expand her repertoire of teaching techniques, Julia recently completed a certificate in Technology and Engineering Education at Fitchburg State University. Beyond Julia’s pursuit of all things academic, her interests span sedentary things like reading and knitting to active things like breakdancing and rowing/coaching crew. Julia hopes to inspire students to find their professional passion and pursue that no matter how circuitous or challenging.
Reed Konsler has joined the STEM Division as a Chemist 1/Chemistry Lab coordinator. He holds a BS in Chemistry from the University of Michigan. He previously worked as a High School Chemistry teacher at Weston High School and Cambridge Rindge and Latin. He also served as a teaching fellow at Harvard University in Organic Chemistry.
Lengchivon Kou has joined the faculty of our Mathematics Department as an Assistant Professor. He earned a Bachelor and Master’s degree in Mathematics from Salem State University. At MCC, his ultimate goal is to teach mathematics and help students who are struggling with math. Teaching has always been his passion; He has always wanted to teach at community college since he was a student myself. As a student, he met many great professors who had helped him a lot and served as role models in his career. From their inspiration, he is so inspired, motivated and energetic to teach and serve students at MCC. In his my free time, He enjoys outdoor activities like volley ball, tennis, hiking.
Aliza Miller has joined us as an Associate professor of Mathematics. Aliza received a Bachelor of Science in Mathematics at McGill University in Montreal, Quebec, Canada and holds a Master of Science in Mathematics specializing in Abstract Algebra and Graph Theory from the University of Vermont. She has always been passionate about teaching since a young age and has over 10 years experience in the classroom. Aliza has taught English in Kaohsiung, Taiwan and mathematics at several colleges and universities throughout New England including the University of Vermont, Champlain College, the Community Colleges of Vermont, Vermont Technical College, and Mount Wachusett Community College.
Marie Tupaj has joined the Computing and Engineering Technology Department as an Assistant Professor of CAD/Engineering. Marie earned a Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering and a Doctorate of Philosophy in Biomedical Engineering from Tufts University. Previously Marie worked as an adjunct professor in the Electronics Engineering Technology Department at Benjamin Franklin Institute of Technology. Prior to teaching, Marie was a postdoctoral fellow at Northeastern University and at Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI) working on biomaterial design projects for nervous tissue regeneration. Marie serves on the IEEE Boston Executive Committee and the IEEE Boston Women in Engineering (WIE) Steering Committee for encouraging women to pursue STEM related careers.
The math department will be holding the Student Math League Competition again this semester on Thursday Oct. 25th at 2:00pm on both campuses. Students compete against other community college students for cash prizes.
Chemistry professor, Sarah (Sally) Quast passed the Oral Defense for her Proposal for her Dissertation. Her research will explore General Chemistry Students’ Perceived Self-Efficacy after Completing Project-Based Service Learning Activities.
Several Biotechnology students received scholarships from The NEPDA-New England Parenteral Drug Assoc. Zeel Patel, Neslihan Ocali, and Katie McManus were awarded $1000 2nd year scholarships and Hetalben Patel, Matt Peranelli and Sieng Heng were awarded $5000 Transfer scholarships.
Michele Stein, Associate Professor of Engineering is hosting the Annual Engineering Panel Night on October 25th at 6 pm on the Bedford campus – Cafe East. This is a great opportunity for students to listen to professional engineers from all backgrounds discuss their paths from Education to where they are today. Students will also have an opportunity to ask the panelists questions.
New Blackboard Ambassadors Program
This fall semester, a team of ten student Blackboard (Bb) Ambassadors began providing a new support for Middlesex students in online classes. Bb Ambassadors help students navigate their online courses by guiding them to important information about due dates, course expectations, submitting assignments, making discussion board posts, and by providing communication and study tips. Bb Ambassadors work with students primarily online, but will also be available to talk on the phone or meet in-person in the ACE Centers. The pilot program is supporting 20 online sections.
New ACE Reading and Writing Learning Specialist
Rosemary Freriks joined Middlesex as a Reading and Writing Learning Specialist working in the Academic Centers for Enrichment (ACE) on August 27, 2018. Rosemary comes to us with a Bachelor of Arts in Linguistics with from the University of Nebraska, a Masters of Fine Arts, in Creative Writing, from The New School, New York, NY, and a graduate TESOL Certificate from Teachers College, Columbia University. Rosemary has vast experience working with underrepresented populations, students from different language backgrounds, as well as students with varying levels of academic preparation, and life experiences. Please join us in welcoming Rosemary to the Academic Centers for Enrichment (ACE) team!
New Professional Math RAMP-UP Tutors
Elaine O’Malley joined Middlesex as a Professional Math Tutor in the RAMP-UP program on August 14, 2018. Elaine holds a Bachelor of Science in Mathematics from University of Lowell, a Master of Science in Computer Science from the University of Lowell, and a Master of Education from Rivier College. Elaine has more than twenty years of teaching experience both in higher education and K-12. We are very excited Elaine has joined the Academic Centers for Enrichment (ACE) team!
Katherine Taylor joined Middlesex as a Professional Math Tutor in the RAMP-UP program on August 14, 2018. Katherine comes to us with a Bachelor of Arts in Mathematics and Physics from Merrimack College, and a Master of Science in Physics from Brown University. Katherine also holds a College Reading and Learning (CRLA) Advanced Tutor certification, and while earning her degree in physics from Brown University, she realized her passion for teaching and tutoring. Please join us in welcoming Katherine to the Academic Centers for Enrichment (ACE) team!
Office of International, Multicultural and Veterans Affairs
New Study Abroad Coordinator
We are pleased to announce that the Office of International, Multicultural and Veterans Affairs has hired Katie Reynolds as the new Study Abroad Coordinator. Katie has extensive experience in international education and has a passion for providing study abroad opportunities accessible to a diverse group of community college students.
Katie obtained a Bachelor of Arts degree in International Relations from Tufts University and a Master of Arts degree in French Cultural Studies from Columbia University. She previously coordinated study abroad programs to Europe and China for Tufts University and the University of Virginia. As the Study Abroad Coordinator, she will be coordinating and implanting study abroad programs sponsored by the Center for International Studies (CIS) located on the third floor of the Cowan Center, Lowell.
The Office of Student Engagement
The Office of Student Engagement is please to introduce two new Part-Time Program Assistants on the Lowell Campus.
Shannon Carrol joins us from Barnes and Noble as the Community Business Coordinator and a wealth of experience as an LMHC in MA. She will be working in our Lowell office helping to coordinate logistics for events and supporting students in organizations.
Karonika Brown joins us from our own Middlesex Community College from our Liberal Arts and Sciences program and is currently pursuing a degree in Elementary Education. As an active student, Karonika was an active member of the Outdoor Adventure Club and many others.
Orientation Thank You!
The Office of Student Engagement would like to extend a heartfelt thanks to all faculty, staff, and students who made our New Student Orientation program a success! Orientation is truly a campus-wide initiative, best delivered with a team approach. You have welcomed our newest students to MCC and they are prepared for the journey ahead. Thank you!
Office of Civic & Service-Learning
The Office of Civic & Service-Learning has been selected again as a site for a Merrimack College fellow as part of the Higher Education Fellowship Program. Kirsten Hoey, a graduate student at Merrimack, will be working as the Service-Learning Fellow in the Office of Civic & Service-Learning. In this role, Kirsten will assist in managing the service-learning program and provide ongoing support to students, faculty, and community partners throughout the year. Kirsten is a Lowell native who recently graduated from Framingham State University with a bachelor’s degree in Geography with a concentration in Global Studies, and is pursuing a master’s degree in Higher Education at Merrimack College. Please join us in welcoming Kirsten to MCC!
I am pleased to announce MCC will welcome Catherine Cosgrove to the Career Services team at Middlesex Community College. Catherine will serve as Coordinator of Career Planning and Placement and will lead our employment efforts to developing and maintaining effective relationships with local, regional, and state employers to provide opportunities for our students. Catherine brings a wealth of career and business experience to this role. Most recently she served as the Senior Recruiting Coordinator at Worcester Polytechnic Institute for the past two years. Catherine’s primary role at WPI was developing relationships with employers that resulted in successful career fairs, networking events and recruiting opportunities for students. Please join the Student Development team on her first day, 10/2, for coffee and conversation in LC407 from 8am-10am.
Admissions and Student Recruitment
The Office of Admissions and Student Recruitment is busy as usual during the opening of the fall semester. During the last weeks of August, we assisted with Walk in Enrollment, enrolled students in selective programs, recruited at our scheduled campus tours and information sessions and represented the college at local community events. Director Jeff Tejada attended the Greater Lawrence Community Action Council Resource Fair and to help kick off Welcoming Week in Lowell, Jeff also attended the Solidarity Lowell Cultural Exchange Potluck Picnic on September 15th. These events allowed us to engage with our local communities and organizations and connect them to services we offer.
Staff are also busy preparing for the upcoming fall recruitment season which includes visiting about 65 high schools and attending over 20 college fairs. Some of the events that have already occurred are the New England School of English College Fair, attended by Jeff Tejada and Tewksbury Memorial High School’s Senior Parent Breakfast and Student Assembly, attended by Assistant Director Jennifer Migliozzi. We will continue recruiting throughout the next few months with high school visits and visits to community agencies, college fairs, and information sessions.
Please save the date for the Fall Admissions Open House, which will be held the morning of Saturday, October 27th on our Bedford campus. We appreciate your support and all those who volunteer their time during this important event for prospective students to learn about our academic programs and the many services we offer!
Key Dates in October
Minimester 1 Student Evaluations
Minimester 1 faculty can pick up and administer their student evaluations beginning on October 17.
Fall 2018 Graduation
The Fall graduation application is now open for students to apply through the portal. The first deadline date is October 26. We encourage students to apply early in order to know their graduation status.
Drop for Nonattendance (DN) Grades
DN grades were due on September 21. Students will be receiving letters regarding their drop of nonattendance grades during the last week in September.
Midterm Deficiency Grades
Midterm deficiency grades are due by October 26. During the first week of November, students will receive letters regarding their deficiencies; the letters will provide them options and assistance on how to improve their grades.
The course scheduling for Spring 2019 is nearing completion. Registration is anticipated to open on October 15, 2018 for the continuing student population. Letters and texts to all students currently enrolled this Fall will be going out in mid-October to inform on the opening of registration. Information pertaining to advising, self-service registration, finances, and contact information will be provided.
Enrollment Management and Retention Plan
The Enrollment Working Group is collaborating on the development of key goals and activities to support the revised Enrollment Plan. As the planning progresses, information will be shared with the college community to gain input, ideas and feedback on the initial draft. Stay tuned!
The Adult Learning Center (ALC) and Links program are proud to highlight past student and 2018 MCC Graduate, Natalie Mukankusi. Natalie’s journey at MCC started in the spring of 2015 when she enrolled in the Adult Learning Center on the Bedford campus to prepare for the High School Equivalency Certificate Exam. She attended classes faithfully for several months and was able to successfully pass the HiSET in May 2015. During the fall semester, Natalie enrolled in Links, where she completed First Year Experience, Explorations in Science and Basic Writing.
In the spring semester of 2016, Ms. Mukankusi became a liberal studies major and by the fall, was inducted into the Phi Theta Kappa Honor Society and became a member of the Commonwealth Honors Program. Not wanting to waste any time, she completed the 63 credits needed for her degree by December 2017. In May 2018, Natalie graduated from MCC with high honors and was inducted into the National Society of Collegiate Scholars (NSCS). She has now transferred to Carlow University in Pittsburgh with a full scholarship and is enrolled in an accelerated (BS + MS) Biology-Cardiovascular Perfusion program.
This summer Natalie came in to say good-bye and asked us to pass along this message: “Thank you MCC for nurturing me into who I am and who I will be. Many thanks to the staff who have been part of my successful journey.”
Owl Sighting Social Media Challenge
At this fall’s Orientation, we unveiled the school’s new mascot, chosen and created by students over the spring/summer. Help us celebrate the new mascot by encouraging students to participate in the #MCCOwls ‘Owl Sighting’ Challenge. A slideshow of student submissions will be posted on Monday, October 8. All students who participate will be entered into a daily drawing for an MCC Swag Bag. Each week, one randomly selected student participant will win one of three $100 MCC Bookstore Gift Cards. Encourage your students to take part and win one of these great prizes by visiting: http://www.middlesex.mass.edu/owlsighting
Richard and Nancy Donahue Family Academic Arts Center
Last week, MCC celebrated the Ribbon-Cutting and Grand Opening of the Richard and Nancy Donahue Family Academic Arts Center. Learn more about the space from President Mabry, Music Chair Carmen Peralta and Theater Chair Karen Oster:
Middlesex Pathways Blog Coming Soon
MCC is kicking off their 2018-20 marketing campaign with a new blog titled: Middlesex Pathways. The goal of this blog is to have MCC community members share their personal stories centered around a monthly topic that shows their path to, from or at MCC. Our first contributor will be MCC Professor Willy Ramirez who will discuss how literature paved his path to MCC. The Middlesex Pathways Blog will be featured on all MCC social media on its release.
College Advancement
MCC Foundation Scholarship Application to open in October
The MCC Foundation Scholarship Application will open October 1st for enrolled MCC students. The deadline to apply is December 14th. Please encourage your students to apply for the awards. There are over 40 awards with a wide range of criteria including major, home town, volunteer service, academic achievement, financial need, and more. Students apply in the fall for the scholarships, and the awards are made for the spring 2019 semester.
Students may find more information and tips for applying on this website: https://www.middlesex.mass.edu/foundation/scholarships.aspx
Our fall semester is off to a great start. The following Community Education courses began September 2018:
Technical Writing Certificate Program, Pharmacy Technician, Digital Photography; SHRM HR Certification Exam Prep; Accounting and Bookkeeping; ESL for Au Pair’s – Life in America; APICS Supply Chain Certification Exam Prep; Social Media for Business; MTEL exam prep; TEAS Exam Prep; Preventing Medical Emergencies in Dental Hygiene Practice; Digital Media Marketing;
NEW this fall, Community Education is offering Alzheimer’s Disease and Dementia Care for Healthcare Professionals along with Alzheimer’s Disease and Dementia Care for First Responders through the National Council of Certified Dementia Practitioners. The Certified Dementia Practitioner is the earned credential that recognizes the highest standard in Alzheimer’s disease and dementia care education. The only way to provide successful dementia care is to understand the disease process and the significance behind the dementia related behaviors. Certification is essential for today’s health care and first responder professional as the dementia population continues to rise. These course awards Continuing Education Units for RN’s, Dental Professionals, Activity Professionals, Licensed Social Workers, Licensed Mental Health Counselors as well as Continuing Education Credit approved through OEMS (6 hours for Basic, Advanced, & Paramedic). For more information visit https://www.middlesex.mass.edu/careertraining/certdementia.aspx. Questions please contact Caitlin Campopiano at 781-280-3680.
On September 12, Sheila Morin and Lauren Ellis participated in the Merrimack Valley Chamber Expo on behalf of MCC. Representatives from area businesses promoted their organizations with consumers throughout the Merrimack Valley.
Your Leadership Style, Effective Communication, and Leading in Challenging Situations trainings for Lowell General Hospital at the Main Campus.
Group Leader Training at Mack Technologies in Westford. Training will include Strategies for Supervisory Success and Beyond.
Curriculum in ECE Programs, Child Growth and Development, and Guiding Children’s Behavior courses through the Region 3 Professional Partnership Grant with the Early Childhood Department.
Accuplacer testing sessions at Raytheon in Andover.
Customized training for Intermediate Level – English Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) at Monogram Gourmet Foods in Wilmington.
First Aid/CPR and Medication Administration Recertification trainings for LifeLinks. The courses are conducted at MCC in order to provide employees exposure to taking classes in a college setting.
SHRM HR Certification Exam Review/Prep course for the Massachusetts Army National Guard at Hanscom Air Force Base in Bedford.
Hosting a Workforce Training Fund Program Information Session on Wednesday, September 26th from 8:30am—10:30am in the Federal Building. Kristen Rayne from the Commonwealth Corporation will provide an overview of grant options and present content on the Workforce Training Fund.
The College is required to annual notify students and employees of various laws and statutes.
Alisa Chapman has sent all College employees, via MCC e-mail, notifications for the following: Annual Safety & Security Report, Drug and Alcohol Abuse Prevention programs, the Campus Sex Crimes Prevention Act, the Policies against Sexual Harassment & Sexual Violence, and Massachusetts Domestic Violence Law
Students have been sent via MCC e-mail notifications for the following: Annual Safety & Security Report, Drug and Alcohol Abuse Prevention programs, the Campus Sex Crimes Prevention Act, MA General Law on Hazing, Higher Education Opportunity Act, the Policies against Sexual Harassment & Sexual Violence, Voter Registration, FERPA, and Financial Aid.
If you have not received the notifications listed above, please contact Alisa Chapman at chapmana@middlesex.mass.edu.
Daniel Martin and Securitas Account Manager Jeff Peterson have been involved with hiring and training several new security officers with the start of the new academic year. These officers demonstrate a high caliber of professionalism and indicate they will be a good fit for placement at MCC.
Dan Martin has been working to coordinate Fall 2018 shuttle services for students, faculty and staff on campus. Dan continues to update policies and procedures relating to shuttle services on campus to ensure that all drivers are trained and ready to offer the MCC community the best service possible. Two new handicap-accessible vans have been added to the MCC shuttle services, allowing our drivers to better serve our College community.
Bedford Campus Resource Officer Craig Naylor has been able to assist several students early in the semester by helping to locate lost/missing property and giving directions. Officer Naylor also “assisted” with the FYE scavenger hunt – by being located! Officer Naylor has been able to engage with several veteran students and talk to students who have expressed interest in becoming a police officer.
Officer Naylor helps to monitor campus parking and traffic, making sure traffic flow is steady and students are parking in designated areas on campus. Officer Naylor also conducts radar on Springs Rd to help promote the safety of all traveling to our campus.
Lowell Campus Resource Officer Tom Hickey was involved in several investigations of missing/reported stolen property on campus. Working with other members of the Lowell PD, Officer Hickey was able to bring these issues to satisfactory resolutions.
In the coming weeks, Abby Vergados will be scheduling various training sessions on both campuses to be conducted by Dan Martin (safety) and Alisa Chapman (compliance/Title IX). Please keep an eye on Newscaster for all upcoming offerings. If you are interested in scheduling a training for your department or class, please contact Dan Martin at martind@middlesex.mass.edu, Alisa Chapman at chapmana@middlesex.mass.edu, or Abby Vergados at vergadosa@middlesex.mass.edu.
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Data strengths & limitations
Migration, whether internal or international, has always been one of the forces driving the growth of urbanization and bringing opportunities and challenges to cities, migrants and governments. Increasingly, municipal authorities are becoming recognized as key actors in managing migration and have started including migration in their urban planning and implementation.
For cities to better manage migration, data on migration and urbanization are essential. However, these data are not always available or – if available – not used or accessible at the urban level, nor disaggregated, comprehensive or comparable, particularly in low-income countries.
Data could improve urban planning and delivery of public services, as well as help measure progress toward Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) related to cities and migration, implement the Global Compacts on Migration and Refugees, which emphasize the role of cities as stakeholders in migration, and fulfill migration-related commitments in the UN Habitat’s New Urban Agenda.
These key concepts and definitions are important to understanding urbanization and migration. The list below is not an exhaustive list:
Urban is problematic to define and no single globally accepted definition of what constitutes an urban settlement exists. What national statistical offices define as “urban” varies from country to country and often varies over time within countries. Some countries define urban based on a minimum population threshold and population density, while other countries use an administrative definition of what constitutes an urban area. Yet others, include more criteria such as proportion of workforce employed in non-agricultural sectors and availability of infrastructure or of education, health and other services (IOM, 2015 and UN, 2018). Most urban population thresholds fall between one and five thousand inhabitants (IOM, 2015).
Urbanization or “urban transition” refers to “a shift in a population from one that is dispersed across small rural settlements, in which agriculture is the dominant economic activity, towards one that is concentrated in larger and denser urban settlements characterized by a dominance of industrial and service activities” (UN, 2018).
Urbanization generally occurs as a result of one or more of the following processes:
natural population growth;
when more people move from rural to urban areas;
when the boundaries of what is considered urban are extended: and/or
from the creation of new urban centres.
“Very often, urbanization is primarily the result of migration” (IOM, 2015).
Urban population growth is often confused with urbanization but is a distinct concept. Urban growth can take place without any urbanization if urban and rural areas are both growing at the same rate. Urban growth is the increase in the absolute number of people living within defined urban areas. It is defined as “the increase in the proportion of the urban population over time as part of the whole population. Urban growth comes from demographic growth and international and internal migration (IOM, 2015).
Urban-to-urban migration, rural-to-rural migration, rural-to-urban migration, and urban-to-rural migration: These types of migration refer to the movement of people from one urban or rural area to a different urban or rural area. These types of migration may happen within a national border or involve crossing an international boundary (IOM Glossary, 2011).
City is also difficult to define because what constitutes an urban settlement varies and there are no standardized international criteria for determining the city (UN DESA, 2018). Multiple boundary definitions can exist for any given city. In general, there are three concepts:
City proper describes a city according to an administrative boundary (ibid.).
Urban agglomeration considers the extent of the contiguous urban area, or built-up area, to delineate the city’s boundaries and is therefore bigger than the city proper (ibid.).
Metropolitan area defines its boundaries according to the degree of economic and social interconnectedness of nearby areas, identified by interlinked commerce or commuting patterns, for example. Metropolitan areas are bigger than the city proper, and can be as big as urban agglomeration, but distinct. While both urban agglomerations and metropolitans can be defined by size, density and contiguity, the definition of metropolitan areas includes other criteria such as administrative functions, and industries and services available, to name a few (ibid.).
Cities can also be categorized by population thresholds (IOM, 2015, based on UN DESA):
Small cities have up to 1 million inhabitants
Medium-sized cities are cities with 1 to 5 million inhabitants
Large cities are cities with 5 to 10 million inhabitants
Megacities are cities with 10 million or more inhabitants
A majority and growing proportion of the world’s population is living in urban areas. The share of the world’s population living in urban areas is expected to increase from 55 per cent in 2018 to 60 per cent in 2030 (UN, 2018). In 1950, 30 per cent of the global population was living in urban areas (ibid.).
In 2018, Northern America was the most urbanized region in the world, with 82 per cent of its population living in urban areas. This was followed by Latin America and the Caribbean (81%), Europe (74%) and Oceania (68%) (UN, 2018). The lowest levels of urbanization are found in Asia (50%) and Africa (43% ), however with large differences among some countries (ibid.).
Most of the world’s fastest growing cities are in Asia and Africa. Between 2018 and 2050, the urban population of Africa is projected to triple and that of Asia to increase by 61 per cent, so that by 2050 most of the world’s urban population will be concentrated in Asia (52%) and Africa (21%) (UN, 2018).
Urban population growth has been propelled by the growth of cities of all sizes. In 2018, 33 megacities hosted 13 per cent of the global urban population (UN, 2018). By 2030, the number of megacities is projected to increase to 41, with 14 per cent of urban dwellers worldwide residing in megacities (ibid.).
Approximately one in five international migrants are estimated to live in just 20 cities -Beijing, Berlin, Brussels, Buenos Aires, Chicago, Hong Kong SAR, China, London, Los Angeles, Madrid, Moscow, New York, Paris, Seoul, Shanghai, Singapore, Sydney, Tokyo, Toronto, Vienna and Washington DC (IOM, 2015)1. For 18 of these cities, international migrants represented around 20 per cent of the total population (ibid.).
The share of foreign-born persons in the total population in some cities exceeds the global average (around 3.5%) by a large margin (IOM, 2015). Dubai has an foreign born population of close to 83 per cent, while in Brussels it is 62 per cent, in Toronto 46 per cent, New York 37 per cent, and Melbourne 35 per cent, to name a few examples (ibid.).
Different types of migration play a role in urban growth and diversity, but to different extents. In the developed countries, one of the main sources of population diversity is international migration, while in the developing countries it is most likely internal migration (IOM, 2015), in addition to demographic growth through births outnumbering deaths.
In some countries, rural-to-urban migration and reclassification of what is considered urban together accounted for more than half of the urban growth, such as in China and Thailand (80%), Rwanda (79%), Indonesia (68%) and Namibia (59%) (UN, 2018). Circular and temporary migration is found in many urban parts of fast-urbanizing Asian and African countries, especially China and India as well as Ghana and Kenya (ibid.).
Data sources on migration exist, as do data sources on urbanization. What is harder to find are reliable, comparable and comprehensive data sources that combine both migration and urbanization data.
The general lack of migration data (availability and accessibility) at the urban level, especially for low income countries, perhaps reflects (1) the long-standing focus on the nation as the unit of analysis in migration research and migration policy and (2) a general disjuncture between national and local policies on data collection for migration management purposes.
The key data sources that combine both migration and urbanization data are:
Censuses generally capture city-level data on the stock of international migrants every ten years or so; data collected are basic and aggregated. Censuses may undercount migrant numbers as they usually exclude data on irregular migrants and migrants living in peri-urban areas or the areas between the suburbs and the country side. Censuses also capture city-level data on internal migration by recording changes of residence of individuals over a given time.
Population registers also capture city-level data on internal migration and the stock of international migrants. Compared to censuses, the data captured through population registers are timelier, updated more frequently, and provide more demographic and socioeconomic information. Like censuses, population registers usually do not capture data on irregular migrants. Population registers are also found in relatively few countries—usually in the more developed parts of the world.
Surveys can capture city-level data on internal migration and international migration but provide more detailed data on migrants than censuses and population registers. Demographic and Health Surveys (DHSs), for example, can provide data on migrant health outcomes and nutrition-related information at the city level. DHSs can also provide data on rural-urban internal migration, and in a few cases, rural-urban international migration. Furthermore, labour market surveys can provide data on migrants’ socioeconomic outcomes, making them useful for measuring immigrant integration.
Compared to censuses and population registers, surveys better capture undercounted migrants, such as irregular migrants, and facilitate identifying groups of migrants, such as women, children, and refugees.
Administrative data sources, such as border statistics, residency permits, and naturalization records can capture city level data on internal and international migrants, but are not comprehensive, may not always be publicly available, do not capture irregular migrants, and may overcount migrants.
Globalization, Urbanization & Migration (GUM) website – Although there is no comprehensive, comparative global dataset on the relationship between cities and immigration, GUM’s global urban database is a first effort to create one. Based on country census data and UN urbanization data, the database includes urban-level data that measure immigration for more than 150 metropolitan areas (over 1 million inhabitants) in more than 50 countries). Data cover traditional immigrant gateway cities and emerging destinations.
These key data sources on urbanization are important for migration research:
The World Urbanization Prospects—UN DESA’s has been issuing since 1988 annually updated estimates and projections of the urban and rural populations for all countries of the world, and of their major urban agglomerations.
The UN Statistics Division’s Demographic Yearbook data collection system compiles and disseminates data from national statistical offices on population density and urbanization. Several tables, presented in the yearbook, provide disaggregated statistics by urban and rural breakdown. Data on population of capital cities and cities of 100,000 and more inhabitants are also available. The UN Population Division uses these data for estimates presented in World Urbanization Prospects.
The United Nations Human Settlements Programme (UN-Habitat) collects, compiles, analyses and reports data on national, urban/rural and city level in order to monitor human settlement conditions and trends. UN-Habitat’s key publications include the Compendium of Human Settlement Statistics, the Global Reports on Human Settlements, and the State of the World’s Cities Reports series.
The Global Urban Observatory (GUO) at UN Habitat is a specialized statistical unit, that supports data collection and analysis for urban indicators. GUO also maintains the Global Urban Indicator database, and supports the monitoring and reporting of the New Urban Agenda and SDG 11, which seeks to “make cities and human settlement inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable.“
Data on urbanization and migration show that migration is driving —and will continue to drive – the growth and diversity of cities. However, certain limitations in migration data and data linking migration and urbanization prevent researchers and policy makers from fully understanding the impact of migration on cities and how moving to a city affects migrants. Such data—as well as the political will to use data when available—are needed for effective urban planning, better socio-economic policies and services that facilitate migrant integration, policy coherence, and informed coordination across different levels of governments and other stakeholders.
Various limitations on using censuses, surveys, populations registers, and administrative sources for research on migration and urbanization are covered in IOM’s World Migration Report 2015. Further limitations on migration data are covered on the migration data sources page and other thematic pages.
Key limitations specific to data linking migration and urbanization include:
Lack of standard definitions – What is considered urban or a city varies from country to country and sometimes it varies over time within countries, making comparative analysis difficult. There is also no standard definition for who is considered a migrant. Some countries define "migrant" by country of birth; others by nationality.
There is also no single global standard definition for internal migration, which in some countries drives urbanization more than international migration.
Lack of foreign-born data at the urban level – Even if definitions were standardized, most countries only collect and aggregate foreign-born data at the national or state level and not at an urban level. This is true especially of foreign-born urban populations in most low-income countries. Such data could allow city governments to not only meet, but also better anticipate the migrants’ housing, health care, and educational needs, for example.
Lack of data disaggregated by age and sex – If foreign-born data exist at the urban level, they are not always disaggregated by factors such as age, sex, or disability. Such data could provide local governments with information to estimate the needs and gaps in services for particular groups of migrants such as children, youth, older persons, and disabled migrants.
Duncan, H. and Popp I.
2018 World Migration Report 2018, Chapter 10: Migrants and Cities: Stepping Beyond World Migration Report 2015, IOM, Geneva.
2018 Sustainable cities, human mobility and international migration: Report of the Secretary-General, UN, New York.
2017 New Urban Agenda, Habitat III Secretariat, Nairobi.
International Organization for Migration (IOM)
2016 Conference on Migrants and Cities, IOM, Geneva.
2015 World Migration Report 2015: Migrants and Cities: New Partnerships to Manage Mobility, IOM, Geneva.
World Economic Forum (WEF) in collaboration with PwC
2017 Migration and Its Impact on Cities, WEF, Geneva.
Charles, A., Galal H., and Guna D.
2018 Preparing Cities to Manage Migration, A policy brief from the Think20 Migration Task Force, CARI and CIPPEC, Buenos Aires.
Jansen, K. et al.
2018 Economic Migration and the Role of Cities – Ensuring Social Cohesion, A policy brief from the Think20 Migration Task Force, CARI and CIPPEC, Buenos Aires.
United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs (UN DESA)
2018 World Urbanization Prospects: The 2018 Revision, UN DESA, Population Division.
2018 The World’s Cities in 2018—Data Booklet, UN DESA, Population Division.
2013 Cross-national comparisons of internal migration: An update on global patterns and trends. UN DESA, Population Division.
Singer, Ay.
2015 “Metropolitan Immigrant gateways revisited,2014” Brookings Institution.
George Washington University, Columbian College of Arts and Sciences
Globalization, Urbanization & Migration (GUM) website - provides empirical data at the urban-level to measure immigration in cities around the world.
1. Most of the international migrants in Hong Kong SAR, China are from neighboring parts of China.
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Urbanisation Dynamics in West Africa 1950–2010
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a durable mick
Michael Malloy (1873-1933) was an ex firefighting Irishman with dubious friends.
The events that led to Malloy’s death began in January 1933. He was, at the time, alcoholic and homeless. Five men who were acquainted with him, Tony Marino, Joseph Murphy, Francis Pasqua, Hershey Green, and Daniel Kriesberg, plotted to take out three life insurance policies on Malloy and then get him to drink himself to death.
(click to enlarge) from Married to the Sea
Marino owned a speakeasy and gave Malloy unlimited credit, thinking Malloy would abuse it and drink himself to death. Although Malloy drank for the majority of his waking day, it did not kill him. To remedy this, antifreeze was substituted for liquor, but still, Malloy would drink until he passed out, wake up, and came back for more. Antifreeze was substituted with turpentine, followed by horse liniment, and finally mixed in rat poison. Still, Malloy lived.
The group then tried raw oysters soaked in methanol. Followed by a sandwich of spoiled sardines mixed with poison.
When that failed, they decided that it was unlikely that anything Malloy ingested was going to kill him, so the Murder Trust decided to freeze him to death. On a night when the temperature reached -14 °F (-26 °C), Malloy drank until he passed out, was carried to a park, dumped in the snow, and had five gallons of water poured on his bare chest. Nevertheless, Malloy reappeared the following day for his drink. The next attempt on his life came when they hit him with Green’s taxi.
Murphy stood him up in the middle of the roadway, and Green backed up his taxi two full blocks to build up enough speed to complete the job. Somehow, Malloy stumbled to safety. They then took Malloy to Gun Hill Road. This time, Green hit him.
The gang gleefully retreated to Marino’s and again waited for an announcement of Malloy’s demise. For days nothing appeared in the newspapers.
Where was he? Malloy was recovering in the hospital under a different name, having sustained a fractured skull, a concussion and a broken shoulder. The indestructible barfly returned several weeks later to the speakeasy and announced he had an awful thirst.
Charles Bukowski, the original Barfly
On February 22, after he passed out for the night, they took him to Murphy’s room, put a hose in his mouth that was connected to the gas jet, and turned it on which is how they finally killed managed to kill him.
However, the members of the Murder Trust proved to be their own worst enemies—they talked too much and squabbled among themselves. Eventually police heard the rumors of what they did, and had the body exhumed. Green went to prison, and the other four members were executed in the electric chair at Sing Sing.
Malloy was reburied, and took with him to the grave the secret of a hardy and nearly indestructible constitution.
on August 24, 2010 at 7:53 am Comments (46)
Tags: alcohol, murder
The URI to TrackBack this entry is: https://nursemyra.wordpress.com/2010/08/24/a-durable-mick/trackback/
On August 24, 2010 at 8:00 am Scott Oglesby said:
This was your most entertaining story yet. God I love me some alcoholic Irishmen who just won’t die! I am shocked that this isn’t a movie yet. Maybe we should go to LA and pitch together?
You pitch – I’ll catch.
On August 24, 2010 at 9:37 am geraldgee said:
Reminds me of a few people I knew…..
you must move in interesting circles
On August 24, 2010 at 10:02 am Deborah said:
Must have been the antifreeze they gave him previously that caused the attempt to freeze him to death to fail.
Where do you find these stories of people’s lives? No, don’t tell me, this way I have to keep coming back here for more. They’re great!
Thanks Deborah. I find them in various places, usually in books or by trawling the internet
On August 24, 2010 at 10:30 am G said:
I remember reading this in quite a few anthologies over the past few decades.
Still never fails to amaze me whenever I read it.
Yeah, I nearly didn’t post this one as I thought it might be too well known.
He’s like that Rasputin fella. And as pickled as Bukowski was, it took leukemia to bring him down.
I know you and I are in agreement about Bukowski. There’s never been anyone quite like him. Maybe John Fante…..
Fante! My God! Where have you been my whole life?!
On August 24, 2010 at 11:02 am kyknoord said:
Sounds like Malloy was the inspiration for the Resident Evil franchise. Did anyone check whether he had a fondness for braaaaaaaains.
you know, I’ve never seen any Resident Evil films. am I missing out on much?
On August 24, 2010 at 11:12 am daisyfae said:
i’m really looking forward to some snow this winter. i NEED that snow-skull in my front yard!
Careful daisyfae, if you build it they will come
On August 24, 2010 at 11:29 am Walker said:
Don’t ya just hate it when someone refuses to die!!
Well it kind of depends on where I stand in their Will
On August 24, 2010 at 11:32 am mister anchovy said:
I wonder if Scotch and horse liniment is best served neat or on the rocks?
I’d probably need a dash of lemonade to get that particular mixture to stay down
On August 24, 2010 at 11:59 am kono said:
Mr. Malloy seems like a fine lad in my book. I’ve always contended that regular drinking keeps you healthy, i know it’s worked for me.
And a fine example you are too Kono 😉
On August 24, 2010 at 12:34 pm renalfailure said:
Bukowski’s not wearing beer goggles in that photo, he’s wearing a full beer sensory deprivation suit.
On August 24, 2010 at 12:38 pm Bearman said:
What happened to the days when a man could take a life insurance policy out on someone totally unrelated without their knowledge.
On August 24, 2010 at 2:34 pm inkspot said:
Those days are still here. Only now it’s called hedging. Malloy’s friends merely mis-marketed themselves.
On August 24, 2010 at 3:16 pm TerraShield said:
Yikes! He seems to have had 9000 lives or something!
On August 24, 2010 at 4:35 pm jams o donnell said:
Brilliant story as ever! You like John Fante? Well he was Bukowski’s God! I will always be grateful to a californian ex who bought me a copy of the Road to Los Angeles as a birthday present.
You might like a trilogy his son Dan wrote, Chump Change, Mooch and Spitting off tall buildings
You’re right. That trilogy looks really interesting
On August 24, 2010 at 5:01 pm doctoratlarge said:
Irishmen do seem to have some remarkable attributes apart from their ability to drink. They also have produced some of the world’s finest literature.
However, why didn’t they just club him on the head with something heavy?
Um… perhaps because it would have made the insurers suspicious?
On August 24, 2010 at 5:16 pm Cooper Green said:
What a great story! It reads like an Elmore Leonard novel. Malloy’s Murder Trust ‘friends’ were doomed to fail. They got their victim so relaxed he was incapable of dying.
On August 24, 2010 at 5:19 pm Daddy Papersurfer said:
I adore that snowman! …. and I’m really annoyed I haven’t ever thought of building one …..
On August 24, 2010 at 5:22 pm Malach the Merciless said:
Wow, that Bukowski picture . . I will be seeing that in my dreams
On August 24, 2010 at 7:02 pm NickQ said:
Years ago I had a copy of Locked in the Arms of a Crazy Life – a Bukowski biography. Lent it to someone, never saw it again but I’ll never forget a picture of his first(?) wife who had two vertebrae missing from her neck which gave her a somewhat unusual posture.
http://digilander.libero.it/confratchianti/libri_bukowski-foto-01_03.htm
I’ve got the Barry Miles bio, it’s pretty good too. Lacks photos though.
On August 24, 2010 at 9:00 pm bschooled said:
Seriously, I can’t even wrap my mind around this one. Now I’m obsessed with this guy.
Perhaps he could inspire one of your sculptures 😉
On August 24, 2010 at 10:06 pm Donald Mills said:
Spoiled sardines mixed with turpentine? Quite the imaginative chefs. A wonderful story, Nurse Myra. It sets up like a joke – I half expected him to end up dying by slipping in the bath or something.
The turps adds a certain piquancy
On August 24, 2010 at 10:58 pm Grump said:
What a lesson on how not to kill someone. Keep them coming Nursemyra. x
On August 25, 2010 at 12:06 am Marvin said:
I think he must have been related to Rasputin.
On August 25, 2010 at 1:12 am robinaltman said:
Too funny! I had to immediately send a link to my 2 best friends, both of whom have the last name…MALLOY (although unrelated). They are not nearly as indestructible as this poor guy. I mean, I’ve never tried to kill them or anything, because I need all the friends I can get, but if I fed them sardines in poison, I’m pretty sure they’d die.
On August 25, 2010 at 1:55 am Denny DelVecchio said:
This cat was a DelVecchian before I was even born.
On August 25, 2010 at 1:59 am sledpress said:
It was probably the firefighting that toughened him up.
On August 25, 2010 at 3:31 am Mitzi G Burger said:
Mick was like Tim Finnegan, the bloke who fell off the ladder in The Ballad of Finnegans Wake. A splash of whiskey and he awoke – at his own wake.
On August 25, 2010 at 11:02 am raincoaster said:
You can always raise an Irishman from the dead with a discreet yell of “Who wants another glass?”
On August 29, 2010 at 4:18 am alonewithcats said:
There’s a bar in Cambridge called Bukowski’s. This post has inspired me to pay it a visit again.
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Fiction Index
Nonlinear Writing
Nonlinear Writing Pt.2
Nate Chen Publications
Project Sumter and Other Stories
Tag Archives: Jane Austin
Adaptations: Values Dissonance
Posted by natechen on August 29, 2014
What is values dissonance? This article from TV Tropes does a great job explaining it in long form (really long form if you wind up wiki walking) but the short version is, values dissonance is what happens when the structure and/or aesthetic choices of a work are presenting themes that fight against each other. It doesn’t always mean that values are directly opposed, but there’s only so much space in a given work (and the mind of the audience) for each story. When the themes of a story are too many or just don’t work well together it creates values dissonance.
The phenomena of values dissonance occurs most often when a story is a collaboration or an adaptation and the various parties involved don’t agree on what the major theme or purpose of the work should be. This doesn’t always have to be an open disagreement, they may just be trying to fit all their shared ideas into a package that isn’t equipped to deal with them or, as is often the case in adaptations, they may just have too much respect for the original work to want to change “sacred writ” and just try and shoehorn their own ideas into a story. And, of course, it can be any possible combination of those things plus any other number of circumstances such as studio/publisher interference or just not having enough time to work everything out.
What I want to talk about today is not values dissonance per se as it is adaptations and what makes them so difficult. It just so happens that the number one killer of adaptations in my personal opinion is values dissonance.
But wait! You say that I recently did another post on adaptations where I explicitly said thematic material was changed resulting in an adapted work that was just as good as the original, if not better? You’re right, I did. Edge of Tomorrow made huge thematic shifts to the story of All You Need is Kill. But more importantly, it then carefully extrapolated those thematic shifts to every aspect of the film, transforming characters, dialog, situations and plot to fit while, at the same time, producing a visually arresting film with a solid plot that would be more comprehensible than the original to it’s target audience.
Reread that sentence a few times. It boils down what the scriptwriting and production team did over the course of a year or so to it’s bare basics, the execution was much more complex – and that was not a simple sentence to begin with. Edge of Tomorrow was a phenomenal success in adapting a book to screen in part because it was so conscious of the changes it was making and their impact on the work as a whole.
Let’s look at two adaptations of the same famous work that strive to be faithful to the original work. My original urge here was to go with Shakespeare, since he’s pretty well known and his stuff has been translated to screen more than once. Problem is, I’ve only read a few of his plays and I’ve only ever seen them on the stage. Plus, theater translates more readily to film than books, so it might not be the best choice for this purpose. And I didn’t want to bring modern day reinterpretations into the mix, as good as I’m sure West Side Story is.
The solution? Do a work by a different author that has been reinterpreted for the screen more than once which I’m already familiar with in all forms! So today we’re going to be talking about Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice.
The two most well known adaptations of Pride and Prejudice are probably the 1995 A&E TV miniseries staring Jennifer Ehle and Colin Firth and the 2005 film version staring Keira Knightly and Matthew Macfayden. For purposes of clarity, since both share the same title, we’ll use their years of release to differentiate them.
This is not a review of Pride and Prejudice so I’m going to assume you’re familiar with the work – and I’ll wait if you need to go out and read/watch it before we continue. It really is worth your time, as all Austen’s work is, although I think my favorite adaptation of her work will always be Ang Lee’s Sense and Sensibility. (Yes, even though there’s no Colin Firth. Though Mr. Darcy is still my favorite male character of hers, largely due to Firth’s superior performance.)
Most of the caveats of my last post apply here as well – this isn’t about actors or costuming or any of that other stuff, just the way the story is presented.
So let’s get down to brass tacks! There’s three categories where I feel the 2005 version suffers from values dissonance which results in the film being slightly weaker than the 1995 miniseries. And they are:
Elizabeth Bennet
Our main character. In both versions and the book Lizzie is a woman of solid upbringing, good character and strange family. With four sisters and eccentric parents Lizzie is bound to be something of a character herself but fortunately it manifests in nothing more damaging than strong opinions and the guts to stick by them, generally admirable character traits. But Lizzie’s strengths are often her weaknesses and her tendency in the story to make snap judgments about a person and then carry them forward causes her to misjudge the characters of Mr. Darcy and Mr. Wickham in spite of mounting evidence that contradicts her opinions.
Elizabeth is the perfect flawed protagonist for a morality play. She’s a great person, much better than many people we know, in just bout every respect but one – her tendency towards prejudice. This, much like Mr. Darcy’s high regard for his own station in life, leads her to bad behavior that causes her grief, first in failing to recognize Mr. Darcy’s good qualities beneath his antisocial behavior and second in failing to recognize Mr. Wickham’s caddishness under his guise of geniality.
Austen very carefully shows Lizzie’s brilliance in a number of ways. She spars with the dour and acerbic Catherine de Bourgh in a way that is both meticulously formal and correct but still slyly irreverent and witty. We can tell she isn’t intimidated by this so-called personage before her but rather confident in her own position and more than capable to use the mores of the times as both shield from Lady Catherine’s attacks and sword to prod the lady back into place.
While the 1995 version largely keeps this dynamic (something of a theme for this version) the 2005 version chooses to have Lizzie react in a more defiant fashion, more directly putting Lady Catherine in her place. While this is a very modern and fully understandable reaction it’s very modernity puts Lizzie at odds with the rest of the story. It creates values dissonance between her and the rest of the characters, including her own romantic interest and, at times, her own character.
Worse, the 2005 version chooses to focus on the reaction Elizabeth and her family have towards Mr. Darcy’s handling of Lydia’s elopement as the catalyst for their changing opinions of him when, in truth, it was Lizzie’s realization that she had misjudged Wickham that caused her to reevaluate all her other snap judgments in Austen’s book. Only when confronted with her own character flaw could she begin adjusting her understanding to take it into account. (In Lizzie’s own words, “Until that moment I never knew myself.”) Where the 2005 Lizzie is carried away by an emotion of gratitude the 1995 Lizzie can say that she has come to know and appreciate Darcy’s character better. One of these is engaging character growth the other is pure sentiment.
(That’s not a contrast, by the way. Engaging character growth creates sentiment, the reverse is only true at times – and those times are pretty rare. When sentiment from character growth and plain old sentiment compete, the former always wins out because it’s founded on something solid.)
Themes of Class Warfare
This is one of modern Hollyweird’s favorite themes and at first glance it seems a natural fit. After all, there is a sort of class difference between Lizzy and Mr. Darcy, isn’t there? Well, sort of.
As Elizabeth tells Lady Catherine, “He is a gentleman, I am a gentleman’s daughter.” Or, in other words, the difference is one of degree rather than one of kind. Darcy’s own feelings of superiority to the Bennets come from his feeling that he is better behaved than they are when Lizzie serves to show that he is just as offputting in his own way. The problem is not that there is a difference in wealth but rather in how people react to one another, difference in wealth being just one aspect of that (embodied not by the main protagonists but by the relatively minor character Catherine de Bourgh.)
This isn’t to say that class conflict never occurs or that it has no place at the storyteller’s table. Neither is true. But it wasn’t the story Austen was trying to tell nor is it something that seems to have even been on her radar. Pride and Prejudice was a story of self discovery amidst social mores with romance as the result of the journey. Romance was not the cause of self discovery nor did the process cut across the standards of the time (much). This was in part because that was the time and in part because Austen was writing about the life she knew, a strong trait in an author. The introduction of class warfare as a theme creates values dissonance between Austen’s original work and the 2005 version that is sidestepped in the 1995 version by, again, hewing to the original story. Granted it’s not much, but both works were of good quality and so ever little shortcoming shows.
Treatment of the Bennet Family
Let’s be honest – this is not a fully functional family in any version of the story. However Austen’s version and the 1995 version portray this largely as a result of the parents being less than ideal. While funny and intellectual, Mr. Bennet is also condescending and a little mean to his younger three daughters. He feels they lack sense but never seems to try and teach it to them, even though it is clearly his opinion (and that of most everyone else who knows her) that they will not learn sense from their mother.
And Mrs. Bennet… lacks sense. Sense of people, sense of propriety, sense of the moment, just about every kind of sense it’s possible for a person to have, Mrs. Bennet is without.
Never the less, the Bennets are a whole unit, supporting one another as best they can in all eventualities and forming a tightly knit family that stands in stark contrast to the nearly-solitary Mr. Darcy who, although born to excellent parents, now has no family to speak of save a much younger sister who he is in no position to confide in. It is in part the contrast between this family with its grudging solidarity and Mr. Darcy’s aloofness that leads to his own process of self discovery.
In praise of the 2005 version almost all of these family dynamics are left in place… except one. As Lizzie’s relationships with Wickham and Darcy become more twisted she lets the secrets pile up as well, rather than confiding in her sister Jane and thus giving herself an impartial mirror to view herself, in as well as cutting herself off from the support that so mystifies Mr. Darcy. In short, she behaves like a teenager of the modern day, once again creating values dissonance between the supportive Elizabeth, who fights for Jane’s happiness as well as her own, and the much more self absorbed character portrayed by Keira Knightly. On top of that, it runs counter to the original them of self discovery that permeates Austen’s original work, as Lizzie has fewer ways to see herself clearly since she has no one she can trust to give her an outside view of herself.
Now it’s not my intention to sit here and bash on the work of Deborah Moggach and Joe Wright in creating the 2005 film version of Pride and Prejudice. What they did was very impressive from beginning to end. The things I’ve pointed out aren’t the most important details of the story. But at the same time the difference between good and great, a strong impression and just vaguely memorable, is frequently in those details. Adapting a work, particularly a well known and popular work, only adds to the difficulty of getting all those details right because there’s an added layer of complexity, namely audiences already expecting certain things from your adaptation.
Where Edge of Tomorrow prospered was in completely reimagining the original premise, whereas the 2005 Pride and Prejudice (and so many other similar movies) stumbled when it tried to shoehorn in viewpoints that didn’t mesh with the story they originally set out to tell without that level of reimagining to make the new material work.
3 Comments Posted in On Writing Tagged adaptations, differences in standards, Jane Austin, On Writing, Pride and Prejudice, STOP LAUGHING AT ME, the story must be the story and not a polemic
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Support line: 077-4665213
– Main Menu –Homepage About Neeman - About Neeman - Our Social Clubs - Our support line - Your way to contribute - Important phone numbers Preventing Stroke - What is Stroke? - What causes stroke? - What are the signs of a stroke ? - Lifestyle changes can reduce risk factors Treating Stroke - Stroke medications and treatment - Examinations that assist in Stroke diagnosis - What functional changes can occur after a stroke ? Rehabilitating from Stroke - Stroke recovery and rehabilitation - Hospitalization after Stroke - Before leaving the hospital - The patients’ family - Getting your home ready - The rehabilitation hospital - Rehabilitation in the community - Our Social Clubs - Treatments and rights of the Stroke patient - Stroke Patients’ rights - Important phone numbers
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Stroke Patients’ rights
As a result of a stroke, functional changes can occur depending on the area of brain injured. These changes can significantly affect the patient’s independence and lifestyle. Many of these changes can be treated so as to achieve complete or partial recovery depending on the intensity of the injury:
Motion: paralysis or weakness of muscles in one side of the body, muscle limpness or stiffness, and coordination or balance difficulties. A person who has suffered a stroke in the left part of his/her brain will suffer from weakness or paralysis in the right side of his/her body. In comparison, a person who has had a stroke on the right will suffer from weakness or paralysis in the left side of the body. These changes can affect switching position when lying down, sitting stably, walking, switching the body’s position and swallowing (as a result of muscle weakness and reduced coordination of the muscles in the mouth and pharynx).
Communication: when a person is injured in the left side of the brain where the language center is located (this will be reflected in the right side of the body), he or she may suffer from impaired speech and language skills (aphasia). Aphasia is language impairment leading to reduced communication and auditory understanding on a daily level. In this case the intellectual ability can be maintained, but the patient loses (fully or partially) his or her ability to use language, express their wishes through speech, understand spoken language, read and write. The difficulty can be reflected in expressing supposedly simple ideas such as hunger, attempting to remember the names of close relatives, etc. Sometimes the difficulty only involves the motorics of speech (dysartharia), which leads to difficulty in pronouncing sounds, making the person’s speech impaired, slow and unclear.
Swallowing: swallowing disorders (dysphagia) are reflected in actual difficulty to swallow due to impaired function of the chewing organs (lips, tongue, palate) or in impaired stimulation of the swallowing reflex. These difficulties can be identified by coughs or throat clearing when swallowing. Failure to diagnose and treat these conditions can lead to pneumonia caused by inhaling food to the lungs (aspiration).
Sensation: reduced sensation in various parts of the body can be experienced. Some patients can suffer pain, numbness or unusual sensations. These can stem from various reasons, including damage to the sensation area in the brain, joint stiffness or a handicapped limb. Another, less common type of pain is called “central pain syndrome”, caused by damage to an area of the brain known as the thalamus. In this case the pain is a combination of sensations including cold, heat, a burning sensation, numbness and tingling. It focuses mainly in the limbs and tends to worsen between seasons. Sometimes, bedsores can develop as a result of prolonged motionless sitting or lying. Pulling on the weak, injured arm can injure the shoulder joint and lead to intense pain.
Spatial perception: when a person is injured in the right side of the brain (i.e., the left side of the body), a phenomenon known as “neglect” can occur. As a result of the stroke, the patient becomes unaware of one side of the body, thus unable to identify or react to significant stimuli in one side of their field of vision. A patient with neglect is unaware of his or her condition, and is subject to household accidents or even car accidents if holding a driver’s license.
Thinking: a stroke can lead to difficulty in time and place orientation, and in recognizing people (the person’s children or spouse). The patient can even experience difficulties in concentration, understanding, thinking, memory, basic judgment and planning supposedly simple actions. Many of these changes can be improved by appropriate rehabilitation.
Behavior: passiveness or in fact over activity and aggressiveness can manifest themselves, as well as incorrect judgment that may lead to inappropriate decisions contrary to any acceptable or past logic.
Emotion: difficulty to control emotions may appear, or the expression of emotions unsuitable to the person’s circumstances. The most common problems after a stroke are depression and anxiety. Depression may occur as a reaction to the changes caused by the stroke and/or due to the location of the damage to the brain (in an area monitoring emotion).
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New budget won't offset decade of cuts for some state agencies
by Randy Ellis
Published: Sun, May 6, 2018 5:00 AM
Girls spend time reading, engaging in limited daily outdoor activity and school in the Office of Juvenile Affairs detention center on Friday, June 9, 2017 in Norman. [THE OKLAHOMAN ARCHIVES]
Armed with a record $7.6 billion state budget and $474 million in new taxes and revenue hikes, Oklahoma lawmakers voted this year to boost spending for some agencies that have spent years cutting staff and services.
Teachers will get pay raises averaging $6,100, but new money appropriated for universities, vocational education and agencies like the Office of Juvenile Affairs won't come close to restoring a decade of funding losses for them.
The $474 million in new revenue comes from state legislators having raised the initial tax rate on oil and gas wells from 2 percent to 5 percent, raising the tax on gasoline by 3 cents a gallon and the tax on diesel fuel by 6 cents a gallon, adding a $1 per pack tax on cigarettes, taxing little cigars the same as cigarettes, allowing traditional roulette and dice games in tribal casinos, and requiring third-party online retailers to collect and remit sales tax.
Higher education's share of the new revenue will boost its funding by 1.02 percent over last year. However, the $776.7 million it will receive still will be 25 percent less than the nearly $1.04 billion the agency received 10 years earlier.
Likewise, Career Technology and Education will receive a 11.24 percent funding boost, but the $124.3 million it will get is 21.4 percent less than the $158.3 million it was given a decade ago.
Higher education has offset some of its lost revenue with tuition hikes, but that has resulted in increased financial pressures on students, and enrollment in the state's public colleges and universities dropped steadily from 256,213 in the 2011-12 academic year to 222,217 in 2016-17.
Marcie Mack, state Career Technology director, said she is grateful for the 11.24 percent funding boost her agency received this year, but it will only provide money for state-mandated pay increases and nothing more.
The agency has cut its workforce by about 35 percent over the past decade and cut back on some of its programs, she said.
Not all state agencies have experienced such cuts.
The state Transportation Department has seen its state highway funding for roads and bridges more than double over the past decade — rising from $362.7 million to $732 million.
The Oklahoma Legislature decided to ramp up transportation funding in 2006 following a stinging national report that ranked Oklahoma's bridges as the worst in the nation.
The Transportation Department has made great progress with those funds, decreasing its number of structurally deficient bridges from 1,168 to 185 and making improvements to more than half of the state's 673 miles of interstate highways, said Russell Hulin, the Transportation Department's deputy director.
Hulin said the Legislature's plan was to pay for road and bridge improvements with growth revenue so that the budgets of other agencies wouldn't be harmed.
Things didn't work out exactly as planned. A national recession, dramatic drop in world oil prices and legislative policy decisions like granting Oklahoma taxpayers a series of income tax cuts and giving tax breaks to the wind and oil and gas industries prevented anticipated growth revenues from materializing as expected.
Juvenile Affairs
Consequently, some state agencies have received budget cuts over the past decade that even a record $7.6 million state budget can't fully restore.
The Office of Juvenile Affairs, for example, has seen its state funding drop from about $112.3 million to about $92.8 million over the past decade.
Fortunately, Oklahoma is part of a national trend that has seen a dramatic decrease in juvenile offenders, said Steve Buck, the agency's executive director.
The number of juveniles in the state's system has dropped from 13,936 in fiscal year 2009 to 8,333 in fiscal year 2017, a decrease of 40 percent.
While that helps mitigate funding needs, the juveniles who are coming into the system are more likely to have extensive histories of trauma, substance abuse and mental illness, which increases the cost of their care, Buck said.
The agency needs more money to train and keep employees, as well as to pay for preventive programs and programs to help juvenile offenders re-enter society, he said.
The Oklahoma Department of Human Services will receive a $34 million funding hike this year. It has a long list of plans for the money, including giving agencywide pay raises, increasing provider and foster parent reimbursement rates and providing services to about 200 people with developmental disabilities who currently are on a waiting list of about 7,500 individuals.
DHS is actually one of the agencies that has received state funding gains over the last decade, with state appropriations to the agency increasing about 30 percent.
The new funding, plus money taken from other DHS program areas, has been used to pay for reforms agreed to as part of a settlement to a federal class-action lawsuit over the abuse of children in state care, said Sheree Powell, agency spokeswoman.
The agency has added about 900 child welfare employees, but has done away with about 1,200 other positions since 2015, she said. The agency also had to cut provider and reimbursement rates that it is now working to restore.
Teachers staged a walk out, and the Department of Education received a $480 million funding hike, but the walk out ended with many teachers upset that they didn't hold out for more. The $2.9 billion the Education Department was appropriated this year was about 15 percent higher than the funding it received a decade earlier.
State records are confusing when it comes to examining funding trends for the Oklahoma Department of Mental Health and Substance Abuse Services. Records show the agency's funding has gone up 60 percent, from $209.6 million to $337.1 million, over the past decade, but that's because a $128.3 jump in funding occurred in 2013 when the state transferred funding for the state's behavioral health Medicaid program to the agency from the Oklahoma Health Care Authority.
Commissioner Terri White is quick to tell anyone who will listen that the agency's funding pales in comparison to the treatment needs of residents of this state.
Only about one-third of Oklahomans who need mental health or addiction treatment currently get it, she said in a recent interview.
Chronic underfunding is also a constant complaint from administrators with the Oklahoma Department of Corrections, which received $503 million in state appropriations a decade ago, but then saw its funding drop below that level for nine straight years before being appropriated $517 million for the upcoming fiscal year.
Meanwhile, the state's prison population has grown from 24,730 to 27,115 since the end of fiscal year 2008. Corrections Director Joe Allbaugh wrote recently that staffing issues have become a huge problem at state correctional facilities, with the $13.74 an hour starting pay for correctional officers less than the hiring rate for an Edmond garbage truck driver or a bus driver in Oklahoma City.
Randy Ellis
For the past 30 years, staff writer Randy Ellis has exposed public corruption and government mismanagement in news articles. Ellis has investigated problems in Oklahoma's higher education institutions and wrote stories that ultimately led to two... Read more ›
CommentsNew budget won't offset decade of cuts for some state agencies
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1840, European settlers arrive in Wellington
Home Images and media interactive Panorama: Parliament grounds from the front
Panorama: Parliament grounds from the front
See non-flash (HTML 5) version of this panorama (works on iPhone / iPad) - note this opens in full screen mode.
Panorama of Parliament from the front.
Panorama of Parliament Buildings and grounds with (from left to right) the Beehive, Parliament House and the Parliamentary Library.
Related commentary by John O'Sullivan, former general manager of the Parliamentary Service:
Parliament buildings from Kate Sheppard apartments.
Situated on a commanding site in the heart of Wellington city, Parliament Buildings and its grounds occupy some 4 1/2 hectares. The Speaker is responsible for the control and management of the buildings and the grounds. The main buildings on the site from right to left are:
The Parliamentary Library. This is the oldest building on the site having been completed in 1899. It is a masonry building in Victorian Gothic style and was fully restored and strengthened against earthquakes as part of the major refurbishment project of 1992–96.
Parliament House is to the left of the library. The construction of Parliament House commenced in 1912 following the disastrous fire in December 1907 which completely destroyed the wooden Parliament Buildings which adjoined the library building. That building survived because of its masonry structure. Only the entrance portico and the northern wing of the new Parliament House were completed and construction ceased in 1922. A matching southern wing was never proceeded with. Any opportunity to complete Parliament House was precluded by the decision in 1965 to go ahead with the building of the executive wing.
[The executive wing] is to the left of Parliament House. Generally known as the Beehive, this building houses ministers and their offices as well as public function areas and Parliament's catering facilities. The Beehive was built in stages over the period of 1969–79. The old wooden Government House, which had housed Parliament after the 1907 fire until Parliament House was occupied in 1918, was demolished to make way for the Beehive.
Bowen House, the multi-storey building to the left of the Beehive, is also used but not owned by Parliament, housing members, staff and support agencies.
The red-roofed four-storey building facing Parliament grounds is the historic wooden Government Buildings, built on reclaimed land in 1876. That building once housed all of the central government departments and also some ministerial offices and the Cabinet Office.
The layout of the grounds of Parliament is largely on the plan developed for the construction of the new Parliament House following the 1907 fire. The grounds were upgraded as part of the major strengthening and refurbishment work on Parliament House and the Parliamentary Library completed in 1996. The grounds are accessible to the public and the lawns are a popular lunchtime place for office workers from the adjoining buildings. The grounds have also been the site of many public demonstrations and national events over the years.
This interactive Appears In 4 Articles:
Political and constitutional timeline
The House of Representatives
Parliament Buildings
Parliament's culture and traditions
Panorama photography: Brian Donovan, 2004.
A QuickTime (QTVR) version of this panorama is also available.
'Panorama: Parliament grounds from the front', URL: https://nzhistory.govt.nz/media/interactive/parliament-grounds-from-the-front, (Ministry for Culture and Heritage), updated 29-Mar-2017
RELATED TO PANORAMA: PARLIAMENT GROUNDS FROM THE FRONT
Parliamentary library escapes fire
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Would you pay $2,500 per month for a luxury travel subscription service?
Lisa Felepchuk
Inspirato, a high-end travel company that first launched in 2010, is making a go of subscription-izing the luxury travel industry. Sasha Stories / Unsplash
There’s been a surge in subscription services in the last decade or so, with boxes of adventure gear, cheese, makeup, wine and everything in-between being delivered to customers’ front doorsteps on a weekly or monthly basis.
Now, Inspirato, a high-end travel company that first launched in 2010, is making a go of subscription-izing the luxury travel industry.
The first upscale leisure travel subscription service of its kind, Inspirato Pass gives members access to five-star hotel suites, more than 200 luxury homes and exclusive experiences like African safaris, European cruises or special sporting events.
“The conceptualization of Inspirato Pass was a natural next step in the evolution of the luxury travel space,” said Brent Handler, Founder and CEO of Inspirato, in a press release. “The Pass gives affluent travellers the freedom to book a wider variety of trips and experiences on a more frequent basis, without the burden of nightly rates all at tremendous value. Whether exploring accommodations or experiences for family, play, or business, Inspirato Pass offers something for everyone.”
And at $2,500 US a month, it’s definitely reserved for the “affluent,” but that’s Inspirato’s demographic. The Denver-based company, founded by a pioneer in the destination club space, has been servicing the luxury hospitality industry for a number of years.
Why the subscription model makes sense for travel
Unbooked inventory is one of the most prevalent issues faced by luxury travel properties, but high-end brands don’t slash prices because it can harm the brand. With a subscription service like Inspirato Pass, deals are brokered behind the scenes, so members, as well as the general public, don’t know exactly how cheaply the rooms are going for.
“We’re buying inventory from the hotel, and we’re paying for it, and the consumer is never seeing the price,” Handler said in an interview with Bloomberg.
It winds up being a win-win for both the guests and the hotel property.
What the US$2,500/month includes
One of the main perks for members is the ability to get a deeply discounted rate at a high-end property, like the Ritz-Carlton or the Mandarin Oriental. All costs, including nightly rates, taxes, and extra fees, are included in the membership fee as well as an on-site concierge and daily cleaning services. Things like flights, food and alcohol are all extra.
Another benefit is being able to globetrot each month. Rather than owning and visiting one vacation property in, say, Mexico, members can explore new places throughout the year.
They simply log onto the Inspirato Pass website and scroll through thousands of potential trips in more than 150 different locations around the world. Technically, stays range from one day to up to 60 days at a time and the list of experiences available updates daily. Members can make a new reservation as early as one week after their last reservation.
At the time of writing, however, most of the available trips ranged from two to seven days in duration.
Some of the more extravagant accommodations currently listed include a six bedroom seaside mansion in the British Virgin Islands, a seven bedroom home in Los Cabos, Mexico, and a six bedroom villa with a pool in Tuscany, Italy.
There are some restrictions
The Inspirato Pass allows its members the ability to travel to exotic, high-end destinations around the globe, but there are some restrictions. If you’re planning on bringing guests on your vacation, the membership holder and/or their partner must be present. This likely stops a group of friends or a big family from buying one pass and taking advantage of the perks.
That said, for an extra $500 per reservation, members can add more family members, friends or colleagues.
Another thing to note is that members have to commit to six months up front. Unlike your Netflix subscription, which lets you cancel at any time, the Inspirato Pass must be paid for six months. After that, members can choose to cancel or continue.
So, now that you know what and where it gets you, we ask again: would you pay $2,500/month for a luxury travel subscription service? Let us know if the comments below.
A new standard for luxury at Mexico’s Cabo San Lucas
The finest boutique hotels in Canada
Sailing away in the virtually untouched Grenadines
These are 7 of the best vegan restaurants in Canada Vikings and other reasons to love Newfoundland and Labrador
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∞ https://oac.cdlib.org/findaid/ark:/13030/c84m96wh/
Finding aid for the Donald Randolph papers
Donald Randolph was a stage, film, television, and radio actor. The collection includes two scrapbooks of programs and clippings documenting a number of projects in which Randolph was involved, photographs, and a small amount of ephemera, correspondence, and writings by Randolph.
Donald Randolph was born in 1906 in Cape Town, South Africa. At the end of his second year of college, he began working for a mattress firm in Chicago, and in his spare time he joined a small theatrical group called the Dill Pickle Club. After moving to Los Angeles, Randolph began acting in 1926, landing a part in the west coast production of “Desire Under the Elms.” His next connection was with the San Bernardino Broadway Players, appearing in a large number of plays throughout California. In 1928 he became the leading man for the Fulton Stock Company in Oakland, California, where he appeared in thirty plays in one season.
1.75 linear ft.
Property rights to the physical object belong to the UCLA Library Special Collections. Literary rights, including copyright, are retained by the creators and their heirs. It is the responsibility of the researcher to determine who holds the copyright and pursue the copyright owner or his or her heir for permission to publish where The UC Regents do not hold the copyright.
Restrictions on Use and Reproduction
Personal Photographs.
Stage Projects.
Motion Picture Projects.
Radio Projects.
Unidentified Projects.
Scrapbooks and Ephemera.
Scripts Material.
Professional Affiliations.
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Gillian Grossman
Patients Back to All Stories Share Your Story
It is an illness with a voice that tells you not to get help. And for a long time, Gillian Grossman was reluctant to get better.
An overachiever from a young age, Gillian’s talent and determination led her to follow her dream and study music at McGill University. She graduated with a Bachelor and a Master’s in Vocal Performance and was eager to start her career as a soprano. But the professional life she imagined for herself was not unfolding as planned. “I was single, out of the bubble of school, and had no coping tools,” says Gillian Grossman. “I wanted to take control of something in my life.” Excessive exercise, rigid eating, and the slippery slope of bulimia and depression quickly followed.
Gillian stopped singing and cut herself off socially. “The eating disorder was able to thrive and grow because I was isolated. I would spend days just binging and purging. And when I did see people, they would complement me which I now see was just feeding the illness.”
It all came to a head one day while Gillian was on a bus. “I saw someone laughing and I thought to myself, I can’t remember the last time I laughed. It devastated me.” She confessed to her mother what she had been hiding and got help.
Gillian began receiving outpatient treatment for her eating disorder and depression. She was prescribed Prozac which she still takes today. “I would rather be myself on Prozac than be depressed but be able to brag that I am not on medication.”
After coming out of her depression, Gillian moved to Europe and spent three years singing with opera houses in Germany and Switzerland. During a trip back home she met her future husband and although life seemed perfect, the illness overtook Gillian again. “In Switzerland I felt some symptoms were starting to emerge again but after my husband proposed things got worse. My perfectionist tendencies kicked in high gear and the bulimia and depression were back. I was so resistant to get help, though. I felt I had already solved this problem.”
Luckily for Gillian she was admitted to the Outpatient Eating Disorders Program at Oakville-Trafalgar Memorial Hospital. The Halton Healthcare Services program is a Regional Centre of the Central West Eating Disorders Program. This time, her treatment included group therapy sessions which she attended for a year. “The program at OTMH enabled me to bring all these issues to the surface and become self-aware in a safe environment.”
In her sessions they discussed how everyday women are exposed to messages about what success and beauty is. “I thought I was smart enough that it wouldn’t affect my psyche but it did.”
Dr. Alan Brown, chief of psychiatry at Halton Healthcare Services (HHS), confirms that eating disorders is an anxiety disorder centred around perfectionistic, obsessive-compulsive traits, “It’s all driven around the body image and an obsessive preoccupation that they’re not good enough,” says Dr. Brown. “Mentally, eating disorders are marked by an increased sense of despair and depression as the person realizes all their efforts, all their terrible discipline to try and maintain their body image is not making them feel better about who they are.”
Today, Gillian has been out of the Outpatient Eating Disorders Program for three years. She is married with two children, has a day job in the Intensive Care Unit at a Toronto Hospital, and runs a private voice studio out of her home in Oakville. She is also a passionate advocate of de-stigmatizing mental health issues.
“There are a lot of women dealing with these issues, whether they are diagnosed or not. It is like a voice in your head telling you not to get help.”
In group therapy, she was shocked to hear women who were finally getting help share their feelings of guilt. “These women were feeling guilty for wasting two hours of their day in therapy. They thought they were being selfish taking the time to get better and think about ‘me’. But getting better is work. It is a full-time job to get better.”
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Mike Bloomberg on Crime
Mayor of New York City (Independent)
I was wrong to rely on stop-and-frisk policing
Former New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg apologized for his administration's controversial reliance on stop-and-frisk policing in a speech at a Brooklyn church Sunday morning, saying, "I was wrong and I am sorry."
The stunning reversal comes as Bloomberg is expected to jump into the 2020 presidential race. "I got something important wrong. I got something really important wrong--stops on the black and Latino community," a contrite Bloomberg said as he addressed congregants at the Christian Cultural Center in East New York, one of the city's largest black churches. "I want you to know I realize back then I was wrong," he added. "And I am sorry."
Stop-and-frisk is one of the most controversial legacies of Bloomberg's twelve years in City Hall--struck down by a federal judge for its disproportionate effect on minority communities, but one Bloomberg continued to cling tightly to for years as he claimed credit of the city's sinking crime rates. Source: New York Post on 2020 Democratic primary , Nov 17, 2019
Reduce crime but with a more racially sensitive police force
Bloomberg wanted the city's reduction in crime under Rudy Giuliani to go further. And he wanted a more sensitive police force and a new civility in dealing with black and Hispanic New Yorkers. He would do away with patronage, turn a deaf ear to the lobbyists and special pleaders and, as the law demands, balance the budget. Bloomberg suddenly had a comprehensive agenda for New Yorkers of all kinds, one that sent a clear message: Trust me. Let me get on with the job. I am all you need. Source: Bloomberg: Money, Power, Politics, by Joyce Purnick, p.123 , Sep 28, 2010
Apologizing for police racial errors kept city calm
Just before 6AM on a spring day in 2003, Alberta Spruill, an African American woman of 57, was in her Harlem home getting ready for work when police officers threw a concussion grenade into her apartment, crashed through her door, and handcuffed her. After complaining of chest pains, she was being ferried by ambulance when her heart suddenly stopped. Two hours later she was dead--literally frightened to death by police who had acted on an informant's erroneous tip about guns and drugs.
Bloomberg called what had happened tragic and "a terrible episode," and spoke with apology and candor at her funeral. A public accustomed to Rudy Giuliani routinely giving the police the benefit of every doubt greeted Bloomberg's apologetic tone with surprise and gratitude.
The city stayed calm after Alberta Spruill's death. And it stayed calm over the new few months despite two more police encounters with innocent African American, each of which provoked similarly soothing and rapid reactions from Bloomberg. Source: Bloomberg: Money, Power, Politics, by Joyce Purnick, p.138 , Sep 28, 2010
OpEd: never a conspicuous civil libertarian
New Yorkers, most of them still Democrats, objected to Bloomberg's handling of the 2004 Republican National Convention, when 1,800 people were arrested and held in a large detention center, some guilty of no more than standing on a street during a police sweep. Never a conspicuous civil libertarian, the mayor brusquely dismisses the issue of the treatment of demonstrators, and privacy in general, justifying himself and his Police Department: "There's a camera watching you at all times when you're out in the street; the civil liberties issue has long been settled," he says.
As he sees it, those who were arrested put themselves at risk and in effect got what they deserved because the police were reacting to threats. 5 years after the convention, the city had spent $6.6 million to defend the lawsuits, an additional $1.7 million to settle 90 claims and still faced lawsuits filed by hundreds of plaintiffs. About 90% of the people arrested had their charges dismissed outright or dropped after 6 months. Source: Bloomberg: Money, Power, Politics, by J.Purnick, p.154-155 , Sep 28, 2010
Educate prisoners: build more classrooms at Rikers Island
This year, we will build more classrooms at Rikers Island and make going to school there more attractive. And to keep inmates on the right path once they leave, we will link them to the benefits they need immediately upon release. They�ve paid their debt--but with no prospects, sadly, too many of them will return to jail. Let�s help them build their future--which will help keep all of us safe. Source: 2008 State of the City Address , Jan 17, 2008
Fewer homicides in NYC than any year on record
Mayor Bloomberg announced that crime in NYC fell again in 2007, marking the 17th straight year. The City is also on course to have fewer than 500 homicides in 2007, surpassing all records. �When I came into office, many believed it was impossible to drive crime, particularly murders, down any further,� said Mayor Bloomberg. �Yet, beginning in 2002, crime declined steadily and murders fell below 600 annually for the first time in 40 years. That happened again in 2003, 2004, 2005 and 2006.� Source: Press release, �New Record In Crime Reduction� , Dec 26, 2007
Reduced murder rate by focusing on domestic violence
Included in the murder decline for 2007 was another record: a 36% decrease in domestic violence murders. The decrease coincided with an intensive, 5-year effort the NYPD has undertaken to prevent domestic violence.
Very few victims of homicides were strangers to their perpetrators or were killed in random attacks. There was an impressive decline in domestic violence homicides. Specially trained detectives have engaged in proactive domestic violence prevention, doubling their visits to households where domestic violence had occurred.
The visits run counter to the academic belief that little could be done to reduce domestic-related murders. The NYPD has assigned domestic violence officers to every precinct in the City. These specially trained officers made 76,000 domestic violence follow-up visits last year; compared to 38,000 in 2002. In that time, domestic violence-related murders have fallen by nearly half. Source: Press release, �New Record In Crime Reduction� , Dec 26, 2007
Mandatory minimum sentencing for gun crimes
Mayor Bloomberg announced the launch of a subway ad campaign that warns about the increase in the mandatory minimum sentence for illegal possession of a loaded handgun. Backed by Mayor Bloomberg, this legislation passed in June. �Illegal guns don�t belong on our streets and we�re sending that message loud and clear,� said Mayor Bloomberg. �We�re determined to see that gun dealers who break the law are held accountable, and that criminals who carry illegal loaded guns serve serious time behind bars. Source: Mayoral office press release PR-428-06 , Dec 7, 2006
Lock them up and throw away key, but no death penalty
On November 29, 2005, Mayor Bloomberg was asked about his views of the death penalty in the aftermath of the recent murder of an NYPD police officer. Mayor Bloomberg said, �I�d rather lock somebody up and throw away the key and put them in hard labor, the ultimate penalty that the law will allow, but I�m opposed to the death penalty.� Mayor Bloomberg has been steadfast in his opposition to the death penalty, speaking out against it many times in the past. Source: New Yorkers Against the Death Penalty website , Dec 5, 2005
Too much news radio is "all crime, all the time"
We bought a New York City radio station, WNEW, 1130 Kh on the AM dial. Our programming would be an extension of our other news coverage: politics, diplomacy, lifestyles, science, business, markets, the economy, war and peace. We would not do sensationalism. Our general standard would be: If I wouldn't want my children listening to it, it's not suitable for us to broadcast. Those wanting "all crime, all the time," the staple of much news radio, could go elsewhere.
We started day one by ignoring the fundamentals of conventional radio: no murder and mayhem, no prima donnas. Gone were the breathless on-the-scene reporters stumbling over the usual banalities, the self-important producers, and the separate on-air anchor talents whose only talent was reading others' copy and whose egos never got quite enough massaging. Source: Bloomberg by Bloomberg, by Mike Bloomberg, p.115 , Aug 27, 2001
Click here for definitions & background information on Crime.
Click here for a profile of Mike Bloomberg.
Click here for Mike Bloomberg on all the issues.
Click here for VoteMatch responses by Mike Bloomberg.
Other candidates on Crime: Mike Bloomberg on other issues:
External Links about Mike Bloomberg:
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Mitchell Hamline Open Access
Home > Journals > MHLR > Vol. 45
Mitchell Hamline Law Review
All Issues Vol. 46, Iss. 1 Vol. 45, Iss. 5 Vol. 45, Iss. 3 Vol. 45, Iss. 2 Vol. 45, Iss. 1 Vol. 44, Iss. 4 Vol. 44, Iss. 3 Vol. 44, Iss. 2 Vol. 44, Iss. 1 Vol. 43, Iss. 6 Vol. 43, Iss. 5 Vol. 43, Iss. 4 Vol. 43, Iss. 3 Vol. 43, Iss. 2 Vol. 43, Iss. 1 Vol. 42, Iss. 5 Vol. 42, Iss. 4 Vol. 42, Iss. 3 Vol. 42, Iss. 2 Vol. 42, Iss. 1
Mitchell Hamline Law Review Website
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Reading: Memorialisation in Norrtälje, Mariehamn and Pargas: 1881-1939
Memorialisation in Norrtälje, Mariehamn and Pargas: 1881-1939
Lara Band
The data, the result of an archaeological survey of more than 300 memorials dating from 1881 – 1939 in cemeteries in Norrtälje, Sweden; Mariehamn, Åland and Pargas, Finland, was collected for an MA dissertation: ‘The Åland Islands Question’ – A New Perspective? A comparative study of three burial grounds on Åland, in Finland and in Sweden. The dissertation explored the potential for carrying out archaeological studies of memorialisation in a Nordic context, concentrating on the twin themes of identity and nationalism with particular reference to the League of Nations 1921 Agreement on the Autonomy of Åland. The dataset, deposited with the Swedish National Data Service, comprises a database with the details of each memorial, a photograph of each memorial and of the cemeteries, and a note on methodology. Reuse potential includes the incorporation of the data into wider studies of memorialisation, utilisation for gender studies, studies of nationalism, design history and genealogy.
How to Cite: Band, L., 2013. Memorialisation in Norrtälje, Mariehamn and Pargas: 1881-1939. Journal of Open Archaeology Data, 2, p.e11. DOI: http://doi.org/10.5334/joad.ab
The Åland Islands Question’: a New Perspective? A comparative study of three burial grounds on Åland, in Finland and in Sweden, was an MA dissertation submitted by Lara Band for the degree of Master of Arts, Historical Archaeology; School of Archaeology and Ancient History; University of Leicester 2011.
Within the later historical period the Åland Islands have been part of Sweden, part of the Russian empire and, since 1921, and autonomous region of Finland. Ålandic identity has been, and still is, much debated: it has been explored from geo-political and ethnographic perspectives and via history, oral history and art but has never been discussed through the material culture of the historical period.
Archaeologically based studies of memorialisation have been used to address themes common to the rest of historical archaeology such as personal and group identity, social status and social relationships and so this was seen as an appropriate, and accessible, methodology by which to explore ideas of Ålandic identity.
Debates on Ålandic identity usually centre on the islands' position, physically and metaphorically, between Sweden and Finland. For this reason burial grounds in Mariehamn, Åland; Norrtälje, Sweden and Pargas, mainland Finland were chosen for the study. These are the main towns in their regions, all are Swedish speaking and all have strong seafaring connections. Their geographical proximity means it is likely that they had contact in the past; by the 1960s there were regular ferry connections in both directions from Mariehamn. The period 1881-1939 was chosen to provide a suitable time frame around the League of Nations 1921 agreement on the autonomy of Åland.
Archaeological studies of memorialisation have rarely if ever been carried out in a Nordic context so, by way of the above, the dissertation also aimed to explore the potential for Nordic archaeologies of memorialisation, and through this, contribute to the archaeology of memorialisation as a whole.
Mariehamns begravningsplats (Mariehamn's cemetery), Mariehamn, The Åland Islands, Finland
Northern boundary: 60.110215 19.940335 +/- 5m
Southern boundary: 60.108245 19.940640 +/- 5m
Eastern boundary: 60.109700 19.941310 +/- 5m
Western boundary: 60.109300 19.938475 +/- 5m
Pargas kyrkogård (Pargas churchyard), Pargas, Väståboland, Finland
Norrtälje kyrkogård (Norrtälje churchyard), Norrtälje, Stockholms län (Stockholm county), Sweden
AD1881-AD1939
For Mariehamn and Pargas all memorials with commemorations dating from between 1881 to 1939 were recorded, though memorials with dates in this range but also with later commemorations were excluded (see Sampling strategy, below). For Norrtälje a 25% sample was recorded (see Sampling strategy, below).
For each memorial details of location, situation, size, shape, materials and inscriptions were recorded on the gravestone recording form of the Council for Scottish Archaeology [1] and a digital photograph was taken.
To date the memorials an attempt was made to identify the primary inscription by assessing qualitative details including the shape of letters, their depth and spacing [2]. If no difference in these could be found the latest date on the memorial was used, with an awareness that the memorial may not have been erected in that year. In Norrtälje many of the memorials were not inscribed with a date. These, almost without exception, carry only one name or surname, being family graves. The parish burial register was referred to and burial date of the named individual was taken as the date for the memorial. Andréasson’s chronology of grave stone types and styles in Sweden was also referred to with respect to dating memorials in Norrtälje [3].
Digital photographs were taken of each memorial. These were later arranged into decades and any memorial that appeared stylistically to be wrongly placed was reassessed, though this occurred infrequently.
For Mariehamn and Pargas all memorials with inscriptions from 1881-1939 were recorded. Memorials which also had dates outside this period were excluded to keep the data within a manageable size for the time frame; this was also a way of excluding later memorials with back-commemorations some of which were obviously later but some much harder to define.
In Norrtälje the details of all those buried in grave plot frequently do not appear on the memorials so the cemetery staff provided a list (from the parish's own digitised version of parish burial register) of the names of people buried between 1884-1939 and their grave plot number. There were 435 grave plots listed for the date range, distributed over 14 of the cemetery's burial areas, so a 25% sample from each area was decided on (the burial areas represent the expansion of the cemetery so are roughly, though not exclusively, chronological in date). Potential memorials for recording were marked on a plan of the cemetery, provided by cemetery staff, and then an assessment was made, discarding memorials with an inscription later than 1939 (as for Mariehamn and Pargas) or memorials with no date and names that did not match the list. Some plots were not on the list but had memorials inscribed with dates inside the date range and so were chosen as potential memorials for recording. A random 25% sample was then recorded, e.g., every other or every third memorial.
The unique identifying number for each memorial, i.e., the grave plot number, usually on a marker within the grave plot itself, was checked against annotated plan of the cemetery held by the parish. The inscription and description for each memorial was double checked at the end of each day of recording. When the database was finished, random checks were made comparing the original paper record with the database to ensure there were no errors.
The re-use of grave plots, often with replacement of the memorial, is common practice in Nordic countries which makes it difficult to establish how far existing memorials represent the contemporary population. A comparison with the parish death register for Mariehamn suggests that for 1906 – 1939, the number of people recorded in this survey represents only ca. 15% who died in the same period. Likewise, in Finland pauper burials were in public graves marked with a wooden cross, these are now missing from the material record and it was only from 1933 that church law even required pauper burials to be registered [personal communication: Ben Johansson, rector/project leader for Pargas Församling, November 2010].
The list of burials provided by Norrtälje cemetery staff (see Sampling strategy, above) showed few burials in the early decades though there are memorials to people who were not on the list. It is possible that the burial records are not complete, that those commemorated were buried elsewhere or that there was no body to bury. There is a steep rise in numbers of memorials from the 1920s and, especially for the earlier decades, there were graves (i.e. grave sized plots, often with an obvious depression) with a name on the list in the register, but with no memorial. This may suggest a rise in commemoration. Plots were bought in perpetuity by a family [personal communication: Jenny Nording, cemetery manager, Norrtälje Kyrkogård. November 2010] and the number of later looking ‘family grave’ memorials (those which bear one person's name or a surname and the words ‘familjegrav’) with a surname that matched the burial register, but not a first name or initials, suggests earlier memorials are often replaced.
Omitting memorials which also carried inscriptions for those who had died earlier than 1881 (Pargas only) or later than 1939 may have had some effect on the data. Given the 60 year date range of the study, trends relating to expectations for re-use of the memorial or grave plot, for the future, at the time that the memorial and inscription was chosen, may well show up within the data (e.g., the choice of a larger memorial, or double grave plot). Likewise, while certain types of memorials and inscriptions may have survived due to re-use post 1939, it was considered that re-use would be reflecting the situation and attitudes of those re-using the memorial and as such may not have significance for why a particular memorial or inscription was chosen in the first place.
It should also be considered, however that other factors may influence the survival of particular memorials, such as whether the person commemorated was well known, or considered important, locally or even nationally.
Though Norrtälje, Mariehamn and Pargas are similar in the respects discussed above, in other ways they are quite different: by the 19th century Norrtälje was a fairly industrialised town while Pargas was predominantly rural/seafaring, though both had existed as local centres since at least the 15th century. Mariehamn, by contrast, was only established in 1861, was the first town on the Åland Islands and had a seafaring/administrative focus. Pargas churchyard was in the grounds of a church and had been in use since at least the 1600s [personal communication: Ben Johansson, rector/project leader for Pargas Församling, November 2010], Mariehamn's cemetery and Norrtälje churchyard are both municipal cemeteries established in the late 19th century.
In general, it is difficult to say how representative the memorials are of the contemporary population, though the data does allow for conclusions to be drawn as to general trends. A wider study, geographically or chronologically, would help reveal or discount trends that appear within the data.
The data collection comprises an database with details of sizes, shapes and inscription details for 304 memorials and the commemoration details for 440 people. It also comprises photographs of each memorial and photographic overviews of the cemeteries.
CSV, Excel, JPEG, PDF and DOC.
01/02/2010 – 31/10/2010 (Field)
01/11/2010-30/11/2010 (database compilation)
http://doi.org/10.5878/000001
Dataset: English with inscription data from memorials in Swedish and Finnish. The description of the data at the repository (The Swedish National Data Service) is presented in Swedish and in English.
Reuse Potential
Studies of memorials have successfully explored questions of cultural and social identity in other parts of Europe and the Anglophone world but memorials have rarely, if ever, been approached from an archaeological perspective in a Nordic context. This data could therefore be incorporated into wider studies of memorialisation, and used in comparative studies.
It would likewise be useful for anyone researching into identity or history in the regions and periods covered especially in two respects: historiography usually considers a long standing affinity between Åland and Sweden as a fundamental part of ‘Ålandic identity’ though the data suggests that social relationships and practice might, in fact, have been more similar between Åland and Finland. There is also potential for the data to contribute to discussions on the attempted Russification of Finland, with respect to how those commemorated were identified by their relationship to land. Likewise the data suggests society in Norrtälje was strongly patriarchal, much more so than in Mariehamn or Pargas, which would be interesting for gender studies.
The data may have potential re-use in a number of oblique ways: as memorials are generally closely datable stylistic features, and the dataset also includes a full set of photographs, the data could be a useful reference source for architectural and design historians. The data could also be useful for genealogists or family historians.
Eva-Lotta Karlsson, office secretary and Ann-Christine Mattsson, cemetery manager for Mariehamn Församling (Mariehamn Parish)
Jenny Nording, cemetery manager and Katinka Löfberg, cemetery custodian for Norrtälje-Malsta Församling (Norrtälje-Malsta Parish)
Ben Johansson, rector / project leader for Pargas Församling (Pargas Parish)
Mytum, H (2002). The Dating of graveyard memorials: evidence from the stones. PostMedieval Archaeology 36: 1–38.
Andréasson, A (2009). Gravstenskronologi kortversion , Available at: http://www.archaeogarden.se/gravstenskronologi.html [Accessed 21.12.2010].
Council for Scottish Archaeology. Fieldwork: How to record gravestones and graveyards, Available at http://www.scottishgraveyards.org.uk/recording2.shtml [Accessed 1.10.2010].
Band, L., 2013. Memorialisation in Norrtälje, Mariehamn and Pargas: 1881-1939. Journal of Open Archaeology Data, 2, p.e11. DOI: http://doi.org/10.5334/joad.ab
Band L. Memorialisation in Norrtälje, Mariehamn and Pargas: 1881-1939. Journal of Open Archaeology Data. 2013;2:e11. DOI: http://doi.org/10.5334/joad.ab
Band, L. (2013). Memorialisation in Norrtälje, Mariehamn and Pargas: 1881-1939. Journal of Open Archaeology Data, 2, e11. DOI: http://doi.org/10.5334/joad.ab
Band L, ‘Memorialisation in Norrtälje, Mariehamn and Pargas: 1881-1939’ (2013) 2 Journal of Open Archaeology Data e11 DOI: http://doi.org/10.5334/joad.ab
Band, Lara. 2013. “Memorialisation in Norrtälje, Mariehamn and Pargas: 1881-1939”. Journal of Open Archaeology Data 2: e11. DOI: http://doi.org/10.5334/joad.ab
Band, Lara. “Memorialisation in Norrtälje, Mariehamn and Pargas: 1881-1939”. Journal of Open Archaeology Data 2 (2013): e11. DOI: http://doi.org/10.5334/joad.ab
Band, L.. “Memorialisation in Norrtälje, Mariehamn and Pargas: 1881-1939”. Journal of Open Archaeology Data, vol. 2, 2013, p. e11. DOI: http://doi.org/10.5334/joad.ab
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OrthodoxWiki β
Revision as of 19:39, January 7, 2011 by Preciouspearlfan (talk | contribs)
Synaxis of the Holy Angels
The word angel means "messenger" and this word expresses the nature of angelic service to the human race. Angels are also referred to as "bodiless Powers of Heaven". Angels are organized into several orders, or Angelic Choirs. The most influential of these classifications was that put forward by pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite (not to be confused with Dionysius the Areopagite, who was baptized by Saint Paul and lived in the first century, and from whom pseudo-Dionysius took his name) in the fourth or fifth century in his book The Celestial Hierarchy.
In this work, the author interpolated several ambiguous passages from the New Testament, specifically Ephesians 6:12 and Colossians 1:16, to construct a schema of three Hierarchies, Spheres or Triads of angels, with each Hierarchy containing three Orders or Choirs. In descending order of power, these were:
First Hierarchy:
Second Hierarchy:
Dominions
Third Hierarchy:
The idea of there being ten initial Angelic hosts is taken from Judaism, this number possessing a very deep significance in Jewish mysticism, being the numeric value of the first letter of the Tetragrammaton, and symbolizing the Decalogue given to Moses on Mount Sinai and the ten plagues against the Egyptians, by which the Chosen People were delivered from captivity. There are several different listings of these ten Angelic ranks, which inevitably overlap to a certain degree; but whereas Judaism lost its ancient belief in the fall of Angels (witnessed, for instance, by the Book of Enoch), Christianity on the other hand preserved it, hence its teaching about the nine (remaining) Angelic orders, whose number shall be completed by the souls of those redeemed through the blood of the Lamb.
However, one should be a bit cautious about taking pseudo-Dionysius' model too concretely, as he is the only source we have for such a classification system. The author himself was a fairly early advocate of apophatic theology, which insists on only describing God in the negative. Still, many have accused the writer of wavering somewhere in between Orthodoxy and Neoplatonism, a pagan Greek philosophical system; such critics say that the three groupings of three in the angelic hierarchy derive from Neoplatonism:
The Hellenic concept of the world as "order" and "hierarchy," the strict Platonic division between the "intelligible" and "sensible" worlds, and the Neoplatonic grouping of beings into "triads" reappear in the famous writings of a mysterious early-sixth-century writer who wrote under the pseudonym of Dionysius the Areopagite.1
Furthermore, the comparison of the celestial with the earthly breaks down if one takes into account modern science, which tells us of a fourth category of matter and a very debatable number of dimensions (see w:String Theory if interested). All said and done, this is not to entirely discredit pseudo-Dionysius, who has been much esteemed by numerous Church Fathers and theologians up to the present day.
Jewish Encyclopedia
Orthodox Life, Vol. 27, No. 6 (Nov.-Dec., 1977), pp. 39-47.
1 From Byzantine Theology: Historical Trends and Doctrinal Themes by Fr. John Meyendorff. New York: Fordham University Press, 1974, p. 27. ISBN 0-8232-0967-9.
The Church's Teaching Concerning Angels
The Celestial Hierarchy by St. Dionysius the Areopagite
The Angels by H.H. Pope Shenouda III (Format: PDF)
First Hierarchy: Seraphim | Cherubim | Thrones
Second Hierarchy: Powers | Dominions | Principalities
Third Hierarchy: Virtues | Archangels | Angels
The Holy Angels
"Concerning angels" (Book 2 Chapter 3) in St John of Damascus' An Exact Exposition of the Orthodox Faith
Retrieved from "https://orthodoxwiki.org/index.php?title=Angels&oldid=97230"
Content is available under Copyright Information unless otherwise noted.
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The Fourth Crusade 1202–04
The betrayal of Byzantium
Author: David Nicolle
Illustrator: Christa Hook
Short code: CAM 237
The Fourth Crusade was the first, and most famous of the 'diverted' Crusades, which saw the Crusade diverted from its original target, Ayyubi Egypt, to attack the Christian city of Zadar in modern Croatia instead, an attack that was little more than a mercenary action to repay the Venetians for their provision of a fleet to the Crusaders. This book examines the combined action and sacking of the city of Zara, which saw the Crusaders temporarily excommunicated by the Pope. It goes on to evaluate how the influence of the Venetians prompted an attack on Constantinople, analyses the siege that followed and describes the naval assault and sacking of the city which saw the Crusaders place Count Baldwin of Flanders on the Byzantine throne.
Born in 1944, David Nicolle worked in the BBC's Arabic service for a number of years before gaining an MA from the School of Oriental and African Studies, London, and a doctorate from Edinburgh University. He has written numerous books and articles on medieval and Islamic warfare, and has been a prolific author of Osprey titles for many years.Christa Hook began her illustrating career in 1986, after studying under her father Richard Hook. Her work has featured extensively in the worlds of publishing and television and, having illustrated over 30 Osprey titles, she has established herself as one of their most popular artists. Her illustrations combine the historian's attention to detail with the artist's sense of drama and atmosphere, and they are sought after by collectors worldwide. Christa lives and works in East Sussex, England.
Opposing commanders
Opposing forces
Opposing plans
The battlefields today
Manzikert 1071
CAM 262 Multiple formats
WAR 91 Paperback
Nicopolis 1396
CAM 64 Paperback
Byzantine Imperial Guardsmen 925–1025
ELI 187 Multiple formats
The Second Crusade 1148
CAM 204 Paperback
Knight of Outremer AD 1187–1344
Acre 1291
The Walls of Constantinople AD 324–1453
FOR 25 Multiple formats
The First Crusade 1096–99
Constantinople 1453
The Venetian Empire 1200–1670
MAA 210 Paperback
ELI 19 Paperback
Château Thierry & Belleau Wood 1918
A-3 Skywarrior Units of the Vietnam War
Luftwaffe Fighter Units
Strongholds of the Samurai
The Nazi Occult
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The 2008 election was a hopeful one for African Americans in our democracy — not because of who was elected, but because of who turned out to vote. We voted at a nearly identical rate to our white neighbors for the first time in U.S. history. In fact, African-American women had the highest turnout rate of any group of any race.
Defending the Ballot Box
African-American churches can make a difference in 2012.
By Leslie Watson Malachi | December 26, 2011
More than 40 years after the end of the Jim Crow era (albeit amid the resurrection of what many are calling the “New Jim Crow”), we closed that persisting gap of participation. In greater numbers than ever before, we stood up and we spoke with our vote.
But since 2008, our right to vote — which is essentially a form of free speech — has been under an unprecedented attack. Shortly after the election, over half of Republican voters said that they believed the presidential election had been stolen for Barack Obama by ACORN, a now-defunct organization that worked to register new voters, including many African Americans.
In response to this false myth promoted by right-wing media and politicians, state legislatures across the country have been trying to make it harder to register to vote. The most common form this takes is voter ID laws, which, under the guise of preventing the over-hyped problem of “voter fraud,” in fact keep millions of voters from the polls. These laws, which are on the books or being considered in 41 states, target voters who don’t have certain types of government identification. They are overwhelmingly young, elderly, and persons of color.
What’s even more discouraging than the faulty basis of these restrictive laws is where they come from. The American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), a group funded by large corporations that writes legislation for state legislators, is pushing these voter ID laws to states around the country. Why do big business interests care about restricting voting rights? Because voting is the only way those of us without millions of dollars to spend on elections can make our voices heard.
The real goals of these laws were thrown into sharp light in Tennessee this year, when we learned about Dorothy Cooper, a 96-year-old black woman who was denied a voter ID because she couldn’t produce a copy of her marriage license. Mrs. Cooper had voted nearly every year since she was of voting age, and had never before run into a problem registering — even in the Jim Crow South. Mrs. Cooper wasn’t trying to commit fraud. She was trying to exercise her right and her duty as a citizen. Yet she was treated like a criminal.
While we can and should fight the enactment of these laws, we can’t stop there. Today, the most important thing you can do to make sure your voice is heard in the democratic process is to know your rights, inform others of their rights, be prepared to vote, and vote in every election, and vote. This is especially true for African Americans, who are disproportionately being targeted and impacted by these new laws.
The Black Church has a longstanding history of championing political, educational, and economic rights, not only for African Americans but for all citizens. And in this modern era, we must continue the fight.
The right to vote, especially for African Americans, is under attack. Churches and other places of worship, laity, pastors, laity, and ministry leaders, who were essential to securing that right, will be essential to preserving it.
Trump’s ‘Election Integrity’ Commission Harkens Back to Jim Crow
The African-American Swing State
We’re Learning the Truth About ‘Voter Fraud’
To Fight Racism, Protect the Right to Vote
By Leslie Watson Malachi
Minister Leslie Watson Malachi is the director for African-American Religious Affairs at People For the American Way. www.pfaw.org
Distributed via OtherWords (OtherWords.org)
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Tag: homage
January 17, 2017 January 21, 2017 Michael Bird
Waxwork II: Lost in Time (7/10)
NOTE: Contains spoilers for the first Waxwork movie.
First, the bad news: Deborah Foreman’s character, Sarah, has been recast. The good news: The replacement actress is Monika Schnarre, who looks like Daryl Hannah, but hotter. We’ll go ahead and mark this in the “win” column, even though I have fond memories of Deborah’s scene with the Marquis de Sade in the first movie.
This starts right where the first movie leaves off, with Mark and Sarah escaping the burning waxworks in a handy taxi. Unbeknownst to the pair, the reanimated zombie arm from the first movie’s Night of the Living Dead vignette hitches a ride and ends up back at Sarah’s place, where it kills her abusive step-dad with a hammer and then attacks her with hot dogs and mustard. She is promptly charged with murder when no one believes the killer hand story, and Mark and Sarah are forced to delve into the waxworks mythos to try to find evidence to exhonerate her, and because it’s a great way to throw them into some more homagey vignettes.
The vignettes this time around are much more elaborate, and feature tributes to Frankenstein, Alien, Evil Dead, Excalibur or something, Dawn of the Dead, Nosferatu, and others. And even though the first Waxwork was billed as a horror-comedy, this one goes much broader with the humor, getting quite slapsticky at times. Even outside the Evil Dead segment, the influence of that classic series is quite apparent, going so far as featuring an extended cameo from the man himself, Bruce Campbell. One could argue that they go a bit far with the silliness, but this is still a pretty fun movie, and it’s apparent that the filmmakers had fun making it. Worth a watch, even though there’s still no boobs.
Waxwork (7/10)
A waxworks opens in the middle of a suburban neighborhood for some reason. A group of twenty-something trust-fund losers get invited to visit after hours by the owner, the always excellent David Warner. When the arrive, they are greeted at the door by a midget best described as a white version of Tattoo. Left to explore the disturbingly realistic tableau, they are soon drawn, one by one, into the scenes, and find they are even more real than they appear.
First off, this is not to be confused with Haris Pilton Paris Hilton’s House of Wax from 2005. This is, in fact, a fun little film from the Golden Age of Horror, that wonderful decade known as “The 80s”. The bulk of this movie is taken up with the trust fund kiddos exploring, being trapped in, and, for some of them, dying in little vignettes that reference classic horror monsters like the mummy, the wolfman, and even a nice black and white homage to The Night of the Living Dead. By far the most memorable vignette is the super-hot scene with Deborah Foreman’s character falling victim to the Marquis de Sade. While this is certainly far from the best of the 80s, it’s reasonably entertaining and worth a watch. Recommended.
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Directions and Hours of Operation
Private Event Planning
Public Museum Events
Exhibits and Aircraft
Arizona Aerospace Foundation
Arizona Aviation Hall of Fame
Cessna Model 120
The Cessna 120 and 140 were designed at the end of World War II to take advantage of what was hoped would be massive growth in the private pilot training industry. U.S. Government education grants to returning veterans were allowed for pilot training and Cessna hoped to grab much of the flight school market with these two modern, simple, and relatively inexpensive designs. As it turned out both aircraft were very popular, and many pilots received their introduction to flight in the 140 or 120. By August of 1946, Cessna was turning out twenty-two Model 120s and Model 140s a day. Production of the Model 120 ended in 1949 with 2,171 built.
The Model 120 is a simplified version of the Model 140. Differences include the deletion of the wing flaps and rear quarter fuselage windows and a simplified interior. Otherwise the aircraft were virtually identical in construction and appearance. The Model 120 was built with a fabric covered wing which has been replaced with aluminum on the museum’s example.
32 ft 10 in.
21 ft 6 in.
6 ft 3 in.
1,450 pounds (loaded)
Service Ceiling
One Continental C-85-12 piston engine with 85 horsepower
Royal Air Force, Number 8 Squadron, RAF Lossiemouth, 1991
"Mr. McHenry"
N790WL
Creating unlimited horizons in aerospace education through the preservation and presentation of the history of flight.
Charity EIN: 86-6031135
Website by CS Design Studios
6000 E. Valencia Road Tucson, AZ 85756
Open 9:00 AM – 5:00 PM Daily Last admittance at 3:00pm
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NFL Team Grades Week 13: Giants Fend Off Bears
Filed Under:NFL, NFL Team Grades, Steve Silverman
By Steve Silverman
The New York Giants weren’t supposed to beat the Chicago Bears. But an Odell Beckham TD pass and a pick six, not to mention another strong showing from Saquon Barkley, helped them fend off the Bears in regulation, before pulling out the win in overtime. Fans may lament their worsening draft position, but, believe it or not, the Giants still technically have a shot in the NFC East.
Cowboys 13, Saints 10
Dallas Cowboys: A-. The one thing that long-time Cowboys observers have noticed over the last 15+ years is that when the most important games were played in the second half of the season, the Cowboys would make too many key mistakes and find ways to lose. That may no longer be the case. The combination of Dak Prescott and Ezekiel Elliott looks sensational at this point in the season.
New Orleans Saints: C. The Saints had been the most consistent and dangerous team in the NFL, but nothing goes on forever. Drew Brees and the Saints could not get it done in Week 13 in Dallas. After sleeping in the first half, the Saints played better in the final 30 minutes and made it close. Now they must show they can get back on track.
Ravens 26, Falcons 16
Baltimore Ravens: B+. The Ravens didn’t play their best game, but they still won a crucial late-season game on the road by 10 points. Lamar Jackson started again, but he did not finish after getting kicked in the head. The Baltimore defense shut down Atlanta’s still-dangerous offense.
Atlanta Falcons: D. The Falcons are just a shell of the team they were two years ago, and the biggest problem was that this double-digit home loss was not a surprise. There was no reason to expect anything more out of this disappointing team.
Case Keenum (Photo Credit: Andy Lyons/Getty Images)
Broncos 24, Bengals 10
Denver Broncos: A-. The Broncos are the most overachieving team in the league. They continue to win games, and going on the road does not bother head coach Vance Joseph’s team. Quarterback Case Keenum is a solid field general, and undrafted rookie running back Phillip Lindsay is becoming a star, as he ran for 157 yards and two touchdowns.
Cincinnati Bengals: C-. The Bengals show no signs of getting out of their swoon. They showed some fight in the first half, but their run defense failed them. And once they fell behind, the combination of backup quarterback, Jeff Driskel, and head coach, Marvin Lewis, was not about to inspire a comeback effort.
Rams 30, Lions 16
Los Angeles Rams: B+. It took a while for the Rams to find their stride, but they ended up where they were supposed to be, with a double-digit road victory over a confused opponent. Todd Gurley put his stamp on this game, with 132 yards and two rushing TDs, and Jared Goff was solid.
Detroit Lions: C-. The Lions came out playing hard, and they did a good job of bottling up the Rams in the first part of the game. However, Matt Patricia knows that’s not good enough, and this team can’t sustain a 60-minute effort on either side of the ball.
Cardinals 20, Packers 17
Arizona Cardinals: B+. This has been a lost season for the Cardinals, who have been in contention with the Oakland Raiders as one of the two worst teams in the NFL. The idea that they would go to Green Bay in December and compete for 60 minutes is hard to believe, and the idea that they would win is inconceivable. Yet that is just what happened, as Zane Gonzalez kicked the game-winning field goal late in the fourth quarter.
Green Bay Packers: F. The Packers have fallen, and they can’t get up, and head coach Mike McCarthy’s immediate reaction was to say he didn’t know what he could do to turn the team around. Well, one thing he doesn’t have to do is coach the Packers any longer, because he was fired after his team’s pitiful performance. Green Bay would have needed a near-miracle to make the playoffs, and this was the easiest game on their schedule. Just an awful showing that has resulted in a dramatic change.
Deshaun Watson and Derrick Kindred (Photo Credit: Tim Warner/Getty Images)
Texans 29, Browns 13
Houston Texans: B+. This is clearly the best stretch of head coach Bill O’Brien’s career, and he has to thank quarterback, Deshaun Watson, for getting the Texans on a roll and keeping them there. Watson sees the field well and knows how to take what the defense gives him. It helps when he has a running back like Lamar Miller and a receiver with the superb hands of DeAndre Hopkins.
Cleveland Browns: C-. The Browns have been playing with a sense of swagger, and that’s good for a team that couldn’t smell a win in recent seasons. However, it’s a whole different story when playing against a surging team like the Texans. Cleveland was outclassed in the first half, and the Texans dominated the game. Rookie quarterback, Baker Mayfield, was intercepted on three straight possessions.
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Jaguars 6, Colts 0
Jacksonville Jaguars: B+. Finally, one of the two most disappointing teams in the league — along with the Packers — won a game. The defense came to play for the first time in weeks, and the Jaguars were tough and physical. The offense still has major issues.
Indianapolis Colts: C-. The Colts saw their five-game winning streak come to an abrupt halt, as they went to Jacksonville and got shut out. This comes three weeks after scoring 29 points against the Jaguars in a victory in Indianapolis. This was obviously a clunker of a game, but the frustrated Jacksonville defense finally played up to the ability that is on the roster. Frank Reich needs to make sure this doesn’t happen again with a tough week of practice.
Dolphins 21, Bills 17
Miami Dolphins: B. The Dolphins did not play a brilliant game, but they did enough to win at home against an ordinary opponent. That certainly beats the alternative, but the Dolphins will have to be much better if they are going to beat the New England Patriots at home next week.
Buffalo Bills: C. The Bills have been playing much more competitively, and they could have been victorious in this road game against a divisional opponent. Rookie quarterback, Josh Allen, had a chance to throw a game-winning TD on the final play, but his pass was just a little off target and short. Allen rushed for 135 yards on nine carries.
Saquon Barkley and Roquan Smith (L-R) (Photo Credit: Sarah Stier/Getty Images)
Giants 30, Bears 27
New York Giants: B+. The Giants won a game against an opponent with a winning record, and that’s notable. They came out with enthusiasm and scored a defensive touchdown on the second play from scrimmage. While they gave up the lead in the late going, they attacked in overtime on both sides of the ball and came out with a rare victory.
Chicago Bears: C-. The Bears have developed a reputation for getting everything out of their players and coaches, but that did not happen this week. The Bears fell behind early, and while they made a comeback that was nearly miraculous in the final 80 seconds — field goal, successful onside kick, game-tying touchdown — they could not beat a team that regularly prepares gifts for its opponents.
Buccaneers 24, Panthers 17
Tampa Bay Bucs: B+. The Bucs have suddenly won two games in a row after their stroll through the NFL desert for basically a half season. We are not saying they are going to make the playoffs, but this team is playing much better football and now they must show they can continue to play hard against the Saints next week.
Carolina Panthers: D. It happens every year. A team that looks like it is surging at mid-season hits a bump and loses all momentum. Head coach, Ron Rivera, has a big problem on his hands, because the Panthers could not handle the lowly Bucs and have now lost four in a row after 6-2 start. Cam Newton is not performing well, and it appears his shoulder is an issue.
Chiefs 40, Raiders 33
Kansas City Chiefs: B. The Chiefs returned from their bye week, and their offense remained on fire, while their defense was once again unimpressive. Patrick Mahomes threw for 295 yards and four touchdowns, but the defense allowed the Raiders to make the final score respectable, even though the Chiefs are a far superior team.
Oakland Raiders: B-. Head coach, Jon Gruden, was able to play the rivalry card against the Chiefs to get his team to compete for a full 60 minutes. The Raiders were not going to win this game, but they scored 17 points in the fourth quarter, and that’s something for the Raiders to feel good about in this lost season.
Marcus Mariota and Derrick Henry (L-R) (Photo Credit: Frederick Breedon/Getty Images)
Titans 26, Jets 22
Tennessee Titans: B+. The Titans are one of the most up-and-down teams in the league. This is a team that beat the Cowboys on the road and hammered the Patriots, but also found themselves trailing the lowly Jets by double digits. The comeback was impressive, but head coach, Mike Vrabel, needs this team to play for 60 minutes on an every-week basis.
New York Jets: C-. The Jets played well on the road in the first part of the game and built a 16-0 lead late in the first half, but they could not hold onto it. Head coach, Todd Bowles, has been under the gun throughout the season, and this game makes matters worse.
Patriots 24, Vikings 10
New England Patriots: A-. If it’s December and the Patriots are playing at home, that means they are winning the game. While they did not dictate throughout, they came through with the game on the line. The combination of Tom Brady to Josh Gordon may turn out to be a huge factor in the postseason.
Minnesota Vikings: C. The Vikings showed the ability to stay with the Patriots on the road into the second half, but when it came to winning time, they just didn’t have enough spit and vinegar. The Vikings became cooperative guests and allowed Tom Brady & Co. to dominate on their home turf.
Seahawks 43, 49ers 16
Seattle Seahawks: B+. The Seahawks continue to build a strong season after very little was expected from them. Russell Wilson continues to produce and make the most out of his opportunities, as he threw four TD passes. The Seahawks built a 20-3 halftime lead and were never seriously threatened.
San Francisco 49ers: C-. The 49ers are not going to be able to stay with winning teams, and that’s the position they found themselves in Week 13 against the overachieving Seahawks. Nick Mullens threw for 414 yards and two touchdowns, but the Niners could not make any inroads in this game.
Travis Benjamin (Photo Credit: Joe Sargent/Getty Images)
Chargers 33, Steelers 30
Los Angeles Chargers: B+. The Chargers were outplayed badly in the first half, but they rallied impressively in the second. While they received a number of breaks –including a Philip Rivers TD pass to Travis Benjamin that featured an illegal procedure penalty that was not called — the Chargers kept pressing forward and beat a very good team on its home turf.
Pittsburgh Steelers: C+. The Steelers were coming off a loss to the Broncos, and they came out playing hard and took a 23-7 lead into the third quarter. They were unable to hold off a Los Angeles rally, but the Steelers did not play a bad game, despite the disappointing 33-30 defeat.
Eagles 28, Redskins 13
Philadelphia Eagles: B+. The Eagles did not play especially well, but they did enough to beat the Redskins. Carson Wentz threw two touchdown passes, and the Eagles put the short-handed Redskins away in the second half. The Eagles are now 6-6, tied with the Redskins and a game behind the Dallas Cowboys.
Washington Redskins: C-. First the Redskins lost Alex Smith, and now they lose backup Colt McCoy. As a result, the Redskins have to turn to Mark Sanchez, and that does not appear to be a good alternative. It certainly wasn’t in the Monday night loss to the Eagles, as the lone highlight was Adrian Peterson’s 90-yard touchdown run that gave the Redskins a brief lead.
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Is ‘Tinder’ hindering us?
With the vast technological developments made over the last decade, and the subsequent introduction of countless new apps, modern day courting is becoming more virtual than ever before. In today’s society, one must simply swipe a phone screen in order to express interest in another person, located up to 160 miles away. Whilst arguably direct, many psychologists argue that this distance and lack of interaction can actually damage a person’s ability to interact with, and form meaningful attachments to, another person.
Part of this will be as a result of lack of exclusivity- one may swipe as many profiles as one likes, with no obligation to interact with that person any further. This casual attitude is understood by many users, however, this uncertainty and lack of regular communication with another individual can actually heighten an individual’s insecurities, making them feel less worthy or desirable. This psychological phenomenon has been seen across countless different social media sites, including Facebook and Instagram. In addition, this kind of environment has proven to be particularly damaging to people with quite serious psychological disorders, including narcissism, and these people in particular can find these apps extremely addictive.
With many young people working increasingly long hours, it is becoming harder to meet new people, and expand their social circle. These apps have definitely helped to make people feel less lonely, although it is unclear as to whether this is actually a false economy- after all, much of how they are feeling is based on validation from a person they may never meet, over an electronic device. There are also further concerns in terms of safety in using the apps, and users, particularly females, have to be vigilant. It is believed that many users are not who they claim to be, whilst others are trying to live double lives, and either look for casual extra-marital relations, or try to extort money or other support from other users.
Students considering applying for Psychology based subjects or Medicine might like to look into attachment formation, the nature of addiction, and the nature of an individual’s self-esteem. You might also like to think more widely about the ethical implications of these apps, and assess to what extent they are hindering, as well as helping, factions of society.
‘Say cheese’: Why Anglo-Saxon smiles are useful to us today
Female Vikings: Plenty More Fish In The Sea
Viking migration’s lasting legacy on Ireland’s population
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The Blog for All Things Biodefense
The Pandora Report
GMU Biodefense
Pandora Report
CBRN Policy Briefs
Faculty and Student Research
ASM Biothreats
Preventing Pandemics and Bioterrorism: Past, Present, and Future
Biosecurity In the Age of Genome Editing
Biodefense Policy Seminars
GMU Global Health Security Ambassador
Tag: Alena James
Category A Bioterrorism Agent Lands in the U.S.
August 5, 2014 August 4, 2014 by juliadhomstad, posted in News
By Alena James
It has been one seriously scary and depressing summer with the multitude of cataclysmic events taking place all around the globe. Much like the thousands of immigrant children whose futures are still being debated by the U.S. and Mexico, many of these crises have remained outside of U.S. soil. However, one potential crisis has been willingly brought to the U.S.
A few days ago a protocol was established to send medical evacuation planes to Liberia to bring back two missionary American health care workers suffering from the Ebola virus. The decision to bring the patients back to the U.S. raised great alarm among many Americans that there is a chance of a major outbreak occurring with a disease that the U.S. is not prepared to fight
This past week, the Director of the CDC, Dr. Thomas Frieden, continually claimed that the necessary precautions were being taken to ensure the safety of the public from being exposed to the virus. According to Frieden, the chances of an outbreak taking place in the U.S. are minimal. Ebola is a virus that is not airborne and is not acquired through casual contact with an infected patient. For individuals to be infected they must have direct contact with bodily fluids septic (contaminated) with the virus.
During a CNN interview, Frieden explained that the decision to bring the Americans back to the U.S. was made by Samaritan’s Purse, the organization to which the two infected Americans, Dr. Kent Brantly and Nancy Writebol, belong. The role of the CDC will be to help assist in the transport and supportive care of the patients upon arrival at Emory University Hospital in Atlanta, Georgia.
The plane that transported Dr. Kent Brantly on Saturday was fitted with an Aeromedical Biological Containment System. In this system, a tent like structure was set up on board a modified Gulfstream III aircraft and used to isolate Brantly from the rest of the people onboard.
During an aeromedical evacuation, a patient undergoes medical assessment and evaluation before transport. This is to ensure the patient’s survival during the course of the trip. According to a study conducted by the U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases in Fort Detrick, Maryland, the physiologic effects of altitude, effect of confinement on patient-care delivery, and psychological effect of confinement within the containment system must be taken into consideration before transport.
Dr. Brantly arrived safely in the United States on Saturday at Dobbins Air Force Base in Marietta, Georgia. He was then transported to Emory University Hospital in Atlanta.
So, why exactly was the decision made to bring back to the Americans infected with a viral agent; which the CDC has classified as a Category A Bioterrorism Agent and to which there is no cure?
In his interview with CNN, Dr. Frieden, gave credit for the medical evacuation operation to Samaritan’s Purse. However, without the assistance of the State Department, the U.S. military, and the CDC it seems likely that the operation would not have come to fruition at all.
The reasoning for this evacuation, made by many advocates, seems to lie with the high level of confidence among those at the CDC and Emory University in their ability to control and contain the infected patients. Despite the unprecedented nature of an Ebola patient returning to the U.S., infectious disease experts maintain the appropriate precautions are being made and the virus will remain contained.
The medical evacuation operations for Dr. Brantly and Nancy Writebol do not offer only an increased chance of recovery from Ebola and the chance to be reunited with their loved ones—if only through a glass partition. These operations also provide an opportunity for America’s best infectious disease experts and healthcare workers to gain firsthand experience with actual cases of a virus not available for study at clinical levels in the U.S. The medical evacuation operation is also beneficial to emergency response personnel who have been training on how to deal with these types of medical cases for years.
Over the summer, Americans watched intently as the creditability of the CDC took a hit when many of its laboratory staff failed to abide by proper laboratory safety techniques upon dealing with samples of Bacillus anthracis and H5N1. The CDC and NIH’s credibility took another hit when the CDC discovered more than 200 vials of smallpox in a refrigerator in an NIH lab in Bethesda, Maryland.
Hopefully the fouls ups of the past have provided important lessons for all fields working with infectious diseases to take safety protocols very seriously…especially while working with patients suffering from a virus that has no cure.
Image Credit: Yahoo
Tagged Alena James, CDC, ebola, Ebola outbreak, Emory1 Comment
Finding Its Niche in Biodefense: Bioprinting
May 29, 2014 by juliadhomstad, posted in News
By Alena M. James
Three-Dimensional printing has become a major controversial topic in the new age technology sector for the past few years now. Earlier this month, Yoshitomo Imura was arrested in Kawaski, Japan after using his 3-D printer to build five guns; two of which held the capability to fire bullets. This is an example of the potential dangers of 3-D printing. In April, a private company working in Shanghai used 3-D printers to print 10 full-sized houses in approximately 24 hours. This demonstrates the technology’s potential utility in building development. The benefits and risks of 3-D printing continue to be illustrated via innovators, but there has not yet been a clear consensus on the accepted utility of this advancing technology.
However, on the medical front these machines have proved incredibly advantageous. 3-D printers have advanced the medical field by allowing the creation of artificial limbs for patients, skin grafs for burn victims, and even noses for patients requiring facial reconstruction. Despite the ambiguity of whether or not 3-D printing induces more harm than good or more good than harm for society, the Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA) has found a significant utility for this rising technology in the biodefense world.
Last week, DTRA announced the new role for 3-D printers in biodefense research. According to DTRA, using 3-D printers in countermeasures research against chemical and biological weapons would allow for scientists to rapidly produce human tissue on which treatments against chemical and biological agents can be tested.
The technique is known as bioprinting—the use of 3-D printers to develop human tissues and organs. In bioprinting, a specialized 3-D printer is designed to disseminate viable cells that can strategically lay the framework to biofabricate organoids—smaller version of organs. Ears and skin have been the two most common organs that have been developed via this technology.
Studies at Harvard University have helped to pique DTRA’s interest in bioprinting. So far, the Harvard Scientists have successfully developed 3-D organoids that can survive for at least eight days. The length of viability is significant, because it allows more time for testing to be performed on sensitive organisms like bacteria.
If DTRA scientists can test the effectiveness of treatments against biological or chemical weapons on bioprinted human tissue, they maintain the capacity to evaluate these treatments in more accurate human models without harming actual patients. Using biofrabricated systems will also enable DTRA scientists to determine the best countermeasures against these types of weapons without solely relying on animal modeling systems. These types of studies are traditionally condemned due to ethical concerns for the animals and are limited in producing side effects that are associated within the human model. By using human tissue fabricated from 3-D printers, scientists reduce animal testing trials and gain a more accurate understanding of the effectiveness of the treatments being investigated. The fabrication of organoids may also allow drug testing to occur at a faster pace saving time and money in the research field.
One of the leading companies of this technology is Organovo. The company focuses on developing structurally and functionally accurate human tissue models used in medical research. The process of bioprinting requires several steps to produce the intended tissue or organ type. First, a design of the target tissue must be created. Second, the key architectural and compositional elements of the tissue must be identified. Third, the software must be used to develop a printing protocol. Fourth, a bioprocess is required to develop the bio-ink for the project. Bio-ink comes from cells involved in the development of the tissue copy. Fifth, the ink gets dispensed from the bioprinter layer-by-layer building the tissue in 3-D.
Although the process outlined above appears simple, bioprinting still requires more investigative studies to truly evaluate its advantages and disadvantages. However, it is quite exciting to know that the technique is finding a significant role in to the Biodefense realm.
(Image Credit. Image Caption: The scaffolding for two replacement ears printed is shown above. Prior to bioprinting replacement ears were developed from rib cartilage.)
Tagged 3-D printer, Alena James, bioprinting, dtra, human tissue, technologyLeave a comment
Deborah Harden Receives GMU Biodefense Departmental Award
May 20, 2014 by juliadhomstad, posted in Program News
Just a few years ago, Deborah Harden made the decision to continue her education. After earning her undergraduate degree in engineering and serving in the U.S. Air Force as an Aerospace engineer, Harden began working at Battelle, a nonprofit that plays a major role in managing the world’s leading national laboratories. The company offers expertise and resources helping government agencies and multi-national corporations in several projects. In her employment at Battelle, Harden very quickly recognized that an understanding of biodefense would help her acquire financial resources to fund projects for the company. In order to gain this knowledge, she enrolled in GMU’s Biodefense Program. “When I began working at Battelle, I needed to understand biodefense so I could better articulate what our scientists were researching so I could find funding for them,” Harden said.
This year Harden completed her Master’s Project on a very interesting topic examining what happens to bioengagagment programs once donor funds stop being made available. “I studied sustainability of U.S. bioengagement programs. After the fall of the Soviet Union, several agencies in the U.S. worked with the newly independent states to secure pathogen collections, institute disease surveillance systems, and work with former weapons scientists to learn to conduct peaceful research programs. Money from donor countries like the U.S. won’t continue forever, so what happens to these biologists and programs after the donors leave? I found some great literature about sustainment and found that we’re mostly on the right track, but more can be done,” explained Harden. Dr. Gregory Koblentz served as Harden’s advisor and provided her with numerous resources and feedback to help her with the project.
Harden’s project coincided nicely with her current profession. As a program manager for Battelle, she developed and worked on bioengagment programs in Iraq and Afghanistan. “My job is to determine the state of biological research, safety, and security in these countries, and find ways to improve them so they meet WHO and international standards. I also lead some tasks in the Republic of Georgia trying to make their BSL-3 public health laboratory sustainable,” she explained.
Not only has Deborah completed her project and continues to evaluate programs overseas, but she was also selected as this year’s Departmental Award Recipient of the Master’s Program for her work and scholarly achievements.
Harden’s experience in the Biodefense program has been pretty great for her. She explains that she learned just as much from her smart fellow-students as she did from the courses she was taking. “It was an eye-opener for me because I expected to go to GMU to learn and found that contributing was just as important. That wasn’t my experience as an undergrad.” The retired Aerospace Engineer enjoyed taking several classes in the program that helped her to gain a better understanding of her own field in bioengagment. She also really enjoyed her classes on policy and treaties, arms control, disease surveillance, and the Examining Terrorist Groups course.
With her Master’s Project now behind her, Harden is already contemplating how to spend her time. “I’m thinking of re-learning French or maybe beginning Russian. Or I might reapply for a PhD in Biodefense. There is a lot more I could do with the research I began.”
“People always ask me if it’s frightening studying something like bioterrorism. I tell them that the most comforting thing I learned was how hard it is to actually make a bioweapon that is capable of killing a large number of people. And that Mother Nature is probably the scariest bioterrorist.”
Harden also had a few words of advice for the future graduates and prospective students of GMU’s Biodefense Program.
“Keep an open mind about things you read. Academia and the ‘real world’ are often two different animals. Also, please read at least half of what you are supposed to read before a class!”
(Banner Image Credit: George Mason University)
Tagged Alena James, Biodefense Program, Class of 2014, Deborah Harden, George Mason University, GMU, Masters in Biodefense1 Comment
Game of Goons: Boko Haram & the War on Educated Girls
May 13, 2014 May 13, 2014 by juliadhomstad, posted in News
It has been nearly a month since the terrorist organization known as Boko Haram raided a secondary school located in Chibok—a Local Government Area located in Borno State, Nigeria. During the raid, the terrorist group abducted more than 200 girls and loaded them onto trucks. Many of the girls were tricked into believing the terrorists were soldiers. Some of the girls believed the men to be evil and managed to escape the village by jumping from the trucks to get away. The brave girls who escaped shared their horrific stories with loved ones and authorities who were startled by the event that had transpired.
The majority of the girls involved in the abduction campaign remain missing and social movements are taking place to spread awareness and rally support in efforts to find them. Malala Yousafzai, the young Pakistani girl who was targeted for assassination by the Taliban, spoke out against the abductions referring to the abductees as “her sisters” and condemned Boko Haram for their lack of understanding of Islam saying, “They should go and they should learn Islam, and I think that they should think of these girls as their own sisters. How can one imprison their own sisters and treat them in such a bad way?” Malala has helped to perpetuate the #BringBackOurGirls campaign to speak up for her sisters.
In an unsettling video message acquired by Nigerian authorities, the terrorist group’s leader, Abubaka Shekau, announced he intends to sell the 15-18 year old girls into the human trafficking market coercing the girls into marriages, forcing them into slavery, and having them sexually exploited. The extremist leader declared, “I abducted a girl at a Western education school and you are disturbed. I said Western education should end. Western education should end. Girls, you should go and get married.”
Several countries have offered their support in the search for the missing girls. France, the United Kingdom, China, and the United States have deployed teams to aid in rescue efforts. Reports have suggested that the girls have been divided into groups and likely carried across Nigeria’s borders into the countries of Chad and Cameroon.
Boko Haram is an Islamic Extremist Group that was founded in 2002. Since then, the terrorist organization has fought against the Nigerian government which they view as advocates for the influence of Western Culture. The U.S. declared Boko Haram a terrorist organization in 2013 based on their suicide attack on a UN building in Abuja, the Nigerian capital, in 2011.
Following is a Terrorist Group profile on the organization.
The group firmly adheres to Islam and believes that western influence does not belong in Nigeria. The organization fights against Western societies and deems Western education as sinful. The group desires to make Nigeria an Islamist State and seeks to impose Sharia Law on the country. They also target “false Muslims.”
Leadership Style
The organization was first led by Mohammed Yusuf, a western educated Nigerian who considered Western Education to corrupt one’s belief in one God. Analysts have described Yusuf as being both very wealthy and highly educated. Yusuf was killed trying to escape Nigerian police in 2009. After Yusuf’s death, he was succeed by Abubakr Sheku. Sheku has been described as a quiet theologian possessing an eidetic memory. He is fluent in the languages of Kanuri, Hausa, Arabic, and English. Reports indicate that Sheku lacks charisma and oratorical skills, but his ruthless actions makes him incredibly dangerous. The US placed a $7 million bounty on Sheku. The leader continually releases recorded video messages taking credit for its terrorist operations in Nigeria.
Several reports have announced classified members of the Boko Haram as being individuals stemming from low social economic statuses. The group attracts individuals in need of wealth and is believed to be comprised of men from other countries such as Chad, Somalia, and Sudan.
Monetary Sources
It is unclear from where Boko Haram receives the monetary resources to fund its operations, but reports suggest the group relies on contributions from its members and possibly other Islamic militant groups.
Logistical & Tactical Resources
The group is suspected of having ties to Al Qaeda and to have received training in terrorist tactics such as carrying out explosion operations. The US reported in its 2011 National Strategy for Counterterrorism (page 16) that Boko Haram had ties to Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM). However, even Al Qaeda has expressed its opposition to the school girls’ abductions.
According to START’s Global Terrorism Database, the group has targeted numerous establishments over the years. Businesses, educational institutions, government facilities, military facilities, police stations, bus stations, private citizens, religious figures, and telecommunication establishments, among others. The group has targeted 52 educational facilities and 79 government buildings.
Also, according to data collected from START’s Global Terrorism Database, the group relies heavily on explosives, firearms, and incendiary devices to carry out its operations. Armed assaults comprise the majority of the organization’s attacks. The database indicates that more than 320 armed assaults and 205 bombing/explosion attacks have been carried out by Boko Haram.
Much of the information collected in the profile above was obtained and summarized from circulating news sources, a report provided by the Anti-Defamation League published in 2012, an exposition provided by The Council on Foreign Relations, and the National Consortium for the Study of Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism’s Global Terrorism Database. Additional sources contributing information can be found via the links provided.
(Image Credit: NBC)
Tagged #BringOurGirlsBack, Alena James, Boko Haram, Nigeria, terrorismLeave a comment
C. botulinium’s Deadliest Toxin: To Share or Not To Share?
April 29, 2014 April 28, 2014 by juliadhomstad, posted in News
Two years ago, Dr. Stephen Arnon and Dr. Jason Barash discovered a new strain of Clostridium botulinum. Typical C. botulinum strains are known to express any of the seven different botulinum neuron toxins, Botulinum Toxin Types A-G. The new strain discovered by Arnon and Barash, after studying infant botulism at the California Department of Public Health in Sacramento, was found to express neurological toxins, Botulinium Toxin Type B and a new Botulinum Toxin Type H. Dr. Arnon and Dr. Barash published their findings of the new toxin in the Journal of Infectious Diseases in 2013, but elected to withhold from the public and the rest of the scientific community any genetic sequencing information regarding the new strain. The withholding of this information has remained a point of contention between the researchers and individuals representing various organizations wishing to study the bacteria.
After publishing a story on the case last Monday, NPR revealed that Dr. Arnon had not been engaging in scientific information sharing practices regarding the new toxin with other professionals also studying botulinum toxins. According to NPR’s coverage, Dr. Arnon remained reluctant to disseminate information on the newly discovered neurotoxin, Type H, with other scientists or with federal officials. In an article published by New Scientist, the editors of the Journal of Infectious Diseases announced that Arnon and Barash held consultations with several representatives from different federal agencies before deciding against publishing genetic sequencing information on the new stain in their scientific article.
From NPR’s coverage of this case, federal officials claim they were not responsible for the researcher’s decision to not make the genetic sequences available and never said not to publish the information. Given the lack of an antitoxin antidote available to stop the dangerous effects of the Type H toxin, many individuals desire to perform research on the strain of C. botulinum that can produce the Type H toxin. Several scientists and federal institutions have tried to request the sequences and/or live strains of Arnon’s new strain of C. botulinum. However, Arnon remains steadfast in not sharing the bacteria.
The case raises an unresolved issue that persists in the sciences. That issue is defining the parameter by which we are able to distinguish dual use research. Dual use research in the biological sciences is research that can be performed to benefit humans, but can also be performed to harm humans. In this particular case, the Type H Toxin has been declared the most deadly toxin and has great potential to be deployed as a biological weapon. The absence of an available antitoxin that can be administered to infected patients raises great cause for concern that the bacteria producing the toxin could be mass-produced to harm innocent people. From NPR’s story, it seems that this sentiment is shared with Type H’s discover Arnon.
Upon Arnon’s discovery of Type H, the CDC, US Army Laboratories, and DHS all expressed interest in acquiring the strain that produces this new neurotoxin. These federal institutions’ interest in studying the toxin in order to develop a cure is the same goal as numerous other scientists who want to perform research on the strain. So how does one build biodefense against a pathogen one cannot gain access? Maybe from Dr. Arnon’s perspective, keeping Pandora’s Box closed maybe the best weapon of defense for the US against the botulinum Type H neurotoxin.
You can listen to NPR’s initial report of this story here.
Tagged Alena James, Botulinum, botulinum toxin, C. bot Type H, C. botulinum, clostridium botulinum, dual-use, gain-of-function, Jason Barash, Stephen ArnonLeave a comment
US Drones: Strategic Freedom Fighters or Human Rights Violators?
April 24, 2014 by juliadhomstad, posted in News
By Alena M James
Last Wednesday, news sources unveiled an alarming video released by al Qaeda highlighting the largest meeting of the terrorist organization in years. Arriving in white Toyota pickup trucks, nearly 100 members appeared to congregate in a remote location somewhere in Yemen. The group was joined by the head of al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), Nasir al-Wuhayshi. According to news reports, Wuhayshi gave a speech which echoed the usual ‘down with America’ sentiments. The video spurred terrorism analysts to deconstruct the film and analyze every frame for possible clues to pinpoint a future terrorist attack.
From a cinematic view, the video, entitled “The Beginning of the Rain,” is well constructed, filmed, and edited. The opening credits date the video to March 2014. Even if one does not understand the dialect of the film, the film demonstrates al Qaeda’s sophisticated broadcasting capabilities. The powerful cinematic nature of the film appears to promote the idea of a large scale terrorist attack taking place within the near future. At the release of the video, many media sources were quick to criticize the US for its inability to disrupt the largest al Qaeda meeting to occur in years. Several sources speculated that the US intelligence was unaware of the meeting and caught off guard when the video surfaced on jihadi websites. The US has not provided any statements on the matter. However, it clearly took action to prevent any chance of a grand scale terrorist attack from taking place, and it did so using one of the most controversial technologies of war to date…drones.
Over the weekend, and within days of the release of the AQAP video, nearly 55 al Qaeda militants were killed by drones in Yemen. Through collaborative counterterrorism efforts with the Yemeni government, the US helped launch drone airstrikes against al Qaeda convoys and on al Qaeda training camps in Yemen. While White House Press Secretary Jay Carney recognized the US’s involvement in counterterrorism initiatives against AQAP, the role of the US in the drone attacks was not made publicly clear by government officials. It has also not been made public yet if the airstrikes were in response to the AQAP video released last week.
Drones are unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) that have been integrated into military operations as instruments for surveillance and, more specifically, for killing targeted terrorists since 2004. A drone is comprised of cameras and weaponry—just like any manned reconnaissance aircraft. The primary difference between the two aerial vehicles is the absence of a pilot flying the plane from inside the cockpit. Once a terrorist suspect has been detected by the drone, cameras affixed to it will display images to a UAV analyst. It is the job of the UAV analyst to make the call as to whether or not the drone will deploy a hellfire missile to destroy the suspected target. This process of selecting targets has been the subject of major scrutiny of the US drone program, because it begs the question, “How are you sure it wasn’t a civilian?”
In his May 2013 speech on drone policy, President Obama announced that drones are important tools in the US’ counterterrorism strategy in the war against al Qaeda, the Taliban, and their affiliates. The use of drones in the war against these terrorist organizations has helped the US target militants residing in remote locations of Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Yemen. According to Obama, drones are much more precise in hitting targets and minimizing civilian casualties than traditional aerial airstrikes carried out by bomber aircrafts. The drone technologies have eliminated dozens of highly trained terrorists, as observed by the number of militants killed in Yemen over the weekend.
The US is not the only country to utilize drone technologies. There are 11 other countries known to deploy or share a vested interest in launching drones for military operations. However, the US has carried the torch in their use of drones to thwart terrorist operations and the use of these technologies by the US remains under heavy criticism. President Obama argues that the use of drones to target terrorists has legal basis considering the aftermath of 9/11. The legal basis is also laid out on the grounds that the US remains at war with an organization dedicated to killing Americans.
Groups such as Amnesty International have a different opinion on the US’ use of drones. The group argues that the US drone program appears to allow extrajudicial executions and violates human rights. The organization accuses the US of conducting unlawful killings in Pakistan and conducted a study entitled, “Will I be next?” US drone strikes in Pakistan.” The study raises the notion that the covert nature of the program provides the US with a license to kill without due process of law. The study highlights stories of civilians accidently killed by drones. For Amnesty International, civilians killed for being in the wrong place at the wrong time is unacceptable. Also unacceptable is the government’s inability to provide US citizens with justifications for killing targets. In 2011 a US citizen, Anwar al-Awlaki, was killed in a drone strike in Yemen. Al-Awlaki was a cleric thought to have participated in several terrorist attacks after joining Qaeda’s Yemen affiliate group. This week a federal appeals court ordered the US to provide the memorandum containing the justification for Al-Awalki as being a target kill.
Alongside accidental civilian casualties and the lack of knowledge on justifications of the drone program target selections, peace talks with terrorist organizations have also been impacted by the use of these technologies in a combative nature. As the Pakistani government undertakes great efforts to negotiate peace talks with the Pakistani Taliban, these talks have been stymied by US drone activities. Back in November, a US drone strike on a Pakistani Taliban leader took place days before peace talks. This placed a halt on peace negotiations with the organization. As a result, Pakistan requested the US stop the use of drone strikes against Al-Qaeda and the Taliban; which the Obama Administration agreed to do to allow the peace talks to unfold. At the conclusion of peace talks in February 2014, the Taliban agreed to a one month cease fire. The use of drones in Pakistani has also increased tensions between the US and Pakistani governments.
The US has an arsenal of drones it relies on to collect sensitive information on terrorists and to conduct combat missions against individuals that threaten Americans. Among their arsenal is the General Atomics produced MQ-9 Predator B developed in 2004. According to the manufacturer, the UAV (also known as the MQ-9 Reaper) provides the US Air Force with a weapons platform with instant action and precise engagement capabilities. The Reaper is armed with anti-tank Hellfire missiles and Joint Direct Attack Munition (JDAM) bombs. It performs real-time reconnaissance by providing visual imagery using IR sensor cameras, intensified TV, and daylight TV. Laser designators are used to mark targets and a joystick control is used to maneuver the aircraft. The remote control operator airmen flies and steadies the drone from an undisclosed location far from the site of the attack. General Atomics has plans to supersede the Reaper with a larger jet powered aircraft called the Stealthy Avenger.
The predecessor of both the Reaper and the soon to come Stealthy Avenger was the RQ/MQ-1Predator A; whose first flight took place in July 1994. Predator A flew operations in Albania as a replacement aircraft to General Atomics GNAT-750, a surveillance aircraft that performed reconnaissance missions over Albania in 1994. Predator A was used to fly missions over Iraq in 1999 during Operation Southern Watch. Hellfire missiles were added to the aircraft in 2001 and have deployed these missiles in Iraq, Yemen, Afghanistan, and Pakistan.
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Microbes: The 21st Century Astronauts
The Third Commercial Resupply (CRS-3) mission was scheduled for launch on Monday, April 14, 2014. Taking off from the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida, the CRS-3 mission was to head to the International Space Station (ISS) at 4:58pm. However due to a helium leak on the launch vehicle, the launch has been postponed for Friday, April 18 at 3:25 p.m.
If the repairs are made by Friday, the space pioneering company, Space X will be given the opportunity to test its Falcon 9 rocket and its unmanned Dragon cargo capsule in transporting materials and supplies to the ISS. The Falcon 9 rocket is not the only equipment requiring repairs. A critical computer onboard the ISS also failed to activate last Friday. Although NASA confirms that the ISS Crew was not any danger with the broken computer, a spacewalk to repair the system has been scheduled for April 22, 2014.
The mission cancelled on Monday will transport materials astronauts can use to repair the computer system, as well as 5,000 pounds of additional supplies. Among these supplies are materials used by astronauts to execute more than 150 scientific investigations. Such investigations include laser optics tests to explore information exchange from space to Earth and National Institutes of Health funded immune system research projects.
Also onboard the unmanned mission will be more than 48 different types of bacterial strands sponsored by Project MERCCURI, which stands for Microbial Ecology Research Combining Citizen and University Researchers on the International Space Station. Under the project, microbial samples were collected from stadiums, monuments, museums, retired space crafts, and other public sources throughout the United States. The purpose of sending the different types of microbes into space is to determine how the bacteria will grow in the absence of gravity. In addition to determining the effects of the absence of gravity on microbial growth, Astronauts on board the ISS will collect their own bacterial samples residing on fomites board the station. This study will help to establish the microbial flora of the ISS by identifying the different types of bacteria present.
The study of microbes at zero gravity conditions is nothing new. The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) has conducted previous studies primarily investigating the virulent nature of pathogenic organisms in space. A study carried out in 2006 revealed Salmonellato express a higher degree of virulence when grown in a zero gravity environment. According to the study 167 genes and 73 proteins were found to have been altered in structure—the likely cause for the higher degree of virulency. Salmonella strains grown in space were brought back to Earth and their effects tested on mice. The studies showed that mice from the experimental groups were subject to illness at a faster rate than the control groups. NASA has also completed studies evaluating the effects of antigravity conditions on the human immune system. Their investigations show that the absence of gravity has an adverse effect on the human body and weakens the immune system. In essence, pathogens become stronger in the absence of gravity; while the human immune system becomes weaker. This finding may have grave implications for individuals hoping to travel to space or to be a part of the MarsOne human settlement scheduled for 2024.
Contrary to NASA’s pathogenicity studies, Project MERCCURI’s research focuses on non-pathogenic bacteria and examination of their microbial growth properties. Findings of the study are likely to provide greater insight into the ubiquitous nature of bacteria and make actors in space exploration more cognizant about the bacterial environment around them.
If repairs to the Falcon 9 rocket are successful and the launch continues as planned for Friday, the Dragon space craft is expected to dock at the station for four weeks. After four weeks it will return to Earth bringing with it supplies and experiments performed on the ISS.
MERCCURI is a project made possible by the collaborative efforts of microBEnet/UC Davis with the Science Cheerleaders, Space Florida, Nanoracks, JPL-NASA, and SciStarter.com.
Tagged Alena James, bacteria, International Space Station, ISS, microbes, NASA, research, salmonella, spaceLeave a comment
Increasing Refugees, Increased Risk of Communicable Diseases
April 8, 2014 by juliadhomstad, posted in News
Since the start of the Syrian crisis three years ago, refugees have fled to camps in Jordan, Iraq, Turkey, Egypt, and Lebanon. Last week the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) reported the number of refugees from Syria to Lebanon has passed one million. According to the report, this influx has stretched Lebanon’s social and economic infrastructure thin in public services such as electricity, water, sanitation services, education, and the public health sector. Tourism, trade, and investment within the country has also decreased significantly. The increase in the population has led to decreased wages among competing workers. Lebanese residents find themselves struggling financially; while the refugees find themselves struggling to build better lives.
The competition for depleting resources is not the only concern facing both residents and refugees. A high influx of refugees into any state can lay the ground for increases risk of communicable diseases or outbreaks of emerging infectious diseases. With small Lebanese communities overwhelmed by the drastic increase in the population, public health services struggle to provide adequate health care, antibiotic treatments, immunizations, and other medical aid to those in need. Not only are critical public health services overextended, but the high volume of individuals seeking services creates the ideal transmission grounds for microbial organisms and viral agents.
In overcrowded populations with limited health resources, the risk of spreading diseases is incredibly high and transmission can occur in a variety of mediums. Direct or indirect contact, the release of respiratory droplets, ingestion of contaminated food and water sources, contact with mechanical or biological vectors are all various modes by which pathogenic agents spread from person to person.
Direct contact occurs from direct exposure to the pathogenic source, for example, when a patient is bit by a rabid dog and develops rabies. Indirect contact occurs via exposure to septic fomites, for example, when an unsterilized syringe is used to dispense a treatment or drug intravenously into a patient. Respiratory droplets allow illnesses like the common cold, influenza, and measles to spread at a rapid pace through sneezing or coughing on and around others. Ingestion of contaminated water and foods lead to major gastrointestinal complications and other illnesses. Mechanical vectors, like insect bodies, indirectly spread diseases. For example, flies feeding on fecal material can pick up and spread pathogens, via their feet, after landing on a patient’s untreated injury or open wound. Biological vectors like mosquitos transmit viral, bacterial, and other parasitic organisms to patients. The chances of these transmission modes being employed by pathogens remain high among densely packed populations lacking in substantial health care resources.
According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control, there are several diseases that migrants to Lebanon are susceptible to if the proper vaccinations are not sought. Such diseases include Hepatitis A and B, Typhoid, Polio, and Rabies. Refugees from Syria also pose a dangerous risk of transmitting communicable diseases if they have not received proper immunizations before fleeing from their country. Malnourished refugees deprived of food and clean water are at risk of developing weakened immune systems which makes them even more susceptible to virulent pathogens.
Despite the three-year Syrian conflict, many humanitarian workers continue to immunize children against preventable diseases. UNICEF in particular is actively working towards the vaccination of more than 20 million children against Poliomyelitis. Last October, the WHO confirmed at least 10 cases of children infected with Polio in Syria. This past weekend UNICEF re-launched its campaign to help control the spread of this virus among other states impacted by Syrian refugees. Iraq, Turkey, Jordan also pledged to join the campaign due to the threat of incidences of the virus occurring in their countries. So far Iraq has reported one case of the disease while the UN has reported 27 cases among Lebanese children.
Approximately 500,000 Syrian refugees to Lebanon have been children–who are at the greatest risk of acquiring polio if no vaccination has been administered. The war in Syria and the displacement of refugees has made it difficult for medical personal to provide vaccinations needed to control the spread of this and other communicable diseases. The continued fighting in Syria is likely to lead to more bloodshed, the displacement of more refugees, the depletion of public service resources in several states, and the spread of more communicable diseases if efforts to resolve the conflict are not soon reached.
Image Credit: AP Photo/Bilal Hussein
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Bubonic Plague: An Airborne Toxic Event
April 1, 2014 April 2, 2014 by juliadhomstad, posted in News
Yersinia pestisis a gram negative, bacillus shaped bacteria that prefers to reside in an environment lacking oxygen (anaerobic). It is typically an organism that uses the process of fermentation to break down complex organic molecules to metabolize. However, the organism is commonly referred to as being a facultative anaerobe, because it can live in the presence of oxygen and undergo respiration to generate energy for its cell. Its facultative capability is one reasons the organism can induce infection in highly oxygenated lung tissue.
This organism, primarily a zoonotic pathogen, has been held responsible for causing the bubonic form of plague responsible for the Black Death, the 14th century event that lead to the death of millions of Europeans. For years, the cause of the Black Death Plague pandemic has been linked to fleas. In much of Europe at this time, unsanitary living conditions provided the perfect breeding grounds for flea infested rats to flourish; while the fleas served as the perfect arthropod vector for Y. pestis to flourish.
The route of transmission of Y.pestis, from fleas to humans, was thought to occur via the urban cycle—when an urban rat becomes infected with fleas from a wild animal. Crowding in cities, poor hygiene, and unsanitary living conditions attracts large rat populations to the area. When a flea carrying Y.pestis bites a rat, the rat becomes sick and dies. No longer able to parasitize the rat, the flea moves from the rat to a new host. In crowded cities, the fleas from the dead rat will jump to humans to feed. When the flea bites the human it releases Y. pestis into the human’s cardiovascular system. Once in the cardiovascular system, the bacterial organism makes its way to the lymph nodes. There it replicates and spreads throughout the body causing septicemia. As Y. pestis proliferates within the lymph nodes it also forms hemorrhagic necrosis throughout the body. Painful swelling arises and the definitive painful symptom, the bubo,appears. After infection, a patient develops a high fever and the organism can target specific organs of the body like the lungs, liver, and spleen. Without treatment, a patient has a 75% mortality rate.
Last week, British scientists performed comparative DNA analysis on bacterial samples collected from 25 excavated skeletons found in the Clerkenwell area of London. These remains dating back to the 14th century contained samples of Yersinia pestis, the bacteria responsible for the Black Death. In an attempt to evaluate the virulent nature of the pathogen, the Y. pestis DNA collected from these remains were compared to DNA from the Y. pestis responsible for the deaths of more than 30 people in Madagascar back in December 2013. Researchers concluded that the DNA of both organisms revealed a high percentage of similarity and that the pathogenic nature of the 14th century Y. pestis is no more powerful than the Y.pestsis responsible for the Madagascar killings.
After considering this information and examining the plausible death of the skeletons, scientists believe that the fast-acting killing capabilities of Y.pestis are only likely to take place through airborne transmission. This conclusion undermines the urban cycle transmission method and suggests that the Black Death was mostly caused by pneumonic plague and not bubonic. British scientists are determined to examine more modern cases to confirm this new hypothesis. If confirmed, we may see pneumonic plague identified as the causative agent for the 14th century plague pandemic thus altering our historical account of the Black Death.
For British scientists, the transmission of Y. pestsis through respiratory droplets is a much more likely scenario for achieving rapid kills versus the urban cycle transmission method. Bubonic plague is not infectious and there is no human to human transmission from the buboes that form. However, pneumonic plague can be caused by bubonic plague if the Y. pestis pathogen makes its way via the lymph nodes to the lungs inducing infection. While in the lungs, the organisms are caught in respiratory droplets and are then disseminated into the air when an infected person sneezes or coughs. This quickly makes the host very infectious and a threat to those not yet infected. The mortality rate for patients suffering from pneumonic plaque without treatment is 100%.
Image Credit: crossrail.co.uk
Tagged Alena James, black death, London, pandemic, plague, Y.pestis1 Comment
Destroying Chemical Weapons: A Highly Political and Technological Process
March 25, 2014 by juliadhomstad, posted in News
With tensions escalating between the western powers and Russia, the crisis in Ukraine has absorbed much of the international community’s attention these past few weeks. In doing so, the civil war in Syria and its efforts in cleaning up its chemical weapon’s arsenal have been placed on the backburner. In a report titled, Russia-U.S. Tensions Could Stall Syrian Chemical Weapons Removal, NPR discussed the significance of the joint efforts of the US and Russia to get Bashar Al-Assad on board with committing to the Chemical Weapons Convention and destroying Syria’s chemical weapons stock piles. Now that the diplomatic relations between the western powers and Russia have soured, many worry about a delay in Syria’s commitment to eradicating its chemical weapons. The possibility of such an event taking place highlights the importance of the political aspect involved in ensuring chemical weapons cleanup.
Recently, the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons announced that approximately half of the Syrian chemical weapons stock piles have been removed in the past few months—an accomplishment that has taken the US decades to move towards. The OPCW also announced that it intends to destroy all of Syria’s chemical weapons by June 30, 2014. Such a goal appears incredibly ambitious and critics remain skeptical of this goal being achieved in the allotted amount of time due to the stressful international relations surrounding Syria and Russia.
Over the weekend, Turkey shot down a Syrian fighter jet after accusing Syria of violating its airspace, an act which is likely to further increase heightened tensions in the region and distract from the weapons cleanup process. Prior to the Ukrainian Crisis and Russia’s annexation of Crimea, the US and Russia had played significant roles in the physical removal of the chemical weapons from the civil war torn state. Russia provided security measures and the US provided transportation and decontamination equipment to help destroy the stockpiles. The cleanup process was already a little behind schedule before relations between Russia and the US spiraled downward. Now with sanctions from the US and Europe against Russia, many fear that Russia will no longer provide the political support needed to influence Syria to continue removing the remaining stock of chemical weapons.
Presently, the western powers have already criticized Syria for its inability to meet earlier deadlines of chemical weapons removal. While the delay can be linked with the current toxic political climate, lessons learned from the US’ chemical cleanup efforts suggest that years and even decades are necessary to safely cleanse a state of its chemical weapons arsenal leaving other factors to be considered as to why the cleanup process may not reach the June 30th deadline.
In a recently published article, “Deadly chemical weapons, buried and lost, lurk under U.S. soil,” The Los Angeles Timesreports on the US’ failure to destroy its own chemical weapons stockpiles dating back to World War II and acknowledges the existence of hundreds of chemical weapons still needing to be processed. According to the report, the US has more than 200 burial sites which include chemical agents such as mustard agents, blister agents, and nerve agents, like tabun produced by Nazi Germany.
Following the end of WWII, the US became the Goodwill Collection Center for the German, Japanese, and British chemical weapons stockpiles. While some of the stockpiles were burned, the majority of the weapons were buried at the different sites around the country. Sites located in Alabama and in Washington, DC received hundreds of chemical agents that were to be disposed of without any consideration of the possible environmental impact. Disposal methods also failed to consider the necessity of maintaining complete inventories of site locations, types of agents buried, or the amount of materials buried. In essence, the US does not know where all of the sites are until a civilian reports the presence of an odd looking canister of weapons ammunitions floating up on shore or sticking out of a garden in someone’s backyard in Northwest Washington. The lack of foresight regarding the destruction of chemical weapons at the end of WWII, has left future generations to deal with these issues; which presents a major challenge for cleanup efforts.
Director of Green Cross International’s Environmental Security and Sustainability program, Paul Walker, acknowledges several other challenges involved in the chemical weapons cleanup process. According to Walker, the technology selected to destroy chemical stockpiles must be politically acceptable by the community where the stockpile is being destroyed. The disposal technologies and strategies employed must ensure minimal impact on public and environmental health. The communities must be a part of the dialogue when planning for the development of decontamination facilities. Alternative methods to incineration must be sought. State investments in poor communities where multibillion dollar chemical cleanup operations are taking place need to continue, and open dialogue to build consensus, address issues, and obtain proper environmental permits also needs to take place.
Dr. Duane Linder, Director of Sandia National Laboratories, also acknowledges the importance of seeking new decontamination strategies due to environmental impacts. The primary methods of chemical disposal used to be “burn it, bury it, or dump it.” Now the approaches used to disengage these weapons and the materials used to fabricate the weapons focus on the use of a process called hydrolysis, a method where hot water is added to alter the molecular arrangement of the agent. While this process helps to neutralize the agent, hazmat chemical waste is still generated but is not as toxic as the original agent. The Field Deployable Hydrolysis System, is a US built chemical destruction system that operates using the hydrolysis process. The unit has been an incredible instrument involved in destroying Syria’s chemical weapons.
Although still facing numerous challenges, Syria seems to possess the technologies needed to reach OPCW’s June 30th cleanup deadline. However, only time will tell if the international political dichotomy between the West and Russia will impede the process.
Image Credit: Todd Lopez, defenseimagery.mil
Tagged Alena James, chemical weapons, Russia, Syria, U.S.Leave a comment
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Find a club or activity
Meet Lily Rice
The wheelchair motocross star who became a global sensation, tells her Parasport story
Wheelchair motocross (WCMX) hasn’t just provided me a sport to enjoy – it’s changed my entire life around.
When I was first in it, I didn’t want to be seen in my wheelchair. I didn’t want to leave the house much and I treated my disability as a negative.
But there was a moment where it just clicked for me, and I realised I could have fun in my wheelchair and still be the person I was before.
I was scrolling through YouTube and a video of Aaron Fotheringham, the creator of WCMX popped up, and from the moment I watched it I was hooked. One year later and I was doing backflips!
After writing a letter to Aaron I went and watched a show that was close by and then it became a lot more real. Aaron came to see me, we spoke a lot about the sport and from there I was practising as much as I could.
I got my first proper chair just before my 13th birthday – but it took a month for it to stop raining and for me to be able to go out there and get on the skatepark. When it came, I fell, quite hard, but that didn’t stop me from wanting to go out there and ride.
I went to new parks, practiced, got better, then went to a bigger one on Haverfordwest, which we were fortunate was only 20 minutes away.
I started going early in the mornings because it was quieter, but I found myself making more and more friends along the way.
I was worried to start with about how people would be but people were so supportive and helped me progress so much.
These people, who I met for the first time at the skatepark, are now some really close friends. At Haverfordwest, a wheelchair isn’t seen as anything different to a bike, scooter of skateboard.
That’s the power of sport, and an amazing goal I want for all skateparks.
People started off being shocked I was there but it didn’t take long for them to be really accepting, and it’s all just seen as normal. Do a trick in a wheelchair and everyone just has so much respect!
The sport is getting a lot more known in the community, which is fantastic, but there is still a stigma attached in some places and that’s what we want to get rid of. Not just the ones surrounding people in wheelchairs at skateparks, but people everywhere who have disabilities.
I’m also a world champion in the sport which is really cool. I’ve not been doing it for very long but it’s nice to see how much improvement can be made with practice.
There are still tricks I want to learn and I don’t feel that I’ve mastered the sport even though I’m the world champion.
To do that I feel you have to be better than the person who invented WCMX – but I don’t think that’s going to happen for a while.
But the moments it’s given me so far have been amazing. When I was 13, I became the first European girl to complete a backflip in a wheelchair – and that video got two million views overnight!
Most importantly for me is having a lot of fun in the sport. I love watching it, BMX, skating, I see tricks these guys do and I just want to do them.
Not the way they do it, perhaps, but I always want to try and attempt to adapt it in a wheelchair.
So there’s always a lot to do – I want to learn new tricks, reclaim my world champion title and just see what I’m capable of in WCMX.
But most importantly it’s about inspiring people and teaching more people how to ride, giving them the belief that they can do sports like this, and being in a wheelchair doesn’t stop that from happening.
Just because we’re in a wheelchair or have a disability doesn’t mean we’re disabled – we’re just as able as everyone else, we just have to do it differently sometimes.
I enjoy proving people wrong – and I have a hashtag and mantra to help me do that. #PuttingTheAbilityInDisability and “you can do anything you want to, you just have to put your mind to it” both mean a lot to me, and being part of the WCMX has done a lot to help me achieve that over the years.
It’s important to me that everywhere becomes accessible – and the way people can perceive disabilities can be a lot better than it is now.
But if everyone pulls together, there’s no reason that that can’t happen. And I’d be very proud if it does.
Find a local club, activity or event
Parasport, 101 New Cavendish Street, London, W1W 6XH
info@parasport.org.uk
© British Paralympic Association. BPPS Ltd Company No. 04577740.
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Thailand: Ex-Premier Yingluck Shinawatra follows her Brother into Self-Exile
Posted on August 27, 2017 by partyforumseasia
Partyforumseasia: Yingluck Shinawatra, the 28th Prime Minister of Thailand since August 2011, was ousted in May 2014 by the Constitutional Court. She was accused of abuse of power for replacing the national security chief by a supporter of her Puea Thai party back in 2011. In the same month of May 2014, not exactly by coincidence, the Thai military intervened and replaced the democratically elected Puea Thai government by a junta under retired general and now Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha. Unlike her brother, Thaksin Shinawatra, who was Thailand’s 23d prime minister from 2001, and ousted in 2006, Yingluck continued to stay in the country. The first female prime minister of the country and probably the most beautiful and photogenic one of our times, still commands a huge popularity and political support, especially among the main electoral target group of her party, the poor farming communities in the North and Northeast. The Puea Thai Party is a re-incarnation of her brother Thaksin’s creation, the Thai Rak Thai Party which was dissolved in 2007 after the 2006 military coup, and of the People’s Power Party, dissolved in 2008, which had replaced the Thai Rak Thai Party.
Accused of negligence in handling her government’s multi-billion dollar rice buying scheme, introduced already by her brother, Yingluck could have been jailed for up to 10 years. The program was extremely popular with poor rice farmers, but buying the paddy well above the market rates turned out to be very costly for the government.
In a separate but related case, the court sentenced the former commerce minister Boonsong Teriyapirom to 42 years in jail for faking a government-to-government sale deal involving rice from the 18 million ton state stockpiles.
Though under close supervision by the security forces, Mrs. Yingluck managed to leave the country on Wednesday, 23d or Thursday, 24th of August. Her absence may be an advantage for the military government which does not have to deal with a martyr in prison. Yingluck is supposed to join her brother in his self-exile in Dubai. His and her assets in Thailand are frozen by the junta, but the family clan seems to have enough money abroad to fund and maintain their massive influence on Thailand’s politics.
In a regional perspective, getting rid or disposing of political rivals is often executed with the legendary iron fist but not with a velvet glove, even if the judiciary up to the constitutional court is involved. The most striking example may be the “disposal” of former finance and deputy prime minister Anwar Ibrahim in neighbouring Malaysia. Anwar was convicted of sodomy already under prime minister Mahathir in 1998, and again with the same accusation under prime minister Najib Razak in 2008 when his political charisma as opposition leader threatened the ruling coalition. Both convictions left a number of doubts and open questions, but were highly effective in neutralizing the rival.
Posted in Political Parties in Southeast Asia | Tagged anwar ibrahim, Najib Razak, Peple's Power Party, PM Yingluck, Prayuth Chan-ocha, Puea Thai, Thai Politics, Thai Rak Thai, Thaksin Shinawatra, Yingluck Shinawatra | 2 Replies
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Educating Afghan Girls to Become Tomorrow's Leaders
About Paula Loyd
Apply for a Foundation Grant
Volunteer For the Foundation
Paula’s Loyd’s hands were always in motion. Throughout her childhood, they embraced friends and family, they danced on the piano, clasped writing instruments, gripped tennis rackets and later oars on her college rowing team. Those delicate, yet firm hands later changed huge tires, worked on engines, and shifted gears of heavy machinery in the military. On some days, they patted the heads of children she met during her work in Afghanistan. They motioned respectfully to village elders and tribal leaders, shook Generals’ hands and took meticulous field notes. Paula’s hands were eager and resolute, undaunted – as she was herself. One snowy, icy evening, Paula’s hands gripped the wheel of a borrowed truck to drive a laboring woman to the hospital in a remote area of Afghanistan.
On Nov. 6, 2008, Paula was working in an Afghan village, talking to local people, when she was attacked and set on fire by a member of the Taliban. She examined her badly burned hands while en route to a nearby field hospital. “What a shame,” she told medical teams treating her, she was afraid that her hands wouldn’t – on this day – be able to complete an important report.
A native of San Antonio, TX, Paula graduated from Choate Rosemary Hall, Wellesley College and Georgetown School of Foreign Service. A highly regarded anthropologist, Paula honed her talents for collaboration and communication at Wellesley, which equipped her for more global pursuits and leadership. She graduated from Airborne School at Ft. Benning, Ga. In 2002 and was attached to the 82nd Airborne Division.
Paula’s skills and passion for helping others took her to many countries – but her real love was Afghanistan. She worked there for more than five years in a variety of positions, first as a heavy-wheeled vehicle mechanic in the U.S. Army, then as a Field Program Officer for USAID, and later as Civil-Military Officer with the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan. Before working as a social scientist in the Human Terrain System, Paula was a senior post-conflict specialist.
While Paula addressed many needs in Afghanistan, the challenges of women and children stood out as a critical concern. She saw firsthand how the lack of access to education impacted the lives of women and the community.
Paula’s hands penned one final directive before she traveled to Afghanistan for the last time. In a letter, she asked her parents to carry on her work helping Afghan girls if something should happen to her. While she did not survive the November 2008 attack, Paula’s work lives on through the capable hands of her family and friends, and the Paula Loyd Foundation.
Tributes to Paula Loyd:
Paula Loyd continues to be remembered as a leader in her field. Many individuals and organizations have held her up as an example of courage and integrity. In addition to raising important funds for the foundation in her name, many people around the world have honored Paula’s memory with special events, ceremonies, awards and visits. Below are some of the significant tributes and honors:
In one incredible act of assistance, a friend at the U.S. Embassy in Afghanistan organized a marathon to raise funds for the Foundation. As the story goes, while dining, he challenged friends to donate money to the Foundation if he would “go out right then” and run a marathon in Kabul. In the four hours he ran, his dinner partners at the Embassy raised more than $2,700 for the Foundation. An official Embassy marathon, held later in Kabul with more than 300 runners, raised $10,000 for the foundation. That was no easy endeavor – running 26 miles in the confines of the Embassy property in a war zone!!
In 2010, the Wards traveled to Afghanistan to meet many of the people with whom Paula worked at the United Nations, USAID and other groups throughout Afghanistan. The American Ambassador to Afghanistan, Karl Eikenberry, hosted them during their travels. Read about their trip here: https://paulaloydfoundation.org/2010/05/17/127/
As word of the Paula Loyd Foundation spread, groups with which Paula was affiliated during her life stepped forward to honor Paula’s life in their own ways. In 2010, the global humanitarian organization Roots of Peace opened a new school for girls in the Bam Saray area of Afghanistan and named the computer center in honor of Paula. Roots of Peace is dedicated to eradicating landmines and rehabilitating the surrounding land and communities. Read more about the Roots of Peace and Bam Saray school here: http://rootsofpeace.org/blog/planting_the_roots_of_peace
In 2011, the St. Thomas Humane Society named their new kennel building after Paula – honoring Paula’s lifetime love for animals and her dismay over the many stray and abused dogs in Afghanistan. It is a well-known story that Paula beat all odds to bring three Afghan puppies and one abused Afghan fighting hound home to the United States with her before the last trip back to Afghanistan
As affirmation of Paula’s inspiring and enduring mission, Choate Rosemary Hall (Paula’s high school alma mater) selected Paul as recipient of the Choate 2013 Alumni Award. In a testament to Paula’s great legacy, the school’s alumni association voted unanimously that Paula should receive the award. See video and photos from the event here.
Catch up on news from the Paula Loyd Foundation:
Letter from Patty and Terry, January 3, 2017
June 29, 2016 Letter from Patty and Terry and the Paula Loyd Foundation Board of Directors
From Patty and Terry on November 4, 2015, 7th Anniversary of Paula’s Attack
From Patty and Terry October 21, 2015
From Patty and Terry: June 15, 2015
From Patty and Terry: January 7, 2015
From Patty and Terry: June 9, 2014
Paula Loyd Foundation
1521 Sedwick Road
info@paulaloydfoundation.org
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Ability Transcends Challenges
Tobacco Free Webinar
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ASMI Baseball Injury Conference Scholarship
Paul DeMartinis Scholarship
2020 PBATS Internship Application
Athletic Trainer Bios
Steve Baumann
Steve Baumann, 41, enters his 4th season as Head Athletic Trainer, 15th season with the Major League team and 20th season overall with the Cincinnati Reds. He spent the prior 11 seasons as Assistant Athletic Trainer. Baumann joined the Reds organization in 2000 as the Athletic Trainer at Rookie Level Billings. After 3 seasons in Billings, Steve was promoted to AA Chattanooga for the 2003 season and moved on to AAA Louisville for the 2004 season. Following the 2004 season, Steve was an Athletic Trainer in the Arizona Fall League. In 2017, Steve was one of the athletic trainers representing the National League at the All-Star Game in Miami. While pursuing his degree in Health Promotion and Education from the University of Cincinnati, Steve was an intern for the Reds during the 1999 season. He is a member of the NATA and the Ohio Athletic Trainers Association and Greater Cincinnati Athletic Trainers Association. Steve, his wife Rachel, and children Andrew and Natalie reside in Cincinnati year-round.
Asst. Athletic Trainer
Tomas Vera
Tomas Vera, 51, enters in his ninth season with the Cincinnati Reds as Assistant Athletic Trainer, his 28th in professional baseball. He joined the Reds organization in September of 2006 as a Reds Minor League Athletic Trainer (Louisville Bats AAA 2009-10, Sarasota Reds 2007-08). Prior to the Reds he worked 12 years with the Chicago White Sox organization (Kannapolis Intimidators 2004-06, Great Falls Sox 2003, Bristol Sox 2002, Phoenix 2001, Tucson 1998-2000, and Sarasota 1995-97). Prior to the White Sox, Tomas worked for the Milwaukee Brewers in Spring Training/Extended Spring in 1994. He began his baseball career in Venezuela Summer League with the Azucareros de la Victoria in 1990, serving as an Athletic Trainer in the Venezuela Winter League with Aragua, Caracas, Cabimas and Pastora teams (1990-96, 2009, 2012), He also spent time in the Dominican Winter League with the Licey Tigers (1999-2002). Vera has been named Head Athletic Trainer for the 2006, 2009, 2013 &2017 World Baseball Classic Venezuelan National Team. He received his degree in Physical Education from UPEL – Venezuela; Vera is recognized as the first Venezuelan Certified members of the NATA. Tomas is the son of Leandro Vera Fortique and Hilda Oviedo de Vera. He was born in Caracas Venezuela; He and his wife Mariela have two children, Rafael and Carolina. They reside in Sarasota, Fla.
Jimmy Mattocks
Jimmy Mattocks, 37, is entering his 4th year as Assistant Athletic Trainer for the Cincinnati Reds and his 14th overall with the organization. He spent the previous 10 years in the Reds organization as a minor league athletic trainer beginning his career in 2006; spending one year in Billings (2006), one year in Dayton (2007), 3 years in AA at Chattanooga & Carolina (2008-2010), and 5 years in AAA Louisville (2011-2015). He graduated from Northern Arizona University in 2004 with a Bachelor of Science degree in Athletic Training and completed an internship with the Arizona Diamondbacks (2004) before continuing his education at Oregon State University, graduating in 2006 with a Master of Science degree in Exercise and Sport Science. Originally from Phoenix, AZ; Jimmy, his wife Alma, and son Brady, reside in the Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky area year-round.
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Peach Fuzz Critic
reviews by a kid
Tag: scrubs
‘Scrubs’ made my cry. Here’s why.
October 3, 2019 October 4, 2019 Posted in UncategorizedTagged blog, comedy, doctors, film, movies, reviews, scrubs, television, zach braffLeave a comment
When I was 12 years old, the Scrubs episode titled ‘My Last Words’ premiered. There are a few different storylines of the episode, but only one that this article is discussing: Turk and J.D. talk with a man during the last hours of his life. Scrubs never did mess around with titles and ‘My Last Words’ is exactly what it sounds like.
‘My Last Words’ was the back half of a two-episode premiere, jammed together with ‘My Jerks’, an episode that kicked off Season 8, the last great season of the show. ‘My Jerks’ is fine, but it lacks an emotional punch and is playing up to more laughs. Watching these two episodes together does create a tremendous building of emotion though, and so I stand by that decision, whoever made it.
These two episodes were the first to be shown on ABC, after the show moved networks from its longstanding home of NBC.
As I stated, I was 12 years old and about to turn 13, which means I was in 7th grade. Very impressionable and turbulent time for a kid, and I was unsure of what I liked or why I liked it.
It felt like Scrubs was always on during this time of my life. I was constantly watching the show, though I wasn’t always keeping up on a week-by-week basis. It was an all-consuming phase.
I found out that 6.7 million people watched this episode. If we say that one out of every two people cried, which is likely, that means at least 3.35 million people cried at the same time that I cried. That is just wild to think about.
Scrubs had already been going for close to a decade. It started in 2001 and this was 2009.
This episode in particular
Scrubs came out 18 years ago, two days ago. Dr. Cox wouldn’t be proud of my tardiness. Each episode followed a pattern: happy, funny stuff to start, a little bit of heavy/sad news in the middle given usually by a J.D. voiceover, more funny stuff, and then really heavy/sad news at the end given by another J.D. voiceover. Shea Serrano details it with some hilarious eloquence for a piece at The Ringer.
Because of the above pattern, you can brace yourself for the sad times. You know that they’re coming and they become less sad. That is how it works for almost all situations in life, except for one: death.
The show has never shied away from death, as it’s featured in dozens of episodes. Patients dying is a regular part of working at a hospital and I’m assuming creator Bill Lawrence wanted us to know that.
In this particular episode, Turk and J.D., perennial best friends played by real-life best friends Donald Faison and Zach Braff, are having their annual steak night. It’s a big occasion with a song and dance.
They are also dealing with interns, one of them being a fresh Aziz Ansari. But that’s about it. Several main characters are not even mentioned or shown in the course of the episode, an oddity for the show.
This episode is fully about Turk, J.D., and their talks with a patient named George Valentine. Glynn Turman was tapped to play Valentine and boy was that a good choice by the casting director.
Valentine is in Sacred Heart because he’s dying and these are his final hours. He has a terminal illness and is going to drift off into an endless sleep on this particular night. Steak night night. This episode doesn’t have all of the funny parts of other episodes. There aren’t lots of “lighten the mood” moments. It’s about death and that’s it.
Why I cried
When J.D. finds out why George is in the hospital, he says, “We think of hospitals as places where people go to heal, but they’re also places where people go to die.” Unpacking the gravity of that sentence is an entire different article, but it hits you as if you forgot you were standing on the tracks.
Scrubs does that to you, as you often forget the bleakness of situations because you’re too busy laughing at “Giant Doctor” or Dr. Cox’s demeaning remarks or J.D. daydreaming once again. You don’t forget in this episode. Upon rewatch, it was the same arresting feeling I felt 10 years ago, and knowing the end didn’t make watching it any easier.
The three talk about death and how none of them are scared of it. The doctors have lost their fear over time, and George has had a good, long life. All he wants is an ice cold beer before he goes.
When J.D. and Turk find out that George doesn’t have family coming to stay with him in his final hours, they stay instead. “When you get down to it, taking care of a patient means more than anything, even steak night,” says J.D. It’s the reason they’re such good doctors and after seven seasons of learning, they’ve grown not just as medical professionals, but as people as well.
They pull up chairs and sit with George, talking about their fathers, their college days, and their views of an afterlife. J.D. even gives a rundown of his and Turk’s first day in heaven, a small respite to the sadness clouding the screen.
“I’ll tell you one thing. I sure didn’t think I’d go like this,” says George, finally speaking up after letting the two friends spout on. George’s entire life “boils down to these four pages”, or his will. He’s grappling with death. We see a man struggle in (almost) real time, a focus on a singular death in a show filled with dying.
Finally, someone says what every audience member is thinking. First J.D. pipes up, and then Turk affirms.
“George, I’m terrified of dying.”
It’s a moment I’ve remembered for the last 10 years, and a reason I’ve always defended Scrubs. The comedy might miss at times and some dialogue might not work in today’s climate, but scenes like the on in “My Last Words” are unforgettable. They’re so important to watch and experience, and to see them while you’re young, it makes them all the more memorable.
This episode of Scrubs was the first time that a television show or a movie made me cry. I remember tearing up, curled up on our old green couch and covered by a homemade, blue-and-white checkered blanket. It wasn’t the waterworks, but tears were shed, and this so-called comedy was the reason.
It sounds weird but I didn’t realize that fiction could make you cry. I didn’t understand the power of film and television. Maybe I just didn’t allow other stories to affect me, too closed off by how I thought I was supposed to react. I’m not completely sure why this put me over the edge. I felt the wave crashing upon me once again though, 10 years and lots of life experiences later.
Death Cab for Cutie’s “I Will Follow You into the Dark” is still, and always will be, one of the saddest songs I’ve ever heard, a go-to when life takes a wrong turn, when disappointment hits or when heartbreak comes.
J.D. says something though at the end of the episode that has particularly stuck with me.
“I would just hope that my last thought was a good one.”
George’s last thought?
“That beer tasted great.”
Scrubs, thank you for everything.
Want to watch along?
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Tag Archives: Berean Beacon
The Evangelical Apostasy of the Present Day – Richard Bennett
The Warnings of History to the Ungodly
1 Jude, a bond-servant of Jesus Christ, and brother of James,
To those who are the called, beloved in God the Father, and kept for Jesus Christ: 2 May mercy and peace and love be multiplied to you.
3 Beloved, while I was making every effort to write you about our common salvation, I felt the necessity to write to you appealing that you contend earnestly for the faith which was once for all handed down to the saints. 4 For certain persons have crept in unnoticed, those who were long beforehand marked out for this condemnation, ungodly persons who turn the grace of our God into licentiousness and deny our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ.
July 5, 2018 Maria Tatham, a gentle iconoclast apostasy, Berean Beacon, ChristianVoice Editor Youtube channel, Jude, Richard Bennett, The Warnings of History to the Ungodly, YouTube Christian videos 39 Comments
The Early Authentic Church and the Deception of Roman Catholicism
By Richard Bennett and Stuart Quint
The Apostle Paul would never have recognized the institution that calls itself the Church of Rome nearly 2000 years after he had written his Epistle to the early true believers in Rome. For instance, the Apostle Paul addressed all the believers in the early church in Rome as “…beloved of God, called to be saints.”[1] Paul considered every single believer to be a “saint,” persons made holy because of the Lord God’s love and grace.
In contrast to Paul’s contention that all believers are “saints,” the Roman Catholic Church calls “saints” those whom Rome has canonized and labeled as “models and intercessors.”[2]
Additionally, the Roman Catholic Church further sets apart its clergy such as priests, bishops, cardinals, and finally the Pope from “lay people.” This Roman Catholic organization clearly violates Jesus Christ’s clear command to the true church when He stated “One is your Master, even Christ; and all ye are brethren. And call no man your father upon the earth: for one is your Father, which is in heaven.”[3]
Another stark contrast stems from the conflicting characteristics of true believers and false Romanism. The Apostle Paul commended the believers in first century Rome “First, I thank my God through Jesus Christ for you all, that your faith is spoken of throughout the whole world.”[4] Truly, the remarkable faith of the early churches in Rome persisted for over two and a half centuries later. These believers endured very adverse situations, including horrifying persecutions under various Roman emperors.
In contrast, the horrible reputation of today’s Roman Catholic Church clashes with the integrity of the early Christian church in Rome. Sexual[5] and financial[6] scandals have dogged the Roman Catholic Church for centuries. Its lust for power and control at any cost honed over 1500 years also completely tarnish Rome’s claim to be “the one true Church.”[7]
The Apostle Paul warned the early church that pretenders to true Christianity would arise out of men’s false teachings even beginning in their day: “For I know this, that after my departing shall grievous wolves enter in among you, not sparing the flock. Also of your own selves shall men arise, speaking perverse things, to draw away disciples after them. Therefore watch, and remember, that by the space of three years I ceased not to warn every one night and day with tears.”[8] Indeed, Roman Catholicism is the fulfillment of Paul’s ominous words.
Persecution Purified Early Believers as the Gospel Spread
The spread of the Christian faith during the first three centuries was rapid and extensive. God used the fidelity of the preachers of the Gospel, the heroic deaths of the martyrs, and the translation of the Scriptures into the languages of the Roman world to spread the Gospel.
Under Emperor Septimius Severus (193-211) Christians suffered appallingly. The most severe persecution was under the Emperor Diocletian and his co-regent, Galerius, during the years 303-311. Many copies of the Bible were burned. Christians were deprived of public office and civil rights. Most importantly, believers were executed if they refused to offer sacrifice to the pagan gods of Rome.[9]
Yet, far from exterminating the authentic Christians and the Gospel of grace, persecution purified their witness and even attracted more people to find salvation in Jesus Christ.
Tertullian (155 – c.240), an early Christian author from Carthage, wrote some astounding words for our modern day:
“Christians are under a particular necessity of praying for the [Roman] emperors, and for the continued state of the empire; because we know that dreadful power which hangs over the world, and the conclusion of the age, which threatens the most horrible evils, is restrained by the continuance of the time appointed for the Roman Empire.”[10]
Tertullian states two main ideas: (1) Christians pray for the welfare of the Roman government despite its opposition to their faith, and (2) Christians are sober concerning a future which would succeed the Imperial Roman Empire and abound with “the most horrible evils.”
Regarding the chief of “most horrible evils,” Tertullian refers to the wicked agent of Antichrist and his followers in II Thessalonians 2:8-10, “And then shall that Wicked be revealed, whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of his coming…because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved.” About one hundred years later, Tertullian’s predictions began to be realized.
Clerical Corruption of the Church Post Constantine
The persecution of Christians ended in 313 A.D. with the proclamation of the Edict of Milan by the Roman emperors Constantine in the West and Licinius in the East. This policy established religious freedom for both paganism and Christianity. Additionally, Constantine allowed the churches to accumulate property for gatherings.[11] While the Edict of Milan relieved the churches of the problem of persecution in the Roman Empire, it created numerous temptations that ultimately weakened the professing church. The world in the form of Roman privilege and hierarchy corrupted it.
The Edict of Milan led to the corruption of church leadership and the emergence of a privileged clerical class in society. The new prestige of the clergy enjoyed privileges unavailable to other believers. Members of the clergy were exempt from taxes and certain civil obligations. The building of ornate cathedrals, particularly in the major urban centers such as Rome, Alexandria, and later Constantinople, created well-compensated work for priests, deacons, and others to run them.[12]
The emergence of the clergy also consolidated power in the hands of larger jurisdictions. In the past, independent churches large and small headed by elders or bishops related to each other as peers. This parity changed after the Edict of Milan.[13] Archbishops, metropolitans, and patriarchs arose to govern several churches. Major clerical power came from four great cities: Antioch, Alexandria, Jerusalem, and Rome, eventually to be joined by Constantinople, the new capital of the Empire.
The rising gap of the church hierarchy from the laity also extended to the Bishop of Rome. The church was in such decline that over time the bishops of Rome began to demand that other churches submit to Rome’s authority. Rome’s power was limited immediately after Constantine’s coming to power. Churches in the East and Africa rejected the excommunication of later Roman bishops such as Victor and Stephen for refusing to submit to them.[14] However, the extended absence of Constantine from Rome strengthened the hand of the Bishop of Rome. Gradually over time, the Bishop of Rome would emerge on top.
Sacramental Superstition and the Rise of Papal Rome
In the fourth and fifth centuries, as the Gospel was watered down, the true worship of God and the inner conviction of the Holy Spirit gave way to formal rites called “sacraments.” The official churches also began to practice idolatry in showing and venerating images of Christ and Mary. Pagan practices and philosophies flooded the church, introducing a shallow, diluted appearance of Christianity.
In contrast to the early church in which the Gospel produced an internal unity among believers, the substitution of ritualism for the Gospel became the new basis for external unity for the church. True saving faith of the heart no longer united the members of the church. Instead, the autocratic leadership of the Bishop and his clerical hierarchy enforced unity and repressed dissent. The living church gradually converted to an external church governed by the Bishop of Rome.
What makes the Roman Catholic purported method of salvation so horrific is that it is a rejection of the manifest love of God given in the Gospel. However, the evident truth that the authentic Christian Church has remains untarnished. God’s gratuitous love is made effective in accordance with His supreme purposes, “In this was manifested the love of God toward us, because that God sent his only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through him. Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.”[15]
In Christ Jesus alone the believer beholds the wisdom, goodness, love, grace, mercy, justice and power of the Father. God’s grace was planned before it was imparted, as the Scripture says, “Who has saved us, and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to His own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began.”[16]
The purpose and design of God from all eternity was that all gifts should come to sinful man in and through Christ Jesus. Emphatically, grace in its most proper and genuine sense is free, as the Scripture says, “being justified freely by His grace.”[17] Then finally grace is sovereign because God bestows it upon whom He pleases. The reign of sin and false religion is overcome by the reign of God’s grace, as the Scripture says, “even so might grace reign!”[18] The abundance of grace far surpasses the evils of sin.
Once a believing sinner accepts Christ Jesus as his only surety before the All Holy God, he finds himself not only freed from his sins, but made to “reign in life.” As Scripture so clearly states, “For if by one man’s offence death reigned by one, much more they which receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness shall reign in life by one, Jesus Christ.”[19] Those who receive the abundant grace given by Christ are not only redeemed from the empire of death, they live and reign with Him as they are sanctified daily through His Word by the Holy Spirit, and by constant fellowship with Him. With Him also they shall forever live and reign, world without end. Through Christ Jesus, grace reigns with sovereign freedom, power, and bounty! “Blessed be his glorious name for ever: and let the whole earth be filled with his glory; Amen, and Amen.”[20]
Richard Bennett and Stuart Quint of “Berean Beacon” Website: https://bereanbeacon.org
Permission is given by the authors to copy this article if it is done in its entirety without any changes.
Permission is also given post this article in its entirety on Internet Websites
[1] Romans 1:7. All Bible verses derive from the King James Version (www.biblegateway.com ).
[2] Catechism of the Catholic Church, Second Edition (1994: Libreria Editrice Vaticana, Vatican City), Paragraph 828.
[3] Matthew 23:8-10
[4] Romans 1:8
[5] See Laurie Goodstein, “Sex Abuse and the Catholic Church: Why Is It Still a Story?.”, The New York Times (April 20, 2016) on https://www.nytimes.com/2016/04/20/insider/sex-abuse-and-the-catholic-church-why-is-it-still-a-story.html?mcubz=1accessed on August 25, 2017.
[6] See Stephanie Yang, “The Craziest Financial Schemes that the Vatican Bank Tried to Cover Up”, Business Insider (February 27, 2015) on http://www.businessinsider.com/gods-bankers-financial-scandals-at-the-vatican-2015-2 accessed on August 25, 2017. See also “Questions multiply by the day in latest Vatican money scandal”, Crux (July 24, 2017) on https://cruxnow.com/vatican/2017/07/24/questions-multiply-day-latest-vatican-money-scandal/ accessed on September 5, 2017.
[7] See William Cardinal Levada and Angelo Amato, S.D.B., Responses to Some Questions Regarding Certain Aspects of the Doctrine of the Church (Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith: Vatican City, June 29, 2007) on http://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/congregations/cfaith/documents/rc_con_cfaith_doc_20070629_responsa-quaestiones_en.html accessed on August 25, 2017.
[8] Acts 20:29-31.
[9] Philip Schaff, History of the Christian Church, Vol. 1 (2006: Hendrickson Publishers, Peabody, MA), 34.
[10] Tertullian, Apology, chapter 32 on http://www.tertullian.org/works/apologeticum.htm accessed on September 14, 2017.
[11] Edward Gibbon (edited by D.H. Low), The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (1960: Harcourt, Brace, and Company, New York), 287.
[12]Ibid., 305.
[13] Dowling, 36.
[14] Dowling, 32-3.
[15] I John 4:9-10
[16] II Timothy 1:9
[17] Romans 3:24
[20] Psalm 72:19
June 5, 2018 Maria Tatham, a gentle iconoclast Berean Beacon, Catholicism, deception, Early Church History, Richard Bennett, Roman Catholicism, Stuart Quint 21 Comments
A veteran soldier of the Cross
Five minutes with Richard about his zeal which is really love.
November 18, 2017 Maria Tatham, a gentle iconoclast Berean Beacon, Catholicism, Pilgrim's Progress revisited, Richard Bennett, Roman Catholic Church, Roman Catholicism, the Gospel of Jesus Christ, the love of God in Jesus Christ, the Narrow Way, the Saviour Jesus Christ, Why do you bash Catholics so aggressively?, youtube 16 Comments
The Legacy of the True Historical Patrick
This article by Richard Bennett was originally posted here on March 16, 2015. It is a joyful document full of the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ!
“before I was humbled I was like a stone lying in deep mire…”
Patrick of Ireland
Ireland has a very distinctive history. It was an island untouched by the Roman legions, and Patrick, the Evangelist, brought to it the Gospel of grace. Patrick was himself descended from a family that had been, for two generations at least, in Christ Jesus. His father, he tells us was “the deacon Calpurnius, son of the late Potitus, a presbyter, of the settlement of Bannaven Taburniae.”1 These facts are recorded in Patrick’s own testimony of faith. This authentic document is preserved in five manuscripts: one in the Book of Armagh of the seventh century, the second in the Cotton Library of the tenth century, a third in the French monastery of St. Vedastus, and two more in the Cathedral Library of Salisbury. This authenticated document is the main source of both the person and the mission of Patrick, and also his clear statement of the Gospel of grace.
Patrick was born in the year 3732 in a town on the River Clyde in Roman Britain, now a part of Scotland. When he was sixteen years old, Patrick was captured by a band of pirates who sold him to a chieftain in what is now county Antrim in Northern Ireland. For six years he tended flocks. In his testimony he tells us, “I was taken captive before I knew what I should desire and what I should shun.”3 It was during the time of his captivity that he turned from his careless ways and came to a saving knowledge of Christ Jesus. He was convicted that he was a sinner. In his own words,
“before I was humbled I was like a stone lying in deep mire, and He that is mighty came and in His mercy raised me up and, indeed, lifted me high up and placed me on top of the wall. And from there I ought to shout out in gratitude to the Lord for His great favours in this world and for ever, that the mind of man cannot measure.”4
Patrick, like so many of the godly men of history, found God’s favor in the riches of the grace of Christ. This was the theme echoing throughout the testimony of Patrick, in his own words “I am greatly God’s debtor, because he granted me so much grace.”5 He then grew in the grace of God. Having believed on “the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth,”6 he directly received “of his fullness…grace for grace.”7 In his own words,
“More and more did the love of God, and my fear of Him and faith increase, and my spirit was moved so that in a day [I said] from one up to a hundred prayers, and in the night a like number; besides I used to stay out in the forests and on the mountain and I would wake up before daylight to pray in the snow, in icy coldness, in rain, and I used to feel neither ill nor any slothfulness, because, as I now see, the Spirit was burning in me at that time.”8
Patrick relates how, after six years, he escaped and after a difficult journey on land and sea returned to his people in Scotland. In his own words, “I was again in Britain with my family [kinsfolk], and they welcomed me as a son, and asked me, in faith, that after the great tribulations I had endured I should not go any where else away from them.”9
His Direct Mission from the Lord
Like the Apostle Paul, he received a clear and personal call from the Lord to preach the Gospel in the land of his former captivity. He described his call in these words,
“I saw a man whose name was Victoricus coming as if from Ireland with innumerable letters, and he gave me one of them, and I read the beginning of the letter: ‘The Voice of the Irish’, and as I was reading the beginning of the letter I seemed at that moment to hear the voice of those who were beside the forest of Foclut which is near the western sea, and they were crying as if with one voice: ‘We beg you, holy youth, that you shall come and shall walk again among us.’ And I was stung intensely in my heart so that I could read no more, and thus I awoke. Thanks be to God, because after so many years the Lord bestowed on them according to their cry.”10
He speaks of being called again in dream another night, but makes it clear how he interpreted what was happening by the Scriptures. He wrote, “‘Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness; for we know not how to pray as we ought. But the Spirit Himself intercedes for us with sighs too deep for utterance.’” And again, “‘The Lord our advocate intercedes for us.’” Thus, Patrick relies on Scripture to understand his experience and to see that it was the Lord Himself who was calling him. In his own words, “‘He who gave his life for you, He it is who speaks within you.’”11 He understood that Christ Jesus, who had died for his sins, was the One who was calling him to work as an evangelist in the very island where he had been held captive.
A second historical document from Patrick’s own hand is his letter to Coroticus. In it he explains his assignment from God to a foreign nation for the glory of eternal life that is in Christ Jesus. His own words are the following, “Thus I am a servant in Christ to a foreign nation for the unspeakable glory of life everlasting which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”12 This is a major factor in understanding Patrick. He knew himself as a sinner and found salvation where only sinners find it, “in Christ Jesus our Lord.”13 The first words of his testimony read, “I, Patrick, a sinner, a most simple countryman, the least of all the faithful and most contemptible to many.” Likewise, in the beginning of his letter to Coroticus he states, “I, Patrick, a sinner, unlearned, resident in Ireland”. Quite clearly Patrick saw himself as a sinner. He did not look to some spark of life from within himself or to some ritual; rather, he looked unto Christ Jesus. Patrick’s words, “unspeakable glory of life everlasting which is in Christ Jesus our Lord” shows his distinct and personal comfort and courage in Christ. Totally unlike religion that looks to rituals, Patrick had his eyes set on the Lord. Catholicism now, and to some extent even in Patrick’s time, looks to sacraments as necessary for salvation.14 Patrick saw himself only as a sinner saved by grace in Christ Jesus. Patrick’s message is that salvation is totally in Christ alone–a message utterly diverse from that of Roman Catholicism then and now.
His Mission Begins
Patrick, the Christian Evangelist, being about 30 years old and together with some brothers in the Lord, set out for Ireland. He arrived in or about the year 405. This fact of history is authentic and verified. For example, Marcus, an Irish Bishop, who lived at the beginning of the ninth century, states that Patrick came to Ireland in the year 405 AD and Nennius, who lived about the same time, repeats the statement.15 This date is of great importance because many centuries later there was an attempt made to confuse Patrick with Palladius, who had been sent out by Pope Celestine as a missionary to Ireland. When news of Patrick’s Christian success had reached Rome, Pope Celestine then sent Palladius as a bishop to bring the churches under the control of the Papacy. It was in 432, at least 27 years after Patrick’s commission from God, that Palladius from Rome came on the scene. When Palladius did come to Ireland, it was to an Ireland that had many Christian churches and that did not accept his message of subservience to the Bishop of Rome. In actual fact, Palladius was greatly discouraged by his lack of success. To quote from the historian Philip Schaff, “Palladius was so discouraged that he soon abandoned the field, with his assistants, for north Britain, where he died among the Picts….The Roman mission of Palladius failed; the independent mission of Patrick succeeded. He is the true Apostle of Ireland, and has impressed his memory in indelible characters upon the Irish race at home and abroad.”16
God’s Grace over the Course of 60 Years
The work of Patrick and his associates in Ireland was extremely difficult. He came up against the old pagan religion of the Druids. The people believed in the Druids as pagan priests who mediated for them in the things of the spirit. When Patrick preached Christ Jesus in his own words he said,
“I am greatly God’s debtor, because he granted me so much grace, that through me many people would be reborn in God, and soon after confirmed, that clergy would be ordained everywhere for them, and the masses lately come to belief, whom the Lord drew from the ends of the earth. As He once promised through His prophets: ‘To you shall the nations come from the ends of the earth, and shall say, Our fathers have inherited naught but lies, worthless things in which there is no profit.’ And again, ‘I have set you to be a light for the Gentiles that you may bring salvation to the uttermost ends of the earth.’ And I wish to wait then for His promise which is never unfulfilled, just as it is promised in the Gospel.”17
He wrote of baptizing many thousands of believers after they had professed faith.18
He also wrote about anxious journeys, difficulties, and disappointments. He combated the powers of darkness in the priesthood of the Druids. He relied on Christ Jesus and the glorious Holy Spirit given to convict people of sin, of righteousness, and of judgment. He understood grace to be entirely from God when he declared,
“I, alone, can do nothing unless He Himself vouchsafes it to me. But let Him search my heart and [my] nature, for I crave enough for it, even too much, and I am ready for Him to grant me that I drink of His chalice, as He has granted to others who love him. Therefore may it never befall me to be separated by my God from His people whom He has won in this most remote land. I pray God that He gives me perseverance, and that He will deign that I should be a faithful witness for His sake right up to the time of my passing.”19
Over the course of 60 years, Patrick went the length and breadth of Ireland preaching the Gospel and, like Timothy and Titus before him, he ordained elders and established churches. It is reckoned that at the end of his days there were 365 churches across the island. These were established, as were the churches in Biblical times, with the people served by a pastor or elder. The authority of the pastor was one of service, rather than lording it over the people. It was like that which was established in the pages of Scripture. Likewise, the monasteries set up by Patrick, were totally unlike the monasteries that were established under the Church of Rome. These monasteries were quite like those of the Vaudois and other early Christian churches of northern Italy and southern France, whereby men came aside for some years to be trained in the Scriptures and to learn how to evangelize and to bring the Gospel to others. Later in their lives these men married and had families. These men were not forsaking the world for some retreat of inner holiness; rather, they were men who saw light and life in Christ Jesus and wished to evangelize others with the true Gospel. Because of these monasteries and the churches that Patrick founded in Ireland, Ireland became known as the “Isle of Saints and Scholars”.
600 years of Fruitfulness
The clarity of the Gospel message cherished by Patrick and those who worked with him was to live on for many years after him. There were many famous missionaries like Patrick such as Columba and his companions who set out for Scotland in 563. Then there was Columbanus with his companions that went to evangelize France and Germany in 612. Kilian and the brothers that accompanied him went as missionaries to Franconia and Wurzburg in 680. Forannan and twelve brothers with him set out to bring the Gospel to the Belgian frontier in 970.20
For more than six hundred years, Irish missionaries carried the Gospel with the same truthfulness as Patrick’s to Britain, Germany, France, Switzerland, Italy and beyond. Darkness covered Europe in the ninth and tenth centuries. The Dark Ages had begun and the Roman Church, having gained rulership through intrigue and persecution, now held most of Europe in her iron grip. Even so, in those dark centuries, the Irish missionaries continued to spread the true Gospel, seed which for centuries to come would bear much good fruit all across Europe.
EMBEZZLEMENT OF THE LEGACY OF PATRICK
With the coming of the Danes in the ninth century, however, the Celtic Church in Ireland began to lose its Biblical clarity. Further, Papal Rome began to unleash military power to bring Ireland under her control. This began with the decree of Pope Adrian IV issued to King Henry II of England in 1155. The Pope authorized the invasion of Ireland and sent the king a ring of investiture as Lord of Ireland, calling upon the monarch to, “to extirpate the vices that have there taken root, [in Ireland]…saving to St. Peter and the holy Roman Church the annual pension of one penny from each house.”21
King Henry carried out the designs of the Papacy in 1171 and with a strong military force subdued the whole Irish nation. He received from every Archbishop and Bishop, at the Synod of Cashel in 1172 charters whereby they confirmed the Kingdom of Ireland to him and his heirs. The King sent a transcript of these charters to Pope Alexander III, who, according to the letters of the Archbishops and Bishops, was extremely gratified by the extension of his dominion, and in 1172 issued a bull confirming the Papal decree of Pope Adrian. Further rulings were sent from Rome to Henry II and to the princes and nobles of Ireland, and to the bishops of Ireland to establish the hierarchy over the people and pastors and enjoin obedience of both Ireland and England to the Papal throne.
The Heritage of Patrick Lives On!
The heartbeat and the soul of Patrick was the Gospel of Christ. He wrote in his testimony,
“I am imperfect in many things, nevertheless, I want my brethren and kinsfolk to know my nature so that they may be able to perceive my soul’s desire. I am not ignorant of what is said of my Lord in the Psalm: ‘You destroy those who speak a lie and a lying mouth deals death to the soul.’ Likewise the Lord says in the Gospel, ‘In the day of judgment, men shall render an account for every idle word they utter’’ So it is that I should fear mightily, with terror and trembling, this judgment on the day when no one shall be able to steal away or hide, but each one shall render account for even our smallest sins before the judgment seat of Christ.”22
These words of Patrick are as a prophetic trumpet of the Lord. It is most serious to steal the legacy from the people of the nation, particularly when that heritage was life and light in Christ Jesus! Many Irish have grown up engrossed in the rites and rituals of Roman Catholicism. Many of us, turning from those dead things and having drunk deeply of the Biblical grace of God that is in Christ Jesus, now want to stand on Patrick’s words, “no one shall be able to steal away or hide, but each one shall render account for even our smallest sins before the judgment seat of Christ.” To publish abroad the Gospel of God’s chosen in Christ “before the foundation of the world”23 is our longing now, as it was Patrick’s then. The wonder of Patrick’s life was simply God’s grace in Christ Jesus. The divine call to the true Gospel went forth from Ireland for more than 600 years. Just as Patrick expected the power of God’s grace to overcome the priesthood of the Druids, we now stand for the same Biblical Gospel that he preached to evangelize even those in the Catholic priesthood and hierarchy. The battle is the Lord’s and the victory will be His. “Fear not, little flock; for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom.”24 In the legacy of Patrick, we pray Christ words, “Father, I will that they also, whom thou hast given me, be with me where I am.”25 The frightening words of the Lord ring in the ears of those who spend their lives in man-made religion, “Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven.”26 No person by merely acknowledging Christ through a priesthood and sacraments shall have any part with God in Him, but only the one who does the will of His Father. The Lord made the will of the Father abundantly clear when He said, “this is the work of God, that ye believe on him whom he hath sent.”27 “Today if ye will hear his voice, harden not your hearts….”28 As Christ Jesus’ Gospel stands, so also is His call on your life. “Faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.”29 Believe on Him alone for, “this is the record, that God hath given to us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. He that hath the Son hath life; and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life.”30 Then you will stand where before you Patrick stood immoveable, and this is how it will be for all eternity. “Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold all things are become new.”31 “Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues.”§
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1 The Confession of Patrick, http://irelandnow.com/legends/confession.html, 1/29/03, p. 1.
2 “According to the best authorities, Patrick was born about A.D. 373; and Lanigan has adduced good evidence to prove that he died in A.D. 465 (Apud Lanigan, vol. iv. p. 112). The Book of Armagh furnishes corroborative evidence of the same fact. It says, ‘From the passion of Christ to the death of Patrick there were 436 years.’ The crucifixion took place about A.D. 30; and adding these thirty years to the 436 that intervened between the crucifixion and the death of Patrick, we arrive at A.D. 466 as the year of his demise. Traditions of the highest authority attest that he spent sixty years in preaching the Gospel to the Scoto-Irish.” From, “St. Patrick: Apostle of Ireland” in History of the Scottish Nation by J.A. Wylie (London: Hamilton, Adams & Co. Andrew Elliot, Edinburgh 1886) Vol. II, Ch 9.
3 The Confession of Patrick, p. 2.
4 Ibid., p. 2.
6 John 1:14.
10 Ibid., p 3.
11 Ibid., p. 3.
12 Letter to Coroticus, http://prayerfoundation.org/st_patricks_letter_to_coroticus.htm 1/30/03, p. 2.
13 “…that I may win Christ, and be found in him, not having mine own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith..” Philippians 3:8-9
14 “The Church affirms that for believers the sacraments of the New Covenant are necessary for salvation.” (italic in the original). Catechism of the Catholic Church, Second ed., (United States Catholic Conference, 1997) Para. 1129.
15 The historian, J A Wylie goes to great lengths of demonstrate the fact that Patrick came to Ireland to evangelise in 405. Among others, he quotes Dr. Killen as saying “‘Its [i.e., this fact] claims to have been acknowledged by the best critics of all denominations,’ by Usher, Ware, Tillemont, Lanigan, and Neander….He [Dr. Killen] thinks that Patrick arrived in Ireland immediately after the death of Nial, or Nial of the Nine Hostages, in the year 405.’” From “St Patrick: Apostle of Ireland” by J.A. Wylie in History of the Scottish Nation, Vol. II, Ch. 13, endnote No. 4.
16 Philip Schaff, History of the Christian Church, Vol. 4, Ch. 2, Sect. 14, “The Conversion of Ireland”.
17 The Confession of Patrick, p. 5.
19 Ibid p 8
20 For a more complete list, see Philip Schaff, History of the Christian Church, Vol. 4, Ch. 2, “Conversion of Northern and Western Barbarians”, Sect. 15, “The Irish Church after St. Patrick. The Missionary Period”.
21 The full text of the Papal Bull of Pope Adrian IV that empowered king Henry II to conquer and subdue Christian churches to Rome can be read at:http://www.yale.edu/lawweb/avalon/medieval/bullad.htm 3/4/2015
23 Ephesians 1:4
24 Luke 12:32
25 John 17:24
26 Matthew 7:21
27 John 6:29
28 Hebrews 3:7, 8
29 Romans 10:17
30 1 John 5:11-12
31 II Corinthians 5:17
March 16, 2017 Maria Tatham, a gentle iconoclast Antrim, Bannaven Taburniae, Berean Beacon, Book of Armagh, Columba, Columbanus, Dr. Killen, holidays, Irish Christianity, Isle of Saints and Scholars, J.A. Wylie, Killian, missions, Palladius, Palladius and the Picts, Papal Bull of Pope Adrian IV that empowered king Henry II to conquer and subdue Christian churches to Rome, Patrick, Patrick and the Druids, Patrick came to Ireland in the year 405 AD, Patrick’s letter to Coroticus, Pope Adrian IV and King Henry II of England, Pope Alexander III, Pope Celestine, Pre-Reformation Biblical Christianity, Richard Bennett, Saint Patrick's Day, the Gospel of Jesus Christ, the Great Commission, the love of God in Jesus Christ, the real Patrick of Ireland, the Saviour Jesus Christ, the Synod of Cashel in 1172, the Vaudois and other early Christian churches of northern Italy and southern France, The Voice of the Irish 39 Comments
The Practice of Idolatry within the Church by Richard Bennett and Randall Paquette
II Corinthians 5:16
“Therefore from now on we recognize no one according to the flesh; even though we have known Christ according to the flesh, yet now we know Him in this way no longer.”
Used by permission; see note below.
Praise for Mel Gibson’s “The Passion of the Christ” resounded from pulpit to pew. It is evident that there are many Christians who, without reservation, are prepared to accept movies about “Christ,” even one in the Catholic tradition. The question, therefore, that must be asked is this: In the light of Scripture, is the position defendable of the people in accepting movies with Christ being portrayed, or do they fall under the condemnation of Almighty God?
No Revival Without the True Gospel and a Righteous Anger Against Images
Evangelicals have discovered themselves confronting crisis upon crisis. After decades of endeavor and aggregate growth, moral turpitude and the apparent demise of marriage, like corrupt weeds, blossom before their faces. The modus vivendi embodied in the 1994 “Evangelicals & Catholics Together” (ECT) still confuses and deceives. Its ecclesiastical endorsement has further led many Evangelical churches to believe that there is no essential difference between Catholicism and biblical Christianity. The dramatic “Passion” movie perpetuates the lie. In the Evangelical camp, the carnal pandering of “seeker sensitive” churches loiters unquestioned. The unregenerate fill the pews and silence the pulpits. There is no conviction of sin, because the Gospel is not openly admitted or acknowledged. Within the Reformed churches there is division, contention, and strife caused by the “Auburn Avenue controversy” and the “New Perspective on Justification.” Revival has been preached, pursued, and prayed for and still remains aloof. “We have been with child, we have been in pain, we have as it were, brought forth wind; we have not wrought any deliverance in the earth; neither have the inhabitants of the world fallen.”[1]
In the soil of “another” Gospel no revival can spring! In the temple of images and pictures can come no renewal! From Moses unto Hosea, those who sought to revive the spirit of the nation and would have hearts return to a true worship of God, condemned images. And that which is condemned in the Old Testament is not justified in the New Testament.[2] The great revivals in Christian history have flourished under the true Gospel and the denunciation of idolatry. So it was with the Vaudois, the Waldenses, the Lollards, the Bohemians, and the Reformers. In the Dark Ages, luminaries such as John Wycliffe and John Huss attacked the corruption of idolatry and preached the Gospel.
In the USA during the Great Awakening, preachers inspired by George Whitefield, Jonathan Edwards, and William Law, sought to glorify God in the Gospel by uniting veracious worship with the censuring of images. “If Jesse Lee had not come into Massachusetts, some one else pressed in spirit, like Paul at Athens ‘when he saw the city wholly given to idolatry’, would have found utterance and would have had followers.”[3] Following Jonathan Edwards’ publication of the journal of David Brainerd,
“The revival had greatest impact when Brainerd emphasised the compassion of the Saviour, the provisions of the gospel, and the free offer of divine grace. Idolatry was abandoned, marriages repaired, drunkenness practically disappeared….Their communities were filled with love.”[4]
The witness of this testimony must not remain unheeded if we are to receive the blessing we long for from On High, for “what agreement hath the temple of God with idols?”[5]
Christ’s Divine Person is Revealed Only in One Human Body
Christians reason within themselves that since God became a man in the person of Christ, a picture of Jesus is but an image of an image. Their rationalization is that the Incarnation is justification, if not authorization, for us to depict Christ in human form. They argue further that no portrait can display a man’s soul, thus Christ’s body can be legitimately pictured distinct from His Divinity. Poor deluded Christians, unwilling to sever the last vestiges of carnal thinking, averse to bringing “every thought to the obedience of Christ.” Amongst humanity, Christ remains unique. Any attempt to represent this uniqueness in human form (an achievement that God alone could do in the Incarnation) destroys it. The multiplicity of depictions with various facial features, hues and expressions, denies it. A man has but one nature, and thus he can be legitimately portrayed with no offense to what he is, but not so Christ who is also Divine; and to make Him into an “image like unto corruptible man” is to transgress the Law and insult the Godhead. Those who saw Christ upon this earth had before their eyes “God manifest in the flesh.” What animistic artist or photographer could claim such for his effort? What do we have then? Is it not an attempt to create a likeness of the One of Whom we have no likeness? This then is the very essence of idolatry – the false representation of God. In the silence of our chambers we should reverently pray, “Who is like unto thee, O LORD, among the gods? who is like thee, glorious in holiness, fearful in praises, doing wonders?”,[6] and lo, the answer thunders down through the ages, “I am God, and there is none like me.”[7]
The Person of Christ consists of two indivisible natures – the perfectly “Human” and the perfectly “Divine.” He who was manifested in the flesh was really and truly God.[8] And yet, He had real human flesh. “Forasmuch as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself likewise took part of the same.[9] Pictures or movies of Christ are merely portraits of a human body. It is totally impossible to show forth the divinity of Christ; this only His body in heaven can now do, “For in him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily.”[10] The fullness of the Godhead dwells in Christ, and not figuratively, for he is both God and Man. This “fullness” can never be found in types, figures, or likenesses of Him. Any such replication is utter deceit. Whenever a bodily form is ascribed to Christ Jesus, it remains a gross lie. This fact—that Christ Jesus is both God and Man—is a great and central doctrine of Christian faith. What Evangelicals fail to comprehend in making portrayals of Him is that by so representing Christ, they are perjuring themselves before the All Holy God because all depictions of Him succeed in showing humanity bereft of divinity. “What profiteth the graven image…a teacher of lies, that the maker of his work trusteth therein, to make dumb idols?”[11] The words of Scripture alone patently present the divinity of Christ.
Christ Jesus in His Person and perfect human nature is the express image of God. Whoever has seen Him has seen the Father.[12] If Jesus were only a man, albeit the best of men, it would be quite acceptable to portray Him. But Christ is not! He is the express image of God, “Who being the brightness of his glory, and the express image of his person.”[13] This image involves His eternal essence and as such is singular and cannot not replicated or reproduced. Those who accept pictures and movies of Christ fail to comprehend that they have reduced Christ’s incarnation to humanity alone. These representations ignore the unique character of Christ Jesus as the unexampled “express image” of God. While He is truly Man, yet Christ’s perfect humanity cannot be separated from His divinity. Such practice perpetuates the heresy of Nestorius who taught that Jesus was two distinct “persons,” one human and one divine.[14] The uniqueness of Christ Jesus coupled with the command not to practice idolatry is given in the strongest terms in the New Testament. “And we know that the Son of God is come, and hath given us an understanding, that we may know him that is true, and we are in him that is true, even in his Son Jesus Christ. This is the true God, and eternal life. Little children, keep yourselves from idols. Amen.”[15]
There can be no doubt that it is He of whom it is said, “in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God,” … “all things were made by him, and without him was not anything made that was made”; Who Himself declared “I and my Father are one,” was worshiped as “my Lord and my God”! He is very God of very God.
Do we imagine that God in His omniscience did not foresee portraits, pictures, canvas, or cameras? Are we wiser than He? There beats within the heart of every man a craving for visible forms conjured up in the human mind to give expression to religious beliefs. Because of this evil desire, the Lord God has forbidden idolatry, warning of its corrupting influence. If believers have been deceived in this matter, it is our desire and prayer that they see the truth of God’s Word and understand that they have been feeding upon ashes and say, “For the idols have spoken vanity, and the diviners have seen a lie, and have told false dreams; they comfort in vain.”[16]
Presentations That Confuse the Distinction Between God and His Created World
A picture or movie of Christ, because of inherent limitations, resides in the world of created things from imaginations. Whatever aspirations may be intended, it can rise no higher than that which it is. Hence, it blurs the distinctness between God and man, confusing the Creator with the creation. The Apostle Paul reveals the cause of this confusion, “Because that when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened.”[17] This digression, the Apostle tells us, continues because, “professing themselves to be wise, they became fools, and changed the glory of the incorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man….”[18] The problem is this: “to whom then will ye liken God? or what likeness will ye compare unto Him?”[19] The Scriptural answer is clear: “be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect will of God.”[20]
Any attempted portrayal of Christ transforms the medium itself into a mediator between God and man. The viewer, restricted within the confines of this humanistic plane, imagines that he knows the Lord, at least in some measure. With this instilled image of Christ throbbing within his mind, the viewer is allowed to wander, silently thinking his own thoughts, constrained by an impression that is not Christ. Thus, the viewer’s mind continues to be conformed to the world by the created image and by his own subjectivity. Although such visual presentations appeal strongly to the sensual impulses, they do not explicitly present to any man the objective truth concerning the Lord.
Our knowledge of Jesus Christ must be formed from the truths in Scripture and not by subjective impressions of artistic interpretation. In the latter, the artist and the viewer combine God and His creation into a single entity within the picture, and this is the visible expression of idolatry. This spurious image lays the foundation for a pantheistic concept of God. Marvel not then that, “Soaring pagan numbers have churches worrying and calling for stricter controls on cult TV programs and films that celebrate sorcery like “Harry Potter,” “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” and “Sabrina the Teenage Witch.”[21] The command given in Scripture is to choose God’s way so as to know and follow Christ in His Word! When obeyed, upon the pages of Scripture, in the words of the Law, in the grace of the Gospel, we know Him in spirit and truth.
We do not see Jesus Christ with the physical eye. This is the whole meaning of faith. The excellence of the object of faith is the unseen Jesus. While sense deals with things that are seen, reason is a higher plane. Faith, however, ascends further still, and assures us of abundance of particulars that sense and reason could never have found. “Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.”[22] Faith nourishes itself upon the power and promises of the Unseen, “I had fainted unless I had believed to see.”[23] We can understand, then, the logic and consistent purpose of why the Lord God forbids images.
Pictures and Movies That Break God’s Law and Defile God’s Grace
Evangelical churches demonstrate an ignorance of the meaning of the Second Commandment, which forbids using images to represent God.
“Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the LORD thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me; and showing mercy unto thousands of them that love me, and keep my commandments.”[24]
This commandment prohibits the creation and use of graven images. It essentially brings to mind that God is Spirit, not to be conceived of or fashioned in man’s image or any other creature’s image. In Deuteronomy 4:12-16 is found a parallel passage,
“And the LORD spake unto you out of the midst of the fire: ye heard the voice of the words, but saw no similitude; only ye heard a voice. And he declared unto you his covenant, which he commanded you to perform, even ten commandments; and he wrote them upon two tables of stone. And the LORD commanded me at that time to teach you statutes and judgments, that ye might do them in the land whither ye go over to possess it. Take ye therefore good heed unto yourselves; for ye saw no manner of similitude on the day that the LORD spake unto you in Horeb out of the midst of the fire: Lest ye corrupt yourselves, and make you a graven image, the similitude of any figure, the likeness of male or female.”
What is forbidden is the similitude of the Lord Himself. No similitude of the Divine was given to the people and none was to be made. In the New Testament we see that no “similitude” of Christ Jesus was given, and the commandment must remain unabridged. Any similitude or image of Father, Son, or Holy Spirit is sinful and insulting to the majesty of the Lord God. And what of those who seek balm for their conscience in preferring pictures over statues, as if the lack of one dimension, depth, transforms the image into a thing acceptable unto God? They well imagine that they have acted more nobly toward the Lord because theirs is not a “graven image.” It comforts them not to be upon the Roman road of idolatry, oblivious to the fact that they parallel it upon the Greek route.[25] God forbids the making of a likeness of anything. Therefore, it is a transgression of God’s law to make a “representation” or “semblance” of anything in heaven or upon the earth, to delineate God. He calls those who break this commandment “those who hate me,”[26] and those who keep the commandment, “those who love me.”[27] Punishment for iniquity is promised to the transgressors, while blessing is pledged to its adherents. From God’s perspective, idolatry is spiritual adultery; so, with the indignant reaction of a betrayed husband, He continues, “for I the LORD thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me.”[28]
The Lesson of the Golden Calf
The children of Israel languished in impatience and unbelief at the base of Mount Sinai, waiting for Moses, who seemingly would not return. Impatience grew into murmuring, murmuring into loud complaining. They had never seen God with their eyes; and now His anointed, “this Moses, . .we wot [know] not what is become of him.” He too, it appeared, had vanished, never to return. “Up,” they enjoined Aaron, “make us gods.” The natural yearning of their hearts demanded visible forms for religious expression and someone or something to lead them now that they believed Moses was gone. But there is a price to be paid; the pure must be forfeited to produce the crass. They must part with their gold and bring it to Aaron; he took it, “and fashioned it with a graving tool, after he had made it a molten calf: and they said, These be thy gods (Elohim), O Israel, which brought thee up out of the land of Egypt. And when Aaron saw it, he built an altar before it; and Aaron made proclamation, and said, Tomorrow is a feast to the LORD.” The children of Israel looked upon this idol and called it “Elohim …which brought thee up out of Egypt.” Aaron ratified this designation, for with the image as centerpiece, tomorrow would be a feast to Jehovah. But what did God see? The answer is given in Scripture, “They made a calf in Horeb and worshipped the molten image. Thus they changed their glory into the similitude of an ox that eateth grass; they forgat God their Savior, which had done great things in Egypt.”[29]
The Apostle Paul tells us that idolatry is changing, “the glory of the incorruptible God into an image made like unto corruptible man, and to birds, and to fourfooted beasts, and creeping things.[30] What was their glory, and is the Church’s glory, is in truth the glory of God Himself; and it cannot, and must not, be represented by an image of a man or a beast. God, knowing the evil inclinations of men, and their struggle to justify their ungodly deeds, especially those done in the name of religion has declared, “For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.”[31] Whatever theologians may debate concerning this verse, one thing is clear, if you give a physical representation to Christ’s face, then you have defined and defiled the glory of God. Whether a “man” or an “ox that eateth grass,” any attempt to replicate that glory, save that which God does Himself, is idolatry.
An Overview of the Christian History of Idolatry
The Apostles, whose gospels and epistles are the very oracles of God, are men who could say, “That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled, of the Word of Life,”[32] never give a physical description of Christ. Rather, they proclaimed what He said and what He did. They emphasize His death and resurrection, explaining the significance of these events, and the necessity of faith in them in order to be saved. The Apostle Paul pointedly states that we know Jesus no longer after the flesh,[33] He is now known through faith. Peter says of Christ, Whom having not seen, ye love, in Whom though now ye see Him not, yet believing, ye rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory. And men and women, regenerated by the Holy Spirit, exulted in the unseen Christ just as the Patriarchs had done in the unseen Jehovah; neither did they clamor for a description of the Lord. The New Testament’s muteness on this point is an essential compliance with the dictates of the Old Testament. Any other existing source claiming to provide a description of Christ is extracanonical.[34]
In the first two centuries of the Church, Christians did not use images to represent Christ. During this infancy of the Church, the early Christians would not bow to the image of Caesar or to any work of man’s hands. They had no images, statues, or pictures; they well understood that the God they worshiped would never have accepted such an affront, for He alone is God. How then did idolatry come into the Church? It was through a process of time, indifference, ignorance, and deceit. In the year 313 A.D., when the Roman Emperor Constantine declared Christianity to be the official religion of the Empire, pagans by governmental edict, and not regeneration, found themselves to being called “Christians.” Not knowing God or the Gospel, they flooded the Church, idols in their arms, in their homes, in their minds, and in their hearts. True believers, however, opposed pictures and statues as representing Christ. The controversy raged back and forth for several centuries, and there was much turmoil over the matter. In the midst of this battle, Pope Gregory the Great I (604) presented a seemingly innocent and compellingly plausible argument in their favor. He wrote to Bishop Serenus of Marseilles, who had destroyed the images in his diocese, “What books are to those who can read, that is a picture to the ignorant who look at it; in a picture even the unlearned may see what example they should follow; in a picture they who know no letters may yet read. Hence, for barbarians especially a picture takes the place of a book.”[35] Such carnal reasoning usurps authority from the Word of God. But in truth, if the illiterate cannot read, they can certainly “hear,” and “faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the Word of God,” because “it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe.” Then, in the year 754 A.D., a large council of bishops declared that such pictures are not biblical and therefore are not acceptable in the Church. Twenty-three years later, however, another council of bishops reversed that teaching. The Second Council of Nicea, which met in 787 A.D, required the use of pictures and statues as signifying Christ. This inexcusable idolatry of the Roman Catholic Church led into what is called the Dark Ages. When the Reformation came, and with it the true Gospel, there was also a condemnation of the evils of idolatry. To escape idolatry, many people left the Catholic Church, and Bible-based churches sprang up in many countries. At the time of the Reformation, both pastors and people realized that everything respecting God that is learned from images is both false and futile.
“O my people, they which lead thee cause thee to err and destroy the way of thy paths.”[36]
How did it come to this? It may well be argued that the spirit of Jezebel is alive in the Catholic Church, and that the Church is teaching God’s servants “to eat things sacrificed unto idols.”[37] As with any education, this one commences in the elementary grades: the decorative “religious” pictures, the carnal reasoning, the excuses and justification, and the assurance that the incipient deed will go no further. But the Catholic Church knows that every man is at heart an idolater, and it takes but a blink of the eye to go from hanging an image to bowing the knee. Thus, once the rudimentary lessons are learned and accepted, her students are almost certain to progress into a papal form of idolatry. Unless vigilance is exercised in guarding against that initial step, the conclusion is inevitable. Because Christ is the focus of true Christianity, any picture that attempts to portray Him becomes special in comparison to all others. Although the picture is not Christ, nor is it an honest replication of Him, eventually in the mind of observer it will be both. It must certainly be the latter initially, else why hang a picture of an unknown stranger upon the wall? Ask the owner of that picture, “Who is this?” and he shall answer without hesitation, and with no more proof than general consensus, “It is Jesus,” when in fact it is not, and thus it fulfills all the criteria necessary to qualify as an idol—a false representation of God. And because he is certain that this image is Jesus, he is bound by his respect for Christ to honor the picture, but “honor” will eventually give way to “reverence,” and “reverence” shall cede to “veneration.” Surely this is the curse that he binds about the necks of his children’s children’s children. It is to be feared that this warning will fall upon deaf ears. Many who call themselves Christian have a cavalier attitude toward the issue of idolatry. They rationalize using circular reasoning along these lines, “I am saved and I use pictures, movies, and videos of Christ; therefore, pictures, movies, and videos of Christ cannot be wrong for Christians.” Hence, God no longer is adjudicator of what is right and what is wrong; the creature is, while presuming upon the holy gift of salvation as a license to do his own pleasure. God’s Word ceases to be the basis for what is believed, but rather what is believed becomes the interpreter of God’s Word. In effect, the “Christian’s will” becomes the arbitrator that reins in and corrals, or confines, the truth of Scripture. How much easier is it then to relegate the Word of the Lord to the status of a “silent partner” when one adopts Catholicism’s official teaching, “By becoming incarnate, the Son of God introduced a new ‘economy’ of images”?[38] Sadly, it becomes much easier.
It seems that none of us is ever far from the taint of Egyptian idolatry. It cleaves to our garments, and it beckons us back during the night watches. Unless prayerful and vigilant, we succumb, perhaps not at once, but by moments and by steps. That which was an object of our indifference becomes a focus of our need. Mark this well: the pictures that this generation hangs in the temple will be the idols that the next generation shall worship. There is little hesitation to insert the adjective “sacred” before the word “picture,” and this provides the rationale for veneration. How many Christians have defended the concocted image of Christ adorning their wall by saying that they worship not the image but that which the image represents. Do they honestly believe by this false argument they honor God? Indeed, they speculate as the papists do today, and assume as the pagans did many centuries ago. The ancient pagans lived in societies awash with statues and shrines dedicated to each of their gods. These idolaters also believed that when they knelt before their effigies, they were worshipping the gods, which the image represented. No doubt this association, allied with natural superstition, imparted a conscious quality to the idol for the worshipper, but let this fact be counted a warning rather than a distinction. Does not the Church of Rome, where truth once again bows to superstition, claiming “miracles of animation” regarding their idols? Her votaries [public vows] have testified of statues that move, weep, and bleed.[39] This is the legacy of all idolatry.
What Then Should One Do?
As we read of the “high priest, who is set on the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in the heavens,”[40] and “the better promises”[41] that He has for His people in the New Covenant than in the Old, we have a great well-founded hope for true conviction on this fundamental issue. The promise given is explicit and most encouraging: “How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?”[42] The efficacy of Christ Jesus’ blood is very great. It is sufficient to reach to the very soul and conscience. A soul defiled with idolatry can be purged, its conscience relieved and enabled to serve the living God. The blood of Christ not only convicts through the gracious influences of the Holy Spirit, but it also absolves the true believer, enabling him to serve the living God in a worthy manner.
The Apostle Paul proceeded most strongly, calling on all to repent from the absurdity of idolatry. This is meant not simply those who knew it indeed was idolatry, but those who in ignorance did so: “And the times of this ignorance God winked at; but now commandeth all men every where to repent.”[43] Men greatly dishonor God if they make Him after the likeness of a mere human body. It is like unto the sin of apostasy, in that it puts Christ Jesus to open shame. Most beloved, to think that it is acceptable to present the Lord in imagined human flesh that is not His own glorified flesh is to engage in idolatry.
There is no higher obligation than to obey the command of God. It can be done. God does not expect the impossible. It is a fearful thing to think that some have concluded that this matter of idolatry is inconsequential. There will be no revival in the absence of the true Gospel. There will be no revival without sincere repentance for making and using images, which is the predominant sin of movies and pictures that portray the Lord Jesus Christ. ♦
“Little children, keep yourselves from idols.”[44]
Permission is also given post this article in its entirety on Internet WebPages. Our Website is: http://www.bereanbeacon.org
Pastor Randall Paquette may be contacted for preaching or speaking engagements at:
paquette@tds.net
[1] Isaiah 26:18
[2] God will cast all idolaters into “the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone, which is the second death.” Revelation 21:1-8; Acts 17:29-30; and Romans 1:22-25
[3] http://216.239.37.104/search?q=cache:l4a0QsT5bn8J 3/12/04
[4] http://www.pastornet.net.au/renewal/fire/ff-1700.htm 3/12/04
[5] II Corinthians 6:16
[6] Exodus 15:11
[7] Isaiah 46:9
[8] I Timothy 3:16
[9] Hebrews 2:14
[10] Colossians 2:9
[11] Habakkuk 2:18
[12] John 1:14; 14:9
[13] Hebrews 1:3
[14] Nestorianism is the heresy named after Nestorius who was born in Syria and died in 451 AD. He advocated the doctrine that Jesus had two distinct persons. The biblical solution to that controversy was stated at the Council of Ephesus (431 AD) when it was shown that Christ has two natures in His one person. On questions about whether the two natures can be merged into one, confused or separated, a later the Council of Chalcedon (451 AD) showed biblically that the two natures can never be confused with each other, nor can they be separated from each other.
[15] I John 5:20-21
[16] Zechariah 10:2
[17] Romans 1:21
[18] Romans 1: 22-23
[19] Isaiah 40:18
[20] Romans 12:2
[21] 2003 Reuters Limited 6/20/03
[22] Hebrews 11:1
[23] Psalm 27:13
[24] Exodus 20:4-6
[25] The Greek Orthodox honor and kiss icons. These are pictures and not statues. They state “use of icons was defended and upheld at the Seventh Ecumenical Council. The end of that council is still celebrated as the ‘Triumph of Orthodoxy’ in today, and icons remain a central part of Orthodox faith and practice.”
http://www.fact-index.com/e/ea/eastern_orthodoxy.html
[26] Exodus 20:5
[28] Exodus 20: 5
[29] Psalm.106: 19-21
[30] Roman 1:23
[31] II Corinthians 4:6
[32] I John 1:1
[33] II Corinthians 5:16“Therefore from now on we recognize no one according to the flesh; even though we have known Christ according to the flesh, yet now we know Him in this way no longer.”
[34] Not included in the canon of Scripture. Ex.: The Apocrypha is not included in the Protestant Bibles.
[35] Ep. ix, 105, in P. L., LXXVII, 1027 http://landru.i-link-2.net/shnyves/Catholic_Tradition_art.html 3/15/04
[36] Isaiah 3:12
[37] Revelation 2:20 She has plied her trade with unparalleled success, from Babylon to India. But her greatest achievement, the Church of Rome today, has its adherents kneel before a crucifix (which is an idol) whilst the priest raises before it an Eucharist, the oblation of the “bloodless” sacrifice of the Mass—and then amidst the orchestration of this solemn act, her votaries, in their turn, eat this thing sacrificed unto idols precisely as Rev.2:20 charges. But how did this come about? Not over night. Jezebel taught in stages commencing their education with the primary lessons: pictures hanging in homes to inspire, used to teach the illiterate, and statues used to represent, the “saints,” Christ, et al., and all to be pious ornaments in the churches, etc. But the end was inevitable. Rest assured, should the Lord tarry, the same Evangelical churches, which today tolerate pictures, will one day be having their communion with one on the table in front of the elements (perhaps some already do) and eventually will place it in a predella and bow before it and eat their bread. Those who forget history are doomed to repeat it. It is that same Jezebel who was “suffered” [tolerated] by the elders at Thyatira that is being tolerated in Evangelicalism today, and the result is assured.
[38] Catechism, Para 2131
[39] US News & World Report 3/ 29/ 93. “The case of the Weeping Madonna,” pp. 46-50
[41] Hebrews 8:6 “But now hath he obtained a more excellent ministry, by how much also he is the mediator of a better covenant, which was established upon better promises.”
[42] Hebrews 9:14
[43] Acts 17:30
[44] I John 5:21
December 29, 2015 Maria Tatham, a gentle iconoclast Auburn Avenue controversy, Berean Beacon, Biblical warning, Catholicism, Church history, Evangelicals & Catholics Together (ECT), idolatry, movies about Jesus, movies and pictures of Jesus Christ, New Perspective on Justification, Randall Paquette, reblog, reblogged, revival, Richard Bennett, Roman Catholic Church, the Great Awakening, The Passion of the Christ, the second commandment 26 Comments
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The Feminine Mys-beak; Analyzing the Role of the Female in “The Birds”
Flighty, predatory, territorial, aggressive, and cacophonous; no matter how Alfred Hitchcock’s 1963 film The Birds is dissected, it is remarkably obvious that the master auteur paints his notorious avian villains with such connotatively “negative” traits in mind. The scores of feathered specimens in The Birds take on a unique identity in what ultimately becomes a singular unified mass of a character, but what begins as a mere monstrous animal offensive on human victims instead becomes an symbolic examination of one of Hitchcock’s most consistently represented subjects; that of gender, particularly the female, and the implications which render her a weak, sexualized, “inferior” monstrosity within herself. From Hitchcock’s vast repertoire, we can extract films such as Psycho, and Frenzy, both at some point chronicling the death of a female (or females) murdered in a sexual context at the hands of a male. The woman, albeit possessing some agency throughout, ultimately succumbs to the male, a victim of his sexual insatiability, his sexual desires, and ultimately simply becoming “his” victim. The Birds, however, is slightly alternative to Hitchcock’s standard representations of the overt “male victimizing female” model by objectifying her sexual beauty, but also giving her “power,” yet funneling it into vicious, predatory outlets directed at other females. So, taking into consideration the basic premise of The Birds, how does Hitchcock engage the relationship between bird attacks and women and how does that relationship create a unique gendered ideology within the film?
The film’s narrative is simple, following Melanie Daniels (Tippi Hedren) as she travels from San Francisco to a small town of Bodega Bay, pursuing Mitch Brenner (Rod Taylor) in a petty bid for vengeance. There, she meets the women in Mitch’s life; Annie (his former lover), Lydia (his mother) and Kathy (his much younger sister), with the bird attacks occurring shortly after Melanie’s arrival. But it is not so much Melanie’s journey that’s the point of interest, but rather the gendered treatment of the female characters and their constant comparison to the birds, which come to symbolize issues of feminine anxiety.
Hitchcock does not present the female as free from sexual objectification and the film builds the relationship between the female and birds by working to “cage” the female and to “free” the birds. In this context, it is important to understand that the film’s most prominent female character, Melanie, is a victim of a scrutinizing male gaze which ultimately contributes to her “othering” and “blame” for the bird attacks which occur throughout the film. We are introduced to Melanie on the streets of San Francisco. In a long shot, we see her across the street from our vantage point as she confidently flaunts a short skirt, high heels, and an altogether unmistakably feminine “cosmopolitan” flair. She approaches a pet store just as a young boy passes by, whistling at her so his attraction to her is made clear. Melanie stops, turns to face the boy (and the camera), with a look of disgust, but ultimately smiles and “welcomes” the gesture which at once renders her an attractive female, but also imprisons her as a result of her overt beauty and sexual appeal. Melanie then looks to the sky at the large number of seagulls flocking above the city, the film’s first connection of female sexual objectification with the ominous gathering of the birds, associating an issue of feminine passivity (Melanie “welcomes” the whistle as she is adorned with quintessentially attractive “female” attire) with the presence of an unusually large congregation of birds. They are “free,” and Melanie is confined to a “cage” of male objectification, adorning herself with attractive clothing and indulging in the various catcalls she receives on the street. She is a pretty object, simply something to be looked at.
Melanie enters the pet store and, as she’s waiting for the clerk to make a phone call, also willingly “welcomes” another position a male (Mitch) places her in when he decides to treat her as if she were a store employee. Mitch’s introduction to Melanie recalls the opening shots of the film, giving the audience his perspective and framing her in a long shot at a slightly lower angle, emphasizing her elongated legs in a sexual fashion as she poses suggestively over the counter. Melanie plays along, pretending to know the answers to the questions Mitch asks about lovebirds he is looking to purchase for Kathy. He asks her if she feels awful about “keeping all of these poor little innocent creatures caged up like this,” to which she responds with “we can’t just let them fly around the shop, you know.” Melanie unknowingly incriminates her position as a “free” female within the context of the film, condemning her symbolic counterpart (the birds) to cages; the scene concludes when she lets a bird go from its cage, Mitch being the one who wrangles it back in, commanding “back in your gilded cage, Melanie Daniels!” after he successfully achieves what she (and the female shopkeeper) can’t.
It is revealed that Melanie is involved in an ongoing courtroom battle where she is accused of breaking a plate glass window after playing a prank on an unnamed party, with Mitch telling her that he came to the shop knowing she wasn’t an employee, instead hoping to turn the tables on her and make her the victim of a prank as well. Melanie’s pride is hurt, and she seeks to “one-up” Mitch so as not to let a man “win” over her, although her “place” as a passive woman controlled my males is further emphasized when she calls her father’s newspaper to track down Mitch’s license plate, referring to him as “daddy” and asking if he is “in his office,” indicating that her father possesses enough power to have his own office; it becomes clear that Melanie is a “Daddy’s Girl,” (in contrast to someone like Norman Bates as a “Mama’s Boy,” etc.) relying on her father for money and favors, further “caging” her and tying her to a male-dominated society where she can only become an active, assertive woman with the help of a more powerful male (in this case, that being her father and his newspaper, which will provide Melanie with information that will lead her to Mitch’s apartment with the lovebirds).
Another scene during the film’s opening visually (as well as figuratively) “cages” Melanie and her position as an attractive female. As Melanie approaches Mitch’s apartment building, we see only a medium shot of her legs, high heels, and the bottom portions of an elaborate fur coat and only a glimpse of her delicate gloved hand as it carries a cage with lovebirds inside (again, an overtly sexually suggestive shot emphasizing the slender, dainty proportions of her legs and hands). The framing fragments Melanie’s body into this singular image of fetishistic sexuality (high heels, slender legs, etc.), imprisoning only a sexualized portion of her for us to see. As the camera follows her to the elevator, we see a man’s feet and legs standing inside as she enters, panning up to reveal a middle aged man staring blankly down at either the birds or Melanie’s legs (this is never clarified). He looks up to her face and the camera follows, revealing a determined woman oblivious to the fact that she has just been “checked out.” As the elevator doors open, we return to the fragmented shot of Melanie’s legs and the birdcage, alternating with close up shots of the man’s head as he follows her out of the elevator, looking her up and down. He’s ambiguously either piqued by the presence of the birds being carried by such a well-dressed woman, enamored with Melanie’s beauty, or perhaps both. He informs her that Mitch will not be around for a few days to retrieve the birds she’s left on his doorstep, sending Melanie into another petty quest for vengeance by traveling over 60 miles to Bodega Bay, where Mitch is visiting family.
Melanie’s journey to Bodega Bay not only serves as an advancement of the film’s plot, but also displaces her physically from the comforts of the city which cages her. She leaves San Francisco to drive nearly two hours only to prove a point; that she will not be trumped by a man and that she will have the last laugh, which is in itself a devious, spiteful approach that speaks volumes about Melanie’s desire for attention and scandal, bringing it upon herself to physically carry out her feelings of attention depravity and resentment of dominant personalities that encroach upon her own.
Static, extreme long shots frame her car as it traverses the coastline, rendering her miniscule presence amidst the landscape as invasive yet unimportant seeing as her goal is to achieve something extremely juvenile. She is similarly “othered” by the townspeople, seeing as the upon Melanie’s arrival at Bodega Bay she is objectified yet again for her cosmopolitan, dainty appearance in a fur coat and high heels (a store clerk asks her if she’s ever manned a boat before and is shocked to find that she has, offers to order the boat for her, doesn’t charge her for his services, etc.).
Melanie’s initial meeting with Annie, Mitch’s former lover, also “others” her, but not in a way that suggests she is being scrutinized for “arousing” the person who views her as occurred with the boy on street, the shopkeeper, etc.. However, it is because of Melanie’s sexual attractiveness that makes Annie probe her with questions concerning her reasons for traveling to Bodega Bay. When Melanie reveals to her that she isn’t “exactly” there to see Kathy, Annie rolls her eyes and responds with a knowing “Oh,” turns away from Melanie, and stares out into the bay as she asks if Melanie is “a ‘friend’ of Mitch’s.” The camera quickly zooms in on Melanie’s face, which gives a mischievous grin, an inclination that she knows she’s hit a sore subject with Annie (perhaps a romantic past? We are to believe this is the case). She tells her “No, not really,” knowing the answer sounds ambiguous and therefore eliciting feelings of jealousy on Annie’s part. This is a gender-specific case of jealousy between two heterosexual women, one a former object of his desire and one his future object (at this time, unbeknownst to us or to her). Regardless, Annie recognizes Melanie’s attractive qualities and is resentful of Melanie’s position.
Shortly after, Melanie follows through with her plan to leave the lovebirds inside Mitch’s house. It is here that the film begins to more clearly connect the negative elements of female psychology with the seemingly erratic, nonsensical bird attacks. The initial bird attack speaks to Melanie’s initial intrusive “othering” by the townspeople, but also as a representative reflection of her emotional psychology. Since Melanie has “won” the prank war with Mitch, she has essentially “proven” that she is the dominant force in the male-female dynamic of this specific instance. Hitchcock, never one to allow an assertive, dominant female to truly “succeed” in a vast majority of his films, pits her as the victim of a lone seagull attack as she boats away from the Brenner dock. Melanie and the bird are essentially one and the same. Something that was once “passive” and meant only to be an object of beauty viewed in a cage has now turned into something beastly and offensive, just as Melanie’s existence as a beautiful woman has allowed her petty revenge plot to “succeed” (would the clerk have helped her get a boat if she was an ugly old woman? Would the man in the apartment have paid enough attention to her to know she was dropping the birds off at Mitch’s house if she were any less attractive?), she’s also placed herself back into the cage of sexual objectification and juvenility, eliciting the audience’s distaste at her petty character just as fear is provoked by the normally “passive” seagull.
As Mitch tends to Melanie’s wounds in a shorefront diner, we are introduced to his mother, Lydia, who greets Melanie with a skeptical stare that indicates her initial wariness and unease at the thought of Mitch pairing with such a strikingly beautiful woman. It’s eventually revealed that Lydia has seen Melanie in various gossip columns within newspapers attempting to cast scandalous light on the daughter of a competing newspaper’s owner. In essence, Melanie is used as a business tool (another object in a “game” of sorts, which similarly calls for a certain type of scrutinizing “gaze” to be cast in her direction), which works because Lydia reveals that she’s uneasy with Mitch being so fond of a girl who was reportedly swimming naked in a fountain in Rome. It is also revealed that Lydia is a widow, Mitch’s father having died years prior to the film’s narrative. She is therefore, like Annie, a single woman who is seemingly jealous of the affections Mitch shows for the attractive Melanie (and we, as an audience, are more perceptive of the disapproving looks she constantly throws in Melanie’s direction).
Both Lydia and Annie, as indicated during their initial meeting of Melanie, possess a different type of gaze in opposition to the sexual one many of the males in the film possess. Their gaze is predatory, prying, and judgmental; like a bird of prey sizing up its competition or meal. Annie scrutinizes Melanie’s good looks and cosmopolitan charm in a matter of seconds, jumping to the conclusion that she must be romantically involved with Mitch (why else would an attractive woman be looking for him?), and Lydia’s disapproving stares (and all-seeing “perspective” on Melanie’s life she’s formed by reading the gossip columns) indicate a female-on-female gaze in the film that demarcates the mysterious, suppressed, often vicious underlying feminine psychological and/or emotional relationships Hitchcock creates between these three women.
Delving deeper into the psyche of the female characters, during a conversation that begins as Annie sets down a newspaper she reads (perhaps one of the gossip columns that mentions Melanie?), she reveals to Melanie that Lydia is fearful of being abandoned (presumably, she does not think a female can survive on her own) not in fact simply “jealous,” but rather afraid that a woman could give Mitch the one thing she couldn’t; love. Annie says that Lydia felt uncomfortable around her during their relationship “simply because I [Annie] existed.” Annie also says that she still lives in Bodega Bay simply to be near Mitch. Essentially, Annie is a perceptive, insecure woman just as Lydia is. She removed herself from the urban center of San Francisco (something Melanie finds extremely odd. Why would a woman want to live in a despicable place like Bodega Bay?) because she can’t let go of the feelings she has for a man, the very act of abandonment Lydia fears will happen to her if the right woman gives Mitch “love.” Hitchcock weaves these three women into one of his classic “erotic triangles,” (although this time it is reversed, considering the females pursue the male’s affections). Lydia and Annie simply desire his presence while Melanie eventually desires him as a romantic partner (or does she simply desire a challenge where she can assert herself over the other two women she competes against?).
Each of these instances is directly tied to “female” issues; Melanie refuses to be shown up by a man and travels to Bodega Bay; Annie and Lydia feel resentful of Mitch’s growing affection for Melanie, etc. It is only after Hitchcock’s exploration of the feminine psychology revolving around each woman’s “attraction” to Mitch that the frequency and severity of the bird attacks increase. Prior to the attack on Kathy’s birthday party, Melanie and Mitch retreat from the other guests to a hilltop overlooking the ocean, where they discuss Melanie’s lack of a strong mother figure in her life and what she does with her free time (it amounts to nothing more than taking a class and working one day a week while having the others “free”). Hitchcock abruptly cuts the audience loose from the conversation, choosing to pan down the hill to Annie’s face in a medium shot as it views the pair on the hill with a set of judgmental eyes (the “predatory” female gaze returns). As Annie looks away, Lydia steps into frame behind her, similarly casting a judgmental glance at the couple on the hill (her “predatory” female gaze). These two characters, despite having a similar goal, are aligned together in their positioning (both facing the same direction, sharing the screen, participating in the same act of “gazing” in a non-sexual, predatory manner at the same subject) and therefore aligned “against” or “offensive” in relation to Melanie’s passive or “defensive” unknowing reception of their gaze.
Immediately after we see Lydia gazing upon Melanie and Mitch, the flock of seagulls begins their attack on the children. Hitchcock offers no concrete explanation for the attack, only leaving the audience with visual clues (Annie and Lydia judgmentally gazing, the context within which they gaze, the previous night’s conversation between Annie and Melanie, etc.) that function to pair the attacks with some sort of female-related anxieties. Recall the first bird attack which occurs shortly after Melanie places the birds inside the Brenner home, which positions her as a dominant woman who lacks submissive qualities. Similarly, recall the seagull that smashes into Annie’s door as she coaxes Melanie to attend Kathy’s birthday party (we are to assume she intends to spite Lydia). While the characters can see no pattern to the attacks, to the viewer their seemingly “nonexistent” patterns are inextricably related to issues of feminine sexual jealousy or possessiveness thanks to their parallel positioning. The origins of which, however, remain completely ambiguous; Hitchcock is not a woman, therefore he knows nothing about what a woman “really” thinks. Perhaps the cacophonous sounds of a woman’s prying anxieties (Mitch indicates that he is working on a case where a woman was murdered because she changed the channel while her husband was watching “the game,” a quintessentially “male” thing to do) or petty (as he sees them) are symbolized by the erratic structure of the bird attacks and their similarly cacophonous squawking. He can only observe feminine psychology concerning their passive position or their relation to other women in a bid to “gain” a man’s affection. Hitchcock, instead of trying to get “inside” feminine psychology and “explain” it overtly to the audience, instead directly parallels his female characters with the literal “monstrous others” of the film (the birds) by associating instances of human female ruthlessness, jealousy, scrutiny, clinginess, and territorialism with similar (albeit literal) offensive attacks taken by the birds that only seem to proceed feminine emotional displays.
The next bird attack follows a similar pattern. Kathy suggests that Melanie stay the night at the Brenner home while Lydia fumbles through what seems to be dozens of reasons why that’s not a good idea (after throwing Kathy a disapproving look, of course). A few seconds later, a cascade of sparrows flows from the chimney into the living room. This marks a shift in location of the bird attacks, seeing as they’re now inside the family’s domain to mimic Kathy’s welcoming of Melanie into their home. After the attack, the camera follows Lydia as she laments over broken dishes and household objects destroyed during the assault. A police officer offers justification for the attacks, but the camera remains fixated on Lydia as she traverses the mess. She asserts that the birds “attacked,” although the officer quickly offers up a logical alternative (“the kids probably scared them, that’s all” he says) that discredits Lydia’s position and renders her opinion inferior. The camera remains focused on Lydia (despite the officer, who is speaking, still standing near the center of the room where our focus “should” be) as she makes her way over to a picture of her dead husband that looms over the scene. It’s tilted slightly as a result of the attack, harboring one of the dead sparrows atop it, further indicating that the home is completely off-kilter and “broken” both physically and emotionally. The once-present patriarch is now simply an image perched on the wall, useless save for its power to remind Lydia that her home was once shared, presumably equally, with a man who provided her with stability and reassurance. Melanie, after seeing how distraught Lydia is (and assumedly recalling Annie’s words), sees an opportunity to assert herself as an alpha female and tells Mitch she’ll spend the night, much to Lydia’s dismay. Now that Melanie has “invaded” Lydia’s home and threatens her relationship with Mitch, it becomes clear that the presence of the female coupled with some sort emotional disturbance acts as a catalyst for the bird’s behavior.
Lydia’s psychological dependence on the male presence in her life is further emphasized in a scene which sees her travelling to a male acquaintance’s house. As she approaches the door in a medium shot, her face is reflected in a nearby window, projecting her image literally on to a surface of the house. Essentially, the house represents a familial domain or safe haven similar in nature to the way Lydia views her own home. When she knocks on the door, her friend does not answer. She enters the house, passing by a set of broken glassware that’s shattered almost exactly as hers was the previous night. The camera movements mimic Lydia’s anxiety, zooming in on the broken glasses, cautiously peering over the wall to reveal a long hallway. She travels down the hall and enters her friend’s room, the camera mimicking a shot-reverse shot “conversation” between Lydia and the gruesome discovery she makes. The camera systematically reveals more of the room as Lydia “discovers” it, always cutting back to her anxiety-ridden face from scenes of dead birds and a disheveled room. The final shot of the sequence frames her friend, dead, in a long shot, a series of jump cuts forcing our perspective closer to the empty sockets where the man’s eyes once were. Lydia, in shock, retreats back through the house (each shot that preceded the discovery is again repeated as she leaves, save for Lydia retreating through the house instead of making her way deeper into it), indicating that this has happened once and it can (and most likely will) happen again. After all, this is a male who fell victim to the birds in a house that, by all means, could house a family as Lydia’s does. Lydia values the strength and reassurance a male’s presence provides her with, and for the birds to have killed a man inside his own home makes Lydia feel even more susceptible.
Perhaps the scene which incriminates the female the most occurs as Melanie makes her way to the diner to report the attacks to her father via telephone. A shrill old ornithology expert contest Melanie’s claims that the birds launched an attack, telling her that birds “bring beauty into the world,” but just as she says that a waitress’ voice drowns the utterance out, proclaiming the order of “three fried chickens with a baked potato on each!” The irony here seems to be that while birds are generally objects of passive beauty, humans cannot help themselves from “caging” them and killing them for their own consumption, just as Hitchcock is doing here with women; he “cages” Melanie as a victim of the male gaze because of her sexual attractiveness and similarly incriminates Lydia for being a clingy, doting woman who’s self-proclaimed most intense pleasure in life was making her late husband breakfast (essentially taking pleasure in “serving” the male).
As the old woman continues to contest Melanie’s claims, a mother asks a waitress if she’ll tell the gathering crowd to lower their voices because they’re scaring her children. More residents offer their opinions on the matter, with one proclaiming that it’s “the end of the world!” Eventually, the anxiety spreads to many of the patrons, with the mother eventually scaring herself so badly that she makes a scene and leaves, only to return minutes later after the birds begin another attack. Again, Melanie has caused a panic amongst a group of people; each of them listened to her claims about the bird attacks, and shortly thereafter an attack occurred. Melanie and Mitch make their way back to the restaurant after attempting to flee to find a small group of people huddled in a corner towards the back of the building. Each of them is unmistakably female. The mother approaches Melanie and accuses her of bringing the birds to the town, asking her “Who are you? What are you?” It takes another female to see that Melanie is the vessel for destruction, whose petty act of vengeance and sly attempts at challenging other females’ positions with Mitch.
This scene is the closest that Hitchcock comes to presenting the audience with clear cut reasoning for the bird attacks by placing the blame, at least in a character’s eyes, on Melanie. As a result of the aforementioned tensions between the most prominent females in the film and their close relationship with the bird attacks, women are meant to be viewed as the “monstrous other” instead of the actual non-human creatures who physically threaten the people of Bodega Bay. The birds are simply symbolic of the interior convolution of Melanie, Lydia, and Annie as each woman attempts to subvert another’s position, primarily revolving around each of their relationships with Mitch. In essence, the female does not literally transform into the monster, but her actions are presented as harbingers of doom, of bringing the bird attacks with her like a storm cloud following overhead.
It is interesting to note, then, that Annie is the only focal character to die by the film’s end. She is the most passive of the three women, only acting in reactionary and defensive terms when she feels that Melanie could potentially begin a relationship with Mitch. After all, Annie tells Melanie that she has accepted that her relationship with Mitch is over, but that she can’t bear the thought of losing him as a friend, which is why she’s removed herself from the cosmopolitan center of San Francisco (where a woman like Melanie thrives on fashion, fun, and meaningless activities like taking a once-weekly course in “rhetoric”) and placed herself directly in reach of Mitch, who never fully acknowledges his past with her. Annie is still jealous of Melanie and Mitch, yet dies because her bitter, spiteful feelings are not as intensely domineering or predatory as those of Melanie and Lydia, respectively. Annie succumbs to the fact that Melanie and Mitch are entering into the early stages of a courtship (whether it’s sexual or relationship-oriented), and therefore dies because she cannot accept it, further painting the picture of a woman as dependent on a male’s affection in order to “live” even after their romantic entanglement has ended. Since the bird attacks are ultimately pinned on Melanie’s presence in the town, it can be argued that Melanie inadvertently “killed” Annie.
All of this culminates in the final attack sequence. Mitch, Lydia, Kathy, and Melanie are holed up inside the Brenner home when it begins. Mitch, the only male, takes control of the situation by boarding up the outside and barricading all windows and doors with the necessary protection to keep the invaders “out” of the house. If we are to believe that someone like Melanie or Lydia is actually the “cause” for the attacks (as the mother in the diner accuses Melanie of), then Mitch fails to realize that the threat has been inside his home the whole time. Melanie remains silent as the birds attack, cowering on the couch as the intense cacophony of screeches and squawks sound overhead, engulfing the house and bearing down on the psyche of both Lydia and Melanie, whose faces share similar expressions of anguished defeat. Mitch leaves the now-helpless women in the parlor as he makes his way about the house, closing shutters that have come open and barricading doors the birds are diligently pecking through, again (recalling the opening sequence of the film) accomplishing what the females can’t; protecting the house. The scene also recalls the opening sequence by essentially reversing Mitch’s observations about the cruelty of keeping birds in a cage. Now that the female relations in the film have come to a terrifying head, the humans are the ones forced into a “cage” by the birds, seen as a direct result of the female tensions which occurred throughout the film.
The final moments of the film see Melanie attacked and crippled by birds that managed to find their way to a bedroom upstairs. The Brenners decide to leave the house as they are too vulnerable if another attack should come. The film gives the audience a small shred of hope, though. The group makes their way to the car and Melanie sits in the back seat with Lydia. A close up shot shows Melanie as she looks up into Lydia’s eyes as they stare down at her with a pitiful sense of reassurance. Melanie finds comfort in the gaze (which replaces the “predatory” female gaze seen earlier in the film) that resonates as motherly, and she nestles her head into Lydia’s neck as if she’s found the mother she never had growing up. An extreme long shot shows the car as it drives away, a glimmer of sunlight peeking through the clouds as hordes of birds cover the ground. The light represents a divine sense of hope for the family, especially now that one of the most turbulent female relationships within the film has been “fixed,” or codified as “acceptable,” although there is a misogynistic tone that suggests that the females are still responsible seeing as the hope symbolized by the ray of light comes only after they reconcile their relationship, indicating that it is indeed a sour female relationship that instigated the attacks.
It is through these kinds of depictions of female relationships throughout the film that make The Birds one of Hitchcock’s most violently misogynistic entries into his filmography. It is clear that females are much more “observant” in the film, like birds, and keep watch on each other and their romantic partners (even the mother in the restaurant is the first to accuse Melanie of being “responsible” for the whole thing, and the vicious feminine gaze is embodied not only by Lydia and Annie but by each of the women who seek refuge in the restaurant). The film functions to characterize the birds (and their attacks) alongside the females, positioning each bird attack either directly after or just prior to a scene that exposes some sort of deep-seated issue concerning an emotional, sexual, or relationship-oriented anxiety that stems from a uniquely feminine perspective. Whether it’s the jealousy Annie feels when she glances at Mitch and Melanie conversing on a hilltop or Melanie’s juvenile attempt to get the last laugh with a petty practical joke, Hitchcock portrays his female characters in a critical way, indicating that they are the harbingers of doom and destruction as a result of their mysterious emotional and psychological activity their perceived “freedom” affords them, and actively seeks to “ground” or “cage” them as objects of beauty meant, quite simply, only to be looked at.
Posted in Film, Film Essays/Analysis and tagged Alfred Hitchcock, Analysis, Analyze, Essay, Female, film, Hitchcock, Rod Taylor, Summary, Suzanne Pleshette, Synopsis, The Birds, Tippi Hedren on April 24, 2012 by Joey Nolfi. 1 Comment
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News | Social Affairs
Welfare Changes Causing Anxiety for Jobseekers
Monday, 1st October 2018 at 3:23 pm
Misinformation and confusion about changes to participation requirements for welfare recipients is causing anxiety and concern for jobseekers.
Monday, 1st October 2018
The federal government recently increased the amount of time older jobseekers must spend on activities such as work-for-the-dole, paid or voluntary work, and training.
But Volunteering Australia acting CEO Lavanya Kala told Pro Bono News communication to jobseekers and service providers on the changes had been poor.
“The volunteering sector has received many enquiries from confused people who have received contradictory information, unsure where to seek the correct information and who are worried about their payments being affected,” Kala said.
“[Even though] there has been months to prepare and communicate to the public about what the changes are, how they will be introduced and who will be affected.”
As of September 20, job seekers aged 55 to 59 who previously had to do 30 hours per fortnight of voluntary work, must now do at least half of these hours as paid work.
Those aged 30 to 49 will need to work for 50 hours a fortnight rather than 30. And those over 60 will for the first time have to work 10 hours per fortnight.
Kala said jobseekers were cutting back their volunteer hours in fear of not meeting their obligations and losing income support.
“Service providers engaged with employment services state there is a lack of clarity on the changes and varying information coming from Centrelink,” Kala said.
“This is not only having an impact on jobseekers who find engaging in volunteering deeply beneficial, but organisations reliant on the generous contributions of volunteers.”
A spokesperson for the Department of Jobs and Small Business, which maintains the policy, told Pro Bono News the department has put in a number of measures to help jobseekers understand the changes.
This includes sending SMS messages to those potentially affected, providing staff at its national customer service line with information on how the changes could apply to jobseekers, and publishing the changes in advance online.
“The [department] is constantly monitoring and, if necessary, reviewing information on its and other Australian government websites to ensure that information provided to people looking for work is as accurate and up-to-date as possible,” the spokesperson said.
Kala said while Volunteering Australia appreciated attempts were now being made to update information and redirect enquiries, more could be done.
“We would like to see communications circulated nationally to inform both the public and service providers about the changes,” she said.
“Our goal is that jobseekers, service providers and volunteer involving organisations are not adversely affected by the changes.”
Luke Michael | Journalist | @luke_michael96
Luke Michael is a journalist at Pro Bono News covering the social sector.
Tags : Department of Jobs and Small Business, Jobseekers, Lavanya Kala, Volunteering Australia, Welfare,
Australia’s welfare system failing to protect vulnerable people
Wednesday, 4th December 2019 at 4:27 pm
‘Diversity, power, purpose’: Discover new ways of harnessing the power of volunteering
Thursday, 28th November 2019 at 7:30 am
Five charts on what a Newstart recipient really looks like
Wednesday, 30th October 2019 at 3:56 pm
We rise and fall together
Andrew Cairns
Thursday, 17th October 2019 at 7:30 am
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Garrett Albistegui Adler
Ph.D. Student in Environment and Resources
M.A., Stanford University, Political Science (2018)
M.A., Columbia University, Climate and Society (2016)
M.S.Ed., The City College of New York, Middle School Science Education (2012)
B.A., Brown University, International Relations (2009)
Kenneth Schultz, Doctoral (Program)
Marshall Burke, Doctoral (Program)
gadler7@stanford.edu
University - Student Department: Emmett Interdisciplinary Program in Environment and Resources Position: Graduate
After six years teaching science at a public school in the Bronx, Garrett returned to the student-side of the classroom to pursue research at the intersection of two fields that had always piqued his interest: Earth system science and international relations/security. As a third-year interdisciplinary PhD student, Garrett is working to build facility with cutting edge quantitative social science methods, while exploring the literatures related to environmental change, comparative politics, political and economic development and the causes of violent conflict.
If climate variability (and possibly climate change), is indeed causally linked to conflict, what mechanisms are behind such links? Garrett hopes to identify plausible causal pathways and then provide empirical evidence to compellingly support or falsify them. If we can correctly identify the mechanisms that link climate and conflict, we can better tailor policies to block these links and reduce the likelihood that future climate variability or change will engender more damaging conflict.
Middle and High School Science Teacher, MS/HS 223: The Laboratory School of Finance and Technology (September 1, 2009 - June 30, 2015)
I was a middle and high school science teacher for six years at an NYC Department of Education public school in the Bronx. For the first five years I taught middle school general science and for the last one I taught tenth grade Earth science.
360 EAST 145 STREET, Bronx, NY
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Home Magazine Colombia’s New Killing Spree
Colombia’s New Killing Spree
The war is over, but its legacy remains—and human rights advocates are being targeted.
by Kimberley Brown
Kimberley Brown
Clemencia Carabali has received death threats for her activism working for women and Afro-Colombian rights in the north of the department of Cauca.
In June, Clemencia Carabali received her first death threat this year. She was in her office planning workshops for the local community, when an unknown man called her personal phone and told her she had until 5 p.m. that day to leave the territory, or be killed. Then he hung up.
The call might have been enough to make some people flee, but the sturdy Carabali stayed put. The human rights defender has long been working with Afro-descendent communities in the north of Cauca, a department along Colombia’s Pacific coast. She teaches them about their rights, and how to legally defend and reclaim territories that were violently taken from them during the country’s five-decade civil war.
“We’re trying to plant a small seed so that something changes,” Carabali tells me in an interview at her office in July. “If we don’t do it for ourselves, nobody will do it for us.”
But her decision to stay in Cauca doesn’t mean she’s not afraid. Her voice drops when she speaks about the phone call, and she is not allowed to tell details about two other death threats she has received since then, both of which are currently under police investigation.
“It’s really hard . . . because we know that this is a sign of the hard times that are coming,” she says, staring into the distance.
These kinds of threats are taken very seriously in Colombia, where it is becoming increasingly dangerous to be a human rights advocate. Since the government and members of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, signed a historic peace agreement in 2016, ending more than a half century of war, at least 340 social leaders have been assassinated. Among those killed are human rights advocates, indigenous and Afro-Colombian leaders, local politicians, leftist professors, and journalists.
“It’s really hard . . . because we know that this is a sign of the hard times that are coming,”
One of the most recent documented cases is a leader among the indigenous Nasa people, Holmes Alberto Niscue, a longtime advocate for indigenous land rights. He was killed by three gunshot wounds to the head in front of his home in Tumaco, in the department of Nariño, only 200 meters from a local police station. Afro-Colombian leader and avid defender of natural resources Luis Alberto Rivas Gómez was also killed by hired gunmen near his home in the department of Antioquia in August.
The assassinations have caused alarm among the international community, with everyone from Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, and the United Nations denouncing the killings and demanding that the Colombian government do more to protect human rights workers, including strengthening its justice system.
Even the United States, long a close ally of Colombia and its largest contributor of both humanitarian aid and military funding, has spoken out about the abuse. During the last session of the United Nations’ Universal Periodic Review, U.S. State Department official Huda Ibrahim told Colombian officials that the United States was “concerned” about these threats to human rights workers and the high rate of impunity for their murders. She also recommended that Colombia promptly hold guilty parties accountable and intensify their investigations around these cases.
Gimena Sánchez-Garzoli, the director for the Andes at the Washington Office on Latin America, a nonprofit advocacy group, traces the problem to deeply rooted structural issues within Colombia, including a criminal justice system that is “just failing people, especially when it comes to arresting those who commit attacks against [human rights] defenders.”
The Colombian government has recognized and denounced these assassinations, while authorities claim they have made progress in nearly 50 percent of investigations, though it is unclear how many actual convictions this has led to.
The government denies there are any systemic problems behind the violence. It claims the assassinations can be explained by the rise of criminal organizations and narco-traffickers that have gained strength and territory since the FARC demobilized.
But the real explanation is likely much more complicated.
Colombia’s wave of assassinations, attacks, and threats against social leaders, observers say, are being carried out by paramilitary groups and hired gunmen.
“The fact that there are existent remnant paramilitary groups, something that Colombia has denied exists, is a problem,” says Sánchez-Garzoli, adding, “They’re a problem, and they’re a major threat because they are able to kill all of these people.”
Colombian paramilitary groups were created in waves in the 1980s and 1990s by companies and government agencies looking for extra security against leftwing guerrilla groups; over the years, they became more violent and committed thousands of human rights abuses. Officially, they demobilized between 2002 and 2006 after negotiations with the government, which is why the state refuses to acknowledge that they exist.
But according to international watch bodies and the communities that have lived through successive waves of violence, these groups simply came back under new names.
A joint report released in February by Colombian think tank Dejusticia, Oxford University, and other institutions found that more than 800 businesses hired paramilitary groups over the years since demobilization. In several cases, this involved paying these armed men to target social and union leaders who clashed with their business model, says the report. The service became instrumental for local businesses.
The government’s failure to acknowledge the existence of remnant paramilitary forces is making the problem harder to address.
These groups were also politically and financially backed by major politicians including former Colombian President Álvaro Uribe, who is also the mentor and close ally of the new President Iván Duque, who took office in August. Many of these politicians, including Uribe, are under investigation for these alleged connections.
According to Sánchez-Garzoli, the government’s failure to acknowledge that these paramilitary forces exist is making the problem harder to address. “Just seeing them as criminal bands or criminals linked to narco-trafficking is really simplifying who they are,” she says.
“They are obviously targeting people who are seen as a threat politically, or a threat economically, because [the victims] are trade unionists or they’re fighting against a dam or . . . they’re Afro-descendent or indigenous and don’t want to give up their land.”
Between the years 2007 and 2009, after the demobilization, human rights defenders, union leaders, community leaders, and journalists were widely targeted by paramilitary forces. High-ranking government officials accused these leaders of collaborating with FARC guerrillas, thus discrediting their work and making them vulnerable to arrests and attacks.
Today, the targets of these attacks are not just people who espouse a leftist ideology but also those trying to defend their territory or make land claims—which is encouraged by the rural reforms laid out in the final peace deal.
Approximately eight million hectares of land were stolen during Colombia’s civil war. Researchers say the vast majority of this area was taken by paramilitary groups (with the FARC responsible for only 6.25 percent of all stolen property), who then sold it to ranchers, miners, large landowners, or multinationals, leaving millions of small farmers homeless. The peace process aims to rectify this by redistributing land to farmers and communities whose territory was stolen.
But Ariel Ávila, a journalist and investigator with the Peace and Reconciliation Foundation in Bogotá, says this is a problem for those who don’t want to give up their acquired territory.
“Much of this [stolen] land now rests in the hands of business owners and politicians.”
“Much of this [stolen] land now rests in the hands of business owners and politicians,” Ávila says. “These people are scared of truth and do not want to give back the land they stole.” He believes these are the people behind the mass killings of social leaders.
The violence against social leaders, Ávila says, is being carried out in areas where the fighting during the war was strongest. This is where more people had been dispossessed from their land, and where the illicit economy—such as illegal mining and coca farming—is still strong.
The north of Cauca is among the most deadly regions for human rights defenders. Carabali says several of her colleagues have been killed over the last couple of years, including Afro-descendent and indigenous leaders fighting against both illegal mining and large scale mining companies in their territory.
Under former President Juan Manuel Santos, various mechanisms were created to address this rise in violence against human rights defenders. These included a special investigation unit with the national police and another unit with the district attorney’s office to follow up on these crimes.
While these are positive changes, officials must make more of an effort to target the “intellectual authors” behind the assassinations, rather than those who carry out the crime, Ávila says.
Earlier this year, seventy-three members of the U.S. Congress signed a letter to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo urging the U.S. government to put more pressure on Colombia. This included urging the South American country to intensify its investigations and prosecution efforts, “to swiftly bring to justice those who plan and orchestrate these murders, and not just the ‘triggermen’ who execute the killings.”
President Duque has also vowed to take the issue seriously and take concrete steps to address it. But many Colombians are skeptical, considering his close ties with Uribe and the landowning class.
Carabali, for her part, is not optimistic that changes will come with this new government, saying her memories of terror during the Uribe era are still too present.
Indeed, many people in Duque’s government have criticized human rights defenders. Senator Maria Fernanda Cabal called them “lazy,” and Senators Carlos Felipe Mejía and María del Rosario Guerra publicly criticized a march held on August 8 to denounce the mass killings.
But she does plan on continuing her work in the north of Cauca. She feels that the United Nations, the national police force, and her colleagues are all looking out for her, waiting to report on anything suspicious. This is all she can do until the government actually creates the conditions for peace, by following through on the provisions in the peace plan to redistribute land and increase real equality and opportunities for people in rural areas.
“We have been trying to build peace, the others have brought us war,” Carabali says. “That’s what we live in Colombia, a war that isn’t ours.”
Magazine OctoberNovember 2018 War And Peace Colombia
Kimberley Brown is a freelance journalist based in Ecuador, covering regional human rights issues. See more of her work at www.kimberleyjbrown.com or on Twitter @kimberleyjbrown.
Read more by Kimberley Brown
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Radamel Falcao Garcia Zarate
Current Club: AS Monaco.
Previous Clubs: Atletico Madrid, Porto, River Plate.
Loan Clubs: Chelsea, Manchester United.
International: Colombia 81 caps 32 goals.
Trophies Won: Spanish Cup 2012/13. French Ligue 1 2016/17. Portugese League 2010/11, 2011/12. Portugese Cup 2010, 2011. Europa League 2010/11, 2011/12. UEFA Supercup 2012/13. Argentinian League 2008. Portugese Super Cup 2010, 2011, 2012.
Top Scorer: Europa League 2010/11, 2011/12. Spanish League 2011/12. Portugese League 2010/11.
A few years ago Falcao was the best centre forward in the game, then injuries badly affected him and it looked like he was finished. His loan spells at Man Utd and Chelsea showed a forward who was a shadow of the player he once was, though there were a few signs of recovery towards the end of his time with Chelsea.
However he has never returned to the heights of his days before the injury. Now he is much more careful with his movement, making less runs than he would have previously, allowing defenders more time to organise and set themselves for them. Falcao's acceleration and pace has never fully recovered either, though he does still have the knack for getting in the right positions, he is not always able to get to the ball in time.
While he is not as deadly as he once was, Falcao has still managed to notch 10 goals so far this season in a struggling Monaco side. His movement is still excellent, allowing him to find space, but it is now as much about creating chances, rather than making chances. That worked particularly well when Kylian Mbappe was alongside him using his pace to push back opposition defences and open up space ahead of them for Falcao to utilise.
He still works hard and he has improved in the air and strengthened his frame, as well as gained experience which allows him to be more help to the young players around him, to guide them and help them. Now Falcao is a leader in the squad, a captain, who leads from the front.
Requested by - Eamonsf
Written by Ed001 February 27 2019 08:59:40
WillianHome→
Nathan Ake
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Minister of Justice and Correctional Services
Question NW1860 to the Minister of Justice and Correctional Services
27 July 2017 - NW1860
Selfe, Mr J to ask the Minister of Justice and Correctional Services
(1) What is the date of the last medical assessment (a) undertaken by and (b) available to his department with regard to the health of the parolee Mr Shabir Shaik? (2) whether the specified person’s condition is still considered to be terminal; if not, what steps has his department taken to review the parole status of the specified person; if so, what is the current prognosis with regard to life expectancy; (3) what (a) is the last date on which the parole conditions of the specified person were reviewed and (b) are the details of the parole conditions that are currently applicable; (4) has the specified person strictly complied with the conditions of parole; if not, what (a) are the relevant details of the infringement(s) and (b) steps has his department taken in this regard?
(1)(a) & (b) The last medical assessment by The Department of Correctional Services for parolee Mr. Shabir Shaik was conducted before he was released on medical parole on 03 March 2009.
2. The condition of the parolee is still viewed to be terminal. Medical parole was granted in terms of the provisions of Section 79 of the Correctional Services Act, Act No. 111 of 1998, before it was amended. Therefore, he was considered in terms of the then applicable legislation. The medical parole legislation was reviewed and Section 14 of the Correctional Services Amendment Act, Act No. 5 of 2011, which introduced the new medical parole system, came into effect on 01 March 2012. At the time the person in question was diagnosed as being in the final phase of a terminal disease.
(3)(a) Parole conditions were last reviewed on the 24 April 2015
(3)(b) Mr. Shabir Shaik is on house arrest with relaxing conditions namely:
Attending school functions for his son 17h00 to 19h00.
Working hours from 08h00 t0 18h30 – Monday to Friday.
Attending sports once a week from 12h00 to 19h00.
If he has to travel outside the Province, then he has to apply for leave of absence like any other offender.
(4)(a) Yes.
(4)(b) Not applicable.
Source file
RNW1860-170727.docx
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On February 18, 1925, Jack Gilbert was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He was educated in Pittsburgh and San Francisco, where he later participated in Jack Spicer's famous "Poetry as Magic" Workshop at San Francisco State College in 1957.
His first book, Views of Jeopardy (Yale University Press, 1962) won the Yale Younger Poets Series and was nominated for the Pulitzer Prize. Soon after publishing his first book, Gilbert received a Guggenheim Fellowship and subsequently moved abroad, living in England, Denmark, and Greece. During that time, he also toured fifteen countries as a lecturer on American Literature for the U.S. State Department. Nearly twenty years after completing Views of Jeopardy, he published his second book, Monolithos, which won the Stanley Kunitz Prize and the American Poetry Review Prize. The collection takes its title from Greek, meaning "single stone," and refers to the landscape where he lived on the island of Santorini.
About Gilbert's work, the poet James Dickey said, "He takes himself away to a place more inward than is safe to go; from that awful silence and tightening, he returns to us poems of savage compassion."
Gilbert is also the author of Collected Poems (Knopf, 2012); The Dance Most of All (2009); Transgressions: Selected Poems (Bloodaxe Books 2006); Refusing Heaven (2005); winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award, and The Great Fires: Poems 1982-1992 (1996).
His other awards and honors include the Lannan Literary Award for Poetry and a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts.
Gilbert was the 1999-2000 Grace Hazard Conkling writer-in-residence at Smith College and a visiting professor and writer-in-residence at the University of Tennessee in 2004. Gilbert died on November 13, 2012 in Berkeley, California after a long battle with Alzheimer's. He was 87.
The Forgotten Dialect of the Heart (audio only)
Click the icon above to listen to this audio poem.
By Small and Small: Midnight to Four A.M. (audio only)
Summer at Blue Creek, North Carolina
There was no water at my grandfather's
when I was a kid and would go for it
with two zinc buckets. Down the path,
past the cow by the foundation where
the fine people's house was before
they arranged to have it burned down.
To the neighbor's cool well. Would
come back with pails too heavy,
so my mouth pulled out of shape.
I see myself, but from the outside.
I keep trying to feel who I was,
and cannot. Hear clearly the sound
the bucket made hitting the sides
of the stone well going down,
but never the sound of me.
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/– – / – – /
Edited By David Sanders
1873 – French poet Paul Verlaine wounds Arthur Rimbaud with pistol.
1913 – Salvador Espriu, Spanish poet (d. 1985), is born.
1965 – Jacques Audiberti, French poet (Le cavalier seul), dies at 66.
1990 – Hans Faverey, poet, dies.
The rain falls gently on the town.
It's raining in my heart
Like it rains on the town;
What is this sadness
that penetrates my heart?
—from "Il pleure dans mon coeur" by Paul Verlaine
Poetry Parnassus: Meet the Poets from Albania, India and Uganda
The largest ever global gathering of poets begins in London on Tuesday. The Poetry Parnassus features poets from all 204 Olympic nations. The event will launch with a 100,000 bookmark-shaped poems being dropped from a helicopter near the Southbank Centre. The week-long event has been billed as "the largest gathering of international poets in world history". Here, three poets — Albania's Luljeta Leshanaku, India's Tishani Doshi and Uganda's Nick Makoha — tell BBC News arts correspondent Tim Masters about their writing and why they are taking part. Read more at the BBC.
Poetry Festival Will Honor Haizi
Located in the northeast Qaidam Basin on the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau, Delingha boasts a diversified landscape, including vast grassland, lakes and glaciers. Delingha, which means "the golden city" in Mongolian, has a population of 70,000 with 19 ethnic groups, including Mongolian, Tibetan and Salar. The remote and beautiful place deeply fascinated Haizi, who longed for a spiritual paradise. In 1988, Haizi traveled to Delingha and wrote the poem "Sister, Tonight I am in Delingha," a sentimental work that reflected the poet's loneliness on a dark night. Read more at China Daily.
Peter McDonald Reviews Clavics and Odi Barbare by Geoffrey Hill
Today would not be the best time for someone to start reading Geoffrey Hill. This is not because it is a bad idea to read Geoffrey Hill – on the contrary, he really is that thing he keeps being called, the best English poet alive – but because new readers of any contemporary poet are always liable to begin with that poet’s newest work. And Hill’s most recent publications, which seem to be coming now at the rate of around one full volume per year, are daunting prospects for even his veteran readers. Read more at Tower Poetry.
Everything in Excess
by Kit Edgar
On the back cover of Anne Carson and Bianca Stone’s sturdy and provokingly designed Antigonick is a quotation from Hegel’s Aesthetics, in which he claims the Antigone as “one of the most sublime and in every respect most excellent works of art of all time”. Time is a central concern in Antigonick: time and the eternal; time and foolishness—how humanity reacts against time and against its judgements. Read more at the Oxonian Review.
Sleeper Awake: Michael O’Brien’s “Avenue”
by James Gibbons
Poems often groan beneath their encumbrances: weighty metaphors, top-heavy conceits. Which is why I like it when Michael O’Brien, in his most recent book Avenue (FloodEditions), writes of a poem being merely “certain words in / a certain order.” This stripped-down formulation courts a charge of banality or even absurdity — after all, even email spam is made up of words in a specific arrangement — but here it evokes O’Brien’s abiding concern with verbal exactness, even out of the depths of dreaming. Read more at Hyperallergic.by James Gibbons
Poems often groan beneath their encumbrances: weighty metaphors, top-heavy conceits. Which is why I like it when Michael O’Brien, in his most recent book Avenue (FloodEditions), writes of a poem being merely “certain words in / a certain order.” This stripped-down formulation courts a charge of banality or even absurdity — after all, even email spam is made up of words in a specific arrangement — but here it evokes O’Brien’s abiding concern with verbal exactness, even out of the depths of dreaming. Read more at Hyperallergic.
Poetry: Next Poet Laureate Stands Out with Poise
by David Biespiel
For some years, I have felt that the new U.S. poet laureate, Natasha Trethewey, is the most Heaney-esque of American poets. So the other day I was delighted to read that she tipped her hat to the great Irish poet Seamus Heaney and identified him as a major influence on her art. In her sense of place, in her sense of decorum and in her sense of morality, Trethewey is a major American writer of the poetry of poise. Read more at Oregon Live.
Drafts & Fragments
Emily Dickinson Attends A Writing Workshop
by Jayne Relaford Brown
Why all the Caps? And dashes?
Juan Felipe Herrera Launches "The Most Incredible and Biggest and Most Amazing Poem on Unity in the World"
California Poet Laureate Juan Felipe Herrera today kicked off his two-year poetry project, titled “The Most Incredible and Biggest and Most Amazing Poem on Unity in the World.” The project will seek out submissions of poetry — in the form of words, phrases or stanzas — from everybody. Read more at UCR Today.
"The Sonnets" App Brings New Life To Shakespeare’s Poems
William Shakespeare‘s poetry collection The Sonnets is available in various free eBook editions for the iPad. But the latest edition from Faber and Touch Press (coming out next month) includes videos of celebrities reading each of the 154 poems, as well as the compete Arden notes on Shakespeare. The app also includes interviews with Shakespeare scholars including professors Katherine Duncan-Jones, James Shapiro and Henry Woudhuysen. Read more at Media Bistro.
Dylan Thomas Inspires a British Film Noir, "A Visit to America"
Do not go gently, or otherwise, into the rain-slicked, neon-lit streets of Manhattan ... The great Welsh poet Dylan Thomas, who died of pneumonia in St. Vincent’s hospital at the age of 39 in 1953, will feature as a private eye’s quarry in the upcoming film noir “A Visit to America.” According to Screen Daily, the British production company Western Edge has acquired the rights to a screenplay written by Owen Sheers, Thomas’s countryman and a fellow poet, playwright, and screenwriter. Read more at Art Info.
Gravesend by Cole Swensen
[Paperback] University of California Press, 96 pp., $21.95
The poems in Gravesend explore ghosts as instances of collective grief and guilt, as cultural constructs evolved to elide or to absorb a given society's actions, as well as, at times, to fill the gaps between such actions and the desires and intentions of its individual citizens. Tracing the changing nature of the ghostly in the western world from antiquity to today, the collection focuses particularly on the ghosts created by the European expansion of the 16th through 20th centuries, using the town of Gravesend, the seaport at the mouth of the Thames through which countless emigrants passed, as an emblem of theambiguous threshold between one life and another, in all the many meanings of that phrase.
Further Adventures in Monochrome by John Yau
[Paperback] Copper Canyon Press, 96 pp., $15.00
John Yau engages art criticism, social theory, and syntactical dexterity to confront the problems of aging, meaning, and identity. Insisting that "True poets and artists know where language ends, which is why they go there," Yau presses against the limits of language, creating poems that are at once cryptic, playful, and insightful. Included in its entirety is his groundbreaking serial poem, "Genghis Chan: Private Eye," and a new series invoking the monochromatic painter Yves Klein.
At Lake Scugog: Poems by Troy Jollimore
[Hardcover] Princeton University Press, 96 pp., $35.00
This is an eagerly awaited collection of new poems from the author of Tom Thomson in Purgatory, which won the National Book Critics Circle Award and was hailed by the New York Times as a "snappy, entertaining book." A triumphant follow-up to that acclaimed debut, At Lake Scugog demonstrates why the San Francisco Chronicle has called Troy Jollimore "a new and exciting voice in American poetry."
An Individual History: Poems by Michael Collier
[Hardcover] W. W. Norton & Company, 80 pp., $25.95
An Individual History describes the fears, anger, and guilt—personal, familial, societal, political, and historical—that comprise a life. The figure of the speaker’s maternal grandmother who was institutionalized for five decades serves as an overriding metaphor for this haunting, bold new work by an essential American poet.
An Interview with A. E. Stallings
by Beth Gylys
Well-known and admired for the fluidity and power of her formal verse, A. E. Stallings has been the recipient of numerous honors and awards. Trained in the classics at the University of Georgia and Oxford, she is the author of three books of poetry. The first of these, Archaic Smile (University of Evansville Press), won the 1999 Richard Wilbur Prize. Her second book, Hapax, was published by Northwestern University Press and won the 2008 Poet's Prize, and her most recent collection—Olives—is newly released from Northwestern. In 2007, Penguin published her translation of Lucretius, The Nature of Things. In 2011, Alicia was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship, a MacArthur Genius Award, and was named a fellow of the United States Artists. She lives in Greece with her husband John Psaropoulos and her two children, Jason and Atalanta. The following interview took place via email. Read more at Poetry Daily.
5 for Carl Phillips
by Michael Klein
When the poet Alan Dugan was alive, there used to be a reading every summer in Wellfleet at the local library where members of his workshop would read their poems to, mostly, locals. It was a generous thing of Alan to do, and also something rare – seeing poets sharing their work in obstensibly the early phase of their careers – assuming those summer writers were going to stick with poetry. Marie Howe and I went one summer in the barely nineties – I forget the years, as I forget many years – exact years – and listened to each poet read his work or her work and after someone named Carl Phillips (to my knowledge he had never published a poem at this point) got up and read, Marie and I looked at each other and said, “wow … that was the real thing”. Read more at Ploughshares.
Small Press Spotlight: Monica A. Hand
by Rigoberto González
Monica A. Hand is a poet and book artist currently living in The Bronx. Her poems have appeared in Black Renaissance Noir, Drunken Boat, African-American Poetry for the 21st Century, Gathering Ground: A Reader Celebrating Cave Canem’s First Decade, and elsewhere. She earned a combined MFA from The Drew University MFA Program in Poetry and Translation and is founding member of Poets for Ayiti. Read more at Critical Mass.
Rhythm as so much of art (and life)
Ex. the first stanza of The Second Coming by Yeats:
The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity.
vs it rewritten in regular iambic pentameter:
The falcon turns and turns in a wider gyre.
He cannot hear the cry of the falconer.
The center of the cosmos cannot hold.
Mere anarchy is let loose on the world.
The tide that's dimmed by blood is loosed.
The ritual of innocence is drowned.
The best have lost their firm convictions.
The worst are full of fierce intensity.
- via Carl Dennis
I found this truncated passage at the same interesting blog (Lit Hum) as I did the Emily Dickinson in workshop bit above. (Here it is in fuller context). I was slightly puzzled, though, by the intent. I assume that it is meant to show how Yeats' mastery of the pentameter line allowed for dynamic and muscular substitutions and alterations to the "regular iambic pentameter" line. And I expect it was meant to demonstrate the slack quality that results in an unbroken string of iambic pentameter lines. But my puzzlement grew because many of the lines ( 2, 3, 4, 5, 7, 8) are pretty damn regular just as they are, without having to be rewritten to accommodate the meter. Six lines out of eight. What this suggests to me is that the predominance of the iambic line underscores and accentuates the variation found in the other lines. Without the insistent pressure produced by the iambic line, the exceptions wouldn't be exceptions at all; the rhythm would be all but indecipherable as a pattern.
Even so, the real play, as Frost taught us and what I think Carl Dennis is pointing to, comes between the rhythm of the line as it is spoken and that of the metric overlay. In this case, as it seems to me, after the disturbing rhythm and vision of the first line, the poem settles down rhythmically-speaking. So even in the face of the dire warning that follows, we can, at least, count on the beat that lies beneath the voice.
[Most of this was written before I was able to locate the full article, which clarifies Carl Dennis's efforts in stressing the effectiveness of the rhetorical rhythm of speech as opposed to the cadence of the iambic pentameter line. And while I'm not entirely convinced by his argument, it doesn't puzzle me. The excerpt that appeared in Lit Hum still does.—DS]
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Precepts of Leadership - Page 5
Danielle Strickland is currently a Corps Officer at a Salvation Army Community Church in Edmonton, Canada. In her early life she was involved in both crime and drugs but found faith in Jesus Christ. She is the author of a number of best selling books on the Christian life and social justice. She is also a popular speaker at large national and international conferences and events. Danielle and her husband Stephen have two sons.
Peter Tsukahira is a Japanese American and Israeli citizen, the son of an American diplomat. He has worked for both NEC and Wang and pastored in Tokyo, Japan. After the Gulf War Peter co-founded the Kehilat HaCarmel Messianic Centre. Peter serves on the board of Dr. Yonggi Cho’s Church Growth International. He is married to Rita and they have two children.
Caleb Waller is one of 12 siblings and the son of Tommy Waller, the subject of the award winning film "A Journey Home". He is also involved with a ministry called HaYovel which assists Israeli farmers in harvesting and pruning their grape crops in Judea and Samaria.
Joy Carroll Wallis grew up in London as a child of an Anglican priest. Joy was one of the first women to be ordained in the Church of England. In fact, she was the inspiration, role model and advisor for the popular British TV comedy series “the Vicar of Dibley” TV series with Dawn French. She has written a book about her experiences called “Beneath the Cassock: The Real Life Vicar of Dibley”. She is married to Jim Wallis, head of The Sojourners and they have two sons.
Jim Wallis is a best selling author, theologian and political activist. He serves as a spiritual adviser to President Barack Obama. Jim is the President and CEO of The Sojourners and frequently speaks at the United Nations. He is married to the Rev. Joy Carroll, one of the first ordained female priests in the Church of England who was the basis for the TV series “The Vicar of Dibley”. They have 2 sons.
Peter Wenz is the senior pastor of BGG Stuttgart, Germany, one of the largest charismatic churches in the German-speaking world, and has an international preaching ministry. He leads a network of churches and organisations in over 20 countries. With his wife, Sabine, he is strongly involved with a social-work organisation in Africa (JAM), which daily feeds and teaches over 400,000 children. His central message is the Love and Goodness of God, and the importance of a consistent, authentic lifestyle.
Marvin Wilson is the Professor of Biblical and Theological Studies at Gordon College (MA, USA). Marvin’s book “Our Father Abraham” is in its 25th printing and has been translated into many languages. He was an Old Testament translator and editor for the NIV Bible and is a popular speaker at conferences, synagogues and churches. Dr. Wilson holds a Ph. D from Brandeis University in Semitic and Near Eastern studies. He is married to his wife Polly.
Christy Wimber is a co-Pastor of the Yorba Linda Vineyard Church in California (USA) with her husband Sean. Christy is a renowned expert on the life and teachings of her father-in-law John Wimber, founder of the Vineyard Church Movement and is a popular author and conference speaker.
Clement Wong is the Senior Pastor of the Church of Praise in Ipoh, Malaysia. He graduated from Bible School in Malaysia after being called into the ministry at the age of 16. He is a popular conference speaker worldwide with a passion to see revival. Clement and his wife Mary have 3 children.
Philip Yancey is one of the most popular Christian writers today. He has sold over 14 million of his books worldwide including the popular "What's So Amazing About Grace". He is an eight time winner of the Gold Medallion Book Award and has served as Editor of "Campus" Magazine, "Christianity Today" and as a contributor to "Reader's Digest" and other publications. He is also an avid mountain
climber and is married to his wife Janet.
Zhao Xiao has been named as “One of the Ten Leaders of our Generation” by China’s "People’s Weekly". He is a Professor and Doctoral-Mentor at the Beijing University of Science and Technology and the former Head of is the Economic Research Centre. Zhao is one of the most highly respected economists in Asia. His story is one of the most unique accounts to come out of the nation of China.
NEXT SERIES
Danielle Strickland DVD - English
Peter Tsukahira DVD - English
Caleb Waller DVD - English
Joy Carroll Wallis DVD - English
Jim Wallis DVD - English
Peter Wenz DVD - English
Marvin Wilson DVD - English
Christy Wimber DVD - English
Celement Wong DVD - English
Philip Yancey DVD - English
Zhao Xiao DVD - English
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Viewfinder: Protesters Demand That Hong Kong's Leader Step Down
Pacific Standard Staff
Protesters hold placards and shout slogans as they occupy a street demanding that Hong Kong Chief Executive Carrie Lam step down, after a rally against the now-suspended extradition bill outside of the chief executive office on June 17th, 2019, in Hong Kong, China. The controversial bill would allow Hong Kong citizens suspected of crimes to be extradited to mainland China.
(Photo: Anthony Kwan/Getty Images)
Viewfinder is Pacific Standard's daily photo feature, showcasing one image from the news.
ExtraditionCriminal JusticeHong KongDemonstrationsProtestChina
Pacific Standard publishes stories that matter, stories that, by virtue of their ideas and craft, are capable of creating a better and more just society. With a methodology that mixes reporting and narrative journalism with peer-reviewed research, we are fiercely committed to covering social and environmental justice.
Viewfinder: Protests in Hong Kong
Tens of thousands marched against the territory's proposed extradition law, which would allow the transfer of crime suspects to mainland China for trial.
As Unrest Escalates in Hong Kong, Pro-Democracy Demonstrators' List of Demands Lengthens
Here's what you need to know about the development of the conflict in Hong Kong and the protesters' motivations.
What's Driving the Anti-Extradition Protests in Hong Kong?
The now-suspended legislation to allow China to extradite Hong Kong citizens to the mainland has revealed concerns over the growing creep of Chinese government influence.
The Week in Photos
Thousands Pay Tribute to a Deceased Protester in Hong Kong (in Photos)
People gathered under heavy rain on Thursday to take part in a public memorial for a man who fell to his death while protesting an extradition bill.
Viewfinder: Hong Kong Marks 30 Years Since the Tiananmen Square Massacre
People hold candles as they take part in a candlelight vigil at Victoria Park on June 4th, 2019, in Hong Kong, China.
Viewfinder: The Aftermath of Typhoon Mangkhut in Hong Kong
People walk through a flooded shopping mall in the Heng Fa Chuen district during Super Typhoon Mangkhut in Hong Kong, China, on September 16th, 2018.
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R4-26-203.01
A. An applicant for a psychologist license by credential under A.R.S. § 32-2071.01 (D) shall submit an application packet to the Board that includes:
1. An application form, which is available from the Board office and on its website, signed and dated by the applicant, that contains the information required by R4-26-203(A)(1) through (4), (A)(5)(a) through (f), (A)(6), (A)(7), (A)(10), and R4-26-203 (B)(2) through (6);
2. Verification sent directly to the Board by the credentialing agency that the applicant:
a. Holds a current Certificate of Professional Qualification in Psychology (CPQ) issued by the Association of State and Provincial Psychology Boards;
b. Holds a current National Register of Health Service Providers in Psychology (NRHSPP) credential and has practiced psychology independently at the doctoral level for at least five years; or
c. Is a diplomate or specialist of the American Board of Professional Psychology (ABPP); and
3. Verification of all other psychology licenses or certificates ever held in any jurisdiction.
B. An applicant for a psychologist license by credential based on a National Register of Health Service Providers in Psychology credential shall have notification that the applicant obtain a passing score on the national examination sent directly to the Board by the Association of State and Provincial Psychology Boards or by the regulatory jurisdiction in which the applicant originally passed the examination.
C. If the Board determines that an application for licensure by credential requires clarification, the Board may require that an applicant submit or cause the applicant’s credentialing agency to submit directly to the Board any documentation including transcripts, course descriptions, catalogues, brochures, supervised experience verifications, examination scores, application for credential, or any other information that is deemed necessary by the Board.
R4-26-302
A. When a complaint is scheduled for informal interview, the Board shall send written notice of an informal interview to the licensee who is the subject of the complaint, by personal service or certified mail, return receipt requested, at least 20 days before an informal interview.
B. The Board shall include the following in the written notice of an informal interview:
1. The time, date, and place of the interview;
2. An explanation of the informal nature of the proceedings;
3. The licensee’s right to appear at the informal interview with legal counsel licensed in Arizona or without legal counsel;
4. A statement of the allegations and issues involved;
5. The licensee’s right to a formal hearing instead of the informal interview; and
6. Notice that the Board may take disciplinary action at the conclusion of the informal interview;
C. The procedure used during an informal interview may include the following:
1. Swearing in and taking testimony from the licensee, complainant, and witnesses, if any;
2. Optional opening and closing remarks by the licensee;
3. An opportunity for the complainant to address the Board, if requested;
4. Board questions to the licensee, complainant, and witnesses, if any; and
5. Deliberation and discussion by the Board.
A person shall not use a title that claims a potential or future degree or qualification such as “Ph.D. (Cand),” “Ph.D. (ABD),” “License Eligible,” “Candidate for Licensure,” or “Board Eligible.” The use of a title that claims a potential or future degree or qualification is a violation of A.R.S. § 32-2061 et seq.
An attorney who is not a member of the State Bar of Arizona shall not represent a party before the Board unless the attorney is admitted to practice pro hac vice before the Board under Rule 38(a) of the Rules of the Supreme Court of Arizona.
A. A psychologist shall not disclose a confidential record, as defined by R4-26-101, that relates to a Board investigation to any person or entity other than the psychologist’s attorney, except:
1. A redacted summary that ensures the anonymity of the client or patient;
2. Information regarding the nature of a complaint, the processes utilized by the Board, and the outcomes of a case;
3. As required by law;
4. As required by a court order compelling production; or
5. If disclosure is protected under the United States or Arizona Constitutions.
B. A psychologist who violates this Section commits an act of unprofessional conduct.
Except as provided in subsection (G), any party in a contested case or appealable agency action before the Board who is aggrieved by a Board order or decision may file with the Board, not later than 30 days after service of the decision, a written motion for rehearing or review of the decision specifying the particular grounds for rehearing or review. For purposes of this subsection, service is complete on personal service or five days after the date that a Board order or decision is mailed to the party’s last known address.
B. A motion for rehearing or review may be amended at any time before it is ruled upon by the Board. A party may file a response within 15 days after service of the motion or amended motion by any other party. The Board may require written briefs regarding the issues raised in the motion and may provide for oral argument.
C. The Board may grant rehearing or review of a Board order or decision for any of the following causes materially affecting the moving party’s rights:
1. An irregularity in the administrative proceedings of the agency, its hearing officer, or the prevailing party, or any order or abuse of discretion that caused the moving party to be deprived of a fair hearing;
2. Misconduct of the Board, its hearing officer, or the prevailing party;
3. An accident or surprise that could not be prevented by ordinary prudence;
4. Newly discovered material evidence that could not with reasonable diligence be discovered and produced at the original hearing;
5. Excessive or insufficient penalties;
6. An error in the admission or rejection of evidence or other errors of law occurring at the administrative hearing or during the progress of the case; or
7. The order or decision is not justified by the evidence or is contrary to law.
D. The Board may affirm or modify a Board order or decision or grant a rehearing or review to all or any of the parties, on all or part of the issues, for any of the reasons specified in subsection (C). An order granting a rehearing or review shall specify the grounds on which the rehearing or review is granted, and the rehearing or review shall cover only the matters specified.
E. Not later than 30 days after a Board order or decision is rendered, the Board may on its own initiative order a rehearing or review of its order or decision for any reason specified in subsection (C). After giving the parties or their counsel notice and an opportunity to be heard on the matter, the Board may grant a motion for rehearing or review for a reason not stated in the motion.
F. When a motion for rehearing or review is based on affidavits, the party shall serve the affidavits with the motion. An opposing party may, within 15 days after service, serve opposing affidavits. The Board for good cause or by written agreement of all parties may extend the period for service of opposing affidavits to a total of 20 days. Reply affidavits are permitted.
G. If the Board finds that the immediate effectiveness of a Board order or decision is necessary to preserve public peace, health, or safety and that a rehearing or review of the Board order or decision is impracticable, unnecessary, or contrary to the public interest, the Board order or decision may be issued as a final order or decision without an opportunity for a rehearing or review. If a Board order or decision is issued as a final order or decision without an opportunity for rehearing or review, any application for judicial review of the order or decision shall be made within the time permitted for final orders or decisions.
H. For purposes of this Section, “contested case” is defined in A.R.S. § 41-1001 and “appealable agency action” is defined in A.R.S. § 41-1092.
I. A person who files a complaint with the Board against a licensee:
1. Is not a party to:
a. A Board administrative action, decision, or proceeding; or
b. A court proceeding for judicial review of a Board decision under A.R.S. §§ 12-901 through 12-914; and
2. Is not entitled to seek rehearing or review of a Board action or decision under this Section.
Board Rules - Arizona Administrative Code
TITLE 4. PROFESSIONS AND OCCUPATIONS
CHAPTER 26. BOARD OF PSYCHOLOGIST EXAMINERS
A. As provided under A.R.S. § 32-2072(C), an individual who has completed the education requirements specified in A.R.S. § 32-2071(A) but has not completed the supervised professional experience requirements specified in A.R.S. § 32-2071(D) may apply to the Board for approval to take the national examination.
B. To apply for approval under subsection (A), an individual shall submit to the Board the application form and applicable documents required under R4-26-203(A) through (C).
C. When the Board approves an individual who makes application under subsections (A) and (B), the Board shall administratively close the applicant’s application packet.
D. An individual who is granted approval under subsection (C) to take the national examination may apply for an initial license under R4-26-203 after completing the supervised professional experience requirements specified in A.R.S. § 32-2071(D) as follows:
1. Within 36 months after the application was administratively closed under subsection (C), request that the Board re-open the application packet; and
2. Submit the portions of the application packet required under R4-26-203 that were not submitted under subsection (B).
A. The following may reapply for a license:
1. An individual who failed the national examination required under A.R.S. § 32-2072 and R4-26-204 no more than three times, and
2. An individual whose application submitted under R4-26-203 or R4-26-203.01 was administratively closed by the Board under R4-26-208(H) less than one year before reapplication.
B. An individual identified in subsection (A) may ask the Board to base a licensing decision, in part, on applicable forms and documents previously submitted.
C. An individual eligible under subsection (B) to reapply for licensure shall:
1. Submit a reapplication form, which is available from the Board office, to the Board;
2. If previously submitted references were submitted more than 12 months before the date of reapplication, provide the names, positions, and addresses of at least two individual to serve as references who:
a. Are psychologists licensed or certified to practice psychology in a United States or Canadian regulatory jurisdiction and are not members of the Arizona Board of Psychologist Examiners;
b. Are familiar with the applicant’s work experience in the field of psychology or in a postdoctoral program within the three years immediately before the date of reapplication. If more than three years have elapsed since the applicant last engaged in professional activities in the field of psychology or in a postdoctoral program, the references may pertain to the most recent three-year period in which the applicant engaged in professional activities in the field of psychology or in a postdoctoral program; and
c. Recommend the applicant for licensure;
3. List all professional employment since the date of the most recent application or reapplication including:
a. Beginning and ending dates of employment,
b. Number of hours worked per week,
c. Name and address of employer,
d. Position title,
e. Nature of work, and
f. Nature of supervision;
4. Submit the results of a self-query from the National Practitioner Data Bank—Healthcare Integrity and Protection Data Bank; and
5. Pay the fee required under R4-26-108(2).
D. The following shall apply anew for a license rather than reapplying:
1. An individual whose application submitted under R4-26-203 or R4-26-203.01 was denied by the Board,
2. An individual who was permitted by the Board to withdraw an application submitted under R4-26-203 or R4-26-203.01 before the Board acted on the application, and
3. An individual whose application submitted under R4-26-203 or R4-26-203.01 was administratively closed by the Board under R4-26-208(H) more than one year before another application is submitted.
A. A.R.S. § 32-2081(B) applies when a complaint is filed against a psychologist who conducts an evaluation, treatment, or psycho-education under a court order even if the psychologist is not specifically named in the court order.
B. If a complaint is filed against a psychologist who conducts an evaluation, treatment, or psycho-education under a court order, the Board shall return the complaint to the complainant with instructions that the court issuing the order must find there is a substantial basis to refer the complaint for consideration by the Board.
A. If the Board determines, after a hearing conducted under A.R.S. Title 41, Chapter 6, Article 10, after an informal interview under A.R.S. § 32-2081(K), or through an agreement with the Board, that to protect public health and safety and ensure a licensee’s ability to engage safely in the practice of psychology, it is necessary to require that the licensee practice psychology for a specified term under the supervision of another licensee, the Board shall enter into an agreement with the licensee regarding the disciplinary supervision.
B. Payment between a supervisor and supervisee.
1. A licensed psychologist who enters into an agreement with the Board or is ordered by the Board to practice psychology under the supervision of another licensee may pay the supervising licensee for the supervisory service; and
2. A licensed psychologist who provides supervisory service to a licensed psychologist who has been ordered by the Board or entered into an agreement with the Board to practice psychology under supervision may accept payment for the supervisory service.
C. A licensed psychologist who supervises a licensed psychologist who has entered an agreement with the Board or been ordered by the Board to practice psychology under supervision is professionally responsible only for work specified in the agreement or order.
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Perspective Projection II
Robotics: Perception
Universidade da Pensilvânia
Curso 4 de 6 no Robótica Programa de cursos integrados
How can robots perceive the world and their own movements so that they accomplish navigation and manipulation tasks? In this module, we will study how images and videos acquired by cameras mounted on robots are transformed into representations like features and optical flow. Such 2D representations allow us then to extract 3D information about where the camera is and in which direction the robot moves. You will come to understand how grasping objects is facilitated by the computation of 3D posing of objects and navigation can be accomplished by visual odometry and landmark-based localization.
Computer Vision, Estimation, Random Sample Consensus (Ransac), Geometry
Excellent organization and presentation of the course material, and very prompt responses from the teaching staff on the message boards.
Very good course. The only thing that I would suggest is an higher precence of moderators in the forum. It would be very appreciated.
Geometry of Image Formation
Welcome to Robotics: Perception! We will begin this course with a tutorial on the standard camera models used in computer vision. These models allow us to understand, in a geometric fashion, how light from a scene enters a camera and projects onto a 2D image. By defining these models mathematically, we will be able understand exactly how a point in 3D corresponds to a point in the image and how an image will change as we move a camera in a 3D environment. In the later modules, we will be able to use this information to perform complex perception tasks such as reconstructing 3D scenes from video.
Camera Modeling10:47
Single View Geometry14:18
More on Perspective Projection8:09
Glimpse on Vanishing Points10:17
Perspective Projection I14:42
Perspective Projection II14:30
Point-Line Duality8:42
Rotations and Translations18:11
Pinhole Camera Model10:25
Focal Length and Dolly Zoom Effect8:58
Intrinsic Camera Parameter13:03
3D World to First Person Transformation13:41
How to Compute Intrinsics from Vanishing Points12:11
Camera Calibration11:50
Kostas Daniilidis
Professor of Computer and Information Science
Jianbo Shi
Selecionar um idiomaChinês (simplificado)Inglês
Next we're going to look at how do we form a line by defining two points on the line. Now we know that in an image plane if I gave you two points you can always draw a straight line between them. Now the question is, how do I write down the expression of this line in term of a, and b, and c, and form the location of x and y. Let's think about how we can do this. It's not the easy way to do if it were just following measured angle and the distance to the origin. It'll probably some work to get to it. And we see, if we just follow the rules of homogeneous coordinates, by thinking those lines no longer as lines in the image planes. But take a step back of the plane and think of this line in fact as a plane, it probably becomes easier to solve. How? Recall, we have two points on the image plane. And these two points can be thought of as two rays coming from an origin to those points into the space. So now I have not just two points, but I have two rays. And think about the plane that could be formed by two rays. Two rays forms a plane. That plane has a surface normal which illustrated here is l. And what is l? L is a vector perpendicular to these rays. As recalled, in the previous slide, this l is exactly a parameter represent a, b, and c, represent this line that we see in the space. So this is the intuition that we're going to follow, that is, given two points, x and x prime, we define a line as the homogeneous coordinates of the lines, simply as nothing but the x crossed with x prime. Where both x is a three-dimensional ray, x prime is a three-dimensional ray, x crossed with x given a vector which is perpendicular to both and is a three-dimensional vector. And this happened to correspond to the line equation that we see in the image. And we can prove this to us, ourself, algebraically, iIf I do the following form. Let's say, I define the line as x cross, x prime, which is defined. And we can verify that a point x is on this line, which says x dot with this line l, we can compute it as, x dot with x cross, x prime. And that's equal to 0. Similarly we can do that for x prime when we take a dot problem between x prime with the line represented by x cross, x prime is also a 0. That means, both the point x and x prime sits on this construction of line as defined as x cross, x prime. So, the beauty of this equation is that when we try to find the vanishing points in the image, we no longer need to take this ruler out, meticulously trace lines and measure where they intersect. And if you're lucky, the intersection sits in the image, and if you're not lucky, the intersection might be very far away from the images. Now we have way of, a simple way, of computing where the intersection is, by simply taking two points' measurements in image, x and x prime. Think of those as not points anymore in 2D, but in terms of rays in 3D space, adding one more coordinate to it. And the cross part of between them. And we now obtain a line. And later when we see this lines can intersect just the same way we see points intersect. A point connect to a lines forming a point of intersection. How do we compute a cross product? Just a review. We can follow a set of equations to compute a cross product between three dimensional vectors, two three dimensional vectors. Cross with each other, obtain another three dimensional vector. In Matlab this is, in fact, simple to do. There's a building function called a cross product and we can build a function to take a formation of a line at two points. As this follow, three lines of code allow you to do it. Connection between two points into a line. So we take points, again, in term of x,y locations. We tack on one more dimension to it, 1, to turn it into a ray in the three-dimensional space. We take x, second x and y and we tack 1 to it, to second array. We simply cross, it's a built in function in Matlab, the two arrays into a line. The line's made of three parameters a, b and c, which indicating a surface form over the plane formed by their line and origin. And to visualize the line, quite often what we do is normalize the line such that the two coefficients a and b has norm one, therefore they are reading as cosine and sine in the image. Let's go through some exercises. Here we have a point, P2, and we have a line in question as illustrated here. Just as a sanity check, we can plug in the parameters of x, y of that point P2, and multiply by a and b. We see, they should obtain as minus c. This is a very close estimate. Now we have two points on P1 and P2 that we clicked on the image. And if we follow the previous routine, we can cross the two points in the three-dimensional rays, forms a vector perpendicular to them. And that vector is corresponding to the line which is shown here. We can do that again for another two points. Take two measurements in the image, click on two points, and the two points will define the line. And we can directly compute the line by taking a cross product between the two points. So, so far, we have defined how do we intersect. Now, intersect, we have to find a way of completing a line by looking at two points on a line. Let's take a little moment to think about it. We had said, cross product between two points give you a vector, which is the definition of a line. What if the line had the following forms, a, b, and 0? What would that mean? That means that a and b are vectors in a plane. Sitting in a plane passing through the origin. And the plane is exactly frontal parallel to the image plane that we're looking at. So in fact, the vector is in this direction. So what does it say about the lines? Those are lines exactly in the image which are pivoting around the center of the image, and has distance 0 wave on it, origin, which means it goes exactly through the center of the origin and the x, y space in the image. Okay, so that's good to know. How about the lines that have the coordinate system of 0, 0, 1? So who are those lines? Let's think about it. Where is 0, 0, 1 vector pointing at? It is pointing straight ahead. So, a plane that's surface normal is pointing straight ahead, what does it mean the plane itself? Well that means the plane is perpendicular to the image plane. Well, where does that lie? To think about it, imagine the points not pointing at 0,0,1, but slightly off. So, in fact, it has some coordinates which is not 0 in the first three elements. I can see that's a plane which is tilting just slightly. Such that it will intersect with the image plane at very, very far away. So we can think of, when this tilting plane becomes eventually parallel to the image plane, the intersection, in fact, happens at infinity. And this is going to cross the line at infinity, and corresponding to the horizon that we will see. This is the horizon of the image plane, but not the horizon that we're seeing of the horizon in the picture itself. So now, we are understanding how two points form a line. Now we want to see how two lines can form a point, intersect at a point. So we can say, well, we can look at a high school geometry book, given two lines in an image or two lines on a plane. How do we find the intersection? And that's a matter of solving an equation. But yet, there's a simple way of thinking about it when we take a step into the homogeneous coordinate system. Again, looking at image not only as a plane but as a three-dimensional object sitting at some distance away from the origin itself. Think of again, lines are no longer just lines of an image. A line is a set of a plane going through the origin and that red line, it's going to form a plane with origin. And that plane has a surface normal which is sticking out, indicating red. And this point P, is going to be intersecting between the red line and the green line. So clearly, the P It's sitting in that plane, perpendicular to this L1. So we know that L1 and P, whatever that P is, is going to be perpendicular. So that's the first concept. Again, looking at P sitting on the green line, the same point. But if that's sitting on the green line, it means that the the plane formed by the green line and origin, is perpendicular to the green surface normal. So that means that P, if you think about sitting in a green line, it's going to depict perpendicular to a green surface normal. So what does it say? It says, this ray, going from the origin to the intersection of two lines, P is perpendicular to both L1 and L2, the red surface normal and the green surface normal. So if I were thinking there's two surface normal, one green, one red, we're illustrating two planes. And this ray P is sticking away from me, straight out. That P is perpendicular to both of them, that means that if I form a plane between L1, and L2, that P is perpendicular to that plane. That's a little bit strange, but think about it. If you work through the derivations a few times, it become clear to you. With our intuition we know that the P which is a ray going from the origin to the image, goes through the intersection between two lines. Is in fact perpendicular to the two surface normals. And that is written down in the algebra form is following, that form P is intersection between two lines and this can be thought of the as the cross product between L1 in red, L2 in green and P is just the ray going from origin to the image. And that ray is going to be perpendicular to both. In fact, that's the point of intersection between two lines. So with homogeneous coordinates, we no longer had to go back to the old way of doing intersection between lines. If I were to ask you how to intersect two lines, you simply write down to the line equation a, b, and c, and a prime, b prime, c prime. And I would just simply cross the two vectors. You will see, you get an intersection back at the three dimensional elements, which is a ray. And that ray corresponding to the point of intersection on the image plane. So when you need to do it in Matlabs, simply plugging in two lines, or one or two. Simply cross product between the two vectors, cross is building functions. And if I want to visualize that point, in the image plane itself, recall, I need to normalize by the third element, set the third element to be 1, so I can measure that in image. It's I were just doing computation, I can just carry out on this three-dimensional homogeneous cord without a normalizing. So here I have a set of illustrations, the same picture we saw before. I click on three points, x1, x2, x3 where the intersection point is marked x2. And now I can compute the intersection between two points, x1, x2, to form a line, x2 cross x3, and a second line. Two lines we can cross one more time to see if we indeed intersected x2. And this derivation shows indeed we have those derivations. So those are the concepts in which is used points as a three-dimensional rays, lines as three dimensional planes. And such, a point in the image has three-dimensional coordinates, as well as lines at three dimensional coordinates.
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Offered On Campus in Tucson
The UA Zuckerman College of Public Health is committed to offering professional and academic doctoral degree programs designed to prepare individuals for challenging careers in public health at the local, national and international level. These programs are adept at integrating academic learning with public health practice to ensure a diverse and well-rounded educational experience.
MS programs are two years in length for full-time students. PhD programs are usually 3-5 years for full-time students, which is divided into 2-3 years for coursework and 1-2 years for the dissertation.
MS and PhD degrees offered through the UA Zuckerman College of Public Health include:
MS & PhD in Biostatistics
The MS in Biostatistics prepares individuals to work effectively as applied biostatisticians in a variety of public health, epidemiological and clinical research settings. The MS in Biostatistics provides training in probability and statistical theory with a research focus.
The PhD in Biostatistics has an emphasis on the foundations of statistical reasoning and requires its graduates to complete rigorous training in applied probability and statistical analyses. This program prepares students who have demonstrated excellence in mathematics and the sciences to become research biostatisticians in academia, industry, or government.
The PhD Minor in Biostatistics is designed for individuals from other University of Arizona doctoral degree programs who wish to obtain graduate training in Biostatistics. The college form used to declare the minor should be completed and submitted prior to completion of the first semester of minor coursework. The Minor Advisor participates in the comprehensive exam process and must be included in the Comprehensive Exam Committee.
MS & PhD in Environmental Health Sciences
The MS in Environmental Health Sciences provides students with training and preparation for leadership roles (project leaders, program developers) in current and emerging environmental health science disciplines. The program employs a multidisciplinary approach linking the assessment of health impacts with the environment.
The PhD in Environmental Health Sciences provides field, classroom and laboratory experiences to incoming students with highly varied backgrounds. This health focused program builds on an extensive array of basic sciences, from climate change to toxicology. The program develops leaders for industry, government and academia, committed to research, education and the practice of environmental health sciences.
The PhD Minor in Environmental Health Sciences is designed for individuals from other University of Arizona doctoral degree programs who wish to obtain graduate training in Environmental Health Sciences.The college form used to declare the minor should be completed and submitted prior to completion of the first semester of minor coursework. The Minor Advisor participates in the comprehensive exam process and must be included in the Comprehensive Exam Committee.
MS & PhD in Epidemiology
The MS in Epidemiology is designed for individuals who seek training in epidemiological research. It is anticipated that graduates will occupy positions as research administrators, program managers, analysts, and evaluators in universities, health departments, governmental agencies, and similar organizations.
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A Generalized Frequency Domain Reflectometry Modeling Technique for Soil Electrical Properties Determination
J. Minet
J. Minet *
Earth and Life Institute, Univ. Catholique de Louvain, Croix du Sud 2 BP 2, B-1348 Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium
Corresponding author (julien.minet@uclouvain.be).
S. Lambot
Agrosphere (ICG-4), Institute of Chemistry and Dynamics of the Geosphere, Forschungszentrum Jülich GmbH, D-52425 Jülich, Germany
G. Delaide
J.A. Huisman
H. Vereecken
M. Vanclooster
Vadose Zone Journal (2010) 9 (4): 1063–1072.
J. Minet, S. Lambot, G. Delaide, J.A. Huisman, H. Vereecken, M. Vanclooster; A Generalized Frequency Domain Reflectometry Modeling Technique for Soil Electrical Properties Determination
. Vadose Zone Journal ; 9 (4): 1063–1072. doi: https://doi.org/10.2136/vzj2010.0004
We have developed a generalized frequency domain reflectometry (FDR) technique for soil characterization that is based on an electromagnetic model decoupling the cable and probe head from the ground using frequency-dependent reflection and transmission transfer functions. The FDR model represents an exact solution of Maxwell's equations for wave propagation in one-dimensional multilayered media. The benefit of the decoupling is that the FDR probe can be fully described by its characteristic transfer functions, which are determined using only a few measurements. The soil properties are retrieved after removing the probe effects from the raw FDR data by iteratively inverting a global reflection coefficient. The proposed method was validated under laboratory conditions for measurements in water with different salt concentrations and sand with different water contents. For the salt water, inversions of the data led to dielectric permittivity and electrical conductivity values very close to the expected theoretical or measured values. In the frequency range for which the probe is efficient, a good agreement was obtained between measured, inverted and theoretically predicted signals. For the sand, results were consistent with the different water contents and also in close agreement with traditional time domain reflectometry measurements. The proposed method offers great promise for accurate soil electrical characterization because it inherently permits maximization of the information that can be retrieved from the FDR data and shows a high practicability.
An electromagnetic model was developed for frequency domain reflectometry (FDR) based on the characterization of the FDR probe by transfer functions and on the decoupling of the probe signals from the ground signals. Inverse modeling of the FDR waveforms permits accurate retrieval of the frequency-dependent soil electrical properties.
FDR, frequency domain reflectometry, TDR time domain reflectometry, VNA, vector network analyzer
Time domain reflectometry (TDR) has become a standard in geophysical applications for measuring the soil dielectric permittivity and electrical conductivity. Since TDR for soil characterization was first developed by Topp et al. (1980, 2003) in the early 1980s, many applications and enhancements have been reported regarding (i) the development of the physical measurement system, e.g., the design of the TDR probe (Robinson et al., 2003) and the multiplexing of several probes (Heimovaara and Bouten, 1990), and (ii) the interpretation and modeling of the TDR waveform (Heimovaara, 1993; Noborio, 2001; Robinson et al., 2003). The calibration of petrophysical relationships that link the dielectric permittivity and the soil water content has also received specific attention (Topp et al., 1980; Ledieu et al., 1986; Sihvola and Kong, 1988; Yu et al., 1999).
Traditionally, dielectric permittivity is derived from the TDR signal by analysis of the travel time of the electromagnetic wave along the transmission line. Chung and Lin (2009) showed that different dielectric permittivity estimations can be obtained by comparing the methods that have been proposed to determine the reflection arrivals in the travel time analysis (e.g., the tangent method or the derivative method). Indeed, Hook and Livingston (1996) demonstrated that a dominant source of error in estimating soil water content using TDR was the uncertainty in determining the propagation travel time. High soil electrical conductivity in clay or saline soils can also significantly affect the propagation of the waveform and the determination of the travel time, leading to erroneous estimation of the real part of the dielectric permittivity if not taken into account (Pepin et al., 1995; Sun et al., 2000).
The soil electrical conductivity is usually retrieved from the TDR signal by depicting the reflection coefficient at long times and applying the Giese and Tiemann (1975) method; however, several researchers have pointed out the limitations of this method (Lin et al., 2008; Huisman et al., 2008) as well as the dielectric permittivity determination methods cited above. In addition, these methods are not suited for determining the frequency dependence of the soil electrical properties.
To overcome these limitations, more advanced forward and inverse modeling methods, usually performed in the frequency domain, have shown promise (Heimovaara, 1994; Lin, 2003; Schaap et al., 2003; Huisman et al., 2004; Heimovaara et al., 2004; Mattei et al., 2005; Shuai et al., 2009). In addition, operating in the frequency domain permits increase of the bandwidth and, thereby, increases the information content in the data. As a result, frequency domain analysis offers more potential than the common time domain and travel time analysis methods for the determination of soil water content (Lin, 2003). Nevertheless, modeling of the FDR system could require numerous system calibrations with a high number of parameters to be determined (e.g., 40 as reported by Heimovaara et al., 2004) and the necessity of disconnecting the elements of the FDR system, as stated by Shuai et al. (2009). In addition, several assumptions about, e.g., the cable impedance and the characteristic probe impedance have to be made to resolve the FDR system. Given all of this, the practicability and accuracy of such methods remain questionable.
Electromagnetic wave generation can be performed using other wave generator devices than the commonly used and commercialized cable testers. In particular, FDR systems that have been conceived with a vector network analyzer (VNA) (Campbell, 1990; West et al., 2003; Huisman et al., 2004; Shuai et al., 2009) have shown an unprecedented precision and control of the input generated signal as well as on the reception and analysis of the returned waveform. In addition, the calibration of a VNA is well defined, constituting an international standard, and thereby ensures repeatability of the measurements. Finally, unified models and techniques have been developed for soil electromagnetic characterization based on the same VNA technology but using different sensors (e.g., ground penetrating radar [Lambot et al., 2004] and electromagnetic induction [Moghadas et al., 2010]) operating with different frequency ranges and measuring at different scales.
In this study, a generalized VNA-based FDR modeling approach was formulated and a practical probe calibration procedure was developed. The approach is based on an electromagnetic model decoupling the cable and probe head from the ground using frequency-dependent reflection and transmission transfer functions. The FDR model represents an exact solution of Maxwell's equations for wave propagation in one dimensional multilayered media and, in particular, in transmission lines. The FDR probe is fully described by its characteristic transfer functions, which are determined using three or more measurements for known model configurations. The soil properties are retrieved after removing the probe effects from the raw FDR data by iteratively inverting a multilayered global reflection coefficient. This approach is not limited to the VNA-based FDR setup used in this study and could be extended to the traditional TDR cable testers. To validate the method, we conducted laboratory experiments with measurements taken in salt water with increasing salt concentrations and sand with different moisture contents. The results were compared with theoretical values and traditional TDR estimates. The expected advantages of this approach compared with other existing methods are mainly the theoretical exactness of the model and the simple calibration procedure.
Electromagnetic Properties of Materials
The electromagnetic parameters governing wave propagation are the dielectric permittivity (ε), electrical conductivity (σ), and magnetic permeability (μ). The magnetic permeability of the major natural materials encountered in the environment is assumed to be equal to the magnetic permeability of free space, namely, μ0 = 4π × 10−7 H m−1. Soil with magnetic materials (e.g., Fe oxides), however, may exhibit nonnegligible higher magnetic permeabilities (Robinson et al., 1994; van Dam et al., 2002; Stillman and Olhoeft, 2008; Mattei et al., 2008).
Due to relaxation phenomena, the soil electromagnetic properties present a frequency dependence, which is usually described with the extended Debye relaxation model (e.g., Heimovaara, 1994; Feng et al., 1999; Huisman et al., 2004). It is worth noting that this model assumes only one single relaxation phenomenon, while the soil is a mix of air, soil particles, and water and thus exhibits a complicated dielectric behavior due to the overlapping spectra of its different components (Logsdon, 2005). In the limited frequency range from 500 MHz to 3 GHz, however, it has been shown that the frequency dependence of the dielectric permittivity can be neglected for most soils (Zhou et al., 2001; Weerts et al., 2001; Huisman et al., 2002; Robinson et al., 2005). In this study, we assumed a constant dielectric permittivity in the frequency range 10 MHz to 1 GHz. The dielectric permittivity of sand can be assumed to be constant in that frequency range (Kelleners et al., 2005) and the dielectric permittivity of water or salt water decreases as a function of the frequency only above 2 GHz (Meissner and Wentz, 2004).
Nevertheless, the frequency dependence of the apparent electrical conductivity (which includes dielectric losses) in this frequency range can be significant, especially for high water contents. In a such limited frequency range, this dependence can be well accounted for using a linear model, thereby representing a local linear approximation of the full frequency-dependence function (Lambot et al., 2004):
\[\mathrm{{\sigma}}(f){=}\mathrm{{\sigma}}_{f_{\mathrm{min}}}{+}s(f{-}f_{\mathrm{min}})\]
where σfmin is the apparent electrical conductivity at the minimum frequency of the frequency range (fmin) and s the slope of the linear function σ(f).
Modeling of the Frequency Domain Reflectometry System
An FDR (or TDR) system is typically constituted by an electromagnetic wave generator, a coaxial cable, and an FDR probe. The wave generator transmits an electromagnetic wave into the system and the FDR probe acts as a waveguide transmitting the wave into the medium in which the probe is inserted. The FDR rods thus emulate a coaxial medium where an alternating electric field oscillates between the central and the external rods, with the investigated medium acting as the insulating material of the coaxial line. Each sequential element of the FDR system is characterized by its internal electromagnetic properties, i.e., ε, σ, μ, and dimensions, determining its complex impedance. A change in these characteristic properties produces a partial reflection and transmission of the wave. The FDR system thereby constitutes a transmission line or a one-dimensional multilayered medium.
An FDR measurement using VNA technology is represented by the frequency-dependent scatter function S11(ω), defined as the complex ratio between the reflected and incident waves:
\[S_{11}{=}\frac{B({\omega})}{A({\omega})}\]
where B(ω) and A(ω) are the reflected and incident waves, respectively, at the VNA calibration plane and ω is the angular frequency. The subscripts of S11(ω) refer to the fact that the same port of the VNA (i.e., Port 1) is used for simultaneously transmitting (second subscript) and receiving (first subscript) the waves. Electromagnetic wave propagation through the FDR probe results from a combination of infinite multiple reflections and transmissions occurring at each change of impedance or interface.
In the time domain, using traditional TDR cable testers, the measured reflected wave b(t) can be calculated by a convolution integral of the incident wave a(t) and the system function s(t) (Heimovaara, 1994):
\[b(t){=}{{\int}_{{-}{\infty}}^{{+}{\infty}}}a(t{-}\mathrm{{\tau}})s(\mathrm{{\tau}})\mathrm{d{\tau}}\]
where τ is the integration variable. The measured reflected wave b(t) in the time domain can then be transformed into the frequency domain wave B(ω) using a Fourier transform (Heimovaara, 1994).
The overall FDR system is shown in Fig. 1a and its corresponding representation in terms of a one-dimensional multilayered medium is shown in Fig. 1b. The variable S11(ω) therefore represents a global reflection coefficient, measured at the calibration plane up to the end of the probe, formally referred to as RC,N (ω), for fields incident from Layer C (the cable before the calibration plane) onto the interface with Layer N (the end of the rods). The probe head is defined here as the layered medium P, with unknown layers, situated between the calibration plane and the base of the FDR rods. To mathematically decouple the probe head from the FDR rods, a fictional air layer (Layer 0) is added in between, whose thickness (d0) tends to zero. This layer therefore has no effect on the wave propagation. The FDR rods are then discretized into a number of layers representing a multilayered medium, with each soil layer being characterized by its own electromagnetic parameters and, by extension, its soil properties. For non-short-circuited probes, the end of the rods is modeled by an infinite half-space whose properties are defined such that they lead to a reflection coefficient RN−1,N = 1. This can typically be emulated using relative dielectric permittivity εr = 1, σ = 0, and μr → ∞ for Layer N. The unknown layered medium P can be theoretically replaced by an equivalent medium with global reflection [RC,0(ω) and R0,C(ω)] and transmission [TC,0(ω) and T0,C(ω)] coefficients, defined as shown in Fig. 1c, which fully characterize the probe head. Indeed, the presence of the fictional air layer permits these global functions to be made independent from the soil properties. The scatter function S11(ω) can then be derived as
\begin{eqnarray*}&&S_{11}(\mathrm{{\omega}}){=}R_{\mathrm{C},\mathrm{N}}(\mathrm{{\omega}})\\&&R_{\mathrm{C},0}(\mathrm{{\omega}}){+}\frac{T_{\mathrm{C},0}(\mathrm{{\omega}})R_{0,\mathrm{N}}(\mathrm{{\omega}})T_{0,\mathrm{C}}(\mathrm{{\omega}})}{1{-}R_{0,\mathrm{C}}(\mathrm{{\omega}})R_{0,\mathrm{N}}(\mathrm{{\omega}})}\end{eqnarray*}
Defining T(ω) = TC,0(ω)T0,C(ω), the number of independent unknown characteristic probe head functions reduces to three, namely, RC,0(ω), R0,C(ω), and T(ω). It is worth noting that these characteristic probe transfer functions inherently contain the information about the probe characteristics such as, e.g., the probe impedance, which is integrated in the T(ω) and R0,C(ω) transfer functions. Once these probe characteristic functions are known, the probe effects can be filtered out from the S11(ω) measurements and the response of only the soil can be derived:
\begin{eqnarray*}&&R_{0,\mathrm{N}}(\mathrm{{\omega}}){=}\\&&\frac{S_{11}(\mathrm{{\omega}}){-}R_{\mathrm{C},0}(\mathrm{{\omega}})}{S_{11}(\mathrm{{\omega}})R_{0,\mathrm{C}}(\mathrm{{\omega}}){+}T(\mathrm{{\omega}}){-}R_{\mathrm{C},0}(\mathrm{{\omega}})R_{0,\mathrm{C}}(\mathrm{{\omega}})}\end{eqnarray*}
The three probe characteristic functions RC,0(ω), R0,C(ω), and T(ω) can be determined by solving a system of equations such as Eq. [4], for which at least three independent measurements of S11(ω) should be performed and the corresponding R0,N(ω) should be calculated. Practically, this can be realized using well-known model configurations such as shortcuts at different sections of the rods [assuming Rn,n+1(ω) = −1 at the shortcut position] and a measurement with the probe in free space (air). To ensure independence of the calibrating equations across the whole frequency range, the system should ideally be overdetermined using more than three model configurations.
In the case of time domain measurements using classical TDR devices, the scatter function S11(ω) measured by the VNA in Eq. [4] can be replaced by the reflected wave B(ω), that is, the Fourier transform of b(t) measured by the TDR cable tester. In that case, the incident wave A(ω) is integrated into the probe characteristic functions RC,0(ω) and T(ω); therefore, it is not necessary to know it. In a TDR system, the actual incident wave may differ from the one that is given by the TDR constructor because of distortions caused by internal electronics of the voltage generator and the transmission line (Mattei et al., 2005).
The global reflection coefficient from the FDR rods [R0,N(ω)] can be recursively derived as (e.g., Feng et al., 1999; Heimovaara et al., 2004)
\begin{eqnarray*}&&R_{n,\mathrm{N}}(\mathrm{{\omega}}){=}\\&&\frac{R_{n,n{+}1}(\mathrm{{\omega}}){+}R_{n{+}1,\mathrm{N}}(\mathrm{{\omega}})\mathrm{exp}\left[{-}2\mathrm{{\gamma}}_{n{+}1}(\mathrm{{\omega}})d_{n{+}1}\right]}{1{+}R_{n,n{+}1}(\mathrm{{\omega}})R_{n{+}1,\mathrm{N}}(\mathrm{{\omega}})\mathrm{exp}\left[{-}2\mathrm{{\gamma}}_{n{+}1}(\mathrm{{\omega}})d_{n{+}1}\right]}\end{eqnarray*}
where n refers to the layer (n = N – 1, N – 2, …, 0), γn(ω) is the propagation constant, Rn,n+1(ω) is the local reflection coefficient for fields incident from the nth layer onto the interface with the layer n + 1, and dn is the layer thickness. The recursion is initiated assuming RN−1,N(ω) = 1 for an open-ended probe (Feng et al., 1999; Schaap et al., 2003). The electromagnetic wave is assumed to propagate in the transverse electromagnetic mode, meaning that the electric and magnetic fields are transverse to the direction of the propagation of the wave. The propagation constant γ depends on the dielectric permittivity ε, electrical conductivity σ, and magnetic permeability μ of the medium. It is expressed as
\[\mathrm{{\gamma}}(\mathrm{{\omega}}){=}\sqrt{{-}\mathrm{{\omega}}^{2}\left(\mathrm{{\varepsilon}}{-}\frac{j\mathrm{{\sigma}}}{\mathrm{{\omega}}}\right)}\]
The propagation constant γ is a complex quantity, which can also be expressed as
\[\mathrm{{\gamma}}{=}\mathrm{{\alpha}}{+}j\mathrm{{\beta}}\]
The real part, α, is the attenuation constant:
\[\mathrm{{\alpha}}{=}\sqrt{\frac{\mathrm{{\omega}}^{2}\mathrm{{\mu}{\varepsilon}}}{2}\left(\sqrt{1{+}\mathrm{tan}^{2}\mathrm{{\delta}}{-}1}\right)}\]
and the imaginary part, β, is the phase constant:
\[\mathrm{{\alpha}}{=}\sqrt{\frac{\mathrm{{\omega}}^{2}\mathrm{{\mu}{\varepsilon}}}{2}\left(\sqrt{1{+}\mathrm{tan}^{2}\mathrm{{\delta}{+}}1}\right)}\]
\[\mathrm{tan{\delta}}{=}\frac{\mathrm{{\sigma}}}{\mathrm{{\omega}{\varepsilon}}}\]
is defined as the loss tangent. The phase constant β determines wave propagation velocity (v) as
\[v{=}\frac{\mathrm{{\omega}}}{\mathrm{{\beta}}}{=}\frac{1}{\sqrt{(\mathrm{{\mu}{\varepsilon}}/2)(\sqrt{1{+}\mathrm{tan}^{2}\mathrm{{\delta}}{+}1})}}\]
It is worth noting that for nonmagnetic materials with a relatively low electrical conductivity and considering high frequencies, the wave propagation velocity can be approximated by
\[v{\sim}\frac{1}{\sqrt{\mathrm{{\mu}{\varepsilon}}}}{=}\frac{c}{\sqrt{\mathrm{{\varepsilon}}_{\mathrm{r}}}}\]
where c is the wave velocity in free space and εr is the relative dielectric permittivity (εr = ε/ε0 with ε0 being the dielectric permittivity of free space). This assumption is commonly used when characterizing soil using classical TDR approaches. In our case, such an assumption was not applied.
The local reflection coefficient Rn,n+1(ω), resulting from the electromagnetic boundary conditions at an interface, is defined as
\[R_{n,n{+}1}(\mathrm{{\omega}}){=}\frac{\mathrm{{\mu}}_{n{+}1}\mathrm{{\gamma}}_{n}(\mathrm{{\omega}}){-}\mathrm{{\mu}}_{n}\mathrm{{\gamma}}_{n{+}1}(\mathrm{{\omega}})}{\mathrm{{\mu}}_{n{+}1}\mathrm{{\gamma}}_{n}(\mathrm{{\omega}}){+}\mathrm{{\mu}}_{n}\mathrm{{\gamma}}_{n{+}1}(\mathrm{{\omega}})}\]
Model Inversion
The unknown parameter vector p to be determined (containing the dielectric permittivity, frequency-dependent apparent electrical conductivity, and thickness of the investigated soil layers) is retrieved by a full-waveform inversion procedure, which is applied to the probe-filtered FDR signal (see Eq. [5]). The inverse problem is formulated in the least squares sense and the objective function is defined as
\[\mathrm{{\varphi}}(\mathbf{\mathrm{P}}){=}{\vert}\mathbf{\mathrm{R}}_{0,\mathrm{N}}^{{\ast}}{-}\mathbf{\mathrm{R}}_{0,\mathrm{N}}{\vert}\mathrm{^{T}}{\vert}\mathbf{\mathrm{R}}_{0,\mathrm{N}}^{{\ast}}{-}\mathbf{\mathrm{R}}_{0,\mathrm{N}}{\vert}\]
where R0,N* = R0,N*(ω) and R0,N = R0,N (ω,p) are the vectors containing the observed and simulated global reflection coefficients, respectively, of the soil. Because these global reflection coefficients are complex vectors, the objective function is expressed by the amplitude of the difference of the filtered data in the complex plane.
Considering a multilayered soil sampled by the FDR probe, parameters for each soil layer can theoretically be retrieved by inversion, depending on the information content with respect to the number of parameters to optimize. Nevertheless, for thin layers compared with the signal wavelength and for small contrast between the layers, the information content in the waveform may be insufficient to distinguish the layers and to determine the layer properties, leading to nonuniqueness problems in the inversion, as was shown in Minet et al. (2010). Although the optimization problem is generally simple for a single soil layer, the topography of the objective function to minimize can be relatively complex when considering several soil layers, including multiple local minima. To properly solve such inverse problems, a global optimization procedure is required. Following the approach of Lambot et al. (2002), we used the global multilevel coordinate search algorithm (Huyer and Neumaier, 1999) combined sequentially with the classical Nelder–Mead simplex algorithm (Lagarias et al., 1998).
In this study, we used the model of Ledieu et al. (1986) to fit the inversely retrieved soil dielectric permittivity to the volumetric water content θv:
\[\mathrm{{\theta}}{=}a\sqrt{\mathrm{{\varepsilon}}_{\mathrm{r}}{+}b}\]
where a and b are the optimized soil-specific parameters.
Laboratory Experiments Setup
The objective of the laboratory measurements was threefold: (i) to characterize the FDR probe transfer functions, (ii) to validate these transfer functions in a well-known medium, i.e., salt water, and (iii) to apply the inversion procedure to retrieve the electromagnetic properties of a wetted sand in which the probe was inserted.
We set up the FDR system using a VNA (ZVT8, Rohde & Schwarz, Münich, Germany) as transmitter and receiver, which we connected to a homemade FDR probe with high-quality N-type connectors and a 50-Ω impedance coaxial cable of 2.5-m length (Sucoflex 104PEA, Huber + Suhner AG, Herisau, Switzerland).
The FDR probe was a 9.60-cm-length, three-rod stainless steel device held by an epoxy probe head and equipped with an N-type connector. The spacing between the two external rods was 28 mm and the diameter of the rods was 3 mm. The VNA was accurately calibrated with high precision [S11(ω) < −90 dB for a “Match” measurement] with a 50-Ω OSM (Open, Short, Match) series of a standard, N-type calibration kit (ZV-Z21, Rohde & Schwarz, Münich, Germany). The calibration of the VNA was made at the connector between the coaxial cable and the probe head, as illustrated in Fig. 1. It is worth noting that the calibration could also have been performed at Port 1 of the VNA. In that case, the probe transfer functions would have also accounted for the coaxial cable.
For the probe transfer functions determination, S11(ω) measurements were first performed in different well-known media, namely, in air and with the FDR rods short-circuited at 16 different distances, accounting in total for 17 measurements, although three measurements are sufficient to determine the transfer functions. The probe length and the position of shortcuts along the probe were precisely measured to compute the theoretical global reflection coefficient in these media. Second, measurements in 10 saltwater solutions were made to validate the probe calibration and the inversion procedure. Last, we set up 10 different wetted sand media by mixing calculated volumes of dry sand and demineralized water to test the technique for the retrieval of the dielectric permittivities and frequency-dependent electrical conductivities. The same volume of water was added to the known volume of sand to obtain regularly increasing sand water content.
The frequency-dependent scatter function S11(ω) was measured sequentially at 3996 stepped frequencies from 10 MHz to 8 GHz with a step of 2 MHz. Nevertheless, inversions of the measured signals were performed on a limited frequency range, namely, 10 to 1000 MHz, where the signal/noise ratio appeared to be optimal, especially due to the higher performances of the probe in that frequency range. It is worth mentioning that Lin (2003) suggested a similar optimal frequency range (500–1000 MHz).
For the measurements performed in the wetted sand, TDR measurements were also performed using a Tektronix 1502C metallic cable tester (Tektronix, Beaverton, OR) connected to a traditional TDR probe (95 mm long and 3-mm diameter with a 25-mm rod spacing). The dielectric permittivity was derived from the TDR waveforms using the WinTDR 6.0 software (Soil Physics Group, Utah State Univ., Logan).
Laboratory Experiments Results
Probe Transfer Functions Determination
The global reflection coefficients R0,N(ω) corresponding to the 17 measurements (one air + 16 shortcuts) performed for the probe transfer functions determination were first calculated using Eq. [6]. The probe transfer functions were then retrieved by solving a system of equations such as Eq. [4], assuming not only three model configurations but also more (seven and 17) to overdetermine the system.
Figure 2 shows the amplitude and phase of the FDR probe transfer functions RC,0(ω), T(ω), and R0,C(ω) determined across the full frequency range from 10 MHz to 8 GHz. The transfer functions determined with the minimal number of measurements (i.e., three) show very good results for frequencies in which the probe is the most efficient [low R(ω) and high T(ω) values in the lower frequency range], yet local errors appeared for some frequencies, especially in the higher frequency range where the signal/noise ratio became poor as a result of lower probe efficiency and sensitivity to measurement errors (e.g., in the measurement of the distance between the probe head and the shortcut). Overdetermining the system of equations using at least seven or more model configurations led to very similar values of the transfer functions across the whole frequency range, with smooth trends in terms of both amplitude and phase of the transfer functions, thereby denoting a good accuracy. For the analysis of the FDR data taken in salt water and wetted sand (see below), the transfer functions determined with the maximum number of measurements (i.e., 17) were used, but, as it can be observed in Fig. 2, seven measurements were already sufficient to obtain a high accuracy.
The analysis of these probe transfer functions permitted determining in which frequency range the probe is the most efficient. In particular, high RC,0(ω) values (e.g., >0.5) indicate that, at these frequencies, most of the wave is reflected within the probe and is not transmitted to the ground. In contrast, high T(ω) values indicate that the probe is efficient at transmitting waves into the ground. In particular, we can see in Fig. 2b that the probe efficiency strongly decreased above 2 GHz because of the low T(ω) values. The R0,C(ω) values can be analyzed similarly to RC,0(ω), and low R0,C(ω) were observed for the same frequency values as for RC,0(ω), namely, around 3 and 6.5 GHz. Once they are characterized, these probe transfer functions can be used to filter out the raw measured data S11(ω) from all the FDR probe head effects and obtain the global reflection coefficient of the FDR rod medium only [R0,N(ω)], namely, the soil. It is worth noting that in practice, only three reference measurements are required to accurately calibrate the probe, provided it is sufficiently efficient in the frequency range of concern.
Inversion of Frequency Domain Reflectometry Measurements in Salt Water
The validity of the probe calibration and of the inversion procedure was assessed by comparing the measured, theoretically predicted, and inverted (fitted) signals, as well as the theoretical or laboratory-measured and inverted parameters (i.e., εr, σfmin, and s) for the 10 measurements in salt water. The inversion was set in a large parameter space, namely, 2 < εr < 90, 10−2 < σfmin < 10 S m−1 and 10−11 < s < 10−7 s S m−1, and more than 5400 iterations were performed. Salt concentrations were regularly increased from 0.154 to 1.540 g L−1 by adding precise quantities of NaCl into demineralized water. The solution electrical conductivity, as well as the solution temperature, was measured by a WTW LF318 (WTW, Weilheim, Germany) conductivity meter. Bulk electrical conductivity measurements were then temperature corrected to obtain the actual electrical conductivity at the solution temperature. According to the data sheet of the conductivity meter, measurement errors are 10−4 and 10−3 S m−1 for conductivities smaller and larger than 0.2 S m−1, respectively.
Figure 3 shows the measured, predicted, and inverted scatter functions S11(ω) arising from the whole FDR probe, including the probe head, for a measurement in salt water with the lowest salt concentration (0.154 g L−1) depicted in the frequency domain in amplitude and phase (Fig. 3a) and in the time domain (Fig. 3b). Under laboratory conditions, the measured scatter functions showed a good reproducibility, with identical measured signals with repeated measurements. The inverted parameters were used to compute the inverted global reflection coefficient, which was then translated backward into the inverted scatter function S11(ω) using Eq. [4]. The predicted scatter function was computed using the electromagnetic model and theoretical permittivity and conductivity values estimated by a formulation of the Debye model for salt water from Meissner and Wentz (2004) using the measured bulk electrical conductivity and temperature. This accurate model accounts for the frequency and temperature dependence of the electrical parameters, but it is restricted to salt water only. Measurement errors of the bulk electrical conductivity (Δσ = 0.0001 S m−1) and of the solution temperature (ΔT = 0.1°C) do not have a visible impact on the predicted signal when propagating the errors to the predicted scatter function S11(ω) (RMSE of 0.00110 in terms of amplitude of the scatter function in the frequency domain).
In the frequency domain, some discrepancies were observed between the measured and inverted or predicted signals, both in amplitude and phase, especially with increasing frequency. These discrepancies may be attributed to a lower signal/noise ratio as a result of the stronger attenuation of the waves due to increasing relaxation phenomena with increasing frequency. In the time domain, the reflection at the beginning of the FDR rods was observed around 1 ns and the final reflection from the end of the probe after 6 ns. Arrival times of the reflection were identical between the measured, inverted, and predicted signals, whereas there was a poorer agreement between the amplitudes of the reflection peaks. For the inverted signal, this indicates a high sensitivity of the model to the dielectric permittivity, which mainly governs the propagation time, rather than the electrical conductivity.
Figure 4 shows the corresponding measured, predicted, and inverted global transfer coefficients R0,N(ω) depicted in the frequency domain in amplitude and phase (Fig. 4a) and in the time domain (Fig. 4b) for the same saltwater medium as shown in Fig. 3. In the frequency domain, discrepancies between the measured and inverted or predicted signals are smaller than in Fig. 3a, although increasing errors with frequency can still be observed. For low frequencies (e.g., <600 MHz), the inverted signal fits the measured signal remarkably well. In the time domain, the same agreement between the measured and inverted, as well as the predicted signals also can be observed. It is worth noting that the signal appears to be better modeled when expressed in terms of R0,N because it is referenced with respect to the fictional air layer, resulting in a larger contrast at the beginning of the FDR rods. In particular, the reflection of the end of the probe is relatively higher for the signal expressed in terms of S11 when comparing with R0,N because R0,N is computed assuming that less signal is transmitted in the FDR rods.
Corresponding with the case depicted in Fig. 4, the inverted parameters that were retrieved are εr = 84.4, σ10MHz = 0.0210 S m−1 and s = 10−9·55 s S m−1. The relative dielectric permittivity εr at the solution temperature (13.5°C) is expected to range from 82.2 to 82.6 in the limited frequency range of 10 to 1000 MHz (Meissner and Wentz, 2004), which is close to the inverted dielectric permittivity value. The slight overestimation of the water dielectric permittivity is expected to have come from the fact that, during the measurements with the probe in the water, some water wetted the inside of the probe head through the rods. The measured solution bulk conductivity with the conductivity meter was, for that case, 0.0242 ± 0.0001 S m−1.
Figure 5 compares the measured and inverted electrical conductivity values for the 10 different saltwater solutions. Inverted frequency-dependent electrical conductivities were chosen at the minimum frequency of 10 MHz. There is a very good agreement between these two variables, with r2 = 0.997. Inverted values were slightly underestimated compared with the measured electrical conductivities, but inverted values can be higher considering higher frequencies. The relation between the mass of added salt in the solution and the measured electrical conductivity appears to be linear in this range of salinity (not shown) and also well determined, with r2 = 0.999. Inverted dielectric permittivity values were very similar between the 10 saltwater solutions, ranging from 84.39 to 84.69. The good agreement of the measured or theoretical and inverted parameters, as well as the small discrepancies between theoretically predicted, inverted, and measured signals, demonstrate the accuracy of the electromagnetic model and probe transfer functions determination with respect to real measurements, as well as that the inverse problem was well posed.
Determination of the Sand Water Content
The measured FDR signals from the 10 wetted sand media were filtered for the probe effects using Eq. [5] and then inverted in the limited frequency range of 10 to 1000 MHz to retrieve the soil dielectric permittivity and the frequency-dependent apparent electrical conductivity. The parameter space for the inversion was set as follows: 2 < εr < 90, 10−4 < σfmin < 10−1 S m−1, and 10−12 < s < 10−5 s S m−1. The media were assumed to be homogeneous in the electromagnetic model (N = 2 in Fig. 1). Subsequent to the FDR measurements, volumetric samples of the wetted sand were collected to determine the actual water content, using the oven-drying method at 105°C for at least 48 h.
Figure 6 shows the relative dielectric permittivity estimated from TDR measurements and FDR inversions as a function of the sand water content measured by volumetric sampling. The model of Ledieu et al. (1986) (Eq. [16]) linking the volumetric water content and the dielectric permittivity was fitted on both TDR and FDR data. The RMSE of the fits and the r2 between √εr and θv are shown in Table 1 .
Both TDR and FDR relationships are very good, with r2 close to 1 and RMSE close to 0.5 in terms of dielectric permittivity, corresponding to an error of <1% in terms of θv. The differences between FDR and TDR estimates may originate from the uncertainties in the volumetric sampling and from the different locations where the FDR and TDR probes were inserted, given the inherent heterogeneities in the sand water content and density.
Figure 7 shows the frequency-dependent electrical conductivity, σ(f) inverted from FDR signals for the 10 different sand water contents (depicted from water contents [WC] 1 to 10 in Fig. 7b) as a function of the frequency range in which the data were inverted. Frequency-dependent electrical conductivity determined from an FDR measurement in demineralized water and the theoretical Debye model for pure water according to the parameterization of Meissner and Wentz (2004) are shown for comparison purposes.
The slopes of the linear frequency dependence for the different wetted sands are different, ranging from 10−25.3 to 10−10.6 s S m−1, for the lowest and highest sand water contents, respectively. Not surprisingly, the apparent electrical conductivity increased with the sand water content, tending to the slope of demineralized water (s = 10−9.59 s S m−1). Nevertheless, the apparent frequency-dependent electrical conductivity of the most wetted sand remained far from the frequency-dependent electrical conductivity of water because of the composition of wetted sand, which is a mix of air, water, and soil particles. The assumption of linearity of the frequency dependence appears to be quite acceptable for pure water, with a line approaching the curved Debye model. It is worth noting that, at the lowest and highest frequencies, the inverted frequency-dependent electrical conductivities of demineralized water measurement correspond to the values calculated with the theoretical Debye model.
We developed a new FDR technique based on an electromagnetic model decoupling the FDR probe head from the measured medium using three frequency-dependent transfer functions. At least three laboratory measurements in perfectly known media and modeling of the global reflection coefficients in these configurations can be used to fully determine the probe transfer functions, owing to the decoupling of the FDR probe and the accurate electromagnetic modeling. The technique was validated with measurements in saltwater media. Measured, inverted, and theoretically predicted signals in the frequency range in which the probe is efficient were in close agreement, thereby demonstrating the accuracy of the whole forward model and that inverse problems were well posed. A very good agreement was also observed when comparing measured or theoretical and inverted parameters, i.e., the dielectric permittivities and electrical conductivities. Measurements in 10 different wetted sands were then conducted and the dielectric permittivities retrieved from FDR inversions were close to the values derived from classical TDR measurements and in a good agreement with volumetric water contents, with r2 between √εr and θv of 0.948 and 0.965 for the TDR and FDR methods, respectively. Moreover, the frequency-dependent electrical conductivity could also be determined. The proposed method appears promising for readily calibration of the FDR probe, for assessing the frequency dependence of the electrical properties and for inverting waveforms coming from multilayered media.
This work was supported by the Belgian Science Policy Office in the frame of the Stereo II program- project SR/00/100 (HYDRASENS), the DIGISOIL project financed by the European Commission under the 7th Framework Program for Research and Technological Development, Area “Environment”, Activity 6.3 “Environmental Technologies”, and the Fonds de la Recherche Scientifique (FNRS, Belgium). The authors are grateful to David Robinson and two anonymous reviewers for their constructive comments.
Freely available online through the author-supported open access option.
Modeling of the frequency domain reflectometry (FDR) system by a one-dimensional multilayered medium: (a) schematic of the measurement system with vector network analyzer (VNA), (b) corresponding representation as a multilayered medium, where S11 is the scatter function, R are reflection coefficients, and ε is the dielectric permittivity, σ is the electrical conductivity, and μ is the magnetic permeability at depths d, and (c) probe reflection and transmission coefficients R and T characterizing the FDR probe head.
Frequency domain reflectometry (FDR) probe transfer functions reflection coefficients (a) RC,0(ω) and (c) R0,C(ω) and transmission coefficients (b) T(ω) determined throughout the entire frequency range (f) from 10 MHz to 8 GHz, depicted in amplitude (upper graphs) and phase (lower graphs), for three different numbers of measurements (three, seven, and 17) used to solve the systems of equations.
Measured, predicted, and inverted scatter functions S11(ω) depicted in the (a) frequency (f) and (b) time (t) domains for water with a salt concentration of 0.154 g L−1.
Measured, predicted, and inverted global reflection coefficients R0,N (ω) depicted in the (a) frequency (f) and (b) time (t) domains for water with a salt concentration of 0.154 g L−1.
Inverted electrical conductivity (σ) at the minimal frequency (10 MHz) from frequency domain reflectometry (FDR) measurements as a function of the measured σ in the 10 different saltwater solutions.
Relative dielectric permittivity (εr) estimated from time domain reflectometry (TDR) measurements and frequency domain reflectometry (FDR) inversions as a function of the sand water content (θv) measured by volumetric sampling. The model of Ledieu et al. (1986) was fitted over the TDR and FDR data.
Frequency-dependent, apparent electrical conductivity (σ) retrieved from frequency domain reflectometry (FDR) inversions for sand media at 10 different water contents (WC) and for demineralized water depicted with theoretical values from the model of Debye; (b) enlargement of the electrical conductivity of the sand media.
Root mean square error of the fits according to the model of Ledieu et al. (1986) and coefficient of determination (r2) between the square root of the relative dielectric permittivity and the volumetric water contents for time domain reflectometry (TDR) and frequency domain reflectometry (FDR) measurements.
RMSE
TDR 0.461 0.948
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Mormons Should Stop Identifying As Republicans
Previously: On Hiatus
That's what I said. Mormons should stop identifying as Republicans.
Wait, come back here! I'm not finished.
I was about to say Mormons should stop identifying as Democrats, as well. (And yes, there are plenty of Mormon Democrats. They just tend to remain out of sight these days.)
It's a very easy thing to assume the politics you identify with are consistent with your religious values. More often than not, they are -if we are discussing the values of conservatives and liberals, and not Republicans and Democrats. Conservative and liberal values tend to remain somewhat consistent. Republican and Democrat values, on the other hand, have proven to be wildly erratic, and have even shifted over time to where it's been hard to tell who stood for what.
Both conservative and liberal values can be found in the gospel of Christ, and in the U.S. Constitution. Democrat and Republican values? Not so much.
I bring all this up because even though we just got through another election period -a time when historically the political vitriol finally tends to settle down- Americans are still divided against each other more viciously than I've ever seen in my life. This is by design, because even though all of us-particularly those who claim to follow Jesus Christ- should be infused with both conservative and liberal values, we have been manipulated into thinking we have to choose a side.
But when you choose one political team over another, you close yourself off from receiving information you need to make informed choices. You won't notice (or you won't want to notice) when your team is behaving badly, because the spokesmen for your team frequently omit some of the facts you need to know. To politicians, there is nothing more important than winning, therefore politics always devolves into a game of lies. One side may be more straightforward than the other at any given time, but neither party has ever been honest and forthcoming all the time. Not by a long shot.
Conservative Vs. Liberal
Let's set aside for a moment the idea that being conservative or liberal has anything to do with politics. Put that out of your mind for a moment and just consider what those words actually mean. Because you doubtless possess both conservative and liberal characteristics. At least you do if you are a well-balanced person. Some people are more conservative than others, and some people are more liberal. The trick is to find a balance between the two. Otherwise you could become a zealot, and zealots don't get along with anybody.
Generally speaking, a Conservative is a person who is rooted in tradition. He or she prefers to be cautious, and is not inclined to act rashly.
A Liberal (again, speaking generally) is a person who is open to new ideas. Sometimes a liberal acts rashly without first weighing the consequences of those actions.
Notice anything about those two definitions? In the first place they sometimes do describe political tendencies, and in the second place both sets of characteristics have both advantages and disadvantages to the person tied to those characteristics. If you have traditionally conservative tendencies, you might at times be too cautious, resulting in your missing out on romance, or what could have been a life-changing business opportunity.
Conversely, a liberal might act too impetuously and not only mess up his own life, but the lives of others. Actions entered into with radical aplomb can leave behind a trail of broken hearts and broke investors.
America's Political Legacy is Both Conservative And Liberal
One reason tradition has served us well for so long is because on the whole, tradition works. Long-standing traditions have often been beneficial to mankind. But tradition alone can sometimes be based on a faulty premise. For centuries the British people believed that their long line of kings had a "divine right" to rule over them, which meant that they believed the king was on the throne because God Himself willed it so. Whatever the king decided was the will of God.
Then along came John Locke (1632-1704) who argued there was no such thing as the divine right of kings. Locke was a key philosopher of the Enlightenment period, and came to be known as the Father of Liberalism. His writings were well-known among America's founders.
Still, the great majority of Americans were reluctant to break with the king. In fact, they didn't so much think of themselves as "Americans" as they did British subjects living in America. As subjects of the crown, they were entitled to the protection of English common law, a set of open laws developed over centuries and rooted in biblical law that protected the rights of the people. Never mind that King George hadn't recognized the people's rights for quite some time. Those living in the colonies remained reluctant to act rashly by kicking the king's soldiers out of their country and ignoring the king's unlawful decrees. They held out hope that the king would come to his senses and go back to honoring their rights under English common law.
Then in 1776, Thomas Paine, an English corset maker who had immigrated to America just two years previous, published a pamphlet titled Common Sense, in which he argued that separation from the king was really the only reasonable option the colonists had left. Paine's argument persuaded the colonists to let go of their faulty tradition of devotion to a king. They became open to the new idea that common law rights were universal; they had every right to govern themselves under the protection of the common law, and they didn't need any king's permission to do so. They had a God-given right to live as they pleased. Paine's pamphlet was, in my view, the most cogent and effective liberal argument of all time, and it turned the tide of sentiment toward independence from England.
When you read the U.S. Constitution, you'll notice that document has both conservative and liberal elements to it. It is conservative in that it carefully and narrowly defines the roles that public officials are bound to abide by. That document is also conservative in that it is concerned only with the behavior of public servants. It does not apply to the rest of us. You don't have to obey the constitution, they do. That's why every public servant, upon being hired, is required to swear an oath to protect and defend the constitution. I've heard people say the constitution was a contract involving people long dead, that no one in this generation ever signed it, so what use is it?
Well. You and I don't have to sign the contract between the government and the people, but the contract is renewed every single time a government official swears that oath. That is what keeps the contract alive; if they don't want to enter into the contract, they don't get to govern. The rights of public officials to act are narrowly defined, which is the opposite of liberally defined and interpreted.
So where is the "liberal" section of the Constitution? That's in those ten amendments that make up the Bill of Rights. Every one of those amendments guarantees that the people's rights are to be liberally construed. As long as we do no harm to others, you and I are free to live our lives as liberally as we like, even if we don't always make the wisest choices.
Not so our servants in government. The constitution restricts them in their actions, because if it didn't they might very well get into mischief. There are few things as dangerous as a politician who believes his position gives him liberal carte blanche to rule over the people.
So How Did We Get Into This Mess?
The 18th century Scottish philosopher David Hume came up with some brilliant political ideas, but he had one that was a clunker. Just as John Locke is considered a liberal, Hume is considered a conservative, and as a conservative he proposed that the mass of people are nearly always motivated by passion rather than reason, and so are incapable of intelligently ruling themselves. Therefore, Hume proposed, there needs to be an elite class to rule over the people -so long as the people give their consent to be ruled.
Well, he got that first part right; most people are not capable of ruling themselves. But it doesn't follow that they need anyone to rule over them. The American founders went to a great deal of trouble to guarantee that the people's elected representatives did not rule over the people, but instead were to serve under them. If some Americans were unable to properly govern themselves, well then, so what? We all make dumb mistakes. God expects us to learn from our mistakes and continue on making even dumber ones. Your mistakes are yours to learn from. Just because some people happen to be chronically stupid doesn't mean anybody else is entitled to impose their will upon them, or on the rest of us, either.
Speaking of passion, David be rockin' that shower cap.
Little by little, and barely perceptible over time, the liberality of the government bequeathed to us by the Founders began to give way to Hume's safer, more conservative philosophy of government by the elite. Today many Americans believe that when they go to the polls on election day, they are choosing people to be their rulers. The problem with this belief system is that when some people end up with a master other than the one they had hoped would be ruling them, they react like petulant children.
On of my favorite conservatives.
Well, that isn't the way our government was designed to work. The most important elected officials, and the ones you should be closely monitoring, are your state and local Representatives. Why? Because those are the only persons in government you elected to represent you, and they are the ones most likely to screw up your life.
Next up the chain is your state Senator, whose job is primarily to make sure we haven't talked our representatives into passing laws that would restrict the freedoms of any of our fellow citizens. The majority will always try to impose its will on the minority if given half a chance, so a salient duty of the Senate is to nip majority rule in the bud when it gets out of hand.
My U-Haul Experience
This seems like a good place for a digression.
Sometime in the first year of our marriage, circa 1980, Connie and I rented a U-Haul truck for our move from Provo to Salt Lake City. But when I drove the truck, I was chagrined to find the thing wouldn't go faster than 55 miles an hour, which was the federally imposed speed limit back then. No matter how hard I floored that pedal, the truck wouldn't go faster than 55.
I learned that the good folks at U-Haul had installed a mechanical device called a "governor," the purpose of which was to make certain the truck never went faster than it was supposed to. At the time I thought that was a strange name for a piece of machinery, but I understand its meaning now. I could have all the "Adventures In Moving" I wanted, but I couldn't have an adventure that took me as fast as I wanted to go. There was a device installed under the hood of the truck that was there to temper any liberal urge I had toward behaving rashly.
So it is in the political sphere. In a state government, as in the federal, the House of Representatives is the "liberal" branch, so to speak. It exists to enact the will of the people. If the members of the house understand their limitations, they won't pass harmful laws. But when they do pass a bill, it gets kicked up to the Senate for approval, where the Senators are expected to determine whether or not that law would be detrimental to the state. If the Senate passes it, the bill goes to the Governor.
This is where the conservative aspect of state government kicks in. The governor's responsibility is much like the governor on that U-Haul truck. His job is to slow the process down, because sometimes bills are passed while everyone is in a high emotional state. Conservatism, by it's very nature, is careful and deliberate. Conservatism says, "now slow down a minute; let's think this through," and if the governor determines the law would be harmful to the rights of the people, he is supposed to put the brakes on it.
The president's role is similar to a governor in that respect. That's the veto power.
Does it always work that way? Heck no. Politicians are ever seeking ways to increase State power and decrease the rights of the individual. Nevertheless, the liberal-conservative dichotomy in government was the intent of the founders.
Okay, that's the end of this digression.
We Return You Now To The Rules Of Federal Procedure
If the Senate approves of a bill passed by the House of Representatives, they vote to enact it into law, and then the President looks it over to make sure sure it passes muster. And if he feels it does, he signs it into law. If he feels it restricts the rights of any individuals as secured by the constitution, he can and should veto that law.
That's how government is supposed to work. The elected officials had one salient responsibility: don't pass any laws that would infringe on the rights of any of the people. If an unconstitutional law still gets enacted, a person with standing (which means someone who has potentially been harmed by the law) can still bring it before the Supreme Court for relief.
That's why I've found it amusing that so many Americans seem to think the current president has been elected as some crazy kind of Emperor. Why else would there be so many people coming completely unglued over his election?
Remember when Obama was elected? A lot of people celebrated the crowning of Barach Obama as if he were some benevolent new king. Some even thought he was going to pay their bills for them! And now there are an equal number of crazies who think the election of Donald Trump is going to mean the end of America. (Kinda makes you wonder if these aren't all the same people.)
Never mind that Trump doesn't have the power to destroy the nation. It takes money to run a country into the ground. The president can only operate on the money given to him by the House of Representatives. He doesn't control the purse strings, and neither does the Senate. No president has the power to send you to war, or enact healthcare, or build any kind of wall unless you tell your Representative that's what you want and how you want your tax money spent.
Recently an online friend reposted something I wrote on Facebook the day after Donald Trump was elected president. I think it's worth sharing again here as a reminder that one man with limited authority is not about to take us over the precipice:
My goodness, there are some heated responses here over a post that I expected others would find as entertaining as I did. Perhaps you've missed the scenes with protesters angrily taking to the streets declaring "Donald Trump Does NOT represent me!" and "Donald Trump is not MY president!"
Well, of course he isn't. He will be the president of the United States, not the president of the people. His job is not to preside over the people, nor to represent the people, and he certainly hasn't been given the job of "running the country."
These crowds of idiots in the streets appear to believe some kind of king or dictator has taken control of America; that he can wave his hand and issue decrees at whim. And it's fun to watch because they are panicking over nothing.
I found it vastly entertaining to watch these people freaking out because they fully believed their lives would somehow be upended after the election of a mere figurehead. If they want to whine about a politician representing them, they should have given more thought to their actual REPRESENTATIVES, because some of THEM are the ones involved in upending their lives. I can't see what good it does to howl about some guy whose jurisdiction extends only to one branch of government in an area that doesn't reach outside of the ten square miles of the District of Columbia. Perhaps a re-reading of the Hooven doctrine might get them to loosen up and relax (Hooven & Allison Co. vs Evatt, 324 U.S. 652 (1945) These poor saps are clearly confusing the "states united" with the United States. What the president has been elected to preside over is a corporation, not a country.
I got a particular kick out of seeing Miley Cyrus tearfully and reluctantly looking into the camera and telling Donald Trump that despite her misgivings, she accepts him as her president.
Why? Donald Trump is NOT "her" president! He's not my president either, any more than any president before him was my president.
Let me repeat this as many times as needed: The president of the United States is not the president of the states, or anyone living within the boundaries of a state. He is not in charge of me, you, or the country itself, and he certainly does not represent the people of the united states. None of that is in his job description. Miley Cyrus, you are completely free of his influence on you. Donald Trump is not your president. You do not have to accept him as your master.
The president is called the president because he "presides." And what he presides over is NOT the people living within the various states. He presides ONLY over the executive branch of the federal government; he is powerless to dictate his will to any citizen living within the boundaries of any state. So if you are a citizen of a state within the contiguous united states, trust me: you are safe from Donald Trump. He is powerless to enter your home if you don't want him there. You DO have the power not to let him enter. And if he tries to come in anyway, you can call your county sheriff and the sheriff is obligated by his oath of office to have the President of the United States arrested and taken off to jail.
That is a stone cold fact.
May I remind those currently panicking over all this that the president's job is not to MAKE law, or issue royal decrees, but merely to implement the laws that have been made BY THE PEOPLE themselves via the instructions THEY gave to their local representatives?
This is not to say that an unchecked president cannot cause a certain amount of mischief. Bill Clinton did, George Bush II certainly did, because the congress lacked the backbone to restrict him in his unconstitutional and immoral wars of aggression. And Barack Obama did his share of overstepping. But again, that was with the collusion of the congress that the people SHOULD HAVE kept in check. These men succeeded in causing trouble only because both houses of congress neglected to keep these men confined to their narrowly defined cages. Thanks to the division this election has caused, it's likely the presidency of Donald Trump will be kept on a shorter leash than we've seen of any president in decades. And that won't be a bad thing.
None of these former presidents had the power to fly over America destroying cities with their heat vision and leaving destruction in their wake. They may think they're important, but that's mainly because everybody keeps telling them they are "the leader of the free world," a nonsensical, empty, and meaningless phrase if ever there was one.
If you're concerned about keeping your individual rights and freedoms, keep an eye on the house of representatives. That is the ONLY branch of government that represents the interests of the people, and they are the only branch with the power to furnish ANY money to the president, and to withhold the money he might require to implement his schemes. The president can express all the grandiose plans he wants to, but if he is given no money by those holding the purse strings, he will be sitting on his hands for the next four years, and occasionally entertaining foreign dignitaries for photo ops.
The two main reasons the United States Government even HAS a president is because 1). Someone was needed to veto any unconstitutional bills that might have made it through the first two houses of congress, and 2). SOMEBODY had to be available to meet with foreign dignitaries from time to time. The Founders were really stuck on that one for days while they were hammering out the constitution. Clearly, SOMEONE in government would have to be available to meet with the President of France. But who? It wasn't feasible for all 535 members of congress to make that lunch date. So they settled on the idea that it should be the same guy who vetoed the bad laws -because they had already figured out that congress should not be in the business of enforcing its own laws.
So they gave a sort of "figurehead" status to the guy who would be charged with enforcing the laws, so that same guy could represent the government (not the people) when foreign heads of state came a'calling. At first the Founders debated whether it should be three co-presidents, because there was some concern that if there was one man in that office some Americans might one day think of that man as the king of America. Then they realized Americans would never get to be THAT stupid, so they went ahead with the one guy, and just gave him very little authority to do anything.
I ask you to indulge me for a moment, seeing as I have emerged as a true prophet in my last blog post. I predict with certainty that Donald Trump will not be deporting many illegal immigrants who are here already, with the exception of those who have been duly convicted of crimes on our shores. He will not be building a wall between here and Mexico. He will not magically invalidate same sex marriages anywhere in the country. (For one thing, he has vowed to protect the rights of all LGBTQ people in the country, and for another thing, he has no power to invalidate laws already in effect within the states.)
Our rights and freedoms are not threatened by the guy in the white house. We lose our freedoms because they are LEGISLATED away by the congress, and because we don't keep on eye on the district courts, the ones depriving us of more rights every month than the Supreme Court would ever attempt to do in a year.
So to those who can't help but take to the streets crying and blubbering and shaking and quaking with fear just because some blowhard was elected to the LEAST powerful office in the land, I say keep it up! I know I'm not being Christlike when I laugh at dumb people doing dumb things, but heaven help me, I can't help but be entertained by your antics.
(End of Facebook post, November 2016.)
The biggest problem I have with Democrats and Republicans is that both parties represent and promote Statism. Instead of constantly quarreling over which party should have dominance over the other, why not recognize that both parties are hell-bent on dominating us?
Statism is the belief that the state (i.e. the government) should have control over the economic and social affairs of the people. This is antithetical to the Christian creed, as well as every principle this country was founded on. Yet it's undeniable that both major parties are now engaged in a fight to the death over who will rule the people. Why are we helping either party engineer our destruction? Why aren't we all resisting them both?
Imposing your will on another person against his will is immoral. Using the power of the State to impose your will on others is immoral to the umpteenth degree. I don't know how any believing Latter-day Saint thinks he or she will be able to skate past the judgment bar trailing that obvious sin stuck to their shoe.
"The true individualist must regard power over others as preeminently something to be loathed and shunned," wrote Albert Jay Nock. Back in 1935, Nock wrote a book titled Our Enemy, The State, in which he warned against the very out-of-control leviathan that's trying to smother us today. Only these days we ourselves are helping to forge our own chains by taking sides against each other rather than resisting incursion from the real enemy. Said Nock:
"Here is the Golden Rule of sound citizenship, the first and greatest lesson in the study of politics: you get the same order of criminality from any State to which you give power to exercise it; and whatever power you give the State to do things for you carries with it the equivalent power to do things to you."
In The Federalist no. 10, James Madison warned against what in those days were called "factions" and which today we call political parties. The Founders understood that it was human nature to combine together in groups or tribes with common interests, but they warned that a corrupt government would take advantage of such tendencies to the detriment of the people as a whole. As John Adams maintained,
"There is nothing which I dread so much as a division of the republic into two great parties, each arranged under its leader, and concerting measures in opposition to each other. This, in my humble apprehension, is to be dreaded as the greatest political evil under our Constitution."
We're going to have to wake up and recognize that our neighbor is not the enemy, but that The Powers That Be thrive on the hope that we will keep fighting each other. This infighting is important to them; it keeps us from casting a skeptical gaze in their direction.
This isn't to say that we should not call our neighbor out when they make unfounded allegations. I do this on Facebook all the time when someone accuses me of being a racist or a misogynist. I simply ask them to provide some evidence. What I usually get back is a splatter of meaningless words boorishly strung together implying that I'm partisan toward Trump.
Well, that's the problem, isn't it? People are so divided against one another that you can't even ask a person to provide reasoned evidence to support their accusations without it being assumed you're siding with the enemy.
I have my own problems with Donald Trump, but they aren't the petty and uncorroborated concerns I see coming from so many political partisans. I wonder why very few people have noted Donald Trump is as culpable of murder and robbery as those presidents who came before him? Here's Michael Rozeff pointing out the obvious:
Obama the murderer has been replaced by Trump the murderer. Whom has Donald Trump murdered? One example only: He could have ended American bombing raids in Syria. Instead, he made more: “The US-led anti-IS coalition acknowledged carrying out over 100 air strikes in Syria between October 28 and November 3.” These killed numerous Syrian civilians. The latest report says at least 80.
Obama’s robberies have given way to Trump’s. One example only: Trump has robbed Maine lobstermen. Tariffs on Maine lobster exports to China have directly robbed hard-working fishermen. Maine Senator Susan Collins should have extracted a tariff exemption for her vote on Kavanaugh. After all, he can be replaced easily with better candidates. He didn’t own the position, but Maine lobstermen do own their capital and goodwill built up painstakingly over years. Trump robbed them for no good end.
How about instead of bruiting about all those silly and unfounded allegations of racism, we engage in a bit of critical thinking for a change?
If you don't know what that means, you're not alone. Critical thinking refers to the ability we should all foster of taking a step back and analyzing our own thought processes. It's the capacity for asking yourself the hard questions, such as "why do I believe this? Have I thought it through, or am I simply echoing what I've heard others say? What are my sources of information that helped me form these beliefs? Can I trust those sources? How do I know I can trust them? Am I able to articulate a reasoned, logical basis for my argument? Do I even know how to make an argument? Can I provide evidence that would back up my assertions, or am I just spouting empty platitudes?"
No one likes to be told they are poor critical thinkers. (Trust me. I've tried it and people get very offended.) Yet very few people know how to think critically; most don't even know what critical thinking means. It isn't taught in schools, so how would they know?
Happily there are a great many books, seminars, and even Youtube videos that can teach you how to think critically. There's even a Critical Thinking Skills for Dummies book, which you have to agree is the most paradoxical title for a Dummies guide ever.
Just reading the title made my brain explode.
If you have any hope of persuading anyone to accept your point of view, you must periodically question your own assumptions. It can be a painfully revealing way to learn about yourself, which is why most people don't do it. Everybody wants to think they're right, but few people are willing to consider the possibility they might be wrong.
Yet, if you don't engage in that one simple exercise, the downside is that every time you open your mouth everyone will know you aren't capable of thinking for yourself. You're just repeating some other person's empty-headed bromides.
Was Joseph Smith a Conservative or a Liberal?
Well, of course he was both liberal and conservative, depending on the circumstances. That's as it should be with all of us. But he was clearly liberal-minded.
Am I saying the prophet's beliefs were compatible in any way with modern-day liberalism?
GOOD HEAVENS, NO!
Few political philosophies could be more illiberal than modern-day liberalism. Liberals in Joseph Smith's day were open-minded, tolerant advocates for freedom. Liberals today, as typified by the leaders (and many supporters) of the Democratic party, are closed-minded, intolerant, and tyrannical. If you happen to consider yourself a liberal but don't agree with that assessment, then congratulations: you can still call yourself a liberal, but your party has left without you.
Back in Joseph's day, pretty much anyone who held views compatible with America's founders thought of themselves as liberal. We can tell Joseph Smith was a liberal from the things he wrote and spoke about. His political views came right out of the Founding Father's Playbook.
If you were to refer to yourself as a liberal today, your views would be misconstrued, so unfortunately we have to modify that label and refer to old-timey liberals as "Classical Liberals" in order to differentiate them from those who have co-opted the label in our day but rejected liberal openness. Here's a quick two-and-a-half minute video describing what a liberal was in Joseph Smith's era, and what a liberal should be today:
If any of this sounds like libertarian philosophy, well yes. It's close. Kind of.
Once the label "liberal" was hijacked by the intolerant Left, those who advocated for freedom felt they needed to come up with something that didn't carry all that Leftist baggage. "Libertarian" seemed a close enough variation on "liberal" since they both meant someone who advocated for liberty. The problem was that "libertarian" was originally used to describe communist anarchists.
So that label was never ideal.
Then there's the growing problem of people who have taken to calling themselves libertarians, yet are anything but. The label is now virtually indefinable. In the first place, "Libertarian" has become, in some people's minds, synonymous with a political party. It is that, but primarily it is a philosophy of freedom independent of parties. Distilled to its essence, that philosophy says "you shouldn't hurt people and you shouldn't take their stuff." And since it's immoral for you or I to hurt people and it's immoral for us to take their stuff, it's also immoral to support politicians who hurt people and take their stuff -even if they claim to be doing it for the people's "greater good."
Yep. There's already a book about that.
Secondly, as Lauren Southern aptly points out in this eleven minute clip, modern Libertarianism has been shipwrecked:
The Prophet's Liberal Views
If you study a replica of the tract entitled General Smith's Views on the Powers and Policy of the Government of the United States, published not seventy years after the appearance of the Declaration of Independence, you'll see that Joseph Smith was right in line with the Founders (some of whom were still alive when Joseph was in his teens). Which is to say Joseph's liberal thinking, and that of the Founders, meshed rather well. In that tract Joseph uses the word "liberal" to describe our form of government, because that was the word used in those days to describe a political system founded on liberty. But he decries the millions of souls held in slavery for life, and insists that the main efforts of government officers, "who are nothing more than servants of the people, ought to be directed to ameliorate the condition of all, black or white, bond and free."
And as if he could see into our own day, Joseph's ire was directed toward "the silly moves of persons and parties to foment discord in order to ride into power on the current of popular excitement." As evidence of his frustration with the factions of his day, he said this:
"We have had Democrat Presidents, Whig Presidents, a pseudo-Democratic-Whig President, and now it's time to have a President of the United States. (Emphasis in the original.)"
Joseph said America should "abolish the cruel custom of prisons, penitentiaries, court-martials for desertion; and let reason and friendship reign over the ruins of ignorance."
These are all positions any American liberal would have recognized not that long ago. I can recall in the 1960's and 70's that "conservatives" (like myself at the time) were more often than not advocating for locking certain defendants up without a trial and throwing away the key. The liberal position, conversely, was that an accusation did not equal guilt, that everyone was entitled to due process, and that America's prison system desperately needed reforming.
My, how times have changed. Today many in the Democratic hierarchy have shown themselves adamantly in favor of convicting people without due process, and are "totally fine with the incarceration rate" because there is money to be made off the suffering of others.
Joseph's liberalism was not confined to the political sphere, of course. He often butted heads with traditionalists in the fledgling church who were not open to new ideas. Particularly set in their ways were some of the earliest converts like Sidney Rigdon and Parley P. Pratt, who came to Mormonism from the Campbellite tradition and were slow to accept ideas that were foreign to their expectations.
"I have tried for a number of years to get the minds of the Saints prepared to receive the things of God," the prophet lamented, "but we frequently see some of them, after suffering all they have for the work of God, will fly to pieces like glass as soon as anything comes that is contrary to their traditions." (Emphasis mine.)
He found the Saints simply not willing to consider ideas that were unfamiliar to them.
“There has been a great difficulty in getting anything into the heads of this generation. It has been like splitting hemlock knots with a corn-dodger [a piece of corn bread] for a wedge, and a pumpkin for a beetle [a wooden mallet].
Of course, we're all familiar with this statement of Joseph's, which is as pertinent to politicians as it is to church leaders:
"We have learned by sad experience that it is the nature and disposition of almost all men, as soon as they get a little authority, as they suppose, they will immediately begin to exercise unrighteous dominion."
Unrighteous Dominion Under Color Of Law
It's well documented that blacks in the deep South were, to put a polite spin on it, "discouraged" from voting. Any black person who merely tried to register was met with so many obstacles in the form of "literacy tests" and other ploys that it was easier to just give up and let the white man remain dominant. The question arises then, "why would anyone stand in the way of another person's right to vote?"
The answer is simple: Tradition.
Tradition in the deep South dictated that the black race was inferior, therefore a black man must never be permitted to be treated as equal under the law. It was Democrats who enacted the infamous Jim Crow laws, laws which actually made it illegal for a business to cater to Negroes even if the proprietor of a particular business wanted to. Whites and blacks weren't even allowed to play cards, dice, dominoes, or checkers together. It was actually against the law, and that sort of thing could land you both in jail.
The movement for racial separation moved far beyond the South. In the 1950's "Whites Only" businesses and housing developments could be found as far West as Los Angeles.
These "conservative" laws, intended to "conserve" tradition, were passed and enforced by prominent members of the Democratic party. In that era it was the democrats who considered theirs the conservative party; it was the Democrats who resisted new ideas. And that included Democrats in the North, who refused to challenge the Southern Democrats because the Southern Democrats virtually controlled the party. Southern Democrats were known to resort to anything, including murder, to keep themselves in power. What finally ended that wicked culture of false traditions was a more liberal tradition that superceded it: the superior tradition of the common law, which declares that all men are to be treated equal under the law. When mere statute law gets into a staring contest with the common law in America, the statute always blinks. In America the common law is the higher law.
Here is what the United States Supreme Court said:
“The common law is the real law, the Supreme Law of the land; the codes, rules, regulations, policy, and statutes are “not the law”. - Self v. Rhay, 61 Wn (2d) 261.
“There, every man is independent of all laws, except those prescribed by nature. He is not bound by any institutions formed by his fellowman without his consent." - Cruden v. Neale, 2 N.C. 338 (1796) 2 S.E.
This is worth remembering: We the People consent to legislated law only as we defined it in the Constitution for the United States of America.
Something else worth remembering: Politics will not save us. Picking one party and claiming it is the "right" one will not save us. In fact, siding with one party over another is a fool's errand. We can all take a lesson from Dr. Martin Luther King, who stands as an example of a man intensely interested in social and political reform, yet who was wise enough to recognize that "picking a side" was not the way to effect real change. He could see that both parties, even fifty years ago, were ripe with corruption. “I don’t think the Republican party is a party full of the almighty God, nor is the Democratic party," he once said. "They both have weaknesses … And I’m not inextricably bound to either party.”
To his everlasting credit, King was not known to have supported or voted for any politician. Still, his niece, Alveda King, insisted he was registered as a Republican. That makes sense, because if he was going to at least register, what was he going to do, register as a Democrat? The Democrats were the ones who were lynching his people.
Why Donald Trump Got Elected And A Classical Liberal Got The Shaft
Donald Trump was not the first person to recognize that some news is "fake news."
Nor did Donald Trump ever claim the mainstream media was all fake news or that the press was the enemy of the people. He has rightly pointed out what everyone already knows; that essential information is sometimes altered or withheld from the public by those very persons the public relies upon for accurate reporting. Pretty much everyone except Trump's harshest critics was aware of this long before Donald Trump came on the scene.
I think we can all agree that Americans should be able to rely on the news media to provide the information they need in order to make informed decisions. "Fake News" occurs when reporters deliberately fail in that responsibility by twisting or omitting essential facts.
Jon Stewart used to point this stuff out all the time. That was what used to make The Daily Show worth watching: Stewart and his writers made a career out of exposing the hypocrisy of pompous politicians and the lying press on both the left and the right. There was no shortage of material to draw from, either. Here is how Jon Stewart exposed the granddaddy of all fake news stories, brought to you by one of the last honest liberals on TV:
So how did Donald Trump win the presidency while a classical liberal like Ron Paul couldn't get arrested? The answer is simple: the establishment media was not afraid of Donald Trump.
But they were terrified of Ron Paul. They knew that if enough voters were exposed to the ideas espoused by Paul -ideas that were essentially Classical Liberal ideas- this reasonable, anti-establishment candidate could possibly win the presidency. So they decided to just ignore Ron Paul's phenomenal surge in popularity and just pretend it wasn't happening.
They had no such fears about Donald Trump, a somewhat crass hotelier, former Democrat, and reality show star. Him, they treated as a joke, thus giving him loads of free coverage every single day. They ridiculed that guy right into the White House.
There is some truth to the accusation Ted Cruz made during the primaries that Donald Trump is a New York Liberal. In fact, Trump's liberal bona fides may even be the reason so many on the radical left have such blind hatred toward him; his brand of liberalism represents a liberalism that is no longer found among establishment Democrats. It shows them up as hypocrites and traitors to the very causes they used to champion.
Exhibit A: Back in January, Trump said he was open to signing legislation that might provide a path to citizenship for young people brought into the country illegally as children. (USA Today,"Trump Team Unveils Immigration Framework With Path to Citizenship for DREAMers.) That is a decidedly "liberal" position that for some reason has not been widely reported by most of the media. It contradicts the narrative they're pushing that Trump hates immigrants because he is a racist. Yet Trump has repeatedly refuted accusations that he is anti-immigration, pointing out that he is all for the orderly, lawful process that has always allowed for immigrants to enter our country legally. He has even denounced the laws passed by congress under Obama that forced the executive to separate children from their parents at the border, and signed an order of his own reversing that practice.
Exhibit B: Trump's attempts to get congress to pass a comprehensive bill that would reform the criminal justice system. That, too, is the kind of plan that used to be proposed by liberals but is not anymore. This bill would result in the release of thousands of people -mostly minorities- who have been unjustly imprisoned for life for relatively minor infractions. The passage of this iniquitous law can be traced to Bill Clinton, who pushed congress to provide "throw away the key" legislation that would convince the voters that he, Bill Clinton, was tough on crime.
As Lindsey Graham reflected, "wouldn't it be ironic if Trump fixed the problems caused by the 'Three Strikes' law passed by Clinton?"
Yes, it would. And yet we're supposed to believe that the guy wanting to release blacks and Hispanics from the gulag is a racist, while the guy who got them locked up in the first place is a great humanitarian.
If you make the choice not to be a political partisan, you'll be less inclined to fall for nonsense like that.
Reader Rob Nielson just sent me this short article It''s well worth reading, and will save you a lot less time and effort than reading my own.
I'm Liberal and Conservative (And So Are You)
And if you're of the opinion that liberals and leftists are essentially the same, they are most certainly not; Leftism is the antithesis of liberalism. You deserve to know the difference:
Posted by Alan Rock Waterman at 7:03 AM
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Understanding Mechanism and Selectivity in Oxidative Addition to Nickel(0) for Catalytic Cross Coupling
Nelson, David (Principal Investigator)
Pure And Applied Chemistry
"The use of palladium-catalysed cross-coupling reactions has allowed certain classes of molecules to be constructed in a rapid and efficient manner, by combining two substrate molecules that bear appropriate chemical groups. The impact of this technology was recognised in 2010 by the award of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry to three researchers who were instrumental in the development of this chemistry: Richard Heck, Ei-ichi Negishi, and Akira Suzuki. Nickel is capable of mediating many of the same reactions, and is currently approximately one thousand times cheaper than palladium, but exhibits a somewhat different reactivity profile. Nickel can interact with a wider range of chemical groups, including common carbon-oxygen bonds, and can therefore mediate a wider range of reactions; this then provides challenges in terms of selectivity in functionalised molecules. The current generation of nickel catalysts is typically much less efficient than state-of-the-art palladium catalysts. Larger quantities of nickel are typically required to carry out cross-coupling reactions, and so the spent catalyst and ligand must then be separated from the final products. This has practical implications for the production of pharmaceuticals, for example. For nickel to become a competitive, low-cost alternative to palladium, or for its different reactivity profile to be utilised in industry, the required levels of nickel must be decreased. If this could be done, it would provide industry and academia with a means by which to prepare new molecules and/or a more cost-effective route to current target molecules.
One way by which the efficiency of nickel catalysts might be improved is by altering the groups (ligands) that are attached to the nickel atoms that perform the catalysis. While a number of researchers have investigated this, the typical approach is by 'trial-and-error' in which a range of nickel complexes is prepared with different ligands and each complex is tested in turn. In some cases, catalysts are prepared in the reaction vessel during the reaction itself; the consistent parts, such as a metal salt and a ligand precursor, are combined with the substrates and it is assumed that a certain catalyst complex is formed during the reaction. However, it is often not clear why the performance of complexes differ, as only a single measure is taken at a single time point (conversion and/or isolated yield), and it is not trivial to determine what the chemical structure of the active catalyst is.
The proposed course of research aims to prepare a set of well-defined model complexes, of known structure and purity, determined using state-of-the-art techniques in organometallic chemistry. These compounds will then be used to study a single, isolated step of the overall catalytic cycle known as oxidative addition; this is where the first substrate reacts with the catalyst. This study will comprise a number of components: the products of this single step will be prepared and characterised, giving insight into their structure; the rate at which this step happens will be measured with different reactants, in order to explore how the substrate structure affects the rate of this step; the selectivity for reaction with different chemical groups will be explored, so that it can be understood where on a given molecule reaction will occur; and the overall catalytic activity of the complexes will be explored in industrially-relevant test reactions. Together, these studies will provide a detailed understanding of a key step in nickel catalysis that can be used as the foundation for further studies on the effect of substrate and catalyst structure on reactivity, and in the design of new and more efficient catalytic reactions. In doing so, this will also aid the PI, Dr David Nelson, in establishing a research group at the University of Strathclyde."
EPSRC (Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council): £96,628.00
Data for: "Aldehydes and Ketones Influence Reactivity and Selectivity in Nickel-Catalysed Suzuki-Miyaura Reactions"
Data for: "Halide abstraction competes with oxidative addition in the reactions of aryl halides with [Ni(PMenPh(3-n))4]"
Oxidative Addition of Aryl Electrophiles to a Prototypical Nickel(0) Complex
XXVII International Conference on Organometallic Chemistry (ICOMC2016)
45th Scottish Regional Meeting of the RSC Organic Division
Understanding Oxidative Addition to Nickel(0): Implications for Cross-Coupling Catalysis
Meeting of Inorganic Chemists Recently Appointed
Dialing Molecules with Nickel Catalysis: Understanding Oxidative Addition to Nickel(0) Complexes Relevant to Cross-Coupling
Understanding Oxidative Addition to Nickel(0) for Cross-Coupling Catalysis
EaStCHEM Conference for Early Career Researchers
Activity: Participating in or organising an event types › Key-note speaker and plenary lectures at conferences
Nickel(0) Complexes and Aryl Halides: Reaction Mechanisms and Structure/Reactivity Relationships
Oxidative addition of aryl electrophiles to a prototypical nickel(0) complex: mechanism and structure/reactivity relationships
Aldehydes and ketones influence reactivity and selectivity in nickel-catalysed Suzuki-Miyaura reactions
Halide abstraction competes with oxidative addition in the reactions of aryl halides with [Ni(PMenPh(3-n))4]
Oxidative addition of aryl halides and phenol derivatives to a prototypical nickel(0) complex
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Tag Archives: deuteronomy
Articles, Events
The stranger who lives within thy gates – IYM 09
A PDF of this lecture is available for download here.
Public Address given by John Dunston at Ireland Yearly Meeting
Friends, Good evening, and thank you for that warm welcome.
What a privilege it is to be here. Yet at the same time, I could have good reason to feel something of an intruder at Ireland Yearly Meeting. For it is likely that everyone here is a Quaker, or if not everyone, then almost. Yet I am not a Quaker (though I believe I count as an Attender in England). Indeed, I’m Jewish, and deeply touched to have been invited to give this Public Lecture.
Anyone not familiar with the notion of Friendship among Quakers might be forgiven for thinking that just now, I am myself the stranger within thy gates. But all my experience of living and working amongst Friends over nearly twenty years has led me to the conclusion that Quakers, rather like Jews in fact, have a particular understanding of what it means to be the stranger, the other, and that as a result, they have an instinct for overcoming “otherness”. The concept of the stranger, among Quakers, becomes itself strange and almost unknown.
I want to thank especially our Friend Alan Pim, Clerk of Ireland Yearly Meeting, whom I had the great good fortune to meet in April 1990. Only one week earlier, I had started work as Head of Sibford, another of the Quaker schools in England, and it raised a few Quakerly eyebrows when within days I was off to Ireland for the biannual Conference of Heads and Deputies of Quaker Schools, held that year at Waterford. Alan and Sue very kindly put me up, the warmth and affection of their welcome immediately dispelling any anxiety I might have had, as a green, young Head, of being a stranger within their gates. I certainly never thought that one day I would be Head of Alan’s alma mater (you probably know that after some years at Newtown School, he came to Leighton Park in 1954). Alan of course made a most distinguished contribution to Leighton Park through his quiet, authoritative leadership; he was also, it seems, extremely agreeable company. Some things never change.
It is a privilege for me to address you this evening. There was an era when real contact between Jews and Christians only arose if it was time for another pogrom as the Crusades swept through Germany on their way to the Holy Land; later in the Middle Ages, the infamous disputations on the relative merits of Judaism and Christianity were destined only ever to have one outcome; much later still, Quakers themselves were repeatedly imprisoned for their heretical interpretation of the Christian message. I could go on, but I need not. For the very act of inviting the Jewish Head of a Quaker School to address Yearly Meeting exemplifies the openness and tolerance that characterise the Society. So I thank you for the opportunity to be with you today, and to share some reflections from what you might call an outsider on the inside, reflections on what Judaism and Quakerism have to offer a world which has still not learned how to love the stranger in its midst. And towards the end, I will introduce you to Nathan.
I had the good fortune to be spending much of the spring term this year in Oxford on sabbatical. So, having only been back at school for a matter of weeks, it seems right to begin with one brief tale out of school. Some of you will know of the Catholic boarding school which had a splendid refectory. Each day the boys would queue up for their lunch, occasionally trying to sneak an extra portion of chips or ice cream from under the nose of the caterers. One day, the large bowl of apples was adorned with a notice from one of the monks, which said simply: One apple only per pupil. Remember – God is watching. A little further along the counter was a huge basket of Danish pastries, into which one enterprising pupil had clearly stuck a corresponding notice: Take as many as you want. God’s watching the apples.
That seems to me to sum up admirably the theme of Yearly Meeting this year, or at least to reflect the qualities of the quotation from Galatians on the cover of the programme: The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Those boys were clearly interested not only in the fruit of the spirit, but in more material fruit as well; they loved their food, took joy in securing extra portions of it, found peace in not being discovered, and gave the monks the opportunity to have their patience tried; their own generosity caused them to share extra pastries with their friends rather than leave them behind, to be perhaps thrown away; in this way, they showed both their faithfulness to the idea of not wasting the earth’s resources, and their self-control in keeping a straight face until back in the dormitory. Gentleness was harder to reconcile, until I realised that it was followed by and, the two words together being clearly a coded anagram of the monks’ desperate prayer to the Almighty on a Friday afternoon at the end of a tough Year 9 RE lesson: Send ten angels.
That anecdote takes me quite neatly to the substance of this address. I want to reflect on what education means to me as a Jew, and how Judaism responds to the concept of the stranger in our midst, and to the education of the young (but not only of the young), which has always been a spiritual endeavour of prime importance for Jews. No matter how harsh, or how unremittingly abject, were the material circumstances in which Jews were often forced to live, it was obligatory for the community to provide a school. It is as if the very faith of the Jews has been somehow inextricably bound up with education. In the central prayer of Judaism, the Shema, Moses himself requires of the Israelites that (you)
teach these things diligently to your children, speaking of them when you sit at home and when you walk on the road, when you lie down and when you rise up (Deuteronomy 6:7).
Education is indeed the very basis of any free society. We should not forget that before the invention of the alphabet, knowledge – and with it, power – were closely concentrated among those at the top of the hierarchical tree. One’s status and position in society were largely determined at birth. But once the alphabet had arrived, a system of using only twenty to thirty letters or characters, the concept of writing became available to all. With it came the spread of power, and dignity, and equality. It became much more credible then to claim that everyone was created in God’s image. And if that really was the case, where better to develop that understanding among the young than, ultimately, in a school?
Let me share a little of my family background with you. It may help you to understand why for me the concept of the stranger in thy midst is both permanent and constantly shifting in its definition.
How prophetic is that verse from Psalm 137: How shall we sing the Lord’s song in a strange land? Throughout their long history, the Jews have found themselves repeatedly having to pick up the thread of their lives after expulsion from one home or another. Each time, and in every age, they have returned to this question, which has become symbolic not just of their music and worship, but indeed of their daily living and very survival.
The late nineteenth and the twentieth centuries were witness to an unprecedented increase in the number of refugees seeking to escape persecution and worse by fleeing to other parts of the world. This, in turn, created more widespread challenges among the already domiciled populations as well: the challenges of how to welcome the newcomers and then to live alongside them.
I am reminded of the story of the Viennese Jew who, in 1939, entered a travel agent’s office and said, “I want to buy a steamship ticket.” “Where to?” the clerk asks. “Let me look at your globe, please.” The Jew starts examining the globe. Every time he suggests a country, the clerk raises an objection. “This one requires a visa……… This one isn’t admitting any more Jews ……… The waiting list for that one is ten years……..” Finally, the Jew looks up. “Pardon me, but do you have another globe?”
The Jewish historical experience has a real resonance for this new era in our human relationships. From it, wider lessons may be learned: about the relationship between what we commonly call church and state, and more particularly, and with special relevance for young people in schools, how that experience may be drawn upon to help generate a tolerant, constructive and mutually beneficial approach to “the other”. How we deal with “the other”, the stranger, is likely to be a determining factor in the very future and survival of our world.
The Jews are a people who, for thousands of years, have been seen as “the other”. Yet the world continues to be shaped by their prophetic calls for human freedom, their unique mission, and their unflinching commitment to the one-ness of God and to the moral code deriving from that. The Jews have a particular responsibility, not only to survive (already one of the most baffling achievements of any people in history), but to keep alive that vision for the sake of the world. And a big part of that vision is not only the ideal of peace, but the recognition that education of the young is the prerequisite for achieving it. It is, as we know, through education that we come to understand the benefits of co-operation rather than conflict, of working together to achieve a common goal and a mutual respect. We need prophets as well as pragmatists.
You will all be familiar with that visionary passage in Isaiah: The wolf will live with the lamb, the leopard will lie down with the goat, the calf and the lion and the yearling together; and a little child will lead them…… (Ch.11) Three points about that short quotation: one is that it’s a fine ideal, inspirational and good, but it hasn’t happened yet, and, given the century we have lived through, is unlikely to any time soon. (Though you probably know the story of the zoo keeper who was able, with great satisfaction, to show visitors a cage in which a lion and a lamb were living peacefully together. “How do you manage that?” the visitors regularly asked. “Easy,” replied the keeper. “We just put a new lamb in every day.”)
The second point is that a few verses later, Isaiah continues: They will neither harm nor destroy on all my holy mountain, for the earth will be full of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea. “The knowledge of the Lord” – the essential requirement for the age of peace, and a recognition that such knowledge may take many forms, if it is to cover the earth.
And thirdly, the prophetic vision needs a practical programme of action to he realised. As I pointed out at the start, look how far we have already come, but here’s a passage from the Talmud, the rabbinic commentary on the Torah, which takes forward the ideal of peace in a devastatingly simple way: For the sake of the ways of peace, the poor of the heathens should be supported as we support the poor of Israel, the sick of the heathens should be visited as we visit the sick of Israel, and the dead of the heathens should be buried as we bury the dead of Israel. Our responsibility is to the world.
I was born a Jew, and despite a not unusual drifting into a smug scepticism while at university, I remain a Jew. I belong to the progressive Reform tradition which began in the German-speaking lands of the eighteenth century, and represent the first generation of my family to be born in England for some time. My parents fled there from Austria as refugees (they knew better than anyone what it was to be suddenly labelled as “the other”) after Hitler’s Anschluss in 1938.
Research into the family’s history has so far stretched back some nineteen generations to Rabbi Eleasar, who lived around 1450 in the German town of Neuss on the banks of the Rhine, writing poetry and lamentations on the destruction of the Temple. It is not impossible that a mere five generations before Rabbi Eleasar, his ancestors (and mine) had been among the Jewish community of England when they were all expelled by Edward I in 1290. (The Jews were not allowed back into England for just over 350 years, arriving in 1656. What a coincidence that this milestone in Anglo-Jewish history should have occurred at exactly the moment that Quakerism was emerging. In fact, it’s probably not a coincidence at all, but that would be the subject of another lecture.) I take particular pleasure in knowing that Eleasar’s grandson Jakob was the schoolmaster in the Jewish ghetto – the Judengasse – in Frankfurt early in the sixteenth century. For five and a half centuries after Jakob lived in Frankfurt, my family could have been found moving around in central Europe for reasons that are, sadly, all too familiar, settling by turns in areas we have come to know as Bohemia, Moravia, Transylvania, Romania, the Holy Roman Empire, the Austro-Hungarian Empire, Czechoslovakia, Austria, Hungary, and even some of the little states and principalities that, less than 140 years ago, were for the first time to become an entity known as Germany.
That catalogue of national and imperial labels is a reminder of the transience of political reality and the fragility of national identity. It also begs questions: when does the stranger in our midst stop being the stranger? How long does it take? How many other strangers have to arrive before the indigenous locals stop being regarded as strangers? How much of that perception is down to the passing of time, or to integration and assimilation, or to primitive prejudice?
I grew up in a home that felt European. I heard German spoken by my parents and by their friends. I learned directly what it meant for them all to have made their life in a new country, and how they tackled the eternal dilemma of the refugee, balancing the need to integrate and feel part of the new host community, with the desire not to lose the bearings provided by their own upbringing, values and culture. And even more acutely, what to convey to the next generation, so that it might be able to avoid the label of “stranger”?
When the Jews began to settle in Babylon after the destruction of the First Temple in 586 BCE, they had a major decision to make. Would they establish a new home for themselves in this new land, learn the language, and immerse themselves in its society? Or would they regard their time as a temporary sojourn, of indeterminate length, and build a fence around their lives and activities in order to retain the familiar customs and language of their homeland? Which language and culture would reflect their main identity: Chaldean, or Hebrew? In the end, of course, both options were adopted by different groups.
The dilemma, however, is instructive. It has resonance among other groups which have found themselves in a parallel predicament, and with whose diasporas we are familiar today (Chinese, Indian, and Armenian, for example). The Jewish experience is instructive on two counts in particular: the length of time during which they have repeatedly witnessed to this dilemma and had to address it – around 2,500 years – and their unique sense of mission which derives, directly, from the exhortation of Jeremiah to
Seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you into exile, and pray to the Lord on its behalf, for in its welfare you will find your welfare. (29:7)
This meant that the Jews in a strange land had a duty to live in and for that land, to serve it and to contribute to the well-being of those who had now become their neighbours. They needed, also, to have something to say and sufficient numbers through whom to say it, much as the Quakers did in Pennsylvania in more recent history.
The Jews had to cope with complete dislocation when the Temple was destroyed, but used the opportunity to create one of the greatest innovations in all religious history: the synagogue, an institution where what had previously been considered the essentials of communication with God – priests, altar, Temple hierarchy, animal sacrifice – were found to be, after all, dispensable, rooted in another era that was now gone. The very word “synagogue”, deriving from Greek, or “Beth haKnesset” in Hebrew, simply means “house of assembly”, or meeting house – hardly an unfamiliar term among Quakers, and that, too, is no coincidence. They created a new way of living a Jewish life in a strange land, a way of retaining their dignity and their witness, as the land came to feel first less strange and, in time, their own. In Babylon they established a great centre of learning, whose academies and institutions were to have a profound influence on the subsequent development of Jewish thought and on its ethical contribution to the world.
In his visionary book “The Home We Build Together” (required reading, I would suggest, for all those engaged in the education of the young or in the attempt to create a more peaceful world where no-one can feel any longer a stranger in the midst of others), the Chief Rabbi, Dr Jonathan Sacks, recounts an experiment carried out in 1954 by Muzafer Sherif, known as “The Robbers’ Cave”. It relates to two groups of boys brought to a summer camp in Oklahoma. Neither group knew the other, but spent the first week separately on team building exercises. After that, they came together through competitions, in which each team either won or lost: this generated much animosity, name-calling and the like, and the two groups even objected to having meals together. The next stage involved shared watching of films and joint social events, designed to break down the barriers: in the event, these became even more obstructive, and the aggression continued. Finally, a number of problems were put to the groups that threatened each group equally, for example a blocked water supply system, which they worked together to repair, or finding the money to hire future films once camp funds had run out. In each case, the two groups worked together, and celebrated together once they had overcome the problem together.
Of course, such outcomes have been identified in other sources and experiments too. It may not surprise a gathering like this, particularly of those engaged in the search to find the good – that of God – in everyone. But the study very honestly recognises that, although our natural inclination to reject, criticise, vilify, exclude, and eventually demonise “the other” seems to be an inescapable part of human nature, it can be overcome.
It can be overcome not by fine words and lofty ideals alone, though they certainly help, but by action together, by working on a common project that will be of benefit to both. In modern parlance, it’s a no-brainer, and we need to keep repeating this message which lies at the heart of all true religion and which is the outcome of all true education.
Let us think for a moment of what happened only a few months ago in London. The leaders of the G20 nations, including the most powerful men and women on the planet, were gathering at their summit for the team photograph, before spending the rest of the day saving the world for the next generation and future generations. We can only wish them success and God’s guidance in that endeavour. In schools, our lives are spent with the young, who will have to inherit the financial disaster we are already bequeathing them. As if they didn’t have enough to cope with in their childhood in various parts of the world: over a hundred million children have no schooling at all; by the middle of the next decade, universal primary education will still not be available in around a third of the countries of the world; in Somalia less than one child in five of primary age goes to school; the nine countries with the poorest record of primary schooling have less than three quarters of children attending, and they are all in Africa; fourteen of the fifteen countries with the highest rates of infant mortality (all over one hundred per thousand live births) are in Africa, and the other is Afghanistan; life expectancy is below age 50 in nineteen countries, of which eighteen are in Africa, and the other is Afghanistan. Isn’t it time we recognised even here the stranger in our midst?
Listen to the stories of Ben Okafor, a former child soldier from Nigeria, in order to begin to understand a little more about what lies in store for some children, even today. He has worked with all the Quaker schools in England, sensing the common purpose in trying to create a world in which children themselves are no longer the victims of “otherhood”.
How instantly this slur on our human race and human dignity could be alleviated by only a fraction of the millions, billions and trillions that have been instantly found by the G20 to prop up – as they had to – the world’s financial system in order to rescue its economic system. It is, just, possible that out of the current crisis may come a better understanding of our mutual interdependence, and not before time. You here, in this gathering of Quakers, in a country that has suffered from more than its fair share of “otherhood” and persecution, are the ones who, above all, can help the young to rise above their differences, and to discover the astonishing gifts that our world could offer, drawing spiritual strength even from adversity.
When my father had arrived in England as a young man, with little but the clothes he stood up in, he was interned, along with hundreds of other Jewish refugees from Austria and Germany,– as an enemy alien – on the Isle of Man. It’s hard to imagine how they must have felt. He was to lose his parents and his sister and much of his family in the camps of the Holocaust, and found himself in England, in that country of refuge, behind barbed wire himself. Some despaired. But most did not. In that camp was born the Amadeus String Quartet, and indeed a university was established by those writers and academics, musicians and philosophers, scientists and mathematicians, who had escaped Nazi-occupied Europe. With scarcely pencil or paper between them, they ran a programme of over forty lectures a week, reflecting a real triumph of the spirit. One of these great men told a parable that shows how limited can be our understanding of what could be in store for us. It’s recounted in a book by his son, Ben Zander, where we hear of four young men at the bedside of their father, who is dying. The father manages to convey to them that a vast treasure is buried out in their fields, but not exactly where, despite their pleas. Straight after his death, the sons are out, digging away deeply and energetically from one end of the estate to the other – to no avail. They find nothing. The next season, however, the farm yields the best harvest it has ever done.
Isn’t it wonderful how, in the most surprising circumstances, little miracles can occur? Of course, they’re not great miracles, the sort that established religions love to bandy around like credentials of spiritual respectability; they’re the little miracles that the young in our schools often surprise us with. Certainly that’s true within the silence and ministry of Quaker worship.
And what do Quaker schools have to say about the stranger in our midst? Indeed, what does it mean when a school calls itself Quaker? We all know the importance of signs and symbols. Most religions have a generous helping of such things, aids to worship perhaps, or to communicating with God, or to expressing the inexpressible. That, I suppose, is already one area where Jews and Quakers would understand each other particularly well, since their places of worship – the synagogue and the meeting house – are invariably devoid of any form of representation of the divine.
You won’t be surprised to learn that many people, on coming to see Leighton Park, or any of the other Quaker schools, for the first time, wonder what it’s all about. They’re normally familiar with the cereals which, of course, have nothing to do with Quakers, but everything to do with the fact that the Quaker “brand” was regarded as a good or unique selling point. There must be many Irish examples of this, but within England, the biscuits of Huntley and Palmer (from Leighton Park’s town of Reading), the chocolate of the Cadbury’s and the Fry’s, the shoes of the Clark family and the mustard made by Reckitt and Colman, the table water biscuits from Carr’s and the matches of Bryant and May (which until not so long ago, I believe, included the words The Quaker Match Company on each box) – all these represented something different from the norm. These were reliable products, not made by the exploitation of human labour and not unreasonably priced. They came from companies that treated their workers well, unusually so in the industrial climate of the nineteenth century particularly. Their economic success did not go unnoticed.
There exist many earlier examples of how Quakers, strangers living within the gates of establishment society, had been perceived, and not always positively. James Walvin, in his fascinating study of the material success and moral underpinning of Quaker businesses, quotes a late seventeenth century rival who wrote bitterly that Quakers had Grip’d Mammon as hard as any of their Neighbours; and now call Riches a Gift and a Blessing from God. Yet true it is that many of the values that lay at the heart of those great Quaker businesses have now been accepted as good business practice worldwide. The language used may be different, but the understanding of what is fundamentally important is not – it may be rare to find a multi-national referring to that of God in their workforce, but it would be no less rare to find one that did not value its employees as its most vital resource. How gratifying to find that the practices of the strangers have now become the customs of the majority. We should all take heart from that.
Quaker schools, too, dared to go where education had not gone before. In their adventurous early approach to the curriculum, and more recently in their ability to welcome all young people as equals, whatever their background, lie two of the distinguishing features that enable the spirituality and tolerance of young people to be developed for the benefit of everyone, and for communities to be created in which there are, quite simply, no strangers. Many of those features jump out as negatives initially: aspects of educational provision or religious provision that you might readily expect to find in a school, but won’t in a Quaker school, such as military training (an all-too common feature of many English public schools), a strongly hierarchical structure, a regular framework of liturgy or even a chapel or a chaplain. It would be too easy, but wrong, to equate the absence of those elements with somehow a denial of something essential for the educational or physical wellbeing of the pupils, but the evidence exists to show that it’s actually the reverse. Quakers have always been very good at questioning the accepted line, the received wisdom, and at asking “Why?” or even more saliently, “Why not?”, questions which have driven astonishing achievements in social reform over the years. I will refer to a third challenging question, “So what?”, later on.
Let me put this into context. What on earth were Quakers up to when they began their radical re-interpretation of Christianity and the Truth it represented in the middle of the seventeenth century? Just think how far we have come, since the days of the English Revolution that gave birth to Quakerism. That was a time, if ever there was one, when dire consequences were attached to being a stranger, a member of the wrong tribe, the other, whether Royalist in the face of supporters of the Commonwealth, or vice versa, or indeed a Catholic or a Protestant in the wrong company. How brave, how far-sighted, were those groups which sprang up at the time, small, religious groups, visionary and sectarian, of whom the Quakers are the great survivors. Yet they could not reconcile what they saw as the teachings of Jesus with the contemporary practice of the established Church or indeed of any of the Church hierarchies. Professed faith and actual practice did not match. Violence and Christianity did not, to their mind, sit comfortably together. One remark of George Fox remains as apposite today as it was then. In the vernacular of the time: Christ saith this, and the apostles say this – but what canst thou say? It is this focus on the individual’s response to God that seems almost to transcend the clay-footed development of dogmatic, institutionalised religion, but which at the same time ensured that Quakers would always be seen as outsiders. At considerable personal risk, they stood up for the truth, for a truth they perceived as submerged beneath the waves of hatred and violence that engulfed the land. And that truth has been expressed by Quakers consistently over the centuries, drawing the attention of mankind to our common heritage with a profound humility and a readiness to accept – or at least to hear openly – the views and insights of those with whom one disagrees, whether in large things or small. Duncan Wood, a pupil and teacher at Leighton Park School, expressed it well in the 1960s: National, racial and religious differences, he wrote, have not destroyed our common humanity but they have given it different faces which may tempt us to forget that all things that really matter, life and death, birth, love, joy and sorrow, poetry and prayer, are common to us all. In the end, there is no better starting point for the salvation and healing of the world, or “Tikkun Olam”, as Jewish tradition would put it in Hebrew, and the genuine welcoming of the stranger within our gates.
Of all those groups from the time of the English Civil War, it is only really the Quakers who have survived to our day. One reason may well be the persecution which they suffered continuously. As we know, there’s nothing like a bit of persecution to help a minority thrive and survive. Yet Quakers never lost their self-esteem, recognising that we need to show ourselves a degree of love, because until we can do that, what chance have we of loving our neighbour? Here again there’s a point of contact with Jewish teaching, since that great commandment that we should love our neighbour as ourselves appears first in Leviticus 19:18, in scriptures with which Jesus would have been very familiar as a practising Pharisaic Jew. He would also have known the even more poignant exhortation in the Old Testament, later in the same chapter of Leviticus: The stranger who dwells among you shall be to you as one born among you, and you shall love him as yourself; for you were strangers in the land of Egypt – a reminder of the epic journey from slavery to freedom that has inspired humanity for three and a half millennia.
(By the way, did you know the three reasons that prove Jesus was Jewish? Well, by the time he was thirty, he was still unmarried and living with his mother; he went into his father’s business; and his mother thought he was God.)
Let me come now to the elements of Quakerism that I see as fundamental to its witness and to its vision of inclusiveness, the antidote to rejection of the stranger, and which all have a daily, almost tangible impact on the schools which espouse Quaker values: worship, non-violence and social reform.
The heart of Quakerism is of course our coming together for worship: meeting for worship is where we start, and where we stop. We start there, because we come together in silence, in the presence of God, not with a shopping list of prayers and requests for an already pretty busy deity, but with an open heart and mind, ready to listen for what God may be requiring of us. It’s surprising how often ministry can trigger a whole chain of thoughts and even other ministry, from pupils of so many backgrounds. What George Gorman called the amazing fact of Quaker worship, becomes a reality among hundreds of young people each week, of whom only a tiny proportion might be from Quaker families.
That is the miracle. It remains for me as Head a constant challenge: how to convey the experience of four hundred young people, teenagers, from a score of nationalities and more than a handful of religions, including also a significant and healthy number of doubters and out and out atheists, all ready to contribute to the silence of the meeting by their own silence, and, perhaps even more remarkable, to listen with empathy and openness to the very personal testimony that often characterises ministry from their peers. No giggling, no shuffling and shifting, no provocative counter-ministry: just the proof of the good in young people that can be released when, for all their different religious, racial, national, ethnic and linguistic backgrounds and idiosyncrasies, which in other environments might be the cause of mirth and mockery, they are simply accepted as an indispensable part of a community of equals. No strangers within our gates here: we’re either all strangers, or none of us is. It redefines what a school might be. As The Good Schools Guide wrote recently of one of the Quaker schools (though it could, I think, have been written of any of them): More schools would do well to follow (this) model…. We found it one of the most distinctive schools we’d visited and came away with a renewed sense of hope for the future.
The Quaker imperative of responding to “that of God” in everyone creates an environment of tolerance, honesty and integrity that makes for a distinctive type of school community, one in which, from the outset, it is accepted that God may be sought in ways other than our own, ways whose insights might even have something valuable to teach us. And the worship of God, based on silent listening and waiting, is a spiritual experience that draws together those of many different faiths, and offers a non-material place of peace and a refuge to those who deny a faith and to those who feel they cannot yet know if they have a faith or not, a not uncommon position for the young to take.
Moving now to non-violence and peace, we all know that they can be rather like motherhood and apple pie. Who would admit to being against them? It’s rather like the constant drive in our schools to “raise standards”. I’ve yet to come across a local authority or to hear from the government that they are working hard to lower standards. But for Quakers, peace is something much more fundamental than an absence of war. Far from retreating into a disingenuous utopia, they have found ways to use their energies to alleviate suffering, without taking one side and thereby rejecting the other.
Up in the hills above Belfast, directly overlooking the urban border between the Catholic and Protestant enclaves of the city, stands a little house, quite isolated, known simply as Quaker Cottage. Here, Quakers ran a crèche for mothers and toddlers from both sides of the divide, whose men folk would be spending their days or nights as paramilitaries. While the fathers did what real men do, the mothers – Catholic and Protestant – met and talked in the cottage on the hillside. And their little children played together with “the other”, too. It was a small but significant gesture, a reflection of the Quaker peace testimony in action.
When I visited Quaker Cottage and saw these toddlers, I was reminded of the story of the starfish, which I’m sure you all know. Walking along the sea shore, which was covered in marooned starfish, a man came across a woman who was bending down to throw them, one by one, back into the sea. “This beach must have thousands upon thousands of starfish on it,” he said to her. “What difference can it possibly make if you save that tiny number?” She smiled at him, picked up another and tossed it into the sea. “It’ll make a difference to that one.”
But how do we translate such high ideals into a school context? We all know how much schools generally pride themselves on their “good discipline”, when what they really mean is tight control. Real discipline, for children or for adults, but best learned of course as a child, comes from within. It is only through self-discipline that true tolerance of the other can be achieved. Here is a passage by John Reader, former Head of Great Ayton School: The Quaker emphasis in education probably lies in non-violence, in participation and in caring. Not only to run the school without violence, but to produce young people who will feel a concern to reduce the level of violence in the world. Not to impose the aims of the school on the pupils, but to lead them to their own acceptance of these aims, to a share, however, small, in its running and a pleasure in its successes, to find that of God in every pupil.
Finding that of God in every pupil, and then, even more importantly, responding to it, is the challenge which, when met, enables a school to dispense with some of those trappings which might be thought essential to the smooth maintenance of order and discipline, replacing them with the trust which is so often denied to young people, and which enables the very concept of the stranger to disappear. If it can vanish from a school community, then there is yet hope that it can, one day, disappear from the wider world.
Now, social reform. Does anyone here know who is on the back of our current English £5 banknote? You may already know that it’s Elizabeth Fry. She was a brave woman, going into women’s prisons, which were at the time unimaginably awful, to read the Bible to the women and to teach them to read for themselves. You’ll see if you look closely that there is a picture of just that happening, not only to the women prisoners, but to their children as well, who, it seems, regularly had to accompany their mothers to jail if there was nowhere else for them to go. Elizabeth Fry led the cause of prison reform. Her work is not yet done, but derived directly from the Quaker testimony to equality, equality of worth of every human being before God, whatever state they were in, and however they might have lost direction in their lives. That natural humanity shines through. It’s the sort of vision that young people rightly have. They want to make a difference. They have no hesitation in telling the adults what’s wrong with the world they’re going to inherit, and they want to do something about it. They don’t see the differences between people that adults see. How much we could learn from them about welcoming the stranger.
Two years ago, we marked in England the 200th anniversary of the Bill that was supposed to abolish the slave trade. It is – for obvious, establishment, reasons – little known that nine out of the twelve members of the Committee leading the movement were Quakers. We know all too well that slavery has not yet been abolished throughout the world. There is much work to be done. The recent visit of President Obama to the coastal slave stations in Ghana could yet represent a turning point in the world’s understanding of our human interdependence. Not for nothing have he and his wife made it possible for their daughters to have a Quaker education.
A Quaker education: I’ve tried to give an indication of what it can mean and how it can help young people see the stranger not as the other but as a friend. Remember, though, that in most Quaker schools perhaps no more than 5% of pupils are in fact from Quaker backgrounds. All of us involved in Quaker education find ourselves trying to listen, to explore ways of resolving conflict peacefully, to be unremittingly hopeful in creating community in our schools and in the wider world, and in welcoming “the other”.
Let me share with you, to end this part of my reflections, the insight of Caroline Graveson on what the school curriculum should include:
I may reach God through Keats, you by Beethoven, and a third through Einstein. Should not education to the Christian mean just this – enlarging and cultivating the country of God; and the subjects on any school timetable be thought of as avenues to an increasingly fuller life in God?
“The country of God…..An increasingly fuller life in God”: Caroline Graveson sums it up admirably, for the urge to religious belief must be one of the strongest of all human urges, one that has withstood the test of the most ruthlessly atheistic of dictatorships, as well as the ferocious efforts of those who have sought, and continue to seek, to subvert the innate goodness of the deistic concept. The terrible suffering inflicted by those of one faith on those of another, and even by those of different branches of the same faith on each other, has hardly helped mankind to perceive the truth. The fuller life in God has the capacity to incorporate many interpretations, reflecting the story so well told by Gerald Priestland of the climbers on the mountain, on several faces of it, who, only when reaching the summit, discover each other at the same time as they discover that the view from the top is the same, whichever route they chose to get there. In our increasingly fractured society today, where just now Moslems, particularly, are on the receiving end of so much suspicion and hatred, and demonised even as they dwell peacefully among us, we would do well to remind ourselves of the notion of the country of God. For if God is to mean anything, we must recognise that those whom we perceive to be the stranger are also made in His image. What human arrogance it is, to imagine that we can define the image of God. This may just be the age in which we can find the humility to challenge that centuries-old assumption.
I once had a set of prospective parents visiting the school. Towards the end of our meeting, they clearly had one unspoken question which they were diffident, even embarrassed, about asking. In the end, they did. “Look,” said the mother, “It’s like this. I’m Protestant……” “And I’m a Catholic,” interrupted the father. “Is that going to be a problem here?” Where else should their son go, I replied, with a Protestant mother and a Catholic father, but to a Quaker school with a Jewish Headmaster?
Now, earlier this year, I found something in the press which seemed to have a certain resonance for this particular gathering. It was the haunting advert for one of the world’s great wristwatches, which claims that you never actually own [this particular watch], you merely take care of it for the next generation. And that’s surely it. This is what it’s all about. What we’re all engaged in is not just preserving lifeless technology, but handing on to the next generation our spiritual understanding of the world and its people in good health, having perhaps contributed a little to its earthly development. When I asked the question “So what?” earlier on, this is what I am referring to. What difference does it all make, in the end?
One answer was provided for me just a few weeks ago by one of our parents, a Ugandan mother working at the United Nations in Vienna, married to an Austrian. On a recent visit to the UK, she was subjected to the sort of lengthy and searching questions at passport control to which she has had to become accustomed. As it went on, she found herself telling the customs officer all about the Quaker education her son was receiving, and about the unexpectedly natural affection and respect with which he was treated by everyone. The man behind the desk had vaguely heard of Quakers and had thought that they were generally good people. The interview may not have been shortened as a result of the conversation, but he certainly learned far more than he had expected when he saw just another African face in the queue. So what? That’s what. It was a genuine starfish moment.
Let me come now to Nathan, who answers the question perfectly. This is not the Nathan made famous in the anthem by Handel, where the prophet plays second fiddle to Zadok the Priest; but another Nathan, who became quite well-known during the Enlightenment in Germany, but whose time is, I think, yet to come.
Nathan? Or, as he is better known, Nathan the Wise. Nathan der Weise. He is the eponymous character in the eighteenth century play by Gotthold Ephraim Lessing.
Lessing was born in 1729, and was already a well-known critic and dramatist when he met and became a close friend of the great Jewish philosopher, Moses Mendelssohn, grandfather of the composer Felix, whose bicentenary we celebrate this year. Lessing is one of the best-known representatives of the Enlightenment. He was a brilliant scholar, a formidable debater, and a tireless campaigner against prejudice. He had written his play, The Jews, in 1749, before he met Mendelssohn, describing it as the outcome of serious reflection on the shameful oppression endured by a nation which, I should have thought, a Christian cannot contemplate without a kind of reverence. It had been written in the ambivalent climate of Frederick the Great’s “Charter Decreed for the Jews of Prussia” of 1750, which promised the Jews closer cultural, economic and political ties with the state and, for the first time, the status of actual subjects, but at the same time revealed considerable contempt and distaste for them, as well as a desire to limit the competition they might afford to the Prussian Christian business community.
What was startling and original about Lessing’s The Jews was the sympathetic portrayal of the Jewish main character, known as the Traveller (whose Jewish identity is, however, not known for most of the play). He rescues the Baron from highway robbers who are initially assumed to be damned Jews but who turn out to be employees of the Baron himself. The Baron offers the Traveller his daughter’s hand in marriage, but the Traveller has to refuse, explaining I am a Jew. He also turns down an alternative financial reward offered. By the end, the Baron is embarrassed by his earlier slights against Jews in general: Oh, how commendable the Jews would be, he exclaims with inadvertent irony, if they were all like you! to which the Traveller gently replies: And how worthy of love the Christians, if they all possessed your qualities. The Traveller also states that he asks nothing more than that in future the Baron should reach less harsh and generalising judgements about his people (and by extension, to our modern sensibilities, about anyone regarded as “the other”, the stranger in their midst).
Thirty years later, another play by Lessing became known as a parable of tolerance and reason in the search for religious truth. Nathan der Weise, first published in 1779, brings together a Jew, a Christian and a Moslem whom we see clearly as representatives of their religions. The centre point of the plot is the story, told by the Jew Nathan to the Moslem Saladin, of the opal ring which had the power
To make the owner loved of God and man
If he but wore it in this faith and confidence.
The ring, also conferring leadership of the house and the family, was passed down from generation to generation, until it reached eventually a father who loved all his three sons equally and could not decide which one should inherit the ring. Secretly he has two exact replicas made. Each son receives one ring with his father’s blessing. After the father’s death, of course, each claims to have the true ring and to have inherited the father’s mantle.
But all in vain, explains Nathan, the veritable ring
Was not distinguishable –
Almost as indistinguishable as, to us,
Is now – the true religion.
Nathan goes on to explain to Saladin that unless each of the three brothers, by his love for the others and by his behaviour, could make himself indeed loved of God and man, then it was entirely possible that the original ring had in fact been lost, and that the father had had three replicas made. Splendid! cries Saladin. And we then hear Nathan’s final explanation: each son was to believe he had inherited the true ring, and should therefore treat the others with affection rather than prejudice:
Let each one strive
To gain the prize of proving by results
The virtue of his ring, and aid its powers
With gentleness and heartiest friendliness,
With benevolence and true devotedness to God.
Nathan becomes the spokesman for the true ideals for the Enlightenment (surely even more relevant today): tolerance, brotherhood, love of humanity, and, in religious terms, the understanding that all faiths come ultimately from one God. This, at a stroke, undermined the concept of the superiority of one religion over another, and with it any notion that any religion had the right to force itself on the adherents of another.
So I like to feel that we all here are walking in Nathan’s footsteps. Both Nathan and Saladin were outsiders, strangers, in the midst of the Christians, yet they were the first to perceive what Quakers take for granted. We all find ourselves in the position where we can re-interpret the Truth as we learn more about it. We should perhaps always keep in mind the words engraved in 1891 above the main gate to Harris Manchester College, Oxford, where last term I spent my sabbatical: To Truth, To Liberty, To Religion, three concepts that are the cornerstone of our humanity, and, if we choose to acknowledge it, the underlying basis for the acceptance of each other.
The title for this lecture is drawn from the Book of Deuteronomy, chapter 16, at a point in the narrative where the Israelites are enjoined by God to keep the feast of tabernacles for seven days during their wandering in the desert on the way from slavery in Egypt, a journey which culminated in the giving of the Torah. Rejoice in your feast, you, and your son, and your daughter, and your servants, and the Levite, and the stranger, and the orphan, and the widow, who are within your gates. The huts in which they slept were temporary and fragile constructions, reflecting the very precariousness of their existence. Yet even here, they are commanded to look after the vulnerable in society, which is at the heart of Judaism, and indeed of Quakerism too. As Konrad Braun wrote: Enormous is the amount of wrong in the world….Love, mercy and pity command us to do our best to right these wrongs, to oppose iniquity and to see more justice done to those who suffer from injustice.
Nathan would, I am sure, have felt in sympathy with this, and with St Benedict who stated, in his Little Rule for Beginners, that he wanted to establish a school for the Lord’s service. That, put so simply, is the way to nurture the spirituality of youth, to foster the idealism of the next generation, to care for the stranger within our gates, and, in the words of Moses Mendelssohn himself, to leave the world a little better for our sojourn in it.
References and Sources:
Christian faith and practice in the experience of the Society of Friends, London 1960
The Economist, Pocket World in Figures, London, 2008
Hermann Levin Goldschmidt, trans. David Suchoff, The Legacy of German Jewry, New York, 2007
George H. Gorman, The Amazing Fact of Quaker Worship, London, 1973
The Holy Scriptures, Philadephia PA, 1976
Peter Jarman and Eva Tucker, eds., Patterns and Examples: Experiencing the Spirit of Other Faiths, York 2005
Paul A. Lacey, Growing into Goodness: Essays on Quaker Education, Wallingford PA, 1998
Gotthold Ephraim Lessing, “Die Juden”, Saemmtliche Schriften, ed. K. Lachmann, trans. M. Gelber, Leipzig, 1853, quoted in Mendes-Flohr and Reinharz, 1980
Gotthold Ephraim Lessing, Nathan the Wise, trans. W.Jacks, Glasgow, 1894
Ralph Lucas, ed., The Good Schools Guide, London, 2009
Moses Mendelssohn, Jerusalem, trans. M. Samuels, London, 1838
Paul Mendes-Flohr and Jehuda Reinharz, eds., The Jew in the Modern World: A Documentary History, Oxford, 1980
John Reader, Of Schools and Schoolmasters: Some thoughts on the Quaker contribution to education, London, 1979
Jonathan Sacks, The Home We Build Together, London, 2007
James Walvin, The Quakers: Money and Morals, London, 1997, quoting The Snake in the Grass; or Satan Transformed into an Angel of Light, London, 1697
John Howard Yoder, For the nations: essays evangelical and public, Cambridge, 1997
Benjamin Zander, The Art of Possibility, Boston, 2000
2009christianitydeuteronomydunstonIrelandIYMjewishjohnjudaismlecturemeetingstrangerYearly
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Learned Helplessness Drives Hopeless Behavior
By LUIS MIRANDA | THE REAL AGENDA | JULY 3, 2012
People are broken people. They have been intentionally transformed into manageable human resources that consciously and otherwise have stopped fighting for what is theirs; they have stopped fighting oppression and injustice. There is a system that has been established to inflict pain and desperation, fear if you will, which seems so paramount, that makes people lower their arms and give up. Daily, we can see clear examples of this behavior. The most recent one is the installation of body scanners in airports and courthouses around the globe under the pretext of terrorism. What is people’s answer to this invasion of privacy? Compliance. (1)
Before the scanners — which capture a digital picture of a person’s naked body — (2) we had other examples of how the system continuously corrals us and we do not seem to know what to do. For example, the financial meltdown that began several years ago turned into a bailout of powerful banking interests. (3) The same banks and same financial system that created and perpetuated the collapse, gave themselves a pat on the back and carried out the most gigantic transfer of wealth in history, leaving the ordinary citizen in shambles, jobless, in debt and homeless. (4) What was the reaction given this illegal wealth transfer? Compliance.
Previous to the financial collapse, citizens were indoctrinated into believing that humans were responsible for the warming of the planet, and that only a global carbon tax would be the solution to save ourselves from doom. (5) Fortunately, a series of leaked e-mails and documents from the University of East Anglia, revealed not only that Anthropogenic Global Warming was a hoax,(6) but that it was part of a greater plan to further consolidate power and the resources of the planet into the a few hands. Although the climate alarmists’ agenda was debunked beyond doubt, (7) there are people out there who still have not looked at the science and continue to claim that the warming is occurring and that it is due to human activity. More compliance.
Going back even further in history, we find another very clear example of how people became hopeless and easily manipulated. Common wisdom dictates that it is correct to count on synthetic pharmaceuticals in order to prevent, treat or cure disease. People could not and cannot figure out that health freedom and a healthy state of being could not be further away from such industrially manufactured products. Due to lack of information or a way to check false statements from manufacturers and doctors, the citizenry simply trusted the “experts” and their magic pills in their blind pursue of health and fall into learned helplessness.
A state of learned helplessness is “a psychological condition in which people have learned to believe they are helpless in a particular situation. They believe they have no control over their situation and that whatever they do is futile. As a result, they will stay passive in the face of an unpleasant, harmful or damaging situation, even when they actually do have the power to change their circumstances.”For example, in politics, when there is a two-party dictatorship in a country and people can only vote for one or the other — a false sense of choice — and things do not change or continue to get worse because the same corporate interests continue to maintain control. The automatic psychological response is a sense of hopelessness. Another valid example is when a person is in a relationship where he or she is physically, mentally or sexually abused. The victim knows the truth, but is unable to liberate himself or herself due to fear, guilt or any other feeling of despair. The same happens in a society, where the citizen is no longer called a citizen or a human being, but a consumer or a human resource. In a society filled with broken people, the truth no longer sets them free. Different from say, colonial times, when most members of a society still adopted the fighting spirit, today most citizens are conformists, laid-back or apathetic.(8)
What all these people who have learned to be helpless have in common is that pain, in any shape or form, simply makes them weaker, more prone to abuse, and more easily swindled. This takes us to another form of learned helplessness. When people feel depressed, lonely and mentally drained the immediate answer by common wisdom is to look for a psychiatrist or a psychologist to deal with their problems. “What they do not know,” says Dr. Bruce E. Levine, “is that most of the psychologist and psychiatrists out there are only looking to make money out of helpless people.” They are also instruments of the plan the establishment has to maintain control of society.
In today’s society there are three main pillars that support the learned helplessness and cognitive dissidence filled environment: School, Television and the Mental Health Profession. According to doctor Levine, television makes people more passive and docile due to the effect it has in brain waves. It is one of the most effective tools for pacifying the population,” he adds. (9) “Schools and schooling are increasingly irrelevant for the important enterprises of the planet,” says professor John Taylor Gatto, author of books such as the Underground History of American Education and Weapons of Mass Instruction. Professor Gatto was named New York’s teacher of the year. “School is not the place where most people get any kind of education. In fact it is a place used to subdue the population, ” agrees Levine. (10) Are scientists trained in science classes, or politicians trained in politics classes? The only thing schools are good for is to teach people to obey orders. This is a conclusion that people who have any critical thinking skills learn very easily and very fast. Of course, school has also been used to eliminate critical thinking and creativity in the population. (11) From very young we are taught to worship and depend on the government for every single aspect of our lives. A clear example is that a majority of the most relevant citizens in any country were and are people who did not attend school. They can even become presidents! A couple of things people who attend the traditional educational system have in common are that they end jobless in many cases and with a pile of outstanding debt. The traditional educational system has turned into a tool for the creation of an assured state of servitude.
Mental health professionals and psychologists are along with teachers, two of the most compliant groups in society. Health professionals are also one of the groups with the highest suicidal rates. (12) What happens when psychiatrists find resistance to compliance? They become anxious and tend to pathologize. So, almost every person who disagrees with the establishment or with authority is automatically diagnosed as mentally ill. Ernest Hemingway was himself a victim of this system. He was drugged and punished with electric shocks after being diagnosed as mentally imbalanced because he thought he was being followed and watched. It later turned out he was indeed being harassed by intelligence agencies. So, does it make sense to obtain advice from professionals who cannot even control their own personalities? Can we trust people who are indoctrinated to maintain the status quo?
Imagine society as a victim of kidnapping who then suffers from Stockholm Syndrome during and after a kidnapping. The incapacity to react to a kidnapping is such that they begin to make excuses as to why it was normal not to run away when given the opportunity or the chance. Society as a whole, just as kidnapping victims do, even get to a point where they defend their kidnappers. Most people shield themselves from reality by being apathetic, or ignoring what is staring at them as a mechanism of defense against their impossibility to react to such reality due to a feeling of fear and helplessness. In other cases, people choose to spend their lives worrying about football games, reality shows, fashion, gossip and so on.
Another very common problem in today’s society is cognitive dissidence. This happens when people are incapable of being in a state of tension, so they choose to make up a series of excuses to escape such situations. The most common reaction is to tell themselves they are not in such tense situation, which serves them to ignore the humiliating state of affairs they are in. So, even though society seems to be turning into an abusive place, where all of our rights are disrespected or taken away, citizens still conform by saying things like “it is not good, but we still live in the best country in the world”. This kind of statements reflect people’s lack of power to face the truth that they live in a repressive tyrannical city or country.
An example of a society where all hope and reason has been lost is the United States. In 2000, one president was elected but the losing candidate was who took power. Short of the circus created by the main stream media, no one else manifested the slightest interest in resolving the election through democratic means. In a clear example of how weak democracies, or pseudo-democracies work, the Supreme Court of the country was the one that decided who would govern the nation. In other countries often called Banana Republics, such as Iran or Mexico, the decision reached by the Court would have resulted in many manifestations on the streets and perhaps a real recount of the votes or a second round. How is it that 50 or 60 million people simply let their votes be stolen away without any interest to make it count? In Iran, 3 million people would have turned to the streets to protest a few tens of thousands would have certainly manifested in Mexico. (13)
Madison avenue found out a long time ago that it was possible to make people feel inadequate, that it was possible to tell people what kind of person they should be and that everything that was not so would be socially unacceptable. (14) With that it also realized that it would be easier for the industry to commercialize its crap among insecure people. That is how most women use Botox or surgery to manipulated their bodies to look like the model from the magazine cover. That is why men inject themselves with human growth hormone to look as strong as the baseball player who also takes drugs to improve his performance. This insecurity spurred the sale of make up and slave-made goods such as sports shoes, apparel and handbags. So the image makers tell the people that not fitting a specific pattern or mold will render them worthless; and people believe it. This of course makes people who are financially incapable of providing themselves with Madison Avenue products victims of their own ignorance, and those who can afford it become petty victims of their power trips. People were taught to hate their humanity and that of others.
Equally insidious is the abuse perpetrated by “professionals” who mostly take advantage of weak-minded people. “There is a lot of money to make out in my profession,” says Dr. Levine. The amount of money people spend in pharmaceuticals and visits to their psychologist or psychiatrist — that in turn supports the very same system that benefits from people’s weakness — is uncountable. “Is it not easier to control a population whose self-esteem is low or non-existent? It is in the total interest of the corporate authoritarian society we live in,” adds Levine. That is why it is common to hear professional psychiatric associations call for the identification of new mental disorders. The recognition of such disorders will not only ensure that more people can be subjected to their management model, but also that society will continue to operate business as usual. Recently, the American Psychiatric Association revised its “bible” with the purpose of creating and including new mental diseases. (15)
The “bible” now contains things like “Oppositional Defiant Disorder” (ODD), which includes anyone who disagrees with authority. People who are antisocial are suddenly considered as victims of “Antisocial Personality Disorder” and require pharmacological treatment. Children are no longer unhappy or throwing a temper tantrum, they are suffering from “Temper Dysregulation Disorder with Dysphoria.” The so called “bible” even adopts other made-up disorders such as Repetitive Dysmorphic Nose Picking Disorder With Itching (RDNPDWI), Oppositional Disorganized Speaking Disorder With Indigestion (ODSDWI) and so on. (16)
Is there a solution for Learned Hopelessness and Cognitive Dissidence? Sure. Does it work for everyone? Unfortunately not. So many people are so deep into depression or a state of helplessness that it may be impossible to let them out. The level of indoctrination is such, that losing their homes, families, jobs, liberties and self-respect may not be enough to wake them up. For the lucky ones, it seems that the start of a solution is called Individual Self-respect and/or Collective Self-confidence. In other words, what can I do on a daily basis to restore confidence, faith and respect in myself and people around me? All democratic movements or nations had these two ingredients. What can I do to help myself and others? People who follow these paths are those who identify what is bothering them, but instead of handing those issues to the government — which in turn will make them captives — they give themselves the opportunity to use their problems and solutions to connect with other people. They themselves form their own support groups where everyone shares their solutions to their own problems and those of others. It is what not too long ago used to be called communities.
Another way to pick oneself up is to take on intelligent safe risks. There are projects or goals that everyone has which would exponentially raise his or her confidence and self-esteem. It is precisely pursuing those goals and projects — especially those that include a certain degree of healthy risk — and conquering them, what exalts people out of their sorry empty lives. This risk-taking sometimes includes a decision to get away from people who always drag you down or who simply do not help. A decision needs to be made as to whether this person needs to be left behind in order to achieve that which will help you become what you want. So, the advice is to let the backbiters and backstabbers behind and get on with your life by surrounding yourself with those who support you and wish you well.
(1) New scanners break child porn laws
(2) Exposed: Naked Body Scanner Images Of Film Star Printed, Circulated By Airport Staff
(3) Central Banks were complicit in Robbing the Middle Class
(4) 2009 US Economy: The largest transfer of wealth in history
(5) The Carbon Tax Deception
(6) The E-mails from the East Anglia University
(7) The Great Global Warming Swindle
(8) Learned Helplessness
(9) The Awful Truth about Television
(10) The New Dumbness
(11) How School Kills Creativity
(12) Professionals with the highest rate of suicide
(13) Iran Election Protests
(14) Madison Avenue and your Brain
(15) Revision of ADM could introduce new mental disorders
(16) New Psychiatric disorders flag normal human behavior as diseases
This article was first published on May 1, 2010.
Filed under English, Special Reports, World Tagged with behaviour, cognitive dissidence, compliance, economic collapse, finances, helplessness, homeless, hopeless, jobless, learned helplessness, opposition, resistance, social engineering, terrorism, wealth
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Nikita Dzhigurda: “I’ve had an agreement with KGB and FSB since the Soviet era”
Nikita Dzhigurda on Islamic civilisation and why it’s better to start curative fasting than go to rallies
Photo: Maksim Platonov
Flamboyant actor Nikita Dzhigurda arrived in Kazan for a presentation of the Indian film Robot 2.0 in which he dubbed the key villain. But the very first question of Realnoe Vremya about impressions about the city brought to thoughts about why the Islamic civilisation would survive and the Christian wouldn't and then rallies linked with the Moscow City Duma election and why curative fasting is better than street rallies. More is in Realnoe Vremya’s report.
Top performance in religion
You’ve already been to Kazan. Could you say what you liked in the city, local culture the most?
A talk about culture for me, a secular person, who has studied the history of religions… I think if the Christian civilisation continues using its values in the same thoughtless and non-pragmatic way, it will disappear. And Islam will survive, and in this respect, it refers to both Kazan and Tatarstan.
What’s the difference between the two world religions in a deeper sense? One of them, Islam, says that the top performance is to show mercy, forgive the enemy. But if you can’t, and if the enemy goes rogue, you must protect your family, your ideas. And Christianity and the one who was called Jesus Christ showed another game level. He said to love your enemy, if someone slapped you on one cheek, turn the other, most importantly, don’t kill. Jesus Christ and philosophers of his level knew this life was just a part of life in the universe.
Why was he crucified? He goes to people and explains them the truth, which churches take money for, in an understandable language. He says that one can instantaneously reach another game level if they learn how to control themselves to such a degree that when you are attacked and you will be beaten, you won’t reply not because of weakness but because it is the power of spirit, knowledge, willpower and body. You can resist the evil with no violence.
A talk about culture for me, a secular person, who has studied the history of religions… I think if the Christian civilisation continues using its values in the same thoughtless and non-pragmatic way, it will disappear
The problem is that Christianity violated the teacher’s instructions. Show me where Jesus Christ took up arms. He expelled traffickers from the church but he didn’t kill anybody. Show me that level of belief in Christ nowadays.
How Dzhigurda came to an agreement with KGB and FSB
Which case do you mean? Maybe clashes because of church construction…
Russia in 1917, before the coup. This is what happened: churches are everywhere, all public workers compulsorily go to put candles as well as everyone… What did it bring to? It brought to millions of dead people, mostly Christians. When the Civil War began, Christians began to beat Christians, hand popes, destroy churches because internal aggression didn’t have a place to go out. The pot exploded.
I was in such a situation when the top performance is to solve a problem peacefully, while one was at the edge. I really wanted to take revenge because the outrage they committed… If I learn that my child’s godmother (it is businesswoman Lyudmila Bratash) has been killed and it is announced across the country it has been an accident… I was promised to be killed, the pointed the gun at me so that I will admit that Bratash’s heritage belongs to illegal realtors. Despite the warning, I filed a claim in the police. Former security officials are in service there.
It is Golunov’s case.
Yes, yes. Though no, politics was the case then. And I have had an agreement with KGB and FSB since the Soviet era: I don’t call people to walk the streets in protest, I don’t use my talent to fight against authorities.
I have had an agreement with KGB and FSB since the Soviet era: I don’t call people to walk the streets in protest, I don’t use my talent to fight against authorities
“I walked the streets in protest, and I got my fingers broken and I was sent to the funny farm too”
While you declared your candidacy for Moscow mayor a year ago.
Yes, but it’s a game! It is a performance, I don’t feel any aggression against all our rulers. I differ from destructive opposition. Authorities know that Dzhigurda is peaceful opposition. They can come to an agreement with him: don’t walk the streets in protest and don’t urge the youth. And I can, I have both a voice and everything. The case is that I went through it as a youngster. I walked the streets in protest, and I got my fingers broken and I was sent to the funny farm too… But going through it, I totally understood that I improved the world by improving myself. I don’t have to walk the streets in protest any more.
In the light of this, there is now a protest linked with the election to the Moscow City Duma, candidates of the opposition aren’t registered there. What do you think is happening there? And what should the protestors do then?
They are heroes. When Aleksey Navalny just appeared, I was asked to cooperate with him, I was also invited to be with Khodorkovsky… as well as Tyagnibok [Ukrainian far-right politician) did to Svodoba party. But going through this fight against Soviet authorities, I understand that it is an illusion. What the guys do like heroes, I went through it and understood that I improved the world by improving myself. Leaving the political fight, I began ten-day fasting first, then it was thirty days long. But not to look like Lyuba (Editor’s Note: Lyubov Sobol, opposition candidate in the election to the Moscow City Duma who went on hunger strike after a refusal to register her).
Now, this all is done to detect the instigators and remove them so that the pot won’t explode. I did know it, and I didn’t go outside and urge anybody to go outside in 2012 because I knew this all would end with a defeat. Authorities wouldn’t allow stirring. If you like, like in Ukraine, it will be worse. There will be a civil war. And I change my consciousness. And I don’t have to go the square for this purpose. I can fast for a couple of days or dive into esotericism.
Fasting and philosophy as alternative to rally
Should people on the square try to fast too?
Why not? I’ve not eaten meat, fish for seven years, I am completely vegetarian, and with mediation, prayer. It is what you can spend your time on. You, of course, can be indignant, up and get a bash on the bonce, aggression, be held on remand… And one should also go through it. The question is to experience it in a homoeopathic dose and understand you won’t change anything. To kill the dragon is to become the dragon yourself.
Those who fight authorities don’t think that if they come to power now, this opposition will also start stealing and sharing bribes in the same way because it is the temptation that only insiders can resist it, and there are few of them. So this fight, the illusion weakens the youth. People will go outside, there will be chaos, and that’s it.
But I am an optimist, and I urge young people to take philosophic works in their hands. When thinking about them, I distract myself from class struggle and don’t make the mistakes our opposition will make. I know that on certain mysterious days a small group with certain thoughts can send signals to the noosphere, pray, meditate, thus changing the world. Bloodlessly. Otherwise, we will die as a civilisation.
By Aleksandr Artemyev. Photo: Maksim Platonov
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IE 10's 'Do Not Track' Setting Under Attack
By Gladys Rama
According to the Association of National Advertisers (ANA), Internet Explorer 10's Do Not Track" (DNT) setting will adversely hurt the quality and quantity Internet content.
The ANA's board of directors comprises executives from major companies including Dell, Intel, Adobe, IBM and Wal-Mart. In a letter sent to Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer and other Redmond executives on Monday, the ANA board warned that IE 10's default DNT setting "will undercut the effectiveness of our members' advertising and, as a result, drastically damage the online experience by reducing the Internet content and offerings that such advertising supports. This result will harm consumers, hurt competition, and undermine American innovation and leadership in the Internet economy."
DNT is designed to give browser users control over when and how their online behavior can be used as data for advertisers. When DNT is turned on during a browsing session, the browser sends a signal to Web advertisers indicating that the user does not want his or her data to be tracked.
DNT is enabled in some form on four of the top five browsers in the United States: IE, Firefox, Safari and Opera. Microsoft first included DNT in last year's release of IE 9; however, users were required to turn the feature on beforehand. For IE 10, which is expected to ship with Windows 8 later this month, Microsoft is making DNT the default setting -- the first browser maker to do so, according to the company.
Microsoft announced the decision to make DNT the default setting in late May, when the Windows 8 "release preview" version was made available. In a blog post at the time, Microsoft Chief Privacy Officer Brendon Lynch explained that the goal is not to stifle the online advertising market, but to provide more transparency to users:
"We believe that consumers should have more control over how information about their online behavior is tracked, shared and used. Online advertising is an important part of the economy supporting publishers and content owners and helping businesses of all shapes and sizes to go to market. There is also value for consumers in personalized experiences and receiving advertising that is relevant to them.
"Of course, we hope that many consumers will see this value and make a conscious choice to share information in order to receive more personalized ad content. For us, that is the key distinction. Consumers should be empowered to make an informed choice and, for these reasons, we believe that for IE10 in Windows 8, a privacy-by-default state for online behavioral advertising is the right approach."
Even though IE 10 users will have the option to turn off DNT, the ANA contends that having it as the default setting strongly discourages users from doing so, and would hurt not just advertisers but also consumers. According to the ANA, the effect would be the same as that of giving TV viewers the option to reduce advertising during programs; however tempting the proposition, cutting advertising would hurt TV's viability as a business model, which could threaten the shows viewers want to watch.
"Similarly, the choice that consumers actually face [in having DNT as the default setting in IE 10] is between continuing to allow advertising to subsidize Internet offerings, or paying more for offerings that they currently enjoy for free or at a low cost," the ANA letter reads.
However, as ZDNet's Ed Bott pointed out in his analysis of the ANA's letter, TV ads don't employ the type of behavioral tracking that online ads do.
"That argument is ludicrous. Enabling Do Not Track will not stop advertising. In fact, the comparison to television advertising undermines the ANA's position completely," Bott wrote. "Ad-supported television networks are able to survive without having any form of data collection to target ads to individual sets. Why is Internet advertising different?"
The ANA is entreating Microsoft to switch back to an opt-out process in which the DNT feature must be activated by the user instead of being already enabled. The letter pointed out that during recent Senate hearings to debate DNT, the chairman of the U.S. Federal Trade Commission also expressed support for an opt-out approach. In a statement to Advertising Age, FTC Chairman Jon Leibowitz said, "My position is clear: I support an easy, persistent opt out on third-party tracking that limits collection with a few exceptions, such as security."
Muddying the debate are questions regarding how Web sites and advertisers will honor DNT signals, if at all. For instance, the Apache Software Foundation, which the ANA mentions in its letter as an opponent of Microsoft's DNT approach, has stated that it intends for its software to ignore DNT signals from IE 10 browsers.
"At the moment there is not yet an agreed definition of how to respond to a DNT signal, and we know that a uniform, industry-wide response will be the best way to provide a consistent consumer experience across the Web," conceded Microsoft's Lynch in his blog post. He added that Microsoft is working with advertising, government and standards groups to develop a uniform process for recognizing DNT signals.
The ANA said it is willing to "engage in direct conversation" with Microsoft regarding DNT. For its part, Microsoft has not responded directly to the ANA's letter. However, in a September editorial in Adweek, Microsoft advertising executive Rik van der Kooi said that the fuss over whether DNT is a default setting only distracts from the larger goal of improving Web advertising and customer experience.
"Instead of debating whether DNT is 'on' or 'off,' we should redouble our efforts as an industry and educate consumers about how advertising pays for the free Web experience we all now enjoy; how much richer people's Web experiences can be if they share their data with trusted partners; and how they can increasingly manage the data they generate," Kooi wrote. "If nothing else, DNT should serve as an accelerant to something that everyone in the business of digital advertising wants to see: greater consumer understanding of and desire to participate in the value exchange."
Gladys Rama is the senior site producer for Redmondmag.com, RCPmag.com and MCPmag.com.
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Research > Research Axes
Research Axes
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Metabolic and Cardiovascular Health Axis
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Clinical Research Units
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Activities at the CHU Sainte-Justine Research Centre are divided into six axes, each of which in turn is divided into one or more research themes.
The Brain and Child Development axis, composed of neurosciences and developmental psychopathology researchers, initiates biopsychosocial collaborations by studying data from longitudinal studies. The scientists in this axis have acquired international expertise, particularly in the field of sensory systems development, epilepsy etiology and treatment, hypothalamus development and child language development. Among other achievements, studies into psychopathology and child behaviour have led to the creation of an INSERM international unit (French National Institute for Health and Medical Research) and the Centre of Excellence for Early Childhood Development. In the field of neurosciences, researchers have secured major grants from organizations such as Genome Canada and the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) to develop a new approach for studies of neurodevelopmental diseases such as schizophrenia, autism or mental retardation. >> Learn more
The expertise of the researchers working in the Musculoskeletal Health, Rehabilitation and Medical Technologies axis is recognized worldwide. The axis promotes a multidisciplinary research approach through fundamental, clinical and rehabilitation research leading to knowledge transfer and clinical innovations aimed at improving children’s well-being. The example of idiopathic scoliosis perfectly illustrates the researchers’ transverse approach, specifically with their development of a diagnostic test. Their objective is to develop innovative and less invasive treatments allowing children and adolescents to live with minimal physical limitations and to detect articular diseases at an early age in order to prevent the effects of these diseases in adulthood. >> Learn more
The CHU Sainte-Justine is a world-renowned leader in the field of immune disorders and cancer, most notably regarding acute lymphoblastic leukemia, oncogenetics, the localization of bone marrow stem cells, and the role of the liver in the immune system. Sainte-Justine’s cord blood transplant centre is the largest in the world. Clinical results are excellent and the researchers are known for their innovative work. This research field holds extraordinary potential. Other researchers are developing industry partnerships, including a grant of more than one million dollars from IBM to accelerate research into the causes of childhood leukemia and other complex pediatric diseases with the goal of developing individualized treatment strategies. >> Learn more
CHU Sainte-Justine is a mother-child reference centre for the prevention, diagnosis and management of infectious diseases that affect pediatric patients and pregnant women in the Province of Quebec. It is also the main centre for pediatric emergency medicine, trauma, and intensive care. Our institution is the only one in Quebec to group these specific fields of expertise. Given this status, researchers in the Infectious Diseases and Acute Care axis work to help prevent, offer new therapies and cure infectious diseases, in addition to disorders occurring in critical care situations. >> Learn more
The Fetomaternal and Neonatal Pathologies axis builds on the unique structure of the CHU Sainte-Justine Research Centre through the study of abnormalities in embryonic, fetal and neonatal development. The CHU Sainte-Justine is one of the most dynamic university hospital centres in Canada in the field of perinatal research. Sainte-Justine’s researchers are interested in various aspects of fetomaternal health, such as retinopathy of prematurity, cardiovascular pregnancy paradox, aortic isthmus and the effects of antidepressants on pregnancy. >> Learn more
The Metabolic and Cardiovascular Health axis seeks to understand, prevent and intervene in important metabolic issues ranging from the fetal period through to adulthood. Our researchers are working on genetic disease prevalence and distribution, founder effects and genetic variance in Québec in addition to the functional dissection of intestinal lipid transport. A team of researchers is also studying North American Indian childhood cirrhosis (NAIC/CIRH1A), a disease that is specific to NW Québec. >> Learn more
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Research Papers Examples
Home Research Papers ➞ The find an equilibrium of supply and demand and
The find an equilibrium of supply and demand and
admin December 4, 2019 0 comment
The Invisible Hand: an economic phenomenon driven by self- interest that results in unintended beneficial consequences to the economy. It is how unregulated markets naturally find an equilibrium of supply and demand and how business’ competition regulates the free-market. First observed and written by Adam Smith in “An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of The Wealth of Nations,” this effect became a defining factor for the modern day capitalist economic system. In “The Invisible Heart,” by Russell Roberts, the concept of the Invisible Hand is a recurring and important theme throughout the novel. A romance story of a pro-capitalist man, Sam Gordon, and a conservative woman, Laura Silver, Russell Roberts beautifully explains major economic theories and how they are driven by an Invisible Hand that benefits all in a free-market economy. Sam Gordon is a tall, thin teacher at the Edwards School who teaches the course “The World of Economics.” He had a master’s degree in economics and has a passion for capitalism and the free-market system. Therefore, when Sam met Laura Silver, a conservative woman that was for strict government regulation, at the metro station, conflict emerged. Laura was also a teacher at the Edwards School and taught an English class there. Throughout the novel, constant discussion and disagreement between the two characters helped visualize economic issues and connected the two. While Sam and Laura discuss the economy, there is a parallel story about a television show starring Charles Krauss and Erica Baldwin. Charles Krauss was the CEO of HealthNet, a major company, and was accused of being ruthless and exploiting his customers for profit. Erica Baldwin, the director of the Office of Corporate Responsibility, leads a group to destroy Krauss and his alleged “corrupted” business. Through Sam, Laura, and the television show, the goal and meaning of economics are unearthed. The first important economic theory introduced in the novel is the basic idea of scarcity. Sam teaches his class economics, the study of allocating scarce resources, with a unique twist. Sam explains to his class that the world would never run out of oil because as oil gets more scarce, the opportunity cost of producing oil increases. Thus, before oil reserves run out, companies would find it more profitable to use different energy sources than trying to find more oil reserves. Sam makes an analogy to a room full of pistachios: each time someone eats a pistachio, they have to leave the shell within the borders of the room. In the end, one would find it more effective to buy a bag of pistachios rather than spending hours on it to find a single pistachio. Sam explained that every resource is scarce and that every decision has a cost, which is, in economic terms, the opportunity cost. When Sam Gordon and Laura Silvers, two contradicting characters, met for the first time, a dispute arose quickly. It was over safety laws regarding motorcycle helmets and seatbelts. As Laura spoke for the safety of civilians, even at a higher cost, Sam thought not. He argued that even though people know that helmets and seatbelts add for safety, they are acting upon self-interest. Sam emphasizes the fact that people’s “values of the costs and benefits are not the same as yours” (Roberts 25). Sam believes that without seatbelts, people would be more His perspective is that while one may pay for the extra safety, another may use the money on college tuition- safety comes with a price. In addition to Sam’s argument, there is an effect called the Peltzman Effect, that theorizes that people are more inclined to drive less safely with seatbelts, and vice versa. All in all, Sam’s perspective is that seatbelts, helmets, and safety laws always comes with a price. As many economists often declare, “There is no such thing as a free lunch.” In addition, the concepts of supply and demand are discussed when Sam and Laura meet in the teacher’s lounge. Laura explains that she is unsatisfied with her annual salary of $23,000, and doesn’t understand how famous basketball players earn millions of dollars. Sam explains that while teachers educate 150 people a year, a basketball player could entertain millions. Sam indirectly emphasizes the forces of supply and demand, where very low supply leads to higher wages. Sam visualizes the consequences of raising the wages for teachers, which he explains that the demand for teachers will be much greater than the supply: the theory of surplus. The government finds itself not employing many teachers, as the pool of unemployed grows. This effect is similar to the consequences of minimum-wage laws. With higher wages for workers, firms are discouraged from hiring more workers, and therefore, increasing unemployment. In this case, government regulation is leading to an unintended negative consequence. Similarly, Sam outlines the benefits of business competition when Laura complains about the prices of her dry cleaning service. Laura believes that the dry cleaner is greedy and wants a regulation that lowers the cost of service. While Laura is disappointed that the dry cleaners are only concerned about profit, Sam believes that consumers should encourage profits for businesses. Sam emphasizes the fact that competition drives businesses to make businesses, which in turn, benefits the consumer. With more competition and potential for profit, businesses compete to attract customers with low profits or higher quality. Unless a good or service would be a monopoly, firms compete to please their customers and gain profit, where market prices are barely over production costs. However, Laura points out that general prices are increasing even though firms try to lower prices to attract consumers. Sam emphasizes the fact that “the effects are masked by inflation” (Roberts 70). Over periods of time, the general prices of goods rise at the rate of inflation. In a real sense, adjusted for the effects of inflation, the goods and services may be much cheaper compared to years before. Even then, the real prices of the goods and services are understated. This is due to the fact that the variety of goods produced and the quality of the goods increased over time, as well. Sam preaches that for businesses, profits are secondary to good products and service. And with the invisible hand, the business’ self-interest for profits leads to better products for the consumers. While Sam continued to present Keynesian economics to Laura, Sam was under investigation by the school board. Senator Hunt was a senator that possessed opposite views of Sam and was a major figure in the government. It happened to be that his daughter, Amy, was in his class of economics. And when Amy was being taught a liberal form of economics, Senator Hunt, who has large power over the school system, sought to remove Sam from the Edwards School. Alongside the storyline between Sam and Laura at the Edwards School exists a parallel story of a television show starring Charles Krauss and Erica Baldwin. Charles Krauss is believed by many to exploit his customers for his business, HealthNet. Many, such as Erica Baldwin, a director of the Office of Corporate Responsibility, question the medical safety of HealthNet’s products. Erica wants to expose HealthNet and put an end to Krauss and his company once and for all. While Erica is planning to uncover HealthNet, Krauss decides to close a major factory of HealthNet located in a small town in Ohio, Matalon. The components of the factory were to be sent to Mexico immediately. Because the factory in Matalon was unionized, Charles Krauss emphasizes the fact that the company could add “20 million to the bottom line over the next five years” (Roberts 58). Watching the news coverage of distressed workers in Matalon, Erica Baldwin is more inclined to implement a formal investigation to exploit Healthnet and bring an end to Charles Krauss. Like Erica Baldwin, one was looking at the same news coverage that Baldwin had watched: Heather Hathaway. Hathaway was a HealthNet employee that worked directly in the presence of Charles Krauss. Watching citizens’ concerns about their mortgage from the night before, she is infuriated of her company to close the factory in Ohio. While Krauss went outside of his office, Hathaway decides to take some confidential papers and send it through a copying machine to gain a copy of her own. Hathaway then dialed the Office of Corporate Responsibility and sent the copies at a perfect timing for Erica Baldwin. The copies were full of rows and columns of numbers. As Erica Baldwin and her investigation team research the series of documents, they realize that the papers were data from mandatory clinical trials for the Food and Drug Administration. The medicine from HealthNet was a drug designed for fighting cancer. And the results from the papers received have consistently indicated towards tumor growth. To complete her investigation, Baldwin scrambles to track down the anonymous sender of the documents. However, it is already too late. HealthNet has heard, and Hathaway is dead. Watching the television show with Laura, Sam is agitated that the businesses are portrayed as disastrous and relentless. Laura was from a high class and had a brother that had contradicted many views of Sam’s a few weeks before. Sam was also annoyed with the fact that Laura had favored Erica Baldwin and loved the television show. While it is true that many CEO’s have to close down factories, Sam explains that they have a legitimate reason. Sam points out that competition drives out those companies and leads them to close factories. Additionally, he explains that Krauss realized he could make more profit with a factory in Mexico while giving workers better wages than they used to have. Krauss’ self-interest for profit leads him to produce what satisfies the customer’s needs and makes better products. And besides, without a self-interest for profit, a business is bound to collapse due to competitors forcing the company out-of-business. In addition, Sam emphasizes the fact that even the people in the company that was destroyed by Charles Krauss may be better off in upcoming generations. In a small town in Ohio, where HealthNet was the dominant factory, many children were destined to work in the factory. However, with the factory gone, those children would be able to invest in different skillsets. The leaving of Healthnet from Matalon Ohio lead to more jobs and more opportunities for future generations.
Chapter IV OPEC’s Strategy towards Non-OPEC Shale________________________________________ The oil market had been performing well in the global market after the financial crisis of 2008
The Effects of Health and Safety Practice on Productivity in Temporary Works Construction AUTHOR FirstCap MERGEFORMAT Nadine Jeftha 209028696 A dissertation submitted to the Faculty of Engineering
IMPACT OF SERVICE QUALITY ON CUSTOMER SATISFACTION IN INSURANCE COMPANIES IN WOLAITA ZONE MBA Thesis BY Dawit Dalga May 2018 Wolaita Soddo University IMPACT OF SERVICE QUALITY ON CUSTOMER SATISFACTION IN INSURANCE COMPANIES IN WOLAITA ZONE A Thesis Submitted to Department of Management
CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION INTRODUCTION FOREIGN INSTITUTIONAL INVESTOR
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY Central Azucarera de Tarlac
CHAPTER power generation and various thermal applications. Imposition of
Professional qualified by instruction, preparing, or encounter. They perceive
Free Critical Thinking
Socialisation within both the family unit and society in general
Facts about Alexander the Great 1
Family provides people with important relationships in their life
A Feedback on William Jennings Bryan To begin with
It is important to take into account the health and safety requirements that are put in place to ensure the safety of the children
KATHOLIEKE UNIVERSITEIT LEUVEN FACULTEIT LETTEREN Master in de culturele studies Bertolt Brecht on theatre Techniques
Nikki Maharath ENC 1101 Tuesday/Thursday 11
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Home › Religion Curriculum › The Story of Christianity
The Story of Christianity
The story of Christianity is an immeasurably fascinating one. A faith that began in Roman occupied Palestine, as a small and fugitive faction within Judaism, grew, thrived and finally "conquered" the empire that had sought to exterminate it. Then, over many centuries and in many lands, it became the vital source from which new civilizations sprang. At times, its geographical range expanded mightily, at others contracted perilously. At times, the church proved heroically true to its deepest moral principles; at others, inexcusably traitorous to them.
But, by the beginning of the 21st century, this faith that began in such fragility, and that became so powerful--even though its temporal power has now receded in its historic homelands--is the most widespread and diverse of all religions. Christianity is rapidly taking root in cultures very different from those in which it was born and in which it once flourished, and is assuming configurations that could not have been anticipated a century ago.
In The Story of Christianity, the distinguished theologian David Bentley Hart provides a broad picture of Christian history. Presented in 50 short chapters--each focusing on a critical facet of Christian history or theology, and each amplified by timelines, quotations, and color images--his magisterial account does full justice to the range of Christian tradition, belief and practice--Eastern Orthodox, Roman Catholic, Anglican, Presbyterian, Evangelical, Coptic, Chaldean, Ethiopian Orthodox, Armenian Orthodox, Malankaran, to name but a few of the many possibilities.
From the persecutions of the early church to the papal-imperial conflicts of the Middle Ages, from the religious wars of 16th and 17th-century Europe to the challenges of science and secularism in the modern era, and from the ancient Christian communities of Africa and Asia to the "house churches" of contemporary China, The Story of Christianity triumphantly captures the heterogeneous richness of Christian history.
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It's called Lost Chances, and I feel kind of weird posting it, as it has a sort of feel-good, Hallmarky, "let's buy some stuff" feeling to it. I almost feel like it should have voiceover ("The next time you feel like buying pointy blue objects, why settle for less than the best?"). Lost Chances was going to be part of a project, but it sort of went in a different direction than I'd expected, so I let it sit for awhile. It's nice, but I don't feel like finishing it, so it ends fairly abruptly.
Incidentally, why am I doing an MP3 of the month? So that I have some motivation to actually complete at least one piece of music monthly, which shouldn't be too hard. This doesn't explain why this month's offering was last touched in October of 2002... I've actually been starting a lot of pieces recently that I haven't finished yet. Evil Jim will probably e-mail me tomorrow to ask me why I haven't posted any of my techno experiments with Soundforge. I have no answer.", "url": "https://sacredspud.livejournal.com/14830.html", "image": { "@type": "ImageObject", "url": "https://l-stat.livejournal.net/img/sign.png" }, "author": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Colin Timothy Gagnon", "image": "https://l-userpic.livejournal.com/98815067/986398" }, "publisher": { "@type": "Organization", "name": "Journal sacredspud", "logo": { "@type": "ImageObject", "url": "https://sacredspud.livejournal.com", "contentUrl": "https://l-userpic.livejournal.com/98815067/986398" } } }
Colin Timothy Gagnon ( sacredspud) wrote,
Colin Timothy Gagnon
sacredspud
Mood: calm
Music: Paul Simon -- Graceland
Or maybe Plan 9 from Outer Space?
Yeah, so, today I'm even more tired that yesterday. Prolly because I've taken some cold medicine. It's supposed to be non-drowsy, but it usually makes me sleepy anyway, and puts me in a weird mood where I type things like "prolly." Nevertheless, I had to force my eyes open several times at work today.
I also talked to that woman at work today, and guess what? She's still engaged. When I told the coworkers who'd overheard our conversation on Friday, their response was "wow," but based on the way they said it and their facial expressions, the DVD subtitling would have read "what a slut." I don't think so. We spoke about her fiancee, and she's clearly not looking around. She's probably just friendlier (or possibly just more fully awake) than most of the people I work with, and we misinterpreted her intentions. Or something.
I hope very sincerely that she doesn't read this because now that we're talking about something that isn't my car, I'm learning that she's a very pleasant person. It's nice to have friends at work whom I don't see on a daily basis, because then we actually have things to talk about when we see each other.
(Possibly) Needless to say, I'm not terribly crushed. It's not that I set myself up to fail, but I more than half expected something like this outcome.
Anyway, yeah. We talked for some time. It helped my morning go quicker, and actually my day seemed really short, which is really odd, considering that I was so uncomfortable because I'm sick. In fact, my day was insanely productive. I'm pretty happy about that.
Nothing else really of note... I'm drained to the point that I'd like to veg in front of a movie tonight, but I can't seem to settle on one I'd like to see. Possibly The Fifth Element or The Ninth Gate. I'm big on movies with numbers in their titles (sequel numbers don't count). Maybe The Seventh Seal. Definitely not One Night at McCool's.
Oh, and I posted a new MP3 of the month on my website. It's called Lost Chances, and I feel kind of weird posting it, as it has a sort of feel-good, Hallmarky, "let's buy some stuff" feeling to it. I almost feel like it should have voiceover ("The next time you feel like buying pointy blue objects, why settle for less than the best?"). Lost Chances was going to be part of a project, but it sort of went in a different direction than I'd expected, so I let it sit for awhile. It's nice, but I don't feel like finishing it, so it ends fairly abruptly.
Incidentally, why am I doing an MP3 of the month? So that I have some motivation to actually complete at least one piece of music monthly, which shouldn't be too hard. This doesn't explain why this month's offering was last touched in October of 2002... I've actually been starting a lot of pieces recently that I haven't finished yet. Evil Jim will probably e-mail me tomorrow to ask me why I haven't posted any of my techno experiments with Soundforge. I have no answer.
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University > Research portal > Research publications > Stratospheric eruptions from tropical and extra-tropical vol...
Stratospheric eruptions from tropical and extra-tropical volcanoes constrained using high-resolution sulfur isotopes in ice cores
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.epsl.2019.06.006
Embargoed (until 20/06/20)
Andrea Burke, Kathryn A. Moore, Michael Sigl, Dan C. Nita, Joseph R. McConnell, Jess F. Adkins
St Andrews Isotope Geochemistry
The record of volcanic forcing of climate over the past 2500 years is based primarily on sulfate concentrations in ice cores. Of particular interest are large volcanic eruptions with plumes that reached high altitudes in the stratosphere, as these afford sulfate aerosols the longest residence time in the atmosphere, and thus have the greatest impact on radiative forcing. Sulfur isotopes measured in ice cores can be used to identify these large eruptions because stratospheric sulfur is exposed to UV radiation, which imparts a time-evolving mass independent fractionation (MIF) that is preserved in the ice. However, sample size requirements of traditional measurement techniques mean that the MIF signal may be obscured, leading to an inconclusive result. Here we present a new method of measuring sulfur isotopes in ice cores by multi-collector inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry, which reduces sample size requirements by three orders of magnitude. Our method allows us to measure samples containing as little as 10 nmol of sulfur, with a precision of 0.11‰ for δ34S and 0.10‰ for Δ33S, enabling a high-temporal resolution over ice core sulfate peaks. We tested this method on known tropical (Tambora 1815 and Samalas 1257) and extra-tropical (Katmai/Novarupta 1912) stratospheric eruptions from the Tunu2013 ice core in Greenland and the B40 ice core from Antarctica. These high-resolution sulfur isotope records suggest a distinct difference between the signatures of tropical versus extra-tropical eruptions. Furthermore, isotope mass balance on sulfate from extra-tropical eruptions provides a means to estimate the fraction of sulfate deposited that was derived from the stratosphere. This technique applied to unidentified eruptions in ice cores may thus improve the record of explosive volcanism and its forcing of climate.
Earth and Planetary Science Letters
Published - 1 Sep 2019
Volcanoes, Sulfur, Mass-independent fractionation, Stratosphere, Katmai, Ice cores
Improving North Atlantic marine core chronologies using 230Th-normalization
Missiaen, L., Waelbroeck, C., Pichat, S., Jaccard, S. L., Eynaud, F., Greenop, R. & Burke, A., 10 Jul 2019, In : Paleoceanography and Paleoclimatology. 34, 17 p.
CO2 storage and release in the deep Southern Ocean on millennial to centennial timescales
Rae, J. W. B., Burke, A., Robinson, L. F., Adkins, J. F., Chen, T., Cole, C., Greenop, R., Li, T., Littley, E., Nita, D. C., Stewart, J. A. & Taylor, B., 25 Oct 2018, In : Nature. 562, p. 569-573 16 p.
Sulfur isotopes in rivers: insights into global weathering budgets, pyrite oxidation, and the modern sulfur cycle
Burke, A., Present, T. M., Paris, G., Rae, E. C. M., Sandilands, B. H., Gaillardet, J., Peucker-Ehrenbrink, B., Fischer, W. W., McClelland, J. W., Spencer, R. G. M., Voss, B. M. & Adkins, J. F., 15 Aug 2018, In : Earth and Planetary Science Letters. 496, p. 168-177 10 p.
Acceleration of northern ice sheet melt induces AMOC slowdown and northern cooling in simulations of the early last deglaciation
Ivanovic, R., Gregoire, L., Burke, A., Wickert, A. D., Valdes, P. J., Ng, H. C., Robinson, L. F., McManus, J. F., Mitrovica, J. X., Lee, L. & Dentith, J. E., 27 Jul 2018, In : Paleoceanography and Paleoclimatology. Early View, 18 p.
Distribution and ecology of planktic foraminifera in the North Pacific: implications for paleo-reconstructions
Taylor, B. J., Rae, J. W. B., Gray, W. R., Darling, K., Burke, A., Gersonde, R., Abelmann, A., Maier, E., Esper, O. & Ziveri, P., 1 Jul 2018, In : Quaternary Science Reviews. 191, p. 256-274 19 p.
An early diagenetic deglacial origin for basal Ediacaran “cap dolostones”
Ahms, A-S., Maloof, A., Macdonald, F., Hoffman, P., Bjerrum, C., Bold, U., Rose, C. V., Strauss, J. & Higgins, J., 15 Jan 2019, In : Earth and Planetary Science Letters. 506, p. 292-307 16 p.
Anaerobic nitrogen cycling on a Neoarchean ocean margin
Mettam, C. W., Zerkle, A. L., Claire, M., Prave, A. R., Poulton, S. W. & Junium, C. K., 1 Dec 2019, In : Earth and Planetary Science Letters. 527, 115800.
Consequences of glacial cycles for magmatism and carbon transport at mid-ocean ridges
Cerpa, N. G., Rees Jones, D. W. & Katz, R. F., 15 Dec 2019, In : Earth and Planetary Science Letters. 528, 115845.
Secular change in TTG compositions: implications for the evolution of Archaean geodynamics
Johnson, T. E., Kirkland, C. L., Gardiner, N. J., Brown, M., Smithies, R. H. & Santosh, M., 1 Jan 2019, In : Earth and Planetary Science Letters. 505, p. 65-75 11 p.
Earth and Planetary Science Letters (Journal)
Chris Hawkesworth (Member of editorial board)
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Launch Slideshow
Arizona Pagani
A Masterpiece in Carbon Fiber: The Pagani Huayra Roadster
“Art and science can walk together, hand in hand.” —A quote from Leonardo da Vinci that Horacio Pagani continually draws upon as inspiration while crafting the world’s most awe-inspiring supercars.
Andrew Miterko
Horacio Pagani founded Pagani Automobili in 1992 in a small nondescript factory between Modena and Bologna, Italy, with the dream to combine race-proven engineering and design into a supercar of his own which would be both an engineering marvel and a work of art. Before forming Pagani, his passion and dedication was recognized by Renault, who hired him as an engineer to improve the body of one of their racing cars. Later, after meeting with Lamborghini’s chief technical director, Horacio moved to Italy in 1982, where he was hired by Lamborghini and performed menial tasks, eventually working his way up to chief engineer, where he designed the Countach Evoluzione concept. When Lamborghini refused to purchase an autoclave to expand production of the carbon-fiber parts, he opened his own consulting firm in Modena with a focus on advanced composite materials. It was this foundation that would eventually lead Horacio to embark on designing a prototype, which became the Zonda model that launched Pagani into the world’s spotlight.
A decade after launching the successor to the Zonda, the Huayra roadster capitalizes on the technology and engineering successes of its predecessors. On the development of the Huayra roadster, Horacio notes, “This is the most complicated project we have ever undertaken.” The team at Pagani redefined the styling of the coupe, giving it a slightly more aggressive shape and ultimately reducing the weight of the Huayra coupe, which was already the lightest hypercar available on the market. The finished product is nothing short of a work of art—each component shows an obsessive attention to detail, from the sheer perfection and symmetry of the exposed carbon-fiber construction of the body and trim to the meticulous leather upholstery throughout the cabin. Only 100 examples of the Huayra were to be commissioned, each example embracing the Italian ideology Creata con Arte e Passione.
RM Sotheby’s is excited to offer the 42nd example of the Pagani Huayra roadster at the upcoming Arizona collector car auction, held at the Arizona Biltmore Resort and Spa in Phoenix, Arizona, 16–17 January 2020.
Click ahead to explore the highlights of this breathtaking and highly detailed work of automotive art.
This example is finished in Blue TriColore with bright silver detailing and exposed glossy carbon-fiber trim. Pagani’s mastery of carbon fiber is displayed throughout, with tremendous attention to detail paid to the symmetry of the weave.
The Huayra roadster features a lightened and stiffened body in comparison to the coupe. A carbon-titanium-weave tub reduced weight by approximately 176 lbs. The completed vehicle weighs a mere 1,280 kg, making it one of the lightest hypercars on the market.
Active aerodynamics operate through a complex system of flaps controlled by the ABS and ECU systems, and the drag coefficient can be varied between .31 to .37 to keep the vehicle stable on its way to its nearly 240 mph top speed.
Beneath the rear cover, an AMG-sourced, 60-degree, 36-valve V-12 engine specifically built for Pagani by Michael Kübler features twin-turbocharging, producing 764 horsepower at 5,500 rpm and 737 foot-pounds of torque from 2,300 to 4,300 rpm.
A seven-speed automated gearbox developed by British racing firm Xtrac with an electronic mechanical differential was chosen to transmit power to the rear wheels and ensure astounding acceleration.
An inconel titanium exhaust allows the engine to breathe freely and exits through the centrally located quad tips, ranging from a gentle staccato to a full-fledged wail as the accelerator is depressed. The front and rear independent suspensions feature forged rockers, CNC-machined arms, and forged machine-controlled uprights.
The interior blends old-world craftsmanship and design with modern touches. Cream and brown leather covers the carbon-fiber-backed seats and floors, along with polished metal and glossy exposed carbon fiber. A set of matching leather luggage bags are stored behind the front seats.
Behind the 20-inch front and 21-inch rear forged aluminum alloy wheels are massive 15-inch carbon-ceramic rotors with six-piston front calipers and four-piston rear calipers.
This example shows a mere 116 miles on the odometer and represents an exciting opportunity for a lucky new owner to obtain an essentially brand-new example of one of the most intricate and well-designed hypercars of all time.
An extremely limited run of 100 examples of the Huayra roadster were produced. This example is the 42nd example produced, as indicated by the plaque mounted on the cream leather upholstery ahead of the shifter.
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You are currently browsing the monthly archive for October 2014.
Our Church Has Something for Everyone!
October 13, 2014 in Pop Culture, Religion | Tags: Christian, church, Grand Theft Auto, karaoke, PlayStation, rock-climbing, skateboards, Taylor Swift | Leave a comment
Life used to be so much simpler: Work, School, Home, Church. These were the building blocks of American society.
But now our children question everything. The average person will have a dozen jobs in their lifetime. Even a college degree won’t guarantee a good living. Kids would rather play Grand Theft Auto and sext than sit down for a nice home-cooked meal. And church attendance is lower than ever.
That’s why the Church needs to fight back. If we don’t give our children a reason to go to Church we may lose them forever.
It’s why Our Lady of Third Pentecostal does things a little differently. Sure, we have sermons and hymns and prayers. We do weddings; we do funerals. We’re a full-service Christian institution in every way.
But we also understand the need to stand out from the crowd. We understand that kids are turning away from the Lord in droves. That’s why we put the “fun” in fundamental.
Here are a few of the things we offer:
Rock-climbing walls
Taylor Swift karaoke
Naughty cosplay
Softball league
Scripture Jeopardy!
Rainbow parties
Now, if all this won’t bring your children to Church, then maybe the Church doesn’t want them. (Kidding! The Church wants all your children. Every last one of them.)
Baseball’s Offensive Team Names, Part VI: National League Central
October 5, 2014 in History, Pop Culture, Sports | Tags: Al Capone, base stealers, baseball, Bears, Berlin Wall, Catholics, Celtic, Chicago Bears, Chicago Cubs, Cincinnati Reds, commies, communists, Cubbies, fifth column, football, Glasgow, Kent Tekulve, Ku Klux Klan, Major League Baseball, Milwaukee Brewers, MLB, Muslims, NFL, pittsburgh pirates, Prohibition, Protestants, Rangers, schools, Scientologists, speakeasies, St. Louis Browns, St. Louis Cardinals, Wisconsin, Zane Smith | Leave a comment
Chicago Cubs – There was a time when baseball was America’s pastime and the sport held the allegiance of all right-thinking people, but football has since supplanted it in the hearts of an increasingly conservative populace. In a more innocent age, Cubs were a perfectly acceptable mascot, but football demanded more machismo, and so it was that Chicago’s team became the Bears, in an effort to one-up the beloved baseball team. Bears were big, burly, and tough, while Cubs–or worse still, Cubbies–were derided as less manly. Of course, after the sexual revolution of the 1970s, the irony of big, hairy men who rolled around in the grass together and were prone to patting each other on their butts being seen as exemplars of heterosexual toughness became apparent. The Cubs, meanwhile, remain simple adorable losers, with little sexual identity whatsoever.
Milwaukee Brewers – During Prohibition, Milwaukee, which had long been known as a centre of beer production, struggled mightily. Looking to save their businesses, the breweries diversified their products to include colas and root beers. Al Capone took advantage of the situation and arranged for the smuggling of illicit booze into Chicago from nearby Milwaukee. Always eager to conceal his criminal operations behind a veneer of legitimate business, Capone owned a company that supplied public school cafeterias with soft drinks. In 1927 his entire operation was almost brought to its knees when alcohol meant for speakeasies was accidentally shipped to grammar schools, resulting in mass drunkenness amongst Chicago’s 5 to 8-year olds. Capone managed to shift the blame to the Milwaukee breweries, which were shut down for the remainder of Prohibition, and the entire city, by extension, was vilified as a den of iniquity. In Chicago, ever since, a “Milwaukee Brewer” has meant someone who serves alcohol to minors.
St. Louis Cardinals – Catholics were once viewed with as much suspicion in America as Muslims and Scientologists are today. In fact, the main targets of the Ku Klux Klan after African Americans were Catholics. St. Louis, for a time the biggest city on the Frontier, and the Gateway to the West, once had two baseball teams: the Browns and the still-extant Cardinals. Much like Rangers and Celtic in Glasgow, the teams garnered support from opposite sides of the spiritual divide. The pious and unprepossessing Browns were the choice of dour Protestants, while the Cardinals, as much as they tried to hide their papal allegiance behind their bird mascot, were Catholic to the marrow. For the many born-again Christians who don’t believe Catholics are Christians, the Cardinals still represent a fifth column in the heart of the Mid-West.
Pittsburgh Pirates – At the height of their success in the nineteen-oughts, the Pirates were the preeminent base stealers in baseball, but off the diamond were notorious ladies men, apt to steal your best gal from under your nose. This reputation took a severe hit in the 1970s with the rise to prominence of the homely Kent Tekulve, and was well and truly put to rest with the addition of the monstrously ugly Zane Smith in the 1980s.
Cincinnati Reds – Dirty Commies. Still, twenty-five years after the fall of the Berlin Wall? You betcha.
October 5, 2014 in Absurdity, Creative Writing, Religion | Tags: bull, drawing, illustration, sketch | Leave a comment
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