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Michelle Polizzi
Remyelination: How to Increase Myelin for Longevity
Slowing down mentally and physically is a normal side effect of aging. But what if someone told you that these unwanted experiences could be greatly reduced or even delayed? Enter: myelin repair. As more studies reveal the role of myelinating cells in a healthy brain and body, more people are asking how to increase myelin to boost their longevity.
So what exactly is myelin and the myelin sheath, and what do these things mean for living your best life? Here, we outline everything you need to know about myelin loss and myelin repair, including how to create new myelin for a sharper, healthier, and longer life.
Myelin and the Nervous Systems
Learning how to increase myelin starts by learning the role of myelin in the body’s nervous systems.
The central nervous system, or CNS, comprises the brain and spinal cord, and is responsible for controlling all major bodily functions. Voluntary movements, speech, thought, memory, and spatial awareness are all controlled by the CNS.
In contrast, the peripheral nervous system comprises all of the nerves outside of the brain and spinal cord, such as those that connect the limbs and organs.
The nervous system gets its name from neurons, which are responsible for transmitting electrochemical signals throughout the body. Neurons send messages from the brain to enable us to think, act, feel, and interact with the world around us.
What Is the Myelin Sheath?
So where does myelin fit in? Myelin in the central nervous system is produced by oligodendrocyte progenitor cells, also called oligodendrocyte precursor cells or OPCs. Oligodendrocytes are a type of glial cell that helps create the myelin sheath, the fatty coating around nerve cells keeping them insulated and protected.
Schwann cells, located in the peripheral nervous system, also support axonal myelin formation. Myelinated axons exist primarily in the brain’s white matter. Myelin is critical for quickly conducting messages throughout both nervous systems.
When functioning properly, myelin protects nerve cells as they transmit signals from the brain to organs, muscles, and systems throughout the body. The myelin sheath, or myelin membrane, also ensures that impulses are effectively delivered from the brain and spinal cord to the rest of the body.
Myelin Loss, Multiple Sclerosis, and Aging
Multiple Sclerosis is an autoimmune disease that attacks the myelin sheath in the central nervous system. Myelin damage, also called demyelination, leaves the nerve cells unprotected, where they then experience damage. In addition to causing damage along the nerve fibers, MS also halts new myelin production by destroying OPCs.
Myelin loss leads to delays in messaging from the nerve impulse, which results in the common symptoms of MS: vision problems (due to optic nerve issues), tingling, numbness, fatigue, and dizziness.
Loss of myelin also occurs naturally as a result of aging, as explained in a study on myelin and nerve fibers. Changes in nerve impulse conduction in the central nervous system is one reason why aging is associated with cognitive decline. Poor eating, exercising, and sleeping habits also play a role in increased demyelination, as explained further on.
How to Increase Myelin
Heavily myelinated neural pathways function up to 300 times faster than cells that have experienced neurodegeneration. This helps us move more quickly and make smarter decisions. These optimized neural pathways also help us become more emotionally agile, boosting our resiliency against life’s greatest challenges.
It’s clear that myelin is important for living a healthy and fulfilled life. But in some cases, such as an immune system disorder like multiple sclerosis or other demyelinating diseases, demyelination is unavoidable.
The good news? The same study we mentioned earlier on myelin and nerve fibers revealed that OPCs increase with age, suggesting that myelin production can still occur at any point throughout our lifetimes, even in spite of neurodegenerative diseases. Further studies have shown that the act of repairing myelin (remyelination) can be increased through lifestyle factors like diet, exercise, and cognitive stimulation.
Exercise and Myelin Repair
Exercise is one of the best ways to ignite remyelination and keep your neurons firing quickly and efficiently. In addition to improving functions of the central nervous system, exercise has been shown to mitigate the negative impact of diet on the central nervous system, according to the Mayo Clinic.
This was revealed in a myelin study by Isobel A. Scarisbrick, which showed that a high-fat diet combined with a sedentary lifestyle can reduce myelin-forming cells, contributing to demyelination and associated cognitive decline.
Adding exercise to this high-fat intake, however, has been proven to increase myelin production. Specifically, the seven-week study on mice showed that frequent exercise training has the ability to boost myelin protein expression, even alongside a high-fat diet.
“Our results suggest that consuming high levels of saturated fat in conjunction with a sedentary lifestyle can lead to a reduction in myelin-forming cells. But exercise training can help reverse this process and promote the myelinogenesis necessary to meet increased energy demands,” says Dr. Scarisbrick.
Similar findings were displayed in a study on patients with multiple sclerosis. Published in the Multiple Sclerosis Journal, this study found that measures of overall functioning improved in patients after exercising with free weights, elastic bands, and exercise machines over the course of 24 weeks.
MRI findings also showed that certain areas of the brain thickened, suggesting preservation or regeneration of brain tissue, in 19 of 74 examined brain areas.
Increasing Myelin With Diet
Most people understand that diet plays a critical role in aging. But can it also contribute to increased myelin? A study on gut bacteria in adult mice suggests that probiotics and prebiotics have the ability to alter the gene expression associated with remyelination.
The tests revealed that differences in mice’s microbiomes led to differences in gene expression. Mice that weren’t exposed to certain germs had greater expression in the genes responsible for structuring, regulating, and forming myelin. This suggests that there could be a relationship between gut biome composition and myelin production, and that foods rich in healthy bacteria could aid in achieving the ideal levels.
Dietary supplements have also been shown to boost myelin, as explained by board-certified internist and health care provider Colleen Doherty.
Vitamin D is thought to aid in remyelination because it assists in regulating the role of oligodendrocytes (which, as we’ve learned, aid in producing myelin). Specifically, vitamin D aids in the maturation of these cells. This nutrient is primarily absorbed through the sun, but it can also be increased by consuming salmon, egg yolks, orange juice, and fortified foods.
Increased consumption of omega-3 fatty acids has been associated with improved MS symptoms too. Healthy fats play an important role in longevity and can be found in foods like salmon, chia seeds, flax seeds, soybeans, and walnuts. Healthy fats reduce demyelination because they replicate the fatty texture of myelin.
Cognitive Stimulation and Remyelination
Learning new habits and skills can aid in the generation of new myelin in the nervous system, according to Christine Comaford at SmartTribes Institute,
When we practice a new habit, we’re forging new neural pathways in the brain. Repeatedly firing signals down those pathways helps our body understand that this new habit is important.
“Repetition is key — myelin is living tissue: if you stop firing a pathway for 30 days, the myelin will start to break down,” Comaford adds.
She adds that, after persevering through the discomfort of starting a new habit, it’s important to repeat the behavior in quick bursts. Repairing myelin in the body is about quality, not quantity. Practicing for just 5 minutes a day can make all the difference when it comes to forming a new, myelin-boosting habit.
It doesn’t matter so much what activity you’re doing — learning anything from scuba diving to ice hockey to web design can create new pathways in the brain. Rather, it’s the rate at which you do it that determines your body’s ability to experience myelin regeneration.
Melatonin and Myelin Production
Melatonin, the hormone in your body that helps regulate your sleep and wake cycles, plays a role in myelin formation. Specifically, melatonin has been shown to decrease the inflammation that’s associated with demyelination. Exposing yourself to sunshine throughout the day can improve your circadian rhythms and help you achieve more restful sleep.
Adopting bedtime habits such as going to bed at the same time, eliminating late night snacking, and reducing blue light exposure are all ways to boost melatonin production. Supplementing with magnesium and collagen may also help regulate melatonin production so that you can achieve more consistent sleep schedules that increase myelin-producing nights.
Increasing Myelin for a Healthier Life
While you can’t boost your myelin production in one day, following healthy habits can greatly improve the functioning of your neural pathways. By exercising regularly, learning new skills, and maintaining an active lifestyle, you’ll stay sharper and more mobile as time progresses.
Michelle is a freelance writer and editor who covers wellness, travel, and plant-based living. When she isn't busy writing, you can find her doing yoga, enjoying the outdoors, or exploring a new corner of the world.
A few articles we think you'll love.
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Sean Lineker
Sean Lineker Wikis
London, Greater London, the UK
Dating, Boyfriend, Affairs
Parents, Family, & Siblings
Body Measurement: Height and Weight
Military upbringing and a fiercely competitive fitness freak, Sean Lineker is one of the competitors of The Challenge: War of the Worlds 2. He is a formidable weapon playing for the Team U.K. Moreover, he came in the competition series, Shipwrecked, and got the tag line of an alpha dog.
Sean Lineker was born on London, Greater London, the UK, in 1991. His birthday falls on the 22nd of June every year. He belongs to the Cancer zodiac sign. He holds British nationality and an English ethnical background. Sean graduated on Television Production, Film/Television from Bournemouth University.
Sean started his career as an office/technical assistant in Dragonfly Film and Television from July 2012 to Jan 2013. After working for seven months, he started working as an office assistant in Shine Group. From May 2013 to January 2014, he worked in Runner/Office Assistant in the Monkey Kingdom.
Eventually, Sean started as Media Sales Executive in Time inc. After a year, he went to News UK and served as Sales Manager from 2015 to 2016.
He joined as an account manager of Attitude Magazine in January 2017.
Then, Sean started his entertainment industry by making a debut in Original series, Shipwrecked: Battle of the Islands in 2019. With his incredible performance, he got into the top tens. Then, he came into The Challenge: War of the Worlds 2 as Team UK.
As of 2019, Sean’s net worth remains under review.
Before appearing in the show, Shipwrecked, Sean had remained tight-lipped about being gay. But his sexuality got revealed when he was romantically linked to a boyfriend named Chris.
Furthermore, Sean and Chris were found having a passionate kiss in front of a beautiful sunset.
Chris told Cosmopolitan that,
“I found that (being on the show) you fall so hard, and so quickly.
He continued,
“People watch Love Island and say, ‘how do you fall like that, so quickly’ but you’re in an environment where feelings do materialise really quickly. And that happens with friendships as well. So there was really strong bonding.”
Sean tends to keep his personal life private. He hasn’t shared any information regarding his parents and siblings in the media.
Sean’s height and weight remains unknown. He has brown hair color and blueish eye color.
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Blended Designs — #BlackExcellence
8 Amazing Black Women that Changed History
Here at BD, we know a thing or two about the importance of raising strong black women. As a female and black-owned business, we know just how far a little #BlackGirlMagic can bring you in life. This is why we are delighted to celebrate Women's History Month in March, following Black History Month. This month, first established in 1987, is dedicated to the commemoration, encouragement, student, observance and celebration of the vital role of women in American history. To celebrate this month, we have decided to highlight 8 black women of women's history month that inspire us to #BeDifferent.
It'd be difficult to discuss the importance of black women throughout history without mentioning the ultimate first lady, Michelle Obama. Born Michelle LaVaughn Robinson in Chicago, Illinois, Michelle wasted no time reaching her #SquadGoals. When she was just a child, Michelle skipped the second grade and was later accepted into the gifted student program at her school. This allowed her to study French and to take advanced biology courses. Michelle's thirst for knowledge took her to Princeton University, where she established a reading program for the children of the school's manual laborers. After becoming first lady with 44th president Barack Obama's inauguration, she went to work improving education and health opportunities for students in America. In an effort to combat the childhood obesity epidemic, she revamped the education system's food program and instated programs like the Let's Move! initiative. Michelle also began the Reach Higher initiative, which works to inspire young people to explore higher education and career development opportunities. Overall, this first lady took her knowledge and skill to change the lives of other American girls and boys forever. Now that's what we call #BlackGirlMagic!
2. Harris County Judges
Okay, so we may have cheated on this pick a little bit considering this group consists of 17 remarkable women. This group of women made history in 2018 after being elected to Texas' most populated county, Harris County. With over 200 years of combined experience, this group ran a campaign with the slogan "Black Girl Magic Texas" which let them run away to victory. This team of outstanding, educated women will go on to represent the interests and needs of one of the most ethnically and racially diverse metropolitan areas in the country. Because when they win, we all win!
3. Angela Davis
Having grown up in Alabama as a young girl, Angela Davis knows a thing or two about facing prejudice based on her gender and color. A political activist, Davis dedicated her life to fighting for gender equality, prison reform and alliance across color lines. Perhaps best known for her literary works including Women, Race and Class and The Meaning of Freedom, Davis shared her knowledge on the subject with students of the University of California, Santa Cruz until 2008. Most recently, she was a featured speaker and honorary co-chair of the Women's March on Washington in 2017. Davis proves that no matter how young or how old you may feel, there's always time to make a change!
4. Ida B. Wells
Another remarkable black woman that used her voice to incite justice and change, Ida B. Wells is a journalist and civil rights leader. Wells is proof that academic hard work can change the world. A skilled journalist, Wells used her talents to shed light on life in the American south as a black person. Born into slavery during the Civil War, Wells fought against segregation and discrimination while exposing the prevalence of lynching in the south to foreign audiences. She also was one of the founders of the National Association of Color Women's club, creating the group to address issues of civil rights and women's suffrage.
5. Tarana Burke
When it comes to women's rights, movements like the #MeToo movement have taken center stage in recent years. Though this movement may have only gained traction with the media recently, Tarana Burke first coined the phrase in 2006. Burke used the phrase to raise awareness of sexual harassment, abuse and assault in society. As senior director of the Girls for Gender Equality group in Brooklyn, Burke shares her own experiences with abuse to create a safe environment for young women to do the same. Burke is also focused on the overall well-being of women of color. It's women like Burke that can spark a movement that changes the lives of women world-wide.
6. Dr. Rosemarie Allen
When it comes to representation and support of all melanin skin tones in the educational system, Dr. Rosemarie Allen is what we call #Goals. After entering the public school system shortly after the decision of Brown vs. the Board of Education, Allen was subjected to subpar treatment from public school teachers that lacked experience with black children. Based on their biases, these teachers would often discourage Allen, stunting her progress. One teacher event told Allen that she wasn't destined for college, despite her 3.8 GPA average. In a response to these experiences, Allen made it her mission to fight for the elimination of systematic inequality that targets vulnerable and marginalized children in the world of education. Allen works as an educator and public speaker to expose racial biases and to help teachers gain a deeper and more compassionate understand of their students. She helps teachers show children that they can #BeDifferent and #DoAnything!
7. Dr. Mae Jemison
Dr. Mae Jemison is an example of #BlackExcellence that is just out of this world. In 1992, she made history by becoming the first black woman to travel to space. Jemison was born in Alabama, where she went on to pursue further education in 1977 at Standford University. But she didn't stop there. Jemison then went on to receive her medical degree in 1981 from Cornell. At this time, Jemison used her degree to practice medicine, carry out medical research and to aid the world with her knowledge by joining the Peace Corps. But, again, she didn't stop there. Jemison then became the first black woman ever to the accepted into NASA's training program. She later made history as a member of the Endeavor flight team.
8. Dorothy Height
Named the "unsung heroine" of the civil rights era by the New York Times, Dorothy Height is a name that is inseparable from our nation's past. An advocate for improving the lives of black women and women's rights as a whole, Height used her #BlackGirlMagic to incite change. She began her career following college as a social worker in Harlem, NY and later moved on to work with the National Council of Negro Women. Here, she focused on ending lynching and worked to reconstruct the criminal justice system. Height's work could not be ignored, as she later had names the likes of Eleanor Roosevelt, Eisenhower, and Lyndon B. Johnson seek her council on racial issues. Her hard work earned her a Congressional Gold Medal in 2004, signifying the lasting impact she has made on our society.
Women's History Month also marks the turn of the seasons! Gear up for summertime and spring break fun with our fanny packs and travel bags perfect for any sister.
Tags: #BDSquad, #BlackExcellence, #BlackGirlMagic, #LivingLengends, black history month, black women, civil rights, civil rights movement, Women's History Month
Wrap Up Black History Month With the Greats
Inspirational #LivingLegends
When it comes to empowerment, nothing makes us feel more inspired here at Blended Designs than seeing examples of #BlackExcellence. This is why we've celebrated Black History Month by highlighting our favorite #LivingLegends that are breaking barriers and shattering ceilings in modern day. These #LivingLegends serve as a reminder that we all can reach our #SquadGoals with a little hard work, vision and inspiration.
Misty Copeland & Calvin Royal III
Of the countless professional fields that black men and women have been forced to break down barriers, that of arts and entertainment has been long anticipated. Misty Copeland and her dance partner Calvin Royal III have done just this. With their performance in Harlequinade, the duo has become the first African American duet to be cast as a lead couple for America’s National Ballet Theatre (ABT). Before landing the coveted roles of Pirette and Pierrot, Copeland and Royal faced adversity as dancers of color, performing for years before securing positions as soloists and principal dancers with the ABT.
Ursula Burns
Can you imagine being named one of the most powerful people in the world? Well Ursula Burns used her drive and #BlackGirlMagic to do just that in 2014. This year, Forbes rated her the 22nd most powerful woman in the world. This was because of Burns’ wild successes in business, becoming the CEO of Xerox in 2009. This made her the first black female CEO to head a Fortune 500 Company in history. Raised by a single mother in a low-income housing project located in Manhattan’s Lower East side, Burns defied all odds to break barriers and made history.
Eunique Gibson
Sometimes the biggest barrier that you can break down is inspiring others to break down their own. This is exactly why we’ve fallen in love with the inspiration and encouragement of Eunique Gibson. Gibson a social media guru, influencer, and founder of Because of Them We Can, an award-winning campaign and platform that teaches our community about daily changemakers that are shattering ceilings. By providing a daily showcase of #BlackExcellence, Gibson reminds our people to dream bigger and to appreciate those who are breaking barriers.
Simone Manuel
Born in Texas in 1996, Simone Manuel may not be who you’d first think of when you picture a world-class swimmer. But with her 2016 win in the Rio Olympics at the age of just 20, Manuel made history. Her win in the 100-meter freestyle race made her the first black woman to receive a gold metal in the sport. After starting swim lessons at the age of 4, she continued to pursue her dream of becoming a star athlete, attending Stanford University to show off her skills. Educated and an athlete? Now that’s what we call #SquadGoals!
Shirley Ann Jackson
Dr. Shirley Ann Jackson may be the first black woman to receive a doctorate from MIT and to be awarded the National Medal of Science, but we have just one more test for her to take. Our #BDSquad Character Quiz! If we had to guess, she would be Carter™ if she were a #BDSquad member. Just like Carter™, Jackson fell in love with all things math and science when she was a student. She took this love of all things STEM to become the first black woman to receive a PhD in theoretical solid state physics. But she didn’t stop there. She also became the first black woman to be elected president and then chairman of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and the first female chairman to the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
Barrington Irving
This member of our #LivingLegends series takes #BlackExcellence to all new heights. Barrington Irving is the youngest person to pilot a plane solo around the world at the age of just 23. He is also the first black man to do this and the first Jamaican ever to do so. But Irving didn’t stop there when it comes to achieving his #SquadGoals. He went on to graduate magna cum laude from the aeronautical science program at Florida Memorial University. Using his education and expertise, Irving has established his empowering aviation educational program “Experience Aviation”, which encourages minority youth and others to explore careers in aviation.
This may not be our first time honoring the legend of Linda Brown, but there’s a good reason for that. At a young age, Brown got thrust into the spotlight as a spokesperson and forerunner of the civil rights movement. Brown, along with over 200 other plaintiffs, worked to end segregation and the legal precedent set by cases like Plessy v. Ferguson that established Jim Crow era laws. These laws held that as long as the public facilities available for blacks and whites were equal, then segregation in these spaces was equal. On May 17, 1954 Brown made history as Chief Justice Earl Warren found that “in the field of public education, the doctrine of ‘separate but equal’ has no place.” He also found that black schools had a “detrimental effect” on students due to their inferior resources. It was Brown’s bravery and persistence that created a new legal precedent that was used to desegregate other public facilities in the future.
Looking at our nation’s past, Superbowl XXII was a victory for more than just the Washington Redskins and the Denver Broncos. This was the year that the first black woman ever performed the coveted role of Rockette at Radio City Music Hall. The Rockettes, an exclusive dancing troupe established in 1925, barred black women from joining the group before moving the show to New York City in 1932. It wasn’t until 1987 that Jennifer Jones became the first black woman to secure this largely sought-after role. After this groundbreaking performance, she continued to dance professionally for another 18 years.
Shaun King
A favorite of 1954, Shaun King is fighting in modern day for the type of equality and justice that we seek to perpetuate through our own products. A graduate of Morehouse College, King has utilized his platform as a professional journalist to call out injustice and police brutality. A former senior justice writer for the New York Daily Times, he now writes for Harvard and The Intercept. King inspires us all to use our voices to speak out against injustice, as he’s shared his important message in 35 states. He has dedicated to sharing his experience and knowledge with all walks of life, speaking everywhere from colleges and boardrooms to jails and prisons.
In the world of arts and entertainment, Ava DuVernay has shattered ceilings behind the camera as a director, producer, screenwriter, film maker and distributor. DuVernay’s variety of skills has made her the first black woman to win the US Directing Award, while also becoming the first black female to director to be nominated for four Golden Globes and to win an Academy Award with her work Selena. What really makes DuVernay a #LivingLegend is the fact that she uses her wide-reaching platform and successes to encourage and empower other female filmmakers and filmmakers of color.
If this #LivingLegend were more accurately named, we would call him Steve McKing! McQueen is an artist, director and screenwriter that was the first black actor to win an Academy Award for Best Picture with his work 12 Years a Slave. A son of two working-class immigrants, McQueen proves to us all that by combining hard work with our talents, we can achieve anything.
Ruth E. Carter
Just this very month, Ruth E. Carter made history during the Oscars. Carter became the first black woman ever to receive an Oscar for Best Costume Design with her work in Black Panther. A box office hit, Black Panther provided an opportunity to create a story representative of black history an excellence, with a majority black cast both in front and behind the camera. Following her success, Carter is reported as stating that “Marvel may have created the first black superhero, but through costume design we turned him into an African king”. We think that these are some pretty wise words coming from the costume queen!
Harris County Judges
Of course we couldn’t talk about #LivingLegends without mentioning the Harris County Judges that made history in 2018. This was the year that a record number of 17 black women were elected to Texas’ most populated county. Amazingly, the group ran on a campaigned with the slogan “Black Girl Magic Texas” and ran away to victory. These female judges used their combined 200+ years of experience to lead one the most ethnically and racially diverse metropolitan areas in the country. Now that’s what we call #BlackGirlMagic!
Channing Dungy
If you chose to watch the ABC network, you are partaking in a part of black history. How you ask? Well because ABC appointed the first black president of a major broadcast television network ever in 2016 when they appointed Channing Dungy. Dungy joined ABC in 2004, quickly rising to success as an executive. By 2013, she held the title of executive vice president, drama development, movies and ministries, and ABC Entertainment Group. Dungy has made her talents known through launching television smashes, including Scandal, Quantico, How to Get Away with Murder, and more.
Show off Your Pride This Black History Month. Shop "The Headlines" Products now!
Tags: #BlackExcellence, #BlackGirlMagic, #LivingLengends, civil rights, civil rights movement, empowerment
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Broken Record
All the World’s A Stage: List of Biggest Tour Dates This Year, Only Three in the U.S.
By Jeff Balke on May 16, 2011 at 2:44 PM
The folks over at Digital Music News posted this interesting chart with information from TourIntel.com detailing the biggest grossing shows this year. Many of the names on the list – U2, Kenny Chesney, Usher – were to be expected, but there were some surprise names on the list. Additionally, out of the 25 top shows listed, only three took place in the U.S: Chesney, et al in Tampa, Florida, Rod Stewart and Stevie Nicks in New York and Bon Jovi in Philadelphia.
The rankings were based on gross ticket sales, which included several multiple performances at a single venue, accounting for the top handful of shows, with the exception of the U2 show in Santiago, Chile which drew over 77 thousand fans and grossed $7.5 million.
In fact, South America and Australia were the most well represented continents on the list.
It is notable the many interesting acts on this list. Rod Stewart and Stevie Nicks pulled in two of the top 25 shows. Lionel Ritchie’s show in Melbourne, Australia was on the list at 22 while Neil Diamond in Sydney, Australia came in at 14. Iron Maiden, perhaps most shockingly, had two spots on the list at 14 in Mexico City and at 7 in Sao Paulo, Brazil, suggesting that metal heads still love their concerts.
And for those of you who think ticket prices are too high in the states, the highest average ticket price for a show was in Caracas, Venezuela, where over 9,000 fans plunked down an average of $354.54 to see the Pop Music Festival featuring Shakira and Train. The show wasn’t even close to it’s 13,000-seat capacity and yet it came in at number 10 thanks to the ticket prices.
Check out the whole list here.
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Tag: Radiology & Imaging
XTRAC laser treatment for psoriasis: Uses, benefits, risks
The XTRAC laser is a type of excimer laser that has been used to treat many forms of psoriasis for two decades now. Approved by the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in 2000, XTRAC uses ultraviolet light to reduce the appearance of large patches of psoriasis. People with psoriasis have long…
Inflammatory breast cancer: Symptoms, diagnosis, and treatment
Inflammatory breast cancer is when cancer cells block the lymph vessels in the skin of the breast. This rare and aggressive type of breast cancer is known as inflammatory breast cancer because the breast typically looks swollen, red, or inflamed. Inflammatory breast cancer tends to be diagnosed at younger ages than other…
MRIs predict which high-risk babies will develop autism as toddlers
This first-of-its-kind study used MRIs to image the brains of infants, and then researchers used brain measurements and a computer algorithm to accurately predict autism before symptoms set in Using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) in infants with older siblings with autism, researchers from around the country were able to correctly predict 80 percent…
Aspirin increases pregnancy rate in women with inflammation
Infertility affects a large number of couples and individuals who are trying to conceive. New research suggests that a daily low dose of aspirin may increase chances of conception for women with chronic inflammation. New research suggests that a low dose of aspirin may help women with inflammation to conceive. Infertility – largely defined…
Retroviruses Originated in Ocean 450 Million Years Ago, New Study Says
Retroviruses (Retroviridae) — a family of viruses that includes pathogens such as HIV, feline leukemia, and several cancer-causing viruses — have an ancient marine origin and originated together with, if not before, their jawed vertebrate hosts nearly 450 million years ago in the Ordovician period, according to a new study published today in the…
New ‘electron gun’ could help enable X-ray movies
This illustration shows a miniature electron gun driven by terahertz radiation. A UV pulse (blue) back-illuminates the gun photocathode, producing a high-density electron bunch inside the gun. The bunch is immediately accelerated by ultra-intense terahertz pulses to energies approaching 1 kiloelectronvolt. These high-field optically-driven electron guns can be utilized for ultrafast electron diffraction or…
New, carbon-nanotube tool for ultra-sensitive virus detection, identification
A new tool that uses a forest-like array of vertically-aligned carbon nanotubes that can be finely tuned to selectively trap viruses by their size can increase the detection threshold for viruses and speed the process of identifying newly-emerging viruses. Scanning electron microscope image (scale bar, 200 nm) of the H5N2 avian influenza virus…
RESEARCHERS DISCOVER RADIATION TREATMENT LEADS TO INCREASED MALIGNANCY OF CANCER
A study published in the journal Cancer by researchers from the department of Radiation Oncology at the UCLA Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center reports that radiation drives breast cancer cells into greater malignancy(0)(1). Malignancy is a term used to describe the tendency of tumors and their potential to become progressively worse, ultimately resulting in death. They…
Researchers report high response rate with single drug in phase I/II trial of paediatric brain cancerNU
A high response rate with a single drug in a phase I/II trial of paediatric brain tumour has set the stage for combination therapy with higher response and lower toxicity, researchers reported at the ESMO 2016 Congress in Copenhagen. “The likelihood of curing a child with a low-grade glioma is very high,” said lead…
MRI Scans Of Human Brain Show Impact Of Alcohol And Tobacco
Results from a brain imaging study at the Imperial College of London have brought us one step closer to comprehending how the of the mind works. In particular, scientists have gained some insight into brain diseases, such as Alzheimer’s, which required them to scan healthy subjects before they developed symptoms. The new study…
MIT Biologists Reveal How lncRNA Helps to Control Cell Fate
New research details how biologists from MIT deciphered the structure of one type of long noncoding RNA and used that information to figure out how it interacts with a cellular protein to control the development of heart muscle cells. Several years ago, biologists discovered a new type of genetic material known as long noncoding RNA….
Graphene nanoribbons show promise for healing spinal injuries
The combination of graphene nanoribbons made with a newly developed process and a common polymer could someday be of critical importance to healing damaged spinal cords in people, according to scientists. X-ray of spine (stock image). The combination of graphene nanoribbons made with a process developed at Rice University and a common…
First results from world’s biggest body scanning project
Data from the first 5,000 UK Biobank participants taking part in the world’s largest health imaging study has been released for health researchers worldwide to use in their own research. Researchers unearthed some rather complicated patterns of correlation. For example, one pattern links brain imaging to intelligence, level of education, and a set of lifestyle…
A New Sound Therapy Shows Promise in Easing High Blood Pressure and Migraines
A new sound-based therapy appears to reduce blood pressure and ease migraine symptoms, according to a pair of small studies. The therapy initially reads brain activity through scalp sensors. That activity is then converted into a series of audible tones. The tones are then reflected back to the brain through earbuds in a matter…
Cystic Fibrosis Patients Living To Adulthood To Increase 75% By 2025; Health System Must Adapt To Treat Influx Of Adult Patients
Before 1960, an infant born with cystic fibrosis was not expected to live more than a few months. Today, thanks to advances in treatment and care, these same babies are surviving well into their late 30s. A recent study now predicts that those currently living with cystic fibrosis may live far longer. “The estimations we…
Childhood Cancer Deaths: Brain Cancer Overtakes Leukemia as Top Cause
Leukemia is no longer the No. 1 cause of cancer deaths in children, but brain cancer has taken it’s place, according to a new report. All pediatric cancer death rates have been dropping since the mid-1970s, according to the report released today (Sept. 16) from the National Center for Health Statistics. The report…
Nanorobotic agents designed to travel in the human body to treat cancer
50 years after the release of the film ‘Fantastic Voyage,’ science upstages fiction Fifty years to the day after the film ‘Fantastic Voyage’ was first shown in theaters, researchers are unveiling a unique medical interventional infrastructure devoted to the fight against cancer. Their work enables microscopic nanorobotic agents to be guided through the vascular systems…
Scientist Discovers A Virus That Could Cure Alzhiemer’s, Parkinson’s, And More
There is currently no cure for Alzheimer’s disease, and while available treatments can temporarily slow the worsening of dementia symptoms and improve quality of life for those suffering from it, they cannot stop the disease from progressing altogether. advertisement – learn more But Israeli scientist Beka Solomon may have made a major breakthrough for Alzheimer’s…
NEW STUDY SHOWS HOW MUSIC BOOSTS THE IMMUNE SYSTEM OF CANCER PATIENTS
Made up of energetic vibrations, music is like language for the soul. It is universal, and can evoke emotion in anyone regardless of nationality, religion, or musical preference. Music has been present throughout our history, taking a central role in everything from ancient primal rituals to elegant Victorian dinners, all with the same purpose:…
Therapeutic hypothermia after nonshockable-rhythm cardiac arrest
Therapeutic hypothermia significantly raises the rate of survival with a good neurologic outcome among patients who are comatose after a cardiac arrest with a nonshockable initial rhythm, according to a report published online November 16 in Circulation. Many observational and retrospective cohort studies have examined the possible benefits of therapeutic hypothermia in this patient population,…
Body part printing masters launched
LESS than 30 years after 3D printers were invented, Australian students will learn how to make human body parts with them. Queensland University of Technology Professor Dietmar Hutmacher launched the world’s first master’s degree in biofabrication, as the technology is known, in Brisbane on Friday. Biofabrication uses 3D printers to make biodegradable intricate plastic scaffolds…
Seeing babies’ ultrasound ‘magical moment’ for expectant dads
A new study has found that seeing ultrasound images of their babies for the very first time is a “powerful and magical moment” for expectant fathers as it helps them bond with their child. Tova Walsh, a researcher at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health, said that fathers’ feelings about ultrasound…
Is 3-D Printing of Human Organs Next?
While science has been reproducing human cells in laboratories by hand to create living body parts for years, recreating full organs has been a challenge due to the complexity of cell structures. 3-D printers could change this due to the technology that allows for precise and complicated replication. This process, known as bioprinting, takes human…
Study Questions Benefits of Mammography
The Canadian National Breast Screening Study (CNBSS) has released its 25-years-on findings, that annual mammograms given to women in their 40s and 50s find more cancers, but don’t save more lives. This confirms the authors’ original assessment made in 1992. The study has been described by H. Gilbert Welch, MD, of the Institute for Health…
New X-ray app can be used for testing and training worldwide
A group of medical consultants in Belfast have teamed up with IT specialists to develop a mobile app that can identify where a doctor is going wrong when interpreting X-rays. The app helps medics develop their skills. It also identifies areas of weakness that can be worked on in training and that could potentially save…
New laser scans for greenhouse gases
Melbourne: Researchers have developed a new type of laser that can be used to detect greenhouses gases in the atmosphere. The laser will also enable exciting new advances in areas such as breath analysis for disease diagnosis, researchers said. University of Adelaide researchers said they have been able to produce 25 times more light emission…
3D bioprinting could spark ethical debate
BANGALORE: The technology of 3D ‘bioprinting’ (the medical application of 3D printing to produce living tissue and organs) is advancing so quickly that it could spark a major ethical debate, says advisory firm Gartner.At the same time, 3D printing of non-living medical devices such as prosthetic limbs, combined with a burgeoning population and insufficient levels of…
Ultrasound Sharpens Human Sensory Perception
Low-intensity transcranial ultrasound can heighten sensory perception in humans, according to a paper published online January 12 in Nature Neuroscience. In the study, carried out by scientists at the Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University’s (Virginia Tech; Roanoke, VA) Carilion Research Institute, subjects receiving ultrasound showed significant improvements in their ability to perform on two classic neurological tests,…
New imaging technique captures the vibrations of proteins, tiny motions critical to human life
Like the strings on a violin or the pipes of an organ, the proteins in the human body vibrate in different patterns, scientists have long suspected. Now, a new study provides what researchers say is the first conclusive evidence that this is true. Using a technique they developed based on terahertz near-field microscopy, scientists from…
Apollo Hospitals launches tele-radiology services in Chennai
Former President A.P.J. Abdul Kalam with Prathap C. Reddy, chairman, Apollo Hospitals Group, on Monday. Photo: B. Jothi Ramalingam Apollo Hospitals on Monday introduced tele-radiology remote consulting and diagnostic services. The technology will help diagnostic radiology centres transmit images from distant locations to radiologists for a diagnosis. Former President A.P.J. Abdul Kalam, who inaugurated the…
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By Timothy Merrill | December 16, 2019
I was in a taxi yesterday stuck in slowly moving traffic and happened to glance at the car in the adjacent lane. The driver was thumb-twitching like crazy on his iPhone while his vehicle continued to move forward. I know we have laws against intoxicated drivers, but we should — if we don’t already — have stronger laws for those who drive while “intexticated.”
Intexticated is a made-up word that was considered by the New Oxford American Dictionary (NOAD) as a contender for New Word of the Year several years ago. It refers to the practice of texting while driving and the obvious dangers to public safety posed by those who drive while intexticated.
Other words considered by the NOAD included freemium, referring to a business model in which basic services are offered gratis, and funemployed, a word that describes those — of the 10.2 million who are unemployed — who use their newly unemployed status to goof off and have fun.
The winning word for 2019, however, is climate emergency, a reflection of the existential angst many people are feeling about the future of the home we call Earth. Dictionary.com, in fact, chose the word existential as its Word of the Year, pointing to the sense of dread and anxiety that now permeates the culture on so many levels.
The NOAD contest gives one pause. Is there a word — one that is in use already, or a made-up word — that would be particularly appropriate for the church?
My own suggestion comes from WordSpy: transliteracy. It refers to the “ability to read and write using multiple media, including traditional print media, electronic devices, and online tools.”
The word was coined by Dr. Alan Liu, a professor in the English Department at the University of California, Santa Barbara, whose CV including books, papers, presentations and awards runs longer than the Affordable Care Act. He says that transliteracy describes “the ability to read, write and interact on a range of platforms.” He’s talking about the kid who can watch The Vampire Diaries on television while texting the plotlines to a friend, listening to music on Sirius and sending a Marco Polo to discuss the homework assignment for the next day. We could call that multi-tasking (a neologism that appeared in the early 1990s) but it’s multi-tasking on a wide “range of platforms.”
The reason this is an important word for the church is because it describes God’s interaction with the created world, and is a signal for how the church must do ministry today within that world.
Our God is an awesome God. That sings a lot better than, “Our God is a transliterate God,” yet clearly God has used a variety of methods and platforms by which to communicate with humankind in the history of God’s dealings with us. “Long ago, God spoke to our ancestors in many and various ways” begins the writer of Hebrews.
The transliterate God interacted on a variety of platforms, to use Liu’s language. From the glory of Mount Sinai, to a burning bush, to visitations with Abraham, a wrestling match with Jacob, the fourth man in the fire and so on — God has been willing to interact with the sentient form of creation known as humans or mortals.
Further, not only did God work with visual media, but God used the spoken and written word for additional clarity. The law of God did not come into existence at Sinai — as the apostle Paul makes clear; rather, it pre-existed Moses. But God said, “Hey, let’s get this in writing,” and had Moses chisel it in some tablets.
Chronicles of the mighty works of God were written and preserved, and frequently read to the congregation of Israel.
The psalmist, as well as the prophet Isaiah, points to the created world as a huge transliterate, theophanic shout-out to the presence and work of God.
God sent prophets to be the voice of God to the people of God.
God sent Jesus as the living Word and the very incarnate presence of God in the world.
All of this suggests that the church, while itself a sort of transliterate expression of the Immanent God, is also an organic entity which by its very nature seeks to express itself across as many platforms as possible.
The shift in Western civilization from an oral, to a written, to an electronic, to a digital culture has been well-documented in the past 10 to 20 years.
Yet, the church has never placed limits on the methods by which it might fulfill its mission. Books were written, preachers preached, teachers taught, songs were sung, soaring architecture proclaimed the glory of God, stained glass told the history of salvation, monasteries sprang up as havens of religious devotion, hospitals were founded, universities established, and today — radio, television and the internet are utilized in a stunning variety of applications to proclaim God’s presence in the world.
Since Pentecost — when one might argue the church truly became transliterate — the church has strained to apply whatever medium possible to fulfill its mission. Still, it’s easy to become overwhelmed by the huge variety of platforms available today by which ministry can take place. But we don’t need to do it all by ourselves. We can ask ourselves if we are really using available methodologies to expand our mission and effectively reach our target audience, an audience that — if it’s under 35 — is already hyper-transliterate.
No point in complaining about this either. The explosion of technologies that make possible fresh and innovative approaches for instruction, evangelism, pastoral care and charitable outreach is not something to bemoan but to celebrate.
The multiplying platforms on which the Good News can be disseminated are both a blessing and a challenge. Some fabulous ministries are underway around the world for no other reason than some disciples of Jesus are transliterate and have found new ways to bring Jesus to those for whom there’s been very little good news these days.
2020 is a year when we might want to look at how we can connect transliteracy with pedagogy and evangelism.
It’s something about which we could get excited. Even intexticated.
Posted in The Back Page
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About Timothy Merrill
TIMOTHY MERRILL is an ordained minister and has served churches in Oregon, Minnesota and Colorado. His doctoral work at Princeton Theological Seminary focused on the apocalyptic nature of the preaching of the First Crusade in 1096 A.D. His work has been published in the academic press including the Patristica and Byzantine Review and the Westminster Theological Journal. His book, Learning to Fall: A Guide for the Spiritually Clumsy (Chalice Press) appeared in 1998.
View all posts by Timothy Merrill →
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Tag: bbd
Album Review: “Broke with Expensive Taste” by Azealia Banks
It’s finally here! After the surprise success of her 2011 single “212 (feat. Lazy Jay)”—which currently sits at 86M+ views on YouTube—Azealia Banks has finally released her debut album Broke with Expensive Taste.
If you’ve followed Azealia Banks in any capacity, you’ll know that the beginning of her career has its share of misfortunes. Beyond being a bit of a trouble maker on Twitter (a search for “Azealia banks twitter” currently brings up more results about her beefs than her actual account), Banks has been completely public about disagreements with her ex-label management at Interscope.
Shortly after dropping the video for “212,” Banks announced she was working on Broke with Expensive Taste and signing to Interscope. Things didn’t work out, and fans were left waiting. In the meantime, Azealia Banks did manage to put out her 1991 EP with Interscope and the self-released Fantasea mixtape. This past November, without notice, Broke with Expensive Taste was released by Prospect Park (Universal), and after another 4-month wait, the CD version is finally here.
That’s the lead-up, so how is the album itself? In short, Broke with Expensive Taste is a mixed bag. As someone who has waited for the album since its announcement, it’s great to finally have it in my hands. I can’t imagine the trouble Azealia Banks had to go through to get the rights to this album from Interscope and work out a new release plan, and the delays certainly did not help.
Broke with Expensive Taste is all over the place as far as production and style go. In a way, it feels a lot like her Fantasea mixtape; a combination of great house-influenced tracks and sometimes-odd experiments that don’t always hit. Banks’ verses are generally on-point, and her singing is mostly good—even if the results aren’t as consistent.
Album singles “Heavy Metal and Reflective” and “Yung Rapunxel”—both of which were produced by Lil Internet—were released quite a while before the album, and they’re both still enjoyable. Other album highlights include “BBD,” “Luxury” and “Miss Camaraderie”. My personal favorite has to be “Chasing Time”, which highlights the type of production and songwriting I enjoyed most on 1991 and Fantasea.
A few tracks like “Idle Delilah” have questionable production, and they’re just a bit of a mess. In the aforementioned track, Banks’ vocals (and much of the overall track) sound like they’re being pushed to distortion. It’s not necessary, and doesn’t fit well with the rest of the album. “Desperado” is similarly messy. “Gimme a Chance” somehow starts out as an indie-rock-sampling hip-hop track that morphs into a Latin dance. It doesn’t really work for me, but at it’s great to see this kind of experimentation early in the album.
Unfortunately, the Ariel Pink -produced piece “Nude Beach a-Go-Go” is an experiment that doesn’t fair as well as some of the others. While I do appreciate unabashed silliness, Banks’ decision to include a lo-fi beach party surf song on the album is iffy at best. Azealia Banks is known for writing some dirty, dirty verses, and she really missed an opportunity to work her magic on the happy-go-lucky surf tune. It sounds like she tried to go that route, but the result wasn’t as clever as Banks has shown she can be.
I think the history of this album’s release is important context, because it certainly feels like more of a baseline for what Banks can do, rather than a perfection of any one thing. Like her Fantasea mixtape, Broke with Expensive Taste really does have some excellent tracks, but it just feels bloated. There is a lot of stuff that doesn’t need to be here; besides the questionable tracks, “212” makes an unnecessary return, and it could have been cut after its release on 1991. Either way, this doesn’t need to be a 16-track album. Some of the tracks that were written back in 2011 and 2012 while Banks struggled with her label could have been cut.
That said, is it worth getting? Yes! Even though I will skip “Nude Beach a-Go-Go” 100% of the time, there is a lot to love about this album. I will certainly be excited to hear whatever Azealia Banks cooks up next, and I’m willing to bet we won’t be waiting another four years for it.
John Kruse
@johnkruse
John Praw Kruse is an Operations Manager, and Product Manager for the Murfie Vinyl Service. In his free time, John makes music, including scores for indie films and various shorts. He is the founder of Mine All Mine Records and the Lost City Music Festival. John devours new music.
Posted on March 16, 2015 March 16, 2015 Author John KruseCategories New MusicTags 2015 releases, 212 feat. lazy jay, album review, ariel pink, azealia banks, bbd, broke with expensive taste, chasing time, fantasea, heavy metal and reflective, idle delilah, interscope, lil internet, luxury, miss camaraderie, new music, nude beach a-go-go, prospect park, reviews, universal, viral video, Yung RapunxelLeave a comment on Album Review: “Broke with Expensive Taste” by Azealia Banks
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From the Makers of “Russiagate” – the Sequal – The “Ukrainian Whistle-Blower”…
It is Getting Hard To Tell The Difference Between The Democratic Party and “Saturday Night Live…”
From Europe By Karma Singh
Act I: Scene 1 (Russiagate):
The plot is hatched. An anonymous “administration official”, acting upon information received from a highly disreputable source paid by the Democratic Party, alleges That President Trump received widespread support from Russia to win the election and that his election is, therefore, null and void.
Scene 1 (The Ukraine Whistle-blower):
The plot is hatched. An anonymous “administration official”, acting upon hearsay information from undisclosed sources hires a team of lawyers dedicated to removing President Trump from office. This team of lawyers then write for him a whistle-blower complaint alleging that President Trump demanded that the new Ukrainian president launch an investigation into the employers of Hunter Biden (the son of the then Democrat front-runner for the 2020 presidential election) upon pain of US aid to Ukraine being suspended.
Scene 2 (both dramas):
The main stream press – owned largely by the major financial backers of the Democratic Party – takes up the allegation and presents it as an already proven fact whilst rejecting any attempt at investigative journalism to ascertain whether there is any substance to it.
Using the paid-for publicity in the main stream press, Democrat politicians demand a formal investigation into the allegation with the declared intent of using them to remove President Trump from office by impeachment for “High Crimes and Misdemeanours”
Act II: Scene 1 (Russiagate):
Democrats in Congress force the appointment of an official investigator (a former FBI top man with known close association with organised crime) to find the evidence which would enable the impeachment of President Trump.
The Democrat controlled House of Representatives holds a secret “investigation” into the accusations with snippets of testimony which appear to support the accusation being “leaked” by the chairman of the investigating committee.
Scene 2 (Russiagate):
Nearly two years later the official “Mueller Report” states that no evidence of Russian collusion has been found. Democrats claim that lack of evidence does not prove innocence and call Mueller to give personal testimony before the House. (This backfires badly as Mr. Mueller had obviously not read either the script OR the “Report” he’d been paid enough to house 20 homeless families to produce. The Democrat attempt to show that President Trump had, somehow, subverted the Mueller investigation fell flat on its face.)
Here it must be noted in parenthesis for those unfamiliar with the American government structure just how such things are managed. The US Congress is the legislative branch of Government. It has two organs; the House of Representatives and the Senate. The President heads the executive branch of the government. To the House is given the responsibility to open investigations which may lead to impeachment of a sitting President. Their evidence is then passed on to the Senate which runs it’s own enquiries and then passes judgement. There are clearly laid down legal and procedural rules which determine how such investigations are to be conducted. One of these, enshrined in the Constitution itself, is the right of the President – or anyone at all – to confront his/her accusers, to hear the evidence and to present witnesses on her/his behalf.
Following strong indications from the Senate that any impeachment charges will be rejected out of hand unless proper procedures are followed, the Democrats in the House establish formal semi-open hearings but, again, fail to follow legal requirements. The Democrats have granted to themselves the “right” to reject out of hand any and all witnesses called by the Republican Representatives in the House as well as denying President Trump all rights to hear the evidence.
The objective is to publish all “evidence” which tends to support the accusations against President Trump whilst supressing any evidence which shows that he is innocent. This also backfires as the Republican controlled Senate, which has not been given copies of the script nor been paid to act it out, has already stated that, unless the whistle-blower testifies and President Trump has access to the hearings and is able (through his attorneys) both to question Democrat witnesses and to put forward his own witnesses as required by the Constitution, then the Senate will neither accept it as grounds for an impeachment trial nor act upon it.
Act III: Scene 1 (Russiagate):
Following the failure of the attempted coup, the Democrat conspirators meet to discuss how to proceed. One of them, Adam Schiff, puts forward a suggestion that a disgruntled government employee and close associate of Joe Biden well known to him might be persuaded to act as a “whistle-blower” if immunity from prosecution were guaranteed. Eric Chiaramella was thus drawn into the conspiracy.
Adam Schiff acting as chairman of the investigative committee claims that, although he, himself, has already publicly identified the “whistle-blower” having him testify would reveal his identity and put his life in danger. (Actually, his life could only be in danger from Democrat supporters – were Trump to have him killed this would be viewed as an open admission of guilt – but, as with Epstein and others, the Democrat hierarchy may well have urgent need to shut his mouth before he can testify.)
Further, discontent with his arbitrary and illegal rulings on witnesses is growing amongst House Representatives which has led to Mr. Schiff loudly complaining that people are just not sticking to the script.
Act IV: Scene 1 (The Ukraine Whistle-blower):
The American people burst out laughing….
Karma Singh – http://www.karmabooks.co.uk
Karma Singh
Professional healer, teacher, and researcher since 1986. Author of ca. 40 books, Handbooks etc. in "alternative", i.e. true healing. In September 2014 taken up into the Ring of Merlins View all posts by Karma Singh
Posted on December 4, 2019 Author Karma SinghCategories BIG PHARMA, IMPORTANT LEGAL ACTIONS, International health news, Karma Singh, World Politics
5 thoughts on “From the Makers of “Russiagate” – the Sequal – The “Ukrainian Whistle-Blower”…”
FreeThinker says:
One would think that Russia would collude to get Hillary elected, as thanks for getting a big chunk of our uranium. But I guess we’re not supposed to know that.
Terry Harnden says:
The main stream press – owned largely by the major financial backers of the Democratic Party -Big Pharma-Follow the money.
Bill Waldrip says:
The Dems. are so far down the BS Road, they can’t stop the Circus and do the Job they were Elected to do !! The Swamp just gets bigger, and the American People are paying the Bill for these Jack-Asses !!!
This was a good idea for a post- to portray the events in Washington as a series of dramas/movies. This is very much the way the anonymous “Q” presents a lot of the events, too. I think we are to understand that certain events have been allowed or guided to play out a certain way so that people have the opportunity to wake up to the fact that they have been living in a manufactured reality.
Schroyer says:
The further I read, the better your content
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American Express Global Business Travel and Lyft Introduce First Fully-Integrated Ridesharing Program for U.S. Business Travelers
by Kristina Portillo, CPT, MS
Integration is the first of its kind between a TMC and a ridesharing company.
NEW YORK, N.Y. – April 20, 2018 – American Express Global Business Travel (GBT), a leading global corporate travel management company, and Lyft, the fastest growing rideshare company in the US, have announced a first-of-its-kind partnership that fully integrates Lyft’s platform, data and insights for GBT client travel programs. Together, they will make it easier for GBT’s business travelers to use Lyft for ground transportation, through a fully integrated travel program and/or booking system. The collaboration creates an innovative offering for GBT clients, making it easier for travelers to book ground transportation, and for corporations to measure the benefits of reporting, cost savings and duty of care.
Benefits of the Lyft partnership integration for GBT clients include:
Cost Savings: Ridesharing has quickly become the top choice of ground transportation for business travelers accounting for more than 70% of ground transportation receipts*. While many companies enable employees to use ridesharing for business travel, some do not currently have a policy or program in place, which can lead to missed opportunities for cost savings. This partnership will help corporations capture ridesharing spend and optimize savings.
Data Visibility: Travel managers gain insight into a comprehensive set of KPIs and data sets to optimize their ground programs.
Easy Integration: Clients are quickly able to have their corporation sign up for Lyft and immediately have access to Lyft Business benefits via Lyft’s mobile app. Later this year full integration will be available via the Amex GBT Mobile app.
Traveler Benefits: Travelers gain access to GBT’s negotiated business traveler incentives/rewards and partner rewards provided by Lyft. GBT’s partnership also allows for bookings to be segmented for easier expense management.
Risk Management: Later this year, GBT and Lyft intend to jointly build out an integration into Expert Care™, GBT’s travel disruption and risk management platform.
*Certify SpendSmart Report Q4 2017
“We are thrilled to pioneer a truly integrated and differentiated ridesharing program for GBT clients with a partner like Lyft that is driving innovation in ground transportation,” said Michael Qualantone, Executive Vice President of Global Supplier Relations for American Express Global Business Travel. “This integration is unique from previous reseller models in the ridesharing space in that it goes beyond existing agreements and truly integrates Lyft ridesharing content into our client’s travel policies as a compliant option. This is the first in a series of key milestones for our overall ground strategy that will be announced in 2018.”
“Partnering with American Express GBT to introduce this unique fully integrated ridesharing program for business travelers is an integral next step in our efforts to streamline the corporate travel experience – ultimately increasing cost savings, visibility, and efficiencies,” said David Baga, Chief Business Officer. “We’re thrilled to collaborate with the leading global corporate travel management company to provide a seamless solution for a wide range of corporate travel needs, through innovative insights and booking tools that have never before been offered in this industry.”
Travel managers and corporations interested in learning more about the Lyft-GBT partnership should contact their GBT client manager. To learn more about GBT and its ground transportation offerings, please visit amexglobalbusinesstravel.com. For more on Lyft Business please visit https://www.lyft.com/business.
About American Express Global Business Travel
American Express Global Business Travel (GBT) equips companies of all sizes with the insights, tools, services, and expertise they need to keep their travelers informed, focused and productive while on the road. With approximately 12,000 employees and operations in nearly 140 countries worldwide, GBT empowers customers to take control of their travel programs, optimizing the return on their travel and meetings investments, while, more importantly, providing extraordinary traveler care.
Learn more at amexglobalbusinesstravel.com and amexglobalbusinesstravel.com/content/. Follow us @twitter.com/amexgbt.
American Express Global Business Travel (GBT) is a joint venture that is not wholly owned by American Express Company or any of its subsidiaries (American Express). “American Express Global Business Travel,” “American Express,” and the American Express logo are trademarks of American Express and are used under limited license.
About Lyft (content provided by Lyft)
Lyft was founded in June 2012 by Logan Green and John Zimmer to improve people’s lives with the world’s best transportation. Lyft is the fastest growing rideshare company in the U.S. and is available to 95 percent of the US population as well as in Ontario, Canada. Lyft is preferred by drivers and passengers for its safe and friendly experience, and its commitment to effecting positive change for the future of our cities.
About Lyft Business (content provided by Lyft)
Lyft Business offers travel, commute, event, and courtesy ride solutions that provide customers with the tools they need to reduce cost, save time, and streamline their transportation programs. We partner with thousands of organizations to create unique solutions to move their people, from employees and customers to patients and students. To learn more about Lyft Business, visit: https://www.lyft.com/business
Kristina Portillo, CPT, MS
Kristina is the founder of Business Travel Life. Her love of fitness and travel unified to create a resource for business travelers and road warriors who want to take a healthier approach to business travel. She has traveled for business on and off for the past eight years. Kristina received a Master of Science in Organizational Leadership from Colorado State University and received her Bachelors of Arts in Business Marketing from Chaminade University of Honolulu.
Business Travel 101: Centurion Lounge
National Business Traveler Day Giveaways
Kristina Portillo, CPT, MS April 20, 2018
Ossisto says:
Great Information Kristina Portillo !!! but some time Planning a vacation is quite a task, Researching & Booking, finalizing a suitable venue, preparing a Complete Vacation Plan.I need someone understand my Travelling requirements, coordinate with the service providers & vendors, choose the best ones and arrange everything for me. All i need is do just relax and oversee the progress
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C-H-U-C-K Chuck
Posted on Tuesday, September 18, 2018 Tuesday, September 18, 2018 Authorcahwyguy2 Comments
He always used to seemingly dislike when people would add “C-H-U-C-K Chuck” into “Justice, Justice“.
Yesterday, word came out that Charles Feldman, long-time Director of Music (in the days before Reform had Cantors) at Wilshire Blvd Temple, and long-time camp director of Gindling Hilltop Camp, and long time maestro of Jewish music, passed away. It wasn’t a surprise; I had heard he was in a board-and-care home up in the Antelope Valley. But still, the news was sad. And the world wept.
I attended the Wilshire Blvd Temple Camps for 10 years, between 1969 and 1979; I was at Hilltop starting in 1972. For all but that first (and possibly second) year at Hilltop, Chuck was my camp director. So many memories: his voice, his kindness, his friendly nature, his leadership, playing anagrams after-hours.
Others from my era at camp have posted on Facebook with their memories. If the measure of a person and a life well lived are the lives that you have impacted for the good, then Chuck will be remembered well. Tradition teaches that we live on in the memories of others. In that respect, Chuck will continue to live on through the music he has left behind, through the people he has influence and how they have passed on that influence down the generations, and through the memories of the man at his piano, leading songs and completely happy.
You can hear his beautiful voice on the camp album Cherish The Torah, in the songs “Sim Shalom” and “Sanctification“. Here is a short summary of Chuck’s career at Wilshire from the time he stepped down.
According to a post from Liz Biderman Gertz on Facebook, those who wish to honor Chuck Feldman’s memory may donate to the following scholarship fund:
Academy of Music Performance and Education scholarship fund
854 West Lancaster Blvd
Lancaster CA 93534
Categoriescamp, obituaries
Stop Blaming 2016
Posted on Tuesday, December 27, 2016 Tuesday, December 27, 2016 Authorcahwyguy
With Carrie Fisher’s passing, folks are at it again:
“2016? Really?”
“2016 – You’re so fired!”
Folks, 2016 had nothing to do with it. 2016 is an artificial construct — a number that we put (and I emphasize, *we put*) on a collection of days starting at some arbitrary point. In this case, where ever the Pope decided to put January, and counting from what was then around the birthday of some Jewish carpenter. Why aren’t we saying, 5777, you’re so fired, or whatever Chinese year it is, or whatever the Islamic calendar is.
Furthermore, if you’re the religious type, why aren’t you blaming God? After all, doesn’t God dictate what happens in the world? Doesn’t God work in mysterious ways, bringing people up to heaven (or sending them to you-know-where) for whatever reasons he wants? When a loved one dies, don’t we say, “There, there. They are with God now, in his warm embrace.” So go ahead, get pissed at God for taking Carrie Fisher and George Michael and Prince and all these other people. While you’re at it, get mad at God for taking all those good people that did nothing to deserve it, the children around the world, the people in Aleppo, the babies that dies of Ebola and Zika and Cancer and all sorts of horrible things. Oh, and blame God for taking Castro as well.
But we don’t blame God, do we? We blame 2016.
We can’t admit the truth. Neither God nor 2016 had anything to do with it. God may not even exist (or if God does, he (or she) might have a deistic view of things, setting the universe in motion and letting it play out.
Blame Time. After all, they named Trump “Man of the Year”.
Seriously, blame time and coincidence.
Time is relentless. It marches on, and we have no way of stopping it. People grow older, and they die. Furthermore, as we grow older, our icons grow older as well. We reach a point where a lot of our icons — from stage, screen, literature, and politics — are growing older as well. Growing older has a price. Death. It is something we will all face one day. So we grow older, our icons grow older, and the seemingly all seem to die in a bunch. Or at least those of whom we care more die in a bunch, and it hits us harder. It makes us realize that they are near our age, and as they are passing away, could we be next?
But all of these celebrities, and even Fidel Castro, have one thing we may not have. They’ve done big things, and these things will live on long after they die. Castro will live on in his impact on the people of America and the people of Cuba. John Glenn will live on for his achievements. So will Justice Scalia. As will Carrie Fisher, who will live on forever in the Star Wars mythology. As will George Michael, in his music.
But will we? Who will remember us?
So go on. Do something big. Make it so that you are remembered in this world even after you pass. Live on — not in a highway name or a name on a building, but in the hearts of those you have touched through your actions. Create the stories that they will tell in the future.
But stop blaming 2016.
My condolences to Debbie Reynolds, the Fisher family, her friends and their families. My condolences to everyone who has lost someone they have loved this year. They will live on in your memories and the stories you tell about them to your children and others.
Categoriesobituaries, rant
Election-Free News Chum Stew
Posted on Saturday, November 5, 2016 Authorcahwyguy
Take a deep breath. Three days and the national nightmare begins — but at least we won’t have the ads, the fake news stories, and the FB battles. To hold you over, here’s a bit of news chum I’ve accumulated over the last few weeks:
Math and Knitting. Two articles related to mathematics and knitting. The first article is about a couple that have focused on knitting mathematical objects: Together they have knitted and crocheted about 90 mathematical afghans, as well as other mathematical objects. The other article is on illusion knitting: Knitting that takes advantage of the 3-D nature of knitting to show different images depending on how the knit object is viewed. The simplest kind of illusion knitting uses one color of yarn. From the front, you see a swath of, say, green. From the side, you see an alternating checkerboard of green squares. Or take the knit below, which appears to be a multicolored grid straight-on but from an angle reveals circles within the grid.
Food Triggers. Two articles related to food that can trigger medical problems. The first looks at a group of proteins that have been identified as the possible cause of non-gluten wheat sensitivity. This group, called amylase-trypsin inhibitors (ATIs) are a small group, representing about 4 percent of wheat proteins, but they’re powerful. The scientists found that consuming pure ATIs can cause all manner of nasty reactions throughout the body, triggering inflammation not just in the gut but also in the lymph nodes, kidneys, spleen, and brain. That same inflammation can exacerbate autoimmune conditions like rheumatoid arthritis, multiple sclerosis, asthma, lupus, and inflammatory bowel disease. The second article looks at why some foods trigger migraines. It turns out it isn’t only the food, but the microbes in the mouth. The research team analyzed 172 oral samples and nearly 2,000 fecal samples taken from the American Gut Project, and sequenced which bacteria species were found in participants who suffered migraines versus those who did not. And it turns out, the migraineurs have significantly more nitrate-reducing bacteria in their saliva than those who don’t suffer these headaches.
Paying Rent. This went around a few weeks ago, but its still fun: London is still paying rent to the Queen on property rented in 1211 (it seems they didn’t know about “lease-to-buy”). The rent? A knife, an axe, six oversized horseshoes, and 61 nails. Further, no one knows where the property is anymore. Each fall, usually in October, the city and the crown perform the same exchange, for no particular reason other than that they always have. You have to admire the Brits.
Popcorn. Here’s another interesting piece of history: why do we have movie popcorn? One didn’t always eat popcorn at movies, but it came into vogue during the depression. At that point, people began to expect it, and theatres realized they had a moneymaker.
Internet Problems. Have you found the internet harder to read of late? Even after you take out the election posts, is it hard to read? There could be an answer. Scientists believe that what is making the Internet harder to read is a trend towards lighter and thinner fonts. Where text used to be bold and dark, which contrasted well with predominantly white backgrounds, now many websites are switching to light greys or blues for their type. “If the web is relayed through text that’s difficult to read, it curtails the open access by excluding large swaths of people such as the elderly, the visually impaired, or those retrieving websites through low quality screens.”
New Cars and Car Washes. Have you bought a new car of late? Ever take it to the car wash? Many new cars won’t work in car washes because the additional safety equipment locks the wheels even when the car is in neutral. Those cars need special configuration to go through a car wash, and it isn’t just a “car wash” button — but it is buried in the manuals. The issue is automatic parking brakes, which put on the brakes, even if in neutral, to prevent the car from rolling into people or things. It does this if it detects things near the car.
Homelessness and Cars. Sigh. The city has passed an ordinance to prevent people from sleeping in cars or RVs in residential districts. This is an example of a law that the privileged pass against the unprivileged, instead of helping.
Jacob Neusner Z”L. A passing you may have missed: Jacob Neusner, one of the top Jewish scholars of our generation. Neusner almost singlehandedly created the modern study of Judaism. In doing so, he revolutionized our understanding of the history of Judaism and our perception of what Judaism can mean to Jews today. I know I was reading Neusner’s books when I was at UCLA in the 1980s.
Categoriesfood, history, news-chum, obituariesTagsautomobiles, gluten-free, headache, typography
News Chum Stew: Onesies and Twosies
Posted on Saturday, August 20, 2016 Saturday, August 20, 2016 Authorcahwyguy
Last night, we had a Shabbabaque at Temple (“Shabbat” + “Barbeque”). There was a bunch of food leftover, and so I brought some home — the sliced tomatoes and roasted zucchini — and threw it into a crockpot. That’s a great thing to do with leftovers: make a stew (and I intend to suggest formalizing that next year*). Just like at the Shabbabaque, I’ve got loads of leftovers — onsies and twosies of news articles — that don’t make a coherent dish. Perhaps they’ll make a good stew. What do you think?
LGBTQ and Jewish Summer Camp. Two articles related to this subject. The first looks at how one camp is trying to rework the Hebrew language, so transgendered kids fit in. The second explores the ways that Jewish summer camp helps LGBTQ fit in, and the ways that they don’t.
Ga-Ga. One more camp related article: If you’ve been to a Jewish summer camp, you’ve likely seeing that an octagonal court and an odd game of dodgeball called ga-ga. Ever wonder where it came from? Hint: It wasn’t Israel.
Food and Eating
Turmeric. My wife has recently been turning to turmeric for its anti-inflammatory properties. Users of the herb should note that a number of formulations have been recalled due to possible lead contamination.
Rotisserie Chicken. We’ve all heard that rotisserie chicken is cheaper than uncooked chicken, because markets are trying to get rid of the chickens before they spoil, and some profit is better than none. Someone actually investigated. In most cases (i.e., Costco), it is still cheaper to cook it yourself.
Local Returns and Departures
Returning: Labels Table. According to this article, Labels Table has returned to Tarzana. The problem is: I don’t remember it being here in the first place (although my wife says that it was, and that it was pffffft).
Ports O’Call. It appears that the demolition order has been issued for the old Ports O’Call in San Pedro. Replacing it: A hipsters revisioning called “San Pedro Public Market”.
The Music Center. Supposedly being reinvented is the plaza at the Music Center. Spend 30 million, and let’s see if you can make this hulk of concrete friendly. I’ll believe it when I see it. The structure is massive and above ground due to the parking, and that may just be an incurable.
Smell. The sense of smell may be found all over — outside and inside — the body. It turns out there may be a good reason. Think of smell and taste not as an odor detector, but a general purpose chemical sensor.
Vocal Fry. We’re supposedly in an epidemic of vocal fry and uptalking. But the real complaint may not be the vocal characteristic, but the fact that it is women doing the talking.
Right Hand Over Your Heart. Did you ever wonder why we put our hands over our heart for the national anthem and the pledge? Or why we have the pledge in the first place? Wonder no more. Hint: The former is so that we don’t look like Nazis, and the latter is to unify a nation of immigrants.
Grinning Ghosts. Here’s the true history of the Haunted Mansion, and why it couldn’t be built until Disney died.
Pinball. I bet you thought the only Pinball Museum was in Las Vegas. Think again.
TV Musicals. The Flash and Supergirl are doing a musical crossover episode.
Passings of Note: Fyvush Finkel, a major force in Yiddish Theatre and a builder of Picket Fences. Jack Riley, the voice of Stu Pickles and Elliot Carlin on Bob Newhart.
Theatre Briefs. Fun Home tour casting announced, including Kate Shindle, the Prez. of AEA. One wonders if she really wants to come to LA (#pro99). CSULB is doing two lesser known musicals: Stop the World, and Bubbly Black Girl. Dear World is coming to VPAC, and Parade to Thousand Oaks. Oh, and Allan Sherman is coming to Temple Ahavat Shalom — get your tickets now.
Categoriescamp, food, history, judaism, miscellaneous, news-chum, obituaries, television, theatreTagsdisney, los-angeles, science, theme-parks
Some passings (or soon to be passings) from the last week that are worthy of note:
Pete Fountain. I’ve come to an appreciation of New Orleans Jazz late in life. My dad always loved it, and in a number of ways our tastes have aligned as I’ve gotten older (except for Jolson — I’m not as big of a Jolson fan as he was). I’ve grown to love Firehouse Five + Two, the Dukes of Dixieland, numerous small Dixieland groups (anyone know a good podcast for these), and cover artists like Al Hirt. And, of course, Pete Fountain. Fountain was a legend, and worked with a number of the folks I just mentioned: Fountain started playing professionally on Bourbon Street in his teens. He once called the street of strip clubs, music joints and bars his “conservatory.” In his early years he toured nationally with the Dukes of Dixieland and the late trumpeter Al Hirt.
Glenn Yarbrough. Another love of mine is folk music, going to my first love, Peter, Paul, and Mary. That love lead to many groups, including the Kingston Trio, Tom Paxton, and of course, the Limeliters (which never disbanded, despite what the NYT says). The first, and probably most famous, tenor in the group was Yarbrough (although Red Grammer was a close second), and he helped create that famous Limeliter sound and repartee. Yet another loss to dementia and mental deterioration, similar to what is happening to another famous Glenn, Glen Campbell.
Kenny Baker. I’ll ignore the jokes about short subjects, and say this is the man that made R2D2 who it was (was R2D2 a he?). But he was more than just a droid, he was a noted vaudevillian, and a major character in Time Bandits.
Gladstones 4 Fish. At one time, Robert J. Morris owned a bunch of wonderful restaurants: RJ’s for Ribs in Beverly Hills, Gladstones 4 Fish in Pacific Palisades, and his brother owned Adam’s Ribs in Encino (at least, so it appears). Morris sold them a long time ago, the the only remaining one, Gladstones (now owned by former LA Mayor Richard Riorden), has gone downhill (Morris still owns the Paradise Cove Beach Cafe). Reports have come out that the county would like to see Gladstones out (reported closing is October 2017). The County Supes would like to see the lease on the property extended to a full 40 years (currently it’s only allowed to run for 20 years), which they believe would lure in a new restaurant that would build from scratch on the site. The long-term lease would hopefully make such a build more stable and viable for whichever company steps up to the challenge.
Social Media Infrastructure. Times have changed. Over the last 10 years, we’ve seen social media — such as blogs and journals — moved from an open infrastructure with loads of supports (everyone and their brother having a blog on their own website), and loads of journaling sites (such as Livejournal and its clones) to a closed infrastructure of Tumblr, Facebook, and other short-attention-span media. Let us bow our heads in remembrance.
Categoriesobituaries, social-networkingTagsfolk-music, music
Clearin’ of the Links: Science, Technology, and Medicine Chum
Posted on Thursday, June 30, 2016 Friday, July 1, 2016 Authorcahwyguy
I’m still working on clearing out the links that accumulated during the Hollywood Fringe Festival (FB), with a goal of getting them all done before you take off for the Fourth of July weekend. I may already be too late. Here’s a chunk that are loosely related to science, medicine, and technology:
Medicine Chum
Understanding Migraines. One of the ills that plague me are migraines (which, luckily for me, are mild compared to what others get). No one knows precisely what triggers migraines, or how the various abortives work. Some think it is related to nerves in the head, and some think it is related to blood flow. A new genome-wide association study published in Nature Genetics suggests that a migraine may primarily stem from problems with the blood supply system. This could lead to new ways to treat migraines.
More Than Human. We’re discovering more and more than the human organism is much more than the human organism — that is, much of what contributes to our health or lack thereof is our microbiome. Further, our overfocus on being “germ-free” has significantly hurt our biome, and may be the single largest contributor to our various health maladies — including obesity. Here’s another biome story — this time, the involvement of the biome with what has been called Chronic Fatigue Syndrome. Specifcally, researchers say they’ve found biological markers of the illness in the blood and gut bacteria of people with systemic exertional intolerance disease (SEID) (a/k/a CFS). Their results were published in the journal Microbiome. In this study, found clear differences between the blood and guts of healthy versus sick people. Compared to healthy controls, people with ME/CFS had weaker and less diverse bacterial ecosystems in their guts, as well as higher levels of immune inflammation in their blood. These differences were so clear that the researchers were able to spot nearly 83 percent of the time which participants had ME/CFS just by looking at their bacterial and immune response results.
Being Like Everyone Else. If everyone else did something with no proven medical benefit for medical reasons (like, for example, overusing bacterial soap), would you do it? A study that is unsurprisingly proving very viral on social networks is highlighting one such thing: most women these days are “preparing for the Olympics” for claimed medical benefit, when there is none (where “preparing for the Olympics” == “going Brazilian” == removing hair on their … == insert your own euphemism here). My attitude, for whatever it is worth, is that women are their most beautiful when they look like women — not airbrushed models or pre-pubescent girls — but women – with imperfections and hair and some parts large and some parts small and some parts inbetween. While we’re on that subject (and while we’re clearing links), here’s an article I found on two-piece suits for large chested ladies. What bothered me about that article is that the chest was the only part that was large. Why weren’t there two-pieces for ladies who happened to be large in other places as well? As it is, an article like that is just perpetuating body dismorphic ideas, just like shaving everywhere does.
How Old is Your Body? I’m 56. Recently, I’ve been wondering if there is any part of my body that has been with me all 56 years. So I was quite pleased to see an article come across my feeds that asked the same question: How old is your body? What component of your body has been around the longest time? For example: brand new fingernails every six months, 2-7 years for the hair on our heads, new skeletal muscles every 15 years. But those neurons in your brain? Never replaced.
Technology Chum
Automotive Security. We were having a discussion on our van this morning about car security, specifically how some thieves are collecting automotive RFID signals, and then going around parking lots broadcasting them, unlocking cars, and stealing stuff inside. I had noted how cars are generally better protected against theft, and how entertainment units are less likely to be stolen than radios of old. Another rider pointed out, however, that the keyless ignition cars are easier to steal. In general, our cars are weak in terms of security — so it is good at the Senator is pushing to increase cybersecurity protections in cars.
LED Streetlight Dangers. More and more cities are going to LED streetlights because they use less energy and are brighter. Now the AMA has come out with some cautions on LED lighting: cool it and dim it. The AMA’s statement recommends that outdoor lighting at night, particularly street lighting, should have a color temperature of no greater than 3000 Kelvin (K). Color temperature (CT) is a measure of the spectral content of light from a source; how much blue, green, yellow and red there is in it. A higher CT rating generally means greater blue content, and the whiter the light appears. The new “white” LED street lighting which is rapidly being retrofitted in cities throughout the country has two problems, according to the AMA. The first is discomfort and glare. Because LED light is so concentrated and has high blue content, it can cause severe glare, resulting in pupillary constriction in the eyes. Blue light scatters more in the human eye than the longer wavelengths of yellow and red, and sufficient levels can damage the retina. This can cause problems seeing clearly for safe driving or walking at night. It can also affect our sleep cycles and rhythms (which is why many people recommend using f.lux to turn down the blue on your screens in the evening).
Tweaking Your Facebook Feed. Many of us who came from LJ miss the days of a sequential feed, where you know you could catch up on your friends. Facebook has never been quite the same. But Facebook is now providing some details on how to tweak your feed. First, they’ve disclosed their news feed algorithm, which will now show posts from friends higher up in the feed than posts from Pages like news outlets. Based on these new values, there are now some specific tweaks that you can do to make your newsfeed what you want it to be.
Science Chum
Lift Me Up. You might have heard about the helium shortage. That shortage may be going away, as scientists have discovered new Helium resources, and new ways to extract it. That’s good news, as helium is a vital nobel gas (used in much more than balloons), and there is not an easy way to make more.
Drill Me Down. Scientists also believe they have found new water supplies in the central valley of California, albeit at a deeper depth and with greater salinity. Will this solve California’s drought? I doubt it.
Science People In the News
New Position: Steve Isakowitz. The Aerospace Corporation (my employer) has announced the selection of a new corporate President and soon-to-be CEO: Steve Isakowitz, former President of Virgin Galactic. Iskowitz is also a former CTO of Virgin Galactic. Previously, he held a wide variety of senior engineering, business, and management roles across the private and government sectors, including positions at NASA, the Office of Management and Budget, the Intelligence Community, and the Department of Energy. He replaces Wanda Austin, who has reached the corporate age limit for VPs and above.
Passing: Simon Ramo. Simon Ramo, the “R” in TRW, has passed away. Ramo shaped California aerospace and the space industry through organizations like TRW, and I should note that he is responsible for the company I work at: The Aerospace Corporation is actually an FFRDC spin-off of STL, Space Technology Laboratories, which went on to become TRW.
Passing: Steve Walker. Word came to me Thursday morning of the passing of Steve Walker, one of the seminal people in the field of cybersecurity. The formal obituary and funeral arrangements haven’t been published; I found a bio here. We’ll get something up on the ACSA In Memorium page as soon as we can.
Categoriesnews-chum, obituaries, security, social-networkingTagsmedical, modern-technology, science, technology
Chum for a Sunday Afternoon: Drums, Drives, Drugs, Dust, Dresses and More
Posted on Sunday, May 15, 2016 Monday, May 16, 2016 Authorcahwyguy
I’ve been on travel for my daughter’s graduation, and so I haven’t had a lot of time to write about the articles I’ve seen. I’ve got two themed collections of chum that I’ll write up after last night’s theatre review (not sure when I’ll post them). But first, here’s the stuff that wouldn’t theme, but that caught my eye:
Bang. Bang. Bang. Anyone who has attended Drum Corps, or likely even seen a band will recognize this name: Remo. The news in recent weeks included an obituary of the man behind the name: Remo Belli, who invented the synthetic drum head. Before Remo, drums were animal skins, highly variable. As the obituary notes: “Belli was a young professional drummer in the 1950s, backing singer Anita O’Day and others, when he grew frustrated with the limitations of animal-skin drumheads, which could wilt or expand depending on the weather. In 1957, he and his collaborators perfected and began marketing one of the first artificial drumheads made of a resilient polyester film manufactured under various brand names, including Mylar, made by DuPont. He dubbed that first product the Weather King, a signal that it was durable no matter the atmospheric conditions of the gig, unlike finicky cow-skin drums.” Since then, his product has become the standard.
Long Commute. This article caught my eye because it deals with Las Vegas and teachers. Specifically, there is a group of teachers who live in Las Vegas, and commute daily to teach in the small community of Baker, at the gateway to Death Valley. Why? Pay, of course. The starting salary for teachers in Baker is $44,000. In Las Vegas it’s $34,000, though it will be $40,000 next year after a new contract takes effect. At the same time teacher shortages are ravaging America’s cities, however, rural schools have arguably been hit hardest. Teacher turnover is high, and many small towns are finding it hard to attract teachers. While many are attracted to Baker because of the pay, they stay because the work is satisfying, the way teaching should be but often isn’t in large urban school districts. Class sizes are extremely small: compared with the 30-50 in the large school districts, we’re talking 4-10.
Hacking the Brain for Fun… and to Relieve Pain. In our life, pain is a constant. My wife deals with arthritis; I deal with migraines. What do you think we would do for a good solution for the pain? Here’s an intriguing direction: A group is playing with a non-chemical solution that involves hacking the Vagus nerve. The vagus nerve starts in the brainstem, just behind the ears. It travels down each side of the neck, across the chest and down through the abdomen. ‘Vagus’ is Latin for ‘wandering’ and indeed this bundle of nerve fibres roves through the body, networking the brain with the stomach and digestive tract, the lungs, heart, spleen, intestines, liver and kidneys, not to mention a range of other nerves that are involved in speech, eye contact, facial expressions and even your ability to tune in to other people’s voices. It is made of thousands and thousands of fibres and 80 per cent of them are sensory, meaning that the vagus nerve reports back to your brain what is going on in your organs. Research shows that a high vagal tone (strength of your vagus response) makes your body better at regulating blood glucose levels, reducing the likelihood of diabetes, stroke and cardiovascular disease. Low vagal tone, however, has been associated with chronic inflammation. Said inflammation has been connected with arthritis and migraines. This article talks about using an implant to stimulate the vagus nerve to reduce pain. Fascinating.
Pain and Empathy. Chemical painkillers can be insidious. For example, we all believe Tylenol (acetaminophen, paracetamol in the UK) is safe; safer than aspirin or other NSAIDs. But there have been numerous reports that even the slight overdose can cause serious liver damage, and slight overdoses are easy because it is in so many products because it is believed to be safe. Here’s another danger from Tylenol: In research published online in the journal Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience, scientists from the National Institutes of Health and Ohio State University describe the results of two experiments they conducted involving more than 200 college students. Their conclusion: Acetaminophen, the most common drug ingredient in the United States, can reduce a person’s capacity to empathize with another person’s pain, whether that pain is physical or emotional. In fact, I’m on it right now (just took two Excedrin). Ask me if I care ;-).
It’s a Gas — Porter Ranch Causes . One group I do emphasize with are all the folks in Porter Ranch, the community next to where we leave. Not only did they have to deal with the Aliso Canyon gas leak for numerous months, being relocated and such, but they are still having problems even after the leak was sealed. They have now figured out why. Los Angeles County Public Health Department officials say its test of dust in Porter Ranch homes turned up the presence of metals, including barium, that could have caused the kinds of health symptoms some residents have reported experiencing even after the big gas leak was plugged. County officials said there appeared to be a pattern — or fingerprint — of metals to which all of the homes were exposed. Those metals were barium, vanadium, manganese, lead, strontium and aluminum. The county health official said the barium was in the form of a salt known as barium sulfate, which is not radioactive. It was found at the Aliso Canyon Natural Gas Storage Facility, which is in the Santa Susana Mountains directly north of Porter Ranch homes. Barium sulfate is added to the fluids that are used in the course of oil well drilling. As I said when the leak first started, this is going to be a clusterf*ck of tremendous proportions — unfortunately, one that will affect our synagogue and many friends and neighbors.
Taking Offense at Everything. There are more folks these days that are just finding any hint of skin or sex offensive. We’ve all seen the bathroom wars, where a subgroup of men either believe that men will just choose to dress as a lady to go into a ladies restroom to attack women, or that some woman dressed as a man will go into the mens room and see their shortcomings. Here’s another one: a female weather reporter wearing a beautiful black beaded dress on-air was handed a grey cardigan because some viewers complained they could see her bare arms. This didn’t happen in some backwater area either — this was in Los Angeles folks. Geez, get a life folks. If something offends you, change the channel. If you can’t control your urges, that’s your problem. ETA: Then again, perhaps it was all a joke. Perhaps. ETA#2: Yes, it was a joke.
Cell Phones and Theatres. Here’s a very nice piece on Broadway vs. Cell Phones. It explains why they are such a problem. First, taking pictures is making copies of a copyrighted design (yes, the show and all the design elements are copyrighted, and represents significant artistic work). Second, the light these devices emit can distract the performers on the stage, and can distract and disturb other audience members. Thirdly, if they make noise, the noise can do the same: distract and endanger performers, and disturb the audience. Power them off, or silence them and put them in airplane mode. Why the latter? The signals sometimes interfere with wireless microphones.
Replacing Ikea. In Burbank, California, Ikea is moving down the street to an even larger facility. So what is going to happen to the existing facility? What will happen to the dying mall next to it. A report this week gave the answer. Crown Realty is proposing to build a six-story, mixed-use project with 765 apartments and about 40,000 square feet of retail space on the ground level of the current Ikea space. They also envision converting the site into a community gathering area where an outdoor ice rink could be built and a farmers market could be held. As for the neighboring mall, one of the major proposed changes will be redesigning the entryway at San Fernando and Magnolia boulevards. A section of the second-floor roof will be removed to create an open-space feel and an escalator will be installed to allow pedestrians to get to the upper level from the street. Other amenities — such as the food court, children’s play area and elevators — will be moved around to create a better flow and atmosphere in the mall.
Yiddish in Poland. Lastly, in honor of my daughter’s graduation, here is a map of the Hebrew and Yiddish language frequency in Poland based on the Polish Census of 1931. Those of you who know her will understand.
Categoriesnews-chum, obituariesTagsdrugs, drumcorps, headache, las vegas, religious-right-are-wrong, san-fernando-valley, yiddish
Saturday Stew: A Little Bit of Everything
Posted on Saturday, April 30, 2016 Authorcahwyguy
Note: In case you missed my posts earlier this week, I had one with a collection of articles related to why I decided to support Hillary Clinton; a collection of articles related to food and diet; and a summary of the shows that I’m planning to see at the upcoming Hollywood Fringe Festival. But now it is Saturday, and I’m staring at the list of links I’ve accumulated over the week… and realizing there’s not a coherent theme buried in there. You know what that means — it is time to make News Chum Stew!
Steve Julian. Steve Julian passed away this week, after a short but intense battle with brain cancer. I never met the man, but I listened to him on KPCC and saw his work in and on behalf of the LA Theatre community. A loss for the community at the young age of 57. 57. That’s one year older than me. This comes on the heels of the death of Hope Joffee Rankell, a middle-school friend who pancreatic cancer got at the same age, and on the heels of the death this week of Rick Wisotsky, a camp counselor of mine and all around good person, again from a brain tumor. It makes one think about one’s mortality when one’s contemporaries pass away. Luckily, all three expressed the same philosophy: embrace life, enjoy life, and love those around you while you can. Something worth remembering.
Dress for Success. Mental Floss has a nice summary of 8 rules for dressing appropriately at work. This article basically takes those terms like “business professional”, “business casual”, and such, and breaks them down into what they really mean. Now if someone can just tell me how to dress to work on formal methods.
Thunderbird. This week I had a set of battles with Firefox, and saw increasing news about Firefox losing market share. Just another step in the continuing transition from Netscape to Mozilla to Seamonkey to Firefox. The week also brought news about how Mozilla is trying to offload Thunderbird, their mail client. Mail clients are a pretty mature market, and with the exception of overlying end-to-end encryption (something I explored in my MS Thesis on the subject back in 1985 — yes, 1985), there’s not much innovation needed. It doesn’t bring income to Mozilla, but I hope they find a good home. I’m still a regular Thunderbird user.
Cabrillo Music Theatre. There’s been a lot of publicity about Cabrillo Music Theatre being saved from death, but there is one piece of news that hasn’t been heavily reported: Lewis Wilkenfield is stepping down as Artistic Director after Little Mermaid. We’ve been there all 10 years with him, and we’ll miss his selections and good work. I hope Cabrillo finds an Artistic Director who can move them to bigger and better things, with large audiences and community support.
Spritual Places. Here’s a list of 15 places that are intensely spiritual. Why am I posting this? Because Gindling Hilltop Camp — my summer camp — made the list. I’ll agree. I don’t find God in a sterile synagogue. I find God at camp.
Puff, The Magic Dragon. In case you don’t believe Peter Yarrow (one of the song’s authors) that Puff is not about drugs, perhaps you’ll believe it from the guy that wrote the original poem. What’s neat here is that the guy who wrote Puff went on to invent those 3D glasses for movies.
URL Shorteners and Risk. A big risk these days are URL shortners and email URL redirectors. You have no idea what the real link is behind a URL to know if it is malicious or not. Fear not. Here’s a site that will fetch the underlying URL behind a obfuscating link.
800 Numbers. Have you ever wondered why toll-free numbers start with 800? Perhaps you remember Zenith numbers. Here’s the scoop on toll-free numbers.
Head Transplants. This is pretty unbelievable, and the stuff of science fiction movies. A doctor is ready to perform the first human head transplant, and the patient is willing to go along. If this works, I suggest he contact the GOP.
Red Car Conspiracy. One of my hobbies is transportation and the Red Cars, so I hear the conspiracy theory about LA Transportation all the time. The problem is: it’s not true. Here’s a great summary of the debunking.
ITunes Birthday. Apple’s iTunes turns 13 this week, and a lot of folks find it a pretty ugly teenager. I only use iTunes for my iPod Classic, and find it clunky. But I’m tied to its ecosystem because no one else can handle the ratings, play counts, and smart playlists. I’m also staying away from iTunes 12. iTunes 11 works fine for me.
God Mode Risks. Many years ago, I wrote about how to turn on God Mode on a Windows PC. Alas, it turns out that attackers have figured out how to leverage God Mode to their advantage. Damn.
Pershing Square. They are talking about redesigning Pershing Square downtown. Here are the four proposals. Which one do you like?
Typeface History. Here are the stories behind a number of famous typefaces and how they came about. You can learn why Times New Roman is called “Times”, and the difference between Times Roman and Times New Roman; the problem with the typeface in Titanic, and the lasting influence of Microsoft Bob.
System Security Engineering. Lastly, a great article from the Air Force on the need for system security design.
Categoriescamp, miscellaneous, news-chum, obituaries, securityTagscabrillo-music-theatre, folk-music, medical, orange-empire, telephony, typography
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Calgary Catholic Immigration Society: Volunteer heals by helping others settle into new life
Valerie Fortney
Kheriya Khidir, of the Calgary Catholic Immigration Society poses in Calgary on Nov. 21, 2018. Jim Wells/Postmedia Jim Wells/Postmedia
When the horrific images of Yazidi men, women and children trying to flee the Islamic State came to the world’s attention in 2014, Kheriya Khidir shared her fellow Calgarians’ outrage over what was happening half a world away. Still, she had a very personal connection, one that was unique in this city of more than a million people. At that time, Khidir didn’t know of any other fellow Yazidis living in Calgary, let alone Alberta. “We were all alone,” she says, noting she arrived in 2000 as a new bride. “I later learned that more than 50 of my relatives were killed back home.”
Five years ago, that knowledge nearly defeated Khidir. “My husband and I felt like we were done,” she says, wiping away tears at the memory. “But we have children, so we needed to carry on for them.”
These days, the mother of three teens is finding her own healing in helping others of her own faith, fellow Yazidis who have been accepted into Canada. Of the nearly 1,200 members of the Iraqi minority who have arrived in recent years, 260 are now in Calgary.
“They have had so much trauma,” says Khidir of the people she is helping as an interpreter with Calgary Catholic Immigration Society (CCIS). “Some men were executed in front of their wives and children, while some just disappeared. Many of the women have suffered repeated rapes.”
Khidir, who is proud to be among those not only welcoming her fellow Yazidis to Calgary but also helping them to heal from their physical and emotional wounds, says that the experience has been more than rewarding. “For so many years, it was just me and my husband here, trying to hold onto our culture while learning about Canadian culture,” she says. “Now I can be part of the new Yazidi community here and help them navigate the culture of their new home.”
The Calgary Catholic Immigration Society is one of the 12 recipient agencies of the 2018 Calgary Herald Christmas Fund. For more than 35 years, CCIS has ensured that immigrants and refugees receive the necessary information, services, and support to become contributing members of society. It serves between 18,000 and 20,000 newcomers each year.
To donate, call 403-235-7481 or go to https://secure.e2rm.com/registrant/startup.aspx?eventid=273670
Distress Centre: Caring frontline workers saving lives Centre for Suicide Prevention: Giving frontline workers the skills to help...
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The Book of Wheat: An Economic History and Practical Manual of the Wheat ...
Por Peter Tracy Dondlinger
A feature of the wheat industry in the United States that merits special mention is the increased production of durum wheats. These wheats are now widely grown in the semi-arid regions where the annual rainfall does not exceed 10 or 12 inches. In the early years they were a product very difficult of profitable sale, but they are now assuming a strong commercial position. The nature of the grain was not generally understood by American millers until it had been on the market for several years. In Russia it is blended with about 25 per cent of red wheat, and the same practice has been followed with some success in the United States. Many mills are now grinding the grain. A large portion of the durum wheat grown in the United States is exported, chiefly to Marseilles and other ports of the Mediterranean sea. About 10,000,000 bushels were exported during the year ending June 30, 1906. About 2,000,000 bushels were produced in 1902, 6,000,000 in 1903, 20,000,000 in 1905, and 50,000,000 bushels in 1906.
Russian Wheat Production.—Viewed solely from the point of view of its natural resources and economic aspects, Russia is the United States of Europe. It has immense undeveloped areas that would form ideal wheat lands, lands very similar to those which constitute the wheat belt of the United States. European Russia may be divided into two regions distinct as to the nature of their soil by a line running from Bessarabia in the southwest to Ufa in the northeast. In the southeast is the chernozium (black soil) region, and in the northwest the non-chernozium region. Clay, sand and rocky soils are all found in the non-black soil region, which lacks fertility and is chiefly devoted to the production of rye. The black soil zone is an arable plain, vast in extent, very fertile in soil, arising through centuries from the decomposition of accumulated Steppe grasses and sheltered by outlying forests. This plain stretches across the empire to the Ural Mountains, extending completely over 15 provinces and partially over 12, and even reappearing in Siberia. It is one of the largest fertile sections of land on the globe. In European Russia, the 18 provinces which lie chiefly in the black soil region produce two-thirds of the wheat and only one-third of the rye. Of the 328,000,000 acres of arable land, 59 per cent, or 193.000,000 acres, is located in the black soil region. Of the 197,000,000 acres of cereal crops, 72
per cent, or 142,000,000 acres, is found in the chernozium area. The black soil is of great uniformity in type and composition, varies in depth from a few inches to about 4 feet, and owes its dark color to its high proportion of organic substances (4 to 16 per cent). The Russian Steppes have fully as great a similarity to the Great Plains of the United States in climate as in soil, although greater extremes prevail.
The similarity between Russia and the United States in the natural resources of the wheat growing regions is quite equaled by the dissimilarity in political practice, social theory and economic condition. The Slav does not possess the Anglo-Saxon's proud institutional heritage. The Russian proletariat have no "Uncle Sam" who is rich enough to provide farms for all. There is, indeed, plenty of land, and they do have the Little Father, who is supposed to exercise a paternal care over his people. Sadly lacking in the institutions that are fundamental for progress and prosperity, however, the Russian people have found the Little Father to be far less capable and generous in aiding their material advancement than is essential to its realization. Consequently they have been unable to rise above their ignorance, poverty and misery. A population of exuberant fertility residing in a land of unlimited natural resources, the Russian peasantry have had neither means nor opportunity to attain a higher plane of life. The poor system of land ownership and the antiquated methods of agriculture made Russian wheat a dear wheat in spite of cheap labor and a low standard of living. The future possibilities of Russian wheat production depend upon the social, economic and educational progress at Russia. There are symptoms of improvement in this direction. The extension of peasant land ownership is improving economic conditions. It seems that political and social conditions are at last changing and popular education is growing. In agriculture, better machinery is being introduced, and crops are being rotated. The production of wheat increased 122 per cent in European Russia from 1870 to 1904. From 1881 to 1904 the acreage in wheat gained 57.3 per cent, while that of rye gained only 1.7 per cent, and the ratio between wheat and rye changed from 45:100 to 70:100. The yield of wheat per acre decreases from west to east.
Since the construction of the Great Siberian Railway the actual and potential productive powers of Asiatic Russia, and especially of Siberia, have been an interesting subject for speculation in Europe and America. In the popular conception previous to this event, Siberia was a land of polar nights and eternal snow, the monotony of whose dreary wastes was broken only by the clanking chains of Russia's exiles—exiles who were not always criminals, but who, according to Occidental ideas, frequently represented the very flower of Russian citizenship.
AREA UNDER WHEAT IN THE RUSSIAN EMPIRE1
(In round thousands)Year
45,635Acres
3.352Acres
1904.... :...
PRODUCTION OP WHEAT AND RYE IN THE RUSSIAN EMPIRE
(In round thousands.)Wheat
Caucasia 4
1896Bushels
Bushels
12,823Bushels 801,413 789,562
1 U. S. Dept. Agr., Bu. of Sta., Bui. 42, 1906, p. 16
With the completion of the railway, foreign conception underwent a great change, and Siberia suddenly became the "future granary of the world." Subsequent developments have not met expectations, for the true Siberia is a mean between these conceptions. This enormous country, which is 24 times as large as the German Empire, and nearly twice as large as the United States proper, has a very rigorous climate, and perhaps only half of it is habitable, while a still smaller portion is suitable for agriculture. This still leaves an immense area, however, upon which the cultivation of wheat is not only possible, but probable. Wheat is at present the most important crop of Siberia. It is exceedingly difficult to foretell the role which the Russian Empire is destined to play in the world's future wheat production. The possibilities are tremendous. Since, however, they are so largely dependent upon social, economic and institutional evolution, it is very improbable that Russia will duplicate the rapid development of wheat production which took place in the United States. While the development will be gradual, it is probable that Russian production will be one of the great permanent factors in the wheat industry.1 India's Wheat Production.—The two factors which enabled India to become a large exporter of wheat were the completion of the Suez Canal in 1869 and the subsequent development of the railroads. The former gave an enormous stimulus to wheat cultivation. Wheat thrives best on the dry plains of the Punjab and on the plateaus of the central provinces. Agricultural conditiors in different parts of India, and meteorological conditions in different parts and in different seasons, are so diverse that the annual production varies greatly and is extremely difficult to predict. India wheat as a factor in the world market is made still more uncertain by the fact that domestic consumption is unusually susceptible to variations resulting from changes in the price that may be obtained in the export markets.
In recent years the annual wheat area in British India has been approximately 28,000,000 acres. About one-fourth of this is planted in the United Provinces, and about one-fourth in the Punjab. Of the remaining wheat area, the Central Provinces
1 Rublnow. Russia's Wheat Surplus, U. S. Dept. Agr. , Bu. of Sta.. Bui. 42. 1006.
have annually about 3,000,000 acres; Central India and Bombay about 2,000,000 acres each; Bengal about 1,500,000 acres; and Rajputana, Hyderabad and the Northwest Frontier Province each about 1,000,000 acres. Beror and Sind are the only other important wheat-growing provinces, and each has an annual area of about 500,000 acres. The wheat is harvested during our spring months. The wheat from the Central Provinces is shipped from Bombay. That of the Punjab is collected at Multan and shipped from Karachi. There has also been a large export of flour, which is ground at Bombay and other centers.
AREA, PRODUCTION AND EXPORT OP WHEAT IN INDIA, AND THE GAZETTE PRICS OF BRITISH WHEAT (In round millions)
Argentina's Wheat Production.—The wheat industry of Argentina is similar to that of Russia in some of its most important phases. While the country is of much smaller extent, its land, climate and railroad extension are available potentials for an enormously expanded wheat production. As in Russia, the wheat area cannnot be definitely determined without years of experimentation and a great increase in population. Here,
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The Great Philosophers
John Locke was an English philosopher and physician of the 17th century. He is considered one of the first of the British empiricists and many of his works deal with social contract theory. His writings influenced the writings of Voltaire and Rousseau and the American revolutionaries (Uzgalis 2001). His contributions to classical republicanism and liberal theory are reflected in the United States Declaration of Independence (Uzgalis 2001).
Locke was the first to define the self though a continuity of consciousness. He argues that people are born without innate ideas, and that knowledge is instead determined only by experience derived from sense perception (Uzgalis 2001).
John Locke began his academic career at the prestigious Westminster School in London (Uzgalis 2001). After he finished there he was admitted to Christ Church, Oxford to study philosophy (Uzgalis 2001). He found the words of modern philosophers more interesting than the classical philosophy taught at the college. He received a bachelor of medicine and served as an Earl’s personal physician as a career (Uzgalis 2001).
John Locke’s overall view was against absolute monarchy and for individual consent as the basis of political legitimacy (Uzgalis 2001).
John Locke died and was buried in the churchyard of the village of High Laver where he had lived in the household of Sir Francis Masham (Uzgalis 2001). John Locke never married and never had children. Events that happened during John Locke’s life include the English Restoration, the Great Plague of London, and the Great Fire of London (Uzgalis 2001).
Uzgalis, William, Uzgalis,. "John Locke." Stanford University. Stanford University, 02 Sept. 2001. Web. 21 Nov. 2013.
Knowledge and Education: Locke v. Kant
Compare the views of John Locke and Immanuel Kant on the role of nature versus nurture in knowledge acquisition.
On John Locke
Interactions with John Locke's ideas John Locke was raised in a Puritan household and lived his life during a tumultuous time. During Locke's life, the political realm of Europe was changing, science was beginning to emerge from religious persecution, and religion was changing the attitudes held for the last two hundred years.
Life and Times of John Locke
Please help me with the following Philosopher Life & Times review: 1. How the Culture and Time Period interacted with John Locke's ideas a. Culture i. Politics ii. Science iii. Religion b. Time Period i. French Revolution ii. American Revolution 2. Conclusion
Xenia Rochelle Jones, MA, PhD (IP)
MPhil/PhD (IP), Open University, Milton Keynes, UK
MA, Open University, Milton Keynes, UK
Certificate, Geva Ulpan (via Universita Tel Aviv)
BA, University of the Philippines
"Its always great to get notes from you. Thank you for your help. I did assign a little lengthy assignment to you couple days ago, but It looks like you were busy. if you have time let me know and i will re-post it. "
"Thank you for the adept feedback. Will you be willing to give me some more notes in the future? I like your in-depth analysis, the notes were very clear and answers the questions really well. "
"Thank you "
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Breeders Cup Races (hereafter referred to as 'we' and 'us') are committed to ensuring that your privacy is protected. Should we ask you to provide certain information by which you can be identified when using this website, then you can be assured that it will only be used in accordance with this Privacy Policy. We may change this policy from time to time by updating this page. You should check this page from time to time to ensure that you are happy with any changes. If you do not agree with this Privacy Policy, our Cookies Policy, please do not use or submit information to us via our website. This policy was last updated on 1st May 2018.
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It’s Mind Altering Being Green
I’m not clear on whether Pegasus by The Green ?uestion Mark is a one-shot collaboration on some vintage psychedelic tunes, or the debut from a new British band. The members consist of radio personality/vocalist Marrs Bonfire; producer Icarus Peel; eccentric musician Mordecai Smyth (whose Sticky Tape And Rust album was favorably reviewed here on Broken Hearted Toy); and the mysterious Chrystal Jacqueline, who’s simply described as ‘talented.’ One thing is for sure: None of these people are using their real names.
That said, The Green ?uestion Mark’s Pegasus EP, which is available as a limited edition green vinyl record as well as in digital form, is a lot of fun. Of course, any band that features an obscure Hollies tune as its title track is likely to snag a favorable write-up on BHT. Bonfire and his mates give “Pegasus,” (which was originally a rare opportunity for guitarist/harmony vocalist Tony Hicks to sing lead) an arrangement reminiscent of The Hollies mid-1960s classic LPs, Evolution and Butterfly.
The Green ?uestion Mark’s take on “She’s A Rainbow” is more ornate than the Rolling Stones version but still rousing, while their cover of Syd Barrett’s “Lucy Leave” comes across as energetic garage rock. The EP closes with a cover of Grapefruit’s “Elevator” that switches to an instrumental at the minute and a half mark. It should be interesting to see what The Green ?uestion Mark does next. In the meantime, Mordecai Smyth has a new release due out in the coming months.
Posted by Terry Flamm at 11:22 PM 1 comment: Links to this post
CD Review: Jack Scratch - 2012
Earlier on Broken Hearted Toy, I reviewed a new CD by Norwood Park All Stars, a collection of musicians from bands that had been part of Chicago’s vital punk scene in the 1990s. Vocalist Dave Bergeron was a driving force in putting that project together, and he’s also at the helm of Jack Scratch’s recently released reunion effort, 2012. Back after a 20-year absence, Jack Scratch fills the 13 tracks with authentic energy and attitude.
It’s tempting to describe the CD in terms like “a high-speed drive back to punk’s heyday,” but it feels more like the work of musicians who never abandoned punk, for people who’ve always loved it. High-speed guitars and call-and-response vocals propel the melodic “Hold On Me,” and Jack Scratch brings funky grooves to the social satire of “Passion Fashion.” “Indeed” lets bassist Bob Byrnes cut loose, while drummer Keith Robbins kicks off “When Worlds Collide” and “See Saw.” Guitarists Earl Letiecq and Fran Kondorf never seem to take a break, and Bergeron consistently delivers the intense vocals you expect from a punk frontman.
Posted by Terry Flamm at 11:32 PM No comments: Links to this post
I Would Go And See You Again
Not as priceless as Paul McCartney’s hand-written lyrics, but still pretty cool.
The Chicago area looked like a world without love last night as a freezing rain covered the streets and sidewalks with a treacherous sheet of ice. But it didn't stop Peter Asher from drawing a capacity crowd to the Old Town School Of Folk Music for his multi-media show, A Musical Memoir Of The 60s And Beyond. Backed by a highly polished live band, Asher, formerly half of Peter And Gordon, served up a mix of live songs like “I Go To Pieces” and “500 Miles,” photographs, and vintage clips.
There was also a good deal of humor, starting with a videotaped intro by Eric Idle, who interacted with Asher as if he was really there. Asher conceded that at least some of the audience members had no idea what they had come to see. But those of us who had caught a similar presentation at Fest For Beatle Fans - Chicago a few years back, loved the concept, and were back for more.
The first half of A Musical Memoir covered the origins of Peter And Gordon, placed in the context of post World War II England, and later, Beatlemania. Back then, Paul McCartney was dating Asher's sister, actress/TV personality, Jane, and frequently stayed at the Asher home when he was in town. The friendship between Peter Asher and McCartney resulted in the Beatle giving “World Without Love” to the fledgling Peter And Gordon to record. It became their first big hit single, and Asher still has McCartney’s handwritten lyrics.
One of the new highlights was a demo of McCartney singing “World Without Love” that Asher recently discovered among his artifacts. He recalled the day when McCartney and John Lennon spent some time practicing on a piano at the Asher home, and then invited him to be the first to hear their new song, “I Want To Hold Your Hand.” McCartney would later compose “Woman” for Peter & Gordon, under the pseudonym Bernard Webb to prove he could write a hit single without the popularity of The Beatles behind it. Asher delivered a funny running commentary on clips of Peter And Gordon on The Ed Sullivan Show and being good sports while acting silly on Hullabaloo and The Red Skelton Hour.
The second half of the show kicked off with “Lady Godiva,” as Asher recalled that he initially thought the bawdy song didn't measure up to Peter & Gordon's standards. From there, he discussed his role in The Beatles' ill-fated Apple corporation; his development as a highly sought after producer for artists like James Taylor, Diana Ross, and Linda Ronstadt; and his more recent work on film soundtracks. After wrapping up an entertaining evening with a sing-a-long for “World Without Love,” Asher met with fans to chat and sign autographs.
Ken Stringfellow just kicked off a manic tour that will bring him to Schubas in Chicago on February 9th. I had the honor of doing a phone interview with him last week for an upcoming piece in the Illinois Entertainer. Our conversation touched on the tour, as well as his eclectic and well-crafted new solo effort, Danzig In The Moonlight.
Alternative rock band Whitewolfsonicprincess has a 10 o’clock show tomorrow night at Gallery Cabaret on Chicago’s north side. Christina Trulio and Gunnelpumpers are also scheduled to perform.
Co-ed power pop band, The Right Tidys, are part of a triple bill with Velvet Cadillacs and Red Wigglers scheduled for Phyllis’ Musical Inn next Saturday, February 2nd. The Right Tidys have been working on a CD that will hopefully come up later this year.
There will be a mind-bending experience at Martyrs on February 9th, when four acts -- The Luck Of Eden Hall, The Red Plastic Buddha, Energy Crown, and Umbra and the Volcan Siege -- take part in a Psychedelic Saturday. I have praised CDs by The Luck Of Eden Hall and Red Plastic Buddha previously on BHT. I’m not familiar with the other two bands, but their names certainly sound intriguing. The event will also include visuals by brownshoeonly.
This Is This will be performing at Mac’s On Slade, a new venue in my bustling hometown of Palatine, tomorrow night. In my review of the trio’s latest CD, The Hours, The Minutes And The Days, I noted they “keep things interesting by infusing their mainstream rock songs with elements of other genres. Songwriters Petitt and Torres once again put an emphasis on fetching melodies, and take turns on lead vocals.” In addition to enjoying the music, visitors to Mac’s On Slade might get a glimpse of a few future famous authors.
Sopro, a company based on Chicago’s southwest side, has been booking rock, blues, and jazz concerts since the late 1970s. It has also released CDs on is own label, and is now expanding into publishing. Founding member Bud Monaco’s Drafted: You’re In The Army Now gives a firsthand look at his Army days from 1969 -1971, when he was stationed in Panama. The press release describes the effort as scary, informative, and occasionally hilarious. Somehow, it’s hard for those of us who’ve known Monaco all these years to picture the perennially long-haired rock and roller with a military buzz cut.
Chicago-based musician Ellis Clark is raising funds for an upcoming limited edition vinyl LP. Clark currently plays guitar and keyboards with The Handcuffs, and his extensive band resume includes time with Social Act and Epicycle. Judging from Clark's Facebook post, his new solo effort leans toward the power pop he pursued with Epicycle, augmented with harmony vocals, strings, and trumpets. The solo record will have a pressing of just 250 copies, and is available for pre-order via Clark's Indiegogo site.
The Punk News website has a story on an upcoming Go-Go’s tribute album titled Our Lips Are Sealed, featuring covers by 14 punk rock bands. The compilation, from Solidarity Recordings, is set to be released on vinyl and CD sometime this Spring.
Chicago band Terrible Spaceship has hit upon an innovative and fun idea for its debut release. Invaders 1938 matches the vintage radio broadcast of War Of The Worlds with original electronic and hip hop backdrops that range from catchy to experimental. “Lost” simultaneously evokes The B-52’s and Santana, while “Wiped Out” mixes in a bit of classical music. Somewhere, Orson Welles is break dancing on his head. Terrible Spaceship has a gig at Martyrs on February 16th.
I’m Happy (But So Is Brenda Lee)
The Second Disc online newsletter regularly casts a spotlight on upcoming vinyl and CD releases that are likely to delight power pop fans. The latest example came today as The Second Disc broke the news about a series of 45 RPM EPs on 10"vinyl from Marshall Crenshaw. Each platter will follow the format of one new song, one cover, and one revised gem from the Crenshaw catalog.
The first release, I Don't See You Laughing Now, includes the title track, which reportedly features Graham Maby from Joe Jackson’s band on bass; a cover of The Move's "No Time,"recorded with Glen Burtnik from the Beatles cover band Liverpool, on guitar and vocals; and a live recording with The Bottle Rockets of "There She Goes Again." The EPs can be purchased separately or in a batch of three on Crenshaw's website. Better hurry. The limited edition red vinyl version has already sold out.
I know this post’s title is an inside joke that only Marshall Crenshaw fans will get, but hopefully someone besides me will think it’s clever.
Number One With A Brother
Toward the end of November, I did a post about The Justice Collective’s re-recording of the Hollies’ hit, “He Ain't Heavy, He’s My Brother.” The all-star band had hoped their version would become the U.K.’s Number One Christmas Single for 2012, and I’m happy to report they’ve succeeded.
Last year, The Justice Collective gathered several well-known English musicians, including Paul McCartney, Robbie Williams, Glen Tilbrook from Squeeze, Gerry Marsden from Gerry And The Pacemakers, Shane McGowan from The Pogues, Mick Jones from The Clash, John Power from Cast, Dave McCabe from The Zutons, Chris Sharrock from Oasis, Holly Johnson from Frankie Goes To Hollywood, and Melanie C from The Spice Girls, to help families of the victims of The Hillsborough Disaster. In 1989, 96 Liverpool soccer fans were killed during a Football Association Cup Semi-Final match with Nottingham Forest at the Hillsborough Stadium in Sheffield.
Tony Hicks and Bobby Elliott, original (and still current) members from The Hollies, were asked to join in, and gladly obliged. The Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra and LIPA Gospel Choir were also involved, as were a few former members of the Liverpool soccer team. The new version has the same gorgeous harmonica intro as the original, this time played by musician Will Pound, and the arrangement stays faithful to The Hollies hit. The various stars take turns on lead vocals; McCartney and Jones contribute guitar solos and Sharrock plays drums.
The Justice Collective's “He Ain't Heavy, He’s My Brother” is available on iTunes, and the actual CD single can be purchased from Amazon. And to get the full impact of this inspiring rendition, I highly recommend watching the video.
CD Review: The Sw!ms - Ride The Blueberry Winter
Art from The Sw!ms Facebook page.
Note: This review originally appeared in the Illinois Entertainer.
No one could accuse The Sw!ms of taking themselves too seriously or of getting stuck in a musical rut. The Philadelphia-based band leaps from one genre to another on its debut, Ride The Blueberry Winter. Guitarist-vocalist Brian Langain sounds like he’s singing with a perpetual smirk as he leads his band mates through 16 catchy tunes with twisted lyrics.
“Blood In The Lanai” makes a couple’s attempt to get away with murder seem whimsical, thanks to a finger-snapping melody and Phillip Reynolds Price’s Farsifa organ playing. Price also brings that sound to the power pop of “We Need. . .Lava,” but evokes Deep Purple on “Feast Of Flames.” The Sw!ms incorporate strings for “Clean Escape” while “Depth Charge” sounds like it arrived during the original British Invasion. Ride The Blueberry Winter closes on an energetic note with “Upstate Milkmaid.”
Posted by Terry Flamm at 9:27 PM No comments: Links to this post
Warren Zevon Birthday Bash/Archie Powell And The Exports Benefit/Jokes4Miles Moves On
Poster artwork from Androgynous Mustache Facebook page.
Androgynous Mustache will be performing songs by Warren Zevon as part of a Birthday Bash being held for the late singer this Thursday night, January 24th, at Mayne Stage on Chicago’s north side. Androgynous Mustache did a fantastic job of covering The Replacements at a Halloween Tribute show at Martyrs’ last year, so their take on Warren Zevon should be interesting.
Archie Powell And the Exports, who nabbed the Number 2 spot on the Broken Hearted Toy Top 40 CDs of 2012 list, have a show at Goose Island in Wrigleyville on January 25th to benefit the My Sandy Hook Family Fund. The event’s promoters, Vicarious Venues, have promised to match the amount raised by Archie Powell And The Exports. The bands Mutts, Brother George, and 500 Miles to Memphis are also on the bill.
Miles Austrevich was the inspiration for Jokes4Miles, an organization created by stand-up comedian Len Austrevich as a means to help his son cope with brain cancer. While Len worked tirelessly behind the scenes, it was Miles who captured the media’s attention with his quiet determination and cheerful personality. When Miles passed away shortly before Christmas, it was only natural to wonder how Jokes4Miles would continue without him. A memorial/celebration this past Saturday night at the organization’s impressive new digs at 3660 W. Irving Park Road offered some very positive signs.
“How cool is it that you’re still coming out for Miles?” Spencer Tweedy asked the audience, shortly after his band, The Blisters, took the stage. Tweedy is the son of Wilco musician Jeff Tweedy and a former classmate of Mile Austrevich. The quartet of high school students strummed guitars and covered songs by The Band without the benefit of microphones, but sounded highly professional. Earlier, an indie rock musician performed a solo set, and one of Austrevich’s former teachers wove his memories of Miles into a consistently funny stand-up routine.
But the most encouraging moment was when Tom and Stacey Sutter came onstage to talk about Cal’s All Star Angel Foundation, the charity they started in 2006 after their son Cal lost his battle with leukemia. The Sutters honor their son’s memory by helping the families of other children who have serious illnesses, and they had crossed paths with the Austreviches a while back. On Saturday night, Stacey Sutter echoed Len Austrevich’s earlier vow to help parents navigate the confusing and financially difficult paths of caring for a sick child. Stacey called for everyone in crowd that night to think about how they could help others in need. It looks like Jokes4Miles will continue doing that.
Art from the Linda McCartney Foods commercial.
Congratulations to The Lennys, who are celebrating 10 years of performing with a bash tonight at Danny’s On Douglas in Elgin. Admission is $5, the music starts at 9:00 PM.
Today’s Chicago Tribune picked up a story from Reuters concerning a new animated tribute to the late photographer/musician Linda McCartney. Sir Paul re-recorded “Heart Of The Country” from his Ram album to go with the clip, which the Cartoon Brew website and The Mirror have reported is part of a TV commercial for the Linda McCartney Foods company. My only complaint is that the video, which shows Linda doing what she likes best--taking pictures, spending time with children and animals, and playing music--is far too short.
Many of us familiar with the Chicago area music scene were saddened to learn that Mike Braam, from the band The Braam Brothers, recently suffered a stroke. His brother and band mate, Scott, broke the news on Facebook. The overwhelming response of support and prayers has no doubt been appreciated by the Braam family. We’re all hoping Mike has a quick and full recovery.
John Wicks of The Records noted on Facebook this week that he’s been having writing sessions with Debbi Peterson of The Bangles. That sounds like an interesting collaboration, and it could result in some live performances, according to an additional comment by Wicks. By the way, “That Girl Is Emily,” by John Wicks And The Records, is one of the very best tracks on International Pop Overthrow Volume 14.
Danstock, a benefit concert honoring Chicago-based musician-producer Dan Stock, will be held on Thursday, February 7th at Lincoln Hall in Chicago. General admission is $20; a VIP package costs $100. There will be live performances by the bands Board Of Governors, Farkus, Nature Show, and Carta Marina, as well as a silent auction. All proceeds will benefit the Robert H. Lurie Comprehensive Cancer Center. Doors open at 7:00 PM, bands start at 8:00 PM. Lincoln Hall is located at 2424 N. Lincoln Avenue.
Georgina Flood, the Dublin-based artist known for creating amazing portraits of The Beatles, has been invited to American Ireland Fund’s 3rd Annual Green Gala in Chicago. The event will be held March 2nd, on the 99th floor of Willis Tower (or Sears Tower, as we locals still insist on calling it.)
The Postelles’ upcoming U.S. tour includes a date at Bottom Lounge in Chicago on February 25th. Other dates include Toledo, New York, Boston, and Washington, DC.
Kevin Lee & The Kings have a record release show on tap for their latest CD, Breakout, April 26th at the Elbo Room. Breakout will be available for purchase on April 23rd.
Good Ol’ Freda, the documentary about Beatles Fan Club secretary Freda Kelly, will have its world premiere at the South By Southwest Film Festival on March 9th. Good Ol Freda had a successful run on Kickstarter, but the documentary’s makers are still in need of more financial support. Donations can be made via the Southern Documentary Fund.
Look what I started. After my story on Dolly Varden ran in the January issue of the Illinois Entertainer, the Chicago alt rock/country band has been written up in Time Out Chicago, The Chicago Tribune, and The Chicago Sun-Times. Actually, I’m sure those stories were in the works long before my profile was published. But it’s good to see Dolly Varden getting some well-deserved publicity. The band has a CD release party for its latest effort, For A While, tomorrow night at City Winery in Chicago.
Earlier this week, I mentioned that Peter Asher from Peter And Gordon will be Terri Hemmert’s guest on “Breakfast With The Beatles” on WXRT in Chicago this Sunday morning from 8:00 to 10:00PM. Far away, in a different city, on a different “Breakfast With The Beatles” program, Susanna Hoffs will be serving as guest host. Her three-hour “Breakfast With The Beatles” gig in Los Angeles will be on KCSN tomorrow, starting at 10:00AM PT, 12:00PM CT, and 1:00PM ET.
CD Review: The High Violets - To Where You Are
First, a Happy Birthday wish to Susanna Hoffs. All three current members of the Bangles are keeping busy these days. Let’s hope 2013 brings new Bangles music and concerts, along with all these interesting side projects.
Now here’s a CD review that originally appeared in the Illinois Entertainer in 2006. The band’s guitarist-vocalist, Clint Sargent would later form Starry Saints, whose Serenade was one of the best releases of 2010.
The High Violets' blend of cutting edge rock and ethereal arrangements on their latest effort, To Where You Are, calls to mind bands like The Delays and The Church. Singer Kaitlyn Ni Donovan has a pristine voice that can become positively haunting when matched to some of the band's more exquisite melodies. It’s no surprise when she sings, “On days like this, I'm ghost like” on the title track.
To Where You Are delves into a world where cryptic lyrics are woven through lush keyboards and chiming guitars. Ni Donovan doesn't sing any words on “Nocturnal”; she wails like a disembodied spirit. Her layered vocals create a heavenly choir intro for the ornate song, “Chinese Letter,” while her melancholy tone on the shimmering pop “Invitation” is touching. Guitarist Clint Sargent's energetic playing allows The High Violets to create beauty with some bite, particularly on “Love Is Binding” and “Want You.”
Remembering A World Without Love
Those of us who still sometimes confuse Peter And Gordon with Chad And Jeremy might want to tune in to “Breakfast With The Beatles” this Sunday morning on WXRT. Host Terri Hemmert has invited Peter Asher, the surviving half of Peter And Gordon, to drop by and discuss his A Musical Memoir of the ‘60s and Beyond. He’ll be presenting the multimedia show at the Old Town School of Folk Music on January 27th.
I saw Asher do an earlier version a few years back at Fest For Beatles Fans - Chicago. It was an enjoyable mix of live music, vintage photographs, and film, along with his wry observations on being part of the original British Invasion. Paul McCartney used to date Asher’s sister, Jane, and the Lennon-McCartney penned “World Without Love” was one of Chad And - - er, Peter And Gordon’s biggest hits. Asher went on to become a highly sought-after producer, working with artists like Linda Ronstadt and James Taylor.
Hemmert’s onstage interview with Asher after his Fest For Beatles Fans - Chicago performance showed her usual insight and love for music, so their chat this Sunday is sure to be interesting. “Breakfast With The Beatles” airs from 8:00AM to 10:00 AM Sunday morning, and can be streamed on the station’s website. A Musical Memoir of the ‘60s and Beyond starts at 7:00 PM on January 27th. Tickets are $30.
Marr From MOJO
When The Smiths called it quits in 1987, it was no surprise when the band'’s charismatic lead singer Morrissey went on to a successful solo career. (By the way, his current US tour brings him to the Chicago Theatre on January 25th.) Morrissey’s writing partner, Johhny Marr, the guitarist who created classic riffs for songs like “How Soon Is Now?” has also been busy since the breakup. That's abundantly clear on Marr And Friends, the complimentary CD that comes with the January issue of MOJO magazine.
The 15 tracks showcase Marr’s guitar playing, as well as his songwriting, on collaborations with artists like Modest Mouse, The The, Kirsty MaColl, Beth Orton, and Robyn Hitchcock. There aren't any actual recordings of The Smiths, but there is a cover of their song, “Hand In Glove,” by 1960s singer Sandi Shaw. Rather than going back to her original British Invasion days, she uses a classic and fun new wave arrangement.
The best thing about Marr & Friends is the opening track, “The Right Thing Right.” It’s an energetic gem with a dash of The Who that bodes well for The Messenger, the solo effort Marr has coming out in February. The first five tracks on this compilation are the strongest. Marr works magic with his own band, The Healers on “The Last Ride,” The Cribs on “We Share The Same Skies,” Edwyn Collins on “Come Tomorrow Come Today,”and the previously mentioned Sandi Shaw on “Hand In Glove.”
Elsewhere, Billy Bragg sets a funny spoken word tale to Marr's acoustic strumming on a version of The Left Banke’s “Walk Away Renee,” and Transit Kings turn in an intriguing techno effort with “America Is Unavailable.” Some of the other tracks run a little slow, but overall, Marr & Friends is worth getting acquainted with. And it comes with a pretty cool magazine.
My feature story on Chicago’s critically acclaimed alt rock /country band, Dolly Varden, can be found in the January issue of the Illinois Entertainer. Singer-guitarist Steve Dawson invited me to drop by the apartment he shares with his wife and fellow Dolly Varden founding member, Diane Christiansen, late last year for the interview. It was fascinating talking to him about the band’s latest release, For A While, as well as the art of songwriting. I could swear Dawson and Christiansen don’t look a day older since I last met with them for an IE story, in 1994. Dolly Varden will have a CD release party next Saturday, January 19th, at City Winery in Chicago before heading overseas for gigs in Edinburgh, Scotland, as well as Belfast and Rathfriland in Northern Ireland. In addition, Christiansen will be exhibiting some of her art work at the Edinburgh College Of Art.
Happy Birthday to vocalist-guitarist Vicki Peterson of The Bangles. Peterson also has a side project called Psycho Sisters with singer-guitarist Susan Cowsill coming out later this year. The two previously worked together in The Continental Drifters.
Shoes have accepted an invitation to perform at this year’s SXSW music festival in Austin Texas, according to a Facebook post from the band. The date is March 13th at the Holy Mountain venue. The three founding members, John and Jeff Murphy and Gary Klebe, have also been penciled in to participate in a panel discussion on March 15th, but the band is waiting for more details before confirming that part of the deal. There’s also a rumor that Shoes are considering a few gigs in the Midwest as well.
Chris Stamey of The dB’s has a new CD on the way. Lovesick Blues is now available for pre-order from Yep Roc Records. I couldn’t find any mention of him going on tour, though.
People looking to discover more about Chicago’s vibrant live performance scene will get plenty of opportunities when the very first Chicago Theatre Week takes place from February 12th through the 17th. The festival will offer discounted tickets to productions by Second City, A Red Orchid, Lookingglass Theatre Company, Chicago Shakespeare Theater, Bailiwick Chicago, ComedySportz, Goodman Theatre, Shattered Globe Theatre, Steppenwolf Theatre, Black Ensemble Theater, Laugh Factory, Victory Gardens Theater, and numerous other groups. It’s highly recommended that patrons get their tickets in advance.
The Paul Collins Beat, one of the best of the early power pop bands, returns to Chicago on February 7th for a gig at the new club, Township. Little Boy Jr. and Blizzard Babies are also on the bill. Located at 2200 N. California, Township is a short walk from the Blue Line Metra stop.
The Handcuffs and The Wanton Looks have performed together at a number of Chicagp area clubs, and they'll be doing it again for a double bill at the brand new 27 Live club in Evanston, on January 19th.
Self-published authors searching for ways to promote their efforts would do well to follow the example of Young Adult/Sci-Fi author Susan Kaye Quinn. Full disclosure: She and I belong to the same writers group. Quinn, who was recently named as a panelist for utopYAcon coming up in Tennessee this June, skillfully works social media to promote her Mindjack Trilogy, and recently supervised the filming of a trailer in New York. To find out more check out Quinn’s website.
CD Review: The Wanton Looks - Self-Titled
On their self-titled full-length debut, The Wanton Looks use high-speed and impossibly catchy arrangements while depicting the various ways a relationship can implode. That approach has resulted in some critics comparing the Chicago-based band to The Buzzcocks, as well as Joan Jett & The Blackhearts. The brash attitude on these 13 tracks should also please fans of The Friggs, a four-woman group fronted by singer-guitarist Palmyra Delran in the 1990s.
Lead vocalist-bassist Traci Trouble gives The Wanton Looks a non-stop infusion of spunk and sneering, particularly on “Get Thru To You” and “86 Me.” On the energetic “Electromagnetic Force,” Trouble urges a not-so-secret admirer to makes his move. “You’ve been watching me, I know/Admit it,” she insists, but later complains, “You’re running away/You keep me at bay.” Guitarist Inga Olson and drummer Meg Thomas supply harmonies that hark back to the girl group sound of the early 1960s on “Come On,” and evoke L7 by engaging Trouble in some call and response vocals on the hard-hitting “Used & Abused.”
The Wanton Looks tackle other subject matter as well. Trouble and Thomas propel the nightmarish but rollicking “Demons,” which is a must for any Halloween party playlist. “G.O.P. Greedy Old Pigs,” a blast of left wing politics, isn’t on this disc, but can be found on the band’s website. The Wanton Looks will be on a double bill with The Handcuffs at the 27 Live venue in Evanston on January 19th.
CD Review: Norwood Park All Stars - Northwest Highway
Norwood Park All Stars is a rotating collection of musicians who forged a punk scene dubbed ‘Norcore’ in Chicago’s Norwood Park neighborhood back in the mid-1980s. Led by vocalist Dave Bergeron and guitarist Pete Hlavach, they started recording tracks about five years ago at JoyRide Studio in the hope of rekindling that rebellious spirit. Their mission has become a rousing success, as evidenced by recently released full-length CD, Northwest Highway.
Norwood Park All Stars don’t unleash scathing political lyrics ala a Dead Kennedys, but the frustration on high-speed songs like “23 (Listen For It),” and “Hand To Hand Combat” is certainly authentic. “Russ Meyer” and “Gary Glitter” set social satire to a pounding beat, while “Jumpstart” has the more fun nature of The Buzzcocks. Most of the 13 tracks have rollicking instrumental passages, and according to the CD’s brightly illustrated liner notes, “Many gang-style vocals involved all performers on the track.”
The Norwood Park All Stars find a variety of entertaining mediums to proclaim their heritage on their website.
It’s only January 4th, and I’m already compiling a list of shows I wish I could have seen. I didn’t make it out to FitzGerald’s in Berwyn tonight to see a double bill of the neo-psychedelic band Tomorrow The Moon and power pop artisans Pezband. Depending on what time you read this, you might still have time to check it out if you’re in the vicinity. Wouldn’t it be great if these two acts did more gigs together? Here’s an eye-pummeling video of “HeSawRed” by Tomorrow The Moon.
Phyllis’ Musical Inn on Division Street in Chicago will have a strong lineup of power pop bands tomorrow night when Van Go and 92 Degrees take the stage. Both acts are veterans of International Pop Overthrow - Chicago, and both have a bass-playing/back-up singing Galassini. Left Hand Foot, formerly The Fighting Moultons, is also on the bill.
As I mentioned here about a week ago, Miles Austrevich, the inspiration for the Jokes4Miles campaign, has passed away. It was touching to see the crowd of family and friends that came to his visitation on Chicago's north side last Saturday. There are two memorials planned in the coming weeks for this courageous young man who battled brain cancer with determination and a sense of humor. The first takes place tomorrow at the Museum Of Contemporary Art, at 220 E. Chicago Avenue, starting at 4:00 PM. And there will be a celebration of Miles’ life on January 19th, at the new Jokes4Miles headquarters at 3660 W. Irving Park Road. Check out the Jokes4Miles Facebook page for more information.
Mega Dodo, the UK independent label that unleashed the sinister fun of 1960s-influenced recording artist and honorary Palatine citizen Mordecai Smyth on the world, has some interesting new releases on tap. The Honey Pot is a quartet whose latest release, To The Edge Of The World, is an overflowing garden of psychedelic tunes. The Green Question Mark’s Pegasus EP features a cover of the 1960s Hollies song, “Pegasus,” as well as the band's take on The Rolling Stones’ “She’s A Rainbow.” The previously mentioned Mr. Smyth is a member of The Green Question Mark, along with intriguingly named musicians, Marrs Bonfire, Icarus Peel, and Chrystal Jacqueline.
Amazingly, this is the second cover of “Pegasus” I’ve heard about in the past few days. Shindig magazine had a review of an eight-minute version on a colored vinyl 45 by the band Temple Music. It’s available from the Fruits De Mer label, which is also planning a vinyl LP and 7” single Hollies tribute. The original version, from The Hollies’ psychedelic masterpiece, Butterfly, is notable as being one of the few times guitarist-harmony vocalist Tony Hicks got to sing lead.
There's still time to be part of my Big Ideas project here on Broken Hearted Toy. A while back, I put out a request to musicians, writers, directors, artists, and anyone involved in the arts to send me a one-sentence description of their creative goal for 2013. I ran the first batch on New Year's Day. I’ll post more throughout the month, as they arrive. Here's a recent one I recently received:
“I am determined to do a video project with much more mass appeal than my current Coffee With Jeff. Something more structured and amusing, and hopefully get some of my talented friends involved.” - Jeff Kelley, host/producer/writer of the weekly Internet show, Sunday Morning Coffee With Jeff.
I’m looking forward to what Jeff comes up with, and would love to be involved.
CD Review: The Mike Benign Compulsion - Martha
This second release from The Mike Benign Compulsion could be celebrated simply on the basis of its striking melodies and elaborate vocal interplay. The Milwaukee-based band of rock veterans plays a distinctively Midwestern strain of power pop and alt rock on Martha, which was mixed by Chris Stamey of The dB’s. Still, there are darker pleasures to be found by delving into singer-guitarist Mike Benign’s portraits of down-and-out losers and frustrated lovers.
The energetic “American Dreaming And Drunk” is the most obvious juxtaposition of stinging lyrics and fetching music, while some of the other tracks, like “My Michelle,” can be more tricky. The chorus on the baroque pop song, “I Won’t Let You Down” adds the word “again” to the title; suggesting a guy with a history of not coming through, and the good vibes generated in the Beach Boys-flavored “I’ve Never Felt As Good As I Do Now” depend on maxing out credit cards and being oblivious to other people’s suffering. On the acoustic “Tattoos Of Bruises,” Benign nails a self-destructive couple with lines like, “He made the money grow wings and fly free.” The Mike Benign Compulsion might not think much of the common man, but they do create a catchy fanfare.
Posted by Terry Flamm at 11:49 AM No comments: Links to this post
CD Review: Stag - Self-Titled
It's not surprising to find references to record stores and record players on Stag's self-titled, full-length debut. Or for that matter, a faithful cover of Eric Carmen's “Get The Message” from his days with Cyrus Erie in 1969. The Seattle-based Stag, fronted by vocalist Steve Mack of the UK’s That Petrol Emotion, packs a power pop wallop that harks back to an era when Cheap Trick and Carmen's better-known group, The Raspberries, pretty much released everything on vinyl.
Stag's chief songwriter, guitarist-singer Ben London, draws from a variety of influences, such as The Who on the energetic “Ides Of March,” and the original British Invasion on the catchy and fun tribute to indie labels, “Love Her Records.” London's knack for satire shines through on the galloping “Chameleons,” with its images of diners fighting over a check and urgent chorus of, “What are you waiting for, you’re running out of time.” The rollicking “Tiffany Rose” depicts a woman so caught up in the latest trends, she disappears within her high fashion clothes and make-up. Mack offers a wide range of vocal styles throughout these 12 tracks, and creates some inventive harmonies with London and guitarist-vocalist Lincoln Barr.
Big Ideas For 2013
Photo from Vicki Peterson's Facebook page. Is this the year she goes Psycho?
The Elvis Brothers once sang, “I got big ideas on my mind,” and the start of a new year always seems like the perfect time for people to present those ideas in the form of resolutions. So a while back I put out a request for musicians, writers, actors, directors, producers, artists, publicists, and all creative types to tell me what they’d love to accomplish in 2013.
I didn’t promote the concept as much as I should have, due mostly to the hectic holiday schedule. I’ve decided to extend the Big Ideas concept through the month, so that people who are interested in promoting their projects can still participate. Just send your 2013 creative goal to me in care of this blog, or if we’re Facebook friends, via a message. In the meantime, here’s a mix of predictions, suggestions, and responses.
“Record a new CD, reverse earth’s polarity BACK on 12/21, smile at strangers, and perfect cold fusion but keep it to themselves.” - Coed power pop band and International Pop Overthrow - Chicago regulars, The Right Tidys. So that’s how we escaped the Mayan Apocalypse!
According to an email I received from drummer Bobby Elliott on October 3rd, The Hollies plan to release a live CD at some point in 2013, “to round off 50 years of making records. We then tour New Zealand, Australia, and of course, here in Britain and Ireland.” Mr. Elliott and guitarist-vocalist Tony Hicks are the only remaining original members in the band. By the way, please come to America.
“I’ll be busy creating my comic strip, “Just Say Uncle,” three times a week, for Universal Press Syndicate’s GoComics website!” - Founder of power pop band The Bradburys/journalist/comic artist Dan Pavelich.
SUGGESTION: If WXRT gives us another Live From The Archives this year, they should also offer something to keep all the discs in. Either a blue diamond-shaped container, or a box with the FM rock station’s diamond logo in neon on top. It should be free to anyone who can prove they own all 15 volumes from the series.
“Sell one of my current books to a traditional publisher in a big house & write a new book that becomes a NYT bestseller for weeks on end. No biggie.” - Author Kym Brunner.
Good Ol’ Freda was one of many highly worthwhile Kickstarter projects that appeared in 2012. It’s a film about Freda Kelly, the official secretary of The Beatles International Fan Club pretty much for the band’s entire career. Kelly was a guest at Fest For Beatles Fans - Chicago in August and came across as totally charming. Good Ol’ Freda was also one of 10 films to receive a grant from The Women in Film Foundation as part of the 27th annual Film Finishing Fund. It would be nice to see it released some time this year.
“Take my creativity deeper through retreats with my fellow writers and wider by exploring different genres (MG and steampunk as well as YA SF), while continuing to grow my reader fanbase by writing and publishing fiction they want to read.” - Author Susan Kaye Quinn.
At some point in 2013, promoter David Bash will hit the road and start bringing International Pop Overthrow, his traveling showcase of power pop and indie rock bands to cities in the U.S., Canada, and England. Usually, IPO hits Chicago around the middle to end of April. I’m looking forward to another 10 days of discovery and fun.
“My goal for 2013 is to continue to work with incredibly cool bands. I am really grateful for the talented people I work with.” - PR Specialist at Western Publicity, Heather West.
My old comedy group, Famous In The Future, has been dabbling more and more with its alt rock side project, The Rut. Expect more of that in 2013. Also, founding member/performer/writer Frank Carr has been kicking around the idea of creating a documentary about Famous In The Future, which got its start in 1989.
“Continue work on our third album, which we've started recording with Daniel McMahon at The Midwest Sound in Rockford.” Mike Benign from The Mike Benign Compulsion.
A while back, Bangles vocalist-guitarist Vicki Peterson created a Kickstarter project with former Cowsills member Susan Cowsill, under the name, Psycho Sisters. There have also been reports of Bangles vocalist-guitarist Susanna Hoffs wrapping up her third Sid & Susie Under The Covers collaboration with Matthew Sweet. With any luck, we’ll see both of these efforts, as well as lots of other Bangles solo and group activity in the coming year.
“Focus on my craft to build stories and characters readers will remember.” - Author Veronica Rundell.
SUGGESTION: The Bangles should participate in the annual Record Store Day this April by releasing some sort of rarity on 45 RPM vinyl. Maybe a version of “I Can’t Let Go” by The Hollies, which Peterson and Cowsill covered when they were with The Continental Drifters.
“In response to an editor's suggestions and favorable critique of a picture book manuscript, I resolve to rewrite and create a sketched dummy/w 2 original illustrations ... and have closed my facebook accounts until I reach that goal.” - Book illustrator/writer Terri Murphy.
As for me, I’m determined to actively seek out a publisher and/or agent for my three novels. I’ve just completed one set in Chicago's alt-rock scene in the mid-1980s, but need to go back and make some edits so the narrative is more unified. I’ll be writing more about this book in the near future.
Warren Zevon Birthday Bash/Archie Powell And The E...
CD Review: Norwood Park All Stars - Northwest High...
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Popgun! graphic from The Jangle Band Facebook page.
They'll be setting up a Moral Kiosk tonight at Metro on Clark Street as tribute band Tributosaurus performs Murmur+ R.E.M.'s greatest hits. The 18 and older show, which is part of Metro's 33 1/3 Anniversary celebration, starts at 8:00 PM.
Local indie rock band Whitewolfsonicpricess is hosting a multi-act event called The Rock 'N' Roll Circus this Sunday at The Red Line Tap. Additional performers include the theatrical duo Citizen's Relief; performance artist KC Chronis; The Rut (a musical offshoot of the Famous In The Future comedy group); and The Telepaths, a garage rock band that includes James Moeller from Whitewolfsonicprincess and journalist and Famous In The Future cast member Pat Uber-Critic McDonald. Admission is $5.00 and the eclectic-ity starts at 4:00 PM. When I reviewed that last showcase Whitewolfsonicprincess staged at The Red Line Tap, I compared it to the freewheeling Abbie Hoffman Died For Our Sins festival that Mary-Arrchie hosts each year.
Actually, there will be only one more Abbie Fest since the Mary-Arrchie Theatre is calling 2015/16 its final season after 30 years of offering cutting-edge theatre on Chicago's north side. Mary-Arrchie is currently staging Henrik Ibsen's Ghosts through December 20. The play is directed by Neo-Futurists founding director Greg Allen.
Tickets went on sale today for Guster's January 29 show at the Vic Theatre. Other upcoming shows include Rhett Miller at City Winery on December 12 and Savages at Metro on April 7, 2016.
The Dandy Warhols will be at Thalia Hall in Chicago's Pilsen neighborhood next Thursday, November 19, with The Shivas as their opening act. On November 27 and 28, Houndmouth will be at Thalia Hall.
Chicago filmmaker Michael Smith's feature-length film Cool Apocalypse will receive its Chicago premiere at The Gene Siskel Film Center next Saturday, November 21at 8:00 PM. There will be another screening on Monday, November 23 at 8:15 PM. Smith also wrote the movie, which centers on twenty-somethings on Chicago's north side embarking on romantic adventures. From the description, it looks like a bit of paranormal activity may be involved as well.
Practice, practice, practice. Congratulations to Liverpool Legends on getting to Carnegie Hall. The Beatles tribute band has a March 5, 2016 date at the esteemed New York performance venue.
Gregory Curvey, who performs with the Chicago-based psyche band The Luck Of Eden Hall, has begun work on the soundtrack for the upcoming Traveling Without Moving from Dreaming Tree Films. The flick is about teenagers who search for their parents in another world, utilizing their science project. The Luck Of Eden Hall previously created the theme song for the Chicago WTTW TV show Moochie Kalala Detectives Club.
David Tennant and Billie Piper, who resolved potential disasters around the galaxy as The Doctor and Rose Tyler on Doctor Who, will be at Wizard World Comic Con in St. Louis, MO in early April and at Wizard World Comic Con in Madison, WI about a week later. Tennant portrayed the 10th version of The Doctor. Matt Smith, who followed him as the 11th Doctor, will be joining Karen Gillan and Jenna Coleman, (who portrayed his companions Amy Pond and Clara Oswald, respectively) at Wizard World Comic Con in New Orleans in January, and at Wizard World Comic Con in Portland in February. So far, there has been no mention of any of the above coming to Wizard World Comic Con in Chicago next August, but there's still time.
I've finally had a chance to check Peter Capaldi as the 12th version of The Doctor on Doctor Who, thanks to a DVD box set from the Palatine Public Library. Capaldi is definitely a change of pace from the younger Smith and Tennant, but he brings his own humor and dark-edged charisma to one of the most famous roles in sci-fi television. The way his Doctor spars with Coleman's Clara, and his awkward reactions to human emotions suggests an older Sheldon Cooper from The Big Bang Theory. As far as I know, there hasn't been a Doctor Who-related cameo on The Big Bang Theory, but it sure would be fun to see Tennant, Piper, Smith, Gillan, Coleman, or Capaldi drop in on Sheldon and Leonard.
SPACE in Evanston has announced upcoming shows for A Night Of Warren Zevon Songs performed by the tribute band Androgynous Mustache (January 21); Nicholas Tremulis and his Orchestra with Jay O'Rourke (January 29); Corky Siegel's Chamber Blues (February 6); Shawn Colvin (February 19 and 20); and Heather Nova on April 12.
Atlanta-based power pop trio The Head's new five-song EP Millipedes becomes available today on Spotify, iTunes, and other digital and retail outlets. There's a release party tonight at Lilypad in Cambridge, MA.
Phil Angotti and Tony Richards will be performing classic pop songs and original material next Thursday, November 19 at Davenport's Cabaret on Milwaukee Avenue in Chicago's Wicker Park neighborhood.
If you're looking for something to do on New Year's Eve and don't mind traveling to Australia, musician Joe Algeri has a four-band event called Popgun! scheduled at the Bassendean Hotel. The Jangle Band, one of Algeri's groups (he's also a member of The Britannicas); DM3; High Horse; and Surf Mist will be on hand to welcome in 2016. In the meantime, Algeri has created an Awards event via his Egomaniac Music company, and nominated himself for just about every category.
Ex Norwegian - Pure Gold
The Fifth Annual Holiday Shopping Guide
Friday, I'll Have Vinyl On My Mind
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Ooh You're A Holiday
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Brinsley Schwarz - Live Favourites
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FdM Split Single: Ex Norwegian And Permanent Clear...
The Red Line Tap Goes Psychedelic
Jack Ellister - Tune Up
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Renowned drummer Brad Elvis, who often tours as a member of The Romantics, has a gig next Saturday night at Quenchers Saloon with The Handcuffs, the Chicago-based band he leads with his wife Chloe F. Orwell. It’s a triple bill with Sadie And The Stark, billed as a “femme-rock, fantasy band for your soul, majoring in sci fi,” and El Gato Roboto, who describe themselves as “Bowie meets Nico, with songs about nostalgia, space and cats.” The Handcuffs have recorded three albums of catchy and inventive indie rock, and have had a number of their songs used on TV shows.
Beer and The Beatles. Ron Howard’s Beatles documentary Eight Days A Week (I posted a review this past Monday) continues its tour of Chicago area venues. It will be screened as part of The Vic’s Brew And View series, starting this Sunday night, and running through next Thursday.
Tickets went on sale today for Peter Asher’s January 15 concert at The Old Town School Of Folk Music. In addition to being half of the British Invasion duo Peter And Gordon, Asher is a sought-after producer who has worked with artists like James Taylor and Linda Ronstadt. I’ve seen him perform a few times in recent years, and he spins fascinating anecdotes in between performing songs with a first-rate backing band.
The Hollies are giving fans a chance to purchase a Fender Aerodyne that has been used by current member Steve Lauri on tour. Anyone interested can contact the band via its Official Facebook page.
Lloyd Cole is also coming to The Old Town School Of Folk Music, for a gig titled The Classic Lloyd Cole Songbook 1983 – 1996 on Sunday, November 20. Hopefully, that means he’ll be performing the exquisite pop tune “Jennifer She Said” and the film noir-infused “Perfect Skin,” and “Rattlesnakes.”
Tickets also went on sale today for a Houndmouth show at Thalia Hall on December 30.
Music On Stage is presenting its production of A Christmas Story The Musical at Cutting Hall in Palatine, starting this weekend. Patrons will be able to watch those dancing lamp legs through November 27.
The Fifth Annual Chicago Book Expo takes place this Sunday from 12:00 to 5:00 p.m. at Columbia College in the south end of downtown Chicago. Expo events include a tribute to the late Roger Ebert, and a panel on Chicago music and books moderated by rock critic/radio show host Jim DeRogatis and featuring musician/comic artist Steve Krakow, Sally Timms of The Mekons.
Congratulations to Mary-Arrchie Theatre on its production of American Buffalo being nominated in four categories for the 2016 BroadwayWorld Chicago Awards. All three performers—Richard Cotovsky, Rudy Galvan, and Stephen Walker—are up for Best Actor in a Play (Resident NonEquity); and Carlo Lorenzo Garcia is in the running for Best Direction of a Play (Resident NonEquity). Mary-Arrchie was also nominated for Best Ensemble (Resident) and Best Revival of a Play (Resident NonEquity). Cotovsky is currently performing in Raven Theatre’s staging of Betrayal; and Rudy Galvan is in the Gift Threatre Company’s production of A Life Extra Ordinary.
Here he comes. Barry Sutton, who performed with the short-lived but never forgotten U.K. band The La’s, will be at Martyrs’ on Lincoln Avenue this coming Monday night. Chicago’s own mischievous Penthouse Sweets, veterans of International Pop Overthrow - Chicago, along with some friends will also be on the bill.
Later in the week at Martyrs’, there’s a triple bill of Nice Motor—who have a pair of two cool new tracks in “Devils Handcuffs” and “Duck And Cover”— along with Even Thieves, and Blood People.
I already ran this last week, but I’m including it again because it seems like a good time to promote solidarity between men and women. Bono of U2 has been chosen as one of Glamour magazine’s Women Of The Year. An Associated Press piece quotes the publication’s editor Cindi Leive’s reasoning as, “There are so many men who really are doing wonderful things for women these days. Some men get it, and Bono is one of those guys.”
The eclectic and entertaining Robyn Hitchcock will be at City Winery Chicago next Thursday night, with Emma Swift as his opening act.
I was sad to hear the news that Robert Vaughn has passed away. I vividly remember a time when he and David McCallum, as Napoleon Solo and Illya Kuryakin respectively, seemed like the coolest guys in the world to me because of their lead roles on The Man From U.N.C.L.E.
Rob Clarke And The Wooltones – Are You Wooltoned?
Holiday Gift Guide – Part One
The Monos! - Live ’78
Saturday Slumgullion
Ex Norwegian - Glazer Hazerr
The Vulgar Boatmen - You And Your Sister - 25th An...
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Photo from The Regrettes Facebook page.
Some fun things around Chicago in the next few days.
The Los Anegles-based band The Regrettes return to the Chicago this Thursday night at The House Of Blues as the opening act for co-headliners The Interrupters and Swmrs. It looks to be an evening of vintage punk, and as young as they are, The Regrettes are authentic practitioners. On the quartet’s full-length debut Feel Your Feelings Fool, lead vocalist-guitarist and main songwriter Lydia Night consistently brings grit and humor to her lyrics.
The explosive but irresistible arrangements on songs like “I Don’t LikeYou” and “How It Should Be” tap also into the 1960s girl group sound in a way that’s reminiscent of the very early Go-Go’s. Even when Night creates upbeat romantic songs like “Hey Now” and “’Til Tomorrow,” they exude an off-kilter and vulnerable charm. “A Living Human Girl” mocks the limitations society places on women. The Regrettes have previously been in town for gigs at Riot Fest and Schubas.
Rhett Miller’s Holiday Extravaganza with Special Guest Matthew Ryan takes place this Thursday, November 30 at City Winery Chicago. Miller is the lead vocalist for the alt/roots rock band The Old 97s, and if you’ve seen them, you know he’s a high-energy, charismatic showman. It should be interesting to see how he works Old 97s classics like “Champaign, Illinois,” “Let’s Get Drunk And Get It On,” and “Time Bomb” into a holiday show.
WXRT overnight radio personality Emma Mac continues her series of Holiday Hours with Heineken events at venues around the Chicago this Thursday, November 30. The event will be at the Fado Irish bar on Grand Avenue. The festivities last from 5:00 to 7:00 p.m. and those who show up have a chance to win a Heineken guitar.
Bloodshot Records will be spinning tracks from its various artists Christmas album when it hosts a Holiday Pop Up Store on December 2 at its headquarters on Irving Park Road. The Chicago-based indie label is promising refreshments and snacks, along with exclusive holiday stuff like records, clothing, and signed memorabilia for sale. The event, which will run from noon to 7:00 p.m, ties in with Bloodshot’s seventh annual Stuffed Animal Drive, which collects soft toys and warm clothing.
Alt rock band whitewolfsonicprincess and garage rocker The Telepaths are holding a Toys For Tots Benefits Show on December 2 at Red Line Tap. Led by vocalist Carla Hayden and guitarist-vocalist James Moeller, whitewolfsonicprincess are veterans of Chicago’s holiday charity scene.
Music And Comic News
Various Artists - We Weren’t Meant To Last
Rock And Roll Holiday Gift Guide
Ooh, You’re A Holiday
Gee, But It’s Great To Be Back Home
Record Store Day Black Friday - For The Vinyl Junk...
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L'AMIE INCONNUE.
As we entered the breakfast-saloon, the Professor was saying "--and he had breakfast by himself, early: so he begged you wouldn't wait for him, my Lady. This way, my Lady," he added, "this way!" And then, with(as it seemed to me) most superfluous politeness, he flung open the door of my compartment, and ushered in "--a young and lovely lady!" I muttered to myself with some bitterness. "And this is, of course, the opening scene of Vol. I. She is the Heroine. And I am one of those subordinate characters that only turn up when needed for the development of her destiny, and whose final appearance is outside the church, waiting to greet the Happy Pair!"
"Yes, my Lady, change at Fayfield," were the next words I heard(oh that too obsequious Guard!), "next station but one." And the door closed, and the lady settled down into her corner, and the monotonous throb of the engine (making one feel as if the train were some gigantic monster, whose very circulation we could feel) proclaimed that we were once more speeding on our way. "The lady had a perfectly formed nose," I caught myself saying to myself, "hazel eyes, and lips--" and here it occurred to me that to see, for myself, what "the lady" was really like, would be more satisfactory than much speculation.
I looked round cautiously, and--was entirely disappointed of my hope. The veil, which shrouded her whole face, was too thick for me to see more than the glitter of bright eyes and the hazy outline of what might be a lovely oval face, but might also, unfortunately, be an equally unlovely one. I closed my eyes again, saying to myself "--couldn't have a better chance for an experiment in Telepathy! I'll think out her face, and afterwards test the portrait with the original."
At first, no result at all crowned my efforts, though I 'divided my swift mind,' now hither, now thither, in a way that I felt sure would have made AEneas green with envy: but the dimly-seen oval remained as provokingly blank as ever--a mere Ellipse, as if in some mathematical diagram, without even the Foci that might be made to do duty as a nose and a mouth. Gradually, however, the conviction came upon me that I could, by a certain concentration of thought, think the veil away, and so get a glimpse of the mysterious face--as to which the two questions, "is she pretty?" and "is she plain?", still hung suspended, in my mind, in beautiful equipoise.
Success was partial--and fitful--still there was a result: ever and anon, the veil seemed to vanish, in a sudden flash of light: but, before I could fully realise the face, all was dark again. In each such glimpse, the face seemed to grow more childish and more innocent: and, when I had at last thought the veil entirely away, it was, unmistakeably, the sweet face of little Sylvie!
"So, either I've been dreaming about Sylvie," I said to myself, "and this is the reality. Or else I've really been with Sylvie, and this is a dream! Is Life itself a dream, I wonder?"
To occupy the time, I got out the letter, which had caused me to take this sudden railway-journey from my London home down to a strange fishing-town on the North coast, and read it over again:-
"DEAR OLD FRIEND,
"I'm sure it will be as great a pleasure to me, as it can possibly be to you, to meet once more after so many years: and of course I shall be ready to give you all the benefit of such medical skill as I have: only, you know, one mustn't violate professional etiquette! And you are already in the hands of a first-rate London doctor, with whom it would be utter affectation for me to pretend to compete.(I make no doubt he is right in saying the heart is affected: all your symptoms point that way.) One thing, at any rate, I have already done in my doctorial capacity--secured you a bedroom on the ground-floor, so that you will not need to ascend the stairs at all.
"I shalt expect you by last train on Friday, in accordance with your letter: and, till then, I shalt say, in the words of the old song,
'Oh for Friday nicht! Friday's lang a-coming!'
"Yours always,
"ARTHUR FORESTER.
"P.S. Do you believe in Fate?"
This Postscript puzzled me sorely. "He is far too sensible a man," I thought, "to have become a Fatalist. And yet what else can he mean by it?" And, as I folded up the letter and put it away, I inadvertently repeated the words aloud. "Do you believe in Fate?"
The fair 'Incognita' turned her head quickly at the sudden question. "No, I don't!" she said with a smile. "Do you?"
"I--I didn't mean to ask the question!" I stammered, a little taken aback at having begun a conversation in so unconventional a fashion.
The lady's smile became a laugh--not a mocking laugh, but the laugh of a happy child who is perfectly at her ease. "Didn't you?" she said. "Then it was a case of what you Doctors call 'unconscious cerebration'?"
"I am no Doctor," I replied. "Do I look so like one? Or what makes you think it?"
She pointed to the book I had been reading, which was so lying that its title, "Diseases of the Heart," was plainly visible.
"One needn't be a Doctor," I said, "to take an interest in medical books. There's another class of readers, who are yet more deeply interested--"
"You mean the Patients?" she interrupted, while a look of tender pity gave new sweetness to her face. "But," with an evident wish to avoid a possibly painful topic, "one needn't be either, to take an interest in books of Science. Which contain the greatest amount of Science, do you think, the books, or the minds?"
"Rather a profound question for a lady!" I said to myself, holding, with the conceit so natural to Man, that Woman's intellect is essentially shallow. And I considered a minute before replying. "If you mean living minds, I don't think it's possible to decide. There is so much written Science that no living person has ever read: and there is so much thought-out Science that hasn't yet been written. But, if you mean the whole human race, then I think the minds have it: everything, recorded in books, must have once been in some mind, you know."
"Isn't that rather like one of the Rules in Algebra?" my Lady enquired.("Algebra too!" I thought with increasing wonder.) "I mean, if we consider thoughts as factors, may we not say that the Least Common Multiple of all the minds contains that of all the books; but not the other way?"
"Certainly we may!" I replied, delighted with the illustration. "And what a grand thing it would be," I went on dreamily, thinking aloud rather than talking, "if we could only apply that Rule to books! You know, in finding the Least Common Multiple, we strike out a quantity wherever it occurs, except in the term where it is raised to its highest power. So we should have to erase every recorded thought, except in the sentence where it is expressed with the greatest intensity."
My Lady laughed merrily. "Some books would be reduced to blank paper, I'm afraid!" she said.
"They would. Most libraries would be terribly diminished in bulk. But just think what they would gain in quality!"
"When will it be done?" she eagerly asked. "If there's any chance of it in my time, I think I'll leave off reading, and wait for it!"
"Well, perhaps in another thousand years or so--"
"Then there's no use waiting!", said my Lady. "Let's sit down. Uggug, my pet, come and sit by me!"
"Anywhere but by me!" growled the Sub-warden. "The little wretch always manages to upset his coffee!"
I guessed at once (as perhaps the reader will also have guessed, if, like myself, he is very clever at drawing conclusions) that my Lady was the Sub-Warden's wife, and that Uggug (a hideous fat boy, about the same age as Sylvie, with the expression of a prize-pig) was their son. Sylvie and Bruno, with the Lord Chancellor, made up a party of seven.
[Image...A portable plunge-bath]
"And you actually got a plunge-bath every morning?" said the Sub-Warden, seemingly in continuation of a conversation with the Professor. "Even at the little roadside-inns?"
"Oh, certainly, certainly!" the Professor replied with a smile on his jolly face. "Allow me to explain. It is, in fact, a very simple problem in Hydrodynamics. (That means a combination of Water and Strength.) If we take a plunge-bath, and a man of great strength (such as myself) about to plunge into it, we have a perfect example of this science. I am bound to admit," the Professor continued, in a lower tone and with downcast eyes, "that we need a man of remarkable strength. He must be able to spring from the floor to about twice his own height, gradually turning over as he rises, so as to come down again head first."
"Why, you need a flea, not a man!" exclaimed the Sub-Warden.
"Pardon me," said the Professor. "This particular kind of bath is not adapted for a flea. Let us suppose," he continued, folding his table-napkin into a graceful festoon, "that this represents what is perhaps the necessity of this Age--the Active Tourist's Portable Bath. You may describe it briefly, if you like," looking at the Chancellor, "by the letters A.T.P.B."
The Chancellor, much disconcerted at finding everybody looking at him, could only murmur, in a shy whisper, "Precisely so!"
"One great advantage of this plunge-bath," continued the Professor, "is that it requires only half-a-gallon of water--"
"I don't call it a plunge-bath," His Sub-Excellency remarked, "unless your Active Tourist goes right under!"
"But he does go right under," the old man gently replied. "The A.T. hangs up the P. B. on a nail--thus. He then empties the water-jug into it--places the empty jug below the bag--leaps into the air--descends head-first into the bag--the water rises round him to the top of the bag--and there you are!" he triumphantly concluded. "The A.T. is as much under water as if he'd gone a mile or two down into the Atlantic!"
"And he's drowned, let us say, in about four minutes--"
"By no means!" the Professor answered with a proud smile. "After about a minute, he quietly turns a tap at the lower end of the P. B.--all the water runs back into the jug and there you are again!"
"But how in the world is he to get out of the bag again?"
"That, I take it," said the Professor, "is the most beautiful part of the whole invention. All the way up the P.B., inside, are loops for the thumbs; so it's something like going up-stairs, only perhaps less comfortable; and, by the time the A. T. has risen out of the bag, all but his head, he's sure to topple over, one way or the other--the Law of Gravity secures that. And there he is on the floor again!"
"A little bruised, perhaps?"
"Well, yes, a little bruised; but having had his plunge-bath: that's the great thing."
"Wonderful! It's almost beyond belief!" murmured the Sub-Warden. The Professor took it as a compliment, and bowed with a gratified smile.
"Quite beyond belief!" my Lady added--meaning, no doubt, to be more complimentary still. The Professor bowed, but he didn't smile this time. "I can assure you," he said earnestly, "that, provided the bath was made, I used it every morning. I certainly ordered it--that I am clear about--my only doubt is, whether the man ever finished making it. It's difficult to remember, after so many years--"
At this moment the door, very slowly and creakingly, began to open, and Sylvie and Bruno jumped up, and ran to meet the well-known footstep.
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Foreign maids: a flourishing new market in Egypt - Daily News Egypt
In Focus Foreign maids: a flourishing new market in Egypt
Foreign maids: a flourishing new market in Egypt
Every month, hundreds of immigrants, whether Nigerians, Indonesians or Filipinos, arrive in Cairo seeking employment as cleaners and babysitters. More and more families are hiring foreigners rather than Egyptians as maids despite the higher financial cost. Daily News Egypt explores the burgeoning community of foreign maids in the country and also seeks out the fate of traditional Egyptian housemaids vis-a-vis the new configuration of domestic help within Egypt.
Ethar Shalaby May 12, 2013 47 Comments
Nigerian maids babysitting children in a kid’s area inside a shopping mall
(Photo by: Ethar Shalaby)
It’s a typical scene in one of Cairo’s most well known shopping areas, abuzz with families popping in and out of stores and stalls. To maximise their shopping experience, many parents have dropped their children off in a specialised kids’ area attached to the mall. Even a cursory glance into the fully-packed kids’ zone reveals the situation clearly. The majority of the children are accompanied by foreign babysitters. There is no doubt that the market of foreign maids in Egypt is on the rise, with six out of ten babysitters of African descent, and only one of the remaining four Egyptian.
About five years ago, only well off families had a foreign maid at home, most probably a Filipino dressed in a white uniform who was paid in US dollars. But inside an average Egyptian household, it was customary to have an Egyptian servant who came in once or twice a week for general cleaning, or else a teenage housemaid who permanently stayed in the house with a pre-agreed monthly vacation. Nowadays, the situation is vastly different. Many families have approached maid agencies to help them employ a foreign servant due to the unavailability of Egyptian maids. One of the primary reasons: many women in Egypt, especially working mothers, believe that there are potentially more problems with having an Egyptian domestic servant rather than a foreign maid.
Hanan Al-Moussa, a 35-year-old working mother, says she has stopped hiring Egyptian servants because of the “many bad experiences” she has witnessed with them. “Many of them have stolen my jewellery, money and children’s clothes… This is in addition to the poor quality of service they provide,” she says. Also, Al-Moussa, who is away from her house for 40 working hours per week, says Egyptian maids are not as responsible as foreign maids. “There is a really big difference between having an Egyptian babysitter who you know through a friend or relative, and a foreign maid who comes in through an agency,” she says. If a foreign maid steals anything from the house, the responsible agent knows how to either deduct the costs from her salary or to return the stolen items back to the house, explains Al-Moussa. “This is unlike Egyptian maids who are mostly thieves and cannot shoulder the responsibility of the entire house,” she generalises.
But Amira Saleh disagrees. “I have had many difficulties bringing a foreign maid into my home. They don’t understand what we say and their English is not so good. Most of them take at least three months to get accustomed to the house system,” she says. Saleh had a Nigerian housekeeper for almost four months and says the servant was “very slow… I would ask her to make me a cup of tea and she would make coffee with milk instead.”
Foreign maids are usually divided into categories based on experience. African immigrants, mainly coming from Nigeria, Ghana or Guinea, do not mind cleaning and babysitting at the same time. Newcomers who have been in Egypt less than three months earn about $400. Just one year ago, inexperienced Nigerian maids used to accept a monthly salary of $350. “Now the situation is different…They ask for more money because the demand is increasing every day,” says Essam Abdel Hamid, a maid agent who has been working in the field for more than seven years. He says that experienced African maids, who have been working in Egypt for more than a year, usually do not agree to do both housekeeping and babysitting. “They ask to do only one of the jobs because they feel they are more qualified than the newer, inexperienced ones,” he says. Abdel Hamid explains that an average African house helper works for 26 days with four days of vacation per month. “Some agree to sell their holidays while others do not… It depends on the agreement the maid has with the Madame (employer),” he elaborates.
Nigerian maid Dammy Oyinda after finishing the daily chore of cleaning the kitchen
A community of Nigerian maids
Dammy Oyinda, a Nigerian servant who has been in Egypt for over a year, says she used to work as a babysitter and a cleaner at the same time for about eight months, but now she only accepts cleaning assignments. “It is very hectic to work both. If the load is too much I can just change houses after three months,” she says. Oyinda explains that a group of about 30 Nigerian girls gather at the house of their Nigerian agent Khadija. “She is the one who brokers the deals to bring girls from Nigeria to Egypt. The agreement is that we come to Egypt and pay her our salary for the first year before we can save our own money,” she says.
Oyinda, whose Egyptian name is Salwa, is Christian, but she sometimes had to lie and claim she was a Muslim when she was working for a Muslim family. Speaking on how she finds work in Egypt, Salwa says she suffered a lot in the first three months and couldn’t change her job, but then she got used to the nature of the work. Originally a hairdresser in Nigeria, Oyinda says she had to come to Egypt to send money to her four-year-old daughter back home. “I want to make money here so when I go back to Nigeria, I can give people money, not ask them for money,” she says.
Nigerian maids are divided in Egypt exactly as they are in their homeland. Muslim servants come from the North and Christians are mainly from the South. “We do not speak the same language, but we are a growing number in Egypt,” Oyinda says, explaining that sometimes the large influx of Nigerian maids in Egypt leaves many unemployed. “A Madame can replace us anytime because there are hundreds of other Nigerian maids who are available to work instantly,” she says.
Khadija, who brings Nigerian girls to Egypt, travels every month to mediate agreements for more Nigerians who want to come for work. “Every month I return with about 20 new girls. They stay at my house and I take care of them,” she says. Upon their arrival, most Nigerians are able to secure five-year entry visas.
Oyinda says she usually turns to Khadija if she faces any difficulties with her Madame. “Sometimes my Madame wants to buy my holiday and I want to go and rest, so I call my agent to intervene,” she says.
Other Nigerian maids come with their husbands, who are usually workers in Egypt or students at Al-Azhar University. Rahomat Hussein is one of these. “I accompanied my husband who studies at [Al-Azhar] University. I have to work to help him. This is my first month in Egypt and I am happy,” she says. African maids who have their families in Egypt do not usually sell their holidays. Aisha, a maid from Guinea, says her husband does not allow her to sell her vacation because it is the only time they can meet. “He studies in the university and I have to work to help him with the accommodation costs. It is not easy working for an Egyptian family,” she says.
Abdel Hamid says that his office works closely with Nigerian agents. “They come with a couple of girls every day and wait in the office hall until a family calls for a suitable maid,” he says, explaining that he takes in their passports to guarantee that they will come back to the office in case any problem occurs with the house they have been working in. Abdel Hamid says most Egyptian households prefer maids from Ethiopia, but they have to take one day off every week. “They are cleaner than the Nigerians and the Ghanaians, but some people are afraid they carry HIV,” he claims.
Hala Amin, a mother of three, says she is always concerned about the health status of foreign maids. “It is easier to have a foreign maid, but I am always afraid they carry illness. I have to send them for blood tests to make sure they are healthy,” she says. Abdel Hamid does not conduct medical tests for African or Asian maids, but says the office can perform the checkups with extra fees.
Experienced Nigerian maids commonly perform domestic cleaning or babysitting roles
The maids of Southeast Asia
Abdel Hamid says that Indonesians and Filipinos are considered the “best” in the foreign maid market in Egypt, often earning the highest salaries in comparison to their counterparts. “An average Indonesian maid earns $700 a month and the average Filipino asks for $750 to $800,” he explains. Nesma Mohsen, who has an Indonesian maid named Fatima, says she is satisfied with the maid, but says the only problem with her is that she refuses to take care of the children for long periods. “She came in as a cleaner so she does not accept working as a babysitter at the same time. So I had to have another girl stay with the children when I am away,” says the mother of three.
From households to nurseries
Looking at the market for Egyptian maids, Abdel Hamid explains that they no longer accept work on a monthly basis. “I can provide an Egyptian servant for a one-day basis for the wage of EGP 70. None of them accept permanent work anymore,” he says. Om Ismail, an Egyptian housekeeper who also works as a porter, says she prefers to work in different houses throughout the week rather than committing to a certain family. “It is better that way because if I get into trouble with one Madame, I won’t lose the entire job and have to start looking for another one from scratch,” she says. Om Ismail explains that she used to work for one family for a month at a time but decided to switch between houses for a higher income.
Other younger Egyptian servants in their twenties refuse to work as housemaids. They prefer to explore other jobs such as nannies in nurseries or kindergarten schools. “I used to work as a housekeeper for EGP 750 a month, but the treatment is not good and the workload is too much,” says Noura, a 25-year-old Egyptian maid. “I applied as a cleaner in a nursery and it is a much more stable job.” Explaining the difference between working in the two environments, Noura believes that working in a nursery is “lighter” than in a house. “I work with 12 other nannies so the work load is lighter. It is fairly divided between all of us and at the end of the day it is better for us to work in a public place,” she says. Safaa, her colleague, who works as a nanny in the same nursery, says she stopped working in houses because she found it “humiliating”. “When I used to work as a cleaner in a house, I was ashamed to tell my friends or relatives about my work. Also, the financial compensation is very unfair,” she says. An average nanny in a middle-class nursery earns from EGP 900 to 1200 a month. “We also earn overtime for extra hours worked in the nursery,” Noura says.
For Egyptian households, Asian baby sitters are the most expensive among foreign maids to employ
With the rising number of working foreign maids in Egypt, Safaa and Noura believe that the demand for Egyptian servants is decreasing. “Many women prefer to have foreign maids because they believe they are more obedient and cleaner. But it depends from one Madame to another,” Safaa says. Noura says that she knows of working mothers who send their kids to nursery and others who hire a foreign babysitter to stay with the children at home. “Many complain that their care for children is not like ours. We speak the same language and we know how to pamper the kids and play with them,” Noura says. There are, however, some Egyptian maids who still prefer to work in houses, like wives of porters in several Cairo neighbourhoods. Many of them continue to seek jobs as domestic cleaners to provide extra income for their families. Others have been serving families for many years and their commitment to them obliges them to stay in their service. Karima, who has worked with the same family for more than 10 years, says it is hard for her to start seeking a new job even if the salary is higher.
“I have been working with this family for ages. I saw their major events and happenings and I feel I am part of the family,” she says, adding that as she is getting older her Madame is thinking about hiring a foreign maid to assist in the daily work, but that she would never let go of Karima. “Foreign maids can never replace Egyptian servants. They are temporary workers and will go back to their countries at some point. It is us who will be supportive to the families we work with for long periods,” says Karima.
Despite the decreasing demand for Egyptian servants, many working mothers remain indecisive on whether to hire a foreign maid who provides a more stable service for a higher financial cost, or to rely on Egyptian cleaners who find it easier to switch in between jobs and are considered by some to represent a riskier choice when hiring home help.
Topics: Egyptians help home house Immigrants
Ethar Shalaby
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https://cdn2.dailynewsegypt.com/2013/05/12/foreign-maids-a-flourishing-new-market-in-egypt/
In Cartoon: Baby formula shortage becomes Egypt’s latest crisis
May 12, 2013 Breaking News
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Event explores Jews, Mennonites and the Holocaust
November 20, 2019 | News | Volume 23 Issue 21
John Longhurst | Winnipeg Free Press
Wally and Millie Kroeker of River East (MB) Church talk to presenter Aileen Friesen, right, at ‘ Jews, Mennonites and the Holocaust,’ a public presentation at the Asper Jewish Community Centre in Winnipeg on Nov. 5. (Photo by John Longhurst)
About 80 years ago, Jews and Mennonites lived peacefully together in the Ukrainian city of Khortitsa. Then the Nazis came, and everything changed.
In 1941, before the invasion, Khortitsa had about 2,000 Mennonites and 402 Jews out of a population of about 14,000. A year or so later, the Jews were all gone, killed by the Nazis.
Did the Mennonites know what happened to their neighbours? And did some help with the killings? Those were the questions addressed on Nov. 5 at a public lecture entitled “Jews, Mennonites and the Holocaust.”
The event, which was attended by an overflow audience of about 175 people, featured Mennonite historians Aileen Friesen, executive director of the D.F. Plett Historical Research Foundation, and Hans Werner, a retired professor of Mennonite history from the University of Winnipeg.
Friesen, who spoke about the experience of Jews and Mennonites under the German occupation, began her presentation by noting that the last major massacre of Jews in the region occurred in 1942 in the nearby city of Zaporizhzhia, across the river from Khortitsa.
About the same time as 3,000 Jews were being murdered, Mennonites—who were treated well by the Nazis because they were seen as ethnic Germans—were celebrating their newfound liberation from communist oppression at Easter church services.
“The image is stark,” she stated, of how Mennonites benefitted under German occupation while Jews were “subjected to unspeakable violence.”
While most Mennonites didn’t participate in the genocide against the Jews, some did collaborate, serving as mayors, police or other officials. Some were also members of local security forces that rounded up and murdered Jews.
For decades, Mennonite scholars “have struggled with issues of collaboration,” she said. But the recent discovery of records from the former Soviet Union provide “concrete evidence” of Mennonite participation in the Holocaust.
Since much of the new material comes from Soviet interrogation records from after the war, it has to be “treated with caution,” she acknowledged. But together with other historical records and recollections, it is “clear” some Mennonites aided the Nazis in killing Jews.
In his presentation, Werner dealt with the way Mennonites have remembered their wartime experience in the Ukraine.
Referencing memoirs written by Mennonites after the war, he noted that the Holocaust usually only makes cameo appearances. Most focus on Mennonite life before the Russian revolution, the subsequent loss and displacement under the Soviets, and their own suffering during and after the Second World War.
These memories are coloured by how the German invasion of Russia was “a relief from Soviet oppression,” he said, adding that they also fit neatly into “Cold War logic” after the war, when the Soviet Union was seen as the enemy.
Some memoir writers who mentioned the Holocaust promoted a sense of “equivalence between the killing of the Jews and Mennonite suffering [under the Soviets],” he said, or they blamed the Nazis for their deaths.
Dan Stone, co-chair of the program committee for the Jewish Heritage Centre, summed up the presentations by saying it “was exciting to see the Mennonite community looking at its past and giving praise where it is deserved, and blame where it is deserved.”
He praised Friesen and Werner for “facing the past directly and honestly,” and for taking a hard look “at what actually happened, without fear of what they are going to find.”
During a Q&A period, the two were asked why it has taken so long for this story to be told.
Werner replied that it is partly due to a new generation asking questions of their parents and grandparents, and also because some are feeling a need to tell their stories before they pass away.
It’s also “not a good story” to tell, he said, noting that even he was nervous speaking about it in a Jewish community centre.
Friesen added that it is also happening because of new historical records that have just become available in the last 10 to 15 years. “Now we can put things together,” she said.
At the end of the evening, Dan Klass, a member of the Jewish community whose parents came from the Khortitsa region to Winnipeg in 1913, noted the similarities between that community almost 80 years ago and Winnipeg today. Like back then, Winnipeg is a mix of Mennonites and Jews, he said, noting that relations between the two communities are good—despite this terrible history.
“We should celebrate and cherish this, and make sure Winnipeg is a place where it never happens again,” he said.
This article appears in the Nov. 25, 2019 print issue, with the headline "‘Jews, Mennonites and the Holocaust.’" Originally published in the Nov. 7 Winnipeg Free Press. Reprinted with permission of the author.
Mennonites and Jews in Khortitsa
Submitted by Walter Bergen on Mon, 2019-11-25 08:08
Thank you for reporting on an important chapter in the ongoing attempt to articulate a truthful history.
One observation: In the opening sentence, Brother Longhurst makes it sound like some idyllic Eden, this place Khortitsa. Is this not located in Ukraine where a decade before the famine/genocide known as the Holodomor left millions dead, and millions more scarred? And then the Great Terror?
Fracturing society was a state policy, and neither Jews nor Mennonites were immune from that pernicious evil.
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Money isn’t everything for the new generation of entrepreneurs
By Sam Dumitriu @Sam_Dumitriu
Photo: Ezra Bailey / Getty Images
We should be indifferent if individuals prefer to trade off lower incomes for greater flexibility
Young entrepreneurs want to improve the country, not just make a fast buck
What motivates entrepreneurs may be a key factor in Britain's poor productivity growth
Over the past decade, the British people have become more entrepreneurial. Fifteen years ago, Brits were just as likely to be engaged in early-stage entrepreneurial pursuits as Germans and the French.
Today, Britain has become a ‘mid-Atlantic’ economy. We may not be as entrepreneurial as Americans, but we’ve broken ahead of Germany and France. One of the key drivers of this shift is a rise in the number of young people starting companies, with the rate more than doubling in some parts of the UK.
Young people increasingly see entrepreneurship as an option. New polling from ComRes, commissioned by The Entrepreneurs Network and Octopus Group, finds that over half of young people have considered starting or have started a business.
As the UK faces major economic headwinds, the willingness of young people to give it a go and start a business is a rare bright spot. Yet our entrepreneurial boom hasn’t been sufficient to make up for lost productivity in finance, pharmaceuticals, or utilities.
Ask a Minister at BEIS why and they’ll invariably recite the conventional wisdom: “The UK is a great place to start a business, but not yet a great place to scale one”. But does this ring true? British startups can take advantage of powerful tax breaks such as the Enterprise Investment Scheme, one of the world’s best financial sectors, flexible labour laws and a well-educated workforce.
The UK’s seeming inability to translate a high start-up rate into higher productivity growth might be explained by a deeper look at the motivations, aspirations, and expectations of business owners. According to data from the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor, while a quarter of US and European early-stage entrepreneurs expect to create more than 10 jobs and have 50% or more job growth in the next five years, only a sixth of British early-stage entrepreneurs expect to do the same.
Researchers draw a distinction between necessity and opportunity entrepreneurs. In a recession, people who have lost their jobs tend to start businesses. Indeed, in 2011 we saw a temporary surge in entrepreneurship. Yet the rise in self-employment and entrepreneurship in the UK has coincided with record levels of employment.
New polling offers a better explanation. When young people are asked what has motivated them to consider starting a business, they are more likely to say it was the desire “to be your own boss” or to have the “freedom to do what I want”, rather than wanting to be wealthy. Money is still a motivation but it’s not in the top three.
This is significant because there’s evidence to suggest that an entrepreneur’s motivations shapes the sort of business they create. One study from Wharton finds that a desire for independence is negatively associated with intended and achieved employment growth.
If you want more freedom, it’s far from clear that founding a high-growth company is the easiest way to get it. Staying small might be a better option, if you want fewer commitments and responsibilities.
It’s not clear what, if anything, policymakers should do about this. While there have been concerns about the rise of self-employment, and the gig economy in particular, there’s evidence to suggest that people are happier when they work for themselves. One study from Carl Benedikt Frey and Thor Berger of the Oxford Martin School found that Uber drivers had higher life satisfaction in spite of earning below average wages. We should be indifferent if individuals prefer to trade off lower incomes for greater flexibility.
There is a positive story too. As well as a desire for independence, young people expressed an interest in starting businesses to make a positive difference to society and work on ideas and causes they are passionate about. Even though Jack Ma recently mocked the tendency of Silicon Valley startups to talk about how they are ‘making the world a better place’, it’s surely a good thing that more young people want to tackle society’s pressing problems.
For the next generation of entrepreneurs money isn’t everything, it’s about flexibility and the opportunity to ‘do good’ too. If the Government wants to support the founders of the future, they need to ensure they’re prepared and understand the risks of starting a business, while working hard to remove the barriers faced by the most ambitious entrepreneurs.
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Sam Dumitriu is Research Director at The Entrepreneurs Network
Low-cost private schools are a lifeline for the poor
James Tooley - 21 Jan 2020
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Reinventing the healthcare sector with Artificial Intelligence
by Cardiotrack | Jul 2, 2018 | Voicendata
From diagnosis and monitoring of chronic diseases to robotic surgeries, here’s how artificial intelligence is reimagining the healthcare sector in India and the world
Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) have already started making inroads into various industries. Healthcare is emerging as one of the biggest beneficiaries of the AI revolution. The technology is capable of facilitating easy and secure access to patient medical data, understanding and analysing their conditions. This ultimately helps improve accuracy and efficiency in the diagnosis and modernisation of health care practices.
An example of an elementary implementation of AI is the use of chatbots and virtual assistants that can take care of basic yet tedious tasks like registering medical records, clinical workflows and monitoring lab results – all in an automated and secure process. Another example is applying machine-learning algorithms to patient-generated data to tailor new treatment plans that will eventually help better serve individuals.
AI in healthcare: Opportunities for the world and India
According to an Accenture report published in December 2017, key clinical healthcare AI apps can create $150 billion in annual savings for the United States healthcare economy by 2026. “Growth in the AI health market is expected to reach $6.6 billion by 2021—that’s a compound annual growth rate of 40%,” says the report.
Another report by the CIS India published earlier this year, AI could help add $957 billion to the Indian economy by 2035. “…investment in AI in the Indian healthcare industry appears to be growing. For example, of the $5.5 billion raised by global digital healthcare companies In the July-September 2017 quarter, at least 16 Indian healthcare IT companies received funding,” the report said.
“State governments are also providing support to AI startups – with reports quoting the Karnataka government mobilising 2,000 crore by 2020 towards supporting the same. The Karnataka government also has a Startup Policy and Karnataka Information Technology Venture Capital Fund that can support AI startups,” it added.
A Transparency Market Research (TMR) report published in May 2017 suggests that the global healthcare automation market is growing at a CAGR of 8.8% and will touch $58.98 billion by the end of 2025, up from $28.31 billion in 2016.
Top AI implementation in healthcare
One of the biggest advantages of AI is going to be diagnosis. The technology can help industry stakeholders collate the massive health data that is available. It is estimated that more than 80% of the health data is unstructured, making it invisible to current systems, according to a PWC report.
Fortunately, technology firms like IBM and Google have already come up with solutions. Google’s DeepMind Health platform is working with clinics and health institutes across the world to implement Artificial Intelligence.
IBM’s popular AI, Watson, is using cognitive technology to process and analyse the vast data. “Watson can review and store far more medical information – every medical journal, symptom, and case study of treatment and response around the world – exponentially faster than any human. And it doesn’t just store data, it’s capable of finding meaning in it. Unlike humans, its decisions are all evidence-based and free of cognitive biases or overconfidence, enabling rapid analysis and vastly reducing – even eliminating – misdiagnosis,” according to a PWC report.
Monitoring of Chronic Conditions
Conditions like diabetes, cholesterol, fertility issues and cardiac heath are managed by regular monitoring and lifestyle changes. Chronic conditions are the single- largest burden on healthcare systems globally. Connected POC devices help generate a lot of data about the user’s body parameters. This can be combined with lifestyle information like food habits, exercise, etc, by an AI algorithm to help manage the conditions and adjust dosage of medication.
AI assisted Robotic Surgery
AI assisted robotics can guide the surgeon’s instrument during a procedure, cutting down the time required to do the surgery and reducing complications.
A lot of pathological evaluations like microscopy for infections like malaria, differential counts, etc, depend on image analysis. Similarly, finding out abnormalities in an MRI scan is done through manual analysis by a radiologist. In both the cases, AI can help by screening the image analysis to help the pathologist or the radiologist give a faster and more accurate diagnosis.
Using the fitness wearables
From Fitbit, Xiaomi Mi Band to Apple Watch, there are a number of smart fitness-focused wearables available. These fitness devices are coupled with applications that provide a deeper insight on the individual’s health on a daily basis. What AI can do is here is create an encrypted data and share it with the doctors or relevant people to help the individuals with better and personalised suggestions to help achieve their fitness goals.
The AI has the potential to help researchers create drugs as well. One of the popular names in this field is Atomwise, which uses deep learning process to reduce the time taken to discover new drugs. The six-year-old company raised more than $51 million in funding earlier this year. The company also said that it is offering over 50 molecular discovery programmes.
Even IBM is utilising its Watson AI to help accelerate drug research. “The platform allows researchers to generate new hypotheses with the help of dynamic visualizations, evidence-backed predictions and natural language processing trained in the life sciences domain. It is used by pharmaceutical companies, medical device companies and academic institutions to assist with new drug target identification and drug repurposing,” IBM explains on its website.
AI in Healthcare and India
India is also joining a growing list of the countries that are using AI in the healthcare. The adoption of AI in India is being propelled by the likes of Microsoft and a slew of health-tech startups. For instance, Manipal Hospitals, headquartered in Bengaluru, is using IBM Watson for Oncology, a cognitive-computing platform, to assist physicians discover personalised cancer care options, according to an Accenture report. For cardiac care, Columbia Asia Hospitals in Bengaluru is leveraging startup Cardiotrack’s AI solutions to predict and diagnose cardiac diseases.
“Last year the company embarked on Healthcare NExT, a Microsoft initiative which aims to accelerate healthcare innovation through AI and cloud computing. By working side-by-side with the healthcare industry’s most pioneering players, we are bringing Microsoft’s capabilities in research and product development to help healthcare providers, biotech companies and organizations across India use AI and the cloud to innovate,” said Anil Bhansali, Corporate Vice President, Cloud & Enterprise, Managing Director, Microsoft India (R&D) Private Limited.
Some of the initiatives of Microsoft India in healthcare include a Microsoft Intelligent Network for Eyecare (MINE) project where the company is working the government of Telangana for its Rashtriya Bal Swasthya Karyakram. The state government has adopted the MINE an AI platform to reduce avoidable blindness.
Microsoft also has a partnership with Apollo Hospitals to use AI for early detection of cardiac diseases. “The partnership between Microsoft and Apollo will enable to develop and deploy new machine learning models to predict patient risk for heart disease and assists doctors on treatment plans,” said Anil.
Healthi is a four-year-old Bengaluru-based digital health and wellness startup. The company uses predictive analytics, personalisation algorithms and machine learning to deliver personalised health suggestions.
“India faces a chronic disease risk burden. It is on its way to becoming the diabetic capital of the world with about 6% of the population diagnosed with the condition. A quarter of the population has high blood pressure or hypertension. Not just this, many people especially those in the age group of 25 to 40 are also being diagnosed with cardiovascular diseases (Journal of the American Medical Association (Jama) Internal Medicine). Thus, prevention and management of chronic diseases is an area where AI-led user engagement solutions can play a vital role,” said Rekuram Varadharaj, Co-founder and COO, healthi.
“India is extremely short in doctors at all levels, General Physicians to diagnose and help manage chronic conditions to specialist’s in Pathology and radiology. AI can help the doctors in faster diagnosis allowing them to focus on reviewing the data given by AI algorithms and work on complicated cases that AI cannot handle,” said Aayush Rai, Co-Founder, Inito, a Bengaluru-based start up.
by Cardiotrack | Feb 8, 2018 | Voicendata
Arun Jaitley and Jeff Bezos
Searching the vast Internet, I was unable to find a site or a news item where India’s Finance Minister Arun Jaitley and world’s richest man Jeff Bezos are mentioned together. And, yet as I got up this morning, both were on my mind because they have both decided to do something about making healthcare more affordable for people from low income families in two of the world’s largest democracies.
As part of the India’s 2018 Budget, Arun Jaitley announced a health insurance plan for 500 million low income citizens of India. Almost at the same time, Jeff Bezos announced low cost healthcare services to many of people in USA who are finding it increasingly difficult to get healthcare services.
Is this a coincidence? Or is this caused by super blue blood moon of 2018? We will never know.
And, look at the contrasting public health spending in these two countries – Present public healthcare spending in the USA is USD 4800 per citizen, while in India the figure is USD 26 per citizen. From public healthcare spending point of view, these two countries are almost two ends of the spectrum. It turns out that no healthcare system in any country is perfect, barring Singapore which has less population than a suburb of Bangalore. Common problems faced by healthcare planners are:
– Huge imbalance in demand (number of patients) and supply (physicians, specialists, care facility and infrastructure)
– High concentration of healthcare infrastructure in urban centers thus leaving a significant population base with very few care facilities
– Sharp increase in chronic disease patients
– High cost to the society due to avoidable invasive procedures
– Distance to diagnostics centers and tertiary care facilities
– Many avoidable deaths and huge loss of productivity due to delayed diagnosis
The root cause of these problems is the fact that significant investments have gone into technologies and infrastructure for tertiary care and decline of primary care or care close to home. Both Jaitley and Bezos have proposed plans that almost identical in their approach to address the healthcare problems in India and the USA:
– Better healthcare services at home or closer to home. In India, the emphasis is to improve primary care significantly. In the US, the approach is greater use of tele-medicine
– Success of both these plans depend on better use of technologies to deliver better care outcomes and reduce cost to the beneficiaries
What Jaitley and Bezos need is greater use of IoT and AI to make this happen. Companies like Cardiotrack and American Well are likely beneficiaries of these initiatives. These companies have demonstrated how technology can be deployed to optimally use available resources and drive down costs and provide better health outcomes.
Congratulations – @arunjaitley and @JeffBezos for your bold move to provide better healthcare to people who can least afford it. This is nation building at its best.
How Cardiotrack is Changing The Cardiac Care Landscape
It has been scientifically proven that cardiovascular problems are genetically coded in South Asians so it is particularly critical to the Indian sub-continent where about 2.3 million people die of cardiovascular diseases every year.
Clearly the need of the hour is preventive care, something that warns against impending heart attacks. Something as simple as quick heart check-up while visiting the family doctor or neighbourhood clinic can save millions of lives. An easy, non-invasive test that gives both doctor and patient (if she asks for it) a snapshot of her cardiac condition. The answer is, Cardiotrack – a smartphone size device that is AI powered and gives clinical grade ECG readings.
Cardiotrack’s journey has been reasonably well documented, however what needs careful attention now is its metamorphosis from medical device company to cardiac care evangelist. By reading and assimilating information which is then routed through the AI platform, the humble little device has created an evocative picture of heart health across age groups and geographies. The result is a series of stories of how individuals who were almost at the cusp of a heart attack were saved because cardiac diagnosis was possible close to home.
While this is indeed heartening for the co-founders of the company what makes it even more worthwhile is the fact that many of the lives saved are of poor farmers whose deaths would’ve orphaned their families.
In over 60-70 scans taken per day at least one critical condition like STEMI or myocardial infarction is found translating to almost 20 critical cases per month and this is just for a small area within India. What is scarier than these numbers is the fact that most of these patients are unaware of their poor heart health condition.
Addressing a complex and chronic problem like cardiovascular diseases is a global challenge that needs to be solved and Cardiotrack is working to prove that the combination of Artificial Intelligence and IoT will help in breaching the numbers. An additional advantage is that this will lay the foundation for preventive cardiac care in the overall healthcare scenario.
Cardiotrack’s IoT (internet of things) device captures a patient’s heart signals accurately and the AI platform gives an accurate diagnosis, which allows both the general physician and the patient a glimpse into her heart condition even if there is no cardiologist available. The diagnosis is sufficient to trigger an intervention if necessary. The enormity of this is truly amazing and in the case of the patient, life-saving.
A simple, pragmatic and scaleable solution…that’s what cardiac care needs to save lives consistently and help it to leapfrog the urban-rural divide.
The data that the device has gathered creates a cardiac health map of the regions where it is used extensively, cutting across age groups and ethnicities. The result is that government healthcare bodies, hospitals, physicians, drug manufacturers and medical researchers can use it to make cardiac care more predictive and preventive.
As an organization that is working to ensure that heart health is not within the reach of only a privileged few, Cardiotrack believes in the fact that data should not be a proprietary asset. Instead, it should be used judiciously for the greater good.
The future of cardiac care is on track for better times. With Cardiotrack working to ensure that more people from disadvantaged regions and communities come within the purview of preventive cardiac care, a healthier nation and society is within grasp.
by Cardiotrack | Jan 31, 2018 | Voicendata
Bangalore-based start-up, Cardiotrack, which provides best-in-class predictive diagnosis for cardiovascular diseases announced today that it has expanded its presence in North India with its partnership with Gurgaon based multi-speciality hospital, Paras Hospitals, Gurgaon. This expansion will consolidate Cardiotrack’s position
“We are delighted to partner with Cardiotrack to reach out to a wide spectrum of population in Gurgaon and surrounding areas. By providing them with excellent preventive cardiac care we are working hard to ensure that the number of cardiovascular deaths is brought down.”
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A Talk with 2017 ACM Fellow, Steve Seitz
by ACM SIGGRAPH | posted in: ACM SIGGRAPH, Awards, Graphics, Industry Leaders, Research | 0
By Melanie A. Farmer
Steven Seitz’s work in teleportation and virtual reality is giving people the ability to feel like they are somewhere they are not; essentially, transporting them to a physical experience with VR technology, novel camera technologies and Google’s powerful data centers and algorithms. Seitz, professor of computer science at University of Washington at Seattle (UW), also leads the teleportation group at Google.
Seitz is part of a new class of recently announced ACM fellows, 54 members in total, whose expansive expertise in computer vision and computer graphics has made a significant impact globally and in the way we live and work in our everyday lives. These new ACM fellows join an elite group of researchers and academicians that represent less than one percent of ACM’s overall membership.
“I was floored that many of the colleagues I most admire would take the time and effort to nominate me for this honor,” says Seitz.
The 2017 fellows have been cited for numerous contributions in areas including artificial intelligence, big data, computer architecture, computer graphics, high performance computing, human-computer interaction, sensor networks, and wireless networking. ACM will formally recognize Seitz as a new ACM fellow at its annual awards banquet, to be held in San Francisco on June 23, 2018.
Seitz, who began working with Google in 2010, has spent his career focusing on problems in computer graphics and computer vision. His research aims to capture the structure, appearance, and behavior of the real world in digital imagery, and more recently his attention has been spent making advances in virtual reality, augmented realty, and teleportation.
“We are focused on inventing ways to capture and transmit the world’s places, people, and events,” he notes of his work at UW. “Imagine watching an NBA game projected holographically onto your table top or communicating with remote family, friends, and colleagues as if you were physically all together, or even preserving your life’s important moments in a way that you can literally step back into them later.”
To explore these possibilities and other research problems in VR and AR, Seitz and UW colleagues Ira Kemelmacher-Shlizerman and Brian Curless have launched a new interdisciplinary center at UW. The UW Reality Lab, unveiled on Jan. 8, is being funded by Facebook, Oculus, Google and Huawei, and aims to advance the state of the art in virtual and augmented reality by developing new technologies and applications, educating the next generation of researchers and technologists, and supporting robust collaborations with industry.
After receiving his B.A. in computer science and mathematics at UC Berkeley and Ph.D. in computer science at University of Wisconsin at Madison, Seitz conducted research at Microsoft, working in the tech giant’s Vision Technology Group and Interactive Visual Media Group. His work with collaborators Noah Snavely and Rick Szeliski formed the basis of Microsoft’s Photosynth, one of the early photography apps that enabled users to create realistic 3-D views of objects and locations through their still photos. Prior to joining the faculty at UW in 2000, Seitz was an assistant professor and later an adjunct assistant professor at the Robotics Institute at Carnegie Mellon University.
For Seitz, the old adage, “right place, right time,” so to speak, plays a key role in how the next big research idea materializes.
“I’m a big fan of timing, where suddenly, due to one breakthrough, another becomes possible,” he adds. “A good example,” he explains, “is Photo Tourism, a project that would not have been possible even six months prior. It built on two new breakthroughs that had just arrived at the same time—Internet photo sharing, as in Flickr, and [Google research scientist] David Lowe’s SIFT work. This kind of serendipitous timing motivates many of my projects at UW and Google.”
At Google, Seitz has been involved in developing the imagery experience in recent versions of Google Maps. He has enjoyed seeing his work roll out now in several VR technologies, including Google Jump, Cardboard Camera, and VR mode in YouTube.
ACM Fellows, ACM SIGGRAPH, Google, Steven Seitz, Teleportation, Virtual Reality
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Connections: The UTC English Department Blog
03/20/2019 View Online →
Alum Spotlight: Rachel Wright
Rachel Wright, BA 2011, MA 2016
EVENT CANCELED: Rachel Wright’s talk postponed! Look for a future announcement about the new date.
Until then, read up on Wright and her UTC graduate and undergraduate experiences:
“Be confident in the skills you’ve developed. There are countless opportunities to use your degree and find meaningful work.”
Rachel (Sauls) Wright’s academic and professional success, as well as her growing list of accomplishments, offers a convincing rebuttal to the unfortunately common criticism of English degrees. Wright has answered the “what do you plan to do with that English degree?” question by becoming a prolific writer and holding the Internal Communications & Media Relations Manager position at Mohawk Industries, a S&P 500 company. Dedicated to her undergraduate studies at UTC, she earned two B.A. degrees in English and Communications (2011), neither of which hindered her employment status, as she was soon thereafter hired by the world’s largest flooring company, Mohawk Industries. While working full-time, maintaining family and spousal relationships, friendships, and taking care of a “lazy pet,” Wright decided to head back to UTC to earn an English M.A., which she completed in 2016.
Rachel will soon give a talk, “I got a job with an English degree, and you can too,” to English undergraduate and graduate students. There will be pizza!
Engaging students, Inspiring change, and Enriching community.
The University of Tennessee at Chattanooga is a comprehensive, community-engaged campus of the University of Tennessee System.
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Santo Domingo Dominican Republic Temple
99th dedicated temple in operation
© Michael Provard. All rights reserved.
Avenida Bolivar no. 825
10106 Santo Domingo, Distrito Nacional
Telephone: (+1) 809-731-2000
Street Map – Nearby Hotels
Clothing rental available
Cafeteria food served
Patron housing available
Distribution center nearby (Store Locator)
Groundbreaking and Site Dedication:
18 August 1996 by Richard G. Scott
Public Open House:
26 August–9 September 2000
17 September 2000 by Gordon B. Hinckley
Exterior Finish:
Regina white granite
Ordinance Rooms:
Four ordinance rooms (two-stage progressive) and four sealing
67,000 square feet
Temple Locale
The site of the Santo Domingo Dominican Republic Temple is on a tree-covered, slightly elevated location in a southern, upscale area just a few minutes from the center of Santo Domingo next to the National Music Conservatory. The beautiful site, open to the public, offers an expansive view of the Caribbean Sea to the south.
Temple Facts
The Santo Domingo Dominican Republic Temple was the first temple built in the Caribbean and in the Dominican Republic.
Groundbreaking Ceremony
At the groundbreaking ceremony, Elder Scott challenged members to have a temple recommend with them at the time of the temple dedication and to keep it renewed from then on. He gave several suggestions for members to follow including making Christ the center of your life, determining to follow His teachings, and seeking His will and making it your will.
Elder F. Burton Howard, also present at the ceremony, noted that family ties are stronger than any other relationships. He pointed in the congregation to the large group of full-time missionaries. The missionaries had walked to the ceremony a distance of about three miles from a nearby meetinghouse where they had just attended a countrywide, three-mission conference. They gathered on the east side of a rope barrier across the way from many family members that the missionaries had not seen for a long time. "Many of the parents strained to wave to the missionaries when they came on the site. Many parents, who had not seen their sons and daughters for some time, were anxious to reach them, but they could not because of the barrier that had been placed there for the ceremony,'' said Elder Howard. He used this analogy to explain the purpose of temples. "How tragic it would be if, in the life after this, families were separated,'' he said. "The purpose of temples is to enable families and loved ones to live together. This cannot be done without the ordinances performed in the House of the Lord'' (Church News, 24 August 1996).
"We must build more temples, and we must build them more quickly. This is the season to build temples. They are needed, and we have the means to do so. The Lord will hold us accountable if we do not work with greater accomplishment than we are now doing."
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Mechanical maintenance student launches career before graduation
Lupe Camacho is at the top of his class – and hired.
Recommended by instructors in the College of the Mainland Mechanical Maintenance Technician Program, Camacho, of Seabrook, was hired by INEOS Olefins and Polymers USA for its two-year apprenticeship program.
“College of the Mainland has a strong working relationship with INEOS. In June INEOS called and said that they had an opening for their apprenticeship program for a mechanical maintenance technician. They asked that our students apply and that the instructors provide a recommendation letter on each applicant,” said Laura Baumgartner, director of COM continuing education industrial workforce programs.
“Our instructors came from industry; therefore, they know what employers are looking for, good work ethic, desire to learn and ability to work well with their peers. Camacho is an outstanding student and is just one of many that have been hired from COM.”
Now in addition to hands-on instruction in classes two evenings per week, Camacho works full-time at the INEOS Battleground Manufacturing Complex in La Porte to learn the trade. He completed beginner and intermediate mechanical maintenance technician certificate programs at COM before beginning the apprenticeship two weeks ago.
“The benefits are really good as an apprentice. I get all the benefits, bonuses, overtime,” said Camacho.
Camacho is in the final stage of a three-certificate program and entering the field at an opportune time. As industry facilities expanding along the Gulf Coast and new facilities are planned, demand for workers with mechanical maintenance technician skills will only increase.
“Jobs are here and will be increasing over the next three to 10 years based on a meeting I attended with the Texas Workforce Commission. The focus will be on new construction projects in the petrochemical field which could generate between 15,000 plus jobs in the Texas Gulf Coast area,” said Baumgartner. “Our goal is to build a strong workforce to support what is at our door step.”
Mechanical maintenance technicians and millwrights are currently high-demand, high-skills jobs, according to Workforce Solutions. The organization projects that by 2020 the need for mechanical maintenance technicians (also called industrial maintenance technicians) will grow 41.5 percent. Its data shows the median hourly wage to be $23.
In COM’s hands-on program students learn a wide range of skills, such as preventative maintenance, making machinery adjustments and repairing equipment.
“What makes COM unique is the ability for students to work on actual industrial equipment, which in some cases has been donated by local industry, such as turbines, gearboxes and compressors,” said Baumgartner. “Industry partnerships have made this program successful, not only by supporting us with equipment but by providing a strong team of knowledgeable instructors and career opportunities like this apprenticeship program through INEOS.”
To prepare for a career troubleshooting and repairing equipment, students spend hours in the lab.
“We get a lot of time to come out to the shop and get our hands on it,” said Camacho. “We learn all of the basic concepts of welding. Compressors we took apart and learned all the parts and put it back together.”
While many classes take place in the lab, students also explore principles in the classroom.
“I focus on a lot on terminology. We show them to look for why it failed,” said instructor Rick Lopez, who spent 40 years as a machinist and supervisor at Eastman Chemical Co. and Monsanto Co. “I’ve got a lot of pictures that I brought from plants that I show them so that they will know what to expect in the field. We cover safety and our experiences in the plants.”
Evening classes offer students like Camacho an opportunity to train while working full-time.
After completing the apprenticeship program, if his work and grades are satisfactory, he expects a job at INEOS as a full-fledged mechanical maintenance technician.
However, he said the greatest reward of the field is tangible - “to actually put your hands on something and see (that) I did this.”
The COM Mechanical Maintenance Program is open for registration for the fall semester, and students may qualify for financial aid through Texas Public Education Grants and the Workforce Investment Act.
For more information, call 409-933-8586 or visit www.com.edu/ce.
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← The Old Testament in the News
Bible Gateway Bible Profs News →
Joseph’s Coat of Many Colors
Posted on July 1, 2014 by Claude Mariottini
Painting: Joseph’s Coat
Painter: Diego Velázquez (1630)
The story of Joseph begins with a statement that shows the special place he enjoyed in his father’s house: “Now Israel loved Joseph more than any other of his children, because he was the son of his old age” (Genesis 37:3).
When the story begins, Joseph was only seventeen years old. The special place Joseph enjoyed in his father’s house was because he was the firstborn son of his beloved wife Rachel, the woman he loved more than her sister Leah, Jacob’s first wife.
Jacob’s favoritism was the root of the bitterness that existed between Joseph and his brothers. The text provides two main reasons for the ill-feelings Joseph’s brothers had toward him.
The first reason was that Joseph would bring a report to his father telling him what his brothers were doing: “Joseph told his father about the bad things his brothers were doing” (Genesis 37:2). Or, as another version translates this verse: “He accused his brethren to his father of a most wicked crime” (Genesis 37:2 DRA).
The second reason for the brothers’ hatred of Joseph was because he was Jacob’s favorite son: “Now Israel loved Joseph more than any other of his children” (Genesis 37:3). It is possible that Jacob saw something in Joseph that put him above his other sons.
Maybe Jacob loved Joseph so much because of the great love he had for Rachel, Joseph’s mother. However, this favoritism did not sit well with his other sons: “Joseph’s brothers saw that their father loved him more than any of them. They hated Joseph and couldn’t speak to him on friendly terms” (Genesis 37:4).
Jacob expressed his love and affection for Joseph by giving him a special garment: “a coat of many colours” (Genesis 37:3 KJV). This garment placed on Joseph a distinction that was denied his brothers. And this special distinction conferred upon Joseph exacerbated the hatred his brothers had toward him and exposed Joseph to the rage of his siblings.
The nature of Joseph’s garment has been the center of much discussion and disagreement. Popular imagination sees in Joseph’s garment a technicolor garment, a concept that gave birth to “Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat,” a musical with lyrics by Tim Rice and music by Andrew Lloyd Webber.
However, it is doubtful that what distinguished the garment Jacob gave to Joseph was its color. The idea that Joseph’s coat had many colors came from a mistranslation of the Septuagint (LXX).
The English Translation of the Septuagint by Lancelot C. L. Brenton, translates Genesis 37:3 as follows: “And Jacob loved Joseph more than all his sons, because he was to him the son of old age; and he made for him a coat of many colours” (Genesis 37:3). This translation was adopted by the Vulgate, the Latin translation of the Bible by Jerome. The King James Bible followed the Septuagint in translating the Hebrew words as “coat of many colours.”
The Hebrew words behind the expression “coat of many colours” is ketonet passīm, a word with an unknown meaning. The English translations differ on how they translate ketonet passīm. This is how various versions of the Bible translate this Hebrew expression:
NRSV: “A long robe with sleeves.”
KJV: “A coat of many colours.”
NIV: “A richly ornamented robe.”
CJB: “A long-sleeved robe.”
NAB: “A long tunic.”
NJB: “A decorated tunic.”
These different translations of the two Hebrew words indicate that there is no unanimity among scholars on the meaning of this expression. The two words appear again in 2 Samuel 13:18 to describe a special garment worn by the daughters of kings: “Now [Tamar] was wearing a long robe with sleeves; for this is how the virgin daughters of the king were clothed in earlier times” (2 Samuel 13:18 NRSV).
Since the word ketonet passīm is used in this context, the versions translate these two words in the same way they translated them in Genesis 37:3.
In his commentary on Genesis, E. A. Speiser draws on Mesopotamian literature to clarify the meaning of this expression. He wrote:
Cuneiform inventories may shed light on the garment in question. Among various types of clothing listed in the texts, there is one called kitû pišannu. The important thing there, besides the close external correspondence with the Heb. phrase, is that the article so described was a ceremonial robe which could be draped around statues of goddesses, and had various gold ornaments sewed onto it (1964:290).
Thus, the translations that use the expression “ornamented robe” (NIV) or “decorated tunic” (NJB) are following Speiser’s proposal. Those versions that translate the Hebrew words as “long sleeve” follow a Jewish tradition that understands the word pas (as in passīm) to mean palm of the hand.
Speiser’s view that Mesopotamian religious traditions could explain the two Hebrew words, is based on an Article by A. Leo Oppenheim, “The Golden Garments of the Gods,” Journal of Near Eastern Studies 8 (1949): 172-193. In his discussion of the garments used to dress the images of the goddesses, Oppenheim said that the meaning of the pišannu garment is not clear.
In his commentary on 2 Samuel, P. Kyle McCarter rejects Speiser’s view because of the difficulty in identifying the Mesopotamian garments with the garments mentioned in Genesis 37 and 2 Samuel 13. Since the word pas can mean “extremities,” either hands or feet, McCarter believes that the words ketonet passīm refer to a garment that goes to the extremities. He wrote: “It follows that ketonet passīm means ‘gown extending to the extremities’—i.e., hands or feet, since it is plural and not dual—and thus ‘long gown with sleeves.’”
This is the reading adopted by many modern translations. Since the ketonet passīm was the kind of garment that daughters of kings wore, the garment probably was associated with people who were royalty, with officials who had high rank in the palace, or with people who had an exalted position in society.
The fact that Jacob gave Joseph a ketonet passīm means that Jacob treated Joseph as a royal person, a person whom he considered to be above all his other sons.
In light of the real meaning of ketonet passīm as “a long robe with sleeves,”a garment worn by royalty, how about Joseph’s coat of many colors? The expression is so ingrained in the minds of Christians everywhere that it will be almost impossible to convince them that Joseph did not have a technicolor coat.
Thus, many people may finally be convinced that Joseph had a coat with long sleeves, even though they will continue to believe that Joseph had a coat with long sleeves but one that had many colors.
Oppenheim, A. Leo. “The Golden Garments of the Gods.” Journal of Near Eastern Studies 8 (1949): 172–193.
P. Kyle McCarter Jr. II Samuel. The Anchor Bible. New York: Doubleday, 1984.
Speiser, E. A. . Genesis. The Anchor Bible. New York: Doubleday, 1964.
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This entry was posted in Book of Genesis, Jacob, Joseph and tagged Coat of Many Colors, Hebrew Bible, Jacob, Joseph, Old Testament. Bookmark the permalink.
10 Responses to Joseph’s Coat of Many Colors
barnete0199 says:
The mention of the mesopotamian word kitu pisannu for garment calls to memory Achan’s theft of a goodly babylonish garment in Joshua 7:21. Strong’s concordance does not identify them with the same word but one has to wonder if there is some relation in the translation. If indeed Joseph’s coat was not of many colors, I wonder if it was at least a purple color, how far back does the purple color identify with royalty?
Claude Mariottini says:
Good point. The word in Joshua is ‘adarat, a different word to be sure. If the Mesopotamian garment in Joshua 7:1 was a ceremonial garment, with gold ornament, Achan saw something beautiful that he desired to keep. Thank you for pointing out the possible relationship between the two garments.
There is no way of knowing the color of Joseph’s garment. As I mentioned in my post, the emphasis was not on color, but on the style of the garment.
The above reply is by Edward Barnett.
Peter Muchiri says:
Why dint the Potiphar kill Joseph in Genesis 39:13-20 after he was implicated of having tried to raped the Potiphar’s wife?, in those days the Potiphar’s would have just drawn his sword and slain Joseph and no questions would have been asked. Especially after such a serous offence by a mere salve boy.
Good question. Many scholars believe that Potiphar knew that his wife probably had been unfaithful before. Since Joseph was only a slave, he probably would be put to death for his crime. However, since Potiphar did not kill Joseph, it is possible that he knew that Joseph was innocent. In order not to discredit hos wife in public, he punished Joseph by sending him to prison.
Thank you for your comment. I hope you will subscribe to my blog and receive future posts by email.
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Mike Rogers says:
As you say, “the emphasis was not on color, but on the style of the garment.”
I have heard the reason for the garment was to signify the ‘heir-ship’ of Joseph.
(Was this a custom of the times?)
In Jacob’s mind, Joseph was the ‘First born’ of his ‘True Love’, Rachel, therefore he was the family ‘heir.’
To me that explains why the elder brothers were so concerned with a teenage brother.
Thank you for your comment. The reason Jacob gave the special garment to Joseph was because he was the first born of Rachel, the wife Jacob loved. Later on, just before his death, Jacob gave to Joseph the blessing of the first born, giving to him a double portion of the inheritance, that is, Jacob gave Joseph two tribes, the tribe of Ephraim and the tribe of Manasseh.
The reason the brothers were upset with Joseph was because the special coat symbolized Jacob’s preference of Joseph over his eleven brothers.
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One stop shop for SEN, special educational needs for Your Location, SEN parental advice, dyslexia, find SEN schools.
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Founded in 1971 BILD helps develop the organisations who provide services, and the people who give support.
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Popular questions about issues affecting parents and carers of children with special educational needs, including guidance about statementing.
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Ten percent (10%) of the British population are dyslexic; 4% severely so. Dyslexia is identified as a disability as defined in the Equality Act 2010. The BDA campaigns for a dyslexia friendly society where barriers to dyslexic people do not exist and works to ensure that ALL people with dyslexia fulfil their potential. BDA runs a number of courses and events throughout the year including training workshops for parents, teachers, tutors and employer. Click Training & Events tab to see if there are any near Your Location.
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Dyslexia Action is a national charity that takes action to change the lives of people with dyslexia and literacy difficulties by offering help and support direct to individuals, empowering others so they can help individuals affected by dyslexia, influencing change to help individuals affected by dyslexia. Dyslexia Action operate through 26 main centres and a network of teaching outposts and unit - find the one closes to Your Location via the Find Us tab.
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Some children have needs or disabilities that affect their ability to learn. For example: behavioural/social (eg difficulty making friends), reading and writing (eg dyslexia), understanding things, concentrating (eg Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder), physical needs or impairments. Click for more details information.
Department for Education SEN Code of Practice
LEAs, schools, early education settings and those who help them – including health and social services – are obliged to have regard to the Code of Practice which is designed to help these bodies to make effective decisions regarding children with SEN. It does not (and could not) tell them what to do in each individual case. This document should help schools and LEAs to obtain the best value from the considerable resources and expertise they invest in helping children with special educational needs.
SEN Magazine has interesting and authoritative features, news and articles covering all issues to do with SEN and disability - useful for teachers, SENCOs, carers, parents, therapists and all practitioners in special needs.
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The Special Educational Needs Advice Centre (SENAC) is a regional charity providing independent advice and advocacy on behalf of children and young people with disabilities and special educational needs attending schools in Northern Ireland up to the age of 19 years.
National Bureau for students with learning disabilities - SKILL promotes equality in education, training and employment for disabled people.
SOS! SEn
SOSSEN offer a free, friendly, independent and confidential telephone helpline for parents and others looking for information and advice on Special Educational Needs, concentrating on helping people to find their way through the legal and procedural maze which is so daunting to so many who try to obtain satisfactory provision for a child’s special needs. They aim to empower parents and carers, and to encourage them to become sufficiently confident to tackle for themselves the obstacles and difficulties that arise in battling for SEN rights. They have a few walk-in centres in the south east of England - see if there is one near [Postaltown].
Website with facility to search for many different kinds of special needs schools and links to lots of support groups. Find a special needs school near you or search the website for special schools throughout the UK
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Parents' Leadership Circle 2017-2018
Campaign by Kappa Sigma Endowment Fund
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So proud of Michael Veltri and all his Kappa Sigma Fraternity brothers for making a difference!
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54% of callers to Abuse Counselling Service reach out for first time
Posted on 14th December 2015 21st December 2015 by Ronan Cavanagh
Connect Counselling service expects to receive 9,000 calls this year, with 54% calling the service for the first time.
Connect said it is currently seeing a growth in the numbers of individual callers to the service, including new callers.
Service Director Theresa Merrigan said she believes that the increases are due to Connect being better known and also its anonymous nature which is comforting to people who are beginning to speak of childhood abuse, but not yet ready to attend face to face counselling.
Over the past three years there has been a 42% increase in the number of individual callers to Connect, a 17% increase from 2013 to 2014 and a 25% increase from 2014 to the year to date.
The overall number of calls for 2015 will remain similar to other years, as the increases in individual and new callers are offset by a reduction in long term and repeat callers who are moving earlier to face to face counselling and other services.
Connect provides out of hours telephone based professional counselling and support for abuse survivors – and was established in 2006 at the request of survivor groups.
Theresa Merrigan said: “For many people who have suffered childhood abuse beginning to speak of those experiences can bring feelings of shame, embarrassment, guilt and fear of judgement.”
“The Connect Service, for many, can be a safe port to begin to put words on traumatic childhood experiences where the caller, who initiates the contact, can remain anonymous while at the same time receiving support from a professionally experienced psychotherapist.”
“Also many callers can find it difficult to get to a face to face counselling service because of geographical location, child care, lack of transport, or physical and emotional challenges. The telephone service can be an excellent resource for people in these circumstances.”
Total calls for 2015 to the end of November are 8,113, with 4,944 answered. 2,460 were made when the service was closed and 709 were lost.
The most common overall setting for abuse was in the family (48%) followed by the community (31%) and 15% were institutional. However, in the caller age group over 50 up to 23% of callers spoke of institutional abuse.
In terms of the family abuse – 24% reported abuse by father, of which 12.5% was sexual abuse; 21% reported abuse by mother, predominantly emotional and physical abuse; 11% reported abuse by brother, 10% of which was sexual abuse.
Emotional abuse was the most common type of abuse reported at 58%, followed by sexual (55%), physical (30%) and neglect (15%).
The gender of callers was 64% female, 35.5% male and 0.5% transgender. 7% of callers were aged under 30, 41% between 31 and 50, 20.5% between 51 and 60 and 14% were over 60.
23% of callers spoke of feelings of low mood and depression with 10% reporting alcohol dependence. Up to 20% reported feelings of high anxiety.
The service received calls from all 26 counties across Ireland with approximately 2% of calls from the UK and Northern Ireland.
Connect is available at freephone 1800 477 477 from the Republic of Ireland and 00800 477 477 77 from Northern Ireland and the UK. Opening times are 6-10pm Wednesday to Sunday with additional hours at times of high service demand. The service is HSE funded.
← Information event: Supports for survivors of institutional abuse
Connect to open every day over Christmas →
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Big Data/Global Surveillance
This panel is part of the CGT's Urgent Issues series exploring critical issues of global importance from a trans-regional and interdisciplinary perspective. It examined the technical and global
This panel is part of the CGT’s Urgent Issues series exploring critical issues of global importance from a trans-regional and interdisciplinary perspective. It will examine the technical and global implications of the expanded surveillance capacity of states and the expanded capacity of people to contest.
Emily Bell serves as the Director of the Tow Center for Journalism and Professor of Professional Practice in the Graduate School of Journalism, at Columbia University. Previously, she was director of digital content for Britain’s Guardian News and Media from 2006 to 2010 and editor-in-chief of Guardian Unlimited from 2001 to 2006. Under Bell, the Guardian received numerous awards, including the Webby Award for a newspaper website in 2005, 2006, 2007 and 2009, and British Press Awards for Website of the Year in 2006, 2008 and 2009.
Mark Hansen serves as a Professor of Journalism, Director of the David and Helen Gurley Brown Institute for Media Innovation and Chair of the New Media Center at the Institute for Data Sciences and Engineering, at Columbia University. Previously, he held appointments at UCLA in the Department of Statistics, the Department of Design Media Arts and the Department of Electrical Engineering at UCLA. Hansen works with data in an essentially journalistic practice, crafting stories through algorithm, computation and visualization. In addition to his technical work, Hansen also has an active art practice involving the presentation of data for the public.
Rebecca MacKinnon is a Senior Research Fellow at the New America Foundation where she conducts research, writing, and advocacy on human rights, the Internet and corporate responsibility. Author of Consent of the Networked: The Worldwide Struggle For Internet Freedom (2012), she is co-founder of Global Voices Online, serves on the boards of the Global Network Initiative and the Committee to Protect Journalists, and is a lecturer at the University of Pennsylvania. A former CNN Bureau Chief and correspondent in Beijing and Tokyo, she earned her AB magna cum laudefrom Harvard University and is fluent in Mandarin Chinese.
Saskia Sassen is the Robert S. Lynd Professor of Sociology and Co-Chair of the Committee on Global Thought at Columbia University. Her recent books are Territory, Authority, Rights: From Medieval to Global Assemblages ( Princeton University Press 2008), A Sociology of Globalization (W.W. Norton 2007), and the 4th fully updated edition of Cities in a World Economy (Sage 2011). She is currently completing Expulsions: When complexity produces elementary brutalities (Harvard University Press forthcoming). Her books are translated into over twenty languages. She has received multiple honors and awards.
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BYLAWS OF THE TEXAS CHAPTER
OF THE SOCIETY FOR ECOLOGICAL RESTORATION
Revised by the Board of Directors in July 2007
Approved by the TXSER members on August 24, 2007
Article 1.Mission and Purpose
Article 2. Offices
Article 3. Membership
Article 4. Membership Meetings
Article 5. Officers
Article 6. Board of Directors
Article 7. General Elections
Article 8. Committees
Article 9. Resolutions
Article 10. Rules of Procedures
Article 11. Fiscal Year
Article 12. Contracts, Loans, Checks, Deposits, Gifts and Donations
Article 13. Co-Sponsorship of Events
Article 14. Amendments
APPENDIX A. Membership Regions
APPENDIX B. Standing Committees
Article 1. Mission and Purpose
Section 1. Mission Statement. The mission of the Society for Ecological Restoration (SER) is to promote ecological restoration as a means of sustaining the diversity of life on Earth and reestablishing an ecologically healthy relationship between nature and culture.
Section 2. Purpose. The purposes of the Texas Chapter of the Society for Ecological Restoration shall mirror the purposes of the SER International. We shall encourage the development of restoration, including restorative management, as a scientific and technical discipline, as a strategy for environmental conservation, as a technique for ecological research, and as a means of developing a mutually beneficial relationship between human beings and the rest of nature.
Section 1. Principal and Business Offices. The principal office of Texas SER shall be part of SER International office, currently located at: 285 W. 18th Street, Suite 1,Tucson,Arizona85701USA. The Board may change the address of the principal office in the future. The Board may occasionally designate a Chapter or Conference Coordinator for Texas SER.
Section 1. Eligibility. Any person, group, business or organization is eligible for membership in Texas SER, regardless of whether they are members in good standing with SER International. However, the Board of Directors and officers shall be members in good standing of both the Texas SER and SER International. The Board shall establish the dues for each member category.
Section 2. Membership Regions. The membership shall be divided into state regions. Current membership regions are listed in Appendix A. Additional regions may be added or the boundaries of existing regions readjusted by the Board as the demography of the membership warrants.
Section 3. Termination of Membership. The state chapter membership of a member shall terminate upon the occurrence of any of the following events: (1) Upon notice from any member of a voluntary termination delivered to the President, Secretary, Treasurer personally or by first class mail, and the membership shall terminate effective upon the date of delivery of the notice or the date of its receipt through the mail. (2) Upon a member’s failure to renew a membership by paying dues on or before their due date. A 60-day grace period shall be allowed for paying the delinquent dues. (3) Upon adoption of a resolution by a majority vote of the Board stating in a reasonably explicit way that the member has engaged in conduct materially and seriously prejudicial to the interest or purposes of the Society, and expelling the member on a specified date. The Board shall notify SER International of its intent, and shall follow the procedures for expulsion and appeal set down by SER International.
Section 4. Honorary Members. The Board may recommend persons for recognition as Honorary Members of the Society as provided for in the bylaws of SER International. The Board is not empowered to vote for its own honorary members separate from SER International.
Section 1. Annual Meeting. The annual meetings of the Texas SER shall be held at such a time and place as the Board may determine. The time and place for any meeting announced by the Board may be changed, if necessary, by the Board.
Section 2. Special Meetings. Special meetings of the members for any purpose or purposes, unless otherwise prescribed by statute, may be called by the Board or by the person designated in a written request by not less than one-tenth of all members of Texas SER who would be entitled to vote at the special meeting.
Section 3. Notice of Meeting. Written notice stating the place, day and hour of the meeting, and the purpose or purposes for which the meeting is called, shall be delivered not less than thirty days before the meeting, either personally or by written mail or electronic mail, to each member in good standing at the address recorded on the membership roll. Notice shall be delivered by or at the direction of the President, Vice President, Secretary, Treasurer, Chapter/Conference Coordinator, or other officer or person calling the meeting.
Section 4. Quorum. The members in attendance at the business meeting of an announced meeting shall be the voting body for the election of officers and for any other business as may be referred to the membership for a vote. The affirmative vote of a simple majority of members present at a meeting shall be necessary for the adoption of any matter unless a greater proportion is required elsewhere in these Bylaws.
Section 5. Conduct of Meetings. The President, and in his/her absence, the Vice-President, and in their absence, any person chosen by the Directors present, shall call the meeting of the membership to order and shall act as chairperson of the meeting. The Secretary shall act as secretary of all meetings of the members, but in his/her absence, the presiding officer may appoint any other person to act as secretary of the meeting.
Section 6. Proxies. At all meetings of the membership, a member entitled to vote may vote in person or by proxy appointed in writing by the member or by his/her duly authorized attorney-in-fact. Such proxy shall be filed with the Secretary of Texas SER before or at the time of the meeting. Unless otherwise provided in the proxy, a proxy may be revoked at any time before it is voted, either by written notice filed with the Secretary or the acting secretary of the meeting, or by oral notice given by the member to the presiding officer during the meeting. The presence of a member who has filed his/her proxy shall not of itself constitute a revocation of that member’s proxy. No proxy shall be valid unless it specifies the dates for which it is to be in effect. The Board shall have the power and authority to make rules establishing presumptions as to the validity and sufficiency of proxies.
Section 7. Voting. Each member shall be entitled to one vote upon each matter submitted to a vote at a membership meeting or by ballot election, except that members sharing a collective membership shall be entitled to cast a single vote for the collective. Members may vote in person; by proxy as described above in Article 4, Section 6; or by regular mail, e-mail or fax which must be received by the Secretary before or at the time of the meeting.
Section 1. Number. The officers of Texas SER shall be a President, a Vice-President, a Secretary and a Treasurer. The officers shall be nominated from and elected by the general membership. Such other officers and assistant officers as may be deemed necessary may be elected or appointed by the Board at any time and for such terms as the Board deems appropriate.
Section 2. Powers and Duties. Resolution or other directive of the Board shall provide the powers and duties of the several officers from time to time. In the absence of such provisions, the respective officers shall have the powers and shall discharge the duties customarily and usually held and performed by like officers or societies similar in organization and purposes to Texas SER.
Section 1. General Powers. Its Board of Directors, all of whom shall be members in good standing of both International and Texas SER, shall manage the business and affairs of Texas SER. The Board is responsible for developing chapter policy, conceptual and strategic planning, operations, funding and relations with other local organizations. The Board may delegate operational tasks to the Program Coordinator but shall retain oversight responsibility for all operations.
Section 2. Composition. The Board shall consist of the four Officers, a Representative from each active Membership Region (as defined by the Directors), and the appointed Chairs of the Standing Operations Committees. The Rocky Mountains/Great Plains representative to SER International, the Chapter/Conference Coordinator and a liaison to SER Mexico shall be ex-officio members of the Board.
Section 3. Voting. Each Board member shall have one vote, with the exception of the President who shall only be allowed to vote in the case of a tie. The Chapter/Conference Coordinator shall participate in the Board meetings as a non-voting member. Votes may be taken in writing, or by phone, e-mail or fax as described in Article 6, Section 9 below.
Section 4. Meetings. The Board shall meet at least three times per calendar year, preferably on a quarterly basis. At least one of these meetings must be face-to-face; the others may be conducted via a teleconference to be arranged by the President and/or Secretary. The required face-to-face meeting shall be held the day before, during and/or immediately after the annual meeting of the members. This Board meeting shall take place at the same venue as the membership meeting. The general membership may attend Board meetings on a space-available basis but may not participate in any manner except by invitation of the President.
Section 5. Special Meetings. Special meetings of the Board may be called by or at the request of any one of the Officers. The person or persons calling such special meetings of the Board may fix any place within the state of Texas as the place for holding such special meetings. Special meetings may also be held in conjunction with the annual SER International meeting, as long as a quorum of the Texas SER Board exists. Special meetings may be held electronically via teleconference as long as all Directors in attendance are not restricted from full discourse and participation by the electronic medium.
Section 6. Notice. Notice of each meeting of the Board shall be given by written notice delivered personally, mailed, e-mailed, or faxed to each Director at the address shown on the membership roll not less than 7 days before the date of the meeting.
Section 7. Quorum. A majority of the Board of Directors then in office shall constitute a quorum for the transaction of official business at any meeting of the Board, but a majority of the Directors present (though less than such a quorum) may adjourn or reschedule the meeting without further notice.
Section 8. Proxies. At all meetings of the Board, a Board member entitled to vote may vote in person or by proxy appointed in writing by the Board member or by his/her duly-authorized attorney-in-fact. Such proxy shall be filed with the Secretary of Texas SER before or at the time of the meeting. Unless otherwise provided in the proxy, a proxy may be revoked at any time before it is voted, either by written notice filed with the Secretary or the acting secretary of the meeting, or by oral notice given by the member to the presiding officer during the meeting. The presence of a Board member who has filed his/her proxy shall not of itself constitute a revocation of that Board member’s proxy. No proxy shall be valid unless it specifies the dates for which it is to be in effect. The Board shall have the power and authority to make rules establishing presumptions as to the validity and sufficiency of proxies.
Section 9. Consent Without Meeting. Any action permitted or required by the Articles of Incorporation, these Bylaws, or any provision of law to be taken by the Board at a meeting may be taken by consent in absentia without a meeting if consent is obtained from the Directors in writing, by phone, by electronic medium, or FAX by the Secretary or member of the Executive Committee subject to the following provisions: 1) Resolutions of an operational nature or involving the implementation of existing policies require a majority vote of all Directors in office. 2) Trailing issues – that is, matters discussed at a meeting but not voted on – require a majority vote of those Board members that were present for the discussion. 3) New policy resolutions, excluding trailing issues, require a 2/3-majority vote of all Directors in office. New business resolutions and policy resolutions can be voted upon. If one-third of the standing directors vote for a discussion on the resolution then the vote is deferred until a meeting or conference call is conducted. The Board voting in absentia cannot amend the chapter Bylaws. Resolutions to be adopted by consent in absentia do not require seconding and may be made by any Director, including the President. A vote is complete as soon as the minimum number of votes to pass or fail a resolution has been cast.
Section 10. Continuity Between Sessions. The Officers as a group are empowered to function in place of the entire Board when the Board is not in session and when an electronic or other special meeting is not feasible. Any actions taken by the Officers, other than operational actions, are subject to ratification by the Board.
Section 1. Timing and Electorate. Regular elections shall be scheduled during each annual meeting. All elective offices shall be voted on by the general membership.
Section 2. Nomination and Eligibility. Any member who is eligible to vote may declare candidacy for office, or nominate another member for candidacy. Names of candidates shall be submitted in writing or via e-mail or fax to the Elections Committee. No nomination shall be accepted without the prior consent of the nominee. Candidates for regional representative must reside in that region. The Elections Committee shall verify eligibility of candidates. All eligible candidates for an office shall be included on the ballot.
Section 3. Confirmation. The candidate receiving the largest number of votes cast shall be elected. In case of a tie vote, the winner shall be selected by chance, such as by a coin toss. Votes for write-in candidates shall be counted only after the Elections Committee has confirmed their eligibility. If the entire slate of candidates is running unopposed, the electorate may choose to accept the slate by acclamation instead of casting ballots.
Section 4. Terms of Office. The President, Vice-President, Secretary and Treasurer shall each serve two-year terms and are not eligible for re-election for more than two consecutive terms. Regional representatives shall serve two-year terms and are eligible for re-election for no more than three additional consecutive terms in the same office. The terms of the elected officials shall be staggered to the extent possible.
Section 5. Tenure of Office. Officers and representatives shall hold office for the term to which elected and until the terms of their duly elected successors begin, or until their death, disqualification, resignation or removal. Any Director may be removed from office by affirmative vote of a majority of the general members in good standing. A Director may resign at any time by filing a written resignation with the Secretary.
Section 6. Disqualification. Regional representatives on the Board who move from their respective regions to reside elsewhere may continue serving only until the next regular election, when new regional representatives shall be elected.
Section 7. Vacancies. Should the office of President become vacant, the Vice-President shall serve as President for the remainder of that term of office. Any other vacancy caused by the resignation, removal, disqualification or death of a Director may be filled until the next regular election by the affirmative vote of a majority of the Directors then in office, provided that in case of a vacancy created by the removal of a Director by vote of the members, the members shall have the right to fill such vacancy at the same or subsequent membership meeting or any adjournment thereof. An appointment by the Board to fill a vacancy shall not disqualify the appointee from candidacy to that same office in the next consecutive election or elections. A Director, whose position on the Board is not scheduled for election, may retain that position following an unsuccessful candidacy for another position on the Board.
Section 1. Establishment. Committees may be established by resolution of the Board. The purpose and powers of each committee shall be provided in any such resolution. Each committee, once established, shall determine its own size and composition. Except as otherwise provided in such resolution or these Bylaws, the President shall be ex-officio on each committee. There shall be two kinds of committees: standing committees and ad hoc committees.
Section 2. Standing Committees. Standing committee status shall be granted to those committees with continuing, long-term responsibilities. There shall be two kinds of standing committees: Board Committees whose business requires direct action by the Board, and Operational Committees whose business may be delegated by the Board to designated chairpersons for action. The chairperson of each standing committee shall be approved by the Board for a term of one year and may be re-appointed by the Board annually. Chairpersons of standing committees may also be duly elected members of the Board. The chairperson of each standing committee shall appoint committee members, at least one of whom shall be a current Director. Chairpersons shall report to the Board through the President. The current list of standing committees and their essential responsibilities comprise Appendix B.
Section 3. Ad Hoc Committees. Additional special committees may be appointed at any time by the President or the Board, or may be created by any group of members.
Section 1. Resolutions proposed from within the general membership shall be submitted to any Texas SER officer or Regional Representative for referral for Board action.
Section 1. Conduct of Meetings. All meetings will be governed by Robert’s Rules of Order.
Section 2. Notice by Mail. Whenever notice by mail is provided for in these Bylaws such notice shall be deemed to have been delivered when deposited in the United States Mail prepaid to the member’s address as shown on the membership roll.
Section 3. Notice by Electronic Mail. In order to facilitate communication and increase efficacy, Texas SER will utilize electronic means to disseminate information to chapter members and to further communication amongst the board. The Board may use electronic mail to cast a vote on any resolution or other pertinent business that necessitates Board approval, yet does not require a majority vote by the general membership.
Section 4. Waiver of Notice. Whenever any notice is required to be given to any member or director of the Society under the provisions of these Bylaws or under the provisions of the Articles of Incorporation, a waiver in writing, signed by the person or persons entitled to such notice, whether before or after the time stated therein, shall be deemed equivalent to the giving of such notice. The attendance of a member at a meeting shall constitute a waiver of notice of such meetings, except where a member attends a meeting and objects thereat to the transaction of any business because the meeting is not lawfully called or convened. Neither the business to be transacted at, nor the purpose of, any regular or special meeting of the Board need be specified in the notice or waiver of notice of such meeting.
Section 1. Fiscal Year. The Fiscal year of Texas SER shall be the calendar year.
Section 1. Contracts. The Board may authorize any officer(s) or agent(s), to enter into any contract or execute or deliver any instrument in the name of and on behalf of Texas SER. Such authorizations may be general or confined to a specific instance. In the absence of said designation, all authorizations shall be executed in the name of Texas SER by the President, Vice President, Secretary, or Treasurer, each having full authority as a signing officer.
Section 2. Loans. No loans shall be contracted on behalf of the Texas SER and no evidence of such indebtedness shall be issued in its name unless authorized by or under the authority of a resolution of the Board. Such authorization may be general or confined to specific instances.
Section 3. Checks and Drafts. All checks, drafts or other indebtedness issued in the name of Texas SER shall be signed by one of the following: President, Secretary, or Treasurer. Expenditures in the sum of $1000 or more must be approved by a resolution of the Board of Directors.
Section 4. Deposits. All funds of Texas SER shall be deposited upon receipt to the credit of the Chapter in such banks, trust companies or other depositories as may be selected by or under the authority of a resolution of the Board.
Section 5. Gifts and Donations. The Board shall be authorized to accept and receive contributions and donations from any and all sources. Acceptance of any grant or gift restricted or unrestricted does not imply endorsement by Texas SER or SER International of the source, its services, products or policies, nor does it imply any past, present or future benefit to be granted by Texas SER or SER International. Acceptance of any contract does not imply any endorsement, benefit or product beyond the deliverable services and products expressly contained in the contract. It will be the general policy of Texas SER to accept unrestricted contributions and restricted grants from any source. However, Texas SER retains the right to refuse any gift or grant if the Board of Directors judges the reputation or perceived image of the grantor, or the conditions of the grant inconsistent with Texas SER’s mission, goals and priorities.
Section 1. In an effort to promote ecological restoration, restore the diversity of life, and reestablish ecologically healthy relationships, within the borders of this state, Texas SER will actively engage in the co-sponsorship of educational events, symposia, and field days with other organizations, institutions, or agencies of like mind. Such events may be selected by a simple resolution of the Board.
Section 1. By members. These Bylaws, including its appendices, may be altered, amended or repealed and new Bylaws may be adopted by the membership by affirmative vote of not less than a majority of the members present or represented by proxy at any business or special meeting of the members at which a quorum is in attendance.
Section 2. By Directors. These Bylaws may also be altered, amended or repealed and new Bylaws may be adopted by the Board by affirmative vote of not less than a majority of the directors present at any meeting at which a quorum is in attendance; but no Bylaw adopted by the membership shall be amended or repealed by the Board if the Bylaw so adopted so provides.
APPENDIX A. TXSER Membership Regions
Membership regions shall be loosely divided along geographical lines with reference to the closest urban centers. In order to better serve the membership, as Texas SER expands, new regions will be added on an as needed basis.
Current Texas SER regions are as follows:
Central Texas: San Antonio-Austin-Waco.WacotoSan Antonio, west to Junction. Area encompasses The Hill Country.
North Texas: Dallas-Fort Worth.Waconorth to theRed Riverand east. Area encompasses Blackland Prairies, Cross-Timbers, Grand Prairies, Post Oak Savanna (northern),
South Texas: Laredo-Brownsville-Corpus Christi.San Antoniosouth toCorpus Christiin the east. Area encompassesLowerRio GrandeValley, Brush Country, Coastal Bend, and Sand Plains,
Southeast/CoastalTexas: Houston-Brenham-College Station-Nacogdoches. Area encompasses the Gulf Prairies & Marshes, Pineywoods, and Post Oak Savanna (southern).
West Texas: El Paso-Fort Stockton-Lubbock-Amarillo. Area encompassesChihuahuanDesertand related systems, as well as the Panhandle.
Of the following listed committees, not all are currently functioning within Texas SER, but all have been provided for in current strategic planning for the Chapter. As the need arises, committees can be integrated into the workings of Texas SER.
Standing Board Committees
Elections: The Election Committee calls for nominations, solicits candidates, and coordinates information for dissemination in the Texas SER newsletter.
Executive: The Executive Committee consists of the President, Vice President, Secretary and Treasurer. The committee acts on behalf of the Board when not in session or when a full Board meeting is not feasible.
Planning: The Planning committee shall work with the President to develop strategic plans for organizational operations and development.
Standing Operations Committees
Awards: The Awards Committee shall deal with all aspects of the Texas SER awards program: nominations, evaluations, selections, and presentations. Membership will represent all membership regions.
Conference: The Conference Committee oversees the annual meeting and any other events hosted by Texas SER. Responsibilities include setting the date and venue, making local arrangements, programming, coordinating promotional material with Texas SER Newsletter editor and/or others for dissemination. The Vice President will chair this committee.
Education: The Education Committee will provide a link between Texas SER and schools around the state. This link will be used to promote special cooperative programs or exemplary projects.
Environmental Ethics/Policy: Advisory position on how to promote philosophy, broaden scale and scope of environmental ethics and policy in order to reach the largest number of landowners, and policy makers.
Fundraising: The Fundraising Committee will be responsible for approaching foundations and other philanthropists and securing funding for special projects.
Membership: The Membership Committee will work on strategies for increasing membership while helping to develop means for better serving existing members.
MexicoLiaison: The liaison with SERMEX shall act as an information conduit between the two chapters, and may represent Texas SER at SERMEX meetings. The SERMEX liaison may not commit Texas SER to any action without Board approval.
Newsletter: The Newsletter Committee will be responsible for the timely publication of the Texas SER Restoration Notes. Publication will be at least twice per year, Fall and Spring. Additional responsibilities include compiling a “library” of articles, projects, and professionals for eventual inclusion in Texas SER Restoration Notes. The Secretary will chair this committee.
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New Lymphedema Prevention Study Now Enrolling Chinese Patients
Early intervention protocol aims to reverse progression of lymphedema after surgery for breast cancer.
After breast cancer surgery, up to 40% of women may develop lymphedema, or chronic swelling of the arm. Lymphedema may be disfiguring and causes pain, heaviness, infection, and in very rare cases, severe complications such as cancer (lymphangiosarcoma). But early detection and treatment is highly effective, and the Division of Breast Surgery has established innovative initiatives to detect and prevent lymphedema in all patients treated at the Breast Center.
Although lymphedema is difficult to treat once it has progressed, early treatment can reverse progression of symptoms. Since 2010, the Division of Breast Surgery has maintained a unique program that includes aggressive protocols to detect and prevent lymphedema in all patients undergoing surgery for breast cancer. As part of this aggressive program, a new trial is now testing the effect of early educational intervention among patients of Chinese origin.
The Lymphedema Risk Reduction for Chinese Breast Cancer Survivors Study aims to reduce the incidence and severity of lymphedema after treatment for breast cancer through implementation of a Chinese language educational intervention. Named The Optimal You, this program emphasizes specific breathing techniques, arm exercises, proper skin care and protection, and behavioral interventions to promote lymph flow, prevent inflammation and infection, and maintain optimal body mass index. Patients will also be educated on recognizing early signs and symptoms of lymphedema so that early treatment may reverse disease progression.
Preliminary evaluation of this approach has already been demonstrated in English-speaking survivors; in the pilot trial directed by Principal Investigator Mei R. Fu, PhD, RN, ACNS-BC, FAAN, Associate Professor at New York University, 97% of women were successful in achieving improvements in lymph flow and body mass index after breast cancer treatment. Margaret Chen, MD, FACS, Assistant Professor of Clinical Surgery in the Division of Breast Surgery, is currently collaborating with Dr. Mei Fu to offer this approach to patients at NewYork-Presbyterian/Columbia.
“Based on the success of the English-language trial, it stands to reason that Chinese women will potentially benefit greatly from the opportunity to receive this intervention in their native language,” says Dr. Chen.
Patients in the trial will participate in four educational sessions, each approximately 60 minutes in duration, before surgery and at 3, 6, and 12 months after surgery. They will be asked to complete questionnaires and to undergo measurement of their upper arms to assess lymph fluid change.
In addition to The Optimal You, the Division of Breast Surgery at NewYork-Presbyterian/Columbia also offers other important lymphedema prevention protocols. All women undergoing breast cancer surgery undergo testing to measure fluid volume in their upper arms before surgery and at regular intervals after surgery. This highly sensitive, non-invasive testing (lymphedema index, or L-dex), is able to detect very early changes in lymph fluid before they are visible to the naked eye and before symptoms develop, which allows for the earliest possible intervention. The program also offers the LYMPHA procedure to reduce the risk of lymphedema for patients undergoing axillary lymph node dissection. This surgical procedure creates a bypass to restore lymphatic flow by connecting lymph vessels to a branch of the axillary vein.
NewYork-Presbyterian/Columbia is the first in the U.S. to perform LYMPHA at the time of lymph node removal in order to prevent the development of lymphedema. To date, over 30 patients have undergone this procedure with only one patient developing lymphedema.
For more information about the lymphedema prevention protocols including the Chinese Breast Cancer study, please contact our Study Coordinator at 212.305.1317 or visit breastmd.org.
Our Approach and Expertise
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Shania Twain Tour Dates 2020 - 2021
Shania Twain Tour Dates | Tickets
Shania Twain Tour Info:
Canada’s biggest contribution to country music, the lovely Miss Shania Twain just announced her next live shows! Known for her sassy-but-still-classy pop crossover style, Shania is ready to hit the road in support of her latest album release titled “Now“?!
Shania Twain Tour will launch the Shania Now Tour in Tacoma, Wash., on May 3, and hit more than 40 cities in the U.S. before wrapping up in Las Vegas on Aug. 4.
This Shania Twain tour announcement comes two years after Twain’s Rock This Country Tour, which she had claimed would be her last. She has since hinted at the possibility of more tour dates, saying that last road trek reinvigorated her taste for the road.
Shania Twain Tour 2020 | Events & Tickets
More info about Shania Twain:
http://www.shaniatwain.com/
Who Is The Opening or Supporting acts For Shania Twain's Tour?
Current Tour Opening Acts
Shania Twain Concert Tour Schedule 2017 - 2018
Shania Twain’s 2018 Shania Now Tour Dates:
May 3 — Tacoma, Wash. @ Tacoma Dome
May 5-6 – Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada @ Rogers Arena
May 9-10 – Edmonton, Alberta, Canada @ Rogers Place
May 12 – Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada @ Sasktel Centre
May 13 – Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada @ MTS Centre
May 15 – St. Paul, Minn. @ Xcel Energy Center
May 16 – Sioux Falls, S.D. @ Denny Sanford Premier Center
May 18 – Omaha, Neb. @ CenturyLink Center Omaha
May 19 – Chicago, Ill. @ United Center
June 1 – Ft. Lauderdale, Fla. @ BB&T Center
June 2 – Tampa, Fla. @ Amalie Arena
June 4 – Duluth, Ga. @ Infinite Energy Center
June 6 – Dallas, Texas @ American Airlines Center
June 7 – Austin, Texas @ Frank Erwin Center
June 9 – Houston, Texas @ Toyota Center
June 10 – New Orleans, La. @ Smoothie King Center
June 12 – North Little Rock, Ark. @ Verizon Arena
June 13 – St. Louis, Mo. @ Scottrade Center
June 15 – Detroit, Mich. @ Little Caesars Arena
June 16 – Cleveland, Ohio @ Quicken Loans Arena
June 25 – Ottawa, Ontario, Canada @ Canadian Tire Centre
June 26 – Montreal, Ontario, Canada @ Bell Centre
June 28 – Quebec City, Quebec, Canada @ Videotron Centre
July 1 – Hamilton, Ontario, Canada @ FirstOntario Centre
July 3-4 – London, Ontario, Canada @ Budweiser Gardens
July 6-7 – Toronto, Ontario, Canada @ Air Canada Centre
July 11 – Boston, Mass. @ TD Garden
July 12 – Philadelphia, Pa. @ Wells Fargo Center
July 14 – Brooklyn, N.Y. @ Barclays Center
July 15 – Washington, DC @ Capital One Arena
July 17 – Pittsburgh, Pa. @ PPG Paints Arena
July 18 – Grand Rapids, Mich. @ Van Andel Arena
July 20 – Louisville, Ky. @ KFC Yum! Center
July 21 – Nashville, Tenn. @ TBA
July 24 – Kansas City, Mo. @ Sprint Center
July 25 – Des Moines, Iowa @ Wells Fargo Arena
July 27 – Denver, Colo. @ Pepsi Center
July 28 – Salt Lake City, Utah @ Vivint Smart Home Arena
July 30 – Phoenix, Ariz. @ Talking Stick Resort Arena
Aug. 1 – Fesno, Calif. @ Save Mart Center
Aug. 3 – Los Angeles, Calif. @ Staples Center
Aug. 4 – Las Vegas, Nev. @ MGM Grand Garden Arena
Shania Twain Tour Setlist 2020
Rock This Country!
Honey, I'm Home
You Win My Love
Whose Bed Have Your Boots Been Under?
I Ain't No Quitter
Don't Be Stupid (You Know I Love You)
Any Man of Mine (with Kelsea Ballerini)
I'm Gonna Getcha Good!
Life's About To Get Good (New Song)
Party For Two (with Nick Jonas)
That Don't Impress Me Much
(If You're Not in It for Love) I'm Outta Here!
Man! I Feel Like a Woman!
Previous Tour Dates
Shania Twain Previous Tour Dates
Triple Play Tour (1993; with John Brannen and Toby Keith)
Come On Over Tour (1998–99)
Up! Tour (2003–04)
Shania: Still the One (2012–14)
Rock This Country Tour (2015)
Shania Twain Biography
Shania Twain exploded on the country music scene in the mid-90's, and along with Garth Brooks, has been often credited for the massive shift to pop-country style that the genre made at the time. Her bare midriff and upbeat sassy hook-laden lyrics were seen as the driving force behind the crossover success that mainstream country music had in those days. Skillfully fusing mainstream, AOR rock production with country-pop, Twain and her producer/husband, Robert John "Mutt" Lange, created a commercial juggernaut with her second album, The Woman in Me. The record became a multi-platinum phenomenon, peaking at number five on the pop charts and eventually selling over nine million copies in America alone.
Shania first got her start at her parent's encouragement singing in local bars and clubs in the small Canadian town of Timmins Ontario. When she was 21 years old, both of her parents died in a car crash, forcing her to take responsibility for her four siblings. In order to pay the bills and keep food on the table, she took a job singing at a resort in Deerhurst. With the money she earned at the resort, she bought a house and had the family settle down.
In more recent years, following her separation and later divorce from Mutt Lange, Shania has stayed out of the spotlight and off the road for the most part. The only exception being a few sporadic releases and a 3 year residency at Ceasar's Palace. She's slowly getting back on top as she prepares for the release of her first full album in over a decade simply titled "Now"
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shania_Twain
Shania Twain's Top Video:
If there are currently no Shania Twain 2020 tickets available, please check back as new show dates are constantly being added. Orders for Shania Twain tickets that are no longer available will be canceled or substituted at the seller's discretion. All purchase of Shania Twain tickets are provided from third-party ticket marketplaces.
If you would like to attend a Shania Twain 2020 tour show live in person, please follow the links provided for concert ticket pricing, tour dates and music venues. Country Music On Tour provides tour schedules and concert information for live performances featuring Shania Twain.
It is our goal at Country Music On Tour to provide the most recent and up-to-date Shania Twain 2020 concert tour Concert tickets at competitive prices, and we are equally committed to providing thorough Shania Twain information. Our site includes Shania Twain 2020 concert tour schedules, venue seating charts, Venue directions, and Shania Twain biographies and news.
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Tag: solar energy
Renewables could be a health boon for Great Lakes, Upper Midwest regions
Harvard analysis pinpoints where renewables would have the most bang for their buck
The Tatanka Wind Farm on the border in both North and South Dakota. (Credit: USFWS)
Installing more wind turbines in the Upper Midwest, and more solar panels in the Great Lakes and Mid-Atlantic regions, would bring the largest health gains and benefits from U.S. renewable energy, according to a new Harvard University analysis.
The Upper Midwest—which, in this study, spans roughly from the Dakotas to the Western Upper Peninsula in Michigan down to Missouri — would reap an estimated $2.2 trillion in climate change mitigation and health gains from adding about 3,000 megawatts of wind power, which translates to about $113 in benefits per megawatt hour. Deploying the same amount of solar capacity in the Great Lakes/Mid-Atlantic region—spanning from Indiana to Northern Michigan then east to New York—brought about the same amount of health benefits.
“To ensure that climate policies are cost-effective, the location where renewables are built is much more important than the specific technology,” said Drew Michanowicz, a study author and a research fellow at the Center for Climate, Health, and the Global Environment at the Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health, said in a statement.
“If you want to get the biggest bang for your buck in terms of the health and climate benefits of renewables, investing in the Upper Midwest and Great Lakes regions will keep populations downwind healthier while also taking important steps to decarbonize,” he added.
…The major take-homes from the study: when health benefits are considered, renewable energy is more cost effective than installing emissions reduction technology (such as carbon capture) at exiting coal and gas plants; and, just like real estate, when it comes to clean energy — it’s all about location, location, location. MORE
Author gaianicityPosted on October 29, 2019 Tags Great Lakes, location of renewables, maximum health benefits, solar energy, windfarmsLeave a comment on Renewables could be a health boon for Great Lakes, Upper Midwest regions
Building a department store powered by geothermal and solar
La Maison Simons is working to convert their stores across Canada to net-zero
The clothes that we wear have a far-reaching impact on the planet – from the extraction of the raw materials and manufacturing process all the way down to the mounds of textile waste from fast fashion and other discarded clothing. With all of these environmental concerns, it’s easy to overlook the energy requirements of the buildings that house their retail locations.
Seven years ago, Quebec City-based department store La Maison Simons set out to construct a building that generates as much energy on-site annually as it consumes. Teaming up with Oxford Properties, the shopping centre landlord for its Galeries de la Capitale location, the company began mapping out the different technologies required to become the first major net-zero retail store in the country.
The retailer decided to first road-test some of its plans at the Londonderry Simons store in Edmonton, installing a sizeable 636 kilowatt solar array and making numerous energy efficiency upgrades throughout the building. It led to a building that is 30-40% more energy efficient than an average Simons store, and where half the energy is generated on-site through renewables. It also benefited from an Alberta government green incentive program that covered 25% of the cost of the solar panels.
Simons applied many of the lessons learned from the Edmonton project in designing its net-zero Galeries location, which opened in March 2018 in Quebec City. It doubled the amount of solar power covering the parking lot and roof, while drilling 27 geothermal boreholes into the ground under the parking lot for geothermal heating and cooling. A high-tech LED lighting program combined with an energy-efficient heating, ventilation and air conditioning system reduced energy consumption by 60% compared to its older location.
Buoyed by positive feedback from customers, the company is now exploring plans for several potential new net-zero retail locations throughout Quebec. MORE
Author gaianicityPosted on August 14, 2019 Tags emissions reductions, energy-efficient heating & ventilation and air conditioning system, geothermal energy, La Maison Simons, LED lighting, net zero stores, solar energyLeave a comment on Building a department store powered by geothermal and solar
Clean power, right in the heart of fracking country
“Along with other early adopters of clean energy across the country, Don Pettit has helped lay the groundwork for an industry that now attracts tens of billions of investment dollars each year.”
The Bear Mountain wind project in BC. Photo by Don Pettit
Pettit has noted intrusive, disturbing changes to those rural lands in the decades since he first arrived in Dawson Creek.
“Since then it’s been a steady stream of industrialization… but the biggest shift imaginable has been the arrival of the fracked gas industry. There’s flares blasting away, and they stink, and surveillance cameras with lots of ‘No Trespassing’ signs. Some of my favourite spots are essentially destroyed.”
“Everything was rolling along nicely. We could have had factories producing wind blades, and we were on the verge of launching a major wind industry with thousands of jobs in B.C.. But just as it started to get going they dropped it.”
“Wind prospectors were coming into the region from all over the world. We wanted to tap into that and try to make at least one of these wind facilities at least partially locally owned — which we did. And I think we set a very high standard for community-supported wind development.”
Their ground-breaking work led to PEC’s inaugural green energy project, the Bear Mountain Wind Park, being fully commissioned in 2009, even as fracking activity was peaking in the Peace. B.C.’s first large-scale wind park at 102 megawatts, it stands a few kilometres south of Dawson Creek and continues to power the South Peace region.
And then, in 2010, things inexplicably went south.
Along with other early adopters of clean energy across the country, Pettit has helped lay the groundwork for an industry that now attracts tens of billions of investment dollars each year. A report issued last week by Clean Energy Canada, entitled Missing the Bigger Picture, calculates that the renewable energy sector employed about 300,000 workers in Canada in 2017 and has significantly outcompeted the rest of the economy in growth.
Yet Pettit has noted intrusive, disturbing changes to those rural lands in the decades since he first arrived in Dawson Creek.
The potential health benefits of a transition to renewable appear similarly impressive. A 2016 Pembina Institute analysis estimated that by phasing out coal-fired power entirely by 2030, 1,008 premature deaths, 871 ER visits and $5 billion worth of negative health outcomes would be avoided between 2015 and 2035. And unlike the air and water contaminants emitted by coal and natural-gas plants that sicken local populations and warm the planet, Pettit enthuses that solar energy has “no moving parts and no pollution.” in energy price so communities can build business plans. No such program exists in B.C..
“Alberta has a program called community capacity building. It’s about communities wanting to replace some of the power that they’re using with solar, but they can also make them bigger than they need and put extra power into the grid and get paid for it.”
One significant benefit is a locked-in energy price so communities can build business plans. No such program exists in B.C..
When asked what the provincial government could do to promote its spread, he answers without hesitation. Instead of spending billions on Site C to power the fracking industry, which he says would mostly benefit big corporations in the short term, it could offer small, targeted incentives. MORE
Author gaianicityPosted on May 29, 2019 May 29, 2019 Tags Alberta, B.C., CEC, Clean Energy Canada, community capacity building, fracking, health benefits, job growth, Missing the Bigger Picture, renewable energy, Site C dam, solar energy, wind energyLeave a comment on Clean power, right in the heart of fracking country
100% Clean Energy & Cars In 20 Years Is Viable (But Unlikely)
Wind farm in Xinjiang, China
The two biggest hitters causing global warming are electrical
generation using fossil fuels and transportation using fossil fuels. If we made all electricity carbon neutral, most of which would come from wind and solar generation, that would be about a third of the problem. If we made all vehicles run off of carbon-neutral electricity (or biofuels where electricity just won’t cut it, an increasingly small niche), that would deal with another third of the problem or so.
This action would have a huge impact on global warming targets. Could we do it in 20 years globally in a crash plan? Let’s start with what it looks like today, or at least in 2016 per the IEA. Globally, we generated about 25,000 TWH of electricity (reminder on units: KWH, MWH, GWH then TWH, each 1000 of the previous unit).
Could we replace 16,250 TWH of electrical generation with wind and solar in 20 years? Well, it’s not actually that hard to generate a TWH of electricity.
A single 2.5 MWH wind turbine running for a year with a mediocre capacity factor of 35% will generate 7,665 MWH. To get a TWH, you’d need 130 of them, a reasonably sized wind farm of 325 MW capacity. For context, the Gansu Wind Farm in China is already at 8,000 MW capacity and is expected to reach 20,000 MW capacity by 2020, 60 times larger.
A solar farm is a bit different and has a typically lower capacity factor. Let’s go with a middling 20%. To get a TWH you’d need a solar farm with a capacity of around 570 MW. For context, a couple of solar farms in India are 1,000 MW and 2,000 MW capacity 2-4 times the capacity. MORE
Author gaianicityPosted on February 27, 2019 Tags 100% clean energy, electric cars, nuclear energy, solar energy, wind farmsLeave a comment on 100% Clean Energy & Cars In 20 Years Is Viable (But Unlikely)
The Green New Deal Just Speeds Up The Current Green Wave. Case In Point: Solar-Plus-Storage
Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, a Democrat from New York, speaks as Senator Ed Markey, a Democrat from Massachusetts, right, listens during a news conference announcing Green New Deal legislation in Washington, D.C., U.S., on Thursday, Feb. 7, 2019. A sweeping package of climate-change measures unveiled Thursday by Ocasio-Cortez drew a tepid response from House Speaker Nancy Pelosi who didn’t explicitly throw her support behind the measure. Photographer: Al Drago/Bloomberg© 2019 BLOOMBERG FINANCE LP
The rollout of the Green New Deal will hit some roadblocks. But its overarching theme is that the nation should go totally green by 2030 to avert the irreversible effects of climate change. It’s the latest volley in the war of energy ideas — one that must ultimately address jobs, the economy and cost.
The Green New Deal is not an “abstract” idea. Globally economies are trending toward cleaner energies — efforts initiated by public demands, improved technologies and forward-thinking policies: The sponsors are compelled to accelerate the pace — to not just help impoverished communities but to also prevent environmental catastrophe.
Think this wild-eyed? Think again. Wind costs have fallen by 67% since 2009 while utility-scale solar has dropped by 86% since that time, according to the financial adviser, Lazard. Prudence has been a virtue. But what green energy skeptics have learned is that the public incentives and the overall economics are adding up — progress that will only go forward, given that prices continue to fall while the quality continues to improve.
Getting to 100% renewable energy levels is a hard task under the best of circumstances. Step one, though, is to bring down the cost of energy storage. Once advanced batteries can be produced in sufficient quantities, the cost of manufacturing them will fall. Prices, in fact, are dropping because companies like Tesla Inc. have been investing billions into production facilities.
Author gaianicityPosted on February 15, 2019 Tags energy storage, falling renewable energy costs, Green New Deal, solar energy, Tesla, wind energyLeave a comment on The Green New Deal Just Speeds Up The Current Green Wave. Case In Point: Solar-Plus-Storage
Breakthrough could triple the energy collected by solar to 60% efficiency
Current solar cells are able to convert into electricity around 20% of the energy received from the Sun, but a new technique has the potential to convert around 60% of it by funneling the energy more efficiently.
UK researchers can now ‘funnel’ electrical charge onto a chip. Using the atomically thin semiconductor hafnium disulphide (HfS2), which is oxidized with a high-intensity UV laser, the team were able to engineer an electric field that funnels electrical charges to a specific area of the chip, where they can be more easily extracted.
This method has the potential to harvest three times the energy compared with traditional systems. The researchers believe their breakthrough could result in solar panels, no bigger than a book, producing enough energy to power a family-sized house. MORE
Author gaianicityPosted on January 12, 2019 Tags breakthrough, solar energy1 Comment on Breakthrough could triple the energy collected by solar to 60% efficiency
Renewables overtake coal as Germany’s main energy source
Renewables overtook coal as Germany’s main source of energy for the first time last year, accounting for just over 40 percent of electricity production, research showed on Thursday.
Wind turbines are pictured in RWE Offshore-Windpark Nordsee Ost in the North sea, 30 km from Helgoland, Germany, May 11, 2015. REUTERS / Christian Charisius/Pool
The shift is in part due to a surge in solar panel installations and coal-plant closures, research showed Thursday.
The predominance of renewable energy in 2018 brings Germany’s goal for renewable sources to provide 65 percent of its energy by 2030 closer. It is part of an organized, long-term plan to transition from nuclear power by 2022 and to wean the country off coal. MORE
Author gaianicityPosted on January 8, 2019 Tags coal, Germany, renewable energy, solar energyLeave a comment on Renewables overtake coal as Germany’s main energy source
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Posted on 26 July, 2018 26 July, 2018 Tags Book Review, Corruption, Government, Greed, History, Marcos, Philippines, Politics, power, Southeast Asia, Sterling SeagraveLeave a comment on Power Corrupts
A Good Memory
Not everything. I’m not that good at faces and names. I’m also not as good at rote memory–memorizing lists, passages, or poems–as I once was.
But I remember well places, scenes, roads, words, sensations, textures, experiences, tastes.
I remember far too much.
Eating ice cream at midnight when I was 2. Riding piggyback on my dad’s bike to Kindergarten in Legaspi City when I was 4. Mum making sauerkraut in a bucket in her office. The mango tree behind our house blowing over in the storm and the taste of unripe mangoes with a sprinkle of salt. The words of Filipino Sunday School songs. Getting my arm stuck in the washing machine wringer. Wading and swimming in flood waters in Lupagon. Playing with Gardiner Improsso on the IGBI basketball court. Visiting the Andersons in Tagbalaran. The look on the man’s face that I mistook for my Uncle at the airport in 1972. Where I was when my sister told me Mr Wright died (I had only met him once but he took our family to Disneyland.) The smell of the musty basement at my uncle’s church in Madison, Wisconsin. My first breath of Australian air after stepping off the plane in Sydney. How sausage rolls and strawberry milk really didn’t mix well in Grade 4.
When we left the Philippines in 1971, our parents allowed us to have a bonfire with our old ‘clubhouse. I’m third from the left.
It might not seem so bad, but that’s only a small fraction of my mind’s inner workings. I also remember almost every unkind word I said, every failure, wrong decision, mistake. The lie I told in 1985. The rules I broke in 1986. The car accident of 1987. The wrong song I sang in church in 1996. The embarrassing joke of 1998. The brain snap of 1999. . . Many times my excellent memory feels like a curse.
It condemns me.
It beats me up. It makes me feel inadequate, foolish and, like Cher, wishing I could turn back time.
But I can’t wind the clock back. I can’t take back those hurtful words, unwrite that nasty letter, or undo that wrong move.
People are kind. They forget—or at least they don’t mention it again. I doubt there would be a handful of folks who would immediately call to mind that failed speech I gave, or that embarrassing joke I told.
People also give me advice on how to deal with my memory problems: “It is what it is.” “Accept it and move on.” “We all make mistakes.” “You wouldn’t be where you are today if you didn’t make the mistakes you made.”
While all these are true, it does nothing to mitigate the feelings of regret, remorse, or sadness over the past.
I find it easy to forgive others. I find it incredibly hard to forgive myself.
Memory is like that.
I recall the words of a song from First Call (Yes, I am a CCM tragic straight outa the 80s!) called God is Greater. Not a hugely memorable song and, despite my outstanding knack of remembering useless stuff, I can’t remember anything except this one line: “And even if your heart condemns you, God is greater . . . than your heart.”
God, the Divine Presence, the ever-loving, always forgiving, Eternal One is greater than anything that might condemn me.
I’m not discounting the reality of the regret I feel when I remember the bad things I have done or the pain I have caused the people that I have trodden on. That is still with me every day and, quite frankly, sucks. Big time.
What I hold on to is that no matter what my perception is, or has been, the reality of God’s love overpowers all.
Sure, I messed up and, if memory serves me correctly, still do.
But my life lies open before me and I can’t let those moments pass in vain. There are lessons I have learned and I need to move forward knowing that every mistake is redeemable, every wrong path can lead to healing, and every trespass is forgiven. Love wins, always.
Posted on 22 April, 2017 22 April, 2017 Tags Forgiveness, God's love, grace, History, Legaspi, Life Lessons, Love Wins, Memory, Ozamiz, rememberingLeave a comment on A Good Memory
It’s ironic, in a nation where Christmas Day is celebrated in the middle of Summer when the weather’s usually hot and humid, that the shopping malls and radio stations still play Christmas music a la Currier & Ives—singing about sleighs, snow and sitting by the fire. The Christmas dinner of choice in most households, even in 40-dgree heat (100+ on the old scale) is still a roast turkey and piping hot vegetables. And the ubiquitous Santa Claus suffers through days in stuffy faux-snow castles wearing a long-sleeved fur-lined coat, long pants and boots.
Why is it that, miles away from the northern hemisphere, traditions are carried on through the generations as if one is living in Europe, the U.K. or America?
Apart from the inroads of Americanism into our culture, Australians by-and-large carry in traditions of their ancestors to a fault (even though shrimp and cold meats are slowly usurping prime position on the table (and the turkeys breathe a collective sigh of relief).
Tradition is a powerful motivation. One only needs to visit any family in a growing number of ethnic communities to see that the holiday itself takes on different (or no) meaning, depending on the country of origin.
Christianity, too, has its traditions. And just like traditions differ between Afghans, Chinese and Italian immigrants, so traditions within Christendom vary depending on denomination and, often, nation of origin of that denomination.
Regardless of the origins or the variables evident, traditions—rituals, liturgies, stories, histories—are a grounding force in religion. I believe they are important elements of faith that bring to the table a sense of place, a history. In my opinion, we need history to show us not only where we came from, but also bring perspective into the present and help us in envisioning a trajectory into the future.
Traditions may be rituals such as candle lighting during Advent, special stories read on Christmas Eve, a Christmas Day church service, the pennies baked into plum puddings or great-grandma’s hand-embroidered doilies on the dinner table. They may be the Christmas hymns we sing (a.k.a. carols), the legend of St Nicholas, or the Twelve Days of Christmas.
Traditions are like points on a map that show us where we have been, or like mile markers to show us where we are or how far we have to go.
They give us a sense of belonging.
They ground us in our ever-changing culture.
They give us a sense of stability.
They show us, in symbolic picture, prose or ritual, what is possible.
They give us hope for those who follow, that they too will be able to grasp the meaning and find a way to live in generations to come with purpose and faith.
Traditions may change. Rituals may evolve. But may the myriad of ways they speak into our lives always bring us joy, peace, love and a sense of hope for the future.
Posted on 30 November, 2015 Tags Australia, Australian Christmas, candle-lighting, Candles, History, rituals, Santa, Snow, summer, tradition1 Comment on Traditions
Chasing Francis: Why I Love Music & Art
The oldest known icon of St Francis of Assisi, ca. 1230 (Church of San Fransesco, Pescia)
I’ve just finished reading Ian Cron’s book, Chasing Francis (2010: Navpress). Wow! What a history/ theology/ philosophy/ creativity/ post-modernity lesson it was. I can’t believe how much of my being resonated with the words in this book about an ancient Saint!
I love music and art. I always have, to some degree, and this love has grown and changed over the years. I always knew there was something in the human spirit that seemed to understand the language of the arts, but this was so much more driven home to me in chapter seven of Chasing Francis. Following is a portion of it where we meet up with the main character, Chase Falson, and a new friend, Carla Mellini (an accomplished cellist he meets in Rome), at a concert.
That evening, as I read the program, I saw why Carla was so excited about attending this performance— the orchestra was playing Elgar’s Cello Concerto in E Minor. From the first note to the last, the concert was electrifying. Every so often I would glance at Carla, who, I could tell, was enraptured. Her fingers couldn’t stay still. They mimicked every note the cellist played. I was pleasantly surprised to see that one of my favorite pieces, Finzi’s Ecologue for Piano and String Orchestra, op. 10, was part of the evening’s program as well. The Ecologue is lyrical and haunting; it surfaces all the unfulfilled desires of your life. My father always told me that my disdain for most atonal works was an indication of my lack of musical sophistication. One more thing I didn’t get right.
When the final note was played, Carla was the first person to leap to her feet and cry, “Bravo!” When the applause finally subsided, she grabbed both my hands and said, “Wasn’t it magnificent?”
The post-concert lecture was held in a. small rehearsal space near the main hail.
The speaker was Liam Cudder, a British musicologist from Cambridge. I was prepared to see a C. S. Lewis type—a portly man wearing an old houndstooth jacket with leather patches on the elbows, trousers wrinkled from top to bottom. Cudder couldn’t have been more different. He was elegantly dressed in a double-breasted blue blazer with gold buttons, perfectly tailored gray flannels, and expensive-looking tassel loafers. His accent betrayed an upper-class pedigree, but there was nothing condescending about him; in fact, he was boyish and animated. He spoke for nearly an hour-deconstructing and analyzing the pieces we’d heard, helping us discover the brilliance of Finzi and Elgar.
Toward the end of the lecture, his remarks took a peculiar turn. CCJ have spoken for what must seem like an eternity to some of you.” The audience laughed. “Now I am interested in knowing what you felt during the concert,” he said.
There was an awkward silence. Finally one brave soul said, “Joy.” “Grateful” someone else called out.
Cudder listened to a handful of responses, nodding his head after every reply.
I am always brought to tears when I hear a marvelous performance followed, by a standing ovation,” he said. “I feel that at the climax of our cheering, we cross a boundary and unwittingly begin applauding some other reality, a performer we know is there but who cannot be seen. We want to thank Beauty itself.”
He held his finger up to his lips and paused. “Let me be bold for a moment. Is it possible that during this evening’s performance, we unconsciously sensed Someone standing behind the beautiful, Someone who is its source, and we were moved to praise him as well?”
A hush fell over the room. The good doctor had moved from musicology to theology.
“I am a musicologist, but I am also an ordained priest in the Church of. England. For years I have tried to separate the different hats I wear, but I have been quite unsuccessful, so if you will indulge me, I would like to conclude my remarks this evening by suggesting that there is a distinct relationship between beauty and the heart’s search for God.”
Cudder leafed through his notes. He found the page he was looking for.
“In Doctor Zhivago, Boris Pasternak describes one of his main characters like this: ‘Lara was not religious. She did not believe in ritual. But sometimes, to be able to bear life, she needed the accompaniment of an inner music. She could not always compose such a music for herself. That music was God’s word of life, and it was to weep over it that she went to church.’ ‘What was it about music that awakened the spiritual in Pasternak’s Lana? It was this: The object of all great art is beauty; and it makes us nostalgic for God. “Whether we consider ourselves people of faith or not, art arouses in us what Pope John Paul called a ‘universal desire for redemption.’”
Cudder sat on a three-legged stool. “All of us are meaning-seekers. We approach every painting, novel, film, symphony, or ballet unconsciously hoping that it will move us one step further on the journey, toward answering the question, ‘Why am I here?’ People living in the postmodern world, however, are faced with an excruciating dilemma. Their hearts long to find ultimate meaning, while at the same time their critical minds do not believe it exists. We are homesick, but have no home. So we turn to the arts and aesthetics to satisfy our thirst for the Absolute. But if we want to find our true meaning in life, our search cannot end there. Art or beauty is not the destination; it is a signpost pointing towards our desired destination.”
Cudder, picked up a page from his notes. “C. S. Lewis puts it so elegantly in The Weight of Glory: “The books or the music in which we thought the beauty was located will betray us if we trust them; it was not in them, it only came through them, and what came through was a longing. . . . For they are not the thing itself; they are only the scent of a flower we have not found, the echo of a tune we have not heard, news from a country we have never yet visited.”
Cudder wisely paused to allow Lewis’s words to rest on us. “My hope is that through our future encounters with music and the arts, we will discover this ‘heavenly country’ we have not yet visited but long to find. Thank you for your very kind attention this evening.”
People remained glued to their seats. Cudder’s remarks had been spoken with such humility and respect that everyone was charmed. After a few moments, the spell’s effect .passed, and people gathered their belongings, and began leaving.
Carla stood up. “Let’s say hello,” she said.
Cudder was surrounded by a group of admirers peppering him with questions. Carla and I stood behind them, patiently waiting our turn. Every so often, Cudder would peer over at us curiously, then continue fielding questions. A heavyset woman in red evening wear, dripping pearls and diamonds, asked in a loud, affected voice, “Professor Cudder, what is the true vocation .of the artist?” Her question would have been a good one if she hadn’t sounded so enamored with herself.
“Perhaps you should ask our friend here,” Cudder said, nodding at Carla.
The group turned to look at us.
“If I’m not mistaken, this is Carla Mellini,” Cudder said, “one of Europe’s most important up-and-coming cellists.”
Carla smiled and said, “Thank you, I’m honored.”
I looked at Carla out of the corner of my eye. I felt like we needed to be reintroduced.
“Any thoughts, Miss Mellini?” Cudder asked.
Carla took a lengthy pause before answering. “My teacher once told me that artists help people to see or hear beyond the immediate to the eternal. Most people look only at surfaces. A great poem, story, song, or sculpture reveals the hidden meaning of things.”
Cudder looked impressed. “But blessed are your eyes because they see, and your ears because they hear,” he added, quoting Jesus.
Everyone in the circle nodded appreciatively. Carla’s answer rang true.
“I am sorry to say that it is time for us to leave,” Cudder announced; “It has been a wonderful evening, but it is getting late and the custodial staff needs to close up. Thank you so much for coming.”
As the small band of devotees began filing out, Cudder came to us. “I hope I did not put you on the spot,” he said.
“Not at all. And please call me Carla. This is my friend, Chase Falson.”
Cudder shook my hand. “Very glad to meet you,” he said to us. “My name’s Liam. The title Professor is reserved for my students’ use.” He turned to Carla. “I heard you perform Schumann’s Cello Concerto in London last year. It was very stirring.”
“It’s an amazing piece. I’m glad you enjoyed it,” Carla replied.
“Did you enjoy the performance this evening?” Liam asked. Carla paused. “The orchestra’s first cellist is a friend, and he’s a wonderful soloist. I wish the slow movement had been more romantic, but otherwise he played it flawlessly.”
Cudder began stuffing his notes into a well-worn leather portfolio. “Do you suppose the two of you would join me for a late dinner? I am absolutely famished.”
Carla looked at me. “I’m game, I said.
“The Caffe Greco?” Liam suggested.
Carla hesitated. “It’s a little pricey,” she said. I think she was worried more about the minister’s budget than anything else.
“It’s my treat,” Liam replied.
Expensive restaurants in Rome are generally not as opulent as those in Manhattan. Italians care more about great food and creating an intimate atmosphere. The Greco is an exception. Renowned for having been the haunt of famous nineteenth-century writers and artists, it gives you the best of everything— elegant decor, magnificent cuisine, and small tables for easy conversation.
It was yet another feast of food, wine, and passionately expressed ideas. Liam was a true Renaissance man. He was charming, funny, and oblivious to his own brilliance; His rakish good looks and refined demeanor reminded me of a young Roger Moore. We could have listened to him all night.
“The church has a mottled history with artists. In some eras, they have been appreciated, and in others, vilified. There have been seasons when a stifling artistic Puritanism reigned, and others when the arts were celebrated. Some Christians are still ambivalent about art.” Liam leaned across the table and spoke as if he were telling us a ghost story around a campfire. “They might arouse the lower passions.”
Carla covered her mouth and laughed. Liam flagged down one of the waiters and pointed to our empty champagne bottle. The waiter nodded and ran to the cellar to get us another.
“I came to faith in a Baptist tradition that was suspicious of anything having to do with the imagination,” he continued. “They thought it was the source of all kinds of evil ideas and impulses. And, to some degree, that is true. The depraved imagination has the capacity to dream up all sorts of dreadful things, but we threw the baby out with the bathwater. We did not recognize that the redeemed imagination was capable of producing works of beauty that revealed the Glory”
Carla winced. “My parents think the arts are trivial. They say you should go to church to get good teaching, not a sonata,” Carla said.
Cudder politely wiped his mouth. “That is ironic, really. First, the Bible is a great literary work of art filled with poetry, songs, stories, parables, history, apocalyptic drama, and wisdom literature. Second, the very people who pride themselves on being focused on the Word often come perilously close to practicing a form of Gnosticism that overvalues the spiritual and eschews the material. But the Word became flesh! The Incarnation proves that the divine can be communicated through the material—color, sound, texture, words printed on paper, the movement of the body.”
“Could you write this all down? I’d like to send it to my parents,” Carla said.
Liam patted her hand. “Give it time. Hopefully your parents will come around. In the meantime, never forget that your vocation is a sacred one.”
Carla’s face opened up; she looked more relaxed than I’d seen her.
She’d met two people in the same day who empathized with her plight.
I could tell that something important was happening for her.
Her expression became pensive. “So maybe I should go back to church?” she asked.
“Now would be the time,” he replied.
“Why now?” I asked.
“The church is realizing that there is an awareness of God sleeping in the basement of the postmodern imagination and they have to awaken it. The arts can do this. All beauty is subversive; it flies under the radar of people’s critical filters and points them to God. As a friend of mine says, ‘When the front door of the intellect is shut, the back door of the imagination is open.’ Our neglect of the power of beauty and the arts helps explain why so many people have lost interest in church. Our coming back to the arts will help renew that interest.”
Carla was spellbound. I tried to imagine what she was thinking. Liam was confirming something she’d probably known all along: Her parents were wrong; It was a moment of exoneration.
A lightbulb seemed to go off in Carla’s head. “It’s like speaking in tongues,” she said.
Liam’s fork froze halfway between his plate and his mouth. “I’m sorry?” he asked.
Carla sat up straight. “Art, music, dance, theatre, literature, film. They’re all a way of speaking in tongues!”
“Of course!” I said. “They’re spiritual languages that communicate truths about God that human language doesn’t have words to express. That’s why the church needs to rediscover them.”
“What a brilliant way to put it,” Cudder said.
“Wait till I tell my Pentecostal parents that I’ve taken to speaking in tongues. They’ve been waiting for years for that to happen.”
“Wait till they find out you’re doing it through your cello.” Liam said.
I lifted my glass. “To Beauty!” I said.
Liam and Carla replied. “To Beauty!”
One last quote from this chapter, in conclusion. In the story, Chase is writing his end-of-day journal and mentions an experience he had at a U2 concert:
A few years ago I went to a U2 concert at Madison Square Garden in New York City; just three months after 9/11 Most of us in the arena that night probably knew someone who’d died in the Twin Towers, we’d lost three people in our church alone I’ll never forget the end of the concert As the band played the song “Walk On,” the names of all those who had died were projected onto the arena walls and slowly scrolled up over us, and then up toward the ceiling At that moment the presence of God descended on that room in a way I will never forget. There we were, twenty-five thousand people standing, weeping, and singing with the band. It suddenly became a worship service; we were pushing against the darkness together. I walked out dazed, asking myself, “What on earth just happened? Of course, it was the music. For a brief moment, the veil between this world and the world to come had been made thin by melody and lyric. If only for a brief few minutes, we were all believers.
So, I am rediscovering the “why” of my love of music and art. It truly does speak to me of something–Someone–beyond myself, and opens my heart and mind in ways that genuinely cannot be accessed any other way. My response? Awe, worship and love.
Buy Chasing Francis with free shipping worldwide at The Book Depository
Posted on 3 August, 2010 3 August, 2010 Tags Art, C.S. Lewis, Chasing Francis, Christianity, church, History, Ian Cron, Music, St Francis2 Comments on Chasing Francis: Why I Love Music & Art
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Distribution & Exhibition
Mon, 07/08/2013 - 11:55 -- Bob Gibbons
By Bob Gibbons
If you’re not laughing out loud and often, you are simply not paying attention. This is a movie that’s “politically incorrect” in every way, but oh, it’s just so funny. And yeah, I know Melissa McCarthy is basically playing the role she often plays, the slightly over-sexed and out-of-control loony but she plays it better – and bigger – here. And while Sandra Bullock seems to be overacting a bit especially in the beginning, as soon as you recognize that’s coming from the two-by-four she’s jammed up her rear end so she can get promoted, you just go with the flow.
They’re the odd couple and odd has never been so outrageous, outlandish, and just plain out there. There is a plot in here, but it’s lame, weak, and predictable; its only real purpose is to keep everything from happening at once – and to lay out a series of situations where Bullock can be awkward and arrogant – and McCarthy can be crude and confident – and the women can both bond and battle each other over their differences. Some scenes play too long and seem to have been included just for comic effect. But, as the women get to know each other, there’s even a bit of heart. Best of all, it ends with a sequence involving a cat. Let’s be clear: if it takes a little – or even a lot – to offend you, you will be offended. Repeatedly. Get over it because if you love to laugh, this is the movie you've been waiting for all summer.
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Political Freedom Vs. Economic Freedom and Wealth
[First published March 20, 2005] A natural question is about the relationship between democracy (as Freedom House rates freedom) and economic freedom, and this is shown in the chart below.
To create the chart, the ratings for each index were standardized before making the plot.
Obviously, there is a close relationship, as by theory there should be. One cannot dominate a free market with a government dictated economy without destroying freedom in the process. Note that even the so-called “people’s republic of Sweden” is indexed as being economically free in the Heritage Foundation/Wall Street Journal index. So is Denmark, and so-called “socialist” Israel is indexed as mostly economically free.
Then, what about the economic development, or what I prefer to call the wealth of a nation, and welfare of a people. The next chart shows the close relationship between the Freedom House ratings and various measure of wealth and welfare.
In the chart, HDI = the UN human development index (a measure of general welfare); HPI = UN human poverty index; GNP = gross national product; and PPP = purchasing power parity (currencies are normed such that they will buy the same goods from one country to the next).
There you have it. Political and Economic freedom not only go together, but also they are an engine of a people’s wealth and welfare. Add this to the fact the democratically free countries never have had a famine, virtually never murder their own people, have the least internal violence, and never any wars between them, and you have freedom as the closest thing to a general solution to humanity’s ills.
Three cheers for freedom. Okay, you freedomists out there, to work.
”Testing Whether Freedom Predicts Human Security and Violence (2001) By R.J. Rummel, Appendix to Saving Lives, enriching Life: Freedom as a Right and a Moral Good
In this appendix, I did a variety of mathematical and statistical operations to test the hypothesis that freedom predicts to human security and violence. The conclusion:
For all nations 1997 to 1998, the human security of their people, their human and economic development, the violence in their lives, and the political instability of their institutions, is theoretically and empirically dependent on their freedom–their civil rights and political liberties, rule of law, and the accountability of their government. One can well predict a people’s human security by knowing how free they are.
Moreover, just considering the violence, instability, and total deaths a people can suffer, the more freedom they have the less of this they endure. This is to say:
Even if we just improve the human rights of a people, even if we promote some democratization of their political institutions, it will improve their human security, and reduce the violence that inflicts them.
Leave a Comment » | freedom | Tagged: economic freedom, freedom, wealth | Permalink
Freedom And Human Security
[First published March 22, 2005] Freedom Saves and Enriches Life
I have included the figure shown below [in the charts on the sidebar. Study it. It is one of the most important in the literature. For it shows, empirically, the consequences of freedom: purchasing parity per person goes up, as does overall wealth (development), and poverty goes down. Moreover, deaths from famine go down (none in democracies), democide goes down, as does the number killed in international and civil wars.
In other words, to sum up [the charts], to advance freedom is to advance human security. If this were widely known, there would be far more support for the [an] American foreign policy of promoting freedom and ending tyranny. Okay, you freedomists out there, we have our work cut out for us.
NOTE ON THE TABLES AND FIGURES:
I’ve tried to minimize the size of the tables and figures whenever I’ve presented them. Many visitors likely are working with a modem, and the more and larger the tables and figures in the blogs for a week, the more time it will take a blog to show. Patience among internet users, particularly students, is not a virtue.
Now, I’m working on a 17” Apple flat screen at resolution 1280×1024. However, what appears readable on my screen apparently is not on others, even at the same size (as Brian H informed me). The problem, I think, is that the Apple screen is so clear that what appears legible to me may not be on some CRT’s, even at the same resolution.
In any case, the bottom line is legibility. For that reason I near doubled the size of the figures I displayed in [a former] blog, as you see above, and enlarged the above table over what I normally would have shown.
Now, if you still have a problem reading the notes or numbers, reduce the resolution of your screen (monitor) until you can. Also, some computer systems now have the capability to enlarge a portion of the screen for the visually impaired.
Do let me know if you have any problem with whatever images I present. I am showing them because I think they are very important, and I wouldn’t be doing this if I didn’t want you to read, digest, and understand them. Cheers! RJR
” A Free Market Economic Development Strategy” The Heritage Foundation
Abstract: economic assistance, whether from countries or through international financial institutions like the World Bank, has failed to help poor nations to develop. Countries that adopt good policies, including economic freedom, experience stronger economic growth than those that seek to thwart the market through regulatory hurdles and policy restrictions. Foreign aid cannot replace good policy. The only proven method for improving the economies of developing nations is not through blanket economic assistance, but through policies that encourage economic freedom and the rule of law. To achieve this goal, the United States must eliminate poorly performing organizations and programs such as the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and support aid programs like the Millennium Challenge Account (MCA), which require countries to demonstrate a commitment to good policies in order to qualify for assistance.
1 Comment | freedom | Tagged: freedom, human security | Permalink
It’s Worse Than You Think
[First published April 21, 2005] Academic freedom? The hallowed conflict of ideas? The sanctity of open debate? Ha! That’s not the American university anymore. Only one side now has the freedom to state its views, and the other sides beware.
What happened to Professor Thomas Klocek of DePaul University in Chicago is a case in point. Quoting from Joseph Farah’s recent article, “When ‘academic freedom’ fails,”
Last Sept. 15, the man who has taught critical thinking, college writing and cultures of the world at the Catholic university’s School for New Learning for the last 15 years, Klocek made the mistake of debating the subject of the Middle East with some extremists partial to Hamas, the Islamic Jihad and Arab nationalists among the Students for Justice in Palestine and the United Muslims Moving Ahead at a student activities fair.
The informal debate got heated, as Klocek was the sole defender of Israel and Middle East Christians in the room. But there were no blows exchanged. There were no verbal threats. And the spirited argument lasted between 15 and 20 minutes, according to everyone involved.
Nine days later, Klocek found himself the victim of an “emergency suspension” and unceremoniously kicked off the campus. No hearing by his peers. No formal complaints lodged against him. The unsubstantiated accusations by zealous students that Klocek made “racist” remarks was all that was needed to crush the claim of academic freedom at DePaul.
He was offered his job back if he agreed to monitored teaching and apologized to the students. He refused.
Now he finds himself with no job. . . .
You see, diversity is welcomed in academia as long as you don’t disagree with what passes for conventional wisdom in the rarefied atmosphere of academia. . . .Klocek was accused by the students of the unpardonable sins of “demeaning their ideas” and “dishonoring their perspective” and pressing erroneous assertions” and that he used his power as a “professor over them” to force them to accept his arguments as true.
What did he say? He questioned the accuracy of literature asserting Rachel Corrie was “murdered by an Israeli bulldozer” and a verbal assertion that “the Palestinians are being treated by Israelis the same way Hitler treated the Jews.”
This is not just one story. One could put together a book of sad tales of students and professors who have been punished by the left for their views or mistaken belief in “academic freedom.”
This is very serious, for the schools are now a major subversive force in our society undermining the idea of freedom. They get their hands on our children and youth and by their propaganda turn them into armies of “anti-war,” anti-globalization, anti-American, brain washed demonstrators and protestors. That is, before they eventually become teachers, businessmen, politicians, and, of course, lawyers and judges, all to further, often unknowingly, leftism.
What to do about it? Sunshine. Documentaries. Investigative journalism by blogs, talk radio, and the new media. Legislative hearings. And let the truth be exposed. The left’s anchor to the schools – tenure — could not survive arousing the silent majority.
”Inside Higher Ed” (3/30/05 )
Three political scientists did a survey of 1,643 faculty members at 183 four-year colleges and asked them how they identified themselves politically. This article describes the results (full report not generally available):
. . . the ideological divide on campuses may be greater than has previously been thought. And the authors of this survey say that their evidence suggests say that conservatives, practicing Christians and women are less likely than others to get faculty jobs at top colleges. . . . humanities faculty members were the most likely (81 percent) to be liberal. The liberal percentage was at its highest in English literature (88 percent), followed by performing arts and psychology (both 84 percent), fine arts (83 percent), political science (81 percent).
Other fields have more balance. The liberal-conservative split is 61-29 in education, 55-39 in economics, 53-47 in nursing, 51-19 in engineering, and 49-39 in business.
As far as reported, the study does not assess the ideological spread among liberals (moderate democrat, liberal democrat, leftist, communist) as opposed to conservatives. In my experience, many self identified liberals are on the far left or are communists (Marxists), and the those who call themselves conservatives are often moderate or liberal Republicans. Its like dividing the world into democracies and nondemocracies without showing that many nondemocracies are totalitarian and bloody thug regimes like North Korea, while many of the democracies are barely electoral democracies, with repressed human rights as now in Russia.
That the contemporary American university is an anti-American, pro-socialist propaganda mill is suggested by the survey above, but the true meaning of this division has to be experienced to fear its dire implications for individual freedom, such as it was for Professor Klocek of DePaul University.
Leave a Comment » | freedom, leftism, University | Permalink
How Freedom Is Won
[First published September 11. 2005] Freedom House has published a study on “How Freedom is Won (link here). The study covers all transitions to democracy that have occurred in the last 33 years, 67 of them, and shows that:
Far more often than is generally understood, the change agent is broad-based, nonviolent civic resistance—which employs tactics such as boycotts, mass protests, blockades, strikes, and civil disobedience to de-legitimate authoritarian rulers and erode their sources of support, including the loyalty of their armed defenders.
It goes on to say:
The central conclusion of this study is that how a transition from authoritarianism occurs and the types of forces that are engaged in pressing the transition have significant impact on the success or failure of democratic reform.
The study lists each transition, the factors involved, and provides a narrative on the transition. It concludes that the top down attempts at democratization is less successful than bottom up, nonviolent coalitions. Thus, the best way of aiding democratization from the outside is to:
aid the creation of “civic life,” broad based coalitions,
“transfer knowledge on strategies and tactics of nonviolent civic resistance,”
“provide enhanced resources for independent media and communications,” and
“expand space for nonviolent action through targeted sanctions.”
This is to say:
work to constrain insurrectionist and state violence and to expand the political space for nonviolent civic action. This means that in the cases of civil wars, governments and international organizations should seek solutions that lead to an end to hostilities and to internationally supervised or monitored elections. Democracies also should engage in preventive diplomacy to avert violence and support policies that prevent or limit the spread of violence in its earliest stages.
Because of Freedom House’s intensive and extensive analysis of freedom, nonfreedom, and their transitions for all the world’s countries, as shown in its annual Freedom In the World annual report (the 2005 Report is here), this study on how freedom is won is especially credible.
Does the study have anything to say that is relevant to Iraq and Afghanistan? Yes. I have pulled out the two relevant passages below:
. . . in the cases of civil wars, governments and international organizations should seek solutions that lead to an end to hostilities and to internationally supervised or monitored elections.
Efforts to restore personal security in extremely violent environments in countries that have suffered from war or civil war, therefore, can contribute in the long term to the emergence of civic coalitions for democratic change.
I believe that the American Coalition Iraq and Afghanistan is doing precisely this, while fighting the insurrectionists and terrorists. It is helping and aiding he process of creating a civic society with Iraqis and Afghans having the freedom to form political parties, businesses, educational institution, and other organizations that satisfy diverse interests (this is the invisible part of the war you don’t read much about in the opposition media). And the Coalition has brought in the UN and other international organizations to monitor and supervise democratic elections. The upshot of this Freedom House study is that if the insurrection and terrorism is defeated, the long run success of democracy in these countries looks promising.
Leave a Comment » | Democratization, freedom | Tagged: Democratization, freedom | Permalink
Are Free People Happier and More Satisfied?
[First published November 14, 2005] One of the best sources for how values are distributed is the World Values Survey (here), and I have consulted its results a number of times, such as providing evidence on how Arab peoples view democracy (xx). Here, I want to provide their results on the relationship between freedom and subjective well being — happiness and satisfaction. I think all of us assume that the more freedom a people have the greater their happiness and satisfaction with their lives. If this is true, the utilitarian argument — policy should promote the greatest happiness and least pain — alone justifies promoting freedom.
The World Values Survey has published a study by Ronald Inglehart and Hans D. Klingemann, ” Genes, Culture, Democracy, and Happiness,” (in pdf; go here, and search under Hans Klingemann) which answer tries to question. Utilizing surveys done by the European Union over 25 years about respondents well being in 11 European nations, the authors first show that national language differences are not responsible for different survey responses on happiness and satisfaction. They moreover establish that there is not much change within nations over the 25 years. The correlation between earliest and latest EU survey in 1998 is .80. For the World Values Survey sample of 64 nations, it is .81, an amazing stability.
That out of the way, the author’s show that subjective well being is highly correlated with economic development (.70) as measured by GNP. No surprise there. But, they point out:
This process is not linear, however. The correlation weakens as one moves up the economic scale. Above $13,000 in 1995 purchasing power parity, there is no significant linkage between wealth and subjective wellbeing. The transition from a subsistence economy to moderate economic security has a large impact on happiness and life satisfaction, but above the level of Portugal or Spain, economic growth no longer makes a difference.
Another factor in subjective well being is so commonsensical to many of us that I hesitate mentioning it. But it is commonsensical to all but the Marxists out there, who won’t believe it anyway. That factor is whether a nation was communist or not:
Virtually all societies that experienced communist rule show relatively low levels of subjective well-being, even when compared with societies at a much lower economic level, such as India, Bangladesh, and Nigeria. Those societies that experienced communist rule for a relatively long time show lower levels than those that experienced it only since World War II.
Religion also plays a role, especially Protestantism. The author’s show that:
Virtually all historically Protestant societies show relatively high levels of subjective well being. A similar effect persists today in countries (the United States being an exception) where only small minority of the public regularly attends church. As Max Weber pointed out, Protestant societies were the first to industrialize, and although economic development now has spread throughout the world, Protestant societies still are relatively wealthy in large part because of this early lead.
Now for the most relevant part. Subject well-being is critical to the stability of a nation’s political institutions and particularly the stability of democracy. The authors measure freedom using the Freedom House annual freedom ratings (here), which they added together for 1981to 1988. Since the ratings summed for both civil liberties and political rights for a nation for a year vary from 2 to 14, with 2 being the freest, they subtracted the summed ratings for a nation from the highest total rating to reverse the freedom scale. This way so the highest total rating is the freest. They then plotted freedom against the percent of a nation’s people happy and satisfied with their life. It is below (click it to enlarge)
The correlation between well-being and freedom (liberal democracies, in effect) is .78. This is liner. The curvilinear (polynomial or logged correlation would be higher, since it would account for the slight sag in the middle of the distribution) of a number of partially free nations, some being electoral democracies such as Mexico and Turkey. Although the plot seems to imply that freedom is the cause of well-being (it can’t be the other way around), the author’s believe that this is in question, and that other factors may better account for well-being.
So, they did a multiple regression of well being against measures of a nation’s economic development, whether it was historically rule by Protestant elites of not, its years under communist rule, and its measure of freedom. These variables account for 80 percent of the variation in well being, a remarkable fit. They then removed independent variables with low significance in stages to achieve of fit of 78 percent of the variance with three significant variables in the order of their significance: GNP per capita, years under communist rule, and freedom. Aside from applying sample tests of significance to a universe of cases, a problem with their analysis, is the high multicollinearity among these three variables (on this problem, see my blog here). Without eliminating this intercorrelation, it is impossible from this regression alone to determine what variables are dominant.
These findings in no way refute the evidence that genetic factors play an important role in subjective well-being; we find that evidence compelling. But these findings do indicate that genetic factors are only part of the story. Happiness levels vary cross-culturally. Since cultures are constructed by human beings, this suggests that the pursuit of happiness is not completely futile. Genes may play a crucial role, but beliefs and values also are important. Our findings also indicate that varying levels of well-being are closely linked with a society’s political institutions: sharp declines in a society’s level of well-being can lead to the collapse of the social and political system; while high levels of well-being contribute to the survival and flourishing of democratic institutions.
We now know that a nation’s past communism, economic development, and freedom are closely related to well being. We still don’t know whether it is freedom that is the strongest factor. That it has the highest correlation with well being suggests that it is, but a proper analysis of this has yet to be done. I will do it, and give the conclusions here.
see the regression of human security on freedom
Leave a Comment » | democracy, freedom | Tagged: democracy, freedom, Happiness, utilitarianism | Permalink
Arab Freedom Ahoy
[First published January 4, 2006] There are many commentators and analysts who assert that Arabs are not interested in democratic freedom, or that the Arab culture is hostile to it. It is important, therefore, to publicize the Arab Human Development Report 2004: Towards Freedom in the Arab World published by the United Nations Development Programme, Arab Fund For Economic And Social Development (link here). It begins with the theme of the whole report:
Of all the impediments to an Arab renaissance, political restrictions on human development are the most stubborn. This Report therefore focuses on the acute deficit of freedom and good governance.
Given its source and funding, the report is surprisingly honest:
No Arab thinker today doubts that freedom is a vital and necessary condition, though not the only one, for a new Arab renaissance, or that the Arab world’s capacity to face up to its internal and external challenges, depends on ending tyranny and securing fundamental rights and freedoms.
Ah, you might think, it must mean something different by freedom than we do in the West. No way. By freedom the report means not only civil and political rights, the rule of law, and an independent judiciary, and therefore, as it says, “freedom from oppression,” but also “the liberation of the individual from all factors that are inconsistent with human dignity, such as hunger, disease, ignorance, and poverty.” These, the report points out, rest upon popular participation, government transparency, accountability, and fair and free selection processes. In other words, democracy as we know it.
Keep in mind this is an Arab report as it also asserts what we all know:
Some Arab governments also violate the right to life extra-legally and extra-judicially. Human rights organizations have observed that official reports on killings tend to be short on facts. In most Arab states, the names of the victims are not mentioned, and no public investigation is conducted.
Extremist groups which perpetrate assassinations and bombings and espouse the use of violence also violate the right to life. Armed confrontations between security forces and armed groups result in civilian casualties that can outnumber victims in the ranks of the combatants.
And more surprising, it also frankly deals with the way Arab men treat their women:
In general, women suffer from inequality with men and are vulnerable to discrimination, both at law and in practice.
Despite laudable efforts to promote the status of women, success remains limited. Greater progress is required in women’s political participation, in changes to personal status laws, in the integration of women in development, and in the right of a woman married to a foreign husband to transmit her citizenship to her children. The inability of existing legislation to protect women from domestic violence or violence on the part of the state and society is another deficit area.
And now for the most important observation of this report — the claim the Arab and Muslim “mind” makes them incapable of democracy. Says the report:
[A] recent research effort, the World Values Survey (WVS), has exposed the falseness of these claims by demonstrating that there is a rational and understandable thirst among Arabs to be rid of despots and to enjoy democratic governance. Among the nine regions surveyed by the WVS, which included the advanced Western countries, Arab countries topped the list of those agreeing that “democracy is better that any other form of governance.” A substantially high percentage also rejected authoritarian rule (defined as a strong ruler who disregards parliament or elections).
Why have Arab countries failed to meet their people’s desire for freedom and democracy?
Undoubtedly, the real flaw behind the failure
of democracy in several Arab countries is not cultural in origin. It lies in the convergence of political, social and economic structures that have suppressed or eliminated organized social and political actors capable of turning the crisis of authoritarian and totalitarian regimes to their advantage. The elimination of such forces has sapped the democratic movement of any real forward momentum. In addition, there are region- specific complexities that have deepened the crisis.
In other words, dictatorships are at fault. There is much to gladden the freedomist in this report. Even if it is projecting on the Arab world a bias toward freedom, this report still contains enough undoubted detail and facts, like the above WVS survey, to question the view that democracy is incompatible with Arab culture, and that President Bush’s Forward Strategy of Freedom for the region is grossly unrealistic.
“The unmentionable Freedom” (5/28/05) By Joseph Loconte, The Heritage Foundation
Joseph Loconte is a research fellow in religion at the Heritage Foundation. He says:
Last month a group of Arab intellectuals released their third report in an unprecedented study of the many failures–economic, social, and political–that plague the world’s Arab states. The latest report, “Towards Freedom in the Arab World,” endorses democracy and laments the “acute deficit of freedom and good governance” in Muslim countries. Its authors are getting high marks from the Bush administration. Too bad they’ve largely ignored the most basic freedom under any democratic government: the guarantee of religious liberty.
Although understandable, given his interest in religion, I think he overdoes his criticism of the report for not explicitly favoring religious freedom. But this is implicit in the report’s general treatment of freedom, and then there are these snippets:
The dominant trend in Islamic jurisprudence supports freedom. Enlightened Islamic interpretations find that the tools of democracy – when used properly – offer one possible practical arrangement for applying the principle of consultation (al-shura). The fundamental principles in Islam which dictate good governance, include the realization of justice and equality, the assurance of public freedoms, the right of the nation to appoint and dismiss rulers, and guarantees of all public and private rights for non-Muslims and Muslims alike. Notwithstanding these key theological and philosophical interpretations, political forces, in power and in opposition, have selectively appropriated Islam to support and perpetuate their oppressive rule.
In contemporary jurisprudence, human rights constitute the collection of rights incorporated in international agreements and treaties that guarantee all people, irrespective of their nationality, ethnicity, language, sex, religion, ideology and abilities, the fundamental rights to which they are entitled by virtue of being human. However, in Arab countries the issue of ‘specificity’ is frequently raised to weaken international human rights law.
The confusion between religion and state is nowhere more clearly demonstrated than in the Sudanese Constitution, which provides that God, the Creator of humankind, holds supremacy over the State, without specifying the meaning of supremacy. Governance practices apparently sanctioned by God are likely to be immune to criticism and opposition.
Books, articles, and data
Leave a Comment » | Arabs, democracy, freedom | Permalink
[First published June 18, 2005]
From Colleaque:
One of the mottos I have all my students memorize and understand is “RTM — Regime Type Matters.” I use your Power Kills to make sure they understand this both empirically and theoretically, as well as making sure they see the practical implications “since Power kills, if you want non-violence, promote democracy”).
I also use the famous satellite photo of the Korean peninsula at night: the North is almost completely dark, while the South is lit up like Times Square.
I ask why? Since the people are the same, the resources pretty much the same, the weather almost the same, the culture the same, what is the explanatory variable? Obviously politics! This makes “RTM” vividy clear to them.
Yesterday (Friday) Rush was asked what made America so different, and his answer is a classic statement of the importance or regime type — freedom is the answer. Transcript below….
Rush:
Who’s next? Anchorage, Alaska, this is Adam. Hello, sir.
CALLER:
Hey, Rush, mega dittos here from the great state of Alaska. You actually helped make my college experience bearable. My question is, democracy and freedom work so well here in America because we fought for it, we died for it, our blood was shed. How can we be assured that the Iraqis will have that same appreciation?
We can’t be sure. There is a lot of faith here and I will tell you why I am willing to try it. I ask this question of people constantly. You thanked me for getting you through the college experience, so you’re relatively young. I don’t know how much you’ve traveled internationally, but if you haven’t, you someday will, and when you travel the world, you will see a stark difference in almost every aspect of the human condition, when compared to this country. Even if you go to civilized parts of the world, western Europe, Japan, you will see a marked difference in the quality of life. And for the moment here I’m not talking about political circumstances. I’m just talking about economic. You will see civilizations that have been around far longer than we have who are not nearly as advanced. You will see civilizations and cultures that are on the road to where we are, but they’re not really near it, and they have been at it for thousands of years longer than we have. And you’ll ask yourself, “Why? Why is this?” The first thing you’ll do is say, “What is it about the United States geographically, what is it about the United States that enables us to be the leader of the world?” And you’ll start looking at things like, “Well, is it because of our agriculture? Is it because of our natural resources? Is it because of the cooperation so many people on one continent have because we are part of the United States, so Arkansans freely trade with Missourians, who freely trade with Californians, we’re all Americans, is it that?”
And then you’ll say, “Well, wait. It can’t all be that because we don’t have nearly enough oil to supply our own needs, we have to get that elsewhere from around the world.” Then you’ll say, “It can’t be that because when I go to the store I see all kinds of products made in China and Japan and Mexico. So what is it,” you’ll ask yourself, “what is it about us?” And then you’ll ask yourself, “Are we different human beings? Is there something about us as human beings that makes us different than, say, human beings in Africa or Asia or Europe?”
And then you’ll have to conclude, no, because a human being is a human being, regardless what a human being looks like, regardless what a human being’s skin color is or where a human being is born, we’re all human beings. We’re no better than any other group of human beings, collectively or individually anywhere else on the planet. So why are we so far advanced in every which way, politically as well? Let’s bring the political system in – and you will conclude, Adam, as I have, after many experiences and asking yourself these questions, that there’s one thing that sets us apart from all these other people, and that is freedom. We as human beings here are allowed, because of the freedom we have compared to other human beings on the planet, to maximize our potential as human beings, our creativity, our industriousness, our talents.
Now, we have shackles on ourselves here, we’ve got restrictions and regulations, but it’s nothing compared to people that live in totalitarian regimes run by dictators and thugs and so forth. It is therefore the conclusion, the theory is that guides our policy, President Bush’s policy, I’m sure, is that a human being has a natural yearning as a result of creation to be free and to be the best he can be. But society, culture after culture, generation after generation, when you tamp that down, step on it, you suppress it for generation after generation after generation. Now in Iraq, it’s being put to the test. And I think it’s succeeding. I think the Iraqis themselves are getting along much faster than we did in getting a Constitution. I wouldn’t say this is a lost cause, just the exact opposite. I think what’s going on over there is a sight to behold and it’s a model for the rest of that region.
BAR.RED.BLACK.GIF
Leave a Comment » | freedom, United States | Permalink
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Dennis Hollier
By Magazine
Hawaii Business
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Tag Archives: Better Place
June 3, 2011 · 10:58 pm
Charging Ahead: Hawaii looks beyond oil
Better Place Announcement
On the sidewalk in front of the state Capitol, Gov. Linda Lingle climbs into the driver’s seat of a white and blue Nissan Rogue. But this is no ordinary Nissan. It’s an electric car, the demonstration vehicle for Better Place, a technology company with ambitious plans to persuade thousands of people that electric cars represent the future of Hawaii. A small crowd of press, politicians and energy buffs have come to see the Rogue and hear how it fits into the Hawaii Clean Energy Initiative (HCEI), the state’s bold new attempt to kick its oil habit. In the afternoon shade, they chat amongst themselves, slowly stepping aside as the governor executes an erratic loop around the statue of Father Damien. Because the car is completely noiseless, no doubt she hears her staff as they amiably disparage her driving. The governor smiles.
Somehow, the ordinariness of this gathering underscores the sense that we might be seeing history: that this normal-looking car — a basic crossover SUV, fit for a soccer mom (or a governor) — may be the missing link in the great quest to escape the tyranny of oil.
Of course, part of the vision for the HCEI has always been that it would be a magnet for companies like Better Place, making the state a kind of hot bed for energy high-tech. In fact, less than two weeks later, Phoenix Motorcars, a California-based electric car manufacturer, also showed up at the Capitol, touting another pilot project to test electric cars in the fleet operations of the Maui Electric Company. But, whether it is Better Place or Phoenix Motorcars or another company altogether, someone will eventually have to answer the question that haunts the noble but quixotic dreams of the HCEI: “What about fueling transportation?”
In short, for the HCEI to work, every business in the state will have to plan on a new model that looks at energy consumption as less of a simple cost and more of a bottom-line item that can contribute to, as well as take away, profits.
The problem that the HCEI seeks to address isn’t that hard to understand. As Jeff Mikulina likes to point out, “Hawaii is punch drunk on oil.” Mikulina is the executive director of the Blue Planet Foundation, an organization committed to weaning Hawaii from fossil fuels, so the sentiment might be expected. But the numbers bear him out. In fact, Hawaii depends upon fossil fuels — mostly oil —for more than 90 percent of its energy needs. The cost of this oil addiction is staggering. State energy administrator Ted Peck puts it in context, “Hawaii’s GDP is about $60 billion. We pay about 11 percent of that in energy costs.” That means Hawaii exports nearly $7 billion a year to buy oil. “That cost gets embedded in everything,” Peck says, which leaves the state disturbingly vulnerable to the rising cost of oil. “I’m not a fear-monger,” Peck says, “but I think that’s at least as compelling as global warming.”
The Hawaii Clean Energy Initiative, with its laundry list of commitments to renewable, local energy — including 40 percent renewables by 2030 — is supposed to change everything. The most important element of the initiative is an effort to force businesses and consumers to change the way they think about energy. Consider: the easiest way to reduce our reliance on fossil fuels is to promote greater efficiency. In the old business model, the utility was paid based on the number of kilowatt-hours sold, which tends to encourage profligacy. The HCEI agreement, though, proposes to “decouple” HECO’s rates from how much energy is sold. Instead, the utility will be rewarded for improving customers’ efficiency.
Decoupling helps control demand; to improve the supply of renewable energy sources, the electric company agrees to post “feed-in” tariffs — essentially, the rates they’ll pay to purchase different kinds of renewable energy. Knowing the feed-in tariff gives companies what they need to decide whether they want to invest in Hawaii’s renewable energy market. Together, decoupling and feed-in tariffs will transform how the electric company — and their customers — do business. Not everyone is sanguine about the initiative’s prospects. Even some of its strongest supporters acknowledge the failure of similar programs and initiatives in the past. Mikulina, who has enthusiastically endorsed the HECO agreement, points to the electric company’s Kahuku wind project in the 1970s as a kind of cautionary tale. “When they put those turbines in, that was cutting edge,” Mikulina says. “Those were the largest wind turbines in the world at the time, and they should get credit for it.”
Nevertheless, the project, which began in response to the oil crises of the 1970s, foundered when oil prices fell again in the 1980s. Mikulina says, “Recently, they’ve been right on target. But right now, it’s just on paper. And the devil’s in the details.”
Perhaps the most glaring detail missing has been a serious explanation of how we will pay for the major changes to our power infrastructure that the agreements promise. The No. 1 example is the undersea cable linking the proposed wind farms of Lanai and Molokai with the energy-strapped Oahu grid. Estimates for the cost of constructing such a cable range between $500 million and $1 billion.
Current plans suggest that the cable will be paid for and owned by the state, but operated by the utility. That is not, however, set in stone.
One thing is clear: the cable’s going to cost the consumer. Robbie Alm, HECO’s senior vice president for public affairs, says flatly, “I think we may be able to get some federal monies for it, but rate-payer and taxpayer money is going to pay for most of it.”
Perhaps the strongest critique of the state’s new initiatives has come from Fereidun Fesharaki, a well-regarded energy economist at the East-West Center. Fesharaki is not so sure that the rate-payers and taxpayers will welcome the high cost of investing in alternative energy. He acknowledges that the recent spike in oil prices to nearly $150 a barrel certainly made wind and solar seem more attractive, but he points out that the true price of oil is surprisingly elastic.
“The cost of production of oil today — conventional oil — is around $30 a barrel,” he says. “The rest is profit.” On the other hand, the cost of switching to alternatives is relatively high and inflexible, a fact highlighted by the need for tax credits and other subsidies to support them. Fesharaki notes, “It could be two or three times the price of oil. And while everybody becomes brave when oil prices are high, when the prices come down, people are going to ask, ‘Why am I paying all this extra?’”
The answer, of course, is straightforward: pay me now, or pay me later. Even Fesharaki acknowledges that the demand for oil will soon outstrip the supply. “I think, in two or three years, oil will probably be around $200 a barrel,” he says. So the question of whether to invest in renewables is really a political rather than a technical one, and most experts give the Lingle administration credit for its initiative in dealing with the problem now. Peck has a colorful way of putting it: “The question is very analogous to a tsunami; are we going to stay on the beaches, or are we going to go to high ground?” The price of oil may, indeed, fall in the short term, Peck says, “But that doesn’t mean the wave isn’t coming. It’s coming.”
Hawaii Clean Energy Initiative (HCEI)
A Sampling of Goals and Projects
• A HECO commitment to purchase as much as 1,100 megawatts of already identified renewable energy
• Construction of an undersea transmission cable connecting Molokai, Lanai and Maui with the Oahu grid
• 70 percent “clean” energy by 2030
• Doubling the current Renewable Portfolio Standard (RPS) to 40 percent by 2030
• Establishment of a “feed-in” tariff describing purchase power prices for renewables
• Deployment of Advanced Metering and time-of-use rates, allowing customers to better control their energy use
• “Decoupling” HECO’s compensation to encourage conservation and efficiency
• Retire older, dirty generation plants as Hawaii moves into a renewable future
• Convert existing generators to renewable biofuels
• Prohibit any new coal plants in Hawaii
One of the real problems with replacing fossil fuels with clean alternatives is simply, “How do we get there from here?” According to Fesharaki, it’s pretty clear that Hawaii will continue to depend upon fossil fuels for a large part of its energy needs well into the future. The reason is in your driveway.
Only about 30 percent of the fuel produced at Hawaii’s two refineries goes to power generation. The other 70 percent supplies the state’s seemingly insatiable transportation needs: jet fuel, bunker fuel, gasoline and diesel. If, indeed, through the use of renewables and higher efficiencies, HECO is able to reduce its consumption of fossil fuels for power by 70 percent, that still means the state will have to rely on oil for nearly 80 percent of its total needs.
Because of that, we will continue to depend upon the two local refineries to fuel our economy. Yet, Fesharaki notes, the state’s new energy policy may prove lethal to them. “It’s unlikely we can actually reach a 70 percent reduction,” he says, “but let’s assume, for the moment, that they’re actually able to reach a 30 percent reduction. Go ask the people at the Tesoro or the Chevron refinery if they can survive with a 30 percent decline in demand. I don’t think so. Maybe one of them would survive, but then you’d be relying on just one. What do you think they’re going to charge you?”
That’s why transportation remains the bugbear of the renewable energy landscape. It’s also why the successes of Better Place and the HCEI are so intertwined. Hawaii is the ideal venue for a company like Better Place to test its business model. The short driving distances and high fuel costs make electric cars practical, and Hawaii’s visibility as a major tourist destination makes it a powerful marketing tool. But Better Place is also the ideal test for the HCEI, an opportunity to see if this new energy paradigm is revolutionary enough to make real change possible.
Whatever doubts or skepticism the HCEI may provoke, in one respect, at least, it’s already achieved its goal. Its sheer ambition has clearly attracted the attention of companies like Better Place and others. For Alm, it’s all in the numbers. He points out that the 40 percent Renewable Portfolio Standard truly sets Hawaii apart. “Basically, we agree to be legally bound to that — 40 percent of the power we buy will be derived from renewables. That number is by far the highest in the United States.” Will this be enough to attract the investment and brainpower to make Hawaii a global model for energy high-tech? Alm certainly thinks so.
Fesharaki, always somewhat more circumspect, notes archly, “In the fullness of time, as the British say, everything is possible.”
Filed under Business, Hawaii Business, Science
Tagged as Better Place, Fereidun Fesharaki, Hawaii Clean Energy Initiative, Hawaiian Electric, HECO, Robbie Alm
Categories Select Category Business Culture Magazines Air & Space Hana Hou Hawaii Business Honolulu Magazine Ka Elele Nautilus The Atlantic TravelAge West Washington Post National AABP Politics Science SPJ Technology Travel Uncategorized
How Fish Get from the Sea to Your Plate
My story on Mars analogs is up at Smithsonian Air & Space magazine.
How to Build a High-End High-Rise
Trump’s Effect on Hawaii
My latest in Smithsonian Air & Space
Hana Hou Magazine
Hawaii Business Magazine
Smithsonain Air & Space
Dennis Hollier · Stories (mostly scientific) about Hawaii and the ocean surrounding it.
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Hallowed Ground: St. Michael’s Church, Charleston’s Oldest Place of Worship
Page Ivey
Discover writers share all of the places, activities and adventure that South Carolina has to offer. Read more from some of South Carolina’s locals and discover what’s happening in the Palmetto State.
More from "Page Ivey"
If you are looking for an old church building in Charleston, it doesn't get any older than St. Michael's. The cornerstone for the existing building was laid in 1752 and the building opened in 1761.
Although other churches were built earlier, those buildings were destroyed or significantly damaged by fire, wars, hurricanes and one really big earthquake. St. Michael's has survived all that and, with the exception of one addition, has remained largely unchanged for its 250-plus years.
St. Michael's stands on the site of the first Anglican Church built in South Carolina for the families of the newly established Charles Town. It was named St. Philip's and within 40 years it had outgrown the space and moved over to Church Street.
After another 30 years, it was determined that a second Anglican church was needed to accommodate Charleston's growing population and St. Michael's was authorized.
The church was built in the style of Sir Christopher Wren, which was typical of the Colonial period. It retains its original layout meant to bring worshippers close to a more centrally located pulpit, which is the focal point of the sanctuary and notable for its size. A scar remains at the foot of the pulpit from a shell that landed near the chancel during the Civil War.
The original pew boxes remain, including No. 43 - known as "The Governor's Pew" - where George Washington and Robert E. Lee sat during services about 70 years apart.
Items have been added to the sanctuary over the years, including the Victorian altar presented in 1892 and the chancel decoration by Tiffany in 1905.
Two stained-glass windows depicting Easter morning and the Annunciation were presented to the church in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The stained-glass door in the south side of the church dates from 1915.
The original organ was made by John Snetzler in London and was installed in 1768.
St. Michael's Church (link: http://www.stmichaelschurch.net), 71 Broad St., Charleston, SC 29401, 843.723.0603.
The church and cemetery are open to the public: 9 a.m.-4 p.m., Monday-Friday; 8:30 a.m.-noon on Saturday; and Sunday for services only at 8 a.m., 10:30 a.m. and 6 p.m. Call for more information.
Hallowed Ground: The Old Stone Church in Clemson
Hallowed Ground: Circular Congregational Church, Charleston
Hallowed Ground: Charleston’s Huguenot Church Stands as Testament to Religious Freedom
Hallowed Ground: 7 Reasons Charleston Is Known as the Holy City
Hallowed Ground: Charleston Is Home to the South’s Original First Baptist Church
In 1751 St. Michael’s Parish was created and the cornerstone laid for the new church the next year. Opening in 1761, the church is the oldest in...
City of Charleston
Known as the "Holy City", for its long tolerance for religions of all types, Charleston is the state's most beautiful and historic treasure....
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Accueil Anglais What is the Château of Versailles?
What is the Château of Versailles?
At the end of the 17th century, the King of France, Louis XIV, wanted somewhere to live that reflected his emblem: the sun!
So, he had the hunting lodge of his father, Louis XIII, transformed into a castle. It was 30 km from Paris, in Versailles.
From 1682 to 1715, Louis XIV lived there surrounded by his court and his government.
But what was so special about this castle?
It is spectacular! Louis XIV thought big: majestic buildings and 8000 ha of parkland, 10 times bigger than it is today!
Nowadays, Versailles is the 3rd most visited place in France; more popular than the Eiffel Tower.
Each year, millions of tourists come to see the famous Hall of Mirrors; there are 357 mirrors.
But also the King’s apartments, a suite of state rooms and the sumptuous royal chamber.
Outside, they can admire French style formal gardens, the Grand Canal…
… And the fountains and water features designed by Le Nôtre, the Sun King’s gardener.
In 1837, King Louis Philippe created the Museum of French history inside the Château.
Today, Versailles belongs to the French Republic that uses it for grand occasions.
Such as in 1919, when the peace treaty to end World War I was signed in the Hall of Mirrors. Its name? The Treaty of… Versailles!
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The Rocky Horror Show review (QPAC, Brisbane)
By Alison Cotes | January 10, 2014 |
Nothing does it for me like tall guys in fishnet stockings (unless they’re Alexander Downer), so the return of Dr Frank-n-Furter to the Australian stage, almost forty years since he first landed down under, was enough to give this ageing heart more than just a thump.
Not that Craig McLachlan (Neighbours alumni and most recently star of The Doctor Blake Mysteries) has quite the same evil seductive powers of Reg Livermore in the original, but who could? And McLachlan makes the role his own with enough black leathers and suspenders (and was that a padded codpiece?) to have the full house screaming their heads off. Half the audience weren’t even born when the original production came to Australia in the 70s, but the other half were old fans, and the reception was as rapturous as at any rock concert.
For Rocky Horror is now a cult classic in its own right, as much as The Wizard of Oz, and you don’t have to be a Friend of Dorothy to delight in all the cross-dressing and sexual who-does-which-and-with-what-and-to-whom stuff (and I use the word advisedly). It seemed to me to be much less subtle in its sexual innuendo than it used to be, but I was very young when I first saw it, and the sodomy and oral sex references then probably went right over my head, if that’s not a back-to-front metaphor (or something very like). Certainly none of it was lost on this very savvy audience, who shrieked even louder than the four-piece band, who were high-decibel enough to make me block my ears even from Row U where we were seated because I had, perforce, muddled the dates and arrived for a preview instead of opening night. So there’s a disclaimer, and one reason I’m not going to quibble about a bit of over-miking, especially with the Usherette’s song, because I’m sure that will be tidied up before the official opening.
But the rest of it was pure pleasure. Everyone knows the plot, which is very silly and cartoonish, but it’s the design details and the brilliant 70s rock’n’roll music that make this show a sure-fire winner. The gormless Brad and Janet (Tim Maddren and Christie Whelan Browne), when reduced to saggy white Y-fronts and frilly white petticoat respectively, are the perfect fall guys, and Tony Farrell is a very classy Narrator. The sci-fi gadgets and the smoke-and-lightning effects are as crass as you could ask for, and the musical score is not just nostalgia at its best, but exquisitely played and sung. The show is not full of memorable tunes, but the Time Warp song took me straight back to the 70s, and made much more sense in this current production, which is itself in a real time warp.
Beautifully dressed and well-cast (Brendan Irving as the literal golden boy Rocky is blessed with circus skills as well as a perfect physique), this show is a knock-out, and I’m sure the kinky underwear shops will soon be sold out of black lace-up corselets, as they were called in those days, and red suspenders, as this cult classic garners even more fans.
Some shows are definitely worth reviving, and this is one of them. Even if it’s more of a trip down memory lane than an immediate, modern musical, characters like Frank-n-Furter and Brad and Janet have entered the lexicon of rock’n’roll immortals, and the corny plot, which tries to pretend that love is the best in this best of all possible worlds, especially alien ones, is perfect in its own right. Brad and Janet lose their respective virginities in a most delightful way, although it doesn’t shock them as much as it probably ought, and all the naughty aliens are sent back to where they should have stayed in the first place – although thank goodness, for our sakes, that they didn’t.
After almost forty years, though, some mysteries still remain unsolved. Will the rain ever stop, will Brad and Janet finally get married, and will they ever get that flat tyre fixed?
[box]The Rocky Horror Show is at the Lyric Theatre, QPAC until 9 February before a national tour. More information and tickets are available at rockyhorror.com.au
Featured image by Jeff Busby[/box]
Alison Cotes
One response to “The Rocky Horror Show review (QPAC, Brisbane)”
Quote: “After almost forty years, though, some mysteries still remain unsolved. Will the rain ever stop, will Brad and Janet finally get married, and will they ever get that flat tyre fixed?”
Umm…. Shock Treatment answers all of those and more…
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James Daniel (Jim) Doyle and Adeline Mary Wilmes Family
James Daniel (Jim) Doyle
Born 14 Feb 1889 Neola, Pottawattamie, Iowa, USA
Christened 18 Jul 1859
Died 25 Jan 1974 Neola, Pottawattamie, Iowa, USA
Buried St. Patrick's Cemetery, Neola, Pottawattamie, Iowa, USA
Married 17 Apr 1912 [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24] St. Patrick's Church, Neola, Pottawattamie, Iowa, USA [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24]
Father Michael Joseph Doyle | F245 Group Sheet
Mother Mary Ellen Flynn | F245 Group Sheet
Adeline Mary Wilmes
Born 29 May 1890 Tilden, Madison, Nebraska, USA
Died 6 Apr 1969 Mercy Hospital, Council Bluffs, Pottawattamie, Iowa, USA
Buried 8 Apr 1969 St. Patrick's Cemetery, Neola, Pottawattamie, Iowa, USA
Father Gerhard Herman Wilmes | F1113 Group Sheet
Mother Anna Maria (Mary) Veenker | F1113 Group Sheet
+ Robert James (Bob) Doyle
Born 12 Oct 1913 Minden, Pottawattamie, Iowa, USA
Spouse Rosemary M. Hansen | F791
Married Bef 1944
Catherine Elaine Doyle
Born 17 Sep 1914 Minden, Pottawattamie, Iowa, USA
Died 3 Jun 1925
+ Philip Joseph Doyle
Born 1 Mar 1918 Neola, Pottawattamie, Iowa, USA
Died 18 May 2008 Moraga, Contra Costa, California, USA
Buried 23 May 2008 Oakland, Alameda, California, USA
Spouse Patricia (Paddy) Jane Cole | F5
Married 2 Feb 1943 St. Leo's Catholic Church, Oakland, Alameda, California, USA
Margaret Mary Doyle
Born 16 Sep 1921 , , Iowa, USA
Died Mar 1971
Spouse Russel Arthor Britton | F1254
+ Joan Cecelia Doyle
Born 16 Feb 1924 , , Iowa, USA
Died 29 Jul 1986 Neola, Pottawattamie, Iowa, USA
Spouse Clement Benedict Crowley | F1109
+ Mary Dolors (Do) Doyle
Born 4 Apr 1926 Neola, Pottawattamie, Iowa, USA
Christened St. Patrick's Church, Neola, Pottawattamie, Iowa, USA
Died 17 Oct 2009 Harlan, Shelby, Iowa, USA
Buried 20 Oct 2009 Panama, Shelby, Iowa, USA
Spouse Vincent Joseph Waltz | F1110
Married 4 Jun 1975 Des Moines, Polk, Iowa, USA
Richard Emmett (Dick) Doyle
Born 6 Nov 1927 , , Iowa, USA
Died 11 Feb 1960 San Francisco, San Francisco, California, USA
Spouse Living | F1718
+ Mary Ellen Doyle
Died 31 Oct 2015
Spouse Living | F764
[S491] Family Group Sheet - Wilmes Family; 1800's - 2000 [0231], Philip Doyle, 0231., 18 Oct 2014.
Married Apr 17, 1912.
[S492] 1940 US Census, IA, Pottawattamie Co., Neola - James D. Doyle Family [0502], Iowa, Pottawattamie, (ancestry.com: National Archives and Records Administration, 2012), 0502., T627, roll T627_1199, Neola, enumeration district (ED) 78-55, p. 1B, household 15.
[S494] 1925 Iowa Census, Pottawattamie Co., Minden - James D Doyle Family [0504], Iowa, Pottawattamie, (Digital images. Ancestry. ancestry.com : 2007), 0504., Minden, line 14, James D. Doyle family; (ancestry.com).
[S496] WW I Draft Registration Card, IA, Pottawattamie Co., Minden - James Daniel Doyle; 1917 [0507], (Ancestry. ancestry.com : 2005.), 0507., (ancestry.com), James Daniel Doyle.
Married; wife and 2 children.
[S497] St Patrick's Cemetery Records, IA, Neola - Extracted Data (Doyle Relatives) [0518], Neola Township & St. Patrick's Cemetery, (neolaiowacemetery.com, 2013), 0518., James D. & Adeline M. Doyle.
Same grave marker.
[S499] Descendants of Patrick Doyle and Mary White; Abt 1988 [0791], Cecelia Doyle?. Supplied by compiler . Abt 1988., 0791., 13 Mar 2014.
[S500] Descendants of Daniel Doyle, Abt 1982 [0792], Doyle, Cecelia. Supplied by compiler, [ADDRESS FOR PRIVATE USE,] Escondido, California. 2009., 0792., 14 Mar 2014.
[S501] Omaha World-Herald, NE; Mar 15, 1934 - Obituary for Herman Wilmes [1858], Nebraska. Omaha., 1858., "Obituary - Herman Wilmes," Mar 15, 1934, p. 17; digital images, Genealogy Bank (genbank.com : accessed Oct 20, 2014).
[S502] Omaha World-Herald, NE; Apr 7, 1969 - Obituary for Adeline M. Doyle [3066], Nebraska. Omaha., 3066., "Obituary - Adeline M. Doyle," Apr 7, 1969, p. 30; digital images, Ancestry (ancestry.com : accessed Jan 7, 2015).
[S503] Council Bluffs Nonpareil, IA; Sep 4, 1944 - Dick Doyle Home in Neola [2161], Iowa. Council Bluffs., 2161., "Neola," Sep 4, 1944, p. 2; digital images, Ancestry (ancestry.com : accessed Mar 5, 2015).
[S504] Council Bluffs Nonpareil, IA; Dec 26, 1945 - Doyles Holiday in Neola [2165A], Iowa. Council Bluffs., 2165A., "Neola," Dec 26, 1945, p. 8; digital images, Ancestry (ancestry.com : accessed Mar 6, 2015).
[S505] Council Bluffs Nonpareil, IA; Apr 1962 - 50th Wedding Anniversary of Mr. & Mrs. James Doyle [3258], Iowa. Council Bluffs., 3258., "Neola Pair Wed 50 Years," Apr 1962.
Married Apr 17, 1912; St. Patrick's Church, Neola, IA.
[S506] Napkin from 50th Wedding Anniversary Celebration for Jim & Adeline Doyle; Apr 15, 1962 [3259], 3259., "Napkin from 50th Wedding Anniversary Celebration for Jim & Adeline Doyle," Apr 15, 1962.
Married from 1912-1962.
[S507] Council Bluffs Nonpareil, IA; abt. 1956 - Engagement of Mary Ellen Doyle to William H. Hagedorn [3261], Iowa. Council Bluffs., 3261., "Mary E. Doyle Reveals Troth," abt 1956.
[S508] Neola Gazette-Reporter, IA; May 27, 1943 - 2nd Lt. Phillip J. Doyle, USMC [3263], Iowa. Neola., 3263., "Marine," May 27, 1943, p. 1.
[S509] Obituary for Mary Ellen Hagedorn; 1932-2015 [3267], Sierra View Funeral Chapel & Crematory (Carmichael, California), (Sierra View Funeral Chapel & Crematory. sierraviewfuneralchapel.net : Nov 2015), 3267., Mary Ellen Hagedorn; Sierra View Funeral Chapel & Crematory
(sierraviewfuneralchapel.net : accessed Jan 1, 2016).
[S510] Omaha World-Herald, NE; Feb 19, 1965 - Obituary for Miss Anna Wilmes [3371], Nebraska. Omaha., 3371., "Obituary - Miss Anna Wilmes," Feb 19, 1965, p. 36; digital images, Genealogy Bank (genbank.com : accessed Jan 21, 2016).
[S511] St. Patrick's Parish Centennial History Book, Neola, IA; 1982 - James D. Doyle Family [1140H], The Centennial Committee, editor, (Neola, IA: n.p., 1982.), 1140H.
Married Apr 17, 1912, at St. Patrick's Church, Neola, IA.
[S512] Council Bluffs Nonpareil, IA; Feb 2, 1944 - Funeral Services for Mrs. Catherine Fenlon [3554], Iowa. Council Bluffs., 3554., "Neola," Feb 2, 1944, p. 7; digital images, Ancestry (ancestry.com : accessed Mar 24, 2016).
[S513] Omaha World-Herald, NE; Apr 16, 1966 - Obituary for Miss Mary C. Wilmes [4166], Nebraska. Omaha., 4166., "Obituary - Miss Mary C. Wilmes," Apr 16, 1966, p. 18; digital images, Genealogy Bank (genbank.com : accessed Nov 2, 2016).
[S514] 1920 US Census, IA, Pottawattamie Co., Minden Twp.- James D. Doyle Family [0505], Iowa, Pottawattamie, (amcestry.com: National Archives and Records Administration, 2010), 0505., T625, roll 510, Minden Twp., enumeration district (ED) 170, p. 7A, dwelling 160, family 164, James D. Doyle Family, accessed Jan 6, 2017.
[S515] Omaha World-Herald, NE; Mar 15, 2019 - Obituary for Clement Benedict Crowley [5851], Nebraska. Omaha., (omaha.com/obits: Mar 16, 2019), 5851., "Obituary for Clement Benedict Crowley," Mar 15, 2019, online archives (accessed Mar 30, 2019).
[S495] 1915 Iowa Census, Minden Twp. - James D. Doyle Family [0506], Iowa, Pottawattamie, (Digital images. Ancestry. ancestry.com : 2007), 0506., Minden Twp., p. 545-548, James D. Doyle Family; (ancestry.com : accessed Nov 24, 2019).
[S493] 1930 US Census, IA, Pottawattamie Co., Neola Twp. - James D. Doyle & Joseph E. Dixon Families [0503], Iowa, Pottawattamie, (ancestry.com: National Archives and Records Administration, 2002), 0503., T626, roll 678, Neola Twp., enumeration district (ED) 0053, p. 7A, dwelling 128, James D. Doyle Family, accessed Nov 24, 2019.
Age at marriage James 23, Adelide 21.
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World Anti Doping Agency Tells Russia to Explain “Inconsistencies”
Tokyo (AFP/APP): The World Anti Doping Agency (WADA) gave Russia three weeks to explain “inconsistencies” in a cache of laboratory data handed over to investigators, raising the possibility of a fresh ban on the country in the build-up to the Tokyo Olympics.
Russia stands to be declared non-compliant by WADA if it fails to explain why evidence of some positive tests handed over by a whistleblower doesn’t show up in data provided by Moscow’s anti-doping laboratory in January. If Russia challenges an eventual suspension by WADA the case will go to the Swiss-based Court of Arbitration for Sport, whose decision will be binding on sports bodies including the International Olympic Committee.
“Forensic experts have looked at what we got from whistleblowers, what we got from Russia and they noticed some inconsistencies,” WADA director general Olivier Niggli told AFP after an executive committee meeting in Tokyo. “Then they studied the differences and this came to a situation where there are some questions that need to be asked and answered.”
WADA has previously warned that it would take the “most stringent sanctions” if any of the data was found to have been tampered with.
Not soft on Russia:
Russian sports minister Pavel Kolobkov said WADA and RUSADA, the Russian anti-doping agency, would look into ‘inconsistences’. “Digital experts from both sides, who are already in touch, will see what the discrepances are about and what they are connected to. As far as we are concerned, we continue to help in any way possible,” he said in comments released by his ministry.
Russia handed over thousands of files from its Moscow anti-doping laboratory in January, fulfilling a key condition for its reinstatement by WADA last September. RUSADA had been suspended for nearly three years over revelations of wrongdoing including a systematic conspiracy to switch tainted samples at the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics. During its suspension by WADA, Russia was allowed by the International Olympic Committee to take part in the 2016 Rio Olympics, but Russian competitors at the 2018 Pyeongchang Winter Games had to take part under a neutral flag.
However, athletics body the IAAF has maintained a ban on Russia since November 2015, although many of its athletes are given special dispensation to compete under a neutral banner. The IAAF is due to re-examine the case for reintegrating Russian athletes ahead of the World Athletics Championships, which start in Doha this week. Niggli said 47 doping cases which have already been identified from the computerised data were not affected by the latest revelation.
He defended WADA’s handling of Russia, after criticism that the agency had softened its stance when it lifted its suspension a year ago. “Potentially there is an issue, but we’re dealing with it under a process which is clear to everybody, where the sanctions are defined and which might end up at CAS with a CAS decision that will bind every signatory to the court,” Niggli said.
He added: “There’s only so much WADA can do. We have no power to prevent any athletes to compete.
“People forget sometimes that apart from athletics, all Russian athletes are competing so if we had done nothing and waited and waited, the Russians would have continued competing as if nothing was happening, I don’t think we’ve been soft on Russia but people expect us to have power that we simply don’t have.”
RussiaWorld Anti Doping Agency
Rashid Khan Injured Afghanistan In trouble
David Miller Equals Shoaib Malik’s T20Is Record for Most Catches
Corruption and PIA: What’s the connection
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(Redirected from Natural cycle)
For the Major League Baseball players who have completed this feat, see List of Major League Baseball players to hit for the cycle. For the film, see Hitting the Cycle.
Curry Foley was the first player in Major League Baseball history to hit for the cycle, in 1882 for the Buffalo Bisons.
Harry Davis hit the first cycle in American League history, in 1901 for the Philadelphia Athletics.
In baseball, hitting for the cycle is the accomplishment of one batter hitting a single, a double, a triple, and a home run in the same game. Collecting the hits in that order is known as a "natural cycle".[1] Cycles are semi-rare in Major League Baseball (MLB), having occurred only 330 times, starting with Curry Foley in 1882.[2][3] The most recent example was accomplished by Cavan Biggio of the Toronto Blue Jays on September 17, 2019, against the Baltimore Orioles.[4]
The Miami Marlins are the only current MLB franchise who have never had a player hit for the cycle.[5]
1 Rarity
2 Components
2.2 Double
2.3 Triple
2.4 Home run
3 Accomplishments
3.1 Major League Baseball
3.1.1 Multiple cycles
3.1.2 Natural cycles
3.1.3 Reverse cycles
3.1.4 Other related accomplishments
3.2 Nippon Professional Baseball
Rarity[edit]
The cycle is about as uncommon as a no-hitter;[6][7] it has been called "one of the rarest"[8] and "most difficult feats"[9] in baseball. Based on 2009 offensive levels, the probability of an average MLB player hitting for a cycle against an average team in a game is approximately 0.00590%; this corresponds to about 21⁄2 cycles in a 162-game season with 30 teams.[10] The most cycles hit in a single major league season is eight, which occurred in both 1933 and 2009.[3]
In other baseball leagues, the cycle is achieved less frequently. Through May 2019, there have been 74 cycles hit in Nippon Professional Baseball (NPB),[11] the top-level baseball organization in Japan, the most recent being by Umeno Ryutaro on April 9, 2019.[12] One NPB player, Atsuya Furuta, has also hit for the cycle in an NPB All-Star game. No player has ever hit for the cycle in the MLB All-Star Game.[13] One MLB player has hit for the cycle in a postseason game, Brock Holt of the Boston Red Sox in Game 3 of the 2018 ALDS.[14]
Two players have hit for the cycle on the same day once in NPB history; this has occurred twice in MLB history. There have never been multiple cycles completed in a single MLB or NPB game; this is known to have occurred twice in Minor League Baseball — on April 11, 2018, by Gio Brusa and Jalen Miller of the Class A-Advanced San Jose Giants,[15] and on August 7, 2018, by Kevin Newman and Jacob Stallings of the Triple-A Indianapolis Indians.[16]
A "home run cycle"—hitting home runs with zero, one, two, and three runners on base, all in the same game—has not been accomplished in MLB. As of 2019, only 18 players have hit four home runs in an MLB game, and only twice has one of the home runs been a grand slam. The home run cycle has been accomplished at other levels of play, examples include: Minor League Baseball, in July 1998 by a player for the Arkansas Travelers;[17] college softball, in April 2011 by a player for the Florida State Seminoles[18] and in February 2019 by a player for the Arkansas Razorbacks;[19] high school baseball, in April 2019 by a player for Perrysburg High School in Ohio;[20] and Little League Baseball, in June 2014 by a player in Elkton, Maryland, and in 2018 by a player in Virginia Beach, VA.
Components[edit]
Michihiro Ogasawara hit the only cycle during the 2008 Nippon Professional Baseball season.
Single[edit]
Pursuant to Major League Baseball (MLB) Rule 6.09(a), "[the] batter becomes a runner when he hits a fair ball".[21] The single—in which the batter reaches first base without being put out, and without the benefit of a fielding error—is the most common type of hit in baseball: for example, there were 25,838 singles hit during the 1988 MLB season, compared to 6,386 doubles, 840 triples, or 3,180 home runs.[22] The MLB leader in singles is Pete Rose, who is also the league's all-time hit leader.[23] The single-season leader in singles is Ichiro Suzuki, who broke Willie Keeler's 106-year-old record in 2004 by notching 225, 19 more than the previous record.[24] None of the top five players in singles (Rose, Ty Cobb, Eddie Collins, Cap Anson, and Keeler) in MLB history have hit for the cycle;[3] of those five, only Rose had more than 150 home runs,[25] and two (Collins and Keeler), who both played during the dead-ball era, had fewer than 50,[26][27] lessening the probability of their completing the cycle.
Double[edit]
A double is a hit in which the batter reaches second base without being put out, and without the benefit of a fielding error. This scenario often occurs when a ball is hit into the gaps between the outfielders, or down the foul line on either side of the playing field.[28] Tris Speaker is the all-time leader in doubles in MLB history, with 792,[29] one of which was part of a cycle; Speaker accomplished the feat for the Boston Red Sox on June 9, 1912, against the St. Louis Browns.[3] Two of the other top five players in MLB history in doubles have hit for the cycle: Stan Musial (725 doubles; third all-time) completed the cycle on July 24, 1949; and Craig Biggio (668; fifth all-time) accomplished the feat on April 8, 2002.[3] The single-season MLB leader is Earl Webb, the left-handed outfielder who hit 67 in 1931.[30]
Triple[edit]
Sam Crawford and Ty Cobb, the top two players in MLB history in triples
The triple, in which the batter reaches third base without being put out, and without the benefit of a fielding error, is often called the "hardest part of the cycle" to complete.[31] Hitting a triple often comes under similar hit placement as a double, but may require impressive speed on the part of the runner.[32] Because of this, it is rare to see a player with slower-than-average running speed complete the cycle, but it has happened, such as when catcher Bengie Molina hit for the cycle on July 16, 2010; Molina described himself as "the [slowest] guy in baseball" earlier that season.[33] The MLB all-time leader in triples is Sam Crawford, who completed the three-base hit 309 times in his career;[34] however, none of those triples was ever part of a cycle. Of the top five players in MLB history in triples, two – Honus Wagner and Roger Connor—have hit for the cycle: Connor in 1890 and Wagner in 1912.[3] The MLB single-season record holder for triples, Chief Wilson, hit for the cycle in 1910,[3] two years before his record-setting season in which he hit 36 triples.[35]
Home run[edit]
A home run is a hit in which the batter reaches home plate, scoring a run on the same play without being put out, and without the benefit of a fielding error. Most often in modern baseball, this occurs when the batter hits the ball over the outfield wall in fair territory. Home-run hitters are commonly believed to be larger, slower players due to their strength, and may not be fast enough to complete the triple.[32] The MLB single-season and all-time leader in home runs is Barry Bonds, who hit 73 home runs in the 2001 season and notched 762 in his 22-season career.[36][37] Bonds never hit for the cycle.[38] Of MLB leaders in career home runs, the highest ranking player with a cycle is Alex Rodriguez (fourth all-time; retired in 2016 with 696 home runs),[39] who hit for the cycle on June 5, 1997.[3] Home runs can also occur on a batted ball that does not leave the field of play; this is called an inside-the-park home run.[32] Inside-the-park home runs are rare, and no player has hit one as part of a cycle since 1943.[40]
Accomplishments[edit]
Major League Baseball[edit]
For a more comprehensive list, see List of Major League Baseball players to hit for the cycle.
Multiple cycles[edit]
Bob Meusel is one of only four MLB players with three career cycles.
The most career cycles hit by an MLB player is three, accomplished by four players:[40]
MLB players with three cycles in their career
1883 1883 John Reilly Cincinnati Red Stockings American Association [41][42][43]
1890 Cincinnati Reds National League
1921 1922 1928 Bob Meusel New York Yankees American League [44][45][46]
1931 1931 Babe Herman Brooklyn Robins National League [47][48][49]
2008 Adrián Beltré Seattle Mariners American League [50][51][52]
2012 2015 Texas Rangers
All of Beltré's cycles occurred at Globe Life Park in Arlington; he is the only player to hit for the cycle with different teams in the same ballpark.[53]
Aaron Hill hit for the cycle twice in 2012.
Forty-four players have hit for the cycle at least twice. Five players have hit for the cycle twice in one season:[40]
MLB players with two cycles in a season
1883 John Reilly Cincinnati Reds American Association [41][42]
1887 Tip O'Neill St. Louis Brown Stockings American Association [54][55]
1931 Babe Herman Brooklyn Robins National League [47][48]
2012 Aaron Hill Arizona Diamondbacks National League [56][57]
2018 Christian Yelich Milwaukee Brewers National League [58]
One player has hit for the cycle twice against the same team in one season, Christian Yelich against the Cincinnati Reds in 2018.[59][3]
Cycles have occurred on the same day twice in MLB history; on September 17, 1920, hit by Bobby Veach of the Detroit Tigers and George Burns of the New York Giants, and again on September 1, 2008, when the Arizona Diamondbacks' Stephen Drew and the Seattle Mariners' Adrián Beltré each completed the four-hit group.[60] Conversely, the longest period of time between two players hitting for the cycle was 5 years, 1 month, and 10 days, a drought lasting from Bill Joyce's cycle in 1896 to Harry Davis' in 1901.
Bobby Veach (left) and George Burns (right) hit for the cycle on the same day, September 17, 1920.
Natural cycles[edit]
The natural cycle, in which the hits come in order from fewest to most total bases (single, double, triple, home run), has been accomplished 14 times in MLB history:[40]
The only natural cycle by a member of the New York Yankees was hit by Tony Lazzeri in 1932.
MLB players who have hit natural cycles
1910 Bill Collins Boston Doves National League [61]
1926 Bob Fothergill Detroit Tigers American League [62]
1932 Tony Lazzeri New York Yankees American League [63]
1939 Charlie Gehringer Detroit Tigers American League [64]
1943 Leon Culberson Boston Red Sox American League [65]
1963 Jim Hickman New York Mets National League [66]
1964 Ken Boyer St. Louis Cardinals National League [67]
1966 Billy Williams Chicago Cubs National League [68]
1976 Tim Foli Montreal Expos National League [69]
1979 Bob Watson Boston Red Sox American League [70]
1996 John Mabry St. Louis Cardinals National League [71]
2000 José Valentín Chicago White Sox American League [72]
2003 Brad Wilkerson Montreal Expos National League [73]
2006 Gary Matthews Jr. Texas Rangers American League [74]
Reverse cycles[edit]
The natural cycle has been accomplished in reverse (home run, triple, double, single)—also known as an "unnatural" cycle—ten times:[2]
Luke Scott's reverse cycle in 2006 was the first in nearly 40 years.
MLB players who have hit reverse cycles
1882 Curry Foley Buffalo Bisons National League [75]
1887 Bid McPhee Cincinnati Red Stockings American Association [76]
1904 Sam Mertes New York Giants National League [77]
1937 Gee Walker Detroit Tigers American League [78][79]
1939 Arky Vaughan Pittsburgh Pirates National League [80]
1948 Jackie Robinson Brooklyn Dodgers National League [81][82]
1968 Jim Fregosi California Angels American League [83][84]
2006 Luke Scott Houston Astros National League [85][86]
2008 Carlos Gómez Minnesota Twins American League [87]
2016 Rajai Davis Cleveland Indians American League [88]
Other related accomplishments[edit]
Miguel Tejada's cycle included a grand slam.
Nine players have hit a grand slam as part of their cycle:[40]
MLB players hitting a grand slam in their cycle
1901 Nap Lajoie Philadelphia Athletics American League [90]
1928 Bill Terry New York Giants National League [91]
1933 Jimmie Foxx Philadelphia Athletics American League [93]
1993 Jay Buhner Seattle Mariners American League [94]
2001 Miguel Tejada Oakland Athletics American League [95]
2009 Jason Kubel Minnesota Twins American League [96]
2010 Bengie Molina Texas Rangers American League [97]
George Brett completed his cycle with a walk-off home run.
Six players have had a walk-off home run as the final hit of their cycles:[40]
MLB players hitting a walk-off home run to complete their cycle
1972 César Tovar Minnesota Twins American League [99]
1979 George Brett Kansas City Royals American League [100]
1984 Dwight Evans Boston Red Sox American League [101]
2010 Carlos González Colorado Rockies National League [102]
2017 Nolan Arenado Colorado Rockies National League [103]
Ian Kinsler went 6-for-6 on the day of his cycle.
Ten players have collected six hits in the game in which they hit their cycle. Only three of these—by Larry Twitchell, Sam Thompson, and Ian Kinsler—were accomplished in a nine-inning game in the American League or National League.[104]
MLB players with six hits in their cycle game
1883 John Reilly Cincinnati Red Stockings American Association [41]
1885 Dave Orr New York Metropolitans American Association [105]
1885 Henry Larkin Philadelphia Athletics American Association [106]
1889 Larry Twitchell Cleveland Spiders National League [107]
1890 Farmer Weaver Louisville Colonels American Association [108]
1894 Sam Thompson Philadelphia Phillies National League [109]
1920 Bobby Veach Detroit Tigers American League [110]
1995 Rondell White Montreal Expos National League [111]
2009 Ian Kinsler Texas Rangers American League [112]
2018 Christian Yelich Milwaukee Brewers National League [113]
indicates an extra-innings game (Yelich collected his six hits in the first nine innings of a 10-inning game.)
Kinsler's six-hit cycle came on Jackie Robinson Day, honoring the African-American pioneer who had hit for the cycle in 1948.[114]
In 1901, Nap Lajoie hit for the cycle and won the AL Triple Crown.
The most recent player to hit for the cycle with an inside-the-park home run was Leon Culberson in 1943.[40][65]
The earliest in a game that a cycle has been completed is the fourth inning, accomplished by Mike Lansing of the Colorado Rockies on June 18, 2000, when he had a first-inning triple, second-inning homer, third-inning double, and fourth-inning single.[53]
Four batters hit for the cycle in the same season in which they won the Triple Crown; Nap Lajoie (AL, 1901), Jimmie Foxx (AL, 1933), Chuck Klein (NL, 1933), and Lou Gehrig (AL, 1934).[3][115] Gehrig is the only player to complete the MLB Triple Crown in his cycle-hitting season, leading both leagues in batting average, home runs, and runs batted in.
Five players have hit for the cycle in the same season in which they won a Most Valuable Player (MVP) award; Jimmie Foxx in 1933, Ted Williams in 1946, Mickey Mantle in 1957, and both Mookie Betts and Christian Yelich in 2018.
Three players — John Olerud, Michael Cuddyer, and Bob Watson — have hit for the cycle in both the National League and American League.[53]
Three family pairs have hit for the cycle; father and son Gary Ward (1980) and Daryle Ward (2004), grandfather and grandson Gus Bell (1951) and David Bell (2004),[3] and father and son Craig Biggio (2002) and Cavan Biggio (2019).[4]
Two players have hit cycles both for and against the same team; Joe Cronin against the Red Sox (1929) and for the Red Sox (1940), and Adrián Beltré against the Rangers (2008) and for the Rangers (2012, 2015).
One player, Brock Holt of the Boston Red Sox, hit for the cycle in a postseason game: Game 3 of the 2018 ALDS, on October 8, 2018, against the New York Yankees at Yankee Stadium.
Nippon Professional Baseball[edit]
For a more comprehensive list, see List of Nippon Professional Baseball players to hit for the cycle.
Arihito Muramatsu is one of five players to hit a natural cycle in NPB.
During his eight seasons playing for the Yokohama BayStars, Bobby Rose hit for three cycles, the most of any Nippon Professional Baseball player. Spaced two seasons apart, his first cycle occurred on May 2, 1995, the next on April 29, 1997, and his final cycle on June 30, 1999. Three NPB players have hit for the cycle twice; Fumio Fujimura (both with the Osaka Tigers), Hiromi Matsunaga (both with the Hankyu/Orix Braves), and Kosuke Fukudome (one with the Chunichi Dragons, and one with the Hanshin Tigers). Fujimura is also the only player to have hit a cycle during both the single league era and the current dual league era.[11]
The 2003 NPB season saw the most cycles hit in a single season—five.[11] That season also saw the only instance of cycles occurring on the same day: on July 1, hit by Atsunori Inaba of the Yakult Swallows and Arihito Muramatsu of the Fukuoka Daiei Hawks.[116] The next day, Shinjiro Hiyama became the third player to hit for the cycle in two days.[117] Conversely, the longest period of time between two players hitting for the cycle was 5 years, 11 months, and 30 days, a drought lasting from Michihiro Ogasawara's cycle in 2008 to Rainel Rosario's in 2014.[11]
The natural cycle has been accomplished five times in NPB history. Fumio Fujimura's second cycle on May 25, 1950, was the first time a player collected the hits in order. On average, the natural cycle occurs approximately every 13 years. Other than Fujimura, the four players to hit for the natural cycle are Kazuhiko Kondo in 1961, Takahiro Tokutsu in 1976, Takanori Okamura in 1985, and Muramatsu in 2003. The natural cycle has been accomplished in reverse by Alex Ochoa (2004) and Rosario (2014).[11]
When Ochoa hit his cycle with the Chunichi Dragons on April 13, 2004, he became the only player to hit a cycle in both Major League Baseball and Nippon Professional Baseball. Eight years earlier, Ochoa had accomplished the same feat on July 3, 1996, while playing for MLB's New York Mets.[118] Yakult Swallows catcher Atsuya Furuta is the only player to hit for the cycle in an NPB All-Star game, doing so in game 2 of the 1992 series.[119] Inaba is the only player to hit for the cycle in a rain-shortened game. After hitting a triple in the first inning and hitting a home run in the fourth, Inaba collected the other two necessary hits in a seven-run fifth inning when the order batted around.[116] Kosuke Fukudome is the only player to have hit a grand slam as the home run of the cycle.[120] Hiroshi Ohshita and Kazuhiko Kondo are the only two players to have hit a walk-off home run to win the game as the final hit of their cycles.
^ "Hitting for the Cycle Records". Baseball Almanac. Retrieved September 10, 2011.
^ a b Huber, Mike. "June 14, 1876: George Hall gets five hits, but is it a cycle?". SABR. Retrieved November 21, 2017.
^ a b c d e f g h i j k "Cycles Chronologically". Retrosheet. Retrieved September 17, 2019.
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^ Mike Axisa, Matt Kemp hits for first cycle in Padres' history, CBS Sports.com, Retrieved 12-09-15.
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^ "Six to Watch in 2000". Ebony. Johnson Publishing. 55 (7): 148–152. May 2000. ISSN 0012-9011.
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^ a b c d e サイクルヒット達成者 (in Japanese). Retrieved November 23, 2017.
^ "阪神乱打戦制す 梅野サイクル安打達成／スコア詳細". Nikkan Sports. Nikkan Sports. April 9, 2019. Retrieved April 9, 2019.
^ Kepner, Tyler (October 12, 2010). "For Pena, Rebirth Is All in the Timing". The New York Times. Retrieved September 21, 2011.
^ Adler, David (October 8, 2018). "Brock Holt completes first postseason cycle". MLB.com. Retrieved October 8, 2018.
^ Maun, Tyler (April 12, 2018). "Bi-cycle: Two Giants nab feat in same game". MiLB.com.
^ Mearns, Andrew (August 7, 2018). "Indianapolis Indians teammates Kevin Newman and Jacob Stallings both hit for the cycle in the same game". MiLB.com.
^ "Minor-leaguer hits for home run cycle". Vancouver Sun. AP. July 28, 1998. p. F2. Retrieved May 29, 2019 – via newspapers.com.
^ "Buster Posey's sister hits for home run cycle". The Palm Beach Post. West Palm Beach, Florida. April 22, 2011. p. 2C. Retrieved May 29, 2019 – via newspapers.com.
^ Chesterton, Eric (February 24, 2019). "Watch an Arkansas softball player hit for the home run cycle". MLB.com. Retrieved May 29, 2019.
^ Cooper, Sam (April 19, 2019). "Ohio high schooler accomplishes extremely rare baseball feat: the home run cycle". Yahoo Sports. Retrieved April 19, 2019.
^ "Official Baseball Rules: 2011 Edition" (PDF). Major League Baseball. February 16, 2011. p. 55. Retrieved September 18, 2011.
^ Will, George F. (2010). Men at Work: The Craft of Baseball (PDF). HarperCollins. p. 40. ISBN 0-06-199981-4.
^ "Career Leaders & Records for Singles". Baseball-Reference.com. Retrieved September 18, 2011.
^ "Single-Season Leaders & Records for Singles". Baseball-Reference.com. Retrieved September 18, 2011.
^ "Pete Rose Statistics and History". Baseball-Reference.com. Retrieved September 18, 2011.
^ "Eddie Collins Statistics and History". Baseball-Reference.com. Retrieved September 18, 2011.
^ "Willie Keeler Statistics and History". Baseball-Reference.com. Retrieved September 18, 2011.
^ Morgan, Joe; Lally, Richard; Anderson, Sparky (2004). Baseball for dummies. John Wiley and Sons. pp. 259–260. ISBN 978-0-7645-7537-2. Retrieved September 23, 2011.
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^ Morgenstern, Justin (August 5, 2011). "Reyes Hits for Cycle in D-Braves Victory". Danville Braves. Retrieved September 23, 2011.
^ a b c Koney, Jackie; Silva, Deidre (2008). It Takes More Than Balls: The Savvy Girls' Guide to Understanding and Enjoying Baseball. Skyhorse Publishing. pp. 66–67. ISBN 978-1-60239-631-9. Retrieved 23 September 2011.
^ Grant, Evan (July 16, 2010). "Bengie Molina on cycle: 'Being slow has never been a joke for me'". Dallas Morning News. Archived from the original on January 30, 2012. Retrieved September 24, 2011.
^ "Career Leaders & Records for Triples". Baseball-Reference.com. Archived from the original on February 10, 2014. Retrieved September 24, 2011.
^ "Single-Season Leaders & Records for Triples". Baseball-Reference.com. Retrieved September 24, 2011.
^ "Single-Season Leaders & Records for Home Runs". Baseball-Reference.com. Retrieved September 24, 2011.
^ "Barry Bonds Statistics and History". Baseball-Reference.com. Retrieved September 24, 2011.
^ "Career Leaders & Records for Home Runs". Baseball-Reference.com. Retrieved September 24, 2011.
^ "Alex Rodriguez Statistics and History". Baseball-Reference.com. Retrieved October 7, 2011.
^ a b c d e f g "Hitting for the Cycle Records". Baseball Almanac. Retrieved November 21, 2017.
^ a b c "Base-ball". The Cincinnati Enquirer. September 13, 1883. p. 2. Retrieved March 28, 2018 – via newspapers.com.
^ a b "Tramped On". The Cincinnati Enquirer. September 20, 1883. p. 2. Retrieved March 28, 2018 – via newspapers.com.
^ "(untitled)". The Cincinnati Enquirer. August 7, 1890. p. 2. Retrieved March 28, 2018 – via newspapers.com.
^ "New York Yankees 6, Washington Senators 5". Retrosheet. May 7, 1921. Retrieved November 21, 2017.
^ "New York Yankees 12, Philadelphia Athletics 1". Retrosheet. July 3, 1922. Retrieved November 21, 2017.
^ "New York Yankees 12, Detroit Tigers 1 (1)". Retrosheet. July 26, 1928. Retrieved November 21, 2017.
^ a b "Brooklyn Robins 14, Cincinnati Reds 4". Retrosheet. May 18, 1931. Retrieved November 21, 2017.
^ a b "Pittsburgh Pirates 8, Brooklyn Robins 7". Retrosheet. July 24, 1931. Retrieved November 21, 2017.
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^ "Seattle Mariners 12, Texas Rangers 6". Retrosheet. September 1, 2008. Retrieved November 21, 2017.
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^ "Texas Rangers 12, Houston Astros 9". Retrosheet. August 3, 2015. Retrieved November 21, 2017.
^ a b c "Hitting for the Cycle – Past and Present". BaseballRoundTable.com. April 11, 2017. Retrieved June 8, 2019.
^ "Batting Records Broken". The New York Times. May 1, 1887. p. 2. Retrieved March 28, 2018 – via newspapers.com.
^ "St. Louis, May 7". The New York Times. May 8, 1887. p. 2. Retrieved March 28, 2018 – via newspapers.com.
^ "Arizona Diamondbacks 7, Seattle Mariners 1". Retrosheet. June 18, 2012. Retrieved November 21, 2017.
^ "Arizona Diamondbacks 9, Milwaukee Brewers 3". Retrosheet. June 29, 2012. Retrieved November 21, 2017.
^ McCalvy, Adam (September 18, 2018). "Yelich's historic bi-cycle vs. Reds fuels Crew". MLB.com. Retrieved September 18, 2018.
^ "Christian Yelich makes baseball history with second cycle of season". Retrieved September 18, 2018.
^ Baltov, Victor A.; Baltov Jr., Victor A. (2010). Baseball Is America: Origins and History: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly. AuthorHouse. p. 305. ISBN 1-4520-0486-2. Retrieved September 10, 2011.
^ "Boston Doves 20, Philadelphia Phillies 7". Retrosheet. October 6, 1910. Retrieved November 21, 2017.
^ "Detroit Tigers 11, Boston Red Sox 2 (1)". Retrosheet. September 26, 1926. Retrieved November 21, 2017.
^ "New York Yankees 20, Philadelphia Athletics 13". Retrosheet. June 3, 1932. Retrieved November 21, 2017.
^ "Detroit Tigers 12, St. Louis Browns 5". Retrosheet. May 27, 1939. Retrieved November 21, 2017.
^ a b "Boston Red Sox 12, Cleveland Indians 4". Retrosheet. July 3, 1943. Retrieved November 21, 2017.
^ "New York Mets 7, St. Louis Cardinals 3". Retrosheet. August 7, 1963. Retrieved November 21, 2017.
^ "St. Louis Cardinals 7, Houston Colt .45s 1". Retrosheet. June 16, 1964. Retrieved November 21, 2017.
^ "Chicago Cubs 7, St. Louis Cardinals 2 (2)". Retrosheet. July 17, 1966. Retrieved November 21, 2017.
^ "Montreal Expos 12, Chicago Cubs 6". Retrosheet. April 21, 1976. Retrieved October 4, 2018.
^ "Boston Red Sox 10, Baltimore Orioles 2". Retrosheet. September 15, 1979. Retrieved October 4, 2018.
^ "Colorado Rockies 9, St. Louis Cardinals 8". Retrosheet. May 18, 1996. Retrieved November 21, 2017.
^ "Chicago White Sox 13, Baltimore Orioles 4". Retrosheet. April 27, 2000. Retrieved November 21, 2017.
^ "Montreal Expos 6, Pittsburgh Pirates 4". Retrosheet. June 24, 2003. Retrieved November 21, 2017.
^ "Texas Rangers 11, Detroit Tigers 3". Retrosheet. September 13, 2006. Retrieved November 21, 2017.
^ Huber, Mike. "May 25, 1882: Buffalo's Curry Foley completes first cycle in major leagues with grand slam". SABR. Retrieved November 21, 2017.
^ Huber, Mike. "August 26, 1887: Bid McPhee hits for the cycle as Cincinnati, Baltimore combine for 30-run 'fusillade'". SABR. Retrieved November 21, 2017.
^ Huber, Mike. "October 4, 1904: Sam Mertes hits for cycle, then Giants forfeit to Cardinals". SABR. Retrieved November 21, 2017.
^ Huber, Mike. "April 20, 1937: Detroit's Gee Walker hits for the cycle on Opening Day". SABR. Retrieved November 21, 2017.
^ "Detroit Tigers 4, Cleveland Indians 3". Retrosheet. April 20, 1937. Retrieved November 21, 2017.
^ "Pittsburgh Pirates 10, New York Giants 3". Retrosheet. July 19, 1939. Retrieved November 21, 2017.
^ Huber, Mike. "August 29, 1948: Jackie Robinson hits for reverse natural cycle vs. Cardinals". SABR. Retrieved November 21, 2017.
^ "Brooklyn Dodgers 12, St. Louis Cardinals 7 (1)". Retrosheet. August 29, 1948. Retrieved November 21, 2017.
^ Huber, Mike. "July 28, 1964: Dean Chance, Angels defeat Yankees as Jim Fregosi hits for the cycle". SABR. Retrieved November 21, 2017.
^ "California Angels 5, Boston Red Sox 4". Retrosheet. May 20, 1968. Retrieved September 24, 2011.
^ Huber, Mike. "July 28, 2006: Astros rookie Luke Scott hits for the cycle with first career home run". SABR. Retrieved November 21, 2017.
^ "Arizona Diamondbacks 8, Houston Astros 7". Retrosheet. July 28, 2006. Retrieved September 24, 2011.
^ "Minnesota Twins 13, Chicago White Sox 1". Retrosheet. May 7, 2008. Retrieved September 24, 2011.
^ "Toronto Blue Jays 9, Cleveland Indians 6". Retrosheet. July 2, 2016. Retrieved November 20, 2017.
^ "Buffalo-Cleveland". The Daily Inter Ocean. Chicago. May 26, 1882. p. 7. Retrieved March 28, 2018 – via newspapers.com.
^ "Athletics, 11; Cleveland, 5". The Baltimore Sun. July 31, 1901. p. 6. Retrieved March 28, 2018 – via newspapers.com.
^ "New York Giants 12, Brooklyn Robins 5". Retrosheet. May 29, 1928. Retrieved March 20, 2018.
^ "New York Yankees 20, Philadelphia Athletics 13". Retrosheet. June 3, 1932. Retrieved March 20, 2018.
^ "Philadelphia Athletics 11, Cleveland Indians 5". Retrosheet. August 14, 1933. Retrieved March 20, 2018.
^ "Seattle Mariners 8, Oakland Athletics 7". Retrosheet. June 23, 1993. Retrieved March 20, 2018.
^ "Oakland Athletics 8, Seattle Mariners 4". Retrosheet. September 29, 2001. Retrieved March 20, 2018.
^ "Minnesota Twins 11, Anaheim Angels 9". Retrosheet. April 17, 2009. Retrieved March 20, 2018.
^ "Texas Rangers 8, Boston Red Sox 4". Retrosheet. July 16, 2010. Retrieved March 20, 2018.
^ "St. Louis Cardinals 6, Chicago Cubs 5 (2)". Retrosheet. September 14, 1961. Retrieved March 20, 2018.
^ "Minnesota Twins 5, Texas Rangers 3". Retrosheet. September 19, 1972. Retrieved March 20, 2018.
^ "Kansas City Royals 5, Baltimore Orioles 4". Retrosheet. May 28, 1979. Retrieved March 20, 2018.
^ "Boston Red Sox 9, Seattle Mariners 6". Retrosheet. June 28, 1984. Retrieved March 20, 2018.
^ "Colorado Rockies 6, Chicago Cubs 5". Retrosheet. July 31, 2010. Retrieved March 20, 2018.
^ "Colorado Rockies 7, San Francisco Giants 5". Retrosheet. June 18, 2017. Retrieved March 20, 2018.
^ "Six Hits in One 9-Inning Game". Baseball Almanac. Retrieved August 30, 2018.
^ Morgan, Jim. "Dave Orr". SABR. Retrieved August 30, 2018.
^ Jaffe, Chris (June 16, 2012). "30th anniversary: Ted Simmons bonehead play". The Hardball Times. Retrieved August 30, 2018.
^ Marshall, Brian (2015). "Larry Twitchell's Big Day". SABR. Retrieved August 30, 2018.
^ Johnson, Janice. "Farmer Weaver". SABR. Retrieved August 30, 2018.
^ Huber, Mark. "August 17, 1894: Phillies break records for hits and runs; Sam Thompson hits for cycle". SABR. Retrieved August 30, 2018.
^ "Detroit Tigers 14, Boston Red Sox 13". Retrosheet.org. September 17, 1920. Retrieved September 7, 2011.
^ "Montreal Expos 10, San Francisco Giants 8". Retrosheet.org. June 11, 1995. Retrieved September 12, 2011.
^ Sullivan, T. R. (April 16, 2009). "Kinsler hits for cycle, goes 6-for-6". MLB.com. Retrieved September 24, 2011.
^ "Christian Yelich hits for first career cycle, goes 6-for-6 vs. Reds". ESPN. August 30, 2018. Retrieved August 30, 2018.
^ Irby, Matthew (April 17, 2009). "Ranger Ian Kinsler's Six-Hit Cycle Emulates the Great Jackie Robinson". Bleacher Report. Retrieved August 30, 2018.
^ "MLB Triple Crown Winners". Baseball-Reference.com. Retrieved September 24, 2011.
^ a b "Inaba, Muramatsu both hit for the cycle". The Japan Times. July 2, 2003. Retrieved September 26, 2011.
^ "Hiyama follows suit; hits for cycle as Tigers slay Dragonse". The Japan Times. July 3, 2003. Retrieved September 26, 2011.
^ Graczyk, Wayne (September 2, 2004). "Dragons hoping Ochoa's lucky No. 4 can bring them success". The Japan Times. Retrieved September 26, 2011.
^ 1992年度サンヨーオールスターゲーム 試合結果（第2戦） [1992 Sanyo All-Star Game Results (Game 2)] (in Japanese). Nippon Professional Baseball. Retrieved September 26, 2011.
^ 【６月８日】2003年(平15) 記録ラッシュ 井口忠仁は４９年ぶり 福留孝介は４６年ぶり. Sponichi Annex (in Japanese). Sports Nippon Corporation. June 8, 2003. Archived from the original on December 2, 2013. Retrieved September 26, 2011.
Baseball portal
Cycle records at MLB.com
Cycle records at Retrosheet
Cycle records at Baseball Almanac
Baseball concepts
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Tag up
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(positioning)
Appeal play
Blocking the plate
Defensive indifference
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Fifth infielder
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unassisted
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Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Hitting_for_the_cycle&oldid=929937073#Accomplishments"
CS1 uses Japanese-language script (ja)
CS1 Japanese-language sources (ja)
This page was last edited on 9 December 2019, at 05:37 (UTC).
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Chatwin v. United States
Chatwin v. United States by Frank Murphy
related portals: Supreme Court of the United States.
899787Chatwin v. United States — SyllabusFrank Murphy
Opinion of the Court
Argued: Oct. 10, 1945. --- Decided: Jan 2, 1946
Mr. Claude T. Barnes, of Salt Lake City, Utah, for petitioners.
Mr. Harold Judson, Asst. Sol. Gen., of Washington, D.C., for respondent.
Mr. Justice MURPHY delivered the opinion of the Court.
This work is in the public domain in the United States because it is a work of the United States federal government (see 17 U.S.C. 105).
Retrieved from "https://en.wikisource.org/w/index.php?title=Chatwin_v._United_States&oldid=2993548"
United States Supreme Court decisions
United States Supreme Court decisions in Volume 326
PD-USGov
Case missing lower court
Case missing case number
Uncategorized United States Supreme Court decision
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Tag Archives: introductory sociology
Minds of All Sizes Think Alike
Or «les esprits de toutes tailles se rencontrent».
This post is a response to the following post about Social Network Analysis (SNA), social change, and communication.
…My heart’s in Accra » Shortcuts in the social graph.
I have too many disparate things to say about that post to make it into a neat and tidy “quickie,” yet I feel like I should probably be working on other things. So we’ll see how this goes.
First, a bit of context..
[This “bit of context” may be a bit long so, please bear with me. Or you could get straight to the point, if you don’t think you can bear the context bit.]
I’ve never met Ethan Zuckerman (@EthanZ), who wrote the post to which I’m responding. And I don’t think we’ve had any extended conversation in the past. Further, I doubt that I’m on his radar. He’s probably seen my name, since I’ve commented on some of his posts and some of his contacts may have had references to me through social media. But I very much doubt that he’s ever mentioned me to anyone. I’m not noticeable to him.
I, on the other hand, have mentioned Zuckerman on several occasions. Latest time I remember was in class, a few weeks ago. It’s a course on Africa and I was giving students a list of online sources with relevance to our work. Zuckerman’s connection to Africa may not be his main thing, despite his blog’s name, but it’s part of the reason I got interested in his work, a few years ago.
In fact, there’s something embarrassing, here.. I so associate Zuckerman to Africa that my mind can’t help but link him to Erik Hersman, aka White African. I did meet Herman. [To be exact, I met Erik at BarCampAustin, which is quite possibly the conference-like event which has had the most influence on me, in the past few years (I go to a lot of these events).] When I did meet Hersman, I made a faux-pas in associating him with Zuckerman. Good-natured as he seemed to be, Hersman smiled as he corrected me.
EthanZ and I have other contacts in common. Jeremy Clarke, for instance, who co-organizes WordCamp Montreal and has been quite active in Montreal’s geek scene. Jeremy’s also a developer for Global Voices, a blogging community that Zuckerman co-founded. I’m assuming Clarke and Zuckerman know each other.
Another mutual contact is Christopher Lydon, host of Radio Open Source. Chris and I have exchanged a few emails, and Zuckerman has been on ROS on a few occasions.
According to Facebook, Zuckerman and I have four contacts in common. Apart from Clarke and Hersman, there’s P. Kerim Friedman and Gerd Leonhard. Kerim is a fellow linguistic anthropologist and we’ve collaborated on the official Society for Linguistic Anthropology (SLA) site. I got in touch with Leonhard through “Music 2.0” issues, as he was interviewed by Charles McEnerney on Well-Rounded Radio.
On LinkedIn, Zuckerman is part of my third degree, with McEnerney as one of my first-degree contacts who could connect me to Zuckerman, through Zuckerman’s contacts.
(Yes, I’m fully aware of the fact that I haven’t name a single woman in this list. Nor someone who doesn’t write in English with some frequency, for that matter.)
By this time, my guess is that you may be either annoyed or confused. “Surely, he can’t be that obsessed with Zuckerman as to stalk him in every network.”
No, I’m not at all obsessed with Ethan Zuckerman in any way, shape, or form. Though I mention him on occasion and I might have a good conversation with him if the occasion arises, I wouldn’t go hang out in Cambridge just in case I might meet him. Though I certainly respect his work, I wouldn’t treat him as my “idol” or anything like that. In other words, he isn’t a focus in my life.
And that’s a key point, to me.
In certain contexts, when social networks are discussed, too much is made of the importance of individuals. Yet, there’s something to be said about relative importance.
In his “shortcuts” post, Zuckerman talks about a special kind of individuals. Those who are able to bypass something of a clustering effect happening in many human networks. Malcolm Gladwell (probably “inspired” by somebody else) has used “connectors” to label a fairly similar category of people and, given Gladwell’s notoriety in some circles, the name has resonance in some contexts (mostly “business-focused people,” I would say, with a clear idea in my mind of the groupthink worldview implied).
In one of my earliest blogposts, I talked about an effect happening through a similar mechanism, calling it the “Social Butterfly Effect” (SBE). I still like it, as a concept. Now, I admit that it focuses on a certain type of individuals. But it’s more about their position in “the grand scheme of things” than about who they are, though I do associate myself with this “type.”
The basic idea is quite simple. People who participate in different (sub)networks, who make such (sub)networks sparser, are having unpredictable and unmeasurable effects on what is transmitted through the network(s).
On one hand, it’s linked to my fragmentary/naïve understanding of the Butterfly Effect in the study of climate and as a component of Chaos Theory.
On the other hand, it’s related to Granovetter‘s well-known notion of “weak ties.” And it seems like Granovetter is making something of a comeback, as we discuss different mechanisms behind social change.
Interestingly, much of what is being said about weak ties, these past few weeks, relates to Gladwell’s flamebait apparent lack of insight in describing current social processes. Sounds like Gladwell may be too caught up in the importance of individuals to truly grok the power of networks.
Case in point.. One of the most useful pieces I’ve read about weak ties, recently, was Jonah Lehrer‘s direct response to Gladwell:
Weak Ties, Twitter and Revolution | Wired Science | Wired.com.
Reading Lehrer’s piece, one gets the clear impression that Gladwell hadn’t “done his homework” on Granovetter before launching his trolling “controversial” piece on activism.
But I digress. Slightly.
Like the Gladwell-specific coverage, Zuckerman’s blogpost is also about social change and he’s already responded to Gladwell. One way to put it is that, as a figure, Gladwell has shaped the discussion in a way similar to a magnetic field orienting iron filings around it. Since it’s a localized effect having to do with polarization, the analogy is fairly useful, as analogies go.
Which brings me to groupthink, the apparent target of Zuckerman’s piece.
Still haven’t read Irving Janis but I’ve been quite interested in groupthink for a while. Awareness of the concept is something I immediately recognize, praise, and associate with critical thinking.
In fact, it’s one of several things I was pleasantly surprised to find in an introductory sociology WikiBook I ended up using in my “Intro. to Society” course, last year. Critical thinking was the main theme of that course, and this short section was quite fitting in the overall discussion.
So, what of groupthink and networks? Zuckerman sounds worried:
This is interesting to me because I’m intrigued – and worried – by information flows through social networks. If we’re getting more (not lots yet, but more) information through social networks and less through curated media like newspapers, do we run the risk of encountering only information that our friends have access to? Are we likely to be overinformed about some conversations and underinformed about others? And could this isolation lead to ideological polarization, as Cass Sunstein and others suggest? And if those fears are true, is there anything we can do to rewire social networks so that we’re getting richer, more diverse information?
Similar questions have animated many discussions in media-focused circles, especially in those contexts where the relative value (and meaning) of “old vs. new media” may be debated. At about the same time as I started blogging, I remember discussing things with a statistician friend about the polarization effect of media, strong confirmation bias in reading news stories, and political lateralization.
In the United States, especially, there’s a narrative (heard loud and clear) that people who disagree on some basic ideas are unable to hear one another. “Shockingly,” some say, “conservatives and liberals read different things.” Or “those on (the) two sides of (the) debate understand things in completely different ways.” It even reminds me of the connotations of Tannen’s booktitle, You Just Don’t Understand. Irreconciliable differences. (And the first time I mention a woman in this decidedly imbalanced post.)
While, as a French-Canadian ethnographer, my perspective is quite different from Zuckerman, I can’t help but sympathize with the feeling. Not that I associate groupthink with a risk in social media (au contraire!). But, like Zuckerman, I wish to find ways to move beyond these boundaries we impose on ourselves.
Zuckerman specifically discusses the attempt by Onnik Krikorian (@OneWMPhoto) to connect Armenians (at least those in Hayastan) and Azeris, with Facebook “affording” Krikorian some measure of success. This case is now well-known in media-centric circles and it has almost become shorthand for the power of social media. Given a personal interest in Armenians (at least in the Diaspora), my reaction to Krikorian’s success are less related to the media aspect than to the personal one.
At a personal level, boundaries may seem difficult to surmount but they can also be fairly porous and even blurry. Identity may be negotiated. Individuals crossing boundaries may be perceived in diverse ways, some of which have little to do with other people crossing the same boundaries. Things are lived directly, from friendships to wars, from breakups to reconciliations. Significant events happen regardless of the way they’re being perceived across boundaries.
Not that boundaries don’t matter but they don’t necessarily circumscribe what happens in “personal lives.” To use an seemingly-arbitrary example, code-switching doesn’t “feel” strange at an individual level. It’s only when people insist on separating languages using fairly artificial criteria that alternance between them sounds awkward.
In other words, people cross boundaries all the time and “there’s nothing to it.”
Boundaries have quite a different aspect, at the macrolevel implied by the journalistic worldview (with nation-based checkbox democracy at its core and business-savvy professionalization as its mission). To “macros” like journos and politicos, boundaries look like borders, appearing clearly on maps (including mind ones) and implying important disconnects. The border between Armenia and Azerbaijan is a boundary separating two groups and the conflicts between these two groups reify that boundary. Reaching out across the border is a diplomatic process and necessitates finding the right individuals for the task. Most of the important statuses are ascribed, which may sound horrible to some holding neoliberal ideas about freewill and “individual freedoms.”
Though it’s quite common for networked activities to be somewhat constrained by boundaries, a key feature of networks is that they’re typically boundless. Sure, there are networks which are artificially isolated from the rest. The main example I can find is that of a computer virology laboratory.
Because, technically, you only need one link between two networks to transform them into a single network. So, it’s quite possible to perceive Verizon’s wireless network as a distinct entity, limited by the national boundaries of the U.S. of A. But the simple fact that someone can use Verizon’s network to contact someone in Ségou shows that the network isn’t isolated. Simple, but important to point out.
Especially since we’re talking about a number of things happening on a single network: The Internet. (Yes, there is such a thing as Internet2 and there are some technical distinctions at stake. But we’re still talking about an interconnected world.)
As is well-known, there are significant clusters in this One Network. McLuhan’s once-popular “Global Village” fallacy used to hide this, but we now fully realize that language barriers, national borders, and political lateralization go with “low-bandwidth communication,” in some spots of The Network. “Gs don’t talk to Cs so even though they’re part of the same network, there’s a weak spot, there.” In a Shannon/Weaver view, it sounds quite important to identify these weak spots. “Africa is only connected to North America via a few lines so access is limited, making things difficult for Africans.” Makes sense.
But going back to weak ties, connectors, Zuckerman’s shortcuts, and my own social butterflies, the picture may be a little bit more fleshed out.
Actually, the image I have in mind has, on one side, a wire mesh serving as the floor of an anechoic chamber and on the other some laser beams going in pseudorandom directions as in Entrapment or Mission Impossible. In the wire mesh, weaker spots might cause a person to fall through and land on those artificial stalagmites. With the laser beams, the pseudorandom structure makes it more difficult to “find a path through the maze.” Though some (engineers) may see the mesh as the ideal structure for any network, there’s something humanly fascinating about the pseudorandom structure of social networks.
Obviously, I have many other ideas in mind. For instance, I wanted to mention “Isabel Wilkerson’s Leaderless March that Remade America.” Or go back to that intro soci Wikibook to talk about some very simple and well-understood ideas about social movements, which often seem to be lacking in discussions of social change. I even wanted to recount some anecdotes of neat network effects in my own life, such as the serendipity coming from discuss disparate subjects to unlike people or the misleading impression that measuring individualized influence is a way to understand social media. Not to mention a whole part I had in my mind about Actor Network Theory, non-human actors, and material culture (the other course I currently teach).
But I feel like going back to more time-sensitive things.
Still, I should probably say a few words about this post’s title.
My mother and I were discussing parallel inventions and polygenesis with the specific theme of moving away from the focus on individualized credit. My favourite example, and one I wish Gladwell (!) had used in Outliers (I actually asked him about it) is that of Gregor Mendel and the “rediscovery” of his laws by de Vries, Correns, and Tschermak. A semi-Marxian version of the synchronous polygenesis part might hold that “ideas are in the air” or that the timing of such dicoveries and inventions has to do with zeitgeist. A neoliberal version could be the “great minds think alike” expression or its French equivalent «Les grands esprits se rencontrent» (“The great spirits meet each other”). Due to my reluctance in sizing up minds, I’d have a hard time using that as a title. In the past, I used a similar title to refer to another form of serendipity:
Silly Minds Think Alike « Disparate.
To me, most normally constituted minds are “great,” so I still could have used the expression as a title. But an advantage of tweaking an expression is that it brings attention to what it implies.
In this case, the “thinking alike” may be a form of groupthink.
Leave a comment | tags: Armenians, Azeris, blurred boundaries, borders, Charles McEnerney, Christopher Lydon, Deborah Tannen, Erik Hersman, Ethan Zuckerman, FoJ, Gerd Leonhard, Gregor Mendel, introductory sociology, Jeremy Clarke, Jonah Lehrer, journalistic worldview, journos, Kerim Friedman, macrolevel, Malcolm Gladwell, Mark Granovetter, microlevel, Onnik Krikorian, politicos | posted in Actively Reading, bloggers, blogosphere, Clueing, Communities, cultural diversity, cultural identity, diversity, ethnocentrism, glocalization, groupthink, identity, individualism, language, linkfest, mass media, media, naïve, naïveté, Nation-States, nationalism, New York Times, New York Times, personal, politics, ramblings, relativism, shameless plug, social butterflies, social butterfly effect, social networking, social networks, wishful thinking
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Home > Free Essays > Research > Reducing Drug Trafficking in the United States
Reducing Drug Trafficking in the United States
American youth and their mentors represent the social classes that demand an efficient instruction about the dangers of drug abuse. There is a sufficient amount of research, which proves that if a young person avoids using alcohol, tobacco, or illegal drugs at least until age 20, it is almost guaranteed that he or she will abstain from any substance abuse for the rest of his or her life. It is also supported by numerous evidence that a majority of young generation manage to omit using illegal drugs because of the examples set by the respected adults. These can be parents, teachers, or other community leaders. Conversely, the research proves that the youth who did yield to the temptation of using drugs, largely lack the proper guidance from adults. Thus, the main challenge is to help American citizens to gain a full understanding of the extent to which illegal drugs harm both the society in general and every separate individual in specific (Drug Facts: Nationwide trends, 2012).
Drug control programs are developed on a variety of strategic approaches and attitudes. One of the most essential components of a well-balanced drug control program is supply reduction. This is due to the evident fact that there is hardly any sufficient alternative way to reduce the demand for illegal drugs. The experience shows that when the drugs are widely available, they are most likely to be immediately abused. This can be relevantly exemplified by the situation with heroin. In recent years the purity of heroin was increasing, which directly resulted into the subsequent increase in the number of amateur drug edicts. This is due to a mere fact that the method of injection was no longer mandatory in use.
One of the reasons why heroin became more attainable is a strategic decision to breed opium poppy, produce heroin, and utilize the ready product in the United States, made by criminal Columbian drug organizations. The Drug Enforcement Administration (the DEA) offers a seizure data, according to which Colombian heroin captures less than 2 percent of the global production potential and yet dominates the heroin market in the east of USA accounting for 70 percent of its total amount. The consequent response of cocaine traffickers to a decline in demand for crack and powder cocaine resulted in giving preferences to selling heroin (Statistics and Facts, 2012).
Within the United States, the issue of supply reduction may be viewed from a domestic and an international perspective. The latter implies regulation by means of the Controlled Substances Act, anti-drug laws’ reinforcement, elimination of marijuana breeding, regulation and management of precursor chemicals, Customs’ inspection that is to be gone through by every commerce or persons entering the country, prisons’ screening on the subject of drugs, and the establishment of drug-free school zones. When assessed on an international level, supply reduction is accomplished through regional, bilateral and global accords, precursors’ control, consensus building, integrated investigations, alternative development, anti-money-laundering actions, replacement and termination of drug-crops, establishing public institutions and international support.
The drug flow crossing the boundaries of the United States may be disrupted by means of introducing interdiction in the arrival and transit zones, increasing traffickers’ risks, preventing them from delivering significant supplies of drugs to the United States along with driving them to less efficient methods and routes. Such restrictions also improve the process of generating intelligence to be used against criminal drug trafficking organizations in international, as well as domestic operations.
Drug traffickers react to interdiction by changing routes and altering modes and means of transportation. There are large criminal organizations, which function on an international level and thus have an extensive access to the most developed technologies and a wide variety of recourses to conduct their operations. Such traffickers’ inventiveness and flexibility cannot be overlooked. Hence, in order to surpass these features, the United States government must immediately deploy every available resource to change high-threat areas. This is achieved by designing corresponding combined interdiction operations, anticipating flexible trafficking models. There are three Joint Inter-Agency Task Forces based in Panama, Key West, FL, and Alameda, CA, which lead such coordinated operations. The Customs' Domestic Air Interdiction Coordination Center in Riverside, CA inspects means of arriving at the United Stated by air. The Texas-based Joint Task Force Six, El Paso, and Operation Alliance monitor and regulate the situation along the Southwest border.
As the result of 1999 $870 million appropriation of Congress for the benefit of international interdiction and drug-control issues, the general interdiction resources significantly increased. Thus, the Joint Inter-Agency Task Forces East and South consolidation improved the ability to interdict drugs incoming from the direction of Central America, Mexico and the Caribbean (U. S. Drug Enforcement Agency, 2004).
The Caribbean, eastern Pacific Ocean and Gulf of Mexico are included into a six-million square-mile transit zone, which has to be crossed by all the drugs coming to the United States from South America. According to numerous investigations of reported trafficking events, the Jamaica-Cuba- Bahamas vector is most regularly used by drug traffickers.
A major U. S. federal agencies, such as The Coast Guard for maritime interdiction co-leading with U.S. Customs for air interdiction, aim to reduce the incoming amount of drugs from the source suppliers-countries by restricting the accessibility of maritime and air routes in the transit zone. They patrollize this vast area and integrate their operations with foreign interdiction forces.
The Department of Defense is another governmental organization, which provides essential support in the process of reducing the flow of drugs to the sovereign territory of the United States. It conducts monitoring, screening and detection operations, generates information, which consequently allows interdiction forces to act effectively. It is also capable of taking direct actions against the illegal drug traffickers.
The problem of stopping the drug flow in the transit zone, apart from sea and air shipments’ interception, involves also preventing the traffickers’ ability to use their financial systems for corrupting institutions, or perform any other illegal actions within the transit zone of the countries. Hence, the significance of international assistance and cooperation on the matter is hard to be overvalued. It is crucial for developing a well-balanced, effective and thorough transit zone strategy. This is exemplified by the collaboration of the United States with the Central American and Caribbean countries in implementing a vivid drug-control agenda, which involves the development of measures to overcome corruption, strengthen judicial and law-enforcement institutions, challenge laundering of money, ensure cooperative interdiction and perform over-all modernization of the law system.
The raw material used for producing cocaine is called coca. It is bred in Colombia, Bolivia and Peru. However, due to a strong political will to confront the illegal drug trade, an efficient amount of continuing localized efforts to eradicate this crop prove to be successful. This is also connected to a series of maneuvers, such as air interdiction campaigns, precursor chemicals’ control, and a variety of separate crop programs.
As to the attempts to reduce the availability of heroin on a domestic level, it faces significant challenges. According to the worldwide statistics, illegitimate production of opium has doubled since 1986. Especially evident was the increase in Afghanistan and Laos. It was efficient enough to offset some insignificant decline in Burmese, Dominican, Colombian and Mexican opium production. Nevertheless, the latter continue to be a serious threat to the United States, taking into consideration that traffickers from these areas actively develop their marijuana and cocaine distribution network, significantly expanding heroin sales by using destructive marketing techniques (U. S. Drug Enforcement Agency, 2004).
The contemporary research shows that some common features can be traced in geographical distribution of drug market. Consequently, heroin produced in Mexico is commonly marketed in the western parts of the United States. Drugs from Southwest and Southeast Asia are transferred to the U. S. market through Canada and its immediate surroundings (Drug Facts: National trends, 2012).
The research shows that one of the most common and widespread illegal drugs, which despite all the numerous governmental projects and strategies are still being smuggled onto the territory of the United States, is marijuana. Hence, one of the most recent ideas for reducing drug trafficking in the country employs actual legalization of marijuana. According to Drug Enforcement Administration spokesman Rusty Payne, “Marijuana is by far the most seized drug at the Southwest border, and it serves as the cash cow of the drug cartels in Mexico” (Freedman, 2011). Furthermore, the Beaumont Enterprise newspaper reports that the amount of marijuana seized along the Southwest border has increased by 44% between 2005 and 2009. According to rough theoretical investigation, legal marijuana could raise efficient amounts of money in tax revenues that the U.S. greatly needs. Taking into consideration the fact that the United States are recently experiencing significant federal deficits, such tax revenues could become a reliable financial source necessary for the deficit reduction and funding a number of fundamental human services (Drug Facts: National trends, 2012).
Another potentially effective strategies for reducing drug trafficking in the United States are represented by the use of unmanned airplanes guided by computers and supplied with quality video cameras, which monitor borders of the United States on dubious activities. Thus, the detected drug traffickers are immediately relayed to law enforcement Border Patrol.
Due to both national and international significance of the drug issue, an essential question to answer would be the following: if the reduction of illegal drug trafficking is worth all the efforts put into attempts to solve this problem? According to the available statistics data, the United States drug control budget has increased from $9.7 billion in 1990 to $17.7 billion in 2000. Subsequently, the number of The Drug Enforcement Administration agents increased from 3,191 in 1990 to 4,561 in 2000. However, disregarding such sufficient increases on the part of the U. S. government, the number of drug users increased as well: from 5.8 percent of the population in 1992 to 6.7 percent in 1998. In the year 1999, 14.8 million Americans were using illegal drugs. Approximately 208,000 of them were users of heroin. Again, despite all increases of efforts in the legal and financial spheres, drug use in America has been constantly spreading and rising (Drug Trafficking, 2012).
America’s everlasting efforts to confront the production, distribution, and use of illegal drugs can be best described by the phrase “war on drugs”, initially coined by Richard Nixon in 1968. In 1972, he incorporated four government agencies, aiming to combat drugs, and created the Drug Enforcement Administration. This war on drugs was eventually reinforced by Ronald Reagan in the 1980s. He initiated several laws, which allowed federal officials to access military intelligence, training, and equipment in order to track and intercept drug traffickers. Meanwhile federal and local governments were passing laws allowing property and assets derived from drug profits to be confiscated and retained by officials. Many drug treatment and education programs were initiated under the administration on Ronald Raegan.
It is important to understand that confronting the supply of drugs is essential in reducing drug use and the social drawbacks caused by it. The popularity of such wide a variety of drugs, in such mind-blowing purity and quantities, results in unprecedented violence, corruption, and lawlessness in the United States. Thus, it is extremely important that every necessary effort is made into law reinforcement and drug interdiction. This will help to protect the tolerance towards anti-drug policy in the United States.
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Robert Gediguian. "The human essence is the synthesis of all social relations" for richard marx youtube live
Together with Gloria Mundy, the proposed family story is "as fragile as the house of cards", Robert Gediguan confronts the viewer with a deadly feat that drives the individual to the gradual elimination of all morals. Invited to speak in our columns, the director answers our questions.
It is the cruel story of a world that has come to rest in nihilism, "leaving no other connection between man and man than the cold interest and burdensome demands of cash," as Marx put it in his Manifesto. Together with his screenwriter Serge Valletti, he wrote that Robert Gediguain's new film unites his favorite actors, Ariana Askaridi (played by Sylvie), who is in a relationship with Jean-Pierre Darussin (Richard). Gerard Meylan (Daniel), released from prison, where he has been imprisoned for many years, comes to meet them. His ex-wife, Silvi, warns that he is a grandfather. Their daughter, Matilda, has just given birth to little Gloria. The symbolic name that boasts the glory of the world, this ancient glory, which is the prerogative of this right, is the sacred opening of the latest film by Marseille. Perceiving the extreme horizon of humanity, reversing throughout the film, heroizing the virtue of egoism, which disrupts social connection and the ability to be one with the world or with others.
Earlier you mentioned that "you have enough directors to show what's wrong with poor people." What made you change your mind?
Robert Gediguian. The first time I mentioned it was in 1992 when money was going to happen. I developed it later, several times, when I spoke to the eyes of filmmakers who systematically display poverty among the poor who suffer from all diseases – drugs, alcohol, adultery, the lower classes. After a while the cup is full. I said it in a provocative but also anti-state way, in my desire to show greatness and nobility, even in the midst of misery. I wanted to enchant the world again, but for all that, a few years later, I shot The City is Silent, which is a constructive tragedy because it fascinates us. For Gloria Mundy, the shape of this film is also conditioned by what we have around us. We live in a time of great regression, social, but also political, economic, civilization and deep cultural, individual worship. I believe that the "icy waters of selfish calculation" put forward by Marx in 1848 are more true than ever.
But there is still something deep in the film that I show to people who have been faithful to the dominant conversation. And this is clearly unbearable, even if in my view it is inevitably transitional, it cannot last. We often talk about the battle of ideas. For a moment capitalism has won, and the battle of ideas is lost. But I'm not one of those who think that history is coming to an end. This battle can be won again if it succeeds, and the films are part of this battle, as do all other artistic and intellectual productions.
Will art be "the spark that the dust cream is looking for", as André Breton said.
R.G. It would be ideal. If I had not thought about this force of action, I think I would have stopped. I follow my aesthetic, as Brest said, from the demands of my struggle, not around me.
I love beautiful paintings, photos, birds in the sky, but my films all tell about the lives of the characters who have long lived the Big H who transformed or transcended it. And today we are living in an age when people are going through a story that spoils them in a very subtle way. Modern societies have succeeded in making people adhere to their values, which are, moreover, subsystems.
The aforementioned are now faithful to the conversations of the operators. I wanted to show it by disagreeing with the characters because I consider them Daniel, played by Gerard Meylan, with compassion. These people are not conscious. The word penetrated, their thoughts penetrated them, and they said things about business, property, immigration, without conscience or violence. Here we are bad. It is this acceptance of the dominant discourse that explains to me at best the abstinence, the extreme right vote at worst.
Could this acceptance be the beginning of a class struggle against the war against everyone?
RG: When Darusin saw the film for the first time after its editing, he said to me: “This is the last film before the war. I said yes. The threat is real. Justified but unorganized anger can go in any direction. We see it in the world. This anger can be very different. When it comes to the left, according to one terminology that I continue to insist on, I'm happy; as it allows you to imagine another model yet to be determined. But if this anger is directed at the need to be stronger, it scares me.
The look of the youth on the screen looks very dark …
RG: One has to be a Marxist to the end and think that individuals are the product of their time, or that human nature is the synthesis of all social relationships. You have to have the courage to say it, it's not a good judgment, my film has a lot of compassion and love for even the most critical characters. So we must have the courage to say how people are the victims of the world in which we live and who are at the height of alienation.
I know for sure that there is a great deal of opposition among young people today, but the film should not make a difference. The film must be superfluous, shocking people, or making them laugh or make them cry. or making them rebellious. If I had preferred to show the young activist of the rue d & # 39; Aubagne Support Committee, it would have been a misunderstanding of the film form which is a movie. So it is a question of the chosen form of the film: Obviously, I don't hate youth …
In your film, you seem to invent what you reject from this unhappy world.
RG – From the cinematic point of view it was quite complicated, but it really had to integrate these modern evils (rejection of others, envy, prostitution, addictions, pornography, etc.). the presence of soldiers on the streets, Ed.) in a story. The story goes on in 2019 and, of course, what I show in the film I see every day.
So I absolutely wanted to sign these pictures, so I was still going to date the film, even if there was no question of deepening. These are the signs of the world in which man lives, they had to be shown in certain doses.
How does Marcel feed your imagination in this film?
RG- To shoot in 2019 one has to shoot the last of his neighborhoods, which is unfortunately called "Euroméditerranée". In fact, I don't make a film in Marseille, I make films in Marseille. This city is a huge theater, from which I know every mumble and cunning. I know that there is an accessory at the bottom of the attic that I can use. For example here, I absolutely wanted to locate Toutcash in Plombieres. My shooting locations are characters that serve as the film's dramaturgy.
Do you believe in the return of the staff?
RG: I believe in that, the collective that needs to be built, organized, we must change politics and not be afraid. This film allows us to warn you about what the individual fights are all about. There is no problem, there are only collective issues, it should be on all shades of hammer. We continue to pay for the 50th anniversary of the collapse of the Communist hypothesis in the face of capitalism, which, freeing itself from all threats, has free hands. We need to move quickly in this restructuring by weighing the balance of power.
Are you convinced of Marseille's left-wing success at City Hall?
RG: I hope I do. I'm starting to get really angry at people who are causing impunity. I am tired of these Byzantine disputes. Without the Left Union nothing has been done in France. I prefer to be the last wheel of a wheelchair to go ahead of the first wheel of a failed trainer.
What will be the theme of your next movie?
RG- It's a movie about Mali's independence, in this time of excitement where young people wanted to build socialism … but also dance every night and rock and roll.
Interview by Benjamin Grinda
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For other uses, see Winfield Scott (disambiguation).
General Scott as he appears in the National Portrait Gallery in Washington, D.C.
"Old Fuss and Feathers"
"Grand Old Man of the Army"
June 13, 1786(1786-06-13)
May 29, 1866(1866-05-29) (aged 79)
Buried at
West Point Cemetery, West Point, New York
Union Army
Brevet Lieutenant General
Commands held
Battle of Queenston Heights
Battle of Fort George
Capture of Fort Erie
Battle of Chippawa
Battle of Lundy's Lane
Seminole Wars
Siege of Veracruz
Battle of Cerro Gordo
Battle of Contreras
Battle of Churubusco
Battle of Molino del Rey
Battle of Chapultepec
Battle for Mexico City
Military governor of Mexico City
Whig candidate for President of the United States, 1852
Winfield Scott (June 13, 1786 – May 29, 1866) was a United States Army general, and unsuccessful presidential candidate of the Whig Party in 1852.
Known as "Old Fuss and Feathers" and the "Grand Old Man of the Army," he served on active duty as a general longer than any other man in American history and many historians rate him the ablest American commander of his time. Over the course of his forty-seven-year career, he commanded forces in the War of 1812, the Mexican-American War, the Black Hawk War, the Second Seminole War, and, briefly, the American Civil War, conceiving the Union strategy known as the Anaconda Plan that would be used to defeat the Confederacy. He served as Commanding General of the United States Army for twenty years, longer than any other holder of the office.
A national hero after the Mexican-American War, he served as military governor of Mexico City. Such was his stature that, in 1852, the United States Whig Party passed over its own incumbent President of the United States, Millard Fillmore, to nominate Scott in the United States presidential election. Scott lost to Democrat Franklin Pierce in the general election, but remained a popular national figure, receiving a brevet promotion in 1856 to the rank of lieutenant general, becoming the first American since George Washington to hold that rank.[1]
2 Army Captain
3 War of 1812
3.1 Lieutenant Colonel at Queenston Heights
3.2 Colonel at Fort George
3.3 Brigadier General at Chippewa and Lundy's Lane
3.4 Major General
4 Peacetime activities
4.1 After War of 1812
4.2 Indian Wars and Nullification Crisis
4.3 Cherokee Removal
4.4 Aroostook War
5 Mexican-American War
7 Civil War
9 Scott on U.S. Postage
11.1 Primary sources
Winfield Scott was born to William Scott (1747-1789) and Anna Mason (1748-1803) on Laurel Branch, the family plantation in Dinwiddie County, Virginia, near Petersburg, Virginia, on 13 June 1786.[2] He briefly attended College of William and Mary, studied law in the office of a private attorney, and served as a Virginia militia cavalry corporal near Petersburg in 1806.
Army Captain
Scott received a direct commission as captain in the artillery in May 1808. Captain Scott underwent tumultuous early years in the United States Army. Captain Scott openly criticized the pusillanimous and corrupt General James Wilkinson, his commanding officer; following a court-martial for this insubordination, the Army in 1810 suspended his commission for one year. Afterwards, Captain Scott served in New Orleans on staff of General Wade Hampton in 1811/1812.[3]
Scott during the War of 1812
Lieutenant Colonel at Queenston Heights
The Army promoted Captain Winfield Scott to lieutenant colonel in July 1812. Lieutenant Colonel Scott served primarily on the Niagara campaign front in the War of 1812. He took command of an American landing party during the Battle of Queenston Heights (Ontario, Canada) on 13 October 1812. Most New York militia members refused to cross into Canada in support of the invasion, and the British compelled New York militia commander Brigadier General William Wadsworth and Lieutenant Colonel Winfield Scott to surrender.
The British held Lieutenant Colonel Scott as a prisoner of war. The British considered Irish-American prisoners of war British subjects and traitors and executed 13 such Americans captured at Queenstown Heights. The British paroled and released Lieutenant Colonel Winfield Scott in a prisoner exchange. Upon release, Lieutenant Colonel Scott returned to Washington to pressure the Senate to take punitive action against British prisoners of war in retaliation for the British executions of Irish-American soldiers. The Senate wrote a bill after this urging, but President James Madison believed the summary execution of prisoners of war unworthy of civilized nations and so refused to enforce the act.
Colonel at Fort George
The Army promoted Lieutenant Colonel Winfield Scott to colonel in March 1813.[3] In May 1813, Since he went there he was know as Colonel Scott. He planned and led the capture of Fort George, Ontario, Canada, beside the Niagara River. The operation used landings across the Niagara and on the Lake Ontario coast and forced the British to abandon Fort George. Colonel Scott suffered wounds at this battle, among the best planned and executed operations of War of 1812.
Colonel Winfield Scott also participated in action at Up hold's Creek.
Brigadier General at Chippewa and Lundy's Lane
The Army brevetted Colonel Winfield Scott as brigadier general in March 1814.
Brigadier General Scott earned the nickname of "Old Fuss and Feathers" for his insistence on military appearance and discipline in the United States Army, which consisted mostly of volunteers. In his own campaigns, General Scott preferred to use a core of United States Army regulars whenever possible. Scott perennially concerned himself with the welfare of his men, prompting an early quarrel with General James Wilkinson over an unhealthy bivouac on land Wilkinson owned. During an early outbreak of cholera at a post under his command, Scott, alone among officers, stayed to nurse the stricken enlisted men.[1]
Scott commanded the 1st Brigade, proving largely instrumental in decisive American successes at the Battle of Chippewa in July 1814.
Despite his instrumental role in the bloody Battle of Lundy's Lane, Brigadier General Winfield Scott suffered serious wounds. American commander, Major General Jacob Brown, and British-Canadian Lieutenant General Gordon Drummond also suffered wounds in this battle.
The Army brevetted Brigadier General Winfield Scott as major general in July 1814 for his valor. Nevertheless, the severity of his wounds prevented Major General Scott from returning to active duty for the remainder of the war.
Peacetime activities
After War of 1812
Brigadier General Winfield Scott supervised the preparation of the first standard drill regulations of the Army and headed a postwar officer retention selection board in 1815. He also served as president of Board of Tactics in 1815.[3]
Scott visited Europe to study French military methods in 1815/1816.[3] He translated several military manuals of Napoleon I of France into English.
Scott held regional command in the Division of the North in 1816. He married Maria D. Mayo in 1817.[3]
Scott served as president of the Board of Tactics in 1821 and 1824.[3]
Scott commanded the Eastern Department in 1825.[3]
Scott again served as president of the Board of Tactics in 1826.[3]
The Army passed over Brigadier General Winfield Scott for Army command; he resigned, but the Army refused his resignation in 1828. Scott again visited Europe and then resumed command of the Eastern Department in 1829.[3] Upon direction of the War Department, Scott in 1830 published Abstract of Infantry Tactics, Including Exercises and Manueuvres of Light-Infantry and Riflemen, for the Use of the Militia of the United States for the use of the American militia.
Indian Wars and Nullification Crisis
Winfield Scott, 1835 portrait by George Catlin
Cholera among his reinforcing troops forestalled field command of Brigadier General Winfield Scott of Black Hawk War forces.
Scott served as an effective presidential emissary to South Carolina during nullification troubles. During the administration of President Andrew Jackson, Scott marshaled American forces for use against the state of South Carolina in the nullification crisis. His tactful diplomacy and the use of his garrison in suppressing a major fire in Charleston did much to defuse the crisis.
In 1832, Scott replaced John E. Wool as commander of Federal troops in the Cherokee Nation. President Andrew Jackson refused to enforce the United States Supreme Court decisions on the Cherokee right to self-rule. In 1835, President Jackson convinced a minority group of Cherokee to sign the Treaty of New Echota.
Scott commanded the field forces in Second Seminole War and Creek War in 1836. Scott was recalled to Washington due to the highly politicized nature of the tactics he employed and the then-huge expenditures incurred in policing the frontier, compounded by controversies between regular army and local militia officers. A court of inquiry later cleared Scott of wrongdoing in the Seminole and Creek operations. Brigadier General Edmund Meredith Shackelford was appointed commander in the area by President Jackson until Brigadier General Thomas Jesup could arrive. As late as 1845, General Shackelford wrote to Jackson for a clarifying statement that Shackelford had had no part in Scott's recall to Washington.
Scott assumed command of the Eastern Division in 1837. The Army dispatched Scott to maintain order on the Canadian border, where American patriots aided Canadian rebels seeking an end to British rule.
Cherokee Removal
Brigadier General Winfield Scott also supervised removal of the Cherokees to the trans-Mississippi region in 1838. Following the orders of President Martin Van Buren, Scott assumed command of the "Army of the Cherokee Nation", headquartered at Fort Cass and Fort Butler. President Martin Van Buren, previously Secretary of State and then Vice President under President Jackson, thereafter directed Scott to forcibly move all those Cherokee still in the east to comply with the Treaty of New Echota.[4]
Statue of Winfield Scott on Scott Circle in Washington, D.C..
Arriving at New Echota, Cherokee Nation, on 6 April 1838, Scott immediately divided the Cherokee Nation into three military districts. He designated 26 May 1838 as the beginning date for the first phase of the removal. The first phase involved the Cherokees in Georgia. He preferred Army regular troops to Georgia militiamen for the operation because the militiamen stood to benefit from the removal; some militiamen, for example, already laid claim to Cherokee properties.[5] Because the promised regulars did not arrive in time, however, Scott proceeded with four thousand Georgia militia.
The moral implications of the policies of Presidents Jackson and Van Buren did not make Scott's orders easy. He reassured the Cherokee people of proper treatment. In his instructions to the militiamen under his command, Scott called any acts of harshness and cruelty "abhorrent to the generous sympathies of the whole American people." Representative (and ex-President) John Quincy Adams opposed the removal, imputing it to "Southern politicians and land grabbers;" many Americans agreed.[6] Scott also admonished his troops not to fire on any fugitives they might apprehend unless they should "make stand and resist." Scott detailed help to render the weak and infirm: "Horses or ponies should be used to carry Cherokees too sick or feeble to march." Also, "Infants, superannuated persons, lunatics, and women in a helpless condition with all, in the removal [deserve] peculiar attention, which the brave and humane will seek to adopt to the necessities of the several cases."[6]
Scott's good intentions, however, did not adequately protect the Cherokees from terrible abuses, especially at the hands of "lawless rabble that followed on the heels of the soldiers to loot and pillage."[6] At the end of the first phase of the removal in August 1838, three thousand Cherokees left Georgia and Tennessee by water toward Oklahoma, but camps still retained another thirteen thousand. Thanks to the intercession of John Ross in Washington, these Cherokees traveled "under their own auspices, unarmed, and free of supervision by militiamen or regulars." [7]
Though white contractors, steamboat owners, and others who provided food and services to the government at profit protested, Scott did not hesitate to carry out this new policy (despite demand of ex-President Andrew Jackson to the Attorney General that another general replace Winfield Scott and the government arrest chief Ross).[8]
Within months, Scott captured (or killed) every Cherokee in north Georgia, Tennessee, and Alabama who could not escape. His troops reportedly rounded up the Cherokee and held them in rat-infested stockades with little food. Private John G. Burnett later wrote, "Future generations will read and condemn the act and I do hope posterity will remember that private soldiers like myself, and like the four Cherokees who were forced by General Scott to shoot an Indian Chief and his children, had to execute the orders of our superiors. We had no choice in the matter."[9][10]
More than four thousand Cherokee died in this confinement before ever beginning the trip west. As the first groups herded west died in huge numbers in the heat, the Cherokee pleaded with Scott to postpone the second phase of the removal until autumn, and he complied. Determined to accompany them as an observer, Scott left Athens, Georgia, on 1 October 1838 and traveled with the first "company" of a thousand people, including both Cherokees and black slaves, as far as Nashville.[11] The Cherokee removal later became known as the Trail of Tears.[12]
Aroostook War
When Brigadier General Winfield Scott reached Nashville, superiors abruptly ordered him to return to Washington to deal with troubles on the Canadian border known as the Pig War. Scott negotiated a peaceful resolution to the boundary dispute between Maine and New Brunswick in 1839. On this assignment, he helped defuse tensions between officials of the state of Maine and the British colony of New Brunswick in the undeclared and bloodless Aroostook War in March 1839.
In 1840, Scott wrote Infantry Tactics, Or, Rules for the Exercise and Maneuvre of the United States Infantry. This three-volume work served as the standard drill manual for the United States Army until William J. Hardee's Tactics, published in 1855.
The Army promoted Brigadier General Winfield Scott to major general, then the highest rank in the United States Army, in June 1841 as a result of his successes. Major General Scott served as commanding general of the United States Army from 5 July 1841.
Major General Scott took great interest in the professional development of the cadets of United States Military Academy.[13]
General Winfield Scott at the battle of Veracruz.
During the Mexican-American War, Major General Scott commanded the southern of the two United States armies (Zachary Taylor commanded the northern army, made up of militiamen and volunteers). Landing at Veracruz, Scott and his regulars, assisted by one of his staff officers, Captain Robert E. Lee, and perhaps inspired by William H. Prescott's History of the Conquest of Mexico, followed the approximate route taken by Hernán Cortés in 1519, and assaulted Mexico City. Scott's opponent in this campaign was Mexican president and general Antonio López de Santa Anna. Despite high heat, rains, and difficult terrain, Scott won the battles of Cerro Gordo, Contreras/Padierna, Churubusco, and Molino del Rey, then assaulted the fort of Chapultepec on September 13, 1847, after which the city surrendered.
When seventy-two men from the Mexican Saint Patrick's Battalion (made up of American deserters who had joined the Mexican army) were captured during Churubusco and brought to Scott, he had a problem on his hands. The punishment for desertion during war was death by hanging. Scott's army was still facing a dangerous enemy and possible insurgency, so he placed the prisoners before courts martial to have them settle it.[14] Eisenhower says the men were tried in two groups. The trials were conducted fairly by Brevet Colonel John Garland and by Colonel Bennet Riley. Because all the men captured were wearing Mexican uniforms, they were found guilty and sentenced to hang.
Scott was troubled by the sweep of guilty verdicts. He did not want to alienate the Mexican public, who by now had made the deserters national heroes.[14] Nor did he want to encourage insurgency among the Mexican people that would weaken his pacification program in progress. He also knew that the deserters were Irish-born Catholics, who had deserted Taylor's army because they allegedly felt mistreated and had witnessed atrocities "sufficient to make Heaven weep" against fellow Catholics, the Mexicans.[15][16] Scott believed he needed to confirm the trials and sentences. He concluded that some men deserved less punishment, and sat up nights attempting to find excuses to avoid the universal application of capital punishment.[17] In the end he approved the death penalty for 50 of the 72 San Patricios, but later pardoned five and reduced the sentence of fifteen others, including the ringleader, Sergeant John Riley.[18] This left 30 slated for execution, 16 of whom were hanged on September 10, 1847. Four were hanged the next day, and the remainder assigned to Colonel William Harney for execution at some later date.
Engraving of Winfield Scott
On the day of execution, Harney ordered each deserter placed on a mule cart with a rope around his neck, fastening each rope to a mass gibbet. Then, during the battle of Chapultepec, just as the American flag was about to rise above the walls of the Mexican citadel, he ordered the executioners to give the mules a whack, causing the beasts to lurch forward, leaving the deserters in mid-air, dangling "en masse." [19] Some argue that this adversely affected Scott's record, as the events violated numerous Articles of War. Eisenhower, however, attributes the incident to Harney.[19]
During political intrigues later in his life, Scott ignored the events, stating "not one [Irishman] ... was ever known to turn his back upon the enemy or friend."[20][21][22]
As military commander of Mexico City, he was held in high esteem by Mexican civil and American authorities alike, primarily owing to his pacification policy and fairness. For example, when he drew his "martial law order" to be issued and enforced in Mexico (to prevent looting, rape, murder, etc.), all offenders, both Mexicans and Americans, were treated equally.[23] Apart from his military career, Scott's vanity, as well as his corpulence, led to a catch phrase that was to haunt him for the remainder of his political life. Complaining about the division of command between himself and General Taylor, in a letter written to Secretary of War William Marcy, Scott stated he had just risen from "at about 6 PM as I sat down to take a hasty plate of soup" .[24] The Polk administration, wishing to sabotage Scott's reputation, promptly published the letter, and the cryptic phrase appeared in political cartoons and folk songs for the rest of his life. Another letter from Scott to Marcy noted Scott's desire of not wishing to "have a fire in his rear (from Washington) while he met a fire in front of the Mexicans."[24]
Another example of Scott's vanity was his reaction to losing at chess to a young New Orleans lad named Paul Morphy in 1846. Scott did not take his defeat by the eight-year-old chess prodigy gracefully.[25]
When the Duke of Wellington, victor of Waterloo, learned that Scott had succeeded against alarming odds in capturing Mexico City, he proclaimed Scott, "the greatest living general."[26]
See also: U.S. presidential election, 1852 and Anaconda Plan
The Game-cock & the Goose, A Whig cartoon favoring Winfield Scott.
In the 1852 presidential election, the Whig Party declined to nominate its incumbent president, Millard Fillmore, who had succeeded to the presidency on the death of Mexican-American War hero General Zachary Taylor. Seeking to repeat their electoral success, the Whigs pushed Fillmore aside and nominated Major General Winfield Scott, who faced Democrat Franklin Pierce. However, the nomination process foreshadowed the general election:
More grievously rent by sectional rivalries than the Democrats, the Whigs balloted fifty-three times before nominating the Mexican War hero Winfield Scott. The delegates then unanimously approved the platform except for the central plank that pledged "acquiescence" in the Compromise of 1850, "the act known as the Fugitive Slave law included." The plank carried by a vote of 212 to 70, opposition coming largely from Scott's supporters. The old soldier, faced with disarray in the Whig ranks, sought out to resolve his dilemma by announcing, "I accept the nomination with the resolutions annexed." To which antislavery Whigs rejoined, "We accept the candidate, but we spit on the platform."[27]
Scott's anti-slavery reputation undermined his support in the South, while the Party's pro-slavery platform depressed turnout in the North, and Scott's opponent was a Mexican-American War veteran as well. Pierce was elected in an overwhelming win, leaving Scott with the electoral votes of only Massachusetts, Vermont, Kentucky and Tennessee.[27]
Despite his faltering in the election, Scott was still a wildly popular national hero. In 1855, by a special act of Congress, Scott was given a brevet promotion to the rank of lieutenant general, making him only the second person in U.S. military history, after George Washington, to hold that rank.
In 1859, Scott traveled to the Pacific Northwest to settle a dispute with the British over San Juan Island, which had escalated to the so-called Pig War. The old general established a good rapport with the British, and was able to bring about a peaceful resolution.
1861 cartoon of Scott's "Anaconda Plan" to squeeze the South
When the Civil War began in the spring of 1861, Scott was 74 years old and suffering numerous health problems, including gout and dropsy. He was also extremely overweight and unable to mount a horse or review troops. As he could not lead troops into battle, he offered the command of the Federal army to Colonel Robert E. Lee on April 17, 1861 (Scott referred to Lee as "the very finest soldier I've ever seen"). However, when Virginia left the Union on that same day, Lee resigned and the command of the Federal field forces defending Washington, D.C. passed to Brigadier General Irvin McDowell. Although he was born and raised in Virginia, Scott remained loyal to the nation that he had served for most of his life and refused to resign his commission upon his home state's secession.
When Lincoln received news that the Union Army had been defeated at Manassas on July 21, 1861 he went to Scott's residence. Scott assumed responsibility for the Union defeat. Lincoln was seeking Scott's advice on whether to draw troops away from Washington to reinforce McClellan. In little time George McClellan was appointed head of the Army.[28]
Lieut. Gen. Winfield Scott 1861
The administration and public opinion were clamoring for a quick victory, but Scott knew that this was impossible. He drew up a complicated plan to defeat the Confederacy by blockading Southern ports and then sending an army down the Mississippi Valley to outflank the Confederacy. This Anaconda Plan was derided in the press; however, in its broad outlines, it was the strategy the Union actually used, particularly in the Western Theater and in the somewhat successful naval blockade of Confederate ports. Though the blockade did prevent most sea-going vessels from leaving or arriving to points along the Confederate coast line, a fair number of blockade-runners steamers made their way through that typically carried cargoes of basic supplies, arms, and mail.[29][30] However, Lincoln gave in to public pressure for a victory within 90 days and rejected the Anaconda Plan, but the eventual strategy used by the Union in 1864–65 was largely based on Scott's original plan.
Scott's physical infirmities cast doubt on his stamina; he suffered from gout and rheumatism and his weight had ballooned to over 300 lbs, prompting some to use a play on his nickname of "Old Fuss and Feathers," instead calling him "Old Fat and Feeble." Maj. Gen. George B. McClellan, the field commander, was anxious for Scott to be pushed aside; political pressure from McClellan's supporters in Congress led to Scott's resignation on November 1, 1861. McClellan then succeeded him as general-in-chief.[31] Although officially retired, Scott was still occasionally consulted by Lincoln for strategic advice during the war.
General Scott lived to see the Union victory in the Civil War. He died at West Point, New York on May 29, 1866 and is buried in West Point Cemetery.
Scott served under every president from Jefferson to Lincoln, a total of fourteen administrations, and was an active-duty general for thirteen of them; a total of 47 years of service. Historians rank him highly both as a strategist and as a battlefield commander. Scott's papers can be found at the William L. Clements Library at the University of Michigan.[32]
The "Treaty House" was the exact location Chief Keokuk and General Winfield Scott signed a treaty to end the Black Hawk War in Davenport, Iowa, 1832. The house has since been moved from its original location. The house was completed in 1833 by Antoine LeClaire.
Scott County in the state of Iowa is named in Winfield Scott's honor, as he was the presiding officer at the signing of the peace treaty ending the Black Hawk War; Scott County, Kansas, Scott County, Minnesota, and Scott County, Tennessee, and Winfield, Illinois and Winfield, Alabama, were also named for him. Fort Scott, Kansas, a former Army outpost, was also named for him, and the towns of Scott Depot and Winfield in West Virginia. Scott Township in Mahaska County, Iowa, was formerly called Jackson before residents formally petitioned to change the township's name in light of their strong support of Scott in the 1852 presidential campaign.[33] In addition, Cerro Gordo County, Iowa, Buena Vista County, Iowa, and the town of Churubusco, Indiana, were named for battles where Scott led his troops to victory. Lake Winfield Scott, near Suches, is one of Georgia's highest elevation lakes. In 1882, the fort now known as Fort Point at the foot of the Golden Gate Bridge in the Presidio was given the name "Fort Winfield Scott" by U.S. Army Headquarters. That fort officially retained the name until 1886, when the fort was downgraded to a sub-post of the Presidio of San Francisco. The name was then used once again for the new coast artillery post established in 1912 in the Presidio.[34] A paddle steamer named the Winfield Scott launched in 1850 and the US Army tugboat currently in service is named Winfield Scott. The General Winfield Scott House, his home in New York City during 1853–1855, was named National Historic Landmark in 1973. The saying "Great Scott!" may have originated from a soldier under Winfield Scott.[35] The Scott's Oriole was named for him by Darius N. Couch, a major general. It had turned out that the species was described several years earlier by naturalist Charles Bonaparte, but Scott's name was retained in the common name anyway.
General Winfield Scott Hancock and Admiral Winfield Scott Schley were named after General Scott.
Scott on U.S. Postage
~ First Winfield Scott stamp ~ Issue of 1870
~ Jackson ~ Scott ~ Army issue of 1937
General Winfield Scott is one of very few US Army Generals to be honored on a US Postage stamp. He was the first General to appear on a postage stamp after Washington, who was portrayed as a general on an issue of 1861. The first Winfield Scott stamp issue was released to the public in 1870, four years after the General's death at West Point. The engraving depicts Scott in classic profile with an arc of 13 stars overhead and allegorical military weaponry at the bottom of the design. Because of the higher denomination of 24-cents, which was a considerable sum for a postage stamp in 1870, the stamp only had a printing of a little more than one million. Consequently surviving examples of this stamp are very scarce and quite valuable today. General Scott was honored again on the Army issue of 1937, one in a series of five commemorative stamps honoring notable Army heroes where Scott is depicted along with Andrew Jackson on the 2-cent stamp of this series. The Army and the Navy issues were very popular when released, had a much larger printing [36] and examples of this issue are still somewhat common today.[37][38]
^ a b "Civil War Biographies ". The Home of The American Civil War. http://www.civilwarhome.com/scottbio.htm. Retrieved 10 December 2010.
^ Eisenhower, John S.D., Agent of Destiny: The Life and Times of General Winfield Scott (New York: The Free Press, 1997), 1.
^ a b c d e f g h i [1]
^ Garrison, Tim Alan, The Legal Ideology of Removal: The Southern Judiciary and the Sovereignty of Native American Nations (Athens: University of Georgia Press, 2002)
^ Eisenhower, 188-91.
^ a b c Eisenhower, 190.
^ Eisenhower, 191-3.
^ Eisenhower, 193.
^ Trail of Tears, Cherokee North Carolina website.
^ Cherokee Nation official website John Burnett's Story of the Trail of Tears
^ Eisenhower, 194-5
^ A Brief History of the Trail of Tears, Cherokee Nation website.
^ Waugh, John, The Class of 1846: From West Point to Appomattox: Stonewall Jackson, George McClellan, and Their Brothers, Ballantine Books, 1999, ISBN 0-345-43403-X.
^ a b Eisenhower, 287-8.
^ Chichetto, James Wm., "General Winfield Scott's Policy of Pacification in the Mexican American War of 1846–1848," Combat Literary Journal, Volume 5, Number 4, Fall/Oct., 2007, 4–5.
^ Commenting on Taylor's initial occupation, Scott wrote to the Secretary of War, William Marcy:"Sir, our militia and volunteers [under Taylor], if a tenth of what is said be true, have committed atrocities – horrors – in Mexico, sufficient to make Heaven weep, and every American, of Christian morals, blush for his country. Murder, robbery --rape on mothers and daughters, in the presence of the tied up males of the families, have been common all along the Rio Grande. I was agonized with what I heard – not from Mexicans and regulars alone; but from respectable individual volunteers – from the masters and hands of our steamers." Chichetto, 5.
^ Chichetto, 5
^ a b Eisenhower, 297.
^ peskin, Allan, Winfield Scott and the Profession of Arms, Kent State University Press, 2003, ISBN 0873387740, p. 212.
^ In a private letter to William Robinson, Scott wrote about his Irish American soldiers:"In Mexico, we estimated the number of persons, foreigners by birth, at, about, 3,500, and of these more than 2,000 were Irish. How many had been naturalized I cannot say; but am persuaded that seven out of ten, had at least declared their intentions, according to law, to become citizens. It is hazardous, or may be invidious to make distinctions; but truth obliges me to say that, of our Irish soldiers – save a few who deserted from General Taylor, and had never taken the naturalization oath – not one ever turned his back upon the enemy or faltered in advancing to the charge. Most of the foreigners, by birth, also behaved faithfully and gallantly. Chichetto,5.
^ On another occasion, Scott remarked to Robinson: "In my recent campaign in Mexico, a very large proportion of the men under my command were your country men (Irish), German, etc. I witnessed with admiration their zeal, fidelity, and valor in maintaining our flag in the face of every danger. Vying with each other, and our native-born soldiers in the same ranks, in patriotism, constancy, and heroic daring, I was happy to call them brothers in the field, as I shall always be to salute them as countrymen at home." Chichetto, 5.
^ Chichetto, 4.
^ a b Sargent, Nathan. Public Men and Events from the Commencement of Mr. Monroe's Administration. 1875, J.B. Lippincott & Co., p. 297.
^ Patricia Brady, Arts and Entertainment in Louisiana?, (2006) p. 465
^ Johnson, Timothy D., Winfield Scott (Lawrence, Kansas: University of Kansas Press, 1998), 1.
^ a b Rawley, James A. (1979). Race & Politics: "Bleeding Kansas" and the Coming of the Civil War. Lincoln, Nebraska: University of Nebraska Press. pp. 19–21. ISBN 0803238541.
^ "Mr. Lincoln and New York ". The Lincoln Institute. http://www.mrlincolnandnewyork.org/inside.asp?ID=27&subjectID=2. Retrieved 29 November 2010.
^ "Blockade essays" (PDF). 1995 The Concord Review, Inc.. http://www.tcr.org/tcr/essays/CB_Blockade.pdf. Retrieved June 8, 2010.
^ "Blockade-Run Covers". National Postal Museum, Blockade-Run Covers . http://arago.si.edu/index.asp?con=1&cmd=1&tid=2028278. Retrieved 17 November 2010.
^ Mr. Lincoln's White House: an examination of Washington DC during Abraham Lincoln's Presidency
^ William L. Clements Library.
^ History of Scott Township
^ Fort Winfield Scott, NPS website.
^ World Wide Words website
^ Jackson-Scott 1937 stamp, 3c, Quantities issued: 93.8 million issued; Scotts US Stamp Catalogue, Quantities Issued.
^ Scotts US Stamp Catalogue (The Scotts US Stamp Catalogue and Winfield Scott have no association.)
^ Smithsonian National Postal Museum
Bell, William Gardner (2005). "Winfield Scott". Commanding Generals and Chiefs of Staff: Portraits and Biographical Sketchs. United States Army Center of Military History. pp. 78–79. http://www.history.army.mil/books/CG&CSA/Scott-W.htm.
Eisenhower, John S.D., Agent of Destiny: The Life and Times of General Winfield Scott, University of Oklahoma Press, 1999, ISBN 0-8061-3128-4.
Elliott, Charles Winslow, Winfield Scott: The Soldier and the Man, 1937.
Forney, John Wien (1880). The Life and Military Career of Winfield Scott Hancock. New York: United States Book Company. http://books.google.com/books?id=9NNEAAAAIAAJ. Retrieved 2009-07-06.
Johnson, Timothy D., Winfield Scott: The Quest for Military Glory, University Press of Kansas, 1998, ISBN 0-7006-0914-8, a standard scholarly biography
Mansfield, Edward Deering (1847). Illustrated life of General Winfield Scott; illustrated by D.H. Strother. New York: A.S. Barnes & Co.. http://www.archive.org/details/illustratedlifeoscot.
Peskin, Allan, Winfield Scott and the Profession of Arms, 2003, a standard scholarly biography
Scott, Winfield (1864). Memoirs of Lieut.-General Scott, LL.D.. New York: Sheldon & Company. http://books.google.com/books?id=ACsOAAAAIAAJ. Retrieved 2009-07-06.
Darrow, Pierce; Winfield Scott (1821). Scott's Militia Tactics; Comprising the Duty of Infantry, Light-Infantry and Riflemen, 2nd ed.. Hartford: Oliver D. Cooke. http://books.google.com/books?id=T6t9XQ1N54AC. Retrieved 2009-07-06.
Scott, Winfield (1835). Infantry Tactics; Rules for the Exercise and Manoeuvres of the United States Infantry Vol I, Vol II, Vol III. New York: George Dearborn.
Semmes, Raphael (1852). The Campaign of General Scott in the Valley of Mexico. Cincinnati: Moore & Anderson. http://books.google.com/books?id=rAsTAAAAYAAJ.
General Scott and the Trail of Tears
Letter to the Cherokee from Major General Scott
Origin of the phrase Great Scott!.
Biography of General Winfield Scott
Winfield Scott riverboat
Winfield Scott letters
Burial site of General Winfield Scott at Find A Grave
Works by or about Winfield Scott at Internet Archive (scanned books original editions color illustrated)
Wright, Marcus J., General Scott, a biography at Project Gutenberg
Chisholm, Hugh, ed (1911). "Scott, Winfield". Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press.
Alexander Macomb Commanding General of the United States Army
George B. McClellan
Party political offices
Zachary Taylor Whig Party presidential nominee
1852 (lost) Succeeded by
v · d · eUnited States Whig Party Presidential Nominees
William Henry Harrison / Daniel Webster / Hugh Lawson White / Willie Person Mangum · William Henry Harrison · Henry Clay · Zachary Taylor · Winfield Scott · Millard Fillmore · John Bell
Black Hawk War of 1832
Native people
British Band
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Wapasha
Ho-Chunk
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U.S. people
Henry Atkinson • Hugh Brady • Jefferson Davis • Winfield Scott • Zachary Taylor
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Illinois: Apple River Fort • Buffalo Grove • Dixon's Ferry • Fort Armstrong • Fort Beggs • Galena • Indian Creek • Kellogg's Grove • Plum River • Saukenuk • Stillman Creek • Stillman's Run Battle Site • Waddams Grove • Yellow Creek
Michigan Territory (Wisconsin): Bad Axe River • Blue Mounds Fort • Fort Crawford • Fort Defiance • Fort Hamilton • Fort Jackson • Fort Koshkonong • Fort Union • Gratiot's Grove • Helena • Hamilton's Diggings • Pecatonica River • Roxbury • Sinsinawa Mound • Soldiers Grove • Victory • Wisconsin Heights Battlefield • Wisconsin River •
Minor engagements • Battle of Stillman's Run • Buffalo Grove ambush • Plum River raid • Indian Creek massacre • St. Vrain massacre • Attacks at Fort Blue Mounds • Spafford Farm massacre • Battle of Horseshoe Bend • Battle of Waddams Grove • Battle of Kellogg's Grove • Attack at Ament's Cabin • Battle of Apple River Fort • Sinsinawa Mound raid • Battle of Wisconsin Heights • Battle of Bad Axe
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Vice Chiefs of Staff
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Name Scott, Winfield
Short description Union United States Army general
Date of birth June 13, 1786
Place of birth Dinwiddie County, Virginia
Date of death May 29, 1866
Place of death West Point, New York
People from Dinwiddie County, Virginia
American people of Scottish descent
American prisoners of war
Burials at West Point Cemetery
Congressional Gold Medal recipients
The College of William & Mary alumni
Members of the Aztec Club of 1847
People of the Black Hawk War
Union Army generals
United States Army generals
United States presidential candidates, 1840
American military personnel of the War of 1812
Utah War
Virginia Whigs
War of 1812 prisoners of war
Whig Party (United States) presidential nominees
Winfield Scott — G … Wikipedia Español
Winfield Scott — (* 13. Juni 1786 in Laurel Branch, nahe Petersburg, Virginia; † 29. Mai 1866 in West Point, New York) war ein US amerikanischer General, Diplomat und Politiker. Er war der General mit der längsten Dienstzeit in d … Deutsch Wikipedia
Winfield Scott — Pour les articles homonymes, voir Scott. Winfield Scott Winfield Scott (13 juin 1786 29 mai 1866) est un général … Wikipédia en Français
Winfield Scott — noun United States general who was a hero of the War of 1812 and who defeated Santa Anna in the Mexican War (1786 1866) • Syn: ↑Scott • Instance Hypernyms: ↑general, ↑full general … Useful english dictionary
Winfield Scott Hancock — (* 14. Februar 1824 in Montgomery Square, Montgomery County, Pennsylvania; † 9. Februar 1886 auf Governors Island, New York City) war Generalmajor des US Heeres. Benannt wurde er nach d … Deutsch Wikipedia
Winfield Scott Schley — (9 October 1839 2 October 1911) was an admiral of the United States Navy. Born at Richfields, near Frederick, Maryland, Schley graduated from the United States Naval Academy in 1860, and served through the American Civil War, beginning on board… … Wikipedia
Winfield Scott Hammond — (* 17. November 1863 in Southborough, Worcester County, Massachusetts; † 30. Dezember 1915 in Clinton, Louisiana) war ein US amerikanischer Politiker und im Jahr 1915 Gouverneur des Bundesstaates Minnesota. Zwischen 1907 und 1915 vertrat er… … Deutsch Wikipedia
Winfield Scott (songwriter) — Winfield Scott (also known as Robie Kirk) was a songwriter who wrote the hit songs Tweedle Dee for LaVern Baker and Return to Sender for Elvis Presley.cite web url=http://www.elvis.com.au/presley/elvisnews qandawithwinfieldscott.shtml… … Wikipedia
Winfield Scott Featherston — (* 8. August 1820 bei Murfreesboro, Tennessee; † 28. Mai 1891 in Holly Springs, Mississippi) war ein US amerikanischer Politiker und Brigadegeneral im … Deutsch Wikipedia
Winfield Scott Chaplin — (1847 1918) was the chancellor of Washington University in St. Louis from 1891 until 1907.Higher EducationChaplin graduated from West Point in 1870. After completing his military service, he held a number of academic positions in civil and… … Wikipedia
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"All the Year Round" was a Victorian periodical, being a British weekly literary magazine founded and owned by Charles Dickens, published between 1859 and 1895 throughout the United Kingdom. Edited by Charles Dickens, it was the direct successor to his previous publication "Household Words", abandoned due to differences with his former publisher. It hosted the serialization of many prominent novels, including Dickens's own "A Tale of Two Cities". After Dickens's death in 1870, it was owned and edited by his eldest son Charles Dickens, Jr.
In 1858, Charles Dickens was the editor of his then magazine "Household Words", published by Bradbury and Evans; a petty dispute with them led Dickens to realize that he was at the whim of his publisher, and to decide that he would create a new weekly magazine that he would own and control entirely.Allingham, "Household Words", op. cit., last section "Wrapping Up Household Words"
1859–1870, conducted by Dickens Sr
In 1859, "All the Year Round" was founded by Charles Dickens, also its editor. Similarly to his previous magazine, Dickens searched a title that could be derived from a Shakespeare quote. He eventually found it on 28 January 1859 (in Othello, act one, scene three, lines 128-129), to be displayed before the title:Forster, op. cit., book 8, part 5: " 'All the Year Round" and 'Uncommercial Traveller' (1859-61)"
'The story of our lives, from year to year.' — Shakespeare.
ALL THE YEAR ROUND.
A weekly journal.
Conducted by Charles Dickens.
The new weekly magazine had its debut issue on Saturday 30 April 1859, featuring the first instalment of Dickens's "A Tale of Two Cities".LOC, op. cit., says "Published/Created: London : Chapman and Hall, 1859-1895." and adds "Vol. 1, no. 1 (Apr. 30, 1859)-v. 20 (Nov. 28, 1868); n.s., v. 1 (Dec. 5, 1868)-v. 43 (Dec. 29, 1888); 3rd ser., v. 1 (Jan. 5, 1889)-v. 13 (Mar. 30, 1895)." as well as explicit mention of extra issues for spring 1894, summer 1894, and Christmas 1894. Plus "Notes: Editors: 1859-June 1870, Charles Dickens; June 25, 1870-1895, Charles Dickens, Jr."Overell, op. cit.The launch was a success, Dickens writing about it, "So well has "All the Year Round" gone that it was yesterday able to repay me, with five per cent. interest, all the money I advanced for its establishment (paper, print etc. all paid, down to the last number), and yet to leave a good £500 balance at the banker's!"
One month after the launch, Dickens won a lawsuit in the Court of Chancery against his former publisher Bradbury and Evans, giving him back the trade name of his previous journal. On Saturday 28 May 1859, five weeks after the launch of "All the Year Round", Dickens terminated "Household Words", publishing its last issue with a prospectus for his new journal and the announcement that, "After the appearance of the present concluding Number of "Household Words", this publication will merge into the new weekly publication, "All the Year Round", and the title, "Household Words", will form a part of the title-page of "All the Year Round"."Dickens, "Contributions to All The Year Round", op. cit., chapter 1, "Announcement in 'Household Words' of the Approaching Publication of 'All the Year Round'" (28 May 1859). AYR's full title then acquired a fourth item: " All the Year Round. A Weekly Journal. Conducted by Charles Dickens. With Which Is Incorporated Household Words. "
"All the Year Round" contained the same mixture of fiction and non-fiction as "Household Words" but with a greater emphasis on literary matters and less on journalism. Nearly 11 per cent of the non-fiction articles in "All the Year Round" dealt with some aspect of international affairs or cultures, discounting the American Civil War, which Dickens instructed his staff to avoid unless they had specifically cleared a topic with him first. Old tales of crime (especially with a French or Italian setting), new developments in science (including the theories of Charles Darwin), lives and struggles of inventors, tales of exploration and adventure in distant parts, and examples of self-help among humble folk, are among the topics which found a ready welcome from Dickens.
After 1863, although Charles Dickens continued to micromanage the editorial department, scrupulously revising copy, his own contributions fell off considerably, largely because he spent more and more time on the road with his public readings.
A few weeks before 28 November 1868, Dickens announced a new series for "All the Year Round": "I beg to announce to the readers of this Journal, that on the completion of the Twentieth Volume on the Twenty-eighth of November, in the present year, I shall commence an entirely New Series of All the Year Round. The change is not only due to the convenience of the public (with which a set of such books, extending beyond twenty large volumes, would be quite incompatible), but is also resolved upon for the purpose of effecting some desirable improvements in respect of type, paper, and size of page, which could not otherwise be made."Dickens, "Contributions to All The Year Round", op. cit., chapter 12, "Address Which Appeared Shortly Previous to the Completion of the Twentieth Volume" (1868).
In 1869, Dickens hired his son Charles Dickens, Jr as subeditor of the magazine.See sources Lieberman and Perdue at the "Charles Dickens, Jr" article.
1870–1895, conducted by Dickens Jr
In 1870, Dickens bequeathed "All the Year Round" to his eldest son Charles Dickens, Jr ("Charles Dickens the younger" in the testament) one week before his death.Forster, op. cit., [http://web.archive.org/web/20070312010622/http://lang.nagoya-u.ac.jp/~matsuoka/CD-Forster-13.html "13. Appendix: The Will of Charles Dickens"] , codicil from 2 June 1870: "I, Charles Dickens [...] give to my son Charles Dickens the younger all my share and interest in the weekly journal called 'All the Year Round,' [...] In witness whereof I have hereunto set my hand the 2nd day of June in the year of our Lord 1870."After Dickens's death on 9 June 1870, the magazine was owned and edited by Charles Dickens, Jr from June 25 1870 until the 1895 end (or possibly just until 1888).Sources consulted: scans of "All the Year Round" (1869, 1870, 1871, 1882, 1884) at Google Book Search. In the 1870-1871 magazines, the head of pages had the original " [Conducted by Charles Dickens.] " replaced with " [Conducted by Charles Dickens, Jun.] " (at least by 1882, it was back to just " [Conducted by Charles Dickens.] ") Associated metadata say, "Editors: 1859-June 1870, Charles Dickens; June 25, 1870-1895, Charles Dickens, Jr." Exact same textual data at LOC, Google is probably using the same source database as LOC.Allingham, "All the Year Round", op. cit., quotes again " [Drew 12] " saying that AYR "continued under Charles Dickens Jr.'s editorship until 1888", but it's the very same quote claiming AYR stopped in 1893 instead of 1895, which weakens its credibility; both bits of information are also found at [http://www.charlesdickenspage.com/minor_works.html David Perdue's Charles Dickens Page.com] , but probably derived from the same source. Ultimate confirmation or refutation would demand research in libraries collections, so as to find or not physical issues for 1894 and 1895, and to check the "conducted by" line of post-1888 issues. The LOC 3-series timeline indeed sets a series change at 1888, maybe Dickens Jr's involvement changed at that point.
In 1889, the magazine started a "Third series". It is unclear how much Dickens Jr was involved with the new series.
In 1895, "All the Year Round" ended. It had its last issue on 30 March 1895 , after three series:Allingham, "All the Year Round", op. cit., quotes his 1999 source " [Drew 12] " saying that AYR "ceased publication in 1893", but it seems to be an error or a typo. All book and library databases such as Worldcat.org list the series as "1859-1895". LOC and Overell concur.
# (First Series): Vol. 1 (30 April 1859) to Vol. 20 (28 November 1868)
# "New Series": Vol. 1 (5 December 1868) to Vol. 43 (29 December 1888)
# "Third Series": Vol. 1 (5 January 1889) to Vol. 13 (30 March 1895)
Each volume was 26 numbers long, half a year (thus Vol. 1 was Nos 1 to 26, Vol. 2 was Nos 27 to 52, Vol. 3 was Nos 53 to 78, but the annuals and seasonal extras counted for additional numbers.)
A number of prominent authors and novels were serialized in "All the Year Round", including:
* Charles Dickens
** "A Tale of Two Cities" (June 1859 to December 1859)CHEAL, op. cit.
** "Great Expectations" (1 December 1860 to August 1861)
** "The Uncommercial Traveller" (28 January 1860 to 13 October 1860, plus 1863-65 and 1868-69)
* Wilkie Collins
** "The Woman in White" (29 November 1859 to 1860)
** "No Name"
** "The Moonstone"
* Anthony Trollope
** "The Duke's Children" (1879 to ????)
* Edward Bulwer-Lytton
** "A Strange Story" (10 August 1861 to 8 March 1862) then anonymous
* Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell
* Charles Lever
* Charles Reade
* Frances Trollope
Other contributors included:
* Sheridan Le Fanu - 6 short stories in 1870 (later collected in "Madam Crowl's Ghost")
* Adelaide Anne Procter - poems (later collected in "Legends and Lyrics")
* Hesba Stretton - children's literature
* Walter Goodman - humorous sketches
* George Augustus Sala - travel sketches from Constantinople, Rome and St Petersburg
* E A Worthington - humorous illustrated sketches
Staff writers included:
* Henry Morley - informative though rather congested articles on historical, political, economic and literary topics, including the background to the American Civil War
* Charles Collins (younger brother of Wilkie Collins and son-in-law to Dickens) - reportage and articles on art and architecture, marked by a distinctive vein of melancholy humour. He wrote as 'David Fudge' and 'Our Eye-Witness'
* Eliza Lynn Linton
: Expand-section|date=May 2008
Almost all articles were printed without naming their author; only the editor, "Conducted by Charles Dickens", was mentioned on the first page and the head of every other page. While a complete key to who wrote what and for how much in "Household Words" was compiled in 1973 by Anne Lohrli (using an analysis of the office account book maintained by Dickens's subeditor, W. H. Wills), unfortunately the account book for "All the Year Round" has not survived. However, Ella Ann Oppenlander has attempted to provide something comparable in a 1984 book not easily procured, "Dickens' All the Year Round: Descriptive Index and Contributor List".
Noted anonymous articles include:
* 1861 - "The Morrill Tariff", 28 December 1861 (cited in the Morrill Tariff article)
* 1871 - [http://web.archive.org/web/20030502002003/http://gaslight.mtroyal.ab.ca/gaslight/vmpghoul.htm "Vampyres and Ghouls"] (aka "Vampires and Ghouls"), 20 May 1871, pp. 597-600 (later collected in: Gilbert, William (2005). "The Last Lords of Gardonal". Dead Letter Press)
; Sources consulted
* Cite web
author = Allingham, Philip V.
date = 2004-11-30 update
title = "All the Year Round"
work = The Victorian Web
url = http://www.victorianweb.org/periodicals/ayr.html
archiveurl = http://web.archive.org/web/20070206223130/http://www.victorianweb.org/periodicals/ayr.html
archivedate = 2007-02-06
title = "Household Words"
url = http://www.victorianweb.org/periodicals/hw.html
archiveurl = http://web.archive.org/web/20051127163340/http://www.victorianweb.org/periodicals/hw.html
author = CHEAL
date = 1907-1921
title = "Dickens. Bibliography." in "Vol. 13. The Victorian Age, Part One."
work = The Cambridge History of English and American Literature at Bartleby.com
url = http://www.bartleby.com/223/1000.html
archiveurl = http://web.archive.org/web/20060113100221/http://www.bartleby.com/223/1000.html
author = Dickens, Charles
title = "Contributions to "All The Year Round" by Charles Dickens"
work = WorldWideSchool.org/library
url = http://www.worldwideschool.org/library/books/lit/charlesdickens/AllTheYearRound/toc.html
archiveurl = http://web.archive.org/web/20040301162750/http://www.worldwideschool.org/library/books/lit/charlesdickens/AllTheYearRound/toc.html
author = Forster, John
title = "The Life of Charles Dickens"
work = Lang.Nagoya-U.ac.jp/~matsuoka
url = http://www.lang.nagoya-u.ac.jp/~matsuoka/CD-Forster.html
author = LOC, U.S.
date = 2007 online
title = "Full Record" tab on "Basic Search" for LCCN: "sf 96091284"
work = Library of Congress Online Catalogs
url = http://catalog.loc.gov/
author = Overell, Richard
title = "27. All the year round : a weekly journal. (London : Chapman & Hall, 1859-1895)"
work = Catalog to: An Exhibition of material from the Monash University Library Collection
url = http://www.lib.monash.edu.au/exhibitions/magazines/xmagazinescat.html
archiveurl = http://web.archive.org/web/20061218225202/http://www.lib.monash.edu.au/exhibitions/magazines/xmagazinescat.html
; Endnotes
* Cite book
author = Oppenlander, Ella Ann (compiler)
origyear = 1978 thesis
year = 1984 book
title = Dickens' All the Year Round: Descriptive Index and Contributor List
location = Troy, NY
publisher = Whitston Publishing Company
id = ISBN 0-87875-252-8
; Facsimiles of "All the Year Round" pages
* [http://www.victorianweb.org/periodicals/ayr1.html Opening page of the first issue] , launching Dickens's novel "A Tale of Two Cities"
* [http://www.victorianweb.org/periodicals/ayr2.html Contents page for the 1859 annual]
* [http://www.victorianweb.org/periodicals/ayr3.html Opening page of the Christmas 1859 extra issue] , with Dickens's short story "The Haunted House"
704 Hauser
Egale Canada
All the Year Round — Couverture de la troisième série, janvier 1891 Auteur Charles Dickens ( Boz ) … Wikipédia en Français
all the year round — all year, every day of the year … English contemporary dictionary
year-round — • year round • year around adj Usable, effective, or operating all the year. Colorado is a year round resort; there is fishing in the summer and skiing in the winter … Словарь американских идиом
All the whole — All All, a. [OE. al, pl. alle, AS. eal, pl. ealle, Northumbrian alle, akin to D. & OHG. al, Ger. all, Icel. allr. Dan. al, Sw. all, Goth. alls; and perh. to Ir. and Gael. uile, W. oll.] 1. The whole quantity, extent, duration, amount, quality, or … The Collaborative International Dictionary of English
year-round — or[year around] {adj.} Usable, effective, or operating all the year. * /Colorado is a year round resort; there is fishing in the summer and skiing in the winter./ … Dictionary of American idioms
Year-round school — Year round schools are educational institutions based on a schedule that has school throughout most of the calendar year, as opposed to having no school in summer. A motivation is that higher student throughput is accomplished via more effective… … Wikipedia
all year round — {adv. phr.} Always; all the time; throughout all seasons of the year. * /In California the sun shines all year round./ … Dictionary of American idioms
all year round — (all) year round during the whole year. The farm is open to the public year round on weekends. In the Southwest, it s a lot easier to get outside all year round … New idioms dictionary
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A 12-year relationship that comprehensively transformed both an affluent Episcopal Church and a Dallas neighborhood located in a high-crime area which residents called "a war zone" and was known locally as "the DMZ" is featured in a new documentary, Jubilee.
The poignant documentary, Jubilee, depicting the changes in a 62-block area "that had been forgotten by the city of Dallas," will debut at 7 pm on Wednesday, April 28 at a special conference, Called to Serve: The Episcopal Church Responds to Domestic Poverty, focusing on the Church"s response to the pervasive issue of domestic poverty.
Produced by the Office of Communication of The Episcopal Church, Jubilee chronicles the transformational work at Jubilee Park in East Dallas, through the Jubilee Park and Community Center which now provides an array of educational and social services to Dallas residents living below the poverty level. It also highlights the transformational effect on its sponsoring parish, St. Michael and All Angels.
"Jubilee tells the story of people changed, in both the neighborhood and the church," explained Mike Collins, director of digital media for The Episcopal Church. "Jubilee shows The Episcopal Church in action, in service, and in response to those in need. We are proud to be able to present this documentary and hope it becomes a guideline for others in their mission work and ministry. Jubilee is the first in a series of documentaries heralding the work of Jubilee Park and Community Center." Collins added Jubilee will be available on the Episcopal Church website following the conference.
In Jubilee, church members and community residents alike talk about the difference Jubilee Park and Community Center has made in their lives and in their spirituality, calling it "missionary work in our own back yard."
With as much laughter as tears, the people of Jubilee Park tell their own very personal stories as a church member, service provider, teacher, architect, board member, services recipient, neighborhood resident, or child sharing their aspects of rebirth, rejuvenation, and "how transformation is possible."
The relationship started 12 years ago when St. Michael and All Angels Episcopal Church was celebrating an anniversary and, "rather than another statue," the church decided to mark the milestone on a different course, explains the Rev. Dr. Robert Dannals, rector.
St. Michael and All Angels, with 7200 members and one of the largest congregations in The Episcopal Church, wanted to focus on a community in Dallas that also centered on children"s needs.
A dozen years later, among the results, thanks to Jubilee Park and Community Center, are an early childhood education center with 171 students called Davids" Place, a farmers market, a secure environment, personal enrichment programs such as an exercise program, and much more.
The biggest and most compelling result, however, is that a neighborhood has developed and grown in an otherwise neglected, forgotten area.
Called to Serve Conference
The three-day conference Called to Serve: The Episcopal Church Responds to Domestic Poverty will provide an in-depth exploration of the nature of domestic poverty and the Church"s role in addressing this ubiquitous national issue on Wednesday to Friday, April 28 to 30 at the Robert Treat Hotel in Newark, NJ.
Episcopal Church Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori will lead the conference as the keynote presenter on Wednesday, April 28 discussing "Called to Serve How Can We Respond To Domestic Poverty." Chuck Fluharty, founder of the Rural Policy Research Institute, will speak about Poverty Alleviation & Rural/Urban Partnerships on Thursday in his address "Poverty, Place, and Public Policy: Rethinking the Rural/Urban Dialectic." "A Life of Being, Having, and Doing Enough" will be presented by nationally known author, therapist, and minister Wayne Muller.
Other speakers include Kristen Lewis presenting "The American Human Development Project Report, The Measure of America." Also, a culturally diverse panel discussion will examine the affects of poverty on identity.
Schedule and info
For complete schedule and registration information: http://www.episcopalchurch.org/109342_113991_ENG_HTM.htm
For more info contact the Rev. Christopher A. Johnson, Jubilee Officer for The Episcopal Church, cjohnson@episcopalchurch.org.
Called to Serve: The Episcopal Church Responds to Domestic Poverty is supported by Jubilee Ministries, Episcopal Community Services in America, and National Episcopal Health Ministries.
Domestic poverty was named a major focus of the Church"s ministry and mission at last summer"s General Convention of The Episcopal Church.
Called to Serve: The Episcopal Church Responds to Domestic Poverty: http://www.episcopalchurch.org/109342_113991_ENG_HTM.htm
St. Michael and All Angels, Dallas, TX: http://www.saintmichael.org/
The Episcopal Church Jubilee Ministries http://www.episcopalchurch.org/jubilee.htm
Episcopal Community Services in America http://www.ecsamerica.org/
National Episcopal Health Ministries http://www.episcopalhealthministries.org/
Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori http://www.episcopalchurch.org/presiding-bishop.htm
Episcopal Diocese of Newark http://www.dioceseofnewark.org/
Trinity and St. Philip"s Cathedral http://trinitystphilipscathedral.dioceseofnewark.org/
IamEpiscopalian: http://www.iamepiscopalian.org/
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Photo by Simon Emmett
Watch “Take You Home” by Dido
Mandy Rogers May 7, 2019
I’m taking a break from rolling out some Eurovision coverage on EQ through this week to bring you a beautiful new video which has just been released by Dido. To be honest, I can’t think of a more stunning ESC interval act than the iconic vocalist. Even if for the purposes of this review she is an elected, fantasy guest. The singers critically acclaimed fifth studio album “Still On My Mind” was released in March of this year, and she is currently touring the European and UK leg of the “Still On My Mind” tour which culminates in a two stint at London’s, Roundhouse on the 30th and 31st May, respectively. Yet at the height of this busy schedule, we are being treated to another simply stunning music video, this time for the relatively upbeat offering “Take You Home.”
For the “Still On My Mind” album Dido has put out, quite a lot of acoustic visuals. And additionally, one rather fabulous video for the track “Give You Up” directed by the vastly talented Sophie Muller. A music artist of her stature pretty much has the top pick of filmmakers lining up to work with her, none more so than highly prized, and revered fashion photographer and director Rankin. He has taken the helm of the “Take You Home” music video and of course, has produced an artful masterpiece, film short to enchant our visual senses.
The treatment is a just return for what I consider to be the standout track on this album. Aside from Dido’s gorgeous, captivating voice, the soft electronics which gently guide the melody along, have a great deal of relevance on my opinion about this song. Equally and instinctively this the familiar and refreshing sound of Dido. These are the fruits of a skilled songwriter and singer crafting stories about intimacy on the highest level. Are we not the lucky ones that she’s taken us on this new journey with her.
Connect with Dido
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/dido
Twitter: @didoofficial
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dido/
Watch “Friends” by Dido
Mandy Rogers July 23, 2019
Watch “Give You Up” by Dido
Mandy Rogers February 20, 2019
Mandy Rogers
New Music Editor
Mandy has been a massive part of EQ Music ever since it's inception and has been featured in Music Week more than a few times. Mandy is our Music Editor and regularly discovers new artists and talent to be featured on EQ Music. When she's not being a mum, you can usually find Mandy online socializing with emerging musicians and other pop music lovers alike.
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Select Language (en)
eso1841 — Organisation Release
ESO to Host Cherenkov Telescope Array-South at Paranal
ESO enters partnership with the world’s largest gamma-ray observatory
ESO’s Director General and the Managing Director of the Cherenkov Telescope Array (CTA) Observatory have signed the agreement needed for CTA’s southern hemisphere array to be hosted near ESO’s Paranal Observatory in Chile. In addition, the Chilean Government and ESO have signed the agreement enabling ESO to host this new telescope within ESO’s Paranal Observatory site. This will allow the world's most ambitious gamma-ray observatory to access not only Chile’s pristine observing conditions, but also ESO’s state-of-the-art infrastructure, expertise, and facilities. ESO will operate the facility on behalf of the CTA Observatory and its Members.
The Cherenkov Telescope Array (CTA) is the next-generation ground-based instrument designed to detect very high energy gamma rays, with sites in both the southern and northern hemispheres. Gamma rays are electromagnetic radiation of very high energy, emitted by the hottest and most extreme objects in the Universe — supermassive black holes, supernovae and maybe even remnants of the Big Bang.
On 19 December 2018, Federico Ferrini, Managing Director of the Cherenkov Telescope Array Observatory (CTAO), met with ESO’s Director General, Xavier Barcons, at the ESO offices in Santiago, Chile. Together with ESO’s Director for Operations, Andreas Kaufer, and other ESO members of personnel, they signed the agreement for the construction and operation of CTA’s southern array within ESO’s Paranal site in northern Chile.
Deputy Minister of Foreign Relations of Chile Carolina Valdivia Torres and ESO’s Director General also signed the agreement that enables ESO to host CTA-South at the Paranal Observatory site, as an ESO Programme.
A third agreement was already signed on 17 December 2018 between the Chilean National Commission for Science and Technology (CONICYT) and CTAO. This cooperation agreement aims at fostering astronomical research in Chile, capitalising on the opening of a new observational window as enabled by CTA-South.
With these three agreements in place, the CTAO will be able to begin construction on the southern site. The Instituto de Astrofisica de Canarias will host CTA’s northern hemisphere array at the Observatorio del Roque de los Muchachos on the island of La Palma, Spain. Construction of both the northern and southern arrays is expected to begin in 2020.
“Operating CTA at Paranal will open a new window on the Universe for astronomers in the ESO Member States, Chile, and worldwide,” commented ESO’s Director General, Xavier Barcons. “ESO’s rich experience of maintaining and operating fleets of telescopes in remote areas will be invaluable for the CTA project.”
The southern site of CTA is only 11 kilometres southeast of the location of the Very Large Telescope at ESO's Paranal Observatory in the Atacama Desert, and only 16 kilometres from the construction site of the upcoming Extremely Large Telescope. This is one of the driest and most isolated regions on Earth — an astronomical paradise. In addition to the ideal conditions for year-round observation, installing CTA at the Paranal Observatory provides it with the advantages of ESO’s infrastructure. The existing infrastructures and facilities, and ESO’s long-lasting experience spearheading international astronomical projects in Chile, will all support the construction and operation of the new telescope array.
"Thanks to the agreements signed today, the CTAO will not only benefit from Chile's spectacular night sky but also from ESO's facilities and deep experience, which will be an invaluable contribution to the realisation of this ambitious system of telescopes,” said Federico Ferrini. “The partnership between ESO and the CTAO will serve as the cornerstone in the fast-growing era of multi-messenger astrophysics, providing an opportunity for further collaboration with other large infrastructures, such as the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA), the Square Kilometre Array (SKA) and state-of-the-art gravitational-wave interferometers."
Current Cherenkov telescope arrays, sensitive to very high-energy gamma rays, consist of only a handful of individual telescopes, but CTA — with its larger collecting area and excellent angular resolution — will be the largest and most sensitive array of gamma-ray telescopes in the world. It will detect gamma rays with unprecedented accuracy and will be 10 times as sensitive as any of its predecessors.
Although the Earth’s atmosphere prevents gamma rays from reaching the surface, CTA’s mirrors and high-speed cameras will capture the short-lived flashes of the eerie blue Cherenkov radiation produced when gamma rays interact with Earth’s atmosphere. By detecting this Cherenkov light, scientists will be able to trace the gamma ray back to its cosmic source.
The scientific scope of CTA is extremely broad: from understanding the role of relativistic cosmic particles to the search for dark matter. CTA will explore the extreme Universe, probing environments from the immediate neighbourhood of black holes to the cosmic voids on the largest scales. It may even lead to brand new physics as it studies the nature of matter and forces beyond the standard model.
CTA will operate across two sites, one in each hemisphere, allowing it to maximise its coverage of the night sky. When construction is complete, the CTAO will comprise 19 telescopes in the northern hemisphere — located at the Observatorio del Roque de los Muchachos on the island of La Palma in the Canary Islands — and 99 telescopes in the southern hemisphere.
More than 1400 scientists and engineers from countries across five continents are engaged in the scientific and technical development of CTA. The shareholders of the current legal entity — CTAO gGmbH — are the representatives of ministries and funding agencies from Australia, Austria, the Czech Republic, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Japan, Slovenia, South Africa, Spain, Switzerland and the United Kingdom [1]. They are currently preparing for the establishment of a European Research Infrastructure Consortium — the CTAO ERIC — which will then construct the immense observatory. The ERIC will be composed of CTAO's Member States and associated countries.
[1] The Netherlands and South Africa are participating in the CTAO gGmbH as observers.
CTA is a global initiative to build the world’s largest and most sensitive high energy gamma-ray observatory. More than 1400 scientists and engineers from countries across five continents (Armenia, Australia, Austria, Bulgaria, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, India, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Namibia, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Slovenia, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Thailand, the United Kingdom, the United States of America and Ukraine) and more than 200 research institutes are participating in the CTA project. CTA will be the foremost global observatory for very high energy gamma-ray astronomy in the next decade and beyond, as well as the first ground-based gamma-ray astronomy observatory open to the astronomical and particle physics communities worldwide.
ESO is the foremost intergovernmental astronomy organisation in Europe and the world’s most productive ground-based astronomical observatory by far. It has 16 Member States: Austria, Belgium, the Czech Republic, Denmark, France, Finland, Germany, Ireland, Italy, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and the United Kingdom, along with the host state of Chile and with Australia as a Strategic Partner. ESO carries out an ambitious programme focused on the design, construction and operation of powerful ground-based observing facilities enabling astronomers to make important scientific discoveries. ESO also plays a leading role in promoting and organising cooperation in astronomical research. ESO operates three unique world-class observing sites in Chile: La Silla, Paranal and Chajnantor. At Paranal, ESO operates the Very Large Telescope and its world-leading Very Large Telescope Interferometer as well as two survey telescopes, VISTA working in the infrared and the visible-light VLT Survey Telescope. ESO is also a major partner in two facilities on Chajnantor, APEX and ALMA, the largest astronomical project in existence. And on Cerro Armazones, close to Paranal, ESO is building the 39-metre Extremely Large Telescope, the ELT, which will become “the world’s biggest eye on the sky”.
The Cherenkov Telescope Array website
ESO’s CTA page
Current CTA shareholders
Megan Grunewald
Outreach and Communications Officer / CTAO gGmbH
Email: mgrunewald@cta-observatory.org
Calum Turner
Email: pio@eso.org
Mariya Lyubenova
ESO Outreach Astronomer
Email: mlyubeno@eso.org
Name: Cherenkov Telescope Array
Type: Unspecified : Technology : Observatory : Facility
Facility: Cherenkov Telescope Array
CTA Telescopes in Southern Hemisphere
Signature ceremony with CTA for for the construction and operation of CTA-South
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Signature ceremony with the Chilean Ministry of Foreign Relations
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Map of the CTA's location and layout
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Panoramic view of CTA Observatory Site
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Proposed CTA Telescopes
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Stone piles mark telescope layout on site
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Medium-Sized Telescope of the Cherenkov Telescope Array
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CTA Array at Night with Air Showers
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Cherenkov Telescope Array rendering
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CTA sites map
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Map of CTA's Location at Paranal
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Location of the Cherenkov Telescope Array
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Barracks at CTA site
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Stone pile markers
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Place markers
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Plotting the layout
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The VLT's future neighbour
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CTA: The Two Towers
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Keeping an eye on the weather
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Marking territory
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Comparing sizes
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Cerro Paranal and Cerro Armazones in Chile
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Cherenkov light
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CTA panorama
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CTA's future home
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Desert but not deserted
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Site characterisation instrumentation
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Studying the environment
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Watching Earth and sky
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Tracks in the sand
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Out in the desert
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Deep in the Atacama
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Future observatory
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Dust and rocks
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Sharing the sky
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The stunning colours of night
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CTA and its neighbours
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Map showing CTA's Location at Paranal
ESOcast 189 Light: World’s Largest Array of Gamma-Ray Telescope comes to Paranal
The Cherenkov Telescope Array (CTA) Southern Site
PR Video eso1841c
Cherenkov Telescope Array-South in operation (artist's impression)
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Role is to inform civil society of the progress made in the implementation of the Agreement and of their contribution to its implementation.
Composition: consists of representatives of Ukrainian civil society, on one part, and members of the European economic and social Committee, on the second part.
Chairmanship is carried out alternately by a representative of the civil society on the Ukrainian part and by a representative of the European economic and social Committee.
Created: the first meeting was held on April 16, 2015.
Venue: meetings are held alternately twice a year in Ukraine and in the EU (EESC headquarters in Brussels).
Website: Ukrainian part of the EU–Ukraine Civil Society Platform; EU-Russia Civil Society Platform
What does the Civil Society Platform do?
The Civil Society Platform (CSP) is a joint Advisory body of civil society of Ukraine and the EU. The CSP is responsible for representing and informing the signatories of the Association Agreement and the joint bodies established under the Agreement on the joint position and interests of the organizations represented in the CSP on all matters covered by the agreement.
The CSP as an Advisory body provides advice in response to the request of the Association Council and the Association Committee. The CSP can also provide recommendations on its own initiative.
The CSP should be informed about the decisions and recommendations of the Association Council.
The Association Committee and the Parliamentary Committee of the Association should maintain regular contacts with representatives of the Civil Society Platform in order to obtain their views on the achievement of the objectives of the Agreement.
The Government Office for the Coordination of European and Euro-Atlantic Integration in accordance with sub-paragraph 15, paragraph 4 of the Regulation on the Government Office, approved by the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine dated October 4, 2017 No.59, ensures interaction of members of the bilateral bodies of the Association with the Ukrainian Side and organizes quarterly meetings with the participation of the Deputy Prime Minister for European and Euro-Atlantic integration of Ukraine, with representatives of the Ukrainian part of the EU-Ukraine Civil Society Platform.
On March 24, 2016, the first meeting of the Deputy Ministers for European integration with representatives of the Ukrainian part of the Civil Society Platform was held in the building of the Cabinet of Ministers.
Each of the parties of the Civil Society Platform is composed of 15 people representing three sectors: trade unions, employers and other civil society organizations.
In accordance with the Regulations of the Ukrainian part (UP) of the Civil Society Platform, it consists of 6 coordinators of working groups (corresponding to the structure of the Association Agreement), who are elected by the Assembly, 3 representatives of public associations, 3 representatives of trade unions at the national level, 3 representatives of the employers' organization at the national level. The chairmanship in the UP CSP is carried out on a rotational basis.
The EU part consists of 15 members, which include 9 members of the European Economic and Social Committee (EESC), as well as 6 representatives of the leading European organizations representing civil society as permanent observers.
The membership of the CSP and permanent observers is renewed every 2.5 years, which coincides with the renewal of the term of office of the EESC members.
How does the Civil Society Platform work?
Each of the parties to the Platform is led by co-chairs who prepare, coordinate and organize the work of the CSP, both during the meetings of the two parties and during the work between the meetings. The co-chairs shall co-chair the meetings.
On the Ukrainian part, the rotation of the co-chairs is carried out every 10 months for the consistent representation of each of the 3 sectors during the term of the Platform.
The parties to the EESC and Ukraine agree on matters that need coverage, either on their own initiative or in response to the request of other joint bodies established in accordance with the Association Agreement.
The co-chairs, after consultations with members, shall take decisions on the issues to be covered during the next meeting, in accordance with the jointly agreed priorities.
The draft agendas of the meetings are drawn up by the co-chairs taking into account the proposals of the members and permanent observers of the CSP. Agenda items are the topics of reports submitted by each party. Each party shall entrust the preparation of reports to either the Rapporteur or the working group. In the latter case, the working group shall appoint a Rapporteur to provide information during the meetings.
A quorum shall be deemed to be available if there are at least 8 members and permanent observers from each party, provided that there is at least one member from each of the sectors on each side.
The CSP shall take decisions by reaching consensus among the members of each party from among the members and permanent observers present at the meeting. The decision should reflect in a balanced manner the positions of all sectors of civil society, in particular employers, trade unions and other civil society organizations. Should there be no consensus and if both parties agree, the co-chairs may propose to refer the points of disagreement to the Council of the Association.
Working groups:
6 permanent working groups operate under the UP CSP:
WG 1 “Political dialogue, foreign policy and security policy”;
WG 2 “Freedom, justice, human rights”;
WG 3 “Economic cooperation, free trade area, cross-border cooperation”;
WG 4 “Employment, social policy, equal opportunities and health”;
WG 5 “Energy, transport, environment and climate change”;
WP 6 “Science and technology, information society, education, training and youth, culture and sport”.
The work of the working groups is focused on promoting the effective participation of civil society in the implementation and monitoring of the implementation of the Association Agreement on issues within the competence of the relevant group.
Since the establishment of the EU–Ukraine Civil Society Platform, seven meetings have been held. The founding meeting of the CSP as a bilateral body was held on April 16, 2015 in Kyiv. At the same time, the CSP Regulations were approved.
The second meeting was held on 11 February 2016 (Brussels);
Third meeting – 8-9 November 2016 (Kyiv);
Fourth meeting – 18 may 2017 (Brussels);
Fifth meeting – 15 November 2017 (Kiev);
Sixth meeting – 12 April 2018 (Brussels);
Seventh meeting – April 3, 2019 (Lviv).
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Heiko Maas
Thomas Imo / /photothek.net
Heiko Maas, Federal Minister for Foreign Affairs
The text was authored by German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas. All views highlighted in this article are the personal views of the authors and do not necessarily reflect those of Euractiv.hr.
Articles is taken after published on web site of German Federal Foreign Office. Initialy it was published in Der Spiegel.
Heiko Maas, On securitiy in Europe
The President of the United States withdraws his troops from north-east Syria without consulting his closest partners. Turkey intervenes, paying no heed to warnings from Europe and the USA. The President of France declares NATO brain-dead. All this within just a few days, as if world history is unfolding in fast motion. This raises fundamental questions – as regards the reliability of our partners, the strength of our alliances, the security of our country and the right way forward into the future.
Thirty years after the fall of the Berlin Wall we have still not experienced the end of history; the future seems more open-ended, less predictable, less secure than ever. Washington has long since viewed East-West relations as one issue of international politics and no longer as the issue, regardless of who controls the White House. That is how things are in the world. It is thus right that Germany has taken to discussing foreign policy these days.
What is at issue now? It can no longer be taken for granted that we in Germany live in peace and security. It has been said repeatedly over the past years that Germany must assume greater responsibility for peace and security in the world. At this historic moment we see that this duty is overshadowed by a second, even more urgent mission: we must assume responsibility if we wish to preserve our own security in Europe and in Germany at all.
Therefore, centre stage must be given to the political question of what international framework we need to establish in order to safeguard peace and security for Europe and for our country, now and in the future. Three points are crucial:
First, President Macron was right to put a strong and sovereign Europe at the heart of his considerations. In the future, we Europeans will have to assume far greater responsibility for our security. We are therefore working at full speed with France on a Europe that cooperates far more closely on security policy. The Treaty of Aachen, the ever closer cooperation on capacity development, the European Intervention Initiative, and the strengthening of civilian crisis management are milestones. A lot of tedious policy work lies ahead of us, especially during the forthcoming EU Council Presidency.
Second, we have to agree with our French friends on the way to best achieve the goal of a strong and sovereign Europe. In Germany’s opinion, it would clearly be a mistake to undermine NATO. Without the United States, neither Germany nor Europe are in a position to protect themselves effectively. That was recently illustrated very clearly by the Russian violation of the INF Treaty. It would be irresponsible to pursue a foreign and security policy without Washington, and dangerous to decouple European security from American security. We will need NATO for many years to come. It represents burden sharing, it stands for international cooperation and multilateralism. And when Europe is one day able to defend its own security, we should still want NATO. We do want a strong and sovereign Europe. But we need it as part of a strong NATO, and not as a substitute.
Third, we must not divide the Europeans on security matters. Germany will not tolerate any special arrangements, not vis-à-vis Moscow and not on any other matters. Our neighbours in Poland and the Baltic can trust us to take their security needs as seriously as we take our own. The Europe that we need cannot successfully take shape if they are not consulted. On the contrary, our eastern neighbours would then seek to ensure their future by enhancing their bilateral relations with Washington. So yes, a strong and sovereign Europe is a project that Germany and France are committed to. However, it is a project on which nobody may be left behind.
In these dramatic times, we have to steer a firm course towards a strong Europe – not to supersede the transatlantic alliance, but as a motor to revitalise it. Not just as a Franco-German project, but as a community project involving all the Europeans. Only in this manner will there genuinely be security for Europe. As a country at the centre of Europe, Germany must play a central, mediatory and balanced role – within Europe and vis-à-vis the United States. If we do not assume this leadership role, nobody will. Serving as a voice of reason here is our prime responsibility in the field of foreign and security policy today.
We are taking concrete steps in this direction – in the Ukraine crisis, for example, and by supporting the constitutional process in Syria; likewise on the Iranian nuclear programme, with a view to stabilising the violence-plagued Sahel, and in the negotiations on a ceasefire in Libya. One idea that I am working on with my French counterpart, and which I believe has a key place in the German EU Council Presidency, is representative of this course: it’s the idea of a European Security Council. This is not a project to be completed tomorrow, but is a beacon on the horizon. We need such a council to serve as the one venue where Europeans’ foreign and security policy actions are pooled, within the EU’s institutional framework and beyond it. The UK must be involved, even if it leaves the EU. And Washington must be a key partner. This is the venue in which we can create the nucleus of the future European foreign and security policy that we will need in turbulent times.
France and Germany show unity amid storm
Berlin seeks greater EU role for Poland, Italy and Spain
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All-cause and cardiovascular mortality among diabetic participants in the San Antonio Heart Study: evidence against the "Hispanic Paradox"
Hunt, K.J.; Williams, K.; Resendez, R.G.; Hazuda, H.P.; Haffner, S.M.; Stern, M.P.
Diabetes Care 25(9): 1557-1563
The observation that Hispanics have lower all-cause and cardiovascular mortality, despite increased diabetes and obesity, lower socioeconomic status (SES), and barriers to health care, has been termed the "Hispanic Paradox." We examined the relationship between ethnicity and all-cause and cardiovascular mortality in Mexican Americans (MAs) and non-Hispanic whites (NHWs) with diabetes. In the San Antonio Heart Study, a prospective cohort, we compared the mortality in 554 U.S.-born MAs, 95 Mexico-born MAs, and 178 NHW participants with diabetes aged 25-72 years. Over an average of 10.4 years, 188 deaths occurred: 115 from cardiovascular disease (CVD) [death certificate ICD-9 codes 401-414 or 420-447 (excluding 427.5)]. Because of potential differences between migrants and nonmigrants, hazard ratios (HRs) were calculated comparing U.S.-born MAs and Mexico-born MAs with NHWs. The age- and sex-adjusted HR for all-cause mortality comparing U.S.-born MAs with NHWs was 1.66 (95% CI 1.15-2.40), while comparing Mexico-born MAs with NHWs was 1.14 (95% CI 0.63-2.06). Cardiovascular mortality HRs were 1.66 (95% CI 1.04-2.65) and 0.89 (95% CI 0.40-2.01), respectively. After adjusting for possible confounders, such as fasting glucose and diabetes duration, the hazard of all-cause and cardiovascular mortality (although not statistically significant) appeared higher in U.S.-born MAs than in the other two groups. We found it important to differentiate MAs by birthplace. Among diabetic participants, contrary to the prediction of the "Hispanic Paradox," compared with NHWs, U.S.-born MAs were at greater risk of all-cause and cardiovascular mortality, while Mexico-born MAs appeared to be at similar risk.
DOI: 10.2337/diacare.25.9.1557
All-cause and cardiovascular mortality among Mexican-American and non-Hispanic White older participants in the San Antonio Heart Study- evidence against the "Hispanic paradox". American Journal of Epidemiology 158(11): 1048-1057, 2003
Risk factors for cardiovascular mortality in Mexican Americans and non-Hispanic whites. San Antonio Heart Study. American Journal of Epidemiology 131(3): 423-433, 1990
Cardiovascular mortality in Hispanics compared to non-Hispanic whites: a systematic review and meta-analysis of the Hispanic paradox. European Journal of Internal Medicine 24(8): 791-799, 2014
The Hispanic paradox and predictors of mortality in an aging biethnic cohort of Mexican Americans and European Americans: the san antonio longitudinal study of aging. Journal of the American Geriatrics Society 61(9): 1522-1529, 2013
Effects of cigarette smoking, diabetes, high cholesterol, and hypertension on all-cause mortality and cardiovascular disease mortality in Mexican Americans. The San Antonio Heart Study. American Journal of Epidemiology 144(11): 1058-1065, 1996
The Hispanic paradox in cardiovascular disease and total mortality. Progress in Cardiovascular Diseases 57(3): 286-292, 2015
Migration status, socioeconomic status, and mortality rates in Mexican Americans and non-Hispanic whites: The San Antonio Heart Study. Annals of Epidemiology 6(4): 307-313, 1996
Effects of diabetes and level of glycemia on all-cause and cardiovascular mortality. The San Antonio Heart Study. Diabetes Care 21(7): 1167-1172, 1998
NCEP versus WHO metabolic syndrome in relation to all cause and cardiovascular mortality in the San Antonio Heart Study. Diabetes 52(Supplement 1): A221-A222, 2003
Improved Cardiovascular Risk among Hispanic Border Participants of the Mi Corazón Mi Comunidad Promotores De Salud Model: The HEART II Cohort Intervention Study 2009-2013. Frontiers in Public Health 3: 149, 2015
National Cholesterol Education Program versus World Health Organization metabolic syndrome in relation to all-cause and cardiovascular mortality in the San Antonio Heart Study. Circulation 110(10): 1251-1257, 2004
Mortality in participants and non-participants of a multifactorial prevention study of cardiovascular diseases: a 28 year follow up of the Helsinki Businessmen Study. British Heart Journal 74(4): 449-454, 1995
Regional differences in cardiovascular mortality in Kazakhstan: further evidence for the 'Russian mortality paradox'?. European Journal of Public Health 25(5): 890-894, 2016
Hispanic older adult mortality in the United States: new estimates and an assessment of factors shaping the Hispanic paradox. Demography 52(1): 1-14, 2015
Myocardial infarction in Mexican-Americans and non-Hispanic whites. The San Antonio Heart Study. Circulation 83(1): 45-51, 1991
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Home » Discussions » EGX First Impressions Part 2
EGX First Impressions Part 2
October 9, 2018 Ben RobinsonDiscussions, PinnedNo Comment
Another year and another EGX over. There were highs, there was shitty video game movies but most importantly there were games. LOTS of games. I apologise for the lateness in getting my impressions up. But better late than never they say right?
This year me and Dan (who also wrote his first impressions of the games we played) have both written our opinions about each game we played, even if we both played them. We (and I mean Dan) realised that everyone experiences a game differently so the only way to give you a fair impression is to include both of our opinions. Let us know in the comments below what you think of the games. Or tweet us @games_bulletin!
Fans of J-Stars Victory Plus will instantly love this game. It’s similar to J-Stars in the way that it plays, with some small changes. Holding R2 powers up the bar, rather than R1+X which is a small but nice change. The energy bar goes to 5 energy bars, compared to J-Stars’ 2. The game visually looks stunning, although I’m not sure why everyone looks like they’re covered in baby oil. The mode I played was a 3 character tag battle, however the team all shared one health. The bar didn’t restore when characters were swapped out, which makes the whole tag system somewhat redundant in my opinion.
Deserter
A simple to play game that follows the story of a soldier and a nurse who desert their military duties. The nurse is injured and it’s your job, playing as the soldier, to get the nurse to safety. The game plays nicely, with some light weight based puzzles along the way. The developer, Daisy Fernandez, promises that the story will shed light on a dark secret between the two characters. This one is early in development, so there’s more to come yet. See my interview with the game’s developer Daisy for more info!
My Hero Academia: One’s Justice
I finally started watching My Hero Academia the night before I played this game. Highly recommend the anime, and the game for fans My Hero Academia. The game is extremely easy to play, and works on a system that tasks you with building up a special meter to unleash Plus Ultra attacks. These attacks are easily done by pressing R1+Triangle, R1+O or R1+R2 for the ultimate Plus Ultra attack. The meters are built by attacking the enemy with light attacks (done by pressing Square). The meters builds faster if you’re hit by the enemy. Easy to play, with an impressive roster. One to grab for fans of the show, but one non-anime watching friends will enjoy as well.
Arcade Spirits
Arcade Spirits is a mix between a dating sim and a slice of life game. The game is set in the future, where arcades have returned and are people’s main way of spending their spare time. People flock to the arcades to spend all day attempting to beat the high score, or just hanging out with their friends. You play as someone who has just gotten a job at an arcade, and it follows your adventures while you work their. The game allows you to build relationships with each of the NPCs as you see fit. Has a decent sense of humour but from what I saw doesn’t bring anything new to the genre.
A rather surreal experience of a game. The premise of the game is that gamers can create their own worlds which are then shared online for others to play. The demo that I played consisted of 5 mini-games that were created by the developers in their spare time to show off the game’s potential. One of the levels consisted of playing as a cute red creature, who had it’s arms stretched out attempting to hug the other creatures on it’s small planet. Running towards the other creatures scared them away, and once the creatures were gone the level ended. Another level was simply a space dog-fight which, again, was over rather quickly. This game’s success is going to be very dependant on the community behind it. Very similar principle to Little Big Planet games, not sure if it will be more than a collection of short levels. Time will tell.
The demo we played for Super Mario Party was 5 mini-games that were played back to back. While I understand this was done to get as many people onto the demo as possible it would have been nice to actually see the board. The mini-games we played were all very fun and what I expected from a Mario Party game. Cooking a steak as quick as possible, racing tricycles. Games that are silly and are intended to get the group laughing. The games make good use of the Switch’s Joy-Con controllers. If you enjoyed previous Mario Party games then you’ll be happy with Super Mario Party.
I always thought that Labo was just another Nintendo gimmick. For those that don’t know, Labo involves creating different objects from cardboard and then using them to play games. It began in a very gimmicky fashion, with things such as a cardboard piano that can be used to play music. I hadn’t followed Labo since then, but it has evolved. There is now a robot kit that allows you to control an in-game robot that is rampaging a city. There is a vehicle kit with a car, plane and submarine. The 3 vehicles are easily interchangable, and I’m told they will have use in Switch games such as the steering wheel being used to control the kart in Mario Kart. Still a good game to play with the kids in the family, but I’m not sure if it’s for an adult audience.
Persona 3: Dancing In Moonlight
I didn’t know what to expect going in to Persona 3 (real name). It seemed like a typical Japanese style rhythm game, and I wasn’t wrong. The game controls by pressing buttons in time with on screen cues while Persona 3 characters dance to the song that is playing. Nothing different to any other rhythm game, mainly just one for fans of Persona 3.
Sonic Team Racing
Sonic Team Racing plays very much like Sonic Racing Transformed. There are however some minor differences. The game is a typical Mario Kart-esque racer; drive, drift, pick-up items, throw items. The differences come in how the items can be used. Items can be gifted to teammates for them to use and fill your team’s meter, and vice versa. This is done very easily on the fly, by simply hitting one button. Once the team’s meter is full you press a button and unleash your team’s ability. I played as (bat character), who’s ability was to get a nitro/mushroom boost for a fairly decent amount of time. Enough to catch up. Which is where my issue with the game comes into play. I finished 3rd. My teammates finished 7th and 8th. So as a team, we finished 5th. Your teammates can let you down by finishing in low places, meaning your sweaty driving as Shadow is all for nothing.
Orange Island
Orange Island is a exploration game in which players explore an island. The game is styled with that classic NES look, and even had a NES controller for the EGX demo. The game seemed fairly simple, and the demo itself didn’t contain any plot. The developer said he is adding the plot in soon, and already has it planned out. One for those of you who miss old school NES games.
Catastronauts
Catastronauts is a 4 player co-op game in which players have to keep their spaceship alive and defeat the enemy. Each level has it’s own obstacles, including things such as solar flares. Teamwork is essential is repairing the ship, as well as firing the weapons to defeat the enemy ship thus beating the level. A really fun game and one for those who didn’t enjoy the culinary setting of the Overcooked games.
I played the demo of this game last EGX (2017) and was very impressed oh what I heard from the devs regarding their plans for the game. Skip forward one year and it seems the studio delivered that which they promised. Lake Ridden is a puzzle game with challenging puzzles and a deep narrative. The game’s puzzles are that challenging that a notebook was provided at each station for note taking. A game for those of you who enjoy complex puzzles.
Beat Your Meat
4 player coach co-op in which players play as a pig. The goal is to be the biggest pig when the timer hits zero. The easiest way to do this is by hitting enemy pigs, who drop meat. You, or your enemies, can then collect the meat and thus increase your pig in size. Couple this with the game’s various puns (such as the Meatspin power-up) and this is one that you and your friends are sure to enjoy.
Billie Bust Up
A 2 player co-op game in which a goat (Billie) and a fox (Oscar) must journey through the world. The game is designed so that each character has their uses, such as Oscar digging a hole for Billie to be able to travel under a gate and into the next area. The game is still early in development, but is one to watch out for nonetheless.
Dodgebrawl
Dodgebrawl is a fast paced couch co-op for 2-4 players. The idea of the game is, well dodgeball. Throw the ball and hit your opponents, or catch the ball they throw at you. The catching is a very fine art and must be timed perfectly, something that will separate the vets from the new players. Get hit three times and you’re out! Some levels even include environmental obstacles that can cause you to lose a life. Very easy to pick up, and very very fun.
Stay tuned for the second half of my impressions tomorrow!
Ben Robinson
I've loved video games for as long as I can remember. Recently found a love for reporting video game news and decided to start Games Bulletin, and have been enjoying every step of the journey.
Arcade Spirits, Beat Your Meat, Billie Bust Up, Catastronauts, Deserter, Dodgebrawl, Dreams, Jump Force, Labo, Lake Ridden, My Hero Academia, Orange Osland, Persona 3, Sonic Team racing, Super Mario Party
« EGX First Impressions (Part 1)
EGX First Impressions Part 3 »
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575 2nd Avenue South
I’d Like to BUY
St. Petersburg 33701
I’d Like To SELL
Marketplace Statistics
Pinellas Tax Appraiser
Pinellas County Schools System
St. Petersburg Area Chamber of Commerce
St. Petersburg Utilities
Pinellas County Utilities
TECO Energy
Title Security
Steve McAuliffe, Broker/Partner
KC Jones, Broker-Salesperson
Ann Rogers, Broker-Associate
Cal Webster, Sales Associate
Dave Osborn, Realtor
James Newman, Realtor
Patrick Ritchey, Realtor
Sue Johnson, Sales Associate/Office Manager
Steve Anderson, Partner
Neighborly Downtown St Petersburg
Posted on March 12, 2018 by Steve McAuliffe
By Nick Stubbs, Tampa Bay Times: If you like what big cities have to offer but value quiet, friendly and neighborly communities, then the downtown area of St. Petersburg may have it all.
The city, founded in 1888, is famous for surprising people with its art culture, abundance of historic homes, brick streets, hexagon- paved sidewalks, decorative iron street lamps, and shady oaks. Many of the neighborhoods are a short walk from downtown and are on the U.S. National Register of Historic Places. They are easily identified by the word “historic” preceding their names. Their charm and character have wooed many.
A little farther from the downtown hub, but still in biking distance, are neighborhoods like Magnolia Heights and Snell Isle to the north, where many of the homes were built between the 1950s and 1970s. To the souththere’s Bartlett Park, Harbordale and Cromwell Heights, with a mix of mostly older homes. These outliers are nearly asaccessible to downtown, thanks to networks of sidewalks and biking trails. In all directions there are many small studios, larger apartments and condos for rent for those not ready to make the plunge into ownership.
All offer an eclectic city lifestyle without the drawbacks associated with big cities, said Chris Steinocher, president and CEO of the St. Petersburg Area Chamber of Commerce. It has all the amenities and cultural draws of a big city, but “it works because its scale is not intimidating.” “We are blessed,” he said, adding that St. Petersburg is the ‘largest little city on Earth.”
Steinocher lives in the historic Crescent Lake community just north of downtown. To the east is the Historic Old Northeast neighborhood, established in 1911; to the west is Euclid Place-St. Paul’s, a historic district nearly as old.
What’s great about these neighborhoods is that each has a local park or public green space, and everything downtown has to offer is within biking or walking distance. Steinocher said it’s the reason the area is drawing so many younger residents.
“It’s unlike anything you’ll find anywhere in Florida,” Steinocher said. “It’s a place where you can divorce your car; it’s pedestrian- safe and bike-friendly.”
Katie Shotts, chief operating officer of the Pinellas Realtor Organization, agrees. She bought a home in Shore Acres north of downtown. She can’t part with her car because she works in Clearwater, but gets to downtown St. Pete by the bike route through Snell Isle and merges onto Beach Drive heading south.
Shotts did a lot of research to whittle her dream community down to St. Pete. “I run, bike and swim and this area is extremely pedestrian friendly,” she said. “There’s always a lot of people out (walking or biking) and there is a lot of respect for pedestrians among drivers.”
But there is a lot more about living near downtown that helped close the deal, said Shotts. “It’s a strong community with people who really care about their neighborhoods—people who care about their quality of life,” she said. Socializing with fellow walkers and bikers brings people together, Shotts said, but in addition to all the people to see, there are places to go—plenty of them.
Steinocher notes that the city has six museums, hosts the largest Salvador Dali collection outside Europe and is home tothe Florida Orchestra and Mahaffey Theater. It also is home to the Tampa Bay Rays MLB team and the Tkmpa Bay Rowdies soccer team, and SunkenGardens. Artists are drawn to the “Burg” forits architecture, its “scene” and its scenery.Downtown buildings themselves are art canvases adorned with murals; there’s avibrant nightlife; and
the downtown region is overflowing with microbreweries, restaurants and shops. Some 1,000 events are held every year, drawing as many as 10 million visitors.
Many residents are former visitors who discovered the charm of the downtown area. Some of those areas include:
• Historic Roser Park is just south of downtown. Founded in 1911 by Charles Roser, inventor of the Fig Newton, upon entering the enclave one is transported to another world of rolling hills that emerge like magic from the surrounding flat topography.
• Old Southeast was officially established in the 1950s and has some 1,300 residents. It surrounds picturesque Lassing Park on Tampa Bay.
• Historic Kenwood is a 375acre neighborhood and an artists’ enclave with ornamental street lights and Craftsman bungalows dating from 1913. Many of them have been highlighted in the community’s annual Bungalow Fest.
• The Round Lake Historic District is six blocks west of Vinoy Park. With its 1,000 historic buildings, it was named a U.S. historical district in 2003.
Many other neighborhoods, newer and older, surround downtown. Buyers and renters can expect most single-family homes to date anywhere from around the turn of the century to the 1970s or ’80s. There are limited numbers of new homes and townhomes on the market at any given time, along with newer condos and apartments.
The bad news for buyers? Downtown-area residents are settled into their “forever homes” and availability can be a problem, said Brad Billings, a Realtor with Coldwell Banker Residential Real Estate in St. Pete. “The biggest problem is there just isn’t enough inventory,” he said. “Downtown is exciting and vibrant; those already here don’t want to leave, but buyers keep coming.”
Buyers need to be preapproved, know what they want and be able to pounce when they find it, said Billings. Be prepared for potentially protracted house hunting, he warned. One of his clients is renting while searching for a home, even though it could mean having to pay a penalty for breaking a rental lease when the right home comes along. Another client waited two days to think about a deal and lost out.
The market will likely soften for sellers going forward, and there are a couple of new townhome developments in the works, Billings adds. There also are opportunities to buy older homes that can be approved for demolition to build a new house. He advises working with a Realtor to ensure access to the newest listings, and discourages snoozing.
“Move quickly” when you find what you like, he said. Right now, “the days of thinking about it overnight are over” when it comes to the “hot” downtown St. Petersburg market.
via Tampa Bay Times’ correspondent Nick Stubbs
Posted in Buying A Home, Neighborhoods, St Petersburg Tagged Crescent Lake, Downtown St Petersburg, Historic Kenwood, Historic Roser Park, Nick Stubbs, Old Southeast, Round Lake Historic District, Shore Acres, St Petersburg Neighborhoods Leave a comment
Welcome to the Crescent Lake Neighborhood
Posted on October 2, 2014 October 28, 2014 by Steve McAuliffe
Crescent Lake lies at the center of this beautiful neighborhood, surrounded by a manicured 56-acre public park. East of the lake is the “Great Banyan Tree”, a living “jungle gym” for generations of our children. It is featured on the neighborhood logo. To the south is Huggins-Stengel Field, once Spring Training home for the New York Yankees and now serving the Tampa Bay Rays organization. Further south still is the neighborhood’s most visible landmark, a 1923 water tower, recently repainted as a giant salt water aquarium by local muralist, Tom Stovall.
East and west of the park, residential streets, some with brick paving and hex-block sidewalks, slumber beneath stately trees. Nearly every street has a view of the lake. Beyond the residential sections lie busy 4th and 9th (Dr. M. L. King) Streets North. New businesses along these streets are rapidly transforming our area into an antique shopper’s Mecca.
The Crescent Lake Neighborhood is located one mile north of St.Petersburg’s central business district and is a short drive from shopping, restaurants, medical facilities, waterfront parks and the interstate.
The architecture of Crescent Lake is an eclectic mix of early and mid-twentieth century styles. Early styles include Foursquare, Craftsman, Colonial Revival, Mediterranean Revival, Art Deco and Tudor. Eighth Street has a particularly fine collection of 1920s Tudor houses. Later styles include Minimal Traditional, Postwar and Ranch. Along the lake are some early Ranch-type houses dating from the late 1930s.
The buildings are diverse in form as well as style. The housing stock includes single-family homes, garage apartments and small multi-family structures. Businesses along 9th Street occupy large converted dwellings, helping this busy street retain the air of the grand residential boulevard that it once was.
A cypress dugout canoe dredged from Crescent Lake in 1924, provided evidence of a Native American presence in the neighborhood. The canoe, now in the Museum of History, is thought to date from about 1800.
In the 1870s and 1880s, settlers of European origin arrived and put the land to agricultural use, chiefly citrus groves. This way of life did not last long. With the completion of a streetcar line out 9th Street to 34th Avenue in 1914, the groves became valuable suburban property and subdividing began.
The opening of Crescent Lake Park in 1927, heightened the neighborhood’s appeal. The park was the brainchild of master developer Perry Snell, who acquired and held the necessary parcels until the city was able to buy them. Shortly after the park opened, the city built a ballfield for the New York Yankees at the south end, ensuring that national sports figures like Babe Ruth, Lou Gerhig and Joe DiMaggio would join a long list of local business and civic leaders who have been our neighbors.
The neighborhood acquired its final form just before World War II, when palm-lined drives went in alongside the lake. The building boom that gripped St. Petersburg and the nation immediately following that war quickly filled all remaining lots.
Because of its natural beauty, the neighborhood has remained popular. Renewed strength in the current decade, evidenced by the growth of the Crescent Lake Neighborhood Association and the adoption of the Crescent Lake Neighborhood Plan, has led to greater visibility for the neighborhood, higher property values, restoration of aging structures, and a higher standard of maintenance. The future looks bright.
Info via Crescent Lake Neighborhood Association
If you would like to learn more about the Crescent Lake neighborhood, please give us a call… we’d love to present it to your first hand. 727-895-6200
Posted in Neighborhoods, St Petersburg Tagged Crescent Lake, Crescent Lake Architecture, Great Banyan Tree, Native Americans, Perry Snell, St Petersburg Neighborhoods Leave a comment
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Tag Archives: UN
World War Z (2013)
June 25, 2013 by The Phage
Viruses. As The Phage, I’m pretty savvy on them. Those that know me outside of my alias will know this truth to permeate through my professional life too. So, any movie that deals with viruses and plagues best get its ducks in a row, because I’m going to be biologically clued up. As sad as it is, if something’s grossly wrong with the science, I won’t be sold on it. I know… such a geek. By a similar extension, The Phage is also a big fan of all things “zombie”. Ever since we clapped eyes on 28 Days Later we were sold on these creatures – these abominations. This is what’s led us to worship at the altar of The Walking Dead and glorify Max Brooks‘ incredible book, World War Z. So, when we heard about the big screen version happening… well, we were excited. Really excited. The book has such rich source material and is written in such a compelling manner that you can’t help but KNOW it’ll be a success, right? Right?
Well, it would be if the film followed the book in any which way. World War Z (the book) is an oral retelling of “the war” by a journalist travelling the world and talking to survivors about their experiences throughout the outbreak that would ultimately wipe out a huge chunk of humanity. It was gripping, it was vivid, and it was varied. It still stands as one of my favourite books, and I encourage anyone out there to go and read it. World War Z (the film) eschews all of these ideas and goes with something entirely more… formulaic. Here, the film follows Gerry (Brad Pitt), his wife Karin (Mireille Enos) and their kids as they try and escape New Jersey after the plague hits the US east coast. Gerry’s separated from his family as he’s brought back into the UN in order to try and track down the root cause of the disease and hopefully find a cure. None of this happens in the book. Not a word. But does this make it a bad film?
In a word… no. World War Z isn’t a bad film, far from it. It’s a big budget, globe-spanning zombie movie that will no doubt please many hoping for a different take on the genre. For instance, there’s remarkably little blood! For a zombie movie, that’s unheard of. It also features a lot of dialogue and piecing together what’s happened. It’s not all “run run run”, like so many others have been in the past. It’s entertaining. Having said that, it’s not without its flaws… mainly owing to the fact that it’d rather have a flurry of activity and try and overwhelm you with numbers than make you truly care about the protagonists or feel the personal intensity that it should do.
Obviously, the star of the show here is Brad Pitt. There’s no two ways about this, as he’s the only listed name on the posters. It’s “his” movie. How’s his performance? Well, it’s Pitt isn’t it? Of course its solid. It just feels as though his character is a tad underwhelming. I never felt any empathy with him and never really cared for his family’s plight. I just wanted him to do his job and identify the cause of the plague. I mean, I already know the cause from reading the book (clue: it doesn’t follow the book at all), but I was keen to see how the movie would deal with it.
I’m very tempted to launch into a tirade here about how it’s “not like the book”, but I’m going to try and resist. Normally, I don’t like those purists who bemoan adaptations, so I’m going to try and not be one of them. But let me look at this through another set of eyes: zombie eyes. When I think of apocalyptic modern zombie horror I think of either The Walking Dead or 28 Days Later / 28 Weeks Later. Both of those movies show desperation and plight. They also do fantastic jobs of bringing the undead to life – particularly The Walking Dead. But that was lost for me in World War Z. Firstly, the majority of the horde are CGI. This isn’t a great thing. I understand they wanted to emphasise the scale of the conflict, which would call for a ton of extras, but the CGI just didn’t look too good either. But then… when you do get real zombies acted by humans? They’re still not that impressive. The final scenes in particular are laughable. Can someone please tell me why the creative team behind World War Z decided to model the zombies on parrots? Why do they make that weird caw-ing noise? Why do they randomly make biting noises with their jaws? And why do they look at you from the side, like they’re birds? I want my zombies making noises like in 28 Days Later – deranged, maniacal, angry grunts. If you’re going to do speedy zombies, at least get the noise right.
Finally, I want to draw attention to the ending. The ending that was changed at the eleventh hour. As a virologist by training (damn, my secret’s out), a lot of what they were saying was utter nonsense. Complete. Nonsense. The biological leaps astounded me and appalled me. They could have hired me to do a better job. And the solution that’s reached for their problems in the film? Ouch… just pure stupidity. And also, nothing from the book too. At least they’ve left it all open for the sequel. The sequel that Paramount is now committed to making. Maybe they’ll up the gore quota? I just wish they’d gone with the original ending ideas (click here). How deliciously morbid does it sound? That’s how I like my zombie movie tone… dark.
So, maybe I am being a purist here. I can’t help it. I love the book and I love modern zombie movies when done well. World War Z isn’t a bad movie; it’s just struggling to be an effective zombie movie, which isn’t helped by the fact it’s ignored some splendid source material. I applaud the movie for skipping location a lot and trying to emphasise the scope of the problem, but it just felt rather hollow at its core. In the sequel, I hope they bring in some better prosthetics, a better overall plot and please… bring us some gore. Not excessive, but some of it. I want to fear these Zachs and Zeeks (zombies in the book)… it’s something I just didn’t have with the big screen version of my favourite book.
What do I hope will happen in the sequel? Honestly? I don’t know. They’ve already ignored what made the book so special: the format. I defy anyone to not think that the book is spectacularly novel in its take on zombies. It’s also chilling. Chilling to think that when the war’s over, they’re still there. Think the ocean’s safe? They walk along the sea bed. Think you can freeze them to death? Well, they’re coming back. It spreads. So although World War Z wasn’t as accurate as it could be, my eyes now gaze towards the upcoming adaptation of Stephen King’s Cell – another fantastic tale of zombies… surely that can’t deviate? Surely!?
Phage Factor:
Posted in Review. Tagged 28 Days Later, Brad Pitt, Cardiff, horror, Max Brooks, original ending, plague, The Walking Dead, UN, United Nations, virus, WHO, World Health Organisation, World War Z, zachs, zeeks, Zombies
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Dimafelis murder shocks OFWs in Kuwait
Agence France-Presse / 07:25 AM February 28, 2018
AMNESTY BID Filipino workers applying for amnesty wait outside the Philippine Embassy in Kuwait City. The handout photo was released last week by the Kuwait Times newspaper. —AFP
KUWAIT CITY — The murder of a Filipino maid whose body was found in a freezer in Kuwait has triggered outrage and prompted Manila to impose a departure ban for its citizens planning to work in the Gulf state.
But the estimated 252,000 Filipinos already working in Kuwait must weigh their fear of sharing the fate of Joanna Demafelis against the potential loss of vital income for their families.
Many have relatives back home who depend on remittances to survive, and some say they are forced to choose between their own well-being and that of their children.
Luzviminda has worked at a hair salon in Kuwait City since 2013 to support her five children, who live with her mother in the Philippines.
‘I need the money’
Despite being rattled by news of her compatriot’s murder, the 40-year-old told Agence France-Presse (AFP) that going home was not an option.
“I need the money,” Luzviminda said as she strolled through a park in the city.
“My eldest son started university this year to study business administration. It’s expensive, and there’s no way I would have been able to afford it if I had stayed in my country,” she said.
Demafelis’ body was discovered at an abandoned flat in Kuwait, bearing what officials said appeared to be signs of torture.
Her Lebanese employer, Nader Essam Assaf, and his Syrian wife, Mona, who are suspected of the murder, were arrested last week in the Syrian capital Damascus, after an Interpol manhunt.
The Philippines’ President Duterte responded to the murder by accusing Arab employers of raping and starving their Filipino maids, and announced a ban on the country’s citizens heading to Kuwait for work.
Mr. Duterte also launched a repatriation plan under which some 1,700 workers have already returned home, according to the Philippine government.
Kuwait, whose image was dealt a serious blow, offered an amnesty to illegal workers wanting to fly back home.
Unregulated migration
But Human Rights Watch has warned the new Philippine ban would likely trigger a wave of unregulated labor migration, exposing thousands to an even greater risk of abuse.
Valued for their fluency in English, more than 2 million Filipinos are employed across the Gulf.
While the murder rocked the Filipino community in Kuwait, many say they want to remain in the country.
“I was truly afraid—but actually because I want to stay here to make sure my children graduate from school,” said Luzviminda, who asked that her family name be withheld.
“But if the government asks me to leave, I will have no choice but to comply,” she added.
Like many others, her fate and that of her children now lie in the hands of diplomats, as the crisis between the two countries deepens.
Some plan to lobby the Philippines’ Overseas Workers Welfare Administration to lift Mr. Duterte’s ban, at least for skilled workers whose status in Kuwait is not tied to a single family under the “kafala” (sponsorship) system prevalent in the Middle East.
“There are a lot of opportunities for the Filipinos” in Kuwait, said Anna Bunda, who works with a recruitment agency.
“I hope that the government will hear us,” Bunda said.
Gulf countries have long drawn harsh criticism for their treatment of laborers and maids.
Lawyer Mohammed Al-Humaidi, director of the Kuwait Society for Human Rights, said his group regularly received calls for help from Filipino women with abusive employers.
“While we have a deal with a legal bureau [that] represents workers and maids in court, the unfortunate reality is that many calls for help do not even reach us,” he said.
The head of Kuwait’s parliamentary human rights committee, Adil Damkhi, said the judiciary did not discriminate when it came to crimes in Kuwait.
“There have been several horrific incidents on both sides, but crimes committed by Kuwaitis are more prominent in the media than crimes committed by the maids,” Damkhi said.
‘A heinous crime’
He called the Demafelis murder “a heinous crime.”
“The suspects have been arrested and will be tried, just as any Kuwaiti attacking workers will be punished,” he said.
And while rights groups have criticized Gulf countries for failing to protect migrants, 56-year-old Rose, a housekeeper in Kuwait since 1997, said the benefits outweighed the risks.
“I worked for five families, the last of which was an American family. They treat me well,” she told AFP. “I cook what I want, and I exercise every morning on my own — and I help my family back home to cope with the burdens of life.”
Bishop backs NBI probe of Demafelis recruiters
TAGS: abused OFWS, Joanna Demafelis, OFW abuses in Kuwait
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Gloucestershire Crime History
Historical bits and pieces about crime and punishment in Gloucestershire
Four condemned prisoners escape from Gloucester Gaol, 1765
May 15, 2019 / Jill Evans / 2 Comments
Gloucester Castle keep: the old county gaol. Based on an 1819 work, from W. Andrew, ‘Old English Towns’, published 1909. Via Wikimedia Commons.
The county Assizes, held at Gloucester in March 1765, were said to have had one of the fullest calendars ever known in the city. At the end of all the trials, nine prisoners had received sentence of death, but five of them were reprieved, leaving four unlucky men to be executed.
John Conroy, who had been a grenadier in the English Fusiliers, was condemned for committing highway robbery, having attacked a man named Morgan Thomas on the highway near Shirehampton, robbing him of his money and then stabbing him in the head several times with a clasp knife. Thomas survived the attack and was able to give a description of his assailant as being very tall and having an Irish accent. John Conroy was quickly identified as being the culprit.
Two more of the condemned men were from Ireland. William O’Brien, alias Howard, and James Wall, also known as Bryan Birchagra, were found guilty of stealing money and a pair of silver and stone buckles from the Ostrich Tavern at Durdham Down, on the outskirts of Bristol. They had been committed to Gloucester Gaol for this offence in November 1764, and also were examined by Sir John Fielding, the Middlesex magistrate, concerning two burglaries in that county. There was a fourth charge against them of stealing money and other items from a dwelling house in Bath, Somerset.
The last condemned prisoner was Richard Holmes, who had been brought into Gloucester Gaol in September 1764, on suspicion of housebreaking and stealing sundry items, including clothes, a silver stock buckle and a pair of silver knee buckles from several properties in the Mitcheldean area. At his trial, Holmes was found guilty on three indictments.
The executions of the four men were scheduled to take place on Friday, 12 April 1765. In the meantime, the prisoners were held in chains in the condemned cell at Gloucester Castle, which at that time served as the county gaol. On the Sunday evening before they were due to be hanged, the men started to work on freeing themselves from their chains, using a spring saw which somehow they had got hold of. In order to mask the noise, three of them loudly sang psalms while the other one sawed at the irons. Conroy and Holmes freed themselves first, then separated O’Brien and Wall, who had been chained together. However, before they could get the latter pair’s leg irons off, the saw broke.
Undeterred from carrying on with their plan, they called out to the person who was guarding the door to their cell, saying that one of them needed to be let out to relieve himself. When the guard opened the door, they jumped on him and knocked him down. Making their way to the gate, they beat and knocked down the turnkey there, taking his key and locking the gate behind them.
Perhaps because two of them were still wearing leg irons, the prisoners only got to Llanthony Causeway, about a quarter of a mile away from the gaol, before they were recaptured. It was said that the four had made a pact that they would all share the same fate, and so Conroy and Holmes had declined to leave their companions behind. Their bid for freedom came to an end when a gentleman who was out shooting in the area pointed his gun at them and ordered them to surrender.
Back at the Castle, the four men behaved in a disorderly manner at first, but as the day of their executions fast approached, they became more serious. On Friday, 12 April, they were conveyed to Over to be hanged. O’Brien and Wall dressed well for the occasion and prayed with great fervour, but put off giving the signal that they were ready to die until the last possible moment.
Gloucestershire Archives, County Quarter Sessions, Gloucester County Gaol Calendars, (Q/SG1, Epiphany 1765)
Gloucester Journal, 25 March, 8 April 1765
Bath Chronicle and Weekly Gazette, 28 March, 18 April 1765 (accessed 15/05/2019 on www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk)
Escape from Gloucester’s City Gaol: Mary Steward, 1799
October 6, 2017 October 13, 2017 / Jill Evans / 2 Comments
On 6 May 1799, the Gloucester Journal reported that ‘two genteely-dressed women’ had been committed to the city gaol, after stealing a quantity of lace from a milliner’s shop in Gloucester. The pair had been pursued and apprehended in Cheltenham, where some of the stolen lace was found among their possessions. The newspaper commented that it was supposed that the women were members of a large gang of shoplifters, who had been operating for some time in the country.
The two women, Mary Steward and Jane Bowers, were held in the city gaol in Southgate Street until July, when the Assizes were held. When the time came for their trials, it was revealed that Bowers had ‘turned evidence’ against her colleague, and was acquitted as a result. Mary Steward was found guilty of stealing lace from the shop of Mrs Bright, milliner. She was sentenced to be transported to Australia for seven years. She was taken back to the city gaol, to wait there until she was transferred to the next available convict ship.
On 5 August 1799, it was announced in the Gloucester Journal that Mary Steward had escaped from the gaol. The city prison had only opened in 1782, but Steward had been able to make a hole under her cell window, big enough to climb through, then she had lowered herself down into the street, using sheets which she had torn into strips and sewn together to make a rope.
In the same paper, an advertisement appeared, submitted by William Dunn, Gaoler, offering a reward of five pounds to anyone who detained Steward or gave information leading to her recapture. The notice stated that Mary Steward was twenty-eight years old, and from ‘Harwin’, in Ayrshire, Scotland. She had dark brown hair, hazel eyes, was round-featured with a fresh complexion, had a scar between her eyebrows, a mark from a sore on her left arm, near the wrist, and was five feet one and a quarter inches in height. She had previously lived in Nottingham, Sheffield and Birmingham. At the time of her escape, she was wearing ‘a pair of black Stockings, a flannel under Pettycoat and a black Skirt over it, a Night Cap and a black Bonnet, but no Gown, Stays, nor Shoes’.
Detail from a sketch by G Cruickshank, in ‘Jack Sheppard. A Romance’ by WH Ainsworth, 1839.*
A week later, the Gloucester Journal reported that Mary Steward was ‘still yet at large’, but it was hoped that she would soon be retaken. The advertisement for her recapture was repeated on the same page, with the reward being offered now increased to ten guineas.
Unfortunately, no record has been found of where or when Mary Steward was recaptured, but she certainly was, because she was listed as one of the convicts who were transported to Australia on board the Earl Cornwallis, which set sail on 18 November 1800, arriving in New South Wales on 12 June 1801. Her initial sentence of seven years had been increased to transportation for life.
Gloucester Journal, 6 May, 15 July, 5 Aug, 12 Aug 1799
Transportees from Gloucestershire to Australia, 1783-1842, Irene Wyatt, ed. (Bristol and Gloucestershire Archaeological Society, Gloucestershire Record Series, Vol. 1, 1988)
Australian Convict Transportation Registers, Other Fleets & Ships, 1791-1868, via ancestry.co.uk
convictrecords.com/au/ships/earl-Cornwallis/1800
*The full sketch is ‘Jack Sheppard and Edgeworth Bess escape from Clerkenwell Prison’, by George Cruickshank, in Volume II of Jack Sheppard. A Romance, by WH Ainsworth (accessed via archive.org). I removed Jack Sheppard from the sketch on this occasion, because this sister was doing it for herself!
© Jill Evans 2017
Gloucestershire’s Jack Sheppard: The Prison Escapes of Charles Buckingham
April 12, 2016 October 16, 2017 / Jill Evans / 4 Comments
Jack Sheppard was a thief and robber, born in London in 1707. During the year 1724, he was gaoled five times and escaped on four occasions, but was finally hanged at Tyburn on 16 November 1724. His prison-breaks made him into a national folk hero whose execution was witnessed by an immense crowd of admirers. The character of Macheath in Gay’s The Beggar’s Opera was based on him, and a fictional account of his life by WH Ainsworth was published in serial form between 1839 and 1840, then published as a novel, entitled Jack Sheppard.
Illustration by George Cruickshank, 1854, from “Jack Sheppard” by WH Ainsworth. (British Library Commons)
Charles Buckingham was born in the Cheltenham area in 1781-82. By 1808, he had become a footpad – someone who committed highway robbery on foot. Like Sheppard, he proved to be proficient at escaping from prison custody, but Buckingham did not meet the same fate as the popular anti-hero. His final escape attempt was successful and as far as is known, he was never recaptured.
On the evening of 27 August 1808, a gentleman and his wife were robbed by two footpads on the public highway, as they travelled on horse-back from Gloucester to Painswick. Charles Buckingham and Richard Sims were identified as the chief suspects, and they were captured in Bristol, after a desperate struggle. Both men were brought to Gloucester gaol to await trial at the next Gloucestershire Assizes, which would not take place until the following April.
During the night between 12 and 13 December 1808, Charles Buckingham managed to escape from his cell and get out of the gaol. A “Wanted” notice appeared in the next edition of the Gloucester Journal, offering a twenty guinea reward his recapture. Buckingham was described as being a native of Cheltenham or its neighbourhood and was aged 27. He was 5 feet 11 inches in height, with brown hair and hazel eyes, and had a large, long nose and “large whiskers”. He had been a sergeant in the North Gloucester Militia.
By the time of the Lent Assizes in April 1809, Charles Buckingham had not been recaptured, and Richard Sims stood trial alone. Despite the victim of the crime being convinced that Sims was one of the men who robbed him and his wife, he had a very strong alibi and was acquitted. He was then tried on another count of highway robbery, for an offence against a Mr Harris on 17 September 1808, in company with another man, supposed to be Charles Buckingham. Sims was acquitted due to a lack of evidence against him.
On 6 June 1809, Charles Buckingham finally was arrested by two Bow Street Officers in London. He was placed in the New Prison in Clerkenwell until he could be escorted back to Gloucester. Jack Sheppard had escaped from this prison in 1724, and Buckingham nearly managed to do the same, getting off his irons with a file, then using a crow-bar to make a hole in the outside wall. He was discovered by the gaoler just as he was about to leave, accompanied by twenty of his fellow prisoners. He was held in a more secure cell until someone arrived to take him back to Gloucester Gaol, to await trial at the next assizes.
Back in Gloucester Gaol, the governor and the chaplain questioned Buckingham about his escape the previous December. They had suspected that he must have had inside help and the night guard, John Brown, had been tried at the April assizes for aiding an escape, but was acquitted. Buckingham said that he had first used a knife, then later a large nail, to ease out a bar of his cell window. This had taken him a month, but then he had managed to get hold of a spoon, which he was able to use to open his cell door. (Jack Sheppard had also made use of spoons to open prison doors.) He had left his cell at 6 o’clock in the evening, when it was dark, and lowered himself down into the debtors’ yard using cut-up blankets he had tied together. He then tied two or three mops to his sheets and threw them over the boundary wall, then climbed over and ran away.
Buckingham finally stood trial for highway robbery in August 1809, nearly a year after the crime had been committed. He was found guilty and sentenced to death. However, this sentence was commuted to one of transportation for life. On 26 September 1809, Buckingham and three other prisoners (Nilus Cowper, John Thompson and James Payne) were put in a coach to be taken to the hulks at Woolwich, where they would be held until they set sail for Australia. The four men were all in leg-irons and handcuffs and were chained together. Two guards were in the coach with them, while another officer, well-armed, sat outside.
When the party reached Uxbridge early the following morning, there was a halt to change horses. One of the guards got out of the coach to get some water and Buckingham, Cowper and Thompson, who had managed to get their irons off during the night, jumped out of the coach and ran away, while Payne, who had failed to get his irons off, held the remaining guard down. The outside guard gave chase, but the three got away. Once again, a twenty guinea reward was offered for the recapture of Charles Buckingham, and the same amount was offered for the other two prisoners.
Nilus Cowper was recaptured in Warwickshire in October after committing a robbery, and John Thompson was arrested near Cardiff in November. John Thompson (alias Grimes, alias Smith) was hanged at Cardiff in April 1810. Nilus Cowper (alias Launcelot Cooper, alias John Jones, alias William Davies) was hanged at Warwick Gaol in May 1810. Buckingham, as far as is known, was never recaptured.
Charles Buckingham had made only one escape from prison, plus an escape from custody, and he had made an unsuccessful attempt to get out of Clerkenwell New Prison, so the Cheltenham man could not be classed in the same league as Jack Sheppard when it came to gaol breaks. However, after Buckingham’s capture in London in June 1809, some newspaper reports revealed that his time in the North Gloucester Militia (during the turbulent years of the Napoleonic Wars) had not been without incident.
The reports stated that about two years previously, when Charles Buckingham had been a sergeant in the North Gloucester Militia, he had been suspected of helping a prominent French prisoner-of-war escape from Stapleton Prison, near Bristol. He had deserted from his duty there and after being captured he was tried by court martial and sentenced to transportation (which must mean he was ordered to serve with the army abroad). He was sent to the Isle of Wight to be taken overseas, but escaped.
Looking into this story in more detail, it transpired that the North Gloucester Militia were guarding the French prisoners at Stapleton in December 1806, when one Monsieur Dare, described as “a Frenchman of some distinction”, escaped. It was believed that he must have been helped by some of his guards, and a number of privates were arrested, while a sergeant had deserted. In February 1807, it was reported that, “the sergeant who connived at the escape of M. Dare, the French prisoner, from Stapleton, has been taken.”
Buckingham was not named as being this sergeant and nothing was found in the newspapers on a court martial, sentence, or escape from the Isle of Wight army depot. However, on 18 July 1807, a Charles Buckingham was admitted to Dorchester Prison, having been picked up “On the Road”. He was described as a deserter from the North Gloucester Militia, born in Cheltenham and aged about 24. He was discharged three days later, being “taken by the party who brought him”. If he had indeed been captured in February, then he must have been picked up on the road after escaping from the Isle of Wight. If the information on the capture in February was incorrect, this may have been the time at which he faced a court martial and was sent to the Isle of Wight army depot. Either way, no more information concerning him was found, until his arrest for highway robbery in the autumn of 1808.
Between the years 1806 and 1809, Charles Buckingham had deserted from his militia unit at least once – possibly twice – and had absconded from the Isle of Wight army depot, thus avoiding being sent to fight in the Napoleonic Wars. He had broken out of Gloucester Gaol once, nearly managed to get out of prison in Clerkenwell, and finally escaped from a coach – while chained to three other prisoners – taking him to serve his sentence of transportation to Australia. Charles Buckingham did not become notorious like Jack Sheppard, but he did succeed in carrying off the greatest escape of all – he avoided the gallows.
JRS Whiting, Prison Reform in Gloucestershire, 1776-1820 (1978)
Bath Chronicle, 4 Dec 1806, 12 Feb 1807; Gloucester Journal, 29 Aug 1808, 19 Dec 1808, 20 March 1809, 2 Oct 1809, 2 April 1810, 23 April 1810; Oxford Journal, 5 May 1810, Public Ledger and Daily Advertiser, 12 June 1809; Bristol Mirror, 5 Aug 1809, 4 Oct 1809. (All accessed via http://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk)
Dorchester Prison Admission and Discharge Registers, 1782-1808 (accessed via http://www.ancestry.co.uk)
“A remarkable experiment in penal reform”: The beginnings of Leyhill Open Prison,1946.
June 12, 2014 October 23, 2017 / Jill Evans / 1 Comment
In July 1946, Gloucestershire newspapers reported that “a prison without walls or locks” was to be opened in the grounds of Tortworth Court, near Falfield, in south Gloucestershire. During the Second World War, Tortworth Court had been requisitioned for military use, with the house being used first as a naval training base, then as a home for American servicemen, while a military hospital was set up in the grounds. After the war, the government decided to use the vacated hospital huts as an experimental prison, which would prepare carefully-selected inmates for their release back into society.
The concept of a “prison without bars” was not entirely new in the British Isles. In January 1912, a prison of this type opened at Camp Hill, on the Isle of Wight, and Wakefield Prison in Yorkshire opened a “prison camp” in its grounds in late 1935. The open system also had been experimented with at Gloucester Prison in 1944, with some inmates living in huts and being supervised by one of their own number, rather than prison officers. There had been no attempts to escape from this “camp” and it was decided to continue the experiment at Tortworth. By September 1946, “Tortworth Prison”, described in the Western Daily Press as “a remarkable experiment in penal reform”, was in operation, although it only held about 50 “good conduct” convicts at first. It was expected that it would eventually hold up to 400.
Leyhill Open Prison. (Copyright Roger Cornfoot, licensed for re-use under a Creative Commons Licence.)
The first escapes
When the Prison Commission published its first report on Tortworth Prison, it stated that in the early days, “some half dozen men” had absconded, but after the first few weeks, such incidents “virtually ceased”. This was a little bit economical with the truth. The first escape took place on Monday, 28 October 1946, when two men were missed at roll call that morning. It was thought that they had climbed out of a dormitory window in the early hours. Alfred Fareham had been sentenced to 15 years imprisonment by court-martial in August 1940, for murder, and Leonard Edward Cross was serving 5 years for wounding a police sergeant with intent to cause grievous bodily harm. The Gloucestershire Echo announced the news with the headline, “Murderer Escapes from Glo’shire Gaol”. The pair were recaptured the next day.
Five days after these first escapes, on Saturday, 2 November, two men walked out of the prison grounds in the night-time. They were closely followed by two more, early the next morning. All four were quickly recaptured, and a prison officer was posted on guard at the entrance on the night of November 4th, but the following morning, another two inmates absconded. This made eight men who had escaped within ten days, and a few days later, Thornbury Rural Council unanimously passed a resolution urging the authorities to take proper steps to prevent a recurrence, stating that people living near Tortworth Court were afraid to leave their houses at night. On 10 November, two more prisoners absconded, and were quickly recaptured.
In late November, Thornbury’s M.P. asked the Home Secretary in the House of Commons if, in view of concerns expressed after recent escapes from Tortworth, he would see that the necessary steps were taken to prevent a recurrence. The Home Secretary, Chuter Ede, replied that he could understand the anxiety of local residents, but escapes were inevitable where prisoners lived or worked in open conditions. Steps were being take to review security, however, and he hoped that when the prison had settled into a regular routine, escapes would be infrequent. He added that taking the risk that prisoners might escape was justifiable, “in view of the great value of these methods in training and rehabilitating prisoners”.
In February 1947, the name of Tortworth Prison was changed to HM Prison, Leyhill. At that time, there had been no reported escapes for three months, but in April 1947, The Citizen wrote that two convicts had been found hiding in a haystack on 15 April, eight hours after absconding from Leyhill. Then, in the middle of May 1947, it was announced that Richard Timmins, described as “a former IRA terrorist”, had escaped from the prison six weeks earlier and was still at large. Timmins managed to get to Dublin, and was not brought back to England. This was followed by further escapes in June, August and November.
In April 1948, Thornbury Rural Council unanimously resolved to urge the prison’s abolition, after receiving a letter of complaint from Falfield Parish Council concerning the escapes. However, when Leyhill’s Prison Visiting Committee reported to Gloucestershire Quarter Sessions in June, it said that there had been “only 29” escapes from the prison since it began, and all but one of the escapees had been recaptured. There had been only a few thefts as a result of the escapes, and no locals had been assaulted or annoyed.
In February 1949, Home Secretary Chuter Ede, speaking in the House of Commons, said the number of escapes from Leyhill had steadily declined, with only eight attempts having been made in the previous year. It did seem that that everything had settled down, but in September 1949, an ex-RAF prisoner named Jack Hobbs, who was serving a 7-year sentence, escaped and attacked a family (father, mother and daughter) in their home at Kingswood, near Wotton-under-Edge. Hobbs was recaptured and in December 1949, he was sentenced to a further ten years imprisonment for the attacks. Hobbs had a previous record for violent crimes, and the judge commented that it was “rather startling” that he had been considered a suitable person to be sent to Leyhill.
Can I have my house back?
Tortworth Court, now a hotel (via Wikimedia Commons).
Tortworth Court was the ancestral home of the Earls of Ducie. The 5th Earl of Ducie (1924-52) was born in Australia (in 1875), and divided his time between Tortworth Court and his farm in Queensland. He had gone to Australia with his wife in 1938, and stayed there throughout the Second World War. He did not return to Tortworth after the hostilities had ceased, and in October 1946, it was reported in the Gloucestershire Echo that until recently, the Earl had been unaware that an experimental prison had been set up on his land. The Home Office stated that they had dealt with the Earl’s legal team in England, and said, “The prison is a hutted encampment in the grounds of Tortworth Court and the mansion itself is not affected”.
In May 1947, the Earl returned to Gloucestershire, and on finding that not only were there convicts living in his grounds, but also a number of them residing in his house, he resorted to staying in a six-room cottage on the estate, while he negotiated with the Home Office for the return of his home. The Citizen reported that Falfield Council had been told by the Minister of Town and Country Planning that Tortworth Court would stay requisitioned as a “temporary” prison for another nine years. Gloucestershire County Council became embroiled in the argument and protested to the Ministry of Town and Planning that it had not been properly consulted on the use of Tortworth Court as a prison. The Ministry denied that there had been an absence of consultation, but the council commented that they had only been consulted after the premises had been occupied by the prison.
The negotiations continued for over a year, and in August 1948, Thornbury Rural Council authorised their clerk to confer with Gloucestershire County Council and Lord Ducie, to see what steps could be taken to have Leyhill Prison moved off the Tortworth Estate. This came to nothing, however, and in October it was announced that the Earl of Ducie had sold Tortworth Court to the government. The contents of the house were sold by auction in May and June 1949. At the opening of the auction, it was explained to potential buyers that the sale had been brought about by the purchase of the mansion by the Ministry of Works, and not through the wish of the Earl of Ducie, “who now had no alternative but to sell the Court’s contents.”
When the 5th Earl of Ducie died in 1952, he was succeeded by his nephew, who came to live at Tortworth Court and run the estate. Leyhill Prison remained in its original position, in the park, south-east of the house. Extensions and rebuilding took place in the 1970s and early 1980s, and in 1986 new living accommodation was built for the prisoners, with more accommodation units being added in 2002. In 1987, the Home Office sold the mansion house and some of the grounds. The house was converted into a hotel in 2001.
The Citizen, 16 Apr, 16 May, 19 May, 16 June, 4 Aug, 22 Aug 1947, 24 Apr 1948
Gloucester Journal, 29 Oct, 17 Dec 1949
Western Daily Press, 12 July, 24 Sept 1946, 4 Nov, 5 Nov, 7 Nov, 9 Nov, 14 Nov, 29 Nov 1946, 28 Feb, 12 May, 17 July 1947, 14 Aug 1948, 18 Feb, 21 March, 18 May 1949
Gloucestershire Echo, 24 March 1944, 28 Oct, 31 Oct 1946, 12 Nov, 31 Dec 1947, 23 June, 16 Oct 1948
Manchester Courier, 13 Jan 1912
Yorkshire Post, 10 Dec 1945
Wikipedia: HM Prison Leyhill and Tortworth Court pages
Ministry of Justice/Leyhill
Tortworth Court Hotel
Tortworth Estate/Brief History
English Heritage/ Leyhill
www.thepeerage.com/ Ducie
Link for photo of Leyhill Prison by Roger Cornfoot is http://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/343694
Jill Evans
Local historian and writer. Author of 'Hanged at Gloucester', 'The Gloucester Book of Days', 'Gloucester Murder & Crime' and 'A History of Gloucester Prison'
a History of Gloucester Prison, 1791-1950
Please note that all posts on this site are my copyright, as are photographs taken by me. None may be reproduced, in whole or in part, without my permission (except for re-blogs). If you use information from any of my posts in published articles, an acknowledgement would be appreciated!
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IFISA? Up. Lifetime ISA? Up. Stocks and Shares? Up. Cash? DOWN
Written by Rebecca O'Connor on 25th Sep 2018
The way the UK saves is changing.
People are responding to an increase in the amount of choice available in the tax-free ISA world by moving out of cash ISAs and into new IFISAs and Lifetime ISAs (ISA stands for Individual Savings Accounts, just btw).
In the wake of an increase in “robo” investing platforms, which make investing simpler and more accessible, there has also been an increase in the number of accounts, the amounts subscribed and the annual subscription to stocks and shares ISAs – the more traditional ISA investment option.
Download the Good Guide to IFISAs here
Download the Good Guide to Stocks and Shares ISAs here
Figures from HMRC show that the amount of money being invested in Innovative Finance ISAs (IFISAs) has increased by over 700 per cent in the last year, with six times more people now saving into an IFISA.
See seven of the most ethical places for your IFISA money
The amount of money now in IFISAs has risen from £36 million in 2016-17 to more than £290 million in 2017-18. The data also shows that over 26,000 people opened IFISAs in the last 12 months. Just 5,000 accounts were open in 2016-17 in the first year after they launched in April 2016, rising to 31,000 in 2017-18.
Why the rise in popularity? Paul Sonabend commercial director of Relendex, a lending exchange for property investors, said: “IFISAs are giving savers the chance to earn higher returns on their money. The interest rates offered on these products outstrip the rates offered by high-street lenders on traditional Cash ISAs which can be as low as 0.2 per cent. With inflation running at 3.4 per cent, traditional savings accounts which are not matching the rate of inflation are losing money in real terms.”
The rise in the popularity of stocks and shares ISAs might also be attributed to low cash savings rates. A further 246,000 stocks and shares ISAs were opened in the last year, with the amount subscribed rising from £22,325mn in 2016/17 to £28,702 last year. The average subscription rose from £8,623 to £10,124.
Meanwhile, take up of new Lifetime ISAs has been encouraging, with 166,000 accounts opened, £517 million subscribed and an average investment of £3,114. These ISAs were introduced in April 2017 and offer eligible investors who are aged between 18 and 40 at the time they open the account a 25 per cent top-up from the Government, if they use the money for either a first home or for retirement – a kind of pension top-up (Good With Money has been in favour of the Lifetime ISA from launch and it appears the “free money” message is really sinking in with millennial savers who struggle to save).
While we are celebrating the rise in popularity of all kinds of ISA, spare a thought for poor old cash accounts. While they do lose their owners money in real terms, they can still be a handy repository for specific short term funds – the holiday fund or the Christmas fund, for example. But such on-tap cash savings need not be in the form of a tax-free ISA for the majority of savers, as the first £1,000 in interest on any cash account is tax-free these days anyway.
Climate crisis set to sway UK election
The 8 life-changing events that will shake your finances
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These links are provided to give student athletes and their parents some resources as they embark on determining the athletic opportunities at the collegiate level.
NAIA Eligibility Center: http://www.playnaia.org/
NCAA Eligibility Center for Juniors and Seniors Considering Athletics at an NCAA Division I or II school
NCAA Eligibility Center’s presentation on the new eligibility standards: http://content.ncaa.org/ncaa-ama/High_School_IE_Standards.pdf
Recruiting Questions? Send an email to cr101inc@aol.com for answers
Information on the NCAA Initial-eligibility Process
Ensure your athletes are on the right track by learning the ins and outs of the NCAA and NAIA.
Thousands of students across the country participate in school-sponsored athletics. Many of them and their families hope that they will continue to be involved at the college level, and for some in fact, this may be a necessity — both for college admission as well as a means by which to pay for college. What may not be as well known is that certain National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) and National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA) rules play an important role in determining whether this dream is ever realized. Everyone understands that the NCAA and NAIA oversee college athletes but may not understand that there are NCAA and NAIA rules that affect high school athletes starting in their freshman year of high school and determine whether upon graduation that student will even be eligible to participate in a college level athletic program.
The NAIA Eligibility Center has recently increased the fee for athletes to receive an eligibility determination. We encourage our student athletes who have started the process or are considering registering, to take advantage of the lower rate before the effective date.
Effective Saturday October 1, 2016, the NAIA Eligibility Center fees will increase to
$[80] for U.S./Canadian high school students
$[135] for international students
$[125] for U.S./Canadian students who did not enroll full-time at an NAIA school in the first full term following high school graduation
Locker Room Talk
Locker Room Talk is a program that provides realistic and candid conversations about the recruiting process at the collegiate level and the important decisions both student athletes and their parents must face. The links below provide further information on the programs available to student athletes and their families.
Information on Locker Room Talk and quick recruiting tips: http://www.ihsaa.net/IHSAAFiles/BC12LRT_Brochure1_v5.pdf
Information on Locker Room Talk seminars/workshops: http://www.ihsaa.net/IHSAAFiles/BC12Seminar & Workshop Brochure.pdf
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Vote for the top Government news story of 2011
2011 was a momentous year in Federal Government-related news and as such, it was a banner year for important Government publications, as demonstrated by our 2011 Year in Review collection available from the U.S. Government Printing Office (GPO).
But which Government news story was the most significant, in your opinion? Vote in our poll below, and then see the publications that follow that relate to these important stories:
Note 1:As of January 27, 2012, this poll is NOW CLOSED with the final results showing above, but feel free to click on the SHARE THIS link to pass on the results to others.
Note 2: This is a non-scientific user poll. Results are not statistically valid and cannot be assumed to reflect the views of the Government Printing Office customer as a group or the general population.
Following are the Federal Government publications that relate to each of these important 2011 stories:
2011 News Story Related Federal Publication(s)
9/11 tenth anniversary Ten years have passed since that tragic day, but the memories are still strong. 2011 saw some excellent publications about that day, including a 10th anniversary edition of Pentagon 9/11 and a reprinting of the 9/11 Commission Report, all of which you can find in our 9/11 Collection: A Decade of Remembrance.
Buy them in our online bookstore.
Find them in a library.
Assassination of Osama bin Laden A Navy SEALS team located and killed Osama bin Laden this year, the mastermind behind the 9/11 attacks and many other Al Qaeda and insurgent terrorist attacks. This 2011 publication, Terrorism Research and Analysis Project (TRAP): A Collection of Research Ideas, Thoughts, and Perspectives, V. 1analyzes causes and possible responses to terrorism as presented at the FBI Terrorism Research and Analysis Project (TRAP) Symposium of international academics and law enforcement personnel.
Buy it in our online bookstore.
Find it in a library.
Death of North Korea’s Kim Jong Il The recent death of North Korea’s leader, Kim Jong Il, marks an uncertain time for the Korean Peninsula and the entire region. North Korea: A Country Studyreviews the history and the dominant social, political, economic, and military aspects of contemporary North Korea before this.
Deep Water BP Gulf oil disaster report In January of this year, the National Commission on the BP (British Petroleum) Deep Water Horizon Oil Spill and Offshore Drilling released its controversial Deep Water: The Gulf Oil Disaster and the Future of Offshore Drilling, Report to the President, January 2011. This best-selling publication offers the fullest account available of what happened in the Gulf of Mexico on April 20, 2010 and why, and proposes actions, changes in company behavior, reform of government oversight, and investments in research and technology that will be required to avert future disasters.
End of the war in Iraq There is an interesting White House timeline about the Iraq war at the end of which is a link to the Joining Forces initiative with which one can express one’s support for the troops. GPO’s bookstore has a number of books about Iraq, but two stand out as best-sellers. Battleground Iraq: Journal of a Company Commander gives a realistic account by Major Todd Brown of his experiences as a U.S. Army company commander in Iraq from April 2003 to March 2004. Hard Lessons: The Iraq Reconstruction Experienceexamines the Iraq reconstruction experience, and provides 13 take-away lessons for future contingency relief and reconstruction operations.
Buy them in our online bookstore:
a) Battleground Iraq: Journal of a Company Commander
b) Hard Lessons: The Iraq Reconstruction Experience
Japan earthquake and tsunami Natural disasters were big in the news this year, and the Federal Government was involved in responding to them, from the National Guard in the U.S. to foreign response teams overseas. For example, in response to the tragic earthquake and resulting tsunami and nuclear reactor problems in Japan, the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), deployed a Disaster Assistance Response Team (DART) that included disaster response experts, urban search and rescue teams, and nuclear experts from the U.S. Department of Energy, Department of Health and Human Services, and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. The Field Operations Guide for Disaster Assessment and Responseis used by USAID’s Office of U.S. Foreign Disaster Assistance (OFDA) for DART teams and other disaster assistance personnel when responding to foreign disasters like the Japan situation.
Last Space Shuttle flight 2011 marked the end of NASA’s three-decade long space shuttle program when, on July 21, the final space shuttle mission ended with the shuttle Atlantis rolling to a stop at its home port, NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. NASA has published a number of terrific books about the program which you can find in our NASA and Space Shuttle Publications, along with a new set of beautiful color bookmarks, one for each shuttle and the best-selling Wings in Orbitbook.
U.S. economy and the Federal budget It seems every newscast this year has covered the US economy, Federal Government budgets and deficits and differing opinions about options to address them. You can find the President’s original budget submission published this year and subsequent analyses and responses to it in our collection of Books about the Government and Politics, including the Federal Budget and the Economy.
How can you find even more Federal Government publications? We have assembled many collections of Federal publications on our year-round Gift Guide and in our Special Collections page on GPO’s online bookstore.
About the Author: Michele Bartram is Promotions Manager for GPO’s Publication and Information Sales Division and is responsible for online and offline marketing of the US Government Online Bookstore (Bookstore.GPO.Gov) and promoting Federal government content to the public.
This entry was posted on Monday, December 26th, 2011 at 2:28 pm and is filed under Commission report, Congressional Budget Office, Department of Health & Human Services, Emergency Response, Federal Budget, Iraq, Military History, NASA, Nuclear, Polls, Terrorism, U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), U.S. Army, U.S. Economy. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
30 Responses to Vote for the top Government news story of 2011
Gregg L says:
Hi, just wanted to mention, I loved this article. It was practical.
Disaster Recovery says:
i think Japan earthquake would be at 1st place. there was so many difficulty;(
Lenny Doerksen says:
Some genuinely good stuff on this internet site, I like it.
peg perego says:
This site doesn’t show up properly on my iphone – you may wanna try and repair that
Thanks, Peg. So sorry you’re encountering difficulties. Unfortunately, that is a function of the WordPress software platform that is affecting many blogs. We’ll send them some more comments and hope it can be corrected.
WONDERFUL Post.thanks for sharing..can’t wait for more…
Bill (Doc) Roberts says:
The end date was established by the Bush administration and brought into fruition by the Obama administration.
The reduction of armed forces facilities in the US that cost at least twice what was touted, has been one of the causes of the state of the economy we’re in now. Let us stop being the world’s savior. Remember what has happened to Portugal, Spain, England, Rome. Nations rise and fall it appears that the present make up of our Congress is in the process of putting us on that downward tumble.
Manchester says:
Nice article, for me it would have to be the end of the War in Iraq..and possibly the end of the Space Shuttle flights….hopefully they’ll get something better !
SEO Company New York says:
Ripon says:
Along with the last flight, an era of exploration may have an end, – temporary curtain though. But mankind’s effort of knowing can’t be brought to an end in such way. Mankind will find out its own course of way in eternal search of knowledge. Space! – The inevitable horizon is still yet unexplored to a great extent. Still yet many important things have to be known.
Ripon #
nyc webdesign says:
It’s rather difficult to come across blog posts like these since there is certainly not much description given online. I would like to thank you for the time you to write this. I’ll visit from time to time planning to read your new articles.
Larry Woller says:
I chose the Space Shuttles last flight.. wars, earthquakes, budgets, terrorism will probably continue to one degree or the other, will be next years news, the next and so on.. but the final flight of the shuttle brings a era of space exploration to a end and perhaps the omen that the last flight may bring about the end of mans desire and ability to explore and gather knowledge about himself and the universe he lives in….
Thanks for your thought-provoking comments, Larry. You are so right… It was very hard to put together the list this year since there were so many significant stories. Does anyone out there know of any topics we may have left out?
noclegi szczawnica says:
The end of the war in Iraq, it’s time to end the war in Afghanistan. and appease Iran.
Happy New Year 2012 World !
SAMUEL TEITELMAN says:
LOS FELICITO ESTE SITIO ES MUY INTERESANTE,DADO QUE NOS DA LAS POSIBILIDADES DE OPINAR.-
Gracias, Samuel. Sus opiniones siempre nos importa.
LOS FELICITO ,ESTE SITIO ES MU INTERESANTE.-
Samuel: !Muchas gracias por los kudos! Thanks for the compliment! -GPO
sparta kakanjac says:
Happy New Year 2012 USA
Bill Shapiro says:
This is not at the same level of importance as the stories listed above, but the decision not to publish the U.S.Statistical Abstract anymore (in print or online) is shameful.
This was certainly an important story to GPO’s customers. Thanks for your comments!
Dr. C Timothy Fetscher says:
The most important federal story is the total collapse of the two party system of government. The inability to get just about anything done is a shame that the congress will have to work hard to erase.
oswaldo sanviti says:
you knows very well what i think about the most important thing happened on the year 2011…++
Commercial Architects says:
i have added my vote…..9/11 tenth anniversary.
9/11 have changed our lives forever as it touches us in so many ways.
marocannonces says:
Bankers must change their mind this is the first step , else people must fight any form of slavery
Download Ebook Gratis says:
same, i’m vote End of the war in Iraq….hopefully sooner peace iraq in 2012
classifieds says:
Well I must say all of these are huge stories. I would have to vote for the war in Iraq as well. Goodbye 2011 and hello 2012.
motherhood maternity says:
i just added my vote
thanks for giving the public this opportunity
Boukhazna-kamel says:
-Hello-Dear—This is The Cmment–From-this site-Wibe-I think-Dear….it is—the-Government-Book-Talk.
armansyahardanis says:
End of the war in Iraq !!!
This is the important momentum of the changes of the world for the future! An exact calculation and brings the people to change their perspective mind to struggle against our paranoid civilization….!
The librarians at Tennessee’s Memphis Public Libraries are in the #LibraryShelfieDay spirit. This library has been… twitter.com/i/web/status/1…*** Latest tweet from GPO *** 48 minutes ago
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Digital Social Science Center (DSSC), Columbia University Libraries7
Brion de la Tour, Louis2
China League.1
United States. Army Topographic Command.1
United States. Central Intelligence Agency.1
United States. Office of Strategic Services. Research and Analysis Branch.1
East Asia1
You searched for: Format GeoTiff Remove constraint Format: GeoTiff Access Public Remove constraint Access: Public Institution Columbia Remove constraint Institution: Columbia Place China Remove constraint Place: China Data type Raster Remove constraint Data type: Raster
1. Southeast China, 2000
2000. Digital Social Science Center (DSSC), Columbia University Libraries and Geological Survey (U.S.). This is a scanned version of the 2000 paper map entitled: Southeast China, it is map sheet 2 of the 8 sheet East Asia Geographic Map Series publish... Geological Survey (U.S.).
2. Communist China Ethnolinguistic Groups, 1971
1971. Digital Social Science Center (DSSC), Columbia University Libraries and United States. Army Topographic Command. This is a scanned version of the 1971 paper map entitled: Communist China Ethnolinguistic Groups. The map was scanned at 300 dots per inch and is ... United States. Army Topographic Command.
3. Communist China, Railroads, 1971
1971. Digital Social Science Center (DSSC), Columbia University Libraries and United States. Central Intelligence Agency. This is a scanned version of the 1967 paper map entitled: Communist China, Railroads. The map was scanned at 300 dots per inch and is in the TIFF ... United States. Central Intelligence Agency.
4. China, Terrain and Transportation, 1944
1944. Digital Social Science Center (DSSC), Columbia University Libraries and United States. Office of Strategic Services. Research and Analysis Branch. This is a scanned version of the 1944 paper map entitled: China, Terrain and Transportation. The map was scanned at 300 dots per inch and is in th... United States. Office of Strategic Services. Research and Analysis Branch.
5. A Commercial Map of China and its Dependencies : Showing the Areas Owned or Leased by Foreign Powers, 1903
1903. Digital Social Science Center (DSSC), Columbia University Libraries, Edward Stanford Ltd., and China League. This is a scanned version of the 9103 paper map entitled: A Commercial Map of China and its Dependencies : showing the Areas Owned or Leased by For... Edward Stanford Ltd.
6. Carte De La Tartaire Chinoise, 1780
1780. Digital Social Science Center (DSSC), Columbia University Libraries and Brion de la Tour, Louis. This is a scanned version of the 1780 paper map entitled: Carte De La Tartaire Chinoise. The map was scanned at 300 dots per inch and is in the TIF...
7. Carte de la Tartaire Independante, 1780
1780. Digital Social Science Center (DSSC), Columbia University Libraries and Brion de la Tour, Louis. This is a scanned version of the 1780 paper map entitled: Carte de la Tartaire Independante. The map was scanned at 300 dots per inch and is in the...
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Welcome to Sowerby Town
Our village of SOWERBY is one of the oldest in Yorkshire - recorded in the Domesday Book - with a long and interesting history. Sowerby was the birthplace of the Archbishop of Canterbury, John Tillotson (1630-94), as well as being the centre of a thriving early textile industry. Battles in the Civil War were fought nearby. In fact, three members of the Horton Family of Sowerby Hall were signatories of the execution order for Charles I! The area must have been a hotbed of parliamentary intrigue!
Many of our 17th century houses, such as Sowerby Hall, are grade 2 listed and are fine examples of the architecture of the period. Our village Church, St Peter's, built in 1766, is grade 1 listed.
Today, the area is a credit to the residents with their well-maintained homes and gardens, and most take a keen interest in the appearance of their village.
The village set on the side of the hill to the west of Sowerby Bridge, about 4 miles west-southwest of Halifax and 8 miles west-northwest of Huddersfield, with fine views over the Calder valley.
Jean Illingworth's latest book, Sowerby Tales, is now available from bookshops.
Home - History - Events - Shops - SRA - Lights - Guestbook - Links
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Home › Historical Dictionary of Taiwan Cinema (Historical Dictionaries of Literature and the Arts)
Historical Dictionary of Taiwan Cinema (Historical Dictionaries of Literature and the Arts)
Author: Daw-Ming Lee
Used - $135.98 USD New - $144.49 USD
Taiwan was able to solidly build and sustain a film industry only after locally-produced Mandarin films secured markets in Hong Kong and Southeast Asia during the 1960s and 1970s. Though only a small island with a limited population, in its heyday, Taiwan was among the top-10 film producing countries/areas in the world, turning out hundreds of martial arts kung fu films and romantic melodramas annually that were screened in theaters across Southeast Asia and other areas internationally. However, except for one acclaimed film by director King Hu, Taiwan cinema was nearly invisible on the art cinema map until the 1980s, when the films of Hou Hsiao-hsien, Edward Yang, and other Taiwan New Cinema directors gained recognition at international film festivals, first in Europe, and later, throughout the world. Since then, many other Taiwan directors have also become an important part of cinema history, such as Ang Lee and Tsai Ming-liang.
The Historical Dictionary of Taiwan Cinema covers the history of cinema in Taiwan during both the Japanese colonial period (1895-1945) and the Chinese Nationalist period (1945-present). This is accomplished through a chronology highlighting the main events during the long period and an introduction which carefully analyses the progression. The bulk of the information, however, appears in a dictionary section including over a hundred very extensive entries on directors, producers, performers, films, film studios and genres. Photos are also included in the dictionary section. More information can be found through the bibliography. Taiwan cinema is truly unique and this book is a good place to find out more about it, whether you are a student, or teacher, or just a fan.
The Color Code: A New Way To See Yourself, Your Relationships, And Life
Piano For Dummies
Designing With Light
Life with Picasso
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Jamie Marshall
Above: The new showroom highlights oomph’s wares in the best light.
This spring it got a whole lot easier to put a little oomph into your life, thanks to the opening of the line’s first retail showroom in Greenwich. The new shop is part of a “little design center” near the top of Greenwich Avenue that includes Circa and Waterworks, says Amy Rice, one of oomph’s three founders. “It was perfect timing for us,” she says about the previously unoccupied space. “We find that many designers are using Waterworks, Circa and oomph in projects, so the location could not be better. It’s great for local clients who want to see our collections but also more convenient for those coming from [further north], New York, New Jersey and points south.”
Partners Amy Rice, Louise Brooks and Patty Hopple
She and her partners—Patty Hopple and Louise Brooks—took what was essentially an unheated cement room and converted it into an inviting space with freestanding walls that are meant to create movement throughout the showroom. During the year, guest designers will be invited to create individual vignettes to showcase the line’s versatility. “The retail customer has never had an opportunity to see the breadth of our wares,” says Rice. “Now they can come in and see all the colors, sit in a chair, on a couch. We can hold their hands with design decisions.” In addition to the full collection of tables, upholstery, lighting and mirrors, the shop will have a selection of home accessories such as pillows, lacquer trays and more.
First launched in 2009, the company has grown dramatically in the past seven years. In the months ahead, look for the showroom to host a series of events, including book signings, rotating artists, educational roundtables, ASID-sponsored gatherings and trunk shows.
21 West Putnam Avenue, Suite B, Greenwich; 203-518-8068; www.oomphonline.com
BEST IN SHOW(ROOM)
KNOWN FOR ITS MODERN, WITTY TAKE ON CLASSIC DESIGNS AND BRIGHT LACQUERED FINISHES, OOMPH HAS THE SCOOP ON WHAT’S POPULAR IN NEW ENGLAND
The Tini table is “the equivalent of throwing a red pillow on a couch,” Rice claims.
Their hanging lanterns add a stylish touch inside and out.
The backgammon tables are available in different sizes and styles.
Photographs: Paul Johnson
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Tag: Tom Hawthorn
Lamb to wear two hats with Cougars. . . . Pats get Holmes back from Everett. . . . Raiders’ Sapego gets AHL deal
…and the world just became a little more boring. RIP Mad Magazine pic.twitter.com/OEWDrjKPVI
— Stevie Van Zandt (@StevieVanZandt) July 4, 2019
F Tomáš Plíhal (Kootenay, 2001-03) has signed a one-year contract with Kobra Prague (Czech Republic, 2. Liga). Last season, in 25 games with Jablonec nad Nisou (Czech Republic, 2. Liga),he had 14 goals and 27 assists. He also had six goals and 21 assists in 18 games with Landshut (Germany, Oberliga). . . .
F Tyler Wong (Lethbridge, 2011-17) has signed a two-year contract with Kunlun Red Star Beijing (China, KHL). Last season, he had five goals and eight assists in 68 games with the Chicago Wolves (AHL). . . .
F Adam Cracknell (Kootenay, 2002-06) has signed a one-year contract with Kunlun Red Star Beijing (China, KHL). Last season, with the Toronto Marlies (AHL), he had three goals and seven assists in 14 games. He also was pointless in two games with the Anaheim Ducks (NHL), and had 15 goals and 13 assists in 32 games with the San Diego Gulls (AHL). . . .
F Garet Hunt (Vancouver, 2004-08) has signed a two-year contract with Kunlun Red Star Beijing (China, KHL). Last season, with the Jacksonville IceMen (ECHL), he had nine goals and 14 assists in 69 games. . . .
F Adam Helewka (Spokane, Red Deer, 2012-16) has signed a one-year contract with Barys Nur-Sultan (Kazakhstan, KHL). Last season, he had 13 goals and 18 assists in 41 games with the Tucson Roadrunners (AHL), and eight goals and 11 assists in 24 games with the Milwaukee Admirals (AHL). . . . Nur-Sultan was known as Astana until the Kazakhstan parliament voted in March 2019 to change the name. . . .
F Brandon Magee (Chilliwack/Victoria, 2009-15) has signed a two-year contract with Kunlun Red Star Beijing (China, KHL). Last season, with U of Alberta (USports, Canada West), he had 10 goals and 18 assists in 22 games.
Mark Lamb won’t be joining the coaching staff of the NHL’s Edmonton Oilers, Instead of flying into NHL cities all over North America, he’ll be riding a bus to cities that are home to WHL franchises.
The Prince George Cougars announced Thursday that Lamb now is the team’s 13th head coach since it relocated from Victoria for the 1994-95 season. Lamb also is their general manager.
Lamb has a history with Dave Tippett, the Oilers’ new head coach, and there had been speculation that the two would reunite in Edmonton.
According to Lamb, he rejected overtures from the Oilers to stay in Prince George, and when is the last time that happened?
In a story by Ethan Ready of myprincegeorgenow that is right here, Lamb explained his decision this way:
“The NHL lifestyle is unbelievable, as we all know. And it should be unbelievable because it’s the best league in the world. That’s where everybody wants to be. You’re flying on chartered jets, staying in nice hotels. But I’m from Cadillac, Saskatchewan — there’s not a lot of jets out there.”
Lamb, who will turn 55 on Aug. 3, spent 16 seasons as a pro player. He was in the NHL long enough to play 403 regular-season games and 70 in the playoffs. He won a Stanley Cup with the 1989-90 Oilers. He then spent seven seasons as an NHL assistant coach before working for seven seasons (2008-16) as the general manager/head coach of the Swift Current Broncos.
“I’ve been there. I’ve had some success in the NHL as a player and won a Stanley Cup,” Lamb said. “I’m not downgrading it at all, it’s an unbelievable league, but the situation here is pretty gratifying.”
Lamb, who signed a four-year contract with the Cougars a year ago, has completed one season as the franchise’s general manager. He had been the interim head coach since Richard Matvichuk was fired on Feb. 7.
The Cougars finished 19-41-8 and didn’t make the playoffs in 2018-19. Interestingly, Lamb said at that time that he wasn’t interested in being a full-time head coach.
“That’s not the plan to come back, I’m interim head coach since I took over and that’s still what I am,” Lamb told Ted Clarke of the Prince George Citizen in late March.“There’s going to be a search for it . . .”
Early in May, Lamb told Clarke that the search for a head coach was in progress.
“I’ve talked to quite a few people and I’m going to be talking to more,” Lamb said. “You’ve got to be able to relate to the kids, know the trends how hockey is being played now, how you communicate. Just being down there coaching, I have a pretty good idea what it’s going to take and what type of coach the guys do need. I have a lot of connections not just in our league but in pro leagues and I’m doing a lot of work in those areas.”
At the end of the day, the Cougars’ ownership group obviously decided that Lamb fit all of those descriptions and was the best man for the job.
Or maybe Lamb’s wife, Tanya, who is from Edmonton, was tired of all the moving in recent years?
Here is the last sentence of the news release in which the Prince George Cougars announced that general manager Mark Lamb also would be the head coach:
“The Cougars will be naming an associate coach and finalizing other members of the hockey operations department in the coming weeks.”
Steve O’Rourke, the team’s associate coach for the past three seasons, no longer is with the Cougars.
Lamb told Bill Phillips of pgdailynews.ca, for a story that is right here, that the new associate coach will have a lot on his plate.
“It’s going to be like two coaches,” Lamb said. “He’s going to have a lot of responsibility . . . I want to make that one of the tightest coaching staffs in the league, which will give us a greater opportunity to have success.”
Others in the Cougars’ hockey operations department include goaltending coach Taylor Dakers and Nick Drazenovic, the director of player development.
There now are two WHL teams without head coaches — the Brandon Wheat Kings, who are looking to replace David Anning, whose contract wasn’t renewed, and the Spokane Chiefs, who lost Dan Lambert to the NHL’s Nashville Predators where he now is an assistant coach.
The Wheat Kings also are without a general manager as they have yet to replace Grant Armstrong, whose contract wasn’t renewed.
Earlier, the Kamloops Blazers signed Shaun Clouston, who had been dismissed by the Medicine Hat Tigers, to replace Serge Lajoie. Willie Desjardins has taken over as the general manager and head coach in Medicine Hat.
There has never been a subscription fee for this blog, but if you enjoy stopping here, why not consider donating to the cause? All that’s involved is clicking on the DONATE button over there on the right and following the instructions. Thank you very much.
The St. Lucie Mets tried to have a fireworks show.
The St. Lucie Mets lit their stadium on fire (via @mikemayerMMO) pic.twitter.com/r5qKyMGdFb
— Starting 9 (@Starting9) July 5, 2019
F Robbie Holmes is back with the Regina Pats. They have acquired Holmes, who will turn 20 on July 22, from the Everett Silvertips in exchange for two 2020 bantam draft selections — a fifth- and a sixth-round pick. . . . Holmes, who is from Sherwood Park, Alta., had played 148 regular-season games with the Pats before he was dealt to Everett on Jan. 10 for F Sloan Stanick, a second-round pick in the 2020 bantam draft and a sixth-rounder in 2022. . . . Last season, he had three goals and seven assists in 26 games with Everett, after putting up nine goals and seven assists in 16 games with Regina. . . . In 174 career games, he had 32 goals and 34 assists. . . . The Pats’ roster now includes four 20-year-olds — Holmes, F Austin Pratt, F Dawson Holt, who was acquired from the Vancouver Giants last month, and F Sebastian Streu. . . . Everett now has five 20s on its roster — F Lucas Cullen, F Max Patterson, F Bryce Kindopp, D Jake Christiansen, D Wyatte Wylie.
The Toronto Marlies, the AHL affiliate of the NHL’s Toronto Maple Leafs, have signed D Sergei Sapego of the WHL-champion Prince Albert Raiders. Sapego, from Belarus, had 10 goals and 33 assists in 58 regular-season games last season, then added three goals and 10 assists in 23 playoff games. . . . The signing came after Sapego attended the Maple Leafs’ development camp. . . . Sapego will turn 20 on Oct. 8. . . . The Raiders also have Belarusian F Aliaksei Protas, who was a third-round pick by the Washington Capitals in the NHL’s 2019 draft, on their roster, and they selected Russian F Ivan Kechkin in the 2019 import draft. . . . The Raiders have yet to post a pre-season roster on the WHL website, but the 20s on their playoff roster were G Ian Scott, Sapego, D Max Martin, D Brayden Pachal, D Zack Hayes, D Jeremy Masella, F Parker Kelly, F Brett Leason and F Brian Harris. . . . Scott (Toronto), Kelly (Ottawa Senators) and Leason (Washington Capitals) are expected to begin their pro careers with the start of the upcoming season.
If you click on Nick’s tweet, you will find the schedule for the 2019 Hlinka Gretzky Cup . . .
The 2019 #HlinkaGretzkyCup will be in Breclav, Czechia and Piestany, Slovakia, from 05-10 August 2019.
— 🇨🇦 Nick 🇨🇦 (@nicktheiihffan) June 19, 2019
This is like Buffalo Bill wearing his victim's skin in "Silence of the Lambs." pic.twitter.com/Nz7Qc2QkfF
— Tom Hawthorn (@tomhawthorn) July 4, 2019
Author greggdrinnanPosted on July 4, 2019 Tags Adam Cracknell, Adam Helewka, Bill Phillips, Brandon Magee, Ethan Ready, Everett Silvertips, Garet Hunt, Mark Lamb, Prince Albert Raiders, Prince George Cougars, Regina Pats, Robbie Holmes, Sergei Sapego, Steve O'Rourke, Tom Hawthorn, Tomas Plihal, Tyler WongLeave a comment on Lamb to wear two hats with Cougars. . . . Pats get Holmes back from Everett. . . . Raiders’ Sapego gets AHL deal
Scattershooting: Hawks, Bruins all even in SJHL final . . . Gotta love D.J. Kennington’s car . . . Broncos and Warriors to decide it tonight
pic.twitter.com/NmXkn1KdrE
— 200×85 (@200×85) April 14, 2018
The SJHL’s championship final is all even after the host Nipawin Hawks posted a 4-1 victory over the Estevan Bruins before 1,122 fans on Sunday night. . . . The Bruins had won the opener, 5-2, in Nipawin on Saturday night. . . . Last night, F Adam Beckman led the Hawks with two goals, his first two of the playoffs. Beckman, a fifth-round selection by the Spokane Chiefs in the WHL’s 2016 bantam draft, played this season for the midget AAA Battlefords Stars. . . . Beckman has played three playoff games with the Hawks. He had one goal and one assist in the only regular-season game he played with Nipawin. . . . The Hawks also got two goals from F Logan Casavant, who has six in the playoffs. . . . F Arthur Miller had Estevan’s lone goal, his seventh. . . . The teams combined to take 24 minors. . . . Nipawin got 23 saves from G Declan Hobbs, while Estevan’s Bo Didur stopped 34 shots. . . . They’ll play the next two games in Estevan on Tuesday and Wednesday nights, with a fifth game back in Nipawin on Friday night.
Bruins Pay Tributes At Broncos Crash Site Ahead Of Game One In Nipawin @estevanbruins https://t.co/OZcJOn2Jqx pic.twitter.com/cmBxRaghxP
— Discover Estevan (@DiscoverEstevan) April 14, 2018
The Estevan Bruins climbed on their bus Friday and headed for Nipawin, where they were scheduled to start the SJHL’s championship final against the Hawks on Saturday night. En route, the Hawks made a stop — they spent 30 minutes at the site where the Humboldt Broncos’ bus crashed into a big rig on the afternoon of April 6. . . . Chris Lewgood, the Bruins’ general manager and head coach, told Rob Vanstone of the Regina Leader-Post that stop was “the first step for a lot of the guys toward closure.” . . . The Bruins went on to win Game 1, 5-2. . . . Vanstone has more on the Bruins right here.
More from Vanstone:
“The Humboldt Broncos went into overtime and, as a result, so did two thoughtful employees at the Domo C-Store (in Nipawin).
“Just as March 30 was becoming March 31, a weary band of Broncos walked into a convenience store near the southern outskirts of Nipawin.
“Earlier that evening, the host Hawks had outlasted Humboldt 3-2 to open a best-of-seven SJHL semi-final. Michael Grant had scored the winner for Nipawin at 2:33 of the second overtime session.
Due to the marathon contest, the Broncos did not arrive at the Domo C-Store until just before midnight — closing time, in other words.
Four Humboldt players barely beat the buzzer, arriving at 11:59 p.m. With the team bus parked outside, the rest of the Broncos trickled in.”
The rest of the story, which is right here, is well worth your time.
A big thank you to The Canadian Blood Services for hosting the event and to the players and parents who came out in support of #hockeygivesblood#humboldtbroncos pic.twitter.com/6uTBYxzGks
— Hockey Gives Blood (@hkygivesblood) April 16, 2018
If they put this beauty — it’s D.J. Kennington’s Castrol Edge Dodge — on toy shelves as a die-cast car, I really wonder how many thousands would be sold . . .
Canadian @DJKRacing will carry a special tribute to the @HumboldtBroncos junior hockey team this weekend. #HumboldtStrong 💚 pic.twitter.com/8M06KtH9bZ
— NASCAR (@NASCAR) April 14, 2018
Netminder @BWillms35 made 58 saves tonight for the #MooseJaw #Warriors in their triple OT win. #WHL. pic.twitter.com/pBYvYy2Da1
— Darren Steinke (@StanksSports) April 15, 2018
The Moose Jaw Warriors and Swift Current Broncos will decide their second-round WHL series tonight (Monday) when they meet for a seventh game. . . . The Warriors forced Game 7 with a 3-2 victory in triple OT in Swift Current on Saturday night. Moose Jaw got 58 saves from G Brody Willms, with F Jayden Halbgewachs, the WHL’s leading sniper in the regular season, scoring the winner, on a PP, 74 seconds into the third period. . . . The Broncos had a 1-0 lead and a 28-9 edge in shots through two periods, then took a 2-0 lead at 3:35 of the third period. . . . G Stuart Skinner stopped 35 shots for the Broncos. . . . The winner of Game 7 will meet the Lethbridge Hurricanes in the Eastern Conference final. . . . Darren Steinke, the travelling blogger, was at Game 6 and writes about it right here.
When I was a youngster, oh, how I loved my table hockey game, the one with the metal players, all of whom played for the Montreal Canadiens or the Toronto Maple Leafs. Hey, there weren’t any other options with my game. . . . It turns out that the likeness for those players actually had a model. As Tom Hawthorn writes in The Globe and Mail, the likeness was that of Dick Gamble, a long-time pro hockey player who died on March 22. . . . Hawthorn’s obituary for Gamble is right here.
Author greggdrinnanPosted on April 15, 2018 April 15, 2018 Tags Adam Beckman, Arthur Miller, Brody Willms, Bruce Gamble, Chris Lewgood, D.J. Kennington, Darren Steinke, Dick Gamble, Estevan Bruins, Humboldt Broncos, Jayden Halbgewachs, Logan Casavant, Moose Jaw Warriors, Nipawin Hawks, Rob Vanstone, Swift Current Broncos, Tom Hawthorn2 Comments on Scattershooting: Hawks, Bruins all even in SJHL final . . . Gotta love D.J. Kennington’s car . . . Broncos and Warriors to decide it tonight
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Farmland clearing, livestock production, others aggravate climate change
By Femi Ibirogba, Head, Agro-Economy Desk
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Scientists have categorically proven that the drive to produce more food to meet the growing world demand is a major factor contributing to a warmer atmosphere around the globe.
Specifically, land clearing, charcoal production, cattle breeding/rearing, aquaculture, livestock production and application of agro-chemicals are, to a very large extent, responsible for hotter climate and environmental pollution.
The United Nations’ Department of Economic and Social Affairs (UN/DESA) has said the world population could increase to 9.7 billion people by 2050, compared to today’s 7.5 billion.
Paradoxically, it added, crop yields could decrease by 50 per cent over the next 35 years because of altered climatic conditions, caused, in part, as a result of the activities in agriculture to provide food for the growing world population.
Professor Will Steffen, Climate Councillor and Dr Annika Dean, Senior Researcher, in their book titled, ‘Land Clearing & Climate Change: Risks & Opportunities in the Sunshine State,’ found, based on research efforts in Australia, that, one, land-clearing policy in Queensland has had a significant impact on rates of vegetation clearing. And, two, that vegetation clearing in Queensland had contributed to climate change.
They found that in decades, changes in land-clearing regulations had led first to a decrease in vegetation clearing and then to an increase in vegetation clearing when laws were relaxed.
They added that 395,000 hectares of woody vegetation were cleared in 2015-2016, representing a 33% increase over the previous year. This is equivalent of roughly half of the forest cleared in the Brazilian Amazon rainforest in 2016.
Among others, the researchers found that the 2015-16 clearing rate in Queensland was the highest since 2003-04 (490,000 hectares/year) and that Queensland had become Australia’s hotspot for land clearing, accounting for between 50-65% of the total loss of native forests in Australia over the last four decades.
Similarly, the European Environmental Agency has affirmed the finding in Australia that agriculture contributes to climate change.
“Before reaching our plates, our food is produced, stored, processed, packaged, transported, prepared, and served. At every stage, food provisioning releases greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. Farming, in particular, releases significant amounts of methane and nitrous oxide, two powerful greenhouse gases,” it stated.
The agency explains that “methane is produced by livestock during digestion due to enteric fermentation and is released via belches. It can also escape from stored manure and organic waste in landfills. Nitrous oxide emissions are an indirect product of organic and mineral nitrogen fertilisers.”
The European agency also added that agriculture accounted for 10 per cent of the EU’s total greenhouse-gas emissions in 2012, and a significant decline in livestock numbers, more efficient application of fertilisers and better manure management reduced the EU’s emissions from agriculture by 24 per cent between 1990 and 2012.
However, it said agriculture in the rest of the world, especially in Africa and Asia, is moving in the opposite direction.
Between 2001 and 2011, the agency lamented, global emissions from crop and livestock production grew by 14 per cent. The increase occurred mainly in developing countries, due to a rise in total agricultural output.
This, it added, was driven by increased global food demand and changes in food-consumption patterns and improved disposable incomes in some developing countries.
The agency claimed that livestock and fodder production each generates more than 3 billion tonnes of CO2 equivalent, adding that “Post-farm transport and processing account for only a tiny fraction of the emissions linked to food, and “by reducing food waste and consumption of emission-intensive food products, we can contribute to cutting the greenhouse-gas emissions of agriculture.”
Climate change affects agriculture
Ironically, agriculture as a cause is also a victim of the climate change. Crops need suitable soil, adequate water through rainfalls or irrigation, sunlight, and heat to grow. The natural patterns of these variables are fluctuated, altered and negatively influenced by climate change.
Crop yields are also expected to vary increasingly from year to year due to extreme weather events of droughts, erratic rainfalls, extreme thermal undulations and increasing pest attacks and diseases.
Scientists have linked voracious appetite of pests such as Fall Army worms to increasing temperatures, discovering that excessive heat increases the appetite of destructive insects, which, in turn, devour vegetative crops. This reduces crop yield per hectare. In Nigeria, maize farm destruction by pests in the last four years has been monumental.
Growth, production and survivability of poultry, livestock and dairy animals are equally affected by extreme thermal heat that upsets the thermo-neutral comfort zones for these animals.
The above is affirmed by the European Environment agency, which stated that “Changes in temperatures and growing seasons might also affect the proliferation and the spreading of some species, such as insects, invasive weeds, or diseases, all of which might in turn affect crop yields.”
As a result of climate change, “western France and south-eastern Europe are expected to face yield reductions due to hot and dry summers without the possibility of shifting crop production into winter,” the European agency said.
Similarly, the distribution of some fish stocks has already changed around the world, affecting communities relying on these stocks throughout the supply chain.
“Along with increased maritime shipping, warmer water temperatures can also help facilitate the establishment of invasive marine species, causing local fish stocks to collapse,” it added.
Resolving the conflict
Political efforts on climate change and mitigation of its effects took positive turn in December, 2015 with the United Nations Paris Climate Change Agreement, which was endorsed by 195 countries.
World leaders agreed to limit global temperature rise to below 2°C above pre-industrial levels, and to pursue efforts to limit temperature rise to 1.5°C.
The European environment agency said there is still potential to further reduce the greenhouse-gas emissions associated with agriculture in the EU by integrating innovative techniques into production methods to capture methane from manure; more efficient use of fertilisers; and greater efficiency in meat and dairy production.
Land clearing and substitutes of tree crops
The Director-General of the Forestry Research Institute of Nigeria (FRIN), Ibadan, Oyo State, Dr Adeshola Adepoju, while giving an insight into fixing food-environment conflicts during an interview with The Guardian, suggested that the best way to tackle the collateral damage attached to efforts to feed the world through agricultural practices is “to combine arable with tree crops.”
Land clearing is inevitable to extensive agriculture as practiced in developing parts of the world, but substitutes for trees felled are found in planting economic trees with arable crops.
Therefore, he said, perennial economic crops would grow to make forest covers, which would substitute the destroyed forest in a couple of years.
“The model has always been there,” he pointed out, “but the farmers would say they could not wait for the trees to bring returns after 25 or 30 years.”
But the good news is that scientists have worked on the Nigerian indigenous economic trees by shortening their gestation periods from 25/30 years (the wild varieties would fruit between 25 and 30 years) to a maximum of seven years.
Bitter kola, for example, will take up to 30 years to fruit if the wild variety is planted, but it can fruit in three years now with the improved varieties.
“To even raise it was a problem because it could not grow directly under the sun in its wild form. It could only grow under the shade of other trees, like cocoa. But now, it grows directly under the sun ray,” Adepoju explained
Cashew, palm trees and cocoa are other economic trees intercropped with annual food crops, ensuring sustainable forest covers and food for humans.
“If you intercrop bitter kola trees in the first three to five years, you will still use the land for arable farming of beans or maize. And in five years, the returns on the economic trees will start flowing in. The economic trees will give you the minimum of 50 times of the arable crops,” he claimed.
Supporting the approach, a promoter of coconut plantations in Nigeria, Mr Anthonio John-Bede, said income from agro-forestry of coconut plantations would be augmented through arable crops such as potato, yam, beans and vegetables that could be intercropped with coconuts trees.
“In-between coconut trees, sweet potato, vegetables, pineapples, pawpaw, oranges and coffee could be grown,” John-Bede said.
The acting Executive Director of the Nigeria Institute for Palm Research, Benin City, in Edo State, Dr Celestine Ikuenobe, also said Nigerians had not maximised the business opportunities in coconut and palm trees as economic trees.
He, too, said these economic trees could be used for re-forestation, erosion control, whirlwind breaking and other environmental purposes.
Controlling charcoal production
Again, foreign and local demands for charcoal have escalated tree felling, deforestation, and hazardous emissions through charcoal production and export.
The FRIN boss, Adepoju, said “Charcoal is supposed to be a blessing. I mean a source of foreign earnings to Nigeria if done well. In all the developed economies where charcoals are produced and used, the production is well coordinated.”
Professor Albert Olayemi of the Regional Centre of Expertise on Education (RCE) for Sustainable Development said the country loses its forests at the rate of 11.1 per cent annually, and that tree felling for charcoals, building plants and furniture was responsible for the high rate.
The Executive Director of the National Centre for Genetic Resource and Biotechnology (NACGRAB), Dr Sunday Aladele also lamented reckless production of charcoals, saying that “Charcoal production is depleting the forest. The government has to wake up and checkmate the trend. We are killing the future of the country. Necessary legal enforcement must be done by the government.”
Controlling tree felling sustainably
Dr Adepoju, the FRIN boss, suggested a meticulous approach to the challenge of felling trees indiscriminately.
The government should set up a council to coordinate the activities of all those doing the business of charcoal production, he postulated.
“If you register with such a council as a charcoal producer, and your consumption is estimated to be one hectare of a particular species of trees, you are expected to know the maturity age of that species,” he added.
“Let us assume it is 20 years the trees will take to mature. And you use one hectare per year, you are expected to cultivate at least 20 hectares of such a tree. If you take one hectare per year, before you come back in 20 years, the first hectare you harvested would have reached maturity. In this case, no negative impact will be felt on the ecosystem,” he suggested.
Production of charcoals, he explained, should not be seen as completely negative. State governments, through ministries of agriculture, could earn from it if managed as recommend.
Registration of charcoal producers, saw millers and timber dealers is the first step and commencement of tree plantations project is the next, he advised.
Controlling animal emissions
One of the advocates of integrated farming systems in Nigeria, Mr Kolawole Adeniji, advised that using animal and plant waste to generate bio-gas and electricity would reduce pollutions emanating from manures and reduce effects of climate change.
Converting animal waste into sources of energy, he postulated, is a sustainable way of environment-friendly agriculture capable of taming pollution, climate change and their negative effects on humans and animals.
animalsclimate changeDepartment of Economic and Social AffairsDESAFarmlandlivestockMr Kolawole AdenijiNigeriaUNUnited NationsUnited Nations’ Department of Economic and Social Affairs
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Potentially Deadly Dengue and Zika Viruses on U.S. Soil
By Dyanne Weiss on January 1, 2016 No Comment
Mosquito-born viruses are wreaking havoc in other parts of the world, but two are of concern now in North America. Dengue and Zika, two potentially deadly viruses spread by mosquitos, are drawing attention and concern on U.S. soil at opposite ends of the country.
The big island in Hawaii is in the midst of its worst dengue fever outbreak since becoming a state in 1959. The total number of confirmed cases of the virus since September is 195. That includes 37 children and 19 visitors to the island. No other Hawaiian island has reported local cases during this infestation.
In December, the first locally transmitted case of the Zika virus was confirmed in Puerto Rico. Local transmission means the sick person did not travel anywhere where and was infected on Puerto Rico, which indicates that some mosquitoes on the island are now carrying Zika and possibly spreading it to other humans.
Both the Dengue and Zika viruses are spread by two types of mosquitoes: Aedes aegypti and Aedes albopictus. Those species are also responsible for spreading chikungunya and yellow fever. The four viruses reportedly account for more than 400 million of the mosquito-born diseases worldwide each year, with dengue being the most prevalent.
Dengue emerged as a worldwide problem in the 1950s. It has since become a leading cause of illness and death throughout the tropics and subtropics. The virus is common in Puerto Rico and popular tourist destinations on Pacific islands, in Latin America and in Southeast Asia. Symptoms can include a sudden high fever, severe headaches, a rash, unusual bleeding (nose, gums or easy bruising) and eye, joint or muscle pain. A more sever form is dengue hemorrhagic fever, which starts like the regular kind but is followed by persistent vomiting, bleeding, and severe abdominal pain.
There are no vaccines or specific medications for either version of dengue. Treating symptoms with pain relievers, acetaminophen (avoid aspirin which can increase bleeding), rest and fluids is appropriate, but if symptoms persist or get worse, patients should see a physician.
Zika was first identified in 1947 in monkeys in the Zika forest of Uganda. It was extremely rare until 2007, when it spread through three-fourths of the residents of the Yap Island in the Pacific. It resurfaced five years later on Tahiti and has spread around other Pacific islands since then. However, this past May, is suddenly surfaced with a vengeance in Central and South America, particularly Brazil, where is has become an epidemic and is believed to have caused birth defects in almost 2,800 babies.
Like dengue, the symptoms can be mistaken for the flu. They include a fever, headaches, a rash, vomiting and joint pain and lasts up to a week. There is no vaccine or medicine to prevent Zika virus infection. Because of the overlapping incidence of Zika infections to pregnant women and babies born with brain defects (specifically microcephaly), the government of Brazil has cautioned women there against getting pregnant now.
Even though only one case of Zika has been identified on Puerto Rico, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is taking no chances and issued a travel notice warning people going to Puerto Rico that they need to be vigilant in preventing mosquito bites.
Written and edited by Dyanne Weiss
U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention: Travel & Dengue Outbreaks
U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention: First case of Zika virus reported in Puerto Rico
Hawaii News Now: New cases of dengue fever on Hawaii Island bring total to 195
CBS: Mosquito-borne Zika virus found in Puerto Rico
UPI: Puerto Rico reports first locally-acquired case of Zika virus
Photo courtesy of Pan American Health Organization
dengue, mosquito borne virus, virus, Zika
Potentially Deadly Dengue and Zika Viruses on U.S. Soil added by Dyanne Weiss on January 1, 2016
View all posts by Dyanne Weiss →
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Reporter Pranked Into Thinking A Koala Is A Vicious Animal On Live TV
Koalas might have claws, but they are mostly just used for climbing, and overall, the creatures are gentle beings. However, a reporter for the UK's ITV News Asia who was visiting Australia didn't really know everything about the animal and because of that, she was epically pranked on live TV.
Debi Edward was convinced that the creature she was about to hold might look like a koala but it was actually a vicious cousin to it known as a "drop bear." She was told to wear full body armor to protect her from the fearsome beast. Australian video producer Sean Mulcahy uploaded video of the entire prank unfolding to Facebook.
In it, the reporter meets with veterinarian Dr. Garnett Hall at Kangaroo Island Wildlife Park. He describes the animal to Debi, saying that "drop bears" are bigger than koalas and have longer claws. He states, "They've actually got really small fangs, and the interesting thing about the fans is they have a really mild venom. It's not like a snake venom that can make you really sick, it just causes a lot of really local irritation," adding, "The third most common injury that we see in tourists in Australia is actually from drop bear attack."
As Debi is given a koala, she's warned about the danger involved and is clearly petrified. During her report, she reveals, "I'm trying not to be worried, because I've been told that he can sense if I'm worried." She gives in to her fear though after hearing a park worker say they are getting a dart gun, and pleads that someone removes the animal from her. Then she realizes she's been had.
She's not the only person to fall for the prank. It's actually a classic Australian joke that locals are in on often used to scare unsuspecting foreigners.
Debi was later interviewed about the experience, saying, "There were several points, looking back, obviously, where I thought, 'That's maybe not quite right.'"
Edward had a great way of looking at it though, pointing out that it was the first time she'd seen the crew at the wildlife park laugh all day. They've been dealing with the aftermath of the tragic fires burning in the country.
In his Facebook post, Mulcahy wrote, "If you enjoyed this video, please don't let Debi's humiliation be in vain. Please donate directly to help the park who are treating these koalas. In times of tragedy and incessant misery, sometimes humour is the best medicine."
Photo: Facebook/SeanMulcahy
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The anti-Quack site
complementary medicine – exposing academic charlatans
Tag: Homeopathy
“European manifesto against pseudo-therapies”
June 12, 2019 Frank van der KooyLeave a comment
Let’s be clear: pseudoscience kills. And they are being employed with total impunity thanks to European laws that protect them.
They kill thousands of people, with names and family. People such as Francesco Bonifaz, a 7-year-old boy whose doctor prescribed homeopathy instead of antibiotics. He died in Italy [1]. People like Mario Rodríguez, who was 21 years old and was told to use vitamins to treat his cancer. He died in Spain [2]. People like Jacqueline Alderslade, a 55-year-old woman whose homeopath told her to stop taking her asthma medication. She died in Ireland [3]. People like Cameron Ayres, a 6-month-old baby, whose parents did not want to give their child “scientific medicine” [4]. He died in England. People like Victoria Waymouth, a 57-year-old woman who was prescribed a homeopathic medication to treat her heart problem. She died in France [5]. People like Sofia Balyaykina, a 25-year-old woman, who had a cancer that was curable with chemotherapy but was recommended an “alternative treatment”, a mosquito bite treatment. She died in Russia [6]. People like Erling Møllehave, a 71-year-old man whose acupuncturist pierced and damaged his lung with a needle. He died in Denmark [7]. People like Michaela Jakubczyk-Eckert, a 40-year-old-woman whose therapist recommended the German New Medicine to treat her breast cancer. She died in Germany [8]. People like Sylvia Millecam, a 45-year-old woman whose New Age healer promised to cure her cancer. She died in Netherlands [9].
European directive 2001/83/CE has made –and still makes— possible the daily deceiving of thousands of hundreds of European citizens [10]. Influential lobbies have been given the opportunity to redefine what a medicine is, and now they are selling sugar to sick people and making them believe it can cure them or improve their health. This has caused deaths and will continue to do so until Europe admits an undeniable truth: scientific knowledge cannot yield under economic interests, especially when it means deceiving patients and violating their rights.
Europe is facing very serious problems regarding public health. Over-medicalization, multiresistant bacteria or the financial issues of the public systems are already grave enough, and there is no need to add to that gurus, fake doctors or even qualified doctors who claim they can cure any disease by manipulating chakras, making people eat sugar or employing “quantic frequencies”. Europe must not only stop the promotion of homeopathy but also actively fight to eradicate public health scams, which implicate more than 150 pseudo-therapies in our territory. Thousands of citizens lives depend on that. In fact, according to recent research, 25.9 % of Europeans have used pseudo-therapies last year. In other words, 192 million patients have been deceived [11].
Some believe there is a conflict between freedom of choice for a treatment and the removal of pseudo-therapies, but this is not true. According to article 25 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, every person has a right to medical care. Lying to patients in order to sell them useless products that could kill them breaks the right to true information about their health. This way, even if a citizen has a right to refuse medical treatment when properly informed, it is also true that nobody has the right to lie to obtain profit at the expense of someone else’s life. Only in a world in which lying to a sick person would be considered ethical, could we allow homeopathy—or any other pseudo-therapy—to continue to be sold to citizens.
Effective treatments being replaced by false ones is not the only danger of pseudo-therapies. Obvious delays in therapeutic care occur when a person gets false products instead of medication at the early stages of a disease. Many times, it is already too late by the time they get treated with proper medicine. Moreover, several of these practices have serious effects on their own and may cause damage or even death because of their side effects.
Many pseudo-therapists argue that “the other medicine” comes with side effects as well, which is true indeed. However, the difference resides in that pseudo-therapies cannot cure a disease or improve your health, and because of that patients assume risks in exchange of promises that are a scam, according to the full weight of the scientific evidence available. Lying to a sick person is not another type of medicine, it is simply lying to a sick person.
Every country has to face the issue with pseudo-therapies in its own ways. Yet it is not acceptable that European laws protect the distortion of scientific facts so that thousands of citizens can be deceived or even lead to their deaths.
We, the signatories of this manifest, therefore declare that:
Scientific knowledge is incompatible with what pseudo-therapies postulate, as in the case of homeopathy.
European laws that protect homeopathy are not admissible in a scientific and technological society that respects the right of the patients not to be deceived.
Homeopathy is the most known pseudo-therapy, but it is not the only one nor the most dangerous one. Others, such as acupuncture, reiki, German New Medicine, iridology, biomagnetism, orthomolecular therapy and many more, are gaining ground and causing victims.
Measures must be taken to stop pseudo-therapies, since they are not harmless and result in thousands of people affected.
Europe needs to work towards creating legislation that will help stop this problem.
Europe being concerned about the misinformation phenomena but at the same time protecting one the most dangerous types of it, health misinformation, is just not coherent. This is why the people signing this manifesto urge the governments of European countries to end a problem in which the name of science is being used falsely and has already costed the life of too many.
Sign the manifesto
[This manifesto was reproduced with permission. Scientists in other countries who take healthcare and science serious should put more pressure on their politicians and regulators to, uhmm, wake up, because this is by no means a European problem, it is a global problem – please sign the manifesto]
[1] Homeopathy boy died of encephalitis. Redazione ANSA, 2017.http://www.ansa.it/english/news/general_news/2017/05/29/homeopathy-boy-died-of-encephalitis-3_13e02493-4e62-4787-9162-12d831121ef6.html
[2] Grieving dad sues over ‘cure cancer with vitamins’ therapy, The local. Emma Anderson, 2016.
https://www.thelocal.es/20160412/grieving-father-sues-naturopath-over-son-cure-cancer-vitamins-leukaemia
[3] Asthmatic ‘told to give up drugs’. The Irish News, 2001.
https://www.independent.ie/irish-news/asthmatic-told-to-give-up-drugs-26063764.html
[4] Homeopaths warn of further tragèdies. BBC News, 2000.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/702699.stm
[5] Alternative cure doctor suspended. BBC News, 2007. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/london/6255356.stm
[6] Футболист рассказал трагичную историю жены. Она умерла от рака в 25 лет. Sport24, 2018.
https://sport24.ru/news/football/2018-08-28-futbolist-rasskazal-tragichnuyu-istoriyu-zheny-ona-umerla-ot-raka-v-25-let
[7] Mand døde efter akupunktur – enke vil nu lægge sag an mod behandleren, TV2, 2018.
http://nyheder.tv2.dk/samfund/2018-01-23-mand-doede-efter-akupunktur-enke-vil-nu-laegge-sag-an-mod-behandleren
[8] The price of refusing science-based medical and surgical therapy in breast càncer, Science Blogs, 2012. https://scienceblogs.com/insolence/2012/08/30/the-price-of-refusing-science-based-medical-and-surgical-therapy-in-breast-cancer
[9] Psychic ‘misled actress to hopeless cancer death’. Expatica. 2004
http://web.archive.org/web/20070208144309/http://www.expatica.com/actual/article.asp?subchannel_id=19&story_id=4821
[10] Directiva 2001/83/CE del parlamento europeo y del consejo:6 de noviembre de 2001
https://www.boe.es/doue/2001/311/L00067-00128.pdf
[11] Use of complementary and alternative medicine in Europe: Health-related and sociodemographic determinants. Scandinavian Journal of Public Health. Laura M. Kemppainen et al. 2018.
Vote Dr Kerryn Phelps for ‘Better Health’. No, wait, she supports Homeopathy! (updated with the role of HRH Prince Charles)
October 11, 2018 Frank van der Kooy2 Comments
Better Health! Excellent, let’s vote for Dr Kerryn Phelps. But hold your horses. While most people will think in terms of improved diagnostics and better, safer, less expensive medications and improved accessibility, others such as Dr Phelps have a different agenda. For some people, usually having some financial stake in alternative healthcare, ‘better health’ unfortunately means that they will exploit the current problems/deficiencies in the healthcare system to promote less effective, or even completely ineffective, medications to the general public. One can almost call this their ‘unique selling point’. But when a medication is completely ineffective none of the other issues (diagnostics, cost, safety etc) matters, and yet people such as Dr Phelps continue to promote this. In my humble opinion, a criminal activity, because ineffective treatments cause unnecessary harm and death.
But she is a clever one. As a well-known public figure, she cannot do all of the dirty work herself because she needs to keep her image squeaky clean. So, to get behind the swing of the bat, it is worthwhile to have a look at her collaborators in what I call, an ‘unholy Alliance’, and their dark world of deceit. Dr Phelps is an adjunct at the National Institute of Complementary Medicine (NICM), headed by Prof Alan Bensoussan. She is also part of the NICMs advisory board and states on her campaign website: “Dr Phelps is committed to teaching the next generation of doctors as Conjoint Professor at University of New South Wales Faculty of Medicine and in the National Institute of Complementary Medicine at Western Sydney University.”
It is during these advisory board meetings, held in the herbal-essence filled back rooms at Western Sydney university, where they come up with their sinister plans of how to integrate ineffective treatments into the healthcare system. Let me put in plain language; ‘how to BS the public’. Let me explain at the hand of homeopathy (a next article will deal with vaccinations and traditional Chinese medicine).
Support for Homeopathy
Homeopaths are an interesting, although completely delusional, bunch of people – but they do have a very good sense of humour. They will for example take a substance, any substance (even imaginary ones), go into a state of delirium during a process called ‘proving’, and dilute the substance away – completely away. During this process they note their ‘symptoms/state of delirium/feelings’ which then becomes the indications, and like magic, the vial containing only solvent suddenly becomes a ‘medicine’. To understand their sense of humour, you just need to read about any ‘proving document’. Take for example the homeopathic remedy prepared from a Black hole. They affix a vial of alcohol to the viewing end of a telescope focused on Cygnus X-1’s location within the Cygnus constellation. After collecting the ‘substance’ they dilute it into oblivion with the delirious homeopaths taking this ‘medicine’ stating that it; “ … felt their teeth were “drawing inward.” So it makes perfectly sense that this homeopathic remedy is suitable to be prescribed for……..??
You also get homeopathic remedies prepared from; Excrementum caninum (yes, dog shit), condoms, colours, musical notes, Berlin wall etc. (Here you can find my top ten list of homeopathic remedies for 2017. If you can top any of these remedies, please let me know – I am busy compiling 2018’s list). One might now argue that all these examples are on the extremities of homeopathy, and yes sure, but it doesn’t really matter. You can also take any well-known medicinal herb, or even a real medicine such as an antibiotic, but as soon as you ‘prepare’ it according to the homeopathic principles, the medicine disappears which will render even the most effective antibiotic useless. The sad reality is that some homeopaths prescribe their remedies for serious conditions such as malaria and cancer which obviously leads to a lot of unnecessary harm and death.
Sure, the biggest risk is indirect, due to neglecting serious medical conditions, but there are also examples when homeopaths go into such as state delirium that they sometimes manage to get their dilutions wrong. For example; many babies died and hundreds were hospitalised in the US after a toxic substance (deadly nightshade) was not correctly diluted. Clearly homeopathy cannot possibly be included within the ‘Better Health” campaign promise?
So how does Dr Phelps support and exploit this? She operates a number of ‘integrative medicine’ clinics where naturopaths, who are known for their love of homeopathy and anti-vaccination tendencies, are employed. A couple of years ago Dr Phelps made the following comments in an article regarding the funding of homeopathy:
Start of excerpt
“Unfairly targeted?
But some doctors suggest homeopathy is being unfairly targeted.
“It smacks of a crusade to me,” says Professor Kerryn Phelps, president of the Australasian Integrative Medicine Association (AIMA), which promotes “the integration of safe, evidence-based complementary medicines and therapies with current mainstream medical practice”.
She does not believe homeopathy is having the kind of impact on private health premiums Harvey fears, and says there are “bigger fish to fry” when it comes to fixing the healthcare system.
Phelps says homeopathy can be easily criticised because it has a relatively small evidence base.
But, she suggests orthodox treatments are not subject to the same level of scrutiny.
“The Journal of the American Medical Association earlier this year produced a meta-analysis of SSRI anti-depressants in mild to moderate depression and found them no better than placebo,” says Phelps, who is Conjoint Professor in the School of Public Health and Community Medicine at the University of New South Wales and a former president of the Australian Medical Association.
“If you are going to exclude treatments that don’t have an evidence base then we have to start looking at pharmaceuticals that don’t have an evidence base, surgical therapies that don’t have an evidence base.”
Matter of evidence
Dr Vicki Kotsirilos, who originally founded AIMA, says she is sympathetic to Harvey’s concerns but rejects some of his conclusions.
“To say that there is no evidence for homeopathy is actually incorrect and unfortunately a lot of people make those statements,” says the Melbourne-based GP, who points to evidence collected by the British Homeopathic Association.
“There have been systematic reviews that have shown that overall homeopathy is not anymore of benefit to placebo or of marginal benefit. But there have been some Cochrane Collaboration reviews that there is a little bit of research available for some therapies.”
She says some of the major studies quoted don’t properly take into account how homeopathy is used.
“When you prescribe homeopathy, it’s often individualised and you won’t use the same homeopathic remedy for one person with a particular disease to another person with the same disease,” says Kotsirilos.
She says homeopathy, and other complementary therapies, are particularly popular among patients who have suffered side-effects from medication, or where surgery is contraindicated.
“Out of all the complementary medicines it is the least understood, with the least amount of research,” says Kotsirilos, who calls for more funding for research.
“We need more research to be able to identify which patients might benefit from homeopathy and in what conditions, bearing in mind that there are people out there who choose to use this and we have to respect their choices.”
End of excerpt
(Vicki Kosirilos is obviously also part of this ‘alliance’ being a member of the NICM’s ‘Research Committee’). A couple of years ago the NHMRC did a thorough study on homeopathy and found it to be, surprise-surprise, ineffective and recommended that the public should not use homeopathy because they are putting their health at risk. This the Alliance cannot have, because it flies in the face of their plans to integrate ineffective remedies. The director of the NICM, Alan Bensoussan published a press release highlighting the ‘methodological flaws’ and that it doesn’t agree with all international reports on homeopathy etc. But it is during these advisory board meetings where they decide how and who should respond to this unfair ‘attack’ on their sinister plans (here you can read the minutes of one of their meetings). This job usually falls in the lap of Carl Gibson, the CEO of Complementary Medicine Australia – their attack dog.
He promptly published that the NHMRC report is “fatally flawed” and ends his press release with the prophetic words “Homeopathy has been around for hundreds of years, and I am sure will be around a lot longer than some of the critics.” Translated it simply means “We (Dr Phelps, the NICM and their whole alliance) do not accept that a complementary medicine is ineffective, and we will do whatever we can to continue to protect, promote and sell it”. They also lodged a complaint at the Commonwealth Ombudsman, claiming that the NHMRC report “…is inaccurate, highly misleading to the public and unjustly damaging to the credibility of the homeopathy sector. It is therefore essential that all published documents relating to the Homeopathy Review are rescinded in their entirety.” (there is some uncertainty about whether this complaint was actually lodged or not).
All that these people need to do is to plant the seed of doubt in the mind of the public, which is enough to ensure that people will continue to buy these ineffective remedies. Dr Phelps will continue to make real healthcare suspect, claim that her ‘medications’ are all natural, safe and evidence-based and that it will also save you a lot of money. But in reality, she and her Alliance does not give a hoot that people, including young children and babies, die because of what they are promoting – for them it is all about money!! (A good example of the type of people you need in such an Alliance is Prof Gregory Kolt. He was even found guilty of fraud; “As a result, the defendant fraudulently obtained a total of $5,864.15 from the Authority over a period of 14 months. When the matter was investigated, the defendant provided false information and documents.”)
A vote for Dr Phelps is a vote to give this unholy Alliance a foot in the federal door. She will provide easier access and opportunities for this Alliance to lobby government ministers in order to integrate their ineffective remedies with conventional healthcare. This, in my view, will be a travesty for the healthcare system. While homeopathy is one of the easier fake medications to debunk, Dr Phelps’s involvement and impact unfortunately gets a lot murkier. In a next article I will focus on vaccinations and how this alliance has infiltrated the World Health Organisation who now promotes, you guessed it, homeopathy and all sorts of other disproven and unproven traditional medicines.
An update (11/10/2018)
Clearly Kerryn Phelps have a cult – like following. People for whom she is a hero with her sword drawn riding on a rainbow coloured unicorn to save the day (so by the way, homeopaths also make ‘medicine’ from unicorns!) After I’ve posted this article on Reddit some called it “total bullshit”, “complete raving madness” and the poor author a “crazy or a stooge”, “spineless bitch” “unhinged individual”. So, I just thought I’ll add some information because maybe, just maybe, I can convince some of her followers – yeah right.
Here is an interesting example. One of the biggest supporters of Homeopathy is none other than HRH Prince Charles. He apparently give his cows homeopathic remedies in the hope that ………… I just don’t know. A wonderful technique that Dr Phelps and the unholy alliance exploit is called ‘Appeal to Authority’. This simply means that when a person such as Prince Charles say that he believes that medication X works, then many members of the public will simply follow his lead and up goes your sales. Because when the future king of England say that something works then it becomes irrefutable evidence that it does work – for some people at least. So, the unholy Alliance tasked Dr Phelps to get Prince Charles on board as a Patron of the NICM in order to provide them with extra ‘credibility’ which will obviously lead to increased sales (you can read about it here – very interesting document). I don’t think that he fell for it, probably because he does not want to be linked to a bunch of known cranks down under. But if memory serves me correct I might have sent them a letter warning them about the NICM and this might also have played a role in his decision not to join Kerryn Phelps and her unholy alliance.
Another example closer to home. When the NHMRC published their review on homeopathy one of the affronted groups in Australia that called for its immediate withdrawal was the ‘Australian Traditional Medicine Society’ (ATMS). The vice-president, Teresa Mitchell-Paterson, also happens to work in one of Dr Phelps’s clinics where she provides her naturopathic services. Have a look at the ATMS website under modalities to see what kind of quackery they promote. I just don’t know, but if you employ someone that will defend and promote homeopathy at all costs, then surely, I can claim that Kerryn Phelps supports homeopathy?
If you are a well-known scientist and you allow a tobacco company to list your name on their website, or for that matter, on an anti-vaccination website, then surely the public can infer from this that you lend your support to their products or ideas? If you are listed as a spokesperson in a press release detailing a multimillion-dollar donation received from a complete crackpot then surely the public can infer that you support this person’s ideas? So, the unholy alliance received millions of dollars from Judy Jacka who is a esoteric energy healing crackpot with a healthy disliking of vaccinations and a love for homeopathy and all other quackery you can think of. Western Sydney University promptly made her a Honorary Fellow (because maybe she will then give them more money). Judy is part of the ‘Health Australia Party’ (HAP) also known as the ‘lunatic fringe movement’. So, if any journalist reads this please ask spokesperson Dr Phelps, WTF? Please explain!! (Ah, maybe Kerryn is an undercover HAP agent!!).
She is a well-known public figure and therefore has to be very careful about what she says in public. She only says what people want to hear, in this sense not unique, because this is what most politicians do. But if you really want to know who she is, then it is far better to have a look at what she, and the people she associates herself with, does. In that ‘very interesting’ document you’ll also see that they have worked for many years to get the Chinese Communist Party’s linked Beijing University of Chinese Medicine to open a TCM hospital in Sydney. And just recently I’ve read about a person who died in Sydney because of TCM/acupuncture – the article is called ‘Dressed-up quackery…’ And yet this unholy alliance wants to integrate TCM with modern healthcare (I have investigated this issue quite extensively and you can read about it here, here and here.).
Any comments, suggestions, tips ect. welcome, because there is a lot more to come!
Vote Dr Kerryn Phelps for ‘Better Health’. No, wait, she supports………Homeopathy?
October 9, 2018 December 4, 2018 Frank van der KooyLeave a comment
Gays, religion and healthcare. Dr Kerryn Phelps – a progressive hero or regressive villain?
October 5, 2018 October 19, 2018 Frank van der Kooy1 Comment
This question will probably enrage many of Dr Phelps’s loyal supporters, but the tallest trees catch the most wind, and with Dr Phelps putting her hand up to run as independent in the all-important Wentworth by-election, a good look at who she is and what she stands for is warranted.
A progressive hero
For many she is a hero and role model for a modern progressive society, and someone who might actually steady the ship in these tumultuous of political times. She is currently married to Jackie Stricker-Phelps and is a well-known advocate for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer or questioning, and intersex (LGBTQI) rights. “Dr Phelps has been at the forefront of the struggle for LGBTQI inclusion and equality for two decades.”
She is also a well-known GP, was a former president of the Australian Medical Association and has chosen “Better Health” to feature on top of her list of campaign promises. According to her campaign website: “Dr Phelps is committed to teaching the next generation of doctors as Conjoint Professor at University of New South Wales Faculty of Medicine and in the National Institute of Complementary Medicine [NICM] at Western Sydney University.”
Recently I also noticed an interesting tweet from Dr Phelps which prompted me to write this article; “Voting for me as an Independent in #WentworthByElection will help to ensure the religious Right don’t get their way on increasing religious-based discrimination. I stand for social justice, inclusion and community harmony.” Here is another article where she expresses her views on “religious extremists”.
So here we have three aspects; LGBTQI+ rights, health and religion. Although not exhaustive, these aspects are defining of who and what Dr Phelps is. Below are my thoughts in an attempt to get my head around it.
Kerryn Phelps celebrating the ‘Yes’ vote for marriage equality
Historical order in society
If you are a human being then you will probably live with or near other human beings in what is commonly known as a ‘society’. As such, it qualifies you to participate in safeguarding society to ensure its long-term survival. The most important aspect for survival is maintaining law and order – people need order. History is littered with examples of what happens when law and order break down and it is easy to imagine what would happen when an isolated society decide to give its citizens a lawless week; no laws, no police, nothing – that society will not survive very long. That this societal necessity clashes with individual wishes and needs, and that some may find it (excessively) restrictive is a given, but based on having some sort of societal order we’ve survived the roller-coaster trip up till now.
Western society is historically based on the Christian order system, or let’s call it God-given order, which, as we all know, has been exploited and abused over the centuries to enrich a few and to abuse and enslave many. This in part resulted in the enlightenment and also effected the steady splintering of Christianity into various sub-groups, each with their own and sometimes quite divergent doctrines. Without unity, confusion reigns leading to chaos within the ranks which resulted in this splintering effect going into overdrive over the past century, bringing us to today, where we see thousands of different Christian denominations.
The steady splintering of Christianity over the ages
Even though Christianity has been shattered into a thousand pieces, the Christian spiritually lingers on in a watered-down generalised form in a significant part of Western societies (a well-known Christian saying is; ‘God’s law is written on our hearts’, and this in various shapes and sizes lingers on). Be as it may, the historical Christian order focus on society above the individual and the laws are literally set in stone – it cannot change (but it can be abused). Most laws in Western countries are still based on the Christian order system although this is changing fast. This situation is of course ripe to be exploited by domestic, or even foreign, role players to use to their advantage.
Transitioning to a new order…..
Many people have exploited these historical (and current) transgressions of the traditional system to advocate for a god-less order (or people-given order), based on the humanist individual ‘rights’ as opposed to the traditional individually ‘oppressive’ system. Dr Phelps, as far as I can tell, can probably be called a general in this movement and is indeed one of the more outspoken members who is opposing the influence of the last remnants of the Christian order system in Australia. Her personal life speaks for itself, being an open-minded progressive lesbian, who questions anything that reeks like Christianity or the protection of religious freedom. She not only proposes alternatives but also lives it, hence the promotion of all the various alternatives to the traditional (Christian) family structure and subsequent critique on ‘religious freedom’.
During this power struggle for supremacy (support via votes) the strategy of using emotional pleas for equality and love and the promise of individual freedom and future wealth usually wins out over the long-term survival of society argument. The focus is on the individual and its laws are ever-changing depending on who managed to garner the most support for a given idea. This is of course also a direct result of our aggressive capitalistic ideology, with people making more money when the focus is on the individual rather on what is best for the long-term survival of society.
A comparison illustrating the main differences between the two systems. Here you can find a more comprehensive comparison chart describing the humanistic system as “wilfully autonomous with self-centred desires” compared to “submissive to God’s will and desires to serve others”
There is unfortunately no room for two dominant order systems in any given society and while these two opposing systems battle it out, it is causing a lot of friction. A good example of this friction is the drama unfolding around the US supreme court nominee, Brett Kavanaugh. The new order obviously loves to jump on any misstep (even though it is not proven yet) from the Knights of Morality in order to lure more people into their camp. This is known as the “culture wars” with the one side who wants to stick to a generalised Christian-based order (conservatives) and the other side who wants anything but. This should however not be treated lightly, because in the US this ‘war of opposing systems’ can quite easily spill over in civil unrest or even a physical war. But as long as there is enough ‘food and water’ it will probably remain a non-physical conflict. Be as it may, whenever humans are involved there will always be exploitation and corruption, so all is obviously not perfect with this new ‘who says’ order system.
….and some of its problems
The new order is becoming increasing chaotic as can be seen in the long list of alternative sexualities, or states of being, with the latest sexuality that I’ve come across called, eco-sexuality or sexecology, which uses “ideas from different regions such as India and their idea of seven chakras to get closer to the earth”. Because ‘who says’ that a male and female belongs together? Well, the old system says, but then again, go to 10 different denominations and you’ll get 10 different answers. So why can’t a female and, uhm, the Eiffel tower belong together? With the new system it is impossible to draw a line, because it is all based on; ‘freedom of choice’ do what you want as long as you don’t infringe on the rights of another individual – not sure how the Eiffel tower feels about this.
The current deteriorating situation can only be described as sexual lawlessness, and I am sometimes amazed at the things people can up come with. It is as if there is such an aversion against the old system that anything goes, people will even shoot themselves and/or society in the foot just to show that they are on the right side of the battle line and not bound by those shackles of the old Christian system (the massive sex industry, in all its forms, feeds off this aversion and on the ‘freedom of choice’ mantra, but when you’re caught in that world, it is a very dark place where many atrocities occur – all the while some individuals enrich themselves). These aspects are also clearly visible when it comes to the other ‘big’ ethical questions of our time e.g. abortion, euthanasia (which based on our increasing individualism and capitalism will be terribly abused – the ABC’s Four Corners program ‘Who Cares?’ is worth a watch in this regard).
With the ever-changing laws anyone can now come up with just about anything, and if you question any of it, you will be sued for discrimination or defamation. Lawyers are making a killing with this new blasphemy laws, called hate speech. Dr Phelps is known to eagerly use their services to get what she wants. A former minister for health said that she had no specialist training (which is true) but faced the threat of legal action because being a ‘specialist’ is the public image she wants to portray. Combined with her promotion of sexual ‘freedom’ in all its forms and peoples’ immense fear to question this, makes her pretty much untouchable, and in my view, quite dangerous. To be honest, it is becoming difficult to converse with, look in the direction of, or even speak freely in Australia because you might just infringe on somebody’s newly discovered rights, which will be eagerly pointed out by those individuals abusing the system and who makes money from it (choose your words very carefully, actually, nowadays it is best to just accept everything, shut up and smile).
Without keeping those people exploiting the system in check, chaos will follow and the notion that this is progressive is questionable. In my view it is currently regressive and a return to the chaotic dark ages, even though it is being sold to the public as moving towards an egalitarian utopia. Unfortunately, this chaos will inevitably and steadily spread into other areas of society. In this article I will only discuss healthcare and how Dr Phelps, who champions ‘progressiveness’ and ‘freedom of choice’, is exploiting the system and how she and her collaborators have opened the door to foreign influence on Australian soil.
Chaos in healthcare
One striking example of how the new individualistic system is being exploited is the growing anti-vaccination movement. “We don’t care about society, it is our right under our ‘freedom of choice’ not to vaccinate!” Individual rights trumps survival of society. It just shows how easily the system can be manipulated and how easy it is the indoctrinate people. I am not sure what Dr Phelps’ stance is on vaccination because it depends a little bit on who she is talking to. When directly and publicly questioned, she clearly supports vaccination. And yet, she associates herself with known anti-vaxxers such as Judy Jacka, who donated millions to promote their cause (integration of disproven remedies with conventional healthcare) at the National Institute of Complementary Medicine (NICM). She is listed as a contact person regarding this donation which tells me that Dr Phelps not only accepts the donation but also everything Judy Jacka, who is an energy healer, stands for. And this is typical. When in public she will say what most people want to hear, but when in the company of ‘like-minded’ in those smoke filled back rooms it is the exact opposite.
A typical anti-vaccination propaganda poster – this is wrong on so many levels
Although Christianity as an institution will probably disappear in Australia within the next few decades, people’s spirituality will remain (and maybe a few Christians), all the while absorbing aspects from different spiritual ‘ideas’ which just happens to be around at the time. But these ‘new’ ideas can obviously be placed there. The fact that chakras, Ayurveda, traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) etc. are all products of an ancient world, deeply rooted in rituals, mysticism and spirituality makes it perfect to gradually replace Christianity, or what is left of it, in order to fill the growing spiritual void. And this is where people such as Dr Phelps is making a killing – quite literally.
Dr Phelps has a number of so-called ‘Integrative medicine’ clinics (on her campaign website called ‘multidisciplinary clinics’) where many unproven and disproven remedies are being sold to the public by providing misleading (sometimes false) information. She then feeds on the public’s indoctrinated right of ‘freedom of choice’ to increasingly buy into this ‘integrative medicine’ movement. The increasing sales figures are then used as evidence that her ‘medicine’ works – the well-known appeal to popularity argument. Any valid scientific critique is then refuted by using this argument. She is now also assisting others to start similar clinics all across Sydney.
This ‘regressive’ form of healthcare is nothing more than a smokescreen for quackery, because many of these remedies are based on magical principles and ancient ‘wisdom’ and has scientifically been shown to be ineffective. But for these people it is ‘whatever sells’. For example: Dr Phelps was president of the Australasian Integrative Medicine Association which at a time listed TCM, Homeopathy, acupuncture, etc. as part of integrative medicine. Her clinics currently uses naturopathy (which usually includes homeopathy), herbal medicine etc.
But I do want to focus on her association with the NICM at Western Sydney University (WSU) where she teaches the next generation of ‘open minded’ doctors. The NICM is so open-minded and progressive that they promote rhino horn as effective TCM medicine. In their world of magic, rhino horn is excellent to: “Clear heat, subdue Yang and cool blood, relieves fearfulness, detoxifying.” And can thus be used for: “High fever, sun stroke, trauma, mania, convulsion, sore throat, epilepsy, febrile disease, infectious disease, macula, bad skin conditions, subcutaneous bleeding.”
One of their business partners was even caught and jailed for having many kilograms of endangered animal parts, including rhino horn, in his possession – and they still work with him. And then she tweets about her opposition to live animal exports “We must bring this cruel trade to an end.” Yes, sure but what about the slaughter of endangered animals to feed the insatiable TCM industry and their unquenchable thirst for more money? It’s about votes! “Polling confirms live export is a hot issue for voters in critical #Wentworth by-election” (this is why I am really sceptical about her supportive stance on vaccinations).
The sad reality when people promote ancient healthcare systems such as TCM
Remedies that have been debunked over and over and which cause harm and death, such as homeopathy are being defended, promoted and sold to the public.
To exploit this new spiritual awakening and interest in mysticism on a global scale they have actively infiltrated the regulators and even the World Health Organisation (WHO) who now recommends that these magical remedies be integrated with conventional healthcare in all its member states. For the first time in the history of the WHO they will now endorse TCM!! This is a travesty of epic proportions with many concerned scientists fearing that many people will die and many endangered species will be wiped out. Their modus operandi was, and still is, very similar to how the mafia operates.
The big problem with the NICM and Dr Kerryn Phelps is how they have colluded with the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and how they are currently facilitating the CCP’s plans to exert its (soft) power globally (you can read about this investigation here, here and here). This, in part, is also why they influenced the WHO to endorse TCM – because they are toeing the party line of the CCP. Quite recently a new TCM hospital operated by Beijing University of Chinese Medicine (controlled by the CCP) have opened its doors in Westmead, Sydney. From here they will plan and execute further incursions into the Australian healthcare system. Below is a number of headlines regarding the WHO decision to endorse TCM;
$170b Global Chinese medicine market behind University of Western Sydney deal with Beijing
WHO endorses traditional Chinese medicine. Expect deaths to rise.
State-sponsored quackery. China is ramping up its promotion of its ancient medical arts. That is dangerous for humans as well as rhinos
Dr Phelps’ partner in crime, Prof Alan Bensoussan, being recognised in the ‘Great Hall of the People’ China, for his ‘outstanding’ work to globalise TCM in all its forms
Dr Phelps and partners will talk the scientific talk when in public or amongst scientists, but behind closed doors they are just different animals altogether. For them the ‘money is in the magic’, and their challenge is how to more effectively exploit the system making use of society’s increasing individualism, and to be honest, increasing ignorance or benightedness. A relatively old article says it all; “Open-minded consumers driving a $2.3bn industry” This industry is currently worth around $5bn/annum.
Don’t we live in interesting times, with a culture war being waged while being fuelled and exploited from both sides to further the vested interests of a few individuals with the resulting harm caused to society. In the movies, the hero usually give their lives to protect society and the villain ends up behind bars. In reality hero’s don’t exist or is very few and far in between. But when you intentionally mislead society, like ‘Dr’ Phelps is doing on a grand scale, then I don’t care on which side of the culture war she’s on, she is no hero she is villain. She and her associates (especially ‘Prof’ Alan Bensoussan) have vested interests which causes her and her partners to make a lot of money by misleading the public causing a lot of harm and even death. And then to think that she states “Dr Phelps is committed to teaching the next generation of doctors…”
It is this ‘who says’ mentality that questions why you should treat diabetes type 1 with insulin and not with some ancient spirituality-based remedy – be open minded, be progressive. These parents became so delusional and confused by the ‘who says’ mentality that they believed that they can cure their young son’s diabetes type 1 with ‘slapping therapy’, which aims to restore the flow of Chi (life force) through meridians. Unfortunately, the boy died. But luckily the ‘therapist’, the clinic providing this treatment and its director have now been taken to court, but unfortunately, the people who are responsible for creating and exploiting this chaos, the NICM and ‘Dr’ Phelps, are still getting away with it (they are intricately involved with this clinic). Hopefully their day in court will come, but for what it is worth, both ‘Dr’ Phelps and the NICM won the Bent Spoon (BS) award for quackery in 2008 and 2017, respectively.
The total extent of the damage that is being done by ‘Dr’ Phelps is impossible to know, but if she wins this election and has influence on government level then the healthcare system is in for a very tough time. If she can mislead young children about the effectiveness of ancient remedies while she knows that it is ineffective, she’ll be able to mislead just about anyone regarding anything. The exploitation of the new order of which she is a champion is a threat to the long-term survival of society on more than one level. Don’t be fooled by her thin veneer of respectability and caring attitude. Al Capone opened soup kitchens during the great depression where he provided food, drink and clothes to the poor, free of charge. But does this make him a good man? No, it was a smokescreen.
It is 2018 and we should be able to come up with better ways to protect society. Keep these dangerous individuals in check. To use her words “I call BS”.
(a shortened, more in-depth version focusing only on healthcare will follow)
Dog saliva as medicine for…..’growling’? Homeopathy – the perfect script for a Black Comedy.
April 25, 2018 May 11, 2018 Frank van der KooyLeave a comment
Let’s face it. Homeopaths have an excellent sense of humour and thumbs-up for their superb acting abilities. Because of their truly unique skills-set, some people have suggested that they are not really acting at all, but that they are visitors from a parallel universe. Be as it may, there is something amiss, because very few people from our universe would be able to keep a straight face while explaining to a patient that taking homeopathic dog shit will help against their ‘self-disgust’. Or that a remedy made from condoms will ease their feelings ‘of being restricted’ (cure claustrophobia). Recently there was even a Canadian homeopath, ‘Dr’ Anke Zimmermann, who prescribed dog saliva to a child that growled (behavioural problems). They are a funny bunch, and clearly, they have a thing for dogs, so I just don’t know, I have to go with the parallel universe theorem.
A typical zoo in the parallel universe of homeopaths
The list of their weird remedies just goes on and on – it is just out of this world. How about homeopathic remedies made from a Black hole (yes, homeopaths have visited), English sun (apparently the sun actually shines in their England), water diluted in, yes, water or…… here are some weeeeeird things they prescribe as ‘medicine’. This by itself should be enough for Hollywood to at least investigate the possibility of producing a comedy. It would however be best to cast real homeopaths (how about it ‘Dr’ Zimmerman?) because I don’t think any human being will be able to play the part. But then again, maybe Gwyneth Paltrow? or if the producers wants a documentary style comedy, maybe HRH Prince of Wales (but are we sure that they are from our universe?)
Homeopaths also have a thing for cows. Here we witness the celebration after the first successful production of the homeopathic remedy ‘Excrementum vaccinum’. (English: cow dung)
What is homeopathy? Well, it is a hoax that’s been around for about 200 years. You dilute any substance you can think of into oblivion, including imaginary substances, and then you sell it as medicine – simple, (in)effective and highly profitable. Hundreds of years ago the healthcare system was pretty much non-existent and patients admitted to ‘hospital’ were more likely to die than patients who stayed at home. The reason for this? Healthcare was so terrible that your body had to fight the disease as well as the healthcare system, so it was far less risky to just stay at home.
Bloodletting, as a cure all, comes to mind (cause of death of the former American president George Washington) but also the eye watering tendency to drill holes in peoples’ skulls (trepanation) to cure whatever. As the theory goes the possibility exist that during one of these drilling exercises a patient, screaming in anguish, hit the exact note and volume that it ribbed a hole in the fabric that separates our universes. This is seen as day zero when homeopaths entered our universe and started with the practice of giving patients, zero, as medicine. This is also the likely reason why we can buy homeopathic remedies made from various musical notes (day zero is still celebrated in April each year during Homeopathy Awareness Week.)
Because homeopathic remedies contain zero, a sick person only had to fight the disease. Add to this the well-known placebo effect and it is understandable that people actually thought that it was effective. So, at the time the results were good – no, not really, one should rather say the results of ‘conventional healthcare’ was terrible, but nevertheless, this counterintuitive notion gave these visitors a foot in the door.
A homeopath illustrating how cycling works in their universe.
Now we are 200 years later. The disease model (disease caused by bacteria, viruses, mutations, ect.) antibiotics and other life-saving medicines and surgical interventions have been developed and is continuously being improved. Science has made huge progress and although not perfect, modern healthcare has brought us tremendous benefits whilst homeopathy is still zero – there has been absolutely no progress whatsoever.
But now for the black part of this comedy. The reason why homeopaths are here is unclear. Some suggest that the portal is only one-way and they simply cannot get back while others have proposed that they have a far more sinister agenda. They were send here to destroy our universe. If you think about it, what is the most powerful weapon out there? It’s not a nuke, it is confusion, and spreading confusion is the one thing that homeopaths excel at. For example: in our universe we have a thing called ‘dose-response curve’ – which in plain language means that a bigger quantity of a specific substance will have a bigger biological effect, up to a point where you overdose and die. But they advocate the exact opposite – the smaller the quantity the bigger the effect. It’s like saying the less money I have the richer I am.
Some suggest that homeopaths are here because cooking is apparently quite difficult in their universe
This implies that the more you dilute a substance the bigger the chance that you might overdose and die, something that has actually been tested when hundreds of people deliberately ‘overdosed’ in protest against politicians and regulators. No biological effect was observed and the call was made to ban these imposters and their ridiculous remedies. But homeopaths are on a mission and they have steadily infiltrated the political elite and the regulators since their arrival 200 years ago.
It is quite easy to see which politicians are from the other side. Politicians saying one thing and doing the exact opposite is in all likelihood from over there. Regulators claiming that they are here to protect the public against fake medicine and then allow these fake medicines to be sold unchecked, have also been infiltrated and are aiding homeopaths to achieve their mission objectives.
Politicians from the other side are sometimes quite easy to spot.
The results of their mission thus far are that more and more people are turning their backs on evidence-based healthcare (of great concern is the growing number of anti-vaxxers) even though many people got hurt and unfortunately many died – and this is the very black part of this comedy. Politicians and regulators seemingly does not give a hoot and finds it okay when adults die at the hands of homeopaths. But sometimes they do act, but only sometimes, and then only when children got hurt or died.
To test and see if they have also infiltrated our bastions of knowledge a.k.a. universities, I popped an email to the Department of Homeopathy, University of Johannesburg. In theory they should be studying why people from our universe continue to fall for homeopathy and they should advise against using it. So, I asked them for some advice about what to give my 7yo son before we enter a malaria region. The answer from UJ, who also runs a Homeopathic clinic for orphans in Soweto, was that I can buy a remedy at a local pharmacy that contains – nothing! Well, to be honest, I first had to translate because sometimes they still speak in their Alien language. So here are their exact ‘words’:
“Arnica montana D30 Arsenicum alb 6ch, 12ch Cinchona off 6ch, 12ch Eupatorium perf 6ch, 30ch Chininum ars 12ch, 30ch Ferrum met 12ch Malaria off 30ch Ledum palustre 30ch”
Some English in there but for the rest gibberish. Fully translated it simply means ‘nothing’. So clearly UJ has been infiltrated (they also have a chiropractic department).
Another university is Western Sydney University and specifically the National Institute of Complementary Medicine (NICM). I have long known that most people working at the NICM are from somewhere else – they are not from our world (because of their weirdness they’ve won the Bent Spoon award in 2017). But what was quite surprising was that they have actually taken over the whole management of the University. Highlighting the issues at the NICM was met with a ‘we could not care less’ attitude. They even promoted the NICM to become a fully-fledged ‘health institute’ from where they are continuing to spread confusion into the world. They have even managed to infiltrate the World Health Organisation who now recommends homeopathy to be integrated with conventional medicine.
So, there we have it. Homeopaths are everywhere and they have no plans to go back to where they came from. We are stuck with some very funny homeopaths and their hilarious ‘remedies’, but at the same time, also the tragedies that plays out in many homes across the globe. For me a very good script for a black comedy, but I am afraid that stopping this madness will be as difficult as finding a portal and sending these quacks back to their universe.
Ten ridiculous, super-gross and weird homeopathic remedies.
December 21, 2017 December 4, 2018 Frank van der Kooy9 Comments
To get into the spirit of silly season, why don’t we have a look at the silliest of man’s creations – homeopathy. So, here goes, enjoy!
A homeopath will take a substance (or an imaginary substance), go into a state of delirium during a process called ‘proving’, dilute the (imaginary) substance into oblivion and then sell it as a remedy to the public – and regulators are happy for them to do so. During the proving stage, they document their ‘symptoms’ which then magically becomes the ‘indications’ listed on the remedy, according to their ‘like-cures-like’ principle. What usually cracks me up is the starting ‘substances’ that they use, what homeopaths claim their remedies work for, and the fact that homeopaths can keep a straight face while explaining or writing about their remedies (read any ‘proving’ document).
A big fan of homeopathy trying to steal a child’s bubbles because he ran out of Fairy Liquid (dish-washing soap) – yes, they make homeopathic remedies from anything
Due to the immense number and diversity of remedies out there, I’ve decided to create three categories. 1. Ridiculous – the starting material or ‘substance’ is nothing which they then dilute into oblivion; 2. Super-gross – substances where you desperately hope that they did indeed dilute everything into oblivion; 3. Weird – you just cannot understand how homeopaths can think of such stuff (there is a huge number of remedies in this category).
For some of the remedies I’ve copied parts of their ‘provings’ (unedited) so that people who do not understand the stupidity of it all, get a glimpse of what’s going on in the deluded (diluted) minds of homeopaths. So here is the list (thanks for the many suggestions via Twitter.)
1. Black Hole, Cygnus X-1
“The remedy was prepared by Rowan Jackson and astronomer, Peter Lipscomb, using an 8″ telescope, Meade LX90 aperture telescope. A vial of alcohol was affixed to the viewing end as the telescope was focused on Cygnus X-1’s location within the Cygnus constellation. Twenty provers took the remedy administered in 30C potencies.”
Uses: “This remedy seems to have a global effect on the body. If you were tracing the sensation under a physical symptom you might expect it to lead to a pulling in or drawing inward, constriction sensation. Headaches are felt as constricting, as if a band or a vise or as if will burst. Heart and chest symptoms are felt as constricting and tightening. Even the extremities can feel tight and constricting. Provers felt their teeth were “drawing inward.” With the drawing in sensation, they would often feel that there was a stone or lump inside (this spot of denseness within their body). Provers had the sensation of a lump or stone in their stomach or abdomen. They could also feel as if there were a “sinking” sensation inside. Often they would explain the sensation as heaviness.”
2. Vacuum
I had a dream…. of being vacuumed. A homeopath dreaming about vacuums
“I had a dream, as usual, and this guy who comes into my dreams, turns up and says, “Nuala, are you aware that vacuum is the space between heaven and earth? Prove Vacuum!” So I woke up and said, “Yeah, right. How?” I thought about it for a number of months and he came back to me in a dream and said, “This is very simple. What you want to do is get a bottle and put some alcohol in it, then vacuum the bottle, and you will get the effect of vacuum on the alcohol.” He has said that type of thing to me before in dreams, like that remedies are the effect of something on alcohol. “
Uses: “I know that a lot of people died in Britain as a result of that flu. So I started giving Vacuum for it and straight away it worked.”
3. Imaginary substances (hard to come by or extremely dangerous substances, such as Plutonium/Uranium, and apparently also ‘Unicorn’)
Photographic evidence that Unicorns do exist
“Bearing in mind Crotalus cascavella’s themes of vengeance and desire to kill with a knife, I asked him: “Did you feel like avenging yourself from your wife’s first fling? Would you feel a sense of release if you knifed him in the back? His words immediately evoke in me the theme of the light in Plutonium: he has lost his inner light and refuses the light emanating from others, from outside. Plutonium desires transcendence for itself and for the external world through self-illumination; it wants to be a powerful light which brings order to chaos through its own vibration.”
Uses: hatred, violence, nastiness, godlike, loss of inner light, drugs
4. Dog shit ( ‘Excrementum caninum’ not to be confused with ‘excrementum vaccinium’ a.k.a. bullshit)
A Homeopath’s dog trained to collect important homeopathic ‘substances’. Homeopaths finds this disgusting, hence the dog, but okay to give to the unsuspecting public.
Uses: self-disgust; domination and extreme abuse; suppression of anger with hatred; low self-esteem with dependency; In this remedy, there are dreams/thoughts of excrements and toilets, in contrast to Lac caninum and Lyssinum. Mind; dreams; excrements/dog’s excrements/ toilet; sitting on/ vomiting; excrements; Ailments from sexual abuse and rape, Delusion or image that body parts/ arms/ legs are smaller, and shortened; Dreams of dogs/ cats, felines
5. Condoms (Latex Condom) – New or used? I guess both, because homeopaths really care about the environment; “Rubber is a disposable substance that we use and throw away but it does not just go away. It persists as mountains of burning tyres or as condoms washed up on polluted beaches.”
Uses: feelings of being restricted/claustrophobic; separation/disconnected from people, difficulties with communication, disconnected from feelings etc.
6. Intestinal secretion of a sperm whale (Ambra grisea). It is unknown if homeopaths only use sperm whales who died after ingesting copious quantities of used condoms – see above (homeopaths will then call this a ‘combination remedy’) or if they hunt the poor whales themselves.
A Homeopath collection a decaying sperm whale’s intestinal fluids and any ingested used condoms
Uses: Its most well-known keynote is mortification from needing to use a public bathroom due to painful shyness. There is an out-of-proportion timidity about being in the presence of strangers or in social situations. It is said that these individuals often experience premature aging, may be globally anxious, and have a propensity for coughs.
7. Syphilis (Leuticum)
Uses: No sooner does night come on than I am a prey to such dreadfully sinful desires that drive me mad (in a woman). And: Weakness or loss of memory, esp. for names; feels as if going insane; terrible dread of the night season owing to aggravation of all symptoms then; despairs of recovery.
8. Berlin Wall (Murus Berlinensis)
Uses: Feeling of being forsaken and separation, huge despair. Oppression (political, family, abuse-sexual, religious, being bullied) and perceiving yourself as victim. Depression, sense of blackness, total isolation, aloneness, despair. Panic, need to escape but can’t. TERROR.
I never knew! A famous homeopath, known in Germany as ‘The Hoff’, collecting pieces of the Berlin Wall for the treatment of depression. That it works, is evidenced by The Hoff’s happy (or non-depressed) appearance.
9. South Pole of a Magnet. (Magnetis polus australis – attenuations of media saturated with emanations of the pole.)
Uses: Cough. Dislocation, easy. Frost-bite. Heat, palpitation of. Hernia. Ingrowing toe-nails. Levitation. Menorrhagia. Varicosis.
10. The note ‘F’ (homeopathic sound remedy Note F in 6X potency) and the colour Blue (or red or whatever colour you feel ‘attracted’ to)
Uses of musical notes; A general diuretic; good for edematous tissues, especially suited for pulmonary and cardiac edema; cardiac regulator and tonic, detoxifier, calmative and tranquilizer. Good for distress, feelings of inner conflict, avoidance of change, and a weakened spirit.
Uses of the colour Blue: A catarrhal remedy, good for sore throats and tired speaking voices; a stimulant to the thyroid and parathyroid; good for substance abuse cases where the patient wants to stop smoking, drinking, or overeating; good for neck and shoulder pain. Good for lack of creative expression, lack of willpower to complete tasks, integrity issues, malicious gossipers, liars, and timid, shy communicators.
It is actually impossible to come up with a Top Ten because there are way too many crazy homeopathic remedies out there, such as; dolphin song, radionics, hoover dust, light of Venus (or the moon), pig’s milk (or dolphin’s milk), X-rays, English sun, water (called new water) ‘unicorn’ (“apparently they sit around a vial of water thinking about unicorns to infuse the unicorn energy” – I couldn’t find any references for this one) etc. Therefore, it might be a good idea to prepare an “annual top ten”- listing only remedies that was invented in that given year.
Although these lists are meant to be funny, it does serve the important purpose of creating public awareness. The other side of the coin is that people do get hurt and even die because of homeopathy. Most fatalities are due to neglecting serious medical conditions, but many deaths have also been directly attributed to homeopathic remedies. Homeopaths do use highly toxic substances (arsenic, deadly nightshade etc.) and if they screw up their dilutions, people die – as was tragically shown with the death of 10 infants recently.
It remains to be such a pity that so many politicians, regulators (such as the TGA in Australia – 100% funded by industry incl. homeopaths) and some universities (notably WSU and UJ) simply look the other way, allow homeopaths to continue to mislead the public or even promote homeopathy. The simple reason for this is vested interests, which usually means – money.
The Hogwarts School of Magic is actually in Australia! They even teach you how to ‘fly’ a broom (they really do).
October 25, 2017 April 20, 2018 Frank van der Kooy33 Comments
And we thought that the ‘Hogwarts School of Magic’ only existed on the big screen. But, this type of school is actually real. There are quite a number of them currently operating in Australia, where bright-eyed, impressionable teenagers are taught how to manipulate energy fields in order to banish ‘evil spirits’ (or disease), and how to elevate out of their despondent earthly existence into an enchanted state of eternal health and happiness – like flying for the first time on a broomstick (or smoking a joint). It will therefore come as no surprise, that the game of Quidditch, from the Harry Potter movies, is indeed being played at some of these modern schools of magic. The Tri-wizard cup was even won by Western Sydney University in 2013. A real-life fantasy world.
(Quiddich players ‘flying’ in attack formation on their Nimbus 2000 broomsticks)
But there is a problem!
To run around on a field with a broomstick between your legs is, I guess, okay, and not strange at all. It is good exercise, but you are not suddenly going to take off (at least not without a joint), because ‘strangely’ enough this only happens in the movies (or if you are completely stoned). So, for the rest of it, none of it is real – it is all a hoax. And this is now problematic, because all parents would agree that we want the best education for our children. But this is also where we tend to stop our involvement and we do not always ask the important question of; what is actually being taught at these schools? There are many reasons for this, one of them being that we tend to trust that government will protect us from fraudsters. So, when these schools are government funded and regulated, and especially, when they provide them with a stamp of approval via various accreditation schemes, this is usually enough to put our minds at ease – we trust the system!
Unfortunately, some of these schools provide government accredited courses in magic. For example; children are being taught to manipulate ‘energy’, yes, without a wand (although I am not always so sure), but with the use of needles, crystals and various herbs such as the screaming mandrake (oh no wait, that was in the movie).
Specific examples of these courses include; Bachelor in Chinese medicine, chiropractic and osteopathy at RMIT University, Bachelor of Health Science (Naturopathy – includes homeopathy) at Endeavour College, Bachelor of traditional Chinese medicine at Western Sydney University and Bachelor of Health Science in traditional Chinese medicine at the University of Technology Sydney. The Southern School of Natural Therapies explains that their accredited course in Chinese Medicine; “is an ancient, holistic form of medicine that connects the mind, body, spirit. Chinese medicine believes that the body is made up of Qi – energy which permeates the whole body and flows through our meridians. Chinese medicine aims to stimulate the meridians, producing effects on different organs and systems within the body to restore balance and harmony” – this is pure magic!
This is what our kids are being taught at these schools, and unfortunately, this is pure fantasy because this ‘energy’, which is at the foundation of all of these pseudoscientific healthcare systems, simply do not exist. But, this ‘energy’ do indeed attract large numbers of students, because all of us are fascinated by magic. Regrettably, those students who actually believe in the magic show, tends to pay a significant amount of money to learn ‘magic’, and once they realise that it’s an elaborate government supported hoax, many simply tend to continue practicing magic. Because, by now, they have incurred a lot of debt, they have lost a lot of time, and they don’t want to be branded a drop-out or loser (sure, there will also be true believers amongst them). Hence, the problem of modern day ‘medical magicians’ will continue to be with us and might even surge, if the government continue to legitimise it via their various accreditation schemes.
And this brings me to accreditation, which is arguably a big part of the problem. The Council of Australian Governments (COAG) recently invited submissions for their “Independent Review of Accreditation Systems within the National Registration and Accreditation Scheme for health professions”. The ‘Friends of Science in Medicine’ (FSM) organisation did submit a detailed report highlighting their many concerns when accreditation is given to these schools of magic. This report was unfortunately deemed ‘out of scope’ by the COAG Health Council which implies that they are quite happy to continue to mislead students and their parents (and this can destroy families), as well as the patients who are on the receiving end of these completely ineffective magical treatments. Many patients do indeed get hurt and some even die, as was tragically illustrated by a practitioner whose magical ‘Slapping Therapy’ did not cure a 6yo boy from his type-1 diabetes.
Below you will find the Executive Summary of FSMs submission (with permission), and here you can find the full submission. But the question remains; why do the government continue to bestow undue credibility and continue to legitimise ‘medical magic’ by providing accreditation to these courses in Australia?
Accreditation is antecedent to, and inextricably bound together with, practitioner registration. This submission raises concerns about registered alternative medicine (AltMed) practitioners, accusing the present accreditation system of failing to protect the public through its legitimising poor quality, belief-based, rather than evidence-based, education and on-going training of chiropractors, osteopaths and Chinese medicine/acupuncturists.
FSM is aware that some higher education institutes and continuing professional development courses give credibility to pseudoscience. Examples of pseudoscience include chiropractic (subluxation theory, Kinesiology, Retained Neonatal Reflex and Webster Technique, osteopathy (Osteopathy of the Cranial Field and Visceral Manipulation) and Chinese Medicine (Acupuncture and the teaching of “Qi”, energy blockages that cause disease, as a fact).
FSM also remains concerned with the accreditation process supervised by AHPRA and its Boards.
FSM alleges that:
A. the training of registered AltMed practitioners:
is of low quality;
is based on pseudo-scientific concepts that reject germ theory as the cause of disease;
teach invalid diagnostic technique;
includes potentially dangerous interventions, continued in the ongoing training of practitioners;
wastes considerable public funding allocated to universities which teach these unscientific courses; and
compromises our universities’ reputation within Australia and internationally.
B. thousands of false and misleading claims on AltMed websites breach the National Law. This report demonstrates that registered AltMed practitioners:
are poorly trained;
are not competent to treat patients;
delay correct diagnosis and evidence-based therapies thereby allowing progression of disorders;
may cause harm;
waste millions of health dollars;
undermine the efforts of evidence-based practitioners in their communities;
do not, in respect of exaggerated claims and advertising, behave in an ethical manner;
create considerable confusion for patients with chronic ailments; and
focus their ongoing training on building their practices rather than on the needs of patients.
This report also raises concerns about pseudoscience-based courses, that may attract VET-help fees, such as reflexology, homeopathy, aromatherapy and reiki, that are advertised on Government websites.
C. Government websites are providing undeserved credibility for discredited AltMed.
Underserved credibility is given to discredited AltMed courses including Reflexology, Aromatherapy, Homeopathy, Naturopathy and Reiki that may attract VET-help fees and are advertised on Government training websites.
Using acupuncture as an example, along with valid research findings, informed opinions and advice from medical experts, this report investigates the teachings in one high-profile accredited course and the impact and costs of this intervention on health care. While this report focuses on acupuncture, the same concerns can be extrapolated to other domains of pseudo-science, which is in both accredited university and continuing professional development courses. It also recommends that the scope of practice of AltMed practitioners should be limited to what they can advertise, to further protect patients from invalid diagnosis and belief-based interventions.
While ALL unregistered AltMed practitioners are NOT practicing any form of evidence-based medicine, (reflexology, iridology etc), there are thousands of registered practitioners, bound by the National Law to practice care that is evidence-based, who are practicing pseudoscience. The scope of the recent NHMRC review of natural therapies EXCLUDED interventions offered by registered practitioners on the basis that consumer protection was available through the AHPRA scheme.
This report highlights the millions of health dollars wasted by the Government funding of AltMed teachings and practices. Nearly $220 million was spent on acupuncture, chiropractic and osteopathy through Medicare from July 2011 to June 2016.
AltMed practitioners, who reject evidence-based medicine and over-service patient with placebo interventions are not the ‘right people’ to address patient needs, now and in the future.”
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[Time Limit on Obtaining Special Licenses Under Regulation W]
FEDERAL RESERVE BANK OF DALLAS Dallas Texas December To the Radio Station Addressed As you doubtless know it is necessary for all persons and organizations subject to the provi sions of Regulation W of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System which was issued under authority of the President s Executive Order No 8843 to file a Registration Statement by December in order to continue to handle after that date instalment transactions of the types covered by the regulation Many persons and organizations have already filed Registration Statements but many others apparently subject to the provisions of the regulation have not done so The matter was probably overlooked due to the public unrest following the outbreak of the war and the Christmas rush The general license heretofore granted will terminate at the close of December for every person or organization subject to the provisions of the regulation that has not registered on or before that date in the manner provided Inasmuch as the period of time allowed for obtaining special licenses has almost expired we have taken the matter up with the radio stations in Dallas Houston San Antonio and El Paso and they have felt that they could render a public service especially to their business customers and friends by making the announcement hereinafter set forth following several of their programs on December 25 and 26 They have also told us they felt the other radio stations located in this district would be glad to make similar announcements on the dates mentioned The announcement which is suggested is as follows The Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas today cautioned that Regulation W issued by the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System under authority of an Executive Order of the President of the United States requires that all businesses obtain a license not later than December 31 if they are engaged in the business of extending instalment loan credit or instalment credit in con nection with the sale of any articles which come under the regulation The blanket license under which all such business has been conducted since September 1 expires December Officials of the bank stated that the licenses are free but failure to file a Registration Statement will make it illegal for anyone to make such sales or extend such credit on or after January Requests for licenses in the Eleventh Federal Reserve District should be made direct to the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas or to one of its branches at Houston San Antonio and El Paso All commercial banks are familiar with the procedure for registration Your cooperation will be very greatly appreciated Yours very truly R R GILBERT President This publication was digitized and made available by the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas Historical Library FedHistory dal frb org
Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas. "[Time Limit on Obtaining Special Licenses Under Regulation W]," District Notices (Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas) (December 23, 1941). https://fraser.stlouisfed.org/title/5569/item/548509, accessed on January 22, 2020.
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A Design Brief for the Planet
Review of The Stack by Benjamin B. Bratton (MIT, 2016)
Diagram of the Stack by Metahaven (2016)
A new Leviathan has risen. It has wrapped itself around the entire planet, spreading its fibre-optic tentacles through the depth of ocean beds, voraciously feeding on rare-earth metals and dwindling energy reserves, regurgitating trillions of interconnected smart things that mediate nearly every inch, second, and calorie of humans’ lives. Stretching from the Earth’s crust to the outer atmosphere, the “Stack” is a thick totality, an “accidental megastructure” resulting from the assemblage of all material objects, agents, and processes involved in the current condition of “planetary-scale computation”.
Such is the hypothesis put forward in Benjamin H. Bratton’s new book “The Stack: On Software and Sovereignty” (MIT Press, 2016). More specifically, the conceptual figure of the Stack is posited as a means to explore the new architecture of governance that results from the extensive underpinning of the world(s) we inhabit by computational infrastructure. Acknowledging the gap between a still predominantly flat theory of political geography – as encapsulated in Carl Schmitt’s idea of the “nomos of the Earth” – and the increasingly thick overlap of power structures in operation around our planet, the book sets out to produce an updated map of geopolitical sovereignty after Google.
Central to the argument developed in the book is the notion of “platform”: an organizational apparatus that provides standard protocols of exchange between users, and capitalises on the “decentralised and undetermined interactions” that it thereby supports. With reference to the planetary ubiquity of some California-based tech giants, the author speaks of the emergence of “platform sovereignties”, the material infrastructures of which literally dig under, orbit above, and cut through the bounded surfaces of nation-states. Nonetheless, “The Stack” is all but another funeral march for the state. On the contrary, it is the very grinding of platform against state sovereignty, as well as their reciprocal hybridisation and topological interlocking, which is analysed from the vantage point of each of the proposed layers of the Stack: Earth, Cloud, City, Address, Interface, and User. As new circuits of power are negotiated that pass through human and non-human entities alike, another key theme examined throughout the book is that of the displacement of the centre of gravity of political subjectivity from the individual human citizen towards a post-anthropocentric horizon.
“The Stack” is a book of great ambition and imaginative power. Most remarkable is the way it makes use of informed speculation as a discursive engine, which keeps propelling the argument into uncharted theoretical territory. As a result, the book teems with an alien conceptual fauna – one that proves necessary to work one’s way through the most unsettling idea it puts forward: that of “computation as governance”.
TOTALITY AND SCALE
Having just been through half a century of “post-isms” of all kinds, readers will be excused for showing a certain a priori scepticism in front of any theory of totality. As a consequence, they may well be put off by “The Stack” which, from its very first pages, sets out to describe a “technological totality as the armature of the social itself”. It is nonetheless worth bearing with it. The tour de force of this book is to make the question of the ontological reality of the proposed figure of the Stack simply irrelevant. Once posited and imagined at the right
scale – the planetary one, which is in fact no longer a scale but a rationality – it “serves as a conceptual-technical structure to think with and against as we compose what does emerge.” The epistemological value takes precedence over the ontological one; it is about what the Stack does, not what it is.
What does the figure of the Stack do? It establishes a continuous field, co-extensive with the planet itself, within which particular computational processes can be tracked from the molecular to the atmospheric level and back, without breaking them down into a priori spatial frames where they would appear either too tiny, or too grossly cropped. From daily gestures such as asking a smartphone for the fastest route home, to the modelling of the appropriate response to the next expectable hurricane, through the fluctuation of a city’s housing market or the execution of a signature drone strike, there is no such thing as a particular scale at which the defining events and processes of our time are taking place and can be optimally confronted – no more than there is a local realm distinct from a global one. All we have is the planetary interweaving of localised occurrences, describing increasingly nonlinear causal patterns. In this becoming-weather of our world, computational infrastructure plays a crucial role: striating the surface of the earth and returning a smooth space for data currents to flow ever-faster, while new fault lines emerge over the effective control of this information.
While positing a totality as big as the planet is necessary to apprehend the tectonic shifts brought about by planetary-scale computation in the configuration of geopolitical governance, it is also not enough. Indeed, this would simply mean getting rid of any organizational structure, removing the possibility of cutting through the planet’s whole – which remains overwhelmingly vast and dense, and as such doesn’t lend itself to direct apprehension. Getting rid of pre-given scalar categories to organise inquiries and responses to contemporary problems is most often a good idea, but one should be wary not to throw the baby – the possibility of analytical thinking – out with an epistemologically dirty bathwater. As indicated by its etymology – as a ladder or flight of steps – the notion of scale is intrinsically plural: a fundamental tool of analysis, it allows the breaking down of an issue or an answer into correlated parts, the resulting parts being held together by their particular, ‘scalar’ correlation. Today, while the metric of distance employed to define geographical scales may no longer be appropriate to account for meaningful relations in our planetary condition, the solution is not to get rid of any metric, of any organizational principle enabling to breakdown a problem into correlated parts. On the contrary, a key challenge today is to imagine new ways of measuring our planet, and accordingly, to partition the planetary processes and phenomena into frames we can apprehend and act upon in meaningful ways.
In this regard, the layers of the Stack already formulate a response to this challenge. They breakdown an original planetary totality into correlated subsets, the nature of which is not scalar but operational. Each layer corresponds to a particular domain of operation in the computing meta-machine that the book imagines. Any single computational request – take the example of sending an email to someone – will traverse all layers of the Stack, often back and forth several times. But regardless of the diversity of machinic entities that compose each layer, these are brought together by the very nature of the operation they perform at that particular layer. For example, the Earth layer is primarily concerned with the extraction of the matter and energy required by computation, as well as their distribution across a planetary grid. At the other end, the User layer encompasses everything that takes part in the process of individuation of the subjects of computation, the outputs of which increasingly venture below, above, and beyond the level of the individual human. The key advantage of this particular subdivision of the totality initially posited over a typical scalar one is that layers bring things together on the basis of their operational role, rather that their mere physical proximity. As such the Stack is as much an abstract machine as it is an analytical and design tool: it comes with a lens set that attempts to keep problems in focus as they travel, splinter and cluster across an ever thickening technosphere.
Only some empirical work of analysis and design with the proposed categories can tell if the layers of the Stack, as they have been defined here in theory, are valid and useful ones; or, whether a different subdivision, a different primary composition, is necessary in order to truly grasp, and intervene into, the reconfiguration of power structures brought about by the phenomenon of planetary computation. Regardless, the epistemological manoeuvre deployed by the book – positing an interconnected totality and defining its components based on the particular role they respectively play – has value much beyond the topic of computation. At any rate, it calls for analogous explorations from different entry points into the planetary totality, from climate change to warfare or debt.
As it diagrams a particular articulation of Earth and subjects, “The Stack” is also a direct response to the problem of “cognitive mapping” raised by Frederic Jameson; namely, that of the crippling mismatch between the individual subject’s phenomenological experience and the truth of its “structural coordinates” in the world. In his well-known essay, after mocking the default refusal of any totalising theory that is characteristic of post-modernism, Jameson goes on to illustrate the political stake of the problem of cognitive mapping by quoting (not without a certain irony) Team 10 architect Aldo Van Eyck: “But if society has no form, how can architects build its counter-form?”. Reviving a long-gone tradition of visionary if naive theoretical ambition, “The Stack” does exactly that: it gives form to a society as a whole – a planetary entanglement of humans, algorithms, minerals, and LOLcats. Given the West’s long-term condition of political fatigue, it may be time to restart praising such efforts, rather than decrying them for their lack of de rigueur theoretical particularity.
DESIGN AND USER
The book dives deeper into its own hubris: not only does it take on the challenge of drawing a new and up-to-date geopolitical world map, but it does so with a view to make the whole planet available for (re-)design. The author himself presents it as “a book of design theory.” By that, one should not understand a manual of political theory for designers and architects; what is at stake is not the translation of a discourse about governance into one of design. Rather, design is recognised here as the key problem – as well as the primary mode of actualisation – of the new configurations of power that the book attempts to grasp.
In this regard, a close companion to “The Stack” is Keller Easterling’s “Extrastatecraft: The Power of Infrastructure Space” (Verso, 2014). Arguably, once brought together under the same lens, these two works open up an important new chapter in the examination of the problem of agency which has haunted the architectural discourse since the early seventies, offering a new line of flight out of the dialectic of autonomy and contingency. Following that very line, it is no longer a question of assessing whether architecture’s ambitions are aligned with the discourse of power; and if they aren’t, debating whether architects should withdraw into an introspective yet righteous disciplinary practice, or to engage and negotiate with murky urban agendas. Here we are venturing beyond the political “as a discursive realm transcendent of the physical urban polis itself” – a framework within which architecture was expected to merely symbolize, manifest, or actualise a political project existing somewhere else. The sovereignty of platforms, the power of infrastructure space, are essentially immanent to their technical organisation, to their spatial configuration, to their “disposition”. As such, design is to such forms of power what rhetoric is to forum-based politics: a crucial means of bending opinions, of activating policies, of doing politics. Another way of expressing the notion of “computation as governance” is to speak about the conflation of “architectural, computational, and political” programs into one, which is nowhere more manifest than in the operation of platforms. Increasingly, governance is what we get as an attachment to service-provision.
As design moves to the forefront of this new political geography in the making, it brings alongside with it an unescapable question: design for whom? Who is the target user? Far from reducing platforms to their coercive effects, in several occasions the book highlights their emancipatory potential; namely, how platforms may help users to circumvent policies of exclusion and denial or rights that states implement against them. Taking the example of illegalised migrants crossing into the US helped by GPS devices they purchased at a WalMart in Mexico, the idea that platforms grant users access to their infrastructure regardless of their status as (non-)citizen in the eyes of a state is particularly telling about the on-going reconfiguration of power relations that this overlapping of sovereignties is generating. On the one hand, everyone is increasingly a subject of multiple sovereignties and jurisdictions simultaneously, which, at times, opens up the possibility of playing one against the other in order to pursue one’s own goals. But more importantly, the hybridisation of states and platforms profoundly transforms the status of the user-subject – the latter no longer being attached to a given individual human, but rather to a mere position within a system, a data shadow, that can interchangeably be occupied by a crowd or only a segment of an individual entity. Deleuze’s “dividuals” are pullulating. The author is right to quickly shift the question of “design for whom?”, to one of “design of whom?”. As we entrust platforms with the management and mediation of ever more facets of our lives, the particular architecture of each of those platforms ends up, by extension, delineating the contours of our own contingent subjectivity. What is more, the universally inclusive character of platforms – most often a mere manifestation of their ruthlessly expansionist agenda – means that we, as in us humans, are just one of the different substances that new composite target users are made of. And perhaps already a secondary one.
Rather than warning us against it, the author appears to welcome the emergence of not- quite-human platform users and their gain of importance as valid subjects of planetary governance. After all, isn’t the excessive anthropocentrism of human societies largely responsible for their messing up of the whole planet’s ecosystem? This is where “The Stack”’s most daring proposition is articulated: a call for a form of design – and consequently a form of politics – that doesn’t start nor end with the individual human as its subject. Reminding of Donna Haraway’s invocation of the “cyborg” as a potential figure of emancipatory politics to be constructed, or Sadie Plant’s call to move from “a question of liberation” of women and men to one of “engineering”, the kind of design invoked in the book is one that addresses its subjects and objects in a single movement. Design as an equation in two variables.
As inspiring as this idea may be, the book does not expand much on its concrete implications and possible applications. The question of the imagination and design of new valid subjects for the planet can only be a politically pregnant one when posed alongside the companion question: “design by whom?”. On this critical point, the book would have benefitted from a more grounded discussion on how platforms are to be appropriated and inflected, how they can be shaped by users’ desires, how new users and subjects are to be shaped in return, and who will actually design the Stack to come. The West may well be undergoing another “Copernican trauma” with regard to the dislocation of the individual human subject from the centre of the computational universe. But the impending climate catastrophe also means that there is little time to muse over the fabrication of the post-human(ist) subject of the future; unless we – the privileged users of the very technology that largely contributes to climatic deregulation – declare that, as we endeavour to re-design ourselves and our world as hybrids, we do not mind doing without the radical subjective alterity of the indigenous communities in the front lines of climate change, which are being wiped out at a faster rate than the Western capacity to learn from their already hybrid cosmologies and subjectivities. No doubt that we need the far-reaching gaze of speculation to push the limits of the possible today; but speculative efforts won’t be of much help if they don’t consolidate in a theory of design and politics capable of supporting action in the present – within and against its emergencies.
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Philadelphia Presbytery 300, Philadelphia
Abington Presbyterian Church, Abington, PA, undated.
Malachi Jones organized the Abington Presbyterian Church in 1714, and later that same year The Presbytery received him into its membership. Jones purchased a tract of land on Old York Road below Susquehanna Road and in 1719 sold to the church one-half acre of ground upon which to build a church and establish a burial ground. In 1793 a new church was built on the west side of Old York Road, a commanding site where Abington members still gather to worship, study, and join in various service activities.
Abington pastors and members participated in the establishment of six other Presbyterian churches in eastern Montgomery County: 1861, Huntingdon Valley; 1881, Jenkintown, Grace; 1878, Elkins Park, Ashbourne; 1882, Edge Hill, Carmel; 1883, Fox Chase, Memorial; and 1924, Willow Grove.
For more than two hundred years, Abington was a small rural church that began to grow with the development of the area after World War I. In 1925 a Parish House was built and by 1930, the session reported 588 members and 424 enrolled in the Sunday school. After World War II, further residential and commercial development in Abington contributed to a membership explosion. In 1957 a large Christian Education Building was dedicated and a year later construction began on an enlarged sanctuary building. Membership in 1960 reached 2,539, and the church school registered 1,463 pupils. This was not the end of the church's growth. Membership peaked in the early 1970s at over 3000 communicants but has since slowly but steadily declined to roughly 900 today.
Presently, the church stands in the midst of a widely diverse religious community. It continues a number of mission and youth initiatives; several, such as the Westminster Choir program, were adopted many years ago. The Music At Abington concert series was begun in the early 1970s and continues today. The church recently completed a major capital campaign that refurbished the Parish House building. The church’s historic cemetery was awarded a start historic marker in 1992.
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Tag: itinerary
Feb 21, 2019 Feb 25, 2019 homeintheair3 Comments
By Homeintheair (Instagram: @Homeintheair)
During my 10 hours visit to Jerusalem I got a mild form of the famous Jerusalem Syndrome. I was so amazed by all the holy and historical sites. It is truly the most culturally dense city in the world. But Palestine is much more than just Jerusalem. The country is filled with historical sites.
However, during the Nakba the Israeli’s initiated a military program to erase as much non-jewish heritage from the country as possible. This meant the demolishing of some of the most holy sites in Islam and Christianity. Of course the Islamic sites has been hit the hardest, due to the Pope’s intervention which saved some Christian sites and made it possible for hundred thousands of the Christian Palestinians to return after being expelled in the first place.
Nonetheless countless of mosques and churches were either destroyed completely or turned into synagogues, warehousing, horse stables, nightclubs or the like. The exact number is of course disputed but both sides agrees that at least 570 villages were completely destroyed by the Israelis where each one had probably 1-2 mosques. On top of that comes the bigger towns and cities that were destroyed and the many muslim neighborhoods in Jerusalem. You can do the math.
So finally, I have a huge interest in discovering lost places. I seriously should have been an archaeologist! Some of these places I discovered while doing research for my itinerary for my next visit to Palestine. My researcher gene took over and I listed those 10 significant holy sites that were destroyed by Israel during the Nakba and until today. Number in parenthesis is the year of destruction.
1. Nabi Rubin (Reuben son of Jacob) (1948)
Nabi Rubin was one of the most popular sites in Palestine before 1948. The mosque housed Reuben’s grave and every year one of the largest festivals in Palestine would take place here. The festival included singing, dancing the Dabke, distribution of colorful candy, sufi prayers, horse races and magic shows. The festival was so exciting, that Palestinian women from afar would tell their husbands: “Either you take me to Nabi Rubin or you divorce me!”. In 1947 the last festival was held. The next year the city was razed by the Israelis and the mosque destroyed.
Today, Jews are trying to claim the ruins of the shrine to be one of their own, but their plans has been facing difficulty since Jewish tradition place the grave of Reuben somewhere very different.
The Nabi Rubin Festival before 1948
2. Nabi Yamin (Prophet Benjamin) (1948)
This mosque was not destroyed but converted into a synagoge and prohibited muslim entrance even though the place in the first place was holy to muslims only. Before 1948 the place was not considered holy by the original Palestinian Jews (the Yishuv Jews), nor was it considered the true burial place of Benjamin.
Nabi Yamin mosqye turned into a Synagoge
3. Nabi Shuayb and Mosque of Hittin (1948)
Hittin was a very special city to muslims. Here Saladdin won the battle against the crusaders that lead to the reconquest of the holy land. He built the city and the mosque in this place where the tomb of Nabi Shuayb happened to be. Nabi Shuayb has always been important to the Druze population of Palestine. Muslims and Druze shared this mosque until Hittin was destroyed by Israel in 1948. The mosque of Hittin was completely destroyed and ruins can still be visited while they gave the mosque of Nabi Shuayb exclusively to the Druze as a payment for them to join the Israeli forces.
Nabi Shuayb still looking like a mosque from the inside
4. Nabi Samt (Judge Samson) (1948)
This shrine contained both the tomb of Samson and his father Manoah. It was destroyed with the city of Sar’a (Zorah). After it was proven that the tomb actually belonged to the two holy people, the ruins of the city has been taken over by Israel as an important archeological site.
5. Al-Nabi Yusha’ (Joshua) (1948)
This was the name of a small village that also housed the tomb of Joshua. The village was under French control during the colonization and therefore, officially, a part of Lebanon. However, the French decided to leave the village to the British who were colonizing Palestine. The British gave Palestine to the Jews which included this originally Lebanese village. And yes, they destroyed it all including the tomb. Ruins can still be found but are rarely visited.
What is left of Nabi Yusha Shrine
6. Al-Hussein mosque, Ashkalon (1950)
This site was the holiest to muslims outside of Jerusalem. Here the head of the grandson of Prophet Muhammad was buried. The shrine was said to be the most magnificent building in Ashkalon at the time. This having absolutely no value for Jews, it was the most important mosque for zionists to erase. Today a medical center has been built on the grave.
Pilgrims going to the Al-Hussein Shrine in 1943
7. Sheikh Eid mosque, Jerusalem (1967)
The destruction of this mosque is part of the story of the destruction of one of the most historical areas in Jerusalem, the Moroccan Quarter. This quarter of Jerusalem dates back to Saladdin’s era and the Sheikh Eid Mosque was the biggest and most prominent in this quarter. The whole quarter was destroyed in order to make room for a big square where 200.000 Jews could stand in front of the Buraq Wall (Wailing wall). The residence got 15 minutes warning to leave their houses before the demolishing. Those who did not leave, were killed by the bulldozers wrecking their walls down.
The Moroccan quarter. I cannot believe I actually stood there just right there not knowing what thriving life has been here once.
8. Al Buraq mosque, Jerusalem (1967)
This mosque was also destroyed during the raze on the Moroccan Quarter. This mosque however, was the second most holy to muslims in Jerusalem. It was built where muslims believe that prophet Muhammad tied his divinely sent horse (the Buraq). One of the leaders behind this demolition said “”Why shouldn’t the mosque be sent to Heaven, just as the magic horse did?”. The basement of the mosque, I believe, is still accessible today.
9. Al-Khadra Mosque, Nablus (2002)
The Nakba never really ended. So I have included a very historical mosque that was destroyed not long time ago. This mosque was built on the holy site where Prophet Jacob cried after believing Joseph had been killed. The mosque is also named “Sadness of our Lord Jacob”.
Nablus is a large city belonging to the Palestinians on the West Bank. In 2002, Israel razed the city and their bulldozers destroyed countless UNESCO heritage sites including this mosque and Abd Al-Hadi Palace.
10. Siksik Mosque, Jaffa (1948)
This mosque is one of the examples of how they used mosques to other purposes after conquering land. This mosque was first turned into a Bulgarian restaurant, then a nightclub and then a warehouse for a plastic factory. And this is the fate of many mosques and churches as well in the bigger cities.
Maybe at some point I will research the churches and do a blog post about those too. And of course, there are countless more holy sites I did not include. There are also palaces, archeological sites, hamams and historical city centers that were completely destroyed that I did not include here. Long story short: thousand years of heritage was destroyed in this country, but ruins remain for us to go and explore which I would love to have the chance to do.
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Could the Night Tube boost rents?
The long-awaited Night Tube finally launched in mid-August, it's expected to give a boost to London’s economy, tourism and jobs market and also expected to have a significant impact on the capital’s property market.
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North Winter
Posted on March 23, 2019 by Jenny
In January, H+R returned to Wakefield’s Victorian Rutland Mills complex to update our timber decay survey of March 2017 in support of our client’s purchase from the Local Authority. The multi-million redevelopment of the former industrial mill buildings is part of the larger Wakefield Waterfront development which is expected to be complete by the end of 2022. The site neighbours The Hepworth Wakefield where world-renowned garden designer Tom Stuart-Smith is currently transforming a patch of wasteland between the two sites into a sculpture garden. To the centre of the garden there is a small listed gatehouse which is to be converted into a café. We were instructed by the gallery’s Architect to undertake a condition survey and provide consultancy on the architectural detailing to ensure best performance.
Hepworth Wakefield
H+R were instructed by Scott Hughes Design to undertake a material analysis of the brickwork and mortar of the derelict Ancoats Dispensary in Manchester. The building is to be transformed into affordable housing after ‘devastated’ campaigners admitted defeat in their battle to save the local landmark. Opening in 1828, the much-needed voluntary hospital provided healthcare for those working in one of the most heavily industrialised and densely populated suburbs in the city. The local population was principally textile workers and Irish labourers who, in this period in Manchester, had a life expectancy of 17 years!
At H+R we are regularly commissioned to investigate external timber bridge structures which typically come with their own set of challenges, notably access and working over water. In support of a Structural Engineer we were recently instructed by Chester Zoo to investigate the condition of one of their bridges, which not only was over water but also spanned a cheetah enclosure – a first for H+R. We’re glad to report that all surveyors lived to tell the tale! Whilst taking lunch, our surveyors explored the zoo. However, it wasn’t the elephants, giraffes or rhinos that caught their attention -rather, a building defect new to any textbook
A survey close to home recently included the investigation of a timber roof structure of a former bar in Manchester city centre, a bar that will go down in Madchester history. Dry Bar (catalogue number Fac201) was opened by Factory Records on Oldham Street in 1989 in what was then a semi-derelict area of the city centre. Tony Wilson declared that ‘Dry is to be to the bars what the Hacienda is to clubs’ and thus it became a flagship for progression in the heart of what would become the Northern Quarter. Famously, Shaun Ryder and Liam Gallagher were amongst the many who were barred. The building which was bought for £4m has been granted planning permission to be converted into a 69-bedroom boutique hotel
North Summer
News and Technical Information
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Celebrity (UPDATE) #GSCinemas: Kris Wu Yifan’s “Somewhere Only We Know” To Get Malaysian...
(UPDATE) #GSCinemas: Kris Wu Yifan’s “Somewhere Only We Know” To Get Malaysian Release?
Surprise, surprise!
Kris Wu Yifan‘s diehard fans will be glad to know that his first movie, “Somewhere Only We Know“, will be brought into Malaysia by our friends from GSC Movies! GSC Movie Sdn Bhd is Malaysia’s leading independent movie distributor with the largest variety in movie entertainment. They also distribute non-mainstream and award-winning films such as The King’s Speech, The Fighter, Slumdog Millionaire, and Departures to cater to the more discerning viewer.
More recently, they announced that they’ll be screening “Naruto: The Last” at selected GSC outlets nationwide.
“Somewhere Only We Know” (有一个地方只有我们知道) is an upcoming 2015 Chinese romantic drama film directed by Xu Jinglei. The movie will be based on the romantic endeavours of a career woman and star other rookie actors, although ex-EXO member Kris will play the male lead. Filming started on 24th June this year in Prague, Czech Republic, not long after Kris filed for lawsuit against SM Entertainment. Kris also penned and recorded a song titled, “There Is A Place” for the movie.
The main “Somewhere Only We Know” cast consists of:
Xu Jinglei herself
Kris Wu Yifan
Wang Likun
Re Yizha
In case you missed the teaser trailer, watch it here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x4l3B3Nczro
“Somewhere Only We Know” is expected to be released on Valentine’s Day 2015.
But wait, on to the bigger news! As mentioned above, GSC Movies will be bringing the film to Malaysia. We know this because GSC Movies posted up several “teasers” on their Facebook page, indicating will be able to watch it after all 😉
The first teaser was posted on 21st Jan:
Post by GSCMOVIES.
While the second was posted on 23rd Jan:
Note: Both teasers’ captions quote the movie.
No further details about the “Somewhere Only We Know” screening has been released as of yet though. One thing’s for sure – Malaysian fans of “galaxy fanfan” will definitely be able to watch him in action in his first ever film 😉
UPDATE (5th Feb.)]:
Finally, it has been confirmed that “Somewhere Only We Know” will be shown in Malaysia!
However, according to GSC Movies’ Facebook page, the movie will only be shown for a week this Valentine’s Day. GSC has not released any details about the movie showtimes yet and it is unclear if the film will get a limited release in Malaysia. As of now, it’s confirmed that the movie is slated for release on 12th Feb 2015 and it will be shown until 18th Feb 2015.
For more information, hit up GSC Movies’ Facebook page.
#KrisWuYiFan
Wuyifan
크리스
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What Is Kris Wu’s Relationship With Japanese Model Mitsuki Kimura?
The Reason Why Kris Wu Has Been Putting On Weight
Kris Wu Opens Up About The Struggles He Had As EXO Member
Did Luna Leaked Kris Wu’s Private Conversation? Who Is Han Qiyuan?
6 Fun Facts We Know About Kris Wu’s Mysterious New Girlfriend, Luna
Kris Wu Dating History: Girlfriend, Exes & Bedroom Picture
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Habits Expert Charles Duhigg Dives Into the Science Behind Productivity Hacks
“This act of allowing yourself to think is very, very useful because it’s a structured time when we force ourselves to think more deeply about our lives, about the choices that we’re making.”
By Editors Feb 12, 2018
READ ON TO DISCOVER:
How to make the most of your to-do list
Why SMART goals are so, well, smart
The reason why Saturday Night Live should’ve been a flop, but isn’t
Charles Duhigg is a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and bestselling author of The Power of Habit and Smarter Faster Better: The Transformative Power of Real Productivity. He joined Ryan Hawk, host of The Learning Leader Show, to discuss the key habits that separate the most productive and successful people from the pack.
Ryan: Through all of your work and studying that you’ve done on habits and ways to be more productive in life and business, what are some of the common characteristics of leaders who have sustained excellence over an extended period of time?
Charles: The biggest thing that researchers find about why some people are more successful than others is that they seem to have habits that push themselves to think more deeply. One of the things about modern-day life is that it is possible to be busy every minute of the day and still get nothing really important done. You could spend an entire day replying to emails and sitting in on meetings, and at the end of the day or week, realize you did not do anything that actually aligns with your deepest goals.
The people who are most successful and most productive tend to have what psychologists call “contemplative routines.” These habits are part of their lives that push themselves to think more deeply about their priorities and the choices that they’re making. They think about how teams work together or how to push themselves to self-motivate.
Ryan: You say the best to-do list strategy is to pair stretch goals and SMART goals. Can you share more [about] the process?
Charles: When most people write a to-do list, they use it as an external memory aid. They just write down a list of things that they want to get done. What we know is that your brain will focus on the things that are easiest, the things that you can get done the fastest. In fact, about 15% of people will actually write down on their to-do list something that they’ve already accomplished because it feels so good to cross it off and feel that vicarious thrill of productivity. But that’s using a to-do list not for productivity but for mood repair.
What’s more important is to structure your to-do list in a way that pushes you to think about your priorities. At the top of your to-do list, you should write your stretch goal—this can be the most important thing you want to get done this week or this month or this year, but [must be] at the top of that list so that every single time you look at it, you are reminded, “This is the number one most important thing I ought to be focused on right now.”
The problem with writing a big stretch goal, though, is that it can feel overwhelming. The reason we’ve been putting it off is because it scares us a little bit. The question becomes, “How do we translate a stretch goal into a plan, and how do we do that efficiently?”
One of the methods that researchers recommend is SMART goals. S, specifically what do I want to get done first? M, measurable. How am I going to measure whether it’s a success or not? A, let me just make sure this is achievable, this is something that I can actually do. R, am I set up to be realistic about this? T, what’s the timeline? It only takes 45 seconds to do these, but then [you] actually have a plan. It seems so much easier to start because [you] know what the first step is.
Ryan: The Five Minute Journal is something I write in and the basic premise of it is that you take five minutes in the morning and five minutes at night to write three of your goals for the day and talk about three things that you are grateful for. You want to [exercise] that muscle in your brain to be grateful and happy for what you have. How do you think that plays out within what you do?
“Life is not just all about productivity.”
Charles: Let’s draw a distinction—there’s practices that we develop in order to be productive, and there’s practices that we develop in order to be happy. It’s important to recognize the difference there. Both of these are really, really important, but when we focus on gratitude, that’s not because it makes us more productive, it’s because it makes our life more pleasurable. Life is not just all about productivity. We know from a lot of the happiness studies that [gratitude] will actually make you more content, and that being content and at peace helps you figure out what your goals actually are, what you actually want to get done with your life. Now, what’s interesting is that when we look at these practices that people use to reflect on themselves, one of the oldest ones that’s received the most study is prayer, simply because prayer has been such a part of human activities for almost longer than anything else. There’s a number of studies on meditation as well, but prayer has been studied far more.
Prayer tends to break down into two categories. There is the type of prayer that allows people to reflect on what they have and allows them to work through, “Do I have enough? Am I happy with what I have? Am I sufficiently grateful?” Then there’s another category of prayer which tends to be focused on what is going to happen in the future, which is really a planning activity. Prayer is one of the best contemplative practices we know, whether we call it prayer or meditation or just taking a walk and thinking about life. This act of allowing yourself to think is very, very useful because it’s a structured time when we force ourselves to think more deeply about our lives, about the choices that we’re making.
If you look at the evolution of prayer and meditation, 300 years ago, prayer used to be an almost exclusively solitary activity. You did not go into a church in order to pray. People tended to pray on their own. Then there was essentially the codification of prayer as a led activity, which is to say that there was someone at the front of the room, a priest or a monk or someone, who would give you some type of intention to pray on. They would read a piece of scripture or share part of the Quran or some piece of Buddhist learning and ask you to reflect on that.
Much like the SMART goal process, one of the things that we know about contemplative routines is that when they have a structure around them, they tend to become much more powerful. Because if a contemplative routine is purely just enjoyable and relaxing, it tends not to push us to think about hard things. But if we have some type of intention, like a passage of scripture or a Confucian ideal that we’re being asked to reflect upon, it oftentimes pushes us to think more deeply about a specific question which otherwise we might avoid because it’s a hard question to answer.
Ryan: I’d like to dig more specifically into mental models. A pilot in a story that you share in Smarter Faster Better says, “You can’t delegate thinking. Computers fail, checklists fail, everything can fail, but people can’t. We have to make decisions, and that includes deciding what deserves our attention. The key is forcing yourself to think. As long as you’re thinking, you’re halfway home.” I’d love to expand on the mental models approach and some of your research on putting this together for your book Smarter Faster Better.
Charles: Mental models are really, really interesting because they’re essentially how our brain decides what to focus on and what it can safely ignore. A mental model is basically a story we tell ourselves about ourselves as our day proceeds. One of the things that we know is that the people who are more productive than others tend to have more robust mental models. Their mental models are a little bit more detailed than everyone else’s.
A lot of what we know about mental models comes from studying people like firefighters. Why are some firefighters so much better than others? The best firefighters, when they walk into a burning building, they tend to start telling themselves a story right away about what they see. They walk into a room and they say, “Okay. In this room, I expect to see that the flames are big in that corner. There’s a staircase over there, and I expect to see the staircase have a lot of flames on it because stairs burn faster than other parts of a building.”
As a result, when they walk into that room and they’re telling themselves that story and they look at the stairs and the stairs have fewer flames than they expect, it makes them think to themselves, “Okay. Pay attention to those stairs. There’s something going on there that might be worrisome or that I just need to pay attention to. I can ignore the other corner because it looks basically like what I expected.”
Think about when you walk into your office in the morning—there’s all these distractions. Your phone is buzzing in your pocket, there are emails waiting to be responded to, there are people knocking on your door asking if you can come to a meeting. What we know is that the executives who tend to be most successful visualize or tell themselves a story about their upcoming day that’s [slightly] more detailed than everyone else.
“Mental models are really, really interesting because they’re essentially how our brain decides what to focus on and what it can safely ignore.”
Most of us say, “Okay. I’ve got a meeting from 10 till 11 o’clock.” The best executives will say, “Okay. I have a meeting from 10 till 11 o’clock. If I just imagine what’s going to happen, it’s going to start with Jim bringing up that dumb idea he always brings up. Then Susie’s going to disagree with him because Susie always disagrees with Jim. At that moment, if I come in with my idea, I’m going to look like the peacemaker. Everyone’s going to think I’m brilliant.” They tell themselves a story about what they expect to occur that day.
The reason why that’s really powerful is because our brain relies on that narrative to decide in a split second, “Pay attention to this. You can safely ignore that.” Building these mental models, getting into the habit of telling ourselves stories about what is going on as it occurs, that is really powerful in terms of preparing our brain to decide what to focus on and what distractions we should not allow to consume us.
“As long as you’re thinking, you’re halfway home.”
Ryan: Your work is full of fascinating stories. Can you explain the principle that explains why Saturday Night Live is a hit show?
Charles: That focuses on teams and why some teams are more successful than others. One of the things that we know is that the most successful teams, they tend to have what’s known as “psychological safety.” It was based on [research] looking at Google. For many years, Google tried to build the perfect team. Initially they thought that the perfect team was reliant on putting the right people together. [But] what they figured out is that who is on a team matters much, much less than how a team interacts. If you have the right culture and norms on a team, the right behaviors, then almost any team can be successful.
There are two norms that are more important than anything else. The first is that everyone gets to speak in a roughly equal proportion. The second is that people show each other that they’re listening, or they engage in ostentatious listening behaviors where they do things like repeat what someone just said or say, “What I hear you saying is this.” Or they pick up on non-verbal cues, so they say, “Jim, I haven’t heard you say anything in a little while, and it looks like you’re not that into this conversation. Can you tell me what’s going on inside your head?” When you have those two behaviors, people all speaking up in roughly equal proportion and people showing each other that they’re listening, you get this thing called psychological safety.
“If you have the right culture and norms on a team, the right behaviors, then almost any team can be successful.”
Psychological safety studies show that it’s the single greatest correlate with a team being effective as a unit. Saturday Night Live is a great example of that. When you think about it, Saturday Night Live should have been a disaster. Comedians are not people who get along very easily, and the thing about Saturday Night Live is that if your sketch goes on, someone else’s sketch is getting cut.
The reason why Saturday Night Live worked and the reason why it’s worked for 40 years is because Lorne Michaels forces psychological safety. If you sit in on a meeting with Lorne Michaels, executive producer of Saturday Night Live, he will force you to speak up. You can’t make it out of that room without that guy forcing you to talk. He listens ostentatiously. Any time someone says something, he says, “That’s a great idea. What I hear you saying is X and Y and Z.” Other people start mirroring that behavior. John Belushi says to Dan Aykroyd, “What I hear you saying is this thing,” and picking up non-verbal cues. Lorne Michaels creates psychological safety, and that’s why Saturday Night Live became such a hit.
This conversation has been edited and condensed. To listen to Charles and Ryan’s full conversation, click here.
More Conversations
The Selfish Case for Becoming More Grateful
What a Journalist Learned by Pretending to Be a Famous Actor at the Oscars
How to S-P-A-R-K Meaningful Connections at Work
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Books That Facilitate Empathy: Poverty
Children’s books about poverty are important. For one, kids need to see themselves in stories. Reading about someone who is poor just like you are is affirming. Additionally, for those kids who don’t know what poverty is like, these stories build empathy and understanding about poverty and homelessness. Here’s a list of children’s books about being poor and homeless.
Maddi’s Fridge by Lois Brandt, illustrated by Vin Vogel (ages 4+)
Sofia finds out that Maddi’s fridge has no food but Maddi doesn’t want Sofia to tell anyone. Sofia really wants to help Maddi but how can she?
Yard Sale by Eve Bunting, illustrated by Lauren Castillo (ages 4+)
Callie’s family must sell everything to move to a smaller home. It’s sad but this family faces the change with courage and love.
Last Stop on Market Street by Matt de la Peña, illustrated by Christian Robinson (ages 4+)
CJ and his grandma ride the bus across town and CJ notices differences about the neighborhoods. Caldecott winner!
The Can Man by Laura E. Williams, illustrated by Craig Orback (ages 4+)
Tim starts collecting the cans that the Can Man normally collects. Tim’s taken the homeless man’s only way to make money and he realizes some big truths. It’s a powerful story that shows Tim realizing the world doesn’t revolve around him and that his actions have consequences.
The Hundred Dresses by Eleanor Estes (ages 6 – 9)
Classmates including Maddie tease a girl in their class, Wanda, who says she has 100 dresses at home. When Maddie visits Wanda’s house, she discovers the bittersweet truth — she might not have real dresses but she has drawings of 100 dresses. This is a book that will teach kindness and empathy.
Almost Home by Joan Bauer (ages 8 – 12)
A great teacher, a rescue dog, and a love of poetry help Sugar face the challenges of homelessness.
How to Steal a Dog by Barbara O’Connor (ages 8 – 12)
Georgina thinks that she can help get them out of living in their car if she can get the reward money for a lost dog. Now she just has to steal a dog. . . It’s a sweet story with an unexpected friendship that comes to mean the world to Georgina.
Front Desk by Kelly Yang (ages 9 – 12)
Mia and her parents have struggled ever since moving to America from China. When her parents take a new live-in job at a motel, they end up working around the clock for very little pay. Mia helps out by working at the front desk. She befriends the weekly tenants and uses her English skills to write letters advocating other people in tough spots— like her uncle whose sweatshop boss has taken his passport and weekly, Hank, who needs a letter of recommendation to get a job. This book is more than a memorable coming-of-age immigrant story, it’s also about tolerance and diversity and as the author says at the end, “what happens when you include [others]…despite all your suffering and heartache…” I loved this story— the writing, the characters, the plot, and the messages of inclusion and determination. Added to: Best Middle-Grade Chapter Books of 2018
No Fixed Address by Susin Nielsen (ages 9 – 12)
Felix doesn’t want to tell anyone that he’s been living in a van for months and months. His mom, Astrid, is worried about social services taking him so he keeps quiet even though he really wants a bathroom. His hope is that he can win his favorite TV game show so they’ll finally have enough money to get an apartment. One of the things I loved about this story is how it shows a child’s love for a parent despite all the parent’s flaws–and his mom has many like lying and not holding down a job. It also depicts homelessness as circumstances beyond a child’s control — which is something most kids don’t know or think to consider. This well-written book is beautiful, important, and highly recommended.
The Benefits of Being an Octopus by Ann Braden (ages 9 – 12)
This is a well-written story with an emotional poignancy about poverty and unhealthy relationships. Zoey is trying to stay hidden to survive her life but it’s not easy. She and her siblings are living with their mom’s newest boyfriend in his trailer. She’s required to care for her siblings while her mom works …all the while avoiding making a mess or any noise. A kind teacher at school persists with a reluctant, non-participative Zoey, encouraging her to try debate club. It’s that activity that eventually gives Zoey the courage and perspective to talk to her mom about everything — from her mom’s boyfriend’s belittling to her own friend getting threatened with a gun. That conversation changes everything for their family for the better…
Okay for Now by Gary D. Schmidt (ages 9 – 12)
One of the best chapter books I’ve ever read whose characters I felt deeply connected to… The main character, Doug, is struggling to read while living in poverty with an abusive dad and older brother. What saves him is connecting to a librarian who shows him Audobon’s bird paintings and how to draw. It’s excellent!!!!
Just Under the Clouds by Melissa Sarno (ages 9 – 12)
This is a coming-of-age story about what makes a home, family, and friends. Cora is responsible for her little sister, Adare, while her mom works. Cora loves climbing and trees but doesn’t love not having a home or any friends. When their mom takes them to stay with an old friend, it finally feels like a home. And she makes a friend at school, one who understands what it’s like to not have a permanent home because she lives in a houseboat. Moving and well-written.
The Junction Between Sunshine and Lucky by Holly Schindler (ages 8 – 12)
Auggie worries that her town’s beautification committee will condemn her grandpa’s unusual house of repurposed objects.
The Same Stuff as Stars by Katherine Paterson (ages 8 – 12)
Angel’s mother abandons Angel and her brother at their ancient great-grandmother’s run-down trailer home. Making things more bearable is a mysterious neighbor who teaches Angel about constellations, sparking a passion for astronomy. Another amazing story from Paterson.
Out of the Dust by Karen Hesse (ages 8 – 12)
They’re dirt poor, her mother dies, her father is sick, and the constant dust storms cover the world. Billie Jo narrates it all in free verse and manages to find the grit to keep going.
Homecoming by Cynthia Voigt (ages 12+)
I read this series in high school & love that it still is relevant today. Dicey’s mom abandons she and her three siblings at a mall forcing the kids to forage for food, hide, and keep going onward as they try to get to a safe place, their great-aunt’s home.
The Dogs of Winter by Bobbie Pyron (ages 8 – 12)
Abandoned at age five, Ivan’s forced to live on the streets. He lives with a pack of dogs, becoming almost as feral as his pack. Like many books on this list, this is pretty sad to imagine how hungry his days are and how much he has lost but it is very worth reading.
Crenshaw by Katherine Applegate (ages 8 – 12)
After having lost their home and living in their van for 3 months, the family is now about to lose their apartment. It isn’t until his imaginary friend Crenshaw shows up and pushes Jackson to speak the truth to his parents that Jackson learns that he’s not facing these challenges alone.
Paper Things by Jennifer Richard Jacobson (ages 8 – 12)
Gage and his little sister, Ari, are moving from one friend’s couch to another, trying to save up enough money for their own apartment. Ari wants to stay with her brother, go to school, do homework, and have enough to eat. But will they make it on their own? Bittersweet and heart-wrenching.
Trash by Andy Mulligan (ages 8 – 12)
Survival means picking through piles of trash. Until Raphael finds something making him determined to fix the corruption and injustice in their city.
No and Me by Delphine de Vigan (ages 12+)
Lou meets No in Paris while researching homeless teens and No moves in with Lou’s family. Their friendship provides an insightful look into family, homelessness, and friendship.
Sorta Like a Rock Star by Matthew Quick (ages 12+)
Amber and her alcoholic mom live in the yellow school bus that her mom drives. Usually Amber is a rock star of hope but after a fatal tragedy, Amber loses hope and faith.
Tyrell by Coe Booth (ages 12+)
He’s living at a homeless shelter and feeling worthless. Certainly, he’s not worthy enough for his girlfriend or staying on the straight and narrow.
Are there any other children’s books about poverty that you recommend for this list?
Learning Differences in Children’s Books
Books That Develop Empathy: Physical Disabilities
Books That Promote Empathy: Immigration
Mental Illness in Children’s Books
Realistic Fiction Books That Develop Empathy
by Melissa Taylor 27 Comments Filed Under: Books, Chapter Books, Education, Elementary, Imagination Soup, Picture Books, Preschool, Reading Tagged With: chapter books, empathy, middle grade, picture books, poverty
April Graney says
Thank you for this list! Such a significant topic to talk with our children about. You may also love my recently released chidlren’s book, The Marvelous Mud House. A story of finding fullness and joy that addresses what we can do to help those living around the world who need help with school fees. http://www.aprilgraney.com/p/the-marvelous-mud-house.html
Melissa Taylor says
thanks! Can’t wait to check it out. 🙂
Ok… I grew up in poverty. We didn’t know whether we were going to eat. We didn’t have money for medications. I rarely saw my parents because they worked every spare moment. I never knew where I would live from.one day to the next as we could rarely make the rent. When we were finally able to settle down in a rundown trailer, I was so happy.
That being said, I do not like some of these books. Some of them are great. Yet, some teach children, in my opinion, that poverty is inescapable. It is not inescapable for most Americans. Hard work and a disciplined approach to money management can get most families in the United States out of poverty. Not all, and that certainly isn’t the case in every country. But here, in the US, we are extremely fortunate. My parents worked themselves silly and they are now solidly in the middle class. As a parent, it taught me that money management is crucial. Accepting help while you need it is important. Learning the difference between true needs and wants is also crucial for breaking the cycle of poverty.
I have not read all of these books and some of them are fantastic for teaching the complexities of poverty (The Yard Sale is a great one). However, if you want to truly show inescapable poverty, you really need books about children growing up in poverty in cou tries with corrupt governments and limited opportunities for work. Those are the situations which are truly dire.
I don’t know… I am not trying to be argumenative, but something just doesn’t sit well with me while reading books like The Can Man.
Pair these books with books on saving, making wise money choices, and world cultures and maybe I would be more comfortable with it. But as someone who grew up not habing money to even wear underwear, I am a little uncomfortable with the idea that some of these books are teaching.
thanks for sharing your perspective.
Ms.K says
As a new teacher I wish that you had put the age categories with each of the books because I hadn’t heared about any of these books, unfortunately. Some you can some what tell what age group they would be for. But with adding the ages it would definitely help lead me in the right direction.
I can do that!
Jean Marie Walker says
I recommend the revealers and all boks by Doug Wilhelm and reaching dustin by Vicki Grove for middle school students.
What about The Little Match Girl? I first was read this book as a child and it speaks to me even more as an adult.
great suggestion, thanks!! It’s such a moving, compelling story.
Danel says
I would like to add “The Rent Collector” for 10+ and “Christmas Oranges” for Christmas time. It is a powerful book. I also like to read the Little House books for this reason. Esp the first few when they had nothing, and for Christmas Laura and Mary receive a new tin drinking cup, and orange and a penny in their sock.
Dianna Rees says
I remember a wonderful children’s picture book that I read to my daughter many times. Titled: Socrates. It was about a homeless dog.
Marion Lougheed says
Great collection of titles. However, saying “most kids” don’t know about poverty seems a bit odd. In Canada 15% of kids officially live below the poverty line and in the United States that number is 21% (yes, 1 in 5). As we all know, living just above the poverty line isn’t exactly not being poor either.
I just wanted to share these numbers so that we can all see how important your post is, and also how badly we are failing our children.
The numbers are startling, yes. The fact is that the majority of kids (over 50%) don’t know what it’s like to live in a homeless shelter, or to go to bed / school hungry because there is no food in the house. Reading can help kids put themselves in the shoes of others with those experiences. This builds empathy. Conversely, reading can help kids who are living in poverty understand that they are not alone and there is hope.
Fly Away Home – Eve Bunting
LOVE that book! I didn’t include it since it’s so different now at airports but maybe I should. Thank you.
Faced with a second grade class with an ever growing circle of “mean girls” I was at a loss on how to turn the tide, as one by one other girls joined the original 2 in order to not be the one picked on. When this group reached where it had encompassed about half of the females in the room. I was reminded of the book “the hundred dresses”. It was brought out and became our read aloud for the month. I would like to say it stopped all of the meanness, but it did not. However, a few left the dark side and there were more who became vocal bystanders to say that what the mean girls were doing was not nice.
wow — really amazing to hear that! Thanks for sharing.
Barbara O'Connor says
So glad to see my book here (How to Steal a Dog). Thank you!
I love how you dealt with such a difficult subject in an accessible way for children — we loved it!
I used this with my gifted and talented class and they loved it!!!
Lauren D. says
This was one of my favorite books to read to my 1st graders.
http://www.amazon.com/Those-Shoes-Maribeth-Boelts/dp/0763642843?ie=UTF8&keywords=those%20shoes&qid=1459471310&ref_=sr_1_1&s=books&sr=1-1
Suzi says
Can’t Get There from Here by Todd Strasser
Also If I Grow Up by Todd Strasser (totally heartbreaking!)
As someone who grew up in a working class neighbourhood, I think it is important to share this with kids because it is an inequity that can permeate all facets of a child/teen’s life. I am a teacher librarian and I wanted to thank you as I have some of these titles in our collection already but will look at some of these other ones to add as well.
thanks for the book suggestions, Suzi!
Yes, for kids who don’t live in these situations, including myself, it’s hard to imagine what it’s like — but so important. It wasn’t until I did home visits for my first class of migrant kindergartners that my eyes were truly opened.
Leslie Young says
My new treasury, just out on AMAZON.COM, is titled PLAID: TALES OF COMPASSION, LOVE, SHARING, and JOY! Teachers are singing its praises!
PLAID: TALES OF COMPASSION, LOVE, SHARING AND JOY, is a 64 page hardback children’s treasury containing four fun, heart warming books. Written by Leslie Young and illustrated by Patricia Field, the tales teach children how to weave PLAID’s four virtues into their daily lives, encouraging them to grow as children with great character. Plaid, a sweet little scottie dog, learns about compassion, love, sharing and joy through his adventures with his friends, Duff and Dooney. The books are used in classrooms to help teach character education. They have been touted as an excellent resource for teaching compassion and empathy to young children. The sweet, playful rhyming tales are appropriate for all ages and ideal for children ages 3-10. Three cheers for friendship! plaidandfriends.com
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The crisis of european sciences and transcendental phenomenology
12.01.2019 12.01.2019 Sara K.
Crisis of European Sciences and Transcendental Phenomenology by Edmund Husserl
The Crisis of European Sciences and Transcendental Phenomenology, Husserls last great work, is important both for its content and for the influence it has had on other philosophers. In this book, which remained unfinished at his death, Husserl attempts to forge a union between phenomenology and existentialism.
Husserl provides not only a history of philosophy but a philosophy of history. As he says in Part I, The genuine spiritual struggles of European humanity as such take the form of struggles between the philosophies, that is, between the skeptical philosophies--or nonphilosophies, which retain the word but not the task--and the actual and still vital philosophies. But the vitality of the latter consists in the fact that they are struggling for their true and genuine meaning and thus for the meaning of a genuine humanity.
File Name: the crisis of european sciences and transcendental phenomenology.zip
The Crisis of European Sciences and Transcendental Phenomenology An Introduction to Phenomenological
Any book that announces in its very title that it will concern itself with a "crisis of the European sciences" immediately invites the suspicion that its ambitions are absurdly overinflated. As philosophers living in the present-day world-situation, he tells us in the first, introductory part, we have fallen into a "painful existential contradiction" Crisis ,
Crisis of European Sciences and Transcendental Phenomenology
Edmund Husserl Northwestern University Press, Evanston, Sections 22 - 25 and 57 - 68, 53 pages in all. On the other hand, this psychology is of service to a theory of knowledge which, compared with the Cartesian one, is completely new and very differently worked out. In Locke's great work this is the actual intent from the start.
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Edmund Husserl. The Crisis of European Sciences and Transcendental Phenomenology, Husserl's last great work, is important both for its content and for the influence it has had on other philosophers. In this book, which remained unfinished at his death, Husserl attempts to forge a union between phenomenology and existentialism. Husserl provides not only a history of philosophy but a philosophy of history. As he says in Part I, "The genuine spiritual struggles of European humanity as such take the form of struggles between the philosophies, that is, between the skeptical philosophies--or nonphilosophies, which retain the word but not the task--and the actual and still vital philosophies.
The work was influential and is considered the culmination of Husserl's thought, though it has been seen as a departure from Husserl's earlier work. In Part I, Husserl discusses what he considers a crisis of science , while in Part II he discusses the astronomer Galileo Galilei and introduces the concept of the lifeworld. A second printing followed in Philip Buckley and Andrea Staiti. Buckley wrote that the book was Husserl's most influential work, and that its themes represented the fulfillment of Husserl's philosophical activity and continued to be relevant to contemporary philosophy.
The Crisis of European Sciences and Transcendental Phenomenology, Husserl's last great work, is important both for its content and for the influence it has had on other philosophers. In this book, which remained unfinished at his death, Husserl attempts to forge a union between phenomenology and existentialism. Husserl provides not only a history of philosophy but a philosophy of history. As he says in Part I, "The genuine spiritual struggles of European humanity as such take the form of struggles between the philosophies, that is, between the skeptical philosophies--or nonphilosophies, which retain the word but not the task--and the actual and still vital philosophies. But the vitality of the latter consists in the fact that they are struggling for their true and genuine meaning and thus for the meaning of a genuine humanity.
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by Brandon Hill — Monday, November 26, 2018, 01:44 PM EDT
GM Cuts 15 Percent Of Its Workforce And Kills Groundbreaking Volt Plug-in Hybrid
Today is a rather sad day for fans of General Motors. The company announced that it is laying off 15 percent of its workforce in North America, and will close a total of five manufacturing plants on the continent. With regards to its workforce, a total of 14,000 contract and salaried workers will be out of a job in 2019.
As for its manufacturing plants, the following will all be closed within the next year:
Oshawa Assembly in Oshawa, Ontario, Canada
Detroit-Hamtramck Assembly in Detroit
Lordstown Assembly in Warren, Ohio
Baltimore Operations in White Marsh, Maryland
Warren Transmission Operations in Warren, Michigan
General Motors says that this represents the latest step in its efforts to "accelerate transformation" at the company. In other words, customer buying habits are changing, with the masses moving away from small (and large) sedans towards compact, mid-size, and full-size crossovers/SUVs (along with pickup trucks).
The company says that the layoffs and plant closures will result in a cash savings of $6 billion, cost reductions of $4.5 billion, and lower capital expenditure annual run rate of nearly $1.5 billion.
“The actions we are taking today continue our transformation to be highly agile, resilient and profitable, while giving us the flexibility to invest in the future,” said General Motors CEO Mary Barra. “We recognize the need to stay in front of changing market conditions and customer preferences to position our company for long-term success.”
The closures of the above plants mean that six vehicle models are also on the chopping block for 2019. The Buick Lacrosse -- a full-size luxury sedan that was just completely redesigned just two years ago -- will go to the car junkyard in the sky. The same goes for the Cadillac XT6 and the Cadillac CT6; both of which are full-size luxury sedans. The Chevrolet Impala, a full-size mainstream sedan, is ending its long run as will the compact Chevrolet Cruze sedan and hatchback. All of these vehicles are victims of the crossover explosion that has taken over the entire auto industry.
One of the names on the General Motors "kill list" is surprisingly the Chevrolet Volt. The Volt was first shown off in concept form at the 2007 Detroit Auto Show, and went into production in 2011. The second-generation model debuted at the 2015 Detroit Auto Show and deliveries commenced later that year. The Volt marked a big step forward for General Motors in electrifying its vehicle range, and the plug-in hybrid vehicle (in its current form) is capable of driving in excess of 50 miles on battery power before its gasoline engine/generator kicks in to keep the vehicle moving.
The Volt gave customers the best of both worlds: it allowed them to travel under quiet, battery-only conditions for much of their daily commute (with recharging at night), yet provided the gasoline engine backup necessary to travel for much longer distances. In essence, "range anxiety" was not a factor for the Volt.
However, General Motors has taken the lessons that it learned with the Volt and is applying that knowledge to build a wide range of electric vehicles. The company's most prominent electric vehicle at the moment is the Chevrolet Bolt, which can travel 238 miles per charge.
Interestingly enough, the Volt has continued to outsell the Bolt for much of 2018 according to InsideEVs.
Tags: Hybrid, General Motors, GM, (NYSE:GM), ev, chevy bolt, chevy volt
Via: General Motors
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by Paul Lilly — Thursday, January 17, 2019, 10:27 AM EDT
Tom Clancy's The Division 2: Story Trailer Highlights Dystopian, Virus-Plagued DC
A new trailer for Tom Clancy's The Division 2 depicts Washington D.C. in a state of ruin as the United States descends into anarchy. It's a post-apocalyptic setting seemingly caused by some sort of virus outbreak that "crippled our country." A civil war has erupted in its wake, and it is up to agents of The Division to restore order.
The trailer doesn't reveal a ton of details about the game, only that everything has gone to manure. America is "slipping into civil war" and headed to "total collapse." So yeah, the stakes are obviously high in this one. "Only you and your squad can bring the nation back from the brink," the trailer's description reads.
It's sort of like watching a Walking Dead episode, minus the zombies and country setting. Bad people prey on the innocent as "ruthless factions threaten to destroy the fabric of our democracy," and it seems pretty clear that there are decidedly good and bad guys and gals, rather than a blurring of moral lines (which isn't always the case on the Walking Dead).
The trailer also gives a glimpse of some of the new weapons you'll be able to use in The Division 2. You'll have access to various guns, of course, and also a crossbow, which is shown in the latter half of the trailer. You can also expect armed drones, though it's not clear if you'll be able to fly them, or have to defend against them.
You can pre-order The Division 2 now starting at $59.99. Naturally, there are more expensive versions, culminating in a Phoenix Shield Collector's Edition for $249.99, which comes with a bunch of collectables and a 1-year digital content pass.
System requirements are not all that steep to run the game at 1080p on PC, even at 60 frames per second. If you want to push 4K at 60 fps, though, you'll need a beefy PC with a Core i9-7900X or Ryzen 7 2700X paired with 16GB of RAM and either a GeForce RTX 2080 Ti or Radeon VII graphics card.
The game releases to PC, Xbox One, and PlayStation 4 on March 15, 2019. Anyone who pre-orders will gain access to a private beta that runs from February 7-10.
Tags: Gaming, Ubisoft, tom clancy's the division 2
Via: YouTube via Ubisoft
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ICFTN Coaches
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Do you have a suggestion for a luncheon speaker or workshop facilitator for our chapter? Are you a coach and experienced presenter who would like to address our chapter? If so, please contact us by clicking the button below.
Resiliency Re-Imagined - Mind, Body and Spirit | NASHVILLE
8:30 AM CDT - 3:30 PM CDT
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Earn 4 ICF Core Competency CCEs and 4 Resource Development CCEs
About the Workshop | SEPTEMBER 6, 2019 | 8:30am-3:30pm
RESILIENCY RE-IMAGINED
We are aware of the importance of being resilient, of changing our approach, expectations and assumptions as circumstance change. Business books emphasize the value of being able to adapt — “to reinvent strategies as circumstances change, to have the capacity to change before the case for change becomes desperately obvious.” (Harvard Business Review). Articles on successful aging discuss that it is essential to be flexible and to accept change. Being resilient is vital to a happy and successful life.
But, what does resiliency “re-imagined” mean?
Dennis Coyne, our primary presenter during this Day to Experience, states: “Too often being resilient is spoken of as simply a cognitive choice. Seldom does a discussion of resiliency mention practices, seeing the body as a source of wisdom. The body is the internal GPS by which we navigate the inevitable disruptions we experience.“ He believes that we not only resolve to be resilient; we practice being resilient.
The Cycle of Renewal model developed by Dr. Frederick Hudson views life as cycling through chapters and transitions. This model enables you to know where you or a client is in the cycle by identifying the feelings and situations that characterize different times of life. Using the whole person - mind, body and spirit - you and your clients will learn to be more resilient.
Through experiential participation you will be provided the tools and practices needed to wisely and whole-heartedly author new life chapters.The theory and practice of resilience, as informed by the genius of Dr. Hudson and Richard Strozzi-Heckler will be presented by experienced coaches who studied with Hudson and Strozzi-Heckler.
Sylvia Hutton, recording artist and coach, will bring her voice and music to our gathering as a support and inspiration to our exploration. She knows personally how music can be a powerful vehicle for expanding our capacities for change. In her words: “We can grow our capacity for resilience by creating practices that open us into more right-brain-based experiences by using our imagination, music, play, and spontaneity.”
Early bird price extended through August 1!
We will meet on Friday, September 6, from 8:30 am - 3:30 pm at the Longview House, 811 Caldwell Lane, Nashville 37204. The cost of this remarkable day is $249. Early bird price of $225 is available until July 15. Lunch will be included. ICF Member Price: $220; ICF early bird price: $190.
Limited to 30 participants.
ABOUT THE PRESENTERS
Coaches involved with Resiliency Re-imagined
Dennis Coyne brings his life experience, training, compassion, and insight to his 20 years of work as a coach. He works with professionals, executives and other individuals. Before becoming a coach, Dennis successfully practiced law for many years. He’s been recognized in Best Lawyers in America, Who’s Who in American Law, Leading American Attorneys, and as a Super Lawyer and has served as adjunct faculty in the Master of Arts program in Human Development at St. Mary’s University. Dennis is certified as a Master Somatic Coach by the Strozzi Institute and as an Individual and Organizational Coach by the Hudson Institute of Coaching.
Mary Jo Greil is passionate about witnessing her clients move from “surviving to thriving” and experiencing transformative results. She founded the Carson Greil Group in 2002 after 20 years in senior business management and receiving two national awards for her pioneering work in leading large-scale change initiatives. She launched her business to provide leadership capacity development through creatively engaging the talents and expertise of others. The Carson Greil Group provides individual executive coaching, group leadership development, and strategic change consulting services to national and local clients. Mary Jo is certified as a Master Somatic Coach by the Strozzi Institute and as an Individual and Organizational Coach by the Hudson Institute of Coaching.
Sylvia Hutton began her recording career as a solo artist in the 1980’s with RCA Records were she released five albums with multiple #1 and Top Ten hits, sold over four million records, and was named the Academy of Country Music’s Female Vocalist of the Year and Billboard’s #1 Country Female Artist. Since 1996 Sylvia has released an additional five albums on Red Pony Records including the critically acclaimed It’s All in the Family (2016), her most personal album to date and Second Bloom - The Hits Re-Imagined (2018) featuring fresh interpretations of her biggest hits from the 1980’s. Expanding her interests beyond music, Sylvia received her coach certification from The Hudson Institute of Coaching in 2002 and, along with performing, works as a Personal & Professional Development Coach to executives and artists of all genres.
Thelma Kidd holds an MSW from the University of Michigan and is a certified coach. She was a therapist before becoming the co-founder and owner of Davis-Kidd Booksellers, a company with large general bookstores and cafes in four cities across Tennessee. After selling her company, Thelma attended the Hudson Institute of Coaching, and receiving her coaching certification. Receiving training in coaching was a way of combining her interest and experience in business and in counseling. She offers individual coaching and workshops to people who are in work, life and personal transitions.
Diane Watson is an Executive Coach who specializes in working with high achieving individuals stepping into executive positions. She draws on her experience in creating innovative strategies and programs through a career that has spanned achievement in corporate, public, higher education, and not-for-profit sectors. She holds a master’s from MTSU and a bachelor’s from the University of Georgia. She received her coach certification at the Hudson Institute of Coaching and currently serves as a Faculty Fellow teaching coaching in the Performance Coaching Program in the College of Professional Studies at Lipscomb University.`
More information contact :
Sylvia Hutton at [email protected] or Thelma Kidd @ thelmaki[email protected]
Sponsored by ICFTN and Underwritten by Lipscomb University Online Performance Coaching ICF Accredited Coach Training Program and Masters Degree
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Random Thoughts on James Cameron’s Avatar
Posted on 22nd December 2009 by Ryan Somma in Mediaphilism
Neytiri
Roger Ebert absolutely loved it, Jim Emerson thought it was totally lame, and io9 has an essay up about it being a recapitulation of the “White Man’s Guilt” plotline. Here are my thought’s on James Cameron’s Avatar:
Uncanny Valley: Doesn’t apply to this movie at all, which was one of my disappointments with it. I wanted to see human beings move seamlessly between CGI and live action, but Cameron wisely avoided attempting this. The Navi are aliens, like LOTR’s Gollumn, they are sufficiently non-human to avoid creeping us out. Failing to attempt CGI humans makes the film significantly less revolutionary to my mind.
Alien life on Pandora: On the one hand, I was disappointed with the numerous earth-referencing aliens: the alien horses, alien lemurs, alien rhinoceroses, dogs, panthers, and such. On the other hand, I appreciated the alien twists on these species: nostrils on their chests, four forearms, and the bioluminescence of the plant life. The closer we look at Pandora’s life, the more alien it becomes in the details. We can clearly see a distinct evolutionary history in Pandora’s life forms’ shared traits.
Clichéd Storyline: Yes, the movie is “Dances With Wolves in space,” but that’s a good thing. It would have been foolishness to try out some experimental storyline with a $250 million budget. George Lucas demonstrated that with The Phantom Menace, a film that avoided all conventional plot devices in a sophomoric attempt at innovative storytelling to become the all-time epic fail of moviemaking ever1.
Deux ex Machina: I believe this is a reference to the “Earth Mother” joining the fight at the film’s climax, as if the hand of god were coming down to thwart the antagonists; however, as a good bit of science fiction, we know that the planet is a living network, with all of its species connected through hubs, similar to several plant species on Earth. Yes, it’s a type of god, but a god with a scientific explanation. “Any sufficiently advanced extraterrestrial civilization is indistinguishable from god.” If there’s a scientific explanation, then it’s not the hand of god coming down at the end.
Environmentalist Philosophy: I am bothered by the film’s hypocrisy of communicating a message of environmentalism and romanticizing a return to a more primitive time through an incredibly elaborate $250 million dollar fabrication produced by a farm of energy-ravenous networked computer systems. I am also disappointed with the film’s resolution, where the primitives win and the technologically-advanced civilization is sent back to its planet to die. Environmentalism is not a zero-sum game, and a more thoughtful story would have come up with a more sophisticated solution where both sides could have won. This film has an important environmental message; however, it is a useless message for our modern world. If all 6.9 billion of us on Earth gave up our technology and tried to live off the land, we would destroy our planet even more quickly and mostly starve away as a result. In this respect, Avatar is pure pseudo-environmentalist escapism, while the true environmentalists are out building solar, geothermal, and wind power stations to transition our civilization to a less environmentally-impactful lifestyle.
1 I caught some flak for this point on Jim Emerson’s blog, to which I responded:
So Avatar is a good movie because it’s familiar and conventional, while The Phantom Menace is a bad movie because it’s new and unconventional? Sorry, but that doesn’t make any sense. When did writing a new story become “experimental”?
I’ll bite. TPM is a bad movie exactly for being unconventional. By unconventional, I mean George Lucas’ story included three to four protagonists competing for the spotlight, characters so formal and regal only a fanboy could love them, a plot the requires a political wonk to decipher it, and an overly-dazzling ending that tried to tie together four different action plot lines. These are all unconventional in the context of your average American action-theater fare, and they all detracted from what should have been an otherwise enjoyable film. Most people cared less about these failings because the film drowned us in, at the time, revolutionary special effects, but now, with those effects no longer being dazzling, people can see how truly awful TPM was.
Mind you, many of these same attributes have added up to some great filmmaking. Consider David Lynch’s Dune, a sci-fi epic both politically-heavy and filled with formal, regal characters. I and many of my friends consider Dune a fantastic film, but in cinematic history it is considered a spectacular flop. It was unconventional, it was awesome, but it had no mass appeal. What if Cameron had spent his revolutionary CGI effects on remaking such a film?
Now consider Star Wars, which was out and out space opera, knights and maidens in space. Was its story new? Innovative? No. It was a standard, cut-and-paste plotline–but also one with a proven track record. It’s movie making history because it had revolutionary special effects and a soundtrack to present that canned plot in a superiorly entertaining fashion.
Mind you, I’m not saying that it’s a good thing that directors can’t make awesomely-budgeted experimental films, but it’s naive to pretend they have a non-professional-harakiri choice in the matter. James Cameron made a wise choice in hijacking Dances With Wolves, a plotline with proven mass-appeal, as the vehicle for showcasing his special effects innovations. Avatar may not survive and be revered by fanboys the way Star Wars has over the decades, but by playing it safe in his storytelling, Cameron gives his film much better odds towards that end.
Now that I’ve seen the film, it strikes me as — yes — environmentalist escapism, but also and maybe moreso Second Life escapism. For example, the scene where Jake nearly has to be force-fed his breakfast before ‘linking in’. I’m going to go ahead and say we all recognize that effect from the IRC/MUD days :)
*** mild spoiler alert ***
I think the contemporary political aspect has been amply covered elsewhere, but I found the tropes of the Na’vi society and Jake’s interaction with them distracting to the point of Jar Jar Binks-ness. Humanoid aliens that speak english? Sure, why not. Alien analogues of earth animals? Hey, as long as you’re going down the humanoid road… But the Jamaican accents and dreadlocks are right on the line, and having the (white, no less) human visitor turn out to be some sort of demigod who personally saves the primitive natives brings up a lot of cultural issues that I doubt Cameron intended.
And I’m sure he didn’t intend it, but there it was nonetheless. If he wanted a proven plotline, he might have been better off borrowing from The Man Who Would be King.
Comment by Stacy — December 24, 2009 @ 1:07 pm
Ohhhh… Yeah. “The Man Who Would be King” was a great film, and an old enough one that people wouldn’t be as keen to make comparisons.
Comment by ideonexus — December 28, 2009 @ 10:04 pm
“Failing to attempt CGI humans makes the film significantly less revolutionary to my mind.”
I don’t think it would make sense to CGI the humans in the context of this movie. It wasn’t an animated movie, it was a live movie that CGI to generate reality that would have been hard to generate via other means.
If they had CGI’ed everything, it would be considered an animated movie, and a bunch of people would automatically not go. “I don’t like animation.”
But it wasn’t supposed to be an “animated” flick, it was supposed to be a live flick, in my mind.
You might want to try Surrogates. They don’t use CGI, but…. The surrogates [which are actually just people in makeup] look just a bit too perfect, and it reminds me of the uncanny valley effect, even though no CGI was used.
Comment by ClintJCL — February 4, 2010 @ 4:42 pm
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SUSPICIOUS ANTI-UNION ACTIVITY
Help us set the record straight when they try to divide us. If you or someone you know has been approached by an anti-union organizations, let us know about it.
REPORT ACTIVITY
DON’T KNOCK WINDOW CLING
Order your free “Don’t Knock I’m Sticking with My Union/Stronger United” window cling to put on the front door of your home. By standing united, we stay strong.
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STRONGER UNITED TOOLKIT
A collection of resources to help us stay united, and stay strong. We are 135,000 strong and have a powerful voice that cannot be ignored. We are stronger united.
VIEW THE TOOLKIT
Anti-union organizations like the Illinois Policy Institute are trying to silence our collective voice. The voice we use to advocate for our students, our schools and ourselves. We won’t let them.
Submit your story telling IPI why you’re sticking with the union.
PRINT YOUR SIGN
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Illinois Policy Institute’s anti-union campaign lies
The Illinois Policy Institute is sending mailers to our members personal addresses with misinformation about our union.
Just 13 cents of every dollar IEA spent was on representing members.
IEA Fact: 69.7 cents of every dollar is directly spent on representing members and how your dues dollars are spent is reported in detail to you every year. The remainder is spent on conferences, full-service printing, governance meetings, professional development and support services.
IEA spent almost three times as much on its own officers and employees as it did on representing members.
IEA Fact: Because IEA spends almost 70 cents of every $1 in dues on direct representation of members, the above statement is impossible and entirely untrue.
IEA sent twice as much money to affiliates in Chicago and Chicago-area suburbs than it did to affiliates south of I-80.
IEA Fact: Chicago educators belong to the Chicago Teachers Union, not the IEA. In addition, 69 percent of IEA members live north of Interstate 80 and 31 percent live south of Interstate 80.
The National Education Association, IEA’s national affiliate, spent more than $23.4 million on airlines and other transportation expenses—for unspecified purposes.
IEA Fact: The IPI notes its figures are for five years. Rest assured, all NEA travel is vouchered and accounted for on NEA books and includes travel not only for NEA staff in all states, but NEA members in those states to travel to national meetings for programs and trainings.
Opt out in August, and save hundreds of dollars each year.
IEA Fact: The IPI, opposes unions and public education. It was behind the Janus case, which sought to take away the rights of public employees to have a say in their workplace conditions. They want to silence the voice you use to advocate for your students, your schools and your community. They want to privatize public education. They want to slowly chip away at us—knowing the more people who drop their union membership, the less power the union has to bargain contracts that benefit educators’ working conditions and students’ learning conditions. Millionaires and billionaires fund the IPI. They want to protect their own corporate interests, not yours.
Union alternatives will provide liability and job protection coverage at a fraction of the cost of union membership.
IEA Fact: Those groups will try to bill themselves as alternatives to the union. What they won’t tell you is they provide liability insurance, pared-down legal services—and pretty much nothing else. Little or low-quality professional development, no help on contract negotiations, no support on working conditions, no lobbying for public education and public school students and staff. One of these “union alternatives” touted by IPI has fewer than 10,000 members in the entire country. IEA has more than 130,000 in Illinois alone. To have power, you need people. IEA has both. We are truly stronger when we are united.
NEA spent $16.9 million on hotels—for unspecific purposes.
IEA Fact: As IPI notes, its figures cover 2013-2018. All NEA travel is vouchered and accounted for and includes staff and members from all state affiliates who travel to NEA meetings for various programs and for trainings.
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Illinois’ news propaganda machine
Do you know who is funding the newspaper you’re reading, the radio show you’re listening to or the evening news you watch on TV? In Illinois, the answer to that question can be alarming. Watch this video to learn more about the Illinois Policy Institute and the powerful conservative forces behind them like John Tillman, Dan Proft, former Governor Bruce Rauner and billionaire business man Dick Uihlein.
Anti-Union groups to watch
Conservative foundations and think tanks are putting an increased emphasis on attacking public sector unions and public schools after the Supreme Court made its decision in the Janus v. AFSCME case.They are spending hundreds of millions of dollars across the nation to elect anti-labor and anti-public education candidates and to produce so-called “research,” television ads and mailings to bash unions. The Koch network alone plans to spend $400 million this year. Virtually all of these organizations aren’t required to report their donors.These groups try to bill themselves as pro-worker – they are not. They want to privatize our public schools, take away your voice for your students, lower taxes for corporations and the wealthy, block access to health care, cut pensions, suppress voters, gerrymander and weaken the political power of unions.The tentacles of all of these groups are already reaching into Illinois, advocating for vouchers, more charter schools, defined-contribution pensions and the destruction of public employee unions. Their goal is simple. They want to divide Americans across racial, religious and economic lines.
The Illinois Policy Institute (IPI) is a so-called “think tank” that pushes a right-wing agenda in Illinois, all while reporting little or no lobbying activities.
It has close ties with former Gov. Bruce Rauner, who last summer fired most of his closest staff to replace them with IPI employees.
The IPI also runs various media entities, including the Illinois News Network, so you should listen closely and look closely when you consume news to see if it was produced by INN because you can guarantee it’s going to have a slant. Learn more about IPI’s media outlets here.
The IPI has been filing Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests with school districts across the state seeking personal information about IEA members in hopes of reaching out to you to encourage you to drop your union membership. In fact, they want to make it as easy as possible. In at least one city, the IPI applied to the post office for return postage paid envelopes to send mailings to the district and to the local education association office so you could opt out. The post office denied the IPI’s application and reported the organization to the postal inspector for shady practices.
The IPI is part of an $80 million nationwide State Policy Network (SPN) that works to rig the system against working families by pushing for privatizing public schools, blocking expanded access to health care, lowering taxes for corporations and the very wealthy and undermining workers’ rights and unions. SPN and many of its affiliates are members of the controversial American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), where corporate lobbyists and special interest group representatives vote as equals with state lawmakers behind closed doors on “model” legislation that in many cases ends up benefiting the corporations’ bottom line.
IPI and its affiliates are not required to disclose their donors and almost none of the groups publish a list of funders. But, former Gov. Bruce Rauner has been a major one, donating $625,000 between 2009 and 2013. SPN and its affiliates are not required to disclose their donors, and almost none of the groups publish a list of funders. Tax documents and other available records reveal that SPN is funded by large corporations, right-wing foundations, and wealthy conservative ideologues such as the Koch brothers, the family of U.S. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos and the Walton family of Walmart.
Mackinac Center for Public Policy
This is another so-called think tank that is really just another arm of the State Policy Network’s rightwing propaganda network. You may have received an email from the Mackinac Center at your school email address the day after the Supreme Court ruled in the Janus case.
The Mackinac Center, founded in 1987 in Michigan, has pushed for more charter schools, vouchers for charter schools, decimating pensions for educators and other public employees, putting caps on educators’ health insurance, using test scores to evaluate teachers, getting rid of tenure – the list goes on and on. Like other groups backed by dark money, the Mackinac Center doesn’t disclose its funders. Tax documents and other available records reveal that it is funded by the usual suspects of wealthy, conservative ideologues such as the Dow Chemical family, the anti-worker Bradley Foundation, the Koch brothers, the family of U.S. Secretary Betsy DeVos, the Walton family of Walmart and other anti-union, anti-public education organizations.
The Mackinac Center has launched a “My Pay, My Say” website to try and get union members across the nation to opt out of their union. Fellow State Policy Network groups like the Center of the American Experiment are pushing this out as well.
Project Veritas, a conservative media organization dedicated to secretly infiltrating progressive organizations to produce unflattering and deceptive videos, is targeting educator unions across the country.
The organization was founded by James O’Keefe, a protégé of Andrew Breitbart, in 2010. Project Veritas has frequently been criticized for editing its videos to deceive its audience and misrepresent its subjects. Operatives have targeted a number of high-profile organizations through the years including ACORN, Planned Parenthood and, most recently, National Education Association (NEA) and American Federation of Teachers (AFT) affiliates around the country.
So-called “union alternatives”
These organizations swoop in once a state becomes right to work.
They will try to bill themselves as alternatives to the union. What they won’t tell you is they provide liability insurance and pared-down legal services – and little more. Little or low-quality professional development, no help on contract negotiations, no support on working conditions, no lobbying for public education and public school staff, and no help passing your local levy.
And they proactively work against the things we know are good for students and educators.
Association of American Educators (AAE)
AAE, established in 1994, doesn’t represent teachers in collective bargaining and claims to be free of any political agendas or political activism. It provides members with liability insurance, legal counsel in workplace employment issues, and teacher scholarships and grants.
So far, AAE has about 6,200 members at most with state chapters in Arkansas, Colorado, Idaho Kansas, Oregon and Washington and a partner organization in Louisiana. Two of its biggest donors are the anti-union Walton Family Foundation and Bradley Foundation. Several other conservative foundations have given the association grants as well.
Christian Educators Association International (CEAI)
This group was one of the plaintiffs in the Friedrichs v. California Teachers Association Supreme Court case, one of the slew of cases brought on by anti-union interests before Janus v. AFSCME.
Despite its name, 95 percent of its members are public school educators. CEAI started in 1953 and now has about 6,500 members, experiencing much of its growth since 1991 when the association started to provide liability insurance.
The group’s mission is to “proclaim God’s word as the source of wisdom and knowledge,” including preserving “our Judeo-Christian heritage and values through education” and “the legal rights of Christians in public schools.”
National Association of Professional Educators (NAPE)
A group of Los Angeles teachers formed the first Professional Educators chapter in 1972, two years after a teachers strike. The group has opposed teacher strikes and supported a National Right to Work Act as well.
Like other independent groups, they have no office in the Washington, D.C. area nor do they have a regularly staffed office anywhere. It appears they have no website and have affiliates in 24 states. Many of those are also affiliated with the American Association of Educators.
NAPE is not well known and seems to have hit its peak many years ago. No membership information is available for them. Some estimates had their paying membership as low as 2,000 in the 1990s.
As former NAPE Executive Secretary Philip Strittmatter has written, “We do not criticize teachers for joining the unions if they want to do that. We just want to be free to represent those educators who prefer a professional organization that does not get involved with radical social political issues not related to the education of children.”
Coalition of Independent Education Associations (CIEA)
The CIEA is a cooperative of associations. The coalition is loosely structured. It wants to bill itself as an alternative to the National Education Association and American Federation of Teachers, but Iacks an independently staffed office, operates on a very low budget and has no presence or visibility at the national level. CIEA lists 24 independent state groups as members. The Texas group (ATPE) reports that it is the largest teacher organization in the state, with at least 100,000 members, but has used this unchanged figure for several years.
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Where is the power in a suit?
It’s hard to separate suits from a profound sense of obligation.
I’ve always lived in places for which they are thoroughly, climatically, ill-suited. Yet they are still donned on the regular. As a signal that something is being taken seriously. Or that wearers take themselves seriously.
There’s a separation there, which has historical roots. But makes less and less sense with mass production and the shift of power away from the West.
The expectation-filling that guides (forces?) people to wear suits to work, weddings , court and interviews also seems thoroughly at odds with the notion of it as a symbol of power.
I’ve never seen this articulated as powerfully as in this Vox piece on the decline of suits:
Although the suit is historically associated with projecting elegance, authority, and mastery of a profession, those qualities hearken back to the days when suits were prevalent, worn by the Atticus Finches and Don Drapers of the world. How long until we realize the suit — while still used for special occasions and by a shrinking number of traditionalists — has become associated with the opposite? The suit has become a uniform for the powerless….
….When you’re in control, at least in relative control, from the C-suite down to the long rectangular table in the open-air office, you wear whatever you want, which is almost never a suit. It is the vest or bomber jacket for men , a blouse or a shell top for women…
There is a class element here – which the piece goes into. After all, the decline of the suit as de facto serious person attire is largely taking place in a handful of industries, countries and social strata.
And, just as with school uniforms, there may be something to say for suits as something of a leveller. As a well-beaten path into “respectability“.
However, as suits become less normalised, and more explicitly worn for unpleasant occasions like court, will the association become more sour? Will the power of suits leech even more?
Yet another benefit from educating girls
In many households, the oldest sister is one of the first family members to acquire any schooling, making her an important source of help with studies at home. Surveys show that only one out of five children who receive help with studies from a family member get it from a parent. When parents are not the ones helping with studies, the oldest sister fulfils that role 70% of the time. Given the low education of parents, and the oldest sister’s role as a childcare provider and tutor, one might expect oldest sister’s schooling to meaningfully impact younger sibling learning and development.
This is from research into the benefits of educated older sisters in Pakistan. Specifically in rural areas, where three quarters of mothers and two fifths of fathers were uneducated.
Javaeria Qureshi from the University of Illinois found that having an educated older sister increased a primary-aged brother’s years of schooling, ability to read and write, and add and count.
These oldest sisters’ schooling effects are the same order of magnitude as those for maternal schooling. Interestingly, increasing the oldest sister’s schooling has no impact on older brothers’ educational outcomes, indicating that the younger brothers are not benefitting merely from being around more educated family members or because their parents are increasing investments in all of their children’s education. Instead, the results suggest that younger brothers’ education improves because they have a more educated childcare provider, tutor and role model in their oldest sister.
This is an important finding not only due to the number of children not being educated in Pakistan, but the gendered nature of education in many countries.
Women are often presumed to have a lower return on education due to a lesser propensity to work and support parents later etc. This can be especially important in resource constrained families even if there isn’t a prejudice against educating girls.
But as is so common, there’s stuff we haven’t or couldn’t measure, the world is complicated and factors interrelated. Beyond the individual benefit of educating a girl, it appears to be positive sum for the family.
As always my emphasis.
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Speaker deplores rumor-mongering
Ryan Ponce Pacpaco
SPEAKER Alan Peter Cayetano yesterday said he would not respond to pork barrel “rumors” following the continued failure of Sen. Panfilo “Ping” Lacson to substantiate his allegations.
Cayetano also stressed that the P9.52 billion institutional amendments of the House of Representatives under next year’s national budget will make the life of Filipinos better.
“I won’t respond to rumors,” Cayetano told reporters in a press conference after media asked his sentiment on Senator Lacson’s seasonal attacks on the House of Representatives during budget deliberations.
“My mother told me not to be a rumor-monger. When you engage in rumors, you become a rumor-monger yourself,” Cayetano explained as the House of Representatives is scheduled to transmit to the Senate this Tuesday the proposed P4.1 trillion General Appropriations Bill (GAB) for next year.
“It seems that he (Lacson) can’t accept that this House is also against pork,” said Cayetano as he reiterated that the House-approved budget is pork-free and bereft of any illegal parking and insertions of funds.
In the same press conference, House Majority Leader and Leyte Rep. Martin Romualdez, who chairs the House Committee on Rules, said House members are one with the anti-pork barrel advocacy of Lacson.
“Our good friend, Senator Ping whose crusade against pork is similarly shared by all of us here in the House,” said Romualdez as he lamented the premature criticisms against the House-approved national budget, explaining it has yet to reach the Senate.
Cayetano said he is willing to sit down with Lacson and all critics if they see pork barrel in the national budget.
“Tell me where the pork is and we’ll sit down with you,” he said.“If there is pork, identify it and we’ll be the one to remove it from the budget.”
Cayetano said the biggest winners under the proposed institutional amendments of the House of Representatives are the farmers because it seeks to augment the budget of the Department of Agriculture (DA) to procure more palay and enhance the agency’s quick response team’s ability to cope with emergency situations and calamities.
“There’s no pork in palay,” said Cayetano. “How can palay be pork?”
“We added P3.5 billion to allow the Department of Agriculture to buy more palay and strengthen the quick response capability of the agency to respond to emergency situations like the African Swine Fever (ASF) that we have now,” said Cayetano.
Cayetano enumerated the agencies as well as the programs that will be funded from the P9.52 billion, which they proposed to realign in the 2020 budget. These include: Department of Agriculture (DA), Department of National Defense (DND), Department of Interior and Local Government-Philippine National Police, Department of Education (DepEd), Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR), Department of Health, UP-Philippine General Hospital (UP-PGH), Department of Transportation (DoTR, Philippine Sports Commission (PSC), Dangerous Drugs Board (DDB), National Electrification Administration (NEA) and Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA).
“The national budget is an effective tool to achieve the President’s vision to achieve a safe and comfortable life,” Cayetano said in his opening statement during the press conference.
“As an institution, we put minimal changes in the proposed budget. This is more of symbolic change to give proper direction of where the budget should be going,” Cayetano explained.
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172.31.24.221 - ip
Learning is not just about reading. Experience it.
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Ancient Sandstone Monuments
( Not Rated ) , by BeED Author - Lower Secondary (IGCSE)
About this Place Of Interest
Gunung Kawi - Bali’s oldest and largest ancient monument - is a temple and funerary complex that dates back to the 11th century. Located in Tampaksiring and about 10km away from north east of Ubud, the complex is located beside the sacred Pakerisan River in Sebatu Village. The main attraction of this complex are its tombs or candi, which are all carved into sandstone cliffs. Each tomb is about seven metres in height. Although they are referred to as “tombs”, they do not contain any human remains. Instead, these tombs provide evidence of how ancient rulers were deified by their subjects. The tombs were believed to be built by Anak Wungsu, the son of King Udayana and Queen Mahendradatta, also known as Gunapriya Dharmapatni. Anak Wungsu had two older brothers, named Airlangga (or Erlangga) and Marakata. Their father was believed to be the most famous ruler of Bali from the Warmadewa Dynasty. The tombs, which are said to be imitations of actual statues, are located in three sections. The first four are located at the Queen’s Tombs, on the left side (west) of the sacred Pakerisan River. The tombs are said to be dedicated to the king’s concubines. Meanwhile, five major tombs are located in the King’s Tomb section and are dedicated to the king and his beloved wives. These tombs are located on the right side (east) of the river. There is a small concrete bridge that connects the Queen’s Tomb and King’s Tomb sections. The so-called “tenth tomb” is located in the south and is believed to have been carved in honour of a priest or a royal minister. As visitors descend the approximately 315 stone steps, they are not only able to make quick stops at the many souvenir shops located along the route, but can also enjoy the beautiful scenery of the terraced paddy fields. This aside, visitors may also visit the pura or temple, which is located to the right of the King’s Tomb. Several meditation caves are located behind the temple and legend has it that many famous monks and pilgrims frequented the caves for meditation.
About this Learning Experience
In this Learning Experience, you will learn how weathering can deteriorate historical monuments, how energy of a river can erode different sizes of rocks and how rocks go through changes when they are subjected to different conditions over geological time. This Learning Experience is suitable for learners Year 3 and above. Note: The reflection phase will take place under Point C.
Syllabus Content
Lower Secondary:
Physical geography in relation to: weathering and rocks.
Understand how human and physical process interact to influence and change landscapes.
Demonstrate an understanding of the work of a river in eroding, transporting and depositing.
Explain the processes which operate within rivers.
Sneakers face towel drinking water earphones
Macro Concepts
Micro Concepts
Processes and Causality
Conceptual Lens
Orientation in Space and Time Exploration Into: Scale, frequency, natural and human landscapes and social history.
Inquiry Statement
Physical processes and human activities play an important role in shaping and transforming natural landscapes.
Ask Author
Pura Gunung Kawi Sebatu, Bali, Indonesia
Banjar Penaka, Tampaksiring, Gianyar, Tampaksiring, Bali 80552, Indonesia.
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Toxic bacteria found in microplastics on 3 different coastlines around Singapore
under Environment, News
by Perry Miller
Scientists have found toxic bacteria on microplastics in waters around Singapore. The bacteria are believed to be one of the culprits behind coral bleaching. They have also been known to cause wound infections in people.
Researchers working out of the National University of Singapore (NUS) discovered over an alarming 400 varieties of bacteria on a little less than 300 pieces of microplastics. The samples, which are only around 5 mm in size, were taken from three coastlines in the region: Changi Beach, Sembawang Beach and Lazarus Island.
According to The Straits Times, scientists located the toxic bacteria through DNA sequencing. Once the results were in, they discovered traces of photobacterium, which has been linked to coral bleaching, and a species called vibrio, which is known to cause infections in wounds. The team also found traces of arcobacter, a microorganism that has been linked to gastroenteritis.
“As the microplastics we studied were collected from locations easily accessible to the public and in areas widely used for recreation, the identification of potentially pathogenic bacteria is important in preventing the spread of diseases,” Emily Curren, part of the team at NUS, explained in the report.
Curren noted that the majority of microplastics came from straws and disposable utensils, such as spoons and forks. These plastics biodegrade in a few hundred years and serve as vehicles that transport toxic bacteria around the world. Not only can these affect human populations by getting in the water supply, but microplastics are ingested by marine animals, many of which are later consumed by people.
Sandric Leong, who led the research effort at NUS’s Tropical Marine Science Institute, added that microplastics are one of the most popular forms of plastic pollution in the ocean. Organisms in these environments accidentally ingest the microplastics, which is how toxic bacteria could end up on dinner plates around the world.
Leong explained how more research in microplastic distribution is needed to better understand how to manage this worldwide problem. The biggest way to combat microplastics, of course, is to decrease our use of non-biodegradable plastics and cut down on how much plastic ends up in landfills.
Via The Straits Times
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IBM Sees Layoffs, Salesforce Cancels Office Plans
by Don Willmott March 9, 2012 8 min read
AppleJob NewsLayoffs
DICE NEWS ROUNDUP:
IBM Layoffs Are Coming, But How Many? What IBM is calling a “rebalancing” is actually a flurry of layoffs, but it remains unclear exactly how many people are being let go and from which North American locations. A union-organizing group affiliated with the Communication Workers of America, is reporting 1,100 cuts, but other reports peg the number at 800. Many cuts may be coming from the Global Technology Services outsourcing group. In addition, 106 workers were laid off in IBM’s Systems & Technology Group, which manufactures servers and computer chips. No notice has been filed with the North Carolina Commerce Department, so the layoff count at IBM’s huge Research Triangle facility must be under 500, state officials confirm. IT Business Edge
Salesforce.com Cancels Big San Francisco Office Plan: Salesforce.com Inc’s cancellation of plans to build a massive office complex in San Francisco is mysterious. The company said it would no longer go ahead with a project to build a sprawling new headquarters in the Mission Bay neighborhood because of “logistics.” “We are growing now faster than we were growing at the time when we originally made the decision to build the campus,” said Bruce Francis, chief messaging officer for Salesforce.com. “We are going to need space faster than we could build it. That’s why we decided to suspend development of the campus.” Reuters
Apple Plans Oregon Data Center: Oregon is turning out to be a hot destination for big data centers. Following Facebook, Apple has bought $5.6 million worth of land in Prineville, Ore., for its own new data center right next door to Facebook’s. Experts suggest that the move will help build out Apple’s new iCloud service. While the facility will certainly boost Prineville’s property tax revenue, chances are that the number of full-time employees will be relatively insignificant. IT Business Edge
Yahoo! Could Pink Slip Thousands: Scott Thompson, Yahoo!’s new CEO, is looking hard at the bottom line, and apparently he doesn’t like what he sees. Sources say he is preparing a massive restructuring of the company, including layoffs that are likely to number in the thousands. Much of the change—which could be announced as soon as the end of this month—is aimed at Yahoo’s large products organization, as well as other arenas in which the company has lagged. Thompson has hired Boston Consulting Group to help focus the company on “growth” initiatives and to help determine the best path for Yahoo! going forward. Dice News
Professional Hiring Up But Slowing in Q2: Hiring in professional fields will rise the second quarter but at a slower pace than forecast for the first quarter, according to the latest Robert Half Professional Employment report. A net two percent of executives plan to add full-time staff in the second three months of 2012, down from 10 percent last quarter. Nine out of 10 (91 percent) executives expressed confidence about growth at their firms during the quarter, and 61 percent of those surveyed reported recruiting challenges. In the tech industry, eight percent of respondents expect to hire, while five percent expect to decrease staff, for a net three percent increase. Robert Half Technology
Has Apple Really Created Half a Million Jobs? Industry analysts are poring over numbers provided by Apple that suggest it has created or supported 514,000 jobs in the United States. Apple says it currently supports 304,000 U.S. jobs, including 47,000 people employed directly by the company, plus 257,000 who work in fields ranging from component manufacturing to transportation and healthcare. The company has full-time employees in 50 U.S. states and its iOS application economy has created 210,000 jobs. Dice News
Cloud Computing Leads to NYC Hiring: The shift to cloud computing, and the economies of scale it allows, will bring the total of cloud-related jobs to more than 60,000 in New York this year—a bump of 17 percent over 2011, says a report by research firm IDC (and sponsored by cloud technology provider Microsoft). That makes New York the biggest beneficiary of the cloud trend among major metro areas. Los Angeles came in second, with close to 38,000 cloud-related jobs in 2012, an increase of 18 percent. “There’s a myth out there that moving to the cloud is shrinking job opportunities,” said Laura Wallace, general manager of Microsoft’s New York metro district. “That wasn’t what we were hearing from our customers.” Dice News
Upcoming Tech Events
March 9-18—Austin
South by Southwest offers an amazing gathering of thought leaders in independent music, independent films and emerging technologies. Fostering creative and professional growth alike, SXSW is the premier destination for discovery. The Integrated Media Association conference will be held in conjunction with SXSWi, and there will be a tech career expo on March 9 and 10.
VERGE DC
March 14-16—Washington, D.C.
VERGE DC brings together corporate leaders focusing on a new wave of technological change revolutionizing sustainability. A convergence of technologies for energy, buildings, information, and vehicles, which GreenBiz calls VERGE, is enabling companies to break down organizational silos and accelerate innovation. This has profound implications for your company’s sustainability and business goals.
March 21—San Francisco
This conference will feature top executives from the key “dependent” platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Google. These services are where audiences discover new content and services with which to engage. But it’s out on the “Independent Web” that people engage with unique, community-driven content. How can marketers capture the value of both sides of the Web?
Ignition West
Ignition West intensively explores the future of mobile and is presented by Business Insider. Through high-level discussions with executives and leading entrepreneurs and demos from emerging startups, 2012’s Ignition West will bring together people who are evolving and disrupting mobile to discuss what’s happening now, what’s next, and how it affects your business. Which platforms, products and business models will dominate? Topics include: Mobile platforms and consumer behavior; next-generation devices and services; who owns the Internet after search; the future of publishing, film and television on mobile; investing in mobile and mobile content; the gaming marketplace.
April 17-19—Santa Clara, CA
At DEMO Spring, investors and potential partners can get a close-up look at the latest trend-setting technologies. It’s not just a place for face time but for eyes-on-the-product time.
IBM Data Center Plans Focus on Efficiency, Cloud Agility
IBM Offering Developers More Tools for Cloud
Salesforce Marketing Cloud Includes Boosted Social Analytics
Azavea Game Could Save Your Life
Employers Need to Impress Candidates Too
Don Willmott
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Author: Intellectual Mindframe
Just Blogging and Sharing interesting and sometimes bizarre news, facts, as well as DIY and other informative information.
Lamborghini Diablo 1990
Lamborghini Diablo 6-0 VT 2001
In 1990 The Diablo was predestined to becoming the admirable inheritor of the popular Miura and Countach. This new cutting edge super car was wide, very low and futuristic. And just like its ancestors, the Diablo in a short time became a much loved car among enthusiasts all around the world.
The Lamborghini leaders had hoped for a top speed of at least 198 MPH, and the specialists} made this dream come true: With a top speed of 198 MPH and an acceleration from 0-100 in 4.5 seconds the Diablo taken the pole position in the super sports cars group. It supplied its fierce Power via a rear-wheel drive and came with a newly created V12 engine. 4 valves per cylinder, a computer controlled multi-point fuel injection and a displacement of 5.7 liters allowed the Diablo to Reach a maximum of 492 HP.
Lamborghini Diablo VT 1999
The Diablo was manufactured in between 1990 and 2001. Throughout this period of time, Lamborghini produced several variety of the Diablo concept, the first appearing was the Diablo VT (Visco Traction), which utilised an all-wheel drive. The Diablo models helped build the legend of Lamborghini and sold well. Approximately 3,000 units in all series and differences found their buyers in those eleven years of development.
Posted in Diablo and tagged 198 MPH, 1999, 2000, 2001, Countach, diablo, Diablo VT, lambo, Lamborghini, Lamborghini Diablo, Lamborghini Diablo VT, Miura, racing, sports car, super car, turbo, v12, Visco Traction on February 8, 2014 by Intellectual Mindframe. Leave a comment
Make Money Scams Vs Make Money Legitimate Business opportunities
If you are worried that the earning opportunities you see online are really “make money scams” in disguise? Most of what you’ll find online is up and up. The real challenge is weeding through it all to find something that works effectively for you. Here are some common money making scams that many online marketing newcomers can fall into.
Get Rich Quick:
A lot of experts in online marketing use their stories as proof of what you can do too if you buy their products or services. And while it is probably true that these marketers did make an enormous amount of money in a short time, there are 3 things you should understand about that;
1) They probably were not completely new to the industry when they began making the money. ..
2) They might have used some other techniques or programs to earn them this amount of money (so they might not be revealing everything in what they sell to you…
3) They may have also spent a large amount of money to be able to earn this enormous amount of money. While the products and/or services are most likely valuable and legit, you should not expect them to make you rich quick.
Easy Money generating:
There are quite a handful of automated systems out there. And yea, they are real and certainly, they are easy. But they can easily be expensive and not tremendously effective since they appeal so many people that are trying to go the easy route. The truth is that making money online doesn’t have to be complicated – it can be simple – but getting results does require effort.
Most people start out on the wrong foot with systems that profess to to be easy and profitable. When they aren’t very easy or profitable, it’s easy to stop trying and think of these systems as “make money scams”.
Pyramid Schemes:
There are many types of legitimate programs (like network marketing or Multi level marketing businesses) that offer you commissions if you recruit others into the business venture. However, if you come across a program that only offers you money if you recruit other members but offers no real service or product, this is a clear-cut pyramid scheme and scam. Luckily, the Federal trade commission is quick to crack down on these types of programs so you shouldn’t run across them too often.
Pay Affiliate Programs:
Some affiliate marketing programs claim that they can make you lots of money, but require you to Buy their product or charge a sign up fee before you can start promoting what they offer. Bear in mind that you do not have to pay for an affiliate product to promote it (although there are reasons you might want to do that). Most affiliate product and service owners will NEVER ask their affiliates to pay money before they earn.
The Better Business Bureau www.bbb.com and Federal Trade Commission www.ftc.gov offer more information about avoiding rip-offs, plus ways to verify offers and file complaints. Your state attorney general’s office might also have specialized or general information with regard to make money scams.
Posted in Business Info and tagged Affiliate, affiliate marketing programs, Business, cash, Easy Money generating, Get Rich Quick, Legitimate, Make, money, money scams, online, online marketing, opportunities, Pay, product, Programs, Pyramid, scam, Scams, Schemes, suggestions, tips on February 1, 2014 by Intellectual Mindframe. 1 Comment
Woman Sexually Assaulted In Rogers Park Laundry Room
Posted in Illinois, News, USA News and tagged Laundry Room, Rogers Park, Sexually Assaulted, Woman on January 30, 2014 by Intellectual Mindframe. Leave a comment
Top 5 Richest People In The World
The following are the top 5 richest people in the world today.
SO HOW MUCH IS A BILLION IN NUMBERS? WELL ONE BILLION IS ONE THOUSAND MILLION SO ONE BILLION IN NUMBERS WOULD LOOK LIKE:
Just how much is Bill Gates worth? $78.2 Billion
$64,067,888 dollars $8,008,486 dollars $133,474 dollars 76 cents $2,224 dollars 57 cents
Bill Gates is an American business mogul, chairman of Microsoft, author, and one of the richest people in the world Today who has a net worth of $78.2 billion dollars. Gates co-founded the software firm Microsoft with paul allen, and is known as one of the leading entrepreneurs of the personal computer revolution. Gates graduated from Lakeside School in 1973, scoring 1590 out of 1600 on the SAT, and enrolled Harvard College in the autumn of 1973.
With the release of the MITS Altair 8800 based on the Intel 8080 CPU, Gates and Allen saw this as the opening they needed to their own computer software company. The creators of the new microcomputer, Micro Instrumentation and Telemetry Systems (MITS), formed a partnership with Gates and Allen using their Altair emulator that ran on a minicomputer, and then the BASIC interpreter. The trade name “Microsoft” was registered November 26, 1976. During the first five-years of the Microsoft company, Gates personally examined every line of codes the company mailed, often modifying code when needed. On November 20, 1985, Microsoft launched its first retail version of Microsoft Windows.
Gates and his wife combined three family foundations to create the charitable Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation in 2000, the largest transparently operated charitable foundation on the earth. Gates announced on June 15, 2006 that he would switch out of his day-to-day role at Microsoft over the next two years in order to give more time to philanthropy.
( Bill Gates Home Cost $63 Million, The mansion took seven years to building. The swimming pool flows 60 feet long and has a underwater music system, plus it comes with A locker room that has 4 showers and two bathrooms. Their residence contains a 2,500 square foot gym. The dining room is 1,000 square feet large.Whenever a guest arrives, they are provided a pin that links with sensors in every room inside the house. Depending upon their preferences, the temperature, music, lighting adjusts in the house wherever they are. The property is additionally an “earth sheltered house” meaning it uses its natural surroundings as walls for temperature in order to reduce heat loss. Bill Gates pays $1M a year.. on taxes on the house. )
Carlos Slim Helu net-worth: $72 billion
Carlos Slim Helu was born January 28, 1940 in Mexico City,
Mexico. He is a businessman, philanthropist, and engineer mainly
focused on the telecommunications profession in Mexico. Slim possesses a
substantial influence over the telecommunications industry in Mexico and
much of Latin America. He manages Telefonos De Mexico, TelCel, and
America Movil. He maintains an active involvement in the companies, but
his three sons Carlos, Marco Antonio, and Patrick, run the firms on a
day to day basis. Slim was able to raise money for a telecommunications
business by purchasing reserve letters of credit which allowed him to
obtain guaranteed loans which provided the capital.
On August 8, 2007 Fortune magazine noted that Slim had got ahead of Bill Gates
in wealth. This signified the first time in 16 years that the wealthiest
person in the world has not been from United States, the Middle
East, or Europe and was from an “emerging economy”. Slim has been
awarded the Entrepreneurial Merit Medal of Honor from Mexico’s Chamber
Of Commerce. He is a “gold patron” of the American Academy of
Achievement and a Commander in the Belgian Order Of Leopold II. Slim was
named CEO of the year in 2003 by “Latin Trade” magazine, and one year
later Chief executive officer of the decade by the same magazine.
Vladimir Putin net-worth: $70 billion
Vladimir Putin is a Russian politician who
was born in the Soviet Union and has a net worth of $70 billion dollars.
The present Prime Minister of Russia, Vladimir Putin also served as the
President of the Russian Federation from December 1999 until May 2008.
Successful in overhauling Russia’s economic environment, he was often
criticized due to his handling of human rights and foreign policy issues.
In addition to his net worth he’s amassed a reputation as one of the most
infamous politicians in the world, with many in the west calling the
circumstances under which he has continued to hold office in Russia
“undemocratic.” Still, he has been fairly well-liked among the Russian
people themselves ever since he began serving as president in late 1999
after the surprise resignation of Boris Yeltsin. Putin’s career in
politics began after serving in the KGB, being appointed head of the
Committee for External Relations of the Saint Petersburg Mayor’s Office.
After that, his political fortunes continued to rise until he
eventually won the 2000 Russian presidential election. His public image
is fairly exceptional for a politician, largely characterized by his “macho,”
outdoorsy image, having been famously photographed shirtless and
taking part in other dangerous or extreme sports and activities. He is also
well known for his “Putinisms,” aphorisms that comes from his unique use of
the Russian language (identical to how George W. Bush is famous for his
malapropisms here in the united states of america). One example of a “Putinism”
occurred during an interview with American journalist Larry King, who
asked him what happened to the Russian submarine that had been lost in an
explosion – Putin answered simply, “she sank.”
Amancio Ortega Gaona
Amancio Ortega Gaona net-worth: $65 billion
Amancio Ortega Gaona is a Spanish fashion industry executive and entrepreneur who
has a net worth of $65 billion. Amancio Ortega has accumulated this net
worth through a number of years in the fashion industry and is most noticeable as
the founder and owner of retail store Zara.
Amancio Ortega Gaona has
been characterized by his intensive secrecy and low profile despite the
fact that he is the fifth richest person in the world behind Carlos
Helu, Bill Gates, Warren Buffett, Ingvar Kamprad, Bernard Arnault and
Larry Ellison. Amancio is the wealthiest person in Spain and the second
wealthiest person in all of Europe. Ortega never has given a public
interview, and in contrast to his work in the world of high fashion is
most often seen in a pair of blue jeans and a T-shirt. Make no mistake,
though: His low profile does not mean that he is a “do nothing”
executive. He is known to have a major hands-on role in his company the
Inditex group, consisting of such respected fashion brands as Zara,
Massimo Dutti, Oysho, Zara Home, Kiddy’s Class, Tempe, Stradivarius,
Pull and Bear/Often and Bershka.
At 75 years old, though, Gaona has
shown indications of slowing down. He recently announced his retirement from
the day to day operations of Inditex, and that by the vice president and
CEO of Inditex, Pablo Isla, will be taking his place at the head of the
firm.
Warren Buffett net-worth: $60 billion
Warren Buffett has become one of the richest people in the world who has a
net worth of $60 billion. Warren Buffett is debatedly the most famous and
successful Financial Investors in history.
If you had invested $10,000 with Warren
Buffett in 1966, today you would have $300 million!
$10,000 invested in the S&P would be $140,000.
Warren Buffett has declared to give away 99% of his net worth to charity. 83% of
the money would go to The Bill and Melinda Gates foundation. That
equates to roughly $41 billion making it the largest charitable
gift in the world. Buffett’s philanthropy has inspired other
billionaires to pledge at least 50% of their net worth to charity in
their lifetimes as well, a truly remarkable achievement.
U.S. President Barack Obama awards the Medal of Freedom to recipient Warren Buffett. // Warren Buffett (Larry Downing/Reuters)
The 78 year-old Warren Buffett is Famous for investing in items he
actually uses. For example, he owns Fruit of the Loom because he really liked
their shirts and underwear. Warren has made headlines recently immediately after
his love of a specific brand of suit led him to invest in the Chinese firms Trands Co. He isn’t the only powerful guy sporting Trands: Former Chinese President Hu Jintao and billionaire Bill Gates are also big fans of this very brand. The Oracle of Omaha and CEO of financial powerhouse Berkshire Hathaway also recently compiled a video commemorating the apparel company’s 30th anniversary and took the opportunity to gush about his nine Trands suits. The best part? although the cheapest Trands suit costs $880, Buffet hasn’t paid a penny for his wardrobe though he claims he has asked for a bill. It’s not a bad investment for Trands’ founder and Buffett gal-pal Li Guilian, whose
stock has risen 70% ever since the video went public.
Posted in Celebrities, Fame And Fortune, Celebrity Net-worths, Top 5 Richest People In The World and tagged Amancio Ortega, Amancio Ortega Gaona, bill gates, billionaire, billionaires, Carlos Helu, Carlos Slim, Carlos Slim Helu, cash, dollars, how much, million, millions, money, net worth, networth, Telefonos, Vladimir, Vladimir Putin, warren buffet, worth, zara on January 29, 2014 by Intellectual Mindframe. Leave a comment
United States Of America General Information
Abbreviation: USA
Population: 316,148,990
One birth every: 8 seconds
One death every: 12 seconds
One international migrant (net) every: 40 seconds
Net gain of one person every: 17 seconds
Land Area: 3,537,379
The United States of America (USA), commonly referred to as the United States (US), America, or simply the States, is a federal republic[10][11] consisting of 50 states, 16 Insular areas, and a federal district. The 48 contiguous states and the federal district of Washington, D.C., are in central North America between Canada and Mexico. The state of Alaska is the northwestern part of North America and the state of Hawaii is an archipelago in the mid-Pacific. The country also has five populated and nine unpopulated territories in the Pacific and the Caribbean. At 3.79 million square miles (9.83 million km2) in total and with around 316 million people, the United States is the fourth-largest country by total area and third largest by population. It is one of the world’s most ethnically diverse and multicultural nations, the product of large-scale immigration from many countries.[12] The geography and climate of the United States is also extremely diverse, and it is home to a wide variety of wildlife.
Paleo-indians migrated from Asia to what is now the U.S. mainland around 15,000 years ago,[13] with European colonization beginning in the 16th century. The United States emerged from 13 British colonies located along the Atlantic seaboard. Disputes between Great Britain and these colonies led to the American Revolution. On July 4, 1776, delegates from the 13 colonies unanimously issued the Declaration of Independence. The ensuing war ended in 1783 with the recognition of independence of the United States from the Kingdom of Great Britain, and was the first successful war of independence against a European colonial empire.[14][15] The current Constitution was adopted on September 17, 1787. The first 10 amendments, collectively named the Bill of Rights, were ratified in 1791 and guarantee many fundamental civil rights and freedoms.
Driven by the doctrine of manifest destiny, the United States embarked on a vigorous expansion across North America throughout the 19th century.[16] This involved displacing native tribes, acquiring new territories, and gradually admitting new states.[16] The American Civil War ended legal slavery in the country.[17] By the end of the 19th century, the United States extended into the Pacific Ocean,[18] and its economy was the world’s largest.[19] The Spanish–American War and World War I confirmed the country’s status as a global military power. The United States emerged from World War II as a global superpower, the first country with nuclear weapons, and a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council. The end of the Cold War and the dissolution of the Soviet Union left the United States as the sole superpower.
The United States is a developed country and has the world’s largest national economy, with an estimated GDP in 2013 of $16.7 trillion – 23% of global nominal GDP and 19% at purchasing-power parity.[6][20] The economy is fueled by an abundance of natural resources and the world’s highest worker productivity,[21] with per capita GDP being the world’s sixth-highest in 2010.[6] While the U.S. economy is considered post-industrial, it continues to be one of the world’s largest manufacturers.[22] The U.S. has the highest mean and second-highest median household income in the OECD as well as the highest average wage,[23][24] though it has the fourth most unequal income distribution among OECD nations[25][26] with roughly 16% of the population living in poverty.[27] The country accounts for 39% of global military spending,[28] being the world’s foremost economic and military power, a prominent political and cultural force, and a leader in scientific research and technological innovation.[29][30]The Financial Secrecy Index ranks the United States as the 6th safest tax haven in the world, and is considered by many around the world as the biggest tax haven in the world for non-Americans.[31][32]
Posted in USA News and tagged America, births, death, general, information, population, size, States, United, united states of america, USA on January 26, 2014 by Intellectual Mindframe. 5 Comments
Justin Bieber Arrested For DUI and Drag Racing A Rented Lamborghini
MIAMI BEACH, Florida — Pop star Justin Bieber was arrested on drag-racing, driving under the influence (DUI) and resisting arrest charges Thursday after allegedly speeding down a residential Miami Beach street in a yellow Lamborghini on an expired license. He is being kept at a Miami-Dade County jail pending an initial appearance expected later Thursday. police say Bieber was arrested after authorities saw him and R&B singer Khalil racing two luxury exotic vehicles down the street at 4:09 a.m., with two other vehicles apparently being used to block off the area. Both Bieber and Khalil face drag-racing and driving under the influence charges. Police Chief Ray Martinez told a news conference Thursday morning the celebrity was initially not cooperative when the police officer pulled him over. Martinez said the pop star also had an invalid Georgia driver’s license and confessed to smoking marijuana, taking a prescription medication and drinking.
Police said Bieber was driving a Lamborghini and Khalil was driving a Ferrari. Both cars were towed. Police say Bieber was clocked at around 60 mph (100 kph) in a 30 mph (50 kph) zone.
Justin bieber mugshot This police booking mug made available by the Miami Dade County Corrections Department shows star Justin Bieber, Thursday, Jan. 23, 2014. Bieber and singer Khalil were arrested for evidently drag-racing on a Miami Beach Street. Police said Bieber has been charged with resisting arrest without violence in addition to drag racing and DUI. Police also say the singer told authorities he had consumed alcohol, smoked marijuana and taken prescription drugs. (AP Photo) According to the arrest report, Bieber “had slow deliberate articulations” and a look of stupor on his face when the officer requested him to exit his vehicle. The 19-year-old Bieber was placed under arrest after multiple times refusing to put his hands on his vehicle so the officer could pat him down to look for weapons, the report said. It says he cursed several times at the officer and requested to know why he was being arrested. Bieber failed a field sobriety test and was taken to the Miami Beach police station for a Breathalyzer, police said. Results have not been announced.
Television footage early Thursday showed a van thought to be carrying Bieber from a Miami Beach police station to a Miami-Dade County jail. The van, with blacked-out windows, was trailed by squad cars. His publicist, Melissa Victor, did not offer an immediate statement. The street where authorities say Bieber was racing in mid-Miami Beach is a four-lane residential street separated by a grass median dotted with palm trees. Along one side of the street are small condominium buildings, and on the other side is a high school, a youth center, a golf course and a city firehouse. It’s a short drive from the area to trendy South Beach, where celebrities are known to let loose. George Avilas, who lives close by said he didn’t hear anything, but was not greatly surprised to hear that people might be drag-racing. “There’s so much partying in Miami Beach, it’s been known to happen,” he said. “It’s 4 o’clock in the morning, everybody is just getting out of the bars.” Canadian-born Justin Bieber was only 15 when his platinum-selling debut “My World” was launched. The singer from Ontario had placed second in a local singing contest two years earlier and began posting performances on YouTube, according to his official website. The videos caught the attention of a talent agent and eventually led to a recording contract. He was positioned as clean-cut and charming — even performing for President Barack Obama and his family at Christmas — but problems began to multiply as he got older; Thursday’s arrest is just the most recent in a series of troubling incidents. Bieber has been accused of wrongdoing in California, but has never been arrested or charged. He is at the present time under investigation in a felony vandalism case after a neighbor reported the pop star threw eggs at his residential home and caused thousands of dollars of damage. A neighbor had previously accused Bieber of spitting in his face, and a paparazzi called deputies after he said Bieber kicked him, but prosecutors declined to file charges in either instance. He was also accused of reckless driving in his neighborhood, but in October prosecutors refused to seek charges because it was unclear whether Bieber was driving. His arrest in Miami is unlikely to affect the ongoing investigation, which included nearly a dozen detectives searching Bieber’s home last week searching for video surveillance and other evidence that could be used to pursue a vandalism charge. Bieber is also being sued by a former bodyguard who claims the singer repeatedly berated him and hit him in the chest and owes him more than $420,000 in time beyond regulation and other wages. The case is scheduled to go to trial in Los Angeles next month.
Under Florida law, people under the age of 21 are regarded driving under the influence if they have a blood-alcohol content of .02 percent or more – a level Bieber could reach with one drink. For 21 and over, it is .08 percent. For a first drunken driving offense, there is no minimum sentence and a maximum of six months, a fine of $250 to $500, and 50 hours of community service. For anyone under 21, there is an automatic six-month license suspension. A first criminal offense for drag racing carries a sentence of up to six months, a fine of $500 to $1,000 and a one-year license suspension. Bieber’s arrival in Florida earlier this week also is under investigation. Authorities in the suburban Miami city of Opa-locka are investigating whether the singer was given a police escort when he landed Monday at the Opa-locka Executive Airport. “The escort was unauthorized by police administration,” said Assistant City Manager David Chiverton. Police escorts from the airport are not uncommon, but they must follow procedure because they involve city motor vehicles, Chiverton said. “There’s a procedure,” Chiverton said. “These things must be approved, there’s a process.”
He was photographed in a rental car earlier in the day posting a photo of model Chantel Jeffries driving a yellow rented Lamborghini on his Instagram that have since been deleted. However it’s unknown whether it was the same car that the star was in when he was arrested.
Justin shared this snap of himself smoking a cigar earlier this week (Instagram/Justin Bieber)
The alleged arrest marks the end of a couple of bad weeks for the Baby superstar, with his house also being raided by eleven patrol cars last week following a reported egg attack on his neighbour’s house. This then resulted in his BFF Lil Za being arrested for alleged drug possession, before he then got charged again for vandalizing a phone in the prison.
Posted in Celebrities, Fame And Fortune, Celebrity News, Florida, Georgia, News and tagged alcohol, arrested, Bieber, cigar, drugs, Ferrari, Instagram, Justin, Justin Bieber, Justin Bieber Arrested, Khalil, Lamborghini, marijuana, Miami Dade, paparazzi, prescription, YouTube on January 26, 2014 by Intellectual Mindframe. 4 Comments
Wyoming General Information
Abbreviation: WY
Wyoming i/waɪˈoʊmɪŋ/ is a state in the mountain region of the Western United States. Wyoming is the 10th most extensive, but the least populous and the second least densely populated of the 50 United States. The western two thirds of the state is covered mostly with the mountain ranges and rangelands in the foothills of the Eastern Rocky Mountains, while the eastern third of the state is high elevation prairie known as the High Plains. Cheyenne is the capital and the most populous city in Wyoming, with a population of 91,738 in the metropolitan area (as of the 2012 census). Wyoming also is the only state whose boundaries were acquired through four separate purchases: first during the Louisiana Purchase, second from the Annexation of Texas, third from the Oregon Country, and fourth and finally from the Mexican-American War.
Posted in Wyoming and tagged Eastern Rocky Mountains, information, news, state, United States, united states of america, USA, Western United States, Wyoming on January 24, 2014 by Intellectual Mindframe. Leave a comment
Wisconsin General Information
Abbreviation: WI
Wisconsin i/wɪsˈkɒnsən/ is a U.S. state located in the north-central United States, in the Midwest and Great Lakes regions. It is bordered by Minnesota to the west, Iowa to the southwest, Illinois to the south, Lake Michigan to the east, Michigan to the northeast, and Lake Superior to the north. Wisconsin is the 23rd state by total area and the 20th most populous. The state capital is Madison, and its largest city is Milwaukee, which is located on the western shore of Lake Michigan. The state comprises 72 counties.
Wisconsin’s geography is diverse, with the Northern Highland and Western Upland along with a part of the Central Plain occupying the western part of the state and lowlands stretching to the shore of Lake Michigan. Wisconsin is second to Michigan in the length of its Great Lakes coastline.
Wisconsin is known as “America’s Dairyland” because it is one of the nation’s leading dairy producers, particularly famous for cheese. Manufacturing and tourism are also major contributors to the state’s economy.
Posted in Wisconsin and tagged information, Michigan, news, state, united states of america, USA, Wisconsin on January 24, 2014 by Intellectual Mindframe. Leave a comment
West Virginia General Information
Abbreviation: WV
West Virginia i/ˌwɛst vərˈdʒɪnjə/ is a U.S. state located in the Appalachian region of the Southern United States.[5][6][7][8] It is bordered by Virginia to the southeast, Kentucky to the southwest, Ohio to the northwest, Pennsylvania to the north, and Maryland to the northeast. West Virginia is the 41st largest by area and the 38th most populous of the 50 United States. The capital and largest city is Charleston.
West Virginia became a state following the Wheeling Conventions, in which 50 northwestern counties of Virginia whose landowners owned few to no slaves decided to break away from Virginia during the American Civil War. The new state was admitted to the Union on June 20, 1863, and was a key Civil War border state. West Virginia was the only state to form by seceding from a Confederate state and was one of two states formed during the American Civil War (the other being Nevada, which separated from Utah Territory).
The Census Bureau and the Association of American Geographers[5] classify West Virginia as part of the South. The northern panhandle extends adjacent to Pennsylvania and Ohio, with the West Virginia cities of Wheeling and Weirton just across the border from the Pittsburgh metropolitan area, while Bluefield is less than 70 miles (110 km) from North Carolina. Huntington in the southwest is close to the states of Ohio and Kentucky, while Martinsburg and Harpers Ferry in the Eastern Panhandle region are considered part of the Washington metropolitan area, in between the states of Maryland and Virginia. The unique position of West Virginia means that it is often included in several geographical regions, including the Mid-Atlantic, the Upland South, and the Southeastern United States. It is the only state that is entirely within the area served by the Appalachian Regional Commission; the area is commonly defined as “Appalachia“.[9]
The state is noted for its mountains, its historically significant logging and coal mining industries, and its political and labor history. It is one of the most densely karstic areas in the world, making it a choice area for recreational caving and scientific research. The karst lands contribute to much of the state’s cool trout waters. It is also known for a wide range of outdoor recreational opportunities, including skiing, whitewater rafting, fishing, hiking, backpacking, mountain biking, and hunting.
Posted in West Virginia and tagged American Civil War, information, news, state, united states of america, USA, Virginia, West Virginia on January 24, 2014 by Intellectual Mindframe. Leave a comment
Washington General Information
Abbreviation: WA
Washington i/ˈwɒʃɪŋtən/ is a state in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States located north of Oregon, west of Idaho, and south of the Canadian province of British Columbia on the coast of the Pacific Ocean. Named after George Washington, the first President of the United States, the state was carved out of the western part of the Washington Territory which had been ceded by Britain in 1846 by the Oregon Treaty as a settlement of the Oregon Boundary Dispute. It was admitted to the Union as the 42nd state in 1889.
Washington is the 18th most extensive and the 13th most populous of the 50 United States. Approximately 60 percent of Washington’s residents live in the Seattle metropolitan area, the center of transportation, business, and industry along the Puget Sound region of the Salish Sea, an inlet of the Pacific consisting of numerous islands, deep fjords, and bays carved out by glaciers. The remainder of the state consists of deep rainforests in the west, mountain ranges in the west, center, northeast and far southeast, and a semi-arid eastern basin given over to intensive agriculture. After California, Washington is the second most populous state on the West Coast and in the Western United States.
Washington is a leading lumber producer. Its rugged surface is rich in stands of Douglas fir, hemlock, ponderosa and white pine, spruce, larch, and cedar. The state is the biggest producer of apples, lentils, dry edible peas, hops, pears, red raspberries, spearmint oil, and sweet cherries, and ranks high in the production of apricots, asparagus, grapes, peppermint oil, and potatoes. Livestock and livestock products make important contributions to total farm revenue and the commercial fishing catch of salmon, halibut, and bottomfish makes a significant contribution to the state’s economy.
Manufacturing industries in Washington include aircraft and missiles, shipbuilding and other transportation equipment, lumber, food processing, metals and metal products, chemicals, and machinery. Washington has over 1,000 dams, including the Grand Coulee Dam, built for a variety of purposes including irrigation, power, flood control, and water storage.
Although its official, unambiguous name is “The State of Washington,” the state’s name is often reversed and referred to as “Washington state” to distinguish it from Washington, D.C., also named for George Washington. Another nickname is “the Evergreen State.” Its largest city is Seattle, situated in the west, followed by Spokane, located in the east, and its capital is Olympia.
Posted in Washington and tagged George Washington, information, news, state, united states of america, USA, Washington, Washington state on January 24, 2014 by Intellectual Mindframe. Leave a comment
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Glenn Gould at the Embassy of Canada, Moscow
From left to right (Embassy of Canada): Deputy Head of Mission, Mr Stéphane Jobin; Minister-Counsellor, Mme Annick Goulet; First Secretary, Mme Corinne Petrisor; Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary, His Excellency Mr John R. Kur
Moscow, 29 June 2018. On the occasion of Canada Day 2018, the Embassy of Canada in Moscow was honoured to celebrate the enduring cultural legacies of internationally renowned Canadian portrait photographer Yousuf Karsh (1908-2002) and legendary Canadian classical pianist Glenn Gould (1932-1982).
At a special reception held in the presence of the diplomatic corps, the Ambassador of Canada to the Russian Federation officially unveiled an original portrait of Glenn Gould taken by Yousuf Karsh in 1957 which has been gifted to the Embassy of Canada by the Estate of Yousuf Karsh. Glenn Gould visited the Embassy in 1957 during his historic concert tour of the Soviet Union, as did Yousuf Karsh subsequently in 1963 to photograph prominent Soviet political and cultural figures of the day. During the reception, the 50th anniversary of the initial investiture of Yousuf Karsh into the Order of Canada on 26 April 1968 was also marked. For the Embassy of Canada in Moscow, it was a unique opportunity to honour two towering Canadian cultural icons who proudly shared their talent and creativity with the Russian people.
See more Khrushchevs.
Yousuf and Estrellita with Nikita and Nina Khrushchev, Moscow, 1963
July 2018 July 2018
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Tag: wildlife biology
Five Reasons I love Marine Biology
On December 7, 2018 December 7, 2018 By Dr. KIn For Fun, ScienceLeave a comment
Its time for another listicle! This one is devoted to my love for the field of marine biology and the scientists who study ocean ecosystems. Here are five reasons why I think marine biology is awesome:
It’s like MacGyver meets James Bond.
Pretty much any marine biology field or lab experiment involves the combination of some very complicated and expensive equipment and software (NanoDrop ND‐1000 spectrometer and Illumina GAIIx platform, anyone?) plus a black trash bag, bungee chords, and lots of masking tape. Field biologists are some of the most resourceful individuals I know, combining the skills of an engineer, a magician, and a secret agent to solve problems with minimal resources and time.
Poop matters.
I literally heard a scientist say the phrase, “it’s poop that matters” in a recent presentation. Marine biologists get to study some pretty fascinating things, and it turns out that one of those things is poop. In fact, excrement from organisms such as reef fish or whales is a huge and extremely important component of marine food webs and flows of nutrients through ocean ecosystems. Whether its parrot fish poop helping create tropical beaches, or blue whale feces fertilizing entire ocean basins, poop matters, and marine biologists are there to study it.
Oh the places you’ll go.
They say that life is about the journey, not the destination. But if you’re a marine biologist, the destination is usually a pretty big perk. Most people save up precious dollars to honeymoon in Bora Bora or the Caribbean, but marine biologists get to go to these places year after year, snorkeling, diving, exploring beautiful and exotic places that most people only see in glossy magazines. Sure, they’re probably staying in an un-air conditioned mosquito-ridden shack rather than a swank bungalow with a jacuzzi tub—but that just adds to the charm. Let’s not forget those intrepid biologists that explore the sea beneath Antarctic ice or deep in the Mariana trench. Unless your James Cameron, being a marine biologist is one of the surest ways to experience these far-flung regions.
For the love of nudes.
Nudibranchs that is. I love that marine biologists get super excited about the tiniest most obscure organisms—including the colorful little sea slugs knows as nudibranchs. The childish sense of wonder and glee that marine biologists display for their study species, whether it’s sea otters or sea lice, gives me the warm and fuzzies. Of course this tendency isn’t unique to marine biologists, but it seems that studying ocean organisms predisposes you to adorably obsessing over said organism and having it displayed on everything you own, from clothing and jewelry to wall art, kitchen gadgets, and phone cases).
It comes down to one word.
Probably my favorite thing about marine biology is the official word scientists use to describe a tiny chunk of coral: nubbin. It brings me great pleasure to listen to a scientific talk about the genetic sequencing of coral species and listen to the presenter describe how they collected and sampled coral nubbins. There is even a scientific paper titled “Coral nubbins as source material for coral biological research: A prospectus.” I will never not smile when I hear the word nubbin and it warms my heart that there are scientists out there whose research depends on procuring nubbins.
In all seriousness, one of the things I love most about marine biology is that it’s a field of study composed of countless passionate individuals who care deeply about the ocean, the planet, and biodiversity. I’ve met many uber-intelligent marine biologists using innovative approaches to learn more about how our planet works and how we can protect it into the future. These folks are doing what they love, working very long hours (often for not very high pay), and pushing the boundaries of our understanding of life on earth.
A big thanks to all the biologists, all the scientists, all the passionate and curious thinkers and doers out there making a difference!
Yes, scientists discovered a huge colony of penguins off Antarctica, and no, it doesn’t mean climate change is a hoax.
On March 13, 2018 April 19, 2018 By Dr. KIn Environment, ScienceLeave a comment
“The greatest enemy of knowledge is not ignorance, it is the illusion of knowledge.”
-Stephen Hawking (1942-2018)
In March, researchers announced the discovery of a ‘super colony’ of Adélie penguins hidden amongst the remote Danger Islands off the northernmost tip of Antarctica. The colony’s existence was confirmed using satellite imagery, and scientists estimated its size using the latest drone technology and neural network software.
Finding roughly 1.5 million penguins thriving in this region—especially since their kin in the western Antarctic Peninsula are suffering population declines—should be a good news story, right?
The discovery certainly received a great deal of media coverage. The news that Adélie penguins as a species are in better shape than researchers previously thought should give us renewed hope and inspire greater support for two planned marine protected areas in the Danger Islands, which would help safeguard this newly found penguin colony from human encroachment.
Yet, although this discovery has raised morale for many wildlife biologists and environmental conservationists, it has also sparked vitriol from science scoffers and professional trolls.
Science Misunderstood
A scroll through the comments section in The Independent’s coverage of the story shows just how wide the gap is between what scientists do, and what people think scientists do. Many of the comments revolved around scientists being incompetent and stubborn, such as this one:
The comment highlights one of the most common ways people misinterpret science. The commenter seems to imply that science is a farce because scientists thought they knew how many penguins existed. This new discovery shows that they did not. Therefore, science cannot be trusted. The thing that haters don’t seem to understand is that science is built on a foundation of continually evolving ideas based on introduction of new evidence. Science is not static, it seeks to hone theories and improve our understanding incrementally as we gather more and more information to support or refute ideas.
Science is not a religion that scientists proselytize (at least, not for most of us); it is a framework for continually improving our understanding of the world. Scientists had a prior estimate of penguins based on evidence at the time. That estimate has now been updated based on the introduction of new evidence. That’s exactly how science is supposed to work. Discovering that the Adélie penguin population is larger than previously thought in no way negates the thousands of lines of evidence documenting climate change impacts. Neither does it imply that Adélie populations elsewhere aren’t suffering declines. It simply increases our baseline knowledge and allows for more accurate population modeling.
Misplaced Mistrust
Another comment illustrates another common misplaced complaint about science—that because scientists didn’t know about this penguin colony, they obviously don’t know what they are talking about with anything else, including climate change; their research can’t be trusted:
First of all, I don’t think the commenter understands just how remote and rugged the Danger Islands are, located in a turbulent, difficult to reach part of the Southern Ocean. They aren’t called Danger Islands for nothing. Even if researchers had been able to locate the colony via satellite imagery long before now, they would have struggled to estimate the population size without the drone and software technologies that have only recently become widely available (and affordable).
Left: Map of Antarctica indicating location of Danger Islands in yellow box. Right: Close-up of the northern tip of the Antarctic Peninsula and Danger Islands. Images modified from Borowicz et al 2018.
Second, the commenter falls into the all too common trap of false equivalence: slick scientists tell us climate change causes ice to melt, but this penguin colony is surrounded by ice. Therefore, climate change must not be happening, so Ha! This argument fails to acknowledge the many known intricacies of global climate change, including the fact that while some areas of the planet are steadily warming (and ice is melting at worrisome rates), other areas are still fairly stable or even experiencing more extreme cold weather patterns. The point that seems to get buried beneath layers of ideology is that climate change is creating a more volatile climate system across the planet, and this is well documented.
The equipment to measure greenhouse gas quantities and origins has existed for decades, and climate models are becoming more and more accurate every year. We know, for example, that the Arctic sea ice minimum, which occurs around September each year, is declining at a rate of about 13% per decade. Arctic winters are also warming steadily at an alarming rate—just last month researchers documented an unprecedented heat wave in the region. As this heat invades the Arctic (due to rising ocean temperatures and sea rise), cool air is pushed south causing extreme cold-snaps in northern temperate latitudes.
And it’s not just the Arctic. A NASA study using innovative data analysis techniques to interpret satellite data has provided the clearest picture yet of changes in Antarctic ice flow. The study found that ice loss is accelerating on the West Antarctic ice sheet, while remaining steady in the east. This evidence actually helps explain why ice-dependent Adélie penguins seem to be doing so much better in the Danger Islands than their Western Peninsula counterparts.
The four species of penguin that live on or near the Antarctic continent. Before the recent discovery of a previously undocumented Adelie colony in the Danger Islands, the Adelie population was estimated at roughly 3 -4 million.
Where all the rich climate scientists at?
Of course, one could argue that all of these thousands of climate scientists (who are a completely different group of people than the marine biologists that discovered the penguin colony, by the way) are just in cahoots to keep the grant money flowing in and their pockets overflowing. Except that they aren’t. But the argument keeps getting made, often with the implication that academic researchers are all part of one big conspiracy to ruin the world for everyone else:
I hate to break it to you, but neither I nor any of the scientists I know sought an academic research career because of the promise of dollar signs or job security (less than one third of faculty at public universities are tenured, e.g.). Most climate scientists work at academic institutions, government agencies, or NGOs and earn less (sometimes a lot less) than $100,000 per year. Even U.S. college professors only earn on average $75,000 per year. Sure, that’s nothing to scoff at. But it’s hardly even worth comparing to the millions of dollars these folks would be pocketing each year if they had opted to work for, say, a multinational oil company instead of a government agency or university.
Besides, when you add in the average combined undergraduate and graduate student loan debt of around $70,000, and the six to ten years of courses and research it takes to earn a PhD, it becomes harder and harder to argue that climate scientists are in it for the money. And it doesn’t get much better once you graduate—nearly half of U.S. PhD recipients don’t have a job lined up at graduation. Those that do often accept post-doc positions that pay an average annual salary of $40,000. The number of tenure-track positions is shrinking every year, and competition is painstakingly stiff for those that remain (one of my good friends recently applied for an academic position and learned that nearly ONE THOUSAND other similarly qualified people also applied).
What’s more, U.S. grant money for climate change research has remained relatively flat for the last twenty years, hovering around a total of about $2 billion coming from 13 different agencies and spread out among thousands of individual research grants. Compare that to the annual budget of the NIH at more than $30 billion, or the yearly profit of Exxon at $16 billion. Research science is not a career you choose to be rich and famous. It’s a career you choose because you are innately curious or passionate about solving problems (or maybe you have a masochistic bent). For more on what really happens to grant money awarded to climate scientists, check out this video by climate scientist and Evangelical Christian Kathryn Hayhoe.
Climate scientists may have deep pockets, but they’re filled with crumbled sticky notes and candy wrappers, not hundred-dollar bills.
How do we build a bridge between science and society?
Russian trolls and paid nay-sayers aside, scientists obviously have some work to do to more clearly communicate how they do science, what processes they use, and why their work is relevant to society. The field of science communication is rapidly growing and maturing to help on this front, but we still have a long way to go. It’s not just about doing away with jargon and simplifying complex concepts. It’s about connecting with people who have different values and worldviews. As Lisa Saffran writes in Scientific American:
“No matter how clear the findings and how scientifically literate the audience, if the information poses a threat to one’s identity then the scientist might as well be speaking, well, Greek.”
Saffron is referring to the way our social identities influence our perceptions and attitudes about environmental issues. Whether we admit it or not, our political, religious, and cultural allegiances strongly impact the way we respond, whether positive or negative, to information about things like climate change.
Scientists and science communicators must therefore hone their ability not only to translate scientific language, but also to listen to others and hear their concerns, and to engage them in discussions about what matters to all of us—such as the health of our families and communities.
As tKatharine Hayhoe puts it, “We live in a situation now where the fear of solutions is greater than the fear of impacts.” People are driven by fear, particularly the fear of losing their freedom of choice, and respond negatively to issues that might best be addressed at large government scales.
Fortunately, science storytelling is becoming recognized as an important way for scientists to connect with non-scientists and lay bare their own fears, hopes, and motivations. Dozens of training workshops, such as Story Collider, help train scientists to tell stories about their work that are accessible and interesting to public audiences.
Science education also needs to become a greater priority in schools and universities, with a particular focus on engaging students from diverse backgrounds and reducing barriers to obtaining a STEM (science, technology, engineering, math) education. As important will be teaching students to ‘think’ scientifically—i.e., to train people to “be their own science referees—that is, to understand how science works, and to identify baloney when it’s slung at them,” as Mike Klymkowskly writes in a blog about science education.
Klymkowskly argues that a lot of the public misunderstanding around science comes down to the way that science is taught and popularized. Teachers, books, shows, and movies about science tend to de-emphasize the process and instead focus on schnazzy facts and outcomes. I don’t think programs like Nova or Planet Earth are doing a disservice to science just because they focus on ‘wow’ factors, as Klymkowskly seems to imply. But I do think we have a responsibility to de-mystify scientific processes (because there are many), teach the history of science, and emphasize the importance of critical thinking in all fields of learning.
The Moral of the Science Story
What can we take away from all this? One, there are way more penguins in Antarctica than we previously thought (yay!). Two, climate change is still happening (Boo!). Three, scientists need to do a better job of communicating to non-scientists not only about scientific research, but about how the scientific process itself works.
We are all born curious, with a desire to understand the world around us and find our place in it. Most of us are also driven by an innate desire to make the world (or at least our immediate surroundings) a positive, safe space for ourselves and loved ones. Science is one framework through which we can gather evidence and refine ideas to do both of these things, but it must be made more accessible to diverse groups. We as scientists (and communicators) must work to depoliticize and clarify issues like climate change so that we can work with society to find common solutions, as well as common ground.
Read the Nature paper: Multi-modal survey of Adélie penguin mega-colonies reveals the Danger Islands as a seabird hotspot
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SCREENSHOTS: 'Us' Breaks Records At The Box Office
Jordan Peele's film makes over $71 million in its opening weekend
There's no double when it comes to the success of Us. The sophomore effort from Director Jordan Peele scored big at the box office, making $71.1 million in its opening weekend.
The film starring Lupita Nyong'o, Winston Duke, and Elisabeth Moss broke a few records on its way to the top, most impressively having the largest opening for an original, R-rated film since Ted took in $54.4 million in 2012. That also makes it bigger than the breakout hit A Quiet Place, which held the title of top original horror film debut with $50.2 million when it premiered last year. It's also the third biggest R-rated horror opening ever, coming in behind last year's Halloween and 2017's edition of It.
Related: SCREENSHOTS: The 'Stranger Things 3' Trailer Is Here With Mall Madness and a New Monster
The story of a family tormented by their doppelgängers is already off to quicker start than Peele's first film. Get Out debuted with $33.3 million in 2017, going on to total $176 million domestically and win the Oscar for Best Original Screenplay.
Us has had the second best opening weekend of the year after Captain Marvel. It will face a challenge from Disney's live-action version of Dumbo opening on Friday.
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Thomas Rhett Honors ‘Sesame Street’ at 2019 Kennedy Center Honors
Thomas Rhett joined in the celebration at the 2019 Kennedy Center Honors in Washington, D.C., which aired Sunday (Dec. 15), helping to pay tribute to the legacy of the classic children's TV show, Sesame Street.
The show, lauded by actor Lucy Liu as an "unlikely marriage of academic research and creative genius," introduced Rhett whimsically with all the characters in attendance.
"Elmo, I have a good idea,,,Why don't we introduce the next guest together?" inquired Liu to the beloved red puppet. "Oh! Yeah, Ms. Lucy! We can co-op-er-ate. Yes, just like on Sesame Street," crowed Elmo. "Oh, can Elmo start, please? And now please welcome ACM Male Vocalist of the Year... Mr. Thomas Rhett!"
Rhett, who is no stranger to Sesame Street, was right at home greeting his buddy. "Elmo, how are you?" he asked. "I've been on a lot of roads touring and playing music. But there is no street quite like Sesame Street. Yeah, it's pretty special. Come on, guys. Let's sing 'em a song."
That they did, with Rhett belting out "I want to go to that street where kindness is the way/ Learn new things each and every single day/ See the whole gang and never, never go away, yeah, never go away...'Cause this is my street... Sesame Street."
The Muppets weren't content with just that, however, launching into the classic "Sing a Song," which had everyone in the audience singing out loud and long, "La, la, la la la...La, la, la la la!"
Michael Tilson Thomas, Earth, Wind & Fire and Linda Ronstadt were also among the 2019 Kennedy Center honorees, and several other country stars were on hand to honor Ronstadt's contribution to various forms of popular music.
Trisha Yearwood honored Ronstadt by performing "You're No Good" and "I Don't Know Much," the latter of which featured Aaron Neville. Carrie Underwood took the Kennedy Center stage to perform "Blue Bayou" and "When Will I Be Loved," and she lavished praise on 73-year-old Ronstadt on the red carpet before the ceremony.
"One of the things I always admired about her is her ability to do whatever she wants. She always broke the rules and sang music that she felt like was true to her," Underwood observed (quotes via CNN).
"She was a chameleon," Underwood stated. "She loved music and she sang so many different kinds and genres. She wanted to sing country music, rock music, she would sing Spanish. She is just somebody I think the rest of us should all be more like."
The 2019 Kennedy Center Honors took place at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., on Dec. 8, and aired Sunday (Dec. 15) on CBS.
See Carrie Underwood + Others at the 2019 Kennedy Center Honors
Source: Thomas Rhett Honors ‘Sesame Street’ at 2019 Kennedy Center Honors
Filed Under: Thomas Rhett
Categories: Articles, Country Exclusive, Featured
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