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Larry Anderson
Trained in history. Terrified by the present.
@larand Larry
Open and closed, Part I
Written By Larry 2008-07-10T18:25:00Z
The last few weeks have seen a couple of announcements in the tech world: the launch of the new 3G iPhone from Apple, and a new round of investment in the popular but increasingly unreliable microblogging service Twitter. Each of these events has been discussed in the tech press, and the iPhone in particular is currently the subject of much hype and publicity,having gone on sale today.
Both of these things, however, have eclipsed a couple of developments that are, arguably, far more interesting and with much greater potential to shake up the established order. With all due respect to the iPhone, which has had a dramatic impact on the smartphone market, the new model is probably more accurately seen as an upgrade of the first-generation model than as something all-new—at least in terms of hardware. The new hardware features are GPS and 3G support (i.e., support for the GSM HSDPAprotocol, a mobile broadband standard). Unfortunately, GPS tends to drastically reduce battery life, and AT&T offers 3G access in only a limited number of areas. Because the new phone requires a much more expensive calling plan, and the other improvements to the new iPhone are software improvements that are available to current iPhone owners as a download, there has been some grumbling that upgrading to the new iPhone may not be worth it to current owners.
What the iPhone hype has obscured is the launch of a phone that, while not a direct competitor to the iPhone in any real sense, is at least a shot across the bow from an unlikely source. The OpenMoko group has introduced the Neo Freerunner, a touch-screen, tri-band unlocked GSM phone that bears more than a passing resemblance to a rounded-off iPhone. The potentially game-changing thing about the Freerunner is its open-source nature. While the iPhone runs a version of OS X, the Freerunner uses a mobile version of Linux—and unlike the iPhone, an owner can legally hack into its operating system, add programs to it, and generally alter it to his or her heart's content.
True, most people aren't interested in doing that to their mobile phone, but the emergence of the iPhone Dev Team showed that a fair number of people want the ability to customize their phone regardless of the manufacturer's wishes. Apple would prefer that this not happen, which is likely the reason why the new iPhone must be activated in-store rather than at home through iTunes, as was the case with the previous model. With the Freerunner, there is no such limitation, and the inclusion of a Linux-style package manager should make installation of new programs a breeze. The Freerunner is not an exact match for the iPhone feature-for-feature; for example, there is no camera, it doesn't support HSDPA, and you won't be using it to sync up to your iTunes library anytime soon.
Because it's an unlocked phone, not subsidized by a mobile operator such as AT&T, it's also more expensive. But for what it is, it's an extremely interesting peek into a world of much greater wireless freedom than we're used to. Lots of people must agree; as I write this, the GSM 900 version is sold out at the NeoMoko store. Coming up in Part II: Twitter and the world of microblogging, and a new open-source competitor.
Five things I saw before they changed forever
Farewell to NewsBlur
Open and closed, Part III—Microblogging redux
NewsBlur update
The NewsBlur debacle
Review of *Stasi Wolf*
Biden jumps in
The nightmare scenario
2019 © — Site Powered by Strong Coffee & Pictures of Happy Puppies
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Special insight into the Intersection of Accident and Criminal Investigations
TOPICS:1976British Airways TridentF. Lee BaileyGradimir TasićIFATCAInex-Adria Aviopromet DC-6Jim LoosUS DoJ investigation of B737 MAX certificationZagreb VOR
Posted By: jdasolutions May 20, 2019
Criminal Investigations into Aircraft accidents
By Jim Loos[i]
Mr. Loos is a frequent contributor[ii] to the Journal, in large part because his FAA career included significant assignments in the air traffic control service and later as an FAA representative at ICAO. This post is a first person view of the intersection between criminal investigations and accident investigation.
Some thoughts in regard to the report of a criminal investigation started by the DOJ on the 737 Max crashes.
On September 10, 1976 a British Airways Trident collided with an Inex-Adria Aviopromet DC-6 near the Zagreb VOR in what is now Croatia. The controllers involved were arrested and put on trial charged with endangering the lives of persons and property. Three controllers were charged. The controller, Gradimir Tasić, who had worked past his relief time and who was working two positions, was found guilty and sentenced to seven years imprisonment. He was released after two years and three mounts thanks to IFATCA putting a great deal of pressure on the government.
Tasic surely made a mistake caused by being overworked in a facility that lack adequate staffing and equipment. It was agreed that he was used as a scapegoat by the government.
The point here is that it was a sobering moment among controllers. There was no gross misconduct, just a mistake.
When F. Lee Bailey was encouraging membership in PATCO one of his selling points was that controllers could have a court determine that they are subject to punitive damages. “What’s that, sez us [controller speak]” “That’s when the court says you have to pay a penalty…like in money.” I’m sure many thought that if such occurred Bailey would have defended the controller. I’m smarter now. [controller speak]”
We had a crash one time, I forget the town, but it was a large airplane. The local police decided it was a crime scene and roped off both the crash scene and the tower. When our guys arrived to start the investigation the police wouldn’t let them into the tower. And, initially, they kept the NTSB away from the site. Quickly some our favorite lawyers got involved, pointing out the federal responsibility in such matters.
All this to highlight the possible complication when somebody decides that a crime is involved.
ICAO has discussed the subject in at least three Assemblies. Trying to find a way to say the courts should stay away until gross negligence is indicated. Can’t be done.
I wrote such a paper for the US to present and had a nice meeting with Chris Hart (when he worked for the FAA) and he explained why.
I think most of the aviation world believes a criminal investigation threatens the accident investigation by possibly inhibiting the statements of those involved.
I believe the governing Assembly Resolution is A38-3, which says, inter alia”
“Recognizing that the use of information, derived from accident investigations, for disciplinary, civil, administrative and criminal proceedings is generally not a means to maintain or improve aviation safety.”
“The Assembly…1. Urges Member States to continue and if necessary, adjust their laws, regulations and policies to protect certain accident and incident records in compliance with para 5.12 of Annex 13 in order to mitigate impediments to accident and incident investigations…”
Mr. Loos’ cogent, practical observations also find strong support from other commentators:
Criminalizing Aviation: Placing Blame Before Safety
The Investigative Process – NTSB Home
Aviation Safety Groups Issue Joint Resolution Condemning Criminalization of Accident Investigations
THANK YOU, FLIGHT INTERNATIONAL, FOR RAISING THE ISSUE OF CRIMINALIZING AVIATION ACCIDENT INVESTIGATION
Criminal Liability & Aircraft Accident Investigation
Criminal Liability and Aviation Safety
Air traffic controller convictions draw criticism
[i] James Loos, Member of the ICAO Air Navigation Commission nominated by the United States (1994-1997). Jim Loos began his FAA career as a controller in Kennedy Tower and subsequently moved to the New York Common IFR Room when that facility opened in 1968. After three years as an instructor at the FAA Academy in Oklahoma City he moved to Washington, D.C. to work in the Office of International Aviation. He attended his first ICAO meeting, the tenth meeting of the North Atlantic Systems Planning Group, in 1974. His positions since then have included Special Assistant to the Associate Administrator for Air Traffic, Manager of the Accident and Incident Division in the Air Traffic Service, and Chief of the Air Traffic Staff in the FAA’s Brussels Office. In 1994 he was nominated by the U.S. Government to be a Member of the ICAO Air Navigation Commission, assuming that position in October 1994. From October 1994 to November 1997 he was also the Deputy U.S. Representative to ICAO. Jim left Montreal in November 1997 and retired from the FAA in January 1998.
Ii Jim Loos’ Interpretation of ICAO’s role in the Qatar-UAE dispute; THERE WAS A DAY by Jim Loos; IT WAS A CLOSE ONE, MAYBE
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An Ode to Masculinity
BY Karen Lehrman Bloch | Jun 13, 2018 | Karen Lehrman Bloch
Like many women who grew up with ’50s-era fathers, I had a complicated relationship with mine.
On the one hand: complete adoration. I was most certainly a Daddy’s girl, to the point where I even had to eat whatever he was eating (I did draw a line at kishkes). On the other hand: He was no doubt a bit controlling.
As a result, my 20s were one huge rebellion against him. Not against men in general, but against this one man and my need to figure out who I was, separate from him.
After I got past that, though, I began to truly appreciate him as an authority figure. If I wanted the uncoddled truth about a situation, I would wait till my father came home.
Plenty of mothers can, of course, play that role, and as a mother, I’ve tried to blend the best of both of my parents. But raising a son in a climate where masculinity is under siege — not uncivilized masculinity, but masculinity itself — has made me think a lot about the subject.
My 8-year-old would fall into the very unpolitically correct category of “boy’s boy.” Empathy is situational, and aggression needed to be tamed. But he came out of the womb with a desire to rule every environment he’s ever been put in. I used to apologize for his bossiness until one father said to me, “Why are you apologizing? If we’re lucky, he’ll eventually use these skills to improve the world.”
Four years later, I saw the first step in this process. In the fall, Alexander learned how to create origami. The other kids in his third-grade class were so fascinated by it that he began to give them lessons. Then he formed an origami studio. The studio made so many origami sculptures that he asked the teacher if students could sell them, with the money going to a charity. A month later, the studio set up an origami table at the school’s fair. With entrepreneurial skills that seemed to come out of nowhere, he sold $136 worth of origami, with proceeds going to the local food pantry.
For me, the best part were the days leading up to the fair and the days that followed. He had become a more mature, confident Alexander — the best Alexander I had ever seen. It wasn’t just the responsibility, it was the ownership of a project: He became less bossy and more of a leader.
He happened to have a teacher this year who nurtured this evolution. But in general, the New York City public schools — following trends — are failing our boys. The Department of Education cut gym class to once a week so that the kids are a lot more inactive. In my experience, many of the female teachers are especially mean to the boys — even to the boys who act like angels. There seems to be an assumption of male guilt.
I didn’t fully understand this until I read a recent op-ed in The Washington Post called “Why can’t we hate men?” Written by a professor of sociology at Northeastern University, the piece contained phrases like “the land of legislatively legitimated toxic masculinity” and told men: “Don’t run for office. Don’t be in charge of anything. Step away from power.”
The best of masculinity should be cherished; the worst of it, civilized. That indeed would be progress.
For genderists, fixing “the problem of masculinity” means emasculating men. The fact that they don’t see how counterproductive this is — do happy, confident men rape and abuse? I don’t think so — is beyond mystifying.
“Fixing” masculinity first means trying to understand it. And as we well know, blind hatred never leads to understanding. Fortunately, the sports programs in New York City have yet to be infected, and they’ve been encouraging a healthier masculinity (as well as a healthier femininity). Strive for excellence, respect, good sportsmanship. Play hard — but within boundaries.
My dad, now 88, who taught Alexander how to build with empty boxes, is now capable of only superficial engagement. But if Alexander is in any sports competition, my dad never fails to ask, “Did he win?”
I imagine some mothers, steeped in cultural Marxism, may take offense to that question. But for me, it ties my father to my son. Moreover, striving to succeed, to “dominate,” isn’t inherently bad. It’s what moves the world forward.
Happy Father’s Day, dad.
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NCAA XC Championships — DBU XC — A Preview
Posted on November 28, 2018 November 24, 2018 by thedailyrun
For the third time in four years and on back to back years the DBU Lady Patriots have qualified for the NCAA XC Championships! Stetson Rayas will also be joining the ladies as he nabbed an individual automatic qualifying spot; this will be back to back years that Rayas has competed at the NCAA Championships.
This year’s Championships will be held in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania on Saturday with predicted cold conditions with a slight chance of rain…but nothing like what we experienced in Denver last weekend.
The expectation all season has been that we would be at the NCAA Championships, with our ladies being ranked as high as 9th in the NCAA and Stetson being ranked as high as 9th as an individual on the FloXC rankings. Unfortunately our Regional Championships did not go as we had planned and it was quite the nerve-wracking experience waiting to find out if we made it in.
Thankfully, we made it. And now I believe that we have a great opportunity to not only show that we deserved to make it, but that we are a team that should be in the top-10 and that Stetson is an individual that should be in the top-10.
One of the things that I’ve talked about with my team all season is that we have not had any bad days…except for a day at Regionals that seemed to be out of our control. They’ve shown up, every day, and put in the work that I believe has been good enough for a top-10 team finish for our ladies and a top-10 individual finish for Stetson!
So, who’s racing for the women this week?
Micaela Lamb — this is Lambo’s third trip to the NCAA Championships (2015, 2016, 2018) and she’s played an important part in our season as she was the Conference Runner-Up just under a month ago with a big PR in the 6000 meters. Lambo has had a wonderful return to form after struggling during 2017 with some illness and injury!
Juniors:
Denae Chapman — is a transfer from Texas Tech University, but a young lady that has plenty of CHAMPIONSHIP experience. Denae is the fastest high school 3200 meter runner that we have ever had on our roster (10:52). Denae has stepped up big time when we’ve needed her the most; running as our #3 lady at the Regional Preview and the Regional Championships in Denver, Colorado.
Leah Lewis — is about as consistent as they come. Leah has never not finished within our scoring top-5 as a DBU Lady Patriot and has led the way for us the past two years at the Regional Championships. In 2017, Leah was our top finisher at the NCAA Championships and looks primed to improve dramatically on that finish this year.
Hannah Moore — has led our team more times than anyone else on the roster this year, taking home the win at the opener and being our top finisher at the Chile Pepper Festival. Hannah also finished 5th at the Conference Championships and was our 2nd finisher in 2017 at the NCAA Championships after taking home the Conference Championship.
Danielle Rimann — is running her last XC race this weekend as a DBU Lady Patriot and has been a very big part of these past two championships appearances. Dani was an all-region performer last year and was 3rd overall at the Conference Championships this year with a personal best performance in the 6000 meters.
Freshmen:
Martha Brown — is making her NCAA Championships debut for us this weekend after finishing as our fifth scorer two weeks ago at the Regional Championships. Martha has finished in our top-7 at every meet during this freshman season, highlighted with an individual victory at the East Texas Shootout in early October.
Analynne Klotz — is also making her NCAA Championships debut this weekend. Just like Martha, Analynne has been in our top-7 at every meet she has competed in this year and was our fifth scorer at the Conference Championships earlier this month. Her Conference performance garnered her first-team All-Conference honors.
The thing that I’ve said all season is that we have not had our best TEAM performance yet. The Conference Championships were close with Lambo, Dani, Leah, and Hannah all running together for 5000 meters of the 6000 meter race, but we still lacked that true #5 performance that morning. And then, at every other meet we’ve gone to, we’ve had some great performances and some so-so performances…YET, have we put it together on the same exact day. I believe that if we can get five ladies to have that great day on the same day, then there is no question that we can be a top-10 team at the NCAA Championships.
What about Stetson?
Stetson has had a tremendous senior year highlight by a 5th place finish at the Chile Pepper Festival in late September and a top-collegiate finish at the Regional Preview in early October. It was after those two performances that I knew, as long as we carried on without interruption, that Stetson could contend for a top-10 finish at the NCAA Championships…and now, more than ever, I believe that. Stetson is stronger and faster than he’s ever been and he’s got some great credentials on the track with his 14:30 and 29:50 performances from last spring.
Getting Better — Winter 2018/2019 — DBU XC
Workout of the Day — Chad Maloy
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home » JIS News » Uncategorized
Whiteman Pledges Support to UK Diaspora Board
New Jamaican High Commissioner to London, Burchell Whiteman, has pledged support to the United Kingdom Diaspora board, as it continues to lobby in the interest of the Jamaican and wider Caribbean community in the UK.
“This is the only way to ensure that your issues and particular needs are placed on local and national agendas, and I want to lend the strongest possible support to the united and focused efforts of the UK Diaspora Board as it takes on a national role in the interests of preserving a just, equitable, harmonious society for which the UK has traditionally been positively recognized,” he stated.
Mr. Whiteman, who was addressing members of the Jamaican community at a recent reception at the High Commission, said he was impressed and encouraged by the creative spirit and deep commitment shown by UK Jamaicans for their homeland, adding that they should be proud of their contribution to the development of the UK.
“Let us not forget that Jamaicans in the UK have contributed significantly for at least two generations to building the British economy and society and have no need to apologise for being here.
Indeed, if anything, we must make a concentrated effort to ensure that we correctly interpret and promote the best of Jamaica to those who do not have an in-depth or informed view of the country, its achievements, its character and its potential,” he stated.
A target group in this education process, he said, was the “generation of persons of Jamaican or Caribbean stock, who do not have a firm connection to the land of their forbearers.
Meanwhile, he encouraged the Jamaican community to organize special programmes and activities to mark the bicentenary anniversary of the abolition of the transatlantic trade in enslaved Africans.
“In Jamaica, there will be activities to mark the bicentenary year under the theme: ‘Our Freedom Journey. Honouring our Ancestors’ and in the United Kingdom, the Department for Communities and Local Government is responsible for the British Government’s plans to mark the Bicentenary. I hope community groups and organizations here will take advantage of the funding that is being made available to put on special programmes and activities. It is important especially for our children and grandchildren, that we as a community, put on our own programmes and activities to mark this important milestone,” he stated.
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Adult Psychiatry Faculty
[1] Providence Psychiatry Residency Spokane is seeking an adult ambulatory psychiatrist with a collaborative care and telepsychiatry emphasis. Join a flourishing educational department and help expand access to under-served populations, both in urban and rural settings. Enjoy a work environment where diverse viewpoints and new ideas are appreciated, while maintaining a healthy work-life balance in beautiful eastern Washington.
Experience/interest in telepsychiatry, primary care consultation and medical education is critical
Work in an innovative, improvement-driven team setting
Close, caring and supportive faculty group
Dynamic and fun cohort of residents to work with
Visible links
https://www.spokaneteachinghealth.org/psychiatry
Where You'll Work
Sacred Heart Medical Center and Children's Hospital has 644 beds, a medical staff of more than 900 and a service area population of about 1.5 million. The children's hospital alone includes more than 90 pediatric sub-specialists. Sacred Heart offers some of the Northwest's most advanced services, including minimally invasive cardiac surgery procedures, robotic surgery and sophisticated diagnostic technologies. With a world-class research department, excellent residency programs, and specialized centers for orthopedics, women's health, neuroscience and more, it is a medical leader on many fronts.
Where You'll Live
Spokane, in eastern Washington, offers a high quality of life to its 208,000 residents, with some of the nation's cleanest air and water, responsible development and a mild, four-season climate. Its affordable housing, growing arts and theater community and excellent higher education campuses make it a prime destination for families and working professionals. Outdoor enthusiasts relish Spokane's prime location, with over 60 miles of biking and hiking trails, exceptional skiing and whitewater rafting.
Who You'll Work For
Providence Health & Services (PH&S) is a not-for-profit system of 34 hospitals, more than 600 clinics and hundreds of locally driven programs across five western states: Alaska, California, Montana, Oregon and Washington. Providence is committed to improving the health of the communities it serves, with a special emphasis on its mission to serve the poor and vulnerable. PH&S is a partner organization of the Providence St. Joseph Health family and is proud to be an Equal Employment Opportunity organization.
Job ID Number: 10793
Facility Name: Providence Sacred Heart Medical Center and Children's Hospital
Location Name: Spokane, WA
Brand Name: Providence Health & Services
Provider Profession: Physician/Surgeon
Provider Profession: Psychologist
Medical Specialty: Psychiatry
Job Setting: Hospital
Type of Role: Academic/Faculty
Email: heather.slick@psdrecruit.org
CP: Yes
CB: Yes
NP: No
PA: No
HC: No
IS: No
YM: Yes
You've got questions? I've got answers! Reach out today, and together, we'll find a job that checks all your boxes.
Heather Slick
Provider Recruiter
heather.slick@psdrecruit.org
About Providence Health & Services
Provider Solutions + Development creates healthier communities by forging lasting partnerships between providers and not-for-profit health systems. For 20+ years, we’ve helped thousands of physicians and advanced practice clinicians achieve their practice potential by consulting, mapping and managing their career moves. Founded within Providence Health & Services, we’re now a clinical career navigation group with a purpose-driven culture. Some of the nation’s preeminent health systems entrust us with finding the right providers – not just any providers – for mutual, long-term success. We’re here to help you discover, select and manage the next step in your career journey. Where would you like to go?
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Archive for the ‘House of Fools’ Category
‘A vain, outlandish, anti-immigrant, fear-mongering demagogue runs for President of the United States – and wins.’
And that, dear listener, is the blurb for a fictional book written in 1935 called It Can’t Happen Here by Sinclair Lewis and I think it’s more about the rise of Hitler than Trump altho’ so much of it does apply to Trump’s America. However, it’s been written in a very strange style and I’m doing, like, one chapter per night.
But it does mean that events register in a way they might not otherwise have done.
For example, I was reading about the concentration camps (or Holocaust Centers as Sean Spicer describes them) that American President Berzelius Windrip had introduced for dissidents when, low and behold, it was reported that Chechnya had introduced them for gay men.
And United Airlines’ way of removing that overbooked doctor from one of their plans seemed to stop just short of the firing squad as described in the book when they took away someone who was a bit belligerent, although I think they were justified as they knew a firing squad awaited them (in the book).
As yet, as I say I’m reading it slowly, I’ve still to reach a bit where the President is eating dessert cake (‘really beautiful dessert cake’) when he’s told that his country has dropped 59 (‘unmanned’ as in no pilots) missiles on some country in the Middle East but he gets the wrong one, but there’s a bit to go.
It could be a while before it ends up on the book club shelves.
[Oh, and I a quick word to j, if I may……No I don’t think I’m excluded and I was reasonably happy with what I wrote. I just got a shock.]
And so, dear listener, that was a pretty heavy start to the show so let’s go lighter. Let’s talk about my first ever media appearance. 🙂
I was reminded of it when I noticed a couple of weeks ago that Songs of Praise was coming from my hometown of Peterhead. Many years ago, when the world was black and white, it came twice from there in the space of a few months and I appeared in both – well I did and I didn’t.
Was I in primary school or early years secondary? It matters not, but I was in a choir (and somewhere in my house there is proof of a very fresh-faced young man but with a wee bit more hair than was usual at that age. It’s an early version of a screen grab where a professional photographer took photos of the TV screen)
Anyway, Peterhead played a blinder in the first one (no doubt due to my charms) and the BBC came back and the choir was also invited back. Now were you ever to see this prog, you would notice me at the start, in position next to the font, and marvel at my good looks. However, when the camera next returned to that position I was gone – I had fainted and had to be got out, without being spotted by the cameras, down an aisle to the side. But I was smitten by broadcasting. And as regular listeners know, I am often smitten, but by ‘eck, they’re quality smites. 🙂
And some other good newses in that the Queen Street to Summerston railway line (or as some may know the West Highland Line to Oban, Fort William and Mallaig – and that’s just given me an idea) has re-opened following the landslide somewhere along the line near Possilpark and Parkhouse. 🙂
And my gardener is due to do the first work of the season very soon and the shed has been tidied and this will be the first full season of the garden furniture and patio with plants, so who knows what that might lead to.:)
And finally, obviously delighted to see Partick Thistle make it into the top six and I just wonder if, mathematically, we can get into Eorpa if results go the right way; also delighted that we are going to spend £4 million on a new training ground. Shame we don’t where it’s going to be – just yet.
Tioraidh, still wearing that badge and always glad to see other people doing so and – still keeping it simple.
Iaint850, who can’t stop worrying, especially when he’s not sure what he’s worrying about.
And so, dear listener, I was supposed to be meeting uni-Sharon on Wednesday but the installation of a new washing machine took precedence (much more useful than me I would suggest) but I had additional reasons to be in town.
However having discharged those duties I happened to bump into my PT (Partick Thistle, the Harry Wraggs, the Maryhill Magyars) mate #soulboydaviebee (Tamla discos’r’us) who works part-time (p-t) in the brilliant indie record shop, Love Music, who persuaded me to give him £10 and allowed me to take away four CDs of my choice but based solely on the covers. 😀 😀 😀
One of the CDs is from a band called House of Fools. It takes a wee bit of getting into, as does this viewing of them but give it time.
Posted in alcoholism, country music, Donald Trump, House of Fools, Maryhill, Partick Thistle, Sinclair Lewis, Songs of Praise, Summerston, Uncategorized | Leave a Comment »
You are currently browsing the archives for the House of Fools category.
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leroymoore
LeRoyMoore's Blog
LeRoy Moore
Hot particles forever
Something you can do now: Take action re. Steve Bannon
Archive for the ‘Politics’ Category
The Threat of Nuclear War Is Still With Us: The U.S. must re-engage with Russia to ensure the ultimate weapon doesn’t spread and is never used.
In Environment, Nuclear Guardianship, Nuclear Policy, Peace, Politics, War on April 12, 2019 at 7:33 am
George P. Shultz,
William J. Perry and
Sam Nunn
April 10, 2019 6:54 p.m. ET
The U.S., its allies and Russia are caught in a dangerous policy paralysis that could lead—most likely by mistake or miscalculation—to a military confrontation and potentially the use of nuclear weapons for the first time in nearly 74 years. A bold policy shift is needed to support a strategic re-engagement with Russia and walk back from this perilous precipice. Otherwise, our nations may soon be entrenched in a nuclear standoff more precarious, disorienting and economically costly than the Cold War. The most difficult task facing the U.S. is also the most important—to refocus on America’s most vital interests even as we respond firmly to Russia’s aggressions.
The three of us experienced the low points of U.S. relations with the Soviet Union, and the nuclear dangers that arose. The 1962 Cuban missile crisis, the 1973 Arab-Israeli War, the 1979 Soviet invasion of Afghanistan and the 1981-83 confrontation over intermediate-range nuclear missiles were periods of increased tensions, reduced trust and rising nuclear risks. With Henry Kissinger, we wrote in 2007 that although the world escaped the nuclear knife’s edge of the Cold War through a combination of diligence, professionalism and good luck, reliance on nuclear weapons for deterrence is becoming increasingly hazardous and decreasingly effective as more states gain nukes of their own. The U.S. and other nuclear states have yet to take decisive steps toward the goal of a world without nuclear weapons, and the dangers continue to mount.
Deterrence cannot protect the world from a nuclear blunder or nuclear terrorism. Both become more likely when there is no sustained, meaningful dialogue between Washington and Moscow. The risks are compounded by the rising possibility that cyberattacks could target nuclear warning and command-and-control systems, as well as the continuing expansion of global terrorist networks. Since the crises broke out in Ukraine and Syria in the past few years, U.S. and Russian forces have again been operating in proximity, increasing the risk that an act of aggression, followed by an accident or miscalculation, will lead to catastrophe.
A new comprehensive approach is required to decrease the risks of conflict and increase cooperation, transparency, and security. This will require a united effort in Washington and with U.S. allies on a Russia policy that reduces the unnecessary nuclear danger we are currently courting, while maintaining our values and protecting our vital interests.
The U.S. must first address its own dysfunctional Russia policy, and Congress must lead the way. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell should convene a new bipartisan liaison group of legislative leaders and committee chairmen to work with senior administration officials on strengthening the North Atlantic Treaty Organization and renewing dialogue with Russia. This model was used in the arms-control observer group led by Sens. Robert Byrd and Bob Dole in the 1980s. The group was able to build bipartisan consensus for a defense modernization program that strengthened America’s defenses and bolstered NATO’s deterrence, as well as a Russia policy that led to negotiations eliminating missiles in Europe. These policies helped end the Cold War.
Second, Presidents Trump and Vladimir Putin should announce a joint declaration reaffirming that a nuclear war cannot be won and must never be fought. This would renew the 1985 Reagan-Gorbachev statement that Americans and Russians received positively as the beginning of an effort to reduce risk and improve mutual security. A joint statement today would clearly communicate that despite current tensions, leaders of the two countries possessing more than 90% of the world’s nuclear weapons recognize their responsibility to work together to prevent catastrophe. This could also lead other nuclear states to take further steps to reduce nuclear risk. The timing of such a statement would also signal Washington and Moscow’s commitment to build on past progress toward disarmament, as next year will mark the 50th anniversary of the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty.
Third, the U.S. and Russia must discuss a broad framework for strategic stability—including increasing decision time for leaders—in a period of global destabilization and emerging military technologies. In a positive step, Presidents Trump and Putin apparently agreed in Helsinki last summer to open a dialogue on strategic stability, focused on nuclear dangers that threaten both nations. Yet their inability to follow up by empowering their military and civilian professionals to follow through underlines how dangerously dysfunctional relations have become.
This effort must begin now. America’s leaders cannot call a “time out” to wait for the aftermath of the Robert Mueller investigation or other issues to play out in Congress or the courts. Nor is there time to await a new U.S. administration, a new leader in the Kremlin, or the gradual resolution of current international disputes. The risks are simply too grave to put America’s vital interests on hold.
The U.S. and Russia should work toward a mutual vision for a more stable security architecture in the next five to 10 years, and identify the tools and policy initiatives necessary to get there. Our nations have a shared responsibility to communicate about crisis management, including between our armed forces, and to maintain our agreements on arms control and transparency. Where treaties are not likely or feasible, understandings and red lines are imperative.
The U.S. and Russia, joined by other nuclear states, must decisively confront the problems that threaten global security. It is essential that we re-engage with Russia in areas of common fundamental interest to both nations, including reducing reliance on nuclear weapons, keeping them out of unstable hands, preventing their use and ultimately ending them as a threat to the world.
Mr. Shultz served as secretary of state, 1982-89. Mr. Perry served as defense secretary, 1994-97. Mr. Nunn, a Democrat, was a U.S. senator from Georgia, 1972-97, and was chairman of the Armed Services Committee.
Appeared in the April 11, 2019, print edition.
Nuclear age: Humanity is flirting with extinction
In Nuclear abolition, Nuclear Guardianship, Nuclear Policy, Peace, Politics, War on April 5, 2019 at 12:57 am
By David Krieger, opinion contributor — 03/05/19 04:00 PM EST 94
The most stunning and frightening truth about the nuclear age is this: Nuclear weapons are capable of destroying civilization and most complex life on the planet, yet next to nothing is being done about it. Humanity is flirting with extinction and is experiencing the “frog’s malaise.” It is as though the human species has been placed into a pot of tepid water — metaphorically with regard to nuclear dangers and literally with regard to climate change — and appears to be calmly treading water while the temperature rises toward the boiling point. In this piece, I focus on the metaphorical pot of heating water, heading toward a boil, representing the increasing nuclear dangers confronting all humanity.
Disconcertingly, there is virtually no political will on the part of nations in possession of nuclear arsenals to alter this dangerous situation; and, despite legal obligations to negotiate in good faith for an end to the nuclear arms race and for nuclear disarmament, there is no major effort among the nuclear-armed and umbrella countries to achieve nuclear zero. While the non-nuclear-armed countries have negotiated a Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW) and are working to bring this treaty into force, those countries that possess the weapons and those sheltering under their nuclear umbrella have not supported the new treaty.
All nine nuclear-armed countries boycotted international negotiations on banning and eliminating nuclear weapons. In addition, each of these countries is in the process of modernizing its nuclear arsenal, thereby wasting valuable resources on weapons that must never be used, and doing so while basic human needs for billions of people globally go unmet and unattended. Despite this unjust and deplorable situation, most of the 7 billion people on the planet are complacent about nuclear weapons. This only adds fuel to the fire under the frogs.
In the nuclear age, humanity is challenged as never before. Our technology, and particularly our nuclear weapons, can destroy us and all that we hold dear. But before we can respond to the profound dangers, we must first awaken to these dangers. Complacency is rooted in apathy, conformity, ignorance and denial — a recipe for disaster. If we want to prevail over our technologies, we must move from apathy to empathy; from conformity to critical thinking; from ignorance to wisdom; and from denial to recognition of the danger. But how are we to do this?
The key is education — education that promotes engagement; education that forces individuals and nations to face the truth about the dangers of the nuclear age. We need education that leads to action that will allow humanity to get out of the metaphorical pot of heating water before it is too late.
Education can take many forms, but it must begin with solid analysis of current dangers and critiques of the lack of progress in stemming the dangers of the nuclear age. We need education that is rooted in the common good. We need education that provides a platform for the voices of the survivors of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. We need education that makes clear the instability and dangerous nature of nuclear deterrence. We need education that challenges the extreme hubris of leaders who believe the global nuclear status quo can survive indefinitely in the face of human fallibility and malevolence.
We need education that can break through the bonds of nuclear insanity and move the world to action. We need the public to speak out and demand far more of their leaders if we are to leap from the pot of heating water, avert disaster and reach the safe haven of nuclear zero.
David Krieger is a founder of the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation, and has served as its president since 1982. He is the author and editor of many books on nuclear dangers, including “ZERO: The Case for Nuclear Weapons Abolition.”
Capitalism and Managerialism
In Democracy, Human rights, Politics on April 3, 2019 at 1:23 am
By Tom Mayer
I have been a Marxist socialist for at least six decades since my undergraduate years at Oberlin College. For much of that time I expected the power of the capitalist class to decline and the power of the working class to increase leading to the dramatic advance of socialism. I also expected the Communist societies – the Soviet Union and China in particular – to retain economic planning but reject their authoritarian political regimes. None of these things happened, and hence I am compelled to question whether these discordant developments can be reconciled with a Marxist theoretical framework.
The most impressive effort to reconcile Marxist theory with the dire course of recent history is made in a series of books and articles by two sophisticated French Marxist economists, Gérard Duménil and Dominique Levy. Duménil and Levy accept the general Marxist theory of history – that development of productive forces is the basic dynamic of human history, and that class struggle provides the active power moving history forward – but they reject the sequence of production modes postulated by Marx. In particular, they do not think that capitalism is the last class divided mode of production, and that capitalism will be followed by a classless society called socialism. Duménil and Levy argue that capitalism is “pregnant”, not with socialism, but with a new class divided society they call managerialism (Managerial Capitalism: Ownership, Management, and the Coming New Mode of Production, 2018).
Managerialism differs from capitalism in several ways. (1) The managers of the major economic and political organizations of society, not the owners of capital, are the ruling class. (2) Economic surplus is distributed to the ruling class via enormous salaries rather than by profits from the ownership of capital. (3) Meritocracy rather than private ownership is the ruling ideology of the managerial mode of production. (4) Markets can occur, but are not essential in the managerial mode of production. The progress of technology, the process of institutional rationalization, and the drive for economic efficiency are the forces that undermine capitalism and lead to managerialism. A capitalist class can exist under managerialism, but it is no longer politically or economically dominant.
Duménil and Levy provide ample evidence that the transition from capitalism to managerialism is well under way in the United States and other advanced societies. In the United States, for example, the richest one percent currently receive 80% of their total income from wages and only 20% from property earnings (as predicted by managerialism).
Managerial societies can take several different forms depending on the class alliance that undergirds the economic system. Neoliberal capitalism can be considered a reactionary form of managerialism based upon an alliance between financial managers and finance capitalists. Scandinavian social democracy, on the other hand, is a more progressive variety of managerialism founded upon an alliance between economic managers and the working class. Communist societies set out to build socialism, but actually established what Duménil and Levy call “bureaucratic managerialism”, a system without capitalists but sustained by a coalition between economic and political managers.
Duménil and Levy’s interpretation of Marxism has crucial political consequences. It implies that a direct transition from capitalism to socialism (a classless society) is not sustainable. Even the most revolutionary socialist initiatives will eventually revert to some form of managerialism, possibly after enormous suffering. In the current historical context, the best radical progressives can hope for is a superior form of managerial social democracy. Such a system could deal with climate change, reduce inequality, eliminate poverty, lessen the danger of nuclear war, and provide extensive social welfare; but it would not be fully egalitarian. According to Duménil and Levy, the creation of a classless society is simply not in the historical cards for the foreseeable future.
As a lifelong socialist, this conclusion is exceedingly unwelcome to me. But the evidence of history requires that honest progressives give Duménil and Levy’s iconoclastic analysis very serious consideration.
Changes in Latin America
In Environment, Human rights, Justice, Peace, Politics on February 22, 2019 at 3:57 am
By Dave Anderson – February 21, 2019
While Venezuela’s alarming humanitarian and political crisis has
rightly grabbed our attention, another disturbing event in Latin
America has been forgotten. That event was the New Year’s Day
inauguration in Brazil of former Army captain Jair Bolsonaro as
president. His ascension marked the most drastic political change in
the country since military rule ended more than three decades ago.
Bolsonaro is a fervent supporter of the “glorious” military
dictatorship that ruled Brazil from 1964 to 1985. It was “20 years of
order and progress,” he said.
He is enthusiastic about torture and has threatened to murder and
imprison his opponents. He is known for bigoted comments about the
poor, minorities, the LGBT community and assertive women. He told a
female legislator that she was too ugly to rape. He also said he would
rather find out that his son had died in a car crash than learn that
his son is gay.
Bolsonaro told his inaugural crowd, “I come before the nation today, a
day in which the people have rid themselves of socialism, the
inversion of values, statism and political correctness.” He said
Brazil is like “a patient whose … whole body needs amputating.” He
could reverse a generation of progress instituted by the Workers’
Bolsonaro wants to open up protected indigenous territories in the
Amazon rainforest to mining, cattle ranching and farming.
Environmentalists warn that this will speed up global climate change.
But his foreign minister Ernesto Araujo has said climate change is a
“cultural Marxist” hoax created by the Chinese.
The global financial community was giddy about Bolsonaro’s election.
In an investor call, Timothy Hassinger, chief executive officer of
Lindsay Corp., the Nebraska-based farming equipment manufacturer,
referred to Bolsonaro as “strongly pro-ag,” calling his election a
“bullish opportunity for us.”
Bolsonaro’s chief economic adviser, Paulo Guedes, is a right-wing
banker, who has promised to deregulate the economy, cut the public
pension system, revise the tax code to favor business and privatize
state-owned firms. This is the cruel neo-liberal playbook used by
University of Chicago-trained economists of the Chilean dictatorship
of Augusto Pinochet. It caused a great deal of suffering for the
majority of Chileans but it was successfully carried out because
political opposition and the labor movement were crushed. Guedes is a
“Chicago boy” alumnus who taught economics in Chile during the
Pinochet era.
Bolsonaro was the keynote speaker at the World Economic Forum in Davos
in January. At this shindig for the planet’s economic elite, Reuters
reported that the Brazilian president “threw out the welcome mat for
big business and foreign investors.” He got a warm reception.
This is a big change. It was only a few years ago that progressive
governments were in power throughout Latin America. Beginning in the
1990s, there was a “Pink Tide” of self-proclaimed socialist and
democratically elected governments in Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil,
Chile, Ecuador, Honduras, Nicaragua, Paraguay, Uruguay, Venezuela and
Peru. They weren’t communist (or red) but a more moderate version of
the left (therefore pink).
Last October, the democratic socialist magazine Dissent hosted a
conference entitled “The Future of the Left in the Americas.”
Historian Patrick Iber writes that the “Pink Tide” governments were
quite diverse. He says, “One point of debate at the conference was how
to define the left, given that some governments that describe
themselves as on the left engage in authoritarian practices, are
overseeing large increases in poverty rates, or have incorporated
criminal enterprises into the state.”
Iber notes, “To many international observers, there seemed to be a
more radical, self-described ‘Bolivarian’ wing represented by
Venezuela, Bolivia, Ecuador, Nicaragua and possibly Argentina, with a
more social democratic left in Brazil, Uruguay and Chile.” He says
that division is somewhat simplistic and that it can be confusing to
categorize one of the groups as more left-wing.
“…(W)hat mattered more,” he stresses, “was that in most of the
Bolivarian countries the old party systems had collapsed, leading to
the quick creation of new hegemonic parties that used charismatic
leadership to hold coalitions together. This more confrontational
style polarized electorates. It put a primacy on loyalty, and often on
lashing out at enemies, many real and some imagined. The social
democratic countries operated within more conventional limits of
democratic politics, with all of the inevitable roadblocks and
disappointments that come with sharing power.”
All of the left-wing governments benefited from one of the biggest
commodities booms in modern times. Latin America exports primary
products and imports finished products. Iber says, “In the early
2000s, rapid growth in India and China drove up the price of primary
products, from oil to lithium to soybeans. This gave governments the
ability to spend money on social welfare and development, satisfying —
at least in part — the needs of their political bases without making
fundamental structural changes to their economies or their position in
the global system of trade.”
In 2012, the commodities boom ended, mostly due to a slowdown in the
Chinese economy. The governments had to cut social spending and had a
hard time staying in power. There was a right-wing backlash by the
economic elite. Now with the rise of far-rightists such as Bolsonaro
and Trump, Latin America faces the possi
War With China? It’s Already Under Way
In Climate change, Environment, Peace, Politics, War on February 19, 2019 at 8:40 am
By Michael T. Klare
www.tomdispatch.com/post/176528/tomgram%3A_michael_klare%2C_a_long_war_of_attrition/#more
In his highly acclaimed 2017 book, Destined for War, Harvard professor Graham Allison assessed the likelihood that the United States and China would one day find themselves at war. Comparing the U.S.-Chinese relationship to great-power rivalries all the way back to the Peloponnesian War of the fifth century BC, he concluded that the future risk of a conflagration was substantial. Like much current analysis of U.S.-Chinese relations, however, he missed a crucial point: for all intents and purposes, the United States and China are already at war with one another. Even if their present slow-burn conflict may not produce the immediate devastation of a conventional hot war, its long-term consequences could prove no less dire.
To suggest this means reassessing our understanding of what constitutes war. From Allison’s perspective (and that of so many others in Washington and elsewhere), “peace” and “war” stand as polar opposites. One day, our soldiers are in their garrisons being trained and cleaning their weapons; the next, they are called into action and sent onto a battlefield. War, in this model, begins when the first shots are fired.
Well, think again in this new era of growing great-power struggle and competition. Today, war means so much more than military combat and can take place even as the leaders of the warring powers meet to negotiate and share dry-aged steak and whipped potatoes (as Donald Trump and Xi Jinping did at Mar-a-Lago in 2017). That is exactly where we are when it comes to Sino-American relations. Consider it war by another name, or perhaps, to bring back a long-retired term, a burning new version of a cold war.
Even before Donald Trump entered the Oval Office, the U.S. military and other branches of government were already gearing up for a long-term quasi-war, involving both growing economic and diplomatic pressure on China and a buildup of military forces along that country’s periphery. Since his arrival, such initiatives have escalated into Cold War-style combat by another name, with his administration committed to defeating China in a struggle for global economic, technological, and military supremacy.
This includes the president’s much-publicized “trade war” with China, aimed at hobbling that country’s future growth; a techno-war designed to prevent it from overtaking the U.S. in key breakthrough areas of technology; a diplomatic war intended to isolate Beijing and frustrate its grandiose plans for global outreach; a cyber war (largely hidden from public scrutiny); and a range of military measures as well. This may not be war in the traditional sense of the term, but for leaders on both sides, it has the feel of one.
Why China?
The media and many politicians continue to focus on U.S.-Russian relations, in large part because of revelations of Moscow’s meddling in the 2016 American presidential election and the ongoing Mueller investigation. Behind the scenes, however, most senior military and foreign policy officials in Washington view China, not Russia, as the country’s principal adversary. In eastern Ukraine, the Balkans, Syria, cyberspace, and in the area of nuclear weaponry, Russia does indeed pose a variety of threats to Washington’s goals and desires. Still, as an economically hobbled petro-state, it lacks the kind of might that would allow it to truly challenge this country’s status as the world’s dominant power. China is another story altogether. With its vast economy, growing technological prowess, intercontinental “Belt and Road” infrastructure project, and rapidly modernizing military, an emboldened China could someday match or even exceed U.S. power on a global scale, an outcome American elites are determined to prevent at any cost.
Washington’s fears of a rising China were on full display in January with the release of the 2019 Worldwide Threat Assessment of the U.S. Intelligence Community, a synthesis of the views of the Central Intelligence Agency and other members of that “community.” Its conclusion: “We assess that China’s leaders will try to extend the country’s global economic, political, and military reach while using China’s military capabilities and overseas infrastructure and energy investments under the Belt and Road Initiative to diminish U.S. influence.”
To counter such efforts, every branch of government is now expected to mobilize its capabilities to bolster American — and diminish Chinese — power. In Pentagon documents, this stance is summed up by the term “overmatch,” which translates as the eternal preservation of American global superiority vis-à-vis China (and all other potential rivals). “The United States must retain overmatch,” the administration’s National Security Strategy insists, and preserve a “combination of capabilities in sufficient scale to prevent enemy success,” while continuing to “shape the international environment to protect our interests.”
In other words, there can never be parity between the two countries. The only acceptable status for China is as a distinctly lesser power. To ensure such an outcome, administration officials insist, the U.S. must take action on a daily basis to contain or impede its rise.
In previous epochs, as Allison makes clear in his book, this equation — a prevailing power seeking to retain its dominant status and a rising power seeking to overcome its subordinate one — has almost always resulted in conventional conflict. In today’s world, however, where great-power armed combat could possibly end in a nuclear exchange and mutual annihilation, direct military conflict is a distinctly unappealing option for all parties. Instead, governing elites have developed other means of warfare — economic, technological, and covert — to achieve such strategic objectives. Viewed this way, the United States is already in close to full combat mode with respect to China.
When it comes to the economy, the language betrays the reality all too clearly. The Trump administration’s economic struggle with China is regularly described, openly and without qualification, as a “war.” And there’s no doubt that senior White House officials, beginning with the president and his chief trade representative, Robert Lighthizer, see it just that way: as a means of pulverizing the Chinese economy and so curtailing that country’s ability to compete with the United States in all other measures of power.
Ostensibly, the aim of President Trump’s May 2018 decision to impose $60 billion in tariffs on Chinese imports (increased in September to $200 billion) was to rectify a trade imbalance between the two countries, while protecting the American economy against what is described as China’s malign behavior. Its trade practices “plainly constitute a grave threat to the long-term health and prosperity of the United States economy,” as the president put it when announcing the second round of tariffs.
An examination of the demands submitted to Chinese negotiators by the U.S. trade delegation last May suggests, however, that Washington’s primary intent hasn’t been to rectify that trade imbalance but to impede China’s economic growth. Among the stipulations Beijing must acquiesce to before receiving tariff relief, according to leaked documents from U.S. negotiators that were spread on Chinese social media:
halting all government subsidies to advanced manufacturing industries in its Made in China 2025 program, an endeavor that covers 10 key economic sectors, including aircraft manufacturing, electric cars, robotics, computer microchips, and artificial intelligence;
accepting American restrictions on investments in sensitive technologies without retaliating;
opening up its service and agricultural sectors — areas where Chinese firms have an inherent advantage — to full American competition.
In fact, this should be considered a straightforward declaration of economic war. Acquiescing to such demands would mean accepting a permanent subordinate status vis-à-vis the United States in hopes of continuing a profitable trade relationship with this country. “The list reads like the terms for a surrender rather than a basis for negotiation,” was the way Eswar Prasad, an economics professor at Cornell University, accurately described these developments.
Technological Warfare
As suggested by America’s trade demands, Washington’s intent is not only to hobble China’s economy today and tomorrow but for decades to come. This has led to an intense, far-ranging campaign to deprive it of access to advanced technologies and to cripple its leading technology firms.
Chinese leaders have long realized that, for their country to achieve economic and military parity with the United States, they must master the cutting-edge technologies that will dominate the twenty-first-century global economy, including artificial intelligence (AI), fifth-generation (5G) telecommunications, electric vehicles, and nanotechnology. Not surprisingly then, the government has invested in a major way in science and technology education, subsidized research in pathbreaking fields, and helped launch promising startups, among other such endeavors — all in the very fashion that the Internet and other American computer and aerospace innovations were originally financed and encouraged by the Department of Defense.
Chinese companies have also demanded technology transfers when investing in or forging industrial partnerships with foreign firms, a common practice in international development. India, to cite a recent example of this phenomenon, expects that significant technology transfers from American firms will be one outcome of its agreed-upon purchases of advanced American weaponry.
In addition, Chinese firms have been accused of stealing American technology through cybertheft, provoking widespread outrage in this country. Realistically speaking, it’s difficult for outside observers to determine to what degree China’s recent technological advances are the product of commonplace and legitimate investments in science and technology and to what degree they’re due to cyberespionage. Given Beijing’s massive investment in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics education at the graduate and post-graduate level, however, it’s safe to assume that most of that country’s advances are the result of domestic efforts.
Certainly, given what’s publicly known about Chinese cybertheft activities, it’s reasonable for American officials to apply pressure on Beijing to curb the practice. However, the Trump administration’s drive to blunt that country’s technological progress is also aimed at perfectly legitimate activities. For example, the White House seeks to ban Beijing’s government subsidies for progress on artificial intelligence at the same time that the Department of Defense is pouring billions of dollars into AI research at home. The administration is also acting to block the Chinese acquisition of U.S. technology firms and of exports of advanced components and know-how.
In an example of this technology war that’s made the headlines lately, Washington has been actively seeking to sabotage the efforts of Huawei, one of China’s most prominent telecom firms, to gain leadership in the global deployment of 5G wireless communications. Such wireless systems are important in part because they will transmit colossal amounts of electronic data at far faster rates than now conceivable, facilitating the introduction of self-driving cars, widespread roboticization, and the universal application of AI.
Second only to Apple as the world’s supplier of smartphones and a major producer of telecommunications equipment, Huawei has sought to take the lead in the race for 5G adaptation around the world. Fearing that this might give China an enormous advantage in the coming decades, the Trump administration has tried to prevent that. In what is widely described as a “tech Cold War,” it has put enormous pressure on both its Asian and European allies to bar the company from conducting business in their countries, even as it sought the arrest in Canada of Huawei’s chief financial officer, Meng Wanzhou, and her extradition to the U.S. on charges of tricking American banks into aiding Iranian firms (in violation of Washington’s sanctions on that country). Other attacks on Huawei are in the works, including a potential ban on the sales of its products in this country. Such moves are regularly described as focused on boosting the security of both the United States and its allies by preventing the Chinese government from using Huawei’s telecom networks to steal military secrets. The real reason — barely disguised — is simply to block China from gaining technological parity with the United States.
Cyberwarfare
There would be much to write on this subject, if only it weren’t still hidden in the shadows of the growing conflict between the two countries. Not surprisingly, however, little information is available on U.S.-Chinese cyberwarfare. All that can be said with confidence is that an intense war is now being waged between the two countries in cyberspace. American officials accuse China of engaging in a broad-based cyber-assault on this country, involving both outright cyberespionage to obtain military as well as corporate secrets and widespread political meddling. “What the Russians are doing pales in comparison to what China is doing,” said Vice President Mike Pence last October in a speech at the Hudson Institute, though — typically on the subject — he provided not a shred of evidence for his claim.
Not disclosed is what this country is doing to combat China in cyberspace. All that can be known from available information is that this is a two-sided war in which the U.S. is conducting its own assaults. “The United States will impose swift and costly consequences on foreign governments, criminals, and other actors who undertake significant malicious cyber activities,” the 2017 National Security Strategy affirmed. What form these “consequences” have taken has yet to be revealed, but there’s little doubt that America’s cyber warriors have been active in this domain.
Diplomatic and Military Coercion
Completing the picture of America’s ongoing war with China are the fierce pressures being exerted on the diplomatic and military fronts to frustrate Beijing’s geopolitical ambitions. To advance those aspirations, China’s leadership is relying heavily on a much-touted Belt and Road Initiative, a trillion-dollar plan to help fund and encourage the construction of a vast new network of road, rail, port, and pipeline infrastructure across Eurasia and into the Middle East and Africa. By financing — and, in many cases, actually building — such infrastructure, Beijing hopes to bind the economies of a host of far-flung nations ever closer to its own, while increasing its political influence across the Eurasian mainland and Africa. As Beijing’s leadership sees it, at least in terms of orienting the planet’s future economics, its role would be similar to that of the Marshall Plan that cemented U.S. influence in Europe after World War II.
And given exactly that possibility, Washington has begun to actively seek to undermine the Belt and Road wherever it can — discouraging allies from participating, while stirring up unease in countries like Malaysia and Uganda over the enormous debts to China they may end up with and the heavy-handed manner in which that country’s firms often carry out such overseas construction projects. (For example, they typically bring in Chinese laborers to do most of the work, rather than hiring and training locals.)
“China uses bribes, opaque agreements, and the strategic use of debt to hold states in Africa captive to Beijing’s wishes and demands,” National Security Advisor John Bolton claimed in a December speech on U.S. policy on that continent. “Its investment ventures are riddled with corruption,” he added, “and do not meet the same environmental or ethical standards as U.S. developmental programs.” Bolton promised that the Trump administration would provide a superior alternative for African nations seeking development funds, but — and this is something of a pattern as well — no such assistance has yet materialized.
In addition to diplomatic pushback, the administration has undertaken a series of initiatives intended to isolate China militarily and limit its strategic options. In South Asia, for example, Washington has abandoned its past position of maintaining rough parity in its relations with India and Pakistan. In recent years, it’s swung sharply towards a strategic alliance with New Dehli, attempting to enlist it fully in America’s efforts to contain China and, presumably, in the process punishing Pakistan for its increasingly enthusiastic role in the Belt and Road Initiative.
In the Western Pacific, the U.S. has stepped up its naval patrols and forged new basing arrangements with local powers — all with the aim of confining the Chinese military to areas close to the mainland. In response, Beijing has sought to escape the grip of American power by establishing miniature bases on Chinese-claimed islands in the South China Sea (or even constructing artificial islands to house bases there) — moves widely condemned by the hawks in Washington.
To demonstrate its ire at the effrontery of Beijing in the Pacific (once known as an “American lake”), the White House has ordered an increased pace of so-called freedom-of-navigation operations (FRONOPs). Navy warships regularly sail within shooting range of those very island bases, suggesting a U.S. willingness to employ military force to resist future Chinese moves in the region (and also creating situations in which a misstep could lead to a military incident that could lead… well, anywhere).
In Washington, the warnings about Chinese military encroachment in the region are already reaching a fever pitch. For instance, Admiral Philip Davidson, commander of U.S. forces in the Pacific, described the situation there in recent congressional testimony this way: “In short, China is now capable of controlling the South China Sea in all scenarios short of war with the United States.”
A Long War of Attrition
As Admiral Davidson suggests, one possible outcome of the ongoing cold war with China could be armed conflict of the traditional sort. Such an encounter, in turn, could escalate to the nuclear level, resulting in mutual annihilation. A war involving only “conventional” forces would itself undoubtedly be devastating and lead to widespread suffering, not to mention the collapse of the global economy.
Even if a shooting war doesn’t erupt, however, a long-term geopolitical war of attrition between the U.S. and China will, in the end, have debilitating and possibly catastrophic consequences for both sides. Take the trade war, for example. If that’s not resolved soon in a positive manner, continuing high U.S. tariffs on Chinese imports will severely curb Chinese economic growth and so weaken the world economy as a whole, punishing every nation on Earth, including this one. High tariffs will also increase costs for American consumers and endanger the prosperity and survival of many firms that rely on Chinese raw materials and components.
This new brand of war will also ensure that already sky-high defense expenditures will continue to rise, diverting funds from vital needs like education, health, infrastructure, and the environment. Meanwhile, preparations for a future war with China have already become the number one priority at the Pentagon, crowding out all other considerations. “While we’re focused on ongoing operations,” acting Secretary of Defense Patrick Shanahan reportedly told his senior staff on his first day in office this January, “remember China, China, China.”
Perhaps the greatest victim of this ongoing conflict will be planet Earth itself and all the creatures, humans included, who inhabit it. As the world’s top two emitters of climate-altering greenhouse gases, the U.S. and China must work together to halt global warming or all of us are doomed to a hellish future. With a war under way, even a non-shooting one, the chance for such collaboration is essentially zero. The only way to save civilization is for the U.S. and China to declare peace and focus together on human salvation.
Michael T. Klare, a TomDispatch regular, is the five-college professor emeritus of peace and world security studies at Hampshire College and a senior visiting fellow at the Arms Control Association. His most recent book is The Race for What’s Left. His next book, All Hell Breaking Loose: Climate Change, Global Chaos, and American National Security, will be published in 2019.
Mikhail Gorbachev: A Nuclear Arms Race Will Produce No Winners (Op-ed)
In Nuclear Guardianship, Nuclear Policy, Peace, Politics, War on February 16, 2019 at 12:23 am
Despite everything, it is still in our power to avoid nuclear confrontation.
Kirill Zykov / Moskva News Agency, February 14, 2018
The fate of the INF treaty has politicians and ordinary people worried on every continent. I am also concerned, and not only because I signed that treaty with former U.S. President Ronald Reagan in Dec. 1987. These events are yet another manifestation of the dangerous and destructive trends in world politics facing us today.
The main idea guiding us on the path to signing the original treaty was expressed in a joint statement with the United States, adopted at our first meeting in Geneva: “A nuclear war cannot be won and must never be fought.”
That INF Treaty was the first step, and it was followed by others — the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START I) and mutual steps towards eliminating a significant part of all tactical nuclear weapons. The two states revised their military doctrines to reduce their reliance on nuclear weapons, slashing their number by more than 80 percent from their highpoint during the Cold War.
The process started at that time had an affect beyond nuclear weapons alone. The Chemical Weapons Convention was signed in 1997 and the countries of Eastern and Western Europe agreed on a drastic reduction of their armed forces and weapons. This was the “peace dividend” from which everyone benefited — Europeans most of all — as a result of the end of the Cold War.
Ever since, the INF Treaty has served the security of our country, excluding the possibility of weapons capable of a “decapitation strike” being deploying near our borders.
I have to mention here that senior Russian officials sometimes criticized the treaty unfairly, lamenting the destruction of the missiles and claiming that they would still be useful to us. I always felt compelled to respond to such statements.
President Reagan and General Secretary Gorbachev signing the INF Treaty in the East Room of the White House
In recent years, however, Russia has taken an unequivocal position in favor of preserving the INF Treaty. I hope this position reflects a deeper understanding of it’s importance.
A great danger, however, now looms over all that we have achieved in the years since the end of the Cold War. The decision of the United States to withdraw from the INF Treaty threatens to reverse the progress made.
And this is not the first such step. The U.S. refused to ratify the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT) and the country’s unilateral decision in 2002 ended the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty (ABMT).
Of the three pillars of global strategic stability — the ABMT, INFT, and START I — only one remains, the New START signed by former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and former U.S. President Barack Obama in 2010, and its fate is unclear. Judging by statements that representatives of the U.S. administration have made, that, too, could “become a thing of the past.”
What has happened? What threat is compelling the United States to dismantle a system for limiting nuclear arms that has served the world for decades?
According to the text in the INF Treaty, “Each party shall, in exercising its national sovereignty, have the right to withdraw from this Treaty if it decides that extraordinary events related to the subject matter of this Treaty have jeopardized its supreme interests. It shall give notice of its decision to withdraw to the other Party six months prior to withdrawal from this Treaty. Such notice shall include a statement of the extraordinary events the notifying Party regards as having jeopardized its supreme interests.”
That is, a country taking the step of leaving the treaty should explain to the world community what has compelled it walk away from it.
Where is this threat to the “supreme interests” of the security of the U.S. — a country whose military spending is at least three times greater than that of all of its potential rivals? Has the U.S. communicated that threat to the world community, the public, and the UN Security Council? No, it has not.
A Forced Decision: Why the U.S. Withdrew From the INF Treaty (Op-ed)
Instead, it has leveled complaints against Russia for alleged violations that even experienced specialists have difficulty understanding. And it has presented those claims in the form of an ultimatum.
The U.S. justifies its position by pointing to the fact that other countries — particularly China, Iran, and North Korea — possess medium-range missiles. This is not a convincing argument, however. The arsenals of the U.S. and Russia still account for more than 90% of the world’s nuclear weapons. In this sense, the two countries really are still “superpowers.”
It is possible to suggest that Washington’s decision to withdraw from the treaty is based not on the reasons cited by U.S. leaders, but on something very different: Washington’s desire to free itself from any limitations on its weapons and to achieve absolute military superiority.
“We have more money than anybody else by far,” President Trump recently proclaimed, “we’ll build it [the nuclear arsenal] up until they come to their senses.”
Presumably, the U.S. wants to re-arm in order to dictate its will to the world. What else could it be?
But this is an illusory goal, a vain hope. It is impossible for one country to achieve hegemony in the modern world. This destructive turn of events will lead to a very different result: The destabilization of the global strategic situation, a new arms race, and greater chaos and unpredictability in world politics.
The security of all countries, including the United States, will suffer. This is the nature of the uncontrollable process that this decision will set in motion.
The INF Treaty Has Been Nixed. What’s Next? (Op-ed)
Trump said that the U.S. hopes to conclude “a new treaty that would be much better.”
What sort of treaty does he mean — one catered for building up nuclear weapons perhaps? Nobody should be fooled by such a promise. The same is true of the statement by U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, who said that “the U.S. has no plans for the immediate deployment of new missile weapons.”
It only means that the U.S. does not have such missiles yet. And these statements clearly failed to convince the Europeans, who were understandably alarmed. Everyone remembers the “missile crisis” of the early 1980s, when hundreds of Soviet SS-20 and U.S. Pershing missiles were deployed on this continent. And everyone understands that a new round of the missile race could be even more dangerous.
I welcome efforts by European countries to save the INF Treaty. The European Union urged the U.S. to “consider the consequences of its possible withdrawal from the INF on its own security, on the security of its allies and of the whole world.”
German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas, who warned that “ending the treaty would have many negative consequences,” travelled to Moscow and Washington in an effort to find a solution to the problem. It is unfortunate that this attempt did not produce any results, but such efforts must continue — too much is at stake.
Those who would like to put the treaty to rest claim that the world has undergone major changes since it was concluded and that the agreement has simply become outdated as a result. The first half of that argument is certainly true, but the second is deeply mistaken. The subsequent changes in the world require not that we abandon the treaty — that laid the foundations of international security after the end of the Cold War — but that we take further steps towards the ultimate goal: The elimination of nuclear weapons.
This is where we should focus our efforts.
INF Is Just Another Unenforceable Treaty (Op-ed)
I would like to address all Americans, and particularly the Republican and Democratic members of Congress. It is unfortunate that the divisive domestic political situation in the U.S. in recent years has led to the breakdown of the entire U.S.-Russian dialogue, including on nuclear weapons. It is time to overcome inter-party disagreements and begin serious talks. I am confident that Russia is open for them.
With those relations at a standstill, we need new ideas capable of getting them moving again. The expert community can play a major role in this effort. In an article recently published by Rossiiskaya Gazeta and the Washington Post, former U.S. Secretary of State George Shultz and I called for the creation of a nongovernmental forum of Russian and U.S. experts to discuss the changes that have occurred in security-related issues over the past decades and to develop proposals for our respective governments.
Most important now is for politicians to make a serious change in their thinking. Militarized mindsets have led to military campaigns in Yugoslavia, Iraq, Libya, and other countries. Their effects will be felt for a long time to come.
Politics, not weapons is the key to solving security problems. Although the disturbing events of recent weeks leave no room for complacency, we should not panic yet. We need to understand the situation as it develops and, most importantly, take action to prevent the world from sliding into an arms race, confrontation, and ultimately hostility. Despite everything, I believe it is still in our power.
Mikhail Gorbachev was the General Secretary of the Central Committee of the Soviet Union in 1985-1991 and President of the Soviet Union in 1990-1991. A Russian-language version of this article first appeared in Vedomosti. The views and opinions expressed in opinion pieces do not necessarily reflect the position of The Moscow Times.
World’s Most Dangerous Nuclear Weapon Rolls Off Assembly Line
In Environment, Nuclear Guardianship, Nuclear Policy, Politics, War on February 13, 2019 at 10:30 am
In the upcoming season of presidential politics, the nuclear question belongs at the top of every candidate’s agenda.
Alexyz3d / Shutterstock
James Carroll,
Last month, the National Nuclear Security Administration (formerly the Atomic Energy Commission) announced that the first of a new generation of strategic nuclear weapons had rolled off the assembly line at its Pantex nuclear weapons plant in the panhandle of Texas. That warhead, the W76-2, is designed to be fitted to a submarine-launched Trident missile, a weapon with a range of more than 7,500 miles. By September, an undisclosed number of warheads will be delivered to the Navy for deployment.
What makes this particular nuke new is the fact that it carries a far smaller destructive payload than the thermonuclear monsters the Trident has been hosting for decades — not the equivalent of about 100 kilotons of TNT as previously, but of five kilotons. According to Stephen Young of the Union of Concerned Scientists, the W76-2 will yield “only” about one-third of the devastating power of the weapon that the Enola Gay, an American B-29 bomber, dropped on Hiroshima on August 6, 1945. Yet that very shrinkage of the power to devastate is precisely what makes this nuclear weapon potentially the most dangerous ever manufactured. Fulfilling the Trump administration’s quest for nuclear-war-fighting “flexibility,” it isn’t designed as a deterrent against another country launching its nukes; it’s designed to be used. This is the weapon that could make the previously “unthinkable” thinkable.
There have long been “low-yield” nuclear weapons in the arsenals of the nuclear powers, including ones on cruise missiles, “air-drop bombs” (carried by planes), and even nuclear artillery shells — weapons designated as “tactical” and intended to be used in the confines of a specific battlefield or in a regional theater of war. The vast majority of them were, however, eliminated in the nuclear arms reductions that followed the end of the Cold War, a scaling-down by both the United States and Russia that would be quietly greeted with relief by battlefield commanders, those actually responsible for the potential use of such ordnance who understood its self-destructive absurdity.
Ranking some weapons as “low-yield” based on their destructive energy always depended on a distinction that reality made meaningless (once damage from radioactivity and atmospheric fallout was taken into account along with the unlikelihood that only one such weapon would be used). In fact, the elimination of tactical nukes represented a hard-boiled confrontation with the iron law of escalation, another commander’s insight — that any use of such a weapon against a similarly armed adversary would likely ignite an inevitable chain of nuclear escalation whose end point was barely imaginable. One side was never going to take a hit without responding in kind, launching a process that could rapidly spiral toward an apocalyptic exchange. “Limited nuclear war,” in other words, was a fool’s fantasy and gradually came to be universally acknowledged as such. No longer, unfortunately.
Unlike tactical weapons, intercontinental strategic nukes were designed to directly target the far-off homeland of an enemy. Until now, their extreme destructive power (so many times greater than that inflicted on Hiroshima) made it impossible to imagine genuine scenarios for their use that would be practically, not to mention morally, acceptable. It was exactly to remove that practical inhibition — the moral one seemed not to count — that the Trump administration recently began the process of withdrawing from the Cold War-era Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty, while rolling a new “limited” weapon off the assembly line and so altering the Trident system. With these acts, there can be little question that humanity is entering a perilous second nuclear age.
That peril lies in the way a 70-year-old inhibition that undoubtedly saved the planet is potentially being shelved in a new world of supposedly “usable” nukes. Of course, a weapon with one-third the destructive power of the bomb dropped on Hiroshima, where as many as 150,000 died, might kill 50,000 people in a similar attack before escalation even began. Of such nukes, former Secretary of State George Shultz, who was at President Ronald Reagan’s elbow when Cold War-ending arms control negotiations climaxed, said, “A nuclear weapon is a nuclear weapon. You use a small one, then you go to a bigger one. I think nuclear weapons are nuclear weapons and we need to draw the line there.”
How Close to Midnight?
Until now, it’s been an anomaly of the nuclear age that some of the fiercest critics of such weaponry were drawn from among the very people who created it. The emblem of that is the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists, a bimonthly journal founded after the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki by veteran scientists from the Manhattan Project, which created the first nuclear weapons. (Today, that magazine’s sponsors include 14 Nobel Laureates.) Beginning in 1947, the Bulletin’s cover has functioned annually as a kind of nuclear alarm, featuring a so-called Doomsday Clock, its minute hand always approaching “midnight” (defined as the moment of nuclear catastrophe).
In that first year, the hand was positioned at seven minutes to midnight. In 1949, after the Soviet Union acquired its first atomic bomb, it inched up to three minutes before midnight. Over the years, it has been reset every January to register waxing and waning levels of nuclear jeopardy. In 1991, after the end of the Cold War, it was set back to 17 minutes and then, for a few hope-filled years, the clock disappeared altogether.
It came back in 2005 at seven minutes to midnight. In 2007, the scientists began factoring climate degradation into the assessment and the hands moved inexorably forward. By 2018, after a year of Donald Trump, it clocked in at two minutes to midnight, a shrill alarm meant to signal a return to the greatest peril ever: the two-minute level reached only once before, 65 years earlier. Last month, within days of the announced manufacture of the first W76-2, the Bulletin’s cover for 2019 was unveiled, still at that desperate two-minute mark, aka the edge of doom.
To fully appreciate how precarious our situation is today, the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists implicitly invites us to return to that other two-minutes-before-midnight moment. If the manufacture of a new low-yield nuclear weapon marks a decisive pivot back toward jeopardy, consider it an irony that the last such moment involved the manufacture of the extreme opposite sort of nuke: a “super” weapon, as it was then called, or a hydrogen bomb. That was in 1953 and what may have been the most fateful turn in the nuclear story until now had just occurred.
After the Soviets exploded their first atomic bomb in 1949, the United States embarked on a crash program to build a far more powerful nuclear weapon. Having been decommissioned after World War II, the Pantex plant was reactivated and has been the main source of American nukes ever since.
The atomic bomb is a fission weapon, meaning the nuclei of atoms are split into parts whose sum total weighs less than the original atoms, the difference having been transformed into energy. A hydrogen bomb uses the intense heat generated by that “fission” (hence thermonuclear) as a trigger for a vastly more powerful “fusion,” or combining, of elements, which results in an even larger loss of mass being transformed into explosive energy of a previously unimagined sort. One H-bomb generates explosive force 100 to 1,000 times the destructive power of the Hiroshima bomb.
Given a kind of power that humans once only imagined in the hands of the gods, key former Manhattan Project scientists, including Enrico Fermi, James Conant, and J. Robert Oppenheimer, firmly opposed the development of such a new weapon as a potential threat to the human species. The Super Bomb would be, in Conant’s word, “genocidal.” Following the lead of those scientists, members of the Atomic Energy Commission recommended — by a vote of three to two — against developing such a fusion weapon, but President Truman ordered it done anyway.
In 1952, as the first H-bomb test approached, still-concerned atomic scientists proposed that the test be indefinitely postponed to avert a catastrophic “super” competition with the Soviets. They suggested that an approach be made to Moscow to mutually limit thermonuclear development only to research on, not actual testing of, such weaponry, especially since none of this could truly be done in secret. A fusion bomb’s test explosion would be readily detectable by the other side, which could then proceed with its own testing program. The scientists urged Moscow and Washington to draw just the sort of arms control line that the two nations would indeed agree to many years later.
At the time, the United States had the initiative. An out-of-control arms race with the potential accumulation of thousands of such weapons on both sides had not yet really begun. In 1952, the United States numbered its atomic arsenal in the low hundreds; the Soviet Union in the dozens. (Even those numbers, of course, already offered a vision of an Armageddon-like global war.) President Truman considered the proposal to indefinitely postpone the test. It was then backed by figures like Vannevar Bush, who headed the Office of Scientific Research and Development, which had overseen the wartime Manhattan Protect. Scientists like him already grasped the lesson that would only slowly dawn on policymakers — that every advance in the atomic capability of one of the superpowers would inexorably lead the other to match it, ad infinitum. The title of the bestselling James Jones novel of that moment caught the feeling perfectly: From Here to Eternity.
In the last days of his presidency, however, Truman decided against such an indefinite postponement of the test — against, that is, a break in the nuke-accumulation momentum that might well have changed history. On November 1, 1952, the first H-bomb — “Mike” — was detonated on an island in the Pacific. It had 500 times more lethal force than the bomb that obliterated Hiroshima. With a fireball more than three miles wide, not only did it destroy the three-story structure built to house it but also the entire island of Elugelab, as well as parts of several nearby islands.
In this way, the thermonuclear age began and the assembly line at that same Pantex plant really started to purr. Less than 10 years later, the United States had 20,000 nukes, mostly H-bombs; Moscow, fewer than 2,000. And three months after that first test, the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists moved that hand on its still new clock to two minutes before midnight.
“A Madman-Theory Version of the World”
It may seem counterintuitive to compare the manufacture of what’s called a “mini-nuke” to the creation of the “super” almost six decades ago, but honestly, what meaning can “mini” really have when we’re talking about nuclear war? The point is that, as in 1952, so in 2019 another era-shaping threshold is being crossed at the very same weapons plant in the high plains country of the Texas Panhandle, where so many instruments of mayhem have been created. Ironically, because the H-bomb was eventually understood to be precisely what the dissenting scientists had claimed it was — a genocidal weapon — pressures against its use proved insurmountable during almost four decades of savage East-West hostility. Today, the Trident-mounted W76-2 could well have quite a different effect — its first act of destruction potentially being the obliteration of the long-standing, post-Hiroshima and Nagasaki taboo against nuclear use. In other words, so many years after the island of Elugelab was wiped from the face of the Earth, the “absolute weapon” is finally being normalized.
With President Trump expunging the theoretical from Richard Nixon’s “madman theory” — that former president’s conviction that an opponent should fear an American leader was so unstable he might actually push the nuclear button — what is to be done? Once again, nuke-skeptical scientists, who have grasped the essential problems in the nuclear conundrum with crystal clarity for three quarters of a century, are pointing the way. In 2017, the Union of Concerned Scientists, together with Physicians for Social Responsibility, launched Back from the Brink: The Call to Prevent Nuclear War, “a national grassroots initiative seeking to fundamentally change U.S. nuclear weapons policy and lead us away from the dangerous path we are on.”
Engaging a broad coalition of civic organizations, municipalities, religious groups, educators, and scientists, it aims to lobby government bodies at every level, to raise the nuclear issue in every forum, and to engage an ever-wider group of citizens in pressing for change in American nuclear policy. Back From the Brink makes five demands, much needed in a world in which the U.S. and Russia are withdrawing from a key Cold-War-era nuclear treaty with more potentially to come, including the New START pact that expires two years from now. The five demands are:
No to first use of nukes. (Senator Elizabeth Warren and Representative Adam Smith only recently introduced a No First Use Act in both houses of Congress to stop Trump and future presidents from launching a nuclear war.)
End the unchecked launch-authority of the president. (Last month, Senator Edward Markey and Representative Ted Lieu reintroduced a bill that would do just that.)
No to nuclear hair-triggers.
No to endlessly renewing and replacing the arsenal (as the U.S. is now doing to the tune of perhaps $1.6 trillion over three decades).
Yes to an abolition agreement among nuclear-armed states.
These demands range from the near-term achievable to the long-term hoped for, but as a group they define what clear-eyed realism should be in Donald Trump’s new version of our never-ending nuclear age.
In the upcoming season of presidential politics, the nuclear question belongs at the top of every candidate’s agenda. It belongs at the center of every forum and at the heart of every voter’s decision. Action is needed before the W76-2 and its successors teach a post-Hiroshima planet what nuclear war is truly all about.
The No First Use Act On Nuclear Weapons Is One Sentence Long — But Its Impact Could Be Hug
In Human rights, Jefferson Parkway, Nuclear Guardianship, Nuclear Policy, Peace, Politics, War on February 13, 2019 at 1:25 am
By Caroline Burke
On Jan. 30, Sen. Elizabeth Warren and Rep. Adam Smith introduced a bill that was just one sentence long — but its importance shouldn’t be underestimated. Despite its length, the No First Use Act on nuclear weapons has big aims: to define, in blunt terms, the United States’ relationship to nuclear weaponry for the coming years. The sentence is 12 words long, but couldn’t be more specific: “It is the policy of the United States not to use nuclear weapons first.
“The bill was jointly introduced by Warren and Smith, who is the chairman of the House Armed Services Committee. According to The Washington Post, the lawmakers introduced it by explaining that the bill aimed to confirm what “most Americans already believe — that the United States should never initiate a nuclear war.”
In a joint statement on the bill, as released by Warren on her website, the lawmakers said,
Our current nuclear strategy is not just outdated–it is dangerous. By making clear that deterrence is the sole purpose of our arsenal, this bill would reduce the chances of a nuclear miscalculation and help us maintain our moral and diplomatic leadership in the world.
Though the bill is shockingly short in length, the joint statement by Warren and Smith outlined three main goals for the piece of legislation; specifically, for how the legislation would strengthen national security
First, the two legislators believe the act would “[reduce] the risk of a nuclear miscalculation by an adversary during a crisis.” Second, they maintain that it would “[strengthen] our deterrence and increasing strategic stability by clarifying our declaratory policy.” And lastly, the lawmakers asserted that it would “[preserve] the U.S. second-strike capability to retaliate against any nuclear attack on the U.S. or its allies.”
This isn’t the first time the No First Use Act has been floated for consideration in recent history. During his presidency, Obama reviewed similar legislation, but many of his cabinet advisors were openly and starkly against the bill, so he eventually decided against it.
There are multiple strains of reasoning held by opponents of the No First Use Act. One argument is that a statement like this by the United States could destabilize nuclear policy internationally, causing allies of the United States to feel nervous and enemies of the U.S. to disbelieve the compact. Vipin Narang, a professor of political science at MIT, said to Vox, “A declaration, without any attendant changes to the US’s ability to actually use nuclear weapons promptly, absent changes to the actual posture, alert levels, etc. — your adversaries won’t believe it.”
Narang continued, “There’s a real concern here that your allies might…And for our allies, at least, not declaring one way or another that we might use nuclear weapons in their defense in a conventional attack against them may help reassurance at the margins.”
The fate of the bill, for now, is unclear. In the release of its new nuclear weapons policy in early 2018, the Trump administration declared that a policy like the one Warren and Smith are proposing was unnecessary.
PERSONAL COMMENT: I support the bill, but only as a beginning. Our goal should be to abolish nuclear weapons — and war — forever. If we want humans and other life forms to re,win alive on this plant, we must end the violence. (LeRoy)
Can Elizabeth Warren and Adam Smith, Defying Trump, Persuade Americans to Get Serious About Nuclear-Arms Control?
In Environment, Human rights, Justice, Nuclear Guardianship, Nuclear Policy, Peace, Politics, War on February 4, 2019 at 11:05 pm
By James Carroll
“No first use” harkens back to the informal moral consensus that America is not a nation to start a nuclear war. Warren and Smith’s bill aims to enshrine that consensus in law.
Photograph by Education Images / UIG / Getty
“It is the policy of the United States to not use nuclear weapons first.” This is the elegantly simple declamation of a bill, introduced on Wednesday by Representative Adam Smith, Democrat of Washington, the new chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, and Senator Elizabeth Warren, Democrat of Massachusetts, a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee. The proposed legislation would reverse the longstanding American policy of being theoretically prepared to initiate a nuclear conflict without first being subject to a nuclear attack.
Deterrence theory, which was adopted during the height of the Cold War, seemed to require that a country threaten its readiness to launch a preëmptive nuclear onslaught even before an enemy got to zero with its own countdown. Over the years, though, daylight fell between deterrence theory and strategic conduct. “No first use” became taken for granted as a matter of practice: the United States was not going to start a nuclear war. Barack Obama came close to turning that stance into policy late in his Presidency. Warned off by the national-security élite, including his own Secretaries of Defense, Energy, and State, who did not want to send softening signals to Russia and China, he declined to do so.
But the Trump Administration’s Nuclear Posture Review, issued a year ago this month, went fully the other way, openly declaring that the United States would launch nuclear strikes in response to “non-nuclear strategic attacks,” a vaguely characterized category that could be interpreted to include, say, cyber assaults on the American information infrastructure. Now, a readiness to use a nuclear weapon for the first time since the attack on Nagasaki is a central part of national-security doctrine, a perfect match to the Administration’s across-the-board bluster. First use is a readymade organizing principle for Donald Trump.
Smith and Warren are now openly defying that Trump doctrine. “No first use” can be understood as a kind of mantra, a symbol of a larger purpose—to move away from the decades-old paralysis of nuclear mania. That it could inhibit even a nuclear abolitionist such as Obama shows how multifaceted the problem remains.
Smith has introduced such a bill previously, but now he is joined by a colleague who stands at the pinnacle of the nation’s interest. Warren, who has all but announced a 2020 Presidential bid, embraced “no first use” in a major foreign-policy address at American University, in November, as one of what she called “three core nuclear-security principles.” The other two were “no new nuclear weapons” and “more international arms control, not less” —both of which point away from the road that the Trump Administration has taken. In renouncing the first-use doctrine, Warren joined an eminently practical concern—“To reduce the chances of a miscalculation or an accident”—to an ethical one. “To maintain our moral and diplomatic leadership in the world, we must be clear that deterrence is the sole purpose of our arsenal,” she said.
Introducing the No First Use Act marks a major move, for Warren, from the realm of rhetoric to actual lawmaking designed, at the very least, to prompt congressional consideration of a crucial national-security question. The Republican pushback came quickly. Senator Deb Fischer, of Nebraska, who chairs the Senate Armed Services Committee’s subcommittee on strategic forces, said that the proposal “betrays a naïve and disturbed world view.” Such dismissal will no doubt come from many quarters.
How the initiative plays out in the push and pull of Presidential politics will say less, perhaps, about campaign competitions and media preoccupations than about the general attitude of the American electorate toward the subject. When it comes to the dangers posed by nuclear arsenals, complacency reigns, even as the Trump Administration goes steadily about the business of opening up a new nuclear age. When Trump launched his “fire and fury like the world has never seen” tirade against North Korea, in August of 2017, there was a short-lived rush of nuclear anguish, with many people of a certain age recalling incidents of Cold War Armageddon dread. But, with Trump’s irrational about-face on North Korea, which seems based on what he has called the “love” between him and Kim Jong Un, and which his own intelligence chiefs discounted earlier this week, the broad fear of nuclear war resumed its place in the deep recesses of American denial.
Warren is not taking her cues on this question from the polls. If she were, she would, like most other politicians, likely leave it alone. For two generations, Americans have not known how to think about the nation’s nuclear policy, or its arsenal, and so, for the most part, it seems, they haven’t. The twenty-first century’s stalling of arms reduction, and the withering of the U.S. commitment to the arms-reduction-treaty regime, have ranked low on the scale of the nation’s problems, as perceived from across the political spectrum. Obama’s brief emergence as a globally celebrated nuclear eliminationist, and his inexorable fade from that stance when he was actually in power, says less about a leader’s fecklessness than about the deadly lock that nuclear weapons have had on one Congress after another, on the ever-burgeoning defense industry, and on the American mind
There was an exception, which came during the fraught period of the first term of the Reagan Administration, when a burst of nuclear-war anxiety swept across much of the world. In Europe, the deployment of American cruise and Pershing II missiles ignited unprecedented grassroots protests. In this country, that anxiety inspired the Nuclear Freeze Movement—which called for a freeze on the super-powers’ nuclear arsenals at their then current levels—with municipalities, civic and professional groups, religious institutions, and cohorts of educators, physicians, and scientists all banding together against what felt like an imminent nuclear catastrophe. By March of 1982, the grassroots had sprouted a forest, and the nuclear-freeze resolution, “A Call to Halt the Nuclear Arms Race,” inspired a bill in Congress by sponsors that included two Massachusetts Democrats: Senator Ted Kennedy and Representative Ed Markey, who is now Warren’s colleague in the Senate. (Markey, with Representative Ted Lieu, of California, reintroduced a similar bill of his own this week) Three months later, a million anti-nuke protesters gathered in New York City. A year after that, the nuclear-freeze resolution passed in the House.
The idea of the freeze then opened into the larger idea of nuclear reduction, and, over time, to a wide embrace of the goal of nuclear abolition. Members of the Pentagon’s nuclear priesthood, including General Lee Butler and Admiral Eugene Carroll, Jr., and civilian architects of the nuclear-security state, such as Paul Nitze and William Perry, began to speak out against nukes. For a time, liberation from the grip of the absolute weapon seemed possible. Even Reagan had been preparing to move past the idea of freezing nuclear-arms levels to reducing them. Then, Mikhail Gorbachev became the leader of the Soviet Union, a historic shift occurred, and, against all predictions, the Cold War ended, not with conflagration but with negotiation. (On Friday, the Trump Administration suspended the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty, which came out of those negotiations, in 1987, following a long-running disagreement over Russia’s compliance.)
“No first use” is a simple idea, as the freeze was, and that is its strength. It is common-sensical, and harkens back to the informal moral consensus that America is not a nation to start a nuclear war. That consensus should be enshrined in law, but, even if all that comes of the Smith-Warren initiative is a renewed public debate, that will be more than salutary. Consideration of the No First Use Act not only in Congress but on the campaign trail can point forward to a new grappling with the unexamined set of nuclear questions, starting with Warren’s other two core principles: of no to new weapons and yes to arms control. More than her proposals for the recovery from income inequality, her effort to unbolt the nuclear lock on the American economy and culture can be historic.
Senators Introduce Bill to Prevent Nuclear Arms Race
In Human rights, Justice, Nuclear Guardianship, Nuclear Policy, Peace, Politics, War on February 1, 2019 at 11:03 pm
Thursday, January 31, 201
https://www.merkley.senate.gov/news/press-releases/merkley-senators-introduce-bill-to-prevent-nuclear-arms-race
WASHINGTON, D.C. – Oregon’s Senator Jeff Merkley and Senators Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY), Edward J. Markey (D-MA), Ron Wyden (D-OR), and Bernie Sanders (I-VT), along with Senators Chris Van Hollen (D-MD), Tammy Baldwin (D-WI), Kamala Harris (D-CA), and Sherrod Brown (D-OH), today announced the introduction of the Prevention of Arms Race Act of 2019, legislation that would pull the United States and Russia back from the brink of a 21st Century nuclear arms race. Merkley and Markey are members of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, and Warren and Gillibrand serve on the Senate Armed Services Committee.
“There’s a reason that kids today don’t do duck-and-cover drills in schools and that nobody has bomb shelters in their backyards anymore. That reason is because of key agreements like the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty and the New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty,” said Merkley. “This era of stability is put at great risk by President Trump’s decision to unilaterally pull out of the INF Treaty. This decision ignores all the lessons from the Cold War. There is no doubt that that Russia is violating the INF Treaty, but the right path forward is to work to bring them back into compliance, not free them to produce more nuclear weapons. Blowing up the Treaty risks the proliferation of nuclear-capable systems by Russia, threatening Europe and jeopardizing decades of bipartisan efforts to reduce nuclear dangers with Russia.”
“A nuclear arms race would endanger the entire world and threaten every single person in our country, and Congress has a responsibility to ensure that President Trump does not start one. President Trump’s imminent unilateral withdrawal from a bipartisan weapons treaty with Russia, without consulting Congress, would mean the Prevention of Arms Race Act is more important than ever,” said Gillibrand. “A reckless withdrawal would further damage our relationships with our allies, Russia would not be legally constrained from deploying larger numbers of their previously prohibited missiles, and the world would be much less safe. I urge my colleagues to support this bill to prevent a new arms race, and I will continue to do everything I can to keep all Americans safe.”
“Pulling out of the INF Treaty plays squarely into Russia’s hands while undermining America’s security and betraying our NATO allies,” Markey said. “The Trump administration needs to work more closely with our NATO allies to force Russia back into compliance. And as the chance of a confrontation between American and Chinese forces rises the Indo-Pacific, it makes little sense to add further ambiguity over whether U.S. missiles stationed around the region are nuclear-armed. This legislation will help ensure that we don’t match two major adversaries missile-for-missile, trigger a new nuclear arms race, and incur unacceptable amounts of risk in an already tenuous security environment.”
“If Donald Trump walks out of the INF Treaty, he will risk a new destabilizing and costly arms race and antagonize important allies,” said Wyden. “The administration should instead be working with European allies to pressure Russia back into compliance.”
The Senators’ legislation comes in advance of the Trump Administration’s expected action this weekend to unilaterally withdraw the United States from the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty (INF) treaty. The State Department set a February 2, 2019 deadline for Russia to return to compliance with the Treaty after a hasty and un-vetted declaration by President Trump in October that the United States intended to withdraw from the landmark treaty with Russia. The INF was originally signed by President Reagan and Soviet General Secretary Mikhail Gorbachev in 1987.
The United States first declared Russia to be in violation of the Treaty in 2014, and experts agree it is critical that the United States continue to work to bring Russia back into compliance and hold it accountable for its violation. A U.S. withdrawal of the INF Treaty will not eliminate Russia’s violating missile; instead it emboldens Russia to deploy greater quantities of nuclear-capable systems and without legal restriction. And withdrawal will not eliminate China’s expansive arsenal of intermediate-range missiles; rather, the collapse of the Treaty will dim future prospects of limiting or eliminating China’s inventory of these weapons.
The INF Treaty permanently led to the elimination of entire classes of U.S. and Russian nuclear and conventional ground-launched ballistic and cruise missiles – 2,692 in total – supported by on-site inspections that allowed both sides to “trust but verify” compliance with the Treaty. The administration has not properly consultation with Congress – a co-equal branch of government – on its plans to pull out of INF. The move is also the latest example of the President ignoring the objections of U.S. NATO allies who have declared that the INF Treaty “has been crucial to Euro-Atlantic security.”
The Prevention of Arms Race Act of 2019 prohibits funding for the procurement, flight-testing, or deployment of a U.S. ground-launched or ballistic missile – with a range of between 500 and 5,500 kilometers – until the Trump Administration provides a report that meets seven specific conditions. That report would be required to:
1) Identify a U.S. ally formally willing to host such a system, and in the case of a European country, have it be the outcome of a NATO-wide decision;
2) Detail recent diplomatic efforts to bring Russia back into compliance with the Treaty;
3) Assess the risk to U.S. national security and that of our allies stemming from Russia being able to deploy greater numbers of intermediate range missiles;
4) Identify what programs the United States would need to pursue to offset additional Russian capabilities and at what cost;
5) Identify what mission requirements with respect to the Russian Federation and the People’s Republic of China will be met by INF-type systems;
6) Identify the degree to which INF-compliant capabilities, such as sea and air-launched cruise missiles, can meet those same mission requirements; and
7) Detail the costs to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and the ability to maintain consensus within the NATO Alliance should the INF Treaty collapse.
A former academic, writer, devotee of nonviolence, and founder of the Rocky Mountain Peace and Justice Center, LeRoy Moore, PhD, worked successfully with others to end production at the Rocky Flats nuclear bomb factory near Denver, then sought the best possible cleanup of the plant’s highly contaminated site, only to ... Continue reading →
Nuclear Guardianship
Nuclear Policy
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Civil War Novels
Contact the Vikingr…
David Wayne Roach Jr., pen named D.W. Roach is a Fantasy and Historical Fiction Novelist. Mr. Roach’s books focus primarily on Norse Mythology, Viking History & Lore, as well as drawing inspiration from a number of translated texts such as the Havamal (Book of the High One), Voluspa (The Witch’s Prophecy) & Grimnismal (The Words of Odin in Disguise) as well as J.R.R. Tolkien classics such as The Silmarillion, The Hobbit and the Lord Of The Rings Trilogy. Being a 90’s kid Mr. Roach also takes inspiration from more modern influences such as video games (namely Elder Scrolls, Skyrim, & Oblivion) as well as movies such as Kingdom of Heaven, 300, and The Last Samurai. His writing style is much more akin to that of Robert E. Howard, the writer of “Conan The Barbarian” in which he tends to focus on acts of great heroism, copious violence (as was true for any Viking/Medieval Era) and the mystical realm of the gods directly influencing the lives of lowly mortals.
A former U.S. Marine, Mr. Roach also draws a great deal of his inspiration from personal experiences that include combat training, survival techniques, small unit tactics and amphibious warfare. Historical battles are a personal interest of Mr. Roach, particularly the Viking and Medieval time periods.
Since 2004 Mr. Roach has served as a Physical Security Professional with experience spanning the globe protecting many Fortune 50 & 500 Corporations. His personal interests include hunting and fishing, the outdoors, target shooting, and slow cooked BBQ. He currently resides in the Lone Star State with his wife and children.
You can find his books and social media at the below links;
https://marauderbooks.com/
https://www.creativia.org/
https://www.facebook.com/marauderbook
https://www.facebook.com/whenthedrumsstop/
Amazon Authors Page
http://www.amazon.com/David-Roach/e/B00QBBZDNQ/
February 2, 2017 February 2, 2017 marauderbooks
UPCOMING EBOOK GIVEAWAY
January 17, 2017 January 17, 2017 marauderbooks
Review : Tales From Midhgardhur
January 5, 2017 marauderbooks
Review for Valhalla Unleashed – Jan 4th
Deleted Blogger…
December 12, 2016 December 12, 2016 marauderbooks
Do Facebook Ads Work?
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Home Entertainment Here Are 10 Amazing Things You Should Know About President Donald Trump
Here Are 10 Amazing Things You Should Know About President Donald Trump
Just because you think you know everything about the President of the United States does not mean that it is. Here are 10 surprising things to know about Donald Trump.
As you know, Donald Trump won the American elections and is the President of the United States. He is also a key figure in the world of business, media, and entertainment. However, since Trump entered the world of politics, it has had incessant media coverage. You probably think you know everything about this politician, but you might be very surprised by what you discover about him. Here are 10 things you probably don’t know about Donald Trump.
1. Donald Trump’s companies have declared bankruptcy 4 times
www.businessinsider.com
Despite the fact that Mr. Trump did not personally declare bankruptcy, his various companies did so four times. Before becoming president or even a reality TV star, Trump was known as a real estate tycoon. One of his specialties was the construction and operation of incredible casinos and hotels. In 1991, the Taj Mahal Trump went bankrupt and the Trump Plaza followed the same path in 1992. They were reorganized in 1995 to become Trump Hotels & Casino Resorts. This company also went bankrupt in 2004. Trump Entertainment has also gone bankrupt.
2. Trump has already dated Anna Nicole Smith Anna Nicole
www.express.co.uk
Trump married Ivana Zelnickova Winklmayr, a former model, in 1977. However, they divorced in 1991. He later married Marla Maples in 1993, with whom he had a child. Between his first two marriages, however, Donald Trump dated the model and celebrity Anna Nicole Smith.
3. Trump has filed several lawsuits
gopego.com
The only thing Donald Trump seems to like suing people. Author Timothy O’Brien of the New York Times was prosecuted by Trump for accusing him of making false statements about his wealth. Trump said it was worth billions, while O’Brien said in a book he wrote about Mr. Trump that the value of the business magnate was between $150 million and $250 million. The lawsuit was dismissed by the court in 2009. In 2015, Trump sued Univision because they did not want to broadcast the beauty contests it represented because of Trump’s comments about illegal immigrants. Over the years, Trump has filed a number of other lawsuits.
4. Donald Trump doesn’t drink alcohol
www.playbuzz.com
Although many of Donald Trump’s casinos and hotels can be filled with an infinite amount of alcohol, Mr. Trump insists that he does not drink. Not only does Donald Trump not to drink alcohol, but he said he has never drunk in his life. The reason he abstains is both personal and sad. His older brother had been suffering from alcoholism for years before he died of the disease. It was reported that Fred Trump warned his younger brother not to end up like him. Not only does Trump avoid alcohol, but also cigarettes and drugs.
5. Donald Trump hit hard with the television show The Apprentice
In 2004, Trump became the star and executive director of NBC’s reality TV show The Apprentice. Even though Trump was already extremely rich, he was paid $375,000 for each episode of the show. The show was so successful that a new format was introduced: The Celebrity Apprentice. This was launched after 6 seasons of the original show. The main premise of the program is that participants are trying to find a place in one of Trump’s many organizations.
6. Trump actually shaved Vince McMahon’s head
During the Battle of the Billionaires, Trump and McMahon selected players to represent them in the ring. Trump and McMahon made a bet together in which the person whose representative would lose should shave his head. Trump’s representative won the wrestling match. So he was involved in shaving McMahon’s head.
7. Trump claims he’s never used an ATM before
www.neogaf.com
During a visit to Late Night with Conan O’Brien Trump said he never used an ATM. This may surprise some people, but when it comes to banking transactions, Trump probably has accountants and assistants who handle this kind of thing. Maybe he’s old-fashioned and goes to the bank to withdraw large amounts of money. It seems to be Trump’s style to carry a large amount of cash.
8. The president has a star on the Walk of Fame
After the success of the reality show The Apprentice, Donald Trump was awarded a star on Walk of Fame. The star was unveiled on January 16, 2007.
9. Donald Trump once owned a football team
www.tbo.com
In 1983, Trump decided to buy a football team. It was reported that Trump bought the team for $9 million. He said he bought it for $5 million. The team was part of the United States Football League (USFL). Trump’s team became one of the best in the USFL, but in a few years, the spring football league no longer existed.
10. Donald Trump is a social media fanatic
www.scoopnest.com
Donald Trump likes to stay involved in social media, and Twitter in particular. It is reported that he sends about 372 Tweets per month. That’s an average of about 12 Tweets a day!
SOURCE12 Facts
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Are new forms of collaboration possible? 30 March 2017
Here's the preview of the article by our Strategist and Manager of Design Cristina Favini, which introduces the issues related to Weconomy #11
Class of 74. The transition generation. Our X factor is our awareness of the transition between living in an analogue world to living in an analogue and digital reality. I read my email via Outlook, I rarely use the Cloud, and try to avoid Whatsapp as a work tool. In current jargon, I'm a digital immigrant; for my children, the ultimate progeny of Generation Z, I'm merely "slow".
I work in the here and now but I also have an eye on the future. Why am I telling you this? Because every time we try to pin down something as elusive as understanding the other, the people we work with (and for) we always run the risk of a one-sided point of view. I should explain that better. Generations are not new, but we're only just beginning to understand how complex they are and realize more than ever before, given the current speed of change, the huge cultural "divides" we face. There are six different generations (or five if two are lumped together) currently in the world, out on the street, crossing paths in the underground: the "Reconstruction" generation (born between 1926 and 1945), baby boomers, split into leading edge (born from 1946 to 1955) and trailing edge boomers (born from 1956 to 1965), the transition generation, also known as Generation X (born from 1966 to 1980), and the famous Millennial Generation, otherwise known as Millennials or Generation Y (born from 1981 to 1995). Finally, we also have the net generation, aka Generation Z (born between 1996 and 2015). Four generations are currently working in today's organisations but before long there will be more, partly because of the rising pension age and average lifetimes. This won't be the first or only news item about the generational gap. A few weeks ago there was a story in the news about a group of pensioners who clashed with some young people in the post office. The latter had used a time-saving app (probably designed by a millennial UX designer) to skip to the front of the queue. It is equally interesting to see that organisations, a mirror image of society, are breeding grounds for countless misunderstandings and clashes between generations. We expect staff to be motivated to stay with the organisation on the basis of our own experience without considering that Millennials have other interests that we have completely overlooked. The upshot is that turnover increases dramatically and not everyone identifies with the organisation. I met with a client recently and listened to how chatbot programmes (literally an algorithm which conducts a conversation between a robot and customers) will need new roles to be added and cause others to disappear. In our planning for the future we never once imagined such "techno-discrimination", a phenomenon which, in addition to affecting older sections of the population, also impacts a sizeable portion of the more disadvantaged Millennials, the ones without the means to keep up with the "flow". Indeed, these days it's interesting to see how we do "old things" in new ways, from buying tickets to doing the grocery shopping, moving around the city and work. Imagine what it will be like for Generation Z in 2030 when, with the help of robots (another generational species), they will also do things in new ways. At that stage, the transformation of habits on one hand and business ecosystems on the other, will be even more disjointed and rapid. That's not all: if the primary objective of an organisation these days is to sell goods, in the future it will increasingly be to sell the use of, or time with, products and positive experiences of every kind. This will alter the situation dramatically. "Contact" with customers will be increasingly a continual exchange of value, and therefore, of service delivery. Unfortunately, the planning process in many organisations is still anchored to old methods and the rigidity of their organisational structures, which assign generations to restrictive vertical categories, inhibiting the development of new ways of interacting, and thwarting relationships which could be dynamic, vibrant and, by definition, in constant evolution. Providing a service means responding to people's lives. Not from the outside, but from within. Mutating continuously, in every direction. Such mutation requires a special kind of alwayson responsiveness because standard and manual modes are no longer enough. People change, their needs and their 5 Cristina Favini Strategist & Manager of Design Logotel interpretation of them change, as do their actions and the contexts in which they are deployed. What will Generation Z be like in 50 years? Will Gen Z'ers have to work with machines? What will Millennial grannies and grandpas be like? Outlooks, thoughts and action must remain plastic and pliant, with a view, in particular, to honing the ability to deploy new generation "solutions". In order to do this, we must become people experts, well-versed in people's needs, behaviours and emotions; we must become collectors of their stories and of the ways they interact; we must broaden our outlook, make it sharper, more inclusive and capable of that rare quality that is interpretation. These are difficult skills to develop and practice in organisations. Which is why it is imperative that we use generations as an additional filter to gain a clearer insight, and to explore the preferences, motivations, aspirations and fears of, sizeable portions of the population. People who share the same times, places and activities but with different mindsets and outlooks, who need to find a way of advancing together despite their different backgrounds. Watch out, though, there's always the danger, as I mentioned earlier, of which point of view to choose. If you ask a baby boomer from the 46-55 period, they'll tell you that the younger generations are incapable to going beyond appearances. But did we when we were young? Millennials won't be young for ever. What's the limit? We all wear our generation like a tattoo and see others in terms of how they differ from ourselves, often flattening out the nuances and emphasizing only the extremes, the light or shadow. Reality is rich with nuance. Reality is multifarious, it's “multiverse”. Understanding generations is an excellent starting point that will help us to better comprehend our colleagues and our children, but it's not enough. Our only chance is to make sure we also offer environments, spaces, times and opportunities in which generational biodiversity is assured, where collaboration between generations can occur. Environments in which each person, with their own individual experiences and characteristics, are part of the process. It's the only way to avoid single points of view which exclude rather than enhance, the beauty of reality. So no more interfaces designed by young people for young people, no more executive boards open to top managers but not to conversation with other generations. Just as organisations can age, with the right mix and in the right hands, they can also rejuvenate. Biodiversity must be increased to bring into action new generational species. More than ever before, a balance has to be struck between generations that is not only pacific but also productive. The 11th issue of Weconomy has this issue as its theme: "Quid Novi? - Generations Working Together", literally "what's new?" The issue aims to start a broad conversation, specifying who exactly we are talking about when we talk about generations, and outline the similarities and differences between them. We have tried to inject the highest degree of biodiversity into the conversation, mixing up different skills and professions to assure multiple perspectives and vantage points: you will hear from someone who works with younger generations on a daily basis (a psychiatrist), someone who works with corporate managers (a professional trainer), someone who plans and creates services (an interaction designer), a designer of Made-in-Italy products for all generations, someone paid to imagine the future (a futurologist), someone who invents the future, working with AI (IBM research centre director), someone who makes cultural change happen in the workplace (HR manager and personnel recruitment and management director), someone who takes change to the world (Global HR Manager), someone who experiences change first-hand as an entrepreneur, someone who trains and teaches the new generations (a university professor) and someone who has just embarked on their corporate career. Collaboration between generations is an opportunity. The risk though is that the degrees of separation between motivation, types of relationship, language, and management of time and space, are so huge that there is no meeting point between them. Let's at least do what we can to set up a first date. Enjoy
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All About Eve Tickets
Noel Coward Theatre, London
About All About Eve
“Fasten your seat belts. It’s going to be a bumpy night.”
Margo Channing. Legend. True star of the theatre. The spotlight is hers, always has been. But now there’s Eve. Her biggest fan. Young, beautiful Eve. The golden girl, the girl next door. But you know all about Eve…don’t you…?
Ivo van Hove directs Gillian Anderson and Lily James in his new adaptation of All About Eve, a razor-sharp, unsettling exposé of the eternal obsession at the heart of show-business. BAFTA Award-winner Monica Dolan will join the cast in the role of Karen, alongside Julian Ovenden as Bill, Sheila Reid as Birdie and Rhashan Stone as Lloyd. Further casting to be announced.
Lifting the curtain on a world of jealousy and ambition, this new production, from one of the world’s most innovative theatre directors, asks why our fascination with celebrity, youth and identity never seems to get old.
Ivo van Hove’s direction will be accompanied by set and lighting design from Jan Versweyveld, costume design by An D’Huys and music from double Mercury Prize-winner PJ Harvey, alongside Tom Gibbons’ sound design. Casting is by Julia Horan CDG.
All About Eve is not available to book, please sign up to our newsletter for updates and offers on forthcoming and available shows.
85-88 St Martin's Lane London WC2N 4AU
Nearest Bus stop: (Charing Cross) 24, 29, 176; (Strand) 6, 9, 11, 13, 15, 23, 87, 91, 139
Parking: St Martin's Lane Hotel (1min)
Nearest Night Bus: (Charing Cross) 24, 176, N5, N20, N29, N41, N279; (Strand) 6, 23, 139, N9, N15, N11, N13, N21, N26, N44, N47, N87, N89, N91, N155, N343, N551
Nearest Tube: Piccadilly, Northern
(2mins) Take Cranbourn Street away from Leicester Square until St Martin’s Lane, where you head right until you reach the theatre.
London County Hall, London
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Prince Harry and Oprah Winfrey are joining forces on a new documentary series about mental health and well-being.
by Imogen Calderwood
The pair will be co-creators and executive producers of the series, according to an announcement on Wednesday from Kensington Palace via Harry and Meghan’s new Instagram account, SussexRoyal.
The multi-part series is due to be broadcast next year on the recently announced US streaming service, Apple TV+, which will launch this autumn. It’s not yet known, however, how viewers in the UK will be able to watch.
According to the statement, the show will “focus on both mental illness and mental wellness, inspiring viewers to have an honest conversation about the challenges each of us faces, and how to equip ourselves with the tools to not simply survive, but to thrive.”
The palace said the series would build on the Duke of Sussex’s extensive work on mental health.
Harry has previously spoken out about the “quite serious effect” the death of his mother, Princess Diana, had on his life, and said that he has “probably been very close to a complete breakdown on numerous occasions.”
“I truly believe that good mental health — mental fitness — is the key to powerful leadership, productive communities, and a purpose-driven self,” said Harry, in a statement about the documentary.
He also revealed that he feels the “huge responsibility to get this right as we bring you the facts, the science, and the awareness of a subject that is so relevant during these times.”
“Our hope is that this series will be positive, enlightening, and inclusive — sharing global stories of unparalleled human spirit fighting back from the darkest places, and the opportunity for us to understand ourselves and those around us better,” he said.
Harry has previously been very involved in raising awareness and advocating around the issue of mental health.
In 2016, the Royal Foundation — the main philanthropic and charitable vehicle for the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge and the Duke and Duchess of Sussex — launched the Heads Together initiative, to tackle stigma and change the conversation around mental health.
“His Royal Highness has spent many years working with communities throughout the UK and young people across the Commonwealth to break the stigma surrounding mental illness and broaden the conversation of mental wellness to accelerate change for a more compassionate, connected, and positive society,” the palace statement added.
According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), half of all mental illness begins by the age of 14 — but most cases go undetected and untreated.
“Fortunately, there is a growing recognition of the importance of helping young people build mental resilience, from the earliest ages, in order to cope with the challenges of today’s world,” it adds.
“Evidence is growing that promoting and protecting adolescent health brings benefits not just to adolescents’ health, both in the short- and the long-term, but also to economies and society, with healthy young adults able to make greater contributions to the workforce, their families, and communities and society as a whole,” it says.
The WHO also adds that specific focus and investment should be given to programmes that work to “raise awareness among adolescents and young adults of ways to look after their mental health and to help peers, parents, and teachers know how to support their friends, children, and students.”
This article originally appeared on Global Citizen. You can find the original story here.
Categories: Advocacy, Health and Wellbeing, Men & Womens Health, Mental Illness
Being Bullied Thru Junior High
For Kids With Anxiety, Parents Learn To Let Them Face Their Fears
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لماذا غزة؟ Why Gaza?
One Country – A Bold Proposal To End The Israeli-Palestinian Impasse
By Ali Abunimah (2006)
“Crazy!” my Jewish friends and family might say, but this small book (a quick read in two nights) spells out a very strong argument for ending the status quo in Israel-Palestine which few think is good for anyone.
This might have been “bold” in 2006 but the one-state idea has received much more attention in recent years.
The status quo isn’t working for anyone.
Israeli Jews live in constant fear of the “other” and discomfort that the realities of the occupation don’t match up with their religious ideals of justice, fairness and טוֹב.
Palestinians live under the daily grind and humiliation of the occupation, the unrelenting violence and death, the brutal treatment at the hands of the “other”.
The exalted two-state plan has been the ostensible goal of the international community and U.S. Administrations for decades. Presumably, Donald Trump’s “deal of the century” envisions two states. But that idea is dead and it’s time for a formal burial.
For most observers familiar with the “facts on the ground” and the rapid settlement expansion on Palestinian territory in recent years, the notion of two states existing side-by-side evaporated 10-15 years ago. But then what?
Ali Abunimah (a Palestinian-American) proposes urgent action on two fronts: dialogue and resistance. “One is in the realm of dialogue, imagination, and construction of an inclusive vision,” Abunimah says. “At the same time, there is a pressing need for resistance to the outcome Israel is trying to impose on the Palestinians, one that can only lead to greater bloodshed and suffering on all sides. These appear to be contradictory mandates, but they mist go hand in hand.”
Chapter One, An Impossible Partition, is a good history lesson for anyone who needs a refresher. I would add, ten years after the book was written, that Special Rapporteur S. Michael Lynk has recently called for the international community to recognize the prolonged occupation of the Palestinian territories as unlawful under international law, a fairly new development which adds more fuel to Abunimah’s call for dialogue about alternatives.
Chapter Two, “The State of Israel is Coming to an End” focuses on the demographic realities which pose an insurmountable hurdle for Israel to remain as a democratic Jewish state.
In 2004, Professor Arnon Soffer, chair of geostrategic studies at the University of Haifa, predicted that by 2020 there would be 6.3 million Jews and 8.8 million Palestinians due to the high Palestinian birth rate. Sergio Della Pergola, a demographer at the Hebrew University, noted that even using the lowest possible credible estimates for the Palestinian population in the occupied territories, the trends are “incontestable” : Within a few years Palestinians will form a clear majority.
Israeli planners and government officials have been engaged in all sorts of contortions to redraw the lines of Jerusalem proper to grab as much land with as few Arabs as possible to address this demographic challenge.
Chapter Three, It Could Happen Here is a chilling warning. Many might turn away and prefer not to look, just as many Germans did in the 1930s. Israeli Professor Zeev Sternhell, a world specialist on fascism, who headed the Dept. of Political Science at Hebrew University, puts it best in his op-ed in Haaretz on January 19, 2018. “In Israel, Growing Fascism and a Racism Akin to Early Nazism“. In the very same issue, Jeff Halper, an Israeli-American Jew, shares his opinion. “The ‘Two-state Solution’ Only Ever Meant a Big Israel Ruling Over a Palestinian Bantustan. Let It Go.”
Chapter Four, A United, Democratic State in Palestine-Israel sketches out with broad strokes what a One State might look like, reminding the reader that this isn’t the first time in world history where different ethnic and religious communities came together as one. In fact, the idea isn’t even a new one for the Zionists and Palestinians. And Belgium offers some lessons.
Chapter Five, Learning from South Africa provides some comparisons between Israel-Palestine and apartheid South Africa. Israelis today will bristle at the mention of the two in the same breadth, but there’s no denying the similarities. Although South Africa still has a long way to go, they have already come far in dismantling the apartheid regime that priviledged the white Afrikaners and treated the black Africans as subhuman. What did it take for the Afrikaners to give up power? What will it take to get the Zionists to give up their power? Abunimah says the whites were able to dismount without being devoured because the ANC was ready with a vision that allowed them to do so. The Palestinians must begin providing a vision of one country with equal rights for all — Jews and Palestinians.
Living in what amounts to a self-contained moral universe in which the victors are the permanent victims and the “others” are invisible except as a threat allows Israel — as with apartheid South Africa — to justify to itself almost any measure.
Chapter Six, Israelis and Palestinians Thinking the Unthinkable
Meron Benvenisti, an Israeli geographer and former deputy mayor of Jerusalem, predicted more than twenty years ago that eventually Israel would be faced with the choice between extremist solutions to maintain its exclusivist “Jewish character” or binationalism.
Palestinians do not have the political or material strength to stop the settlements and walls that have rendered a two-state solution unworkable. But Israel’s might is useless in a struggle that is not about winning territory but securing democratic rights for all.
The PLO and its older leadership never appreciated the need to build international support; they were/are more concerned about statecraft and setting up embassies in foreign countries, and gaining recognition in the halls of power. But the younger Palestinians, both in Palestine and the diaspora, aren’t waiting. They are eagerly building the international connections and solidarity with people around the globe. That might explain why the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement is spreading so rapidly, and why Israel is responding so harshly to BDS supporters.
Ali Abunimah’s book might have been ahead of its time, but it’s very important reading right now, today. I highly recommend it.
UN Special Rapporteur urges Israel be held accountable
Lights 4 Liberty – We Are One
My First Ramadan
Fasting to end sanctions that kill children
My Coddiwomple
Map of Gaza
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Al-Haq: Defending Human Rights in Palestine Since 1979
Architects and Planners for Justice in Palestine
Bright Stars of Bethlehem
Climate Ark
Creativity for Peace
Friends of Sabeel — North America
Gaza Report – Harry Fear's Blog
GISHA
Palestine Chronicle
Palestine Square
Palestinian Center for Human Rights
Peace Action Blog
The Electronic Intifada
We Are Not Numbers
لماذا غزة؟ Why Gaza? · An American searching for answers in the Middle East
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GOP Candidates Debate On CBS This Saturday
Filed Under:Campaign 2012, CBSNews, Debate, National Journal, Politcs, Scott Pelley, South Carolina
NEW YORK (CBS) — CBS4 will present the Campaign 2012 season’s first network broadcast of a Republican Presidential Primary debate on Saturday, Nov. 12, beginning at 8 p.m. The event will also be webcast from CBSMiami.com with an additional 30 minutes online for post-debate political analysis.
Saturday will be the first time Texas Gov. Rick Perry appears on stage with his fellow GOP presidential rivals following Wednesday’s Republican debate in which Perry couldn’t remember the third federal agency he had pledged to eliminate. Although he was at the top of the polls when he entered the race in August, Perry’s standing dropped after a series of poor debate performances in September.
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CBS News’ Scott Pelley and the National Journal’s Major Garrett will moderate the evening’s discussion, which will focus primarily on national security questions. Wofford College in Spartanburg, S.C., will host the event held in conjunction with the South Carolina State Republican Party.
“Scott Pelley and all of us at CBS News look forward to a spirited discussion of the issues with all of the Republican candidates in Spartanburg,” said David Rhodes, president of CBS News.
“This debate will examine the critical questions of America’s role in the world, now and in the future,” said National Journal editor-in-chief Ron Fournier.
During previous Republican debates, the main eight GOP candidates have sought to define themselves against each other and President Barack Obama. The CBS News/National Journal debate will reveal the candidates views on wide-ranging foreign affairs topics, such as the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, the changes throughout the Middle East, Africa, and Asia, and the global war on terror.
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You are here: Home / News / Local: 10th Year for Stockport Homes Group in Sunday Times Top 100
Local: 10th Year for Stockport Homes Group in Sunday Times Top 100
Stockport Homes Group has received a triple accolade and its highest ever listing – ranked as the Third Best Not for Profit organisation to work for in the Sunday Times Top 100 list for 2019.
An incredible climb up the list from 40th Place in 2018, Stockport Homes Group also received an award for ‘Best Improved’, along with a special recognition award for being on the list for the tenth consecutive year.
The placing is determined by an anonymous survey of all staff at participating organisations throughout the country. It takes into account factors such as good management, social principles, and staff wellbeing.
Chief Executive at Stockport Homes, Helen McHale, said,
“We are thrilled to have achieved our highest place ever – and be named as the third best place to work in the Not-For-Profit sector. It is a recognition of our dedicated team and I thank all the staff that made this possible. It’s a magnificent achievement to move up 37 places in a year, be recognised as the best improver and be given a special ten year award celebrating our continuous decade of being a top place to work .It is this approach that allows us to continue to deliver excellent services and transform lives.”
Chair of Stockport Homes’ Board, Robin Burman, added:
“What a fantastic start to the year – The team across Stockport Homes Group work incredibly hard to deliver excellent services to the customers and communities that we work in – and thoroughly deserve this recognition. Ten Years in such a prestigious list is real recognition that we have a great culture and are an employer of choice.”
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China is creating its own Wikipedia, but it's not open to the public for editing
By Yi Shu Ng 2017-05-02 09:29:03 UTC
China is planning an ambitious online resource to rival Wikipedia. The inaugural digital version of the Chinese Encyclopaedia will, in effect, be the country's first online book of "everything."
But free speech activists say that the new digital compendium is bound to distort or omit certain topics for political purposes.
SEE ALSO: Why did Turkey just block Wikipedia?
The digital project is the third edition of the Chinese Encyclopaedia, and will enlist 20,000 scholars from tertiary institutions to write, reports the South China Morning Post.
It's expected to be the same size as the Chinese-language version of Wikipedia, and twice as long as the Encyclopaedia Britannica, with more than 30,000 entries, each roughly 1,000 words long. The encyclopaedia will go online in 2018.
But unlike Wikipedia, which is open to the masses to write, the Chinese Encyclopaedia is only to be written by the appointed scholars.
This is problematic, say critics.
"Wikipedia welcomes all users to challenge and edit the information of each entry," Patrick Poon, China researcher at Amnesty International, told Mashable.
That only selected scholars can edit entries raises questions of credibility, he said.
"Building this relatively closed encyclopaedia, in addition to the Great Firewall, further [deprives] Chinese people of the freedom of access to information," he said.
"Creating a parallel digital world."
Wikipedia is generally accessible through China's firewall, which blocks sites that the government has deemed objectionable. But articles related to politically-charged issues like the Dalai Lama or its president, Xi Jinping, are blocked.
"It’s an example of China’s attempts to depict its own version of history of events, in particular those [that] happened in contemporary China," Poon, who's based in Hong Kong, said.
The country has a long history of manipulating information to guide public opinion in its favor, echoed Maya Wang, a Hong-Kong based China researcher with Human Rights Watch.
"[Making an online encyclopaedia] is consistent with the Chinese government’s practice of creating a parallel digital world in which censored information and platforms are allowed to thrive while their free counterparts are banned," said Wang.
"It's complex."
Scholars working on the new resource defended its place as a tool.
The Chinese Encyclopaedia is a "Great Wall of culture", said Yang Muzhi, its editor-in-chief, at a meeting for senior scientists in the Chinese Academy of Sciences in April.
"It's a tool for the general reader to learn every day, and it's deeply influential," Yang added.
"The circumstances we're in dictate that China must write its own encyclopaedia, and to come from behind, to overtake others, we need to understand the complexities of compiling our own encyclopaedia."
Other scholars on the editorial team want the focus to be on the needs of the 21st century.
"I think [the encyclopaedia] needs to have a framework that emphasises globalisation, democracy, and diversity," U.S.-based historian Huang Annian, who has been invited to work on the encyclopaedia, wrote.
"We should have a spirit of respecting history and facing the future."
WATCH: Trump thought being president would be easier than being a reality star businessman
Topics: censorship, china, freedom of information, Media, wikipedia, World
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Home / News / Need to Hear / It’s Bangindo – Terry Millla featuring Flossy Mae
It’s Bangindo – Terry Millla featuring Flossy Mae
Stephen Vicino November 3, 2018 Need to Hear, News, Uncategorized Leave a comment
“It’s Bangindo” – Fly hip hop/rap piano track with a smooth female vocal hook. The song is about the music being dope even if it’s not on the radio. 1st single from the new album, “A Prince In Peasant’s Clothes” by Terry MILLA.
Terry Milla aka Milla-Terry (formerly Mr.E / Longshott) is a veteran Atlanta hip-hop recording artist with a sound that is both new and classic. Being one of Atlanta’s original grassroots lyricists gave him a unique perspective of its music scene. It is a music business and he understands that but he views his music and talents as a true expression of creativity which is his gift to the world. Being able to create great music that is still commercially marketable is a sign of a true artist. Terry Milla is such an artist. He can go from socially conscious songs like “Yung Gunz” to a hood anthem like “No Other Way”. His sound has a wide range and he has the ability and freedom to adapt to any topic. Terry Milla has been featured in Source Magazine (Unsigned Hype / Independent’s Day), Black Beat Magazine, & Trace Magazine, has toured with the AND-1 basketball team, has written jingles for HBO, FUBU, and the Star & Buckwild Morning Show (formerly on HOT 97.5 New York), and has written songs that were placed on TrueBlood (HBO), Sleeping Dogs (PlayStation/XBox), The Gardener (Movie), and Switched at Birth (TV). He has travelled across the United States and internationally to perform live and showcase his talents for large audiences. After a stint with Noontime Music and several subsequent offers, he decided to start his own entertainment company, MOB GENERAL MUZIK, to release his own music and create his own destiny. Terry Milla states: “We live in a different world now. With the internet and sites like YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, and Itunes, the fans have direct access to the artists. It’s a global market that we can run locally. Even the major record labels have to integrate technology and internet marketing into their business model to survive”.
https://www.facebook.com/terrymillamusic
https://twitter.com/terrymillaterry
https://www.pushpowerpromo.com/terrymilla
http://www.terrymilla.com/
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Dekalog with Fien Desmet + Amazumi Listening is Easy, Hearing is Hard
Miya Folick shares music video for “Malibu Barbie”
Rising pop star Miya Folick premiered her Ariel Fisher-directed video for “Malibu Barbie” yesterday. Since …
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Nelson, H. Viscount
Dr. H. Viscount Nelson is Professor in the Afro-American Studies Department and also is Director of Student Activities at UCLA. He earned his Ph.D. from the University of Pennsylvania. In addition to numerous articles, his publications include America: Changing Times: A Brief History (John Wiley & Sons, 1980), and The Rise and Fall of Modern Black Leadership: Chronicle of a Twentieth-Century Tragedy (University Press of America, 2003).
Black Leadership's Response to the Great Depression in Philadelphia
This book analyzes the role black leaders in Philadelphia played in addressing problems caused by the Great Depression. The historical significance of Philadelphia as a refuge from slavery, the unique relationship between blacks and whites, and the creativity and penchant for leadership displayed by Philadelphians, made the “Quaker City” an excellent backdrop for study. Since colonial times, black Philadelphians established the standards and norms of leadership emulated by African Americans of prominence. While Philadelphia serves as the primary locale of the study, the roles played by African American leaders residing in cities throughout the United States also received attention. Chapters on the economic crisis as it related to housing, politics, education, the local NAACP, and black institutional life offer insight in to the problems and problem-solving expertise of sable spokespersons in Philadelphia. Class versus racial issues provided an ancillary theme of the book. Black leaders had to decide whether the dedication toward racial amelioration exceeded concerns harbored by the black bourgeoisie. Indeed, the motives of contemporary black spokespersons may be gleaned from the actions and decisions made by Philadelphia’s black leadership during the depression era. This work should appeal to high school and college students and anyone interested in history, sociology, and psychology.
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Mosser, Jason
Dr. Mosser is an Associate Professor at George Gwinnett College. He received his Ph.D. in English from the University of Georgia.
The Participatory Journalism of Michael Herr, Norman Mailer, Hunter S. Thompson, and Joan Didion: Creating New Reporting Styles
Among New Journalists of the 1960s-1970s, Michael Herr, Norman Mailer, Hunter S. Thompson, and Joan Didion approached their subjects by placing themselves in the center of their narratives as protagonists and by openly acknowledging their subjective impressions of the events they reported. Unlike journalists who adopted the conventions of detachment and objectivity, these New Journalists employed their subjective, literary styles to construct their narrative personae and to dramatize not only the events like the Vietnam War and the 1972 presidential campaign but their direct participation in the stories they told.
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5 April 2007 16:00pm
By ISAF
ISAF Launches Environment Code
Sailing enjoys a reputation of one of the most environmentally friendly sports going, and ISAF is aiming to maintain and further enhance the sport's image with the release of the ISAF Code of Environmentally Friendly Behaviour.
With regattas and racing regularly taking place in some of the most spectacular locations around the world, and the sport's unique link to the natural power of the wind, it is no surprise that sailors know the value of protecting the world's seas, lakes and waterways.
By launching the Code of Environmentally Friendly Behaviour, ISAF is aiming to showcase a few simple steps to sailors everywhere which will help preserve the natural venues that play host to our sport around the world.
Click here for the ISAF Code of Environmentally Friendly Behaviour.
Guidelines For The Future
Jane MOON, Project Chair overseeing the work of the Environment Group, said, 'Sailing is essentially an environmentally friendly sport using the natural resources of wind and water. I have been pleased to work together with Michael STOLDT and Marta WEORES to develop a set of guidelines to sailors which will further enhance our environmentally friendly sporting activities and encourage all sailors whether, racers, cruisers or leisure sailors to follow these guidelines and help to preserve our seas, lakes, and waterways.'
The launch of the ISAF Code of Environmentally Friendly Behaviour follows on from Objective 9 of the ISAF Strategic Plan. In its basic form, the Code covers a few key areas where sailors can minimize their impact on the environment.
Over the past few years, some of ISAF's major events have already demonstrated their awareness of environmental issues. The 2006 ISAF World Sailing Games in the UNESCO World Cultural Heritage Site of Lake Neusiedl ran under the title of 'sport in harmony with environment and nature'. The organizers of the 2006 Volvo Youth Sailing ISAF World Championship also showed their commitment to the environment by linking up with the The Green Blue initiative.
Environment Microsite
ISAF is also launching the ISAF Environment microsite at www.sailing.org/environment, where you will be able to find the Code, links to successful environmental sailing initiatives around the world and all the latest news on sailing and the environment.
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Home / World / The doctor suspended by negligence wins the case and forces Google to delete it from the network
The doctor suspended by negligence wins the case and forces Google to delete it from the network
A Dutch surgeon, who was suspended for medical malpractice, won a lawsuit against Google after asking the company to eliminate all search engine results related to the case.
The doctor was suspended by a group of experts following negligent practices related to postoperative care of one of his patients. After traveling, the woman saw the suspension of the sentence and was once again allowed to practice medicine.
However, every time a user wrote the name of the surgeon on Google, they were directed to a site, a sort of blacklist, with names of doctors who had been suspended.
The woman has resorted to Google and the Dutch court for the removal of links. The two entities rejected the request, claiming that the woman was still suspended and that the information remained relevant.
However, according to the newspaper "The Guardian", in what is considered the first case of "the right to oblivion" to involve medical negligence, the Amsterdam court ruled in favor of the doctor and against Google.
According to the court, and despite the information available on the sites are true, the fact that the doctor's name appears on the blacklist "suggests that he is not able to take care of people".
The case was closed in July, but it was made public only in recent days after a discussion about the opportunity or not to publish the process.
The European Court of Justice issued the "right to oblivion" in 2014 after a Spanish citizen asked Google to delete data from his search engine.
This standard allows European citizens to remove links that direct users to "inappropriate, irrelevant or … excessive" content. According to "The Guardian", around three million Europeans have already applied.
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Posted on Jul. 15, 2016, 5:00 am by SOG Staff • 0 comment
Late last week five Dallas police officers were shot and killed in an ambush attack while working at a protest against the officer-involved shootings in Louisiana and Minnesota that the News Roundup reported last week. In addition to the officers who were killed, nine other officers and two civilians were injured. The Dallas Morning News has comprehensive coverage of the attack here. It has been reported that the gunman, Micah Xavier Johnson, “was upset about the recent police shootings” and said that “he wanted to kill white people.” Johnson had served in the military and carried out the ambush from an elevated position using an assault rifle; he was killed by police using a bomb robot after a standoff. The incident reportedly is the deadliest attack on U.S. law enforcement since September 11 and is a reminder of the danger officers across the country face while they work to keep communities safe. Keep reading for more news.
Bomb Robot. As mentioned, Johnson was killed by police using a bomb robot as a delivery vehicle for C-4 explosive. This is an unconventional tactic, with Popular Science reporting that it was the first time that a robot has ever killed a person with a bomb while under police command in the United States. Law Professor Eugene Volokh weighs in on the legality of the tactic here.
Open Carry. A number of marchers attending the Dallas protest were themselves carrying “military-style rifles” according to this report from the New York Times. As it is in North Carolina, it is legal to open carry a rifle in public in Texas. The Times report says that there is disagreement between Dallas Police Chief David O. Brown and open carry activist C. J. Grisham about whether the presence of protestors armed with rifles caused confusion when the attack started.
Gaston County DA Won’t Pursue Death Penalty. The Gaston Gazette reports that Gaston County District Attorney Locke Bell says that his office will no longer seek the death penalty in eligible cases. Bell says that, though he supports capital punishment, prosecuting death penalty cases is too time consuming and expensive since, in his view, the state Supreme Court is not going to allow executions to be carried out.
Earlier this year, former North Carolina Supreme Court Chief Justice I. Beverly Lake wrote that after decades of experience in the criminal justice system he had concluded that the death penalty probably cannot be implemented constitutionally under the Eighth Amendment.
Court of Appeals Seat. As the North Carolina Lawyers Weekly reports, the candidate filing period for the open seat on the Court of Appeals began Monday at the State Board of Elections and is open until noon today. Every candidate who files will appear on the November ballot.
Fox Back on Bench. WRAL reports that Superior Court Judge Carl Fox is back on the bench after receiving a life-saving blood marrow transplant. Fox was diagnosed last year with myelodysplastic syndrome and was given three months to live.
Prosecutor Resigns. WRAL also reports that Wake County Assistant District Attorney Colleen Janssen resigned Friday. As the News Roundup previously noted, Janssen had been on paid leave following an appellate court ruling that she violated two defendants’ rights by withholding evidence and failing to correct false testimony in jointly tried robbery and assault cases.
RTI to Investigate HB2 Premise. RTI International has announced that it “will self-fund research to better understand LGBTQ communities and violence in the United States.” The announcement says that researchers are skeptical of the premise motivating HB2 that “allowing transgender people to use the restroom of the gender with which they identify opens a gateway for victimization of women and children.”
Pokémon Safety. Everybody’s playing Pokémon Go, but it’s only fun if you stay safe while you try to catch them all. Luckily, people around the country have provided terrific examples of what not to do: Don’t try to snag a Charizard while you’re driving; Don’t be lured into an armed robbery in pursuit of a Squirtle; Don’t have your phone stolen while you’re snaring a Wigglytuff. Common sense precautions will keep you in the game and out of harm’s way.
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Luke reflects on his first six months at Sintons
A lawyer who relocated to the North East to join Sintons has reflected on his first half-year in his new role.
Luke Philpott moved from a leading firm in Manchester to take up a role in Sintons’ corporate and commercial team, having been impressed with its future plans and growth strategy.
Luke, a corporate solicitor, joined Newcastle-based Sintons in January and since then has played an important role in the department’s ongoing development. As well as acting in a number of significant deals – in areas including hospitality, manufacturing and student property joint ventures – Luke has taken an active role in continuing to build the firm’s profile in the wider Newcastle business community.
He has significant experience in a number of specialist areas, including tech, and has acted for 8 of the top 100 tech companies listed in the 2018 Northern Tech 100 League Table published by Tech Nation.
The Manchester United fan – who sacrificed his season ticket to make the move to Sintons – said he has been impressed with his new firm and the quality of its offering.
He said: “Sintons is a very well-respected name in the North East and the corporate team here is really first-rate. I was very impressed by the strength, depth and level of knowledge of the team, which between them have more than 220 years of experience. I asked to meet the team before I accepted the job and instantly I knew it was a team I wanted to be part of.
“With the team here, what you see is what you get; there is no smoke and mirrors. They’re a really great group of people, fantastic to work with, who are also very talented lawyers who go out of their way for their clients. The service we offer at Sintons is genuinely unrivalled and totally client-focused.
“It has been fantastic to get out into the North East business community; prior to joining Sintons I had no network here at all, so it’s been a case of building it from scratch, but it has been great. There is some amazing work being done in the region and it’s good to be out there finding out more about it. The strength and quality of the firm’s network and presence in the region has been a springboard for me being able to meet with the North East business community, in which Sintons is held in such high regard.”
Karen Simms, head of corporate and commercial at Sintons, said: “We were delighted when Luke decided to join our team and have been thoroughly impressed with how he has made his mark over the past six months. He is a great fit within our team and shares our desires and vision for the firm. Our team enjoys a national reputation for the excellence we provide – both in terms of legal capability and personal client service – and Luke’s efforts and legal capability serve to strengthen us further.”
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Will Growers’ Demand for Wage Cuts Get Help From U.S. Government?
A national growers’ lobby has sued the U.S. Department of Labor to freeze the wages of H-2A workers at a level barely above minimum wage.
January 27, 2019 David Bacon Capital and Main / co-published by American Prospect
Central Valley farm workers organize in McFarland. , David Bacon
California growers have complained of a tight labor market for years. And President Trump’s dispatch of military units to the border, along with a decade of deportations, have tightened that market even more by restricting the flow of migrants into the fields. This recipe for confrontation has produced an escalating legal battle in Washington, D.C., and a walkout by hundreds of tangerine pickers in the Central Valley.
Growers have increasingly turned to H-2A visas for guest workers as a remedy, with the decade ending in 2018 seeing a more than 370 percent increase, with no decline in sight. Although some growers have signed union contracts and provided better wages and benefits in order to attract a stable workforce, others are not happy with the federally mandated pay rates for guest workers — and are actively seeking to hold wages down.
The National Council of Agricultural Employers, a growers’ lobby, filed suit this month against the U.S. Department of Labor to freeze the wages of H-2A workers at a level barely above the minimum wage. Growers recruit guest workers every year from other countries, mainly Mexico. They’re given visas for less than a year, requiring them to work for the employer who contracts them. They must leave the country when their work is done. Growers have to advertise for local workers first, and can only bring in guest workers if no local workers are available.
Companies using the H-2A program must apply to the Labor Department, specifying the work, the living conditions and wages workers will receive. Each year the federal government sets the wage that growers must pay H-2A workers on a state-by-state basis. This wage, called the Adverse Effect Wage Rate, is set at a level that supposedly won’t undermine the wages of local workers, but it’s usually just slightly above the minimum wage. In 2019 the wage in California, for example, is set to increase from $13.18 per hour to $13.92. California’s minimum wage, for employers with more than 25 workers, will go to $12.00.
On January 8, the day before the new H-2A wages were to go into effect, the growers’ lobby was denied a temporary injunction to halt the increases. The organization then filed its suit to roll back guest worker wages to last year’s levels. Michael Marsh, president of the growers’ lobby, said the increases were “unsustainable” and would cost growers “hundreds of millions of dollars.” Agribusiness is being “hammered by unfair retaliatory tariffs,” he charged, in a dig directed against Trump’s trade war with China.
The wage increases directly affect a sizeable chunk of the farm labor workforce. The Department of Labor’s National Agricultural Workers Survey, the best analysis of farm worker demographics for over two decades, says there are about 2.5 million farm workers in the U.S., with about three-quarters of them born outside the U.S., and half undocumented. Last year growers were certified to bring in 242,762 H-2A workers – a tenth of the total workforce and a rapidly rising number. Holding down their wages would save growers a lot of money.Farmworker Justice, a Washington, D.C.-based advocacy coalition, says the average annual income for farm worker families is between $17,500 and $19,999. A quarter of all farm worker families earn below the federal poverty line of $19,790, the coalition says.
The United Farm Workers union and Farmworker Justice asked to intervene in the growers’ suit on the side of the Department of Labor, arguing to uphold the wage increases. “The growers’ suit will affect farm workers across the country,” said UFW President Teresa Romero. “If H-2A wages are frozen, fewer farm workers already living here will want to work for them. Growers will have an excuse to bring in more H-2A workers. It’s becoming more like the bracero program.”
While the suit would have a national impact, it is closely connected to California growers. President Tom Nassif of the California-based Western Growers Association belongs to President Trump’s agricultural advisory board, and prominent WGA member Dennis Nuxoll sits on the NCEA executive committee. NCEA President Michael Marsh was CEO of Western United Dairymen and an officer of the Almond Board of California, both headquartered in Modesto.
Growers have challenged the Labor Department’s formula used to calculate the yearly wage increase. Under President George W. Bush they knocked it out, but President Barack Obama reinstated it. Now the formula is being challenged again, under another grower-friendly administration. Last May 24 the secretaries of Agriculture, Homeland Security, State and Labor issued a statement promising to change the program rules “in a way that is responsive to stakeholder concerns and that deepens our confidence in the program as a source of legal and verified labor for agriculture.”
Farm worker advocates worry that the Trump administration’s Labor Department may not vigorously defend the wage increase against the growers’ legal challenge.
“We would intervene in the [growers’ lobby] suit no matter what,” said Bruce Goldstein, director of Farmworker Justice. “But we are clearly concerned about what position [the Labor Department] will take in defending against it in light of the President’s other anti-worker and anti-regulatory actions.”
The suit is one of a number of moves growers have made in the past two years to roll back H-2A wages and protections. At the behest of the Washington state Farm Labor Association, one of the largest H-2A labor contractors, the state and federal labor departments effectively slashed the AEWR wage for H-2A farm workers by up to $6 per hour. The two agencies agreed with the labor contractors to remove a piece-rate minimum for picking apples, the state’s largest harvest, effectively lowering the harvest wage by as much as a third.
The assault on farm worker wages has also surfaced in Congress as Republicans in the House and Senate introduced bills in the last two years to end protections for H-2A workers and expand their recruitment. Republicans representing California’s San Joaquin Valley in the House supported these bills, which failed, but two of those representatives were turned out of office in the midterm elections. What attitude their new Democratic replacements will take has yet to be seen. Some California Democrats, however, especially Senator Diane Feinstein, have a record of supporting growers’ use of the H-2A program.
Senator Feinstein and Democratic Representative Zoe Lofgren, however, have reintroduced a bill, the Agricultural Worker Program Act of 2019, which would allow undocumented farm workers to gain legal status by working a minimum number of days, pass security checks, and meet other requirements. “The bill would minimize the need for employers’ use of the H-2A guest worker program by providing a meaningful opportunity for immigration status for the hard-working undocumented farmworkers who put food on our table,” said a statement from Farmworker Justice.
Grower efforts to cut wages have affected workers who are not H-2A visa holders as well. Low wages for farm workers have already provoked a strike this year at one of California’s largest agribusiness corporations, the Wonderful Company. On January 11 an estimated 1,800 field hands refused to go to work harvesting tangerines in Kern County orchards, after the piece rate they were being paid was lowered from $53 to $48 per bin.
Striking pickers told reporters that a fast worker could harvest two bins a day. Assuming an eught-hour day, they would earn about $12 per hour. Some workers told UFW organizers that they often made less than the $12 per hour legal minimum, a violation of state law.
“They’re also told to report to work at a given time, but the work sometimes doesn’t start for a few hours, and they’re not paid for waiting,” said UFW President Teresa Romero. “They tried to talk with the company, but the company refused to talk with them. We don’t know yet if the management will come to the table. The workers want to work, but they also want to be respected.”
Wonderful spokesman Mark T. Carmel said in a statement the company was “disappointed that some of our third-party labor contractors decided to protest at one of our fields.” A month ago, however, the company said it was raising its wages to a $15 per hour minimum in all its subsidiaries.
Wonderful’s billionaire owner, Los Angeles investor Stewart Resnick, called his workers “dedicated and hard-working employees . . . our greatest asset, and the reason for our tremendous success as a company.” Co-owner Lynda Resnick, his wife, added, “This substantial investment in our workers will have an immediate and meaningful impact on their lives.”
The Wonderful Company was known as Paramount Farms until it changed its name in 2015.
Its parent corporation, Los Angeles-based Roll Global, also operates the Fiji Water and Teleflora companies. In a 2016 Mother Jones article, writer Josh Harkinson said the Resnicks “are now thought to consume more of the state’s water than any other family, farm, or company. They control more of it in some years than what’s used by the residents of Los Angeles and the entire San Francisco Bay Area combined.”
Paramount Farms had a long history of labor conflict. In 1999 it broke an effort by a thousand workers to join the Laborers Union in its huge packing plant near Lost Hills on the west side of the San Joaquin Valley. At the time the company issued a press release saying that “employees are doing well and do not need a union,” and that its pay and benefits “are superior to most employers in the area.” In 2002, however, the National Labor Relations Board ruled that it had illegally threatened workers with firing, and had illegally fired two workers, Margarita Aviso and Leticia Ortiz, for supporting the union.
Romero said that workers, meeting at the UFW’s historic “40 Acres” headquarters in Delano, on January 14 discussed the possibility of organizing a union, filing a petition for an election at Wonderful, and bargaining a contract. During the day the company offered to reinstate the $53 per bin wage, and the pickers decided to go back into the orchards Tuesday morning. A statement by Wonderful’s Mark Carmel said, “We’ve resolved the main concern raised by our third-party labor contractors and are currently paying the same bin rate for picking mandarins that we previously paid for clementines. Our workers are back on the job and operations have returned to normal.”
UFW secretary-treasurer Armando Elenes felt workers had taken a big step. “They came out of the strike with real leaders and a good organization,” he said. The strikers are mostly indigenous Mixteco migrants from Oaxaca. Two years ago workers from the same indigenous farm worker community struck the Gourmet Trading Company’s grape vineyards, also over a cut in wages. They then voted for the UFW in a union election, and the company agreed to a union contract covering over 500 employees.
“Our main focus nowadays is trying to talk with the company to avoid conflict,” Romero explained. “But some growers take longer to understand than others that this is a better way. Stewart Resnick is a powerful man. But is he willing to get beyond this and recognize what workers want?”
David Bacon is a journalist and photographer covering labor, immigration and the impact of the global economy on workers.
Capital & Main publishes fact-based reporting, not opinion, on the big issues shaping California and the country. No other publication is committed to telling the most important economic, social and environmental stories coming out of California and the West to a broad, diverse audience. We expose threats to the public interest and advance solutions-based journalism in one of the world’s most influential centers of commerce, culture and technology.
· Winner of 2018 Best in the West award for business/financial reporting
· Winner of 12 prizes from the 2018 Southern California Journalism Awards
· Winner of the 2016 Online Journalist of the Year prize from the Southern California Journalism Awards
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Peter Liang in China
Brian Hioe 03/01/2016 America and the Asia PacificEnglishInternationalMarch 2016
AS NOTED in a recent LA Times article, probably one of the stranger afterlives of the Peter Liang case would be the case having taken on a life of its own in China. For one, Chinese social media platform Wechat was used, in part, to coordinate pro-Liang protests in America from China itself. Obviously, the partial coordination of protests in one country from another country is quite unusual, and probably a testament to the influence of social media in the Internet age. This occurred via an Wechat account titled “Civilrights”.
Pro-Liang protests took place across the United States on February 20th. Photo credit: Craig Ruttle/AP
But it also is that Chinese state media has jumped onto the issue, with sympathetic articles about pro-Liang protests taking place in the People’s Daily, Xinhua News, and the Global Times, particularly the latter two. Chinese state media has quite unanimously used the Peter Liang case to make a point about discrimination against Chinese in America and taken the line that Liang is a scapegoat and that he should be let off, because white officers who have committed the same crimes had been let off in the past.
This would largely be the line taken by pro-Liang demonstrators in the US. In some cases, it appears information in Chinese state media was sourced from the “Civilrights” Wechat, with artificially inflated numbers for pro-Liang demonstrations. The “Civilrights” Wechat account claimed that there were 50,000 demonstrators in New York City, for example, when the actual amount was closer to 10,000. Xinhua would follow in claiming 50,000 demonstrators in New York. Chinese state media has also consistently cited the same cases of white officers let off for similar incidents that have been commonly cited as examples by pro-Liang demonstrators.
The Depiction of the Liang Case in Chinese State Media
WHY WOULD Chinese state media take a pro-Liang line, then? The answer probably lay in a desire to take the US down a peg, given the geopolitical tension which exists between the US and China as competing world superpowers. China quite often likes to claim that the US is rife with internal problems which it should take care of first before it arrogantly tries to criticize countries such as China.
Racial issues in the US is a popular target of China with the claim, for example, that the US should not criticize China’s treatment of ethnic minorities in outer China if it has racial tensions that boil over in Ferguson, Missouri and other locations. Interestingly, we may note that Chinese state media seems to have more sympathetic to Black Lives Matter movement before the Peter Liang case led to the involvement of ethnic Chinese, however. The consideration behind the switch in support may be considerations of whether siding Chinese or with blacks would be more eroding of American credibility.
Photo credit: The Guardian
Of course, such comparisons are really just China’s attempts to deflect attentions from ethnic policies that border on apartheid or arguably might even be understood as a mild form of ethnic cleansing. If there is, in fact, problems of systemic police violence against blacks in America, this is entirely different from China, in which police violence is not only used to put down ethnic minorities, but ethnic minorities are not permitted to travel in the country and the Chinese state offers money for intermarriage between Han and ethnic minority individuals in attempt to breed ethnic minorities out of existence through Han assimilation.
At the same time, though China tries to take the US down a peg in order to deflect attention from its own action, China sometimes will actually sometimes cite the US as an example of why its actions are justified. In such cases, rather than suggest the hypocrisy of the US in criticizing China for something it also is guilty of, the claim is that if the US does something, China should be allowed to do it as well.
Sometimes this is in regards to policing or military actions, claiming that if police in the US carry out certain actions, Chinese police should not be criticized for doing the same. China claims that its attempt to put down dissidence in outer Chinese regions is no different from the American War on Terror, for example.
A “Liberal” Undercurrent to Pro-Liang Protests?
WE MIGHT ALSO situate responses to the Peter Liang case in China in relation to the political tendencies that exist internally in China. Many have characterized post-Deng politics in China, particularly in the political atmosphere after Tiananmen Square in the 1990s, as the struggle between the “New Left” and “Liberals.” The “Liberals”, though perhaps closer to what are termed neoconservatives in other parts of the world, call for China to open itself to further free market reforms and suggest that China should imitate American-style democracy and civil life, though leaning much more towards American conservatism in this. On the other hand, the “New Left”, containing strands of sympathy or nostalgia for Maoism, argues against the abandonment of socialist principles and attempts to update Maoism through the incorporation of poststructuralist and postcolonial theory, though still problematic on the basis of its Chinese nationalism and its apologia for Chinese imperialism under anti-capitalist auspices.
An earlier pro-Liang protest which took place in April of last year. Photo credit: Enbion Micah Aan
The political discourse of Peter Liang supporters is remarkably similar to that of the Liberals in China. Though channeling an undercurrent of Chinese nationalism, pro-Liang protests have hewed to American civil discourse in claiming to be a movement in the vein of the American civil rights movement. Pro-Liang protests have also claimed a faith in the American political system highly reminiscent of the Chinese Liberals’ adulation of the American political model. Indeed, the Liberals (although this is also true of the Chinese New Left) have generally studied abroad in or otherwise had contact America before, which fits what is known about some of some of the China-based organizers of pro-Liang protests who are based out of China.
The Ghost of Past Maoist Solidarity with the Black Liberation Movement
BUT THE IRONY of Chinese state media championing pro-Liang protests is that it is actually the New Left who are in power currently under Chinese president Xi Jinping. Under Xi Jinping’s rule, although it first looked as if Xi would side the Liberals during his purge of New Left idol Bo Xilai, Xi eventually swung towards policies called for by the New Left and by neo-Maoist strands, leading to the renewed wave of Chinese nationalism we see in the present.
Some New Left strains closer in touch with American Leftists have, in fact, criticized pro-Liang protests. Yet in the responses of Chinese state media, we see the ghost of Maoist calls for solidarity with the black liberation movement of 1960s and 1970s. China today likes to play up the history of Maoist solidarity with third world liberation movements to justify its economic overtures to Africa, even when this has been criticized within Africa as a form of neocolonialism or neo-imperialism. But in a case as the Peter Liang case, the Chinese states sides with Peter Liang on the basis of Chinese ethnic nationalism.
Chinese propaganda poster showing a group black men and women and one Chinese woman on the left venerating a picture of Mao. Photo credit: Chineseposters.net
The call for supporting Peter Liang because he is over Chinese descent overrides any consideration of systemic violence against blacks in the US or solidarity with other oppressed peoples. Obviously, only the deluded should view China as a socialist revolutionary state nowadays, although there are still some individuals who do so through a combination of ignorance or deliberately shutting one’s eyes.
THESE ARE JUST some of the unusual afterlives of the Peter Liang case in China. In truth, it may be premature to see these as “afterlives,” seeing Liang is expected to appeal, meaning the case is not over yet. But the appropriations and the discursive deployments of the case in China are illustrative about China’s relation to American politics as well as the internal political tendencies that exist within China.
Outside of China, there has also been some interest in the case from Hong Kong and Taiwan, maybe moreso the former than the latter. This may be because Liang was born in Hong Kong, but immigrated to the United States at an early age. Hong Kong-based Initium Media would create an interactive animated game about the trial, for example. The game makes some interesting stylistic choices by making Liang’s animated avatar interact with a black bailiff, rather than the Korean judge who oversaw the case though he also appears in the animation—meaning that the developers were aware of that fact that the judge on the Liang case was Korean. However, the game does not slant particularly to favor Liang and, perhaps surprisingly, the survey conducted at the end of the game indicates that the majority of players favor the conviction against Liang once they have played through the game.
Notably, though the Peter Liang case is one which concerns Asian-American groups in the United States, having prompted response from far more than Chinese-American groups, we do not see reverberations about the case from other Asian countries outside of China and Sinophone countries and territories.
An image from Initium Media’s interactive online game about the Peter Liang case. Photo credit: Initium Lab
Of East Asian countries, there has nothing comparable to the interest in the case we see from China in South Korea or Japan, for example, or even in Singapore, whose majority population is ethnically Han Chinese. Probably this is illustrative of how it has specifically been China which has been concerned with the Liang case, or suggests that Chinese nationalistic sentiments may have a key role in interest in the Liang case. But we will also see as to future reactions to subsequent case developments in China and elsewhere.
black liberation movementChinese nationalismChinese state mediaethno-nationalismfeaturedGlobal NewsMaoismPeople's DailyPeter Liangthird world solidarityXinhua News
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Map documents states with reforms against Mandatory Minimums. See See Mandatory Minimum Reform Efforts by State for detailed information. Source: Families Against Mandatory Minimums
“Mandatory Minimums” refer to sentences for particular crimes that judges cannot revise regardless of the culpability or circumstances of the offender.
The Sentencing Reform Act of 1984 abolished federal parole and the ability of federal judges to suspend sentences. It also established the “three strikes law,” which mandates a life sentence for anyone convicted of a serious felony who already carries two prior felonies, or at least one prior serious drug offense. Since 1984, Congress has increased mandatory minimum sentences specifically for drug offenses. A first-time charge of crack cocaine possession carries a typical mandatory minimum sentence of 5-10 years. As a result, the number of people in federal prisons for drug offenses has increased from over 4,500 in 1980 to nearly 100,000 in 2012. Non-violent drug offenders now constitute approximately half of those incarcerated in a federal prison.
Mandatory minimums do not only mean that Americans spend more time in prison for lower-level offenses. They also increase the number of individuals pleading guilty to crimes they did not commit in order to avoid the risk of substantial prison time. According to one prominent Florida defense attorney, “No matter how strongly defendants believe they are innocent, they could be taking dangerous risks by…turning down a one-year plea bargain when the prosecutor threatens additional charges that carry a mandatory sentence 10 times as long.” Mandatory minimums have given prosecutors power to gain a guilty plea before a defendant ever reaches court.
In addition to obtaining guilty pleas, prosecutors use mandatory minimums as leverage to turn defendants into informants. The use of informants has greatly increased since the beginning of the War on Drugs, with 30% of drug defendants receiving on-the-record sentencing credits for acting as informants. While such information is notoriously unreliable, it is a contributing factor for a majority of federal warrants. Based on informant “snitching,” new defendants are rounded up and given the opportunity to plea bargain. Thus, the prosecution and conviction cycle continues, with the vast majority of defendants never having their case tried.
A key component of the “tough on crime” approach to the War on Drugs, mandatory minimums have contributed to the subversion of the American justice system. The risk of lengthy imprisonment has eclipsed the pursuit of truth as the major determining factor in the conviction process.
There is momentum for reform. U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder has instructed federal prosecutors not to seek mandatory minimum sentences in some non-violent drug cases and announced the Obama administration’s support of sentencing reform.
Reform of mandatory minimums is also occurring at the state level. In 2009 the New York State Legislature repealed almost all mandatory minimum sentencing laws associated with the infamous Rockefeller Drug Laws, which created sentences of 15 years to life with no appeal for possession of 4 or more ounces of heroin or cocaine. In 2003, the Michigan legislature repealed almost all mandatory minimums. Rhode Island, Delaware, and Ohio have passed similar measures. The Illinois General Assembly has appointed a Joint Criminal Justice Reform Commission to consider sentencing reform.
Most recently, the bipartisan Sentencing Reform and Corrections Act recently passed the Senate Judicial Committee by a margin of 15-5. This bill would reduce mandatory minimums and expand discretion for federal judges. Judicial discretion would help diminish the existing power of prosecutors to determine sentences. Furthermore, this bill would retroactively apply the reduced sentences, offering new opportunity to those already incarcerated for drug offenses. For more information about this bill and how to take action, click here.
Questions about mandatory minimum sentences? Check out our War on Drugs FAQs or contact us!
Mandatory Minimums In the News
The New Reformer DAs
The American Prospect – January 2, 2018
How Maryland Came to Repeal Mandatory Minimums for Drug Offenders
FAMM – June 2, 2016
Mandatory minimum sentencing for drug offences unconstitutional say rights advocates
CBC News – January 13, 2016
The government is abusing mandatory minimums: How law enforcement is ruining a generation of Americans
Salon – December 3, 2015
95% of Prosecutors Are White and They Treat Blacks Worse
The Daily Beast – August 17, 2015
Opinion Laura Washington: A prison policy built on second chances
Chicago Sun Times – August 2, 2015
John Oliver just might make you passionately hate mandatory minimum sentences
The Week – July 27, 2015
Blog Posts on Mandatory Minimums
How Prosecutors Are Stuffing Our Prisons
Charged: A Damning Portrait of The Role Prosecutors Play in Mass Incarceration
Kristen’s Law: Life Sentences Won’t Save Lives
Moving Backward with Sessions
Petition: Sign to Support the Sentencing Reform and Corrections Act
The Sentencing Reform and Corrections Act (S. 2123) would significantly reduce harsh minimum mandatory sentences for drug offenses.
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CDC’s Dr. Pat Breysse to Deliver Keynote Address at Legionella Conference 2019
Legionella Conference hosted by NSF International and NEHA brings together international experts to explore the relationship between water conservation and microbiological hazards in building water systems
ANN ARBOR, Mich., July 09, 2019 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) --
Pat Breysse, Ph.D., Director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) National Center for Environmental Health and Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry, will deliver the keynote address at Legionella Conference 2019, to be held Sept. 11-13 in Los Angeles.
Dr. Breysse, who leads CDC’s efforts to investigate the relationship between environmental factors and health, will open the conference on Sept. 11. Hosted by NSF International and the National Environmental Health Association (NEHA), Legionella Conference 2019: Building Water Systems − The Sustainability & Public Health Nexus will explore complex water systems, cooling towers, proactive water quality monitoring and related public health topics.
“Dr. Breysse is a recognized national leader moving the nation toward a model for managing Legionella risks. His commitment to improved prevention and response strategies at CDC is critical to reversing the rising trend of Legionnaires’ disease,” says Kevan Lawlor, President and CEO of NSF International.
“Dr. Pat Breysse’s participation reflects the CDC’s high level of concern for legionellosis as a preventable illness. His leadership and his agency’s technical support are essential to the health of the nation,” says Dr. Dave Dyjack, Executive Director of NEHA.
Dr. Breysse will talk about Legionella and building water systems. The U.S. is now in a fight against infection, and he will highlight innovative strategies and projects that CDC and partners are working on to combat it.
“Legionnaires’ disease can be prevented with effective water management programs. Improving uptake of these programs will require multidisciplinary public health input at the federal, state and local levels. This conference brings together public health, industry and academic professionals to discuss prevention approaches,” says Dr. Breysse.
Dr. Breysse joined the CDC in 2014 as Director of the National Center for Environmental Health and the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry. In 2016, the CDC published a Legionella toolkit, Developing a Water Management Program to Reduce Legionella Growth & Spread in Buildings. Under Dr. Breysse’s leadership, the CDC has prioritized work on exposure to lead and safe drinking water, and initiated new actions to address exposure to hazardous chemicals, in particular per- and polyfluorinated substances (PFAS). He has also played a critical role in the CDC’s emergency preparedness and response to natural disasters and chemical exposures.
He previously conducted research for Johns Hopkins University, where his work focused on the evaluation and control of chemical, biological and physical factors that can affect health, with a concentration on risk and exposure assessment.
Dr. Breysse earned his Ph.D. in environmental health engineering from Johns Hopkins University in 1985 and completed postdoctoral training at the British Institute for Occupational Medicine in Edinburgh, Scotland. He is also a board certified Industrial Hygienist.
At the conference, international experts from government agencies, universities, hospitals and private laboratories in 11 countries will come together to explore the relationship between water conservation and microbial contamination prevention in building water systems.
In large, complex human-made water systems that are not adequately managed, Legionella bacteria can multiply to quantities large enough to cause Legionnaires’ disease, a serious and sometimes fatal pneumonia that has increased more than five-fold between 2000 and 2018, according to the CDC. To cause disease, Legionella must be aerosolized via some device—like a showerhead, a cooling tower (a structure with fans and water located outside of buildings that is part of the centralized air-cooling systems), a hot tub or a decorative fountain—and transmitted to a susceptible host. Interestingly, water conservation efforts can sometimes have the unintended consequence of amplifying Legionella bacterial growth, which is why finding the optimal conditions to minimize bacterial regrowth is key. Fortunately, effective water management programs in buildings at increased risk for Legionella growth and transmission can reduce the risk of Legionnaires’ disease.
Technical pre-conference workshops will focus on public health officials’ responses to Legionnaires’ disease outbreaks, case studies and new technology reviews.
The conference will be held at the Los Angeles Westin Bonaventure. Visit Legionella Conference 2019 for a full list of speakers, topics and other details.
Editor’s Note: For media interviews, please contact Thomas Frey, APR, at +1.734.214.6242 or media@nsf.org.
NSF International is celebrating 75 years of protecting and improving human health. The global public health organization facilitates standards development, and tests and certifies products for the food, water, health sciences and consumer goods industries to minimize adverse health effects and protect the environment. Founded in 1944, NSF is committed to protecting human health and safety worldwide. With operations in 180 countries, NSF International is a Pan American Health Organization/World Health Organization (WHO) Collaborating Center on Food Safety, Water Quality and Indoor Environment.
Breysse_P_fullres
Thomas Frey, APR
tfrey@nsf.org
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NIJ Home Page > Five Things
NIJ "Five Things" Series
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Five Things About Deterrence
Download the flyer (pdf, 2 pages)
Does punishment prevent crime? If so, how, and to what extent? Deterrence — the crime prevention effects of the threat of punishment — is a theory of choice in which individuals balance the benefits and costs of crime.
In his 2013 essay, “Deterrence in the Twenty-First Century,” Daniel S. Nagin succinctly summarized the current state of theory and empirical knowledge about deterrence.[1] The information in this publication is drawn from Nagin’s essay with additional context provided by NIJ and is presented here to help those who make policies and laws that are based on science.[2]
NIJ’s “Five Things About Deterrence” summarizes a large body of research related to deterrence of crime into five points.
1. The certainty of being caught is a vastly more powerful deterrent than the punishment.
Research shows clearly that the chance of being caught is a vastly more effective deterrent than even draconian punishment.
2. Sending an individual convicted of a crime to prison isn’t a very effective way to deter crime.
Prisons are good for punishing criminals and keeping them off the street, but prison sentences (particularly long sentences) are unlikely to deter future crime. Prisons actually may have the opposite effect: Inmates learn more effective crime strategies from each other, and time spent in prison may desensitize many to the threat of future imprisonment.
See Understanding the Relationship Between Sentencing and Deterrence for additional discussion on prison as an ineffective deterrent.
3. Police deter crime by increasing the perception that criminals will be caught and punished.
The police deter crime when they do things that strengthen a criminal’s perception of the certainty of being caught. Strategies that use the police as “sentinels,” such as hot spots policing, are particularly effective. A criminal’s behavior is more likely to be influenced by seeing a police officer with handcuffs and a radio than by a new law increasing penalties.
4. Increasing the severity of punishment does little to deter crime.
Laws and policies designed to deter crime by focusing mainly on increasing the severity of punishment are ineffective partly because criminals know little about the sanctions for specific crimes.
More severe punishments do not “chasten” individuals convicted of crimes, and prisons may exacerbate recidivism.
5. There is no proof that the death penalty deters criminals.
According to the National Academy of Sciences, "Research on the deterrent effect of capital punishment is uninformative about whether capital punishment increases, decreases, or has no effect on homicide rates."
Understanding the Relationship Between Sentencing and Deterrence
In his 2013 essay, “Deterrence in the Twenty-First Century,” Daniel S. Nagin succinctly summarized the current state of theory and empirical knowledge about deterrence. The information in this publication is drawn from Nagin’s essay with additional context provided by NIJ and is presented here to help those who make policies and laws that are based on science.
Deterrence and Incapacitation
There is an important distinction between deterrence and incapacitation. Individuals behind bars cannot commit additional crime — this is incarceration as incapacitation. Before someone commits a crime, he or she may fear incarceration and thus refrain from committing future crimes — this is incarceration as deterrence.
NIJ’s “Five Things About Deterrence” summarizes a large body of research related to deterrence of crime into five points. Two of the five things relate to the impact of sentencing on deterrence — “Sending an individual convicted of a crime to prison isn’t a very effective way to deter crime” and “Increasing the severity of punishment does little to deter crime.” Those are simple assertions, but the issues of punishment and deterrence are far more complex. This addendum to the original “Five Things” provides additional context and evidence regarding those two statements.
It is important to note that while the assertion in the original “Five Things” focused only on the impact of sentencing on deterring the commission of future crimes, a prison sentence serves two primary purposes: punishment and incapacitation. Those two purposes combined are a linchpin of United States sentencing policy, and those who oversee sentencing or are involved in the development of sentencing policy should always keep that in mind.
“Sending an individual convicted of a crime to prison isn’t a very effective way to deter crime.”
Prison is an important option for incapacitating and punishing those who commit crimes, but the data show long prison sentences do little to deter people from committing future crimes.
Viewing the findings of research on severity effects in their totality, there is evidence suggesting that short sentences may be a deterrent. However, a consistent finding is that increases in already lengthy sentences produce at best a very modest deterrent effect.
A very small fraction of individuals who commit crimes — about 2 to 5 percent — are responsible for 50 percent or more of crimes.[3] Locking up these individuals when they are young and early in their criminal careers could be an effective strategy to preventing crime if we could identify who they are. The problem is: we can’t. We have tried to identify the young people most likely to commit crimes in the future, but the science shows we can’t do it effectively.
It is important to recognize that many of these individuals who offend at higher rates may already be incarcerated because they put themselves at risk of apprehension so much more frequently than individuals who offend at lower rates.
“Increasing the severity of punishment does little to deter crime.”
To clarify the relationship between the severity of punishment and the deterrence of future crimes, you need to understand:
The lack of any “chastening” effect from prison sentences,
That prisons may exacerbate recidivism,
The different impacts of the certainty versus the severity of punishment on deterrence, and
That individuals grow out of criminal activity as they age.
More severe punishments do not “chasten” individuals convicted of crimes.
Some policymakers and practitioners believe that increasing the severity of the prison experience enhances the “chastening” effect, thereby making individuals convicted of an offense less likely to commit crimes in the future. In fact, scientists have found no evidence for the chastening effect. Prisons may exacerbate recidivism. Research has found evidence that prison can exacerbate, not reduce, recidivism. Prisons themselves may be schools for learning to commit crimes. In 2009, Nagin, Cullen and Jonson published a review of evidence on the effect of imprisonment on reoffending.[4] The review included a sizable number of studies, including data from outside the U.S. The researchers concluded:
“… compared to non-custodial sanctions, incarceration has a null or mildly criminogenic impact on future criminal involvement. We caution that this assessment is not sufficiently firm to guide policy, with the exception that it calls into question wild claims that imprisonment has strong specific deterrent effects.”
Certainty has a greater impact on deterrence than severity of punishment.
Severity refers to the length of a sentence. Studies show that for most individuals convicted of a crime, short to moderate prison sentences may be a deterrent but longer prison terms produce only a limited deterrent effect. In addition, the crime prevention benefit falls far short of the social and economic costs.
Certainty refers to the likelihood of being caught and punished for the commission of a crime. Research underscores the more significant role that certainty plays in deterrence than severity — it is the certainty of being caught that deters a person from committing crime, not the fear of being punished or the severity of the punishment. Effective policing that leads to swift and certain (but not necessarily severe) sanctions is a better deterrent than the threat of incarceration. In addition, there is no evidence that the deterrent effect increases when the likelihood of conviction increases. Nor is there any evidence that the deterrent effect increases when the likelihood of imprisonment increases.
A person’s age is a powerful factor in deterring crime.
Even those individuals who commit crimes at the highest rates begin to change their criminal behavior as they age. The data show a steep decline at about age 35.[5] A more severe (i.e., lengthy) prison sentence for convicted individuals who are naturally aging out of crime does achieve the goal of punishment and incapacitation. But that incapacitation is a costly way to deter future crimes by aging individuals who already are less likely to commit those crimes by virtue of age.
[note 1] Nagin, Daniel S., "Deterrence in the Twenty-First Century," in Crime and Justice in America: 1975-2025, ed. M. Tonry, Chicago, Ill.: University of Chicago Press, 2013: 199-264. View an abstract.
[note 2] The content on this page is not intended to create, does not create, and may not be relied upon to create any rights, substantive or procedural, enforceable at law by any party in any matter civil or criminal.
Opinions or points of view expressed on this site represent a consensus of the authors and do not necessarily represent the official position or policies of the U.S. Department of Justice.
[note 3] Mulvey, Edward P., Highlights from Pathways to Desistance: A Longitudinal Study of Serious Adolescent Offenders (pdf, 4 pages), Juvenile Justice Fact Sheet, Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, March 2011, NCJ 230971.
[note 4] Nagin, Daniel S., Francis T. Cullen and Cheryl Lero Johnson, “Imprisonment and Reoffending,” Crime and Justice: A Review of Research, vol. 38, ed. Michael Tonry, Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2009: 115-200.
[note 5] Sampson, Robert. J., John H. Laub and E.P. Eggleston, “On the Robustness and Validity of Groups,” Journal of Quantitative Criminology 20 (1) (2004): 37-42.
Date Modified: June 6, 2016
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NIJ Audio: Domestic Violence Research 15 Years After VAWA
NIJ Conference Panel
Since the passage of the Violence Against Women Act, a majority of the more than 250 research and evaluation studies funded by NIJ examined domestic violence issues. This research has been collected in the Compendium of Research on Violence Against Women, 1993-2009, which includes an abstract of each grant and the results of completed studies. The panelists will present an overview of the progress and the findings of domestic violence research from the past 15 years, as well as discuss a key ongoing debate concerning the amount of male versus female perpetration of domestic or intimate partner violence. The discussant will comment on these presentations and provide an advocate's view on the progress made since the act passed.
Bernard Auchter: Senior Social Science Analyst, National Institute of Justice
Claire M. Renzetti: Endowed Chair, Center for Research on Violence Against Women and Professor of Sociology, University of Kentucky
Connie Beck: Associate Professor, Psychology, Policy and Law Program, Department of Psychology, University of Arizona, Tucson
Barbara Hart: Director of Law and Policy, Muskie School of Public Service, University of Southern Maine, Portland
<div class="noscript"> JavaScript is required to play this audio. The audio file can be found at <a href="#downloads">Audio Download</a>. </div>
Read the transcript
Download files for each section:
1 of 4: Domestic Violence Research 15 Years After VAWA , Bernard Auchter, National Institute of Justice (mp3, 26 MB)
2 of 4: Domestic Violence Research 15 Years After VAWA , Claire M. Renzetti, Endowed Chair, Center for Research on Violence Against Women and Professor of Sociology, University of Kentucky (mp3, 156 MB)
3 of 4: Domestic Violence Research 15 Years After VAWA , Connie Beck, Associate Professor, Psychology, Policy and Law Program, Department of Psychology, University of Arizona, Tucson (mp3, 170 MB)
4 of 4: Domestic Violence Research 15 Years After VAWA , Barbara Hart, Director of Law and Policy, Muskie School of Public Service, University of Southern Maine, Portland (mp3, 138 MB)
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Information generated by the National Institute of Justice is in the public domain. It may be reproduced, published or otherwise used without permission. Please cite NIJ as the source of the information by using the following words:
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Opinions or points of view expressed in these recordings represent those of the speakers and do not necessarily represent the official position or policies of the U.S. Department of Justice. Any products and manufacturers discussed in these recordings are presented for informational purposes only and do not constitute product approval or enforcement by the U.S. Department of Justice.
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Constantine Tsinakis
Graduate Student Supervision:
Carlin J. Sappenfield, Master of Science, 1988
James T. Snodgrass, Ph.D., 1989
Ph.D. Thesis: “Completely Normal Lattices”
Scott Burleson, Master of Science, 1990
James B. Hart, Ph.D., 1991
Ph.D. Thesis: “Decompositions for Relatively Normal Lattices”
Deborah Cotten, Ph.D., 1996
Ph.D. Thesis: “Stone-type Categorical Equivalences in Semantics of Programming Languages”
Lori Henslee Rafter, Ph.D., 1996
Ph.D. Thesis: “Order Semantics of Linear Logic”
Hoseung Lee, Ph.D., 1997
Ph.D. Thesis: “Recognizable Elements of Quantales: A result of Myhill Revisited”
Kevin Blount, Ph.D., 1999
Ph.D. Thesis: “On the Structure of Residuated Lattices”
Jac Cole, Ph.D., 2002
Ph.D. Thesis: “Residuated Lattice Orderings on Cancellative Monoids”
Nikolaos Galatos, Ph.D., 2003
Ph.D. Thesis: “Varieties of Residuated Lattices”
Will Funk, Master of Science, 2004
Ciro Russo (University of Salerno, Italy), Ph.D., 2007 (Jointly with Antonio Di Nola)
Ph.D. Thesis: “Quantale Modules, with Applications to Logic and Image Processing”
William Young, Ph.D., 2013
Ph.D. Thesis: “An Investigation of Residuated Lattices with Modal Operators”
Professor of Mathematics
Office: Stevenson Center 1406
The Consortium for Order in Algebra and Logic
Faculty Profile Page
©2019 Vanderbilt University ·
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Yes, it’s true that I am a country music freak (from California,) but it’s only been recently, when country became more rockified. I love the sound of the new young artists who are blending their roots in the country western world with some of the cool rock bands they also grew up with! (ex. Eric Church’s “Springsteen.”) Since I was a teenager frequenting Winterland, and listening to the best rock stations in San Francisco, I liked the crossovers of the day – the Allman Brothers, Lynyrd Skynyrd, The Outlaws, Charlie Daniels Band, Marshall Tucker, etc. Besides the catchy rhythms (Ramblin Man), lyrics (Simple Man) and rockin’ fiddle (Devil Went Down to Georgia,) this music ROCKED! And, tonight at Bottle Rock was a prime example of when country meets rock, when rock meets country, with the headliner-The ZAC BROWN BAND! (www.zacbrownband.com) Whereas, these guys are planted very firmly in country western and folk music, they know how to rip, rock, and roll. And, this came across straight away by the looks of their stage set – a smoky, smoldering, underground blue-collar, machine shop vibe with the keyboard and drum risers lined with gears, ratchets, various wheels, and stuff I couldn’t possibly name, not being an expert in that field.
The smoldering Zac Brown stage.
Hailing from the great state of Georgia, Zac Brown was the eleventh out of twelve children, which might be why he surrounds himself with a large band of eight guys. The talent in this band is pretty incredible, with musicians schooled in a variety of unusual instruments, such as mandolin, organ, banjo, ukulele, pedal steel, keyboard, and violin, in addition to guitar, bass, drums and percussion. This, of course, raises their music level above and beyond your typical country western band sound. And, the highlight of tonight’s show, and every show this band performs (in my opinion) is their absolutely rockin’ fiddler, Jimmy De Martini. This man is mesmerizing and thoroughly captivating when he takes center stage and all eyes (and ears) are on him! He can rock a fiddle like Jimi Hendrix rocked a guitar – aggressive, fierce and fiery! There is nothing sweet and subtle about it – this man makes fiddle playing sexy…and the Zac Brown Band is better because of him! Every band has guitar, bass and drums in their repertoire, but to include a violin and highlight him, was a genius idea that puts this band in a league of their own. Check out the comparison between Jimmy and Charlie Daniels here: http://wyrk.com/who-is-the-best-fiddler-in-country-music-poll/
Jimmy DeMartini makes fiddle playing SEXY!
Starting off their set this warm Napa night with ‘Keep Me in Mind,’ the ZBB played fan favorites, such as, ‘Whiskey’s Gone,’ ‘The Wind,’ and ‘Chicken Fried,’ as well as covers of Dave Matthews Band’s ‘Ant’s Marching,’ Led Zeppelin’s ‘Kashmir,’ Charlie Daniels’ ‘The Devil Went Down to Georgia,’ and Metallica’s ‘Enter Sandman.’ The morphing of country with rock just drives the point home that country absolutely rocks!
Then, about halfway through the show, Zac invited Kacey Musgraves onstage to join the guys in playing her song, ‘Follow Your Arrow,’ and in between some of the songs, Zac subtly blended well-known folksy songs with his music. The intro to his song, ‘The Wind’ was Bob Dylan’s ‘Blowin’ in the Wind,’ which was a clever blend, and ‘Free’ led into Into ‘The Mystic’ by Van Morrison. This show kept the crowd on their toes, combining songs from different genres, eras, and artists. What an interesting variety of music, and done with the Zac Brown Band’s signature sound autographed across it. This show made it clear that music transcends the lines between style, genre, and types of music, and that one band can crossover from one style to another, and make them both sound excellent. Their setlist may look schizophrenic at a glance, but you had to be there to believe how creatively genius it actually was. The next time these guys come to your town, I highly recommend you check them out. In the meantime, check out their songs online (Youtube, iTunes, etc.)
Kacey Musgraves joins the band.
January 20, 2015 | Categories: Local (NorCal) Vibes | Tags: Kacey Musgraves; Country Western music; Rock and Roll; Jimmy DeMartini, Zac Brown Band; Bottle Rock Napa | Leave a comment
At 6:00pm, as the sun was moving further away from the sky over Bottle Rock, as the heat of the day faded, and the weather changed to perfect, a favorite local San Francisco band took the main stage. Train, (http://savemesanfrancisco.com) with it’s charismatic lead singer, Pat Monahan, commanded the audience with a confident presence. They love what they do, and it shows! I first saw Train at South By Southwest in Austin, Texas in 2012 (http://sxsw.com,) where they did a phenomenal job performing at the Central Presbyterian Church.
Train’s Pat Monahan
Tonight’s show was very different, on an outdoor stage in Napa, California’s wine country, as the sun was going down, and a crowd that was ten times larger. Any way you see them, though, they put on a good show. Singing many of their most recognizable hits – Soul Sister, Calling All Angels, Save Me, San Francisco, Meet Virginia, Drops of Jupiter – they easily got the crowd singing and swooning right along, right away. Monahan was all over the stage – and it was a big one – getting up-close and as personal as a singer can in a venue so huge. At one point, he pulled out his cell phone and took pictures of the crowd from the stage, and later in the show, he jumped into the audience and took selfies with people and their phones.
Pat plays the sax…
Pat Monahan is a crowd friendly performer, no doubt, and it was so very apparent just how much fun he was having. And, not only is he a singer, he is a musician, which he proved when he picked up the saxophone and played along with his band. Whatever your opinion is of the band Train, they have cut out a name for themselves in the music industry. Their songs are catchy, a bit poppy, with sometimes rather odd lyrics (“my heart is bound to beat, right out my untrimmed chest” or “just a shy guy looking for a two-ply Hefty bag to hold love.”) Where they come up with such odd, kind of nerdy, lyrics is beyond me, but it’s not my place to judge. They are good; they are successful; they have made a name for themselves in the world of music, and that’s admirable and honorable.
As the evening settled in, and the sun began to fade, Train’s show came to an end. The emotion exuding from the band was felt by, no doubt, everyone in the audience. Monahan’s appreciation to the crowd for their warm response, and the fact that he was overcome with gratitude that practically brought him to tears, was wonderful sight. Sometimes it seems to me like celebrities are untouchables, or on a higher plane that the rest of us mortals (or think they are!) So, to see them in such an obvious state of appreciation and indebtedness, is heartwarming. It shows that they are human, after all. These guys might not be the Rolling Stones, but they are Train, and train rocked Bottle Rock 2013!
Up-close and personal with the fans.
December 28, 2014 | Categories: Local (NorCal) Vibes | Tags: Bottle Rock Napa, Pat Monahan, South By Southwest, Train | Leave a comment
Musgraves Rocks BRN!
Kacey on stage at Bottle Rock 2013
“Same Trailer Different Park”
I’m not quite sure how I managed to leave out from the 2013 lineup the young, up-and-coming, very talented country artist, Kacy Musgraves, a 26 year old Texas girl! (http://www.kaceymusgraves.com) She was a huge reason we “parked” ourselves at the main stage for the day. Being a country music fan, and because I listen to KRTY 95.3 (http://www.krty.com) religiously, I had been introduced to her music before attending Bottle Rock. Some of her radio hits that I especially like are ‘Merry Go Round,’ ‘Blowin’ Smoke,’ ‘Follow Your Arrow,’ and ‘Mama’s Broken Heart.’
Kacey and her band took the stage at 2:00 pm, before Michael Franti & Spearhead, and though she is a petite, young thang, she confidently led her band of men. Dressed in a mini skirt, black t-shirt and cowboy boots, she played her acoustic guitar and sang gems from her hit album, “Same Trailer Different Park,” as well as many others in her stash. Her sweet, humble demeanor was endearing to the crowd, who focussed intensely on this singing,songwriting musician that most of them probably hadn’t even heard of yet. This talented young lady has written songs for Martina McBride, Miranda Lambert, Gretchen Wilson and more. But, she has the voice, the presence and the talent to hold her own. Her lyrics are different form the average country song – clever, descriptive and sometimes controversial – and, I highly recommend listening to her album, “Same Trailer Different Park,” which won ‘Best Country Album’ and ‘Country Album of the Year’ in 2013. And, in addition to these prestigious kudos, Kacey also won ‘New Artist of the Year’ and ‘Best Country Song’ for ‘Merry Go Round.’ This young lady is surely just beginning a long, successful career in the music business. Atta girl, Kacey!!
Next up: San Francisco’s own….Train!
October 17, 2014 | Categories: Concerts!, Local (NorCal) Vibes | Tags: kacey musgraves; Bottle Rock Napa, Same Trailer Different Park; Merry- | Leave a comment
Bluegrass Lives On!
**San Francisco has hosted a pretty terrific Bluegrass festival every year since 2001 called ‘Hardly Strictly Bluegrass.’
Warren (Photo by Ron Baker)
(http://www.strictlybluegrass.com/) Sure, The City (this is what we locals have always called our city. We do NOT call it Frisco or San Fran) is known for old hippies, rock & roll, the Summer of Love, and Gay Pride, but we do have a very diverse musical interest in this area. I am focusing this post on bluegrass because we recently lost our founder, Warren Hellman, (aka.The Billionaire Who Loved Bluegrass, (http://www.baycitizen.org/obituaries/story/warren-hellman-dies-77/1/) and held a special memorial service for him. The event took place on Sunday, February 19, 2012 on a mile stretch of SF’s Great Highway, adjacent to Ocean Beach and the beautiful Pacific Ocean. The lineup included a star-filled roster of Hardly Strictly veterans, including Emmylou Harris, Steve Earle, Boz Scaggs and Hellman’s own band, the Wronglers. The weather was beautiful, the crowd peaceful, and the day was filled with love and gratitude for a man who shared his love of bluegrass with the city he also loved.
(http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2012/02/19/BA6P1N9UGO.DTL#ixzz1nvuDhDl8)
SF’s ‘Hardly Striclty Bluegrass’ festival came about from Hellman’s desire to indulge his musical fantasy by inviting some of his favorite artists to play at Golden Gate Park. Killing two birds with one stone, he was able to hang out with his favorite musicians, as well as share his love of bluegrass with others. The first year there were only two stages, nine acts, and around 13,000 people in the crowd. No one could imagine how quickly it would grow, or how popular it would become!
Within a few years, it became a three-day event, with an attendance of more than 600,000 fans coming to see world-renowned acts like Emmylou Harris, Elvis Costello, and Steve Earle — for free. Hellman’s gathering became a place where the musicians and professionals enjoyed it as much as the crowd did. He also called the festival “the single most fulfilling thing” that he had done.
‘Hardly Strictly Bluegrass’ also gave Hellman the opportunity to fulfill his desire to play in a band, where he showed his talents as an accomplished banjo player. His band, The Wronglers, came together at the same time as the festival, and he once joked that he’d gone to a lot of time and expense just to ensure he’d get to play his music.
Warren Hellman gifted San Francisco and its people many years of great music…and just because he is gone, it is not the end. He has requested to is family that the festival continue for at least fifteen more years. His ‘Hardly Strictly Bluegrass Festival, Hellman has said, “is as close to heaven as I’m gonna get.”
The Wronglers (Photo by Jay Blakesberg)
March 8, 2012 | Categories: Local (NorCal) Vibes | Leave a comment
Happy Southern style New Year in California!
A little Louisiana in California**My first venture of this new year was to book one of my favorite local bands (the actual group that landed in my lap and turned me into an instant booking agent) into a very cool new venue where I schedule the in-house entertainment (as of January ’12.) The Bonedrivers, (www.blueblack.com/bonedrivers) a San Francisco based band that packs the dance floor with their boogie stylin’ rock-n-blues, killed at Santa Clara’s very sexy, very cleverly named, Louisiana themed restaurant called ‘Bluz By-you’ (www.bluzbyyou.com) This cool restaurant with a Cajun twist, offers a delicious Southern cuisine of catfish, jambalaya, gumbo, cornbread, and more. These tasty treats are whipped up by the chef and co-owner, Gerald Parker, whose talents were born in the great southern state of Louisiana. The down home cuisine is served along with mouth watering beverages creatively named ‘Muddy Waters,’ ‘Louisiana Pirates,’ ‘Swamp Water,’ as well as your well-known ‘Hurricane’ and beers by the cool names of ‘Purple Haze’ and ‘Andy Gator.’ Bluz has the best bartender around, with his charismatic, friendly nature that draws people to him like gators to the swamp. Chris ‘Tennessee’ Honey is the real deal, directly from Jackson, TN with that strong southern drawl….and top-notch southern hospitality. When you step into this restaurant, you’d swear you were just transported to New Orleans!
*For those traveling in and out of the San Jose International Airport in Northern California, (http://www.sjc.org/) Bluz By-you is perfectly located right down the street – it is a terrific place to stop into, before or after a flight, and chill like (and with) the Southern folk. Check ‘em out some time.
Bonedrivers bring it!!
January 6, 2012 | Categories: Local (NorCal) Vibes | Tags: Bluz By-you, Bonedrivers, Ca., Santa Clara, southern cuisine | Leave a comment
From the City to the Swamps
Moon rises over SF
The moon rises over SF.
So’s y’all know, I’m a Booking Agent (no, not a Bookie) for local San Francisco Bay Area bands that I’ve come across over the three short years that I’ve been in this business. Tho, I hate to gamble, I love being immersed in music-great live stuff delivered by talented musicians. So, after years of working in odd jobs, as a teacher, a retail rat, a Mom, and blah, blah, yawn, yuck, I found (actually, it found me) this highly lucrative career (yeah right!) representing local bands and booking them into nearby venues. It’s creative, social, and just plain fun! I meet tons of people, go on ‘Field Trips’ (my excuse to get outta dodge and check out new people & places,) and mix things up a bit. Since the SF Bay Area is my territory, most stories will take place in those parts, but this will be the year of seeking and searching out bigger and better, new and different vehicles and locations for delivering music. In all honesty, I’m all about Rock and Roll, Blues, with a dose of Motown and R & B thrown in for good measure. Tho, I’m not huge on jazz or country (or hip-hop and rap) I suppose an occasional reference couldn’t hurt- that is, if it’s huge breaking news that we can’t live without. (*written with a touch of sarcasm.) I am VERY interested in the South, and all the great musical history that came from them thar parts, so that countrified stuff is bound to seep in eventually. I feel a lassoo pulling me to the southern regions, so that is where I will be venturing to in the coming months. Feel free to come along for the ride…
The South Rocks!
January 3, 2012 | Categories: Local (NorCal) Vibes | Tags: booking agent, San Francisco | Leave a comment
Rockin’ in the New Year!
Happy New Year, party people! I hope to ROCK WITH YOU in 2012!
I decided to start this blog after realizing that wherever I go, it’s all about the music. Okay, not ALL about the music, but darned near pretty much! At my age (old enough to have been there, but too dazed & confused to clearly remember) I have decided to share my adventures with others who might be interested, and/or might not be able to get out there themselves. So, because of my love of travel and music, (and of course, food and drink!) I am beginning on what I’ll call a ‘Music Quest’ and am inviting you along for the ride. I have been ‘Goin’ Mobile’ and keeping a photo record of my journeys (via Facebook) for a few years now, so it’s high time I go to the next step and actually write/inform/explain these travels. (Bear with me while I perfect the art of blogging, as I’m new to this.) Not being a self-absorbed person, it won’t be ‘all about me,’ rather it’s for YOU…to join in , enjoy, kick back and go where the wind blows us. So, put on your seat belts…and let’s go, let’s go, let’s go, let’s go!!!
For info on me, see: www.nadinerocks.com
Photo by Diego Lopez-Videla ( http://bnc_studio.500px.com)
January 2, 2012 | Categories: Local (NorCal) Vibes | Tags: facebook, music quest, nadinerocks | Leave a comment
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Posts tagged “music”
“Music is a language that doesn’t speak in particular words. It speaks in emotions, and if it’s in the bones, it’s in the bones.” ― Keith Richards
Though, I haven’t read anything on the subject and I am no expert, I have lived a long time. And, I’ve been listening to music for the majority of that time. I also experienced the 1960s British Invasion, a phenomenon called ‘The Beatles,’ and the hard rock and roll era of the 1970s. Of course, I survived Disco, Grunge, Rap, and
Country music rocks!
other various music genres, but the one I’m most fascinated with right now is….COUNTRY! Not the ‘my wife left me, the dog died, and my truck broke down’ kind of country, but the new country of today! I realize that diehard classic country fans hate the new stuff, but I don’t…and neither do a WHOLE LOT of other people! And, here’s my assessment on why, besides the fact that it is a whole lot less depressing! Rock and roll has faded away and there isn’t much to take it’s place. The days of the classic rock craze is gone, and there’s a huge empty space to be filled. And, guess who filling it. Yep, new country! There’s a new generation of country rockers, who were raised on their parents’ rock and roll. If you listen carefully to their songs, you will hear references to many of the greats! Some, like Eric Church and Keith Urban have songs titled, “Springsteen” and “John Cougar, John Deere, John 3:16” after their rock idols. There are some crazy great rockin’ guitarists in country music right now, namely Brad Paisley, Chris Stapleton and Keith Urban. And, the bad boys of country – Eric Church, the Brothers Osborne, Chris Stapleton – have become very popular, very quickly. Brothers Osborne seems to me to be filling the shoes of Lynyrd Skynyrd, and Eric Church marches to his own drummer, reminding me of Curt Cobain or maybe even a young Bruce Springsteen. Chris Stapleton seems like someone you wouldn’t want to mess with in a dark alley or even the light of day. But man, can he shred a guitar!
Having been a rock and roll loving girl all my life, and moving to Nashville a few years back, my curiosity peaked, my eyes opened wide, and my ‘analytical’ skills sharpened. I work for two different concert venues, and when I’m not working, I’m usually at a show. I’m in it, around it, consumed by it. And, I pay attention. Sadly, there are very few genuine rock and roll bands coming up in the ranks. No one has come close to filling the shoes of Led Zeppelin, the Rolling Stones, or the Who. As far as I’m concerned, great rock basically ended with Metallica, Nirvana and Pearl Jam, and now there’s a wide open space to be filled. My question is…why isn’t anyone filling it? Where are the young rockers hiding? Why isn’t anyone forming new quality rock bands? I’m truly baffled! If anyone is paying attention, they would see that there is a huge gap in the rock and roll world that needs to be filled! The Black Keys tried to. So did Linkin Park, Imagine Dragons, and Green Day. But, they haven’t come close to reaching the heights of their predecessors! But, country music has! They are
skyrocketing to fame and put Nashville on the world map. It is now the “IT” city, growing in tourism and population. I live and work in this town, and I see the tens of thousands of people that come visit it every single weekend, drop a fat pile of cash in the bars and music venues, all in the name of new country. In my lifetime, I’ve seen this craziness happen twice before. When the British Invasion came to America, and again when hard rock exploded onto the scene in the 1960s and ’70s. I feel we’ve been cruising along for a decade or two with whatever music happens to be the ‘flavor of the day,’ with a hit or two here or there. But, it sure seems obvious to me that the current popularity of country music is the biggest musical explosion we’ve had since Elvis, the Beatles, and the Rolling Stones. So, buckle your seatbelts and hold on to your seats! My prediction is that this decade will go down in musical history! Just watch and see…
“One good thing about music, when it hits you, you feel no pain.” ― Bob Marley
November 2, 2018 | Categories: Today's Music | Tags: Bob Marley, Brad Paisley, British Invasion, Chris Stapleton, country music, Eric Church, Keith Richards, Keith Urban, Led Zeppelin, music, Musical history, Nashville, New Country, Rock and Roll, Rolling Stones, The Who | Leave a comment
“Be present in all things and thankful for all things.” ~Maya Angelou
“Life is what happens to you while you’re busy making other plans.” ~John Lennon
It has now been just over a year that I was randomly introduced to the music of Chris Stapleton, (http://www.chrisstapleton.com) a rising star in the Nashville scene. Though, he’s been well known in these parts for many years, I had never heard of him. But, since I had just started my job at the Ryman Auditorium (https://ryman.com) in Music City (in Sept. 2015,) I found myself listening to the music of upcoming performers, so I could
Inside the Ryman Auditorium
become familiar with them before I worked their show (and duck inside the auditorium to watch a song or two!) Working at such an historic venue that is on the smaller size (seats 2400 people,) and having a lifelong love of music, I didn’t take my job lightly. I was working in the place that, for 31 years (1943-1974) was the home of the infamous Grand Ol’ Opry; the stage that once held Johnny Cash, Loretta Lynn, Hank Williams, Patsy Cline, Minnie Pearl, and so many more! And, though I wish I had been there to experience that history, I recently realized that I am experiencing history by being amongst these hallowed walls, watching new up-and-comers, as well as old classics, perform in the Ryman Auditorium! This building, in itself, is history to the past, present AND the future! And, I’m here witnessing it all…live!!
Howdy! Minnie Pearl
Because of my lifelong love of music, and because I now live in Music City and work for a concert venue (or two,) I like to familiarize myself with upcoming performers by listening to their music before their show. I was going to be working two upcoming shows by some guy named Chris Stapleton, so I spent a few days in advance listening to his stuff. I liked what I heard – he had a low, resonating voice, his songs were melodic and catchy, and his lyrics were deep and meaningful. So, I was looking forward to popping my head in the auditorium for a listen when I had a chance. To my surprise, and something I wasn’t expecting, was that his music would shoot straight to my bones, and I would be absolutely awed by his voice. Firstly, the acoustics in the Ryman are second only to the Mormon Tabernacle Church, and secondly, the power in this man’s voice is God-given and rare. I felt I discovered something special. I walked out of the auditorium and announced to my co-workers, “I am a new fan!” and told them to get their butts in there to take a listen! His two shows at the Ryman were such a success that they immediately booked him for three shows for the following March. What no one could predict was what was going to take place just six weeks later during the CMA Awards at the Bridgestone Arena in Nashville! And, I was there to witness that, as well!
On November 4, 2015, this same guy was up for a bunch of awards at the CMA Awards. And, who happened to be working that show? Me! And, by some crazy act by God, the Universe, the Sun, the Moon, and the Stars, I got assigned to ‘guard’ the myriad of machinery that it takes to put on such a show. Boring, you say? That’s what the supervisor who placed me there, said apologetically. But, for this music nerd, it was Heaven on Earth! I was behind the stage, one level up, with a fantastic view of the behind-the-scenes action! I saw the entire show from behind, and it was fascinating! I watched Hosts Carrie Underwood and Brad Paisley behind the scenes, saw which performer was coming on next, and could see exactly how quickly and precisely each band’s set was moved in and out before and after their performance! It was amazing! For a live show, it went off without a hitch! And, because I was situated behind the stage, I could look out into the audience and see all the famous country stars in the audience watching the show! I had to pinch myself to believe I was really doing this! I was there when Eric Church, Miranda Lambert, Jason Aldean, Kacey Musgraves, Keith Urban, etc, etc, performed live. But, the highlight of the night was the ass-kicking performance by….Chris Stapleton and Justin Timberlake!! Whaaat?!?! That’s a strange combination! But, apparently not so much. Both are southern boys (Kentucky and Tennessee) on the music circuit, so their paths have crossed numerous times over the last 3-4 years. I’m not sure whose idea it was to pair them up for the CMA performance, but it was brilliant! It absolutely stunned the crowd and, along with the fact that, later that night, Chris would win three awards – Male Vocalist of the Year, New Artist of the year, and Album of the Year – it was an evening that would go down in music history! (see the performance here: Chris and Justin) And, I was there!! You could’ve knocked me over with a feather, as I felt like I was floating in Music Heaven after that night! Then, having experienced the entire show from behind, I watched it on TV the next night, at home, to see it from everyone else’s perspective. And….wow, so much went on that I couldn’t see when I was there, but the cooler stuff (in my opinion) was seen from my little perch in the background. Oh, what a night!! What an historical night that I will never forget!!
JUSTIN AND CHRIS
Message: Appreciate the here and now! We can get so busy, with life and in our heads, that we miss the meaningful moments. I had been so dreamy and wishful that I had lived to experience the classic performers of the Ryman past, that I almost forgot to realize that I was actually doing it in the present! And, that some day I will be telling great stories of performers I am seeing now, and who will be in the history books later!! It’s happened before, as I’ve had younger music lovers touch me after I told them I spent a lot of time at concerts at San Francisco’s historic Winterland, back in the day! They were so impressed and envious that I got to ‘live rock and roll history!’ And now, I’m doing it again (actually, we all are!) in Nashville, Music City, USA!! So, slow down and enjoy the present, because you can never get it back again. Many times we look back on things and wish we appreciated it more at the time. Well, now is the time! Appreciate and enjoy every minute of it! It won’t last forever!
February 12, 2017 | Categories: Concerts! | Tags: Chris Stapleton, Chris Stapleton and Justin Timberlake, CMA Awards, concerts, Grand Ole Opry, inspiration, John Lennon, Justin Timberlake, live music, Maya Angelou, music, Music City, music history, Nashville, Ryman Auditorium, the here and now, the Present | 2 Comments
A HOT Nashville Night!!
When Jake Owen hit the stage, I started wondering how all these talented young country singers could be so darned good looking, too! I’m almost convinced that the pre-requisite these days involves rockin’ bods and hot looks, as well as musical and vocal talent…not to mention great songwriting and performance ability! It’s almost as if these guys (and gals) were dropped down from Country Music Heaven to appeal to all the audiences’ senses.
Jake woos the crowd!!
Not that I could really see, but I hear that Jake was barefoot, which is appropriate, considering his big hit, “Barefoot Bluejean Night.” He immediately engaged the audience in a sing along, arms waving back and forth in the air in unison, chanting “Whoa-0-0-0h!” throughout the entire stadium. What a sight to see! Jake really engaged the crowd, and jumped in and joined the front few rows by forging out onto the security barrier and getting up close and personal with them. He shook hands, slapped fives, and sang amongst his fans. He also did a little crowd surfing, no doubt getting caught up in the frenetic passion of the night. The crowd was already bursting with enthusiastic country music love, but it was Jake who electrified the energy to a higher level. Go Jake!!
Slowing things down, a fairly unknown newcomer, Gwen Sebastian sang to us from the acoustic stage at center field. Between songs, she mentioned that she had been on “Team Blake” on the reality show, “The Voice.” She added how thankful she was to Blake Shelton and the show for all they have done for her, her singing career, and for Country Music, in general. She later returned to the main stage to join Blake and his band as a backup singer. Good going, Gwen!
Next up was The Band Perry– two brothers and their sister, who were 2011’s CMA New Artist of the Year winners. They started with, not their own song, but the new hit by Fun, “We Are Young,” then went into Queen’s “Fat-Bottomed Girls.” An interesting start to a country music set, but it worked. These attractive siblings expressed their appreciation to their fans when sister Kimberly shared that “You may not know this, but you’ve changed the lives of my brothers and me!” She then invited the crowd to “sing it if you know it” while they performed their hit songs, “All Your Life” and “If I Die Young.” Watching this trio, I couldn’t help but think how proud their parents must be. What it would be like to have such talented and successful children? As unimaginable it is to me (tho, I love my kids, who are successful in their own individual ways) I decided that, in my next life, not only will my kids be like the Perrys, but I will be the next Miranda Lambert, hot, gorgeous and talented!! *sheepish grin*
One electrified audience!!
July 15, 2012 | Categories: Travels | Tags: Band Perry, CMA Fest; Jake Owen, Gwen Sebastian, music, Nashville | Leave a comment
Have Music? Will Travel!!
**I’ve always envied those artists, writers, poets of the past who followed their passion by living in foreign countries to focus on their art. Van Gogh, Capote, Hemingway and many others didn’t let reality stifle their dreams – they simply went for it. Sometimes I would visualize myself in a villa in the south of France writing a book, or painting while overlooking the clear blue waters of the Mediterranean Sea. Then I would snap out of it and think to myself: In your next life, baby!
Then, it suddenly dawned on me, that where I am at in my life right now, I could possibly consider doing something similar, in a simplified, lower-class version. For years I’ve dreamed about traveling to festivals that I’ve heard about through the musical grapevine. (I’ll never get over the fact that I missed Woodstock, even though I was too young and too far away to accomplish that feat.) Austin City Limits, The New Orleans Jazz Fest, South By Southwest, the Blues Cruise, etc, were all nice sounding events that seemed out of reach to me. However, because of a series of fortunate (and some not so fortunate) events, these far off thoughts barged themselves into the forefront of my mind. Maybe I could do it!!
I’ve always known that life is precarious and can be over in an instant (my mother left this world WAY too young at 43) and that you can spend your life taking care of others and not yourself (first, the kids, then, ailing parents.) So, I decided that 2012 (and probably beyond) will be devoted to checking out whatever festivals I can manage into my time and budget. I have a window of opportunity, and only the shadow knows how long it will last. So, I’ve got to seize the moment (and share it with others who might not be able to go on such adventures, for one reason or another.)
So, here I sit in my hotel room in the French Quarter of New Orleans, ready to bounce to the Jazz Fest today. (http://www.nojazzfest.com/) I arrived last night and, of course, ventured over to Bourbon Street, popping into Le Bayou Restaurant (http://www.lebayourestaurant.com/) for some spicy Cajun shrimp and a lovely Voodoo Juice cocktail. The streets were bustling, as always in this town, but my guess is the ‘best’ is yet to come! Beginning today, I’m sure the masses will flood into NOLA and overpopulate the French Quarter and the Fair Grounds Race Course, where the party begins! Tonight’s featured bands are The Beach Boys (50th Anniversary Tour,) Bon Iver, Buckwheat Zydeco, to name a few. The music starts just after 11:00 am and plays all day and into the earlier evening hours, probably so that everyone can boogie over to Bourbon St. and continue the partying and patronizing.
Let the adventure begin…
New Orleans Jazz Fest 2012
April 27, 2012 | Categories: Travels | Tags: Beach Boys, Bon Iver, Buckwheat Zydeco, Jazz Fest, Le Bayou, music | Leave a comment
South By Technology & Love
*** In my experience here, I have observed the massive use of technology. The halls of the convention center were loaded with people tapping a mile a minute on their cell phones, iPads, and laptops. Gladly, the art of conversation is also still alive and well, but so much information comes through via the internet that people were constantly searching what the latest updates were. There are so many last minute changes and announcements at SXSW that the written programs and schedules are practically obsolete by the time the event starts. So, everyone is connected to Twitter, Tumblr, texting and phone calling, and truly get news hot off the press. There was so much information flying around, it made my head spin. Believe me, I was plenty busy with my own full schedule, but never failed to find out the next day how many things went on during any given day or night that I missed while I was out doing something else awesome! It was mind-boggling at first, but when you let go and realize that you can’t be two places at once, you begin to accept it! I came up with a little quip to explain each day at SXSW: “I did a million things yesterday, but I didn’t do two million!”
We’re getting to that place where websites are almost already obsolete. In a fast paced place like SXSW, things happen faster than lightning and you can’t possibly keep up, not to mention appear at everything. You never know who is going to fly into Austin unexpectedly and decide to perform. I think this is what 50 Cent and Eminem did, to name a few. I only found out through the shuttle driver who was bummed that he had just missed the pickup of 50 Cent from the airport. Decision time is crunch time….where do I go and what do I see? There are so many last minute changes it’s like a whirlwind of news flashes. But, the cool thing was that none of it (at least none that I encountered) was rumor. When someone reported a last minute show somewhere, it ended up being correct. I guess when everyone is getting the same information from one or two places, it’s not like playing the old game of ‘Telephone’ and getting the message garbled. It’s pretty accurate and everyone is hearing it. This is all wonderful stuff, but at SXSW, there definitely is too much music, and way too little time!! And, all you can do is be happy to just scratch the surface and see the tip of the iceberg!!
During the week, I popped into the Convention Center Ballroom as often as possible to catch whichever band happened to be performing. Bands were
showcasing here, by special invitation, as well as in a place or two in town. Every band I watched in the Ballroom was talented, very talented. In fact, there is so much talent in Austin during this week that it’s both heartwarming, and sad. I’m thrilled to see that live music will never die, that there is still a monumental love of the creative art of music. But, sad because it seems to me that there isn’t enough room for it all – not enough clubs, people, or money to sustain the vast numbers of musicians. During a discussion about this with one of the many, many musicians in Austin this week, she said very matter-of-factly, “It’s a labor of love.” She had the artist’s view of the situation, where I had the businesswoman’s view. She just wants to play and sing, whereas I want all the musicians out there to be able make a living at it! I guess we will all have to be satisfied with something in the middle.
March 27, 2012 | Categories: Travels | Tags: Austin, music, SXSW, technology | Leave a comment
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Retardation of CO2 Caused by Capillary Pressure Hysteresis: A New CO2 Trapping Mechanism
Yusuf B. Altundas (Schlumberger-Doll Research) | T.S. Ramakrishnan (Schlumberger Doll Research) | Nikita Chugunov (Schlumberger Doll Research) | Romain de Louebens (Total)
https://doi.org/10.2118/139641-PA
SPE-139641-PA
Society of Petroleum Engineers
2011. Society of Petroleum Engineers
5.1.1 Exploration, Development, Structural Geology
Capillary pressure hysteresis trapping, CO2 sequestration, CO2 trapping mechanisms, Capillary pressure hysteresis, Relative permeability hysteresis
2 in the last 30 days
667 since 2007
SPE Member Price: USD 10.00
SPE Non-Member Price: USD 30.00
Containment security of geologically stored CO2 is improved substantially through trapping mechanisms. Therefore, to simulate the potential viability of a storage site, it is necessary to account for immobilization processes. In this paper, we focus on a quantitative measure for the contribution of hysteresis in reducing plume transport, with particular emphasis on capillary-pressure-induced migration retardation. Rocks with large pore-body-to-throat-size ratio, or a low permeability, are the best candidates for this mechanism to be operative.
In the present work, a self-consistent relative permeability and capillary pressure hysteresis model is incorporated within a simulator. With this model, it is possible to compare and contrast hysteresis-induced retardation to other mechanisms of trapping. The self-consistent parameterization of all of the transport properties is used to quantify sensitivity compactly. The sensitivity of the CO2-plume shape and the amount of CO2 trapped to the strength of the capillary pressure hysteresis is also described.
Simulated results show that the CO2-plume shapes with and without capillary pressure hysteresis are significantly different. As expected, capillary pressure hysteresis retards the buoyant transport of the CO2 plume. Although a portion of the CO2 is connected, and therefore not residual, the plume remains immobile for all practical purposes. Also, because of the decreased driving potential, gravity tonguing below the caprock is reduced in comparison to the case without capillary pressure hysteresis, thus suggesting enhanced storage efficiency. However, the total dissolution of CO2 in saline water is reduced because of the reduced contact area with the brine. Thus, one mechanism of containment is offset by the other.
Inclusion of accurate hysteresis models is important for qualifying storage sites constrained by spatial-domain limits. It is anticipated that site-acceptability criteria would change as a result of this study, thereby impacting risk evaluation.
File Size 2 MB Number of Pages 11
Altundas, Y.B., de Loubens, R., and Ramakrishnan, T.S. 2006. CapillaryPressure Induced CO2 Retention. Presented at the Fifth AnnualConference on Carbon Capture & Sequestration Conference, Alexandria,Virginia, USA, 8-11 May.
Baines, S.J. and Worden, R.H. ed. 2004. Geological Storage of CarbonDioxide, No. 233, 1-6. Bath, UK: Special Publication, Geological SocietyPublishing House.
Brooks, R.H. and Corey, A.T. 1966. Properties of Porous Media AffectingFluid Flow. J. Irrigation and Drainage Engineering 92 (IR2):61-88.
de Loubens, R. and Ramakrishnan, T.S. 2009. A Mixing Model for AqueousSolutions. Presented at the SIAM Conference on Computational Science andEngineering (CSE09), Miami, Florida, USA, 2-6 March.
Gunter, W.D., Wong, S. Cheel, D.B., and Sjostrom, G. 1998. LargeCO2 Sinks: Their role in the mitigation of greenhouse gases from aninternational, national (Canadian) and provincial (Alberta) perspective.Applied Energy 61 (4): 209-227. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/S0306-2619(98)00042-7.
House, K.Z., Altundas, Y.B., Harvey, C.F., and Shrag, D.P. 2010. TheImmobility of CO2 in Marine Sediments Beneath 1500 Meters of Water.ChemSusChem 3 (8): 905-912. http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/cssc.201000032.
IPCC Working Group III. 2005. IPCC Special Report on Carbon Dioxide Captureand Storage, ed. B. Metz, O. Davidson, H.C. de Coninck, M. Loos, and L.A.Mayer. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. http://www.ipcc.ch/pdf/special-reports/srccs/srccs_wholereport.pdf.
Juanes, R., Spiteri, E.J., Orr, F.M. Jr., and Blunt, M.J. 2006. Impact ofRelative Permeability Hysteresis on Geological CO2 Storage. WaterResour. Res. 42: W12418. http://dx.doi.org/10.1029/2005WR004806.
Knackstedt, M.A., Sheppard, A.P., and Pinczewski, W.V. 1998. Simulation ofMercury Porosimetry on Correlated Grids: Evidence for extended correlatedheterogeneity at the pore scale in rocks. Physical Review E 58 (6): 6923-6926. http://dx.doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevE.58.R6923.
Kochina, I.N., Mikhailov, N.N., and Filinov, M.V. 1983. Groundwater MoundDamping. Int. J. Eng. Sci. 21 (4): 413-421. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/0020-7225(83)90124-6.
Koide, H., Tazaki, Y., Noguchi, Y., Nakayama, S., Iijima, M., Ito, K., andShindo, Y. 1992. Subterranean Containment and Long-Term Storage of CarbonDioxide in Unused Aquifers and in Depleted Natural-gas Reservoirs. EnergyConversion and Management 33 (5-8): 619-626. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/0196-8904(92)90064-4.
Kuchuk, F., Zhan, L., Ma, S.M., Al-Shahri, A.M., Ramakrishnan, T.S.,Altundas, Y.B., Zeybek, M., de Loubens, R., and Chugunov, N. 2010.Determination of In-Situ Two-Phase Flow Properties Through Downhole FluidMovement Monitoring. SPE Res Eval & Eng 13 (4):575-587. SPE-116068-PA. http://dx.doi.org/10.2118/116068-PA.
Land, C.S. 1968. Calculation of Imbibition Relative Permeability for Two-and Three-Phase Flow From Rock Properties. SPE J. 8 (2): 149-156;Trans., AIME, 243. SPE-1942-PA. http://dx.doi.org/10.2118/1942-PA.
Larson, R.G. and Morrow, N.R. 1981. Effect of Sample Size on CapillaryPressure Curves in porous media. Powder Technology 30 (2):123-138. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/0032-5910(81)80005-8.
Lüthi, D., Le Floch, M., Bereiter, B., Blunier, T., Barnola, J.M.,Siegenthaler, U., Raynaud, D., Jouzel, J., Fischer, H., Kawamura, K., andStocker, T.F. 2008. High-resolution Carbon Dioxide Concentration Record650,000-800,000 Years Before Present. Nature 453 (15 May2008): 379-382. http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/nature06949.
Nattwongasem, D. and Jessen, K. 2009. Residual Trapping of CO2 in AquifersDuring the Counter-Current Flow. Paper SPE 125029 presented at the SPE AnnualTechnical Conference and Exhibition, New Orleans, 4-7 October. http://dx.doi.org/10.2118/125029-MS.
Peaceman, D. 1977. Fundamentals of Numerical Reservoir Simulations.Oxford, UK: Elsevier Publishing.
Petit, J.R., Jouzel J., Raynaud, D., Barkov, N.I., Barnola, J.M., Basile,I., Bender, M. et al. 1999. Climate and Atmospheric History of the Past 420 000Years from the Vostok Ice Core. Nature 399 (3 June 1999):429-436. http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/20859.
Ramakrishnan, T.S. and Wasan, D.T. 1986a. Effect of Capillary Number on theRelative Permeability Function for two Phase Flow in Porous Media. PowderTechnology 48 (2): 99-124. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/0032-5910(86)80070-5.
Ramakrishnan, T.S. and Wasan, D.T. 1986b. Two-phase Distribution in PorousMedia: An application of percolation theory. Int. J. Multiphase Flow 12 (3): 357-388. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/0301-9322(86)90013-3.
Ramakrishnan, T.S. and Wilkinson, D.J. 1997. Formation Producibility andFractional Flow Curves from Radial Resistivity Variation Caused by DrillingFluid Invasion. Phys. Fluids 9 (4): 833-844.
Spiteri, E.J., Juanes, R., Blunt, M.J., and Orr, F.M. Jr. 2008. A New Modelof Trapping and Relative Permeability Hysteresis for All WettabilityCharacteristics. SPE J. 13 (3): 277-288. SPE-96448-PA. http://dx.doi.org/10.2118/96448-PA.
Yuan H.H. and Swanson, B.F. 1989. Resolving Pore-Space Characteristics byRate-Controlled Porosimetry. SPE Form Eval 4 (1): 17-24.SPE-14892-PA. http://dx.doi.org/10.2118/14892-PA.
Yuan, H.H. 1991. Pore-Scale Heterogeneity From Mercury Porosimetry Data.SPE Form Eval 6 (2): 233-240; Trans., AIME,291. http://dx.doi.org/10.2118/19617-PA.
Some of the OnePetro partner societies have developed subject- specific wikis that may help.
PetroWiki was initially created from the seven volume Petroleum Engineering Handbook (PEH) published by the Society of Petroleum Engineers (SPE).
The SEG Wiki is a useful collection of information for working geophysicists, educators, and students in the field of geophysics. The initial content has been derived from : Robert E. Sheriff's Encyclopedic Dictionary of Applied Geophysics, fourth edition.
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Sauble Dunes Nature Reserve
This provincially significant natural area is one of the best remaining examples of beach ridges, sand plains, sand dunes and swales in the region.
Bunchberry © Mark Carabetta
Sauble Dunes, Ontario Nature’s spectacular addition to the nature reserve system, protects an exceptional 51 hectares of forested sand dunes and wetlands. The reserve is located inland from the eastern shore of Lake Huron on the Bruce Peninsula, falling entirely within the Sauble Falls North Life Science Area of Natural and Scientific Interest (ANSI) that encompasses 764 hectares between Sauble Falls and Oliphant in Amabel Township. This provincially significant ANSI is one of the best remaining examples of beach ridges, sand plains, sand dunes and swales in the region. The 168-hectare Chief’s Point Wetland, a provincially significant coastal wetland complex, extends onto the reserve and is made up of seven individual wetlands comprised of fen, marsh and swamp.
Sauble Dunes Nature Reserve was donated to Ontario Nature in memory of James and Eva Hetherington, and Ernest and Catharine Lewington. Thanks to the generosity of everyone who supported our fundraising campaign, we were able to set up an endowment fund to ensure that this natural treasure will be protected forever.
Sauble Dunes Nature Reserve © Mark Carabetta
Sauble Dunes Nature Reserve’s forested dunes and wetlands offer many different microenvironments, making them extremely diverse ecosystems, high in biodiversity. Sauble Falls North ANSI is home to several provincially rare plant species including long-leaved reed grass, dwarf lake iris and stiff yellow flax. The Chief’s Point Wetland also hosts the provincially rare beaked spikerush, Indian plantain and crested arrowhead. These areas also provide habitat for the provincially threatened Massasauga rattlesnake, and provincially significant ribbonsnake.
Other wonderful species that can be discovered on the reserve include the red-shouldered hawk and Cooper’s hawk, several species of frog and salamander, many mammals including coyote and red fox, and numerous songbirds such as the yellow-rumped warbler, purple finch, swamp sparrow, and northern waterthrush. The reserve also provides locally significant feeding and migrating habitat for various water and shore birds.
Red-spotted newt © Noah Cole
The Great Lakes coastal dune systems are considered to be among the most rare and sensitive ecosystems in Canada. Glacial drift formed the dunes over the last 3,000 to 4,000 years as the post-glacial Lake Nipissing began to recede. The dune forests on the property are particularly unique ecosystems because despite existing on steep, barren sand slopes with only a thin layer of topsoil, they are able to support a wide variety of spring wildflowers and woodland plants. Drainage between the dunes is typically poor, which has created a remarkable mosaic of wetland depressions or “swales” throughout the property.
While the unique habitats found on this reserve offer extraordinary opportunities for nature viewing, the dune ecosystems are extremely vulnerable to erosion from trampling. As there is currently no trail system in place, we would appreciate it if Ontario Nature members and supporters allow us to make a management plan and create a trail that avoids sensitive plants, animals and ecosystems before visiting this property. For more information please contact Ontario Nature.
Email Ontario Nature
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Jul 22 The Invention of Jaywalking Was a Massive Shaming Campaign
1900s, 1910s, 1920s
Before the invention of the car, jaywalking wasn't a recognized concept. Want to get across the street? Then just walk across the street—nobody's going to stop you. But the rise of the automobile posed a new problem for people of the early 20th century. While the median state-designated speed limit for American cities was just 10 miles per hour in 1906, the pace of American streets soon increased enough that people who wanted to cross them were suddenly putting themselves in harm's way. So cities across the U.S. started to regulate where and when pedestrians could cross. You can see the faint pedestrian crosswalk lines painted on the street in the scene below from Detroit circa 1917.
Detroit street scene circa 1917 from the Library of Congress
Despite the clear mortal danger, these regulations were pretty broadly ignored until motorists and police started using an even more powerful force than law: ridicule.
In his 2007 paper, "Street Rivals: Jaywalking and the Invention of the Motor Age Street," Peter D. Norton describes how ridicule was recognized early on as the best socializing force to control pedestrian behavior—behavior that would have to change with the times. Laws might help regulate pedestrians, but when there are too few police officers and too many citizens, there needs to be a radical shift in public attitude if a given law is deemed too radical for its time. For instance, a law that would restrict how a person could do something as basic as crossing the street.
National Safety Council, scanned from the paper "Street Rivals: Jaywalking and the Invention of the Motor Age Street" by Peter D. Norton
As Norton explains, "before the city street could be physically reconstructed to accommodate motor vehicles, it had first to be socially reconstructed as a modern thoroughfare." And that social reconstruction meant redefining who belonged on the street, by poking fun at those who were seen as unwanted. This ridicule would show up in newspaper editorials, in verbal confrontations between motorists and pedestrians on the street, in American classrooms, and through public shaming by police officers and other authority figures.
The word jaywalker wouldn't appear in an American dictionary until 1924, but its earliest use dates back to the 1900s. Jaywalker comes from the derogatory term "jay," which in the early 20th century referred to an idiot or rube from a rural community who would be out of place in the city. "By extension," Norton writes, "a jaywalker was someone who did not know how to walk in the city." People who didn't cross the street according to some newly established norms were thus supposed to be treated as backward country bumpkins who didn't understand how a modern city worked. The automobile was ushering in the future, and the jaywalker was its greatest threat.
The nationwide campaign to ridicule and shame jaywalkers took many different forms. San Francisco sought to "educate" the public about jaywalkers with a bit of public theater. As Norton explains:
In a 1920 safety campaign in San Francisco, pedestrians found themselves pulled into mocked-up outdoor courtrooms where crowds of onlookers watched as they were lectured on the perils of jaywalking. The idea was to "kid the people into taking care of themselves," through surely many defendants didn't appreciate the joke.
According to Norton, the Boy Scouts were also instrumental in publicly shaming jaywalkers throughout the U.S.
During a 1921 safety week in Grand Rapids, Michigan, for example, the safety council posted Boy Scouts to issue cards to offenders, teaching them that they were jay-walking." To justify the curtailment of pedestrians' customary rights, the cards explained that cutting corners was permissible when traffic was horse-drawn," but "today it is dangerous — conditions have changed!" As a local newspaper put it, "thousands of people who never knew what jaywalking meant have learned the meaning of the word."
By the mid-1920s school children all across the U.S. were getting an education on jaywalking. And here too, shame was the weapon of choice. Norton paints the scene of ridicule in Michigan with another mock trial:
In 1925, 1,300 Detroit school children gathered to witness the public trial of a twelve-year-old accused of "jay walking"; the student jury convicted the defendant, sentencing him to wash school blackboards for a week.
Another person who saw the potential of ridicule as a force to keep pedestrians in check was a man named E. B. Lefferts. He worked for the Automobile Club of Southern California and helped municipalities all around the country understand that laws alone wouldn't keep pedestrians off the road.
Speaking at a 1927 convention in Chicago, Lefferts explained, "We have recognized that in controlling traffic we must take into consideration the study of human psychology, rather than approach it solely as an engineering problem." Writing in that same year, Lefferts elaborated that "the ridicule of their fellow citizens is far more effective than any other means which might be adopted."
Lefferts had learned valuable lessons in Los Angeles, where ridicule was being used in conjunction with new jaywalking laws in the 1920s to make sure that the public got the message. L.A. police would blow whistles at jaywalkers, and though some people would protest loudly (and sometimes even violently) most pedestrians were shamed into submission. After hearing the policeman's shrill whistle the vast majority of people, "grinned sheepishly and scuttled back to the curb."
The 1920s would see countless visions of the future which included separating automobile traffic from pedestrian traffic. Futurists like Hugo Gernsback wrote about the cities of tomorrow which would often include three levels — the below ground level for cars and trucks, the ground level for pedestrians, and the roof level where airships would sail through the sky.
But the motorists of the 1920s were stuck with the reality on the ground, and felt like they had to fight by changing the conversation. By the 1920s, newspapers and auto organizations felt they could be openly hostile to pedestrians who were seen as reckless on city streets. The May 1, 1924 Bakersfield Californian exemplified the campaign to push pedestrians away by insisting that it was unruly "pedestrian pests" who were to blame should any car "suffer damages":
Should one of the pedestrian pests chance to step into the path of an approaching automobile; should the automobile strike him, and should the automobile suffer damages, the jay walker is held liable.
Motorists who were upset that they were taking the blame for auto-on-person accidents coined the term jaywalker to ridicule pedestrians. But pedestrians countered with terms like "joy rider, "jay driver" and even "flivverboob." As we know from history, they didn't quite catch on. The establishment of the jaywalker as the rule-breaker was a decades -long effort to keep pedestrians on the sidewalk. And it worked.
A week ago, protestors who were angered by the verdict in the trial of George Zimmerman walked out on the 10 freeway. It was a rather jarring sight — people simply walking on a major highway in the second largest city in the country. But to understand why this scene was shocking, we have to go back a century and explore the battle between the automobile and pedestrian on American roads. We've been socialized to understand that certain places are not for pedestrians—and with cars today zipping by at 70 miles and hour, it's become pure common sense.
Protestors on the 10 freeway by Twitter user @mattdpearce
cars, transportation, transportation history, jaywalking, history of jaywalking, pedestrians, e. b. lefferts, automobiles, automobile club of southern california, los angeles, hugo gernsback, flivverboob, joy rider, jay driver, detroit, library of congress, streetcars
Jul 23 Internet Pioneers Discuss the Future of Money, Books, and Paper in 1972
Jul 22 UCLA's 1948 Mechanical Computer Was Simply Gorgeous To Watch in Action
Jun 12 How the Automobile Became a Suicide Machine
Jun 6 1923 Envisions the Two-Wheeled Flying Car of 1973
Apr 26 Nobody Walks in L.A.: The Rise of Cars and the Monorails That Never Were
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Our Lady of Priests Chapel
Opus Bono Prayer for Priests
The Opus Bono Sacerdotii Icon
Princes of the Church
Divine Mercy Stations of the Cross
Vatican Links
D O N A T E
Appeals court reverses monsignor's conviction in child sex abuse case
by Ben Finley, Allison Steele and Aubrey Whelen, Philadelphia Inquirer
PHILADELPHIA -- A state appeals court on Thursday reversed the conviction of Monsignor William J. Lynn, the former Archdiocese of Philadelphia administrator who became the first church official nationwide to be tried for covering up child sex abuse by priests.
In a 43-page opinion, a three-judge Superior Court panel wrote that prosecutors had misapplied Pennsylvania's child endangerment law by claiming that Monsignor Lynn, as the archdiocese secretary for clergy, was responsible for abuse because he supervised a priest, Edward Avery, when Avery sexually abused an altar boy in the mid-1990s.
The court wrote that the law, as it was written during Monsignor Lynn's tenure in the 1990s and early 2000s, only held accountable people who directly supervised children.
Monsignor Lynn, 62, has been serving a three- to six-year prison term since his conviction and sentencing last year. His lead lawyer, Thomas A. Bergstrom, said he hoped that the monsignor would be freed in a few days.
"It's the right result, and it's the right decision," Mr. Bergstrom said. "It's unfortunate that he had to spend 18 months in prison before we got it."
Philadelphia District Attorney Seth Williams said his office likely will appeal the decision. "I am disappointed and strongly disagree with the court's decision," he said.
In its ruling, the Superior Court sided with a legal argument that Monsignor Lynn's lawyers had been making for two years, but one that Common Pleas Judge M. Teresa Sarmina rejected before and after his trial.
The higher court also found that Monsignor Lynn, now 62, could not be convicted as an accomplice to Avery's abuse because, even though he knew of a previous allegation against Avery, there was no proof that he had specific knowledge that Avery had been planning or preparing to assault children.
"We cannot dispute that the Commonwealth presented more than adequate evidence to sufficiently demonstrate that [Monsignor Lynn] prioritized the Archdiocese's reputation over the safety of potential victims of sexually abusive priests and, by inference, that the same prioritization dominated [Monsignor Lynn's] handling of [an abusive priest]," the ruling said. "Nevertheless, we do not believe such a showing is sufficient to demonstrate intent to promote or facilitate [the endangering the welfare of children] offense."
Monsignor Lynn's arrest followed a scathing 2011 grand jury report and sparked a second wave of promised reform by the Philadelphia church. Dozens of priests have since been suspended and re-investigated by the church over past claims of abuse.
Judge Sarmina imprisoned Monsignor Lynn immediately after the jury decision in June 2012. He has been serving his term at the State Correctional Institution Waymart, in the state's northeast corner.
David Clohessy, executive director of the Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests, or SNAP, was disappointed by the decision. He said church officials have "time and time again" used expensive, smart lawyers to escape responsibility for abuses. "I think many, many survivors and betrayed Catholics will feel very sad about this decision," he said.
Monsignor Lynn's supporters maintained that he was being made a scapegoat for the church hierarchy, and he consistently maintained that he followed orders. "We can't have the Salem witch hunts on Catholic priests, like they've had in the past," said Joe Maher of Opus Bono, a network for priests accused of sexual assault. "This will send a message to other prosecutors that you really have to find and hold accountable those that have caused the harm to the victims, and not to those that may have been in authority over those who were abusing."
As the secretary for clergy under Cardinal Anthony Bevilacqua for nearly a dozen years, Monsignor Lynn had responsibilities that included proposing assignments for priests and investigating complaints against them. Prosecutors portrayed him as a powerful gatekeeper who quietly shuffled abusive priests between parishes, misinformed parishioners and worked harder to protect the church's reputation than he did to protect children.
Monsignor Lynn took the stand for nearly three days in his own defense. He asserted that he lacked authority to remove abusive priests but said he did as much as he could to keep them away from children. "I thought I was helping people," he testified in May 2012. "I thought I was helping priests and, in those circumstances, I thought I was helping victims, as much as I could."
In 2005, a grand jury excoriated Cardinal Bevilacqua, Monsignor Lynn and the archdiocese hierarchy for their roles in handling abuse complaints but claimed that gaps in the law prevented recommendations for charges. The state child-endangerment law in effect when Monsignor Lynn was secretary for clergy limited responsibility to direct caretakers, such as parents or guardians. In 2007, the law was expanded to include employers and supervisors whose subordinates abused minors in their care.
Prosecutors contended that the changes amounted only to a clarification of the previous law, and thus Monsignor Lynn could be charged under that statute. But his defenders argued that the legislation created a new law and a new class of offenders.
Under that law, there was little doubt that Monsignor Lynn potentially could have been held legally responsible for actions of other priests under the amended statute, said Alan J. Tauber, another member of Monsignor Lynn's defense team.
Prosecutors now could ask the Superior Court to rehear the case or petition the state Supreme Court.
http://www.post-gazette.com/news/state/2013/12/27/Appeals-court-reverses-monsignor-William-Lynns-conviction-in-child-sex-abuse-case.print
Opus Bono Sacerdotii, PO Box 251, Dryden, MI 48428 Phone: (866) 425-4692
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Activating Archives
OjHalstead
Activating Archives is a small series of projects within which I am attempting to invigorate processes of sound archive collection and dissemination, by applying a range of creative technologies to transmit archived materials to public audiences.
So far, the Activating Archives initiative has seen me to travel to Japan in March 2018, to work with two groups of traditional musicians in Sendai and Tokyo. During my time in Japan, I was able to collect a variety of musical recordings and develop insights about the personal motivations of the musicians who were kind enough to work with me.
Since returning to the UK, I've been working with a team of creative technologists, who have been applying their skills to develop intuitive interfaces and creative experiences formulated around the Japanese materials I gathered in the field. Together, we exhibited the materials in a range of public spaces across the Greater Manchester region, after partnering with Wigan Council who have provided us with a number of options through which we can disseminate the work.
It's my hope that the Activating Archives initiative can provide new ways of thinking about how people interact with culturally significant collections of music and sound, and about who can benefit from interacting with these materials when they're curated to be both engaging and intuitively educational. The project so far has been both insightful and creatively challenging, whilst providing me with some great cultural experiences through travelling and meeting new people.
RECORDING AT TOHOKU UNIVERSITY
I was invited to work with a group of students at Tohoku University in Sendai by Tsubasa, who I initially contacted online when I discovered his traditional music club, which operates on an extra-curricular basis. The club members were very warm and welcoming, and together we recorded a range of traditional and more contemporary Japanese pieces, whilst endeavouring to sample their instruments in detail.
The musicians were unfamiliar with the process of instrument sampling (recording an instrument a single note at a time, at varying velocities), which made it a challenge to communicate what I was seeking to accomplish, especially when considering the significant language barrier. However, we quickly got underway and once we’d sampled an instrument once or twice, it became a fairly simplistic process.
In between sampling instruments, the musicians would split into different groups and play some ensemble pieces, which I was also able to capture. The musicians would then tell me the names of these pieces and some other key bits of information, such as how old they were or what they were originally intended for.
The video below is an example of a piece titled “Twilightseiling” by Keisuke Suna and Tsubasa.
The video below is another example of another piece titled “Illusion” by Tsubasa and Makoto.
RECORDING IN TOKYO
After working in Sendai, I was then invited to spend some time recording two grandmaster musicians in Tokyo. I was fortunate enough to have been put in contact with Tamami, a close associate of the musicians, who invited me to her place of work so that I could meet Setsuko and her daughter Yumiko. The pair were both very welcoming, and after we’d made our introductions, they began to play some traditional pieces together. Setsuko and Yumiko are both very skilled Shamisen players, and following a few performances, Yumiko started to display her skill with the Kokyu, a bowed instrument aesthetically similar to the Shamisen but less prominent in contemporary culture.
Following a series of performances, I sat down with Setsuko and Yumiko to talk to them about their personal interests and the music they practice. They spoke to me in detail about how they first began to practice music, and some of the wonderful experiences that music has led them to. They also spoke about their attempts to encourage non-musicians and younger age groups to engage with traditional Japanese music by first introducing them to more familiar, contemporary musical pieces, and slowly advancing them toward a more adept knowledge of their cultural traditions. I have to express a great deal of gratitude to Tamami, who was so very helpful not only with setting up this recording opportunity, but also in communicating with the musicians and translating my questions.
Although my time recording in Toyko was brief, I was thankful to be able to learn so much about Japanese music and methods of performance by observing and speaking with Setsuko and Yumiko. Their enthusiasm toward my work was greatly appreciated, and I’m so grateful to them for taking the time to support my research.
Below is a compilation of a selection of videos that I captured whilst I was exploring Sendai and Toyko. Japan is one of the most visually dynamic and versatile places I’ve ever had the opportunity to visit, and I often found myself not being able to resist trying to capture little moments as I moved from place to place.
After I returned from Japan, I began working on the next phase of the project which focused on introducing the materials I’d collected to members of the general public in a series of workshops, whilst also showcasing a variety of pre-existing interactive musical interfaces. Together with my project partner Jack Davenport, we held several creative workshop events throughout the Greater Manchester area, where we were able to explore how effective certain interfaces were, whilst quizzing members of the public about the features that they found most engaging.
Through this process, and by working with two creative technologists who were providing technical assistance with the project - Ruben Dejaegere and Robin De Neef - we arrived at the idea of making a digitised and musical version of a traditional Japanese board game called “Shogi”, which would combine two different elements of Japanese culture - games and music - into one physical, interactive experience. Our idea was that we could use the framework of the original game and modify it to act as a musical step sequencer, with different Shogi pieces - called “Koma” - representing different musical instruments, and playing back different audio files. We also wanted to have another mode where two users could play a game of Shogi, and have their moves be accompanied by the sounds from the archive, to create a more immersive experience.
Following the workshop and design stages of the project, we then began to exhibit our musical experiences in different institutions across the Greater Manchester region, such as Wigan Library and Leigh Library, where members of the public could come and engage with the materials I’d collected from Japan, through the interfaces developed by Jack, Robin and Ruben. The final exhibition took place at the Cross Street Arts gallery for a period of a few weeks beginning at the end of August 2018, and we were really pleased with the response our designs had from all those who attended the opening event.
It was really a rewarding experience to finally see the work in the hands of other people, and watch as they started to figure out how the interfaces worked. We were really pleased with the playful engagements that the designs offered, and in terms of providing engagement with archived sounds and music, we felt we’d been quite successful in our efforts.
If you’d like some more information on this project, please feel free to contact me here.
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Stocks mixed on US-China dispute; oil pushed up by hurricane
Annabelle Liang, Associated Press
Associated Press 12 September 2018
A currency trader watches monitors at the foreign exchange dealing room of the KEB Hana Bank headquarters in Seoul, South Korea, Wednesday, Sept. 12, 2018. Asian shares fell on Wednesday as China delayed issuing licenses to American businesses hoping to operate in the country, as the threat of more trade tariffs from Washington loomed. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)
SINGAPORE (AP) -- World markets were mixed Wednesday as investors focused on trade tensions, with China delaying licenses to American businesses ahead of expected tariffs from Washington. The price of oil continued to rise on concerns that Hurricane Florence could disrupt supplies.
KEEPING SCORE: In Europe, France's CAC 40 gained 0.5 percent to 5,309, while Britain's FTSE 100 was down 0.2 percent at 7,262. Germany's DAX added 0.2 percent to 11,988. Wall Street was poised to open slightly higher, with Dow and S&P 500 futures both rose 0.1 percent.
ASIA'S DAY: Japan's benchmark Nikkei 225 lost 0.3 percent to 22,604.61, and the Kospi in South Korea was almost flat at 2,282.92. Hong Kong's Hang Seng index was 0.3 percent lower at 26,345.04. The Shanghai Composite index fell 0.3 percent to 2,656.11. Australia's S&P/ASX 200 shed 0.1 percent to 6,175.90.
CHINA-U.S. TENSIONS: China is putting off accepting license applications from American companies in financial services and other industries until Washington makes progress toward a settlement, an official of a business group said Tuesday. The disclosure is the first public confirmation of U.S. companies' fears that their operations in China or access to its markets might be disrupted by the battle over Beijing's technology policy. The license delay applies to industries Beijing has promised to open to foreign competitors, according to Jacob Parker, vice president for China operations of the U.S.-China Business Council. The group represents some 200 American companies that do business with China. President Donald Trump's administration is poised to slap tariffs on $200 billion in Chinese goods and is considering tariffs on $267 billion more.
ANALYST'S TAKE: "China's ability to respond is limited in tariffs, the government is using what they call 'qualitative measures,'" said Robert Carnell, head of research and chief economist at ING Bank. "You can't put a number on that, but it's not an idle threat. They could really make it hard for U.S. companies to operate in China."
BREXIT DEAL: Hopes for a Brexit deal rose this week, pushing up the pound and helping stock markets. Britain's Treasury chief Philip Hammond said Tuesday that he agreed with the EU's Brexit negotiator that reaching a divorce deal with the European Union over the next two months is "doable." Business groups and civil servants say a "no-deal" Brexit could cause disruption in shipping, barriers to trade with the bloc, a fall in the value of the pound and even shortages of essential goods.
ENERGY: Benchmark U.S. crude added 67 cents to $69.92 a barrel, after surging past $70 in the Asian session. The contract gained 2.5 percent to $69.25 per barrel in New York. The approach of Hurricane Florence and its potential to disrupt oil supply on the East Coast spurred gains. The U.S. is also getting ready to put sanctions on Iran's energy industry. Brent crude, used to price international oils, rose 15 cents to $79.21 a barrel. It jumped 2.2 percent to $79.06 a barrel in London on Tuesday.
CURRENCIES: The dollar fell to 111.48 yen from 111.59. The euro was down to $1.1591 from $1.1605, and the pounds was roughly steady at $1.3023 after rising sharply the day before.
Woman Violently Pushes Priest Off Stage To The Horror Of Thousands
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Casa Kimberly, Puerto Vallarta
Going back in time to the tumultuous love affair of Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton in the 1960’s.
Casa Kimberly built above the historic Old Town of Puerto Vallarta was the love nest of Elizabeth Taylor
Richard and Elizabeth: the early days
and Richard Burton after they had fallen in love and carried on a torrid love affair in the privacy of this house. From the terrace of Elizabeth’s suite, the panoramic view overlooks the Bay of Banderas with its crystalline waters, changing kaleidoscopically to different shades of aquamarine depending on the time of day, the tides and the cloud covering.
For her 32nd birthday Richard Burton gifted Casa Kimberly to his Love, a gift that rivaled the many gifts he bestowed on Elizabeth during the times they were together, that included two marriages and two divorces. The movie set of Cleopatra was where the love affair began, but Casa Kimberly was where it got wings and it is here that the legend of the volatile romance lives on.
Making The Night of The Iguana Movie
Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton, both at the pinnacle of their careers, had fallen in “lust” during the filming of Cleopatra, where they were cast as the leads in 1962.
The movie that started it all
The sensational relationship provided heaps of notoriety that fueled the publicity machine during its filming and for many years to come. They originally met a few years earlier, at which time Taylor described Burton as “boorish and boring,” but the second meeting on the set of Cleopatra was “combustible,” even though Burton was allegedly drunk when he arrived on set to meet his co-star. They fell headlong into a love affair where they could not bear to be apart from one another.
Elizabeth, one of the most beautiful women in the world, with a cleavage to match, had always danced to the beat of her own drum and their love was so all consuming that neither of them gave a thought to anyone else who may be impacted by their affair or the consequences. At the time, Elizabeth was married to Eddie Fisher, whose marriage to Debbie Reynolds she had broken up a couple of years previously and Richard Burton was married to Sybil Williams.
By the end of 1963 Burton was divorced and Taylor’s divorce was finalized in March 1964 after she accompanied Burton to Puerto Vallarta where he was to film “The Night of the Iguana” in nearby Mismaloya an isolated fishing village in the wilds of Mexico.
Love blooms
John Huston was to direct the movie of “The Night of the Iguana” with a cast that included Richard Burton, Ava Gardener, Deborah Kerr and Sue Lyon as the leads. He had already directed the play on Broadway, “A tense drama of morality, lust and love.”
Rather than film on a sound stage in Hollywood, Huston chose a setting to resemble the town in Mexico, near Acapulco, where the action of the Tennessee Williams play takes place. He also wanted to isolate the actors from their normal lives and environment and place them under a certain amount of duress hoping to elicit the best possible performances from them.
The isolated, undeveloped fishing village of Mismaloya on the edge of the Mexican jungle was chosen as the venue for filming “The Night of the Iguana,” a destination that at that time could only be accessed by boat from Puerto Vallarta. Huston had been visiting Mexico for years and was familiar with the location. He was a very experienced director, well into his career, with a number of awards wining films, adding to the list when “The Night of the Iguana” received four nominations and one Academy award.
Elizabeth Taylor accompanied Richard Burton and the rest of the cast and crew who arrived in Puerto Vallarta. They were booked to stay at the Hotel Oceano on the Malecon and the hotel was also to be the Production Headquarters for the movie. At that time, it was the leading hotel even though it had dirt floors.
One night Elizabeth had an “encounter” with a flying cockroach and she threatened to leave because of the bugs. According to the legend, Burton contacted John Huston and said:“If we don’t find suitable accommodation for Elizabeth, I’m afraid i won’t be able to star in your film.”
Enter Casa Kimberly
In the 1960’s Puerto Vallarta was nothing more than another small Mexican Fishing Village. Huston already owned Casa Kimberly on Calle Garagoza above the Old Town in Puerto Vallarta and he suggested that Richard and Elizabeth move into his home and he would find somewhere else to live.
Brilliant idea, they absolutely fell in love with Casa Kimberly so much so that Richard Burton bought it from John Huston for the princely sum of $57,000 . A few months later, when they had finished filming” Iguana” and before they were married, he gifted Casa Kimberly to Elizabeth on her 32nd Birthday as a token of his love, an early gift followed by many more over the years.
The Bridge of Love
Perhaps the space was too small to contain both of their fiery, tempestuous personalities.After he gave Casa Kimberly to Elizabeth, Burton bought a smaller house next door for himself. A bridge modeled on the “Bridge of Sighs” in Venice was built connecting the two houses and was known as the “Puente del Amor” or “Bridge of Love”.
By this time, hordes of photographers and reporters had arrived in Puerto Vallarta to capture images and gossip of the lovebirds whose romance had gone global with headlines and photos appearing in papers all over the world. Living at Casa Kimberly with the connecting bridge, they were able to carry on their love affair in the privacy of their home away from the prying camera lenses and news reporters.The bridge afforded them privacy in going back and forth from one house to the other, whether to escape one another during their well-publicized alcohol infused quarrels, to make up after a screaming match or just to give them each their own space.
Staying on
Elizabeth loved this home and continued to use it through out two marriages and divorces from Burton, bringing different members of her Family from time to time.
After Richard Burton passed away suddenly from a brain hemorrhage at his home in Celigny Switzerland on August 6th, 1984, by which time he was married to Suzy Hunt, it became too painful for her ever to return here again. Even though each one had gone on with their lives after the second divorce, it was apparent the flame they held for each other was never extinguished.
Selling the Casa
Elizabeth sold Casa Kimberly in 1990 leaving all its contents inside, including furniture and personal effects. For a while it was used as a Bed and Breakfast Inn and then turned into a museum to her memory before falling into disrepair, when the new owners from California failed to pay the taxes. At one time it was on the market for $1.75 million Dollars and in about 2006 it was bought by Janice Chatterton for an undisclosed amount.
Mrs. Chatterton also owned the Hacienda del Angel on the same street, that she had refurbished as a luxury boutique hotel. The new owner did a total refurbishment of the property, adding to its square footage and redoing all the spaces to bring it up to date for a modern boutique hotel. The refurbishment was done in extremely good taste and furnished in an understated, sophisticated style, making use of antiques and reproduction antique furniture including some items from Mrs. Chatterton’s personal collection. No expense was spared. It has exceptional artwork adorning the walls adding a richness to the rusticity of the other finishes and there are reminders of the Burton’s throughout the Hotel.The new incarnation of the original two homes has increased square footage and opened on December 1st, 2015 after a lengthy refurbishment.
The “Burton Effect” on Puerto Vallarta, Mexico
Puerto Vallarta was a small Mexican Fishing Village when the cast and crew of “The Night of the Iguana” arrived. Following closely behind, were hordes of photographers and journalists, hoping to get some pictures of them living in Puerto Vallarta or juicy snippets of gossip.
For a while the Lovers could not go into “town” without being hounded and mobbed, but as time went by, they were able to move more freely and could be seen wandering around the Old Town’s “Zona Romantica”, eating at the restaurants or shopping. The local population welcomed them and in turn the Burtons showed generosity to their hosts.
Photographs of them at this time, reveal a happy couple and Elizabeth appeared more beautiful and radiant than ever. This was the moment in time that Puerto Vallarta morphed from a sleepy, backwater of a fishing village to a magnet for international visitors and wealthy Mexicans to visit and purchase homes.
It is difficult to quantify the effect the Burton’s had on Puerto Vallarta but there is no doubt their technicolor lives were the catalyst that put it on the global map. Fortunately, the “Romantic Zone” has maintained its authentic Mexican character and it continues to weave its old-world charm on all who come to visit.
Visiting Casa Kimberly
Casa Kimberly, at 445 Calle Garagoza, a few blocks off one of the main streets in Puerto Vallarta’s Romantic Zone is easy to find.
The cobblestone road is narrow, on an incline, with a couple of sharp turns and space for one car only at a time, as one side is used to park cars. The neighborhood is known as “Gringo Gulch,” where in the 1950’s many Americans chose to buy or build homes because of its picture-perfect views and closeness to the charming Romantic Zone of Puerto Vallarta, the Malecon and the surrounding beaches.
Elizabeth and her violet eyes greet you
Seeing the “Puente del Amor” or “Love Bridge” overhead that connects the two houses, I knew I had arrived at Casa Kimberly.
There is an ornate iron screen allowing one to catch a glimpse of a bronze sculpture of Elizabeth and Richard in the entrance. A bronze plaque on the wall confirms this is Casa Kimberly the former home of the Burton’s.
Giving the hanging brass bell above the door a tug, it gave off a loud clang and the door was opened by Isabel, who was to give me a tour of the Casa. We walked up some steps and saw a large portrait of Elizabeth hanging on the wall, with those beautiful blue violet eyes staring back.
The two buildings that were occupied by the Burtons, were bought and restored immaculately by Mrs. Janice Chatterton on the original site. The location is ideal.
It is peaceful and serene while being a short walk from the Romantic Zone of Puerto Vallarta with its cobblestone streets, taco stands, artisan markets, eclectic shopping and a host of restaurants and food choices.
It is also close to the Malecon that recently underwent a restoration that included the installation of several oversized sculptures.
The two houses are connected by the “Bridge of Love.” There are now nine suites, including the Elizabeth Suite and the Richard Suite, plus the Iguana Restaurant and Bar and two treatment rooms.The overall structure is larger than the original homes.
The one side houses three suites including Richard’s Suite and the swimming pool. The other side has Elizabeth’s suite on the top floor, where it always was, plus five more suites and two spa treatment rooms.
Each room is individually designed. It has a rustic feel, white walls, honey colored marble floors and white gauze cotton curtains to match the white bed linens, Artwork throughout is impressive, making use of large scale oil on canvas paintings
Half of the lighting fixtures are custom made from ironwork while the others are Swarovski Crystal adding an elegant touch. The use of lighted candles at night adds to the romantic ambience. Most of the rooms have plunge baths on their private verandas, where one can luxuriate enjoying the view overlooking the Bay of Banderas and the Sierra Madre Mountains rising up from the Bay.
There are niches and alcoves throughout with sculptures and interesting vistas and the sound of trickling water from fountains.
The tile work is exceptional, making use of Mexican blue and white tiles lining the steps or the walls. The ceilings are constructed in traditional style, with bricks lining the domes and connected with wooden beams that make an important architectural element.
It is apparent that no expense has been spared to recreate this homage to Casa Kimberly.
Elizabeth’s Suite
Elizabeth’s Suite is accessed by its own dedicated elevator or a separate blue and white tiled staircase.
It has 2,500 square feet of accommodation on the top floor and has a wraparound terrace with its own swimming pool.
The view is priceless, taking in the surrounding hillside of Gringo Gulch with its terracotta roofed houses, the green belt on either side of the Cuale River and the hillside across the Bay of Banderas. In the 1960’s, it was covered in jungle and is now built up with Condos that have been sold to expats from North America, England and wealthy Mexicans mostly from Mexico City.
The original heart shaped bath made of pink marble that was commissioned by Elizabeth Taylor has been restored.
Leading up to the bath, there are two marble columns as if directing one to the bath that is the centerpiece of her dressing area. A hand carved bed matches the hand carved armoire that now houses the TV. A Swarovski crystal chandelier draws the eye to an overhead cupola, lined with hand painted cherubs. The room itself is uncluttered with the same white gauzy curtains that appear in all the bedrooms.This allows the handsome, large, oil canvas paintings on the wall to give it dramatic impact.
The Iguana Restaurant
The Iguana Restaurant serves updated Mexican Food and is one of the top restaurants in Puerto Vallarta garnering rave reviews on the Internet. It has retractable windows and spectacular views overlooking the “Zona Romantica” of Puerto Vallarta, the Bay of Banderas and the hills rising up across the Bay.
Helmed by executive Chef Eduardo Mishaga Lucero, the emphasis is on serving fresh farm to table ingredients from local suppliers. The white table clothed tables have beautiful cutlery and monogrammed China. While the guests dine, they are serenaded by a popular Mariachi Band that visits every evening.
Either before or after dinner, guests congregate at the Tequila Bar, which is well stocked with the best Tequilas and Mescals that are produced in the State of Jalisco, not far from Casa Kimberly . They serve flights of Tequila or Mescal and offer tasting classes. From the bar, there is another wrap around balcony where guests can relax in the day or night and enjoy the view and the ambience.
This is a superb, luxury experience in a unique, iconic boutique hotel, deigned and put together with great style and no expense spared.
Casa Kimberly Information
Address:Casa Kimberly Calle Zaragoza 445, Puerto Vallarta, Mexico
Rates: $300 – $600 per night upwards depending on room selection and time of year, includes breakfast.
Contact: info@casakimberly.com
Telephone: 52/322 222 1336 and 877/218- 3248
phylonthego June 14, 2018 All | Hotels | Mexico | South/Central America
Written by phylonthego
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The 'shine' in gold particles has a new use – finding defects
by Barb Cramer, Vanderbilt University
That glint of gold has always captured our eyes, but now the precious metal has a new use – finding defects in 3-D printing.
Vanderbilt researchers have developed a technique for gold to actually 'shine' inside 3-D printed parts to highlight any problems.
"This is one of the first applications using gold for defect detection. We are able to inspect and detect defects that aren't visible to the naked eye, using the optical properties of embedded gold nanoparticles," said Cole Brubaker, civil engineering graduate student, and lead author of the study. "That's a very critical step – being able to say 'We have a defect. It's right here.'"
The research team used super-tiny particles of gold, which actually show up as a deep maroon color. The nanoparticles are approximately 100,000 times thinner than a human hair, but they could solve a major problem in manufacturing.
"3-D printed materials are becoming increasingly common in our day-to-day life, from consumer goods and products to even demonstrations of 3-D-printed automobiles and homes," said Kane Jennings, chair and professor of chemical and biomolecular engineering, and co-author on the paper. "But there can be problems in the processing of 3-D printed materials. Small defects or missing print layers can occur. These defects can compromise and weaken the structural integrity of the 3-D printed products, causing failure."
Researchers decided to try embedding gold inside the printing material to see whether it could help flag those defects.
Credit: Vanderbilt University
"It's similar to the gold in your ring, but it has very unique optical properties that don't degrade over time," Brubaker said.
The innovative process involves mixing the gold nanoparticles with a dissolved plastic polymer, dispersing it throughout the medium. When it dries and hardens, the plastic is extruded or pressed into gold nanoparticle-filled polymer filaments, or thin tubing, which can then be used in standard 3-D printers.
After a part is printed, it goes into a special UV-Vis spectrophotometer to inspect for defects.
"We're using the absorbance properties of the embedded gold nanoparticles," Brubaker said. "You just scan light across the surface of the sample and see where the absorbance decreases inside, signaling a defect in that material. A defect can be found with one single nondestructive measurement. It's very quick. It takes just a matter of seconds. We don't have to rely on large sensing systems that have sensors placed all over the part."
The interdisciplinary team included researchers from the departments of civil and environmental engineering, chemical and biomolecular engineering and chemistry, along with help from an undergraduate student studying at Fisk University in Nashville. The research was funded by the U.S. Office of Naval Research. Patents are pending on the technology and the research findings have been published in ACS Applied Nano Materials.
"There are tremendous possibilities for what we can do with this technology," Jennings said. "We have demonstrated the 3-D printed parts can be self-reporting. They self-report defects. We're looking now at the possibility to do even more with these smart materials."
"What really gets me excited is the broad range of applications we can use this technology for," said Brubaker. "We've just scratched the surface."
Using gold nanoparticles to trigger sequential unfolding of 3-D structures
More information: Cole D. Brubaker et al. Nondestructive Evaluation and Detection of Defects in 3D Printed Materials Using the Optical Properties of Gold Nanoparticles, ACS Applied Nano Materials (2018). DOI: 10.1021/acsanm.8b00142
Provided by Vanderbilt University
Citation: The 'shine' in gold particles has a new use – finding defects (2018, July 11) retrieved 18 July 2019 from https://phys.org/news/2018-07-gold-particles-defects.html
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[Architectural model of U.S. Capitol]
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United States Capitol Free Sock Photos. Public Domain, Royalty Free Images. The United States Capitol, often called the Capitol Building or Capitol Hill, is the home of the United States Congress, and the seat of the legislative branch of the U.S. federal government. President George Washington in 1791 selected the area that is now the District of Columbia from land ceded by Maryland. French engineer Pierre Charles L'Enfant who planned the new city of Washington located the Capitol at the elevated east end of the Mall, on the brow of what was then called Jenkins' Hill. The site was, in L'Enfant's words, "a pedestal waiting for a monument." President Washington laid the cornerstone of the U.S. Capitol in the building's southeast corner on September 18, 1793, with Masonic ceremonies. Construction was a time-consuming process: the sandstone used for the building had to be ferried on boats from the quarries at Aquia, Virginia and workers had to be induced to leave their homes to come to the relative wilderness of Capitol Hill. Some third-floor rooms were still unfinished when the Congress, the Supreme Court, the Library of Congress, and the courts of the District of Columbia occupied the U.S. Capitol in late 1800.
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BASQUE EXTREMISTS STILL REFUSE TO DECLARE PEACE
To the last man and woman
Since ending its unilateral ceasefire on 3 December, ETA seems bent on a bloodbath. It no longer balks at killing elected Basque politicians who do not support independence (such as Jesus Maria Pedrosa, a member of the People’s Party, killed in June) - or indeed anyone critical of its gangster methods (like journalist Jose Luis de Lacalle, a former communist and veteran of the anti-Franco struggle, gunned down in May). ETA’s current extremism reflects the political isolation of its grassroots supporters.
by Cédric Gouverneur
"Violence is a revolutionary necessity," says Emilia. a 25-year-old office worker. Like many other young people in Hernani, she is convinced that "armed struggle" is the only way. In this little town on the outskirts of San Sebastian, ETA is on home ground. The streets are plastered with pictures of prisoners, posters exhorting the locals to beware of police informers, and graffiti threatening all non-independentist Basque politicians with death.
In many of the local bars, beneath photos of Che Guevara, Fidel Castro and assorted Palestinians and Irish Republicans, there are collection boxes inviting customers to give money to the cause. Long-haired teenage militants with body piercings, belonging to the extremist youth organisation, Jarrai, rub shoulders over a beer with old separatists wearing the traditional beret. "The political conditions for a ceasefire do not exist," a student solemnly tells me. "Basque nationalism is defensive," an older man chips in: "We’re fighting Spanish and French interference in the Basque homeland".
The mood in Hernani, as in over a hundred local districts controlled by Euskal Herritarrok (EH). is one of revolutionary exaltation. The place is a cross between an anarchist commune and a Republican district in west Belfast. The festive atmosphere and alternative life-style jar with the image the rest of Basque and Spanish society has of the Basque "patriotic" left. Some of the militants try to convince me the murder of Miguel Angel Blanco was justified: "That little fascist was exterminated just in time. He was all set to become another Franco." Blanco, a 29-year-old Basque belonging to the ruling centre-right People’s Party (PP), was a local councillor in the village of Ermua. He was kidnapped and executed in cold blood in July 1997. The murder rocked Spain and brought five million people, including (...)
Cédric Gouverneur
* Journalist, Paris.
(1) The names have been changed to preserve anonymity.
(2) Euskadi ta Askatasuna: "Basque Homeland and Freedom".
(3) On Basque nationalist ideology, see Barbara Loyer, "Basque nationalism undermined by ETA", Le Monde diplomatique, English edition, February 1998.
(4) "The Basque People": the organisation that succeeded Herri Batasuna (Popular Unity) as ETA’s political wing. In various elections it has polled 12 to 18% of the Basque vote.
(5) Peter Kropotkin, "The spirit of revolt" (1880), full English text at http://www.tao.ca/ wdbf/essays/revolt.htmland http://www.hyperreal.org/ lamont/anarchism/kropotkin.txt.
(6) "Journalists in ETA’s line of sight", Reporters Without Borders, Paris, June 2000, full English text at http://www.rsf.fr/uk/homeeur.html.
(7) Ibid.
(8) The signatories (the PNV, the nationalists of Euskadi Askatasuna, the communists of the United Left and the radicals of Euskal Herritarrok) undertook to promote multilateral talks to resolve the conflict and implicitly called on ETA to declare a ceasefire.
(9) Out of a total of approximately 430 prisoners, Madrid is said to have transferred 340 to prisons close to the Basque country and 64 to prisons in the Basque country itself, in accordance with ETA’s demands.
Basque Society Violence Terrorism Nationalism Cultural identity Spain
français — Sanglante dérive des extrémistes basques
Español — ETA: crueldad humana, ruina política
Português — O sangrento desvio de rumo dos extremistas bascos
italiano — Cruenta deriva degli estremisti baschi
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The Counselor: Review
From the writer who brought us The Road and No Country for Old Men, comes the tale of a naive lawyer who tries his hand in the dangerous but lucrative business of drug running. This is a film that had sparks of brilliance but ultimately failed due to having a plot that doesn’t effectively translate to the big screen.
The screenplay is full of witty and intelligent dialogue. Sadly it was hard to suspend belief while watching because this attribute applied to almost every character. Almost every member of the cast was too smart for there own good, It was bit hard to follow the narrative when you are bombarded with long winded conversations. These extended scenes of dialogue paid off at times but on the other hand it just seems as if the characters were just going off on tangents. This really threw off the pacing of the film.
The focus on the characters of the story is trademark Ridley Scott. His direction in the film really allowed for the development of some interesting personalities. We are treated with some some impressive lighting and camera work. The dark scenes set in mexico offer a great visual and atmospheric contrast to what is happening under the surface.
The movie sports an impressive and ensemble Cast. Javier Bardem, is always an interesting guy to watch on screen. Bardem plays the role of Reiner; a drug dealer who invites the counselor in on some of the action. He brings a unique flare to the characters he portrays. He exudes an exotic essence of culture and his personality was one of the more memorable in the film. And he also manages to bring to the film what is becoming a signature attribute of his; his knack for having the wildest hair-dos. The most technically impressive acting which shouldn’t come as a surprise, was the performance from Michael Fassbender. He has an ability to portray some varied and powerful emotions.
Brad Pitt gives a good performance but I think he needs to work on a new accent because it seems like its been dragging on for a couple films now. One of the biggest surprises for me though comes from the casting decision of Cameron Diaz as the antagonist. I have to give it to Diaz. She really portrayed the cold and calculating girlfriend of Reiner expertly. My blood was boiling just about every moment I saw her on the screen. She might be known for more lighter roles but she definitely has more potential then being the usual pretty face in romcoms.
The Counselor is a clever and sexy drama but probably won’t provide enough thrills to keep the average movie-goers attention. The film has moments of suspense but it is overshadowed by some bad decisions in its pacing. With all the talent attached to this film Its surprising this film wasn’t better. The pieces just didn’t fall together. The dialogue occasionally felt like the characters were showing off. The story was convoluted and ended in a somewhat abrupt manner. The Counselor was saved by splashes of humor, violence, and some utterly superb writing for most of the dialogue. In the end, I’d say definitely pass on this one until the Blu-ray or digital release.
This entry was posted in Movie Reviews and tagged Brad Pitt, Cameron Diaz, characters, entertainment, Film, intelligent dialogue, Javier Bardem, michael fassbender, movie, movie reviews, Review, Ridley Scott, sexy, The Counselor, thriller. Bookmark the permalink.
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Ben McKenzie, Regina King and John Wells Visit ‘Southland’
Ben McKenzie, Regina King and John Wells Visit Southland
— April 9th, 2009
The two stars and the executive producer talk about the new NBC series
Southland premieres tonight, Thursday April 9 at 10 PM ET on NBC and three of the big factors on this new series are stars Ben McKenzie, Regina King and executive producer John Wells. We were in on a conference call with this trio from the freshman series and here's what they had to say.
So watching the pilot last night it's obviously, you know, it's pretty dark and it's pretty gritty. I'm sure all of you would say it's realistic but for each of you can you tell us sort of what attracted you to such a heavy series?
Ben McKenzie: All right so for me the pilot script was very, very strong. I read the pilot - was sent the pilot by my agents. I wasn't necessarily looking to get back into TV quite so quickly after doing the OC. But I really fell in love with the pilot; the writing is very intricate, the dialogue is somewhat sparse but there's always a lot going on underneath. Ann Biderman has a really great feel for character and she's able to write all sorts of characters from Regina's character to mine to John Cooper to - she really has a sort of wide assortment of colors to paint with. And she's a phenomenal writer, and the script was just phenomenal. I also thought the idea of setting a cop show that's not a procedural, that's more about the lives of the cops was a fascinating idea. And setting it in LA is something I haven't seen for quite a while, really making LA a character, really allowing the randomness of LA and the strangeness of LA to play a large role in the series. It's gritty because LA can be gritty. LA is kind of like - LA is kind of like America personified, 21st Century America with its obsession with money and fame but also extreme dire poverty living up next to extreme extraordinary wealth. So that's what attracted me to the show. Regina.
Regina King: Yeah, I'm near almost everything that Ben said and feels regarding the show. I think for me personally being born and raised in Los Angeles it's always a welcome opportunity to be able to do something that actually has been - it captures LA honestly. You know, so many things are shot here in LA that don't necessarily take place in LA but they're shot here. And then every now and then you'll see a project that is supposed to actually description-wise take place in LA but you don't feel that; you don't actually see that. And I think Chris Chulack and the rest of the crew are doing an outstanding job of actually using LA as like a - I'll say ninth character since there's eight of us - in this project. And for me I kind of wanted to get back to TV because I have a 13 year old son and, you know, those - these teenage years are upon us and I felt like I didn't want to have to keep turning down work because I needed to be here. And when I shared that with John Wells he was like, you know, that's - family is one of our number one priorities and if you talk to any of the people that work on ER or The West Wing they'll tell you that we truly run our show like an ensemble cast - it's an ensemble show - it's not that one person shines more than the other. And when you go back and look at the shows, you know, of course people have their favorites but, you know, everybody is a necessary part to make the machine roll in an exciting way I guess to say.
Yeah, that's a good point. And, Ben, I was going to ask you that too because, you know, obviously with the OC and now much more with Southland you've worked with some pretty large casts so what do you think is the key to keeping everyone, you know, involved and engaged in the storylines?
Ben McKenzie: Well, I think the key, number one is good writing. And - which we are absolutely blessed with on this show. I know that you haven't been able to see future episodes because basically we've just shot them and we're still putting them together. But I feel very - I feel certain, absolutely certain, that the episodes that follow the pilot will be equally as a strong if not stronger and more - and allow us to branch out into all sorts of different areas. What you saw on the pilot I think is a terrific introduction to the world of the show. But because it's a pilot it needs to do a lot of things; it needs to introduce a lot of characters very quickly. And what you'll see in subsequent episodes I think is you'll spend an episode with let's say two or three particular cast members - particular characters and really get to know them a lot better. Then you'll switch over and you'll spend the next episode with two or three others. And so it really fully takes on that true ensemble feel. And the great part about it is that we have - I mean I couldn't dream of a more - a perfect cast for this show; everybody is an actor, they're not a - there's no sort of gimmicky TV casting choices. Everyone is absolutely right for their part. They all - I have the briefest resume of anyone in the cast. But everyone has an extensive resume. And for me jumping back into television, which I was a little hesitant to do, you know, the reason I did is because, you know, I don't have to carry the show and because, you know, if you're going to be involved in a television show this is the best possible scenario to put yourself in where you're being supported by terrific scripts, excellent direction and production quality and a cast of actors that are only going to make you look good because they're doing their part. So, you know, if we all end up hating each, getting back to your original question, if we all end up hating each other it's only because we're all jerks.
Regina King: You know, I highly doubt that. And I just want to add on to what Ben said is something that was really like great for me as well as Ben just said obviously is that being around a cast of people who really respect what we do as an art form...
Ben McKenzie: Yeah.
Regina King: ...it just really creates an environment that's just so much more pleasant to work in because in production you're going to run into like huge speed bumps or little speed bumps but if you have a group of people that really understands the necessity of every single person being involved 100% and wanting to be involved 100% that - knowing that that formula has a outcome of success. If you have everybody understanding that it's just pleasant to come to work everyday. I can't even begin to say how excited I am to come to work.
Ben McKenzie: Yeah, that's absolutely right. And jumping on Regina's point, you know, for whatever reason John Wells and his company with Chulack and - they tend to hire really good people like good actors who happen to be, you know, stable sane individuals, which is not always the case with actors. You know, they're either, you know, people that care about doing a good job and they also want to treat people correctly and it really, you know, it's kind of a dream job.
Regina King: Yeah.
Ben McKenzie: Hopefully it'll last forever.
Joshua Maloney:
All right great. Thank you guys for your time.
Ben McKenzie:
I wanted to know, you know, with all the cop shows that are out there like the Law & Order's and even CSI, you know, the characters relatively stay the same over the course of the series. Are we going to expect something different with Southland where the characters are really going to develop and change over the course of the series?
Regina King: Yeah, you know, I believe so. I believe, you know, just because of the - because we have Ann Biderman as the writer and creator I don't think that she is the type of writer that is interested in playing the same beat over and over again. That's not saying that those other shows aren't good because they're highly successful shows and interesting shows but I just, you know, from the four episodes that we've done the way they - we don't even get the script until like the end of the prior episode, one, and two, we really don't even know - we don't know what is to come of our characters. So just as actors we're kind of having even more fun with it because it is somewhat of a surprise. So, you know, at one point we thought that we were all working in different divisions and then, you know, by episode two we find out, oh, okay, you know, Ben's character, my character actually are in the same division. So it's constantly - the beauty of how they're approaching this cop drama is that they're really trying to be as realistic and as honest as possible to law enforcement in LA. And in LA cops change precincts; they decide to be a different type of detective. Some black and white might decide I don't want to be a black and white anymore now I'm ready to be a detective. You have so many different levels of places that you are in the career of a police officer and I know from all of the officers that are around us - real officers that are around us and information that Ann is gathering there's no way that she could want to continue this show without showing the growth or even the turmoils that an officer goes through within their career and families.
Ben McKenzie: And I think what's been set up really nicely in the pilot is that every single character - well it's a little hard to tell because the pilot had to be cut down a lot for time reasons. But every single character has some sort of secret that they're not - that they're keeping from the people that they work with on the job, right?
Regina King: Right.
Ben McKenzie: You know, my character comes from a wealthy family. It'll get into that what is that about; why does he become a patrol officer? Why did he start at the bottom level of law enforcement? You know, Regina has, you know, is a single mother living at home, you know, with her mother; what is that - what's going on there? Tom Everett Scott, you know, married but maybe unhappily; what's going on there? Michael Cudlitz, you know, has his own back stories. There are sort of - what's really nice about the series I think is that - and it separates it from the Law & Order's and CSI's is that the plot lines are (arced) for the characters. They will grow, they will change and you will set things up in earlier episodes that will pay off - and they may not even pay off the next episode or the episode after, they'll pay off, you know, three, four episodes later. And so I think that it will hopefully attract a broad viewership but also a committed viewership that people will stay glued to the TV thinking, you know, having to pay attention at all moments, you know, because something's going to pay off that happened in episode one it'll pay off in episode four.
Regina King: It might not pay off until next season, you know, who knows. Like, you know how like you work at a job and you've been working with this person for three years and then you find out you had no idea that they had been fighting cancer for the past, you know, five years; this is kind of like how people are like real people. We are real people.
I thought that the pilot looked great and so did the cast. But Ben, I was really intrigued when you touched on this a little bit about how your character does seem to come from a wealthy family and does seem to be that guy who joins the Marines as a, you know, an enlisted man because he eventually kind of wants to be a senator or something like that. What's your sense of what his ambitions are or is he really just I want to be a patrol officer beat cop?
Ben McKenzie: Yeah, well my take on it has always been - and this is quite frankly something that I'm sort of projecting to be completely honest because we've only shot about three episodes in addition to the pilot thus far. But I've always related to the character of Ben Sherman because I've always thought of him as someone who is incredibly ambitious, who is incredibly focused and wants to leave his mark but is also - and you'll find out more about it in - again in subsequent episodes. He very definitely chose to become a patrol officer. He chose to start off in law enforcement at the street level, the bottom level in order to - in order to go his own way. His father is doing something that is almost completely antithetical what he is doing. He is a high powered defense lawyer. And what is that about? Why has he chosen to go about it this way? He could have very easily gone to - he's a bright guy, he could have gone to college, he could have gone to law school, he could, you know, become a prosecutor if he really hated his father that much. But what about him motivated him to do it this way and he knows enough of himself to know that he is naïve; that he doesn't know everything. And he has a lot of sort of classroom experience and he was probably a pretty damn good recruit at the academy. But he has no real-world experience, certainly not in the neighborhoods that he ends up patrolling with John Cooler. He's dealing with people and situations that he's never had to deal with before. And so for me the overall journey of the character, I hope, is eventually one of him understanding what it takes to be a man. And to interact in the world that he lives in not the world he wishes he lived in.
I was wondering did you guys get to hang out with real LAPD officers?
Regina King: I did the last one...
Ben McKenzie: We've hung out a lot. We've hung out a lot with cops. Our technical advisor, Chick Daniel, is ex-LAPD, ex-SWAT. His wife is also ex-LAPD. She actually used to teach classes at the police academy in the LAPD. So both of them - Chick is on set all the time every day to answer any questions we have at the moment. But they put us through - Chick and his wife, Sheila, put us through a week-long boot camp before shooting the pilot and then another week long boot camp before shooting the series. And, you know, walked us through all sorts of things, you know, handcuffing, we went to the gun range, fired the weapons that are appropriate for our characters. And we've also had the opportunity to do, you know, as many ride-alongs with cops as we want basically and all over LA from the Valley to Hollywood to, you know, southeast and south-metro LA. And so we've had a lot of interaction with cops. And another nice aspect is that any extras, any cops who are in the background, are real cops. They are constantly on set we've, I mean at this point I've met dozens of cops. And again it helps - it helps sort of - for me it helps relax me into the part because I think one of the things that is kind of obvious in retrospect but kind of surprised me is that cops are just like regular people. There's a broad, broad range of personality types, of educational levels, of, you know, all kinds of things, of physical sizes, I mean, you know, they're just regular people; there 10,000 of them they've all got to be different. And so you don't have to pretend to just be the macho, you know, cowboy stereotype cop, you can feel free to alter it and change it to you - to who you are or who you think the character is. You don't have to sort paint - not all characters are painted with the same brush. So I've had a great time spending time with cops and they tell phenomenal stories. And it's been a real treat to get to see what they do on a daily basis.
Now Regina, how do you think the show will be received by the LAPD? Do you think they'll like it or...
Regina King: Well, we're hoping that they do. We're hoping that they feel that we're giving an honest portrayal. But what I will say is that I think they're anticipating it to be something that they'll be proud of because the support that they've given us has been just absolutely amazing. You know, it's - they really are embracing us. And I think part of it is because, you know, when we talk about the other cop dramas that are on TV, you know, I mean and I could be wrong, but the last time there was a law enforcement show that took place in LA was like CHiPs. So they're like, you know, the LAPD is just like ready for us to be represented and for them to be represented well. And, you know, the fact that the LAPD is probably one of the best first - I could have the statistic wrong but I'm going to say one of if not number one as far as a first response team. And it's absolutely amazing that they can carry that title in a city that - compared to other cities of pretty - excuse me - a pretty broad - it's a wide city that the - the square radius - mile radius of LA city is much bigger than a lot of other cities. And we have less cops to cover more space. And with that we still have the best first response team in the country. That's pretty amazing. And I think as officers they're very proud of having that title so they feel like, okay, well now we should be represented. And hopefully we do them well.
Ben, how would you describe the relationship between Cooper and Ben? Like it's not like a Training Day kind of for TV is it?
Ben McKenzie: I mean it is and it isn't. It's not in the sense that he is not some corrupt, you know, evil, you know cop. It's only similar to Training Day in the sense that it does take place on that first day and it is the newbie being schooled by the older, more seasoned veteran. But after that I think the comparisons sort of start to fall away. And I think actually the comparisons are somewhat illuminating because like Regina was sort of mentioning, you know, there hasn't been a show set in LA about cops since CHiPs. And I think we're doing a little different show than CHiPs, slightly grittier, although, you know, let's see maybe... where we're in the short pants on the beach in Malibu. I look forward to that.
Regina King: I do too.
Ben McKenzie:Reno 911! baby, we can do this. But there hasn't been a show set in LA about cops in a long time except maybe something like the Shield which is kind of similar to Training Day in that it's exploring the corruption in the police department. Well we're not making that show, you know, that is a terrific show but we are making a show that is much more I think sympathetic to the turmoil that officers experience on a daily basis, the way that they're tested on a daily basis that we are trying to - we don't want to make it sappy, we want to make it as realistic as we can but we also want to acknowledge the fact that fundamentally the vast majority of these people are good people put in extremely trying situations all the time. And I think that will help us be embraced by the LAPD. Hopefully they will realize that, you know, we can't - we can't do a completely realistic examination of cop lives because it'd be a documentary; you have to amp the stakes up a little bit more to keep it an entertaining TV show. But we can look at them with a sympathetic eye and try to understand what make them tick and understands their faults as sometimes relating to the terrible stuff that they have to see on the job. They are affected by it in many ways because what they see is so troubling.
Regina, this is a very direct view of Los Angeles, a very downbeat in a lot of ways. And you mentioned you grew up in Los Angeles, first of all, what part of Los Angeles did you grow up in?
Regina King: I grew up in the area called Windsor Hills. That's, oh, I guess you'd say West of the Crenshaw District and South of (Vallwen U)
What kind of neighborhood was it when you grew up? Was it middle class or...
Regina King: Middle class, middle class neighborhood and middle class predominantly black neighborhood.
And when you watch this - because at least in the pilot film, you know, it's just very, very dark portrait of people's lives, you know, in all the parts that we see here. Is that just because it's in certain neighborhoods or has Los Angeles turned kind of downward since you've grown up there or what's your view?
Regina King: Well I think that, you know, that's just the pilot. And, you know, you're going to see a whole lot more of LA and the different - the different crime scenes in different neighborhoods. I think a lot of the same crimes are going on in different neighborhoods but the reason for which - the crime went down changes. You know, for example, you know, there's an episode where, you know, someone is killed and it's because the person is a - they're a really rich person and they, you know, kill someone else. And the reasoning behind it - the reason for that happening - I'm trying to tell you without giving it away - has to do with, you know, almost having too much success and feeling that you are beyond the law. And then you go have a murder that happens in South Central and it happened because of a lack of having (things) available to you. So I really don't feel like they're painting the picture of crime - we're painting the pictures of crimes that only happen in the quote/unquote darker parts of LA. I mean, that is the thing that makes LA so unique. And I hear people that come here to visit so often say this, you literally can walk four blocks and visually the neighborhood will change four times. You know, you won't know that you are actually in like a hard-core area just because the lawns are manicured.
It's kind of disturbing when we see the kid at the very beginning who is just trying to stay out of trouble and gets shot anyway. And that kind of gives you that thing of oh, man, you just can't win. What's your view overall of Los Angeles and its future and what direction it's going in?
Regina King: Well, I mean, you know, honestly I love my city. I'm born and raised here and I love my city and I feel like the majority of the people that are in the city are people from other cities. So I think that LA sometimes might get a bad wrap because it's known to be so Hollywood-oriented and then underneath that you have crime. But that's really, you know, the case in pretty much any major city that you go to. I mean, I was just reading a report the other day, you know, as far as the worst places to live because of crime and New York nor LA were in the top five. So I think that a lot of times - I mean it's really interesting because we have a - once you get another episode that kind of deals with this a lot of times with LA law enforcement has to have a really close relationship with media relations because of certain things just like you asking this question. One thing can happen in 1982 and people still hold that this is what goes on in LA or something can happen in 1995; this is what happens in LA and it was just an isolated incident, you know. And I think that's the reason why media relations play such a close part with the LAPD because when these little things happen they immediately try to get on it so that it doesn't, you know, cause a forest fire an then the next thing you know all over the country oh you don't want to go to LA because you might get shot if you go to the mall, you know. So I think that some of the perceptions that come along when you say the city of LA and they come along with how people view crime in LA are unfair and I don't think that they are - crime is higher that New York or Chicago or, you know, Atlanta.
Ben, I just wanted to ask you - you mentioned that you guys did a lot of training with real cops and speaking to real cops and everything. And since you play a rookie patrol officer did you learn much about, you know, what rookie cops actually go through? I know there's a lot of like hazing and initiating if you're a rookie in the force.
Ben McKenzie: Oh yeah, they tell some great stories. You know, the LAPD is notorious for doing - well not the LAPD but the older generation of training officers let's say from the, you know, from the 80s on before were brutal on their trainees. And they tell stories of, you know, training officers driving around, probation officers sitting in the passenger seat, a guy asks where are we? The training officer says I don't know. He says well you got to know. He stops the car. He says get in the trunk. The training officer is like what? Get in the trunk. Literally drives around for the next - for potentially the rest of the shift with the probation officer in the trunk. And, you know, that'll teach you. You'll learn that way. There's some - there's a saying that I'm not going to get quite right but basically what's the ideal probationary officer? He has big ears, big eyes and no mouth. He can hear things, he can see things but he's not going to talk. Don't talk unless talked to. And that's one reason why my character is so quite in the pilot is that he needs John Cooper, his training officer, to approve of him. And the worst way to get him to do that is to talk too much. Shut up and take it. This guy is a little bit crazy. He seems to be slightly psychopathic in a certain way. But he, A, probably knows what he's doing because he's been doing it for a long time, and, B, regardless of whether he does or not I need him to sign my book at the end of the day. He needs to approve me. So it's a very - it's a pretty hierarchical system, you know, we're not equals, you know, he's the veteran, I'm the rookie, I got to shut up and take whatever he does to me.
So we can expect to see a lot of this rookie hazing, I guess, initiation and in the series and everything?
Ben McKenzie: Well yeah but except for the fact that at the end of the pilot, you know, mid-way through the pilot I save the day. So all of a sudden, and you'll see this I think kind of entertainingly in the next couple episodes, you know, all of a sudden I'm starting to get, you know, this is a big deal. If this were to happen in real life this would be a huge deal; a probationary officer in his first month on the job is involved in a officer - an OIS, officer involved shooting and kills a bad guy. That would be a big deal. So, you know, I start to get some praise and John Cooper is not particularly happy about that, he's jealous.
Yeah, I'm sure. That's a nightmare for the vets, you know.
Ben McKenzie: Yeah, the dynamic will evolve I think quite quickly. And one of the great things, Regina mentioned this earlier, one of the great things about Ann Biderman's writing is that we won't play the same beats over and over again. We will move quickly, very quickly in fact. Like sometimes you'll be like what happens to this, you know, how did we wrap that up? We didn't wrap that up; we moved on. And the characters will grow and change and evolve really fast because we wont' spend every episode with all the characters, we'll spend an episode with two characters, everyone will take a seat, we'll spend an episode with three others, everyone else will take a seat and we'll move in and out as they see fit.
And Regina I know earlier you were mentioning your son and everything and you said that he was 13 so I'm figuring 13 years old he's probably real into like the cop and detective dramas and movies and stuff. Is he real excited that you're doing the show? Has he seen it?
Regina King: Oh he's totally excited. He totally is digging that his mom is a cop, I mean, you know, I played a detective in another movie once before and they ended up - they kept - quite a few of the fighting scenes, but this one in particular that was his favorite where I had a fight in the bathroom and I had to kick some girls in a bathroom stall, you know, he's like, "Oh, God, that is just so cool." So when it didn't end up in the movie he was kind of bummed about it. So he told me don't tell him about any of the script beforehand just let him see it.
He's like I want to see mom fight again.
Regina King: Yeah. Right, right, you know, so I did actually make the mistake of letting him know of something that I'm doing in this week's episode and he's like all right, I changed my mind can I just come in and see that one part.
Were you both prepared - I know you mentioned the boot camp - for physical demands but how about the mental demands of the show, I mean, especially in the pilot there's some tough scenes that both of you were in, I mean, were you prepared for the, you know, mental, you know, stress of doing a show like this, very I'd say dark, serious scenes. I mean, were you both prepared for that?
Ben McKenzie: It was, you know, it's a challenge to go in there. You know, thankfully we have just about the best support we could possibly have in terms of the quality of the scripts and the direction and the crew and the other actors. You know, it's a challenge for everyone on the show because everyone gets pretty meaty stuff thrown at them. We are dealing with life and death situations on a pretty constant basis on the show. Challenged but I think everybody's rising to that challenge. You know, I don't know, Regina do...
Regina King: I think, Ben, you're putting it perfectly that I think we were challenged but I think that we were prepared to learn.
Regina King: And I think that is one of the common denominators that the entire cast has, we came in here like really, you know, we didn't know what to expect but we knew to expect something and were ready for it. So as far as I can't really say that we weren't prepared but I can say that we did not know all that we'd be learning. And we are constantly learning new things almost every day we come to this set especially, you know, the fact that we have actual officers, you know, as extras, you know, we're getting, you know, some of these officers are extras but they're on call, you know. And they'll get a - like it's kind of a sad story but one of the officers, you know, was scheduled to, you know, come back to work the next day but one of the chiefs - he was killed and, you know, he ended up having to go to the funeral. So we lost a lot of officers that day because of that funeral. You know, and I don't know if you guys know but the way it works is - what is it Ben, you work four days and then you're off?
Regina King: Like you can only work so many days as a detective or a patrol officer, you work four an then you're off what is it two, something like that?
Ben McKenzie: I think. I think it may vary a little bit but, yeah, something like that.
Regina King: So unless there's a humongous thing that happens in the city that requires all, you know, people to be present - all officers to be present, you know, we are - we are getting the benefit of those officers being here with us on their off days.
How do you folks feel about your show taking the time slot over from ER. I mean, just a week after that show concludes Southland is - move in. How do you feel about that? It's kind of humbling and probably an honor as well.
Ben McKenzie: Yeah, it's not intimidating at all, I mean, we're only replacing the most successful show of all time, you know, so it's totally fine. And we expect to do 15 seasons and make 300 shows, become a worldwide global franchise. That's what we expect, right Regina, something like that?
Regina King: Yeah, yeah, I think you...
Ben McKenzie: Yeah, no pressure, right?
Regina King: None at all.
Ben McKenzie: I actually think it's a great situation because the truth of the matter is no sane person would expect us to become ER, right, that would be, I mean, that's a one in a million chance. So instead let's just make the show we want to make; let's push some boundaries. And we will I think push the boundaries of network TV as far as we can push them and get away with it. And see if the audience responds. Hopefully they will but we've got seven episodes to leave our mark and I think we're on the right track.
Regina King: Yeah, I agree. I think that we can't - I think we have a wonderful opportunity like Ben said and if we, you know, approach it feeling like, oh gosh I hope people, you know, like us like they like ER we're not ER. But we do have some good things going for us. We're lucky enough to have the creator of ER that was not only successful with ER but with The West Wing, Third Watch as well. You know, so we got - we're lucky to have John Wells at the helm of this production.
Ben McKenzie: Amen.
Regina King: And, yeah, and we just know that, like Ben said, we got some good stuff to do and let's do it.
NBC has a long history of classic cops, you know, from Joe Friday right up to John Munch. Cops, we'll say, you know, they defined their times and - or at least reflected them. How do you feel your characters stack up against these classics? You know, where will you take them that will be different?
Regina King: Well, honestly I feel like that we're just - we're not that type of show. We're really honestly trying to depict law enforcement. And one of the things that you'll find common in any city of law enforcement or - I'm not going to say any - in most cities with their law enforcement is that they look at themselves - well let's just use LA as an example and you have the gangs in LA. Well the LAPD looks at themselves as their own gang; they don't take any sides, they're not black people, white people, Latin people. They really look at themselves as men and women in blue. So because we are portraying that I don't think it's really - there's any room in us as actors building our characters to think that we're building it to be that, you know, Baretta or, you know, someone individually specific that's saving the day. What we've been learning from going to our boot camp and everything is that, you know, it's really, you know, a brotherhood, the LAPD. And so I don't know, I feel like I can speak for my partners on the show but I feel like we just kind of are approaching it in a way that we portray exactly that, that our jobs are commitment, our choice to do this comes first.
Regina King: Speaking from a cop perspective.
Ben McKenzie: Yeah, I mean, I think that as you mentioned, you know, there have been many terrific cop shows some of which have been set in LA. And I think in a sense the show only becomes successful because it captures the essence of whatever is going on in society at that point and the cops, the law enforcement is an extension of that, right. I mean, they are responding to whether they're literally responding to whatever is happening crime-wise in the city. And hopefully, you know, this show will capture the kind of zeitgeist at the moment which is, you know, it is a little dark, we're in a tough time economically. LA is not immune from that. And LA has, in my view, the quintessential American city of the 21st Century and that it's big and crazy and wild and you have extreme wealth knocking up against extreme poverty, you have all sorts of ethnicities and cultures represented. LA is the perfect place to set a show like that because, you know, if it work people can relate to what we are seeing even though they don't know LA in particular and/or have never even been to LA. They can understand the problems that are going on because they relate to what's going on in the country I guess.
Excuse me, John Wells has joined conference. And the next question...
Regina King: Hello.
So I guess since John joined first reaction to the ER ratings last night, John?
John Wells: Wow, you know, it was very gratifying to see that many people show up and watch the final episode of the show. You know, but it's time to move on and do something else and so we're very excited about this one. And it was great that that many people showed up and watched the promo. NBC is doing a great job promoting Southland so.
Well, okay in the past few days many of us have written a lot about how ER when it first premiered how it was position compared to sort of traditional medical shows and how it sort of blew the doors off. How do you think Southland is positioned compared to traditional cop shows?
John Wells: Well I don't want to generalize too much about what a traditional cop show is just because there have been lots of different styles of shows. But I think recently the police shows have been - have been primarily procedurals. And that's really not what we're interested in doing. I came onto the call a few minutes ago and was listening to what Regina and Ben were saying and I think that's absolutely correct that what we're trying to do is to - is to show what cops' lives are like on a daily basis not really about the cases it's about the stresses and the camaraderie and the realities of trying to be a police officer and these kind of huge world cities like Los Angeles. So, you know, I think that we're very different than the police shows that are on the air right now which is the vast majority of which are really procedural shows about the cases.
Talk about the process of finding the name of the show. It went through a number of different temp names until Southland.
John Wells: We wanted to - we wanted to use the LAPD name but it's actually owned by the LAPD. And they did not want to grant it to us. And so it was Police for a short period of time only because I needed something to put onto the hats when we shot the pilot. And Southland was always one of the ideas that were excited about using. And but there was a change at NBC in the leadership at NBC and so we'd had sort of a tentative approval from NBC to do it and then the people who approved it weren't there anymore and we were waiting for about another month before we got the approval. It's - so it's a name that I'm really pleased with.
Regina King: I'm very pleased with it.
John Wells: Yeah, you're an LA resident so.
Regina King: Yes and that's like one of the things we've always heard growing up in LA whenever a radio newscast would come on or the anchor on the 11 o'clock news would always start the story off with, "Here in the Southland," so don't be surprised when you hear that.
I had asked Ben and Regina this question but I'm wondering from your perspective with a cast this large how do you sort of keep everyone involved? How do you keep everyone interested and how do you keep everyone sort of, you know, in good spirits amongst each other?
John Wells: Well, you know, honestly I think the trick is to not try and do too much. And by that I mean not trying to take care of making certain that every episode, every character has a lot to do because I think that's actually - that kind of broad ensemble where everybody's got a little bit to do is when it gets frustrating for people. And what we're trying to do is to tell large stories with individual characters or sets of characters in different weeks. So, you know, there are weeks in which one group of characters has a great deal to do and their stories are reflected with what they have to do. And other people are very - and other very characters are very small so - in that week. And it allows people to really feel like when they have something to do that they have something substantial to do.
What's sort of going to be the setup of a particular episode like we'll follow Kevin Alejandro through a sort of day in his life or are we going to do a little bit of each of those eight characters in each episode? Have you thought about sort of that (braid) at this point?
John Wells: Yeah, you know, I don't know if you've seen the pilot yet but...
It's delightful.
John Wells: Yeah, you know, it begins with that freeze frame technique of seeing Ben's character in a freeze frame in the line of dialogue which talks about what it is for that character. And that is the framework that we're using for every episode. So while other characters are involved in those episodes it really is an attempt to say all right, for this officer on this day or this series of days something happened that was really - which was really substantial. And we have - and we're going to follow them so that you know from the beginning who it is you're going to follow because sometimes you have that initial image and then you actually don't see that character again for five or six minutes in the episode.
Who is the voice - the ethereal voice making that declaration about what happened, it is sort of a (Dragnet-esque) voiceover or it almost seems at the moment of that - in the scene of the pilot I was like is that the photographer writing the caption in the LA times or what? Who is saying that?
John Wells: It is the photographer making a caption for his photograph. The idea for doing those actually came from a whole bunch of these old crime scene photos which we had seen in the process of research, Chris Chulack and Ann Biderman found them. Then we started saying, wow, those photographs are really beautiful. And it's also the kind of photographs that we use thematically in the main title which is why that's all just trying to make of a piece. So, yeah, it was meant always that the caption underneath the photograph because a lot of the old crime scene photos the photographer made notes on it which were really pretty compelling. One of them that kind of led to that was there was a trunk seeping blood that they found in Union Station. And the caption underneath was, "Officers found trunk - a bleeding trunk. Hope that it was a deer."
I had a quick question for John about the very subtle reveal about the Cudlitz character at the end of the episode. If I hadn't known - someone had to tip me off that that was coming I probably would not have caught on to that. How do you sort of plan to explore that character going forward?
John Wells: Well it's only that subtle because we were about seven minutes over in the first cut. And the thing that made it a lot less subtle was one of the ones that we ended up cutting simply because we had, you know ,we kind of cut back to what we could do to just make sure all the stories worked. But, yeah, he is a - he is a gay police officer on the LAPD. And again, you know, I think we're at a particularly - certainly at the LAPD where that's not an extraordinary event. So it will simply be a fact of his life and we'll see it and see his world from that perspective.
Are you - are you sort of happy now you had to make the cuts that it ended up being that subtle or...
John Wells: Yeah, because we are able now to kind of tease out the theme that we had written that got cut is actually going to show up in episode three now. So it saved us about a half day shooting. It was really well shot and Chris did a great job shooting it. So we're more than willing to continue to reuse our material that didn't make it through the first cut. And, you know, it's interesting, you know, the LAPD has recruited heavily in the gay community in West Hollywood and the gay and lesbian community. So there are a number of gay police officers in the Los Angeles PD.
I just had a quick question for Ben. I know you've alluded to some of your OC experience but I was just wondering like what specifically you took away from that that you were able to bring to this show?
John Wells: Well I spent a lot of time camera. Other than that we're making quite a different show clearly. You know, I'm very grateful for that experience and it was - I treat it basically as my graduate school instead of going to NYU for graduate school in acting I spent four years on a set in front of cameras. And I learned a lot quite quickly about all sorts of things. But the show that - Southland is obviously quite different from that show. I'm quite grateful that I do have some experience in television because - well in front of a camera because we move quite quickly on Southland. We're on practical locations at least three-quarters of the time. We are shooting on these digital cameras that, you know, never basically run out of footage so there's no - there's no sort of trying to save film stock, you're just rolling and you're doing it quickly and you're not lighting too much because the digital cameras capture so much of the available light. So it's - I'm grateful that I have the experience that I had because if I didn't I would probably in way over my head and as it is I'm in only slightly over my head.
Southland, which stars Ben McKenzie and Regina King, premieres tonight, Thursday April 9 at 10 PM ET on NBC.
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Quiz: Can You Correctly Guess the Locations of These Ancient Civilizations?
Can You Correctly Guess the Locations of These Ancient Civilizations?
By: Marie Hullett
Image: Boy_Anupong/Moment/Getty Images
While no one knows for sure what happened thousands of years ago, the architecture, artifacts and writings left behind tell a story that lead historians to a more thorough understanding. From the remarkable Egyptian pyramids to the Akkadians' impressive Sumerian script, we are able to piece together complex, though incomplete, pictures of ancient life. While these records reveal harrowing accounts of human sacrifice, war and bloodshed, they also provide evidence of complex understandings of astronomy and mathematics. They take us back in time and help us understand our place in it.
Since many of these events occurred so long ago, though, it's easy to relegate them to the mythological. Sure, Homer's "Iliad" seems fantastical, and many historians understandably deem the Trojan War a non-historical event. However, there's plenty of concrete evidence of other ancient events and civilizations, and in many cases, historians know exactly where they took place.
So, do you know where these ancient peoples once lived? It sounds simple enough—but picking them out on a map can actually be quite tough. For example, where was ancient Mesopotamia, exactly? What about Numidia or the Shang Dynasty? Was ancient Greece really confined to just Greece? There's only one way to find out: test your knowledge of times past with the following quiz!
The Incan civilization lasted from about 1438 to 1532 A.D. Do you know where the Incan people lived?
Mexico and Guatemala
Ecuador, Peru and Chile
The Incan civilization was the largest pre-Columbian empire in South America. While its political and administrative hub lied in modern-day Cusco, Peru, it flourished across most of Ecuador, Peru and Chile. The highly established people created 18,000 miles of highways and roads across Peru.
The Aztecs were an extremely powerful people from 1345 to 1521 A.D. Can you name the modern-day location of this ancient civilization?
New Mexico and Arizona
The powerful Aztec people emerged right around the time that the Incas did and congregated in three ancient cities: Texcoco, Tenochtitlan and Tlacopan. Experts think the civilization performed more human sacrifices than perhaps any other group in history. Such rituals were performed by Aztec priests at the Sun and Moon pyramids as an offering to the gods. The introduction of European diseases from the Spanish eventually led to the Aztecs' demise.
The name might be a giveaway, but then again, it might not. Can you guess where the ancient Roman civilization existed?
Italy and parts of Austria
Large parts of Europe, Britain, western Asia, northern Africa and the Mediterranean islands
France and Italy
Roman civilization began around 6th century B.C. and grew to cover a massive area. Though kings ruled the early civilization, within a couple decades, the people took over, establishing a Senate and the Roman Republic. Famous emperors like Julius Caesar, August and Trajan reigned over the land, but it quickly proved too expansive for singular rule.
Where did the Persian civilization of 550 to 331 B.C. reside?
Parts of Iran and Iraq
Parts of Bulgaria, Ukraine, Romania, India and Egypt
Though it reigned for just 200 years, the Persian Empire was briefly the world's most powerful. At its height, the empire ruled over 2 million square miles of land and was known for its immense military strength and intelligent leaders. In 330 B.C., though, Alexander the Great of Macedon brought the entire empire down.
The ancient Greeks remain a very influential civilization to this day. Where did they live?
Athens, Greece and Sicily, Italy
Greece and North Africa
Greece, Italy, Sicily, North Africa and France
The ancient Greeks prospered from about 2700 B.C. to 479 B.C. Due to the civilization's long reign, many historians categorize the civilization into three periods: Archaic, Classical and Hellenistic. The Greeks can take credit for the ancient Olympics, the concept of democracy, the Senate, foundations for modern geometry and physics and a number of important literary and philosophical works.
Can you guess the present-day location of the ancient Mayan civilization?
Southern Mexico, Guatemala and El Salvador
Southeastern Mexico and parts of Guatemala, Belize, Honduras and El Salvador
The ancient Mayans thrived across Central America from about 2600 B.C. to 900 A.D. Today, people particularly remember the Mayans for the solar calendar created by the civilization and their complex contributions to the understanding of astronomy. Historians still don't know why the highly advanced population quickly and inexplicably collapsed in the eighth or ninth century A.D.
Do you know where very influential ancient Chinese civilization the Han dynasty resided?
Parts of China, Mongolia and Russia
China and Mongolia
Parts of China and India
From 1600 B.C. to 1046 B.C., ancient China, also known as Han China, experienced a very multifaceted and prosperous existence. During this period, the ancient Chinese people introduced a number of invaluable inventions including paper, printing, alcohol, gunpowder, compasses, cannons and silk.
The ancient Egyptians, one of the world's oldest known civilizations, lived from about 3150 to 30 B.C. Where were they located?
Egypt and Libya
Egypt and Saudi Arabia
Parts of Egypt, Libya, and Algeria
You probably already know that the ancient Egyptian population is known for its long-lasting pyramids and mummies. It's also remembered for powerful pharaohs, hieroglyphics and important contributions to science and mathematics.
Do you know the location of the Indus Valley Civilization, which existed from 3300 to 1900 B.C.?
Syria, Turkey and Iran
Pakistan and northwest India
Alongside Ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia, the Indus Valley civilization is another one of the world's oldest. At its height, it stretched the remarkable distance of nearly 800,000 million miles. Also called the Mohenjo-Daro and Harappan civilization, historians describe it as an extremely sophisticated culture. These ancient people could measure length, mass and time and created a variety of arts and crafts.
Historians think Mesopotamia is likely the world's oldest civilization. Where is it located in the present day?
Iraq, Syria and Turkey
Iraq and Iran
So far, there's no evidence of a civilized society prior to ancient Mesopotamia, which existed from some time around 3300 to 750 B.C. During this time, people developed the concept of agriculture, started to domesticate animals and began to create more refined art than previously seen.
Can you correctly identify the present-day location where the ancient Elamite civilization resided?
The Elamite people lived from about 2700 to 640 B.C. in modern-day southwest Iran. Historians possess a fractured understanding of the civilization due to limited, difficult-to-interpret records. They do know that the people utilized clay tablets to inscribe written language and constructed items from bronze.
Also called "Cloud People," the ancient Zapotecs lived from about 500 B.C. to 900 A.D. Do you know their whereabouts?
Oaxaca state, Mexico
Quetzaltenango, Guatemala
The Zapotecs colonized the Valley of Oaxaca and much of the southern highlands in Mexico. Originating from farming communities throughout the Mexican state of Oaxaca, the people traded with Mayan and Teotihuacan Olmec civilizations and flourished in part due to their smartly placed capital, which overlooked three vital valleys.
The ancient Hattians lived in the land of Hatti from the third to the second century B.C. Do you know what that area is called today?
Central Anatolia, or modern-day Turkey, was once called "Land of the Hatti." While little is known about the people, historians know that they spoke Hattic. Over time, Hittites joined with and replaced the Hattian people; historians also link them to Khaldi/Kardu people.
Can you guess where the kingdom of Askum once resided?
Niger and Chad
Also called Axum, the kingdom of Aksum served as a world trading hub from about 100 A.D. to 940 A.D. Situated conveniently along the Red Sea and Nile trading routes, the civilization's commerce sector prospered, allowing it to expand into Arabia even further. The people adopted Christianity with the rise of the Roman Empire before Islam spread through the area later on.
Though once very powerful, the Kush people are rarely discussed today. Do you know where you could find them?
Egypt and Sudan
The Kushite people lived from about 785 B.C. to 350 A.D. and were known for their abundant valuable resources, including gold, ivory and iron. While the ancient Egyptians exploited the Kushite people for about a half millennia, the Kush managed to conquer them in 750 BC. Kushite pharaohs then ruled the ancient Egyptians for about another century, reviving pyramid construction and constructing buildings across Sudan.
Historians still aren't precisely sure about the location of the ancient Kingdom of Yam. Still, do you think you can guess the approximate region?
Near the Nile or in Chad
Funerary inscriptions reveal that Yam was a kingdom rich in ebony, ivory, boomerangs, leopard skins, incense and other commodities. Experts in ancient Egypt think that the land sat about a few hundred miles from the Nile or possibly in Northern Chad.
Do you know where the Xiongnu Empire once prospered?
The Xiongnu were nomadic peoples who lived in northern China from 300 to 100 B.C. Some historians think that the people were descendants from the Huns, but a lack of archived evidence makes it challenging to know for sure. However, historians do know that the Xiongnu people's fierce raids on China caused the Qin emperor to call for construction of the Great Wall.
The Yuezhi people are remembered for their prevalence in major battles. Do you know where they resided?
The Yuezhi began as a nomadic people in northern China that traded valuables like silk, jade and horses. When they encountered the powerful Xiongnu Empire, though, they were forced to abandon Chinese trade. Instead, they headed west, conquered the Greco-Bactrians and moved to India. They would eventually fight the Scythians and several wars in Han China and Pakistan.
Though important, the people of Tuwana are often forgotten. Can you guess where they hailed from?
After the fall of the Hittite Empire, the Tuwana people took over Turkey. Throughout 900 and 800 B.C., Tuwana facilitated trade, brought several influential kings to power and garnered sizable wealth. These people also appear to have offered rich cultural contributions; in fact, some historians think the Tuwana's hieroglyphic language, Luwian, laid the framework for the Greek alphabet.
Where could you find the ancient Indo-Greek Kingdom on a map today?
Greece and India
Afghanistan, India and Pakistan
The Indo-Greek kingdom helped carry out Hellenistic traditions from 180 B.C. to 10 A.D. The kingdom was forced into existence after Demetrius, the Greco-Bactrian king, invaded the land in 200 B.C., dividing the people. Historians think the Indo-Greek king Menander may have been a Buddhist.
Do you know where the Kerma people once lived?
The Kerma kingdom prevailed from about 2500 to 1500 B.C. According to historical documents, the people absorbed the kingdom of Sai and rivaled ancient Egypt in its power and size. By 1500, though, the New Kingdom of Egypt absorbed it—not without resistance, though. The Kerma people continued to rebel against the Egyptians for centuries.
The Phoenicians prevailed from about 2500 to 539 B.C. Do you know where they were located?
Lebanon, Israel and Syria
Iraq and Afghanistan
Though the Phoenicians began in the Middle East, their colonies eventually spread across the Mediterranean, including Cádiz, Spain and Carthage in Northern Africa. The people notably exported Tyrian-dyed cloth and developed the Semitic language of Phoenician, which became one of the most commonly used writing systems in the Mediterranean world and influenced the Roman alphabet.
Do you know where Urartu, also sometimes called the Kingdom of Van, was located?
Afghanistan and Iraq
The Kingdom of Urartu lasted from about 860 to 590 B.C., when the Iranian Medes conquered it just as its supremacy began to falter. Today, the Urartu people are the earliest known ancestors of the Armenian people.
The Phrygia civilization lasted from about 1200 to 700 B.C. Could you pick out its location on a map?
Phrygia was a kingdom in central Anatolia, or modern-day Turkey. Legends from Greek mythology tell stories of many Phrygian kings, including Midas, who turned everything he touched into gold, and Mygdon, who bravely battled the Amazons. Homer's "Iliad" states that the people fought in the Trojan War as the Trojans' ally.
The Kingdom of Armenia lasted from about 331 to 428 B.C. Do you know where it existed?
Armenia, Russia, Turkey, Iran, Syria, Georgia and Lebanon
France, Spain and Portugal
Spain and Morocco
The Kingdom of Armenia consisted of three important royal dynasties: Orontid, Artaxiad and Arsacid. In 301 B.C., Tiridates III deemed Christianity Armenia's official state religion. Rome conquered the kingdom in 69 B.C.
Where was the Shang dynasty located?
Thailand and Cambodia
Though other Chinese dynasties existed prior to the Shang dynasty, it is nonetheless the earliest that historians possess records from. Ruling from 1700 to 1027 B.C., the people of the Shang dynasty were especially noted for their contributions to astronomy and math, as well as military technology.
Do you think you can guess where the ancient Norte Chico civilization existed?
Ecuador and Colombia
The Norte Chico civilization of northern coastal Peru thrived from 4000 to 2000 B.C. It is the oldest known civilization in the Americas, existing at about the same time as the Egyptian pyramids. The society is noted for its architecture, which frequently included expansive platforms and sunken plazas.
The land of Numidia lasted from 202 to 40 B.C. Do you know which nations it spanned?
Sudan and Egypt
Algeria, Tunisia and Libya
India, Iran and Pakistan
In the Second Punic War, the king of Massylii defeated the ruler of the kingdom of Masaesyli to the west, fusing the two into the ancient Berber kingdom of Numidia. While originally a sovereign state, it later became a Roman province and client state.
Where did the Visigothic Kingdom once lie?
France, Spain, Portugal and Gibraltor
Peru and Bolivia
The Visigothic Kingdom was established after the Romans lost control of the west half of their empire. Lasting from approximately the years 500 to 800 A.D., it was for a short while the most powerful kingdom of all of Western Europe.
The Gupta Empire prevailed from the years 320 to 550 A.D. Do you know where it could be found?
India and Bangladesh
Armenia and Azerbaijan
At its peak, the Gupta Empire covered the majority of the Indian continent—a period called the "Golden Age" by many historians. The empire was founded by King Sri Gupta, but other notable rulers include Chandragupta I, Chandragupta II and Samudragupta. The 5th-century poet Kalidasa wrote that Guptas conquered more than 20 kingdoms in and around India.
Can you correctly identify where the ancient Olmec civilization once lived?
Colombia and Ecuador
The Olmec civilization prospered from about 1200 to 400 B.C., making it the earliest known civilization in Mesoamerica. They congregated mainly in south-central Mexico and were the forebears of civilizations that came after, such as the Mayans and Aztecs. Notably, they played a ritual ballgame, practiced ritual sacrifices and made stunning art that's considered some of the most impressive ancient work in the Americas.
The Chola dynasty is considered one of the longest-ruling dynasties of all time. Do you know where it was located?
Portugal and Gibraltar
The Chola dynasty was a Tamil civilization that reigned mostly in southern India from about 300 B.C. to 1279 C.E. At its zenith, the dynasty was a major cultural, militant and economic power in Asia. The rise of the Pandyas and Hoysala eventually led to the decline and demise of the Chola people.
Which of these nations was once home to the Minoan civilization?
Portugal and Spain
Historians consider the Minoan civilization the first known, advanced civilization in Europe. The Minoan people lived primarily in the islands of Crete, which are now part of Greece. They were known for their complex advances in architecture, artwork and ship-building, among many others. These people were also prolific traders and helped spread Greek myths and legends to surrounding communities.
Can you guess the whereabouts of the ancient Etruscan civilization?
Sudan, Chad and Egypt
The ancient Etruscan civilization existed in modern-day Tuscany from about 900 to 100 B.C. The society possessed a robust military force and complex writing system; however, experts still cannot decode the language today, which makes deciphering their history more challenging. Historians do know that they made religious art from clay, metal and gold.
The Satavahana dynasty lasted from about 100 B.C. to the year 200. Can you name the nation where it existed?
The Satavahana dynasty, also called the Andhras, was an ancient Indian dynasty that practiced both Brahmanism and Buddhism. They created a large number of lead, silver and copper coins with the faces of their kings.
The Ancient Civilizations Quiz
How Well Do You Know Ancient Greek Gods and Goddesses?
Which Ancient Civilization Would You Have Ruled?
Which Ancient Greek Goddess Are You?
What's Your Ancient Warrior Name?
Which Ancient Roman God Are You?
Which Ancient Symbol Reflects Who You Are?
Are You a UK History Expert?
Which Ancient Symbol Perfectly Reflects Your Soul?
Which Century Does Your Soul Truly Belong In?
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Quiz: Can You Guess the Function of These Aircraft From an Image?
Can You Guess the Function of These Aircraft From an Image?
By: Craig
Since the invention of the very first aircraft, man has made great strides in the aviation department. From hot air balloons to airships and airliners to autogyros, we seem to have it all in terms of things in the sky. But not all of them do the same thing (besides flying of course).
An aircraft is constructed specifically to help its purpose. What that means is that a fighter jet won't be built in the shape of an air balloon because it needs to be sleek and go fast. Aircraft do different things: They carry people, deliver items, surveil areas, participate in combat, rescue people, provide entertainment and loads more.
Besides their purpose, these flying machines not only look good, but they also require a lot of finesse and precision when building and repairing to prevent disasters from occurring. Take for instance the Japan Airlines Flight 123, where 520 people died because of an incorrectly repaired pressure bulkhead, Turkish Airlines Flight 981, where 346 people died due to a detached cargo door or American Airlines Flight 191, where 273 people died after an engine separated from the wing. These all could have been avoided if proper time and attention were paid to the machines.
If none of this is news to you, try our test and see if you can ace it!
What type of aircraft is this or what function does it fulfill?
Cargo aircraft
The B17 Flying Fortress is one of the most famous aircraft of World War II. Designed as a bomber, it was primarily used in the West, flying daylight missions against Nazi Germany. The B17 could hold 9,600 pounds of bombs and had 11 to 13 machine guns as defensive armament.
The Antonov An-225 is the biggest cargo aircraft in the world today. It can carry up to 250 tons and has a take-off weight of up to 640 tons. To get this aircraft in the air is no mean feat and requires six D-18T turbofan engines. Each is capable of producing up to 229.7kN of thrust.
Incredibly, the B52 Stratofortress has been in operation with the United States Air Force for over six decades. It is capable of performing a range of missions and can fly at heights of up to 52,000 feet and up to a range of 8,000 miles before needing to refuel. It can deliver many different payloads, including nuclear bombs.
Transport aircraft
The Supermarine Spitfire is one of the most famous aircraft ever built. It first flew in 1936 and played a major part in defending Great Britain against the Luftwaffe, Hitler's air force, during the Second World War. It was produced throughout the war with over 20,000 built. There are still around 50 flying examples found around the world.
Ground attack aircraft
The Boeing 747 Jumbo Jet first entered service in 1970. This massive passenger aircraft is used by airlines around the world and can carry up to 524 people (depending on the configuration) to destinations 14,200 kilometers (8,825 miles) away at speeds of up to 570 mph.
Light Civilian Aircraft
The A10 Thunderbolt, fondly known as the Warthog, is one of the most effective ground attack aircraft in the world today. It has excelled in a number of theatres, particularly during Operation Desert Storm and Iraqi Freedom, where it was noted as a tank destroyer. It has many armament variations but is known for its incredible Avenger 30mm cannon which can fire armor-piercing and uranium-depleted rounds.
The Cessna 172 was first launched in 1956. Up until today, it is probably the most famous light civilian aircraft in the world with over 43,000 having been produced in the past 60 years. With its high wing configuration, the 172 is an excellent aircraft on which to learn to fly.
The North American P51 Mustang is the most famous American aircraft of the Second World War. It primarily served in the West where it acted as a long-range escort fighter for American bomber formations attacking the Reich and other targets. The aircraft became one of the war's legendary fighters thanks to changing its original engine - the Allison V-1710 - to the British Merlin engine, the same found in the Hurricane and Spitfire. This transformed its performance.
The Pregnant Guppy was specifically used to help transport rocket pieces for the Apollo Space Program. It was powered by four Pratt & Whitney R-4360-59 "Wasp Major" radial engines and was capable of transporting parts weighing up to 50,000 pounds.
The B29 Superfortress was the biggest bomber produced by America during World War II. It was primarily used in raids against Japanese targets in the Pacific and later, over Japan itself. In fact, it was a B29, the Enola Gay, that delivered the first nuclear strike on Japan when it dropped an atom bomb on Hiroshima on August 7, 1945, killing 45,000 people instantly.
The Lockheed C-5 Galaxy first entered service in 1968. This is not a commercial cargo aircraft, however, and is used by the United States Air Force as a strategic airlifter. It is powered by four General Electric TF39-GE-1C high-bypass turbofans. These help the Galaxy to carry up to 270,000 pounds of equipment. It can also be used to carry troops around the world.
Many well-off businessmen and women don't see the need to use airlines to travel between cities, opting instead for a business jet. And while there are many from which to choose, one of the most popular is the Gulfstream 450. With the range of around 4,300 miles and the ability to carry up to eight passengers in spacious surroundings, along with a full galley, it is easy to see why these are a preferred mode of transport over a commercial airline.
Light sport aircraft
Amphibian aircraft
The Lockheed P-38 Lightning was an American fighter from the Second World War. It entered service in 1941 and quickly gained a reputation as a formidable dogfighter. It was a squadron of Lightning's that brought down the Japanese transport aircraft carrying Admiral Yamamoto, the architect of the attack on Pearl Harbor. Legend has it that enemy pilots called the Lightning the 'forked-tail devil.'
The United States Air Force has a number of airlifter class of aircraft. These are used to ferry equipment, troops or personnel all over the world. One such example is the Boeing C-17 Globemaster III, introduced into service in 1991. The C-17 is used to carry all the security vehicles and the limousine of the President of the United States when he visits foreign countries.
Northrop Grumman via youtube
Sports aircraft
The Northrop Grumman B-2 Spirit is a stealth bomber that entered service in the United States Air Force in 1997. It is very different than any other bomber used by the United States in the fact that it is a flying wing practically invisible to radar. It can carry both conventional and nuclear weapons to a range of 6,900 miles, without refueling, at speeds of up to 560 mph.
The Airbus A380 is the largest passenger aircraft operating in the world today. Depending on the seat configuration used, the A380 can carry up to 853 passengers across two separate decks. Some airlines even choose their A380s to have onboard lounges and showers.
The C-130 Hercules is used by a number of air forces around the world but most notably, that of the United States. Its primary role is airlift missions. This means it transports equipment, air force personnel or even troops, although it can fulfill other roles and does. The Hercules has been in operation since 1959.
Light sports aircraft
The Grumman F-14 Tomcat was the prime fighter of the United States Navy in 1974 and 2006. This swept wing aircraft had state-of-the-art systems on board, including a radar capable of tracking up to 24 targets at any one time. Of course, the Tomcat was made even more famous thanks to the movie, "Top Gun," starring Tom Cruise.
The Convair B-58 Hustler served with the United States Air Force for a decade between 1960 and 1970. It was noted for its large delta wing design and was the first bomber ever produced capable of flying at twice the speed of sound. Crews had ejection capsules that could be used if the aircraft was ever shot down or got into any difficulties.
Not necessarily the most glamorous fighter ever produced by the United States during World War II, the Curtiss P-40 Warhawk certainly served a purpose. It was a capable dogfighter that was easy to build and helped to ensure that the United States Air Force was significantly armed during the early days of the war. Almost 12,000 of the P-40 were built up until 1944.
The Boeing Dreamlifter is the largest aircraft made by the legendary American aircraft manufacturer. The Dreamlifter is used to fly Boeing aircraft parts around the world. Essentially, it is a heavily modified Boeing 747-400. There are only four Dreamlifters currently in operation around the world.
The Avro Vulcan is easily recognizable due to its unique design and large delta wing shape. The Vulcan was the main bomber in the British Air Force between 1954 and 1986. It was capable of carrying nuclear and conventional weapons and saw action during the Falklands Conflict in 1982.
The Douglas DC3 Dakota is nothing short of a legend. It first flew in 1936 and has been used in many guises, from an airliner to cargo aircraft, and even during the Second World War as a troop transport, cargo carrier, glider tow aircraft, or to carry paratroopers. The DC3 is affectionately known as the Goony Bird.
The Lockheed Martin F-22 Raptor is a fifth-generation fighter in service in the United States Air Force since 1995. This aircraft is capable of a number of roles but is primarily an air superiority fighter. It is capable of speeds of up to Mach 2.25 and has a range of 1,840 miles (through the use of two drop tanks). All weapons are kept in internal weapon bays. The Raptor can carry air-to-air missiles, bombs and also has a gun as armament.
Amphibious aircraft
Serving with the Japanese Air Force, the Kawasaki C-1 entered service in 1974. Its primary role is a short-range cargo and military transport aircraft. It can take a number of vehicles or troops up to a weight of 11.9 tons. The C-1 will be slowly phased out as a newer transport aircraft, the Kawasaki C-2, takes its place.
The Messerschmitt Bf 109 was the primary fighter in service with the German Air Force at the outbreak of World War II. First introduced in 1937, the aircraft had proved itself extremely capable during the Spanish Civil War where it was flown by German pilots helping Franco. In combat over Britain, however, it met its match in the Supermarine Spitfire, although both aircraft were very equally matched. One major disadvantage that the Bf 109 had, however, was that it had a very limited range and could only stay in combat over Britain for a short period.
The Boeing 707 is largely credited as the aircraft that helped change air travel. This was the first jet airliner designed by the company with the aim of ferrying people on long-distance flights around the world. It would pave the way for later models, such as the 747 and 767. It first entered service 1957 and 865 were built up until 1979.
Amphibious plane
The Tupolev Tu-95 is one of the most extraordinary aircraft ever produced. The Russian bomber was first introduced into service in 1959 and remains in operation today. It is powered by four Kuznetsov NK-12 engines with contra-rotating propellers. These can propel it at speeds of up to 516 mph. The Bear, its assigned NATO code name, has a range of 9,400 miles and carries an assortment of ordnance.
SkylineGTRR34Freak via youtube
At the start of the Second World War, the Junkers Ju 87 Stuka was one of the most feared aircraft available to the German Air Force. This ground attack plane used dive bombing techniques to great effect. It was feared as it also employed wind driven sirens that would wail on each attack, causing panic for both civilians and enemy soldiers. The Stuka was less effective when used against targets in Britain and many were lost. It was withdrawn and used in combat on the Eastern Front against Russia.
Dan Uscian via youtube
The De Havilland DH 106 Comet first flew in 1949 and entered service in 1952. This was the first jet airliner used anywhere in the world and opened a new world of possibilities to travelers. Unfortunately, the Comet had some problems, mostly with metal fatigue in airframes, which resulted in a few incidents, including the first recorded fatalities in a jet airliner crash.
A medium-sized jet capable of long range journeys (up to 3,700 miles) the Cessna Citation X has become a very popular executive jet. It is capable of speeds of up to 604 mph and cruises at around 35,000 feet. It is flown by a crew of two and can carry up to 12 passengers.
Wings via YouTube
Aerobatics plane
The Grumman F4F Wildcat was one of the major carrier-based fighters of the United States Navy during World War II. The Wildcat saw action throughout the Pacific, playing a pivotal role in defending the U.S. fleet from Japanese attack. Although the Japanese Mitsubishi Zero was quicker and more maneuverable, the Wildcat was extremely tough. Wildcats accounted for 1,327 enemy kills during the war.
Possibly one of the strangest looking aircraft ever produced, the Lockheed F-117 Nighthawk entered service in 1983, yet the American public did not know it even existed until five years later. This was the first aircraft introduced into the U.S. Air Force which made use of stealth technology. Despite its stealth capabilities, one was shot down over Yugoslavia in 1999. The Nighthawk could carry a variety of bombs and had nuclear capabilities.
The design and production of the Transall C-160 came as a joint collaboration between Germany and France. This aircraft's primary job is as a military transport/cargo plane. It first entered service in 1963 and is still used around the world today. The Transall can carry up to 35,000 pounds of troops or equipment up to a range of 1,151 miles.
The Focke Wulf FW190 was a formidable fighter aircraft. When introduced in 1941, it was immediately superior to the Spitfire V of the British Air Force. It not only served in the West but against Russian forces in the East as well. The FW190 was known as the Würger and it was called the Butcher Bird by the allies.
The Dassault Mystère/Falcon 10 has been used in numerous guises over the years, even serving with the French Navy. It remains a popular executive jet, capable of traveling over 2,000 miles and carrying a crew of two with four to eight passengers.
The General Dynamics F-111 Aardvark entered service in 1964 and over 500 were built until its retirement in 1998. The Aardvark could be used in a number of roles, including as a strategic nuclear bomber. It was capable of speeds of up to Mach 2.5 thanks to its swing-wing design.
The Boeing 737 is a short- to medium-range passenger aircraft used all over the world, particularly on shorter domestic trips. It was introduced in 1968 and is still in production to this day. Depending on the configuration used, as well as the model, the 737 can carry up to 215 passengers.
The General Dynamics F-16 Fighting Falcon was primarily designed as an air superiority fighter although, over time, it has come to serve many roles in air forces around the world. It was first introduced in 1978. It features a side mounted control stick and a fly-by-wire system controlled by a computer that makes the aircraft far easier to fly.
The Airbus A300 first entered service in 1974 and was produced until 2007. This was the first widebody airliner to feature only two engines. Depending on the configuration used, it can carry up to 266 passengers to a range of 4,600 miles.
ArmedForcesUpdate via youtube
The McDonnell Douglas F-15 Eagle is a tactical fighter that has served in the United States Air Force for the past 40 years. It is powered by two Pratt & Whitney afterburning turbofans which give it a maximum speed of over Mach 2.5 and a service ceiling of 65,000 feet. Armament includes Sidewinder and AMRAAM missiles and a 20mm Gatling gun.
The Xi'an Y-20 is a cargo/transport aircraft in service with the Chinese Air Force. It can carry a payload of 66 tonnes (145,505 pounds) made up of either vehicles, equipment or even troops. It entered service in 2016.
Shuttestock
The Avro Lancaster was one of the most famous bombers of World War II. While the American B17 Flying Fortress bombed Germany by day, the Lancaster operated at night. In fact, the Lancaster carried the famous bouncing bombs used to destroy German dams in the Ruhr Valley in 1943. There are still two of these majestic aircraft flying today, one in the United Kingdom and one in Canada.
Fight to Fly Photography via youtube
The Ilyushin Il-2 Sturmovik was a Russian ground attack aircraft used during the Second World War. It was heavily armored and notoriously difficult to shoot down. It was the most-produced aircraft of the war with over 42,000 made. The Sturmovik was often called the Flying Tank.
The Republic P-47 Thunderbolt was a fighter used by the United States during the Second World War. It was affectionately known as The Jug because of its massive size. It had excellent high-altitude performance and was exceptional when called upon to dive. It was the fastest Allied fighter of the war.
Hoje na Segunda Guerra Mundial via YouTube
The Messerschmitt Me 323 Gigant was one of the largest aircraft of the Second World War. It was used by the German Air Force as a transport aircraft capable of carrying equipment to the front. It has a wingspan of 181 feet and was powered by six Gnome-Rhône engines. Gigant means giant in German.
The Vought F4U Corsair saw service from the middle of the Second World War and into the Korean War, nearly a decade later. It was an exceptional carrier-based fighter noted for its gull wing design. The Corsair still operated in the El Salvadoran Air Force until 1976.
The Lockheed Jetstar was one of the first business jets to be produced. They were produced between 1957 and 1978 and could transport up to 10 passengers over distances of 2,900 miles.
Reconnaissance aircraft
The Lockheed Martin F-35 Lightning II is the cutting edge of aircraft design. It is a stealth multi-role fighter capable of speeds of up to Mach 1.6. It has a number of unique systems, including a helmet-targeting system that essentially allows the pilot to see through the aircraft itself, making target acquisition far easier.
Wiki Commons by Alan Wilson
The Vought A-7 Corsair II is an American ground attack aircraft that saw service with the US Navy from 1967 to 1991. These aircraft were used during the Vietnam war, primarily to take out various ground-based targets, such as strategic bridges. The Corsair was capable of varying hardware configurations and could carry bombs, as well as air-to-air and air-to-ground missiles.
Air Superiority: The Military Aircraft Quiz
Military 6 Minute Quiz 6 Min
Can You Identify These World War II Planes From an Image Without Any Hints?
Can You Get More Than 11 Right on This WWII Airplanes Quiz?
The Ultimate WWII Military Equipment Quiz
Can You Match the Military Weapon to Its Capability?
Can You Figure Out The Purpose Of These Aircraft From Their Image?
What Do You Know About American Aircraft Carriers?
What Would Your WWII Spy Job Have Been?
Which Military Dog Breed Is Right for You?
Can You Identify the Military Branch of These War Heroes?
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Member Renewal
After Hours Membership
U.S., 1999, 136 min, 4K DCP, Dir. the Wachowsks, Rated R
Coral Gables Art Cinema Sat, Jan 12 11:30 PM
Neo (Keanu Reeves) is a hacker recruited by the enigmatic Morpheus (Laurence Fishburne) to fight against oppressive machines who’ve enslaved humanity in a simulated world called the ‘Matrix’ in order to harvest their physical bodies as an energy source. Whoa. The Matrix is an amalgamation of three of the Wachowskis' main loves: anime, philosophy, and cyberpunk. Pulling from the works of Mamoru Oshii (Ghost in the Shell), Lewis Carroll (Alice in Wonderland), Jean Baudrillard (Simulacra and Simulation), and others, the Wachowski’s concocted a groundbreaking film that pays homage to its forefathers but is far from derivative, standing shoulder to shoulder with the great works that preceded it. Noted sci-fi author William Gibson described the film as “the ultimate ‘cyberpunk’ artifact.” 20 years later, The Matrix’s influence still reverberates throughout the cinematic landscape, not least in part thanks to masterful fight scenes choreographed by martial artist Yuen Woo-ping (Jackie Chan’s Drunken Master; Iron Money; Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon), revolutionary visual effects that include the film’s iconic ‘bullet time’ sequences, and a complex, layered narrative that still raises questions about the nature of our reality.
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On the Campus After 2,500 Years, Fame
By Maria LoBiondo
Art Museum hosts first major show for classical Athenian painter of vases
Attributed to the Berlin Painter: a Maltese dog described by a curator as “the most adorable dog in all of Greek art” follows a man playing a stringed instrument; below, a fragment showing a woman standing at an altar.
Attributed to the Berlin Painter, ca. 480–475 B.C.; Red-figure Neck-amphora with Twisted Handles: A, Man Playing a Barbitos, Maltese Dog; B, Youth Carrying a Pointed Amphora; The British Museum.
The Princeton University Art Museum has organized the first major international exhibition of the Berlin Painter, whose elegant red figures on polished black Athenian pottery have made him a celebrity for lovers of classical art.
“The Berlin Painter and His World: Athenian Vase-Painting in the Early Fifth Century B.C.,” on view through June 11, showcases 84 vessels and statuettes. These include 54 of the artist’s finest vases, and cover a range of subjects from Greek gods to musical performances to what J. Michael Padgett, curator of ancient art, says “must be the most adorable dog in all of Greek art.” The works situate the Berlin Painter in context when the Persian Empire threatened to enslave Greece.
“He was not a rock star in his day, instead a humble craftsman, but his reputation among students of classical art has remained undiminished since his rediscovery a century ago. Pretty amazing for an artist whose real name we may never know,” said Padgett.
A fragment showing a woman standing at an altar.
Attributed to the Berlin Painter, ca. 490–480 B.C.; Fragment from a Red-figure lekythos: Woman standing at an altar; Princeton University Art Museum
Most Athenian vase-painters did not sign their work, and so historical researchers have analyzed individual pieces to attribute to painters by their style. Sir John Beazley, the 20th-century Oxford scholar who made a major contribution to art history in his classification of Athenian vases, first identified works in collections around the world by this artist’s hand.
The Berlin Painter worked entirely in clay, and rendered fine details with dexterous precision in varying lines of black and reddish gold slip. He updated the conventional modes of his time by simplifying the designs on Greek vessels, having a major impact on other vase-painters of the period.
The show includes the vase featuring the god Hermes for which Beazley named the artist; it is on loan from the Antikenmuseum of the State Museums of Berlin. “The director, Andreas Scholl, looked at me over his glasses and said, ‘You know, we normally would never think of lending that vase, but for an exhibition devoted to the artist, well ...’ I knew then that we had a show,” Padgett said.
The exhibition features major loans from the Musée du Louvre in Paris and the British Museum in London, among others, as well as two objects from Princeton and pieces from the private collections of Gregory Callimanopulos ’57, who provided two vases, and Andrés Mata ’78, who lent a bronze statuette of the goddess Athena.
A Padgett favorite is an amphora with a young citharode — a singer accompanying himself on a lyre called a kithara — from New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art. The curator said the citharode seems “to float through an ether of glossy black, untethered and unframed, his head thrown back in song.”
Padgett and his colleagues spent three years assembling the exhibition, which is accompanied by a fully illustrated catalog. An international conference on Athenian vase-painting will be held on campus April 1. The show will move to the Toledo Museum of Art after its Princeton premiere.
Immigration Fears Spark Activism: ‘Get Organized and Do Something’
Students Admitted to Princeton’s Class of 2021
Acceptance rate of 6.1 percent is the lowest in school history
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Features Cracking the Code of the Roommate
By Mark F. Bernstein ’83
Published online July 6, 2017
Friends for life: ’52 classmates, from left, James Baker, James Detmer, Barnabas McHenry, and David Paton
Reminiscing with four roommates from the Class of 1952
The following is an expanded version of a story from the July 12, 2017, issue.
The friends we make in our youth can last a lifetime. As they move into the Old Guard, four members of the Class of 1952 got together shortly before the P-rade to share memories, trade jokes, and — as roommates will do — give each other a hard time.
James A. Baker III, of course, served the nation as secretary of state and treasury and White House chief of staff. David Paton was an ophthalmologist. Barnabas McHenry was general counsel to Reader’s Digest. And James Detmer was a software engineer for IBM and on Wall Street. They met at the Hill School and roomed together all four years at Princeton, first in Campbell Hall, then in 1879 Hall.
Though true to the eternal Code of the Roommate — that certain bodies must remain buried, so to speak, the four unearthed a few of them for PAW’s senior writer, Mark F. Bernstein ’83:
James A. Baker III: We said we wanted to room together when we came here from the Hill School. And the University let us.
Mark F. Bernstein: Where was room?
Barnabas McHenry: Holder.
James Detmer: Holder Hall, third entry.
Baker: No, no, no. 3A Campbell Hall.
David Paton: Yes, it was Campbell Hall.
Baker: We roomed together in Campbell for half a year and then a room opened up in 1879 Hall, which theretofore had been off limits to freshmen. So we ended up in 65 1879 Hall for the rest the time we were here.
McHenry: We were at the south end, next to the physics lab, and twice a week Albert Einstein would go there to lecture. He wore a salt and pepper overcoat that reached down to his shoes, European-style. And we had a janitor named Dominic Intertaglia. One day one of us said, “Dominic, look out the window. That’s probably the smartest man in the whole world.” Well, Dominic said, “He’s not so damned smart. Look — he ain’t wearing any socks.” And he wasn’t! Einstein did not wear socks.
Baker: My recollection of Einstein was during our freshman year. He was giving a lecture in McCosh Hall and he was sitting on the dais. When he was introduced, everybody started clapping and he just started clapping along, too. They had to tell him, no, you’re supposed to get up and speak.
Paton: We had two tiny little rooms, each with a double bed, and a sitting room in between, with Jim [Detmer’s] upright piano.
Detmer: It was a nice one.
Paton: And Jimmy would play classical music, extremely well. We had another friend, Petey Clarkson [’52], who couldn’t read music, so far as I know, but he was a jazz pianist and he could play like mad. He later played for Eisenhower in the White House.
Baker: He died young, of polio.
Paton: Late one night, we had a little drinking spree and a bunch of us went back to our room so Petey could play our piano. And one guy must have come straight from practice, because he still had his cleats on and he did the Charleston on top of this piano. It was the most horrible thing.
McHenry: Terrible!
Paton: Barnabas had a car from time to time, but it was illegal for undergraduates to have a car, so he had to conceal it. We would take it to New York.
Baker: He named the car FitzRandolph, for FitzRandolph Gate.
McHenry: There was no need to have it, but since you couldn’t have it we wanted to have it. It was a black Chevrolet. Chevrolets in those days came in five colors: black, black, black, black, or black.
Baker: Now, you need to know one thing about the four of us. We did not all get through without having to take an enforced vacation from Princeton. That’s as much as I can tell you.
Paton: When we were still students, we went to a bachelor party at the Racquet Club in New York for a guy in the class ahead of us. As you go into the club, there is this bronze statue of a guy playing tennis. It’s the club’s pride and joy. Well, after that dinner, it went missing. About three days later, it was mysteriously found in the trunk of Barney’s illegal car.
McHenry: Must have been a poltergeist.
Paton: All of our names were taken and we were told never to set foot in that club again.
Baker: That’s not why you got asked to take a short vacation, though. It was because you broke so many windows in snowball wars that Dean Godolphin suggested that you take a short break.
McHenry: Those leaded panes were irresistible.
Paton: Jimmy [Baker] majored in history, and there was almost nothing he didn’t know. And if he didn’t know something, he had this uncanny ability to argue so effectively that we then believed that history was wrong.
Baker: (laughing) That is total, total BS.
McHenry: Just before our junior year, the Korean War erupted — without our permission, I might add. We didn’t even know where Korea was. David was reasonably safe because he was pre-med.
Baker: I was in a Marine Corps platoon leader’s class. I had to get into it because we were being drafted right out of college.
McHenry: And I was in ROTC.
Detmer: Don Murray [’52] joined the National Guard. He said that was how you kept from being drafted. Well I joined the Guard and they called us up anyway. I went to Newfoundland and didn’t graduate until ’55.
Bernstein: You four have been friends for more than 65 years. What does that mean to you?
Paton: Dear old friends from way back were once selected for some kind of sameness rather than their differences. So at one level it’s damn good fun to be with them and to enjoy how they haven’t really changed. But the richness of this reunion is in how much we have changed. It’s their matured specialness rather than the iconic sameness of a striped jacket fresh from the cleaners.
Bernstein: How often do you get together?
Baker: Barney and I go hunting down in Texas.
McHenry: We hunt birds. They don’t fight back!
Reunions 2017
Honors for Service
Princeton on Washington
At Reunions panels: Politics, politics, politics
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PIRELLI: 2015 CALENDAR BY STEVEN MEISEL UNVEILED IN MILAN
The 2015 Pirelli Calendar was presented today to the press, guests and collectors from around the world at Pirelli HangarBicocca, the Pirelli contemporary art space in Milan. Milan was chosen as the venue with the aim of showing an iconic object with the “Made in Italy” label in the city that in 2015 is to be the flagship of Italy in the world when it hosts the Expo Milano 2015 international exhibition. The creator of the forty-second edition of The Cal™, Steven Meisel is one of the world’s most successful fashion photographers, and is known for his eclectic but also reserved personality. In an intense five-day shoot last May in a New York studio, Steven Meisel brought the absolute centrality of women back to the Pirelli Calendar in its most classic format. 12 months in 12 shots (plus the cover). In his photographs, Meisel brings us some of the key aesthetic models of our time – advertising icons, stars of the silver screen, the explicit rebelliousness of fashion – once again demonstrating his great skill in transforming the subjects of his own images. The photographer was assisted in this work of transformation by the styling team led by Carine Roitfeld – the former editor of Vogue France and long at the forefront of the fashion system – and by Pat McGrath, one of the world’s most famous make-up artists. With his astonishing creative talent and ability to interpret fashion trends, Meisel has captured some of the most representative icons of today’s society in his highly colourful images: “In my opinion”, says Meisel, “these are the key aesthetic models of today’s world. They represent the stereotypes that the fashion and star system impose upon us right now. I didn’t want to make a conceptual calendar, or link it to some particular location, but rather to create 12 posters in which women, in all their sensuality, are the absolute protagonists of 12 very different images. Since I wanted to limit the use of clothes and accessories and since I had absolute creative freedom, I found it very exciting to play with the colours, the makeup, and the materials. It was a very rewarding experience.” This year’s Calendar year is titled Calendar Girls 2015, and the 12 girls in question are top and emerging models: the Americans Gigi Hadid, Candice Huffine, Carolyn Murphy (who all appeared in the 1999 Calendar by Herb Ritts) and Cameron Russell, the Brazilians Isabeli Fontana (who was in the Pirelli Calendars by Bruce Weber in 2003, by Patrick Demarchelier in 2005, by Peter Beard in 2009, by Karl Lagerfeld in 2011, by Mario Sorrenti in 2012, and by Steve McCurry in 2013), Adriana Lima (who was in the 2005 Pirelli Calendar by Patrick Demarchelier and in 2013 by Steve McCurry) and Raquel Zimmermann. Then there is Karen Elson from England (photographed in 2006 by Mert and Marcus), the Puerto Rican Joan Small (in the 2012 Pirelli Calendar by Mario Sorrenti), the Russians Natalia Vodianova (also in the 2003 Pirelli Calendar by Bruce Weber, in 2004 by Nick Knight and in 2006 by Mert and Marcus) and Sasha Luss, as well as Anna Ewers from Germany. The launch of the 2015 Calendar comes just a few days before the opening of the Forma e Desiderio – The Cal™ Collezione Pirelli exhibition, which will be held at the Palazzo Reale in Milan from 21 November to 19 February 2015. Promoted by the City of Milan-Culture under the patronage of Expo Milano 2015, and organised and produced by the Palazzo Reale and GAmm Giunti, the exhibition has been made possible thanks to the fundamental contribution of Pirelli, which has opened up its fifty-year archive of The Cal™ for the display. Published for the first time in 1964, the 2015 edition by Steven Meisel brings the total number of Pirelli calendars so far to 42, by 33 different photographers. Of these, 9 have produced two editions: Harri Peccinotti (1968 and 1969), Brian Duffy (1965 and 1973), Francis Giacobetti (1970 and 1971), Clive Arrowsmith (1991 and 1992), Herb Ritts (1994 and 1999), Richard Avedon (1995 and 1997), Peter Lindbergh (1996 and 2002), Bruce Weber (1998 and 2003), Patrick Demarchelier (2005 and 2008). Four women have put their name to a Pirelli Calendar: Sarah Moon from France (1972), the Americans Joyce Tennyson (1989) and Annie Leibovitz (2000), and Inez (2007, with the Inez and Vinoodh duo). In terms of locations, 17 have been made in Europe (6 in the UK, 6 in France, 3 in Spain, 2 in Italy); 11 in the United States, 4 in the Caribbean, 5 in Africa, 3 in Brazil and 1 in China. 26 editions have been in colour, 9 in black and white (1990, 1996, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2005, 2007, 2011, 2012) and 6 in both (1997, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2006, 2009).
PDF Version (358 KB)
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Return to Laguna Seca for Pirelli and riders of the Eni FIM Superbike World Championship
After the last round back in 2004, the production based championship returns to the historic American track: Pirelli brings standard SC1 and SC2 for the front and standard SC0 and SC1 for the rear Pirelli is going to be back in action this weekend at the historic American circuit of Laguna Seca with the riders of the eni FIM Superbike World Championship after an absence of nine years. The last time the championship raced here dates back to 2004, the first year of Pirelli as the sole tyre supplier. Pirelli is bringing the new 2013 17-inch Diablo Superbike tyres in SC1 and SC2 for the front and SC0 and SC1 compound for the rear. At Laguna Seca only the Superbike riders will race, with Race 1 taking place on Saturday and Race 2 on Sunday, in both cases at 2 pm. With three rounds to go, the Championship is more open than ever with four riders within 33 points. The Englishman of the Kawasaki Racing Team, Tom Sykes, thanks to the second and third place achieved in Turkey, remains the leader of the overall standings with 323 points but the advantage over closest rival Sylvain Guintoli (Aprilia Racing Team ) is only 8 points and the team mate of the Frenchman, Eugene Laverty, with the double scored in the last round, is still in the running for the title missing just 26 points from the leader. Despite some difficulties, Marco Melandri (BMW Motorrad GoldBet SBK ) is still in contention to win the championship, while teammate Chaz Davies, with a gap of 84 points from the first, could surprise but hardly fight for the title. Laguna Seca was built in 1957 and is located 250 meters above sea level, not far from the town of Monterey which overlooks a beautiful bay in California. The track is situated on a hillside, starting from the bottom of the valley it then develops towards the top corner from the curve 5 till the 8 and 8a curves, where it goes over before falling back sharply towards the finish line. In 1988, the circuit underwent a change creating the section between curve 2 and curve 5, which was necessary in order to achieve the minimum length required by the FIM rules. More recently, between 2005 and 2006 , some sections have not been modified to change the design of the track , which remained unchanged apart from the minor operation to the bump before the Corkscrew, but to expand the escape routes, replace the curbs, enlarge the main straight, move some protections, all to make it safer. It 's definitely a circuit where overtaking is difficult because there are relatively few points where is possible to bring the attack. Laguna Seca from a tyre point of view: Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca is a circuit of 3610 meters (2.243 miles) with 7 left-hand curves and 4 right, the rider in pole position starts on the right side. The track has a width of 15 meters with the longest straight which measures 453 meters (0.281 miles), and the track runs counter-clockwise. The configuration of Laguna Seca is quite special and different from other Championship circuits. The particular position of the track, located right on a hill not far from the sea, gives rise to large variations in asphalt temperature between morning and afternoon sessions, so we still need to bring the SC0 solution, more suitable for high temperatures, and the SC1, more protected when the temperatures drop. In some particular sections such as the famous "Corkscrew" (Turn 8 and 8a), a very spectacular chicane situated on top of the hill that runs on a very steep slope and which usually riders cover with a speed of around 80 kms/h, we are seeing rapid counterslope changes of direction that stress the front tyre and, at the same time, the many load transfers may affect the grip of the rear tyre. Another particular section is the start-finish straight, which is very short, with two slight changes of direction where the maximum speed is reached, equal to 270 kms/h for Superbike motorcycles. Finally to do the right curves 3 and 4 allows you to get a good lap time, which is why it is very important that the tyres have an excellent performance even on slow corners of approximately ninety degrees. Laguna Seca from a technical point of view: "Laguna Seca is perhaps the most interesting circuit in the United States because of its configuration with ups and downs and fast parts alternating with slower," said Pirelli Moto Racing Director Giorgio Barbier "It is in fact a track very varied since it has situations which change rapidly with tight corners and high points and some points such as the famous Corkscrew which is definitely one of the toughest on the calendar. It is also a track with a quite low average speed and despite not being one of the most difficult for the tyres is still a great challenge for us as since the last time we went there it's been almost 10 years. The circuit has been resurfaced and we do not have any recent parameters on which to rely. As we have not raced there since 2004, the first year of Pirelli as the sole tyre supplier, let us remember, however, some important elements. First, the track could appear dirty on Friday, partly because of the presence of artificial sand but, as I recall, one of the most curious feature of this track is due to its position and consists of the fog which can arise in the early hours of the morning, hours in which the temperature can be several degrees lower than in the afternoon. We'll see how the riders will face this new track in which undoubtedly we are very happy to come back because it is a circuit that has made and continues to make the history of motorcycling." Pirelli solutions for the Superbike class: To face the third last round of the season, Pirelli will bring a total of 1,310 tyres that will be available to the Superbike riders, the only ones who will attend this round. Each rider will rely on 29 front and 31 rear tyres including 2 qualifier supersoft tyres to use during Superpole, 4 intermediate and 8 rain tyres for the front as well as for the rear. Regarding slick tyres, there will be 2 solutions at the front and two for the rear. For the front Pirelli brings the two solutions already brought in all 2013 rounds, the standard SC1 (R426) in soft compound and ideal for low external temperatures and/or moderately severe circuits and the standard SC2 (R982) excellent for high air temperatures because it guarantees solidity on the tread band. At the rear, the standard SC0 (R1261), a soft solution which made its debut at Monza with the reinforced central area and has been used at Donington, Portimão, Imola and Nürburgring with success. Ideal for tackling smooth asphalt and high temperatures. It offers, in fact, maximum tread contact on smooth asphalt and maximum traction development at high temperatures as well as higher resistance to thermal performance decay. It is easily identified by two parallel white strips on the tread pattern. The alternative available to the riders is represented by the standard SC1 (R828), a solution in medium compound already present in the first three rounds as well as in Imola, Silverstone and at Nürburgring and visually recognizable because of a white stripe which is accompanied with a blue strip on the tread.
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Fontanel
Kelso, TN
Bad News Barrel Robbers
Check it out! Guys in Kentucky steal barrels of bourbon due to high demand and shortage. Luis and Howard from Prichard’s Distillery at Fontanel, are interviewed with News Channel 5 in Nashville TN about this strange situation. Watch the video here!
http://www.scrippsmedia.com/newschannel5/news/Prosecutors-Workers-Busted-For-Stealing-Barrels-Of-Bourbon-300831671.html
Prichard’s Rum in the Wine Enthusiast
Prichard’s Distillery……a groundbreaker in the craft distilling industry. Our founder, Phil Prichard, was recently quoted in the May issue of the Wine Enthusiast about being a forerunner in the craft/artisanal distilling movement.
It never dawned on me to make white rum and sell it, I set out to make a good rum, so you have to age it. It took me three to four years to see if it was any good.
http://www.winemag.com/Web-2015/Dixie-Distillers/index.php/cparticle/6
Watch Booze Traveler, featuring Prichard’s Distillery
Watch the episode that crashed our website. Get to know what all the buzz was about.
http://www.travelchannel.com/shows/booze-traveler/episodes/tennessee-red-white-and-booze
Prichard’s opens distillery at Fontanel
Nashville, TN (June 16, 2014) – Prichard’s Distillery, the first craft distiller founded in Tennessee in the past 50 years, will celebrate the grand opening of their second distillery on Wednesday, June 18 at Fontanel in Nashville. Prichard’s will host visitors at a log cabin converted to a tasting room and shop on the grounds of Fontanel, the former home of country music legend Barbara Mandrell, and now a museum, hospitality and entertainment destination that welcomes over 500,000 visitors each year. The new Prichard’s production facility is adjacent to the log cabin tasting center and includes a 400-gallon Alembic copper still custom-designed by Vendome Copper and Brassworks in the style of French cognac. It is the first still of its kind in Tennessee.
“Our new facility represents a significant expansion of our current distilling capacity and will allow us to keep pace with demand for our whiskies and rums,” states founder Phil Prichard. “Our Alembic still is an extraordinary piece of equipment made entirely to our specifications to enable us to experiment with a new line of small-batch brandies. It’s a dream come true to be based at the Fontanel Mansion, where visitors can discover so much of the true traditions of Tennessee.”
Established in 1997, Prichard’s is a family-owned business that has enjoyed continuous growth over the past ten years. Five generations ago in 1822, Granddaddy Benjamin Prichard of Davidson County, TN left his still, tubs, utensils and techniques of the craft to his son Enoch. When descendant Phil Prichard opened Prichard’s Distillery in Kelso, TN, he restored a lost art form and produces some of the finest tasting rums and Tennessee Whiskey in America.
Prichard's - Kelso, TN
11 Kelso Smithland Rd. Kelso, TN 37348
Prichard's - Fontanel
4105 Whites Creek Pike Nashville, TN, 37189
Email the Distillery
Please verify you are of legal drinking age
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Hiking and Life-Writing: In Conversation with Melanie McManus
inspiring women travelers, USA, USA getting around, USA inspiration, USA things to do
Melanie McManus, the women’s fast-packing world record holder, spoke with us about her experience hiking the Ice Age Trail through Wisconsin. Not only did Melanie hike the trail, she also published a book about it, Thousand-Miler. We had a chat about Melanie’s experiences.
Tell us about your book, Thousand-Miler. What is it about?
Thousand-Miler is loosely the story of my thru-hike of the Ice Age Trail, during which I attempted to set the women’s fast-packing record (and did.) But it’s much more than my story. I weave in the stories of the other hikers I meet along the way, give some trail history, devote chapters to the overall speed record holder and the trail’s first thru-hiker (from 1979), plus discuss the IAT’s affiliation with the Warrior Expeditions program.
What inspired you to write it?
I was inspired to write it by my own obsession with the trail after I finished. I couldn’t stop thinking about what an awesome experience it had been, and how it had changed me in ways I can’t quite explain. I knew the other hikers I met felt the same way, so it was our shared joy in the trail — and my desire to spread the news that the trail exists — that was my true inspiration.
Where do you write most effectively? When do you get your best writing ideas?
I do most of my writing in my office, although sometimes on the road, too (including airplanes, cars, etc.). I get a lot of good ideas while I’m exercising, especially running, hiking or aqua jogging.
When did you start hiking, and how many hikes (approximately) have you done?
I’ve always enjoyed hiking whenever I travel. But I began hiking in earnest in 2009, and have probably done about a dozen significantly long hikes since then.
Tell us about the most meaningful hiking experience you’ve ever had.
This a good question, but a difficult one. I can think of several very different answers, so I’ll go with this one.
Last year, while hiking the Florida National Scenic Trail — which I did over four different trips to the state — a friend joined me for a few days each time. She’s not an exerciser, and was more helping to shuttle me on and off the trail for the day. But each day she would hike a few miles with me. She became so enamored of the experience, and the joy of discovering her state in this fashion, that she adopted the trail name Ten-Miler. The name was sort of a joke because of my “Thousand-Miler” status; her goal was to be able to hike 10 miles in one day. She did meet her goal, and later exceeded it by hitting 11.5 miles in one day. I was so proud of her! She now hopes to join me on another hike — perhaps the Arizona Trail — and try to push herself even further. I’m so excited that I was able to introduce this wonderfully rewarding experience to another person.
Do you have any major hikes coming up? Could you tell us about it?
I’ll be thru-hiking the Superior Hiking Trail starting June 2. It’s 310+ miles along the North Shore of Lake Superior, so that’s from Duluth north until you’re almost at the Canadian border. The trail is widely considered one of the best trails in the nation as far as scenery and trail, but it also very rugged, as you’re climbing up and down the bluffs lining Lake Superior. It’s also a portion of the North Country National Scenic Trail.
I’m also tentatively planning a thru-hike of the Arizona National Scenic Trail next spring. That one is about 800 miles long, and runs vertically through the state from the Mexican border to Utah, passing through the Grand Canyon.
About Sharon Zelnick
Sharon Zelnick is Pink Pangea’s Outreach Coordinator. Sharon holds an MA in comparative literature (summa cum laude) from Leiden University and a BA in liberal arts (magna cum laude) from Tel Aviv University. Originally from the US, Sharon has lived in the Netherlands and Israel and has traveled extensively through Europe, the Middle East, and Central America.
View all posts by Sharon Zelnick
The Hardest Thing I Ever Did: Hiking the Appalachian Trail
The Best of Washburn and Bayfield, Wisconsin
Tour du Mont Blanc: A Conversation with Julie Rains
Hidden Corners of Yosemite National Park
Mount Monadnock: The Most Climbed Mountain in the USA
The Girl’s Guide to Trekking in Patagonia
15 FAQs About Trekking in Nepal
The Truth about the Great Walks of New Zealand
An Architectural Wonder — St. Vitus Cathedral, Prague
Sustainable Tourism: Moving Forward through Giving Back
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Tag: colourbox
Alternative Version, Cover Versions, Get This!, Hard-to-find
The Great British Take-Off
September 1, 2016 February 7, 2017 Craig McAllister
Augustus Pablo is perhaps to the melodica what Les Paul was to the electric guitar. Until Augustus, reggae was all about the boom of the bass and the pistol crack of the snare. Pablo took his melodica and made it central to the dub reggae records he played on, fighting for ear space amongst the booms and the pistol cracks, the bringer of other-worldly melody in an already expansive soundscape. Dub reggae is proper long-form music. It’s widescreen, epic and simply massive to listen to. But you knew that already.
When Augustus Pablo teamed up with dub pioneer King Tubby, the results were dynamite. Their ‘King Tubby Meets Rockers Uptown’ takes the easy flowing lovers’ rock of Jacob Miller‘s ‘Baby I Love You So‘…..
Jacob Miller – Baby I Love You So
https://philspector.files.wordpress.com/2016/09/jacob-miller-baby-i-love-you-so.mp3
…..and sends it into outer space with a heady treatment of clatters, bangs, melodi-ka-ka-ka-echos and all manner of sonic enhancements…..
Augustus Pablo/King Tubby – King Tubby Meets Rockers Uptown
https://philspector.files.wordpress.com/2016/09/augustus-pablo-king-tubby-meets-rockers-uptown.mp3
It‘s a very influential record. If you know your musical onions, you’ll spot traces of the production in all manner of records, from Massive Attack and St Etienne to New Order and Primal Scream. Would New Order’s ‘In A Lonely Place’ be the record it was if Martin Hannett hadn’t turned to his inner King Tubby for inspiration; Other-worldly? Yep. Claustrophobic and menacing? Yep. Liberal sprinklings of melodica? Yep, yep and yep. It’s dub, man! A rainy, grey, 80s Mancunian, British take on dub, but dub nonetheless.
New Order – In A Lonely Place
https://philspector.files.wordpress.com/2016/09/11-in-a-lonely-place.mp3
Primal Scream currently have a very good (and very limited) 12″ on release featuring a dark ‘n dubby remixed take on their own 100% Or Nothing which stretches towards the 10 minute mark, cramming in as many booms, bleeps, skank-filled echoing guitars and, yes, melodica as possible. Somewhere between New Order’s In A Lonely Place and King Tubby’s dub-in-a-cave production, with half-inched vocal refrains from Funkadelic’s One Nation Under A Groove, it’s very good. Echo Dek part II, even. Forever with his finger on the pulse of what’s hot and what’s not, Adam over at the ever-wonderful Bagging Area featured it last week.
In the early-mid 90s, Paul Weller was fond of adding tripped-out, elongated versions of the a-side or even his lesser-known album tracks to his singles. Remixed and re-tweaked almost exclusively by Brendan Lynch, they could usually be relied upon to be the best thing on the single. The Lynch Mob version of debut album track Kosmos is fantastic. Clearly influenced by King Tubby, Lee Perry and all those other progressive-thinking sonic architects, it’s waaaay out there. We have lift off!, to borrow the sample at the start.
Paul Weller – Kosmos (Lynch Mob Bonus Beats version)
https://philspector.files.wordpress.com/2016/09/1-13-kosmos-lynch-mob-bonus-beats.mp3
I’ve probably mentioned this before, but it’s best listened to whilst you drive on the M8 on a hazy summer’s evening, just as the sun is setting and an aeroplane is taking off from Glasgow Airport, vapour trails shimmering in the mid-July heat, a stroke of luck that befell me once after dropping folk off at the airport.
le-mod-ica
Anyway, back to Baby I Love You So. Back in 1986, when alternative acts were trying to keep up with the rockist jangle of The Smiths or creating their own heavy, heavy monster sound of goth, 4AD act Colourbox released a very good version.
Colourbox – Baby I Love You So
https://philspector.files.wordpress.com/2016/09/colourbox-baby-i-love-you-so.mp3
Replacing the melodica with electric guitars may have ‘indied’ it up a bit, but it loses none of its heavy dub or pulsing groove as a result. It’s a genuinely faithful version, replete with sonic wizardry and skanking galore. It’s also a tricky one to track down online, but here‘s the 7″ version, above, and the extended 12″ version below.
Colourbox – Baby I Love You So (12″ version)
https://philspector.files.wordpress.com/2016/09/colourbox-baby-i-love-you-so-12.mp3
Tagged augustus pablo, baby i love you so, colourbox, king tuubby, melodica, new order, paul weller, primal scream5 Comments
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James Winkfield
1898-1903 in United States; 1904-1930 in Europe
Number of Winners:
Jimmy Winkfield was born on April 12, 1882 in Chilesburg, Ky. He rose to fame by winning back-to-back editions of the Kentucky Derby with His Eminence in 1901 and Alan-a-Dale in 1902. Winkfield remains the last African-American to win the Run for the Roses.
Winkfield’s best year in the United States was in 1901 when he won a documented 220 races. Along with the Kentucky Derby, Winkfield won the Clark Handicap, Tennessee Derby, Latonia Derby, and New Orleans Derby that year.
In 1904, Winkfield joined the ranks of American riders who went abroad, and he became the champion jockey in Russia that year.
During the next dozen years, Winkfield won the Russian Derby four times, the Czar’s Prize three times, the Russian Oaks five times, and the Warsaw Derby twice. He also rode successfully in Germany. During the Russian Revolution in 1917, he helped the racetrack community and 200 horses escape from Odessa on a 1,000-mile journey.
Winkfield later rode in France, where his major victories included the Prix President de la Republic, Grand Prix of Deauville, and Prix Eugene Adam.
When Winkfield retired from riding at age 50, available records indicated he had won more than 2,500 races in various countries throughout a career of more than 30 years. Winkfield later became a successful trainer in France until he was again forced to flee because of the German occupation during World War II. He trained briefly in the United States and returned to France some years after World War II to resume his career. Winkfield died at his farm in France in 1974.
The United States House of Representatives passed a resolution to honor Winkfield in 2005 and the New York Racing Association named a race in his honor that runs each year at Aqueduct.
Jimmy Winkfield was inducted into the National Museum of Racing’s Hall of Fame in 2004.
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Alejandro Hidalgo
Alejandro Hidalgo is a venezuelan film director started career with feature film The House at the End of Time in 2013. Hidalgo is best known for work in The House at the End of Time (2013).
The House at the End of Time Horror 2013 0.00/10
2013 The House at the End of Time Venezuela Writer, Director 0.00
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Vanishing pubs of London
As some of my readers will know, I have been to London a couple of times and enjoyed exploring the city very much. So when, some time ago, my dad saw a blog written by The Gentle Author, our inquisitive nature came to the fore. The Gentle Author is a blogger and writer, based in Spitalfields which is on the boundary of East London and the City. The blog in question related to some photographs taken by a gentleman called Jeffrey Johnson. Mr Johnson subsequently deposited the photographs with the Bishopsgate Institute. They were taken in the 1960’s, 70’s and 80’s and were of various pubs in London. Whilst looking through the photographs, we realised that some of the pubs were no longer there. As a result of our interest, we decided I would send out my Research Assistant, also known as my dad, to investigate whether the pubs were still standing. If they were no longer there, what is in their place, we wondered.
Over a few days dad photographed, we believe, the locations of the pubs and this blog deals with what he found. I must at this point say thank you to both the Gentle Author and to Bishopsgate Institute, without whose assistance and guidance this blog entry could not take place. The photographs are arranged in the order in which they originally appeared, with Jeffrey Johnson’s picture being shown first.
The Hoop & Grapes, Aldgate
It is the oldest licensed house in the City of London, dating from 1593. Originally called The Castle, then the Angel & Crown, then Christopher Hills and finally the Hoop & Grapes. This is a reference to the sale of both beer & wine and was given the name in the 1920’s. The pub is a Grade II listed building.
Sir Walter Scott, 2 Broadway Market E8
The first reference we could find of the pub was 1851. The pub is now the Market Cafe. It stands on the corner of Broadway Market and Andrews Road, close by the Regents Canal.
City of Dublin Bottling Co., Dericote Street, nr Broadway Market E8
The building appears remarkably similar however it is clearly a private residence now. The history is somewhat shrouded in mystery, although we understand that it was part of the Guinness empire.
Knave of Clubs, 25 Bethnal Green Road E2
Grade II listed, present in 1735 the pub became a restaurant around 1994 before closing in 2001. It has since reopened as a bar & restaurant called Dirty Bones which is still open today.
Crown & Woolpack 394 St John Street, Clerkenwell
Believed to date originally from around 1851, the pub was open until 1990, then closed. It has undergone some refurbishment and is currently a hairdressers, called The Chapel.
Centre Page, Knightrider Street EC4V
Originally known as the Horn Tavern, the pub can be seen on the left when crossing the “wobbly” bridge from Tate Modern to the north bank approaching St Pauls. Another Grade II listed building, this time built in the mid 19th century. The other buildings in the area around the pub have changed significantly.
Brunswick Arms, Macdonald Road, Archway
The pub appears to have been on the corner of Macdonald Road & Vorley Road. It was demolished in the early 1980’s. The Archway Leisure Centre stands adjacent to the site and there is no trace of the pub. The flats behind the pub remain.
Queens Head, 31 Blackfriars Lane EC4V
The pub was situated immediately adjacent to the Thameslink rail line at Blackfriars. It was demolished in 1999 and now offices are in its place.
Crooked Billet, Wood Street & Chingford Road, Walthamstow
It’s believed a pub was on the site from 1742 – 1991. It was subsequently demolished for a roundabout known as The Crooked Billet on the A406 North Circular Road.
Old Bell Tavern, Pancras Road
The history of this pub appears to be difficult to come by and very little seems to be on record. The building has been swept away to provide taxi ranks and a pedestrianised area for King’s Cross and St Pancras stations. The German Gymnasium in the background of both pictures was the first purpose built gymnasium in England. It was built between 1864-1865 and today is a restaurant.
Magpie & Stump
Opposite the Old Bailey (or the Central Criminal Court) the Magpie & Stump was apparently nicknamed Court no.10 as it was regularly filled with detectives and reporters to discuss the proceedings. The old building has been replaced by an office incorporating the pub.
Mackworth Arms, 158 Commercial Road, E1
The pub was present in 1817 and closed around 2005. It’s latest use seems to be a clothes shop, however that also looked like it had been closed for a while.
Red Lion, 217 Whitechapel Road
Originally known as the Old Red Lion, the pub was present by 1839, when it became known as the Red Lion. It survived as a pub until around 1989 and is currently a shoe store under the name Sidhu.
Green Man, 7&9 Bucklersbury, St Benet Sherehog, EC4
The pub was situated in St Benet Sherehog, which now seems to be Sise Lane. It was demolished to allow the building of One Poultry, which was completed in 1997. There is another Green Man pub incorporated into the One Poultry development.
Marquis of Anglesey, 77 Ashmill Street, NW1
The address was changed prior to 1915 from 77 Devonshire Street to Ashmill Street. The pub closed around 2009 and became offices.
Bulls Head, 80 Leadenhall Street, EC3A
Demolished in 1990 to make way for an office development. Opposite Hartshorn Alley leading to Fenchurch Street.
White Horse, 8 Little Britain
Now known as 1 Little Britain. The sign is hidden behind the barred gate. There seems to have been a pub on the site since 1765, it was rebuilt in 1892 and closed around 1971. Converted to offices.
Olde Wine Shades, Martin Lane, EC4R
Now seems to be called El Vino The Olde Wine Shades, the pub remains on the same site. The establishment was built in 1663, so predates the Great Fire of London by 3 years. Due to the architectural and historical significance, it is Grade II listed.
The Crispin, 1 Finsbury Avenue EC2M
The original pub appears to have been rebuilt in the 1980’s and was then redeveloped as part of the Broadgate Development. It closed permanently in 2012. We cannot find details as to when the pub was first noted on the site of Finsbury Avenue.
Blue Posts, 73-75 West India Dock Road E14
The area has changed out of all recognition from the original photo. Westferry DLR station sits just a little behind the location of the pub. The original pub was present by 1800 and extensively rebuilt by 1876. It was demolished around 1987 – 1988 for the widening of the West India Dock Road.
Ticket Porter, Arthur Street, EC4R
The early address shows as 5 Arthur Street West however by 1910 it was shown as 17 & 19 Arthur Street. It is thought that the name came from the Ticket Porters who’s job it was to carry goods across London. The site is now redeveloped as part of the Bank interchange upgrade. The latest photograph was taken from slightly further down the hill toward Upper Thames Street.
Weavers Arms, 36 Sun Street, Finsbury EC2M
There appears to have been a pub called Weavers Arms since 1869 when it was thought to be at 13 Crown Street. The pub appears to have been demolished as part of the Broadgate Development and is known as 3 Finsbury Avenue which has taken the place of the southern side of Sun Street.
I hope you have enjoyed my blog. As you will see, some of the pubs still remain and are open for business. However sadly many are closed, redeveloped or swept away in the tide of change and progress that is forever present in cities such as London.
The Gentle Author’s blog can be found at http://spitalfieldslife.com and the Bishopsgate Institute can be contacted through their website at https://www.bishopsgate.org.uk . They have many interesting articles and information for everyone to view and enjoy.
rescuedogdexter
Enjoying life in my forever home. Sharing my contentment with whoever will read my tales. View all posts by rescuedogdexter
Posted on April 25, 2019 April 30, 2019 Author rescuedogdexterCategories Dexploration, LifeTags Dexploration, Life
8 thoughts on “Vanishing pubs of London”
A wonderful and very interesting post , I have been in a few of the remaining pubs but very sad to see the demise of the bulk of those visited.
rescuedogdexter says:
Thank you. The demise of so many of the hostelries, usually due to corporate greed, is horrifying. My dad remembers the Bulls Head in Leadenhall Street as it was immediately across the road from his first job in London.
Thank you for a interesting post .it makes us aware of our history around us and how easily it’s lost forever.my dad who was born and raised in London would have known some of these places !.its always all too easy to walk past and not notice places until they are gone !.
Shirley Baker says:
This was excellent.. well done !
We also have lost pubs around Manchester to the ‘progress’ … some great memories still live on.
beaglebugclub says:
Interesting! Congratulations you dad did an excellent research!
Thanks. I think he was quite saddened to see the number of old buildings not only closed but also knocked down.
Sandra Bergson says:
Thankyou, being a Corvid *Poe* @bergsonsandra, I’m thrilled to see *Magpie & Stump* surviving although the original building is much more to my liking looking most sneaky
Indeed. The name survives which is good as it at least gives a link to history. Whether there is the same atmosphere inside the pub I have no idea. The older buildings looked to have more charm and homeliness to them, not just a bland exterior with a cold a/c controlled interior.
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Home/News/The #MeToo Stories We’re Not Hearing
The #MeToo Stories We’re Not Hearing
By Alexandra Mallick|2018-12-27T19:58:36-07:00December 12th, 2017|
Published in The New York Times
This week Time magazine announced that its person of the year is actually a group of people: “the Silence Breakers” who have courageously outed the alleged sexual predation of powerful men like Harvey Weinstein and Roger Ailes. This is a sign of real progress. The hope is that this continuing national reckoning will lead to a culture in which women are able to flourish without shame or fear.
But if the cases of high-profile men in politics, media and Hollywood are the cases at which the conversation stops, we will have missed a major opportunity to examine what the very worst sexual abuse looks like — and what we might do to stop it.
Perhaps that’s why, in the weeks since the accusations of vile (and possibly criminal) behavior of Harvey Weinstein altered the public consciousness, and as our understanding of sexual harassment has expanded to include all manner of merely boorish behavior, some highly influential celebrities of color — Rihanna and LeBron James among them — sought to direct our focus to the case of a 29-year-old black woman named Cyntoia Brown.
The facts of Ms. Brown’s life are heart-rending. An elementary school dropout and runaway born with fetal alcohol syndrome, at the age of 16 she found herself living in a Nashville motel with an older pimp called Kut Throat who drugged her, raped her repeatedly and forced her into prostitution.
On Aug. 6, 2004, when she was 16, she shot and killed a 43-year-old john in his home, when the man allegedly reached under his bed. Ms. Brown testified that she believed he was reaching for a weapon and feared for her life. She also took money and two guns from the property before fleeing. A jury rejected her claim of self-defense, finding her guilty of first-degree murder and aggravated robbery.
Ms. Brown was tried as an adult in 2006 and given a life sentence, which she is serving in the Tennessee Prison for Women in Nashville. She will not be eligible for parole until 2055, when she will be 67 years old.
Those who follow the issue of restorative justice have known Ms. Brown’s name for years. There is a 2011 documentary, “Me Facing Life,” dealing with her predicament, which became a factor in changing the way that Tennessee deals with child prostitution cases. But she only burst into the national consciousness last month when the #FreeCyntoia hashtag went viral. (Rihanna’s initial post on Instagram alone received almost two million likes.)
Fortunately, most American women cannot say #MeToo about such a horrific ordeal. But the truth is that there are many more Cyntoia Browns in our midst than we would like to think.
Consider the case of Sara Kruzan. Her father was incarcerated, and a trafficker named George Gilbert Howard, 20 years her senior, began grooming her for sex work when she was just 11 years old. In 1995, at age 17, she killed him and was sentenced to life in prison without parole in California.
Evidence of the abuse she suffered was deemed inadmissible at her trial. Though recent studies estimate that a staggering 86 percent of women in jail have suffered some form of sexual violence, the criminal justice system routinely fails to take this into account.
Twelve years into her sentence, Ms. Kruzan received a break when Human Rights Watch brought national attention to her case, prompting the governor at the time, Arnold Schwarzenegger, to commute her sentence. She was granted parole in 2013.
I recently spoke to Ms. Kruzan and Elizabeth Calvin of Human Rights Watch, who now collaborate to end the use of life sentences without parole for minors. “Sara and Cyntoia are not unique,” Ms. Calvin told me. Such abuse, Ms. Kruzan stressed, “is protected by silence.”
Ms. Kruzan told me about the case of a woman named Laverne Dejohnette, a Californian serving a life sentence for murder whose story has not gone viral. Ms. Dejohnette’s father was a trafficker and her mother was trafficked. Like many women in prison, “Laverne was sexually abused within her family and is a survivor of incest,” Ms. Kruzan told me. She was sexually trafficked by her own parents, yet the mitigating factors of her abuse were not taken into account. “These are stories of relentless violence and forgetting,” Ms. Calvin said. “Society forgets these people exist.”
For all of the women who have had the strength to share their #MeToo stories, there remain so many women in our culture, most of them poor women of color, who lack the resources or opportunities to add their voices to the growing chorus.
Without for a moment diminishing the pain and suffering — whether physical or emotional — of any woman who has now found the voice to speak out against sexism and harassment, for this moment of collective awakening to have a deeper significance, we have to address a very serious question. If ambitious, highly educated, well-compensated women at major news organizations are being harassed and assaulted with impunity, what is happening to poor and working-class black, brown and white women outside the media’s glare?
The deeper question may be whether we really want to know. Nietzsche believed the lower you ventured on the social hierarchy, the less suffering mattered. “The curve of human susceptibility to pain seems in fact to take an extraordinary and almost sudden drop as soon as one has passed the upper ten thousand or ten million of the top stratum of culture,” he wrote in “On the Genealogy of Morals.” Comparing Africans (and laboratory animals) to a representative of the white upper class, he concluded, with some disdain, that all their torment combined “is utterly negligible compared with one painful night of a hysterical bluestocking.”
Such talk now seems monstrous, yet a visitor from outer space could be forgiven for thinking that many of us continue to see things this way.
Thomas Chatterton Williams (@thomaschattwill) is a contributing writer to The New York Times Magazine and a fellow at the American Academy in Berlin, where he is at work on a book about racial identity.
Alexandra Mallick
Alexandra Mallick is the Executive Director of Re:store Justice. Her work in California includes policy and advocacy to advance criminal justice reform. In addition to working on legislation, she works with incarcerated individuals to help change the narrative and shine a light on the power of rehabilitation.
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Food & drink, Rome, Tips & tricks
Do You Need to Book Restaurants in Rome? (Really?)
Over the years, I’ve found that one of the biggest surprises for first-time visitors involves whether you need to book restaurants in Rome.
Many of us, after all, are used to restaurants back home. Whether in the US, UK or Canada, unless you’re talking about a super-trendy or Michelin-starred restaurant, it’s often fairly easy to walk into a restaurant for dinner and get seated without much of a wait. It’s easy to assume that Rome is the same. Why shouldn’t you be able to walk into a humble trattoria on a Thursday evening and find a table?
Then there’s that all-pervasive myth about Italy: The idea that no matter where you eat, you’ll eat well. So even if you can’t get in to one place, the next place should be just as good. After all, the center of Rome is just teeming with good restaurants, right? And, of course, we all love that idea of “discovering” that perfect hole-in-the-wall spot — no research or reservations needed.
The problem? In Rome, none of this holds water. (Or wine, as the case may be…).
Also: etiquette mistakes not to make at an Italian meal, 5 rules for finding Rome’s best restaurants and why you can’t find your favorite Italian dish in Italy.
When you’re deciding whether to book restaurants in Rome, there are a few things to keep in mind.
Oh hey, those aren’t your average diners… the cast of To Rome with Love caught “eating” in Rome
One is when people tend to eat out in Rome. Most locals don’t eat dinner until at least 8pm — usually 9pm. That means a couple of things. First, restaurants that cater to locals won’t open until 7:30pm or 8pm. (This is changing as more restaurants catch on to the fact that, by opening earlier, they can get more tourists to dine. Still, many local spots are continuing to keep more traditional hours).
Second, you may not be able to (or want to) make a booking until after 8pm. But restaurants still start shutting their kitchens around 11pm. So unlike in, say, Barcelona, you’ll have a hard time getting a dinner booking after 10pm or 10:30pm.
As a result, in terms of when diners are being sat and served, the time frame is just a few short hours.
Another factor is how long people tend to eat dinner for. There’s a stereotype that dinner in Italy is always a five-course production — and every diner is expected to order (and finish!) an antipasto, primo, secondo, dolce, coffee and digestivo... on their own. This isn’t exactly true… as you can probably tell from locals’ often-svelte figures. But it is true that, particularly when eating out, a meal tends to be at least two courses — more often, yes, three or four. (Among friends, many of these courses tend to be shared.)
No, you don’t need to order every course at a restaurant… although it’s hard not to.
Italians also tend to linger more over their meals, often talking late into the night over that last glass of wine or amaro. Service, too, is less rushed. When I’m eating out in Rome with friends, I fully expect to be at the restaurant for at least 2.5 hours — more often 3 or 4.
All of this means that a local restaurant can expect to have about two seatings per table a night. That’s a big difference compared to the churn of many restaurants elsewhere.
Add onto this the fact that, as an old, expensive (for Italy) city, Rome tends to have smaller restaurants (and hotel rooms, and shops). That means fewer tables. And at two seatings per table per night? You can do the math.
In terms of size, restaurants in Rome definitely tend to be more on the “intimate” side.
I haven’t even mentioned yet the fact that sadly, no — you can’t eat anywhere in Rome (or Florence, or Venice…) and eat well. Perhaps that once was true. But tourism has risen sharply in recent years. One effect is that many restaurants now serve what they think visitors are looking for (like fixed-price menus and Italian-American food). Another is that some have given up on quality altogether — whether because they think tourists don’t know what to look for, or because, since they expect to never see them again, they’re not really fussed about turning a diner into a regular.
As a result, there are whole streets in Rome where I can’t even think of a single place I’d be caught dead dining at.
That’s not because I expect fine cuisine. It’s because I don’t want to be overcharged for a gross, often microwaved meal.
Pro tip: Never stop at a restaurant where there’s a host outside.
So now we’re talking only a few tables available… at only a few good restaurants, relatively speaking, in the center of Rome. And with a lot of people — both locals who want to eat out, and a whole host of increasingly food-savvy travelers — who want to eat well.
Starting to see why it’s a good idea to book restaurants in Rome in advance?
Beloved by both locals and visitors, Roscioli is one spot you’ll have a hard time just walking into without a reservation.
Of course, I understand not wanting to be locked into eating at a certain place and time. Part of the joy of travel is being flexible. So I’ll tell you the same thing I say to clients (and it almost always comes up).
When to book restaurants in Rome
If you’re a foodie (as in, you want to make the most of every meal you have), book every dinner and some of your lunches. (You can be a little bit more laissez-faire with lunch reservations than dinner. But even then, if there’s a place you have your heart set on, it’s always better to reserve).
If you’re really not that fussed about food (as in, you not only can’t tell your carbonara from your amatriciana, you’re not that bothered about knowing the difference or even about tasting either one), then go ahead and play every meal by ear.
But at the very least, use the tips from my post about how to spot Rome’s best restaurants.
Want to learn more about food in Rome, while in Rome? I’m a big fan of Eating Italy’s Taste of Testaccio food tour, which includes a visit to a local market and a ton of tastings, and of Walks of Italy’s pasta-making class with a local chef.
And if you’re somewhere in the middle — as in, food is one of the reasons you’re excited to visit Italy, but you’re okay chancing a mediocre meal or two in return for flexibility?
Want to eat like this every meal? Then you’ll need to book restaurants in Rome.
Then don’t worry about lunch. But do book at least half of your dinners in advance — you can always cancel (or have your hotel call to cancel) if you change your mind. (If you’re a group, particularly of five people or more, I’d suggest booking every dinner).
For your other dinners, at least have a list of spots to check out arranged by neighborhood. That way, if you wind up in, say, Trastevere one night, you have a few options to head to. Particularly consider pizzerias: As more casual joints with shorter cooking times, they normally have faster turnover and shorter wait times.
Rome’s pizzerias are popular — but the wait times tend to be shorter.
In terms of when to book restaurants in Rome, meanwhile, aim for at least two or three weeks out. But more than a month is rarely necessary (unless you’re a large group or it’s a super-trendy, Michelin-star type place). You might be able to get your hotel to make bookings for you when you arrive, but be aware that same-week reservations aren’t always available, particularly if you’re traveling in a group.
(Need help making restaurant reservations in advance? I’ll book them for you in the unlimited-plus version of my one-on-one consulting sessions.)
And most importantly, if you haven’t made reservations, be flexible. Know that when you head to one of those spots, there’s a chance you may have to wait for a table (or may not get in at all).
The upside? That wait is the perfect chance for a passeggiata or pre-dinner glass of wine. And that — as much as a fabulous meal — is part of what makes visiting Italy so special!
If you liked this post, you’ll love The Revealed Rome Handbook: Tips and Tricks for Exploring the Eternal City, available for purchase on Amazon or through my site here!
Correct Your Tour Guide: Two Major Myths About Ancient Romans
Reveal Rome, Episode 1
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Mr. Z says:
One thing I’ll mention on your “Pro Tip” to never stop at a restaurant where there’s a host outside: while this may be true for Rome (thinking back, all of my favorite meals in Rome were at restaurants that did NOT have a host outside), it’s not necessarily true elsewhere in Italy. Some of the best meals I’ve had in Amalfi and Venice were at restaurants with a “roper”. In some places, especially in shoulder season, the competition is pretty stiff, and if you don’t have Michelin star, you need to have someone out front to pull people in, or you’ll be empty half the time.
Thanks for your comment! Agree to disagree, though. In an even more touristic place like the Amalfi coast, there’s even less reason a good restaurant needs a host to rope people in, given the large number of diners… the goal is always to go where the locals go (even if there are very few locals, like there), and I promise that where that happens, a restaurant will be getting booked without needing a host. I can’t actually think of a single good restaurant I’ve ever eaten at anywhere in Italy where there was a host outside. But if you know of one, I’ll check it out next time 😉
Richard Tripodi says:
Spot on Amanda. Tis the golden rule!
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Novice joins Benedictine community
In a brief ceremony, Novice Christian Lumsden was clothed in the Benedictine habit at Saint Meinrad Archabbey, St. Meinrad, IN, on August 5, 2018. He now begins a year of monastic formation, including study of the Rule of St. Benedict and monastic history.
Novice Christian, 44, is a native of Trinidad.
He earned degrees in music from Trinity College of Music in London and Canterbury Christ Church University in the United Kingdom. He also studied liturgy in the graduate program at The Liturgical Institute in Mundelein, IL, and canonical monastic studies at the University of Oxford.
Previously, he served as director of music for the deanery of Kent in the United Kingdom and as director of music and liturgy for the Diocese of Hamilton, Bermuda, where he also served as cathedral organist and master of the choristers.
Most recently, he was a junior monk at the Benedictine monastery of Quarr Abbey on the Isle of Wight, UK.
As a novice, he takes a year off from formal studies and trades. The novitiate is a time of prayer and learning intended to help a novice discern his vocation as a monk. At the end of this year, a novice may be permitted to profess temporary vows of obedience, fidelity to the monastic way of life and stability in the community of Saint Meinrad.
Monte Cassino pilgrimages to be held in May
Abbey Caskets to host open house, give workshop tours
Holy Week/Easter schedule set for Saint Meinrad
Saint Meinrad Archabbey Report on Clergy Abuse
National Players to perform two plays March 8 and 9
View Archived News
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$12.5 Million Disappears Mysteriously At The Sierra Leone Ministry of Defense
The Ministry of Defense has yesterday presented to the Ministry of Finance and Economic Development their revised budget for the 2017 fiscal year requesting for Le 87billion for the smooth running of their operation in and out of the country at the Miatta Conference Hall Brookfield’s in Freetown.
Presenting the budget the Director General of the Ministry of Defence Sanah J Marrah said their 2017 budget was revised to Le 87billion considering the economic situation in the country and for the Defense Ministry to be effective and operational.
He said currently each personnel of the Republic of Sierra Leone Armed Forces (RSLAF) is receiving a bag of rice costing over Le22 billion per year.
He noted that recruitment of 300 soldiers was not implemented due to inadequate funding from the Ministry of Finance and Economic Development.
He also noted that they have also cut 30% of their expenditure due to lack of finances from the Government of Sierra Leone.
Speaking on their achievements on a Power Point presentation for the financial year 2016, he said they have reconstructed housing unit’s two military barracks at Wilberforce and Gondama village in the Southern Province of Sierra Leone.
He also explained about the rehabilitation of the Daru Barracks, hospital and accommodation for doctors and nurses and also rehabilitated a community school at Daru.
He said 4 out of the 8 houses are near completion at Wilberforce and also spoke about Military assistance provided by the People’s Republic of China.
He also highlighted some key deliverables they did not achieve which includes establishment of a Battalion size barracks in Kambia amongst others.
He said contract for rice alone is costing Le24billion whilst medical supply for the army and civilians are Le15billion and fuel Le 9billion.
To cushion the economic distress on the procurement of rice the ministry of defense will be cultivating over 250 hectares of boli-land around Magban in the Moyamba district for rice production that will be used to supply the army.
The Chief of Defense Staff John Milton said the 2017 budget also requested for the establishment of defense attaches to China and Ethiopia which is meant to provide security for visitors and to also support defense diplomacy and lobbying for support from partners.
The CDS also spoke about the operational challenges and lack of accommodation for soldiers across the country after a visit recently.
He said ‘I don’t want to comment on the auditor general’s report as we are in the process to respond appropriately he said most of it is centered on receipts.
The air wing of the army is also operational but we lack the logistics to do our work.
Concluding on the war wounded he said when he assumed office he engaged them and investigated with options with the involvement of Office of National Security but finance ministry is on the verge of addressing the issue and verification will soon start. He stressed.
The Auditor General Reports detected in the ministry of defence “overpricing” with over $12.5 million stolen, as well as possible mis-procurement in construction contracts.
As part of the procurement process, draft contract agreements are to be submitted to the Solicitor-General for vetting and advice. In respect of a contract for the supply of arms and ammunition in the amount of $45,898,250 the Solicitor-General advised “… the Performance Bond to be provided by the contractor should have a validity period covering the entire contract period”.
The budget hearing was chaired by Ansu Tucker Principal Deputy Financial Secretary in the Ministry of Finance and Economic Development aided by civil society groups, media and non-state actors.
Tags Ministry Of Defense
President Koroma Accept Failures, Says His Government Is "Not Perfect"
Sierra Leoneans Still Face Transportation Constraints Despite 100 Buses Procurement
Sierra Leone And Indonesia Agree To Boost Economic Cooperation
Two Confirmed Dead, 7 Rescued As Speed Boat Capsize In Freetown (See Graphic Photo)
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The Name of the Four Horsemen's Squire is Polygamy
"Dear Pundita:
I just read your Friday post about Oriana Fallaci's criticism of Islam. I understand that she is angry but will you please give Muslims a break? The Muslim community in America is as outraged as she is about the terrorists and their threats against Europe. I and every other Muslim I know condemns the terrorists. We're working very hard to counter the wrong impression that Islam is a religion of violence and to raise awareness in the community that Muslims need to take strong action to counter the hate-filled actions and speech of the terrorists.
Ameena in Brooklyn"
Dear Ameena:
While Pundita applauds all efforts by civilians to denounce terrorism, I think putting al Qaeda and similar crews out of business is principally a job for militaries. What I see as a civilian job, one that should be joined by leaders from all religions and governments, is unsticking our collective head from the sand and grappling with four huge problems now confronting humanity:
1. The developed democracies cannot keep footing the bill for people who practice polygamy unless the people submit to forced sterilization.
2. The developed democracies cannot continue to support people who follow practices that institutionalize misogyny and barbaric customs directed against women and female children.
3. The same democracies cannot continue to tolerate in their midst people who want all the benefits that come from living in a society of modern democratic laws but also want to follow tribal laws from ye olde country.
4. The peoples of the democratic nations cannot continue to deploy Orwellian language and a double standard just because they want cheap goods and labor or a coveted natural resource from a despotic regime. For example, democratic peoples need to stop referring to China as a "quasi-communist pro-free market authoritarian state." China is a military dictatorship and should be treated as such
From my reading of Oriana's essay, at least the portion I quoted, I'd say that to the extent she's angry, the anger comes from a sense of betrayal as a Catholic who is trying to follow the guidance laid down by the Vatican leadership. She perceives the leadership as applying a double standard, one that now helps place Italy in clear and present danger.
Religions practicing a double standard for pragmatic reasons is an old story. However, what greatly concerns me is that African men are playing Christians against Muslims so they can have as many wives as they want. If the Christians say you have accept monogamy to be a Christian, the Africans reply, "I'll just go be a Muslim where I can have four wives."
If the Muslims say you can't have unlimited wives the Africans reply, "I'll just go be a Christian where they're willing to look the other way." And if the Muslims protest, the Africans retort that many Muslims exceed the four-wives rule.
I do not know how widespread this playoff game has been during the past half century. One thing I know is that no person of decent heart should continue to support the game. Polygamy has created situations on the African continent that have led to horrific human suffering -- while leaving it to the developed countries to foot much of the bill in the attempt to save people who continue to breed like flies.
You have expressed great concern about the image of Islam. I too have great concerns:
One is that the United States has finite resources going into an era that is seeing climate shifts and vast populations unprepared to survive without help from the USA.
Two is that economically depressed regions in the USA are not getting enough help from federal government.
I am seeing these two situations rush at each other as the early part of this century unfolds.
(See Pundita post Paw, a Revenuer's at the door... for a brief discussion of how polygamy supports the clan business model in tribalized societies. Attempts to phase out polygamy in a society must be made in concert with modernizing business practices.)
Wimpy Europeans? Hardly!
Below is a translation of an excerpt from Oriana Fallaci's The Enemy We Treat as a Friend, which I have cribbed from Belmont Club's July 25 essay titled Cassandra.
The Cassandra essay also publishes a link to the column in Italian, excerpts from the Economist and (UK) Guardian's predictably hysterical reactions to Fallaci's rant, and includes Bemont Club's thoughtful and elegant if somewhat ambiguous comments about the flap. Pundita's comments are less elegant and ambigious:
If you can't speak your mind when you're 76 years old and sick with cancer, when can you? Give 'em hell, Oriana!
It's time for Muslims worldwide to do some heavy-duty soul searching about a religion that has applauded wiring children with explosives and committing atrocities against females.
And while Pundita is bowled over with gratitude that some Muslim hardliners are now talking about cooperating with the war against terrorism (see second Pundita post for Friday), this about-face does not address Fallaci's central point. There are by all accounts a large number of Muslims who would still like to see their religion rule the world through force and by the destruction of all other religions. And many have given indication they're prepared to act on that wish.
Before turning over the floor to Oriana, I note one thing that bin Laden and his crew don't seem to understand about the Europeans: they have been trying hard to make nice during recent decades not because they are wimps but because they were so war-like for so many centuries. The terrorists should keep it up, if they want to learn what Europeans can be like on a really bad hair day.
Here are the quotes from The Enemy We Treat as a Friend:
"Yes, it's true: In newspapers that in the best of cases pharasaically opposed me with a conspiracy of silence now appear titles using my concepts and words. - "War Against the West."; "Cult of Death"; "The Suicide of Europe"; Wake up, Italy! Wake up!"
Yes, it's true: [Those] In speaking of Londonistan ... are now saying what I did when I wrote that in each one of our cities exists another city. A subterranean city; equal to Beirut when it was invaded by Arafat in the 70s. A foreign city that speaks its own language and observes its own customs; a Muslim city where terrorists go about their business undisturbed and, thus undisturbed, plan our deaths. ...
"Yes it's true: Now, even the fifth columnists and the imams express their hypocritical condemnations, their mendacious loathing, their false solidarity with the relatives of the victims. Yes, it's true: Now, thorough searches are being made in the cases of the accused Muslims; suspects are arrested; perhaps it will even be decided to expel them.
"But in substance, nothing has changed. ... I am also troubled because it goes along with, and thereby reinforces that which I consider the error committed by Papa Wojtyla: not to fight as much as he should have, in my opinion, against the illiberal and anti-democratic -- no, cruel -- essence of Islam.
During these last four years, I have done nothing but ask myself why a warrior like Wojtyla, a leader so singular who contributed more than anyone else to the downfall of the Soviet empire and, therefore, of Communism, showed himself to be so weak toward a disease worse than the Soviet empire or Communism.
"A disease that, above all, targets Christianity (and Judaism) for destruction. I have done nothing but ask myself why he did not inveigh openly against what was happening (and is happening), for example, in Sudan where the fundamentalist regime was practicing (and is practicing) slavery.
Where Christians were eliminated (are eliminated) by the millions. Why he was silent about Saudi Arabia where anyone with a Bible in hand or a cross around his neck was (and is) treated like a scum to be put to death.
"Still today, there is that silence I don't understand ...
"Will the massacre touch us too? -- will it really touch us the next time? Oh, yes. I haven't the slightest doubt. I've never had the slightest doubt. I've been saying this, too, for the last four years.
"And I add: They have not yet attacked us [only] because of their need for a landing zone, a bridgehead, a handy outpost named "Italy." ... But soon, they will go on a rampage. Bin Laden himself has promised it -- explicitly, clearly, precisely. ..."
No one can argue with that last observation. Darn tootin' he's promised it.
For more on Fallaci's column, one of Belmont Club's readers added a comment to the Cassandra essay that includes links to a complete English translation in two parts. The entire column is worth the read:
http://mysteryachievement.blogspot.com/2005/07/
enemy-we-treat-like-friend-part-i.html
enemy-we-treat-like-friend-part-ii.html
Turning tide in the war on terror
Max Boot has not exactly redeemed himself in Pundita's eyes with the following opinion piece but I thank him for bringing to a 'national' readership some very good news via the Los Angeles Times.
He cites various data, including a Pew poll, which suggests anti-Americanism is on the wane since the Iraq invasion and anti-al Qaeda sentiment, even among Muslim countries, is on the rise. The latter includes rising sentiment against suicide bombings.
One of the jaw-droppers in Boot's piece is the news that
Jihad Al Khazen, a rabidly anti-American and anti-Israeli columnist for the Arabic daily Al-Hayat, wrote that "the Arabs and Muslims must help the U.S." in the war on terror.
If the trend lasts, it's a vindication for President Bush and the other Coalition government leaders' unwavering stand against terrorism and the US administration's commitment to real democracy.
I consider Boot's observations to be so important that I am breaking protocol and republishing the entire piece here (with major thanks to John Batchelor's website for printing the piece via TMS Reprints):
Our Extreme Makeover
Opinion by Max Boot
for latimes.com (Los Angeles Times)
Hat tip: John Batchelor Show website.
"Favorable impressions of the U.S. are being detected around the world, including inside Muslim countries.
"We interrupt the latest reports about terrorist atrocities with a news bulletin: Support for suicide bombings and Islamic extremism, along with hatred of the Great Satan, is actually waning in the Muslim world.
"If that comes as a surprise, it's because of the old adage that good news is no news. While the increase of anti-Americanism around the world and especially in Muslim countries has been exhaustively covered since 2001, not enough attention has been paid to an important survey released in the last month that found global opinion shifting in a more positive direction.
"The public opinion poll was conducted by the Pew Global Attitudes Project, hardly a bastion of neocon zealotry. (It's co-chaired by Madeleine Albright.) Over the last three years, Pew surveys have charted surging anti-Americanism in response to the invasion of Iraq and other actions of the Bush administration. But its most recent poll -- conducted in May, with 17,000 respondents in 17 countries -- also found evidence that widespread antipathy is abating.
"The percentage of people holding a favorable impression of the United States increased in Indonesia (+23 points), Lebanon (+15), Pakistan (+2) and Jordan (+16). It also went up in such non-Muslim nations as France, Germany, Russia and India.
"What accounts for this shift? The answer varies by country, but analysts point to waning public anger over the invasion of Iraq, gratitude for the massive U.S. tsunami relief effort and growing conviction that the U.S. is serious about promoting democracy.
"There is also increasing aversion to America's enemies, even in the Islamic world. The Pew poll found that "nearly three-quarters of Moroccans and roughly half of those in Pakistan, Turkey and Indonesia see Islamic extremism as a threat to their countries."
"Support for suicide bombing has declined dramatically in all the Muslim countries surveyed except Jordan, with its large anti-Israeli Palestinian population. The number of those saying that "violence against civilian targets is sometimes or often justified" has dropped by big margins in Lebanon (-34 points) and Indonesia (-12) since 2002, and in the last year in Pakistan (-16) and Morocco (-27).
"This has been accompanied by a cratering of support for Osama bin Laden everywhere except (unfortunately) Pakistan and Jordan. Since 2003, approval ratings for the world's No. 1 terrorist have slid in Indonesia (-23 points), Morocco (-23), Turkey (-8) and Lebanon (-12).
"What accounts for this decline? Primarily the actions of the terrorists themselves. Since 9/11, most of the atrocities carried out by Islamist groups have occurred in Muslim nations — the latest examples are the bombings in Sharm el Sheik, Egypt, and bombings too numerous to mention in Iraq — and most of the victims have been Muslims. Not surprisingly, this hasn't endeared the jihadists to a lot of their coreligionists.
"Yet even attacks on the West no longer win knee-jerk approval in the Muslim world. After the 7/7 London bombings, Islamic groups and intellectuals who have seldom had a cross word for suicide bombings were pretty unequivocal in their condemnation.
"To cite only one example of many, Jihad Al Khazen, a rabidly anti-American and anti-Israeli columnist for the Arabic daily Al-Hayat, wrote that "the Arabs and Muslims must help the U.S." in the war on terror. There are still plenty of Muslims who blame the victims for bringing terrorism upon themselves, but there is also a growing countervailing attitude.
"Muslim opinion also challenges jihadist orthodoxy that proclaims that giving power to the people, rather than to mullahs, is "un-Islamic." The latest Pew poll found "large and growing majorities in Morocco (83%), Lebanon (83%), Jordan (80%) and Indonesia (77%) — as well as pluralities in Turkey (48%) and Pakistan (43%) — [that] say democracy can work well and is not just for the West."
"That's exactly what President Bush has been saying. Though his actions and rhetoric have been denounced as "unrealistic" and "extremist" by his American and European critics, it turns out that Muslims welcome it. "Roughly half of respondents in Jordan and nearly two-thirds of Indonesians think the U.S. favors democracy in their countries," the new Pew study said. "About half of the public in Lebanon also takes that view." Imagine that: Bush's actions might actually be making Middle Easterners more pro-American!
"Of course, public opinion is fickle, and there is still a lot of hostility toward the U.S. out there.
"Even a small minority of extremists can cause mayhem similar to the London bombings. But at least there are some signs that the battle for hearts and minds in the Islamic world is far from hopeless."
Copyright 2005 Los Angeles Times
Liberal Democracy: Achieving balance between the civic person and the private person
"Hi Pundita,
I think you might enjoy my proposal for a "post-modern paternalism" as move towards a more holistic mindset of what it takes to create healthy government; I would certainly appreciate your critique. Basically, I am trying (in my own small way) to shift the development debate from institutions and confrontation to values and relationship. Does that align with what you see as being needed?
Dr. Ernie in California"
Dear Dr. Ernie:
With regard to your desire to shift the development debate from institutions and confrontation to values and relationship -- well, the entire concept of development in this context is G2G -- government to government. So it's really not possible to shift the debate away from institutions.
With regard to confrontation -- it's just because the US government spent more than a decade avoiding confrontations at the United Nations that we now find American values under literal fire.
The US government's desire to fit in with the group, to go along with NATO allies and support globalized business at any cost to American democracy, has put us in the position we are now: in a very hot global war.
So, for future reference, we should remember to confront situations before they require a military solution.
But Pundita gets your drift and appreciates it: as private citizens we should strive to create relationships that are based on our personal value system. Yet if 9/11 has taught us anything, we should also pay more attention to our civic duties.
If we can't serve in the military or National Guard, we should do what we can to support the troops, even if it's only sending an occasional letter of thanks. If we can't serve in the police or fire department, we can join neighborhood watch groups and donate what we can to organizations that support the fire and police organizations.
The United States of America has a society that allows citizens to do pretty much their own thing: pursue their private goals and follow the beat of their own drum. Yet not even the world's most powerful society can remain strong, unless there is a strong sense of civic duty that transcends politics and personal values. That's what it means to be a citizen.
We could all do with paying more attention to the meaning.
I suspect from reading your proposal that you are working at the micro-level or want to work at that level -- as you observed in "a small way." Pundita is a big fan of micro-level development projects. However, when I write about development I address the macro-level: the multilateral development concept and in particular the development bank 'model' and how it relates to US foreign policy and defense.
I've given considerable discussion to the topics simply because the American public is very poorly informed about them. Americans have not been on the receiving end of multilateral development projects and policies, so it's quite understandable that the topics have flown under the radar of the public's awareness.
Pundita has done everything but stand on her head to warn that actually America has been on the receiving end, only in ways that are not readily apparent until one is very familiar with the topics.
I've done the same in my writing about TOC (transnational organized crime) and corruption in government, which have also received little attention in the US media, and I've pointed out the link between these topics, multilateral aid and development, foreign policy and defense.
In short, there is a matrix of situations that critically impact US military defense and foreign policy but are not treated as such, either by the media or the US government.
I'm happy to report that since I started this blog in November 2004 there has been some progress at the government level in officially recognizing the matrix. And when Paul Wolfowitz came to the World Bank, he named government corruption as the greatest threat to democracy since the Soviet communist threat, which certainly helped back up my argument.
However, the World Bank is still refusing to allow an independent audit -- they claim they'd have to change their charter for this to happen. To my knowledge the same issue is not even on the table for USAID, the "America" desk at the State Department, and the US Congress.
So we are still a very long way from addressing in any meaningful way the issue of corruption, and its intersection with US-backed development lending and aid.
I appreciate your interest in the Pundita blog, which came about because of one essay I wrote about development issues. Many readers are initially drawn to the Pundita blog because they learn of a particular essay that deals with an area of their special interest, such as development, the democracy doctrine, terrorism, US-EU relations, and so on.
However, from letters I've received, it seems that most who visit this blog regularly learn by reading through the Pundita archives, or by browsing the Pundita 'theme' links posted on the sidebar, that I am dealing with a range of issues connected with US foreign policy in the 21st Century -- or what I think should be considered a vital part of foreign policy for this era.
In this I am following the direction laid down by America's president and commander-in-chief. President Bush has said this is to be Liberty's Century and that he wants the US government to take the lead in actualizing this ideal. In other words, he wants to see genuine democracy take root around the world. So I ask, "How to make this happen?" then I try to examine the obstacles and where we are now in relation to the goal.
This approach tends to neglect news about US relations with individual countries; I have given considerable attention to China, Russia and Mexico only because I see them as textbook illustrations of US foreign policy failures in dealing with less developed countries and/or emerging democracies.
And I've given almost no attention to news about trade issues because that aspect of US foreign policy is well known to the general public.
Also, I've given a huge amount of attention to a matrix of situations that are so outside the general public's awareness and media discussion as to be completely off the radar, but which profoundly affect US foreign relations.
I don't know how to term this matrix, except maybe to call it, "What Americans and especially Americans in big business, the news media, State Department, Pentagon, Congress and the White House need to know about peoples in really old cultures who are stuck in their ways and very proud, and who know they have to change their ways but who don't appreciate peoples from very young cultures who act like know-it-alls just because they're rich."
I sense from the wording of your proposal that this matrix is also of interest to you. If so, let it be known that we here in Pundita-land -- this would include even the squirrel member of Pundita's foreign policy team -- applaud all intelligent efforts to bridge the old-young gap in US foreign policy relations. It is this gap, rather than the communism/ capitalism, democracy/ despotism, WTO membership/ nonmembership gaps that is the most important one for American foreign relations to bridge.
I am also hugely interested in the connection between US news reporting and foreign policy; indeed, if I were two people I would have a blog that is dedicated to the topic. There is a tremendous amount of expertise in this country that can't connect with foreign policy situations because Americans with the expertise are simply unaware of the situations.
The truth is that a very small number of people have been running US foreign policy and a small number of academics have had a huge impact on foreign policy -- including the defense component.
These people and their actions are almost totally off the radar of American public awareness. They operate behind a screen of public unawareness, although since the rise of the blogosphere a little light has pierced the screen.
Much more light is needed; many more Americans need to get involved in monitoring the actions of these people and the organizations that employ them. I have been known to use the literary equivalent of a one-ton boom to get across this point.
As to how the few have gotten away with so much for so long, because the US news media has had a long-standing policy:
If it doesn't have to do with battles between Democrats and Republicans, then Americans should be focused on sports, entertainment, weather and the sleaziest crime stories.
That, I submit, is the true reason the vast majority of US news media outlets have trashed the US invasion of Iraq and hate the idea of a global war on terror: good coverage of international issues costs buckets of money unless you're real smart like John Batchelor, who clearly has no trouble doing good coverage on a virtual shoestring budget.
So while the majority of Americans can recount in minute detail the Scott Peterson and Michael Jackson trials they still can't find Damascus on a map, much less Basra.
How the American electorate is supposed to oversee foreign policy conducted by the government of the world's lone superpower nation under such circumstances -- I dunno, Dr. Ernie. I just don't know.
So that's the Pundita blog: we spend our time pushing peanuts across a sawdust floor with our nose. By sheer dint of effort, we direct our readers' attention to stuff that goes on behind the major media's white noise screen.
If I were three people, perhaps I would have a blog that deals solely with the multilateral development angle in US foreign policy. And if I were four, I'd surely have a blog that only tracks instances of government corruption and the moves of international crime syndicates.
But for now I am focused on sketching the big picture of foreign policy in what is a new century for the West.
Mysteries of Democracy: Now you've got my goat
The following email arrived in my inbox with the title The Mysteries of Democracy.
"Greetings Pundita,
My question relates to how we can better understand democracy from the point of view of people who do not have a whole lot of experience with it.
Niels Bohr, one of the giants of 20th century physics, once said that anyone who is not shocked by the implications of quantum mechanics does not understand it. He said this because at its most basic level, reality, according to quantum mechanics, does not behave in a deterministic fashion like Newtonian mechanics. You can only determine the probability of events at the atomic level, such as the position of an electron. Einstein himself had deep reservations about this saying "God does not play dice with the universe."
So my question is can we say the same of democracy, that anyone who is not shocked by its implications does not truly understand it? When I think about it just as a practical matter it does not appear obvious why anyone would use a system for which there is a significant degree of randomness in the choosing of its leaders and crafting of its legislation.
Indeed most of Europe's ruling elite in the days of our Founding Founders assumed it would end in chaos as they hoped our Civil War would prove. How can we better understand this process ourselves and explain to others why and under what conditions democracies succeed?
Greg in Orlando"
Dear Greg:
Ah, but there is not randomness for humans. This was explained to me many moons ago by Guru David after I came across the very same comments by Bohr and Einstein that you mention. I was quite perturbed by the discussion and spent days pondering myself in circles until I recalled why there are gurus.
Guru David handed me a pile of computer printout pages that weighed several pounds and which contained nothing but row upon row of digits. He explained that the printout was the result of a random numbers generator software program. Then he asked me to study the pages to see if I could find any patterns among the randomly generated numbers. At first I saw none but within moments I reported in excitement that was finding all sorts of patterns.
Guru David replied, "The patterns you perceive are supplied by your mind, not the program. If you were a mathematician you could find many more patterns. So even if God is playing dice with the universe, humans can hunker down and study the rolls of the dice and from that find patterns, and from that find order in the universe."
Upon hearing of the Bush Democracy Doctrine, "Brother" Moammar Qaddafi, as he prefers to be called since getting more in touch with his African side, snapped, "Africans don't need democracy. They need food and medicine. Besides, Arabs invented democracy." He went on to say that the word 'democracy' has it roots in an Arab word meaning the people sitting together.
He's probably right because Arabs invented everything else. They had no choice, if you stop and think about it. In the old days, if your caravan got stuck in a sandstorm in the Kalahari you didn't tell an African chief, "Sorry, your shipment of dates has been rendered sandy goo due to circumstances beyond my control."
No. You invented the world's first miracle-ingredient exfoliating scrub, guaranteed to restore the glow of youth to even the most tired complexion.
I interject it's a pity that summary execution no longer accompanies failure to please the customer; this has diverted much human creativity into making excuses instead of inventions.
You are mystified because you're confusing a method of selection with the chore of assigning responsibility. The latter was never much of a problem in the old days because we could blame everything that went wrong on the gods, who were full of foibles and whose IQ was often in the idiot range.
Then came The Trouble, which generally we speak of only in whispers here in Pundita-land, but I will tell you a little about it. The Trouble started over a stolen goat; to be more precise, testimony about a stolen goat.
Incidentally this is where the expression, "Now you've got my goat" came from. And, more darkly, it explains how the mild mannered and frankly addle-brained goat came to be associated with the Devil.
In the old days the primary function of the chief was to be a judge -- to settle disputes that arose in the tribe. The Arabs hadn't gotten around yet to inventing fingerprinting so when it came to making a ruling on criminal matters the chief had to rely on oral testimony and brain sweat to determine guilt or innocence.
This duty wasn't so hard during the really old days because the life of a nomad was short and hard, which kept down the tribe's population. But once humans settled down and farmed our numbers greatly increased. What this meant for the chief is that instead of sitting through the testimony of say, five witnesses, he could hear from hundreds.
Thus, The Trouble started. It came to pass that the only respite chiefs got from ruling on cases from the bench was weddings, funerals, religious holidays and war.
However, there wasn't much war, and war in those days was rarely armed conflict. Instead, disputing tribes would paint themselves to look fierce then hop up and down and make screeching noises at each other. (I note this atavistic custom survives in the quaint ritual that anti-globalists perform outside the IMF and World Bank headquarters each Spring.) Whichever tribe managed to hop the highest and screech the loudest won the war.
Then one day, after weeks spent listening to 871 witnesses give testimony about a stolen goat, a chief turned to his court clerk and said, "Death in battle is preferable to this."
"Why not try adding another religious holiday?" whispered the clerk helpfully.
But as anyone who has visited old parts of the world can intuit, by that era chiefs desperate to get off the bench had already added so many religious holidays to the docket that tribal business moved at a snail's pace.
"No. I will gather the hotheads and travel far distant to fight a war."
This was unheard of. Wars, to the extent they occurred, were with neighbors. What else were neighbors for?
"On what grounds will you declare war on strangers?" asked the perplexed clerk.
"I don't know..." muttered the chief. "Maybe I'll find a strange tribe and call their gods stupid."
"But that is Taboo," gasped the clerk. "It is only allowed to call our own gods stupid!"
"Exactly," replied the chief grimly.
And so it began. All these millennia of bloody war and conquest -- all started by a goat who wandered off on his own accord to munch on some brambles.
This according to the possum member of my foreign policy team, whose accounts of her clan's recollections stretch back even long before the time of humans.
So here we are today. Having reasoned ourselves into a corner via the Bigger Fish Tale method, few are lucky enough to have the IQ of gods to blame for our troubles. The rest have an All Knowing, All Seeing God whose intelligence is so vast as to be immeasurable.
The downside is that we can't blame a know-it-all for any situation we consider to be a mess. No, we must find in the mess a divine plan. This still leaves us with the problem of assigning blame and responsibility for dealing with parts of the divine plan that are not pleasant for humans.
Here we come to another snag: there are now too many of us to allow for blaming a single person or small group for failure to adequately deal with a messy aspect of the divine plan. This means that today more of us must share in the responsibility for managing our societies.
This observation is so self-evident that one wonders why it's ignored in favor of hideously complex arguments for democracy. To understand this part, we would need to jump back a few chapters in history. But in one sentence, trust French philosophers to make something highly complex and abstract out of something childishly simple and concrete.
Thus, there is much mystery about the philosophy of democracy. But democracy is as old as tribes, as simple as people sitting around a fire and deciding between them how to handle problems that arise in their midst. Brother Qaddafi's remarks allude to this.
However, Brother Qaddafi does not take his argument far enough. It is true the Africans need food and medicine. Yet unless more of them take responsibility for governing themselves, the needs will be a bottomless pit while they go on looking for an elite or World Bank project to blame for the lack.
That is how to explain democracy to peoples who swear with their fingers crossed behind their back that they don't understand it. That is explanation, American-style.
Why is it so hard for Americans to come up with American-style explanations? Because American academia and think tanks are so steeped in European views that we don't even have an American lexicon for discussing foreign policy, much less democracy.
The Coen Brothers have made film after film in which they try to plumb the Mystery of America. This is in the attempt to explain how a bunch of farmers, tinkerers and salesmen created history's greatest nation.
Not by democracy alone did we do it. Our founding fathers worked their tails off. They were traders, farmers, accountants, inventors, soldiers; whatever they took from European philosophy, it was filtered through the American work ethic. So Americans arrived at the acceptance of democracy not through abstractions but through a "what works best" approach that was grounded in the experiential.
But Americans ignore their history, their own experiences, when they explain democracy to the rest of the world. Until we develop our own way of articulating things, we will keep finding ourselves sucked into philosophical debates that distract from our experience with democracy.
With regard to your observation about the randomness of choosing politicians in a democracy, I recall a true story about President George W. Bush's meeting with a constituent: When Bush inquired as to what he did for a living, the man replied that he sold compressed air. Bush shot back, "We're in the same business."
The system of American democratic government is not automatic -- it needs tending to -- but the system of checks and balances works well enough over time that individuals who represent the system are not as important as the gestalt.
We look for campaigning politicians to convey that they will give us what we want and be really good at explaining why they can't when they don't. That is an expectation of leaders that is as old as tribes. Thus, the order underlying the seeming randomness of democratic politics.
As for crafting legislation, those who closely follow doings on the Hill can tell you there is nothing random about reciprocity and the art of compromise. If you greatly familiarize yourself with the goals of a presidential administration and with the major congressional players and their pet projects, it is easy to perceive order behind the way legislation turns out.
Understanding state sponsors of terror: Northern Exposure is the best guide
"Pundita, I found your post, ...President Bush plays Sherlock Holmes about the possibility that most of the recent terrorist activity that we are seeing is state sponsored. It makes some sense as fairly large amounts of money and specialized expertise would be required to pull off these bombings and national governments are a good source.
My question, which you may have already answered, is what are these state sponsors hoping to accomplish? It seems that it needs to be more than "Leave us alone to do whatever we want."
It is obvious that Iran, North Korea, and Iraq before OIF [Operation Iraqi Freedom], are intent on developing nuclear weapons as well as biological and chemical. But I have never understood why. There is some blackmail value to having such weapons but that is very expensive saber rattling.
They can't believe that we would allow them to use such weapons to actually attack someone. I guess my question is what do they gain by sponsoring terrorism and further by developing WMD?
Dale in Minneapolis"
Dear Dale:
Your question, or rather the way you've set it up, actually represents a few questions and some wrong assumptions so we'll have to unpack your comments before we can arrive at the answer you're seeking.
First, it helps to make sense out of the broad situation if you get very precise in your definition when studying the governments that use terrorism. They are not so much "sponsoring terrorism" as waging war against other states using battle tactics that involve attacks on civilians.
That might sound like hairsplitting but when you're trying to understand something unfamiliar, it's important to be very precise with terminology.
I have written about the "Democracy Stage Show Kit" -- tactics that copycat genuine protest movements but which are used by governments to stage a bloodless coup to put their favored person/faction in power. What we've seen during the past 15 years or so is the refinement of the military equivalent of the DSSK: The Terrorism Stage Show Kit.
State militaries studied a classic warfare model used by oppressed groups under a powerful military state; i.e., "terrorism" and saw its usefulness for waging war against other states without mounting a military incursion. Voilà! The TSSK.
Red China's military did a lot of theoretical work in this area. If you want to learn something about it, News Max has published a translation of Unrestricted Warfare by Colonels Qiao Liang and Wang Xiangsui. You can buy the book from the News Max site, which publishes an overview of the book's contents. The basic concept behind unrestricted warfare is that a weak military can 'bleed' an enemy nation through a variety of tactics that fall outside classic battle strategy.
As to where it all began -- I doubt there is anything new under the sun when it comes to military tactics, and if I recall the Soviets deployed the strategy in some cases. But the modern approach I'm discussing probably took shape when the Iranian military got involved in driving the Israelis out of Lebanon. They saw the advantage in copying the classic insurgency model and applying it to waging indirect war against a more powerful military, which they couldn't beat in a head-on confrontation. The Iranians simply turned cars into bombs. We've seen the refinement of that tactic in Iraq. It's an Iranian military signature.
Second, you wrote that I'd posted on the "possibility" that most of the recent terrorist activity that we are seeing is state sponsored. If you go back over the essay, you'll see that I was not speaking in terms of "possibility." By the time President Bush gave the Axis of Evil Speech, he was referencing a tremendous amount of intelligence that had been gathered by US and other intelligence agencies the world over. Much of that intelligence was not new; it's just that it hadn't been integrated and studied as a distinct phenomenon.
However, proving in a court of law that most terrorism today is state sponsored would be not easy, even if all the related intelligence were declassified. This is due to the "Denial & Deception" tactics that governments have the power to deploy. In other words, going after governments that sponsor terrorism is not like Eliot Spitzer telling an American corporation to open its books. Yet at some point in intelligence gathering the pattern overwhelmingly favors government sponsorship behind a terrorist campaign.
On that basis Bush could confidently name Iraq, Iran and North Korea as state sponsors of terrorism -- meaning they were waging war against other governments using the model of terror insurgency as smokescreen. To name other governments would be difficult for various reasons; e.g., sometimes it's only a faction in a government that is sponsoring the terrorism.
To repeat a point I made in the earlier essay, this does not mean all terrorism is state sponsored. It means that this form of warfare defines a military threat that the US and other democracies face during this era. Until this concept was crystallized and articulated, it flew under the radar of US military defense policy simply because terrorism was defined as asymmetrical warfare against states.
Third, with regard to your comment, "They can't believe that we would allow them to use [WMD] weapons to actually attack someone." -- How, pray tell, would we stop them from using such weapons? I mislaid my notes so I can't tell you the exact depth of the tunnels, but Tehran is tunneling as close to the center of the earth as they can afford to pay contractors in order to relocate their nuke weapons facilities deep underground.
After the Israelis bombed Iraq's nuke facility, Saddam Hussein and every other nuke chasing despot got the message: If you want to have a nuke weapon facility, tunnel it so deep it's impregnable to conventional and bunker-busting bombs.
Hussein hooked up with Muammar Qaddafi and the Saudi faction that wanted The Bomb, and with help from several governments and private contractors blasted into a mountain in Libya then tunneled to build a nuke-bomb building factory that would be impregnable to conventional bombs.
That's why al Tuwaitha was abandoned; Hussein transferred the nuclear weapons material from Tuwaitha to the facility to Libya. That's why the US military was lobbying Congress a few years back for funds to build mini-nuke bunker busters. They were trying to find a way to put that mountain factory out of business.
That's also why the Bush administration demanded before the Iraq invasion that the IAEA interview Iraqi nuclear weapons scientists "outside Iraq." If you recall, this led to Iraqi nuke scientists huffily telling the international TV cameras that they didn't see why they had to be dragged outside their country to be interviewed.
So there's a nice example of the old AI "fruit flies" conundrum. The Bush administration was not demanding to interview the scientists working inside Iraq. They wanted the IAEA to interview the 40 or so Iraqi nuke scientists who were working outside Iraq -- specifically, working inside that mountain in Libya.
If you ask why the administration didn't clarify the semantics, because their demand was crystal clear to all the players, including Hussein and Qaddafi. When they heard that, they knew the US military was coming after them. Qaddafi rolled after the Iraq invasion but for a reason known only to himself, Hussein believed that the US invasion of Iraq could be blocked at the United Nations.
We got to Iraq just in time. How close we cut it, we won't know until considerably more military intelligence here and abroad is declassified. Qaddafi gave the US all the data he had on the nuke facility, which included the names of contractors and governments/factions that were involved with it, and which threw tremendous light on A.Q. Khan's 'nuke supermarket' network. But for obvious reasons much of that data remains classified.
Make no mistake, the only feasible quick way to shut down that factory in Libya was by putting Saddam Hussein out of business for good.
The current situation is one that emerged from many incremental steps over a period of a half century. So, part of the answer to your question is simply that despotic regimes believe they can get away with building WMD and sponsoring terrorism because they got away with it for a long time.
During the Cold War if you were a despot, you could get away with a lot if you told the Soviets, "I hate capitalists" or told the NATO bunch, "I hate commies." That's also how the despots got money and weapons expertise. During one period, the US military was ordered to give away to the PLA various weapons technologies. The Chinese didn't even have to steal them.
Today one asks, "Was the US government plumb loco?"
The answer can be found if you recall the old TV series, Northern Exposure. If you started watching the show during the second half of the first season, it was like seeing a documentary on a lunatic asylum. But if you were there from the first episode, the main characters did perfectly understandable things.
The Northern Exposure factor explains US policies that seem certifiably insane when you look at them from outside the context of the history. For example, if you know the constitution of the Islamic regime in Iran, you have to ask what lunatic in the US government decided it would be a great idea to use Iran as a 'Green Belt' against communism in the Middle East. Yet once you get into the swing of Cold War thinking, the concept of a Green Belt makes perfect sense. From that view, it was a great idea to use a government that had sworn to destroy America to offset another enemy government.
In like manner, to you it might sound insane that the Saudis are trying to build nukes so they can wire up their oil wells with them as a defense tactic against the House of Saud being overthrown. But once you get in the swing of the situation and its history, there's a certain logic to it. A logic that does not really reference what the United States would do if they caught the Saudis red-handed.
Ditto for Pyongyang's logic. You would have to know about North Korea's relationship with China to understand why Kim Jong-il, whose main interests are gourmet food and avoiding assassination, would start a nuke program. Because the Chinese military told him to, that's why. Beyond that, and as long as it brings in enough revenue, Kim really couldn't care less.
Kim's number is that he does not believe the United States or South Korea would step in and help him, if he told Beijing to go sit on a tack. The last time he tried standing up to Beijing, on his return from China there was a huge explosion near a train station where his train had passed not hours before. It was probably only a meth factory but Kim got the message: Don't double deal.
I tell you all this so you can understand that the people you're asking about, the governments in question, are not looking at their situation from an American point of view. Nor is America necessarily #1 on their list of reasons for building WMD and sponsoring a terror army or their only reason. This does not mean they have no interest in doing harm to the USA or find no profit in threatening the USA. But their reasons arise from the relationships that mean the most to them, the ones that trouble them the most. Often the USA belongs in neither category.
Again I return to Northern Exposure. The outsiders who somehow stumbled into that town in Alaska found themselves the star and victim of a plot involving the regular cast of characters. The outsiders were just foils, a means to highlight and further complicate the complicated relationships of the regular cast. But no matter how interesting the outsider and his situation, the denizens of Northern Exposure were greatly focused on each other. In like manner, the USA is often just an excuse or a foil, which allows the regimes to avoid outright threats against neighbors.
With all the above taken into consideration, we can return to your question: "...what do they gain by sponsoring terrorism and further by developing WMD?"
The answer is that "they" are not monolithic when we look at motives for sponsoring terror and developing WMD. They have varying reasons:
> Appeasement of a more powerful neighboring government,
>making unrestricted warfare against another government,
> staging what are essentially 'mob' wars with other governments that are also run by a crime syndicate or coalition of syndicates.
Yet there are unifying underlying factors:
> The governments in question are despotic and suppress democracy,
> docile/terrorized populations that accept despotic rule,
> a globalized black market in traditional weapons and WMD materials and technology,
> the willingness of many governments to allow the sale of dual-use technologies and materials to despotic regimes,
> sources of revenue from crime and state-controlled enterprises that allow the regimes to spend many billions USD on building WMD and sponsoring terror armies,
> the long-standing policy of the world's so-called leadership nations to studiously look the other way and in some cases tacitly encourage state-sponsored terrorism.
(An example of the former would be the US looking the other way about China's involvement in helping Pakistan wage terror war against Indian-controlled Kashmir. An example of the latter would be Britain giving a home to front organizations for the Iranian government that wage terror war against Israel.)
To put all this another way: On the morning of September 11, 2001, most of the world's governments could be divided into three categories:
1. Rascals.
2. Those who tolerated and encouraged rascals.
3. Those too poor to wage terror war and build WMD programs.
This is what happens when we allow business concerns to run the world. It was business concerns -- cost cutting, to be specific -- that made the World Trade Towers a tomb on 9/11 and led to their complete collapse. A more fitting metaphor can't be found to warn that security concerns and commitment to the principles of fair government must come prior to business, if democratic societies are not to collapse.
Watchmen always hear the bell first
No man is an island, entire of itself; every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main. If a clod be washed away by the sea, Europe is the less, as well as if a promontory were, as well as if a manor of thy friend's or of thine own were: any man's death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind, and therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee.*
I have noted before that Pundita readers are very smart but every once in a while a Pundita reader exclaims, "Say, I wonder what I'd be like if I had cheese tostitos for brains!"
I interject that Pundita understands the source of this burning curiosity because I have studied the phenomenon. This was years ago when I noticed that two coworkers had an odd habit of briefly transforming into aliens from outer space.
At first I tried to ascertain whether the behavior correlated with phases of the moon but soon I rejected that hypothesis. Then came a day I was with them in an elevator as they headed for lunch.
One turned to the other and said, "I feel like moo shu pork today. What about you?"
The other replied, "We did Chinese last week. I feel like chicken quesadilla."
By the time the elevator door opened I was standing next to aliens.
From this I've concluded that some brains pay too much attention to what their human says. Happily the phenomenon is short-lived -- I suppose the brain quickly tires of trying to imagine what it feels like to be Chinese, Italian, Mexican or Thai food or a burger with fries.
Here the alert reader might ask how I know some readers wish to have cheese tostitos for brains. Actually I don't know, except when they make such a wish then exclaim, "Say, I think I'll write Pundita a letter today!"
Because I know the phenomenon is transient I have decided not to publish two letters which arrived in response to my Quackenspiegel post. This on the assumption that by now the authors of the emails have been restored to their normal brain function. So I will simply reply to the authors' comments and leave the content of the letters to the reader's imagination:
The number of articles published in Germany about al Qaeda-Iran links is not the burning question. What we're trying to nail down is whether the Germans understand that the regime in Iran is threatening to blow them to Kingdom Come if they crack down on terror mongers and get tough at the nuke discussions. Now how can we find an answer this question? Let's take a quiz:
To learn whether Germans understand the AQ-Iran link and what it means, I:
A) Ask Pundita to chip her nails while typing at various search engines to discover the answer.
B) (If I live in Washington, DC) Hope that Pundita will hie herself to the Washington National Mall then holler, "Are there any German tourists around who wouldn't mind answering questions about al Qaeda and Iran?" so I don't have to spend my lunch hour on the Mall.
C) (If I live in Germany) Write Pundita to tell her I live in Germany and give her the name of a blog she might spend an evening reading if she wants to know whether any Germans are aware of an al-Qaeda-Iran link. This is so she can have the fun of spending an evening discovering for herself whether the blogger has any fresh data directly related to the question.
E) Find some Germans, put the question to them, then report the answers to Pundita.
Good news is that the brain of one author momentarily cleared while writing his letter. While in a lucid state of mind he provided valuable data:
I believe I was the first American to write about [Abu Musab Al-Zarqawi] Zarkawi -- although Newsweek's Mark Hosenball wrote something similar at about the same time -- who had set up a European terror network.
Various agents, terrorists and couriers were arrested and sentenced to jail; all this was covered in the German and Italian press. They cited court documents that included intercepts between Zarkawi (in Tehran, talking on a satellite phone) and his agents in Italy and Germany.
Notice, by the way, that the stories out in the last couple of days -- alleging that Zarkawi has now "taken control" of al Qaeda in Europe, never refer to the key fact about Zarkawi: namely, that he created this network in the first place. How's that for selective memory?
Michael Ledeen"
Dear Michael:
Your account about reporting in Europe on Zarqawi that far back is deeply troubling. It implies almost a Twilight Zone situation in Europe.
Surely, if it was widely known in Europe that Z set up the Euro network -- it would imply the Europeans knew that large sums of money and a sophisticated C3 apparatus were involved. So they had to know he was not the pastoral Ghazi warrior leading a ragtag band that the media portrayed by the time he surfaced as the leader of the insurgency in Iraq.
Something is screwy somewhere. Either the Europeans are zoned out -- or (as John Terrett's 'Person in the Pub' report suggests) what many Europeans really think about the al Qaeda threat has not shown up in Euro polls and their media during the past three years.
"Dear Pundita
I don't think it's hard to understand the Europeans; they have been in denial for many years now. Basically the Europeans have traded freedom for comfort, and as part of that deal, they rarely challenge their government unless they think their comforts are threatened. They want "out" of the real world; they want vacation and doctors and money and and and...
And when the real world kills them, as in Madrid, say, then they get angry at their government and vote in a new one that promises to shield them from reality. They are exposed to the facts -- as in this case, the Germans had all the information they needed, actually they had more than we had -- but they block out those facts they don't want to know about. Denial.
It's not unusual, historically speaking. We [Americans] only passed the Draft bill in the summer of 1941 by a single vote. If the Japanese hadn't attacked us, and then the Germans declared war on us, I doubt we would have entered a two-front war in time to save England and the Soviet Union.
Michael"
That's a harsh indictment and I wonder whether it represents the situation on the ground in Europe at this time. Most of all, I wonder whether the German media have conveyed an accurate view to Germans about what a majority of their countrymen are thinking.
This said, I learned from a few moments at Google and Front Page Magazine that Michael Ledeen is qualified to hold forth on the Europeans and the situation with Zarqawi, al Qaeda and Iran.
Dr Ledeen informed me that over the years he has written hundreds of articles for the National Review Online about the threat from the Iranian regime. Interested readers might want to visit the site and use the search engine.
I found it unsettling to glance through Ledeen's old writings. Reminds me of Rick Rescorla and John P. O'Neill: watchmen; people who clearly saw the al Qaeda threat while many others refused to see anything at all.
Well, Pundita is loath to end on such a grim note so I will return to needling the helpful reader in Germany. Kindly try to be a little more helpful. Is there a wine bar within walking distance? Can you perhaps spend an hour chatting up the patrons to learn what they know about the Iranian-al Qaeda connection?
But so as not to discourage a well meaning effort:
"For more background on Germany, I recommend Aspen Institute Berlin, Jeff Gedmin's Corner (linked on Davids Medienkritik). He writes regularly for Die Welt, and many of his columns are archived in English as well as German. If you go back over a few years, you will get a good overview of Jeff's experiences in Germany. It is worth an evening's reading.
Vickie"
* From For Whom the Bell Tolls by John Donne
On the importance of being earnest and doubtful
Two posts today, "Epoch Times vs Xinhua News Agency" and "Medienkritik vs Der Quackenspiegel," expand on my observations in Saturday's post about the difficulty the public faces in trying to obtain a reasonably accurate account of the day's news. Yet both posts relate heartening evidence that the earnestness that nourishes good journalism is very much alive and well.
Also, I received advice from a very wise media guru that I pass on to you:
Doubt all information, then eliminate what must be impossible; keep all information that you cannot eliminate as outside the laws of physics.
Epoch Times vs Xinhua News Agency
On Thursday last week in the early hours I was tired and rushing to get a post up; I had one eye on the clock, knowing I would only have a few hours sleep that day. Within minutes of the post's publication, which I'd titled Strange Days in China: return to the Mao Zedong era..., I received a comment from a reader whose opinion I'd solicited:
"...beware of using Epoch Times [as a source]. It's owned by the Falun Gong and virulently anti-Communist, to the point they can bend the truth to their cause."
I already knew the paper was strongly anti-communist and I had a vague recollection of hearing before of an association between the newspaper and Falun Gong, so I hastily added a footnote to post:
"The Epoch Times is owned by the Falun Gong, which with some understatement is not very fond of the CCP."
Then I republished the post, switched off the computer and fell into bed. Just before sleep overtook me I remembered I'd broken my cardinal rule: Always check Wikipedia first. I told myself I'd do that later in the day. But "later" was a round of meetings and the news of the second attack in London....
Wikipedia itself is controversial; some consider it anarchist and decry the lack of footnotes in many articles. But the encyclopedia, which has overtaken Encylopedia Brittanica as a reference source, carries information about many more subjects than traditional encyclopedias -- information that can be constantly updated. And because it's interactive, it relies on interested scholars and citizen journalists to correct or flag articles that are cause for dispute. Thus, Wikipedia is the force of democracy meeting with a field that was always the province of academia.
If you know nothing about a topic and don't know where to start looking for a summary Wikipedia is the first place to try. At least you'll be oriented for research at traditional search engines with a basic Wiki article as your guide.
According to Wikipedia, the Chinese Communist Party has accused The Epoch Times of being owned by the Falun Gong. That is not saying the paper is owned by the Falun Gong.
As to whether The Epoch Times reporting can "bend the truth to their cause" -- that's a very interesting question, which the Wiki article deals with at some length.
So, in penance for my hasty footnote (which I am deleting today), I have decided to publish the entire Wikipedia article about The Epoch Times. And for good measure I have tossed in the Wikipedia introduction about The Epoch Times' archenemy -- the huge, CCP-controlled Xinhua News Agency, which is the Chinese government's official press agency.
(You'll have to visit the Wikipedia pages in question to follow the many links provided in the articles, which I have not highlighted here.)
I note that one of the most fascinating points in a fascinating article is that The Epoch Times editorial board, which represents a conservative Chinese view, interprets communism as an evil force from the West and specifically from Europe.
Another point of note: The Epoch Times claims there have been 3 million Internet-published defections from the CCP in direct response to Chinese reading the "Nine Commentaries on the Communist Party" published by their paper. And the paper has reported "severe unrest" in China from Chinese learning what the commentaries have to say about the CCP.
The latter comment is particularly interesting in light of the severe recent unrest in China that the government has not been able to tamp down. The unrest has been portrayed to the Western media as anger against businesses (often, Western businesses) that are polluting, forcing Chinese off their land, and so on. That is surely the case with regard to specific news items that have surfaced in recent weeks. However, The Epoch Times claim may point to a contributing factor in at least some of the riots.
In any case, it's no wonder the CCP is gunning for The Epoch Times and cracking down on the Internet! That's one scrappy newspaper.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Epoch_Times
"The Epoch Times is a conservative Chinese newspaper, which is freely distributed in eight languages and in roughly 30 countries worldwide. Its frequency of publishing depends on the city and the language in which it is published.
2 Focus
3 Nine Commentaries on the Communist Party
4 Criticism
The Epoch Times was founded by a small circle of journalists in China in 2000. The journalists relayed stories overseas of human rights abuses, infringements on civil liberties, and alleged corruption in the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), among other things.
In the summer of 2000, it was discovered that all twenty journalists had been arrested and detained, their offices raided. Some have allegedly died in prison (the Epoch Times says that 90 of their Chinese journalists remain in prison today).
However, the Chinese authorities claim that The Epoch Times was founded and controlled by Falun Gong, which China banned and labelled an "evil cult" in 1999, and accuses it of political propaganda to overseas Chinese in order to gain their support of Falun Gong and create distrust of the Chinese Government.
Despite crackdowns by authorities inside China, the Epoch Times continued to grow overseas and has since become one of the largest Chinese newspapers serving the Chinese diaspora. It also claims to be the only major Chinese newspaper that is not directly or indirectly controlled by China's communist party, and was the first newspaper to carry in-depth coverage of SARS well before the Chinese government publicly admitted that there was an epidemic that went on to cause some three hundred and fifty deaths.
It now has a weekly print distribution of over 1 million copies in 30 countries worldwide.
In August 2004, an English-language edition of the Epoch Times was launched in Manhattan. It has since grown to be distributed in Los Angeles, San Francisco, San Diego, Chicago, Boston, Washington D.C., Houston, Vancouver, Toronto, Edmonton, Regina and Ottawa, as well as in the UK and Australia. German and French editions were launched in late 2004, and more recently Russian, Spanish and Japanese editions have started up in print.[edit]
The Epoch Times was originally created for Chinese readers living abroad in order to report the alleged persecutions, abuses, and inner workings of the CCP. It has since grown to report on civil rights issues worldwide in a conservative view, and now appeals to a somewhat wider audience.
The English edition represents itself as a general-interest newspaper that, although it maintains a large amount of China-related content, offers 12 other sections, including travel, science, sports, and regional and international news.
Its reports on China are highly critical, focusing on human rights abuses and sometimes using language such as 'Evil Spirit from the West' or 'Anti-universal Force' in reference to Communism. Reports on other nations such as Taiwan or other democratic countries are generally more positive.
Nine Commentaries on the Communist Party
In November 2004, the Chinese version of the Epoch Times published a series of editorials entitled "Nine Commentaries on the Communist Party" ("Jiuping" in Chinese).
The editorials give an alternate, if conservative, view of the CCP through its history, from its ascent to power under Mao Zedong to its present-day form, as well as a condemnation of the moral and social philosophy of Communism in all of its forms.
Portions of the history given by the Commentaries are difficult to support using traditionally respected texts of 20th century Chinese history, a difficulty supporters often attribute to the CCP's need for control and tendency to try to cover up its more embarrassing actions.
This, they say, results in a wealth of information that is often hard to come by and difficult to report on. The prevailing tone of the editorials is solidly anti-communist with no consideration given to other viewpoints. This attitude is intended for the audience of Chinese readers who already know the other side of the story and do not need to be reminded.
Readers of the English version often find the Commentaries to be rather one-sided, and its language, over-blown and unbelievable, making the Commentaries difficult to take seriously and leading to much of the current criticism against it.
Much of this is the result of a more literal translation from the original Chinese text [emphasis mine].
The editorial uses many strong words to condemn the CCP, calling it 'an anti-universal force' and 'an evil spirit from Europe', and that the CCP is 'an evil cult' itself, comparable to the very image in which the CCP try to portray Falun Gong.
The tone is said to be geared towards the communication style to which mainland Chinese readers would be accustomed, and it was said that such readers have usually been exposed to years of government propaganda, rarely gaining access to alternative information about their government, although that is not corrobated by actual readers from mainland China, as the Epoch Times is not widely circulated in China itself.
While praised by some Chinese dissidents as 'the book that is breaking up the CCP', its contents are somewhat controversial and disputed, and has been accused of historical revisionism by other Chinese.
The Epoch Times has made the "Nine Commentaries on the Communist Party" a primary focus of the newspaper; almost every issue contains an article relating to the "Commentaries" or its reception in China.
The Epoch Times claims that the publication of the "Commentaries," in presenting what they believe to be a truthful exposé of the Chinese Communist Party, has caused over 3 million Chinese citizens to quit from the CCP via anonymous, unchecked online signatures and public declarations (for people inside Mainland China unable to access the online website due to censorship. See: Internet censorship in mainland China), and reports of severe unrest in China as a direct result of the publication of the "Commentaries".
An article in the French version of the Epoch Times of a talk given by Michel Wu notes that an original Nine Commentaries was printed in 1963-64 during a theoretical review of government policies, although the effects were apparently not as profound as those many supporters say today's commentaries are having.
While many of the articles in the Epoch Times are corroborated by the mainstream media, few major news outlets have verified Epoch Times articles concerning the "Commentaries."
In the Chinese community, where The Epoch Times is widely distributed, reactions were mixed. While some Chinese commend it for providing alternative views of the China and the Communist government, others condemn it for its conservative pro-Falun Gong bias, and casting Chinese people, even overseas ones, in a negative light.
One of the biggest criticisms of The Epoch Times is that the paper always try to cast news stories from mainland China in a negative light, even the most positive ones, by using selective evidence and opinionated commentaries.
It should be noted that although a concentration of these articles may be published in the Epoch Times, many of these negative reports can also be found in neutral overseas Chinese newspapers.
In defence to this criticism, The Epoch Times claimed that pro-China articles need not to be reported, as they are not subject to censorship by China's state-owned media.
Other criticisms include that the paper's news reports are always mixed with conservative opinions, of which the paper deemed necessary to provide alternative views. [Pundita wonders what exactly is meant by 'conservative' in this context]
The Epoch Times is very vocal in supporting dissidents, Falun Gong practioners and pro-independence Taiwanese, and their opinions can often be seen in the opinion page.
The paper rarely publishes letters and opinions that do not suit its cause, such as pro-communist and anti-Falun Gong comments, which the paper deems unnecessary. The Times argues that most, if not all government-censored Chinese news sources already contain opinions in agreement with Chinese governmental policies.
The Epoch Times Website (English)
The Epoch Times Website (Chinese)
The Epoch Times Website (French)
Text of "Nine Commentaries on the Communist Party"
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xinhua_News_Agency
"The Xinhua News Agency [...] or NCNA (New China News Agency), is the official press agency of the government of the People's Republic of China and the biggest center for collecting information and press conferences in the PRC.
It is one of the two news agencies in mainland China, the other being the China News Service, and is among the premier world news agencies.Xinhua is an institution of the State Council of China.
Critics of Xinhua therefore consider it to be an instrument of state-sponsored Communist propaganda.
In many ways, Xinhua is the fuel propelling China's print media. Perhaps unique in the world because of its role, size, and reach, Xinhua reports directly to the Chinese Communist Party's Propaganda Department; employs more than 10,000 people — as compared to about 1,300 for Reuters; has 107 bureaus worldwide both collecting information on other countries and dispensing information about China; and maintains 31 bureaus in China — one for each province plus a military bureau.
Inasmuch as most of the newspapers in China cannot afford to station correspondents abroad, or even in every Chinese province, they rely on Xinhua feeds to fill their pages. People's Daily, for example, uses Xinhua material for approximately 25 percent of its stories.
Xinhua is a publisher as well as a news agency — it owns more than 20 newspapers and a dozen magazines, and it prints in Chinese, English, and four other languages.
Like other government entities, Xinhua is feeling the pinch of reduced state financial subsidies. Beijing has been cutting funding to the news agency by an average of seven percent per year over the past three years, and state funds currently cover only about 40 percent of Xinhua's costs. As a result, the agency is raising revenues through involvement in public relations, construction, and information service businesses.
In the past, Xinhua was able to attract the top young journalists emerging from the universities or otherwise newly entering the field, but it can no longer do so as easily because of the appeal and resources of other newspapers and periodicals and the greater glamour of television and radio jobs.
For example, midlevel reporters for the Xinmin Evening News in Shanghai often are given an apartment, whereas at Xinhua and People's Daily this benefit is reserved for the most senior journalists.
2 Xinhua and the internal media
3 Xinhua in Hong Kong
3.1 Previous directors of Hong Kong Xinhua
4 Xinhua in Macau
5 Xinhua online
Medienkritik vs Der Quackenspiegel
"Pundita, Re your Schroeder essay: Actually I believe the German public is quite well informed about al Qaeda/Iran linkages. The German popular press, surprisingly including Der Spiegel (which has an English language web site, very helpful), has done extensive reporting on this.
And remember that Zarqawi's name first surfaced in the German and Italian press, as his couriers/associates/fellow terrorists were convicted in German and Italian courts.
Michael in USA"
If the German and Italian press beat John Batchelor to the punch about Zarqawi I'd doubt whether it was by many hours. But we're always happy to hear of an instance that suggests the European media are not preserved in formaldehyde.
The question is whether we can apply this bit of happy news to Der Spiegel or their online English version, and whether we can infer that the German public is well informed about al Qaeda's link to Tehran.
I have been aware of Spiegel Online since its launch. I don't closely follow the site but I could not recall seeing an article that addressed links between al Qaeda and Iran. This is not saying much; the site hasn't been around long and their search engine is in German, a language Pundita does not know. The few archived English language articles the search presented, after I typed in different spellings of al Qaeda and expanded to include Osama bin Laden, did not turn up a reference to Tehran's support of al Qaeda. Perhaps if I'd stuck at it another hour I might have had success but a 15 minute search at Google for Der Spiegel articles on the topic came up dry.
As for other German media, the acid test for good coverage of Tehran's doings is the Ten Days of Dawn terror confab in Tehran in 2004; if the announcement of the intended conference was carried in the European media, either my search at Google was too brief or the language barrier prevented my finding it.
This said, I wouldn't doubt that various media outlets in Germany have mentioned reports about links between al Qaeda and the Iranian government. However, I venture that to the extent the German public is aware of links, this mirrors the American public's awareness of the same.
The mainstream media in this country has tended to fall in line with the 9/11 Commission's decision about links between al Qaeda and Tehran, which Rachel Ehrenfeld summarized in a July 2004 article for Front Page Magazine titled Iran's growing threat:
According to the just-released 9/11 Commission Report, Iran’s support of al-Qaeda dates back to 1991, when operatives from both sides met in Sudan and agreed “to cooperate in providing support -- even if only training -- for actions carried out primarily against Israel and the United States.”
By 1993, “al-Qaeda received advice and training from Hezbollah” in intelligence, security and explosives, especially in “how to use truck bombs.” The training took place in the Bekaa Valley, Hezbollah’s stronghold in Lebanon.
The commission further reports that “at least 8 to 10 of the 14 Saudi ‘muscle’ operatives traveled into and out of Iran between October 2000 and February 2001,” and that Iran facilitated “the travel of al-Qaeda members through Iran on their way to and from Afghanistan.” Yet in an ostrich-like move, the commission refrained from accusing Iran of supporting al-Qaeda.
This is how the commission phrased it: “There is strong evidence that Iran facilitated the transit of al Qaeda members into and out of Afghanistan before 9/11, and that some of these were future 9-11 hijackers…however, we cannot rule out the possibility of a remarkable coincidence...[and] we found no evidence that Iran or Hezbollah was aware of the planning for what later became the 9/11 attack.”
I'd say the general publics on both sides of the Pond are aware that there are reports claiming links between Tehran and al Qaeda. But I think that only the most dedicated news followers are reasonably convinced that at least since 2003 there is more than a link between al Qaeda's top command and the Iranian military. There is a partnership or -- if you want to run the entire nine yards with intelligence mosaics -- a contractor/subcontractor relationship.
I haven't made a foray into Germany but from my Tourist Season walkabouts in Washington, DC, during which I randomly ask tourists to hold forth on their opinions, I have not encountered a German who is well informed about GWOT to include the Tehran connection.
I know this observation does not apply to all Germans. I have German readers and I periodically send my readers to good sources on GWOT, and I know there are German blogs that do a good job of reporting on the war.
I'm also aware that the popular David's Medienkritik blog follows the German media and pays close attention to German media reports on the war. The blog's opinion of Spiegel mirrors in part of my opinion about the online English version:
For over two years -- virtually without end -- the German media have been almost exclusively negative on Iraq, repeatedly calling the war a disaster, a debacle and a quagmire. Iraq has been compared to Vietnam so many times that one could easily lose count.
Just in SPIEGEL publications alone, the words "debacle", "disaster", "quagmire" and "Vietnam" have already been used scores of times to describe the conflict. But by what standards is Iraq a debacle? To date the United States has lost nearly 1800 soldiers in the Iraq conflict. The Battle of the Bulge alone cost the lives of ten times as many Americans. Does that make the Battle of the Bulge a debacle times ten? During the course of World War II, tens of millions of civilians died or were killed. Does that make the liberation of Germany and Japan in 1945 a debacle times a thousand and beyond?
And positive developments in Iraq, such as the reconstruction of schools, hospitals and power plants, dramatic improvements in women's rights and the strengthening economy have been almost totally ignored in Germany
Even when reporting on good news that is impossible to ignore, like the January elections, major sectors of the German media were so negative that a respected media research institute concluded that Arab networks like Al-Jazeera and Al-Arabia provided more upbeat coverage.
Furthermore, the German media have crassly underreported the suffering of the Iraqi people under Saddam Hussein. The mass graves, the use of chemical weapons to murder thousands of innocents in Halabja, the torture, the rape-rooms, the mass exodus of millions out of Iraq, the theft of billions by the Hussein regime from the starving Iraqi people to build palaces.
These topics all seem to be of little interest to the German press. So is it any wonder, with this type of reporting, that most Germans think the Iraq war was, is and will continue to be a total disaster?
Is it any wonder that Joschka Fischer can confidently sit back and talk about how he feels "confirmed" about his worries over Iraq. Of course he feels confirmed! His ideological lapdogs in the German media have provided him all the cover he could ever need with their profoundly biased news coverage over the past several years!
Not surprisingly, SPIEGEL ONLINE has already published a handful of articles, including a recent piece entitled "Uncle Sam wants Merkel", about how absolutely delighted Bush and other American conservatives would supposedly be if Schroeder and Fischer lost the next election.
It is becoming increasingly evident that the editors at SPON are attempting to cheaply exploit readers' dislike of the Bush administration and disdain for the Iraq war to dampen support for the CDU.
Few other German media publications have seized so vehemently and critically on the issue of the CDU's support of closer transatlantic relations than SPIEGEL ONLINE. [...] (1)
I add that David's Medienkritik is such a popular blog, both here and in Europe, that it might have managed to perform a watchdog function with regard to what might be Spiegel's somewhat elastic concept of polling.(2)
None of the above necessarily contradicts your observation that Spiegel is a helpful source. If one thinks in terms of data rather than news, one can mine valuable information from just about any source -- although it's not always worth the time.
However, it's fair to observe that Germans who rely on their mainstream media outlets for news would be hard-pressed to comprehend why Medienkritik invoked the Battle of the Bulge. The German public, as with most publics around the world, was carefully entrained by their mainstream media to view the concept of GWOT as a Bush (and/or Israeli) invention and the Iraq campaign as a war that is quite distinct from the US war on terror.
(Indeed, without the scrappy alternate media outlets in the USA, the American public as a whole would be in virtual lockstep with the German view of the Iraq campaign.)
I think that situation should be kept in mind when attempting to intuit how the German public and most publics view reports about links between Iran and al Qaeda. Many major news outlets, the world over, have been so adroit at suppressing key data about the Iraq campaign and distorting the WMD rationale for invading Iraq that I think publics are weighted to dismiss intelligence suggesting Tehran sponsors "terrorism" as distinct from aiding "Palestinian insurgency" against Israel.
So successful have major media been at shaping the global public's view of the Iraq invasion that I think it could be argued it's the most successful propaganda effort in history.
The question is whether it qualifies as technical propaganda; i.e., state sponsored. From all I've noted about the news media since 2002, I think that outside closed societies it represents in part factions within governments that have used their expertise and access to major media outlets to shape the public's perception.
I don't see this as a conspiracy although I wouldn't be surprised to find coordination between factions during certain news cycles. I got some support for my view last year when John Loftus gave Batchelor's audience a 'Cheat Sheet' on which major news outlets were favored as a channel by which agencies. He went down a list: the DIA favors The Washington Times, the CIA favors The New York Times, State favors the Washington Post, and so on.
Of course one doesn't need to take Loftus' word for it; although it is time consuming, one can figure out which agencies favor which media outlets by noting the number and type of Unnamed Official Sources, Sources Who Did Not Wish to Be Named, and so on.
I also note that Loftus mentioned that reportedly MI6 favors the Guardian as a leak outlet. I passed that gossip to my readers in November 2004 to warn that it's getting tangled up to categorize influential media here and abroad simply as "left" or "right." The (UK) Guardian is left of center in their domestic editorial policy. However their international outlook is best characterized as Natoist. That would be the same for The New York Times.
The factions in the CIA and MI6 that were most bitterly opposed to the Bush preemption doctrine and the Iraq invasion were to their mind defending the Nato alliance. And their view was shared by factions on the Republican right in the US.
This doesn't mean I think all opposition to Bush from serial CIA leakers in the 2002-2004 period excluded Democrats who just wanted to see a Democrat in the White House. Yet I think the serial leaks from factions in the State Department and CIA and from ex-CIA employees signal a new era in propaganda, or mini-propaganda shall we term it.
There are now so many media outlets, and so many government employees (here and abroad) who are trained in using media access that now many factions within governments can use the media to shape public opinion. This has led to balkanization of propaganda. We no longer have only Government leaking to the media. We also have duchies and principalities leaking all over the place.
http://medienkritik.typepad.com/blog/
2005/07/joschka_fischer.html#more
http://medienkritik.typepad.com/
blog/2004/10/spiegel_online__4.html
Schroeder, al Qaeda, and accurate reporting on GWOT: let us eat cake
I received a letter in response to my post Schroeder making it easy for al Qaeda and Tehran. The reader asked about Chancellor Gerhard Schröder's motive for sticking to bashing the US invasion of Iraq after the 7/7 massacre: was he doing it out of pure political expediency or did he have some sympathy for al Qaeda's position? Here is my fix on the situation:
He might have sympathy for al Qaeda's stand on Israel and their desire to evict American forces from the Middle East. But there is much to suggest that any such sympathy is not a determining or even contributing factor in this case. There's also much to suggest that political expediency is not the sole factor in Schröder's continued harping on the Iraq war.
As I see it, the key situation is that the 7/7 London massacre landed Schröder's political party between the devil and the deep blue sea.
I believe AQ planners and their advisors in Tehran misread the situation in Germany. They were thinking along the lines of Spain -- the Madrid massacre helping to tip the voters. There is indeed a tipping going on in Germany in the wake of 7/7 -- but it's tipping in Oskar Lafontaine's direction.
That's the guy whose platform includes telling foreigners to think of immigrating anywhere else but Germany and calling for immigrants now in Germany to be fully assimilated; e.g., speak German.
Lafontaine has the same chance that Ralph Nader had to win the 2000 US presidential election but in the wake of 7/7, he's surely having to restrain himself from taking out full-page ads that say, "I told you so." (Although I wouldn't be surprised if he did this.)
The Germans don't need such remarks to know that Lafontaine's 'fringe' appeal struck a deep chord after 7/7. He now stands to peel even more votes from Schröder's party if the snap election occurs in September.
There are still some legal hurdles to be cleared for the election to take place, but right now it seems almost guaranteed of occurring -- unless Schröder's party realizes that his bold move to call for an early election has backfired in the wake of 7/7.
At this point Angela Merkel seems a shoo-in, if the election takes place. But I do not underestimate Schröder, his party or his business backers. The bottom line is Germany's balance of trade figures. Germany has outpaced Near and Middle Eastern countries among Iran's trading partners.
Bilateral trade between Germany and Iran is booming and growing at a fast pace. In 2004 German exports to Iran totaled 3.6 billion euros ($4.31 billion), 33.4 percent more than in 2003.
Top sales from Germany are machines, cars and electronics. Germany's expertise at installing oilwells is also heavily exported. From the Iranian side, sales (mostly oil, pistachios and rugs) to Germany rose 35% in 2004 to 391 million euros ($468 million).
And less than a month before 2005 the 'election' in Iran, a 25-member group of German business owners was preparing to visit Iran to study opportunities for investing in Iran's tourism trade. The Iranian military's coup against the clerics might have put a small brake on German investor interest but the investors are scrambling to compete with Spanish counterparts for lucrative deals at Iran tourist spots.
Meanwhile, China is Germany's top export partner. German industrialists know that Beijing is unwilling to do anything to offend the Tehran regime because of China's trade with Iran.
The Joker card has always been information flow, so it's played a huge factor in the war on terror and Europe's response. Schröder reads many of the same intelligence reports Bush does, so he's got to know of the connection between AQ and Tehran.
However, he also knows the German public is unaware of the connection. They are very poorly informed about GWOT and related issues, such as the UN Oil for Food investigation. Their local media has very little coverage of such issues.
And globalized media that the German public can easily access; e.g, CNN International and the BBC, mirror the US Democrat-leaning media in their depiction of war issues. That's to say much information about war related issues, and the AQ-Iraq/Iran connections, has been treated by the mainstream media only in the attempt to downplay or dismiss it.
It helped him in his last election, so Schröder's view was that if he had to call for a snap election in a last-ditch attempt to keep his job -- why not remind German voters that he'd saved them from putting troops in Iraq?
Yet this time around, bashing the Iraq war was met with yawns from the German public and Germany's chattering class. They saw it as a desperate attempt to revive old glory for a public that was now focused on domestic concerns.
However, Schröder's 'manifesto,' which included bashing the US operation in Iraq, was announced on July 1st. Then came the July 7 massacre in London. So then he was in a pickle. If he suddenly shut up about Iraq, that would raise eyebrows.
The last thing Schröder needs right now is the German public asking for a review of his government's position on the AQ-Iraq connection. Such questions would lead straight to questions about Tehran.
People aren't stupid. If you give them enough reliable data, they can put two-and-two together. So from the beginning, which we'll count as Schröder's break with Bush over Iraq, the name of the game has been Control of Information Flow. That's been the same for Germany as it's been in the USA.
However, the Germans were weighted to believe Schröder's line on Iraq. There are sound reasons for this:
Bush's 'go out and meet the enemy' approach to al Qaeda combined with the preemption doctrine understandably traumatized the majority of Germans, as it did the majority of Japanese. Then came the Axis of Evil speech, with its obvious reference to the Nazis. Then came the rising tide in America of comparisons between Osama bin Laden and Hitler and the Muslim terrorists and Nazi fascism.
So put yourself in the place of a German. From that view, the Americans were irresponsibly raking up Germany's past mistakes in order to justify an invasion of Iraq.
And even many Americans were (and remain) a tough sell when it came to drawing connections between al Qaeda and Saddam Hussein's regime. This would include the most powerful factions in the CIA and State Department at that time.
As for connections between Tehran and al Qaeda, the question was not even on the table for the US mainstream media in 2003.
The truth about both connections will eventually out in Germany, as it will everywhere else. But for Schröder to fall on his sword would be useless at this stage. The German public might appreciate such an act of courage but the majority would still want to vote him out "yesterday" if they get the chance.
If you ask whether the German focus on domestic concerns isn't dangerously shortsighted -- my guess it that Lafontaine's famously known position about immigrants would tend to brake attempts in Germany to portray 7/7 as the fault of George W. Bush for invading Iraq.
However, I suspect the German people are trying reason blind -- or half-blind -- about what everyone else in Germany is thinking. I say this because of a situation that John Terrett (a British journalist) reported to John Batchelor a few nights ago about the reaction in the UK to 7/7:
Terrett recounted that the 'Brit in The Pub' (the Person in the Street) is asking, "Maybe we've been too soft with our Muslim immigrants, maybe we've gone overboard with liberalism" -- but that this view was not being reported in the British media.
Money says the 'German in the Wine Bar' is now asking the same questions with regard to their country and that the major German media are not leaping to report this.
So we could see an echo of the reaction to the Non vote. People on this side of the Pond were surprised as the poll numbers in France turned against the EU Constitution. Then they were stunned at the thumping French rejection of the Constitution and all that it said about their view of the European Union.
Why the shock? Because the French media and the entire Brussels-leaning media in Europe were not providing an accurate picture of how the majority in France were really thinking during the year running up to the vote.
If that sounds familiar -- the public in the USA was stunned by the appearance of the Red Map after Bush won reelection and Europe was stunned. Even the Republicans were stunned. That's because the US mainstream media and global media such as CNN International and BBC were not doing their job.
They were not even trying to accurately report how the majority of Americans were thinking during the runup to the election. They too busy trying to block Bush's election to remember what the term "news reporting" means. So of course Europe nearly fainted from shock at Bush's reelection and the sight of that Red Map.
Once again, the Joker Card is on the table. Yet whenever they are called out on their utter lack of responsibility, the guardians of America's news media take the Marie Antoinette approach to dealing with complaints from the rabble. Ditto for the guardians of Europe's news media.
So, yeah, it's dangerous for the German public not to realize that right now the most important issue is going after the state sponsors of terrorism. That's if they want to have domestic issues to worry about down the line. But to berate them for not seeing the critical issue would be akin to berating Americans for not thinking like intelligence analysts when they consume American news reports.
I deleted some paragraphs from yesterday's essay because while I considered them relevant, they took away from the central point. I will include them here in closing because the observations are central to what's happening now in Germany.
The news consuming publics in democratic countries are aware of the issue of bias in news reporting. Yet bias is just one facet of the problems that news consumers face today, if they want to be reasonably well informed. I have written about this issue many times since starting Pundita blog.
I wish there was a Magic Source -- one newspaper, one website, journal, broadcast or cable program, search engine or subscription service that would relieve the public of the chore of thinking like an intelligence analyst. But here is the choice we face today:
The journalism profession is in such disrepair that either we learn to think like an intelligence analyst when approaching news stories, or risk being so misled that our understanding of critical international situations is badly skewed or just plain wrong.
That is the way things are at this time. This shouldn't be cause for despair -- or paranoia. What we're seeing today in the news reporting profession is a train wreck situation: many factors that converged with the modern era of communications and the post-Soviet era, and which the news media didn't properly address.
To see the problems is to work toward a solution. So a new day in news reporting is slowly forming but until it crystallizes, a pioneering spirit is required of news consumers, and a willingness to invest time and brain sweat in analyzing news stories as data.
That shouldn't have to be our job, but to leave the job in the hands of today's journalism profession is asking not to understand the modern era, including the threat from state sponsors of terrorism.
The tragedy is that there are many ethical reporters and investigative journalists the world over who are very good at their job. But often their reports are edited out of recognition -- or filed but never published or aired. The hope, and the goal, is that by the end of this decade we'll see major news media outlets emerge that appreciate the value of such professionals.
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European Union Dossier
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Savannah Reich
she hers
Affiliated Writer
Savannah Reich is a playwright and screenwriter based in Minneapolis. Her screenplay “Beebe and Barton” was the winner of the Sloan Student Grand Jury Prize in 2015. Her plays have been produced by theater companies across the country, including Available Light Theater (Columbus), Bedlam Theater (Minneapolis), Hot Kitchen (Chicago), Truepenny Theater (Milwaukee), San Francisco Theater Pub (SF), and Der Vorfuhreffekt (Philadelphia). Her plays have been commissioned or developed by Walking Shadow Theater Company, the University of Minnesota, SuperGroup, and the Playwrights' Center. She also produces her own work with her company, Eternal Cult, and tours it to theaters, warehouses, art galleries, bars and basements across the country. She holds an MFA from Carnegie Mellon University, where she studied with Rob Handel.
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St. Lawrence and the Most Basic Lesson of All
A very happy feast of St. Lawrence to all! St. Lawrence was a Roman deacon, so it’s been great celebrating this feast day with the whole Church this year as a deacon.
The account of Lawrence’s martyrdom is pretty epic. During the persecution of Christians carried out by the Emperor Valerian between(ish) 257 and 260, the prefect of the city of Rome demanded that Lawrence turn over to the state all of the treasures and wealth of the Church. Lawrence brought forward poor people he was serving as a deacon and said, “Behold, these are the treasures of the Church.” This didn’t make the prefect very happy and, the story goes, he had a gridiron prepared with hot coals and fire underneath it and had St. Lawrence grilled to death.
The legend also says that St. Lawrence was so cheerful during his martyrdom that he told his executioners, “Turn me over, I’m done on this side!” Perhaps this is why the first reading for today’s feast is from 2 Corinthians, wherein Paul reminds the Church in Corinth that “God loves a cheerful giver.”
The gospel passage for this feast is from John 12:24-26:
Jesus said to his disciples: “Amen, amen I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains just a grain of wheat; but if it dies, it produces much fruit. Whoever loves his life loses it, and whoever hates his life in this world will preserve it for eternal life. Whoever serves me must follow me, and where I am, there also will my servant be. The Father will honor whoever serves me.
Throughout her entire history, from the mouth of Jesus himself to the writers and theologians of the 21st century, the Church in her wisdom has always returned us precisely to this place: unless a grain of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains a grain of wheat. Whoever loves his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for the sake of the Gospel will save it. If a person wishes to follow Jesus, he must lay down his life and sell what he has and take up his cross and go.
Today, we are reminded by St. Lawrence – both in his example of service as a deacon and by his martyrdom – that we are not the center of our lives, and that Christianity is not just a massive social service organization. It is a way of life whose first priority is configuration of one’s entire life to Jesus Christ. It is not a behavior management program, but is a complete transformation unto glory.
It can be a fearful thing to begin the process of turning one’s life over to Christ, but it doesn’t need to be. The process is dripping in practicality. The great Dominican writer Meister Eckhart wrote that if we want to be holy, we need only to “do the next thing in a holy way; think the next thing in a holy way; say the next thing in a holy way.” This will require little grains to fall from you and die, which will be sacrificial and maybe difficult. It also requires us to turn off our spiritual autopilot and begin to live reality intensely, to live with intentionality motivated by a sincere desire for freedom and truth.
The lesson taught by Lawrence in his life and his death can’t get more basic: unless a grain of wheat falls and dies, it remains just a grain of wheat.
It’s hard, it’s scary, it isn’t always popular or convenient, but think of the alternative: remaining just a grain of wheat. Full of potential, full of life, full of hope, and all of it unused. We are being offered and promised so much more than that.
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Ellen Page speaks out about violence and homophobia
Canadian actress acknowledges those most impacted by violence
Canadian actress Ellen Page has joined the numerous people coming forward with stories of sexual harassment and violence in the film industry. Today she released a Facebook post in which she described incidents of abuse, including being outed as gay by a director and the effects it had on her as she came to terms with her sexual identity.
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But Page's statement stands out for its intersectional feminist analysis of violence against women:
Let’s remember the epidemic of violence against women in our society disproportionately affects low income women, particularly women of color, trans and queer women and indigenous women, who are silenced by their economic circumstances and profound mistrust of a justice system that acquits the guilty in the face of overwhelming evidence and continues to oppress people of color. I have the means to hire security if I feel threatened. I have the wealth and insurance to receive mental health care. I have the privilege of having a platform that enables me to write this and have it published, while the most marginalized do not have access to such resources. The reality is, women of color, trans and queer and indigenous women have been leading this fight for decades (forever actually). Marsha P. Johnson, Sylvia Rivera, Winona LaDuke, Miss Major, Audre Lorde, bell hooks, to name a few. Misty Upham fought tirelessly to end violence against indigenous women, domestic workers and undocumented women. Misty was found dead at the bottom of a cliff three years ago. Her father, Charles Upham, just made a Facebook post saying she was raped at a party by a Miramax executive. The most marginalized have been left behind. As a cis, white lesbian, I have benefited and have the privileges I have, because of these extraordinary and courageous individuals who have led the way and risked their lives while doing so. White supremacy continues to silence people of color, while I have the rights I have because of these leaders. They are who we should be listening to and learning from.
The full statement can be found here.
Quebec feminists denounce government consultations for Bill 21
MMIWG
‘The world should have stopped’: An Indigenous woman responds to Canada’s admission of genocide
Leena Minifie
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Tag Archives: Stonewall
Centre for the Study of Education and Work – Update 20th Feburary 2011
February 23, 2011 – 5:21 pm
Posted in Activism, Centre for Education and Work, Conferences, Crisis, Critical Education, Critical Education Policy Studies, Economic History, Economics, Education, Education Activism, Employment and Unemployment, Further Education, Higher Education, Industrial Action, Neoliberalism, News and Politics, Politics, Socialism
Tagged Activism, AIDS, AIDS Activism, American Workers, Betsy Martin, Boxing, Brenda Stokely, Centre for the Study of Education and Work, CSEW, Dan La Botz, Education, Employment, Esther Raushenbush, Fake Fiscal Crisis, Film, Fiscal Crisis, Higher Education, Industrial Relation, Kelly O'Sullivan, Komozi Woodard, Meditation, Meditation for Social Activists, Migrant Workers, Muhammad Ali, Nada Matta, Neoliberalism, OISE, Ontario, Paul Robeson, Peter Sawchuk, Planning, Politics, Public Services, Racism, Radical Videos, Raquel Rojas, Rosalyn Martin, Sexism, Socalism, Social Activism, Social Planning, Stonewall, Toronto Community Foundation, Unemployment, Univerity of Toronto, Video, Women's Studies in Education, Work
CENTRE FOR THE STUDY OF EDUCATION AND WORK – UPDATE 20th FEBRUARY 2011
MEDITATION FOR SOCIAL ACTIVISTS
OISE/Centre for Women’s Studies in Education
252 Bloor St. West, Toronto (St. George subway stn.)
We can do more for the world when we are tending to our own wellbeing. Meditation can help to ground, centre, and rejuvenate you. In this workshop you will learn to meditate and will be empowered with tools to bring meditation into your daily life on an on-going basis. Hosted by Centre for Women’s Studies in Education, Ontario Institute for Studies in Education, University of Toronto.
For more info, email: cwse@utoronto.ca
SOCIAL ECONOMY CENTRE (OISE/UT) FEBRUARY LUNCHBOX SPEAKERS’ SERIES
With Rosalyn Morrison – Community Initiatives, Toronto Community Foundation, and Betsy Martin – Community Foundations Canada
Ontario Institute for Studies in Education, University of Toronto
252 Bloor St. West, Toronto
Room 12-199
Rosalyn Morrison will talk about how the Toronto Community Foundation mobilizes more than 300 individual and family donors, high-impact community organizations and cross-sector leaders to tackle complex, quality of life issues in creative and inspiring ways.
Betsy Martin will discuss how foundations in Canada can support social enterprise and how this is part of the evolution of the investment model of foundations around the world. She will give examples of what community foundations in Canada and the United States are doing, to give a sense of the potential for this kind of community foundation investing.
Moderator: Michael Hall, Primus
Bring your lunch and a mug. Water, coffee and tea will be provided.
For more information, please contact: Lisa White: secspeakerseries@gmail.com This event will also be webcast live on the Internet. Please see our website for detailed instructions: http://socialeconomy.utoronto.ca
SOCIAL PLANNING TORONTO 2011 RESEARCH & POLICY ROUNDTABLE: WHO’S IN CHARGE?
Please join us for our Research & Policy Roundtable being held on February 24th, 2011. The theme of the 2011 roundtable is “Who’s in Charge? The impact of agencies, boards & commissions on public accountability & service delivery”.
Since the late 1970s, a transformative shift has taken place in how governments manage and administer public services in many democratic countries around the world. Influenced by neo-liberal ideologies, governments have been increasingly under pressure to reduce their size and control over public services. Governments were declared “too big” and “too bureaucratic” to be able to properly and promptly deliver services transparently and flexibly. Governments were encouraged to incorporate private sector management models to enhance efficiency and effectiveness of services and service-delivery. One central feature of this new model has been the creation of hundreds of decentralized and quasi-autonomous government agencies, boards and commissions (ABCs) to manage and administer public services. According to the Ontario Public Appointments Secretariat, there are approximately 630 of these agencies, boards and commissions operating in the province.
For more info: http://bit.ly/eJQeQv
GIANT STEPS: RADICAL WOMEN IN THE BLACK FREEDOM STRUGGLE
A talk by Komozi Woodard, Esther Raushenbush Chair, Sarah Lawrence College
Author: Want to Start a Revolution?
7:00pm, Tuesday March 1, 2011
Ryerson University, Ted Rogers School, TRS 2109
55 Dundas Street West, Toronto
Sponsored by Socialist Project, Centre for Social Justice, New Socialists, No One Is Illegal – Toronto.
CELEBRATE PEOPLE’S HISTORY AT TORONTO FREE GALLERY
Feb. 10 – March 19, 2011
Toronto Free Gallery
Hours of Operation: Wednesday-Friday 12-5pm, Saturday 12-6pm
Toronto Free Gallery and Groundswell present Celebrate People’s History!, a show of poster art created by over ninety artists – including many of Toronto’s own – to document the hidden history of social justice movements.
The posters make up a hidden history of people’s struggles, covering well known events and praising groups and leaders of prominence, but also bringing to light less known struggles. The set includes tributes to the AIDS activist group ACT UP, the 1969 Stonewall rebellion, the 1921 Appalachian miners strike at Blair Mountain, UFW co-founder Dolores Huerta, the anti-eviction battle at San Francisco’s International Hotel, the 1988 democratic uprising in Burma, the women leaders of Oaxaca’s 2006 civil uprising, the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters, the 1804 Haitian Revolution, singer Paul Robeson, and heavyweight champion Muhammad Ali.
VANCOUVER MAYOR FINDS NEW RESPECT FOR SANITATION WORKERS WHEN HE WALKS A DAY IN THEIR SHOES
Vancouver Mayor Gregor Robertson found out what it’s like to work collecting and sorting garbage in Vancouver when he appeared on a recent episode of CBC series Make the Politician Work.
During the two days Robertson spent as a city sanitation worker he tried a number of jobs normally done by front line staff who are members of CUPE.
“What really struck me was how much people care about their work at the city, how concerned they are about the future and doing better and better. That’s great value for us at the city and it’s great value for taxpayers too,” said Robertson.
The episode aired on Feb. 13 and you can watch it here on the CBC website: http://www.cbc.ca/video/#/Shows/Make_the_Politician_Work/1747857163/ID=1795295084
2010-2011 MIGRANT FARM WORKERS REPORT PUBLISHED
Report finds federal government complicit in Canada’s abuse of migrant farm workers
Canada’s most comprehensive annual report on the challenges facing migrant farm workers has been released. It confirms that abuse and exploitation of migrant farm workers are rampant in Canada’s agriculture industry. The 2010-2011 Status of Migrant Farm Workers in Canada report is published by UFCW Canada and the Agriculture Workers Alliance (AWA). For more than two decades UFCW Canada has been a leading advocate for farm workers’ rights, and in association with the AWA operates 10 agriculture worker support centres across Canada. The latest report is the seventh released since 2003. The 25-page report exposes federally operated migrant farm worker programs as rife with human and labour rights violations — and those programs are expanding with the assistance of the Harper Conservative government.
Read more (.pdf): http://www.ufcw.ca/templates/ufcwcanada/images/awa/publications/UFCW-Status_of_MF_Workers_2010-2011_EN.pdf
A NEW AMERICAN WORKERS MOVEMENT HAS BEGUN
By Dan La Botz, Solidarity
Thousands of workers demonstrated at the state capital in Madison, Wisconsin on Feb. 15 and 16 to protest plans by that state’s Republican Governor Scott Walker to take away the state workers’ union rights. Walker, cleverly attempted to divide the public workers by excluding police and firefighters from his anti-union law, and the media have worked to divide public employees against private sector workers. Yet, both firemen and private sector workers showed up at the statehouse to join public workers of all sorts in what has been one of the largest workers demonstrations in the United States in decades.
Read more: http://www.solidarity-us.org/current/node/3159
WI GOVERNOR’S FAKE BUDGET CRISIS: GAVE TAX BREAKS TO WAL-MART TO FURTHER REAL AGENDA – UNION BUSTING
(Alternet)
There is no fiscal crisis in Wisconsin. Governor Walker reports a nearly 130 million dollar deficit, but doesn’t report that he caused it by giving a 140 million dollar tax break to large multinational corporations here in Wisconsin (e.g. WalMart). However, this cover story gives him an excuse to do the unthinkable.
Read more: http://act.alternet.org/go/4579?akid=6540.141253.1Sy7fn&t=39
THE EGYPTIAN UPRISING AND WORKERS’ GRIEVANCES
By Nada Matta, The Bullet
It is too early to give an explanation for the Egyptian revolt. Much still needs to be understood about the character and the driving forces behind this sustained mass mobilization, as well as its dynamic and development. Some initial thoughts could still be entertained, however, especially with regards to the nature of the protestors’ demands. Though the revolt was caused by increasing economic hardship and insecurity, as well as by mounting political repression and authoritarianism, the demands of its youth organizers were solely focused on political democracy.
Read more: http://www.socialistproject.ca/bullet/465.php
WORKERS BAND TOGETHER AS UNIONS ARE LEFT BEHIND
The AFL-CIO spent over $50 million worth of its members’ dues and deployed 250,000 workers to support Obama’s campaign. But three years later, workers say unions have failed to deliver on their promises and are struggling to defend their rights.
Raquel Rojas isn’t exactly union material – an immigrant, a seasonal worker, scraping by on multiple part-time, low-wage jobs. So when Raquel said she watched her managers at the Cheesecake Factory in Baltimore’s Inner Harbor disrespect workers and sexually harass their employees, she had little recourse – until United Workers knocked on her door.
Read more: http://rt.com/usa/news/usa-workers-unite-unions/
VIDEO: BRENDA STOKELY – “A MOVEMENT TO CHANGE THE WORLD”
Greater Toronto Workers’ Assembly Labour Conference: Building the Working Class Movement
Keynote speaker: Brenda Stokely
Toronto, January 30, 2011
“A Movement To Change the World”
Moderated by Kelly O’Sullivan
Brenda Stokely is a human rights activist dedicated to ending all forms of national oppression, racism, sexism and exploitation of workers. She co-found and built several key organizations, including the 2004 Million Worker March Movement, NY Labor Against the War (co-convener), founding member of Troops Out Now, Coalition to Save Harlem and many more.
Watch the video: http://www.socialistproject.ca/leftstreamed/ls91.php
(END)
ABOUT CSEW (CENTRE FOR THE STUDY OF EDUCATION & WORK, OISE/UT):
Head: Peter Sawchuk
Co-ordinator: D’Arcy Martin
The Centre for the Study of Education and Work (CSEW) brings together educators from university, union, and community settings to understand and enrich the often-undervalued informal and formal learning of working people. We develop research and teaching programs at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education (UofT) that strengthen feminist, anti-racist, labour movement, and working-class perspectives on learning and work.
Our major project is APCOL: Anti-Poverty Community Organizing and Learning. This five-year project (2009-2013), funded by SSHRC-CURA, brings academics and activists together in a collaborative effort to evaluate how organizations approach issues and campaigns and use popular education.
For more information about CSEW, visit: http://www.csew.ca
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Home › What's New and Social › News
A Celebration of Success
Submitted by Malcolm Stevenson on Tue, 23/10/2018 - 15:03
It's Hats Off to Our Successful Recruits!
23rd October, 2018
What connects an ice hockey referee, a karate expert and a former motocross racer? Answer, they are all among the latest group of on-call firefighter recruits to “pass out” after successfully completing the first part of their training.
The 19 recruits, 15 men and 4 women attended Shropshire Fire and Rescue Service’s annual Celebration of Success event at Theatre Severn, Shrewsbury, on Monday (22 Oct).
They will now join more than 300 on-call firefighters at 22 fire stations across the county who respond to 999 calls at a moment’s notice.
Chief Fire Officer, Rod Hammerton, told the audience of firefighters, their families and civic dignitaries: “Our on-call firefighters live and work in the communities they serve and the people they help to protect are their friends, families and neighbours.
“It is firefighters like these who will respond to calls for help, sometimes in the dead of night, from people in peril. When others run from danger they run towards it and that is the true spirit of what it means to be a firefighter.
“They constantly practice their skills to be part of a team they can trust and who trusts them. People who become firefighters believe in honour and duty and true public service.
“Shropshire Fire & Rescue Service is more like a family, a family that these new firefighters are part of. It’s a family that exists solely to help people and keep them safe,” he added.
Shropshire Fire and Rescue Service on-call firefighter recruits are drawn from all walks of life and the latest group is no exception.
Alice Stanley’s “day job” is as a leisure centre duty manager and she is also an on-call firefighter based at Bridgnorth fire station. When she is not working at either of those roles Alice is a referee in the men’s’ professional ice hockey league.
“I always wanted to be a firefighter when I was a little girl but never quite got round to it until a friend who is a firefighter at Bridgnorth encouraged me to put an application in. The training has been tough but enjoyable and the feeling of camaraderie is fantastic,” Alice said.
Chef, publican and mother of two, Hannah Limond, is an on-call firefighter at Clun and has somehow found enough time to gain a brown belt in karate. Hannah is just one step away from gaining a coveted black belt.
“Becoming a firefighter has been in my mind for years but other commitments, including having children has ruled it out until recently. Life is nothing without a challenge and becoming a firefighter feels like a challenge to me,” said Hannah.
Hannah is planning to clinch her karate black belt in the next 18 months.
Meanwhile in Market Drayton, on-call firefighter and married father of two, Chris Ritchings, is a former motocross racer and a former flying winger with Market Drayton rugby club.
Chris can trace the moment he decided to become a firefighter to a car crash he witnessed as a young man. “I decided there and then that I wanted to do something to help people in terrible situations like that. I eventually spoke to a couple of firefighters I knew and I that was that,” Chris said.
Each of the recruits were presented with “passing out” certificates by the chair of Shropshire and Wrekin Fire Authority, Councillor Eric Carter, who said: “Our firefighters are often in the frontline at dangerous and tragic events. They are special people and we should all be very proud of them.”
Another 26 employees also received Achiever Awards from Assistant Chief Fire Officer, Dave Myers, for their outstanding contributions to the community or for work achievements.
Among these was Shaun Baker, Group Manager Operational Training Delivery, a fan of the great outdoors and a keen climber.
In February this year Shaun was part of a group of family and friends climbing Snowden, the highest mountain in Wales, when they came across a poorly equipped climber in difficulties.
Shaun and his colleagues secured the climber with ropes before getting to safety and onto the main path where the climber was able to recover sufficiently to make his own way off the mountain.
“He was in a bad way when we found him spread-eagled on the edge of a cliff. He would almost certainly have fallen off the cliff if we hadn’t come along,” Shaun said.
Also among the Achiever’s Award winners was Clun firefighter, Kat Frost, who ran in the London Marathon in aid of the Fire Fighters Charity in April this year and raised £4,000 in the process.
Kat spent months training and preparing for her first run in the 26-mile race. The former nursery nurse is one of Clun Fire Station’s 13 “on call” firefighters.
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B. L. Gray Jr. High Library
Remind - Plug In!
Pre-AP ELA Required Reading
Novel Lists
All Things Teacher
COW Guidelines
Parent Central
Library Snapshots
B. L. Gray Library ensures accessibility to all patrons regardless of their learning styles and physical or cognitive disabilities. The physical layout of the library, including furniture, shelves, and computer station placement accommodate all patrons.
Patrons with disabilities are provided full access to assistive technology. Color computer screens have text enlarging capabilities, text-to-speech, and are equipped with audible computer screen text for patrons needing auditory and visually support. Ancillary devices are also available for patrons who are unable to physically use a mouse or keyboard. Tables and desks are positioned for wheelchair access, and appropriate signage is placed throughout the library for all patrons to view.
Additional information from The Association of Specialized and Cooperative Library Agencies (ASLAC), A Division of the American Library Association (ALA)
Library Accessibility: What You Need to KnowThe ASCLA “Library Accessibility –What You Need to Know” toolkit series of fifteen tipsheets was developed to help librarians in all types of libraries understand and manage access issues. These issues include but are not limited to: patrons who have cognitive, mental, or emotional illnesses; patrons with learning and/or developmental disabilities; patrons with service animals; patrons needing assistive technologies; and, patrons with physical disabilities. Each tipsheet addresses a specific concern, and was updated in 2010.
Learning Differences: What You Need to KnowOverview One in seven Americans has some type of learning difference, sometimes called learning disabilities, according to the National Institutes of Health. Difficulty with basic reading and language skills are most common. Reading problems are also reported in as many as 80 percent of students with learning disabilities. This family of issues is neurological in origin and affects the processing of information, not cognitive functioning. Common learning differences follow:
Assistive Technology: What You Need to Know LibraryOverview Assistive (also called adaptive) technologies are electronic solutions that enable people with disabilities to live independently. Blind persons can hear computer-screen text, and people with visual impairments can enlarge text, enabling independent reading. People who are unable to manipulate a mouse can enter data, and those who cannot physically hear a computer prompt can view prompts. There is also computer software that helps persons with learning differences see and hear the information displayed on the screen.
Accessibility in Museums and LibrariesFind out how museums and libraries can go beyond basic accessibility requirements and be widely-inclusive, welcoming, and collaborative.
Developmental, Cognitive, and Intellectual Disabilities: What You Need to Know
Don't forget to bring your I. D. to school every day!Integrity - Pride - Tradition
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Writing by Alan Annand
Sextile
Sextile.com
Alan Annand
Cara Black (b. November 14): “I’m an eavesdropper” & other quotes on writing
pinterest.com/pin/39406565465150740/
Cara Black, born 14 November 1951, is a best-selling American mystery writer best known for her Aimée Léduc novels featuring a female Paris-based private investigator.
Quotes on writing:
Write what you are passionate about – that’s the best advice I ever received.
I wanted to tell a story. Crime fiction is a great framework, a structure to hang a story.
Research is the BEST part of my job. It means I must go to Paris, as I tell my husband.
I’m an eavesdropper, bad habit, but invaluable in my line of work. I think writers do that all the time.
The past informs the present. Memory makes the map we carry, no matter how hard we try to erase it.
To me a gripping story is about the characters, how crime impacts them; the victim’s world and forensics and technology are tools.
Maybe mysteries help us deal with the frustration and unresolved situations we encounter in daily life. When I read a mystery I like to experience some sense that justice is served. Not that all the loose ends are tied up but that good in some form triumphs.
A line of dialogue or a mannerism can put a character onto the page. The challenge is to keep the character speaking more dialogue, being memorable and intrinsic to the plot and storyline. Especially in crime fiction and mysteries, everything happens for a reason, every detail could be a clue, a red herring, a false lead or a key to a sub plot and a suspect.
I like to think that Paris is a character in my books. Sense of place, that unique part of Paris that speaks to me drives the story. Paris is really a collection of villages, twenty arrondissements or districts that each have a flavour. I try to think why crime would occur here in this quartier of Paris, what crime would happen here, who lives here, what is the distinct taste of this quartier of Paris and then the story comes
My writing group meets twice a month and we critique each other’s work in progress. I’m an equal member and receive comments like everyone else. I’m always looking to make my story better. It’s important to listen to the comments, take what makes sense or would make the story clearer, deepen or enhance it. Or even delve more into the character, strengthen what would be more organic to the plot. If several people make the same comments, I listen.
Tags: aimee leduc, cara black, character, criticism, dialogue, eavesdropping, memory, november 14, paris, passion, research, structure
Categories Crime fiction, Famous birthday quotes, Literary marketplace, Writing
Archived posts Select Month July 2019 June 2019 May 2019 April 2019 March 2019 February 2019 January 2019 December 2018 November 2018 October 2018 September 2018 August 2018 July 2018 June 2018 May 2018 April 2018 March 2018 February 2018 January 2018 December 2017 November 2017 October 2017 September 2017 August 2017 July 2017 June 2017 May 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 January 2017 December 2016 November 2016 October 2016 September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016 February 2016 January 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015 January 2015 December 2014 November 2014 October 2014 September 2014 August 2014 July 2014 June 2014 May 2014 April 2014 March 2014 February 2014 January 2014 December 2013 November 2013 October 2013 September 2013 August 2013 July 2013 June 2013 May 2013 April 2013 March 2013 February 2013 January 2013 November 2012 October 2012 July 2012 April 2012 March 2012 January 2012 October 2011 September 2011 August 2011 July 2011 June 2011 May 2011 April 2011 March 2011
“You have no refuge but writing.” ~ Tennessee Williams
“The life of a writer is absolute hell” ~ Roald Dahl
Arianna Huffington (b. July 15): “Most people no longer believe in an afterlife.”
Robert Heinlein (b. July 7th): “Women and cats do as they please.”
Dalai Lama (b. July 6th): “I don’t judge the universe.”
Vincent D’Onofrio (b. June 30): “The search for the truth is not for the faint-hearted.”
Gilda Radner (b. June 28): “Dreams are like paper, they tear so easily.”
Duffy (b. June 23): “I think music is the only thing that I’ll ever really have.”
Paul McCartney (b. June 18): “If slaughterhouses had glass walls, everyone would be a vegetarian.”
M.C. Escher (b. June 17): “I don’t use drugs, my dreams are frightening enough.”
W.B. Yeats (b. June 13): “Don’t wait till the iron is hot…”
Anne Frank (b. June 12): “Think of all the beauty still left around you and be happy.”
Hugh Laurie (b. June 11): “You hope that your teenage self would like and forgive your 50-year-old self.”
Johnny Depp (b. June 9th): “I don’t pretend to be Captain Weird.”
Joan Rivers (b. June 8th): “I don’t bend over.”
Prince (b. June 7th): “Money won’t buy happiness, but it’ll pay for the search.”
Sandra Bernhard (b. June 6th): “When you’re constantly looking for things from other people, you’re not looking within yourself.”
Cee Lo Green (b. May 30): “Loving something you’ve lost is all the incentive you need to love again.”
Melissa Etheridge (b. May 29) “I’m so close to Heaven, this Hell cannot be mine.”
Dashiell Hammett (b. May 27) “I’ve been as bad an influence on American literature as anyone I can think of.”
Mike Myers (b. May 25) “At any time the no-talent police will come and arrest me.”
Fats Waller (b. May 21): “If you don’t know what it is, don’t mess with it.”
Timothy Olyphant (b. May 20): “I’m attracted to roles that are unpredictable…”
Tina Fey (b. May 18): “A rectal thermometer’s the best way to take a baby’s temperature…”
Megan Fox (b. May 16): “I’m so mentally ill, I could do something really interesting.”
Barbara Kingsolver (b. April 8th): “I struggle with confidence, every time.”
Eva Peron (b. May 7th): “One cannot accomplish anything without fanaticism.”
George Clooney (b. May 6th): “I’m really white trash.”
Tammy Wynette (b. May 5th): “It’s hard giving all your love to just one man.”
Audrey Hepburn (b. May 4th): “I don’t want to be alone, I want to be left alone.”
James Brown (b. May 3rd): “The one thing that can solve most of our problems is dancing.”
David Beckham (b. May 2nd): “I always wanted to be a hairdresser.”
Joseph Heller (b. May 1st): “A writer is only discovered once in a lifetime.”
Annie Dillard (b. April 30): “Many writers do little but sit in small rooms recalling the real world.”
Jerry Seinfeld (b. April 29): “Bookstores are the only pieces of evidence we have that people are still thinking.”
Jay Leno (b. April 28): “God owes Sodom and Gomorrah an apology.”
Ian Rankin (b. April 28): “Most writers are just kids who refuse to grow up.”
Mary Wollstonecraft (b. April 27): “It is vain to expect virtue from women until they are independent of men.”
Coretta Scott King (b. April 27): “Women must become the soul of the nation.”
Carol Burnett (b. April 26): “Giving birth is like taking your lower lip and forcing it over your head.”
Anita Loos (b. April 26): “I love high style in low company.”
Al Pacino (b. April 25): “I don’t need bodyguards. I’m from the South Bronx.”
Barbra Streisand (b. April 24): “I’m simple, complex, lazy and driven.”
Sue Grafton (b. April 24): “Ideas are easy. It’s their execution that separates the sheep from the goats.”
William Shakespeare (b. April 23): “A fool thinks he’s wise, but a wise man knows he’s a fool.”
Jack Nicholson (b. April 22): “I only take Viagra when I’m with more than one woman.”
Vladimir Nabokov (b. April 22): “I think like a genius, speak like a child.”
Alistair MacLean (b. April 21): “I’m not a born writer, and I don’t enjoy writing.”
Joan Miro (b. April 20): “I try to apply colors like words that shape poems.”
Sebastien Faulks (b. April 20): “Everything I know about structure I learned from classical music.”
Jayne Mansfield (b. April 19): “Men are creatures with two legs and eight hands.”
Conan O’Brien (b. April 18): “Nobody in life gets exactly what they thought they were going to get.”
Thornton Wilder (b. April 17): “An incinerator is a writer’s best friend.”
Charlie Chaplin (b. April 16): “In the end, everything’s a gag.”
Leonardo da Vinci (b. April 15): “Art is never finished, only abandoned.”
Bruce Sterling (b. April 14): “Embrace your nerditude.”
Loretta Lynn (b. April 14): “I pray for answers to my problems.”
Samuel Beckett (b. April 13): “We are all born mad.”
Tom Clancy (b. April 12): “The difference between fiction and reality? Fiction has to make sense.”
David Letterman (b. April 12): “I can’t sing, dance or act.”
Thomas Harris (b. April 11): “Fear comes with imagination…”
Anton LaVey (b. April 11): “Satan has been the best friend the Church ever had.”
Anne Lamott (b. April 10): “Almost all good writing begins with terrible first efforts.”
Joseph Pulitzer (b. April 10): “The power to mold the future will be in the hands of journalists.”
Hugh Hefner (b. April 9th): “Picasso had his blue period; I’m in my blonde period.”
James Herbert (b. April 8th): “I’m not just in it for the gore.”
Donald Barthelme (b. April 7th): “I’m interested in the ugly sentence that is also beautiful.”
Billie Holiday (b. April 7th): “I’m always making a comeback…”
Charles Jackson (b. April 6th): “The writer lives by biting the hand that feeds him.”
Merle Haggard (b. April 6th): “I had more freedom on parole than in America right now.”
Richard Peck (b. April 5th): “Nobody but a reader becomes a writer.”
Bette Davis (b. April 5th): “A sure way to lose happiness…”
Muddy Waters (b. April 4th): “I been in the blues all my life.”
Marguerite Duras (b. April 4th): “Men like women who write.”
Alec Baldwin (b. April 3rd): “Sex is like a Chinese dinner…”
Marlon Brando (b. April 3rd): “Acting is the expression of a neurotic impulse.”
Reginald Hill (b. April 3rd): “You’re never alone with a novel. “
Marvin Gaye (b. April 2nd): “Music, not sex, got me aroused.”
Christopher Meloni (b. April 2nd): “I’m a nudist at heart…”
Abraham Maslow (b. April 1st): “The story of the human race: men and women selling themselves short.”
Otto von Bismarck (b. April 1st): “Laws are like sausages…”
Angus Young (b. March 31): “When I’m on stage the savage in me is released.”
Dr Cowgirl will join you soon. Please assume the position.
Vincent Van Gogh ( b. March 30): “I put my heart into my work, and lost my mind.”
Jo Nesbø (b. March 29): “It’s impossible to write anything without being political.”
Pearl Bailey (b. March 29): “The worst of all frauds is to cheat one’s self.”
Maxim Gorky (b. March 28): “Science is the intellect of the world, art its soul.”
Lady Gaga (b. March 28): “I don’t see myself in terms of artifice.”
Steven Tyler (b. March 26): “If it’s worth doing, it’s worth overdoing.”
Jim Parsons (b. March 24): “Intelligence is sexy until it becomes irritating…”
Harry Houdini (b. March 24): “Don’t bite off red-hot iron unless you have a good set of teeth.”
Jonathan Ames (b. March 23): “I don’t know what’s more difficult, life or the English language.”
Erich Fromm (b. March 23): “We do not understand our dreams…”
Joan Crawford (b. March 23): “I need sex for a clear complexion.”
James Patterson (b. March 22): “If you want to write commercial fiction, it’s story, story, story…”
William Shatner (b. March 22): “There’s an ecstasy about doing something on film.”
Bruce Willis (b. March 19): “Too many children in foster care are falling through cracks.”
Queen Latifah (b. March 18): “I don’t know how to be anyone else.”
John Updike (b. March 18): “Writers dare to go it alone…”
Billy Corgan (b. March 17): “I’m viewed as this weird, crippled character.”
Jerry Lewis (b. March 16): “People hate me because I’m a genius.”
David Cronenburg (b. March 15): “Everybody’s a mad scientist, and life is their lab.”
Ruth Bader Ginsburg (b. March 15): “Fight for the things that you care about.”
Algernon Blackwood (b. March 14): “No man can describe to another the magic of the woman who ensnares him.”
Michael Caine (b. March 14): “I feel a tremendous sadness for men…”
William Macy (b. March 13): “I’m sure I have a process…”
Adam Clayton (b. March 13): “I’m drawn to things that are sexy or aggressive.”
Jack Kerouac (b. March 12): “Great things are not done by those who yield to trends.”
Novels by Alan Annand: free to borrow on Amazon
James Taylor (b. March 12): “We all have to face pain, and pain makes us grow.”
Douglas Adams (b. March 11): “I love the whooshing sound of deadlines as they go by.”
Karl Wilhelm Friedrich Schlegel (b. March 10): “Every uneducated person is a caricature of himself.”
Mickey Spillane (b. March 9th): “Nobody reads a mystery to get to the middle.”
Bobby Fischer (b. March 9th): “I like the moment when I break a man’s ego.”
Neil Postman (b. March 8th): “In Russia, writers with grievances are arrested; in America they go on TV talk shows where only their development is arrested.”
Kat von D (b. March 8th): “I was born naked, waiting for life to write itself on my skin.”
Bryan Cranston (b. March 7th): “Any one of us could become dangerous.”
Gabriel Garcia Marquez (b. March 6th): “Literature is nothing but carpentry…”
Shaquille O’Neal (b. March 6th): “I want to be known as The Big Shakespeare.”
Andy Gibb (b. March 5th): “Girls are always running through my mind.”
Khaled Hosseini (b. March 4th): “Literary fiction is kept alive by women…”
Chaz Bono (b. March 4th): “Gender’s between your ears, not between your legs.”
Jean Harlow (b. March 3rd): “I like to wake up each morning feeling a new man.”
Jessica Biel (b. March 3rd): “I think I could drink my own blood…”
Jon Bon Jovi (b. March 2nd): “Nothing is as important as passion…”
John Irving (b. March 2nd): “You’ve got to get obsessed and stay obsessed.”
Lou Reed (b. March 2nd): “I don’t believe in dressing up reality.”
Linus Pauling (b. February 28): “The best way to have a good idea is to have a lot of ideas.”
Brian Jones (b. February 28): “We piss anywhere, man.”
John Steinbeck (b. February 27): “A journey is like a marriage.”
Josh Groban (b. February 27): “Don’t try to be like me…”
Elizabeth George (b. February 26): “I have to know the killer…”
Victor Hugo (b. February 26): “Sorrow is a fruit…”
Johnny Cash (b. February 26): “Success is worrying about everything except money.”
George Harrison (b. February 25): “You’ve got as many lives as you like…”
Steve Jobs (b. Feb 24): “Being the richest man in the cemetery doesn’t matter.”
Johnny Winter (b. February 23): “People need the blues.”
Peter Fonda (b. February 23): “I don’t trust anybody who didn’t inhale.”
Luis Bunuel (b. February 22): “I can only wait for the final amnesia…”
Drew Barrymore (b. February 22): “Love is the hardest habit to break.”
Ellen Page (b. February 21): “The relationships with my girl friends are so powerful…”
Ansel Adams (b. February 20): “A photograph can hold just as much as we put into it…”
Kurt Cobain (b. February 20): “I’d rather be hated for who I am than loved for who I’m not.”
Jeff Daniels (b. February 19): “Every actor just wants good writing.”
Nicolaus Copernicus (b. February 19): “To know what we do not know is true knowledge”
Yoko Ono (b. February 18): “Everybody’s an artist.”
Billie Joe Armstrong (b. February 17): “Obnoxious got me where I am today.”
John McEnroe (b. February 16): “Let the racket do the talking.”
Matt Groening (b. February 15): “You’ve got to embrace the future…”
Follow Alan on :
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Home Health Simulation shows how transporter proteins do their work in cells
Simulation shows how transporter proteins do their work in cells
Stanford researchers have simulated how a transporter protein move a sugar molecule through a cell membrane, a phenomena with relevance to drug delivery. Credit: istock/NNehring, with Stefani Billings.
Inside every plant or animal, proteins called transporters act as cellular doorkeepers, letting nutrients and other molecules in or out as need be. Although transporter proteins are critical for normal cell function – and are key targets for many drugs – scientists have never really understood how they open and close.
Now Stanford researchers have created a realistic simulation of a transporter protein moving a sugar molecule across a cell membrane. The simulation, described in Cell, could improve the development of drugs, many of which work by manipulating transporters. For example, these proteins ferry dopamine, serotonin and other neurotransmitters in and out of cells, making them key points of interest for treating psychiatric disorders such as depression. In addition, most drugs must evade ejection from cells by transporters to be effective.
“Now that we have a better understanding of how transporters work we can break down the process and see what’s actually important,” says Liang Feng, an assistant professor in molecular and cellular physiology, who co-authored the paper with Ron Dror, an associate professor of computer science.
Transporter basics
Transporter proteins sit snugly in the cell membrane. They have two gates: One opens to the outside of the cell and the other to the inside. In the late 1960s, scientists theorized that transporters could only have one gate open at a time, much like an airlock system in a spacecraft. But since proteins are too small to be seen through a microscope it wasn’t possible to verify the idea.
Instead, scientists had used a technique called crystallography to decipher the shape of a protein. Combining such static images with biological experiments, they could extrapolate how transporter proteins might behave.
But Feng wanted to go further. “We wanted to figure out how these molecules change shape to realize their function,” he said.
The more dynamic view of a transporter in action came about through conversations between graduate students Nathan Fastman and Naomi Latorraca. Fastman, a graduate student in Feng’s lab, was intimately familiar with a particular sugar transporter. Latorraca was a graduate student in Dror’s lab who specialized in modeling molecular dynamics on an atomic level. These types of simulations have become more powerful with improvements in computer technology.
“Plus, the underlying physics models have become more accurate, and we now use better algorithms,” Dror said.
Fastman discovered crystallography images of a transporter in different stages of the transport process, which provide starting points for simulations. Starting with just one structure, Latorraca and Dror programmed in the physical forces between atoms, then stepped back and let the simulated atoms move spontaneously.
From that starting point, the simulation found structures that match the two other crystallographic states. The simulation also supported the airlock theory of how the transporter worked. It showed that the forces between the atoms are such that the protein is most stable with just one or the other of the two doors open, or with both closed, but not with both open.
“The beauty of this paper is the simulation and the experimental evidence match really well, so we know the simulation is very likely to be real,” Feng said.
Dror said revealing the inner workings of transporters will benefit medical research.
“For example, one could treat diseases like diabetes by creating drugs that bind to and regulate transporters,” he said, “and preventing drugs from getting thrown out of cells by transporters would help avoid problems such as antibiotic resistance.”
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Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events
Lemony was a graphically stylistic show that was shot at 4K for Netflix original programming. Our challenges included full cg set creation, set extensions, expansive cg ocean environments, a full scale hurricane, destruction, extending camera moves and head replacement. Set extensions and head replacements were some of the most common tasks that also proved to be the most challenging. Many of the camera moves needed to be extended which also involved plate retiming as well as full plate re-projection to get the perspective to work correctly. One of my challenging shots involved the head replacement of a small child with minimal support from the matchmove department. Normal situations would provide a 3d camera and reference geometry. Due to the schedule and budget constraints, this was not possible, thus invoking the need for all of this work to be done in 2d. On top of that, the client provided multiple takes of the baby's performance that needed to be morphed together into one take and then tracked over the on-set doll's head. Plate reconstruction was done to fill in the gaps that the doll's head occluded. Nuke's 3d system was used extensively for this shot which resulted in long render times due to the amount of motion blur, shot length and 4k resolution.
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Proposed New Duties (May 18, 1865)
The Meade statue at Gettysburg (Tom Huntington photo).
With this letter from George Gordon Meade, we come to the end of a road.
This is the final letter that appears in Meade’s Life & Letters. The remainder of volume II, which provides a summation of Meade’s post-war life, does include some excerpts from his correspondence, but the “letters” part of Meade’s story essentially ends here. From this point on, the general will spend much of his life back home in Philadelphia (interrupted by one long stay in Atlanta), so there will be no need to write to his wife.
With Meade’s and Theodore Lyman’s published correspondence at an end, this blog will slow down a bit. I will continue to post things—especially as we move through George Meade’s bicentennial year—but the posts won’t be as frequent as they have been in the past.
It’s been a lot of fun to follow Meade and Lyman through their war experiences. It’s also been quite an educational experience. I’ve learned a lot as I investigated the references Meade and Lyman made in their letters. It’s been a valuable project for me. I hope all of you who have accompanied me on this journey have found it to be as rewarding as I have. Thanks for reading.
I depended on the boys to tell you all the news. You will see by the papers that the great review is to come off next Tuesday. On that day, the Army of the Potomac, consisting of the cavalry, Ninth, Fifth and Second Corps, will, under my command, march through Washington and be reviewed by the President. To-day’s paper contains an announcement of the fact, in a telegram from Mr. Stanton to General Dix, which it is expected will bring the whole North to Washington.
I have heard nothing further about the proposed new duties, or about going to West Point. The order reducing the armies is published, and I suppose the reduction will take place immediately after the review, so that it will not be long before the question is settled.
Meade’s correspondence taken from The Life and Letters of George Gordon Meade, Major-General United States Army, Vol. 2, (New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1913), pp. 279-80. Available via Google Books.
The paperback edition of Searching for George Gordon Meade: The Forgotten Victor of Gettysburg is now available! You can purchase it through Stackpole Books, Amazon or Barnes and Noble.
by tomhuntington on May 18, 2015 • Permalink
Tagged Edwin Stanton, Grand Review
Posted by tomhuntington on May 18, 2015
https://searching4meade.com/2015/05/18/proposed-new-duties-may-18-1865/
Washington (May 12, 865)
George Gordon Meade and his staff, photographed outside Washington in June 1865 (library of Congress).
George Meade and the Army of the Potomac have reached Washington. The review he mentions will happen, on May 23 and 24. The Army of the Potomac will be disbanded, but not until June 28, 1865, two years to the day from the time Meade took command.
I reached here last evening in time to pitch camp on the banks of the Potomac. To-day I have been in town at the Department, and waiting to see General Grant, who has been all day before the Committee on the Conduct of the War. I have not yet seen him, so am not able to give you any news. From what I gather, I infer the armies are to be disbanded at once. The review or parade has been talked about, but there appears to be nothing settled, and I rather think it will fall through. I have received your letters up to the one dated the ninth.
We had a delightful march from Richmond; some rain towards the end of the journey, which impeded our progress.
Meade’s correspondence taken from The Life and Letters of George Gordon Meade, Major-General United States Army, Vol. 2, (New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1913), p. 279. Available via Google Books.
Tagged Grand Review, Joint Committee on the Conduct of the War, Washington
https://searching4meade.com/2015/05/12/washington-may-12-865/
A Visit with Lee (May 5, 1865)
Robert E. Lee at 707 E. Franklin Street with son George Washington Custis Lee (left) and staffer Walter H. Taylor (Library of Congress).
George Meade has reached Richmond, and he drops in on his old adversary, Robert E. Lee. After Appomattox, Lee was living at 707 E. Franklin Street. This is where Mathew Brady had shot now-iconic images of Lee with staffer Walter Taylor and eldest son George Washington Custis Lee on April 16. Lee did sign an Amnesty Oath, on October 2, and sent it on to Washington, but rather than act on it, Secretary of State William Seward gave it to a friend, apparently as a souvenir. Lee did not receive a formal pardon or get his citizenship restored, at least not during his lifetime. His amnesty oath was rediscovered in the National Archives in 1970, and President Gerald Ford signed the act that restored Lee’s citizenship in 1975.
The newspaper article by Theodore Lyman appeared in the Boston Daily Advertiser on May 2 and May 4. In it, Lyman laid out the case that Philip Sheridan was receiving too much for victories during the Appomattox campaign, and Meade too little. “It is the object of this brief review not to depreciate the unquestioned merits of General Sheridan, but to show that the whole credit by no means belongs to him,” wrote Lyman. “In no one engagement did General Sheridan handle one-half as many troops as were commanded by General Meade. It was Meade’s troops that carried the rebel lines by assault, and it was his troops again that made the decisive charge at Sailor’s Run. At no period during the toilsome pursuit were they wanting in the right place and at the right moment. But General Sheridan is fortunate in his arm of the service, the swift-moving cavalry; and the cavalry are fortunate in their music—the trumpet.” The entire article appears in Meade’s Army: The Private Notebooks of Lt. Col. Theodore Lyman, edited by David W. Lowe.
It was intended we should march through the city to-day, but the condition of the men after their long march from Burksville, and the appearance of the weather, threatening a storm, the march was postponed till to-morrow. I think it will take us from eight to ten days to march across. I hope to be in Alexandria by the fourteenth or fifteenth. I have not seen anyone here except the Wises and Tuckers. I have heard of a great many people here whom I formerly knew, but besides my occupation, I have been indisposed to visit any of them, because I know they all feel bitter, and many are really in distress, which I am powerless to relieve.
The house at 707 E. Franklin Street (Library of Congress).
Last evening Markoe Bache, who had been to see his friend Custis Lee, was told by him that his father, General Lee, would be glad to see me. I called there to-day and had a long talk with him. I endeavored to convince him of the expediency and propriety of his taking the oath of allegiance, not only on his own account, but for the great influence his example would have over others. General Lee said he had personally no objections, that he was willing, and intended to submit to the Constitution and laws of the United States, but that now he was a paroled prisoner of war, and he was unwilling to change his present status until he could form some idea of what the policy of the Government was going to be towards the people of the South. I argued with him that it was impossible for the Government to decide how they were to be treated, until it was satisfied they had returned to their allegiance, and that the only practicable way of showing this was by taking the oath. He admitted that the military power of the Confederacy had been destroyed, and that practically there was now no Confederate Government. The Government of the United States was the only one having power and authority, and those who designed living under it, should evince their determination by going through this necessary form. He also spoke a great deal of the status of the negro, which is really the great and formidable question of the day; but I did not devise any very practicable suggestions. I had a long and interesting talk, and left him, really sad to think of his position, his necessities, and the difficulties which surround him.
Lyman has sent me a Boston paper, with a very excellent article written by himself, which I will send you.
Meade’s correspondence taken from The Life and Letters of George Gordon Meade, Major-General United States Army, Vol. 2, (New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1913), pp. 278-9. Available via Google Books.
by tomhuntington on May 5, 2015 • Permalink
Tagged Boston Daily Advertiser, Custis Lee, Philip Sheridan, Richmond, Robert E. Lee, Theodore Lyman, Walter Taylor
Posted by tomhuntington on May 5, 2015
https://searching4meade.com/2015/05/05/a-visit-with-lee-may-5-1865/
Family Ties (May 3, 1865)
Ruins in Richmond, photographed in May 1865 (Library of Congress).
On May 3, 1865, George Meade wrote home from Richmond with news about some of his wife’s relatives. As previously mentioned, one of Mrs. Meade’s sisters had married Henry Wise, later governor of Virginia and then a Confederate general. The “Mrs. Dr. Garnett” mentioned in this letter is Mary, one of Henry Wise’s daughters. Another of Mrs. Meade’s sisters, Mariamne, had married Thomas Huger, who had served in the Confederate navy and died in 1862. Alfred Huger was postmaster of Charleston; he and Meade will both die in 1872.
I arrived here about 11 a. m. to-day, in advance of the army, to make arrangements for its passing through this city. It is to have a triumphal march through, and be received by all the troops now in the city.
As soon after getting here as I could arrange business matters, I went to see Nene Wise, whom I found living with Mrs. Dr. Garnett.
At Mrs. Garnett’s I saw Mrs. Tully Wise, who was all last summer in Columbia, South Carolina, and there met Mrs. Alfred Huger with Mariamne’s children. She says the children are all sweet, and that Mr. and Mrs. Huger are devoted to them, but that Mr. Huger has lost everything, and is now very poor, that he is old and infirm, and will not probably live long. She says Mr. Huger’s house in Charleston was burned in the great fire of 1862, and everything in it destroyed, all the old pictures, and all the clothes, jewels and everything belonging to Mariamne’s children. Mr. Huger at this time was Postmaster of Charleston, and used to come up and spend Sundays at Columbia. Mrs. Wise had not heard from them since Sherman’s occupation.
I have already written you that I expect to be in Washington by the 18th inst. It is generally believed that after the army is assembled in Washington it will be disbanded. In that case I shall undoubtedly be allowed some relaxation before again being assigned to duty, and will then have an opportunity of being home for awhile.
Tagged Henry Wise, Mariamne Huger, Thomas Huger, Tully Wise
https://searching4meade.com/2015/05/03/family-ties-may-3-1865/
On to Richmond (May 1, 1865)
A Currier & Ives print fro 1862 depicts Henry Halleck in a heroic pose (Library of Congress).
The Army of the Potomac prepares to move north. George Meade wrote this letter from the Virginia town of Burkeville. No doubt Meade felt a degree of schadenfreude at the short life of the Military Division of the James (which will actually exist until June). He had complained bitterly when Henry Halleck took command of the division and relocated from Washington to Richmond, putting “Old Brains” directly over Meade. In August, Halleck will receive command of the Military Division of the Pacific and depart for San Francisco.
We are under marching orders for Alexandria, via Richmond, so the grand military division of the James, including the Army of the Potomac, has just existed about one week. I presume this army is ordered to Alexandria, as a preliminary measure to its disbandment.
I shall leave here to-morrow for Richmond, and after spending a day or two there, putting the army en route for Alexandria, shall proceed to that point, which I expect to reach before the middle of the month. I will write you from Richmond.
George and myself are both well, and greatly delighted with the idea of getting so near home as Washington, with the hope that, whatever turns up, I shall be able to spend a little time at home.
Tagged Henry Halleck, Military Division of the James, Military Division of the Pacific
https://searching4meade.com/2015/05/01/on-to-richmond-may-1-1865/
Sherman (April 27, 1865)
An Alexander Gardner photo of Lincoln’s coffin in New York City (Library of Congress).
In today’s letter, George Meade comments on the controversy William T. Sherman created with the surrender terms he offered to Confederate General Joseph E. Johnston. Sherman had overreached, and the terms he and Johnston agreed to included agreements about citizenship and recognition of state governments. There was an immediate outcry from Washington, with some calling for Sherman’s removal from command. Edwin Stanton was harshly critical of Sherman’s actions, something the general would not forgive. Grant had hurried down to North Carolina to straighten out the mess.
I have received your letters of the 22d and 23d insts. Such exhibitions as are now being made of the body of Mr. Lincoln, are always in my judgment in bad taste, and are never solemn or impressive. Still, as public ceremonies, I suppose they always will be, as they ever have been, necessary for the masses of people.
William T. Sherman (Library of Congress).
I cannot understand Sherman’s course.1 I am very sorry for Sherman, no one can dispute that his services have been pre-eminent, and though he may have erred in judgment, and have mistaken the temper of the North, he is entitled to the considerations due to his past services, which should have shielded him from having his motives and loyalty impugned. I am curious to see whether Grant, when he joins him, will smother him as he did me.
by tomhuntington on April 27, 2015 • Permalink
Tagged Joseph E. Johnston, Lincoln funeral, Ulysses S. Grant, William T. Sherman
Posted by tomhuntington on April 27, 2015
https://searching4meade.com/2015/04/27/sherman-april-27-1865/
Vulgar and Ignorant People (April 24, 1865)
Photograph shows Abraham Lincoln’s casket conveyed by funeral car through the crowd on Broad Street in Philadelphia, April 22, 1865 (Library of Congress).
It sounds as though the Meades’ home in Philadelphia narrowly avoided becoming the target of mob action during the excitement that ensued when Abraham Lincoln’s funeral train reached the city. I do not know about the identities of Major Henry and Mr. Gratz. A Robert H. Gratz did present a portrait of Meade to the city in 1866.
I received last evening your letter of the 20th, and was sorry to learn you had so narrowly escaped being mobbed, particularly after the credit you had gained for being the first to display mourning. It certainly was very culpable on the part of ______, after taking upon himself the duty of decorating your house, to neglect it as he did. In such times of excitement some allowance must be made for vulgar and ignorant people, and you must be over careful to avoid giving offense, whether justly or otherwise.
Major Henry’s letter is very handsome and very creditable to him; I return it herewith. Some one had sent me an extract from the proceedings of the City Councils, containing Mr. Gratz’s letter to Councils, and the resolution accepting Mr. Gratz’s gift. No letter came with this printed slip, but it posted me up in the great honor that had been conferred upon me.
Some days ago the Ninth Corps was detached from this army and ordered to Washington—destination unknown (but surmised to be Missouri). Yesterday the Sixth Corps was ordered to Danville, to be there under Sheridan’s orders; so that I am reduced to two corps—one the Fifth, guarding the railroad from here to Petersburg; the other, the Second, at this point. I presume one of them will soon be ordered away, probably the Second, to guard the railroad from here to Danville. Being reduced then to one corps, I trust the common sense of my superiors will see the absurdity of calling me the commander of an army, and that I shall be relieved and some other duty assigned me.
Tagged Gratz, Lincoln funeral train, Major Henry
https://searching4meade.com/2015/04/24/vulgar-and-ignorant-people-april-24-1865/
The Most Cruel and Humiliating Indignity (April 23, 1865)
Major General Henry Halleck, a.k.a. “Old Brains” (Library of Congress).
Meade continues his complaints about being placed under Henry Halleck, the new commander of the division to which the Army of the Potomac reports. He has finally decided that he can’t look to Grant for advancement. For Meade, though, the ultimate blow will come in 1869, after Grant becomes president and promotes Philip Sheridan to the rank of lieutenant general, over Meade. “The blow has been struck and our worst fears realized,” Meade will write to his wife on March 6, 1869, when he hears that news.
I like Meade’s comments about Theodore Lyman.
An order came yesterday constituting Virginia into the Military Division of the James, assigning Major General Halleck to the command, and putting myself and the Army of the Potomac under him.
This is the most cruel and humiliating indignity that has been put upon me. (It is General Grant’s work, and done by him with a full knowledge of my services and the consideration due to them, all of which have been ignored by him to suit his convenience). The order is a perfectly legitimate one, and to which, as a soldier, I have no right to make any objection, General Halleck being my senior in the regular army. I understand, however, the whole affair. After the assassination of the President, General Grant, who had previously determined to return here, made up his mind to remain in Washington. He wished to find a place for Halleck. His first order assigned Halleck to the command of the Department of Virginia, in [Edward] Ord’s place, sending Ord to South Carolina. I presume Halleck demurred at this, as a position not equal to what he was entitled. At Halleck’s remonstrance, and to render acceptable his removal from Washington, this order was rescinded, and the order issued making the Military Division of the James, and putting both Ord and myself under him. I feel quite confident that, if I had been in Washington and my remonstrances could have been heard, I either would have frustrated this plan, or have been provided for in some way more consistent with my past services, but les les absens ont toujours tort was fully illustrated in this instance, and there is nothing left me but the submission which a good soldier should always show to the legitimate orders of his superiors. I, however, now give up Grant.
I am glad Lyman called to see you. He is an honest man and a true friend. He has a healthy mental organization, which induces him to look on all matters in the most favorable light.
Tagged Edward Ord, Henry Halleck, Theodore Lyman, Ulysses S. Grant
https://searching4meade.com/2015/04/23/the-most-cruel-and-humiliating-indignity-april-23-1865/
Very Much Demoralized (April 22, 1865)
Maj. Gen. Henry Halleck. He had a talent for irritating his subordinates (Library of Congress).
Henry A. Cram, Mrs. Meade’s brother-in-law, often served as the general’s sounding board. Here, Meade’s letter to Cram touches on a variety of topics, including the assignment of Maj. Gen. Henry Halleck to Richmond. Meade and Halleck did not get along. Back in the fall of 1863, when “Old Brains” had yet to be supplanted by Grant as the army’s general-in-chief, Meade had been so irked by telegram’s from Washington that he sent a message to Halleck that read, ““If you have any orders to give me I am prepared to receive and obey them. But I insist on being spared the infliction of such truisms in the guise of opinions as you have recently honored me with, particularly as they were not asked for.” Not exactly the basis for a healthy working relationship. Meade will vent more about Halleck in tomorrow’s letter to Mrs. Meade.
I shall be most delighted to pay Katharine and yourself a visit in Irving Place, but the prospect of such felicity does not seem very near.
I am at present very much demoralized by a recent order which places me and my army under the command of General Halleck, who has been transferred from Washington to Richmond. In order to make General Halleck’s removal from Washington acceptable to him, and appear necessary to the public, the services of myself and army are ignored, and this indignity put upon us; and this by Grant, who wrote the letter he did last winter, and who professes the warmest friendship. All this entre nous.
We of the army have done our work; the military power of the Rebellion is shattered. It remains for statesmen, if we have any, to bring the people of the South back to their allegiance and into the Union. How and when this will be accomplished, no one can tell. In the meantime, I presume our armies will have to occupy the Southern States. I am myself for conciliation, as the policy most likely to effect a speedy reunion. If we are going to punish treason, as perhaps strict justice would demand, we shall have to shed almost as much blood as has already been poured out in this terrible war. These are points, however, for others to adjust.
Tagged Henry A. Cram, Henry Halleck, Ulysses S. Grant
https://searching4meade.com/2015/04/22/very-much-demoralized-april-22-1865/
Back to the Union (April 20, 1865)
Charles J. Faulkner (Library of Congress).
With the military aspects of the war wrapping up, the difficult task of reconstruction begins. George Meade will be involved with that process in one way or another for pretty much the rest of his life. Here he writes home about Charles J. Faulkner. Before the war, Faulkner had served in Virginia’s House of Delegates, as U.S. Congressman, and as minister to France for President James Buchanan. He was arrested in 1861 for arranging to have arms sold to the Confederates. After he was exchanged, Faulkner joined the Confederate army and served for a time as one of Stonewall Jackson’s staffers.
I am glad you were so prompt in putting your house in mourning for the loss of the President, and I am also glad to see the press in Philadelphia take so much notice of you.
Lyman, much to my sorrow and regret, leaves me to-day, he considering the destruction of Lee’s army as justifying his return home. Lyman is such a good fellow, and has been so intimately connected personally with me, that I feel his separation as the loss of an old and valued friend.
I have had for the last two days as guest at my headquarters Mr. Charles J. Faulkner, late Minister to France. He is on his way to Richmond, to assist in bringing back Virginia to the Union. He acknowledges the Confederacy destroyed, is in favor of a convention of the people to rescind the ordinance of secession, abolish slavery, and ask to be received into the Union. This is in my judgment the best course to be pursued. Mr. Faulkner goes from here to Richmond. We also had yesterday the arrival of a Confederate officer from Danville, who reported the rumored surrender of Johnston, and the flight of Jeff. Davis to the region beyond the Mississippi, from whence I have no doubt he will go into Mexico, and thence to Europe.
Tagged Charles J. Faulkner, Jefferson Davis, Joseph Johnston
https://searching4meade.com/2015/04/20/back-to-the-union-april-20-1865/
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#EU#MIDDLEEAST 23.03.2017 - 774 views
Turkish Deputy PM Believes Terrorists Cannot Be Divided into Good and Bad… But Not Always 5 out of 5 based on 4 ratings. 4 user reviews.
Turkish Deputy PM Believes Terrorists Cannot Be Divided into Good and Bad… But Not Always
While Turkey actively supports ‘moderate’ terrorists of the Free Syrian Army on the Syrian territory, the country’s Deputy Prime Minister teaches Europe that terrorists cannot be divided into good and bad ones.
Turkish Deputy Prime Minister Numan Kurtulmus (Photo: serihaber.net)
Turkish Deputy Prime Minister Numan Kurtulmus believes that Europeans must realize that terrorists cannot be divided into good and bad. The statement was made during a roundtable discussion in the Anadolu news agency.
According to the Turkish Deputy Prime Minister, covering and patronizing terrorists of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), European politicians themselves will eventually face serious consequences. “There are already enough examples. It is enough to remember the attempted assassination of former Prime Minister of Sweden, Olof Palme, who was considered to be one of the strongest adherents of democracy in Europe, a moderate-minded politician. He died at the hands of PKK terrorists. In this way, we are dealing with a terrorist organization that is capable to orginize attempted assassinations of European politicians in the heart of Europe,” Kurtulmus said.
He also noted that there is an increase in neo-Nazism, racism and neo-fascism in Europe. The diplomat stressed that he was talking about Europe, which shift off a heavy load of the fascist regimes of Hitler and Mussolini in the recent past.
“The history of modern Europe, especially the period between the First and Second World Wars, is full of bloody pages. The main reason for bloody crimes is radical nationalism,” Kurtulmus added.
The Turkish Deputy Prime Minister also noted that the authorities of several European countries, who banned speeches of Turkish ministers and deputies, at the same time, approved demonstartions of PKK terrorists, as well as of opponents of the constitutional referendum in Turkey. “It is very difficult to understand such a position,” Kurtulmus said.
He condemned attempts of the authorities of a number of European countries to hide participants of the coup attempt that took place in Turkey on July 15, 2016.
“Such an approach is unacceptable and fundamentally erroneous. In this way, Europe openly help bandits, the gang of Fethullah Gulen (FETO). This is unacceptable for Ankara. Friendly relations with Turkey require a prompt extradition of all FETO members, hiding in Europe, to Ankara,” Kurtulmus stressed.
Tags:eu, Europe, Numan Kurtulmus, PPK, turkey, turkish-european relations
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Sorry Turks, nearly everyone is in camp Kurdistan now.
Trustin Judeau
Turkey supports the current AQ offensive in Hama
What he really means is that we can’t divide wahabists between terrorists and not terrorists.
Thegr8rambino
FUCK OFF TURKEY!!! nobody likes u or wants u in syria!!! just stay in ur own borders AND SHUT UP!!!
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Game Plan To Make The Houston Texans’ Offense Competitive
By Jimmy Jal Sethna
After Saturday’s loss to the New England Patriots, one thing was crystal clear. The Houston Texans’ offense is stopping this team from ever competing for a Super Bowl. This game was winnable if the Texans had even a mediocre showing on offense. Nearly everything needs to be changed.
Obviously, Brock Osweiler is the key problem. There’s nothing to add to this. I don’t know that there’s even a possibility of him having upside. We now have the most expensive backup quarterback in the NFL heading into the 2017 season.
There will be a competition to see who starts at quarterback going into next season. Brock Osweiler, Tom Savage, and whoever they acquire during free agency and the draft will be on an even playing field.
But that’s just step one, the first of many…
Play calling has been atrocious all season for the Texans. The second scapegoat, after Brock, seems to have been offensive coordinator George Godsey, who “mutually parted ways” with the Texans. Being the OC for the 29th ranked offense in the league doesn’t really leave much of an argument to be made, but this isn’t the only problem.
Another key to reviving this team is adding depth to our offensive line. Left tackle Duane Brown missed a few games early this season. Second round rookie Nick Martin missed the entire regular season with an ankle injury. Derek Newton suffered a horrific injury mid-season against the Denver Broncos.
The only thing photo shopped in this picture is the red arrow pointing at two of our lineman blocking each other.
The Texans hope to have Duane Brown and Nick Martin healthy for all of next season, but Derek Newton may need to be replaced after his extreme, possibly career-ending injury.
The O line struggled at the guard position as well. This line will need an overhaul through free agency and the draft. It’s an absolute must.
Lastly, the Texans need to bring in a veteran wide receiver.
They have the youngest receiving corps in the NFL with DeAndre Hopkins being the lone veteran, and he still has upside at the ripe age of 24. We already have a guy in Will Fuller who can stretch the field, and an interesting slot receiver in Braxton Miller, but they’re young and inexperienced. They will take time to learn the intricacies of playing the position in the NFL, we need to obtain a veteran to fill in the gaps as the young guys grow.
There’s a lot to address this offseason. All of the items listed above must be completed in order for this team to compete for a championship.
We only have a small window where this dominant defense will remain largely intact, so Houston needs to work aggressively to fix the other side of the ball while it lasts.
Related Items:Brock Osweiler, George Godsey, Houston Texans, Offense
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2017 NFL Draft: Reviewing UCLA DE Takkarist McKinley
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Profiles in Convenience: Previously Mum GOP Hopefuls Call For Confederate Flag Removal
June 22, 20159:18 PM
Hundreds of people protest against the Confederate battle flag during a protest rally in Columbia, South Carolina on June 20, 2015.
Photo by Mladen Antonov/AFP/Getty Images
South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley on Monday called for the removal of the Confederate battle flag that currently flies on the grounds of the statehouse, an unexpected announcement that sets the stage for her state’s lawmakers to do just that later this year. “Some divisions are bigger than a flag,” the Republican said at a press conference where she was joined by her state’s two U.S. senators and a host of other elected officials. “We are not going to allow this symbol to divide us any longer.”
Within hours of Haley’s remarks, a number of national Republicans who had previously avoided specifically weighing in on whether the controversial flag should come down suddenly found the courage to call for its removal. Scott Walker said that he was “glad” Haley said what she had and that he supports her decision. Rick Perry said that her new stance “honors the people of Charleston.” Likewise, John Kasich praised the South Carolina governor’s “leadership.” Republican National Committee chairman Reince Priebus offered a similar endorsement for removing the flag—“Now is the time to do what is right”—as did a number of high-profile GOP congressman, including House Budget Chairman Paul Ryan and House Majority Whip Steve Scalise.
What a difference a little political cover makes. Before Haley’s press conference changed which way the political wind was blowing, none of those men were willing to come out publicly against the state-sanctioned flying of the flag that Dylann Roof appears so fond of. After, however, most of them conveniently no longer appeared bound by the same rationale they had been using to justify their decision to stay on the sidelines.
Over the weekend, for instance, Walker dodged questions about the flag by saying he wouldn’t address the issue until the nine victims who were gunned down in Charleston’s Emanuel AME Church last week have been buried. His new opinion, though, comes four days before the planned funeral services for Rev. Clementa Pinckney, the state senator who was killed during last week’s massacre.
With only a few exceptions, those national Republicans who did weigh in on the flag before Monday cast the decision as a states’ rights issue—even in those rare instances when candidates like Kasich said they personally favored the flag’s removal. “This is up to the people of South Carolina to decide,” the Ohio governor said on Saturday, “but if I were a citizen of South Carolina, I’d be for taking it down.”
Perry, for one, tried to remain crouched in that defensive position on Monday even as he joined the growing GOP choir. “The decision to remove the Confederate flag needs to be made by the people of South Carolina, and Gov. Haley’s leadership today honors the people of Charleston, and the families of the victims of last week’s horrific hate crime,” the former Texas governor said in a statement. Such an attempt to have it both ways is only highlighted by the fact that, under law, a final decision about whether to remove or relocate the flag will need to have the backing of two-thirds of the state legislature. While a number of state lawmakers stood behind Haley at Monday’s press conference, the final decision remains months away and remains uncertain. If Perry wants to wait for the people of South Carolina to have their say before he does, he’ll need to wait a good bit longer.
The biggest outlier among the crowded field of GOP hopefuls was Jeb Bush. Following Monday’s press conference, Jeb also offered “kudos” to Haley and the other officials for “doing the right thing.” Previously he had said that he was confident that the state would “do the right thing”—although, notably, he stopped just short of saying exactly what that was. His decision to walk right up to the line without crossing it might not have been so frustrating if it weren’t for the admirable leadership he previously displayed as governor of Florida by relegating the Confederate battle flag that was then flying on the grounds of his state’s Capitol to the Florida Museum of History.
One bit of good news out of all this political calculus and cowardice: Regardless of why and how the GOP hopefuls have finally found their voices, the fact that they have will put pressure on state lawmakers to follow Haley’s lead and finally take down a flag that serves as a painful reminder of the state’s painful history. The GOP field may have come by their courage conveniently, but the development is better late than never.
Read more of Slate’s coverage of the Charleston shooting, and of the 2016 presidential campaign.
2016 Campaign Charleston Shooting
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Russia’s Ambassador to Turkey Shot Dead in Ankara
By Joshua Keating
Dec 19, 201612:29 PM
The gunman gestures near the body of Andrei Karlov at a photo gallery in Ankara, Turkey on Monday.
Burhan Ozbilici/AP Images
*Update, Dec. 19, 2016, 3:12 p.m. EST
After a conversation with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan today following the killing of Amb. Andrei Karlov, Russian President Vladimir Putin described the assassination in a televised statement as “clearly a provocation aimed at undermining the improvement and the normalization of Russian-Turkish relations as well as undermining the peace process in Syria.” He also said Russia’s response would be “stepping up the fight against terror.”
Meanwhile, Turkish officials are saying they are looking into connections between the assassin and the network supported by U.S.-based cleric Fethullah Gulen. Turkey has blamed Gulen, one of Erdogan’s most prominent critics, for orchestrating the attempted coup against him last July. Gulen, who runs a global network of business and charitable interests, denies involvement. Since the coup, the Turkish government has arrested or fired thousands of people with alleged links to Gulen and demanded the U.S. extradite him. The Obama administration has rebuffed these requests so far, but National Security Advisor nominee Michael Flynn has suggested the Trump administration may agree to them.
Together, these responses suggest that both the Russian and Turkish governments will use today’s killing to press forward with renewed intensity on policies that are already in place rather than changing course.
*Update, Dec. 19, 2016, 1:03 p.m. EST: Early reports suggest the assassin was a police officer and that the ambassador had no security detail.
Turkish security source says gunman who shot Russian ambassador was police officer who worked in Ankara. Read more: https://t.co/NNjdalCbtk pic.twitter.com/4KOkcmxtjt
— Reuters Top News (@Reuters) December 19, 2016
The attacker is 22 years-old Turkish police M.M.A from Ankara police special force department.. pic.twitter.com/7Ckf67ZlG9
— METIN GURCAN (@Metin4020) December 19, 2016
A witness in Turkish TV says the Ankara attacker shot the Russian Ambassador four or five times. The Ambassador had no security detail.
— Ragıp Soylu (@ragipsoylu) December 19, 2016
*Update, Dec. 19, 2016, 12:42 p.m. EST: Russia’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs confirmed that Karlov was killed in the attack.
BREAKING: Russia's ambassador to Turkey has died after being shot in Ankara, according to Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman.
— The Associated Press (@AP) December 19, 2016
*Update, Dec. 19, 2016, 12:39 p.m. EST: Longer video from the scene shows the gunman yelling about Syria and Aleppo.
Higher quality video of Ambassador's shooting and of assailant shouting about Syria, Aleppo, Jihad etc. pic.twitter.com/e9JI99CmRX
— Tobias Schneider (@tobiaschneider) December 19, 2016
Original post: Russia’s ambassador to Turkey, Andrei Karlov, was reportedly shot and killed Monday while visiting an art gallery in Ankara. According to Turkish media reports, the gunman chanted Islamist slogans after firing the shot. Photographs from the scene show a man in a black suit holding a pistol near the podium where Karlov was shot.
Not much is known about the attack yet, but it comes after widespread anger and days of protests in Turkey against the Russian-backed Syrian regime assault on the city of Aleppo. Turkey has seen a number of major terrorist attacks this year, by both Islamist groups, including ISIS, and Kurdish militants.
Russia and Turkey have been at odds for years over the conflict in Syria, with Moscow as the primary foreign backer of Bashar al-Assad’s government and Turkey aiding the rebellion against him. Relations between the two countries hit a nadir late last year after Turkey shot down a Russian fighter on the Syria–Turkey border. While the underlying dispute remains, ties have improved over the past year between Russia’s Vladimir Putin and Turkey’s Recep Tayyip Erdogan. The foreign and defense ministers of Russia, Iran, and Turkey are due to meet in Moscow on Tuesday to discuss the future of Syria.
Russia has justified waging war in defense of Assad’s regime on the ground that it is fighting terrorism. But while Putin and Assad are definitely crushing the rebels as a force that can effectively fight and control territory in Syria, those fighters may now turn to traditional terrorist tactics—bombings, assassinations—and not just within the borders of Syria.
This post is being updated as news develops.
Russia Turkey
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Archive for Burma
Aung San Suu Kyi to Speak at U of L
Posted in Happenings, Louisville News, Politics with tags Aung San Suu Kyi, Burma, Center for Asian Democracy, McConnell Center, Myanmar, University of Louisville on September 13, 2012 by othersideoflife
The Courier-Journal is reporting this evening that Nobel Prize winner and Burmese democracy activist Aung San Suu Kyi will speak at the University of Louisville on September 24th:
Nobel Peace Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi, a longtime pro-democracy activist in Myanmar who spent nearly two decades under house arrest, will speak Sept. 24 at the University of Louisville.
Suu Kyi’s visit — organized by U.S. Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., a fierce critic of Myanmar’s military junta — comes amid reforms in the former Burma that recently led the United States to restore full diplomatic relations.
In April, Suu Kyi was elected to the country’s parliament, more than 20 years after she was placed under house arrest in the violent crackdown that followed a short-lived pro-democracy movement.
McConnell, who has championed Suu Kyi’s cause and was among the U.S. leaders, including Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, to recently visit the once-closed Southeast Asian nation, invited Suu Kyi to stop in Louisville, university officials said.
“Daw Aung San Suu Kyi symbolizes the peaceful struggle for freedom, democracy and reconciliation in Burma,” McConnell said. “Having her visit the University of Louisville and the Commonwealth of Kentucky is a great honor. I appreciate that she accepted my invitation, and we look forward to welcoming her to the Bluegrass State.”
Despite not being a big fan of McConnell, we gotta say, this is pretty fantastic, and we thank the Senator and the University for giving Suu Kyi the opportunity to speak in Louisville. Here’s how to get tickets:
The Center for Asian Democracy is inviting people in the Louisville community with ties to Myanmar to attend Aung San Suu Kyi’s talk Sept. 24 — including some in the refugee community. A limited number of tickets will be available to the public on a first-come, first-served basis. Those who want to request a ticket can do so at www.mcconnellcenter.org starting Monday.
Also, as a reminder, the Dalai Lama will visit Louisville in mid-May, 2013.
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Subtitles » "The Blacklist" Abraham Stern (No. 100) S05E11
"The Blacklist" S05E11 Abraham Stern (No. 100) subtitles
season 5 - episode 11 all seasons of The Blacklist
Cast: Happy Anderson
Swedish (1) Vietnamese (1)
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Bones S07E04 12/1/11
N (Io e Napoleone) 10/13/06
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This was the first Toy Story film I wasn’t excited to see. When Toy Story 3 came out in 2010, it felt like the perfect ending to the Toy Story series. It was a beautiful close to a trilogy of films that had, quite literally, spanned an entire generation of children. So, naturally, when it was announced that Disney/Pixar was going to release another film in the series, potentially ruining that perfect ending, I wasn’t exactly thrilled. Disney had made some TV specials set in the aftermath of Toy Story 3, but that was about as far as I wanted it to go. I’m happy to say, however, that this fourth film largely acts as an epilogue to the previous three, respecting that beautiful ending while giving the characters – notably Woody – some extra closure. It’s largely unnecessary but fairly enjoyable. (Mild spoilers ahead.)
Toy Story 4 (written by Andrew Stanton and Stephany Folsom, directed by Josh Cooley)
Woody (voice of Tom Hanks) has always been confident about his place in the world, and that his priority is taking care of his kid, whether that’s Andy or Bonnie. So when Bonnie’s beloved new craft-project-turned-toy, Forky (voice of Tony Hale), declares himself as “trash” and not a toy, Woody takes it upon himself to show Forky why he should embrace being a toy. But when Bonnie takes the whole gang on her family’s road trip excursion, Woody ends up on an unexpected detour that includes a reunion with his long-lost friend Bo Peep (voice of Annie Potts). After years of being on her own, Bo’s adventurous spirit and life on the road belie her delicate porcelain exterior. As Woody and Bo realize they’re worlds apart when it comes to life as a toy, they soon come to find that’s the least of their worries.
It’s honestly impressive that the Toy Story series continues to have something new to say about the lives of toys. In previous movies, it’s been themes of toys accepting their place as toys or dealing with their child growing up, but here it’s something a bit darker – what makes a toy? At the beginning of the film, Bonnie (the current owner of Woody, Buzz, and the rest of the gang) creates a new toy in kindergarten by attaching some pipe cleaners and googly eyes to an old spork, creating a toy called Forky. Forky, of course, immediately has an existential crisis, much like Buzz’s in the first Toy Story film; he is trash, not a toy. As Bonnie and her family go on a road trip, Woody has to stop Forky from constantly trying to throw himself away, but when Forky manages to jump out of the window of the family’s RV as it travels down a highway, Woody decides to go after Forky, insisting that Bonnie needs Forky in order to get through kindergarten. Eventually, after some major heart-to-hearts with Forky, Woody is able to convince him that he’s important to Bonnie and not just something to be thrown away. These conversations are interesting and they open up the Toy Story universe in, frankly, frightening ways – can anything be a toy if a child decides it’s one?
The film, of course, has no time to really answer that question as it quickly becomes apparent that the movie isn’t really about Forky’s journey to accepting his place as a toy. Rather, that plotline was just a way to get to the real meat of the story: what happens to lost toys? The film actually opens with a flashback to the night that Bo Peep was given away to another family, set somewhere between Toy Story 2 and Toy Story 3. This is the set up for the real plotline. As Woody and Forky make their way back to Bonnie’s RV, they end up at the site of a traveling carnival and an antique store. Woody notices Bo Peep’s lamp in the window of the antique store and quickly finds himself tangled in the plans of a toy that’s been abandoned in the store, Gabby Gabby, and desperately wanting to no longer be lost. As Woody and Forky try to escape this crazed toy, Forky gets captured and Woody runs into the long-lost Bo Peep, who’s made a life for herself living on her own as a lost toy. The rest of the film explores this trauma inflicted on those toys that end up lost. We see how it’s turned Bo Peep into a harder toy than she used to be; we see how it’s made Gabby Gabby ruthless in her quest to find a child; and we see how Woody, himself, deals with his own sense of loss – the feeling that Bonnie doesn’t actually need him anymore. All of these are really solid plotlines to explore, and they’re all explored in really interesting ways. It’s also really nice seeing Woody and Bo reunited once more, giving their romance a chance to blossom once again and getting the chance to see how the different paths their lives have taken re-intertwine ends up being really interesting.
In light of how Toy Story 3 was about the necessity of humans to give up their toys as they grow older, allowing new children the chance to play with these toys, it definitely feels natural for Toy Story 4 to explore what it’s like for a toy to never find a new home again. The vast majority of the film explores that, caked within a number of failed attempts at rescuing Forky from the antique store (there were honestly about one too many attempts; by the final rescue mission, it started feeling a bit too repetitive). But it was worth sitting through all of those failed rescue attempts in order to get to the meat of the story. I won’t spoil anything else from the film, but the ending does feel very earned in a way that honestly surprised me. In a way, it feels like it’s setting the series up for another sequel, but in a way, it feels like a perfect note to end this story on. Toy Story 3 was about a human dealing with outgrowing his toys, Toy Story 4 deals with a toy having to find a new purpose in the aftermath of that. The whole film ends up working pretty well as an epilogue to the series as a whole. It’s a film that didn’t necessarily need to exist, but it certainly works pretty well.
All in all, Toy Story 4 is pretty solid. It’s probably my third favorite Toy Story film – it doesn’t come anywhere close to reaching the heights that Toy Story 2 reached and it’s really hard to top just how perfect an ending Toy Story 3 was, but I do think I liked it more than I liked the first film. It’s probably the funniest of all the Toy Story films, but it frequently tries a bit too hard to make you cry and the middle of the film sags a bit (a problem shared with the first Toy Story film, which features a middle act that feels like it never ends). Additionally, the only characters who get any kind of meaningful screentime are Woody, Forky, and Bo Peep. Nearly the rest of the original cast and relegated to nothing more than extended cameos. It seems like Pixar keeps making Buzz dumber and dumber with each Toy Story film and that trend continues with this one, but his interactions with the stuffed animals played by Jordan Peele and Keegan Michael Key end up being some of the funniest sections of the movie, so I’m inclined to forgive it. Overall, it’s a flawed film but it does work as a pretty solid epilogue to this series. I really hope they don’t make any more Toy Story films after this, though. This is a good place to stop. Arguably, Toy Story 3 is still a better place to have stopped, but even though this film feels very unnecessary, I do enjoy a lot of what was done with Woody here. So, it ends up being pretty worthwhile, all things considered.
3.5 out of 5 wands.
Posted in movies and tagged andrew stanton, annie potts, disney, disney pixar, josh cooley, pixar, stephany folsom, tim allen, tom hanks, tony hale, toy story, toy story 4 on June 21, 2019 by Michael Cook. Leave a comment
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REVIEW: “Adolescence” (2019 film) →
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The man accused of murdering his partner inside the couple’s Paola apartment in September has pleaded legal insanity, bringing about the suspension of the compilation of evidence in his regard.
Michael Emmanuel, the 28-year-old Ivorian national accused of strangling Maria Lourdes Agius, his 35-year-old partner and mother of seven children, three of them fathered by the accused, had been facing compilation proceedings, pleading not guilty to the murder.
The victim’s lifeless body had been discovered by the police in her bedroom, seemingly asleep, shortly after her partner had turned up at the local police station to report that the woman could not be roused from her sleep.
A police sergeant on site, aware of an earlier domestic violence report filed by the woman, had sensed that the young mother might have been dead, and his suspicion was soon confirmed.
An autopsy later certified that the cause of death had been strangulation, with the victim also bearing bruises on her neck.
As proceedings continued on Thursday, defence lawyer Dustin Camilleri, informed the court that he would be pleading legal insanity, adding that an application to this effect was to be presented in due course.
In view of this information, the court, presided over by magistrate Caroline Farrugia Frendo, declared the suspension of the compilation of evidence and sent the acts to the Attorney General in terms of law.
The matter will now be entrusted to a number of psychiatrists, usually three, who are to examine the accused and determine whether he was insane at the time of commission of the offence.
Should the experts’ report be contested by the Attorney General, the matter would be decided by a panel of jurors.
Should the allegation of insanity be determined, the court would order the accused to be kept in custody at Mount Carmel Hospital, to remain so detained in terms of the Mental Health Act.
In the light of this plea, the court ordered that the accused be temporarily transferred from the Corradino Correctional Facility to Mount Carmel Hospital, while sending the acts of the case to the Attorney General.
Inspectors James Grech and Sarah Zerafa were prosecuting. Lawyers Matthew Xuereb and Charles Mercieca appeared on behalf of the Office of the Attorney General. Lawyer Stephanie Caruana appeared parte civile.
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Issue 10 // 2nd Quarter // 2015
Purveyor Of Business Wisdom
Issue 10 // 2nd Quarter // 2015 Category:Business By: Mark Whitaker
One of the many ironies of the bible is the fact that King Solomon, with all of his infamous wisdom, wrote numerous proverbs on how to gain wisdom. The secret; seek the wisdom of others! Solomon knew that even HE didn’t know it all and sought the wisdom of others. Even today, professional athletes, who spend most of their lives training for their particular sport and get paid millions of dollars to be the best of the best, are still mentored and coached to improve their skills and knowledge.
Phil Clements is a purveyor of wisdom in the world of business and is the Managing Director of Cathedral Consulting Group; wisdom is their business. Cathedral Consulting Group helps business owners identify areas of their business that need improvement and provide solutions to overcome them. Phil explains, “I spent the majority of my career working in large corporations, including Coopers and Lybrand, PricewaterhouseCoopers and Standard and Poor’s. At the large, corporate enterprise level, there are finance departments, human resource departments, marketing departments, real estate departments, etc. and all of the resources that go along with them. Small and mid-sized companies have the same technical needs but don’t have the same resources to address them.”
Following God's Direction
A born-again believer since the age of seven, Phil has walked with the Lord practically his whole life. He has been married for 36 years and has three grown daughters and a grandchild. With such a deep-rooted spiritual foundation, it was only natural for Phil to incorporate his faith into his business.
Phil started his career in the fields of accounting and tax law after receiving a Master of Laws in Taxation from New York University Law School. His career was soaring when, in 2004, he was fired from Standard and Poor’s after a new president took over the company. While weighing his options and prayerfully considering the direction that God had in store for him, he started receiving calls from the owners of small companies seeking advice on various aspects of their businesses. Realizing that this was a legitimate need in the business community, he formed the Cathedral Consulting Group as a technical resource for businesses in need of advice and direction.
Oftentimes, it’s the business owners that must address financial issues, human resource issues, and all other aspects of running a business. It’s rare that a business owner is proficient in all of these fields. Trying to perform them all single-handily can actually be detrimental to the company.
The wise business owner seeks help in the areas where he or she lacks expertise. That’s where Cathedral Consulting Group comes in. They help to identify aspects of your business model that need help and provide solutions to rectify areas of weakness, allowing business owners to focus on what they do best. Phil said, “Business owners needed a way to get advice that was set up in a way that they could understand and implement. Advice that cannot be implemented is worthless.”
The Cathedral Way
He and his team invested a lot of time developing a series of platforms that they refer to as “The Cathedral Way.” He said, “It allows our consultants to be very technical in their approach to a solution, very similar to the way a good CPA approaches an accounting project. We focus on areas of marketing, accounting, business structure, human resources, cash management, product mix, etc. We’ve designed training for our people so that they can be very technical in identifying issues and advising clients. After stepping back and looking at what we had developed, it was clear that what we had created was a new profession.”
The Cathedral Consulting Group went on to develop the Certified Small Enterprise Advisor program. It consists of a seven-year curriculum to train participants from entry level to partner. It is now available as a three-level professional development program available to the market at large.
“We describe ourselves as Christian-centric. Our practice is anchored in the principles that you’d find in the Christian faith. There is no policy that insists that our clients or staff have to be Christian. We welcome the opportunity to share the Truth with people who may have never heard it before.” Phil Clements
“We bring Christian theology and Christian passages into our discussions. There is great wisdom to be found in the Bible and we will bring up Proverbs or a parable that may be applicable to a situation to illustrate the fact that these principles are thousands of years old and still hold true today. We want to anchor ourselves in well-tested principles such as those found in the bible. In all the years that we’ve been in business, we’ve had very little push-back when bringing our faith into discussions.”
Just as the Bible says in Matthew 5:16, “In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.” Phil applies this principle to his business to always produce excellent work, saying “That’s just good business!”
In addition to Cathedral Consulting, Phil is also Managing Director at the Center for Christian Business Ethics Today. The “Center” is a sister company to Cathedral Consulting Group and functions as a think-tank for what Cathedral helps clients apply every day.
In 2004, Jack Templeton of the Templeton Foundation, challenged Phil to read a book called Culture Matters: How Values Shape Human Progress, by Samuel P. Huntington. The book, based on Harvard studies showing global impact of the Protestant faith, presents the case that the Protestant faith affects the way that commerce is conducted and creates the highest flourishing economies among all the nations. Phil said, “I found the book very interesting and having run companies all over the world and sitting on the boards of large companies, we never talked about these things.” He enrolled at the Reformed Theological Seminary in Charlotte and obtained a Masters in Theology to increase his biblical knowledge and came to the same conclusion. The Bible holds a great deal of profound wisdom that is applicable and useful today, from our national economy down to the individual business owner.
Phil coordinated with the Westminster Theological Seminary and held a conference in 2010 on the impact that faith has on economies. There were a host of influential speakers and the concept was very well received, drawing 250-300 people; it was the launch pad for the Center. The Center helps to triangulate what the bible says about marketing, capital structure, and other aspects of a business organization in the context of the Ten Commandments. They then show how those principles connect and apply to what businesses do on a daily basis.
An accomplished author, Phil has written several books on business, as well as books about relating biblical principles and concepts to global and national economies. He is an Adjunct Professor at Rutgers University and has been a Distinguished Visiting Professor of Business at The King's College, New York City. He has also been a guest lecturer at Wheaton College, teaching real-world business and accounting principles.
Leading With Love
Through his endeavors with Cathedral Consulting Group, Phil’s calling has been greater than to just offer sound business advice. He says, “We have adopted and incorporated a key principle: Love. Our job is to love our clients. I like to refer to the description of love found in 1 Corinthians 13. If God brings us a client, we will serve them in love. It’s a much different discourse than the normal business strategy of ‘What’s in it for me?’ or ‘What’s the profit margin?’ Our clients need encouragement to get back in the game tomorrow, to keep pressing on. The battle of business is weathering the storms and persevering through all of the daily hardships and challenges. Providing that encouragement is just as meaningful as the technical advice that we provide.
There isn’t a week that goes by where we don’t have a client in our office that is in tears over their business. It’s very emotional. They often come in with a sense of hopelessness and a sense of loss. Our consultants help them to see a way out and give them courage to keep going.” Phil Clements
For Phil Clements and the Cathedral Consulting Group, their mission is to build something greater than just the individual or just the paycheck. It’s about making an eternal impact.
By: Mark Whitaker
Mark Whitaker is the Executive Editor of TwoTen Magazine. He is inspired daily by his God, his wife Kim and his three daughters Hannah, Sarah, and Rhea.
Read More Articles by Mark Whitaker
Issue 12 // 4th // 2015
Faith & Profit Are Not Mutually Exclusive
7 Ways To Get and Keep A Good Name
Principles For Handling Conflict Well
What Emerging Tech Means for Business
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Tag Archives: volunterrism
Blazing Trails: Women of the Present Series – Dr. Yvette Butler – Executive Director, GapBuster, Inc./NAACP Political Action Chair/ LULAC Maryland State Director
March 25, 2015 Tuesday Morning Love ™ 5 Comments
Celebrating National Women’s History Month
The journey of a million miles has brought Dr. Yvette Butler from a vision of achievement to an influential voice of change. Her passion for education, advocacy for community-based projects and economic development, and fervor for making a difference in the lives of youth – all make her a 21st Century “gap buster” and game changer. Dr. Butler is the Founder and Executive Director of GapBuster, Inc., an innovative non-profit educational enrichment program designed in 1999 to close the academic achievement gap and raise the success bar for students, from kindergarten to twelfth grade.
Trailing her base roots from California and a place where she evolved as a young adult and student of life, Dr. Yvette Butler migrated from New York City to the Washington, D.C. Metropolitan Area in 1995, and with a deliberate effort in mind – to continue her dedication to raising awareness and promoting higher levels of achievement for students through the development of supplemental learning experiences.
With a collective of experience working in the field of HIV for over ten years, she took her expertise to Howard University upon arriving in Washington, D.C. There she worked as the Study Coordinator and Co-Investigator for the AIDS Clinical Trial Group (ACTG). She was directly involved in providing HIV preventive education to Howard University’s allied health students and other health care providers. Her extensive knowledge in HIV/AIDS treatment, clinical trials, and patient management helped her to develop and implement a variety of educational programs and investigational medications for patients with diabetes, hypertension, and cardiac disorders. She also served as a faculty member at the National Minority AIDS and Education Training Center (NMAETC) located at Howard University.
In 1999, the call for educating and advocating became even greater for Dr. Yvette Butler. With a closer look into the challenges her daughter faced while in the public school system, she realized a greater need for the development of creative enrichment programs that would motivate each students’ learning potential and bridge the gap between minorities and non-minorities alike. She began in her home, volunteering to assist youth in the area of math. With forethought and determination, Dr. Butler founded GapBuster, Inc. as a non-profit organization in October 2001.
Over the years, GapBuster, Inc. has created a number of programs that focus on the unique individuality of each student. These services offer free or low cost aid to socio-economic disadvantage and troubled youth. Included is an after-school enrichment program that challenges students to achieve their maximum potential and become good citizens. Dr. Butler believes that all students are able to affect change – socially, locally, nationally, and internationally, while serving their communities.
One of GapBusters NSBE Teams
To further support this principle, one of the many programs she has collaborated with is the National Society of Black Engineers (NSBE) Pre-College Initiative Program, utilizing project-based instruction. In addition to learning about Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM), the students are able to engage in a program designed to meet the County’s assisting in making Safe Streets and Neighborhoods and Healthy and Sustainable Communities. Additionally, the program is aligned with the Common Core Standards for College and Career Readiness.
In 2013, GapBuster, Inc. became a 21st Century Community Learning Center (CCLC) grantee called Building Scholars for the Future. The program was created to supplement the academic needs of 90 at-risk and/or potential gang involved minorities and low-income middle school students, while exposing them to STEM utilizing project-based learning. The program provides middle and high school students with academic support as well as providing training and skills to succeed as adults and future leaders. In 2014, GapBuster, Inc., also known as the GapBuster Learning Center, incorporated an innovative approach to making physical activity accessible, affordable and fun while integrating STEM activities.
Dr. Butler says, “It is well established that there is strong correlation between education and health.”
Chef Booker and former GapBuster students return to show the students how to cook a healthy meal.
Outdoor adventures. Team Building Activity.
The acclimation of these STEM activities, without fail, effectively help students to connect the dots between education and health – family and community – and teach them how to stay focused, informed, empowered, and accountable. Since its’ inception, GapBuster has worked with students to increase their physical activity and expose them to healthier and more beneficial habits, in and out of the classroom. Advocating for students of all nationalities, she believes that the future of our country’s long-term economic prospects greatly depends on the education of our residents.
In 2010, Dr. Butler organized the very first League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC) in Silver Spring, Maryland, a global organization to which she has served for over a decade. As an active supporter and volunteer, she currently serves as the LULAC Maryland State Director.
Dr. Butler’s volunteerism is unremitting and wide-ranging. She has taken the lead in positions such as Volunteer Coordinator for the Parent and Teachers Association (PTA), Mentor for more than 12 years with the Montgomery County Educational Forum, Advisor to the Congressional Black Caucus NetGeneration of Youth Leadership Academy (2004), Chair for the NAACP Parents’ Council of Montgomery County (2004-2006), Graduate of the Leadership Montgomery Class (2006-2007), and Vice Chair for the Commission on Children and Youth (2005-present).
To add to Dr. Butler’s many awards and accomplishments are:
Acknowledgement and feature highlight in The Gazette, Voices in Education (2011)
Educator of the Year Award, African American Chamber of Commerce of Montgomery County (2006)
Honoree of the Tribute to African American Women, Mary McLeod Bethune ASALH (Association for the Study of African American Life and History) Montgomery County Branch (2006)
J. Franklyn Bourne Bar Association, Inc. Community Service Award (2005)
Channel 7 Toyota Tribute to Working Women Award for outstanding efforts in the community (2003)
Civic Organization of the Year Award, The United Food and Commercial Workers Union Minority Coalition (2003)
Distinguished Service to Public Education, Community Individual Award, Montgomery County Board of Education (2003)
Honored during Black History Month for the “Making a Difference” segment, Channel 8 (2002)
Outstanding Service as Faculty for the National Minority AIDS Education and Training Center (1999-2001)
At the White House Christmas Dinner
Dr. Butler has been involved with numerous civic engagements and community events with local Senators and County Officials, and she has even been an invitee to The White House for Christmas dinner with the First Family. Additional positions she’s held include, but are not limited to: Medical Science Liaison for Parke-Davis and Amylin Pharmaceuticals, Medical Director for the Antiretroviral Fortovase, at the Alliance for Scientific Affairs and Publications, Medical Director for Roche Pharmaceutical’s Editorial Board Certified by the University of Alabama, and faculty member at the Mid-Atlantic AIDS Education Training Center (MAAETC).
Dr. Yvette Butler wears many hats: entrepreneur, parent, educator, mentor, social activist, facilitator, community advocate, philanthropist, colleague and friend. Her commitment to the community is relentless and her momentum, uninterrupted. She continues to soar through her countless membership affiliations with organizations such as the American Diabetes Association, AIDS Clinical Trial Group, and work as the Political Action Chair to the NAACP Montgomery County Branch. Her membership with the University of Maryland Community Research Advisory Board (CRAB), as well as several other non-profit organizations, speaks volumes about her passion and mission to change the lives of youth. Above all, Dr. Butler’s standards for excellence and unequivocal methods for helping students rise above their insecurities with dignity, give prominence to her character and purpose-driven life.
Mentoring Session
Today, the GapBuster Learning Center has reached more than 5,000 students in grades K-12, both in the Montgomery County and Prince George’s County Maryland areas. Dr. Butler has worked diligently to ensure that there is equity in the Montgomery County and Prince George’s County Public Schools, between students and staffing. In addition, the students enthusiastically participate in local and national academic competitions, partake in national college tours, and are involved in social action movements such as local marches and community drives. Many of these events provide the students with rare and enlightening opportunities to travel, from Atlanta, Georgia to South Africa.
Students of Wheaton High School, Wheaton, Maryland
In April 2014, she was a keynote speaker for the National Honors Society at Wheaton High School in Montgomery County Maryland. Through her commitment to GapBuster, Inc., Dr. Butler has demonstrated that awareness – and action – are the keys to unlock life’s limitless potentials. www.gapbuster.org
Women’s History Month commentary references: March 12, 2013: Our Little Women March 19, 2013: Sotomayor’s Supreme Service/ March 26, 2013: Michelle Moves Mountains
ACTGactivismadvocacybridging the gapCharactercommitmentcommunitycoordinatorDr. Yvette ButlereducationenrichmentGapbustersHIV/AIDSHoward UniversityInc.journeyslightLULACmaking a differenceMarchmentorshipMicrosoftmindfulnessNAACPNMAETCNSBEstandardsSTEMstrengthstudentsteam buildingvolunterrismwomenWomen's History Monthyouth
Thank you for your submissions to TML Volume 2! Submissions will reopen on Sept. 30, 2018. #love #light #peace… twitter.com/i/web/status/1…...Love & Light 1 year ago
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by Cassandra Sproles September 15, 2017
It’s official, VFL Justin Gatlin and senior Christian Coleman beat Usain Bolt—the world’s fastest man—to take home gold and silver, respectively, in the men’s 100-meter final of the IAAF World Championships in London.
The pair of Vols finished ahead of Bolt, dealing him his only loss in an Olympic or IAAF championship event and his first loss in 45 races. Coleman beat Bolt twice, coming ahead of him in the third heat of the 100-meter semifinals and then again with his second-place finish in the finals. Watch the race on the UT Athletics website.
Coleman had just finished a season that most athletes can only dream of. He racked up four national championships, three SEC championships, a host of All-American honors, and a few impressive broken records.
Coleman set the collegiate record in the 100-meter in the preliminaries of the NCAA Championship with a time of 9.82 seconds, obliterating the previous record by .07 seconds. He went on to win the national championship in both the 100-meter and 200-meter dashes. At the NCAA East Prelims, Coleman ran the second-fastest 200-meter time in collegiate history with a 19.85.
At the SEC Championship, he did something no collegian has ever done by posting, on the same day, wind-legal times under 10 seconds in the 100-meter and under 20 seconds in the 200-meter. He is just the eighth individual in track and field history to pull off this feat.
His accolades during outdoor season followed a historic performance at the NCAA Indoor Championship. Coleman tied the collegiate record in the 60-meter dash with a time of 6.45 seconds as he notched the largest margin of victory in NCAA Championship history. He came back to run the fourth-fastest time ever recorded in an indoor 200- meter, and the second-fastest 200-meter ever recorded by a college athlete, claiming his second consecutive title in that event with a posted time of 20.11.
See photos and find out more about Coleman’s historic season on the UT Athletics website.
Photos courtesy of UT Athletics
athleticsChristian ColemanJustin GatlinTrack and Field
Center for Sport, Peace, and Society Wins ESPN...
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Charles (Charlie) Fey – Inventor of the Slot Machine
By Robert • 6 months ago
Charles Fey was born on September 9, 1862 in a town called Vöhringen, which is in Neu-Ulm district in Bavaria, Germany. He’s remembered as the inventor of the modern slots machine and the “Thomas Edison of slots.”
Charlie fay and the Liberty Bell Slot
Career and Invention
Charles Fey began working at an early age. When he was 15 years old, he left home and moved to France, where he started working as an intercom equipment manufacturer. He then moved to England and lived for half a decade while working as a nautical instrument maker. At the age of 23, he decided to follow in his uncle’s footsteps, who had managed to immigrate to New Jersey in the U.S.
After earning enough money, Fey had immigrated to the U.S. He traveled across the U.S and finally decided to settle in San Francisco, Northern California. In 1885, he started working at an electrical engineering and manufacturing company known as Western Electric Company (WECo). Soon after, Fey started his company together with Gustav Friedrich Wilhelm Schultze and his co-worker Theodore Holtz. The company dealt with manufacturing telegraphs, telephones, and electrical equipment.
For slot machines to make a payout in the 1880s, they required an attendant. Usually, this was either tokens or tickets. The first slots machine that had automatic payout mechanism was Schultze’s Horseshoe Slot Machine, which he had patented on August 8, 1893. Fey was impressed by the Horseshoe and invented a modified version in 1895. The three-disc floor machine was unlike any other created because rather than spitting out slips or tokens, it had the capability of dispensing actual coins. This made the slots machine incredibly popular and a huge money maker.
Fey’s business flourished until the year 1909 when San Francisco banned the use of slots. California prohibited slots in the state in 1911, prompting him to shut down his San Francisco office. He did not devote much time to slots until the “Roaring Twenties.” Speakeasies and prohibition led to a new era for gambling. Charlie Fey continued to innovate; he remained with his slot company until 1944 and retired. Ten months later, he succumbed to pneumonia.
Liberty Bell Slot Machine
In 1898, Fey created the Liberty Bell Slot Machine. The machine was based on Policy, a popular lottery game, and paid 50 cents when three bells aligned. Fey installed as well as managed his slots machines in saloons all over San Francisco. Since it wasn’t legal in California, he couldn’t patent his device, which led to lots of competitors. The big success of Liberty Bell Slot Machine allowed Fey to open a slot machine factory in 1896 or 1897.
The machine had five symbols: the Liberty Bell, horseshoes, hearts, spades, and diamonds. With repeats, there were ten symbols on each reel. However, there was just one Liberty Bell on each reel. Players had one in ten possibilities of landing a Bell on one of the reels. Therefore, the odds of 3 in a row were typically 1 in 1,000 or 1 in 10x10x10. This slots machine is the reason why people give Charles Fey the credit for creating the first slots machine.
Fey is the youngest of 16 kids. While in San Francisco, he met a native Californian called Marie Volkmar. However, an illness interrupted their courtship. Fey was diagnosed with tuberculosis in the early 1880s and had to move to Mexico for some time because the country had warmer weather. He went back to San Francisco and had a series of successful creosote treatments. In 1889, Fey and Volkmar got married and together they had one son and three daughters. He changed his name officially from August to Charles the same year because he didn’t like it when people called him “Gus.”
Slot machine Liberty Bell Slot Machine Charlie Fey Charles Fey Inventor of slot machine Inventor of the slot machine first slot machine
Story Of the Vanished Liberty bell
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Daily Reading – November 16, 2018
Home > Devotions > Daily Reading – November 16, 2018
Joshua 6 (ESV)
The Fall of Jericho
6 Now Jericho was shut up inside and outside because of the people of Israel. None went out, and none came in. 2 And the Lord said to Joshua, “See, I have given Jericho into your hand, with its king and mighty men of valor. 3 You shall march around the city, all the men of war going around the city once. Thus shall you do for six days. 4 Seven priests shall bear seven trumpets of rams’ horns before the ark. On the seventh day you shall march around the city seven times, and the priests shall blow the trumpets. 5 And when they make a long blast with the ram’s horn, when you hear the sound of the trumpet, then all the people shall shout with a great shout, and the wall of the city will fall down flat, and the people shall go up, everyone straight before him.” 6 So Joshua the son of Nun called the priests and said to them, “Take up the ark of the covenant and let seven priests bear seven trumpets of rams’ horns before the ark of the Lord.” 7 And he said to the people, “Go forward. March around the city and let the armed men pass on before the ark of the Lord.”
8 And just as Joshua had commanded the people, the seven priests bearing the seven trumpets of rams’ horns before the Lord went forward, blowing the trumpets, with the ark of the covenant of the Lord following them. 9 The armed men were walking before the priests who were blowing the trumpets, and the rear guard was walking after the ark, while the trumpets blew continually. 10 But Joshua commanded the people, “You shall not shout or make your voice heard, neither shall any word go out of your mouth, until the day I tell you to shout. Then you shall shout.” 11 So he caused the ark of the Lord to circle the city, going about it once. And they came into the camp and spent the night in the camp.
12 Then Joshua rose early in the morning, and the priests took up the ark of the Lord. 13 And the seven priests bearing the seven trumpets of rams’ horns before the ark of the Lord walked on, and they blew the trumpets continually. And the armed men were walking before them, and the rear guard was walking after the ark of the Lord, while the trumpets blew continually. 14 And the second day they marched around the city once, and returned into the camp. So they did for six days.
15 On the seventh day they rose early, at the dawn of day, and marched around the city in the same manner seven times. It was only on that day that they marched around the city seven times. 16 And at the seventh time, when the priests had blown the trumpets, Joshua said to the people, “Shout, for the Lord has given you the city. 17 And the city and all that is within it shall be devoted to the Lord for destruction. Only Rahab the prostitute and all who are with her in her house shall live, because she hid the messengers whom we sent. 18 But you, keep yourselves from the things devoted to destruction, lest when you have devoted them you take any of the devoted things and make the camp of Israel a thing for destruction and bring trouble upon it. 19 But all silver and gold, and every vessel of bronze and iron, are holy to the Lord; they shall go into the treasury of the Lord.” 20 So the people shouted, and the trumpets were blown. As soon as the people heard the sound of the trumpet, the people shouted a great shout, and the wall fell down flat, so that the people went up into the city, every man straight before him, and they captured the city. 21 Then they devoted all in the city to destruction, both men and women, young and old, oxen, sheep, and donkeys, with the edge of the sword.
22 But to the two men who had spied out the land, Joshua said, “Go into the prostitute’s house and bring out from there the woman and all who belong to her, as you swore to her.” 23 So the young men who had been spies went in and brought out Rahab and her father and mother and brothers and all who belonged to her. And they brought all her relatives and put them outside the camp of Israel. 24 And they burned the city with fire, and everything in it. Only the silver and gold, and the vessels of bronze and of iron, they put into the treasury of the house of the Lord. 25 But Rahab the prostitute and her father’s household and all who belonged to her, Joshua saved alive. And she has lived in Israel to this day, because she hid the messengers whom Joshua sent to spy out Jericho.
26 Joshua laid an oath on them at that time, saying, “Cursed before the Lord be the man who rises up and rebuilds this city, Jericho.
“At the cost of his firstborn shall he
lay its foundation,
and at the cost of his youngest son
shall he set up its gates.”
27 So the Lord was with Joshua, and his fame was in all the land.
Psalm 119:81–88 (ESV)
KAPH
81 My soul longs for your salvation;
I hope in your word.
82 My eyes long for your promise;
I ask, “When will you comfort me?”
83 For I have become like a wineskin in the smoke,
yet I have not forgotten your statutes.
84 How long must your servant endure?
When will you judge those who persecute me?
85 The insolent have dug pitfalls for me;
they do not live according to your law.
86 All your commandments are sure;
they persecute me with falsehood; help me!
87 They have almost made an end of me on earth,
but I have not forsaken your precepts.
88 In your steadfast love give me life,
that I may keep the testimonies of your mouth.
Luke 22:66–23:16 (ESV)
Jesus Before the Council
66 When day came, the assembly of the elders of the people gathered together, both chief priests and scribes. And they led him away to their council, and they said, 67 “If you are the Christ, tell us.” But he said to them, “If I tell you, you will not believe, 68 and if I ask you, you will not answer. 69 But from now on the Son of Man shall be seated at the right hand of the power of God.” 70 So they all said, “Are you the Son of God, then?” And he said to them, “You say that I am.” 71 Then they said, “What further testimony do we need? We have heard it ourselves from his own lips.”
23 Then the whole company of them arose and brought him before Pilate. 2 And they began to accuse him, saying, “We found this man misleading our nation and forbidding us to give tribute to Caesar, and saying that he himself is Christ, a king.” 3 And Pilate asked him, “Are you the King of the Jews?” And he answered him, “You have said so.” 4 Then Pilate said to the chief priests and the crowds, “I find no guilt in this man.” 5 But they were urgent, saying, “He stirs up the people, teaching throughout all Judea, from Galilee even to this place.”
Jesus Before Herod
6 When Pilate heard this, he asked whether the man was a Galilean. 7 And when he learned that he belonged to Herod’s jurisdiction, he sent him over to Herod, who was himself in Jerusalem at that time. 8 When Herod saw Jesus, he was very glad, for he had long desired to see him, because he had heard about him, and he was hoping to see some sign done by him. 9 So he questioned him at some length, but he made no answer. 10 The chief priests and the scribes stood by, vehemently accusing him. 11 And Herod with his soldiers treated him with contempt and mocked him. Then, arraying him in splendid clothing, he sent him back to Pilate. 12 And Herod and Pilate became friends with each other that very day, for before this they had been at enmity with each other.
13 Pilate then called together the chief priests and the rulers and the people, 14 and said to them, “You brought me this man as one who was misleading the people. And after examining him before you, behold, I did not find this man guilty of any of your charges against him. 15 Neither did Herod, for he sent him back to us. Look, nothing deserving death has been done by him. 16 I will therefore punish and release him.”
It was self-evident to Luther that the evangelists gave consideration to the plan according to which they would relate the history of Jesus and, with that in mind, selected and arranged their materials accordingly, abbreviating here and expanding there. In the Church Postil Luther says in the Sermon for the Twenty- fifth Sunday after Trinity (St. Matt. 24:15-28): “In this chapter is described the conclu-sion and end of both kingdoms, that of Judah and that of the whole world. But the two evangelists, Matthew and Mark, mingle the two and do not keep the order that has been preserved in Luke, for they are concerned only about telling and repeating the words without troubling themselves as to the order in which the words were spoken.” “So understand that Matthew here weaves together and combines the end of the Jewish nation and of the world, mixes them into one dish. But if you wish to understand it you must separate it and apply the parts to their respective ends.” (60–61)
November 16, 2018 at 4:00am
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Islam and the doctrine of peace
by Hannatu Musawa
in Hannatu Musawa
The violence unleashed by terrorists, whom justify it as a doctrine of Islam, is out of control. The castigation of Islam as the catalyst for the atmosphere of violence to the point that Donald Trump would threaten to ban Muslims from entering the United States should he win the Presidential race next year, is outrageous. As a Muslim, who appreciates the misconceptions that are associated with religious extremism and violence, I feel an ardent responsibility to set forth the teachings of Islam that I understandin a mannerwhere expressions of numerous acts of violence are fully exposed for the misinterpretations they are.
As a Muslim, I become saddened when I hear people attribute the kind of violence we are witnessing in this age to an Islamic teaching. I become troubled because, even though I know that Islam doesn’t, in anyway, encourage people to kill innocent civilians and engage in suicide bombings, I understand that these misconceptions exist. Misconceptions or misinterpretations, which give a justification for those, who choose to express their distorted extremism through the embrace of violent activities. Such extremists use Islam as a shelter to hurt others and their extreme interpretation of Islam as their justification. I often find myself elaborating on my understanding of the position of Islam on the kind of violence reported.
It is regrettable that Islam, a religion of peace, hope, harmony, goodwill and brotherhood has been used to justify unwarranted acts of violence such as suicide bombings and hostage taking. I know that at the very base of Islam is the quest for freedom, justice and equality so when a Muslim condemns another because they do not share the same faith, that discrimination is totally foreign to the teachings and doctrines of the Islam I understand.
In the Quran, God bestowed honour on every single individual, no matter their background, race or tribe. Liberty and everything that emerges from it are some of the great favors God has given us and concepts such as kidnappings and assassinations are not reflective of Islam, within context. Under the Islamic dispensation, a person should not be held captive as a prisoner against their will. Prisoners can only be taken in the event of acknowledged war and not for any other reason or under any other pretext. The Holy Quran specifically states:
“It does not behove a Prophet that he should have captives until he engages in regular fighting in the land. If you take captives, except in regular fighting, you will be regarded as desiring the goods of this world, while ALLAH desires for you the Hereafter. And ALLAH is Mighty, Wise”.
This verse negates any validation of hostage-taking and hijacking of innocent people not involved in actual combat. Furthermore, in his farewell address the Holy Prophet of Islam gave special instructions regarding good treatment which should be meted out to prisoners. The Holy Prophet said:
“O men, you still have in your possession some prisoners of war. I advise you, therefore, to feed them and to clothe them in the same way and style as you feed and clothe yourselves… To give them pain or trouble can never be tolerated”.
One of the most controversial terms that is used to lend credibility to the notion that Islam encourages violence is the concept of Jihad. Owing to the performance of some influence, the media envisages an incorrect perception of Jihad. The word Jihad bring into play the vision of a marching band of religious fanatics with savage beards, short trousers and fiery eyes, brandishing swords, screaming in Arabic and attacking those that are not Muslims.
However, the true spirit of Jihad in Islamic terms means to endeavor and strive in a noble way. Over time this meaning of Jihad has been eradicated or, at least, diluted. The critical juncture in the Islamic world requires reviving and recapturing the true and pristine meaning of Jihad.
Jihad can be divided into two broad categories. First is Jihad-e-akbar. This is Jihad against one’s own person to curb sinful inclinations, which is the purification of self. This is the most difficult Jihad and hence in terms of rewards and blessings is the highest category of Jihad. The second is Jihad-e-asghar. This is Jihad of the sword. This is communal Jihad and presupposes certain specific conditions. The Quran speaks of fighting only as a self defence and this is the very condition laid down in other verses of the Holy Quran as well. The so-called verse of the sword in the Islamic scripture is often taken out of context as if it inculcates an indiscriminate massacre of all non-Muslims. The Quranic words such as “kill whatever you find them” apply only in cases of self defence, they do not apply to unprovoked wars and battles. The Muslims who interpret these verses in any other manner commit a travesty of the lofty ideals of Islam. There is not a single instance in the life of the Holy Prophet where he offered the alternative of the sword or Islam to anyone.
It must be remembered that the Holy Quran does not make Jihad, in context of an article of faith. The sayings and traditions of the Holy Prophet render it into a formula for active struggle that invariably and incorrectly tended towards a militant expression. Suicide bombings, hijacking and killing those of alternative and different faiths is contrary to the purview of the real spirit of the Islamic Jihad. The presentation of Islam as a crude and barbaric religion which gives itself the right to cause unwarranted human and material suffering and destruction under the guise of Divine authority is not the kind of Islam we find in the Holy Quran and in the precepts of the Holy Prophet Muhammad (SAW).
Among the attributes of God, the Holy Quran mentions that “He is the Source of peace and the bestower of security”. The establishment of peace and maintenance of security must, therefore, be the constant objective of all Muslims and non-Muslims alike. Every pursuit and activity which disturbs peace is severely condemned in Islam. We find specific injunctions in the Holy Quran: “And create not disorder in the earth after it has been set in order….” Mischief and wickedness are condemned in several other verses and Muslims are commanded to work wholly for peace”.
The Holy Quran teaches that God has sent His revelation to all people from time to time. Many of prophets of the Old Testament are mentioned by name and so is Jesus who with other prophets is honoured and revered by all Muslims. Indeed, the Quran requires belief in the truth of all the Messengers of God and requires an affirmation in all prophets wherever they appeared and therefore it seeks to bring about reconciliation between the followers of different faiths and to establish a basis of respect and honour among them. The Quran says: “Surely, those who believe and the Jews and the Christians and the Sabians – whichever party from among these truly believes in ALLAH and the Last Day and does good deeds, shall have their reward with their Lord, and no fear shall come upon then nor shall they grieve”.
The basic unity of the followers of all faiths is emphatically stressed in the Holy Quran and the creation of discord and disunity by terrorism or otherwise has no place in Islam. Islam is an all-encompassing codes of values and conduct and with those values, those of us that practice it must use its teachings as a ground of hope to progressively promote unity and accord in Nigeria rather than using it as a justification for violence.
My greatest prayer is some break through, which will help extremists to embrace reason. However, regardless of the religion one is, only through conformity to the spirit of peace, unity, freedom, conscience and the promotion of human welfare can we achieve the ideal of a secure nation free of hatred and violence.
Tags: Islam
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Government, religion and politics
Osimhen ROARS: I‘ve not signed for Wolfsburg
Abductors of Siasia’s mum demand N70million
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Three celebrations for every complaint.
Writing Romance: The Rumpus Interview with Sonali Dev
By Maggie Cooper
Sonali Dev’s latest novel, A Change of Heart, tells a story of love and healing set against the violent backdrop of India’s illegal organ trade. Two years after the murder of Jen, a young doctor working in a Mumbai slum, the book opens with an encounter between Nikhil, Jen’s widower, and Jess, a single mother who claims to have been the recipient of Jen’s heart. As the book continues, Nikhil and Jess connect in spite of their painful histories—and the growing menace of Jen’s killers, who threaten both their relationship and their lives.
If you’re anything like me, A Change of Heart is the kind of book that you devour in a weekend, carried along by the chemistry between Nic and Jess, the momentum of the plot, and the novel’s wonderful supporting characters—from Nic’s mother to Jess’s roommate to the corrupt officials back in Mumbai.
In all her books, Dev writes compelling female characters wrestling with the tensions between traditional and contemporary roles, women who find empowerment in the face of family conflict, sexual violence, and repressive social norms. Throughout, she captures a broad expanse of modern India, transporting the reader to Bollywood sets, rural villages, Chicago condos, and Mumbai schools.
Readers of Dev’s previous work will recognize Nikhil and Jen, whose wedding provided the occasion for the dramatic climax of her previous novel, The Bollywood Bride. This novel and Dev’s first, A Bollywood Affair, have been recognized as best books of the year by NPR, the Washington Post, Kirkus Reviews, and Library Journal. Dev’s work has also won numerous prizes including, in 2014, the American Library Association’s award for best romance.
I spoke to Dev about her latest book, along with the romance genre, writing non-white characters, and the parallels she’s found between writing and architectural design. Our conversation took place via Skype from her home outside of Chicago.
The Rumpus: At its core, this book is a love story, but there’s a strong suspense plot line here, too. What drew you to that part of the story?
Sonali Dev: Nikhil and Jen were in Bollywood Bride, and they were both characters that I loved so much—but their story had already been told as a part of Bride, so, as a storyteller, I was intrigued by what happens after. I knew how they met in Afghanistan [in Doctors Without Borders] and all of that… but when I started writing, I had these two characters who constantly put themselves in these very dangerous situations, and so, sure enough, in one of those dangerous situations, something bad happened. It totally took me by surprise, and then I was like “oh crap,” you know?
When you find your soulmate… what happens when that just blows up in your face? Especially for a person like Nic—he’s so happy with whatever he gets, and he’s done, he doesn’t question it. That started intriguing me. And then there was Jess, who was this really dark, damaged character, who was never meant to be a heroine: the story became about this woman who had enough darkness to pull him out of his darkness.
Rumpus: There’s something sort of poetic about the idea that Jess wasn’t supposed to be the heroine because that’s sort of what her life story is about—becoming the heroine after all this hardship. And her situation allows a mystery or suspense element to take center stage in a lot of places.
Dev: Right. It turned into this suspense plot almost organically—because her child is under threat. As soon as a character is under threat, suspense comes out of that. Amazingly enough, I’m not a mystery reader. My definition of hell is a murder on page one, and four hundred pages before I figure out who did it! So the emotional part of the story practically wrote itself, but getting the nitty gritty of the crime part was work.
Rumpus: It comes together so well. I was also thinking that this book has your first real villain. Before, all the characters we see are these really complex humans, but here you have a really deplorable person in the character of Asif. Did it feel different to write that character?
Dev: I find writing villains to be a very situational thing. I mean, you’re right, in the first two books, there are people who do the wrong thing, but they’re not really villains—because in life generally that’s how it is. But with Asif—putting myself in that situation, of being somebody who’s dark enough where he has no guilt about it, he’s so inside that evil it’s not even evil to him, it’s just mundane—that kind of madness was really kind of interesting to write. I actually had fun with it.
With things like the organ black market and human trafficking, that are just horrendous as concepts, you still have to put a face on it to really internalize it. Because it’s not just a concept. There are so many protagonists in that evil: the people who buy those organs, the people who meet to sell them, the middlemen—the same is true of human trafficking. There is such a human element that individualizing it in the form of a villain, for me, really worked.
Rumpus: Thinking now of the love story piece: something I enjoy about all of your writing is the attention you give to food in relationships. The moment that first got me choked up in A Change of Heart was early on when Jess is teaching Nikhil how to eat again, in spite of his grief over Jen’s murder. Why do you write about food? Why do you feel like it’s something that can be so moving to us?
Dev: I think that is entirely my family. My mother is the youngest of four sisters, and there’s nobody on earth who can cook food like they can. I mean, I swear to God, these meals could pull you from the edge of disaster, and so it’s such a big part of me. I moved [to the US] twenty years ago, and I’ve lived my entire adult live here, and we’ve had so many nieces and nephews that we’ve parented because they’ve come here to go to college, and they come home and our home becomes their home, and a big component of that is food. When you’re an immigrant, food is also a little way of holding onto your culture, which people who live in that culture naturally sometimes lose.
Food is also such a way to connect, it truly is, to nurture, to invite people into your home. I think it’s part of everybody’s life and people don’t even realize it. I mean, as women now, when we work, when we’re part of partnerships and relationships, a man who can say, “You’re tired, what can I bring you to eat?” That just changes your entire relationship, from someone who doesn’t say “Honey, I’m home,” when you’re slaving over a keyboard.
Food is a language, but the funny thing is that even though I never set out to make my books about food, everyone says, “Don’t read these books hungry.” I didn’t expect it—it just came naturally. My fourth book, which I’m revising right now, is actually my first book that’s set entirely in India—it’s set in one suburb of Mumbai—and someone said, “I hope there’s one of your kitchen scenes in there.”
Rumpus: Another sensory pleasure that I wanted to ask you about is sex. When you set out to write your first sex scene, what was that like? How do you approach that piece of it?
Dev: I love that you blushed when you asked that question!
One of the first scenes that I write is that pivotal sex scene—that turn, finally, from dancing around each other to getting that connection. This is what I am thinking about when I talk about the genre structure of romance. These first four books are structurally, absolutely romance in terms of hero/heroine conflict and the emotional turmoil of growing to allow love in. So the sex scene is metaphorical in many, many ways in these stories. When you’re writing and you’re starting from a place of complete disconnection, or a place of disillusionment, or a place of darkness, I know that’s what I have to hit. It’s one of the first scenes I write because I know that in all their interactions [the characters] have to slowly be coming to a point where they can become that open, where they can let each other in to that extent. For me, the sex scene is that—it’s that opening up physically, a representation of opening your heart. I have a teenager, and I keep trying to explain this to her—yes, sex is fun and all of that, but there’s a vulnerability in it.
And there’s a vulnerability in it especially for women in cultures where you’re not allowed to own that, where it’s given so much importance in terms of your worth, and certainly in these three books, for all of the characters, it is that. They don’t own their own bodies, they don’t own their own sexualities, so the moment that they do, something integral changes—so that’s what a sex scene is to me, too. I don’t know if you want to quote me on this, but I remember we were in a workshop one time, and I said, “All my characters fuck with their hearts.” And I have friends who will now throw that in my face all the time—“Well, that’s so classy, Sonali.”
Rumpus: I feel like we see that vulnerability you’re talking about even more in A Change of Heart because Jess is a survivor of sexual violence. How did you deal with that when you were sitting down to write that scene?
Dev: Usually, sex scenes are very easy for me to write. This one was not. Idealistically, I wanted it to be a certain way. I wanted it to be the experience that I would wish upon any survivor, and I think a lot of Nic’s character developed because I wanted him to be a guy who could do that. But finally working that scene out so it doesn’t minimize, so it is convincingly healing—that was hard. Because that scene is all vulnerability. I think it was aspirational, more than anything else. And I think that’s one of the things I love about writing romance—people will say this is not realistic, but I so badly want it to be. I so badly want these things to be possible.
Rumpus: Your training originally was as an architect. Do you feel like that informs the way you approach writing?
Dev: Absolutely. There are just so many parallels. One of the things is the process of revision, the process of imagining something or conceiving something as a concept, which is your first blast of design or your first blast of story, your first dirty draft, as we call it. That’s how I write—it’s very hard for me to write my first draft. I hate it; it’s like pulling teeth. It only turns into a story in revision. That is how design works also because you’re layering and layering and revision and redoing it until everything is in its place and meeting standards while still not just keeping with your original design, but enhancing it as you go along. So that’s the easy parallel to make, I think—the fact that you’re completely okay with your first shot not being your final shot. Revision, revision, revision, in both things. In design, it’s often where your client says, “Well, this isn’t just right, that isn’t just right,” and you tweak it while keeping their vision and your vision. And in a story the process of critique partners and editors—so taking feedback and pouring it back into your work—is another thing.
Rumpus: I’m so interested in that. Can you talk about your transition from working as an architect to starting to write fiction?
Dev: So, really simple transition for me: I always wrote. I started writing very young—it wasn’t something I ever set out to do, it was just something I always did. Being raised in India and being raised with that whole, “You do something and you stand on your own two feet” kind of family, making money as a writer was not—well, even today, it’s a dream, it happens to very few people. It’s not even happening to me yet. So I’d never even considered writing as a career option in my twenties. Obviously, I loved art and design and all of that, and architecture seemed like a perfectly good fit, but all through architecture school, I perpetually heard the words, “Sonali: sketches not words. Sketches not words,” and that should have been my indication. As early as six months after I graduated, I was working in an architect’s office, and I had a friend who was working for this trade magazine called the Indian Architect and Builder in Mumbai, and I said, “Really? How did you get that job? That’s my dream job!—it’s architecture and it’s writing!” and she said, “Really? It’s your dream job? Come in and talk to the editor.” I had just come out of a pretty brutal breakup, and I was feeling pretty powerless, and every time I feel powerless, I want to do something to assert my power. I said, what do I really want? I want to work for an architecture magazine—that was my extent of my dreams at that point, and so I picked up the phone and I called the editor. I went in the next day, and this was the first time in my life, I’m sitting across from this woman, and she says to me, “Well, do you have a need to write?” and I said, “Seriously? You have it too?”
I never thought I’d write fiction… but my best friend is a movie producer, and she had just made an award-winning movie, and she was reading a lot of scripts that were not connecting with her. We’ve lived on different continents for twenty years now—we’ve been friends since grade school—and we’ve talked almost every day. So, we’re on the phone, I have little kids, and we say, “How hard can it be to write a good commercial script?” And she says, “You know what? You write—you should just write me one.” And I said, “I think I will.” Famous last words. Two weeks: I wrote a script, and once I had done that—and of course, it never got made, it still sits under my bed—but once I had lived with the characters and created a world. Once you’ve done that, I don’t think there’s any going back…
I went to the library, borrowed every novel-writing book I could find, then took classes at the University of Chicago and all of that, and finally… I was trying to write this really complicated literary novel, which was just my way of saying I didn’t know what genre meant, and people kept saying, well, write what you love. And I always loved love stories. I didn’t read that much genre romance, but in everything I read, I was always seeking out the love story. And then I read my first romance, which was completely accidental. My husband went to the library when I was sick, and I asked him to pick me up something to read, and he picked me up Katherine Coulter’s Rosehaven, a medieval romance. He comes home, I look at it, and I’m like, “Really? You’ve been married to me for ten years and you think this is what I read?” Then I started it, didn’t sleep all night, finished it, went back to the library the next day, read her entire backlist, and I’ve never stopped since. Again, I called my best friend on the phone, and I said, “Did you know there’s actually an entire genre that’s just love stories?”
I was trying to put together this story of these four couples through four socioeconomic backgrounds in Mumbai and it was—you know, of course, I took on the hardest possible thing, and was struggling with it. Then I got sick, and I was quarantined for six weeks, and feeling very sorry for myself, and I was on the phone with my friend, and she said, “You know what? You should just write something that you love.” And Bollywood Bride was a story that had been in my head for years, so I just sat down and wrote the whole thing down, and there was no looking back.
Rumpus: That transition into thinking about writing romance leads us to something else I wanted to talk about, which is this idea of the romance genre, and how it’s perceived in the industry and outside of it. You’re talking about how this literary novel that you had originally conceived of was about class, and about these relationships between couples, and a lot of the thematic material that I feel like is very much present in your work now. Do the books that you ended up writing, which are marketed as romance and women’s fiction, and you said you feel like, structurally, are romance—do they feel all that different from what you originally wanted to write?
Dev: Absolutely not. When I found romance structure, genre structure, it completely set me free because, again, another thing writing has in common with design: you have to understand structure to play with it. Once I had the confines of genre structure, I realized I could tell any story I wanted and all the stories I wanted, and so to answer your question, these are exactly, absolutely the themes I wanted to address, these are exactly the kind of stories I wanted to tell. I think romance, especially today, is a genre where you can really play. There are more subgenres in this genre than, I think, in any other one, and you can just about tell any story. There are very few rules.
Rumpus: Yet there so many people out there who belittle romance by saying that it’s formulaic. I think what you’re saying is that that formula is actually a tool, like any tool that a writer would use to tell a story, and that allows for this huge diversity of kinds of stories to be told.
Dev: Exactly. It’s about understanding a craft, and using that understanding to then break rules and build upon that. And as far at that whole snobbery against romance—I have no patience for it, truth be told. I think there are good books and bad books in every genre—it’s what calls to you. Evidently, there are a lot of women that romance calls to. And anyone who chooses to judge that, well, it doesn’t surprise me because what women choose to do has been frowned upon for years. But we’ve continued to do it and people will either continue to judge us or walk away. I have no patience for having to explain myself. Have I read formulaic romance novels? Yes. Have I read formulaic mysteries and fantasies and all of that? Yes.
Rumpus: Are there formulaic literary fiction novels? Yes!
Dev: Exactly. And do literary authors follow structure? Yes! It’s a looser, wider structure, but there is absolutely a structure to those novels, too. As far the romance genre and being part of it, I think anyone who’s ever attended a convention or meeting of RWA—you have to be there to believe it. I always say that the romance community, which is almost all women—all businesses should be run that way. Any good business has to focus on the bottom line, absolutely, focus on the product—we love our product like nobody’s business, we understand it, we continue to develop it, we continue to evolve it. And there’s community—we try to grow the community as a whole, all the time, everyone from the biggest bestseller to a newbie. Everybody’s helping everybody else. You can say this is a warm and fuzzy feminine thing, but it’s not, it’s amazingly powerful and it makes a lot of money.
Rumpus: And with the state of book publishing being what it is, that’s pretty important.
Since we’re talking about publishing more broadly, I know you’re often referenced as a quote-unquote “diverse” voice in the industry. Can you speak to that and where you feel like we are now with respect to diversity?
Dev: Well, timing is everything. I think even two years before my book sold, my book would not have sold. So have we seen evolution? Absolutely. Have we seen growth? Absolutely. We’re definitely not where we were when I first tried to start to selling these books. So, it’s the clichéd answer, where we’ve come a long way, but we have such a long way to go.
Some of it is that the expectation from editors and agents is that there has to be absolute excellence before they will take you on. I’ve had an agent say to me, “Well, you write a Kite Runner and no one can stop you,” and I remember asking him, “So every white book that comes to you, your expectation is that it’s Gone With the Wind?” and he said, “So what you’re trying to tell me is that you want your mediocrity to do well?” and I said, “Not at all, but what I want is for the definition of mediocrity to be a level playing field, and it is not.” There is that expectation, that of my hundred clients, I will take on one brown client who has to be this supernatural being of literary brilliance—but that’s not how it works. Debut novels are seldom the best work of authors. Authors develop like every other professional, every other artist, and they develop with the support of good editors and good agents. You need to take us on for promise, you need to take us on unpolished, and you need to be part of that development, just like you are a part of that development for authors who write white characters. So in those more nuanced ways, we have a long, long way to go.
I actually do not like the word “diverse” at all because, you know, I’m not diverse, I’m Indian! But anyone who writes books about characters who are not white has had editors who say to us, “Well, why don’t you…? Why don’t you change one of the characters to white?” And it’s nothing against these editors: they want to sell books, they perceive of their readership as demanding something, but that readership is only demanding more of what the publishers have given them for two centuries. If you don’t start giving them more choices, they won’t even know what to demand. At least now, because of smaller houses and because of self-publishing, readers have read more and so readers are demanding and readers are accepting a wider array of things, but it’s despite big publishing, not because of it. I think if big publishing got behind it, we would have some really spectacular results.
We are now in a place where, at least, growth has happened—where there are agents and editors who put out calls for diverse books. I mean, when they get one or two they’ve had enough, which is not okay, but at least they’re doing that. They’re not hitting delete on a subject line that says Bollywood Bride. Long before I came on the scene, people had advocated and worked really hard, and I’m definitely reaping the benefits of that. I hope that somebody else in the future will reap the benefits of whatever work I’m doing now.
Author photograph © Vernice Dollar.
Maggie Cooper is a fiction writer and maker of fruit pies. She graduated from the MFA University of North Carolina at Greensboro and attended the Clarion Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers' Workshop in 2016. You may follow her on Twitter @frecklywench. More from this author →
Tags: A Change of Heart, A Rumpus Interview, American LIberary Association, architecture, Bollywood Bride, Chicago, food, food writing, genre writing, India, Katherine Coulter, love story, Maggie Cooper, Mumbai, NPR, organ transplant, revision, romance, romance novels, romance writing, Rosehaven, Sex, Sex Scenes, sex writing, sexual violence, Sonali Dev, trafficking, Washington Post
Filed Under: Books, Rumpus Original
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Mumbai's People, and the Environment, Are Paying for the City's 'Development'
The bullet train project, Mumbai coastal road and Metro 3 project are set to destroy mangroves, axe thousands of trees and displace several communities.
Several water bodies in Thane and Palghar district will be destroyed in the upcoming bullet train project. Image: The Wire
Sukanya Shantha
Mumbai: In June, newspaper reports said that three old and mighty trees would not be cut down as originally planned to make way for the Metro 3 project currently under construction in Mumbai. One was a massive banyan tree, said to be over a century old, which was marked to be axed because it would hamper traffic movement.
This was heartening for tree lovers and activists who have been campaigning against the rampant chopping down of trees and other green areas, as part of a massive infrastructure push currently ongoing in the city and its environs. But this is little consolation, considering much damage is still being caused in the name of development in the rest of the city.
In the past four years, the state government has agreed to at least three major and several medium and small size projects which have a direct impact on the state’s ecology. Like the bullet train project, the ambitious Mumbai coastal road and the ongoing Metro 3 project are set to destroy mangroves, axe thousands of trees and displace several original habitats, especially from Adivasi communities.
On June 24, in a written reply in the Maharashtra Legislative Council, state transport minister Diwakar Raote admitted that around 54,000 mangroves spread over 13.36 hectares will be affected by the proposed Mumbai-Ahmedabad bullet train project. This was the first time the state was admitting the extent of ecological destruction that the Rs 1 lakh crore project, spread across two districts of Maharashtra (270.65 hectares) and nine districts of Gujarat (724.13 hectares), would cause.
Environmental activists have pointed out that the bullet train route will pass through several hectares of agricultural land, hilly tracts, barren land, fruit orchards, tribal areas, forest land, hills, rivers and backwaters, along with other city habitation.
The heavy rainfall that Mumbai receives every monsoon causes extreme havoc and with the destruction of mangroves, the flooding and water-logging problems in the city is only going to worsen, researchers have said. The Mangrove Society of India (MSI), a research body working on mangrove conservation across the country’s coastline for over three decades, has raised concern over projects such as the bullet train, coastal road, Navi Mumbai International Airport (NMIA) and activities by the Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust.
Manisha Dhinde with her mother at their paddy field in Morashi pada inside Aarey forest. The Dhindes and others in Morashi pada have been resisting the municipal corporation’s animal zoo planned on their land. Image: The Wire
After the incessant rains that Mumbai saw between June 27 and July 1, Arvind Untawale, MSI’s executive secretary and former director of the National Institute of Oceanography, Goa, in an interview to the Hindustan Times said, “If we try to play with nature through human interventions, the response from nature will be disastrous as witnessed on July 26, 2005 (floods that killed over 1,000 people), and between Monday night and Tuesday morning (July 1-2, 2019) in Mumbai with over 200mm rain.”
Coastal road and the extent of destruction
To make way for the coastal road, a total of 164 hectares of land is expected to be reclaimed. Several crucial Coastal Regulation Zone (CRZ) norms will also have to be relaxed, environmentalists point out. As soon as the Rs 1,400 crore coastal road project was proposed in 2018, as many as five different petitions were moved before the Bombay high court pointing at the severe ecological harm that the project could cause.
In late 2018, Shweta Wagh, member of the Collective for Spatial Alternatives and a city-based architect, moved the high court seeking a stay on the work. In her petition, Wagh stated that the ongoing reclamation is not only illegal, but will also irreversibly alter the coastal morphology, biodiversity and traditional ecological practices. The petition further states that the coastal road and ongoing reclamation are a patent breach of the law on environmental clearances, traditional rights and jurisdiction.
Another petition filed by two fishing communities, Koliwada Nakhawa Fisheries and Worli Machhimar Sarvoday Co-operative Society, has sought a ban on the project fearing a loss of their livelihood. In the petition, those from the fishing communities state that the maximum damage is expected to be on the oyster beds along the coast.
Also read: To ‘Reform’ Man Accused in Caste Atrocity, Bombay High Court Orders Him to Plant Saplings
Sarita Fernandes, public policy researcher associated with city-based NGO Vanashakti, says the fear is not baseless. “Most of the fishing villages across the coastal road project are to be negatively impacted in terms of their livelihoods. In the case of the Worli fishermen, who are petitioners in the Bombay high court currently litigating and fighting for their coast, the coastal community is an artisanal-traditional fishing community. Per se, their fishing methods and practices are indigenous which requires a huge dependence on the inter-tidal rocky shores of Mumbai; specifically for the Worli Koliwada, the South Mumbai: Bandra-Worli rocky inter-tidal shore area.”
The state government, like it does for any developmental project, has offered to compensate the fisher community monetarily. But the fisher folk have rejected this. “It was rejected on the basis of inter-generational sustainability of their shore, which they have depended on for decades, maybe centuries. What happens to their children once their livelihood is taken away?” explains Fernandes.
In the case of the coastal road too, the government has aggressively advocated replantation of lost mangroves in lieu of those destroyed in the course of building this project. Fernandes asks where the space is for such replantation. “The first issue that arises is, where is the space to replant five times the lost mangroves? Replantation or plantation drives of mangroves have had low success rates in the past because of several biophysical and ecological reasons. The loss of indigenous species of mangroves that existed in the particular area is a whole other concern for the wildlife dependent on those mangrove species. Replantation has never been a plausible solution,” Fernandes claims.
The proposed bullet train route is also expected to severely affect fruit orchards along the Mumbai-Ahmedabad line. This has been one of the major bones of contention of the protesting farmers in both states. The joint feasibility study that the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), the primary funder of the project, compiled in 2015 identified that 26,980 fruit-bearing trees and 53,457 timber trees will be affected by the project.
National High-Speed Rail Corporation Limited (NHSRCL) officials have claimed that the cut trees will be “translocated”. But environment activists have questioned these claims. “By translocation, they mean uprooting trees from their original location to a new spot. We have seen it in the past, where the full-grown trees were trimmed down to their bark and haphazardly relocated. In the process, the trees die,” points out environment activist Amrita Bhattacharjee.
She further says that the NHSRCL has not even identified a place to carry out the translocation process. “In a land-strapped district like Mumbai and Thane, transporting trees and ensuring they are replanted can never be an easy process. And unless planned well, it only will lead to we losing out on over 50,000 trees,” Bhattacharjee adds.
In addition to the environmental impact is the social dislocation. Two districts – Thane and Palghar, on the outskirts of Mumbai — will face maximum impact, with several villagers facing the chance of displacement to make space for the multi- crore project. While several Adivasi padas (hamlets) of Palghar stand to lose their original habitat, a seven-kilometre undersea tunnel envisioned in Thane creek will also impact several farming communities, mostly belonging to OBC communities like Kunbi and Aagri, in Thane district.
Also read: At the Deonar Dumping Ground in Mumbai, People Barely Make It to the Age of Forty
Bharadwaj Choudhary, a lawyer in Mumbai who owned ancestral land in one of the affected villages in Thane district, told The Wire that despite severe opposition, villagers have been compelled to part ways with their land. “This is not the first time that the villagers here are losing their land. In the past too, we have had to give up on our ancestral land for infrastructure projects. And these acquisitions did not even end up in fair compensation, as promised under the projects.”
The authorities claim that the train, along with providing quicker connectivity between two mega-cities, will also help in the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions. This claim, however, is not backed by any scientific reasoning. Going by the extent of ecological destruction expected, it appears that the project will only end up stressing existing resources.
Contrary to the villagers’ claims, NHSRCL spokesperson Sushma Gaur says that her officer is in constant touch with the project affected persons along the corridor. “As of today, more that 40% of land has been acquired through consent. More than 2,200 consent agreements have been signed and money transferred in land owners accounts. You will be happy to know that all the land acquired from private land owners is through consent only.” She further told The Wire that NHSRCL is hopeful of acquiring most of the land by the end of 2019.
There are reasons behind the apprehension expressed by Bhattacharjee and Fernandes. Between 2017 and now, over 1,200 trees were “translocated” from South Mumbai to Aarey colony in the northern Mumbai region, making way for the Metro 3 project. “Of these trees, over 50% wilted as soon as they were moved to a new location. The uprooting, transportation and replantation was handled so shoddily that the trees could not survive even for a few days,” Bhattacharjee says.
Advocate Bharadwaj Choudhary is one of the many villagers in Thane district whose ancestral land has been acquired for multiple development projects planned in the region. Image: The Wire
Wilting of replanted trees is one of the many challenges faced in the Metro 3 project. In Aarey, a large number of Adivasi communities have lost their ancestral lands and also their source of income yielded by farming in the protected areas of Aarey forest.
For the past four years, ever since the proposal to build a car shed for the Metro-3 line (Colaba-Bandra-SEEPZ) was proposed, the communities here along with environmentalists have been fighting a legal battle at the National Green Tribunal, the Bombay high court and now the Supreme Court, calling the area a ‘forest’ that is home to rich biodiversity that faces threats from construction.
Besides the car shed, the Bombay Municipal Corporation also came up with a proposal to acquire 190 acres of land for a zoo that would offer jungle safari as an attraction and have a captive breeding programme for conservation of endangered species.
Also read: As Mumbai’s Coastal Reclamation Begins, Artisan Fishers Fight for Their Livelihood
As soon as the proposal was passed, the BMC promptly began the land survey in the seven padas in the region. Municipal commissioner Praveen Pardeshi has roped in the forest department to set up the zoo in partnership.
While this ambitious project focuses on the conservation of endangered species, its direct impact will be faced by the Warli community living in the seven padas around Aarey forest.
Manisha Dhinde’s Morashi pada is one of the seven hamlets to be affected. A 20-year-old mass media student, Dhinde says the planned zoo is to protect the captive animals in the region – “but at the cost of the tribal communities living here for over a century”. The Dhindes own around 2.5 acres of land, and eight persons are dependent on the agricultural produce that the family produces by tilling it.
“We do not have any other source of income. Even if the state gives us compensation in lieu of our land, we don’t have any alternative occupation. There can’t be any development if the state compels its Adivasis to make way for state projects,” she points out.
People’s movements, even if slowly, have pushed officials to reconsider their decisions. In the case of the bullet train, a week after the transport minister claimed that 54,000 mangroves would be destroyed, Achal Khare, managing director, NHSRCL told The Wire that on the environment ministry’s intervention, the design at Thane station was modified and some of the structures have been moved out of the mangrove region.
“So, this way, we have reduced around 21,000 mangroves and now only 32,044 mangroves will get affected by the entire project. Earlier there were around 54000 and now only 32044 mangroves are getting affected,” Khare claims.
He further adds, “NHSRCL will get the affected mangroves from the bullet train project compensated at the rate of 1:5, by depositing money into ‘Mangroves cell’, which will do the compensatory afforestation of the mangroves. So, around 1,60,000 mangroves will be planted instead of 32,044.”
Even the reduced figure is, however, alarming. Going by the failed attempts at replanting trees in the past and the long years that are required for a newly planted tree to grow, these projects will leave a lasting impact on the already fragile ecosystem.
Note: This article was updated with NHSRCL’s response at 11:17 am on July 4.
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Attune Technologies
attunelive.com
Attune Technologies is a next-generation healthcare IT company that has pioneered Cloud based products designed to help the entire healthcare ecosystem. Attune’s solutions seamlessly integrate Labs, Hospitals, Pharmacies, Blood Banks, Radiology, Medical Devices (IoT), Insurance Companies, and Accounting resulting in increased revenues and operational efficiency.
MICROSOFT, DELL UNVEIL NEW AZURE VMWARE INTEGRATIONS
It was just two years ago that microsoft and vmware were at odds over microsoft making a preview of vmware virtualization on azure. when that preview was announced, vmware officials noted microsoft's preview was developed without vmware's participation and was neither certified nor supported by vmware....
HOW VMWARE'S VSAN PROVIDES THE STORAGE COMPONENT FOR A HYPER-CONVERGED DATA CENTER
VMware's vSAN (virtual SAN) architecture is designed to be a significant step into software-defined-computing, where the vSAN component is responsible for providing software-defined storage.Previously, systems architecture was one server containing its own compute, operating system, networking and storage. Virtualization abstracted this so that more than one OS could run per server, if still bound by captive network functionality, and storage....
MICROSOFT DIALS UP THE POWER FOR NEW AZURE VMS
Microsoft’s unleashing what it believes is the UK’s “most powerful cloud services” – the M-Series virtual machines in Azure.With the ability to support up to 128 virtual central processing units (vCPU) and between one and 3.8 tebibytes of RAM, which is equal to 1,024 gigabytes, on a single VM, the M-Series should be able to handle most workloads. The Redmond company has been keen to play up that the latest offering, which provides up to 20 terabytes of memory, is the most powerful of its type in...
CBRONLINE
HPE SAYS COMPOSABLE INFRASTRUCTURE IS THE FUTURE OF DATA CENTER TECH
Composable infrastructure is the future of on-premises data center technology, according to Gary Thome, vice president and chief technologist for Hewlett Packard Enterprise’s Software Defined and Cloud group.It’s also a key competitive differentiator for HPE and a major reason why the company will win the software-defined infrastructure wars, Thome added. Composable gives you an environment to reshape the infrastructure to match the needs of the workloads you are running on it,” he said in an in...
SDXCENTRAL
HOW VMWARE AIMS TO GIVE DEFENDERS HOME COURT ADVANTAGE
There has been a prevailing notion in the cyber-security industry that attackers have the advantage. According to Tom Corn, senior vice president and general manager of security products at VMware, that doesn't have to be the case. Corn detailed his view in a session at the RSA Conference here this week and provided more insights in a video interview with eWEEK. In Corn's view, defenders should have the "home court advantage" because they should have more familiarity with what IT assets and con...
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Qwest ducks debarment by GSA
By Roseanne Gerin
Qwest Communications International Inc. can keep competing for federal government work, after the General Services Administration declined to debar the company following a two-and-a-half year probe.
The news comes as the company is in the midst of renewing its bidding war with Verizon Communications Inc. to acquire MCI Inc.
GSA began its review of Qwest's government contracts in July 2002, based on allegations that the Denver carrier inflated revenue in connection with transactions involving the Arizona School Facilities Board and telecom carrier Genuity Inc. In 2004, Qwest paid a $250 million fine to the Securities and Exchange Commission to settle financial fraud charges.
GSA's inspector general reviewed the company's practices and recommended that the agency's suspension and debarment official, Joseph Neurauter, consider suspending Qwest, seven of its former employees and one current employee. GSA's inspector general submitted a second referral to Neurauter Jan. 27.
In a letter to Qwest issued yesterday, Neurauter said he cleared Qwest because he was "satisfied that Qwest has taken adequate remedial measures," including changes in its management and the establishment of a corporate ethics program and continued government disclosures about issues the company may face.
In a statement issued yesterday, Qwest Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Richard Notebaert, said he appreciated the "care with which the GSA approached its review," and that the company is "looking forward to winning some of the major government business that is up for bid in 2005."
Federal government sales account for 2 percent to 3 percent of Qwest's consolidated annual revenue, according to the company's 10-K report for 2004 filed with the SEC Feb. 18. The Denver company's federal clients include the Energy, Labor and Treasury departments, GSA, Internal Revenue Service, National Institutes of Health, the Air Force and U.S. Mint.
Qwest could increase its footprint in the federal government sector by renewing its previous $8 billion offer to buy MCI of Ashburn, Va., which has significant business with federal agencies. Earlier this month, MCI rejected Qwest's offer and agreed to be acquired by Verizon of New York for $6.75 billion.
Qwest employs more than 40,000 workers and had 2004 operating revenue of $13.8 billion and a net loss of almost $1.8 billion. The carrier is No. 67 on Washington Technology's 2004 Top 100 list of prime federal government contractors.
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Girls Varsity Softball
(H) 03/25/19 5:00 PM vs Colerain HS
Postponed due to Rain Cancelled .
(H) 03/29/19 5:00 PM vs Middletown HS Rapid Run Middle School .
(A) 03/30/19 1:00 PM vs Deer Park Jr/Sr HS Deer Park Junior/Senior High School Cancelled .
(H) 04/02/19 5:00 PM vs Bishop Fenwick HS Rapid Run Middle School .
(H) 04/03/19 5:00 PM vs Fairfield HS Rapid Run Middle School .
(A) 04/04/19 5:00 PM Talawanda High School .
(H) 04/05/19 5:00 PM Rapid Run Middle School .
(A) 04/08/19 5:00 PM vs Hamilton HS Hamilton High School .
(H) 04/09/19 5:00 PM vs St. Ursula Academy Rapid Run Middle School .
(H) 04/10/19 5:00 PM vs Lakota West HS Rapid Run Middle School .
(A) 04/11/19 5:00 PM vs Walnut Hills HS Owl's Nest Park .
(A) 04/12/19 5:00 PM vs Princeton HS Princeton High School .
(A) 04/13/19 12:00 PM vs Kings Kings High School .
(A) 04/15/19 5:00 PM vs Colerain HS Colerain High School Cancelled .
(A) 04/16/19 5:00 PM vs Colerain HS Colerain High School .
(H) 04/17/19 5:00 PM vs Mason HS Rapid Run Middle School .
(A) 04/18/19 5:00 PM vs Middletown HS Lefferson Park .
Postponed due to Rain Rapid Run Middle School .
(A) 04/20/19 11:00 AM vs Mercy McAuley HS St James Athletic Field .
(H) 04/22/19 5:00 PM vs Sycamore HS Rapid Run Middle School .
(H) 04/23/19 5:00 PM vs Anderson HS Rapid Run Middle School .
(A) 04/24/19 5:00 PM vs Fairfield HS Fairfield Creekside Middle School .
(H) 04/29/19 5:00 PM vs Hamilton HS Rapid Run Middle School .
(H) 04/30/19 5:00 PM vs Colerain HS Rapid Run Middle School .
(A) 05/02/19 5:00 PM vs Winton Woods HS Winton Woods High School Cancelled .
(H) 05/03/19 5:00 PM vs Princeton HS
Senior Day Rapid Run Middle School Cancelled .
(A) 05/06/19 5:00 PM vs New Richmond HS New Richmond High School .
(A) 05/08/19 5:00 PM vs Harrison Junior High
Sectionals Harrison High School .
Senior Day Rapid Run Middle School .
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The H.R. MacMillan Library was founded in 1971 when the Anglican Theological College and Union College of British Columbia amalgamated to form the Vancouver School of Theology (VST). Today the library serves the students, faculty, and staff of the Vancouver School of Theology as well as members of the Anglican Church of Canada, the Presbyterian Church in Canada, and the United Church of Canada. It houses a collection of over 35,000 physical items, including books, journals, and DVDs; a growing collection of e-books; and 350 e-journals. Located on the ground floor of VST’s new building, the H.R. MacMillan Library provides a quiet space for individual study and the use of the library’s resources.
ASSOCIATED LIBRARIES
Students, faculty, and staff of the Vancouver School of Theology have borrowing privileges at the Dr. John Micallef Memorial Library (St. Mark’s College) and the John Richard Allison Library (Regent College). They may access both print and electronic resources through the University of British Columbia libraries. All three libraries are within walking distance of the school and provide important resources for theological and religious studies. Their holdings can be searched using our online catalogue, Theolog 2.0.
THOMAS MERTON COLLECTION
In partnership with the Thomas Merton Society of Canada, the library houses the second largest collection of Mertonalia in North America. Books, journals, media and theses by and about Thomas Merton may be found in the library’s Thomas Merton Reading Room. Items in the Merton Room do not circulate, but circulating copies of select titles are available in the library’s stacks.
RARE BOOKS COLLECTION
The library’s Rare Book Collection consists of bibles published as early as the fifteenth century, prayer books from the seventeenth century onwards, and realalia from the latter period. Items from the Rare Book Collection are retrievable upon request and must be handled according to archival protocols.
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H.R. MacMillan Library
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Tag: CCW
Texas Concealed Handgun License Shooting Test
Posted on October 1, 2015 | by Chris Siems | 1 Comment on Texas Concealed Handgun License Shooting Test
Handgun CHL Requirements
Must be a .32 caliber or higher to qualify. There is no minimum caliber to legally carry as long as it is a legal pistol.
There is no longer a classification of concealed handgun license. If you qualify with a revolver you can carry a semi-automatic.
Number of Rounds Fired
The shooting test requires 50 rounds of ammunition
CHL Shooting Distances
The CHL Shooting test is fired at three distances:
3 yards – 20 rounds fired
15 yards – 10 rounds fired
The majority of students pass the proficiency test when they have completed shooting at 3 and 7 yards.
CHL Shooting Proficiency Test Scoring
5 points – shots fired in the X, 10, 9, & 8 rings
4 points – shots fired in the 7 ring
3 points – shots fired outside the 7 ring but on the silhouette
0 points – shots fired outside the silhouette or off the target paper
Shots that hit just outside the ring but break the line count as the higher score
CHL Passing Score
The Texas CHL shooting test passing score is 175 points out of 250 points or a score of 70%. The state allows for three chances to pass the shooting test.
Remember, I have had students pass the shooting proficiency test with flying colors who fired a gun for the first time ever when they took the test.
Posted in Personal | Tagged CCW, CHL, guns
Ten Commandments of Concealed Carry
Posted on October 11, 2014 | by Chris Siems | Leave a Comment on Ten Commandments of Concealed Carry
This is a republication of the article by Massad Ayoob found at tactical-life.com
Carrying a lethal weapon in public confers a grave power that carries with it great responsibilities. Those who lawfully engage in the practice realize that. Those who are considering “carrying” need to know what those experienced people know.
If You Carry, Always Carry
The criminal is the actor, and the armed citizen is the reactor. The typical violent criminal arms himself only when he intends to do something with it. He picks the time and place of the assault, and initiates the attack. Therefore, he doesn’t need to worry about self-defense.
The armed citizen, the intended victim, does not know when or where that attack will come. Therefore, he or she must be constantly prepared and constantly vigilant. The “pistol-packer” learns to pick a comfortable holster and an appropriately sized handgun, and “dress around the firearm.” After a few days, or a few weeks, it becomes second nature to wear it.
When the defender does not know when the attack will come, the only reasonable expectation of safety lies in being always armed.
Don’t Carry If You Aren’t Prepared To Use It
There is a great irony that attaches to the defensive firearm. When you analyze a great many defensive gun usages (DGUs) you discover that the great majority of the time, the protection weapon does its job with no blood being shed. Usually, the offender who is confronted with the prospect of being shot in self-defense either breaks off and runs or surrenders at gunpoint.
Its most important asset turns out to be its power to deter. The irony comes from the fact that its power to deter is drawn directly from its power to kill.
Understand that criminals do not fear guns. They are, after all, an armed subculture themselves. What they fear is the resolutely armed man or woman who points that gun at them. Criminals are predators, and their stock in trade is their ability to read people and recognize victims. They are very, very good at reading “body language” and determining another’s intent to fight, or lack thereof. In short, you’re not likely to bluff them.
If you carry a gun, you must be absolutely certain that you can use deadly force. The person who is hesitant or unwilling to do so will, in the moment of truth, communicate that vacillation to the hardened criminal they are attempting to hold at gunpoint. In such a case, it is quite likely that the offender will jump them, disarm them, and use the hesitant defenders’ own weapons against them.
If, however, that same criminal realizes that he is facing a resolute person who will, in fact, shoot him if he takes one more transgressive step, he is most unlikely to take that step.
The irony: The person who is prepared to kill if he or she must, is the person who is least likely to have to do so.
Don’t Let The Gun Make You Reckless
Circa 1970, armed citizen Richard Davis invented the Second Chance vest, concealable body armor that for the first time could be worn constantly on duty, under the uniform, by any police officer. Some alarmists speculated that “being made bulletproof” would cause cops to become reckless. Those fears turned out to be totally unfounded. As any officer who has worn armor can attest, the vest is a constant reminder of danger and, if anything, makes its wearer more cautious.
It is much the same with concealed firearms in the hands of responsible private citizens. People unfamiliar with the practice fear that “the trigger will pull the finger,” and armed citizens will go looking for a chance to exercise their deadly power. This, too, is a largely unfounded belief.
The collective experience of ordinary, law-abiding people who carry guns is that they don’t feel a sudden urge to go into Central Park at three o’clock in the morning and troll for muggers. They learn that being armed, they are held to what the law calls “a higher standard of care” and are expected to avoid situations like traffic arguments that could escalate and, with a deadly weapon present, turn into killing situations.
Like an officer’s body armor, the armed citizen’s gun is a reminder of danger, a symbol of the need for caution. The late, great big game hunter and gun writer Finn Aagard once wrote, “Yet my pistol is more than just security. Like an Orthodox Jewish yarmulke or a Christian cross, it is a symbol of who I am, what I believe, and the moral standards by which I live.”
Get The License!
You’ll hear some absolutists say, “No government has the right to permit me to carry a gun! I don’t need no stinking permit! The Second Amendment is my license to carry!”
That is the sound of someone asking to go to jail. Like it or not, the laws of the land require, in 46 of the 50 states, a license to carry. In two states, there is no legal provision for the ordinary citizen to carry at all. Realize that things are not as we wish they were; things are as they are. If things were as we wish they would be, we wouldn’t need to carry guns at all.
If you are diligent about studying carry license reciprocity, and about seeking non-resident carry permits in states that don’t have reciprocity, you can become legal to carry in some forty or more states. It can get expensive, and it can get tiresome. However, allowing yourself to be made into a felon and being ramrodded through the courts is much more expensive and far more tiresome.
Bottom line: if you carry, make sure you carry legally.
Know What You’re Doing
You wouldn’t drive an automobile without knowing the rules of the road. Do not keep or carry lethal weapons for defense without knowing the rules of engagement. It is a myth to believe that you can shoot anyone in your home. When Florida rescinded the requirement to retreat before using deadly force if attacked in public, the anti-gun Brady Center introduced a publicity campaign claiming that the new law allowed Floridians to shoot anyone who frightened them. This, of course, was blatantly untrue, but a great many people believed it to be so because “they heard it on TV” or “they saw it in the paper.” Such dangerous misconceptions can cause the tragic death of people who don’t deserve to be shot, and can get good people sent to prison.
It is the practitioner’s responsibility to “learn the rules of the road” when they take the path toward armed self-defense. There are many firearms training schools, and at least one, the author’s Lethal Force Institute, specializes in teaching the rules of engagement. Information is available under the LFI section at www.ayoob.com. It is wise to take local classes that emphasize the rules of “deadly force decision-making.”
Similarly, a person who opens fire with a gun they don’t know how to shoot is a danger to all. If you need the firearm for its intended purpose, you will be under extreme stress. Learn to shoot under pressure. Quick draw from concealment, safe holstering, proper tactics, and much more are on the curriculum if you are serious about defending yourself and your loved ones to the best of your ability.
Concealed Means Concealed
A very few people carrying guns for the first time feel an irresistible urge to let others see that “they’ve got the power.” First-time carriers and rookie cops, usually young in both cases, may fall into this trap. It is a practice to avoid for several reasons.
In most of this society, the only people the general public sees carrying guns in public are uniformed “protector figures,” such as police officers and security guards. When they see someone not identifiable as such, who is carrying a lethal weapon, they tend to panic. This makes no friends among the voting public for the gun owners’ rights movement—you do not make people into friends and sympathizers, by frightening them—and can lead to a panicky observer getting the wrong idea and reporting you to the police as a “man with a gun.” This can lead to all sorts of unpleasant confrontations.
Moreover, a harasser who has picked you as his victim and knows you carry a gun can create a situation where there are no other witnesses present, and then make the false claim that you threatened him with the weapon. This is a very serious felony called Aggravated Assault. It is his word against yours. The fact that you are indeed carrying the gun he describes you pointing at him can make his lie more believable than your truth, to the ears of judge and jury.
MCRGO, Michigan Coalition of Responsible Gun Owners, is directly responsible for getting reform concealed carry legislation enacted in their state, and has been in the forefront of fighting for the rights of armed citizens in that state. MCRGO’s Steve Dulan, in the organization’s Weekly E’News of 6/23/08, had some cogent points to make on the topic of private citizens carrying handguns visibly in public:
“Open carry of firearms, subject to MCL 750.234d, it is legal to carry a visible pistol in public. MCRGO has not adopted an official position on this subject,” wrote Dulan, who continued, “I agree with Ted Nugent and many others that it is a bad idea in almost every situation. Tactically, you are giving up the element of surprise should you face a deadly force situation. Furthermore, you run the risk of being called in to 9-1-1 as a ‘man with a gun.’ I have been on police ride-alongs when this call comes over the radio. It creates a very dangerous situation for all concerned. I do not carry openly. I have a CPL (Concealed Pistol License) and take care to choose a gun and holster that, along with appropriate clothing, allow me to keep my gun concealed unless/until I need it to save a life.”
As cogent and valid as Steve Dulan’s arguments are, it still makes sense to have legal open carry available as an emergency option. If the wind accidentally blows your coat open and reveals the gun, an open carry provision assures you have committed no crime. If someone who has not yet felt the need to get a concealed carry license suddenly begins getting death threats, open carry provides an emergency avenue of self-protection until the paperwork can be processed to acquire the license to carry the weapon discreetly out of sight.
Maximize Your Firearms Familiarity
The more you work with the firearm, the more reflexively skilled you will become in its emergency use and its safe handling. If your home defense shotgun is a Remington 870, then when you go claybird shooting or hunting, use an 870 pump gun with a barrel and choke appropriate for each task. If you are a target shooter who uses the 1911 pistol platform at bull’s-eye matches and have become deeply familiar with it, it makes sense to acquire a concealable 1911 to use as your carry gun, so that the ingrained skill will directly transfer. If a double-action .44 Magnum is your hunting revolver, and another double-action revolver is your home defense gun, it makes sense to choose a carry-size revolver as your concealment handgun when you’re out and about.
Consider training classes or competition shoots where your chosen defensive firearm is appropriate to the course of fire. This skill-building will translate to self-defense ability if your carry gun ever has to be used to protect innocent life and limb. If training ammunition is too expensive, consider a .22 conversion unit for your semiautomatic pistol or a .22 caliber revolver the same size as your defensive .38 or .357. The more trigger time you have with a similar gun, the more confidence and competence you’ll have with the gun you carry, if you can’t afford to practice as much as you’d like with the carry gun itself.
Understand The Fine Points
Every state has different laws insofar as where you can and can’t carry a gun. It’s your responsibility to know all the details. In one state, it may be against the law to carry a weapon in a posted “no-gun zone.” In another, that sign may have no weight of law at all behind it. In a third, you may be asked to leave if your gun is spotted, and if you do not depart, you will be subject to arrest for Trespass After Warning.
In the state of New Hampshire, it is perfectly legal to carry your gun into a bar while you sit down and have a drink. If you do the same in Florida, it’s an arrestable offense, though you’re allowed to have a cocktail in a restaurant with a liquor license, so long as you’re seated in a part of the establishment that earns less than 50% of its income from selling alcoholic beverages by the drink. In North Carolina, you can’t even walk into a restaurant that has a liquor license, with a gun on. And, perhaps strangest of all, in the state of Virginia at this writing, it is illegal to enter a tavern with a concealed handgun, but perfectly legal to belly up to the bar and sip a whiskey while carrying a loaded handgun “open carry” fashion in an exposed holster!
A superb current compendium of gun laws in the 50 states can be found at www.handgunlaw.us. Review it frequently for possible changes.
Carry An Adequate Firearm
If you carry a single-shot, .22 Short caliber derringer, you will be considered armed with a deadly weapon in the eyes of the law. You will not, however, be adequately prepared to stop a predictable attack by multiple armed assailants. Most experts recommend a five-shot revolver as the absolute minimum in firepower, and the .380/9mm/.38SPL range as the minimum potency level in terms of handgun caliber.
It is a good idea to carry spare ammunition. Many people in their first gunfight have quickly found themselves soon clicking an empty gun. A firearm without spare ammunition is a temporary gun. Moreover, many malfunctions in semiautomatic pistols require a fresh (spare) magazine to rectify. Some fear that carrying spare ammo will make them look paranoid. They need to realize that those who don’t like guns and dislike the people who carry them, will consider carrying the gun without spare ammunition to still be paranoid. It’s an easy argument to win in court. Cops carry spare ammunition. So should you.
Carrying a second gun has saved the lives of many good people. When the primary weapon is hit by a criminal’s bullet and rendered unshootable…when it is knocked from the defender’s hand, or snatched away by a criminal…when the first gun runs out of ammo and there is no time to reload…the list of reasons is endless. It suffices to remember the words of street-savvy Phil Engeldrum: “If you need to carry a gun, you probably need to carry two of them.”
At the very least, once you’ve found a carry gun that works for your needs, it’s a good idea to acquire another that’s identical or at least very similar. If you have to use the first gun for self-defense, it will go into evidence for some time, and you want something you can immediately put on to protect yourself from vengeful cronies of the criminal you were forced to shoot. If the primary gun has to go in for repair, you don’t want to be helpless or carrying something less satisfactory while you’re waiting to get it back.
The gun carries with it the power of life and death. That power belongs only in the hands of responsible people who care about consequences, who are respectful of life and limb and human safety. Carrying a gun is a practice that is becoming increasingly common among ordinary American citizens. Common sense must always accompany it.
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Jaguar I-PACE adds AutoBest’s eco award to its collection
The Jaguar I-PACE has won the ECOBEST 2018 accolade at the AutoBest awards
The panel of judges from 31 European nations voted for the all-electric Jaguar ahead of its competition as it became the first European premium electric SUV into the market.
Accepting the award on the night was Jaguar Land Rover’s CEO Prof. Dr. Ralf Speth, who took the opportunity to thank the engineering team at Gaydon for creating a game changer in the automotive market.
“The I-PACE has won more than 30 awards around the globe,” he added. “And it all started with two engineers talking about the future of mobility and about doing something special, a kind of destination zero for future mobility.
“I’m very honoured that we got the support from Ratan Tata. Without him, not only would the company not exist, but also this car would not be on the roads. Thank you very much, Ratan Tata, for all you had done for the company and for this product.”
The touching tribute preceded the announcement that Ratan Tata, Chairman of the Tata Group would be second person to be inducted into the AutoBest Hall of Fame, joining Dr Wolfgang Porsche.
Speaking on the night Ratan said: "I can't say enough to express my appreciation for having this great honour. The automotive industry to me was one of the most exciting industries that I have been involved in.”
He went on to recall the decision to purchase Jaguar Land Rover more than 10 years ago, explaining he wasn’t sure what to do with both brands before saying:
“I had no idea what are we were going to do, but I stood up and said – ‘Why don’t we, shoulder-to-shoulder, recreate the image these two brands had?’”
“I’m pleased to say that I did nothing more. The team at Jaguar Land Rover, led by Ralf, who has been the leader that deserves this award more than me, made a huge difference to this company. Today, if I’m here to receive this award, I would like to say that I receive it with humility on behalf of Ralf and the team at Jaguar Land Rover."
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Last names beginning with B
Baughan, Blanche Edith
Story: Baughan, Blanche Edith
Blanche Edith Baughan
Poet, writer, penal reformer
This biography, written by Nancy Harris, was first published in the Dictionary of New Zealand Biography in 1996.
Blanche Edith Baughan was born on 16 January 1870 at Putney, Surrey, England. She was the youngest of six children of Ruth Catterns and her husband, John Baughan, a scrivener. Her father died when she was 10 years old.
Baughan was one of the first women to attend Royal Holloway College when it opened to students studying for University of London degrees. She left in 1891 having gained the first first-class honours BA degree in Classics awarded to a member of the college. Soon after graduating Baughan became involved in social work in the slums of Shoreditch and Hoxton, in east London. Much of her spare time between 1893 and 1898 was spent writing the poems that were collected in her first volume, Verses (1898).
In the 1890s Baughan visited Germany, Sweden, Norway and Switzerland. On her return, she had the responsibility of nursing her mother, then a psychiatric invalid. (For fear of having inherited this illness, Baughan never married.) She must have had some assistance, for she was able to undertake a position teaching Greek to Adeline, duchess of Bedford, and to some of her friends. Baughan's brief association with the aristocracy at a time when her memory of the slums was still vivid highlighted the vast gulf between rich and poor in England and set her in the direction of social reform. She had already been actively involved in the suffrage movement since her student days. However, Baughan's main interest at the time was to further her literary career.
Baughan travelled to New Zealand in 1900, disembarking at Wellington. She knew nobody, and remained only a short time before making a tour to the Pacific islands, South Africa and the Victoria Falls. She then returned to New Zealand, and soon came across 'friends of friends' who were farming at Ormondville, in Hawke's Bay. They arranged for her to help with the housework in return for her keep. She continued, part-time, to work at her chosen career of poet. In 1902 Baughan moved to Chorlton, a tiny isolated community on Banks Peninsula.
Blanche Baughan became interested in developing a style of poetry relevant to a new colony. Her earliest published New Zealand poems, 'Young Hotspur' and 'The old place', were first published in the London Spectator in 1902, and reprinted in Reuben and other poems (1903). In her most significant volume, Shingle-short and other verses (1908), she attempted some of the stylistic innovations usually associated with modernist poetry: demotic imagery, the anti-hero as subject, juxtaposition of picturesque and sordid imagery, an open form, unpredictable rhythm, and a consciousness of the subjectivity of perception. Some attempt at literary innovation may also be seen in her volume of prose sketches, Brown bread from a colonial oven (1912), with her choice of unpretentious characters throughout, and, especially in 'Grandmother speaks', her attempt at commonplace colloquial speech. Notable, too, is her effective use of domestic imagery.
After an illness about 1910 Baughan was aware that her creative talent was fading, at least as far as poetry was concerned. The mediocre quality of most of the work in her slim volume Poems from the Port Hills (apparently written before the First World War, but not published until 1923) confirms her judgement. About 1910 she moved to a cottage at the top of Clifton spur, near Sumner, Christchurch, where she lived until 1930.
Baughan's essay on the Milford Track, 'Finest walk in the world', was printed in the London Spectator in 1908; it led to a commission for a series of similar essays to be published in booklet form. Extensive walking and alpine climbing trips throughout New Zealand preceded the writing. In 1916 these popular essays were collected together and published as Studies in New Zealand Scenery, and in 1922 they were reprinted, with one additional essay, under the title Glimpses of New Zealand scenery. In the essays Baughan displays a considerable knowledge of indigenous plants. Her interest in natural history had put her in touch with the eminent botanists Robert Laing and Leonard Cockayne, and she made a significant collection of hitherto unrecorded plants from the Westland slopes of Copland Pass.
Blanche Baughan considered herself a mystic. Her claim rests on two psychic experiences, the first taking place in Chorlton in 1905 and the second, 20 years later, at her home in Sumner. She became interested in Indian Vedanta teachings, and in 1915 travelled to the Vedanta centres in California to seek further enlightenment. She became a lifelong convert to the philosophy. Baughan returned to New Zealand in 1916. Between then and 1922 she made two trips to England and also visited India.
From about 1920 Baughan experienced 'one increasing purpose' in life: a more humane and effective treatment of prisoners and 'society's misfits'. Her belief that social service, too, was an art consoled her for the evaporation of her literary talent: the 'unseen Beauty can, and should, rule all our destinies, & can be served in all sorts of ways'. She claimed that her philosophical outlook was directly responsible for her work with prisoners.
An article in the London Spectator concerning the Howard League for Penal Reform inspired her in 1924 to help form a New Zealand branch. She believed that many prisoners were socially immature and should be reformed as well as punished. Her main objectives were the proper reform of the criminal justice system, reform of the prison system to promote the self-respect of prisoners, training of officials, classification of prisoners, and the extensive use of probation.
Baughan moved from Clifton to Akaroa in 1930. She made her home an unofficial halfway house, frequently giving shelter and financial assistance to ex-prisoners and others on the fringe of society. Baughan studied prison conditions and prisoners first at Point Halswell, Wellington, where she instituted mental testing for women prisoners. She later became official visitor at Addington Reformatory for Women in Christchurch. Baughan's outspoken commitment to prison reform frequently put her at odds with prison authorities. Following a complaint from the controller general of prisons in 1925 that she had written to the press in her capacity as official visitor to the Addington women's prison, Baughan resigned, protesting about the futility of dealing with alcoholics and psychiatric invalids in prison without adequate qualified assistance. She made a first-hand study of both male and female prisoners in the 1930s, and recorded some of her successes and failures in a small volume, People in prison. The book was controversial at the time, and was particularly criticised by prison authorities.
In addition to her work for penal reform, Blanche Baughan was an outspoken opponent of capital punishment, a financial supporter of the Red Cross and a member of the Akaroa Borough Council. Baughan was recognised for her contribution to social services with the award of the King George V Jubilee Medal in 1935. For her literary work she deserves recognition for indicating new directions in the nation's literary history and as a significant harbinger of change in early New Zealand poetry. She died at Akaroa on 20 August 1958.
Nancy Harris. 'Baughan, Blanche Edith', Dictionary of New Zealand Biography, first published in 1996. Te Ara - the Encyclopedia of New Zealand, https://teara.govt.nz/en/biographies/3b17/baughan-blanche-edith (accessed 19 July 2019)
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ShipHawk Raises $5 Million To Provide Large-Item Shipping With No Sticker Shock
When shipping small items, it’s no problem to use services like FedEx or UPS, but what if you have a large, heavy, or unusually shaped item? When you have an item that doesn’t easily fit in a box, you need to work with specialized carriers, but they generally aren’t easy to find or very transparent with their pricing.
ShipHawk wants to take the pain out of shipping those items, with a platform that allows users to get shipping quotes from multiple providers and pick the one that makes the most sense for them. The company just closed on $5 million in new funding to expand its business and get its shipping engine integrated with a wider range of e-commerce platforms.
The new funding was led by DN Capital, with participation from existing investors Karlin Ventures, Rothenberg Ventures, and Wavemaker Partners (formerly Siemer Ventures). Along with the funding, DN Capital managing partner Steve Schlenker is joining the company’s board of directors.
ShipHawk has been around for the last two years or so, and was actually the audience choice winner at Startup Alley during TechCrunch Disrupt NY 2013. Over the last year-and-a-half, it’s just been improving its service and signing up partners to integrate its shipping API into their own platforms.
For many buyers and sellers on platforms like eBay or Shopify, buying a piece of furniture or other large item can be a guessing game when it comes to the price of shipping. ShipHawk simplifies that process by allowing customers to add the information they have about an item, as well as the origin and destination address, and get a quote from qualified carriers.
The company works with hundreds of shipping partners to get the best quotes for its customers, which they can choose based on price or speed of delivery. It also provides a price guarantee against the quotes provided.
ShipHawk started with a web app that users could manually enter information into, but increasingly it’s working to become the API for shipping prices on third-party e-commerce platforms. Rather than users having to find shipping rates themselves, ShipHawk can enable sales marketplaces to build shipping costs directly into their purchase flow, bringing transparency to both buyers and sellers.
With its Series A round, ShipHawk has raised a total of $6 million in outside funding. The company, which is based in Santa Barbara, Calif., now has 20 employees on board.
Photo Credit: hemkes via Compfight cc
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NASA names first astronauts for the inaugural commercial flights to the ISS
Jonathan Shieber @jshieber / 12 months
NASA has announced the names of the first astronauts who’ll fly to the International Space Station on American-made, commercial spacecraft.
The crews will fly to the space station on rockets built by NASA commercial partners Boeing and SpaceX. “Today, our country’s dreams of greater achievements in space are within our grasp,” said NASA administrator Jim Bridenstine, in a statement. “Today’s announcement advances our great American vision and strengthens the nation’s leadership in space.”
Nine astronauts were selected to crew the first test flights and missions of Boeing’s CST-100 Starliner and SpaceX’s Crew Dragon.
“The men and women we assign to these first flights are at the forefront of this exciting new time for human spaceflight,” said Mark Geyer, director of NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston, in a statement.
After each company completes their crewed test flights successfully, NASA will start the process to finally certify the spacecraft and systems for regular crew missions to the space station.
So far, NASA has contracted for six missions with each company, with as many as four astronauts crewing each commercial spacecraft.
In the 18 years that NASA has had a presence on the space station, the space agency has conducted experiments in biology, biotechnology, physics and space science that have resulted in thousands of spin-off technologies, the agency said.
With the new spaceflight capabilities through Boeing and SpaceX (initially), NASA says it will maintain a crew of seven astronauts on the space station for continued scientific research and experimentation on understanding and mitigating the challenges of long-duration spaceflight.
Here are the astronauts who will be taking flight:
Starliner Test-Flight Astronauts
Eric Boe/ Photo courtesy of NASA
Eric Boe: The Miami-born and Atlanta-raised Boe came to NASA from the Air Force, where he rose to the rank of colonel as a fighter pilot and test pilot. Boe was first selected as an astronaut in 2000 and piloted the space shuttle Endeavor. Boe was also on the final flight of the Discovery before the Space Shuttle Program was sunset.
Christopher Ferguson/Photo by Robin Marchant/FilmMagic
Christopher Ferguson: A retired Navy captain who hails from Philadelphia, Ferguson piloted space shuttle Atlantis, and commanded the shuttle Endeavour. Ferguson was on the Atlantis for its final flight with the Space Shuttle Program.
Nicole Aunapu Mann/ Photo courtesy of NASA
Nicole Aunapu Mann: A lieutenant colonel in the Marine Corps, Nicole Aunapu Mann is an F/A-18 test pilot with more than 2,500 flight hours in more than 25 aircraft and was selected to be an astronaut in 2013. The test flight with Boeing will be her first trip to space.
The Starliner will launch aboard a United Launch Alliance (ULA) Atlas V rocket from Space Launch Complex 41 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida, according to a NASA statement.
Crew Dragon Test-Flight Astronauts
Robert Behnken/Photo courtesy of NASA
Robert Behnken: Missouri native Robert Behnken has a doctorate in engineering and is a flight test engineer and colonel in the Air Force. Behnken first joined the astronaut corps in 2000 and flew aboard space shuttle Endeavour twice, performing six spacewalks that totaled 37 hours.
Douglas Hurley/ Photo courtesy of NASA
Douglas Hurley: Douglas Hurley joined the Marine Corps and served as a test pilot before joining NASA in 2000. The Apalachin, N.Y. native piloted both the space shuttle Endeavor and Atlantis.
According to NASA, SpaceX’s Crew Dragon will launch aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Launch Complex 39A at Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
Starliner First-Mission Astronauts
Josh Cassada/Photo courtesy NASA
Josh Cassada: From his home in Minnesota to a career in the Navy, commander and test pilot Josh Cassada has spent more than 3,500 flight hours in more than 40 aircraft. He was selected as an astronaut in 2013. His Starliner mission will be his first spaceflight.
Sunita Williams/Photo courtesy of NASA
Sunita Williams: A Needham, Mass. by-way-of Euclid, Ohio naval test pilot, Williams was a captain in the Navy before her retirement. She was selected as an astronaut in 1998 and has spent 322 days on the International Space Station. Williams commanded the space station and has also performed seven spacewalks.
Crew Dragon First-Mission Astronauts
Victor Glover/ Photo courtesy NASA
Victor Glover: Pomona, Calif.-born Victor Glover is a Navy commander, aviator and test pilot who has flown more than 3,000 hours in more than 40 different aircraft. With 24 combat missions and 400 carrier landings, Glover was selected as part of the 2013 astronaut candidate class and will be making his first spaceflight aboard the Dragon.
Michael Hopkins/ Photo courtesy NASA
Michael Hopkins: A former farm boy who grew up near Richland, Mo., Michael Hopkins went on to be a colonel in the air force where he was a flight-test engineer before being selected to be a NASA astronaut in 2009. Hopkins spent 166 days on the International Space Station and has been on two space walks.
NASA said that additional crew members would be assigned by international partners at a later date.
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Local communities take a stand against Boko Haram
21 August 2014 - All public schools in Borno state in northeastern Nigeria have been closed since May due to Boko Haram’s brutal attacks.
Boko Haram militants are fighting to create an Islamic state in Nigeria, and have gained worldwide attention for their violent tactics. Their kidnapping of more than 200 girls from a secondary school in Borno earlier this year furthermore exemplified the insecurity-driven education crisis in the area.
What formal education currently exists in Borno has been through a handful of private schools that have kept their doors open. One of these is Future Prowess Islamic Foundation School - a school that provides free primary education for orphans and vulnerable children in the town of Maiduguri. The school cares for children from families from both sides of the conlict: Boko Haram and government security forces.
The community is traumatized by violence - shootings, bombings and kidnappings by Boko Haram; retaliatory beatings, arrests and extra-judicial killings by the security forces. “We are serving as teachers and parents for the orphaned children,” said Islamic teacher Hassan Sharif al-Hassan in an interview with IRIN News.
A local lawyer in Borno further said to IRIN that: “We are trying to avoid a catastrophe,” We want the two sides of the divide to grow as friends, not a case of ‘You killed my father, you killed my mother, I must have revenge’. No. They must learn together. We are providing that security.”
More that 42 percent of children are stunted by malnutrition in this region of Nigeria, compared to just 16 percent in the southeast. The school’s response has been to set up a breakfast feeding programme for its 420 pupils.
The school has been supported by the community and by key local individuals. However, “international partners don’t often come here because of the insecurity,” the lawyer said. “Individuals can’t do what we need. We need institutions like the UN, UNICEF, to help.”
Protecting the community
Maiduguri has also seen young men take to the streets in an effort to protect the local population. Dubbed the Civilian Joint Task Froce (Civilian JTF), these vigilantes are largely credited with pacifying the town for the past year.
The community-rooted volunteers - officially the Borno Youth Association for Peace and Justice -actually know who Boko Haram members are. They are the eyes and ears of the security forces watching for infiltration and, though the best of their weapons are antique single-shot guns, or the odd shotgun, they are often the first responders to trouble.
The state government was quick to embrace the Civilian JTF. It provided training to 1,700 volunteers last year through a Borno Youth Empowerment Scheme, delivered vehicles, and offered a monthly stipend of around US$100. Aside from parade ground drilling, the state government also introduced civics lessons for the young men, previously noted for their eagerness to lynch suspects.
Despite the general support and respect the vigilantes have won, there are also voices of caution. In an interview with IRIN, Abuja-based analyst Hussaini Abdu raised concern over how the Civilian JTF will be demobilized once the Boko Haram insurgency ends.
UNRIC's related articles:
The children with no childhood
Bring back our girls! - calls the international community
Conflict and corruption undermine human rights
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