pred_label
stringclasses 2
values | pred_label_prob
float64 0.5
1
| wiki_prob
float64 0.25
1
| text
stringlengths 64
1M
| source
stringlengths 37
43
|
|---|---|---|---|---|
__label__cc
| 0.521449
| 0.478551
|
YMCA Expands Education Program
Partnership with Next Door will allow it to serve 400 more low-income children.
By Stephanie Harte, Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service - Oct 10th, 2015 12:44 pm
Nikole Foster, an early childhood education teacher, helps students with an art project at the Northside YMCA location. Photo by Stephanie Harte.
The Milwaukee YMCA has expanded its early childhood education and before- and after-school programs, allowing it to serve approximately 400 more children this school year.
The early childhood program is now available at Sherman Park Lutheran School, 2703 N. Sherman Blvd. Before- and after-school programs have been expanded to five new locations, including Rocketship Southside Community Prep, 3003 W. Cleveland Ave.
Julie Tolan, CEO of the Milwaukee YMCA, said a partnership with Next Door made the early childhood expansion possible. Next Door received a federal grant of $4.8 million and teamed up with the Y to expand early education services to more families.
“We were confident (the Y) could carry out the expansion,” said Miranda Syrjanen, Next Door’s early Head Start-child care partnership director. “They have been a great partner and we have worked closely with them to implement early childhood at their sites.”
Early education teacher Akira Matlock sets up games for children during an after-school program at the YMCA. Photo by Stephanie Harte.
The before and after-school programs are now offered at Rocketship, three schools in the Mequon Thiensville School District and one school in the St. Francis School District.
Bianca Shaw has been sending her 3-year-old daughter Olivia to the Y since she was 3 months old. Shaw said she admires how caring the teachers are and their commitment to giving students the best education.
“As a new mother to my first and only daughter, the Y helped me raise her,” Shaw said. “Her vocabulary has gotten a lot better and she may even be more advanced because of the extra attention she is given.”
Tolan explained that the Y strives to start working with children as early as possible. “If parents don’t have a safe place to send their kids, they aren’t going to be able to stay at their jobs,” she said.
The after-school program provides children with a healthy snack, homework help, art activities and group projects. The Y’s goal is to create a safe environment for children when they are not in school.
In addition, “Everything we do has an educational value,” said Christine Larson, the YMCA’s director of early childhood education. “It’s critical for us to help close the achievement gap with underprivileged children.”
Rodney Lynk, principal at Rocketship Southside Community Prep, said he is grateful for the YMCA’s efforts to help the school’s students. About 15 Rocketship students attend the after-school program on a daily basis with two staff members from the Y. Lynk said the teachers ensure students have their homework done before leaving, allowing them to spend quality time with their family when they return home.
“We provide more than just babysitting,” said April Greenman, the YMCA’s director of school age education. “We really try to make connections with families, children and the community.”
Larson said her favorite part of the job is building relationships with the young children. She tries to identify problems early on so they don’t become an issue when they enter school.
“We take great pride in the quality of our program and work very hard to include parents in the process,” Larson said. “It’s amazing to see the children have that light bulb moment.”
Next Door’s Syrjanen added, “There is always a desire to do more, so it is great to know that the expansion is helping us serve more families than ever before.”
This story was originally published by Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service, where you can find other stories reporting on fifteen city neighborhoods in Milwaukee.
Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service
Camp Reunites Jailed Mothers With Kids
Jul 15th, 2019 by Allison Dikanovic
Church Defends Banner of Accused Child Rapist
Jul 12th, 2019 by Edgar Mendez
Life As a Latino in Milwaukee
Jul 11th, 2019 by Adam Carr
Categories: Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0022.json.gz/line1054
|
__label__cc
| 0.649656
| 0.350344
|
The unmaking of the English working class
The English working class, whose origins were so memorably chronicled by E.P Thompson in 1963, is the oldest in the world, forged in tandem with the landscape of the first industrial revolution with its mills and mines and steelworks and grimy brick streets of back-to-back houses. Although many of its features were unique to particular times and places, its forms of organisation, so carefully documented by Marx and Engels, in many ways provided models for other labour movements around the world.
It is this same working class, now many generations away from the rural folk who formed its origins, which, in its despair and anger and anomie, voted two days ago for Brexit. Is this how it ends? Are we witnessing the beginning of the end of the phase of capitalism associated with the British Empire, not in a glorious revolution but in a hopeless spasm of self-destruction, on the very sites where it was first created?
I have never had time to do systematic research on this and what follows is grossly over-generalised, but sometimes I think that it is only possible to imagine an alternative way of living if you have some first-hand experience of it. The first generation of industrial workers comes from the countryside, typically from subsistence agriculture. Young people, without children, whose elders are taken care of in the village have only to earn enough to provide their own food and lodging. The literature abounds with descriptions of how simultaneous liberating and frightening this can be (18th century English mill girls and 21st century Sri Lankan clothing workers, seen as too rebellious to be marriageable; new migrants straight off the ship in early 20th century New York). This first generation works hard and obediently, wanting its children to learn the language and assimilate and do better than themselves. It is the second generation, at home in the city, that starts to organise, to feel entitled, to refuse to kow-tow unquestioningly to the boss. Between worlds, having heard from parents and grandparents stories, perhaps romanticised in nostalgic memory, of how life used to be in the village, with its clean air and seasonal rhythms, these workers know that there are alternatives to the machine-paced life of the factory. Accounts of worker militancy, whether in St Lawrence in 1912, Coventry in the 1960s, Sao Paolo in the 1970s or the Pearl River Delta in the 2010s, always seem to involve workers who are no more than a couple of generations from the land and know that other ways of living are possible. And being able to imagine this alternative future gives focus to the struggle and motivation to seek change.
But when even your great, great, great, great grandparents worked in industry, what kind of alternative can you imagine? It seems likely that your aspirations turn simply to a better version of what you already know, made comfortable by the shared cultures and solidarities of your class: the same dull daily routine, but with more security, more consumer goods, nicer holidays; in short the life that was achieved by many (though never all) in developed Western economies in the third quarter of the 20th century. Such aspirations may well still seem achievable in many parts of the world. Look at the growth of the new middle classes in India, China and Brazil. And, to judge by their promises, many politicians still believe in them in Europe. But if there is anything to be learned from the last couple of weeks it is that these hopes have died in industrial Britain, replaced by a kind of nihilistic rage against those very politicians and all they seem to stand for.
The question that confronts us engaged intellectuals now, in the aftermath of that vote, is how it might be possible to contribute to the development of alternative positive visions that are credible enough, and rooted well enough in their own hopes and dreams to lift these cheated people out of their depression and give them something worth fighting for. If I am right in thinking that alternatives cannot be imagined out of thin air but must relate in some way to actual experience then this is a huge challenge. I rack my brains. Perhaps, I think, we should start with the children: give them love and stories and music and first-hand contact with nature and with interesting people who have lived alternative lives (all the things that Michael Gove has been driving out of the once-great British primary school system). But that seems like a very wishy-washy hippy fantasy in these grim times. And patronising. And it would take ages.
What is the alternative? To watch and document, in all its horror, the final unravelling of the English working class: a tragedy directed by clowns with lemmings as actors?
Or to find some way to act now, quickly. Whatever we do, it has to be done with open ears. The cry of pain that, I still believe, that ‘out’ vote represented, has to be recognised for what it is, and, with all humility, we have to listen to those who have uttered it, understand what they are telling us and try, jointly, to envisage some collective future alternative.
(In writing this blog post I discovered that WordPress has redesigned itself in such a way that early drafts are no longer automatically saved separately. One clumsy press on the mouse – which i am still having to operate with my left hand – wiped out all of the first version except the sentence in the ‘excerpt’ and this is a hasty reconstruction: shorter; perhaps less purple in its prose; probably more trite. Who knows?)
This entry was posted in Britain, Labour in the 21st century, political reflection, Uncategorized by administrator. Bookmark the permalink.
1 thought on “The unmaking of the English working class”
Nigel Skellett on June 25, 2016 at 3:21 pm said:
Hi Ursula.
Britain still consumes an awful lot of stuff which needs to be manufactured. I am continually amazed, however, by the variety of commodities which we import from China. I recently looked on the John Lewis website for kitchen sideboards. There are plenty of these heavy, clunky things for sale but all made in China!
Somehow or other we need to break this cycle of proprietor greed, under investment and lack of skills and management training. It will take a generation but we need to bring manufacturing home. Workers will put up with mundane, repetitive labour as long as they are seen as adding value to the product, and paid well enough to live securely in a proper house and raise a family without precarity.
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0022.json.gz/line1055
|
__label__cc
| 0.668799
| 0.331201
|
Richard Gunderman
Chancellor's Professor of Medicine, Liberal Arts, and Philanthropy, Indiana University
Richard Gunderman is Chancellor's Professor of Radiology, Pediatrics, Medical Education, Philosophy, Liberal Arts, Philanthropy, and Medical Humanities and Health Studies at Indiana University, where he also serves as John A Campbell Professor of Radiology.
He received his AB Summa Cum Laude from Wabash College, MD and PhD (Committee on Social Thought) with Honors from the University of Chicago, and MPH from Indiana University.
He is an ten-time recipient of the Indiana University Trustees Teaching Award, and received the 2012 Robert Glaser Award, the highest teaching award of the Association of American Medical Colleges.
He is the author of over 700 scholarly articles and has published 12 books. More importantly, his students are widely published and have gone on to win many awards and achieve professional distinction.
Spinoza Chair, University of Amsterdam
His latest book is entitled, Tesla
Indianapolis, IN, USA
For media enquiries,
rbgunder@iu.edu
Joined September 13, 2013
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0022.json.gz/line1056
|
__label__wiki
| 0.865199
| 0.865199
|
← Brooks Orpik Retires From Washington Capitals At Age 38
Roberto Luongo Retires After 19 NHL Seasons →
Hockey Hall Of Fame Announces Class Of 2019
The Hockey Hall Of Fame today announced the newest members that will join as the Class of 2019 on 15 November, with the most decorated women’s player in history, the first Iron Curtain star to defect to the west, and a pair of multiple Stanley Cup champions, who between them hold a number of International Hockey Lineal Championships, all to join the ranks of the Hall in Toronto.
🇨🇦 Guy Carbonneau, who joined the Montréal Canadiens dynasty full-time in 1982, spent a dozen seasons with the Habs, captaining the team from 1989-94 and winning Stanley Cups in 1986 and 1993, also capturing three Selke Trophies (1988, 1989, 1992) as the league’s top defensive forward. Carbonneau joined the Dallas Stars in 1995, spending his final five seasons in Texas, capturing his third Stanley Cup in 1999. After After retiring following the Stars’ Cup finals loss in 2000, Carbonneau joined the Canadiens’ coaching staff, serving as head coach from 2006-09, and would spend his only international time with Team Canada behind the bench at both the World Championship and World U-18 levels.
🇨🇿 Václav Nedomanský, who was a star centre for both HC Slovan Bratislava and the Czechoslovakian squads that spent the 1970’s tilting against the Soviet Union in epic battles on the international stage, became best known in the west for being the first Eastern European player to defect to North America, escaping Czechoslovakia via Switzerland to join the Toronto Toros of the WHA in 1974, spending eight seasons between the WHA and NHL. Internationally, “Big Ned” helped lead the národní tým to World Championship Gold in 1972, four Silver (1965, 1966, 1971, 1974) and three Bronze (1969, 1970, 1973), also winning Olympic Silver in 1968 and Bronze in 1972.
🇨🇦 Hayley Wickenheiser, arguably the greatest women’s player to ever compete, brings a staggering array of hardware to the Hall, capturing four Olympic Gold (2002, 2006, 2010, 2014) and one Silver (1998) medals, seven World Championship Gold (1994, 1997, 1999, 2000, 2004, 2007, 2012) and six Silver (2005, 2008, 2009, 2011, 2013, 2016) medals, eleven Nations Cup Gold and five Silver medals, along with Gold at both the 1995 and 1996 Pacific Rim Championship, capping her career medal haul at 24 Gold and 12 Silver medals, never once having to settle for Bronze. Wickenheiser has also won a CIS title (2012) and Clarkson Cup (2016), and becomes only the seventh woman to enter the Hall of Fame.
🇷🇺 Sergei Zubov,a standout offensive defenceman with the Soviet World Junior program, won Olympic Gold in his first senior tournament at the 1992 Olympics, joining the NHL the following season. With the New York Rangers, Zubov helped backstop the Blueshirts to their first Stanley Cup in 54 years in only his second NHL season. After a short stopover in Pittsburgh, Zubov joined the Dallas Stars in 1996, where he would spend his final twelve seasons in North America as arguably the team’s best defender in history, helping backstop the Stars to the Stanley Cup in 1999. In addition to his Olympic Gold, Zubov also won World Junior Gold (1989) and Silver (1990), and suited up for the 1992 World Championship and 1996 World Cup of Hockey.
Also inducted into the builders category were Canadian Jim Rutherford and American Jerry York. Our congratulations go out to these hockey legends on joining the Hall Of Fame this November!
Photo Credit: Montréal Canadiens – SME – COC – Sports.ru – IIHF – HHOF – IOC
This entry was posted in IHLC News, Olympic Games, Three / Four Nations Cup, Women's World Championship, World Championship, World Cup Of Hockey, World Junior Championship and tagged Canada, Czechia, Czechoslovakia, Four Nations Cup, Olympics, Russia, Soviet Union, Three Nations Cup, Women's World Championship, World Championship, World Cup Of Hockey, World Junior Championship. Bookmark the permalink.
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0022.json.gz/line1059
|
__label__wiki
| 0.985339
| 0.985339
|
Photo: Delil Souleiman/AFP/Getty ImagesPhoto: Delil Souleiman/AFP/Getty Images
Pentagon Ignored Evidence of Civilian Casualties in ISIS Strikes, Human Rights Group Says
Ryan Devereaux
October 26 2016, 12:02 a.m.
U.S. authorities overseeing the war against the Islamic State in Syria have failed to respond to evidence of hundreds of civilian casualties resulting from coalition airstrikes and potential violations of the laws of war, according to a startling new account from Amnesty International.
In a press release issued Tuesday night, Amnesty said it has presented the Pentagon with evidence that 11 coalition airstrikes in Syria over the past two years appear to have led to the deaths of as many as 300 civilians — and that so far that evidence has been met with silence.
“U.S. authorities have provided no response to a memorandum Amnesty International sent to the Department of Defense on September 28 to raise questions about the conduct of coalition forces in Syria,” the group claimed.
“We fear the U.S.-led coalition is significantly underestimating the harm caused to civilians in its operations in Syria,” Lynn Maalouf, deputy director for research at Amnesty’s Beirut regional office, said in a statement. “Analysis of available evidence suggests that in each of these cases, coalition forces failed to take adequate precautions to minimize harm to civilians and damage to civilian objects.”
Maalouf added that some of the strikes in question “may constitute disproportionate or otherwise indiscriminate attacks.”
U.S. Army Maj. Josh T. Jacques said CENTCOM, the component of the U.S. military running the coalition war against the Islamic State, “is aware of the letter from Amnesty International and is currently evaluating the allegations of civilian casualties it contains.”
“The coalition takes great care — from analysis of available intelligence to selection of the appropriate weapon to meet mission requirements — in order to minimize the risk of harm to non-combatants,” Jacques said in an email to The Intercept. “Civilian casualty allegations come from various sources, including our own internal reviews and unit self-reporting, media reports, non-governmental organizations, or other U.S. government departments.”
While the Syrian military and its Russian allies have been responsible for the vast majority of civilian casualties resulting from airstrikes within Syria’s borders, the 27-page memorandum Amnesty sent to the Pentagon last month painted a detailed picture of nearly a dozen incidents in which coalition operations frequently described by U.S. officials as the most careful and precise in the world appear to have gone deeply awry.
“For several incidents, no military objective could be discerned and reports indicate that the only casualties were civilian,” the memo noted. “The loss of civilian life was so high in a few attacks that it is difficult to see how a significant enough military advantage could have been anticipated that would have outweighed the risk to civilians.”
More than a third of the deaths Amnesty catalogued were the result of bloody operations to liberate areas around and in the Syrian city of Manbij from Islamic State control over the summer. While death counts from airstrikes during that offensive varied, Amnesty claims that attacks launched on one village, al-Tukhar, may have resulted in the greatest loss of civilian life in the history of the coalition’s war on ISIS, with 73 civilians — including 27 children — killed, according to evidence Amnesty compiled.
While the U.S. has confirmed that it launched an investigation into the high-profile incidents in Manbij, its broader efforts at investigating alleged civilian casualty incidents in the war on the Islamic State have been repeatedly called into question.
A Defense Department official said that the Pentagon had not yet incorporated Amnesty’s report, but as of October 13, had received 249 allegations of civilian casualties stemming from coalition operations in Syria and Iraq. Of the complaints received, 62 resulted in closed investigations, with 31 conclusions announced publicly — 13 in Syria and 18 in Iraq. The Pentagon deemed 179 of the allegations not credible. In Syria, five investigations remain open. All told, the Pentagon claims that 55 civilians have been killed and 29 injured over two years and thousands of airstrikes in Syria and Iraq.
The figures pale in comparison to civilian casualty estimates offered up by human rights organizations and other monitoring groups, which claim that anywhere from 600 to more than 1,000 civilians have died in coalition airstrikes. In the case of the 11 strikes Amnesty examined, the human rights group reported that to date CENTCOM has acknowledged only a single civilian casualty resulting from those operations.
“Based on Amnesty International’s research and analysis, some attacks known or suspected to have been carried out by coalition forces may have violated international humanitarian law,” Amnesty’s memorandum to U.S. officials noted.
The reported failure to follow up on alleged civilian casualties, the group argues, appears to fall short of an executive order issued by President Obama in July, which requires U.S. authorities to investigate when civilians are believed to have died in U.S. counterterrorism operations.
“This is totally contrary to the president’s stated commitments to transparency and accountability on this issue,” said Naureen Shah, director of Amnesty’s Security with Human Rights program. “The Defense Department must acknowledge and investigate these civilian deaths immediately.”
Ryan Devereaux[email protected]theintercept.com@rdevro
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0022.json.gz/line1060
|
__label__wiki
| 0.610836
| 0.610836
|
The Millions Interview: Leslie Jamison
Michelle Huneven May 25, 2011 | 6 books mentioned 3 9 min read
I read and admired Leslie Jamison’s The Gin Closet when it first came out –and was immediately curious about its author: How could someone so young (Jamison was 26 at publication) write a book so lyrical, dark and knowing? As she and I both found ourselves in Iowa City this last spring, Jamison, now 28, agreed to sit down for a chat.
This was Jamison’s second stint in Iowa City; she’d received her MFA from the Writers Workshop five years ago, and is presently a PhD candidate at Yale. Now, she was accompanying her boyfriend, another Yale PhD student, while he got his MFA in poetry at the workshop.
On a cool spring day, before the cornfields were plowed or the leaves of the trees had unfurled, Jamison and I drove to the small town of Mount Vernon twenty miles north of Iowa City. Our destination was a coffeehouse called Fuel, a standard-bearer among coffeehouses with nooks and comfortable chairs, ample table space, amusing oddments to look at and buy, not to mention great coffee, and cookies baked in small batches all day long. (Jamison works part time in a bakery and has developed, she says, a snobbery about cookies: Fresh from the oven or none at all!). Fuel is one of Jamison’s natural habitats; she reads and writes there for hours at a stretch, so it seemed the ideal spot for a good long chat into the digital recorder. Also, as Jamison herself pointed out, The Gin Closet, which came out in paperback this month, is concerned with three generations of women and Fuel is run by three generations of women. Today, the granddaughter served as barista as the grandmother baked.
Stella, The Gin Closet’s protagonist, joins a long line of literary heroines, very intelligent young women on the cusp of adult lifewho willfully make bad choices (think Emma Woodhouse, Dorothea Brooke, Hester Prynne, Isabel Archer). At loose ends in her mid-twenties, Stella works for a famous, abusive boss and has fallen in love with a married man. In part to console herself, Stella moves in with her grandmother Lucy only to discover that Lucy is dying.
Jamison’s prose is lyrical, with the frank blare of youth:
Every night I said things like: Today my boss and I got drunk at lunch. Today my boss was on Oprah! Today I spent a thousand dollars on gift baskets. Today I used the word “autumnal” twice, and both times I was speaking to tulip salesmen…I compressed my days neatly into appetizer courses. I worked as a personal assistant for a woman with a reputation for treating people like shit, and she treated me like shit. I couldn’t spin witty versions of the rest. In the darkness I began caring for my collapsing grandmother. She wasn’t being inspirational or having sex or treating anyone like shit. She was just getting old.
As Lucy dies, a secret emerges: Stella has an aunt, Matilda, who was cast out of the family before Stella was born. After the funeral, Stella sets out to find this Aunt Tilly, ostensibly to deliver a letter but really to set things right. Tilly is found in a trailer in the Nevada desert.
The novel alternates between Stella’s first person and her aunt Tilly’s limited third person narrations. Tilly is a late-stage alcoholic and ex-prostitute whose difficult past Jamison renders fearlessly. Tilly’s one son Abe, a banker, has been sending her enough money so she can quit turning tricks; he wants her to live with him in San Francisco, but only if she’ll stop drinking. Stella convinces Tilly to take up this longstanding offer and the three of them—Stella, Tilly and Abe—set up housekeeping together in the city.
The center, if there ever was one, doesn’t hold.
As I suspected, Jamison is whip smart, articulate and intense—a terrific conversationalist.
Michelle Huneven: What got you started on this book—what was the germ, the seed?
Leslie Jamison: The short answer is my family I was working on a different novel and was stuck–I didn’t understand how stuck. I moved into a family home with my grandmother who was very sick. My life was taken over by her declining health. Trying to take care of her was completely beyond what I understood how to do. I realized when I woke up in the morning that there was no way I could work on this other novel, it had no claim on my heart or thoughts, so I just started writing with no particular plan about what was happening with my grandmother and how it was bringing up a lot of feelings about our family, a lot of old wounds that hadn’t been repaired. I had a fantasy that they could all be repaired before she died. It didn’t happen that way. But I was left with these pages about how I wish things had been different in our family, in particular with an aunt who had been estranged for a long time. I started to write a novel that explored bluntly what if– what if my aunt came back into the conversation of my family. That scenario had a lot of emotional weight with me and really drove the first draft of the novel. It took many more drafts to get further in–and further away from my family.
MH: I particularly liked Stella’s mix of naieve hopefulness and her blind confidence that she could repair the familial breach and somehow accomplish what her mother and grandmother hadn’t managed to do.
LJ: Yes, Stella has a dual feeling of guilt and superiority. I shared some version of that, myself. You feel responsible for what your family has done, even if you weren’t alive for it, but you also feel like, I’m better than that, I would never do that to somebody, and what’s more, I can go fix it. Stella thinks “I can do what my mother wasn’t capable of doing, which was to love the damage in another person.”
MH: In a way, Stella’s a classic young heroine. She’s smart and deep, but she’s not yet fully-formed, which makes her ripe for demons—in the beginning of the book, she has a terrible boss, she’s deep in it with a married man, then she’s in over her head with her sick grandmother. A flick on the back of the head is all that’s needed to send her down some misbegotten path—like saving her aunt.
LJ: Which lets you in on the dirty secret of what altruism really is, which is saying I don’t know how to deal with my own stuff so I’ll immerse myself in somebody else’s stuff, so I can feel like a hero in their life.
MH: Yes, but there are times when nothing can touch your low self esteem except getting out of yourself and being of service to another person.
LJ: We can do good things out of flawed motives–which doesn’t make them less good. But you can also show up for a certain situation only to discover that the situation is bigger than you are–you’re really signing up to lose control.
MH: One scene really haunts me. Stella goes to her aunt’s trailer in Nevada and sees the gin closet, her aunt’s drinking room. It’s a terrible womb-tomb place, bottles, flies, a turkey carcass of all things, a stool in the corner—truly the nightmare version of a tuffet. Appalling! But the next thing you know, Stella and Tilly are drinking together. Reading along, I was thinking: No! Don’t do it, Stella–you’re giving too much ground! I knew she wanted to help her aunt and bring her back into the family. While I never thought she had a chance of succeeding, I really didn’t want her to sink to her aunt’s level.
LJ: I wanted to destabilize Stella’s hero complex from the start to show it as confused. She wanted to connect with her aunt and build a sense of trust and to not be just another voice saying, “you’re a fuck up and we want your problems far away from us.” The short cut to that was to get low with her, get shamed with her.
That’s as opposed to saying I’m here, in a better spot, and I want you to come here too, which imposes a boundary and a separateness that requires a lot of moral fortitude and a kind of caring that’s willing to be patient.
MH: And drinking with her aunt is like taking food in the dark realm, like Persephone eating the pomegranate seeds—it compromises the mission, prefigures its doom.
The novel also plays with a universal orphan fantasy: you’re a little girl and you’re mad at your parents and then you think, Hey! what if I had another, secret family which was my real, true family. Even the happiest child imagines at some point that she actually belongs with the fairies.
LJ: (Laughs) Yeah! Drunken fairies! Absolutely. Stella replaces her mother with a woman she can be a mother to. She has trouble recognizing all the ways that her mother has been a mother for her, and wants to instead focus on what she resents her for and to replace her with a relationship that can make her feel good about herself, where she can occupy this nurturing role. What Stella’s mother has given her is complicated, but there’s a lot of good in it. And that, I think is ultimately the reckoning in the orphan family fantasy–where you have to come back and say, maybe I didn’t want the fairies after all.
MH: It’s Coraline—suddenly your busy, hardworking mother seems infinitely better than the one who wants to replace your eyes with buttons.
LJ: Or Where the Wild Things Are. Suddenly, your cold porridge in your room doesn’t look so bad after where you’ve been…
MH: I was interested, too, in how, when the new family forms, when they move into Abe’s apartment, closeness doesn’t follow. The two educated young people don’t really know how to find common ground with Tilly, who is white-knuckling it through her days working at a new job that’s essentially busywork, and trying to put her stamp on the loft by decorating it with cheap little trinkets she finds on her wanderings. The three don’t even enjoy a honeymoon period together.
LJ: Yes. It’s strange to suddenly be family with someone with whom you don’t have that whole backlog of quiet awkward shared family experience. Tilly and Stella are family but there’s no territory that they share beyond a feeling that it’s wrong that they hadn’t been family so far. So there’s kind of a rabid good intention coming up against, well, what it looks like day to day.
MH: Here’s a question all the bookclubs will ask you: How did you write so convincingly about prostitution?
LJ: I did what every self-respecting PhD student does…which is to say, I went to the library. I checked out 20 books from the Yale system and spent a month doing little but reading them. The main thing I remember feeling from all these womens’ stories was that, yes, many of them were stories of incredible hardship, but they weren’t about soul-erasure or the effacement of dignity–they weren’t black and white Before and After stories. There was a tremendous amount of dailiness; not quite so much melodrama as I’d imagined. I remember thinking, I’m not qualified to imagine my way into this. And then thinking, I’m just going to have to get over that.
MH: What writing, what literary models conditioned you for writing The Gin Closet?
LJ: I distinctly remember reading–over the course of two long, lonely, completely engrossed days–the entirety of Yates’ Revolutionary Road. I’d reached one of those points where I’d forgotten what the point of a novel was–why the world was better-off for having it, I guess–and why I was writing my own; and I read Yates and felt such deep humanity and honesty and richness in his world, and felt myself so changed–I thought, if I can do this for anyone, the book will be worth it. The deep geneology of my conditioning had been going on for a long time before the draft, as is true for all writers: Faulkner and Woolf are my twin gods; Plath has always been important to me, Anne Carson, the many beautiful and talented writers I’m lucky to call friends.
MH: What’s the next book? How is it different or the same from The Gin Closet?
LJ: I am working on the second draft of a novel about the Sandinista Revolution in Nicaraugua.
I feel like The Gin Closet was a gush of consciousness. I wrote it from pure feeling. I followed it intuitively. I’m not sure if any of my other books are going to be like that. The process of writing since then has been much more deliberate– not that my heart isn’t involved. But I’ve been extending out of myself much more, whereas with the first one, I was dredging stuff out from inside myself. That’s not to say it’s totally autobiographical.
MH: Who are you looking to now, for the new book? What writers do you reach for to “prime the pump” so to speak—to make you want to write?
LJ: There are some writers who make me want to write, and other writers who make me feel as if I can write–as if I have it in me–and these circles aren’t entirely overlapping. Shirley Hazzard makes me want to write–in fact, she makes me want to write exactly like she writes–but this is usually bad, because I end up writing second-tier Hazzard instead of any-tier Jamison. I usually read poetry when I’m trying to write–it makes me swollen with beauty and possibility, with honesty, but it doesn’t call up the urge to imitate. Lately I’ve been reading Carson’s Nox, and Berryman’s Dream Songs. The new book is about history, which gives me a rich well of reading that isn’t fiction. I’ve been reading a lot of Sandinista memoirs–they are just so fucking interesting; full of the physical world and translated curse-words and a surprising (maybe not so surprising) amount of sex and humor.
MH: You seem to have a penchant for poets…how has living with/among poets affected your writing and your attitudes toward fiction and poetry?
LJ: I’ve always thought “A penchant for poets” might be a good title for my memoir, if I ever publish one. I’ve dated a few of them, and–as you point out—I have been living with one for several years, in a house so laden with books in multiple genres it’s creaking at the seams. As I’ve mentioned, poetry gets me inspired to write–I love getting close to the minds that make it. I love having conversations over scrambled eggs about line breaks and refrains, because I get to think about making without thinking about my own making. Sometimes it’s hard because I feel like Practical Peggy juxtaposed against the infinite and infinitely disorganized energy of a poet–short attention span, fickle production, wild strokes of genius.
MH: So which side are you going to root for this year at the Writers Workshop softball game?
LJ: I’m going to have to root for fiction. Genre before love. Plus, my boyfriend loves to argue, so I think this will suit him just fine.
MH: How has it been being back in Iowa City for two years, when you’re not at the workshop?
LJ: Yeah! (Laughs and squints at the iphone on the table between us) How much time do you have left on your little recorder there?
Michelle Huneven is a novelist whose most recent books are Blame and Off Course.
Getting Away with Murder: The Millions Interviews Ursula K. Le Guin
Paul Morton January 31, 2013 | 6 books mentioned 14 13 min read
Every morning, The Oregonian publishes the latest tally of Americans killed in Iraq and Afghanistan. Ursula K. Le Guin prints out the number in bold script on standard computer paper and tapes it to her living room window not far from the rainbow peace flag atop her garage. Does this do any good? Does this change anything? You might just as well ask if novels or stories have any real-world effect. In an interview with Wired magazine last year, she gave her approval to the members of Occupy Oakland who decorated their signs with the cover of The Dispossessed, one of her science-fiction novels that chronicled a failed revolution.
Le Guin is not a dull or prescriptive leftist and there are good reasons why her work attracts genre geeks and high-brow literary types along with activists. Her novels and stories are critical of every sort of imagined culture, and at times filled with sympathy for figures one imagines would be her fiercest political opponents on this earth. There are no Darth Vaders or Saurons in her Earthsea Cycle novels. She can’t quite manage to turn the creepy social engineer in The Lathe of Heaven into a Stalinist monster. But she does depict cruel and twisted societies and her humane gifts as a storyteller allow her to dissect them without providing any fast answers on how to correct them. Like J.M. Coetzee, she demands that you ask what citizenship in the human race requires. Unlike Coetzee, she makes you ask those questions without hating yourself for being human.
Small Beer Press has just released a two-volume collection of her short stories, The Unreal and the Real. The first volume, Where on Earth, includes her realist and magic realist fiction set somewhere on the planet she inhabits. It includes some of her pieces set in Orsinia, her fictional Eastern European country, which she has not chronicled since it enjoyed a revolution a little over 20 years ago, as well as favorites like “Direction of the Road” and “Buffalo Gals, Won’t You Come Out Tonight.” The second volume, Outer Space, Inner Lands, includes work more squarely placed within the science-fiction genre, including “Betrayals,” another story about the aftermath of a failed revolution and “The Wild Girls,” a long piece about a slave society. The volume opens with her famous parable, “The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas.” It’s always hard to define a genre. Much of the work in her first volume could find a place in her second volume, and vice versa.
I met her at her house in Portland on a January afternoon. It was a clear day and you could see Mount Saint Helens about 50 miles distant from her dining-room window. We sat in her living room where we were consistently interrupted by her black-and-white cat Pard. We began the interview by talking about her parents and siblings. Her father Alfred Kroeber was a legendary anthropologist who wrote a famous study of the California Indians in the 1910s. Her mother Theodora Kroeber enjoyed a writing career late in life, writing biographies of her husband and of Ishi, the last member of a lost California tribe whom he had befriended. Karl Kroeber, her late brother, was an English professor at Columbia University. The following is a pared-down version of a 75-minute conversation.
The Millions: What did you learn about writing from your father and mother? Your mother started writing around the time you started writing.
Ursula K. Le Guin: She got published first though. I suppose what I learned from my father is that writing is something people do. It’s a perfectly normal human activity. You do it everyday. You have a place where you do it and when you’re doing it, it is respected…The family doesn’t bother you.
Now, of course this doesn’t work the same way when you’re not a professor and are a young housewife. But I think it gave me a security a lot of young writers don’t have, the sense that I’m doing something absolutely worthwhile. And the sense that I can and I will make the space in my life to do it. And this can be a huge problem, particularly for women writers. They really want to write, they really have the urge, but they aren’t sure that they have a right to do it. And I was given the right by seeing my father, who I respected and who everyone respected and who was a great guy, just doing it. So that’s a huge gift.
From my mother [it was] more complicated. She, being of her generation, didn’t start writing until she got all her kids out of the house and settled. She felt it wasn’t right to combine writing [with] being a housewife and mother. I had some problems with that in my teens. I wondered if I could do it. My best friend in high school, who was John Steinbeck’s niece, said, “Of course you could do it if you want to. Why not have kids and books?” She was right. So there again, I got support. My parents were supportive, but they didn’t hover at all.
TM: Were there any writing techniques that you learned from them?
UKLG: No. I didn’t even realize what a good writer my dad was until I was quite grown up and had been writing for a long time. My mother loved to talk about her writing while she was writing. [She would] talk about it before she wrote…which was neat for me because I cannot talk about writing. And I never talk about anything until it’s finished. There’re different kinds of writers and she was the kind that liked to talk it out. And it was a lot of fun to have someone like that to talk about writing. But I don’t think we taught each other anything.
TM: It’s interesting that you say that because I thought there was a tone in her book on Ishi similar to what I see in some of your books.
UKLG: Well that would probably be something that someone else could see that I couldn’t.
TM: A way of pulling back, a quietness.
UKLG: That’s nice, yeah. She and I certainly have different styles. But you know how it is. The kid doesn’t want to be compared too closely to the parent. So I could be absolutely blind to some similarity there.
TM: Did you find yourself studying these imagined worlds the same way your father studied his actual worlds?
UKLG: There’s certainly a similarity, but I think it’s temperamental. I didn’t read his books, as I said, until I was grown up and I had been writing what I write for quite awhile. We are interested in artifacts and how things are made and how operations are carried out. It’s [a similar] mindset, his equipment [as an anthropologist] and mine as a novelist.
TM: And I imagine that’s something you picked up by osmosis in dinner table conversations growing up.
UKLG: Yes. He wouldn’t talk shop at table, but we entertained a lot of people, particularly in summer when we were up in Napa Valley. [There were] anthropologists, ethnologists, European intellectuals — mostly refugees as this was the ’30s and ’40s — and the conversations would be very wide-ranging. My father did not talk a lot about his work. Of course he wasn’t doing ethnology anymore by the time I came along. There were some picturesque ethnologists who came through and told us about their adventures.
TM: You wrote a bit about your brother Karl, who was my professor at Columbia, and your shared love for books growing up. Did you share your work with him early on?
UKLG: No. Karl and I were the two youngest [of four children] and we were just under three years apart. We were pretty tight and pretty feisty. Karl was a rivalrous person. He was very sick as a baby. He was not what they call celiac now [– he] was the real thing. He lived on rice and bananas for his first six years. So he was very fragile. And he had a tremendous fighting spirit. So Karl was in rivalry with me [from the start], which was kind of ridiculous. So there were always some problems [and we] were also very tight. Brothers and sisters are fascinating.
TM: It sounds like the Kennedys.
UKLG: (Laughs) Well, slightly different type, but yeah. I think you know how that can be within a family. We played together and read books together all through our childhood. And often we were up there for the whole summer and there were a lot of adults coming and going but there were just four kids. When the two older brothers were playing Julius Caesar, Karl and I were [the Gauls].
TM: Was that your introduction to storytelling, playing together like that?
UKLG: Story-telling was mostly from my father who would tell us mostly Indian stories outside the house [in summer] around the fire at night. My Great Aunt Betsy had the family stories. She was a good storyteller.
TM: She was on your mother’s side?
UKLG: She was my mother’s aunt. She grew up in Wyoming. It’s a Western family. She just had that gift of storytelling. It’s because we were up there in the summer, and we sat around the fireplace [under the stars — so] no reading. It was all just game-playing or storytelling. We could play charades. So I think I had a much more oral culture than most American kids of my generation [– even then, before television.]
TM: In Always Coming Home you play with the Indian tradition where everyone is sitting around telling a story and then someone…
UKLG: Does a variation.
TM: What intrigues me about it is that it’s a very fast-motion version of what occurs in written culture.
UKLG: Yes, exactly.
TM: You read a story by Tolkien and you turn around and say I’m going to do my own version of this with the same archetypes.
UKLG: Being in science fiction was great because there was an open and free borrowing of vocabulary and ideas and so on. [It] was not plagiarism in the slightest. It was simply artists using the same material. I always compare it to the Baroque music period, where they’re all borrowing from each other like crazy and they’re all building the same house.
TM: When you’re writing about these made-up worlds, the Hainish worlds, Orsinia, or Earthsea, you are imagining all these small details, what the chairs or the doorknobs look like. But there are limitations to what you can imagine.There’s only so much you can know.
UKLG: It becomes an obsessive game.
TM: Are you ever aware of that when you’re writing?
UKLG: No, because after all in writing if you don’t have to mention the doorknob you don’t. I think one reason why most science-fiction movies are so lousy is that in them you do have to imagine the doorknob and you have to design it. And every single visual object has to be designed to tie in together. And then you get into a literalism which is a little bit soul-killing. But in writing you get away with murder. You just suggest something. So much of fantasy and science fiction is just the art of suggestion. You don’t really tell people that much, but they think you have because they imagine it.
TM: But how does it work when you imagine a new language.
UKLG: Oh well that’s different. I always come back to Tolkien here, who wrote the essential essay about those of us who make up languages. Lots of people when they’re kids draw. They draw islands or maps or places with the roads and the cities and the marshes and mountains and so on. It’s amazing when you ask an audience, “How many of you did that as a kid?” At least a third of the hands will go up. I never asked how many made up languages, which would be interesting to do. But I don’t think very many do. I love language, I love the sound of language. I play with word sounds in my head. This is just some native gift. I make up more languages than I have to actually.
TM: When Hemingway writes For Whom the Bell Tolls, he writes the dialogue as a Spanishfied English. He knows the basic constructions of Spanish in order to be able to do that. Do you ever try to do anything similar with your invented languages?
UKLG: No, not in the way Hemingway does, where he writes with a Spanish accent. And I don’t like it when he does that to tell you the truth. I find it a little affected and foolish. “Okay Ernest, if you want to write in Spanish, write in Spanish. Learn it well enough to write in it. You’re writing English.”
In The Left Hand of Darkness you have a major cultural concept like shifgrethor. I didn’t need to build the language out of that. But I did need to know enough to get shifgrethor. I needed to have a phoneme pool to get the word from. And then I just needed to know the word and what it meant and had meant and all its connotations and denotations. But I didn’t really need the rest of the vocabulary.
I do translate. I like translating very much. It’s a kind of writing I’ve done more as I’ve gotten older. And of course if I’m translating from Spanish I don’t want it to sound like Spanish. I want it to sound like English. I want it to do in English what it does in Spanish. So I’m almost the other pole from Hemingway there. And not only there.
TM: Do you feel “The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas” means something different now than when you wrote it?
UKLG: That story? No. Because I don’t know what it means. It is a question. I know why I wanted to write it. Out of middle-class guilt, out of human guilt for what we do to each other and everybody else. I know my motivations for that story. [It] meant a lot to me. Of course, that’s the story they always ask about, and write letters about. And they always want me to give the answer and not the question.
TM: That story speaks very directly to life under late capitalism. I don’t know if you see that story speaking to other possible systems.
UKLG: Well, I never thought of it that way because I’ve only lived under late capitalism. And both Dostoevsky and William James who asked the question the story asks before me were living under capitalism. Dostoevsky somewhat less. His was more of a feudalistic capitalism. I don’t know. Interesting question. But not one I could answer now.
TM: I’d be curious to know how maybe someone in Cuba would react to it.
UKLG: I don’t know. It would be interesting to find out. The story has been translated into lots of languages. But I don’t know if I’ve ever heard from anybody specifically about it from a really different culture. And I don’t know if my stories go to any really different cultures. I think Indonesia is about as far [as my work has gone]…Turkey…Korea…They’re all capitalistic.
TM: I sense in the way “Omelas” ends, with a look at those who choose to walk away from it, and the way many of your stories end, and a few of your novels, a weird Tolstoyan optimism minus the Christian theology. In the situations that you imagine — as bleak as they are – there’s always some decent humanity that exists that is somehow still worth preserving.
UKLG: Optimism seems an odd word. But I can see why you use it. It may just be a refusal to take the counsel of despair. I think to admit despair and to revel in it — as many 20th- and 21st-century writers do — is an easy way out. Whenever I get really really depressed and discouraged about our politics in America and what we are doing, ecologically speaking, globally speaking, [with] our mad rush to destroy the world, it’s very easy to say, “To hell with us. This species is not successful.” Something tells me I have no right to say that. There are good people. Who am I to judge? The problem with despair is it gets judgmental. But I’m not saying this very well.
TM: This refusal to judge is the other side of the refusal to idealize.
UKLG: And of course, when I was in my 20s and 30s I had a good deal of political idealism. I did think we really could work towards and achieve more justice in human societies. And that revolution might be a way to do it. I’m pretty far left, and basically socialist. Human nature is whatever human nature is. “We can make it better than it was so far.” It’s pretty hard to keep thinking that decade after decade, let me tell you. I guess José Saramago was able to hold onto his Marxist faith into his ninth decade, but he was a very tough guy. A lot of that hopefulness — that would be optimism — gets knocked out of you, particularly if you are living in a country as I feel I am living in, that is really on the skids, that is really losing it.
TM: There seems even in “The Wild Girls,” the bleakest story here, some of what I call optimism.
UKLG: There is? (Befuddled expression)
TM: There’s still humanity that comes through in this horrible slave society, in which people can still tell a joke.
UKLG: But that’s how people are. I will not say, “Even in Breslau they told jokes.” But they probably did. You read Primo Levi and you realize how people can come out of something like that. He’s still Primo Levi. He’s a beautiful man. Human beings are very tough. And they are funny and they are kind. There are all sorts of good things about human beings. And I come back to this. I have no right to despair. As for “The Wild Girls,” probably the last full short story I wrote, I think it’s a good story. But I don’t really like it because it’s so dark. Those people just don’t have a chance. It’s based on an Indian society in the Mississippi Valley that really did work that way. And I’ve been trying to imagine myself into that society. And just…“My God!”
TM: Your father had no patience for those who idealized the Indians. He had a lot of fascination for these cultures. But he disliked the [condescending, co-opting] white voice of “I admire the Indians.”
UKLG: “The wonderful brave Indian.” Oh yes.
TM: I was just thinking of that as interesting given that that was your inspiration for this story.
UKLG: The fact that it came from an Indian culture was neither here nor there. It just struck me as one of those utterly weird things that human beings have actually done. I didn’t make this up. I just fictionalized it.
TM: You have this beautiful man archetype with Shevek in The Dispossessed. He is of a different culture that you make up. So how do you balance admiring the man himself while avoiding the trap, as your father was clear about, of idealizing the culture?
UKLG: Oh, I guess because I was inoculated early. I have rarely romanticized another culture, idealized it because it’s different than mine. I say rarely, because when I was in my teens I romanticized France and romanticized French culture the way a lot of people do. Of course when I got to France, there were people [who]…but man, did they eat well. (Laughs)
There’s something I got fairly directly from my dad. [The differences are endlessly interesting], but value judgments are not involved. And you can’t romanticize.
TM: But you can romanticize an individual.
UKLG: Sure.
TM: And fall in love with him.
UKLG: And it could be a man or a woman. And of course there are beautiful people. I’ve met them. They’re not beautiful all the way through, [maybe, but] people worth knowing for the rest of your life. There are such people. That’s put me out of step a good deal with a lot of the fiction of my time.
TM: Because the fiction of your time is opposed to romanticizing individual figures?
UKLG: The fiction of my time is about dysfunctional American suburban families.
TM: No Jean Valjeans.
UKLG: Talk about romantic. Well, shoot I like Victor Hugo. I can romanticize with the best of them. I tend to romanticize people but not cultures.
TM: When you write, how much of it is “doing not-doing,” the Taoist ideal?
UKLG: Maybe, as I’ve gone on, what I’ve learned as a writer is that you do as little as possible. And part of it is leaving a lot of it up to the reader. And a lot of it is realizing you don’t have to do that much if you do the right thing. [Makes clicking sound] That’s enough. So my writing has tended to be shorter and more allusive than it used to be. I was re-reading The Lathe of Heaven — which I’m still fond of, which I still think is funny — but, boy would I cut it if I could. They talk too much. They explain things too much.
TM: I know you’ve written that science-fiction writers are not prophets. But is there any thing that has happened in your society during your writing life that has happily surprised you?
UKLG: Hmm…That’s not particularly a question to me as a writer, is it? Just to me as an American.
TM: Yes. Just curious.
UKLG: Well, pure happiness is such an endangered thing. This may sound sort of trivial, but I took geology in college, one semester. And I liked it but I couldn’t stick with it. I didn’t want to be a scientist anyway. But when they began figuring out plate tectonics, when they began figuring out how the Earth is put together, why we have mountain ranges, why continents drift and so on…That was an intellectual revolution that I lived through week by week as it developed. And it was wonderful. It was so terrific to realize that geology of all the stable solid sciences was just coming to pieces at the seams and discovering the world all over again and finally getting its feet right on the real world instead of on a lot of theory. That was so cool. I think science – not technology — science is one of the best things we do. And then there are artists who have come along in my lifetime, like Saramago, [who I wouldn’t have discovered] if they hadn’t Nobel-ed him. “Wow! There’s a man like that, writing like that, in his 80s.” I don’t know if things are better or worse. It’s always the best of times and the worst of times, isn’t it? But I’ve been glad to be alive while things like plate tectonics and Saramago were going on.
Paul Morton | 6 books mentioned 14 13 min read
The Future of the Book The Millions Interview
Richard Nash of Soft Skull on Google Print
C. Max Magee November 14, 2005 | 6 books mentioned 2 min read
Svetlana Alexievich Is No Useful Idiot
Il’ja Rákoš May 23, 2016 | 6 books mentioned 6 11 min read
1. “Our life here is just so much absurdity.” – Svetlana Alexievich
When Svetlana Alexievich and I sat down to speak in Kyiv earlier this year, I felt I’d seen this woman — all five-foot-nothing of her — before. Every day, there she is: solid as an axe handle, unyielding as a work of monumentalist sculpture. It was someone like this who tutored me in the bloodsport of Saturday morning marketing among Kyiv’s senior set. Aggression, but no violence, she might counsel. There’s one butcher we trust. If you plan to get in on his veal, show up early and show resolve. Lean in, with elbows.
I’ve also seen someone like this at my church in her tightly wrapped fleur-de-lis headscarf, weeping in front of the icon of Our Lady of Pirogoscha. The image attends silently to her supplications concerning her family — the husband drinking again and the son-in-law conscripted, sent east to the Front. She prays long and turns to leave, her hands hang limp at her sides. What solace will the semper virgine bring?
On this day, though, I know her name: she’s Svetlana Alexievich, of Minsk, Belarus, and she is the 2015 Nobel Laureate for Literature. A cat-eyed neighborhood sergeant-at-arms, with her purposeful walk and her pricey Italian boots — as incongruous as they are pristine, what with the rain we’ve been having, the April dark, and the grimy adventure of negotiating sidewalks in post-Soviet cities.
2.“Russian books are not read in decent homes.” – Ivan Turgenev
Alexievich is a writer whose métier is surpassed perhaps only by her method in the level of righteous alarm it invokes among the Russian literati. The child of a Ukrainian mother and Belarussian father, Svetlana is not ethnically Russian; raised in the political realities of Russification, of Sovietification, she has always written in the dominant language of the region. This, in light of the subject matter she addresses, has resulted in a somewhat awkward recognition of her contribution to the fabled Russkiy Mir of refined culture. Russian writers from across the talent spectrum have chimed in to declare her “not one of us.” Until very recently, her books were — if not banned — reserved from sale in her home country. A 2005 National Book Critics Circle win for Voices from Chernobyl and the 2013 French Prix Médicis Essai for Secondhand Time: The Last of the Soviets did little to assuage the miffed nativism of local critics, but it was the awarding of the Nobel Prize that effectively flipped the datestamp on the Russian critical response back to 1938, or 1953, or 1970.
Despite a set of remarkably brief and sanitized media reports about Nobel’s recognition of the velik i magooch russkiy yazyk (the grand and mighty Russian language), the award resulted in a more sustained series of denunciations of her work and person from major state-sponsored media. In language that would not feel out of place in a pulp fiction spy novel, Oleg Pukhnavtsev, writing for the Literaturnaya Gazeta, summed up the attitude well: “Alexievich is a classic anti-Soviet…a traitor.”
Still other publications invoked obscure World War II metaphors to underscore Alexievich’s bad behavior, even calling on long-time fellow traveler and Italian journalist Giulietto Chiesa, who checked in from Rome, publishing a scathing condemnation in KULTURA, “the newspaper of Eurasian Russia’s Spiritual, Intellectual Realm:” “Ms. Alexievich won the Nobel Prize for statements that have no basis in reality. The award is a manipulation — an attack on Russia and Putin. A political act that has nothing to do with literature.” Lesser critics lifted the exact wording from reports published in 1970 to denounce Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn’s Nobel, hinting at gross fabrications of sources and citations.
I have read five of Alexievich’s books. The revelations of criminality, brutality, bestiality, and degeneracy offered up by “ordinary people” and recorded by Alexievich are not for the squeamish, and the onslaught beggars credulity.
In the production of a book, Alexievich interviews up to 500 people, of which perhaps a quarter of the recorded remarks — whole or in part — will make it into the published volume. When she does identify the source of a citation, she often does so with a minimum of information — a job title, military rank, or family relationship. One may conclude, reasonably, that she is, strictly speaking, operating outside the realm of peer review and libel. Ranging from subtle to outright, condemnations of the Soviet regime out of the mouths of her subjects in her reporting are not infrequent, and are suspiciously pitch-perfect. Workshopped diatribes whose ear for Soviet stereotype would make a Ronald Reagan speechwriter blush. In Voices From Chernobyl, a widow describes in stoic terms her husband’s life and death as a Chernobyl “evacuator” (hazard containment and salvage). Note the critique, and the Russian “answer to everything.”
I got one thing out of him: ‘It’s the same there as it is here’…they’d serve the ordinary workers noodles and canned foods on the first floor…and the bosses and generals would be served fruit, red wine, mineral water on the second. Up there they have clean tablecloths, and a dosimeter for every man…ordinary workers didn’t get a single dosimeter for a whole brigade.
Another time the nurse from the nearby clinic comes, she just stands in the hallway and refuses to come in.‘Oh, I can’t!’ she says. And I can? I can do anything. What can I think of? How can I save him? He’s yelling, he’s in pain, all day he’s yelling. Finally, I found a way: I filled a syringe with vodka and put that in him. He’d turn off…
3. “Forget the past, lose an eye. Dwell on the past, lose both.” – Russian proverb
Alexievich and I met several times over the last year and spoke about her work. Perhaps the Russian critics aren’t off — she has axes to grind. Prize money to earn. She offers a wealth of biographical detail — born after the War into the family of a Soviet Army officer; not unsympathetic to the merits of the Soviet System; proudly listed among the ranks of those educated to engineer the Evil Empire, to heal it, to keep its books.
Viewed from book-distance, Alexievich could easily have continued to satisfy my expectations of the Nobel laureate, viz: political ideologue posing as writer publishing in any language as long as it is not English. Had time and fate not conspired to allow me to meet her in person, she also could have easily persisted as the very template of the honorable Soviet subject betrayed by history. The former stolnik of the regime now conscripted via American political manipulations into the role of the fitfully content democrat, one reconciled provisionally to the advantages of democracy that accompany the advent of discretionary income.
In the end, it is the 24 years that I have lived in the post-Soviet space that helps to convince me of Alexievich’s veracity. Those 24 years combined with the hours spent with her books, and now, the hours spent in her presence. This is no drone. No fictional cipher. No useful idiot. No soulless minion or Cold War rhetoric made flesh. The surest evidence is the body of work she has assembled and spread across seven books written over these last thirty years. Books that give voice to the historically voiceless. She has traveled across a territory with the land surface of the planet Mars, on trips that have resulted in the preservation of thousands of first-person testimonies of human history at its most brutal. Hardly an effort born of servility, ideology, or deceit.
I ask her about repentance — a word that repeats throughout the books that she describes as her “History of Red Civilization.” “Who needs to repent?” I ask. “And to whom?”
You know, I was a part of that. Invested in that superstition of the time and place, that colossal error, and it’s a very difficult thing to free yourself of. That’s why people were so ready to talk to me. I didn’t make myself out to be somebody with answers about what had gone wrong or what was coming next. We had no idea how it could all fall apart so quickly, or how quickly it would all come back to life. The idea itself, of real, substantive equality, is eternal. It’s beautiful. But somehow, in the Russian application of it, it always ends in a river of blood. So they talk to me.
I’d been a believer in it, just the same as they were. But I don’t know if I’d call what we’re doing ‘repentance.’ It’s more like reconsideration. We’re just talking to understand ourselves. American oversight played a big role in Germany coming to an understanding of its past, and we didn’t have that advantage. Didn’t have what was needed…the moral strength, the understanding, the intellectual elite, so many things. We’ve had to come to grips with our history as a people on our own. And so I set out to write that ‘why.’ That history of Red Civilization — Russian style.
Alexievich offers another word to describe herself:
I’m an accomplice. When glasnost came I was with everybody else running around the square shouting ‘Freedom! Freedom!,’ even if we didn’t have any idea what that meant. And when freedom showed up, and Yeltsin quickly transformed into Tsar Boris, and the oligarchs into his boyars, we understood soon enough that all we really wanted was a better life. I was part of that — past and present. And because of that disconnect, that ‘freedom’ looked shockingly similar to what we were trying to get rid of, that’s what interested me.
Not more utopia. We’d had that. We had books filled with lofty thoughts of literary types and what they had to say about the big questions of freedom and dignity. But I wanted to know what were the little people thinking. What was down in the shit? The dust. What did they want? Did they manage to get it? And the more I talked to them, the more frightening it became. The more pitiable. And it begins to occur to me at some point that Shalamov [Varlam Shalamov was a Russian writer whose work focuses on the Gulag] was on the right track in Kolyma Tales when he said that they were all poisoned by the North. That he came out of the camp as much victim as executioner. But the rest of us, the ones who made it work, we weren’t ready to make that distinction. To say who was who. We still aren’t.
4. “In Russian lit, someone is always required to suffer: the characters or the reader.” – Russian joke
In a 2009 report, the International Federation of Journalists reported that in the period following the breakup of the Soviet Union, 313 Russian journalists had disappeared or been killed in suspicious circumstances — 124 of those in murders linked irrefutably to their investigative work. Another phrase that describes Alexievich: exceptio probat regulam. She is one journalist who wasn’t shot, despite publishing three decades’ worth of indictment of the Soviet regime.
She spent the better part of the 2000s living away from Belarus in Western Europe, an existence made possible by a string of writing fellowships and the occasional prize money. But Svetlana Alexievich’s heart was bent on home. “Apart from my source, I couldn’t write. I had to go back.”
Now that she has, and despite Belarus’s retrograde take on freedom of expression, she does not worry about personal repression.
It’s funny in an odd way, you know. These great, powerful, dominating men who are so tender when you criticize them. He’s in a bit of a spot now, Lukashenko, [Belarus’s president since 1994]; he’s started cozying up to the European Union now with the money that used to come in from Moscow being spent on the war in Ukraine. So, yes, I’m still persona non grata, but he can’t pretend I don’t exist, and the books, my books, are being published and shipped in from Russia. They’re outrageously expensive, but there’s been a real raising of consciousness. People are learning who they are. What they’ve come through. When they recognize me on the street, they just come straight up for a hug. Maybe a photo. They’re worn down by living in this degraded system. They feel their complaint has been heard.
If Flaubert was ‘a man of the quill,’ then perhaps I am ‘a woman of the ear.’ My interviews aren’t interviews as such. Just talks. We just talk and my role is to listen. Listening was difficult at first because of the cognitive dissonance I experienced. All that we’d believed in.
I’ve talked about my father before. He was a beautiful man. He lived life well, and until the day he died he was a Communist. He believed in that idea, real justice, particularly for those who can’t defend themselves. But I had just come back from Afghanistan, and I ran up to him and I said, ‘Papa, we’re murdering them. That’s not what you stand for.’ He never questioned that his faith was well-placed.
Communists come in all sizes. And the idea itself — if the idea is about justice — isn’t going anywhere. I argued with university students in France and they insist that our generation got it all wrong when it followed Lenin instead of Trotsky. It’s astounding, but they’re reading Trotsky and insisting they’re not going to make the same mistake as we did. I’d been traveling to Siberia — Omsk, Tomsk — for Secondhand Time and if you think Marxism is gone out of fashion except in American universities, think again. Dostoevsky said you’ll always find these inquiring young men gathering at the watering hole dreaming about revolution, about how to make the world better. In Russia, now, their motivation is homegrown. It’s Putin. These students read Marx, Lenin, Trotsky — you can hardly believe it — and they’re putting the current regime to the test.
You know, there was all this noise about how surprised the West is that Putin has turned into this retrograde leader. That we couldn’t predict what he’d turn into today. Nonsense. Anyone who was paying attention from the first months after he came to power knew what was coming. Suddenly, the TV was filled with all those films again about the heroic NKVD and the KGB, and about the partisans, and the songs about the ‘core principals.’ All those books about Stalin. One after the other, about the women he loved, and the cigarettes he smoked, all that personal interest stuff. There were very public, State-led efforts to clear Beria’s name, turn him into some sort of social reformer. And now they’re opening a new Stalin museum and over in Perm they fired the old staff at the ‘Victims of the Gulag Museum’ and it’s been renamed ‘Workers of the Gulag Museum.’
Republicans, democrats, communists. Good ones and not-so-good. I just know I can’t fight that fight any longer. And feel no prerogative to convince anyone that there can be such a thing as a good and decent Communist. There were, in their own right. They worked for the public good. Compare them with what we’ve got going now. You have to think for yourself.
I also cannot cover a war anymore. Cannot add to that storehouse of bad dreams. Instead I’m trying to talk to them, to listen to them about love. But this is hard for us. It’s not how our culture is built. We don’t connect to the concept of ‘the pursuit of happiness’ so easily. And the result is that every story about love — about when you first met, when you looked into each other’s eyes — inevitably turns into a story of pain. Ours is not a happy culture. Not defined by a Protestant ethic — make a family and raise a family. But I will finish this book about love, though it might be not what you expect.
5. “Along with the whole world, I revere Russia humane and splendid…but I have no love for the Russia of Beria, Stalin, and Putin…” – Svetlana Alexievich
We sit in the great hall of what was once the Shoemakers’ Union Cultural Center. The wind is howling outside, a spring front coming through. In two weeks in Kyiv we will be commemorating 30 years since Chernobyl exploded and poisoned the land. And across from me sits this woman with a Nobel Prize and who wrote about the disaster. But her answers to the questions raised have been long, conditional, occasionally contradictory, enigmatic, riddling. As if every voice she’s heard would now say its part.
I want to go home. Watch Friends or anything that isn’t about murder, betrayal, brutality, or in Russian. Those immaculate leather boots. I cannot unsee her as the grandma who taught me to stand my ground in the market. The one who shoos the drunks out of the lobby of my building. Or those I saw on Maidan, soup pots defiantly on their heads after the president issued his emergency order to outlaw the public wearing of helmets, and threatened to arrest anyone caught wearing one.
This seemingly familiar woman who speaks with a tiny, delightful lateral lisp that turns the word oskarblennie (insult) into birch leaves rattling in a spring breeze. In a corner of the world as glamour-obsessed as Ukraine, she doesn’t stand out. Yet she is ready to probe the cancer of the world.
The Nobel Committee, prone to miscalculation, overstatement, and the conflation of literature with something else, insists that Svetlana Alexievich has unveiled a new genre of serious literature — a claim that Studs Terkel could have summarily dismantled. It is fair to say, however, that Alexievich has used her time of grace to produce a body of work that resembles little else in the literary firmament. A body of work in which — to the limits that her critics are correct — she does, indeed, write very little. But in doing so, she has managed to unleash the power of the collective memoir. Her authorial pose resembles something far more ancient, and far less drama-laden than the usual soviet dissident fare. As a writer she is very nearly invisible.
Invisible, but no longer unknown.
In a global political environment oriented less and less toward seeking elegant solutions to emerging political complexities, the work of Svetlana Alexievich serves as worthy admonition of the real danger of leaders who stop listening to their people. But talk to her about her importance as a public intellectual and she scoffs. She’s not interested in becoming the high counselor, seeking consensus, or striving to convince. She is content just to listen, and then to write down what she hears, that it not be lost.
Image Credit: Aleksandr Kupnyi.
Il’ja Rákoš | 6 books mentioned 6 11 min read
Sarah Neilson June 24, 2019 | 6 books mentioned 12 min read
I think of that little girl in me, that 17-year-old, 14-year-old, who wanted to see books like mine. I wanted to see love between two women on the page.
Sarah Neilson | 6 books mentioned 12 min read
Edan says:
I just finished The Gin Closet, and this was a great interview to go along with my reading experience. (Except now I would like a cookie baked by a grandmother, please.)
Pingback: Lake, Fuel, Millions « Leslie Jamison News
Beautiful interview. I loved Leslie’s book and this just makes me love it. And it also makes me want to read her second novel!
Writing Something Irresponsible: The Millions Interviews Andrew Martin
Alex Norcia July 24, 2018 | 6 books mentioned 1 9 min read
I wanted to write something irresponsible, or at least not worry about whether or not I was following the rules of proper conduct and proper novel writing.
Alex Norcia | 6 books mentioned 1 9 min read
Please Read This Interview Carefully: Karen Havelin on Writing Pain
Amy Long May 1, 2019 | 6 books mentioned 9 min read
I want to get people to talk about endometriosis, and I want the book to reflect an experience I’ve never read or seen in media.
Amy Long | 6 books mentioned 9 min read
Unruly Characters: A Conversation with Kelly Link and Keith Lee Morris
Keith Lee Morris February 19, 2016 | 6 books mentioned 15 min read
Keep Them Guessing: An Interview with Maile Meloy
Alexis Coe October 1, 2013 | 6 books mentioned 1 7 min read
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0022.json.gz/line1064
|
__label__wiki
| 0.729415
| 0.729415
|
The Translator Talks Back: Megan McDowell Interviews Gonzalo Torné
Gonzalo Torné is an acclaimed Spanish writer from Barcelona whose book Divorce Is in the Air, which I translated, was recently published by Knopf. It is his second novel, but his first to appear into English. Entirely a first-person narrative, the book is nominally addressed to the Joan-Marc’s (the narrator’s) second wife, who has just left him. He is telling her the story of his first marriage, to a blond American athlete-cum-alcoholic named Helen. He also relates his more recent travails as he deals with middle-age bachelorhood and economic trouble after his wife’s departure, and reconnects with old friends from his past.
Joan-Marc is an often frustrating, occasionally insightful, contradictory, solipsistic, and prejudiced character who is ultimately (argue I) endearing. He has things to say about the human condition, often through beautiful turns of phrase; some are crazy, some insulting, others illuminating. The book demands a discerning reader willing to laugh at and listen to a character who cannot exactly be considered “likeable”– one to whom we may not be able to relate, but one we can benefit from understanding.
As the translator, I’ve spent a lot of time over the course of two years inside this book and the head of its narrator, Joan-Marc. I still had a few questions for his creator, Torné:
Megan McDowell: Much of the book centers on the futility of relationships between women and men, and on the characters’ relationships with their bodies — these concerns really come to a head in the character of Eloy/Eloise, a transgender woman who was a childhood classmate of J-M’s. It makes me wonder how actively you engage with questions of gender. Are you a feminist? J-M and Eloise seem so diametrically opposed, and in many ways Eloise, who has consciously shaped her body to fit her mind/ soul, is much more comfortable in the world. What are some of the key questions you were wrestling with when you imagined J-M and Eloise’s ways of looking at the world?
Gonzalo Torné: Eloy/Eloise to me is a key character because she allows me to “close” one of the novel’s subjects. Divorce Is in the Air is about matrimonial separations, of course, but it’s also about separation from life itself, the distance that grows larger between us and the things we lose, and the alterations that the body suffers as it’s subjected to time. The novel is peppered with descriptions of physical processes that the body suffers passively.
Eloise represents a possibility of voluntary bodily alteration, and she ends up countering many of Joan-Marc’s most reactionary and pessimistic ideas. If you like, her appearance in the book is a “refutation” of the protagonist, who until that moment has dominated the narrative thanks to the first-person privilege. My idea is that she should be a window through which a bit of new air can flow. And one could say that she’s a character I like very much.
About the feminism question: In Spain my most well-known book is Hilos de Sangre (Blood Ties), narrated for over 400 pages by a woman. This character has been praised for her intelligence and her sensitivity. I wouldn’t have dared to start out writing such a crude book, so aggressive and masculine, one that plays with the identification between the narrative voice and that of the author (does this man really think all this?) without having the “protection” of Hilos de Sangre. It’s funny that outside of Spain, Divorce Is in the Air will be my “letter of introduction.”
MM: One of the aspects of the book that I’m not sure U.S. readers will know much about has to do with the Catalan culture. In fact, J-M uses a fair number of Catalan words that were mostly lost in translation. Could you talk a bit about what Catalan culture means to Joan-Marc, and what it means to you?
GT: My ties to Catalan are at once distant and very close. Catalan is my mother tongue and it’s very easy for me to spend an entire day without speaking in any other language. Though its history is one of continual upheavals — the last of which is the attempted cultural genocide by Franco and his supporters — its literature is not minor, though it is somewhat discontinuous. Aside from its indisputable figureheads (Llull, March), in the 20th century it boasts a cast of admirable poets and at least one fiction writer at the level of the best: Joan Sales. For reasons that aren’t relevant here, I ended up writing in Spanish, but Catalan writers take an interest in and appreciate my work, and I try to stay up to date. There is a very lively poetry scene, excellent theater, and many fiction writers publishing very interesting books.
On the other hand, Barcelona is a bilingual city where two languages mix together with no problem, and it’s very common to take part in conversations where every participant speaks in the language he or she finds most comfortable. That’s why I turn to so many words in Catalan: they are floating in the ether. Joan-Marc comes from Madrid and he has a certain love-hate relationship with Catalan (the Catalanistas can sometimes be cantankerous), but he doesn’t resist the sensuality of mixing the two languages.
MM: In a similar vein: this is a very Spanish book. There is a distinct sense of place to it, and there are many landmarks and streets that appear in the narrative. What do you think this will mean as U.S. and U.K. readers approach the book? How do you think their experience of it will differ, how do you think the book changes in English?
GT: Well, although for administrative purposes I’m Spanish, the area where my imagination operates is Barcelona. As soon as I leave Barcelona I no longer feel at home. So I consider myself a writer from Barcelona, a city that has its own literary tradition, and where oftentimes Madrid is as distant as London. It’s the area I know and even when I look beyond it (there are half a dozen characters from the United States in the book), I do it from the prejudices of a Barcelonan.
The truth is I haven’t thought much about how the book will be received abroad, and luckily it hasn’t worried me with the novel I’ve just finished to know that I would be read in a dozen countries. I like to think that my books have very local settings but treat vital subjects that are common to anyone, and also that the problems and aesthetic solutions travel quite well. At the end of the day, the novels are directed at a very specialized class of individuals: literary readers.
There’s one thing that concerns me with this novel and it’s how readers will take the humor. In Spain, one critic wrote a long article demonstrating that the novel was not a comedy and that all the people who were laughing were absurd creatures. He almost convinced me. To me, the novel is a comedy, even though its material isn’t gags or openly funny situations.
MM: I’ll admit a secret: this is one of the hardest books I’ve ever translated. The cultural references, the use of language, it was all a bit more foreign to me than the Latin American books I’ve translated so far. Were you nervous about having your work translated into English? (Or am I making you nervous now?) What was it like to read your book in English? (This is something I’m always curious about with my authors.)
GT: Yes, it’s a somewhat strange Spanish, partly because I live in a city where two languages are spoken that mutually influence each other, and instead of hiding it, I try to put it in relief, in the semantic plane but also in the grammar. What’s more, my intention was to invent a way of speaking that would allow me to pass very quickly from one tone to another, and with as broad a range of registers as possible. I don’t know if I managed it satisfactorily, but I’m sure that some of the “difficulty” comes from that project.
In terms of the translation, I’ve never gotten nervous about it. I tend to trust in the professional capacity and talent of other people. I was convinced that our editors were going to find the ideal person, and when they gave me your name, I read your translations of Zambra and I rested easy. Later I read the proofs with the conviction that a language is a very complex system and that it’s best to let those who know a language better from the get-go do their work. Translation is really one of the most complex intellectual phenomena in the universe. My friend Juan de Sola, who is an excellent translator, says that books are more passionate in translation than in the original, and that you have two books for the price of one, and he’s right. For me, reading Divorce Is in the Air has been quite an experience (the only way to read oneself is in translation) and I’m very pleased with the result.
MM: I Googled you and found out something unexpected: You’ve recently published a detective novel under a pseudonym. Great! Why the shift in genres, and why the pen name? What would surprise me, as a reader of your literary fiction, about Álvaro Abad, the crime writer?
GT: I have to answer this question with a detour: It took a long time for me to start reading anything like novels, poetry, or philosophy. In my childhood and adolescence I was dedicated to sports, the only thing I read were superhero comics. There is nothing of that in my two novels, but I still have an affinity for the genre, and almost every year I write (sometimes in my head) a story, and I’ve published some, but in Spain there is no industry to absorb everything I come up with. What we do have, though, is a boom in the “crime novel” — a genre that with some exceptions I find unbearable. I was exhausted when I finished Divorcio en el Aire, and after resting for a year it occurred to me to redo one of my adventure scripts as a crime novel (taking out the super powers). I imposed a very strict calendar on myself (two months), and I had a lot of fun, but I don’t think I’ll do it again; a novel, whatever the genre, is a lot of work.
I used a pseudonym as a courtesy to readers of Divorce and Hilos, as a warning that they would find this book less fun (the kind of fun that my readers like). But I didn’t hide the fact that I’d written it. My complicit readers have enjoyed it, but I also suspect that they prefer it when I stick with more meaty subjects.
MM: Who are the writers in Spain today (preferably untranslated) that you think are most under-recognized? Who is doing the most interesting work? What about in Spanish in general? Do you read many Latin Americans? What North Americans do you read?
GT: Writers of my generation are very engaging and there are many I find interesting. I like La Trabajadora (The Worker) by Elvira Navarro, two novels by Isaac Rosa (El Vano Ayer and La Mano Invisible), and Fresy Cool by Antonio J. Rodríguez. I also read everything written by Julián Rodríguez and Martín Giráldez, who publish very daring books in a country where people who claim to be avant guard do things that were already old in my grandparents’ days. Of the writers a little older than me (and for a lot of younger writers) Luis Magrinyà is the best, and it’s a shame that the English-speaking reader is deprived of reading Intrusos y Huéspedes — a masterpiece, one of the few that exist. I would talk about poets as well but I’m afraid my answer would go on for too long.
I resist grouping writers from so many different countries under the label “Latin American.” I don’t know anything about what is being written in the tropics or in Central America. I have more of a relationship with Argentine and Chilean literature, I read what the critic Ignacio Echevarría suggests to me; he is not only a very intelligent reader, he is personally invested and is very respected there. Of my generation (to avoid an interminable list of names) I very much like the books of Zambra, Gabriela Wiener, and Julián Herbert.
Of U.S. literature, the Jewish tradition is very important to me, from Singer to Ozick; without it, the novels I try to write wouldn’t even exist. I like the visionary novelists (Melville, Faulkner, McCarthy, DeLillo) a great deal, but as a writer I’ve never known what to do with them. In terms of contemporaneous writers I have to say that the Spanish press acts as a very disciplined and uncritical satellite of everything that reaches us from the United States, so that I read them with great caution. I like Lethem and Lerner and I admire everything written by Junot Díaz, who is very near to being a genius.
MM: You are also a translator — you’ve translated William Wordsworth and John Ashbery into Spanish. What drew you to those authors, and did they pose any interesting challenges? How did the experience of translating affect your writing?
GT: Well, I’ve translated some texts, but as I respect the profession a lot I would never dare to call myself a translator. My work is writing novels, but sometimes I get an urge to publish authors that I know like the back of my hand, and to avoid arguments I end up “moving” them myself to Spanish. I’ve translated Pascal, Wordsworth, Dr. Johnson, Coleridge, and a few others. But if you gave me a contemporary novelist that posed new problems, one I had to “interpret” into my language for the first time, I’d start to cry. I wouldn’t be able to translate myself. I tried from Spanish to Catalan, and I failed.
The Millions Interview: Alejandro Zambra
Megan McDowell | 2
Alejandro Zambra is at the forefront of Latin American—indeed one could say “world”—literature. He is young, Chilean, and writes with a poetic lucidity that engages a reader from the first line. His first two novels were both published by Anagrama and placed him immediately in the international spotlight. Bonsái won the 2006 Chilean Critics’ Award; it was published in English by Melville House in a translation by Carolina de Robertis in 2008, and was shortlisted for the 2009 Best Translated Book Award. In 2010 my translation of La vida privada de los arboles (The Private Lives of Trees), Zambra’s second novel, came out from Open Letter press. Both are short books—some call them novellas—and both center on middle-class Chilean intellectuals. While this may sound dry and specialized, Zambra has an electrifying ability to underscore ambiguity in the seemingly definite—or to turn a vague outline into a bull’s eye—that makes his material feel universal. In 2010, Zambra was among 22 writers included in Granta magazine’s Best of Young Spanish-Language Novelists. Granta says its lists “predict talent more than spot it,” and previous predictions have included writers like Martin Amis, Jeanette Winterson, David Mitchell and Lorrie Moore, to name only a few.
Zambra’s third novel, Formas de volver a casa, will debut with Anagrama in May, and from what I can tell, it deviates from his previous books in form but not in feeling (that is, in its broad emotional landscape). Formas is significantly longer than its predecessors, and is told in various, well, forms: mostly narrated in first person by a young boy, it also includes verse and non-fiction elements. The book is set in the 80s during Pinochet’s dictatorship. Its child narrator is the son of an “apolitical” middle-class family, with parents who avoid risk out of fear, and who protect their children from the truth of their world. It’s the story of a little girl who asks a younger boy to spy on her uncle, and the boy agrees because, as Zambra says, “he’s a little bit in love with her.” It’s that “little bit” that is so particularly Zambra—there are no large, sweeping emotions here, but rather complicated, contradictory, little-understood intuitions. This is a book about Chile, and the generation of Chileans who grew up during the dictatorship. Zambra calls the literature of his generation “la literatura de los hijos” (literature of the children), because he feels his generation came of age believing the novel belonged to the “fathers of literature”, and that history was something imposed by their forebears. As he says in an interview in Ñ magazine, “History belonged to others, and we confronted our inheritance sometimes with rebellion and other times with acquiescence; it took a long time for us to realize we had our own history and we had things to tell.” I asked Zambra a few questions about his upcoming book, and his feelings about being included in Granta’s list.
The Millions: Now that you’ve received a fair amount of attention for your books, do you worry more during the act of writing about how it will be received? Or does the recognition validate you, give you a sense of freedom?
Alejandro Zambra: At the moment of writing, I feel completely free. I really don’t think you can write anything genuine when you are under any kind of pressure. What’s more, publishing a book isn’t like giving birth to it; when you publish a book you feel what a father must feel when his son leaves home: you wish him well, you delight in or suffer with his successes and failures, but you can’t do anything more for him. And your daily work is more interesting: the next book, the child you are starting to rear.
TM: Recognizing that any list like Granta’s will be subjective, is there anyone you feel strongly should have been included, but wasn’t?
AZ: Such lists are always arbitrary, and I suppose there are a lot of authors who were worth including in Granta’s, and in the end were not. The truth is it’s an uncomfortable subject for me, because I really don’t believe in lists or rankings. In any case I’d like to highlight the work that younger people have been doing, such as the Chilean Diego Zúñiga or the Mexican Valeria Luiselli (the author of Papeles falsos, one of the best books I’ve read recently).
TM: Not many authors have their books published more or less simultaneously in Spanish and in English, but both La vida privada and Bonsai were. I’m curious about how the experience is different in Chile and the U.S. How does your status as a native or foreigner affect how people read you, do you think? Do you feel more pressure to be “representative” in some way when you are outside of Chile?
AZ: I think both novels are very Chilean, so I’m sometimes surprised that they can be read in other languages. To me, it’s a beautiful thing that readers so distant and different can connect with a book of mine. It’s like sending out thousands of letters, and little by little receiving replies you never expected. I guess some readers in the U.S. or in France want to confirm some prior idea they had about Chile or about Latin America. But books aren’t made to confirm ideas; they’re made to refute them, to question them, to put other images out there where we thought everything had already been said.
TM: Tell us a little about Formas de volver a casa—is it much of a departure from your first two books?
AZ: It’s a book about memory, about parents, about Chile. It’s about the 80s, about the years when we children were secondary characters in the literature of our parents. It’s about the dictatorship, as well, I guess. And about literature, intimacy, the construction of intimacy. I don’t know if it’s very different from my previous books; the truth is I feel like it’s close to The Private Lives of Trees. In fact it starts from there, from some of the intuitions or images of the past that were in that book. Maybe the main difference is that it’s in large part narrated in the first person. It also includes a writer’s diary, a kind of center or heart in which the fiction breaks, and the only thing left is the writer’s voice searching for its origins. It’s my most personal book, without a doubt, although the others were that as well.
TM: Do you get frustrated with how people associate Chile with the Pinochet dictatorship? Do you feel a need to establish yourself in relation to it, because if you don’t others inevitably will?
AZ: It doesn’t frustrate me; on the contrary, it seems like a conventional and understandable expectation. That relationship is very important to me, also. I grew up in a dictatorship, I said my first words in a dictatorship, I read my first books in a dictatorship. It’s part of my experience, part of my life. And of course, Formas de volver a casa talks a lot about that. But I don’t believe in genre novels or in a simple relationship between literature and history. Literature doesn’t exist to depict something that’s already given, already processed. We write because we want to live in a different way, because we seek new ways of understanding the past, present and future.
TM: One of the things I was drawn to in The Private Lives of Trees was the way you portray the relationships between the characters, and the characters themselves. No one makes grand proclamations, which makes Julián’s promise that “if we get out of this we’ll go, at last, to see the snow” all the more heartbreaking. The characters aren’t exceptional, but their mediocrity isn’t emphasized, it’s empathized with. There is no bombast, but there is so much genuine feeling. I guess what I’m saying is that when I read your books, I feel like there is room for me in them, there’s no sense of looking in from outside. Are you conscious of this, do you have to try not to judge your characters, or to not make them more than they are?
AZ: Thank you very much for what you say. If that’s the case, if in some way I managed to portray those lives without failing the characters, I’m satisfied. Because that’s what I want: for there to be space in my books to share gazes, to meet up; to know ourselves as fragile and strong at the same time, as we all are. I hope for that, when I’m writing: to bear witness to a compassionate recognition of our failures and triumphs.
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0022.json.gz/line1065
|
__label__wiki
| 0.744081
| 0.744081
|
Got an hour to kill? Check out 56 minutes of ‘The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild’
by Bryan Clark — in Shareables
Arguably the most anticipated game of 2016, ‘The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild’ debuted at this year’s E3.
The game was so big, in fact, that Nintendo dedicated its entire booth to displaying the game. Luckily, Polygon got a chance to sit down with the Wii U version of the title and they walked away with a ton of gameplay footage to tease us until the game drops on both the Wii U and the NX in 2017.
The footage contains nearly an hour of link running around half-naked and somewhat fire-obsessed. It’s a significant departure from the Zelda games of the past, but I, for one, can’t wait to get my hands Link’s first fully open world adventure.
Watch 56 minutes of The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild gameplay from E3 2016 on Polygon
Read next: Catch the Pokémon Go AR game on Android and iOS next month
Distract
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0022.json.gz/line1066
|
__label__wiki
| 0.663045
| 0.663045
|
Here’s How A Liberal Father Whose Son Was Killed By An Illegal Alien Is Fighting CA’s Sanctuary Law
Matt Vespa Townhall Tipsheet
California could easily become ground zero for the immigration fight. It became a sanctuary state earlier this year, prompting a Department of Justice lawsuit, saying the state is hampering federal agencies enforcing federal immigration laws. Los Alamitos already voted to opt out of the sanctuary law. Orange County Sheriff’s Department said that not only do they support the DOJ lawsuit against California’s sanctuary status, but will publicly post inmate release dates to help Immigration and Customs Enforcement arrest illegals who shouldn’t be here. Yet, for one father, the fight began almost ten years ago. Don Rosenberg of Westlake Village, California, which rests outside of Los Angeles, is not a raging Tea Party conservative. He’s a liberal. His son, Drew, was also a liberal, went to college, spent a year in London, and had visited San Francisco many times. Drew spoke highly of then-Mayor of San Francisco Gavin Newsom. On November 16, 2010, Roberto Galo, killed his son in a motor accident. He was an unlicensed driver, who had entered the country illegally, though the district attorney told him that Galo had Temporary Protective Status. Rosenberg still maintains that an illegal alien, who was spared the justice of the law, killed his son...
Read entire article and see video here; https://townhall.com/tipsheet/mattvespa/2018/03/29/heres-how-a-liberal-father-whose-son-was-killed-by-an-illegal-alien-is-fighting-n2466161?utm_source=thdaily&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=nl&newsletterad=
Al-Qaeda top dog: “Jihad” is the “effective way” to defeat US, goal is to restore caliphate
Doubtless Hamas-linked CAIR’s Nihad Awad and Ibrahim Hooper are on their way now to visit Zawahiri and explain to him that jihad just means dropping off the kids at school and getting to the gym regularly. “He goes on to identify the primary goal of al-Qaeda’s jihad as restoring the ‘rightly guided Caliphate’ and all […]
IG Launches Probe Into DOJ, FBI For Alleged Abuse in Surveillance of Trump Campaign
By Geller Report Staff
The Department of Justice’s inspector general just announced an investigation into the Justice Department and the FBI to see if certain members of those agencies violated federal law by surveilling a member of President Donald Trump’s campaign team.
Remember when Trump said his campaign had been wiretapped and all the elites in the media and on the left howled and mocked?
Well now — here’s the next look at that whole matter.
DOJ Inspector General Michael Horowitz has kicked off the review in response to requests from Attorney General Jeff Sessions and members of Congress.
Breitbart has more:
Read entire article and see video here: https://gellerreport.com/2018/03/ig-launches-probe-doj-fbi-alleged-abuse-surveillance-trump-campaign.html/
Just a Thought...
"You're Fired"...Hopefully
By: Diane Sori / The Patriot Factor
Today, Friday, March 30th from 7 to 9pm EST on American Political Radio, RIGHT SIDE PATRIOTS Craig Andresen and Diane Sori discuss John Bolton's appointment as National Security Advisor; the truth about last weekend's anti-gun march; and important news of the day.
John Bolton...A Man of Strength and Credibility
"They’re all out there on the public record. I've never been shy about what my views are. The important thing is what the president says and what advice I give him."
- Former U.N. Ambassador John Bolton on any past statements made
He's gone...well almost anyway. Now in the transition stage of turning his National Security Advisor position over to former U.N. Ambassador John Bolton on April 9th, Lt. Gen. H.R. McMaster, who will now also retire from his 34-years of military service, cannot go soon enough as far as I'm concerned...and I'll go one step further...he never should have been appointed to so vital a position in the first place, good little islamic condoner that he is.
You can read about those specifics in my article The Manipulation of Willful Ignorance as I have been a vocal critic of Lt. Gen. H.R. McMaster's appointment from the very day in March 2017 when President Trump announced that he'd be replacing embattled Gen. Mike Flynn as National Security Advisor with this man instead of John Bolton, the man some say Trump had always wanted.
And who advised President Trump to choose McMaster...none other then former Armed Services Committee Chair Sen. John McCain (R-AZ), Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AK), and Secretary of Defense General Mattis. And while Gen. Mattis looked at the appointment from a military perspective alone and who has America's best interests at heart, and with good guy Tom Cotton I believe being misled by John McCain, it was McCain, one of the biggest Trump bashers and one who I also believe to be a Deep State swamp dwelling operative, who not only advised but pushed our new president into placing a fellow islamic condoner into a position that would see him crafting U.S. foreign policy and “framing” security decisions that make it to the president's desk...security decisions that have made us anything but more safe.
And while McMaster's leaving has been fodder for the D.C. rumor mill for quite some time now what with the rumors starting to affect his interactions with foreign officials and with others within the Trump cabinet, especially with his contentious relationship with Defense Secretary Jim Mattis being no secret...in fact McMaster has whined that Gen. Mattis “treats me like a three-star rather than a coequal”...on the surface at least it appears his leaving Trump's cabinet is quite amicable as Trump publicly praised McMaster for his “outstanding job” and saying that he would “always remain my friend.”
But that is something I seriously doubt because Trump and McMaster were often at odds on both a professional as well as on a personal level. Remember, as Commander-in-Chief, Trump pushed back hard against McMaster on his decision to escalate the war in Afghanistan, and on the personal side it is now suspected that it was someone in McMaster's orbit or even McMaster himself who leaked to the press President Trump's congratulatory call to Vladim Putin on his winning his latest election...a call most forget that even Obama made when he was president. And that coupled with McMaster being a man of many condescending words during the White House daily briefings, it left Trump, according to some, needing to put the rigid McMaster in his place on numerous occasions by telling him, “I get it, general, I get it.” So it should come as no surprise that H.R. McMaster, a military man truly not in the president's corner, had to go.
But know that John Bolton...who held both State and Justice Department posts under President Reagan and both President Bushes, including serving as Undersecretary for Arms Control and International Security Affairs at the U.S. Department of State under President George W. Bush...is a true professional who knows all the world's key players, how things are done, and what games to play in order to get them done...done to America's advantage that is...and is well-versed on issues both domestic and on the foreign policy stage. Truly a much better all around fit for President Trump than McMaster ever was, and a man who has stated that he will “absolutely go along with Trump," we have in John Bolton a strong willed, pro-military, unabashed foreign policy hawk and 'so-called' neoconservative whose views on issues like North Korea, Iraq and Syria will allow him together with Donald Trump to seriously kick not only islamic butt but North Korea's Kim Jong-un's butt as well.
And with Bolton's naysayers like Sen. Christopher Coons of Delaware, a liberal Democrat of course, saying that Bolton’s positions on Iran and North Korea “are overly aggressive at best and downright dangerous at worst,” you just know that President Trump has made the right choice not only in picking Amb. Bolton to replace Gen. McMaster as his National Security Advisor but in doing so right on the heels of his replacing so out of his league Secretary of State Rex Tillerson with C.I.A. Director Mike Pompeo. And with both these men now in place to form the strongest national security team we have seen in quite some time, you can be assured that changes in America's foreign policy approach are not just down the road but are already here.
One case in point, Bolton knows that the upcoming May talks between Trump and Kim Jong-un will not be a panacea for peace as some, including McMaster, hope they would be but that it will be just another in a long line of North Korea's dog and pony shows. In fact, in regards to North Korea know that John Bolton recently made a legal case for not only a pre-emptive strike against North Korea but for regime change as well by calling the man-child's regime an "imminent threat." So it should be quite interesting to see how this now three man tour-de-force takes on the oh so mad man-child with the oh so silly haircut.
And in regards to Iran, Amb. Bolton is a staunch supporter of the Jewish State of Israel and of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu himself, and like Netanyahu, Bolton so rightfully wants President Trump to let Obama's very bad nuclear deal... as in the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA)...to fall by the wayside...a total 180ᴼ departure from the wishes of Obama supporting, Palestinian supporting, Lt. Gen. McMaster. Writing an article last October in The Hill titled, Mr. President, don't put America at risk with flawed Iran deal...Amb. Bolton's words were in direct contrast to those of Gen. McMaster who urged President Trump not to abandon said deal warning him of serious consequences if he did.
But could McMaster's argument pass the proverbial 'smell test'...I don't think so and neither does Amb. Bolton who hopefully will now convince President Trump to see it his way and pull us out of a deal that should never have been signed in the first place. Saying that trashing the deal will of course “spur Iran to accelerate its nuclear-weapons program to rush across the finish line,” but even that means nothing in the scope of things for trashing the deal will not “induce Iran” to become more threatening or supportive of global terrorism than it already is. The real issue is how much worse Iran’s behavior will be once it gets deliverable nuclear weapons...something that McMaster never understood.
“President Trump continues to appoint true friends of Israel to senior positions. John Bolton is one of the most outstanding.” So said Israeli said Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked
Now as far as Israel itself is concerned, with Israel being a key if not 'the' key player in the Middle East, John Bolton is rightly perceived as a man of action and a “stalwart friend of Israel.” His appointment also suggests to many in Israel that on May 12th...when the next scheduled deadline regarding the nuclear deal is reached...President Trump will indeed withdraw us from the 'very bad' Iranian nuclear deal.
And Amb. John Bolton is also opposed to a two-state solution in regards to the Israeli/Palestinian conflict as opposed to Gen. McMaster who not only publicly pushed for a two-state solution but who just about demanded it by his constantly referring to a Palestinian state existing before 1947. Fact: there never was a Palestinian state and hopefully there never will be one. And let's not forget that it was Gen. McMaster who had described Israel on many occasions as being both “illegitimate” and an “occupying power.” But with Bolton's appointment we and Israel will see not only a tougher U.S. stance towards the Palestinians, but also a new beginning for much needed sound American leadership throughout the entirety of the Middle East region...leadership that sees America standing by her allies not deserting them or stabbing them in the back as Obama did to Israel...and as McMaster, in my opinion, really wanted to do in regards to Israel.
As for the domestic stage, the differences between the two men can also be seen as it was McMaster who allowed for Obama cabinet official Susan Rice to retain her top security clearance even after she was accused of conducting illegal surveillance on American citizens...something Bolton would never have done as he has been a staunch critic of Susan Rice ever since she went on her Sunday morning talk show 'Benghazi blame game tour' if you will.
And when just a few weeks ago McMaster said there was “incontrovertible’’ evidence of a Russian plot to disrupt the 2016 U.S. election not only did he draw an immediate public rebuke from the tweet trigger finger of President Trump, but he saw John Bolton coming to the president's defense by saying on FOX News that he's been a long time skeptic of Russian interference in the presidential election and that all the media brouhaha over such nonsense was was nothing but a "false flag" operation...an operation showing no signs of Russia's fixing or tampering with the election results. And notice how I say fixing or tampering with not trying to influence which is a totally different animal. Bolton knew that critical difference...McMaster obviously did not. And dare we forget McMaster's publicly offered but widely scrutinized 'non-denial' denial that President Trump shared classified intelligence with Russians in the Oval Office.
A man so obviously not in Trump's corner...a man that should have been let go months ago...a man who never should have been appointed in the first place, but hey, non-politician Donald Trump is indeed allowed to make some mistakes. But in his now choosing Amb. John Bolton as the replacement for Gen. H.R. McMaster as his National Security Advisor, know that no mistakes have been made for John Bolton, who called the appointment "an honor" and said that he looks "forward to working with President Trump and his leadership team" to "make our country safer at home and stronger abroad,” both President Trump and 'We the People' have in John Bolton a man who will put America first and who will not be ashamed to do so.
Can we, our president, or our country ask for anything more...no...I don't think so.
For more political commentary please visit my RIGHT SIDE PATRIOTS partner Craig Andresen's blog The National Patriot to read his latest article A Manufactured March for Madness
Labels: Benjamin Netanyahu, false flag, Gen. Mattis, Gen.McMaaster, Iranian Nuclear Deal, Israel, John Bolton, Kim Jong-un, Mike Pompeo, National Security Advisor, North Korea, President Trump, Russian election tampering
Here’s How A Liberal Father Whose Son Was Killed B...
Al-Qaeda top dog: “Jihad” is the “effective way” ...
IG Launches Probe Into DOJ, FBI For Alleged Abuse ...
Just a Thought... "You're Fired"...Hopefully By: ...
RIGHTSIDE PATRIOTS...LIVE! Today,Friday, March 30t...
Op-ed:John Bolton...A Man of Strength and Credibil...
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0022.json.gz/line1069
|
__label__cc
| 0.710017
| 0.289983
|
← “ALMS ARE THE ARMS OF CHRIST”
IN LIBYA, IT IS WAR FOR OIL →
FREEDOM TWO MONTHS IN —THE NEW EGYPTIAN WAY
Posted on March 28, 2011 by Richard Johnson
James Lewis has this important article today at The American Thinker:
Obama, Islam, and the Forcible Virginity Test
Two months after Obama insisted that President Mubarak had to resign after 30 years in office for not being nice enough to the “young democracy demonstrators” in Tahrir Square, the New York Times has finally stated the obvious: the Muslim Brotherhood is winning the power struggle in Egypt. Duh. Ya think?
The media have also belatedly seen fit to print the fact that sixteen unmarried women were arrested in the demonstrations in Tahrir Square, and that Egyptian military submitted all sixteen to a compulsory “virginity test” in jail, just to see if they were properly modest Muslim virgins.
Think about the sadistic “logic” of that. To see if unmarried Muslim women were virgins, obedient to Islam, they were essentially humiliated, abused, and perhaps raped in public.
Will somebody please tell Germaine Greer? Or Helen Thomas? Christiane Ahmanpour? The nearest Women’s Studies Department at your local university? Or are their phones busy again, and they’re not paying attention? Maybe they’re afraid of “Islamophobia”?
Those Cairo cops represent the forces of law and order in Egypt, the same forces we are expecting to work out an enlightened, democratic regime after Hosni Mubarak. That “virginity test” shows what this Muslim revolution is about. It’s not about Jeffersonian democracy. It is all about the never-ending failure of Islam to come to terms with civilized values, the ones the West chose two centuries ago during the period called the Enlightenment.
The United States Constitution is still by far the most successful political outcome of the Enlightenment. Nothing else comes close. Constitutionalism is the only successful political tradition that has ever been designed to deal with the disease of abuse of power. If you want an image of raw abuse of power, think Tahrir Square and the forcible virginity test.
Apparently the White House and every liberal looneytunes airhead in the West is stunned, just stunned, m’dear, by the Muslim reactionaries who are grabbing power all over the Arab world. Who coulda thunk? Obama meant so well. All the good libs are eager to vote for him again in 2012, ’cause of all the good intentions and lovely words he has brought to our foreign policy. Liberal delusions are always stronger than reality. If reality had anything to do with it, they would have dumped their dysfunctional beliefs fifty years ago.
Conservatives have known about the threat of Islamic fascism for 30 years, ever since Jimmy Carter let “some kind of saint” Ayatollah Khomeini assume absolute power in Tehran in 1979. When Carter stopped Iran’s military from supporting the Shah, Khomeini promptly had assassinated, imprisoned, and tortured the Shah’s supporters, plus any democratic opposition groups, plus the Communist faction of the Mujahhedin Khalq, plus anybody else who stood in this way — including those American diplomats he kept locked up at the US Embassy for a year until Ronald Reagan got elected.
Then Khomeini had a war with Saddam that killed a million people. But Jimmy Carter is still completely convinced that he Did the Right Thing back in 1979. None so blind as will not see.
Obama has never understood the US Constitution, apparently, because he has that basic delusion of all the little leftocrats everywhere: He’s the good guy. All that stuff about “power corrupts” just doesn’t apply to him. That’s only for the bad people, you see. Like Christian conservatives.
Obama is a power-happy ideologue, and the biggest question today is whether the United States Constitution can survive his years in power. The founders knew about the Obamas of this world, because they saw them everywhere. There is nothing new about grandiosity and fragile self-esteem. You can read all about it in Gibbons’ Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, and before that, the Biblical Book of Kings. It’s even in the Epic of Gilgamesh. Human nature hasn’t changed one little bit in 6,000 years.
The American founders built the Constitution to withstand narcissistic power grabbers. After their handiwork was adopted, some of them saw Napoleon rise to power after the French Revolution, the original Man on a White Horse, come to rescue humanity from the anarchy of revolution. Napoleon killed more Europeans than anybody else before the two world wars. The founders didn’t like what they saw in France. Jefferson and Franklin both had been US Ambassadors there. They could see it for themselves.
After Napoleon, Europe wandered away from its own Enlightenment tradition into Marxism, National Socialism, monarchism, revenge-driven nationalism, imperialism, Islam (in the Ottoman Empire), and any number of other tyrannies. The trendiest thinkers over there are boasting how they are “post-modern,” which means “I’m dead set against the Enlightenment.”
That’s how Marxism has now become big on American campuses. Our professors are aping their European idols’ love affairs with totalitarian ideologies, in spite of the millions of victims those pathologies always leave behind. In the ass-backwards world of the Left this is called “Progressivism.” Really. Just check ’em out on Huffpo.
Islam came straight from the Arabian desert of the 7th century. It reflects the lives of desert pirates, robbers, rapists and genociders, which was perfectly suited to nomadic life in the desert. That’s how tribes conquered each other, as Lawrence of Arabia found out again in World War I. Desert Arabs literally took no prisoners — except for women and children, who became slaves. Lawrence was a British romantic who hero-worshipped the desert Arabs, and then, after putting King Faisal into power, he decided to disappear forever, in deep disgust with his own romance with murderous primitives.
Wherever reactionary Islam takes over it re-creates the 7th century desert. Since the breakdown of the Ottoman Empire at the end of World War I, the Muslim world has been zig-zagging between modern values, like equality for women, and medieval desert values. Iran was a great victory for the reactionary throwbacks, and Obama has just tipped the balance in that direction again.
This is exactly what the likes of Code Pink and Bill Ayers were agitating for six months ago, in alliance with Hamas and Hezb’allah. It was so Progressive. The Muslim Revolt may spell the end of women’s rights around the Muslim world, as well as electoral government and the whole Constitutional order that made the modern world possible — including nations of laws, science, technology, free speech, the works. Reactionary Islam took over in Iran thirty years ago, and now it’s out of control, thanks to the criminal collusion of the Left. Don’t forget that. This is not just the Mo Bros. It’s the Mo’s plus Code Pink that makes this happen. If you want to know whom to blame for the forcible “virginity test,” yes, you can blame Jodie Evans and Medea Benjamins.
The New York Times reports that the Egyptian Bros [sic] and the military are now allied to take over. Right at the start the Bros called for war with Israel, because it was their enemy Mubarak who kept the Egyptian-Israeli Peace treaty going for three decades. The Bros also brought back from exile their own Ayatollah Khomeini, Al Qaradawi, and celebrated with their own Million Muslim March in Tahrir Square. They also threw out the Google twitter mobster who helped make the revolt happen.
So much for the “young democracy demonstrators.” They are being treated like the demonstrators in Tehran, the ones Obama didn’t give a hoot about for fear of offending ol’ bloody-handed Ahmadinejad.
Are you surprised? I hope not. We are seeing a chain reaction from Morocco to Pakistan. In two years the chain reactions may be nuclear, starting with Iran, but then followed by everyone who can pay for nukes from Pakistan and North Korea: Syria, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, maybe Bahrain and the UAE. Every Saudi billionaire will want his own nuke, and some of them will pass them on to Al Qaida. Islam is all about charity, you see.
The Middle East has always been a powder keg, and Obama just tossed in a match to see what was gonna happen, like a kid with fireworks. Community agitators live to agitate, and now we see one community after another crumbling as a direct result of all that agit-prop. This is the biggest victory for Alinsky’s Rules for Radicals: Let’s light it up and see what happens! No wonder Alinsky dedicated that book to Lucifer.
“All the best revolutions are organic” was Obama’s Leninist piece of wisdom when he was yelling at Hillary in the White House several weeks ago. “All the best revolutions.” Think about that.
Libya is now being bombed, because, after under-reacting to Ahmadinejad in Tehran, Obama is now over-reacting in Egypt and Libya. Hey, it’s a revolution, baby! Celebrate!
This entry was posted in Jinad/Shariah, Liberty, Obama. Bookmark the permalink.
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0022.json.gz/line1070
|
__label__wiki
| 0.832788
| 0.832788
|
2018 Kalmar FISU World University Triathlon Championship
Results: 2018 Kalmar FISU World University Triathlon Championship | Elite Men
Kalmar, Sweden • 01 Sep, 2018
Elite Men Elite Women Mixed Relay
1 Lars Pfeifer 1994 GER 11 00:51:40 00:09:05 00:00:51 00:27:17 00:00:23 00:14:07
2 Gabriel Allgayer 1998 GER 21 00:51:43 00:09:07 00:00:50 00:27:22 00:00:26 00:14:00
3 Nathan Guerbeur 1996 FRA 18 00:51:52 00:09:00 00:00:51 00:27:22 00:00:25 00:14:16
4 Jack Willis 1997 GBR 9 00:51:59 00:08:35 00:00:47 00:27:51 00:00:24 00:14:24
5 Nathan Grayel 1995 FRA 8 00:52:11 00:08:58 00:00:51 00:27:24 00:00:24 00:14:36
6 Jan Stratmann 1995 GER 25 00:52:15 00:08:59 00:00:48 00:27:27 00:00:23 00:14:40
7 Giulio Soldati 1997 ITA 36 00:52:18 00:08:57 00:00:50 00:27:29 00:00:24 00:14:39
8 Darr Smith 1998 USA 69 00:52:27 00:08:39 00:00:54 00:27:44 00:00:24 00:14:47
9 Nicola Azzano 1997 ITA 24 00:52:30 00:08:38 00:00:52 00:27:45 00:00:26 00:14:51
10 Ondrej Olsar 1997 CZE 30 00:52:34 00:09:11 00:00:54 00:27:08 00:00:25 00:14:57
11 Fabian Villanueva Moehl 1993 MEX 2 00:52:34 00:09:12 00:00:50 00:27:14 00:00:24 00:14:55
12 Mikita Katsianeu 1996 BLR 23 00:52:36 00:08:59 00:00:54 00:27:29 00:00:26 00:14:49
13 Collin Chartier 1993 USA 5 00:52:37 00:08:45 00:00:50 00:27:41 00:00:25 00:14:58
14 Simon Westermann 1998 SUI 16 00:52:38 00:08:36 00:00:47 00:27:50 00:00:24 00:15:03
15 Jonathan Sammut 1997 AUS 19 00:52:39 00:08:41 00:00:49 00:27:45 00:00:23 00:15:03
16 Henry Räppo 1998 EST 33 00:52:43 00:09:06 00:00:50 00:27:19 00:00:24 00:15:05
17 Taishi Furuyama 1995 JPN 10 00:52:45 00:08:43 00:00:45 00:27:47 00:00:27 00:15:04
18 Jack Van Stekelenburg 1997 AUS 27 00:52:47 00:08:42 00:00:46 00:27:46 00:00:27 00:15:08
19 Pim Venderbosch 1996 NED 40 00:52:50 00:09:09 00:00:55 00:27:14 00:00:24 00:15:10
20 Lukas Cervenka 1995 CZE 41 00:52:56 00:08:32 00:00:49 00:27:54 00:00:25 00:15:18
21 Federico Spinazzé 1998 ITA 32 00:52:58 00:09:16 00:00:56 00:27:00 00:00:27 00:15:21
22 Fabian Meeusen 1998 SUI 47 00:53:01 00:08:28 00:00:51 00:27:59 00:00:24 00:15:20
23 Arnaud Mengal 1997 BEL 42 00:53:05 00:09:09 00:00:50 00:27:22 00:00:25 00:15:23
24 Louis Vitiello 1998 FRA 22 00:53:07 00:08:55 00:00:48 00:27:31 00:00:27 00:15:28
25 Aiden Longcroft-Harris 1998 CAN 37 00:53:22 00:08:34 00:00:52 00:27:51 00:00:27 00:15:39
26 Johannes Vogel 1996 GER 35 00:53:28 00:09:25 00:00:55 00:28:01 00:00:27 00:14:43
27 Pedro Afonso Gaspar 1994 POR 26 00:53:35 00:08:39 00:00:50 00:27:52 00:00:32 00:15:44
28 Gabriel Legault 1993 CAN 43 00:53:39 00:09:11 00:00:53 00:27:43 00:00:26 00:15:29
29 Tyler Smith 1998 BER 20 00:53:41 00:08:50 00:00:55 00:27:48 00:00:32 00:15:38
30 Maxime Hueber-Moosbrugger 1996 FRA 6 00:53:43 00:09:12 00:01:01 00:28:32 00:00:25 00:14:34
31 Thibaud Decurnex 1998 SUI 65 00:53:47 00:09:11 00:00:53 00:27:49 00:00:22 00:15:33
33 Christopher Perham 1995 GBR 3 00:54:00 00:09:04 00:00:50 00:28:30 00:00:28 00:15:10
34 Axel Ek 1996 SWE 49 00:54:02 00:09:07 00:00:53 00:27:21 00:00:25 00:16:17
35 Milosz Sowinski 1995 POL 28 00:54:08 00:09:17 00:00:53 00:28:09 00:00:28 00:15:23
36 Klemen Bojanc 1998 SLO 78 00:54:09 00:09:26 00:00:48 00:28:08 00:00:28 00:15:20
37 Pierre Moraz 1999 SUI 74 00:54:10 00:09:16 00:00:51 00:27:48 00:00:25 00:15:53
38 Garrick Loewen 1995 CAN 48 00:54:13 00:09:12 00:00:53 00:27:18 00:00:27 00:16:25
39 Daryn Konysbayev 1999 KAZ 31 00:54:15 00:09:30 00:00:56 00:28:19 00:00:32 00:15:02
40 Jack Felix 1993 USA 53 00:54:18 00:09:17 00:00:57 00:28:05 00:00:37 00:15:24
41 Takumi Hojo 1996 JPN 4 00:54:23 00:09:03 00:00:55 00:27:22 00:01:27 00:15:39
42 Jacek Krawczyk 1996 POL 62 00:54:24 00:09:16 00:00:52 00:28:38 00:00:29 00:15:11
43 Ren Sato 1995 JPN 1 00:54:25 00:09:04 00:00:47 00:28:55 00:00:27 00:15:13
44 Harry Leleu 1996 GBR 29 00:54:28 00:08:56 00:00:53 00:28:54 00:00:23 00:15:24
45 Satoshi Iwamoto 1996 JPN 39 00:54:38 00:09:05 00:00:54 00:28:25 00:00:27 00:15:49
46 Matija Meden 1993 SLO 73 00:54:40 00:09:03 00:00:57 00:28:22 00:00:27 00:15:53
47 Patrik Zékány-Nagy 1996 HUN 71 00:54:45 00:08:48 00:00:51 00:28:17 00:00:28 00:16:24
48 Finn Timmermans 1998 NED 79 00:54:56 00:09:25 00:00:52 00:28:03 00:00:25 00:16:14
49 Tamás Papp 1998 HUN 38 00:55:01 00:09:02 00:01:01 00:28:21 00:00:27 00:16:13
50 Jeremie Martin 1998 CAN 70 00:55:05 00:09:31 00:00:54 00:28:19 00:00:28 00:15:54
51 Jakub Powada 1993 CZE 34 00:55:10 00:08:55 00:00:51 00:28:39 00:00:27 00:16:20
52 Jardy Van Den Heuvel 1995 NED 72 00:55:19 00:08:53 00:00:57 00:28:05 00:00:25 00:17:01
53 Robert Kallin 1995 SWE 75 00:55:27 00:09:26 00:01:09 00:28:11 00:00:30 00:16:14
54 Fergus Roberts 1994 GBR 15 00:55:35 00:09:15 00:00:54 00:29:02 00:00:27 00:15:59
55 Wesley Mols 1996 NED 77 00:56:00 00:09:43 00:00:53 00:30:12 00:00:31 00:14:43
56 Noah Servais 1997 BEL 7 00:56:08 00:09:05 00:00:49 00:30:37 00:00:32 00:15:07
57 Matus Verbovsky 1998 SVK 46 00:56:17 00:09:09 00:00:56 00:30:40 00:00:26 00:15:08
58 Urh Klenovšek 1996 SLO 63 00:56:25 00:09:10 00:00:53 00:28:42 00:00:29 00:17:11
59 Chih-Feng Lin 1997 TPE 67 00:56:34 00:09:34 00:00:53 00:28:20 00:00:27 00:17:22
60 András Király 1996 HUN 76 00:56:43 00:09:09 00:00:57 00:29:52 00:00:31 00:16:16
61 Ali Mutlu 1995 TUR 68 00:56:45 00:09:28 00:00:54 00:29:39 00:00:30 00:16:16
62 Nicklas Gunnarsson 1996 SWE 66 00:56:51 00:09:40 00:00:53 00:29:19 00:00:30 00:16:32
63 Manaki Arishima 1996 JPN 60 00:56:55 00:09:15 00:00:56 00:29:51 00:00:30 00:16:25
64 Kevin Vabaorg 1998 EST 45 00:57:23 00:09:13 00:00:50 00:29:57 00:00:27 00:16:58
65 Chung-Hsuan Lu 1998 TPE 50 00:57:58 00:09:20 00:01:07 00:29:37 00:00:30 00:17:26
66 Bence Zoltán Kovácshegyi 1995 HUN 57 00:58:06 00:09:30 00:00:52 00:29:39 00:00:31 00:17:36
67 Brodie Marshall 1998 CAN 44 00:58:14 00:09:00 00:00:52 00:30:17 00:00:29 00:17:37
68 Bojan Karanovic 1993 SRB 64 00:58:20 00:09:37 00:00:56 00:30:13 00:00:31 00:17:05
69 Gültigin Er 1997 TUR 51 00:58:41 00:09:05 00:00:56 00:29:59 00:00:28 00:18:14
70 Daniel Castillo Zamora 1997 CRC 56 00:58:41 00:09:14 00:00:52 00:30:44 00:00:30 00:17:24
71 Takanori Sugihara 1994 JPN 17 00:59:00 00:09:17 00:01:00 00:29:53 00:00:32 00:18:20
72 Henadzi Semashka 1995 BLR 54 00:59:10 00:09:32 00:01:12 00:31:08 00:00:28 00:16:52
73 Kevin Bishop 1994 USA 12 01:00:43 00:09:00 00:00:49 00:34:57 00:00:33 00:15:27
74 Stevie Blankenship 1995 CAN 55 01:00:45 00:09:38 00:00:56 00:30:17 00:00:32 00:19:24
75 Tom Wassermann 1995 ISR 59 01:07:30 00:12:22 00:01:09 00:33:10 00:00:29 00:20:23
DNF Charlie Quin 1995 AUS 14 DNF 00:09:11 00:00:00 00:00:00 00:00:00 00:00:00
Technical Delegate: Pertti Tomminen/SWE, Dominique Frizza/FRA. Head Referee: Peter Thygesen/DEN.
Competition Jury: Pertti Tomminen/SWE, Dominique Frizza/FRA, Ola Silvdahl/SWE.
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0022.json.gz/line1072
|
__label__cc
| 0.557727
| 0.442273
|
A Trip through One Semester of Historical Methods and Theory
Posted on June 6, 2017 February 19, 2019
Here I was, rock you like a hurricane
Almost everyone who goes to grad school in History has to do some variation on the Historiography of Everything class, where students hit the Foucault, Weber, and so forth and instructors pretend that the students will actually read Braudel’s 1300+ age epic The Mediterranean.
I had mine many years back at Columbia University, when I was extremely green and had no idea what I was getting myself into. I had the opportunity to teach my own version of the course for the first time this Spring, and it required digging up all those old tomes and dusting off the syllabus from grad school. We didn’t cover everything (if that’s even possible), but we had a great time chatting about the totemic words of historical scholarship (race! gender! sexuality! narrative!). Fun with Foucault.
Below is the series of blog posts that walk students through the big issues under discussion each week, with the syllabus available here. Hopefully, it might be of use to others who are crafting such a course. Of course, having a great group of students made testing out the new class a whole lot easier.
1. All about Narratives and Metaphors!
This week we look at the influential and controversial musings of Hayden White, who is about as close to a “theorist” as we get with historians (and he was a comp lit professor). We also check in with geographer Anne Buttimer on the way that we construct pictures of the world as scholars, and the implicit conceptual models that stand behind them. Finally, the esteemed historian of slavery Walter Johnson introduces us to agency, a crucial historical concept that we all want a little more of–most of the time.
Add your responses to the readings as comments on this post. If you run into problems, please do not hesitate to contact the instructor via email.
2. Paradigm Shift!
This week, we turn from basic concepts such as narrative, metaphor, and agency to–wait for it–something completely different. Or not.
Thomas Kuhn‘s model of intellectual change comes from the history of science, but it applies to the history of history too, i.e. historiography. An idea has truly arrived when it becomes a cliché, and in that sense, the concept of the paradigm shift is undoubtedly here. We take a glance at his influential text, and then consider two paradigmatic examples of sea changes in our understanding of the past.
Think about possibilities for your final paper as you look at these readings. What kind of topic, problem, or question could you examine that exemplifies the different ways that historians have interpreted (and reinterpreted) the past?
Some examples of historiography papers:
Was the Civil War the First Total War? (I didn’t get a great grade on this one, but it at least gives an idea of what a historiographical paper looks like.)
The Emergence of Urban Planning in the South (first semester of grad school; utterly terrified of Barbara Fields)
How We Got Here: Stein, Cowie, Arrighi, on the Post-Industrial Economy (this is a little looser in form and tone, since it originated as a blog post, but it’s a good example of how to engage with scholars who bring drastically different methodologies to bear on shared questions)
3. The American Political Tradition and the White Men Who Wrote About It
It’s no secret to fans of Gelato Orphans (or Tropics of Meta) that Richard Hofstadter has a special place in our hearts. The good old historian is often trotted out by lazy journalists because of his famous book about “anti-intellectualism” and his essay about “the paranoid style in American politics,” but he had much more to say about American life, from the founders through FDR. His book The American Political Tradition remains a superlative classic of historical writing and of the “essayistic” mode.
The Age of Reform is perhaps his other most influential work. Think about the ways Hofstadter approaches writing about the past, politics, class, culture, and so forth. Is it different from the approach you would take? Is it different from the methodological or theoretical stance that you find in other contemporary historical (and other scholarly) works?
We are also looking at Max Weber, the famous German sociologist, and the celebrated essay he wrote at the close of World War One and the beginning of an era of turmoil in Germany. Weber is famous for his ideas about capitalism and Protestantism, bureaucracy and rationality, and has often been presented as a sort of counterpoint to Marx. Do you find his analysis of class and politics to be compelling?
4. Size Matters
Think big – or not
This week we take a look at the temporal and spatial boundaries that historians set in attempting to understand the human experience. Scholars have to decide not just where the beginning, middle, and end of a study should fall–the vexed question of narrative–but also on what scale the story unfolds. Is it a study of a particular mining community in Colorado in the 1930s? Is it a sweeping examination of vast environmental and climatic trends in the long history of the Ottoman Empire? Could it be, like Joyce’s classic novel Ulysses, just the story of one man, or even the story of one day in one person’s life? One might reasonably ask whether such a history is possible, or technically “history.”
To pursue these questions, we will begin to delve into the concepts of microhistory, the Annales school, and world-systems theory. Please post your own thoughts and impressions below.
5. Space Is the Place
This week we deepen our discussion of the landscape and everyday life from last week’s look at Braudel, Ginzburg, and company. From the artificial Soviet city of Magnitogorsk to the ancient origins of the American front lawn and the strepitous lanes of the Mall of America, we will consider how historians have understood the past through the lenses of social history and the built environment.
6. It’s All About Race… Or Is It?
This week, we turn from broad theoretical questions about agency, narrative, and scale to what are known by historians as categories of analysis: race, class, gender, sexuality, ability, and so on. These are the unifying dimensions of life in the contemporary world that define so many people’s experiences and allow historians to examine a diverse array of people, communities, and stories along one axis or another–their skin color or racial designation, their income or occupation, their gender identity or sexual orientation–and the way these forms of labeling or identification affect their experience of life socially, culturally, politically, economically, and in so many other ways.
For Americans, race stands out as perhaps the preeminent among categories of analysis, since the “original sins” of enslavement (of African people) and genocide (of indigenous people) have fundamentally shaped the course of US history from the very first colonial settlements in the New World. Historians have debated for ages whether race, class, gender, or sexuality has had greater weight in influencing the course of events in the past and social life today. But this week we look to some preeminent thinkers in this field: Lipsitz, who considers the material and ideological dimensions of what it means to be “white,” of “whiteness” as a thing unto itself; Fields, who boldly challenged the fundamental concept of race itself; and Holt, who provides an elegant survey of some of the basic questions and ideas advanced in the then-new literature (in the 1990s) about race and identity in the United States and beyond.
7. Class and the Classy People Who Have It
This week, we turn from America’s all-time favorite category of analysis–race–to its all-time least favorite, class! In a republic founded on (sort-of) white male solidarity, class was not supposed to matter as much as in the fussy, hierarchical societies of the “Old World.” Yet differences of income and status still grew from the rocky soil of American republican virtue. Like pretty much every other society ever, we have had to contend with economically-based social distinctions among broad groups of people. Marx may have defined class in a materialist sense of money, occupation, and power, but other scholars such as E.P. Thompson have come along to explain how class is much more culturally constructed as an identity in the lived experience of everyday life. Meanwhile, Thomas Laqueur reminds us how gradations of social status have been embedded historically in the seemingly ordinary but richly symbolic arenas of death and burial, while historians such as Sven Beckert have explored how class identity is formed even among the upper crust. Even your intrepid instructor has written about the formation of class consciousness within the so-called knowledge economy. In any case, it’s a great time to be poor!
8. Boys and Girls in America
This week, we turn our attention to gender–a category of analysis that doubles as a free-floating, almost infinitely variable and malleable social construct and a seemingly “natural” and fixed biological distinction. As opposed to race, a concept we all know was created on the fly, improvised by slavemasters and slaves and jurists and lawmakers over hundreds of years, gender differences appear, at least superficially, to be rooted deeply in our most ancient artistic, legal, and religious traditions. Gender has provided one of the most fundamental axes of social organization, albeit in a dizzying variety of ways, for most of human history. Yet we also recognize that gender itself is not identical to physiology or the normative sex differences that are documented, interpreted, and ultimately designated at birth in most cultures. The rise of trans activism to prominence over the course of the late twentieth and early twentieth centuries makes this fact crystal clear. As Kate Bornstein famously put it in 1994, “Sex is fucking. Everything else is gender.”
(And we’ll get to sexuality after Spring Break… appropriately enough?)
Gender, thus, offers us yet another lens through which not only to “see” history but to organize, categorize, and make sense of our investigations into the past. We will look at Joan Scott’s seminal article that argued why gender is a “useful category of analysis”–one of the most read-ever in the discipline–as well as two outings by historians who approach the historical construction and evolution of gender ideas from two very different perspectives (themes of morality and vulnerability around pregnancy in the 1940s and 1950s versus aspirational images of masculinity in print culture around the same time). These readings open up vistas into the understanding of issues as different as suburbanization and consumer culture as well as the bodily experience of gender and its portrayal art, fashion, and literature.
9. Let’s Talk About Sex
This week we venture a bit beyond the famous “trinity” of categories of analysis – class, gender, and race – to other themes and issues that historians have increasingly turned their attention to in recent decades, notably sexuality. Of course, it is very difficult to disentangle gender and sexuality – they are distinct categories of identity and dimensions of human experience that are, nonetheless, intertwined and often mutually reinforcing in many cultures. The study of sexuality by historians stems from several key sources; in part, scholars began to take the subject seriously as a result of the efforts of feminists to bring issues of gender, sex, reproduction, and the family into academic discussion, as we saw last week in Joan Scott’s influential work. From a different, albeit often related direction, LGBT historians have pushed for the stories of gay men, lesbians, transpeople, and communities to be told, resulting in key works such as George Chauncey’s Gay New York (1994) and Nan Boyd’s Wide Open Town (2005). There is also, of course, the French thinker Michel Foucault’s work on sex, the body, and power, such as The History of Sexuality (1976).
For our discussion, we are looking at three very different ways that historians have brought sex and sexuality into the study of the human past. One comes from Margot Canaday’s award-winning book The Straight State; another, from a journal article by the brilliant Danielle McGuire, author of At the Dark End of the Street; and finally, an essay by emerging scholar Casey Baskin, that looks at an unusual set of primary sources. (Please note that some of these readings include potentially disturbing descriptions of sexual violence.)
10. Work It, Girl
This week’s material may seem to bring us back to issues we’d discussed in the past–isn’t this just “Class” week all over again? Labor, capital, economics, exploitation, your Aunt Rose’s wobbly hip, blah blah blah. In fact, though, the readings are meant to bring us back to two central trends that are redefining historical scholarship in the early twenty-first century: globalization and the history of capitalism. The shotgun marriage between the two, it should be noted, started with the first of those terms. The end of the Cold War inaugurated an era of (American) capitalist triumphalism: in the global contest of ideas, Communism (and its less intimidating sibling Socialism) had definitively lost with the collapse of the Soviet Union and its empire, leaving only the US model of liberal democracy and capitalism as the sole remaining option. With a decade of Wal-Mart and Britney Spears and Will & Grace, it seemed that the protean powers of American market society had truly achieved the ultimate pinnacle of human development, and the free-market agenda of the International Monetary Fund and World Trade Organization seemed virtually unchallenged–summed up in the idea of the “Washington Consensus” and the slogan “There Is No Alternative.” The scholar Francis Fukuyama, rightly or wrongly, ended up getting slammed as the prophet of this consensus, declaring “The End of History.”
History has a nasty way of sneaking up on people, though. The dot-com bubble of the late 1990s burst; terrorists killed thousands of Americans in an audacious declaration of war in 2001; and the US and global economies lurched from crisis to crisis in the 2000s and 2010s. Increasingly, historians returned to a focus on money, power, and economics that some had abandoned in the turn toward social and cultural history from the 1970s through 1990s, with the result that scholars such as Bethany Moreton and Louis Hyman increasingly focused on issues such as retail, credit, and high-tech in their work. This week, we look at both the interrelated nature of global production and supply-chains (in the work of Chomsky and Moreton) as well as the changing nature of work itself in the new digital economy (Terranova).
Admittedly, when I was picking out these readings in Fall 2016, I did not realize precisely how resonant they would be with the current moment. As Aviva Chomsky delineates in her introduction, there have been two main responses to globalization in the US: one that celebrates increasing “integration” of various national economies and says that there is no alternative, and another that views increasing globalization and immigration with suspicion and even hatred. It is not hard to see how these two points of view lined up with the political positions of key figures in the past US presidential election, with contemporary parallels in the politics of nations such as the UK and France. As the historian Samuel L. Jackson once said, “Hold on to your butts.”
11. Can We Talk?
We’re getting oh-so-tantalizingly close to the end, folks–the end of history! J/k, that’s so last week. But we are still thinking about fresh work and different methodologies, in this case, Columbia’s Amy Starecheski and her innovative work of oral history, Ours to Lose. Oral history is nothing new, of course; people have been conveying history through oral tradition since before Homer was knee-high to a grasshopper and the Cyclops still had two eyes. But historians increasingly refined their approach to using oral interview methods to learn about the past and historical memory in the twentieth century, especially as social and labor historians turned away from considering the documents of high-status people (diplomats, presidents, generals, aristocrats) to learn about how the common man experienced history. Columbia University, as a matter of fact, took a central role in much of the early, influential oral history, and Starecheski continues to work there in partnership with the esteemed Mary Marshall Clark. More recently, the Oral History Association moved to Georgia State University under the auspices of the late, great Cliff Kuhn. For many of us, oral history methods remain central to our work, especially in fields such as public history and urban history. This week we’ll delve into the history of history “from the bottom up” and consider the many issues involved in trying to capture people’s experiences and stories in a responsible and effective manner.
12. You’re Cracking Me Up
As we near the end of the semester, we pull our lens of focus outward to consider not just a single category of analysis (race, gender, sexuality) or a particular community (NYC squatters) but the vast scope of the American experience in the late twentieth century. If we started with “The Age of Reform,” then we finish with the “Age of Fracture.” Daniel Rodgers, recently retired at Princeton, is one of the preeminent intellectual and cultural historians of our time, the author of books such as Contested Truths (1987) and Atlantic Crossings (1998), and Age of Fracture was his big send-off–an attempt to wrangle all the big ideas of conservatism, feminism, multiculturalism, and so forth in one book.
Rodgers, of course, finds himself in good (or at least good-ish) company. Many others have tried to put the ultimate spin on the last thirty or forty years. (His Princeton colleague Sean Wilentz dubbed it “the Age of Reagan.”) Every generation attempts to frame, interpret, and categorize its own experience, or the experience of the past that only recently passed. In some ways, it is the curse of the historian to not be able to fully recognize the currents and cross-currents that most shaped the riverbed of their own lives. But Rodgers makes a good go of it, and he does manage to encapsulate a dizzying variety of ideas and movements in his look at the late twentieth century.
Does it work? How can you write history at such a high level, without the granular specificity that makes something like Amy Starecheski’s work distinct and recognizable? Does Rodgers’s central metaphor–of American life being subject to a series of “fractures” or disjunctures–make sense of what we all have experienced in the last few decades, or where we’ve ended up?
You can find a great roundtable discussion of the book by a bunch of guys who couldn’t get dates in high school at Tropics of Meta.
13. I Remember Me
Tracy Jordan once said that “the future is like a Japanese game show — you have no idea what’s going on.” Judging from recent events, the TGS thespian might have been on to something.
On the other hand, the great South African human rights activist Evita Bezuidenhout has said, “The past is unpredictable.” (In fact, the quote is often, fittingly enough, also attributed to intellectuals in the old Soviet Union, as a way of describing life in a communist state where authorities casually rewrote the past.)
Let’s split the difference and say that they’re both right — the future is hard to understand, while the past may be impossible to understand. Part of that has to do with the powers and vulnerabilities of human memory. This issue has been creeping along the edges of our discussion throughout the course, as, after all, one could say that history is simply the sum of our individual and collective memories. Oral history, which we just discussed, always faces this problem, as personal experience may seem like rawest, most direct “stuff” of history but memory is always imperfect at best.
The dangers of oral history
Going farther back in the semester, we could also revisit the question of narrative. After all, everyone makes a story out of the nearly innumerable experiences of their own lives, whether formally (writing a diary or memoir) or informally (making sense of life in their own heads). Then there is the way that the past is institutionally commemorated, in textbooks, statues, museums, and parades. (David Blight’s work on the post-Civil War US, Race and Reunion, is noteworthy in this regard.)
The late and sorely missed Svetlana Boym invites us to reckon with memory and the past in her book The Future of Nostalgia. It is a rather distinct work compared to some of the others we have read this semester, but let’s use it as an opportunity to consider how we deal with the memories of our own lives, and those of friends, families, communities, nations, and even world. This is perhaps doubly poignant given the changed character of Russian life and relations with the West today compared to when Boym was writing.
On that note, we leave you with a song.
Posted in historiography, teaching, theory
Author: Alex Sayf Cummings
Alex Sayf Cummings is an associate professor of history at Georgia State University, whose work deals with technology, law, public policy, and the political culture of the modern United States. Alex's writing has appeared in Salon, the Brooklyn Rail, the Journal of American History, the Journal of Urban History, Al Jazeera, and Southern Cultures, among other publications, and the book Democracy of Sound was published by Oxford University Press in 2013 (paperback, 2017). Alex can be followed on Twitter at @akbarjenkins. View all posts by Alex Sayf Cummings
Prev Remembering–and Not Forgetting–on Memorial Day
Next The Real Drunk History: Exploring the Rise of Craft Beer in Atlanta
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0022.json.gz/line1074
|
__label__wiki
| 0.59331
| 0.59331
|
Why We Will March in Arizona
Pablo Alvarado,
La Jornada (Mexico)
The United States currently faces a crisis that it must resolve while preserving its character as a nation of immigrants. This begins with recognizing and respecting the dignity and integrity of human beings. Characterizing the phenomenon of immigration as a matter of criminality moves the United States further and further away from these universal principles. When 12 million people flee their homes in fear of violence, natural disasters and destitution, we are not talking about crime, we are talking about a humanitarian crisis.
In 2010, the United States will once again attempt to repair and modernize its broken immigration system, a system that enables American society to benefit from and enjoy the fruits of the labor of migrant workers without accepting their humanity or recognizing their human rights. Lawmakers tried to bring about reform in 2006 and 2007, but their failure to reach an agreement gave the green light to individual states, counties and municipalities to assume the responsibility of the federal government and adopt their own versions of immigration reform. This has only resulted in suffering and chaos.
The extreme anti-immigration forces in the United States have poisoned the debate with hatred and racism. The attacks against the immigrant community have begun to express themselves in increasingly aggressive, rude and cruel ways. When it comes to an unwillingness to regard immigrants as fellow human beings, it seems as if ingratitude and perversity have no moral, ethical or spiritual boundaries. It seems as if the forces against reform are trying to make life for immigrants so wretched and miserable that they simply deport themselves out of the country. For this anarchic policy of degradation to succeed, immigrants must be stripped of their rights and their humanity and cut off from all chances at economic survival.
Uncompromised, uncompromising news
Get reliable, independent news and commentary delivered to your inbox every day.
To meet these ends, the tactics used against immigrants now range from denying them basic health services to transforming doctors and nurses into immigration officials. They range from denying immigrants housing subsidies – even to those with documented legal status – to pressing charges against landlords who rent out spaces to migrant laborers. They range from stationing immigration agents inside prisons to endowing local police forces with the authority to stop any person on the street at will and demand to see their immigration papers. They range from denying immigrants the right to due process to bequeathing immigration officials with absolute power.
Clearly, the fight against immigrants has not merely been limited to a strategy of economic debilitation. Stripping immigrants of their human dignity is one of the fundamental means of legitimizing and normalizing any aggression against them. Immigrants are humiliated and relegated to a less-than-human status in order in order to justify giving them less-than-human rights. It begins by branding immigrants as “illegal” beings, a term that has taken on racist connotations of mockery and contempt. This epithet has now evolved from “illegal” to “invader,” from “criminal” to “terrorist.”
In their efforts to realize this process of dehumanization, opponents of immigrant rights are implementing practices of racial profiling, systematic persecution and levels of personal degradation that have not been seen in over a generation. Bearing this in mind, it is no mere coincidence that detained, undocumented mothers are shackled hand and foot to the hospital bed while giving birth to their children. It is no mere coincidence that undocumented prisoners are paraded through the streets in ridiculous displays while the media is summoned to document and broadcast the show for all to see. It is not by chance that immigration agents have adopted a policy of tearing a mother from her children in public spaces, and then giving those children little toys in an effort to console them. It is not simply happenstance that hot lines have been established so that any person can phone in and report anyone who they suspect might be undocumented. It is no coincidence that sheriffs and elected officials have become heroes of white supremacist groups. But above all, it should surprise no one that this type of abuse is seen as completely normal, even among people who sympathize with the undocumented migrant community.
This strategy of humiliation and debilitation pushed by the extreme right and anti-immigrant groups does not make distinctions between undocumented immigrants and those who possess legal documented status. The result is that in some parts of the United States, Latinos (undocumented migrants and citizens alike) do not enjoy the same constitutional protections as white people.
Arizona is proof of this reality. The chief of the Maricopa County sheriff’s office has deliberately decided to interrogate, detain, arrest and deport all types of people who seem to have a Mexican appearance. Many of these practices exist throughout the country, but nowhere are they more dramatically implemented than in Maricopa County.
But in Arizona, just as there is oppression, there is resistance. Migrant organizations, families, friends and allies are raising their voices and saying “basta”: enough is enough. On January 16, they will take to the streets to denounce the persecution and criminalization of immigrants in this country. They will demand an end to programs and policies that permit the collaboration between local authorities and federal agents, including section 287(g) [of the Immigration and Nationality Act]. They will march to stop the spread of anti-immigrant policies and practices to other parts of the country. They will march to demand a just and inclusive comprehensive immigration reform that provides a pathway to citizenship and political equality. They will march to ensure that the United States preserves its character as a nation of immigrants. They will march to ensure that this country is a country of inclusion and not of exclusion. They will march to reclaim their right to exist. They will march to defend civil liberties and human rights for all.
Two days before the anniversary of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., the migrant community in Arizona and its allies are fighting to preserve his legacy. They will continue the struggle of nonviolent resistance so that Dr. King’s dream can become a reality. Four decades after his assassination, Latinos, African-Americans and people of color continue to fight so that human beings are judged not by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character. If Dr. King were alive today, on January 16 he would march alongside the Latinos in Arizona. His dream will be fulfilled some day. Sometimes justice is delayed, but it is never forgotten. Sí se puede.
Pablo Alvarado is executive director of the National Day Laborer Organizing Network, a national alliance of 41 grassroots organizations dedicated to the defense and organization of day laborers in the United States.
Translation: Ryan Croken.
Ryan Croken is a freelance writer and editor based in Chicago. His essays and book reviews have appeared in The Philadelphia Inquirer, Z Magazine and ReligionDispatches.org. He can be reached at ryan.croken@gmail.com.
Pablo Alvarado
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0022.json.gz/line1078
|
__label__wiki
| 0.591859
| 0.591859
|
Minimizing Train Delays Can Improve Mobility, Safety at Rail Grade Crossings
Railroad Crossing Cameras are updated once every minute at http://traffic.houstontranstar. org/cctv/railroad/.
Everyone’s been delayed by a train at a roadway crossing. Usually, you’re in your car, tapping your fingers. But if you were standing at the crossing and the train was actually stopped, wouldn’t you be tempted to step between the cars and be on your way?
If you said yes, you would not be alone. Stories have circulated around Houston for years about people—particularly children—crawling between train cars to get through a blocked intersection. The situation presents an obvious safety hazard, not to mention potential liability issues for the railroad and agencies responsible for managing the crossing. Preventing individuals from walking between the cars is a tall order, so Texas Transportation Institute (TTI) Associate Research Scientist Darryl Puckett took a different course to address the problem.
“We decided to focus on the situation that enables the behavior rather than the behavior itself,” explains Puckett. “The problem occurs when the train is stationary, so we looked at how to minimize train stoppages at rail grade crossings.”
With the help of the City of Houston and Houston TranStar, TTI researchers monitored 19 crossings around the Houston area identified by the public as being problematic for stopped trains. Since many of these crossings are near schools, safety is compromised when children crawl through the cars to or from school. And, if a crossing is blocked, fire, police and emergency medical services (EMS) personnel must either wait for it to clear or find an alternate route. Actively monitoring these sites and implementing long-term improvements that minimize delays could enhance response time for first responders as well.
“We are adapting the traffic management system model implemented on Houston’s freeways,” explains Jack Whaley, director of Houston TranStar, the region’s transportation and emergency management center. “As with the freeways, we believe that monitoring railroad crossings can improve mobility, as well as safety.”
In its initial stages, the project developed a Web site where images of the crossings could be monitored by the Union Pacific dispatcher in Spring, Texas. It was envisioned that knowledge of the blockages could be used to bring resources to bear in clearing problem locations.
A prototype Web site was created to notify Houston Police Department (HPD) dispatchers of crossing blockages. When a crossing is blocked, the symbol on the site for that intersection changes from green to red, signifying that the crossing arms are down. After 10 minutes of continuous delay, the HPD dispatcher receives notification of the problem, and an officer can be sent to the location to investigate. The railroad involved is also notified. With that data, traffic management personnel can immediately contact the proper authorities to clear the crossing in the short term, while railroad personnel can assess it for long-term improvements. And, as with the freeway system already in place, the public is granted access to the Web site to use in facilitating their commute.
Puckett and his team recommended an expanded field test of the prototype Web site to eight locations to gather more data and further assess the effectiveness of the notification system in reducing the number of delayed trains. Other data, such as the extent of delays for emergency response personnel and the number of individuals walking through stopped trains, could also be gathered.
“TTI’s research can help us prioritize rail grade crossings that are particularly troublesome,” says Whaley. “With this data and through future expansion of the monitoring program, we have the potential for improving safety near schools, reducing EMS response time and improving mobility for commuters in one fell swoop.”
Transportation Issues in Public Safety
Darryl Puckett
Other key members of the TTI research team include Senior Systems Analyst Mike Vickich and Research Scientist Leonard Ruback.
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0022.json.gz/line1079
|
__label__cc
| 0.668181
| 0.331819
|
Tag Archives: United Karate Studios
by Anthony Baker | June 6, 2018 · 8:54 pm
I Did the Crane Kick. Yes, I did!
I’m still going to do a review of “Cobra Kai” on YouTube and then post it here on my blog, but first, this…
The Karate Kid
Did you go see “The Karate Kid” back when it came out? I did! As a matter of fact, I went on opening day, June 22, 1984. Believe me when I say it made a profound impact on my life.
“Cobra Kai” just came out on YouTube last month (May 2), and it is worth subscribing to YoutTube Red just to watch all 10 episodes of the first season (I’ll talk more about that in the video). But before my youngest daughter was able to appreciate “Cobra Kai,” she needed to watch “The Karate Kid.” After that, she got a better sense for why “Cobra Kai” got me so pumped.
But what my daughters can never fully understand is what I felt when that movie came out. To them, it’s just a movie, but to me, it was a lot like real life…because I was a Karate Kid.
The Karate Me
Back around 1982, I think (maybe ’81), I started taking martial arts. My first lessons came from a man who worked at the hospital with my mother. As a favor (even though he did charge a fee), he took me on as his only student. For several months I trained with him at his house in a big room where he also sewed sails for sailboats.
The first style of martial art I studied was not Karate, but Hawaiian Kenpo. Training would start with a run through the neighborhood and then some wooded area, then some stretching. After that, we would work on various techniques meant to harm one’s attacker. Enough said.
After a few months with my initial instructor, he moved away and left me starting over. It was shortly after that that in 1983, a new Karate dojo opened up about two miles from my home. Walter Ward, a Marine combat veteran from the Vietnam War, became my new instructor (sensei). He was affiliated with Ben Kiker’s United Karate Studios in Dalton, Georga (Great people, btw. Highly recommend them).
I was Mr. Ward’s first paying student. The only other students at the time were his niece and another kid (if I remember correctly), and they went for free. This is one reason why “Cobra Kai” resonates with me, but you’ll need to watch the first episodes on YouTube to understand.
Real Tournaments
You may not have known this, but in order to make the movie set appear more realistic, the people who made “The Karate Kid” actually held a real Karate tournament during the filming of the last scenes. The “extras” in the crowd not only came to see a movie be made but to watch their own kids participate in a real competition!
Therefore, when I went to see the movie, so much of the tournament part struck a chord with me. You see, I had already been competing in martial arts tournaments and had won several awards. And, as a matter of fact, I had already been training for a tournament that was to take place the very next day!
Now, About That Kick
According to the directors, producers, actors, and stunt coordinators (including the guy who played the part of the main referee, Pat Johnson…9th-degree black belt in Tang Soo Do and affiliate of Chuck Norris), the “crane kick” was totally “bogus.” In other words, it was a made-up kick meant to look good on screen.
In other words, it wasn’t supposed to work in a real-life competition.
But it did.
Remember that tournament I was supposed to go to on Saturday, June 23, 1984? The tournament that took place one day after the opening day for “The Karate Kid”? Well, evidently one of my opponents hadn’t yet seen the movie… mwwahahaha!
Sooooo… Right off the bat, as soon as I squared off with my opponent and the judge said, “Fight!”, I made use of what has now become cinema legend. I took the position of the crane stance, one leg lifted, then waited for the unsuspecting fool to walk right into a front snap kick to the chest (no, I didn’t kick him in the face – that would have been illegal).
I scored the point and later won the fight! It was awesome!
Then everybody saw the movie.
Oh, well. It worked once, though 🙂
NOTE: As I mentioned above, I did most of my martial arts training with United Karate Studios. My dojo was in Chattanooga, but the main dojo was/is in Dalton, GA. I wanted to give them a shout-out. With UKS I learned respect and self-control. I learned how to fight, but I never had to – because I also learned how to walk away from one. It’s been over 30 years since I’ve worked out like back in those days, but what was instilled in my mind can be drawn upon in an instant.
It’s been a long time, but people with true character never change. I’ve got a feeling that Ben Kiker’s United Karate is still every bit the real-life “Miyagi-do” it was when I did that fantastic crane kick 🙂
Filed under fitness, self-worth, wisdom
Tagged as Crane Kick, Karate, Kenpo, Martial Arts, The Karate Kid, United Karate Studios
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0022.json.gz/line1083
|
__label__wiki
| 0.541375
| 0.541375
|
A Wayfarer | New York Times Bestseller Wallace J. Nichols
Dec 21, 2014 | Blog, Feature Interviews
Article Appears in The Wayfarer Vol 3 Iss 4 | Winter 2014 | Visit our Shop to Order»
by Staff Writer Jamie K. Reaser
“Blue Mind is, deep down, about human curiosity,
knowing ourselves more and better.”
—Céline Cousteau in Blue Mind
I’ve twice had the honor of being in the audience while Wallace J. Nichols (‘J’) spoke on the topic of blue mind. The first time was in 2013, at London’s Royal Geographical Society, when he joined two other Earth Watch lecture series panelists in exploring “Why Emotion Matters in Conservation Science.” The second opportunity occurred just three month ago, when he addressed students and faculty in the University of Virginia’s School of Architecture. My impression of him was the same on both occasions: this is a man in love.
It would be hard to say exactly what J is in love with—the list might be quite long. Stories about his two daughters, wife, and father will cause tears to well up on the surface of his eyes. Watch him while he talks about sea turtles or the people with whom he has shared a career in sea turtle conservation and you’ll notice that his voice softens, his cheeks flush, and his throat constricts. His heart is choosing the words. And then, there is water—everything about water. To J, water is muse, spiritual teacher, and refuge.
J is not your average scientist. He is a wayfarer, a captain of the Earth Ship, charting the way for us to become more fully human by re-claiming and celebrating our relationship with water, the element in which our lives took form.
Blue Mind: The Surprising Science That Shows How Being Near, In, On or Under Water Can Make You Happier, Healthier, More Connected, and Better at What You Do is more impassioned missive to humanity than technical treatise on the linkage between hydrogen and hydroxyl ions. Largely for that reason, the book made the New York Time’s Best Seller list within a month of its July 2014 release. In Blue Mind, J draws on recent scientific findings to explain the impacts that proximity to water can have on human cognition and physiology, including a sense of ease and greater connection with other people and the natural world. His personal stories—punctuated with wonderment and awe—inspire the reader to reflect on the depth of his or her own relationship with water.
On every page, J beckons, “Come in, the water is fine.” He hopes that we will release our pathologic grip on the shoreline. He hopes we will re-member that we are water creatures (the average adult body is 50- 65% water) and engage in a relationship with water that helps heal our personal and collective ills—the ailments of Western Culture that result in toxification of this water planet.
Some 72% of the Earth is covered in water. Water quality studies indicate that at least one third of the freshwater bodies in the United States are polluted, and every year at least one-quarter of our beaches are closed due to pollution. Worldwide, approximately fifty percent of the ground water is not suitable for consumption. Every minute, two to three children die of a water-borne disease. Falling in love with water is a matter of survival.
Some scientists might think that J has lost his marbles; being openly emotional about one’s research topic is often considered “unprofessional.” J, however, gives his marbles away freely. Blue marbles are J’s hallmark. Meet him and you are likely to walk away with an iridescent, deep blue, glass orb. If given the opportunity, look into it. Begin to re-imagine the possible for water, for humans, for humanity.
For more information on J’s work, please visit www.wallacejnichols.org. This is a place for conversation around all things blue.
Jamie K. Reaser has worked around the world as a conservation ecologist, environmental negotiator, and wilderness rites-of-passage guide. She is the author of several books; most recently, Wild Life: New and Selected Poems. She lives in Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia.
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0022.json.gz/line1088
|
__label__cc
| 0.731846
| 0.268154
|
Threezly
Indian King Bought 6 Rolls Royce To Collect Garbage In The City. Why He Did It? The Reason Is Pretty Shocking!
by Georgia Levenson March 6, 2017, 7:29 am
It has happened to a lot of people that we went to purchase something at a shop and the snooty and arrogant salesperson looked at us and wonder if we could really purchase that.
Although it is wrong on so many levels but people still judge a book by its cover.
When the same thing happened to Jai Singh, Maharaja of Alwar in Rajasthan; the king did something so incredible which will surprise you all and it is a great lesson for all of us that never judge someone over his or her appearance.
Back in 1920, when the Maharaja was in London and decided to visit a Rolls Royce showroom in his normal and everyday clothes. The people at the showroom refused to give him the price detail of the cars and was asked to leave.
The king returned to his hotel, informed his servants that he is interested in purchasing six Rolls Royce cars. He went back to the showroom this time in his kingly attire and was treated very nicely at the showroom. He purchased six cars, paid in cash and all other shipment costs on the spot.
When the cars arrived in India, the Maharaja asked his servants to use the cars to pick trash from the city. This one move dropped down the value and price of Rolls Royce in India and all around the world.The people at Rolls Royce realized their mistake and sent an apology to the king via a telegram and offered six more cars totally free of cost. The king accepted the offer and asked his servants to stop using Rolls Royce to pick the garbage. The king also told one thing to the people at Rolls Royce that never judge a book by its cover.We are sure that they still remember this lesson taught by Maharaja Jai Singh from Rajasthan.
Source : elitereaders
Finally the 10 Biggest Magic Secrets Has Been Revealed!
16 Usual Things That Will Make Your Life Easy
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0022.json.gz/line1093
|
__label__cc
| 0.704961
| 0.295039
|
Andy C
The man mysteriously known to most as Andy C is undoubtedly is one of the most important figures in Drum and Bass evolution.
Sat 31st August, 16:00
Sat 14th September, 23:00
Welly Club
Fri 27th September, 23:00
Fri 11th October, 21:00
Mayfield Depot
Fri 22nd November, 20:00
Follow Andy C for the latest news, updates and upcoming tour dates
The man mysteriously known to most as Andy C is undoubtedly is one of the most important figures in Drum and Bass evolution. He was there at the dawn of the 90s when Drum n Bass was still hard-core. Then in 1992 just as Drum and bass started to blossom he formed Ram records with Ant Miles. The label quickly became one of Drum n Basses driving forces, releasing plethora of 12” Eps featuring many of the genres leading producers.
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0022.json.gz/line1094
|
__label__wiki
| 0.587976
| 0.587976
|
Only 5 days left to register to vote in local, European and by-elections
Posted by USI PUBLICATIONS | May 1, 2014 | Releases | 0 |
Groups urge young people to register to vote and call for a National Voter Registration Day
A coalition of youth groups consisting of National Youth Council of Ireland (NYCI), the Union of Students in Ireland (USI) and SpunOut.ie are calling on young people to make sure that they are registered to vote in the upcoming local, European and by-elections.
With the deadline for inclusion on the supplementary register of electors just 5 days away (May 6th), it is essential that young people move to ensure they are eligible to cast a ballot on May 23rd.
Large numbers of young people across the country are registered and using their vote (The 2011 general election saw an increase of 12% in voter turnout for young people on the previous general election – CSO, Quarterly Household Survey), but approximately 50,000 young people turn 18 every year in Ireland and they need to get registered so their voice can be heard in these elections.
Not being on the register is a key reason why some young people don’t vote, many are not even aware they have to register. A previous NYCI study found that 26% of 18-25 year olds were not registered to vote, rising to 36% among 18-21 year olds. Many young people lose out on the opportunity to cast their ballot because they are studying or working away from home, unaware they can change their polling station to one near their college, university or workplace.
For information on how to register to vote or change your vote to a new address, you can visitwww.spunout.ie/vote now for a quick and easy ‘how-to’ guide.
Denise McCarthy, Deputy President/VP for Welfare, USI said:
“Getting registered to vote is an imperative step for any young person who wants their voice to be heard. We urge people to get registered, get informed and use their voices to make a difference to the important issues facing us all today.”
James Doorley, Deputy Director of the NYCI said:
“It’s vital that young people go out and vote as it’s one of the best means which to get politicians and political parties to engage with issues such as youth unemployment, cost of living, mental health services and many others that impact on the daily lives of young people. We also call on candidates to communicate with young voters and outline what they plan to do to address the concerns and needs of young people.”
Finally, the groups are also proposing the establishment of a National Voter Registration Day. Each year, thousands of potential voters miss the deadline for inclusion on the full and supplementary registers of electors. A National Voter Registration Day has been proven[1] to be successful in many other jurisdictions around the world and could have a significant impact on the numbers turning out to vote in Ireland.
Ian Power, Director of SpunOut.ie said:
“Voter Registration Days have had success in other countries where thousands of additional voters have been registered. A day with a single call-to-action for potential voters would bring government and civil society partners together to ensure that those who have never voted before are engaged and empowered to use their vote.”
Join in the conversation on Twitter using #YouthVote14.
[1] e.g. A recent voter registration day in the UK registered approx. 35,000 new voters in February 2014 http://bitetheballot.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/NVRDReport2014FINAL.pdf
PreviousUSI call for relief on water charges for student tenants and families
NextSteps on how to Register To Vote
The launch of the USI Student Summit 2014: Student entrepreneurs will be ‘invading’ Dublin Castle on April 8th.
Joint Call on HE Funding Crisis
Mental Health: USI Launch ReCharge Campaign & +Connections App
Students Marching for Irish Language Rights
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0022.json.gz/line1095
|
__label__wiki
| 0.563775
| 0.563775
|
Stories of faith: losing it, talking about it, constructing it, and working within it.
In a time of war, when we're all feeling a heightened sense of "us" and "them," we wanted to take up the problem of "them."
Hearts and Minds
Of all the wars to win, perhaps the propaganda war is the hardest.
House on Loon Lake
A young boy, an abandoned house, and the mysterious family who disappeared without a trace.
Stories of people climbing to be number one. How do they do it?
Before It Had A Name
In 1946, a man started to investigate the Holocaust before it was known as the Holocaust, gathering the first recorded testimonials of concentration camp survivors.
The events of September 11th, and how its meaning changes depending on who you talk to.
We try to sort out what the war in Afghanistan will be like.
Stories in the wake of the events of September 11, 2001.
Stories of Loss
A collection of stories in which people try to make sense of loss.
The story of one man's journey from obscurity to international professional celebrity.
I Know What You Did This Summer
Scott Carrier travels cross-country without air conditioning, during weather in which it's too hot to stay in the car and too hot to get out.
There's a deep impulse in American culture that says that you can make yourself into anyone.
Hitler’s Yacht
A modern-day fable about what happens when the free market, the media, the World War II buffs, the Neo-Nazis, and the Jews all collide over a huge Nazi tourist trap.
Father's Day '01
Stories of dads who are utterly human in scale.
While the seniors danced at Prom Night 2001 in Hoisington, Kansas—a town of about 3,000—a tornado hit the town.
Stories of people worshiping false idols, and whether that's always a bad thing.
An average Chicagoan decides to appeal the disputes and problems in his neighborhood to a higher authority, Mr. Rogers. Yes, that Mr. Rogers.
The Missing Parents Bureau
Women planning to get pregnant with the help of a sperm bank tell us about the questions they wrestle with of how much they want to know about the fathers of their kids.
Tales of personal humiliation, romance gone wrong, and people who profoundly misjudge how they're perceived by others.
The Friendly Man
Stories from Scott Carrier, whose strange and compelling tales sound like nothing else on the radio.
Return to Childhood 2001
Alex Blumberg tries to find a woman who babysat him when he was nine, and other stories of people trying to revisit their childhoods.
The story of what was, at one time, one of most notoriously racist and corrupt suburbs in America.
Which is better: flight or invisibility?
American Limbo
Stories of people living completely outside the grid of American life.
Two Nations, One President
Democrats explain why they're having trouble getting over the 2001 election, and Republicans explain why this is so infuriating.
A brother and sister decide to invent children to babysit, as an excuse to get out of their own house.
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0022.json.gz/line1096
|
__label__cc
| 0.634802
| 0.365198
|
Google confirms it put $900M into SpaceX’s $1B round
Harrison Weber@harrisonweber February 10, 2015 9:49 AM
Above: SpaceX's Falcon9R rocket hovers above Texas.
Image Credit: SpaceX / YouTube
Google’s SpaceX deal cost it $900 million.
It’s been three weeks since SpaceX confirmed its $1 billion funding round led by Google and Fidelity. At the time, SpaceX said, “Google and Fidelity will collectively own just under 10% of the company.”
A recent SEC filing from Google reveals just how much capital the company dropped on the deal: $900 million, confirming earlier reports.
More, from Google’s SEC filing:
On January 20, 2015, we invested $900 million in SpaceX, a space exploration and space transport company, to support continued innovation in the areas of space transport, reusability, and satellite manufacturing. We are currently evaluating the transaction and its impact on our financial statements.
According to the Wall Street Journal, Google fueled all but $100 million of SpaceX’s $1 billion round for a 7.5 percent stake in the company.
Via: Om Malik
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0022.json.gz/line1098
|
__label__cc
| 0.730053
| 0.269947
|
Please enter your NRIC and Date of Birth for verification.
NRIC / FIN
Invalid NRIC / FIN
Day 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 Month 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 Year 2019 2018 2017 2016 2015 2014 2013 2012 2011 2010 2009 2008 2007 2006 2005 2004 2003 2002 2001 2000 1999 1998 1997 1996 1995 1994 1993 1992 1991 1990 1989 1988 1987 1986 1985 1984 1983 1982 1981 1980 1979 1978 1977 1976 1975 1974 1973 1972 1971 1970 1969 1968 1967 1966 1965 1964 1963 1962 1961 1960 1959 1958 1957 1956 1955 1954 1953 1952 1951 1950 1949 1948 1947 1946 1945 1944 1943 1942 1941 1940 1939 1938 1937 1936 1935 1934 1933 1932 1931 1930 1929 1928 1927 1926 1925 1924 1923 1922 1921 1920 1919 Please enter a valid date. NRIC must match with “Year of Birth”.
This video contains restricted content. Sign in to watch.
For new users, click here to sign up.
Sign InCancel
Please configure a Parental Control
PIN to view this restricted content.
Please verify that you are at least
21 years old in order to view this restricted content.
You must be at least 21 years old to view this content.
You're almost ready to watch:
Toggle is a free app required to watch this content. Tap on "Go to Toggle App" to launch the app or install it.
Toggle App Back to Browsing
Encrypted contents are not supported on Chrome browser. Please open the page in a different browser. You can also refer to our FAQ for more info.
For existing subscribers, please sign in to watch.
For new subscribers, click here to find available subscription plans.
Sports Action Pass
Transmission of programmes on this channel will be ceased from 1 March 2019.
Toggle World Cup Pass
Damia: Malay Horror Movie
If you have subscribed to ‘Damia’, please sign in here.
For new subscribers,please click here to purchase.
The Match: Tiger vs. Phil
If you have subscribed to ‘The Match’, please sign in here.
Sorry, you are required to sign in to watch this free content.
Sorry, this content is available to HBO GO subscribers only.
Chernobyl S1 - EP2
Please Remain Calm
Nudity 裸露画面;
By HBO Published: 14 May 2019 Audio: English
Stellan Skarsgard
Seven hours after the Chernobyl explosion, Ulana Khomyuk, a nuclear physicist in Minsk, is awakened in her office by a radiation alarm and grows increasingly worried when her phone call to Chernobyl goes unanswered. Lyudmilla arrives at the Pripyat hospital looking for Vasily, whom she learns is being helicoptered to Moscow. At a Central Committee meeting with General Secretary Gorbachev, Legasov objects to Deputy Prime Minister Boris Shcherbina's assessment that the situation is contained, and Gorbachev ends up sending both men to Chernobyl, where a new reading shows radiation is thousands of times higher than reported. Legasov urges Shcherbina to evacuate Pripyat, but Shcherbina worries about Moscow's reaction. As reports of the disaster spread to Europe, Shcherbina finally calls for an evacuation, even as Khomyuk makes her way to Chernobyl to warn Legasov and Shcherbina that a second and far more massive explosion is imminent - one that puts the entire European continent at risk.
Chernobyl S1
April 26, 1986, Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic. An early-morning explosion at the Chernobyl ...
EP2 | Please Remain Calm
Chernobyl S1 - Inside The ...
Chernobyl S1 - Recap 4
Chernobyl S1 - After The ...
Chernobyl S1 - Episodic 5
Chernobyl S1 - Behind The ...
Chernobyl S1 - Trailer
Chernobyl S1 - What Is ...
More from HBO
Jett S1
Peppa Pig S2
Gentleman Jack S1
The Next Step S5
Euphoria S1
Safe Harbour S1
Warrior S1
2 Dope Queens S1
Catch-22 S1
Divorce S3
The Passion S1
Dele S1
Big Little Lies S2
The Handmaid's Tale S3
Game Of Thrones S8
Barry S2
Veep S7
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0022.json.gz/line1100
|
__label__wiki
| 0.866294
| 0.866294
|
Review: 'Black Hawk Down' explodes on 4K UHD
Posted May 07,2019 - 04:59 PM
If there's one constant in human evolution, it's the devastating effect of war on our society. Whether it's muskets and the Colonists forging their independence from the British or the United States changing warfare forever by dropping an atomic bomb on Hiroshima, war has lasting effects on humanity.
So too, do movies made about these wars have lasting effects on film audiences. Whether it's Full Metal Jacket and the Vietnam war or Pearl Harbor and World War II, it seems that every conflict has a film that comes to encompass that war. For the Somalia incursion, the film that has come to be synonymous with early 1990s war efforts is Black Hawk Down.
Not surprisingly, director Ridley Scott lends his gritty visual style to the film that many have claimed is as close to approximating real war efforts as has ever been put on the silver screen. The accolades and critical feedback has done nothing to dissuade that argument over the last 20 years.
The film follows an elite group of American special forces soldiers who are sent to Somalia to capture a violent warlord, but the mission quickly goes sideways. Outnumbered by the Somali militia forces, the soldiers find themselves literally fighting for their lives.
I was a senior in high school when the true events surrounding this film took place, so you could say that I wasn't exactly in touch with them at the time. I remember watching the film when it came out in 2001 and being unable to believe that this actually happened, but that I had no memory of it at the time.
Of course, 1993 was sort of on the cusp of the 24-hour news cycle and the Internet was barely a thing. So, these type of events did have a way of slipping through the cracks of our collective consciousness. The fact that it was a mission that did not end so great for the United States probably only fueled the media's desire to sweep it under the rug a bit.
But thankfully, the embedded journalist wrote his book and it eventually made its way to Ridley Scott and Jerry Bruckheimer's laps and we will forever have this film to serve as a memory of this period. The film is filled with a young cast that was just hitting their collective strides as actors at the turn of the millennium, so it boggles the mind to go back and see them all together flexing their talents.
Josh Hartnett takes the lead (although it is very much an ensemble cast) and his emotional response to the events in the film still resonates with the audience today. It's a bit odd to see the path that his career has taken in the last 20 years as it looked like he was the next big Hollywood leading actor, only to see his work take him to TV and more independent films. But here, Josh Hartnett is at the top of his game and the audience experiences every visceral moment of the conflict through his eyes.
The rest of cast from a very young Ewan McGregor to a grizzled Sam Shepard give the film a real sense of realism thanks to their performances. While it's easy to overlook the great acting from an ensemble cast, each member delivers a strong performance capturing the chaotic nature of war.
I hadn't seen Black Hawk Down in probably a decade or so and I was anxious to see both how the film holds up and how it performs in the new format. I'm happy to report that both the emotional crux of the film and the special effects still combine to create an experience that hits the viewer in the gut.
The new HDR 10 visual track is a new transfer from the original camera negative and you will immediately notice the difference between the 4K UHD version and the Blu-ray. The film takes place both during the day and at night, so the crisper colors and the richness of the blacks take the experience to a whole new level. Being an action film that is almost 20 years old, I was concerned that the special effects would show their age in 4K resolution, but the decision to go back to the original negative is a wise one that should ease your fears.
Also, Ridley Scott is known for his practical effects, so there really is very little CG that needed to be updated in the process. The result is a gritty film that retains the film grain as intended by the filmmakers. In other words, the film has never looked better and is truly a showcase film for 4K UHD.
While I can sing praises about the video enhancements of the new format, the real winner is the audio with its brand new Dolby Atmos audio mix. Black Hawk Down is a film that naturally has a lot of action sequences, but there are also several quiet moments throughout to offset the frenzied action. The Atmos mix handles these two extremes expertly so that you won't be constantly diving for the volume button to find the right level.
Also, the Atmos mix really gives the firefight aspect of the battle scenes a life that truly immerses the viewer into the scene. You feel the bullets as they whizz by and you have to catch your breath at times and remind yourself that it's only a movie.
While the included bonus features have all been released at one point or another over the years and the many releases, it's nice to have them all corraled into one collection. They are robust and they really do make the 4K UHD feel like the ultimate version of the film. I will also mention that both the theatrical and extended cuts get the 4K UHD treatment which is rare for these type of catalog releases. While I have always favored the longer, extended cut if you happen to prefer the theatrical cut, rest assured that it's also available with the 4K video track and Dolby Atmos audio mix.
There is no question that if you enjoy Black Hawk Down, then you will need to pick up the 4K UHD version. It is now the ultimate version of the movie and it will surely impress you with its phenomenal new transfer and Atmos mix.
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0022.json.gz/line1101
|
__label__wiki
| 0.773759
| 0.773759
|
Posted in CDA, Cooperatives by Erineus on February 20, 2009
IT is the good fortune of the cooperative industry that its significant role in the propping up of our country’s economy, especially in these hard times, has finally been acknowledged. Last Tuesday, Malacañang signed into law the Philippine Cooperative Code of 2008 that will grant cooperatives banking powers without losing their tax privileges.
It has long been overdue. Recently, while reading a 2004 report by the Cooperatives Development Authority, I discovered that in 2003 alone, the national average savings generated and mobilized by this little-known sector amounted to a staggering R113 billion, 10 percent of the national budget at that time.
In 2006, data showed that the sector generated 1,636 million jobs, 1.56 million in 2005 and 1.498 million in 2004. Would you believe that its growth rate is higher than that of rural banks? The paper predicted that this will balloon to over R140B this year.
These figures speak volumes about the vibrancy of local cooperatives industry. Significantly contributing to keep it in the pink of health is R.A. 6938, the Cooperative Code of the Philippines. Incidentally, this important piece of legislation was authored by former Senator Butz Aquino who has remained as the moving spirit behind the continued surge of cooperatives around the country today.
If there is one thing that can be said about Aquino, it is the fact he did not abandon his “baby” even after his congressional stint. Acknowledged as the father of modern cooperatives, Aquino, in coordination with other self-help advocates, has been going around the country evangelizing on the big returns and rewards of the coops business. With missionary zeal, he also conducts workshops and seminars to keep stakeholders attuned and responsive to the needs of a fast changing business milieu.
Concurrently chairman emeritus of the National Cooperatives Movement, umbrella organization for local cooperatives, Aquino is one of the brains and prime movers behind the Cooperative Insurance Deposit System Federation Cooperatives. Established last year, CODIS spurs the vigorous growth of this burgeoning industry.
CODIS is the industry’s counterpart of Philippine Deposit Insurance Corporation which ensures the return of bank deposits up to R250,000 should host banks encounter liquidity problems. With this insurance mechanism in place, the small depositors’ multi-million-peso deposits held by cooperatives, are now safe from scammers who abscond the hard-earned money of unsuspecting members.
Updated data shows 75,000 various cooperatives nationwide of which 4,812 are credit coops; 1,369 consumer’s; 33,352 multi-purpose agri-based and 24,623 non-agri-based coops. In Metro Manila alone, almost all of the more than 3,500 coops are into money lending and savings activity. And the number of “kooperatibas” is still growing, thanks to the dedication and commitment of people like Butz Aquino and those of his kind.
By Elinando B. Cinco
http://www.mb.com.ph/OPED20090220148583.html
Tagged with: CDA, Cooperatives
Arroyo signs cooperative law
MANILA, Philippines – (UPDATE) President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo signed into law on Tuesday Republic Act 9520 or the Philippine Cooperative Code of 2008 which will strengthen the cooperative system in the country.
The new law amends Republic Act 6938 or the Cooperative Code of 1990.
Among those present during the signing at Malacañang’s Rizal Hall were the sponsors of the measure, Senator Juan Miguel Zubiri and Congressman Ernesto Pablo, Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile, Speaker Prospero Nograles, Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita, Finance Secretary Margarito Teves, and Energy Secretary Angelo Reyes.
“The new cooperative legislation gives cooperatives greater opportunities to serve their members, not only in terms of financial assistance, but also in undertaking more productive activities geared towards the upliftment of their members,” the Palace said in a statement.
“The new cooperative code outlines in greater detail the requirements in professionalizing the management and operation of cooperatives, while providing a monitoring and evaluation tool for the cooperatives to conduct self-assessments in terms of its managerial, financial, and social objectives,” it said.
Amendments to the cooperative code were sponsored by the late COOP-NATCCO Representative Guillermo Cua.
Among the most significant changes in the new code is the section allowing the conversion of Credit Cooperatives into Financial Service Cooperatives.
“When members of a credit cooperative deposit their money and their pool gets bigger, they will naturally want more sophisticated services. With this amendment, credit cooperatives can evolve into a Financial Service Cooperative,” Congressman Jose Ping-ay, newly appointed COOP-NATCCO representative who replaced Cua, said in a statement.
A Credit Cooperative is a financial organization owned and operated by its members that creates a pool of savings from which loans for productive and provident purposes are drawn – all for the benefit of members.
A Financial Service Cooperative is an outgrowth of credit cooperatives, and is defined in the Code as a “financial organization owned and operated by its members and authorized to provide the same services as credit cooperatives plus other financial services subject to regulation by the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP).”
This means that Financial Service Cooperatives will be providing more than just savings and loans services, which cooperatives have been known to offer.
The Code does not list down the particular services Financial Services Cooperatives can provide although the minimum capital requirements prescribed in the General Banking Act will determine what services a Financial Services Cooperative can offer.
Depending on the capitalization, a Financial Services Cooperative can provide services like opening current or checking accounts, act as depositary of municipal, city or provincial funds where the cooperative is located, act as collection agent for government entities like the Social Security System (SSS) and Government Service Insurance System (GSIS), or even buying or selling foreign exchange.
The Code also stipulates that if a credit cooperative decides to “exercise enhanced functions,” it must first notify the Cooperative Development Authority (CDA) and the BSP and “satisfy the requirements for conversion to Financial Service Cooperative.” The CDA and BSP will soon be issuing rules governing the conversion.
Cua, along with Representatives Rozzano Biazon, Nicanor Briones, Ma. Isabelle Climaco, Eufrocino Codilla, Mauricio Domogan, Eduardo Gullas, Ernesto Pablo, Candido Pancrudo, Rufus Rodriguez, Judy Syjuco, Edgar Valdez, and Eduardo Zialcita, introduced the bill in the Lower House, which passed the measure on Oct. 8, 2008.
The Senate version of the bill was approved on Aug. 12, 2008, with Zubiri, chairman of the Senate committee on cooperatives, presenting the legislation to the plenary. Originally posted at 10:30 am
Source: Inquirer
http://161.58.192.236/2009/02/17/arroyo-signs-cooperative-law/
Tagged with: coop-natcco, cooperative law, credit cooperative, financial service cooperative
SC rules on tax exemption for electric co-op
Posted in Cooperatives, Supreme Court, Supreme Court Decisions, Tax by Erineus on February 11, 2009
The Supreme Court (SC) has affirmed a Court of Appeals (CA) decision that ordered the Davao Oriental Electric Cooperative, Inc. to pay the Davao Oriental provincial government some R1.8 million in real estate taxes, excluding penalties and surcharges, from the time the government lifted the tax exemptions of electric cooperatives in 1984.
In a decision written by Chief Justice Reynato S. Puno, the SC affirmed the Nov. 15, 2005 CA decision that reversed the ruling of the regional trial court (RTC) that dismissed the collection suit filed by the province of Davao Oriental.
At the height of the economic crisis in 1984, the late President Ferdinand Marcos issued Presidential Decree No. 1955 that withdrew all exemptions from the payment of duties, taxes and other charges granted to private business enterprises engaged in any economic activity, including electric cooperatives.
Two years later on Jan. 8, 1986, Marcos issued PD 2008 that required the then Ministry of Finance to immediately restore the tax exemption of all electric cooperatives.
But after Marcos was replaced by then President Corazon C. Aquino, the latter issued Executive Order No. 93 that withdrew all tax and duty exemptions granted to private entities effective March 10, 1987.
The implementation of EO 93 for electric cooperatives was suspended until June 30, 1987.
On July 1, 1987, the government restored the tax and duty exemption privileges under PD 269, the law that created the electric cooperatives.
While the tax exemption was suspended, the Davao Oriental provincial government assessed the value of the province’s electric cooperative.
The assessment became final and executory after the cooperative failed to protest the assessment before the Board of Assessment Appeals.
In May, 2000, the Davao Oriental provincial government filed a collection suit before the RTC which dismissed the case.
On appeal, the CA reversed the RTC and ordered the cooperative to pay the provincial government some R1.8 million in realty taxes, excluding penalties and surcharges, from 1985 to 1989.
The cooperative elevated the case to the SC. The cooperative told the SC that it was exempted from the payment of real estate tax from 1984 to 1989 because the restoration of tax exemptions under Fiscal Incentive Review Board (FIRB) Resolution No. 2487 “retroacts” to the date of withdrawal of said exemptions.
In resolving the issue, the SC said that the CA was correct when the appellate court ruled that FIRB Resolution No. 24-87 “bares no indicia of retroactivity of its application.”
“A claim for exemption from tax payments must be clearly shown and be based on language in the law too plain to be mistaken. Elsewise stated, taxation is the rule, exemption therefrom is the exception,” the SC stressed.
At the same time, the SC said that when the electric cooperative failed to exhaust administrative remedies by appealing the assessment of its properties, it cannot assail the validity of the said assessment before the courts.
“Petitioner is deemed to have admitted the correctness of the assessment of its properties. In addition, Section 64 of PD No. 464 requires that the taxpayer must first pay under protest the tax assessed against him before he could seek recourse from the courts to assail its validity,” the SC pointed out.
“In view whereof, petitioner’s appeal is denied. The Nov. 15, 2005 decision of the Court of Appeals in CA-G.R. CV No. 67188 is affirmed,” it ruled.
Justices Antonio T. Carpio, Renato C. Corona, Adolfo S. Azcuna and Teresita J. Leonardo – de Castro concurred in the decision.
Source: http://www.mb.com.ph/archive_pages.php?url=http://www.mb.com.ph/issues/2009/02/07/MTNN20090207147541.html
Tagged with: cooperative, Supreme Court, Supreme Court Decisions, supreme court doctrines, tax exemption
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0022.json.gz/line1102
|
__label__wiki
| 0.521265
| 0.521265
|
In math, RP girls outshine boys
Posted in Education, News Feature, Schools, Students, Women by Erineus on March 21, 2009
By Helen Flores Updated March 13, 2009 12:00 AM
MANILA, Philippines – An international study has revealed that Filipino women are better in math than their male counterparts.
The Science Education Institute (SEI) said two studies of the Trends in International Science and Mathematics Study (TIMSS) consistently showed that Filipina students do better in math than their male classmates.
The 2003 TIMSS Philippine Report for Grade 8 Mathematics showed that Filipino female students were “significantly better” than boys, overall and in the items of Number, Algebra, and Data.
The study also showed that in terms of average percent correct score by cognitive domain, Filipina students bested males in items involving “Knowing Facts and Procedures” and “Reasoning” by a difference of four percent and two percent, respectively.
Boys and girls performed equally on items involving “Using Concepts and Solving Routine Problems,” it said.
Male students were better by a difference of one percent in Geometry, are equal in Measurement, but the girls performed better than the boys in Number, Algebra, and Data by a difference of three, four, and two percent, respectively, the study said.
SEI, education-arm of the Department of Science and Technology, said an earlier study by TIMSS showed the same outcome in relation to performance by girls and boys.
In TIMSS-Repeat, which was done in 1999, Filipina students “performed relatively better” than the boys in all areas of mathematics.
“In three content areas and overall performance, Filipino girls did better than Filipino boys,” the TIMSS-Repeat study said.
Filipino girls performed well in Fractions and Number Sense; Data Representation, Analysis and Representation; and Algebra. In Measurement and Geometry, Filipino girls did as well as Filipino boys, the study said.
“This is in contrast to other international studies which show that male students are better in mathematics than females, except in algebra,” the study said.
SEI said last year, 118 science and technology oriented schools from the 16 regions in the Philippines took part in the TIMSS-Advanced which was aimed at gauging the performance of students in the country in relation to advanced science and mathematics.
TIMSS 2003, third in a series of studies, offers a state-of-the-art assessment of student achievement in science and mathematics at the fourth and eighth grade levels.
SEI said data provided by TIMSS are useful for participating countries to reassess their programs in mathematics and science, and to examine and revise existing practices in curricular provision, textbook design, teacher preparation, school organization, and instructional practice.
The TIMSS is an international assessment of the mathematics and science knowledge of fourth- and eighth-grade students around the world.
View previous articles from this author.
http://www.philstar.com/Article.aspx?articleId=448072&publicationSubCategoryId=68
Guidelines on students’ drug tests out
Posted in Dangerous Drug Board, Dangerous Drugs, Education, Schools, Students by Erineus on February 3, 2009
MANILA, Philippines — The Dangerous Drugs Board (DDB) has released “clarificatory guidelines” on random drug tests to “allay public apprehension and clear alleged human rights violations” over tests the government will conduct in schools across the country, DDB chairman Vicente “Tito” Sotto III said on Monday.
The tests, originally scheduled to begin Monday, have been postponed to Wednesday.
In a statement, Sotto stressed that random drug testing is “preventive rather than punitive” in nature and are aimed at preventing illegal drug use among students and rehabilitating those found to be drug users.
The DDB guidelines lay down the objectives of the drug testing and how this will be conducted, as well as the different ways students found to be drug users will be treated.
“Random drug testing for students is considered by the government as entirely a ‘health’ issue and aims to provide services, to those who will be tested positive for dangerous drug/ use that will help the student stop further use and abuse of the substance,” the guidelines said.
“The drug testing program and results of testing shall guarantee the personal privacy and dignity of the students and shall not be used in any criminal proceedings,” the document added.
Sotto emphasized that the results of the drug tests will be confidential.
Also, he said, a “first time positive confirmatory drug test result shall not be a ground for expulsion or any disciplinary action against the student.”
But for drug dependents, “the school may impose the appropriate sanctions against the student as provided for in the school’s Student Handbook and the Manual of Regulations for Private Schools,” and allow re-enrollment after rehabilitation, Sotto said.
Students who test positive will be required to undergo three months of counseling, in coordinating with parents, by a Department of Health-accredited facility.
The government expects to conduct random drug tests in all 8,455 secondary and 1,726 tertiary schools nationwide.
Vocational school students and tertiary level faculty members will also undergo the random tests.
Results of random tests in 2007 showed that 39 students, or 0.5 percent of those tested, were positive for illegal drug use.
Tagged with: Dangerous Drug Board, Drug Testing, Education, Illegal Drug Use, Students
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0022.json.gz/line1103
|
__label__cc
| 0.741727
| 0.258273
|
The Memorial Candle Program has been designed to help offset the costs associated with the hosting this Tribute Website in perpetuity. Through the lighting of a memorial candle, your thoughtful gesture will be recorded in the Book of Memories and the proceeds will go directly towards helping ensure that the family and friends of Romeo D'Ambrogio can continue to memorialize, re-visit, interact with each other and enhance this tribute for future generations.
D'Ambrogio
Video Tribute
Obituary for Romeo D'Ambrogio
Romeo D’Ambrogio, at the age of 87, passed away at his home peacefully in Etobicoke on Saturday, February 10, 2018.
Romeo is survived by loving members of his immediate family: devoted wife Olga, children Rita and Carlo, daughter-in-law Wendy, and grandchildren Marco, Christina, Stefanie and Pamela.
Romeo was born in Italy in 1930 and emigrated to Toronto in 1951. Later that year in December he married his sweetheart Olga. At the time of his death, Romeo and Olga were married for over 66 years.
Romeo found a passion in the beauty of flowers and became a well-known and respected florist within the west-end Toronto community for over 40 years. In the 1970s, while operating his own flower shop, Romeo Florist, on Eglinton Avenue West, Romeo was recognized by his peers within the floral community as a top florist and for several years he exhibited his craft at the Horticultural Building during the CNE.
Romeo’s other passion in life was the love of sports: his beloved Maple Leafs, Azzurri Nazionale, and most of all, Roma Giallorossi (AS Roma).
Romeo was a dedicated family man. He was selfless, hard-working and a kind-hearted man who always put his family first.
To his family, he is forever “Numero Uno!”
David Hyde
Carlo and family, please... (read more)
Tina and Philip Cascun
We are so sorry to hear... (read more)
Katherine Simister
Dear Olga,Rita,Carlo, ... (read more)
Memorial Tribute Video
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0022.json.gz/line1105
|
__label__wiki
| 0.596139
| 0.596139
|
Catalog of Books by Virgil Alexander
Thanks for your interest in my stories. The books are available in print and e-book and may be purchased through your local booksellers, which I encourage to support your community. If they don't have it stocked they can order it for you.
Click a book title to buy the book online, be careful to choose either Kindle or Print
Murder in Copper
First Edition. Published January 2019, by Aakenbaaken & Kent. Theft. Espionage. Murder. Revenge. Apache Policeman Victor joins Deputies Allred and Sanchez in Murder in Copper, a new murder mystery by author Virgil Alexander. The book is set at fictional new copper mines in Miami and the Gila Mountains of Eastern Arizona. The story includes the cultural and natural history of the real settings, as well as local mining and ranch history. It includes an undercover investigation of copper theft, industrial espionage, murder by a diplomat, and a criminal revenge plot against Allred’s family. Sheriff Bitters and Deputy Patricia Haley are also prominent in the story. Scenes take place in Flagstaff, Phoenix, Tucson, the East Valley, and Silver City, New Mexico in addition to the principle locals. The story includes familiar characters from the earlier books, and introduces a complete set of new people, some of whom will likely make appearances in future stories. Side plots involve government employees getting the job done in spite bureaucratic posturing, the impact of alcohol on the reservation and in rural towns, personal ethics and great temptation, and peeks at foreign relations in former Soviet Block countries. A fast paced, multifaceted mystery filled with interesting and relatable characters.
The Baleful Owl
Second Edition Published July 2018, by Aakenbaaken & Kent. The ancient Salado Puebloan people had hoped that the gift of turquoise eyes would cause the owl to carry their pleas for water and for protection from the new enemy people who were invading their mountain home, but it was not to be. They were driven from their home of 1000 years and disappeared into the river people. Seven hundred years later the baleful owl would, by the hands of a greedy artifact thief, cause the murder of an archaeology student, and the attempted murder of his associate, a member of the San Carlos Apache Tribe. The Pinal County Sheriff requests the assistance of Sergeant Al Victor of the Apache Tribal Police in the investigation. Bren Allred of the Graham County Sheriff's office is drawn into the investigation as a member of the State Wide Antiquities Task Force, bringing deputy Manny Sanchez with him. Before the case is resolved a second murder in New Mexico, the involvement of a most respected international antiquities dealer, and the attempted murder of Manny Sanchez will have to be dealt with, in addition to the normal demands of their own patrol areas. From the crime scene in upper Queen Creek Canyon in the northwestern Pinal Mountains, and their jurisdictions in the Gila Valley, the investigation takes them to Chaco Canyon in New Mexico, and the Arizona State Museum in Tucson.
Status: Released May 1, 2014, by Oak Tree Press.
A lovely and musically gifted teenage girl in a small village of Northern Sonora, Mexico begins to sing in services at the small village church. Her singing is marvelous and moves those who hear her to make changes for the good. It becomes a problem for a drug cartel when their growers plow under or burn their crops, policemen on the take turn against them, smugglers stop smuggling, and dealers stop dealing. A hit order is issued on the girl that the people are now calling Santa Mariana. To save her life Mariana is secretly smuggled into Arizona where protecting her soon involves Deputies Bren Allred and Manny Sanchez, and Apache Tribal Policeman Al Victor. The dark world of the cartels pits the saintly teen and her protectors against the brutality of the smugglers and "soldiers" bent on silencing her forever. The story takes place in Mexico, Arizona, and Spain as international law enforcement moves to end the reign of the vicious drug lord.
The Wham Curse
Second Edition. Historic/Contemporary Western Mystery by Virgil Alexander. The 1889 ambush and robbery of US Army Paymaster Major Wham in Arizona Territory was never solved. The payroll in gold and silver coin was never recovered and seemingly was never spent. This story presents the history of the robbery, and the effect it has in modern-day Graham County Arizona. San Carlos Apache Tribal Policeman Al Victor, and graham County Deputies Brenden Allred and Manny Sanchez struggle to solve the senseless murder of a young Apache. A gripping story, strong characters, a powerful sense of place and history, and interaction of Apache, Anglo, Hispanic, Mormon, Catholic, ranchers, politicians, environmentalists weave an enjoyable tale.
Miami - A History of Miami Area, Arizona, Second Edition
Second Edition, Published November 2018 by Aakenbaaken & Kent, Edited and Contributed by Lee Ann Powers & Virgil Alexander. Wilma Gray Sain's master's thesis at the University of Arizona was condensed into a center-stapled booklet in the 1980's by Dr. Wilbur A. Haak with Miss Sain's approval for the Gila County Historical Society. The second edition was created with Dr. Haak's approval after he gave the publishing rights to the Bullion Plaza Museum and Cultural Center in Miami, Arizona. Mrs. Powers, an employee of the Museum, and Mr. Alexander a writer and history consultant, doubled the physical dimensions of the book to enhance viewing the the photographs and illustrations. Where possible they reproduced the photos in the original book from the source photo improving the resolution and increasing the size. They also located other period photos and almost doubled the number printed in the second edition. Miss Sain had the good fortune of having access most of the founders and early pioneers of Miami, thus gathering history that would have been lost within a decade. The book contains history of mining, businesses, and the development of the town, but it also contains many details on both the movers and shakers, and the ordinary citizens of the copper boom town. 9" x 11.5" Hardbound, 70 pages. 100% of proceeds go to the Bullion Plaza Museum and Cultural Center.
Not yet published Ranching In The Heart of Arizona - The History of Ranching In Gila County
Status: Due to the unexpected high number of ranches and the amount of information accumulated to date, this story will have to be written in two or more volumes. There are several ranches that I now have the complete history, so think I have enough of these to compile the first volume. I am attempting, as I can around my commitments for my published mysteries and future mysteries, to get the first volume compiled by the end of the some year and send submittal queries to publishers.
The area that now comprises Gila County was one of the last parts of Arizona to be settled, primarily due to the fact that it was the stronghold of the Western bands of Apache. The previous claimants, the Spaniards and Mexicans, called the region Apaceria, and because of the Apache they stayed clear of the area. With the Mexican Cession as part of the 1848 Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, Apacheria became United States Territory. Beyond military expeditions and a few heavily armed civilian mineral expeditions the Americans also avoided this new possession until the early 1870's when the first daring miners and perhaps more daring ranchers began to settle the rugged mountains and basins, while still fighting the Apache.
The story of these ranchers is a microcosm of the American westward settlement, with all the daring, hardship, tragedy, human drama, and triumph most think only happened in western fiction. Many of the stories have never been reported in print until recorded for this history. It's exciting to see this volume nearing fruition. I will update this as progress is made.
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0022.json.gz/line1107
|
__label__wiki
| 0.861323
| 0.861323
|
Cascades Volcano Observatory (CVO)
About CVO | Volcano Updates | Hazards | Monitoring | CVO Education | Prepare | Multimedia
The Volcanoes of
Lewis and Clark in the Pacific Northwest
Rocky Mountains:
The Rockies form a majestic mountain barrier that stretches from Canada through central New Mexico. Although formidable, a look at the topography reveals a discontinuous series of mountain ranges with distinct geological origins. The Rocky Mountains took shape during a period of intense plate tectonic activity that formed much of the rugged landscape of the western United States. Three major mountain-building episodes reshaped the west from about 170 to 40 million years ago (Jurassic to Cenozoic Periods). The last mountain building event, the Laramide orogeny, (about 70-40 million years ago) the last of the three episodes, is responsible for raising the Rocky Mountains.
Canoe Camp:
Canoe Camp is adjacent to the Clearwater River, approximately 4 miles west of Orofino, Idaho, along U.S. Highway 12. At this site the Lewis and Clark expedition, aided by the Nez Perce, built five canoes in September 1805. From September 26 to October 7, 1805, the explorers camped at this point. They had used packhorses in crossing the mountain trails from the upper Missouri; here they returned to river travel, caching their saddles and gear and leaving their horses to be wintered with the friendly Nez Perce Indians.
Blue Mountains:
The Blue Mountains, an outlying mountain mass separated from the Rocky mountains of central Idaho by the Snake River Canyon, reach westward to the central part of Oregon.
Columbia Plateau:
The Columbia Plateau province is enveloped by one of the worlds largest accumulations of lava. The topography here is dominated by geologically young lava flows that inundated the countryside with amazing speed, all within the last 17 million years. Over 41,000 cubic miles of basaltic lava, known as the Columbia River basalts, covers the western part of the province. These tremendous flows erupted between 17-6 million years ago. Most of the lava flooded out in the first 1.5 million yearsan extraordinarily short time for such an outpouring of molten rock. Over 300 high-volume individual lava flows have been identified, along with countless smaller flows. Numerous linear vents, some over 90 miles long, show where lava erupted near the eastern edge of the Columbia River Basalts, but older vents were probably buried by younger flows.
Learn MORE about this Area,
Flood Basalts, Lava Plateaus, and Ice Age Floods
Wallula Gap:
Glacial-outburst waters that crossed the Channeled Scablands during the Spokane floods (Missoula Floods) were channeled through Wallula Gap. For several weeks, as much as 200 cubic miles of water per day were delivered to a gap that could discharge less than 40 cubic miles per day. Ponded water filled the Pasco Basin and the Yakima and Touchet valleys to form temporary Lake Lewis.
Columbia River:
The Columbia River pours more water into the Pacific Ocean than any other river in North or South America. In its 1,270 mile course to the Pacific Ocean, the Columbia flows through four mountain ranges -- the Rockies, Selkirks, Cascades, and coastal mountains -- and drains 258,000 square miles. The mainstem of the Columbia rises in Columbia Lake on the west slope of the Rocky Mountain Range in Canada. Its largest tributary, the Snake, travels 1,038 miles from its source in Yellowstone National Park in Wyoming before joining the Columbia. When Lewis and Clark explored the region in the early 19th century, huge numbers of fish (salmon) returned to spawn every year. "The multitudes of this fish are almost inconceivable," Clark wrote in the autumn of 1805. At that time, the Columbia and its tributaries provided 12,935 miles of pristine river habitat.
Learn MORE about the Columbia River
Pacific Mountain System:
This region is one of the most geologically young and tectonically active in North America. The generally rugged, mountainous landscape of this province provides evidence of ongoing mountain-building. The Pacific Mountain System straddles the boundaries between several of Earth's moving plates the source of the monumental forces required to build the sweeping arc of mountains that extends from Alaska to the southern reaches of South America. This province includes the active and sometimes deadly volcanoes of the Cascade Range and the young, steep mountains of the Pacific Border and the Sierra Nevada.
Cascade Range and the Volcanoes of Lewis and Clark:
Holocene volcanism in the Cascades extends from the Garibaldi Volcanic Belt in southern British Columbia to the Lassen volcanic complex in northern California. Pronounced differences in the nature of volcanism occur along the arc. In Washington there are five, generally large, widely spaced stratovolcanoes, with only one (Mount Adams) having significant nearly basaltic volcanics. In marked contrast, Oregon has six generally smaller stratovolcanoes, but the entire state is traversed by a 25- to 30-mile-wide band of basaltic to andesitic lava shields, cinder cones, and smaller stratovolcanoes that the "Cascade" cones rise above. South of Crater Lake, the Cascade arc bends perceptibly toward the southeast, and continues along this trend to Lassen Peak. Both Lassen and Shasta are associated with eastward halos of mafic shields and lava fields which, near Shasta, culminate in the huge shield volcano of Medicine Lake. On their journey to the Pacific Coast, Lewis and Clark spotted five major Cascade Range Volcanoes: Mount Adams, Mount Rainier, and Mount St. Helens, on the north side of the Columbia River, located in Washington State, and Mount Hood and Mount Jefferson on the south side of the Columbia River, located in Oregon.
Mount St. Helens
Mount Hood
Mount Jefferson
Puget Trough:
A lowland which lies between the Cascade Range and the much lower coastal mountains. Most of this lowland is less than 1,000 feet in elevation and consists largely of alluvial materials. South of the Columbia River this lowland is drained by the Willamette River; north of the Columbia, most of the area is drained by the Cowlitz.
Willamette Lowland and the Coast Range:
The Willamette Lowland is a structural and erosional lowland between uplifted marine rocks of the Coast Range and volcanic rocks of the Cascade Range. The Coast Range, to the west of the lowland, consists of several thousand feet of Tertiary marine sandstone, siltstone, shale, and associated volcanic and intrusive rocks. The Cascade Range, to the east of the lowland, consists of volcanic lava flows, ash-flow tuffs, and pyroclastic and epiclastic debris. Continental and marine strata interfinger beneath and adjacent to the Willamette Lowland. In the northern two-thirds of the lowland, the marine sedimentary rocks and Cascade Range volcanic rocks are overlain by up to a thousand feet of lava of the Columbia River Basalt Group. Folding and faulting during and after incursion of the Columbia River Basalt Group formed four major depositional basins. These basins, separated in most places by uplands capped by the Columbia River Basalt Group, have locally accumulated more than 1,600 feet of fluvial sediment derived from the Cascade and Coast Ranges or transported into the region by the Columbia River. During Pleistocene time, large-volume glacial-outburst floods, which originated in western Montana, periodically flowed down the Columbia River drainage and inundated the Willamette Lowland. These floods deposited up to 250 feet of silt, sand, and gravel in the Portland Basin, and up to 130 feet of silt, known as the Willamette Silt, elsewhere in the Willamette Lowland.
Fort Clatsop:
Fort Clatsop National Memorial comemorates the 1805-06 winter encampment of the 33-member Lewis and Clark Expedition. A 1955 community-built replica of the explorers' 50'x50' Fort Clatsop is the focus of this 125-acre park. The fort, historic canoe landing, and spring are nestled in the coastal forests and wetlands of the Coast Range as it merges with the Columbia River Estuary. The Salt Works unit commemorates the expedition's salt-making activities. Salt obtained from seawater was essential to the explorers' winter at Fort Clatsop and their journey back to the United States in 1806.
-- Excerpts from: Gannett, M.W., and Caldwell, M.W., 1999, Geologic Framework of the Willamette Lowland Aquifer System, Oregon and Washington: U.S. Geological Survey Professional Paper 1424-A, 32p.; USGS/NPS Geology in the Parks Website, 2002; U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, 1947, The Columbia River: U.S. Department of the Interior Publication; U.S. National Park Service, Fort Clatsop National Memorial Website, 2002; U.S. National Park Service, National Natural Landmarks Website, 2002; U.S. National Park Service Website, Nez Perce National Historical Park, 2002; Wood and Kienle, 1990, Volcanoes of North America: United States and Canada: Cambridge University Press, 354p;
The Volcanoes of Lewis and Clark
If you have questions or comments please contact: GS-CVO-WEB@usgs.gov
June/July 2004, Lyn Topinka
The Volcanoes of Lewis and Clark Home Page | CVO Home Page
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0022.json.gz/line1108
|
__label__wiki
| 0.539192
| 0.539192
|
former long-time rapides parish police juror L. B. Henry dies
via: the town talk: L.B. Henry, 78, of Pineville, passed away Sunday, April 13, 2008 at Oaks Care Center.
Arrangements under the direction of Hixson Brothers, Pineville.
UPDATE: obituary from hixson brothers:
L.B. Henry
Died: April 13, 2008
Services:11:00 a.m., Wednesday, April 16, 2008 at the Chapel of Hixson Brothers, Pineville
Visitation:5:00 p.m. until 9:00 p.m., Tuesday, April 15, 2008, at Hixson Brothers, Pineville and from 8:00 a.m. until service time Wednesday
Services for L. B. Henry will be held at 11:00 a.m., Wednesday, April 16, 2008, at the chapel of Hixson Brothers, Pineville with Kurt Ryder and Sam Poole officiating. Burial will be at Forest Lawn Memorial Park, Ball, LA.
Mr. Henry, 87, of Pineville, passed away Sunday, April 13, 2008, at The Oaks Care Center, Pineville.
He was a plumber, water well driller and a politician. Mr. Henry served on the Rapides Parish Police Jury for twenty-eight years where he served as Parish Manager for eight years and Police Jury President for thirteen years. He was past president for the Louisiana Police Jury Association, Executive Board for seven years. Mr. Henry served on the Transportation Steering Committee of the National Association of Counties for four years, The Parochial Employee Retirement Board of Trustees for four years, Pineville City Councilman for two years. He was the past president of The Master Plumbers Association of Alexandria and Pineville, past president of the Pineville Kiwanis Club, member of the Solomon Lodge #221, El Karubah Temple and the Cenla Shrine Club. He was the owner of the L. B. Henry Rodeo Arena where they held the Kiwanis Club rodeo for ten years. Mr. Henry's hobbies included cattle, horses, hunting and the great outdoors in general.
He was preceded in death by his parents, Louie Manuel and Annie Ethal Hooter Henry; brother, Russell Elliott.
Those left to cherish his memory include his wife, Addie Mae Henry; sons, Luther Manuel Henry and wife Bonnie and Louie Rodney Henry and companion Patsy Rayner; daughter, Martha Ann Henry Peters and husband John; sisters, Louise Henry Graef Herbert and Lorraine Deville; nine grandchildren, Jackie H. Owens and husband Trip, Kellie H. Bordelon, Mandy H. Cloud and husband Gary, Adam Henry, Brannon Peters and wife Jan, Chris Peters, Cindy P. Sevier and husband Mark, Laramie Henry and Luke Henry; fourteen great grandchildren.
Pallbearers will be Brannon Peters, Laramie Henry, Luke Henry, Chris Peters, Adam Henry, and Trip Owens. Honorary pallbearers will be Gary Cloud, Mark Sevier, Robert Cespiva, Jessie Elliott, Jack Dewitt, and Pete Terrell
Visitation will be Tuesday, April 15, 2008, at Hixson Brothers, Pineville, from 5:00 p.m. until 9:00 p.m. and Wednesday from 8:00 a.m. until service time.
Memorials may be made to the Alzheimer's Association, 3717 Government Street, Suite 7, Alexandria, LA 71302.
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0022.json.gz/line1114
|
__label__cc
| 0.731461
| 0.268539
|
Metabolic Syndrome and its components among Qatari population
Musallam, M., Bener, A., Zirie, M., Al-Gaud, Y.K., Al-Hamaq, A.A., Othman, M.A. and Tewfik, I. 2008. Metabolic Syndrome and its components among Qatari population. International Journal of Food Safety, Nutrition and Public Health. 1 (1), pp. 88-102. doi:10.1504/IJFSNPH.2008.018858
Musallam, M., Bener, A., Zirie, M., Al-Gaud, Y.K., Al-Hamaq, A.A., Othman, M.A. and Tewfik, I.
Metabolic Syndrome (MeS) is a cluster of abnormalities including
impaired glucose metabolism, central obesity, dyslipidemia and hypertension.
The MeS has not been widely studied among the Arab populations, but the data
available suggests that it is an increasingly common problem. Prevalence of
MeS and its associated components are not available in Qatar. To estimate the
prevalence of MeS and its associated components among the Qatari population
and to determine its associated risk factors. A cross-sectional study was carried out among Qatari adults aged 20 years and above. Face to face interviewing
using a structured questionnaire followed by laboratory tests were conducted.
MeS was defined using the Adult Treatment Panel III (ATP III) criteria as well
as the International Diabetes Federation criteria (IDF). The crude prevalence
rate of MeS according to ATP III criteria and IDF criteria were 26.4 and
34.0%, respectively. The age-standardised prevalence of the MeS according to
ATP III was 27.7% (95% CI 23.3–32.0%), (23.6% among men (95% CI 19.5–
27.7%) and 32.6% among women (95% CI 28.0–37.2%)) and according to IDF
criteria, the age standardised prevalence was 35.4% (95% CI 30.7–40.0%),
38.7% (95% CI 34.0–43.5%) for women and 35.8% (95% CI 31.2–40.5%) for
men. Age, Body Mass Index and HbA1c were significantly associated with
MeS after adjustment for a number relevant variables including; gender, marital
status, educational level, exercise, smoking, etc. Prevalence of the MeS in
Qatar is considerably higher than anticipated. A well-designed health education
programmes to increase the awareness of the public as well as healthcare
providers are highly recommended. The programme should focus on the risk
factors and the health consequences of MeS.
International Journal of Food Safety, Nutrition and Public Health
1 (1), pp. 88-102
InderScience
doi:10.1504/IJFSNPH.2008.018858
Optimization of water extract of Cinnamomum burmannii bark to ascertain its in vitro antidiabetic and antioxidant activities
Ervina, M., Lie, H.S., Diva, J., Caroline, Tewfik, S. and Tewfik, I. 2019. Optimization of water extract of Cinnamomum burmannii bark to ascertain its in vitro antidiabetic and antioxidant activities. Biocatalysis and Agricultural Biotechnology. 19, p. 101152. doi:10.1016/j.bcab.2019.101152
Nutritional Management in Polycystic Ovary Syndrome: Challenges and opportunities
Hmedeh, C., Ghazeeri, G. and Tewfik, I. 2018. Nutritional Management in Polycystic Ovary Syndrome: Challenges and opportunities. International Journal of Food Safety, Nutrition and Public Health.
Evaluation of a photographic food atlas as a tool for quantifying food portion size in the United Arab Emirates
Ali, H., Platat, C., El Mesmoudi, N., El Sadig, M. and Tewfik, I. 2018. Evaluation of a photographic food atlas as a tool for quantifying food portion size in the United Arab Emirates. PLoS ONE. 13 (4), p. 0196389. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0196389
Evaluation of plasma neurotransmitters in children living with Attention-Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD)
Meguid, N., Anwar, M., Hussein, J., Hasan, H., Hashish, A., Seleet, F., Foda, M. and Tewfik, I. 2018. Evaluation of plasma neurotransmitters in children living with Attention-Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). Bioscience Research. 15 (1), pp. 152-159.
Genome instability in childhood obesity: A conceptual framework for an assessment, intervention and monitoring programme of inflammation and DNA damage in paediatric obesity
Usman, M., Tewfik, I. and Volpi, E. 2017. Genome instability in childhood obesity: A conceptual framework for an assessment, intervention and monitoring programme of inflammation and DNA damage in paediatric obesity. International Journal of Food, Nutrition and Public Health. 9 (1), pp. 1-12.
A Prospective Randomized Controlled Trial to Study the Impact of a Nutrition-Sensitive Intervention on Adult Women With Cancer Cachexia Undergoing Palliative Care in India
Kapoor, N., Naufahu, J., Tewfik, S., Bhatnagar, S., Garg, R. and Tewfik, I. 2017. A Prospective Randomized Controlled Trial to Study the Impact of a Nutrition-Sensitive Intervention on Adult Women With Cancer Cachexia Undergoing Palliative Care in India. Integrative Cancer Therapies. 6 (1), pp. 74-84. doi:10.1177/1534735416651968
Risk Factors for Maternal Vitamin D Deficiency within the United Arab Emirates
Hussein, I., Taha, Z., Tewfik, I., Badawi, S., Siddieg, H., Adegboye, A.R. and McGrady, K. 2016. Risk Factors for Maternal Vitamin D Deficiency within the United Arab Emirates. Journal of Pregnancy and Child Health. 3 (5), p. 1000276. doi:10.4172/2376-127X.1000276
A comparative study: long and short term effect of a nutrition sensitive approach to delay the progression of HIV to AIDS among people living with HIV (PLWH) in Nigeria
Amlogu, A., Tewfik, S., Wambebe, C. and Tewfik, I. 2016. A comparative study: long and short term effect of a nutrition sensitive approach to delay the progression of HIV to AIDS among people living with HIV (PLWH) in Nigeria. Functional Foods in Health and Disease. 6 (2), pp. 79-90.
American skullcap (Scutellaria lateriflora): a randomised, double-blind placebo-controlled crossover study of its effects on mood in healthy volunteers
Brock, C., Whitehouse, J., Tewfik, I. and Towell, A. 2014. American skullcap (Scutellaria lateriflora): a randomised, double-blind placebo-controlled crossover study of its effects on mood in healthy volunteers. Phytotherapy Research. 28 (5), pp. 692-698. doi:10.1002/ptr.5044
Identity issues surrounding American skullcap (Scutellaria lateriflora) and an optimised high performance liquid chromatography method to authenticate commercially available products
Brock, C., Whitehouse, J., Tewfik, I. and Towell, A. 2013. Identity issues surrounding American skullcap (Scutellaria lateriflora) and an optimised high performance liquid chromatography method to authenticate commercially available products. Journal of Herbal Medicine. 3 (2), pp. 57-64. doi:10.1016/j.hermed.2013.02.001
Hepatic mitochondrial dysfunction induced by fatty acids and ethanol
Gyamfi, D., Everitt, H.E., Tewfik, I., Clemens, D.L. and Patel, V. 2012. Hepatic mitochondrial dysfunction induced by fatty acids and ethanol. Free Radical Biology & Medicine. 53 (11), pp. 2131-2145. doi:10.1016/j.freeradbiomed.2012.09.024
The use of Scutellaria lateriflora: a pilot survey amongst herbal medicine practitioners
Brock, C., Whitehouse, J., Tewfik, I. and Towell, A. 2012. The use of Scutellaria lateriflora: a pilot survey amongst herbal medicine practitioners. Journal of Herbal Medicine. 2 (2), pp. 34-41. doi:10.1016/j.hermed.2012.04.005,
Obesity and low vision as a result of excessive internet use, and television viewing
Bener, A., Al-Mahdi, H.S., Ali, A.I., Al-Nufal, M., Vachhani, P.J. and Tewfik, I. 2011. Obesity and low vision as a result of excessive internet use, and television viewing. International Journal of Food Sciences and Nutrition. 62 (1), pp. 60-62. doi:10.3109/09637486.2010.495711
Globesity in action: systematic review and pilot intervention to assess the potential health benefit of moderate physical activity
Salah, M. and Tewfik, I. 2011. Globesity in action: systematic review and pilot intervention to assess the potential health benefit of moderate physical activity. in: Ahmed, A. and Busler, M. (ed.) World sustainable development outlook 2011. Sharing knowledge, making a difference: the role of international scientific cooperation World Association for Sustainable Development (WASD).
Conceptual framework of public health-nutrition intervention programme to attenuate the progression of HIV to AIDS among people living with HIV (PLWH) in Abuja, Nigeria
Amlogu, M.A., Tewfik, S., Wambebe, C., Godden, K. and Tewfik, I. 2011. Conceptual framework of public health-nutrition intervention programme to attenuate the progression of HIV to AIDS among people living with HIV (PLWH) in Abuja, Nigeria. in: Ahmed, A. and Busler, M. (ed.) World sustainable development outlook 2011. Sharing knowledge, making a difference: the role of international scientific cooperation World Association for Sustainable Development (WASD). pp. 11-20
American skullcap (Scutellaria lateriflora): an ancient remedy for today’s anxiety?
Brock, C., Whitehouse, J., Tewfik, I. and Towell, A. 2010. American skullcap (Scutellaria lateriflora): an ancient remedy for today’s anxiety? British Journal of Wellbeing. 1 (4), pp. 25-30.
Is Africa facing a nutrition transition under the double burden of disease?
Tewfik, I., Bener, A. and Tewfik, S. 2010. Is Africa facing a nutrition transition under the double burden of disease? in: Ahmed, A. and Nwankwo, S. (ed.) Achieving sustainable development in Africa: science, technology & innovation trajectory London World Association for Sustainable Development (WASD).
Childhood obesity prevention in Emirates (COPE): a conceptual framework for pilot intervention
Tewfik, I., Mackenzie, J., Cunliffe, A., Al-Dhaheri, A., Ali, H., Washi, S. and Platat, C. 2009. Childhood obesity prevention in Emirates (COPE): a conceptual framework for pilot intervention. in: Ahmed, A. (ed.) World sustainable development outlook: the impact of the global financial crisis on the environment, energy and sustainable development 2009 London World Association for Sustainable Development (WASD).
Nutritional quality of deep fried street-vended foods: a public health concern
Tewfik, I., Ismail, H. and Tewfik, S. 2009. Nutritional quality of deep fried street-vended foods: a public health concern. in: Ahmed, A. (ed.) World sustainable development outlook: the impact of the global financial crisis on the environment, energy and sustainable development 2009 London World Association for Sustainable Development (WASD).
Hepatic oxidative stress and apoptosis following acute alcohol
Everitt, H.E., Tewfik, I., Preedy, V.R. and Patel, V. 2009. Hepatic oxidative stress and apoptosis following acute alcohol. Alcohol & Alcoholism. 44, p. p85.
Assessment of shelf-life of irradiated frozen chicken
Alnasser, M.A., Park, S.F., Jenesson, P. and Tewfik, I. 2009. Assessment of shelf-life of irradiated frozen chicken. International Journal of Food Safety, Nutrition and Public Health. 2 (1), pp. 48-58. doi:10.1504/IJFSNPH.2009.026918
Would it still be possible to identify irradiated lipid-containing foods towards the end of their shelf-life?
Tewfik, I. and Tewfik, S. 2008. Would it still be possible to identify irradiated lipid-containing foods towards the end of their shelf-life? Food Science and Technology International. 14 (6), pp. 519-524. doi:10.1177/1082013208100465
Extraction and identification of cyclobutanones from irradiated cheese employing a rapid direct solvent extraction method
Tewfik, I. 2008. Extraction and identification of cyclobutanones from irradiated cheese employing a rapid direct solvent extraction method. International Journal of Food Sciences and Nutrition. 59 (7 & 8), pp. 590-598. doi:10.1080/09637480701515450
Inter-laboratory trial to validate the direct solvent extraction method for the identification of 2-dodecylcyclobutanone in irradiated chicken and whole liquid egg
Tewfik, I. 2008. Inter-laboratory trial to validate the direct solvent extraction method for the identification of 2-dodecylcyclobutanone in irradiated chicken and whole liquid egg. Food Science and Technology International. 14 (3), pp. 277-283. doi:10.1177/1082013208095689
Does prolonged breastfeeding reduce the risk for childhood leukemia and lymphomas?
Bener, A., Hoffmann, G.F., Afify, Z., Rasul, K., Mian, M., Guiter, G. and Tewfik, I. 2008. Does prolonged breastfeeding reduce the risk for childhood leukemia and lymphomas? Minerva Pediatrica. 60 (2), pp. 155-161.
Nutraceuticals, functional foods and botanical dietary supplements; promote wellbeing and underpin public health
Tewfik, S. and Tewfik, I. 2008. Nutraceuticals, functional foods and botanical dietary supplements; promote wellbeing and underpin public health. World Review of Science, Technology and Sustainable Development. 5 (2), pp. 104-123. doi:10.1504/WRSTSD.2008.018552
Childhood obesity prevention (CHOP) programme: a conceptual framework for nutrition intervention
Tewfik, I. 2008. Childhood obesity prevention (CHOP) programme: a conceptual framework for nutrition intervention. International Journal of Food Safety, Nutrition and Public Health. 1 (1), pp. 16-32. doi:10.1504/IJFSNPH.2008.018853
Impact of lifestyle and dietary habits on hypovitaminosis D in type 1 diabetes mellitus and healthy children from Qatar, a sun-rich country
Bener, A., Alsaied, A., Al-Ali, M., Hassan, A.S., Basha, B., Al-Kubaisi, A., Abraham, A., Mian, M., Guiter, G., Tewfik, I. and Agha, M. 2008. Impact of lifestyle and dietary habits on hypovitaminosis D in type 1 diabetes mellitus and healthy children from Qatar, a sun-rich country. Annals of Nutrition and Metabolism. 53 (3-4), pp. 215-222. doi:10.1159/000184439
A rapid direct solvent extraction (DSE) method for the extraction of cyclobutanones from irradiated chicken and liquid whole egg
Tewfik, I. 2008. A rapid direct solvent extraction (DSE) method for the extraction of cyclobutanones from irradiated chicken and liquid whole egg. International Journal of Food Science and Technology. 43 (1), pp. 108-113. doi:10.1111/j.1365-2621.2006.01399.x
Nutrition and alcoholic liver disease
Everitt, H.E., Patel, V. and Tewfik, I. 2007. Nutrition and alcoholic liver disease. Nutrition Bulletin. 32 (2), pp. 138-144. doi:10.1111/j.1467-3010.2007.00627.x
The public health advocate: food irradiation's offer to food security
Tewfik, I. and Tewfik, S. 2007. The public health advocate: food irradiation's offer to food security. in: Ahmed, A. (ed.) Science, technology and sustainability in the Middle East and North Africa Genève InderScience. pp. 197-209
Competitive food safety program: the case of Qatar
Al-Hamaq, A.A., Zeyadah, S.S., Ahmed, A., Amuna, P. and Tewfik, I. 2007. Competitive food safety program: the case of Qatar. in: Ahmed, A. (ed.) Science, technology and sustainability in the Middle East and North Africa Genève InderScience. pp. 210-228
Book review: B. Freire Wilma (editor). Nutrition and an Active Life: From Knowledge to Action. Scientific and Technical Publication No. 612. Washington DC: Pan American Health Organization 2005. US$ 36·00 (paperback) pp. 260. ISBN: 92 75 11612 1
Tewfik, I. 2006. Book review: B. Freire Wilma (editor). Nutrition and an Active Life: From Knowledge to Action. Scientific and Technical Publication No. 612. Washington DC: Pan American Health Organization 2005. US$ 36·00 (paperback) pp. 260. ISBN: 92 75 11612 1. British Journal of Nutrition. 96 (4), p. 793. doi:10.1079/BJN20061844
Prevalence of overweight, obesity, and associated psychological problems in Qatari's female population
Bener, A. and Tewfik, I. 2006. Prevalence of overweight, obesity, and associated psychological problems in Qatari's female population. Obesity Reviews. 7 (2), pp. 139-145. doi:10.1111/j.1467-789X.2006.00209.x
Industrial and dietetic applications of the food multimix (FMM) concept in meeting the nutritional needs of vulnerable groups in South Africa
Zotor, F., Amuna, P., Oldewage-Theron, W.H., Adewuya, T., Prinsloo, G., Chinyanga, Y., Tewfik, I. and Amuna, N. 2006. Industrial and dietetic applications of the food multimix (FMM) concept in meeting the nutritional needs of vulnerable groups in South Africa. Academic Journal of Vaal University of Technology. 3, pp. 54-67.
CO2 photoassimilation, chlorophyll fluorescence, lipid peroxidation and yield in cotton (Gossypium hirsutum L. cv Giza 65) in response to O3
Hassan, I.A. and Tewfik, I. 2006. CO2 photoassimilation, chlorophyll fluorescence, lipid peroxidation and yield in cotton (Gossypium hirsutum L. cv Giza 65) in response to O3. World Review of Science, Technology and Sustainable Development. 3 (1), pp. 70-79. doi:10.1504/WRSTSD.2006.008764
Prevalence of dieting, overweight, body image satisfaction and associated psychological problems in adolescent boys
Bener, A., Kamal, A., Tewfik, I. and Sabuncuoglu, O. 2006. Prevalence of dieting, overweight, body image satisfaction and associated psychological problems in adolescent boys. Nutrition & Food Science. 36 (5), pp. 295-304. doi:10.1108/00346650610703144
Would food irradiation as a means of technology transfer assist food productivity and security in Africa and sustain its development?
Tewfik, I., Amuna, P. and Zotor, F. 2004. Would food irradiation as a means of technology transfer assist food productivity and security in Africa and sustain its development? International Journal of Technology Policy and Management. 4 (1), pp. 44-52.
Human and economic development in developing countries: a public health dimension employing the food multimix concept
Amuna, P., Zotor, F. and Tewfik, I. 2004. Human and economic development in developing countries: a public health dimension employing the food multimix concept. World Review of Science, Technology and Sustainable Development. 1 (2), pp. 129-137.
The effect of intermittent heating on some chemical parameters of refined oils used in Egypt. A public health nutrition concern
Tewfik, I., Ismail, H. and Sumar, S. 1998. The effect of intermittent heating on some chemical parameters of refined oils used in Egypt. A public health nutrition concern. International Journal of Food Sciences and Nutrition. 49 (5), pp. 339-342. doi:10.3109/09637489809089408
A rapid supercritical fluid extraction method for the detection of 2-alkylcyclobutanones in gamma irradiated beef and chicken
Tewfik, I., Ismail, H. and Sumar, S. 1998. A rapid supercritical fluid extraction method for the detection of 2-alkylcyclobutanones in gamma irradiated beef and chicken. Lebensmittel-Wissenschaft und-Technologie = Journal of Food Sciences and Technology. 31 (4), pp. 366-370. doi:10.1006/fstl.1998.0371
A rapid direct solvent extraction method (DSE-GC-MS) used to detect irradiated minced beef
Tewfik, I., Ismail, H. and Sumar, S. 1998. A rapid direct solvent extraction method (DSE-GC-MS) used to detect irradiated minced beef. Bulletin of High Institute of Public Health. 28 (3), pp. 85-92.
A rapid supercritical fluid extraction method for the qualitative detection of 2-alkylcyclobutanones in gamma-irradiated fresh and sea water fish
Tewfik, I. 1998. A rapid supercritical fluid extraction method for the qualitative detection of 2-alkylcyclobutanones in gamma-irradiated fresh and sea water fish. International Journal of Food Sciences and Nutrition. 50 (1), pp. 51-56. doi:10.1080/096374899101418
A rapid method (SFE-GC-MS) used to detect irradiated minced beef
Tewfik, I., Ismail, H., Amine, E. and Rady, A. 1996. A rapid method (SFE-GC-MS) used to detect irradiated minced beef. Arab Journal of Nuclear Sciences and Applications. 29 (4), pp. 345-353.
Permalink - https://westminsterresearch.westminster.ac.uk/item/91737/metabolic-syndrome-and-its-components-among-qatari-population
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0022.json.gz/line1115
|
__label__wiki
| 0.507541
| 0.507541
|
Response from Ben Murray, State Representative Candidate (Dist. 80)
1. What do you view as the key role, and/or attributes needed for this position? What experience/attributes do you have that qualify you for this position?
I have over 13 years’ experience in campaign finance, government, and grassroots organizing for progressive candidates and causes. I have a BA in Political Science and a Master’s in Public Administration from the University Missouri. While in high school and college, I worked at Schnucks and was a member of UFCW Local 655, which solidified my commitment to unions and raising the minimum wage. I worked on many of Congressman Russ Carnahan’s early campaigns and also served in government as his Special Assistant on Capitol Hill. Since then, I have managed campaigns for a number of progressive candidates and ballot initiatives, and was the Organizing Director for Missouri Progressive Vote Coalition.
Through my education and experiences, I understand how government works, its deficiencies, and best practices for making it work better. Working so closely in campaign finance makes me uniquely positioned to tackle the issues of campaign finance and ethics reform.
2. Why do you think you are the best person for this position? What differentiates you from your opponent(s)?
I never thought that I would find myself running for public office. I’ve been pretty lucky over the years to work to help get other good progressives elected, and have always been happy to be behind the scenes.
Nonetheless, when this seat came open, and the field started to come together I became concerned. The 80th is one of the most diverse, progressive districts in the state. We deserve a representative who reflects that. “Progressive” is an easy word to throw around, but to me it’s more than just a slogan or a Twitter hashtag. My opponent’s willingness to label himself a progressive, while racking up campaign contributions and endorsements from the same conservative, business friendly interests who always seem to get their way in both City Hall and in Jefferson City is deeply distressing. I have pledged not accept any lobbyist gifts, meals, or trips and I do not accept campaign contributions or seek endorsements from people who are working against real progressive ideals.
In addition, I am an outspoken advocate for a women’s right to choose. Women are under attack in Jefferson City on a daily basis. We cannot afford to have Democrats who are unable or unwilling to clearly articulate their views on abortion and strongly protect women’s rights to make their own decisions about their bodies.
Finally, I think that I bring some specific experience to the table, in terms of rebuilding the Democratic caucus. I spent an election cycle as the Legislative Director for Eastern Missouri for the State Party. I know Democrats can win, even in rural parts of the state without sacrificing our values. I will be a full time State Representative and look forward to working year round to help grow our party. To this end, I am actively working with candidates for committee positions in the 80th district to help build the future of the party while I myself run for office.
3. What do you feel are the most pressing issues currently facing this office and what plans do you have to address these issues? (please be specific)
More specific points follow, buy generally the most pressing issue is the pervasive influence of special interests in Jefferson City. People I talk to, knocking on doors in this district are pretty distrustful of the state legislature, and they are right to be. For too long the big money has ruled at the State Capitol, while regular people find themselves working harder to earn less and less.
4. What three issues are your main priorities and how will you guide them?
Ethics Reform and more broadly changing the culture in Jefferson City: The legislature passed a handful of watered down ethics proposals this year. We must do better. I am also particularly troubled by the climate of sexual harassment that still pervades the state capitol. We need representatives who will not look the other way in the face of rampant sexism. Additionally, we need representatives who practice what they preach by not accepting any gifts, meals or trips from lobbyists and being conscientious about who we take money from. I will lead by example while working to push for real ethics reform, including campaign contribution limits, closing the revolving door, and establishing a code of ethics that supports and values women in government.
Protecting women’s reproductive rights: Every year we think that the attacks on women’s health cannot get worse and every year anti-choice extremists find new ways to disappoint us. I’m proud to be a part of the campaign to stop Senator Kurt Schaefer’s bid for statewide office and look forward to fighting for abortion rights on the House floor.
Racial Equity: The Ferguson Commission has approved over 200 calls for action to improving citizen-law enforcement relations, municipal court and governance reform, child well-being and education equity, and economic inequity and opportunity. In 2015, the Missouri General Assembly only passed one Ferguson related reform. As a member of the General Assembly, I will fight to implement these calls to action. Specifically, I will support the Fair and Impartial Policing Act, fight for the establishment of a statewide database on Use of Force Statistics, and support state-wide legislation requiring the use of police body cameras while also protecting the civil liberties of the general public and victims of crimes. I support municipal consolidation as an effort to take reliance of communities off of tickets and fines to meet their budgets, and also recognize that we must develop systems to allow the African American leadership of these areas to still have a voice in government should these municipalities’ cease to exist. Additionally, I will seek alternatives to incarceration, especially for the 60% of people who are in prison for non-violent drug offences, and fight to ensure that our laws are not selectively applied harder to low-income minority communities.
5. How do you plan to address the schism between Republicans and Democrats in Jefferson City? How will you accomplish things as a member of the minority party?
Democrats face a huge challenge dealing with the Tea Party supermajority in Jefferson City. Frankly, I’m fairly suspicious of any Democrat who think that they can “accomplish things” with a majority who’s stated goal is to roll back LGBT rights, workers’ rights and to effectively end access to abortion. Standing on principle and advocating for the voiceless is an end unto itself. I applaud the efforts of our Democratic Senators this year to filibuster numerous anti-worker, anti-women, and anti-minority legislation. As the minority party, we must be ready to stand up and fight every battle, with equal effort, in order to protect women, minority, immigrants, and the LGBT community from Republican extremism. In the meantime, we have to be rebuilding the party, and running Democrats in every race, so we can have the numbers necessary to fight for progressive policies, rather than always be fighting against right-wing extremism.
6. How do you plan to increase available jobs in the area and state?
Beyond the self-evident moral imperative, expanding Medicaid would be a huge economic stimulus for the state. Failing to expand Medicaid will cost Missouri hospitals $6.8 billion over the next ten years. This will almost certainly lead job losses in places like St. Louis but will also likely lead to hospital closures in rural areas.
Furthermore, I will support legislation that creates long term and sustainable economic opportunities for the region. I was strongly opposed to the proposed new football stadium that would have burdened the taxpayers with a billion dollar boondoggle and would have created zero new long-term sustainable jobs. While I support major infrastructure projects and have high hopes for the union construction jobs that one-off projects like the NGA West will provide, these “silver bullet” marquee projects are by no means a long term solution to the region’s economic woes.
Finally, no discussion of job creation and economic development can happen without discussing education. The public school system in St. Louis City has been too broken for too long. The current leadership at City Hall and Jefferson City has proven time and again only one thing: “It’s time for new leadership.”
7. How do you plan to address the tension between rural and urban areas of the state?
I have done candidate work in Jefferson County and Franklin County, as well as outside Hannibal, Missouri. My experience knocking on doors, talking to real people in these communities has been that our differences are not as great as we might imagine.
People in rural areas want jobs that pay a living wage and to send their children to good schools. I look forward to working toward these goals in the legislature.
8. What broad-based, stable source of revenue would you recommend to fund quality, public services if both individual and corporate taxes were cut?
Further cutting corporate and individual taxes at this point would be a catastrophic mistake. Nonetheless, if the legislature is determined to do so, we might be able to recoup some lost revenue either by taxing the legal sale of marijuana or by imposing a carbon tax, as Illinois is doing this now.
9. How can the legislators from the St. Louis metropolitan area work together despite party differences to support and protect the interests of the entire area? (please be specific)
There are likely some suburban Republicans who share City residents’ concern over the easy availability of guns to felons and the violently mentally ill. I have some hope that we may be able to find common ground on this important issue.
10. Describe how you work with, or will work with, others to address your priorities.
I will first and foremost work to engage the people of the 80th District to guide my agenda. Beyond that I will work with fellow Democrats, labor unions and progressive organizations to advocate for change as I have done throughout my career.
11. Who are your 3 largest campaign contributors? Do you have a policy on accepting lobbyist gifts? Are there donors from whom you will not accept campaign contributions?
My largest donations have all come from family, specifically, my mother who is a retired nurse and my father who is a retired teacher.
I will never accept gifts, meals, trips or tickets from lobbyists. I have refused both in my campaign and in my professional dealings to accept contributions from Rex Sinquefield and his affiliate groups. I do not accept contributions from anyone who profits from exploiting workers, the environment or mass incarceration.
12. The Ferguson Commission has over 100 calls to action as a result of its year long community engagement process. Many of its recommendations fall on the Missouri General Assembly to implement. Your election will be a couple of days before the two year anniversary of the shooting of Michael Brown, yet very few of the commission’s recommendations have been taken up by the General Assembly. If elected, what will you do to ensure that racial justice receive the attention needed at a state level?
The fight for racial equity, and to implement the recommendations of the Ferguson Commission, must be led by my African American counterparts whose communities have been over policed, over incarcerated, and suffered from far too much disinvestment for far too long. As State Representative, I will follow their lead, and support the efforts of the Legislative Black Caucus on legislation that promotes racial equity in Missouri. The failure to implement the recommendations of the Ferguson Commission is an injustice. We cannot lose focus or become complacent on racial equity issues. I pledge to fight to keep this in the forefront until the legislature takes meaningful action. Additionally, I support the utilization of a racial equity framework in the decision-making of the General Assembly so that we are more aware of how the policies we pass promote or discourage racial disparities in Missouri.
13. Increasingly, women’s reproductive rights, workers’ rights, and LGBTQ rights have been under attack in Jefferson City. If elected, what will you do to protect and advocate for these classes?
I have a long history of fighting for workers, women, and the LGBTQ community. As the Organizing Director for the Missouri Progressive Vote Coalition we worked every day to mobilize voters on these issues. I welcome the chance to continue this work in Jefferson City.
Posted by Tod A. Martin at 10:30 PM
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0022.json.gz/line1117
|
__label__wiki
| 0.994716
| 0.994716
|
Archie, Kruse should play
Melbourne Victory coach Ernie Merrick rates strike pair Archie Thompson and Robbie Kruse a 'good bet' to play in Tuesday night's crucial Asian Champions League clash with group leader Seongnam Ilhwa of South Korea.
Both players scored in Sunday's major semi-final second leg 2-2 draw with Sydney FC which qualified the titleholders for a place in the Hyundai A-League Grand Final in a fortnight's time.
Four weeks ago, however, neither seemed likely to play any part at all in the Hyundai A-League finals, and there were doubts over their availability for the Victory's ACL campaign.
Thompson had been diagnosed with stress fractures in his right foot and Kruse suffered severe ankle damage in a cynical tackle from behind by Sydney's Terry McFlynn in the club's final match of the regular season.
Both needed to be nursed through Sunday's match but, according to Merrick, they've pulled up in good shape.
"Two days ago we assessed them and the medical staff more or less said you've got 60 minutes in Robbie and you've got half-an-hour max in Archie," Merrick said.
"We didn't plan on extra time at that stage, but Archie said he felt terrific in extra time and given they've both played an hour each, two days later I think they'll have a good chance of getting game time."
"I'm not sure whether from the start yet or not, but I think Archie and Robbie will both be available."
Merrick agreed the tight turnaround between matches would present some significant problems, but he was confident his players would cope.
"Yesterday, the priority was the finals and going straight into the grand final without playing another qualifying match," Merrick said.
"But as soon as the game ended, it's all about the Asian Champions League and it's about qualifying for the group of 16, so we want to take stock."
"The longer the game went yesterday, especially in extra time, the stronger our boys looked, so we are extremely fit which is a credit to our fitness and medical staff."
Merrick said the club's backroom staff have done their homework on Seongnam which opened its ACL campaign with a 2-0 home win over Kawasaki Frontale of Japan.
"We've got a DVD of their first game in the ACL, Seongnam against Kawasaki and we'll show the players today in preparation for the game tomorrow," said Merrick.
"We didn't want to touch the ACL game prior to yesterday's match so we've only got one day to prepare, but that'll be enough."
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0022.json.gz/line1118
|
__label__cc
| 0.522462
| 0.477538
|
The Experience of Living: Part II
We turned to words for comfort, for healing, for strength. We wrote because it was something we’d always done. Because it felt natural. Because there was space and maybe a bit of sanctuary to be found on the blank page. Because hope could be created through the sheer act of finding our own words to relay that which can feel inexplicable.
Dese’Rae L. Stage (2015), Zach Kluckman (2016), Meghan Caughey (2018), Leah Harris (2018) and I (2017) all found our way to the Paul G. Quinnett Lived Experience Writing Contest via different avenues but, for each of us, the impetus to participate was similar. Perhaps this storytelling could heal us in even the smallest of ways, or help others understand what it feels like when suicide is an option, or both those things, or more.
“Writing has been a huge part of my healing process, from the time I was a teenager,” Leah said when I spoke with her last week. Though she’s been sharing her narrative in a variety of ways for nearly two decades, the Lived Experience Writing Contest was something she hadn’t come across anywhere else – a place carved out specifically for those of us with intimate knowledge of suicide.
“It just made sense to write [my experience] down,” said Des, “because [writing] was what I had always done.”
Armed with an MFA, Meghan twice submitted narratives to the contest. A writer of poetry and fiction, Zach followed “the voice inside me that was saying, it’s time [to share].” Having studied journalism in college, I found a way to articulate my own experience by conceptualizing it in relation to the illness narratives of the patients with whom I now work.
This is not to say the process of writing and editing and, as Zach said, “preparing myself for a panel of people to read it,” is easy.
“If I win this contest,” Meghan remembered thinking, “what does that mean in terms of my responsibility to other people out there who are struggling with these same issues of living and dying? Sometimes we become symbols that go beyond who we really are.”
Zach and I sought to wrap up our heads around where we, as individuals who lived with prolonged ideation but did not make a physical attempt, fit into the lived experience continuum. Could our stories be as powerful or as relevant as those shared by people who had acted upon their ideation?
What Des calls “the severity hierarchy” was and, at times, still does skew the level of worth I ascribe to my own experience.
“The hierarchy makes a distinction between if you shot yourself and lived, if you jumped off the bridge and lived, or if you ‘just’ took some pills, or if you didn’t act,” she explained. “It valuates our experience based on the severity of the act – the more violent, the more we must have meant it – rather than examining what it means that any of us was hurting so deeply that we thought about suicide at all. It’s a damaging kind of narrative. We should be able to define what our lived experience is.”
It is something we all hope those who are considering submitting their story to this year’s contest will take to heart. So, too, do we want writers to feel empowered – to see this contest not as a competition or a judge’s exercise in determining which account has the most merit, but rather as a chance to shout down the stigma that has so long kept us quiet.
After placing in the contest, Zach encountered a colleague who questioned the veracity of what he had written.
“It was like, ‘Oh yeah, he’s a writer, he probably made all that stuff up,’” Zach recalled. “And I gotta tell you, that was pretty crushing…[I]t was this ironic situation where, because I hadn’t shared my story [before] with this one person, she assumed I was lying. It was an interesting reminder of the stigma that still exists…Sometimes, not telling our story reinforces the power of actually telling it.”
And so we eagerly encourage and await the submission of lived experience narratives this year – voices to join our collective proclamation that what we have survived is true, and real, and worth sharing.
“I want my [voice] to be part of a chorus,” said Des.
“If [we] really want to change the way people understand and respond to those of us who [have been] suicidal, it’s the stories,” said Leah. “It’s the stories that change people.”
Next week: On describing the darkness and struggling with it still.
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0022.json.gz/line1119
|
__label__wiki
| 0.953091
| 0.953091
|
SportsSports Blogs Local
'The moment we've been waiting for': GCU is just a win away from its 1st-ever NCAA Tournament bid
Posted: 10:55 PM, Mar 09, 2018
By: Shane Dale
A half-decade later, the moment they've been waiting for is finally in front of them -- and they don't intend to let it slip through their fingers.
In their fifth season at the NCAA Division I level -- and their first season of being eligible for the NCAA Tournament -- the Grand Canyon Lopes men's basketball team is just one win away from earning an automatic bid to that tournament after advancing to the WAC Tournament championship at Orleans Arena on Friday.
GCU will face top-seeded New Mexico State in the championship game, which will begin at 8 p.m. Arizona time and will be televised on ESPNU.
"It’s finally here. It’s the moment we’ve been waiting for," GCU senior forward Keonta Vernon said after the Lopes defeated Utah Valley 75-60 to advance to Saturday's championship game. Vernon contributed 14 points and eight rebounds in the victory.
"Coach (Dan) Majerle has been on us from day one about it. If you knew some of the things that he said to us about it, you’d be a little freaked out. But like I say, this is the moment we’ve been waiting for. I believe we’re going to be ready for it."
Senior guard and Valley native Josh Braun was the first player Majerle successfully recruited when he took the GCU head coaching job. According to Braun, who scored 15 points in Friday's win, the NCAA Tournament is all Majerle has talked about for the last five years.
"It is a little surreal. It’s exciting," he said. "We talk about it all the time. Keonta and I are excited just to go out on this and leave it all on the court and just have fun, play for each other, and see where it’ll take us."
Beating New Mexico State won't be easy. The Lopes lost each of their first two matchups with the Aggies this season, including a 74-70 defeat at NMSU in their most recent meeting last month.
Aggies coach Steve Jans, however, said both of those games could have gone either way.
"We were down in both games, both at their place and at home, and for whatever reason, we ended up on top. It easily could've went their way, as well," Jans said after New Mexico State's win over Seattle in the other WAC semifinal game Friday night.
"It's a quick turnaround. Obviously we played each other twice and we know each other. We'll throw it up tomorrow and see what happens."
The Lopes nearly bowed out of the WAC Tournament in the quarterfinals but overcame some jitters to rally past Missouri-Kansas City on Thursday. Majerle, who has led GCU to three consecutive 20-win seasons, said those nerves were a result of just how long the team has waited for and talked about this opportunity.
But after Friday's win -- and even though the Lopes will be underdogs Saturday -- Majerle believes his guys are ready to take advantage of the opportunity in front of them.
"Every day, we’ve talked about this moment," Majerle said. "Now, we’re going to have to come back and play an excellent game tomorrow. New Mexico State is really, really good. But we’re excited to be here, man. It’s awesome."
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0022.json.gz/line1120
|
__label__wiki
| 0.846939
| 0.846939
|
NM Guardsman awarded medal for saving two women
By Rick Nathanson / Journal Staff Writer
Published: Thursday, September 13th, 2018 at 6:34pm
Updated: Thursday, September 13th, 2018 at 10:04pm
Gov. Susana Martinez pins the Medal of Valor with Palm onto the uniform of New Mexico National Guard Staff Sgt. Christopher Valdez. He received the medal for bravery for intervening in a violent street altercation, saving the lives of a mother and daughter. (Greg Sorber/Albuquerque Journal)
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Staff Sgt. Christopher Valdez of the New Mexico National Guard on Thursday was awarded the Medal of Valor with Palm for saving the lives of two women last February.
The medal was presented by Gov. Susana Martinez. It was only the fifth time since she’s been in office that she has awarded the medal, and only the second time that medal included the Palm, which signifies that the recipient put his or her own life in danger.
“This medal is awarded to any member of the New Mexico National Guard or the State Defence Force who distinguishes themselves by an extraordinary act of personal bravery and heroism,” Martinez told those gathered in the state Regulation and Licensing Department’s boardroom in Albuquerque. “He put his life at risk above and beyond the call of duty.”
The incident occurred about 5 p.m. on Feb. 18, while Valdez was in his civilian job driving for Uber. Near Gibson and Yale SE in Albuquerque, Valdez saw a man intentionally crash his vehicle into a pickup truck. The man then got out of his vehicle and fired a handgun into the truck, which was occupied by two women, one of whom was hit in the shoulder.
The man then pulled the younger of the two women from the truck and began pistol whipping her in the street.
Springing into action, Valdez grabbed his personal handgun and yelled at the other man to stop. At one point, Valdez told police, he feared for his own life and fired his weapon, hitting and killing the man.
Valdez didn’t know it, but he had interrupted a domestic violence situation. The man who was killed, Qian Ming, 66, was the elder woman’s husband and the younger woman’s father.
“To say the least, this guy prevented possibly a double homicide; that’s what we could have on our hands tonight,” Albuquerque police spokesman Simon Drobik said at the time. “In my 19 years of experience, I would say that those two females would have been dead if he hadn’t stepped in and took action.”
Valdez is on temporary active duty with the New Mexico National Guard, working in the mobilization readiness group. In 2011, he was deployed to the Republic of Kosovo in southeastern Europe.
Martinez credited Valdez’s clear thinking and decisive action to training in the National Guard.
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0022.json.gz/line1121
|
__label__wiki
| 0.796948
| 0.796948
|
Thailand’s Persistent Political Tumult: 2010-2015
In 2004, Thailand’s Pattani region experienced a noticeable spike in violence, perpetrated by Muslim separatist groups seeking autonomy. Over the past 11 years, this southern border region—encompassing the provinces of Yala, Narathiwat and Pattani— has been engulfed in a lingering unrest. Conflict analysts at Deep South Watch have defined the situation as one of “protracted violence” as it has occurred every day in every month of every year since 2004 (Deep South Watch, 2011). ACLED’s data confirms the sporadic violence is chronic; in the past five years, ACLED has recorded 1,296 incidents related to Southern unrest, which include battles between military/police forces and Muslim separatist groups, bombings in cities, villages, and rural roadsides, shootings targeting civilians, and other attacks. From 2010 to 2015, the Patani region averaged 21.6 insurgency-related incidents per month, with some months experiencing much higher numbers while others, much lower. Although no discernable pattern exists in the frequency of attacks per month, it is undoubtedly pervasive. The variation in the frequency of violence has only further defines the nature of the conflict as one of volatility and uncertainty.
The Emergence of Thailand’s Insurgency
Thailand’s insurgency has its roots in an unsuccessful assimilation process of the late 19th and early 20th centuries when the ruling elite in Bangkok attempted to centralize the nation. Assimilation was least successful in the south where Malay Muslims remained attached to distinct identities and where the centralized conditions of Thailand’s political structure—in which governors are appointed and local elected officials hold little power—furthers discontent within resident ethnic and religious minority groups (The Asia Foundation, 2013) who aren’t represented by central government-appointed officials. The main separatist movements in the south include organizations and cells made up of Malay Muslims, who attack in strong opposition to the Bangkok government and those who enforce the law: the Thai military, police and paramilitary patrols. These movements include the Pattani United Liberation Organization (PULO) and the National Revolutionary Front (BRN), but also other smaller cells. According to The Asia Foundation, contestation over governance remains one of the primary drivers of conflict in this region of the world (2013), and the demands of conflict actors have ranged from complete independence from Thailand, to greater local autonomy, to the removal of security forces.
Comparing Coups d’Etat and Conflict in Bangkok to Violence in the South
When compared alongside concurrent political and violent incidents in Thailand’s capital, Bangkok, ACLED’s data illuminates a pattern that could link the southern Muslim insurgency to the country’s political instability. Since 2006, Thailand has experienced frequent political turmoil, marked by a spate of mass protests, government takeovers and violent attacks in Bangkok between demonstrators, security forces and oftentimes bystanders. During these times when Bangkok erupted in political conflict (most notably in early 2010 and late 2012), violence in the south tended to diminish.
Coups d’etat are nothing new for Thailand. Since Thailand became a constitutional monarchy in 1932, the nation has had 24 military coups, in addition to 18 constitutions and 28 Prime Ministers (International Business Times, 2014). The origin of Thailand’s recent unrest is traced back to 2006 when a bloodless coup forced Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra from power. In late 2008, the succession of Abhisit Vejjajiva prompted a spate of rallies in support of Shinawatra. Between March and May 2010, tens of thousands of United Front for Democracy Against Dictatorship (UDD) supporters, dressed in emblematic red shirts, demanded the resignation of Vejjajiva. 91 people died in the violent clashes that ensued.
During the outbreak of political violence in Bangkok in 2010, there was a perceptible drop in violence in the south related to the Muslim insurgency. In March 2010, the numbers of insurgency-related attacks begin to drop to 24 that month. In April, there were 16 incidents, while May, only three—a significant decrease from the average of 25. Once the circumstances in Bangkok began to calm that June, the violence in the south returned to averaging about 25 incidents per month with no dramatic outliers (besides one uptick in October 2011) until 2012.
In May 2012, Bangkok began to stir again as thousands of “red shirts” rallied to commemorate the 2010 protests. Their opposition, the People’s Alliance for Democracy (PAD), known for donning yellow shirts in support of the monarchy and the military, also began to protest—calling attention to a growing rift between the people, the government, and then Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra. There was widespread discontent with the strict lese-majeste law that protects Bangkok’s ruling elite among the red shirts. The yellow shirts were staunchly against a planned national reconciliation bill, as they believed the bill would allow Thaksin Shinawatra back into the country from a four-year self-imposed exile. In June, yellow-shirted PAD members blockaded parliament and began to intensify their protests in opposition to government policies and their red shirt rivals (BBC, 2014). While resistance against the Prime Minister and her policies intensified throughout the fall months in Bangkok, Thailand’s south again grew relatively calmer—from May to December 2012, Muslim insurgent violence averaged less than 20 incidents per month, down from 25.
The frequency of Muslim insurgent activity would dip once again during 2014, coinciding with heightened protests against the Yingluck administration. March recorded only 11 incidents, followed by 9, 15 and 14 in April, May and June respectively. From September 2014 into 2015, the average of Muslim insurgent attacks remained less than 11 per month, following a May 2014 coup when the Thai Army seized power from Shinawatra.
When viewed holistically over the past six years and compared alongside instability in Bangkok, the trend in the rise and fall of Southern Muslim insurgency reflects that the conflict is political, not solely religious, and is tied up within the context of Thailand’s larger political landscape. For years, however, the Thai government has struggled to explain the political element to the insurgency, and often blames the situation only on personal/ religious conflicts or criminal activity (Tony Blair Faith Foundation, 2014). This is because, unlike groups operating in other areas of the world, the Muslim separatist groups in Thailand are not vocal about their motives or practices; they rarely, if ever, claim responsibility for their attacks. They have no stated political allegiances. One possible explanation for this trend could be the fluctuation in media coverage during political turmoil in Bangkok. During these periods of crisis, the media could be shifting its attention to the capitol and reporting less vigilantly on events occurring in the south—skewing the numbers of attacks actually taking place.
Although the recent numbers indicate a potential decrease in the frequency of insurgent attacks in the south, the 11-year history of the situation serves as a warning that this may only be a trough in the wave that could easily crest again during political shifts in Bangkok. The political significance of Thailand’s southern unrest and its correlation to changes in broader state policy are worthy of analysis (Deep South Watch, 2011). The enduring restlessness of Thailand’s politics as well as the inability of those in power to produce and/or show a committed interest in a cohesive plan of action in fighting the southern insurgency could also contribute to the fluctuations in the region’s violence. According to Human Rights Watch, the Thai government has done little to establish a credible and effective mechanism to investigate the problems that have generated discord among the southern population (2015), such as corruption and abuse against Malay Muslims. The problem of insurgency has remained of little concern to Bangkok because it has not significantly impacted the government’s power and it has not been widely published in foreign media. The conflict remains largely free from international censure. Over the years, peace talks between the Thai government and separatist groups have failed repeatedly due to lingering divides between insurgent factions as well as Bangkok’s lack of commitment. But in August 2015, the military-run Thai government along with the Malaysian government entered into its third round of closed-door peace talks with separatist groups in Kuala Lumpur. These 2015 talks were made possible by more systematic efforts by Thailand’s leaders and the formation of Mara Patani—an umbrella organization for several of Thailand’s separatist groups: Barisan Revolusi Nasional (BRN), Gerakan Mujahideen Islam Patani (GIMP), Barisan Islam Pembebasan Patani, and three factions of Patani Liberation Organisation (PLO) (Channel NewsAsia, 2015). Mara Patani’s goal remains sovereignty and the right of self-determination, despite Thailand’s previous refusal to grant this regional autonomy. Although nothing concrete emerged from the closed-door talks, public talks will continue in 2016, after Mara Patani has had time to look over a three-point proposal issued by the Thai government in November (Bangkok Post, 2015).
Changes in the Characteristics of Southern Violence:
Decrease in Civilian Deaths
Most casualties resulting from the insurgency have been civilians (Human Rights Watch, 2015). While civilian deaths attributed to attacks by Southern Muslim Separatists are still frequent in Thailand, ACLED data concludes that incidents of violence against civilians has decreased notably since 2013. From 2010-2013, events classified as violence against civilians ranged from around 70 to 100 annually, while only 28 events were reported in 2014 and 25 in 2015. In the past two years, civilian deaths have been occurring more frequently as collateral damage from attacks aimed at military, police and local leaders, and less because the civilians were the outright targets themselves.
This decrease in attacks targeting civilians could indicate a change in the insurgent groups’ tactics to minimize loss of life while still drawing attention to themselves and exhibiting their military prowess. This is firmly in line with the increased use of roadside bombs in rural areas rather than urban spaces where casualty rates would be much higher. Additionally, in 2015 there were 12 attacks on local infrastructure such as power poles and electronic transformers, in some cases causing mass blackouts (Bangkok Post, 2015). The objective of these attacks is also not to inflict mass casualties, but rather to create an inconvenient spectacle and show a willingness to innovate with their attacks and instigate chaos.
Buddhists and Teachers as Targets
Southern Muslim Separatists in Thailand remain deliberate and discriminate in their choice of targets, selecting targets that they perceive as symbols of their political struggle. Most frequently, the insurgents choose victims that are icons of the Thai state such as local government officials and village headmen, or kanman. Malay Muslim insurgent groups operating in Thailand’s south also perceive civilians affiliated with the educational system as representatives of state oppression due to the schools’ direct ties to the national government (Human Rights Watch, 2010) and frequently launch attacks near schools and on students and teachers.
As a result of this trend, the Thai government ordered government security forces to be stationed at many schools to provide protection(Human Rights Watch, 2010). These police and military officials in turn have become targets in their own right and attacks against these patrols have escalated over the past five years. In 2015, ACLED recorded 14 attacks on school-related targets, slightly higher than the average of 10 per year since 2010. This tactic has been used to spread terror among students and teachers and is highly disruptive to the quality of education in the southern provinces, as is the presence of armed government forces on school properties.
Buddhists are also repeated targets, as separatists see Buddhists’ presence in the southern provinces as a mark of the infiltration of Buddhist Thai culture. Separatists have declared that Buddhists should not live in these provinces (Human Rights Watch, 2007), and continue to target Buddhist civilians explicitly on the basis of their ethnicity. There have been on average five attacks on Buddhist targets in Pattani, Yala, and Narathiwat each year since 2010. During the Songkran holiday in April 2015, there was a series of attacks against Buddhist civilians following intelligence reports that the separatists would launch attacks on Buddhists during the holiday (Bangkok Post, 2015). Eight deaths were reported in one incident during the holiday.
Scant Coverage of the Southern Conflict
Over the past five years, there has also been a grave under-reporting of this still active insurgency. According to Peace Direct, “the conflict in Thailand’s southern border provinces is one of the world’s least known” (2015), based on a lack of consistent and thorough reporting both within domestic and foreign media. Thailand’s faltering political system, however, has captured the media’s attention, thanks to years of military and parliamentary interventions, ever-emerging corruption and the deepening of political divides. While Bangkok’s instability is certainly newsworthy, the statistics over this six year period point to a situation that continues to smolder in the south. Analysts at the International Business Times agree that while Thai media focuses on the problems in Bangkok and global media cover crises elsewhere in the world, “a silent war continues to rage in the remote southern regions of Thailand” (2014).
From 2010 to 2015, there were a total of 502 violent events and 26 fatalities reported in Bangkok stemming from political tensions. During the same five years, the southern border provinces of Yala, Pattani, Songkhla and Narathiwat, experienced 466 instances of remote violence alone, in addition to 277 incidents of violence against civilians, 272 battles between government forces and militant groups, and 29 instances of non-violent but chaos-inducing attacks. This totals 1044 violent events with 812 fatalities. These numbers captured by ACLED’s open source collection suggests a more active insurgency. 1044 events were reported, though consistent concerns of poor media coverage in the south reveal perhaps an even more significant problem. Of the nine countries ACLED covers in the Asian sub-continent, Thailand’s level of political violence ranks fourth behind India, Pakistan and Bangladesh—countries with populations that more than double that of Thailand. The Global Terrorism Index 2015, released by Sydney-based Institute for Economics and Peace, ranked Thailand as tenth after analyzing patterns in terrorism and measuring its impact in over 162 countries (2015). Thailand’s ranking remains unchanged from 2014, a year in which it saw a 16 percent increase from 2013, signalling a need for not only more international coverage and awareness of Thailand’s insurgency, but also a serious commitment from the Thai government to ending it.
Since Thailand’s military junta took power, it has vowed to end the insurgency and has taken steps to boost coordination between security forces, establish a network of checkpoints, and initiate a drive to collect fingerprints and DNA in hopes of making insurgent operation more difficult. But analysts agree that any success will need to involved a dedicated and consistent commitment from the government that involves addressing local grievances to avoid further alienation and increase trust in the region. The problem has been the inability to achieve lasting trust between the Thai government and insurgent groups over time—which can be attributed to frequent political shifts and changes of power in Bangkok.
Though Thailand’s Southern Muslim Insurgency remains largely confined to its southernmost provinces, the atmosphere of pervasive chaos paired with the inability (or lack of desire) of the Thai government to contain the violence suggests other violent actors could take advantage of the lack of government control and base their operations out of the south. While currently there are few fears about external extremist groups operating out of Thailand, the southern region should be carefully watched to avoid creating an environment fertile for the growth of foreign extremist groups.
This report was originally featured in the February ACLED-Asia Conflict Trends Report the fourth report in our series. The analysis is based on ACLED real-time and historical data on political violence and protests from ten countries in South and Southeast Asia. Monthly data updates are published through our research partners at Complex Emergencies and Political Stability in Asia (CEPSA) and are also available on the ACLED website.
Authors: Claire Cella and Anna Waterfield
Anna Waterfield
Asia Researcher
Tagged on: Thailand
Anna Waterfield 03/03/2016 28/12/2017 Analysis, Asia, Islamist Violence, Political Stability, Remote Violence, Rioting And Protests, Violence Against Civilians
← Peace in Myanmar?
Update — Burundi Local Data on Recent Unrest (26 Apr 2015 – 27 February 2016) →
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0022.json.gz/line1122
|
__label__wiki
| 0.621038
| 0.621038
|
How Are Terrorists Using the Internet to Spread Their Message of Hate? Part 2
By Robert Kaye
Photo Credit: frazar.net
Ah, yes, our World Wide Web. Where would most of us be without it these days? For many of us, it’s difficult to imagine a life without the interconnectivity and instant interaction of the Internet. The Internet is a powerful tool that most would agree is now an indispensable part of everyday life. But this powerful tool is a double-edged sword. Benevolence and crime live side-by-side in the spaces of the World Wide Web. It provides power to those who are good and those who are evil. And a new evil has reared its ugly head: Internet Terrorism.
Since its origins and rapid-fire growth starting in the early 1990s, the Internet was heralded as a conduit for an emerging “global village” where businesses, governments and private citizens could interact with each other the world over. However, what most people think of as "the Internet" are just the sites listed in the commercial search engine directories. The Darknet (a.k.a., Deep Web) makes up the other 98% of the Internet. (I’ll discuss more about this in a subsequent article in this series).
Photo Credit: leblogalupus.com
Over time, the exponential growth of the World Wide Web has ushered in not only the promise of an interactive medium, but also a sinister place where criminals ― and yes, terrorists ― do their business and communications. These are the same terrorist groups you hear and read about in the news. While they may have different political and/or religious agendas, these malevolent groups are similar in their desire and ability to use the Internet to distribute their propaganda, interact with supporters, raise operating capital, create awareness of and sympathy for their raison d’être (reason to live), and even to launch operations. Some of this is done on “the normal” Internet, a lot of it is done on the Darknet.
In our first segment, you may recall I spoke about the continual threat to the U.S., the West and Israel from militant Islamic terrorists. I identified some of the major jihadist groups operating today (the U.S. State Dept. says there are nearly 60 terrorist organizations across the world). I pointed out some of their major state sponsors and also discussed how some of them are funded, including theft and usury. (See Part 1 of our previous blog, “How Are Terrorist Using the Internet to Spread Their Message of Hate?”) Along with this segment, subsequent articles will also delve more closely into the specific ways and means that terrorists use the Internet.
Cyber Jihad
Over the past decade, nearly all active terrorist groups have established their presence on the Internet and are using it in a multitude of ways. In addition to setting up their own dedicated websites, they also use chat rooms, bulletin boards, blogs, forums, video sites, discussion groups and more. Why use the Internet? Because it’s an easy, affordable method for disseminating information (and misinformation, when it suits them) across the world instantly. And ― surprisingly ― a lot of it goes relatively unchecked.
Photo Credit: dailymail.co.uk
Case in point: Earlier this week, three young women from Denver, Colorado were arrested in Germany as they were trying to fly to Syria to join ISIS. Also, a chilling video recently emerged featuring an Australian who had traveled to Syria to join ISIS. How were these four young people recruited? The Internet. "ISIS constantly cranks the PR machine, making expert use of slick videos and social media,” CNN states in its coverage of these recent headlines. “ISIS' global digital reach has terror experts in the United States worried about security at home as well.”
Affirms Gabriel Weimann PhD, former senior fellow at the United States Institute of Peace in the introduction to his report entitled “www.terror.net ― How Modern Terrorism Uses the Internet.”:“Today, terrorist organizations and their supporters maintain hundreds of websites, exploiting the unregulated, anonymous, and easily accessible nature of the Internet to target an array of messages to a variety of audiences.”
Dr. Weimann says Internet-based terrorism is “a very dynamic phenomenon.” Websites can appear suddenly, then alter their formats, then only to disappear just as rapidly. In some instances, they change their URL or encrypt it, but still promulgate the same hate-filled content and messages. He points out the terrorist websites are focused on three main audiences: current and potential supporters, swaying international public opinion, and enemy publics.
Photo Credit: sitelintelgroup.com
According to Weimann, “By its very nature, the Internet is in many ways an ideal arena for activity by terrorist organizations.” The Internet offers them:
Little or no regulation, censorship, or other forms of governmental control
Potentially huge audiences worldwide
Anonymity of communication
Rapid flow of information
Inexpensive development and maintenance of an Internet/web presence
A multimedia environment (with the ability to combine text, graphics, audio and video and allowing users to download films, songs, books, posters, etc.)
The ability to manipulate news coverage in the traditional mass media, which increasingly uses the Internet as a source for stories
The ability to engage in untraceable business transactions and money transfers to help perpetuate their terrorist infrastructure.
Photo Credit: news.asiantown.net
Dr. Weimann also authored the book, “Terror on the Internet.” In a review of that book for the “New YorkTimes’ Sunday Book Review,” author Robert F. Worth wrote, “Weimann argues that jihadist groups see the Internet not only as a way to reach followers and recruits, but as a broader link with mainstream Arab and Muslim populations. In one sickening example, he describes a Hamas Web Site that is aimed at children, with cartoon-style graphics, songs and stories.” Welcome to the era of instant inter-generational e-Hate, Ladies and Gentlemen.
Websites created and managed by terrorist groups are set up for different reasons and may include their organizational history and hierarchy; key biographies; speeches; blogs; express their ideological, political or military aims; issue field reports, maps and news. The fact the Internet has now become a media-rich environment also means terror groups can post sometimes graphic photographs and videos of their conquests and celebrated “achievements,” such as the torture of U.S. soldiers and the recent beheading of U.S. and U.K. journalists. Certain sites glorify different types of violence, however other groups may use that as propaganda tool against a rival organization or a foreign power, against which it’s fighting. Some sites even include gift shops, where one can buy paraphernalia and by doing so, support the terrorist groups monetarily.
Photo Credit: rsaconference.com/writable/presentations/file_upload/ht-308_danchev.pdf
Al-Qaida Hasn’t Been Defeated
Photo Credit: gaulitics.com
Just this past August, Al-Qaida members were using online chat rooms and encrypted Internet
message boards for planning attacks. Experts took the chatter seriously enough to close down nearly 20 embassies across Africa and Middle East for over a week. The Associated Press reported: “The unspecified call to arms by the al-Qaida leaders, using a multi-layered subterfuge to pass messages from couriers to tech-savvy underlings to attackers, provoked a quick reaction by the U.S. to protect Americans in far-flung corners of the world where the terror network is evolving into regional hubs.
“For years, extremists have used online forums to share information and drum up support, and over the past decade they have developed systems that blend encryption programs with anonymity software to hide their tracks. Jihadist technology may now be so sophisticated and secretive, experts say, that many communications avoid detection by National Security Agency programs that were specifically designed to uncover terror plots.”
Photo Credit: theguardian.com
While many terrorists do use the Internet, some of Al-Qaida’s (and other groups’) top leaders stay off the grid so they can’t be found. By doing so, some of its most-wanted ring leaders, like bin Laden-replacement, Ayman al-Zawahri, his chief lieutenant, Nasser al-Wahishi, and other senior Al-Qaida leaders stay hidden. In Yemen, other senior Al-Qaida leaders such as Qassim al-Rimi and top bomb-maker, Ibrahim Al-Asiri have managed to survive in hiding for years. In fact, the CIA was so exasperated over its attempts to locate and eliminate these senior terrorists, the agency had contemplated assassinating the couriers that were passing messages among them. Often times these leaders create encrypted messages, which are then downloaded to thumb drives or CDs, and these get handed off to couriers who then spread the messages using secure websites.
“Earlier this year,” the article continues, “an al-Qaida-linked extremist propaganda organization known as the Global Islamic Media Front released an encrypted instant-messaging system known as ‘Asrar al-Dardashah,’ or ‘Secrets of the Chat.’ It was a texting version of the organization's end-to-end encryption program that followers had been using for years. End-to-end encryption means messages are put into code so that only senders and receivers can access the content with secure ‘keys.’
“After the NSA programs were revealed in June, jihadi websites began urging followers to also use software that would hide their Internet protocol addresses and, essentially, prevent them from being tracked online. That aimed to add another layer of security to the online traffic.”
Surprisingly, encryption technology, which was once regulated and overseen by the U.S. for national security reasons, is today a free-running industry and has been available to the general public since the 1990s. (Say what?!)
Knowledge Base of Operations
Photo Credit: boomuck.net
The Internet is also teeming with information that can be taken advantage of and used by terrorists. Think about it: Readily available online are maps, satellite photographs (i.e., Google Earth), blueprints and key information about transportation routes, power and communication grids and infrastructures, pipeline systems, and dams and water supplies. Also online are explosive device instructions, information about biological weapons, and even more. After 9/11, the U.S. and other international governments were in haste to reclassify and delete key information that had previously been easily accessible online. According to an Associated Press report, the U.S. government made over one million documents go “404 Page Not Found.” However, since some of this critical information had already been archived in a variety of ways, those who had the intent and wherewithal to uncover it could do so with relative ease ― and, even more disconcerting, may already have. Furthermore, once these types of documents, diagrams and information are downloaded, the Internet serves as an ideal environment for sharing such key data among operatives and like-minded groups that are in collusion with one another.
A subsequent article in this series will look into detail about what steps governments, agencies and the military are doing to stop the proliferation of jihadi websites and terrorists’ Internet use in general. However, in the meantime, what can you and I do? Several things:
Photo Credit: pamgeller.com
Be Vigilant – If you come across a suspicious site, or are spammed by one, report it.
Know Who to Contact – The FBI and the CIA both have online contact forms and phone numbers.
Hold Politicians Responsible – Ensure your elected officials are doing all they can to stop terrorism, both online and “on the ground.”
Educate Yourself – For example, in researching material for this series, I had no idea that terrorists’ use of the Internet was so widespread; nor did I know about the Darknet or its size.
Share This Series – Forward it to your family, friends and colleagues.
The Internet has become a mega-sized megahorn for terrorist organizations. It’s no wonder “IT” can now beconstrued to stand for Internet Terrorism.
In this second segment, I began to explore in detail why and how the Internet has become such a key tool and medium of choice in the arsenal of jihadist terror organizations. I also discussed some of the ways in which terrorists have been effectively using it for over a decade. Subsequent segments will continue to investigate this proliferating practice among jihadist terrorist groups. If you found this article interesting, please share and forward. If you’d like to leave a comment or question, please do so in the Comments section below.
If you'd like a free copy of our eBook, "Internet Marketing Tips for the 21st Century," please fill in the form below and we'll email it to you. Your information is always kept private and is never sold.
Robert Kaye is an internationally published, multi-award-winning writer and editor. To date, he’s been published over 450 times in numerous print and electronic media (Internet, TV, radio, and podcasts) covering a wide variety of subjects. He currently serves as the Associate Producer for Working the Web to Win.
FBI: October Is National Cyber Security Awareness Month
Cyber security expert warns West needs virtual war on Islamic State terrorism
New SGL White Paper on War, Terrorism and Hacktivism Under Cyber Insurance Policies.
Israel Launches National Cyber-Defense Authority
[Interview] Nacho Vigalondo (Open Windows)
ISIS plans sophisticated hacking army to carry out Cyber Jihad against West
ISIS Cyber Ops: Empty Threat or Reality?
Gen. Martin Dempsey Cites Importance of Countering Cyber Jihad
Jihad Recruiters Switch to Mosques as Cyber Crackdown Intensifies
America's pre-cyber 9/11 moment: What U.S. Cyber Security establishment can learn from global cyber attacks on Israel
Labels: Al-Qaida, Cyber Jihad, cyber terrorism, fundmentalist Islam, Gabriel Weimann, Internet terror, Internet terrorism, IS, Islamic militants, Islamic terrorism, social media terrorist, social terrorism, terrorism
Rick Fromme October 31, 2014 at 10:50 AM
The information in this article (and series) is straight from today's headlines. Relevant, timely, important, and eye-opening. Keep up the good work! More people need to become aware of this issue.
Rick Fromme November 4, 2014 at 1:47 PM
Excellent follow-up article to the first one in this series re: Internet terrorism. The subject matter is right out of today's (often disturbing) headlines.
Go Fund Yourself!
Attack of the Botnets
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0022.json.gz/line1125
|
__label__wiki
| 0.778273
| 0.778273
|
Edited | All Content | Front Page Stories | Culture | Crime | North America | Australia/Oceania | Commentary | Commentary -- WNT Original | Commentary -- WNT Reports
Dr. Ramzy BaroudRamzy Baroud -- World News Trust
I visited the city of Christchurch on May 23, 2018, as part of a larger speaking tour in New Zealand that also took me to Auckland, Wellington, Hamilton and Dunedin.
New Zealand is an exceptional country, different from other countries that are often lumped under the generalized designation of the "western world." Almost immediately after my arrival to Auckland, New Zealand’s largest and most populous city, I was struck by the overt friendliness, hospitality and diversity.
This is not to downgrade the ongoing struggles in the country, lead among them being the campaign for land rights as championed by the Maori people, the original inhabitants of New Zealand; but, indeed, there was something refreshingly different about New Zealanders.
Just the fact that the Maori language, “Te Reo,” is one of the three official languages in the country, the others being English and Sign Language, immediately sets New Zealand apart from other colonized spaces, where indigenous peoples, cultures, languages and rights are, to various extents, inconsequential.
It is due to the empowered position of the indigenous Maori culture that New Zealand is, compared with other countries, more inclusive and more accepting of refugees and immigrants. And that is likely why New Zealand -- and Christchurch, in particular -- was chosen as a target for the terrorist attacks carried out by an Australian national on March 15.
The Australian terrorist -- whose name will not be mentioned here in honor of a call made by the Prime Minister of New Zealand, Jacinda Ardern, as not to celebrate the infamy of the senseless murderer -- wanted to send a message that immigrants, particularly Muslims, are not safe, not even in New Zealand.
But his attempt backfired. Not only is he to spend “the rest of his life in isolation in prison” -- as promised by New Zealand’s Foreign Minister, Winston Peters, who was speaking at the Organization for Islamic Cooperation (OIC) emergency conference in Turkey on March 22 -- but the horrific crime has brought New Zealanders even closer together.
There is something sorrowful, yet beautiful, about Christchurch. This small, welcoming city, located on the east coast of New Zealand’s South Island, was devastated on February 22, 2011, by a massive earthquake that killed 185 people and destroyed much of the town.
Last May, I spoke at Christchurch’s Cardboard Cathedral, an innovative structure that was built as a temporary replacement to the Anglican Cathedral that was destroyed in the earthquake.
In my talk, I commended the people for their beautiful church, and for their own resilience in the face of hardship. The diversity, openness and solidarity of the audience reflected the larger reality throughout the city, in fact, throughout the country. For me, Christchurch was not a place of tragedy, but a source of hope.
My audience, which also included members of the Muslim community, some coming from Al Noor Mosque -- the main target of the recent attack -- listened and engaged me as I argued that the genuine authentic voices of ordinary people should be placed at the core of our understanding of the past, and our hope for a better future. While the focus of my talk was the history of the Palestinian people, the message exceeded the struggle for freedom in Palestine into the struggle and rights of all indigenous groups, guided by such uplifting experiences as that of the Maori people of New Zealand itself.
I also had the chance to meet with Marama Davidson, co-leader of the Green Party, among other MPs. It was strange to be in a position where solidarity from politicians came across as genuine as that of the unconditional solidarity of ordinary activists -- once again, highlighting the uniqueness of New Zealand’s progressive politics and leadership.
Experiencing that myself, it was no surprise to see the outpouring of genuine love and support by Prime Minister Ardern and many members of her cabinet and parliament following the mosque attack. The fact that she, along with numerous women throughout the country, wore symbolic head-scarves in order to send a message to Muslims that they are not alone, while countless thousands of New Zealanders mourned the victims who perished in Al Noor and Linwood mosques, was unprecedented in the recent history of Western-Muslim relationship.
In fact, on Friday March 22, when all of New Zealand’s TV and radio stations transmitted the call for Muslim prayer, and as Muslims and non-Muslims rallied together in a massive display of human solidarity while mourning their dead, for a moment, all Muslims became New Zealanders and all New Zealanders became Muslims.
At the end of my talk, a group of Muslims from the mosque approached me with a gift, a box of dates to break my fast, as it was the month of Ramadan, the holy month of fasting and repentance for Muslims worldwide. With much gratitude, I took the box of dates and promised to visit Al Noor when I return to the country in the future.
A few months later, as I watched the horrific images on television of the terrorist attack that struck this peaceful city, I immediately thought of the Cardboard Cathedral, of the beautiful solidarity of the Maori, of the numerous embraces of so many New Zealanders, and, of the kindly Muslims and the box of dates.
I also understood why the undeserving-to-be named terrorist chose to strike Christchurch, and the underlying message he wanted to send to Muslims, immigrants, New Zealanders and all of those who champion peaceful co-existence and tolerance worldwide.
But he failed. In fact, all other foot soldiers of racism and hate will continue to fail because tragedy often unites us. Collective pain helps us see each other as human beings first, where our differences, however great, can never be enough to justify or even explain why 3-year-old Mucad Ibrahim had to die, along with 49 other, beautiful and innocent people.
However, one can be comforted by the Maori saying, “Ka mate te kāinga tahi, ka ora te kāinga rua” -- “when one house dies, the second lives.” It means that good things can always emerge from misfortune.
It will take much time for Christchurch, and the whole of New Zealand, to heal from this terrible misfortune. But the strength, will and courage of so many communities should be enough to turn a horrific terrorist act into an opportunity to heal our collective wounds, not just in New Zealand, but the world over.
– Ramzy Baroud is a journalist, author and editor of Palestine Chronicle. His forthcoming book is ‘The Last Earth: A Palestinian Story’ (Pluto Press, London). Baroud has a Ph.D. in Palestine Studies from the University of Exeter (2015) and was a Non-Resident Scholar at Orfalea Center for Global and International Studies, University of California Santa Barbara. His website is www.ramzybaroud.net.
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0022.json.gz/line1126
|
__label__wiki
| 0.611636
| 0.611636
|
Schooled and Ruled
Posted: September 28, 2014 | Author: tcrumrin | Filed under: Uncategorized | 3 Comments
This entry is inspired by and dedicated to my friends at the Educational Heritage Association. This small but hardy group maintains a museum and archive at Sugar Creek Elementary School (Consolidated) west of West Terre Haute and is dedicated to preserving the educational heritage of Vigo County schools.
While Sandy and Pat were showing me around it brought to mind that I had real connections to three of the schools. Well, four if you count my day and a half attending St. Leonard’s Catholic School. My matriculations there was cut short by my antipathy to rising early to attend mass, which required kneeling my scab-ravaged knees on the hard kneeler, and long heard terror stories about the nuns gleefully recounted by my uncles. At any rate, shortly before noon on the second day I absconded from St. Leonard’s and walked the ten blocks back to Grandma’s house. My parochial education was at an end.
Modern public school education in Indiana did not begin in earnest until after the Civil War. Though the state’s new constitution of 1851 had provisions for a system of public education there was little money allotted or real effort made to systemize schooling until the 1860s. Then it was left to individual townships or towns to use tax funds to set up schools in their district. This led to the heavily mythologized one-room school houses. As populations grew more and bigger schools were needed, but for much of the rest of the 19th-century one-room schools, housing scholars from first to eighth grade, predominated in much of the United States.
A small one room school met West Terre Haute’s needs until the 1890s. But as the population grew from the mining boom the need for a larger school grew with it. By the fall of 1900 a third and fourth rooms were added to the little school on the north end of town. That was not enough though. A new school (dubbed naturally, south school, or school number 2) consisting of a two story, four room building was erected at 6th and Lee. As the population of West Terre Haute continued to rise due to the mine and clay plants, yet another was needed by the 1920s. That school, located at 4th & Lee was the Central School. And that is where I began my formal education.
It was a two-story building with a gravel and paved playground when I timidly ventured through its doors as a first-grader in September, 1959. It was about five blocks from Grandma and Grampa’s and I was allowed to walk alone to and from the school after the first week or so (such were the innocent days). My teacher was Miss Dumas, a kindly woman whose house was just a few doors down Riggy Avenue from our house. I remember the cloak room, where habiliments were shed and hung on hooks and those in need of a good talking to or a well-placed whack were taken out of our sight, but not our hearing.
It was Miss Dumas who first confirmed that my eyesight was not just poor, but terrible. She told my grandparents that no matter how close to the blackboard she seated me I had trouble making out the words. This led to my mother taking me to a doctor who diagnosed the Marfans Syndrome that caused my lenses to be askew an all but worthless. This, in turn, led to my brother and I having eye surgery the following summer and three uncomfortable days of lying with our heads between sandbags to keep our heads still in the pediatric ward at Union Hospital.
I have three dominant memories of Central School. One was walking down the stairs at recess with a classmate who noted that my first name was the same as the boy from the Lassie TV show. Yes, I admitted, but my name was Tim while his was Timmy. To my chagrin, Timmy became the name most used by my peers.
The other, sadder, memory also involved recess. I think I have recounted this somewhere in one of my blogs, but an incident occurred that filled me with a seeping terror for several days. While playing crack-the-whip one day I was the next to last person in the chain. As we twirled I lost my grip pn the boy on the end of the chain. He flew away and slid under a teacher’s car, causing a riot of blood and shrieks. Soon word reached me that his older brothers believed I had let him slip free on purpose and vowed revenge. I do not know if I finally confessed my fear to my grandparents or if Miss Dumas told them what had happened. But for a few days, Gramps decided he needed to walk me to and back from school. Just to make sure no mayhem ensued.
A happier memory is the Easter Parade. It was the custom of the school to march us on an Easter parade along National Avenue. I distinctly remember marching past the Dodge Drugstore. Now, we were all supposed to wear some sort of Easter headgear. On the girls they were called bonnets. On us recalcitrant boys I am not sure what they told us they were. I bestrode National Avenue in a bonnet(?), hat(“) made by Grandma. I am not sure how I felt at the time while wearing a chapeau made from orange and blue plastic doilies and artificial flowers that she crafted. Perhaps, I enjoyed it. God knows I was noticed as I was already over five feet tall in first grade. But I know Grandma made it with love for me. Perhaps that is why I am known as a lover of hats til this day, with my collection of bowlers, fedoras and caps.
Over the summer between first and second grade my family moved from Terre Haute to Larimer Hill west of town. It was decided that if I were to remain living with my grandparents that maybe I should follow my uncles to St. Leonard’s. Well, we know how that turned out.
Instead I moved back fulltime with my family and was enrolled at Consolidated School, just off the National Road west of town. School consolidation was a feature of education beginning in the 1920s. As populations grew and the old one or two room school houses became overcrowded there was a move to “consolidate” schools within a district. The purpose was two-fold. One was financial. Ultimately it would be cheaper to staff and maintain one school instead of many (a 19th-century school manual recommended at least nine schools in each township). It was also felt that by retaining only the best teachers, the students would benefit.
Consolidation of the rural districts of Sugar Creek Township began with the opening of Concannon School (named after township trustee Thos. Conacannon) in 1918. This took care of the schools in the northern part of Sugar creek. Then they looked south and noted that the southern part of the township. There were still five aging one-room schools in that section. They were eventually consolidated as the Consolidated School in a new, modern building opened in 1922. Later, pupils from Toad Hop were added to the rolls. It was not as diverse a population as Concannon (where 11 nationalities mingled), because the student body was mainly formed form old farm families, instead of immigrants children whose fathers worked the mines and clay plants.
So, in the fall of 1960 I began my three-year tenure at Consolidated. I remember them as happy years. I made friends. Two of them were the Moss brothers, Lloyd and Dusty. They were, in effect early Civil War re-enactors, who had us sporting blue or gray caps and recreating battles on the playground. Two of my most vivid memories took place in the gym, was added later.
One was standing next to my mother as she cast her vote there in the 1960 election. Being Democrat and Catholic, our family were staunch Kennedy supporters who knew, despite what many said, that Kennedy would be his own man, not a puppet of popery. And it was in the gym that I partook of a miracle drug. This was the era of the polio scare. I had seen TV shows of people, mainly kids my age, in iron lung machines. The disease terrified many of us kids as much as it did our parents. I had nightmares of being strapped in one of those machines, unable to move my arms (one of the reason open-sided MRI machines were a boon to me.). But in that gym I stood in line to take that sugar cube filled with vaccine. As it melted on my tongue so did many fears.
The classrooms saw me excel until long division was taught and I received anything other than an “A,” starting my lifelong fight with higher math. It was in Mrs. Porter’s second grade class that I was disciplined for the only time. One day, out of nowhere came a whack on my shoulder (inflicted with some great force) from a wooden ruler. Now there were other times I might have deserved it, but in this incident I was as blameless as a saint. It was the two boys behind me. But Mrs. Porter was deaf to my pleas of defense. It still stings.
High school was not an option for most during the early years of the twentieth century. All that most aspired to was getting their Common School Diploma (see below). This, in essence, was an 8th grade diploma. That was all that most aspired to. During the first 15 years of the century going on to high school was not a common event in towns like West Terre Haute. The percentages of those attending high school were small and likely roughly analogous to those attending college before WWII.
Before 1908 anyone from West Terre Haute who wanted to venture on from common school were forced to go to Terre Haute, which had two high schools, Wiley and the “lab school” at Indiana State. It appears that a fledgling high school began in West Terre Haute in 1906, but it was the building erected at Church and Johnson Streets in 1908 that saw a “real” high school come to the town. West Terre Haute High School (then and forever known as Valley High) opened with only 25 students. It was officially accredited by the state in 1911.
My connections to Valley are tangential, but strong. I first heard of it from my grandmother, who started there in 1914. Her favorite teacher was Miss Piepenbrink who taught German. West Terre Haute was not immune to the anti-German hysteria that swept the nation during WWI. Sauerkraut was renamed “Liberty Cabbage” and towns with the word “German” quickly changed their name. At Indiana State Normal an honored and accomplished professor, Dr. John Schlicher was fired for merely pointing out that not all Germans were bad (if you search the Indiana Magazine of History for 1991 you will find my article on the event). So, due to the outcry, they stopped teaching German at Valley and Miss Piepenbrink moved on. My grandmother still lamented that seven decades later.
As a side note, I always imagined Miss Piepenbrink to be spinster looking old lady school teacher. But as you will note in her photo, she looked like a stunning young woman.
That was not the only controversy in the young school’s life. In 1913 thirty students went on strike. It seems that the senior class had the unmitigated gall to place their pennant above that of the junior class’ pennant in the assembly room. This audacious act caused juniors Josephine All and Donald Phillips to storm the bastion and rip down the senior’s flag. This resulted in their suspension.
Outraged, thirty members of the class walked out of school and proceeded to pick up Miss All and take her to the movies. The hapless sophomores, upon hearing of the strike, attempted to escape the confines of the school and join their brethren by lamming out of school. Alas, they were caught and returned to their academic confinement. When the superintendent explained the suspension to concerned parents, the strike ended as “The strike movement seemed to find little sympathy among the parents of the strikers.”
My uncles and aunts went to Valley. Two of them, my uncles Wayne and Jim were noted athletes. My first connection with Valley was with the basketball team. Though I confess to not remembering it as I was only three or four, I am told that when some of my uncle’s basketball teammates would pick him up to go to play, they would shake my hand for good luck. Not sure how often it worked.
My uncle, Jim Chrisman, is 2nd from left in back row
I made my appearance at Valley during its last year. As part of a 1960 Christmas program held in the gym, the Central School first graders were formed into a bell ringing choir performing, I believe, Jingle Bells. I remember rehearsing several times. Unfortunately, though I love music, I have absolutely no talent at performing it. Because of my poor vision (the music teacher, a woman named Inza Owens would point to the color that designated when I and my cohorts were sjake our bells) and my lack of rhythm I fear I was seldom “on the beat.’ Three months later Valley High shut its doors. I am comforted by the knowledge that it was because of the already sanctioned further consolidation with Concannon High resulted in the opening of West Vigo High School that it closed, not due to the lack of bell-ringing acumen on my part.
WTH 2016 Project, Part Two
Paris Avenue was lined with stores, houses and saloons through much of its day. As I have mentioned before it was once the most important street in West Terre Haute. Like the town it was once vibrant but now its decay reflects what happened to the town over the last five decades.
Saloons have always been a part of West Terre Haute. Indeed, the first building erected there in 1837 was a saloon/store catering to the workers building the National Road. I can not recall a time when there was not a bar on this corner of 3rd (Market) St, and Paris Avenue.
The storefront immediately to the right of the tavern once housed Ernie Lane’s barber shop. I went to Ernie for my (increasingly infrequent) haircuts during my junior high and high school years. Ernie open this shop upon being released from prison after serving a short term fo, I believe, was some sort of financial crime.
I especially remember three of my visits to his red leather barber’s chair. One was the time that Ernie convinced me that I would feel much better in the hot summer if he gave me a “butch” cut. His powers of persuasion overcame my usually strong will and I acquiesced, immediately regretting the decision as the clipper burrowed onto my scalp. I regretted it even more when I walked back into the house on McIlroy Avenue. My mother practically shrieked at my scalping. Her disappointment was even keener than mine at shearing Ernie gave me.
Like most barbers of that time Ernie was fluent in talking politics, crops and sports. He was never bereft of opinions. I remember his outrage at Cassius Clay for adopting his Muslim name of Muhammed Ali and proclaiming he had no quarrel with “them Viet Cong.” His reaction was succinct but strong. “they ought to draft that nigger, send him straight to Viet Nam and lead a squad. That way he could be shot in the back by our own troops like he deserves.
The best day I ever had at Ernie’s was that November 1968 Saturday when IU beat Purdue which meant John Pont’s team would be going to the Rose Bowl. I had not wanted to get a haircut that day, instead wanting to stay home and listen to the game. But because some event was coming up (school picture time, maybe) Mom insisted I go see Ernie. At halftime I fairly sprinted to Paris Avenue hoping to get it over with. Of course there were at least three others ahead of me with staked claims to Ernie’s chair. But it actually turned into a wonderful communal experience as the five of us listened to the game. The other customers stayed behind after their cuts (as did I) to share the experience.
Houses also once crowded Paris Avenue. Frankly I am always surprised that more than a few still stand, some after more than a century.
Two buildings that have memories for me. The white building was once, I think, Farr’s Grocery, later Mama Joy’s Restaurant. Even Terre Hauteans would venture into West Terre Haute to dine on the down home fare at Joy’s. I remember the yeast rolls were good, not up to my Grandma’s but good.
The Young Men’s Club was home to dances, men’s stag smokers (sometimes bawdy events rumored to include what we would now call vintage porn viewed through the smoky haze), club meetings, and pool parties. It was the only indoor pool in town. Readers of previous blogs will remember it as the place my Uncle Dave Chrisman saved my mother from drowning. Hence my fear of water.
And finally….
I was really surprised when I returned for a visit a few years ago to find West Terre Haute had its own strip club, opened after those dim-lit edifices like it in Terre Haute had been shut down. Checking around a bit I heard that it had quite a reputation. Many of even the most hardy Terre Haute Bawds are said to be leery of venturing across the river for their entertainment (though they desperately wish to). Perhaps that is why (in addition to worries about drunk driving) that the club offers a shuttle service on weekends. After all, this is the age of good customer service….
“Awful Crimes” Part Two
Posted: September 1, 2014 | Author: tcrumrin | Filed under: Uncategorized | 5 Comments
The looters who scavenged what little remained of George Ward had barely made off with their ghoulish souvenir before word of the lynching spread. Thanks to the telegraph and phone news of the “event” appeared in newspapers across the country. Even the New York Times reported the actions of a mob in Terre Haute. Rumor and hearsay were swift currents flooding the streets and dirt roads of Vigo County.
It was said that Ward had spent time in an insane asylum or perhaps was responsible for the earlier murder of a white man found in a Terre Haute alley. But who was George Ward, who went from being just another ignored Black man to infamy? There is very little to go on. It was said he was born in Kentucky. Estimates of his age ranged from 27 to 40. He could have been the George Ward who was born in Kentucky, but one report said he confided to a jailer that his name was really Robinson.
At some point he or his family moved to Circleville, Ohio. His Sunday School teacher there recalled that he was a good boy and she was shocked at what he had become. He came to Terre Haute around 1896. He was once a servant for the Erlich family in Seelyville. He was fired when he was found lurking under the bed of one of their young daughters. He claimed, oddly, that he was under the bed because he was looking for a drink of water.
It was likely around this time that he met Ruth Roberts. Ruth was from the free black settlement in Lost Creek Township. That settlement, along with the more famous Roberts Settlement in Hamilton County, Indiana, was the result of Quaker-aided outmigration of free blacks from North Carolina. Ruth (she may have been the sweetheart that others later noted George had been abusive to after church services) had married George in 1897 or 1898. At the time of the lynching the couple had a three year-old son and infant daughter. The 1900 city directory listed them as living at 1610 Spruce Street and George as a laborer at railroad car works in Terre Haute.
George had never had any serious trouble with the police, outside of minor larceny charge. Some said he was a petty thief. A storekeeper where Ward traded said they kept an eye on him when he was in the store and always made him pay for purchases. Co-workers at the car shop viewed him as good –natured, but things were wont to disappear when he was around. They also noted he was “a fool for women” and was always talking about them. She reported that he seemed quite normal the night after the murder. He ate a hearty supper and went to bed. It was not until the next day that she heard of the arrest. She avowed that he had never been in an insane asylum.
The lynching occupied the news for weeks afterwards. One newspaper reported that Ruth Ward was going to auction of her husband’s hunting suit and shotgun. Another noted that some of the items would be displayed at a local store. These reports were later denied, but others sought to profit from the tragedy. One young boy was said to be selling Ward’s toes he had scavenged from the scene. The going price was $1.00 per toe. James Huffman, a railroad conductor and a spectator at the lynching, proudly showed a piece of the rope as proof he was there. This too might be for sale.
Outrage against Ward mingled with sympathy for Ida Finkelstein and her family. Ida’s mother who lived in Chicago, prostrate with grief had taken refuge with her brother Meyer Levin. It was noted that Ida’s death left the family destitute. Benefits for the family were held in Lafayette and Terre Haute. Citizens contributed to the fund. Within weeks over $500.00 dollars were raised for the family. One man offered that if every one of the 2,000-3,000 people who reportedly witnessed the lynching contributed a dollar the family would be well cared for.
Also destitute, according to her father, were Ruth Ward and her children. No benefits were staged for them.
The tragedy continued to reverberate. George Wood, a man who had witnessed the lynching, reportedly went insane from the vicious spectacle. Crazed, he turned himself in to the Vigo County jail. Warders there soon transferred him to an asylum. African Americans feared even more White retribution for Ward’s crime. It was noted that many were quietly leaving Terre Haute for Brazil, Indiana, or other safer havens. Whites also feared more trouble when word spread that Ward’s brother had arrived in Terre Haute on his own personal search for revenge.
One of the more absurd aspects of the lynching was the official dithering over what, if anything, remained of George Ward’s body. Vigo County Coroner James Willis announced that he could not as yet determine the location of Ward’s death. Was it Harrison Township, where Terre Haute was located, or Sugar Creek Township, containing West Terre Haute. The decision was an important one it seemed, because where he died would determine which township would be charged with burial costs. As there was said to be almost nothing of Ward’s body that had not been burned or looted, it seems a moot point. I found no further information about what decision was made. What may have happened was that the slim remains were buried in Terre Haute’s potter’s field, or irony of ironies, burned in the city crematorium located along the river, just yards from where the lynching took place.
And other costs? Taxpayers soon learned that the mob did over $10,000.00 damage to the jail.
And what of justice for Ward’s lynching? It was announced that the grand jury would convene on March 11th to look into the case and “to undertake to learn the names of the lynchers.” There was hope that the ringleaders would be identified and punished. After meeting, the jurors returned no indictments. Some were disgusted that the crime would go “unsolved,” but others were glad to have the ordeal at some sort of official end. Still others thought that that the fix was in. It was said that two men who were added late to the grand jury had already made public statements supporting the lynching.
Of course, reaction to the lynching was headline news. Editorials and newspaper stories from around Indiana and the nation condemned the savagery of lynching. There were calls to strengthen Indian’s anti-lynch law. An editorial in the Indianapolis Sun posited that one of the reasons the lynching occurred was that the people of Vigo County had so little faith in the county’s leaders or justice system.
The opinion of local leaders was eagerly sought by the newspapers. Most actively condemned the lynching as inhuman and a blight on the city. But as the Terre Haute Gazette printed ‘”Ifs” and ‘”buts’” were used.
But those who thought justice had been done were plentiful, and vocal. One E.W. Leeds noted that “When sure of his man Judge Lynch is a wise and just judge.” A former city councilman named Hebb was of the opinion that “the mob did right. The only mistake was killing the wretch before they burned him.” There were many who shared that opinion. Among them, curiously, was Rev. A.M. Taylor of the A. M. E. Church in Rockville, Indiana, who believed that “hell-deserving wretches” like Ward deserved their fate.
Much ink was spread over the Ward Lynching, but one that statement that catches the eye was printed the night of the lynching. The Terre Haute Gazette opined that “Terre Haute is the chief victim of the murder of the Negro murderer Ward.”
Not Ida Finkelstein, not George Ward…..
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0022.json.gz/line1127
|
__label__cc
| 0.692298
| 0.307702
|
Two Major Crashes on I-68 in Two Days ~ Please Drive Carefully
On December 21, 2014 December 23, 2014 By Jeffery RobinetteIn Uncategorized
Multi-car Accidents on I-68
When the days are short and the temperature drops below freezing, driving hazards are increased exponentially. Snow, ice, and foggy conditions make driving treacherous, often causing vehicle wrecks and injuries. When winter driving is made even more dangerous by debris on the road, the results can be fatal.
In December, a young New Jersey man was killed and several others injured in a chain-reaction accident on Friday, December 19, 2014 on interstate 68 in Preston County near the Monongalia County line close to the Coopers Rock exit. While it was originally reported that six other vehicles were involved, later reports indicated that seven vehicles were involved in the collisions. The crash occurred around 9:30 p.m. and closed both east and westbound lanes of the interstate for several hours, creating a several mile-long traffic backup.
The next day, on Saturday December 20th at about 6:30 p.m., a series of tragic collisions shut down I-68 again at mile marker 29. On I-68 Eastbound, both lanes were closed from Hazelton Exit to Friendsville Exit in Garrett County, MD, and the closure was expected to last for 3-4 hours. Two people died, one a Morgantown man, following the chain of wrecks on Interstate 68 in Garrett County near the West Virginia state line. The initial wreck was the cause of the death of the first accident victim, and the police reported that while traffic was stopped in the eastbound lanes to allow a helicopter to land at the scene, there was a chain reaction accident that claimed another life.
Our hearts and prayers go out for the crash victims, families, and friends who have been directly affected by these tragic accidents. Grief and recovery were not in their plans; the holiday season will never be the same for these families.
Drivers need to take into account that a different weather exists up on those elevated mountain passes and take precautions accordingly. The unexpected is more likely to occur, so heightened vigilance and attention to the road is required during these winter months.
For more information from Robinette Legal Group, PLLC about these collisions or multi-car collisions in general, please click here to visit our website.
WVMetronews, “Chain-reaction crash on I-68 claims one life” by Jeff Jenkins, December 20, 2014.
Topix, “Chain Reaction on I-68 claims one life, backs up traffic,” December 20, 2014.
accident on I-68I-68 collisionI-68 crashmulti-car accidentmulti-car wreck on I-68seven vehicle accidentsix car acciddent
Fracking News: Contamination of Wells may be Remedied by Replacing Casing and Cementing
Fatal Two Car Accident in Preston County WV
One thought on “Two Major Crashes on I-68 in Two Days ~ Please Drive Carefully”
nancy579
Thanks for share this article,keep move on
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0022.json.gz/line1128
|
__label__wiki
| 0.688744
| 0.688744
|
A Vaccine For Herpes Erupts in the News
Is Vical’s VCL-HB01 Genital Herpes Vaccine Ready For Big Time?
Genocea's Herpes Vaccine Update: An Interview With Chip Clark, CEO
Herpes Vaccine Update: Gen-003 Phase II Results
Herpes Vaccines: An Interview With Dr. William Halford
Herpes Vaccine GEN-003: Back in the News, But the News Isn't Great
By Josh Bloom — March 10, 2016
Good news in the world of virology.
For the first time, there is a promising vaccine to treat Herpes Simplex Virus type 2 (HSV-2), commonly known as genital herpes. HSV-2 is an infection that infects 500 million people worldwide, and 24 million in the United States, second in prevalence only to HPV among sexually transmitted viruses in the U.S. (The far more common herpes, which causes cold sores, is HSV-1.)
The vaccine, which is called GEN-003 is currently in Phase II trials (1), where it is doing rather well. More on this later.
For being such a common infection, there are big gaps in public knowledge about herpes, so here’s a quick primer:
Herpes never goes away. Rather, the virus retreats to specific nerve roots, where it can be dormant for long periods of time.
When it re-emerges, it travels up the same nerve root and causes lesions, usually in the same area as before. Stress and changes in immune function are factors in determining re-emergence, but it may occur for no apparent reason.
Sixty-five percent of people in the U.S. have antibodies to HSV-1. This means that they have been exposed, but may have never had a cold sore (or they may have and it went away). For HSV-2, that number is about 15 percent.
Other members in the herpes family include chickenpox (varicella/zoster), cytomegalovirus (CMV), and Epstein-Barr (EBV). Varicella/zoster also hibernates in nerve roots, but when it re-emerges, it does so as shingles. You will not be happy if this happens.
Both the oral and genital viruses can infect each other’s sites, but they do so differently. HSV-1 (oral herpes) causes infection of the genitals much the same as HSV-2, but HSV-2 infection in and around the mouth is relatively unusual, and mild. There is a significant "home court advantage" for HSV-2, but not HSV-1.
Having one virus does little to protect you from getting the other.
Although HSV vaccines have been extensively studied, clinical trials have consisted of one failure after another, including a large one that bombed in 2012.
There are three drugs for genital herpes that can be used chronically to suppress outbreaks, or short-term to treat them, but they have limitations. Existing antiviral drugs do affect outbreaks, but not shedding (where the virus is active and replicating, though not producing symptoms).
The GEN-003 vaccine helps control both outbreaks and shedding. Outbreaks, as measured by the number of lesions, decreased between 43 and 69 percent, (depending on dose) and viral shedding by 55 percent. Unlike every other vaccine against infectious pathogens, GEN-003 is not preventative, it is therapeutic — that is, for people who have already been infected. The researchers are also considering trials to prevent infection, but this will not happen soon.
Zeena Nawas, MD, a research fellow at the Center for Clinical Studies in Houston said, “GEN-003 is a promising vaccine. If it gets approved, it would be the first therapeutic vaccine for genital herpes or any other infectious disease.”
Since people are the most contagious during an outbreak or while shedding, the vaccine will unquestionably prevent transmission of the infection. This is especially important for pregnant mothers. Although rare, newborns who are delivered vaginally at a time when the mother is shedding virus can contract the virus and become very ill, and even die. Cesarean-sections are recommended if the mother has her first (primary) outbreak late in pregnancy.
This research is groundbreaking. The first herpes vaccine, as well as the first therapeutic vaccine for an infectious disease. Great work.
Update, 9/22/16
"Astellas, Vical herpes vaccine fails mid-stage study"
The headlines of a failed herpes vaccine are technically correct, but misleading. What failed was a clinical candidate called ASP0113. It was designed to treat cytomegalovirus (CMV), which is a member of the herpes family, but has little in common with HSV1 or HSV2
(1) In Phase II clinical trials, a drug is evaluated in a few hundred volunteers to see if it works in people. If it does so safely, the next (and final) step is Phase III, where it is tested in many more people.
By Josh Bloom
Dr. Josh Bloom, the Director of Chemical and Pharmaceutical Science, comes from the world of drug discovery, where he did research for more than 20 years. The field of drug discovery involves chemistry, biochemistry, toxicology, and pharmacology - skills that he has used to write on a wide variety of topics since he joined ACSH in 2010. One of the topics he has tackled is the so-called "opioid crisis." He is now recognized as an expert in this area and was the first journalist to write a nationally published opinion piece about the unintended consequences of a governmental crackdown on prescription pain medications (New York Post, 2013). Since that time he has published more than 20 op-eds in regional and national newspapers on different aspects of the crisis. In that same year, he testified at an FDA hearing, where he noted that fentanyl was the real danger, something that would be proven years later. At that time almost no one had heard of the drug.
He was also the first writer (2016) to study, dissect and ultimately debunk the manipulated statistics used by the CDC to justify its recommendations for opioid prescribing, which have resulted in Draconian requirements for prescribing pain medications as well as government-mandated, involuntary tapering of patients receiving opioid treatment, both of which have caused great harm and needless suffering to chronic pain patients. His 2016 article, "Six Charts Designed to Confuse You," is the seminal work on CDC deception and has been adopted by patient advocacy groups and individuals and has been sent to governors and state legislatures.
Dr. Bloom earned his Ph.D. in organic chemistry from the University of Virginia, followed by postdoctoral training at the University of Pennsylvania. His career in drug discovery research began at Lederle Laboratories, which was acquired by Wyeth in 1994, which itself was acquired by Pfizer in 2009. During this time he participated in research in a number of therapeutic areas, including diabetes and obesity, antibiotics, HIV/AIDS, hepatitis C, and oncology. His group discovered the novel antibiotic Tygacil®, which was approved by the FDA for use against resistant bacterial infections in 2005. He is the author of 25 patents, and 35 academic papers, including a chapter on new therapies for hepatitis C in Burger’s Medicinal Chemistry, Drug Discovery and Development, 7th Edition (Wiley, 2010), and has given numerous invited lectures about how the pharmaceutical industry really works.
Dr. Bloom joined the American Council on Science and Health in 2010 as ACSH’s Director of Chemical and Pharmaceutical Sciences, and has since published more than 60 op-eds in numerous periodicals, including The Wall Street Journal, Forbes, New Scientist, The New York Post, National Review Online, The Boston Herald, and The Chicago Tribune, and given numerous radio and television interview on topics related to drugs and chemicals. In 2014, Dr. Bloom was invited to become a featured writer for the site Science 2.0, where he wrote more 75 pieces on a broad range of topics.
Latest from Josh Bloom:
How Toxic Is Sumithrin (Anvil) Mosquito Spray?
Surgeon General Backpedals on Flawed Tylenol Study. Because of ACSH.
Dr. Aric Hausknecht Responds to SG Jerome Adams' Tylenol Recommendation
Chemicals With Strange And Stupid Names
Need General Surgery? Ignore The Surgeon General
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0022.json.gz/line1129
|
__label__wiki
| 0.668972
| 0.668972
|
The Industry Advances— Just Like 100 Years Ago
Those of us who are interested in technology and in advancing safe, affordable, environmentally-responsible transportation—whether this means advanced ICEs, battery electric cars, or fuel-cell electric vehicles, or, more likely, all of the above—should support new ways of doing things.
For those of you interested in technology—and that probably includes everyone who is reading this because otherwise you wouldn’t be reading this (unless, of course, you are my mom)—there is probably no better time to be in this industry. An argument could be made that things were similarly interesting some 100 years ago, when auto was taking form. One of the things occurring in those early days was a sorting out of what would become the dominant fuel for propulsion, as electricity, gasoline, and even steam were vying for market share.* The fundamental energy density of gas, obviously, won that contest.
But today things are changing once again, with vehicle manufacturers, for a variety of reasons, providing the market with alternatives to straight-up gasoline engines, and it is worth noting that gasoline engines are undergoing vast improvements and modifications, as well.
As John O’Dell, Edmunds.com green car analyst, said in the context of the L.A. Auto Show last November, where there were 18 battery electric and plug-in hybrid vehicles, “Edmunds.com expects market penetration of these vehicles to nearly triple in the next decade, to about 1.5% by 2020. It might not sound like much, but it adds up to about 250,000 cars a year and it would actually come at a faster pace than the adoption of conventional hybrids in their first decade in the market.”
Things are happening rather quickly.
One of the really exciting aspects is that hydrogen is becoming a market reality.
Back in the first decade of this century, General Motors was doing significant research on fuel cells for vehicles, activities that stalled somewhat as the company began to pour significant resources in what became the Chevy Volt and the Cadillac ELR, vehicles that GM calls “extended-range electric vehicles.” They have a plug and they have a gas inlet. GM does have a fleet of hydrogen-powered Equinoxes rolling around, but clearly its focus has shifted toward the Volt and ELR, as well as the electric Chevy Spark.
Honda has been a stalwart in the hydrogen space (and it announced a collaborative agreement with GM on fuel cell development with a focus on a system in 2020) for a number of years. In 2007, I had the opportunity to drive the FCX Clarity, a hydrogen-powered vehicle that was probably the most it-seems-like-the-future-but-it-is-a-real-car vehicle I’ve had the opportunity to pilot.
At the L.A. show, Tetsuo Iwamura, president and CEO of American Honda, introduced the concept version of the FCX Clarity successor, the FCEV, which Honda says it will be bringing to market in 2015. “It will have a driving range of more than 300 miles, and the ability to refuel in about three minutes,” Iwamura said. And they’ve done significant work in shrinking the size of the fuel cell stack: I remember in the early 2000s driving a hydrogen-powered Chevy S10 pickup at the then-existing GM research center in Honeoye Falls, NY, that required the bed of the pickup for the fuel cell stack. The FCEV’s will be packaged under the hood.
John Krafcik, president and CEO of Hyundai Motor America, said just a few days before the LA show, “We’re still in the ICE age.” As in Internal Combustion Engine. “There is no question that it will reign supreme for some time. But,” he added, “there is also no question that we must come up with carbon-free alternatives.” And one of the alternatives that Hyundai is introducing is the Tucson Fuel Cell vehicle. This is being offered as a three-year lease, $2,999 down and $499 a month. ALL maintenance and fuel are part of the package.
Krafcik admitted that the car will have limited potential for the simple reason that at present, there aren’t a whole lot of places to get hydrogen fuel. But he also pointed out that in both Southern California and the Bay Area there are existing stations and that the California legislature has passed a funding measure to install 100 hydrogen stations over the next few years.
Toyota has also announced that it plans to have a hydrogen vehicle in the market by 2015.
Krafcik said, “This is more than marketing. This is real.”
While that was occurring, there were lots of pronouncements related to the three Telsa Model S fires that had occurred within a six-week period. It was as though people were piling on the electric car because it is coming from an outlier company and because it is, well, different. Paul Mutolo, fuel cell chemist, director of external partnerships for the Energy Materials Center at Cornell University, and a member of the board of directors NY’s battery consortium, NY-BEST, pointed out, “Statistically, it’s much safer to drive an electric car than a gasoline powered car,” then added, “It’s human nature to have some fear of the unknown. But the data here shows how unwarranted these fears are.”
Presumably, we’re soon going to start hearing about the Hindenburg disaster, too.
But those of us who are interested in technology and in advancing safe, affordable, environmentally-responsible transportation—whether this means advanced ICEs,
battery electric cars, or fuel-cell electric vehicles, or, more likely, all of the above—should support new ways of doing things.
*Search “Defunct motor vehicle manufacturers of the United States” on Wikipedia. It is astonishing.
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0022.json.gz/line1130
|
__label__wiki
| 0.991643
| 0.991643
|
HomeAbout UsBiographiesDisplay
LIEUTENANT GENERAL GLEN ROBBINS BIRCHARD
Died June 03,1967
Lt. Gen. Glen Robbins Birchard is commander in chief of the Alaskan Command. The Alaskan Command has the responsibility for welding Army, Navy and Air Force components in Alaska into a smoothly functioning team defending the polar gateway to the heartland of the United States.
Born in Grand Rapids, Mich., in 1914, he graduated from Bay City High School, Bay City, Mich. He majored in business administration at Bay City College, graduating in 1934. He is also a graduate of the Air War College, 1953.
General Birchard's career is filled with "firsts." During World War II he piloted a B-24 bomber in the first air strike against Wake Island. He flew in the first night-fire raids on Tokyo and, during the Korean War, he flew the first aircraft into Kimpo after the Inchon Bay landings in 1950. He also participated in the first airdrop behind enemy lines there.
He became a flying cadet in the U.S. Army Air Corps in 1938 and was commissioned a second lieutenant upon graduation in February 1939. His first overseas assignment came in 1942 at Hickam Air Force Base, Hawaii, where he was based while flying air strikes against Japanese-held island strongholds in the Pacific. During that combat tour he led a flight of three Liberators from Funafuti Island on a photographic mission over Tarawa. Films acquired during the mission were used in planning the successful amphibious landing our forces completed against that enemy stronghold. In January 1943 he transferred to Guadalcanal. He departed the Solomons for Biggs Field, E1 Paso, Texas, where he was in command from May to August 1944.
General Birchard then was appointed liaison officer to the Air Corps Board, Orlando, Fla. From there he was sent on temporary duty to the Pacific Theater where he conducted formal evaluations of fighter-escorted B-29 raids made in daylight hours.
At the end of World War II he left the Air Force and took a position with Trans-World Airlines. After one year he was recalled to active duty. Accepting a regular Air Force commission, he was assigned to Germany with the Air Transport Command, the forerunner of Military Air Transport Service.
With the advent of the Berlin Airlift, General Birchard formed and commanded the first C-54 wing to take part in that operation. Also, he developed airlift procedures that enabled the Air Force to maintain a high intensity flow of aircraft into Berlin. Later, he became the director of operations for the Combined Airlift Task Force, Germany.
In September 1949 he returned to the United States as commander of the 1703d Air Transport Wing, Brookley Air Force Base, Ala. In August of 1950, General Birchard was assigned the task of establishing the Northern Pacific Transport Wing at McChord Air Force Base, Wash. This wing was formed for the specific task of transporting troops to Korea at the outset of the Korean War. In October, he joined the Combat Cargo Command in Ashiya as chief of staff and vice commander where he remained until January 1951 and then returned to his command at the 1703d Air Transport Wing, Brookley Air Force Base, Ala. In September 1951, he was assigned to the task of reopening the air base at West Palm Beach, Fla., and establishing the Military Air Transport Service Transition Training Unit.
General Birchard entered the Air War College, Maxwell Air Force Base, Ala., in August 1952. Upon graduation, he was transferred to Headquarters U.S. Air Force, Washington, D.C., where he served for three years as chief of personnel requirements and analysis Division. He then returned to MATS and until April 1958 was deputy commander of MATS' Continental Division at Kelly Air Force Base, San Antonio, Texas.
In April 1958 he was appointed deputy chief of staff for operations, Headquarters MATS, Scott Air Force Base, Ill. In addition, in 1959 he was appointed a member of the Research Advisory Committee of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.
He departed from his post as deputy chief of staff for operations, MATS, in July 1961 to assume command of Western Transport Air Force (MATS), Travis Air Force Base, Calif. In July 1963 he was assigned as vice commander, Military Airlift Command, and on Aug. 1, 1966 he assumed his present position.
General Birchard's decorations include the Legion of Merit with oak leaf cluster, Distinguished Flying Cross, Bronze Star Medal and the Air Medal with nine oak leaf clusters.
(Current as of Aug. 1, 1966)
General Birchard was drowned June 3, 1967, while a passenger aboard a float plane that overturned on take off near Anchorage, Alaska.
Senior Leader Links
SecAF Page
CSAF Page
CMSAF Page
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0022.json.gz/line1134
|
__label__wiki
| 0.835112
| 0.835112
|
Budget watchdog says carbon rebate will be more than carbon tax for most Canadians
Fuel surcharge was implemented this month in provinces that have not enacted carbon-pricing systems
Apr. 25, 2019 12:10 p.m.
A woman fills up her with gas in Toronto, on Monday April 1, 2019. Canada’s budget watchdog says revenues from the federal carbon price will be more than $2.6 billion this year and exceed $6 billion within five years. (THE CANADIAN PRESS/Christopher Katsarov)
Canada’s budget watchdog agrees with the federal government’s claim that Canadians are going to get more from the climate change tax rebate than they are paying in carbon tax.
The federal government implemented a fuel surcharge this month of $20 per tonne of emissions in the four provinces that have not enacted carbon-pricing systems of their own.
READ MORE: B.C. carbon tax up April 1, other provinces begin to catch up
The new analysis by the parliamentary budget office predicts that this year, the fuel charge will bring in more than $2.4 billion. Another $200 million will be raised from the tax applied to emissions from large industrial emitters, who pay it on a portion of their emissions above a level set by the government.
In 2022-23, when the price hits $50 a tonne, the revenues will climb to $5.8 billion from the fuel charge and $448 million from large emitters. The four provinces involved are Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Ontario and New Brunswick.
The figures are very close to the government’s own projections for revenues. The Department of Finance predicted the fuel charge will bring in $2.36 billion in 2019-20 and $5.7 billion in 2022-23.
Ottawa has committed — and has now written into law — that 90 per cent of the revenues collected from the fuel charge will be returned to individual households in the provinces where the revenues were raised. The PBO report says over the next five years all but the wealthiest 20 per cent of Canadian households will get more back from the rebate than they will pay in carbon tax.
The rebates are the same regardless of income, but wealthier Canadians tend to own bigger homes, drive more and bigger cars, and consume more products, all of which contribute to a higher carbon tax total.
In Saskatchewan for instance, the average household is expected to pay $425 in carbon tax this year, and will get $598 back from the rebate. In Ontario, the average cost will be $256, and the average rebate $300. In Manitoba, the average cost will be $260 and the average rebate $336, and in New Brunswick the average cost will be $193 and the average rebate $248.
The wealthiest families in Saskatchewan, Ontario and New Brunswick will pay between $13 and $50 more in carbon tax than they receive from the rebate. In Manitoba, the wealthiest families will still be better off by $37, the PBO says.
The lowest-income families will get $70 more than they pay in Saskatchewan, $101 in Manitoba, $89 in Ontario and $63 in New Brunswick.
The benefits also grow almost every year, across every income group. By 2023-24, the PBO predicts the lowest-income households in Saskatchewan will get $131 more in rebates than they pay in carbon tax. In Manitoba, that group will be $214 better off; in Ontario, $195; and New Brunswick, $143.
The carbon tax is intended to encourage Canadians to find ways to reduce their carbon footprints, and therefore pay less carbon tax, without causing them economic hardship.
Environment Minister Catherine McKenna said Thursday the report confirms what the government has been saying about the rebates.
“A price on pollution works, it protects the environment for our kids and grandkids, and puts money back into the pockets of Canadians,” she said.
The carbon tax has become one of the hottest-button political disputes of 2019, with the Conservatives angling hard against it as an effective environmental measure and three of the four provinces with the federal tax now challenging it in court.
Mia Rabson, The Canadian Press
Alberta woman killed in Highway 3 crash near Manning Park
Small plane crash lands on top of Idaho tree, pilot rescued
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0022.json.gz/line1137
|
__label__wiki
| 0.62835
| 0.62835
|
Home > Ministry of Culture > Dr. Mahesh Sharma addresses at All India Conference of Regional Editors at Jaipur
Dr. Mahesh Sharma addresses at All India Conference of Regional Editors at Jaipur
3:50 PM Ministry of Culture
Dr. Mahesh Sharma, the Minister of State (I/C) for Tourism and Culture and Minister of State for Civil Aviation addressed the “All India Conference of Regional Editors” at Jaipur, Rajasthan today. The two days Conference has been organized by Press Information Bureau, Government of India to familiarize Regional Media persons with the various ongoing programmes and schemes of the Government of India. Later the Minister interacted with the visiting media persons on achievements and many successes of the Ministry of Tourism.
Dr. Sharma informed the media persons that India has moved 13 positions ahead from 65th to 52nd rank in Tourism and Travel Competitive Index as per the World Economic Forum (Davos) Report.
The Minister said that Ministry of Tourism has announced the constitution of the Medical and Wellness Tourism Promotion Board on 27th September, 2015. The Board has been formed to tap the potential and advantages that India has in the field of medical and wellness tourism. The Board will provide leadership of the Government within a framework of prudent and effective measures, thereby enabling promotion and positioning of India as a competent and credible medical and wellness tourism destination. The Board is chaired by the Union Tourism Minister and consists of members representing the related Government Departments, Tourism & Hospitality sector and experts in the Medical, Wellness and Yoga.
He said that his Ministry has launched a ‘Welcome Booklet’ for distribution at immigration counters to tourists arriving at international airports. The ‘Welcome Booklet’ contains information on Do’s and Don’ts for Tourists, contact details of Indiatourism domestic offices and ‘Tourist Helpline Number’. The Booklet is intended to be a helpful aid to foreign tourist immediately on arrival.
The Minister informed the media persons that Ministry of Tourism has launched a 24x7 ‘Incredible India Help Line’ in December, 2014 to provide the tourist with valuable information and to guide them during emergencies. It is intended to provide a sense of security to the tourists. The service is available toll free on telephone no. 1800111363 or on a short code 1363.
He informed them that in the year 2015, the Ministry of Tourism has signed MoUs/Agreements with many countries which include People’s Republic of China; United Republic of Tanzania; Republic of Uzbekistan; Government of Turkmenistan; Arab Republic of Egypt; United Arab Emirates; and Royal Government of the Kingdom of Cambodia;
He said that Foreign Tourist Arrivals (Provisional) from January to December, 2015 were 8.02 million, representing an increase of 4.4% over the same period of the previous year, which was 7.68 million. Foreign Exchange Earnings (Provisional) of Rs. 1,26,211 crore during the period January to December, 2015 representing an increase of 2.3% over the same period of previous year, which was Rs. 1,23,320 crore.
The Minister said that a path breaking initiative by the Government, e-Tourist Visa launched on 27th November, 2014, which enables the prospective visitor to apply for an Indian Visa from his/her home country online without visiting the Indian Mission and also pay the visa online. Till December, 2014 e-Tourist Visa was available to the citizens of 43 countries. During the year 2015, 70 more countries were covered under e-Tourist Visa regime. This facility is now available for citizens of 113 countries arriving at 16 Airports in India. During January- December, 2015 a total number of 4,45,300 tourist arrived on e-Tourist Visa while during the same period in 2014 a total number of 39,046 tourist arrived on e-tourist visa registering a growth rate of 1040.4%. The percentage share of top 10 source countries availing e-Tourist Visa facility during December, 2015 were as follows:- UK (23.81%), USA (19.59%), Russian Fed. (9.33%), Australia (5.44%), Germany (4.86%), France (4.44%), Canada (4.40%), China (3.10%), Republic of Korea (1.83%) and Ukraine (1.67%).
He said that Swadesh Darshan Scheme aims at integrated development of circuits having tourist potential in a planned and prioritized manner, promoting cultural heritage of country, development world-class infrastructure in circuit destinations, pro-poor tourism approach, promoting local arts, handicrafts, cuisine and generating employment. 13 Circuits have been identified for development under the scheme namely Swadesh Darshan. The Circuits are:- North-East India Circuit, Buddhist Circuit, Himalayan Circuit, Coastal Circuit, Krishna Circuit, Desert Circuit, Tribal Circuit, Eco Circuit, Wildlife Circuit, Rural Circuit, Spiritual Circuit, Ramayana Circuit and Heritage Circuit. Three projects were sanctioned under Swadesh Darshan during the year 2014-15 at a total cost of Rs. 153.00 crore. Fifteen projects have been sanctioned under Swadesh Darshan during the year 2015-16 at a total cost of Rs. 1330.82 crores.
The Minister informed them that National Mission on Pilgrimage Rejuvenation and Spiritual Augmentation Drive (PRASAD) aims at integrated development of pilgrimage destinations to provide complete religious and spiritual tourism experience. 13 cities identified for implementation in first phase – Varanasi, Amritsar, Ajmer, Mathura, Gaya, Kanchipuram, Velankanni, Dwarka, Puri, Amaravati, Kedarnath, Kamakhya and Patna. Four projects have been sanctioned under PRASAD during the year 2014-15 at a total cost of Rs. 78.57 crore. Five projects have been sanctioned under PRASAD during the year 2015-16 at a total cost of Rs. 150.77 crore.
He said that the initiatives of ‘Swachh Bharat – Swachh Paryatan’ ‘Swachh Bharat – Swachh Smarak’ and ‘Swachh Bharat – Swachh Pakwan’ were announced during the celebrations of Good Governance Day on 26th December, 2014. A Nation-wide Sanitation/Cleanliness Campaign from 25th September – 31st October, 2015 was observed by Ministry of Tourism and its subordinate offices and affiliated Institutes.
Ministry of Culture
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0022.json.gz/line1140
|
__label__cc
| 0.527404
| 0.472596
|
Queen of the Tearling by Erika Johansen
102017Sep
Kelsea Raleigh Glynn is 19 years old and her future is staring her in the face. Exiled as a child, Kelsea is leaving her home to travel to New London, where she will become Queen of the Tearling. Kelsea has always known this was her destiny, but it never seemed real until the Queen’s Guard shows up to escort her to her throne.
Kelsea has a fight ahead of her. Her uncle has been regent since the death of her mother, and she has heard of her uncle’s desire to remain in power. Feeling overwhelmed but resolute, Kelsea calls on all she has learned to win over the loyalty of her Guard to face the uncle that will try to kill her.
Before that meeting happens, Kelsea learns an awful secret about the sacrifice her mother made to keep the neighboring kingdom of Mortmense from overrunning the Tearling. Through shock and outrage, Kelsea comes into power, and uses the Tear sapphire in ways she could never have imagined from her exile. As she grows in her power so does the sapphire, transporting her through time into the life of another woman. As Lily, Kelsea learns some difficult lessons about the past and what led to the formation of the Tearling. The story of Lily, set in Kelsea’s past and our future, is an interesting counterpoint to the medieval fantasy tropes of Kelsea’s story. As the trilogy progresses we learn more about the Tearling and its founding as Kelsea enters the life of another young woman, Katie; an early resident of the Tearling working to create a community where people took care of each other and all were equal. This community, based on the premise that sharing would build a better world for all, is a dream shared by Lily, Katie and Kelsea, and the risks all three women take to make that dream a reality dominate the story.
Kelsea is a fully realized young woman, self-consciousness about her appearance, crushing on a rogue who kidnaps her during her journey to New London, giving in to her anger at her mother and the world while struggling with her new found knowledge and power. As she grows throughout the story there are many actions she takes which, while understandable, are unlikeable. The experiences she has through her travel into the past are also believable, and difficult at times, as Lily is an abused wife and Katie is trained to fight in a society that hoped never to need such skills. Kelsea’s relationship with the Queen of Mortmense is explored in greater detail in the second and third books, “The Invasion of the Tearling” and “The Fate of the Tearling”, and this complicated young woman learns to understand that the Red Queen is complicated too, and not necessarily the ultimate evil she had thought.
This trilogy is a complex, involving story sure to please readers of fantasy as well as keep them guessing.
Deana Cunningham is the Branch Manager at May Memorial Library. She can be reached at dcunningham@alamancelibraries.org.
Radical Hope: letters of love and dissent in dangerous times, edited by Carolina De Robertis.October 2017
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0022.json.gz/line1141
|
__label__wiki
| 0.996313
| 0.996313
|
Kennedy killing now a video game
A new video game to be released on Monday allows players to simulate the assassination of US president John F Kennedy.
The release coincides with the 41st anniversary of JFK's death
The release of JFK Reloaded is timed to coincide with the 41st anniversary of Kennedy's murder in Dallas and was designed to demonstrate a lone gunman was able to kill the president.
"It is despicable," David Smith, a spokesman for Massachusetts Senator Edward Kennedy, the late president's brother, said.
He was informed of the game on Friday but declined further comment.
Kirk Ewing, managing director of the Scottish firm Traffic Games, which developed the game, said he understood some people would be horrified at the concept, but he insisted he and his team had nothing but respect for Kennedy and for history.
"We believe that the only thing we're exploiting is new technology," said Ewing, a former documentary filmmaker and senior executive with Scottish developer VIS, responsible for games such as State of Emergency.
He said he sent Edward Kennedy a letter before the game's release.
Digital recreation
Ewing said the game was designed to undermine the theory there was some shadowy plot behind the assassination. "We believe passionately there was no conspiracy," he said.
The game's makers say they wish
to disprove conspiracy theories
Traffic Games said the objective was for a player to fire three shots at Kennedy's motorcade from assassin Lee Harvey Oswald's digitally recreated sixth-floor perch in the Texas School Book Depository.
Points are awarded or subtracted based on how accurately the shots match the official version of events as documented by the Warren Commission, which investigated Kennedy's assassination.
Shooting the image of Kennedy in the right spots in the right sequence adds to the score while "errors", such as shooting first lady Jacqueline Kennedy, lead to deductions.
Each shot can be replayed in slow motion, and the bullets can be tracked as they travel and pass through Kennedy's digitally recreated body. Players can choose to see blood by pressing a blood effects option.
Players can also view the motorcade from a number of angles, including the perspective of filmmaker Abraham Zapruder and a view from the "grassy knoll" where some conspiracy theorists believe a second gunman was stationed.
The game will be available via download for $9.99.
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0022.json.gz/line1145
|
__label__wiki
| 0.978927
| 0.978927
|
Imam offers reward to kill cartoonists
A Pakistani Muslim preacher and his followers have offered rewards amounting to more than $1 million for killing the Danish cartoonists who drew caricatures of Prophet Muhammad that have enraged the Muslim world.
The cartoons were first published in Denmark last September
The imam offered the bounty during Friday prayers as Muslim anger over the cartoons flared anew in parts of Asia.
Weeks of global protests have triggered fears of a clash of civilisations between the West and Islam, and have led to calls on all sides for calm.
On Friday, thousands rallied in Pakistan; police in Bangladesh blocked demonstrators heading for the Danish embassy in Dhaka and in the Indian city of Hyderabad, police fired teargas shells and batons to beat back hundreds of protesters, who had stoned shops and disrupted traffic.
Denmark temporarily shut its embassy in Islamabad citing security reasons, while Pakistan recalled its ambassador from Copenhagen for consultations.
Five deaths
Protests in Pakistan this week have resulted in at least five deaths and hundreds of detentions, and on Friday it became the latest country where Denmark has decided to temporarily close its embassy.
"If the West can place a bounty on Osama bin Laden and Zawahiri, we can also announce reward for killing the man who has caused this sacrilege of the holy prophet"
Maulana Yousef Qureshi, Pakistani preacher
The Danish foreign ministry also issued a travel warning for Pakistan, urging Danes to leave as soon as possible.
In the north-western Pakistani city of Peshawar, Maulana Yousef Qureshi said he had personally offered to pay a bounty of 500,000 rupees ($8400) to anyone who killed a Danish cartoonist, and two of his congregation put up additional rewards of $1 million and one million rupees plus a car.
"If the West can place a bounty on Osama bin Laden and Zawahiri, we can also announce reward for killing the man who has caused this sacrilege of the holy Prophet," Qureshi told Reuters, referring to the al-Qaida leader and his deputy Ayman al-Zawahiri.
Qureshi leads the congregation at the historic Mohabat mosque, on a street known for goldsmith shops in the provincial capital of North West Frontier Province - a stronghold of Pakistan's Islamist opposition parties.
The cartoons were first published in Denmark last September; but last month newspapers and magazines in Europe and elsewhere began republishing to assert principles of freedom of expression.
Muslims believe images of the Prophet are forbidden.
Embassy shuts
Pakistan's Foreign Ministry said it was recalling its own ambassador from Copenhagen for consultations. It did not elaborate further.
The Danish ambassador in Islamabad said, however, that relations had not been broken off because of the furore.
Protests in Pakistan have been
large and violent
"I'm still in Pakistan and in a secure place," Bent Wigotski, the ambassador, told Reuters.
"There is no question of broken relations or anything like that," he said, adding that the German embassy was looking after Denmark's consular affairs.
Denmark has already shut its missions in Lebanon, Syria, Iran and Indonesia as a result of violence or threats of violence.
Protests in Pakistan have been large and violent and many have taken on a distinctly anti-US tone. Demonstrators, in addition to burning Danish flags, have attacked US fast-food outlets and burned George Bush, the US president, in effigy.
Islamist parties have called for a nationwide strike on 3 March, around the time President Bush is expected to visit Pakistan, despite the unrest.
Appeals for reason
Western leaders have been calling for calm.
Bill Clinton, the former US president, and Jacques Chirac, the French president, both said on Friday that it was a mistake to publish the cartoons.
Clinton said he saw nothing wrong
with the Muslim reaction
Clinton, on a private visit to Pakistan, said he saw nothing wrong with Muslims around the world demonstrating in a peaceful way, but he feared a great opportunity to improve understanding had been squandered.
"This is not a time to burn bridges; this is a time to build them," he said, adding: "I can tell you that most people are horrified that this much misunderstanding has occurred."
Chirac was blunt. "I am appalled by what happened as a result of the publications of these cartoons," Chirac told India Today news magazine which published an interview with him on Friday.
"I am, of course, in favour of the freedom of the press, which is a pillar of democracy. But I am equally for respecting everyone's sensibilities... So I deplore the situation," said Chirac, who visits India next week.
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0022.json.gz/line1146
|
__label__wiki
| 0.987437
| 0.987437
|
Iran tests fastest underwater missile
Iran has announced its second major new missile test in a week, saying that it has successfully fired a high-speed underwater missile capable of destroying warships and submarines.
Iran started making its own arms to counter a US embargo
General Ali Fadavi, deputy head of the Navy of the Revolutionary Guards, said the missile has a speed of 360 kph underwater - the
fastest in the world.
The Iranian missile has the same speed as the Russian-made VA-111 Shkval, developed in 1995 and believed to be the world's fastest - three or four times faster than a torpedo.
It was not immediately known if the Iranian missile, which has not yet been named, was based on the Shkval, and whether it can carry a nuclear warhead.
"It has a very powerful warhead designed to hit big submarines. Even if enemy warship sensors identify the missile, no warship can escape from this missile because of its high speed," Fadavi told state-run television.
Military manoeuvres
The missile test was conducted during the third day of large-scale military manoeuvres by tens of thousands of soldiers in the Persian Gulf and the Arabian Sea, part of Iran's "Holy Prophet" war games.
On Friday, Iran test-fired the Fajr-3 missile, which can avoid radars and hit several targets simultaneously using multiple warheads. The Revolutionary Guards said the test was successful.
The missile tests and war games coincide with increasing tension between Iran and the West over Tehran's nuclear programme.
The United States and its allies believe Iran is seeking to develop nuclear weapons, but Tehran denies that, saying its programme is for generating electricity.
The UN Security Council is demanding that Iran halt its uranium enrichment activities. But an Iranian envoy has said its activities are "not reversible".
Iran launched an arms development programme during its 1980-88 war with Iraq to compensate for a US weapons embargo.
Since 1992, Iran has produced its own tanks, armoured personnel carriers, missiles and a fighter plane.
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0022.json.gz/line1147
|
__label__wiki
| 0.56434
| 0.56434
|
IT Service and Asset Management
Why Alloy
FIPS Compliance
Legal Terms and Notices
Alloy Software HIPAA Compliance
HIPAA, the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 is a US law designed to provide privacy standards to protect patient’s medical records and other health information managed by health plans, doctors, hospitals, and other health care providers. These standards establish how such Protected Health Information (PHI) is stored, used, transmitted, and disclosed.
How Does Alloy Software Support HIPAA Compliance?
Since 2002, Alloy Software has been committed to developing products that adhere to the requirements of HIPAA. Alloy Navigator Enterprise, Alloy Navigator Express, Alloy Discovery Enterprise and Alloy Discovery Express were created with an emphasis on customer security to protect the sensitive information of its users and prevent regulatory breaches.
Alloy Software’s products are built with features that meet the obligations of the HIPAA ruling.
As an on-premises service provider with customers across various industries, Alloy Software’s products were created with focus on data security and privacy.
Alloy Software products are not directly involved in storing or managing medical records or medical information. However in order to avoid situations where sensitive information incidentally appears as part of incident tickets or service requests, customers who manage PHI should properly train their staff to handle protected health information in accordance with HIPAA security and privacy rules.
If necessary, customers should maintain only the minimal amount of PHI that is necessary to create a service request, in accordance with HIPAA’s minimum necessary requirements.
Network administrators using Alloy Software’s products are responsible for configuring the software in a HIPAA compliant manner using appropriate role-based access levels and permissions in order to satisfy the requirements and obligations of the ruling.
What industry certifications does Alloy Software have relating to HIPAA compliance?
There are no official government or industry certifications for HIPAA compliance. However, Alloy Software has developed its products, policies and procedures in full accordance with this HIPAA compliance guidelines.
How do Alloy Software products support the HIPAA Ruling?
Alloy Software products are built with strong ITIL-based best practices, especially within the processes of Knowledge Management, Configuration Management and Change Management, providing our customers with the capabilities required to better manage and optimize their critical IT processes:
Password Credentials
Alloy Software recommends that users create strong passwords that are at least eight characters in length and include a combination of upper- and lower-case letters, a special character and at least one number.
Network administrators can also set requirements for complex passwords, define minimum character length, set a maximum number of failed attempts and the maximum length of time in which a password can be used.
Encryption Protection
Alloy Software products contain built-in data encryption which gives users an added safeguard to prevent sensitive data from incidentally being seen, printed out, or copied over into other applications.
String Access Control
Alloy Software products support strict role-based access to product features and stored data, allowing explicit authorization for viewing, entering, and modifying data records.
Complete Audit Trail
Alloy Software products support detailed audit trail of activities that are related to modifications or deletions of data records.
HIPAA Terms and Glossary
The purpose of HIPAA
In 1996, the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act was enacted by the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) for the purpose of improving the efficiency and effectiveness of the US healthcare system. Through this act, provisions were included that required HHS to adopt national standards for electronic healthcare transactions, unique health identifiers and security measures.
Upon recognizing how technological advances could disrupt the privacy of personal health information, Congress incorporated provisions into HIPAA which mandated the adoption of Federal privacy protections for individually identifiable health information. Among these rules were:
The Privacy Rule, also known as the Standards for Privacy of Individually Identifiable Health Information, which established a national standard for the protection of individual healthcare information under three covered entities: health plans, healthcare clearinghouses and healthcare providers.
The Security Rule, also known as the Security Standards for the Protection of Electronic Protected Health Information, which established a national set of security standards for protecting the confidentiality, integrity and availability of health information that is held or transferred in electronic form.
Ensuring HIPAA Compliance
The Security Rule aims to protect the privacy of an individuals’ health information while allowing Covered Entities (CEs) to improve the quality and efficiency of patient care through the adoption of new and advanced technologies. The flexibility of this rule allows CEs to implement policies, procedures, and protocols that are appropriate for the entity’s specific size, organizational structure, and risks to consumers’ electronic protected health information (ePHI).
To achieve compliance with the HIPAA Security Rule, Covered Entities must adhere to six main administrative safeguards, each consisting of several standards and implementation specifications:
Security Standards – includes the general requirements that all covered entities must meet to ensure reasonable and appropriate protection of ePHI.
Administrative Safeguards – are defined as the “administrative actions and policies, and procedures to manage the selection, development, implementation, and maintenance of security measures to protect electronic protected health information and to manage the conduct of the covered entity’s workforce in relation to the protection of that information.”
Physical Safeguards – are defined as the “physical measures, policies, and procedures to protect a covered entity’s electronic information systems and related buildings and equipment, from natural and environmental hazards, and unauthorized intrusion.”
Technical Safeguards – are defined as the “the technology and the policy and procedures for its use that protect electronic protected health information and control access to it.”
Organizational Requirements – include standards to ensure appropriate safeguards are in place at business associates and others who share ePHI.
Policies, Procedures and Documentation Requirements – ensures that covered entities have formal plans (i.e., policies, procedures and documentation) in place for the reasonable and appropriate implementation of ePHI security.
HIPAA Requirements
Before the implementation of HIPAA, there existed no generally accepted set of security standards or general requirements that protected sensitive health information within the healthcare industry. With the emergence of new technologies, came the adoption of electronic information systems to manage health records, claims and several other administrative functions within the scope of healthcare.
HIPAA Today
Today, healthcare providers are facing major challenges in looking to upgrade their technological capabilities while also complying with HIPAA’s regulatory guidelines. This creates a difficult operational climate for IT leaders in healthcare, thus making advanced IT Service Management tools a critical component of any technology plan in this space
What is HHS?
HHS, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, is the governor develop regulations protecting the privacy and security of certain health information.
What is Protected Health Information (PHI)?
Protected Health Information (PHI) refers to demographic information, medical history, test and laboratory results, insurance information and other data that is collected by a healthcare professional to identify an individual and determine appropriate care.
What is Personally Identifiable Information (PII)?
Personally Identifiable Information (PII) is a subset of Protected Health Information (PHI), and refers to information that is uniquely identifying to a specific individual. Protected Health Information (PHI) is specific to medical and health-related use.
What is a HIPAA Covered Entity?
A HIPAA Covered Entity (CE) stewards Protected Health Information (PHI) and/or Personally Identifiable Information (PII) on patients in the process of providing healthcare care or paying for care. Examples of HIPAA Covered Entities (CE) are one of the following:
Healthcare Providers:
Including doctors, clinics, psychologists, dentists, chiropractors, nursing homes, pharmacies that transmits any information in an electronic form in connection with a transaction for which the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has adopted a standard.
Health Plan:
Including health insurance companies, HMOs, company health plans, government programs that pay for health care (like Medicare and Medicaid)
Healthcare Clearinghouses:
Including entities that process non-standard health information they receive from another entity into a standard (i.e., standard electronic format or data content), or vice versa.
Summary of the HIPAA Security Rule
Health Information Privacy
Alloy Software Extends Mobile Inventory Tracking to Small and Medium BusinessJuly 17, 2019
New Mobile Inventory Scanner is available for iOS and Android platformsJuly 3, 2019
Alloy Navigator Enterprise 8.2.5 ReleasedJune 7, 2019
Alloy Navigator Express
Alloy Navigator Enterprise
Alloy Discovery Express
Alloy Discovery Enterprise
© 2019 Copyright - Alloy Software, Inc
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0022.json.gz/line1149
|
__label__wiki
| 0.880746
| 0.880746
|
Tag: mixtapes
Mixtapes release “You’d Better Bring More Dudes” video
Bryne Yancey - January 11, 2012
Mixtapes have released a new music video for "You'd Better Bring More Dudes," a song from their 2011 EP Hope Is For People. Watch...
Exclusive: Mixtapes sign to No Sleep Records, plan full-length for 2012
Bryne Yancey - January 6, 2012
Altpress.com can exclusively reveal that Cincinnati, OH's Mixtapes are the latest band to join the growing roster of No Sleep Records. The band is...
Premiere: Mixtapes’ “I Accept That”
Bryne Yancey - December 29, 2011
Check out this premiere of the new video from Mixtapes for "I Accept That." The track appears on the band's latest release Maps &...
Check out the artwork for “The Thing That Ate Larry Livermore” compilation
Artwork for the upcoming The Thing That Ate Larry Livermore compilation has been revealed (above). The comp, curated by Lookout Records founder Larry Livermore,...
Mixtapes perform “Soup’s Whatever” in new Pink Couch Session
Bryne Yancey - November 10, 2011
Mixtapes recently performed "Soup's Whatever" as part of the Pink Couch Sessions. The song appears on the band's Short Collection Of Short Songs EP....
Mixtapes and Seahaven announce west coast tour
Brian Kraus - June 9, 2011
Mixtapes and Seahaven (Run For Cover Records) will be touring the west coast together during July. July 3rd- Albuquerque, NM July 4th- Midland, TX- The Pinebox July 5th-...
The Wonder Years announce record release show
Michele Bird - May 17, 2011
The Wonder Years have revealed they will be performing at a special record release show in support of their upcoming album, Suburbia I've Given...
Mixtapes – Hope Is For People EP
Robert Ham - May 11, 2011
Mixtapes Hope Is For People EP Punk, especially in its post-millennial form, is as self-aware a genre as you're going to find, with the highest levels...
The Wonder Years update upcoming tour support
Brian Kraus - April 13, 2011
The Wonder Years have posted an update detailing new support for their upcoming tour. An Update on The Manscout Jamboree Tour: In the wake of the...
Mixtapes – A Short Collection Of Short Songs EP
Mischa Pearlman - March 17, 2011
Mixtapes A Short Collection Of Short Songs EP Formed after the death of singer Ryan Rockwell’s father, Ohio’s Mixtapes are far from the gloomy, morbid band...
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0022.json.gz/line1150
|
__label__wiki
| 0.728179
| 0.728179
|
Gabrielino Angelinos
[These placards can be found at the Studio City Metro station in Los Angeles.]
Native Americans had lived in California for over 10,000 years when Gaspar de Portola arrived in 1769. With the Portola Expedition came Father Junipero Serra who established the mission system. Although occasional tribal warfare occurred during food shortages, the Gabrielino Indians were a gentle people, especially in the handling of their children. The Padres complained that they “treated their children like idols” because the children lacked discipline.
This permissive attitude contrasted sharply with the discipline imposed by the Padres in running the missions. For example, once an Indian decided to join a mission, he was not permitted to leave. If he left and failed to return he could be hunted down, beaten, or even killed. Furthermore, Indians were denied specific privileges, such as riding horses or using Eurpean weapons.
The church acted as guardian, holding mission property until the day Indians would be self-governing. Settlers from Mexico saw it in their own best interest to dismantle the mission system so they could appropriate the hotly contested lands. There were many Indians whom the Padres still wanted to baptize when the Mexian settlers moved in. The Padres protested that the townspeople were taking advantage of these Natives. At times, they would labor for an entire week and only be paid a lace handkerchief or a bottle of alcohol. Women could be taken advantage of, then abandoned. Men who did this were at times publicly punished.
Indians were not considered “gente de razon” (people capable of reason). They were viewed as children. Though the Padres were charged with training them in skilled labor and educating them in preparation for self-government, they were seldom taught to read.
California, which had the largest Native American population in what is now the U.S., became a place where many tribes disappeared. European diseases such as smallpox spread through the living quarters of the overcrowded missions. Indians were no longer permitted to practice their religious and ceremonial bathing. This spawned further disease. Under such unhygienic conditions, infant mortality rose. The final blow to the Inidans came in 1849 when gold was discovered in California. What remained of the Indian culture was nearly destroyed by the arrival of thousands of lawless gold-seekers known as “forty-niners”.
During the Mexian American War from 1846-48, the population of California numbered approximately 7,000 Mexicans; 15,000 mission Indians and non-baptized Inidans conversant with the Mexican culture; and 1,000 foreigners who were a mixture of other Latin Americans, European and U.S. immigrants. Of those who claimed Spanish descent, half intermarried with Mestizo, Indian, or people of African descent. Only one in three percent were actually from Spain.
Many residents defined themselves as “Californios”. This was not meant to deny their Mexican heritage, but to assert their love for their most beloved California. Pio Pico, Governor of California, and Andres Pico, Commander of the Californio forces, were brothers and Mexicans of African descent.
In California more than in the rest of Mexico a person’s station in life was not strictly determined by race, but by his or her cultural assimilation and attainment of education. An Indian who wore the trappings of a well-educated person could assume a higher social status. Many Californios spoke the local Gabrielino language because they were accustomed to negotiating with the Indians.
Forty-four persons from northwestern Mexico founded the City of Los Angeles in 1781. More than half were of African descent. This era has been referred to as California’s Spanish Period because Spain ruled Mexico during this time and that rule extended to California. However, California was settled by Mexicans, not Spaniards.
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0022.json.gz/line1151
|
__label__wiki
| 0.598273
| 0.598273
|
Show of Force
The Play Crawl 2019
LOST CREATURES-NEW YORK
PLAY ON-A MUSICAL ROMP WITH SHAKESPEARE'S WOMEN
The Way Station, and South star
by Rebecca Gorman O'Neill
April 19-May 5, 2018
Thursday-Saturday-7:30pm
ASL performance April 27
Directed by Susan Lyles
Set & Sound Design Darren Smith
Light Design Alexis K. Bond
Stage Manager Carol Timblin
Starring Kate Poling, Seth Palmer Harris and Austin Lazek
The Way Station is the story of three strangers from different places and times, each pulled out of their travels and dropped off at a mysterious way station. At this surreal crossroads, no excuse, lie, or self-delusion holds up to scrutiny, and each person must find the strength to face his or her own dark secret, only then may they move on.
South Star is set seven years in the future, during the second American Civil War, South Star is the story of a survivor, an inspiration, a reluctant hero who wishes she could just stop running. Stel finds herself in the company of two people – one an apparent victim, and one an apparent predator. What commences is a figurative game of three-card-Monty; the stakes are Stel’s life.
Rebecca Gorman O'Neill
An Ohio native, Rebecca started writing plays at Dartmouth College. After earning her M.F.A. in Dramatic Writing from Carnegie Mellon University. Rebecca’s original plays have been produced across the United States and in Canada, and her plays Tell-Tale and The Greater Good are published through Eldridge Publishing and Next Stage Press, respectively. Rebecca is a Professor of English at Metropolitan State University of Denver, where she teaches playwriting, screenwriting, cinema studies, and the graphic novel.
Susan Lyles
Susan Lyles is an award winning director with an BA from Wichita State University, and received certification from The London Academy of Music and Dramatic Arts in Shakespeare. She has worked on stage in London, Chicago and Denver and has also worked in film, commercials, print, industrial's, and voice over. Susan is the founder and Producing Artistic Director of And Toto too Theatre Company, and has directed more than 20 plays, including the award winning Naked in Encino, Car Talk, and Heads. She has designed costumes for more than 50 plays, including Lion in Winter (Denver Victorian Playhouse), 12th Night (Denver Victorian Playhouse), and Greater Tuna and Christmas Tuna (Denver Victorian Playhouse, Town Hall Arts Center). Susan was recently honored with a 2015 True West Award. She also owns the award winning film production company, Ruff, Ruff Dog Productions.
KATE POLING (DAISY, STEL)
Kate Poling is thrilled to be working with And Toto Too again after appearing as Julie in their production of Smoke! Kate is a Denver native, and a graduate of New York University's Tisch School of the Arts. Along with acting, she also teaches theatre around the Denver area. Favorite roles include Viola (Twelfth Night, Foothills Theatre Co), and Calpurnia (Julius Ceasar, Puppet Shakespeare Players, NYC). Enjoy the show!
AUSTIN LAZEK (TOM, EVAN)
Austin claims to be from Tennessee, though his origin story is a windy one. He studied film production and theater at the University of Miami, and has lived in Denver since 2015. Past local credits include The Tempest, Beau Jest with Cherry Creek Theater, and Sleeping Beauty. This is his first show with And Toto too and he is very excited to bring these shows to life. When he isn't pretending to be someone else, he is driving his Jeep on crazy-long trips, rating movies on a two-star scale, and teaching all over Colorado. Thanks for coming and enjoy the shows!
SETH PALMER HARRIS (JACK, ALEX)
Seth is thrilled to be in his first full production with And Toto too, having appeared twice now at their annual Play Crawl fundraiser. He is, though, no stranger to the stage in Denver. He could most recently be seen at the John Hand Theatre in Lowry in Firehouse Theatre's production of The Miracle Worker. Next up, indeed the weekend after this show closes, you can catch him at the PACE Center in Parker in Vintage Theatre's touring production of Sleuth. Seth was born in Germany, grew up in northern Minnesota, and has been very happy to call Colorado home for well over a decade. He wishes to thank Susan and everyone at And Toto too for this opportunity. He also encourages everyone to check out the Denver Actors Fund, which provides financial assistance to people involved in all facets of this wonderful art when we actually do break our legs or have other medical needs, and to give to the Fund as they are able.
And Toto too Theatre Company, P.O. Office Box 17163, Denver, co 80217, US(720) 583-3975info@andtototoo.org
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0022.json.gz/line1153
|
__label__wiki
| 0.595275
| 0.595275
|
Click to copyhttps://apnews.com/0e28193ec9404c7e9f70e0283427a096
Elaine Chao
Chao announces $1.5 billion in infrastructure grants
By ASHRAF KHALILDecember 11, 2018
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Transportation Department announced Tuesday that it will disperse $1.5 billion to fund 91 infrastructure projects around the country.
Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao said the grants are part of her department’s BUILD infrastructure support program and will fund road, rail and port projects in 49 states plus the District of Columbia.
Chao said her department received more than 850 applications for grants. Hawaii was the only U.S. state that didn’t receive funding in this year’s round of grants.
Chao praised the grant process as the successful product of bipartisan cooperation between congressional Republicans and Democrats. Infrastructure is seen as a potential area of agreement between the Trump administration and Democrats, who will take control of the House of Representatives in January.
Chao said infrastructure issues are “especially ripe for bipartisan cooperation.”
Boosting infrastructure spending was one of President Donald Trump’s main campaign promises, but he’s made little headway with a plan to invest $1.5 trillion in public and private funds over a decade.
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0022.json.gz/line1154
|
__label__wiki
| 0.807253
| 0.807253
|
Canadian religious travel to meet members of First Nations
By Philippe Vaillancourt
WENDAKE, Quebec – Inside the traditional Huron longhouse, faint glimmerings cast light on the attendees’ faces. Standing on a stool, Simon Perusse, dressed in his traditional costume, told of the lifestyle and values of the Huron-Wendat Nation.
The wooden structure once housed several families. On the ground, small grids with plastic fish stood above hearths and recalled the smoking that was practiced there. Relationship with nature, community life, family life: The group composed mainly of nuns and religious listened respectfully to the guide.
After all, they came to meet native peoples.
About 50 of them enlisted for this unprecedented activity organized by the Canadian Religious Conference March 10. The conference hopes to foster closer ties between Catholic religious communities and First Nations peoples. It was the first time a Canadian Religious Conference activity took place on a reserve, at the traditional Huron ONHOUA CHETEK8E site in Wendake, outside Quebec City.
Nicole O’Bomsawin, an anthropologist and member of the Abenaki tribe, was pleased with the initiative.
“Ten years ago, we were not there. But now this is another step. It pleases me to see this new commitment,” she said.
O’Bomsawin, 60, involved in dialogue initiatives between First Nations and Catholics for many years, is particularly interested in forging links between traditional native spirituality and Catholicism. This is what she did at the beginning of the traditional meal that was offered to the attendees, singing a prayer song as a blessing.
The Rev. Richard Bonetto, Presbyterian pastor and founder of the Wampum Centre, spoke of his experience of dialogue in the center he founded in 1994.
“There’s hope,” he says during the meal. “We are increasingly conscientious about First Nation heritage. And more respectful too.”
He believes that the residential schools and the Truth and Reconciliation Commission have had a sensitizing effect.
Stephanie Gravel, associate director of regional programming and leadership support, was in charge of the initiative.
“It’s really the first official meeting to talk with the natives,” she said. “It is truly an official call to action of Canada’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission, which calls for awareness and conscience raising, and mutual understanding meetings to begin the dialogue.”
In 2015, the commission detailed the treatment of aboriginal children in residential schools supported by the Canadian government but administered by religious organizations, including the Catholic Church. The commission described what happened to the children and their communities as “cultural genocide.”
Gravel said she expected the event to be more delicate. In a context where many groups demand more outspoken apologies from Pope Francis to the First Nations, and in which Catholic religious communities played an important role in the administration of residential schools, she wondered for a moment whether the Canadian Religious Conference would prefer not to venture too much into these issues.
“To avoid this, I wanted to make a festive gathering. We go to meet natives, eat native meals, discuss, pray,” she said. “It allows first steps to inspire. We did not want to delve into guilt.”
She said the Canadian Religious Conference eventually will try to organize activities in which more First Nations members will participate.
In the meantime, dozens of nuns and religious, as well as some laypeople, devoted March 10 to meeting indigenous people. Several of them already work side by side with First Nation peoples, whether in pastoral care, education or health.
Every year, Sister Renelle Lasalle, a member of the Sisters of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary, takes 40 teenagers from Granby, Quebec, to meet members of Abitibi’s Lac-Simon, Pikogan and Kitcisakik communities.
“I’ve been in Abitibi for seven years, and I learn every day. An event like today, it’s important for meeting people,” she said, noting that it took her decades to change her outlook on the First Nations. “I had no interest in them. Then I gradually changed. Today, I see how good they are.”
Of all the religious participants, only one person was of native descent. Lina Dubois works at the Har’el Bible Center in Saint-Augustin-de-Desmaures, Quebec. Although she has Abenaki roots, she said that was not necessarily what motivated her to travel to Wendake.
“Every time I come here, I feel good, as if it were my house or my roots. I wanted to know more about the native life, especially the Huron-Wendat Nation,” she explained. “It is a place where it is possible to exchange, to understand one another. The neighbor is not dangerous, he is rather rewarding. But it is not easy to let oneself be displaced and questioned by the other.”
The Canadian Religious Conference will hold a similar event at the Wabano Centre in Ottawa April 1.
Irish archbishop: St. Patrick was an ‘undocumented migrant’
Copyright ©2017 Catholic News Service/U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0022.json.gz/line1156
|
__label__wiki
| 0.71236
| 0.71236
|
Home » Exhibits + Collections » Swede Hollow
Swede Hollow
Jan 21, 2017 to Mar 05, 2017
"Swede Hollow" is a ravine on the east side of St. Paul, Minnesota. Today, it is like a haunting former industrial site overtaken by nature with a bike path running through it.
But in the 1800s and early 1900s, more than a thousand new immigrants, mostly Swedes, once gathered in this makeshift city. High infant mortality rates, a plethora of workplace accidents and other challenges prevented many from integrating into greater Minnesotan society. Resented by other immigrant groups who would later take their place in the ravine as the Swedes able to move upward, and kept distant by more well-off Swedish migrants, the names and histories of those who lived in Swede Hollow were erased along with the structures they once lived in. Now, there is a renewed interest in these lost stories.
Informed by the novel Swede Hollow (Albert Bonniers 2016) by Ola Larsmo, Sweden’s leading historical author, Swede Hollow, the exhibition, combines black and white images from Larsmo’s book with text excerpts translated into English from Swedish for the very first time.
Larsmo introduces us to a fictitious motley crew of people who lived in Swede Hollow in the winter of 1897. The names and stories gain new life in his novel. Meet the Klar Family who came from Orebro fleeing a disaster; David Lundgren, a helpless Swede chasing a lost and hopeless love; and the orphan Inga from Dalsland, Sweden, all seeking greater freedom and control over their own lives.
Ola Larsmo
Ola Larsmo began his writing career in 1983 with the novella Vindmakaren and has since published a selection of his essays in literary collections and in the short story collection called muteness. Larsmo’s later novels are often set against a historical background, using documentary elements to further enhance the plots.
In addition to his writing, Larsmo works as a cultural journalist and social commentator, mainly in Dagens Nyheter. From 1985 to 1990 he was the editor of Bonniers Literary Magazine. In 1991 he was awarded the Göteborgs-Posten Literature Award.
Free for members.
Admission info for non-members.
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0022.json.gz/line1158
|
__label__wiki
| 0.861067
| 0.861067
|
When the World’s Biggest Ships Meet the World’s Skinniest Straits
by Sarah Laskow June 04, 2015
MSC Oscar, the world’s largest container ship (Photo: MSC OSCAR & SVITZER NARI/WikiCommons CC BY-SA 2.0)
On the morning of March 22, 2014, the coast of Galveston, Texas, was covered in fog. In this port city, huge ships regularly glide by each other through narrow slips of water, but this morning the visibility was so low, pilots had stopped boarding their deep draft vessels. As the fog began to clear, though, the Miss Susan started moving, with two barges loaded with 1.9 million gallons of fuel oil in tow behind it.
The boat’s captain, Kelli Hartman, was headed through an area called the Texas City Y, where a few channels meet and ships pass between Galveston and Goat Islands, connecting the ports to the Gulf of Mexico. She knew the Summer Wind, a 607-foot-long bulk freighter, was out there, even if it was still too foggy to see. Although her boat was relatively small—just 70 feet in length—the barges behind it stretched another 600 feet. But, as she later testified during a government investigation, she had calculated that she had plenty of time to cross.
When she looked back at her Automatic Identification System, which automatically tracks the location of nearby ships, she saw, though, that the Summer Wind was speeding up. At 12:31, Hartman got in touch.
“How do I look to you on your plotter?” she asked.
“Well, if you keep on going, I’m gonna get you,” replied the Summer Wind’s Captain Mike Pizzitola. “Because right now I’m less than three quarters of a mile from you.”
“Alright, well, shit, I’m glad I called you here,” Hartman said. The two ships began to negotiate. Could the Summer Wind cut back? It could, “but that still ain’t gonna stop her,” Pizzitola said. The ships were already too close to each other. They were on course to collide.
“I don’t know what to tell you cause, man, it’s close,” Pizzitola said.
“I’m backing her hard, Captain,” Hartman said.
“Keep on doing it, skipper, keep on doing it.”
“I’m looking at you now, and it don’t look good.”
“Yeah, it don’t look good. You need to keep on backing it down as hard as you can…”
At 12:35, the Summer Wind collided with one of the barges the Miss Susan was towing.
Both the Summer Wind and the Miss Susan, counting the barges, were longer than two football fields. When vessels like this run into each other, it looks almost like it’s happening in slow motion, the giant hulks floating inexorably towards each other. Even if they’re moving slowly, these ships have such bulk that they’re difficult to stop: A large ship might need more than 2 miles. And as ships keep getting bigger and the stakes keep getting higher, the question becomes not why did this collision happen, but why don’t more ships collide? What is keeping these giant vessels in their invisible lanes?
In the past decade, the ships that make up the network of global economic trade have become gigantic—both in their maximum size and in the number of boats. The largest ships plying the oceans now can be as long as four football fields, and can carry twice as much cargo as just 10 years ago. In the past 50 years, according to the insurance company Allianz, the carrying capacity of cargo ships has increased by 1,200 percent.
The world’s shipping fleet numbers more than 100,000; in 2014, the industry lost 75 large ships, mostly to “foundering”—sinking—but also to groundings and fires. From 2005 to 2014, there were 1,271 ships lost; 113 of those losses were directly related to collisions. Not all collisions lead to losses, just as not all car crashes total the car: the collision between the Summer Wind and the Miss Susan led to two injuries and 168,000 gallons of spilled oil, but not to the loss of the ships. Shipping’s still a relatively dangerous profession to be in, but since 2005, losses have decreased by half, and while a century ago, every 1 out of 100 ships sunk, now it’s only 1 out of every 670.
Keeping the world’s oceans safe requires new regulation and specialized technology, as more and more giant ships move through the ocean. Once, it seemed like there was so much space in the world’s waters that ships didn’t need any system avoid collisions. But that changed on another foggy day, in 1854.
The position of collision between the ships Arctic and Vesta (Image: Public Domain/WikiCommons)
The SS Arctic was a good ship. When it was built, it had been subsidized by the U.S. government, which wanted an American ship that could carry mail across the Atlantic at least as well as the dominant British fleet. And the Arctic had delivered: It had crossed the Atlantic, heading east, faster than any other ship in the world. It was a paddle steamer, with a wooden hull and a wheel on its side, and could carry 280 passengers and 150 crew members. When it left Liverpool, in September of 1854, it was packed full with both people and cargo.
The crossing of the Atlantic went smoothly enough, but as the Arctic skirted the Newfoundland coast, on its way to New York, a heavy fog descended. It was impossible to see more than three-quarters of a mile away, and then, all of a sudden, another boat—the Vesta—appeared. The Arctic went hard starboard. But it was already too late: the bows of the two boats collided.
Normally, as the larger ship, the Arctic would have had the better of a crash. But the smaller Vesta had an iron hull, and made it back to port. The Arctic went down, and in the chaos, the crew pushed ahead of passengers into the lifeboats. Even the captain, who went down with the ship, survived, but 322 people—mostly passengers—died.
This crash is usually pinpointed as the moment when the public first starting thinking about regulating shipping. In the newspapers, editorials called for more lifeboats, and better ways of moving people off of sinking ships. But the US Navy and the Hydrographic Office’s Bureau of Navigation cited the crash as a reason to create sea lanes—known paths that ships would follow, in order to avoid crashing into each other.
“Men inquired of each other if science or ingenuity could not advise means or invent plans for preventing the recurrence of similar accidents, or, in the case of their recurrence, of providing against the terrible loss of life which attended the foundering of that noble ship,” an 1873 government report explained. Of “those plans which tend to prevent accident…the lanes were most inviting.”
It took decades, though, for anyone to agree on how international shipping lanes would work. For the most part, the ships moving around the globe don’t see each other. Even today, in the open ocean, “the density of traffic is probably more comparable to car traffic in Inner Mongolia or the Sahara,” says Volker Bertram, an engineer and expert for DNV GL, a maritime research and consulting firm. In the late 19th century, mostly the government left the decisions about how ships moved up to the private companies that dominated the sea (with a little nudging). It took until 1889 to create an international agreement on how ships should communicate with each other, and it wasn’t until 1898 that five large transatlantic shipping companies voluntarily signed onto an agreement that created sea lanes.
These lanes, which have been updated since then, change somewhat seasonally and, though they’re tied to weather and currents, as a rule, they’re simply the shortest route between ports. Although sea lanes are useful, in modern shipping, the more pressing problem is what happens when the ships come closer into ports or pass through narrow straits, where congestion begins to build up. Then, the ships need to watch out for each other.
There are certain spots in the world where shipping traffic becomes more problematic than others. Just three maritime regions, Allianz found, accounted for almost half of the shipping industry’s losses between 2005 and 2014—the waters around South China and Indonesia; the eastern Mediterranean and Black Sea; and the region around Japan, Korea, and North China.
“Think of it as driving on busy congested urban commuter routes or open country roads. You have a lot more traffic accidents on the Long Island Expressway or the DC Beltway than I-40 in Arizona,” says Captain Andrew Kinsey, a senior marine risk consultant for Allianz. “The combination of deep sea shipping traffic, combined with coastal traffic and the fishing fleets can create very confusing traffic situations. Combine that with confined waters, less room to safely maneuver, and you have an increase in loss.”
Shipping’s a much older form of transportation than cars or planes, but it’s lagged behind those more modern modes in organized traffic management. There is, for instance, a type of vessel traffic system that’s analogous to air traffic control, but right now it’s not standard at every port in the way that air traffic control is a feature of any airport. It wasn’t until the 1960s that the most congested waterways started introducing “traffic separation schemes” to create clear navigational paths for ships. (The first one was in the Dover Strait, the narrowest part of the English Channel.) And it wasn’t until 1972 that the International Maritime Organization, the U.N. agency responsible for maritime safety, created a set of rules specifically aimed at preventing collisions at sea.
Around the same time, the shipping industry first started relying more heavily on technology that identified that location and speed of ships to keep them safe. Automatic radar plotting aid (ARPA) was developed in response to yet another ship collision on a foggy day; the Automatic Identification System, which depends on ships within a short range broadcasting data to each other, came along in the 1990s (but wasn’t required until the early 2000s). Since that time, as well, there have been commercially available collision avoidance systems—but those aren’t required for all ships, and not all have them. “A lot of people don’t buy them,” says DNV-GL’s Bertram. Think of it in a car context, he suggests: “If we were to make seat belts optional, would people pay to add them?”
Essentially, these technologies increase the number of navigational tools available to people steering ships. But they’re far from foolproof. In the collision between the Summer Wind and the Miss Susan, AIS gave some warning that a problem was developing but didn’t prevent the collision altogether.
“The old adage that was continually repeated to in my training was: The prudent mariner will not rely solely on any single aid to navigation,” says Allianz’s Kinsey.
The 2014 collision between the Richmers Dubai and the Walcon Wizard, a crane barge, in the Dover Strait Traffic Separation Scheme is widely seen as an example of why electronic navigation aids aren’t enough. Just before 2 a.m., on a January night, the officer of the watch on the Richmers Dubai was depending on AIS to guide him around the Kingston, the boat towing the barge. But neither that boat nor Walcon Wizard were broadcasting over the system. The Richmers Dubai plowed into the barge and caught the towline, and began towing the Kingston, stern first, down the strait. The problem here was simple—the officer of the watch had not been keeping a proper lookout, the subsequent investigation found. If he had relied on simpler tools—his eyes—the collision would likely have been avoided.
Still, the shipping industry is looking towards increasing its dependence on automatic navigation technology. This past year, the IMO completed an “e-navigation Strategic Implementation Plan” that aims to improve the use and integration of systems like AIS and ARRA with electronic charts and improve the exchange of data between ships. Already, in the past century, crews have shrunk from hundreds of people down to a few dozen—one person can run a ship’s bridge. If driverless cars are the future of the road, driverless ships are part of the future of the high seas. DNV-GL has developed a concept for a unmanned, zero-emission vessels that could move along the coast autonomously and it’s only a matter of time before a ship without a crew takes to the water.
In the immediate future, though, avoiding collisions in shipping will mean relying on a combination of human judgment and increasingly accurate navigation technology. “We also have to accept that there is no 100 percent of guaranteed safety,” says Bertram. “Not in cars, not in airplanes, not in shipping.” In shipping, as the actual vessels become Hulk-like, there may be ever more cargo at risk, but, with shrinking crews, fewer lives in danger—ultimately, shipping is safer than it’s ever been, and only getting more so.
Welcome to Atlas Obscura Video
shipyardsshipwrecksshipsoceanstransportation
Another Piece of Lusitania Has Been Rediscovered and Raised
The ill-fated ship's engine order telegraph was found, then lost, then found.
Kelsey Kennedy July 31, 2017
These Mesmerizing Videos of Ships Going Through Storms Will Turn You Into a Landlubber for Life
Jeremy Berke September 02, 2015
For Sale: A Titanic Survivor's Light-Up Cane
Ella White's battery-powered crutch guided her lifeboat to safety in 1912—and is now at the center of a family feud.
Sabrina Imbler July 15, 2019
Two Dutch Shipwrecks From WWII Just Vanished Near Malaysia
They were probably plundered by looters hunting for scrap metal.
For Sale: 300-Year-Old 'Shipwreck Wine' Rescued From the Bottom of the Sea
It may still be safe to drink.
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0022.json.gz/line1162
|
__label__wiki
| 0.630034
| 0.630034
|
Lessons from the World Cup: Brazil and Beyond
In Brasilia, the Mané Garrincha stadium will be used for the World Cup. (AP Photo)
Richard André / U.S. News & World Report
In less than a week, the 2014 FIFA World Cup kicks off in Sao Paulo, Brazil, marking the tournament's return to soccer-crazy South America for the first time in 36 years. More than 600,000 foreign tourists are preparing to descend on 12 host cities, as the rest of the world anxiously awaits the month-long fútbol frenzy.
But the feeling among Brazilians is more conflicted. Brazil has struggled to prepare and meet deadlines for the tournament, as the media has been relentlessly reminding everyone. Massive anti-government street protests; delayed construction at several stadia; unfinished transportation infrastructure in Cuiaba, Salvador, Recife, and elsewhere; and striking bus drivers and police forces have all attracted a lot of bad press before the first ball is kicked. Despite politicians' assurances otherwise, the discontent is real: 61 percent of Brazilians view hosting the event as a bad thing because it takes money away from public services like health care and education.
But before we judge Brazil too harshly as a World Cup failure and conclude that developing countries have no business hosting events of this scale, it's important to acknowledge that the benefits of having such nations host the World Cup are real — both to the country itself and to FIFA, the cup's governing body....
Read the full article in U.S. News & World Report's online opinion section.
Related: Brazil, Infrastructure Development | More In: Articles & Op-Eds
Issues/ Infrastructure Development
Fracking in Colombia: For Real This Time?
Colombia’s oil reserves are dwindling. President Duque sees fracking as a possible solution.
Countries/ Brazil
He's the Rush Limbaugh of Brazil. He has Bolsonaro's ear. And he lives in rural Virginia.
"What he has been selling has been deeply influenced by the fact that he lives in rural Virginia," said AS/COA's Brian Winter about Olavo de... Read More
Briefing of New Index: Latin America's Capacity to Combat Corruption
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0022.json.gz/line1167
|
__label__wiki
| 0.908498
| 0.908498
|
THE PURGE #90
December 5, 2015 by auspOp
• Welcome to The Purge Saturday edition! US pop duo Chairlift will release their new album ‘Moth’ on January 22. The LP’s release is preceded by new single ‘Romeo‘, which frontwoman Caroline Polachek says was inspired by studying fine arts. “I started studying opera two years ago, and immediately fell in love with Handel,” she says. “I tried to channel that same stately, baroque feeling in the chorus of ‘Romeo’.”
• Australian pop favourites Samantha Jade and Nathaniel have come together to inject a little cheer into this festive season, revealing a cover version of Mariah Carey’s ‘All I Want For Christmas Is You’. The pair will be performing the track at this year’s Carols In The Domain on Saturday December 19. Fans can get their hands on the single from Friday December 11.
• The gang at Spotify have done the calculations and they’ve concluded that Drake is the most popular artist in the world – at least via their streaming service, anyway. The ‘Hotline Bling’ star tops the list of most streamed artist on Spotify for 2015, while Australians are seemingly in streaming love with Ed Sheeran (he’s also the most streamed artist of all time. The most streamed Australian artist, meantime, is Sia, who also picked up the Most Streamed Australian Song of 2015; ‘Elastic Heart’.
• Vance Joy has added a second Sydney show to his forthcoming ‘Fire An The Flood’ tour. With tickets selling like hotcakes for his original date at the Opera House Concert Hall on Sunday April 24, Frontier Touring have moved swiftly to add a second show at the same venue the following night. Tickets are on sale now.
• The Brand New Heavies – along with the gorgeous N’Dea Davenport – will be back in Australia early in the new year for shows at two of the country’s newest outdoor venues. The soul outfit will play at the Yarra Valley Estate in Victoria on February 20, and will drop in at Calais Estate in the Hunter Valley the following day. Tickets are on sale now.
• An alcohol-free event entitled ‘Tomorrow’s People’ will tour Australia in January, giving the all-ages audiences the chance to catch some of Australia’s most sought-after up and coming artists on the same bill. Dylan Joel, E^st, Kilter and UV Boi will entertain punters at shows in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Central Coast, Wollongong, Byron Bay, Geelong and Ballarat from the middle of next month. Tickets are on sale now.
• Justin Bieber has been knocked from the No.1 spot on the UK singles chart this week… by himself. ‘Love Yourself’ overtakes ‘Sorry’ to claim the No.1 crown, with his previous hit ‘What Do You Mean?’ still holding on to No.4, just behind Adele. The great story this week, however, is for Australia’s own Grace. Conrad Sewell’s little sister had a big No.1 hit here with her cover of Leslie Gore’s ‘You Don’t Own Me’ and she’s now bagged UK success, bulleting from a No.44 debut to No.4.
• Wouldn’t you know it? Adele’s still firing in the No.1 spot on the UK albums chart this week with ’25’. In fact, apart from a No.10 debut for The Vamps’ new album ‘Wake Up’, the top ten is a pretty quiet affair. The Corrs are back in chart action at No.11 with their new album ‘White Light’ (still no mention of an Australian release for those playing along at home), while Il Divo brings a little ‘Amor & Pasion’ to the No.13 spot on debut.
• ‘Hello’! That’s the sound of Adele still bellowing from atop the US singles chart. ‘Hello’ maintains its position for a fifth straight week and is closing in on the magical three million mark. In fact, it has to be said that the US singles chart is looking relatively steady this week with no massive moves in the top 20. Adele’s ‘When We Were Young’ is clearly finding fabour amongst her audience. It debuted at No.22.
• It’s bizarre, but Adele’s album is only now debuting on top of the US Billboard albums chart, having comfortably smashed pretty much every sales record there was to be smashed. She’s ahead of Justin Bieber and One Direction, while there’s a debut at No.4 from Jadakiss’ ‘Top 5 Dead Or Alive’. The ‘Empire : Season 2′ soundtrack is new at No.16 and Adele’s ’19’ leaps into the No.20 position, joining ’25’ (No.1) and ’21’ (No.9) in the top 20.
• That’s all for your Saturday edition of The Purge. But to find out what the Australian charts will bring to your Saturday night, be with us from 6pm AEDT as we bring you Chart Watch!
TICKETS PLEASE
TUESDAY DECEMBER 08 : City And Colour (Sydney)
TUESDAY DECEMBER 08 : Hilltop Hoods (Nationally)
WEDNESDAY DECEMBER 09 : Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds (Nationally)
THURSDAY DECEMBER 10 : Atlantis (Sydney, Melbourne)
FRIDAY DECEMBER 11 : Troye Sivan (Sydney, Perth)
Filed Under: The Purge Featuring: Brand New Heavies, Nathaniel, Samantha Jade
Previous Post: « RACHEL PLATTEN ALBUM LOCKED
Next Post: TROYE SIVAN RESCHEDULES SHOWS »
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0022.json.gz/line1168
|
__label__wiki
| 0.79264
| 0.79264
|
Pakistan National Successfully Contests Lawfulness of Immigration and Nationality Act
In the case of Mahvash Akram v. Eric Holder, Ms. Akram argued that the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA) was poorly constructed and did not accurately represent the intent of the U.S. Congress. Due to its inordinate complexity, INA prevented Akram from obtaining a visa. Akram contested the legal basis for her removal orders which the immigration judge and the Board of Immigration Appeals rejected. After appealing her removal proceedings decision to Seventh Circuit, Court of Appeals, Akram’s removal orders were nullified.
As a longtime practitioner of immigration law, I fully understand that this particular system is often beyond the comprehension of even the most intellectually gifted. Many of the laws that govern immigration have been added through decades of changing cultural and social notions, with a myriad of considerations for political relationships with other countries. When a case like Akram v. Holder occurs, it is both surprising and gratifying to see that the judicial system still adheres to logic and justice.
Akram is a native of Pakistan, whose mother married a U.S. citizen, Farhan Siddique. At the time of the marriage, Akram was 18. Siddique requested K visas for his new bride and her two children and submitted I-130 petitions for permanent residency on their behalves. While Akram’s mother and younger sister receive K visas for temporary residence as well as successful I-130 petition decisions, Akram only received a temporary visa. Because she was 18 at the time of the marriage, she could not legally be considered a minor child of Siddique.
This legal inconsistency can be attributed to INA. While K visas may be granted to minor children of citizens or K-3 visa holders, who are younger than 21 years of age, I-130 petitions may only be granted to stepchildren of U.S. citizens younger than 18. Akram entered the U.S. on a legal K-4 visa, but was scheduled for removal after it was discovered that she had overstayed.
In her arguments for adjustment to legal resident, Akram contended that Congress did not intend to bar step children from obtaining legal status. She presented the category of children of fiancés who are granted much more latitude from immigration authorities, while children of new spouses must satisfy a much narrower set of restrictions. She also argued that her mother, who is now a legal resident, should be able to petition for an I-130 on Akram’s behalf.
The Seventh Circuit agreed with Akram by demonstrating that Congress’ intent was not as narrow as immigration authorities have interpreted. Using Chevron, the Seventh Circuit agreed that leniency to children of fiancés would not have been greater than those of spouses. The purpose of K visas is to allow immediate family entry while waiting for legal status, thus the added restrictions imposed by immigration authorities is too strict an interpretation.
As an immigration attorney, I am delighted to witness a successful challenge to a cumbersome and illogical law. Akram v. Holder is an outstanding example of a worthy legal case that righted a longstanding wrong.
Lyttle Law Firm, PLLC, is always eager to take up cases that can improve the legal system. If you would like an opinion on your legal case, please contact us at (512) 215-5225.
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0022.json.gz/line1169
|
__label__cc
| 0.576344
| 0.423656
|
O’Hare Airport’s Rental Center Set for 2018 Completion
April 12, 2016 • by Staff
Chicago O’Hare International Airport’s new car rental facility is set to open at the end of 2018, according to a report by Journal Online. Once completed, the facility will house 13 car rental brands.
“Construction continues on all aspects of the Joint Use Consolidated Rental Car Facility and Airport Transit System (ATS) extension, and the completion date remains to be by the end of 2018,” Karen Pride, Chicago Dept. of Aviation spokesperson, told Journal Online.
This project will consolidate rental car companies and public parking into one multi-level structure, says the report. A new Airport Transit System will connect the rental car facility to the airport terminals.
The 4.5-million-square-foot facility will have nine levels on the 33-acre site, according to the report. The structure will include 4,200 rental car parking spots on the first three floors, a first-floor customer lobby, and space for over 2,600 public parking spaces.
The facility will help to reduce traffic and increase transit ease and accessibility for travelers, says the report.
Austin Power Partners, a joint venture made up of Austin Commercial, Power Construction, and minority partner Ujamaa Construction, was awarded the rental car and parking facility construction project.
Click here for the full Journal Online report.
Read more about Airport Rentals Consolidated Rental Facility Airports
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0022.json.gz/line1172
|
__label__wiki
| 0.529915
| 0.529915
|
Home » News » Car News » 2018 BMW X7 Teased In A Leaked Image
2018 BMW X7 Teased In A Leaked Image
By Shivank Bhatt | on March 23, 2016
BMW's forthcoming X7 teased in a leaked image. The flagship SUV is expected to go on sale around 2018.
As reported previously, BMW is working on an all-new flagship SUV. The new large SUV will become the company’s longest ‘sports activity vehicle’, and there’s no prize for guessing its name - it will be called the X7. While the X7 is likely to go on sale around 2018, a teaser image of the vehicle has surfaced on the internet, giving us the first look of the new SUV from Bavaria.
BMW confirmed the development of the X7 in 2014. A year later, test mules of the vehicle were spotted undergoing real-world tests in some parts of Europe. The X7 will be underpinned by BMW’s latest RWD architecture – CLAR (Cluster Architecture). The new 7-Series is based on the same platform, while the next-gen models of the 3,5,6, X3, X5 etc., will also be underpinned by this architecture. Since it’ll be the biggest BMW SUV upon its launch, it will be a 7-seater.
There hasn’t been any update regarding the powertrain options that will be made available on the forthcoming vehicle. Expect it to come with a range of six- and eight-cylinder petrol and diesel engines along with four-wheel drive. Expect a high-performance ‘M’ derivative of the X7 as well, likely to feature the 4.4-litre twin-turbo V8 from the current X5 M and X6 M.
The BMW X7 will be produced at the company’s manufacturing unit at Spartanburg in USA. Given its size and stature, the X7 will be aimed mainly at luxury car buyers in markets like China, USA etc. That should also find many takers in a market like India. When launched, the BMW X7 will be pitched against the likes of the Mercedes-Benz GLS-Class, etc.
Tags: BMW BMW X7
BMW reduces engine production in the UK amid Brexit uncertainty
New BMW 3 Series to be launched on 21st August
2019 BMW X6 makes global debut
2020 BMW S 1000 RR Review: First Ride
2020 BMW S 1000 RR Photos
2020 BMW S 1000 RR launched at ₹ 18.5 lakh
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0022.json.gz/line1173
|
__label__wiki
| 0.656937
| 0.656937
|
Giving Directions
New Approach to Consumer Finance Reform
Permit Rulemaking but not Enforcement? Millions of American Teenagers Ask Republicans to Adopt Them
Help Ensure that the Consumer Finance Protection Agency Can Enforce Its Own Rules (Including for Car Dealers)
Reform of the regulations (or lack of regulations) that helped create the recent finanical crisis has passed the House of Representatives and is now stalled in the Senate Banking Committee.
One key stumbling block is the creation of a new Consumer Finance Protection Agency. While one group of conservatives is opposed to the new agency altogether, another is willing to see it created, as long as it is housed in the Federal Reserve Bank.
A recent Frontline documentary reported that former Federal Reserve Chair Alan Greenspan told former Commodity Futures Trading Commission Chair Brooksley Born that he didn't believe that fraud was something that needed to be enforced or was something that regulators should worry about.
And the Federal Reserve is where an anti-fraud effort should be housed?
Oh, and some Senate Republicans are willing to live with giving the CFPA rulemaking authority but not authority of enforcement.
Luckily, Senate Banking Committee Chair Chris Dodd (D-CT) is likely to produce a more progressive draft, one that is particularly mindful of enforcement of non-mortgage, non-bank lenders like car dealers.
In the version of the legislation that passed the House, auto dealers, which originated some $700 million in outstanding debt in 2009, won a "carve out" that exempted them from the agency's rulemaking altogether.
Initially, it seemed that the Senate would include similar exemptions. But Dodd's forthcoming draft may empower the CFPA to crackdown on non-mortgage, non-bank lenders after all.
Do you believe in an independent Consumer Financial Protection Agency with rulemaking power AND the power of enforcement? Please contact Senate Banking Committee Chair Chris Dodd and encourage him to establish an independent CFPA with enforcement power over both banks and non-mortgage, non-bank lenders. Then let your Senator know that he or she should pass the bill produced by Dodd's committee.
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0022.json.gz/line1175
|
__label__cc
| 0.615829
| 0.384171
|
Home Free College Football Picks 2013 Oregon Arizona CFB Pick
Oregon Arizona CFB Pick
Neither one of these teams are riding much of a hot streak, but the trust on betting Oregon these days is starting to fade. The Ducks haven’t covered in three of their last Four Games and opened as just -17.5 point favorites on the road at Arizona. After the Wildcats most recent loss, the line has shot up to as high as Oregon -21 at 5dimes.com and their betting trends show that 98% of the wagers taken thus far on the Game have come in on the Ducks.
The Wildcats haven’t been considered that bad of a team this year, and was even a favorite a couple weeks ago against UCLA. Unfortunately for them, they don’t have any outstanding Conference wins and after losing to Washington State last weekend, it doesn’t look like they’ll finish with a better record than last year.
After Oregon made it a regularity as usual of blowing out teams in their first six Games, they’ve fallen back a little bit lately. Everyone knows about the loss at Stanford, but allowing 38 points to Washington State and struggling with Utah last Saturday are a bit worrisome for backers, although the public is still all over them.
OUtside of the Stanford Game, Oregon hasn’t had many problems on the road. And since Stanford just lost, the Ducks are in line to win the Pac-12 North.
De’Anthony Thomas has returned to the backfield, but he isn’t exactly getting a full dosage these days as Byron Marshall and Thomas Tyner both excelled in his absence. No matter, the Ducks have three viable RBs to use plus Marcus Mariota, which leads one of the top rushing units in the nation with 40 touchdowns as a group. Mariota has been flawless in the passing Game as well for the most part, with 25 touchdowns and zero interceptions. Speedster receivers Josh Huff and Bralon Addison are tough to stop in this offense.
Arizona has lost two straight home Games so that shouldn’t have an effect here. The Wildcats haven’t exactly been blown out this year, which is something they couldn’t say last year. Stopping Oregon will be something else, but this defense is part of the reason the line isn’t higher.
The Wildcats will need some better offense than what they put on the field last weekend against the Cougars. Running back Ka’Deem Carey can’t do it all for Arizona and it shows on the scoreboard. He has 13 TDs on the year and has yet to rush for fewer than 119 yards. Quarterback B.J. Denker is lacking a bit in the passing Game. Often better on his feet, Denker is only attempting 6.19 yards on each pass which is rather low considering he’s completing less than 60 percent of his passes. If they can Scoremore than 20 points here, it would be a success because it’s tough to beat Oregon with a run-heavy attack, especially if you go down early.
The Ducks dominated this matchup last year winning 49-0 at home. The last time Arizona beat Oregon was back in 2007.
The Ducks are still 14-4 ATS in their last 18 Games and 7-1 ATS in their last eight road Games. The Wildcats are 2-5-1 ATS in their last eight Games and also 2-5-1 ATS in their last eight home Games. The over has hit Four of the last five times these teams have played.
Best way to go in this one might be with the total. Oregon has scored 42+ in all but one Game this year while Arizona has shown that not only can they give up a lot of points, they can also score. We’ll go over 67.5 in a Game that should see plenty of fireworks.
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0022.json.gz/line1176
|
__label__wiki
| 0.981996
| 0.981996
|
Africa selected
'I want to change the images of Nigeria' Jump to media player Dayo Adedayo has taken four million images of Nigeria.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/world-africa-48875684/i-want-to-change-nigeria-s-narrative-through-photos
Accra's Instagram artist on capturing life Jump to media player Ghanaian Prince Gyasi takes stunning photos of Accra using only his phone.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/world-africa-47585593/prince-gyasi-instagram-photographer-on-capturing-accra-life
'I started taking pictures when I was four' Jump to media player Nigerian seven-year-old Moyinoluwa Oluwaseun is making her name as a photographer.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/world-africa-46280338/nigerian-seven-year-old-photographer-on-mastering-the-camera
Photographing hip hop's biggest stars Jump to media player Nigerian-born Chi Modu on why documenting black musicians is so important.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/world-africa-46567585/chi-modu-has-photographed-hip-hop-s-biggest-artists
Meet the 11-year-old creating hyper-real art Jump to media player Nigerian artist Kareem Waris Olamilekan is inspired by Arinze and Michelangelo.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/world-africa-44637256/kareem-waris-olamilekan-a-young-nigerian-artist-with-grand-plans
Unsung hero of West African photography Jump to media player For more than 50 years, Sory Sanle has worked as a photographer in Burkina Faso's second city, Bobo-Dioulasso.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/world-africa-41518621/unsung-hero-of-west-african-photography
'I want to change Nigeria's narrative through photos'
A Nigerian photographer who says he has taken more than four million images of the country says he wants to document more of West Africa.
Dayo Adedayo says he is using his craft to create a different narrative about the country he loves.
He has written nine books on the history and culture of Nigeria.
Video journalist: Grace Ekpu.
Go to next video: Accra's Instagram artist on capturing life
World Sections
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0022.json.gz/line1181
|
__label__wiki
| 0.600159
| 0.600159
|
Learn all about the Fellowship Award — including how to submit a nomination, how the selection process works, and what terms and conditions the recipients must follow.
Learn about the 2019 recipients of the Fellowship and Governor’s Awards.
The Fellowship Award provides financial support to academics who are recognized for their expertise and research in areas important to the Bank's core functions.
The award consists of:
a research grant of $50,000 per year per recipient
a research expense allowance of $40,000 per year per recipient, for related research expenses and for research assistants
a sum of $5,000 for the university for administration of the award funds
The award is for a term of up to five years, and is subject to an annual review and confirmation process.
The nomination period for the 2020 Fellowship Program Awards will be open from September 1 to November 30, 2019.
There is no limit to the number of candidates a university can nominate for the Fellowship Award.
Universities may nominate award recipients for a second term.
Fellowship Award nominees are required to:
be Canadian citizens, permanent residents of Canada, or be otherwise legally permitted to work in Canada
conduct and support research in Canada (nominations where the preponderance of the research is in Canada could also be considered)
have obtained a PhD
be employed by a Canadian university in a tenure or tenure-track position during the term of the Fellowship Award
Eligible nominees will be considered by the Fellowship Nominating Committee (see Terms of Reference). This Committee provides recommendations to the Bank's Governing Council who will make the final decision.
The selection criteria used to assess eligible nominations includes:
excellence and innovation in the nominee’s work, as indicated by publications of refereed and other articles as well as citations and references (i.e., commentaries/critiques); other research outputs; awards; recognition by peers
the letter of support by the university
applicability to Bank of Canada policy development and/or research, as indicated in a match of the nominee's written work and research plan with Bank plans and priorities; and as expressed in the nomination materials
potential to continue to achieve recognition as a leader in the specified fields as indicated by consistent high-quality work in publications and presentations
potential to contribute to the education and development of new researchers
The award recipient will be announced in March.
Recipient Terms and Conditions
Recipients of the Fellowship Award will be required to abide by the following terms and conditions. More detailed information will be provided to recipients and their nominating universities.
Collaboration with Bank Researchers
Recipients are expected to collaborate periodically with Bank research staff by, for example, co-authoring papers, conducting seminars, commenting on research papers or proposals, etc.
Recipients are expected to participate in an annual Learning Exchange during the term of their award, at the Bank of Canada’s head office in Ottawa.
In 2019 the Learning Exchange will occur from May 7 to May 8.
Annual Review and Confirmation
The Fellowship Award is subject to an annual review and confirmation by the Bank’s Governing Council for the term of the award. This happens in the fall and includes providing an update of the recipient’s research plan. Recipients will be contacted by the Fellowship Secretariat with the requirements.
Dinner with the Board of Directors
In the fall of the first year of their Award, Fellowship award recipients are invited to a dinner with the Bank’s Board of Directors.
Canadian Economics Association Speech
Fellowship award recipients are required to speak at the Canadian Economics Association annual meeting one time during their Fellowship term.
Fellowship award recipients must grant permission to the Bank of Canada to publicly communicate their names and qualifications.
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0022.json.gz/line1186
|
__label__cc
| 0.697608
| 0.302392
| ERROR: type should be string, got "https://www.barrons.com/articles/PR-CO-20190613-905067\nBW Wire\nPMI Launches Online Hub Offering Inspiration to 'Unsmokers'\nJune 13, 2019 6:42 am ET\nLAUSANNE, Switzerland--(BUSINESS WIRE)--June 13, 2019--\nPhilip Morris International (PMI) today launches unsmokeyourworld.com, a new online hub for those that want to unsmoke themselves or their loved ones, their communities, or the world. The website aims to provide an inspiring and engaging place to help people kick-start their smoke-free journeys. The best way to unsmoke is to quit cigarettes and nicotine completely. For adult smokers that don't the next best option is to switch to a better alternative.\nA new survey conducted by Povaddo, commissioned by PMI, shows the potential to improve personal and social relationships by quitting cigarettes. Almost three-quarters--71 percent--of nonsmokers who are in a relationship with a smoking partner said they have had disagreements with their partner because he/she smokes cigarettes. The results showed even higher levels of disagreement in Israel, Italy and Russia, with 80 percent or more stating they have argued with their partner over smoking.\nHave you ever had a disagreement or argument with your partner\nor spouse because he/she smokes cigarettes?\nYes Russia U.K. U.S. Kong Israel Italy\n----- ------ ------ --------- ------ ------- -----------\n82% 63% 63% 67% 80% 87%\n------ ------ --------- ------ ------- -----------\nJapan Mexico Australia Brazil Denmark Germany\nBase: former and never smokers with a partner that smokes\nSmokers, however, were less likely to recognize the impact that smoking has on their relationships with loved ones, with just, on average, 36 percent of them acknowledging that smoking has caused arguments with their loved ones.\nMy smoking causes arguments with loved ones:\nStrongly/\nSomewhat Hong\nagree Russia U.K. U.S. Kong Israel Italy\n---------- ------ ------ --------- ------ ------- -------\n------ ------ --------- ------ ------- -------\n22% 43% 25% 62% 8% 22%\nBase: current and occasional smokers.\nFigures have been summed due to rounding\n\"This research shows the scale of the task ahead to help smokers understand the positive impact that unsmoking could have on their relationships,\" said Jacek Olczak, Chief Operating Officer, PMI. \"We believe that this type of insight should be made known to smokers so they can engage in a conversation and understand the benefits of getting behind the #unsmoke movement.\"\nAiming to unify communities toward a smoke-free world, PMI's unsmokeyourworld.com is an online hub where adult smokers and those that care about them can discover more about ways to unsmoke. The site shares stories of unsmoke heroes describing their smoke-free journeys and encourages readers to share their own stories.\nOlczak continues: \"Change comes from communities uniting behind a positive conversation, which is why we have created this place for people to come together and hear each other's stories for inspiration. This is an important new tool for adult smokers and those who care about them so they can access resources to inspire them to leave cigarettes behind.\"\nInteractive elements engage readers to understand the facts behind unsmoking and allows them to publicly get involved. Users can add an 'Unsmoke Your World' overlay to any image they want so they can show support on social media. They can also download and share a selection of gifs to celebrate unsmoke successes.\nSince April 2019, over 115,000 digital #unsmokeyourworld actions have taken place across the globe--ranging from individuals supporting the campaign on social media to engaging with digital content. PMI's is calling for people to take action and create a strong movement to an unsmoked world. For more information visit, unsmokeyourworld.com.\nAbout the Povaddo Survey\nThis survey was carried out 24 April-6 May, 2019, by Povaddo, a leading public opinion research firm, on behalf of Philip Morris International. The survey fielded a total of 16,099 online interviews among general population adults 21-74 years of age across 13 countries (Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Denmark, Germany, Hong Kong, Israel, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Russia, United Kingdom and United States). The survey carries an overall margin of error of +/- 1% at the 95 percent confidence interval.\nAbout #Unsmokeyourworld\nPMI is transforming its business and increasing awareness of the urgent need to become smoke-free as well as awareness of better alternatives for smokers who would otherwise continue to smoke. PMI is producing smoke-free products that are a better choice for smokers than continued cigarette smoking and can benefit public health.\n#Unsmoke is a PMI initiative to speed up an historic change in public health. Through the #unsmoke movement, we want to bring together a community of people who can accelerate this change by becoming advocates of the message that for smokers who would otherwise continue to smoke, there are better alternatives to choose from.\n#Unsmokeyourworld is a global conversation that inspires human stories--for the people, by the people.\nAbout Philip Morris International\nDelivering a Smoke-Free Future Philip Morris International (PMI) is leading a transformation in the tobacco industry to create a smoke-free future and ultimately replace cigarettes with smoke-free products to the benefit of adults who would otherwise continue to smoke, society, the company and its shareholders. PMI is a leading international tobacco company engaged in the manufacture and sale of cigarettes, smoke-free products and associated electronic devices and accessories, and other nicotine-containing products in markets outside the U.S. PMI is building a future on a new category of smoke-free products that, while not risk-free, are a much better choice than continuing to smoke. Through multidisciplinary capabilities in product development, state-of-the-art facilities and scientific substantiation, PMI aims to ensure that its smoke-free products meet adult consumer preferences and rigorous regulatory requirements. For more information, please visit http://www.pmi.com and www.pmiscience.com.\nCONTACT: David Fraser\nPhilip Morris International Media Office\nT. +41 (0)58 242 4500\nE. david.fraser@pmi.com\nSOURCE: Philip Morris International"
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0022.json.gz/line1187
|
__label__cc
| 0.597026
| 0.402974
|
Makers of “Jupiter Strong” African American Children’s Book Series Launch Kickstarter Campaign to Fund Future Animated Show
Charlotte, NC — The makers of the popular Jupiter Strong book series, which follows a young girl Jupiter on her many adventures, have launched a Kickstarter campaign entitled #TVTakeover to help fund a future animated television series.
The popular series for African American children, available in paperback and e-book, was created by Frank Edwards and Kelly Abel, who set out to make a high quality children’s book series that was able to be both educational and interesting. After much preparation, character building, and publishing, the first installment in the series was released entitled Jupiter Strong and the Lunch Lion.
The Jupiter Strong creators comment, “We loved the project and took great pride in our contribution to diverse children’s literature, but had no idea that our efforts would be so well received.” The “L0opsters” (a term of endearment for a Jupiter Strong fan) demanded a second installment in the series, and their demands were met. There are currently four Jupiter Strong books available, and the emails have begun flooding in from fans, demanding a television cartoon.
Frank Edwards and Kelly Abel hope to deliver a Jupiter Strong animated television series to their faithful “L0opsters.” They have created a Kickstarter campaign to help offset some of the costs associated with creating the new television series. The campaign is entitled #TVTakeover and officially launched on November 1 2014. They are planning to meet their goal of $26,000 by December 7 2014. With the help of the Kickstarter campaign, the pilot episode is marked for a November 2015 release.
The Jupiter Strong Kickstarter campaign offers many tiers of rewards depending on the amount that individuals are able to pledge. Donations of all amounts are appreciated and can range from $1 to $2500. One of the most anticipated rewards is the Jupiter Strong limited edition Jup’s Loops cereal and bowl set. This is the first time in world history that an African American cartoon girl character is featured on her own cereal box.
The “L0opsters” or Jupiter Strong fan base is ever growing and as of October 2014, the Jupiter Strong Facebook page had over 18,700 likes. With so much support coming from all over the world, it is expected that the #TVTakeover campaign will become extremely successful. Finally, entertainment and education meet while offering positive imagery of the African-American family! Be a part of history and pledge a donation today!
For more information regarding the #TVTakeover campaign, and to see the video everyone is talking about visit: www.kickstarter.com/projects/261912626/jupiter-strong-and-the-tv-takeover
To learn more about the Jupiter Strong book series visit: www.jupiterstrong.com.
Facebook: www.facebook.com/jupitersplace
Twitter: www.twitter.com/jupiter_strong
Frank Edwards
info@jupiterstrong.com
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0022.json.gz/line1189
|
__label__wiki
| 0.633462
| 0.633462
|
For Immediate Release, March 27, 2019
Contact: Laird Lucas, Advocates for the West, (208) 342-7024, llucas@advocateswest.org
Greta Anderson, Western Watersheds Project, (520) 623-1878, greta@westernwatersheds.org
Michael Saul, Center for Biological Diversity, (303) 915-8308, msaul@biologicaldiversity.org
Sarah McMillan, WildEarth Guardians (406) 549-3895, smcmillan@wildearthguardians.org
Acting Interior Secretary Bernhardt Sued for Gutting Sage Grouse Plans
Former Oil Industry Lobbyist Broke Federal Law, Groups Say
BOISE, Idaho― Conservation groups sued acting Interior Secretary David Bernhardt and the Bureau of Land Management in federal court today over their recent decisions to gut protections for greater sage grouse across millions of acres of public land in the West.
“The Trump administration is gutting sage-grouse protections on at least 50 million acres of public lands without admitting what they’re doing,” said Laird J. Lucas, lead attorney for the plaintiffs with Advocates for the West. “Today’s lawsuit exposes these actions as violating bedrock federal laws and flouting the extensive body of science on what sage grouse need to survive.”
Bernhardt, President Trump’s nominee to replace Ryan Zinke as Interior secretary, is a former lobbyist and attorney for oil and gas, coal mining and other industries. He’s been criticized for using his position to favor those industries, including by opening millions of acres of sensitive lands to fossil fuel development.
“We’ve tried to improve the 2015 plans by providing the agency with the best science and substantive recommendations,” said Greta Anderson, deputy director of Western Watersheds Project. “The loopholes and exemptions built into the earlier plans were vulnerable to being exploited, but now they’ve been expanded into all-out industry giveaways, backroom decision-making, and weakened habitat protections. It’s very discouraging to see these plans being weakened in light of still-declining populations.”
Greater sage grouse once occupied hundreds of millions of acres across the West, but populations have plummeted as oil and gas development, livestock grazing, roads and powerlines and other actions have destroyed and fragmented their native habitats. To avoid Endangered Species Act listing, the BLM and U.S. Forest Service adopted sage-grouse plans in 2015 that identified key areas for protection and limited development there.
Today’s lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court in Boise, identifies Bernhardt as the architect of recent policy changes adopted by the Trump administration to rescind or weaken the 2015 plans on BLM land in seven states with most of the remaining sage-grouse populations ― Idaho, Wyoming, Utah, Colorado, Nevada, California and Oregon.
“Trump and his oil-industry buddies have declared open season on the vanishing sage grouse and the West’s remaining sagebrush landscapes,” said Michael Saul, a senior attorney at the Center for Biological Diversity. “This administration can’t ignore the law, even if it wants to ignore science. We’ll do everything possible to keep this beloved bird off the path to extinction.”
The challenged plans created enormous loopholes that make it easier for fracking and drilling near the imperiled bird’s prime habitat. The lawsuit notes that these changes were sought by the oil and gas industry, beginning in July 2017, and that Bernhardt and BLM have misled the public about the nature and extent of the changes.
“We knew that this administration was deeply enmeshed with fossil fuel production, but we’re shocked that they are willing to sacrifice the sagebrush sea and the many plants and animals found there, not to mention to long-term impacts to climate disruption, while squandering public resources for private profit,” said Sarah McMillan, conservation director at WildEarth Guardians.
In 2016 the groups challenged the plans as not doing enough for sage grouse. The complaint filed today seeks to supplement that case to challenge the recent Trump administration rollbacks. The groups are represented by Advocates for the West, a nonprofit, public-interest law firm based in Boise.
As many as 16 million greater sage grouse once ranged across 297 million acres of sagebrush grasslands, a vast area of western North America known as the Sagebrush Sea.
Over the past 200 years, agriculture, oil and gas drilling, livestock grazing and development have reduced the grouse’s range by nearly half, and sage grouse populations have steadily declined. Today sage grouse are found in 11 western states: California, Colorado, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, North Dakota, Oregon, South Dakota, Utah, Washington and Wyoming.
The greater sage grouse is under threat because it is intensely loyal to particular areas, reliant on large expanses of intact sagebrush, and is especially sensitive to disturbance and habitat fragmentation. It also needs sufficient vegetation cover and nutrition to raise chicks, unaltered mating grounds called “leks” for reproduction, and sufficiently healthy winter habitat to survive the cold season.
Protecting the grouse and its habitat benefit hundreds of other species that depend on the Sagebrush Sea ecosystem, including pronghorn, elk, mule deer, golden eagle, native trout, and migratory and resident birds.
The BLM is responsible for managing about half of the remaining sage grouse habitat. After years of inaction and then prompted by a 2011 decision by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to list the bird for protection under the Endangered Species Act, the agency initiated sage-grouse protection planning.
This unprecedented five-year effort, led by the Department of the Interior, resulted in land-use plans with new measures to protect the bird. The Fish and Wildlife Service's decision not to list the greater sage grouse as endangered was predicated on the assumption that the public-land-management plans would be implemented and would reverse the decline of the grouse.
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0022.json.gz/line1191
|
__label__wiki
| 0.760627
| 0.760627
|
Tourism News / Organisations & Operators
VFS Global expands Russian visa services across Europe ahead of FIFA World Cup 2018
Saint Petersburg will welcome the Federations Cup to Russia later this year
In a move to enhance visa application services for travellers to Russia globally, VFS Global has launched Russia Visa Application Centres in 14 countries and 31 cities, many of them in Eastern and Western Europe, in the last seven months.
The centres are rolled out on behalf of the government of the Russian Federation’s ministry of foreign affairs, across Europe, Asia and the Middle East.
The Russia Visa Application Centre in Geneva, Switzerland, is the latest such centre to be opened.
Since June 2016, the company has launched similar well-appointed Visa Application Centres in Portugal, Poland, Czech Republic, Greece, Germany, Belgium, Austria, the Netherlands, Romania, Lithuania, Turkey, China, and the UAE.
All the centres are centrally located with staff that have multi-lingual (Russian and local language) capabilities to handle queries and applications.
For dissemination of information, VFS has set up dedicated websites for each location providing applicants with easy access to details about visa categories, requirements, checklist and applicable fees.
The rollouts come ahead of major sporting events scheduled this year and next, when inbound travel to the country is expected to rise significantly.
Russia is preparing to host the Confederations Cup later this year, a prelude to the FIFA World Cup in 2018.
The new centres will significantly improve accessibility and conveniences for travellers planning to travel to Russia.
VFS Global has been providing visa processing services for the government of the Russian Federation since 2009, and currently serves the government in 18 countries, including the United Kingdom, Finland, Singapore, and South Korea.
Anirudh Pratap Singh, head, UK & Europe, VFS Global, said: “Our long-standing partnership with our esteemed client government, the Russian Federation, over the last seven years, is reflective of the trust they have in us through this successful relationship.
“We are privileged to further extend our network for them and remain committed to providing comprehensive end-to-end visa services for applicants.”
Flybe to launch Jersey-Dusseldorf route on April
Carnival Horizon to offer Bermuda cruise holidays in summer 2018
russia fifa world cup 2018 vfs global
Thailand launches new electronic visa on arrival service
Skyscanner data reveals 600,000 fans travelled to FIFA World Cup in Russia
Ireland opens new visa application centre in United Arab Emirates
Celebrate the FIFA World Cup final with Fairmont Dubai
Ras Al Khaimah unveils FIFA World Cup sports lounge
Deer Jet launches FIFA World Cup 2018 travel itinerary
VFS rolls-out improved UK visa service for United States travellers
VFS Global extends visa partnerships with Croatia and Lithuania
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0022.json.gz/line1194
|
__label__cc
| 0.646312
| 0.353688
|
Seniors receive Honda-Ohio State Math Medal
Champaign County high school students who received Honda/OSU Partnership Math Medal Awards are, from left, Jennifer Sizemore, Triad; Jacob Molton, Urbana; Connor Glock, West Liberty-Salem; and Jacob Debuty, Mechanicsburg.
Four high-achieving Champaign County high school seniors received the Honda-OSU Math Medal Award from a partnership between Honda and The Ohio State University. The award recognizes the top senior mathematics student in 221 high schools in southwest and central Ohio.
The math medal winners from Champaign County are Jacob Debuty, Mechanicsburg; Connor Glock, West Liberty-Salem; Jacob Molton, Urbana; and Jennifer Sizemore, Triad.
This is the 13th anniversary of the Central Ohio region Math Medal Awards, presented by the Honda-OSU Partnership, a university-industry partnership that supports programs in education and research to benefit the transportation industry. This year 123 seniors from 15 counties in central Ohio received the award.
Honorees attended the Central Ohio region ceremony on Nov. 3 at Honda of America in Marysville. Recognized as their school’s top math student in the Class of 2017, each student received a pewter math medal, plaque and $100 gift card from Honda and Ohio State’s College of Engineering.
“Math is the foundation for so many of our advancements, particularly the kind of advancements a technology-driven company like Honda needs,” Honda-OSU Partnership Co-director Mike Wiseman said at the ceremony. “Companies like Honda will always need strong math skills as we look toward our future workforce.”
In addition, the award comes with a $3,000 scholarship opportunity at Ohio State’s College of Engineering for the 2017-2018 academic year. Over the past 12 years, 172 Central Ohio region math medal recipients have gone on to receive the $3,000 scholarship.
“This award serves to recognize students who excel in the fields of math and science, skills that are in high demand in today’s workforce,” said David B. Williams, dean, Ohio State College of Engineering. “We applaud these young individuals for their hard work, and hope they will develop their talents as future Buckeye Engineers.”
The Honda-Ohio State Partnership is a unique collaboration between Ohio State and Honda that supports initiatives in education, research and public service to positively impact students, faculty, public and private sector practitioners, and the transportation industry as a whole.
Honda operates two auto plants, an engine plant and a transmission plant in Ohio, along with a major vehicle research and development center and engineering, logistics and purchasing operations. With 13,500 associates, Honda is one of Ohio’s largest private employers.
Ohio State’s College of Engineering places 16th nationally among public university undergraduate engineering programs ranked by U.S. News and World Report, and its more than 8,000 undergraduate students choose from 14 different engineering majors.
More information about the Honda-Ohio State Partnership is available at honda.osu.edu.
http://aimmedianetwork.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/17/2016/12/web1_mmcentral_champaign16.jpgChampaign County high school students who received Honda/OSU Partnership Math Medal Awards are, from left, Jennifer Sizemore, Triad; Jacob Molton, Urbana; Connor Glock, West Liberty-Salem; and Jacob Debuty, Mechanicsburg. Submitted photo
Submitted by The Ohio State University.
Hi! A visitor to our site felt the following article might be of interest to you: Seniors receive Honda-Ohio State Math Medal. Here is a link to that story: https://www.burgtelegram.com/news/1265/seniors-receive-honda-ohio-state-math-medal
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0022.json.gz/line1196
|
__label__wiki
| 0.610837
| 0.610837
|
Boyd: Everyone Here Is Looking Up
George Boyd is determined to keep proving the doubters wrong by helping the Clarets to Premier League safety sooner rather than later.
Burnley were many pundits’ picks for an instant return to the Championship following last season’s title success.
Sean Dyche’s men have so far defied those predictions and Boyd plans to keep it that way, with the Clarets looking to get back the winning habit against Stoke City at Turf Moor tonight.
“We are only looking up. We are two points from 10th so it’s important to get the points on the board quickly and get our safety secured,” said Boyd.
“We were relegation certainties to go down – bottom of the league – so what we have done and the way we have played we have got a lot of plaudits for it and, I think, deservedly so.
“They (the critics) are going to try and get us sucked into this relegation fight but as a team and everyone in this building we are only looking up, and if we can get a mid-table finish that will be great for us.
“We have got a much better squad than last time in the Premier League. It’s been a success this season, but it’s not done yet.
“As soon as we get that secured, the Premier League survival, we can build on it and keep building as a club, because on and off the field it’s going places.”
The Clarets have gone seven league games without a win to slip to 15th place in the table.
But victory over a Stoke side which has won just two of its last nine league games would lift Burnley to within a point of the ninth-placed Potters.
And while the Clarets have failed to score in their last two matches Boyd is confident Dyche’s men – who had found the net in their previous 12 league games - can hit the goal trail again at Turf Moor as they seek a first success since the end of January.
“It’s been unlike us. We’ve not really done that all season,” he added.
“We’ve got a few good games coming up where we feel we can score goals.
“The strikers have been scoring regularly all season, so it’s not something we’re worried about.
“Night games are really special at Turf and this is one we’re looking to get three points from.”
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0022.json.gz/line1197
|
__label__wiki
| 0.967117
| 0.967117
|
This Is What It's Like To Work 200 Feet Off The Ground
Vivian Giang
Photo: Tait Roelofs
If you live in any of the bigger cities, you’ve seen these artists working in the scorching heat or windy outdoors, dangling above bumper-to-bumper traffic to produce colossal murals on the side of skyscrapers.So what’s it like to be one of those artists? Thousands — sometimes millions — of people see your work, but almost no one knows who you are. We decided to find out.
Meet Tait Roelofs, one of the artists who works with Art Fx Murals — the company that paints on skyscrapers right outside Business Insider.
He’s in a different city every couple of weeks, paints on walls higher than 200 feet and started his artistic career working at a head shop making ceramic slip cast bongs.
That was until he got sick of it nearly fourteen years ago, and decided to try his hand at mural paintings.
Coming from what he calls “an artistic family,” Roelofs says he always knew he wanted to be an artist, and shortly after graduating from Oregon State, he contacted Art Fx Murals and hasn’t looked back since.
Over the years, he’s painted ads for cigarette companies, BMWs, Van shoes and movie posters.
He usually works with two-to-six other people for about a week per project. Then, it’s off to a different building or a different city. Everything is done with brush painting and the crew only uses posters of the images for referral. There is no tracing and very little spray painting.
But it’s not the precision that has Roelofs worried — he’s been doing this for years. Instead, it’s the sun, which he says is hard on him because he’s “too white for this job.”
“If it weren’t for the guys I work with, this job would be total hell,” he says. “Even though most of us don’t talk much, when we do work together, it can be a total blast.”
Since so many people know their artwork, Roelofs tells us it’s “wild that nobody knows who [they] are.”
“We paint the tallest walls in the world, and we’re totally anonymous.”
When he’s not working on walls, he’s painting and making art for his own collection, which has been featured in Los Angeles, New York, Miami and Portland.
But it’s still a job he loves.
“There are no other artists in history, who if they dropped a brush, could put someone in the hospital,” he says.
We totally agree.
artist career careers-us employment features
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0022.json.gz/line1198
|
__label__wiki
| 0.975691
| 0.975691
|
Recaptured David Sweat is now in solitary confinement
Laila Kearney,
A progression image of David Sweat, one of two Clinton Correctional Facility inmates who escaped in mid-June, 2015.
New York Police
NEW YORK (Reuters) - A New York inmate recaptured after a daring escape last month has been sent to solitary confinement at a new prison after spending the past week in the facility's infirmary recovering from gunshot wounds he suffered when he was apprehended.
David Sweat, 35, was taken to the Five Points Correctional Facility infirmary in Romulus, in the state's Finger Lakes region, last week after being treated at a public hospital immediately after his capture.
He faces disciplinary charges by the state Department of Corrections and Community Supervision for the prison break, the DCCS said in a statement. A hearing officer will decide whether Sweat will remain for an extended period in an isolation cell, where he will spend 23 hours a day, or be subject to other penalties, it said.
Sweat and accomplice Richard Matt escaped on June 6 from Clinton Correctional Facility, a maximum security lockup in Dannemora, prompting a massive manhunt. Matt, 49, was shot and killed by a federal agent on June 26 about 27 miles (43 km) away from the prison.
The convicted murderers had lived in Clinton's so-called honor housing, where they enjoyed special privileges, including the freedom to cook their own meals and wear street clothes.
In making their escape, Matt and Sweat cut holes in their cell walls, climbed down a catwalk, slipped through a steam pipe and emerged from a manhole outside prison walls, authorities said.
Sweat was shot twice in the torso by a state police trooper during his capture on June 28 near the Canadian border.
Already serving life without parole, Sweat may face additional charges by the Clinton Country District Attorney, the SCCS said.
Two Clinton prison workers are charged with helping in the escape. Corrections officer Gene Palmer and prison tailor shop supervisor Joyce Mitchell are accused of smuggling tools to the pair.
(Editing by Eric Walsh)
More: Prison New York Inmates Escape
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0022.json.gz/line1199
|
__label__cc
| 0.524815
| 0.475185
|
YouTube Turns Five Years Old, But Without Google, It Would Be Bankrupt
Dan Rayburn
Dan Rayburn is executive vice president at StreamingMedia.com and principal analyst at Frost & Sullivan. This post originally appeared at his blog and was republished with permission.
Anyone who has read my blog before knows that I think YouTube gets way too much credit in the industry that they don't deserve.
While I don't disagree that YouTube deserves credit for creating a platform that has allowed any regular Joe to upload and share video at no cost to the individual, that's all YouTube has done.
Sure, that platform has had a big impact on the lives of a lot of people, but each time YouTube has a birthday, or delivers another billion streams, Chad Hurley wants to try to convince us of why YouTube should get all the credit, for everything in the industry.
In his latest post on YouTube's blog, talking about YouTube's fifth birthday, Chad makes all kinds of references to YouTube's " innovation", " experience" and how they provide the " revenue models", " tools" and just about anything else a content owner needs to succeed.
The problem with this thinking is that YouTube didn't contribute to the technology of the industry at all. They haven't created any codecs, new delivery protocols, created any industry standards or even led the pack by adding new functionality.
While Chad talks about all of YouTube's "innovation," let's not forget that they don't even support streaming, don't support live, only recently started supporting HD, have a cap on the size of file that can be uploaded, and have plenty of other limitations of their service. Show me one feature of YouTube that they lead the market with or is something the rest of the industry has adopted.
And do I even need to mention how YouTube's platform was essentially allowing others to steal content and re-broadcast it on the web without any kind of control?
For all the talk of YouTube's "innovation", how is it that it took a lawsuit for them to actually do something to address the issue? Shouldn't they have seen that coming? And what about Chad's assertion that YouTube's goal is, " To set the standard in online video delivery"? We all know they aren't doing that. No one thinks of YouTube for the quality of their videos, they think of the platform as a free and easy way to get content online -- and that's the problem.
As the industry debates when YouTube will become profitable, one thing needs to be kept in perspective. Without YouTube being sold to Google, it would be out of business. The only reason YouTube is even around in the market to have the chance to turn a profit is because Google has deep pockets and is willing to lose a lot of money on a long-term bet.
But YouTube is not the one making that possible, Google is. So if anyone really deserves the credit, it's Google, for allowing YouTube to burn some of their cash and giving them a shot. Google is giving YouTube the time to be successful and if and when it turns a profit, it will be as a result of Google's cash and not because of YouTube's "innovation". As an industry, why do so many people continue to heap praise on companies that can't turn a profit, let alone after five years?
I don't know what the percentage is, but the overwhelming number of content owners on YouTube will NEVER make money.
YouTube delivers over a billion videos a day but only monetizes a billion videos a week. That means they are only generating revenue from about 14% of all the content streamed on the site. While that number, or one close to it, might be enough for them to make money, it clearly goes to show that the average content owner on YouTube will never see a dime. And to me, that's ok. YouTube was started as a simple way for people to share videos and that's it.
The problem is that Chad says that, " Five years into it, we're as committed as ever to the core beliefs and principles that guided YouTube's creation." But that's not the case anymore since the company has had to try every business model in the book to try and survive and make money. Remember YouTube for the enterprise?
Three years ago, in an article on Forbes, Chad once again sang YouTube's praises and told us how YouTube was going to allow all this new talent to be discovered via the web and make everyone a lot of money. Clearly that has not happened. While many are quick to point out that YouTube still dominates Hulu in terms of traffic numbers, Hulu is monetizing almost 100% of their content. So would you rather have less traffic that is all monetizable or lots of traffic that you can't make any money from? Why does YouTube get so much credit just because they have a lot of eyeballs?
Back in 1999 and 2000, the portal space was all about eyeballs. The value and stock price of TheGlobe.com, Yahoo.com and many others were all based on how many eyeballs they had. How well that that work out for them when it came time to actually being able to generate revenue from those eyeballs?
YouTube is no different than many other sites like Veoh, except for the fact that YouTube is still around only because they are owned by Google. Without that, YouTube would not exist in the market. They could not afford to.
I have no problem with YouTube getting the credit for what they have done, but they get far too much credit for what they haven't done and for technology that they have not developed, created or lead the market with. Think I'm wrong? I'd love to see in the comments section what "innovations" you think YouTube has brought to the market.
Related posts from Dan Rayburn's Business of Online Video blog:
Why Can't YouTube's Player Auto-Detect When A User Should Get HD Quality?
We Should Care About YouTube's Core Business, Not Their Market Share
YouTube Launches "Video Speed Dashboard", But The Results Don't Tell You Anything
Google's New Business Video Offering Not A True Enterprise Product
More: Online YouTube Google Media
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0022.json.gz/line1200
|
__label__wiki
| 0.591293
| 0.591293
|
Modi tsunami effect: RJD fails to open account in Bihar, NDA grabs 39 of total 40 seats
Out of the total 40 seats, the BJP-JD(U)-LJP alliance would won 39 seats, the RJD-Congress-led 'Mahagathbandhan' lost all but managed to win only one seat
BusinessToday.In New Delhi Last Updated: May 24, 2019 | 17:22 IST
The India Today-My Axis India Exit Poll has predicted that the BJP-JD(U)-LJP alliance would win minimum 38 out of the 40 seats
Riding high on the Narendra Modi wave, the formidable BJP-JD(U) alliance secured a historic victory in the 2019 Lok Sabha Elections in Bihar. Out of the total 40 seats, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) had contested on 17 seats and won all. Nitish Kumar's JD(U) had also contested on the same number of seats, but lost only seat to the Congress. Ram Vilas Paswan-led Lok Janshakti Party won all the six seats it was allotted in the seat-sharing deal with the Janata Dal(United) and the BJP.
The results were very much in line with the exit poll results. The India Today-My Axis India Exit Poll has predicted that the BJP-JD(U)-LJP alliance would win minimum 38 out of the 40 seats, and that the RJD-Congress-led 'Mahagathbandhan' might only bag maximum 2 seats.
The Congress, which had contested on nine seats as per seat-sharing formula, lost all but managed to retain Kishanganj Parliamentary constituency. Dr Mohammad Jawed defeated Mahmood Ashraf of JD(U) by a margin of 34,466 votes. In the 2014 Lol Sabha polls, Congress candidate late MP Asrarul Haque had won against Mohd Javed of JD(U) by a margin of under 35,000 votes.
The result was a huge setback for Lalu Prasad Yadav-led Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) that failed to open its account in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections. The absence of Lalu Prasad Yadav was clearly felt in Bihar as his son Tejashwi Yadav failed to woo voters.
Patna Sahib, which was among the most watched seats in the state, got swept away by the "Modi tsunami" as Lok Sabha debutant Ravi Shankar Prasad defeated two-term MP Shatrughan Sinha, who quit the BJP and joined the Congress recently, by a margin of about 2.85 lakh votes. Interestingly, this is the first time Prasad is contesting a parliamentary election. He has been a Rajya Sabha member for the past four terms.
Also Read:Election results: When is Narendra Modi's swearing-in ceremony; who will be on guest list?
The ruling BJP-JD(U) alliance was in direct fight against RJD-Congress-led Grand Alliance. Under the seat-sharing formula, the BJP and the JD(U) were contesting on 17 seats each and the LJP on six seats.
Meanwhile, the grand alliance, which includes five-parties, Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD), Congress, Upendra Kushwaha's Rashtriya Lok Samta Party (RLSP), Jitan Ram Manjhi's HAM Secular, and Mukesh Sahni's VIP, continued their dismal performance in 2019 Lok Sabha elections.
The state has 40 seats in the lower house of parliament of which six are reserved for Scheduled Castes (SCs). It is divided into five regions namely, West Bihar, East Bihar, North Bihar, South Bihar and Central Bihar.
During the 2014 Lok Sabha General Elections, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and its allies Lok Jan Shakti Party (LJP) had won 31 Lok Sabha seats, RJD-Congress-NCP grabbed seven and Nitish Kumar's Janata Dal (U) was restricted to two seats. The General Election in Bihar were held in seven phases between April 11 and May 19.
Tags: Bihar Election Results 2019 | Bihar poll results 2019 | Bihar results 2019 live | Bihar election results 2019 | Bihar lok sabha election results 2019 | Bihar ls election results 2019 | result of Bihar elections 2019 | result of Bihar lok sabha 2019 | Bihar election resul
Election results 2019: Who is CR Patil, the BJP candidate who won with more votes than Modi
From muscular India to bad for India's soul: How global media reacted to PM Modi and BJP's win
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0022.json.gz/line1201
|
__label__wiki
| 0.669868
| 0.669868
|
7 Things You're Saying That People May Take The Wrong Way
By Margaux MacColl
Antonio Guillem/Shutterstock
No one’s perfect. Occasionally we’re all going to say something that rubs someone the wrong way, even if we don’t realize it. While you should always be yourself, there may be some things you’re saying that can be perceived as annoying.
“A lot of times people can say things that are irritating or slightly offensive with no ill intent,” Joshua Klapow, PhD, clinical psychologist and host of The Kurre and Klapow Show, tells Bustle.
We all strive to have more positive interactions, and sometimes it just takes a little self-reflection. “You have to be both focused on what you’re saying, and then you have to be brave enough and open enough and vulnerable enough to truly pay attention to what the reaction is,” Dr. Klapow says. “And to be willing to consider that the reaction that you're getting could be a function of what you're saying.”
If it seems like something you have said was taken the wrong way, it’s worth thinking about why and considering how to phrase it better. Although what someone considers annoying can be subjective, there are some common expressions that tend to be universally irritating. Here are some annoying phrases that should probably be avoided, according to experts.
1. "I'm Going To Be Brutally Honest"
This may have good intentions, but it can come across as just mean. “If you believe it’s something that could be hurtful [...] it’s always appropriate to ask permission because they may not be ready for it,” Dr. Klapow says.
He recommends rephrasing it into a question, and saying something like “can I be completely honest with you?” By giving them the option to say no, you’ll avoid straining your relationship.
2. "I'm Sorry, But..."
Monkey Business Images/Shutterstock
By immediately qualifying your apology, you diminish the sincerity behind it and set yourself up for an argument.
“You put yourself in a defensive mode,” Dr. Klapow says. “Which for a lot of people is just irritating.”
3. "There’s No Reason For To Be Upset"
fizkes/Shutterstock
Although you may be trying to calm someone down, you end up telling them how they should be feeling, which can irritate them. “Anytime we profess to know what another person is thinking or feeling, we are stating a falsehood," Dr. Klapow says.
He says that while you can infer thoughts from someone’s actions, you should always avoid stating their feelings for them, and ask them about their feeling instead.
4. "You Need To Calm Down"
Dr. Klapow describes these as “fighting words.” Instead of diffusing a situation, you can end up irritating the person that you’re speaking to.
This falls into the same category of telling someone how they feel and should be avoided.
5. "I Feel So Sorry For You"
9nong/Shutterstock
Instead of communicating empathy, this can end up being somewhat insulting. “It calls into question their strength, their honor, their dignity,” Dr. Klapow says.
Someone may not want to feel pitied, so it’s a good idea to avoid this phrase when comforting a friend.
6. "When One Door Closes, Another One Opens"
ANN PATCHANAN/Shutterstock
This is another phrase often used to comfort a friend. However, it can come across as unhelpful and a bit annoying.
Life coach Elisa Robyn, PhD tells Bustle that, while this is not a bad thing to say to someone after they’re in a better place, it can irritating in the moment.
7. "I Am Who I Am"
People often say this when they’re trying to communicate their core values. However, Dr. Klapow says this phrasing often skews the meaning.
Instead of telling someone about your principles, Klapow says it makes you seem uncooperative and “not open to change.”
Most of the time when we irritate people, we don't realize what we're saying wrong. By thinking deeper about what we say and avoiding certain phrases, we can have more positive and considerate interactions.
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0022.json.gz/line1202
|
__label__wiki
| 0.992071
| 0.992071
|
Did Jeremy Really Kill Nolan On 'The Perfectionists'? Kelly Rutherford Doesn't Think This Mystery Has Been Solved Yet
By Martha Sorren
Kurt Iswarienko/Freeform
As PLL: The Perfectionists wraps up it first season, some questions are finally getting answered. The only thing is, can fans trust those answers? Kelly Rutherford, who plays Claire Hotchkiss on the show, isn't too sure that Jeremy actually killed Nolan on The Perfectionists. The big reveal of Nolan's supposed killer came during Wednesday's May 15 episode, but fans shouldn't necessarily consider this case closed just yet. "It doesn't seem likely [that Jeremy killed Nolan]," Rutherford tells Bustle in a phone interview.
She adds that she doesn't know for sure, but she just doesn't think that the prize Hotchkiss employee would really off his boss' son. "If we're just going by what we see, it certainly doesn’t seem likely that he would," she says. "I don't know one way or the other, but ... he doesn't seem like an obvious choice."
Jeremy would potentially have a motive in that Nolan was blackmailing Jeremy's girlfriend Caitlin. But, even still, it doesn't seem like he's the type to go all the way through with murder. It wouldn't surprise me if he were involved in Nolan's death in some capacity, but it's not super convincing that he's the only culprit. First of all, Jeremy never said what he was confessing to. "I did it to protect you and your family," he told Caitlin vaguely. "If I tell the police what I did then my life will be over."
Viewers know the Beacon Guard blackout that happened right before Nolan's death was triggered by a Hotchkiss device that Jeremy's account had logged into. But what if he only caused the blackout but not the murder? What if he just gave someone else his passcode? There are still a lot of alternatives here, so fans should be cautious about jumping to conclusions.
It's this constant suspense that Rutherford loves so much about the show. "Of course everyone has some motivation and yet at the same time none of them seem like they would be the person that would have done it," she says. "I just love the way they write these shows … it's fun acting it, because you're not really sure, and then it's also fun watching it, because it really could be anybody."
This anybody could potentially include Ray Hogadorn who we saw was on the list that Beacon Guard (and Claire potentially?) is tracking. "I haven't really had any scenes with him, but obviously, in the script, he's just sort of another suspicious character," Rutherford says about the mysterious janitor. "[That's] what [showrunner I. Marlene King] does so well … there's these characters that come in and you think, 'Well, gosh maybe they're a part of it, maybe they did it.'" She adds that she's not sure what, if any, connection Claire has to Ray, but she thinks the unraveling of the whodunit mystery and all its potential players is fun to watch and try to solve.
That's the thing about this show, sometimes not even the actors know for sure how the mystery ends up. Rutherford tells me she's not even certain if Claire's motivations are good or bad. "Sometimes I'm in a scene and I think, 'Oh my gosh, am I [bad]?'" she says. "I'm trying to just play it mostly straight forward, because I'm hoping she's a good woman. I don’t really know, but I think that's part of the fun of it."
Allyson Riggs/Freeform
But as fun as being along for the ride of the mystery is, Rutherford hopes fans can learn even more about her character in a potential Season 2. She says that now that fans know Claire Hotchkiss as the person running Hotchkiss Industries and Beacon Heights University, she wants to get to show more of who Claire really is behind the titles and power. "She's obviously a mother who's trying to protect her daughter and trying to find out who killed her son, all the sort of obvious things, but who is she really?" Rutherford says. "What makes her tick and why is she doing certain things?"
Hopefully that character reveal is coming in the future, but, for now, fans have the Season 1 finale to look forward to on May 22. Rutherford teases that there's a lot to come from the final episode. "[There are] some romantic surprises coming up, which aren't sort of suspected and [are] really fun," she hints. And perhaps we'll learn the actual truth about Jeremy too.
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0022.json.gz/line1203
|
__label__cc
| 0.572936
| 0.427064
|
House Session, Part 2
2019-01-24T10:15:16-05:00https://images.c-span.org/Files/353/20190124101552001_hd.jpgOn day 34 of the longest government shutdown in U.S. history, the House passed a bill to fund the Department of Homeland Security through February 28, 2019. The measure includes no funds for a U.S.-Mexico border wall.
On day 34 of the longest government shutdown in U.S. history, the House passed a bill to fund the Department of Homeland Security through February 28, 2019. The measure includes no funds for a U.S.-Mexico border wall.
Transcript type Text Congressional Record Legislative Actions People Graphical Timeline
Filter by Speaker All Speakers Steny Hoyer Steve Scalise
Bills in this Video
H.J.RES. 31
H.RES. 73
Steny Hoyer U.S. Representative [D] Maryland
Steve Scalise U.S. Representative [R] Louisiana
U.S. House of RepresentativesU.S. House of Representatives
House Debate on Homeland Security Department Funding
Leaders Hoyer and Scalise on House Schedule and Government Shutdown
House Proceeding
Jan 24, 2019 | 10:15am EST | C-SPAN 1
See all on House Proceeding
On day 34 of the longest government shutdown in U.S. history, the House debate a bill to fund the Department of…
Morning Hour
The House met for Morning Hour, with members permitted to speak on any topic.
The House convened for one-minute speeches.
Abortion Funding
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0022.json.gz/line1207
|
__label__wiki
| 0.612921
| 0.612921
|
University of Arizona Cancer Center and Banner–University Medical Center Tucson Join the Precision Oncology Alliance Powered by Caris Life Sciences
Clinical Partners Join Alliance to Advance Precision Medicine in Oncology
IRVING, Texas, July 30, 2018 – Caris Life Sciences®, a leading innovator in molecular science focused on fulfilling the promise of precision medicine, today announced that the University of Arizona Cancer Center (UACC) and its clinical partner Banner – University Medical Center Tucson (Banner – UMC Tucson) have joined Caris’ Precision Oncology Alliance (POA). They join other leading cancer centers to develop standards of care and best practices for the use of tumor profiling, making cancer treatment more precise and effective.
“We look forward to working with Caris Life Sciences and the Precision Oncology Alliance to further advance molecular profiling and precision medicine,” said Andrew Kraft, M.D., UACC Director. “As oncology continues to move toward individualized medicine, it is critical that we develop capabilities to accurately profile cancerous tumors and identify effective treatments, ultimately improving patient care and survival.”
The POA, which consists of 25 academic, hospital and community-based cancer institutions including seven NCI-designated Comprehensive Cancer Centers, is broadening patient access to precision medicine tools and establishing evidence-based standards for tumor profiling and molecular testing in oncology. The POA will leverage Caris’ comprehensive genomic profiling plus (CGP+) tumor profiling service, Caris Molecular Intelligence®, to identify therapy options and clinical trial opportunities based on the unique molecular characteristics of a patient’s tumor.
“Banner – UMC Tucson is currently the only nationally ranked hospital in its region, and has a long history of developing and advancing precision medicine programs,” said John Marshall, M.D., Director of the Otto J. Ruesch Center for the Cure of Gastrointestinal Cancer at Georgetown Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center and Chief of the Division of Hematology-Oncology at MedStar Georgetown University Hospital, and Chairman of the POA Executive Committee. “With Banner as their clinical partner, UACC will be a particularly valuable and productive member of our Alliance.”
Caris Molecular Intelligence assesses DNA, RNA and proteins to reveal a molecular profile to guide more precise and individualized treatment decisions. Based on the unique molecular characteristics of an individual patient’s cancer, the results help inform treatment decisions by identifying therapies that have the potential to be most effective and to rule out those that are less likely to work.
About Caris Life Sciences®
Caris Life Sciences® is a leading innovator in molecular science focused on fulfilling the promise of precision medicine through quality and innovation, and the world’s leading immunotherapy diagnostic expert. Caris Molecular Intelligence®, the company’s Comprehensive Genomic Profiling Plus (CGP+) molecular testing service, assesses DNA, RNA and proteins, including microsatellite instability (MSI), tumor mutational burden (TMB) and PD-L1, to reveal a molecular blueprint to guide more precise and personalized treatment decisions. Caris’ profiling services are routinely covered by third-party payors, including CMS for Medicare patients. The ADAPT Biotargeting System , the company’s revolutionary and unbiased profiling platform, is currently being utilized for drug target identification, therapeutic discovery and development, fixed tissue-based companion diagnostics, blood-based cancer screening and biomarker identification. Headquartered in Irving, Texas, Caris Life Sciences offers services throughout the U.S., Europe, Asia and other international markets. To learn more, please visit www.CarisLifeSciences.com.
About the Precision Oncology Alliance
The Precision Oncology Alliance (POA) was established by Caris Life Sciences to promote the study and appropriate use of molecular testing in the diagnosis and treatment of cancer. The POA consists of 25 leading cancer centers, including seven NCI-Designated Cancer Centers, that have demonstrated a commitment to precision medicine and work collaboratively toward a common goal: to advance tumor profiling and establish standards of care for molecular testing in oncology. The POA has produced more than five peer-reviewed manuscripts and presented over 50 posters at industry conferences.
About the University of Arizona Cancer Center
The University of Arizona Cancer Center is the only National Cancer Institute-designated Comprehensive Cancer Center with headquarters in Arizona. The UACC is supported by NCI Cancer Center Support Grant No. CA023074. With primary locations at the University of Arizona in Tucson and at St. Joseph’s Hospital and Medical Center in Phoenix, the UACC has more than a dozen research and education offices in Phoenix and throughout the state and 300 physician and scientist members work together to prevent and cure cancer. For more information: uacc.arizona.edu (Follow us: Facebook | Twitter | YouTube)
About Banner – University Medical Center Tucson and South
Banner – University Medical Center Tucson, nationally ranked as a Best Hospital by U.S. News and World Report, and Banner – University Medical Center South, are part of Banner – University Medicine, a premier academic medical network. These institutions are academic medical centers for the University of Arizona College of Medicine – Tucson. Included on the two campuses are Diamond Children’s Medical Center and many specialty clinics. The two academic medical centers are part of Arizona-based Banner Health, one of the largest nonprofit health-care systems in the country, with 28 hospitals in six states: Arizona, California, Colorado, Nebraska, Nevada and Wyoming. For more information, visit BannerHealth.com/UniversityTucson or BannerHealth.com/UniversitySouth.
The Ruth Group
Kirsten Thomas / Joanna Zimmerman
kthomas@theruthgroup.com/ jzimmerman@theruthgroup.com
Tel: +1-508-280-6592 / +1-646-536-7006
University of Arizona Cancer Center Media Contact: Anna C. Christensen, 520-626-6401, achristensen@email.arizona.edu
The post University of Arizona Cancer Center and Banner–University Medical Center Tucson Join the Precision Oncology Alliance Powered by Caris Life Sciences appeared first on Caris Life Sciences.
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0022.json.gz/line1209
|
__label__wiki
| 0.740571
| 0.740571
|
Home / Content Marketing Blog / Content Marketing / Downloads of iOS 5 on the rise
Downloads of iOS 5 on the rise
Apple handset owners have welcomed the announcement of the company's iOS 5 software update, which includes a range of new features.
The latest Apple operating system was released less than a week ago and people have been quick to integrate the software update into compatible devices.
The software has 200 new features available for people using Apple products, which include the iPhone, iPod touch and iPad devices.
Popular updates include the Notification Centre, which limits pop-ups to a pull down status bar, iCloud and Wi-Fi sync – used to improve the way data is synced across devices – as well as Siri, iMessage and the new Twitter App, among other tools.
And while Apple's latest technological developments may have been criticised by software professionals, consumers have been quick to download the new program.
In a recent post by Localytics, the app analytics company reported that as many as one in three Apple devices were now equipped with the program, which means that users have been downloading in record numbers.
And the group with the largest number of new users is the iPad 2, which recorded a 36 per cent download rate.
However, mobile tracking using the app engine software development kit (SDK) has shown that these figures are also reflected in downloads on other handsets.
An estimated 35 per cent of iPhone 4S devices are running the program, as well as 27 per cent of iPhone 3GS mobiles, 23 per cent of iPod Touch 3rd-gen and 17 per cent of the fourth-generation iPod touch.
Roughly one-third of the original tablet from Apple are also using the service, however, figures are limited to downloads and therefore do not include the iPhone 4S, which is has the software inbuilt.
Significantly, 20 per cent of mobile devices already have social media networks running on their software systems.
Integrating the Twitter app with iOS 5 may increase the number of people using this service and offer new opportunities for social media marketing.
Apple strengthens ties with Facebook
Twitter and Facebook update mobile apps for iOS 7
Facebook unveils new app for iPad
Better, faster, stronger: Engaging with social media on the run
Twitter mobile designer ‘not flattered’ by Facebook app update
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0022.json.gz/line1210
|
__label__wiki
| 0.623815
| 0.623815
|
Paul Ryan Promises Endless Supply of Cheap Foreign Workers for Employers
Neil Munro
House Speaker Paul Ryan last night promised to create a “21st Century” immigration system that lets employers hire an endless supply of cheap foreign workers instead of paying marketplace wages to American employees or to young Americans entering the labor force.
The wage-cutting, salary-slashing promise was delivered, half buried, in a “Town Hall” meeting conducted with Paul Ryan by CNN’s Jake Tapper.
“We need to have an immigration system that is wired for what our economy needs … so let’s find out where those gaps in our labor markets are and have our immigration system wired for that,” Ryan said.
By offering foreign workers to fill so-called “gaps” in the labor market, Ryan would give employers a huge gift — the ability to hire foreign workers whenever American employees or young job-seekers ask for higher wages, and without ever having to train any Americans to take higher-tech, higher-wage jobs. That’s a huge giveaway to employers and to Wall Street, where stock prices rise when wages drop.
Ryan’s wage-cutting promise was ignored by CNN and other media outlets.
The scale of the Ryan giveaway can be measured against the final years of President Bill Clinton’s term, when employers had to offer higher wages to prevent their workers from being lured away by other employers. Wages nudged up briefly during the real-estate bubble, but have largely stalled ever since.
Workers haven’t gained wage increases from marketplace pressure since the late 1990s, partly because the federal government imports roughly one new legal or illegal foreign worker for every three Americans who join the labor market each year. Roughly 4 million Americans turn 18 each year and compete for jobs against roughly 1 million new legal immigrants, plus several hundred thousand new illegals, plus 700,000 new white-collar and blue-collar temporary guest workers.
In his town hall meeting, Ryan said he opposed Trump’s plans to repatriate the roughly 11 million illegal migrants, and then said he would favor some form of staged amnesty for the illegals. “Those [illegal immigrant] people who need to get right with the law … so that they can get a work permit, a work permit to work,” Paul Ryan said.
“That to me is more of an approach that works, it makes sense, and it will — it won’t require a roundup or mass deportation, which I just don’t think is a good idea,” said Ryan, who is strongly backed by U.S. business groups.
The population of at least 11 million illegal migrants includes at least 8 million workers who compete for jobs with Americans and who drive down wages.
Ryan has consistently pushed this “any willing worker” message for years. For example, he told National Journal magazine in 2013 that migrants;
… bring labor to our economy so jobs can get done. The dairy farmers in western Wisconsin are having a hard time finding anyone to help them produce their products, which are mostly cheese. If they can’t find workers, then they can’t produce … The flip side of the argument is: Just raise wages enough to attract people. But you raise wages too much in certain industries, then you’ll get rid of those industries, and we’ll just have to import.
NJ; Should high- and low-skilled workers be treated the same?
RYAN: They should have different visa categories that should fluctuate with the needs of the economy. That’s something we’re going to negotiate here. Most other countries have a visa system that is wired to feed their economy.
Unsurprisingly, Wall Street studies have shown that large-scale immigration reduces wages, and that actual enforcement of the laws against illegal immigrants forces employers to pay higher wages to Americans.
Last month, a Wall Street study showed that Donald Trump’s labor-reform and immigration plans would force up wages and also reduce the price of housing. In 2013, a report by the Congressional Budget Office showed that large-scale migration shifts wealth away from workers and towards Wall Street.
The wage-cutting process applies to both blue-collar workers and to skilled white-collar workers. For example, many Americans who want their kids to get a good job at one of the nation’s universities don’t know that the universities already have hired roughly 100,000 foreign white-collar guest workers, each of whom rationally accepts lower wages for the opportunity to work in the United States instead of China or India.
Ryan has personally expanded this job outsourcing process. In December 2015, for example, he added language to the annual funding bill that allows companies to bring in an additional 190,000 temporary blue-collar workers each year, at wages set by employers, not by the routine free-market tension between supply and demand, workers and employers.
Unfortunately for Ryan, Americans in the Midwest are the most concerned over the impact of cheap-labor immigration on their wages and jobs.
For example, a recent poll asked respondents, “In general, do you think immigrants in the United States help create jobs, take away jobs, or have no impact on jobs?” Fifty-five percent of Midwestern respondents picked the “take away jobs” answer, while only 16 percent picked “create jobs.” The 39-point gap — almost a consensus — was much wider than the other regions. Also, an unusually large slice of respondents — 30 percent — said migrants have no impact, or declared they did not know the impact, suggesting that some people did not want to reveal their preference for less immigration.
Surprisingly, Jake Tapper did not press Paul Ryan to explain how Americans’ salaries and wages would be impacted by the “any willing worker” visa system. Instead, he allowed Ryan to talk about how the border should be secured.
Ryan said he wants the border secured against drug smugglers and terrorists — but mostly to ensure that Americans will accept the “any willing worker” cheap-labor plan.
You have to secure the border. You have to secure the border for many reasons. Enforcing the rule of law, guarding against heroin coming to the border, ISIS from trying to infiltrate our country, and you have to secure the border also so that the public believes that the rule of law is being applied in this country so that they have faith that our government’s actually doing its basic responsibility in keeping the country secure.
Then I believe you need to fix this broken immigration system. So once you get this border secured, you’ve got to fix a broken legal immigration system, which isn’t working. It’s 20th century. We need to bring it to the 21st century.
Others journalists recognize the huge political gulf between Ryan and Trump on wages and labor.
Chuck Todd says Paul Ryan is an "Open-Borders" internationalist, and that's why he clashes with Trump pic.twitter.com/HHOhuvfex3
— NumbersUSA (@NumbersUSA) June 7, 2016
During the town hall, Ryan said he wanted to ensure that all Americans have jobs — but he didn’t mention wages or salaries, or even any need to increase wages by raising productivity. Instead, for Ryan, immigration is just a way for employers to import foreign workers and to trump the market for labor whenever Americans ask for the higher wages which they’ve fairly earned in the job market — and which they need to help them get married, buy a house and raise more than one child.
“I think we should give visas based on what the economy needs so that we’re making sure that [illegal immigrant] people aren’t taking jobs that Americans can take, that Americans can fill …then after we do that … we’re still going to need [more foreign] people in this country,” he said.
ImmigrationPolitics
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0022.json.gz/line1212
|
__label__cc
| 0.623927
| 0.376073
|
House Democrats Refused to Let Steve Scalise Defend 2nd Amendment
GETTY IMAGES/AFP/WIN MCNAMEE
As House Democrats formulated and pushed their universal background check bill through committee they refused to allow Rep. Steve Scalise (R-LA) to testify in defense of the Second Amendment.
Scalise suffered near fatal wounds on June 14, 2017, when a gunman opened fire on Congressional baseball practice. Despite this life-threatening experience and firsthand knowledge of what it is like to be under fire, the Democrats refused Scalise an opportunity to give testimony.
Perhaps they refused because Scalise emerged from the shooting understanding that people must be armed to defend themselves when under fire. Or it could be because the gun control bill pushed by the Democrats, H.R. 8, would not have prevented the Congressional baseball attack from occurring; this is because the gunman acquired all his weapons via background checks.
Either way, Scalise made clear that the Democrats refused to let him testify.
Scalise told Fox News he was surprised when the Democrats refused his request. He said:
I was surprised, because it’s unprecedented. In the past, when we were in charge on the Republican side, if the Democrats selected among one of their witnesses to be a sitting member of Congress, we always gave them the courtesy of testifying in a proper setting, and we were asking for that same courtesy — and they denied it.
Former Republican presidential contender Herman Cain opined on H.R. 8 and the Democrats’ efforts to keep Scalise from testifying in support the Second Amendment:
It’s worth noting that none of the draconian restrictions in H.R. 8 would have done anything to prevent the overwhelming majority of the mass shootings that have occurred in America. This blatant infringement on the rights guaranteed by the Second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution is just another radical gun confiscation bill, not the sort of “common sense” regulation its deceptive name is clearly intended to suggest.
Rep. Scalise tried to make that point, drawing on his unique perspective as a survivor of a mass shooting, but the Democrats barred him from speaking, presumably because they knew he would be an effective advocate for the rights enshrined in our Constitution.
In addition to the attack on Congressional baseball practice, the Democrats’ gun control would have also failed to prevent the Tree of Life Synagogue attacker (October 27, 2018), the Texas church attacker (November 5, 2017), the San Bernardino attackers (December 2, 2015), the Colorado Springs attacker (October 31, 2015), the Umpqua Community College attacker (October 1, 2015), Alison Parker’s attacker (August 26, 2015), the Lafayette movie theater attacker (July 23, 2015), the Chattanooga attacker (July 16, 2015), the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal attacker (Jun 17, 2015), the Muhammad Carton Contest attackers (May 3, 2014), the Las Vegas cop killers (June 9, 2015), the Santa Barbara attacker (May 23, 2014), the Fort Hood attacker (April 2, 2014), the Arapahoe High School attacker (December 13, 2013), the D.C. Navy Yard attacker (September 16, 2013), the Aurora movie theater attacker (July 20, 2012), the Fort Hood attacker (November 5, 2009), or the Virginia Tech attacker (April 16, 2007).
AWR Hawkins is an award-winning Second Amendment columnist for Breitbart News and the writer/curator of Down Range with AWR Hawkins, a weekly newsletter focused on all things Second Amendment, also for Breitbart News. He is the political analyst for Armed American Radio. Follow him on Twitter: @AWRHawkins. Reach him directly at awrhawkins@breitbart.com. Sign up to get Down Range at breitbart.com/downrange.
2nd AmendmentPoliticsCongressional Baseball Attackgun controlHerman CainHouse DemocratsRep. Steve Scalise
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0022.json.gz/line1213
|
__label__wiki
| 0.643767
| 0.643767
|
{ "210088": { "url": "/event/Battle-of-Fleurus", "shareUrl": "https://www.britannica.com/event/Battle-of-Fleurus", "title": "Battle of Fleurus" ,"gaExtraDimensions": {"3":"false"} } }
Battle of Fleurus
Battle of Fleurus, (June 26, 1794), the most significant battle in the First Coalition phase of the French Revolutionary Wars. Jean-Baptiste Jourdan and Jean-Baptiste Kléber led 73,000 French troops against 52,000 Austrians and Dutch, under Friedrich Josias, prince of Saxe-Coburg, and William V, prince of Orange, stadholder of Holland. Jourdan had taken Charleroi, in the rear of Coburg’s main forces, on June 25, after besieging it since June 12. Coburg, unaware that the town had fallen, was marching to relieve it and to protect his rear forces. His five attack columns were successful at first against the French lines and inflicted very heavy casualties. The larger French force was able to endure the casualties and counterattack. Coburg retreated across the Meuse the next day with only half as many losses as the victorious French. Nevertheless, within a month, the Austrians abandoned the southern Netherlands (modern Belgium), which was annexed by France.
French Revolutionary wars Events
Battle of Valmy
Siege of Toulon
Battle of the First of June
Battle of Marengo
France: The Jacobin dictatorship
…against Austria at the decisive Battle of Fleurus on 8 Messidor (June 26) and long after rebel forces in the Vendée, Lyon, and elsewhere had been vanquished. By that time the Jacobin dictatorship had forged an effective government and had mobilized the nation’s resources, thereby mastering the crisis that had…
French Revolution: Counterrevolution, regicide, and the Reign of Terror
…victory over the Austrians at Fleurus on 8 Messidor, year II (June 26, 1794), enabled the French to reoccupy Belgium. Victory made the Terror and the economic and social restrictions seem pointless. Robespierre, “the Incorruptible,” who had sponsored the restrictions, was overthrown in the National Convention on 9 Thermidor, year…
…the scene of several important battles.…
Jean-Baptiste, Count Jourdan
Jean-Baptiste, Count Jourdan, (Comte) military commander remembered as the sponsor of conscription during the French Revolutionary regime and as one of Napoleon’s marshals of the empire.…
French Revolutionary wars
Jean-Baptiste Kléber
Military History Encyclopedia on the Web - Battle of Fleurus
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0022.json.gz/line1216
|
__label__wiki
| 0.760167
| 0.760167
|
RENT Coming To Salt Lake City - $28 Ticket Drawing Announced
BroadwayWorld.com Jun. 11, 2019
Zions Bank Broadway at the Eccles announced today that seats in the first rows of the orchestra section will be available for $28 for every performance of RENT, the Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award-winning musical.
The $28 tickets are available in-person, by drawing, in front of the REGENT STREET BLACK BOX AT THE ECCLES, located on 144 Regent Street, behind the ECCLES THEATER on the day of each performance only, two hours prior to the show. Check for signage. The $28 tickets are limited to two tickets per person.
The tradition of these tickets began in 1996 in New York when the show moved to Broadway after a sold-out run in a small downtown theatre. The producers of the show are committed to continuing the tradition of offering these orchestra seats in each city the show will play.
RENT performs at the ECCLES THEATER June 25-30. Performance times are Monday-Thursday at 7:30pm, Friday at 8pm, Saturday at 2:00pm and 8:00pm, Sunday 1:00pm and 6:30pm.
For general ticket information, call the 801-355-ARTS (3747), Broadway-at-the-Eccles.com or at the box office Monday-Friday: 10:00am-6:00pm, Sat. 10am-2:00pm and through curtain times on performance days.
Visit RentOnTour.net for more information.
Related Articles View More Salt Lake City Stories Shows
The World Premiere Of THE POST OFFICE
LES MISERABLES: SCHOOL EDITION Opens At On Pitch Performing Arts
The Utah Symphony To Perform Beethoven And Dvorak For The Deer Valley Music Festival Chamber Concert Series
RUDOLPH THE RED-NOSED REINDEER: THE MUSICAL to Fly Into Eccles Theater
Alice Ripley to Perform to Promote Sister In Law's Political Campaign!
A GENTLEMAN'S GUIDE TO LOVE AND MURDER Opens at Tuacahn Center for the Arts
SCERA Shell Outdoor Theatre Presents The Tenors
Powerful Vocalists Pay Tribute To Aretha Franklin At The Deer Valley Music Festival July 12
Cinematic Classic Returns To The Big Screen With Score Performed Live To Picture By The Utah Symphony
SALT LAKE CITY SHOWS More
DISNEY'S THE LITTLE MERMAID
Sevier County Community Theater (7/25 - 7/31)
BONNEVILLE HIGH SCHOOL (3/6 - 3/16)
PETER PAN JR
FOSSIL RIDGE INTERMEDIATE (1/31 - 2/8)
ROALD DAHL'S WILLY WONKA JR.
GERALD L. WRIGHT ELEMENTARY (11/16 - 11/16)
The Long Christmas Dinner
Margetts Theatre (11/8 - 11/23)
VIEW ALL ADD A SHOW AUDITIONS
Salt Lake City Email Alerts
Get the latest news, photos & more.
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0022.json.gz/line1217
|
__label__wiki
| 0.662133
| 0.662133
|
Brookings experts on Trump’s UNGA speech
On September 25, 2018, President Trump delivered his second address to the United Nations General Assembly. The speech was highly anticipated in light of President Trump’s often skeptical view of international institutions and multilateral cooperation, as well as recent tensions over U.S.-China trade, the future of the Iran nuclear deal and talks with North Korea, rhetorical spars with U.S. allies in Europe and elsewhere, and more.
Below, experts from across Brookings offer their comments on Trump’s speech.
Madam President, Mr. Secretary-General, world leaders, ambassadors, and distinguished delegates:
One year ago, I stood before you for the first time in this grand hall. I addressed the threats facing our world, and I presented a vision to achieve a brighter future for all of humanity.
Today, I stand before the United Nations General Assembly to share the extraordinary progress we’ve made.
In less than two years, my administration has accomplished more than almost any administration in the history of our country. America’s — so true. (Laughter.) Didn’t expect that reaction, but that’s okay. (Laughter and applause.)
America’s economy is booming like never before. Since my election, we’ve added $10 trillion in wealth. The stock market is at an all-time high in history, and jobless claims are at a 50-year low. African American, Hispanic American, and Asian American unemployment have all achieved their lowest levels ever recorded. We’ve added more than 4 million new jobs, including half a million manufacturing jobs.
We have passed the biggest tax cuts and reforms in American history. We’ve started the construction of a major border wall, and we have greatly strengthened border security.
We have secured record funding for our military — $700 billion this year, and $716 billion next year. Our military will soon be more powerful than it has ever been before.
In other words, the United States is stronger, safer, and a richer country than it was when I assumed office less than two years ago. We are standing up for America and for the American people. And we are also standing up for the world.
x the United States is stronger, safer, and a richer country than it was when I assumed office less than two years ago
Vanda Felbab-Brown / Foreign Policy
Far from making the United States a “stronger, safer, and a richer country” throwback, unbound sovereignty hurts United States, as well as the well-being of its people and of people around the world. President Trump’s speech reflects a misguided dismissal of global governance and international rules. It’s a stunning break from U.S. foreign policy that for nearly a century has sought to foster institutions and rules to mitigate violent conflict, destructive economic competition, human rights abuses and authoritarianism, and environmental destruction—all in order to protect U.S. interests. While Washington has pursued problematic policies in the past, a core concept underpinning U.S. foreign policy had been a recognition that inward-looking and self-regarding approaches are counterproductive. Far from making America great, President Trump’s 2018 U.N. speech undermined U.S. interests and U.S. leadership.
This is great news for our citizens and for peace-loving people everywhere. We believe that when nations respect the rights of their neighbors, and defend the interests of their people, they can better work together to secure the blessings of safety, prosperity, and peace.
x We believe that when nations respect the rights of their neighbors, and defend the interests of their people, they can better work together to secure the blessings of safety, prosperity, and peace.
Célia Belin / Foreign Policy
President Trump's speech was an ode to sovereignty, celebrating different traditions and cultures, and suggesting that global governance is oppressive to free people. However, Europeans will certainly see the irony in the proclaimed "respect for the rights of neighbors," as they have been submitted to strong interventionism and intrusion on their sovereignty on part of the United States, which has imposed secondary sanctions against their companies willing to trade with Iran. How ironic is the praise of sovereignty when the Trump administration is seeking regime change in Iran. How ironic at a time when Europeans are frantically trying to regain sovereignty—for example, by setting up a Special Purpose Vehicle for regaining the right to trade with Iran.
Each of us here today is the emissary of a distinct culture, a rich history, and a people bound together by ties of memory, tradition, and the values that make our homelands like nowhere else on Earth.
That is why America will always choose independence and cooperation over global governance, control, and domination.
I honor the right of every nation in this room to pursue its own customs, beliefs, and traditions. The United States will not tell you how to live or work or worship.
We only ask that you honor our sovereignty in return.
x I honor the right of every nation in this room to pursue its own customs, beliefs, and traditions. The United States will not tell you how to live or work or worship.
Sharan Grewal / Foreign Policy
The contradiction between this statement and Trump's subsequent criticism of Iran, China, and Venezuela is jarring. A nice sound-bite but clearly empty rhetoric.
Ted Piccone / Foreign Policy
This is a direct attack on the universality of human rights and an invitation to governments, including autocrats, to block international monitoring and criticism of their violations. To see how countries like China are taking advantage of U.S. unilateralism and withdrawal, see my new paper. It also attempts to shield against any external criticism of U.S. transgressions. As seen in other parts of the speech, Trump then violates his own dictum by criticizing Iran, Venezuela, and Syria for their egregious actions against their own people.
Anthony F. Pipa / Global Economy and Development
The multilateral system was shaped by U.S. values. Protection of human rights and promotion of democratic governance are part of the foundation of the U.N., seen as intrinsic to achieving justice, peace, and freedom. The United States has been a historic defender of these values in the multilateral system. The abdication of this role weakens the system's ability to solve the very transnational problems for which it was designed. To make matters worse, it is happening just as peace, justice, and democratic governance (as Goal 16 of the Sustainable Development Goals) were acknowledged and agreed in 2015 by all nations to be core to the development of all countries.
From Warsaw to Brussels, to Tokyo to Singapore, it has been my highest honor to represent the United States abroad. I have forged close relationships and friendships and strong partnerships with the leaders of many nations in this room, and our approach has already yielded incredible change.
With support from many countries here today, we have engaged with North Korea to replace the specter of conflict with a bold and new push for peace. In June, I traveled to Singapore to meet face to face with North Korea’s leader, Chairman Kim Jong Un.
We had highly productive conversations and meetings, and we agreed that it was in both countries’ interest to pursue the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula. Since that meeting, we have already seen a number of encouraging measures that few could have imagined only a short time ago.
x We had highly productive conversations and meetings, and we agreed that it was in both countries’ interest to pursue the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula. Since that meeting, we have already seen a number of encouraging measures that few could have imagined only a short time ago.
Jung H. Pak / Foreign Policy
President Trump's tone on North Korea is a 180-degree turn from the aggressiveness of last year's speech, when he said the United States would "totally destroy" North Korea and derisively called Kim Jong-un "Rocket Man." This is a decidedly conciliatory tone, reflecting Trump's apparent desire to keep engaging with Kim, but Trump's continued use of the phrase "the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula," North Korea's preferred formulation, shows how much Kim has shaped the language of negotiations to his advantage.
The missiles and rockets are no longer flying in every direction. Nuclear testing has stopped. Some military facilities are already being dismantled. Our hostages have been released. And as promised, the remains of our fallen heroes are being returned home to lay at rest in American soil.
x The missiles and rockets are no longer flying in every direction. Nuclear testing has stopped. Some military facilities are already being dismantled. Our hostages have been released. And as promised, the remains of our fallen heroes are being returned home to lay at rest in American soil.
Kim Jong-un has taken some moves toward satisfying elements of the Singapore statement in June 2018, but President Trump is overselling Kim's actions. North Korea has toned down its rhetoric, refrained from missile and nuclear testing, and emphasized its desire for economic development, but reports indicate that it continues to advance nuclear weapons capabilities. Moreover, there are no credible signs that Kim is interested in FFVD—final, fully verified denuclearization. It's also notable how Trump-centric these comments are this year. Last year, in addition to the nuclear issue, he denounced North Korea's human rights violations, nonproliferation, the Japanese abductees issue, the murder of the American student Otto Warmbier, and the regime's use of chemical weapons to kill Kim's half-brother at a Malaysia airport.
I would like to thank Chairman Kim for his courage and for the steps he has taken, though much work remains to be done. The sanctions will stay in place until denuclearization occurs.
I also want to thank the many member states who helped us reach this moment — a moment that is actually far greater than people would understand; far greater — but for also their support and the critical support that we will all need going forward.
A special thanks to President Moon of South Korea, Prime Minister Abe of Japan, and President Xi of China.
x I would like to thank Chairman Kim for his courage and for the steps he has taken, though much work remains to be done. The sanctions will stay in place until denuclearization occurs. I also want to thank the many member states who helped us reach this moment — a moment that is actually far greater than people would understand; far greater — but for also their support and the critical support that we will all need going forward.
President Trump continues to "thank" or compliment Kim, suggesting that he has personalized this issue and is deeply invested in a "win" on North Korea. If anything, South Korean President Moon has done the most legwork to keep the engagement momentum going.
In the Middle East, our new approach is also yielding great strides and very historic change.
Following my trip to Saudi Arabia last year, the Gulf countries opened a new center to target terrorist financing. They are enforcing new sanctions, working with us to identify and track terrorist networks, and taking more responsibility for fighting terrorism and extremism in their own region.
x Following my trip to Saudi Arabia last year, the Gulf countries opened a new center to target terrorist financing.
One presidential trip to the Middle East can hardly be credited for such an achievement. Rather, U.S. efforts to counter terrorism financing far pre-date President Trump. And in fact, this is exactly the type of U.S.-led international regime that Trump distained elsewhere in his speech. Now, he appears to claim credit for it.
Although some of the anti-money laundering laws that the United States has supported have turned out to unhelpfully limit governmental policies and even be counterproductive, without U.S. leadership, the United States and the world have had a harder time tracking terrorist money and attempting to constrain its financial pipelines.
The UAE, Saudi Arabia, and Qatar have pledged billions of dollars to aid the people of Syria and Yemen. And they are pursuing multiple avenues to ending Yemen’s horrible, horrific civil war.
x The UAE, Saudi Arabia, and Qatar have pledged billions of dollars to aid the people of Syria and Yemen. And they are pursuing multiple avenues to ending Yemen’s horrible, horrific civil war.
Scott R. Anderson / Governance Studies
This assertion that Saudi Arabia and the UAE are seeking to alleviate humanitarian suffering and facilitate an end to the conflict in Yemen mirrors a controversial certification that Secretary of State Mike Pompeo submitted to Congress earlier this month in order to prevent a new statutory requirement enacted by Congress from cutting off certain U.S. support to the Saudi-led military intervention in Yemen. Outside experts have questioned the accuracy of these assertions, particularly in relation to Saudi and UAE efforts to reduce civilian casualties resulting from their military operations. Recent media reports have also indicated that State Department experts opposed certification on similar grounds but were ultimately overruled.
Trump’s willingness to reiterate these controversial assertions underscores the importance his administration places on relations with Saudi Arabia, which has championed the Yemen campaign. While U.S. officials may be pressuring Saudi Arabia and the UAE behind the scenes, the Trump administration appears unwilling to risk any sort of public confrontation—even where doing so requires steps that put its credibility with Congress at risk. For its part, Congress has become increasingly concerned with the Yemen conflict's humanitarian toll and proven more willing to sets limits on what support may be provided. Thus, additional restrictions may be enacted that hinge less on officials' judgment and more on objective criteria subject to verification.
Daniel L. Byman / Foreign Policy
The United States needs to hold these allies to their pledge to mitigate what is now perhaps the world's worst humanitarian crisis. In addition, it must press the UAE and Saudi Arabia to support a negotiated settlement rather than continue their counterproductive war in Yemen.
Bruce Riedel / Foreign Policy
The president offered no support for the United Nations effort to end the war in Yemen. The horrific humanitarian catastrophe in Yemen is primarily the product of Saudi Arabia’s poorly planned intervention in the country; an intervention that is the signature initiative of Muhammad bin Salman.
Ultimately, it is up to the nations of the region to decide what kind of future they want for themselves and their children.
For that reason, the United States is working with the Gulf Cooperation Council, Jordan, and Egypt to establish a regional strategic alliance so that Middle Eastern nations can advance prosperity, stability, and security across their home region.
x the United States is working with the Gulf Cooperation Council, Jordan, and Egypt to establish a regional strategic alliance so that Middle Eastern nations can advance prosperity, stability, and security across their home region
Trump made no mention of the bitter dispute between the Saudis and Qatar that has torn the Gulf Cooperation Council apart and makes his pursuit of a strategic alliance illusory. Nor did he acknowledge that his visit to Riyadh last year gave the Saudis the blank check that prompted the blockade of Doha. The solution to the inter-Gulf conflict is essential to developing a unified approach to regional stability, but President Trump at the General Assembly was in denial that the problem exists. Without American leadership, the Qatari dispute will continue to play out across the region, forcing our allies to choose sides.
Natan Sachs / Foreign Policy
Rumors that a Middle East security alliance would be rolled out have been swirling for a while, but the rollout has been postponed. It’s hard to imagine a functioning, broadly construed, and formal alliance in the region, where interests—even among the countries listed here—diverge so strongly. Alliances depend on countries coming to each others’ aid even when that is not in their own direct interest to do so, and in the confidence each country has that the others will indeed follow through. Alliances in the Middle East have been tried in the past—all the way to the Baghdad Pact of the 1950s—but if anything, their chances of success are lower today, unless their aims are very focused and limited, more akin to ad hoc coalitions than alliances.
The impetus for regional cooperation and an American role in it is laudable, but it requires the myriad diplomatic efforts that only a sustained U.S. engagement can provide, building such ad hoc coalitions and sustaining them, not broad formal alliances with little chance of success.
Thanks to the United States military and our partnership with many of your nations, I am pleased to report that the bloodthirsty killers known as ISIS have been driven out from the territory they once held in Iraq and Syria. We will continue to work with friends and allies to deny radical Islamic terrorists any funding, territory or support, or any means of infiltrating our borders.
x I am pleased to report that the bloodthirsty killers known as ISIS have been driven out from the territory they once held in Iraq and Syria.
This is a real victory for the United States but it is incomplete. Rather than "driven out," the Islamic State is "driven underground"—they can (and will) reappear if pressure lets up.
Chris Meserole / Foreign Policy
This statement is patently untrue, and Trump has surely been briefed otherwise. Both the Pentagon and the U.N. have estimated that there are still about 30,000 ISIS militants inside Syria and Iraq. Although the Islamic State no longer governs much territory, its “bloodthirsty killers” have by no means been driven from all the provinces they once controlled.
The ongoing tragedy in Syria is heartbreaking. Our shared goals must be the de-escalation of military conflict, along with a political solution that honors the will of the Syrian people. In this vein, we urge the United Nations-led peace process be reinvigorated. But, rest assured, the United States will respond if chemical weapons are deployed by the Assad regime.
x But, rest assured, the United States will respond if chemical weapons are deployed by the Assad regime.
This is a reference to airstrikes that the Trump administration launched in April 2017 and April 2018 in response to prior Assad regime deployments of chemical weapons, and its repeated threats to pursue additional military action if the Assad regime makes use of chemical weapons again. Threatening such actions before the United Nations is particularly notable because Article 2(4) of the U.N. Charter is generally seen as prohibiting the use of force against other states, except in self-defense or where authorized by the U.N. Security Council. While several U.N. member states expressed support for the Trump administration’s prior Syria strikes as a matter of policy, many others (including Russia) argued that they were in violation of international law.
For its part, the Trump administration has not yet attempted to reconcile its actions with the U.N. Charter or otherwise justify them under international law. That said, the legal opinion that the Trump administration ultimately released justifying its actions under domestic U.S. law does identify support for international legal restrictions on the use of chemical weapons as a relevant factor. France, which also participated in the April 2018 airstrikes, has followed suit. The United Kingdom, meanwhile, has advanced a novel theory asserting that its actions were lawful as a form of humanitarian intervention under international law.
I commend the people of Jordan and other neighboring countries for hosting refugees from this very brutal civil war.
x I commend the people of Jordan and other neighboring countries for hosting refugees from this very brutal civil war.
Jessica Brandt / Foreign Policy
The vast majority of Syrians who fled to neighboring countries in search of safety reside outside of refugee camps, largely in urban areas. In Turkey, that figure is as high as 90 percent. As a new Global Compact on Refugees is rolled out around the world beginning later this year, local authorities in frontline states should be viewed as essential stakeholders.
As we see in Jordan, the most compassionate policy is to place refugees as close to their homes as possible to ease their eventual return to be part of the rebuilding process. This approach also stretches finite resources to help far more people, increasing the impact of every dollar spent.
x As we see in Jordan, the most compassionate policy is to place refugees as close to their homes as possible to ease their eventual return to be part of the rebuilding process. This approach also stretches finite resources to help far more people, increasing the impact of every dollar spent.
Most refugees do stay close to home. Fewer than 1 percent have the opportunity to be resettled in a third country—*any* third country, including the United States. That was true before President Trump's dramatic cuts to the U.S. refugee resettlement program.
Refugees who are prioritized for resettlement are the most vulnerable—unaccompanied minors, women and girls at risk, survivors of torture, and those with special medical needs among them.
Providing assistance to refugees *where they are* is important. But it does not obviate the need for a robust U.S. refugee resettlement program, which among other things demonstrates solidarity with, and alleviates pressures on, states that already host large numbers of people fleeing violence.
James Kirchick / Foreign Policy
This statement is an implicit rebuke of Angela Merkel and others in Europe who have tried to encourage external migration into the European Union.
Every solution to the humanitarian crisis in Syria must also include a strategy to address the brutal regime that has fueled and financed it: the corrupt dictatorship in Iran.
x Every solution to the humanitarian crisis in Syria must also include a strategy to address the brutal regime that has fueled and financed it: the corrupt dictatorship in Iran.
The absence of Russia in this discussion of Syria is striking. Russia has been every bit as important to propping up Bashar Assad as Iran.
Iran’s leaders sow chaos, death, and destruction. They do not respect their neighbors or borders, or the sovereign rights of nations. Instead, Iran’s leaders plunder the nation’s resources to enrich themselves and to spread mayhem across the Middle East and far beyond.
The Iranian people are rightly outraged that their leaders have embezzled billions of dollars from Iran’s treasury, seized valuable portions of the economy, and looted the people’s religious endowments, all to line their own pockets and send their proxies to wage war. Not good.
Iran’s neighbors have paid a heavy toll for the region’s [regime’s] agenda of aggression and expansion. That is why so many countries in the Middle East strongly supported my decision to withdraw the United States from the horrible 2015 Iran Nuclear Deal and re-impose nuclear sanctions.
The Iran deal was a windfall for Iran’s leaders. In the years since the deal was reached, Iran’s military budget grew nearly 40 percent. The dictatorship used the funds to build nuclear-capable missiles, increase internal repression, finance terrorism, and fund havoc and slaughter in Syria and Yemen.
x The Iran deal was a windfall for Iran’s leaders. In the years since the deal was reached, Iran’s military budget grew nearly 40 percent.
Djavad Salehi-Isfahani / Global Economy and Development
The windfall is the release of the Iranian funds frozen in the United States, and returned to Iran as part of the nuclear deal. No precise number for this "windfall" is available, but in the past President Trump has mentioned $150 billion, which is a sizable sum (one-third of Iran's GDP and three times its oil revenues at the time) and probably a gross exaggeration. The figure mentioned most by Obama administration officials was $50 billion, which is much closer to the truth.
The claim of a 40 percent increase in Iran's military budget is also an overstatement. According to figures published by the Stockholm Institute for Peace, Iran’s military expenditures increased from $12.3 billion in 2016 to $14.5 billion in 2017, up by 18.6 percent. Interestingly, Iran’s own budget numbers show an increase of 39.7 percent in defense expenditures for these years. But this increase is in nominal terms and does not take into account that prices in 2017 were 10 to 15 percent higher than in 2016. Thus in real terms, the increase is closer to the Stockholm Institute estimates.
It is worth noting that Iran’s defense expenditures may be higher because Iran’s military has its own economic operations that generate revenue. But even counting the off-budget expenditures, Iran’s defense budget is far lower than the $69.4 billion defense budget of Saudi Arabia, Iran’s main regional competitor, with one-third of Iran’s population.
The United States has launched a campaign of economic pressure to deny the regime the funds it needs to advance its bloody agenda.
x The United States has launched a campaign of economic pressure to deny the regime the funds it needs to advance its bloody agenda.
Suzanne Maloney / Foreign Policy
Trump's re-imposition of sanctions on Iran has had a severe impact on Iran's economy. On a tactical basis, U.S. measures are highly successful: International firms are running for the exits to avoid U.S. penalties and the value of Iran's currency has plummeted. But tactics aren't strategy, and Trump's speech as well as his recent Iran-related tweets leave real ambiguity about his end game and the means of achieving it. If the Trump administration is serious about negotiating a treaty relationship with Tehran, the White House needs to articulate a viable strategy for engaging with Iran around a vast and complicated array of issues. Pressure in and of itself won't generate a durable negotiating track or a bargain that is broader and more advantageous to Washington than the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, or JCPOA. And if the point of pressure is regime change, it's unlikely to work out; dissatisfaction alone rarely produced democratic transitions, and an authoriarian regime that sees its existence threatened by economic pressure may only turn inward and more antagonistic toward the region and its own citizens.
Last month, we began re-imposing hard-hitting nuclear sanctions that had been lifted under the Iran deal. Additional sanctions will resume November 5th, and more will follow. And we’re working with countries that import Iranian crude oil to cut their purchases substantially.
x And we’re working with countries that import Iranian crude oil to cut their purchases substantially.
With his call on countries to reduce their imports of Iranian oil "substantially," the president appears to be softening the administration's stance as the November deadline for sanctions targeting Iran's oil revenues nears. Since Trump's May decision to walk away from the 2015 Iran nuclear deal, a number of senior administration officials have insisted that they intend to reduce Iran's exports to zero by November. This represented a much more intense application of these measures as compared to their original implementation by the Obama administration, which sought "significant" reductions of approximately 20 percent. Several importers, including South Korea and Japan, appear to be on track to meet Trump's demands.
However, Iran's top importers—China and India—can't afford to zero out their imports from Iran, and they have a strategic interest in ensuring diverse sources of energy supplies that entails a continuing relationship with Tehran. Trump's seeming mollification of his subordinates' efforts to press for zero Iranian oil exports suggests an awareness of these realities. His modulated rhetoric may also reflect an appreciation of the prospect that cutting off all of Iran's oil supplies (2.2 thousand barrels per day at the time of the U.S. withdrawal from the Iran nuclear deal) could nudge oil prices higher and impact the U.S. economy as well as the domestic political mood on the eve of midterm elections in the United States.
We cannot allow the world’s leading sponsor of terrorism to possess the planet’s most dangerous weapons. We cannot allow a regime that chants “Death to America,” and that threatens Israel with annihilation, to possess the means to deliver a nuclear warhead to any city on Earth. Just can’t do it.
We ask all nations to isolate Iran’s regime as long as its aggression continues. And we ask all nations to support Iran’s people as they struggle to reclaim their religious and righteous destiny.
x We ask all nations to isolate Iran’s regime as long as its aggression continues.
The Trump administration may be asking, but the president's decision to walk away from the 2015 nuclear deal with Iran has alienated the other parties to that agreement, including Russia, China, Germany, France, and the United Kingdom, as well as the European Union. In many cases, their companies have complied with newly reimposed U.S. sanctions, but the prospects of generating cooperation from their governments on isolating Iran are essentially nil. This is one of several places on Iran where Trump's tactics run directly counter his intended outcome.
This year, we also took another significant step forward in the Middle East. In recognition of every sovereign state to determine its own capital, I moved the U.S. Embassy in Israel to Jerusalem.
The United States is committed to a future of peace and stability in the region, including peace between the Israelis and the Palestinians. That aim is advanced, not harmed, by acknowledging the obvious facts.
x This year, we also took another significant step forward in the Middle East. In recognition of every sovereign state to determine its own capital, I moved the U.S. Embassy in Israel to Jerusalem. The United States is committed to a future of peace and stability in the region, including peace between the Israelis and the Palestinians. That aim is advanced, not harmed, by acknowledging the obvious facts.
Hady Amr/ Foreign Policy
President Trump celebrated his shift of the U.S. embassy to Jerusalem. While there can and should be zero questioning of the Jewish people’s deep and historic ties to the ancient city, the United States can and should have also recognized the Palestinian people’s deep and historic ties to the city as well. Trump’s Jerusalem announcement, as I wrote in December, was certain to spark instability—and it did. It sparked Gaza’s great return march, which has led to thousands of Palestinian casualties and led to the severe degradation of the U.S.-Palestinian relationship. As a result, ironically, Israel may now have better relations with the Palestinian leadership than the United States!
Don’t hold your breath. King Abdullah’s recent statement that he has “no idea” what’s in the plan suggests there has been little movement on this front. The “deal of the century” has clearly taken a back seat.
Trump is correct that Jerusalem is Israel’s capital and that this fact is, in fact, obvious. When foreign leaders address the Israeli parliament they do not do it in Beer Sheva, Eilat, or Tel Aviv; they come to the Knesset in Jerusalem. Even President Sadat of Egypt did so in Jerusalem. Indeed, there is something absurd about countries’ refusal to recognize even West Jerusalem as Israeli, a statement, in effect, that they do not accept the outcome of the 1948 war (after which West Jerusalem became Israeli). It has nothing to do with 1967 (when East Jerusalem was captured), or the occupation of the West Bank. Indeed, Trump’s speech on Jerusalem was carefully worded and delivered; it was not a typical Trump speech. It did not mention a “united Jerusalem” and even explicitly left open the option for borders to be delineated later on, in peace talks.
Where Trump is simply wrong is that this move will advance peace; it has in fact stalled his peace effort. He could have mentioned East Jerusalem in that speech and made clear that the United States hopes to have an embassy to Palestine there. He could have made clear that this move did not prejudice the status of the holy sites in the city in any way. Instead, it was seen by all as a huge symbolic prize to the Israelis at the expense of the Palestinians, even of non-Palestinian Muslims. It was a valid message delivered in a deeply harmful way.
America’s policy of principled realism means we will not be held hostage to old dogmas, discredited ideologies, and so-called experts who have been proven wrong over the years, time and time again. This is true not only in matters of peace, but in matters of prosperity.
We believe that trade must be fair and reciprocal. The United States will not be taken advantage of any longer.
x We believe that trade must be fair and reciprocal
Landry Signé / Global Economy and Development
In order ensure fair and reciprocal trade relations between Africa and the United States, President Trump should shift away from a country-specific approach of trade agreements with Africa. Instead, he should adopt a continental one through the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA). Such an approach will be more beneficial for both American corporations and African countries, as the continent is poised to become home to $6.7 trillion of combined consumer and business spending and 1.7 billion people by 2030. Launched in March 2018, the AfCFTA is a groundbreaking achievement in African trade and regional integration, which will open up trade across the continent, as well as accelerate industrialization, economic diversification, industrialization, and development. With a continental approach, both African and American corporations and citizens will benefit from reduced cost of doing business, economies of scale, lower tariffs, and increased commercial transaction. For this to happen, the AfCFTA still needs to be implemented. The challenge to scale up and speed up successful implementation of the AfCFTA lies with the governments. As I discussed in my book, "Innovating Development Strategies in Africa: The Role of International, Regional, and National Actors," leaders should favor innovations that facilitate effective delivery and socioeconomic transformations in the long run.
For decades, the United States opened its economy — the largest, by far, on Earth — with few conditions. We allowed foreign goods from all over the world to flow freely across our borders.
Yet, other countries did not grant us fair and reciprocal access to their markets in return. Even worse, some countries abused their openness to dump their products, subsidize their goods, target our industries, and manipulate their currencies to gain unfair advantage over our country. As a result, our trade deficit ballooned to nearly $800 billion a year.
For this reason, we are systematically renegotiating broken and bad trade deals. Last month, we announced a groundbreaking U.S.-Mexico trade agreement. And just yesterday, I stood with President Moon to announce the successful completion of the brand new U.S.-Korea trade deal. And this is just the beginning.
Many nations in this hall will agree that the world trading system is in dire need of change. For example, countries were admitted to the World Trade Organization that violate every single principle on which the organization is based. While the United States and many other nations play by the rules, these countries use government-run industrial planning and state-owned enterprises to rig the system in their favor. They engage in relentless product dumping, forced technology transfer, and the theft of intellectual property.
The United States lost over 3 million manufacturing jobs, nearly a quarter of all steel jobs, and 60,000 factories after China joined the WTO. And we have racked up $13 trillion in trade deficits over the last two decades.
x The United States lost over 3 million manufacturing jobs, nearly a quarter of all steel jobs, and 60,000 factories after China joined the WTO. And we have racked up $13 trillion in trade deficits over the last two decades.
Rush Doshi / Foreign Policy
China’s accession to the World Trade Organization certainly harmed U.S. manufacturing, but a “before” and “after” statistic about jobs does not establish that it was China’s accession that was principally responsible for job losses. It is strange that Trump's team employed such a crude statistic, especially when several prominent studies that isolate the "China factor" and its effect on U.S. jobs are readily available and offer easily citable statistics.
But those days are over. We will no longer tolerate such abuse. We will not allow our workers to be victimized, our companies to be cheated, and our wealth to be plundered and transferred. America will never apologize for protecting its citizens.
The United States has just announced tariffs on another $200 billion in Chinese-made goods for a total, so far, of $250 billion. I have great respect and affection for my friend, President Xi, but I have made clear our trade imbalance is just not acceptable. China’s market distortions and the way they deal cannot be tolerated.
x The United States has just announced tariffs on another $200 billion in Chinese-made goods for a total, so far, of $250 billion. I have great respect and affection for my friend, President Xi, but I have made clear our trade imbalance is just not acceptable. China’s market distortions and the way they deal cannot be tolerated.
David Dollar/ Foreign Policy
China's current account surplus is down to 1 percent of GDP, so China is not the problem for global imbalances. Furthermore, tariffs are not an effective tool to address the U.S. trade deficit because they reduce both imports and exports. When the United States limited imports in the 1930s and the 1970s, in both cases the U.S. trade deficit increased because exports fell more than imports.
President Trump continues to praise Xi and attack China in the same breath, but his efforts are unlikely to dramatically restore U.S. manufacturing employment, especially as manufacturers consider nearby alternatives to China like Cambodia and Vietnam. Jobs, however, may not be the point. Indeed, as some in the administration have suggested, the trade war with China may be motivated by a desire to force supply chains out of China to other countries as a way of reducing U.S. asymmetric dependence on China’s nodal role in electronics and other supply chains.
Ryan Hass / Foreign Policy
In measuring the effectiveness of his China trade policy based on the U.S.-China trade balance, President Trump is setting himself up for failure. Under President Trump, the United States is on track to set a new record this year for the largest trade deficit in the history of U.S.-China relations.
As my administration has demonstrated, America will always act in our national interest.
I spoke before this body last year and warned that the U.N. Human Rights Council had become a grave embarrassment to this institution, shielding egregious human rights abusers while bashing America and its many friends. Our Ambassador to the United Nations, Nikki Haley, laid out a clear agenda for reform, but despite reported and repeated warnings, no action at all was taken.
So the United States took the only responsible course: We withdrew from the Human Rights Council, and we will not return until real reform is enacted. For similar reasons, the United States will provide no support in recognition to the International Criminal Court. As far as America is concerned, the ICC has no jurisdiction, no legitimacy, and no authority. The ICC claims near-universal jurisdiction over the citizens of every country, violating all principles of justice, fairness, and due process. We will never surrender America’s sovereignty to an unelected, unaccountable, global bureaucracy.
x I spoke before this body last year and warned that the U.N. Human Rights Council had become a grave embarrassment to this institution, shielding egregious human rights abusers while bashing America and its many friends. Our Ambassador to the United Nations, Nikki Haley, laid out a clear agenda for reform, but despite reported and repeated warnings, no action at all was taken.
This description of the ICC's structure and jurisdiction is deliberately misleading. Both ICC judges and prosecutors are elected and subject to removal by ICC member states. The ICC's jurisdiction is limited to four categories of offenses—genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes, and aggression—and can only reach crimes committed on the territory or by nationals of ICC member states absent a U.N. Security Council referral. Even then, a case is inadmissible where national authorities who are able and willing to carry out fair proceedings are addressing the matter.
This does not mean, however, that the ICC poses no legal risk to the United States. ICC judges are currently weighing whether to authorize an investigation into the conflict in Afghanistan, which joined the ICC in 2003. If approved, this investigation may even extend to the U.S. rendition, detention, and interrogation of terrorism suspects within ICC member states such as Lithuania, Poland, and Romania.
Trump’s decision to attack the ICC instead of frankly addressing these concerns likely reflects the influence of his National Security Advisor John Bolton, who is a noted ICC skeptic and made similar remarks in a speech earlier this month. Such rhetoric aligns with Trump’s broader theme of sovereignty and may speak to his domestic political base, but is unlikely to persuade U.N. member states who have acceded to the ICC’s jurisdiction and are more familiar with its operations.
Only a couple of hours after president Trump's speech, French President Emmanuel Macron took the stage, offered a strong rebuttal to Trumpism, and called for a renewed multilateralism. Among the numerous striking points of disagreement between the two leaders: the U.N. Human Rights Council and the International Criminal Court (as well as UNESCO and the U.N. Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees, both mentioned by the French), which the two leaders view through completely different lenses. These two narratives are starting to draw the contours of two camps within the West.
This reaffirms National Security Advisor John Bolton's extremist view that the International Criminal Court is illegitimate. The ICC is a fact of international law and practice, and has protections for national sovereignty and due process. The United States has no reason to fear it if it carries out fair investigations of allegations of war crimes committed by its citizens. Bolton's threat to sanction and prosecute ICC judges, staff, and anyone cooperating with them to investigate U.S. citizens is beyond the pale.
America is governed by Americans. We reject the ideology of globalism, and we embrace the doctrine of patriotism.
Around the world, responsible nations must defend against threats to sovereignty not just from global governance, but also from other, new forms of coercion and domination.
In America, we believe strongly in energy security for ourselves and for our allies. We have become the largest energy producer anywhere on the face of the Earth.
The United States stands ready to export our abundant, affordable supply of oil, clean coal, and natural gas.
OPEC and OPEC nations, are, as usual, ripping off the rest of the world, and I don’t like it. Nobody should like it. We defend many of these nations for nothing, and then they take advantage of us by giving us high oil prices. Not good.
We want them to stop raising prices, we want them to start lowering prices, and they must contribute substantially to military protection from now on. We are not going to put up with it — these horrible prices — much longer.
x OPEC and OPEC nations, are, as usual, ripping off the rest of the world, and I don’t like it. Nobody should like it. We defend many of these nations for nothing, and then they take advantage of us by giving us high oil prices. Not good
Tarun Chhabra / Foreign Policy
This includes Saudi Arabia, which is otherwise singled out for high praise elsewhere in the speech.
Samantha Gross / Foreign Policy
President Trump has made similar statements via his Twitter account, but seeing a threat like this in front of the U.N. General Assembly is shocking. President Trump's policy to severely curtail oil exports from Iran is an important driver of today's high oil prices. OPEC (apart from Iran) and Russia have already increased production in response, and there are limits to how much more they could do. I don't know whether this bluster is for a U.S. domestic audience, showing that President Trump cares about rising gasoline prices, or whether the president believes he can force OPEC to produce more. But it demonstrates a misunderstanding of oil market conditions.
It is not clear which OPEC nations the president has in mind when he speaks of the United States defending them "for nothing." I can only think of Iraq, Saudi Arabia, and the UAE that could remotely fit this description. But, I bet that most people in these countries would beg to differ from the president regarding "taking advantage” of the United States. Iraq is still recovering from the devastation caused by the U.S. invasion in 2003, and the latter two spend large sums every year on purchasing military hardware from the United States.
Blaming OPEC for rising prices is probably intended to deflect criticism from President Trump’s Iran sanctions, which are expected to take 1 to 2 million barrels per day of Iranian oil out of a very tight market. As a cartel with voluntary membership, OPEC has little power over its members’ production. In any case, OPEC countries, including Saudi Arabia, are producing close to their production capacities and cannot do much more to reduce prices.
While touting Saudi Arabia’s “bold reforms,” the president savaged OPEC for ripping off the world with high oil prices. Of course, Saudi Arabia is the leader of OPEC. The contradiction is apparently lost in the White House. While decrying the “horrible” oil prices the Saudis have helped set, President Trump implied they don’t spend enough on defense. But Saudi Arabia is the third-largest military spender in the world and is pouring billions of dollars into the quagmire in Yemen.
The Middle East often seems like the only place where the Trump administration has clung to old partnerships rather than strained them. Elsewhere in this speech, Saudi Arabia, Israel, and the UAE are praised, and the administration has indeed conistently sided with them in regional affairs. To these partners, this seems like a welcome correction from the Obama years; rather than what they saw as an aloof Obama—above the fray of their quarrels (with Iran in particular)—they got a partisan Trump, who’s on their side.
Yet in this passage, "America First" is back. Here is the classic Trump admonition for allies (and non-allies) in OPEC
In energy, and in the politically-explosive issue of gas prices in the United States, Trump's two inclinations in the Middle East come to a head.
Reliance on a single foreign supplier can leave a nation vulnerable to extortion and intimidation. That is why we congratulate European states, such as Poland, for leading the construction of a Baltic pipeline so that nations are not dependent on Russia to meet their energy needs. Germany will become totally dependent on Russian energy if it does not immediately change course.
x Reliance on a single foreign supplier can leave a nation vulnerable to extortion and intimidation. That is why we congratulate European states, such as Poland, for leading the construction of a Baltic pipeline so that nations are not dependent on Russia to meet their energy needs. Germany will become totally dependent on Russian energy if it does not immediately change course.
There is barely any positive mention of European allies—apart from Poland, which gets special treatment. But Germany has to face yet again a new sharp criticism, echoing President Trump's criticism of Nord Stream 2 at the NATO summit. Also absent from the speech is any discussion of the challenges of climate change, however central they appear in other countries' UNGA speeches.
This is an exaggeration—only 20 percent of Germany's energy mix comes from gas, most of which is from Russia—but President Trump is nonetheless right to criticize Germany for an energy policy that sacrifices the security and interests of fellow NATO and EU members to its east in exchange for cheaper energy prices.
Here in the Western Hemisphere, we are committed to maintaining our independence from the encroachment of expansionist foreign powers.
It has been the formal policy of our country since President Monroe that we reject the interference of foreign nations in this hemisphere and in our own affairs.
x Here in the Western Hemisphere, we are committed to maintaining our independence from the encroachment of expansionist foreign powers. It has been the formal policy of our country since President Monroe that we reject the interference of foreign nations in this hemisphere and in our own affairs.
This and the unqualified invocation of the Monroe Doctrine (below) suggest an openness to a “spheres of influence” model of world order. Since 1945, the United States has generally supported the independence of our friends and allies from expansionist foreign powers around the world, rejecting such an order on the basis that it will be unstable and lead to conflict.
In 2013, then-Secretary of State John Kerry told Latin American diplomats that "the era of the Monroe Doctrine is over." In contrast, Trump administration officials, like former National Security Council Senior Director Craig Deare and Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, had endorsed it, especially within the context of great power competition with China. Trump’s decision to bring up the Monroe Doctrine before the General Assembly escalated that language and was a mistake—it legitimizes the idea that great powers like China and Russia might claim "spheres of influence," all while failing to charm Latin Americans, deter foreign powers, or bolster American values. Americans have legitimate reasons to be wary of Chinese influence in Latin America, but bringing those concerns up in such a clumsy fashion at the U.N. General Assembly is counterproductive.
Such assertions are akin to seeking to wish away China's expanding influence in Latin America by arguing that Chinese activism is not allowed under the Monroe Doctrine. The contrast between President Trump's public shaming and President Xi's proffers of "assistance" will come into sharper contrast when Xi visits the region around the time of the G-20 in Argentina in late November.
Trump's invocation of the Monroe Doctrine will be received in the Latin America region as a naked reassertion of U.S. hegemony in the hemisphere at a time when Latin America has become deeply intertwined in the global economic system. A more explicit warning to China, Russia, and Iran to disengage from both licit and illicit activities in Venezuela, for example, (and the United States for that matter) would have been better.
The United States has recently strengthened our laws to better screen foreign investments in our country for national security threats, and we welcome cooperation with countries in this region and around the world that wish to do the same. You need to do it for your own protection.
The United States is also working with partners in Latin America to confront threats to sovereignty from uncontrolled migration. Tolerance for human struggling and human smuggling and trafficking is not humane. It’s a horrible thing that’s going on, at levels that nobody has ever seen before. It’s very, very cruel.
Illegal immigration funds criminal networks, ruthless gangs, and the flow of deadly drugs. Illegal immigration exploits vulnerable populations, hurts hardworking citizens, and has produced a vicious cycle of crime, violence, and poverty. Only by upholding national borders, destroying criminal gangs, can we break this cycle and establish a real foundation for prosperity.
x Illegal immigration funds criminal networks, ruthless gangs, and the flow of deadly drugs. Illegal immigration exploits vulnerable populations, hurts hardworking citizens, and has produced a vicious cycle of crime, violence, and poverty. Only by upholding national borders, destroying criminal gangs, can we break this cycle and establish a real foundation for prosperity.
The Trump administration has adopted inhumane immigration policies. The barbaric policy of separating migrant children from their parents is not only destructive, but counterproductive. The separation trauma severely undermines the children’s healthy development and can produce long-term emotional and cognitive damage, including adult attachment disorders, depression, and even proclivity to criminality. Escaping from chronic crime-related trauma is what motivates many Central American families to seek asylum in the United States, not something the U.S. government should compound.
In his speech, President Trump again vilified illegal immigration by linking it to criminality and negative economic effects. But there is no evidence that undocumented residents are the dominant factor behind violent crimes in the United States. The vast majority of violent crimes, including murders, are committed by native-born Americans. Multiple criminological studies show that foreign-born individuals commit much lower levels of crime than do the native-born.
We recognize the right of every nation in this room to set its own immigration policy in accordance with its national interests, just as we ask other countries to respect our own right to do the same — which we are doing. That is one reason the United States will not participate in the new Global Compact on Migration. Migration should not be governed by an international body unaccountable to our own citizens.
x We recognize the right of every nation in this room to set its own immigration policy in accordance with its national interests, just as we ask other countries to respect our own right to do the same — which we are doing. That is one reason the United States will not participate in the new Global Compact on Migration. Migration should not be governed by an international body unaccountable to our own citizens.
The Global Compact on Migration is a non-binding political declaration—a statement of principles. The final draft text, which is expected to be adopted in December, "reaffirms the sovereign right of States to determine their national migration policy and their prerogative to govern migration within their jurisdiction, in conformity with international law." It would not take migration policy decisions out of the hands of U.S. officials.
Ultimately, the only long-term solution to the migration crisis is to help people build more hopeful futures in their home countries. Make their countries great again.
Currently, we are witnessing a human tragedy, as an example, in Venezuela. More than 2 million people have fled the anguish inflicted by the socialist Maduro regime and its Cuban sponsors.
Not long ago, Venezuela was one of the richest countries on Earth. Today, socialism has bankrupted the oil-rich nation and driven its people into abject poverty.
Virtually everywhere socialism or communism has been tried, it has produced suffering, corruption, and decay. Socialism’s thirst for power leads to expansion, incursion, and oppression. All nations of the world should resist socialism and the misery that it brings to everyone.
x All nations of the world should resist socialism and the misery that it brings to everyone.
This statement is absolutely true and it's nice to hear a U.S. president saying it, but it does contradict the president's earlier assertion that "the United States will not tell you how to live or work or worship."
In that spirit, we ask the nations gathered here to join us in calling for the restoration of democracy in Venezuela. Today, we are announcing additional sanctions against the repressive regime, targeting Maduro’s inner circle and close advisors.
We are grateful for all the work the United Nations does around the world to help people build better lives for themselves and their families.
The United States is the world’s largest giver in the world, by far, of foreign aid. But few give anything to us. That is why we are taking a hard look at U.S. foreign assistance. That will be headed up by Secretary of State Mike Pompeo. We will examine what is working, what is not working, and whether the countries who receive our dollars and our protection also have our interests at heart.
x The United States is the world’s largest giver in the world, by far, of foreign aid. But few give anything to us. That is why we are taking a hard look at U.S. foreign assistance. That will be headed up by Secretary of State Mike Pompeo. We will examine what is working, what is not working, and whether the countries who receive our dollars and our protection also have our interests at heart.
President Trump says that the United States is the biggest donor of foreign aid. Although true in absolute terms, it is absolutely false in terms of our economy. In fact, we give only about 0.18 percent of our gross national income (GNI) in development assistance, which is 3 to 4 times less than some of our allies: 0.70 percent for the United Kingdom, 0.66 percent for Germany, 0.43 percent for France, 0.29 percent for Italy, and 0.26 percent for Canada. (See a map view here.) Trump also says Secretary of State Mike Pompeo will conduct a review based on how much the governments of receiving countries respect us. Instead, review should be on: 1) our values (alleviating disasters, feeding the poor, restoring human rights), and 2) our national security interests, not whether a country gives us a pretty smile. Further, because much of our aid bolsters the residents of receiving countries, not their governments, cutting aid is often of no consequence to the governments.
Actually, the United States received more than 150 offers of unsolicited aid from countries after Hurricane Katrina in 2005. It also received at least 30 offers of aid after the BP oil spill. In both cases, the U.S. government was slow to accept and process such offers. As a consequence, some of the in-kind donations were ultimately wasted and unusable.
But that belies the faulty logic of this statement. The United States does not give foreign assistance because it expects assistance in return. From the Marshall Plan to the current day, the United States has been the leader in providing overseas aid because it directly supports U.S. interests and security, and as importantly, because it reflects our highest values and principles as a nation. The quid pro quo implied here reveals how this president views foreign aid primarily through a transactional lens, rather than a robust pillar of U.S. foreign policy alongside diplomacy and defense.
Transactional aid is President Trump’s doctrine when it comes to foreign assistance. He has been consistent in his skepticism about the effectiveness of aid. Given that skepticism, he is prone to see aid primarily as a bargaining chip to advance his own political interests or to get countries to do what he wants.
Yet the trouble that the administration has encountered in trying to develop a policy that codifies this sentiment reveals its arbitrariness, its inherent contradictions, and the dangers it poses. Defining “friend” is tricky and arbitrary. President Trump himself emphasizes the sovereignty of nations to act in their own interests; for any nation, those interests will align with the United States only part of the time. And withdrawing such aid offers the opportunity for China or others to step into the leadership vacuum.
It's more straightforward—and ultimately more useful—to stay focused on maximizing the effectiveness of U.S. aid and leverage the relationships that result from success.
Tamara Cofman Wittes / Foreign Policy
Recall that President Trump has requested steep cuts to the State Department/USAID budget for the past two years; Congress has simply overruled him. Two things to note here: 1) Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is heading up this review; Trump didn’t mention USAID head Mark Green, and 2) When Pompeo took over at the State Department, I wondered whether he would work to secure the budgetary resources of his new agency, even if solely for his own prestige. But the review and the clear expectation of cuts in the next paragraph means that Pompeo won State/USAID just a temporary reprieve from Office of Budget and Management Director Mick Mulvaney’s massive cuts, not a full pardon.
Moving forward, we are only going to give foreign aid to those who respect us and, frankly, are our friends. And we expect other countries to pay their fair share for the cost of their defense.
The United States is committed to making the United Nations more effective and accountable. I have said many times that the United Nations has unlimited potential. As part of our reform effort, I have told our negotiators that the United States will not pay more than 25 percent of the U.N. peacekeeping budget. This will encourage other countries to step up, get involved, and also share in this very large burden.
And we are working to shift more of our funding from assessed contributions to voluntary so that we can target American resources to the programs with the best record of success.
Only when each of us does our part and contributes our share can we realize the U.N.’s highest aspirations. We must pursue peace without fear, hope without despair, and security without apology.
Looking around this hall where so much history has transpired, we think of the many before us who have come here to address the challenges of their nations and of their times. And our thoughts turn to the same question that ran through all their speeches and resolutions, through every word and every hope. It is the question of what kind of world will we leave for our children and what kind of nations they will inherit.
The dreams that fill this hall today are as diverse as the people who have stood at this podium, and as varied as the countries represented right here in this body are. It really is something. It really is great, great history.
There is India, a free society over a billion people, successfully lifting countless millions out of poverty and into the middle class.
There is Saudi Arabia, where King Salman and the Crown Prince are pursuing bold new reforms.
There is Israel, proudly celebrating its 70th anniversary as a thriving democracy in the Holy Land.
In Poland, a great people are standing up for their independence, their security, and their sovereignty.
Many countries are pursuing their own unique visions, building their own hopeful futures, and chasing their own wonderful dreams of destiny, of legacy, and of a home.
The whole world is richer, humanity is better, because of this beautiful constellation of nations, each very special, each very unique, and each shining brightly in its part of the world.
In each one, we see awesome promise of a people bound together by a shared past and working toward a common future.
As for Americans, we know what kind of future we want for ourselves. We know what kind of a nation America must always be.
In America, we believe in the majesty of freedom and the dignity of the individual. We believe in self-government and the rule of law. And we prize the culture that sustains our liberty -– a culture built on strong families, deep faith, and fierce independence. We celebrate our heroes, we treasure our traditions, and above all, we love our country.
Inside everyone in this great chamber today, and everyone listening all around the globe, there is the heart of a patriot that feels the same powerful love for your nation, the same intense loyalty to your homeland.
The passion that burns in the hearts of patriots and the souls of nations has inspired reform and revolution, sacrifice and selflessness, scientific breakthroughs, and magnificent works of art.
Our task is not to erase it, but to embrace it. To build with it. To draw on its ancient wisdom. And to find within it the will to make our nations greater, our regions safer, and the world better.
To unleash this incredible potential in our people, we must defend the foundations that make it all possible. Sovereign and independent nations are the only vehicle where freedom has ever survived, democracy has ever endured, or peace has ever prospered. And so we must protect our sovereignty and our cherished independence above all.
When we do, we will find new avenues for cooperation unfolding before us. We will find new passion for peacemaking rising within us. We will find new purpose, new resolve, and new spirit flourishing all around us, and making this a more beautiful world in which to live.
x We will find new passion for peacemaking rising within us. We will find new purpose, new resolve, and new spirit flourishing all around us, and making this a more beautiful world in which to live.
Recent history begs to differ, and suggests instead that resurgent nationalisms will yield greater disorder and violence.
So together, let us choose a future of patriotism, prosperity, and pride. Let us choose peace and freedom over domination and defeat. And let us come here to this place to stand for our people and their nations, forever strong, forever sovereign, forever just, and forever thankful for the grace and the goodness and the glory of God.
Thank you. God bless you. And God bless the nations of the world.
Thank you very much. Thank you. (Applause.)
There is an off-ramp in the U.S.-Iran crisis
Suzanne Maloney
Hezbollah: Revolutionary Iran’s most successful export
Jeffrey Feltman
Order from Chaos
Don’t rehabilitate Obama on Russia
Benjamin Haddad and Alina Polyakova
The Deer and the Dragon
Edited by Donald K Emmerson
Tariff Negotiation and Renegotiation
By Anwarul Hoda
Competition Policy, Intellectual Property Rights and Trade in an Interdependent World Economy
By Robert D. Anderson, Nuno Pires De Carvalho, and Antony Taubman
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0022.json.gz/line1218
|
__label__wiki
| 0.530106
| 0.530106
|
Converted Warehouse, Municipal Building, Landmarked Passive House Win Building Brooklyn Awards
The winners of the Building Brooklyn Awards have been announced! Among the chosen are two beautifully converted former factories in the Navy Yard and Brooklyn Bridge Park, a municipal building in Downtown Brooklyn, and an affordable housing development in East New York.
The Building Brooklyn Awards honor the projects and people that “improve the landscape of Brooklyn and contribute to the community with flair and beauty,” in the words of Carlo Scissura, CEO and president of the Brooklyn Chamber of Commerce, which organizes the awards.
This years’ winners were chosen because “they are interesting, they are unique, they really showcase the ingenuity of this borough,” Scissura told Brownstoner.
Now in their 16th year, the awards cover a variety of categories, including preservation, interior design, affordable housing, renovation, and environment. Projects are eligible for this year’s awards if they were completed mostly in 2015.
Brownstoner is a sponsor of the awards, and Brownstoner publisher Kael Goodman is one of the judges.
The awards ceremony will take place from 6 to 9:30 p.m. on Wednesday, July 20, at the Brooklyn Navy Yard’s Duggal Greenhouse. The greenhouse is itself a former Building Brooklyn Award winner, most recently in the news for having hosted the Democratic primary debate earlier this year.
The Greenhouse is located at 63 Flushing Avenue. Tickets cost $150 for chamber members and $200 for non-members. There are also varying degrees of sponsorship. To register, visit the Brooklyn Chamber of Commerce’s website.
For more information about the awards, see the Brooklyn Chamber of Commerce‘s website.
Read on for all the details about this year’s winning structures.
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 Single Page
Brooklyn Chamber of Commerce
Building Brooklyn Awards
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0022.json.gz/line1220
|
__label__cc
| 0.574464
| 0.425536
|
Grand Five-Story Neo-Renaissance-Style Brownstone in Park Slope Asks $5.45 Million
Aug 1, 2018 • 01:45pm
This five-story neo-Renaissance brownstone has a number of stand-out period details. Located at 845 Carroll Street in the Park Slope Historic District, it’s a half-block walk from Prospect Park and Grand Army Plaza.
Currently configured as a garden-level rental under a four-story owners unit, it was built by builder-architect William Flanagan in 1896 as one of a row of six homes. The home has been in the same family since at least the 1990s and is wonderfully preserved.
The home’s 21-foot-wide facade, like many on the block, is a looker. There are triple bay windows with colonettes and ornamentation, heavily ornamented front door surrounds, the original iron grills embellished with lion heads and a bracketed metal cornice.
A double parlor is divided by a columned screen. There’s stained glass windows, wainscoting, modest ceiling medallions, millwork moldings and a total of nine mantels.
Some original inlaid parquet floors can be found throughout. The dining room has dark woodwork, wallpaper, a coffered ceiling and, according to the listing, built-ins, although they’re not visible in the photos.
Save this listing on Brownstoner Real Estate to get price, availability and open house updates as they happen >>
The kitchen, which is quite large, has an eat-in island, breakfast bar with seating for four and room for a table among its rich baseboards and mirrored mantel.
On the second-story, there’s a large deck. The top three floors are nearly identical: two bedrooms, one in the front and one in the rear, each with a walk-in closet and dressing room which, in the top two floors, is also a pass-through. The fourth-story lacks bay windows and has a front corner office.
The kitchen in the garden rental is tucked into the back of the living room. There’s a large bedroom in the extension and a smaller bedroom that may work better as an office in the rear. There’s also washer dryer and private garden access.
The one pictured bathroom has an enclosed glass shower and is cleanly renovated. A second-floor bathroom, not pictured, has a clawfoot tub, according to the listing.
Anchor Associates’ Fern Kamins has the listing, which is asking for $5.45 million. Do you think they’ll get their ask?
[Listing: 845 Carroll Street | Broker: Anchor Assoicates] GMAP
Find Your Dream Home in Brooklyn and Beyond With the New Brownstoner Real Estate
Charming Two-Family Brownstone in Bed Stuy With Four Mantels Asks $1.45 Million
One-Bedroom Condo in Park Slope Corner Brownstone With Bay Windows Asks $579K
845 Carroll Street
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0022.json.gz/line1221
|
__label__wiki
| 0.876711
| 0.876711
|
Between Rome and Carthage
Southern Italy during the Second Punic War
Author: Michael P. Fronda, McGill University, Montréal
$ 124.00 (C)
Hannibal invaded Italy with the hope of raising widespread rebellions among Rome's subordinate allies. Yet even after crushing the Roman army at Cannae, he was only partially successful. Why did some communities decide to side with Carthage and others to side with Rome? This is the fundamental question posed in this book, and consideration is given to the particular political, diplomatic, military and economic factors that influenced individual communities' decisions. Understanding their motivations reveals much, not just about the war itself, but also about Rome's relations with Italy during the prior two centuries of aggressive expansion. The book sheds new light on Roman imperialism in Italy, the nature of Roman hegemony, and the transformation of Roman Italy in the period leading up to the Social War. It is informed throughout by contemporary political science theory and archaeological evidence, and will be required reading for all historians of the Roman Republic.
Employs modern political science and models of interstate relations models to shed new light on the ancient sources for the Second Punic War
Synthesizes recent archaeological evidence and makes a wide range of regional and site-specific material accessible to readers
Fifteen maps provide up-to-date information on the location of ancient sites and the geographic relationship between ancient cities involved in the Second Punic War
"Fronda’s fresh and modern approach to the [Second Punic] war’s diplomatic arena, which both incorporates material and numismatic evidence alongside written sources and situates events in their historical context, offers much more than its subtitle suggests. Although not structured as a narrative, the book develops a history of southern Italy in a neglected period, c. 350-200 BCE, and contributes much of interest to scholars of Roman history more generally." --Bryn Mawr Classical Review
"The book makes a significant contribution to the crucial issues of why Hannibal lost, and what his defeat meant for both Rome and Italy."
-- Dexter Hoyos, New England Classical Journal
contains: 15 maps
2. Apulia
3. Campania
4. Bruttium and Western Magna Graecia
5. Southern Lucania and Eastern Magna Graecia
6. The Roman re-conquest of Southern Italy
Appendix A. The war in Samnium, 217–209
Appendix B. Chronology of events in Bruttium, 215
Appendix C. Chronology of events from the defection of Taras through the defection of Thurii, 213–212
Appendix D. Defection of the Southern Lucanians, 212.
Front Matter (1974 KB)
Michael P. Fronda, McGill University, Montréal
Michael P. Fronda is Assistant Professor in the Department of History and Classical Studies, McGill University. He has published a number of articles on topics in ancient history and has contributed to D. Hoyos (ed.), The Blackwell Companion to the Punic Wars.
An Enquiry into the Ancient Routes between Italy and Gaul
With an Examination of the Theory of Hannibal's Passage of the Alps by the Little St Bernard
A Treatise on Hannibal's Passage of the Alps
In Which his Route Is Traced over the Little Mont Cenis
Friendship and Empire
Roman Diplomacy and Imperialism in the Middle Republic (353–146 BC)
Metropolis and Hinterland
The City of Rome and the Italian Economy, 200 BC–AD 200
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0022.json.gz/line1223
|
__label__wiki
| 0.811024
| 0.811024
|
Science is ... fun? Yep, that’s right, students say
Melissa Griffy Seeton
You’d never guess it was mid-summer as 30 students opted for safety goggles as opposed to swimming goggles. The crew participated in the second annual science camp. Throughout the five-day camp, students learned about solids, liquids and gases, and how to make observations in science.
Eleven-year-old Adaiah Wright wants to be a singer one day, but that doesn’t mean she forgoes tough subjects — like science.
“It’s one of my favorites,” Wright said this week while participating in a summer science camp at Canton South High School.
You’d never guess it was mid-summer as Wright and 29 other students in grades 3-5 opted for safety goggles instead of swimming goggles. The crew participated in the second annual science camp, a partnership between Aultman College of Nursing and Health Sciences and Canton Local Schools.
“We find this very exciting, to really engage these students in their understanding of science and math,” said Rebecca Crowl, Aultman College’s president.
Throughout the five-day camp, students learned about solids, liquids and gases, and how to make observations in science. On Wednesday, the students created “torpedoes” using a mixture of baking soda and vinegar to further explore gas, pressure and its uses. Today, the students are creating a self-sustaining ecosystem in a jar with materials such as hornwort and duckweed plants, snails and shrimp.
Taking a look around the classroom turned laboratory, you would never believe there is a declining interest in science among Americans today.
“It makes me hopeful they (students) are going to solve the problems my generation has,” said Jean Paddock, Aultman College’s assistant professor of chemistry and assistant director of general education, who led the week’s experiments.
Mason Boldizar and Keith Long teach fourth- and fifth-grades at Walker Elementary School. The two teamed with Paddock to ensure state science standards were used to develop the camp’s curriculum. Some of those include: Whether materials are solid or liquid, scientific observation and ecosystems.
“Our kids are really benefiting from it,” Boldizar said of the camp and the partnership with Aultman College. “They come in every day excited about science. And, in this atmosphere (without classroom time restrictions), there’s time for a lot of exploration. Students get a chance to figure it out themselves.”
Wes Beebe will be entering the sixth grade. He said he wanted to participate in the camp because “it sounded cool.”
He said science is his second favorite subject, right behind social studies. Beebe has hopes of becoming a chef one day, and he’s already using what he’s learned in science class to make his own salad dressings and sauces.
“That’s one thing I’ve learned,” Beebe said. “Science is important because it’s everywhere.”
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0022.json.gz/line1225
|
__label__wiki
| 0.973261
| 0.973261
|
Richard Dawkins Net Worth 2019
Richard Dawkins is a noted British biologist and academician. He has authored several books on evolutionary biology and one book on atheism. He has appeared on various TV shows presenting his views on evolution and creationism. He has worked previously as a professor in Oxford University and currently is a member of its governing body.
Here is a quick summary of Richard Dawkins’ net worth in 2019, career and earnings.
Richard Dawkins was born on 26th March 1941 in Nairobi, Kenya. His mother is Jean Mary Vyvyan. His father, John Dawkins was a civil servant on his Majesty’s colonial service. Richard has a younger sister too.
Richard Dawkins went to Oundle School in Northamptonshire, England. He graduated in Zoology from the Balliol College, Oxford. Later on he completed his Masters as well as Doctorate from the same college.
Richard worked at different positions in the Oxford University. He wrote 14 books on evolutionary biology and appeared in an equal number of documentaries on BBC.
Dawkins married Marian Stamp in 1967, who was an ethologist like him. They separated in 1984. The same year he married Eve Barham with whom he had a daughter. They later got divorced.
Dawkins married a third time to actress Lalla Ward in 1992. The two separated in 2016.
Currently, Richard Dawkins resides in Oxford, England and devotes his time to writing and managing his non-profit organization RDFRS (Richards Dawkins Foundation of Reason and Science).
Richard Dawkins started his career as an assistant professor at the University of California. After working there for a couple of years, he returned to Oxford and became a lecturer there.
During his tenure in Oxford he held various positions like reader, professor and a fellow.
He has also edited several science journals and was in the judges’ panel for various science and TV awards.
Richard Dawkin’s first book the Selfish Gene shot him to prominence and became an instant bestseller with nearly a million copies of the book sold till date. He went on to write 13 more books with the latest published in 2017.
His books mainly delved on various evolution theories and featured his revolutionary views on science and religion.
Richard Dawkins has also appeared on various BBC documentaries.
Dawkins along with scientists like Stephen Hawking and Paul Nurse appeared in the TV series Genius of Britain broadcasted by Channel 4.
Throughout his lifetime Richard Dawkins has been honored with various awards and accolades.
The prominent awards include Royal Science of literature award, LA Times Literary prize and Zoological society of London’s Silver Medal.
He has also been awarded doctorates of science by various universities and was elected the Fellow of Royal Society and Fellow of Royal Society of Literature.
Richard Dawkins has also been named as the world’s top thinker and one of the top British intellectuals by the Prospect magazine.
Net Worth of Richard Dawkins
Richard Dawkins has earned a net worth of $10 million in his career as the professor of the Oxford University and author of various non-fiction books. Dawkins has also earned through his various TV documentaries and guest appearances in TV shows.
His major earnings have been through the sale of his 14 books some of which sold over a million copies worldwide and were translated in scores of languages. He has also released audio version of his books.
Richard Dawkins, an intellectual and science aficionado has made it a purpose of his life to popularize scientific theories and to remove misconceptions and superstitions from the minds of people. His greatest contribution to mankind has been his evolutionary theories that force people to rethink their religious philosophies.
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0022.json.gz/line1226
|
__label__wiki
| 0.634123
| 0.634123
|
The Case of Canadian Bulk Water Exports
Image Credit: Fotalia
Policy Paper
by Rhett Larson
Associate Professor of Law, Arizona State University Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law
Senior Research Fellow, Morrison Institute’s Kyl Center for Water Policy
Background on Bulk Water Exports in Canada
The Implications of Bulk Water Exports in Canada
Can Canadian Bulk Water Exports Be Responsible, Sustainable and Equitable?
Canada has twenty per cent of the planet’s total fresh water supply. Canada’s water wealth raises the possibility of shipping water in bulk, through tankers or pipelines, to regions suffering from drought. On the one hand, bulk water exports could be an economic boon for Canada and a possible solution to the rising concerns over global water security. On the other hand, bulk water exports could deplete Canada’s water supplies and thereby impact the environment, while creating unsustainable water dependences in its trade partners who may be better served by conserving water, rather than importing water.
Canada can engage in sustainable and responsible bulk water exports if it implements necessary legal and regulatory reforms. First, Canada’s treaties should characterize bulk water exports as a “good” for purposes of international trade and investment law. This will allow water pricing and international law to more effectively encourage sustainable management. Second, Canada can formalize already-existing bulk water export relationships through treaties that encourage localized transboundary cooperation. Third, Canada should include water embedded in its agricultural and energy imports and exports to more accurately account for possible water trade deficits.
Water is unique amongst natural resources. Like oil or gold, water is a valuable and saleable commodity with a global market. But people do not playfully throw gold at each other in the winter, or squirt oil at each other in the summer, or baptize their children in petroleum. Water is unique among natural resources because of its aesthetic, cultural and ecological significance, as well as being essential to all life on earth. If you load a tanker full of oil or wheat and ship it away to a foreign country, it is a sign of open trade, natural resource wealth and economic development. On the other hand, if you load a tanker full of fresh water and ship it off to a foreign country, it can be perceived as environmentally irresponsible, culturally insensitive and a sacrifice of national security. As such, bulk water exports from Canada are controversial in ways that exports of oil or coal are not.
The Great Lakes illustrate the controversy over bulk water exports. The International Joint Commission (IJC), the organization that implements treaty obligations between Canada and the United States with respect to the Great Lakes, refers to the lakes as a “non-renewable resource” because less than one per cent of the lakes’ waters are renewed annually by precipitation.1 Furthermore, the IJC has concluded that the waters of the Great Lakes are fully allocated, meaning that if all interests in the Great Lakes are considered, “there is never a ‘surplus’ of waters in the Great Lakes system.”2 Nevertheless, in 1998, the Nova Group, a Canadian company based in Ontario, obtained a permit to export 600 million litres of Lake Superior water annually via tanker to Asian buyers.3 Public outcry over the environmental and national security risks of this transaction resulted in the revocation of the permit, and prompted the IJC, in its 2000 report, to recommend against bulk water sales outside of the basin.4 The Nova example is only one of many attempted or on-going bulk water transfers of Canadian water.
The controversy over bulk water exports compared to exports of other natural resources may not arise solely from water’s unique sociocultural and ecological significance. It also arises from a narrow conception of water’s role in the global market. There is water embedded in or required for the production of coal, oil, uranium and food exports, sometimes called “virtual water.”5 Why should that water be treated differently than water sold in bulk to thirsty nations? Understanding the rationale behind the controversy, and whether that rationale is sufficient to preclude bulk water exports, will become increasingly important as drought-ravaged countries look to nations like Canada to augment dwindling water supplies. Canada has twenty per cent of the planet’s total fresh water supply.6 Achieving global water security may be advanced if water-rich nations, like Canada, find responsible and sustainable ways to export water.
The Nova Group’s proposed export of Great Lakes water to Asia was not the first, last, or most significant attempt to export water from Canada to other countries. In the 1950s, the United States Army Corps of Engineers proposed the North American Water and Power Alliance (NAWAPA), which would have diverted Canadian rivers into the United States.7 NAWAPA project water would feed the headwaters of the Colorado River, a major source of water for the large population of the southwestern United States, and stabilize the Ogallala Aquifer, a major source of water for farmers in the Great Plains.8 Prime Minister Lester B. Pearson and several U.S. congressional representatives were quoted supporting the project.9 However, concerns over costs and environmental impacts ultimately killed NAWAPA. Nevertheless, there have been periodic efforts over the years, including as recently as 2010, to revive the project.10 In 1985, engineers recommended a project called the GRAND Canal, which would divert runoff in the James Bay to a new fresh water enclosure, and then pump that water to areas in the U.S. in need of additional water supplies.11 Scholars, editorialists and government leaders opposed the plan on environmental grounds.12
More recently, the Canadian government issued licenses to Canadian companies in British Columbia authorizing the export of nearly 55.5 million cubic metres of water annually by ocean tanker.13 The Canadian companies with these licenses would then award contracts to foreign companies to export water from Canada. A Canadian company called Snowcap received one such permit, and awarded a contract to a U.S. company, called Sun Belt, to export water from British Columbia to California.14 However, due to public opposition to these bulk water exports based on environmental concerns, the government of British Columbia issued a ban on exports and rescinded the licenses.15
Not all Canadian bulk water exports have been large projects that were ultimately not implemented due to public opposition. Smaller transfers occur between U.S. and Canadian border communities, generally without federal-level oversight or diplomatic negotiations. These include ongoing water transfer relationships between Surrey, BC and Blaine, WA, and LaSalle, ON and Detroit, MI, to name only two.16 If these transfers are already occurring, and larger transfers are repeatedly proposed and considered, it is essential to evaluate their implications for Canada.
If water is exported faster than it is naturally recharged, then despite the renewing effects of the hydrologic cycle, water is being depleted. This is particularly true of inter-basin transfers, which occur when water is moved outside of the geographic basin into which it drains.17 If laws allow water to be removed from one basin and sent to another, the water is less likely to recharge its original basin and the total amount of water may deplete over time.18 This depletion will impact not only stream flow, but also overall runoff, thus depriving soil, animals and vegetation of water across the entire basin. This is perhaps the greatest sustainability concern associated with bulk water exports, and ultimately the reason such exports meet public opposition based on national security and environmental grounds.
Canada is often perceived as having such immense water reserves that bulk water exports, even inter-basin transfers, could not meaningfully impact Canada’s water security.19 As such, Canada should arguably treat water the same way it treats oil or gold – a valuable commodity on the international market with benefits from exportation outweighing the costs of depletion. Furthermore, Canadian opposition to bulk water exports could be seen as drawing an irrational distinction between water and other commodities that require water for their production. What is the difference between the water embedded in Canada’s industrial and agricultural exports and raw water exported in bulk in tankers or pipelines? Either way, enormous quantities of water are being exported from Canada.
On the other hand, perhaps water is simply different than oil or gold. It has unique cultural, environmental and human health values. Despite Canada’s immense fresh water resources, the nation’s water distribution (most of its population is in the south, while most of its water is in the north), along with water pollution nevertheless makes bulk water exports a potential threat to Canada’s water security.20 Shouldn’t Canada be able to protect such a precious, unique and strategically significant national resource from short-sighted incentives leading to overexploitation?
The difficult questions Canada faces with regard to bulk water exports are reflected in the still-developing laws of international trade in water. In the case of Sun Belt and Snowcap, both companies sued the government of British Columbia for rescinding the export permit.21 The provincial government settled with the Canadian Snowcap company.22 Sun Belt, however, pursued a claim in Canadian federal court under Chapter 11 of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA).23 Sun Belt sought $10.5 billion in damages, claiming that the provincial government violated NAFTA Chapter 11, which prohibits signatory states from treating domestic companies more favourably than companies from neighbouring states and prohibits signatory states from limiting the free flow of goods between them.24 Sun Belt claimed that the government of British Columbia treated it less favourably than Canadian companies that bottled and exported water, and that government bans on bulk water exports interfered with the free flow of goods between countries.25 The Sun Belt case remains in arbitration.
This case illustrates two fundamental legal questions associated with bulk water exports. First, is water a “good” for purposes of international trade and investment law? Goods are defined under NAFTA with reference to how the term is understood under the World Trade Organization’s (WTO) General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT).26 GATT, however, does not define a “good,” though it does provide that a good must also be a “product.” A product, in turn, is “[s]omething produced by human or mechanical effort or by a natural process.” According to the nations of North America, water flowing in natural streams, channels or geologic formations is generally not a “good” for purposes of international trade and investment law.27 Water embedded in products, including lettuce, oil and even bottled water, however, is a “good.”28 There is an ongoing debate as to whether bulk water transported by tanker or pipeline should be treated as a good or product under international trade and investment law.29
Second, if water is a “good,” may nations be protectionist when it comes to trade in water in ways that they cannot when it comes to trade in other commodities? NAFTA incorporates many aspects of international trade law, including provisions of GATT.30 Under GATT and NAFTA, nations generally may not discriminate against the goods of other nations or prohibit or impose restrictions on the import or export of goods.31 The obligations assumed under GATT and NAFTA are broad in scope, and narrowed only in exceptional circumstances such as “critical shortage” or “environmental measures necessary to protect human, animal or plant life or health [or]… measures relating to the conservation of living and non-living exhaustible natural resources.”32 It is possible that a nation could claim one of these exceptions as applicable to bans on bulk water exports.
The legal treatment of bulk water exports has enormous implications for global water management. If bulk water is a good, then nations will generally not be able to ban its export unless it avails itself of one of these narrow exceptions. This could allow water-rich countries to reap enormous economic benefits while at the same time improve the water security of importing nations. However, it could also create unsustainable water exports, damaging both the national environment and the national security of exporting nations by shipping out water faster than nature can replenish it. Such bulk water exports may alleviate water scarcity in other nations, but at the same time create or support industries, ecosystems and communities dependent upon foreign sources of water. As such, importing nations could ultimately trade national security for water security. Furthermore, water as an economic good must be reconciled with the idea of water as a fundamental human right and a critical ecological resource. Is it possible for Canada to engage in bulk water exports without threatening its own environment and national security, while at the same time helping other nations without creating unsustainable dependencies?
As climate change increases water variability in many parts of the world, Canada will face increasing economic and political pressures to commoditize its abundant freshwater supplies. Currently, 2.3 billion people live without access to adequate water supplies, and two-thirds of the world’s population (5.5 billion people) lives in areas predicted to be in “water stress” by 2025.33 Allowing the world to access Canada’s vast water supplies in a way that is sustainable, responsible and even profitable for Canada may be part of solving the global water crisis. If Canada moves forward with water exports, three reforms could help protect Canadian water from over-exploitation.
First, Canada could treat water as a “good” under international trade and investment law. Distinguishing bulk water transfers from bottled water transfers or transfers of water embedded in agricultural products is arguably arbitrary. Water is moving between countries either way, and placing it under international trade and investment law eliminates an otherwise poorly-drawn distinction while acknowledging the reality that bulk water exports already exist and should be subject to the regulation of international law.
While categorizing water as a good has risks associated with commodification of a critical resource, commodification can be an important way to better value water. A market that facilitates internalizing the costs of water consumption is an important tool toward advancing sustainable water management. When consumers do not internalize the costs of water consumption, water is often wasted.34 Water can be both a valuable commodity and a human right when it is appropriately valued, and when that value is reflected in affordable rates for basic human consumption and adequately accounts for the value of in-stream water to the environment.
Second, law could distinguish between inter-basin and intra-basin bulk water transfers. Small scale intra-basin transfers, like those that occur between border municipalities in the U.S. and Canada, could be formalized by a treaty between the federal governments of both nations.
Europe already takes a similar approach, ratifying multiple transboundary groundwater sharing agreements between subnational governments in one broad treaty.35 This approach may have significant initial diplomatic and political costs. But it may help avoid the uncertain legal status of these small exchanges absent ratification at the federal level, while preserving basin-level governance managed by local stakeholders. For large, inter-basin bulk water transfers, the provisions of GATT and NAFTA could apply. In those cases, Canada could legally restrict bulk water transfers in cases of “critical shortage” or for protection of human health or the environment. This would mean limiting bulk water exports of groundwater that exceeded the rate of natural recharge of the aquifer. Bulk water transports of surface water should be limited so as to preserve a specified minimum in-stream flow.
Third, Canada could integrate both bulk water and virtual water in accounting for water exports. For example, Canada should include the water embedded in agricultural imports and exports in water management accounting. This will give a more accurate picture of how much water Canada actually exports, how those exports might be offset through trade, and provide information on whether water trades are creating unsustainable dependencies for Canada’s trading partners. If virtual water from Canada becomes another country’s major water source, Canada could then contemplate investments that would improve the water security of its trading partners so as to avoid that kind of foreign dependency on Canadian water exports. Provincial governments would auction permits for inter-basin bulk water transfers. The permitted amounts should be limited to preserve in-stream flows and natural recharge rates, and not exacerbate water trade deficits created by virtual water exports. This goal would promote water sustainability in all sectors, avoid overconsumption and facilitate global water security. Part of avoiding overconsumption should be effective water pricing across industrial sectors to encourage conservation, so that goods are produced with the most water-efficient methods and thus a minimum amounts of both actual and virtual water.
Canada should implement these three reforms – characterizing water as a “good” in international trade and investment treaties, create legal distinctions between intra-basin and inter-basin bulk water transports, and include virtual water in its water trade accounting. With these reforms, Canada could promote a robust global water market aimed at addressing water insecurity and limiting the global economic and ecologic impacts of drought. These reforms could advance Canada’s leadership in global water markets as one exemplified by respect for the role water plays in the environment and in the community, and potentially assuage legitimate public concerns about whether water exportation results in over-exploitation.
Rhett Larson is an Associate Professor of Law at Arizona State University’s Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law. His research and teaching interests are in property law, administrative law, and environmental and natural resource law, in particular, domestic and international water law and policy. Larson graduated from the University of Chicago Law School, and received his Master of Science in Water Science, Policy, and Management from Oxford University, where he was a Weidenfeld Scholar.
Professor Larson’s recent research focuses on the impact of technological innovation on the law governing transboundary waters, as well as on the sustainability implications of a human right to water. His past research has dealt with corporate governance reform to facilitate remediation of contaminated rivers and the water rights of indigenous people based on religious water uses.
Professor Larson previously taught at the University of Oklahoma College of Law, where he led courses in water law, energy law, property, and administrative law. Prior to that, he was a visiting assistant professor at the Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law. Larson also practiced environmental and natural resource law with law firms in Arizona, focusing on water rights, water quality, real estate transactions, and climate change. His work has been published in academic journals, including the Utah Law Review, Washington and Lee Law Review, Duke Environmental Law and Policy Forum, and the UCLA Law Review.
[1] International Joint Commission, Protection of the Waters of the Great Lakes, Final Report 6 (2000) [hereinafter “IJC 2000 Report”].
[2] Id. at 43.
[3] Sandra Zellmer, The Anti-Speculation Doctrine and its Implications for Collaborative Water Management, 8 NEV. L.J. 994, 1001 (2008).
[4] IJC 2000 report, supra note 1, at 46.
[5] J.A. Allan, Virtual Water – the Water, Food, and Trade Nexus: Useful Concept or Misleading Metaphor, 28 WATER INTERNATIONAL 4 (2003).
[6] Anthony DePalma, Free Trade in Fresh Water? Canada Says No and Halts Exports, N.Y. TIMES, March 8, 1999 at A1.
[7] Peter Bowal, Canadian Water: Constitution, Policy, and Trade, 2006 MICH. ST. L. REV. 1141, 1150 (2006).
[8] Ludwik A. Teclaff, Evolution of the River Basin Concept in National and International Law, 36 NAT. RESOURCES J. 359, 369-70 (1996).
[9] Frédéric Lasserre, Continental Bulk Water Transfers: Chimera or Real Possibility? in WATER WITHOUT BORDERS? (Emma S. Norman, Alice Cohen & Karen Iakker eds., 2013) 88-98.
[10] Peter H. Gleick, Matthew Heberger, & Kristina Donnelly, Zombie Water Projects, in THE WORLD’S WATER (2014), pp. 123-146.
[11] R. Andrew Muller, Some Economics of the GRAND Canal, 14 CANADIAN PUBLIC POLICY 162-174 (1988).
[12 Id.
[13] Terry L. Anderson & Clay J. Landry, Exporting Water to the World, 118 WATER RESOURCES UPDATE 60, 62 (2001).
[14] Paul S. Kibel, Grasp on Water: A Natural Resource that Eludes NAFTA’s Notion of Investment, 34 ECOLOGY L.Q. 655, 662 (2007).
[15] Christopher S. Maravilla, The Canadian Bulk Water Moratorium and its Implications for NAFTA, 10 SUM CURRENTS: INT’L TRADE L.J. 29, 31-32 (2001).
[16] Gabriel Eckstein & Renee Martin-Nagle, Bulk Water Transfers: Panacea or Temporary Patch?, presented at 2015 World Water Congress in Edinburgh, Scotland, abstract and presentation notes available at: http://aquadoc.typepad.com/waterwired/2015/06/gabriel-eckstein-renee-martin-nagle-presentations-bulk-water-transfers-un-watercourses.html.
[17] Noah D. Hall & Benjamin L. Cavataro, Interstate Groundwater Law in the Snake Valley: Equitable Apportionment and a New Model for Transboundary Aquifer Management, 2013 UTAH L. REV. 1553, 1574 (2013).
[18] Id. at 1568; see also Kirt Mayland, Navigating the Murky Waters of Connecticut’s Water Allocation Scheme, 24 QUINNIPIAC L. REV. 685 (2006).
[19] See, e.g., James L. Huffman, Water Marketing in Western Prior Appropriation States: A Model for the East, 21 GA. ST. U. L. REV. 429, 430 (2004).
[20] C.W. King, A.S. Stillwell, K.M. Twomey & M.E. Webber, Coherence Between Water and Energy Policies, 53 NAT. RESOURCES J. 117, 193 (2013).
[21] See Anderson & Landry, supra note 12, at 60-62.
[23] Id.; see also North American Free Trade Agreement, Dec. 8, 1993, 107 Stat. 2057, 32 I.L.M. 289, Chapter 11 [hereinafter “NAFTA Chapter 11”].
[24] NAFTA Chapter 11.
[25] David A. Gantz, Potential Conflicts Between Investor Rights and Environmental Regulation under NAFTA’s Chapter 11, 33 GEO. WASH. INT’L L. REV. 651, 670 (2001).
[26] NAFTA, art. 201; General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade, Oct. 30, 1947, 61 Stat. A-11, 55 U.N.T.S. 194 [hereinafter GATT]; incorporated into NAFTA under NAFTA Article 309.
[27] Edith Brown Weiss, Water Transfers and International Trade Law in FRESH WATER AND INTERNATIONAL ECONOMIC LAW 61-92 (Edith Brown Weiss, Laurence Boisson de Charzournes & Nathalie BErnasconi-Osterwalder eds., Oxford University Press 2005).
[30] See GATT, supra note 25.
[32] Id. at art. XI.1 & art. XX; NAFTA art. 2101.
[33] Meredith Giordano, Mark Giordano, & Aaron Wolf, The Geography of Water Conflict and Cooperation: Internal Pressures and International Manifestations, 168 THE GEOGRAPHICAL JOURNAL 293-312 (2002).
[34] Rhett B. Larson, The New Right in Water, 70 WASH. & LEE L. REV. 2181, 2228 (2013).
[35] European Outline Convention on the Transfrontier Cooperation between Territorial Communities or Authorities, (Madrid, May 21, 1980), 20 I.L.M. 315 (1981).
Rhett Larson Policy Paper Western Hemisphere Canada Security Food & Water Economics International Trade
Tim Elanges commented 2019-01-17 23:32:35 -0500
Without water this website wouldn’t exist and I wouldn’t be here to write this. Imagine how much art in the world would not have existed, all the amazing art from ancient history… I’m so grateful that we’re here today discussing the importance of water, not only for Canadians but everyone in the world.
https://towtruckkamloops.com/
q commented 2016-03-23 10:21:25 -0400
http://www.zuinn.com.br/flaviobecker
John Banka followed this page 2015-10-30 18:18:18 -0400
Byron Rogers commented 2015-10-25 18:29:30 -0400
Two problems struck me. First, distinguishing between bulk water (a feedstock) from products like bottled water and virtual (product embedded) water is not “arbitrary”. The author has deliberately mixed up 2 products with a non-product. Secondly, there is no mention of disappearing glaciers (the sources of Western rivers, already stressed due to oil sands developments) and other stresses related to climate change. Overall, these two flaws make for an overly optimistic argument that bulk water can and should be exported. Other than that, the author’s market logic is worth considering.
John Banka commented 2015-10-03 22:45:40 -0400
An interesting read with some good references. I have some comments:
The annual water exports by the Nova Group amounts to less than two hours’ flow from a modest river, and Canada has many modest rivers. But the key issue here is, do these exports result in a net loss to the water in Lake Superior. I claim “no” when the Ogoki diversion is considered. Since 1943, water has been diverted from the Albany River watershed into Lake Superior to augment hydro-electricity production. () I suspect the annual volume flowing through the diversion is a couple of orders of magnitude greater than the Nova exports. There is no inconsistency in allowing these exports while supplementing the volume of water in the Great Lakes by an overwhelming amount.
I’m glad to see that the GRAND Canal scheme was mentioned. It actually dates back to the 1950s. () I personally see no harm in taking water for export which is effectively already in the sea. The difficulty here is having the capital to build the necessary infrastructure (US$100-billion?) and the energy required to pump this water to where it could be used to better advantage. The GRAND Canal scheme will not result in the depletion of any aquifer.
I do have a solution for exports under the GRAND Canal scheme which I am prepared to discuss with the author if he contacts me by e-mail (it ties into the research which I am doing at the University of Toronto). Perhaps more than 30 cubic kilometres of water could be exported during 16 weeks each spring when adequate energy for pumping could be made available; the flow at other times of the year will require some research and modelling.
While the paper prods Canada to take action in bulk water exports, I believe past trade actions by the United States have soured any desire to enthusiastically cooperate. I point to softwood lumber exports and the countervailing duties levied in the past decade despite the provisions of NAFTA plus, more recently, the refusal to approve construction of the Keystone XL pipeline. These are two examples of capricious political actions (there are many more) which one friend should never visit on another. The United States is digging a very big hole here in foreign relations by such actions against its “best friend”. Just remember that the best advice for the first thing to do when you find yourself in a deep hole of your own making: Stop digging!
John Banka
j.banka@mail.utoronto.ca
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0022.json.gz/line1233
|
__label__wiki
| 0.781746
| 0.781746
|
U.S. Video Game Industry Generates $30.4 Billion in Revenue for 2016
WASHINGTON–(BUSINESS WIRE)–The U.S. computer and video game industry generated $30.4 billion in revenue in 2016, according to new data released today by the
Entertainment Software Association (ESA) and the NPD Group. This total consumer spend figure includes revenues from all hardware, software, peripherals, and in-game purchases. This is an increase in total consumer spend from reported 2015 sales, which were at $30.2 billion.
“2016 was another enormous year for the interactive entertainment industry,” said Michael D. Gallagher, president and CEO of the ESA, which represents the U.S. video game industry. “The industry’s innovative genius and ability to engage and delight billions of gamers worldwide delivered another record performance. Congratulations to the
developers, storytellers, creators, and investors who defined the leaderboard for entertainment.”
Separately, ESA highlighted that video game software revenue grew 6 percent from the 2015 level. In 2016, video game software revenue, which includes physical packaged goods, mobile games, downloadable content, subscriptions, and other revenue streams, reached $24.5 billion—up from 23.2 billion in 2015.
In 2016, virtual reality systems like the Sony PlayStation VR, Vive, and Oculus Rift reached the mass market to consumer interest. The release of Pokémon Go became a cultural phenomenon on mobile, while the later release of Pokémon Sun and Pokémon Moon on portable gaming devices achieved the highest launch month consumer spend in the history of the franchise, according to NPD. Blockbusters like Battlefield 1, Call
of Duty: Infinite Warfare, Madden NFL 17, NBA 2K17 and Tom Clancy’s The Division drove consumer spend on console platforms. Finally, the PC platform was the most diverse and dynamic of all growth platforms, with a record number of titles reaching PC gamers in 2016.
“Growth in entertainment software consumer spend was seen across the mobile, PC, virtual reality, subscription, portable and digital console segments,” said Mat Piscatella, industry analyst, The NPD Group. “Consumers have more options to purchase and enjoy entertainment software than ever before, while developers have more and easier ways of
delivering that content. No matter the delivery platform, entertainment software has never been more engaging, diverse or accessible.”
The U.S. video game industry is one of the nation’s fastest growing economic sectors, providing tens of thousands of high-paying jobs to Americans and generating billions of dollars in revenue for communities across the nation.
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0022.json.gz/line1234
|
__label__cc
| 0.53945
| 0.46055
|
Chick-fil-A Day
August 1, 2012 Commentary, Newschick-fil-a, dan cathy, emmanuel, same-sex marriageSean Curnyn
Anecdotal reports today suggest a very big turn-out in many parts of the country for Chick-fil-A Appreciation Day, or whatever it’s being called.
This rush of people to go order fried chicken sandwiches is in response to the attempts by a number of big city mayors (Boston, Chicago and San Francisco) and other politicians to penalize or even ban the restaurant due to remarks by the company’s president, Dan Cathy, regarding marriage.
So much has been said and written on this subject, but for myself, I’m most interested in going back to what Mr. Cathy actually said and seeing where the justification was for the imbroglio in the first place.
It was an interview with a publication called the Baptist Press which set off the fireworks. The interview was broad, covering Mr. Cathy’s life and the history of the company. The emphasis is on Christianity, as you would expect in a publication of this kind. Mr. Cathy comes across as a thoughtful Christian, not without some humility.
“We don’t claim to be a Christian business,” Cathy told the Biblical Recorder in a recent visit to North Carolina. He attended a business leadership conference many years ago where he heard Christian businessman Fred Roach say, “There is no such thing as a Christian business.”
“That got my attention,” Cathy said. Roach went on to say, “Christ never died for a corporation. He died for you and me.”
“In that spirit … [Christianity] is about a personal relationship. Companies are not lost or saved, but certainly individuals are,” Cathy added.
“But as an organization we can operate on biblical principles. So that is what we claim to be. [We are] based on biblical principles, asking God and pleading with God to give us wisdom on decisions we make about people and the programs and partnerships we have. And He has blessed us.”
Among the ways in which Mr. Cathy puts his money where his mouth is is by keeping the restaurants closed on Sundays, despite the tendency of just about everything to be open on Sunday these days.
And the company also promotes Christian causes through a foundation called WinShape. One of the projects is the provision of resources to educate and support couples in Christian marriage.
So here’s the part of the interview that has caused all the ruckus:
Some have opposed the company’s support of the traditional family. “Well, guilty as charged,” said Cathy when asked about the company’s position.
“We are very much supportive of the family — the biblical definition of the family unit. We are a family-owned business, a family-led business, and we are married to our first wives. We give God thanks for that.
“We operate as a family business … our restaurants are typically led by families; some are single. We want to do anything we possibly can to strengthen families. We are very much committed to that,” Cathy emphasized.
“We intend to stay the course,” he said. “We know that it might not be popular with everyone, but thank the Lord, we live in a country where we can share our values and operate on biblical principles.”
That last sentence carries just a little irony today.
Notice, however, what is not featured in any of Mr. Cathy’s remarks. There is no mention of same-sex marriage, of gay marriage, or of homosexuality in any form. There is, in fact, no negative content at all. He is merely stating what he supports, which is what he describes as “the biblical definition of the family unit.”
Previously, on a radio show, he is also reported to have said the following:
“As it relates to society in general I think we’re inviting God’s judgment on our nation when we shake out fist at him and say, ‘We know better than you as to what constitutes a marriage,'” Cathy said. “And I pray God’s mercy on our generation that has such a prideful, arrogant attitude to think that we have the audacity to try to redefine what marriage is about.”
A tougher statement, that one, but one which many millions of Americans would ultimately agree with. That is, that there are consequences for doing something wrong and for going against the laws of God, which all of us do sometimes, and that there are particular consequences when an entire society goes off the rails in an important way. Notice that Mr. Cathy doesn’t rant against “them” but implicitly includes himself in the society and generation which needs God’s mercy. He’s stating his beliefs, but without hatred or incitement.
For these remarks above, he has had all hell rained down upon him and his company by Rahm Emmanuel, Thomas Menino and a cast of thousands, and has been accused of bigotry. How did we get to this point in America?
The advance of the same-sex marriage movement depends in major part on a large segment of the (straight) population which is increasingly tending to say, “Oh, I don’t really care. Let people marry whoever they want to marry. Just stop bothering me.”
These are not people who have the patience either for the elaborate arguments on the one side that the institution of marriage is not something we can tamper with without fearful consequences, or on the other claiming that same-sex marriage is the great civil rights cause of our time. They would prefer to just see the whole thing go away, and increasingly they seem to think that will happen if they accede to it rather than oppose it.
The lesson of this Chick-fil-A brouhaha, and the startlingly aggressive stances by elected leaders like the aforementioned Emmanuel and Menino, is that passing same-sex marriage doesn’t end anything. After it is passed, the next step is making sure that everyone accepts it, regardless of their own moral or religious convictions. It is simply not going to be allowed anymore for someone like a Dan Cathy to assert his biblical nonsense and talk of the value of “traditional” marriage. That is to be equated with bigotry, pure and simple, and the force of regulation and law is to be used to eradicate it.
So, for those wondering what some of the unintended consequences of the legalization of same-sex marriage might be, we have been given a rock solid example by these recent events: the redefinition of mainstream Christian thinking as contemptible, intolerable hate-mongering.
Except, to be honest, I’m not at all sure it’s an unintended consequence.
Manuel Emilio Mejia: The 1624th Name It's not easy to find information on Mr. Mejia, other than that he […]
One Day in America It's all in how you look at it, isn't it? "Oh, a few people got […]
Abortion billboard removed in New York City One thing is clear enough from this episode: Although these advocates […]
← Writer made up Bob Dylan quotes; resigns from New Yorker Bob Dylan in Rolling Stone on Tempest →
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0022.json.gz/line1237
|
__label__wiki
| 0.961265
| 0.961265
|
Subscribe To Why Vin Diesel Is Being Sued Over The New xXx Sequel Updates
Why Vin Diesel Is Being Sued Over The New xXx Sequel
Gregory Wakeman
Following the poor box office return of 2005’s xXx: State Of The Union, it was assumed that the franchise would lay dormant forever. However, Vin Diesel’s resurgence with the Fast & Furious series saw a new interest in a xXx film emerge, and he’s been working on bringing a third installment to the big screen for a while. Vin Diesel has now come up against some resistance, though, in the shape of a former producer who insists that he’s owed around $275,000 for the upcoming film.
According to The Wrap, George Zakk filed his lawsuit against Vin Diesel and his production company in Los Angeles Superior Court. George Zakk insists that he worked for Vin Diesel’s production company One Race Films, helping to develop projects. In exchange for his actions, George Zakk was supposed to receive producers’ credits and a fee that was between $250,000 and $275,000.
Here’s where things get tricky, though, because George Zakk finished his working relationship with both Vin Diesel and One Race Films back in 2007. However, George Zakk believes that their contractual agreement with the production company included sequels that he helped to develop for Vin Diesel, which the actor also starred in and produced.
Since xXx 3 is currently scheduled for release in January, George Zakk is adamant that he’s owed not just a $275,000 fee but also an executive producer’s credit for the film, too. Vin Diesel has yet to respond to this lawsuit, which George Zakk filed alleging a breach of oral contract and a breach of implied-in-fact contract.
This lawsuit isn’t likely to cause much interference to the impending release of xXx 3, which has the title of xXx: The Return Of Xander Cage, and is due to hit cinemas on January 20, 2017. Following on from Pitch Black and The Fast And The Furious, Vin Diesel proved that he was a bona-fide action hero as xXx's athlete-turned-reluctant spy Xander Cage all the way back in 2002.
Even though xXx went on to gross over $277 million across the world, Vin Diesel and director Rob Cohen decided not to return for 2005’s xXx: State Of The Union. Even the presence of Ice Cube couldn’t save the sequel, which flopped and seemingly left the franchise in tatters.
But Vin Diesel has been teasing a possible third xXx film for the last decade. That’s despite the fact that Xander Cage was supposedly killed before the sequel, which was used to explain his absence from the Ice Cube-led xXx: State of the Union. xXx: The Return Of Xander Cage will see him return from exile so that he can take on Donnie Yen’s Xiang, a villain who has his sights set on acquiring the unstoppable weapon known as Pandora’s Box.
Samuel L. Jackson will be reprising his role as Agent Augustus Gibbons for the third time, while Tony Jaa, Deepika Padukone, Nina Dobrev, Ruby Rose, Toni Collette, Kris Wu, Ariadna Gutierrez, Michael Bisping, and Tony Gonzalez have all joined the cast. We’ll get to see if Vin Diesel is actually able to rejuvenate the xXx franchise with The Return Of Xander Cage when it’s released on January 20, 2017.
Fast And Furious 9 First Cast Photo Shows John Cena With New And Returning Stars
Fast And Furious 9: An Updated Cast List
Who Is The Tallest Avenger? Robert Downey Jr., Chris Hemsworth, Chris Evans, And The Other Major Cast Broken Down By Height
Surprise, Terminator 2’s Edward Furlong Is Back As John Connor In Dark Fate
Jay and Silent Bob Reboot Trailer Is Star-Studded And Definitely NSFW
The Little Mermaid Updated Cast List Includes Ariel, Triton And More
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0022.json.gz/line1238
|
__label__wiki
| 0.852702
| 0.852702
|
Language Corner
Examining the state of rest
By Merrill Perlman
Martin Falbisoner
We were prepared to write a column about how many news outlets incorrectly described the public viewing of the bodies of Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia and former first lady Nancy Reagan as “lying in state.” Wonder of wonder, miracle of miracles, almost no one did.
Most reports, in broadcast and print, said that Mrs. Reagan, the widow of President Ronald Reagan, would “lie in repose” at the Reagan Presidential Library in California. A few print reports said Scalia would “lie in state” in the Supreme Court, but far more said he would “lie in repose.” Well done!
That means some people recognize that “lying in state” is reserved only for heads of government, and even then, only when “lying in state” in the building that is the seat of government, like the US Capitol. When President Reagan died, his body was on display in several places, though not at the same time, and many news reports said he was “lying in state” only in the Capitol Rotunda, and was “lying in repose” everywhere else.
But it’s not quite that simple. Not every president has “lain in state” in the Capitol, and not everyone who has “lain in state” in the Capitol has been head of state. It’s also been said that only someone who is getting a state funeral can “lie in state,” but that’s not a sure thing, either.
The truth is, it’s hard to find hard and fast rules governing who gets to “lie in state.” “These occasions are either authorized by a congressional resolution or approved by the congressional leadership, when permission is granted by survivors,” according to the office of the Architect of the Capitol, which should know. The list of the people who have “lain in state” in the Rotunda since the practice began in 1852 include 10 presidents; Pierre L’Enfant, the city planner for Washington, DC; members of Congress; military commanders; and unknowns from World Wars I and II, the Korean War, and the Vietnam conflict. The most recent was Senator Daniel Inouye of Hawaii, in 2015.
Until 1998, the only way to lay in the Rotunda was “in state.” After two Capitol police officers were killed in an attack, a special House resolution created a new category, to “lay in honor.” Rosa Parks “lay in honor” in 2005.
So if you are in the Rotunda, you’re either lying “in state” or “in honor.” If you’re not there, you are lying “in repose.”
But that’s such an odd expression. The person is dead–at rest, perhaps–but in “repose”?
Merriam-Webster’s dictionary has several definitions of the verb “repose,” including “to lay at rest,” “to lie at rest,” and “to lie dead.” As a noun, the definitions are “a state of resting (as after exertion)”; “eternal or heavenly rest”; “calm”; “peace”; etc.
“Repose” is a calming word, but it rarely appears outside of a context involving death. In the six months before the death of Scalia, only a few mentions in Nexis spoke not of heavenly rest but of some other kind, and many of those were in classical or artistic contexts. So be aware that even if you don’t intend death to stalk your use of “repose,” it probably will.
Now, what’s the difference between “lay at rest” and “lie at rest”? Simple: One’s a transitive verb (“They will lay his body to rest”) and the other is intransitive (“His body will lie at rest”). If you need further elocutions on “lay” and “lie,” they’re lying in this state.
Merrill Perlman managed copy desks across the newsroom at The New York Times, where she worked for 25 years. Follow her on Twitter at @meperl.
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0022.json.gz/line1241
|
__label__wiki
| 0.787044
| 0.787044
|
US needs to be prepared for Russian cyber-retaliation
Frank J. Cilluffo and Sharon L. Cardash, GWU Homeland Security Policy Institute
Published 10:51 AM ET Tue, 23 Sept 2014 CNBC.com
The latest chapter in the conflict over Ukraine involves the imposition of sanctions by the United States and the European Union against Sberbank, and against Rosneft, the heavyweight among Russia's state-owned oil companies. While it has taken some time for this particular shoe to drop, the consequences could be significant.
blackred | Getty Images
Taken in tandem with previous sanctions, all the energy "bigs" in Russia are now in the crosshairs, along with the major banks that were already part of a previous round of targeted sanctions initiated in response to continued Russian moves against Ukraine. While Sberbank and Gazprom may not be household terms in the West, they are giants in Russia. Keep in mind that energy and banking are among the most critical of critical infrastructures, so hitting them with sanctions is hitting where it truly hurts. Despite buoyant Russian rhetoric, the impending reality for Russia's energy and banking sectors is unlikely to be so rosy.
Read MoreOp-ed: Putin's real motive in Ukraine
Every action has a reaction, however, and Russia's response to the West's latest step remains to be seen. What we do know, though, is that Russia has long integrated cyber operations into its larger military strategy and doctrine. Indeed, Russia's campaign against Ukraine has invoked such strategy and tactics, using cyberattacks to disrupt Ukraine's communications systems, and information warfare to engage in psychological battle against the Ukrainian government and broader publics. These attempts to undermine Ukrainian authorities and deny them maneuverability also aimed to foster and maintain a spirit of resistance to Kiev among pro-Russian forces within Ukraine.
Against this background, it is no great leap to suggest that Russia may consider turning its cyber skills against those who initiated sanctions on Russian behavior, just as the heat in the kitchen rises. From a Russian perspective, this would fall into the category of turnabout is fair play. Cyberattacks have the added attraction of plausible deniability, since it is difficult to trace with full certainty the source of an attack. Russia can also place itself at a further level of remove by relying upon proxies for their cyber operations as they have in the past. With the latest round of sanctions as a potential spur to Russian escalation along these lines, U.S. energy and banking executives in particular — not just chief information security officers and chief security officers—should take the threat seriously, with CISOs and CSOs being on the lookout for indicators.
Read MoreOp-ed: Anger is not a strategy
In short, the cyber domain is the new battlefield, and U.S. energy and banking concerns are on the front lines, with a responsibility to shareholders to take necessary and appropriate steps to protect the firm — in partnership with government, to the extent that it is both willing and able. In fact, we may have seen the "turnabout is fair play" adage in practice already, with the recent cyber incident involving JPMorgan Chase in which hackers breached the bank's servers. While the full nature of the compromise in that case is still being investigated, its sophistication and planning suggests the possible involvement of a foreign government. Consider also that at least three other U.S. banks have been targeted — and the U.S. events may be connected to recent cyberattacks on European banks.
Moving forward, it will be crucial to do all that we can to deny Russia (or any adversary) the opportunity to wreak cyber-havoc with U.S. critical infrastructure such as the finance and banking sector. After all, it only makes sense to throw the first punch if we have the capacity to withstand and prevail if a powerful swing comes back in our direction. Making clear to Russia that deplorable actions have consequences was, and remains, the right thing to do. But we need to do more, urgently, to inoculate ourselves.
Read MoreNATO agrees cyberattack could trigger military response
One important step in that direction would be for Congress to pass legislation soonest in order to facilitate and support information sharing between and among entities in the public and private sectors, to help meet and defeat the cyber threat—which encompasses, but is by no means limited to, possible Russian cyber-retaliation. To this end, there is no shortage of ideas or bills on the table. These include initiatives spearheaded by Senators Dianne Feinstein and Saxby Chambliss (jointly); Senator Kirsten Gillibrand's proposal for tax credits to incent information sharing; and Representative Michael McCaul's bill to enhance the role of the Department of Homeland Security's National Cybersecurity and Communications Integration Center. While no single proposed measure may be perfect in the eyes of all, we must not let perfection become the enemy of the good. Any of the proposed actions cited would assuredly be better than none at all.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has demonstrated time and again that he is willing to push Western boundaries, both literally and figuratively. The time for all of us to counterpunch back on that front is now.
Commentary by Frank J. Cilluffo and Sharon L. Cardash. Cilluffo served as special assistant to the president for Homeland Security, and is now director of the George Washington University Cybersecurity Initiative, and GW's Homeland Security Policy Institute. Cardash is HSPI's associate director, and a founding member of GW's Cyber Center for National & Economic Security. Folllow the Homeland Security Policy Institute on Twitter @HSPI.
Read MoreOp-ed: WWII flashback: Is history repeating itself?
Related Securities
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0022.json.gz/line1243
|
__label__cc
| 0.60231
| 0.39769
|
Know a military vet turning 65? Here's how Medicare can work with VA health care
Published Thu, Jan 3 2019 12:07 PM EST Updated Mon, Jan 7 2019 10:03 AM EST
Sarah O'Brien@sarahtgobrien
The VA encourages those who receive health care through its network to sign up for Medicare when they are first eligible.
You get seven months to enroll, starting three months before the month in which you turn 65 and ending three months after your birthday month.
If you get health care through the Veterans Health Administration and are nearing your 65th birthday, don't overlook whether Medicare would make sense for you.
While not all military veterans rely on VA health care, those who do might not realize they can use Medicare alongside their existing benefits.
"Many are in the dark about using both," said certified financial planner Hans "John" Scheil, CEO and owner of Cardinal Advisors in Durham, North Carolina. "But there are a lot of options for veterans when it comes to Medicare."
Allocating expenses into needs, goals and aspirations can help provide a better framework for managing your cash flow and living comfortably.
Pascal Broze | Getty Images
The VA health system provides care for 9 million veterans each year at its 1,250 facilities, including 172 medical centers and more than 1,000 outpatient sites across the country. However, it generally doesn't cover care outside of those locations.
"With Medicare, you have much broader options," said Elizabeth Gavino, founder of Lewin & Gavino in New York and an independent broker and general agent for Medicare plans. "You can have access to doctors and hospitals not near a VA facility, or you might want a second opinion from a doctor outside the system."
The program encourages those using VA health care to sign up for Medicare when first eligible. Doing so has no impact on your VA coverage.
You get seven months to sign up; the enrollment period starts three months before the month in which you turn 65 and ends three months after your birthday month. For example, if the big day is June 15, your signup window begins March 1 and ends Sept. 30. And remember, signing up for Medicare does not affect your VA health-care benefits.
Medicare Part A, which provides hospital coverage, costs nothing. The standard premium for Part B, which is for outpatient care and medical equipment, is $135.50 for 2019. (Those with higher incomes pay more. See chart.)
Medicare 2019 table
File individual tax return
File joint tax return
File married & separate tax return
You pay each month (in 2019)
"$85,000 or less" "$170,000 or less" "$85,000 or less" $135.50
"Above $85,000 up to $107,000" "Above $170,000 up to $214,000" Not applicable $189.60
"Above $107,000 up to $133,500" "Above $214,000 up to $267,000" Not applicable $270.90
" $160,000 and less than $500,000" "Above $320,000 and less than $750,000" "Above $85,000 and less than $415,000" $433.40
"$500,000 or above" "$750,000 and above" "$415,000 and above" $460.50
Like the rest of the population, if you don't sign up for Part B when you're first eligible, you could face a life-lasting penalty if you change your mind later. And the longer you delay, the higher the amount that gets tacked on to your premium.
It's worth noting that for veterans who plan to use TriCare for Life — an insurance program administered by the Department of Defense — you must enroll in Medicare Parts A and B.
Part D, which is for prescription drug coverage, is optional. Some people using VA health care sign up for it so they can get their medicine from non-VA doctors and have their prescriptions filled at their local pharmacy instead of through the VA mail-order service.
However, VA prescription drug coverage generally comes with lower costs than a Part D plan. And, there's no harm in not signing up: If you don't do it when you're first eligible for Medicare and then change your mind later, you won't pay a penalty because it is considered "creditable" by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.
VIDEO14:5814:58
How American health care got so expensive
Gavino said that some people with VA health care decide to go with a Medicare Advantage Plan, which includes Parts A and B, and typically D. These plans often come with extras such as dental and vision coverage, or gym memberships.
"Some of those plans have a low or no premium," Gavino said. "If you never want to use the plan, you don't have to."
This would mean that it costs nothing unless you use it and face a deductible or copay (or both), depending on the particulars of the plan. You'd also have an out-of-pocket maximum.
Meanwhile, some people with VA health care who sign up for Medicare Parts A and B decide to get a Medigap policy instead of an Advantage Plan (you cannot have both).
More from Personal Finance:
Want to retire and then hit the books? 10 great college towns for retirees
Retiring abroad in 2019? Consider these top 5 locations
Make sure spending doesn't trip up your New Year's resolutions
This type of supplemental insurance helps cover the cost of deductibles, copays and coinsurance associated with Medicare.
However, you only get six months to purchase a Medigap policy without an insurance company nosing through your health history and deciding whether to insure you. This "guaranteed-issue" period starts when you first sign up for Medicare.
After that window, unless your state allows special exceptions, you have to go through medical underwriting. And depending on your health, that process could cause the Medigap insurer to charge you more or deny coverage altogether.
Medicare health plans
Veterans healthcare
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0022.json.gz/line1244
|
__label__wiki
| 0.520656
| 0.520656
|
Facebook, Google and start-ups oppose net neutrality U-turn
Technology giants Google and Facebook have joined forces with start-ups to criticise US plans to alter net neutrality rules. "Facebook said:"We are disappointed that the proposal announced this week by the FCC fails to maintain the strong net neutrality protections that will ensure the internet remains open for everyone. "We also depend on an open internet - including enforceable net neutrality rules that ensure big cable companies can't discriminate against people like us." "Without net neutrality, the incumbents who provide access to the internet would be able to pick winners or losers in the market." In a blog post, ComCast's chief diversity officer wrote: "Comcast has already made net neutrality promises to our customers, and we will continue to follow those standards, regardless of the regulations in place."
Make a complaint about Facebook by viewing their customer service contacts.
Online Companies
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0022.json.gz/line1249
|
__label__wiki
| 0.538518
| 0.538518
|
Manufacturers & Distributors
Subcontractors & Specialty Trades
Architects & Design Professionals
Dodge Construction Central
The most comprehensive store of information on construction projects in North America, with more private and early-stage projects than any other source.
Construction project leads
Market forecast & industry trends
Dodge provides detailed construction forecast and trend reports down to the specific market or market segment level.
Bid management
Get Dodge construction project data when and where you want. Feed your business the best construction data and watch your business grow.
Dedicated to construction research, Dodge Data & Analytics gets you the answers that no one else can.
Comprehensive, confidential, and continuous subcontractor prequalification and due diligence to simplify the process of finding the right subcontractor.
Sweets is the building product information source for the entire project team. Architects, designers, engineers, contractors and owners can easily research, compare and select the best products for their needs.
This is main menu description
DODGE NEWSLETTERS
Data Centers – Construction Moves into the Cloud
By Richard Branch, Senior Economist, Dodge Data & Analytics
BEDFORD, MA – March 1, 2018 - The construction of data centers has increased dramatically over the past several years, with their massive size and high cost of construction often shaping growth patterns for the sector and the nation’s regions. A data center is a building (or group of buildings) that centralizes IT operations and, in many instances, becomes the internal-facing “brains” of a company. Data centers can also be external-facing, such as those used by Facebook, Amazon, and Google to power their massive internet presence. In recent years, increasing demand for corporate cloud space and rising use of social media have been key drivers behind the upward trend in data center construction.
Data centers are tracked in two different locations within the Dodge Data & Analytics historical starts database. Larger data centers ($50 million+) are included in the office construction category, while smaller centers are placed into the communications building category of the starts database. Data centers are therefore not tracked as their own separate category, although our news gathering organization does attempt to flag data center projects by using the term “data center” in the project title. Therefore, a text search of project titles using that phrase does yield useable results, even though it may undercount the size of the market.
In 2000, data center starts totaled a mere 1.5 million square feet (msf) and the dollar value of those starts was $300 million. The largest data center started that year was built by the Sabre Corporation in Tulsa OK, a company founded by American Airlines in 1960, and spun off in 2000, to facilitate airline bookings in North America. The facility was 225,000 square feet, with construction costs totaling $60 million. Data center construction faltered over the next two years as the dot.com bubble burst, dropping to just 84,000 square feet in 2002. Starts rose again from 2003 through 2007 when they reached a pre-recession peak of 3.1 msf and $1.4 billion. The top project of 2007 was a 450,000 square foot/$550 million facility built by Microsoft Corp. in San Antonio TX.
The recession had a notable negative effect on data center construction, although not to the same extreme as other commercial building types. Starts fell 42% to 1.8 msf in 2008, but quickly rebounded, posting solid growth in both 2009 and 2010, when starts reached 5.2 msf and $2.1 billion. The largest project to break ground in 2010 was a 100,000 sf/$300 million facility built by Google Inc. in Pryor OK. In 2009, Google and other internet companies began to offer browser-based applications through services such as Google Apps.
While initially called “killer apps” because they were intended to displace traditional desktop software such as Microsoft Office, adoption was slow, and a see-saw pattern developed in data center starts over the next three years. Starts fell 27% in 2011, rose 1% in 2012, and dropped 33% in 2013 to 2.5 msf/$1.3 billion.
Social media had yet to play a prominent role in the demand for data center space. Facebook was founded in 2004, and initially membership was limited to Harvard before expanding to other colleges and universities. Similarly, Twitter was launched in 2006, and the first iPhone was released in 2007. As adoption of social media took off, and new apps like Instagram and Flickr were launched to allow users to post photos and videos, the demand for cloud storage began to climb. Prior to 2010, the number of social media users worldwide was less than a billion; by 2013, it had climbed to 1.6 billion people.
The launch of the iPad in 2010 was intended to capture the new market in streaming video from companies such as Netflix, which began to stream video in 2007, and Amazon Prime Video which launched in 2011. The iPad and similar tablets also filled a void between the small size of a smart phone and a traditional laptop. They were quickly adopted in the workplace with more employees using Google Apps and Microsoft Office Online (launched in 2010).
In 2014, data center construction starts jumped 142% to 6.1 msf/$3.3 billion, and starts ascended further in 2015. In 2016, data center starts climbed another 20% to 8.2 msf/$3.6 billion. The largest project in 2016 was a 1.3 msf/$600 million facility built by Switch in McCarran NV. That year also saw the start of three Facebook data centers in Forest City NC, Los Lunas NM, and Prineville OR.
In 2017, the square footage of starts was flat, although the dollar value moved 17% higher to $4.2 billion. The largest project started last year was a 1.0 msf/$750 million Facebook data center in Sandston VA. Since 2014, Facebook has built 11 data centers totaling $4.0 billion making the social media giant the top owner of data centers in the 2014-2017 timeframe. In 2017, the number of global social media users reached 2.5 billion, having grown 9% annually from 2014 through 2017. During this span of time, Microsoft Corp. started $1.7 billion of construction on six data centers and Switch Corp. started work on six facilities totaling $1.6 billion.
Since 2014, Iowa has ranked as the top spot for data center construction, with starts reaching $2.5 billion over the four years from 2014-2017. There are many factors that determine where a data center should be built, but the decision is weighted most heavily towards network access, land availability, electricity, and taxes. Iowa’s central location means that it has access to internet backbones that traverse the country, abundant land on which to build, as well as local governments willing to offer substantial tax abatements. Data centers use massive amounts of electricity, and rates in the state are below the national average and amongst the least expensive in the country. Moreover, many of the top players in the data center space are attempting to use renewable energy sources to power their facilities and Iowa is one of the top states for renewable electricity production (over a third of the state’s electricity is wind generated). In 2017 TradeWind Energy began construction of the $430 million Rattlesnake Creek wind farm in Dixon County NE. The wind farm will produce 320MW of electricity, with Facebook contracting 200MW of the output to power nearby data centers.
Starts in Virginia totaled $2.1 billion over the same period. Like Iowa, Virginia has relatively low electricity rates, is home to major nodes of U.S. internet infrastructure, and is home to federal government and intelligence operations. Texas ranked third for data center construction with $1.6 billion in starts from 2014-2017. Wind power accounts for 15% of Texas’ generation mix.
Beyond 2017, rapidly increasing data consumption and storage needs, as well as speedy adoption of cloud-based software, will translate into the further buildout of data center infrastructure. As of December 2017, the Dodge project news database contained over $21 billion in data center projects in various stages of planning or bidding. Over half of those projects are owned by the major players: Switch, Apple, Facebook, and Microsoft. For the foreseeable future, U.S. data center construction will continue to provide a silver lining for every cloud.
About Dodge Data & Analytics
: Dodge Data & Analytics is North America’s leading provider of analytics and software-based workflow integration solutions for the construction industry. Building product manufacturers, architects, engineers, contractors, and service providers leverage Dodge to identify and pursue unseen growth opportunities and execute on those opportunities for enhanced business performance. Whether it’s on a local, regional or national level, Dodge makes the hidden obvious, empowering its clients to better understand their markets, uncover key relationships, size growth opportunities, and pursue those opportunities with success. The company’s construction project information is the most comprehensive and verified in the industry. Dodge is leveraging its 100-year-old legacy of continuous innovation to help the industry meet the building challenges of the future. To learn more, visit www.construction.com.
: Nicole Sullivan | AFFECT Public Relations & Social Media | +1-212-398-9680, nsullivan@affectstrategies.com
Toolkit to Grow Your Business
Supply Project Info to Dodge
Sign up for any of our e-newsletters and receive key insights and industry trends
Dodge Momentum Index
Beyond the Data
Sweets© Product update
Agree toTerms
Thank you for contacting Dodge
Thank you for your submission. You are now subscribed.
"I Agree to the Terms of Service and the Privacy Policy"
Thank you for your interest. We will reach out to you shortly.
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0022.json.gz/line1250
|
Subsets and Splits
No community queries yet
The top public SQL queries from the community will appear here once available.