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Give to IMSE
Overview of IMSE
IMSE Enrollment Statistics
IMSE Advisory Board
IMpulSE Annual Newsletter
INFORMS and IIE Student Chapters
Industrial Engineering (IE) and Engineering Management (EM) are the perfect fields of study for students interested in both the technical aspects of engineering and the management of resources for making improvements in processes and products. Industrial engineers formulate mathematical, statistical, and computer simulation models of complex systems in manufacturing, logistics, information, healthcare, transportation, financial, utilities, entertainment, and service sectors. IEs use these models to make engineering decisions for improving system performance, quality, and cost, and also for developing public policies in diverse areas such as technology, energy, environment, and healthcare. Unlike other disciplines in engineering, the scope of the industrial engineering field is very broad. The work of IEs involves design, manufacturing, quality, reliability, performance, human factors, environmental impact, cost, and management leading to optimal use of human, material, and information resources.
At the undergraduate level, students find the field's flexibility of career paths/choices very appealing. Solid grounding in data-driven analytical and statistical analytics tools, together with their ability to take a broad business view of the engineering-based decisions, make IEs in high demand in a wide variety of engineering and business environments. Undergraduate students are actively mentored to develop skill sets in leadership, community engagement, language, independent research, and global exposure.
Our graduate programs in IE and EM appeal to undergraduate degree holders in practically all disciplines in engineering and the sciences. Those who want to build a career managing engineering and other business enterprises receive a solid grounding through our MSEM program in basic principles and tools of management including human relations, creativity and change in technology, decision models in engineering, finance, law, and entrepreneurship. Graduates in the MSIE and PhD programs receive training in solving complex decision problems of integrating data and models through focused coursework and research. IMSE graduate students are supported to build well-rounded portfolios including refereed publications, patents, professional service, community engagement, leadership, and communication.
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This website is maintained by Industrial and Management Systems Engineering.
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Discover the San Francisco Bay Area
Filter by: ExperiencesOutdoorRoad TripsEmergency ResponseFamilyLuxuryEntertainmentCulinaryCalifornia Welcome Centers
Sonoma County Tourism – Exploring the Russian River Valley
Healdsburg Chamber & Visitors Bureau - OFFICIAL WEBSITE
Discover California Wines - Sonoma County
San Francisco Recreation and Park District
The Charter Oak
Round Pond Estate
Boonville General Store
Campo Fina
With crashing waves along the coast and soaring redwood trees blanketing miles of uncrowded parkland, this is one of California’s most spectacular regions. The largest city, Eureka, is roughly a 5-hour drive north of San Francisco—but what a drive: see lush wine country, charming hamlets, spouting whales, and breath-taking sunsets.
California Welcome Centers in the North Coast
The western foothills of the Sierra Nevada Range, defining California’s eastern border, are known as the Gold Country, named after the rich Mother Lode discovered here in the mid-1850s. While gold is still found in the region, new riches include top museums and art in Sacramento, the state capital, plus white-water rafting, tucked-away towns, farm-fresh dining, and award-winning wines.
On the western oceanfront of Northern California, at the state’s distinctive bend along the coast, lies this breath-taking region. It’s framed by an unforgettable gateway—the iconic Golden Gate Bridge—spanning the mouth of San Francisco Bay. Explore diverse cities, picturesque hamlets, family-friendly beaches, coastal parklands, and wine country, including Napa and Sonoma wine country, 1½ hours north of San Francisco.
California Welcome Centres in the San Francisco Bay Area
California Welcome Centres in the Central Coast
This dramatic region takes up the south-eastern half of the state. Remarkable desert parklands, including Death Valley, Joshua Tree, and Anza-Borrego, provide an extraordinary chance to explore, while the oasis-like allure of Palm Springs, 3 hours northeast of San Diego, offers sunny resort-style getaways, with golf, tennis, spas, and high end shopping.
California Welcome Centres in the Deserts
This sunny region along the state’s southern coast is California’s most populated region, best known as the capital of the entertainment industry. Here, film stars really do work in Hollywood, play in the surf at Malibu, and shop in Beverly Hills. Looping motorways make the car king, but the region also has a surprisingly good network of buses and light rail, a hassle-free way to explore.
California Welcome Centres in Orange County
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Vital Strategies launches multi-language resource to support the fight against the tobacco epidemic
(May 31, 2017, New York, USA) – Vital Strategies today announced the launch of a new resource – Media Beacon – to support the fight against the global tobacco epidemic. Media Beacon is an online resource of tested and proven, best practice tobacco control graphic warning images (in four languages) and campaign materials (in eight languages) designed to support health objectives. Many of these campaigns are free to license and simple to adapt, enabling governments to rapidly and cost-effectively implement graphic warnings and mass media campaigns to support health policy.
On World No Tobacco Day, Vital Strategies also celebrates the launch and implementation of mass and social media tobacco control campaigns in China, India, Indonesia, Pakistan, Philippines, Ukraine and Vietnam. To date, more than 2 billion people are estimated to have viewed campaigns designed and implemented with support from Vital Strategies.
José Luis Castro, President and Chief Executive Officer, Vital Strategies commented:
“Healthy, active citizens are critical to every country’s development and economic growth. Graphic health warnings on tobacco packs and effective, population-level tobacco control communication campaigns using mass and social media can help support policy and behaviour change. Vital Strategies is proud to have played our part in helping governments and civil society around the world in this important work – supporting countries as they work towards fulfilling their obligations under the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. Further progress on tobacco taxes over the next year would help to deter more people, especially youth, from initiating tobacco use and encourage more people to quit. Once again, we stand ready to help governments build support for tobacco taxes and other tobacco control policies, to help make much-needed reductions in smoking prevalence and related disease a reality.”
Media Beacon
Media Beacon contains 92 images for anti-tobacco graphic health warnings, which can be used for tobacco packaging, available in Chinese, English, French and Spanish. There are over 60 tobacco control public service announcements (PSAs) available in library that can be navigated in Arabic, Bahasa, Chinese, English, French, Hindi, Russian and Spanish. In addition to tobacco control messages, Media Beacon also hosts a small library of best practice campaigns targeted at obesity prevention and road safety.
The resource includes three newly created anti-tobacco campaigns for use in low and middle income countries. Designed as a one-stop, comprehensive “Campaign in a Box”, each campaign includes TV, radio, outdoor and digital components, and implementation support and evaluation tools. The campaigns are racially and culturally agnostic, so they can be adapted for use anywhere in Asia, Africa or Europe, simply by changing the voiceover and titles – delivering a truly time and cost-efficient solution for resource-constrained governments and civil society organizations.
Sandra Mullin, Senior Vice President, Policy, Advocacy and Communication, Vital Strategies said: “We are really excited to be leveraging our deep expertise in health policy advocacy and communication with the launch of Media Beacon, which further advances our mission and has the potential to make a significant difference in low and middle income countries. Graphic, emotionally engaging anti-tobacco campaigns are proven to increase awareness, change attitudes and prompt behavior change. They are especially critical in countries with high levels of tobacco use and lower levels of education and literacy, which often lack the resources to develop best-practice campaigns. Media Beacon will help bridge gaps in capacity and reduce the health and economic harms of tobacco use.”
Assisting mass and social media campaigns in multiple countries
Vital Strategies has provided technical assistance and other forms of support for social and mass media tobacco control campaigns currently running or being launched to coincide with World No Tobacco Day in cities and countries around the world:
In China, a victim of tobacco-related heart disease, who features in a PSA, will feature on a special World No Tobacco Day program on Beijing TV
In Shanghai, China, mass media campaigns are running to support the city’s implementation of comprehensive smokefree laws
In Xiamen, China, launching on World No Tobacco Day, an adaptation of the “Smokefree Restaurant” PSA is being aired on local TV channels and on LED screens in local hospitals to build support for a city-wide smokefree law
In India, the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare has launched a new mass media campaign, “TB-Cough” to highlight that smokers and people exposed to secondhand smoke from cigarettes and bidis are at greater risk of TB and dying from TB. The PSA urges smokers with a persistent cough to visit the doctor
In Indonesia, a national campaign warns people about the harms of tobacco use and secondhand smoke, encouraging smokers to consider quitting and call a new national quitline. The quitline is promoted via two PSAs – Tobacco Kills Dreams and Panjaitan and the #SuaraTanpaRokok social media campaign and quit page at http://suaratanparokok.co.id/berhenti/
In Bogor city, Indonesia, a campaign to increase compliance with the city’s smokefree laws includes a wall mural art festival and 16 angkots (public transport vehicles) decorated with colorful, graphic anti-tobacco stickers
In Pakistan, a billboard of the “Sponge” ad, which shows how much tar collects in a smoker’s lungs, has been placed on the facade of a hospital in Rawalpindi. This is a pilot initiative for the rollout of more than 80 similar signs to appear on hospitals and health centers across seven key cities around the country
In the Philippines, a social media campaign entitled “They Lie We Die” is increasing awareness of tobacco’s harms and the tobacco industry’s tactics to target youth and prevent the implementation of policies to protect health
In Vietnam, the Vietnam Public Health Association is running a national competition via its social media project and Vn0khoithuoc (Smokefree Vietnam) Facebook Fanpage, to engage young people in supporting the implementation of smokefree laws
In Ho Chi Minh City, the “Smokefree Restaurant” and “Invisible Killer- Office” PSAs are being broadcast on Ho Chi Minh City television to support the implementation of smokefree regulations
In Ukraine, a national mass and social media campaign entitled The tobacco industry targets our kids aims to build support for a law banning tobacco advertising at the point of sale, and also calls for a ban on flavored cigarettes that encourage youth smoking.
Research has shown that mass media campaigns and graphic health warnings on tobacco packs are one of the most effective means to prompt people to stop smoking. They are one of the World Health Organization’s M-P-O-W-E-R (W=Warn) strategies to reduce tobacco consumption. M-P-O-W-E-R strategies are endorsed and promoted by the Bloomberg Initiative to Reduce Tobacco Use, of which Vital Strategies is a principal partner.
Vital Strategies-supported campaign PSAs and stills and transcripts from the PSAs are available upon request.
Vital Strategies is a global health organization that seeks to accelerate progress on the world’s most pressing health problems. Our team combines evidence-based strategies with innovation to help develop and implement sound public health policies, manage programs efficiently, strengthen data systems, conduct research, and design strategic communication campaigns for policy and behavior change. To find out more, please visit www.vitalstrategies.org or Twitter @VitalStrat.
This feature was published by Vital Strategies on May. 31, 2017 and filed under Press Room, Tobacco Control.
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César Alierta: “The digital industry has accounted for nearly one fifth of global growth in the last two decades.”
General 22 February 2016
The president of Telefónica has highlighted the positive impact of digital technologies, citing recent reports estimating that a 10% increase in digitalisation of the economy could increase GDP per capita growth rates by 40%”.
Barcelona, February 22nd, 2016.- César Alierta has explained today that digitalisation will change everything, that social progress will be exponential, with an even greater wealth creation. He’s also highlighted that the digital industry has accounted for nearly one fifth of global growth in the last two decades, and cited recent reports estimating that a 10% increase in digitalisation of the economy could increase GDP per capita growth rates by 40%.
“All of us attending Mobile World Congress acknowledge this potential, but we need institutions, governments, unions, enterprises, policy makers and citizens to realise the full potential of the digital world for the benefit of the society”, Alierta stated.
Within this context, the president of Telefónica has attributed special relevance to the role of education and has pointed out that 65% of children entering primary school today will end up working in new jobs that do not yet exist, “reason for which it is very important to change the educational model to improve the employability of new professionals”. Exponential increase in data, digitalisation and Big Data will also equally transform production models, which is key to anticipating customer needs, making better business decisions and encouraging innovation.
A new relationship with the customer
In a welcome speech at the first official ceremony of the Mobile Word Congress, which begins today in Barcelona, César Alierta explained the audience how telecommunications operators hold in their hands the opportunity to build a different kind of data relationship with their customers, “a relationship based on trust, giving customers visibility and control of their digital life, because we guarantee customers’ data privacy and security”.
The president of Telefónica has explained that Big Data providing gives telcos a differential opportunity to take advantage of, as few sectors have such extensive knowledge of their own customers as telcos have.
“This is simply because telcos are the network and because we hold a real life relationship with our customers, through billing, commercial contacts and customer service”, he added. He continued to describe how it is about building a new competitive edge that would allow to rebalance the value chain of the digital ecosystem.
Before wrapping up his speech, César Alierta also reminded the audience of the need to maintain a balanced stage for all the actors in the digital ecosystem. “Current regulation has to change in order to achieve the application of the same service, same rules, same protection principle in the digital space”, stated the president of Telefónica, for whom transparency, Digital life portability, interoperability and digital neutrality are the pillars in which open Internet should be supported in order to create a better digital experience.
For full details and contact information, please download press release as a PDF.
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filed: November 26, 2018 • Ontario
Residents push for turbines
Credit: Bruce Bell | The County Weekly News | November 26, 2018 | ~~
ROSSMORE – An informal group of Prince Edward County residents in favour of wind energy is starting to make noise about the cancellation of the White Pines Wind Energy project.
On Friday, three of the people met at Bay of Quinte Todd Smith’s constituency office in Rossmore with executive assistant David Joyce, while another dozen gathered outside. Smith was in Montreal on provincial business and could not attend the meeting.
Don Ross, a local environmentalist, said Joyce echoed comments made by Smith and told the trio wpd Canada’s White Pines project would not be resurrected, despite being near completion.
“We pressed Mr. Joyce on nuclear energy because we want to know what their plans are for six or seven years down the road when we are short on energy and could use the energy White Pines could produce,” he said. “He did say he’s concerned because he’s worried about what his grandchildren will be faced with down the road, but was clear that (White Pines) is dead and won’t be resurrected.”
In July, the new Progressive Conservative government cancelled the White Pines project which had been reduced from 27 turbines to nine through various legal challenges. The project was officially cancelled when the Urgent Priorties Act was passed on July 25.
On Thursday, Ross attended the meeting with Angela Lammes and Jen Ackerman.
Ackerman said her concerns go beyond the need for renewable energy.
“If they actually do dismantle this and there are 42 dump truck loads of cement, 52 tones of rebar in the ground and it’s a metre and a half high above ground – they take a high-hoe and smash it all up, it will be mixed together – where are they going to take these tons and tons and tons of cement and iron to dump it? That’s my big environmental question, but I don’t believe it will ever get to that point. I do believe the Ford government will come to senses and turn this around after they logically think about, but the environmental impact is what’s bothering me now.”
Ackerman, who was to have turbine No. 9 on her Milford-area property said it was time for people in favour of wind energy to start making more noise.
“Well, Mr. Smith claims he never heard from more than six people who are in favour of wind turbines while all of this was going on, which is not even close to being true,” she said. “This (Leadnow) petition has close to 20,000 signatures from across the province and the petition that was in my store has about 350 signatures from local people. When the project was proceeding, why would we be out protesting? We were happy.
“They say it’s the squeaky wheel that gets the grease, well obviously the loud and rich people that have come to the County, the newcomers, they were loud, they were relentless. We sat back because the project was going ahead and there was no reason for us to jump out in front of trucks and throw things at people like they did. Now it’s a revered role and you’re not hearing from them, but you’re going to hear from us.”
Smith did release a comment to The Intelligencer from Montreal when asked on Friday morning.
“I’ve heard from the vast majority of Prince Edward County residents and the local municipal council which has declared itself an unwilling host community for industrial wind turbines.
“My position on wpd and other costly, intermittent projects has not wavered and was well known for the last seven years,” he said. “ This project was going to continue the Liberal legacy of soaring hydro rates and it makes sense for ratepayers to scrap this unwanted and unnecessary energy project. Our government is committed to reducing the cost of electricity and making life more affordable for families in Bay of Quinte and across Ontario.”
Ackerman said the group will soon take their battle to Queen’s Park.
“Out of this office they refuse to admit we even exist,” she said. “We’ll continue and we’ll get louder (because) we’ve been really polite so far. The people from (wpd) Germany came to speak to Mr. Ford and he turned them away because they were going to bring up White Pines. I believe Mr. Ford has been influenced by Todd Smith and I believe Todd Smith was influenced by all these ‘no’ people. Now that the petition is in, we’ll be taking this to Toronto soon.”
[rest of article available at source]
Source: Bruce Bell | The County Weekly News | November 26, 2018 |
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Home › South Australian Monthly Summaries
South Australian Weather
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Friday Mostly sunny, cool in the southeast. Sunny, cool-to-cold in central. Sunny, cool-to-mild in the west and north.
Saturday Windy, cool-to-cold in the southeast and central. Windy, mild-to-warm in the west and north.
Sunday Mostly sunny, cold-to-very cold in the southeast and central. Sunny, cool-to-mild in the west. Mostly sunny, cool-to-cold in north.
Monday Late shower, cool in the southeast. Sunny, cool-to-cold in central. Windy, cool-to-mild in the west and north.
Tuesday Showers/storms, cold in the southeast. Showers easing, cold in central. Mostly sunny, cool-to-cold in the west and north.
South Australia Observation Table
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Tarcoola Ap
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Oodnadatta Ap
Mount Lofty
3.9°C -0.1°C
Coldest
Nullarbor
Arkaroola
-0.2°C -6.0°C
Yunta
N 35km/h
Cape Willoughby Windiest
Neptune Island
Cape Willoughby -
no rain last hr Wettest
Myponga
114.4mm 88.0mm
South Australia's Records for July
Max Min Rain
Highest 34.2°C at
Cook in 1975
Lowest 3.5°C at
Mount Lofty in 1998 Highest 19.2°C at
Whyalla in 1975
Lowest -8.2°C at
Yongala in 1976 Highest 108.4mm at
Lenswood in 2013
South Australia Monthly Summaries
JanFeb MarApr MayJun JulAug SepOct NovDec 1850 1851 1852 1853 1854 1855 1856 1857 1858 1859 1860 1861 1862 1863 1864 1865 1866 1867 1868 1869 1870 1871 1872 1873 1874 1875 1876 1877 1878 1879 1880 1881 1882 1883 1884 1885 1886 1887 1888 1889 1890 1891 1892 1893 1894 1895 1896 1897 1898 1899 1900 1901 1902 1903 1904 1905 1906 1907 1908 1909 1910 1911 1912 1913 1914 1915 1916 1917 1918 1919 1920 1921 1922 1923 1924 1925 1926 1927 1928 1929 1930 1931 1932 1933 1934 1935 1936 1937 1938 1939 1940 1941 1942 1943 1944 1945 1946 1947 1948 1949 1950 1951 1952 1953 1954 1955 1956 1957 1958 1959 1960 1961 1962 1963 1964 1965 1966 1967 1968 1969 1970 1971 1972 1973 1974 1975 1976 1977 1978 1979 1980 1981 1982 1983 1984 1985 1986 1987 1988 1989 1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019
Mean min
Mean max
Total rain
Percent of mean
9.0 +1.5 16.0 +0.7 25.6 33
Mt Gambier
Renmark Ap
Ceduna
5.0 -0.8 17.8 +0.4 9.4 24
Whyalla Ap
6.1 +0.9 17.6 +0.8 1.8 8
Coober Pedy Ap
5.5 -0.8 19.6 +1.2 0.0 0
Leigh Creek Ap
A yellow cell indicates a probable monthly record for this site (sites with ≥ 10 years of records only). The number of years of records available for the relevant field for this month is indicated in black. See the station's climate page for full details.
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The Day America Died
Written By: Robert Venditti
Art By: Eddy Barrows, Eber Ferreira, Adriano Lucas, Deron Bennett
It's time to kick some Ratzi ass and who better than the Freedom Fighters to get the job done? Yeah, we've got a new Maxi-series being thrown at us with this one and while I would much rather have some JSA action, Earth X will have to do for now as Robert Venditti gives us the info on what happened to the original Freedom Fighters and who will take up their mantel to make sure that America never dies. Let's jump into this issue and see what's what. Let's check it out.
One of the first things you'll notice in this issue is the excessive use of the word "Ratzi" and while you can obviously figure out that this is just a term for Nazis, this is actually a callback to the how DC Comics referred to the Nazis during the Second World War and seeing it used here is a nice little easter egg for anyone who may have read comics from that time like All-Star Comics. References aside though, we're thrown head first into this story as we see the day that the Freedom Fighters were shut down by the Ratzi menace by their SS Plastic Men and the idea that for all intents and purposes......... The Ratzi's won.
This is kind of an interesting concept because I figured I'd jump into this book and start seeing the Freedom Fighters just on another adventure or possibly picking up where we left off in The Multiversity: Mastermen, but even though we're dealing with Earth X characters and themes, this seems to be an animal all its own that wants to tell its own story without the constraint of Overman or any of the craziness of The Multiversity. That being said though, that doesn't mean these things can't show up later on, but from what we get in this issue, it looks like we're simply dealing with the Freedom Fighters and that's it......... and really, that's enough because we get some serious shit right away out of this book that really just sets up the despair that America has felt for the seventy years and we don't get a righteous victory against the Ratzis out of our heroes either, we get the day they failed........... and it's pretty damn intense.
All in all, we have a pretty solid first issue. My biggest problem with this though is that the issue didn't do enough to really establish who the characters in the Freedom Fighters are. Yeah, it gives you their names, which you could then go and research, but I know that most people don't do that and because of that, I don't think that a lot of readers who are unfamiliar with these heroes will understand a lot about them by the end of this book. The art is terrific though and really makes this book feel special and from everything we got here I can't wait to see what the rest of the series holds for us going forward.
Bits and Pieces:
While the characters weren't established for new readers as much as I would have liked, I did have a blast reading this issue, which seems weird for how dark the book's subject matter is. The art is fantastic though and we have ourselves a team that I can't wait to see more of........ I just hope that this maxi-series can maintain the momentum that this issue created.
Posted by Eric Shea
Labels: Black Condor, Dollman, Eddy Barrows, Freedom Fighters, Human Bomb, Jesse Owens, Phantom Lady, Robert Venditti, Uncle Sam, WSReview
Dancing Mike December 19, 2018 at 11:28 AM
So I just clicked on this to see your closing summary and score. If it's an 8.3 for Eric Shea, then it's a buy for me this evening. Thanks, Eric!
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The Missing Bible
You are here: Home / Biblical and Theological Reflections Blog / Apocrypha / The Missing Bible
Auburn, California | Jesus Seminar on the Road
The history of Christianity is often the history of doctrinal dispute, arguments about what the Church should or should not believe. This history is often framed as if the Church fell into division after existing an original “pure” form, yet historically no such a pure form can be found to have existed. Like most social and cultural movements, the earliest generations of Christianity are marked by an explosion of creativity and diverse ideas and practices that only later took on more rigid forms. In fact, from Jesus’ life in the first century CE through the Protestant Reformation in the 16th century, no single Bible with the same set of texts was universally endorsed and used by the Church.
At the beginning of November I had the great pleasure of traveling down to the Jesus Seminar on the Road in Auburn, California, a mountain town not far from Lake Tahoe, to listen to Westar Fellows Stephen Patterson and Deborah Niederer Saxon present on “The Missing Bible,” a look at texts that (1) were excluded from modern Bibles for various reasons and/or (2) can still be found, in traces, in modern Bibles but not without a little training in biblical criticism. This blog post is an informal report on that event.
As is always the case when I write reports like this, any errors are probably my mistake. You can share your thoughts in the comments section below!
Are you interested in bringing a religious studies weekend course like “The Missing Bible” to your community?
What texts belong to the Judeo-Christian “family”?
We kicked off Friday night with Deb Saxon introducing a fabulous chart of how early Judeo-Christian texts are related and grouped. Here is my hand-drawn equivalent, not as pretty as Deb’s but it gives you some idea:
The overlapping lines of these Venn-diagram style circles reflect the relationships between the texts. So, for example, the Christian Old Testament includes the entire Hebrew Bible plus some other texts, whereas the Dead Sea Scrolls include both traditionally biblical texts but also some texts that don’t appear in either the Hebrew Bible or the various versions of the Christian Old Testament.
As for the New Testament, Deb pointed out that there are over 100 early Christian writings, which tells us that a lot more was left out than kept in. The diagram above shows the traditional New Testament (27 texts) plus a sampling of the collections found elsewhere. Many of these texts were never “lost” but simply fell into disuse. Interestingly, some of the stories and passages from nontraditional texts have survived in art and popular culture, such as the Immaculate Conception found in the Infancy Gospel of James. No New Testament passage claims that Mary was born, like Jesus, without the taint of sin, yet this appears as a common motif in Western art and is widely believed and cherished by many Christians today.
Other examples Deb noted include the Berlin Codex, found in the late 1800s, and of course the Nag Hammadi library found in 1945. Codex Tchacos, found in the 1970s, famously includes the Gospel of Judas.
Some people might wonder how we know these texts really do come from the first couple centuries CE. Deb offered some examples of how such texts are dated, all of which correspond with an April 2015 blog post I wrote, “8 Tips for Dating Early Christian Texts,” so rather than repeating myself here, I suggest you jump over to that more detailed article if this is of interest to you. To give just one example, though, one way we can determine the absolute latest date a text was written is by who refers to it after the fact. As incredible as a “gospel of Mary” or a “gospel of Judas” may seem to modern readers, who might naturally suspect them to be modern forgeries, we know that 4th-century and 5th-century leaders of the Church like Tertullian and Epiphanius referenced and even quoted such texts—and expected their readers to recognize the reference! Just because a text is no longer widely read today, doesn’t mean it couldn’t have been popular a long time ago. Most of us can’t even remember popular books of 50 years ago, let alone 1600–1700 years ago.
One such popular text was the Acts of Paul and Thecla. We have no way of knowing for sure whether Thecla was a real historical figure or a fictional character, but as Deb Saxon put it so eloquently, “For the people who read and more likely heard the story of Thecla, she was as real to them as Paul.” In this story, Thecla abandons her engagement to a wealthy and powerful man to become an apostle after overhearing Paul’s teaching from her window. Her own mother drags her before the authorities and demands she be burned alive as an example to other young women, but God sends a rainstorm to extinguish the fire. Later Thecla is tossed to the wild animals in a Roman arena, but a lioness protects her from harm. She baptizes herself in a pool of killer seals (yes, you read that right) and goes on to live a long, happy existence as a traveling apostle.
How was the New Testament decided?
This might come as a surprise to many, but there was no universal Church Council that decided what books of the Bible were “in” or “out.” Below are some key dates related to this issue—but note that the only actual major council to be explicitly focused on what books belong in the Bible doesn’t come until the 16th century!
In 313 CE, the Edict of Milan established tolerance for Christianity by the Roman Empire.
In 325 CE, the Council of Nicaea settled a theological debate between Arius (loser) and Athanasius (winner) about the divinity of Jesus. Arius argued that Jesus was a created being, but ultimately the Council declared Jesus “of one substance” with God.
By 367 CE, Athanasius circulated an “Easter letter” with a list of the 27 books we now find in modern New Testaments, but it was written for his own community and didn’t dictate what was being read elsewhere.
In 1546, the Council of Trent responded to the Protestant Reformation by affirming the 27 books of the Latin Vulgate Bible (ca. 400 CE).
We know of other, competing lists to the one circulated by Athanasius. One question we can ask about this is, “What rule or rules did a person use to decide what to include?” For example, if you were Eusebius, your rule was the Nicene Creed: if a book agreed with the Nicene Creed, it must be true, and if it disagreed, it must be spurious. Not exactly a historically sound way of making decisions.
Even into the modern era, we can name some famous examples of people who felt at liberty to modify the list of texts: Martin Luther, father of the Protestant Reformation, wanted to do away with James, Hebrews, and Jude. Thomas Jefferson literally cut and pasted verses of the Bible to create his own version, and Elizabeth Cady Stanton even developed The Woman’s Bible. Today, books like Evolution of the Word by Marcus Borg and A New New Testament edited by Hal Taussig continue this legacy.
What do we gain by reading the texts that were eventually excluded from modern Bibles? Deb offered this list of benefits:
Lost & suppressed voices can be recovered, and a greater diversity of voices allowed to speak.
Feminine imagery for the divine finds new life.
Women’s leadership had a place in the history of the Church and can be revisited today.
Our historical understanding of Christianity can be significantly improved and increased.
We can explore new opportunities for spiritual understanding and practice.
To this, I would also add the potential value of these texts as creative resources for modern art and literature.
A Gospel Missing in Plain Sight
Stephen Patterson took over from Deb to introduce what is known as the Synoptic Problem and to lay out the evidence for a possible missing text that helps to resolve this historical puzzle. It would be remiss of me not to mention that Stephen’s new book The Lost Way: How Two Forgotten Gospels Are Rewriting the Story of Christian Origins, explains this more eloquently and in far more detail than I do in this report. The Lost Way also includes a copy of the reconstructed Q Gospel, but I’m getting a little ahead of myself.
Anyone who has read the first three books of the New Testament (the “Synoptic Gospels,” or Matthew, Mark, and Luke) will notice that they are very similar. They all share stories about a man named Jesus and his disciples. They recount both his teachings—in the form of parables and short sayings—along with miracles of healing and also what might be called miraculous demonstrations of power. All three also include a story about his death by crucifixion and reports of his resurrection from the dead.
Read naively, the similarities in these texts naturally lead people to assume they were written by multiple eyewitnesses of the same events. The variations among the three texts get explained away as natural differences from one person’s account to another’s. To offer a modern parallel, these days we tend to watch events unfold in live action on social media but through the raw experience of each individual person reporting what they see. Here’s the problem: gospels aren’t that raw. The “eyewitness” rationale doesn’t quite hold up upon closer examination because in many cases the texts agree verbatim, word for word. Historians—and copyright lawyers, for that matter—would assert that this points to a literary relationship among the texts. Somebody was reading and borrowing from the other guy’s work.
So who was borrowing from whom, and how do we know? Basically, we know Matthew and Luke were borrowing from Mark because they both rely on Mark’s language while editing it where doing so would suit their purposes and adding other material to it. Where Luke’s edits of Mark differ from Matthew’s edits of Mark, we get some intriguing clues about what the interests and concerns of these later writers were.
This accounts for most but not all of the overlapping material in Matthew and Luke. The remaining material belongs to a gospel we no longer possess, which German theologian Johannes Weiss (d. 1914) called simply die Quelle (“the source”). In English it is often simply called “Q” or the “Q Gospel.”
Q can’t be seen by flipping to a particular book in an ordinary Bible. You have to reconstruct it yourself or trust the work of others. Most of us rely on the free online translation of the reconstructed Greek text by the International Q Project, a team of two dozen scholars including Stephen Patterson, but you can find a reader-friendly recent translation in Chapter 4 of The Lost Way.
Stephen explained to us that Q was written before the Jewish War (66–70 CE) in the Galilean region. We know that because, among other things, (1) it doesn’t mention the Jewish War, and (2) it refers to a lot of tiny villages that only a local would know. In fact, Stephen explained to us, wartime themes dominate all other early Christian writings except for Q and the letters of Paul. Another factor here is forced urbanization: Because the Galilean region was close to a body of water, both the Greeks and the Romans planted cities there. Imagine these ancient empires creating cities from scratch by building aqueducts to ferry water from one place to another. You can guess how rural peasants felt about their water being literally taken before their eyes in a matter of a few years! Context helps us understand the themes found in Q.
Stephen shared several themes and examples from his book. I’ll just share a little about the Lord’s Prayer. The Q version of the Lord’s Prayer is simpler and more concrete than the version many people recite in Christian churches today. Here’s how it reads in Steve’s translation:
Father!—Holy be Your name!—may your empire come.
Give us each day our daily bread;
And forgive us our debts, for we also have forgiven our debtors.
And lead us not into trial.
(Q 11:2–4; Matt. 6:9–13; Luke 11:2–4)
This is one of many sayings found in Q that reveal the altogether practical tone of this gospel. It teaches people how to survive in an empire, particularly in one where most people lived at subsistence level and a single disaster, such as an illness in the family, could become a matter of life or death. Indeed, when one audience member asked what Q can teach us today, Stephen only half-joked that perhaps it doesn’t speak to those of us who could afford to be in the room listening to a lecture. But it has a lot to say about survival, especially the survival of those who can’t find a place for themselves in the sorts of impersonal systems that empires use to govern their subjects. Perhaps that is something we all have experienced in one form or another.
A Missing Place—Edessa
The Gospel of Thomas was known to scholars in fragments for a long time, but nobody knew they belonged together until the Nag Hammadi version was found in 1945. Thomas—Judas Thomas, not “doubting” Thomas—is the patron saint of a place called Edessa, which is not technically located in the Roman Empire but on the far eastern frontier in the borderlands between Roman territory and the Parthian Empire. It was the first city arrived at on the Silk Road east out of Antioch. This tells us that for the people who lived there, a war in Jerusalem would not have felt immediately relevant to their lives. Because of this, a gospel written in Edessa is less interested in wartime themes than many other gospels with a closer connection to Judea.
So what themes do we find instead? Stephen Patterson explained that as a port city, Edessa was the kind of place that many people would have passed through without staying for long. The people there engaged in the sorts of exchanges you would expect: everything from material goods to sex to philosophical ideas. Thomas is a wisdom gospel, optimistic (“seek and you shall find”) about finding something that is “already there.” It may not be comfortable, but it will give those who listening carefully the power to “rule the universe.” The parables of the Sower and the Lost Sheep are found in Thomas, as are the Beatitudes. To embrace this gospel means to “become passersby.” “If you do not fast from the world, you will not find the kingdom,” Thomas reads. One needs to avoid being lost in the exciting but fleeting life of the port city.
The themes in Thomas also reflect Christianity’s emergence during a renaissance of Plato’s ideas known as Middle Platonism. The Gospel of Thomas was written in a context where those ideas could fruitfully mix with the emerging ideas of the Jesus movement. Rather than thinking of this as a unique or isolated incident, we should understand that this movement was influential across many aspects of life in the ancient world. Other famous figures influenced by Middle Platonism include Cicero and Philo of Alexandria.
An example of a Middle Platonic idea is its clever reversal of the classic wisdom saying, “Know thyself.” In its earliest formulation by the famous Delphic Oracle, this phrase meant something more like “get over yourself” or “you’re just human.” But the Middle Platonists flipped that on its head. Suddenly, “know thyself” meant something like “know that you are divine.” Rather than dying and disappearing into the dust, the Middle Platonists believed something in us persisted—the “mind” (nous) that comes from God. It’s easy to see the beginnings of the Christian “soul” or “spirit” in that concept, and in Thomas this theme is especially pronounced. “How much will you bear,” Thomas asks, “when you see your true self?”
Missing Apostles: Where have all the women gone?
Deborah Saxon rounded out the weekend with a tour through women in early and medieval Christian artwork to give us a sense for how ideas about women’s leadership roles changed over time—unfortunately too often summed up by Deb’s phrase “the vanishing act.” I share just a couple of Deb’s many examples here.
Mary Magdalene. Bernadette Brooten in Women Leaders in Ancient Synagogues observed that women were referred to as elders, head of the synagogue, mother of the synagogue, and other terms that suggest an important role in the Judean community. We see evidence of leadership in early Christian texts, as well, such as in John 20:17–18, when Mary Magdalene experiences the two things normally associated with apostolic leadership: she sees and recognizes the risen Christ, and she is given a commission:
Jesus said to her, “Woman, why are you weeping? Whom are you looking for?” Supposing him to be the gardener, she said to him, “Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have laid him, and I will take him away.”
Jesus said to her, “Mary!” She turned and said to him in Hebrew, “Rabbouni!” (which means Teacher).
Jesus said to her, “Do not hold on to me, because I have not yet ascended to the Father. But go to my brothers and say to them, ‘I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.’”
Mary Magdalene has sometimes been called the “apostle to the apostles,” as seen in the Gospel of Mary, where she corrects her male companions’ misunderstandings about what Jesus taught—at their invitation! Yet over time Mary Magdalene has come to be thought of as a prostitute and associated with the unnamed woman who anointed Jesus in Mark 14. Elisabeth Schüssler Fiorenza’s famous book In Memory of Her takes its title from this famous passage. Schüssler Fiorenza observes that Mary Magdalene appears only at the death and resurrection plus one other place in the canonical Bible, Luke 8:1–3.
[On a tangential but related note, I just found out that in June 2016 Pope Francis elevated the status of the liturgical celebration of Mary Magdalene to be equal to the apostles, a feast day, in recognition of her significance in the history of the tradition!]
Mary the Mother of Jesus. Like Mary Magdalene, throughout the course of history Mary the Mother of Jesus has often been shown to be an apostolic leader who commissions and teaches, often to the apostles. In some parts of the world (especially the “global South”) this association is still obvious, but in the West it has become less obvious, especially in artistic representations of her. Here’s an interesting case in point: In the Chapel of Saint Venantius (San Giovanni in Fonte) in Rome, pictured below, an octagonal chapel shows a Baroque-era (15/16th century) Madonna with child that has been built up in front of earlier artwork.
St. Venantius Chapel, Rome. Credit: Kateusz.
Yet above the Madonna, especially if you walk behind this display, you will find a mosaic that dates to around 650 CE, of Jesus flanked by angels and, right below him, mostly hidden by the later construction, Mary in a praying posture, wearing a pallium, hands lifted to lead the prayer for others—popes and apostles! The color blue in her clothing is another indicator that this is Mary.
St. Venantius Chapel mosaic. Credit: Kateusz.
The pallium, a narrow band around the shoulders with short pendants hanging from the front and back, was only worn by popes and archbishops, although it was possible for someone to receive it as a special favor. In the 1800s, Giovanni de Rossi painted the mosaic. His illustration shows a red cross on Mary’s pallium that, in the time since, has been almost entirely replaced with white tesserae.
St. Venantius mosaic, as painted in the 1800s by Giovanni de Rossi
In a room outside the Sistine Chapel is a reliquary with Mary in the same posture. Another can be seen in Varona, Italy and at San Marco in Florence, Italy, the latter a piece of art that originally appeared in St. Peter’s Basilica before it was remodeled. This is not meant to be a simplistic story of good à bad representations, though. Keep in mind that early Christian views were diverse, including their ideas about women’s leadership. Some communities embraced it, while others did not.
Thank you again to the generous and well-organized host, First Congregational Church of Auburn UCC, and to our presenters Stephen Patterson and Deborah Saxon for sharing these fascinating and challenging stories from early Christian history! Learn more about the Jesus Seminar on the Road program … and perhaps to organize one in your community?
Cassandra Farrin joined Westar in 2010. A US-UK Fulbright Scholar, she has an M.A. in Religious Studies from Lancaster University (England) and a B.A. in Religious Studies from Willamette University. She is passionate about books and projects that in some way address the intersection of ethics and early Christian history.
Dispatches from Wild Goose
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Welcome new friends from Wild Goose! (Exclusive content for attendees)
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New Membership Levels!
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Necropolitics, Hauntology & Biblical Studies
God Is Not King
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trailer mix Feb. 2, 2015
Watch Jurassic World’s Super Bowl Spot
By Sean Fitz-Gerald
Universal aired a special spot for Jurassic World, a.k.a. Raptor Whisperer with Chris Pratt, on Super Bowl Sunday. Although the roughly minute-long ad featured a fair amount of recycled footage, it did showcase a few new gems. Roll the clip and keep your eyes peeled for Chris Pratt doing his best Cesar Millan impression, as well as a very Hitchcockian use of pterodactyls. June 12 has never felt so far away.
trailer mix
sdcc 2019 14 mins ago
Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.’s Seventh Season Will Be Its Last “You’re not playing how do we undo this when we get to the next season. You’re playing that this is going to be the end of the story.”
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When Will a Defendant in a California Breach of Contract Case Be Excused From Performing?
Obviously, the whole point of a contract is that two parties are seeking security that the other party is going to do something in return for something for them. A contract is essentially a bargain: I do this thing (or don’t do this thing in some cases), and, in return, you do or do not this other thing.
When one party does not hold up its end of the bargains by refusing to perform (or perform up to the standards expected by the other party) – which could come in the form of refusing to pay money, refusing to deliver a good or service, refusing to redo a project to the contract’s specifications, and so on – therein lies the beginnings of a breach of contract action.
In essence, a breach of contract action is where one party (the plaintiff) either goes to court or threatens to go to court to have that court demand that the other party (the defendant) live up to its end of the bargain by performing, paying damages, and/or making some other restitutionary action.
But a defendant, however, may in some cases be excused from performing. California breach of contract actions can be quite complex in many cases, but here is an overview of the types of questions to consider in determining whether a defendant might be excused from performing in California.
Has the Plaintiff Performed On Its Obligations?
Again, a contract is a bargain between two parties to each perform, a quid pro quo (“this for that”) if you will. But if the plaintiff itself has failed to perform any obligations or otherwise meet conditions on the contract, this could be grounds for the defendant not having to perform. For example, if a buyer of a property was required to obtain financing as a condition of the contract, the seller may be excused from performing if that condition was not met.
Courts will, however, often look at whether a failure of a plaintiff to meet its obligations under the contract is “material,” or in other words of a certain legal significance, before excusing performance on the part of the defendant.
Is There a Defense to Enforcement of the Contract?
Not all agreements between parties are legally enforceable in court, even if they are otherwise contracts. There are a number of defenses to breach of contract actions which will excuse a defendant from having to perform.
A full discussion of these defenses is worthy of an entire volume on the topic, but common defenses to contract performance include:
Illegality of the contract
Duress
Is There an Alternative Remedy Available to the Plaintiff?
Even if the plaintiff has a valid breach of contract claim, forcing the defendant to perform its obligations under the contract will not always be ordered by a California court. In general, courts do not want to get into the business of involuntary servitude, and so courts will generally not require a defendant to perform a service against its will. Instead, a court may order an alternative remedy such as money damages, or restoring the parties to where they were prior to the contract being made.
Speak to a California breach of contract attorney for guidance on your particular situation.
Contact the California Breach of Contract Attorneys at Wagenseller Law Firm
At Wagenseller Law Firm in downtown Los Angeles, we provide full legal services to individuals and businesses in business and real estate litigation matters. Contact Wagenseller Law Firm today to schedule a consultation to discuss your real estate matter.
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Alexandra has been singing and dancing since she was 8 years old, when she began performing in musical theatre productions in her hometown of Peoria, IL. After graduating from Western Illinois University with a BFA in musical theatre, Alex began performing professionally in several theatres in Chicago, before moving to New York to continue working in musical theatre as well as in an international singing group. After relocating to Denver this past October, Alexandra has most recently been seen performing at the Arvada Center, and is now thrilled to join the Wands and Wishes family. With extensive experience in the performing arts, a love for the enchantment of Disney, and a resolve to always keep things professional and fun, Alexandra is so excited to help make your day the most magical it can be!
Dee is thrilled to be joining the Wands and Wishes team! It is such a privilege to see the impact a princess can make on a child’s life, and to create lifelong memories. As a mom of a 3-year-old princess, she knows how important it is to make a child’s birthday extraordinary and magical! She has been singing for as long as she can remember, and has been in choir for most of her life. For the last eight years, Dee volunteers her time managing the music department, performing as the lead singer, a youth leader, and teaching children at Victory Outreach Church. Dee enjoys spending quality time with her husband and daughter.
Destiny Walsh is so excited to be a part of Wands and Wishes. She is currently a musical theatre student at the University of Northern Colorado and has been performing professionally as both a singer and dancer for the past five years in such states as: Arizona, Denver, Connecticut, Ohio and New York City. She is thrilled to be a part of such a magical group of performers and hopes to meet you and your family at your special event very soon!
Valerie is delighted to be a part of the Wands and Wishes family! She has a BFA in Musical Theatre from Nebraska Wesleyan University. Since graduating, she has worked at many theaters including the Arvada Center, BDT Stage, Rocky Mountain Repertory Theatre and Candlelight Dinner Playhouse. Princess movies and music were always playing when Valerie was growing up, and she’s so excited to share her love for these characters with you and your child! She hopes to create magically memories that you were cherish for years to come!
Jazzy is an acting major at the University of Northern Colorado going into her Junior Year.
She has always been a Disney buff, and dreamed of being a princess and mermaid ever since she was a little girl.
She’s so thankful to Wands and Wishes for making those dreams come true after all star wishing over the years!
Nahla is very excited to be a part of the Wands and Wishes cast to make your little Princess’ day a magical one to remember! Nahla’s interest in preforming came at a young age when she first saw Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone. Ever since then she has wanted to be a part of movies to entertain and inspire people everywhere. She’s taken 6 years of musical theater in both Middle and High School and continues to keep up with Acting at the Colorado Film School where she is currently attending for Writing and Directing.
Grace is overjoyed to be working with Wands and Wishes, but she’s even more excited to make your little prince or princesses dreams come true! Since a young age, Grace has always dreamed of being a mermaid and a princess. She even remembers reenacting scenes from The Little Mermaid in the pool when she was little. Grace is attending college at University of Northern Colorado as an Acting major and minoring in music with a concentration in Voice. She has been apart of the theatre community and has been vocally coached since she was five years old. Her favorite roles include Rosemary in “How to Succeed in Business without Really Trying” and Morticia in “The Addams Family Musical.” Grace thrives to make others happy and she can’t wait to show your child the world of magic that she lives in!
Jessica feels like the luckiest girl in the world to work for Wands and Wishes! She has always loved performing because of it’s magical ability to help audience members escape reality for a few hours. She studied Musical Theatre at Marymount Manhattan College on the Upper East Side of New York City and continues to pursue performance as her career path here in Denver. She adores working with children, and currently is a Special Education paraprofessional for severe needs kids at a local high school. Jessica was most recently seen as Ursula in The Little Mermaid in Parker. She cannot wait to meet you and your little one at your next party!
Anna is overjoyed to be joining the Wands and Wishes family! She is currently studying Theatre at The University of Northern Colorado. She has always loved to sing and act, being that it is such a huge source of her happiness. And she cannot wait to bring the same joy and happiness to your child’s party! When Anna is not performing; she enjoys reading, cuddling with her kitten, and drinking copious amounts of iced tea. She cannot wait to meet your little one and be a part of their amazing day!
Favorite Character – Beauty Princess
Zach has been involved in the arts and media production since 2009 when he helped on the production of a television series. Since then he has worked on the sets of two movies and mentored under several different filmmakers.
He graduated from Artios Conservatory in 2017 as a Fine Arts Major. His involvement with Artios included several theater productions including The Pirates of Penzance, You’re a Good Man Charlie Brown, Our Town, Comedy of Errors, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, Little Women, and Suessical.
While growing up, Zach attained the rank of Eagle Scout in 2013. Zach is thrilled to be a part of the Wands & Wishes team!
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Joe Biden could be the best bet to beat Trump. But he might not get that far.
By Karen Tumulty
Karen Tumulty
Columnist covering national politics
By launching his 2020 campaign with shameful images of what happened in Charlottesville 20 months ago, former vice president Joe Biden has put the focus on what should be the central question of the 2020 election.
More than any of the other 19 announced Democratic contenders, Biden has called for a reckoning: Should someone with President Trump’s glaring deficiencies of character continue to lead this nation?
In Charlottesville, “we saw Klansmen and white supremacists and neo-Nazis come out in the open, their crazed faces illuminated by torches, veins bulging, and bearing the fangs of racism. Chanting the same anti-Semitic bile heard across Europe in the ’30s. And they were met by a courageous group of Americans, and a violent clash ensued, and a brave young woman lost her life,” Biden said in his announcement video.
The former vice president recalled the most disgraceful statement Trump has ever uttered: There were “some very fine people on both sides.”
“With those words, the president of the United States assigned a moral equivalence between those spreading hate and those with the courage to stand against it,” Biden said. “And in that moment, I knew the threat to this nation was unlike any I had ever seen in my lifetime.”
The contrast with the rest of the field is striking. Virtually without exception, earlier announced Democratic candidates offered opening arguments that conspicuously avoided any direct mention of — or even allusion to — Trump’s moral failings. Biden, on the other hand, said these threaten to “forever and fundamentally alter the character of this nation.”
It may be that the other contenders have overlearned the lessons of Hillary Clinton’s inability to make that argument stick against Trump in 2016. Clinton, however, was a flawed messenger; decades-old questions about her honesty and trustworthiness were inflamed by the controversy surrounding her use of a private email server, which was vastly overplayed in the media. Doubts about Trump were tempered with hope — long since dashed — that he would change once in office.
There is always the possibility that the booming economy over which Trump is presiding will matter more to voters than the fact that he is shattering every norm of governance. Or, more disturbingly, that Americans have simply grown inured to his behavior.
If so, a Democrat who chooses to focus on character might be shouting into the wind, as GOP nominee Bob Dole did in 1996, when he catalogued the many ethical questions surrounding Bill Clinton’s presidency and cried: “Where’s the outrage?”
But if we gained any new insight from special counsel Robert S. Mueller III’s long-awaited report on the investigation into Russian influence in the 2016 election, it came from the granular, behind-the-scenes look we got at Trump’s crass conduct and wanton lies.
So it may well be that 2020 turns out to be one of those moments when Americans go looking for a corrective.
They turned to moralizing, born-again Jimmy Carter in 1976, after the wrenching experience of Watergate. And in 2000, with memories fresh of a president’s extramarital affair with an intern, Republican nominee George W. Bush promised to “uphold the honor and dignity” of the Oval Office, while his Democratic opponent Al Gore refused to campaign with the man for whom he had served as vice president for eight years.
Though Biden is, by virtue of his name recognition, the front-runner of this crowded field, most senior Democrats I talk to are skeptical that he will make it through the primaries.
Biden is that rare politician who wears his heart on the outside. He has a record unblemished by scandal, and even his missteps — as the recent attention to his unwanted touching of women — are presumed to come from a wellspring of goodwill.
But he lost twice before in his bids for the White House, and he is burdened by vulnerabilities that are as evident as his virtues. He is undisciplined and gaffe-prone. Along with his vast experience comes nearly a half-century of taking actions and positions, particularly on race and gender, that have become apostasies in the modern-day Democratic Party. And he’s a white male in his 70s.
Though his announcement video was pitch-perfect, Biden made the tactically questionable decision to follow it up with a fundraiser with big-dollar donors. His first public event, on Monday, will be a rally with labor union leaders. All of which sounds as though he is running a state-of-the-art campaign — if this were 1988.
Still, in his eloquent rationale for his candidacy, Biden has offered his party something far more significant and enduring than his much-talked-about ability to connect with the older white voters of the upper Midwest who defected to Trump in 2016.
Biden may well indeed be the Democrats’ strongest bet to win back the White House next year. But he may never get that far. And if he doesn’t, whoever wins the nomination could do far worse than to pick up where Biden leaves off.
Greg Sargent: Joe Biden identifies the No. 1 threat: Trump
David Byler: Is the new Democratic Party too woke to nominate Joe Biden?
Jennifer Rubin: Joe Biden makes the case: He’s the guy to kick Trump out
Henry Olsen: Here’s exactly what Joe Biden should say in his presidential announcement
Paul Waldman: Why Joe Biden?
Karen Tumulty Karen Tumulty is a Washington Post columnist covering national politics. She joined The Post in 2010 from Time magazine and has also worked at the Los Angeles Times. Follow
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Rapper arrested on drug charges
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04/14/2015 // West Palm Beach, Florida, US //
href=’http://justicenews.visionsmartnews.com’ rel=’nofollow’>JusticeNewsFlash // Justice News Flash // (press release)
Nashville – Rapper and reality star Nelly was arrested on Saturday on drug related charges. As reported by the Associated Press (AP), an attorney for Nelly, whose real name is Cornell Haynes, has stated he expects his client to be exonerated on the felony charges after facts of the case have been revealed. Nelly was traveling in a bus that was stopped by the Tennessee Highway Traffic Patrol. The statement of the troopers indicates that a small amount of marijuana and drug paraphernalia was found in addition to five round rocks that tested positive for meth. According to troopers several handguns were also found. The rapper, 40, is now facing charges of felony possession of drugs and possession of drug paraphernalia in connection with the traffic stop. He has been released on a $10,000 bond from Putnam County Jail. Scott Rosenblum, Nelly’s lawyer said in a written statement through publicist Juliette Harris, “We are extremely confident that when the facts come out, Nelly will not be associated with the contraband that was allegedly discovered.” A court date for Nelly has been set for June 19. Justice News Flash delivers the latest in Tennessee Legal News.?
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Nine-year-old takes on Texas medical marijuana ban
Push made to make revenge porn punishable offense in UK
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Man charged with murder of brother's family
Keith Caneiro and his family were found dead as their $1.5 million mansion burned. Police say Keith's brother set the house fire to cover his crimes, though his lawyers deny the charges.
Posted: Dec 3, 2018 5:22 PM
Updated: Dec 3, 2018 5:40 PM
There was more than a brotherly bond between Paul and Keith Caneiro. They shared a business, vacationed together and settled about 11 miles from each other in the suburbs of New Jersey.
But two days before Thanksgiving, a horrific chain of events would forever tear them apart. Even more horrific is the identity of the alleged perpetrator of those events.
Paul Caneiro, 51, is accused of killing his younger brother, his sister-in-law and their children in their modern Colts Neck Township mansion in the early morning darkness on November 20 and then setting their home on fire -- an attempt, authorities say, to cover up the crimes.
He then allegedly set his own home on fire -- with his wife and daughters inside -- to try to make it look as if the whole family was being targeted. His family got out of the home safely, officials said.
The slayings have shocked the community and several twists in the case have rattled law enforcement. In just a few days, the odd coincidence -- two fires on the same day in the homes of two brothers -- revealed what prosecutors said was one of the most brutal crimes they'd ever seen.
Friends and relatives will give Keith Caneiro and his family a final farewell on Sunday, as Paul Caneiro, who maintains his innocence, sits in a Monmouth County jail, awaiting trial.
Family of four was killed before sunrise
Sometime between midnight and 5 a.m., authorities said, Paul Caneiro was walking around his brother's $1.5 million Colts Neck home armed with a knife and a gun.
The brothers had been in front of the white mansion when a deadly confrontation unfolded. Paul fired multiple shots, striking Keith, officials say.
It's unclear if they exchanged words or had a fight, but the sound of the gunshots apparently went unnoticed in this upscale town of about 10,000 people around 50 miles south of New York.
Paul then walked inside the home and found Keith's wife, Jennifer. He shot and stabbed her and also stabbed their children, Jesse, 11, and Sophia, 8, Monmouth County Prosecutor Christopher Gramiccioni said.
He then took some documents and set a fire in the basement, officials said.
Suspect set his own home on fire
When Paul left his brother's house that morning, he went to his home in Ocean Township, still under the cover of darkness. He poured gasoline outside his two-story home while his family slept inside and ignited it, a criminal complaint alleges.
By 5 a.m., firefighters and police were on their way to Paul's home. Someone had called 911, saying they'd seen smoke.
When first responders arrived, Paul, his wife and their daughters were already outside. They were unharmed.
A fire was burning behind the residence and a smaller fire was located near the garage door.
Paul Caneiro put his family in danger, Gramiccioni said, when he tried to destroy the evidence he brought with him from his brother's home and tried to make it seem like both families were being targeted.
Paul's attorney, Robert A. Honecker, said Paul helped his family evacuate after a fire broke out at their home and waited with them until police and firefighters arrived.
Hours later, the family went to the town's police headquarters, where all of them were questioned. Paul would remain there for the next 12 hours until he was arrested around midnight.
Killings were hidden by flames
Back at the Colts Neck mansion, a fire was growing hotter and hotter, scorching the rooms of the more than 5,700-square-foot home.
It was a normal day on quiet Willow Brook Road, where Keith's mansion stood out from the others because of its modern architecture. As the sun rose, children took off on buses for the last full day of classes before Thanksgiving, and adults began commuting to work.
Just after 12:30 p.m., more than six hours after the fire at Paul Caneiro's home, dozens of firefighters responded to the 1-acre property. A neighbor's groundskeeper had smelled smoke coming from the home and his boss called 911, the Asbury Park Press reported.
When firefighters arrived, they made a gruesome discovery. Keith was dead in front of the home, while the bodies of the rest of the family were severely burned inside.
Plumes of smoke poured out of the home as fire crews saturated the structure and the lawn around it. They wouldn't put down the fire until about a day later, and they wouldn't let investigators inside, fearing -- among other safety concerns -- that the roof could cave in.
Within hours, investigators announced the family had been targeted and were victims of homicide.
Paul Caneiro sat in jail, accused of setting his own home on fire. And suspicions were increasing that he was involved in the deaths of his brother and his family.
More than a week later, Paul was accused of the killings. He now faces four counts of murder, two counts of aggravated arson and two firearm violations, records show.
If convicted, he could be sentenced to life in prison.
Prosecutors have said he acted alone and have no reason to believe that organized crime was involved.
Money broke their 'best friends' relationship
The troubles between the Caneiro brothers may have involved money.
They worked together for three decades, after Keith founded a technology consulting company and brought Paul on as his first employee.
The company appeared to be very successful, adding Wall Street names such as Citigroup and JPMorgan Chase to their clients list through the years.
"By the time the internet bubble was about to burst in 2001, their technology business had grown to $4.5 million in annual sales and 26 employees," the Asbury Park Press newspaper reported.
Another sign of their partnership was the company's name, Jay-Martin Consulting, which combined the brothers' middle names. Later, they would rename the firm Square One.
Before the killings, the Caneiros had been operating the tech firm alongside a pest control company out of a brick building on a main road in Asbury Park, according to the city's public records.
The motive in the killings was financial, prosecutors say, and stemmed from the brothers' joint business ventures. Authorities have not discussed any more details about the motive but have said investigators have launched an investigation into the Caneiro's business dealings.
Paul Caneiro's attorneys, Robert Honecker and Mitchell Ansell, said their client was wrongfully accused and that he "had absolutely nothing to do with these horrific crimes."
"Paul's family means more to him than anything else in the world," they said in a statement.
"There is absolutely no reason in the world for Paul Caneiro to have committed the crimes he is alleged to have committed. He would never hurt any member of his family. The process today can begin for a search for the truth and who committed these horrendous acts."
The brothers not only worked together, the attorneys said, they considered themselves best friends and were each other's best man at their weddings.
A loving family led by a tech businessman
Candles, photos and flowers have slowly filled the steps of the Colts Neck Town Hall to mourn a loving family who enjoyed traveling to Greece and exercising together.
Keith wanted to keep developing his career and had just earned a master's degree in technology management from Columbia University in New York.
In his thesis, he focused on technology that could "solve world hunger by matching excess foods with hungry people," he wrote in his LinkedIn profile.
He was committed to exercising and was a regular at a local gym, according to his obituary. His trainer, Brian Bott, wrote on Facebook that Keith, who was initially introverted, made jokes, took over the radio and overall made other people felt like they belonged there.
"If you trained in the morning here you knew Keith. He had that way about him. Keith was an 'idea' guy and I think it's why him and I got along so well," Bott wrote. "We'd talk about business, music, movies, or anything really, but I sincerely enjoyed my conversations with him and the way they would challenge me intellectually."
A video posted on the gym's Facebook page shows Caneiro doing push-ups while his young daughter helps out, providing a little extra weight on his back.
Keith was also an avid reader, reading multiple books in a week, and loved sports.
Like her husband, Jennifer Caneiro enjoyed exercising, going to the beach and traveling with the family to their home in Greece, her obituary says.
She was a graduate of the University of Albany and a member of the parent-teacher organization at her children's school. She enjoyed hosting family parties "for every holiday at her home."
The couple's daughter, Sophia, was a third-grader and a Girl Scout who loved Ninja classes. She enjoyed baking cookies, ice skating, gymnastics and the New York Yankees.
"Sophia was a vibrant, enthusiastic and precocious girl, who enjoyed the arts. Her positive energy was contagious," according to her obituary.
Son Jesse was a fifth-grader with an impressive knowledge of world events. He knew everything about the two World Wars and could engage anyone in conversations about current world events. He loved to play the blockbuster video game "Fortnite," and build Lego structures, his obituary says.
More than a week after the family was found dead, their home was boarded up and children's drawings with smiley faces and rainbows hung on a wire fence placed outside.
"Forever in our hearts," a child wrote in a tribute for them.
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16-year-old charged with murder
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Service as city marks 70 years since end of Second World War
Wolverhampton will come together next month to mark the 70th anniversary of VJ Day - an event which effectively marked the end of the Second World War.
Veterans, civic dignitaries and members of the public will be among those taking part in a service of remembrance being held at the Cenotaph in St Peter's Square on Friday 14 August, 2015.
It will commemorate the 70th anniversary of Victory over Japan Day - the day in 1945 that the Japanese Army surrendered to Allied forces. In doing so, it brought an end to a conflict which claimed the lives of an estimated 60 million people around the world.
The Central Branch of the City of Wolverhampton Royal British Legion, the Wolverhampton and District United Ex-Service Council and the Burma Star Association's Wolverhampton Branch will hold the annual service at the Cenotaph from 11.30am.
It will begin with a parade of standards and veterans to the Cenotaph, followed by prayers, the Kohima homily and exhortation and the Last Post.
Deputy Mayor of Wolverhampton Councillor Barry Findlay will be among those in attendance. He said: "Commemorating VJ Day gives us the opportunity to remember the courage and bravery shown in the Far East by many thousands of British servicemen, some of whom were sadly never to return.
"2015 is a particularly important anniversary as it will mark 70 years since the end of the Second World War. As the number of veterans who are still with us sadly diminishes, it is very important that we show our immense gratitude for the sacrifices they made for our freedom."
Lyndon Purnell, chair of the Central Branch of the City of Wolverhampton Royal British Legion, added: "I'd like to invite everyone to join us and remember the sacrifices shown by countless Wulfrunians who served in the Far East during the Second World War."
released: Monday 27 July, 2015
Released: Monday 27th July, 2015
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Study shows people care more about data privacy but are doing less to protect themselves
A new survey says that data privacy - whilst allowing government access to encrypted files will impact government policies around the world.
By Eileen Brown for Social Business | April 12, 2016 -- 14:03 GMT (07:03 PDT) | Topic: Security
Business owners recognise how important it is to keep their customer data safe to avoid data breaches that threaten customer perception about the company.
In the wake of the Apple and US government negotiations, data privacy is a hard choice. There are hard questions to ask yourself about how much you are willing to sacrifice your privacy to accomplish other goals.
Collaboration and communications company Open Xchange has released its second Consumer Openness Index.
It surveyed 3,000 internet users in the US, UK and Germany.
We're at a crossroads for data privacy and encryption. In a lot of ways, 2016 is a turning point for how the entire world will define these issues for years to come.
— Rafael Laguna, CEO, Open-Xchange
The survey showed that internet users are demanding elected officials to take a stance to protect the privacy of their data.
Eighty-one percent of respondents in the US care about the presidential candidates' positions on data privacy, and 51 percent believe the candidates should pay more attention to it.
The majority of Americans indicated that a candidate's position on data privacy would influence their vote at the elections.
Eighty percent of respondents believe in a fundamental right to privacy, but more than half of then also believe that the government should be able to access encrypted files to keep them safe from foreign attack.
64 percent of respondents across each country believe that data privacy will impact related government policy around the world.
In the UK, 53 percent of respondents believe that the impact of the Investigatory Powers Bill, a proposal that would increase the UK government's surveillance powers, has not been adequately explained by Home Secretary Theresa May.
In Germany, 46 percent are in favour of the European Court of Justice's decision to invalidate Safe Harbor.
Internet-savvy respondents in the US, UK, and Germany are more likely to report that they would stop using many types of companies if news of a privacy scandal emerged.
57 percent of respondents in the three countries believe that companies such as Facebook, Twitter and Google never have the right to share their personal data.
Security and Privacy: New Challenges
As big data, the IoT, and social media spread their wings, they bring new challenges to information security and user privacy.
The proportion of internet users who view themselves as the most responsible for preventing invasions of privacy now amounts to 31 percent of the population.
31 percent of respondents replied that they actually did not know if their personal data had ever been compromised (28 percent US, 36 percent UK, and 28 percent Germany).
In 2016, only one in five internet users across the US, UK, and Germany uses email encryption.
Germans (36 percent) are twice as likely as Americans (18 percent) to employ email encryption, and three times as likely as the British (12 percent).
10 percent of internet users reported that they used encryption for email, messaging, voice chat, or other online communication all the time; however 22 percent of used reported using it some of the time.
Although we all believe in the right to privacy, we tend to have difficulty with the trade-off and balance in the right to security.
OpenXchange believes that 2016 will be the year when many of us will have to make up their minds and demand the level of data security we want.
Six Clicks: How sites secretly collect your data - and how to stop it
Six ways to protect your privacy on LinkedIn
Tired of using Google search? Try DuckDuckGo
How Amazon knows so much about you - and how to regain your privacy
Government Security TV Data Management CXO Data Centers
More from Eileen Brown
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ILIFE Shinebot W400 floor washing robot: For everyone who hates washing floors
With the number of data breaches escalating and threat landscape fast evolving, Asia-Pacific enterprises will have to think outside the box and transform their cybersecurity strategy, ...
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Change continues in resource management law: what’s coming in 2019?
By: Mike Doesburg
Planning ahead: 2019
2018 produced and foreshadowed a number of important changes in the resource management and environmental space. Not least of these was the final chapter in the Davidson case, which provided some certainty about the meaning of those four little words “subject to Part 2”. 2019 looks set to provide a raft of further changes. Most people are back at work now and gearing up for the year ahead – what better time to reflect on what 2018 brought and look ahead at some of the things we know are coming in 2019.
Case law: Part 2 is back, sometimes
Without a doubt the most awaited development in resource management and environmental case law in 2018 was the judgment in R J Davidson Family Trust v Marlborough District Council [2018] NZCA 316. The Court of Appeal clarified that “subject to Part 2” in section 104 means that consent authorities must have regard to Part 2 when assessing resource consent applications, when it is appropriate to do so. Recourse cannot be had to Part 2 where it would subvert a clearly relevant restriction in a plan that has been prepared having regard to Part 2 and that provides a coherent set of policies designed to achieve clear environmental outcomes.
While we can all be grateful for the clarification in Davidson, its full implications remain to be seen. Jurisprudence will develop as the Environment Court works with the judgment, just as it did with King Salmon. In the meantime, for each application, consent authorities will need to carefully consider whether the relevant plan or policy statement allows recourse to Part 2 – an error either way may expose the decision to being overturned on appeal.
Other notable cases in 2018 included: the Environment Court’s first use of a restricting order, a new power to prevent vexatious litigants from bringing further proceedings (Page v Whanganui District Council [2018] NZEnvC 94); confirmation by the Court of Appeal that the definition of subdivision in section 218(1) of the RMA provides a precise, exclusive list – transactions that fall outside that list are not subdivisions (Spark New Zealand Trading Ltd v Clearspan Property Assets Ltd [2018] NZCA 248); and the Environment Court’s approval of the directly referred application for resource consents for the America’s Cup in 2021, following a two-day hearing (Panuku Development Auckland Ltd v Auckland Council [2018] NZEnvC 179).
RMA reform: the promise of change
While 2018 did not see the introduction of a new RMA Amendment Act, the Government has clearly signalled that change is coming. In November the Minister for the Environment announced a two-stage process for reforming the RMA. Stage One will wind back aspects of the 2017 amendments (including changes to notification and appeal rights), as well as providing new changes such as empowering the Environment Court to make declarations on notification decisions and enabling regional councils to review multiple consents at the same time. Stage Two will bring a “comprehensive” review of the resource management system. RMA reform looks likely to be an election issue for 2020, with the National Party also working on a draft RMA reform bill.
Reform does not stop with amendments to the RMA. The Government’s Essential Freshwater policy document promises noticeable and measurable improvements in water quality by 2023. This will be supported by further changes to the National Policy Statement on Freshwater Management and a new National Environmental Standard on freshwater quality – both promised to be in place by 2020.
In the urban development space, the Minister of Housing and Urban Development announced further details on the proposal to create a Housing and Urban Development Authority, which will lead small and large-scale urban development projects. To cut through red tape, the Housing and Urban Development Authority will have special powers, including access to streamlined planning and consenting processes, the ability to compulsorily acquire land and the ability to fund, build and change infrastructure. A Bill is expected to be introduced in the second quarter of 2019.
The Government is also pushing ahead with the Zero Carbon Bill, which will set a long-term commitment to transition New Zealand to a low emissions economy. Over 15,000 submissions were made on the discussion document released in June 2018. Drafting of the Bill is under way and the Government aspires to pass it into law by mid-2019.
2019: the year ahead
At this stage, it seems that 2019 is going to be consultation-heavy, given the changes promised in 2018. This includes an initial stage of RMA reform, consultation on a new NPS and NES on freshwater, the development of a Housing and Urban Development Authority and progress of the Zero Carbon Bill.
However, other significant changes are coming.
Don’t forget about National Planning Standards
It is important to remember that the National Planning Standards, which were consulted on in 2017 and 2018 are coming this year. The RMA provides that the first set of Standards must be approved by 19 April 2019. The draft Standards that were released for feedback in 2018 address a range of structural matters, which all regional and district plans will need to implement. For the most part the Standards will simply standardise the look and feel of planning instruments, however, some changes are substantive and may have significant implications. For example, the “Definitions” Standard provides dozens of definitions that plans must adopt (and cannot replace with other definitions with different meanings). As definitions are critically important to how plans function, the Definitions Standard is likely to cause issues for consent authorities and plan users when it is implemented over the next five to seven years.
Compliance, monitoring and enforcement is a focus
2019 is also likely to bring a continued focus on compliance, monitoring and enforcement. In July 2018 the Ministry for the Environment published best practice guidelines for compliance, monitoring and enforcement under the RMA. The best practice guidelines are part of a central Government push for more robust and more consistent enforcement of the RMA. The Minister for the Environment has also proposed to establish a new unit to oversee compliance and improve consistency across councils. The unit is proposed to be based within the Environmental Protection Authority, who will be given power to carry out RMA enforcement functions. $3.1 million has been allocated over four years to fund the unit.
On the case law front, the Courts will grapple with Davidson, which will likely be tested by some interesting factual scenarios. The Senior Courts will no doubt produce their fair share of interesting authority. For example, in 2018 the Court of Appeal granted the Attorney-General leave to appeal the High Court’s decision in Attorney-General v Trustees of the Motiti Rohe Moana Trust [2017] NZHC 1429 on four questions of law. At the heart of that appeal is the relationship between a regional council’s functions in the coastal environment and the Fisheries Act 1996.
Bring on 2019
If the above is not enough, remember that this article has not touched on any of the projects, consent applications or plan reviews that are working through the system or are yet to be announced. 2019 is going to be an exciting year in the resource management and environmental space.
If you have any issues related to the matters addressed in this article, or need advice on any other resource management or environmental issue in 2019, please contact our Resource Management Team.
Draft National Planning Standards – painting by numbers, or draconian straitjacket?
Money doesn’t usually grow on trees, so have your say on the proposed amendments to the Emissions Tr
More changes for local authorities and plantation forestry
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Mark Stevens Reads From The New Allison Coil Mystery
By Mark Stevens • Jan 21, 2016
Credit Mark Stevens
The son of two librarians, Mark Stevens was raised in Lincoln, Massachusetts. In September 2015, Mark released Lake of Fire, the fourth installment in his Allison Coil Mystery Series, which Kirkus Reviews calls "thrilling" and "irresistible."
Like the first three books in the Allison Coil Mystery Series, Lake of Fire is based in the Flat Tops Wilderness of western Colorado. Fellow mystery author Craig Johnson said this about the latest installment: “Lake of Fire swirls into an environmental inferno that reads all too true—Mark Stevens writes like wildfire.” This excerpt is from the opening chapter. Sunny Boy, in case it’s not clear at first, is Allison’s horse.
Also in 2015, Mark’s novel Trapline (third in the series) received the Colorado Book Award for Best Mystery and the Colorado Authors League Award for Best Fiction. He also was mentioned on NPR's "Which Books You Should Give This Season." He lives in Denver with his wife and has two grown daughters.
Sam Western Reads From His New Novel "Canyons"
By Sam Western • Nov 20, 2015
Sam Western lives in Sheridan, Wyoming, and is a two-time recipient of the Wyoming Literary Fellowship for fiction. Fellow author Craig Johnson has described Western as “one of the finest writers in the American West.” Western spent over 14 years writing and refining his latest novel, “Canyons,” which explores themes of revenge and atonement. This excerpt takes place at an elk camp in the Bighorn Mountains.
Interview With Craig Johnson, Author Of Eight Novels In The Walt Longmire Series
By Emy DiGrappa & Nancy Clancy • Dec 2, 2015
Craig Johnson is the author of eight novels in the Walt Longmire mystery series, which has garnered popular and critical acclaim. Johnson, whose main character is Sheriff Walt Longmire, said he does base his characters on family, neighbors and his friends on the Cheyenne reservation.
New Red Cloud Biography Reckons With His Controversial Legacy
By Melodie Edwards • Nov 13, 2015
South Dakota Historical Society Press
One of the most controversial figures in the history of the American West is Ogalala chief Red Cloud. To some a brilliant warrior and politician, to others, to blame for the Ogalala’s loss of the Black Hills. Now, there’s a new biography called Red Cloud: Ogalala Legend.
Wyoming Public Radio’s Melodie Edwards talked with research historian John McDermott about how the Ogalala ended up in Wyoming, and why giving up these lands meant the end of their way of life.
Well-Known Wyoming Newspaper Columnist Writes And Talks About The Wonders Of Wyoming
By Emy DiGrappa • Jan 13, 2014
Bill Sniffin is a journalist and entrepreneur who has lived in Wyoming for 42 years. He has received acclaim far and wide for his work. In his newest book, Wyoming's 7 Greatest Natural Wonders, we discover his love affair with Wyoming's many fascinating places he set out to discover.
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While Zacarias Moussaoui tries to decide whether to allow himself to be railroaded or not, it is interesting to consider just what the evidence is against him. He is facing the death penalty, and the evidence of his wrongdoing in total appears to be as follows:
He is a Muslim.
He took flying lessons and was interested in cropdusting (the fact that he is a Muslim and took flying lessons appears to constitute the new American crime 'Flying While Muslim' (FWM), a crime similar to the much more common 'Driving While Black' (DWB)).
He received money from Ramzi Bin al-Shibh, allegedly a former roommate of Mohamed Atta, and someone wanted by the U. S. and named in court papers as an unindicted hijacking co-conspirator. Al-Shibh allegedly wire transferred the money to Moussaoui from the United Arab Emirates (or possibly Germany) using an alias (how then do the U. S. authorities know who sent the money?). Al-Shibh's German phone number was also found in Moussaoui's laptop. Al-Shibh had allegedly also wired money to Marwan al-Shehhi, the pilot of one of the planes that flew into the World Trade Center. I note that Moussaoui appears to be claiming that the person he received the money from is not al-Shibh. The FBI also claims that Moussaoui got funding from Yazid Sufaat, an alleged al-Qaeda operative in Malaysia who previously had met with two of the 19 hijackers.
He allegedly attended an al-Qaeda-based training camp in Afghanistan three years ago.
There is also the fact that Atta visited (but didn't attend) the same flight school in Norman, Oklahoma that Moussaoui attended, Atta was also interested in cropdusting, and Atta and Moussaoui both purchased the same “flight deck” instructional videos for the Boeing 747 from the same retailer in Ohio. On the basis of this evidence, and apparently nothing more, the prosecutors are seeking the death penalty against Moussaoui. Back in the good old days of about a year ago when the United States still had a Constitution, before the days when you could convict a man merely by yelling 'terrorist', prosecutors used to have to actually prove that the defendant committed a crime. Moussaoui may have actually been up to something, but it is difficult to see how prosecutors can prove anything against him on the basis of the evidence they seem to have (and hints are being dropped that at least the investigators are unsure that the evidence against Moussaoui is sufficient for a conviction). Receiving money from questionable people does not, or at least did not at the time, constitute a crime. The 19 September 11 hijackers seemed to make a point of being seen together. As Moussaoui didn't associate with any of the 19 hijackers, I don't feel he was part of the September 11 hijacking group - the irony is that Moussaoui may be completely innocent of the September 11 hijacking because, unlike the others, he was a member of al-Qaeda, or perhaps more accurately, he was only a member of al-Qaeda. There is a new report that Moussaoui actually was seen with Atta in Norman, Oklahoma around August 1, 2001. If this were true, it would be the evidence the prosecution needs to tie Moussaoui to the hijackers. It is odd that in the absence of any real evidence that Moussaoui committed a crime that the prosecution didn't grab onto this evidence as the main part of their case. Of course, the main problem with the story is that Atta was supposed to be in South Florida around August 1 (he arrived back in the United States from Madrid on July 19, asked about cropdusting planes at an airstrip in Belle Glade, Florida in early August, and rented a car from Warrick's Rent-a-Car, Pompano Beach on August 6). Since one of the main problems with the Official Story of September 11 is Atta's strange ability to be in more than one place at the same time, the U. S. authorities may be afraid of this evidence linking Moussaoui to Atta. It would be highly ironic if the only evidence that Moussaoui is linked to the September 11 hijackers can't be used for fear that it would undermine the whole Official Story concerning the identity of Mohamed Atta.
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The Soul of the First Amendment
Floyd Abrams
176 pages, 5.5 x 8.25
A lively and controversial overview by the nation’s most celebrated First Amendment lawyer of the unique protections for freedom of speech in America
The right of Americans to voice their beliefs without government approval or oversight is protected under what may well be the most honored and least understood addendum to the US Constitution—the First Amendment. Floyd Abrams, a noted lawyer and award-winning legal scholar specializing in First Amendment issues, examines the degree to which American law protects free speech more often, more intensely, and more controversially than is the case anywhere else in the world, including democratic nations such as Canada and England. In this lively, powerful, and provocative work, the author addresses legal issues from the adoption of the Bill of Rights through recent cases such as Citizens United. He also examines the repeated conflicts between claims of free speech and those of national security occasioned by the publication of classified material such as was contained in the Pentagon Papers and was made public by WikiLeaks and Edward Snowden.
Floyd Abrams has litigated First Amendment cases ranging from the Pentagon Papers case to Citizens United and has taught as a visiting lecturer at the Yale and Columbia Law Schools.
“Claims of American exceptionalism can be exaggerated. But the First Amendment really does make America unique, even within the industrialized democracies. . . . [Abrams] celebrates that fact in The Soul of the First Amendment.”—Daniel W. Drezner, New York Times Book Review
"A great book about the soul of the first amendment by its most distinguished and enduring defender. Floyd Abrams didn’t write the first amendment but he has done so much to protect it—and us all—from those who would curtail it in the false names of security, sensitivity and political correctness."—Alan Dershowitz, author of Taking the Stand: My Life in the Law
"Floyd Abrams is the greatest free speech advocate of modern times—he is to the First Amendment what Muhammad Ali was to boxing—and his book explaining and defending the First Amendment’s soul, like his advocacy, is elegant, concise, and profoundly persuasive."—Rodney A. Smolla, Dean, Delaware Law School
"Floyd Abrams is one of America’s greatest constitutional lawyers and defenders of the First Amendment. In this inspiring book, he reminds us why it’s important to protect the speech we hate even on platforms where the First Amendment doesn’t formally apply—from tech platforms to college campuses—and why the future of democracy depends on our willingness to resist growing calls from all sides to suppress unpopular speech."—Jeffrey Rosen, author of Louis D. Brandeis: American Prophet
"Thoughtful and concise. . . . Abrams assumes little prior knowledge from the reader. . . . Many readers will find the most value in Abrams’s discussion of Citizens United. . . . Even those troubled by the Citizens United decision, which allowed more corporate money into U.S. elections, are likely to emerge with a greater understanding of the Supreme Court majority’s logic in that controversial case."—Publishers Weekly
“The Soul of the First Amendment is a significant book about one of our most important rights, one that we should never take for granted.”—Joel Cohen, New York Law Journal
"[Floyd Abrams], the titan of free speech jurisprudence, [calls his] new book, The Soul of the First Amendment, 'really a story of American exceptionalism.' It argues that the United States' protections for free speech are the best in the world, at least as of now."—Jim Rutenberg, New York Times
"Abrams’s engaging and plain-spoken reflections will be of interest to those already steeped in constitutional law as well as young readers curious about the nation’s founding ideals. . . . For Abrams, one inescapable truth applies across the history of First Amendment disputes. To allow the government to determine whose speech can be regulated . . . is, as [his] fascinating history shows, literally to play with fire."—Daniel Shuchman, Wall Street Journal
"One sign of a good book is its ability to engage readers, to pique curiosity, and to urge one to return anew to something largely known but mostly forgotten. By that measure, Floyd Abrams’ latest book, The Soul of the First Amendment, is a valuable book."—Ronald K. L. Collins, Concurring Opinions
"This book provides a powerful, much needed response to mounting criticism of the robust freedom of speech enshrined in US culture and law. Individuals from many sectors of our society that have traditionally championed free speech—including academics, students, writers, and liberals/progressives—have increasingly advocated curbs on speech by certain disfavored speakers or that conveys certain disfavored messages. Abrams convincingly shows the adverse consequences of such an approach, with examples from other countries as well as US history. While fairly recognizing that speech can and does cause harm to individuals and society, he demonstrates that government censorship causes immeasurably greater harm."—Nadine Strossen, Former President, American Civil Liberties Union
"Readable and comprehensible to both a specialized audience of lawyers and laypeople just looking to understand a little more about these rights. The book’s brevity does not detract from its substance or clarity as Abrams explains the origins and tensions of the First Amendment. He dives into historic and contemporary controversies that test our adherence to these principles, noting, 'Speech is sometimes ugly, outrageous, even dangerous.'"—Roy S. Gutterman, Washington Post
“In contrast to many First Amendment tomes that concentrate on case law, The Soul of the First Amendment is eminently readable. That Abrams reveals so much in so few pages is no small accomplishment.”—William Lippincott, Claremont Review of Books
"[Abrams'] latest book combines a concise refresher on the history of the speech and press clauses, both their somewhat painful birth and their judicial interpretation since then; the uniqueness of that interpretation within a global context; and Abrams’s own perspectives on issues such as campaign spending."—Clay Calvert, Journalism and Mass Communication Quarterly
An Argument Open to All
Reading "The Federalist" in the 21st Century
Justice and Empathy
Toward a Constitutional Ideal
Making the Case
The Art of the Judicial Opinion
Paul W. Kahn
On the Front Lines with the First Amendment
Creation and Reconstruction
Imperial from the Beginning
The Constitution of the Original Executive
Saikrishna Bangalore Prakash
Law > Constitutional Law
Political Science > Current Events
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Wireless technology increases in-flight connectivity
in Dept of Defence News by ANZDD 0 Reviews
A suite of new capabilities on-board an Air Force C-17A Globemaster were showcased in Canberra today including the provision of Wi-Fi internet access to portable Defence-issued electronic devices. The showcase is a part of Plan Jericho, Air Force’s plan to transform Air Force and the wider ADF into a fighting force that capitalises o...
Wedgetail aircraft achieves final operational capability
Australia now has the most advanced air battle space management capability in the world, with the Royal Australian Air Force’s E-7A Wedgetail aircraft achieving Final Operational Capability. The fleet of six Wedgetail aircraft reached the milestone this month with the entire capability, from physical aircraft to logistics, management, sust...
Warren King steps down as DMO CEO
Earlier today I announced my decision to leave the DMO after 10 years of service, nearly four of those as the CEO. The timing and the reasons for this decision are entirely mine. I am very proud to have been a part of the Department of Defence and particularly proud to have been part of and lead the DMO. While there is always room for impro...
Warren King hits back at Ai Group Defence Council
CEO DMO, Mr Warren King, has stated that the Defence Materiel Organisation (DMO) has made significant progress on budget and project performance since its formation in 2000 and in particular since the Kinnaird Review and transition to a prescribed agency in 2005. Mr King’s comments come in response to a recent media article which...
WORLD CLASS HELICOPTER SIMULATOR FOR THE ADF
in by ANZDD 0 Reviews
29 August 2013 Chief Executive Officer of the Defence Materiel Organisation, Warren King, today formally accepted the delivery of the first of two MRH90 helicopter simulators at the Army Aviation Training Centre in Oakey, Queensland. The simulator allows Army and Navy pilots to practice their skills in all flight regimes, day or night, and ac...
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Brain game doesn't offer brain gain
A new study led by a team of Western University neuroscientists has debunked claims that getting better at a brain training game can translate to improved performance in other, untrained cognitive tasks.
This study, published in the journal Neuropsychologia, set out to test whether hours of ‘brain training’ in one game could give someone an edge in a second game that uses the same area of the brain. If that result was found, it would lend credence to claims that ‘brain-training’ apps can improve working memory, which is vital for learning and retaining information and in staving off memory loss.
But researchers found such transference simply didn’t happen: participants’ high scores in the first game (the one they trained on) didn’t improve performance in the second game, and were equivalent to scores attained by the ‘untrained’ control group.
“We hypothesized that if you get really, really good at one test by training for a very long time, maybe then you’ll get improvement on tests that are quite similar. Unfortunately, we found no evidence to support that claim,” says Bobby Stojanoski, a research scientist in the Owen Lab at Western’s Brain and Mind Institute and lead author of the paper. “Despite hours of brain training on that one game, participants were no better at the second game than people who tested on the second game, but hadn’t trained on the first one.”
A groundbreaking 2010 study led by Western neuroscientist Adrian Owen, Canada Excellence Research Chair in Cognitive Neuroscience and Imaging, monitored cognitive performance in 11,000 people who ‘brain trained’ for six weeks. It found that getting good at brain games doesn’t improve working memory or enhance IQ.
Owen is the senior author of the new study, which was supported by BrainsCAN — Western’s $66 million Canada First Research Excellence Fund program in cognitive neuroscience. The new study was designed to search for any transference between two specific and similar games but instead, the results reinforce and extend his previous findings.
Stojanoski concludes, there are other, proven ways to improve memory and brain health: “Sleep better, exercise regularly, eat better, education is great — that’s the sort of thing we should be focused on. If you’re looking to improve your cognitive self, instead of playing a video game or playing a brain training test for an hour, go for a walk, go for a run, socialize with a friend. These are much better things for you.”
Materials provided by University of Western Ontario. Note: Content may be edited for style and length.
Advancing the search for antibodies to treat Alzheimer's disease
Two new studies published by investigators from Brigham and Women’s Hospital illustrate that not all forms of amyloid-beta (Aβ) protein — the protein thought to initiate Alzheimer’s disease — play an equally menacing role in the progress of the disease. Using a new way of preparing and extracting the protein as well as a new technique to search for promising drug candidates, researchers have highlighted the importance of testing and targeting different forms of Aβ. Their work may help advance the search for more precise and effective drugs to prevent or halt the progress of Alzheimer’s disease.
“Many different efforts are currently underway to find treatments for Alzheimer’s disease, and anti-Aβ antibodies are currently the furthest advanced. But the question remains: what are the most important forms of Aβ to target? Our study points to some interesting answers,” said Dominic Walsh, PhD, a principal investigator in the Ann Romney Center.
Aβ protein can take forms ranging from monomers — single molecules — to twisted tangles of plaques that can pollute the brain and are large enough that they can be seen with a traditional microscope. Walsh compares monomers to single Lego bricks, which can start sticking together to form complex structures of varying sizes. The two recently published studies investigate how to find new potential therapeutics that can target the structures most likely to cause harm.
Most Alzheimer’s disease studies use synthetic Aβ to approximate what conditions in the brain of an Alzheimer’s patient might be like. A small number of researchers have used Aβ extracted from human brain, but the extraction process is crude. In a study published in Acta Neuropathologica in April, Walsh and colleagues developed a much gentler extraction protocol to prepare samples from subjects with Alzheimer’s disease. The team found that Aβ was far more abundant in traditional crude extracts, but that the bulk of the extracted Aβ was innocuous. In contrast, much less Aβ was obtained with the gentler protocol, but in this case most of the Aβ was toxic.
In a second study published in Nature Communications in July, Walsh and colleagues developed a screening test to try to find potential drugs to target the toxic forms of Aβ. The new technique uses extracts of brain samples from Alzheimer’s disease patients and live-cell imaging of stem-cell derived brain cells to find promising therapeutics. The team reports on 1C22, an Aβ antibody that they found could protect against toxic forms of amyloid-beta more effectively than the most clinically advanced Alzheimer’s disease therapeutics currently in clinical trials.
“We anticipate that this primary screening technique will be useful in the search to identify more potent anti-Aβ therapeutics in the future,” said Walsh.
Materials provided by Brigham and Women’s Hospital. Note: Content may be edited for style and length.
Poor mental health days may cost the economy billions of dollars
Poor mental health ranks as one of the costliest forms of sickness for U.S. workers and may sap billions of dollars from the country’s income growth, according to a team of researchers.
In an analysis of economic and demographic data from 2008 to 2014, the researchers found that a single extra poor mental health day in a month was associated with a 1.84 percent drop in the per capita real income growth rate, resulting in $53 billion less total income each year, said Stephan Goetz, professor of agricultural and regional economics, Penn State, and director of the Northeast Regional Center for Rural Development.
“This starts to give us an idea of what the gain could be, if we did spend more money to help people with poor mental health,” said Goetz, who worked with Meri Davlasheridze, assistant professor and economist, Texas A&M University at Galveston and Yicheol Han, postdoctoral scholar in agricultural economics, sociology and education, Penn State.
Poor mental health days refer to days when people describe their mental health as not good and could include conditions such as depression, anxiety, stress and problems with emotions, according to the researchers, who report their findings in a current issue of the Review of Regional Studies. The measure does not include diagnosed mental illnesses.
To give some sense of the size of the problem, the researchers added that the global economic cost of mental illness is expected to be more than $16 trillion over the next 20 years, which is more than the cost of any other non-communicable disease.
The effect is stronger in rural counties, which tend to be poorer than urban counties. A poor mental health day in rural counties was associated with a reduction of 2.3 percent in income growth, compared with only a .87 percent reduction in urban counties.
“That’s an interesting finding in itself, too, because poorer counties already have so many factors going against them,” said Goetz. “If poor mental health days have a bigger impact in these poorer counties, it suggests that they would have an even harder time keeping up with the wealthy counties.”
Urban counties might have more resources for people struggling with poor mental health and conditions, according to Goetz. These communities typically have more mental treatment facilities, as well.
“We think this difference between urban and rural counties might exist because of the better services that are available for the mentally distressed in the urban counties, which are typically the wealthier counties,” he said. “In an urban county, you might have a mental health center, you may have more resources to tap into to help get you through the bad days, and there may be more mental health professionals. In a rural area, you’re less likely to have access to those types of resources.”
The researchers suggest that investing in mental health resources may be one way of lowering the economic costs of poor mental health, particularly in the harder-hit rural counties.
Goetz cautioned that the period covered in the study was a particularly tumultuous time for the U.S. economy and could have an effect on the findings. To further test the effect of poor mental health days on income growth, he suggested researchers study the relationship over longer time periods and in different economic conditions.
The researchers used county-level data from a number of public sources, including the Bureau of Economic Analysis, the U.S. Census Bureau and the Northeast Regional Center for Rural Development. The mental health day data was drawn from County Health Rankings.
Further information: http://journal.srsa.org/ojs/index.php/RRS/article/view/900
Materials provided by Penn State. Note: Content may be edited for style and length.
Pungent tasting substance in ginger reduces bad breath
The pungent compound 6-gingerol, a constituent of ginger, stimulates an enzyme contained in saliva — an enzyme which breaks down foul-smelling substances. It thus ensures fresh breath and a better aftertaste. Citric acid, on the other hand, increases the sodium ion content of saliva, making salty foods taste less salty. To find out more about food components, a team from the Technical University of Munich (TUM) and the Leibniz- Institute for Food Systems Biology investigated the effects of food components on the molecules dissolved in saliva.
Many food components contribute directly to the characteristic taste of food and beverages by means of contributing their own particular taste, scent or spiciness. However, they also indirectly influence our sense of taste via other, still largely unknown biochemical mechanisms. A team led by Professor Thomas Hofmann from the Chair of Food Chemistry and Molecular Sensory Science has now investigated this phenomenon in greater detail.
6-Gingerol ensures fresh breath
As the results of this study show, the pungent principle of ginger, the so-called 6-gingerol, makes the level of the enzyme sulfhydryl oxidase 1 in saliva increase 16-fold within a few seconds. The saliva and breath analyses carried out on human volunteers show that the enzyme breaks down malodorous sulfur-containing compounds. In this way, it is able to reduce the long-lasting aftertaste of many foods such as coffee. “As a result, our breath also smells better,” explains Prof. Hofmann, who headed the study. The mechanism discovered could contribute to the future development of new oral hygiene products, says the head of the Leibniz- Institute for Food Systems Biology at the TUM.
Citric acid reduces our perception of saltiness
According to the study, citric acid influences our perception of taste through a completely different mechanism. As everyone knows from personal experience, sour foods such as lemon juice stimulate salivation. The amount of minerals dissolved in saliva also increases in proportion to the amount of saliva.
According to Prof. Hofmann, the sodium ion level in saliva rises rapidly by approximately a factor of eleven after stimulation with citric acid. This effect makes us less sensitive to table salt. The food chemist explains: “Table salt is nothing other than sodium chloride, and sodium ions play a key role in the taste of salt. If saliva already contains higher concentrations of sodium ions, samples tasted must have a significantly higher salt content in order to taste comparatively salty.”
Hofmann believes that a great deal of research still needs to be done in order to understand the complex interaction between the molecules in food that create taste, the biochemical processes that take place in saliva and our sense of taste. Using a systems biology approach, Hofmann aims to develop a new scientific basis for the production of food with component and functional profiles that satisfy the health and sensory needs of consumers. To this end, he and his team are combining biomolecular research methods with high-performance analytical technologies and bioinformatics methods.
Materials provided by Technical University of Munich (TUM). Note: Content may be edited for style and length.
A reliable, easy-to-use mouse model for investigating bone metastasis
Researchers at Tokyo Institute of Technology propose an improved mouse model that could revolutionize bone metastasis research. Their method, which involves injecting cancer cells via the so-called caudal artery in the mouse tail, overcomes many limitations of traditional mouse models. The new model could thus open a new chapter in the development of therapeutic strategies for bone metastasis and cancer progression.
In a study published in Nature Communications, a group of researchers led by Takahiro Kuchimaru and Shinae Kondoh of Tokyo Institute of Technology (Tokyo Tech) present a mouse model that could greatly improve understanding of the underlying biology of bone metastasis.
It is widely known that metastasis — the spread of cancer cells from a primary tumor to other parts of the body — is one of the main causes of cancer mortality in humans. Bone metastasis commonly occurs when cancer cells spread to the bone from tumors originating, for example, in the prostate, breast, lung and kidney.
Experimental mouse models provide vital clues as to how cancer cells proliferate and how treatments could be developed. For the last 20 years, a model based on intracardiac (IC) injection has been considered the “gold standard” for inducing bone metastasis. This model involves injecting cancer cells directly into the left ventricle of the mouse heart. It requires a high degree of technical expertise, and even when performed successfully, the number of cancer cells that can be injected at any one time is limited. Another drawback is that the IC model tends to be more suitable for studying cancer cell lines that have a relatively high metastatic ability, ruling out analysis of “weaker” cancer cell lines.
In contrast, the new method developed by Kondoh’s group involves injecting cancer cells via the caudal artery (CA) in the mouse tail — a procedure that can be performed much more easily as the artery is visible on the body surface. This method allows researchers to inject a larger number of cancer cells without causing acute death: In the present study, around one million cells were injected without any acute death. Moreover, the new method provides a new way of studying cancer cell lines with low bone metastatic potential.
The researchers emphasize that the CA model predominantly ensures that bone metastasis develops in the hind limbs with much higher efficiency.
Using bioluminescence (BL) imaging, the team was able to detect bone metastasis just five to twelve days after CA injection of all cell lines examined.
“Overall, the results demonstrated that CA injection provides a reliable method to develop bone metastasis by increasing the delivery efficiency of a wide variety of cancer cell lines to the bone marrow of the hind limbs in mice,” they say.
In addition, the CA model enables scientists to monitor the progression of bone metastasis over a longer period of time compared with the IC model due to reduced incidence of lethal metastasis in other organs. This represents a big step forward for investigating cancer cell dormancy and reactivation in greater depth.
The researchers conclude: “Our model may open a new avenue for understanding the bone metastatic processes and development of drugs preventing bone metastasis and recurrence.”
Materials provided by Tokyo Institute of Technology. Note: Content may be edited for style and length.
Discuss religion, spirituality when treating young adults with severe mental illness
A majority of young adults with severe mental illness — bipolar disorder, schizophrenia or major depression — consider religion and spirituality relevant to their mental health, according to a new study from Baylor University’s Diana R. Garland School of Social Work.
Holly Oxhandler, Ph.D., associate dean for research and faculty development in the Garland School of Social Work, served as lead author on the study, which was published in the journal Spirituality in Clinical Practice.
Researchers examined data from 55 young adults (ages 18-25) with serious mental illness who had used crisis emergency services. Of the 55 young adults interviewed, 34 “mentioned religion or spirituality in the context of talking about their mental health symptoms and service use with little-to-no prompting,” researchers wrote.
The sample for the study was racially diverse and gender-balanced. Not all of those interviewed considered themselves religious, as 41 percent answered “other,” “I don’t know” or “none” when asked their religious preference. However, researchers found that religion and spirituality emerged as a unique way in which this sample was able to make sense of their difficult life situations and mental health struggles.
“Not only did these young adults struggle with serious mental illness, but they had also experienced extreme adversity — including abuse, poverty, homelessness, addiction, near-death experiences, loss and an overwhelming lack of access to medical and mental health services,” researchers wrote. “Yet, many attempted to explain, make sense of or organize their circumstances through their religious/spiritual perspective and talked about God as a source of comfort and support.”
The young adults expressed both positive and negative views of God, prayer and support from religious and spiritual communities. Regardless of their views, the important thing to note, Oxhandler explained, is that they’re talking about these topics — something social workers and counselors traditionally are not often equipped or trained to assess or discuss.
“It’s the elephant in the room,” Oxhandler said of discussions of religion and spirituality. “If we continue to ignore it, we’re ignoring a huge component of peoples’ lives that may be tied to the clinical issue.”
Oxhandler, who has researched this area extensively, said such discussions can help drive subsequent treatment options.
“As mental health care providers discern what mental health services to provide or coping strategies to recommend, it’s especially important they understand the role of religion/spirituality in the lives of the vulnerable young adults they serve,” she said.
Researchers also found that those surveyed described using positive religious coping, negative religious coping or experiences, discussed their relationship with God/Higher Power and unpacked the role of their support systems and faith.
Positive religious coping included prayer, reading religious texts, support from their religious and spiritual communities and identifying religious and spiritual meaning in difficult situations.
Negative religious coping or experiences included having a negative experience with a religious organization not being supportive or receiving hurtful messages from the religious community.
“Those who discussed their relationship with God or a higher power discussed God providing a sense of comfort or protection, accepting them for who they are or positively intervening in their lives,” Oxhandler said. “Among those who unpacked the role of their support systems and faith, they often described family and friends referencing religion or God for support, and some even offered recommendations for others struggling with mental illness that involve religion and spirituality.”
Some of those interviewed shared that they found the mention of God or religion by family and friends less than helpful.
For example, a 22-year-old white female with no religious identification mentioned in her interview that a family member “tries to tell me that going to church will be better for me because it will help me find peace, and it really does quite the opposite.”
Interestingly, researchers noted that nearly all participants who reported negative experiences with religion and spirituality also reported utilizing positive religious and spiritual coping or having a positive relationship with God.
Oxhandler said such complexity highlights the importance of including religion and spirituality during the initial assessment with a client.
“It’s critical that mental health care providers be well equipped and trained to assess for the complex role of religion and spirituality in the lives of young adults with serious mental illness, recognizing that it could appear to be a tremendous source of support and resilience and/or a source of pain and discomfort, if even a part of their lives at all,” she said.
Low-power devices may one day run on new heat-based power source
A new way to generate electricity in special materials called Weyl magnets has been discovered by physicists at the University of Tokyo. The method exploits temperature gradients, differences in temperature throughout a material. This could pave the way for maintenance-free remote sensing devices or even medical implants.
“Our method exploits a phenomenon called the anomalous Nernst effect which has never been used in this way before,” says Professor Satoru Nakatsuji of the Institute for Solid State Physics. “I imagine this could be the power source for a new generation of low-power, low-maintenance electronic devices. We’ve created something engineers of small devices have been waiting for.”
So what is this anomalous Nernst effect and how could it lead to such a great leap forward?
“The anomalous Nernst effect is when a magnetized piece of metal generates a voltage subject to a gradient of heat across it, so it’s hotter on one side and cooler on the other,” explains Nakatsuji. This is similar to a more established phenomenon called the Seebeck effect, which is responsible for power generation in thermopiles, the functional components of thermoelectric generators. These are used in deep-space probes like Voyager and New Horizons, amongst other things. With the Seebeck effect, the voltage is generated between the hot and cold regions of the metal in question, so it’s parallel to the temperature gradient. The anomalous Nernst effect however generates a voltage along the length of a magnetized piece of metal, perpendicular to the temperature gradient.
The researchers observe this effect in a special kind of metal (Co2MnGa) known as a Weyl magnet. This provides the first clear evidence for the existence of Weyl fermions in a material, elementary particles which give Weyl magnets their unique properties. And there are important practical implications. The devices are much simpler than those used for the Seebeck effect, thin films as opposed to pillar-like structures thanks to that perpendicular rather than parallel voltage. So they are flexible and can be made into a variety of useful shapes. “Our materials, being far more common and completely non-toxic also mean devices can be much cheaper to produce,” says Nakatsuji. “Best of all, unlike previous devices, they’re efficient at room temperature, so mass production of such devices is in our sights.”
There is a catch however, in that the method usually produces about 0.1% the voltage of the equivalent Seebeck effect system, about 0.1 microvolt compared to 100 microvolts, so we might not see this technology in space probes anytime soon. “However, we aim to make our method comparable with the Seebeck effect in terms of efficiency,” says Nakatsuji. “And even before then, given the other advantages, this technology could see rapid widespread adoption.” Since the discovery of Weyl magnet thermopiles in 2015, which exhibit the anomalous Nernst effect, there has been a thousandfold increase in their power-generating efficiency, with this recent finding alone observing 8 microvolts per Kelvin, a whole order of magnitude increase over the previous maximum reported value of about 0.1 microvolt per Kelvin.
Engineers continually strive to improve the power efficiency of devices and the sources which provide that power. A general aim is to create functional devices, such as sensors, which could be put to work and then left alone without the need for maintenance or replacement batteries. They would generate power with their own Weyl-thermopile devices by use of ambient or waste heat or maybe even sunlight. Computer scientists may also be interested in these findings as Weyl magnets may be useful in future high-speed, high-density data storage technologies.
Materials provided by University of Tokyo. Note: Content may be edited for style and length.
Inflammation inhibitor delivered directly to kidneys reverses course of destructive nephritis
Using a humanmade version of a human antibody to directly deliver a drug that inhibits a powerful driver of inflammation, can reverse a disease course that often leads to kidney failure and dialysis, investigators report.
They have additionally found that it’s the powerhouses of kidney cells, called mitochondria, that are particularly impacted by the acute or chronic inflammation called nephritis, and that, at least in their animal model and cell cultures, the treatment restores their function.
Things like a serious infection or injury, and diseases like uncontrolled hypertension and diabetes, can cause acute or chronic nephritis, which affects both kidneys and the million filtering units in each. Particularly when it’s chronic, patients often wind up in kidney failure on dialysis.
“That is why we are looking at promoting recovery,” says Dr. Michael P. Madaio, nephrologist and chair of the Department of Medicine at the Medical College of Georgia at Augusta University.
“We are delivering something to the kidney that is reducing inflammation and restoring mitochondrial function. We are helping the mitochondria be a little healthier and the kidney cells function better,” says Madaio, corresponding author of the study in the journal Kidney International.
For their studies, they used a model of immune-mediated nephritis in mice that develops rapidly and progressively over seven to 10 days.
But a few days after the disease was established, when they also gave a single dose of the protein kinase C-alpha inhibitor — delivered directly to the kidney via their humanmade antibody — those mice instead recovered kidney function and survived.
Parallel studies that enabled the investigators to look directly at the impact of both toxicity and treatment on the endothelial cells that line the filtering units, also showed the inhibitor reduced cell death and improved cell recovery.
A proteomic analysis determined that 157 proteins were significantly altered by nephritis — either up- or down-regulated by disease and restored by treatment — and that it was the mitochondria, the cell powerhouses, most affected.
Collectively, their studies show protein kinase C-alpha’s crucial role in the damage done by nephritis as they provide some of the first evidence that inhibiting it — and restoring mitochondrial function — could be helpful in reversing the inflammatory disease, Madaio says.
Nephritis therapy today incudes approaches like systemic high-dose steroids to battle inflammation and systemic immunosuppressive drugs, like those taken by transplant patients. Side effects include increased risk of infections, even cancer, but Madaio is hopeful that a targeted approach, like the one they are developing, could better fight the problem with fewer side effects.
Right now, they are using just a small dose of the whole human antibody but eventually they hope to use a physically smaller, non-inflammatory version of their humanmade antibody, called a minibody, to simultaneously deliver multiple drugs that can arrest the disease and protect the kidneys.
The human monoclonal antibody they are using is good at finding the kidneys because it targets a collagen that is unique in the connective tissue found in the kidneys’ filtering units.
The antibody is produced in a rare kidney disease called Goodpasture syndrome, a rapidly progressing, difficult-to-treat condition that inflames and scars the kidneys and can quickly destroy the organs. The antibody’s usual job at its usual level is actually promoting inflammation, but the investigators in this case are taking advantage of its skill at reaching the kidneys to use it as a mechanism for drug delivery that instead blocks inflammation.
Madaio’s group found that the antibody’s natural target, or antigen, is normally sequestered in the kidneys, however it is highly expressed during inflammation, which further enhances its role as a targeted delivery system in this scenario, Madaio says.
While the protein kinase C-alpha inhibitor it delivers clearly worked in their animal and cell models, the investigators also are already exploring other drugs for potential delivery. They reported five years ago in the American Journal of Physiology-Renal Physiology that delivery of prostaglandin E2, one of few prostaglandins known for its anti-inflammatory impact, to the filtering units also was effective at treating nephritis, and the two drugs appear to have similar pathways of recovery.
Madaio thinks the targeted therapy approach could one day also work well for common kidney diseases like diabetic nephropathy, which can accompany type 1 and 2 diabetes and is the leading cause of chronic kidney disease and end-stage renal disease.
Their discovery that mitochondria play a role in recovery was of particular interest, Madaio says. Mitochondria primarily produce energy and the proteins inside these powerhouses most affected by nephritis were those associated with using oxygen to turn food into fuel and generating waste products like carbon dioxide and water. These essential proteins were downregulated by kidney inflammation and inhibiting protein kinase C-alpha restored normal expression.
Looking at the endothelial cells that line the millions of kidney filtering units, the toxin that produced nephritis in the mice also dramatically affected the cell powerhouses, even changing their shape, changes that were normalized with protein kinase C-alpha inhibition.
Using both an animal model and cell culture for their studies enabled these detailed assessments. “Using the whole animal approach, we can look at both inflammation and recovery as they happen, however we can more precisely hone in on the mechanisms with kidney cell culture,” Madaio says. “Then when you dig out a mechanism in the cell, you can go back to the animal model to test to see how relevant that is to the disease.”
Nano-optic endoscope sees deep into tissue at high resolution
The diagnosis of diseases based in internal organs often relies on biopsy samples collected from affected regions. But collecting such samples is highly error-prone due to the inability of current endoscopic imaging techniques to accurately visualize sites of disease. The conventional optical elements in catheters used to access hard-to-reach areas of the body, such as the gastrointestinal tract and pulmonary airways, are prone to aberrations that obstruct the full capabilities of optical imaging.
Now, experts in endoscopic imaging at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) and pioneers of flat metalens technology at the Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS), have teamed up to develop a new class of endoscopic imaging catheters — termed nano-optic endoscopes — that overcome the limitations of current systems.
The research is described in Nature Photonics.
“Clinical adoption of many cutting-edge endoscopic microscopy modalities has been hampered due to the difficulty of designing miniature catheters that achieve the same image quality as bulky desktop microscopes,” said Melissa Suter, an assistant professor of Medicine at MGH and Harvard Medical School (HMS) and co-senior author of the paper. “The use of nano-optic catheters that incorporate metalenses into their design will likely change the landscape of optical catheter design, resulting in a dramatic increase in the quality, resolution, and functionality of endoscopic microscopy. This will ultimately increase clinical utility by enabling more sophisticated assessment of cell and tissue microstructure in living patients.”
“Metalenses based on flat optics are a game changing new technology because the control of image distortions necessary for high resolution imaging is straightforward compared to conventional optics, which requires multiple complex shaped lenses,” said Federico Capasso, the Robert L. Wallace Professor of Applied Physics and Vinton Hayes Senior Research Fellow in Electrical Engineering at SEAS and co-senior author of the paper. “I am confident that this will lead to a new class of optical systems and instruments with a broad range of applications in many areas of science and technology”
“The versatility and design flexibility of the nano-optic endoscope significantly elevates endoscopic imaging capabilities and will likely impact diagnostic imaging of internal organs,” said Hamid Pahlevaninezhad, Instructor in Medicine at MGH and HMS and co-first author of the paper. “We demonstrated an example of such capabilities to achieve high-resolution imaging at greatly extended depth of focus.”
To demonstrate the imaging quality of the nano-optic endoscope, the researchers imaged fruit flesh, swine and sheep airways, and human lung tissue. The team showed that the nano-optic endoscope can image deep into the tissue with significantly higher resolution than provided by current imaging catheter designs.
The images captured by the nano-optic endoscope clearly show cellular structures in fruit flesh and tissue layers and fine glands in the bronchial mucosa of swine and sheep. In the human lung tissue, the researchers were able to clearly identify structures that correspond to fine, irregular glands indicating the presence of adenocarcinoma, the most prominent type of lung cancer.
“Currently, we are at the mercy of materials that we have no control over to design high resolution lenses for imaging,” said Yao-Wei Huang, a postdoctoral fellow at SEAS and co-first author of the paper. “The main advantage of the metalens is that we can design and tailor its specifications to overcome spherical aberrations and astigmatism and achieve very fine focus of the light. As a result, we achieve very high resolution with extended depth of field without the need for complex optical components.”
Next, researchers aim to explore other applications for the nano-optic endoscope, including a polarization-sensitive nano-optic endoscope, which could contrast between tissues that have highly-organized structures, such as smooth muscle, collagen and blood vessels.
Peste des petits ruminants: A model for use in eradicating the disease
Eradicating peste des petits ruminants is an ambitious objective that is neveretheless looking increasingly realistic, notably thanks to a targeted vaccination strategy centring on production systems that act as a virus reservoir. This was the conclusion drawn by a scientific study published in the journal PNAS.
In theory, the peste des petits ruminants control strategy relies on mass vaccination campaigns. However, although the existing vaccine provides lifelong immunity, such campaigns are both costly and highly complex to implement from a logistical point of view.
The study was initiated by CIRAD and conducted by the Royal Veterinary College (RVC, University of London), in collaboration with Ethiopian and European partners. The researchers combined a dynamic model that simulates virus spread with a national serological study. The information obtained served to assess the level of virus transmission within endemic zones and the vaccine coverage required to halt transmission and eliminate the disease. The results also suggested that some pastoral production systems act as virus reservoirs from which the virus can spread.
For Guillaume Fournié, an epidemiologist at the RVC, “identifying high-risk populations and adapting vaccination strategies to local situations is vital in order to cut the cost of eradicating the disease while boosting the chances of success.”
“Peste des petits ruminants causes huge economic losses and is a particular threat to the livelihoods and food security of the most vulnerable farmers,” François Roger, a CIRAD epidemiologist and co-author of the study, points out. “In view of the limited budgets currently allocated for control of the disease and the numerous constraints in the field, effective decision support tools are vital.”
The OIE and FAO, with the support of the European Union in particular, are launching a global programme to eradicate the disease within fifteen years. This would make peste des petits ruminants the third infectious disease to be eradicated, after smallpox and rinderpest.
Peste des petits ruminants, a devastating disease
This highly contagious viral disease affects almost a billion sheep and goats in Africa, the Middle East and Asia. It causes substantial economic losses due to high morbidity and mortality rates. The role of wild ruminants in the spread of the disease is still largely undetermined, but models could be used to understand it better, like here with buffalos in Africa.
Materials provided by Cirad. Note: Content may be edited for style and length.
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Eddie LaCrosse
Memphis Vampires
The Tufa Novels
The Firefly Witch
Blog I'm giving away 10 advance-reader copies of CHAPEL OF EASE
I’m giving away 10 advance-reader copies of CHAPEL OF EASE
Chapel of Ease, the fourth Tufa novel, won’t officially be out until September. But I have some advance copies to give away right now.
Here’s the official description:
When Matt Johanssen, a young New York actor, auditions for “Chapel of Ease,” an off-Broadway musical, he is instantly charmed by Ray Parrish, the show’s writer and composer. They soon become friends; Matt learns that Ray’s people call themselves the Tufa and that the musical is based on the history of his isolated home town. But there is one question in the show’s script that Ray refuses to answer: what is buried in the ruins of the chapel of ease?
As opening night approaches, strange things begin to happen. A dreadlocked girl follows Ray and spies on him. At the press preview, a strange Tufa woman warns him to stop the show. Then, as the rave reviews arrive, Ray dies in his sleep.
Matt and the cast are distraught, but there’s no question of shutting down: the run quickly sells out. They postpone opening night for a week and Matt volunteers to take Ray’s ashes back to Needsville. He also hopes, while he’s there, to find out more of the real story behind the play and discover the secret that Ray took to his grave.
Matt’s journey into the haunting Appalachian mountains of Cloud County sets him on a dangerous path, where some secrets deserve to stay buried.
So to win one of ten ARCs of Chapel of Ease, tell me about your favorite musical theater bit: a certain song, a specific performance, a great show, anything. Leave that comment here before midnight on Sunday, May 15.
Look forward to reading your choices!
116 Comments on “I’m giving away 10 advance-reader copies of CHAPEL OF EASE”
05.02.2016 at 4:26 pm
Just saw the movie “Once.” Great movie, great music!
Jenny Cox
My favorite musical theater bit was when we went to see Phantom of the opera on our senior trip!
We got to sit pretty close to the stage. We were actually right below the chandelier and when it started to fall it looked like it was going to fall right on us but then went toward the stage and fell.
It was something I’ll never forget!
I really enjoy reading your Tufa series!!!!
I’ve read all 3 and patiently waiting for the next one to come out!
Kay Martinez
I’m a sucker for Memories from Cats. Gets me every time. I love the music from the Camelot as well. I did drama & speech throughout middle & high school both. My senior year I was onstage all but 2 of all the productions we did that year. Loved it and if life had worked out different I’d have had some kind of theater related career. Favorite part I played was my senior year, I played a girl who wanted to be a wrestler & got to do fun bits the entire play. My drama teacher my last two years of high school was awesome & just passed away last week. An amazing woman who inspired many.
Adam Osborne
Music has always been a huge part of my life. My life has been full of musicals…Disney movies, the sound of music, the phantom of the opera….so I guess my favorite musical theater bit is…my life! I’m always singin’ songs and playin’ music…the Tufa novels are the first set of books to really speak to me on the same level that music does. I even have a Mandolin named Magda <3
Carol Hornung
“Then, as the rave reviews arrive, Ray dies in his sleep.” … makes me think of the shadow that fell over “Rent” when it previewed and the creator had died of an aneurysm the night before. The cast debated whether to go on with the show, and did. Legend has it that as the last notes faded and the theater went silent, someone in the back of the room said “Thank you, Jonathan Larson!” Every time I see “Rent,” which is my absolute favorite musical, I think “Thank you, Jonathan Larson” at the end of the show …
Richard Garrison
My favorite musical is Rocky Horror Picture. Because it’s awesome. And fun. And nobody cares which restroom Dr Frank N Furter used.
Julie Henshaw
I love the theater in general, but the Broadway production of The Lion King (in Indianapolis) has been my favorite. I was lucky enough to have an aisle seat and as the show started, and as the cast came down the aisle, I was actually in tears. It was awe inspiring and amazing and you could easily forget that these were people in costumes. I still get goose bumps thinking about it.
Sharon Barrett
My absolute favorite…the opening of ‘The Lion King’. We were fortunate enough to see the first run in Chicago, IL when my daughter was in Show Choir. That piercing opening note left me with goosebumps from head to toe. The stage WAS NOT microphoned at all throughout the entire performance. Breathtaking.
As a Sr. in high school, my journalism class went to NYC. Of course we couldn’t spend a week there without hitting up Broadway. As a little teeny-bopper from a small town (pop. @ 2000) in rural WV, Broadway just blew me away. We saw Les Mis. And oh! The scene when Javier jumps off the bridge! I’d read the playbill and imagined so many hokey things, so when it came and it was so realistic, I literally caught my breath and my tummy went funny/flip-floppy. It felt, for that microsecond, as though I’d actually watched someone fall to their death. It was horrific – then, amazing! When there, at 17, my favorite song had been Castle On A Cloud. As I grew and matured, it became A Little Fall Of Rain.
Kevin Cordi
I remember going to see Rent with my wife and at a peak time “I will be your candle” in the singing, a couple stood up and said, “I didn’t pay to see this.” I thought to myself, you did not pay to hear a musical about stark issues. You expected Annie and got Rent. It was a reminder that sometimes people anticipate musicals to be the same or at least the same formula. Rent was not. From that point, I, along with my wife, selected even more films that tested the waters and support them. It is important for people to see the rich electric and diverse offerings in musical theater. Congrats on the new book.
Michele Bergeron
My favorite theatre experience was about 15 years ago, went with some friends to see Finnegan’s Wake, here in Cleveland. Met some of the cast before the show, the lead male character took one look at me and said “Ach, you’re going to be trouble”! During the show they asked for the audience to call out different occupations, I yelled “proctologist” at which the female lead gave me the most murderous look, found out later the reason for the look she had to perform an improvisational song on the occupation they chose from the audience suggestions, which, of course, turned out to be the proctologist…. it was a HUGE hit! After the show the cast invited us out to dinner with them at the brewery across the street…You have not lived until you have had a drunken dinner with a group of improv actors! Never laughed so hard in my life! Nothing was sacred! Songs were made up about everything. One of the best nights of my life!
My favorite was an outdoor theater production of “Jesus Christ Superstar” in Kansas City, starring David Cassidy. They hired some of the talent from the local university. Some of those kids were very talented!
Steve Krodman
You know I’d love a copy of Chapel of Ease, but I suppose I have to earn it.
Years ago, when our elder daughter was studying at Boston University, she was involved in “On Broadway,” the extracurricular drama group. One of their productions was Once On This Island, the story of which takes place in postcolonial Haiti… and one musical number our Melissa performed – “The Human Heart” – was so deeply beautiful and moving that I still get a lump in my throat whenever I think about it.
I’ve seen plenty of shows on Broadway and elsewhere. I’m old enough to have seen Hair in its original run (Diane Keaton was in the cast then) – and I’ve enjoyed remarkable performances over the years. Sweeney Todd, Evita, Les Misérables, even Nicol Williamson’s Hamlet. But nothing has ever moved me like the song our daughter sang on that Boston stage.
Golly, that’s asking a lot to pick just one. In my teens and twenties, I went to watch the University of Evansville’s theatrical productions regularly. At the time they had one of the best theater departments in the country. It instilled in me a love of broadway musicals that built on my adoration of the movie musicals featuring Gene Kelly, Ginger Rogers & Fred Astaire. In live theater: Pirates of Penzance. Movie musical: On The Town.
CateHerself
Today’s Facebook feed included a story out of the Bronx Zoo, which has devised a genius fundraiser — for a $10 donation, they will name one of their Madagascar Hissing Cockroaches after your ex. Judging by how popular this has been among my friends, I expect them to make a mint. Amongst the evil, gleeful comments, someone brought up “I’ve Got a Little List” from Gilbert and Sullivan’s Mikado and, as you can imagine, the revised lyrics started pouring in. It did remind my how much I’ve enjoyed that song over the years. Productions often modify the lyrics to reflect — hilariously — contemporary society and the folks we love to hate. Here’s one from an Opera Australia production: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1NLV24qTnlg
Barbara Long
Memories from Cats – saw the production at the Fox in Atlanta 25 years ago and my 8 year old son loved the cast running up and down the aisles – and I still hum that tune.
Susan Meek
I loved the song Try to Remember from the Fantasticks. And the Rocky Horror Show is one of my favorite stage productions. And, A Chorus Line…Caberet… I can’t pick just one! Oh, Gilbert & Sullivan! Oklahoma! No, don’t make me chose just one!
Can I admit to being in love with Chicago? <3
Jennifer Olvey
My favorite bit of musical theater came from my younger years as a theater tech in Jonesboro Ar. The summer musical that year was The Secret Garden. The female lead was sung by Dia Sawyer. Her she was an alto with an ethereal quality to her voice. It was beautiful and haunting, perfect for the ghost of a memory she played. Sometimes the best moments in theater happen in small towns with local talent.
Melissa Kay Bishop
I’m afraid that, to me, the Muppet Show was the finest in musical theater. It had everything: humor, visual creativity, bionic engineering, but they never skimped on the quality of the music itself.
Claudia Tucker
Shall we dance from The King and I. Why? Because music brings people together. No matter what social background, creed, religion or sexual orientation one belongs to. When the music is right no-one can refuse the invitation to dance and have fun.
Karen B.
Lots of musicals I’ve seen and loved but this stayed with me: in college one of my housemates had a minor role in Guys and Dolls and I will always cherish seeing her perform because of the sheer joy she took in it. She lit up the stage. Not the best musical, not the best performance, but the most absolute joy in performing I’ve seen.
Melody Siracusa
The song ‘Who Lives, Who Dies, Who Tells Your Story’ from Hamilton makes me tear up every time I listen to it. My dream is to see the show on Broadway.
Julie arogers
My favorite musical theater experiences have been the teo timea I have watched”Wicked”. The music and story are so great and impactful that I even just listening to the songs “Defying Gravity” and “For Good” brings me to tears. I have always been enter fully into the music I listen to and the books I read in a way in which I live more fully in them than any other time. This is the wonder of all the Tufa stories for me; this intersection of stories and songs you have created is truly magical.
Teresa Gunderson
I love Sweeney Todd, and there are two moments that I love. One is where, leading into “Have a little priest” Mrs. Lovett attempts to make Todd understand, singing “with the price of meat what it is, when you get it… if you get it…” and a pregnant pause. Todd finally says “Ah!” and Lovett nods “Good, you got it…” Angela Lansbury is my favorite Lovett, and she is *brilliant* with the comedic pause. The other is the sad little scene with Mrs. Lovett and Tobias, when they sing “No one’s gonna hurt you”.
Kathi Nash
The Hamilton cast tribute to Prince. Loved it.
Bob Alberti
It’s definitely “Cookies” from Jay Goede and Mark Linn-Baker’s “Frog and Toad” (Audio on YouTube at CpqLp72YeDY). My adult daughter (24) and I can spontaneously break into this song at almost any time, particularly if there happen to be any cookies around.
The most wonderful thing about this, however, is that because your contest inspired me to search the Interwebs, I discovered that the Minneapolis Children’s Theater company (where the play debuted in 2002) is running “Frog and Toad” right now through June! So we’re already making plans to go.
I look forward to receiving a copy of Chapel of Ease, as I have enjoyed all your Tufa novels. Thank you for the chance!
Jennifer Welborn Williams
My favorite musical right now (subject to change lol) is Book of Mormon. The entire show is passive aggressively crass with undertones of vulgarity that are both hilarious and insightful, drawing attention to the underlying hypocrisies of modern religion. Nothing is sacred in this on stage comedy.
Kevin Fury
I love the Phantom of the Opera, especially the song Music of the Night. I’ve seen Phantom a few times but my favorite was seeing it in London!
Lynne Williams
Richard Harris as King Arthur in Camelot. Wonderful voice, great music, fine sets, excellent acting, lyrical music. Saw an Atlanta version, with Richard Harris, but with lesser knowns in the rest of the cast. Made no difference, magical.
Krista Stern
My favorite musical would have to be The Sound of Music, and I liked playing (as part of band, I was a band geek!) the scores to Phantom of the Opera and Carmina Burana. Folk/bluegrass music is also a fave, anything with a violin in it!
Arin Komins
My love is given to The War of the Worlds: the Musical. I have just been to see the stage play twice in London, and Liam Neeson made a fantastic Richard Burton. Plus Michael Praed as the narrator, and one heck of an understudy (Simon Shorten) playing the David Essex-originated Artilleryman.
…and let us not forget the puppet fighting machines!
My first opera, Aida, I cried for over 2 hours.
Lois Sepahrom
My friend picked up the first Tufa novel for me at the library, and I was hooked. Ordered the other two and impatiently waiting for #4. I’d so love to receive an advance copy.
Bartlett Durand
Seeing my 14 year old nephew BLOW AWAY cast, crew and audience with an amazing performance as (and in) Peter Pan. Singing, fighting, FLYING, and all three at once. Amazing night.
When I was in high school, we did a production of SUGAR (some may know this as Some Like It Hot). I was lucky to get a part as the little known girl #2. My sole line was “hey fix my teddy strap”. My second moment on stage was when myself and girl#1 quit the band, and Sugar tells us we wont find another gig. The nuns in their wisdom redacted my one line, so I was stuck with one moment on stage. On opening night, as girl #1 and I walked onstage, ready to perform our flounce, girl #1 kicks up her heel, and her black high heel hit me square in the knee. My shiney moment was dashed to the ground as I limped off stage bleeding through my black stockings. I never stood on stage again.
Beth Denton
So my favorite musical bit is the moment in Pippin when the leading player announces Charlemagne as a giant of the bedroom… and everywhere else. The female guard standing right there makes this little motion with her hand to indicate that this he is, in fact, only so-so.
Pippin. Comedy gold.
Sean Little
I will never not stop flipping channels if I see that Seven Brides for Seven Brothers is on. Jane Powell is gorgeous. Russ Tamblyn is amazing. Howard Keel is, well, Howard Keel. Enough said. And, a young Julie Newmar as Dorcas! How can you not love that show?
My first non-Disney musical experience was in seventh grade music class. My teacher showed us “Oklahoma”. I’ve seen several musicals since, but that one still holds a special place in my heart.
I saw Reba in ‘Annie Get Your Gun’ on Broadway. While I’m not really a country music fan, Reba was born to play that role. She was charming, she played it with ease and she was just all-around fantastic. I’ve seen more Broadway musicals than I can remember but that remains one of the most memorable because of Reba.
Amber barnes
For me it was Rent. The song talking about no day but today had me bawling! So powerful
I loved Midsummer Night’s Dream. I saw it when I was a teen at a “haunted” century old theater in Rose Valley, PA (Hedgerow Theater). The ambiance and atmosphere made me fall in love with the whole experience.
My favorite is Caberet, the version with Alan Cumming.
Trevor Curtis
If it wasn’t for Rocky Horror, I’d have never met my wife. Two of my brother -in-laws were cast members, and I spent 2 years doing Eddie in the local cast. I also went to Columbia College in Chicago, which has a huge theater department. Between 90-93 if there was a major touring company, i saw it for free. Best one had to be seeing Phantom with Crawford in the lead. But I think my favorite bit of musical theater was seeing WARP, the legendary 3-part superhero rock opera as a child. Growing up in a house where the 60’s never happened, it was a real brain changer.
Brenda M.
The movie Once is still my favorite musical, although I don’t think of it as a musical so much as a movie about musicians with a lot of music in it. I used to play piano, so Falling Slowly really got me – the lovely but simple piano line and the harmonies are haunting.
Another good memory was finally seeing Les Mis – it was the film production, because I’m not a huge fan of musicals but go to the movies all the time. I’ve read the novel, and was interested to see how the story would look. The most surprising part was how many of the songs were already familiar to me. But “I Dreamed a Dream” cut at my heart, not only because it’s such a melancholy yet defiant song already, but because Fantine is at such a low point with nothing left to sacrifice.
Looks like I’m a sucker for songs that are sad yet defiant. 🙂
Rachael Blunk
My most fond memory is being in the chorus of Man of Lamancha. It was the only musical I was ever in. I can’t sing but they needed bodies on stage for the chorus. We got to have costumes from a rental company out of New York and it was a full production.
My next would be when I did tech for Pirates of Penzance. Building sets, props and having fun with fellow performers gives you a lifetime bond.
Becky Duman
my hubby talked me into seeing RENT. wasn’t really interested, but once I saw it I loved it!
Kelly Saderholm
The first musical I ever saw was Fiddler on the Roof, when I was a kid and of course that was my favorite for a very long time. I was thrilled to pieces to be able take a class with Patricia Zipprodt who was the costume designer for both the Broadway Play and the Movie. I also go to be one of her assistants (!) for a production of A Flea in her Ear, and also got to do some initial research for Into the Woods, which was being work-shopped then. One of my assignments was to track down as many illustrations of Little Red Riding Hood that I could find.
Tria G
I’ve been fond of Pirates of Penzance since we performed it in junior high. “Poor Wandering One” is perhaps my favorite song from it.
Jeff Tsuruoka
My favorite musical theatre story… I was playing the bass guitar in the band for a summer camp production of, “Free To Be You and Me.”
Some friends of mine decided to mess with me by un-tuning my bass. The first number & half of the second were an adventure, to say the least.
Not a big musical guy — always wanted to be, but somehow, I haven’t found the right ones. The first musical recording I owned was the original Man of La Mancha — wore out the tape, I listened to it so much.
Mandy Patinkin’s version of “Soliloquy” on his first album would probably be the best musical theater song I’ve heard.
Oh, too many to count…but I would say my two favorites both happened in Atlanta about 18 years ago. My boss gave my husband and I tickets to see “Stomp” at the Fabulous Fox. It was amazing. I also got to see “Into The Woods” at a small community theater. Oh, and then there was our anniversary present from my mom to see Cirque du Soleil (sp) in Minneapolis. I can’t remember which show it was but it was transfixing and amazing.
Kathy Rudolphe
I saw ‘Cats’ in San Francisco in the late 80’s. A friend had an extra ticket last minute when another friend couldn’t make the show. Center stage about 6 or 8 rows from the stage. I was entranced. It’s still my favorite musical.
Brian Pettera
One of my favorite musicals is a little known one called the Fantasticks. My Dad when I was a little kid was a semi-pro director and directed it in community theater. It was real magic because it was done in a little town called Antioch in Illinois, the Palette, Masque & Lyre theater fondly called PM&L. I learned to love to sing from that play and probably can still sing almost every song 40 years later. I got to go to all the rehearsals.and help out. We were lucky enough to have a Vegas performer on sabbatical who lived in the area and a couple of college theater kids who turned pro later too. Their performance was way better than the movie, a true Broadway level show.
Nelson Jackson
05.02.2016 at 10:23 pm
It would be a toss up:
Either when I was in 4-H, we went to see Guys & Dolls at the Cumberland County Playhouse and they asked Big Jule what he did in Chicago, and he replied he was a 4-H Leader. Brought the house down.
Or seeing Kellye Cash sing the narrator’s part for Joseph’s Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat at Trenton’s Nitelite Theater
Cynthia Makowski
My daughter and I are listening to the Hamilton soundtrack over and over and over. Can’t wait until tickets go on sale in Chicago!
Cheryl Jarvis
Who can’t be moved by The Impossible Dream in Man of la Mancha?
I took my daughter to see Wicked at the Fabulous Fox Theatre in Atlanta in 2007 as one of her High School gradation presents. The last number, Defying Gravity, was so good that I was crying. I don’t think Amanda moved a muscle during the entire show, she was so focused. Toss, toss!
Lizzie Lou
There is more time in the daily on going of my life that has a soundtrack than doesn’t. It could be blues, jazz, gospel, bluegrass or what have you— but music is always there. It’s not a Hollywood soundtrack so to speak. I would say more of a cross between Ally McBeal, Beetlejuice, and Dolly Parton and narrated by Irene Ryan. Music— has to move the soul. If it doesn’t it’s just produced drivel. This is where I identify most with the Tufa— that yearning and personal melody that calls one home. I am looking forward to reading this book in the series and finding my tufa roots 🙂
In the meantime, I’ll be defying gravity and waiting for the orange blossom special while humming some Mahalia Jackson.
This performance by Beth Hart and Jeff Beck never fails to give me goose bumps. I think the Tufu were present that night.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=fALdOkf_eCM
Tina Canham
Not sure if your giveaway is open to people outside the U.S but I’ll comment anyway. Recently saw a new musical Laila based on a 5th Century Arabian love story which is said to have inspired Shakespeare to write Romeo and Juliet. The musical was so magical and the songs wonderful. Three days on and I’m still on a high from it.
Steve Carpenter
I performed in several musicals in high school and college, including My Fair Lady, Brigadoon, Guys and Dolls, Annie Get Your Gun, and Showboat. When I worked professionally in dinner theater, I was in Oklahoma, Fiddler on the Roof, Guys and Dolls, and Man of La Mancha. My personal favorite role was in Man of La Mancha, in which I played Pedro and got to use a whip. The theater had a drop stage, which lowered onto the center of the theater, with the audience seated on all four sides. Some of them were only a few feet from the edge of the stage. I practiced long and hard to perfect cracking the whip. In the scene where Pedro tries to intimidate Dulcinea by cracking his whip at her, I could usually get gasps and other reactions from the crowd. It was fun! Our male lead was a great singer, and remembering how well he sang “The Impossible Dream” each night can still send chills down my spine.
Rick Carpenter
Mine is “Lil Abner”. In college, I tried out for a play on a dare. Much to my surprise, I was selected to play the villain, Earthquake McGoon, in my first ever play. My courtship of the voluptuous Daisy Mae was fun & funny.
Heather OMalley
So when I was in Russia my family and I went to go see Jesus Christ Superstar. It was perhaps the most surreal experience I have had in a theater. First, the apostles were all members of a biker gang, wearing leather and such. Peter had a leather duster with flames along the bottom. That was fine but it got stranger. The music was all in Russian but knowing the show I was more than able to follow along. The music was great but man it was nuts. The Pharisees were all dressed in Party Suits, looking like classic Soviet Commissars. Herod was dressed as usual, so nothing odd about that. In the end, Jesus was in leather, on a bike, with Mary Magdalene on back, holding tight as they rode off stage. There is so much about that musical that I can never get out of my head. I had a great time and wished there was film about it.
The only other musical thing that has been that level was the giant singing head of Lawrence Olivier in the musical Time. That was… different.
Renata Bratt
The Music Man has one of the greatest concepts in marketing: the think system. You don’t have to practice playing your instrument. You just have to think about practicing. Interestingly, this actually works in tandem with actual practice. But sadly, not by itself. I’ve been in the pit for this musical, watched it numerous times via old style television “streaming,” and pretty much love everything that Meredith Wilson gave us in this sweet treat.
Kim Gilligan
Cinderella with Celeste Holm as the Fairy Godmother. I was 9 years old and all I wanted to do was sing and dance, this made for TV musical enthralled me.
Rebecca Irvin
Dirty Dancing, the final scene. or “Fie on Goodness” from Camelot, or just about any from “Robin Hood: Men in Tights”, just about any “Gilbert & Sullivan…yeah, I like musicals
Chucklehutt
When I was 10, my mother took me to see Les Miserables. I wanted to be the Master of the House ever since. Unfortunately, a crisis of conscious forced me into higher education, where people willing come to get fleeced.
I got to see my very first show on Broadway in March of this year, and you already heard about how much it reminded me of the Tufa because of the mountain setting and bluegrass influences in the music. I loved everything about the show, the music, the atmosphere, the story AND the way it reminded me of another story I love.
https://youtu.be/jWUsNKIB014
Susie Keat
I was a theatre/arts management major about a million years ago in college, have seen countless musical productions over the years, and have loved many of them — classic and contemporary alike. However, when “Spamalot” came to the stage, I knew I’d hit the jackpot, because — MONTY PYTHON, and my favorite movie (The Holy Grail) made into a musical! How could you NOT love it? My warped sense of humor and my love of music, combined into one hilarious and well-done package . . .
I am a native St Louisan, so I grew up watching Broadway shows through opera glasses from the free seats at the very back of the outdoor theatre. We had paid tickets for special occasions. I can’t decide whether my favorite 1776 with the original Ben Franklin or the special ballet presentation with Mikhail Baryshnikov or Carousel with a full sized merry go round!
Sue Wachowski
Ah, musical theater! Once upon a time, in the land of High School, we presented ~Annie Get Your Gun~, and the stage crew was working out all of our special effects in rehearsal. That day we finished up building the easy way to show Annie shooting a rooster: mounted the head with a hinge and a string tied to it hanging all the way to the floor. My job was to crawl on my belly across the stage behind some convenient scenery, grab the string, wait for the moment, and pull. We worked out the beats with the actors, talk talk talk, aim, trigger, pull the string. The moment came, I thought, and I yanked the string. It worked a charm. But there was silence in the theater. Then our Annie said “Dang, I am soooooo good, mister, that the rooster died a’fore I even raised my gun!” I lay on the stage laughing so hard, I couldn’t stand up to reset the rooster.
Colleen C.
My first experience with a Broadway production was Jesus Christ Superstar. I never saw it on stage but where I grew up the local radio station played the entire production on Good Friday starting at 3:00 pm. it’s a Catholic thing. I knew all the words and sang my heart out.
Sylvia Simpson
I live in rural northwest Tennessee so my exposure to musical theater is limited unless it is on television.
Amanda Kennedy
When I was small I spent a lot of time with my grandparent during the summer months. We would play and splash in the above ground pool, often times all walking around and around in a circle to create a giant whirlpool and then floating along on various inflateable pool loungers and laughing like lunatics until the current died off. After the pool there was almost inevitably a light supper of grilled cheese sandwiches and tomato soup made with lots of black pepper and cream while we all cuddled up on the ancient pit group sofa with mountains of blankets and pillows in the basement family room to watch old movies and catnap. Once the grown ups would doze off I’d quietly slip in my favorite musical to watch for what was at least the hundred and fiftieth time. Calamity Jane was a fun musical starring Doris Day. It was a happy, high energy movie that was delightfully silly at points, but my 5 year old heart loved it so much. My absolute favorite number in the whole movie is still when Calamity Jane and Wild Bill Hickok sing “The Black Hills of Dakota”. Still to this day (nearly 30 years later) I find myself singing the chorus when my mind wanders and it always makes me feel warm and safe and utterly content like I were snuggled up with my grandparents on those warm summer afternoons.
Heather Leasor
The only one I have ever seen is my favorite. And not because I went and saw it. As a history major the impact of Les Miserables is stunning. I saw it in high school when a friend of my mother’s offered us the tickets. I was transfixed with story and emotion. I have tried to watch the movies but it’s just not the same. There are others I hope to see but I don’t think they will be able to compare as Les Miserables.
Kimberly Mayfield
In my freshman year of university, I was a part of the production of CAMELOT. We called it Camel Snot. The sets were garish, the scenery was duly eaten by the actors, and we got to dress in cheap itchy polyester versions of medieval garb that didn’t actually match the 5th century timeframe when Arthur would have actually lived. It was the BEST.
I’ve been involved in music in one form or another for the majority of my life. I’ve always enjoyed listening to music, and even took band in elementary school and played the keyboard. Unfortunately I couldn’t stand the teacher so I dropped that when I got older and never picked it back up again. I did however get involved with a local radio station. I was able listen to a lot of new music, meet a lot of musicians, and even attend many concerts. I was able to spend weekends floating the Boise river with amazing artists after concerts, and even have floor seats to one of my long-time favorite artists, the legendary Yanni.
All of that fails in comparison to the theater of the mind however. I’ve been a fan of Celtic inspired music for a long time, one of my favorite groups being Tuatha Dea. I was turned on to the Tufa books as a result of their Tufa Tales album. The deep meaning of music to the Tufa, then the Tuatha Dea interpretation, builds an amazing immersion into the story. The best part of this to me is it has inspired me to pick up the guitar and put real effort into learning it. I’ve wanted to do this for several years, and this finally pushed me over the edge.
Shannon Davis
Raising a vocal major, I’ve sat through a lot of musicals & Operas over the years. But the one that stands bright & shining in my memory is Godspell. Schwartz’s script allowed for the integration of the natural personalities, dialects, & mannerisms of the cast into their characters, so the performance was brilliant with color & passion. It was the first & last musical I’ve seen that felt truly alive!
Jill Lybarger
I grew up with musical theater – watching the class films on TV with my Mom, standing in line for hours in the summer sun to claim our place in the free seats at St. Louis’ Muny Theater. Mom and I never missed an opening night in my high school days, and I had the great fortune to see many legendary performers – sadly, often in their twilight years – Richard Haris as King Arthur, Topol and Zero Mostel as Tevye, Rex Harrison as Professor Henry Higgins…
With all these amazing memories, one still stands head and shoulders above them all. In November of 1989 my fiance and I attended a performance of “Chess” at the Fabulous Fox Theater in St. Louis. At the intermission, the house lights came up and the theater manager stepped out on stage to make an announcement; “Ladies and Gentleman, the Berlin Wall has fallen.”. Cold War chess and politics played out on the stage that night – in music and in hammer blows, a truly memorable evening!
Rain Pope
My high school did Jesus Christ, Superstar! my senior year. I wasn’t involved, but a lot of friends were, both cast and crew. It was such an interesting perspective being on the periphery like that–I got to see tons of what went into preparing for the show, and then got to see the final product from the audience, and really appreiated the magic of it all.
I have so many musicals I would not know where to start.
Rent and Fiddler on the Roof get to me –
But hands down, “I’ll Cover You” from Rent and “Do You Love Me” from Fiddler on the Roof.
Oh boy… When will YOUR books be made into a movie?
Because Tuatha Dea totally gets the essence of your stories!
Laurie Moser
Wwicked, Defy Gravity. I could listen to that song all day everyday and still find it meaningful.
Jenn Dodson
Honestly, I’m not a musical theatre person, although I love music and play several instruments. I do know the lyrics to a huge number of older musicals due to a middle school chorus teacher who loved musicals. And there was that 1970s kid experience of the church production of Jesus Christ, Superstar. Yeah, I didn’t sing; I ran lights. But I love the Tufa books, and I’d love to win a copy of the new book!
Julie Manning
My two favorite musicals that I’ve been able to see live are Wicked and, most recently, Mamma Mia! Both of these productions kept me enthralled, so much so that my analytical ooh-look-at-how-they-moved-the-lights-to-emphasize-something mind never kicked in. (It’s a holdover from working the lights in college a couple of times.) There’s nothing quite like getting completely wrapped up in a well done story that carries you along from song to song. Now, as for a favored “bit”, I will say that I really enjoyed how the cast of Mamma Mia! punctuated a solo not only with with their voices but with humorous silhouetted shapes and movements. It was an excellent combination of sound and visuals.
Phantom of the Opera: “Softly, deftly, music shall caress you. Hear it, feel it, secretly possess you.” ‘Nuff said.
…oh, and I’m going through serious Tufa withdrawals!
ronda abrams
i grew up watching and listening to Rogers and Hammerstien musicals. oklahoma, fiddler on the roof, the king and i ,when my step son auditioned for the off Broadway production of Oklahoma at The Dixie in Huntingdon, Tn. i think that was my favorite . Community Theater is as close as i have ever been . i still listen to all kinds of music and i love the Tufa books
Mary A.
Oh dear…I have 4. In no particular order…
*When I played Mrs. Popper in a musical of “Mr Popper’s Penguins”, a children’s theatre production of 40 kids & 2 adults. The music I got to sing was so inventive, in all sorts of styles. I worked my tail off but felt like a star.
*A 1890s Music Hall production where I met my husband. I got to sing “The Face on the Barroom Floor”, wear a crazy corset *and* I got the guy!
*The movie “Mary Poppins”. What a glorious score and what a timeless story. “Poppins” was the first movie I ever saw in a theater and I loved it. Then when my daughter was little I was hesitant about seeing it again, wondering if it had held up to the passage of time, you know? I shouldn’t have worried…it was even better than I remembered, worthy of every award it received and more. What a magnificent movie.
*”Rocky Horror Picture Show”. I can still sing almost that entire score by heart and remember with glee getting all the gear together to go to the Saturday late-night showings at the local theatre and be a real participant. For a movie. With a theatre full of people like me.
*And I left out “Carnival”, “Godspell”, “Hair”, seeing revivals of “Whistle Down the Wind” and “West Side Story” in their pre-Broadway tryouts, the movie “Dirty Dancing”, almost everything by Rodgers & Hammerstein, Rodgers & Hart, Meredith Wilson. Ok, I’ll stop now.
Well, my favorite recorded musicals that I saw were The Young Frankenstein and Rocky Horror Picture Show. They have aged well.
However, I went to a small liberal arts college in Alabama where I saw many live plays and got hooked on them. We had a respected theater department, and admission was free to students. It was a revelation to me.
I got involved in working on the plays through College Night, our homecoming celebration. Instead of a football game at homecoming, we had teams – the Golds and the Purples – who put on plays for three nights running. Everything was written, composed, designed, and performed by the students – the screenplay, music, acting, dancing, singing, choreography, light design, sets – all of it.
The plays were judged by a panel of theater professionals and the winner announced on the last night. It was a whole lot of fun working on those plays (I was a Purple), and to this day I think they were some of the best plays I’ve ever seen. I wish I could remember the titles but I can’t. Although I can still sing some of the songs and remember some of the lines.
Ray Wertz
My favorite play is “The Three Penny Opera”.which I got to see in the round. A very long time ago{50 years or so} matinee plays during the week were really inexpensive.In the San Francisco Bay area there were many small play houses as well as the ACT{American Conservatory Theater}.My favorite scene is The Cat House at Wapping and of course,the song,”Mack the Knife”.The Tufa series is one of my favorite story lines;having read the first three novels,I’m looking forward to the “The Chapel of Ease”.I’m also looking forward to the next Eddie LaCrosse novel!I love the way the Tuatha Dea band shows up at the end of “Long Black Curl”.They are a breath of fresh air ,in a music scene that seems to empahasize main stream pop music with little real innovation.The videos on their web site are as excellent as their music.Loved the Welcome to Rock City sign outside the barn, just like in the novel. Please keep on keepin on with your writing!
I must say I love musicals There are the popular ones that are always good like Cats and Les Miserable, But my all time favorite is Thoroughly Modern Millie.
Eddie D. Moore
I watched the musical Annie at least a hundred times growing up, and I could probably sing most of the songs today. Like everyone else on the planet, life as been very hard at times, and each of the songs from this musical reminds me that tomorrow might be a better day. That said, Tomorrow is my favorite song from this production.
Catrianna M.
This may not be favorite, but definitely the most memorable for me as a freshly graduated high school student. I was the assistant director for summer stock theater in my home town. We were performing a musical called “Company”. The summer theater was doing musicals from the 60’s and 70’s all summer. At that time in life, I was more a fan of Phantom, Les Miz, Cats, Camelot, Evita, etc.
I learned a lot working with the director, I learned I was still a child in most ways too, and the world (even in my small town) was big …and most of all… I learned never to fall on the box of balloons.
I had to double as the props person on the last of the show. It was windy and the box of helium balloons was near the bottom of the stage for the big finale. So I tripped on the box of balloons while I was scurrying around the front of the stage, falling flat on my face and releasing the entire box of helium balloons way before the finale while a confused crowd watched a small, dark haired girl trying to wrestle the last sad balloon back into the box, a if that somehow mattered at that point, as the rest all flew into the sky.
To this day I have a wee bit of anxiety if I think of the lyrics: Bobby… Bobby. … Phone rings, Door chimes, In comes…. Company! No strings, Good times, Room hums, etc. Makes me chuckle really.
I love music of all kinds and I whistle everything from Broadway musicals to Beethoven. I Dreamed a Dream from Les Miz is probably my favorite musical song. Because it represents so many lost chances and grieving for all of us. It resonates with everyone in some way. It shows the true reality of life that we don’t get to win every time and have things go our way, and as sad as that is, that’s still okay because that’s the truth and the bones of life.
Jennifer Brozek
“I’m not that girl,” from WICKED is a favorite. It made me cry. There was so much emotion in it. I was in a hard place in my life. Now, life is so much better. The song reminds me how far I’ve come.
I was playing Mrs MacAfee in Bye Bye Birdie in high school. The kid who was supposed to sing”Kids” with Mr MacAfee got laryngitis (it couldn’t have happened to a nicer fellow) and I had to step in to sing the part, no rehearsal.
My one and only musical theater story.
Anyway, don’t forget about your public radio friends who’d love to read and talk about your book!
Jon Mayhall
Diana and I saw Richard Harris in Cameot and had seats good enough to make encouraging (yet non-creepy or distracting) eye contact with him.
Dana couillard
I need a book so I can make new props from the new book.
I hope you have them for the fair. Sept 9 and 10.
I’ve always been a fan of Fugue for Tinhorns from Guys & Dolls.
Charlotte Calvert
Honestly, I don’t think I’ve ever seen a musical theater production. The closest I’ve come is performing a medley from famous shows in high school choir each year. My favorite was Les Miserables.
Sara Weiss
I LOVE a Fugue for Tinhorns from Guys and Dolls. It has been my favorite since I was a kid!
Lynda Piper Peck
I have always loved musicals and theater. And all your books look so interesting. I would love to get your book.
My favorite has always been Sounds of Music, I know, kindof lame, but I loved seeing it every year. Can’t wait to read your new book!
Deborah Rolman
My favorite musical is “Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat”. I got to see this several years ago when it was at TPAC in Nashville. I love the variety of music Andrew Lloyd Webber incorporated into this. My favorite is “Song of the King” performed by an Elvis – style Pharaoh.
In the early 1980s my high school took a bus to Chicago for my first live professional show. I can still remember seeing Richard Burton on stage for the first time singing “I Wonder What the King Is Doing Tonight”
Ed Spitzbarth
Any musical my daughter is in.
Heather Housewright
The What Shall We Do Now song from Pink Floyd The Wall. The album came out we I was young and impressionable. There is something about the way the artist had two flowers doing the erotic things they did I will never forget. And if I am going to have to admit to watching a musical so I can get to read a first draft of one of your immensely entertaining novels it will have to be rock and roll. Thank you.
My favorite musical theater moment was when my daughter (about 12) and her little brother (about 3) recorded “My Favorite Things” for me as a gift.
Carlammm
I haven’t seen a lot of live music theater, but my favorite has to be The Mikado and the executioners song, just priceless! The whole play was awesome. It was done on a shoestring in an amphitheater, with the Portland Rose Garden a backdrop and the costumes, well they looked like they came from the set of Oklahoma… which made the experience even more endearingfor me.
Oh and I just love the Tuffa… so getting the 4th book would be fantastic and I’d be sure to post a review as soon as I had permission. ..
RM Ambrose
My dad was a Broadway performer, so there are definitely lots of favorites and it’s hard to choose. But one of the most fun for me is perhaps “Brave Sir Robin” from Spamalot and the Monty Python and the Holy Grail film: https://youtu.be/BZwuTo7zKM8.
Theresa Haislip
Nothing has ever haunted me like “Dark of the Moon” which I saw my 16th summer at the outdoor amphitheater that the Univ. of Tennessee used to own in Gatlinburg,TN. (Called Hunter Hills.) The backdrop was truly the Smoky Mountains and that was the first time I ever heard “Barbry Allan” performed on stage. Just hearing the title phrase later would evoke such deep, unexplainable longings. . . I have been lucky enough to see several Broadway musicals, and after my family moved to Miami, Florida I bought myself season tickets to the Theater of Performing Arts when I was just 17. . . mostly because I’d learned that my (Mountain-born) parents refused to register to vote as they were petrified they’d be called for jury duty and have to drive downtown. . . so I boldy drove alone to Miami Beach once a month to feed my courage and culture, yet never have any shows touched me like seeing “Dark of the Moon” on a misty night in the Smokies.
Apparently it did have a 10-month run on Broadway in 1945, but this is one instance where I’m sure what I experienced was superior to Broadway. And after reading the Wikipedia descript I think it should be included in a future Tufa volume! Set “ in the Smoky Mountains, it recounts the story of John, a strange “witch boy” who upon first beholding the beautiful Barbara Allen immediately falls in love. He is given human form to woo and marry her on the condition that she remain true to him. The marriage is consummated and Barbara gives birth to a witch child whom the townspeople destroy in a superstitious frenzy. During a religious revival Barbara is led to betray John thus breaking their spell of love. As she dies, he returns forever to the world of the mountain witches. “ I suspect it’s also why I devoured all 3 Tufa books last summer, and my Melungeon blood hungers for more!
My favorite song from a musical… How can I possibly choose a favorite? It all depends on the phase of the moon as it passes it’s zenith over the plains of Abraham on the solstice of the year… Never mind. I’ll just drop a few song titles on y’all, and some of ’em are Extremely Weird/Obscure!
One Love (Phantom of the Paradise)
Poor Jud is Dead (Oklahoma)
The First Thing You Know (Paint Your Wagon)
Why Can’t a Woman Be More Like a Man? (My Fair Lady)
Sobbin’ Women (Seven Brides For Seven Brothers)
As a end-cap, I’ll tell You My least favorite song from a musical:
I Talk to the Trees, from Paint Your Wagon. This is a painful song to me, as it sits in the middle of my Most Favorite musical of all time, but lets face it, Clint Eastwood’s singing is Awful w/o having any endearing qualities to rescue it!
Donna Wilcox
Musical theater hasn’t been a big part of my experience but I did love The King and I movie and the sound of music. I love all your tufa books and look forward to the next one 😉
Anna Moore
The Lion King – Hakuna Matata
Is my favorite broadway song because sometimes you just have to let everything go.
Renee Conley
My parents adored theatre, both musical and straight shows, so it’s no surprise that when I headed off to college, I studied theatre. I never worked as an actress but I did snare a wonderful technical director. When we were young he was working at Berea Summer Theatre. They did Caberet. During the final Willkommen, Nazi flags dropped over the audience. It was chilling. We were a little concerned about how my dad (who spent time in Dachau) would react but he felt it was very authentic.
Laura Groves
I know I’m past date. Just finished The Hum and the Shiver. Loved it. As for musical theatre, West Side Story has always been my favorite. (I sing and teach middle school chorus.) My daughter (whose birthday was Sunday) is a big fan of Phantom of the Opera. Looking forward to the rest of the books!
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I grew up in west Tennessee an hour north of Graceland (home of Elvis) and twenty minutes from Nutbush (birthplace of Tina Turner). I've been a reporter, editor, photographer and door-to-door vacuum cleaner salesman.
I now live in a Wisconsin town famous for trolls, write before six in the morning and try to teach my three kids to act like they've been to town before.
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The Army Children Archive (TACA)
Chronicling British army children's history
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Many old photographs featuring anonymous army children from times past have found their way to TACA. It seems a shame that these forgotten faces should continue to be disregarded, which is why we will be posting the photographs on TACA. (See also ‘The Army Children of the First World War: Faces and Families’, a set of photographic portraits of army children and their families photographed between 1914 and 1918 that are being posted on Flickr as part of TACA’s ‘The Army Children of the First World War’ project.) And if there is anything about any of images in this gallery of forgotten faces that you recognise, or would like to comment on, or if you have any such photographs of your own that you'd like to share, please contact TACA.
THE PEREZ FAMILY, 1860S
At least we have a family name for the five army children in the photograph below, thanks to the annotation written beneath it, which identifies their parents as being ‘Mr & Mrs Perez’ (a Spanish name). The two stripes on his upper sleeves tell us that Mr Perez is actually a corporal; it also seems that he has two good conduct stripes on his lower right sleeve, suggesting six years’ service of good conduct prior to 1881. The single loop decorating his cuffs indicates that he may have been serving in the Royal Engineers. The style of Mrs Perez’s clothes and hair suggests that this photograph may date from the 1860s.
A VICTORIAN ARMY FAMILY PHOTOGRAPHED IN CHATHAM, KENT
This small photograph of a Victorian army family, which has been pasted on to a carte de visite mount, has the following details emblazoned on the back: ‘Napoleon Syru’s Full Length Cartes de Visite / 3/6 Per Doz. / 16, Military Road, Chatham [in Kent] / J. G. Baker & Co. London’.
Four small army children are pictured with their parents against a studio backdrop. The three chevrons on their father’s left upper sleeve tell us that he is a sergeant; sadly, it is impossible to make out the badges on his left sleeve, or details of his medal.
Cartes de visite were particularly popular during the 1860s, and the style of clothes worn by the children and their mother indicate that the family may have been photographed during the later part of this decade.
A SERGEANT’S FAMILY PHOTOGRAPHED IN WOOLWICH, LONDON, MID-1860S OR 1870S
This age-damaged photograph of a Victorian British Army sergeant and his wife and three children has been printed on a carte de visite mount, a format popular from the 1860s until the early years of the twentieth century. The information printed on the front and the back of the mount tells us that the family visited the photographic studio of S Long, at 82 Wellington Street, Woolwich, in London, in order to be photographed. (An order number of 12377 has also been handwritten on the reverse.) The three stripes on his sleeves and the sash across his chest proclaim the sergeant’s rank. The style of his uniform, and those of his wife’s hairstyle and dress, suggest a date from the mid-1860s or 1870s. (You can view another photograph produced by the studio of Long & Faulkner at the same address below: ‘A TOY GUN FOR AN ARTILLERY SERGEANT’S SON, WOOLWICH, LONDON, 1880S’.)
A FARRIER SERGEANT’S FAMILY PHOTOGRAPHED IN YORK, C.1870
This photograph of an army family has not aged well, but then it is around 150 years old. Despite its condition, we can still make out details of the children’s soldier–father’s uniform, including three sergeant’s stripes (the horseshoe above indicates that he is a farrier sergeant), a swagger stick and a splendid moustache. In a notable family pose, both of the children and their father have placed their hands on their seated mother, whose clothing and hairstyle suggest a date of around 1870. Pasted on a carte de visite mount, the name and address of the photographer that produced the photograph is printed on the back: ‘H. Bramham’, of ’16 Colliergate, York’. According to one source, Henry Bramham’s business premises were based at 16 Colliergate from 1867 to 1905.
AN ARMY CHILD AND HER PARENTS, C.1880S
The black-and-white photograph below was pasted on to a blank carte de visite mount, with no photographer’s information printed on the back to tell us where it was taken. The subjects are an army child and her parents. Her soldier–father wears a Glengarry cap (worn from 1868 to 1897 by British soldiers) and rests a swagger cane on his knee. The two upward-pointing stripes on his right arm indicate six years’ good conduct, and it looks as though he has a marksman’s badge above them. The style of her mother’s clothes suggests a date of the early to mid-1880s.
A VICTORIAN ARMY FAMILY WITH AN ARRAY OF HEADGEAR
Various clues suggest a likely date for the studio photograph below, which shows a British Army sergeant seated next to his wife, flanked by their son and daughter; he holds a swagger cane, while his wife balances an umbrella on her knee. The photograph forms the central part of a cabinet print (not shown), a type particularly popular during the 1880s and 1890s. The father’s uniform and pillbox cap, which was worn before 1903, dates the photograph to the late nineteenth century. This evidence, combined with the styles of clothing, hairstyles and accessories worn by the army children and their mother, together suggest a date of around the late 1880s.
A TOY GUN FOR AN ARTILLERY SERGEANT’S SON, WOOLWICH, LONDON, 1880S
The cabinet portrait below was produced by Long & Faulkner, 82 Wellington Street, Woolwich, London, and shows a young army child (clutching a toy gun), his parents and an older man, most likely his grandfather. The three stripes on the boy’s father’s right sleeve indicate that he is a sergeant, as does his sash, while the crossed muskets on his left sleeve are the badge of a marksman. His mother’s outfit and hairstyle suggest a date during the 1880s, when the Royal Artillery was based at Woolwich.
AN ARMY FAMILY PHOTOGRAPHED AT SOUTHSEA, PORTSMOUTH, HAMPSHIRE
The photograph below was taken at W V Amey's photographic studio in Southsea, Portsmouth, Hampshire.
It shows three army children and their parents; judging from the four chevrons that can be seen on his lower sleeve, the children's father appears to be a warrant officer.
A SAILOR-SUITED ARMY CHILD AND HIS FAMILY, C.1895
An army family posed in an unknown photographer’s studio for this cabinet print, which is mounted on card. The boy at the front is wearing a sailor suit. His soldier–father is wearing a cavalryman’s pillbox cap and a patrol jacket. The four upward-pointing chevrons on his lower right sleeve indicate a quartermaster sergeant’s or quartermaster corporal major’s rank; a medal ribbon is visible on the left-hand side of his chest. The style of his wife’s clothing suggests a date of the mid-1890s.
A SERGEANT’S FAMILY PHOTOGRAPHED IN PRESTON, LANCASHIRE, LATE 1890S
The cabinet-print mount on which this photograph of a solemn-looking army child and her parents has been pasted tells us the name and address of the photographer’s studio in which they were pictured: Collinge, which was located at the back of Queen’s Buildings, Fishergate, Preston, in Lancashire. The three stripes on her soldier–father’s upper arm tell us that he was a sergeant (there seems to be a cannon above the chevrons, suggesting that he was an artillery sergeant), and the one visible collar badge appears to be a grenade, indicating that he was a fusilier. Her mother’s hairstyle and outfit point to a date of the late 1890s.
A SERGEANT IN THE ROYAL ENGINEERS AND HIS FAMILY, C.1895–98
This studio portrait of an army family measures 6½ x 4½ inches. Pictured are two army children and their parents. The three stripes and flaming grenade visible on their father’s upper arm indicate that he is a sergeant in the Royal Engineers. Their mother’s hairstyle and outfit suggest that the photograph was taken between 1895 and 1898.
POSING FOR THE PHOTOGRAPHER IN ROCHESTER, KENT
The small army family pictured in the studio portrait below most likely posed for the photographer at James J Eastmead’s establishment in Eastgate, Rochester, Kent, during the 1890s. The three chevrons and badge on his right arm suggest that the father of the family is an engineer sergeant.
AN ARMY FAMILY PHOTOGRAPHED IN NORTHAMPTON, 1890S
The photograph below of an army family that was taken at the studio of W H Parkinson, 27a Abington Street, Northampton, was presented as a cabinet print. The three stripes on his right sleeve tell us that the soldier–father is a sergeant; above them may be a flaming grenade topped by a crown (if this is the case, then he is probably an engineer sergeant). His wife’s hairstyle and clothing suggest a date from the mid- to late-1890s.
A LANCE CORPORAL’S FAMILY
The army family pictured in the formal photograph below probably presented themselves at the photographer’s studio during the 1890s. The father of the two boys and their small sister displays two medals on his chest, while the single chevron on his left sleeve indicates that he is a lance corporal.
A QUARTERMASTER-SERGEANT AND HIS FAMILY, C.1895
This photograph of an army family pictured outside shows two boys, one dressed in a sailor suit, the other wearing a Norfolk jacket, and their parents. The badges on their father’s right-hand sleeve indicate that he is a quartermaster-sergeant in the Royal Artillery and had qualified as a wheelwright. The style of the boys’ mother’s clothes and hair suggest a date of 1895 or 1896.
THE CONFIDENT CORPORAL’S FAMILY, C.1900
With his bristling moustache and confident pose, the corporal seen with his wife and baby in the photograph below looks every inch the proud soldier–father. Two downward-pointing chevrons are just visible on his right sleeve, proclaiming that he is a corporal, while the three upward-pointing chevrons on his left sleeve are good-conduct chevrons, or long-service stripes, indicating that he has served for at least twelve years. No regimental insignia are visible, but he is wearing undress uniform of the type worn by the Royal Artillery of the period.
The photograph is a studio portrait, stamped with the name and address of the photographer, namely Warwick Brookes, of Clifton Street, Old Trafford, Manchester. The style of the army wife’s clothing (she appears to be in mourning), and her hairstyle, suggest a date of the late 1890s or early 1900s.
A SERGEANT AND HIS FAMILY, C.1900
This old photograph of a sergeant and his family has not aged well. No doubt taken to commemorate the ghostly-looking baby’s christening, the style of the mother’s hair and clothes suggest a date of around 1900.
A LANCE-CORPORAL’S FAMILY PHOTOGRAPHED IN SHEERNESS-ON-SEA, KENT
Although it has been cropped out here, the photograph below was mounted as a cabinet print, emblazoned with the name of the photographic studio that produced it: ‘C. H. Lucas, Sheerness-on-Sea.’, Sheerness being in Kent. The family depicted comprises an elaborately dressed baby, its mother (her wedding ring prominently displayed) and its soldier–father. The single stripe on his right-hand sleeve tells us that he is a lance-corporal; he seems to have two good-conduct stripes on his left sleeve; while his collar badges appear to take the form of grenades. Put together, the visual clues in the photograph suggest that it dates from the first years of the twentieth century.
A PRE-WORLD WAR I ARMY FAMILY OF SEVEN
Books and metalware take centre stage in this postcard-backed black-and-white photograph of an army family dating from around a century ago. Prominent on the children's soldier father's right sleeve is an arm badge apparently showing the Prince of Wales' feathers above three point-down chevrons. If you can throw any further light on this photograph, please contact TACA.
AN ARMY FAMILY PICTURED IN FRONT OF MARRIED QUARTERS, C.1900
This photograph is displayed on a cardboard mount (cropped out here), with ‘Aunt Fanny’ written on the back. It shows an army family, and their dog, in front of a building that probably comprises married quarters. The children’s father is a sergeant, and although the details of the badge above his chevrons are indistinct, it may be a bandmaster’s badge. His medal may be the India Medal, awarded between 1895 and 1902. The style of his wife’s hair and clothes suggests a date of around 1900.
A DRUM MAJOR’S FAMILY PHOTOGRAPHED IN KENT
The photograph below was taken at the studio of Stuart Lancaster & Son, of ‘Chatham Intra Rochester’ (and ‘High Street Blue Town Sheerness’). A legend on the back describes Stuart Lancaster & Son as ‘Photographers to Her Late Majesty Queen Victoria’, which dates the image to some time after Victoria’s death on 22 January 1901.
The two army children whose faces were captured in the studio portrait are clearly dressed in their best, whitest clothes. The insignia on their father’s lower right arm consists of four point-up chevrons, with a drum positioned above them, indicating that he is a drum major. His medals are most likely the Ashanti Star, 1896, awarded for participation in the Gold Coast campaign, 1896, and the Ashanti Medal, 1901, awarded for action on the Gold Coast, 1900 (thanks to Paul McCormick, of http://www. britishwarmedals.co.uk, for his help in identifying them). It is difficult to make out his collar badges (they may show a Royal Engineers’ grenade), but at the time that this photograph was taken, Chatham, in the Medway district of Kent, was home to a number of military barracks, as well as the depot and headquarters of the Corps of Royal Engineers (RE), and it may be that he was a member of the RE depot band. (For more information on the history of the Royal Engineers, visit the website of the Royal Engineers Museum and Library: http://www.remuseum.org.uk.)
If you have anything more to add about this photograph, please contact TACA.
AN ARMY FAMILY PHOTOGRAPHED WITH EXOTIC PROPS, 1900S
Various clues suggest that the photograph reproduced below could have been taken abroad, namely the outdoor setting and lush vegetation; the army wife’s lightweight summer outfit; and what appears to be an animal skin or two on the ground. Judging by the style of the soldier–father’s uniform, and of his wife’s clothes, the army family who posed for the photographer most likely did so during the first decade of the twentieth century. The two chevrons on the soldier’s left-hand sleeve, visible to the right of the army child, are good conduct stripes (with a pair usually signifying six years’ service), while the crossed flags of a signaller are discernible above them.
THE FRILLED AND BERIBBONED SERGEANT’S GIRLS
Although the army family shown in the photograph below was captured on film outside, rather than confined within a photographer’s studio, the placement and poses of the army children and their parents remain formal. The style of the clothing and hairstyles of the mother and her daughters suggest that the photograph was taken during the first decade of the twentieth century. Their soldier-husband and -father’s uniform, sash, trio of ‘stripes’, medals and badges indicate that he is a sergeant who has qualified as a musketry instructor and was awarded the Queen’s South Africa and King’s South Africa medals.
ARMY CHILD FREDDIE HAYHURST AND HIS PARENTS, C.1905
Time has treated the real photographic postcard below badly, with the features of the soldier’s face being particularly hard to discern; his wife’s features are clearer, and their baby’s, even more so. Turning to the reverse, the division of this ‘post card’ into two halves indicates that it was produced in 1902 or later. There is a handwritten message (above), which at least supplies the army child’s name: ‘With Fondest Love & best wishes for a Bright & Happy Xmas From [?] & [?] Hayhurst & little Freddie x’. The single stripe on baby Freddie Hayhurst’s father’s upper right sleeve tells us that he is a lance corporal. He appears to have two upturned chevrons on his lower left sleeve, suggesting six years of good conduct. It is difficult to make out the detail of his collar badges, but they may be those of the Army Veterinary Corps; he also appears to have a medal ribbon above his left breast pocket. Freddie’s mother’s hairstyle and clothes suggest a date of around 1905.
‘THE DAUNTLESS THREE’, 1907
Gazing out at us from the front of this real photographic postcard is an army family photographed in front of a house. The elaborately dressed army child is perched on his or her seated mother’s lap. The three stripes on the child's soldier–father's sleeve tell us that he is a sergeant; his two medals bear many clasps. A message has been pencilled on the reverse. It reads: ‘February 1907 / With love from the dauntless three’.
FREDERICK JOSEPH AND HIS SOLDIER–FATHER, AN EARLY TWENTIETH-CENTURY PHOTOGRAPH
The reverse, message side, of this charming real photographic postcard is divided into two, which tells us that its earliest possible date is 1902. ‘Frederick Joseph’, the name of the small boy pictured on the front, is written in black ink on the back, along with his age: ‘1 year 8 months’. Sadly, his family name is not given, nor is the name of his soldier–father, whose uniform predates World War I, and which features a row of medal ribbons on the left breast.
AN ARMY FAMILY PHOTOGRAPHED IN BASINGSTOKE, HAMPSHIRE, C.1900–10
The army family pictured on the cabinet print below visited the ‘Southern Counties Photographic & Art Co’ studio at ’27, Potters Lane, Basingstoke’ in order to be photographed. The family comprises a British soldier, his wife and three children. The style of the outfits worn by his wife and elder daughter suggests that the photograph dates from the first decade of the twentieth century.
AN EDWARDIAN ARMY FAMILY POSED AGAINST A ROMANTIC BACKDROP
The small army family that once posed stiffly in front of a photographic studio’s romantic backdrop are clearly dressed in their best: the soldier–father is wearing his medals; his wife, a frilly white blouse and tailored skirt; while their small son sports shiny shoes, an elaborate collar and neatly brushed hair. The address of the studio, written on the front of this photographic postcard, should have made it easy to trace – had the writing been more legible (and if anyone can decipher it, please let us know). They are difficult to make out, but there may be four good-conduct chevrons on the soldier’s lower left arm, denoting eighteen years’ service; his white belt suggests a date before 1908, while the postcard mount on which the photograph is printed indicates a date no earlier than 1902.
THE FAMILY OF A BOER WAR VETERAN, 1900S
A number of clues indicate that this army family of five was photographed at the start of the twentieth century. The soldier’s luxuriant moustache suggests that it was within the first decade of the 1900s, his white-leather belt further narrowing down the date to before 1908. In addition, he appears to be wearing the Queen’s South Africa medal and the King’s South Africa medal, both of which were awarded for service in the Boer War, between 11 October 1899 and 31 May 1902 and after 1 January 1902 respectively. The details of the badges on his collar and belt buckle are too indistinct to make out, but the circular badge containing a red cross on his right arm tells us that he was a medic, that is, that he was serving in the Royal Army Medical Corps (RAMC); he also wears the blue dress tunic that signifies a corps. The style of the children and their mother’s clothes – notably the boy’s sailor suit and the older girl’s laced-up boots, along with their mother’s hairstyle – also point to a date of between 1900 and 1910. His wife’s black dress, and the black button that punctuates the line of shiny brass buttons on the soldier’s tunic, together tell us that the adults are in mourning. The photograph is printed on a postcard, the back of which states that it was produced by the Curzon Studios, an East London photographic enterprise then based at 115 and 168, The Grove, Stratford, and 656 Romford Road, Manor Park.
VISITING AN ARMY CAMP BETWEEN THE BOER WAR AND WORLD WAR I
A gust of wind has caused an army child’s collar to blow up and obscure his face as he is snapped with three adults who are likely to be his parents and grandmother at an army camp somewhere in England (possibly Salisbury Plain) at the start of the twentieth century. An arrangement of rifles can be seen behind the family group, which is posed in front of a veritable village of tents, these being temporary accommodation for the soldier pictured here and his brothers-in-arms; the women and small boy are clearly visitors. The style of their soldier–relative’s uniform, with its white facings, predates World War I, while his service-dress cap dates from 1905. Three chevrons indicating a sergeant’s rank are just visible on his right sleeve, and he wears an NCO’s sash. His medals and cap and collar badges are indistinct (the cap badge may be that of the Hampshire Regiment), but the medals appear to include the Queen’s and King’s South Africa medals for service in the Boer War, and maybe also a long service and good conduct medal. As you might expect, the older woman wears a more old-fashioned (and more elaborate) outfit than the boy’s mother, whose hat and blouse suggest a date between 1905 and 1910. This photograph was printed as a postcard.
A LANCE CORPORAL’S FAMILY PHOTOGRAPHED IN A FOREIGN SETTING, C.1905
The photograph of a lance corporal and his family shown below has been overexposed, so that his wife’s features are not easily to discern, and that of their baby even less so. Judging by the plants behind them and what appears to be a verandah, the trio – Arthur, Emily and baby James – were photographed in a foreign setting. The postcard was printed on a postcard mount, its central division indicating a date after 1902. Identifiable details of Arthur’s uniform include grenade collar badges, suggesting that he is a fusilier; a saddler’s trade badge (above his lance corporal’s stripe); the white trousers that were worn in hot climates; and braided shoulder straps, which were prevalent between around 1904 and 1907.
The message written on the back (below) reads, ‘To wish you both & Children a Merry Xmas & a Happy new Year. From Arthur Emily & James to Mr & Mrs Gamble xxxxx’.
AN ARMY FAMILY PHOTOGRAPHED IN 1906
The handwritten message on the back of the real photographic postcard shown below reads, ‘With love and all best wishes for the joy of the Season; from Alfred & Nellie / Whitsuntide 1906’ (right). Alfred and Nellie are presumably the parents of the two army children in the photograph. The two chevrons on their soldier–father’s right sleeve tell us that he is a corporal, while the badge above it indicates that he is a medical orderly.
AN EDWARDIAN LANCE CORPORAL AND HIS FAMILY PHOTOGRAPHED IN KENT, C.1906
Printed on a postcard mount, this photograph of a lance corporal, his wife, daughters and dog was franked in Ashford, Kent, on 24 May 1906. The handwritten message from the army wife pictured here, to her sister in Tunbridge Wells, Kent, reads, ‘Dear Isobel, I shall be so glad if you will send me the fashion books as I cannot get them here. I am not very well this week I’ve got neuralgia but Tom is going into Ashford to get me something this evening. Love to all from us all your loving sister Lall’.
The black stockings and boots worn by the two boys in this photograph of an army family, which probably dates from the first decade of the twentieth century, are in striking contrast to their light-coloured suits. The three chevrons beneath a crown that are visible on their father’s right-hand sleeve indicate that he is a quartermaster sergeant.
A SUNNY DAY ON A FOREIGN BEACH A CENTURY AGO
The photographic postcard below dates from the early decades of the twentieth century and shows a group of British soldiers with two army wives and four children enjoying a sunny day at the beach, probably in India. The men, in shirtsleeve order, wear Wolseley helmets, as does the lady at the front, who has swapped her hat with the man who is grinning broadly behind her.
A SUNNY DAY AT WHITTING BARRACKS, LICHFIELD, STAFFORDSHIRE, c.1900-10
The black-and-white postcard below was produced by Mills Studios in Brownhills, in the West Midlands, and shows a sergeant posing with his wife and their small son on Whittington Heath against the backdrop of Whitting (or Whittington) Barracks, Lichfield, Staffordshire, then home to the South Staffordshire and Prince of Wales’s (North Staffordshire) regiments (click here for more information about the barracks). The lady’s boater-style hat, along with her outfit, suggest a date of between 1900 and 1910; she has opened her umbrella to protect herself from the sun.
THE SAYERS FAMILY, WOOLWICH, LATE 1900S
This photograph of a Victorian army family has been inserted into an ornate mount produced by USA Studios, which had branches in London and the provinces, according to the typeset details on the reverse. ‘Woolwich’, in south-east London, has also been stamped on the back, and a handwritten note identifies the family as ‘Grandma & Grandpa Sayers / Mütti / U. Freddie / U. Jim’. (Presumably the little girl grew up to become a mother, and her brothers, uncles.) The children’s bemedalled soldier–father is wearing a hussar’s tunic. The three stripes on his left sleeve tell us that he is a sergeant, but details of the badge above are not discernible. Their mother’s hairstyle and outfit suggests a date of around 1908.
A TUG-OF-WAR TEAM, DEEPCUT, SURREY, 1909
A neatly penned note on the back of the postcard below tells us that we are looking at a proudly posed boys’ tug-of-war team photographed at Deepcut in May 1909. Deepcut Barracks was established in Surrey in 1903, when it became home to the Royal Field Artillery (RFA), and the presence of the soldier at the centre of the photograph (whom the writer seems to identify as Bombardier Barnard) suggests that the boys are likely to have been army children.
A PRE-1918 VISIT TO AN ARMY CAMP
Two young girls wearing large hats and white dresses feature prominently in the image shown above, which is photographic postcard dating from before 1918.
Perhaps pictured on a family visit to a temporary army camp, the enlarged detail at right reveals that the girls are standing alongside a sergeant wearing a pillbox cap and another soldier who is wearing a forage cap.
AN ARMY CHILD’S CHRISTENING, C.1910
This photograph of an army family, who posed in front of a makeshift backdrop, was printed on a postcard mount with a divided back, meaning that it dates from after 1902. The style of the soldier’s uniform, together with those of his wife’s hair and clothes, suggest a date of around 1910. Their sleeping baby is wearing a christening gown, indicating that this photograph was taken to mark his or her baptism.
A PRE-1914 WEST-COUNTRY ARMY FAMILY
This photograph of an army family was printed on a postcard with a divided back, which means that it dates from 1902. The name of the photographic studio that produced it is embossed across the bottom right-hand corner: ‘E. & F. Baldwin / BATH & CHELTENHAM.’ [respectively in Somerset and Gloucestershire]. The baby’s soldier–father appears to be wearing a blue tunic of the type usual before 1914, suggesting that he belongs to a corps, while his collar badges appear to have the outline of a fired grenade, suggesting that the corps in question is either the Royal Engineers or the Royal Artillery. The army child appears to be wearing a christening gown.
A BOMBARDIER’S FAMILY PHOTOGRAPHED IN WALMER, KENT, 1910S
This photograph of a corporal and his wife and child was printed on a divided postcard back, which means that it dates from some time after 1902. Details of the photographic studio that printed it are given on the reverse: ‘E Neame Roff, 66, The Strand, Walmer [in Kent]’. The baby’s mother’s hairstyle and outfit suggest a date of between 1910 and 1914. His flaming-grenade collar badges and the two chevrons on his sleeve, along with other details of his uniform, indicate that the soldier is a bombardier in the Royal Artillery.
AN INFORMAL SNAPSHOT OF AN EARLY-TWENTIETH-CENTURY ARMY FAMILY
Most of the World War I-era photographs that have survived are studio portraits, so this charming informal snapshot of a relaxed-looking soldier and his family makes a striking contrast. Although no rank or unit badges are visible on the soldier-father’s uniform, his puttees and tunic, as well as his family’s hairstyles and clothes, suggest that this photograph (which was intended to be used as a postcard) was taken some time after 1907.
THREE ARMY FAMILIES PHOTOGRAPHED SHORTLY BEFORE WORLD WAR I
Judging by the women’s hairstyles and clothes, the black-and-white postcard below dates from between around 1910 and 1914. It appears to show three army families: three soldiers, their wives, their sons and daughters and a dog. Their collar badges indicate that the soldiers (wearing ‘blues’) belong to the same unit (probably a regiment of fusiliers), with the chevron and crossed flags on the central soldier’s right sleeve suggesting that he is a signalling lance corporal. The rugged backdrop and the rugs on which the army children are arranged suggest that the families were snapped on an outing.
COMMEMORATING A CHRISTENING
The style of the mother and older children’s clothes, and of the soldier father’s uniform (the bandolier is its only distinctive visible feature), dates this photograph to around World War I. Looking at the baby’s long, white gown, the photograph may have been taken to commemorate its christening; none of the family looks particularly happy, however.
A WORLD WAR I ‘TEMPORARY’ ARMY FAMILY
The soldier standing behind them being almost certainly a World War I volunteer rather than a regular soldier, the three youngsters captured on film between 1914 and 1918 in the photograph below were therefore probably only temporarily army children. This suggests that they were no doubt spared frequent house moves, but not the difficulty and anxiety of having an absentee father who was in very real danger of being killed or injured. The ‘S’-shaped buckle of the belt that their father is wearing was a feature of the 1914 Pattern uniform. His cap badge is that of the South Staffordshire Regiment.
SUMMERTIME SMILES
This charming summertime photographic portrait of an army family dates from World War I. All that we know for certain about the father of the two girls, thanks to the three stripes on his sleeves, is that he is a sergeant. Its details are little indistinct, but his cap badge may be that of the Royal Engineers.
AN ARMY FAMILY PHOTOGRAPHED IN BURTON ON TRENT, STAFFORDSHIRE, IN 1920
The three members of the army family who posed for the black-and-white photograph below did so at Simnett’s, a photographic studio that is still based at 2 Guild Street, Burton on Trent, Staffordshire. A handwritten note on the back of the photographic postcard states that the photograph was taken on 18 April 1920. Judging by his medal ribbons, the soldier–father of the smartly dressed army child in the foreground served in World War I; the collar badges that would have identified his regiment or corps are indistinct.
‘DADDY MARCHING WITH HIS SOLDIERS’
The photograph below, printed on Velox photographic paper, shows a British soldier at the head of a column of turban-wearing troops. The location is unknown, but the message on the back (bottom), written by the British soldier to his child, provides some context: ‘Daddy marching with his soldiers. We marched 60 miles in 3 days and slept on that nasty stony ground without any beds or tents.’
A PIONEER SERGEANT'S FAMILY
Shown below is a studio portrait of an army family probably photographed during the early years of the twentieth century. Judging by the crossed axes above the three chevrons on his left sleeve, and by the visible lion collar badge, the father of the family was a pioneer sergeant in the King's Own Royal Regiment (Lancaster). (See the King's Own Royal Regiment Museum's website for an overview of the regiment's history: http://www. kingsownmuseum.plus.com.)
Peter Donnelly, curator of the King's Own Royal Regiment Museum in Lancaster, has kindly confirmed that the soldier father is wearing the uniform of a pioneer sergeant in the King's Own Royal Regiment (Lancaster). As he explains, Peter has, in addition, dated the photograph to the early 1920s:
'I can confirm that the pioneer sergeant in the photograph is serving with the King's Own Royal Regiment after the First World War. The medal ribbons are for the 1914 or 1914/15 Star, British War and Allied Victory Medal, which means the soldier served through the First World War. There were a good number of men who joined during the war and continued to serve after the war, being required to re-enlist. I am pretty sure that the photograph is taken in Burma or India in the early 1920s, from the style of jacket, which means the sergeant is with the 2nd Battalion.'
Many thanks to Peter for throwing further light on these forgotten faces.
A SNUGLY DRESSED 1920S’ ARMY CHILD AND HER FAMILY
While her mother’s coat has a fur collar and cuffs, the small army child in this back-garden snapshot wears a woolly top and side-buttoning leggings to combat the cold. It is difficult to make out the details of her soldier-father’s collar and sleeve badges, or the row of medal ribbons above his left-hand breast pocket, but the three chevrons on his sleeve clearly proclaim his rank: sergeant. In fact, the indistinct badges look suspiciously like flaming grenades, so it is likely that he is an engineer sergeant. His wife’s cloche hat dates this photograph to the 1920s.
AN ARMY FAMILY SNAPPED DURING THE 1920S
Judging by the style of the hats worn by the two girls, and also that of their mother, the snapshot of this army family (below) was taken during the 1920s. A handwritten note on the back tells us that the beaming soldier was an ‘Uncle Frank’ to someone, and the two stripes on his right arm indicate that he was a corporal when he posed with his wife and daughters for the photographer; his collar badges are indistinct, however.
AN ARMY FAMILY PHOTOGRAPHED IN BANGALORE, INDIA, C.1920S
A stamp on the back of this real photographic postcard tells us that the pictured army family was photographed by ‘A. P. S. Pane, Regtl. [Regimental] Photographer. Bangalore. [or Bengaluru, in India]’. A handwritten note ‘To Cyril & Rose and Little one’ from ‘Beat Doll & Doug’ also gives the family’s first names. Guessing that Doll is the little girl, the clothes worn by her mother, Beat, suggest that the photograph dates from the 1920s. Doug, Doll’s soldier–father, has a row of medal ribbons above his left-hand jacket pocket and flaming grenades for collar badges. The three stripes on his sleeve and badge above tell us that he is a quartermaster sergeant in the Royal Artillery.
A FANCILY-DRESSED ARMY FAMILY OF FOUR, MID-1920S
The studio portrait below portrays an army family of four photographed in around the mid-1920s, judging by the style of the mother’s outfit, with the two army children clearly being dressed in their best clothes, with freshly brushed hair. Although his collar and shoulder badges can’t be made out, his open-necked jacket, shirt, tie and Sam Browne belt indicate that the soldier is an officer.
A WEDDING IN GIBRALTAR, 1926
This photographic postcard shows a wedding that took place eight years after World War I ended. A note written on the back gives the time as Saturday 27 November 1926, and the place as South Barracks Church, Gibraltar, but does not name the bride and groom. Zooming in, the three stripes on the groom’s sleeves tell us that he is a sergeant, as is the bemedalled soldier on the right, who is smiling, unlike the small flower girl (most likely an army child) standing on the steps next to the bride. The badge on the sleeve of the soldier on the left features a harp, indicating that he is a bandmaster. On the far right, a woman readies herself to throw confetti.
AN ARMY FAMILY PHOTOGRAPHED ABROAD BETWEEN THE WARS
The pictured army family was photographed alongside exotic-looking props, suggesting a foreign location, perhaps India. Also notable is the stone-flagged floor and large arched window behind a diaphanous curtain. The small boy is obviously dressed in his best, while his mother’s hairstyle and clothes suggest the 1920s or 1930s. His soldier–father has a long row of medal ribbons on his chest. The three chevrons on his left arm tell us that he is a sergeant, what appears to be a crown above indicating a senior sergeant’s rank. The photograph has been printed on a postcard mount. A handwritten note on the back reads ‘C.M.S. Riddle’.
AN ARMY FAMILY PHOTOGRAPHED BETWEEN THE WARS IN MULTAN, INDIA
There is a handwritten message on the back of the real photographic postcard shown below. It reads: ‘To Aunt Lucy and all at Commonside with best wishes from all at Multan’; there is a signature, but it is illegible. Pictured on the front are two young boys, their baby sibling and their parents. Their soldier–father is wearing British Army tropical uniform, including shorts, puttees and hosetops. Judging by the style of the clothes worn by the boys and their mother, the photograph is likely to date from between the wars. Multan, now in Pakistan, was then part of India.
A ROYAL ARTILLERY FAMILY OF THE 1930S
No rank insignia is visible on the uniform worn by the father of the two army children in the studio portrait below right, but certain visual clues tell us more about when he served in the British Army, and in which regiment.
The soldier’s cloth puttees and field service (FS) cap, or side hat, suggest a date of between 1933 and 1939, as do the hairstyles and clothes of his wife and young daughter.
Pinned to his small son’s jacket is a military badge (see the detail above left) that appears to be based on the field-gun cap badge of the Royal Regiment of Artillery, with which his father was no doubt serving at the time that the photograph was taken.
A BETWEEN-THE-WARS ARMY FAMILY PHOTOGRAPHED IN ALEXANDRIA, EGYPT
An identifying stamp in the bottom-right-hand corner of this photographic postcard tells us that it was produced by Shahen & Co, Alexandria. Alexandria was one of the main bases for British troops in Egypt between World War I and World War II, most likely the time when this army child was photographed with her parents. Her soldier–father’s medal-ribbon bar suggests that he served in World War I; his shoulder title is too indistinct to tell us his unit, however.
A 1930S’ ROYAL ARTILLERY FAMILY
Presented as a postcard, the black-and-white photograph below shows a Royal Artillery soldier and his family. Clearly dressed in their best clothes, the two army children seem to be standing apprehensively to attention as they face the photographer. Their other-rank father wears two good-conduct stripes on his lower-left sleeve, awarded after six years of service.
A TWENTIETH-CENTURY ARMY FAMILY PHOTOGRAPHED IN BATH, SOMERSET
Gazing out at us from the black-and-white photograph below is an army family of five. The position of the three children’s hands is notable: the older children’s are touching their parents’ shoulders, while their younger sister’s rest on their father’s hand and their mother’s arm. The grenade badge and three stripes on their soldier–father’s upper arm indicate that he is an engineer sergeant; he also wears grenade collar badges, and medal ribbons are visible above his left-hand tunic pocket. The details of his cap badge are difficult to make out. Printed information on the reverse informs us that the family was photographed at Mower’s Studios, on Westgate Street, Bath, in Somerset, probably between the wars.
A MID-TWENTIETH-CENTURY LANCASHIRE FUSILIER FAMILY
The photograph shown below, of two young parents and their baby, was taken at the Oxford Studio, 133 Oxford Road, All Saints, Manchester, during the 1930s or 1940s. The soldier–father’s cap badge identifies his regiment as the Lancashire Fusiliers.
A SERGEANT-MAJOR’S FAMILY PHOTOGRAPHED IN DORCHESTER, DORSET, C.1937–41
This black-and-white photograph of a sergeant major and his family is printed on a postcard mount; the name and address of the studio in which the family is pictured is stamped on the bottom right-hand corner: H P Webber, Cornhill, Dorchester. The style of the sergeant major’s tunic and side cap suggests a date of between 1937 and 1941; the most notable feature of his uniform are his medal ribbons and sergeant-major's crowns. His wife and daughter’s clothes and hairstyles suggest the same period.
FORGOTTEN FACES: A SEPARATED ARMY FAMILY, 1940S
The composite postcard of a separated army family reproduced below was produced as a real photographic postcard by Studio Aram, as is stamped on the back.
A British soldier is pictured gazing at the camera, apparently writing in the book in front of him. His field service cap lies on the table, and the cap badge tells us that he is serving in the Royal Artillery. Together, his battle dress, field service cap and arm-of-service stripe suggest that this photograph dates from World War II.
Inset in the top right-hand corner is a photograph of the soldier’s son and wife. Look closely at the bottom right-hand corner, and it is clear that the photograph above was copied from the one that you can see there: the boy’s posture is the same, although in this image, his soldier–father is sitting on his right, while his mother, on his left, has been cropped out. The soldier must have given Studio Aram the photograph of the three of them to enable the production of the main, composite image.
© TACA @ www.archhistory.co.uk
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Architects & Historical Figures
O’Toole, Shane
Studied at University College Dublin, graduating 1979. Worked with Lynch O’Toole Walsh Architects (1979-86) and then as Project Manager at the Energy Research Group, University College Dublin (1986-91). Director of Group ’91 Architects. He has practised privately since 1991 and has been architect with Tegral Building Products since 1994. President of the AAI (1982-3) and Vice-President of the RIAL (1988). Founder of the Irish DoCoMoMo Working Party in 1991, he has received awards for his architectural work, including the Grand Prix at the Krakow Biennale (1989) and the AAI Downes Medal (1996). He has written widely on architectural subjects and curated the exhibitions ‘Collaboration: The Pillar Project’ (1988) and ‘Tales Prom Two Cities: Emerging Architects in Dublin and Edinburgh’. He has taught at University College Dublin and at the University of Edinburgh.
Tags: critic, Group '91 Architects, Irish architects, Lynch O'Toole Walsh Architects, Shane O'Toole
January 25, 2019: 14 Henrietta Street shortlisted for Mies van der Rohe Award 2019
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The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire - 8 Volumes
Gibbon, Edward
Gleick, James - Chaos: Making a New Science - ( Item 126645 )
Published in London by Folio Society. 2015. First Thus. Fine Hardback. No inscriptions or bookplates. Fine slipcase. Dazzling colour images illuminate this award-winning story of game-changing scientific theory. James Gleick's chronicle, written in 1987, reveals a fascinating world of fractals, strange attractors and smooth noodle maps. He captures the astonished determination of its pioneers and explores its exciting and sometimes startling impact on our quest for knowledge. Today it is understood that chaos is not opposed but integral to the two other revolutionary theories of the 20th century � relativity and quantum mechanics. Moreover, it is now known that chaos has a hand, not just in the workings of the world we inhabit, but in the wider universe: the sun, black holes, and even the big bang. As well as Gleick's 2008 afterword, this edition features colour illustrations that visualise the intricate beauty of chaos theory. Chaos: Making a New Science book. Quarter-bound in cloth with printed paper sides, with a design by Raquel Leis Allion. Set in Haarlemmer with Century Gothic display. 368 pages. Frontispiece and 24 pages of colour plates, and integrated black & white diagrams. 9 �" x 6�". A new world of understanding unfolds. 'Beautifully lucid � Gleick has a novelist's touch for describing his scientists and their settings, an eye for the apt analogy, and a sense of the dramatic and the poetic'. SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE. 'Where chaos begins, classical science stops.' This sentence, from the prologue to Gleick's enthralling book, conveys the dramatic impact of a theory that initially appeared to subvert the very laws of nature. Those laws were predicated on a degree of 'special ignorance' about the disorder inherent in every aspect of our world � from Earth's atmosphere to the human heart. They assumed that Newton's rules of motion provided 'a bridge of mathematical certainty', and that in any system � be it cotton prices, a waterwheel or a measles epidemic � small disturbances had minor effects. These ideas were first challenged in the 1960s by the meteorologist Edward Lorenz and his game-changing experiments. His weather simulators revealed the existence of ostensibly erratic patterns, infinitely varied but operating within specific parameters. What's more, these patterns were enormously sensitive to subtle changes in input; a phenomenon popularly known as the Butterfly Effect. The early chaoticists, whose ideas were greeted variously with exhilaration, laughter and animosity, pushed towards a new paradigm that embraced the complex 'orderly disorder' in the collective behaviour of every entity and substance known to mankind. 'Reading it gave me the sensation that someone had just found the light switch'. DOUGLAS ADAMS. From the Folio Society description.
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FERPA / FOIL
Application for Public Access to Records (PDF)
The Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (20 U.S.C. § 1232g; 34 CFR Part 99) is a Federal law that protects the privacy of student education records. The law applies to all schools that receive funds under an applicable program of the U.S. Department of Education. FERPA gives parents certain rights with respect to their children's education records. These rights transfer to the student when he or she reaches the age of 18 or attends a school beyond the high school level. Students to whom the rights have transferred are "eligible students."
Go to http://www.ed.gov/policy/gen/guid/fpco/doc/ferpa-hippa-guidance.pdf for the complete document and additional information.
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210 – The Peterloo Massacre
“They say there’ll be thousands pouring into Manchester tomorrow. From all over the county, north and south. It’ll be a piece of history. People will remember this!”
Lost in the smog of the Industrial Revolution, the TARDIS crashes four miles south of Manchester, in the grounds of Hurley Hall – a grand mansion belonging to a local factory owner, a proudly self-made man. But while Hurley dreams of growing richer still on the wealth of secret knowledge locked up in the Doctor’s time and space machine, his servants hope only for a fair day’s pay for a fair day’s work. His young maid Cathy, for instance, whom Nyssa learns is looking forward to joining the working people’s march to St Peter’s Field, in the heart of the city. There’ll be speeches and banners and music. It’ll be like one big jamboree…
Or so she thinks. For the city’s establishment have called in their own private militia, to control the crowd. One of the darkest days in Manchester’s history is about to unfold – and the Doctor, Nyssa and Tegan are right in the thick of it.
THE PETERLOO MASSACRE
The final entry in this year’s Peter Davison trilogy is “The Peterloo Massacre” from Paul Magrs, and it stands as one of the most interesting and yet most frustrating Big Finish releases in recent memory. As a piece of drama it is quite often brilliantly gripping, yet it’s also as subtle as being smacked upside the head with a boat oar and features a nearly pointless final episode.
“The Peterloo Massacre” is about the historical event of the same name, when a large, peaceful assembly of working class protestors from in and around Manchester was attacked by the military, resulting in multiple deaths and hundreds of casualties. It’s considered one of the most brutal, repressive moments of that century in England, and Magrs does not shy away from that idea. This is presented in the grand tradition of the Hartnell historicals: there’s no celebrity, no alien influence, just the TARDIS crew thrown into a horrible situation and trying to survive until they can get back to the TARDIS and leave. By the time the Doctor realizes when and where they’ve landed, Tegan and Nyssa have become involved in local events, and much of the story is spent with the Doctor desperately trying to find his friends before they’re caught in the carnage. There is a building, pervasive sense of dread throughout the first three episodes of “The Peterloo Massacre” – you can hear each step down the road to the massacre, and you can hear each moment at which it could have been averted but wasn’t. When the massacre finally happens, as the climax to the third episode, the presentation is truly horrifying – Nigel Fairs deserves all the credit in the world for some particularly disturbing sound design. In many ways, this buildup and explosion resembles the TV story “The Massacre,” a story that is rightly perceived as a classic to this day.
Unfortunately, for everything that “Peterloo” does right, it also takes a number of drastic missteps. Chief among them is an utter lack of anything resembling subtlety: virtually every guest character in the story is lovingly drawn from the finest stock clichés. Hurley (Robbie Stevens) is everything you’d expect from a villainous industrialist: he cares for nothing but profit, he holds the lives of his workers in disregard, he’s a “self-made man” who holds the working class in contempt because they didn’t better themselves like he did, and so forth. His wife (Liz Morgan) is even more over the top, irrationally dismissing Cathy (Hayley Jayne Standing) from her service and ordering Nyssa out of the house. The soldiers are cackling drunks to a man. And the working class characters are no better – Cathy is the noble, heroic maid who wants to better herself, while her father (Wayne Forester) is representative of the old order, exhorting his daughter to know her place and never question her betters. Even Tegan is relentlessly one-note, unable to keep her mouth shut for even a moment about inequality and workers’ rights. About the only character with any depth outside of the Doctor and Nyssa is William (Gerard Kearns), but even he’s just hopelessly naïve.
And then there’s the final episode, which I’m still struggling to understand. The massacre happens at the end of episode three – this is both the historical and dramatic climax of the story, meaning that Magrs leaves a full quarter of the running time for denouement. Some of this is put to good use: seeing what happens to Cathy and her son, for example, and giving us some of the most intense acting we’ve ever heard from Sarah Sutton. But for most of the episode we follow Hurley as he has a crisis of conscience, suddenly wondering if slaughtering unarmed innocents was a good idea or not. I’m not sure if I was supposed to feel any sympathy for him, but trying to add depth to a character that just spent three episodes as a screamingly unsubtle villain strikes me as a misstep. There’s also the question of the parentage of the baby: it’s plain from the start that the baby is Cathy’s son, not her little brother, but I don’t think that was supposed to be a big surprise. But who’s the father? All the evidence points to William, and right at the end Nyssa dramatically reveals this to his parents. Shock! Horror! The wealthy industrialist’s son has been dallying with the maid! The family is disgraced! But no – actually, Nyssa was wrong, and William is not the father. So who was? We never find out, because immediately after that “revelation,” the crew leaves in the TARDIS! What on earth was the point of any of that?
I mentioned before that Sarah Sutton turns in a powerful performance in this story, one that’s quite unexpected given her usual reserved performance. But Peter Davison steals the show: his Doctor is absolutely infuriated by the massacre and its surrounding events, and utterly frustrated at his inability to intervene. It’s so rare to hear the fifth Doctor genuinely angry, and his righteous fury is therefore shocking and powerful listening. I’m very pleased to hear one of the lead actors being challenged by a Big Finish script, and even more pleased to hear an actor of his considerable talent rising to the occasion.
Overall, then, “The Peterloo Massacre” is a mixed bag. At its best, it’s comparable to the very best Big Finish releases. At its worst, it’s crushingly unsubtle and seems to waste its final episode. So it’s tough to give a score – but I enjoyed listening despite the flaws.
Recommended, ultimately.
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Featured Posts, Features
by Swati Godbole
The setup is quick. The screen darkens, the credits play first, as they used to back in the day, the noir, ominous music a portending of what’s to come. 50 seconds of a scrolling-text-backstory later, we are thrust into the post-apocalyptic world of Blade Runner, its sky-high towers, flying cars, and video-call machines, these gizmos a mere reminder of the civilisation that once was. For much else is a complete shambles. Airships advertise hope from this world of grunge, “A new life… in the Off-world colonies. The chance to begin again…”
The behemoth, Tyrell Corporation rules big in this new universe with its genetically-engineered robot slaves, called Replicants. However, the Nexus 6-phase Replicants, having mutinied on another planet and escaped, are illegal on earth, to be executed by special police squads called Blade Runner; the process subtly termed ‘Retirement’.
One would be remiss not to notice from the outset, from the first few scenes of futuristic cityscapes, the incredible sets and visual effects achieved by the film in an age without CGI. (Even the 2007 version does not modify the original’s special effects). Less convincing though, is the time frame of the story, even if one were to watch the film in the earlier part of this decade. The film is set in 2019, a year that we have now sailed almost midway through, and there isn’t much in the physical world of the film that suggests any resemblance to present reality. Still, for the purpose of fiction and enjoyment, one could suppose the year is 2119 instead.
There is however, sufficient novelty and suspense within the opening minutes to distract from that cognitive dissonance. Smoky streets, food stalls, signage, costumes — all sizzle with exotic, middle eastern and Asian flavors. And then there is the Voight-Kampff Test, the quintessential tool to determining: What makes us Human?
“How can It not know What it is?” wonders Rick Deckard (Harrison Ford) after one such test. How do we know who we are? That we are not carbon-based robots, or humans in a vat in The Matrix? Are we born with that innate knowing, or is it built into us through community, and experiences over time, essentially through memories? Memories are tentative. Memories are malleable, even programmable, in real-life as much as in sci-fi. Much of film as well as psychological literature has explored its mystery. In a classic case, some convicted killers, who were later exonerated by DNA evidence, claimed to remember their crime clearly.
We don’t quite know who we are without our memory of the self. But are memories of our selves reliable? That’s perhaps the most disconcerting aspect about Dementia and Alzheimer’s, and the film explores this aspect beautifully. What is real, if memories are unreliable? What about emotional response? And Empathy, that crowning glory of Human emotion? Psychopaths, they say, are devoid of empathy. Is that the only barometer of humanness? It must be morality then, that humanity prides itself on. Surely, wars and violence are not caused by moral, empathetic humans?
The Replicants are cruel to humans, unflinchingly torturing and murdering, this trait a marked departure from the ‘Androids’ in Philip K. Dick’s book Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, on which the movie is based. The Androids mostly avoid confrontation so that they may survive longer. But then, it is important to note that Replicants and Androids are not interchangeable terms either, and many critics seem unaware that Blade Runner’s Replicants are quite different from Philip K. Dick’s Androids: they are genetically-engineered, virtually identical, but superior in strength and agility to humans, while Androids are electronic creations.
This one difference between Replicants and Androids, renders the question: ‘What makes us Human?’ even more compelling in the film than in the book. There is romance and love, of course, as only humans know of. The film has a layered and generous serving of that, not altogether unnecessary yet drawn out, and one wonders if the cloying scenes serve only to draw the interest of the female palate (as stereotypical or sexist that might be), for it is another of many departures from the book.
The film does not explore, as the book does, the many moral, emotional, social, practical and ideological intricacies of living in a post-apocalyptic world as this, and that is perhaps more a limitation of the medium than the film per se, but by focusing on the essence of the story, the film retains much complexity, and does the book the odd justice that few films successfully manage.
And then there is mortality, the eventual fate of everything in existence. As Deckard says in the book, “Electrical things have their lives too, paltry as those lives are.” But mortality doesn’t make us human though every human, questions it, debates it, fears it, tries to circumvent it, and eventually, though not always, accepts it. As do the Replicants. “Quite an experience to live in fear, isn’t it?”, says replicant Roy Batty (Rutger Hauer) as he looks into the precipice in the final scene. What follows that though, are the most iconic and poignant lines of the film, crafted by Rutger Hauer himself.
Nearly four decades after this film hit the screens in 1982, Blade Runner remains an alarmingly relevant and poignant reminder of the many ethical questions and issues that face the human race as it goes headlong into the terrific and terrifying world of CRISPR gene-editing technology. The first genetically modified animal, a mouse, was created in 1974. Livestock has been genetically modified for producing more meat, disease-resistance, milk and other economically profitable traits since 1985. In 2003, the GloFish, a fluorescent version of the Zebrafish, became the first genetically modified animal that was commercialized in the USA.
While transgenic animals may seem harmless, entertaining, or even beneficial, issues become greyer and graver when it comes to human gene-editing aka playing God. In 2017, for the first time, researchers in the USA used gene-editing in human embryos to remove a mutation associated with a common inherited heart disease. These embryos were subsequently destroyed. However, in November 2018, Chinese researcher Jiankui He, caused global controversy and outrage when he announced he had used the CRISPR technology to edit the DNA of two babies so as to lower their risk of contracting HIV. Lulu and Nana, as the babies are named, are the first ever humans to be born with edited genomes that have heritable changes. CRISPR is a far from perfect technology and among other issues it entails, it is believed these babies’ lifespans might have already been shortened due to use of the gene-editing technology. This then, is somewhat similar to the Replicants of the film, who are essentially genetically modified humans with short lifespans, bred for specific traits.
What the Replicants pose before us is whether humans should engage in bio-editing at all, regardless of its life-enhancing, disease-eliminating promises? How much gene selection is acceptable? Who decides these limits? How is this genetic selection then different from genetic cleansing? In a world that’s still rife with racial and a myriad other forms of discrimination, and one that is still struggling to recover from the horrors of multiple genocides, will genetically-modified humans have an equal place and equal rights as other ‘regular humans’, or will they be bred mostly as slaves and resources for better genetical material?
These are complex questions that cannot be resolved by one film, but this is a film that helps us look beyond the technology into the real faces and real issues that technologists often blindside and that technology often unknowingly creates. Blade Runner, directed by Ridley Scott, after his much successful sci-fi horror hit Alien (1979), is also a sci-fi film, but at its heart, has very human characters and issues. It might perplex you, infuse you with uncertainty, leave you with questions you feel compelled to resolve, not merely about the film — about Existence. But, you will not come away unmoved.
That is, if… you are Human.
Blade Runner, blade runner: the final cut, Harrison Ford, Philip k. dick, Ridley Scott, Sean young
Swati Godbole
More from Swati Godbole
The setup is quick. The screen darkens, the credits play first, as...
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Dixiefrog Records 20th Anniversary
Home/Reviews, Sound, Blesok no. 48/Dixiefrog Records 20th Anniversary
Dixiefrog
Jesus Volt
Gwyn Ashton
Monster Mike Welch
#7 Duke Robillard’s “Guitar Groove-A-Rama” (Dixiefrog DFGCD 8606) was eagerly anticipated new project by his fans and finally it’s here in all its deserved glory and is perhaps the most ambitious album in the career of this multi-award winning guitarist. “Guitar Groove-A-Rama” to this ears is a great tribute to all the masters of the past who inspired Duke during his long blues road. The album jumps out with the funky lead-off track “Do The Memphis Grind”, (with a nod to guitar greats James Burton and Steve Cropper) and never lets up. Along the way, Duke explores the grooves of Delta blues (Lil’ Son Jackson’s “Gambler’s Blues”), jazzy gospel of “Sunday Mornin’”, some Chicago blues by way of Sonny Boy Williamson’s “One Way Out”, the soul of Ray Charles (“I’ll Do Anything But Work”), the country blues of Bob Dylan (“Down Along The Cove”), even standard “Danny Boy” gets fresh treatment and sounds just fine! This album is full with bright spots, but its highlight definitely must be the 16 minute?!) tour-de-force “Blues-A-Rama” where Duke pays tribute to ten of his favourite guitar players from then and now with an amazing performance recorded live in the studio. The new CD features Duke Robillard in mostly a trio format (Mark Teixeira – drums and Jesse Williams or Marty Balou – bass) which accentuates the many nuances of his guitar work and also gives him a chance to play a number of vintage guitars in his vast collection, therefore the sound is authentic all the way and creates intimate atmosphere. Few guesting musicians and friends add flavour to this project (Doug James – baritone saxophone, Bruce Bears – Hammond organ and Al Basile – cornet). “Guitar Groove-A-Rama” is an excellent album and should be considered for every fine collection of recorded music!
Duke Robillard – Gambler’s Blues.mp3
admin 2018-08-21T17:23:15+00:00 June 4th, 2006|Categories: Reviews, Sound, Blesok no. 48|0 Comments
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The Mecklenberg Resolves are adopted
On this day in history, May 31, 1775, the Mecklenberg Resolves are adopted by Mecklenberg County, North Carolina. The Mecklenberg Resolves are an important document in understanding what most historians believe to be the fraudulent "Mecklenberg Declaration," a declaration of independence allegedly passed by the county a year before the Continental Congress’ Declaration of Independence.
The original document passed by a committee of Mecklenberg County’s citizens burned in a fire in the year 1800. Dr. Joseph McKnitt, the son of someone involved in the passage of the original document, put out an article in 1819 with the alleged language of the "Mecklenberg Declaration." He claimed this declaration of independence from Britain was made on May 20, 1775, more than a year before the official Declaration of Independence. This would place Mecklenberg County in the heady place of being the "first" in America to declare its independence from Great Britain.
Critics, including Thomas Jefferson, immediately pointed out several problems with the document. First of all, it contained several entire phrases from the Continental Congress’ Declaration (causing some to say Jefferson had borrowed heavily from the Mecklenberg Declaration himself for the Declaration of Independence). Others pointed out that there were no other copies or reports of such a declaration in contemporary sources. Indeed, why had no one ever even heard of such a document before now?
In 1838, historian Peter Force found a partial copy of some resolutions adopted by Mecklenberg County on May 31, 1775. This list was substantially different than McKnitt’s resolutions. Were there two sets of resolutions passed by the county eleven days apart? Critics pointed out that the alleged May 20 Declaration called for a complete separation from Great Britain, while the later May 31 document called merely for a suspension of British laws and the creation of an interim government until the Provincial Congress gave them more direction. This was much less severe than a complete separation. The County surely did not call for independence on the 20th and then backtrack and leave the door open for reconciliation on the 31st.
In 1847, the entire Mecklenberg Resolves were discovered in the archives of the South Carolina Gazette, which had printed the document when it was passed. In the eyes of most historians, this document proved conclusively that there was no such thing as the Mecklenberg Declaration. Instead, what most historians agree upon is that McKnitt, or someone else, tried to reconstruct the Mecklenberg Resolves from memory after the original was destroyed in the fire. Some 50 years had passed and either out of a desire to inflate North Carolina’s role in the Revolution or simply out of mistaken belief, he called the document a declaration of independence, when, in reality, it was no such thing.
For decades, many, in North Carolina in particular, believed in the Mecklenberg Declaration. In fact, the date May 20, 1775, is featured prominently on the State Seal and the State Flag. The day was celebrated as an official state holiday for years and taught as fact in history textbooks. Today, you can still find a few holdouts who cling to the idea that the Mecklenberg Declaration actually took place, but most serious historians have relegated it to a fallacious footnote of history.
"Against the insidious wiles of foreign influence, (I conjure you to believe me fellow citizens) the jealousy of a free people ought to be constantly awake; since history and experience prove that foreign influence is one of the most baneful foes of Republican Government." —George Washington (1796)
Iroquois Indians win the Battle of Cobleskill
On this day in history, May 30, 1778, Iroquois Indians win the Battle of Cobleskill when they destroy the settlement of Cobleskill, New York. The Battle of Cobleskill was the first move of a major Iroquois campaign against colonial settlements in western New York and Pennsylvania.
Joseph Brant (his English name), also called Thayendanegea, was an Iroquois leader who had strong ties to Great Britain. He had traveled to England and had a personal meeting with King George III a few years earlier. His parents were also Christian converts, hence, the westernized name and connections.
After the disaster of General John Burgoyne’s invasion into New York from Canada, the British Canadians began supplying Iroquois and Loyalist supporters in their fight against the patriots in New York. Brant helped plan a major campaign against the settlements in the region. He was adamant, however, that only militia or Continental Army soldiers be targeted. Settlers, women and children who did not resist were to be allowed to leave the area without being harmed.
Brant intended to attack Cherry Valley, New York, but was deceived into believing the village had more defenders than it actually had. He settled on Cobleskill, a small village of 20 families on farms along Cobleskill Creek in present day Warnerville, New York. Cobleskill was defended by local militia under Captain Christian Brown and a few dozen Continental Army soldiers under Captain William Patrick.
On May 30, 1778, the Iroquois attack began with a trick. A small band of Indians showed themselves at a distance from Cobleskill, causing the soldiers to take off after them. Captain Brown warned Captain Patrick this might be a ruse, but Patrick pursued the Indians anyway. Patrick’s troops chased them for about a mile before the trap was sprung and a large force of 200-300 Indians and Loyalists came out of the woods and surrounded the pursuers. Patrick and half his force were killed.
The Indians then turned on the village, which was still being defended by Captain Brown. Several soldiers hid in the home of George Warner which was burned down, killing them all. Many of the other homes in the village and their outbuildings were destroyed. Crops and livestock that could not be carried off were destroyed. When it was all done, Cobleskill was destroyed and 22 settlers were killed. Approximately 25 Indians and Loyalists were killed. 5 settlers were captured by Brant and given the option of integrating with the Indians or being sent to the British Fort Niagara as captives, which is the option the captives chose.
After the Battle of Cobleskill, the Iroquois raids continued against villages and forts along the New York and Pennsylvania frontiers, including what some call the worst atrocity of the American Revolution, the Cherry Valley Massacre, in November of 1778. The Iroquois campaign finally drew the wrath of the Continental Congress which authorized a major expedition against them. The Sullivan Expedition, named after General John Sullivan, began in the summer of 1779 and destroyed dozens of Indian villages. The expedition had little overall effect on the war, however, because most of the Indian warriors, though their homes were destroyed, were not killed and survived to continue the fight.
"Idleness and pride Tax with a heavier Hand than Kings and Parliaments. If we can get rid of the former, we may easily bear the Latter." —Benjamin Franklin (1765)
Banastre Tarleton wins the Battle of the Waxhaws
On this day in history, May 29, 1780, Banastre Tarleton wins the Battle of the Waxhaws, earning himself the epithets "Bloody Ban" and "Ban the Butcher." British forces had captured Charleston, South Carolina on May 12, 1780 and Lt. Gen. Charles Cornwallis quickly took a large army to conquer the backcountry.
Cornwallis learned that John Rutledge, South Carolina’s rebel governor was fleeing to the north with Colonel Abraham Buford and 400 Virginia Continentals. Cornwallis could not move his army fast enough to catch Rutledge before he escaped, so he sent Lt. Col. Banastre Tarleton, head of the Loyalist British Legion, ahead with around 270 men to capture Rutledge.
Tarleton made an impressive trek over 100 miles in 53 hours on horseback, finally catching up to Buford’s rear guard on May 29th. Tarleton’s men and horses were exhausted. He could not press them anymore and needed to slow Buford down. He sent a negotiator demanding Buford’s surrender, hoping this would stop Buford for a while. Buford had learned of Tarleton’s approach and sent Rutledge ahead to safety. When the surrender demand was delivered, Buford replied with a terse, "Sir, I reject your proposals, and shall defend myself to the last extremity." When Tarleton received the reply, he quickly put together an attack and charged the patriots.
Buford waited until the last minute before he ordered his men into a battle line. As Tarleton’s dragoons (soldiers on horseback) charged the American line, Buford did not order his men to fire until the dragoons were within ten yards of the line. This proved to be a disastrous move because the dragoons were barely phased by the gunfire and quickly trounced through the American line, causing numerous injuries and causing them to scatter in every direction. Many of the Americans laid down their weapons and attempted to surrender.
What happened next is unclear due to extreme differences in the reports of those involved. Some accounts indicate that Buford sent a white flag of surrender. Just as the flag bearer approached Tarleton, Tarleton’s horse was shot from under him and he tumbled to the ground. The British soldiers thought Tarleton was dead and thought the white flag was a ruse intended to deceive Tarleton and then kill him anyway. They began to attack the wounded and captured without impunity, killing them with bayonets where they lay. Other accounts indicate there was no white flag at all, but that the British began killing their captives indiscriminately when they thought Tarleton was killed.
In the end, 113 Americans were dead and 150 wounded. The British had only 5 killed and 12 wounded. The Battle of the Waxhaws, named after the region where the battle took place, and also called the Waxhaw Massacre or Buford’s Massacre, earned Tarleton an infamous reputation and the epithets "Ban the Butcher" and "Bloody Ban." He was accused of ordering his soldiers to kill the captured Americans and giving them no quarter. The perceived atrocity led to a huge increase in volunteers to the patriot militia. In reality, Tarleton’s men were probably to blame for killing the wounded after thinking their commander had been killed.
Tarleton’s reputation became that of a villain, even in today’s popular culture. In the 2000 movie, The Patriot, the villain, Colonel Tavington, is loosely based on Tarleton. Tavington is portrayed as a bloodthirsty killer, burning civilians in churches and murdering children in front of their parents. In reality, Tarleton could be vulgar, but this is an extreme misrepresentation of who he was.
"Foreign influence is truly the Grecian horse to a republic. We cannot be too careful to exclude its influence." —Alexander Hamilton (1793)
George Washington starts the French and Indian War
On this day in history, May 28, 1754, George Washington inadvertently starts the French and Indian War at the Battle of Jumonville Glen. For decades, France and Great Britain had competed for control of the Ohio River Valley. In 1753, the French began building a string of forts in the area and pushing out British traders.
Governor Robert Dinwiddie of Virginia had been ordered to protect the area from French aggression. He sent a 22 year old Major George Washington with a letter demanding the French depart the area, but the letter was rebuffed. Dinwiddie then ordered the construction of a fort at the forks of the Ohio River and ordered Washington to protect its construction.
Washington raised a small force of militia and Indian allies, including his friend, Mingo chief, Tanacharison. As they neared the location of the already under construction fort, they met the fort’s crew, who informed them that a French army had demanded their evacuation, taken over the site and begun building their own fort, which became known as Fort Duquesne.
When the commander of Fort Duquesne learned Washington’s small army was approaching, he sent another officer, Coulon de Villiers de Jumonville, with an order that they leave French territory. Washington, who had been instructed by Governor Dinwiddie to repel the French, even if it meant bloodshed, had begun building Fort Necessity south of Fort Duquesne. When he learned of the approach of Jumonville’s men, he decided to attack.
Jumonville had about 35 men with him. Washington had 40 militia and 12 Mingo Indians who surrounded the French camp while many of them slept. When the fighting began, nearly all of the French were captured or killed within a few minutes. What happened next is murky because of conflicting accounts, but it would result in the death of Jumonville and the elevation of George Washington to a figure known in the courts of Europe for the first time.
Apparently Washington, who did not speak French, was attempting to interrogate Jumonville and the communication was difficult. He may have left Jumonville unattended for a period, during which either Tanacharison or a militia member killed Jumonville in cold blood. Some accounts say Tanacharison tomahawked Jumonville in the head and washed his hands in Jumonville’s brains. Others say a militia member shot him. The reason for Jumonville’s killing is unclear. Washington’s official account to Governor Dinwiddie states that Jumonville was killed in the battle, but doesn’t state how.
After the Battle of Jumonville Glen, a full sized French force came out of Fort Duquesne and chased Washington back to Fort Necessity. The French captured the fort and Washington surrendered on July 3, 1754, the only time he ever surrendered in battle. Washington signed a surrender document written in French that he could not read and may have not been translated properly to him. The document stated that Jumonville had been "assassinated" and Washington was later blamed of ordering the assassination by France. This affair led to the first time that Washington’s name became known abroad in an international context. The result of all of this was an escalation of British and French troops in the area and the outbreak of the French and Indian War two years later.
“Charity is no part of the Legislative Duty of the Government.”
The Burrowes Mansion is raided
On this day in history, May 27, 1778, the Burrowes Mansion is raided in Matawan, New Jersey. John Burrowes, Sr. was a wealthy grain merchant living in Matawan, then known as Middletown Point. Burrowes gathered the grain from the New Jersey countryside, milled it in his own mills and then shipped it by boat to New England and New York City. Because of his very large grain business, Burrowes was called the "Corn King" by locals.
Burrowes was aligned with the patriots during the time leading to the American Revolution. He was involved with the Sons of Liberty during the Stamp Act crisis and served in New Jersey’s rebel congress once the Revolution began. Monmouth County’s first militia group to gather against the British trained in his front yard.
Burrowes’ son, John Burrowes, Jr. became a Major of the militia and served in the Continental Army during the battles in New York and New Jersey. John married Margaret Forman during the war. Margaret stayed with the elder Burrowes’ family at their mansion in Matawan while John Jr. was away fighting. Every chance he could, he got away to come to visit his young wife.
As in most communities, Matawan was divided between patriots and Loyalists. Loyalist sympathizers became aware of John’s frequent visits to Matawan and set a trap for him. When they received intelligence that he would be home toward the end of May, they sent word to the "Greens," a group of Loyalist refugees gathered on Staten Island who would exact vengeance on local patriots for their involvement with the rebels.
On May 27th, John Jr. was visiting at the mansion when the Greens landed nearby and headed toward the property. Local patriots, however, noticed them and quickly warned the Burrowes family. John was able to escape out the back of the house, swim the creek and hide in the woods before the Greens arrived. Local patriots fought with the Greens as they arrived and began to set fire to Burrowes‘ mills and storehouses.
When the Greens knocked down the front door of the mansion around midnight, young Margaret came down the stairs in her nightgown and shawl. A British soldier demanded that she give him her shawl to wrap around a wounded soldier. Margaret refused and said something along the lines of, "You’ll not get my shawl or anything else here to aid a British subject." The angered soldier then struck her with his sword hilt and went upstairs looking for Burrowes. Margaret survived the attack, but was injured severely. She lived for several more years, but died in the 1780s, some believe due to complications from her injuries.
The soldiers searched the house for Burrowes, Jr., but did not find him, even firing shots into the attack from the second floor, the holes of which can still be seen today. Several patriot militia were killed or captured during the raid, including John Burrowes, Sr., who was captured, but later released. Much of the furnishings of the house were brought out and burned on the lawn. All the mills and storehouses were destroyed, but the house itself was spared. The fortune of the Burrowes family was destroyed in the raid, illustrating the personal tragedy suffered by many individuals during the Revolution. Both father and son died several years later at sea and penniless. Today the Burrowes mansion has been completely restored and is the home of the Matawan Historical Society.
"National defense is one of the cardinal duties of a statesman." —John Adams (1815)
The Battle of Saint Louis is won
On this day in history, May 26, 1780, the Battle of Saint Louis is won by defending Spanish and French citizens allied with the Americans during the American Revolution. Also called the Battle of Fort San Carlos, the attack by the British and their Indian allies was the last attempt by the British to control the Mississippi River during the Revolution.
St. Louis was founded by a Frenchman, Pierre Laclede, in 1764, though other French villages had been founded in the area as early as the 1690s. After the French and Indian War, St. Louis and the surrounding territory was ceded to Spain and became part of Spanish Louisiana. Spain allied with the Americans against the British in 1779, putting Spanish territory into British sights.
The British desired to control the Mississippi River and began planning an attack on St. Louis, which was the governing center of northern Louisiana. They sent the word among their Indian allies and promised them the rights to trap fur in Louisiana for their cooperation. A force of nearly 1,000 Sioux, Chippewa, Winnebago, Menominee and Sac and Fox warriors gathered at Prairie du Chien, in present day Wisconsin, under the command of Captain Emanuel Hesse. They began the trek south on May 2, 1780.
In St. Louis, Spanish Lt. Gov. Fernando de Leyba began preparing the defenses of the city when he learned from traders that an attack against the city was coming. St. Louis was already enclosed with three large walls, with the Mississippi River itself as the fourth side. De Leyba made plans for four large towers to be built around the fort on which to place sharpshooters and cannons. Since there was little money, he asked the locals to give toward building the towers, which many did. By mid-May, when word came that the Indians were near, only one tower was finished in front of the fort, which gave a wide view of the surrounding area. They called the tower Fort San Carlos and built trenches along the rest of the walls. Five cannons were placed atop the tower, along with more cannons along the trenches.
Hesse approached St. Louis on May 25th, but his scouts could not get near the fort because there were so many settlers around the area on their farms. The following day, Hesse sent 300 Indians to attack Cahokia on the American side and slightly downriver. Hesse took the rest of the force and attacked St. Louis in broad daylight, capturing several civilians in the process. The first wave of attackers consisted of many Sac and Fox who were repelled by the violent cannon fire, which so alarmed them that they refused to fight anymore. The other attackers continued their attempts to breach the defenses, but the cannon fire, especially, proved to be too strong and the attackers eventually withdrew and gave up.
As the Indians withdrew, they were joined by the retreating attackers from Cahokia who had failed as well when they were repelled by forces under General George Rogers Clark. As the Indians retreated, they captured, tortured and killed numerous settlers who were out on their farms. Settlers would often build near forts where they would withdraw for protection from Indians, but it is not known why so many of the settlers around St. Louis had failed to seek refuge in the fort when they had so much advance warning.
Somewhere between 50 and 100 settlers were killed in the battle, while the number of Indian casualties is unknown, but must have been quite high. The failed Battle of Saint Louis was the last attempt of the British to control the Mississippi River valley and St. Louis would never again come under attack from a foreign power.
"If Congress can do whatever in their discretion can be done by money, and will promote the General Welfare, the Government is no longer a limited one, possessing enumerated powers, but an indefinite one, subject to particular exceptions." —James Madison (1792)
The Crawford Expedition begins
On this day in history, May 25, 1782, the Crawford Expedition begins when Colonel William Crawford leads an expedition to destroy enemy Indian villages on the Sandusky River in Ohio. Indians living in Ohio were situated between the American colonies and the British stronghold at Fort Detroit. Many of these Indians allied with the British hoping to stop westward colonial expansion.
Fort Detroit supplied allied Indians and encouraged them to make frequent raids into American settlements. By 1782, things had become particularly bloody. Innocent women and children were killed in Indian raids into Pennsylvania and 100 innocent Indians were killed by retaliating Pennsylvania militia at the Gnadenhutten Massacre.
General William Irvine, over the Continental Army’s Western Department at Fort Pitt, developed a plan to attack Fort Detroit with 2,000 men. George Washington agreed this was the only way to permanently stop the raids, but he informed Irvine that the Continental Congress simply did not have the resources to support such an expedition. Instead, Irvine planned an intermediary expedition to the Sandusky, where a large Indian base of operations was centered.
A personal friend of George Washington’s, Colonel William Crawford, a veteran of the French and Indian War and the American Revolution, was called on to lead the expedition. On May 25, 1782, Crawford set out from Mingo Bottom with 500 men, all of whom had provided their own supplies, horses, food and weapons. Unbeknownst to them, the Indians had learned of the Crawford Expedition practically from the start and had gathered a force of several hundred Wyandot, Delaware, Mingo and Shawnee, along with 100 British rangers to oppose them.
Crawford’s scouts began running into resistance on June 3. The Americans drove the Indians into the open plains in fighting that lasted much of the next day, but as evening arrived, more and more Indian reinforcements began to arrive. Crawford was soon surrounded and he ordered a retreat in the night. Many broke off in small groups and were scattered. When Crawford himself left the battle site, he could not find the rest of the group. Many of these stragglers, including Crawford, were captured over the next few days, though the main group did make it back to Fort Pitt.
Crawford and many of the prisoners were tortured and killed, partly in response to the Gnadenhutten Massacre. Crawford’s death was told by Dr. John Knight, the expedition’s surgeon, who was a fellow prisoner with Crawford who later escaped. He wrote that he and Crawford had their faces painted black, which was a mark of execution, and had the scalps of several dead prisoners thrown in their faces. Crawford was beaten, stripped and tied to a post. He had hot coals thrown on him and was prodded with burning sticks. His ears were cut off and he eventually lost consciousness. After being scalped and having hot coals thrown on him again, Crawford regained consciousness, but went mad until he finally died.
Crawford’s gruesome death was retold across the colonies and helped perpetuate the idea of the Indians as barbarians. The Crawford Expedition was a failure, but the American Revolution was virtually over. The preliminary peace treaty was signed in November of 1782 and agreed to the following year. Even though the war with the British was over, however, tensions with Indians in the west would remain and many more battles were to come in the next two decades.
"The government of the United States is a definite government, confined to specified objects. It is not like the state governments, whose powers are more general." —James Madison (1794)
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Counterfactuals: Quantum Mechanics
Some interpretations of quantum mechanics rely very heavily on a certain style of counterfactual reasoning. Quantum mechanics teaches that an electron has wave and particle properties. It is observed as a point particle, but otherwise it behaves like a wave. The uncertainty principle says that you cannot measure the precise position and momentum at the same time.
J.J. Thomson won the 1906 Nobel Prize for discovering that electrons are particles (his acceptance lecture called them "corpuscles"). His son won the 1937 Nobel Prize for showing that electrons are waves. The subject has confused people ever since.
The interpretations differ in their view of the electron before it is observed. Some say that it is a wave, with no precise location. Others say that it is a particle, but a funny kind of particle that can be many places at once. It thus has multiple histories, unlike anything in our ordinary experience.
The multiple histories get confusing when we consider counterfactuals. Suppose you ask, "where would the electron be if it were in a particular location at a particular time?" This question makes no sense because the electron could not be at a particular location at a particular time because of the uncertainty principle (unless a measurement is disturbing the system). Admitting that the electron could have been in other places as well at the same time only makes the counterfactual meaningless.
To see how this dilemma plays out, consider the Double-slit experiment. An electron beam is fired thru a double-slit, and wave properties cause an interference pattern at the detector. The confusion occurs when you introduce counterfactuals about which slit the electrons pass thru. You can ask "if the electron goes thru the top slit, then where is it detected?" The question has no clear answer. Attempts to answer it involve saying that the electron has some sort of spooky action-at-a-distance effect on electrons going thru the other slit.
The best answer is to refuse to answer the question as a meaningless counterfactual. The question presupposes that the electron is a particle, and it is not a particle. It is a wave that goes thru both slits at once. If you put detectors in the slits then you find the electron in one slit or the other, but without the detector the electron cannot be localized to one slit.
As Asher Peres explained, "unperformed experiments have no results." The electron only looks like a point particle when certain measurement experiments are done. If no such experiment is performed, then there are no point particle consequences.
At this point you are probably wondering why we even talk about the electron as a particle if it is really a wave and if treating it as a particle causes so much trouble. The answer is that treating it as a particle is incredibly useful. Every electron appears identical, with the same mass, charge, spin, and zero radius. We can even see the particle tracks in bubble chamber pictures. R.P. Feynman worked out a diagram calculus for electrons where predictions are based on sums over their many possible histories. Under his interpretation, each diagram is a counterfactual but they all contribute real measurement.
Feynman's quantum mechanics textbook has his version of Peres's slogan:
Another thing that people have emphasized since quantum mechanics was developed is the idea that we should not speak about those things which we cannot measure. (Actually relativity theory also said this.)
The particle interpretation of electrons and photons works quite well as long as you avoid something called counterfactual definiteness. That is, you must not assume that the particles have particular properties that could be obtained by measurement, unless you actually do the measurement.
The 1965 Bell's theorem and subsequent experiments have shown the paradox of quantum mechanics more strikingly than the double-slit. The theorem has been called “the most profound discovery of science.” It is usually explained in terms of correlations between measurements on two equal and opposite electrons.
The correlations are hard to understand, and have two common explanations. Either one measurement has a spooky non-causal effect on the other, or we have to reject counterfactual definiteness.
Many physicists prefer the spooky explanation, and say that this proves that quantum mechanics allows non-locality, meaning one measurement can have an action-at-distance effect on another. As no experiment has ever demonstrated such an effect and we have no mathematical theory for how that would happen, this is indeed a striking conclusion.
The better and more mundane conclusion is that quantum mechanics is not amenable to certain counterfactuals. The disagreement is about whether this conclusion is profound. To some physicists, this proves that scientific realism is impossible. To others, it just shows that some ill-posed questions are unanswerable, just like many philosophical and theological questions, such as "how many angels can dance on the head of a pin?"
There has been no Nobel Prize given for work related to Bell's theorem. While there is talk of such a prize every year, others just shrug it off as just a metaphysical confusion about counterfactuals. All of the Bell test experiments have confirmed the 1930 understanding of quantum mechanics.
Nature is not just the conjunction of quantum particle scenarios. An electron can be measured in a lot of different places, but the electron is not the union of those possibilities because that would not capture its wave properties.
In a mystery novel, Sherlock Holmes might list five possible explanations for a crime, eliminate four, and conclude that the fifth was correct. You cannot do that with quantum particle interpretations because electrons are not really particles.
It does make perfect sense in quantum mechanics to treat electrons and photons as particles with particle histories, as long as you admit that a large number of such histories are possible. The histories are like counterfactuals except that they cannot be said to be definitely true or false. They are just Feynman paths. They allow a particle interpretation of nature and have an extremely powerful predictive theory.
Feynman paths and diagrams are used to explain the simple transmission of light. According to the theory, the simplest interactions involve infinitely many diagrams showing paths and collisions of electrons and photons. The diagrams might involve energy being created or destroyed, particles going backwards in time, and causality violations. Consideration of all of these ridiculous scenarios is essential to calculating an answer that agrees with experiment.
You can choose to believe that all of these scenarios are real if you wish, but it is easier to think of them as counterfactuals. They are wildly implausible assertions that are somehow used to deduce a valid conclusion. You might think that agreement with experiment is strong evidence for the truth of the hypotheses used to make the numerical prediction. But in this case, it is not. The scenarios involve simultaneous precise positions and momenta for photons and electrons. We know that photons and electrons are not really particles, and they do not have specific positions and momenta. We also know that energy is conserved, and that cause precedes effect. We think we know those things, anyway.
Thus it is convenient to think of quantum particles as having multiple counterfactual histories as Feynman paths, and the theory makes predictions as sums over all those paths. One cannot say that some paths are true and some are false, as all must be used to get correct numerical predictions and none can be taken literally. This interpretation is popular but not required, as it is also possible to treat the electrons and photons as fields instead of particles.
For those who argue that time is an illusion, the possibility of multiple histories is very unsettling. They refuse to accept that the past is any different from the future, so they say that the multiple counterfactuals in the past implies that we also have multiple counterfactuals in the future. So they prefer the many-worlds interpretation, where all possible scenarios happen in alternate universes. There can be no physical evidence for alternate universes, but they find it more compatible with their prejudices against time. In my opinion, belief in many-worlds is nothing but a severe confusion about the nature of time and counterfactuals.
The uncertainty principle says that measuring position and then momentum can give a different result from measuring momentum and then position. In quantum jargon, the observable operators do not commute, so the operator order matters. This is hard to understand if you believe in some sort of counterfactual simultaneous observation of position and momentum. But if you follow the Feynman-Peres advice against counterfactual definiteness, then it is plausible that the order of observation can make a difference.
You need to reject counterfactual definiteness in quantum mechanics because the theory predicts observations that disturb the system. A system with an observation is different from one without. You cannot just assume that the system behaves as if everything were observed. If you did, then the electrons and photons would all seem like particles, and you would miss out on the wave properties.
Counterfactuals are understandable by children but troublesome for philosophers. I have posted below about counterfactuals outside the context of quantum mechanics, in order to clarify them without the added quantum confusion.
My conclusion is that the counterfactual is the most confusing thing about quantum mechanics. Understand counterfactuals and you will not be tempted to subscribe to quantum spooky interpretations, to believe in many-worlds, or to deny locality, causality, or realism. All of those mysteries are rooted in misunderstandings about counterfactuals.
Labels: counterfactual, quantum
Peter November 10, 2018 at 10:36 AM
I enjoyed this, linked to from your post of four years later, http://blog.darkbuzz.com/2018/11/physics-rejects-counterfactual.html, so thanks.
I'm commenting to suggest that one might say that "counterfactual effects" are effects that don't happen, which from the point of view of engineering is not so good, insofar as one is always trying for consistent effects for the causes one puts in place (consistent statistics of events, at least, if not consistent events). Or is that too simple-minded of me? From a more theoretical point of view, effects that don't happen can't be counted for the purposes of correlations and other statistics.
Free will claimed to be random
Carroll defends lousy philosophy
Microsoft bets on quantum computing
Aaronson on quantum randomness
Einstein agreed with the Lorentz theory
Defending philosophy again
Evolutionists and teachers confused about randomne...
BICEP2 skepticism
Mermin has pedantic quibble about QBism
Taking quantum mechanics seriously
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Every Tech Community Needs To Exclude Sexism, So Constraint Programming Should Exclude Sexism
Update 23 Oct: I am thrilled to say that the very next day after getting my email, the local organisers of CP 2014 (Christine Solnon and Yves Deville) have agreed to implement an anti-harassment policy, and to investigate child care possibilities for the conference. That's my points 1 and 3 immediately agreed to, and I couldn't be more thrilled. Many thanks.
It's not too often that syllogisms are useful in everyday life, but this is one occasion.
Every tech community must eliminate sexism.
Constraint programming is a tech community.
Therefore constraint programming must eliminate sexism.
I've been in constraint programming for almost 20 years, but it's only recently that the necessity of the first point was brought home to me, because of what's been happening in the Ruby community.
Here's a tweet:
OH: Should we be encouraging women to get into the pipeline when we know the pipeline leads to a sewage treatment plant?
— ashe dryden (@ashedryden) October 20, 2013
You know what? Women are seriously worrying if it's ethical to advise women to go into Ruby. Here's a followup to that tweet, from spinnerin
"We need allies to speak up and show their support for a Ruby community that is welcoming to all participants, not only the privileged majority."
If you don't know why this has recently come to the fore in the Ruby community, lucky you. Put it this way: somebody has deleted her blog post about her sexual assault at codemash, because she does not want her claim to fame to be the woman who was sexually assaulted at codemash.
I'm not in the Ruby community, but I am in the Constraint Programming community. It's a great community, and many of my best friends are in this community, men and women. But that doesn't mean we can't be better. We can be better and we must be better.
As a man in the constraint programming, it's time to stop worrying about appearing to be politically correct, and it's time to stop thinking that maybe sexism isn't a major problem in constraints because we are all nice people. It's time to start being the first line of defence for women. It's time to start figuring out how to make women's time in constraints better, to the benefit of those women (because working on constraints is super-fun) and for everybody (because women do superb work in constraints.)
Here are some thoughts on how we can make constraints - and especially the constraint programming conference - a better place for women and other historically disadvantaged groups. The next conference will be in Lyon, in 2014, and I have some specific suggestions.
Before I get to this, let me say that I don't think Constraints is a particularly bad research area for women. Apart from anything else, the third winner of the ACP research excellence award was a woman (Rina Dechter), and the first winner of the ACP distinguished service award was a woman (Francesca Rossi). On the other hand, it's not that great either. This year, for example, the Programme Committee of CP 2013, counting Senior and Technical committees, comprised 61 people, if I counted right. The number of women in the world on this committee? 4. The number of men on the committee who work on the same corridor as me in St Andrews? 4. And this is from a programme chair (Christian Schulte) who ran a brilliant programme and who I would be astonished to find was sexist.
1. Implement a Conference Anti Harassment Policy
Honestly, this is a no brainer. We should have a conference anti-harassment policy. This is not just for the protection of women attendees. Conference volunteers need to know what to do if something bad happens. But let the good people at geekfeminism make the case:
"Why have an official anti-harassment policy for your conference? First, it is necessary (unfortunately). Harassment at conferences is incredibly common - for example, see this timeline of sexist incidents in geek communities. Second, it sets expectations for behavior at the conference. Simply having an anti-harassment policy can prevent harassment all by itself. Third, it encourages people to attend who have had bad experiences at other conferences. Finally, it gives conference staff instructions on how to handle harassment quickly, with the minimum amount of disruption or bad press for your conference."
http://geekfeminism.wikia.com/wiki/Conference_anti-harassment/Policy
And it's not hard to write an anti-harassment policy, because you can copy and paste it!
We should make CP 2014 the first Artificial Intelligence conference on this page (though perhaps other confs have had a good policy but have not made it to that page yet.)
If we can't do this, we can't advise women to attend CP 2014 or any other future conference.
2. Make Sure At Least One Woman Is An Invited Speaker
At CP 2009, there were two female invited speakers out of three. They were Barbara Smith and Carla Gomes. In the four years since there have been thirteen invited talks, with one female speaker (Michela Milano in 2013). One of 13 is not great is it, people?
One invited speaker per year in a historically disadvantaged group is not a lot to ask. Yes, I know, this starts to sound like positive discrimination, doesn't it? Maybe you don't like positive discrimination.
But think about it this way. Do we need to work to make sure at least one speaker is a man? No. Every single year in the history of CP, at least one invited speaker has been a man. (Believe it or not, I've checked this statement, even though it hardly needed checking.) On the other hand, in three of the last four years there have been zero women. And since 2009 is the only year there was more than one woman, that's the only year in history that women outnumbered men among invited speakers at the major constraint programming conference.
Oh, by the way, if you really really can't think of any other women to invite, ask some of the same ones again! They're great. Oh I know, we couldn't have the same ones again, could we? Well, not unless they were men like Moshe Vardi (2002 and 2010) or Peter Stuckey (2005 and 2013) or Pascal van Hentenryck (1997 and 2013) or Helmut Simonis (2004 and 2006) or Alain Colmerauer (2001 and 2008) or George Nemhauser (1996 and 2002). That's twelve invited talks by men who have given two invited talks each. The same number of men have given two invited talks as women who have given any. Compared with six invited talks by women.
You really don't want the same ones again? Still stuck?
What about Zeynep Kiziltan? She'd be great. Or Inês Lynce? She'd be great. Or Karen Petrie? She'd be great. None of these are junior people. You might have better ideas since I've only picked people I'm close to (written papers with Karen and Inês, highly connected to Zeynep via Ian Miguel and others.)
Update 22 Oct 2013: What I've said here is stronger than what is recommended by this FAQ at "forgenderequityatconferences". I certainly agree with that FAQ that if good faith effort to invite women is made, that would be acceptable even if no woman eventually appears. However I'm leaving the text above as it originally was because it's what I wrote and I do think that good faith efforts could be rewarded with success, at least for next year.
Some disclosure: I was chair of CP 2009 and invited Barbara and Carla. But I claim no credit for inviting women, only for inviting people who I thought would be the best. Carla had just started up Computational Sustainability, a very hot topic and was recommended by more than one member of the programme committee. And if I was biased towards Barbara, it was as an old friend who had (incomprehensibly to me) never been asked to give a keynote despite being the best constraint modeller in the world.
3. Make sure childcare is available
Are you prevented from going to a conference because of childcare problems? No? Great! Let's make sure nobody else is either. If you have a child, they might love attending CP. But if you have to travel alone, maybe because you are a single parent, you need to know that childcare is available. This is a gender-blind problem but it is likely to differentially affect women.
I don't think CP 2014 needs to have a childcare centre on site. But I do think that we should make sure that proper childcare facilities are available and linked to. What this means depends on the local organisers, so they might be a childcare centre, or there might be trustworthy carers who could do childcare for a fee.
Hey, you know what, I know most people don't need this. And people could organise it themselves... but ... everybody could organise their own hotel. It's still nice to have a bunch of conference hotels to make our lives easier. Same thing with childcare. Though of course finding reliable childcare in a strange city in a foreign country is much harder than finding a decent hotel. If childcare makes the difference between attending or not, having it linked to from the conference site could make the difference between attending or not, and then attending that inspirational talk or making that critical contact which changes your career.
4. Make it affordable if you're disadvantaged
What is one of the great successes of the CP community? I would say it was the CP Doctoral Program. This has helped literally hundreds of people attend CP, people who were potentially disadvantaged by being junior people studying for a PhD and without their own funds. By reaching out to these people we have brought them into the community to meet other researchers. The CP community has been happy to help them financially, by accepting larger conference fees for everybody else.
What a great and wonderful thing!
Before you ask, no I don't want lower conference fees for women.
But financial help with childcare? Help for disabled people, like maybe paying for travel for a helper? Yes. Let's help them just like we have helped so many graduate students. It won't cost much, and if it did cost a lot it would be fantastic for the community.
5. Let's celebrate the Petrie Multiplier
I recently wrote about the Petrie Multiplier. This blog post has had about 25,000 page views (which I understand to be a lot for a noname blogger), and been tweeted about hundreds of times. It's a simple model which explains how sexism is magnified by the gender disparity in a field like tech (or subfield like constraints). But you know what, it's an idea invented by a constraint programmer (Karen Petrie) and written about by a constraint programmer (me).
Let's understand that in constraints, where women are in the minority, just being in the minority can lead to dramatically more sexism per woman, and to men not seeing that sexism.
This is not a major contribution from constraints to eliminating sexism, but it is something. Let's celebrate it, by making sure we are one of the communities that leads tech in getting rid of sexism.
6. Make a commitment to gender equity at conferences like Constraint Programming
I've signed the commitment to gender equity at conferences. Please do so too. There's an FAQ available.
7. Let's not argue about whether sexism is a problem
I'll be really happy to argue about how to fix the sexist problem we have. I don't even mind if you don't call it sexism (call it "gender imbalance" or "inclusiveness" or anything you like).
But please don't argue that we don't have a problem. Here's the best two ways I can put this point.
You only discover #sexism is a problem in tech when you look into it... or you're a woman.
— Ian Gent (@turingfan) October 21, 2013
Dear Male Geek, if you don't understand what a HUGE problem #sexism is, you are part of the problem. Signed: A Male Geek
I started thinking I should write this post a week or two ago. Or rather, I thought I should send a letter to the most relevant people (organisers of CP 2014.) But it's too important for that, so I'm posting it here.
Update: here is the letter I actually am sending to the relevant people:
Dear Yves, Christine, Barry, Pierre and Helmut
As local chairs and program chair of CP 2014, and conference coordinator and president of the Association for Constraint Programming.
I wish to propose that the Association for Constraint Programming commit to moving towards gender equality at CP 2014 and all future conferences.
By far the most important point (in my opinion) is to adopt a strong anti-harassment policy, to prevent events such as have recently been tearing the Ruby community apart. But there are other good things we could and should do.
You can read my reasons for suggesting this, and concrete suggestions on my blog at http://iangent.blogspot.co.uk/2013/10/every-tech-community-needs-to-exclude.html
Very best wishes
Here is a little story. Once upon a time in the bad dark ages a sexist professor gave a plenary at a conference about a technical device he had chosen to call a "zipper". With bad puns. And gestures. Someone stormed out and folks applauded. The professor later apologised in various public fora. But since he recalled the event as his best moment of the conference in 25 years, and the organisers duly put it in the commemorative slide deck, one wonders exactly how contrite he and the organisers were.... (See slide 25) http://lii.rwth-aachen.de/lics/lics25th.pdf
So the moral is: state the values and live the values guys....
Thanks Anon.
That incident is really shocking and is now recorded at geekfeminism
http://geekfeminism.wikia.com/wiki/Zipper_incident
It's also a great example of why we need harrassment policies. With a harrassment policy in place somebody (man or woman) could have stood up to say it was unacceptable, and known they would be backed up by the conference.
Misty Brown 28 October 2013 at 02:56
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Let’s Get Some Context and Real Reform Around Charter School Graduation Rates
There’s been much commentary following the release of the latest GradNation report, particularly among charter school leaders.
The report notes a wide disparity in graduation rates among charter schools and calls out Alternative Education Campuses (AECs) and online schools for their low graduation rates, which led to some admonishments from others within the charter sector.
Before we get too judgmental, let’s remember that the federal government’s four-year cohort graduation rate was built for a traditional school model.
In fact, the National Governors Association task force credited with the creation of the four-year cohort advised policy makers to consider the “treatment of students whose graduation is delayed due to issues beyond a state’s or school’s control,” and to develop frameworks to “ensure schools are not penalized for helping struggling students successfully complete high school.”
While the current approach may be effective at measuring graduation rates for schools with a stable group of students, it’s ineffective at measuring high schools that take in high numbers of under-credited transfer students, which is exactly the case for many AECs and online public schools.
To read more, please visit: http://educationpost.org/lets-get-some-context-and-real-reform-around-graduation-rates/
graduationonline education
Mary Gifford is the Senior Vice President of Education, and Policy & External Affairs at K12 Inc. Ms. Gifford leads the Office of Academic Policy which conducts research on K12 programs and partner schools, provides support for the efficacy of K12 educational programs, develops new school models, and educates legislators and regulators about virtual learning. Ms. Gifford previously served as the senior vice president of the central region and supported more than a dozen schools in eight states. During her tenure with K12, Ms. Gifford has integrated iQ and Insight programs and has been involved in opening many new schools. She has led innovations such as proliferation of unique hybrid models like the YMCA and military drop-in sites and the development of an at-risk model. Ms. Gifford served on the Arizona State Board for Charter Schools for 11 years as an appointee of both the governor and the state superintendent of public instruction. The State Board for Charter School authorizes more than 500 charter schools. Prior to K12, Ms. Gifford was with the accounting firm of Sarvas, King and Coleman as the director of the firm’s charter school practice and served as the leadership development director at Mackinac Center for Public Policy. She also worked as the education policy director at the Goldwater institute. She serves on the board of directors for the Arizona Chamber of Commerce and as the board president of EdKey, a nonprofit charter management organization that oversees 23 schools throughout Arizona. Ms. Gifford earned a Bachelor of Arts in political science and economics from Arizona State University, a master’s degree in education leadership from Northern Arizona University, and has completed coursework in public administration at Arizona State University.
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Beau bridges wife
After accepting his SAG award, Bridges honored his wife, Susan. Beau Bridges was born in Hollywood, and is the son of actor Lloyd Bridges and his wife, who was his college sweetheart, Dorothy Dean Bridges. S. Twitter may be over capacity or Lloyd Vernet (Beau) Bridges III (Los Angeles, 9 december 1941) is een Amerikaans acteur. Jeff Bridges: Hungry for Change. A man (Beau Bridges) with a wife and children becomes involved with and marries two other women (Pam Dawber, Joanna Kerns). 1936 : Freshman Love (en) de William C. Bridges felt the character of Det. His younger brother is longtime actor and Big Lebowski star Jeff Bridges . Bridges has starred in many movies, including: Media related to Jeff Bridges at Wikimedia Commons9-11-2016 · Beau Bridges net worth: Beau Bridges is an American actor and director who has a net worth of $16 million. Jeff Bridges was born in the year 1949 on 4th of December which makes him 65 years old at this moment. Born Lloyd Bridges III on Dec. Bridges was born into a Hollywood family: His father was famed actor Lloyd Bridges, and his mother, Dorothy, was also an actress, which paved the way for both his and big brother Beau's early careers. Gender: Male Religion: Lutheran Race or Ethnicity: White Sexual orientation Lloyd Bridges est le père des acteurs Beau et Jeff Bridges. 5 years. Beau was born as Lloyd Vernet "Beau" Bridges III on December 9, 1941 in Los Angeles, California, United States to Dorothy Bridges and Lloyd Bridges. Beau Bridges Gives Favourite Bar A Boost In Clooney Film. Jeff Bridges Family Pictures: He opened eyes into a family of America to Actor Lloyd Bridges and actress Dorothy Bridges. Back in 1939, Lloyd Bridges surfaced as a Broadway actor in the drama known as “Othello”. Apart from Beau, Jeff has a younger sister named Cindy and a deceased brother named Gary. In 2006, Bridges wrote about his happy marriage for Reader’s Digest . He lives happily with his wife Julie and kids. Casey Fredrick Bridges (adopted son with Julie Landfield). Grandmother of Casey Bridges, Jordan Bridges, Dylan Bridges and Emily Bridges Grandmother of Isabelle Bridges, Jessica Lily Bridges and Haley Roselouise Bridges. The actor, who recurred as the title character's father on the showrunner's My Name Is Earl, has joined the cast of his "unauthorized" CBS comedy pilot Jeffrey Leon "Jeff" Bridges (born December 4, 1949) is an American actor, singer, and producer. ” Those words from Jeff Bridges about being in the same profession as his brother, Beau Bridges 8-8-2018 · Beau Bridges Celebrity Profile - Check out the latest Beau Bridges photo gallery, biography, pics, pictures, interviews, news, forums and blogs at Rotten His brother Beau Bridges (born 1941) is also an actor. Beau Bridges (1941 - ) Films Deaths The Other Side of the Mountain (A Window to the Sky) (1975) [Dick'Mad Dog' Buek]: Killed in a plane crash (off-screen); we learn Jeff’s Brother: Beau Bridges Jeff and Beau image source. He married his second wife, Wendy Treece, in 1984. com Jeff Bridges and wife of 40 years Susan Geston are a picture of marital bliss as they step out in New York Hilary Duff packs on the PDA with beau Matthew Koma as she wraps her arms around him Interview With Actor Beau Bridges, “Christmas In Angel Falls” not only did I have the opportunity to interview the one and only Beau Bridges, but my mother Beau Bridges is the son of actor Lloyd Bridges and his wife, who was his college sweetheart, Dorothy Dean Bridges. (January 15, 1913 – March 10, 1998) was an American film, stage and television actor who starred in a number of television series and Lloyd Bridges. Date of Birth: March 16, 1969 Zodiac Sign: Pisces Known for his work on The Wild Pair (1987), Casey is the first child to Beau and his first wife even though they are not his biological parents. His siblings, Jeff (born in 1949) and Lucinda (born in 1953) are also actors. He worked as a movie director. Beau Bridges will reunite with his Norma Rae wife in Brothers & Sisters, Deadline reports. Jeff Bridges met his wife Susan Geston (now Susan Bridges) in 1974 and they were married June 5, 1977, which was just five days after Bridges proposed. 1986) Ezekiel (Zeke) Jeffrey Bridges (b. Bridges' films include The Big Lebowski, True Grit, and TRON. Get the latest scoop on celebrity gossip, rumours, headlines, news and more. "Norma Rae", "The Fabulous Baker Boys", "The Wizard", "The Landlord", & "The Hotel New Hampshire" are on The Top 20 Movies Starring Beau Bridges on Flickchart. AKA Jeffrey Leon Bridges. Jeff Bridges' Daughter's Wedding in Santa Barbara, California they gathered around the bride and groom for their first dance as husband and wife. " The new show stars Will Arnett as Nathan Miller, a recently divorced local On 4-12-1949 Jeff Bridges (nickname: The Dude) was born in Los Angeles, California. Beau Bridges hits the small screen tonight (Thursday, Oct. Bridges has a very active career that includes dozens of movies, and a few TV series, since he started working in 1950s. Beau Bridges's siblings: Beau Bridges's brother is Jeff Bridges Beau Bridges's brother was Garrett Bridges Beau Bridges Beau Bridges Age 76 Has The Proudest Wife, Gay - The Other Kind Of Published on: Nov 19, 2018 @ 11:20 AM The guy, who was born in a Hollywood family and proudly held three Emmy Awards during his time, Beau Bridges is still going strong with his acting career at the age of 76. November 10, 2005 Beverly Hills, CA. Beau Bridges Family, Childhood, Life Achievements, Facts, Wiki and Bio of 2017. Cindy Bridges’ brother Beau Bridges is in the entertainment industry and he works as a director. Lloyd Vernet "Beau" Bridges III (born December 9, 1941) is an American actor and director. Born: 4-Dec-1949 Birthplace: Los Angeles, CA. December 12, 2005 Los Angeles, CA. McGann : étudiant11-1-2018 · Jeffrey Leon Bridges was born on December 4, 1949 in Los Angeles, California, the son of well-known film and TV star Lloyd Bridges and his long-time wife 1-12-2011 · The "True Grit" star opens up about hesitating before taking on Rooster, almost not proposing to his wife and real-life similarities to his "Big Lebowski Get the latest scoop on celebrity gossip, rumours, headlines, news and more. He appeared alongside his father Lloyd Bridges in two episodes of the TV series Sea Hunt. The sale was a while in the making, however. About. It was called “Beau” by the son of Ashley Wilkes in Gone with the Wind. Beau Bridges has been divorced from Julie Landifield since 1984. Complete Beau Bridges 2017 Biography. beau bridges wifeBridges was born in Los Angeles, California, the son of actors Lloyd Bridges (1913–1998) and Dorothy Bridges (née Simpson; 1915–2009). A man (Beau Bridges) with amnesia finds Bridges doled out a long list of thanks, including to his wife, Susan Geston, and brother and fellow actor Beau Bridges, who were in attendance. Born: 15-Jan-1913 Birthplace: San Leandro, CA Died: 10-Mar-1998 Location of death: Los Angeles, CA Cause of death Jeff Bridges. b. Bridges was born as Jeffrey Leon Bridges in Los Angeles, California on December 4, 1949. He must prove to his kids that, despite the death of his wife and the loss of his job, they will survive. One of his brothers, Garrett Myles died in 1948 one year before his birth. The Fabulous Baker Boys. ” Asked what it was like to walk a mile in a woman’s shoes, Bridges calls it “brutal,” and says he’s never again going to tell his wife to hurry up when they’re late trying to get somewhere and she’s got her heels on. He’s been married to Susan Bridges (ne Geston) since June 5, 1977. Born just two days after the attack on Many years ago I met Beau Bridges, his wife Wendy and their kids. Beautiful So. Read more29-4-2018 · Share This Story! Let friends in your social network know what you are reading aboutToday's Trivia, Birthdays, and Events that happened on March 10Max Payne is a maverick cop - a mythic anti-hero - determined to track down those responsible for the brutal murders of his family and partner. Jeff Bridges & his wife and 3 daughters . Bridges was born in Los Angeles, California, the son of actors Lloyd and Dorothy Bridges . 25 million and later turned to leasing. "Wearing your cuff links. And my brother, Beau [Bridges Dorothy Bridges, wife of Lloyd Bridges, mother of actors Jeff and Beau, dies at 93 Dorothy Bridges later appeared in a handful of movies and an episode of “Sea Hunt” with her husband, whom 258 Likes, 13 Comments - Beau Bridges (@mrbeaubridges) on Instagram: “My wife @mrs. Prideful patriarch Bill Januson (Beau Bridges, "The Fabulous Baker Boys") won't accept aid from his sick daughter's (Jena Malone, "Contact") doctor. 18-2-2019 · Steve 'Commando' Willis cheered on girlfriend Michelle Bridges front row, during Sunday's debut episode of Dancing With The Stars. Jeff Bridges (born December 4, 1949) is an American actor, musician, photographer, painter, sculptor Accountstatus: geverifieerdJeff Bridges - Ethnic Who, Wife, Siblings, Net …Deze pagina vertalenwww. Born just two days after the attack on Pearl Harbour, he was delivered by candlelight because of a power blackout. Beau Bridges is the son of actor Lloyd Bridges and his wife, who was his college sweetheart, Dorothy Dean Bridges. 1993) Filmography According to Jeff Bridges bio, he was born in Los Angeles, California to the parents Lloyd Bridges and actress Dorothy Bridges. Actor Beau Bridges and his wife Wendy are seen with their arms around each other on the red carpet. Jordan Bridges (born November 13, 1973) is an American actor. Image Credit: Screenshot/OWN It wasn’t an ultimatum, Bridges tells the Oprah Winfrey Wahlberg plays Max Payne, a renegade cop searching for his wife's murderer. Beau Lloyd Bridges, whose acting career spanned more than five decades and whose sons, Jeff and Beau, also became well-known actors, died yesterday at his home in Los Angeles. 1 reply 3 retweets 12 likes. Born: 15-Jan-1913 Birthplace: San Leandro, CA Died: 10-Mar-1998 Location of death: Los Angeles, CA Cause of death Bridges made his first screen appearance at the age of almost two years in The Company She Keeps in 1951. Although Jeff Bridges, 69, and his wife, Susan Geston, 66, have been happily married for 41 years, there was once a time when the actor was terrified of commitment. I am an actor, author, director, producer, musician, gardener, vegan, eco warrior & advocate for @WishtoyoChumash. Family – Wife, Father. beau bridges wife " Jeff Bridges' Fateful First Meeting With His True Love. Beau Bridges (1941 - ) . Bridges supported son Jeff in a big budget action film Blown Away (1994). Now happily secluded with his wife and young daughter in the Arizona desert, Bob believes all the killing is behind him. Fast Facts. 2005 Paul Smith / Featureflash. Huge collection, amazing choice, 100+ million high quality, affordable RF and RM images. Parents Lloyd and Dorothy soon deemed him worthy of the nickname "Beau," after the character in the novel they were reading at the time, Gone With the Wind. Beau Bridges is a member of the following lists: Male actors from Los Angeles, Bridges family and Outstanding Performance by a Supporting Actor in a Miniseries or Movie Primetime Emmy Award winners. Beau Bridges & wife Wendy at the CBS - Showtime & CW Summer TCA Party at the Popular Videos - Beau Bridges Beau Bridges - Topic Beau Bridges And His Wife Have Arms Around Each Other At Awards Ceremony - Gotham Ind Beau Bridges at the Bridges was the matriarch of an acting family, which included her late husband, Lloyd Bridges , her sons, Beau Bridges and Jeff Bridges , and her grandson, Jordan Bridges . Lloyd Vernet "Beau" Bridges III (born December 9, 1941 in Los Angeles, CA, USA) is an American actor and director. In his youth, Bridges and brother Beau made occasional Jeff Bridges. He made his 70 million dollar fortune with True Grit, Crazy Heart & The Big Lebowski. Tall, blonde and handsome, Lloyd Bridges will always be one of the top-notch performers, American cinema has ever produced. He is the famous son of the actor Lloyd Bridges and the actress Dorothy Dean Simpson and is the brother of actor Beau Bridges. Beau Bridges got an early start in the industry with roles in the 1949 films Zamba and The Red Pony. Born in Los Angeles, California, Beau Bridges, also known as Lloyd Vernet Bridges III, was initially focused on a career in basket Lloyd Vernet "Beau" Bridges III is an American actor and director. Like Jess, Beau was also brought into the movie business thanks to their father’s popular show, Sea Hunt (1958 – 1961). Find out his net worth, siblings and wife name in 2016. He is the son of Beau Bridges and wife Who is this strapping young man? It's Jeff Bridges! In 1964 at Brentwood Academy in Southern California. Beau Bridges Lloyd Vernet "Beau" Bridges III (born December 9, 1941) is an American actor and director. Beau Bridges's siblings: Beau Bridges's brother is Jeff Bridges Beau Bridges's brother was Garrett Bridges Beau Bridges Beau Bridges (born on December 9th, 1941) was an Film-Actor who was best known for many films. Jeff has three siblings, a younger sister, Lucinda (an artist who works occasionally as an actress) and two Lloyd Vernet Bridges Jr. Cassidy was married to his third wife, Sue Shifrin, for over two decades. . STAR NEWS 24/24 189,382 views Find more about Jeff Bridges married, wife, divorce and net worth. McGann : étudiant11-1-2018 · Jeffrey Leon Bridges was born on December 4, 1949 in Los Angeles, California, the son of well-known film and TV star Lloyd Bridges and his long-time wife 1-12-2011 · The "True Grit" star opens up about hesitating before taking on Rooster, almost not proposing to his wife and real-life similarities to his "Big Lebowski 10-1-2011 · An interview with Jeff Bridges for American Masters - Jeff Bridges: The Dude Abides. He has been in two celebrity relationships averaging approximately 27. Jeff alongside his father and brother at a red carpet event (Photo:- CBS News) Just like Jeff, Beau too had taken heed to their father's advice and pursued a career in acting. Filmographie Comme acteur. Beau Bridges Verified account @ MrBeauBridges I am an actor, author, director, producer, musician, gardener, vegan, eco warrior & advocate for @ WishtoyoChumash . I went to a Christmas party with my wife, and the execs were all coming up to me and patting me on the back, saying how happy Biography. Find the perfect beau bridges wife wendy children stock photo. Lloyd Bridges enrolled to study science when he graduated from high school. They first listed the country English-style house for sale in 2010 at $3. His younger brother is actor Jeff Bridges, and he has a younger sister, Lucinda. Foi co-proprietário do restaurante Finch Temperatures will be more "spring-like" next week, which will make for some great weather to get outside with your furry friend. The episode premiered on 26 March 1995 on Showtime and features three generations of the Bridges family – Beau, his father Lloyd, and son Dylan – which was used to promote the new series. He is a three-time Emmy, two-time Golden Globe, and one-time Grammy Award, winner. Beau Bridges's siblings: Beau Bridges's brother is Jeff Bridges Beau Bridges's brother was Garrett Bridges Beau Bridges He seems to be devoted to his wife and is currently doing pretty well with her with no imminent issue that might lead to a divorce or split between them. His dad was. Bridges is an American actor. Visit. Plot. This is indeed incredible feat for both brothers and they remain today as close as they were when the two Bridges boys were much younger. Jeff Bridges Receives Photo Of Small-Town Waitress Rejecting A Date In 1975 And Sees His Wife Soon afterwards, in the same year 1984, he married his current wife, Wendy Treece Bridges. The latest Tweets from Beau Bridges (@MrBeauBridges). The 1989 rom-com musical, directed by Steve Kloves, stars Bridges alongside his real life brother, Beau Bridges. And then they came up with the idea of having her go to work at Stargate Command, instigated by Jack O’Neill Lloyd was the father of four children, including Jeff Bridges (actor, singer, and producer) and Beau Bridges (actor and director). Retweet. McGann : étudiant11-1-2018 · Jeffrey Leon Bridges was born on December 4, 1949 in Los Angeles, California, the son of well-known film and TV star Lloyd Bridges and his long-time wife 10-1-2011 · An interview with Jeff Bridges for American Masters - Jeff Bridges: The Dude Abides. Jeffrey Leon Bridges (born December 4, 1949) is an American actor, singer, and producer. better known as Robert Biografia. Beau Bridges is currently married to Wendy Treece. Bridges died of natural causes with wife Dorothy, son Beau and daughter Cindy at his side, said Ame Van Iden, Beau Bridges's publicist. Born just two days after the attack on Pearl Harbour, he was delivered by candlelight because of a power blackout. 2 years each. Discover (and save!) your own Pins on Pinterest. The couple has three children: Dylan Bridges (b. His mother was a writer and his father was also an actor. Andrews was “a real unique pair of high heels to fill. Beau Bridges and wife Wendy - Max Payne Maxim after party at The Stork Club in Los Angeles. He has four sons named Jeffrey, Dylan, Casey and Jordan and a daughter named Emily. 21-12-2018 · The stars look at the challenges behind John Carpenter's 1984 sci-fi film, including the scene Bridges rehearsed naked to get right. The two play brothers struggling to make a career as Jeffrey Leon Bridges was born on December 4, 1949 in Los Angeles, California, the son of well-known film and TV star Lloyd Bridges and his long-time wife Dorothy Dean Bridges (née Simpson). He was born to parents Lloyd Bridges and Dorothy Bridges. 5-3-2012 · The president added that he was 'absolutely delighted to be here, as is [wife] Laura,' to which Mr Bridges quipped: 'She's hot!' Bridges told the Michael Weatherly Biography - Affair, Married, Wife, Ethnicity, Nationality, Salary, Net Worth, Height | Who is Michael Weatherly? Michael Manning Weatherly, Sr. 1984), Emily "Beau" Bridges (b. They had been married for 19. Biography. The fabulous Bridges boys: Hollywood celebrates Beau and Jeff Bridges and why Jeff often invites his wife, Susan, and their three daughters to watch him work. Beau was born on December 9, 1941 in Los Angeles, CA. Beau died on Sunday March 03, 2019 and his death was because of a high speed automotive accident. Beau Bridges Biography: He is one of the most versatile of all the Bridges family members. Jeff Bridges was born to two actors for parents: Lloyd and Dorothy “Dean” Bridges. Reply. AKA Lloyd Vernet Bridges, Jr. He got three Emmy Awards during his career. Beau Bridges is an American actor and director. Photo Captures Jeff Bridges' Fateful First Meeting With His True Love these two pictures of the first words I ever spoke to my wife. — Jeff Bridges (@TheJeffBridges) June 1, 2018. Jeff Bridges & his wife and 3 daughters. Video highlights and photo galleries of entertainment in Toronto and Hollywood. 20-2-2009 · LOS ANGELES — Dorothy Bridges, a poet, widow of “Sea Hunt” actor Lloyd Bridges and matriarch of the acting family that includes sons Jeff and Beau Jordan Bridges was born on 13th November of the year 1973. Despite being named Lloyd Vernet Bridges III, his parents nicknamed him Beau after the son of the Ashley Wilkes character in Gone With the Wind. Produced in Los Angeles, California, Beau Bridges, also Called Lloyd Vernet Bridges III, was originally concentrated on a career in basketball. Beau Bridges Age 76 Has The Proudest Wife, Gay - The Other Kind Of Published on: Nov 19, 2018 @ 11:20 AM The guy, who was born in a Hollywood family and proudly held three Emmy Awards during his time, Beau Bridges is still going strong with his acting career at the age of 76. Full list of TV and Movie credits for Beau Bridges. He is the nephew of Jeff Bridges and the grandson of Lloyd Bridges and Dorothy Bridges . Category People & Blogs; Show more Show less. His younger brother is longtime actor and Big Lebowski star Jeff Bridges. 3. He is one of the four children of his parents including an elder brother Beau Bridges and a younger sister Cindy Bridges. He lives happily along with his wife Julie and children. They quickly turned their acting duo into an acting family, giving birth to Jeff and Beau Bridges who would both go on to have long acting careers. in the spring of 2010, flooding cyberspace with a slew of pictures of the very comfortable and, perhaps Jeff Bridges is an American actor, musician and producer. (Minor spoilers coming. The hosts of the awards, Oliver Platt and Edie Falco, Jeff Bridges Has Been Married For Over 40 Years – And What He Has To Say About His Wife Is Beautiful - Duration: 13:55. Beau Bridges is a famous people who is best known as a Movie Actor. He was nicknamed Beau by his parents after Ashley Wilkes' son in Gone with the Wind. Tucci vive em South Salem, no estado de Nova York, com seus três filhos, os gêmeos Isabel e Nicolo, e Camilla. Born in Los Angeles, California, Beau Bridges. In details: Beau Bridges’s wife and kids. A man (Beau Bridges) with amnesia finds love with an innkeeper (Pam Dawber), then faces a difficult decision when his wife (Tess Harper) finally finds him. Bridges was sometimes credited as Dorothy Dean . The Fabulous Baker Boys, Jack (Jeff Bridges) and Frank (Beau Bridges), are brothers living in Seattle, making a living in lounges and music bars, their gimmick Beau Bridges (1941 - ) Films Deaths The Other Side of the Mountain (A Window to the Sky) (1975) [Dick'Mad Dog' Buek]: Killed in a plane crash (off-screen); we learn Jeff’s Brother: Beau Bridges Jeff and Beau image source. It’s like we’re on the same team. Beau Bridges is a Movie Actor. 1986) and Ezekiel (Zeke) Jeffrey Bridges (b. Isabelle and Beau Bridges: Not so much in her character, once it was decided, but the part that I was involved in was just coming up with the concept of me having an ex-wife who I met in Vietnam and having a daughter that I was estranged from. He is the native of Los Angeles County, California, United States. Beau Bridges (1941 - ) Films Deaths The Other Side of the Mountain (A Window to the Sky) (1975) [Dick'Mad Dog' Buek]: Killed in a plane crash (off-screen); we learn Lloyd Vernet Bridges Jr. Bridges is the brother of actor Jeff Bridges, born in 1949. He wakes up to a shake Jeffrey leon bridges is an american actor, singer and producer. Early life Bridges was born in California and is the son of actor Beau Bridges and wife Julie Landfield. Jeff Bridges Thanks Wife Susan Geston For ’45 Years Of Support And Love’ During 2019 Golden Globes Speech I wouldn’t be up here without you, my dear. Cast: George Clooney, Shailene Woodley, Judy Greer, Beau Bridges UK release: 27 January 2012 When his wife is seriously injured during a boating trip with her lover, a Hawaiian land baron takes his daughters on a trip to confront her beau. [3] Lloyd Vernet "Beau" Bridges III (born December 9, 1941) is an American actor and director. Lloyd Bridges III is the older brother of moviestar Jeff Bridges, and son of TV star Lloyd Bridges. Son of the actor Lloyd Bridges and Dorothy Dean Simpson. Sue Shifrin was married to David Cassidy from 1991 to 2014. He is the son of actor Lloyd Bridges and his wife Dorothy Simpson Bridges and is the elder brother of Jeff Bridges of Tron and The Big Lebowski fame. They are the nicest family in hollywood and we remain close friends to this day. The son of actor Lloyd Bridges, Beau Bridges (born Lloyd Vernet Bridges III) was actually named for his father; the nickname "Beau" was borrowed from Ashley Wilkes' son in Gone With the Wind. Once logged in, you can add biography in the databaseBiography. Love you. The couple has three daughters, Isabelle, Jessica, and TV AND FILM ACTOR LLOYD BRIDGES DIES. Bridges also thanked his wife, Susan "Bridges' brilliant body of His first thank you went to his wife, Susan Geston, for “45 years of support and love. He was born Lloyd Vernet Bridges, III, on December 9, 1941. Beau Bridges Share Beau Brides is an award-winning actor who has portrayed a myriad of characters during a successful career spanning more than six decades. Beau Bridges, Jeff's older brother, played the lead, a part for which he received Emmy and Screen Actors Guild Award nominations. He comes from a great own family of actors and appeared in the tv collection sea hunt (1958-60), along with his father, lloyd bridges and his brother, beau bridges. Actor BEAU BRIDGES & wife & son at the world premiere, in Los Angeles, of The Producers. Beau Bridges, Wendy Bridges and his daughter Emily Bridges at the 7th Annual Covenant With Youth Awards Gala. The nickname "Beau" stuck to Bridges from an early age, and was originally based on his resemblance to the young actor who played Leslie Howard 's son in Gone with the Wind . Beau Bridges, Cynthia Nixon, Blair At the time of Llyod passing in 1998, he was survived by his wife and three children including Jeff's brother, Beau Bridges. Although Beau is English, he has a smattering of Swiss-German, Scots-Irish (Northern Irish), German and Irish ancestry. Beau Bridges. The Other Side of the Mountain (A Window to the Sky) (1975) [Dick 'Mad Dog' Buek]: Killed in a plane crash (off-screen); we learn of his death when William Bryant gets the news. The Fabulous Baker Boys, Jack (Jeff Bridges) and Frank (Beau Bridges), are brothers living in Seattle, making a living in lounges and music bars, their gimmick 21-12-2018 · The stars look at the challenges behind John Carpenter's 1984 sci-fi film, including the scene Bridges rehearsed naked to get right. He began his first televised acting in 1958 as a child with his father, Lloyd Bridges, and brother Beau on television’s Sea Hunt. (January 15, 1913 – March 10, 1998) was an American film, stage and television actor who starred in a number of television series and Jeff Bridges. Films Deaths Edit. They all soon reveal the movie's real bad guy, a government altered soldier, now an underground drug lord. Bridges has been working in acting since childhood. Beau has many children of which 1 is a daughter named Emily Bridges and four sons named Casey Bridges, Ezekiel Jeffrey Bridges, Jordan Bridges and Dylan Bridges. Beau Bridges and Jeff Bridges at the Hollywood Entertainment Museum Annual Awards. No need to register, buy now! Soon after the divorce of his first wife in the year 1984, he married his current wife, Wendy Treece Bridges. He was 85. BridgesBeau_Wendy_17 Event in Hollywood Life - California, Red Carpet Event, USA, Film Industry, Celebrities, Photography, Bestof, Arts Culture and Entertainment, Celebrities fashion, Best of, Hollywood Life, Event in Hollywood Life - California, Red Beau Bridges was born in Hollywood, and is the son of actor Lloyd Bridges and his wife, who was his Born: December 9, 1941 Beau offers many children which 1 is usually a daughter called Emily Bridges and four sons called Casey Bridges, Ezekiel Jeffrey Bridges, Jordan Bridges and Dylan Bridges. Hij won Golden Globes voor zijn rollen in de televisiefilms Without Warning Beau Bridges (1941 - ) Films Deaths The Other Side of the Mountain (A Window to the Sky) (1975) [Dick'Mad Dog' Buek]: Killed in a plane crash (off-screen); we learn Jeff’s Brother: Beau Bridges Jeff and Beau image source. Born on A product of "nepotism", Jeff Bridges is the younger son of the star-studded family of the renowned actors, Lloyd and Dorothy Bridges and the brother of the renowned actor. He comes from a prominent acting family and appeared on the television series Sea Hunt (1958–60), with his father, Lloyd Bridges and brother, Beau Bridges. Additionally, he has an older brother, Beau Bridges who is also an actor and a younger sister Lucinda. Bridges, 68, who starred opposite Sally Field in the 1979 Oscar-nominated film, will play a love interest Bridges and his wife, Wendy, first listed the 1. ) With ex-boss (played great by Beau Bridges) and bad girl Mona, (done well by Mila Kunis). Hell-bent on revenge Obituaries for the last 7 days on Your Life Moments. His older brother is actor Beau Bridges, Bridges met his wife, Dorothy Bridges in his fraternity at UCLA; Beau Bridges has portrayed an eclectic mix of roles over his six-decade career in Hollywood, but a turn as Barton…Beau Bridges. Growing up with his brother Beau Bridges who is also an actor and sister, Lucinda, he attended University High School in 1967. Relationship dating details of Beau Bridges and Julie Landfield and all the other celebrities they've hooked up with. Beau Bridges and his wife, Wendy, have sold their home in gated Hidden Hills for $2. He wedded his second wife, Wendy Treece, in Beau Bridges's former wife is Julie Landfield. All about Jeff Bridges. The film stars George Clooney, Shailene Woodley, Amara Miller, Beau Bridges, Judy Greer, Matthew Lillard, and Robert Forster, and was released by Fox Searchlight Pictures in the United States on November 18, 2011 after being screened at the 2011 Toronto International Film Festival. Tags 1982-83, Beau Bridges, Jeff Bridges, Randy Newman, saturday night live, Season 8, snl Leave a Reply Cancel reply Your email address will not be published. Jeff Bridges married his wife Susan Geston in 1977 after meeting on the film shoot for "Rancho Deluxe," where she was working as a maid. His two marriages have averaged 27. Get biography information about Beau Bridges on tcm. The minute Susan Geston told her then-boyfriend, actor Jeff Bridges, her plan, he knew he had to act fast. 1993). The actor & musician his starsign is Sagittarius and he is now 69 years of age. Actor BEAU BRIDGES & wife at a celebrity screening, in Beverly Hills, for Walk the Line. His mother, Dorothy was an American actress and poet while her father was Lloyd was an American television actor. He is the son of actors Lloyd Bridges (Lloyd Vernet Bridges, Jr. He is the brother of fellow actor Jeff Bridges. Discover 12-9-2018 · Jeff Bridges and wife of 40 Nicki Minaj shows off her famous curves in a skintight designer jumpsuit as she steps out with jailbird beau Kenneth Find more about Jeff Bridges married, wife, divorce and net worth. Geston was born in 1953 and was raised in Lloyd Vernet “Beau” Bridges III (born December 9, 1941) is a U. The Dude Stays in the Picture The charismatic star of 'Tron Jordan P. Jeff has three siblings, a younger sister, Lucinda (an artist who works occasionally as an actress) and two Lloyd Bridges. — Beau Bridges (@MrBeauBridges) May 14, 2017. Los Angeles, CA Lloyd Bridges - Pictured with his only wife Dorothy who were married until his death & their 2 sons Actors Beau Bridges & Jeff Bridges. Bridges was born in Los Angeles, California, the son of actor Lloyd Bridges and his college sweetheart, Dorothy Dean (née Simpson). AKA Lloyd Vernet Bridges III. Beau Bridges is the son of actor 'Lloyd Bridges' and his wife, who was his college sweetheart, 'Dorothy Dean Bridges'. The latest Tweets from Jeff Bridges (@TheJeffBridges). ethnicwho. Beau Bridges was born on the 9th December 1941, in Los Angeles, California USA, and is an actor and director, best known for his roles in movies “The Fabulous Baker Boys” (1989), “Max Payne” (2008), and “The Descendants” (2011), as well in the series “Stargate SG-1” (2005-2007). three-time Emmy Award-winning actor. 15-acre property at 5525 Jed Smith Rd. 4 million – twice what they originally paid. 1. 25-9-2012 · Family Tree Tuesday – Jeff Bridges. com/MrBeauBridges/status/863871266914054144Beau Bridges Verified account Sorry for our loss, Beau. An Emmy and Golden Globe award winner, actor Beau Bridges - the eldest son of actor Lloyd Bridges and brother of Jeff Bridges - developed into an amiable character actor after beginning his career as a child star in such films as "Force of Evil" (1948) and Lewis Milestone's "The Red Pony" (1949). Lloyd Bridges had two children, who became Beau Bridges, Jeff Bridges and celebrities. Kim Coates and Helen Shaver also star. His nationality is American and ethnicity is mixed (English Irish, half Russian Jewish and half Austrian). Lloyd Bridges was born in San Leandro, California in 1913. He is a three-time Emmy, two-time Golden Globe and one-time Grammy Award winner, as well as a two-time Screen Actors Guild Award nominee. com/jeff-bridgesJeffrey Leon Bridges is an Actor born in 1949 whose ethnicity is belongs to English, Irish, German. Seniors, beware of phone scams Lucy Brown, a 77-year-old resident of Kingman, received two strange phone calls last week. " He also thanks his brother, fellow actor Beau Bridges Golden Globes 2019: Instagrams & Twitpics. Powers Boothe, known for acting in He is survived by his wife of nearly 50 years, Pam, and their two children, TV Guide adds. Beau Bridges net worth: Beau Bridges is a American actor and director that has a net worth of $16 million. Beau Bridges and wife Wendy Bridges at the Hollywood Entertainment Museum Annual Awards. Actually, the film might not have come to fruition at all without the input of the Bridges family: Lloyd, Beau, Lloyd's wife Dorothy, Beau's son Jordan, and Jeff Bridges (uncredited). 4 million - twice what they originally paid. ) and Dorothy Bridges (Dorothy Dean Simpson). Picture source Jeff Bridges, such as his parents did,is loving a blissful union connection with his wife of more than four decades. Married for more than 30 years, the couple has three daughters. Beau Bridges, to quote the kids today, has no absence of chill. “Beau has just turned 21 and left college to pursue Some of the other celebs in attendance at the sporting event included Jeff Bridges with his wife Susan, Beau Bridges and his wife Wendy, Laura Bell Bundy, Carson Kressley, Joey Fatone, and The Media in category "Beau Bridges" The following 13 files are in this category, out of 13 total. The Academy spotlighted those achievements on August 4, 2014, with “Beau and Jeff: A Tale of Two Bridges,” a sold-out event at the Bing Theater in Los Angeles with both brothers on stage. Jordan Bridges: Birth Facts, Family, and Childhood Jordan was born on November 13, 1973, in Los Angeles County, California, the U. Early Life And Education Of Jordan Bridges. Beau Bridges is reteaming with Greg Garcia. He is a Golden Globe Winner has a star in the Hollywood Walk of Fame. 9, 1941 in Los Angeles, CA Beau Bridges (born: Lloyd III, but nicknamed “Beau” after a character in “Gone With the Wind”) began his acting career as a child in the family classic “The Red Pony. ” He resurfaced as a young adult in episodic television Beau Bridges in Max Payne. He even thanked his longtime stand-in of 50 years. Mr. Sigrid Dwyer Stuff I want to make Beau Bridges was born in Hollywood, and is the son of actor Lloyd Bridges and his wife, who was his college sweetheart, Dorothy Dean Bridges. Beau Bridges's former wife is Julie Landfield. 3) in the series premiere of CBS' new series, "The Millers. the star played a man on trial for murdering his wife and he has a top Beau Bridges Says Playing a Closeted Gay Man Was a 'Wonderful Chance to Shed Light on What That Was Like' Beau Bridges Says Playing a Closeted Gay Man Was a 'Wonderful Chance to Shed Light on What Bridges was born in California and is the son of actor Beau Bridges and wife Julie Landfield. Jeff Bridges Wife, Children. 10-Apr-1984, Geboren op: 9-12-1941Leeftijd: 77Beau Bridges on Twitter: "It's with great sadness …Deze pagina vertalenhttps://twitter. Dorothy Dean Bridges Wife of Lloyd Bridges Mother of Beau Bridges, Cindy Bridges and Jeff Bridges. ” Then, Bridges also thanked his brother and fellow actor Beau Bridges, in attendance at the ceremony Beau Bridges Share Beau Brides is an award-winning actor who has portrayed a myriad of characters during a successful career spanning more than six decades. The nickname "Beau" stuck to Bridges from an early age, Wife: Wendy Treece Bridges (m. is a Robert Redford Biography - Affair, Married, Wife, Ethnicity, Nationality, Net Worth, Height | Who is Robert Redford? Charles Robert Redford Jr. Son Beau Bridges co-starred, along with Harley Jane Kozak as Beau's wife, Alison Hart, and Sean Murray as the oldest Hart son, Zane Grey Hart. Beau Bridges And His Wife Have Arms Around Each Other At Awards Ceremony - Gotham Independent Film Awards Arrivals Part 1. bridges and our pups @busterandhappy on our morning hike. 1984) Emily "Beau" Bridges (b. Description: Beau Bridges is the son of actor Lloyd Bridges and his wife, who was his college sweetheart, Dorothy Dean Bridges. Upcoming, new, and past Beau Bridges movies, TV shows, TV movies, appearances, specials, and more -- plus, a biography, news, awards, and nominations. Jordan’s father Beau Bridges is a notable personality in the entertainment industry. Jeff Bridges Family Beau Bridges's former wife is Julie Landfield. He comes from a well-known acting family and began his televised acting in 1958 as a child with his father, Lloyd Bridges, and brother, Beau, on television's Sea Hunt. Beau“It’s not a competition. Beau Bridges biography, pictures, credits,quotes and more He is one of the most versatile of all the Bridges family members. Jordan Bridges on 13 November 1973 in Los Angeles County, California to the family of Julie Landfield and Beau Bridges. The Fabulous Baker Boys, Jack (Jeff Bridges) and Frank (Beau Bridges), are brothers living in Seattle, making a living in lounges and music bars, their gimmick Harts of the West is an American Western/comedy–drama series starring Beau Bridges and his father, Lloyd Bridges, set on a dude ranch in Nevada. Biography, news, photos and videos Jeff appeared in his father's TV series The Lloyd Bridges Show alongside older brother Beau, love remains his wife of over 30 Beau Bridges and wife Wendy at a benefit for the Council of the Library Foun Beau Bridges’s Biography . Born just two days after the attack on Pearl Harbour, he was delivered by candlelight considering that of a strength blackout
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Managing immigration within the EEA
Ben Kelly / Blog / 1 comment
The number one priority in managing the transition of our secession from the EU must be protecting the economy. When we invoke Article 50 we have two years to negotiate a settlement. It is very unlikely that we can tie up every loose end in that time and that is why we should adopt a transitional arrangement that allows us to leave in stages; thereby ending our political and judicial union, but retaining certain elements of our current relationship for a set time period and remaining in the Single Market.
The complexity of our two year time limited Article 50 negotiations cannot be overstated, but we absolutely must secure trade continuity or else our economy and that of the eurozone will take a very severe hit. The EU has never negotiated a trade agreement in under four years which makes the prospect of concluding a bespoke trade agreement in two years very unlikely. The EEA option is the answer.
The EEA option a.k.a The “Norway option” involves joining the European Free Trade Association (EFTA) and trading with the EU via the European Economic Area (EEA) as a means of achieving an economically secure, de-risked Brexit. It greatly simplifies our time limited negotiations, protects our economy, answers the Northern Irish and Gibraltar question and greatly eases the concerns of Scotland. A bespoke trade agreement that adequately replicates our current trading relationship cannot be achieved in two years and that is why being part of the EEA as stage one in the long and complex process of leaving the EU is by far the most viable, sensible and achievable option.
There is an assumption that we would have to accept freedom of movement as it is, however, it must be known that the Commission officials were not telling the truth about freedom of movement being non negotiable. The EU has been quite willing to negotiate with little Liechtenstein on freedom of movement; coming to an amicable solution which has allowed it to secure an amendment to the treaty giving it a permanent opt-out to freedom of movement.
Liechtenstein is a Contracting Party to the EEA Agreement. It has assumed exactly the same rights and responsibilities as any other EFTA state. It now operates a quota system little different in principle to the Australian points system. Iceland has used exactly the same provisions to suspend free movement of capital following the 2008 financial crisis, demonstrating that there is a real and effective option within the EEA Agreement which could be available to the UK, and solve a lot of problems.
Liechtenstein joined the EEA on 1 May 1995. On the 10th March 1995 the EEA Council – part of the formal consultation structure set up under the agreement – looked at the situation dominating Liechtenstein’s entry. The Council recognised that Liechtenstein had “a very small inhabitable area of rural character with an unusually high percentage of non-national residents and employees” and it decided that unrestricted free movement of workers would be detrimental to the country.
Like the UK, but at the opposite end of the scale, the country was not able to absorb unlimited numbers. Moreover, the Council acknowledged “the vital interest of Liechtenstein to maintain its own national identity”. It thus concluded that the situation “might justify the taking of safeguard measures by Liechtenstein as provided for in Article 112 of the EEA Agreement“.
Article 112 is part of the “safeguard measures” – popularly known as the “emergency brake”. Where serious economic, societal or environmental difficulties of a sectoral (sic) or regional nature arise, which are liable to persist, it allows EFTA states (but not EU Member States) unilaterally to take appropriate measures to resolve them. EU Member States have to rely on the Commission to take action.
In 1995, transitional arrangements were adopted which allowed Liechtenstein to impose “quantitative limitations” on immigration until 1 January 1998. These were incorporated into Protocol 15, appended to the Agreement. By 1997, just before the planned end of the transitional period, there had been no long-term solution found so Liechtenstein unilaterally invoked the Article 112 safeguard measures and thus kept the existing immigration restrictions in place.
On 17 December 1999 after a further review, the EEA Joint Committee (another of the formal EEA bodies that mysteriously have “no influence” or “no say”) decided that the “specific geographical situation of Liechtenstein” still justified “the maintenance of certain conditions on the right of taking up residence in that country”.
The Joint Committee came up with a proposal for a longer-term solution. Liechtenstein was to be allowed to introduce a quota system controlling the number of workers allowed to enter the country. This was given formal status by an amendment to Annex VIII of the EEA Agreement, setting out what were called “sectoral adaptations”, cross-referred to Annex V on the free movement of workers.
As a formal amendment to the EEA Agreement, the decision provided for a new transitional period until 31 December 2006, and allowed for the new measures to apply subject to a review “every five years, for the first time before May 2009”.
After reviews in 2009 and in 2015, it was concluded that there was no need to make any change to the current rules. The provisions on the “sectoral adaptations” could remain unchanged. Under the current arrangement, Liechtenstein issues 56 residence permits for economically active and 16 permits to economically non-active persons each year. Half of the totally available permits are decided by lottery, held twice a year.
Yes, I know, this is just little old Liechtenstein ; but what matters is the precedent. Within the framework of the EEA Agreement, an EFTA state has suspended freedom of movement and replaced it with a quota system indefinitely. Whatever the EU might declare in terms of freedom of movement being “non-negotiable”, it is undeniable that it is negotiable within the framework of the EEA Agreement, as it applies to EFTA states.
Therefore, if the UK chooses to follow the EFTA/EEA option as an interim solution to expedite the Article 50 settlement, once the agreement is adopted it can follow the procedural steps pioneered by Liechtenstein. And by this means, it can impose limits on immigration from EEA states. This should help us reach an amicable settlement with the EU, while keeping us in the Single Market.
Ben is the Conservatives for Liberty Web Editor. He blogs at The Sceptic Isle. Follow him on Twitter: @TheScepticIsle
« Political engagement must continue
post-referendum » In response to common misconceptions of the EEA option
Good article, very detailed in the situation of Liechtenstein. It’s funny how those on the Remain campaign were totally silent about Article 112 of the EEA Agreement and the Joint EEA comittee. I guess it didn’t chime with their notion of Norway ‘aceepting all the rules and having no influence’ and the ability to unilaterally have emergency breaks on immigration.
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Consumer Credit Support > Housing > Housing Statute
Housing Case Law
Location: Proud member of the CFC.
This thread will be for Housing case law only. Please do not post problems on this thread. It is to be used for reference purposes only
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TANZARELLI
Assistant Moderator
Location: One step ahead of you......
Housing Act 1996
http://www.opsi.gov.uk/acts/acts1996..._19960052_en_1
Last edited by TANZARELLI : 17-05-2008 at 08:23 PM.
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Homelessness Act 2002
Courtney Malcolm V Lewisham Lbc
http://www.doughtystreet.co.uk/files...%20(final).doc
Last edited by TANZARELLI : 16-05-2008 at 10:41 AM.
Andrews V Cunningham 2007
http://www.bailii.org/ew/cases/EWCA/Civ/2007/762.html
The Housing Law Website
http://www.housinglaw.org.uk/Updates.htm
Pre-action Protocol For Possession Claims Based On Rent Arrears
http://www.justice.gov.uk/civil/proc.../prot_rent.htm
Location: Getting in a DCA's face
Ferguson Latimer & Anor vs Carney(2006)
http://www.bailii.org/cgi-bin/markup...mer&method=all
The real evil is not the payment of money, but the secrecy attending it (Chitty L.J. in the case of Shipway v Broadwood [1899] 1 QB 369, 373). .
The courts shall not make an enforcement order under section 65(1) if section 61(1)(a) (signing of agreements) was not complied with unless a document (whether or not in the prescribed form and complying with regulations under section 60(1)) itself containing all the prescribed terms of the agreement was signed by the debtor or hirer (whether or not in the prescribed manner
Moneylending transactions as a class give rise to significant social problems.
Astalavista baby and I'll be back
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McCann vs United Kingdom May 16th 2008
No.304 McCann v The United Kingdom (Application No. 19009/04) May 13, 2008 European Court of Human Rights
The European Court of Human Rights has held that where a local authority obtained a possession order against a former joint secure tenant following termination of the tenancy by notice to quit served by the other joint tenant, there was a breach of Art.8 (right to respect for the home). The applicant’s eviction was not attended by the necessary procedural safeguards in that there was no possibility of an independent tribunal determining whether the interference with his right was proportionate.
In 1998, Birmingham CC granted the applicant and his wife a joint secure tenancy of a three-bedroom house. In 2001, their marriage broke down. The wife left the family home with their two children. She then obtained a non-molestation order against the applicant and an ouster requiring him to leave the house. The wife moved back into the house but moved out again when the applicant tried to force his way in. She applied to the authority for re-housing on the grounds of domestic violence. In August 2001, she returned the keys to the house to the authority with a note saying that she was giving up the tenancy. The Council provided her with alternative accommodation. The authority visited the house and found that most of the fixtures had been removed and that it would take £15,000 to make it habitable.
In November 2001, the applicant returned to the house and carried out renovation works to it. In January 2002, he applied to the authority for a mutual exchange with another tenant of the authority because the house was larger than he required. His relationship with his wife improved and she supported that application. The authority
realised that the house was no longer empty. An officer visited the wife and asked her to sign a notice to quit. She was not advised as to the effect of the notice to quit and a week later she wrote to the authority asking to withdraw it. The authority told the applicant that the tenancy had come to an end and that he had to leave. Subsequently, they also decided that under their domestic violence policy the applicant would not be granted a new tenancy of the house.
In October 2002, the authority brought possession proceedings against the applicant in the county court. The county court judge dismissed the claim on the ground that a possession order would interfere with the defendant’s right to respect for the home under Art.8(1) and that the interference was not justified under Art.8(2).
The authority’s appeal to the Court of Appeal was adjourned pending the outcome of the House of Lords appeal in Qazi v Harrow LBC [2003] UKHL 43; [2004] 1 A.C. 983; [2003] H.L.R. 75. Following that decision, the authority’s appeal was allowed: [2003] EWCA Civ 1783; [2004] H.L.R. 27.
Disclaimer: Arden Chambers’ eflashes are no more than an immediate response to a recent decision (or other legal development), on a selective basis, intended to help recipients keep up-to-date with information which may interest them without needing to await publication of more considered material. Recipients should therefore seek advice or await fuller information if proposing to take action in consequence of an eflash. 2 John Street, London WC1N 2ES, DX 29 Chancery Lane Tel 020 7242 4244 Fax 020 7242 3224 clerks@ardenchambers.com www.ardenchambers.com/author No.304 Continued
The applicant applied for judicial review of the authority’s decision to procure a notice to quit from his wife and to issue possession proceedings. In September 2004, that claim was dismissed. The applicant was evicted in March 2005.
The applicant applied to the European Court of Human Rights alleging violations of Arts 6 (right to a fair trial), 8 (right to respect for the home) and 14 (prohibition on discrimination).
Art.6
The ECHR rejected the application under Art.6 because there was no complaint against the fairness of the court proceedings [30].
It also rejected the arguments based on Art.14. The applicant sought to compare his position with that of spouses of tenants who leave premises because of a relationship breakdown where there is no allegation of domestic violence and alleged discrimination because the authority had different policies depending upon the incidence of domestic violence. It was held that there could be no real comparison between cases involving domestic violence and cases that do not involve domestic violence such that different treatment cannot be discriminatory for the purposes of Art.14: [36].
The UK government accepted that the house continued to be the applicant’s home notwithstanding that he had no right under domestic law to continue in occupation. The ECHR agreed with that analysis: [46]. It was also accepted that the effect of the notice to quit together with the possession proceedings was to interfere with the applicant’s right to respect for his home. The issue was therefore whether that interference was justified.
The ECHR held that the interference pursued the legitimate aim of protecting the rights and freedoms of the authority to regain possession of the property and ensuring that the statutory scheme for provision of housing was properly applied. The question was whether the interference was proportionate and thus necessary in a democratic society: [48].
In analysing proportionality, the ECHR relied on the principles set out in Connors v UK [2004] H.L.R. 52, ECHR. In that case, the applicant was a gypsy occupying a local authority caravan site. Following allegations of anti-social behaviour, the authority evicted him using a summary possession procedure which did not require them to prove the allegations. The ECHR upheld the applicant’s complaint of a breach of art.8 and held that the applicant’s eviction had not been attended by the necessary procedural safeguards, namely the requirement to establish proper justification for it.
The ECHR rejected the Government’s argument that the reasoning in Connors was to be confined only to cases involving the eviction of gypsies or cases where the applicant sought to challenge the law itself rather than its application in his particular case. “The loss of one’s home is a most extreme form of interference with the right to respect for the home. Any person at risk of an interference of this magnitude should in principle be able to have the proportionality of the measure determined by an independent tribunal in the light of the relevant principles under Article 8 of the Convention, notwithstanding that, under domestic law, his right of occupation has come to an end”: [50].
The ECHR also found that the procedural safeguards required by Art.8 for assessment of the proportionality of the interference were not met by the possibility of judicial review because the judicial review proceedings “did not provide any opportunity for an independent tribunal to examine whether the applicant’s loss of his home was proportionate … to the legitimate aims pursued”: [53].
It was also emphasised that it was immaterial whether or not the applicant’s wife understood or intended the effects of the notice to quit. The application was allowed: [55].
“Under the summary procedure available to the landlord where one joint tenant serves a notice to quit, the applicant was dispossessed of his home without any possibility to have the proportionality of the measure determined by an independent tribunal. It follows that, because of the lack of adequate procedural safeguards, there has been a violation of Article 8 of the Convention in the instant case.”
In argument, the government emphasised that it was clear that an individual in the applicant’s position would now benefit from the decision of the House of Lords in Kay v Lambeth LBC [2006] UKHL 10; [2006] 2 A.C. 465; [2006] H.L.R. 22. In Kay, Lord Hope, in a paragraph in a paragraph with which the majority of the Committee agreed, said at [110]:
“[i]f the requirements of the law have been established and the right to possession is unqualified, the only situations in which it would be open to the court to refrain from proceeding to summary judgment and making the possession order are these: (a) if a seriously arguable point is raised that the law which enables the court to make the possession order is incompatible with Art.8, the county court in the exercise of its jurisdiction under the Human Rights Act 1998 should deal with the argument in one of two ways: (i) by giving effect to the law, so far as is possible for it to do so under s.3, 1998 Act, in a way that is compatible with Art.8, or (ii) by adjourning the proceedings to enable the incompatibility issue to be dealt with in the High Court; (b) if the defendant wishes to challenge the decision of a public authority to recover possession as an improper exercise of their powers at common law on the ground that it was a decision which no reasonable person would consider justifiable, he should be permitted to do this provided again that the point is seriously arguable.”
Clearly, however, the ECHR envisages that a defendant should be able not only to raise a defence based on traditional judicial review grounds but also one based solely on proportionality. The ECHR expressed the view that this would not have “serious consequences for the functioning of the system of for the domestic law of landlord and tenant”. Referring to the views expressed by the minority of the House of Lords in Kay, it considered that it would only be in very exceptional cases that an applicant would succeed in raising an arguable case which would require a court to examine the issue; in the great majority of cases, an order for possession could continue to be made in summary proceedings: [54]. Indeed, in considering compensation for the applicant, the ECHR observed that “it is far from clear that, had a
domestic tribunal been in a position to assess the proportionality of the eviction, the possession order would not still have been granted”: [59].
Plainly, the House of Lords will have to address the application of Art.8 to possession proceedings once more and, indeed, have the opportunity to do so in the forthcoming appeal in Doherty v Birmingham CC.
Chester Accomodation Agency vs Abebrese(1997)
http://www.bailii.org/cgi-bin/markup...ers&method=all
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Categorizing Styles
Q: I have heard that Chinese martial arts are categorized by the terms Northern and Southern. What does this mean?Chinese martial arts are the oldest and most complex. These arts, refined and perfected in China, were preserved mainly within family clans and religious temples, and taught only to a select few. While Karate was primarily brought to the West by Americans after WWII and the Korean War and Tae Kwon Do was promoted as a martial sport after the 1950’s, it is only within the past 20 to 30 years that Chinese martial arts have become widely accessible to the West. With hundreds of styles, it is difficult to unify so many different perspectives!CATEGORIZING STYLES OF CHINESE MARTIAL ARTS
A: Northern and Southern refer to the geographical region of origin and/or development. In China, the Yangzi River is the arbitrary line of division. Northern styles are those which are derived from regions north of the Yangzi River, and Southern styles are those which originate to the south.
Q: What about the terms, Internal and External styles. Which is better for me?
A: These terms are commonly used, however they are misconceived and inaccurate notions. In reality, any good style of martial art should have a balance of both internal and external principles. These two principles are combined and manifest in the training theories and methods, techniques, and philosophy of a given style of martial art.
Q: What other ways are martial arts categorized?
A: Another categorization method pertains to combat ranges and is based upon body mechanics. These ranges are long, medium, short and close (touching) range.
The Eight Primary Divisions of Empty Hand Combat (Badaleixing) is based on body mechanics and power generation principles:
Soft, Relaxed Movements,
Soft Movements with Occasional Emissions of Explosive Force,
Soft and Quick Movements,
Total Explosive Power,
High Stance, Short Strike,
Low Stance, Solid Root,
Mobile Attack and Defense,
and Ground Movements.
This method represents the most accurate method of categorizing styles of kung fu. In fact, every form of any martial art style can fit into one of these eight categories which represent the principle focus of the majority of movements, or, the essence of the forms.
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New Iran Sanctions Target Revolutionary Guards
Washington hopes that adding a massive Revolutionary Guards-owned construction conglomerate to the list of untouchable companies will give teeth to an Iran-sanctions resolution that was undermined by Brazil and Turkey
By Massimo Calabresi Thursday, June 10, 2010
From left: Jason Reed / Reuters; Seth Wenig / AP
U.S. President Barack Obama, left, and Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad
What Did China Get for Backing Iran Sanctions?
The Obama Administration scored a last-minute win in its pursuit of global sanctions against Iran when Russia agreed to add a massive construction conglomerate owned by Iran's powerful Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) to the list of 41 companies whose assets must be frozen. The list is part of broader sanctions that were passed 12-2 by the U.N. Security Council on Wednesday in New York City, with Lebanon abstaining and Brazil and Turkey voting against them.
The Khatam al-Anbiya Construction Headquarters (KAA) conglomerate is the parent of more than 812 subsidiary companies that are responsible for multibillion-dollar contracts for everything from the previously secret nuclear facility at Qum to crucial oil and gas fields in the country and throughout the Persian Gulf. "To the extent the IRGC is becoming the major economic force in Iran, it's largely through Khatam al-Anbiya and its subsidiaries," says a senior Administration official.
(See how Brazil and China have intensified the Iran nuclear game.)
The KAA was included on the list on Monday after multiple meetings and phone conversations between Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and diplomats from Russia and China, both of which have companies that do big business with the KAA. The U.S. also distributed to the Security Council members sensitive intelligence on the activities of the KAA in an effort to convince any fence sitters.
In announcing the sanctions, President Obama admitted that they are unlikely to result in a change of course by the Iranians anytime soon. "We know that the Iranian government will not change its behavior overnight," Obama said on Wednesday, "but today's vote demonstrates the growing costs that will come with Iranian intransigence."
(See the top 10 players in Iran's power struggle.)
There are real-dollar costs for the Revolutionary Guards on restrictions for the KAA. In 2006 alone, the KAA secured $7 billion worth of deals in the oil, gas and transportation sectors, according to the U.S. Treasury Department. Western intelligence services estimate that the KAA has some 40,000 employees, and it has reportedly been granted some 1,700 government contracts, including in recent years a $1.3 billion contract to build a natural gas pipeline and a $2.5 billion contract to work on the South Pars oil field, according to Britain's Guardian newspaper.
The U.S. and its Western allies intend to use the U.N. resolution as a trigger for further unilateral sanctions that they plan to adopt in the coming weeks. Major European countries including France, Britain and Germany are hoping to pass extra, European Unionwide measures against Iran when the E.U. meets on June 13. Australia is also preparing its own sanctions, while the U.S. Congress is expected to pass a bill expanding sanctions later this month, which the President is expected to sign.
The Administration's success in getting the KAA on the list was more than tempered, however, by its failure to convince Turkey and Brazil to support the sanctions. Those two countries were angry at the U.S. and its partners for ignoring the eleventh-hour fuel-swap deal they negotiated with Iran as a confidence-building mechanism. And their "no" vote weakens the effort to present Tehran with an international consensus on its nuclear defiance.
There are also questions about the extent to which the pro-sanctions countries will enforce the new measures. Wednesday's resolution establishes a body to monitor implementation, a step that has improved the effectiveness of previous sanctions against other countries, but companies like the KAA have a history of evading penalties by setting up multiple subsidiaries to avoid detection. "They'll try to evade and come up with shell companies," says a senior Administration official. "But we can put a really big crimp in their ability to do business."
See the top 10 Ahmadinejad-isms.
See pictures of Iran's turbulent presidential election.
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How to Fight Fake News—Cognitive biases can make discerning truth from fiction difficult, but recent research suggests there may be hope
By Jeff Reeves
Precept 1 of the Code of Professional Conduct that all practicing U.S. actuaries must adhere to says, in part, that actuaries should “act honestly, with integrity and competence” and that they should avoid “dishonesty, fraud, deceit, or misrepresentation.”
Those are indeed key principles for the profession. But perhaps more fundamentally, if you ask a random passer-by on the street, chances are that person would agree these traits are universally important regardless of age, profession, or circumstance.
The sad reality in 2019, however, is that many people—particularly in America—appear to have a fraught relationship with the truth.
According to an estimate published[1] by the National Bureau of Economic Research, the average American was exposed to as many as 14 news stories during the 2016 elections that conveyed misleading or downright false information.
Furthermore, a recent Ipsos study[2] on the phenomenon of “fake news” found that 77 percent of Americans believe “the average person in the country lives in a bubble on the internet”—well above the global average of 65 percent—but amusingly only 32 percent think such intellectual myopia applies to their own personal behavior.
It’s no wonder, then, that Oxford Dictionaries selected “post-truth” as its 2016 Word of the Year,[3] in large part because of the pervasiveness of half-truths and outright lies that fueled successful political campaigns. Nor is it a surprise that Yale Law School’s list of the most notable quotes of 2017 included the proliferating use of “alternative facts.”[4]
Those who still value truth and objectivity—chief among them the scrupulous actuaries who rely on hard data and empirical evidence—may find these circumstances daunting.
But there is hope for the truth in 2019.
And the facts—if you can believe them, of course—show that many of the challenges humans have in consuming and analyzing information are neither a recent result of technology nor a signal that party politics have destroyed American democracy.
The Country That Cried ‘Fake News’
To begin with, it’s worth exploring the difference between materially false information and the presentation of opinions that just happen to differ from your personal point of view.
Consider that in a book by a French philosopher lauding the potential intellectual advancements a free press offers, then-President John Adams scrawled in the margin[5] of his copy a caustic retort: “There has been more new error propagated by the press in the last ten years than in an hundred years before 1798.” At the same time, Adams’ chief political rival, Thomas Jefferson, was equally critical of the press, saying, “Nothing can now be believed which is seen in a newspaper.”[6]
Those are rather remarkable points of view from Jefferson and Adams, considering their intimate associations with the news media of the day; Jefferson helped found the National Gazette newspaper in the 1790s as counterpoint to the federalist Gazette of the United States that regularly published the views of his rival John Adams.
It is logical, then, to assume that Jefferson was not referring to the work at a newspaper he championed as error-prone, but rather to the writings of those like Adams who disagreed with him in print—and vice versa.
After all, newspapers in the late 1700s were highly opinionated and made no attempt at balanced coverage. And being a political leader at the end of the 18th century, during the golden age of the party press and during a time of great change in the nascent republic, sometimes meant entire publications were organized by dissenters to dismantle the opposition and give voice to their particular point of view.
Historical archives show that this kind of coverage was simply the price of participating in the rough-and-tumble politics of early American democracy. But it certainly didn’t stop America’s leaders from labeling persistent unfavorable coverage as “fake news.”
Of course, the party press of the 1790s isn’t entirely analogous with today’s polarized media environment. And that’s less a function of tone and tactics than it is of technology.
Though Gutenberg’s movable type press became the first target vehicle for truly mass communication in Europe, and soon after in America, the reach of a newspaper in the early United States was decidedly limited. Literacy rates were much lower, access to printers was limited to those with money and connections, and finished print products moved slowly around the nation.
In contrast, today social media makes anyone a de facto publisher and smartphone newsfeeds are updated every second.
As a result, fringe groups thrive in 2019. That includes those untethered from political agendas, including conspiracy theorists at The Flat Earth Society who believe a “planar conspiracy” exists to perpetuate the lie of a round earth and contend that “gravity as a theory is false.”[7]
It may sound absurd that such a group can persist in an age of such advanced scientific tools. But in the end, a justification of Flat Earth Society views is similar to that of Thomas Jefferson: don’t believe the “fake news” you read in the newspapers.
A digital age has certainly brought about unique challenges to publishers and media consumers alike. But our founding fathers show that the desire to reject opposing points of view out of hand is centuries old—and more recent psychological research shows it may be a trait that has plagued humans since the very beginning.
In the 1950s, an intellectual movement began to explore what would come to be known as “cognitive science.” The field grew to include the work of behaviorist B.F. Skinner, who explored the impact of positive and negative reinforcement on behavior, as well as artificial intelligence researchers such as MIT ‘s AI Laboratory co-founder Marvin Minsky.
At its core, cognitive science is the study of how our minds process and transform information. And over the past few decades, researchers have found that a number of glitches are hard-wired into the human brain in ways that adversely affect our ability to seek out objective truth.
These include, but are not limited to, the following areas:
Confirmation Bias: Confirmation bias is the phenomenon where we see what we want to see, reaching a preconceived conclusion and then fitting facts in place to support it. One famous example of confirmation bias at work involved a study of Dartmouth and Princeton students, where participants watched a particularly violent football game where both quarterbacks left the field with injuries. When then asked who was most responsible for the rough play, most students predictably blamed the other school was to blame. The study’s authors presented the findings[8] as proof that “out of all the occurrences going on in the environment, a person selects only those that have some significance for him from his own egocentric position.”
Optimism Bias: Nobody wants to believe they are inferior, and as a result most humans overestimate their abilities to do just about anything. However, there are countless studies illustrating the absurdity of just how optimistic humans as a group can be. More than 90 percent[9] of college professors said they had above-average classroom skills in one famous 1977 survey, and a 1986 study indicated that up to 80 percent of drivers rate themselves above average behind the wheel. It doesn’t take an actuary to know that the optimistic perceptions that were self-reported in these studies are highly unlikely to be scientifically true.
Self-Serving Bias: Just as humans like to be good at things, we also like to believe that good things have happened because of our hard work and attention—and, of course, that failures are because other people were dragging us down. In one 1986 study,[10] subjects were organized into pairs with one leader and one subordinate and then given performance feedback on tasks. When a low performance grade was recorded, the leaders as a group largely blamed the subordinate—while the subordinates as a group largely blamed the leaders.
Recency Bias: Humans are good at learning from history, but unfortunately we place outsized value on what has happened most recently, regardless of whether those events are likely to happen again anytime soon. One of the most common manifestations of this trend is in investing, when folks willingly buy stocks at the top of the market simply because they have run up so much recently and sell in a panic when it is too late and the damage has already been done. Consider a recent Gallup poll[11] that showed 52 percent of adults younger than age 35 owned stocks in the seven years leading up to the financial crisis and market crash of 2008. By 2017 and 2018, only 37 percent did despite the fact that “older Americans, who had seen the market recover from previous shocks, have been more willing to hold on to their stocks.”
A Bias for Bias: Perhaps most pernicious of all is our bias to believe what we believe—regardless of how those impressions are formed. In a 1975 study,[12] Stanford researchers gave purported suicide notes to test groups and asked them to identify which ones were real and which ones were fake. Researchers then fabricated scores, telling some groups they were incredibly accurate at identifying real notes and telling other groups they were way off. After awarding these divergent scores, researchers then openly admitted the results were made up, and that they really wanted to know whether these students believed they were right in their analysis. Researchers found those with fake scores that were high were significantly more likely to believe they were good at discerning real notes from fake notes, while those with low scores believed they were significantly worse than their peers. In reality, the groups’ performance was not materially different.
Lies That Go Viral
When you marry a partisan media environment with our ingrained cognitive biases, it’s easy to understand why American discourse is at where it is at. The typical person is eager to accept any information—regardless of its veracity—that fits in with their personal worldviews, and the wide variety of information on the internet makes it easy to build your own echo chamber. Similarly, it’s also easy to understand why so many of us credulously disseminate that one-sided viewpoint on social media to keep the cycle going for others.
Humans are imperfect, so it’s only natural our communication is imperfect as well. However, in 2019 we face a new wrinkle in the form of willful deceptions that take on a life of their own thanks to the speed and ease of digital communications.
Russia’s Internet Research Agency, a propaganda arm of the government, is believed to have opened up 99 accounts on photo-sharing app Instagram that lured more than 600,000 Americans into following its posts during the 2016 election cycle.[13] Furthermore, in 2018 the Justice Department charged 13 Russians and three Russian companies[14] with conspiracy, identity theft, failing to register as foreign agents, and other criminal charges related to a broad campaign targeting U.S. voters with misinformation.
It’s not just Russia, either.
Far-right conspiracy theorist Alex Jones founded his divisive website InfoWars in 1999, peddling outrageous fabrications for almost two decades. Some segments have been merely absurd, such as a claim[15] that “the majority of frogs in most areas of the United States are gay” because of a chemical “gay bomb” used by the Pentagon. Others have been inflammatory, such as a debunked and offensive assertion that the shooting deaths of 26 students and teachers at Sandy Hook Elementary School in 2012 was a hoax staged by “crisis actors.”
And in mid-2018, Infowars boasted 1.4 million visits each day to its website, videos, and Facebook pages according to a New York Times analysis.[16]
The ingrained biases of American media consumers assuredly lead them to readily accept false information that is put in front of them and ignore reality. In fact, 46 percent[17] of Americans polled in July did not believe Russia meddled in the 2016 election despite clear assertions by organizations such as the Central Intelligence Agency, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and the Justice Department asserting that Russia indeed interfered in the process.
But it’s worth acknowledging it is not enough to simply encourage people to be skeptical when there are such active and aggressive campaigns of misinformation.
There are early signs that legislators and business leaders understand these risks to the system. Internet giants including Facebook willingly testified before lawmakers about Russia’s election interference, with CEO Mark Zuckerberg pledging, “I don’t want anyone to use our tools to undermine democracy.[18]
There have also been efforts to ban Alex Jones and Infowars from various outlets, including Apple’s iTunes taking down his podcast and YouTube banning his video channel. There is also a legal fight mounted by the families of Sandy Hook victims aimed at punishing Jones and InfoWars for its past behavior.
These are not comprehensive solutions, however. Alex Jones is still independently publishing on InfoWars.com; one can argue the concerns over 2016 election interference are as much about how easy it is for any outside actors to influence American democracy as they are about Russia motivations three years ago.
Equally disturbing is that recent examination of Alex Jones and Russian misinformation campaigns has had a chilling effect on the entire media landscape. These true instances of “fake news” prove to some that it is difficult to believe anything at all.
According to a Northeastern University study on media consumption,[19] almost half of the nearly 6,000 American college students surveyed said they lacked confidence in discerning real from fake news on social media. Additionally, 36 percent of them said the threat of misinformation made them trust all media less.
Those are disturbing facts that show what’s at stake in the age of fake news, and why skepticism alone may not be enough.
Will the Truth Win Out?
All this may sound like quite a challenge for American media, and perhaps even American democracy. It is certainly a challenge for all of us, actuaries included. The reality, though, is that technologies that tear down barriers have always been disruptive—and our modern digital media environment is just the latest proof of this.
But regulators and government officials are starting to catch up. Beyond the much-publicized hearings before the U.S. Congress, internet companies have been taken to task for their behavior globally, and in March 2018 the European Commission published a report[20] on misinformation in the 21st century and committed itself to both media literacy and continued research into the impact of “fake news” going forward.
Beyond public policy responses, there is also an encouraging history of various media businesses self-policing in an effort to maintain the public trust—as well as their business models. From voluntary schemes such as the Motion Picture Association of America’s film rating system to the Recording Industry Association of America’s efforts to crack down on piracy to the Poyner Institute’s news fact checking arm Politifact, there are many examples of industry-led efforts to make media more hygienic without trampling on anyone’s First Amendment rights to free speech.
And if employing a healthy dose of skepticism as we consume information is always a good thing, then it’s worth questioning whether misinformation is indeed as big a problem as certain headlines would like us to believe.For instance, a recent study in the journal Science found that only 5 five percent of political content shared on social media platform Twitter could be defined as “fake news.” Furthermore, the study found a mere 1 percent of users consumed a massive 80 percent of fake content on Twitter.[21]
A separate study by New York University and Princeton focused on Facebook, and found that less than 9 percent of links shared during the 2016 election fell under the definition of “fake news.”[22]
These two studies seems to indicate that while a small portion of the population may be quite gullible, the vast majority of Americans are reasonably discerning consumers of media.
Lastly, it’s also important to acknowledge that the typical person encounters plenty of misinformation and half-truths every day but still manages to be a functional member of society. That’s because while the human mind is hardwired for bias, that does not mean people are incapable of changing their minds or understanding a different point of view.
Consider that reliance on fake news was found to be prevalent in those who are simply “less analytic and less actively open-minded thinking,” according to 2018 research published in the Journal of Applied Research in Memory and Cognition.[23] As an important sign of hope, that research noted that simple “interventions” that encourage more analytic behaviors can help reduce a person’s willingness to simply accept outlandish headlines as real and make them a more discerning media consumer.
Similarly, it has been shown that “those with segregated social networks are significantly more likely to believe ideologically aligned articles, perhaps because they are less likely to receive disconfirmatory information from their friends,” according to one study.[24] That means simply widening your communication network may be enough to help shut down fake news.
The challenges in today’s media environment are real and go far beyond any one politician’s casual relationship with the truth.
But the fact that the American public has at least acknowledged the pernicious phenomenon of fake news and has continually explored the topic in recent years is in itself a sign of hope that the truth may ultimately win out.
Many actuaries have seen the John Ruskin quote, “The work of science is to substitute facts for appearances, and demonstrations for impressions,” and thought it described, or should describe, what they do.
Together with others who emphasize objectivity and independence in their approach to their lives at work and elsewhere, actuaries can help us all.
JEFF REEVES is a financial journalist with almost two decades of newsroom and markets experience. His commentary has appeared in USA Today, U.S. News & World Report, CNBC, and the Fox Business Network.
[1] “Social Media and Fake News in the 2016 Election”; National Bureau of Economic Research; January 2017.
[2] “Fake News, Filter Bubbles, and Post-Truth Are Other People’s Problems”; Ipsos; Sept. 5, 2018.
[3] “Word of the Year 2016 is…”; Oxford Living Dictionaries; November 2016.
[4] “‘Alternative Facts’ Remark Tops 2017 List of Notable Quotes”; U.S. News; Dec. 12, 2017.
[5] James Madison and the Spirit of Republican Self-Government, by Colleen A. Sheehan. Cambridge University Press; 2009.
[6] “Memo to Donald Trump: Thomas Jefferson invented hating the media,”; The Washington Post; Feb. 18,. 2017.
[7] “About the Flat Earth Society: FAQ”; TheFlatEarthSociety.org; 2016
[8] “The Hastorf and Cantril Case Study;” Explorable.com; May 2010
[9] “Not can, but will college teaching be improved?” New Directions for Higher Education; 1977
[10] Self-Serving Biases in Leadership: A Laboratory Experiment”; Journal of Management; Dec. 1, 1986
[11] “Young Americans Still Wary of Investing in Stocks”; Gallup; May 4, 2018
[12] “Clinging to Beliefs: A Constraint-satisfaction Model”; Department of Psychology at McGill University.
[13] “Russian trolls reached hundreds of thousands of US Instagram users before Facebook removed them on eve of midterms”; CNBC; Nov. 13, 2018.
[14] “Special counsel indicts Russian nationals for interfering with U.S. elections and political processes”; USA Today; Feb. 16, 2018.
[15] “Alex Jones’ 5 most disturbing and ridiculous conspiracy theories”; CNBC; Sept. 14, 2018.
[16] “Alex Jones Said Bans Would Strengthen Him. He was Wrong.”; The New York Times; Sept. 4, 2018.
[17] “Poll: 60 percent of Americans say Russia meddled in 2016 election”; Politico. July 18, 2018.
[18] “Facebook is promising major ad changes to stop Russia and other foreign actors from influencing U.S. elections”; Recode; Sept. 21, 2017.
[19] “Faced with a daily barrage of news, college students find it hard to tell what’s real and what’s ‘fake news’ “; News @ Northeastern; Oct. 16, 2018.
[20] “Final report of the High Level Expert Group on Fake News and Online Disinformation” European Commission; March 12, 2018.
[21] “Fake news on Twitter during the 2016 U.S. presidential election”; Science; Jan. 25, 2019.
[22] “Less than you think: Prevalence and predictors of fake news dissemination on Facebook”; Science Advances; Jan. 9, 2019.
[23] “Belief in Fake News is Associated with Delusionality, Dogmatism, Religious Fundamentalism, and Reduced Analytic Thinking”; Journal of Applied Research in Memory and Cognition. Oct. 24, 2018.
[24] “Social Media and Fake News in the 2016 Election”; The Journal of Economic Perspectives; Spring 2017.
The Art of Thinking Clearly, by Rolf Dobelli
A compilation of some of the more common cognitive biases, the book provides bite-sized examples of common stumbling blocks on the way to making good decisions and filtering information better. Structured into 99 pithy chapters with titles like “Does Harvard Make You Smarter?” and “Don’t Accept Free Drinks,” the folksy anecdotes Dobelli uses are much more vivid and relatable than simply a parade of scientific studies.
Thinking Fast and Slow, by Daniel Kahneman
As the title implies, there are times when a fast and effortless way of thinking is best and others when a deliberate use of logic can yield better results. But the challenge is that that most people can’t keep proper perspective on which method is most appropriate. As Kahneman writes rather cuttingly, “Nothing in life is as important as you think it is, when you are thinking it.” The 400-page book is thicker than Dobelli’s and filled with much more psychological rigor, in part because Kahneman is an academic, but is still applicable to real-world situations like why attractive people are deemed more competent in the workplace.
Predictably Irrational, by Dan Ariely
One of the pioneers of “behavioral economics,” Duke professor Dan Ariely is focused largely on the effect of our biases on how we behave as investors, savers, and spenders. For many years, economists relied on ideas such as supply and demand or market efficiency to explain the ups and downs of business cycles. But as this book helps illustrate, any economic theory is incomplete unless it shows the emotional and psychological hang-ups that make real-world money decisions so downright irrational.
Nudge, by Richard Thaler and Cass Sunstein
An interesting mashup of psychological insights compiled by an economist and a law professor, the book raises “serious questions about the rationality of many judgments and decisions that people make” and then aims to offer public policy solutions for the betterment of society. These ideas are meant to “nudge” individuals into making decisions that have long-term impact for large numbers of people, which is no easy task when we are hardwired to think about ourselves and to focus on the short term. For instance, simply enrolling employees in a retirement savings plan like a 401(k) by default rather than requiring workers to think beyond short-term desires and voluntarily sign up could drastically increase savings rates, the authors posit.
The Art of Choosing, by Shena Iyengar
Decisions like whom to hire or where to live have huge influence over the direction of our lives. But sadly, some of us make bad decisions with lasting impact. This book explores how and why humans typically choose the things they do, even when it is against their best interests, thanks to a combination of biological and cultural influences. Iyengar’s research is centered around business and economic issues, less a self-help guide to making good choices day-to-day and more of a treatise on the logic behind decision-making.
Tags March/April 2019
Next article By the Numbers: A deep dive into the data that matters
Previous article A New Kind of Reality Television
Demystifying The Art of War—No philosophical treatise, this classic offers practical advice for anyone engaged in conflict
Rx: Big Data? Knowing when sophisticated data analysis is useful and when it isn’t.
An Industry in Need—Entrance fee continuing care retirement communities and how actuarial expertise can help
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≥Workshops≥≥≥
Summer Semester 2019
• Goethe University Frankfurt am Main | Art History Department
Architects as Bookmakers: Concepts, Contexts and Competing Visions
Daniela Ortiz dos Santos
Architects’ trips have often been an object of study for historians, who have examined the effects of these travels on their architectural practice. But there is one other type of voyage that has rarely been considered, and about which architects such as Swiss born Le Corbusier was indeed silent: throughout his life, Le Corbusier wrote almost fifty books and published more than two hundred articles besides executing seventy-nine architectural projects.
It is worth considering, then, that literary activity was part of Le Corbusier’s everyday life, and that this may have produced echoes in his other practices. Le Corbusier is here a good example to argue for the importance to intersect the building culture and the booking culture. This seminar does not focus on Le Corbusier. Instead, we will look at twentieth-century architects and architectural historians, whose writings and publications deeply affected the building culture, and whose idea of “a modern architecture” was not necessarily presented the same way.
The Deutsches Architekturmuseum will collaborate with us in this seminar and participants are expected to join the workshop The Building Culture and the Book Culture with DAM curator Oliver Elser and Dr. André Tavares from Lisbon. The workshop will deal with art historian Heinrich Klotz’s book Moderne und Postmodene (1987), his trips to the USA and exchanges with architects. The languages of the seminar are English and German. Participants are required to regularly attend the seminar, which is mainly divided in three parts:
Part 1. Examining architectural books through three concepts: „Anatomy“, „Archives“ and „Archaeology“.
Part 2. Workshop in the DAM + two sessions = production of a collective outcome.
Part 3. Analysis of three books through the concept of „intertextuality“. Participants will be divided in three groups. Each group will focus on one book and will hold a presentation.
Instead of delivering a „Hausarbeit“, credit points will be granted to participants who have an active participation in the sessions and the workshop, collaborate to the production of a collective outcome (to be produced during the seminar hours) and join a group presentation.
Link to the Program
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Related Topics: Twitter on Ulitzer, Wine Blog on Ulitzer
Hangin’ with Secretary Kerry
May 11, 2013 02:28 PM EDT
Back when the Digital Public Library of America was gearing up, I got invited to participate in a day of brainstorming about what could be done to make the US. State Department Diplomatic Reception Rooms more accessible to the public.
About twenty of us spent the day talking in the Rooms themselves, and we also got a tour of some of the inner offices on Secretary Clinton’s floor. I don’t know how much the day helped the State Department, but it was certainly an interesting day for me. I do remember suggesting (along with Martin Kalfatovic, probably) that State give the DPLA its spreadsheet of objects + metadata, which I think they are getting close to doing.
The Rooms are ornate and even palatial, which strikes a discordant note for a humble democracy. On the other hand, are we supposed to pretend to visiting dignitaries that the U.S.A. can’t afford to do up a room real nice? And, most important, the rooms are filled with 5,000 museum-quality pieces of furniture, paintings, ceramics, and bric-a-brac, many with particular historic significance, such as the desk on which the Treaty of Paris was signed. You could spend days there just admiring the objects on display…if you were lucky enough to be invited to a workshop held in these rooms. Or, I suppose, if you were a visiting head of state with a surprisingly light schedule.
Treaty of Paris desk (cc) Martin Kalfatovic
But what’s perhaps oddest about the Rooms is that they are stuck inside the Harry S. Truman Building, the State Department’s headquarters.
The building was designed in the 1950s, was dedicated in 1961, and from the outside looks like an upscale high school. Its large open lobby is quite pleasing, and must have been more so before all the security machinery was installed. Then the elevators open onto the 8th floor and you’re in a dream of the 18th century.
So, last night I went to a reception in the Rooms for people who had contributed to them. Very much a pinstripe and wingtip affair for the guys, and whatever is the suitable generalization for the women. There were perhaps 100 people there, and I can guarantee that every person there contributed far more to the Rooms than I had. Many had donated very substantial sums of money, for the Rooms are paid for and maintained entirely by donations; no tax payer money was harmed by these rooms. Other people have put in considerable time and effort. Not me. But I was in DC for the morning, so I had accepted the invitation.
It was a big enough occasion to rope Secretary Kerry into attending. He appeared about twenty minutes after it began, and the experienced handlers at State immediately had us form a line. As you approach Sec. Kerry, you hand a card with your name on it to an assistant; you were given this card when you went through security. You approach the Secretary as your name is read, alas, with no trumpets. The Secretary says something placeholdery to you if he doesn’t know you from Adam, puts his arm around you, and smiles for the camera. What a job.
To me the Secretary pleasantly said — having just heard my name announced — “Dr. David Douglas Weinberger. That’s a very long name.”
I’d say that that was the most insipid thing I’d ever heard, but I’m afraid I topped it. “I voted for you many times,” said I.
I was surprisingly flustered. When he put his long arm around me, I put mine around his waist, which I think violated both protocol and security procedures. I was not wrestled to the ground, and the Secretary handled it like a pro. Not me. I’m pretty sure I was staring at his collar when when the photo was taken. The man wears a beautiful collar.
Smile. Click. Next.
Click to see a bigger but still blurry photo of Sec. Kerry speaking
After the reception line, Secretary Kerry gave some quite appropriate remarks about the importance of our history despite its comparative brevity, and about the good in the world the US does, pointing specifically to the seven-fold increase in the number of kids in school in Afghanistan, and the rise from single digits to 40+% enrollment of girls. If you’re going to pick examples of US beneficence, that’s a good’un. John Kerry is smart and serious and I am happy to have him as our Secretary of State, although I’ll be happier once Ed Markey wins the election to be his replacement in the Senate.
Then it was time for massive mingling, which is never my strong suit. There was a table of excellent all-American cheeses, and a variety of all-American wines. As the bartender pointed out each wine’s state of origin, she noted that wines are made in every state. “Even Nebraska?” I asked rather randomly. “I didn’t say they were all good,” she replied, thus confirming that she is not a State Department employee and never will be.
I spent a lot of time in the comfort of Martin [twitter: UDCMRK] and Mary Kalfatovic, DPLA buddies and people I am enormously fond of. After about 30 minutes of post-Kerry mingling, we went out for Thai food.
Thus we departed the locale of what certainly should be an upcoming Nicolas Cage movie — National Treasure: Diplomatic Reception — with the Abigail Adams tiara in my pocket and no one the wiser.
Published May 11, 2013 Reads 937
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A Tribute To History
The commemoration of the 100th anniversary of the Deerhound Club evokes memories of a noble, sometimes tragic, and always fascinating breed history.
by Cecilia Arnold
"This article first appeared in the December, 1986 AKC Gazette and is reprinted with permission."
It was off to Scotland for me the blustery-cold first week of April, and though it rained and hailed when we arrived in London, the sun shone on the Scottish Highlands where the Scottish Deerhound fanciers converged in the small town of Pitlochry, a beautiful place of woods, rivers and loch - the beginning, some say, of "the road to the isles," the heart of Scotland, the locals claim. We were marking the 100th anniversary - the centenary - of the Deerhound Club!
The Atholl Palace Hotel, situated on high ground overlooking the town, is a splendid Victorian stone mansion converted into a latter-day hostelry with all the modern conveniences, not the least of which is a helipad. This did excellent service for the Breed Show; perfect, commented an old-time breeder, to show up faulty feet. The entry of over 200 Deerhounds, shown to the applause of hundreds of guests from every corner of Britian and from three continents, was a demonstration as much as a celebration of this ancient breed's vigor in the 1980's. A sense of history prompted the decision to hold the celebration in the Scottish Highlands, thought to be the Deerhound's native ground since time out of memory, and Pitlochry, in point of fact, is almost at the very heart of what was once Pictish territory, not far from Scone, the sacred center of the Picts. It is among the ancient Pictish monuments that the breed's ancestral memories are to be discovered.
Earliest Records
The most famous of these is the Hilton of Cadboll stone found on the north shore of the Moray Firth and dating back to the eighth century A.D. The lower half of the stone shows a hunting scene, including the figures of two hounds attacking a deer. A woman is riding side-saddle, her husband alongside her, and because of the prominent mirror and comb symbol, it is believed that the stone was put up for her. Another stone fragment, known as St. Vigean's, though far less known than the Cadboll monument, is perhaps of more interest in that it shows dogs of the eighth century with clearly recognizable Greyhound form.
These and numerous other Pictish stone monuments displaying deer hunting scenes with what appear to be large dogs have been found in places forming a wide arc to the north and east of Pitlochry. We can not surmise from these how large the dogs were, if they were smooth or long-coated, or if they were Pictish or Celtic origin or both. By the ninth century the Picts of the hunting scenes had disappeared, conquered and absorbed by the Celtic people who had come across the sea from Ireland, settled and founded a kingdom in Argyll and eventually ruled all of Pictland. To their new land the Irish gave their name which endures to this day, Scotland, for in those days when men spoke of the Scots they spoke of the Irish race. Migrating peoples bring their stock with them and we can assume that the Scots brought over from Ireland their Celtic hounds.
It would be resonable to deduce that as the Picts and the Scots became assimilated, one race into the other, so did their domestic animals. The only certaintly is that from a very early age, going back at least a thousand years, dogs were used by the people of northern Britian to hunt deer.
That the practice survived into modern times is a well-documented fact, and as in the period of the Picts, the record for later ages is to be found on stone monuments. On the Hebridean isle of Oransay lies buried the clan chief Murchard MacFie of Colonsay, who died in 1539. His tomb slab, though Celtic in concept and design, harks back for its subject matter - large dogs attacking deer - to the hunting scenes of the Pictish monuments.
Written Accounts
History recounts that in 1528 King James V of Scotland mixed business with pleasure in ordering his nobles to ride with him against the Border outlaws and, by the way, to bring along their hounds. The Earls of Argyll, Huntly, and Atholl answered the call and the king's party harried the thieves and hunted the deer. The next year the Earl of Atholl, third of that title, staged a "tainchell" or deer-drive for the entertainment of the king and the papal nuncio; and in 1563 the fourth Earl did likewise for James' daughter, Mary Queen of Scots.
The English author, John Taylor, wrote an account of the highland hunt - another term for tainchell - he had witnessed as the Earl of Mar's guest in 1618. He described the highlanders' costume consisting of a "warm stuffe of divers colours" called tartan, and noted that the guests had to be dressed like their hosts, otherwise the highlanders refused to go hunting or "willingly to bring in their doges." Of the deer-drive Taylor related how the deer appeared on the hills all around, a hundred couple of strong hounds waiting on each side of the valley were let loose.
A hundred couple - that is about as many Deerhounds as were present at the centenary celebration in Pitlochry, and in a sense they had come home, for Pitlochry is in Atholl territory, being but a few miles down the road from Blair Atholl, home of the Dukes of Atholl, and Atholl Forest, where their kind had hunted so successfully in earlier days. Such a large number of Deerhounds gathered in one place, whether taking part in a tainchell in the 17th century or in the Breed show in 1986, indicates a thriving, prosperous breed. However, the intervening three hundred years and more had seen the breed decline so precipitously as to become almost extinct.
In 1769 an Englishman, Thomas Pennant, visited Gordon Castle, once the home of the Earls of Huntly, and observed: "I saw here a true highland greyhound which is now very scarce: - it was of a very large size, strong, deep-chested, and covered with very long and rough hair. This kind was in great vogue in former days, and used in vast numbers at the magnificent stag chases by the powerful chieftains." This falls in line with the earlier references to the nobles who brought their hounds to hunt with James V, the Earls of Argyll, Huntly and Atholl chiefs respectively of the clans Campbell, Gordon and Murray; and particularly to the deer-drives hosted by the Earl of Atholl and by the Earl of Mar, chief of the Erskins.
Watching their decendants go through their paces on the tarmac of the Atholl Palace Hotel, one could not help being drawn to the still snowpatched hills circling Pitlochry, and remembering that the highlanders, almost 300 years ago, had defended their way of life and routed the English at the Pass of Killicrankie just beyond the rim of these hills. But the highland way of life, the expression of the clan system, was doomed at Culloden, where the highlander shed their blood fighting the English for the last time in 1746.
Little wonder then that the highland hounds suffered attrition, as the highland huntings were suppressed by legislation even before Culloden. The Englishman Pennant would find only one "highland greyhound" at Gorgdn Castle barely a generation after Culloden, though a fair number seemed to have survived in the western highland and the isles. And if the Political, social and economic upheavals of the 18th and early 19th centuries did not entirely do away with them, the technological advance of a much improved sporting rifle very nearly did the job.
Even the occasional deer-drive staged by the fourth Duke of Atholl, who was reputed to be "the greatest deer killer in Scotland," bore little resemblance to the sport of his forbearers. The highlanders would drive the deer in the old way, but these were herded to where the deerstalkers could shoot them and then couples or lurchers or other mixed breeds were slipped to run the wounded stags to bay. By that time - the 1820's - the Atholl dogs were described as "miserably degenerate," unable to overtake and pull down a full-grown stag in flight. The true ancient breed of highland hounds came close to disappearing entirely.
Ironically, it was at this period of the breed's lowest ebb that its recorded history may be said to have begun. The word "deerhound" appeared in print for the first time in 1814, though it must have been current in speech before then, in the normal course taken by a word working its way into the language. Prior to 1814 and even much later the deer-couring hounds of the highlands were referred to as "Irish Wolfhound," "highland greyhound," or "Scotch greyhound." Sir Walter Scott, who admired the breed and kept several Deerhounds at Abbotsford, used the words "staghound," "deerhound," or "Irish wolf-dog/wolfhound" when he spoke of them. Interestingly enough, the earliest citation for the word "deerhound" in the Oxford English Dictionary comes from Scott, though in a transitional form, "two grim and half-starved deer greyhounds."
Notable Breeders
Maida, Scott's favorite and most famous Deerhound of all, was a gift from Alasdair MacDonell, chief of the Glengarry branch of the Clan Donald, Glengarry, as he was known, was a great romantic who, had the Celtic revival not occured historically, would have invented and carried it off single-handedly. He was known as the "Last of the Highland Chiefs" because in everything he did he was conscious of his highland heritage and his lifestyle reflected the old ways. On occasion Glengarry, dressed in kilt and accompanied only by his Deerhounds, would go out and follow the deer for days, sleeping in his plaid during the night.
The Glengarry strain of Deerhounds was a very old one and the chief's interest in his Deerhounds may have been fueled by his romantic ardor, but he had a practical turn of mind as a breeder. He tried crossing the Deerhound with a number of breeds, but found the results unsatisfactory and returned to breeding pure. When he was fatally injured in a shipwreck on Loch Linnhe, two of his Deerhounds were with him, one a pure-bred Deerhound, described by Glengarry's old keeper as the best he ever saw. The name Glengarry is important in the history of the breed, the flambouyant chief being the most prominent among a handful of highlanders who were still breeding pure Deerhounds, and the year of his death, 1828, coincided with the breed's darkest days.
By every indication the pure highland hound of old had all but disappeared when, in 1831, Archibald and Duncan McNeill of Colonsay began collecting the few remaining pure specimens with a view to restoring the breed. The "Colonsay revival" was the renaissance of the Deerhound. Had they never turned their attention to Deerhounds, there may very well not have been a centenary to celebrate in Pitlochry, but Duncan McNeill, the eminent jurist would still leave his mark on history. His portrait - he was Lord Colonsay, Lord Justic General, when it was done - hangs in Parliment Hall.
Indeed, another Edinburgh lawyer had done much to keep the Deerhound in the public's mind years before the McNeills took up its cause, and when the time came to build a memorial to Sir Walter Scott, author and erstwhile advocate, his special bond with the breed was well-remembered. The statue of Scott and his beloved Maida on Princess Street speaks to everyone who has ever loved a dog; to anyone even mildly interested in the Deerhound it says volumes about the course the breed has taken since the time, almost 150 years ago, when Lord Colonsay's dog, Torm, sat for the portrait of Maida.
For the extraordinary fact is that Deerhounds today resemble the dog sitting by Sir Walter Scott in every essential feature: size, bone, overall form, moderately tapering head with beard, folded ears, strong, moderately long neck with mane, deep chest, lay of the coat, broad thighs, slightly curved tail.
The Show Dogs!
The Colonsay revival, in fact, did not assure the Deerhound a future since it was premised on a renewed interest in deer-coursing, a thing of the past. It was their great good fortune therefore, that the organized dog show made it appearance at the opportune moment, the first one in Britain taking place at Islington, London, in 1859.* Several Deerhounds were exhibited, described by a contemporary reporter as "those splendid animals, the deer-hounds, with their fine and powerful shape, and beautiful long grey hair." The transition from deer forest to dog shows was surprisingly easy and the Deerhound's saving grace.
In those first years the Deerhounds exhibited were still close to the old working strains. Lord Stamford's Bran, winner at Islington in 1859, was descended through the Duke of Leeds' breeding from the Colonsay dogs. In 1860 Col. Inge won first prize at Birmingham with Valiant, from the McDonell of Keppoch and Seaforth strains. Sir John McNeill's Alder won both at Islington and Birmingham and Col. Robertson's Oscar, Birmingham winner in 1866 and 1867, descended from the Lochaber and Glengarry strains. In 1869 the top winner was H.C. Musters' Old Torrum, bred by Donald Cameron of Lochiel whose clan had kept the highland hounds as far back as the 17th century, when a hound of Sir Ewan Cameron, "lat of the wolf hunters, " alledgedly despatched the last wolf in Scotland. Next came G. Hichman's Morni, sired by Col. Robertson's Oscar, and R. Hood Wright's Old Bevis, a prize-winner in the 1870's, descended from the line thought to be the oldest, Menzies of Chesthill.
Messrs. Hickman and Hood Wright began breeding in 1867 or thereabouts and in 1892 drew up the breed standard which remains substantially unchanged today. They and the other early exhibitors represented a trend which had begun even before the advent of dog shows. After the McNeills and the period of the Colonsay revival, ownership of Deerhounds, lately confined to a few of highland name and origin, spread southward to England. The change was a favoring wind which helped move the breed farther away from the edge of oblivion where it had hovered for so long. The time was ripe for the formation of the Deerhound Club.
Becoming A Club
Oddly enough, though we were celebrating the Club's centenary in 1986, there is no record of its actually having started up in 1886. There was a proposal for such a club in an issue of The Field magazine in 1884, and then in 1892 E. Weston Bell wrote in his book the Scottish Deerhound: "We hail with pleasure the ideas of a club being instituted for this, the most ancient, beautiful and reliable of the canine race - the Scottish Deerhound." Mr. Bell thought that the proposed club should "frame a code of rules and regulations, all amined at a certain standpoint of excellence, only to be attained by judicious breeding. Then may we hope to see the deerhounds as he was in his true state."
That very same year, at a meeting on November 26, 1892, the Deerhound Club fulfilled Mr. Bell's hopes by taking the important step of approving the breed standard drafted by Messrs. Hichman and Hood Wright. By 1901 the Club endorsed the breed standard which had been approved almost a decade earlier.
Though in 1903 the Club reported 50 members and a credit balance, a healthy state of affairs, there were difficulties ahead. A crisis was precipitated in 1908 by the resignation of the secretary treasurer, who refused to surrender the Club's books and funds; and again when a suit for defamation was brought by a suspended member, this cause celebre costing the Club damages and litigation fees amounting to alomst 300 pounds, a princely sum in 1935. but the most serious threats to the Club's continued existence were forces beyond its control - seemingly beyond anyone's control - the two World Wars and the Depression in between. No meetings were held in 1918 and 1919, and in the first years after the Great War, the possibility of the Club's coming to an end was real.
Again no meetings were held between 1939 and 1947. The Secretary reported in 1940 that despite the decision to leave annual dues up to the members to give what they could, many had written to express their determination to keep the Club alive and sent donations as well as their membership fees. As for the Deerhounds, the breed appeared to be in great peril once more. They were very hard choices to make, and what the individual owners had to face may be gleaned from the recollections of Norah Hartley whose Rotherwood Deerhounds have played an important role in the breed's history since before World War II and after (see 'A Portrait of Loyalty' which follows).
We were celebrating a hundred years of the Deerhound Club's existence, and we were also celebrating a thousand years of Deerhound history. the celebrations go hand in hand - millenium, centenary, and an individual's, Nora Hartley's, lifetime - because the Deerhound, which has been a numerically small breed since the 18th century and whose fortunes, in any case, have always been tied to the vagaries of human history, has depended for its very survival on the dedication of friends. They have, in Weston Bell's words of almost a century ago, "shown the proper spirit and perseverance necessary for the breeding of this dog." And perseverance by those truly concerned with the proper development and well being of the breed will ensure that these nobel creatures' future is secure. *Newcastle-on-Tyne also lays claim to this distinction.
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Pickens Technical College
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Home Georgia State University Signal Page 1
Title The Georgia State University Signal, 1989-01-17
Identifier GSUS1989-01-17
Creator Georgia State University
Description The Georgia State University Signal, volume 47, number 21 (January 17, 1989). The Signal was formed in 1943 by the merger of two student newspapers, The Evening Signal (1933-1943), and The Junior Collegiate (1935-1943). Since 1943, GSU has been the Atlanta Division of the University of Georgia (1947-1955), then an independent unit known as the Georgia State College of Business Administration (1955-1961), Georgia State College (1961-1969) and finally Georgia State University (from 1969). The Signal has been published continuously since 1943, but reflecting the evolution of GSU, its masthead has also had the titles The University Signal, The Georgia State Signal, The Georgia State College Signal, and the Georgia State University Signal. The University Archives has a good run of copies of The Signal, but is missing issues from various years.
Subject College student newspapers and periodicals
Subject (names) Georgia State University
Note Students at Georgia State University and its predecessors have been producing a newspaper since the 1920s. Like the university, the student newspaper existed in several forms over the years. When the institution was the Evening School of Commerce of the Georgia School of Technology, the first student newspaper, The Technite, was published (1926-1932). Later, the school was the University Extension Center in Atlanta, with two separate divisions, Georgia Evening College (Night) and Atlanta Junior College (Day Division). The night students published a newspaper, The Evening Signal (1933-1943), while their counterparts in the Day Division produced The Junior Collegiate (1935-1943). In 1943, the two newspapers merged to form The Signal. Since then, the institution has been the Atlanta Division of the University of Georgia (1947-1955), then an independent unit known as the Georgia State College of Business Administration (1955-1961), Georgia State College (1961-1969) and finally Georgia State University (from 1969). The Signal has been published continuously since 1943, but reflecting the evolution of GSU, its masthead has also had the titles The University Signal, The Georgia State Signal, The Georgia State College Signal, and the Georgia State University Signal
Curatorial area University Archives
Source format newspapers
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Home Eastern Air Lines Collections L1986-27_40_27_KIT2002-05 1
Keeping In Touch, 2002-05
L1986-27_40_27_KIT2002-05 1
Title Keeping In Touch, 2002-05
Identifier L1986-27_40_27_KIT2002-05
Date of original 2002-05
Creator Eastern Airlines Retirees Association
Description Keeping In Touch: Eastern Airlines Retirees Association, number 158 (May 2002).
Scope note The Eastern Airlines Collection, 1927-2008 (bulk 1965-2008), consists of news clippings, press releases, newsletters, annual reports, monthly reports, correspondence, memoranda, photographs, slides, an early scrapbook (or day book), artifacts (promotional items) and audiovisual materials. This collection mainly provides insight into publicity and outreach efforts at Eastern Airlines, but also its history, charitable work, and day-to-day operations. The materials were accumulated by Carolyn Lee Wills, who worked in the Public Relations Department of Eastern's Southern Regional Office from 1965 until 1987.
Biographical or historical note Carolyn Lee Wills graduated from Georgia State University, where she studied journalism, history and speech. She also participated in many extra-curricular activities including Panhellenic Council, Delta Zeta Sorority, and yearbook. Before she began her work at Eastern Airlines, she traveled extensively throughout Europe, Asia, North and South America, Jamaica, the Bahamas, and Bermuda.; In 1965, Wills joined Eastern Airlines as a Representative of Women's Activities. In this role, she interpreted the company's program to women by working in the fields of fashion, radio, television, public relations, and promotions. In 1971, Wills became made Regional Manager of Public Relations. Eastern Airlines closed its Atlanta offices in November 1973, but found it difficult to cover their public relations needs in Atlanta from their headquarters in Miami. Four months after closing, Wills was re-hired by Eastern to manage the Southern Division covering Atlanta to Tokyo. While employed by Eastern Airlines, Wills served on many boards including American Women in Radio and Television, Georgia State University Alumni Association, and was a national representative of Delta Zeta Sorority. In 1966, she married attorney Charles H. Wills. The earliest incarnation of Eastern Airlines was Pitcairn Aviation, founded in 1927, which was the U.S. Postal Service contractor flying from New York to Atlanta. In 1930, the carrier was sold to North American Aviation owner Clement Keys and was renamed Eastern Air Transport. It soon added passenger routes and adopted the name Eastern Air Lines. Throughout the pre-World War II era, Eastern dominated passenger travel and air transport along the Atlantic coast, including the introduction of one-day service from New York to Miami in 1932. Famed pilot Eddie Rickenbacker bought the company in 1938 and was closely identified with it until his 1963 retirement. During the air travel boom of the 1950s and 1960s, Eastern Airlines grew into one of the ""Big Four"" United States carriers, enhancing its status as the lead air travel carrier on domestic east coast flights with the introduction of air shuttle service in 1961. Shuttle service was created as an alternative to bus routes and included hourly flights from Atlanta to Washington D.C., New York, and Boston. During this time, Eastern Airlines also expanded international service to Mexico, Bermuda, Puerto Rico, and Canada. Under the leadership of former astronaut Frank Borman (hired as an advisor in 1969, he became Chief Executive Officer in 1975), Eastern Airlines enjoyed continued successes in the industry until the enactment of the Airline Deregulation Act of 1978.; Beginning with Eastern's early U.S. Postal Service government contract, the company had relied upon the regulated and protective policies governing the airline industry. Without government protection, Eastern's profits began to make a downward turn that eventually culminated in the selling of the company to Texas Air International, headed by Frank Lorenzo. Following deregulation, Lorenzo was able to purchase multiple airlines including Continental, Frontier, New York Air, and Eastern. To cut costs in the midst of declining profits, Lorenzo asked Eastern's union employees to take massive pay cuts in wages and benefits. Union workers refused to accept Lorenzo's demands and opted to go on strike. By claiming bankruptcy in 1989, Lorenzo was able to hire non-union workers to fill the jobs of striking employees. Lorenzo took his demands a step further when he asked the machinists' union to take a pay cut, which resulted in another strike that dealt the final blow to any hope that Eastern Airlines would recover lost profits. In 1991, Eastern Airlines was permanently grounded. Eastern's main hubs in Atlanta and Miami were taken over by various competitors and its concourses in New York and Newark were demolished.
Subject Retirees--Social networks
Retirees--Societies and clubs
Airlines--Employees
Aeronautics, Commercial
Subject (names) Eastern Air Lines
Eastern Airlines Retirees Association
Location depicted Florida
Series SERIES VIII: Publications, 1966-2004
Collection Carolyn Lee Wills collection of Eastern Airlines' Southern Region Public Relations Office records
Finding aid https://archivesspace.library.gsu.edu/repositories/2/resources/421
Publication information Miami Springs, Fla : Eastern Airlines Retirees Association, 1990s-2000s.
Source format periodicals
Title L1986-27_40_27_KIT2002-05 1
L1986-27_40_27_KIT2002-05 10
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44.pdfpage
C. Dialogue or narration must be substantially in English or the film must
have English-language subtitles.
D. Prints or DCPs should be marked "Short Film Entry" and shipped
prepaid to the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, 8949
Wilshire Blvd., Beverly Hills, CA 90211. Prints or DCPs submitted
will be retained by the Academy throughout the voting process.
E. The deadline for receiving the entry form, all required materials and
film print or DCP is 5 p.m. PT on Monday, October 3, 2011.
Foreign entries must also comply with this rule.
F. If a short film advances to the second round of voting, an additional
film print or DCP must be received by the Academy by 5 p.m. PT on
Tuesday, December 27,2011. If a DCP was submitted, a second
DCP must be sent to the Academy. If a film print was submitted, a
second print of the picture must be sent to the Academy. In addition,
two Region O/NTSC DVDs of the shortlisted film must be submitted
for Academy records. Shortlisted films must have the necessary
clearances for commercial theatrical exhibition. Festival clearances
are not sufficient.
G. The Academy will retain for its archives one film print or DCP of every
short film receiving a nomination for final balloting. The Academy will
have the right but not the obligation to create a preservation copy of
the picture at its own expense. All pictures that are not nominated will
be returned at Academy expense.
H. The recipient of the statuette will be the individual most directly
responsible for the concept and the creative execution of the film. In
the event that more than one individual has been directly and
importantly involved in creative decisions, a second statuette may be
awarded. However, no more than two awards will be given to a
winning production. In cases where more than two individuals claim
major creative contributions, the copyright holder must decide which
two will be eligible to receive Oscar statuettes and so inform the
Academy. Companies or organized groups shall not receive
nominations or awards.
I. No short film may be submitted more than once for Academy Awards
consideration. A short film must be submitted in the same Awards
year in which it qualifies.
Full text Page 44 C. Dialogue or narration must be substantially in English or the film must have English-language subtitles. D. Prints or DCPs should be marked "Short Film Entry" and shipped prepaid to the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, 8949 Wilshire Blvd., Beverly Hills, CA 90211. Prints or DCPs submitted will be retained by the Academy throughout the voting process. E. The deadline for receiving the entry form, all required materials and film print or DCP is 5 p.m. PT on Monday, October 3, 2011. Foreign entries must also comply with this rule. F. If a short film advances to the second round of voting, an additional film print or DCP must be received by the Academy by 5 p.m. PT on Tuesday, December 27,2011. If a DCP was submitted, a second DCP must be sent to the Academy. If a film print was submitted, a second print of the picture must be sent to the Academy. In addition, two Region O/NTSC DVDs of the shortlisted film must be submitted for Academy records. Shortlisted films must have the necessary clearances for commercial theatrical exhibition. Festival clearances are not sufficient. G. The Academy will retain for its archives one film print or DCP of every short film receiving a nomination for final balloting. The Academy will have the right but not the obligation to create a preservation copy of the picture at its own expense. All pictures that are not nominated will be returned at Academy expense. H. The recipient of the statuette will be the individual most directly responsible for the concept and the creative execution of the film. In the event that more than one individual has been directly and importantly involved in creative decisions, a second statuette may be awarded. However, no more than two awards will be given to a winning production. In cases where more than two individuals claim major creative contributions, the copyright holder must decide which two will be eligible to receive Oscar statuettes and so inform the Academy. Companies or organized groups shall not receive nominations or awards. I. No short film may be submitted more than once for Academy Awards consideration. A short film must be submitted in the same Awards year in which it qualifies.
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MHS Author in the News
Mni Sota Makoce Wins 2014 Hognander Award
Posted byAlison Aten on 07 Mar 2014 | Tagged as: Authors, Awards, MHS Author in the News, MHS press, Native American
Photo credit: Laura Truett, The Friends of the Saint Paul Public Library
We are delighted to announce that Mni Sota Makoce: The Land of the Dakota by Gwen Westerman and Bruce White is the winner of the 2014 Hognander Minnesota History Award.
The Hognander Minnesota History Award recognizes the most outstanding scholarly work related to Minnesota history published during the preceding two years. The award, funded by the Hognander Family Foundation, is presented every two years.
This award stems from the Hognander family’s belief in the importance of studying and preserving history. As Joe Hognander notes, “We established this award because of our relationship with the Minnesota Historical Society. Its commitment to excellence is noteworthy in promoting scholarly research and writing. We hope this award will inspire more activity by recognizing and rewarding the finest work in the field.”
Much of the focus on the Dakota people in Minnesota rests on the tragic events of the 1862 U.S.–Dakota War and the resulting exile that sent the majority of the Dakota to prisons and reservations beyond the state’s boundaries. But the true depth of the devastation of removal cannot be understood without a closer examination of the history of the Dakota people and their deep cultural connection to the land that is Minnesota. Drawing on oral history interviews, archival work, and painstaking comparisons of Dakota, French, and English sources, Mni Sota Makoce tells the detailed history of the Dakota people in their traditional homelands for at least hundreds of years prior to exile.
Published by Minnesota Historical Society Press in 2012, the book went on to win the 2013 Minnesota Book Award in the Minnesota category last year.
Westerman and White will be honored for their latest achievement at the upcoming Book Awards Gala on April 5 at the Saint Paul Union Depot. Gwen Westerman is professor of English and Humanities at Minnesota State University, Mankato. Bruce White is author of We Are at Home: Pictures of the Ojibwe People.
“Little War on the Prairie” episode of This American Life
Posted byAlison Aten on 20 Nov 2012 | Tagged as: MHS Author in the News, Native American
This year marks 150 years since the U.S.-Dakota War of 1862, a war that changed Minnesota forever. The chain of events leading up to the war, and its terrible aftermath, are central to the story of Minnesota, producing historical traumas that still echo in those living today.
On Friday, November 23, This American Life, the popular radio program hosted by Ira Glass and distributed by Public Radio International, will broadcast an episode examining the war that resulted in the forced exile of the Dakota people and the hanging of thirty-eight Dakota men.
The program’s website notes:
“Growing up in Mankato, Minnesota, John Biewen says, nobody ever talked about the most important historical event ever to happen there: in 1862, it was the site of the largest mass execution in U.S. history. Thirty-eight Dakota Indians were hanged after a war with white settlers. John went back to Minnesota to figure out what really happened 150 years ago, and why Minnesotans didn’t talk about it much after.”
Gwen Westerman, a Dakota scholar and artist, is one of the people interviewed for this episode. She is the co-author of the book Mni Sota Makoce: The Land of the Dakota with Bruce White. The book examines the history of the Dakota people and their deep cultural connection to the land that is Minnesota — and is a celebration of the Dakota in the past, present, and future.
Mankato Free Press article about the episode.
Original Short E-book: Minnesota Voter ID and the National Debate
Posted byAlison Aten on 22 Oct 2012 | Tagged as: Interview, MHS Author in the News
Minnesota Voter ID and the National Debate: What You Need to Know is a new original e-book short by veteran reporter Jim Ragsdale. The book is available for $0.99 from most popular e-book vendors, including amazon.com, bn.com, kobobooks.com, and iTunes.
Our post today is from author Jim Ragsdale:
In rushing from event to event covering the photo ID issue in Minnesota for the Star Tribune, it is hard to find time to put what’s happening into a national and historical context. I tried to do so in this piece, and to direct readers to court cases and books that do that far better than I.
The experience helped me understand why making any change in our voting system is so difficult.
This most basic right (and rite) of citizenship is how “We the People” choose our leaders. But the meaning of those words in the preamble to the Constitution has divided us since the days of George Washington. The framers fought over who should vote. The Civil War, the women’s suffrage movement, the Civil Rights movement, the draft and the Vietnam War — all enlarged the meaning of who “We the People” are, and who can vote. Seven amendments to the Constitution have been needed to expand and clarify voting rights and election procedures. Nearly a century passed between the Fifteenth Amendment of 1870, which protected voting rights of black men who had been enslaved, and the Voting Rights Act of 1965, which was needed to end Jim Crow laws in the South and enforce the Fifteenth Amendment.
So the photo ID movement sweeping the country, despite its common-sense appeal in a society where IDs are required in virtually every transaction, runs headlong into this history. And it is not ancient history. In my lifetime, people have fought and died on our soil for the right to vote.
I hope readers can begin to see this historical and national context as they watch the ID drama unfold.
Jim Ragsdale on Twitter: @jwrags
Twitter handle for the book: #minnvoterid
Anton Treuer and the Real Story of Thanksgiving
Posted byMary Poggione on 11 Oct 2012 | Tagged as: Book Excerpt, History, Interview, MHS Author in the News, Native American, Videos
Anton Treuer, author of Everything You Wanted to Know About Indians But Were Afraid to Ask, was on NPR’s Tell Me More earlier this week, discussing the real story of Christopher Columbus.
“I think there’s a growing awareness that Columbus didn’t discover America–that the place was densely inhabited by other human beings. But certainly the Columbus experience would change the entire world. But in spite of the fact that Christopher Columbus wrote lots of letters and kept many journals, and by his second voyage there were many official scribes, army officers, priests, writing about the experience, over 500 years later this piece of history gets sugarcoated a lot.
“And you know, we now know as a fact of history that on Columbus’s second voyage, the Spanish instituted a gold dust tribute, whereby those who failed to bring a certain quantity of gold dust would have their hands chopped off. And we know for a fact of history that the Spanish cut the hands off of 30,000 people that year on the island of Hispaniola–what’s now Haiti and the Dominican Republic.
“And we know that within thirty years, the two million people that the Spanish estimated to be inhabiting that island before contact were completely annihilated. And that is a textbook definition of genocide. And we have so successfully sugarcoated the history that we have obfuscated some of the most important parts of that story.”
Check out Anton Treuer’s answer to “What is the real story of Thanksgiving?” from the book Everything You Wanted to Know About Indians But Were Afraid to Ask.
Treuer’s recent in-depth television interview on C-Span’s Afterwords is also now available.
F. Scott Fitzgerald’s Short Story Published in the New Yorker
Posted bylucia.randle on 14 Aug 2012 | Tagged as: Authors, MHS Author in the News, Uncategorized
Around 1936, F. Scott Fitzgerald, the St. Paul-born author who wrote the American classic The Great Gatsby, penned a short piece called “Thank You for the Light,” which was rejected by editors at the time. The story is about a woman who steps into a Catholic church for a smoke break and, after she lights up, goes through a miraculous experience. Deemed a little strange by some readers, it may have been intended as part of a larger project. The story was finally accepted by the New Yorker when Fitzgerald’s grandchildren resubmitted it recently and is included in the August 6 issue.
Fitzgerald’s Minnesota connection is well documented here: see A Guide to F. Scott Fitzgerald’s St. Paul and The St. Paul Stories of F. Scott Fitzgerald, for example. As for his more famous work, keep an eye out for The Great Gatsby film, set for release next summer.
Dr. Anton Treuer to Appear on C-SPAN Book TV’s After Words
Posted byAlison Aten on 17 Jul 2012 | Tagged as: Authors, History, MHS Author in the News, Native American
Anton Treuer, author of Everything You Wanted to Know About Indians But Were Afraid to Ask is off to Washington DC next week to record an episode on C-SPAN BOOK TV’s After Words program. Book TV’s signature program, After Words, is an interview program in which authors of the latest nonfiction books are interviewed by journalists, public policy makers, legislators, and others familiar with their material.
Dr. Treuer will be talking with Jacqueline Pata, Executive Director of National Congress of American Indians. Stay tuned for updates on broadcast dates.
Click here to find the answers to the following questions from Anton Treuer’s book:
What is the future of Indian gaming?
Are all Indians rich from casinos?
How has casino gambling affected Indian communities?
What are naming ceremonies?
Why do Indians have long hair?
Should Leonard Peltier be freed?
Can white people dance at powwows?
St. Paul Gangster Haunts on Travel Channel
Posted byAlison Aten on 08 Dec 2011 | Tagged as: Authors, History, MHS Author in the News, MHS press, True Crime, Videos
Today’s post is by Paul Maccabee, author of John Dillinger Slept Here, which inspired a recent episode of Off Limits on the Travel Channel.
Explorer and history buff Don Wildman had braved an underground Titan II nuclear missile silo in Arizona, prison cells inside San Quentin, and a former Nazi military compound for his Off Limits TV show on the Travel Channel. But would Wildman survive a visit to the St. Paul gangster haunts frequented by such Public Enemies as John Dillinger, Alvin “Creepy’ Karpis, and Babyface Nelson?
As the author of the MHS Press book John Dillinger Slept Here: A Crooks’ Tour of Crime and Corruption in St. Paul, I got to serve as Wildman’s on-camera guide to the Minnesota underworld for a segment that was shot in July and began airing on November 17.
Easily our grisliest adventure was filmed in the basement of the downtown St. Paul Police Department. The TV crew secured a rare view of the bullet hole-filled hat last worn by John Dillinger’s machine-gunner Homer Van Meter–a hat autographed by the four police officers who shot Homer to death on August 23, 1934, just outside the Minnesota State Capital off University Avenue. Van Meter’s hat, which had vanished and was missing for more than three decades, was rediscovered in time for display during the show. Members of the St. Paul Police Historical Society also unearthed artifacts from the 1928 gangland assassination of St. Paul’s Irish Godfather Danny Hogan, who had guided the underworld from his Green Lantern bar. Wildman was enchanted by these artifacts from St. Paul’s dark past, perhaps most by the bullet holes, blood, and cerebral matter that were still visible inside Van Meter’s unlucky straw hat. Here’s an outtake from that creepy moment.
Appropriately, the Travel Channel’s TV crew lunched at Cosetta’s on West 7th Street, where I regaled them with tales of Minnesota mobster Rocky Lupino and other homegrown Mafioso over bites of ravioli and meatballs.
Then, Wildman toured the courtrooms of the Old Federal Courts Building (now Landmark Center), where members of the Dillinger and Barker-Karpis Gang were tried for kidnapping and other federal crimes. We retraced the steps of Dillinger’s comely girlfriend, Evelyn “Billie” Frechette, who attempted to escape from federal authorities on the third floor, and slipped inside the detention room where FBI director J. Edgar Hoover had chained Alvin “Creepy” Karpis before dragging him into court. But Off Limits is dedicated to bringing its camera to places where the public cannot go, so we also climbed to Landmark Center’s guano-spattered roof for a panoramic view that included the 1920s Bucket of Blood brothel area once presided over by madame Nina Clifford (now the site of the Science Museum), landmarks associated with the 1933-34 kidnappings of millionaires Ed Bremer and William Hamm, the gangland caves along the Mississippi River where bootleggers kept their illicit liquor, and hotels that were frequented by mobsters Bugsy Seigel and Al Capone. Catch it on reruns, or pick up a copy of John Dillinger Slept Here and take your own personal gangland tour.
–Follow Paul Maccabee @maccabeepr
Lost Twin Cities III
Posted byAlison Aten on 06 Dec 2011 | Tagged as: Arts, History, MHS Author in the News, Videos
Today’s blog post is by Dave Kenney, author of several books, including Twin Cities Picture Show. Find out more about his current obsession at MN70s.
Earlier this year, I got a call from Emily Goldberg, a producer at TPT (Twin Cities Public Television). She was putting together a new edition of the network’s popular “Lost Twin Cities” documentary series (based on the book by Larry Millett) and was wondering whether I’d like to be one of the show’s talking heads. She wanted me to talk about two movie theaters—the Cooper in St. Louis Park and the Terrace in Robbinsdale—that I described in Twin Cities Picture Show. She knew perfectly well that authors almost always jump at the chance to drone on about the subjects of their books. I magnanimously agreed to help her out.
Emily had chosen two of my favorite theaters.
The Cooper was one of the first showhouses built specifically to screen Cinerama movies. Located near what is now the intersection of I-394 and Highway 100, it looked from the outside like a huge, orange oil storage tank. Inside, it was all 1960s swank with walnut paneling, black brick, burnt orange furnishings, and blue acoustic ceiling tiles. It was demolished in 1992.
The Terrace was a true gem, one of the finest examples of what became known as ultra-modern theater design. Opened in 1951, it featured a sunken “country club” lounge, a refreshment bar, a television room, and a soundproof nursery where baby boom parents could hide with their crying children. It remained one of the Twin Cities’ classiest movie theaters until the 1980s, when its big auditorium was carved up into three smaller theaters. It showed its last movie in 1999.
We did the shoot for the Terrace segment outside the theater itself—which survives today in depressingly boarded-up fashion. Since the Cooper no longer exists, we needed a stand-in location that somehow evoked its midcentury aura. Emily settled on the Riverview Theater in South Minneapolis, an inspired choice.
Emily encouraged me to talk in personal terms about the two theaters, but there was only so much I could say. I remember going to only one movie, the original This is Cinerama, at the Cooper, and my memory of that experience has faded considerably over time. I’m sure I saw at least one film at the Terrace (I remember a theater with tons of big picture windows, and the Terrace is the only one in the Twin Cities that matches my recollection), but beyond that my mind is a blank. Most of my “memories” of the Cooper and Terrace are bits and pieces of the past that I’ve gleaned from the surviving historical record. I guess they will have to do.
I haven’t seen “Lost Twin Cities III” yet. I’ll be watching with everyone else when it debuts Wednesday (December 7) at 7 p.m. One thing I do know, though: the likelihood that I’ll look stupid on the air is now considerably less than I thought it would be. Emily had to excise the Terrace segment due to time constraints. Only the Cooper segment made the final cut. I apparently will have to wait for “Lost Twin Cities IV” to find out what I said about that old boarded-up theater in Robbinsdale.
–Dave Kenney is the author of several books including Twin Cities Album, Minnesota Goes to War, and Honor Bright: A Century of Scouting in Northern Star Council. He is currently working on a book on the history of 1970s Minnesota with Thomas Saylor. Follow him @MN70s, on Facebook, and on tumblr.
Photograph, showing a promotional prop for the local premiere of Airport in 1970, from the Star Tribune collection of the Minnesota Historical Society.
North Star Cocktails
Posted byAlison Aten on 08 Nov 2011 | Tagged as: Authors, Cooking, Event, Interview, MHS Author in the News, MHS press, Videos
Recognized as one of the Twin Cities’ best drink makers, Johnny Michaels is the cocktail connoisseur’s answer to a gourmet chef. His home base is the James Beard award–winning La Belle Vie, but he’s designed the cocktail menus for several of its sister restaurants and other top metro eateries. Together with premiere bartenders such as Pip Hanson, Nick Kosevich, Jesse Held, Thea Sheffert, and others in the North Star Bartenders’ Guild, Michaels shares nearly 200 original, crafted cocktail recipes utilizing fresh fruits and vegetables, tips on barkeep techniques and tools, and guides to artisanal liquors and bitters.
Join us Thursday evening at the Mill City Museum to sample craft cocktails and meet Johnny Michaels and members of the North Star Bartenders’ Guild to celebrate the publication of North Star Cocktails. Johnny Michaels and five other members of the guild will be on hand to mix their cocktail recipes featured in the book. Participants will receive a voucher for three half-size cocktails with paid admission and can purchase vouchers for additional cocktails. Pip Hanson of Marvel Bar will conduct a demonstration of hand ice chipping. Nick Kosevich of Bittercube will deliver a tutorial on the art of handcrafting artisanal bitters. (See today’s feature on The Heavy Table for more on Bittercube.) Dean Phillips will have a memorabilia display highlighting the history of Phillips Distilling Company and its deep Minnesota roots. Complimentary light hors d’oeuvres will be served. North Star Bartenders’ Guild members will sign copies of the book, which will be for sale in the museum store. All author royalties earned from the sale of the book will be donated to SPCA International, an organization committed to advancing the safety and well-being of animals.
For more insider tips, check out the Star Tribune and City Pages interviews with Johnny or the School of Drinks series with MplsStPaul magazine.
Janet D. Spector (1944–2011), In Memoriam
Posted byPamela McClanahan on 07 Oct 2011 | Tagged as: Authors, History, MHS Author in the News, MHS press, Native American
Dr. Janet D. Spector, professor emerita and former assistant provost at the University of Minnesota, and groundbreaking scholar of gender studies and American archaeology, died September 13 at her home in Albuquerque, New Mexico, after a long struggle with a recurrence of breast cancer. She was 66.
Dr. Janet Spector
“Janet Spector began her 25-year career at the University of Minnesota in 1973, a tumultuous time in academia. History, sociology and other disciplines were cracking open their doors to women’s long-left-out perspectives, and female scholars were standing up for their work against considerable pushback.
“With a fine blend of energetic curiosity, intellectual firepower and personal charm, Spector not only contributed significantly to the field of American archaeology, but also helped pave the way for other female scholars, according to colleagues and friends.” (Excerpted from the Star Tribune obituary, accessed online October 2, 2011, “Prof. Janet Spector, pioneering scholar at U,” by Pamela Miller, http://www.startribune.com/obituaries/130915723.html).
Curator Marcia Anderson reflects on Dr. Spector’s pioneering work for 10,000 Books:
“I last heard the voice of Professor Janet Spector at a session of the 2008 Berkshire Conference for Women in the Twin Cities. She spoke about the awl featured on the cover of her 1993 book, What this Awl Means: Feminist Archaeology at a Wahpeton Dakota Village (Minnesota Historical Society Press). Spector described the object as evocative. It is a handsome object, but what made it evocative for her was that it was a common tool that was both decorated and well used. To anyone who works with material culture those two qualities tell us why objects have so much meaning for humans–and why individuals save and museums preserve them.
“One of Spector’s greatest contributions to the field of archaeology is her pioneering work in the development of a task differentiation model. This model makes it possible to distinguish gender and to document the activities and lives of women through materials, such as the awl, recovered during archaeological excavations. “Evocative” is an excellent descriptor but I also think the awl could be described as iconic. Iconic because it has come to symbolize an opened floodgate for so many people-people hungry for the voices and stories of women, as well as men, in our global past.”
(Marcia G. Anderson is an independent curator and is writing a book on Ojibwe bandolier bags.) For further perspecitve on Dr. Spector’s work and life, please see the obituary by Barbara Noble, published by the University of Minnesota’s College of Liberal Arts, here.
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The spirit versus the letter
As the political parties prepare for the 2015 general election, a couple of issues raise questions about commitment to accountability.
First, Speaker Wade Mark having made no move to stop Tobago East MP Vernella Alleyne-Toppin raising deeply personal and offensive questions surrounding the circumstances of the birth of Dr Rowley in the House, has subsequently ruled that the floor was open to wide-ranging discussion in support of the no-confidence motion brought by the government against the Opposition Leader.
The result was Ms Alleyne-Toppin’s distasteful statement is now part of the Parliamentary record. By allowing Ms Alleyne-Toppin’s statement to stand, Speaker Mark missed an opportunity to lay down a marker for what constitutes proper parliamentary exchange.
By the letter of the law concerning parliamentary privilege, Ms Alleyne-Toppin could say what she said. The spirit of parliamentary decorum says otherwise. It is a shame that the speaker did not invoke the latter.
The other development concerns the questions raised by a sharp increase in legal fees paid by the Attorney General’s office, now confirmed to have exceeded $400m.
Prior experience in public office brought two former AGs from different sides of the political fence into unusual collaboration on this question. John Jeremie and Ramesh Lawrence Maharaj recommended a police investigation into the legal fees paid by the Office of the then Attorney General Anand Ramlogan during his four-year tenure.
The figures attributed to legal fees during the last four years, they say, represented at least a doubling of the budgets they had worked with.
Mr Ramlogan defended the fees, noting that the legal teams had won more than 95 per cent of the cases in which lawyers were retained and claiming that four civil cases that were filed stood to recover close to $2 billion for T&T. Food Production Minister Devant Maharaj fired his own broadside on the weekend calling on the police to investigate his concerns, first raised almost a decade ago, that millions of dollars in state legal work had been paid to law firms close to both Mr Maharaj and Mr Jeremie during their service as AG.
Both have since said that the issues had been raised and investigated before and that they welcome any police attention.
In the face of changed and changing information on the total and detail of the fees, Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar said it was a discrepancy, and ruled out an investigation, saying—correctly—that there had been no allegations of fraud. But the honourable Prime Minister may have missed the point, which was not the legality of the fee payments, but whether the level of spending could be justified. It is public money.
The level of spending had increased sharply, and had raised eyebrows to the extent that a former AG from her own party called for an investigation.
She could have and should have taken the view that, like justice, accountability must be seen to be done as well.
An independent forensic audit is a reasonable request, and it is hoped that Mrs Persad-Bissessar would revisit her position.
The Prime Minister has promised a more fulsome and detailed response from Mr Nicholas, but she, like Speaker Mark, may have missed an opportunity to go by the spirit rather than the letter of the law.
Let ideas contend
Proper examination of ‘total policing’ failure needed
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answeredquestions.html?_page=0&_properties=tablingMember.label,tablingMember,answer.dateOfAnswer,answer.answeringMemberConstituency&_sort=-tablingMemberPrinted,-answer.isMinisterialCorrection
St Helena: Fisheries
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, if he will publish the (a) permitted geographic catch locations and (b) permitted species and catch volumes under licenses sold by the Saint Helena Government to the Argos Fishing Company in (i) 2016, (ii) 2017 and (iii) 2018.
Richmond Park
<p>The sale of commercial fishing licenses<ins class="ministerial">, and conditions within the licenses such as location and target species, are</ins> <del class="ministerial">is</del> the responsibility of the St Helena Government.</p>
Rutland and Melton
Sir Alan Duncan
Biography information for Sir Alan Duncan
Biography information for Zac Goldsmith
Heathrow Airport: Railways
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what estimate he has made of the capital contribution required by his Department to ensure the delivery of (a) southern rail access and (b) western rail access into Heathrow airport.
<p>The Government’s position in relation to funding Surface Access at airports is set out in the 2013 Aviation Policy Framework and reiterated in the Airports National Policy Statement which was designated in June 2018. Where a scheme is not solely required to deliver airport capacity and has a wider range of beneficiaries, the Government, along with relevant stakeholders, will consider the need for a public funding contribution alongside an appropriate contribution from the airport on a case by case basis. The Government is supporting these schemes subject to the development of a satisfactory business case and the agreement of acceptable terms with the Heathrow aviation industry.</p><p> </p><p>In line with the published Rail Network Enhancements Pipeline, my Department is developing the Business Case for the Western Rail Link to Heathrow. Network Rail intends to apply for planning powers in 2019, and details of the scheme funding will be published.</p><p> </p><p>In May 2018, my Department launched a Market Sounding to test the market’s appetite to share the risk of development for a proposed Southern Rail Link to Heathrow in order to reduce the burden on taxpayers and fare payers. A summary of responses will be published later in the Autumn.</p><p> </p>
Harrogate and Knaresborough
Biography information for Andrew Jones
Heathrow Airport: Air Traffic
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what assessment he has made of the effect on (a) air pollution, (b) noise pollution and (c) congestion of lifting the air traffic movement cap at Heathrow Airport.
<p>The Appraisal of Sustainability that accompanies the Airports National Policy Statement provides a strategic assessment of the potential social, economic, and environmental impacts of expansion, including a) air quality and b) noise.</p><p>Following designation of the Airports National Policy Statement, it is down to an applicant for development consent to undertake a detailed assessment of the environmental impacts of their scheme, and to put forward an appropriate package of mitigation measures.</p><p>On c), the Airports National Policy Statement is also clear that an applicant for development consent should set out the mitigation measures that it considers are required to minimise the effect of expansion on the existing surface access arrangements. Any application, and its accompanying airport surface access strategy, must include details of how the applicant will increase the proportion of journeys made to the airport by public transport, cycling and walking.</p>
Hereford and South Herefordshire
Jesse Norman
Biography information for Jesse Norman
Heathrow Airport: Pollution Control
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what steps he is taking to ensure that expansion at Heathrow airport is compatible with legal air quality limits.
<p>Following designation of the Airports National Policy Statement, it is now down to an applicant for development consent to undertake a detailed assessment of the air quality impacts of the scheme, including during construction, and put forward to the Planning Inspectorate an appropriate package of mitigations that addresses air quality impacts and demonstrates compliance with air quality obligations.</p><p> </p><p>In order to grant development consent, the Secretary of State would need to be satisfied that, including any mitigations, the scheme would be compliant with legal obligations.</p>
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, whether he has received assurances from Heathrow Airport that there are no plans to increase landing charges; and if he will make a statement.
<p>The Secretary of State has set out a clear expectation that airport charges should remain close to 2016 levels under expansion, and Heathrow Airport Limited has stated that it will seek to meet this challenge. The Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) also confirmed in April 2018 that there are credible scenarios in which landing charges could remain close to 2016 levels in real terms.</p><p>As the scheme design and regulatory framework continue to develop, the CAA will scrutinise all proposals for expansion to ensure that, in line with its primary duty, they are in the best interest of the consumer. The CAA has confirmed that this could include a small increase in airport charges if that was required to unlock the wider consumer benefits of expansion.</p><p><strong> </strong></p><p> </p>
Department for Transport: Private Finance Initiative
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what his Department's definition is of private finance in relation to infrastructure projects.
<p>Private finance is a way to deliver infrastructure projects in which the private sector invests equity and/or lends in order to facilitate the development, delivery, acquisition, and/or operation of a project, asset or entity with the expectation of earning a return on the investment commensurate with the risk.</p><p> </p>
Wealden
Ms Nusrat Ghani
Biography information for Ms Nusrat Ghani
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what his Department's definition is of privately financed in relation to infrastructure projects.
<p>Private finance is a way to deliver infrastructure projects in which the private sector invests equity and/or lends in order to facilitate the development, delivery, and/or operation of a project, asset or entity with the expectation of earning a return on the investment.</p>
South West Norfolk
Elizabeth Truss
Biography information for Elizabeth Truss
Heathrow Airport: Carbon Emissions
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what assessment he has made of the effect of the expansion of Heathrow Airport on the ability of the UK to meet the net-zero emissions target by 2050.
<p>Following the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s Special Report on 1.5 degrees, published in October, we commissioned advice from our independent advisers, the Committee on Climate Change (CCC), on its long-term emissions reduction targets, including on the setting of a net zero target. This commission asks for evidence from the CCC on how reductions might be delivered in key sectors of the economy and the expected costs and benefits of different scenarios.</p><p> </p><p>The Committee will also publish a report on aviation in Spring 2019. As set out in the Committee’s recent progress report, this will include consideration of the potential to reduce aviation emissions over the period to 2050 and beyond.</p><p> </p><p>The Government will consider carefully the Committee’s advice on both these issues when it is received. Subject to this review, the Government will consider whether it is appropriate to review the Airports National Policy Statement, in accordance with Section 6 of the Planning Act 2008.</p>
Claire Perry
Biography information for Claire Perry
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, whether he has plans to introduce legislation proposals to set the target of net-zero emissions by 2050.
<p>Following the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s special report on the impacts of climate change of 1.5 degrees on 8 October, we commissioned our independent experts, the Committee on Climate Change, to provide their advice on the implications of the Paris Agreement for the UK’s long-term emissions reduction targets, including on setting a net zero target. The letter requesting the CCC’s advice is available <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/uk-climate-targets-request-for-advice-from-the-committee-on-climate-change" target="_blank">here</a>.</p><p> </p><p>We will consider the Committee’s evidence-based advice carefully when it is received in Spring 2019. We believe that is the right way to approach such an important question.</p>
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what level of capital funding he plans to allocate for the delivery of improvements to rail access related to the expansion of Heathrow Airport.
<p>The Government’s position in relation to funding Surface Access at airports is set out in the 2013 Aviation Policy Framework and reiterated in the Airports National Policy Statement which was designated in June 2018. Where a scheme is not solely required to deliver airport capacity and has a wider range of beneficiaries, the Government, along with relevant stakeholders, will consider the need for a public funding contribution alongside an appropriate contribution from the airport on a case by case basis. The Government is supporting Heathrow Surface Access schemes subject to the development of a satisfactory business case and the agreement of acceptable terms with the Heathrow aviation industry.</p>
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Castle Defense Game for Free Online
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Often, the defense - it's more complicated matter than even the attack. That is why there is a collection of flash games protection of the castle, where you have to protect a variety of objects from different historical eras. Some games will need to protect the medieval castle of the knights and fire arrows, and some games will have to defend a military base on the future of flying saucers, and a futuristic army of robots. Protect the castle flash game - a special category of games where the main goal will be the protection of certain areas, and the player will lead the troops of archers, knights and other warriors to save the castle or fortress against invading enemies and defeat unfriendly units. If the flash game is a defense of the military base, is at your disposal, is likely to be equipped with a modern soldier and the latest equipment for active opposition to the enemy, which will also be armed and equipped with sophisticated weapons, and they would be willing to do anything to seize your property . Fans of the game online protection of the castle celebrate the fact that playing such games people, completely plunge into the atmosphere, in which the plot of the game. If this is the Middle Ages, then you will experience heavy battles where soldiers had without firearms to defend the castle from the various attempts on the part of a huge number of neighboring knights. Now, this feeling will be available to every internet user to monitor your own computer. You do not need armor, Warhorse, and the crossbow to defend the castle. You only need a computer with Internet and a browser. If you have to protect the base, then you are totally dive into atmosphere of modern military battles, with modern weapons, which if desired can destroy half of the vast country. Of course, that the victories in the game Tower Defence, you must have a good strategic thinking. Such games of the big world of strategies, which, however, became one of its varieties. Games where you need to defend themselves, are able to prolong the very first minutes of the game, and do not let go of a few hours, although in most cases, these games are pretty simple. As practice shows, the protection of the castle - this is a very exciting process, so it has so many fans. Thousands of people every day coming to our site in order to play this wonderful game, which among other things, are absolutely free and require no additional software installation on your computer.
Strike Force Kitty 3: Last Stand
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Temple Guardian
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Crazy Castle
Avatar Fortress Fight
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Speedway Tower Defence
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Home » 1 News » JOHN FOGERTY CREATES THEME SONG FOR THE NEW FOX SHOW, THE FINDER
JOHN FOGERTY CREATES THEME SONG FOR THE NEW FOX SHOW, THE FINDER
by admin|Published January 10, 2012
GUEST STARS ON SERIES PREMIERE THURSDAY, JANUARY 12
SIGNATURE SONG, “FORTUNATE SON,” HIGHLIGHTED
WITH NEW AND EXCLUSIVE RECORDING FOR EPISODE
AVAILABLE FOR FREE DOWNLOAD AT
JOHNFOGERTY.COM FOR ONE WEEK ONLY
John Fogerty guest stars in the series premiere of THE FINDER, Thursday, January 12 (9:00 – 10:00 PM ET/PT) on FOX. Besides being the legendary rocker’s acting debut, he wrote “Swamp Water,” the theme song for the show, which marks yet another milestone in an extraordinary career that began with Creedence Clearwater Revival’s first release in 1968. Fogerty also recorded a stripped-down version of his signature song “Fortunate Son” specifically for the show. This version will be available for free download at johnfogerty.com for one week only once the episode is over. THE FINDER, which was named the #1 Most Anticipated Show of the new season by TV Guide readers, was created by Hart Hanson, creator of the hit FOX series BONES.
“Here at THE FINDER, we are proud and pleased and still amazed to have enjoined a musician the caliber of John Fogerty to join our company,” says Hanson. “John acts in the first episode (and we hope to have him back! He’s good.), but plays one of his biggest most beloved hits — one of my favorite songs of all time. (Hint: my production company would have been called ‘Fortunate Son Productions’ but somebody beat me to it.)
“And then, on top of all that, somehow we dragooned JOHN FOGERTY to write THE FINDER opening credits theme,” he continues. “Yes, that’s John playing and singing during our title sequence. John Fogerty is a rock ‘n’ roll god, an American legend, a true originator and one of the best song writers of all time. When he sang and played on THE FINDER set, we all stood in awed silence and grinned at each other. If just the smallest skritch of John’s magic rubs off on us, then we’ll be forever grateful.”
In the episode, Fogerty has his stolen guitar returned to him by Iraq war veteran Walter Sherman (Geoff Stults). When the guitar is returned, Fogerty thanks Walter and says, “all my songs were in that guitar.”
Click HERE for episodic photos and more information on this episode of The Finder.
THE FINDER is a production of 20th Century Fox Television. Hart Hanson, Barry Josephson, Dan Sackheim and Vahan Moosekian are executive producers.
John Fogerty is a true American treasure, one of popular music’s all-time greatest singers, guitar players, and songwriters. His remarkable career began in his hometown of El Cerrito, California, soon earning massive popular and critical success with the one and only Creedence Clearwater Revival. As leader of CCR, Fogerty forged a distinctive, groundbreaking sound all his own, equal parts blues, country, pop, rockabilly, R&B, swamp boogie, and Southern fried rock ‘n’ roll, all united by his uniquely evocative lyrical perspective.
After Creedence Clearwater Revival called it quits in 1972, Fogerty embarked on what would prove to be an equally impressive solo career. Among his many honors are induction in the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame and the Songwriters Hall of Fame, the BMI Pop Music Awards’ prestigious “BMI Icon,” and Performance Magazine’s “Theater Tour of the Year” Award. In addition, Fogerty and “Centerfield” were honored during the 2010 National Baseball Hall of Fame Induction Ceremonies – the first time the National Baseball Hall of Fame has immortalized a musician or song as part of the annual ceremonies.
fortunate son
RIP Ray Bradbury
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Minor Hitchcock
– January 3, 2009Posted in: Film Feature
Today, loving directors means less legwork, less hunting around (unless, of course, you dig Miike). Now that movies are more expensive, fewer are made, and making middle-of-the-road films for middle-of-the-road profits just isn’t attractive anymore. When the studio system held sway in America, and was emulated throughout the rest of the world, the need for steady product all but guaranteed that your favorite director would be at work, producing films yearly. These days, discounting the exceptional few like Soderbergh and Allen, you don’t get that kind of regularity. Tarantino is midway through the second decade of his filmmaking career, and he’s released six features total (if you count Kill Bill as two movies). David Cronenberg, my personal favorite, has managed three features this decade, with no strong indication he’ll be matching the 90s, wherein he made four films. Quantity for its own sake isn’t a positive, but there’s something exciting about the possibilities that linger in the extensive filmographies of Ford, Hawks, and the subject of this small survey, Hitchcock.
Most of Hitchcock’s modern reputation is based on his work in the mid-to-late 50s and early 60s, and while many of the films he did prior to that are considered canon (in particular, The 39 Steps, The Lady Vanishes, Shadow Of A Doubt, Notorious, and Strangers On A Train), the average informed filmgoer will consider the necessary viewing of Hitchcock to be Rear Window, North By Northwest, Vertigo, and Psycho. These are the epochal titles. If he had made only these four, his influence and reputation would be secure.
But this view would be selling the man’s legacy and work short. Of the over fifty extant films to his credit, there are at least a dozen that, if not to the level above, still sparkle with the black humor and precisely timed direction that make him one of our great filmmakers.
Before he came to America in 1939, Hitchcock had solidified a place in British film history. Still, he was a filmmaker in an American idiom. While his early films have stories and settings that are resolutely British, their style is most heavily influenced by German and American techniques (and, since there was so much money and so few Nazis in the U.S., most of that German talent ended up in America, anyway).
One of his strongest British films is Sabotage. Marred by one of the weakest romantic relationships in all of Hitchcock (mostly because the male lead is a damp squib, impossible to care about), it contains two bravura sequences. One involves a boy delivering a bomb. The other involves the female lead, her husband, and a very suggestive slicing of a pork roast.
During wartime, Hitchcock did his part with movies starring those dastardly Germans, and the most fun of these was Foreign Correspondent. It’s a travelogue picture, similar to North By Northwest or The 39 Steps, and there are at least a few great shots that Brian De Palma stole wholesale. The leads are weak, but the fake European settings are a hoot. Yes, I said a hoot.
Suspicion is an almost-there, filmed in the U.S. but set in Britain for no discernible reason. As a man whose increasingly desperate fiance believes he is a cold-blooded killer, Cary Grant gives a terrific performance (for the most part). It’s a Hollywood movie, so it doesn’t end up the way it should, but Grant is eminently watchable, even in a minor effort like this.
The Paradine Case has all sorts of Gregory Peck integrity, and the movie is an OK mystery leading up to the famous and devastating final shot. (It’s probably second or third to last, but it’s the one you remember.) The film is worth the end, and Charles Laughton’s judge is one of his most loathsome, toad-like characters ever.
Rope – is that in the canon? Rope is one of my favorites, despite the self-imposed limitations (which are silly, really), all of which tie Hitchcock’s hands from being able to make a real Hitchcock movie. After this one, James Stewart said he’d never work with the master again.
Stage Fright has two terrific performances for an underperforming plot, but the end is not as tidy as you think going in. This was shot in Britain after Hitch left Selznick, the last “British” movie he did until Frenzy.
I Confess has fantastic imagery (particularly of Montgomery Clift’s priest walking around Ontario…or wherever in Canada he is), an OK plot, a difficult-to-believe love story, and a scene that is a dry run for the coroner’s inquest in Vertigo.
The Wrong Man is near-documentary-realism, a real oddity in the catalog; a police procedural from the POV of the suspect. Foreboding and almost disturbing, it is one of Hitchcock’s lesser-known gems. Henry Fonda gives a powerful performance of resigned vulnerability. Hollywood ending, but good flickishness.
The Trouble With Harry is a trifle, proof that Hitch’s humor works best in the context of suspense. Yet it has the young Shirley MacLaine (like, twenty years old), so frickin’ hot I couldn’t believe it was her.
Episode 6: FLCLimax
Escaflowne vol. 1: Dragons And Destiny
Best Horror of the 90s: Spoorloos
American Gigolo
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Michael's recent credits include the musicals “Unknown Soldier,” “Pretty Filthy,” “The Fortress of Solitude,” “Love’s Labour's Lost” and “Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson,” the last of which premiered at the Public Theater before transferring to Broadway. With the Civilians, he has also written music and lyrics for “Canard Canard Goose,” “Gone Missing,” “Nobody’s Lunch,” “This Beautiful City,” “In the Footprint” and “The Great Immensity,” and music for Anne Washburn's “Mr. Burns.” With Steve Cosson, he is the co‐author of “Paris Commune” (BAM Next Wave Festival). Friedman has been a MacDowell Fellow, a Princeton Hodder Fellow, a Meet The Composer Fellow and a Barron Visiting Professor at the Princeton Environmental Institute. His TedX talk, “The Song Makes a Space,” can be seen on YouTube. An evening of his songs was featured at Lincoln Center’s American Songbook, and “The New Yorker Radio Hour” on WNYC features his songs about the 2016 election. He is artist in residence and director of the Public Forum at the Public Theater, and received an Obie Award for sustained achievement.
Michael Friedman's articles
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Importance of macroalgal fields as coral reef fish nursery habitat in north-west Australia
Evans, R. D., Wilson, S. K., Field, S. N. and Moore, J. A. Y. (2014). Importance of macroalgal fields as coral reef fish nursery habitat in north-west Australia. Marine Biology,161(3):599-607.
Cited 0 times in Scopus Article
Evans, R. D.
Wilson, S. K.
Field, S. N.
Moore, J. A. Y.
2-s2.0-84897577276
Springer Verlag
Macroalgal fields are a feature of the shallow tropical benthos, yet their importance for coral reef fish population dynamics remains poorly understood. The abundance of fish recruits was recorded using underwater visual census at six macroalgal and 11 coral reef sites in the Montebello and Barrow Islands. Surveys identified 6,935 individual recruit fish from 105 species, 54 genera and 20 families. Of these, 1,401 recruits from 48 species, 31 genera and 14 families were observed in macroalgal sites. Sixteen of the 105 recruit species (15.2 %) were observed exclusively at macroalgal sites. Forty-two (87.5 %) of these species have been observed as adults on adjacent coral reefs. Species composition of fish recruits differed significantly between the two habitats. Corallivore, small omnivore and zooplanktivore recruits had significantly higher numbers in the coral sites, while the results clearly demonstrate that juveniles, within the genera Lethrinus and Choerodon, as well as large algal croppers, are predominantly found at macroalgal (74-100 %) rather than coral-dominated sites. High-canopy macroalgae cover was positively correlated with abundance of these taxa, particularly Lethrinids (r2 = 0.40). This study is the first to highlight the important attributes of tropical macroalgal fields and suggests that they have a similar role to seagrass meadows as essential juvenile habitat, thus warranting greater attention in conservation planning and ecological studies.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s00227-013-2362-x (check subscription with CDU E-Gateway service for CDU Staff and Students )
http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s00227-013-2362-x Full text from publisher
Fri, 29 Aug 2014, 15:46:41 CST Wed, 17 May 2017, 09:09:26 CST Wed, 17 May 2017, 09:11:14 CST Wed, 17 May 2017, 12:56:35 CST Wed, 17 May 2017, 13:00:35 CST Filtered Full
Fri, 29 Aug 2014, 16:16:41 CST by Anthony Hornby
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Wisconsin Gov. Tommy Thompson Tells All On M&M
GARYTALK.COM (GaryTapes No.1) – The first recording of conversations entered into the GaryTapes section of the GaryTalk.com website features a former, popular, Republican Wisconsin Governor, and a former Wood County, Wisconsin County Supervisor. During a career spanning from the mid-1960s until the year 2000, and beyond, Gary W. Morgan held thousands of broadcast radio, on-air conversations, with a variety of people, including elected officials. Many of the interviews were heard on a Central Wisconsin AM radio station. What follows is a recorded excerpt from one day in the life of the Morgan and Michaels Radio Show (a/k/a Michaels and Morgan) on WFHR in Wisconsin Rapids, WI.
GARYTAPES 1996, county board, county supervisor, gary morgan, garytapes, governor, governor thompson, jd michaels, joe raubal, marshfield, michaels, morgan, morgan and michaels, radio, radio show, rapids, tommy thompson, wfhr, wisconsin, wisconsin rapids, wood county
My Brush With The Celebrated Dr. Joyce Brothers
May 13, 2016 November 10, 2016 GabbyGary
GARYTALK.COM (05/13/2016) – Best selling author, radio-tv personality, speaker, and one-time game show contestant, Dr. Joyce Brothers, died during May of 2013, at the age of 85. One of the most outstanding moments in my life was the time I did an in person, on location, radio interview with Dr. Joyce Brothers when she appeared at a Central Wisconsin convention at the old Holiday Inn in Stevens Point, WI, back in the mid 1990s.
GARYWORDS cassettes, celebrity, conversation, discussion, doctor, featured, gabbygary, gary morgan, garytalk, garywords, interview, joyce brothers, michaels and morgan, network, news, news actuality, on location, recording, wfhr, wisconsin
Long Radio, Writing and Graphics Career Led To The Internet
December 3, 2015 May 9, 2018 GabbyGary
GARYTALK.COM (12/03/2015) – During a professional radio and newspaper communications industry career that started prior to 1967, Gary Morgan has been a Newspaper Editor, Printing & Publishing Business General Manager, Radio DeeJay, News Director, Station Manager, and, half of a successful daily radio program called MICHAELS & MORGAN with J.D. Michaels (Morgan insists it was called MORGAN & Michaels). For a brief time, in the Year 2000, Morgan was also a politician, but, more about all of that at another time. The main thing is, everything work related led Morgan to getting involved in the internet.
ABOUT US about, about gary, about garytalk., about garytalk.com, adventures, assembly, battle, candidate, career, clik2go, dc, entertainment, experience, gary morgan, gary w. morgan, garytalk, general election, government, graphics, greatgold, information, internet, learn, life, mcstreamy, newspaper, political, politics, primary, primary hopes, primary politician, print, radio, report, reporting, reports, retired, semi-retired, short political career, skills, uswebdaily, voters, washington, wisconsin
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Posted on September 12, 2008 November 16, 2017 Author editor
Given that wealth is hard to measure, the middle class has often been defined in terms of income. Gary Burtless defines it as families earning anywhere between half of median income ($24,000) to twice as much ($96,000). Frank Levy, based on Census data for families in their prime earning years, pegs that range between $30,000 and $90,000. This seems much too wide a ‘middle’ to be meaningful. These incomes likely reflect very different lifestyles and options. But the definition is slippier still. The World Bank defines the middle class as people making between $10 and $20 a day — adjusted for local prices — which is roughly the range of average incomes between Brazil ($10) and Italy ($20).
The middle-class has been described as a rentier class with no social basis but one with a specific function. Benefits are distributed asymmetrically in a Capitalist system, with the top .01% gaining significantly more than the next .09%, who in turn gain significantly more than the next 1%, and so on. This pyramid is held in place by the inclusive meritocratic rhetoric, and by the aspirants (middle class) in whose hands success seems the nearest. More broadly, each economic system has a legitimizing (sense-making) discourse for its winners and losers, and in Capitalism — it is the inclusive, achievable, democratic discourse about merit and hard work. The successful are caught in the need for ascribing their success to their own ingenuity and hard work.
The moralism of middle class can be better understood if we look to its historical roots in Victorian England. One of the defining features of the middle-class in the Victorian era was its extreme moralism — railing against the corrupt degenerate aristocracy, and the equally corrupt breeding-like-rabbits poor — and trying to define meritocracy as the only ethical framework. Hence meritocracy has become the defining ethos of the society — inclusive yet elusive — inclusive enough to keep the bottom salivating, and yet elusive enough to keep it nearly always out of reach of the lower classes.
Media and the Middle Class: Example of India
The timing of India’s liberalization was fortuitous in a way – especially as we trace the story of the ascent of the middle class in the past decade – as it coincided with the advent of transnational satellite broadcasting in Asia. In 1991, Hong Kong-based (Murdoch owned) Star TV started broadcasting to several Asian countries from a clutch of transponders aboard Asiasat 1. Its mainstay was recycled American programming. Star TV found instant reception due to Gulf War which had revolutionized cable. The satellite dishes/and cable/ operators showed images from gulf war and then showed Hindi movies at the end of the war. Overnight, video parlor owners changed to cable operators offering Star TV’s five channels — including BBC and MTV. BBC was later dropped.
The government took a lax view of the mushrooming illegal cable industry and didn’t take steps to regularize it until 1995, and even then enforcement was lax, if not non-existent. The rise of cable was significant in shaping the middle class, and how it chose to see itself – at once liberal, and aware of global trends in fashion and entertainment.
But if it were not for further liberalization of media, and the new generation that took reigns of that media – the story may still have been different.
The narrative around media’s role in the construction of the new middle class is more completely understood if we move beyond analyzing the product or the stated strategic intentions of the actors, and instead look at the people running media today.
Till the early nineties, the only game town used to be the state media. Even the newspapers trod lightly, if progressively, under threat of government boycott of ads. The dominant ethos in reporting and programming on the state media were the liberalist bureaucratic ethos and on radio dominated by people likely to be friends with university professors. Doordarshan ran public service ads, and social cohesion promoting dramas.
This all changed, first with the introduction of cable, which initially featured foreign channels carrying a sprinkling of preppy foreign-bred hyphenated Indians, and then with the rise of native media led by clawing young brigade. The recruits to the media industry – young, turgid with ambition, aiming to please, and imbibed in business ethos- were key in hastening the spread of middle-class discourse. A similar process is underway in American journalism with a shift in technology necessitating a significant generational shift. It is patently clear reading Times of India with its Leisure sections (something which was started by Washington Post Style Section in the 1980s) that newspaper today looks like a vastly different animal than a decade and a half ago. One can argue that some of the change in media was a result of the change in economy, and not a cause of some of the changes but the alacrity with which media changed, the speed with which it contorted, and the multiple places in which it behaved as the vanguard speaks of fundamental change in ethos that could only have happened with the active participation of the eager to be indoctrinated/ or already indoctrinated.
A Walk Down the Memory Lane: Connaught Place
Posted on July 14, 2008 November 16, 2017 Author editor
The romance of a Delhi summer can be savored by conjuring up just one image: the vast, cool corridors of Connaught Place.
The Raj-era building, built between 1928 and 1934 though formally opened in 1931, was based on the designs of World War I veteran Robert Tor Russell, Chief Architect to the Public Works Department. Russell had worked in India before the War as an assistant to the famous John Begg, who along with George Wittet is generally credited with developing the Indo-Saracenic style. Thankfully, due to exigency or choice, none of Begg’s influence invaded Russell’s design aesthetic, which was dominated by the understated yet stately stucco neo-classical style popularized by Sir Edwin Lutyens. Russell’s aesthetic, however, did carry distinct echoes of Italian architecture- The opulent gracefully executed Tuscan loggias on both on both levels (the upper-level structures have been increasingly converted into offices) being the defining features of Connaught Place.
Growing up in the eighties, Connaught Place, with its massive arcaded colonnades, circular columnar geometry which was never oppressive, upscale if slightly frumpy shops, as opposed to upscale shops now which have interior designs that are almost always preternaturally youthful, with humming air conditioners, when air conditioners were a rarity, was a source of wonder and awe. It was also the only place where one saw foreigners in Delhi. They, almost always in their sunglasses and shorts, walking unhurriedly yet purposefully.
Going to Connaught Place meant going through India Gate and parts of Lutyens Delhi. As we neared India gate, the temperature dropped a few degrees as bus gathered pace and air shed its molten edge in the leafy embrace of trees, and over the grassy expanse of the maidans. Suddenly the furrowed brow of the bus passengers relaxed as we entered the non-gridlocked, beautiful, stately, tree-lined Delhi, and a near bonhomie was restored.
Getting down at Barakhamba Road, I remember always taking a few seconds to take in the faint yet pleasant excitement of being in this glorious commercial hub, feeling happy, and almost dreamily becoming aware of the pleasant rush of traffic and how the car horns sounded different — more sonorous, here. However, the two things that I remember most about going to Connaught Place are the shoe shops and Nirula’s. If mom wanted a sandal, it had to be from the Liberty shop in Connaught Place, and the Bata shop there was considered absolutely irreplaceable for men’s shoes. The air-conditioned Nirula’s with its exotic pizzas, which never tasted good but were ravenously consumed, and burgers, and ice-creams was heaven, albeit a heaven in which the feet and heart were as timorous as excitement complete.
On the way back home at night, happy with the day, the relatively empty bus with its dull yellow light seemed positively romantic. As we passed the ice-cream wallahs with their fluorescent lights covered in colored cellophane, and the strolling families, near India gate, the adventure was complete.
Akshardham: “Spiritual Theme Park”
Posted on October 26, 2007 November 21, 2017 Author editor
The huge red sandstone and marble monument, visible from the nearby highway, stands alone, proud, and out of place.
The local road abutting the walled complex has a few informal ‘checkpoints’ where men in plain clothes check cars. As our Maruti Zen lurches into the ‘complex’, the true enormity of the ‘operation’ – the beehive of activity that keeps this place running – becomes clear. The complex employs at least a few hundred people (almost all men), mostly young, eager, full of self-importance, and too prone to giving directions where none are necessary. The job of frisking visitors, shepherding them through metal detectors, collecting parking tickets, maintaining order, among other things, at this massive complex clearly leaves the workers flush with tepid excitement akin to what one feels when one stands in the back lines of a violent mob.
Swaminarayan Akshardham temple complex in Delhi is a large red sandstone-and-white marble structure built on a 100-acre plot on the Yamuna riverbed, opposite the disintegrating dingy hovels and narrow lanes of Pandav Nagar. The prodigiously carved temple, which took about five years to build and reportedly employed over 7,000 artisans during its construction, cost around Rs 2 billion (or about $50 million).
The construction of this gargantuan complex right on the dried up riverbed attracted the ire of environmentalists concerned about its impact on the river’s future sustainability. Their protests seemed a bit misplaced given that the Yamuna is not more than a sickly nallah, and isn’t expected to do much better in the future. However, it is widely believed amongst the knowledgeable elite that construction of the temple, as the first building on the riverbed, was a master move by babus at the Delhi Development Authority interested in opening up the riverbed for commercial development. Being a temple, the structure will never be torn down, and under the aegis, corporate developers can furnish claims for future development. The plan seems to have borne fruit with a Commonwealth Village for Commonwealth games scheduled in 2010 scheduled to come up next to the temple complex in the very near future.
The temple is run by the Swami Narayan trust or more precisely, the Bochasanvasi Aksharpurushottam Swaminarayan Sanstha (BAPS). The current leader of the group, Pramukh Swami Maharaj (which roughly translates to ‘leader’ ‘saint’ ‘king’ respectively), is credited with inspiration for the temple. Apparently, the guru had a vision in which he saw a temple near the banks of Yamuna, an erstwhile preserve of Mughal monuments, and voila in a few years, the dream was realized. A useful biography of this great man can be conveniently found on the web.
The complex, featuring a Disneyland kind 12-minute boat ride to allow visitors to sail through displays of Indian culture, and a large food court serving everything from Burgers (vegetarian) to Dosas, takes its name from the Akshardham temple in Gujarat’s capital, Gandhinagar. The temple in Gujarat was the site of a deadly bomb attack and hostage drama in 2002. Given the history, the temple in Delhi features extraordinary security measures – people are barred from taking in any electronic equipment, they are frisked thoroughly, and even asked to open up their wallets for inspection (strictly inspection, fortunately).
The Swaminarayan temple complex is a strange mix of architectural styles, ranging from Deccan to Mughal to Mewari. The intricately carved marble interiors are reminiscent of opulent Mughal tombs and palaces, the main building’s red sandstone facade seems to pay ode to Deccan style temples (most prominently Meenakshi temple in its ostentatious carving), while the boundary wall and supporting structure seem to be inspired by a mixture of Mewari and Mughal styles. Walking on the tiled pathways perpendicularly crossing its wide lawns (reminiscent of Mughal garden layout), dotted with garish faux roman (painted cast iron with paint starting to peel) sculptures narrating major Hindu allegories, and showcasing prominent Hindu mythological figures, I still vividly remember catching myself staring at a boundary wall that seemed deceptively similar to Red Fort’s. Similarities to Mughal architecture aren’t that surprising given that Mughal architecture itself borrows heavily from (Hindu) architecture in Rajasthan during the 16th century, but the effect is ironic indeed.
The temple exteriors seem to have been carved to inspire awe rather than convey a more aesthetic sense of beauty. The impulse to impress is most clearly seen inside the carved white marble interior sanctum, generally the most unadorned place in a Hindu temple – in line with the philosophy that devotees symbolically leave the world behind at the sanctum and enter a distraction-free meditative space. The effect of all the embellishment seems strangely contrived, much like that of sets from religious mythological shows on television.
More pointedly, as a monument to both Hindu pride and ‘Shining India’, it is appropriately both a religious monument and a theme park. Hindu pride stares at emptily from the narrative sculptural montages, the embellished shell, and the self-satisfied awed masses that congregate here while ‘Shining India’ gleams in its insipidity in the food court, in the boat ride, in the musical fountains, and in the multimedia museum devoted to Hindu mythology catastrophically crossed with Indian history. But then it is mere natural progression from gaudy television dramas based on religious epics to gaudy monuments inspired by the same mythological television dramas. It is a mere natural downward progression – to be precise- towards a not-so-unique blend of pride, philistinism, money, religious fervor, and entertainment.
Bemoaning Delhi
Posted on October 6, 2007 November 15, 2017 Author editor
Delhi doesn’t look like anything. It is amorphous, and as misshapen as only third world cities can be. It is but a mass of hutments, box-like houses built to occupy every available inch of space (and a couple more created by bribery) crammed together across narrow lanes interspersed by indifferent wide diseased roads full of traffic and nauseous fumes, covered in brownish dust that suffuses the air, with a deathly sun beating over it.
People live in this place—a lot of them. But the city was not created for them. Instead, people have wrested savagely whatever little piece they can. And the combined savagery of poverty and corrupt government has created this tired undifferentiated mass of bricks, tar, garbage, and people.
It is as if the houses have come up, lanes been laid, roads built, with no thought, or care except the most pressing, the most basic one—to survive. To talk of architecture is a presumption, and to talk about the city’s “character” an even more absurd pretension still. It is weird to see Delhi through Western eyes, even their pictures of poverty with cute children with distended bellies due to malnutrition are exotic. There is nothing exotic about Delhi. There is no mystery that is lurking beneath its hutments, or its Nirulas, or behind the empty eyes of its ‘upwardly mobile’ middle class. Not that the brand conscious or the carefully brand weary middle class in West has something to boast about. But leave the pretensions home.
Delhi is there. People are living, driving, pissing on the disintegrating walls plastered with tattered posters that line some of its streets, fucking in their bedrooms, and coming out blank-eyed in the morning from their cells. It is a city of elbows and impatience. It is a city full of people bent upon joylessly eating, and consuming, to fill that enormous chasm that opens up when you live such warped lives. It is a city of broken men, and women – with distended pot-bellies, cracked hands, and tired disfigured faces. And no – they don’t want your fucking sympathy, or even your ‘understanding’ for there is nothing to understand, they exist only to dig up another day from the bowels of another sleepless night.
There is no redemption in Delhi, even for the rich. Why should there be? Rich can hide in air-conditioned cocoons but must give in and sadistically abuse their servants, generally young boys 10-12 years old – if the nimbupani isn’t cold enough.
Since the north excels in aborting female fetuses, and ‘protective’ attitudes towards women by their parents, and predatory attitudes towards them by young males stifle their movement, you only see hordes of young men on the road. Since there is little impetus to implement child labor laws, kids sell – sometimes surprisingly high-end books to people who will never read them but will talk about them– at red lights.
Delhi, as Dalrymple points out during one of his sane moments in the largely delusional novel dedicated to the city ‘City of Djinns’, is a refugee city. Delhi, until the economic reforms of the mid-90s, was defined by two things: entrepreneurial Punjabi refugees who came after partition and built their lives piece by piece, and the largish babudom. Post ’95, it increasingly became a grotto for the myriad poor – predominantly from North India, and simultaneously an embodiment of Delhi government’s aspirations, and the rich Indians’ aspirations, both mediated by the reality of poverty, corruption, philistinism, and greed. Both aspirations fed each other, as they still do, to sap soul out of the city – leeching the richer neighborhoods of languorous bungalows shaded by Gulmohar trees, and with walls draped by Bougainvilleas – carefully replacing them with multi-storied boxes, replacing town roads with enormous highways to accommodate the rapidly multiplying cars, and tearing down some of the poor localities and eviscerating small businesses based on their ‘unauthorized’ status. Whatever vestiges of culture Delhi clung on to were preyed upon and consumed during the last decade or so as Delhi grew one enormous housing project – endless grid-like arrays of shabby quality 4-5 story flats- after another. The taps dried as water shortage became acuter, and now aunties in ‘good’ neighborhoods rejoice if they get water for three hours every day. The sad part is that Delhi is the capital city and boasts of some of the best infrastructure that the country has to offer. There may be some joy still. The umbra of carnage wreaked over the past decade may still yield to the faint light of the globalized penumbra. After all, McDonald’s is here and Ronald, the jovial and orange clown, seems inclined to show us the way to perennial peace and civilization.
Shining India: The Marvel of Marble
Posted on September 26, 2007 January 19, 2018 Author editor
The Singapore Airlines flight SQ 408 landed at the Indira Gandhi International Airport in Delhi at 8:45pm, a full 15 minutes ahead of schedule. Unfortunately, there was no gate available to greet the early arrival. After waiting for about 15 minutes, a gate was found and the weary passengers started “deplaning” into a stale-aired tunnel devoid of any air conditioning.
Passing through it, we reached a smallish marble-floored concourse also devoid of functioning air-conditioning. India is perhaps one of the few nations in the world where the government spends, what is undoubtedly an exorbitant amount of money to cover the floor with marble, and then leaves the air-conditioning unplugged. Marble in my memory is inextricably linked to the beautiful elegant toy-like tomb of Arjumand Banu Begum, better known as Mumtaz Mahal, and the marble floors that line the homes of the nouveau rich in Delhi. The concourse of Indira Gandhi Airport is also one such tomb – a tomb to India’s bureaucracy, the babudom (a pejorative term used to describe Indian bureaucracy) whose dried pan spittle adorns the lower extremities of the walls, and higher areas of corners, and one such hanging statement about clueless money.
I was soon making my way through the staircase to a smallish area that had the immigration counters, as passengers from another flight – this time from Malaysia as my surreptitious sideways glances at people’s passports and immigration forms later revealed – poured in. The area became crowded as people flowed over on to the staircase.
I belong to a class of people who are unable, or perhaps unwilling, most of the times to be assertive. So the waves of people pushed me back to my due spot- near the end of the line. In the interim melee, a man in his mid-30s behind me called out to his wife, ‘Arrey issey main dekhta hoon tum jaldi say line mein jaa kar lago (I will look out for him – the kid – you go hurry up and stand in the line). The passengers though were generally quiet and undemanding showing a detachment that only comes from having lived in plush comforting environments for some time, or when you are a young ‘foreign tourist’ and all ‘this’ is part of being in a new country. Of course, the fact that all of the Indian (expatriates or natives) passengers, a majority of the total passengers, belong to the super elite for whom pretending patience in front of fellow elites is important and also helps keep the verbalizing of resentment to a minimum.
The other airplane that had come from Malaysia was full of Muslims in full regalia—skull caps, flowing robes, and slippers. The foreigners in our line wondered. I wondered too.
In due time, my number came and I handed over my passport to the clearly overworked and unsmiling man across the counter; the job is perhaps lowly and the government babu (pejorative term used to describe Indian bureaucrats) at the counter looked impoverished – he had a noticeably dirty collar, the shirt was yellowing and worn, and his tie was little askew. He stared briefly and stamped.
Then came the robust baggage trolleys – not the dainty ones that I saw in Hong Kong – on which I plunked my suitcases, which came slowly and sullenly over the conveyor belt looking worn and maltreated. And I was off into the dusty crowded outside, and into the hands of my parents.
Bijli, Sadak, Makaan: Art at the Crossroads of Infrastructure and Culture
Posted on June 25, 2007 November 22, 2017 Author editor
The questions that Ashok Sukumaran asks of us are to the say the least, unusual. The way he asks them is more unusual still. Yet these are questions are uniquely applicable to India – especially an India that is in throes of globalization, and a technological revolution. Mr. Sukumaran through his art asks us to question the meaning of public and public space, the adequacy of current communication media, the meaning of being digital, and the role of art and the artist in helping pose and answer these questions.
Mr. Sukumaran is foremost an astute and nimble observer. He is also a precocious talent and an incisive questioner. He doesn’t practice art that is produced and hung in galleries and for the intellectual consumption of the cultural elites, who consume art for the singular purpose of negotiating their social and cultural status.
Mr. Sukumaran practices media art. In other words, he doesn’t limit himself to a medium; he uses whatever is necessary to convey a point or understand an idea. And often this means going outside museum or gallery spaces and on to the city street to answer (or pose) questions that can only be understood in the public realm.
In this recent recurrencies project, Mr. Sukumaran explores, via reconfigurations of urban electricity, “new and old ideas of equitability, exchange, pleasure, negotiation, and sociability.” In the installation, 14th-road: where we live, “a remote switch hangs from a tree across the road from [the artist’s] apartment, connected to the lights in [their] balcony”. Mr. Sukumaran uses this setup to see how public infers what this is, what is allowed and what isn’t. People who flick the switch, as the notes alongside reveal, are wary of the claims that artists make about ‘redistributing connections’; they ask questions about how the apparatus works, how much it costs, call to see if there is a “secret meaning” etc.
It is interesting to see how the social structures and expectations become exposed as the days progress. We get to see certain ‘street level epistemologies’ of meaning, authority, social relationships, and technology. When I asked Mr. Sukumaran whether he was concerned about the fact that some of his pieces had become public spectacles, he said no. In fact, he said, spectacle – mingled with the anxieties, expectations of authority, etc. that it invokes – is sometimes the perfect mechanism to explore the relationship between society and authority.
“Infrastructure is culture,” says Ashok Sukumaran while explaining how access to infrastructure comes to define what is possible within a society. There are two particular facets to how we can understand the impact of infrastructure – firstly society rations access to infrastructure in a way that is largely commensurate with its existing hierarchies and priorities, and secondly and more importantly infrastructure– be it electricity or telephone or the Internet – tampers with the existing social hierarchies, and creates its own. Infrastructure comes with its own command economies – be it the petty government Babu or the humble Chowkidar – society installs gatekeepers or gatekeepers emerge as society lays down mechanisms for distributing infrastructure. Infrastructure also signals what is permitted and what isn’t. It thus sets up norms of behavior and social conduct. There are a host of questions that Mr. Sukumaran brings to the table around this issues – how do we react when the norms are broken? Who creates these norms? How are these norms institutionalized and then propagated and socialized? What are the power structures that underpin these norms? How is infrastructure and access to it understood on the street – by the doodhwalla and the fruit juice operator and the Mumbai housewife? These are only a small set of questions that Mr. Sukumaran has been trying to answer. He has many more.
Ashok Sukumaran was born to a Japanese mother and an Indian father in 1974. Mr. Sukumaran spent his childhood in Shimla, the summer capital of the Raj which still hosts a somewhat eclectic, variegated set of people, according to Mr. Sukumaran. He describes his childhood as fairly normal, middle-class and “very dal-roti” except for some exposure to Japanese toys and electronics that his relatives sent from Japan. Mr. Sukumaran traces some of his fascination with technology to the access he had to these “smuggled” goods.
After finishing school, Sukumaran went on to study architecture at the prestigious School of Planning and Architecture in Delhi. A certain amount of architectural training is distinctly visible in his work. A fascination with form, color, and space are very much on display, but in a mode that is quite different from traditional design. After finishing up with SPA, Mr. Sukumaran worked for some time as an architect. He says that during this time he got to work closely with local mistris and artisans and found the experience unique and deeply satisfying. Mr. Sukumaran often collaborates with local electricians and decorators and finds it an integral part of producing his art.
In 2001, just before the 9/11 attacks, Mr. Sukumaran landed in the Los Angeles to study at the Department of Design|Media Arts at University of California, Los Angeles. Being in this politically charged and emotional moment was edifying in some ways, according to Mr. Sukumaran. After graduating from UCLA, Mr. Sukumaran worked at a variety of places including as the project director for NANO, “an exhibition that blended multiple scientific disciplines to explore the intersection of digital art and nanoscale science at LACMALab, Los Angeles.” He has also harvested a slew of prestigious residencies and awards including winning the first prize in the Universal Warning Sign Design Competition for his breathtakingly creative ‘Blue Yucca Ridge’ at Yucca Mountain, the first Sun Microsystems ‘ZeroOne’ residency, and the UNESCO Digital Arts Award for 2005 for his “poetic yet pragmatic†project SWITCH, a subset of the recurrencies.net project described above.
It is a testament to his ability that Mr. Sukumaran has managed to create an impressive body of work in the short span of about four years. Both the variety of questions he has dealt with and the techniques he has used to explore them are striking.
Mr. Sukumaran’s quest for answers to complex questions around society and technology has often extended into the digital realm. Mr. Sukumaran has tried to explore what it means to be digital. In particular, he questions the seemingly infinitely tensile, manipulability of the digital by exposing both the “hard chemical” and “soft social” processes that underpin the digital.
Mr. Sukumaran, to his credit, in spite of the success and accolades that he has received, continues to struggle with the role of art in society. He stridently believes in the importance of art and argues that art is one of the only places left where one can ask meta cross-disciplinary questions. Yet, he seems deeply perturbed by the commercial expropriation of art, and the Kuspitian notion that Contemporary art is merely busy with making clever commentary. To that end, Mr. Sukumaran has striven to distance himself from the commercial aspects of art and dispense with the elitist pretensions of art by deliberately choosing to raise his questions outside traditional venues, and forms.
Contemporary Art would still live, defying Donald Kuspit, on the strength of artists like Mr. Sukumaran who produce art with self-conscious rigor and perceptive incisiveness. The hope is that such threads can make the much-abused Contemporary in art intellectually invigorating, fertile, and genuinely provocative.
UNESCO Portal
Sun Microsystem’s page on the artist.
Thwarting Failure in South Asia
Six South Asian countries are among the 25 states likeliest to fail on the “Failed States Index”, co-created by Foreign Policy magazine and The Fund for Peace. The same six countries – Afghanistan, Pakistan, Burma, Bangladesh, Nepal, and Sri Lanka – (in the same order) were also featured amongst the top 25 in last year’s rankings.
The Indian subcontinent, it appears, has the highest density of states in danger of ‘failing’ in a geographical region, aside from a broad swathe of Central Africa running from Sudan to Guinea. Nearly half a billion people live in the states marked as likely to fail in the subcontinent.
Any failure of state within the subcontinent is likely to have an impact well beyond the borders of that country. In fact, that is exactly why US-based think-tanks and magazines create these ‘failed states index’ to begin with. The co-creators of the index argue, citing the 2002 U.S. National Security Strategy – filled with the typical hyperbole that garbs most US security policy documents – that the impact of state failure is likely to be ‘global’. Even if we discount such assertions, the likely impact of state failure in the subcontinent is certainly worrisome, especially for India.
Before we analyze the impact of state failure in South Asia, let me diverge briefly to formalize what we mean by a ‘failed state’.
What is a ‘Failed State’?
One may argue that if a state fails its people, it is a ‘failed state’. But formally a ‘failed state’ is defined as one with a weak government, political instability, and insecurity. State Failure, according to Center for International Development and Conflict Management at University of Maryland’s State Failure Task Force Report: Phase III Findings (Large PDF document – 255 pages) has been defined as a state that may have one or a combination of the following –
“Revolutionary wars. Episodes of sustained violent conflict between governments and politically organized challengers that seek to overthrow the central government, to replace its leaders, or to seize power in one region.
Ethnic wars. Episodes of sustained violent conflict in which national, ethnic, religious, or other communal minorities challenge governments to seek major changes in status.
Adverse regime changes. Major, abrupt shifts in patterns of governance, including state collapse, periods of severe elite or regime instability, and shifts away from democracy toward authoritarian rule.
Genocides and politicides. Sustained policies by states or their agents, or, in civil wars, by either of the contending authorities that result in the deaths of a substantial portion of a communal or political group.”
India in a ‘Dangerous Neighborhood’
There are a variety of factors that underpin the instability in the region—resurgent Islamic fundamentalism combined with military rule in Pakistan and Bangladesh (two different degrees in both countries), Taleban in Afghanistan, ‘Maoists’ in Nepal, the hermetic authoritarian regime in Burma, and Tamil nationalists in Sri Lanka.
Troublingly, a lot of the problems, like Islamic fundamentalism, that plague ‘failing states’ in South Asia can travel well across borders. There is already evidence to the fact that Maoist success in Nepal is having an effect of emboldening Maoists insurgents in the eastern part of India. And if problems in Bangladesh were to set off an even wider wave of immigrants looking for security and economic opportunity in India, it is likely that the widespread anger against Bangladeshi immigrants in parts of North-east India would escalate into sectarian violence.
Given the fact that India has tangible, probable, and immediate threats, and given India’s crucial role within South Asian politics, it is but obvious that India should play a crucial role in mitigating some of the issues precipitating state failure in its neighborhood. India will have to play its hand deftly though and the choices will not always be obvious. For example, India has for years on end enjoyed a cozy relationship with Nepalese Royalty but has had to put in its weight behind the political parties and the Maoists who wanted the Monarchy scrapped. On the other end India, which has long argued for democracy in Pakistan, has established a healthy working relationship with Musharraf government and even made some moves towards meaningful negotiations over Kashmir.
While India has shown great pragmatism in dealing with some long-running and some ‘unexpected’ political upheavals, it doesn’t seem to have a coherent long-term strategic perspective on how to foment stability in the region. Part of the reason is that India doesn’t really have the bargaining power, as in resources or military muscle, for a more aggressive foreign policy. However it does enjoy a fair amount of credibility among the major powers within the world, and it is time that it use it to chart out a longer term policy towards it neighbors. The key components of the policy should be an enlightened economic policy – for example, making compromises towards creating a regional free-trade block, a more active role in diplomacy – say for example complimenting the role of the Norwegians and the Icelandic delegation in Sri Lanka, taking lead in thinking about ‘sustainable development’ and environment – especially important given the enormous impact that global warming can wreck on the region, marshalling resources from the Western countries for the basics – education, health, and basic infrastructure, and working with authoritarian regimes where necessary to urge for more moderate and sustainable policies.
‘Wax’ing poetic
Posted on May 23, 2007 November 15, 2017 Author editor
“India has a growing middle class estimated at 300 million people.” Emily Wax
300 million is an astounding figure and just a shade below the US population. If indeed India has a “growing” middle class that is 300 million strong, then the US and the rest of the world better take notice. There is just a small problem – the figure is almost entirely meaningless.
The middle class is a phenomenally slippery concept. The term was initially used to refer to the urban bourgeoisie. In its modern avatar, it was meant to refer to people who could afford certain amenities. As amenities have become the norm in the West, calls have been made to redefine the term again. The term itself though has a lot of emotional cache and almost 90% of the people in the US, according to a survey in 1992, thought themselves as middle class. Statistically, we can define “middle class” as the class of income earners that is within one Standard Deviation of the mean. But for a country like India where the mean wage is less than $2/day, the statistical definition as above would be thoroughly bankrupt.
Main Course: Pass me the knife, please
Let’s briefly analyze Wax’s claim about the numbers in Indian middle class. According to World Bank, India’s GDP was $796 billion in 2006. Assuming that all economic activity was produced by the 300 million (about 1/4th of the real population) and the gains spread equally among them, Gross Income Per Person would be $796,000/300 = $2600/year or $7/day. All hail this “middle class”.
It is fashionable to use terms like “middle class” and then attach numbers like 300 million but both the term and the number are grossly inaccurate.
Newspaper Gestalt
Over years, stories on the economic miracle in China and India have become de rigeur in newspapers. The stories are uniformly bankrupt for they fail to get even the basic figures right and put things in proper perspective.
A new foreign correspondent to India, like Wax, is expected to file in his/her share of these formulaic stories along with the expected special report on the heartrending poverty in rural China and India.
There is little hope that we will ever have better coverage or even that different topics will be covered, except the occasional Shilpa Shetty-Gere kiss induced frenzy, given that most foreign press reporters go to other countries with doltish prior hypotheses, look for confirmation, confirm them, and sigh with relief and move on to their next story. The whole problem is exacerbated by the fact that the tour of duties for journalists have shrunk.
Interview with Lisa McKay
Posted on May 9, 2007 December 7, 2017 Author editor
This is the second interview in a multi-part series that will end with an analysis of ethics etc. that underpin BC, and blogs in general. The first interview with Christopher Rose, Comments Editor at BC, can be accessed by clicking here
Lisa McKay is the Executive Editor of Blogcritics.org. Lisa has been with Blogcritics.org since August 2004.
The interview was conducted via email a couple of months ago.
You joined BC at a time when BC was much smaller than today. Tell me a little more about how you came across BC and what led you to join it.
I came across BC a few months before I actively joined, while I was in the process of looking for good sources of movie and music reviews. It was unlike anything else I had come across – it still is, really – and I started checking in on a daily basis to read stuff. Eventually, I worked up the courage to post a comment here and there and then decided that maybe I should actually join the site and try to get some writing done.
You work full time, are a mother of a young son and a wife. How do you juggle your responsibilities?
Actually, only two of those facts are true at present – my son just turned 21 and has been away at college for the past couple of years, so juggling parental responsibilities hasn’t been part of the equation for a long time. Having said that, I think that people make time to do the things they want to do if they want to do them badly enough. My husband and I both have pretty intense interests outside of our work and our family life (which includes a lot of shared interests), and we’ve been very supportive of each other’s pursuits, so part of it is that I have a built-in support system, and part of it is that I’ve become very good at multi-tasking and prioritizing. Even so, I wish I could use all 24 hours in the day sometimes.
While writing an article about why you chose to ‘come out’, if you will, and start writing under your real name, you say that part of the reason was to lay claim on the articles that you have written. This works both ways – now people know whom to hold accountable when they see a ‘perceived’ injustice or have an ax to grind. Has blogging under your real name been a problem? How comfortable do you feel about commenting and blogging about contentious topics?
It probably says something about the nature of what I write that using my real name has never been a problem. The place where the discussions really seem to get personal is in the political arena, where people seem to take everything to heart and can get quite ugly when they disagree. I don’t have the stomach for that type of discourse, so I stay out of that particular venue. I have opinions on pretty much everything, and I have no problem with expressing them when asked directly to do so, but I really don’t see those contentious discussions as serving much purpose. There are a lot of people who like to “argue†just so they can call names – it has nothing to do with actually listening to what other people are saying – and I just don’t have the time for it, as I see it as unproductive.
At the heart of your decision to blog under your ‘real name’ is an ethical question that surrounds online media outlets – the issue of accountability. Of course, there are real people behind these ‘false’ online identities and they often are accountable but somehow the cost-free nature of leaving even the most borderline crazy comment or article under an assumed identity does probably sabotage perhaps reasoned commentary? What are your thoughts on the issue?
While I understand the reasons that many people have for remaining anonymous online, I do believe that a false persona makes it easier to say things that one might not say when using one’s real name. The faceless nature of the Internet makes that easier anyway – even when using a real name, I think many people say things to faceless strangers that they would never dream of saying in person. Accountability online is certainly a different animal than it is with print media, or with television or radio journalism. This is still in many ways the wild, Wild West, and I think one probably has to work a bit harder in the blogging arena to build up a reputation and to build trust among one’s readership. Once you’ve built up that trust, it doesn’t matter if you’re using a pseudonym or not – you maintain integrity the same way you would if you were using your real name, by doing your homework and being honest.
Blogcritics has grown exponentially over the past three years from a small fringe Internet outpost to a relatively decent size media outlet. Tell me about some of the key inflection points in this journey – as you see them.
Certainly, the biggest change was when we went from a self-publishing site where anyone could publish just about anything they wanted to, to what we have in place right now, where every piece that’s published has been edited. We work very closely with our writers to make sure that we publish polished and well-written pieces while still retaining that which makes us unique, which is our multitude of voices. Our strength has been our continued refusal to homogenize what we do – writers find it easy to feel at home here because we don’t have an editorial “voice†in any of our content areas – we ask our writers to be excellent, but other than that, we ask them to be themselves. I am not sure there are many places with a readership as big as ours that can offer that.
Blogcritics is trying to create the norms of running a media organization on the fly. The key policy decisions – open commenting, open attitude towards accepting new writers, etc. – tell me about the behind the scenes struggle that has gone on around them and the kind of ethical questions that you have had to deal with to come to this place.
We’ve certainly had our share of policy discussions about the open comments policy. As is the case with every site that allows open comments, we get our fair share of flakes and cranks and just plain ugliness. We have yet to come to the point where we squelch that in favor of having more civil conversations, and I think that’s another area where we’re unique. We do have a comments editor who applies our very liberal comments policy with a very gentle hand, and I think that’s about all the control we’re going to have on that for a while. Our open attitude toward accepting new writers seems to work very nicely now that we have editors in place. People are either excited about the challenges and take advantage of the opportunity, or they leave because they don’t make the cut or they don’t want to put in the work. In either case, that works to our advantage, and it’s raised the level of our writing tremendously. BC’s growth has been a really organic process, at least from my vantage point. There have been growing pains to be sure, but we move past them pretty quickly.
Perhaps this current place is not the final resting place of this ongoing change. Tell me about your vision of blogcritics.org for the future?
That’s a great question. I wish I had a crystal ball. The quality of what we publish just keeps improving – we’re attracting some really amazing writers, and the section editors are continually working to shape coverage and come up with new ideas. I envision us getting bigger and better.
What kind of policy decisions do you think are integral to how you see BC? As in what kind of policies can you not see BC without, if any?
Well, I think we’ve set some editorial standards over the past couple of years in terms of what we will and will not publish (in terms of quality, not content). I can’t see us without those any more – we’ve really raised the bar, and the writers have really risen to the challenge. This is part of the process by which we become accountable.
How do you look at the role of a Critic? Is there merit in everybody being a critic kind of model? It certainly seems like a competitive market of ideas. What do you see are the positives and negatives of blogosphere?
Well, it depends on what you’re looking for, I think. The blogosphere has certainly democratized the whole process of criticism, which isn’t to say that everything everyone writes is good, or even worth reading. Sometimes you want to stand around the office water cooler and talk with your friends about the film you saw this weekend, and the blogosphere can certainly provide you with that, and sometimes you want an informed opinion about something, which is what real criticism entails. I think one of the neat things about BC is that we provide both; we have some very enthusiastic reviewers who can give you a very entertaining man-in-the-street opinion about something, but they aren’t necessarily approaching it from an academic point of view, and we have other writers who are incredibly well-informed, educated, and knowledgeable about their area of expertise, and they offer a very different perspective. The challenge and the beauty of the blogosphere, in general, is that the reader needs to learn to separate the wheat from the chaff. In general, we may need to wade through more stuff, but in the end, I think it sharpens our powers of discrimination and makes us better consumers.
Blogosphere is widely credited with making mainstream media more accountable. Do you see that as its job? If not, then what do you see are the roles of the blogosphere?
I don’t think it’s the blogosphere’s job to hold the mainstream media accountable. I think that’s our job as citizens, and we’re failing at it miserably. We have the media we deserve. The roles of the blogosphere are as varied as the folks who populate it; I don’t think it has a defined role or is “supposed” to be one thing or another. It’s a tool, a means of communication, a marketplace of ideas, of commerce, of social interaction – it’s a way of organizing, presenting, and retrieving information. It’s a lot of things to a lot of people, and it’s continually evolving. It is whatever we want it to be at any given moment.
It seems blogosphere itself is going under reorganization – as media companies poach top bloggers and buy more electronic media assets. Do you see a more corporatized blogosphere in a few years time?
As soon as people figure out that there’s money to be made somewhere, things change. Certainly, that’s happened in the blogosphere, but a lot of the people who are Internet entrepreneurs are also in the business of putting the tools of production and commerce into the hands of the end users. That’s us, and that’s a good thing. I think the business models we used to have changed, and are continuing to change. Since I have no business background at all, I wouldn’t even want to hazard a guess as to how this is going to look in five or ten years’ time. If you told anyone twenty years ago what we’d be doing online now, they wouldn’t have believed it.
Selected Ethnography of Marketing in India
Posted on April 7, 2007 November 16, 2017 Author editor
Biscuits (cookies) in India are marketed for their glucose shakti (power), bathing soaps for their ability to get rid of germs, hair oil for its efficaciousness in keeping the lice away, and a “fair and lovely” cream for its eponymous abilities (fair=lovely). We have popular biscuits made by Britannia, a popular red tooth-powder that leaves chalky marks on your teeth and turns your spittle red, neem (mainly known for anti-bacterial properties) soaps and toothpastes, a farmer (kissan) brand ketchup, Brooke Bond tea (after English tea retailer), clinic shampoo, kwality ice-cream, and prickly heat powders. We have multiple competing mosquito repellents including the popular “tortoise” mosquito coil and ‘good knight.’ We have ads showing joint families cheerfully celebrate and lighting fire-crackers and earthen lanterns after getting their houses painted with Asian paints, or buying a Maruti car, or for that matter a Chetak (after the horse of Rana Pratap Singh) or a Hero-Honda. Our movie studios often have introductory banners that are full of religious signage.
India is a poor country. It is a post-colonial country. We are as nostalgic about British era quality as we are about the merits of herbal remedies; though popular herbal concoctions like Chyavanprash contain mainly sugar.
India came of age, the IT age that is, celebrating its kissans (farmers) and jawans (soldiers). India entered the age of economic liberalization with its own baggage of history – colonialism, and its familial structures, religion, and government propaganda. The specificity of ads, the perversities of the pitches, all are merely scavenging over the body of this skewed, troubled body politic.
I grew up in this strange India. I grew up drawing my houses with slanted tiled roofs even though I lived in Delhi which only had flat-roofed houses. I drew spare free-standing houses, in the middle of nowhere, with a long winding walkway and green brushes even though I had never seen such houses while growing up. I drew colonial beauty — the mimesis of colonial aesthetics in India is deep and resonant. I grew up in a household where both of my parents were government “servants.”
Commercial advertisement traditions in the country are still cognizant of India’s deep poverty – they focus on the practical and not merely the aspirational though that is rapidly changing. I suppose as the economy grows the ratio of practical pitches to aspirational pitches increases. It is an artificial line – the line between practical and aspirational- and a line that blurs often, but a line nonetheless. The fact remains (for now) that most Indians haven’t reached a level of material comfort where each additional major or minor purchase isn’t looked on as something that materially and significantly improves comfort.
India in some sense is a prime market for marketers, except of course for its soul-sapping poverty. Indians, ever aware of the social position and with brains hardwired to equate price with quality, are almost always willing to buy something costlier that shows better taste or portends better quality. Of course, their instincts are roped in by positive social perception about buying something for a “good value”. There is little doubt in my mind that the most successful advertisements will make both pitches. Similarly, the most successful advertisements would also pitch to both its modern commercial aspirational soul, and its traditional religious soul.
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Category: Culture
CultureListsNewsStudent contributions
Top 7 Leftie Films
Christian McLaughlanApr 26, 2017
Capitalism: A Love Story (2009)
This film attempts to blame’s America’s social problems on capitalism. Moore focuses on families who are having their homes repossessed following the mortgage crises during the Global Financial Crisis but fails to explain the link between the relaxation of collateral rules in the US and the eventual crisis in mortgage defaults which followed. To add insult to injury the film fails to even have some humorous moments that were frequent in his previous films.
Che (2008)
This four-and-a-half-hour long biopic about the notorious central American guerrilla revolutionary Che Guevara glorifies an individual who was responsible for murderous violence. The left loves to idolize Che, finding in him some deluded idea which resonates with their modern day socialist thought bubbles. Che only tolerated his own interpretation of socialism and the consequences for those who disagreed was death. This film fails to give an objective portrayal of Che and thus comes across as a deliberate attempt to patch up the fallings of socialism through creating an artificial hero.
Fahrenheit 9/11 (2004)
Arguably the most controversial of Michael Moore’s projects, this film seeks to legitimize the outrageous conspiracy theory suggesting that the 9/11 Terror attacks were organised by the US Government. Moore used the film as a running commentary for all that he felt was wrong with the George W. Bush Administration, going so far as to criticize Bush for his initial reaction upon hearing of the 9/11 attacks.
An Inconvenient Truth (2006)
This film brought Al Gore back onto the political stage after his failed bid for the US Presidency in 2000. It was enormously successful as a documentary, thanks largely to the free publicity it received from the media. This film takes advantage of people’s emotions by using alarmist forecasts, many of which have since been proven to be false.
Noah (2014)
On face value this should have been a memorable film for the right reasons, a strong cast including Russell Crowe and Emma Watson in a Biblical Epic. The problem was that the film in fact is anything but Biblical. Religious references were entirely removed from the film and replaced with humanist and environmentalist ideologies. Rather than being portrayed as a God-fearing man, Noah is an environmentalist who is saved by God simply because of his green credentials.
The Day After Tomorrow (2004)
The characters playing the President and Vice-President of the United States look strikingly like President George W. bush and Vice-President Dick Cheney. Bush and Cheney of course are climate change sceptics as their cinematic counterparts. In the film, the President is killed and while the Vice President is humbled into having to accept the consequences of our actions. To add insult to injury the Americans are forced to accept sanctuary in Mexico. This film is yet another example of the doomsday scare campaign surrounding the climate change debate.
The Lorax (2012)
Based on a Dr Seuss’s children’s novel, the Lorax focuses on a protagonist who grew up in an artificial world devoid of any form of trees due to them producing oxygen free of charge and consequently destroyed by the antagonist who is portrayed as a businessman. Such portrayal of logging and free enterprise is inaccurate, given that businesses do not advocate charging for oxygen and the fact that loggers plant more trees than they cut down.
CultureListsPoliticsStudent contributions
Top 7 Australian Political Gaffes
Policy making is serious business, but sometimes we’re allowed a few laughs at our politicians. Here are 7 cringeworthy moments from Australia’s politicians that we just don’t want to forget.
Sharni Cutujar 00
CultureEducationHighlightLists
7 Best Quotes About Freedom
“Freedom has cost too much blood and agony to be relinquished at the cheap price of rhetoric” Thomas Sowell The author of more than 40 books on history, economics and sociology, Thomas Sowell...
John Slater 00
CultureNews
Top 7 Memes
CultureEducationHighlightNewsOpinionPolitics
The New Iconoclasm
Two anniversaries that fall in October, both important for lovers of western civilisation, highlight the new iconoclasm at the heart of modern western progressives.
Bella d'Abrera 00
CultureOpinion
Degas- The impressionist who rejected impressionism
The National Gallery of Victoria’s exhibition Degas: A New Vision, is the most comprehensive collection of the works by the French painter and sculptor, Edgar Degas(1834-1917) since 1988.
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13th Vermont Infantry Regimental Monument
Bronze sculpture by sculptor Frederick Moynihan
Located on Hancock Avenue south and east of the Highwater Memorial
Dedicated October 19, 1899
Total Cost: $3700.00
Bronze work cast by Gorham Mfg. Providence Rhode Island.
Granite work from Barre, Vermont.
The sculptor of the 13th Vermont monument, Frederick Moynihan was born on the Isle of Guernsey in 1843. Moynihan studied at the Royal Academy of Arts in London before immigrating to the United States. His studio at the time he sculpted the figure of Brown was located at 145 West 55th Street, New York, New York. The vast amount of Moynihan's works are Civil War monuments including 3 works at Gettysburg.
When one reviews the bronze statue of Lieut. Brown it is one of the few monuments that depict and actual occurrence during the battle. As the northern army was rapidly moving towards Gettysburg orders were issued that the men not stop or leave the column of march for any supplies or water. Observing that his men were suffering due to the lack of water, Lieut. Brown would leave the column to gather water. Approaching a guarded well, Brown would supply the sentry his name, rank and regiment and then fill canteens for his men. Upon hearing of this event and the disobeying of an order Lieut. Brown would be placed under arrest and his sword (an officer's symbol of authority) would be taken from him. Brown would be allowed to remain with his men as they march northward. The pending battle taking precedence over his military court review.
Lieut. Stephen Brown
Leut. Brown will serve with the 13th Vermont during the fighting of July 2nd. On July 3rd Brown would learn that the charges against him were dismissed. As the 13th Vermont was called into action to stop Pickett's Division and not having access to his sword, Brown will enter the battle carrying a simple camp hatchet.
During the fighting on July 3rd, Brown will capture a southern officer (supposedly a Virginian in Pickett's Division) and take his sword. See my Vermont Monument Georgia Belt Mystery page.
The Vermont Monument Committee had requested a bronze statue of Brown holding the hatchet in his right hand, up as if he were ready to strike. The Commissioners of the Gettysburg Military Park (GMP) by a letter dated June 7, 1898 denied the request. The Commissioners indicated that "the hatchet incident is not important or remarkable enough to be the subject of a monumental inscription. On the contrary the carrying of the hatchet by the officer was because he had been deprived of his true military weapon, his sword, as a punishment for a serious military offense."
The Vermont Committee would responded with a 13 page defense of the reasons behind their design. However, the Commissioners of the GMP had made their decision. That decision is now displayed in bronze atop the 13th Vermont Infantry monument.
The hatchet would rest on the base of the memorial as Brown holds the captured Confederate belt and sword.
Click on the link below to find the location of this monument on the battlefield.
https://www.google.com/maps/d/edit?hl=en&hl=en&mid=1kKOVub-Ui9tHP0UNaGaj1jY2na8Hj7rU&ll=39.80963090133415%2C-77.23645633666137&z=19
The final design of the monument included the hatchet resting to the right of Brown's feet.
There are 4 bronze tablets affixed to the lower pedestal of the monument giving details of the regiment at Gettysburg as well as the Lieut. Brown event.
Brown has a firm grasp of his captured Confederate sword. Note the holes in the scabbard rings where the original bronze belt hung.
Brown wears the standard infantry line officers uniform. A single row of buttons along the front of the coat with shoulder epaulettes of a 2nd Lieut.
The bronze statue as well as the bronze tablets are marked having been cast by the Gorham Foundry.
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Evangelist Daniel Whyte III
Daniel Whyte III
Daniel Whyte III has spoken in meetings across the United States and in over twenty-five foreign countries. He is the author of over forty books. He is also the president of Gospel Light Society International, a worldwide evangelistic ministry that reaches thousands with the Gospel each week, as well as president of Torch Ministries International, a Christian literature ministry which publishes a monthly magazine called The Torch Leader.
He is heard by thousands each week on his radio broadcasts and podcasts, The Prayer Motivator Devotional, The Prayer Motivator Minute, as well as Gospel Light Minute X, the Gospel Light Minute, the Sunday Evening Evangelistic Message, the Prophet Daniel’s Report, the Second Coming Watch Update, The History of Christianity, The Reasons to Believe, Understanding God’s Great Salvation, and the Covenant and the Cross.
He holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Theology from Bethany Divinity College, a Bachelor’s degree in Religion from Texas Wesleyan University, a Master’s degree in Religion, a Master of Divinity degree, and a Master of Theology degree from Liberty Baptist Theological Seminary. He has been married to the former Meriqua Althea Dixon, of Christiana, Jamaica for twenty-six years. God has blessed their union with seven children.
Website: www.danielwhyte3.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/dwhyteiii
Twitter: @prophetdaniel3
His Personal Testimony:
Evangelist Daniel Whyte III was born into a very religious family. He was brought up in the church, and on occasions he took part in the church activities. As Daniel got older, he adopted a life of fast living, drinking, rock music, and partying. While he increased in his life of sin and degradation, he developed a deep hatred for religion and preachers, including his own father. His hatred grew to the point that he had vowed to many of his close friends that he would never be a preacher.
At the tender age of seventeen, Daniel left home and started working as a trainer for a restaurant chain across the states of North Carolina and northern South Carolina. During this time, his life of wickedness and rebellion intensified. Daniel Whyte was on the broad road to a devil’s hell. But by the gracious providence of God, he was led to sign up to join the United States Air Force. He signed up on August 15, 1979, just a month before he turned nineteen years old.
At that time, Daniel Whyte did not know what was happening in his life, for he planned to continue in his sin. But after three and a half months of the Lord dealing with his hard heart, one cool Wednesday evening, around 8:30 PM, December 19, 1979, a young man, by the name of Michael Lewis, came to his dorm room and showed him the “Romans Road” to salvation from the book of Romans in the Bible. Sad, but true, this was the first time Daniel Whyte had heard a clear, understandable presentation of the Gospel, even though he was raised in the church.
On that memorable night, December 19, 1979, Daniel Whyte received the Lord Jesus Christ into his heart, and was marvelously Born-again. Three days later, he was on the street corners of New Orleans in the rain and cold, preaching the glorious Gospel that had just saved him, and he hasn’t stopped since. He has gone on to travel and preach in 43 states and in the following countries: Germany, Spain, England, Belgium, France, Italy, Japan, Russia, Virgin Islands, Jamaica, Antigua, Puerto Rico, St. Kitts, Ghana, Nigeria, the Philippines, Mexico, Netherlands, Korea, Malta, Togo, and Benin. Through his ministry, there have been thousands of professions of faith. TO GOD BE THE GLORY!
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Bath, Somerset, England
The Royal Crescent
The Beehive Inn
The Beehive Inn is situated on Lansdown Road, although Playfair states it is on Belvedere Road. This can be explained by the proximity to the Belvedere Villas at this location.
The building dates from the 18th century and started as a dwelling, later becoming an inn. Current Street Views from Google seem to show that the premises is now a private dwelling once again.
The apparition sighted at the premises whilst it was an inn has been seen by a number of witnesses, who describe a middle-aged lady dressed in a servants uniform of white apron, cap and shoes. She has been named 'Bunty'. Objects have moved and doors open and close on their own.
Pictured left is is a view of Lansdown Road courtesy of Alex McGregor.
For further information, please read The Haunted Pub Guide by Guy Lyon Playfair.
The Christopher Hotel (now All Bar One)
The Christopher Hotel was situated on High Street, but is now occupied by bar and restuarant called All Bar One.
According to Playfair, when it was an hotel, there was a bedroom here which a number of guests asked to moved from. There are reports of some people experiencing an uncomfortable "creepy feeling". It is not known if there any reports of phenomena at the premises today.
Pictured left is All Bar One from our visit.
All Bar One,
11-12 High Street,
BA1 5AQ.
www.allbarone.co.uk
The Crystal Palace
In 1654, The Crystal Palace was known as the Three Tuns Lodging House. It changed its name in the 1850's, as a way of commemorating the Great Exhibition held at The Crystal Palace in London. In 1981, the landlord at the time uncovered several skeletons and a Roman mosaic in the cellar.
The pub is reputedly haunted by the cowled figure of a monk, and it has been reported by a number of landlords.
Pictured left is the Crystal Palace from our visit.
The Crystal Palace,
10-11 Abbey Street,
BA1 1NW.
www.crystalpalacepub.co.uk
The Garrick's Head
The Garrick's Head pub was once the home of the infamous Beau Nash.
Whether it is his shadowy form of a "Regency rake" that has been reported near the entrance is not known.
The pub is also haunted by a grey lady. In life it is said that she fell in love with an actor. When her husband discovered the affair, he killed the actor in a duel. This drove the woman to commit suicide by either hanging or throwing herself from one of the windows.
Other reported incidents include a strong scented smell reported in the cellar, objects have been moved and electrical items have been switched off.
Pictured left is the Garrick's Head from our visit.
The Garrick's Head,
7-8 St. Johns Place,
BA1 1ET.
www.garricksheadpub.com
For further information, please read Haunted Britain by Antony D. Hippisley Coxe; The Haunted Pub Guide by Guy Lyon Playfair and Britain's Haunted Heritage by JA Brooks.
The Theatre Royal
The Theatre Royal is haunted by a grey lady, whom some have suggested is the same one connected tothe Garrick's Head next door.
The apparition has been reported occupying one of the boxes.
Pictured left is the Theatre Royal from our visit.
The Theatre Royal,
Saw Close,
www.theatreroyal.org.uk
For further information, please read Haunted Britain by Antony D. Hippisley Coxe and Britain's Haunted Heritage by JA Brooks.
Bath is a city in the county of Somerset, England.
It is known for its Roman-built baths.
Bath is in the valley of the River Avon, 97 miles west of London and 11 miles south-east of Bristol. The city became a World Heritage Site in 1987.
Pictured left is a view of the Royal Crescent courtesy of Adrian Pingstone. Licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons.
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Taunton, Somerset, England
Taunton Castle
Hammett’s Walk
Hammett’s Walk is located between St. George’s Church in Wilton to the area of the Wilton stream in the vicinity of Upper High Street. It is said to be haunted by a ghost with green hair, although the identity is unknown.
For further information, please read Haunted Britain by Antony D. Hippisley Coxe.
The grounds of the castle are said to be haunted by the sounds of tramping feet, which some have attributed to the Duke of Monmouth’s men and their captors. The notoriously “loathsome” Bloody Judge Jeffreys tried them here. On the landing, an apparition in “Caroline dress, booted, bewigged and gauntleted, with a sword by his side and a pistol in his hand” has been witnessed. The Great Hall is now a museum, but was once the scene of what has been regarded by some as “the bloodiest assizes of all”. This is perhaps why some have experienced ghostly phenomena that include being clutched by unseen hands, poltergeist-like activity, and the apparition of a “fair-haired young woman in seventeenth century dress”. Audible phenomena include footsteps and music.
For further information, please read Haunted Britain by Antony D. Hippisley Coxe and Haunted Castles of Britain and Ireland by Richard Jones.
The Castle Hotel
The fabric of the Castle Hotel includes part of Taunton Castle, and was once used by Judge Jeffreys as his accommodation during the trails following the Duke of Monmouth's rebellion in 1685. His wraith has been sighted both in the hotel and around town - “gnawing on a large meat bone”! A room called the ‘Fiddler’s Room’ is just one of the locations where ethereal violin music has been heard. The apparition has been reported as wearing evening dress from the early 20th century.
The Tudor Tavern
The Tudor Tavern dates from 1578 and has been designated as a Grade I listed building. It has an overhanging 3 storey timbered front with a high red tiled roof. Behind the late 16th century front is a late medieval hall with an open trussed roof and arched braces. A room bearing the unenviable name of ‘Judge Jeffreys Room’ at The Tudor Tavern is reputedly haunted, and an interesting picture was purportedly taken here on 15th October 1959 that was later published in The Field. However, Coxe in Haunted Britain, does not state what the picture was of!
Taunton is the county town of Somerset, England.
Taunton lies on the River Tone between the Quantock, Blackdown and Brendon hills in an area known as the Vale of Taunton.
Pictured left is Taunton Castle courtesy of Crjeanes. Licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons.
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You are here: Home / Electronic Health Records / Study gives health app developers a lesson on e-health security
Study gives health app developers a lesson on e-health security
March 30, 2015 by Bryant Storm
Health applications are not well protected, and the problem originates at the design. With over 100,000 health applications on the market and an industry worth billions of dollars at stake, researchers at the University of Valladolid in Spain conducted a study reviewing health app information security and made recommendations to aid developers in protecting valuable and sensitive data. According to an article from Plataforma SINC, the risks associated with lax security are greater than theft. In some cases, weak protection of data can put the life of an app user on the line.
The study, which was published in the Journal of Medical Systems, highlights the primary risk of health apps as being that “someone can hack into the personal medical information of another individual or, even worse, modify it.” It is the modification of health data that strays from traditional concerns about electronic health records (EHR), Health Information Technology (HIT), and medical data security. The study illustrates the risk by describing a hypothetical scenario where a third party accesses information stored by a health app and changes patient information. For example, the authors warn, a third party could delete information about a patient’s allergy to a certain medication, thereby putting the patient/app user at risk.
Of course, health information is also valuable and therefore always at risk of theft as a result of its economic worth. The Anthem Inc. security breach in February 2015 revealed the stakes of health data security, when 80 million patients had their personal health information compromised in what may have been the largest health care related data breach in history. The researchers caution that apps are not exempt from such a fate.
Holes in the web
The researchers suggest that part of the problem is that the professionals and patients who utilize health apps are not well informed about the nature of the systems they are using. Many patients operate under a misconception that data in a health app is secure, and others are uninterested in even considering the security of the information. The analysis suggests that the problem might be, in part, a legal or regulatory one. Borja Martínez, researcher in the Telemedicine and eHealth Group at the University of Valladolid, told SINC that one solution would be international laws to require monitoring of the growing network of health apps. The review criticizes the age of the dominant health security laws: the EU Data Protection Directive (95/46/EC) and the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) (P.L. 104-191), which date to 1995 and 1996, respectively.
The thesis of the University of Valladolid review is that adequate data protection can be achieved if developers analyze the types of data utilized by a particular app and then develop appropriate data and security measures within the app to shield that information from vulnerabilities. For example, if a particular health app does not deal with patient information, then patient-related security concerns do not arise for that app developer. Part of the problem is the haste with which apps are designed and launched. The review recommends that developers consider privacy and security long before their apps hit the market.
The study includes several recommendations for developers on issues related to: user access control, identity authentication, encryption, privacy policies, data transfer, data retention, communication with sensors used in the body, and alerts for security lapses. The stakes are high, and regulatory agencies have taken notice. For example, in November 2014, the L.A. Times reported that Apple was in talks with the Federal Trade Commission related to security issues surrounding the company’s HealthKit platform—a product that comes installed on Apple’s iPhones. As apps become more prevalent, the security issues grow alongside. While there isn’t a one-size-fits-all solution, the recommendation made by the University of Valladolid’s researchers serves as a starting place for developers.
Hearing asks experts how to HIT health care into the future
Health care hacks on the horizon for 2015
Security Risk Assessment Tool Eases Providers’ HIPAA Compliance
Filed Under: Electronic Health Records, Federal Trade Commission, Health Care Compliance, News
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Government challenges Scotland’s ‘cyber savvy’ women of the future
by Will Peakin/ December 10, 2018/ Education, News, Society/ No Comments/
‘Cyber savvy’ girls in Scotland have been challenged by the Government to pit their digital wits against one another in a nationwide problem-solving and code cracking GCHQ competition.
Organised by the National Cyber Security Centre, which was created by the Government in 2016 to boost skills and the UK’s cyber resilience, the annual CyberFirst Girls competition is designed to develop and nurture the next generation of cyber skilled professionals.
Woman currently only make up 11% of the global cyber workforce, but by sparking a life-long interest in the girls who take part, and tapping into new talent, this could ultimately turn into more careers in cyber security, helping to make the UK one of the safest places to live and do work online.
John Swinney, Deputy First Minister and Cabinet Secretary for Education and Skills, said:“The digital sector is becoming increasingly significant in all aspects of our lives so it is only right that its workforce is representative of society. That is why initiatives like this, the Cyber First Girls Competition, are so important.
“I am delighted that the competition, designed to encourage more girls into cyber security, will be held in Edinburgh further reinforcing Scotland’s reputation as a cyber resilient nation.
“I wish everyone taking part the best of luck and hope more young women in Scotland consider a career in cyber security as a result.”
Margot James, the UK Government Digital Minister, added: “We want to show girls across the country that cyber security is exciting, rewarding and challenging.
“The CyberFirst Girls competition will help inspire the workforce of the future and also show girls that whatever their background or interest, a career in cyber security is fulfilling.
“It’s been a fantastic success so far and I hope thousands more will take part this year.”
Over the past two years 12,500 female pupils in schools across the UK have participated in the annual CyberFirst Girls competition to crown the UK’s most cyber-capable young women. In the 2018 competition, ten schools from Scotland were in the top 100 schools.
Open to girls in S2 in Scotland (12-13yrs of age), participants can enter in teams of up to four, along with a teacher/school mentor who will act as a guardian. The competition has two stages – a week long online phase in January and a finals day in March 2019.
The first, online phase of this year’s competition, which launches today, will see each team attempt to complete a series of challenges split into four categories: cryptography, cyber security, logic and coding and networking. The top 10 teams will compete in a face-to-face Grand Final in Edinburgh in March 2019.
Chris Ensor, NCSC Deputy Director for Skills and Growth, said: “Over the last two years an amazing 12,500 young girls have tackled our CyberFirst Girls competition. The third edition will be bigger and better than ever, and we hope a new set of entrants are queuing up to take the challenge.
“Women are still only a small proportion of the global cyber work-force and engaging with and inspiring the next generation is key to addressing the current cyber skills gap.
“Good luck to those taking part – Scotland, your challenge awaits!”
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Valparaiso Family YMCA
Four Winds Casinos
Porterfield Family Chiropractic
Center of Workforce Innovations
Nora Jane Struthers & the Party Line Charms the Memorial Opera House
Written by: Anna Hanson — Jan. 29th 2016
The start of Imagine Music Productions, LLC.’s 2016 concert series got a joyful kick off with Nora Jane Struthers & the Party Line on Thursday night at Valparaiso’s Memorial Opera House. Struthers, her band, and opener Nicole Jamrose delivered a worthy show to start off the year. With an intimate crowd, abundance of audience interaction, and two acts with incredible talent it was a show that was not one to be missed.
As all Imagine Music shows start out, the audience who attended the show created a buzz of anticipation for the night’s act. Many who attended the night’s show were there for either of the two acts, but there were also a few who were unfamiliar with the artists that were going to take the stage. That didn’t stop those people from expecting a great concert and one that would leave an impression on them for some time to come. Tod Gazdich was one who came to the show without much knowledge of the acts, but were confident that they’d enjoy the night regardless.
“We’ve come to a lot of Imagine Music shows, and are always impressed with the acts that take the stage. I don’t think that Nora Jane Struthers will change that.” Gazdich stated. “It’s great to have these concerts here in town. We’re expecting tonight to be another great night to add to the list.”
Though not all Imagine Music concerts have an opening act, Thursday’s opener was an artist - according to Imagine Music’s Rob Harkle “should’ve played a long time ago” - that fit the bill and is one that’s well known throughout the region: Nicole Jamrose. Jamrose, who has played the Opera House before, stated the ability to play at a theater is a welcome chance to play her original work - whether she was nervous about it or not.
View More Photos In This Gallery
Click here to see more photos from the concert
“I’m a little nervous to play tonight, but what helps me is that the Opera House is still in my home region, my home town - it’s still my comfort zone. It’s like a security blanket knowing that when I look around I’ll see a few familiar faces, so it’s a welcoming crowd.” Jamrose stated. “What’s also nice about playing at this theater, any theatre in general, is that it lets people sit down and listen - as compared to a bar where we play and we’re usually an afterthought. Playing here allows us to play some original work, which we usually push aside in order to keep people on the dancefloor where we play. It’s nice to play people what we produce.”
Eventually Jamrose played a set full of her work, and a few covers as well, with delight to the people who were giving her their rapt attention. Shortly after the headliners took the stage, and certainly won over everyone’s expectations. Nora Jane Struthers & the Party Line played a full gamut of their new work - a divulge into rock - and some in Nora Jane’s older catalogue of the springy folk and bluegrass that she established herself with. Struthers wasn’t just at the forefront of the show, she also had incredibly talented musicians that showcased what they had to offer. With an extended version of ‘Skillet Blues’ the “Party Line” plowed through their own solos that impressed their audience. The band also took a moment to walk off stage, stand in front of the crowd, and encouraged them to sing along - which they did, even if Struthers said that they “sound a bit frightened”. There were multiple duets from Struthers and her multi-instrumentalist Joe Overton, and Overton also took the mic to play some of his own work. The palpable fun energy allowed the show to be one that didn’t falter for a second.
Overall it was easy to see that Struthers gave the audience a warm reception by taking the time to joke, tell a story or two, and allowing them to be a big part of the show. Just as much as the audience welcomed her, she welcomed them right back.
“It’s good to play in a town that really knows what it cares about. As I was walking around and talking to a few I’ve come to realize that people really do care about this town, the arts, and this beautiful theatre.” Struthers stated. “It’s special to play in a place that puts that much value into the place they live in.”
With this year’s Imagine Music concert series off to a great start, it’s with high anticipation on what the rest of them will bring. Tickets are still available for all of the upcoming shows. They won’t be something to miss.
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MegaBeatles Sing the Classics of Abbey Road to Kick Off 2019 Season at Memorial Opera House
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You are here Home News Latest News French researchers awarded Nobel Prize for Medicine for 2008
French researchers awarded Nobel Prize for Medicine for 2008
A moment of National Pride indeed for the French.
Françoise Barré-Sinoussi & Luc Montagnier jointly share the Nobel Prize for Medicine for the year 2008. They have been awarded this highest honour for their contribution in discovering HIV (Human Immunodeficiency Virus) that causes AIDS.
They share half of their award with Dr. Harald zur Hausen of Germany for his discovery of the HPV (Human Papilloma Virus) that causes cervical cancer.
Dr. Barré-Sinoussi & Dr. Montagnier discovered the HIV at the Pasteur Institute in Paris in 1983. Both the awardees addressed the Noble Assembly at Karolinska Institute in Stockholm on Dec 7th 2008. They were introduced by Professor Björn Vennström, Member of the Nobel Committee for Physiology or Medicine.
The award money close to 1.4 Mn USD will be split between the three.
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Why biodiversity matters
Mass murderer
In 1845, Belgian farmers discovered, too late, that a load of seed potatoes they had bought from America was contaminated with Phytophthora infestans, a Mexican fungus that had recently spread northwards. The blight caused by P. infestans rapidly spread from Belgium all over the continent, triggering the European potato famine. In Ireland, 1 million people out of a population of 8 million died of starvation and its side-effects, and another million emigrated. Social, economic and political reasons help explain why the country was so badly affected, but the main cause was that a third of the population was entirely dependent on the potato for food.
The Irish famine is a stark lesson in what happens when monoculture goes wrong, and why the resilience biodiversity brings is important to agriculture. But as we celebrate International Biodiversity Day, the outlook is not very encouraging. Around 12% of birds, 25% of mammals, and at least 32% of amphibians are threatened with extinction over the next century. Humans may have increased the rate of global extinctions by up to 1000 times the “natural” rate typical of Earth’s long-term history.
Plants used for food have been hard hit. Although humans ate around 10,000 plant species in the past, today’s diet is based on just over 100 plant species, a dozen of which represent 80% of human consumption, and four of which (rice, wheat, maize and potatoes) provide more than half of our energy requirements.
China has lost 90% of the wheat varieties it had 60 years ago. The US has lost over 90% of the fruit tree and vegetable varieties it had at the start of the 20th century. Mexico has lost 80% of its corn varieties, India 90% of its rice varieties. In Spain, the number of melon varieties has gone down from nearly 400 in the early 1970s to a dozen.
Biodiversity in itself is not the key to the production, recycling and other services ecosystems provide. What matters is the abundance of the species that are critical in maintaining habitat stability and providing those services. At a local scale, the loss of a species may have an adverse impact on ecosystem services, even if that species is not threatened globally.
In OECD countries agricultural land is a major primary habitat for certain populations of wild species, particularly certain species of birds and insects, in particular butterflies. For nearly all OECD countries, agricultural land area has decreased since the 1990s. Farmland has been converted to use for forestry and urban development, with much smaller areas converted to wetlands and other land uses. While little quantitative information about the biodiversity implications of converting farmland to forestry is available, the high rates of clearance of native vegetation for agricultural use in some countries are damaging biodiversity.
Biodiversity loss can have significant economic costs, but often they are indirect and longer term, while the benefits of the action that causes the loss are more immediate and measurable. For example, clearing mangroves to make room for shrimp farms raises incomes, but mangroves are important natural coastal defences, and the new farms, and the land behind them, are then exposed to destructive flooding that climate change could make even worse.
Most ecosystem services are externalities, meaning their benefits are not bought and sold commercially. This makes it hard to use market mechanisms to protect biodiversity, and governments have to take the lead. Most OECD countries and many others have implemented conservation programmes designed to protect and enhance the populations of endangered livestock breeds, and the number of breeds included under these programmes is increasing. Greater efforts are underway to conserve plant genetic resources useful for crop improvement.
There are also some multilateral initiatives to address biodiversity issues, including the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture, also known as the International Seed Treaty. This is a comprehensive international agreement in harmony with Convention on Biological Diversity, designed to guarantee food security through the conservation, exchange and sustainable use of the world’s plant genetic resources for food and agriculture, as well as the fair and equitable benefit sharing arising from its use.
Could a tragedy similar to the Irish famine happen again? Traditional threats to crop production are either acute and of relatively short duration, such as extreme weather events. Chronic threats such as desertification or urban sprawl develop slowly. Strategies for dealing with these exist or are being developed. However, a new disease affecting a major food crop (such as rice), that appeared suddenly, spread easily and resisted known treatments could pose a serious threat if it persisted over a few growing seasons. New viruses and other pathogens appear all the time spontaneously. The vast majority of them die out immediately. Occasionally though, a strain that may have been around for centuries mutates and takes advantage of present day conditions. This is probably what HIV did, and as we discussed last week, recent years have seen the sudden emergence of potentially catastrophic viruses.
Lack of alternatives to infected species and the high mobility of people and goods enabled the 19th century potato blight to spread, and both of these factors are much stronger today.
Economics and policies for biodiversity: OECD’s response
Biodiversity Chapter of the OECD Environmental Outlook to 2050: The Consequences of Inaction “Globally, terrestrial biodiversity(measured as mean species abundance – or MSA – an indicator of the intactness of a natural ecosystem) is projected to decrease a further 10% by 2050.”
Environmental journalist Simran Sethi explains what she thinks we all can do to ensure the security and sovereignty of our seed and food:
Tags:biodiversity, environment effects, farming
Patrick Love
3 comments to “Why biodiversity matters”
Luigi Guarino - 25/05/2013 Reply
Great to see the “75% loss of genetic diversity” trope avoided (http://agro.biodiver.se/2010/05/100-sure-that-75-is-incorrect/). But you should perhaps qualify the word “lost”. After all, some of these allegedly lost varieties may well be in genebanks!
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US: Cyberwar turf battle continues
The US Air Force undergoes a re-evaluation, as other agencies vie for the cyberwarfare lead in a government turf war.
By Peter A Buxbaum in Washington, DC for ISN Security Watch (28/08/08)
It seemed rather odd that just as reports were arriving in Washington about the cyberwarfare dimensions of the Russo-Georgian conflict, the US Air Force shut down its Cyber Command operations - at least temporarily.
That does not mean that the US military is giving up on developing cyberwar capabilities, of course. But the US Air Force Cyber Command - although the Air Force has never quite admitted it - was positioning itself to become the key strategic cyberdefense agency, not only within the US Department of Defense, but government-wide.
Officially, Cyber Command, which was set up provisionally last year and was to begin operations on 1 October, is to be the subject of review by the Air Force's new leadership, Acting Secretary of the Air Force Michael Donley and Air Force Chief of Staff General Norton Schwartz. Reading between the lines, it appears the Air Force may have lost, or at least has been set back, in a turf war to dominate US cyberwarfare activities.
The fact that the Air Force recently inaugurated a new leadership is one clue to the jockeying that has been going on behind the scenes. The previous Air Force secretary and chief of staff were both sacked by Secretary of Defense Robert Gates after it was discovered that the Air Force had mishandled nuclear weapons. In another scandal, the Government Accountability Office overturned an Air Force decision on a multi-billion dollar procurement of refueling tankers, saying that the Air Force had acted unlawfully and misleadingly. In response, Gates took the decision away from the Air Force and gave it to one of his deputies.
Given these events of the last several weeks, the other pretenders to the "cybercrown" may have perceived an opportunity to strike. The US Navy, with the encouragement of the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Admiral Mike Mullen, may wish a larger role for itself in cyberwarfare. The Office of the Director of National Intelligence, although not a warfighting entity, may see itself as the most appropriate actor at the national level. It is also possible that Gates wants to keep the domain within his own office.
There is no question that the Air Force will continue cyberoperations, as will the other armed services. The question is whether the Air Force's operations will be confined to its own activities, or whether it will exercise department-wide and national leadership.
"The cybermission is important, and it will go forward for the Air Force," Donley said at a Washington press briefing on 13 August. "The issue is in what context, form and national framework. This is not just about the Air Force. It has to fit with the Strategic Command and the broader national security community, and we're going to make sure all those pieces fit together as we proceed."
In other words, it is the Air Force's cyberwarfare role at the highest level that is in contention. It is likely, then, that the re-evaluation of the Cyber Command will involve not only internal Air Force reflection, but also high-level external scrutiny.
From strategic bombing to strategic warfare
The Cyber Command's position within the US Strategic Command, an overarching department-wide policymaking organization, was important to the Air Force's assertion of a national role in cyberspace. The Cyber Command's inclusion as an operational unit of the Strategic Command carved out a pre-eminent space for the Air Force among the armed services in the cyberwarfare arena. The Navy's NAVNETWARCOM and Army's NETCOM, the cybersecurity agencies within those armed services, were never part of the Strategic Command.
There were also other indications of the Air Force's ambitions in cyberspace. One was a revision of its mission statement last year to add cyberspace to its air and space mission areas. The Air Force also touted its capabilities in television and web advertisements and in a series of presentations conducted by its commander, Major General William Lord.
In recent months, the Air Force has stirred some controversy by taking up the possibility of developing its own offensive and defensive botnet capabilities. (Botnets are groups of compromised computers which are used to launch various kinds of attacks on other systems.)
Colonel Charles Williamson, in a recent article in Armed Forces Journal, advocated the deployment of a such a capability by the Air Force, which could take out offending systems by launching distributed denial of service (DDOS) attacks against them. A DDOS attack involves launching huge volumes of e-mail or other messages, more than the target system can handle, from multiple locations, thus disabling the target.
In yet another recent development, the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) posted an announcement in May which cryptically indicated its desire to develop a "Proactive Botnet Defense Technology." Elsewhere in the announcement, the AFRL indicated it was seeking the capability to infiltrate offending systems, to exfiltrate information undetected and, if necessary, to destroy the system.
For those who supported the Air Force move into cyberspace, all of this made perfect sense.
"The military is thinking more about the non-kinetic effects of warfare," Barry Watts, a senior fellow at Washington's Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments, told ISN Security Watch. "It makes sense to have the guys delivering most of the precision ordnance from the air to have control over both the kinetic and the non-kinetic aspects of the operation."
Cyberwarfare is also consistent with the Air Force's strategic focus, according to James Lewis, an analyst at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington.
"Strategic operations often target infrastructure, including economic infrastructure," Lewis told ISN Security Watch. "Traditionally, the Air Force has carried out strategic bombing. Strategic cyberwarfare could be seen as an extension of that mission."
Air Force overplays its hand?
But the Air Force may have overplayed its hand with its hard charge into cyberspace, provoking a turf war with other armed forces and other government entities. The US military's mission in space is an example of how these turf wars can fester.
"Fifty years later, they are still squabbling over which is the lead service in space," said Lewis.
As in other warfare and intelligence arenas, the involvement of multiple organizations in cyberoperations creates the potential for mission conflicts, giving rise to the argument for an overarching central authority to coordinate policy and activities.
"The National Security Agency may have tapped into a foreign command and control system while the Air Force simultaneously has plans to take it out," Ira Winkler, an author and former NSA analyst, told ISN Security Watch.
"I would love to say there should be an information warfare czar to coordinate these types of activities, but we often find there is not good coordination even at the higher levels."
Lewis agreed there was no substitute for appointing an overall authority "to sit the responsible managers down together to coordinate activities jointly."
It is perhaps with this role in mind that some say that the Office of the Director of National Intelligence was behind the abrupt halt of the Air Force Cyber Command. After all, whichever agency emerges as the cyberspace lead is likely to attract substantial federal budget funding in the coming years.
The decision to put the kibosh on the Cyber Command may have come from Mullen, who advocates a greater role for the Navy in cyberspace.
The Navy's Network Warfare Command and the Space and Naval Warfare Systems Center have led the way in cyberspace, according to Philip Coyle, a senior adviser with the Center for Defense Information, a security policy research group in Washington, and a former assistant secretary of defense. Coyle also speculated that the Air Force's public thrust into cyberspace led to a pushback from which the Cyber Command now suffers.
In all likelihood, the review of the Air Force Cyber Command will result in the continuation of that organization in some form, although with more modest ambitions for national leadership in cyber space. The new Air Force leadership will probably want to tread lightly, lest they suffer the same fate as their predecessors.
Peter Buxbaum, a Washington-based independent journalist, has been writing about defense, security, business and technology for 15 years. His work has appeared in publications such as Fortune, Forbes, Chief Executive, Information Week, Defense Technology International, Homeland Security and Computerworld. His website is www.buxbaum1.com.
Russia-NATO: Return of the great game
16:26 29/ 08/ 2008
MOSCOW. (RIA Novosti military correspondent Ilya Kramnik) - After the breakup of the Soviet Union, many intellectuals in Russia and the West announced "the end of history." It seemed that the United States' complete domination of the world was not disputed by anyone.
The subsequent decade, during which Russia lost its foreign policy positions, and its former satellites and even provinces became U.S. and NATO allies, seemed to have buttressed this idea.
The first signal that the situation could change came on September 11, 2001, when it suddenly transpired that U.S. domination did not guarantee Washington absolute security. Moreover, for the first time since the Soviet Union's collapse, the United States had to bargain in order to guarantee the loyalty of its allies. With the start of the Iraqi conflict, U.S. domination was called into question even more openly, despite obvious successes in the post-Soviet space such as the admission of the Baltic nations into NATO and permission to use bases in Central Asia.
The second half of the first decade of the new century saw a new trend. Russia's consolidation, buoyed by a favorable economic situation and political stabilization, raised the issue of spheres of influence, at least in the post-Soviet space and Eastern Europe. Many analysts saw the series of colored revolutions that spread across the post-Soviet space as the final renunciation of peaceful settlement of disputes between Russia and the West; but this was not true - Russia did not give up attempts to come to terms with pro-American governments.
The issues of missile defense and the Kosovo problem proved the Rubicon of East-West relations. The West demonstratively ignored Russia's position, and this was bound to evoke response. Russia had to face military confrontation and settle disputes in the CIS to its own benefit, without looking to the West.
Almost as soon as Mikheil Saakashvili came to power, many observers began to see Georgia as the most probable arena of an armed conflict with Russia. All the prerequisites for this were in place - Georgia's conflicts with Abkhazia and South Ossetia, the presence of many Russian citizens in these republics, and Tbilisi's open desire to subjugate the rebellious territories.
There is no need to describe the history of the five-day war again. Its main geopolitical result is not the recognition of Abkhazia and South Ossetia but the return of political confrontation between Russia and the West. What could it lead to?
Nobody wants a military solution to the conflict, which could be fatal for the whole world. Both sides will have to prove their cases by political and economic means. Russia's integration into the world economy over the last 15 years has led to a situation where the West cannot inflict serious damage on us without hurting itself as much, if not more.
As a result, Russia's main lobbyists to Western governments are the Western companies, for which a quarrel with the eastern neighbor could be financially ruinous.
Apart from oil and gas, I could recall agreements on the supply of titanium spare parts for the world's biggest aircraft-builders, the Russian market for cars and other hardware, and many other spheres where cessation of economic cooperation will deal substantial damage to Western interests.
And there are political, as well as financial, interests that would be damaged by confrontation with Russia. Space cooperation between Russia and the United States, the air corridor granted by Russia for NATO flights to Afghanistan and some other programs, not as obvious as oil and gas supplies, are too important to be jeopardized over Moscow's recognition of Abkhazia and South Ossetia.
What will global confrontation be like now? It is clear that the point of no return has already been passed. Russia is not prepared to renounce its positions as it did in the 1990s. The West may be indignant, but it will have to face reality - it has become too expensive to risk.
Revision of values is inevitable. The weight categories of the political players will be revised, and many countries which had been seen as subjects will come to be viewed as objects - bargaining chips in a big power game. Their elites will not welcome this change. This is why some East European and Baltic countries quickly expressed their unreserved support for Georgia.
Where will the next round of confrontation take place? It is hard to predict with certainty, but it is likely to be in Ukraine, where not only the destiny of the Black Sea Fleet but also Russia's influence in Eastern Europe is at stake. This round will be bloodless. At any rate, I would like to hope that Ukraine is not going to oust the Black Sea Fleet from the Crimea by force.
However, the propaganda confrontation will be much more intense than in Georgia. A world event is not the one in which 10,000 take part, but the one which is being filmed by 10 TV cameras.
The opinions expressed in this article are the author's and do not necessarily represent those of RIA Novosti.
The `Al-Yamamah Factor' In Musharraf's Ouster
This article appears in the August 29, 2008 issue of Executive Intelligence Review.
by Jeffrey Steinberg
In the days leading up to the forced resignation of Pakistan's President, Gen. Pervez Musharraf, on Aug. 18, a combined British and Saudi delegation was on the scene, to ensure that the embattled head of state would quit. Mark Lyall Grant, director-general of the Political Directorate of the British Foreign and Commonwealth Office, was in Islamabad, along with a delegation of Saudi officials, all demanding Musharraf's departure.
In stark contrast to these Anglo-Saudi manuevers, Lyndon LaRouche issued a dramatic warning, on Aug. 15, about the consequences for Pakistan and the entire region, if Musharraf caved in to the pressure and left office.
"It is precisely because of the 'Al Yamamah' complication that I urge a halt in the drive to remove President Musharraf from power. The Bandar crowd in Saudi Arabia should not be allowed to control the destiny of Pakistan, and that is exactly where we are headed if Musharraf's removal is allowed. There is a serious narco-terrorist factor to deal with, centered around the Taliban and al-Qaeda nexus, which enjoys continuing support from the relevant British and Saudi factions."
"Given half a chance," LaRouche concluded, "they will wreak havoc on the entire region, and that does not serve U.S. or regional interests in the least."
The "Al-Yamamah" complication cited by LaRouche refers to the oil-for-weapons barter deal, first struck between Britain and Saudi Arabia in 1985, which has generated an offshore, off-the-books covert operations slush fund, estimated to be far in excess of $100 billion. Former Saudi Ambassador to the United States Prince Bandar bin-Sultan was one of the key architects of the Al-Yamamah program, and in a 2006 authorized biography, Bandar boasted that the covert funds had been used to bankroll the Afghan mujahideen, out of which both the Taliban and al-Qaeda emerged.
Despite grave warnings from U.S. intelligence circles about the consequences of Musharraf's outster, the Bush White House did absolutely nothing to stop it. In an Aug. 20 statement, LaRouche accused the White House of "another massive act of strategic stupidity." "The Bush White House is absolutely indifferent to the situation on the ground," LaRouche charged. "It is looking more and more like the White House has been outright bought up by the Saudis, judging from some of the policies coming out of Bush and company."
Indeed, one of the most important of the "bad actors" who led the charge against Musharraf is former prime minister Nawaz Sharif. Sharif is known to be bankrolled by the Saudis (he lived in exile in a Saudi palace, after he was removed from power in a military coup led by General Musharraf nine years ago), and to take his cues from Riyadh. He maintains a base of support among the very fundamentalists whom Musharraf had been battling—fundamentalists bankrolled from Saudi Arabia and from other Persian Gulf Arab states.
LaRouche warned: "President Musharraf's regrettable retirement will only make matters worse. And, for that, I hold President Bush and the Bush White House responsible. Any serious American President would have put his foot down, and demanded that the Saudis, and their British allies, stop the interference in the Pakistan situation."
A Russian Voice Concurs
On Aug. 19, a senior Russian television journalist, Mikhail Leontyev, weighed in with a similar assessment of the post-Musharraf situation in South Asia, in a broadcast on Russian Channel One. After his co-anchor reviewed Musharraf's role in cracking down on al-Qaeda and the Taliban, and in suppressing other radical Islamists, Leontyev added, "Musharraf was the only leader who could maintain stability in an extremely complex country like Pakistan, restrain radical Islamists, and guarantee that the nuclear potential would remain under control. The so-called opposition's corrupt leaders, let out of an Anglo-American jar, hate each other and are incapable of ensuring either. In the view of responsible American analysts, the Pakistani bomb is much more dangerous than the non-existent Iranian one. Who gets it and what happens to this not quite low-priority, and not the least-populated region? This is what the United States' European partners should be thinking about, not about the moaning of a whipped Georgian paranoid man."
LaRouche added to Leontyev's picture: "The whole thing was obvious to me. It was obvious in the discussions I had with people, that while Pakistan was already a mess, by this concession of dumping Musharraf, you actually unleash all the instabilities in the area. And, Pakistan is a nuclear power in a sense, but the more significant thing is that the whole thing was done by the Saudis. That's what has to be said. And this thing is an Anglo-American Saudi operation."
LaRouche further elaborated: "The Saudi Bandar-Al-Yamamah operation is what's key here. And the whole region is in trouble, because the Saudis are the center of the whole destabilization of the region. It's a Saudi-British operation in which Prince Bandar is crucial. The Bush family is deeply indebted, in a sense, to these Saudi types. The corruption goes right inside the United States government. The Bandar Saudi operation and the Bush connections to that, are absolutely crucial."
LaRouche concluded: "Leontyev is right; he's absolutely correct. It's just that he's left out this one part: that this is a case in which the London-Saudi operation, the BAE-connected operation, is the key monster in this thing, which is a controlling factor in the U.S. behavior. You don't need to have a President Barack Obama, because the real Presidency is the Saudi monarchy. The White House is a dependency of the Saudi monarchy."
Pakistan Implodes
Just as LaRouche warned, within days of the announced resignation of President Musharraf, in the face of a threatened impeachment proceeding, the fragile governing coalition came unraveled.
But more significant, the departure of Musharraf, and the American acquiescence to his ouster, signaled that any obstacles to a new eruption of asymmetric warfare were removed.
On Aug. 21, suicide bombers killed 59 people at the massive Pakistan Ordnance Factory in Islamabad. Pakistani Taliban, an offshoot of the Afghan organization, claimed credit, just nine days after they had declared a state of war against the state. In an incident several days before the factory bombing, 14 air force personnel were killed in a bombing attack in Peshawar, a city in the Northwest Frontier Province that is virtually in the hands of Islamist insurgents.
Between Aug. 19 and 20, a series of Taliban attacks was launched in Afghanistan, including the targeting of French paratroopers, and a full assault on a U.S. military base near the Pakistan border in Khost.
U.S. intelligence sources confirm that Musharraf's departure, following months of Anglo-Saudi efforts to weaken him, opens the door to a far-reaching insurgency, based in the tribal areas of Pakistan, targeting Kashmir, Afghanistan, and the western provinces of China, where Uighur separatists are active. The insurgencies, which reach into Turkey and North Africa, are funded by the proceeds of the vast Afghan opium trade, which generates an estimated $160 billion a year in revenue, much of it now laundered through unregulated Persian Gulf banking centers, like Dubai. The source emphasized that some of these opium trade profits are then funneled to the Taliban, al-Qaeda, and other insurgent groups, in the form of "charitable" contributions.
"This is not a situation that lends itself to a military solution," one senior U.S. intelligence official told EIR. "This requires serious strategic planning, and a wide range of actions, including hard-nosed diplomacy. This is a war that the United States cannot win with boots on the ground. The Musharraf departure means a whole new situation."
Narendra Modi met PM over national and Gujarat related security issues
Ahmedabad, DeshGujarat, 30th of August, 2008
Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi on Friday (August 29) met Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and made a strong demand for giving assent to a bill to combat terror and organised crime(GUJCOC) in the state. National Security Adviser M K Narayanan was also present in this meeting. Meeting went on for 45 minutes in Prime Minister office.
READ GujCOC Bill : Union Government haven't sorted out "policy issues" yet ?
Modi explained to the Prime Minister that the law similar to the Gujarat Control of Organised Crime Act was already operational in Maharashtra, then why not in Gujarat? Modi harped on the need for “strong laws” to prevent youngsters from falling prey to terrorists who were looking to recruit them for their anti-national activities. Modi said there was a need for border fencing and special training and providing modern equipment to the forces engaged in border security. Modi said he was not interested in playing politics on the issue of terrorism.
“A political will is needed to further strengthen the police force including giving them more legal powers and resources. I requested the Prime Minister to immediately pass Gujarat’s law against organised crime, which has been passed twice by the Assembly, and has been lying with the Centre for the past four years. It is important to understand that this law exists in Maharashtra and if a bomb blast takes place they can use it, but if it happens in Gujarat just 50 km away I don’t have the law. I want to tell those politicians who have their minds filled with vote bank politics that there were terrorist activities even when POTA was in force and that despite having Section 302 (of IPC which gives death penalty for murder) murders do take place. Does this mean we remove this clause? I apprised them about the information revealed by the terrorists arrested for their involvement in the Ahmedabad blasts. There is a need for co-ordination between the Centre and states and also among the states to combat terror. It has come to light that states which are doing well economically are especially being targeted. I requested the Prime Minister to call a meeting of such states and he has agreed to it. I also requested the Prime Minister that since Gujarat is a border and coastal state there is a need to re-look and upgrade its security.I am not here as a BJP leader but as a voice of the Gujarat Assembly which represents 5.5 crore people. We should face terrorism as a united force,” he said, when asked if he felt the BJP-ruled states were being discriminated against by the Centre in the fight against terror. I hope the Prime Minister and the government in Delhi will show political will and take a decision soon” Modi said after his meeting with the Prime Minister.
Labels: MODI
LTTE's Air Raid on Trincomalee and the Offensive Operations
Souce: South Asia Analysis Group
Col R Hariharan
The night raid by two light aircraft of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) air wing on the Trincomalee naval base on August 26, 2008 may be termed as moderately successful. The two aircraft were similar to the ZLIN piston-engined ones that had raided Katunayake air base on March 27, 2007 and in the subsequent attacks on Palali air base on April 24, 2007 and the Anuradhapura air field on October 22, 2007. As in all the four air raids earlier they evaded both the ground fire and the chase by Sri Lanka air force fighters to return safely to their home base.
There had been discrepancies in the reports on the raid both in the number of casualties and on how the LTTE raid was conducted out. Broadly the raid went somewhat like this. Around 9 PM the LTTE aircraft flew in undetected and managed to sneak into the air space of the high security zone of the naval complex housing the Eastern Naval Headquarters and the Trincomalee dockyard. After dodging the anti aircraft gunfire when they were detected, one aircraft managed to drop two improvised bombs. Though the Eastern Naval Headquarters was not struck, at least four sailors were killed when one of the bombs struck a sailors' billet. Ten to 20 persons (depending upon the source of the report) were reported injured. It seems the intruding aircraft were detected a little late to engage them by fighters. Evading the anti aircraft fire the LTTE aircraft flew off after the strike on the sailors' barracks. As in the earlier cases, one bomb did not explode. In retaliation the air force fighters took off to hunt the raiders but could not succeed in doing so. After that the air force bombed Iranamadu air strip and its assets.
Though the defence spokesman called it an abortive raid, it was not wholly so. The LTTE raiders succeeded at least partially in fulfilling their mission. And they managed to inflict casualty on the security forces while escaping unscathed. Two inquiries are being held
apparently to find out how the LTTE planes managed to infiltrate through the air defence network without detection and carried out the raid.
Though the raid did not create the panic reaction among the public seen last year after the Katunayake raid, it will surely give a psychological lift up to the sagging morale of the LTTE's support network both at home and abroad. So far they had to console themselves
only with the rhetoric of the political commissar Nadesan on the impending LTTE response to the successful Sri Lankan offensive going on now for two years. The raid will also come as a shot in the arm for LTTE's defenders in frontlines who had been having a tough time for the last few months as the offensive gathered momentum. A far as the Sri Lanka public is concerned they appear to be taking it in the stride as one of the necessary evils of pursuing the military option. Thus the LTTE air raids appear to have lost their public threat potential enhanced by the very audacity of their ability to carry out such a raid well away from the LTTE home grounds in Wanni.
Otherwise, the air raid would be classified as a small scale raid daringly carried out. But in comparison with the scale of the happenings in the battlefronts of the north, the air raid does not have the potential to cause significant impact on the ongoing operations. Except for tasking a special commando force to seek and destroy the LTTE's secret hangars in Wanni as the operation progresses, no other special action would probably be taken at the
battlefront. The LTTE operational planners probably know this limitation. The pressure on them must be mounting as the security forces advance had been causing exodus of civilians in thousands from battle zones. So they probably carried out the air raid for want of any other manageable operational task that could create some impact immediately.
At the same time, operationally the raid gives some interesting insights –
The ability of the LTTE air wing to penetrate the airspace in high security zones remains undiminished, despite the counter measures taken so far. As discussed in my earlier articles on the subject, light aircraft with small radar signatures, flying below the horizon can escape early radar detection. This is more so if they follow a flight path hugging the coastline contours to escape early detection.
To overcome this weakness the anti aircraft defence network should include integrated ground observer posts along likely air ingress routes. This is a very time tested civil defence method against air raids in vogue for over seventy years! However, to be successful it needs committed people with well rehearsed procedure for identification and reporting.
On detection, the anti aircraft guns need to put maximum number of shots in the air in the fastest time to get a hit. In a night raid visual firing is fraught with serious limitations as the city lights in the horizon confuse the vision. This will again require a lot of practice firing.
In the past also the fighters had never been able to chase and kill the raiding aircraft. This is not surprising. Rarely will the fighters be able to respond in time unless they are positioned in operational readiness platforms (ORP) on the runway at the airfield. The mute point is, do such occasional raids by light aircraft merit tedious ORP status involving expensive hi-tech fighters designed for not only air combat but also ground support operations in counter insurgency? Only the security chiefs can answer this question.
It is surprising that despite the large number of modern surveillance and early warning devices available to monitor the intruding aircraft from take off to reaching target area, the LTTE pilots had always managed to prevent detection till the last moment when they gain height. Perhaps the security forces would do well to study the successful tactics of these "amateur fighter pilots" a little more seriously to eliminate the air threat.
There has been high rate of failure of the improvised bombs of the LTTE. This would show the LTTE has not been able to refine both the aerodynamics of the bomb design and the use of appropriate fuses to reduce the strike failure rate.
I would only reiterate that such air raids of limited fire power are more effective only when carried out in tandem with ground operation. This was proved in Anuradhapura air base raid last year. The chances of the LTTE carrying out such a coordinated ground-air raid is more likely now than ever before, given the growing tail of administrative
echelons of the advancing forces on long lines of communication from Kandy upwards. Looking at the well planned operations so far, the security forces would have already catered for such a possibility in their contingency plans.
(Col. R Hariharan, a retired Military Intelligence specialist on South Asia, served as the head of intelligence of the Indian Peace Keeping Force in Sri Lanka 1987-90.He is associated with the South Asia Analysis Group and the Chennai Centre for China Studies. E-mail:colhari@yahoo.com)
US-PAKISTAN TOP SECRET MILITARY TALKS
The "New York Times" reported as follows on August 28,2008: "Top US and Pakistani army commanders had a highly unusual secret meeting on board an American aircraft carrier in the Indian Ocean to discuss how to combat the escalating violence along the border between Afghanistan and Pakistan. The leading actors in the day long conference were Admiral Mike Mullen, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and Pakistan Army Chief General Ashfaq Pervez Kayani.The meeting had been convened on Tuesday (August 26) by the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. While officials of the two allies offered few details on Wednesday about what was decided or even discussed at the meeting - including any new strategies, tactics, weapons or troop deployment- the star-studded list of participants and an extreme secrecy surrounding the talks underscored how gravely the two nations regarded the growing militant threat.".
2.The top secrecy surrounding the talks between Admiral Mullen and Gen.Kayani brings to mind a similar top secret meeting between Gen.Jehangir Karamat, the then Pakistani Chief of the Army Staff (COAS), and Gen.Anthony Zinni, the then chief of the US Central Command, on the tarmac of a Pakistani airport before the US launched Cruise missile strikes against Osama bin Laden and the training camps of Al Qaeda in Afghan territory in August,1998, in retaliation for the Al Qaeda-organised explosions outside the US Embassies in Nairobi and Dar-es-Salaam.
3.The US had fixed the Cruise missile strikes on a day (August 20,1998) when bin Laden was expected to visit a training camp to meet a group of Al Qaeda volunteers, who had completed the training. Nawaz Sharif was then the Prime Minister of Pakistan. The US did not want his Government to know in advance about the planned Cruise missile attacks lest the information leak to Al Qaeda. At the same time, it was worried that if the Pakistani Army detected the incoming Cruise missiles, it might mistake them for missiles launched by India and this could lead to a war between India and Pakistan.
4.Just before the launch of the missiles, Gen.Zinni landed in a Pakistani airport secretly. Only Karamat was informed in advance about his landing. Zinni had requested him to meet him secretly for a discussion on the tarmac of the airport. He also asked Karamat to come alone to the airport without being accompanied by any of his officers. As the two took a stroll on the tarmac, Zinni told Karamat about the impending missile strikes and asked him not to tell Nawaz or anybody else about the strikes. Immediately thereafter, Zinni took off. Shortly thereafter, the missiles were launched from US naval ships.
5.The missiles destroyed only some training camps of the Harkat-ul-Mujahideen (HUM) of Pakistan in Afghan territory. Al Qaeda camps had been evacuated from the area targeted by the Cruise missiles. Bin Laden had cancelled his visit to one of the camps. He and his camps escaped the strike.
6.Till today, it has been a mystery as to how bin Laden and his Al Qaeda came to know of the date and time of the strike. Did they get their information from their own sources? Or did Karamat inform his officers and Nawaz in violation of the assurance given by him to Zinni and did any of them leak out? No answer is available to any of these questions.
7.Recently, US military officers have been complaining in their testimonies to the Congressional committees as well as in their briefings of the media that the collusion between Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) and the Taliban has reached such an extent that the Taliban and Al Qaeda had come to know in advance in some cases about planned strikes by US Predator aircraft on the hide-outs of these organizations in Pakistan. While some Predator strikes were successful, many others were not.
8.It is learnt from reliable Afghan sources that the NATO officials based in Afghanistan suspect that the leakages had been taking place not only from the ISI and some sections of the Pakistan Army, but also from some members of the Pakistan Government headed by Prime Minister Yousef Raza Gilani. The US suspicions are particularly focussed on the Awami National Party of Afsandyar Wali Khan, and the Jamiat-ul-Islam Pakistan of Maulana Fazlur Rahman It is understood that this matter of leakages of information was raised by President George Bush with Gilani when the latter visited Washington DC in the last week of July,2008.
9.It is likely that one of the purposes of the top secret meeting between Mullen and Kayani on board a US aircraft-carrier was to discuss how to prevent such leakages.(29-8-08)
(The writer is Additional Secretary (retd), Cabinet Secretariat, Govt. of India, New Delhi, and, presently, Director, Institute For Topical Studies, Chennai. E-mail: seventyone2@gmail.com )
Poor and powerful - the rise of China and India and the implications for Europe
Source: German Development Institute
The new map of Georgia
Moscow redraws the map of Georgia, recognising Abkhazia and South Ossetia, as the dust settles and it becomes clearer where power lies on Europe's borderlands, Ben Judah writes for ISN Security Watch.
By Ben Judah in Tbilisi for ISN Security Watch (27/08/08)
Hours before the Russians pulled their forces out of the strategic Georgian town of Gori, self-declared commandant General Vlachyslav Borisov stopped his vehicle and gruffly threw open the door to speak to journalists. Sweating and smelling faintly of cognac, he barked: "I'm out of here. I'm withdrawing my combat forces form the area. But peacekeepers are staying." Then he slammed the door.
Russian officials accidentally dropped another hint to their intentions. ISN Security Watch managed to see a roughly drawn ink diagram left behind after a meeting of Russian and Georgian officials on 21 August. This is the new map of Georgia.
The map showed two circles emanating from the center of both the Ossetian and Abkhaz enclaves that reached out to touch the Georgian cities of Gori and Senaki. These are the buffer zones where Borisov plans to leave his troops. However, the future of these territories is still uncertain.
Inside Enclavia
Just outside the South Ossetian capital Tskhinvali, the peacekeeping barracks that once hosted a 500-strong Russian contingent is a burned-out wreck. The Kremlin's spokesman and one of Prime Minister Vladimir Putin's chief aides, Alexander Machevsky, accompanies a tightly controlled press tour through the enclave to inspect the damage.
Standing in front of the rubble, pointing through the smashed walls of the base to the dozens of scorched bare metal bed frames, Machevsky makes his point clear. "There can be no return to the status quo ante."
He trudges over a floor littered with bullet casings from AK-74s, pieces of burned clothing and the shredded personal belongings of the soldiers, stressing the brutality of the Georgian attack. Unnoticed by their superiors, a few troops are sitting around drinking heavily in the evening gloom. None look happy.
In Tskhinvali, the de facto South Ossetian president bellows to the crowds from a podium on Stalin Street: "The Caucasus is a Russian region. It has always been that way. We are not going to let adventurers like [Georgian President Mikheil] Saakashvili or [US Secretary of State Condoleezza] Rice change that. We are going to be an independent state within Russia. It's logical."
The poorly dressed and glum looking huddle drifts away, perhaps contemplating the implications of that speech. The Kremlin's flag flies from government buildings and paramilitaries wear little ribbons of Russian and Ossetian colors.
Russia is clearly in control - but for the moment this is nothing like a permanent settlement.
On 26 August, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev announced he had recognized Georgia's breakaway regions of South Ossetia and Abkhazia as independent nations. It is highly unlikely they will return to Georgian control.
In Tbilisi, Keti Tsikhelashvili of the think tank European Stability Initiative (ESI) advances a more nuanced view of how the situation might play itself out.
"There are several possible outcomes considering these territories. The first is that the Europeans have been dropping hints about the possible internationalization of the conflict. This would involve the stationing of observers and maybe peacekeepers in Ossetia and Abkhazia and their futures being brought under intense discussion," she tells ISN Security Watch.
However, the ESI believes such an outcome to be unlikely.
"The EU and the US remain committed to Georgian sovereignty and territorial integrity. The most likely outcome I can imagine will be the North Cyprus situation. The world will recognize Georgia's territorial integrity, while Russia and maybe a few of its satellite states will acknowledge South Ossetia and Abkhazia as independent," Tsikhelashvili says.
She continues: "The South Ossetians already can see what an example of Russian rule in the Caucasus is like if they look to North Ossetia. How many schools there teach in Ossetian? The answer is none. In a few years the concern of cultural autonomy will mount and they will begin to realize the trap they are in."
Crushed rose
This is not how Georgians hoped the "Rose Revolution" would turn out.
In 2003, a wave of nationalism and a desire for western living standards and true democracy swept Saakashvili to power. Young and intensely charismatic, he led his country on an adventure that has turned sour.
"The president turned this country from a sort of post-Soviet ruin into a modern country," a senior western Europe diplomat tells ISN Security Watch, gesturing at perhaps the rather unrepresentative setting of the ornate restaurant in the Tbilisi Marriott hotel to prove his point.
"However, Saakashvili's definitely in until September. Then I can't say. There will be serious questions asked about what has happened and those questions will have consequences."
The Russian invasion has put a stop to those "rose" aspirations for now, and Georgia is reckoning with defeat. Tbilisi may not look miserable on the surface, but you only have to venture into one of the public buildings being used to house over 60,000 displaced people, or drive for under an hour to some of the burned-out villages to find misery waiting for you.
Reconstruction will take years. Georgia's transport infrastructure has been badly damaged, communities in the conflict zone have been hit hard, national parks have reportedly been set alight, commercial shipping has taken a massive blow, the economy has been shaken, but above all, Georgia's diplomatic and military position has been smashed. The armed forces that Saakashvili painstakingly built up though clever arms deals with Israel, the US and former communist states simply no longer exists.
Diplomatically, Georgia is in a disastrous position. Seen as unreliable and even a liability by many EU member-states and now most likely shorn of Abkhazia and South Ossetia for good, Georgia is reaping the consequences of its failed attempt to join the West.
Nona Varanadze, a retired professor and opposition supporter, blames Saakashvili for what has happened.
"Under Shevernadze, we practiced a political balancing act between Russia and the West. Just look at where we are on a map. When the balance got upset, we angered a neighbor and it destroyed so much of the good development that was going on. We could have avoided this and just got rich."
The ESI's Tsikhelashvili stresses that "though my political and cultural values are completely western. I am starting to think that Georgia put all of its eggs in one basket."
In many ways the EU and the US should hold themselves responsible for Georgia's current predicament. Having ostensibly supported a country's bid to remove itself from what Russia considers its exclusive sphere of influence, they failed to give Georgia the necessary security guarantees to make such a transition possible. With Russian forces stationed inside their territory, where EU flags still fly hopelessly from most major buildings, the promise of the West is starting to sound like a deadly siren to many Georgians.
The recent conflict has achieved a primary Russian objective, in proving that American power cannot be solidified along borderlands. This leaves only two powers that can actually integrate or control these territories - the EU or Russia.
The post-Soviet space can either seek to emulate the Baltic republics and find security inside the Union or embrace and hope to benefit from Russian dominance, as have Armenia and Belarus. Both are asymmetrical in how they wield influence.
Russia's strength lies in the areas of hard power such as its military capacities, energy power, cyberwarriors, pro-Russian parties and ethnic minorities or former KGB networks. However, it lacks the powers of persuasion.
Bulgarian expert Ivan Krastev argues in a recent article that "Russia is a born-again 19th-century power that acts in the post-20th-century world where arguments of force and capacity cannot any longer be the only way to define the status or conduct of great powers. The absence of 'soft power' is particularly dangerous for a would-be revisionist state. For if a state wants today to remake the world order, it must be able both to rely on the existing and emerging constellation of powers and be able to capture the international public's imagination."
The EU has the opposite strengths. Its power is soft and lies in the promise of membership, cultural appeal, diplomatic influence and financial clout. However, just as the Kremlin's failure to convince the world its actions are legitimate should force a re-think in its inner circles about a return to great-power status, the EU needs to learn that it does not exist in a vacuum.
Russia's strategy may be 19th century - but Europe is stuck in the future.
The great source of instability for the borderlands is that neither the EU nor Russia have reached their final destinations. Both are lost in transition.
The EU is caught between a disunited vague confederacy and a near-federation capable of speaking with a single voice in foreign policy and acting purposefully in a single direction. Its foreign policy mechanisms may slip into irrelevance and its own stability is far from assured. The news from Brussels is still frustration and malaise following on the heels of the French and Dutch "No" votes in 2005. The Irish "No" vote earlier this year does not bode well.
Russia itself is in a similar unsettled position. Its own territory is too large to be run in a conventional democratic manner and the state is still too weak to dominate its neighbors successfully. In the long run, further disintegration cannot be ruled out and the Kremlin is well aware of this.
Hovering between a post-modern empire and joining the club of post-imperial European great powers alongside the UK, France and Germany, Russia will continue its struggle to find institutional stability at home and a place in the state system - to the great detriment of both its citizens and surrounding countries.
Trapped between two uncertain creatures the post-Soviet states need to learn from the Georgian experience and tread carefully to avoid its fate.
Ben Judah is a senior correspondent for ISN Security Watch, currently writing from the Caucasus and Russia
IRAN : Middle East space race heats up
The test launch of a faux Iranian satellite earlier this month has again drawn attention to nascent efforts to counter Israel's dominion as a regional celestial power, Dominic Moran writes for ISN Security Watch.
By Dominic Moran in Tel Aviv for ISN Security Watch (29/08/08)
Iran launched the dummy satellite into space on 17 August taking an important step in its quest for an autonomous satellite program. In an earlier test on 4 February, the indigenously fabricated Safir launch vehicle did not reach orbital velocity in what was apparently the second apparent launcher systems test ahead of this month's launch.
Analysts' responses to this month's launch have been mixed with some viewing it as an important indicator of progress. Others sought to present the test as a further indicator of the perceived dangers posed by Iranian ballistic missile and nuclear programs, while some have cast doubts on Iranian claims that the launch was successful.
Stockholm International Peace Research Center researcher Shannon Kile told ISN Security Watch that there is "no doubt" that Iran has made significant progress in space R&D in recent years, adding, "There was a launch a few days ago of something and it is not quite clear what it was."
Initial Defense Ministry claims that the country's first domestically produced telecommunications satellite, Omid, had been launched with the vehicle were quickly refuted by government officials.
President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad confirmed that Omid had not been launched in a speech last Saturday in Arak in which he was quoted as saying that Iran now had the "advanced technology to launch its first remote-sensing telecommunication satellite into space."
The speech came shortly after the head of the Iranian Space Agency announced plans for Iran's first manned space flight within 10 years. Iranian officials have repeatedly made statements regarding the development and capacity of space systems and related plans that have turned out to be grossly overoptimistic.
In February, Ahmadinejad presided over the opening of Iran's space center and second launch site at Emamshahr in a remote northern desert region. He retains at least titular authority over the Iranian space program as head of the governing Iran Space Council, which has authority over Iranian Space Agency activities.
Seeking autonomy
While the paucity of reliable, independent, extant information on the Iranian space program makes it all but impossible to ascertain actual progress, this month's Safir launch appeared to constitute a significant step on the path to an independent satellite imaging capacity which, if achieved, would be seen as a major strategic threat by western and allied Arab powers and Israel.
"I think their [Iran's] intentions are very, very broad," Shapir said. "They want to be able to build their own satellites; they want to be able to launch their own satellites."
Iran is reportedly working on five satellite programs, though little information is available on the development status of several of these. Iranian claims in January 2006 that the Mesbah research satellite - developed with Italian assistance - would be launched within three months came to nothing and no launch further launch date has been announced.
Iran does have a presence in space through the Russian-made Sinah-1, launched from Plesetsk cosmodrome in Russia on 28 October 2005.
Asked if Iran now enjoys a significant imaging capacity through the Sinah-1, Shapir said, "No. the satellite that was launched has a camera, but […] it is not a camera that can bring you pictures good enough for any other purpose […] not a resolution that would allow you any military significance."
The fact that Iran was forced to turn to Russia's Polyot company both for the launch vehicle and satellite fabrication points to developmental problems with Iran's launcher and satellite fabrication which may, or may not, have been overcome in intervening years.
The Zohre (Venus), a telecommunications satellite, is being produced for Iran under the terms of a 2005 deal with Russia, but the launch date has reportedly been put off until next year at the earliest with the delay apparently caused by contractual issues.
Asked if there had been launch vehicle progress through the three Iranian launcher tests, Kile said, "Yes, they are definitely making technical progress." He cautioned that the Iranians were not necessarily going to have a system that was "able to deploy immediately."
"I think one of the issues people are looking at is: Is the technology Iran is developing now purely indigenous or are they getting outside assistance," he said. "The most likely source of outside assistance would be possibly North Korea but more likely Pakistan. The recent [ballistic] missile that the Iranians launched, the so-called Ashoura missile, may be a derivative of a Pakistani design."
Dual use potential
While the specter of an independent Iranian satellite program raises concerns in the west, the identity of the launch vehicle is itself a potentially important indicator of progress in Iranian ballistic missile development.
Kile notes that the launcher is "where everyone is concerned because that technology is dual use and could also be used directly in military applications with warheads."
According to some reports, the rocket used in this month's test is a derivative of the Shahab-3 medium range ballistic missile, for which the Israeli Arrows anti-missile system is being developed as a direct counter, with US funding.
Referring to the second launch, Shapir said: "What they showed on television in February was definitely a Shahab-3. [However] at least one of the sources I read said that what was actually launched or tested in February was not a Shahab and that the footage that they released did not belong to the vehicle actually tested."
The use of a Shahab-3 derivation for this purpose can be seen as confirmation of the shelving of the Shahab-4 - an impression bolstered by the reported extension of the range of the Shahab-3B (C and D are also reportedly in mass production) to encompass the initial intended range of the Shahab-4. Again, speculation abounds.
"It looks like the Iranians are moving away from liquid fuel missiles to solid fuel missiles and that is a big technological leap," Kile said.
"If you are looking to have a military program solid fuel rockets are the way to go because you don't have to have all the fuelling trucks, you don't have to have all the associated infrastructure, you can fire them on much shorter notice," he said. "So if it is the case that Iran is indeed moving towards solid propellant ballistic missiles that would have important military implications."
It is important to note that there does not appear to be significant credible evidence of the militarization of Iranian Space Agency activities, which appear clearly aimed at this point at civil scientific R&D and the related deposit of space vehicles into Low Earth Orbit (160km-2000km).
The Iranian Defense Ministry was involved in the fabrication of the rocket launched in February 2007, which carried research created material created by the ministries of science and defense. The Defense Ministry has also made it clear that it sees the development of a satellite capacity as an important national priority.
With the potential relationship of Iranian missile programs to the country's nuclear intentions a key source of concern in western capitals, the utilization of the Iranian space program as a potential driver of ballistic missile development may attract unwanted international attention to the space program.
Asked what the strategic import of Iran developing a satellite capacity would be, Kile said: "It is not so much the satellite capability per se […] [but] if Iran were to eventually develop the capability to launch satellites into medium and high earth orbit, to have that capability means that you are also going to have the capability to manufacture ballistic missiles that can deliver a military payload to quite some distance, well in excess of 2,000km."
Developing programs
"Most countries in the Middle East have their own communication satellite which they bought, Egypt has one; Turkey has several; Saudi Arabia has [too]; the UAE has the most advanced communication satellite in the world." Shapir said, adding, "The Iranians have been trying to do the same for the past 30 years and the project is not getting off the ground."
Egypt launched its first imaging satellite, EgyptSat1, in April 2007 in a cooperative venture with a Ukrainian firm. The planned launch of a second reconnaissance satellite, Desertsat, by the end of 2007, has come and gone without further statements of intent.
According to reports, EgyptSat's multi-spectral camera is the first of its kind deployed by a Middle East state, transmitting black-and-white, color and infrared images. Some Israeli analysts believe the launch caused a significant shift in the strategic balance between the countries and in the wider Middle East.
Shapir disagrees: "It has a camera but I don't think it has any military significance. It is a research satellite with the goal of training engineers to be able to build satellites, to be able to conduct experiments in space."
The Saudis also appear to have long-term plans for achieving a significant presence in space with Saudisat 3, launched in April 2007, utilizing imaging technology provided by a South African firm.
Asked how advanced the Saudis are in satellite R&D, Shapir said, "They are building, with the help of some western companies, their own research satellite but this is very, very rudimentary."
Israel: building capacity
Israel is seeking to maintain its strategic edge in space, launching the Eros B in April 2007, whose imaging system is said to be capable of pinpointing objects as small as 70cm across, as opposed to EgyptSat1's estimated 4m across, and highly advanced TecSAR this January.
"Israel is much, much more advanced than any other countries in the Middle East with the Ofeq and EROS military imaging satellites," Shapir said.
Israel has far greater indigenous development capacities than its Middle East competitors and a clear preference for autonomous development of highly sophisticated imaging and satellite systems.
The Shavit launcher utilized by the Israeli program has encountered significant problems in the past leading to two launcher failures - including the loss of the multimillion dollar Ofeq 4 and 6 reconnaissance satellites.
In response, Israel's January launch of the TecSAR spy satellite was conducted from an Indian facility utilizing an Indian rocket. Shapir explained that the heavier weight of the Indian launcher allowed for the deposit of a far larger satellite payload than the Shavit is capable of deploying through the latter's retrograde westward launch.
The decision provoked significant discord in the Israeli space industry where opponents reportedly saw it as directly undercutting Israel's autonomous development model. This, despite the prior launch of the Eros A and B from a Russia cosmodrome, utilizing Russian Start-1 rockets.
Shapir went on to explain that space program cooperation appealed as an important way to cement warming relations with New Delhi in light of the Israeli military's refusal to buy proffered Indian helicopters and UAVs.
The TecSAR's synthetic aperture radar is reportedly capable of capturing and transmitting images of 10cm across and can operate in darkness and penetrate thick clouds. Israel's Defense Ministry plans to launch a further highly sophisticated imaging satellite, Opsat, by the end of 2009, details of which remain under wraps.
It is clear that the small Israeli reconnaissance satellite array provides Israel with a clear strategic advantage that the Iranian space program looks unlikely to bridge in coming years, including the capacity to intercept Iranian military and civil communications, potentially crucial in the event of an outbreak of hostilities.
With the world's focus understandably on regional flashpoints and conflicts and prospects for the Iranian nuclear program, the extension of regional tensions to space has largely been ignored, mired in a welter of competing claims and counter-claims.
Nevertheless, with several regional states channeling massive disbursements into long-term space R&D and communication satellite purchases and Iran seemingly on the verge of its first autonomous satellite launch, the regional space race promises to open a new front for regional tensions that look set to supersede changes on the ground.
Dr Dominic Moran, based in Tel Aviv, is ISN Security Watch's senior correspondent in the Middle East and the Director of Operations of ISA Consulting.
Related ISN Publishing House entries
Global trends: A perfect storm
Market opportunism seems to be running on empty when it comes to global trends, which are complex, borderless and changing everything. Are we prepared? Vivian Fritschi writes for ISN Security Watch.
Commentary by Vivian Fritschi for ISN Security Watch (29/08/08)
We find ourselves in the midst of fundamental changes brought on by trends that are, and will continue to, radically shape the world in which we live. These trends are better described as "meta" trends because as they give rise to changes that are complex, long-lasting, profound and borderless. Among other things, this long list of trends includes the growing scarcity of important resources (water, fuel and food), climate change and population growth.
These trends have many varied, overlapping, complex and highly interdependent primary, secondary and tertiary effects. The media is full of reports of how high oil prices, the water shortage, population growth and natural disasters have exacerbated the existing global food crisis. The complex nature of the trends means there are no clear singular causes, only a seemingly "perfect storm" of outcomes.
Despite the alarm, on the surface the outlook is "business as usual" (at least for those businesses and markets not adversely affected by these trends). Indeed, in many ways, climate change and the other trends represent little more than new business opportunities.
As world food shortages have exploded into a full-blown crisis, companies selling goods for agricultural production have increased their advertising. Many of these products rely on deliberately misleading advertising attesting to their alleged environmentally friendly nature (a practice dubbed "green washing").
In reality, however, many of these products would most likely intensify agricultural production practices that damage the environment. For example, selling advanced water pumps to water-strapped countries to increase crop production may help today's food crisis, but will only deepen tomorrow's water crisis.
Certainly, capitalism and open markets thrive on innovation, entrepreneurship and opportunism. There will always be individuals and organizations that stand to reap financial gains by finding an unexploited market niche, whether during times of stability or crisis. For instance, the computer and software company Apple is on one end of the spectrum, while the energy conglomerate Halliburton is on the other.
The vast majority of cases are less than straightforward. Market opportunism has shaped capitalist growth (and capitalism) throughout its history. At its best, it's a sign of a healthy and dynamic market; but at its worst, market opportunism is merely business with no regard for principles valued by society or for consequences.
An important critique of globalization is the tendency toward lawlessness of businesses on the world market. Companies and individuals exploit differences in local laws and knowledge between their host and home countries to engage in abhorrent practices to yield a global competitive advantage. This practice, unfortunately, is typical: Individual companies and businesspeople rarely claim responsibility for the outcome (whether direct or indirect) of their commercial activities.
In crisis situations, however, aggregated opportunism may ultimately exacerbate the problems we will face - problems to which very few of these opportunistic actors will be willing to freely commit resources (or profits). Most will instead look to governments (in other words, taxpayers) and grassroots movements to find and fund needed solutions.
But can governments alone be relied upon to lead the search for solutions? Sadly, this is not as clear as it should be. Much like businesses, governments and their officials can be notoriously short-sighted and strongly motivated by influential interest groups and other power-holders in society.
The trends we face are borderless, transnational and require international cooperation to solve. While policy responses can often be swift, when it comes to putting solutions to some problems in place, by design national policy is almost always meant to benefit the nation or some national power-based group.
(For instance, the BBC reported on 23 August that Peruvian policymakers had dissolved laws protecting tribal lands in the Amazon; The Guardian reported on 13 August that substantial areas of the Amazon would be cleared for oil and gas exploration. This is, of course, in addition to the areas currently being cleared for crops for the production of biofuel.)
In fact, the current controversy surrounding the "biofuels alternative" precisely demonstrates the complexity and interconnectedness of the fuel problem.
While initially heralded as the solution to high oil prices, biofuel production rapidly expanded as a result of government policy and explicit agricultural subsidies. However, the secondary and tertiary effects (driving up the costs of several related commodities, exacerbating the food crisis in some countries, and the expansion of agricultural production processes that in some countries profoundly harms the environment) were poorly explored.
Scientific American recently published an article - "The Ethics of Climate Change: Pay now or Pay More Later?" - in which the author, John Broome, presented some of the ethical considerations economists face when evaluating the well-being of future generations using cost-benefit analyses, among other tools.
Broome notes that in the ensuing debate about which tools should be used and how, many economists have resisted taking any stance on the question of ethics. Instead, many have preferred to leave ethical decisions to the public domain.
Specialist knowledge (ideally) informs public decision-making. While leaving ethics out of the debate may simplify the discussion among economists, doing so is a failure both to assume the leading role that experts are accorded and to address properly the magnitude of decisions that will be based on their calculations.
In all fairness to the ideal of free market capitalism, many will insist that the markets will adequately respond to any such crisis. While this is the case more often than not, the opposite can also be true.
Many have argued that commodity speculators bear some responsibility for the rapid rise in fuel and other commodity prices. But there is another aspect to bear in mind: How can one continue to assume that the market will be able to adequately respond when the market itself will be increasingly disrupted by events related to climate change and natural disasters - not to mention financial instability and crises cause by market activities such as the US housing market crisis?
Assumptions about market responses are ultimately assumptions that the profit motive will move the markets to meet the demand. The profit motive is of course at the heart of the market opportunism that sustains any drive to cash in on a crisis. But if all the dire warnings about the future are true and do lead to difficult times ahead, these trends may well force the decline of free market capitalism as we have come to know it.
Capitalism requires cheap labor, cheap transportation, open markets, a reliable legal fabric and relatively cheap/abundant inputs/supplies, among other things, to function well. The 19th century theorists who extolled the virtues of free markets assumed public goods were abundant and their supply unlimited.
Today, we know different; even under the best conditions, rising costs eventually outweigh returns and diminish profitability. Larry Rohter addresses this in the New York Times piece, "Shipping Costs Start to Crimp Globalization," where he examines the impact of the cost of oil on world markets.
Heading off these worst-case scenarios will require a collective effort to encourage market activities that are not exclusively centered on ever-increasing profits and to engage in even more debate, not only in the public realm, but certainly among those specialists and experts who shape the decisions we make.
Difficult as it is, experts need to pick up the mantle and pitch into the messy forum of climate change and what it means for their work. They will also need to work more closely with governments and businesses to better understand the complexity of these problems and solutions. In fact, we will all need to do so for all the different aspects of our lives: as consumers, employees, businesspeople, etc. Long held concepts will have to reconsidered, reconfigured and some abandoned.
Eventually, profits and narrow political interests need to settle beside (or fall behind) the interests of cooperation, the public good and sustainability. Sustainability, once the derided buzzword of environmentalists, will increasingly shape the kind of approaches that will be needed to weather the coming changes. Would "sustainable capitalism" (whatever that might be) still be "capitalism"? Given the kind of future we face, does it matter?
Vivian Fritschi is the business development manager for ISN. Most recently, she worked as a research associate and director of the Young Leaders program at Pacific Forum, Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), a Honolulu-based research institute. She has a masters degree in foreign affairs from the University of Virginia and received her bachelor degrees in international relations and in French literature from Tufts University in Medford, Massachusetts. She was also a research fellow at the Graduate Institute of International Studies in Geneva, Switzerland and studied at the University of Paris (IV)-La Sorbonne in Paris, France.
The views and opinions expressed herein are those of the author only, not the International Relations and Security Network (ISN).
The Evangelical Project in Orissa
Source: OFFSTUMPED
As Kandhamal burns, the BJD-BJP coalition in Orissa is under severe strain. It should be obvious to even the most amateur of political observers that the murder of Swami Lakshmananda was a pre-emptive strike at unravelling this coalition. The unabated violence against Christians is not just unacceptable but is plain stupidity to provoke it for it only widens chasm between the BJD and the BJP ahead of the elections to hand over Orissa on a platter to the Congress. The Naveen Patnaik Administration and the BJP must realise the stakes are too high for the NDA to not contain the violence and to bring the perpetrators of the murdee and subsequent violence to justice. READ MORE
India to raise Special Force "COBRA" to combat Naxal menace
ZEE NEWS
New Delhi, Aug 28: Nearly a year after Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had described Left-wing extremism as a "virus", the government has given the green signal to raise a 10,000-strong special anti-Naxal force COBRA.
The nod to the Combat Battalion for Resolute Action (COBRA), under the command and control of the CRPF, was given last evening by the Cabinet Committee on Security chaired by the Prime Minister.
K Durga Prasad, a 1981 batch IPS officer from Andhra Pradesh and an expert in handling the anti-naxal operations, is likely to take charge of the COBRA.
The new force will be set up at a cost of Rs 1,389.47 crore out of which Rs 898.12 crore will be spent on land and infrastructure while Rs 491.35 crore will be used for manpower training over a period of three years.
The CRPF, in the meantime, will provide its personnel till the recruitment and the training process of the fresh 10 battalions is completed.
The Prime Minister, during his address to the top police brass in October last year, had called for setting up a special force to tackle Left-wing extremism.
The COBRA personnel would be imparted special training in terrain and topography of their area of operation.
The COBRA will be headquartered in the national capital and will have battalion headquarters in every Naxal-affected state.
Naxalites have carried out several attacks this year which includes gunning down of more than two dozen personnel of Andhra Pradesh's elite force "Greyhounds" last month, killing of Orissa police personnel, political leaders and their kin.
Bureau Report
New Delhi (PTI): Nearly a year after Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had described Left-wing extremism as a "virus", a special anti-Naxal force -- COBRA -- has finally seen light of the day after remaining in bureaucratic wrangling for months.
The clearance to raise the 10,000-strong Combat Battalion for Resolute Action (COBRA), under the command and control of the CRPF, was given on wednesday evening by the Cabinet Committee on Security chaired by the Prime Minister.
It took nearly a year for the Union Home Ministry to translate the words of the Prime Minister into action. Singh during his address to the top police brass last year in October had called for a special force to tackle Left-wing extremism.
Though the CRPF, which is in-charge of the internal security in the country, had submitted a proposal to the Ministry about creation of a dedicated force, the Home Ministry was still mulling over it till it pressure was exerted from relevant quarters for its immediate presentation before the Cabinet.
The 10,000 odd men in the COBRA unit will focus on "effectiveness and operational success" and they would be imparted exclusive training in the terrain and topography of the area of operation.
RUSSIA : Tongue-in-Cheek Support
By Dmitry Babich
Leaders of the “Shanghai Six” Give Russia Cautious Approval, but Stop Short of Denouncing Georgia
As Russia faces mounting international criticism over its decision to recognize the independence of South Ossetia and Abkhazia, the summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) in Tajikistan’s capital Dushanbe bore crucial importance. The Kremlin’s problem is that no country in Western Europe or in the Americas supported President Dmitry Medvedev’s decision to recognize the two separatist regions. In this situation, support from the SCO would be very useful, psychologically as well as strategically.
The SCO includes Russia, China, and four former Soviet republics in Central Asia – Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan and Tajikistan. India, Pakistan, Mongolia and Iran are represented at SCO meetings as “observers,” and Afghanistan’s President Khamid Karzai visited the summit in Dushanbe as a “special guest.”
So, did Russia get the desired support? Russia’s President Dmitry Medvedev thinks it did.
“During talks at the summit we came to the conclusion that the global order should be respected and the country which unleashed aggression should be held responsible,” Medvedev was quoted by the Russian news agency RIA Novosti as saying. The final resolution of the summit, however, was worded in less clear terms, stopping short of denouncing Georgia: “The heads of SCO states welcome Moscow’s approval of the six principles of the South Ossetian conflict’s settlement, and support Russia’s active role in promoting peace and cooperation in this region,” the statement said.
Why was the wording so ambiguous? Experts suspect that the stumbling bloc could be China, which suffers from the problem of separatism itself. Having strong separatist movements in the Xinjiang region and in Tibet and combating international recognition of the Taiwan Island, which it considers a “rebel province,” China traditionally does not want to be seen as supporting separatism of any kind.
“The Chinese leadership called on Russia and Georgia to find a way to settle the dispute by negotiations,” said Professor Vilya Gelbras, a veteran Russian Sinologist from the Moscow State University’s Asia and Africa department. “This is just about as far as official Beijing can go in criticizing Russia, since both countries avoided criticizing each other during the last 20 years. In fact, the idea of SCO’s founders in 1997 was to unite the countries fighting against terrorism, separatism and other kinds of extremism. This was a Chinese idea, not Russian. In this situation, giving full support to Abkhazia and South Ossetia would be a loss of face for China.”
Experts note that until recently, Russia and China have been the greatest supporters of the foundations of the post-World War II order, but the aggressive remaking of the world map by the West in the last few years may force both countries to change their attitude.
“Russia was angered by the Western recognition of Kosovo and China suspects the United States of secretly aiding the Xinjiang separatists,” said Alexander Pikayev, the head of the department of conflict settlement at the Moscow-based Institute of World Economy and International Relations (IMEMO). “China is also angered by the official support which the Tibetan separatists got in some European capitals. In this situation, anger at the West may outweigh the fear of separatist precedents. Russia does not want to be in the situation of an ‘honest loser,’ which respects the territorial sovereignty of Georgia when the West does not respect the territorial integrity of Serbia. And China may, up to a certain point, close its eyes to this kind of behavior from Russia.”
In Pikayev’s opinion, Russian officials must have consulted with their Chinese colleagues before taking the decision to recognize Abkhazia and South Ossetia. At least, the Chinese were not kept in the dark about Moscow’s plans--otherwise the summit in Dushanbe might not have taken place.
As for other participants of the summit, they avoided taking a clear stand on the situation in Georgia. The reason might be a fear that taking such a stand would oblige them to support Moscow’s actions in the framework of the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO, or ODKB in Russian abbreviation), a loose defense alliance of former Soviet states, of which Russia, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan are all members.
“It would be very nice if the Russian peacekeeping contingent in South Ossetia and Abkhazia gained international status under the auspices of the CSTO,” said Leonid Ivashov, the president of the Moscow-based Academy of Geopolitical Problems, known for his anti-NATO views. “I would like to remind you that Russian peacekeepers in Georgia were moved in there under the mandate from the Community of Independent States (CIS) – the alliance of post-Soviet states where Russia traditionally played the main role.”
However, despite obvious sympathy for Russia in its diplomatic confrontation with the West, the presidents of the Central Asian states are obviously not ready to commit not only their troops, but even their diplomatic and political resources to the cause of punishing the Georgian regime. Only Kazakhstan’s president Nursultan Nazarbayev went a bit further than the others in his support for Russia.
“The West just kept silent during the armed attack of Georgia against [South Ossetia’s capital] Tskhinvali,” Nazarbayev said at the meeting with Medvedev in Dushanbe. “This started the unhappy chain of events. We all think that the subsequent actions of Russia were aimed at protecting the population of that martyr city.” Nazrbayev also said that he saw Vladimir Putin in Beijing when he got word of the Georgian attack by phone, and that Putin was obviously surprised and approached the American president George Bush with the news.
“Bush said that the war was in nobody’s interest,” Nazarbayev remembered
QUOTE OF THE DAY: Dr.Wahid Baloch
Dr. Wahid Baloch
"Let it be crystal clear that Balochistan was never a part of Pakistan. Trying to Pakistanize Balochistan at the gun point and through the slogan of Allahu Akbar has not worked for the last six decades and will not work in the future. Simply because the state of Pakistan in itself is not a very legitimate State by herslf. Just because the majority of Baloch are born Muslim, does not give the jihadi armies of Pakistan and Iran a license to continue to occupy our lands, conduct genocide of our people, loot and plunder our resources, and test their nuclear weapons in Balochistan. The world community must not close their eyes over the crimes against Baloch people."--- Dr. Wahid Baloch
India’s role in Afghanistan
The Tribune , Chandighar
Regional stability can’t be ignored
by Harsh V. Pant
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has just returned from Japan where he attended the G-8 summit as a special invitee, and many in the country are arguing that India deserves a permanent place in G-8 and other international institutions as India is already a major global player. Most of the challenges that the international community faces today cannot be resolved without India’s active participation.
There is some merit in this argument and many across the world are beginning
to realise the importance of India in the global inter-state hierarchy. Yet, India
itself has not shown that it is ready for this larger global role. After all, if India
is a major global power, what is it doing about the security environment in its
immediate neighbourhood?
Forget China’s rise, global climate change and the nuclear deal. All these dwarf in front of the challenge India faces in Afghanistan, which is on the brink of collapse even as New Delhi continues to dither on how to respond adequately to the rapidly changing ground realities there.
India no longer has the luxury to argue that while it is happy to help the Afghan government in its reconstruction efforts, it will not be directly engaged in security operations. The Taliban militants who blew up the Indian Embassy have sent a strong signal that India is part of the evolving security dynamic in Afghanistan despite its reluctance to take on a more active role in the military operations.
The progress towards stabilisation and development in Afghanistan is being heavily influenced by India and Pakistan, and the rivalry between them. Pakistan has always been suspicious of New Delhi and Kabul cooperating against it, and as India’s influence in Afghanistan has increased in the post-Taliban scenario, Pakistan remains stalled in its efforts to curb extremists. Pakistan’s failure to contain cross-border militancy has been a key factor behind its deteriorating relations with the Karzai government in Kabul.
Relations between Pakistan and Afghanistan have long been complex, with Islamabad’s military-intelligence establishment contributing to the defeat of Soviet troops before 1988; the overthrow of Soviet-backed President Muhammad Najibullah in 1992; and the capture of large areas of Afghanistan by the Taliban after 1994. Several long-standing strategic interests fuelled Pakistan’s involvement in these developments.
It has long believed that it can gain “strategic depth” against India by influencing politics in Kabul, something Islamabad felt it achieved in the 1980s and 1990s. It is keen to prevent “strategic encirclement” as a result of closer Delhi-Kabul ties. Pakistan is wary of Afghanistan (or India) exerting influence on its restive populations in border regions such as Balochistan and the North-West Frontier Province.
However, the perceived gains of the last two decades have been increasingly under threat since the overthrow of the Taliban in 2001. After the terrorist attacks in the United States, President Pervez Musharraf had to choose between support for the US-led invasion of Afghanistan and its “war on terrorism”, and isolation as a backer of radical Islamic extremism. Mr Musharraf promptly signed Pakistan up as an ally of Washington. This committed Pakistan to supporting efforts to stabilise Afghanistan and to strengthen the administration of President Hamid Karzai.
However, there are considerable doubts about Islamabad’s capacity and commitment to crack down on militants. Kabul is deeply suspicious of Pakistan, on whom its security is largely dependent. Pakistan’s ISI is linked to the resurgence of the Taliban, whose leadership is thought to be operating from the tribal border regions. The rejuvenation of the Taliban has potential benefits for Pakistan in bolstering its role as a frontline state in the war against terrorism, thereby securing engagement from the United States.
The security problems in Afghanistan can be linked to the military’s continuing position as the predominant force in Pakistan, an institution that has, since the 1990s, viewed the Taliban as a means of controlling Afghanistan and undercutting India’s influence there. Having focused exclusively on the Taliban, it is struggling to abandon it now.
Meanwhile, as tensions between Pakistan and Afghanistan have increased, India’s relations with Afghanistan have steadily improved. Unlike Pakistan, ties between India and Afghanistan are not hampered by the existence of a contiguous, and contested, border. India’s support for the Northern Alliance (against the Pakistan-backed Taliban) in the 1990s strengthened its position in Kabul after 2001.
Many members of the Alliance are members of the government or hold influential provincial posts. New Delhi is one of Afghanistan’s top six donors, having extended a $750 million aid package and most of its aid is unconditional, directed largely at reconstruction projects as well as education and rural development. Kabul is also encouraging Indian businesses to take advantage of its low-tax regime to help develop a manufacturing hub in areas such as cement, oil and gas, electricity, and in services like hotels, banking and communications.
Mr Karzai may not be deliberately crafting a New Delhi-Kabul alliance against Islamabad, but he is certainly hoping to push Pakistan into taking his concerns more seriously. India has opened consulates in Herat, Mazar-e-Sharif, Kandahar and Jalalabad, in addition to its embassy in Kabul. Pakistan has accused the embassy in Kabul of spreading anti-Pakistani propaganda and views the establishment of the consulates as a way for New Delhi to improve intelligence-gathering against it.
After targeting the personnel involved in developmental projects and emboldened by India’s non-response, terrorists have now trained their guns directly at the Indian State. India must now respond with greater military engagement to support its developmental and political presence in Afghanistan. If India is to realise its aspirations of emerging as a major global actor, it must first learn to become a net provider of regional security.
This is a difficult task for India, given the wariness with which its neighbours view its capabilities. But India has a few good options given the instability that surrounds it. No major power has emerged historically without providing some measure of stability around its periphery. India should be using its growing capabilities to extend security in the region.
A stable, secure and prosperous neighbourhood is a sine qua non for the emergence of a great power. India cannot be merely seen as free-riding on the outside powers for regional stability. For all the rhetoric emanating from New Delhi about India’s rise, it remains unclear as to what India is ready to do to preserve and enhance its interests in its neighbourhood. India’s approach towards Afghanistan is a casualty of this short-sightedness, and it will cost New Delhi dear over the long-term.
The writer teaches at King’s College, London.
How Low Can It Go?
Comment by Georgy Bovt
Special to Russia ProfileIs a Military Confrontation Between Russia and NATO Impossible?
On more than one occasion in history, various crises demonstrated the ability to unfold according to their own, unnamed logic, and not according to the plans of the masterminds behind them. Such may also be the case with Russia’s present confrontation with the West over the breakaway republics of South Ossetia and Abkhazia – just when it looks like the conflict has been exhausted, it turns out that the passed grievances have been the mere tip of the iceberg.
To optimists, it might seem that the worst has already happened in Russia’s argument with the West over Georgia; that all the formidable words and all the ritual threats have already been uttered, and now both sides will in some form or other return to the pragmatic policy of “business and nothing personal.” This could be true for many reasons: because we sell too much oil and gas to them, and because Russia still presents a somewhat attractive market for many in the West. Largely, these arguments can be agreed with. After all, Russia and the West have argued about many things in the past; this relationship has survived more than one crisis, but in the end, the situation was always resolved: diplomats sat down at the negotiating table, the countries’ chief executives began exchanging various tokens of attention that would have gone utterly unnoticed in ordinary situations (for example, sent condolences on the occasion of some national catastrophe, or, on the contrary, gave emphatically warm congratulations on a national holiday). The atmosphere slowly normalized itself; if any sanctions were imposed (and the meaning of any sanction is seen only when this sanction is finally lifted, otherwise it is meaningless as it doesn’t accomplish anything), they were cancelled, etc.
On the other hand, the history of human society knows many examples of situations (and especially critical situations) that would all of a sudden start developing according to their own logic, destroying all of the original plans by the politicians that created them, whether these plans were benevolent or malevolent. On the eve of World War I, for example, many European intellectuals were convinced that war is no longer an instrument for resolving international arguments. They maintained this with the same certainty demonstrated today by the overwhelming majority of analysts and intellectuals, along with the most determined politicians, who insist that a military conflict between Russia and NATO is absolutely impossible. And especially not over Georgia.
Over Georgia, in August 2008, it really might be impossible. But who would dare forecast further development of the situation, when the relationship between Russia and the West seems to be irremediably ruined, and when the situation itself is starting to develop according to its own logic, leaving political leaders in an increasingly narrow corridor of possible actions/ counteractions.
The leading roles are now played by the people who, until know, settled for the “posts” of either stooges controlled by other people or outcasts of big-time politics: field generals, leaders of unrecognized separatist groups, presidential candidates not yet elected by anyone anywhere, self-appointed “peacemakers” from all kinds of international organizations, or simply physical political persons drawn to the zone of military conflict like bees are drawn to honey. These people are driven not as much by the intention to “enforce peace” as by the chance to gain good personal or “corporate political” publicity.
Russia has long been accused of a “lack of democracy” and of “authoritarianism” as part of the general discussion among many European and, even more so, American intellectuals. And suddenly, it turns out that public politics in a country such as Russia is actually influenced by many factors at once, narrowing down possible actions by, say, President Dmitry Medvedev, much more than adventurist steps taken by such an impulsive politician as Mikheil Saakashvili, who on an August night suddenly launched an artillery attack on Tskhinvali.
There are army generals who have always treated the “so-called Georgian statehood” with great disdain (I even know one very high-ranking law-enforcement official whose milieu did not hesitate to openly request that a Russian journalist of Georgian nationality be removed from his press pool because the boss cannot stand Georgians). And if the Supreme Commander in Chief, even in a fit of inexplicable pacifism, ordered to hastily withdraw from Russia’s positions in Georgia (“as per NATO’s demand”), these generals would have simply “not understood” the order, which would have meant the end of the former’s functions as the Commander in Chief.
There is also the Russian public opinion, nursed by the official propaganda in the last eight years in such a jingoist, and, what is much sadder, such an anti-western spirit, that it has practically lost all ability to accept any complex arguments that do not fit into the black-and-white framework of the universal anti-Russian conspiracy directed by the Americans. This public opinion, even personified by its most authoritative leaders, is already losing the ability to see any long-term consequences of the blitzkrieg in Georgia. Such consequences as, for example, the fact that during this military operation the Russian army was actually very effective, according to many military experts, but its mistakes, miscalculations and weaknesses, made evident during combat with an obviously weaker enemy, were noted by interested parties, and might backfire against Russia in a very different situation in the future. And, finally, there is the informational policy carried out by many Western mass media, which is perceived by Russia’s ruling class only as an intention to “drive Russians into a corner,” to “make Serbians out of Russians,” etc. That is, this informational policy is not seen as balanced and objective even by the most liberal and pro-Western Russian analysts and politicians.
Today the tension, which is turning into a standoff between Russia and the West, is building up too rapidly for the Russian ruling elite to be able to elaborate and propose the most adequate tactics and strategy of behavior just as quickly and efficiently. Moreover, nobody right now – not only in Russia, but also in the West – is capable of predicting or assessing all the consequences such a standoff will have in the political, economic and social spheres. Even though they utter the ritual “scandalous” phrases, which, as they believe, are the proper way to react to the situation, nobody today can really answer the question of “what’s next?” where that “point of no return” is, after which even the most insightful, informed and reasonable experts will have no choice but to throw their arms up in the air in a helpless gesture, exclaiming: “The world has gone completely mad!”
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Paris II
← Clermont-Ferrand IIPilzno/Pilsen →
Our Lady of Good Deliverance
(Notre Dame de la Bonne Delivrance)
In the chapel of the Congregation of the Sisters of St. Thomas of Villeneuve (open to the public), 52 Blvd. d'Argenson, Neuilly-sur-Seine, outside of Paris, 14th century, replacing an 11th century version of The Black Virgin of Paris, 150 cm, painted limestone.
photo: Fortier
She used to stand in the church Saint-Etienne-des-Grès in the Latin Quarter, but that church was destroyed during the Revolution and all its content sold. Madame de Carignan, a pious rich lady bought the statue and venerated her in her private home until she was arrested during the Reign of Terror (a period of 11 months following the Revolution, which cost 20-40,000 people their lives.) In jail she used to pray to Our Lady of Good Deliverance with others who had been arrested for their faith, in particular the Sisters of St. Thomas. When all of them survived and were freed in 1806, Madame gave the Black Virgin to the Sisters.
Under the patronage of this Virgin the Royal Confraternity of the Charity of Our Lady of Good Deliverance had been founded in 1533 and comprised thousands of aristocratic and common members. It was meant to be "a saintly society" dedicated to the honor of God and "his very dignified Mother, the glorious Virgin Mary … to keep a singular devotion alive in all real Christian men and women." This association was founded by a priest named Jean Olivier, who was "greatly pious, devoted to Our Lady with strong affection, in the service of the Queen of Angels".(*1) The group organized processions and ministered to prisoners, even paying their debts if they were imprisoned for not being able to pay them.
Our Lady of Good Deliverance was invoked as a helper in all kinds of calamities and suffering, whether of a spiritual or material nature. She was also called upon as the Victorious One in the fight against the Huguenots and other "heretics."
The great saints of Paris, most notably Vincent de Paul and Francis de Sales prayed before her. Young Francis spent some years in Paris as he was trying to find his way in life. His poor soul went into a downward spiral of despair as he became more and more convinced that he was doomed to eternal hell fire. One day he went before Our Lady of Good Deliverance to pour out his heart. Soon he was moved to pick up a prayer tablet that was hanging from the railing of her chapel. He read the prayer, "…rose from his knees, and at that very moment felt entirely healed. His troubles, so it seemed to him, had fallen about his feet like a leper's scales."(*2) Immediately he made a vow of celibacy before God and his Mother. The prayer he had sent to Heaven was the Memorare:
Remember, O most gracious Virgin Mary, that never was it known that anyone who fled to your protection, implored your help, or sought your intercession, was left unaided. Inspired by this confidence, I fly unto you, O Virgin of Virgins, my Mother. To you I come; before you I stand sinful and sorrowful. O Mother of the Word Incarnate! Despise not my petitions, but in your mercy hear and answer me. Amen.
Not long after this event another priest with great love for Our Mother who ministered to the poor and to prisoners in Paris, spread the fame of this prayer. To this day it is recited all over the world at the conclusion of the Rosary.
*1: www.missel.free.fr/Sanctoral/07/18.php
*2: Account of his very close friend St. Jane de Chantal, quoted in: Marie Chantal Sbordone, VHM Mary's Role in the Faith Crisis of St. Francis de Sales, on www.desales.edu/~salesian/resources/articles/English/sfscrisis.bvm.htm
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As published by the Victoria Standard: April 10, 2019
As a member of the Lima Group, Canada has chosen to interfere in the politics of Venezuela, a troubled but sovereign state. Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland has publicly declared Canada’s intentions regarding so-called democracy promotion.
Unfortunately, Canada’s stance ignores both the negative effects on Venezuela of long-term U.S. trade sanctions and the violent failures of recent democracy promotion campaigns in the Middle East. Like Iraq and Libya, Venezuela has vast oil reserves of great interest to American and Canadian oil companies.
The Lima group, a coalition of 14 Latin American states plus Canada, recently met in Ottawa to discuss ways to basically effect Venezuelan regime change, replacing President Nicolas Maduro with a relative unknown: interim National Assembly President Juan Guaido. Incidentally, this scheme is forbidden under the charter of the Organization of American States (OAS) a separate group of countries including the U.S. and Brazil.
The Lima Group, the Trump administration and its OAS allies claim that Maduro’s 2018 election was fraudulent and support Juan Guaido’s willingness to replace him as acting president until new elections are held. However, since Maduro enjoys strong armed forces support, the Lima Group is attempting to shift military loyalty to Guaido and also fund him with frozen Venezuelan financial assets currently unavailable to Maduro under U.S. sanctions.
Further, Guiado’s justification for replacing Maduro is the unproven claim that Maduro had “abandoned” the presidency in 2018 since the major opposition parties had boycotted the election. This claim is undermined by the fact that opposition politicians failed to mention Maduro’s alleged fraud during the election period.
Understanding recent Venezuela history requires mention of the country’s deceased former president Hugo Chavez. Prior to his 1998 election, Venezuela was reeling from an economic crisis caused largely by the policies of Chavez’s dictatorial predecessor Marcos Pérez Jiménez. Under Jiménez, Venezuela experienced a program of huge tax breaks for its wealthy citizens and American corporations, privatization of public assets and deep cuts to social programs, an economic policy called neoliberalism.
Between 1998 and his 2013 death Chavez’s policies had mainly benefited average Venezuelans. While he did fail in invest sufficient funds in oil technology and infrastructure, he did direct oil profits to public healthcare, housing and education. Like Castro, Chavez chose the risky path of an independent foreign policy that prioritized the well-being of his fellow citizens over U.S. regional interests.
Perhaps the worst blow to U.S. – Venezuela relations was Chavez’s efforts to shift oil exports from the U.S. to China as well as his decision to conduct Venezuelan oil sales in Chinese Yuan currency rather than U.S. dollars. These policies likely inspired the 2012 coup attempt, U.S. sanctions and open hints about violent regime change from American officials like John Bolton, a former UN ambassador noted for favoring military interventions.
Unfortunately for Venezuela, the United States wields considerable influence over Canada, the Lima Group and the OAS. The Trump government is determined to continue its regime of punishing sanctions to drive Nicolas Maduro from power. Previous sanctions, combined with a global drop in oil prices, had made it impossible for Maduro to continue the Chavez legacy.
Venezuela’s national oil company Petróleos de Venezuela (PDVSA) is now blocked from selling oil to the U.S. and the Trump government is pressuring U.S. allies to shun Maduro. While PDVSA remains under sanction, Chevron and oil services company Halliburton have been granted waivers to continue operating in Venezuela.
Considering Trudeau’s low approval numbers and the looming October, 2019 federal election, Canada’s role in hosting the Lima Group provides a timely diversion to the SNC Lavelin controversy. Canada’s anti-Maduro stance simultaneously pleases the Trump administration and positions Canada for favourable trade arrangements. As well, it is unlikely that a Conservative prime minister would have approached Venezuela in a different manner than Trudeau’s Liberals have.
Canada’s democracy may be more settled than Venezuela’s but that stability owes as much to geography and historical alliances as it does to the positive qualities of Canada and its citizens. It is certain that most Canadians would strongly resist foreign interference in their nation’s affairs. Therefore, no matter the strife in Venezuela, it is vital that Canadian politicians grant Venezuelans the same moral and intellectual standing they automatically assume for themselves.
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Kno Prices Its Student Tablets at $599 and $899 to Ship by End of the Year
November 8, 2010 at 9:00 pm PT
Kno, the high-profile Silicon Valley start-up trying to jump-start a market for tablets focused on students, announced tonight that it will have a limited number available by the end of the year for sale at prices of $599 and $899.
The lower price is for its single-screen device, while the clamshell double-screen version is more expensive.
Kno would not say exactly how many it has ordered for its first tablet production run–the device is being built by China’s Foxconn–but co-founder and CEO Osman Rashid said in an interview earlier today with BoomTown that units would number “in the thousands.”
Rashid said the Kno tablet will initially be aimed at 10 college campuses across the U.S., although he also declined to name them.
“We are going to do online and offline marketing, in a very focused approach,” he said, noting that Kno would be working with some college bookstores too.
Marketing a new and complex product like the Kno will take a lot of effort and cash, especially since it is an increasingly competitive market for mobile and portable computing products that includes Apple, Microsoft, Hewlett-Packard, Google, Amazon, Dell and many others.
Kno recently raised another $46 million in funding to add to a $10 million round, and sources said that the Santa Clara, Calif., company could be back out raising even more early next year.
Its current backers include prominent venture players like Andreessen Horowitz and First Round Capital, along with investors Mike Maples and Ron Conway.
Kno’s Rashid said his company pushed the go button after getting good feedback from students in a beta test, half of whom used the single-screen device and the other half the two screens, along with its related education platform software.
“We found that 85 percent of those using the single screen wanted the dual-screen version and that those using two screens took three times more notes,” said Rashid. “Students said they love the fact that they can write in the textbook itself and it appears the way it needs to be, even in digital form.”
The first Kno will have an aluminum body, and the company will also offer a set of accessories, such as a cover and a stand.
And Kno will watch initial sales carefully. “As a start-up, we want to make sure we are meeting demand, but also that we roll it out in a careful approach,” said Rashid.
Indeed–and it will be interesting to see how that goes for the ambitious and innovative Kno.
Until the results are in, here is the official press release from Kno:
Kno Announces Pricing and Pre-Order Availability for Tablet Textbook; Pays for Itself in 3 Semesters
Delivers Significant Student Impact for Less than 1% the Cost of a 4-Year College Education
Santa Clara, CA–November 9, 2010–Kno, Inc., a powerful, groundbreaking tablet textbook designed specifically for students and the education market, today revealed the price of its 14.1 inch single and dual-screen tablets at $599 and $899, respectively. The company also announced that it is now accepting a limited number of pre-orders for an initial shipment that is expected to be on customers’ doorsteps by the end of the year.
“Kno’s extraordinary benefits represent only a tiny fraction of the overall cost of college, but its impact on the student’s career–and the energy it adds to the experience, the thrill of learning, and the ultimate grade–is dramatic,” said Osman Rashid, Co-Founder and CEO of Kno, Inc. “Even better, when you do the math, it actually pays for itself and still saves $1,300 in digital textbook costs.”
Kno has been beta-testing the product with students and the response has been overwhelmingly positive for both the single and dual screen devices. Far more than just a digital textbook, Kno is creating a powerfully effective new learning environment that will make students at all levels more successful at processing, grasping and retaining both facts and concepts.
“My experience with Kno has been really incredible. My books have become more interactive and the ability to hand-write electronic notes on the book pages themselves has changed how I retain information,” said Melissa Lin, a sophomore majoring in Biology at UC Berkeley that has been beta-testing the Kno tablet. “I see a ton of difference with the Kno. I can carry everything with me including my books, my notebooks and a browser for research. And, with the lower cost of digital textbooks, it will pay for itself in three semesters which is really great.”
Digital textbooks, which typically cost between 30 and 50 percent less than physical textbooks, will be priced separately and will be sold through the Kno bookstore, which will be accessible on every Kno device. Starting today, students will be able to browse Kno’s bookstore at www.kno.com/store/books, which will include tens of thousands of the most popular textbooks and supplement materials. Kno has previously announced that it is working with major textbook publishers including Cengage, McGraw Hill and Pearson. The company recently added publishers including Macmillan, Bedford, Freeman & Worth and Holtzbrinck as well as BarCharts Publishing, Kaplan, Random House and a large number of the University Presses.
“According to the not-for-profit College Board’s 2010 report, the average college student spends approximately $1,100 a year on book and supplies,” said Babur Habib, CTO and Co-Founder of Kno, Inc. “Kno can reduce that cost while bringing education into the 21st Century, providing students with a far superior learning experience than they have today.”
To learn more about Kno, please visit the Kno blog at http://blog.kno.com or visit us on Facebook www.facebook.com/GoodtoKNO, Twitter www.twitter.com/GoodtoKNO and YouTube www.youtube.com/GoodtoKNO.
Tagged with: accessory, aluminum, Amazon, Andreessen Horowitz, Apple, bookstore, BoomTown, California, campus, China, clamshell, college, computing, cover, Dell, device, digital, dual, education, financial, First Round Capital, Foxconn, funding, Google, hardware, Hewlett-Packard, innovation, Internet, interview, Kara Swisher, Kno, market, Microsoft, Mike Maples, notes, Osman Rashid, portabel, portable, press release, price, product, production, Ron Conway, round, sale, sales, Santa Clara, ship, Silicon Valley, single, software, stand, start-up, student, tablet, textbook, two, venture
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R.I.P. Nora Ephron
Tue, Jun 26 2012 10:57 PM
Because if I tell the story, I control the version.
Because if I tell the story, I can make you laugh, and I would rather have you laugh at me than feel sorry for me.
Because if I tell the story, it doesn't hurt as much.
Because if I tell the story, I can get on with it.
Nora Ephron’s character Rachel Samstat in "Heartburn" when asked “Why do you feel you have to turn everything into a story?”
| Celebrities, Lit / Art / Music /Photo, TV/Movies
R.I.P. Gary Coleman
Sat, May 29 2010 01:24 AM
iTunes is currently playing: Rest For The Weary from the album The Rainy Season by Marc Cohn.
| Celebrities, TV/Movies
Jack Bauer interrogates Santa
Sun, Dec 20 2009 01:35 PM
I am SO looking forward to January 17th, when Jack and Chloe return for Season 8.
iTunes is currently playing: Feliz Navidad from the album Feliz Navidad by José Feliciano.
Offensive? You be the judge.
Mon, Feb 2 2009 09:42 AM
NBC was happy to take money from the makers of Doritos to show us an ad during the Super Bowl in which a man takes a bite out of a Dorito and a woman's clothes fly off of her body.
They also took money for a GoDaddy.com ad in which a woman with huge, fake breasts rips her sweater open to show us what she paid for.
But NBC apparently felt that the following ad was too offensive for television.
iTunes is currently playing: That's The Way I've Always Heard It Should Be from the album The Best Of Carly Simon by Carly Simon.
| News / Sports, Religion/Ethics, TV/Movies
R.I.P. The Piemaker and DeadGirl
Thu, Nov 20 2008 06:47 PM
First, Wonderfalls. Now Pushing Daisies. Sigh ...
From E! Online, the facts are these:
ABC has cancelled Pushing Daisies, executive producer Bryan Fuller confirms to me exclusively.
Bryan Fuller tells me, "[ABC president] Steve McPherson called me, and said 'We gave it the best shot we could.' "
According to Fuller, the facts are these: "It's very likely that Pushing Daisies will end after episode 13, which as you know, is a cliffhanger. But we are talking to DC Comics about doing comic books that will wrap up our storylines, and I already have a pitch for a movie ready to go.
"To be honest, I'm really not feeling very boo hoo about it. I am so proud of the show. We put together 22 really good episodes, and there is a lot to be proud of. I'm sure I'll be working with a lot of these people again, and I would love to do so."
iTunes is currently playing: Vincent from the album Sun Down Lady by Lani Hall.
| TV/Movies
Jack Bauer is back ...
Sat, Nov 1 2008 05:10 AM
... and if the trailer is any indication, it was worth the wait!
iTunes is currently playing: Stand And Fight from the album Dad Loves His Work by James Taylor.
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Cray Valley boss Kevin Watson: We’ve brought players together that have achieved something measurable but it will be heartbreak for us if we go out and it will be heartbreak for Canterbury to go that far and not go the final leg as such
CRAY VALLEY (Paper Mills) manager Kevin Watson says it would be an incredible achievement to reach The Buildbase FA Vase Final at Wembley Stadium.
The Millers lock horns with their Southern Counties East Football League Premier Division rivals Canterbury City in a two-legged winner-takes-all showdown to see which Kent side will play Northwich Victoria or Chertsey Town at Wembley Stadium on Sunday 19 May 2019.
Cray Valley have home advantage for the first leg at Middle Park Avenue in Eltham next Sunday, 17 March, before the second-leg takes place at Salters Lane in Faversham on Saturday 23 March.
“It’s 50-50 who wins over the two legs. I don’t think anything will be decided in the first leg at all, regardless of the score. Maybe if someone has a 5-0 lead going into the second one maybe,” said Watson, whose side are now second in the league table just two points behind leaders Corinthian with nine league games remaining.
“Both teams will expect to be in the tie going into the second leg. I don’t feel there’s too much of a home advantage. We won’t set-up to get a certain result here and then a certain result there, we don’t actually do that anyway. We go and try to win games whoever we play.
“All credit to Canterbury, I went to watch them beat Biggleswade in the Quarter-Finals and I’m really pleased for them. They do some things right, they’re a really nice management team with honest players and a certainly different team to what we beat 2-0 in December.
“They’ve made some good, experienced signings. We want to play against good teams because that’s a test and measure to where we’re at.
“The team we played in the Quarter-Finals (Willand Rovers), I thought were excellent and they would be towards the top of our league.
“What we’ve done, we’ve brought players together that have achieved something measurable but it will be heartbreak for us if we go out and it will be heartbreak for Canterbury to go that far and not go the final leg as such.
“We’re not really thinking of it (Wembley) as an achievement as such yet. We’ll see where we get to. If we go out we might reflect and go we’ve done quite well.
“That’s the only problem of playing Canterbury. I think it’s the heartbreak isn’t it. People were saying who do you want in the draw? I don’t know, I’ll tell you afterwards. If we win it was the right draw, if we don’t win, it was the wrong draw.
“I think their manager (Ben Smith) will say the same thing, it’s 50-50. You can’t call it. It will be naïve for somebody to assume there’s a favourite, there’s not. We’ve both got to that stage, league form absolutely goes out of the window doesn’t it.”
When asked if guiding Cray Valley to the Semi-Finals of a national competition was an achievement in life, Watson, a school teacher at a school in Welling, said: “What in life or in football? As a manager or a player, I don’t know. I think the achievement is getting a group of players together that are achieving things, it’s not about an achievement for me.
“Whether people buy into this or not, I’ve said all along my life would be easier without football. I don’t desperately need it, I choose to do it. I’ve got no aspirations of managing much, much higher because I’ve got a job that I’m happy with, got a happy family life. It’s a release for me for my aspects of my life. I feel sorry for my family at times because I’m out. I live in Brentwood in Essex and they’re very patient with that but the success side of it for me is creating an environment that brings success for other people.”
What would it mean to get to Wembley? Oh by the way, losing a final at Wembley hurts, it really hurts!
“It will be incredible but you can’t think beyond, you can’t think of the past or the future, you’ve got to concentre on the here and now and try to get that right.
“It’s a dream that may never come. I don’t think I’m optimistic or pessimistic, I’m just realistic with my views. It’s not worth thinking about because you haven’t got it until you’ve got it. If we win I will obviously think about it.”
Visit Cray Valley’s website: www.cray-valley.co.uk
Cray Valley (Paper Mills) v Canterbury City
The Buildbase FA Vase Semi-Final First Leg
Kick Off 3:00pm
at Badgers Sports, Middle Park Avenue, Eltham, London SE9 5HT
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Ross Baker and Danny Joy part company with Tudor Sports after 18 months in charge
TUDOR SPORTS begin the search for a new management team after Ross Baker and Danny Joy parted company this morning after 18 months in charge.
The club play at Oxford Road in Sidcup – the former Kent League home of Cray Wanderers and then Kent Invicta League side Seven Acre & Sidcup – and are in eleventh-place (of 16 teams) in the Andreas Carter Kent County League Premier Division table with a playing record of two wins and a draw from eight league games.
“We would like to thank Tudor Sports for their efforts over the last 18 months,” said Baker, on Twitter.
“We feel it’s time to move on due to issues behind the scenes. Hopefully we won’t be out of the game for too long.”
A club statement added: “This morning we have regrettably accepted the resignation of Ross Baker and Danny Joy. We thank them for their hard work over the last 18 months and wish them all the best for the future.”
The pair lost their last game at Peckham Town by four-goals-to-one yesterday, extending their winless run to three games.
Tudor Sports travel to Dartford to play Southern Counties East Football League First Division side Kent Football United in the Hospitals Charity Cup on Tuesday night.
Ennio Gonnella’s side are in the bottom five with a playing record of two wins and two draws from their opening 11 league games.
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LAUSD grad is one of three Nobel Prize winners in physics
Posted on October 13, 2017 Author Independent Staff Comment(0) 41 Views
LOS ANGELES — A 1954 graduate of John Marshall High School was named Oct. 3 as one of three winners of the Nobel Prize in Physics for the discovery of gravitational waves, a development that confirmed a key element of Einstein’s General Theory of Relativity.
Barry C. Barish, who grew up in Los Angeles, shared the Nobel honors with Kip S. Thorne, his colleague at the California Institute of Technology, and Rainer Weiss, a professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
The honor recognizes their development of the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory.
Barish attended schools in the Los Angeles Unified School District, including Micheltorena Elementary, Thomas Starr King Junior High and Marshall High School.
“Tennis was my passion in high school, and we had a great team,” he said. “As a teenage boy, I wanted to be a great sports star more than a scientist, but I had a coach who believed in me and encouraged me to excel in school.”
Following his graduation from Marshall, the Nobel winner earned his bachelor’s degree in physics and his doctorate in experimental high-energy physics from UC Berkeley. He started working at Caltech in 1963.
“It was at Caltech that science came to life for me,” said Barish, who is a professor emeritus at the Pasadena university.
L.A. Unified officials praised Barish for his achievement.
“Congratulations to Dr. Barish and his esteemed colleagues for receiving this monumental honor,” said Superintendent Michelle King. “Dr. Barish is another shining example of an L.A. Unified student who worked hard throughout his entire school career and graduated fully motivated and prepared to change the world for the better.”
School board President Mónica García added, “We have amazing minds in this district – in our learners and those who support them in our schools, communities and at home. On behalf of the L.A. Unified family, both past and present, we celebrate this amazing achievement recognizing an advanced understanding of our universe.”
School board Vice President Nick Melvoin said, “Congratulations to Marshall High School graduate Barry Barish for his 2017 Nobel Prize in Physics. All at once, Barish has revolutionized the way scientists view the universe and shown current L.A. Unified students that the boundaries for their futures are limitless.”
School board member George J. McKenna III said, “We celebrate the accomplishments of L.A. Unified’s own Barry Barish on winning the Nobel Prize in Physics. His achievements have made an indelible mark on the world of physics, and he stands as an example of what is possible for our students and their dreams.”
School board member Scott Schmerelson said, “Congratulations to Dr. Barish on this amazing honor. This accomplishment is yet another incredible example of the talent within our district. We are so proud of all of our students, both past and present.”
“I am so excited to know that Dr. Barish, a product of our Board District 5 communities, has been awarded such a prestigious honor,” said school board member Ref Rodriguez. “We place deep value on the ability of folks to marry their passions to their professions, and we commend Dr. Barish for his accomplishments in accelerating research in the field of astrophysics. He is a true innovator whose impact and achievements have forever shaped the course of history and science.”
School board member Kelly Gonez said, “This is a great day for Barry Barish, and we in L.A. Unified are so proud to claim him as an alumnus. As a former science teacher, I take particular joy in seeing our former student receive the Nobel Prize in Physics. There’s no limit to what our students can accomplish, and this is just another example of the great achievements we hope for each and every student.”
School board member Richard Vladovic said, “I want to congratulate Dr. Barish on adding the crown jewel of awards — the Nobel Prize in Physics — to his already considerable list of achievements for his work in the field of science. His work in developing the LIGO has been a significant tool in assisting our understanding of gravitational waves, thus enhancing understanding of the universe and the distances between Earth and the rest of the cosmos.
“Dr. Barish is a fine example of L.A. Unified,” Vladovic added, “and a shining example to all of our students to aim high, dream big, and be a major contributor to our communities, our nation, and the world.”
Tagged Barry C. Barish, California Institute of Technology, gravitational waves, John Marshall High School, Kip S. Thorne, Los Angeles Unified School District, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Nobel Prize in Physics, Rainer Weiss, Superintendent Michelle King, UC Berkeley
LAI Staff
City Hall ‘bat signal’ honors Adam West
Posted on June 23, 2017 Author Independent Wire Services
LOS ANGELES — Late “Batman” star Adam West was honored June 15 at Los Angeles City Hall, with officials lighting the side of the building with a 70-foot tall “bat signal.” Thousands of people, including families with young children, came to downtown Los Angeles sporting Batman attire and other superhero garb to pay tribute to Read More…
New fault line maps could impact development plans
Posted on July 21, 2017 Author Independent Staff and Wire Reports
LOS ANGELES — State officials have released preliminary maps outlining the locations of earthquake fault lines on the Westside and other parts of the Los Angeles area, which could have a major impact on future development projects. The maps from the California Geological Survey show a fault line cutting through neighborhoods in Beverly Hills, Santa Read More…
Hollywood LGBT Issues Local News West Hollywood
County hate crimes increased by 24 percent in 2015
Posted on October 7, 2016 Author Independent Wire Services
LOS ANGELES — Following a seven-year downward trend, reported hate crimes in Los Angeles County numbered 483 last year — up from 390 such crimes in 2014, the county Commission on Human Relations announced Sept. 29. According to its annual report — which defines a hate crime as one in which hatred or prejudice toward Read More…
Ryu seeks restrictions on tour bus operators
Debra Messing receives star on Walk of Fame
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Fresno Bee Article: Southeast Fresno will get Reilly park, but there is only enough money for basics
Read more: http://www.fresnobee.com/2011/04/12/2348123/southeast-fresno-will-get-reilly.html#ixzz1JXmh1yCm
City officials reassured nearly 100 residents of southeast Fresno on Tuesday night that Martin Ray Reilly Park will be built — but it might not have everything the city initially planned.
Assistant City Manager Bruce Rudd told residents at a community meeting at Burroughs Elementary School that the initial design for the park exceeded the budget. The park was going to include a splash park, a dog park, a covered tot lot, green space and parking. Now, it will be stripped to the basics, including only those amenities that community members decide are most important.
“The money is available,” Rudd said. “There just isn’t enough money to build this with a splash park and everything else.”
Despite the reduction in park amenities, the crowd erupted in cheers when they learned the park still would be built.
“What we need, unfortunately, isn’t here,” said Susana Cruz, who has lived in southeast Fresno for seven years. “It’s not a luxury thing that we want; it’s a necessity.”
Ramona Vivas agreed, saying that the park would be an essential place for the community to gather and have room to exercise. “I think that it will be very beneficial for our kids,” she said through a translator.
Fresno City Council Member Clint Olivier said the neighborhood surrounding the proposed park, at the southeast corner of Highway 180 and Chestnut Avenue, has been lacking in “safe, clean and secure places for our children to play.” He added: “It’s very important to the people who live here to see this park built.”
The city is contributing $1.2 million from a park bond toward construction. City officials said construction should start in spring of 2012 and be completed by July 2012.
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Belarus: High Tech Park Releases ‘Complete Legal Regulations’ for Cryptocurrencies
Belarus High-Technologies Park (HTP), a national special economic zone contributing to the IT business, has established the rules for the operation of the cryptocurrency market in the country, according to documents published by HTP Nov. 30.
The regulatory documents define the requirements for various types of businesses related to cryptocurrencies and Initial Coin Offerings (ICO), as the general rules for industry regulations — Decree No. 8 “On the Development of the Digital Economy” — had already been signed last year.
The HTP, commonly known as the Belarusian Silicon Valley, was responsible for establishing the rules under which the cryptocurrency industry would be regulated in the country. Today, the HTP has published five documents: “Requirements for Applicants,” “Requirements for Cryptoplatform Operators,” “Requirements for Cryptocurrency Exchange Office Operators,” “Requirements for ICO Operators,” and “Requirements for Internal Control Rules.”
Now that these rules have been accepted, they form “a complete legal regulation of cryptocurrency in Belarus,” local Belarusian news outlet Dev.by reports. It also states:
“The cryptocurrency activities of the HTP residents received full comprehensive legislative support from the regulator. The HTP administration, together with the National Bank, the Financial Monitoring Department of the State Control Committee, international experts and other bodies, compiled and signed all the necessary documents.”
Back in the spring, the Belarus government called the digitalization of the national economy “a top priority,” because of its ability to transform “the economy, public administration and social services,” as Cointelegraph reported May 16.
Previously this fall, the deputy foreign minister of Belarus stated that Belarus aimed to establish relations with South Korean investors interested in the so-dubbed “fourth industrial revolution” technologies, focusing on artificial intelligence (AI) and blockchain, Cointelegraph wrote Sep. 6.
Previous New Exchange to Offer Customizable Dashboards — Giving Traders the Information They Want
Next First Blockchain Smartphones Appear on the Market: Sirin Labs' Finney Unboxed
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Author: R. Ahdar, I. Leigh (eds.)
Publication Place: Oxford
This book develops a normative theory of religious freedom from a liberal democratic standpoint and provides an invaluable comparative analysis of major Anglophone common law jurisdictions and European human rights jurisprudence
•Increased coverage of Islam and the flashpoint debates surrounding the accommodation of Muslim beliefs and practices in Anglophone nations
•Analysis of recent case law and legislation in the UK, the US, Europe, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand
Examining the law and public policy relating to religious liberty in Western liberal democracies, this book contains a detailed analysis of the history, rationale, scope, and limits of religious freedom from (but not restricted to) an evangelical Christian perspective. Focussing on United Kingdom, the United States, Canada, New Zealand, Australia, and EU, it studies the interaction between law and religion at several different levels, looking at the key debates that have arisen.
Divided into three parts, the book begins by contrasting the liberal and Christian rationales for and understandings of religious freedom. It then explores central thematic issues: the types of constitutional frameworks within which any right to religious exercise must operate; the varieties of paradigmatic relationships between organized religion and the state; the meaning of 'religion'; the limitations upon individual and institutional religious behaviour; and the domestic and international legal mechanisms that have evolved to address religious conduct. The final part explores key subject areas where current religious freedom controversies have arisen: employment; education; parental rights and childrearing; controls on pro-religious and anti-religious expression; medical treatment; and religious group (church) autonomy.
This new edition is fully updated with the growing case law in the area, and features increased coverage of Islam and the flashpoint debates surrounding the accommodation of Muslim beliefs and practices in Anglophone nations.
1: Christian Perspectives
2: Liberal Perspectives
3: Models of Religion-State Relations
4: Legal Protection of Religious Freedom
5: Is Establishment Consistent with Religious Freedom?
6: Limits to Religious Freedom
7: Families, Parents, and Children
8: Education
9: Medical Treatment
10: Employment
11: Religious Group Autonomy
12: Religious Expression and Protest
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Fisher Island is an exclusive, man-made island located three miles off the coast of Miami… an offshore paradise. The presitigious island community was once owned by the Vanderbilts and to this day is accessable only by private yacht, helicopter or ferry. Fisher Island had the highest per capita income in the entire U.S. a decade ago.
The island was formed by dredging in 1905 and was originally named for Carl B. Fisher who purchased the property and began construction in 1919. Only six years later, in 1925, Carl Fisher traded ownership of the Island to William K. Vanderbilt II in exhcnage for a luxury yacht. After the 1944 death of Mr. Vanderbilt, the owner became Edward Moore, heir to U.S. Steel. In the early 50’s, Moore died and Gar Wood-millionaire inventor of hydraulic construction equipment-bought it. Wood made the island a one family oasis. He sold the island in 1963 to a development group which included George Smathers (a U.S. Senator and Miami native), millionaire Bebe Rebozo and then former U.S. Vice President Richard Nixon).
In the 1980’s, further development was started on the island with architecture similar to the original 1920’s Spanish style mansions. The island, no longer owned by a single family, is still as exclusive as it once was, making it somewhat inaccessible to univited guests and the public. Oprah Winfrey, Julia Roberts and Boris Becker are all celebrities with homes on Fisher Island. The island offers luxury single family residences and stunning condominiums. There is also a hotel, fine dining, country club, tennis and golf, private dock space, a post office, schools, and beautiful white sand beaches… and the common form of transporation around the island is by golf cart.
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How To Stop Being Jealous
or: 5 Ways to Kill the Green-Eyed Monster Before it Kills You
I was consulting with a client poised on the brink of Making It Big. We were brainstorming marketing strategy, deciding where to focus our immediate efforts, and discussing how to balance book and television projects with personal appearances.
“Get ready for it to get weird,” I warned him.
“It already has,” he said, uncharacteristically serious. “As soon as I officially announced my Major Product had been optioned and was going into national distribution, long-term friends unfriended me on FaceBook.”
Before I could launch into my trademark anti-Facebook rant, he continued, “Then the phone started ringing with people calling me and my clients to rain down crap and tell me how I’m going about this all wrong... Do you know how many phone calls of congratulations I got?”
I wish I could say I was surprised.
I’ve seen it happen before: people work, often for years, with little to nothing to show for it. They amass a small, devoted army of supporters who see the potential the world has yet to discover. Then fortune finally smiles and blesses them with success on a larger scale—
The Pit of Despair: The Well of Jealous Souls
And all hell breaks loose.
Oh, sure, some of the original followers applaud the achievement, reasoning (rightly) that there are special places in the Inner Circle reserved for Those Who Came First.
But often with larger scale success comes a whole cast of new characters -- managers, producers, public relations people, coaches -- not to mention new challenges and new responsibilities.
Launching any major project can be an all-consuming task, much as having a baby completely occupies new parents’ every micro-neuron. Those who aren’t actively involved in the launch (like those who have never been parents) can feel left out, marginalized, or forgotten. For those looking on from the sidelines – especially those who have been hoping for their own success -- it’s a very short trip to the Pit of Despair for a heaping helping of jealousy.
Jealousy has its roots in both selfishness and anger, two of the most cancerous, toxic emotions known to humanity. It is also one of the most ironic of emotions. Giving in to jealousy is like drinking poison and expecting someone else to die. Jealousy kills relationships because it destroys the person it originates with. It virtually eats you alive.
So, how can you kill the green-eyed monster before it ruins you? Some suggestions:
1.) Practice Contentment. I’m not talking about a forced, false happiness. Contentment is different. It’s not giddy. It’s not out of control. It’s a quiet, calm joy that can be found in any life at any time, if one looks for it.
Pet a dog. Eat something warm from the oven. Listen to your favorite musician. Watch your favorite movie. Be grateful that you can see, or hear, or smell, or taste. Do something you genuinely enjoy and savor the experience. One of the best ways to avoid being jealous of someone else is to do something that feeds your soul instead of sucking it dry.
2.) Avoid the Death-Trap of Comparison. Comparing yourself never ends well. In the best case scenarios, you come out on top, making you feel (and therefore act) superior. Which usually results in general asshattery. Worst-case scenario – you come out with the short end of the stick, which only beats the green-eyed monster and irritates him.
Everyone is different. Everyone has different strengths and weaknesses. Every character has a different arc. But everyone is the hero of his or her own story. Your only job is to be the best version of you possible.
3.) Celebrate Success. Make a concentrated effort to acknowledge the successes of others. Even if they have succeeded at something that still eludes you. Especially if they have succeeded at something that still eludes you.
4.) Resist the Urge to Scourge. Do you hate to read success stories? Does it just grind your tonenails into dust to read about successful debut novelists? Or spec script sales stories? Or "how I met my agent" or "how I met my husband" match-made-in-heaven stories?
There is no quota of successful people on the planet. Just because someone else has achieved a goal you've set for yourself doesn't mean you can't still make it.
We're all climbing the ladder of success. Beware of the temptation to mock those who are perched above you. Not only is karma real (how do you want people to react to you when you reach that rung?), but actively denigrating others does nothing to build you up. On the contrary, it saps your creative juices and punts you into the Back Alley Bully camp. Ick.
Never engage trolls...
If you truly loathe others' success, then you are only sealing your own fate. Self-preservation refuses to allow us to become something we hate. Those who hate rich people will never be wealthy. If they were, they would have to hate themselves. In the same vein, those who begrudge another person's success are virtually guaranteeing they will never achieve anything comparable.
I had an interesting chat on Twitter this past week with a screenwriter who has just released his first novel. His book enjoyed noteworthy success, cracking the Top 100 of its genre on Amazon... incurring the anger of the ‘Zon trolls.
Someone posted a hateful, spiteful, vitriol-infused rant disguised as a “review” of his book. When the novelist responded (NOTE: never engage the trolls. Any attempt at rational discourse only infuriates them.), the troll brought out a gang-bang of his cronies -- each with the sole purpose of defecating on the writer's success. Fortunately, the novelist was too smart to take their poo flinging seriously. But that doesn't mean such crass behavior doesn't stink.
5.) Work. If All Else Fails -- Work Harder. An excellent antidote for allowing jealousy to overcome you is to immerse yourself in a pet project of your choosing.
Get to work. Focus on creating something that enriches your life and makes you proud. Hone your craft. Challenge yourself to grow even more adept at the skills you need. Not only will this help refocus your energies on something positive (thus starving the green-eyed monster), but it will also help set the stage for your own -- imminent -- sweeping success.
Posted by Ami Hendrickson at 9:04 PM No comments: Links to this post
Labels: advice, jealous, jealousy, success
Bucking the Odds
Faith Conroy is my hero.
Not because for the past two decades she has had steady work with the likes of Redford, Costner, Cruise, Witherspoon, Woo, Hopkins, Branagh, Whedon & other notables.
Not because she's a girl from the east who has carved a niche for herself as script supervisor for big studio films in L.A.
Not because she knows how to ride and has written a true-to-life film about horses.
Not even because in a few weeks, she'll be traveling cross country in a bus with the likes of Skeet Ulrich and Christian Kane. (OK, maybe a little bit because of that...)
The reason Faith Conroy is my hero is simple: she refused to buy into the ageism and sexism everyone says abounds in the film industry. Perhaps even more impressive, she didn't allow herself to be constrained by a career box. After years of supervising other people's screenplays, she co-wrote a script of her own AND helped to produce it as well.
She got involved, took the reins, and got the movie made.
No matter how you cook the film industry stats, they show dismal career opportunities for women. According to the Huffington Post, screenplays written by people without a Y chromosome accounted for less than 10% of spec script sales from 2010 to 2012.
But my heroes don't let the odds tell them what can't be done. They saddle up, get their cowboy on, and ride.
Conroy teamed up with Oscar-winning producer Jim Wilson to make the independent feature 50 to 1 -- the true story of Kentucky Derby underdog Mine That Bird. Now that the film is finished, she is personally involved in promoting it and helping it find an audience -- things that only further elevate her in my Halls of Heroes.
Which brings me to that cross country bus trip...
The entire cast and crew of "50 to 1" have taken time out of their schedules and money out of their pockets to literally go on tour together. Starting in March, they're going to board a bus in New Mexico and make whistle stops across the country as they head toward Kentucky.
These days, it's easy to swallow the lie that the only way to "make it" is to sell a piece of yourself. But Conroy, Wilson, Kane, Ulrich & the rest of the tour are trying out a new paradigm. They're going to break through by giving of themselves.
They don't have a big studio backing their promotional efforts. Ten Furlongs LLC, the production company & distributor, exists solely because of this film. They don't care that the odds are stacked against them. They're going to do it anyway.
My heroes.
Labels: 50 to 1, heroes, independent film, promotion
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Iontas: 15th Annual Small Works Exhibition, November 2004
MCAC is proud to present the fifteenth annual ‘Iontas Small Works Exhibition’. ‘Iontas’ is an open submission exhibition of small artworks by citizens of Ireland and nationals living abroad. The exhibition was organised by Sligo Art Gallery and has toured to the Hunt Museum in Limerick.
Every year ‘Iontas’ awards three prize-winners. This exhibition presents the Award Winners from 1996 – 2001. The work exhibited will be ‘small works’ with artists utilising the same criteria used when making their original submissions. (The condition is that no work may be greater than 600 mm in its greatest length or breadth).
In this year’s exhibition there are several artists who have since gone on to become well-established creators, including Eamon O’Kane. Other outstanding work includes striking photographs by the Clodagh Emoe, who won the ‘Iontas’ Travel Award in 2001, which funded a five month stay in India. This exhibition also features emerging Irish artist Sarah O'Flaherty.
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Occupying Ed
Director: Steve Balderson
Writer: Jim Lair Beard
Producer: Steve Balderson
Cast: Christopher Sams, Holly Hinton, John Werskey
Website: www.dikenga.com
After making The Casserole Club, Steve Balderson directed two lightweight capers about Americans abroad getting mixed up in international crime shenanigans. Culture Shock was shot guerilla-style on the streets of London, The Far Flung Star likewise in Hong Kong. These two films represented a radical departure for Balderson and I would be lying if I said that I thought either really works. However, I can fully understand the catharsis that Steve needed after the intensity of Watch Out, Stuck! and The Casserole Club and hence his decision to indulge himself with a couple of ‘movies’ as opposed to his previous ‘films’.
Well, now Steve Balderson is back with Occupying Ed, a return to (a) form and (b) his home town of Wamego, Kansas. Steve’s body of work is notable for its diversity but his strength has always been in his exploration of characters and relationships. Stuck! and The Casserole Club - and indeed Firecracker and even Pep Squad - explored the relationships between a group of characters in a clearly defined environment (prison, suburbia, travelling carnival, high school). The anomaly in his filmography is Watch Out in which he explores one individual’s internal relationships, collapsing the environment into a single character.
Occupying Ed is something new from Steve Balderson: a romance. Just two characters, one relationship and an anonymous American small town as backdrop. The girl is a free-spirited English chick working as a waitress in a cafe that serves ‘vegan lasagne’. The boy is an uptight tax accountant. It’s an off-the-shelf set-up that is almost iconic of contemporary US indie cinema and this may very well prove to be Steve’s most accessible film since Pep Squad.
Except...
Nothing is ever simple in Wamego. There is a love triangle in this film. Okay, so: three characters, three relationships. That’s fine. That’s been the basis of many, many movies. No problem.
I told you: nothing is ever simple. This is a love triangle where we never see one of the characters, never see one of the relationships, and where two of the characters are the same person. Like all - well, most - Steve Balderson films, Occupying Ed is much more than the sum of its parts. It is something special, something magical, something unique. I loved it.
Christopher Sams (also in The Far Flung Star) stars as Ed: mild-mannered, single, thin, clean, white guy. British actress Holly Hinton (also in Culture Shock) is Nicole, the mysterious woman who seems to be stalking him and who possibly has some connection with Ed’s occasional black-outs. Ed is losing days at a time, yet he is apparently still functioning during these black-outs, even still going to work.
What we gradually discover, as indeed does Ed, is that he has an alter ego, Helena. During those black-outs, Helena takes over Ed’s body. And Nicole is her girlfriend. So there’s our offbeat love triangle. Nicole is in love with Helena, Helena is in love with Nicole, but Nicole shares a body with Ed, whose relationship with both Helena and Nicole forms the focus of this unique love story.
In our first act, at least, there is a glorious ambiguity to this set-up as we - and Ed - try to work out what precisely is going on. Is Ed possessed by someone else’s spirit? Is Helena just a psychological artefact of some sort of mental health problem. Or is Helena the real person and perhaps Ed is the ‘other personality’? Curiously, the story this most reminded me of was Jekyll, Stephen Moffat’s six-part BBC TV updated retelling of Robert Louis Stevenson’s classic. As in that series, there are two personalities sharing a single body who never meet but are aware of each other’s existence through third parties and through the situations they find themselves in whenever control of the corpus returns to their id.
The other comparison that sprang to mind while watching Occupying Ed is the most most famous two-sided love triangle of all: Lois Lane, Clark Kent and Superman. So there are precedents. Sort of.
Whether or not we ever meet Helena on screen is something I want to gloss over, but certainly for the first two acts she’s completely absent and everything we - and Ed - find out comes from Nicole and their two social circles. Helena, like Nicole, works in a cafe managed by June (the ubiquitous Pleasant Gehman) - but she is also able to take on Ed’s work at the tax office where his practical-joke-loving boss Bruce (Chris Pudio) says he doesn’t care what Ed wears to work.
In fact, everyone seems very accepting of Helena - she’s clever, funny, good with kids, hard-working - which doesn’t exactly do wonders for Ed’s self-confidence. In opposition to this liberal view is Ed’s older brother Troy (a nicely balanced performance by John Werskey: The Far Flung Star, Bite Marks) who, while certainly not a right-wing redneck nutjob, nevertheless finds it difficult to come to terms with the sight of his brother out in public in a dress. (Not showing us this is a sound move: this is a film which actually benefits from tell, don’t show.)
Of course, the nature of the film demands that Ed and Nicole gradually fall into and out of love. It’s that old, old story: boy meets girl (who is the lesbian lover of his transvestite alter ego), boy loses girl (who is the lesbian lover of his transvestite alter ego), boy gets girl (who is the lesbian lover of his transvestite alter ego) back. In fact, there is a complexity to Ed and Nicole’s rocky relationship (possibly because the relationship is, let’s face it, complex) which makes the narrative here seem less like a three-act structure and more like a 23-act structure. But the ups and downs flow naturally and lead to a satisfying conclusion.
What no-one ever comments on - the elephant in the room - is the, er, physicality of all this. To put it bluntly, Helena has a hairy, flat chest and a dick - which is pretty butch, even for a lesbian. But as with so much else, the glossing over of such details adds to our enjoyment of the storytelling - and to Ed’s bewilderment.
While not exactly a romcom, Occupying Ed is played with a light, indie touch that makes the whole 90 minutes a delight (Steve calls it a ‘romantic dramedy’). Supporting the two outstanding lead performances are a cast of well-rounded minor characters including postman Hank (Dwight Tolar), psychiatrist Dr Frank (Melissa Atchison), her gay secretary Lonnie (Ben Windholz) and waitress Lucy (Amanda Deibert, producer of popular YouTube musical LucasFilm/Disney mash-up Bonjour Star Wars!). Balderson regular Garrett Swann - one of the few actors in both of the overseas caper movies - plays the local pastor.
With legislation around same-sex marriage currently being debated on both sides of the Atlantic, Occupying Ed couldn’t be more topical if it came with a free 2014 wall-planner. It’s a film which will play equally well to both ‘gay’ and ‘straight’ audiences (in the sense that those might be defined audience sectors, as I’m not sure either exists in real life). This is exactly the sort of convoluted relationship tale that film festival programmers love and I suspect critics will love it to. It’s a real pleasure to spend an hour and a half in the company of Ed and Nicole (and Helena) and afterwards there is a great deal to think about. Steve’s films always leave one with a great deal to think about but not since Pep Squad has he made a film which could really be described as ‘enjoyable’ (and even that was a black comedy based around jealousy and violence).
The script for Occupying Ed (originally entitled Part-time Waitress) was written by actor/blogger Jim Lair Beard - and a finely crafted piece of writing it is indeed, perfectly suited to Steve’s directorial style. With an easy-on-the-ear soundtrack of contemporary US folk tunes and expert cinematography by Daniel G Stephens (The Far Flung Star, Anatomy of the Tide), Occupying Ed ticks all the boxes that we expect from a Steve Balderson joint.
Could this be an indicator of where Steve is heading? Perhaps we can see those previous, intense films as thesis, the brace of on-the-run comedies as antithesis, and this as the ensuing synthesis. Perhaps, Steve still being a young man, he is embarking here into the next period of his career, effectively combining his defiantly unique style and approach with the expectations and requirements of cinema-going America (and the world).
From Firecracker to The Casserole Club, Steve has ploughed his own furrow, effectively flipping the bird to established ideas of how you make films and (as the second Wamego documentary made clear) how you distribute films. But something extraordinary has happened. Steve’s iconoclastic individualism has become mainstream, not because Steve has sold out but because, incredibly, the world of film-making has come to him. Years ago he said: I don’t need a distributor for Firecracker, I’ll distribute it myself - and that was seen as a brave move. But now that’s what indie film-makers do as a matter of routine. Not by roadshowing a print, admittedly, but by distributing online. We are all Steve Baldersons now.
Occupying Ed, meanwhile, is a delightful film, carried by wonderful acting, beautifully sympathetic direction, a word-perfect script and most of all a brilliant conceit. By exploring an idea which (like so much of Steve’s work) is just half a step beyond reality, Occupying Ed broadens its unique subject matter to a whole world of ideas. This isn’t a film about split personalities, it’s not a film about inadvertent transvestism, it’s not a film about part-time waitresses or small-town America. It’s a film about life and love and sexuality and gender and identity and acceptance. Big issues but not presented in any simplistic or didactic way.
Following his brief diversion to England and China, it’s great to have Steve Balderson back in Kansas, working at the top of his game, making what could conceivably be his best film so far. He has been on an awfully big adventure, but there’s no place like home.
Labels: 2013, USA
Director: Michael Feifer
Writer: Michael Hurst
Producer: Michael Feifer
Cast: Christopher Stewart, Lindsay Ballew, Trish Coren
In the prologue of The Graveyard, when six identikit teenagers in their mid-twenties sneak into a cemetery for a game of hide and seek (which they call ‘run for your life’ in an attempt to make it sound less juvenile), the person who is ‘it’ is chosen by putting names into a hat.
One gets the feeling that the screenplay for The Graveyard was created in a not dissimilar way: that a bunch of horror movie clichés were put on bits of paper and drawn one by one from a hat, then stapled together in the order they were picked - and that was called ‘the script.’
Because this really is a rubbish film. Even in the genre of teen slasher films where, you know, standards are not high and most of the audience is fairly undiscriminating, this is still rubbish enough to raise howls of mystified disapproval from the fans.
Despite the title and that prologue, most of the film is set in a ‘camp’. Now, the whole concept of ‘camp’ is something that those of us on the other side of the Atlantic find alien. It’s one of those things, like ‘senior prom’, which we only know from cinema and TV because there is no direct equivalent over here. The cultural and social context and connotations of ‘camp’ are missing. This place has a bunch of... dorms? chalets?... with bunk beds. It appears to be a functioning camp from outside, kept quite clean and tidy, but there is a scene where a girl goes into a shower (in some sort of separate shower block?) and is grossed out by how disgusting this is. What does that mean? Does it play on a belief that camp showers are always disgusting or is it meant to indicate that this is a horrible, low quality camp (belied by other locations) or that this camp is in disrepair (which it apparently is not)?
Or it could be - and this seems more likely, given what the rest of the movie is like - that the director just wanted the scene to be like that and gave no thought as to whether it made any sense.
Let’s go back to, as Lurcio used to say: the prologue.
A guy called Eric is picked to count to twenty which, for some reason, he must do behind the closed-but-not-locked gates of a particular tomb/mausoleum. The others run off to hide behind various gravestones in this remarkably well-lit cemetery.
As Eric counts, a figure in a mask appears, unseen by him, further back inside the tomb. Then the same figure appears (impossibly) in front of the gates and waves a large knife at the terrified Eric but makes no attempt to open the gates. Then the figure disappears. Eric runs off and the figures reappears, chasing him, pausing only to stab one of the girls. Eric runs and runs and...
...runs straight into the cemetery gates where he impales himself on a couple of bent bars. Which is pretty difficult to do and unlikely to be instantly fatal. But it is. His friends gather round in disbelief, including the girl who was ‘stabbed’ and the masked maniac who was actually a seventh identikit twenty-something teenager. The whole thing was a prank, you see.
Oh... you guys!
Five years later, the teenagers are closer to the actors’ rather obvious real ages. The one who was dressed up is called Billy and he has spent the past five years in prison for manslaughter while all the rest apparently got off scott-free despite being just as culpable. Billy is granted either bail or parole; the terms are used interchangeably as if they are exact synonyms, which I don’t think they are.
Now, where would be the best place for Billy to go when he comes out of prison? That’s right: straight back to the place where he was accidentally responsible for the death of one of his friends. The girl who gets him out of clink and the other five have all agreed to go back to the camp where they were staying when Eric died. Because they were at a camp, apparently, even though this is not mentioned in the prologue. And this is one of those camps that has a large cemetery next to it. Again with the cultural context: is this normal?
Although the camp is quite large, there will only be the six of them staying there. except that one of the blokes has brought along his new girlfriend who is only distinguishable from the other female characters by virtue of having a strange accent. Perhaps she’s meant to be South American or something. There is also the young man who runs the place as cook/handyman, who is indistinguishable from any of the other male characters.
You see, there are two huge problems with The Graveyard. One is that the plot, despite being a stack of clichés, makes not a lick of sense and blatantly contradicts itself in places. The other is that the characters are completely characterless and utterly indistinguishable. All the blokes are arseholes or pricks to some degree and all the girls are sluts or prickteases. I honestly couldn’t even tell you what any of the character names are except for Billy and Eric - and one of them dies before the opening credits.
The male characters are slightly less indistinguishable than the girls because the one who brought his girlfriend along is constantly boasting about his sexual prowess. The other one - the one who isn’t Billy, isn’t the cook/handyman and doesn’t boast about sex - is described by some of the others as a nerd but exhibits no nerdlike characteristics whatsoever apart from owning a laptop computer.
The women - well, the blonde one seems to be more slutty than the others but seriously, that’s it. Oh, and the girlfriend has a funny accent. Other than that, it could be the same actress and occasional split-screen effects for all the difference there is between the characters. Whatever they’re called.
As well as the camp, with its chalets/dorms and some sort of communal dining hall/bar seen in one brief scene, there is also plenty of woodland and a slightly ramshackle (from the outside), clean and tidy (on the inside) ‘boathouse’ by a lake which is actually a sort of summerhouse with tables and chairs and certainly completely devoid of boats. Oh, and there’s that cemetery. We are given absolutely no clue as to the spatial relationship between any of these locations and I suspect that’s because the director has no clue about it either. We also don’t know where this camp is situated although quite late in the film we’re told it’s ten miles from the nearest town.
So they all pitch up in their big cars and the idea is that Billy will “find closure” and “confront his demons” or some such bollocks but really, why would the parole board (who are told the plan) release someone convicted of manslaughter, knowing that he was going to immediately return to the scene of the crime along with all his accomplices? In terms of narrative bollocks, this is right up there with Camp Blood 2 and its belief that a murderer would be let out of prison to go and make a film about their murders. The Graveyard reminded me very much of Camp Blood and its sequel. The production values are higher but the story is just as nonsensical.
Now, I’d like to tell you who gets killed and in what order but because I don’t know the characters’ names and I can’t even describe them to you in any way that would differentiate them, I can’t do this. I’m not even sure if all the ones who aren’t in the final scene do actually get killed, especially as some of the characters who are very definitely and obviously killed subsequently appear, miraculously healed. One of them ironically ends up impaled on exactly the same broken railings where Eric died (I can’t help thinking that something should have been done about those five years ago, given how dangerous they obviously were) but not only does he survive, he somehow extricates himself (off screen) and is then able to run and jump and fight just like any healthy young guy.
One thing that a film like this could have going for it, which might negate the need for memorable characters or a coherent plot, is plenty of gore. But The Graveyard skimps on the gore (it skimps on the graveyard too) and shows us very little. There is one scene during the first night at the camp - or at least, during the hours of darkness, as this film has a completely cavalier attitude to things like night and day - when a person we haven’t seen before is brutally (but not graphically) murdered. Tied to a chair and beaten by the maniac in the mask, his howls of pain are mistaken by two of the girls for the sound of a dangerous animal.
But who is this guy? As the characters are so interchangeable, I couldn’t work out who he was and when all four men turned up together in a subsequent scene, I was thoroughly confused. Surely it must be one of them.
Well, it turns out no. This is the real cook/handyman at the camp being murdered by the maniac who subsequently impersonates him (who turns out to be Eric’s brother, who didn’t die in a house fire with their parents as believed - oh yes, like that really spoils this crappy movie for you). But when a by-the-book sheriff turns up later, he talks about a body found a couple of days previously in the woods, missing its hands and head. This is later identified as being the cook/handyman and Billy, who has been arrested, is freed because a call to the prison confirms that he was still incarcerated two days ago.
But wait, how could this cook who was murdered before anyone arrived at the camp also be the cook whose screams scared the girls after they arrived at the camp? This is just one of many logical and temporal inconsistencies. There are some comments on the Inaccurate Movie Database from people who say that there are scenes where Eric’s brother is in one place pretending to be the cook and in another place being the masked maniac at the same time. That may well be true but wild horses wouldn’t make me sit through this film again to check. The whole thing is so riddled with arbitrary ideas that contradict other parts of the film that one more or less really doesn’t matter.
Billy, who has been brooding and intense, turns into another arsehole halfway through, revealing that the whole intense thing was an act designed to lead up to pretending to be a knife-wielding maniac in a practical joke on one of the other guys. Wait, hang on. Wasn’t that exactly the sort of behaviour that led to the unpleasant death of one of your friends and got you banged up inside for five years? Have you learned nothing?
The first death is the girlfriend with the weird accent, strangled in the showers (despite the maniac’s proclivity for carrying a large knife) but when she goes missing there is no indication of how anyone knows she’s missing. It’s just stated that She Is Missing and they immediately split into two groups to search the (surprisingly well-lit) woods. Nobody actually searches any of the numerous buildings.
While in the woods, another woman turns up who is not one of the ones we’ve already seen but we only know this from the dialogue because she looks and acts the same. She says that one of the other women is actually a lesbian and she is her jealous girlfriend. This sexual revelation has no relevance whatsoever and the new girl then wanders off and gets killed, making her possibly the most redundant character I’ve seen in a horror film this year. It’s also not clear why bonkers Eric’s brother kills her or the weird-accent girlfriend as neither had any connection with his brother’s death.
A couple of the women visit Eric’s grave which is, incredibly, in that very same cemetery. They find that it is... open! But not open like a grave that has been dug up so somebody can steal the body. It’s actually a really neat, rectangular hole so it’s a grave that never had a body or coffin in it. That’s what happens when you employ a production designer who doesn’t know the difference between an ‘open grave’ and an ‘empty grave’ (or simply hasn’t read the script). Later, Eric’s brother is shot and falls into this grave (oh the irony) but subsequent dialogue indicates that the body has not been found. Given that Billy ‘died’ on the broken railings but later walked and talked and the sheriff was clearly killed but is fine in the final scene, we must presume that Eric’s brother also simply got up and walked away.
I’ve seen zombie movies with fewer walking dead people than this.
The Graveyard is just awful. It’s staggeringly dull and boring because it’s basically a bunch of identical young people we neither know nor care about doing random, clichéed things for no obvious reason without any lasting effect. At one point a character actually says the line, “Cliché cliché cliché!” and I think that’s a coded message from the scriptwriter, crying for help and letting us know that this isn’t really his fault.
Because this is a Michael Hurst script and I know for a fact that Mike Hurst could write something better than this in his sleep. There must be some other factor: perhaps he had to write the whole thing in an afternoon or perhaps he had to do a second draft based on nonsensical notes from the director or maybe he handed in a workable script and the whole thing was ruined during production. Yet Mike has kept his name on the thing (unlike the considerably superior Are You Scared) and that’s odd because he’s a jobbing writer-director and I wouldn’t have thought that being visibly attached to crap like this would help his career.
Who else has this film on their CV as a guilty secret? The cast includes Christopher Stewart, Lindsay Ballew, Trish Coren (Boo, Headless Horseman), Eva Derrek (Jacqueline Hyde, The Slaughter, Live Evil), Brett Donowho, James Gallinger, Sam Bologna (Unidentified, Terminal Island), Patrick Scott Lewis (Zodiac, Voodoo Curse: The Giddeh), Leif Lillehagen, Erin Lokitz (Robert Kurtzman’s Buried Alive), Markus Potter, Mark Salling (Children of the Corn IV) and Natalie Denise Sperl (Succubus: Hell Bent). I’ve listed them all because I’ve no idea who plays whom.
To be fair, it dawned on me halfway through that this film, despite appearing on the surface to be the most appallingly banal and unoriginal movie imaginable, actually offered something unique and different. Which is: there is no Token Black Guy. Every character is completely white. It doesn’t really mean anything but TBGs are the industry standard and this is such an off-the-shelf plot with absolutely nothing new or clever or original or interesting to say that it seems bizarre when it doesn’t follow this convention.
Even the killer isn’t memorable. He wears a sort of coverall with a hood tied round his face - Christ, it looks like a kagool - and his mask, when seen in occasional close-up, seems to be made from pieces of skin sewn together but that’s not relevant or alluded to in any way.
Released in the States in 2006 but only surfacing in the UK two years later, The Graveyard was the second feature directed by Michael Feifer, whose extensive experience as a producer of low-budget DTV pictures includes Witchcraft V, VI, VII, VIII and IX. From 2000’s A Crack in the Floor onwards he started doubling up as 1st AD and his directorial debut was Lethal Eviction, a thriller written by Leeches scripter Gary Barkin. In the couple of years since he made The Graveyard, Feifer has directed eight films including three based on infamous true-life serial killers, a non-horror comedy about a blogger, Grim Reaper (also written by Mike Hurst) and most recently an adaptation of Bram Stoker’s 'Dracula’s Guest' starring Andrew Bryniarski from the Texas Chainsaw Massacre remake. I haven’t seen any of these - I sincerely hope he’s got better at making films as he goes along.
What I can’t understand is why the normally reliable Revolver would pick up this piece of junk - unless it came as some sort of package with their two other Feifer-Hurst collaborations, Are You Scared (directed by Mike’s brother Andy) and The Butcher (directed by Mike himself). Since they started sending me screeners, I have been consistently impressed with Revolver’s choice of titles, from Kiltro to The Killing Floor. Some, like The Last Winter, were truly magnificent; some, like Wrestlemaniac, were great fun. The Graveyard is just lousy and I really can’t see how even the most undiscriminating slasher fan (a breed of movie fanatic not exactly renowned for their critical values) could enjoy this film.
Cinematographer Hank Baumert Jr lit this and several of Feifer’s other pictures while editor Christopher Roth has a hefty CV which includes Wizards of the Demon Sword, Steel and Lace, Return of the Living Dead 3, Leprechaun 1 and 2, The Dentist 1 and 2, Hatchet and Ghouls. Richard Redlefsen, who supplied the prosthetic make-up effects, has worked on the likes of Pirates of the Caribbean 2, Indiana Jones 4 and various CSI episodes and is now doing stuff on the Star Trek prequel.
I don’t know who is to blame for The Graveyard turning out the way it has done but this is so boring, so full of holes and generally so unwatchable that one of two things seems certain. Either somebody with no idea about film-making exercised complete control over this or several people with genuine ideas about film-making pulled it in different directions. Whichever, the result is a mess which can’t be recommended in any way for anyone.
One final note which I think perfectly encapsulates everything that’s wrong with The Graveyard: despite all the night-time scenes being well-lit, there are some cutaways to a crescent Moon. I mean, you could at least try and justify the brightness with a full Moon, but no...
MJS rating: D
Labels: 2006, bad film, slashers, USA
A Gothic Tale
Director: Justin Paul Ritter
Writer: Justin Paul Ritter
Producer: Justin Paul Ritter
Cast: Roddy Piper, Marshall Hilton, Ryan McGivern
Website: www.agothictale.com
The second feature from Justin Paul Ritter (KatieBird *Certifiable Crazy Person) is one of those films which, though artistically marvellous and technically impressive, is narratively impenetrable. Looks fabulous, well crafted, makes not a lick of sense as far as I can see.
The thing is, when a film is this well made but still doesn’t have a clear, understandable narrative, you can reasonably assume that it’s deliberate. Ritter doesn’t want people to easily follow what’s going on here. This is more a stream of consciousness than a story. It has ‘personal passion’ stamped all over it like an anti-bootleg watermark. Ritter has put his soul into this film - and it shows. He doesn’t have to give us an easy ride, so don’t be disappointed when you don’t get one.
Ostensibly this is based on three classic short stories: ‘The Tell-Tale Heart’ by Edgar Allan Poe, ‘Markheim’ by Robert Louis Stevenson and ‘Dr Heidegger’s Experiment’’ by Nathaniel Hawthorne. The Poe tale is the only one I’m familiar with but I checked synopses of the other two on Wikimaninapub so I would have some idea what to look out for. But to be honest, this is ‘inspired by’ rather than ‘based on’, the only obvious, direct connections with the source material being a character called Mark Heim (sic) and another called Dr Heidegger - who is conducting an experiment. Nevertheless, in conflating three unconnected literary sources into a single storyline, this joins The Shunned House in the micro-category of what I like to call an ‘unthology’.
Thomas Heidegger (CJ Baker: Devil Girl, Stupidman) is a solitary old guy working on some sort of reanimation or rejuvenation device (in the Hawthorne tale, his work involves water from the Fountain of Youth). He has a daughter Lillian (stage actress Jamey Hood making her feature film debut) and a protégé, Mark Heim (Marshall Hilton: Breakfast with the Colonel, Sorceress II, Beetleborgs) who is romantically linked with Lillian. Confidently defying chronological storytelling, the film contains numerous flashbacks to thirty years earlier when Lillian (Rena Enea) was a little girl and Mark (Randy Shelly: Beowulf) was a teenager who came to live with the Heideggers under mysterious circumstances. Young Thomas is played by Emrys Wright (who unfortunately doesn’t look that much like Baker) and his since-deceased wife Rose is played by Lake Sharp, who was in an episode of Curb Your Enthusiasm.
Weaving in and out of both current and flashback scenes - and appearing identical in both time frames - is ‘The Stranger’ (Ryan McGivern, who was in the web series Bones: Skeleton Crew), whose smart suit and Van Dyke facial hair mark him out as some sort of demonic/satanic agent, possibly Old Nick himself. A similar character is the antagonist in the Stevenson tale. While never actually vanishing or appearing from nowhere on screen, The Stranger is in the habit of popping up in scenes without explanation or announcement when the characters are not necessarily expecting him. This supernaturally Machiavellian catalyst drives the complex story through his instructions and offers to the other three, yet he is clearly not as in control as he would like to be and in some scenes is restraining himself, barely controlling his anger or frustration.
In fact, all four main characters spend a great deal of the film with heightened blood pressure, muscles straining, veins bulging in their necks. This is a very intense film about intense, unhappy characters. Frankly, I can’t recall anyone smiling during the entire 104 minutes, with the possible exception of Rose Heidegger, comforting her daughter.
Mark is a drunken bum, a petty thief who can only rail “Fuck you!” ineffectually at the equally drunken street whore (the wonderfully pseudonymous Zenith Lovecraft) who steals his beer when he pushes her away from their grimy, alleyway embrace. Lillian has been taken in by a hostel run by a city pastor (Thom Michael Mulligan: Callous) where she is befriended by a young woman named Brenda (RADA-trained Nancy P Corbo: Rift) and put to work by the cook (Jeanne Mount: Dreamkiller). Thomas experiments with reviving wilted roses and then digs up a corpse which may be his wife, I think.
A steel briefcase is important although I wouldn’t say it was necessarily central enough to be considered a McGuffin. The Stranger was going to give it to Thomas a part of a deal but held onto it when Thomas broke some sort of rule. Later (in chronological time, but at the start of the film) Mark steals the briefcase from someone and then sells it to Thomas. I think. Mark’s parents (Derek Grauer: Haunted House; and Maria Olsen: Dragonquest, Sam Hell) also feature in flashbacks. Michael Villar, who plays a detective here, takes the title role in Ritter’s forthcoming zombie picture The Living Corpse, which also features several other Gothic Tale cast members.
Throughout the film (although to a lesser extent towards the end) we have the enigmatic narration of a street bum narrator, sometimes on screen, warming himself by a brazier, sometimes in voice-over. Underneath the woolly hat, rasping voice and scabrous make-up is none other than genre legend Roddy Pipper (They Live, Hell Comes to Frogtown) adding a whole extra level to this already multi-levelled enterprise.
Stylistically, A Gothic Tale really stands out in three ways. The first is that Ritter (or possibly his DP Josh Fong, who also lit KatieBird and gets a co-producer credit here) really likes to shoot up close. There are very few wide shots here, it’s all close-ups that are slightly too close-up for comfort: tops of heads are often deliberately cropped. It’s not extreme close-up - no mouths filling the screen - but it adds to the intensity of the script and the performances and imparts a sense of urban claustrophobia to the whole film. In addition, Ritter is fond of splitting the widescreen image to show us two scenes at once, or two aspects of the same scene. He also has a fondness for a slight solarisation with a blue sheen.
Sometimes all three techniques are combined. On top of the non-chronological jumping about between scenes (which is exacerbated by The Stranger looking identical in all of them, even to wearing the same tie), this just makes the film harder to follow - and yet, in some strange way, all the more rewarding.
Production designer Alex Cassun (director of Sunset in the Valley) has given the film an ambience which certainly allows it to live up to its title, yet there are no mist-shrouded castles here. This is an urban gothic, dark like an unlit alley, unnerving like an empty building. No cat scares here, it’s all atmosphere.
There is nothing to say where or when this is. America obviously but only from the accents. There seems to be little specific about the clothes apart from The Stranger’s suit and tie (and haircut) which suggests the cusp of the 1970s/1980s. In fact, it looks like the first week of June 1979 - but since he is a supernatural being who looks identical in scenes set three decades apart, this does not help us one iota. The point surely is that this is everywhere and nowhere, everywhen and nowhen, no more a pin in the map of reality than the House of Usher or the Castle of Otranto.
And yet, just to tease the audience, in among this timeless urban gothic milieu the characters have 21st century mobile phones (I honestly didn’t notice if these are in the flashbacks too).
For a personal project, there have been a surprising number of hands on the script, even if we discount Messrs. Stevenson, Hawthorne and Poe. Ryan Plato (Wishtaker) is credited as ‘co-writer’ while Ray Gower (Dark Corners) and Mike Lancaster (also associate producer and key grip!) were ‘script consultants’. Don Randles and Steven Hirsch (both Dark Wolf) were the executive producers.
The unbelievably busy James Lacey handled ‘make-up/FX’. Lacey has already worked on another nine films since A Gothic Tale; his many other credits include Automatons, All Souls Day: Dia de los Muertos, Dismembered and a 2008 documentary about Jack PIerce for which he recreated the Mummy. The unpronounceable Daniel Iannantuono, who also scored KatieBird, provides the music once more. Ritter did his own editing.
A Gothic Tale is a deep, almost impenetrable film. No, I couldn’t follow what was going on (nor can I find any reviewer anywhere yet who has even attempted a synopsis) but that is not a negative in this case. It’s a film that make you think, a piece of art onto which one can project one’s own interpretation, while admitting that it will probably never quite chime with Justin Paul Ritter’s own intentions.
I can see this one dividing opinion sharply. I believe that’s a good thing.
review originally posted 27th May 2009
Goke - Bodysnatcher from Hell
Director: Hajime Sato
Writers: Susumu Tanaka, Kyuzo Kobayashi
Producer: Takashi Inomata
Cast: Teruo Yoshida, Hideo Ko, Tomomi Sato
Reviewed from: UK DVD (Artsmagic)
I’ve wanted to see this film for a long, long time so when the screener disc turned up from Artsmagic I was delighted (though not overly surprised as I had compiled the cast filmographies for the disc a few months earlier).
It’s great to see a completely serious vintage Japanese science fiction film. Though I adore all kaiju eiga, the introduction of extra-terrestrials is usually pretty poor in terms of both storyline and design. But Kyuketsuki Gokemidoro is a searing look at the human condition under extreme SF circumstances. It plays like a feature-length Twilight Zone episode and it’s great.
An internal commercial flight crashes in a remote part of Japan. Flying through a blood-red sky and scared by birds hurling themselves to death against the windows, the crew are alerted that there might be a bomb on board. A search of passengers’ luggage turns up no bomb but does reveal the presence of assassin Hirofumi Teraoka (Hideo Ko: Horror of a Deformed Man) who has just killed the British Ambassador. He forces the plane to divert so that when it crashes, they don’t know where they are. A radio report later reveals that rescuers can’t find them and have given up.
The ten crash survivors are: co-pilot Ei Sugisaka (Teruo Yoshida: Horror of a Deformed Man, Shogun’s Joy of Torture, Oxen Split Torturing); stewardess Kazumi Asakura (Tomomi Sato: Babycart in the Land of Demons); corrupt politician Gozo Mano (Eizo Kitamura: The Street Fighter’s Last Revenge); corrupt arms manufacturer Tokiyasu (Nobuo Kaneko) who is constantly toadying up to Mano; his wife Noriko (Yuko Kusunoki) who is having an affair with Mano; American widow Mrs Neil (Kathy Horan: The Green Slime, War of the Insects, Attack of the Monsters) whose husband was killed in Vietnam the previous week; psychiatrist Dr Momotake (Kazuo Kato: The Last Days of Planet Earth, Ran, Mishima); ‘space biologist’ - that’s handy! - Toshio Saga (Masaya Takahashi: Tidal Wave, GMK: Giant Monsters All-Out Attack); and would-be hijacker Matsumiya (Toshihiko Yamamoto: Door III, Ring TV series) who swiftly hides his home-made bomb. Plus Teraoka.
Just before the crash, Sugisaka and his pilot (Hiroyuki Nishimoto) saw a flying saucer. Teraoka now kidnaps Miss Asakura and drags her around the mountain where they discover the alien spaceship. In an iconic image, Teraoka’s head cracks open (Harry Potter has nothing on this forehead scar!) and something nasty oozes inside him. From then on the cluster of survivors gradually disintegrates as they are torn apart by internal squabbling and the outside force of Teraoka who is now some sort of space vampire.
In particular, unpleasant truths are revealed about Mano and Tokiyasu, with the politician coming out of the film as easily the most loathsome individual on the plane. But the construction and subsequent breakdown of the group dynamic is not done simply or obviously and unlikely allegiances are formed and broken at the drop of a hat. It’s a great script, and with the picture clocking in at not much over 80 minutes, a taut and tense one.
The whole film is essentially an anti-war movie, with several blood-red montages of Vietnam War atrocity photos driving home the point. In a twist on the peaceful intentions of Klaatu in The Day the Earth Stood Still, the ‘Gokemidori’ aliens are here because of mankind’s propensity for violence, but to take advantage, not to warn or help. A bleak ending includes an image which will be familiar to all fans of Tim Burton movies,
Many of the crew also worked on another Hajime Sato movie, Golden Bat; the director’s other genre credits include Ghost of the Hunchback, Terror Beneath the Sea and obscure 1960s TV superhero series Captain Ultra (not part of the Ultraman franchise, despite the title). Writer Susumu Tanaka also wrote Golden Bat, War of the Insects and Fist of the Northstar as well as working on the TV series Inazuman Flash, Space Sheriff Gavan, Battle Fever J and Mazinger Z. Cinematographer Shizuo Hirase, who lights the interior of the plane with some evocative filters, also photographed War of the Insects and the delirious The X from Outer Space, while production designer Tadataka Yoshino‘s other work includes Sure Death.
Composer Shunsuke Kikuchi’s extraordinarily impressive list of credits includes music for Ghost of the Hunchback, Terror Beneath the Sea, Golden Bat, War of the Insects, Ghost Story of the Snake Woman, The Snake Girl and the Silver-Haired Witch, Sister Street Fighter, four Gamera films, one Ultraman movie and Sonny Chiba’s Dragon Princess plus the TV series Key Hunter, Kamen Rider, Iron King, Jumborg Ace, Grandizer, Message from Space and several thousand different versions of Dragonball Z.
Artsmagic have released a nice subtitled widescreen print on their Shadow Warrior label, complete with bio-filmographies and an unsubtitled trailer which includes some footage of the plane crash (typically excellent miniature effects) which is missing from the film itself. Goke - Bodysnatcher from Hell is an excellent, gripping, scary, thought-provoking movie which, not unexpectedly, belies its cheesy international title.
review originally posted 19th December 2004
Labels: 1968, aliens, Japan, spaceships, war
interview: Paul Hyett (2008)
You can’t be a fan of British horror and not know the work of top make-up effects artist Paul Hyett. From I, Zombie (when he was still in his teens!) through to The Descent, Mutant Chronicles and beyond, Paul has created some amazing effects. I did this interview by phone in January 2008 and an edited version was published in Fangoria. See also my 2013 interview with Paul about his directorial debut The Seasoning House.
Am I right in thinking that The Descent was a watershed for you in terms of moving on from low-budget films?
"Totally."
What immediate effect did it have on your career?
"It was the difference of being able to go into a meeting - and people had seen The Descent. The nice thing about Descent was I finished it and then, about two months after we actually finished shooting, it was out. So it was absolutely great. For the first year after that, I would go into interviews and: ‘Oh, you’ve done The Descent! Yeah, yeah.’ And suddenly, the things I was going for I tended to get. That was absolutely great."
What was the first thing you did after The Descent?
"Let’s see. I’m going to check my CV. I know that straight after The Descent we were looking at The Cottage but it didn’t happen. Sick House and Straightheads was one year after. It might have been Wilderness."
Would you say Wilderness was a horror film?
"It’s rat-kids borstal, in the woods. Yes, I’d call it a horror film because it is about people terrorised by psychopaths with dogs. I didn’t do prosthetics on Wilderness but I did all the dog effects. I got a call, right at the last moment. Basically the guy that was supposed to make the dogs had let them down and they said, ‘Please, please make these dogs.’ I was told that I had quite a bit of time but it turned out, once I’d started, there was hardly any time. So we rushed it all in and I think we made all the dog puppets in three weeks or even less than that."
When you say ‘we’, do you have a regular team?
"I’ve got a few people that I always, always use but they’re all freelancers so if I haven’t got any work on they go and work somewhere else."
But you’ve got a pool of people that you know you can call on and you know you can work well with them?
"Absolutely. To be honest, there’s some guys who’ve only worked with me for the past few years, from Descent. There’s probably a core two or three that I always use but it changes from film to film. Sometimes, like on The Descent, I’ll have up to ten people. But usually there’s a few guys milling around in my workshop."
The skills required to make a dog puppet, are they different from the skills required for prosthetic make-up?
"Basically, I’ll design exactly what I want it to look like, what I want it to do. I’ve got one person who comes in; she’s worked on absolutely loads and loads and loads of stuff. She’ll come in and be in charge of the sculpture and fabrication and then we’ll have a mechanical person coming in, I’ve got electronic people that I call in from time to time and fur people that I call in, guys that are really good at sculpting creatures. Part of my job is going to meetings, putting together the right team for such a big project, delegating it, all this sort of stuff."
Some time after that you did The Sick House, which comes out on US DVD in March. Did that ever have a UK release?
"As far as I know it only had an American release, I think. It had US theatrical distribution."
Were you making up the plague victims?
"Yes, that was an interesting one. The make-up artist was Jacqueline Fowler and I was prosthetics designer but she had a lot to do with it. We would make up all the prosthetics and she would apply them all. I don’t think I actually applied any plague victims."
Were you aiming for realism or, given that most people only have a vague idea what bubonic plague looks like, did you have a bit of creative license?
"Yes, absolutely. Sometimes it just has to look cool. Like on Doomsday, we looked through so many different things and I said to Neil, ‘What do you fancy? Does it have to look like anything in particular?’ and he said, ‘No, just make it look gross and cool.’ So we went with a real mix of sexual diseases and fungus and pretty much everything that was gross that we could think of."
Is it more fun, the more gross you can make it?
"Yes, he just wanted grossness: ‘Ah, let’s do something really, really nasty.’ I was like, ‘Okay...’ I showed him a few gross pictures and he was going, ‘That’s gross... that’s gross...’ There was one point where I put something on each side of their face and asked, ‘What do you like?’ He said, ‘I kind of like all of them.’ So I said, ‘Which should I use?’ and he said, ‘Use all of them, we’ll call it an ultra-virus.’ Fine, let’s do that."
Is there a danger, in trying to push the limits of extremely gross stuff, that you’ve then got to try and top it with the next picture?
"It’s kind of weird. I mean, take the work on WAZ for example. Me and Tom Shankland the director, we were thinking of the grossest things possible and we came up with a lot of gross things. It’s all been cut out of the theatrical version but it’s all going to be in the DVD version. But if you said to me, ‘You’ve got another torture sequence,’ I’d be like, ‘All right,’ and I’d just think of new stuff to do. To be honest with you, as a prosthetics guy you tend to think, ‘I wish I’d done this, I wish I’d done that.’ So there’s always somewhere to go."
WAZ hasn’t been released yet but the early press coverage suggests it falls into the ‘torture porn’ category.
"No. Basically, reading all the article about it, people may think it’s torture porn but it’s actually not. Everything is done for a reason. Everything is done because someone is going through a certain state of mind. If you look at Hostel 1 and 2, it’s pure torture porn: let’s get some kids, torture them, beat them. But with WAZ it’s all in the story. The torture scenes are secondary. It’s more about the story than it is about some cool gross stuff."
So what sort of stuff did you have to do for WAZ?
"We did flayings, cheek slicings, we saw a guy’s cheek sliced open with a scalpel and then fingered. We had a nipple being ripped off, we had bits of stomach being torn out, we had a whole leg flayed, we had scalpel slices. We had nails being hammered into people’s fingers. We had, I think... did we have a castration? We’d got a castration but we felt we didn’t need to show it. Oh, and his knee gets hammered until it’s pretty much completely smashed to pieces. So me and Tom really went mad. We were talking about all the gross things we could do: what about this? what about that? We shot loads - and also Selma Blair’s got the most horrible rape scene - and I remember saying to him, ‘There’s no way all this can get through, I’m sure.’ I watched it and, yes, they’ve taken it out. It’s still a great movie, it’s really good. Great reviews. But there’s always a part of you that goes, ‘It would be nice if...’ But like they said, it’s got great reviews, it’s a great movie, they’re going to stick it on DVD with all the extras. I saw them putting up an extra section when I was up at Vertigo last and it was pretty predetermined. So it’s a treat for all the gore fans."
With something like that, does the script accommodate what you can do? It sounds like you had a script that said ‘torture scene here’ and the director said ‘What can you do?’ and you said, ‘Oh, I can do a knee.’
"You know what, as I remember, it wasn’t that specific. Me and Tom pretty much worked it out. The writer of WAZ came on set and he went, ‘Oh, this is gross! This is gross! I didn’t think up that bit!’ The writer was actually quite squeamish and he wasn’t as full-on as you’d think. So basically, me and Tom had a talk and Tom was going on and on about flayings. I wasn’t sold on the flayings - ‘Is that going to look good?’ - I was thinking more about drilling knee-caps. I knew about inserting things whereas he was much more about the flaying. I said, ‘Okay, let’s try it’ so we did a quick test and I said, ‘You know, that’s actually quite gross.’ We also did, with the cheek flaying, instead of having huge chunks sliced out, I made it so that it was like the smallest sliver being cut away with a scalpel. As it was coming away from the cheek, it just looked, rather than a chunk, like a really thin slither. I think that made it look a hundred times worse."
Do you sometimes come up with ideas for things and keep them on file somewhere until you can find a use for them?
"Not so much. What tends to happen is that if I have ideas for a script and we don’t use them then those will be stored and that’s all cool. But I will hardly ever think of anything then right it down. It will always be connected to the script. I’ve got so many ideas about torture now that if I’m given a film with a torture scene I just go, ‘Oh my god, yes, there’s loads of torture things I’d like to do.’"
Do you prefer trying brand new stuff or perfecting new variations on things you’ve already done?
"I’m always trying to come up with new stuff, I’d say. A lot of people think ‘Oh, I wish I’d done it this way... If I get a chance to do it again I’d do this...’ But I’d rather try something new, just because it keeps me sane. To do the same thing wouldn’t really be interesting to me."
Straightheads is a film that completely passed me by. Is that a sort of Straw Dogs revenge-type movie?
"Yes, it’s kind of odd. It was out in the cinema a while ago. Huge posters."
Not in Leicester, there weren’t!
"Alan Jones was a big fan of it. It’s like a very dark revenge-for-rape movie. There’s one guy who gets a shotgun inserted into him. We did an eyeball puncture, all the stitching and the healing around eye wounds. We did a mechanical deer that they run over. There’s a whole thing of them trying to rescue a dead deer. They get it off the road and that’s when they’re attacked and she’s raped and he’s beaten up. We did a dead dog, loads of bits and pieces. There was an eye-gouge at one point but I think they cut that in the end, it was just too nasty."
Another one coming out soon is The Cottage. Does the fact that it’s a comedy affect how you do the effects?
"The gore’s in there but because it’s done in such comedic way, none of it’s scary. It’s all fun and gory. They still do the same things: some guy gets his foot chopped, you’ve got the farmer. The farmer’s make-up is not so much state of the art, more like what was done in the ‘80s and ‘90s. It was a cool, dirty old farmer with loads and loads of scars, so it was a scary make-up but also a funny one as well. Everything was done slightly tongue-in-cheek. Jennifer Ellison gets a spade through her mouth. She’s swearing at first - ‘You fucking...’ - and then the farmer just gets this spade, shoves it in her mouth and takes it all the way down so it chops the top of her head off. It’s hilarious, everyone laughs, but it’s one of those things where, if it was done in a serious way it would be horrible. Yet the actual effect doesn’t change. It’s just how they shoot it. Being a comedy doesn’t really affect you."
The last time we spoke was in 2006 on Simon Hunter's Mutant Chronicles, which is still in post. Do you know how it’s going?
"Last time I was up there they had about 400 effects shots to do. Poor Simon, it’s a three-year project for him so it’s quite full on. Apparently it’s looking great. It’s a green-screen movie and I haven’t seen much of it, maybe just a couple of minutes. It’s one film that I’m not quite sure about, really because it’s such a big ‘post’ thing. When we were shooting it, it was pretty hard to tell what it was going to be because you’re shooting loads of mutants on green screen and actors walking around. But Simon’s got a really great vision. You always hope that it’s going to be great and it has the potential to be amazing."
After The Descent you did a lot of violence and wounds but this was a return to designing fantasy creatures. Which do you prefer?
"To be honest with you, I wouldn’t want to do just one or the other - but I’d be happy doing just one or the other. It’s one of those things where sometimes it’s lovely to just go along and chop someone’s head off or slice someone up, but on the other hand it’s nice to do a full creature make-up like in The Descent or a full mutant make-up like in Mutant Chronicles. We had so much stuff to do: infection make-up, dead bodies, heads exploding, decapitations, squashed cows, people being run over and squashed by tanks. Every day was different on that film for me and it was great. With The Cottage, all I did was gore, with Mutants I did mutants. Also Gallowwalker was another fun one to do. We had skinless cowboys, lizard make-ups, flaying victims. Sometimes I get hired just to do gore and I’m totally fine with that. But I wouldn’t want to do gore all the time, I do like to have a few different things now and again."
Gallowwalker is another one that was film back in 2006. What’s the latest you’ve heard on that?
"It’s still in post. As far as I know, it’s 90 per cent cut and they’re just finishing it off. I’ve seen bits of it and I think it looks great, it really does look good. And that was a lovely film to work on. The director’s a lovely guy, the producers were lovely. It was a very rewarding film."
There are several directors who you’ve worked with more than once: Neil Marshall, Simon Hunter, Andrew Goth, Paul Andrew Williams? Are these relationships important to you?
"Yes, obviously. It’s a mix of they like my work and they like working with me. It’s a big thing. You can do the make-up and sit in a corner and wait for them to film it or you can actually get in there and make it a real collaborative thing. Some effects guys, they do the most beautiful make-up but they’re not very good on how they film it. I really try to get in there with a director, talk through the storyboards, talk about how they went to shoot in. Really work out not so much what they need from me but exactly what we need to make this scene work. It can be so many different things apart from your make-up: what shots they’re doing, how your effect fits into the telling of the scene. Rather than some guy who just goes ‘You want a head cut off? Okay’ and they just cut off a head.
"It’s all the other things within a scene, trying to make it work. I come along as a head of department and I’ll make sure everything’s in place, everyone knows what they’re doing, they know exactly what they’re going to get. Every single shot is what they need. Another one we’ve done - have you heard of Donkey Punch? Basically four kids on a boat and it goes horribly wrong. It’s a Warp X production shot in Cape Town and basically I came along and filled in all the blanks. They’d shot loads of stuff but they’d maybe not had enough time to shoot prosthetics or whatever. So they called me along, wanted to get me in. I came in, studied all the footage, worked out exactly what we needed to tell the story, all the different shots. We built it all and we worked out everything the director needed and we shot it all. Someone gets a piece of glass in them and they pull it out, it’s a horrible, wincy moment. Someone gets an outboard motor in their chest. Someone gets stabbed, they’re twisting the knife and pull it out. It’s one of those things where I had to study all the footage and work out exactly what we need - and them come along and shoot it.
"I’m working with Tom Shankland on his new movie, the last one being WAZ. That’s a film called The Day but I’m not sure how much I can tell you. It is a horror film [Eventually released as The Children - MJS]. Tom is absolutely lovely to work with. When I work with people like Neil Marshall and Tom Shankland, they very much have a vision and they’re very collaborative: 'What do you think? Where should we go?' It’s that whole collaborative thing where everyone brings their skills to the table and you’ll get a much better effect."
We haven’t yet discussed Eden Lake - I don’t know much about that.
"Basically lovely, young, good-looking couple, out having a little holiday. They get harassment from some horrible kids. Somehow, the character played by Michael Fassbender, he grabs a knife off them and the lead bully’s dog is stabbed and killed, so basically it becomes a hunt across the forest with all these ASBO kids trying to kill this couple. James Watkins was the director for Celador. I’m not sure how much I can tell you but there’s a lot of gore effects. I’m not sure how much I’m supposed to give away but believe me, it has some nasty moments. It pretty much is like a chase movie: nasty kids after lovely young couple."
Is there anything else we haven’t covered?
"I don’t think so. There’s loads of other stuff I work on like docudramas but nothing that would be of any interest to your readers. We just finished The Hunger which is the story of Bobby Sands."
Have you got any burning ambition? Do you want to direct?
"I’ll tell you about all my plans when it gets a bit closer. Some people really love doing old age, some people want to do more creatures but when I get a script, that’s when I get excited and then all my ideas start flowing. If you give me a script with a stabbing, I’ll come up with a different way of doing it. If you give me a script with infection make-up, I’ll come up with a different way of doing it. I pretty much get off on a script when somebody gives it to me and all the ideas will flow. I’d kind of like to do another torture scene but then, saying that, the uncut WAZ will come out. Truthfully, I wanted to do the strongest torture scene ever done on film - that’s what I’d like to do.
"A lot of people come to me because I’m seen as the guy to go to for gore but the nice thing about The Mutant Chronicles, Doomsday is they’re something different. Doomsday is going to be great because it’s such a big movie. It’s really, really good and it doesn’t disappoint in the gore. Me and Neil were talking about it, in fact I think we were actually out in Cape Town shooting it. The day before shooting, Neil was looking at this fake head which basically explodes and I said to him, ‘Neil, you know there’s more gore in this than in The Descent.’ ‘You sure?’ We went through the list and he was, ‘Yes, there is, isn’t there?’ But because in the movie there’s so much going on, the gore is secondary but when it hits you it’s full-on."
When you’re working with actors you’ve worked before, is it easier because they’re relaxed and confident that you know what you’re doing?
"That’s definitely a part of it. Now and again I’ll work with an actor who’ll say, ‘I’ve done this but your stuff’s much better’ and that’s cool. There’s people I’ve worked with quite a few times. You get friendly and it’s easier. You know what they’re going to be like and you can go for a beer afterwards. It’s a lot easier if you know the people. More and more I’ve worked with the same directors and it’s lovely because you all know each other. Working with production designers like Simon Bowles who I’ve done Cold and Dark with, Straightheads, Doomsday. He’s an absolutely brilliant production designer and I love working with him because he’ll always have an idea and we’ll work stuff out together. Sam McCurdy, DP of Descent and Doomsday, he’s great as well. I know how he likes to shoot stuff, he knows what he’s going to get from me. Jacqueline Fowler, who’s a make-up designer, we’ve worked on maybe eight films together. It’s great because I know exactly what she’s going to do and she knows what the prosthetics are going to be like. I can give her some prosthetics to put on while I deal with the bigger stuff. So it’s always lovely working with the same team. Also it can be very rewarding working with people you haven’t worked with before. A new director will come in and have a chat and it’s a new vision, a new way of working."
Finally, you’ve established yourself in the UK but have you been tempted out to Hollywood?
"The whole thing with Hollywood is it’s so hard to work out there, just because their film industry is really suffering because all their films go abroad. For me to go out there, I wouldn’t be welcome because I haven’t got a green card. I’d have to be really requested. For me, I love shooting abroad, that’s my main thing. Last year, to have three months in Cape Town on Doomsday and four months in Namibia - I absolutely loved it. Yes, if Hollywood calls me to come out and do something I’d be out there like a shot but it’s hard for me to pursue projects in Hollywood."
Are you happy being a big fish in a small pond?
"I’ve never really thought about it. If a film in Hollywood called me I’d be straight out there in a second, don’t get me wrong. I’m not in any way saying that I wouldn’t want to work there, it’s just that the opportunity’s never come up."
They’re not short of effects people out there, are they?
"There’s so many great effects people. You’ve got the KNBs and the Stan Winstons and loads and loads of companies. I don’t know if I’d have to work on non-union pictures. I don’t know how it would work. If somebody I’d worked with before, like a director, suddenly gets this big job in Hollywood and wants to bring me out, I think that’s the way I would do it - and I would be out there in a second. But it’s hard for me to actually pursue a film I want to go for; if it’s in America I tend not to go for it just because I haven’t got a union card and I don’t know what I would need. To be honest with you, it’s just never come about. I haven’t crossed any of those bridges yet.”
website: www.paulhyett.com
interview originally posted 22nd January 2012
Labels: British, effects
Sometimes it seems like I've spent most of my career writing about Paul Hyett's effects work, who has more mentions in Urban Terrors than anyone else. Back in 2008 I did a fairly lengthy interview with Paul for Fangoria about his work since The Descent. In June 2013 we finally met at the press screening for Paul's directorial debut, the fantastic The Seasoning House. The following week, Paul kindly answered a few questions by email.
Why was last year the right time for you to make the move into directing, and how long had you been working up to that?
"I had been wanting to direct for a good few years, probably about five years or so. I've been doing prosthetics and creature effects for over 18 years and really been wanting to direct for a while. Michael Riley and I had been friends since we did a film together about 15 years ago and over the last five years or so we had been talking about my directorial debut, and we started to seek out a project for me to direct. The first was to be The Black Site."
Why did you make The Seasoning House rather than The Black Site?
"With The Black Site, the budget had been circling the £1.5-£2 million mark (its quite an ambitious war movie) and we felt it really wasn't going to happen at that budget on a first time, unproven director. So we decided to make a smaller budgeted film, more contained, to show that I could handle a bigger, more ambitious film. We hope to tackle The Black Site at a later date."
I was surprised to see that many of your department heads hadn't worked with you before: how did you select them?
"Adam Etherington the DOP is at the same agency I'm on for prosthetics and we met up and he really got what I wanted to do with the film. The whole look, the way I wanted to shoot it, was crucial and Adam really understood the whole beautiful but nihilistic look to the film I wanted. Elle Baird the make-up designer had worked for me on a lot of films in the prosthetics department. Caroline Story the production designer, she had such an amazing feel for the seasoning house. She had a lot of ideas about the textures and colours. Raquel Acevedo the costume designer really worked miracles to be able to give all the characters their own identity and personality as well as populating an entire village. Both Caroline and Raquel were from Mike's last film and Christiaan Forbe De Jonge, the 1st AD, I had used on my trailer for The Black Site. Conal Palmer was the co-writer and prosthetics supervisor and Filmgate the VFX company I had worked with many, many times. And John Moolenshot the construction manager I had worked with in South Africa on Doomsday. I had worked with just under half of the crew before. I was really lucky to get such a good cast and crew."
Reviews have been very marmite: people love this film or hate it. Would you rather have had a positive but lukewarm response or does the polarisation of opinion mean you're doing something right?
"I was speaking to Mike about this the other day, he loves that opinions are so divided, that it really is such a love or hate reaction, and he feels that means you've made a more interesting film. As a director it's always hard when you get negative reviews, but you have to take the bad ones with the good ones. When you make a film so dark and harrowing, and about such a dark subject matter which people would rather not face, then you put yourself in the line of fire. Not everyone is going to like it."
How much involvement were you able to have with the make-up effects while you were directing?
"Well, the make-up effects were all made at my previous workshop, we were making them all on the side of other jobs that were happening at the time so I always had an eye on them, but Conal Palmer the prosthetics supervisor knew exactly how I wanted them as he's worked with me for many years on most the films I've done in the prosthetics departments. It was actually really easy for me as I knew exactly what I was getting and how to shoot them, and easy for Conal as I wasn't ever going to ask him for something he didn't have or ask for something impossible (as usually happens with directors)."
There was a mention at the screening of a trilogy: can you elaborate on that?
"Well The Seasoning House is part one of a war-themed horror trilogy Mike and I are planning. They are very different stories, different war zones, different conflicts with different characters and themes. But they all revolve around the horrors of war. And all are very different from each other. The Black Site is the next in the trilogy. It's very much a Jacob's Ladder/Manchurian Candidate type of psychological horror.
Labels: British, director, effects
The Seasoning House
Director: Paul Hyett
Writers: Paul Hyett, Conal Palmer
Producer: Michael Riley
Cast: Rosie Day, Kevin Howarth, Sean Pertwee
Reviewed from: preview screening
Website: www.theseasoninghouse.com
Before you watch The Seasoning House, you should read this review. Or at least, read a review. This is not a movie which benefits from being seen without foreknowledge; you need to know what you’re letting yourself in for. So read a review. But not a review in the mainstream press, because most of those say it’s rubbish. And it’s not rubbish. But it’s a truism that mainstream film reviewers generally hate horror films and generally hate British films, reserving their most extreme knee-jerk reactions for any British horror film which crosses their path.
Unless it’s got a big star in it. The Seasoning House doesn’t have any really big stars. It has names which you, the discerning cult movies fan, will recognise. But not A-listers, and the mainstream press work on the principal that any film without A-listers, or any film which does not have a heavily marketed blanket theatrical release, must be a piece of crap, because otherwise it would attract top talent and open nationwide on 400 screens. Obviously.
So don’t look for reviews in mainstream film mags, and certainly don’t look for reviews in the increasingly anachronistic national papers. Bear in mind that all mainstream printed publications are, by their nature, conservative. They only survive by selling adspace; they can only sell adspace if they have a large, demographically defined readership; and they can only maintain a large, demographically defined readership by telling that readership what that readership already knows. Most people read magazines and newspapers in order to be told things which they already agree with, to confirm their prejudices, whether that’s ‘student loans cause global warming’ or ‘asylum seekers ate the housing market’ or indeed ‘modern British films are crap’.
Stick with the independent, online reviewers and bloggers, the folk whose judgement is not clouded by financial forces and narrow-minded editorial policies. Take a look at the reviews on the horror websites and the cult film websites. In fact, frankly, you might as well just stick with this review now (although I’ll give you fair warning, it’s a long’un).
Anyway: The Seasoning House. The title doesn’t tell you much, so let’s be clear. This is not a jolly romp. It’s not a heart-warming family drama. It’s certainly not a date movie. The Seasoning House is harrowing, disturbing, grim and bleak. It is also thought-provoking, socially relevant, morally fascinating and brilliantly directed, acted and designed. It’s maybe not an easy film to watch but it’s a film you absolutely must watch if you have any interest in 21st century British horror cinema. If nothing else, The Seasoning House is an important film.
Important because it marks the directorial debut of Paul Hyett. I first came across Paul’s work when I was on SFX in the late 1990s, writing about Andrew Parkinson’s I, Zombie: The Chronicles of Pain. The prosthetic effects in that tent-pole BHR title were provided by a teenager named Paul Hyett (or Hyatt - these things were harder to check in ancient times), and a quick look at his IMDB page will give you some idea of how his career has progressed: Lighthouse, An Angel for May, The Last Horror Movie, The Descent, Cold and Dark, Wilderness, WAZ, The Cottage, Doomsday, Mutant Chronicles, Eden Lake, The Children, Tormented, Heartless, Attack the Block, The Reverend, The Woman in Black... and a whole load more. When I compiled the online index for my book Urban Terrors: New British Horror Cinema, I was not overly surprised to find that Paul had more mentions than almost anybody else. Now finally he makes his directorial debut.
The Seasoning House is set in ‘The Balkans, 1996’, so not overly specific but not too vague either. The thing about the Balkan conflict was that it took place in a modern European setting amid comfortable, settled working/middle class families. Iraq, Afghanistan, Somalia: we feel disconnected from these modern conflicts because the environment is so alien to us. Deserts and jungles and little mud-built villages and ramshackle Third World cities. Unless we have a loved one directly involved, or a personal connection to the country, it’s as difficult to relate to these war-zones as it is to Dresden or Passchendaele. They are somewhere or somewhen else.
But the part of the world formerly known as Yugoslavia is much closer to home, not just geographically but socially. Before the Iron Curtain fell it was the most accessible Warsaw Pact country. People went on holiday there; Bob and Thelma planned to go there in one episode of The Likely Lads. The Winter Olympics were held in Sarajevo.
So it was really, really difficult in the 1990s to get our western European heads around the idea that the disintegration of Yugoslavia had left the inhabitants shooting, bombing, torturing and mutilating each other with every modern weapon they could get their hands on. That’s what African warlords do, or Afghan tribal chiefs, not civilised white folk like us.
And although it’s not the main focus of the story, the domestic suburban reality of the Balkan conflict underpins The Seasoning House (which was entirely shot on an old RAF base near Uxbridge) and is a vital part of its success. This is not the empty, unpopulated east European wilderness of Outpost or Severance. The sequences away from the house of the title - some flashbacks, part of the third act - show us houses and factories where ordinary people are going about their ordinary lives as best they can except when the nightmare of brutal war smashes down the door, a nightmare that most of Europe reasonably confidently assumed had disappeared for ever in May 1945.
The titular building is a brothel of sorts, where young women are held captive and used as sex slaves for any passing militia. The always fascinating Kevin Howarth, in probably his biggest and best role since The Last Horror Movie, is Viktor, proprietor of this unpleasant, squalid establishment. With the help of his hulking colleague Dimitri (David Lemberg, also in vampire web serial Blood and Bone China, who somehow manages to make a sheepskin coat look threatening) Viktor keeps the girls in line and takes payment from clients through a facade of sickeningly fake bonhomie. Viktor is a complex character, with layers that are gradually peeled away. In fact, every character in this film is a rounded, complex person but at the same time our only understanding of them comes from what we see them do and hear them say. And that’s important too, because that is all that the other characters can use to underpin their own understandings of those around them.
And this is crucial because one of the two key themes of The Seasoning House is this: trust. Near the start of the film, Viktor explains How Things Work to a new group of girls, their shivering, terrified, tear-filled silence contrasting starkly with his oleaginous kindliness and congeniality in a scene where the subtext is a thousand kitchens that have echoed to the empty promise “I swear, babe, I’ll never hit you again. I’d never do that.” Viktor asks the girls to trust him, and demonstrates, with a graphic, sociopathic calm exactly how and why they should trust him.
Among this new intake is a petite deaf-mute teenager with a birthmark on her cheek. If anything, her disability is helping to shield her from the full horror around her: she can’t hear what Viktor says, she can’t speak out of turn. But Viktor doesn’t want to use her as one of his unwilling crack whores, instead he sets her to work administering the crack itself. Christening her ‘Angel’, he shows her how to inject the other girls, who spend their days and nights tied to rusting metal bed frames. Angel empties their slop buckets, Angel bathes the blood from their wounds, Angel applies eye-shadow and lipstick to each girl, a mockery of feminine beautification designed to satisfy the visiting men’s casual, callous self-deception that they are screwing real prostitutes, loose women with loose morals - and also to distract from the blood, bruises and scars left by the previous ‘customer’.
In assigning this work to Angel, Viktor places his trust in her. Or rather, misplaces his trust, because in doing so, he sows the seeds of his own downfall. Angel has the run of the house, as invisible and ignored as a Victorian servant. She knows what to do, has her routines and keeps mostly out of the way. Her lack of hearing and speech isolates her from the other girls, denying them - in their individual solitary confinement - one final, tantalising opportunity to interact with anyone who isn’t a violent, sadistic bastard.
Flashbacks show us a little of Angel’s earlier life in pebble-dashed Balkan suburbia. Anna Walton (Vampire Diary, Mutant Chronicles, Hellboy 2) plays her mother Violetta, raising ‘Angel’ (we never learn her real name) and her sister after their abusive father leaves, presumably to join the fighting. Again with the trust: Violetta must have once trusted her husband, but no longer.
The film’s other theme is this: responsibility. Violetta takes responsibility for both her daughters, and they trust her as every child trusts their mother, implicitly and without reservation. But circumstances beyond anything that they (or we) can imagine will find Violetta appallingly unable to honour that trust or fulfil that responsibility.
A group of camo-clad soldiers work their way down the street, 'ethnically cleansing' each house in turn, backed by a rumbling tank which makes it clear that there is a degree of twisted authority and legitimacy to their actions; they’re not just random psychos playing at dress-up. Violetta and her older daughter are casually executed before the younger girl is thrown into the back of a lorry. In a few moments, her entire life is destroyed. Home, family, education, friends, neighbours, hopes, dreams: all swept way by the tide of war. Every experience, every memory, now counting for nothing. The first day at school, the holiday by the beach, the pop stars she liked, the boys who liked her, the kindly teacher, the strict teacher, the dolls, the TV and radio and record player and books and dresses and days in the park and nights under the stars when she should have been home in bed.
Everything is gone. As Viktor explains when she and her companions arrive, by whatever circuitous route, at the seasoning house, their previous lives are gone and there is no world outside these walls.
No longer a person, each woman is now a slab of meat, a commodity to be sold, traded, stolen or bartered as casually as petrol, bullets or cigarettes. But petrol is used up when it powers an engine. A bullet can only be fired once. When a cigarette is smoked, it has gone forever. The women in that lorry will eventually find themselves in a situation where they will envy the finality of a used cigarette or a spent bullet.
“You will learn to show kindness to my customers,” Viktor tells them, entrusting them with a thankless, awful responsibility that none of the women would ever wish for. But Angel is given a different responsibility, a domestic responsibility, a position of trust.
In the manner of serial abusers, Viktor feels a responsibility towards his charges. It’s a self-serving responsibility: if a girl is unable to work, he loses money in clients unserved and eventually in the expense of buying another slab of meat. Though he presents himself as - perhaps even believes himself to be - some cross between an employer and a father-figure, he’s not of course. He’s a slave-owner. He doesn’t care what happens to these women as long as they stay alive enough to satisfy the men who pay him. Their lives can be nasty and brutish, just as long as they’re not too short. His treatment of them is the same as a peasant whipping and beating his under-nourished, overworked cow as it struggles to drag a plough through the dry, brittle soil. He will treat and mistreat the dumb animal to near its limits, but cannot afford to lose its essential services.
The narrative zero point, the moment which sets this tale in motion, comes when Angel discovers that one of the other girls in the house can sign. Until then, her injection and swabbing of the girls has been as mechanical as Viktor expects it to be, their pleas for help falling on literally deaf ears. But Vanya (Dominique Provost-Chalkley in her feature debut) can communicate with Angel and a secret friendship develops. Angel has two advantages in her favour about which Viktor knows nothing. One is that she is small enough to crawl through the ventilation holes in the walls, and through the wall cavities themselves. So she can visit Vanya in her room even after all the doors are locked.
And the other thing she has is chocolate. Who knows how she came by this? Perhaps it was left behind by a customer, perhaps one of the men gave it to her out of some misplaced concept of kindness or generosity. But she has it, keeping it hidden beneath her own filthy mattress. When she shares this with Vanya, it’s one of the most subtly powerful moments in the whole film, a tiny, insignificant, everyday act blown out of all proportion by its symbolic status as a residue of the world outside and the life once lived now gone. Vanya, like the other girls, lives only in the (often drug-hazed) moment. When Viktor said that their previous lives no longer existed, he was absolutely correct. But just the presence of one square of chocolate shows that he wasn’t, providing the slenderest of threads to that late 20th century reality somewhere close by. There is a world beyond the walls: a world where factories make chocolate, where shops sell chocolate, where people eat chocolate, where people do things which make themselves, and the people around them, happy. There is something other than the moment, other than the house, other than violent rape, forced crack addiction and shitting in a bucket.
Throughout all this, the clients who use Viktor’s amenities are faceless, nameless figures. But one day, Goran comes calling. Goran and Viktor know each other of old. They each know things that the other doesn’t want everyone to know. Neither is remotely trustworthy, yet their professional relationship rests solely on a very unsteady mutual trust. Goran is played by Sean Pertwee, no stranger to British horror or indeed to army uniform. With him are a handful of men under his command, including baby brother Josif (Alec Utgoff: Outpost 3). Goran has responsibility for his men - especially his brother - just as Viktor has responsibility for his girls. Goran’s men - especially his brother - trust their leader.
But Viktor is not the only person in the house who knows Goran. We have already seen Sean Pertwee in this film, in flashbacks, wiping out Angel’s family and neighbours. The man who killed her mother and sister is here. Just in case Angel had any doubts about seizing the moment for revenge, one of Goran’s men, Aleksander (man mountain Ryan Oliva) brutally rapes Vanya to death. It’s now or never. Angel emerges from the air vent, unnoticed by the rutting ogre and from that point on the film becomes a sequence of violent, bloody attacks, defences, hunts and chases, inside and later outside the house.
But let’s just pause for a moment to observe a startling visual image. Angel clambers head first from a tiny rectangle, as if pulling herself between worlds (in a sense, maybe she is). Long, dark hair falling over her face as she lowers her body towards the floor, walking her hands down the wall, emerging from a place where she should not exist in the first place - any horror movie fan is going to think of one word. And that word is Ring. I don’t know to what extent it’s an unavoidable coincidence (there are, after all, only so many ways you can climb out of a small, rectangular hole) and to what extent it’s a deliberate homage - or indeed whether Paul Hyett is consciously imbuing the action with added significance. But it’s there and it’s obvious (and I’m glad to say it doesn’t detract from the rest of the scene, except momentarily).
And so now we have a more conventional story in our third act, as Viktor, Goran and Goran’s remaining men try to find Angel. Goran sees this as a betrayal of his trust of Viktor, Viktor sees it as a betrayal of his trust of Angel. The two men’s mutual trust shatters. Actually, I have just realised something which I’m going to spoiler protect because it’s too specific:
At one point, unseen by anyone, Viktor casually shoots one of Goran’s men then says that Angel did it (she has got hold of a gun by then). This seemed extreme, even by Viktor’s standards, notwithstanding his professed love for Angel. But now I realise why he does it. After Aleksander and Vanya were both found dead, Goran angrily confronted Viktor: “I’ve lost one of my men!” “And I just lost a girl.” At which point Goran casually shoots another girl, making his point that to him they are utterly disposable and he cares for Viktor’s problems no more than he cares for the girls’. Viktor’s equally casual murder of a soldier is surely to even the score, a personal debt repaid to nobody’s satisfaction but his own. If he can’t resolve the situation, he can at least make sure that Goran suffers as much as he does. That’s his new responsibility.
As Angel makes her break for freedom, Goran and Viktor both give chase independently since neither trusts the other. Although we think this has become a story about Angel’s revenge, if we look closely we can see that in fact it’s not, beyond her initial attack on Aleksander. What we might expect, indeed what some of the crappier reviewers implied, is a game of cat and mouse, a simplistic rape-revenge saga along the lines of, say, Ms.45 or I Spit on Your Grave. But actually Angel’s goal is not to take revenge on Goran, or Viktor for that matter. Her goal is to escape the seasoning house. And something easy to miss among the gunshots, shouting and movement is that Angel gives no thought to the fate of any of the remaining girls. They’re not her responsibility. Not any more.
All the above will, I hope, have served to convince you that The Seasoning House is a powerful, disturbing film. It’s a film about misogyny (something which less attentive observers with personal agendas can often mistake for a misogynist film). It’s a film about violence so yes, it’s a violent film, but it’s a film about the effects of violence. It’s certainly a lot less violent than many Hollywood blockbusters nowadays and never, ever seeks to glorify or justify violence. Those critics who have dismissed it as sadistic or overly brutal or even (because they don’t know what the term means) ‘torture porn’ are probably the same ones who clapped and cheered during the third act of Man of Steel when thousands of off-screen people were killed in city-wide collateral damage from Superman’s battle with General Zod - and no-one gave a monkey’s. That’s the violence and casual sadism in cinema we should be worried about - wholesale casual slaughter with no consequence - not carefully plotted films exploring the dehumanisation of violence and slavery and its effects on both captive and captor. Man of Steel is the sickeningly exploitative film in these two almost simultaneous releases, and I certainly know which one I would be prepared to sit through again.
The Seasoning House has many strengths and few if any failings, with the obvious exception that it is definitely not for the squeamish. One of its strongest cards is the cast, every single one of whom is absolutely on top form. Kevin Howarth brings to Viktor the same ambiguous amorality which he brought to Max Parry. The character could have been a cartoon villain, but he’s not. He’s a businessman surviving in a world torn asunder by taking advantage of others, not just the girls but the soldiers who pay to use and abuse the girls. The seasoning house is a means to an end for Viktor, a way to make enough money to maybe one day not have to run the seasoning house.
The casting of Sean Pertwee was absolutely essential. He’s a recognisable face, a constant reminder that what we are watching, for all its horrific true-life inspiration and research, is fiction. Quite apart from turning in a typically masterful performance (if anything, more restrained than some of his BHR outings) in a costume which puts one inescapably in mind of Dog Soldiers, Pertwee provides a solid grounding to the film, a reassuring hand on the shoulder which says that this is a 21st century British horror film and we should acknowledge it as such, and view it in that context.
But of the three leads, the film absolutely stands or falls on the performance of Miss Rosie Day as Angel. What an incredible role for an actress. What a stunning performance in that role. Playing a deaf mute is always going to be a challenge for any actor: not just relying on expression and movement to convey every thought or feeling (a few lines of subtitled sign language notwithstanding) but also having to avoid responding in any way to auditory signals, remaining unaware of all speech unless the other person’s lips are visible. As an aside, Angel’s deafness, though never explored in any depth, gives extraordinary levels of tension to the third act. When creeping or running around, not only can she not hear her pursuers, she also has no idea how much noise she herself is making. If she leans on a creaky board or beam, others in the house will hear it - but Angel won’t. And as another aside, it’s remarkably how many deaf and/or mute women feature in revenge films, from Ms.45 to The Evil of Frankenstein. I’m sure there’s a thesis to be written there.
But I have been distracted from my praise of Rosie Day and I shouldn’t have been because she is absolutely fantastic. She just nails it, simple as that. Angel is vulnerable, but not overly so, confident but not overly so, frightened but not overly so, brave but not overly so... You get the picture. This is a complex character where many traits compete but none dominates. You could never sum up Angel in a few words, not even in a thousand. She is real, she is more than real. One thing we can pin down about her, possibly the only certainty in her world, is this: the only person she trusts is herself. And her only real responsibility is keeping herself alive.
Day may be a new face and name to most viewers, but she is very experienced, having been acting since she was five. As a child she was in episodes of Black Books, Hope and Glory and Family Affairs. She was Nicolette, nemesis of the title character in the last two series of CBBC fantasy series Bernard’s Watch; she was the voice of the older daughter in CBeebies elephant animation The Large Family; and she was the youngest actor to ever work with the Royal National Theatre. Only 17 when The Seasoning House began filming in January 2012, she was 18 by the time it premiered as the opening movie of that year’s Frightfest, meaning she could at least get served at the bar. Although I suspect she normally carries some form of ID because she looks much younger. We are never told Angel’s age, but she could conceivably be as young as 13 and certainly no older than 16. While The Seasoning House won’t make Rosie Day a household name, it is a gilt-edged calling card which ably demonstrated her phenomenal acting talent to any casting director who watches it.
Elsewhere in the uniformly strong cast we find Laurence Saunders (DeadTime, The Casebook of Eddie Brewer), Daniel Vivian (Apocalypse Z), Abigail Hamilton (Porcelain Presence, Steve Balderson’s Culture Shock), Adrian Bouchet (Alien vs Predator, Idol of Evil), Christopher Rithyin (Blood Army/Nephilim, Axed, Serial Kaller), Katie Allen (who used to be Ethel Hallow in The Worst Witch) and Sean Cronin (The Thompsons, and uncredited ‘high priest’ roles in The Mummy and its first sequel).
Behind the camera, we also find a bunch of talented folk working at the top of their game. I have long maintained that the three most important people on a film set are the cinematographer, the production designer and the 1st AD - even more so in the case of a debutante director. Adam Etherington is The Seasoning House’s DP, building on an extremely busy few years lighting shorts including a surprisingly large number of sci-fi quickies: Mono Ghose’s The 13th Mirror, Daniel Bugeja’s Interrogating Vivian, James Sharpe’s Notes and William McGregor’s Eradicate and No Escape, although his only previous horror credits seem to be Daniel Shea Zimbler’s Exit and Frank Rehder’s Taxi Rider. That said, The Seasoning House is not his first feature; he also worked on comedy mystery The Drummond Will and afterlife fantasy Lovelorn (and he was 2nd unit DP on Stalker and, for his sins, camera assistant on some of the Evil Calls pick-ups). Anyway, Etherington does a bang-up job, creating a bleak, washed-out world that varies in intensity, approaching a warm reality the further it gets from the house itself.
In this he has been aided by the work of production designer Caroline Story (Vampire Diary) who has excelled herself here. We have to absolutely believe that this is a working shit-hole sex-slave brothel in late 20th century eastern Europe: any clue that it’s not would tear a hole in the film and destroy all our empathies and understanding. Throughout the main building, and in those others that we see, and indeed in the relatively few external sequences, Story’s design is spot on every time. And a tip of the hat to hard-to-spell 1st AD Christiaan Faberij de Jonge (Deviation, Scar Tissue); people outside of the industry generally have no idea what a 1st does and just dismiss the job on the basis that it includes the word ‘assistant’. But it’s the 1st AD who basically runs the set, barks the orders, makes sure everything and everyone is where they should be, allowing the director to concentrate on the actors and (via the DP) the camera.
Agnieszka Liggett handled the very fine, sympathetic editing. John-Paul Frazer (Scar Tissue, Hollow, Airborne, My Name is Sarah Hayward) was the art director. Paul E Francis (The Colour of Magic) composed the score. Raquel Azevedo (Truth or Dare, Scar Tissue) designed the costumes; am I a bad person for really wanting a brown leather jacket like Viktor’s? Elle Baird (Harry Potter 8, Citadel, Tower Block) designed the hair and make-up. Kudos to all.
What is particularly interesting is that, contrary to my expectations, none of these people seem to have worked with Paul before (apart from possibly Elle Baird, whose IMDB page includes an uncredited gig on The Woman in Black). Other recognisable/notable names in the crew include prosthetics supervisor Robbie Drake (Beyond the Rave, Attack the Block, Evil Calls, Storage 24), storyboard artist Jaeson Finn (another Evil Calls alumnus, who once threw a hissy fit when I linked to his MySpace page), armourer Clive Shaw (Truth or Dare, The Reverend and yet another veteran of Scar Tissue) and visual effects co-ordinator Malin Persson (The Woman in Black, Iron Sky).
Robbie Drake’s credit notwithstanding, it’s not clear how much input Paul himself had into the prosthetic effects - I’ll get back to you on that one. They are, needless to say, excellent. But, crucially, they are never gratuitous or dwelt on unnecessarily. This is not a gore film. If you’re looking for a movie full of splatterific effects hanging on a wafer-thin story, look elsewhere. The effects in The Seasoning House serve the story, not the other way round. Which is very obviously exactly what Paul wanted.
Before moving onto Paul’s direction, a quick pause to mention the script which is primarily a collaboration between Paul and Conal Palmer, a regular colleague of Paul’s in the make-up departments of such titles as The Descent, The Cottage and Attack the Block (and with a number of notable non-Hyett credits too, including From Hell, Doctor Sleep and Storage 24). Helen Solomon, whose film career has included stints as a location scout, production assistant, camera assistant and stills photographer, and who wrote an unfilmed biopic of Fred and Rose West, came up with the original idea of a deaf-mute girl climbing around inside the walls of a brothel, so receives due story credit. And there is also a credit for a notorious gentleman named Adrian Rigelsford, who contributed to early drafts of the script.
I was very surprised the first time I saw Rigelsford’s name attached to this project, not least because it proved he was out of prison. Not quite on the Richard Driscoll level (actually there’s a credit Paul Hyett probably tries to forget: Kannibal), Rigelsford is nevertheless a serial fantasist whose career seems to have been largely based on being charming to people who don’t do quite enough research. His most notorious lie was a supposed 'final interview' with Stanley Kubrick which the TV Times published in good faith but which was exposed as pure fiction by Kubrick's assistant. In 2004 Rigelsford was sentenced to 18 months at Her Majesty’s Pleasure for stealing 56,000(!) photographs from the Associated Newspapers Library. Where he's been since then isn't clear. Odd bloke.
And so, at last, we come to an evaluation of Paul Hyett’s direction. He’s not the first prosthetic effects artist to make the move to the folding chair. One thinks of Robert Kurtzman (the K in KNB), Rob Hall, good old Bob Keen and indeed Tristan Versluis (who seems to have done make-up effects for all the other BHR titles, the ones that Paul didn’t work on). The thing about make-up effects is that, because no-one else really understands them, their creators often get to be a separate little unit, to some extent calling their own shots, yet at the same time having to collaborate closely with other department heads like the costume designer and the DP. So it’s a good grounding for a young man (or woman) who wants to one day direct their own movie.
Hyett has worked with the best and it’s clear from The Seasoning House that he has learned from the best. He directs with absolute confidence, and is entirely justified in doing so. The camera lens and the actors and the script (by Hyett, as noted) come together under his watchful eye and skilful hands. He knows what he wants, he knows what works, and he knows his audience. It’s not that this panders to some clique or minority interest, but Paul knows enough about how and why people watch movies of this sort to understand what they look for and appreciate. And despite what the patronising idiots in the mainstream press say, that’s not cheap shocks and gratuitous gore. It’s character and story, relationships and narrative, events and developments.
Producer Michael Riley of Sterling Pictures previously made Vampire Diary (with Anna Walton) and has also recently produced Scar Tissue (hence presumably the number of crew from that film reteaming here) and Deviation (with Walton and Danny Dyer), as well as executive producing UK-filmed American vampire sequel The Thompsons. He and Hyett were originally going to collaborate on a project called The Black Site, for which a two minute trailer was shot that you can find on Vimeo with a quick google. This shares some elements with The Seasoning House, notably a modern conflict (in this case, Iraq), Anna Walton and a shockingly impressive throat-slitting effect that was clearly much too good to waste. Neil Jones (director of The Reverend, producer of The Feral Generation), who is a partner in Templeheart Films with Riley and Hyett, is one of three executive producers.
The Seasoning House is a fine directorial debut by any measure. But it’s more than that, it’s a magnificent piece of film-making. It makes a point, it says something and does something, but it never descends into propaganda or polemic, just as it never descends into cheap scares, gross-out grue or titillation. And, possibly most surprisingly of all, if you go in with an awareness and understanding of the film, so that you’re not shocked or caught by surprise, it is eminently watchable. It’s not something like, say, Eden Lake (with which it shares a narrative comparison at the very end) which, for all its undoubted excellence, is deeply upsetting and an absolute struggle to sit through (researching it for my book, I only managed it in five-minute chunks).
No, The Seasoning House is a powerful, hard-hitting but ultimately very, very human drama. It’s about the human condition: what we can do to other people, what we can do to ourselves, what we can overcome. It’s about trust, and it’s about responsibility. It is one of the best films you will see this year. If you have any interest in what horror films can do and say, you owe it to yourself to find a copy and watch it.
Labels: 2013, British Horror Revival, UK, war
Gnaw
GI Samurai
The Gingerdead Man
Finnigan's War
The Ghost Train
Ghost Month
Ghostkeeper
interview: Monthon Arayangkoon
interview: Brian Fortune
Evil Calls - world's longest film review (pt.4)
A Hand to Play
interview: Benno Fürmann
interview: William Franklyn
interview: Freddie Francis
interview: Daniel J Fox
interview: Ken Foree
interview: Ron Ford
interview: Joel Fletcher
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Home » History » Going Underground…
Posted on noflytri
in History, trains
So I’ve been back 6 months and now I’m stuck in the normal 9-5 of a office job. Guess chances for adventure are clearly over…
Or maybe not…
You see whilst working in a city can often blind you to its charms it also comes with opportunities to do things you would never get as a tourist. For example a couple of weeks ago I got to see Prime Ministers Question Time after an old work colleague got hold of tickets. Now its a simple enough job of patience and queueing for a tourist to get into the Houses of Parliament, but PMQ’s is not so straight forward. You need an invite, normally from an MP, and given how many MP’s are, they don’t often get invites to hand out to their constituents. So clearly not the sort of thing you are likely to be able to do if you are just a random tourist in London.
And likewise, getting to tour an otherwise closed and abandoned Underground Station isn’t as straight forward as simply turning up and trying to buy a ticket. These events are held infrequently by the London Transport Museum, and the tickets sell out far in advance, with most of them gone within minutes of being put on sale. But with no prospect of me going anywhere, I happily purchased by tickets for a tour of Aldwych Station way back in September, and last week it was finally time for the tour.
Aldwych was called Strand when it opened, changing to Aldwych, when the station which is now part of Charring Cross opened on what is now the Northern Line, opened during WWI, which took the Strand name. If you follow that you probably deserve some sort of medal…
Obviously if you know me, or have seen much of my blog, you will know that basically I am a bit of a geek when it comes to trains, so it won’t suprise you that this is the sort of sad thing I’ve wanted to do for ages. In fact I first read about tours of Aldwych Station and other “ghost” stations over a decade ago. Happily, good things come to those who wait, and despite waiting so long and having seen various photos of it, the tour definitely met my high expectations.
Short bit of history, the line, like all the original underground railway lines in London was built by a private company who had to get permision for the route passed through Parliament. The Great Northern and Strand Railway got permision for a route between Wood Green and Aldwych in 1899, but before it built anything it ran out of money and was taken over by Brompton and Picadilly Circus Railway in 1901 who had permision for their own route and, having been formally merged as the catchily named Great Northern, Piccadilly and Brompton Railway, got permission to join the two routes together at Holborn, the stop before Aldwych, which had the effect of making Aldwych a tiny spur off the main route and would have a catastrophic effect on passenger numbers using the station right from its opening in 1907.
This is actually one of the few areas of the surface station to contain original tiling. Most of the rest of what you can see has been redone for filming purposes etc.
Signs of its doomed nature were visable throughout the tour. The orignal ticket office was closed by 1922 and the ticket office actually relocated to inside the lifts to the platform. (although a replica of a vintage era ticket office has been built inside the station for filming purposes). Having walked the 130 steps down the the bottom of bottom of the lifts, there are two unfinished lift shafts, never completed due to financial worries and the need to save money on a station that seemed destined for poor patronised before it had even opened. The lifts only opened on one side, unlike lifts elsewhere on the network. The original intension would have been for passengers to exit the lifts on the other side of the shaft and enter the platorms via seperate tunnels. These were built, but never finsihed and never used, with customers instead exiting and entering the lifts from the same side.
One of the original lifts. After 1922, tickets were sold here too.
Leading from lifts to the platforms. Originally this would have only been for customers exiting the station only, but for money saving reasons they didn’t bother finishing the other route to the platforms.
The first platform we visited had a very short life indeed. Closed permenantly by 1917 due to low use, it found a second life as a bomb proof storage site for various priceless treasures from the British Museum, under threat from German bombing in both wars. The ends of the tunnels were bricked up and a large, guarded metal door was installed, cutting off access to the rest of the station. There were lots of little historical tales to be seen down here; the short stretch of track here is the oldest on the network, complete with square insulators and no “suicide” pit. Metal hooks can be seen in the stairs leading to this platform that were a legacy of how the Elgin Marbles were gently lowered down during the war. They came down in the lifts, but were considered too heady to risk taking back up in the lift – they were apparently removed via train. In peacetime, when no longer used as storage, the platform was used to trial new lighting and platform decorations. From the 1970’s there are the remains of testing for the design of the Victoria line platforms – complete with 1970’s European Referendum posters!
Square insulators!
Cool eh?
Topical eh?
The loops used for lowering the Elgin Marbles
The other platform closed in 1994, but is still connected to the network and is used for training and commercial filming. An old train was sat folornly in the platform, looking in need of a good dusting, and in a further demonstration of the poor usage of this station, half the platform was never properly finished and tiled. Here the tour guides gave lots of information about this platforms use as an air-raid shelter in both world wars, including how the BBC recorded a concert here that was aired in the USA as a demonstration of the “blitz spirit”.
Needs a dusting…
Lights leading down towards Holborn Station
In short, I loved the whole thing. There was just the right mix between guided time, and a bit of freedom to go and take photos. Can’t recommend it enough. Sign up to the London Transport Museum’s newsletter on their website to get early notice of when they next do one!
Post Tagged with abandoned, abandoned trains, railway history
3 Responsesso far.
Holty says:
I will sign up for the newsletter. Looks like a great little visit.
The Indigent Explorer says:
Are you still travelling? I just got home from 2 months abroad and happened to find your vlog about your Transatlantic Crossing. I am looking forward to watching your past and hopefully future viog. I hope you will take a look at my youtube channel. It’s called The Indigent Explorer. It’s filled with wacky experiences that seem to only happen to me like last week on the London Tube when a deranged drunken KNIFE WIELDING woman on the London Tube starting calling me an Eskimo, which by the way, I am not. I also share the fun of spending the night in a Roman Police Station! I also give tips on how to eat and entertain yourself for free or very cheaply. I hope you will take a peak and subscribe as I am just getting started and maybe tell your friends too! Thank you and I hope you will keep vlogging! Indi
(1) Have I missed any comments about the quality of food on board container/cargo ships?
(2) Taking your trip from Japan to Mexico as an example, how much would a trip like that cost? Is the such a thing as working on board ship in exchange for the passage?
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Maternity services important to people of Cumbria
Homepage » News » Maternity services important to people of Cumbria
Posted on Friday 20th December 2013
NHS Cumbria Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) has announced it fully intends to continue to commission a consultant led maternity service at Furness General Hospital (FGH) in Barrow-in-Furness for the foreseeable future as well as the West Cumberland Hospital at Whitehaven and Cumberland Infirmary in Carlisle.
The population of Cumbria totals approximately half a million people that are clustered in towns and villages which can be a long distance from each other. This means that there are a relatively small number of births in each of the natural communities throughout the whole county.
From a total of 220 maternity units in the UK, there are 43 small units and two of those units are in Cumbria. NHS Cumbria CCG has recognised this does leave some maternity services vulnerable in terms of sustainability but they are responding to the needs of the Cumbrian population and its geography by working in partnership with providers to continue to commission a consultant led maternity service countywide.
NHS Cumbria CCG is clear that it sees the retention of consultant led maternity services at Furness General Hospital as a core commissioning priority. FGH serves a population in excess of 100,000 and the commissioners and the University Hospitals Morecambe Bay NHS Trust (UHMB) came to the conclusion earlier this year that there was no acceptable model for acute care that did not continue to provide the services in Furness.
This decision leaves UHMB and the NHS Cumbria CCG with the challenge of how this can be provided which includes maternity recruitment and how to ensure staff at the small unit at FGH see a sufficiently large and complex mix of cases to meet clinical standards and how staff in a small unit keep up their skills. This will mean exploring network solutions with other providers and stakeholders to find new ways of working to sustain the service.
Dr Geoff Jolliffe, GP Lead for Furness, said: “We are working with our providers and asking them to be innovative and to explore new possibilities to give us a unique service response for the women of Cumbria. Due to our distinct geography it can sometimes be difficult to access services outside the county. However, all my colleagues and healthcare professionals across the county are committed to providing a high quality safe maternity service at all hospitals in Cumbria.”
Dr David Rogers, GP Lead for Copeland, added: “Giving birth is a natural life event and maternity services are an essential local service. All Cumbrian residents will have access to a safe, accessible and sustainable service county wide. In order to provide this we may need a unique and innovative maternity service so that we can respond to the needs and expectations of the people of Cumbria.”
Discussions are also planned to take place between NHS Cumbria CCG and Lancashire North Clinical Commissioning Group regarding access to maternity services at the Royal Lancaster Infirmary, as part of the ongoing work to ensure every possible option is looked into and investigated.
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As OneVillage grows in size, we will increasingly be able to serve as a resource hub for Sierra Leone, rural development, and appropriate technologies for development. As we further develop our model, we will make our findings and recommendations available via the website, offering links, articles, and PDFs whenever possible.
Enjoy these resources and check back often as we add new information.
Sierra Leonean NonFiction
The Devil That Danced on Water (Forna, Aminatta – 2003) Written by a diasporic Sierra Leonean woman, Forna uses memoir/historical fiction to uncover the reasons and actions leading to her politician father’s death in Sierra Leone as post-colonial democracy shifted toward dictatorship.
A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier (Beah, Ishmael – 1998) This is the heart wrenching tale of a child soldier in the RUF during Sierra Leone’s civil war. The memoir describes how young boys were brainwashed by RUF leaders to perform unspeakable acts of murder, rape, and torture. There is some debate as to whether this book is a true memoir or fictionalized memoir.
Green Oranges on Lion Mountain (Joy, Emily – 2004) This is the somewhat lighthearted account of a young Scottish surgeon’s experiences practicing a very primitive form of medicine in Mende country. Her work in Sierra Leone is cut short by the beginning of the civil war.
West African Fiction
A Dirty War in West Africa: The RUF and the Destruction of Sierra Leone (Gberlie, Lansana – 2005) This is the best account of Sierra Leone’s disastrous civil war, written by a Sierra Leonean journalist. It is particularly valued as a piece written by an African amidst numerous accounts of the war by Westerners.
Things Fall Apart (Achebe, Chinua – 1958) This is one of the great novels of the twentieth century because of its consistently African viewpoint and its marvelous depiction of African village life in Nigeria prior to the arrival of the British colonists. It also describes the early encounters between British officials and local Africans, all seen from an African viewpoint.
Anthills of the Savannah (Achebe, Chinua – 1987) Written almost thirty years (1987) after Things Fall Apart, this novel’s focus is on the corruption of the governing elites in newly independent African countries.
Purple Hibiscus (Adichie, Chimamanda – 2003) The first novel of a talented Nigerian writer, this work describes the tensions in one African family between Western values and African tribal values.
Half of a Yellow Sun (Adichie, Chimamanda – 2006) A hauntingly beautiful account of the struggle for an independent Biafra in Nigeria demonstrates the loving relationships that endure through a tumultuous decade. The books appropriately complicates the intersections of colonialism, class, and ethnicity.
Development Readings
Development as Freedom (Sen, Amartya – 2000) Winner of the 1998 Nobel Prize for Economics, Sen promotes development as a means and end for political freedom. He focuses on India and China yet his interjection of morality and ethics into economic development is extremely refreshing. With strong promotion for human-based development, Sen offers a unique, thought-provoking analysis of development.
The White Man’s Burden: Why the West’s Efforts to Aid the Rest Have Done So Much Ill and So Little Good (Easterly, William – 2006) A former World Bank economist cites international development’s top-down approach without consultation with poor as the fundamental cause for aid ineffectiveness. A scathing review of the actions of organizations like the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund, Easterly asks readers to look critically at international development and globalization.
The Trouble with Africa: Why Foreign Aid Isn’t Working (Calderisi, Robert – 2006) This book describes in detail the ineffectiveness of foreign aid in Africa and offers some possibilities for changing that circumstance.
The Bottom Billion: What the Poorest Countries are Failing and What Can be Done About it (Collier, Paul – 2007) Written by a British academic with great understanding of poverty worldwide, this book is particularly good at explaining the special conditions in Africa that make ending the continent’s poverty so difficult.
The Black Man’s Burden: Africa and the Curse of the Nation State (Davidson, Basil – 1992) This is an amazing book because of the breadth and depth of the author’s understanding of the harmful effects of colonialism in Africa and the disastrous mistakes made by the leaders of newly independent African countries.
The Means of Reproduction: Sex, Power, and the future of the World (Goldberg, Michelle – 2009) While this book deals with the difficulties of women worldwide, the sections on the virtual enslavement of some African women are very revealing. Goldberg’s powerful work has one whole chapter devoted to the widespread practice of female genital mutilation in Sierra Leone.
The End of Poverty: Economic Possibilities for Our Time (Sachs, Jeffrey – 2006) This is perhaps the best-known book about ending poverty worldwide. It advocates an increase in international aid by developed countries spread across 9 steps that will move those in extreme poverty onto the first rung of the economic development ladder.
Globalization and its Discontents (Stiglitz, Joseph – 2003) Finding that a one-size-fits-all economic development policies can do more harm than good under the age of gloablization, Stiglitz asks readers to reconsider how development institutions work with developing countries. A balanced book, recognizing the potential benefits of globalization while simultaneously criticizing some of its uses, this book is a great start for anyone trying to understand the complexities of globalization and its impact of developing countries.
Banker to the Poor: Micro-Lending and the Battle Against World Poverty (Yunus, Muhammed – 2003) A definitive book written as a memoir about the birth of micro lending as a means to end poverty. Yunus demonstrates the ability of the poor to help themselves with access to small amounts of credit, which won him and the micro-lending Grameen Bank the 2006 Nobel Peace Prize.
Dead Aid: Why Aid Is Not Working and How There Is a Better Way for Africa (Moyo, Dambisa – 2010) Zambian native Moyo finds that international aid creates dependency and encourages corruption and is somewhat at fault for the lack of African development. Moyo offers numerous free market mechanisms as solutions for African development.
Enough: Why the World’s Poorest Starve in an Age of Plenty (Thurow, Roger and Kilman, Scott – 2009). Written by two Wall Street Journal reporters with decades of experience in Africa, this book is a detailed description of the agricultural challenges facing Africa and an analysis of the complex political dynamics of the global food industry.
Information About Sierra Leone
UN-Water General information about international actions regarding Sanitation & Water for All
World Health Organization (WHO) – Sierra Leone
General information about Sierra Leone
Wikipedia – Sierra Leone BBC – Sierra Leone
BBC – Sierra Leone
CIA World Factbook – Sierra Leone
Reports on Sierra Leonean Development
United Nations Development Programme – Sierra Leone
World Bank Group in Sierra Leone
Human Development Index 2009 Sierra Leone
UNESCO in Sierra Leone Click on Documents in the lower right for PDFs of reports
Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) of the United Nations – Sierra Leone
UNDP – Economic Development in Sierra Leone
United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA)
Local Sierra Leonean News
Awareness Times – Sierra Leonean online news
Listing of various organizations, government ministries, etc.
The Sierra Leone Web
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The Near and Far Future for Orbotech and Inspection
March 23, 2017 | Barry Matties, I-Connect007
Matties: You mentioned culture. How would you describe the culture of Orbotech?
Gordon: That's a very tricky question. We’ve had many different sessions trying to define it. First of all, Orbotech does have a unique culture, it’s not just a slogan, and even in Israel it's perceived as a special company. There is something in the culture that keeps people in the company for a long term. The high tech industry is a very hectic one. People tend to move positions in companies every few years, but in Orbotech you'll find people such as myself who are still with the company after 10 years. Ten years is still considered a newcomer at Orbotech. There's something in the culture that attracts people to it for the long term, not only in terms of our investment strategy but also in terms of employee relationships and customer relationships.
Matties: When you joined Orbotech, what was so appealing that made you say "That's where I want to work"?
Gordon: Personally, I joined Orbotech in 2002 as VP of sales and marketing for the PCB division, and after four years I relocated to Taiwan, later to Tokyo and then to Hong Kong where I was managing Orbotech Pacific. Almost four years ago I came back home to Israel, but I had an amazing opportunity to travel the world and see very interesting and exciting things and cultures. When I joined Orbotech, we were doing mainly AOI and a little bit of direct imaging. When I reflect on what we've achieved in 15 years and the changes that have occurred, both for Orbotech and for the industry, it's a remarkable journey. To be part of the journey is simply exciting and now I go to work excited.
Matties: That leads me to my next question about the change or impact you have on the industry. Are you looking at industry needs, or do you create new capabilities by introducing technologies which allow a manufacturer to increase their offering?
Gordon: That's a very good question and talks to the basic philosophy about whether you need to ask your customers what they need, or show them what they need. It reminds me of the famous Henry Ford quote “If I had asked people what they wanted, they would have said faster horses.” I think we do both. We talk to the customers to understand their needs—many of the ideas come from the customers themselves—but we also try to think of ideas out of the box and develop technologies that one day may have value.
If you look at the AOS technology, especially the shaping of the opens, it originated in a project that started over 10 years ago. It was supposed to be launched many, many years back, but there were lots of technological challenges, but we kept investing. In the beginning we weren’t sure how the technology would be used, but it became clear to us once we saw how manual repair was insufficient for advanced technologies.
Very few companies have the capability to continue to invest in a project which is not meeting its business targets, just because we still have the vision that one day it will. So yes, we bring many solutions to the market, but of course we follow the customers, we talk to them about their needs, we make changes all the time and we make improvements to our product lines.
Matties: When you look at your resources, from Valor all the way through to final inspection, all the steps that you're integrated in, you must have an incredible bird’s-eye view of the manufacturing challenges that the world faces, globally and regionally. You could say, “This region is producing better that that region,” just based on the data that you have. That's got to be a huge advantage to you in your R&D and project planning.
Gordon: It's very true what you say, and the acquisition of SPTS gave us even more insight into the industry. When we acquired companies in the past, much of the interaction was done at the board level, but today there is a lot of cross-activity down at the division level, for example in the area of advanced packaging. And we do have a good view of that and, as a consequence, are able to offer better solutions to these two markets.
Matties: So, final thoughts here, where do you see the future five to 10 years from now in inspection? Here's one thought, while you're considering this. Do you see a need for point source inspection? Meaning, as it comes through the etcher, before it exits final that we have inline AOI at every step so that you don't produce a batch of scrap, you detect an error in one and you modify before the next one.
Gordon: First of all the needs of inspection are changing. Today, customers are asking to inspect more and more features that were not inspected before. A very good example is via inspection. We can prosper only in a world that has changing needs, because otherwise competition catches up. Needs are constantly evolving and as they become more advanced, that's an opportunity. We know the needs and we have resources to invest in them. Specifically, the issue of inline is something which we have considered many times, and I think the issue of the whole yield management connects to the question of Industry 4.0 and the smart factory, which is a growing trend.
Matties: This fits right into that.
Gordon: It does, and it's emerging very rapidly. We are very committed to supporting that.
Matties: Is your R&D team working on these types of solutions?
Gordon: Definitely, yes. It's currently more in terms of understanding the needs, and like you asked before, coming up with ideas. It's forming right now. When people talk about the smart factory today they don't have a full picture of what they need or what they want. The requirements are evolving and we have to adapt as we go—not only inspection and imaging, but also work flow management, having an overall perspective of the manufacturing process, and probably also adding the inspection points to that big picture. It’s an opportunity for the makers and an opportunity for Orbotech. Our Orbotech Smart Factory™ will address these needs and provide a comprehensive solution.
Matties: The other thought that I have is that one of your neighbors, Nano Dimension, who I'm sure you know quite well, are producing circuit boards out of thin air, basically.
Gordon: Yes.
Matties: It's quite impressive what they're doing, and granted it is in its infancy, but 10 years down the road it looks like a very promising technology. What's your opinion about that?
Gordon: I think in general that additive manufacturing is a significant trend which is needed not in just our industry. At Orbotech, we have worked on additive manufacturing, and the Precise 800 is a form of low throughput additive manufacturing. Definitely our inkjet solutions are where we lead and we plan to cover more and more applications using these two different technologies—inkjet on one hand and then LIFT, which is the technology used in the shaping.
Matties: When I looked at the shaping technology at APEX last year, to me it looked like you were doing an additive manufacturing process right there, granted in small bits, but you have the basis for something there. So it will be interesting to see how that evolves.
Gordon: It’s definitely part of our plan.
Matties: Yes, no doubt you guys are always innovating and always leading. If a fabricator came up and said "Arik, what's the best advice you could give me?" What would that be?
Gordon: I think that many fabricators are still not taking advantage of the benefits of Industry 4.0. I see PCB factories with an extreme level of automation not only saving labor but with a more consistent and higher quality output. Many makers are still lagging behind and not yet using available automated solutions. If you look at the booth today, and we didn't have it in the past, we have two systems with automation. We don't sell our own automation but we work closely with others. Industry 4.0 as its most basic involves factories with less labor and more automation. The next step is to combine it with data analysis, which is getting closer to the real smart factory or Industry 4.0 vision. You don't have to wait for Industry 4.0 to have complete and defined specifications. You can do many elements of it already right now, and you should do it. You should embark on it.
Matties: You mentioned the automated factory, and I'm thinking of Alex Stepinski, one of your customers over at Whelen. In fact, we just last year created our "Good for the Industry" award, and we awarded Alex for his innovative thinking and probably that's one of the factories that come to mind when you're talking, right?
Gordon: Yes, I visited Alex's factory over a year ago and he's very innovative. Also, implementing a factory in North America is a significant achievement, so I think the award is well-deserved. And I agree with you, I think that automation is relevant not only for the mass production facilities that you find typically here in the Pacific or in China, but also very relevant to makers in the Western part of the world, or makers of smaller batches.
Matties: It’s funny, because we did a survey around this very topic with the shops around the world, and those in America were split on automation, and when I think about it, automation is one part, but process step elimination is probably a more significant part for North America. If you can take a traditional imaging process and turn it into a DI solution, you're taking a lot of steps out of your process. We need to see more thinking like that as well.
Gordon: I fully agree. I see makers that take the automation in the most basic sense. They simply connect automation to their existing machines.
Matties: A handler.
Gordon: It's handling, which has value, but not much. What you describe, designing an automated flow with less steps, controlled and managed by data, and using handling and automation is the right way to go. That's basically the number one advice I would give to a PCB maker today.
Matties: Arik, is there anything that we haven't talked about today that you think we should share with the industry?
Gordon: I think it's pretty comprehensive; you know your stuff!
Matties: Thank you very much. I appreciate you sitting down with us today. It's been very nice speaking with you.
Microvias: Links of Faith are Not Created Equally
07/18/2019 | Jerry Magera and J.R. Strickland, Motorola Solutions Inc.
Microvias connect adjacent copper layers to complete electrical paths. There are copper-filled microvias, which can be stacked to form connections beyond adjacent copper layers, and staggered microvias, which stitch adjacent copper layers with paths that meander on the layers between the microvias. This article discusses the various laser-drilled microvias and presents SEM photographs to begin the search for the root cause of weak copper interface.
Dissecting the IPC Regional Survey on PCB Technology Trends
07/15/2019 | I-Connect007 Editorial Team
Sharon Starr, Denny Fritz, and Mike Carano talk about the global 2018 IPC Technology Trends Report released early this year—the size of the survey, how it was conducted, the general findings, and regional differences. They also shared their takeaways and regional insights, and the industry outlook over the next five to 10 years.
An Examination of Glass-fiber and Epoxy Interface Degradation in Printed Circuit Boards
07/12/2019 | Bhanu Sood, Michael Osterman, and Michael Pecht, Center for Advanced Life Cycle Engineering
Multilayer organic laminates, which make up over 90% of the interconnecting substrates in electronics (standard FR-4 represents 85% of the substrates used for laminates), can develop a loss of electrical insulation resistance between two biased conductors due to conductive filament formation.
Orbotech’s PCB Division President Arik Gordon and I spoke in detail about the company’s newest developments in automated optical shaping (AOS), Orbotech’s unique culture and commitment to R&D, and what he expects to see in the near future for the inspection industy.
Barry Matties: Arik, for those few who may not know, please tell us a little bit about what Orbotech does.
Arik Gordon: Orbotech is a global player in the production of electronic components, enabling their manufacture. We have three business divisions: FPD or flat panel display division which plays a major role in the production cycles of flat panels made for TVs, smartphones or any advanced electronic device with a screen including watches, cars and much more; SPTS, which we acquired in 2014 and is our semiconductor devices division or SDD and offers process equipment for the backend of the semiconductor manufacturing process, for example advanced packaging as well as MEMS, power devices and much more; and the PCB division that I head up, which focuses on developing advanced manufacturing solutions for the production of printed and flex circuit boards.
The three divisions are more or less the same size, each contributing between 25–35% of Orbotech's revenue, and today it's extremely hard to find an advanced electronic device that was not manufactured using Orbotech’s systems at one or more stages of production.
Matties: Orbotech is the giant in the industry for the inspection arena, but you have a lot of other technology. Let's focus on the PCB side. You have your automated optical repair or AOR, but you have also been describing a new process that does 3D modeling. Tell us a little bit about that process and the new solution.
Gordon: It is true that we started in inspection and yield enhancement. However, for more than 10 years now the main focus of our business has been production solutions such as direct imaging, which is our largest product and is clearly a production system, or what you referred to as AOR, which we have evolved into AOS or automated optical shaping.
Matties: Shaping—that's the word I was looking for. What is shaping and what’s the difference between shaping and repair?
Gordon: Shaping and repair are not the same thing. Not even close. The distinction between these two concepts is extremely important since shaping will play a key role in the future of electronics as technologies advance, functionality increases and devices become even smaller and lighter. The key distinction between repair and shaping is that repair is performed manually and is not suitable for the fine lines and high resolutions that we are seeing more and more these days, especially with advanced HDI and mSAP. With shaping we actually analyze the circuit using AOI technologies and make sure that the original CAM design is accurately produced. Where necessary, when there are shorts or opens of any type, we 3D shape or 2D shape the design, ensuring that the original CAM design is re-created.
Matties: Is shaping a new addition to the industry lexicon that you're trying to introduce?
Gordon: Yes, definitely.
Matties: Because you don't want to call it ‘repair’ due to connotations of poor quality, or some other issues that an OEM might reject the boards for?
Gordon: The repair process in the PCB industry is not a clean process that is well-controlled. What we do with shaping and the Precise™ 800 is well beyond it. It's more like plastic surgery. We work according to the CAM design, and there are multiple checks to ensure that the original design is properly produced.
The process starts by removing excess copper with a laser—an extremely complex and delicate process as the copper is on top of a laminate. You need a high powered laser to melt the copper, but you need to do it without damaging the substrate. With our 3D shaping, we actually add copper to the circuit and 3D shape opens. The amount of PCBs that this groundbreaking technology can save from the scrap heap is huge.
Matties: How many of these units have you placed now into the market?
Gordon: We launched the PerFix which removes excess copper a few years ago, and there are about 300 systems in the market so far.
Matties: And how many of your new shaping solution, the Precise 800?
Gordon: The Precise was launched at CTEX 2016 in May. I think it's fair to say that we have received tens of orders for this solution so far.
Matties: Nice, so it's well accepted.
Gordon: It's well accepted, yes.
Matties: Why do you think it’s been so well accepted so quickly?
Gordon: I think what is happening is that the complexity of the PCBs, especially in HDI, is getting to a level where the old style of repair is simply not possible—the lines are too thin, the laminate is too thin, and the only way to increase the yield is to use this new type of system.
Matties: Let’s talk about DI for a minute. There's a lot of new competition in the DI space.
Matties: How is that impacting what you do, or does it?
Gordon: Competition always impacts the business, and so I’ll divide my answer in two. Direct imaging is typically used in the advanced circuit board HDI and up. We have a unique technology called LSO or large scan optics, where we have typically one large lens or optical element as opposed to most of the competition which uses an area with many smaller lenses or optical elements. The main advantage of our technology is depth of focus, which is critical for production in terms of robustness. Both systems will perform well during a demonstration, however, in real-life scenarios when the panels are a little warped and you need day-in, day-out production, large scan optics is a core element and has a significant advantage.
And of course, the system is very fast. With real-time scaling and many other benefits, it has an edge over the competition. In the high-density boards, we estimate the market to be about 50% for many years now, thanks to the robustness and capabilities of the system.
Matties: You also have the ability of bundling because with your portfolio customers can come in and buy a universal package, which certainly gives you an advantage in the negotiating room.
Gordon: Definitely. If you look at the PCB production process in the context of Industry 4.0, you can see how many steps are covered by Orbotech equipment. We are also a major shareholder of Frontline which offers CAM solutions to most of the industries from CAM to inspection to direct imaging, inkjet, laser drilling and shaping. We have other offerings as well which support the direct imaging business.
Matties: What about solder mask? Is this also a big area now?
Gordon: Yes, there is a high demand for direct imaging of solder mask. The requirements are somewhat different than patterning. The most obvious is that we require very high energy to expose the solder mask material. For that, we launched a system called Diamond. To the best of our knowledge, it's the fastest system in the market. It's in penetration mode at the moment, and we believe that it will play a significant role in our business.
Matties: Is this solution capable of high-volume production? I know there are others out there that aren't quite so high volume.
Gordon: Our equipment is always designed for high-volume production.
Matties: So what hurdles did you have to overcome to gain speed? It's all about speed, right?
Gordon: Speed and power. Typical dry film resist in HDI and patterning can need 20 to 30 millijoule per cm2 of energy to expose it, and solder mask requires hundreds, if not sometimes thousands, of millijoules per cm2 to expose it. We had to come up with a system that has high power. Also, the solder mask is more sensitive to the spectrum of the light. The laser is typically a single wavelength but here we had to come up with a system that has multiple wavelengths, and that was a technological challenge, so it took us years to develop.
Matties: How has the market reacted to this product line?
Gordon: That product was also launched in 2016 and the business is growing. At the same time, we are continuing to address the key challenges, including the hundreds or even thousands of types of different solder mask materials out there which all interact differently with different sources of energy. We have to adapt the system to the needs of different solder mask materials. Of course it takes time, but it's gaining momentum and next year we hope to sell tens of systems.
Matties: You have solutions or products for just about every fabricator in the world really. There's not a fabricator that couldn't benefit by using one of your products, if not multiple.
Gordon: Yes. If you look at the top 50 PCB makers, the vast majority would already have a significant amount of Orbotech equipment and I think we are a major partner to our customers.
Matties: What impressed me is the amount of R&D and the commitment to R&D that Orbotech has. Can you talk about that? It's quite impressive.
Gordon: That’s very true and is one of our key differentiators. Orbotech is a highly technology-oriented company. It was founded that way and over the years, we’ve managed to keep our culture and spirit, but it also comes down to our investment in R&D. We keep the company R&D at quite a high level. In good years, it's between 12 and 14%, but the industry is cyclical and some years it rises much higher because we try to keep the investment in R&D level, even in a downturn. In general, that’s our culture: we're a long-term player and we are committed to investing in the future.
Matties: Now, I’m sure you've heard this, for some there's a love-hate relationship with Orbotech, and some people complain about the service fees, for instance. How do you deal with that? The second part to that question is, I think a lot of your competitors use that against you in many ways too. How do you deal with that? Are you familiar with those statements?
Gordon: I’m familiar with those statements, and I think it used to be true many years back. There are cases here and there where this is still the customer’s perception, but it’s the exception and not the rule. We are in a unique situation. We are a very significant player in the industry and there’s a very delicate balance involved in using that significance in a way that is perceived as partnership and not an organization that causes or forces others to buy equipment. Today, there is competition in each and every product line that we have, which in a way also helps to keep us humble. But also the culture and approach that we have been taking in recent years has definitely tackled that point. Today, I don’t believe that you will find many customers that still hold that view.
Matties: I think you're right that the volume has diminished, the decibels are lower, but we still do hear that, particularly when times are tough. Because they have to put out cash and their revenue is maybe not so good.
Gordon: One more point to mention in that context is most of the employees in the PCB division, which is about 750 employees overall, are customer support engineers. We continue to maintain systems that were launched 20 years ago and that operation includes powerful legacy systems as well as new systems. We sell to customers in Europe, U.S., England, China including Taiwan, Korea, Japan and many areas in Southeast Asia, both in centrally located and remote areas. To maintain a customer support organization that services all these types of equipment is a costly operation. We do charge our customers and in return, we try to deliver consistently high value.
We provide our customers with a complete safety net and a low level of risk. Yes, they have to pay for the service, but they also know that it's there. It may take one day more, one day less, but we are there for them and we are always working on improving that.
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From the Desk of
About the Pioneer
Pioneer Staff
2019 Publication Dates and Deadlines
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Concord rezoning moves closer to Chick-fil-A approval
By Peggy Spear 2 months ago
Please Share and Like us
City-resident relations could crack wide open due to a zoning change that may herald the arrival of a controversial Chick-fil-A in Concord.
The City Council voted 3-2 on April 23 to allow a zoning change to accommodate a drive-through restaurant on Willow Pass Road at the location of the long-vacant Lin’s Restaurant.
Two major issues are rattling residents. One is the idea of a drive-through restaurant on a major corridor to the city’s center. The other is more problematic: Chick-fil-A’s corporate management is notorious for its anti-LGBTQ stance, donating money to defeat gay marriage in many states.
“We passed a conditional use permit (if the zoning is changed),” said Councilman Edi Birsan, who approved the measure. “We did not approve a Chick-fil-A yet in that location.”
But even the mention of Chick-fil-A set off a firestorm on social media and in public comments.
“What makes me mad is the duplicitous nature of this ‘zoning issue,’” resident Patrick Hardy told the Pioneer. “It’s a convenient way for the council to approve Chick Fil-A without getting their hands dirty.”
More review ahead
It is still a long way before the chicken restaurant would put a shovel in the ground. Its proposal must pass the Design Review Committee, the Planning Commission, environmental reviews and a traffic study.
“I’m most anxious to see the traffic study results,” Birsan said.
Mayor Carlyn Obringer as well as Councilwoman Laura Hoffmeister opposed the zoning change. Obringer noted that the site is a prime piece of real estate in the heart of Concord’s Class A office space.
“I am deeply concerned that locating a drive-through fast food restaurant in this area could negatively impact our Class A office leasing,” she said. “Over the past few years, we have made progress in attracting living-wage jobs to the surrounding office buildings. I wouldn’t want to do anything to stymie that progress. It doesn’t make sense to me to go through the extensive process of changing the city’s general plan to accommodate property owners who haven’t yet made a concerted effort to market the property.”
She said she would welcome the opportunity to partner with the property owner to better understand his goals and see how he and the city could work together to attract a “better and higher use” than drive-through fast food.
“I am confident we can do better,” Obringer said. “There is no need to sell our Concord community short.”
Council disagreement
Landowner Pete Canzani told Birsan that Chick-Fil-A showed the only interest and had what he considered a good plan in place.
“All other corners around that intersection are zoned for fast food establishments,” Birsan said. “Why separate this one? It makes no sense.”
Councilman Dominic Aliano agreed. “The majority on the council felt it should be rezoned,” he said. “It will be nice to have some investment in that location.”
Hoffmeister, like Obringer, said a fast food restaurant was not an appropriate use of the land. “I’m disappointed that a different type of business is not being considered, like a hotel or an office building. There are other locations near freeway access for a fast food establishment, like near Lowe’s off Highway 4,” she said at the meeting. “A nice sit-down restaurant would be nice.”
Birsan countered by saying it was “pretentious” to assume that residents working in Class-A office buildings nearby wouldn’t eat there. He also addressed what he called “the elephant in the room.”
“Let’s face it. Chick-fil-A has a horrendous owner, but this isn’t about their politics.” He went to say he supported LGBTQ rights as mayor, being the first to fly the rainbow flag.
A question of family
Many residents believe that by approving the zoning change, Concord’s leaders are forgetting the city’s motto of “Families First.”
“I noticed that city staff made it easy for the council, as they did not recommend the zoning change,” says Steven Hardy, Patrick Hardy’s husband. “Carlyn and Laura said no, but all three guys (Birsan, Aliano and Tim McGallian) said yes to the change. …. I’ve concluded that the three guys don’t truly understand the difficulties between the LGBTQ community and Chick-fil-A. Or they don’t care.
“For me personally, I would like people to know this is not a political issue,” Steven Hardy continued. “My problem is Chick-fil-A has attacked my family and continues to do so by wanting to dissolve my marriage. They put themselves in the middle of the culture wars. This is ongoing, not a one-time issue.”
Tags: Chick-fil-A, Concord City Council
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Stephanie has a BA as pattern-cutter, draper and modelist from the Ecole Superieure des Arts et Techniques de la Mode (founded in 1841 in Paris by the riding habit maker of the Empress Eugenie), and a certificate in the same from Mueller und Sohn in her native Munich.
This followed studying Art/Costume History at degree level at the University of California and a year long costume internship, resulting in several seasons making costumes for the American Conservatory Theatre in San Francisco. She has been with Past Pleasures Ltd since 1992 and has taught modules in ladies' historical pattern cutting at Wimbledon College of Art, where Past Pleasures gives annual prizes to graduates of the Costume Interpretation course.
Steph provides bespoke reproduction period costume for a wide variety of clients; these include the Historic Royal Palaces, English Heritage sites, as well as museums, London's theatres (including the Globe) and opera houses, the media and film industries and local authorities throughout the UK.
The excellence of Steph's costumes - their cut, fit and attention to detail - has been recognized by the V&A, for whom Past Pleasures has provided costumed interpreters in the costume gallery and various exhibitions. Alongside managing the costume department, Steph oversees financial and human resources elements of the business.
Steph continues to collect original ladies' clothing spanning 280 years, some of which was recently hired for copying by the costume designer of the film 'Lincoln'.
Steph has taught modules in ladies' historical pattern cutting at Wimbledon College of Art
Stephanie's work on display in the 'Secrets of the Royal Bedchamber' exhibition for Historic Royal Palaces
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RIOT MultiGP International OPEN 2017
The largest celebration of FPV drone racing with 8 disciplines, around 300 pilots and countless volunteers and sponsors. 5 days of packed action, fierce competition and awesome camaraderie! TBS presents the recap of the MultiGP International Open 2017!
► http://team-blacksheep.com
► http://facebook.com/teamblacksheep
► http://plus.google.com/+nastycop420
► http://twitter.com/BlackSheepFPV
► http://instagram.com/blacksheepfpv
ADDITIONAL FOOTAGE BY
Mr Steele
► http://youtube.com/MrSteeledavis
Mc Stralle
► http://goo.gl/NYK8xm
BMS Thomas
► http://youtube.com/BMSWEB
Shelby Voll
► http://youtube.com/ShelbyVoll
► http://aufmschlau.ch
► http://instagram.com/aufmschlau.ch
♫ MUSIC BY
Milan – Back in Time
Glitch Hop Community
DOWNLOAD/STREAM
http://fanlink.to/MilanBackInTime
► http://soundcloud.com/milanguedecmusic
► http://youtube.com/GlitchHopCommunity
Category: Quadcoter Videos, Racing
Tags:AMA, aufmschlau.ch, blacksheepfpv, drone, drone event, drone race, droneracing, Drones, FPV, FPV flying, FPV RACE, fpvracing, Glitch Hop Community, Indiana, international open, long range flying, miniquad, mr steele, Multi GP, MultiGP International Open, Muncie, nastycop420, Quadcopter, racing drones, Riot MultiGP, rotor riot, team blacksheep, Team BlackSheep in, tiny whoop, Wings, yt:quality=high
Ghost Ryder FPV
Nice footy TBS, what a collection of talent! (Edited down to a nice bite-size video)
Challenjam 2017
video! Participate in the drone youtube video challenges on ChallenJam! bitly.com/HightechCJ
Another amazing edit! Great to see more of Raphael in front of the camera too 🙂
Congratulations Thomas + Team BMS – you guys are fantastic ambassadors for the sport!
Team White Mouton
Team BlackSheep VS Team WhiteMouton, we are waiting 🙂
Mr. J - Jacopo Bassan
Awesome video! Those shots ;D ps: good thing you needed a car, at Drone Worlds 2016 you were walking around like crazy Raphael ahuauh
Siggy Nowak
Fabulous edit.
Daniel B
čau kde koupit čepici team Blacksheep ??? a cena?
NURK FPV
Timelapse at 4:16 is FIRE!
Owen Buckingham
onjoFilms
Nice. But I don’t think it will become a super successful spectator sport until they become the size of a VW bug.
Otis Gore
excellent fuckin’ edit 😀 …Excellent 🙂
HAWKX FPV
Super slick edit! What an amazing time it was!
This was great event…thanks for the credits brother and sporting my footage. Was cool staying in the hotel with you…..it had a fantastic smell…????????????????
PulseFour FPV
Looked like such a great event!
Rock FPV
daamnn Soo well made footage O love it ????
Ignatius John
Looks like a great time! Really nice Editing. Good Work!
Pete Zauw
Some great footage. My only wish is that you could have more of that idiotic repetitive music going on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on 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Caught Testing: 2014 BMW i8 Coupe - Spy Shots
A production version of BMW's dramatic hybrid sports coupe is on the way. Here's proof!
By Nick Kurczewski
Tom Cruise is already driving a concept version of the BMW i8 plug-in hybrid sports coupe in the action-packed film Mission Impossible–Ghost Protocol. But our diligent spy photographers have managed to capture photos of the real deal, a pre-production i8 spotted briefly behind a chain link fence. It appears that the production model—which we expect to see on the road in a couple of years—will carry much of the dramatic styling seen on the i8 Concept shown at the 2011 Frankfurt Auto Show.
2014 BMW i8 Coupe
BMW's Ultimate Hybrid Driving Machine
The BMW i8 is an all-wheel-drive plug-in hybrid that will serve as the halo product for the German automaker's new eco-themed "i" sub-brand. A small electric city car, the BMW i3, is also scheduled for production. The i8 Concept is powered by an electric motor driving the front wheels, while a 1.5-liter 3-cylinder gasoline engine is coupled to the rears. A slightly larger, and possibly turbocharged, 4-cylinder gasoline-powered unit could be pressed into service for the production version of the i8.
As it stands, BMW states that this all-wheel-drive powertrain is capable of launching the 2+2 sports coupe to 60 mph in 4.6 seconds, while still returning approximately 80 mpg. There is also an electric-only drive mode. Although it will have exceptional fuel mileage and EV credentials, the i8 won't be a bargain—we expect it to cost in excess of $100,000 when it goes on sale.
BMW isn't exactly skimping on cutting-edge technology, or dramatic styling when it comes to the i8. The prototype carries some pretty wild design features, including a sleek rear wing that flows from the roofline, down the C-pillars, and over the rear fenders before tapering into the trunk lid. The doors also appear quite shallow, so we expect them to open upward and outward (gullwing-style), as on the concept version. Lightweight materials—such as aluminum and carbon fiber—will be used in the chassis and body, to help improve engine efficiency and driving dynamics.
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A Refresher — The Bunkerville Protest Revisited — Connecting the Dots on the Bundy Standoff
January 11, 2017 - Government/Politics, Land Use News, Property Rights, Public Lands, Ranching - Tagged: BLM, Bundy, Bunkerville, Cows, Federal Governent, First Amendment, impound, militia, Protest, Ranching, Range, RANGEfire, speech, Standoff - 2 comments
As the “Bundy” trials in Las Vegas are quickly approaching, we’re re-posting this article as a refresher about the original Bundy Standoff. The primary substantive content of this article was originally posted on The Pahvant Post in April, 2014. This article should also be supplemented by The Bundy Ranch Story, as told by Ammon Bundy himself.
The Cliven Bundy family actively ranches in the harsh conditions of the deserts of Southeast Nevada where their family has operated for at least six generations. The Bundy family lives on approximately 150 acres of private property that their Mormon pioneer ancestors settled along the Virgin River in the 1880s. For well over 100 years, the Bundy family’s cattle have been grazing hundreds of thousands of acres of “public” land surrounding their property.
Regardless of any and all other theories, claims or documentation, Bundys claim that their grazing rights are based on the Laws of Nature and Nature’s God, which are encapsulated in universal naltural law principles, such as “first come first served, “possession is 9/10ths of the law,” “we reap what we sow,” otherwise known as the law of the harvest, and “he that takes the risk should receive the reward.” State and federal laws recognize these principles and concepts as “prior appropriation,” and “beneficial use.” — i.e., “first in time, first in right,” and “use it or lose it.” These natural law principles are based on the concept that those who take the risk and pay the price to appropriate something that is otherwise unappropriated, and put it to productive, beneficial use, deserve continued use, possession, benefit and enjoyment of that thing, and as long as they continue and maintain such use (use it or lose it), that right should remain their’s.
According to this theory, such principles apply to all forms of real estate-based property rights, including water rights, mineral rights, timber rights and grazing rights. Although a person may not actually hold title to the land itself, through application of these principles, through prior appropriation and beneficial use they acquire the right to use and put to beneficial use certain aspects of that land, or resources that the land produces. This is the basis for the concept of prescriptive rights, adverse possession and pre-emptive rights, and these natural law principles serve as the basis for many of our written laws, including a whole host of federal laws, including all the Homestead Acts that governed settlement of the West.
Basis for the Dispute
For the past 20+ years, the BLM has claimed that the Bundy cattle are trespassing. Most recently, the BLM has claimed that Bundy cattle grazing these ranges total in the neighborhood of 1000 head, and that the Bundy family owes the BLM over $1 million dollars in unpaid grazing fees and penalties.
Cliven Bundy and his family of 14 children maintain that they have a pre-emptive right to graze the land, based on their prior beneficial use. They also claim that there has not been any contract between them and the federal government since the BLM cancelled their “grazing permits” over 20 years ago, after it moved all other ranchers off the land and declared the range to be habitat for desert tortoises, that the federal government maintains are threatened or endangered.
Despite the BLM’s cancellation of his grazing permits, however, Cliven Bundy refused to leave, and has continued to graze, manage and improve the land and put it to beneficial use ever since, maintaining that there is no basis for any financial obligation to the BLM. Bundy does not claim to own the land, or claim any exclusive right to its possession or use, but he does claim to have perfected a legitimate private property right and interest to the forage that it produces, which his family’s cattle have been harvesting and utilizing for well over 100 years.
The Impoundment Effort
In early April, after years of threats and several prior attempts, the BLM hired a private company owned by Shane and Jessica Sampson of Meadow, Utah, and agreed to pay them almost $1 million dollars to gather and impound the Bundy cattle. At first the BLM claimed that the total budget for the impoundment effort was approximately $3 Million dollars. Since then, however, the BLM has admitted that the budget is closer to $5 Million.
In preparation to sell the cattle, the BLM also approached Scott Robins, owner of “R” Livestock Connection, doing business as the Richfield Auction near Monroe, Utah, and offered him extra money to handle disposal of the impounded cattle through his auction. Unlike other ranchers and cattle operators, however, who typically just take their cattle to the auction and pay a pre-determined commission fee based on the prices the cattle bring, the BLM allegedly offered Robins extra money in advance to take the impounded cattle and sell them. According to sources who have spoken on conditions of anonymity because they are not authorized to speak, Robins justified taking the up-front money by using it to help improve his facilities to better handle the cattle.
One unusual aspect of the impoundment effort has been the military-like security measures the BLM has taken, including the deployment of snipers, SWAT teams and an army of hundreds of armed federal agents, and dozens of escort vehicles. With helicopters, air support, and a heavily armed security detail, along with Shane Sampson and his cowboys on the ground, the whole operation has attempted to operate with the precision of a military operation in Iraq or Afghanistan.
The Protest
Unlike somewhat similar BLM cattle impoundments in the past, where most people seemed to be content to just stand idly by and have had little to say about the BLM’s heavy-handed tactics, in this case people started coming out of the woodwork to protest the federal government’s actions. Slowly but surely the protest gained traction.
Dont Tread On Me !
At first, most elected leaders stood back and had little to say. From start to finish state cattlemens’ associations in Nevada and Utah, as well as the vast majority of cattle ranchers have stood back, had little to say, and seemed to be content to let the Bundy family attempt to fend for itself.
The first political leader who stepped up to the plate to do anything to support the Bundys was Iron County Commissioner, David Miller, who quickly and clearly identified the injustice and hypocrisy the BLM’s actions as it sought to spend $ 5 Million dollars to remove the Bundy cattle, while claiming that it had inadequate resources to manage its own wild horses that vastly exceed the numbers that are supposed to be on the range, competing for forage, especially under the drought conditions that exist this year. In Iron County, alone, it is estimated that there are well over 2000 wild horses in areas where there are not supposed to be more than about 300. But despite repeated requests, which began long before the Bundy situation was even on the radar screen, the BLM has failed and refused to do anything to address the wild horse issue, claiming lack of resources.
Slowly but surely, and reluctantly at first, other political leaders got on board. In addition to starting to address the wild horse situation in Southwest Utah (including Millard County), the county commissioners in Washington, Iron and Beaver Counties sent a message that they did not want the impounded cattle coming into their counties. The state of Utah also finally got on board and told the BLM that it did not want the impounded cattle to come to Utah, and the BLM would be required to comply with any and all applicable state laws regarding livestock brand inspections, transportation, and transfer of ownership.
In the meantime, the protest movement slowly gained ground. The Internet and Blogosphere started buzzing with the story. Eventually the mainstream media even started to pick it up, on a nationwide basis. More and more people started showing up in Bunkerville to support the Bundys. People started coming from all over the country. While we were in Bunkerville covering the story, we talked to people from all the surrounding states, as well as people who have flown in from Texas to show support. Every day the numbers grew, and more people got on board.
Important Developments
A week ago, as Dave Bundy was standing on or near a public road, taking pictures with his I-pad, he was forcefully arrested, taken into custody and held over night. Later in the week, in a heavy-handed clash with protestors, when Ammon Bundy attempted to see what was in the back of dump truck guarded by a large heavily-armed security detail, he was threatened with police dogs, and Tasered multiple times. Ammon’s aunt was also thrown to the ground by BLM agents. The next day, other protestors where man-handled, roughed-up and issued citations by armed BLM agents as they simply sought to see what the BLM was doing.
Eventually, the governor of Nevada started expressing concerns about a number of things, including closure of public lands, heavy-handed armed altercations with and arrests of protestors, as well as unquestionable infringement of First Amendment rights to free speech and freedom of expression. Slowly, other political leaders started to voice concerns and support.
On Thursday, April 10th, several elected leaders came to speak to the protestors at the rally point near Bunkerville. Based on the comments of Nevada State Representative Crescent Hardy, he was challenged to lead an effort to relocate the protest and peacefully assemble in an area south of Overton where cattle were being transported, and several protestors had been detained, roughed-up and issued citations, to protest the BLM’s actions there.
That same day, for the first time, protesters got the first view of the operation from the air, as a private pilot was hired to fly the range, monitor what the BLM was doing, and count cattle, including in the impound corrals, as well as still remaining on the range. In an effort to help verify and corroborate such information, reporters from the Beaver County Journal in a joint operation with the upstart Pahvant Post, also took to the sky in an effort to verify the truth of many of the BLM’s representations and assertions, including the number of cattle the BLM had claimed were on the range.
Based on the corroborated efforts of both of those surveillance flights, it was quickly concluded that the BLM’s numbers had been grossly exaggerated, and that instead of 1000 cattle, between the cattle counted in the impound corrals and those still out on the range, there were closer to 400-500. It was also verified that many baby calves had been separated from their mothers and orphaned as a result of the gather, and that there were also other casualties of the BLM’s efforts.
After the Beaver County Journal broke this story, the BLM quickly adjusted its numbers and said that instead of the gather taking a month, it looked like after only a week, most of the cattle had already been gathered.
The BLM also quickly sought to intimidate the pilots and media, including reporters for the Beaver County Journal, by claiming that the private surveillance flights had interfered with the BLM’s gathering efforts, and had forced their helicopters to ground. An investigation ensued, in which the BLM sought to interrogate, threaten and intimidate the pilots and reporters, and BCJ was forced to have legal counsel intervene. Although there was no truth whatsoever to such accusations, the BLM then requested the FAA to put a No-Fly-Zone in place to prevent any further private surveillance of the BLM’s operations.
On Friday, April 11th, after much investigation, stories broke that Nevada Senator Harry Reid was alleged to be playing an important role in attempting to move the cattle off the land, in order to pave the way for a Chinese solar farm, and to make additional water available for Las Vegas.
Based on reports that the Bundy Ranch had been fully surrounded by SWAT teams and snipers, starting on Thursday, armed militia members began arriving at the ranch from around the country to provide private security, lend support, and engage in armed conflict with the BLM para-military force, if necessary.
Other prominent figures and organizations, including Richard Mack, and Oath Keepers, promised their support, and made arrangements to mobilize to Bunkerville. Clearly acknowledging full Second Amendment rights, and recognizing the distinction between defensive and offensive weapons, Oath Keepers encouraged their members to dress in Western attire more in keeping with a rural, agricultural atmosphere, and to only carry sidearms (handguns), which are considered to be defensive weapons, rather than rifles, which are generally associated with the ability to take offensive, rather than defensive, measures.
By Friday, the militia presence was clearly felt, with dozens of men in camouflage fatigues, sporting M-16 rifles and combat gear. The security detail also included some very burly private bodyguards for Cliven Bundy, all fully prepared to do battle with federal government agents, if necessary.
The most significant, behind-the-scenes development, however, was the position taken by the Nevada State Brand Inspection office. In previous impoundments almost a decade ago, the Nevada State Department of Agriculture had come under serious fire, when, under pressure from the federal government, its lawyers had counseled state officials to bend their long-established policies and provide brand inspections on the BLM impounded cattle. Those actions resulted in some effort to hold those officials accountable for what they had done.
After the State of Utah had insisted that the impounded cattle not enter the State of Utah to be sold, the BLM began frantically searching for another place and a plan to dispose of the cattle, including going to California, if necessary. Ultimately, however, according to our inside sources, speaking on condition of anonymity because they have not been authorized to speak, the Nevada State Brand Department advised the BLM that it would not provide the BLM with brand inspections, in accordance with applicable state law under the circumstances, declining to transfer ownership of the cattle to the BLM, and declining to authorize the BLM to transport the cattle anywhere. Consequently, although the BLM was spending close to $ 5 Million dollars to gather the cattle, and was holding them on BLM land, it could not legally move or do anything else with the cattle.
This was a major, unprecedented victory for states’ rights in the ongoing battle with the federal government, as the federal government increasingly seeks to flex its muscles.
Eventual Resolution
By Saturday, April 12th, the protest had grown exponentially, with upwards of 1000 people on the ground, including close to 100 mounted cowboys and riders who had travelled to Bunkerville from at least three states, and saddled-up and come out to show support for the Bundys, and to help take their cattle back. By then, although the protests had always been peaceful, with the mass arrival of militia members, there was also a heavily armed private security force, including snipers in place, and many average participants in the protest were also wearing sidearms for their own protection.
The critical elected official who had been conspicuously absent during the entire week was Clark County Sheriff Doug Gillespie, who had insisted on taking a neutral stand, and refusing to become involved. Sheriff Gillespie’s only statement had been that no cow was worth shedding any human blood for, on either side. By Saturday morning, however, a rumor was circulating that Sheriff Gillespie was going to make an appearance and talk to both the Bundy Family, and the protestors.
When Sheriff Gillespie and his undersheriffs arrived, however, Cliven Bundy refused to meet with them in private. He said that any discussions they would have would have to occur in broad daylight, under the big flags that had been raised, with all the protestors as witnesses. At that point Sheriff Gillespie announced that based on all the conditions, the BLM had made the decision to shut-down the cattle impoundment operation, re-open the area to the public, and to withdraw from its operation. He did not say what the plan was regarding the impounded cattle or the future use of the disputed range for grazing, but he said he would like to have a private conversation with the Bundy Family about that. Again, Cliven Bundy declined a private meeting, and said that any discussions they would have would be on the stage, before the people.
At that point, Cliven Bundy issued a list of demands to Sheriff Gillespie. Bundy demanded first and foremost that as elected sheriff and head law enforcement officer in Clark County, that Sheriff Gillespie and his Metro Police forces disarm the BLM and the NPS (National Park Service), and bring their weapons back to the protest spot within one (1) hour. He also demanded that Clark County immediately take county equipment and start dismantling the NPS entrances and pay-gates at Red Rock Marina and other entrances to Lake Meade, and that such actions likewise commence within the next hour. At that point, Sheriff Gillespie was left with little choice but to leave the protest to see what could be done to comply with such demands, and he left the area.
Although it is unknown exactly what efforts Sheriff Gillespie undertook, during his entire appearance there had been several LV Metro SWAT team vehicles standing by, several miles away. After Sheriff Gillespie and his men left, upwards of 100 LV Metro patrol units, most of which carried four officers each were dispatched to the BLM compound near Bunkerville, almost 80 miles away. From that point on, a steady stream of LV Metro Police cars could be seen speeding up i-15 toward the BLM compound near Bunkerville. When they reached the area, they joined the SWAT vehicles in approaching the BLM Compound.
Because Cliven Bundy’s demands were not met within 1 hour, as requested, however, the protestors started moving toward the BLM compound in an attempt to take action to take back the impounded cattle. Because of the distance and rough terrain, and very challenging access (all of which were obviously planned by the BLM), it took some time to mobilize everyone, including protestors, security force, and mounted cowboys to an access in large wash, under an I-15 freeway bridge, that had been barricaded and blocked-off by the BLM.
By the time the protestors arrived, the area in the wash under the bridge was heavily guarded by BLM SWAT teams in full combat gear, with multiple snipers in place. Before the protestors approached the barricade, however, Ammon Bundy requested that they all kneel in prayer, and under those tense circumstances asked God for a divine intervention in a peaceful and satisfactory outcome.
As the protesters approached, BLM forces used a loudspeaker to repeatedly threaten them and warn them to stay back. But unarmed protestors continued to advance forward, with armed protestors and militia members staying to the sides and rear, waiting to see if BLM agents would actually open fire on unarmed civilians, and were prepared to provide return fire, if necessary.
As the protestors advanced closer and closer to the barricade and the situation got tenser and tenser, LV Metro Police personnel ultimately came on the loudspeaker and requested an opportunity to negotiate a resolution. At that point, LV Metro negotiators, acting under the direction of Sheriff Gillespie, advanced to the barricade where they were met by Ammon Bundy, and helped negotiate a satisfactory resolution between the protestors and the BLM, whereby the cattle would be released and returned to the Bundys.
After waiting a short period of time to allow BLM personnel to completely withdraw from the area, the mounted cowboys proceeded to the corrals, where they released the cattle, and brought them back down the wash, to an uproar of cheers from the large crowd of protestors.
After the cattle had passed, Ammon Bundy once again requested that they kneel in prayer to offer thanks for the peaceful, and satisfactory outcome.
Very fortunately, despite the tension, everyone kept their cool, and not shots were fired. Contrary to the image that is often portrayed, the patriots who arrived and were willing to give their lives if necessary, where not determined to get into a fight at all cost, and were thrilled that the encounter ended peacefully.
This may not be the end of the story, but it’s a good place to pause and think about what happened.
Some have called this incident – the Bunkerville Protest – the Boston Tea Party of our modern era. Many are concerned that the Bundy Family and its supporters may have won the battle, but not the war. Whether it is the end, or just the beginning, as the original Boston Tea Party was over 200 years ago, only time will tell.
See also The Bundy Ranch Story, as told by Ammon Bundy himself.
2 thoughts on “A Refresher — The Bunkerville Protest Revisited — Connecting the Dots on the Bundy Standoff”
Toaderos January 11, 2017 at 10:23 am
This was in the MCCP today. Withers said he is talking to
the Bureau of Land Management
about fencing on Highway
“I saw five dead cows in one
stretch,” he said. “It’s a pretty
risky area, so hopefully
Nice wanna see some more truths coming out of the hidden agendas.
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Department of Computer Application
Dr. Sanjay Kumar Singh (Associate Professor)
Dr. Sanjay Kumar Singh obtained Ph D from Department of Computer Science and Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology (BHU), Varanasi, India.He also holds M.Tech (CSE), B.E. (CSE), PGDM (MKTG. & I.T.) and Polytechnic to his credit. Dr. Singh received the outstanding staff award in the area of Information Technology from Uttar Pradesh Technical University, Lucknow. He has five papers published in international journals of repute along with fifteen papers in national seminar and conferences. His book chapter is published in IGI, USA, 2016. He has sixteen years of teaching experience. His research interests include Computer Vision and AI in medical applications. Some of the application area of his work includes the design of intelligent computing systems for measuring the intensity of pain using various multidimensional approaches.
Dr. Chandra Prakash Singh (Associate Professor)
Dr. Chandra Prakash Singh is Ph.D. in Computer Science and Engineering from Uttara Khand Technical University, Dehradun, India & holds M.C.A. degree from M.G.K.V.P. University, Varanasi. He is having a rich experience of more than seventeen years in academic and research. To his credit there are more than one dozen of published International and national research papers and also presented more than two dozens of research paper in International and national conferences. His research interest includes Computational Biological tools for the prediction of TFs on Genomic DNA, Computer Graphics, and Operations Research.
Mr. Anand Srivastava (Assistant Professor)
Mr. Anand Srivastava is M.Tech and MCA. He has teaching experience of over 13 years. His areas of specialization are Algorithms, Data Structures and Graph Theory.
Mr. Vinay Kumar (Assistant Professor)
Mr. Vinay Kumar has M.Sc. (Physics) & M.C.A. from Mahatma Gandhi Kashi Vidyapith, Varanasi. His specialization is in C++. He has experience of working in industry as well teaching.
Mr. Bimal Kumar Rai (Assistant Professor)
Mr. Bimal Kumar Rai has done M.C.A. from Rani Durgawati University.He has 10 years of work experience in Operations Research, Statistics & Algorithms. He has participated in national & international seminars.
Mr. Ashutosh Srivastava (Assistant Professor)
Mr. Ashutosh Srivastava is holds M.Tech, M.C.A. & M.Phil. (Computer Science) degrees. He has academic experience of 14 years in areas like Networking and Web Design. He regularly attended conferences, seminars, and workshops in areas relevant to his core skills. His research papers/articles have been published in journals of high repute. He has designed and hosted website of RSMT.
Mr. Anand Mohan Pandey (Assistant Professor)
Mr. Anand Mohan Pandey, M.tech and M.C.A. has more than 10 year's experience in industry and academics. His areas of expertise are Java, C++ and Database. He regularly presents and publishes research papers in areas relevant to his core skills.
Mr. Sujeet Singh (Assistant Professor)
Mr. Sujeet Singh M. tech & M.C.A. has 10 years academic experience in Programming Languages, Operating System, Discrete Mathematics, Computer Organization & Architecture & C#, .NET Technology.
Mr. Vijay Kumar Pandey (Assistant Professor)
Mr. Vijay Kumar Pandey possesses M. Tech and M.C.A. degrees. He has live project experience and has taught for over 10 years. His areas of interests are Programming Languages, Object Oriented Systems, Operating System and securities.
Mr. Shailendra Kumar Tiwari (Assistant Professor)
Mr. Shailendra Kumar Tiwari has submitted his Ph.D. thesis in Department of Mathematical Sciences, Indian Institute of Technology, Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi, India. He has obtained his M.Sc. (Maths) from U.P. Autonomous College, Varanasi in 2006. He has more than 8 years of teaching, and research in prestigious institutes. He has various academic and administrative responsibilities of the institute. He has several research papers and articles published in reputed journals and magazines. He has presented research papers in many national and international conferences/seminars.
Mr. Anurag Singh (Programmer)
Mr. Anurag Singh has M.C.A., M.B.A. & M.Sc. (Statistics) and is currently pursuing Ph.D. He has 11 years experience in software programming and teaching. His experience lies in C, C++, Java C#, Data Base Management System & Statistics. He has presented and published research papers at national and international conferences.
Mr. Shalesh Pratap Singh (Programmer)
Mr. Shalesh Pratap Singh M.C.A. is presently pursuing M.B.A. He has more than 8 years experience of which half were in software industry and over four years in academics. He has attended several conferences, seminars and workshops. His areas of interest are .Net Technology and DBMS he also holds a diploma n Export Management from Banagalore.
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Best historical fiction books for book clubs,juno di caracteristicas,doomsday preppers gear list hiking,how to relieve swollen feet naturally - Reviews
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The Red Tent: It has been years since I first read this book, but it still is a stand-out for me. Remarkable Creatures: I love all books by Tracy Chavelier, but this one was particularly fascinating to me.
Mysteries used to be my favorite type of book too, but I don’t enjoy them as much anymore. Ursula Todd was born in 1910 and is fated to die and be reborn over and over until she “gets it right.” Does Ursula’s apparently infinite number of lives give her the power to prevent two world wars? Elizabeth and Darcy take a backseat in this retelling of Jane Austen’s beloved Pride and Prejudice. Following the death of their mother, Australian sisters Naomi and Sally Durance volunteer as nurses during World War I. In a matter of days, Jack Parker loses his parents to smallpox, his grandfather to murder, and his sister to kidnappers.
I read this one recently, but confess that Robin is one of my favorites when it comes to historical fiction. I enjoyed The Last Queen for many reasons, not the least of which is because it created a very level-headed and realistic take on Queen Juana of Castile that I had not encountered before. She’s also known as being a bit nutty (to say the least) and in love with her husband, Philip of Flanders, heir to the Hapsburg Empire.
Karen Harper has a lot of really wonderful books about Elizabeth I and Henry VIII, but I especially loved her mystery series, which starts with The Poyson Garden. If I have a second favorite period of history (the Tudor being my first) it would be the reign of Henry II. Norah Lofts is such a gem, I could list quite a few books of hers, but this one stuck with me the most. Okay, am I the only one in history that didn’t know Cleopatra’s kids actually lived? Our AuthorsHL CarpenterHL Carpenter writes sweet, clean fiction suitable for your entire family. Christine LebednikChristine Lebednik has spent much of her writing work life in the technical and business writing area of the discipline.
William BallardWilliam Ballard, a freelance writer, blogger, and author, is chief executive of Freelance Writer and Author William Ballard (currently located in Grand Prairie, Texas).
Allyson CarterAllyson Carter is an author who dips her toes into the suspense and romance genres in the Edgy Christian market. Jennifer SnowJennifer Snow writes contemporary romance fiction for Penguin Random House and Harlequin, with books ranging from small-towns to big cities. Sea ChapmanSea Chapman has been providing high-quality writing and editorial services to both businesses and individuals since 2006. Please welcome author Deborah Hopkinton who is guest posting with her favorite historical fiction books for kids. The story of Kenny and his family’s trip from Flint, Michigan to Birmingham, AL and the bombing of the 16th Street Baptist Church on September 15, 1963 remains one of the most important civil rights novels ever written for children. This delightful debut novel chronicles the story of a boy and his friends in 1980s New Mexico who turn an abandoned apple orchard into a paying proposition. Another classic, this novel in free verse set in the Dust Bowl won the Newbery Medal in 1998. Set in 1899 Texas, this novel follows the trials and tribulations of Calpurnia Tate, the only girl in a family of six brothers. This Newbery-winning fictionalized account of the Danish resistance was one of my daughter’s favorite books as a child. This classic novel about a mail-order bride from Maine, which won the 1986 Newbery Medal, will always claim a place in my heart. This searing young adult World War II novel set, in part, in Ravensbrück concentration camp, is another title I had the opportunity to review in galley form for Bookpage. The second novel in Wiles’s award-winning Sixties Trilogy takes place in 1964 in Greenwood, Mississippi. Eleven-year-old Rocco finds himself alone in New York City after he’s sold to a padrone by his poverty-stricken parents and forced to leave his small Italian village. I am an Amazon affiliate which means if you buy anything through my blog, I get a very small kickback at no cost to you.
Laurie Halse Anderson’s Seeds of America books, Chains, Forge & I cannot wait for the forthcoming, Ashes!!
You still might like The Evolution of Calpurnia Tate which is set at the turn of the century. It’s a wonderful story of love and dreams that starts out in Italy and then ends in the US after World War II. It takes place over several generations starting in the 1660s and is about a family of apothecaries and doctors. The Red Tent is set in biblical times and uses the four wives of Jacob : Leah, Rachel, Zilpah, and Bilhah, who teach their daughter about midwifery.
The books weren’t WRITTEN during the Tudor period, they TAKE PLACE during the Tudor period. It starts with one couple in pre-Revolutionary War Williamsburg, and then follows them and their descendents through the end of WWII. Love it or hate it, this darkly comic novel by the winner of the Whitbread Award will stick with you. Instead, the focus is on the servants who keep the household running smoothly, for the most part. It isn’t often that war is presented through the eyes of those who care for the wounded and dying. With the help of a cunning bounty hunter and an ex-slave grave digger, he sets out on an epic journey across turn-of-the-20th-century East Texas to rescue his sister.
He maintains this disguise for years while riding with Brown as “Little Onion.” McBride’s retelling of the events that led to the tragic raid at Harpers Ferry is enthralling. My favorites have to do with the Tudors, but as you can see from the list below I also dig a few outside the realm of crazy ole Henry VIII. I really enjoy her take on things, and her latest, O, Juliet, is sure to show up on an upcoming favorites list. Juana, as you know, was the older sister of Princess Catalina, who became Catherine of Aragon and Henry VIII’s first wife.
She unexpectedly becomes next in line to head up Spain, and from there her life seems to go sour. It has all the political, romantic, and historic details of other historical fiction books, but also has a genuine mystery in each one. I would have never picked up this type of book, so it goes to show you that being in a book group can broaden your horizons. First of all, Hortense de Beauharnais is an extremely interesting character in history, and yet so few books are written about her. He blogs about freelance writing, blogging, and business at his Freelance Writing and Business Blog.
A freelance writer, international speaker, book designer, and spiritual director, she holds a Master of Arts degree in Christian Ministry and a Certificate of Spiritual Formation and Discipleship from George Fox Evangelical Seminary. She lives in Missouri with her husband, four children and three cats, where she homeschools her children, three on the autism spectrum. She is a member of the Editorial Freelancers Association (EFA) and the American Copy Editor Society (ACES). She also has a new book out, A Bandit’s Tale, and we’re doing a giveaway too below! I like being transported into a different time and place and seeing how other writers play with history.
When I had the chance to teach children’s literature at Whitman College, where I worked in administration, I chose this book. At author visits, I routinely show students photos of a museum hearth that inspired one of James Ransome’s illustrations for our first book together, Sweet Clara and the Freedom Quilt. My favorite parts are her natural history explorations with her grandfather, a follower of Charles Darwin, and the Darwin quotes that grace each chapter.
I had the chance to explore some of the real people who inspired several of the characters when writing my nonfiction title, Courage & Defiance, about the same time period. We lived in rural eastern Washington for a time while my two children were growing up, and I have a vivid memory of driving across Washington State with my son while listening to this humorous, heartfelt book.
Shadow on the Mountain by Margi PreusMargi Preus won a Newbery honor for her book, Heart of a Samurai, another riveting historical fiction work. Wein combines compelling storytelling with well-researched details to make an unforgettable reading experience. I love all of Debbie’s work, especially how she has broken new ground with documentary novels that seamlessly combine historical artifacts with amazing and compassionate storytelling.
While working as a street musician, he meets the boys of the infamous Bandits’ Roost, who teach him the art of pickpocketing, which he finds more lucrative than banging a triangle on the street corner.
While as a Creationist, we probably have quite different views on Darwin, you have introduced me to several historical fiction books I can’t wait to try out with my kids.
The writer used real medical journals to write about the various procedures that these medical practitioners used. The Other Boleyn Girl is part of her famous Tudor series and is about Anne and Mary Boleyn and their mutual love for the king. Water for Elephants is also a love story – and if you have seen the movie, the book is so much better!
I remember reading them until late into the night, thinking about them during the day, and rushing out to get the next one. Not to give away the plot or ending, but To the Tower Born appealed to me because it was the first one I’d read that drew the conclusion it drew about the mystery of the princes in the Tower. Juana also figures prominently in history as being the mother of the Holy Roman Emperor Charles V, who is an important figure when it comes to Henry VIII’s divorce fiasco. The refreshing thing about a mystery in this time period, is that you can’t solve the crime with all the gadgets and technology that we have today.
Henry II is very underrated in terms of what he did for establishing English laws, but I’m getting beside the point here.
This book is set in 12th century France, and has a wonderful main character, Catherine LeVendeur. Hey, if you thought Henry VIII was interesting, wait until you hear about his grandmother and mother.
Hortense was Queen Consort of Holland, daughter of Josephine, stepdaughter of Napoleon, wife of Louis Bonaparte (King of Holland) and mother of Napoleon III. Whenever I do, I think about the tragic kitchen accident at the heart of Hesse’s moving novel. This book came out just as I was beginning my own career as a writer, and it remains an inspiration. I have loved this book for at least 5 years and just learned that City of Dreams is the first in a series of books! This book is hard to find these days, but you can still pick it up at used bookstores or on Amazon. In addition to my WWII nonfiction, I’m planning to write an espionage novel set in 1944. Mom Eleanor hires Justin de Quincy, (illegitimate son of a bishop) to help solve a mystery. Just saying.) Catherine starts out in a nunnery with the famous Heloise, but ends up falling for Edgar.
I haven’t read the next book in the series yet, but you can be sure they are on my TBR (to be read) pile. All the characters in this book are wonderful, and the detail of Paris and the surrounding areas is great. Mary is an extremely interesting character in history (in my opinion) and Gregory does a great job with her story. Religion plays a prominent part in these books, as it does in so many historical fiction works.
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Organisation Committee
General Chair
Local Co-chairs
Proceedings Co-chairs
Publicity Chair
Web Chair
Student-volunteer Chair
Finance Co-chairs
Yann-Gaël (Yann) Guéhéneuc is full professor at the Department of computing and software engineering of the École Polytechnique de Montréal, where he leads the Ptidej team on evaluating and enhancing the quality of object-oriented programs by promoting the use of patterns, at the language-, design-, or architectural-levels. In 2009, he was awarded the NSERC Research Chair Tier II on Software Patterns and Patterns of Software. He holds a Ph.D. in software engineering from the University of Nantes, France (under Professor Pierre Cointe's supervision) since 2003 and an Engineering Diploma from the École des Mines of Nantes, France since 1998. His Ph.D. thesis was funded by Object Technology International, Inc. (now IBM OTI Labs.), where he worked in 1999 and 2000. His research interests are program understanding and program quality during development and maintenance, in particular through the use and the identification of recurring patterns. He was the first to use explanation-based constraint programming in the context of software engineering to identify occurrences of patterns. He is also interested in empirical software engineering, and he uses eye-trackers to understand and to develop theories about program comprehension. He has published many papers in international conferences and journals. He serves in the program committee of several IEEE-sponsored conferences, including the International Conference on Program Comprehension, International Working Conference on Reverse Engineering, and International Conference on Software Maintenance. He was Student-volunteer Chair for ECOOP 2006 (27 SVs to manage and accommodate) and he co-organized in 2008 the French-speaking international conference Langages et Modèles à Objets in Montréal, Québec, Canada.
Giuliano (Giulio) Antoniol is full professor at the École Polytechnique de Montréal and Canada Research Chair Tier I in Software Change and Evolution. He has participated in the program and organization committees of numerous IEEE-sponsored international conferences. Most recently, he served as Program Co-chair of the 18th IEEE International Conference on Program Comprehension, of the 16th and 17th IEEE International Working Conference on Reverse Engineering, and as General Co-chair of the 8th IEEE International Working Conference on Source Code Analysis and Manipulation. He also served as industrial chair and tutorial chair of international conferences and workshops. He is a member of the editorial boards of four journals: the Journal of Software Testing Verification & Reliability, the Journal of Information and Software Technology, the Journal of Empirical Software Engineering, and the Software Quality Journal. Giulio served as Deputy Chair of the Steering Committee for the IEEE International Conference on Software Maintenance between 2003 and 2005. He contributed to the program committees of more than 30 IEEE and ACM conferences and workshops and acts as referee for all major software engineering conferences and journals.
Ghizlane El Boussaidi is professor of software engineering and member of both the GELOG laboratory at ÉTS and the LATECE institutional center at UQAM. Her research interests include model-based software engineering, software architecture and design, architectural styles. design patterns and software re-engineering. Professor El Boussaidi holds a Ph.D. in software engineering and an engineering degree in embedded systems. She has over 15 years of industrial experience during which she contributed to developing and implementing various software systems.
With invaluable support from:
Madeleine Guillemette, Secrétaire, Polytechnique Montreal.
Chantal Balthazard, Agente aux affaires administratives, Polytechnique Montreal.
Bram Adams is an assistant professor at the École Polytechnique de Montréal, where he heads the MCIS lab. on Maintenance, Construction, and Intelligence of Software. He obtained his Ph.D. at Ghent University (Belgium) and was a postdoctoral fellow at Queen's University (Ontario, Canada) from October 2008 to December 2011. His research interests include software release engineering in general, and software integration, software build systems, software modularity, and software maintenance in particular. His work has been published at premier software engineering venues such as TSE, ICSE, FSE, ASE, EMSE, MSR and ICSM. In addition to reviewing for (amongst others) ICSM, MSR, WCRE, CSMR, EMSE and JSS, he co-organized the PLATE, ACP4IS, MUD, MISS and RELENG workshops, the MSR Vision 2020 Summer School and a technical briefing on release engineering at ICSE 2012. He has been program co-chair of the Early Research Achievements track at ICSM 2013 and the 2013 Working Conference on Source Code Analysis and Manipulation.
Alexander Serebrenik is an associate professor Software Evolution at Eindhoven University of Technology (The Netherlands). His research interests include software evolution and maintenance, human/social aspects of software engineering, and software measurement. Serebrenik recently served as the general chair of IEEE ICSM 2013, workshops chair of CSMW-WCRE in 2014 and as a program committee member of a number of software engineering conferences (ICSM, MSR data track, ICPC, CSMR ERA). He is a member of the ICSM Steering Committee, IEEE and the European Research Consortium for Informatics and Mathematics Working Group on Software Evolution. Contact him on Twitter @aserebrenik.
Veronika Bauer joined the chair for Software & Systems Engineering at Technische Universität München in March 2011 as a research assistant and PhD candidate. Veronika'S current research goal is to close the gap between research on software reuse in academia and reuse practices in industry. Therefore, she is currently conducting empirical studies with several companies to collect success factors, as well as hindrances and challenges of conducting beneficial reuse.
Vincent Boisselle is doing knife-edge research on new software-maintenance approaches and working closely with the Montreal aerospace industry to design and develop new software and products life cycle tools. Vincent's interests include: developing tools for software modifications propagation analysis and developing tools for data mining and classification.
Ségla Kpodjedo completed in August 2011 his Ph.D. in the Department of Computer and Software Engineering of the École Polytechnique de Montréal. He received a Diploma in computer engineering (equivalent to a B.Sc.) in 2005 from UTBM (France) and a M.Sc.A in 2007 from École Polytechnique de Montréal. His Ph.D. work, completed under the supervision of Professors Philippe Galinier and Giuliano Antoniol, was dedicated to graph matching and search-based techniques for software engineering, with notable applications in software evolution and defect prediction. Ségla's main research interests include search-based software engineering, software evolution, defect prediction in software systems, empirical software engineering, combinatorial optimisation, and meta-heuristics.
Elliot J. Chikofsky is EM&I Fellow at Engineering, Management & Integration (EM&I), headquartered in Herndon, Virginia. He assists and coaches government agencies, commercial enterprises, and non-profit organizations on information technology (IT) and business management, particularly in areas of IT Portfolio Management, enterprise architecture, IT investments, and systems reengineering. Specialties include business process reengineering (BPR), enterprise IT strategy, life cycle management, performance measures, technical architecture, systems engineering strategies, reengineering and reverse engineering, and software process & tools. Chikofsky was recognized with the 2010 Award for Outstanding Government Partner by the CPIC Forum (Capital Planning & Investment Control) government-industry conference. He was nominated by the Defense Finance and Accounting Service (DFAS). Chikofsky is currently Vice Chair of the IEEE Computer Society's Technical and Conference Activities Board. He is on the international executive committee of the IEEE Technical Council on Software Engineering (TCSE) and was awarded the 2010 TCSE Software Engineering Distinguished Service Award. He served as TCSE Chair (1993-1996) and Executive Secretary (2000-2005). In 2000, Chikofsky received the IEEE Computer Society Distinguished Service Award “for outstanding and unparalleled service in founding five Software Engineering conferences, establishing TCSE, initiating new programs, reactivating others, and mentoring volunteers”. He also received the IEEE Third Millennium Medal. He has been a member of the IEEE-CS Board of Governors (1993-1998), chair of the selection committee for the IEEE Computer Entrepreneur Award (1994-2000), and chair of the IEEE Task Force on Information Technology for Business Applications (1997-2000). Chikofsky chairs the Reengineering Forum industry association (REF). He founded the juried research Working Conference on Reverse Engineering (WCRE) and served more than 10 years as the only North American on the steering committee of the European Conference on Software Maintenance and Reengineering (CSMR). He is co-author of the frequently-cited 1990 taxonomy on reverse engineering and reengineering (Chikofsky & Cross, IEEE Software, January 1990). In 1997-98, he directed the Reverse Engineering Demonstration Project, an international cooperative study among commercial and non-commercial research groups and product organizations.
Hausi A. Müller is a Professor in the Department of Computer Science and Associate Dean of Research in the Faculty of Engineering at University of Victoria, Canada. He is Chair of the IEEE Computer Society Technical Council on Software Engineering (TCSE). His research interests include software engineering, software evolution, smarter commerce, self-adaptive and self-managing systems, situation-aware systems, context-aware systems, service-oriented systems, reverse engineering, software reengineering, program understanding, and visualization. He is a principal investigator in the NSERC Strategic Research Network for Smart Applications on Virtual Infrastructure (SAVI). The main research goal of the SAVI Network is to address the design of future applications platforms built on a flexible, versatile and evolvable infrastructure that can readily deploy, maintain, and retire the large-scale, possibly short-lived, distributed applications that will be typical in the future applications marketplace. The SAVI partnership involves investigators from nine Canadian universities and 13 companies bringing together expertise in networking, cloud computing, applications, and business. In 2011 Dr. Müller’s research team won the IBM Canada CAS Research Project of the Year Award. In 2006 he received the IBM CAS Faculty Fellow of the Year Award, the CSER Outstanding Leadership Award, and a Stevens Citation for his many contributions to the software reverse engineering community. He was the founding Director of BSEng, a CEAB accredited Bachelor of Software Engineering degree program in the Faculty of Engineering. He serves on the Editorial Board of Software Maintenance and Evolution and Software Process: Improvement and Practice (JSME). He served on the Editorial Board of IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering (TSE).
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Study: NBA earns overall A grade in diversity hiring
By AARON BEARD
RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) A diversity report shows the NBA still leads men's professional sports leagues in racial and gender hiring practices.
The annual report card from The Institute for Diversity and Ethics in Sport (TIDES) at Central Florida on Tuesday indicated almost identical scores from last year. The grade for racial hiring was an A-plus with an unchanged 98.7 score. The grade for gender hiring was a B, but slid slightly to 80.9.
The overall grade was an A at 89.8. That was better than Major League Soccer's B-plus, the NFL with a B and Major League Baseball with a B-minus, all since January. The NHL doesn't participate in the study.
The only professional league with a higher grade from the past year was the WNBA, with an overall A-plus and 97.6 score.
Richard Lapchick, the TIDES director and lead report author, said the NBA has "always had a leadership position" regarding diversity initiatives. The study's release comes less than a week after the Cleveland Cavaliers hired California women's head coach Lindsay Gottlieb from the college level as an assistant coach, making her the seventh woman serving as an assistant coach or player development staffer.
"We always look forward to this report in particular because we know we're going to see encouraging things," Lapchick said in an interview with The Associated Press.
The study examined the racial and gender breakdowns in numerous areas, such as players, coaches, trainers, front-office staffers at the team level and positions at the NBA headquarters. It reviewed data from the 2018-19 season.
The report was particularly good for the NBA league office. It earned an A-plus for racial hiring with 37.6% of professional staff positions filled by people of color, the highest percentage recorded in the study. Women made up 39.7% of those positions for a gender grade of B-plus.
Those were both better than scores for the team level, where people of color made up 31.6% of team management positions (still an A-plus) and women filled 30.9% of those positions for a gender grade of a C.
The league also had 10 head coaches of color among the 30 franchises to start the season and earned an A-plus for its initiatives to promote diversity. Lapchick pointed to an emphasis starting under former commissioner David Stern in the 1980s.
"The NBA is the only league that didn't have to enact a Rooney rule," said Lapchick, referring to the NFL's rule requiring teams to interview at least one minority candidate when searching for a head coach.
"They've just been hiring the best candidates and bringing in a diverse pool of candidates since David took over. And then he pushed that to the team level, where they don't have control but they do have a lot of influence."
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← Four Approaches to University Patent Policies
The rise of “employee” as a means to pervert university IP policy →
The University of Michigan’s Mess of a Present Assignment, Part I
Posted on March 2, 2016 by Gerald Barnett
In reviewing university IP policies, I came upon the following Form HR36100 at the University of Michigan titled “Supplemental Appointment Information.” After a section in which the appointee provides name and social security number, we have this:
It is apparent that university has implemented the “present assignment” intervention that has circulated in the tech transfer community by folks who don’t understand the Bayh-Dole Act and refuse to accept the Supreme Court decision in Stanford v Roche. Thus, we have “hereby assign” language upfront, before any invention has ever been made. The clever idea is that when any invention is made, it automatically becomes owned by the university by operation of this assignment document. The problem is not how the assignment is made, however, my clever children; rather, the problem is how the assignment is scoped–the definitions that operate, the inventions that come within that scope, and a reasonable interpretation of the assignment that has been made.
There is plenty not to like in how this assignment document is framed. First, take a look at Regents Bylaw 3.10:
Bylaw 3.10 dates from at least the 1970s–I have been unable to trace its complete history. The first paragraph, however, is clearly based on the university patent policy from 1944, which was still in effect in 1962 when Archie Palmer compiled his second set of university patent policies. The 1944 patent policy is so short I quote it in full:
The 1944 policy presents two situations with parallel language. The first paragraph deals with properties the university acquires in connection with research projects. It doesn’t say claims. The second paragraph deals with patents “issued” in connection with research projects. At the very least, the issue in this second paragraph is not ownership of inventions, but ownership of a patent should someone seek a patent. No one is forced to seek a patent (or forced to publish through the patent system). This second paragraph claims ownership of specified patents and any income from the patents.
For current policy, the 1944 policy has been changed in various ways:
“properties” has been changed to “patents and copyrights”
“acquired” becomes “issued or acquired”
“in connection with and for the prosecution of ” is “as the result of or in connection with”
“research projects” is broadened to “administration, research, or other educational activities”
“carried on by” now is “conducted by”
“shall belong to the university” becomes “shall be the property of the university”
In addition, 3.10 inserts a qualification regarding the nature of the projects:
supported directly or indirectly (e.g., through the use of university resources or facilities) by funds administered by the university, regardless of the source of such funds
The 1944 policy’s second paragraph claim on royalties is rolled into the new 3.10 first paragraph, and now made to refer not only to patents and copyrights acquired but also ones that are “issued” (whatever “issued” means for copyrights).
The first paragraph of current 3.10 now concerns what we might call incoming patent rights. It makes sense that if the university acquires a patent to assist in the conduct of a research project, the university should be the owner of what it has acquired. The university does not acquire such patents to give them over to the researchers.
The second paragraph concerns patents that “issue” in connection with research. What did this claim actually mean? It is clear from the Proceedings of the Board of Regents that faculty were expected to own their inventions unless a research contract required otherwise or the inventors voluntarily agreed otherwise. For instance, in 1960, the Board of Regents entered into an invention management agreement with the Michigan Research Foundation. The agreement provides that the university will “recommend” to faculty, associates, and employees (note the distinction between faculty and employees here) that they assign inventions to the foundation:
So the university may recommend at its discretion that inventors assign inventions to the foundation, and the university agrees that inventors can help the foundation with patenting without the foundation having to compensate the university for the inventors’ time. If the university expected to own inventions made by faculty in their research, there would be no need for any of this–the university would simply take assignment directly and assign to the foundation (or license to, or task the foundation as an agent) to patent and market the inventions. Other elements of the invention management agreement make all this clear. Article II, paragraph 10 requires the foundation to assign inventions, patent applications, and patents to the university on termination of the agreement:
Importantly, the assignment to the university is conditioned on any “letter-agreements” between the inventors and the university. That is, arrangements between the inventors and the foundation take precedence, as do any other licenses or contracts. The assignment to the university is the place where all inventions go that are not otherwise provided for by agreements between the foundation and inventors, and between the foundation and others acquiring an interest in certain inventions. Again, if the university expected to own inventions outright as a matter of policy, there would be no reason to contemplate that inventors might have private agreements with the foundation regarding the disposition of ownership of the university’s inventions.
Attached to the agreement as Exhibit A is a template letter-agreement by which the foundation is to request assignment of invention rights, negotiate sharing licensing income, and obtain an assurance of the inventor’s assistance. It’s clear that this letter-agreement sets out the terms of the transaction–this is an invention management agreement between the foundation and the inventor, with a request that the inventor execute an enclosed assignment of the invention to the foundation. It is also clear that the inventor has an opportunity to negotiate other terms, if desired.
In the 1944 patent policy, what then does it mean that “patents issued in connection with research projects” will belong to the university? Expressly, this language is not a claim on all inventions made by university staff–it only concerns patents. Thus, if an invention were to be made and not patented, the policy makes no ownership claim. There is nothing here to force university inventors to patent their inventions. Further, the language is specific to research projects. Inventions made outside “projects”–and the language here indicates projects funded by external sponsors–are also not a concern of the policy. The policy appears to be concerned with inventions made in research funded by external sponsors in which the sponsors desired patents to issue on inventions made in a project. “In connection with” is not “arising in” or “as a result of”–there is something more specific indicated by “in connection with.” The policy contemplates the situation in which patenting of inventions is specified in the statement of work, as an objective or deliverable of the contract. There is nothing to indicate that the policy aimed to claim all inventions made in the context of a research project. If that had been the objective of the policy, then that claim would have been included in the first paragraph of the 1944 policy, where faculty research is considered with only university support.
Sometime between 1960 and 1976, the Regents introduced Bylaw 3.10, revising the patent policy language. The revision reduces the two paragraphs to one, conflating incoming and new patent management.The revision adds copyright to patent (so seductive, so foolish), expands research to “administration, research, and other,” changes “projects” to “activities,” adds a restriction that the activities must be “supported” by university-administered “funds,” and then tries to limit the restriction with expansions on support–direct or indirect–and funds–regardless of source.
Finally, the revision adds “as a result of” to “in connection with,” making it clear, at least, that “in connection with” was not sufficiently broad. Whatever “in connection with” meant, it didn’t mean “as a result of” or there would have been no need to add the extra language. If “in connection with” meant “as provided for in a contract with a sponsor,” then “as a result of” must mean something else–such as simply that an invention is made, even if the sponsor and the inventors *don’t* want to pursue a patent. That’s a substantial change!
Even with the expansion of this expansion of scope, there is a difference between an invention arising in research (or a funded activity) and a patent being acquired or issuing as a result of the research or funded activity. If words mean things, then differences matter. If this is all just handwaving for the university getting whatever it wants, then there’s no point in reading carefully. Bylaw 3.10 does not claim inventions–it claims patents and connects these patents to activities supported by university funds or through the use of “resources or facilities.” There’s a big gap in there: if the university claims patents, not inventions, then inventors may not have to assign all their inventions to the university–only those inventions that they intend to patent, and then only those inventions that have been supported by university funding.
Let’s stop to consider the problem of how funding connects with inventing. A person can work on a project a long time, and then, later, have a realization about how something might work, or how to get around a problem, or how to apply a result. The inventive step may then have nothing to do with the project, which may have ended years previously, but the invention benefits from that project.
For all that, one could study someone else’s project and come to an inventive realization. Is that invention “a result” of the other investigator’s project? One could run far afield if so–anything that anyone invents that could be traced back to a benefit coming from a university “activity” could be claimed by the policy. But such stuff is beyond any reasonable interpretation. Even if an invention is made during a project–at the same time as the project is being conducted–it’s still the same analysis: the invention might benefit from the project activity, but in what sense is the invention (and much less, any patent) supported by university funding? It’s not, unless there’s evidence to show that the invention arises as an objective of the project.
This is a problem, then, with the move from “project” to “activity.” No doubt the drafters were aiming to broaden the claim, but what they did was muddy it. A project, in the 1944 policy, carries with it the idea of a statement of work, a written agreement setting the objectives and plan for a piece of research. It is clear how a patent might issue from a defined project, and how that patent might have reasonable claims placed on it. But “activity” has no such boundaries. “Activity” is like “behavior”–any action is in some sense an “activity.” There’s no indication of boundaries, of definition, of a written objective and plan–anything might be an “activity.”
The implementing regulations for the Bayh-Dole Act start with this problem of scope, right there in 37 CFR 401.1. First thing, before definitions, even. The law restricts the scope of what federal agencies may count as a subject invention–even before we get to what subject inventions a federal agency might claim the federal government has a right to own. A subject invention is one made “in the performance of work under a funding agreement” and already owned by a party to the funding agreement.
The scoping statement in 37 CFR 401.1 takes pains to provide an interpretation for what this language means. It does not mean “during” a project. It does not mean anything closely related. It does not mean anything arising from work that was not “planned and committed,” so long as the work does not “diminish or distract” from the performance of work under the funding agreement. We are left with a narrow scope–look to the grant sourcing documents such as the call for proposals, look at the proposal submitted, look at the requirements of the funding agreement (typically but not always 2 CFR 200), and determine what activities in the federally funded project were “planned and committed.” If the invention arises in these activities (and if the (f)(2) agreement has been executed, or the inventors assign to their university anyway), then the invention is a subject invention–that is, it is within scope of the requirements of the standard patent rights clause on disclosure and retention of rights.
But in the Michigan case, we find the university making the scope less clear rather than more definite. Activities within a defined project funded by the university may give rise to an invention that the university might claim. But an activity without a project could be anything. The same goes for the idea of “indirect” funding through the use of “facilities” (generally, buildings, but bad policy drafters seem to love abstractions, thinking abstractions are clearer, or at least more authority-sounding). If a faculty member goes to the library regularly to think creatively, is that an “activity” that’s “indirectly funded” through the use of a university “facility”? One might think that even the provision of a salary is sufficient to capture “indirect funding” of any activity, if “resource” (another grossly abstract term) can include “human capital”–the inventor herself.
But going this far does not hold up, because Paragraph 4 distinguishes between university “support” and university “employment.” Even though Paragraph 4 is ineptly drafted to conflate “supported by funds administered by the university” with “university support”–very different things–it still manages to make clear that employment is not the standard on which 3.10’s claim is built. There has to be money other than salary at play, and–by implication–use of resources or facilities that are allocated to an activity other than an activity of employment. In the old-style university patent policies, before Bayh-Dole, a university had to allocate support expressly–in a budget, in an agreement to allow special use of facilities–to have a claim to an equitable share of proceeds from the exploitation of a patent. That distinction still exists in 3.10, but it appears that the drafters were at some pains to bury it.
This is a typical strategy. Claim the revisions are to add clarity and refinement, but do them in such a way as to permit a fundamentally new interpretation once the revisions have been formally approved. The words don’t appear to change much, but the later interpretations are often hugely different. The wording was chosen, no doubt, to be read by administrators as broadly as they chose to read it. If so, then the actual policy statement reduces to “the university owns whatever its administrators say they want.” In fact, this is exactly what a university administrator reported to the Regents in 1985:
According to Sussman, the university just owns everything–and so does most every other university . This, despite a policy history that does not provide for that at all. From the words in the policy, a reasonable interpretation–as distinct from the late Dr. Sussman’s assessment–is that there must be some showing of university support–a budget, a written agreement, a special allocation of resources, a contract with a sponsor, a donor’s restrictions–that provides a definite bound for an “activity” to be one supported by university funds and thus within the scope of the policy claim. Otherwise, why write a policy this way, other than to bamboozle faculty?
The 1944 policy claimed patents issued in connection with research projects. The later Bylaw 3.10 claimed patents acquired or issued as a result of or in connection with research and with administration and with any other educational activity. The “other” perhaps is intended to make “research” and “administration” merely illustrative, and adding “educational” is not supposed to indicate “instruction” but rather “higher educational”–anything that is remotely associated with the university, anything that the university might take credit for.
But lists don’t necessarily expand claims–they may actually reduce them. The difference is between what an administrator wants to use the words to mean and what a judge, considering what a reasonable party dealing with what amounts to an adhesion contract, might construct as the sense of the statement. In copyright practice, one convention is that if a party provides a list, say, of media, even if there’s some tag such as “including but not limited to,” the list is all one gets, not the list and everything unstated that is “just like the list” or “obviously in the same set as the list.” Et cetera is not a term of art with which to provide clarity.
Here in 3.10, “other educational activities” aims to make the policy claim “any educational activity” but one might well find a judge willing to restrict the policy to “research activities” and “administrative activities”–and only research activities meaningfully result in inventions. It’s hard to see how a clerical worker could be construed to be hired to invent, or have invention within the scope of his or her duties. Even the standard patent rights clause authorized by Bayh-Dole excludes clerical and non-technical workers. That’s done for public policy reasons, not as an oversight or out of generosity. Universities are subject to the same public policy arguments. It’s strange that the university patent administrators turn out as a bunch mostly not to care about public policy, while giving lip service to public mission and public benefit and all the help and incentives they aim to provide to inventors.
I have come to believe that a number of university tech transfer professionals (both managers and lawyers)–people who should be expected to be careful with their drafting–are barely literate when it comes to university policy documents. They desperately want the documents to claim everything possible, as expeditiously as possible, and free themselves from any accountability to inventors for anything they do–that is, in some dark part of their souls, they want to be institutional invention fascists. The last thing these people want is to be agents for inventors or colleagues ready to collaborate on an equal basis. They want the authority, the stream of disclosures, and the salary, but they don’t want to be careful with policy or accountable for their decisions and the outcomes of those decisions. Worse, by far, than the invention management companies that advertise late at night.
You have been brave to read this far. Now let’s go back to that present assignment agreement, to show how it garbles 3.10, which already has made a hash of the long-standing 1944 patent policy.
As part of my obligations under Bylaw 3.10, I hereby assign to the Regents of the University of Michigan (“University”) all right, title, and interest in patent rights in inventions made (e.g., conceived or first reduced to practice) by me as a University employee with the direct or indirect support of funds administered by the University (e.g., through the use of University resources or facilities) regardless of the source of such funds.
I don’t see how Bylaw 3.10 creates an obligation for university employees. It establishes an expectation within the Board of Regents, a corporation established to operate the university. University officials may have an obligation to give effect to the Bylaw by taking actions to secure patents that the Board of Regents intends to claim, but the obligation gets to employees not by a notice regarding the desires of the corporation, but by actual agreements made between employees and the university. The Supplemental Appointment Information form is mislabled. It is actually an assignment form tied to an employment agreement, except it appears to come afterwards, and be subordinate to the appointment, not a precondition. So “As part of my obligations” is actually “The Board of Regents requires you to make the following assignment.”
Now let’s clean up the garbage. The assignment is limited to “patent rights in inventions.” So far so good–that’s much like “patents acquired or issued”–except, of course, it isn’t. 3.10 operates on patents, not on inventions, and so operates only where patents have come into existence. Yet this assignment is directed at patent rights in a class of inventions, regardless of whether patents are desired, applied for, or obtained. That’s an expansion of claim beyond what 3.10 authorizes. One might think it is abuse of authority. But perhaps it is just incompetence. If incompetence, it is a convenient one for attempting to broaden the claim.
More: “inventions made (e.g., conceived or first reduced to practice).” This is filled with delightful nonsense. First, “e.g.” means “for example” not “that is.” The parenthetical does not explain what “made” means, but rather gives examples of what “made” means. And yet, for federal patent law, a patentable invention is not “made” until it is *both* conceived and reduced to practice. Reduction to practice may be constructive (describe the thing) or actual (make or do it). Without both, no invention is “made.” But here we don’t have an and, we have an or. For this assignment, an invention is made when it is either conceived or first reduced to practice. That’s garble. If an invention is made when it is conceived, there are no patent rights in it to assign, so the assignment does not operate. Same for an invention first reduced to practice, but not conceived. Patent law is clear that an inventor must recognize an invention as inventive to be an inventor. One can build something and not realize the significance of the work. Again, nothing operates in the assignment. What is left out–and totally ambiguous–is the condition that matters the most, when an invention is both conceived and reduced to practice. Then it is potentially patentable; then the assignment might operate.
Where does this “or” construction come from? The likely source is the Bayh-Dole Act and the definition of subject invention. “Subject invention” is not a definition of an invention, but of the scope of a federal agency’s interest in inventions made with federal support. The difference is substantial between what constitutes a patentable invention and what constitutes an invention within the scope of a contractual claim. Bayh-Dole defines a subject invention as an invention (an invention that is or may be patentable) “of the contractor” (that is, owned by a party to the funding agreement–and the inventors are to be parties to the funding agreement) that is “conceived or first actually reduced to practice in the performance of work under a funding agreement.” The scoping statement does not define invention, but sets out what one has to find in the statement of work, the “planned and committed activities,” to justify a finding of a subject invention. Specifically, one has to find that the planned and committed activities include either conceiving the invention (solving a specific problem, say) or first using the invention for its intended purpose–actually reducing it to practice.
The definition of subject invention then catches certain potentially patentable inventions. But for the scope to operate, the invention must first be potentially patentable. That is, it must be both conceived *and* reduced to practice. That’s what the definition of “invention” in Bayh-Dole requires. Once you have an invention that satisfies both elements, then one looks to see whether either element, or both, were “planned and committed” in the funding agreement statement of work. If either element is present in the statement of work, then the invention (if it is owned by a party to the funding agreement) is a subject invention. Otherwise, it is outside the scope of the definition of subject invention and not within what a federal agency has contracted. It’s not that the agency has a claim outside of Bayh-Dole and the standard patent rights clause–it’s that the agency has no claim whatsoever, other than if it were to invoke eminent domain or national security (another way to deal with inventions that an agency wants to have live in perpetual darkness–I’ve seen this happen).
Again, first there’s a patentable invention. Then there’s a check with the statement of work. If either conception or actual build/use is planned for and committed, then the invention is subject to a patent rights clause–typically 37 CFR 401.14(a) or 37 CFR 401.9. The use of “or” in the scoping agreement, in contrast to the “and” in the definition of a patentable invention, covers the three possibilities that may arise in a statement of work:(i) conception of an invention is part of the planned and committed activities, but actual reduction to practice is not; (ii) actual reduction to practice is part of the planned and committed activities, but conception (solving a problem, say) is not; or, obviously, (iii) both elements may be found in the statement of work.
So you can see how the Michigan present assignment statement clucks this all fup. It defines an invention as either element, rather than requiring at least one element to be within scope for an invention that otherwise already is potentially patentable. Then it requires the prospective–future patent rights to either of these elements. Of course, no inventions have been made at the time of assignment. But further, the scope of when the assignment operates ends up being greatly expanded over the authority for ownership established in Bylaw 3.10. The patent rights get assigned not only before there is any invention, but also when only part of an invention gets made–conception or reduction to practice–so the future patent rights are assigned upfront for what amount to be non-patentable inventions. A mess.
Not done. There’s a set of restrictions on the scope of assignment.
“as an employee”
“with the direct or indirect support of with the direct or indirect support of funds administered by the University (e.g., through the use of University resources or facilities) regardless of the source of such funds”
Notice that the parenthetical has been moved from immediately after “indirect” in 3.10 to after the entire clause. In 3.10, the parenthetical modifies the meaning of “indirect” funds used to support “educational activities,” while in the present assignment clause, the parenthetical modifies the entire clause–both direct and indirect support. In the assignment, this shift could reasonably be read as limiting the assignment (in the future) to patent rights in *inventions* that have received support, not in *activities* that have received support. The switch is important. Bylaw 3.10 asks whether an activity has been supported by university funds. If so, any patent “resulting from” or “in connection with” is claimed. But in the present assignment, it is patent *rights* in any *invention* that is funded by the university–the review is whether the invention was funded, not the activity.
The present assignment also adds a further restriction, one that carries its own consternation. The invention must be made by the inventor “as an employee.” This is not a qualification of Bylaw 3.10. All that matters to 3.10 is that an educational activity was funded by the university. In the present assignment, what matters is that the inventor made the invention “as an employee” AND the *invention* was funded by the university. We have discussed the distinction Bylaw 3.10 makes between “support by funding” and the exclusion of limitations that might otherwise arise from “university employment.”
What does this mean? It means that the Bylaw 3.10 does not claim patents made as a result of the activity of *employment*–but only those that are connected with “educational activities,” if such activities can be anything other than “research projects” that receive special funding or provision of lab resources–the focus of the 1944 policy, which is looking better all the time. But the present assignment expressly limits the inventions to those made “as an employee.” This claim appears to be entirely outside the authority of Bylaw 3.10, which focuses on specially supported activities, not those that arise from mere employment.
There’s another huge problem with the use of “as an employee” in the present assignment. As the US Supreme Court majority opinion put it in Stanford v Roche:
But, as noted, patent law has always been different: We have rejected the idea that mere employment is sufficient to vest title to an employee’s invention in the employer….
“Employment” means something specific in IP contexts, not mere “payment of money” to support faculty. For patents, there has to be some form of patent agreement that supports a claim by an employer to a patent right. Some states have codified this condition in state law, to make the public policy explicit. For instance, California Labor Code 28270-2872 limits claims made by an employer to those that
(1) Relate at the time of conception or reduction to practice of the invention to the employer’s business, or actual or demonstrably anticipated research or development of the employer; or
(2) Result from any work performed by the employee for the employer.
I have bolded the key repeated emphasis–the invention has to relate to the *employer’s business*, to research *of the employer*, *for the employer*. It is not correct to substitute “university” for “employer” and “at” for “of” and think it’s all the same. It’s not. The use of “employer” in the California Labor Code here makes clear that the employer is specifying the work, has a business interest in the result, and directs the employee to perform work for the employer. Mere employment is not sufficient. Mere payment of a salary to support personally directed activity is not enough. And the state law makes it clear that it is against public policy, at least in California, Washington, Illinois, and other states that have implemented similarly worded laws, that simply changing an employment agreement to require assignment of inventions for whatever an employee might do while employed is not a legal, enforceable work-around.
Copyright law, which is drawn in by Bylaw 3.10, works in a similar way. While a “work made for hire” is defined by federal law as a work “prepared by an employee within the scope of his or her employment,” for the employer to be the author, the employer has to demonstrate control over the work being prepared. The US Supreme Court in Reid v CCNV argues that “scope of employment” is adapted from the common law of agency, and that common law must take precedence over any state law:
the general common law of agency must be relied on, rather than the law of any particular State, since the Act is expressly intended to create a federal law of uniform, nationwide application by broadly pre-empting state statutory and common-law copyright regulation.
The Supreme Court then examines four interpretations of what “within the scope of employment” might mean:
1) “a work is prepared by an employee whenever the hiring party retains the right to control the product”
2) “when the hiring party has actually wielded control with respect to the creation of a particular work”
3) “the term “employee” within 101(1) carries its common-law agency law meaning”
4) term “employee” only refers to “formal, salaried” employees”
The Court sets aside the first two approaches, arguing that control is not the determining factor. “Congress,” the Court argued, “meant to refer to a hired party in a conventional employment relationship.” We pause to note that university faculty are generally *not* in a conventional employment relationship, there is not the usual “master-servant” relationship in such agency. The faculty member does not do the bidding of the master. The faculty member is called a “member” with an “appointment” for a reason that goes way beyond the appearance of old language. The old rights to control work still live on.
The Supreme Court then lays out a number of factors to consider in determining whether there is an employer-employee relationship for the production of any given work (citations removed, formatted as a list):
In determining whether a hired party is an employee under the general common law of agency, we consider the hiring party’s right to control the manner and means by which the product is accomplished. Among the other factors relevant to this inquiry are
the skill required;
the source of the instrumentalities and tools;
the location of the work;
the duration of the relationship between the parties;
whether the hiring party has the right to assign additional projects to the hired party;
the extent of the hired party’s discretion over when and how long to work;
the method of payment;
the hired party’s role in hiring and paying assistants;
whether the work is part of the regular business of the hiring party;
whether the hiring party is in business;
the provision of employee benefits; and
the tax treatment of the hired party.
For university faculty, the skill, source of tools, location, right to assign, discretion, use of assistants, and regular business tests are regularly in their favor. Faculty are not required to produce any particular scholarly works, and the university does not assign or review those works. Indeed, the university as an “employer” is decidedly disinterested in the topic or substance of faculty work, other than that it is scholarly and notorious. The principles of tenure and academic freedom, built into nearly every faculty appointment, push these agency tests even further. The hiring party–the university–expects faculty to stay and once a faculty member has been granted tenure, the university declines to fire the member for failure to produce scholarship or seek grants. The penalty, if there is one, is that the faculty member might be denied promotion or access to special resources and may be assigned to undesirable office space or teaching schedules. There is no conventional master-servant relationship between a university and its faculty members over nearly the entirety of their scholarly production. Nor are they “independent contractors” commissioned to produce works, unless there’s some express written agreement for them to do so–as many university copyright policies still acknowledge.
Employment for copyright purposes must entail for each work a review of the circumstances–what is there that evidences that the employer has standing to be considered the author of the work–not simply having the right to control the work or actually controlling the work (neither of which a university normally exercises over its faculty)–but is the faculty member acting as a servant to the university, as an agent of the university, in producing any particular work? For most all faculty work, the answer must be “absolutely not”–not merely as a technicality, not as an oversight of paperwork or wording, but as a matter of public policy, as expressly laid out in the concepts of “member” and “appointment,” of tenure and academic freedom. When we touch on the second weird assignment in the Supplemental Information Form, we will come back around to this point.
Returning once again to the matter of employment for patents, we see that there cannot be two different versions of employment operating in one document concerned with patents and copyrights. Even if there were, how would anyone reading the document think to understand such a thing? Furthermore, it is a failure to argue that everyone can see what the university “intends” with its wording–that it must want to own everything it chooses to own. As a California court stated in a case involving the University of California’s patent policy:
The true intent of a contracting party is irrelevant if it remains unexpressed.
It does not matter if Dr. Sussman tells the Regents that the university owns faculty work. What matters is what is expressed in the agreement that is put in front of the faculty. Words matter. Words mean what they mean as a meeting of minds, not as a secret wish list of university administrators. That’s why it’s so pernicious that university patent administrators write policies as if they are contracts imposed on the faculty, and then include language that the university is the sole arbiter of the language they have written. The moment the University of Michigan puts the Supplemental Information Form in front of a faculty member to sign, it is creating an express contract, drawing in the Bylaws and patent policy. And as the Shaw court held:
We find no merit in the University’s suggestion that, as a public employee who is employed pursuant to statute, not contract, Shaw has no vested contractual right in his terms of employment, such terms being subject to change by the University.
If the university can change the terms, it’s not a contract. If it’s a contract, then the expressed intent is what matters, not the administrative desire to control the interpretation of the document. That’s why we read Bylaw 3.10 and the present assignment document carefully. Words matter.
Thus, if the present assignment restricts the scope of assignment to inventions made “as an employee,” that restriction means something–and it’s not “anything that someone might make while receiving a salary from the university.” That’s not patent law. That’s not copyright law. If the invention is made as “an employee” rather than “while also an employee,” then the university will have to show that it has directed the invention, has business involving the invention, that the invention was made for the university. Absent such a showing, an invention, by the words of the present assignment, is out of scope.
So where have we got to? That the present assignment document lays a claim that is outside the authority of Bylaw 3.10. That the present assignment restricts the scope of assignment to inventions made “as an employee” rather than, say, as an “appointee.” That the present assignment purports to claim patent rights in a novel form of invention–one that is not even potentially patentable because it may involve merely conception or reduction to practice. That the present assignment fails to obtain a swath of patent rights that Bylaw 3.10 claims. A strange, convoluted, inconsistent, ambiguous, goofy, incompetent instrument. There’s almost no way to establish what the university intends to have its personnel assign–there’s no clear definition of the inventions that are anticipated, no statement of work, no requirement for written agreements, nothing. It’s an assignment into the empty space of the future. Unlike a similar document used by a business, that has a line of business, that controls its employees, that expects employees to perform work as agents of the business, in a master-servant relationship, the university has nothing of this. The present assignment is legal-looking form that does next to nothing. What foolishness. Yet, the university has access to virtually unlimited legal budget to stick its interpretation to anyone who might challenge it. As one attorney who defends faculty told me, and I paraphrase, such cases are winnable–it just takes a couple of hundred thousand dollars to prove it on the university.
All this, and we have yet to look at the University of Michigan Technology Transfer Policy, which introduces all new muddle. At least, we can be relieved to know, Michigan is big on consistency in producing legal-sounding silliness. I just wish it was silly-funny and not silly-fascist. There’s absolutely no humor or goodwill operating in these policy documents.
As an added bonus, in a later article, I will look at the weird copyright reverse assignment in this same present assignment document.
This entry was posted in Agreements, Bayh-Dole, Policy, Present Assignment and tagged hereby assign, invention, patent policy, University of Michigan. Bookmark the permalink.
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WSBE's "A Lively Experiment" Now on YouTube
News Release!
"A Lively Experiment" Goes Viral
WSBE's Weekly Political Affairs Program Now Online
PROVIDENCE, RHODE ISLAND (March 19, 2010) – WSBE Rhode Island PBS today launched its first YouTube episode of A Lively Experiment. The show, taped on March 11, has been converted and split into three segments, and is available on the Rhode Island PBS Channel on YouTube. Links will also be available each week on the station's blog, Bird on the Wire, and through the station's fan page on Facebook, and on Twitter. The move comes as a result of a growing demand from the audience to view the show online.
"We get emails from 'snowbirds' in Florida and people who moved out of Rhode Island but who still have close ties," said Bob Fish, WSBE president. "We also get requests from viewers in the state who happened to miss the show that week. We're glad to finally be able to bring this added service to our loyal 'Lively' viewers – and to introduce the show to a whole new audience online," Fish added.
The premiere online episode features Ron St. Pierre, 630 WPRO-AM radio host as the moderator. Panelists on March 11 were former Cranston Mayor Steve Laffey; Jim Hummel, investigative journalist and executive director of the Hummel Report; former state representative and currently an attorney with RI Legal Services, Denise Aiken; and public relations consultant and former TV news director, Dave Layman.
Fish said that, after a period of testing, the station plans to get each week's episode segments uploaded on Fridays, the day after the show is taped.
A Lively Experiment premiered more than 20 years ago, in 1987. Although the faces and sets have changed, the show still retains much of its original format: four guests and a moderator discuss the week's top issues in local politics and government. Topics which may not have made the headlines – but deserve public attention – are also introduced. A popular regular feature is the 'Outrage of the Week,' wherein each panelist names one incident that most caught his or her attention. For its first 17 years, A Lively Experiment's moderator was veteran radio talk show personality, Steve Kass. Steve Kass left the show in 2005 when he joined Governor Donald Carcieri's administration. Panelists have always included a combination of news reporters and news makers, analysts and opinion leaders, elected and appointed officials from all political ideologies. The show is produced each week by David Marseglia.
WSBE Rhode Island PBS is owned and operated by the Rhode Island Public Telecommunications Authority, a quasi-public agency of the State of Rhode Island. Rhode Island PBS is a viewer-supported member of the Public Broadcasting Service. Committed to lifelong learning for more than 40 years, Rhode Island PBS uses the power of commercial-free media to educate, engage, enrich, inspire, and entertain viewers of all ages in Rhode Island, southeastern Massachusetts, and eastern Connecticut. For more information about the programs and education services at WSBE Rhode Island PBS, visit www.ripbs.org.
Posted by WSBE Rhode Island PBS at 12:09 PM
Labels: A Lively Experiment, Bob Fish, Dave Layman, Denise Aiken, Jim Hummel, politics in RI, Rhode Island PBS, RI politics, Ron St. Pierre, Steve Kass, Steve Laffey, WSBE
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Samples & Patches
The Pianolette
The Pianolette was invented in the 1930’s by Henry C. Marx. His company produced these instruments in Mount Pleasant, Iowa and New Troy, Michigan. The Pianolette has two sets of strings, one that’s played with a bow or hammer and a smaller set of strings that is strummed. Marx, a concert violinist and music teacher, sold these musical instruments door to door. Over the years, Henry and his son, Charles, invented several unusual instruments, including the Pianolette, the Pianolin, Banjolin, Hawaii-Phone, Mandolin-Uke, Marx Piano Harp and the Violin Uke.
The concept of the Henry Marx instruments was that anyone could play them. The door to door salesman would play the instrument for the prospective customer demonstrating how easy it was to make music with the Pianolette. One of the selling points was the owner of the Pianolette did not have to learn how to read music. With each string being numbered, Marx converted standard music notation into a numbering system. His sheet music consisted of 2 sets of numbers, divided by a line. The numbers above the line are the melody notes and played on the individual strings. The numbers below the line are the bass notes and played on the chord string sets. Below are some sheet music examples of the Henry Marx numbering system.
© 2017 Sonic Reserve
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Conflict and Task
Task vs. Conflict resolution is one of my favourite subjects, because it's straightforward, easy to explain, and immediately useful to design and play. This came up in a post on the Barf Forth Apocalyptica forums, and I thought it would be worth sharing more broadly, if only to provide me something to link people to, rather than swamping threads all over the internet.
Here's a task: "Swing my sword at a guy"
Here's a conflict: "Kill a dude"
Here's a task: "Drive my car real fast through the city"
Here's a conflict: "Get to the hospital in time to save my buddy"
Here's a task: "Climb in through a window"
Here's a conflict: "Get into the tower without being seen"
Tasks are what your character is doing. Conflicts are about what your character wants. It doesn't matter what scale your conflicts and tasks are at. Tasks are what the characters are doing - what's happening in the fiction. Conflicts are about the outcome - what do we care about?
All instances of play have task resolution. A character does a thing, and there's a way of finding out whether they do it well or badly. That system could be explicit in the text, or it could be implied (usually they're explicit though). The system could use some kind of randomiser or other resolution "Roll a d20, add your skill, and try to beat the number the GM says" "See if your Skill score is high enough for the task you're doing, and if it is, you do it well" or it might not: "Say how well your character does a thing. That's how well they do it".
I say "all instances of play" because although the text of the game's rules might not say anything about it, as soon as you have fictional characters in your game performing any kind of action, you have a system for deciding how well they do them.
All instances of play have conflict resolution. A character wants a thing, something is in the way, and there's a way of finding out if they get what they want or not. That system could be explicit in the text, or it could be implied (in traditional games, they're often implied or absent). The system could use some kind of randomiser or other resolution "roll a d10, add your strength. Subtract that number from their hit points. If they've got none left, they're dead" "See if your Will is higher than theirs. If it is, they tell you what you want to know" or it might not: "See how well you did the task, and then the GM will tell you whether that got you what you wanted or not"
That last example is the most common kind of conflict resolution in traditional games. Call of Cthulhu, AD&D (outside of combat), World of Darkness (mostly), all of those pretty much exclusively have systems where the dice tell you how well the character does a thing, and then it's entirely up to the GM whether that gets them what they want or not. People call those "task resolution" games, but in play they have conflict resolution too, it's just handled almost entirely by the GM.
A common thing GMs in those games do is to make conflict resolution depend on task resolution. They'll say "If you make your driving roll, you'll get to the hospital on time" or "If you make your climbing roll, you'll get into the tower without anyone seeing". That's not written down anywhere in the rules text, it's just a thing a lot of people have learnt to do.
Another thing a lot of GMs of these games do is make their decision dependant on their sense of drama and timing "Ok, you've succeeded on your roll, so you're driving fast through the city, and you're nearly at the hospital. But your buddy in the seat next to you, he's burst his stitches and he's bleeding out. You're gonna need to put pressure on the wound and drive at the same time!"
One more thing some GMs do is make their decision based on the needs of the story they have planned in their heads, or that they're imagining the players want. "You're driving fast through the city, you don't hit anything, and you pull up outside the hospital. You run around to the other door to drag your buddy out, but by the time you get there it's too late. He whispers one last thing: "Project... ...Manticore"
So that's one way of doing conflict resolution. Now lets look at an explicit (as in, contained in the rules text) conflict resolution system. D&D3E.
I know. You're all like "But!" and I'm like "Deal with it, haters." D&D3E has an unambiguous conflict resolution system. It's just really difficult to use, time consuming and fiddly, and frequently ignored in play. Except for combat. Combat is the most straightforward conflict resolution system in the game. Let's take a look:
You want to kill a thing, so you take out your sword and hit the thing with it. That triggers the combat conflict resolution system. There's some fussing with initiative and such, but the core of the system determines two things: How well you hit the thing with your sword, and whether or not that kills it. That's task and conflict resolution right there:
"Roll a d20, add your strength and attack bonus, plus any other modifieres, and try to get over the target's AC" This is task resolution. Do you hit it with your sword?
"If you hit, roll a d10, add your strength, and subtract that number from the target's hit points. If they've got zero or fewer left, they're dead." This is conflict resolution. Have you succeeded in making them dead?
All right? Now lets look at non-combat conflict resolution. Your dude wants to climb up a tower into the window, and he doesn't want anyone to see. The DM has prepped this area, so we know where the guards are and how high the window is off the ground, and all that. Lets assume right now that the guards are all elewhere, and all we need to worry about is getting in that window. The system says (and I'm paraphrasing right now because I don't have the books with me) "Roll your climb skill against a difficulty set by the DM. The difficulty is 15 for masonry walls, +5 if it's slimy or wet (which it isn't, according to the GM's prep). If you succeed, you move your speed score in feet up the wall. If you fail by less than five, you move half your speed. If you fail by five or more, you fall."
We roll the dice, you get a 20. So your dude moves 30 feet (your speed) up the wall. That's task resolution.
Is that high enough to reach the window? We look to the DM's prep. If so, you're in, if not, you have to roll again. That's conflict resolution.
In practice, most groups don't rigourously apply the conflict resolution rules in D&D3E, and end up leaving conflict resolution entirely up to the DM, who uses one of the process I described above. D&D3E conflict resolution requires immense dedication to following a lot of fiddly rules, as well as detailed and comprehensive prep from the DM. It's a huge pain in the ass, and hence, in my opinion, not a good set of rules.
Apocalypse World has an explicit conflict resolution system because if you follow the procedure set out in the books, conflicts between fictional characters will be resolved, without the decision being left up to the MC or to any player. Sometimes the MC will have to make a judgement about the fiction of play (will they suck it up, or give in?), and sometimes the player will have to make a decision (inflict terrible harm, or take little harm?), but those aren't usually in and of themselves deciding the outcome of the conflict. Sometimes conflicts won't be resolved by a single move. Sometimes there'll be a whole snopwball of moves before a conflict is resolved. We don't always know whether a given move is going to resolve the conflict right now or not. Sometimes it will be left unresolved for a while, but the immediate situation will have changed. This is what makes Apocalypse World different from explicit stakes-setting games like Dogs in the Vineyard or PTA, and more similar to other conflict resolution games like Sorcerer or D&D3E.
Posted by Simon at 10:45 PM 3 comments: Links to this post
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US Supreme Court Center > Volume 248 > WEIGLE V. CURTICE BROS. CO., 248 U. S. 285 (1919) > Full Text
WEIGLE V. CURTICE BROS. CO., 248 U. S. 285 (1919)
Weigle v. Curtice Bros. Co., 248 U.S. 285 (1919)
Weigle v. Curtice Brothers Company
Argued December 17, 1918
Decided January 7, 1919
APPEAL FROM THE DISTRICT COURT OF THE UNITED STATES
FOR THE WESTERN DISTRICT OF WISCONSIN
As respects domestic retail sale of secondary packages, or the contents thereof, out of the original packages in which they were imported in interstate commerce, state laws forbidding sale of food articles containing benzoate of soda are not inconsistent with the commerce
clause or the purpose of the Federal Food and Drug Act, although the preservative, as used, is allowed by the federal act and regulations and the containers are labeled in conformity therewith.
The case is stated in the opinion.
This is a bill in equity brought by Courtice Brothers Company, a New York corporation, to restrain Weigle, the Dairy and Food Commissioner of Wisconsin, from enforcing certain laws of the state, especially Statutes of 1913, § 4601g. That section makes it unlawful to sell any article of food that contains benzoic acid or benzoates, with qualifications not material here. The plaintiff makes such articles from fruit, and adds benzoate of soda as a preservative. It put them up in glass bottles and jars properly labeled under the Food and Drugs Act (June 30, 1906, c. 3915, 34 Stat. 768), packs the bottles and jars in wooden cases containing a number of the same, and ships the cases from its factory in New York to customers in Wisconsin among others. Of course, the single bottles are sold in the retail trade, and their contents are served to guests in restaurants and hotels. The defendant disavowed any contention that the state laws affected or purported to affect sales by the importer in the unbroken wooden packages containing the bottles, and the decree
treated that subject as taken out of the case. But the bill went farther and, setting up a decision incorporated in a regulation under the Food and Drugs Act, that benzoate of soda is not injurious to health and that objection would not be raised to it under the Act if each container should be plainly labeled, contended that, under the Food and Drugs Act and the Commerce Clause of the Constitution, the Wisconsin law was invalid even as applied to domestic retail sales of single bottles or the contents of single bottles of the plaintiff's goods. The defendant stood on a motion to dismiss and the district court made a decree following the prayer of the bill. The defendant appealed.
The argument in support of the decree contends in various forms that the sale of the individual bottles, when removed from the original package after entering the state, still is a part of commerce among the states, since the Act of Congress as to misbranding applies to them. But the Food and Drugs Act does not change or purport to change the moment at which an object ceases to move in interstate commerce. It imposes an obligation to label the bottles severally, although contained in one original package, as, of course, it may. Seven Cases of Eckman's Alterative v. United States, 239 U. S. 510, 239 U. S. 515-516. It provides for seizure and condemnation of misbranded or adulterated articles that have been transported from one state to another, although the transit is at an end, while the articles remain unsold or in original unbroken packages, as again it may. There is no reason why a lien ex delicto should be lost by the end of the journey in which the wrong was done. The two things have no relation to each other. Hipolite Egg Co. v. United States, 220 U. S. 45, 220 U. S. 57-58. Finally, the duty to retain the label upon the single bottles does not disappear at once. For reasons stated in McDermott v. Wisconsin, 228 U. S. 115, if the state could require the label to be removed while the bottles remained in the importer's hands unsold, it could
interfere with the means reasonably adopted by Congress to make its regulations obeyed. But all this has nothing to do with the question when interstate commerce is over and the articles carried in it have come under the general power of the state. The law upon that point has undergone no change.
The Food and Drugs Act indicates its intent to respect the recognized line of distinction between domestic and interstate commerce too clearly to need argument or an examination of its language. It naturally would, as the distinction is constitutional. The fact that a food or drug might be condemned by Congress if it passed from state to state, does not carry an immunity of foods or drugs, making the same passage, that it does not condemn. Neither the silence of Congress nor the decisions of officers of the United States have any authority beyond the domain established by the Constitution. Rast v. Van Deman & Lewis Co., 240 U. S. 342, 240 U. S. 362. When objects of commerce get within the sphere of state legislation, the states may exercise its independent judgment and prohibit what Congress did not see fit to forbid. When they get within that sphere is determined, as we have said, by the old long established criteria. The Food and Drugs Act does not interfere with state regulation of selling at retail. Armour & Co. v. North Dakota, 240 U. S. 510, 240 U. S. 517; McDermott v. Wisconsin, 228 U. S. 115, 228 U. S. 131. Such regulation is not an attempt to supplement the action of Congress in interstate commerce, but the exercise of an authority outside of that commerce that always has remained in the states.
Decree reversed.
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